Howie Hawkins for Governor

I was initially going to vote for Andrew Cuomo for a variety reason. The main one being Carl Paladino's kinda a loose cannon looney tune. The mentality raises concerns how he'll deal w/ things if he doesn't get his way. It reminds me a lot of former governor Eliot Spitzer's campaign about "cleaning up Albany" only to do politically stupid stuff to get his own ass in trouble (Client 9 sex scandal aside). I'm talking about Troopergate.

A couple weeks ago, I was invited by local business owner Matt Funicellio to one of those meet the candidate meetings showcasing Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins.

Even if my mind is made up, I traditionally want to hear opposing viewpoints in order to give them a fair shake.

Howie Hawkins won me over.

I realized Cuomo isn't campaigning whatsoever. He's got a big enough lead that he doesn't have to talk about his plans. Because of that, we're pretty much left to what he has spoken about.

He believes in cutting state funding at a moment when there's a big push for it at the national level. He's believes in cutting Health Care funds. He's proposed a state cap on property which is a great idea now but if California did that in the early 70's & as any California resident will tell you, its next to impossible to get any sort of funding to undertake capital improvements (like a recent high-speed railway system running from San Diego to San Francisco was voted down).

What concerned me the most was Cuomo's support for hydrofracking. This is a process that mines natural gas. The problem is all this is that natural gas is orderless, colorless, & tasteless as well as it seeps into the drinking water supply. At a time when there's a big push to go green renewable energies, hydrofracking is completely an outmoded 20th century ideal.

Despite what the local Post-Star daily, I think Howie is easily ready for the job. I was impressed w/ the Green Party New Deal. I was impressed w/ his command of the facts. I was especially impressed by his proposal to resurrect the Stock Transfer tax (I think that's what its called) where all transactions on Wall Street would be subject to a 1/20 of 1% tax (where if I'm understanding it right, a transaction where there's a profit $500,000, the traders(?) would have to pay $100).

I also don't see things changing by reelecting the same two parties to do the same exact thing because quite frankly, there's no incentive for them to change even when they DO have power. This is further supported by the recently revealed Aqueduct scandal that effected nearly the entire NY state legislative leadership on both sides.

I'm voting for Howie Hawkins for governor.

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In other news...
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This here is Vanessa.

At the moment I'm playfully titling this as "She Makes Zombie Killing Look Good!"



This was actually a spur of the moment shot, done at the local Mead Lumber in Queensbury. The owner gave us permission to play since he & Vanessa knew each other. :)

Feel free & comment away on any part of this blog, if you so desire.