Lynching Obama at Niagara Times

Apparently, there aren’t enough witch hunts in Niagara County for good ol’ Hobbes over at the Niagara Times blogspot. Seems he’s joined in to support the seemingly ongoing effort to disqualify the Obama presidency. He may not do so proactively. But merely the posting of this story gleaned from other sources leaves one wondering why Hobbes bends over backwards to appear objective and neutral. Why now attempt to posture oneself as having journalistic integrity when his history has been one of unabashed sophistically inspired character-assassinating partisanism. He may not be letting loose with both barrels but his faux observational stance is sufficiently revealing.

Well, Hobbes doesn’t even maintain the façade of objectivity for very long when he refers to a “smoking gun.” He continues, ”Along with the evidence that he was born in Kenya, there is no record of him ever applying for US citizenship…”. Well, of course he wouldn’t apply for citizenship if he already were a citizen. And, by the way, what “evidence?” And why refer to “Indonesian Barry Soetoro?” It seems Hobbes, per usual, already has his mind quite well made up, in this case about Obama. It seems he would prefer to just try Obama in the media. But first fry him, then try him. First stoke the fires in the media and press and then throw him into an overheated courtroom, where minds can then also be assured to be already made up.

But the real point is that the crusade against Obama is on the one hand about race. On the other it is about continuing to obstruct, impede, delay, divert and discredit most of what Obama has tried to do since his inauguration. My bet is that there never has been in the history of our country so many forces aligned to see to it that a president fail for the purpose of restoring right wing power and securing the wealth of the power elite.

But this seems odd given that the rich and powerful right wing are making about as much money as ever and are getting to play empire builder now as much as they did under Bush. They seem to be allowed to continue to loot the Middle Class and the tax coffers of the American people with impunity. So why all the fuss? Well, we know why all the fuss, don't we?

But I guess it’s a slow news (witch hunt) day over at Niagara Times. So why not participate in a good ol’ fashioned “lynching.”

Now I write this not with the intention of defending Obama. As I’ve said before, I didn’t vote for him, am not a fan and believe he is proving to be Bush in basic black. I do write to oppose Hobbes who I believe, and have demonstrated in past articles, is as bad for Niagara County as Obama may prove to be for America in general and the Middle Class in particular.

Niagara Times Misses the Point, Distorts Issue on Parkway Removal

The Niagara Times Blog again misses the political point and intention of local environmental activists regarding efforts to remove the Robert Moses Parkway. To claim that "In reality, the supporters of the removal, including Wild Ones Niagara...have little interest in preserving history, the environment or anything else they may proclaim" is defamatory disinformation at best. Driven by his economistic, business first, political motivations, Hobbes, the blog administrator, continues his politics of violence against any progressive forces who strive to fight for anything more than reducing taxes on big business and securing power for the Republican Party in Niagara County.

In short, removal of the Robert Moses between Niagara Falls and Lewiston, which is the real environmental concern, is not about creating a captive audience for business in Niagara Falls nor "creating a wall around the city." No one thinks that removing the Parkway is "a panacea to what ails them." This is non-sensical hyperbole. But of course Hobbes real intent is to make everyone believe that such groups have essentially economic agendas which are wrong and therefore promote an economically futile environmental project. And therefore the project of Parkway removal is misguided and irrelevant.

Sadly and pathetically Hobbes is incapable of thinking outside his economistic, pragmatic box and fails to see the value of Parkway removal as intrinsically worthy in terms of ecological restoration and environmental conservation. He is obiously against Parkway removal for economic reasons and they undoubtedly have to do with defending Lewiston business interests.

His post today is dishonest, manipulative and egregiously short-sighted. In short he is dangerous to the vision of the Falls which is possible and in the long run even economically advantageous to Niagara Falls and Niagara County.

Rock Radio Knows a Good Joke

I heard the funniest joke the other day on Jack-FM. The DJ, who’s name I didn’t get, quipped, “Despite Kevin Gaughan’s recommendation, Jack-FM will not play German Techno.”

Now, if the joke needs explaining it’s that just as any radio station with a taste for good music would not play German techno music, so also any people with a taste for good democratic government would not listen to Kevin Gaughan’s importuning all communities to downsize their representation on town boards.

But sadly, humor notwithstanding, the downsizing fiasco continues with the Amherst Town Board jumping on the irrational Gaughan bandwagon, promising to downsize their Board from 7 to 5. Chalk this up to another earthshaking, revolutionary political move in Western New York. Yes, I do speak sarcastically, very sarcastically.

Speaking of jokes, a “special committee,” as reported in the Buffalo News rcommended that Niagara County go ahead and establish a Homeland Security Department with a full-time director, believe it or not. I find this ludicrous at best given that in my inquiries, protection of high risk targets in our area are under the jurisdiction of either New York State in cooperation with Canada and/or the Federal Government. Although reportedly there is some resistance in the Niagara County Legislature, this project is too sweetly Neo-con for them to resist for too long. None of them are going to want to look “unpatriotic” by putting our homeland at risk. But given that we are already being protected by the aforementioned governmental bodies, what more are we going to protect? Some grape orchards, cows and goats? We need a full-time director for this??? I smell political nepotism in the works, don’t you? If good ol’ Hobbes over at Niagara Times doesn’t come out against this, I’m going to have to hunt him down and expose him for the hypocrite he would otherwise be.

And one more story deserves a cynical smerk, I think. The Niagara County District Attorneys office and Wilson Town Justice George R. Berger continue to conspire to cover up the sexual “hazing” incident last year on a school bus during return from a sporting event. The actions of the students accused were obviously bullying of the first order. But as long as institutions such as small town schools like Wilson continue to condone such violence in the name of “hazing” or “boys will by boys,” then these actions will continue and will contribute to the violation of children’s civil rights, the degradation of viable learning environments and the continuation of unacceptable levels of immaturity among teachers, coaches and administrators.