New Rules

No this is not a segment of Bill Maher's closing thoughts but new rules for this thing of ours. This blog was made for the free exchange of ideas, to allow comments free of moderation and to provide local political gossip that regular newspapers wont publish and yes to entertain you.

We will continue to do all of those things and we will do so on a regular basis but we will do so with respect to all those involved in our thing, including their family both on a city and county level.

We fostered a climate were it was ok to denegrate people because we disagree with them, instead of challenging their ideas and offering solutions. For that we apologize, it was a disservice to you our readers and to ourselves the authors of this blog.

Specifically we are refering to the Noble's.  The fact of the matter is that he is the Mayor of this City and deserves our respect and his wife is not off limits because she contributes to the administration and we think that's a good thing but she is to be judged on her ideas and performance not on anything else. Julie Noble has a lot to contribute to the city that can make it better and her role should be like a co- Mayorship in our opinion.

I was at a committee budget meeting many years ago when Julie and Steve put their jobs on the line going against Mayor Sottile's back and straight to the common council to get their jobs full time and to get benifits for their positions. They pretty much stated point of fact this is the work we do, we need benefits or we are leaving and these programs will not continue because noone else can do them effectively. This pissed off  Mayor Sottile a great deal but they stood their ground and got people like Paula Childs to come to the council committee budget meetings and advocate for their positions and took abuse from Alderwoman Jen Ringwood, Mayor Sottile and others that were not happy with them challenging the system but they got their benefits.

Then again last year, my friend Mayor Gallo everyone knew probably had some temperment issues and everyone in the Democratic party wanted him gone but noone was willing to run, when Steve decided to run he was openly laughed at till the very end of the primary. Steve and his wife put up with abuse at the hands of Mayor Gallo and others but Steve Noble stood up and again risked his job and the livelihood of his family to take on a system he felt needed to be changed against long shot odds and he won.

Mayor Steve Noble and us will not agree on a lot politically but he is not just a guy with the right last name that got lucky. Mayor Noble and his wife took determined action and challenged a sitting Mayor and won, that took balls. For that he has our respect and admiration.

Kingston Conservative Chair Cahill Recruiting Candidates

 The City of Kingston Conservative Party is calling on residents who are opposed to the common council’s approval of a resolution declaring Kingston a sanctuary city to defeat the six members who supported the move when their terms are up

“The residents of this city do not want to be a sanctuary city, but the only way to overturn this action is by changing the members of the common council,” said Conservative Chairman Richard Cahill Jr.
The issue is not one of political parties, but “about city residents regardless of party affiliation fighting to take back their city from a far left wing ideology being forced upon it by the mayor and common council majority,” he said.

Cahill said efforts are already underway for the Conservative Party to “team up with other local parties in a joint effort to restore the city.”

The party had “someone of prominence express interest” in running for mayor in 2019. “This candidate has never sought office before, but I believe would have an excellent chance to win,” Cahill said. He did not identify the individual.
 ######


So the above was posted on MidHudsonNews.com and in spirit we agree, we feel that a change to the common council is needed. We think the best seats to target for 2017 are the following: Ward1, Ward 2, Ward 3 and Ward 7

Ward 1 is a traditionally Republican Ward and the current representative won a Democratic primary and has never run in a general election. Her voting record is 100% w the Noble Administration, not only is the seat winnable but it should be targeted.

Ward 2 is tough it's been a Democratic ward for some time and the enrollment strongly favors that it would lean Democratic. However, there are a lot of voters that live above the storefronts in uptown Kingston that are not happy w the paid parking plan for municipal meters and Koop recently missed a council meeting to vote on the city budget! This is also another Alderman that has never faced a general election opponent before.

Ward 3 is winnable for a few reasons, the controversy surrounding Alderman Will and his resignation and the appointment of a guy to take his seat backed by Will. This guy Alderman Scott-Childress may be the most liberal member of the council. He took his wife's last name when he got married...it was Scott. What man takes his wife's name? Snowflake Alert! This should be a targeted race and former Alderman Walker can take this seat back easy.

Ward 7 If the rumors of MA Mills not seeking reelection are true then there is a great candidate in the Republican party that can run and win this seat back. Former Alderman Reynolds will not be running is my understanding. On a side note if MA Mills does choose to run for reelection we feel that she should be reelected to another term.  We are not really advocating taking back the seat in 7 but retaining the leadership that would be lost if Mills chooses to retire at the end of the year.

With all that being said if the Conservative Party wants to help that's great but they do not have the resources or brain power required to take on the Democratic machine. Don Ryan is not the brightest, we like Bounten and respect Cahill's knowledge of the city and issues but not his ability to organize and lead. The Republican party needs to step up, Joe Ingarra needs to stand up and take this on, he's the chairman, he's competent and tough but all that means nothing if he doesn't do the work. Being Chair is not about a title especially if you are chair of a committee that's known for losing elections. The Kingston Republican committee has fresh blood, they are motivated and the current Mayor and local Democratic party are at the weakest they have ever been. Which is still nine times stronger then the Republican City committee...which means the gop has to work 10 time as hard and they have to foster solid relationships with other party's as Chairman Cahill suggests. There is no room for ego or stubbornness if we want to win back city government or even if we want a seat at the table.

The Omerta Report 2017 Begins

On Friday Donald Trump will be sworn in as President of the United States and we couldn't be more excited.  The family goes a long way back w Donald Trump from our construction days... we controlled the unions, not a single concrete slab was laid down without going through us and Trump's companies were no different. We had a great system if the contractors would not use our concrete companies we wouldn't break their legs or fit them for concrete shoes, we would just send in our union delegate to check every car and piece of machinery that went onto that particular job site each morning to make sure it was up to union codes. From the materials to the tire pressure of the machines...We shut their business down to a halt with this one foreman checking every little detail all day, no work would get started and the contractor would lose hundreds of thousands a day. By day two or three,  they would come around and see that our number did work for them. We made a lot money in construction in those days. Back to the point, Trump will be our President, hes smart and shrewd and we are confident he will Make America Great Again.

Mayor Noble gave his State of the City address and if one thing is clear its that this guy lacks leadership. Noble spoke in generalities about making Kingston green and sustainable and focused heavily on promoting an alt left agenda that included making Kingston a Sanctuary city and composting. The usual lets work together..blah blah. No mention of economic development, no mention of his campaign promise to bring free wifi to Midtown Kingston through a public private partnership. No mention about anything of substance really. Mayor Noble did mention again that he was working with the county to merge city bus, which would save Kingston money.  That bus system runs at a huge deficit and the county could provide the same services and get that off Kingston's back.

Mayor Noble did get his crowd of snow flakes to fill city hall in favor of his resolution to make Kingston a sanctuary city with public comments from both sides going until about 1030pm. To us we could care less who lives here and what their legal status is..if they are here and happy and love are city we say salute, God bless. The issue is the financial impact such a move could have on our city, if Trump pulls federal funding to Kingston, we stand to lose over 1.8 million in federal aid and the potential federal grants we could lose we will never know the $ lost there. Money that will go to other Cities that are less qualified and less worthy. And for what? So Mayor Noble can pat himself on the back that he got passed a meaningless resolution and put every single resident of Kingston at risk in the process. This isn't about principal, Governor Cuomo has already made NY a sanctuary state and while Albany may forget sometimes, Kingston is a part of the state of New York.

Tuesday's display showed how out of touch our Mayor is, he had a crowd of paid activists and out of towners from Citizen's Action cheer him on like this is what Kingstonians want. Maybe a majority do but I will bet any amount of money that's not their main focus. How about a memorializing resolution to bring a big distributor to Kingston, or a tenant in the Kingston Business Park.  Noble is an elitist that went home to Roosevelt Park after that resolution passed thinking he did something good but I ask you all: What good has he done for the average Kingstonian?! His priorities are ass backwards and he fails to take a stand on the important issues facing this community.

In other city news we here rumors that Alderwoman Maryanne Mills (D-w7) will not seek reelection to a third term this November. The ward leans Democratic but could be in contention for Republicans in an open seat. Unless of course former Democratic Alderman Bill Reynolds decides to make a run for his old seat.

On a County level we had to laugh that County Executive Mike Hein promoted his rail trail as something that would boost the local economy and make Ulster a destination community, a project that is untested and we have no idea what will happen...ok so thats his opinion on the results, gotcha. The funny part is that his comments come a week after the Catskill Mountain Railroad, that got fucked over to build that stupid trail and has a solid track record, reported that it did over a million in sales this year. Not to mention what the railroad has done for Uptown Kingston business owners during the holiday season.

Trump Elected President, DicKtator Hein Still Voted By World as Biggest Asshole

Since our last post Donald Trump has been elected the 45th President of The United States!! Truly a miracle of epic magnitude. This guy our President elect is so bad ass ad we love him and support him and look forward to being in Washington on Jan 20th, like we were at the Hilton at 3am in election night to witness history, when Trump took the stage declaring victory the energy in that room was really electric. It was a cash bar all night and I'm talking a soda was $9, we don't like the taste of alcohol so paying $9 for a soda was insane even in Mahattan. Anyway at 230 am the bar was free, I think the bastard thought he was gunna lose and after he won he decided to spend a few extra dollars. It was a great night, after spending the night in Brooklyn we ran into some crazy liberals in Manhattan at 10 am already protesting as we caught a ride back to Ulster County, they were so angry and I couldn't stop from laughing at them just because I was so happy for Trump!

Elliott Auerbach has had his budget cut and it looks like Dan Torres is out of a job, I mean what kind of assshole do you have to be to fire Dan Torres. The New Paltz Councilman may not be the brightest but is a hard worker and at the very least a nice guy, who is he bothering?! It's as much a cut against Auerbach's budget as it is to Hein's complete lack of respect and loyalty to those that helped him so much over the years and two of those people (in a long list of people) is Auerbach and Torress. The both of them have been there for Hein when it mattered maybe not on 100% but always there when you needed him. I honestly thought Toress had a pic of Hein under his pillow, We didn't know he upset his majesty Hein in anyway. 

We just feel the legislature should restore the job, don't mess with someone's livelihood, there is no doubt that Dan is a hard worker and puts in a lot of time into his job just out of love to the job and his boss Auerbach who he interned for, before receiving a job w him a year or so ago. Hein arrogantly stated that he did not see reason for the Comptroller's office at all being he had a finance dept that knew what they were doing. Hein has no respect for the charter and should not be allowed to mess w another independently elected officials budget and staff. It's not right, I'm not best friends w Toress I barely know the kid but it sets a bad message. I gotta say I think Hein will regret this move, you could see Auerbach take him on in two years and a very unpredictable county Dem party go w Auerbach, who is way more popular than Hein amoung average voters and the Democratic Party. 

The Omertà Report Post Primary Edition

We are sorry we haven't posted for awhile and that we didn't endorse in the Democratic primary for Surrogate court, our feeling at the end of the day was that it would send mixed messages to people about who we support and  we want to be very clear we are supporting Peter Matera to be the next Surrogate Court Judge, he's by far the most qualified and ready to do the job, even though as a former assistant District Attorney Matera assisted in putting away some 'friends of ours' but hey, we are all on borrowed time in the profession we have chosen.  For the record we would have endorsed Graff to be the Dem nominee for those wondering.

Speaking of wondering, we have spent the past week wondering what will happen now with Sharon Graff's candidacy and how her defeat in the Democratic primary will effect the outcome of the race in November. Don't forget, Graff still has THREE LINES going into the November election, ( wfp, woman's equality, Green). There will be a lot of pressure for Graff to get off those lines and support McGinty especially being that Graff was helped and backed by the Democrat party and lost, she sorta owes them to do the right thing. However, she sorta owes the other three political party's that backed her too. As a lawyer she is in a unique position to get off the minor lines and run for a Judgeship in a different area, to free up the lines for McGinty. Or Graff could move out of the county but traditionally the party will meet with her and the minor party bosses and get her to run for an obscure Judgeship in Watertown or something. Here's the thing, we know the Green party is not doing that, whether Graff runs or not she will appear on their line in November and the Green party has a really good placement on the ballot, they are Row c I believe. The Working Families Party shockingly we hear are snubbing McGinty and sticking w Graff as well. The Woman's Equality Party is controlled by Gov. Cuomo who is the Don of Democratic party in our state, so it's safe to say should Graff drop out McGinty would get that line, which would give her two lines, the WEP is a brand new party created by Cuomo to discredit WFP, and are on row h ofthe ballot, so it really is pointless to have that line anyway. Although we have witnessed county wide races come down to less than two hundred votes and in a potential three way race who knows, that line could be influential in this years outcome.  Graff could run a crediable campaign with three lines and take her message to the entire electorate and let them decide and not meet with any party bosses behind closed doors, we encourage her to do that, its a big county and she has the qualifications to do the job, let the entire electorate decide. Regardless though Graff's name will still appear on at least two lines in November and that's good news for Peter Matera who will appear on the Republican and Independence lines in November.

In conclusion this race from the start was thought to be won by whoever emerged victorious from the Democratic primary for the simple reason that in a Presidential year you have thousands of additional Democrats and non enrolled leaning Dems that vote for President and vote down the line for the local candidates. However, we hear there is a coordinated effort in the works to stop McGinty. We hear some legal indiscretions from her past and some of  her petitions to get on the ballot will be used to discredit her in the coming months. You couple those potential controversies with a three way race whether Graff activily campaigns or not she will take away votes from McGinty and all that could be enough to provide Matera the win. We were surprised McGinty and Graff didn't try to primary for the Independence line, it was up for grabs and they just let Matera have it. Another big benefit for Matera is he has Manetti, Manetti and O' Connor supporting his candidacy which traditionally at least in the last ten years have backed Democrats almost exclusively with the exception of Judge Kavanagh who is an example of a popular qualified Republican that was hit by the Democratic presidential tsunami that hits this area every four years since 9/11  Anyway, Manatti Mannati and O'Connor are the top law firm in Kingston and Ulster County as far as we are concerned and a well respected group of guys, Matera is in good company. On to November!

In other local primaries, Elen DiFalco lost her bid to get on the City of Kingston Democratic committee losing to Brad Will and former Mayor Jim Sottile. We laugh at the people that point out to us that Brad Will got more votes than Sottile.... Yes, he did I think he got six more than Sottile. However what people fail to realize is  Brad Will went door to door made phone calls and Sottile agreed to have his name put on the ballot and that was the extent of his campaigning. Sottile was leader of the party as Mayor for ten years, and active as a committeeman and Alderman at Large for many years before that, he's not out there knocking on doors for a fucking committee seat, are you kidding me? Had he lifted a finger he would of been the top vote getter that I gaurentee you. They were not running against each other either, it's two seats per district, Sottile and Will were nominated, DiFalco Primaried and Sottile and Will defeated her.

My favorite primary victory was the wacky Bernie broad that beat Karen MArkesinis for her Democratic state committee seat. Now nothing against Karen but you may remember we did a story about how Hein and Cardinale tried to push out Judy Hakeem who spoke out against Cardinale for his money laundering scheme that the Manhattan DA's office is investigating where in a nut shell, Ulster Dem committee accepted 100k contribution from special interests groups and transferred it to Senator Cecilia Tkaczyk to circumvent election law campaign contributions.  It's still on going the investigation and multiple Democratic county committees did this knowingly breaking the law not just Frank Cardinale to be fair. Anyway, Judy Hakeem was a state committeewoman, for years this woman ran the coordinated campaign for the party, worked her ass off for local Demcorats. She's annoying and whiny and happens to be a therapist, thank God not mine or I'd slit my wrists but in small doses she's a great person to talk to and a damn hard worker.  As a state committeeman she has a seat on the Ulster County Democratic Executive committee, which is run obviously by Cardinale and made up of local town chairs. There comes a point that Judy at an executive committee meeting busts Cardinale's balls about the money laundering to Senator Tkazyk and they have a fight. At the Democratc convention Cardinale with the blessing of Hein attempts to replace her for Karen Markasenis who they feel they can control better. Cardinale calls Markasinis the preferred candidate of the party to convention goers before a vote is even taken and Karen wins the party's designation. The Parete's and Assemblyman Cahill to their credit defend Judy Hakeem to Cardinale after the convention. Judy decides not to primary Karen who has been vice chair of the party for almost ten years.  Some crazy Bernie Sanders broad that no one knows, I don't even know her name comes out of no where and  goes out and gets signatures to primary Karen and ends up beating her by a two to one margin. That state committee primary was a referendum on Cardinale and in our opinion with the loss of  Graff, the nominee of the party for Surrogate and the loss of Markasinis, which was a direct vote on his leadership, the Deocratic rank and file have sent a clear message, that Frank Cardinale needs to resign as Chair of the Dem party. Besides this recent primary, Dems are losing county wide races consistently since Cardinale has been chair and the GOP has the legislature despite the Dems being the Majority party in this county. It's not like the GOP has a great mind running the show, the Dems despite have a 5k + registration advantage and Roger Rascoe and Kevin Costello running the Republican party still keep losing. I'm  not saying Rascoe and Costello are retarted or anything but it's not Lee Atwater and Karl Rove running the Ulster GOP that's for sure. Bottom line though it doesn't matter, as long as Cardinale is Chairman of the Democratic committee, Democrats will continue to lose elections because the only thing worse then a GOP party run by two Fieble minded know it alls is Democratic party run by a curupt aroogant Napolian.

I hate to have to do this but I have to say Ellen DiFalco was 100% correct in the paper a week or so ago regarding the lease of the old King's Inn site to a private group for $1 and here is the kicker and something DiFlaco brought to light, should the city sell this property during the course of this lease, they are intiteled to 3% of the sale. Is that not the most outrageous thing you have ever heard? We're wise guys and think that's a crazy type vig for them to get. They are getting the use of the property for $1.  What happens when we give that away is we lose municipal parking spots, UPAC which is an established fixture of Midtown loses parking for its special events and this organization is getting free snow removal, garbage pick up and all other essential services that his neighbors, the tax paying businesses next to him are paying an arm and a leg for struggling to stay in business. How do you think they feel? It's absolute bullshit and kudos to DiFalco for shedding light on it.

Mayor Greenpants hired some new DPW chief and I have to say Boyle or someone from within the department, Bruce Winchell even should have gotten the job not the person he hired. I give Noble some credit because the individual is a resident of the City of Kingston and we do feel that Department Heads should live in Kingston but lets be honest, the guy was only given the job because he has a degree in being a pussy. I mean a degree in environmental education, same difference. Is every hire now going to be someone thats a Vegan, tree hugging environmentalist?  There were better qualified candidates from within and Mayor Polacco would have hired from within.

We realize this is three weeks late but we would like to offer our condolences to Joanie Brandt, a long time employee of the City of Kingston that spoke her mind and wasn't afraid to tell it like it was. Joanie just recently retired from the City and was very young and died suddenly, very sad and she will be missed.

Rip Kingston Radio Icon Walter Maxwell

Wghq boss Walter Maxwell died last night .. Calling hours 3-7 on Monday at Simpson Gaus

More later

Tonight we endorse for Surrogate Judge in Sept Dem Primary