I think that those accusing Bill DeBlasio of being weasely on the Young Men's Islamic Association proposed for the Holy Mother Coat Factory are just traveling on cruise control, accepting the received wisdom that DiBlasio would handle this issue like he handles everything else.
That's unfair.
Yes, normally, it would be offensive to assume that anyone (even our surprisingly outspoken Mayor) would object to investigating the source of the "Mosque's" money if there were an actual credible national security concern (and the investigation were conducted in the normal course of business by the FBI or the Department of Homeland Security rather than in public by the NYC Council Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup Relations).
Therefore, one need not even bring the matter up.
We should always assume that everyone is entitled to the presumption that they care about our national security, except perhaps for a small fringe element among "progressives" who always oppose the use of American force anywhere, anytime for any reason and blame America for all the world's ills.
However, while that fringe is not a large group, such North American Sandinistas have always been a notable part of DeBlaiso's base.
So Bill was clarifying, not pandering (or, at worst, doing both at once)
See More De Blasio Is Currently Okay With the Mosque | The New York Observer www.observer.com
The "Ground Zero" location of the Young Men's Islamic Association proposed for The Holy Mother Coat Factory was always a pretextural reason for the opposition; we didn't need a national survey to know this; the opposition to Mosques proposed for Sheepshead Bay and Staten Island made it crystal clear (in these fights, I exempt from that critique only those residents of the Sheepshead Bay block whose objections to the size of the as-of-right structure were clearly only the usual NYC NYMBYism, which may be idiotic, but was not morally reprehensible) Battles Around Nation Over Proposed Mosques – NYTimes.com www.nytimes.com
Every once in a while, Friedman hits one out of the park. Op-Ed Columnist – Steal This Movie – NYTimes.com nytimes.com
Great article about a subject which unfathomably raises the passions of all New Yorkers, myself included.
Money Quote: "The Department of City Planning issues its own neighborhood map, but they’re general blotches, without borders between neighborhoods. 'We don’t define neighborhood boundaries because they are very elastic,' said Joe Salvo of the Department of City Planning.”
What–there are no official neighborhood boundaries in NYC? Dennis Holt of the Brooklyn Eagle has pompously been insisting otherwise for years. He knows; he's seen the map. Just ask him.
Poor Dennis; this article will drive him to drink.
New York neighborhood border wars – NYPOST.com
Given Coulter's usual level of credibility, Democrats should be very worried she’s so pessimistic about beating us. Ann Coulter’s Reality Check: GOP Not Going To Take House Or Senate In Nov. www.mediaite.com
OK, yesterday afternoon I posted an article I thought would kill one of NY Politics’ great Urban Myths, but a poster on my thread named “Frink” (no doubt, a Simpsons fan) takes the corpse, burns it, buries the ashes in a Potter's field and douses the ground with salt, lime and lye. http://www.r8ny.com/blog/gatemouth/one_half_of_all_articles_on_petition_challenges_say_that_new_york_accounts_for_one_half_of_all_election_law_litig#comment-1410229 www.r8ny.com