" JUST MORE DENIAL OF REALITY "

John McCain said that the Presidents new initiative is working so good that you can now wonder around Baghdad shopping for souvenirs in the now re-opened and thriving open air markets.

This is the reality of the Republicians, the White House, and John McCain!

This is the REAL reality!

" EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE "

Executive Privilege..... OK folks lets tackle this nonsensical, not in the Constitution, plucked outa thin air, a hide behind mechanism, issue. They all try to use it to hide behind when they don't want the truth to get out. Where did it come from? Who first used it? Why do they keep trying to use it when the Supreme Court already ruled on it? This hide behind tree could be used from the White House all the way down to a Council President. It flies in the face of transparency and accountability in government, and says, " I am the sole decider and what I do is none of your business " Work with me people!

" THEM vs US "- or - "THE HATEFUL vs THE COY"

This morning I did my usual routine of rising between 2am or 3am or there abouts, let the dog out for her wizz-poop, (not to be confused with whizz-poop) put on the coffee, suck in my medication that allowes me to function somewhat all day, then settled down at the puter to check on the state of the world. (I gotta get a life?) Then after checking the news, which is usually all bad, I turn to browsing the Blogs.
What seems to have been a recurring theme and discussed a lot on many of the blogs is that the Arts Community or those that associate themselves with them and the non Arts Community, or us longtime locals, as apposed to the new comers, taking sides against each other. Seems the newbies having come from more progressive and liberal communities want to model their new found home after the one they just left. Forgetting that the progressiveness and liberalism was probably the reason they left in the first place! Now us locals somewhat resent being told that we are undereducated, dumb, anti-art, regressive in our thinking, and our school system sucks......we already know this! But what pisses us off most of all is the newbies want to cram their life style down our throats. Not liking or seeing any meaning in a bunch of crushed up garbage sitting on a stick seems to put us in the Neanderthal Man category in their eyes.
Now having said all that what is now understood by the Art Community is that the Arts are not the Save All that it was touted to be in the beginning. (we are not going to say "We Told You So" ) They now realize that you need a diverse community with each endeavor complimenting the other. The radical, something for everyone idea.
North Adams may not be Shangrala but it is, even with all its faults, a great place to live!

" JUST WONDERING? "

A Question to those that may know...Why aren't there any E-Mail addresses for City Departments listed on the Town Web Page? Telephone numbers are listed.....20th century communication device.....but as far as being interactive.....21st century communication device, the Web Page is sorely lacking. It was my understanding that the NEW WEB PAGE was going to be more interactive and allow the citizens greater access to City Hall? Granted there are a few things that you can do over the net but on the whole the web page reads more like a Telephone Directory (The Yellow Book) than a web page. There are no City documents available other than permits for this that and the other, and no way to contact a Department with a question over the net. The telephone only allows access during working hours and if there is someone available. I bring this up because in an earlier Blog we discussed electric generation and I was curious as to how much the City paid for electricity. I went to the City Web Page thinking that that sort of information would be available, The City does publish a yearly report, journal, whatever, listing all sorts of information from salaries to status of city vehicles. Why isn't that available on the net? The City Web Page should, as well as being a Travel Guide for the Chamber of Commerce and Telephone Directory, it should also be a portal to information for it's citizens. How much do we pay for Electricity anyway?

" WHAT's NEW PUSSYCAT "

After reading in today's Eagle http://www.berkshireeagle.com/editorials/ci_5423321 their editorial on the "BLUEPRINT FOR THE BERKSHIRES" I am almost inspired to give the Mayor an a-a-a-a-a-pology. Seems that this very expensive, highly touted cure all, is nothing more than a rehash of common knowledge, things everyone on the street already knew. They produced no answers other than to tell us that the things that are really needed to revitalize the area are to expensive, to elusive, or beyond the scope of reality, (the Bypass) Good job guys!.. So why do we keep paying these ripoff artist to study what doesn't need studying? They wrap it up in a pretty package with a ribbon, give it a technical sounding name, pat themselves on the back, then take the money and run! Hell, they don't even spend the profit here in the Berkshires. Screw all those studies. They are useless and don't solve squat, just waste time and money. What is needed is less Studying and more Doing!

" GOOD OLD NORTH ADAMS "

I had to laugh the other evening when I was reading the Transcript article about how John III got all bent out of shape because the "lets develop the area, gang" didn't show up at City Hall with an oak leaf cluster head ban and a marching band paying tribute to our own "decider". Seems if they don't check in with him first and get his stamp of approval then it is a no starter and can't possibly succeed, ergo the Town will not have anything to do with it, much less he give a speech and share his experiences to help out. All that being said"

What everyone else seems to understand is that this is "NORTH ADAMS! No matter how you flower it up, paint, sell $300,000 condos (I gotta get me one of those before the rush starts), advertise, try to make us look like Williamstown, or South County or some other ritzy neighborhood, the fact remains....we are who we are and we just don't fit in and never will. We should feel lucky that they were willing to include us at all,..... I guess we don't have to worry about that anymore!

" FREE POWER ,kinda"

Well ...Good Morning Populace of The World. First the good news.....my (S) key is working again, I know that just makes your day. On to the real important issue of the day. ENERGY!
Let us start our journey with our Federal Governments Energy Policy....... hold on just a minute,... I'm still looking for it?... Seems I am unable to find it... It must be in some committee waiting for further clearafacation?........No!....I found it..........It is in the Vice Presidents Pocket...He won't let us see it though because of "Natural Security Concerns" and the "War On Terror" thing, and after all how can he do his job if everyone knows everything!.....Hmmm, I'm going to have to think on that one.
OK, on to the State of Confusion, I mean Massachusetts. Seems their policy changes with the wind,... (I put that in for the professor, :~) ) Anyway at the present time they seem to want to turbineize the State with windmills, but not where any self-important persons, like Senators, can see them. It is not a good thing to ruin the beauty of the view, you know? (White man speak with forked tong)(White man has two faces) etc....
Locally how can we lower our energy costs? Notice I didn't say energy needs! We live in an energy demanding and consuming world so for (Them, the energy producing and supplying corporations) telling me to conserve as a way to energy independence, is kind of an oxymoron of sorts. Again I would like to ask why we can't put our water power back into service? Instead of tearing down the dams, why can't we fix um up and power up the hydro generators? I don't think that there was even a feasibility study done to see if it would be cost effective. You don't need an outside expensive private enterprise to do the preliminary work. Hell... send out the City Engineer and have him make few measurements and make some calculations. He is after all on the City payroll and he is an Engineer! Dam...even if we just power up the municipal needs it would be a big savings for the City. What do you think? Wind power or water power?

" TIME WARNER UPLOAD SPEED "

Does anyone have any update as to what is the current situation with the high speed "Road Runner" upload speed? Is Time Warner going to rebate us for a broken contract or just drop our rate? I lost over 200 KB/s upload speed and that is a lot, we are not getting the same as with our Adelphia contract, which seems to me to be illegal. Any one ?