Daily Archives: August 7, 2011

Joki aims for council seat

Prattsburgh, NY — An experienced civil servant and director of community education will run for Prattsburgh town council.

Richard Joki, 55, is running is one of three Republicans slated for the Sept. 13 Primary Election, with the top two vote getters ensured the GOP lines in November.

A Steuben County Personnel and Civil Service employee, Joki has administered Civil Service for the towns, villages, cities, school districts and community colleges in Steuben and Allegany counties. His county job includes interpreting laws and union contracts involving human resources.

Joki also managed BOCES adult education career-track programs; and operated his own business as a finish carpenter for 16 years.

“I’ve had many opportunities for working cooperatively on committees that often had diverse memberships and agendas,” Joki said. “The nature of my work requires a broad perspective of the ‘big picture’ while … discerning and working with the necessary details of project management.”

Joki is a former member of the volunteer Horseheads Village Fire Department.

He is active in local conservation, “stewarding” seven miles of the Finger Lakes Trail in Steuben and Schuyler counties for five years and serving on the Odessa Conservation Club board of directors. Joki also is a member of a regional white water kayak group.

“I believe local government should be transparent in its actions, responsive to concerns and opportunities, accessible to the public, and accountable for its decisions,” Joki said.

The other council candidates on the Republican Primary ballot in Prattsburgh are Gregory Booth and Angela Einwachter.

Source

Introducing Dr. Ron Paul in East Aurora

My Remarks Introducing Ron Paul in East Aurora (Buffalo) on Friday
by Jim Ostrowski

August 5, 2011

Don’t you love the smell of Revolution in the afternoon!

Before I begin, I need to make a public service announcement. To be fair, there is a Mitt Romney rally today in East Aurora. It’s in the phone booth down near the abandoned railway station.

Seriously, Romney has no grassroots supporters. If he scheduled a rally in East Aurora on three days notice, he’d be up here talking to his five paid consultants standing where you are.

Seven years ago, Western New York woke up from its 100 year old progressive slumber and began a Jeffersonian movement to fight big government where it was strongest—New York State. The movement was made up people who refused to leave New York but chose instead to stand and fight the political class. Western New York became the front line in America’s war against big government.

As we predicted, the Buffalo disease of Big Government quickly spread nationally under President George W.–Obama so it is too late in the day to flee to Virginia or North Carolina. You can run but you can’t hide from the federal taxman, the banksters and the regulators. They will find you. You must stand and fight!

Two years ago, the movement that started in Western New York called the tax revolt spread to the entire nation under the name “Tea Party” and we of course embraced it.

Today, we have the honor of welcoming to the front lines the commander-in-chief of our army of liberty—Dr. Ron Paul, the undisputed leader of the Liberty Movement in America.

It’s been tough on the front lines and we have lost some battled and sustained many casualties but we are tough. Our fathers and grandfathers fought the Second World War and our sacrifices pale in comparison to theirs but some of their toughness is in our genes as well. They too lost some early battles but knew they would win so long as they had a dedicated army in the field that refused to lose. And I can see from this turnout that the Liberty Movement has a very strong and very dedicated army in the field.

In recent days, Dr. Paul once again stood up for liberty against tyranny by opposing and exposing the phony debt limit deal that taxes our children and grandchildren to pay for the fraudulent campaign promises of FDR, LBJ, Bush and Obama. That deal showed that all the efforts of the tea party movement that resulted in the GOP taking control of the House were for naught. These bums who used the tea party movement for power have been unable to eliminate a single federal program, agency or department.

That leaves the tea party movement with only one realistic goal—the White House. Does anyone here think that the country can survive a second Obama term?

If Mitt Romney is the answer, I want to know what the question is. Which presidential candidate looks like a soap opera star and talks like a used car salesman?

Ladies and gentlemen, here’s the straight dope, only two men can win the Republican nomination, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney but only one of those men can beat Barack Obama. Don’t nominate another sacrificial lamp to the sacred cause of liberalism such as Bob Dole or John McCain.

Only Ron Paul can stop Mitt Romney from losing to Barack Obama.

Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. It’s time to restore the idea of individual liberty as our guiding principle again.

It’s time we elect the first Jeffersonian president since Buffalo’s own
Grover Cleveland who fought his own fight for sound money, free markets, limited government, peace and civil liberty. The time is now to elect Congressman Ron Paul the next president of the United States!

Source

Cuomo slashes pay 90% for political plum state commission seats

Without fanfare, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has begun chipping away at the Capitol’s long tradition of putting well-connected New Yorkers on state commissions that carry part-time workloads but pay six-figure salaries.

As a result, board members of the state Civil Service Commission and State Liquor Authority are now paid on a per-diem basis, rather than getting annual salaries for jobs that require just a handful of meetings each year.

Instead of earning $90,800 for a job with two scheduled meetings per month, Liquor Authority board members Jeanique Greene, a onetime aide to former Gov. David Paterson, and Noreen Healey, named by ex-Gov. George Pataki, now get $260 per meeting plus expenses.

Also taking a cut were Civil Service commissioners Caroline Ahl and Dennis Hanrahan, who went from $90,800 salaries to $250 per diem payments.

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Congressman Reed visits Hornell Evening Tribune

With the debt-ceiling scramble in the past (for now), U.S. Congressman Tom Reed visited the 29th District Thursday and stopped at the Tribune for a discussion on future budget cuts and Washington politics.

Previously Reed lauded the debt-ceiling deal while simultaneously lamenting the lack of front-loaded cuts in a previous conference call.

The deal, reached after weeks of wrangling between Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama, schedules $2.4 trillion in savings over the next decade.

An initial stage of $917 billion in savings is planned, with another $1.5 trillion to be recommended by a special Congressional committee comprised of six Republicans and six Democrats at a later date.

Reed said he hasn’t heard names bandied about yet as potential members of the committee and that while he would serve if asked, it isn’t a position he’s actively seeking.

What he is hoping for are slashes in bureaucratic costs and open discussions on cuts to all federal programs, from national defense to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicaid.

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