Hi all...
See this on the front page of today's Poughkeepsie Journal?...
[sorry, PoJo-- but this is straw on camel's back for me-- and reason why I've launched this brand-new blog today!]
"Dutchess Legislators OK Charges for Elections"
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20100812/NEWS01/8120339/Dutchess-legislators-OK-charges-for-elections
Not only does the article's headline falsely lead readers to believe that all of us in our County Legislature voted this past Monday night at our monthly full board meeting to punish our county's towns and cities by unfairly charging back to municipalities the cost of elections...
[when fact is six of us in Dem caucus voted no along with Jim Doxsey and GOP Co. Leg.'s Marge Horton and Donna Bolner!]
So-- not only is headline deceptive...but read the entire article-- all 470 words of it (I counted)...
Believe it or not, nowhere is it mentioned in the actual article itself that nine county legislators voted no Monday to this-- Sandy Goldberg, Dan Kuffner, Barbara Jeter-Jackson, Alison MacAvery, Steve White, Jim Doxsey, Marge Horton, Donna Bolner, and myself...(and of course none of us are quoted either)...
[while 5 paragraphs are devoted to letting us all know exactly how GOP's Mike Kelsey feels about this;
note-- hopefully this is fault of editor/publisher; reporter for article is someone I know; old VKR friend]
Let's compare today's Poughkeepsie Journal article on this with Daily Freeman and MidHudsonNews...
Fact: Tuesday's Daily Freeman article on this even pointed out that in my town-- "Clinton would receive less in additional sales tax than it would be charged for election costs"-- and also reported that here in northern Dutchess County, Dan Kuffner and I voted against this unfair plan as "unfunded mandate."
[see: "Dutchess Lawmakers OK Plan To Pay for Elections" by Patricia Doxsey
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2010/08/10/news/doc4c60b2eb106d8559267311.txt
[What's the Poughkeepsie Journal's excuse for not showing Dems same respect as Freeman?.....none.]
Recall MidHudsonNews.coms' recent coverage of this very same issue-- again-- much fairer...
[see: http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2010/August/10/DCL_elec_chgbk-10Aug10.html ]
Click on link just above-- Hank Gross actually quoted Co. Leg. Minority Leader Sandy Goldberg on this-- saying she (understandably) "objected to passing on any costs...We all the time complain about the state pushing costs onto us...so-called unfunded mandates...and we scream and we cry about that all the time. This is doing just the same thing to our towns and cities"...
And-- click on this link to watch mtg. itself-- http://www.co.dutchess.ny.us/CLStreamingVideoLink.htm ;
it wasn't just Sandy Goldberg; other Co. Leg.'s like Alison MacAvery and myself pointed out publicly in our comments on the floor of the Legislative Chambers how unfair this is to our county's municipalities; I pointed out how Rhinebeck Town Supervisor Tom Traudt had brought this issue up to me openly during a number of Town Board meetings over the last year-- and how I had always pledged to vote against chargebacks to towns (whether it be for DCBOE or county sheriff services); Alison M. had statements against the GOP chargebacks from GOP Town Supervisors John Hickman (of East Fishkill) and Joan Pagones (of Fishkill) and from Dem Stanford Town Supervisor Virginia Stern (and T/Pok.'s Pat Myers); how hard was it to just include a quote or two from Dem county legislator on this?...(I guess too hard)...
So-- got a sec?...Send 250 words on this to letterstoeditor@poughkeepsiejournal.com today; fwd on!...
And-- see http://www.PoJoWatch.blogspot.com -- help us hold the Poughkeepsie Jounal accountable!...
[email us your submissions-- your analyses of unfair Pok. Journal coverage as it happens daily, folks]
http://www.PoJoWatch.blogspot.com -- daily go-to source of info on unfairly skewed coverage in PoJo!
The folks at 85 Civic Center Plaza aren't playing any games, folks-- we need to call 'em out for this...
[think things could get any worse?...you betcha...if we allow them such bias they WILL get worse, folks!]
Many more examples here below of Poughkeepsie Journal bias over last few years-- pass it on...
Joel
444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
http://www.DutchessDemocracy.blogspot.com
p.s. Email us the letters you've submitted to the Poughkeepsie Journal that they've refused to run too!...
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Thirty more reasons why we're launching http://www.PoJoWatch.blogspot.com -- help us, people!...
[submit your analysis of an article in the Poughkeepsie Journal today, tomorrow, next week, next month]
1. Pok. Journal article just yesterday burying facts on how early retirement incentive will SAVE millions:
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20100811/NEWS01/8110340/1001/NEWS/Steinhaus-criticizes-adoption-of-state-s-early-retirement-incentives [recall my email yesterday setting record straight; click on these three links for newspaper articles from all over NYS that were more fair than PoJo re: ERI:
http://www.saratogian.com/articles/2010/07/08/news/doc4c3533e6b4510088730533.txt ;
http://www.observertoday.com/page/content.detail/id/541139.html?nav=5007 ;
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/nassau-unions-approve-early-retirement-deal-1.1884619
http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=478243 ]
2. Pok. Journal article last fall on how, miraculously, "Water Quality OK"(!)...(when it's not; info here)
[ http://www.RealMajorityProject.blogspot.com ; http://www.petitiononline.com/cleanh20 ]
3. Pok. Journal article-- incredibly biased-- from last Oct. on my visits to Rhinebeck High School classes
[ http://www.PetitionOnline.com/JoelTalk ]
4. The Poughkeepsie Journal also (for the second year in a row)-- has ignored the annual spring "State of the Air" report from the American Lung Association of NYS-- pertinent to us here in our county, as for the second year in a row now Dutchess County air quality has been rated an "F"-- and over 39,000 Dutchess Co. residents with asthma, bronchitis, or emphysema (see http://www.ALANY.org )...
The Poughkeepsie Journal also ignored GOP Co. Leg. killing these two Dem initiatives of mine in Feb.:
5. Dutchess' municipalities could be saving millions of dollars yearly with health insurance consortium.
[ http://www.rhinebecknyvillage.org/minutes/boardoftrustees/2010/03-09-10BTminutes.pdf ;
http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20100720/NEWS01/7200371/Tompkins-health-insurance-consortium-back-on-track ]
6. Dutchess' homeowners could be saving $250 each winter with a home heating oil cooperative plan.
[ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/nyregion/westchester/28oilwe.ready.html ;
http://www.townofcortlandt.com/Cit-e-Access/news/index.cfm?NID=17424&TID=20&jump2=0 ]
7. In May, the Poughkeepsie Journal ignored press release I sent out to media on how I got five GOP Co. Leg.'s (Horton, Traudt, Sadowski, Surman, and Thomes) to join Dem caucus and Jim Doxsey in signing on to letter I circulated for chronic Lyme disease to be fully treated here in NYS as in RI...
[join 366 signed to http://www.PetitionOnline.com/StopLyme ; http://www.ILADS.org ; also see http://www.UnderOurSkin.com : 80+ attended screening of this film I organized at Rhinebeck Town Hall]
8. The Poughkeepsie Journal completely and totally ignored it last October when 150 came out to join Pete Seeger, Ned Sullivan of Scenic Hudson, William Schlesinger of the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies, Eban Goodstein of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, and Allison Morrill Chartrychan of Cornell Cooperative Extension's Environmental Program, and many more for our Second Annual 350.org Rally for a Green New Deal as part of the International Day of Action on Climate Change...
9. Of course, also importantly, day in and day out the Poughkeepsie Journal ignores how the vast majority of us across NYS still strongly support a more progressive tax system on millionaires and Wall Street to solve our state's budget problems, stop the budget cuts, layoffs, and property tax hikes and sales tax hikes-- and the Journal ignores how we in middle class pay more than millionaires...
[ http://www.ABetterChoiceforNY.org ; http://www.itepnet.org/wp2009/ny_whopays_factsheet.pdf ;
http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/taxhistory2.htm ; http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2007/01/08/plutonomics ;
http://www.petitiononline.com/stocktax ; http://www.michaelmoore.com/books-films/facts/capitalism-love-story ;
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=940073&category=STATE ;
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100328/FREE/303289966 ;
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/oct/16/barack-obama/most-small-businesses-wont-be-subject-to-obamas-ta/ ]
Note-- to be more specific-- I hope I'm not the only person who notices that over and over and over again that Poughkeepsie Journal articles about the state budget seem to constantly quote conservative think tank pundits like E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State Policy-- while refusing to quote progressive NYS budget experts like Frank Mauro of Fiscal Policy Institute or Ron Deutsch of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness-- for instance, this article from last Fri.'s Pok. Journal is prime example:
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/print/article/20100806/NEWS/8060329/Doubt-arise-that-long-awaited-budget-will-remain-balanced (we can no longer allow this practice to go unchallenged, folks!)...
10. I also, frankly, hope you might agree with me that if a four-term GOP county legislator still in office here in Dutchess walked 140 miles in 12 days from the NY Stock Exchange in NYC to Albany for tax fairness for the middle class instead of millionaires and the middle class-- I hope you would agree that the Poughkeepsie Journal wouldn't completely ignore it-- but they did when I did this last month-- in spite of huge articles across state in Gannett's Journal News, front page of Register Star, front page of Daily Freeman, article in Sunday Daily News the day after I started my walk, etc.; click here for more:
http://capitaltonight.com/2010/07/joel-tyner-on-his-walk-for-governor/ ;
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2010/07/10/news/doc4c37fcdb44d51661744817.txt ;
http://registerstar.com/articles/2010/07/06/news/doc4c32a75cc1855188661389.txt ;
http://www.lohud.com/article/20100630/NEWS05/6300324/-1/newsfront/Cuomo-challenger-Joel-Tyner-hikes-to-Albany--urging-millionaires-tax ;
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/07/end-game-07072010.html ;
http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/29214/making-a-point-is-hard-and-blister-inducing/ ;
http://www.freemanonline.com/articles/2010/07/03/news/doc4c2ece83c332b629092426.txt ;
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2010/July/07/Tyner_walk_complete-07Jul10.htm ;
http://assets.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/06/27/2010-06-27_team_cuomo_rallies_on_familiar_refrain_change.html ;
http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/27980/tyner-walking-for-his-candidacy/ ;
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=939163&category=state .]
11. The Poughkeepsie Journal has also completely ignored how Dutchess County taxpayers alone have spent literally over $1.7 billion on war in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last nine years.
[see http://www.NationalPriorities.org ; recall CBS and ABC polls this summer; most against Afghan war]
12. That's not all folks, though-- perhaps most importantly...
How would you feel if you ran and lost five times for various county and state legislature offices since 1996-- only to finally be elected to our County Legislature in 2003-- and finally be part of the first Democratic majority in our County Legislature in three decades-- and get literally dozens of your progressive initiatives/resolutions actually passed in our County Legislature-- only to find the biggest newspaper in county ignore 20 resolutions passed-- letting Steinhaus off hook for not implementing?...
[forget about me; Pok. Journal has let us ALL down by failing to report on County Exec's blocking these]
1. For Independent Dutchess Energy Alliance: $1 billion in savings on electric bills over ten years.
[based on successful green jobs/retrofits example of Cambridge, MA-- see
[ http://www.CambridgeEnergyAlliance.org ; also Town of Babylon's http://www.LIGreenHomes.com ;
also-- http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2009/03/our-bright-idea-growin-brighter-and.html ]
2. For Dutchess to save literally hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on power costs w/Municipal Electricity Gas Alliance (like Putnam, Ulster, Sullivan, and twenty other counties).
[ http://www.MEGAEnergy.org ]
3. For saving 30% on lighting bills in county bldg.'s switching fixtures from T-12's to T-8's/metal halides.
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Replace-T8-Or-T12-Lights-With-New-Energy-Efficient-T5-Lighting&id=2117699
4. For Dutchess to keep using lever voting machines and state/federal gov.'t to make sure we can too.
[ http://www.ETCNYS.org ; http://nylevers.wordpress.com/ -- Times covered this...not PoJo tho...why?!?]
5. For zero-waste approach to resource recovery in our county: save money, create clean green jobs.
[join over 25 other Dutchess residents on board this-- at http://www.petitiononline.com/zeroyes ]
6. For cost-saving green roofs, rain gardens, wind turbines, composting toilets to be on county property.
[ http://www.GreenRoofs.com ; http://www.RainGardens.org ; http://bianys.com/node/418 ; http://www.petitiononline.com/goldpoop ; http://www.CompostingToilets.org ]
7. For solar panels on County Office Building/22 Market St./Poughkeepsie (then all county buildings).
[ http://www.osc.state.ny.us/press/releases/mar08/030608.htm ; http://www.HVCE.com ]
8. For new SuperLOOPer discount card at local stores and restaurants for frequent users of LOOP bus.
[ http://content.usatoday.com/topics/article/Tom+Malone/01Ur0if9hQ8Ic/1 ]
9. For Dutchess to hold Home Heating Summit re: home heating oil crisis (as in Ulster, Orange co.'s).
[ http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/September08/10/DC_hm_heat-10Sep08.html ]
10. For Dutchess ESAN "Recommendations for Stream/Flood Management in Dutchess" to be followed.
[ http://www.dutchessemc.org/ESANRecomendations.pdf ]
11. For Green Map added to county website: list farmer's markets/green resources (as in Westchester).
[ http://greenmap.westchestergov.com/ ; http://www.GreenMap.org ]
12. For bike rental program in Dutchess at no cost to taxpayers (as is already in Washington, D.C.).
[ http://www.SmartBikeDC.com ]
13. For Dutchess County to be part of Hudson Valley Community Preservation Act to save open space.
[ http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=101&sh=story&story=23825 ]
14. For cost-saving "Green House Project" nursing home in county-- proven to make seniors happier.
[ http://www.TheGreenHouseProject.org ]
15. For particulate matter air pollution to be measured in Dutchess County as it was until 2002.
[ http://www.ALANY.org ]
16. For greatly expanding current circuitbreaker for school property taxes (bipartisan Little/Galef bill).
[ http://www.petitiononline.com/taxcut (not Saland's idiotic property tax cap-- http://www.TrendNY.org )]
17. For real relief for Dutchess Co. property taxpayers-- Omnibus Property Tax Relief and Reform Act.
[ http://www.OmnibusTaxSolution.org ]
18. For ending secret market manipulations on Wall Street causing higher gas/home heating oil prices.
[see http://www.StopOilSpeculators.com Enron loophole closed; "dark markets" speculation continues!]
19. For wetlands (even small ones) in county to be saved from being paved over by developers.
[ http://www.eany.org/capitolwatch/memos%202009/21_WetlandsProtection.pdf ]
20. For Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies recommend.'s air pollution/quality standards to be followed.
[ http://www.ecostudies.org/threats_from_above.html ]
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