into the soup pot and was replaced.
That took an awful lot of his time, so he bought a set of tiny bells and attached them to his
roosters. Each bell had a different tone so Farmer John could tell from a distance which
rooster was performing. He'd sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by
listening to the bells.
Farmer John's favorite rooster was Old Butch, and a very fine specimen he was, too. But
on one particular morning he noticed Old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all! Farmer John went
to investigate. The other roosters were chasing the pullets, bells-a-ringing. Turned out that
the pullets, on hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover.
To Farmer John's amazement, Old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He
would sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one. Farmer John was so
proud of Old Butch, he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair, where he became an
overnight sensation among the judges.
The result: The judges not only awarded Old Butch the No Bell Piece Prize, they also
awarded him the Pullet Surprise as well!
Clearly Old Butch was a politician in the making: Who else but a politico could figure out
how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at
sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention?
1) Orange County Board of Elections Commissioner Sue Bahren*...
Based on what we read on page six of the Time's Herald Record today, reporter Raja Abdulrahim's writes: "Candidates Out on Technicality." Orange
County Board of Election Commissioner Sue Bahren tossed two candidates off the ballot when another candidate successfully challenged their
petitions on the grounds that they lacked dates beside the witness signatures, leaving one candidate for two trustee seats in the Village of
Washingtonville.
We believe there should always be opposition in any election. Appointed officials such as Sue Bahren may not appreciate how difficult it is for the
average person to get on the ballot given the ridiculously picayune New York State Election Laws written by lawyers working for by the Republican
and Democratic Parties who wish to maintain their party's majority party standing. The first thing they do to maintain incumbency is to crush the
independent or third party candidate by joining forces, circle their wagons and/or refer to a typo or missing print of a form that according to Sue
Bahren, a candidate should have known about. "The law is the law", she said. "If the form is not complete, they need to know the law." Technical
errors such as this should never trounce having a choice of candidate's on the ballot for the voter. With Board of Election Commissioners such as
Sue Bahren, wither goest democracy in our fair county? Does Bahren work for the public or the Democratic Party? How does her action serve
democracy?
We are glad to read that Ms. Bahren is not again running for office Mayor of the Village of Chester so that she can have more time for her job as
BOE Commish. We know she needs it and to re-think some of what goes on there. We noticed a change for the worse after this past November's
elections. We believe that the Dems have taken control of that office and that they are following the tradition of dirty tricks at the ballot booth that go
back to Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall.
We take politics and our voting very seriously here as some here may know. And for many years, we have enjoyed writing-in candidates at the ballot
booth on Election Day, when there wasn't a choice on the ballot that we would choose to vote for. After the election, we would enjoy getting the
print-out sheets, to see our write-in votes recorded. We may not have had our choice of candidate elected or even a choice of candidate on the
ballot, but we enjoyed sending our message of "candidates we would like to vote for", in this way. We just can't vote for "the best of the worst"
anymore, which is too often the only choice there is on the ballot. But since Sue has been Commish (and we know there was a sad loss of one lovely
Republican lady-employee there which may have countered this type of action in the past), we notice the tide is on the downturn for the voters of
Orange County. We hope Commissioner Sue Bahren sees the errors of her ways, repents and rights her wrongs.
Boss Bahren rates #1 candidate for Old Butch award because as we know, it all begins and ends with the choices we get on the ballot. We are not
going to see things improve for the voting public in our towns in our county until we see some better candidates on the ballot. And for our money, the
majority of the ones there now, should get the boot. Maybe some of our readers will remind us of who it is that Bahren is related to in the bed of
nepotism that is the Orange County politics, that may have given her one up on this position. And while we're at it, maybe someone can let us know if
the taxpayers of Orange County are still paying former Governor Pataki's wife's former assistant or aide that was given a job here as opposed to
where she was from. And *her* qualifications for this political pay-off, appointed position, were .... what? We wouldn't ask, but it does seem that things
are on the down slide and we want to help find out why.
2) Mayor Newhard**: Where else but in the Village of Warwick can you get a part time job and in ten years get health benefits for life? Ask Mayor
Michael Newhard. Who else but Mayor Newhard would say when asked about his elected office "perks", "oh wow, I hadn't even counted. That's not
my incentive." His comments were reported by Times Herald Record reporter Victor Whitman and Regional Editor Barry Lewis in their wonderful
article which appeared in the THR 7/2/'06.
We question a man just over fifty years of age, getting lifetime healthcare benefits which will most likely cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of
dollars in our lifetime, who says he hadn't even "counted" said benefits. *If* that were true, we would have to say, "what else haven't you counted?"
What incentive is there for public elected officials such as Mayor Newhard to work for Healthcare for the public that is paying for his? We have to
question if the healthcare "perks in order to attract qualified candidates for demanding jobs", as he referred to his lifetime healthcare benefits, are the
standard for the people in his employ at any of his family businesses?
We question what his standard of Living Wage is for those same employees. We notice that his wife became a recent employee of the Warwick Public
Library at $10/hr. We question why he did not move to take any action when asked in public meeting to propose a Living Wage Ordinance of
$10.00/hr. for our village and/or at least put it up for discussion. We notice that he and his wife would not work for less on the public dollar. Why
should anyone else and how could anyone else live and work in Warwick for less than $10/hr.?
This is fast becoming a country divided between healthcare benefits for the public employee, elected officials (or government employees), and those
other fortunate, though too few, union employees that are left. What about everybody else? Maybe those *full time* employees working one and *two*
jobs think that they're jobs are just as demanding and we think they are just as deserving of healthcare benefits. What we are finding is that, thanks
to public elected officials such as Mayor Newhard, we have a government for some of the people and not for all of the people. And that shouldn't be.
We and he must stop that.
We're not letting Mayor Newhard off easy, we're coming back to him later. In the meantime, we hope he'll repent and reform his job performance.
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Coming soon... we are rating every one of our elected officials.
We are going to give them one week to come up with some good deed which might amend their rating.
In the meantime, we are accepting suggestions of which ones should we rate next.
(No Stars means forget about rehab, this is a lost cause.)
* poor rehabilitation potential
** fair rehabilitation potential
*** good rehabilitation potential
**** excellent rehabilitation potential