Politics

—Op-Ed by Calvin Luther Martin A day or so before Thanksgiving, ComLinks CEO Nancy Reich was pulled over by a trooper during a pre-holiday traffic check—a public safety measure aimed at keeping the roads safe for the family, above, from the homicidal threat of drunk drivers.

—Michael Fournier, Guest Editor President Obama makes many a reference to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous admonition, “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” Being the great orator he is, Obama has taken FDR’s line and edited it a bit. The words from this President that will be remembered for the next generations are, “We have

—Floyd Norris, Chief Financial Correspondent, NY Times ©The Towerlight (Photo by Jennifer Szymaszek/Associated Press) February 9, 2009 I’ve been looking at the unemployment numbers that came out Friday [2/6/09], and a couple of things stand out. Even though unemployment is rising rapidly—meaning there are a lot of people losing their jobs—long-term unemployment is also up a

—Op-Ed by Calvin Luther Martin Adapted from photo © Jochen Siegle (TechShowNetwork), with appreciation If someone polled Americans with the question, “What’s the best federal agency of all,” the hands down winner surely would be the United States Postal Service. Yup, the Post Office. If the man pictured above gets his way, the Post Office

—Mike Fournier, Guest Editor “The Silent Grey Fellow” (1909).  Good on gas. Good on global warming. Find one.  Ride one. USA should manufacture them.  Creates jobs. In his essay on “FDR and the Great Depression,” reprinted below, Russell Baker says, “Like Barack Obama seventy-six years later, he [Roosevelt] was succeeding a failed Republican president, and Americans had voted

—Russell Baker, New York Review of Books   The following article appeared in the NY Review of Books 2/12/09 issue, written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Russell Baker.  As America plunges into a deep recession which leading leading economists (including Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman) believe could resemble the Great Depression in severity, it’s worth taking stock

—Carl E. Person, JD Editor’s note.  The following article was submitted by Attorney Carl E. Person after several months of correspondence between him and RCM.  Mr. Person’s local bailout package is a provocative concept.  “Radical” would be another way to describe it.  As would “populist” (in no way a pejorative word).  Anyhow, read it and

Roosevelt’s Brain Trust vs Obama’s Brainiacs —Steve Fraser Historian Steven Fraser compares our present economic crisis to the Great Depression.  Along the way he discusses President-elect Obama’s options with those available to FDR.  Fraser’s essay is worthwhile reading for us in the North Country as we contemplate our future, both near-term and long-term, and as we

—Op-Ed by Timothy Egan, NY Times 11/19/08 RCM is reprinting, with appreciation, this NY Times editorial by Timothy Egan.  (To read it in the Times, click here.)  North Country towns, Malone School Board:  There is a lesson to be learned from Vallejo, California.  (Note:  The cartoon, below, did not appear with the editorial; it was added by RCM.) 

Albert Johnson has definitively won the contest for Burke town supervisor.  Election commissioners counted absentee ballots a short while ago, with Mr. Johnson and Mr. Otis in attendance. Final tally:  Johnson 291, Otis 249. RiverCity congratulates Albert on running a fine campaign and getting out the vote.  (Remember, he ran as a registered Republican on the

—Op-Ed by Martin Murie, WWII Tenth Mountain Division “Endless war” (Photographer unknown) We, the ordinary citizens of the United States, the ones who fight the wars and commit atrocities under the relentless pressure of combat, and die and go home wounded without adequate care–we are not only in a severe economic slowdown, but in a

Government officials must work to avoid wind-power conflicts —Editorial, Utica Observer-Dispatch, 9-8-08 Adapted from a cartoon by Windtoons.com The following article appeared in the Utica Observer-Dispatch 9-8-08 as an unsigned editorial. RiverCityMalone thinks it’s worth reading.  The lampoon, above, was added by RCM.  The Editor. Nothing damages the public’s trust in government more than the possibility

—Timothy Egan, NY Times   ©Peter Nicholson The following editorial appeared in the NY Times 6/25/08, written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Timothy Egan.  RiverCityMalone thinks it’s worth reading—the Editor. Anyone who lived on the West Coast during the phony energy crisis of 2000 and 2001 cannot help thinking of Texas and two of its worst products—Enron

—Op-Ed by Calvin Luther Martin Twenty dollars.  That’s all she had in the house.  Twenty for her family of five children and husband.  She and her husband were laid off in late fall, when new home construction tanked.  Now the unemployment checks are about to run out, and today they are down to their last

As a taxpayer, you do yourself a disservice if you are not familiar with this publication.

—by Martin Murie, Brandon, NY* As a biologist I am concerned about destruction of the live creatures of our planet.  As a combat veteran I hate wars, especially modern wars dominated by indiscriminate killing from afar, from the air, from battleships on the sea.