Holiday Issue Changes For Times With Christmas and New Year’s Day falling on Thursdays, the Times Newsweekly/Ridgewood Times will shift its production deadline and publication dates the last two weeks in December. The Christmas issue will hit newsstands on Wednesday, Dec. 24. As such, the deadline for all copy, classifieds and advertisements will be noon on Monday, Dec. 22. The Times Newsweekly’s office will close at 1 p.m. on Dec. 24 and be closed on Kosovo, which had been Serbian land before we were a nation? H.R. 758 charges Russia with an “invasion” of Crimea. But there was no air, land or sea invasion. The Russians were already there by treaty and the reannexation of Crimea, which had belonged to Russia since Catherine the Great, was effected with no loss of life. Compare how Putin retrieved Crimea, with the way Lincoln retrieved the seceded states of the Confederacy—a four-year war in which 620,000 Americans perished. Russia is charged with using “trade barriers to apply economic and political pressure” and interfering in Ukraine’s “internal affairs.” This is almost comical. The U.S. has imposed trade barriers and sanctions on Russia, Belarus, Iran, Cuba, Burma, Congo, Sudan, and a host of other nations. Economic sanctions are the first recourse of the American Empire. And agencies like the National Endowment for Democracy and its subsidiaries, our NGOs and Cold War radios, RFE and Radio Liberty, exist to interfere in the internal affairs of countries whose regimes we dislike, with the end goal of “regime change.” Was that not the State Department’s Victoria Nuland, along with John McCain, prancing around Kiev, urging insurgents to overthrow the Last week, the House passed such a resolution 411-10. As ex-Rep. Ron Paul writes, House Resolution 758 is so “full of war propaganda that it rivals the rhetoric from the chilliest era of the Cold War.” H.R. 758 is a Russophobic rant full of falsehoods and steeped in superpower hypocrisy. Among the 43 particulars in the House indictment is this gem: “The Russian Federation invaded the Republic of Georgia in August 2008.” Bullhockey. On Aug. 7-8, 2008, Georgia invaded South Ossetia, a tiny province that had won its independence in the 1990s. Georgian artillery killed Russian peacekeepers, and the Georgian army poured in. Only then did the Russian army enter South Ossetia and chase the Georgians back into their own country. The aggressor of the Russo- Georgia war was not Vladimir Putin but President Mikheil Saakashvili, brought to power in Christmas Day, Dec. 25. Additionally, the New Year’s issue will come out on newsstands on Wednesday, Dec. 31. The deadline for all copy, classifieds and advertisements will be noon on Monday, Dec. 29. The Times Newsweekly’s office will close at 1 p.m. on 2004 in one of those color-coded revolutions we engineered in the Bush II decade. H.R. 758 condemns the presence of Russian troops in Abkhazia, which also broke from Georgia in the early 1990s, and in Transnistria, which broke from Moldova. But where is the evidence that the peoples of Transnistria, Abkhazia or South Ossetia want to return to Moldova or Georgia? We seem to support every ethnic group that secedes from Russia, but no ethnic group that secedes from a successor state. This is rank Russophobia masquerading as democratic principle. What do the people of Crimea, Transnistria, Georgia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Luhansk or Donetsk want? Do we really know? Do we care? And what have the Russians done to support secessionist movements to compare with our 78-day bombing of Serbia to rip away her cradle province of MMAAUURREEEENN EE. WWAALLTTHHEERRSS..........................................PPuubblisshheerr && EEdditoorr JJOOHHNN TT.. WWAALLTTHHEERRSS................................................................................................PPuubblliisshheerr EEmmeerriittuuss RROOBBEERRT POOZZAARRYYCCKI.................................................MMaanaaging EEdditorr JJOOSEE VVAARRGAAS.............................................Prrodducction//Saaleess MMaanaageerr DDEEBBOORRAAHH CCUUSSICCKK..............................................CClaassssiffieedd MMaannaaggeerr MMAARRLLEENNEE RRUUIZZ............................................AAssssisst. CClaassssifieedd MMaanaageerr TTIIMMEESS NNEEWWSSWWEEEEKKLLYY IIss LLiisstteedd WWiitthh TThhee SSttaannddaarrdd RRaattee && DDaattaa AAnndd IIss AA MMeemmbbeerr OOff TThhee NNeeww YYoorrkk PPrreessss AAssssoocciiaattiioonn TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2014 • 4 Times Newsweekly EEDDIITTOORRIIAALL Times Newsweekly Established In 1908 As Ridgewood Times PPhhootoo SSuubbmmissssioonnss AAnndd RReeqquueesstss Photographs submitted to the Times Newsweekly/Ridgewood Times should be in electronic high resolution (300dpi) JPEG (.jpg) or TIFF (.tif) formats. Sharp and clear non-Polaroid photo prints in color or black and white are also acceptable. Photographs submitted will become the property of this newspaper, with the exception of photos or other materials sent for use by The Old Timer and photos which are part of paid announcements. We welcome the submission of unsolicited photos or related materials for consideration of publication, but we cannot guarantee their use. The return of such photos or materials, except in cases as noted above, is not possible. We regret that we are unable to accommodate requests for photos taken by photographers working on assignment for the Times Newsweekly/Ridgewood Times. Reaching The Queens Homes Of Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village, Woodside, Sunnyside, Astoria, Long Island City, Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, Howard Beach, Richmond Hill, Rego Park, Forest Hills, Woodhaven, Elmhurst & Kew Gardens. Reaching The Brooklyn Homes Of Ridgewood, Bushwick, Cypress Hills, East Williamsburg & Williamsburg. COMPOSITION RESPONSIBILITY: Accuracy in receiving ads over the telephone cannot be guaranteed. This newspaper is responsible for only one incorrect insertion and only for that portion of the ad in which the error appears. It is the responsibility of the advertiser to make sure copy does not contravene the Consumer Protection Law or any other requirement. 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(USPS 465-940) TTEELEEPHHOONEE: 11--771188--882211--77550000/77550011/77550022/77550033 FFAAXX: 11--771188--445566--00112200 EE-MMAAIILL: iinnffoo@@ttiimmeessnneewwsswweeeekkllyy..ccoomm WWEEBB SSITTEE: www.timessnnewssweekklyy.ccoom OON TTWWITTTTEER @@timessnnewssweekklyy PPUUBBLLIISSHHEEDD EEVVEERRYY TTHHUURRSSDDAAYY FFOORR OOVVEERR 110066 YYEEAARRSS PAT BUCHANAN News & Opinion The Rebuilding Of Queens Hopefully, Russians realize that our House of Representatives often passes thunderous resolutions to pander to special interests, which have no bearing on the thinking or actions of the U.S. government. -SEE BUCHANAN ON PG. 54- Suddenly, everyone seem ready to build big in Queens—but what do they want to build, and what will they build it on? With the vast majority of Manhattan’s 34 square miles developed beyond imagination, it appears the city’s master developers have their sights set on crossing the East River into our fair borough. Former Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff presented the latest big development idea for Queens in a Nov. 30 New York Times op-ed, in which he suggested covering the Sunnyside Yards with a deck and building a replacement for the Jacob Javits Convention Center. The present Javits Center on Manhattan’s West Side, he said, is far undersized in comparison to rival convention centers across the country and world, thus depriving the city of large-scale, tourism-boosting, income-generating events. Sunnyside Yards, measuring well over 100 acres, offers plenty of land to build one of the biggest—if not the biggest—convention center in the U.S. and open up the Javits Center site for affordable housing development. If that sounds familiar to you, you’re not imagining things. Nearly two years ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo pitched the idea for replacing the Javits Center with the nation’s largest convention center—only his plan was to build it at Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park. That scheme, however, fell through in negotiations with Genting Americas, which operates the casino at Aqueduct and was to be a key partner in the endeavor. In fact, this is the third instance in which someone in, or formerly a part of city or state government suggested building a Queens convention center. The Willets Point development plan, the subject of much controversy over the past decade, also included a convention center where auto junkyards and other industries now stand. It appears, however, that proposal went by the wayside as the plan evolved. Then there are the other big ideas floated for Queens, such as a soccer arena for the fledgling New York City Football Club (which eyed Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and, later, land near Aqueduct Racetrack) and the QueensWay proposal to turn former railroad tracks into a nature and bike path that the planners seem to think will be the second coming of High Line Park. Careful development in Queens is welcome, but there’s just one problem: infrastructure. The subways are packed and antiquated; the roads are jammed and crumbling; the schools are overcrowded; and utility mains are old and ill-equipped to handle increased capacity. It’s nothing short of a minor miracle that our electric grid—still using overhead wires and wooden poles in many parts of our neighborhood— has held up in the face of overdevelopment and new technology. For all the grand ideas guys like Doctoroff and Cuomo offer, no one’s talking about the desperate condition of Queens’ infrastructure. We understand why they do this: visions of grandeur are sexy and spur the imagination; infrastructure problems are the complete opposite. But it’s the infrastructure that serves as the bedrock on which the visions of grandeur stand. If it is overburdened, it will eventually fail— maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon—and the damage will cost twice as much to repair then as it would to upgrade now before building anything significant. Queens and the rest of the city desperately need a 21st century electric grid, updated utility lines, more rail capacity and lines (sorry QueensWay supporters), more buses and more schools. Will it cost billions to do all this? Yes. Can this city afford to do it? Well, it can’t afford not to. The city needs to find a way to fund the reconstruction of Queens—or stick its big ideas for this borough in the circular file. A Russo-Phobic Rant From Congress Dec. 31 and be closed on both New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, 2015; and the following Friday, Jan. 2. On behalf of the staff and management, we wish all our readers a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Joyous Kwanzaa and a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.
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