No Upstream updates for awhile

I will not be blogging for awhile due to a serious family situation. I will still be writing for www.examiner.com and the Sunday Gazette because I do have to make a living. I will tweet whenever I publish an article. You can follow my tweets on twitter or in the right hand column of this blog.

A special note to those who believe–please pray for my daughter.

Searchable database of the complete Metropolitan Transportation Authority payroll for 2008 now online

A searchable database of the complete Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) payroll for 2008–including name, titles, base pay rates and total pay received by 78,393 employees–is now available at www.SeeThroughNY.net, the government transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for New York State Policy.

More than 10 percent of the MTA’s workforce–8,214 individuals in all–took home $100,000 or more in total pay, including overtime. The MTA’s six-figure club included:

• 10 employees who earned more than $250,000, averaging $102,000 over their base salaries;
• 44 employees who earned between $200,000 and $250,000, averaging $89,000 over their base salaries;
• 600 employees who earned between $150,000 and $200,000; and
• 7,560 individuals who earned between $100,000 and $150,000.

Eleven of the 654 employees who earned more than $150,000 in 2008 were Long Island Railroad car repairmen who earned an average of $206,000—which was $143,000 over their average base pay rate of $63,000. Other popular titles in the $150,000-and-over category included:

• 62 Long Island Railroad and Metro-North Railroad conductors who averaged $83,000 over their base salaries which averaged only $82,000;
• 40 police officers averaging $79,000 over their average base pay of $90,000;
• 39 gang foremen averaging $87,000 over their average base pay of $79,300; and
• 30 Long Island Railroad engineers averaging $103,000 over their average base pay of $73,000.

The payroll also included 279 MTA Bus employees for whom the authority did not provide the job titles requested by the Empire Center under the state Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). The median salary for this named but untitled group of employees was just over $74,000, including 32 individuals who earned more than $100,000 last year.

SeeThroughNY, launched in July 2008, also provides searchable payroll databases for New York State, New York City’s municipal government and for 18 other state public authorities, including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Also posted are teachers’ union and superintendent contracts for 733 school districts, legislative pork barrel member items, and operations spending by both houses of the state Legislature. The website has attracted more than a million unique visitors since its launch.

The Albany-based Empire Center is a project of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, one of the nation’s leading non-profit 501(c)3 think tanks.

Albany Family Court judge W. Dennis Duggan voted worst judge in New York state in 2008 & 2009

Albany Family Court Judge, W. Dennis Duggan, was named 2007 Family Court Judge of the Year by his colleagues from the New York State Family Court Judges Association. However, as of the date of this article, he has been voted New York State’s worst judge for 2009 on Courthouse Forum. The surveys and voting on Courthouse Forum are not necessarily scientific.

Read the entire article.

Albany Family Court Judge Gerard Maney likely only to get admonished by State Commission on Judicial Conduct if found guilty of DWAI.

While many people would like to see Albany County Family Court judge, Gerard Maney, removed from the bench if convicted of DWAI, it is likely that he will only be admonished by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Admonishment is the least severe of the punishments that the commission metes out. The other punishments are censure and removal from the bench.

Read the entire story.

Happy Father’s Day to all loving fathers including those wrongly dubbed deadbeat dads

Happy Father’s Day to all fathers who love their children and are trying to make a difference in their lives.

Father’s Day is good day for everyone, especially the media, to ban the phrase deadbeat dad from their vocabulary. It’s not that there aren’t deadbeat dads. There are. We all know fathers who don’t come through with their child support payments. However, there are women who are required to pay child support and who also cannot keep up with the payments. Rarely are they called deadbeat moms.

Read the entire article

Fulton County now leads New York State in number of child abuse reports

The number of child abuse reports made to Child Protective Services in New York State increased by 6% from 2007 to 2008. There were 154,837 child abuse reports made statewide in 2007. Last year the number jumped to 163,808.

Read the entire story.

Albany County family court judge Gerard E. Maney arrested for DWAI

Albany County Family Court Judge, Gerard E. Maney, was arrested by Green Island Police on Thursday evening, June 18, 2009, and charged with DWAI. Maney allegedly had a .07 BAC and attempted to avoid a DWI checkpoint by making an illegal u-turn.

Read the entire story

God Hates Liars. Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas caught lying about picket schedule.

Shirley Phelps-Roper on Sean Hannity's show

Of the many names that Fred Phelps, his outspoken daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, and other members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, love to call people, liar is probably the least offensive. Nevertheless, they use it all the time.

But when it comes to lying, Fred Phelps, Shirley Phelps-Roper and fellow members of the God Hates Everyone campaign are as expert as
anyone.

A few months ago I became suspicious about the number of funerals, churches, and schools that Westboro Baptist Church claimed they were planning to picket. The number of members in their group is very small (less than one hundred), and somebody has to stay at home to take care of the kids and work at the law firm to make money so that the others can go out and picket.

Read the entire article.

New York Tea Party March on Albany Begins at Noon Today

Check out the New York Tea Party website.

Mohawk Valley Airport Once Known As Gay Valley Airport

Update: WVTL tweeted the following “Caller says Gay Valley airport named for owner Paul Gay–used to run nearby bistro–previous name of Mohawk Valley Airport Rt 5 Glenville.”

I guess I am not the only one that remembers that the Mohawk Valley Airport, where a plane took off from and crashed Sunday tragically killing three people, was called Gay Valley Airport not long ago. In fact, if my memory serves me right, it was called the Gay Valley Airport for several decades. The Altamont Enterprise referred to it as the Gay Valley Airport in a 1957 article.

If you do a search for “Gay Valley Airport,” the first two hits are Daily Gazette stories about the tragedy which call the airport the Gay Valley Airport. If you click on the links, however, the pages can’t be found. Apparently, someone caught the mistake early on.

So why did someone change the name of the airport. A poster in a forum at Mavica Information Exchange offered this reason.

For many years it was known
as the Gay Valley Airport but I
guess the macho sky divers
thought the name a bit queer so
it is now the Mohawk Valley Airport.

According to Rotterdaminfo.com, at one time there were plans to develop the airport.

Delmar resident Ray Marshall wants to build 491 condominiums and town houses on land located about one mile east of the Route 103 connector to Rotterdam Junction. The property was once home to the Gay Valley Airport site in Glenville. Marshall could not be reached for comment.

The development would include a 2,300-square-foot marina, a 45,000-square-foot technology park, a 12,000-square-foot restaurant, a 2,500-square-foot clubhouse, hotel and banquet hall.

Of course, that would not have worked out too well. The airport is in a flood plain, and I can remember one flood where huge blocks of ice were strewn over the airport, surrounding land and even on Route 5.

This week’s crash was not the first crash at the airport, as seen in this 1994 Times-Union article.

If you are into flight simulators, you can download the scenery for the Mohawk Valley Airport here.

Since the three victims of the crash were Indian Americans, the recent crash has been covered extensively in several newspapers in India.

Moving South is Looking Better All The Time. New York State Pounds Another Nail in Small Business Coffin

While the New York Senate is twiddling its thumbs, the machinery of New York State’s bureaucracy rolls on unhindered. If you own any kind of business that requires you to collect sales tax for the state and remit the same to the state, you probably got a letter this past week from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

The letter I got states that I have to renew my Certificate of Authority. In New York State, you cannot do business without a Certificate of Authority from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. The Certificate of Authority gives you the authority to collect taxes for the state whenever you sell taxable goods or services. It essentially authorizes you to become a tax collector for the State of New York.

When I applied for my Certificate of Authority fifteen years ago, it did not cost me a thing, and why should it? I am doing the state a favor by collecting and remiting sales tax. The state is not doing me one.

Now the state want me to pay a $50 fee for the “privilege” of collecting its taxes. This fee is nothing but a tax. Worse than that it is a form of protection money. If you don’t pay the fee, you can’t do business.

It’s bad enough that credit card companies take a percentage of the sales tax money everytime someone pays with a credit card. Every business no matter how big or small pays some of the sales tax out of their own pocket thanks to the credit card companies.

For the state to charge businesses for collecting sales taxes on their behalf is creative taxation at its best or worse.

You might have forgotten, but just a few years ago New York State began charging sales tax on shipping and postage fees for any orders that New York State businesses ship within New York State. Even the federal government doesn’t tax postage.

$50 may not seem like a lot. When you multiply it times the number of businesses in New York, however, it does add up to a lot. To a small business person like myself, who barely makes a living, it is a lot.

This new tax is just one more nail in the coffin that New York State is burying its small businesses in.

White Supremacist and Holocaust Shooter, James W. von Brunn, Once Wrote Article On Television For Billboard Magazine & Once Worked For McCann-Erickson, now McCann Worldgroup

White Supremacist, James W. von Brunn, who killed a guard at the Holocaust Museum this week, worked in a variety of jobs over the years. He worked as an artist, book illustrator and adman. In the August 12, 1957 issue of Billboard magazine, von Brunn wrote an article called, Gov’t or Private? TV Systems Vary. Veteran Adman Surveys Worldwide TV Growth Patterns, Finds 3 Key Systems.

In the short bio at the beginning of the article, James von Brunn, is said to have formerly worked as a film producer for McCann-Erickson, International ( now McCann Worldgroup ). McCann-Erickson, was named Global Agency of the Year for the years 1998-2000. McCann Worldgroup has been chosen to be the Marketing Services Agency for the 2012 Olympics.

At the time, James von Brunn wrote the article for Billboard, he was working for Erwin, Wasey & Co., a Chicago based advertising agency and a film production company best known for producing the television show, Lights Out, which ran from 1946-1952. Famous photographer, Margaret Bourke White, did a beautiful shot of Manhattan for Erwin, Wasey and Co. in 1934. Erwin and Wasey’s ad After Hours is considered one of the top 100 advertisements of all time. Erwin, Wasey & Co. was once given the job of transforming the Jolly Green Giant.

Which all goes to show that James von Brunn was a talented man. He had to be in order to be hired by two topflight advertising agencies. He is not your stereotypical redneck neo-Nazi. Because they have talent, it the James von Brunn and David Duke type White Supremacists that are the most dangerous.

You can read von Brunn’s Billboard magazine article here.

More Paintings by White Supremacist and Holocaust Museum Shooter, James von Brunn, Surface on Internet.

Two days ago, I wrote about James Wenneker von Brunn’s ability as an artist. Now more paintings by White Supremacist, James W. von Brunn, responsible for the recent tragedy at the Holocaust Museum have surfaced on the internet. This painting by von Brunn was done in 2003 and is of Rear Admiral John G. Crommelin, another White Supremacist.

Thanks to JL for bringing this to my attention. I have doubled the size of the image because it was so small, which has decreased its resolution and made it somewhat fuzzy.

Rear Admiral John G Crommelin by James von Brunn 2003

Click here to read a letter that Rear Admiral John G. Crommelin wrote to James W. von Brunn’s son when von Brunn was arrrested for trying to make a citizen’s arrest of the Federal Reserve Board.

The photo below shows James von Brunn holding a cookbook that he illustrated.

Schoolridge Farm Cookbook Illustrated by James von Brunn

I have a lead on more of James von Brunn’s paintings and hopefully will post them in a few days.

Meanwhile, you can view some of the art that von Brunn loved by looking at the art on Bert Christensen’s website. Von Brunn signed the guest book on the site. Here is his entry.

Name: James von Brunn
Country: USA
Message: HAPPY NEW YEAR !
Thanks for the great art.

Was Holocaust Museum Shooter, James von Brunn, a Frustrated Artist?

Update: More paintings of James von Brunn have surfaced on the internet.

“It upsets me that I find his painting clever, interesting and well composed.” Comment left on Gawker.com.

It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway, the shooting at the Holocaust Museum by White Supremacist, James von Brunn, is a tragedy. It’s interesting, however, that many in the media are already referring to von Brunn as a “frustrated artist,” without any explanation or evidence to prove the statement. Generally the term frustrated artist is used to denigrate an artist and his or her work. No one can deny that von Brunn is a racist, however, as an art lover I question the use of the term “frustrated artist” in reference to James von Brunn.

I am an admirer of Winston Churchill. Years ago his art was on display at the New York State Museum in Albany, and I went to see it. Churchill was not a great painter, but I was fascinated by his art because I admired the man. He wrote and interesting little book called “Painting as a Pastime.”

No one has ever called Winston Churchill a frustrated or failed painter as they have James von Brunn and his hero, Adolf Hitler. If von Brunn and Hitler were admirable people, we would say they painting was an avocation or hobby of theirs as we do with Churchill, but we would not denigrate their artwork.

So far only one example of von Brunn’s artwork has been located on the internet. Here it is.

If one lays aside his or her negative feelings about von Brunn, one has to admit that this is a decent work of art. The Madame Pickwick Art Blog said, “The painting is not original but is certainly not mediocre.” Even Gawker admits as much, saying:

As we mentioned, Von Brunn was a painter. Just like Hitler! But the one example of his work that we have (which is no longer for sale at AskArt.com) is, uh, interesting. It is a amalgam of Fragonard’s The Reader and Picasso’s Woman With a Book. A clever recontexulaization of classics by Renaissance and Modernist masters! By a 89-year-old White Supremacist who just killed a man at the Holocaust Museum!

So why was von Brunn supposedly a frustrated artist? Maybe because he had a hard time getting galleries to show his work. According to an AP story:

Von Brunn applied to have his art shown at the Troika Gallery in Easton, Md., around the time the gallery opened about 12 years ago, two of the owners, Laura Era and Jennifer Wharton, told The Associated Press. They said they turned him down because it was not up to their quality and that made von Brunn angry.

“He stomped out,” Wharton said. “You don’t normally get that reaction from artists.”

They say his work was not strange or violent, but the artists they show have many years of professional experience.

Era and Wharton said they had heard that von Brunn had been in jail because of his political beliefs and knew that he had prejudices. They did not feel comfortable around him, but said they didn’t want to make him an enemy.

One wonders if the owners of the Troika Gallery are telling the truth as to why they turned down von Brunn. I for one wonder if it had more to do with political correctness than the quality of von Brunn’s work.

Most of the works being shown now at the Troika Gallery are good, but they are very staid and conservative. None of them are post-modern like James von Brunn’s work. Art is somewhat a matter of taste, but it seems to me that von Brunn’s painting above is a least as good as most of the paintings now hanging in the Troika Gallery and better than many.

The following example of the work by Laura Era, one of the owners of the Troika Gallery in Easton, Maryland is not particularly good, although some of her other work is better. Certainly, James von Brunn’s work above is better.

Wine Cheese and Bread. Copyright Laura Era.

James von Brunn did an evil thing when he killed a guard at the Holocaust Museum. No one should try to minimize that. But whatever he is as a human being, it does not detract from his art work.

James von Brunn is an evil person, but he is a good artist.

Postscript: For an interesting take on Nazism and Art, watch The Architecture of Doom by Peter Cohen.

Encounter With School Bully Was Holocaust Museum Shooter, James von Brunn’s, #1 Character Shaper

Since I’ve been posting about bullying in school lately, I thought I would post this clip from White Supremacist, James von Brunn, about how his encounter with a school yard bully shaped his life. Make of it what you will.

Character Shaper No. 1:

“Buddy B. was a loose cannon. He was ten and I was seven. I remember his tattered tennis shoes, Keds. His father had cut the toes out of them to accommodate Buddy’s growing feet. Those were depression years. Mason Elementary School had a dirt and sand playground, divided down the middle with a wrought-iron picket fence. Girls on one side, boys of the other. At recess Buddy would go on both sides raising hell, pushing people around, pulling the girls’ pigtails. He was bigger than everyone else. One day he went berserk running around the boys’ playground kicking and stomping on marbles the little kids were playing with. I went up to him and told him to stop it or else. The “else” was that he challenged me to meet him after school at the dueling grounds. He was a head taller than I and much heavier and stronger. All the kids had been alerted. We went down to the narrow, concrete alley, lined by rickety back-yard fences. This is nuts, I thought. Why didn’t he just admit he was wrong. You’re gonna get beat bad, Helen, told me. Everyone was patting Buddy on the back. Go get him Buddy. He was smiling, sure, cocky. He said whatdya want, fists or wrestling. I could feel my stomach tighten. Whatever you say. Wrestle, he said, I wanna strangle you to death. We grappled and rolled around. But he couldn’t hold me down and I couldn’t do anything with him. His face got beet red, he was screaming cuss words at me. Get him Buddy. Then he started punching. I was on my back, he on top. I could see his elbows were scraped and bleeding. He sat on my chest, grabbed my head and beat it into the concrete – again and again. Stop ! Helen screamed, far away, dimly. I went woozy and woke up on a couch at my house. Tears rolled down Buddy’s face. DON’t DIE, Don’t die, he pleaded. My nose was bleeding and my shirt was soaked in blood. I got up. I’m OK said I, weakly. But you were wrong to kick the marbles. I wuz, said Buddy B. Helen took Buddy’s hand and they departed. A pal of mine said, you sure showed him.

MORAL: It’s better to be strong than right — unless you like dying. Crowds hate good guys.”

Read about other events and people that shaped James von Brunn’s life.

Amsterdam Blogger Charlie Kraebel Writes About How Bullying In Schools Has Affected His Family

Charlie Kraebel wrote a great post yesterday on bullying in schools and how it has affected his family personally. It’s a powerful story, and I hope you will go to his blog and read the entire post. I have posted a clip from it below.

He also has posted two updates to his post on bullying. You can read them here and here.

“While most 11-year-olds a probably sleeping in their comfy beds this evening, my son is spending the night in an emergency room with my wife.
He’s not there because of a broken arm, or an illness. He’s there because the constant bullying he’s endured this entire school year has finally reached a point where he’s had an emotional breakdown and threatened to take drastic action. Not against others, but himself, and he’s actually given it thought and played out specific scenarios in his head.

CBS 6 Reports That Parents Of Amsterdam High School Student Plan Civil Action

“An Amsterdam couple whose disabled son was targeted by cyber bullies is planning legal action against the students involved, the child’s mother said Monday.

The high school senior, whose name is being withheld at the family’s request, was mocked in a video posted to YouTube. It was filmed inside Amsterdam High School with several teachers visible in the background. The video has since been removed.”

Read the entire story at www.cbs6albany.com.

Bill O’Reilly Defends Himself Against the Radical Left’s Accusation That He Killed George Tiller aka The Baby Killer

Even though I am pro-life, I am not a fan of Bill O’Reilly. He is too far to the right for me. However, the way the left has attacked him for the way he reported on abortionist George Tiller of Wichita Kansas who was murdered a week ago is disgusting. Many in the radical left have written columns blaming O’Reilly for the murder of George Tiller.

Nobody on the left has written about the failure of the left’s broken promises to reduce abortion. When the Clintons were president, they promised to make abortion safe, legal and rare. The rare part never happened.

If Bill O’Reilly is responsible for the murder of George Tiller, then so are liberals who promised to make abortion rare but broke their promises. If abortion had been made rare, the protests, debate and even the violence would most likely have subsided.

Anyway, O’ Reilly doesn’t need my defense. He is capable of defending himself. Here is what he had to say.

The liberal outcry over the murder of George Tiller, the late-term abortion doctor from Kansas, demonstrates exactly where American discourse is going. Shot dead in a church by an anti-government militant, Tiller did not deserve his fate. Even though the man destroyed an estimated 60,000 fetuses that could have lived outside the womb, he was an American citizen entitled to protection. No matter what you think about abortion, it is a sad day for the country when vigilantism takes a life.

It took just minutes after the report of Tiller’s murder for the far-left loons to hit the websites. Postings on Daily Kos and The Huffington Post immediately blamed Fox News and me for inciting Tiller’s killer. Even though I reported on the doctor honestly, the loons asserted that my analysis of him was “hateful.”

Read the entire column.

Bullied Amsterdam High School Student Is Disabled

The parents of the Amsterdam High School student who was bullied on YouTube and MySpace have said that he was disabled. They told me that personally, and the father stated the same in a comment on the Gazette article about the cyberbullying.

In response to a comment left by someone going under the name MarkHolzer, the father said, “Unfortunately [ ] is incapable of agreeing or disagreeing as he is 100% disabled. If [ ] had the ability to stand up for himself and object to the video he would have. Which I guess is common as bullies rarely pick on those that can defend themselves and fight back. I assume you were not aware of that little fact about his disability.”

This is the part of the story that hasn’t been told but especially needs to after the story that appeared in the Recorder yesterday. This story by Jessica Maher leaves a completely different impression of the incident than does the Gazette’s coverage, and is frankly somewhat disappointing.

Maher says “On Friday, one AHS student, who asked to not be identified, said she’d heard the victim in the video and MySpace page knew what was going on the entire time.”

The excuse that the victim knew about the video, which has been removed from YouTube, and the fake MySpace page, which is still on the internet, and even approved of it, is being used to say that the whole incident was okay. But the argument doesn’t hold water, especially in light of the parent’s comment above, stating that the student’s disability made it impossible for him to even discern he was being picked on.

It’s unfortunate but understandable that the victim’s particular disability is not being made public right now. But the school district certainly must know what it is, and should not allow statements that it was all a joke and the victim knew and approved of the whole thing to influence the way this incident is dealt with.

It should be obvious to everyone involved that it is not normal for a person to approve of a video and fake MySpace page that denigrates that very person. Would you want someone to create a MySpace page about you that said, “Yes I am also the very same kid that stores hours of hardcore gay porn on my flashdrive that I bring to school everday, just ask and ill show you?” And that is not the worst of what is posted on that page. I doubt that anyone who was involved in creating the page and the video would have approved of someone doing this to them.

One of the makers of the video seems to be coming to some understanding about what he has done according to the comments he left on the Daily Gazette’s website. I hope his asking for forgiveness is real and not just because he was sorry he was caught. I also hope those who have supported what he did will come to the same realization.

Bullying is never right and bullying a disabled person is completely unacceptable. The first time I watched the video on YouTube, I knew the student had a disability, and I think most of the students making the video knew that something wasn’t quite right and that he was an easy target for being picked on.

Finally, I would note that according to my sources this was not the first time that things were posted on YouTube about this kid. Video clips were put up in the past, and then taken down. Also there is the story of the borrowed playstation that I may tell in the future if I get permission to do so.

GASD Superintendent of Schools Reacts Swiftly to Cyberbullying at Amsterdam High School

I appreciate the swiftness with which Superintendent Thomas Perillo reacted to the Amsterdam High School cyberbullying incident which I posted about. I was hoping that he would respond that way, but I wasn’t sure. My experience with the school district responding to complaints in the past has not been very good.

The following is by Jessica Harding from today’s Daily Gazette.

AMSTERDAM — Several Amsterdam High School students are being disciplined after a YouTube video and fake MySpace page surfaced showing the students bullying another high school student on school grounds.

“That video was filmed in school, which was disturbing to me as well,” Greater Amsterdam School District Superintendent Thomas Perillo said.

The video and excerpts from the fake MySpace page were posted on local resident Daniel Weaver’s blog “Upstream.”

Perillo said the link was forwarded to him and he took action immediately.

Read the entire story on the Daily Gazette’s website.