UP-STATE OF CONFUSION ALBANY, ALBANY, ALBANY!

“America’s Funniest Statehouse,” Ellis Henican Column, amNew York, June 12, 2009 “These Albany people,” I was marveling Thursday, “they come straight from Central Casting.” Randy Credico, who’s been working for years in the capital on drug-law reform, begged to differ. “A couple of them,” he said, “come straight from Central Booking.” But this being Albany,…

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BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA THE MIDDLE-NAME GAME

“Prez Puts Middle Name Front and Center,” Ellis Henican Sunday Column, Newsday, June 7, 2009 Finally, the middle name was a plus. Barack Hussein Obama spent much of the week in a part of the world where Hussein is like Smith or Johnson. It slides off the tongue, hardly noticed at all. All last year,…

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ALBANY ETHICS VACATION ALL EXPENSES PAID

“ETHICS TAKE A VACATION,” Ellis Henican Column, amNewYork, 6-5-09 Ethics delayed in Albany! Honesty in government forced to wait! Holy kickback, who would have expected something like this? Only someone who’d never driven within 100 miles of New York’s cozy state capital, where legislators and lobbyists never, ever forget who’s who. (Hint: The lobbyists pick…

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CARLESS IN THE ‘BURBS

“Who Wants to Drive Everywhere?” Ellis Henican Sunday Column, Newsday, 5-31-09 Is it still the suburbs if you don’t need a car? That epistemological question lies at the very core of the debate over Long Island’s two most fascinating development proposals – the Lighthouse project around Nassau Coliseum and western Suffolk’s Heartland Town Square. What…

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ATTACK HER, PLEASE!

“Supreme Predicament for the G.O.P.,” Ellis Henican Column, amNew York, May 29, 2009 Oh, this could be great for Obama and the Democrats. If Republicans will just keep pulverizing Sonia Sotomayor, they might well achieve a rare double fiasco for the Once-Grand Party – pursuing a doomed campaign against a highly qualified Supreme Court nominee…

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LET THE KID DIE?

“Should Life-Saving Medical Care Be a Parent’s Choice?” Ellis Henican Column, Newsday, May 24, 2009 Should the law punish a parent who calls God instead of the doctor? How ’bout a parent who believes so fervently in New Age treatments, a child with a deadly disease is denied lifesaving medical care? It’s the clash of…

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TAKE A BOW, NYPD

“Obama Reclaims War on Terror,” Ellis Henican Column, amNew York, May 22, 2009 No one was water-boarded. No secret tribunals were held. The word “Guantanamo” wasn’t even mentioned. It was old-fashioned police work, overseen by a civilian federal court, that busted open America’s latest terror plot. Investigation, arrest, arraignment, evidence, prosecution and defense — the…

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SWINE RELASPE

“Swine Flu Comes Back with a Harden Punch,” Ellis Henican Sunday Column, Newsday, 5-17-09 Wait, wasn’t the swine flu supposed to be finished? For two solid weeks there, we’d breathed a nice sigh of relief. This pandemic wasn’t the pandemic. H1N1 was half a virus of hype. And we were turning our limited attention, as…

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FIGHTING IRISH

“Hey, Notre Dame! Let the President Speak,” Ellis Henican Column, amNew York, May 15, 2009 It’s one of the great things about America’s Catholic universities, one of many — the long coexistence of intellectual openness and faith. We Catholics are not expected to shut ourselves off from honest discussion. We are not taught to close…

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