THE LETTER TICKER

APRIL 18, 2013

CITY COUNCIL FAILS CITY FINANCIALLY

WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. April 16, 2013:

As Marco Rubio promoted a thirteen-year path to citizenship through a compromise immigration reform bill  that includes border security strengthening, already being criticised for being too lenient on illegals now in this country, (many of whom are paid very little, worked long hours, and are given no health benefits by employers who knowingly employ them illegally), it is worth noting the testimony of the black singer, Paul Robeson, testifying before the House Un American Activities Committee in congress on his connections with the Communist Party. on June 12, 1956.

A correspondent of WPCNR, passed this along and it is worth noting the parallels between Negros and the illegals of today.

The highlight:

Mr. SCHERER: Why do you not stay in Russia?

Mr. ROBESON: Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay here, and have a part of it just like you. And no Fascist-minded people will drive me from it. Is that clear?

This colloquy is of course iconic, but the entire testimony, which I just stumbled upon this morning and is pasted beneath the link below, is really something. It’s hard to imagine, in the history of Congress, that a witness ever treated Congressmen with such open and palpable contempt. Clearly, the hearing didn’t turn out exactly the way the witch-hunters intended when they convened, as is evident in the words with which the Chairman closes it:

THE CHAIRMAN: Just a minute, the hearing is now adjourned.

Mr. ROBESON: I should think it would be.

THE CHAIRMAN: I have endured all of this that I can.

Mr. Robeson's complete testimony follows:

WPCNR LETTER TICKER

February 25, 2013

KEEP PLAYLAND LIKE IT IS SAY 600

WPCNR MR. AND MRS. WHITE PLAINS POLL. February 2, 2013:

This week a Miami news organization published drug records of a major repeat offender of baseball's anti Performance Enhancing Drug rules. If the records are correct, it means that this player was in repeat violation of the game's ban on PED's.

Baseball has to do something about this. Players are not uniformly test often enough or in timely fashion.

If you want to make the majors, PED's can easily help you do that.

If baseball really wants to clean up the game from drugs, they have to make performance-enhancing drug use as unacceptable and career-threatening as New York's illegal possession of a fire arm is.

Ban a player for life. That might send a message!

Should baseball which has paid lip service to Performance-Enhancing Drugs for 15 years adapt a life time ban for the 1st time use?

What do you think?

On Absoluteness of Constitutional Amendments

January 19, 2013

Dear Editor

Regardless of the result of your poll, it is established law that constitutional amendments are not absolute.

There is the well-known exception to freedom of speech that you may not yell "Fire" in a crowded theater.

Likewise, no one is allowed to commit ritual human sacrifice no matter what their religious beliefs. This is also irrelevant to the issue of the Journal News's gun permit map.

That is publicly available information by state law, and remains publicly available whether their map is up or not. I am not a member of the press and yet I can post the same information with impunity.

Clifford Blau

(Editor's Note: Reading of the section of the New York State SAFE Act, page 30, sets new standards for anonymity of gun permit holders. To read the law and what it says on this topic (page 30) go to: http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/bill/S2230-2013)

WPCNR MR. AND MRS. AND MS. WHITE PLAINS VOICE. October 3, 2012:

With the closing of the Open Space Recreation District hearing Monday evening, the fate of the ordinance, which has receivcd very little community support from citizens outside the neighborhood effected (along Ridgeway Street, adjacent the defunct Ridgeway Golf Club and the still-operating Westchester Hills Golf Club, the council has to decide whether to revise it or pass it, or conveniently ignore it.

Considering the lack of support the measure got in hearing two Monday night, and the all-too-possible lawsuits if the ordinance is passed (a threatened one from the French American School of  New York, and the possibility of one from Westchester Hills Golf Club), the Council might still pass it.

In a nutshell the ordinance exacts setbacks from the edge of the property of 100 feet, effectively making it almost impossible to build out the present buildings on the property; it allows building of 58 homes on the property, and preserves the rest of the property as open space, and suggests a possible usage by a sports complex with ballfields and tennis courts and an indoor facility.

It was suggested on the part of the Gedney Association President that the ordinance was not the answer, that a new comprehensive open space management plan be developed by the city for all remaining open space, private and city owned in the city.

What does everybody think about this ordinance? Vote at the right.

On Absoluteness of Constitutional Amendments

January 19, 2013

Dear Editor

Regardless of the result of your poll, it is established law that constitutional amendments are not absolute.

There is the well-known exception to freedom of speech that you may not yell "Fire" in a crowded theater.

Likewise, no one is allowed to commit ritual human sacrifice no matter what their religious beliefs. This is also irrelevant to the issue of the Journal News's gun permit map.

That is publicly available information by state law, and remains publicly available whether their map is up or not. I am not a member of the press and yet I can post the same information with impunity.

Clifford Blau

(Editor's Note: Reading of the section of the New York State SAFE Act, page 30, sets new standards for anonymity of gun permit holders.)