Eric Sundwall

As the TU labels Mr. Redlich's vision of reducing bases all over the world as naive, one can only wonder what role these individuals played in Vietnam as it grinded on for years and years. Their characterization of Ms. Gillibrand's position on the war is a complete fabrication, much like the Bush administration's claim of WMD. The Gillibrand camp had to play to the conservative right to some extent. They can win the 'anti-war' crowd at coffee hours. Mr. Redlich stretched the boundaries of his party's silly stance. Good Democrats like Morris Guller, Ed Pell and Doug Walters came foward and protested when Gillibrand's position became obvious.

While knocking Mr. Sweeney's dog-like devotion to Mr. Bush's junto, they simultaneaously praise him for the work he has done for the district. They support the corporate welfare of the AMD deal in Clifton Park and buy into the non-existent terrorist threat. While deriding him on tax cuts they claim do not stimulate the economy, they say nothing about the out of control spending that has created a burden for the next 5 generations. Stop Wasting Money ! Too simplistic, not complex enough they will say. Hagiographic elitist tripe.

Ms. Gillibrand's call for government controlled energy, wages and healthcare pricing are a good recipe for populist voting, but they are terrible indicators of market understanding. Any way you look at it, dredging the Hudson is not an economic opportunity. It may be an environmental disaster, but touting it as something positive is unhinged. Until lawyers stop being the mainstay for political candidates, real understanding of economics cannot be subsituted for claims of vision or intelligence. Lawyers have a license to steal and they protect it by electing themselves to lawmaking positions. Stop the cycle of idiocy.

The TU has said nothing about the lack of debates in this race or the barrage of negative ads foisted upon tired voters. My experience in the field is that small business owners were tired of regulations and taxes. Average people were swamped with property tax, granted a state issue. But the sense of frustration and disgust has only been enhanced by million dollar campaigns whose respect for the voter is non-existent. These two camps could not provide us, the voters, with a series of debates about issues. Covering smoking habits, frat parties, traffic violations, silly IOU's and all the other fodder of this campaign has been their specialty. The highest insult in this regard is that while the TU may distribute throughout the district, it is fundamentally a paranoid Hearst organization who hides behind a bunker like facility at the end of Wolf Road.

A vision of Liberty is beyond the scope of people accustomed to covering a real bad system. Accepting the reality of lesser of two evils may be considered the mature and well thought option, but it is not. Quality dissent and resistance that does not take on a violent or hysterical tone is too sublime for the average reader. They want immediate, personal results. The district is often cited as extending from Poughkeepsie to Lake Placid, leaving out Greene, Delaware and Otsego Counties. These silly borders of representation are designed to keep their incumbants. A hundred years ago in the vaunted Progressive era, rare journalists like H.L. Mencken questioned the premises of modern assumptions and life. I guess if you live in an expensive white shirt world driven by advertising, dissent is not an economically viable option.