News As We See It

I have continually been amazed by the depth and interest generated by our local newspapers. Today was a case in point. The economy is going to hell, unemployment is rampant, and the world over in the big sand box is as screwed up as ever. Our local newpaper headline today was "Potsdam Code Officer Quits". It has been alleged that Potsdam's code officer was overly exuberant toward the female employees in the town offices. The code officer is denying all wrongdoing, of course, and town officials are being as close mouthed as possible. I suspect that the prospect of a law suit has to be considered. A second major front page item was the salt problem in Jefferson county. It appears that earlier this season the bitter weather resulted in a salt shortage and a corresponding increase in the price. Apparently the powers that be contracted to buy salt at the inflated price, and then it quit snowing, leaving the county on the hook for the contracted salt. I must admit that I cannot find fault with the county, despite this little setback. If there was anyone who can predict the weather with any degree of accuracy it would be a lot simpler. Imagine the uproar if the winter continued in a really foul manner and they ran out of salt. It is, unfortunately, a situation of "damned if you do" and "damned if you don't".

I see that the federal impetus dollars have started flowing, and lots of folks are busy figuring out ways to spend the money. I had thought that this money was primarily to help working folks, and to get jobs started up. Apparently, there are a lot of highways that haven't been built yet, and lots of other projects which will have little impact on the working people. Most officials at the cities, counties, and towns are telling us that it isn't going to cost us anything since the federal government is providing the money, but we must keep in mind the fact that the taxpayer is going to foot the bill. It is the classic case of pay me now or pay me later. We are lucky that there is a limitless supply of talking heads on the TV who try to explain how this is working in words that us common idiots can understand. On the other hand, you can get an opposite opinion on any subject if you wait a while.

This brouhaha about Rush Limbaugh and his comment that he hopes the President's economic plans fail is beyond my comprehension. It now develops that Mr. Limbaugh has appointed himself as the spokesman for the Republican party, and the sad part is that the Republicans have nobody with enough stature to stand and say "Shut Up". On one occasion the Chairman of the Republican Party did respond, and it looks like he is going to lose his job, if he hasn't already. It's a good time to be a democrat. Our esteemed Governor, with a few schemes floating around, is having a problem, but he will survive. We just have to wait for the dust to settle to see what comes out of Albany next.

It is nice to live in little Knapps Station where everyone is poor, has always been poor, and have learned to cope with adversity because that is all we have ever had. Nobody gets very upset about Mr. Madoff's ponzi scheme which filched about 50 billion or so from investors. I don't think very many of our locals sufferred when the Madoff empire collapsed. It is very hard to get sympathetic with someone loses 50 or 100 million, but has another 50 or 100 stashed away in case they fall on hard times. It sounds like the recent story about a baseball player with a multi-million salary, who complained that during a contract dispute he was unable to pay his bills. I bet if someone from Knapps fell into a couple of million they wouldn't have any bill problems.

Time to quit, I have to wait for the next edition of the paper for more things to bitch about.