Finger Lakes wine update

Let's see what's going on our in signature industry, the Finger Lakes wine biz.

The Cornell Daily Sun reports:

Already coping with a significant reduction in state funding, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences was dealt another blow on April 15 by the federal budget agreement, which rescinded $21 million in federal funding for two planned CALS research facilities.

Although the design phase for the facilities has been completed, construction of the research stations — the Center for Grape Genetics Research in Geneva, N.Y., and the Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture and Health in Ithaca — is delayed indefinitely as Cornell returns the money, which was given to the University in five separate allocations between 2005 and 2010.

Some FL wineries currently for sale:

Castle Grisch

Arcadian Estate

Cobblestone

Four Chimneys

Logan Ridge

Normal turnover, or a trend?  Click on "comments" to share your thoughts.

Big turnout for Seneca tax protest

Standing room only!

Reacting to staggering increases in their real estate assessments, an estimated 150 unhappy South Seneca taxpayers jammed the Ovid fire hall last night.  Organized on the fly by a couple of local residents, a grass roots movement appears to have been launched in only a few weeks.

Modern revolutionaries?

Attendees raised two basic concerns.  First, the disconnect between a collapsing real estate market and skyrocketing tax assessments.  Second, seemingly incomprehensible inequities between the assessments of  local properties. 

At this very local level, its apparent that residents know more about various South Seneca properties than the tax assessor does.  The 2011 tax assessment was made with few or no actual visits to individual parcels, which has resulted in outrage felt by some of the affected residents.  The local tax assessor was not in attendance, probably for good reason. 

South Seneca elected officials should prepare for these rebels to jam every town board meeting from now on, and no doubt field their own candidates in upcoming elections.  We'll keep you posted.

Second Seneca tax protest scheduled

For sale: $1.1 million, assessed: $163,690

Word of a second Seneca County tax protest has reached South of 5 and 20:

We are planning another meeting to discuss new information and the action to be taken in our argument regarding the new tax assessment.

Please bring all documents which support your claim.
Invited to this meeting: ALL 5 TOWN SUPERVISORS AND BOARD MEMBERS, and Said Ghaly- Attorney who argued the new assessment for Seneca Falls and won.
Learn what a SCAR is and hear a success story.

OVID FIREHOUSE 7:00PM on THURSDAY, APRIL 28TH

Professor Sowell educates Republicans

Thomas Sowell explains the Trump phenomenon, taking the Republican party on a much deserved trip to the woodshed.

What Trump has that so many other Republicans are so painfully lacking is the ability and the willingness to articulate his positions clearly, forcefully and in plain English. Too many Republicans talk like the actor of whom a critic once said, "he played the king like he was afraid that someone else was going to play the ace."

What electrified so many Republicans about Sarah Palin in the 2008 election campaign was that she was such a contrast to the usual mealy-mouth talk that was more common among other Republican candidates, including Senator John McCain. Whether you agreed or disagreed with her position on the issues, you didn't have to wave your hand in front of her eyes to see if she was awake.

Donald Trump is dangerous in at least two senses. If, by some tragic miracle, he should become the Republicans' candidate for president in 2012, that would be the closest thing to an iron-clad guarantee of a second term in the White House for Barack Obama.

Dr. Sowell asks the $64,000 question:

Why Republicans seem not to understand the crucial importance of putting the same time and attention into articulating their positions as the Democrats do is one of the enduring mysteries of American politics.

Read the whole thing.

"a simpler way of life"

Billy Beck on high energy prices:

Try to understand, ladies and gentlemen: learn to live with high fuel prices and everything that means. That's what happens when we are not allowed to produce. And we have no other choice: we either produce, or we eventually starve and freeze in the dark.

And don't be dreaming about "a simpler way of life". Once you're forced to that, you're going to pine your half-assed little heart out for Pringles, DVD's, synthetic fibers, and antibiotics.

Watch and see if you don't.

Sharpton's pal Schneiderman

Schneiderman and Sharpton

Even way up here in the Finger Lakes, most folks have heard of race hustler Al Sharpton.  But many of you are reading this and wondering "who is this Schneiderman fellow?"

Eric Schneiderman works for you.  He's the career politician who replaced Andy Cuomo as New York's attorney general.  Scheiderman wants you unemployed, freezing in the dark.  Today's New York Post:

Critics of hydraulic fracturing were quick to pounce on last week's well blowout in Pennsylvania as proof that the controversial method of extracting natural gas is an environmental threat.

That includes state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who just days earlier rashly overreached and vowed to sue the federal government unless it commits within 30 days to conducting a full review of regulations that would allow natural-gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin.

At issue is fracking -- the controversial process in which a high-pressure mix of water, chemicals and sand is used to extract natural gas from rock formations.

And, Schneiderman notwithstanding, a federal review of fracking is under way -- and is just one of several.

Which is fine. Nobody is advocating reckless action.

But it remains that a good way to kill fracking is to study it to death -- which appears to be Schneiderman's real goal.

 Where does the track-suited troublemaker Sharpton appear?

The AG's activism is no surprise, of course. It's what he said he would bring to the job -- along with "an annex" in the AG's office for Al Sharpton.

An annex for Sharpton?  WTF?  The Post, September 9, 2010:

Sharpton's National Action Net work is in such fiscal disarray that an internal audit just five months ago concluded that its very continued existence is in "substantial doubt," as The Post reported this week.

But Sharpton isn't worried about losing his headquarters.

That's because state Sen. Eric Schneiderman has publicly promised that if he's elected attorney general, Sharpton & Co. "will have an annex in Albany for the first time in the history of the state."

Indeed, Schneiderman boasts that Sharpton's endorsement means he's now gotten "the Good Housekeeping seal of approval from the man from the House of Justice" -- whose notion of justice is a model that the AG wannabe says he will "seek to follow."

In October of that year, Syracuse grad Al D'Amato got right to the point:

D’Amato: Vote For Schneiderman Is Vote For Sharpton

Did you know who Eric Schneiderman is?  Do you support an "annex for Sharpton?" 

Gas pump activism

Download, print, tape to gas pump.

h/t Prof. Reynolds

Democrat senators blame president for high gas prices

"Where is the president?" (John F.) Kerry asked in Portland, where gasoline is selling for as much as $2.31 a gallon. "We need a president who is fighting for the American worker, the American family at the fuel pump."

On Capitol Hill, a group of Democratic senators introduced a resolution calling for the release of 1 million of barrels of oil a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for up to 60 days, arguing that would force down gas prices. Said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.: "The administration insists on throwing fuel in the fire."

Those quotes are from an AP report written in May, 2004.

(We keep reposting this, because America needs to know. - Ed)

Finger Lakes landmark shut down

AES Cayuga, formerly Milliken Station

Finger Lakes locals have noticed that the ever present steam plume over the AES Cayuga power plant seems to have disappeared.  South of 5 and 20, once again scooping Gannett, has learned that the plant was indeed shut down last Saturday.  Morningstar UK provides this update from Dow Jones:

Below are highlights of U.S. power plant operations reported Monday by Genscape, which uses a network of wireless devices to monitor points on the country's transmission grid. Plant status hasn't been independently confirmed by Dow Jones Newswires.

      REGION PLANT STATUS...

NPCC AES Cayuga, LLC.'s AES Cayuga (322 MW capacity, Coal icon) shut down Saturday.

AES Cayuga is located in the Tompkins County town of Lansing.  With ongoing economic decline in Central New York, and the nation, demand for elecricity has plummeted, and now the Cayuga plant is up for sale.

The power plant plant has been the largest property taxpayer in the region, and will now be paying less.  The Lansing school district and local governments will keep spending no matter what, so Lansing residents will be forced to make up the difference, and it will be huge.  Dan Veaner, who has more patience than South of 5 and 20,  explained the costly bureaucratic nightmare in the Lansing Star.

Gary Johnson's hat in the ring

In New Hampshire today, staunch libertarian Gary Johnson has announced his run for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.  We approve.

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, an avid athlete who climbed Mt. Everest and has a strong libertarian bent, announced Thursday that that he will seek the GOP nomination for president, expanding an already crowded field.

Johnson, 58, made his announcement on the steps of the New Hampshire State House, and like his fellow libertarian Republican Ron Paul, made extensive use of email and Twitter to notify potential followers.

“Today's mess didn't just happen. We elected it -- one senator, member of Congress and president at a time,” Johnson said in a statement. “Our leaders in Washington, D.C., have ‘led' America to record unemployment, a devalued currency, banking scandals, the mortgage crisis, drug crisis, economic crisis, loss of our nation's industrial might -- and a long list of other reminders our nation is way off course.”

Lots of Johnson info at Reason's Hit & Run.

Shocking crime in Detroit

Remember that failed, cash starved shell of an automobile company that Obama bailed out with 50 billion of your hard earned tax dollars?  Rather than let GM, its well paid "workers", comfortable retirees, and millionaire managers go down with their ship, Barry forced you serfs to buy the smoldering remains of the once proud automaker.

Of course, even with a corrupt Car Czar in charge, Government Motors continued to swirl down the economic toilet.  Working to double the price of gas didn't help, either.  Now, counting on you ignorant peasants to forget the story well before next year's election, Engine Barry is about to sell your GM stock for $11 billion less than you paid for it.  J. Robert Smith reports:

Why would Mr. Obama want to dump GM stock for a huge loss now?  Why not hold GM stock until the government can at least recover taxpayers' money?  The answer is that GM stock prices may be heading south, not north, in the coming months.  According to a Wall Street Journal report, Mr. Obama may have decided to get out of GM while the getting isn't wholly disastrous.  

Government officials are willing to take the loss because the Obama administration would like to sever its last ties to the auto maker, the people familiar with the matter said. A summer sale makes it more likely Treasury could sell all of its stake in GM by year's end, avoiding a potentially controversial sale in the 2012 presidential election year.  [Italics added]

For Mr. Obama's presidential re-election effort, a "potentially controversial sale [of GM stock] in 2012" could translate into a damaging political liability.  Mr. Obama and his handlers would rather have the bad news of a huge GM taxpayer dollar loss come now.  Time and events, the thinking goes, could mitigate the political damage to Mr. Obama.

The administration could not have believed the bailout would save GM.  No sane person would.  The incalculable damage this deal has done to our economy, and our society, was the real goal.

New York travelers in the news

Carole King had it right:  "So far away.  Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?"  Today's news:

Invasion of feral hogs poses problems for N.Y.

Schumer on week long China trip

 We'll let you decide which headline is more troubling.

NY Times columnist supports fracking

Instapundit directs our attention to New York Times columnist Robert Nocera.  Nocera thinks natural gas from the Marcellus Shale is a blessing for our country.  The columnist deals with Cornell University energy opponent Robert Howarth:

Finally, there is the concern raised by Robert Howarth, the Cornell scientist, who says that natural gas is dirtier than coal. His main contention is that so much methane is escaping from gas wells that it is creating an enormous footprint of greenhouse gases. His study, however, is not exactly iron-clad. Industry officials have mocked it, but even less-biased experts have poked holes in it. The Environmental Defense Fund, for instance, has estimates of methane gas emissions that are 75 percent lower than Howarth’s.

Nor is Howarth what you’d call an unbiased observer. Although he told me that he had “a strong reputation, which I value, for objectivity,” he also acknowledged that he has testified about the hazards of fracking and sometimes wears a “no fracking” pin. (He does so, he said, “because I’m a citizen of the world.”)

 Nocera takes a realistic view of Marcellus gas production, shared by South of 5 and 20:

The truth is, every problem associated with drilling for natural gas is solvable. The technology exists to prevent most methane from escaping, for instance. Strong state regulation will help ensure environmentally safe wells. And so on. Somewhat to my surprise, this view was seconded by Abrahm Lustgarten, a reporter for ProPublica who has probably written more stories about the dangers of fracking than anyone. In a comment posted online to my Tuesday column, he wrote that while the environmental issues were real, they “can be readily addressed by the employment of best drilling practices, technological investment, and rigorous regulatory oversight.”

Over thousands of years, mankind's standard of living has improved in concert with the increased use of energy.  Let's face it, those opposed to energy production are really opposed to you.

She's back!

Trump, our butt.  Jimmy P:

In the last few months, political professionals and insiders have been writing off the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate, convinced she won’t run for the GOP nomination in 2012 or ever. Then again, even those GOPers who are running can hardly compete with the MSM’s weird, all-consuming fascination with The Donald.

But all it took was one powerful, pugnacious and presidential speech — just 15 minutes long — for Palin to again make herself completely relevant to the current political and policy battles raging across America.

 Read Jimmy's post, then listen to the podcast. 

Update:  LC has the video.

Anti-energy Cornell prof funded by leftist foundation

Professor Howarth

Cornell University professor Robert Howarth has produced a paper claiming shale gas pollutes more than coal.   While national media ran with the story, Upstate bloggers were quick to point out that Howarth is a well known opponent of fracking, putting the professor's scientific objectivity in question.

Unlikely Hospitalist at Pundit Press:  Results of Cornell Natural Gas Study a Foregone Conclusion

Sam Foster at Lonely Conservative:  Robert Howarth speaker at an anti-fracking rally, comes out with a paper against fracking

Today, Gannett reports that Howarth's research was funded by Ithaca's notoriously left-leaning Park Foundation:

A Cornell University study that was released this week shows Marcellus Shale drilling could do more to exacerbate global warming than mining coal.

The study was partially funded by the Ithaca-based Park Foundation, ecologist Robert Howarth said. Though the foundation has been active in the anti-drilling lobby, the data were compiled from an objective view, he said.

"They gave us the grant with no strings attached," he said. "The agreement was to do an objective analysis and then do our best to publish whatever the conclusions were."

Howarth declined to reveal how much money the foundation gave the study, but said it was less than one third of the funding. Cornell funded the rest, he said.

Its clear that the anti fracking agenda is really an anti energy conspiracy.  No form of energy is to be allowed, other than those that are too expensive and too inefficient to power our economy (wind, solar, unicorn).   The goal is to destroy our standard of living, and we're well on the way to that outcome.

Missing that $1,000?

Vacant restaurant, Finger Lakes

Since Obama's inauguration, gasoline prices have more than doubled.  A conservative estimate is that Finger Lakes families are paying $1,000 per year more for gas than they were two years ago.  That doesn't include heating fuel or the price of transportation built into every product and service we buy.  Most of you haven't had a $1,000 raise lately, so you're being forced to give something up.  Restaurant meals, perhaps?

"Where is the president?" (John F.) Kerry asked in Portland, where gasoline is selling for as much as $2.31 a gallon. "We need a president who is fighting for the American worker, the American family at the fuel pump."

On Capitol Hill, a group of Democratic senators introduced a resolution calling for the release of 1 million of barrels of oil a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for up to 60 days, arguing that would force down gas prices. Said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.: "The administration insists on throwing fuel in the fire."

Those quotes are from an AP report written in May, 2004.   We repost them once again, as an introduction to PowerLine's trip down memory lane:

Gasoline prices rose during 2008, mostly in response to world-wide demand driven by the growing economies of the time. In June 2008, average prices at the pump hit $4 per gallon for the first time. Candidate Obama wasted no time blaming gas prices on President Bush:

The Presidential campaign's focus turned sharply to the economy Monday, an inopportune time for Republican John McCain as Americans cope with record-high gasoline prices and a spike in job losses.

That "spike" took the unemployment rate to 5.5 percent, a level not even dreamed of during the Age of Obama. But Obama attacked the Bush administration on the issue of gas prices:

Obama took part of his speech from headlines across the nation, noting that the average price of gas just hit $4 a gallon for the first time. ....

And yet, candidate Obama promised to raise energy prices and he's doing just what he said he would.  Please insist that your friends and neighbors understand exactly what's happening.  Don't let them blame Sunoco, Byrne Dairy, or Griffith Energy.

Update:  Trump blames Obama for high gas prices.

Double bottoms will save the earth

When New York really was the Empire State

When Glenn Reynolds links to a freight story, even if its from the UK, and even if it involves the carbon scam,  as Uncle Andy would say, we're on it:

The UK's Department for Transport (DFT) has released the results of its study on the impact of longer semi-trailer trucks. The findings suggest that the use of longer trailers would slash emissions without compromising road integrity or safety.

The study proposes that by increasing the total length of articulated trucks by two meters (6.6 feet) while maintaining the UK's existing weight limit of 44 tons, carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced by 13 percent. The increased length would boost capacity of the haulers and allow for the transport of up to 100,000 additional tons of "lightweight goods" per year.

Red Star B-Series Mack with Thruway doubles

Here at South of 5 and 20, we don't buy into the "climate change" hoax, but we do know that bigger trucks move more freight with less fuel.  Hemmings has the scoop on how double bottoms evolved, and how our own Route 20 played a leading role.  Lots of fallen flags in the post, including Auburn's Red Star Express.  In the 1970's, triple bottoms were tested on the Thruway, but the AAA freaked out and killed the experiment.

Diesel mechanics wanted... in Williamsport

Williamsport Millionaires, 1908

During and after the Civil War, Central Pennsylvania entrepreneurs created so much wealth from lumbering that Willamsport Area High School's athletic teams are still called the "Millionaires."  By the 1920s, the lumber boom was over.  As the Carter era descended, once elegant mansions along Williamport's "Millionaire's Row" had deteriorated to the point where the neighborhood was known as an area to be avoided.  Good jobs in Billtown were hard to find, indeed.

Today, New Yorkers traveling south of Corning will discover a region that has not only recovered, but is in the throws of another economic boom.  In December, we pointed out the rising tide in seemingly irretrievably depressed Towanda, PA.  Now, Unlikely Hospitalist of Pundit Press reports on Willamsport's latest employment woes - a shortage of employees to fill all its job openings! 

Thanks to the Marcellus Shale, areas of Pennsylvania are in the enviable position of having too many jobs!

This comes as a bit of a surprise to me, given that everything I have heard from those opposing hydraulic fracturing is that the industry won't provide real jobs to the local community...

The job market around Williamsport is rebounding, and some businesses are even having a hard time getting workers, employers are saying.

 Lonely Conservative brings it all back home:

Boy, we could use news like this here in New York state, especially in the Marcellus Shale region where the economy has been stagnant for years.

However, Central New York's aspiring diesel mechanics need to understand that Barbara Lifton already has a high paying job with good benefits and lifetime security.  No soup for you!

Duffy in charge of economic development?

Kodak Park demolition

New York governor Andy Cuomo's new state budget includes 130 million of your tax dollars for something called "regional economic development councils."  

Lawmakers quizzed (Empire State Development Corp. head Kenneth) Adams about the councils’ role, and he said the councils would work in conjunction with Empire State Development, other state agencies, and public and private sectors in a region. Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy, the former mayor of Rochester, is heading the councils.

Cuomo is setting up the councils with $130 million in seed money to allocate competitive grants to various regions.

So Duffy will spend $130 million to bring economic development to the desolate landscape of Upstate New York?  Since Duffy was mayor of Rochester during Kodak Park's demolition, let's look at the population of the Flower City to see how it has been developing lately. 

New York City and the adjacent suburban counties to the north and on Long Island all posted growth since 2000. In contrast, the largest cities in upstate New York posted losses. Buffalo lost 10.7 percent of its population for a count of 261,310; Rochester lost 4.2 percent to 210,565; Syracuse lost 1.5 percent to 145,170.

They're telling us that the guy who cut the ribbon on the Kodak Park demolition project will now spend 130 million tax dollars to carry on his success throughout the rest of Upstate.  Here's a suggestion:  give that money back to the taxpayers instead.  Instantly, disposable income will increase by $130 million, no "economic development councils" required.  

Bold added.  As always, those who disagree are invited to hit the comment button.

Tax protest in Seneca County

For sale in Seneca County: $125,000

We were not surprised to learn that Standard & Poor's estimates US home values fell over 3% last year, and no recovery is on the horizon.

Standard & Poor's said Monday there was little promise for an upturn in US home values after their national price index fell again in January.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index for 20 main US cities fell by 3.1 percent at an annualised rate, and was down 0.2 percent from December.

"The housing market recession is not yet over, and none of the statistics are indicating any form of sustained recovery," said S&P's David Blitzer.

Apparently rural Seneca County, which recently mailed out new assessment notices, is bucking the national trend.  Struggling Seneca residents can't believe that while the rest of the nation's home values declined, their modest properties have experienced a significant increase.  We note that a protest gathering has already been scheduled, per this announcement in a local paper:

WE HAVE TO STOP THIS OVER TAXATION AND WE MUST START FROM THE GROUND UP. 

Did you get your new proposed tax assessment?  Public Meeting to express concerns and comments Tuesday, April 12, at 7:00 pm, at  the Town Hall in Ovid.

Who is Samantha Power?

Harvard professor Power

"We f***** up in Ohio," she admitted. "In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win.

"She is a monster, too – that is off the record – she is stooping to anything," Ms Power said, hastily trying to withdraw her remark.

Ms Power said of the Clinton campaign: "Here, it looks like desperation. I hope it looks like desperation there, too.

"You just look at her and think, 'Ergh'. But if you are poor and she is telling you some story about how Obama is going to take your job away, maybe it will be more effective. The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive."

Samantha Power gave this quote to The Scotsman during the 2008 Democrat presidential primary campaign.  Power quickly apologized and resigned from the Obama team.  And yet, Power now holds the title of "senior director of multilateral affairs" for the president's National Security Council and is thought likely to soon replace Clinton as Secretary of State.  This would be a nightmare for Americans and for freedom loving people around the globe.  

Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, was our first Secretary of State.  Hillary Clinton is certainly no Thomas Jefferson.  But it will get worse. 

Power is considered to be the architect of Obama's war in Libya.  While Power's is not yet a household name,  Stanley Kurtz is on target when he points out that Obama and Power share the goal of  "an ever-broadening regime of redistributive transnational governance".  Go to Lonely Conservative for more on the Kurtz analysis, and Power's radical background.  

If you support Power, or can explain Obama's reasons for putting American lives at risk in Libya, please hit the comment button and fill us in.

A tiny health care victory

Congress has passed, on and Obama is expected to sign, the first mini-step in the repeal of nationalized heath care.  The widely despised 1099 requirement will be removed:

Congress sent the White House its first rollback of last year's health care law Tuesday, a bipartisan repeal of a burdensome tax reporting requirement that's widely unpopular with businesses. Even President Barack Obama is eager to see it gone

The Senate voted 87 to 12 to repeal the filing requirement, which would have forced millions of businesses to file tax forms for every vendor selling them more than $600 in goods each year, starting in 2012. The filing requirement is unrelated to health care. However, it would have been used to pay for part of the new health law.

Why is the 1099 requirement so unpopular?

Businesses already must file Form 1099s with the IRS when they purchase more than $600 in services from a vendor in a year. The new provision would have extended the requirement to the purchase of goods, starting in 2012.

The requirement would hit about 38 million businesses, charities and tax-exempt organizations, many of them small businesses already swamped by government paperwork, according to a report by the National Taxpayer Advocate, an independent watchdog within the IRS.

The 1099 requirement appeared bizarre from the start.  Your lawn service would need to keep purchase records for every gas fillup, every spark plug, every printer cartridge, and every box of envelopes they purchased, then send a 1099 form to each of those vendors,  and be able to produce those records for the IRS on demand.  

We're trusting souls here at South of 5 and 20, but a more cynical observer might think the 1099 rule was included in the 2000 page health care bill just so it could be removed later, allowing Obama to use that as proof of how reasonable he was, come 2012.

What?

WTF?

South of 5 and 20 had to be sedated, so please read about this in the Daily Caller.

Who should run against Obama?

Now that Obama has officially entered the 2012 presidential race, the future of our nation depends on picking a candidate who can beat this leftist, or not impossibly that other leftist, our own former "200,000 jobs for Upstate" senator, Mrs. William Clinton.  So let's forget about Romney, Daniels, Christie, Sleepy, Dopey, Donner, Blitzen, etc.  We need to win this.

Bill Kristol is certainly an establishment Republican, so we're pleased to note his dream ticket:

Wouldn't it be easier just to agree now on a Ryan-Rubio ticket, and save everyone an awful lot of time, effort, and money over the next year and a half?

Gasoline at $4.00...$5.00...$8.00 could give the United States our first female president:

Labeling President Obama as the “$4-per-gallon president," (Palin) asserts, “The evidence of the president’s anti-drilling mentality and his culpability in the high gas prices hurting Americans is there for all to see.”

She criticizes the drilling moratorium following the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the proposed elimination of tax incentives for certain types of exploration, and what she calls his “anti-drilling regulatory policies.”

And should Sarah decide to stay on the sidelines, we have a deep bench - Michele Bachmann:

Best known as a fiery presence on cable television and the founder of the House Tea Party caucus, she is now exploring whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination. And early reaction to her in Iowa, where she was born and raised, suggests not only that she might do it, but also that she could have a substantial impact on the race.

States that really have no sales tax on clothing

Lee Premium Outlets

With New York "eliminating" sales tax on "low priced clothing," Finger Lakes shoppers may be surprised when they are still charged 4% sales tax on those off-brand sneakers.  With public employee pension,  health care and union contract mandated salary increases still going through the roof, its not likely that counties will volunteer to drop their 4% take.  So let's remember Adam Smith, and follow the pointing finger on his invisible hand.

Here are three of New York's adjoining states which have zero sales tax on any clothing, from t-shirts to ball gowns.  These states all feature convenient clothing malls just over the New York state line.  For instance, New York's state employees often make the scenic 40 minute drive from our state capital to shop tax-free at Lee Premium Outlets in Massachusetts, pictured above.  From eHow Money:

Necessities like clothing are exempt from the sales tax in Massachusetts.

New Jersey's sales tax exemptions include clothing, which gives the state a competitive advantage over neighboring states that do tax clothing. Shoppers often come from other states to shop for clothes in New Jersey.

As part of an initiative to minimize the tax burden on low-income individuals, Pennsylvania does not impose a tax on clothing.

And Professor Jacobson is spared sales tax on any clothing he purchases in Rhode Island.

While our state and local governments try to squeeze even more blood out of reeling Empire State taxpayers, they're actually creating jobs for our neighbors.