Thank You

Faithful Reader,

Thank you very much for visiting. Now that the election is over I will be taking a break.

With regard to the election, pay no attention to Liz's claim that she lost because her opponent waged a "dirty" campaign, or for that matter to her claim that she waged a "clean" one.

Liz lost because she made the tactical mistake of running on her record of accomplishments. The record did not exist.

She lost because she had embraced fatuous people and their fatuous credos, and rather than admit her mistake she instead had her minions brand those who brought her weird associations to the public's attention as "McCarthyites."

She lost because after years of insulting Bill McKenna she couldn't figure out why he was less than enthusiastic about her candidacy.

She lost because she made no attempt, none whatsoever, to demonstrate to Cathy Magarelli that she would be respectful to her.

She lost because she listened to His Worship and Double D and Sad Sack (and his Bitch), somehow confusing these people for likely Woodstockers.

She lost because she made the mistake of demanding respect, and not earning it.

Amen.

On another note, The Sitter, in his response to a letter to the editor of the local paper that had called attention to his acceptance of a sizable campaign contribution from the shadowy Committee For Woodstock's Future, continues to dodge the fact that the Committee never registered with the NYS Board of Elections as a political committee, and to this day all we know about it is it used His Worship's post office box for an address.

Until then... -30-

Amen

Amen.

Antonymony, And Other Inventions

Dear Reader,

Jeff is clearly the person for the job of Woodstock town supervisor. I wish I could further cajole you with clever and amusing observations. Whatever number of antonyms for 'clever' and 'amusing,' I can assure you they will all be known, along with all antonyms for 'responsible,' 'thoughtful,' and 'judicious' if we sit on our hands on Tuesday, November 3 and not vote for Jeff.

Let's not sit on antonymony; get out and vote. Don't forget Bill and Cathy for town board.

Missy

Years ago when Carey's Delicatessen was in full bloom and possessed one of the finest verandas - finest I say because it opened to the main street then in constant carnival - there was one particular young lady, let's call her Missy although that was not her name, and Missy was not a great beauty but her youth, blond hair, and reckless eyes could challenge one's indifference, and she was promiscuous and she drank a lot. In case you think I'm picking on her, the blowsy description I just offered can fit as well most of the young men who hung out on the fine veranda with Missy.

Anyway, one day Missy announced she was pregnant, and this may not have come as a surprise to many but it still raised a concern because it did not seem possible to us that Missy could responsibly attend the needs of an innocent, helpless babe. Whatever moral qualms may have existed with regard to Missy, they were set aside to make room for this deeply felt concern.

Missy was asked, What are you going to do to make sure the baby is safe and nurtured in a safe environment?

And Missy's response was, "I'm going to buy a baby carriage."

The happy ending to this story is that Missy apparently was not pregnant, and perhaps somewhere in Heaven is an unborn babe not fated to be fed, nurtured, and educated in a baby carriage.

I thought of Missy when I read in the paper that Liz Simonson was asked, What will you do differently if elected town supervisor?

And Liz answered, I will conduct better town board meetings.

As a former town supervisor I agree that conducting town board meetings is a part of the job. But there is also personnel management, labor contracts, helping constituents through the bureaucratic maze, preparing budgets, reconciling differences between volunteer boards, responding to emergencies, establishing relationships with state and county officials (very important), following up on decisions; let me just say, the position of town supervisor requires staying ahead of a constant, unending stream of exigencies that flows constantly through the town supervisor's office. I almost could say it is like parenting.

I'm sure Missy would probably have gotten a very good carriage.

E-mail From Liz

Dear Faithful Reader,

Liz Simonson is circulating an e-mail that addresses her association with a group that accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing, as evidenced by a photo of her with this group. The gist of her letter is that she had little to do with them. I am reproducing the e-mail, and have annotated it in red.

Dear Friends,

It doesn’t seem possible but the election is finally less than 3 weeks away. I’m still knocking on doors, talking to voters and listening to what you think is important. I’ve maintained a positive, issues oriented campaign and plan to continue that approach right through to the election and when I’m elected I’ll run a positive and issues oriented agenda for our town’s government.

However, as in the primary campaign, another factually inaccurate, negative attack has surfaced which I would like to address and hope you will pass this email along to friends and neighbors. Why is it 'factually inaccurate' to point out that your image did indeed appear on a website depicting you standing with a group that accuses Israel of engaging in ethnic cleansing? So far as 'negative' is concerned, were we expected to just ignore it?

This particular attack is in the letters section of the Woodstock Times and incorrectly describes my ‘connection’ to the Middle East Crisis Response, an organization founded during the Lebanon conflict in 2006. Having heard no previous disclaimer, how was anyone to know you had no 'connection?' There you are posing with them! There you were last December inviting them to the town board to bash Rotron (see following blog entry).

Here are the facts:

My husband and I attended the first meeting of what would become MECR in midsummer of 2006. The purpose was to explore a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

During the second meeting, which we attended shortly there after, it became clear to us that the original purpose would not be achieved, that we had no interest in being there and left before the second meeting’s conclusion. What turned you off? Why can't you be specific?

We attended no further meetings.

A photo taken at that first meeting was later posted on the organization’s website and remained there until recently. When did you first know your picture was posted on the organization's website? Are you telling us you didn't know until this July?

Simply stated, I, nor my husband, are not now, nor have ever been, members of Middle East Crisis Response. I urge anyone who wants to know the truth or who has any questions about this issue to call me at 679-1006. It's interesting that the website gives no information with regard to membership. None. Is there a membership? A fellowship? I'll take your word that you don't know, but since I do see you hanging around with people in the photo perhaps you could do us a favor and ask one.

I will continue to maintain my commitment to running a clean and open campaign and not engage in inaccurate, negative attacks. Again, explain what is inaccurate and negative. Embarrassing, yes.

Thanks for all your encouragement and support.

Liz Simonson

Liz, what are your feelings about people who accuse Israel of engaging in ethnic cleansing ? I have to ask because oddly you fail to educate us in your e-mail.

These were the same people who you gave credence to at a town board meeting in December, 2008, presumably long after you and your husband "attended no further meetings;" why? If these are your friends, fine, we all have friends with distasteful ideas (although accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing is pretty extreme). But why won't you denounce this libel and assure us that these screwballs will never get near the town board again if you are supervisor?

Also, Liz, you are on record as promising never to take any action that would appear to "legitimize" the KTD Monastery. Has your mind changed about this? There is definitely a trend here.

Vertigo

Dear Liz,

Dramamine helps dizziness, and you are so furiously back-pedaling from your association with the Mideast Crisis Group I suspect you need it.

Your association with the Mideast Crisis Group (MCG) began more than a year ago, when you had your picture taken with it and allowed the picture to appear on its website over a 'Mission Statement' that among other things denounced Israel for engaging in 'ethnic cleansing' in Palestine. That is, you allowed your image to support the charge that Israel methodically lines up Palestinian Arabs and kills them. This is what ethnic cleansing means. It is what the Nazis did to Jews. It is what Serbians did to Bosnians. It is what Hutus did to Tutsis. They took innocent people, in some cases separating the men from the women so that the women first could be more conveniently raped, and then gassed, shot or macheted everybody. This is what you accuse the Israelis of doing.

We all are concerned with the violence in Palestine. But not all of us, in fact only very few of us, get hysterical and make outrageous accusations. You did, and now you are running for town supervisor of the Town of Woodstock, and now you are trying to minimize your involvement with this group.

The Mideast Crisis Group website, in its pompous righteousness, last year accused Rotron of manufacturing components used in cluster bombs. According to the MCG, Israel uses cluster bombs to indiscriminately kill Palestinians. Ergo, MCG wants Rotron to change its business plan. When the MCG came to the town board in December 2008 with its request that the Town prohibit the local manufacture of parts for military use, it never mentioned your involvement with them - nor did you for that matter - nor did it say anything about Israel engaging in ethnic cleansing. But you knew already of this accusation because you, an elected Woodstock official, already had allowed your picture to be taken and pasted over a 'Mission Statement' that said Israel engaged in ethnic cleansing. And then, without informing the public of your association with the petitioners, and without denouncing their accusation that Israel engages in ethnic cleansing, a blood libel that you were perfectly well aware of, you said, "I can sort of see that the environment has a global scale... it doesn't speak well of us to say we'll protect our own resources from degradation, but we'll manufacture things that we can ship to other parts of the world that will destroy other parts of the world."

In other words, Liz, you gave the MCG credence.

I know you don't like this blog , but I also know you respect it. I know you respect it because last summer, when I first discussed your involvement with the MCG, not five minutes lapsed before the MCG website REMOVED THE PHOTO (pity for you that several people with a more balanced appraisal of the Israeli-Palestinian question already downloaded it).

It's getting around, Liz. The dramamine only addresses symptoms.

Theme

Okay, accepting the premise that letters to the editor of the local paper reflect to a meaningful degree what's really on people's minds let's discuss the Democratic and Republican parties in their broadest contexts as they have revealed themselves in American political life. I suggest this because it seems to be important to some people whether we elect a town supervisor from the Democratic or Republican line. The concern does not seem to extend to the other political offices.

Warning: This will be subjective and not at all scholarly.

The Republican party, conceived when the issue of slavery v abolition approached cataclysm (1856, when the newly founded party's candidate John Fremont lost to Democrat James Buchanan), was fully birthed by the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Although fighting and winning the War Between The States, as it was then called, and then adding the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution and thus ending slavery, the Republican party only happened to be dominated during Lincoln's time by abolitionist sentiments; its real core mission was to protect the interest of Capital against the emerging interest of Labor. As the "peculiar institution" (slavery) became a historical relic the Republican party has become more identified with its core mission to support Capital and limit the political franchise to the educated and moneyed class. For a defense of these principles read Alexander Hamilton and Edmund Burke.

The Democratic party traces its roots to Thomas Jefferson (yes, he called himself a "Republican" but it had an entirely different meaning in 1801-1809), whose initial impulse against Capital was animated by his belief in its ill effect on farming, for Jefferson wished dearly that we should prosper as a nation of farmers and not bankers and industrialists. The first real practitioner of the Democratic party was Andrew Jackson (general, farmer, and like Jefferson, a slave holder) who during his eight years (1829-1837) engaged the nation in a titanic battle with Nicolas Biddle, the era's leading banker-capitalist, and finally prevailed when he was able to remove the federal franchise from Mr. Biddle's Bank of the United States (Andy, where are you now?). Over the decades the Democratic party has become identified with its effort to expand the political franchise and to defend the interests of Labor against those of Capital. For a defense of these principles read almost any of the literature produced between the years 1929-1941, or read the speeches of Franklin Roosevelt.

In a nutshell: Republicans defend Capital and seek to limit the political franchise. Democrats defend Labor and seek to extend the political franchise. These principles are contested in Washington and in the statehouses. (As a Democrat I pause to express my disappointment that in New York, as in Washington, Democrats control both houses of the legislature and the executive office and I still don't see it happening for Labor and I still get annoying phone calls from telemarketers.) They are important contests, waged for the highest stakes, and when you strip away all the gloss and wedge issues it boils down to Capital v Labor. So far the dynamic tension between the parties has benefited us with a healthy middle class and a relatively stable society. Let's hope for more of that.

Now then, the following paragraph is dedicated to explaining why it is extremely critical whether Woodstock elects someone from the Democratic or a Republican line as town supervisor this November 3.









Gosh, couldn't think of anything. How about you?