Today on “High Noon,” we’re going to be talking about the proposal to build a 16-mile tunnel from Syosset, Long Island to Rye.

My guest will be Rye Mayor Steve Otis, who opposes the idea. The show airs live at 12 noon on WVOX radio, 1460 AM. If you’re out of the immediate listening area, you can also pick up the program by logging onto wvox.com.

Callers are welcome to join in the discussion. The number is 914-636-0110.

UPDATE: Here’s the podcast of today’s show:

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The Green Party is pressing the Democratic majority of the Westchester County Board of Legislators to pass a resolution that calls for the impeachment of President Bush. According to a Green Party statement, “the only remaining effective effort to end the war and restrain illegal abuse of our democracy is to participate in the national movement for public Congressional hearings to invetigate the abundant evidence for impeachment.”

Look, I think Bush will go down in history as one of the worst presidents this side of Herbert Hoover and James Buchanan, and I can’t wait to see the man leave the White House. But any attempt to drag the country through an impeachment process at this late date, and during a presidential election year no less, is simply ludicrous. In fact, it borders on crazy.

But that’s not the funny part. The funny part is that the County Board would even consider spending the time to debate the resolution, especially since there are a lot of frustrated taxpayers in Westchester who would like to see THEM thrown out on their ear.

This is precisely the kind of issue that county government has no business getting into…at least not on the taxpayers’ dime. If a county legislator truly wants to set the slow-working gears of the U.S. Constitution in motion to put Bush on trial with one year left in his term, then he or she ought to simply write a letter to their congressional respresentative just like anybody else.

A formal resolution? Give us a break…it’s just pandering.

It was a pleasure to see the Giants put it to “America’s Team” on Sunday…and in Dallas, too.
And we New York fans were especially gratified to see Cowboys owner Jerry Jones standing miserably on the sidelines as his team went down to defeat. And did you see those Fox football analysts after the game—Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, and ol’ helmet-head, Jimmy Johnson. They looked as if their mothers had just died. Each one had predicted a Cowboy victory.

In the locker room, Dallas offensive tackle Flozell Adams reportedly went into a rage, screaming curses at reporters. Too much! But, hey what’s with that name, Flozell? Sounds like one of those cholesterol drugs or something you take for constipation.

And then there was T.O.

In the pantheon of gifted but nutty pro football wide receivers, Terrell Owens ranks numero uno. This guy is a real banana.

He’s not known for touting his quarterbacks. On the contrary, his history shows he’s usually quite comfortable throwing them under the bus when things don’t go well. Just ask Donovan McNab and Jeff Garcia.

But after Sunday’s satisfying game, T.O. surprised us with an entertaining defense of Dallas QB Tony Romo, who didn’t play all that badly but took criticism for hopping over to Mexico with his gal pal, Jessica Simpson during the team’ bye week.

Owens’ “crybaby”:http://youtube.com/watch?v=mow7gXW0uog routine reminded us of Hillary Clinton’s little cry after she lost the Iowa caucuses. Bad form!

There’s no crying in football or politics, especially when you lose.

We called this one right. Bill Ryan, the Democratic bossman of the county board of legislators is consolidating his power again.
Just as we predicted last month, he has awarded his pliable toadies and punished his opponents. Today, he named seven new committee chairs and as we suspected he would do, he awarded Jose Alvarado of Yonkers the budget committee chairmanship. Alvarado is not a bad guy, but fully expect he’ll rubber stamp everything the boss orders him to do.

Of the four Republicans on the 17-member board, only one got a chairmanship. That was Bernice Spreckman, who heads up the generational, cultural & ethnic diversity committee. Hardly a critical job but like chairmanships it comes with a stipend sweetener. And Spreckman has never given Boss Ryan a hard time, particularly on his grab for a pay hike.

Ryan also eliminated two committees—the appointments committee and public works, transportation and parks. This is his way of saying he’s cutting back on governmental excess. But while he’s at it, he could probably slash at least three more committee, including Spreckman’s.

Or at least he seemed to be choking back tears.

In any case, during the 1972 New Hampshire primary Edmund Muskie was more than merely exasperated with a couple of smear stories that appeared in the Manchester Union Leader. One attacked his wife, and the other proved to be a hoax.

He got so angry that his voice broke. It more or less went down in the books as a gushing sob and he was essentially tarred as a girly-man. Muskie was far from being a weakling, but the event ruined his campaign. Up until then, he had been the Democratic favorite for the presidential nomination.

He lost the primary and quickly became an also-ran in the process that eventually picked George McGovern.

Now we have gone through another New Hampshire primary and and yet another display of emotion from a supposed frontrunner in the Democratic sweepstakes. Of course, we’re talking about our good neighbor from Chappaqua, Hillary Clinton.

Lo and behold, her little cry actually helped her get the sympathy vote, mostly, it appears from women, and she defeated Barack Obama in the primary. Voters said Hillary looked human for a change.

It helped that she didn’t appear to choke up in anger like Muskie did.
Still, you can’t help but wonder how the voters would have reacted had it been Obama or John Edwards letting loose with a good cry—even in this era of feminization and the new Sensitive Male. It’s more than likely that they would have been consigned to YouTube hell and the damnation of eternal ridicule.

C’mon, are you kidding me?

There are those who believe that Hillary should have it both ways. After propping her up as the “inevitable” candidate, her handlers whined when Edwards and Obama allegedly ganged up on her during one particularly contentious debate. Can’t pick on a girl, after all. Even if she’s the self-annointed frontrunner.

But when she loses one round in the Iowa caucuses and breaks down, why, that’s OK. That’s not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of authenticity.

Poor old Muskie must be rolling in his grave.

Maury Allen, the great baseball writer, will be my guest on “High Noon” which airs tomorrow at the lunch hour.
The topics will be steroids, Roger Clemens and the induction of former Yankee relief pitcher Goose Gossage into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Listen in at 1460 AM, or log onto www.wvox.com.

UPDATE: Here’s the podcast of today’s show:

Download:

I’m collecting them.
Here are two I’ve identified for the 2008 presidential campaign. I’m already sick of them.
AUTHENTICITY, AUTHENTIC: Used to describe a candidate’s genuineness, or lack thereof. Found in campaign press releases. Has crept into reporters’ prose, and it needs to be retired.
CHANGE, CHANGE AGENT: As in—“Hillary Clinton is no phony Washington insider who represents the past and business as usual. On the contrary, she is an authentic change agent, not matter what anybody says.”

“Boss” Bill Ryan, the Democratic grand poobah of the Westchester County Board of Legislators was busy remodeling the legislative offices in the last weeks of 2007 to accomodate an ever-expanding staff.

And all on the taxpayers’ dime, of course.

Funny thing, but after the shuffling of walls and floor plans, three Republican legislators found themselves with less office space. Two existing offices were divided three ways and parceled out to Gordon Burrows of Yonkers, Jim Maisano of New Rochelle and George Oros of Cortlandt.

Gee, how did that happen? Maybe, it comes down to simple math. Let’s see, there are only four Republicans on the 17-member board. That’s one truth.

And, none of them supported Boss Ryan’s recent aborted attempt to substantially raise his salary, as well as the salaries of the other board members. That’s another truth.

One plus one equals two. It’s the wrath of the Boss!

This was a big sports weekend, highlighted by the NFL playoffs and Roger Clemens’s interview on “60 Minutes.”

But on Friday night, my 19-year-old son and I checked out a totally different spectator sport—the Professional Bull Riding competition at Madison Square Garden. Hemingway may have run with the bulls in Pamplona, but there’s nothing more dangerous than riding ON THEM for the eight-second time that’s required to even rate a judge’s score.

The bulls are considered athletes and you can root for them to buck the riders just as easily as you can cheer the cowboys to hang on. The bulls have names like “Bad Medicine” and “Dirty Harry.” A personal favorite of mine was “Shock the Monkey.” Clemens may deny he’s taken steroids, but those bulls are pumped up with something that would make the average man’s head explode.

The bulls’ testicles are yanked to get them really riled up before they get sprung from the chute. So of course, the animal activists were out in force in front of the Garden, holding signs and vociferously urging people not to go in. By doing this, they unintentionally provided the evening’s funniest moment.

Walking in front of us were couple of guys who were wearing nerdy cowboy hats, the straw, narrow-brimmed variety that I used to buys my kids at dude ranches when they were little. They looked especially comical on grown men, and I laughed out loud when I saw them.

But the animal activists evidently couldn’t tell the difference between genuine cowboys and goofballs in kiddie hats. They kept yelling, “Loser cowboys, go home!”

One of the guys turned and shouted back, “Go home? I live a block away!”

I congratulated Jeff Binder today for his correct prediction made on yesterday’s “High Noon” radio show that the winners in the Iowa caucuses would be Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee. Binder is a partner in the Westchester-based Strategic Political Group, a political consulting firm.
After I e-mailed him, he replied, “Thanks. That and $2 will get me on the subway.”
Then he made another prediction that Hillary’s gang will come out swinging with all kinds of code words to undermine voters’ confidence in Obama’s electability. Dripping with “good-for-him” style condescension, they will damn him with faint praise.