Spin Cycle

The Red Headed Booby Kumarnumc bird.

Judy Jacobs and the Nassau County Legislature is about a week too late!

The Community Alliance, Long Island's premier quality of life watchdog group, has already crowned the official Nassau County bird -- The Hempstead Town Vulture.

SEE our blogpost at http://thecommunityalliance.blogspot.com/2006/08/answer-to-long-islands-growing-garbage.html

Team Newsday and the Big Game

In response to the Newsday editorial of August 4, 2006 (Preseason Report), it is obvious that the 2007 Nassau County budget deliberations is clearly the Super Bowl of local politics. Normally in a sporting event of this magnitude, in addition to the two competing teams (Team Suozzi and Team Legislature) we would have the every present hometown media.
The local writers and commentators would be extolling the virtues of their team. Swirling around this event is the never-ending number of talking heads who feel compelled to offer their expert analysis of the strength and weaknesses of the two teams.
Naturally the game never turns out the way the local media predict, and the so-called independent experts usually miss the target. But that is the way of a sporting event.

The 2007 Nassau County Budget Bowl is somewhat unusual since it doesn’t follow the customary pre-game buildup. Firstly, the Coach, and some would say the only player on Team Suozzi, is auditioning for another job. Clearly Coach Suozzi wants to be anywhere but in Nassau County, this can’t be a comforting fact to his team. But it is a fact nonetheless.
The game can’t begin until the whistle is blown and that won’t happen until Team Suozzi presents the 2007 budget to Team Legislature.

What about the local media supporters of the competing teams? Sad to say but there is only one major media player, Newsday. Out the window goes the scenario of local media rallying around their team. Rather than being like the Super Bowl, this fact makes this game more like the big game between the two hometown high school football teams. Team Suozzi and Team Legislature. The local paper, not willing to be seen as taking sides, would run a series of articles supportive of each team, encouraging the teams to fight hard, but fair, and reminding the teams that is important that good sportsmanship should be the rule of the day. One would have hoped that Newsday would have followed this model and been a voice for reason in the upcoming budget debate.

Newsday seems incapable of being the voice of reason; instead it has chosen sides before the big game and has thrown its support behind Team Suozzi. Since Tom is out of town someone must be the mouthpiece for Team Suozzi.
Into the breach steps Newsday. It is clear from the recent editorial that Newsday has concluded that Team Suozzi does not have the superior arguments in the upcoming budget debate. Therefore if you can’t kill the message, you kill the messenger. In that editorial we clearly see the outline for the Team Suozzi/Newsday strategy in handling the 2007 budget deliberations. Team Legislature as well as the County Comptroller has come under fire from Newsday for daring to raise concerns about the County’s fiscal condition. Newsday seems to find it shocking that the Nassau Legislature and the Nassau Comptroller are stepping up to the line of scrimmage and are prepared to do their job of representing the interests of the citizens of Nassau County. If Team Suozzi/Newsday can’t push the line back, then someone must be blamed and targeted as the fall guy for the failures of Team Suozzi/ Newsday. To that end Newsday has, once again, gone back to the well-worn playbook, and is starting to put forth an argument that the Nassau PBA is the root cause of all the County’s budgetary ills.
Earlier in the year the Nassau PBA had to call Newsday on this type of behavior. We have attempted, once again, to have our voices heard in the op-ed pages of Newsday. Only now we are being told of Newsday policy to limit input from the PBA to four times a year. How convenient for Newsday, and for Team Suozzi. If Newsday really thought that the Nassau PBA was such a negative in the budget deliberations, it would stand to reason that they would encourage public discussion and debate in order to galvanize public support for the budgetary positions set forth by Team Suozzi/Newsday. Clearly, Newsday’s own policy is designed to make this a one sided debate. The Nassau PBA believes that an open and honest discussion of the issues is a critical component of all budget deliberations. We are confident that Team Legislature would welcome this public input. It is clear that Team Suozzi/Newsday can ill afford honest dialogue on this matter, never have and never will. The Nassau PBA will not sit idly by and permit forces that oppose reasoned discussion to control the debate. Once again we are being forced to use other media outlets to get all the facts on the table. We had hoped that after last spring’s confrontation with Newsday that they would have come up with a new playbook. It appears they can’t or won’t.

How about the rare Suozzi Roadrunner (Absenteeus Suozzus Roadrunnerus). Last seen in Mineola last Christmas.

as i already posted--the ostrich---tom usually puts his head in the sand and it is my opinion that his hands are to be found in the pockets of nassau county vendors---since tom wants to be abn(anywhere but nassau) before he has to pop his head out of the sand it should be interesting to watch all the debates that swirl about such a flawed candidate and such a flawed person

The more and more I see your writings mr. greene, the more and more I hope your not in charge of saving our planet. I have a question for you sir, Where was eliot spitzer tonight? he sure wasnt in Buffalo debating tom suozzi and john faso. Was his head in the sand too? So tellme where was he? http://wkbw.com/video/live.aspx see for youself MR GREENE. hes a now show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

both people who watched the buffalo debate must have enjoyed it--remember-if you are not willing to sign your comments it speaks volumns to the type of person you are--if you truely believe in tom, come out from behind the curtain and let everyone see who or what you are

and he speaks AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL,ur a joke man.

......

it would be interesting to know what flavor cool aid the "suozzi fan" prefers--it may explain his/hers belief that tom will put a W in his column on sept 12th--i expect right now tom is redefining victory- perhaps something like--what do you expect for $10 million dollars or the process was rigged-they expected me to be worthy of election -or perhaps-newsday told me i could be governor--they must have failed me---i suspect the suozzi fan will be in need of a strong drink on sept 12-but what is bad for tom is good for the state-unfortunately nassau has three more years of i can do it because i have done it---

you are burning the bridge

hey mr greene. where was the sherriff of wall street tonight and monday in buffalo? Tom Suozzi has more guts than him and defenetly more brains than you. Oh and listen, weed isnt legal , stop smoking it, its bad for the brain cells. It may be to later for you though

With over 10,000 "hits" on the website by Labor Day, you can agree that selecting an Official Nassau County bird has generated a lot of interest. The NYS Official Bird is the Eastern Bluebird and my vote goes to the Tree Swallow for Nassau. It has a reputation for fighting with bluebirds and taking over their nests. Typical politics between Nassau and NY!