The following is a brief letter I sent to Councilman Jim Oddo this morning. This doesn't nearly capture my absolute fury over the issue and the surrounding issues - a pathetic city bureaucracy that does nothing but increase taxes and decrease services, WHILE managing to somehow take away our liberties in a methodical and incremental manner. This mostly just concerns the MTA.
Dear Mr. Oddo
Let me start by wishing you good day. Hope all is well.
I live in Grant City. To get to work in the morning the X9 was the ideal bus, X1 was the backup bus. To hear that they will be slashing our x9 and x1 is purely unacceptable. Look at all of these cuts. It is a crime. Why does Staten Island float the bills for all of these bloated bureaucracies, and then bear the brunt of service cuts which devastate our abilities to commute to work in an acceptable time frame? Bad enough that the poor and disgraceful lack of infrastructure on the Island scares decent jobs away like a rabid dog chasing the mailman.
Why do the taxes of Staten Islanders, who must on the whole commute to Manhattan or New Jersey for any hope of a well paying job, continue to support this nonsense?
Mr. Oddo, you have been a faithful representative on the Council, and I shudder to think of what we may have had if not you in there. BUT - it is LONG past the time to take on the MTA, to get Staten Island's fair share, to improve our infrastructure with a train into Manhattan. No more promises, no more status-quo. Why do you remain oddly silent on such matters when we are getting shanghaied more and more each year by these clowns? It is an all out assault on this borough. Why do we need to pay a toll to get into Brooklyn that costs well over AN HOURS WAGES? How can that be justified?
This city grows more and more tyrannical as the years wear on. And as the years wear on, our patience is wearing thin. In fact, mine is gone.
Sincerely,
Thomas Vendittelli - free citizen of the United States of taxation
Monday, January 25, 2010
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
State Controlled Media
The US Senate is ramming through the Health Care bill, having scheduled a Christmas Eve vote, and the top headlines of the day are the "Cat in the Jacket", Brittany Murphy OD's and Brazil to Return Boy to Father. Welcome to state controlled media. This must be what it feels like to be a Chinese national.
When everyone complains "And the media isn't even reporting it!", perhaps we should all come to realize we are living in the United States, where the media is very much under state control. Need proof? No you don't. Do you really?
Aside from the lack of real reporting being done on any side of the issues, how about the wave of new legislation being crafted to "bailout" the media? (Media Bailout)
Imagine, a "market failure" in the news industry? How could that occur? Well, I don't believe in a market failure in any context. You see, the market dictates demand, and apparently there is a shrinking demand for lapdog media parroting the official line. Truly independent media is thriving right now. At threat level red are the larger news players, who have long been partners of the establishment.
What happened to real journalism in the United States? Perhaps JFK knew more than he let on when he lectured to the American Newspaper Publishers Association (JFK Speech Transcription).
It seems that the media establishment has moved beyond just mere omissions of important truths and facts, and has evolved into an elaborate instrument of distraction. Everyday, the trivial and the unimportant are emphasized. The public, trying to "keep informed", does what they can to stay abreast of current issues. In their trying to be informed they face roadblocks of mind-retarding non-news.
So now the health care overhaul, which liberals lambaste as a "hollow, shell of a bill", is about to pass on to the desk of the president, where it will become law. Too bad this bill isn't a hollow shell. It is a cleverly designed tax scheme which will further devastate our economy and stifle innovation in one of the few industries Americans still lead in - health care.
Give up on the state controlled media. There are no answers for you there.
When everyone complains "And the media isn't even reporting it!", perhaps we should all come to realize we are living in the United States, where the media is very much under state control. Need proof? No you don't. Do you really?
Aside from the lack of real reporting being done on any side of the issues, how about the wave of new legislation being crafted to "bailout" the media? (Media Bailout)
Imagine, a "market failure" in the news industry? How could that occur? Well, I don't believe in a market failure in any context. You see, the market dictates demand, and apparently there is a shrinking demand for lapdog media parroting the official line. Truly independent media is thriving right now. At threat level red are the larger news players, who have long been partners of the establishment.
What happened to real journalism in the United States? Perhaps JFK knew more than he let on when he lectured to the American Newspaper Publishers Association (JFK Speech Transcription).
It seems that the media establishment has moved beyond just mere omissions of important truths and facts, and has evolved into an elaborate instrument of distraction. Everyday, the trivial and the unimportant are emphasized. The public, trying to "keep informed", does what they can to stay abreast of current issues. In their trying to be informed they face roadblocks of mind-retarding non-news.
So now the health care overhaul, which liberals lambaste as a "hollow, shell of a bill", is about to pass on to the desk of the president, where it will become law. Too bad this bill isn't a hollow shell. It is a cleverly designed tax scheme which will further devastate our economy and stifle innovation in one of the few industries Americans still lead in - health care.
Give up on the state controlled media. There are no answers for you there.
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