SU leaves Big East

SU-Villanova, March 5, 2006

It looks like a done deal.  Syracuse University, founding member of the Big East Conference, will join legendary basketball programs like Duke and North Carolina in the ACC.  Bud Poliquin faces the inevitable facts:

Indeed, something is going on. Syracuse, nestled only a couple of hours from the Canadian border, is about to defect to a league filled with clubs from Florida and Georgia, from South Carolina and North Carolina, from Virginia and Maryland. That Massachusetts (Boston College) and, reportedly, Pennsylvania (fellow projected ACC newbie Pittsburgh) will also be represented merely softens, rather than removes, the geographical absurdity of the Orange heading south.

Orange basketball fans need to realize that the decision is all about football money.  SU Athletic Director Daryl Gross confirms to Poliquin:

And why? Because football, the perceived god of each aspiring athletic department, demands that all kneel before its massive altar. Because football, and the money it can command from all those networks with all those wheelbarrows filled with money, is as golden as a goose can get.

“This isn’t about good, bad or ugly,” Gross insisted. “It’s what’s necessary. TV has gotten complicated and sophisticated. The dollars have gotten really, really large. Everybody is trying to make sure they have the resources to run their programs.

Paul Harris at Seton Hall, March 6, 2008

Solargate: it's Huuuuge........

Way, way back in November 2010, we began pestering our readers about yet another failed solar energy conspiracy, Solyndra.  In subsequent posts, we've kept you up to date on the growing scandal, now involving corruption and bribery at the highest levels of government.

In less than a year, the scandal has grown to where, were our current president a Republican, he'd be waving goodbye as he boarded his last official helicopter flight on the White House lawn.  For an indication of how big this story has become, Professor Jacobson stayed up late and watched The Tonight Show.  Jay Leno is now doing Solyndra jokes!

And there's good news for us rubes here in the The Finger Lakes.  We are uniquely positioned to cash in on this one: Five Points!

Maximum security between the lakes

Last Crown Victoria rolls off the line

January Jones with Crown Victoria

Federal government fuel economy standards have succeed in killing off Ford's long running fleet workhorse.

The last Ford Crown Victoria rolled off a Canadian assembly line Thursday, marking the end of the big, heavy Ford cars that have been popular with taxi fleets and police departments for decades.

Since 1979, almost 10 million Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Cars -- so-called Panther Platform vehicles -- have been sold.

Crown Vics at work in NYC

The crude but rugged Crown Victoria, also sold as the Lincoln Town Car, has for years been widely used by fleet operators such as limo services, taxi companies, and police departments.  Fleet operators have not continued to purchased the Crown Vic because they're idiots who want to waste fuel.  These managers need to meet customer demands, pay their bills, and stay in business.  Balancing all the conflicting variables has resulted in rational a business decision to go with Ford's land yacht.

“The [ Lincoln ]  Town Car has traditionally been an easy-to-fix vehicle,“ said Tarek Mallah, general manager Dial 7 car service, a so-called “black car“ service in New York City. “It's got legroom. It was designed as a livery vehicle to start with. It's passenger-centric.“

Mallah said he still isn't sure what he'll use to eventually replace the Town Car.

Now that their betters have decided the Vic has got to go, here's what future taxi passengers will be twisting themselves into.  New York City's ruling elite has decided that all future cabs will be built by Nissan.

Todd Palin legal defense fund

You've probably heard about leftist stalker Joe McGinniss's new book about Sarah Palin.  Professor Jacobson has read the New York Times' review of the pathetic screed, and even the Times is creeped out.  

The Other McCain is asking for your help to rectify the situation.

Joe McGinniss deserves The Mother of All Ass-Whuppings, and Todd Palin ought to give him exactly what he deserves.

So I’m asking readers to go make a $25 donation to SarahPAC to help defray Todd’s legal expenses when he shows up at McGinniss’s first book signing and pounds that scurvy worm into a bloody pulp.

Please give $25 to SarahPAC, so that we can bail Todd Palin out on that assault charge — and then fly him to the next Joe McGinniss book signing to deliver yet another brutal ass-whupping.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Obama supports new jobs...

WestStar's new, low cost work force

...in Costa Rica.

Barry will pitch his "jobs" plan at a high tech manufacturing facility in North Carolina today.

WestStar Precision employs skilled machinists, using sophisticated computer-controlled technology, to manufacture precision components for the medical, aircraft, and other industries.  Just the type of operation we're counting on to provide job growth when the US economy recovers, except for one complication - WestStar's new jobs are being created in sunny Costa Rica.

Our new office and manufacturing facility in San Jose, Costa Rica, also has approximately 10,000 sq. ft. with similar equipment as the main office. This facility is designed for high volume production to support our international and domestic clients.

WestStar could have added that capacity in the US, but instead chose our neighbor to the south, for good reason.

According to an April 2004 article in the Raleigh News & Observer, Portman moved the jobs overseas to “take advantage of low labor costs.”

Why, one might ask, did the administration's Ivy League smarties risk ridicule by choosing WestStar for Obama's speech about creating American jobs?

The owner of the company, Ervin Portman, is a local Democrat on the Wake County, N.C. Board of Commissioners. He donated $1,000 to Obama’s 2008 campaign. Portman and his wife together donated several thousand more to other Democratic candidates and the state Democratic party.

Capbusters!

Should two percent appear too high, be thankful we don't hit the sky....

With apologies to George Harrison, Finger Lakes politicians appear to be in a frantic race to see who will be the first to bust New York governor Andy Cuomo's phony "tax cap."  

Next in line: the trendy Town of Ithaca, a Cornell University bedroom suburb ruled by lockstep leftists.

The town of Ithaca is joining other municipalities in considering an override to the state's new two percent property tax cap as it looks to formulate a 2012 budget.

The Town Board set a public hearing for next month on a local law to override the tax levy limit.

Supervisor Herb Engman believes it is essential the Town overrides the cap to keep key services intact and to take advantage of opportunities they have with bond interest rates historically low.

We predict the shattered "tax cap" will be quickly become a distant memory, not even mentioned by the sacrificial Republican unlucky enough to run against Cuomo in New York's next gubernatorial election.

USS New York

USS New York (LPD 21), San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock.

What sets the USS New York apart? Its construction incorporates 7.5 tons of steel salvaged from the ruins of the World Trade Center which fell on September 11, 2001, the victim of terrorist attack. The steel was melted down and poured into a mold to form the bow stem of the USS New York.