Who needs the IDC to undermine you, when you are perfectly capable of doing it yourself?
It's not surprising that Erie County's leading sleazebag Steve Pigeon wants to have a second State Senator under his control, but it is kind of shocking that the Sen Dems' Campaign Committee would be helping him in his efforts.
Calling the Sen Dems self destructive is like calling Chris Christie fat, but this most be the most counterproductive move since the WFP, Queens Dems and David Paterson collaborated on sacking John Sabini to make way for Hiram Monserrate. The Return of Steve Pigeon | City & State www.cityandstateny.com
Paterson may be visually handicapped, but he's not colorblind. Paterson Aides Said to Seek Security Detail Changes www.nytimes.com
Great article by Morgan Pehme, even if he might have stolen the title, as he gives Malcolm Smith enough rope to hang himself about 15 different times.
The only problem is the insignificance of the subject matter. Malcolm is about as serious a candidate for higher office as Mindy Meyer. Malcolm on the Muddle | City & State www.cityandstateny.com
Boy, Malcolm’s trial balloon exploded even before I finished this column.
Malcolm's mayoral chances as the GOP/Independence Fusion candidate now makes Senator Mindy Meyer look plausible in comparison.
Since authorization from the GOP County leaders is apparently not forthcoming, the only way Malcolm can be their nominee is to change parties before the November election. Since he is already the Dem candidate in his Senate district, he will be re-elected, but then his problems start.
Unless he got elected Mayor–a long shot at best, Malcolm would be politically dead in seeking further re-election to the Senate. A Republican is not being elected to the Senate from his district (though I suppose he could try to obtain a Wilson-Pakula from Joe Crowley).
But the truth is, if Malcolm can't get the support of a majority of the GOP leaders, a black man with a moderately liberal record and a trail of ethical problems is not going to win the GOP primary, and Malcolm knows it. Malcolm needs the leaders not only to give him a Wilson-P, but also to get him on the ballot and forcibly clear the field.
And anyway, the whole idea was to be "Fusion"–a Dem running with GOP and minor party support against the Dem power brokers. Changing parties does not advance that scenario.
Malcolm may seem stupid, but he's not retarded–he has too many brains and too few balls to change his party enrollment. Malcolm For Mayor On GOP Line Over Before It Starts? capitaltonightny.ynn.com
Like Paulie Vario before him, the current boss of the Crime Family (these days known as “Racetrack Empire”) which rules Southern Queens does not tolerate freelance grifters and wants them wiped out. James Sanders Lands Floyd Flake’s Endorsement | City & State www.cityandstateny.com
Carlo Rizzi, Fredo Corleone & now Elizabeth Crowley. Contender For Meng’s Seat Accuses Queens Dems Of “Coercion;” Liz Crowley Off Ballot | City & State www.cityandstateny.com
Greg "Inspector Renault" Meeks, says he's "shocked" that anyone would suspect that there's gambling going on at his "Racetrack Empire Cafe" Greg Meeks “Flabbergasted” at The Post | City & State www.cityandstateny.com
Halloran (translated into what he’s really saying: Just try looking them in the eyes and you can see something is not straight about the Meng Dynasty. Halloran Addresses Jimmy Meng Allegations [Video] politicker.com
Extremely Stupid Quote from (who else?) Dan Halloran:
"When the mayor went after salt, nobody said anything…When the mayor went after MSG, everyone was quiet. When the mayor required us to post the information about the calorie counts in everything, no one said a word. When we banned smoking inside restaurants, everyone said, ‘Hey, it’s fine.’..Well, today, it’s your soda!”
Let me explain libertarianism to you Dan. It's about personal autonomy. Therefore, to a real libertarian, banning salt, MSG, smoking and soda are wrong, because it is our right to make bad choices.
But Dan, posting calorie counts does not restrict anyone's personal autonomy; posting calorie counts FACILITATES personal autonomy; it is about giving people the information to better make their own choices, fully informed.
Personal autonomy is not better facilitated by ignorance. As Adam Smith might point out, the free flow of accurate information maximizes the effficiency of the marketplace.
Also, there is at least a cognizable libertarian argument that your right to swing your arm or burn your tobacco ends at the point of my nose. Ragin’ Pagan: Dan Halloran Aims to Take Passionate, Unorthodox Approach to Washington D.C. politicker.com
WTF is wrong with Ray Kelly?
Does he not know that the Nappies’ “All-Stars” program has been accused in several jurisdictions of emotionally abusing the minors they are supposed to be helping; does he not know about the anti-Semitic theatrical productions, or the “social therapy” programs run according to the late Fred Newman's philosophy, which combines extreme left wing ideas with wacko psychiatric theories. Newman believed that it was all right to have sex with his patients, and also to assign them therapeutic political work.
The fact that the Police Department is facilitating this cult's access to young children shocks the conscience, even if everybody keeps their pants on. NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly And Cop Critic Lenora Fulani Seal Deal With A Kiss www.nydailynews.com
Helene Weinstein appears to be loaded for bear in her effort to show she will fight for her Orthodox constituents. Joe Hayon should get some kosher champagne and drink a toast, because this is as close as he's gonna get to anything resembling a victory. Cuomo Vetoes Bill on Placement of Special Education Students www.nytimes.com
Our little local unpleasantness is over:
Deb Scotto: "After some very serious soul searching, and long consultations with my team, I have made the decision to withdraw from the District Leader / State Committee race in the 52nd AD and therefore, I am suspending the campaign.
Overwhelming family obligations coupled with health problems as well as my husband’s unanticipated responsibilities abroad have created an untenable situation. With these pressing issues it has become impossible to pursue a political position because of the inherent time demands and obligations required to properly run a campaign and represent our communities.
The support that I have been the recipient of throughout this endeavor has been incredible. Whether it came in the form of time and effort, contributions or contacts, the loyalty that has been behind our effort I will never forget. In many ways I feel we have already won because of it…"
Deb is too nice a person for me to dwell overly much on exactly what percentage of the foregoing might consist of manure. Deb remains on the ballot, so for those for whom it is not an inconvenience, it is still recommended that one come out to vote against her.
Though Thursdays night's joint CBID/IND judicial endorsement meeting will almost certainly produce an easy win for Richard Montelione, this has not prevented Montelione 's supporters from trying to win ugly by portraying his opponent, Lara Genovesi, as both a carpetbagger and our version of "Rosemary's Baby" (whose supporting cast featured Brooklyn Assemblyman Joseph Kottler).
Fact is "carpetbagger" Genovesi, who has lived in the area the better part of two decades in places like the Lili Rose and Concord Village, is the only candidate in the primary who can actually cast a vote for herself (though that is really of little import).
More important is to deal with the ugly whispers about her father. One cannot complain about Dan Halloran tying Grace Meng to her dad and then do the same to Lara G.
But more importantly, even if Tony G was relevant to this campaign (and he is not), an association with him would be an asset for his daughter, rather than a liability.
In fact, both these clubs worked hard in an effort to make Genovesi the County Leader. And they did so for the right reasons. I explain this in detail because it would be hypocritical for me to criticize David Storobin on this score (which I did in the attached link) and not call out the "reformers" for doing the same.
As James Bradley (who now runs a really cool record store in Northside Williamsburg) noted in his Village Voice obit:
"He was one of the city's more principled politicians, a man who voted his conscience often going against the sentiments of the constituents in his moderate-to-conservative southern Brooklyn district. He was a fervent opponent of capital punishment, a defender of the social safety net, a supporter of gay rights and a staunch il libertarian…., when Speaker Sheldon Silver held a special session of the Assembly to vote on the demagogic Jenna's Law–a bill severely restricting parole–Genovesi was one of only a few legislators to vote against the bill. Of the legislation, he observed, ''The tragedy that brought us here is not a product of the parole system. It's a product of the failure to rehabilitate people in prison.''
When legislation came before the Assembly calling for the decertification of a bogus foundation that was serving as a front for the North American Man Boy Love Association, a group that advocates pedophilia, many liberals voted for the bill: Genovesi didn't. It was wrong for the legislature to target one group, he argued, adding that it was a matter for law enforcement to handle, not the legislature. "
When I think of all the armchair leftists who couldn't do anything for liberal Democrat David Weprin but throw spitballs at him, while they ran holy wars based on the narcissism of small differences, I clam up thinking of liberal southern Brooklyn regulars like Lew Fidler and Tony Genovesi, who took (and take) real risks for their principles, and people like Lara, who until she began her campaign still rolled up her sleeves again and again to fight in real races against right wing Republicans like Bob Turner and David Storobin when so many so-called “reformers” couldn't be bothered. "Big Tony" Genovese (David Storobin's Revealing Freudian Slip) | Room Eight www.r8ny.com
Gatemouth (1/31/11): So Gore Vidal's Burr drove Bachmann into the arms of the GOP?
I have to say that I loved Vidal's entire series of American Historic novels, except the final volume, "Golden Age", a sick fantasy that is almost "The Plot Against America" from the view of Lindberghian/Buchananistic isolationists (the low point is FDR and the British engineering the murder of the Credential Chair at the 1940 GOP convention so that Willkie can be nominated, this ensuring that there would be no anti-war candidate in the general election)
Certainly, one of the most despicable books ever written, and one which could easily drive one to oppose anything Vidal embraced, which in that case would be Midwestern right wing Republican xenophobes. The Gateway (Transition Edition) | Room Eight www.r8ny.com
Hitch on Vidal: "The price of knowing him was exposure to some of his less adorable traits, which included his pachydermatous memory for the least slight or grudge and a very, very minor tendency to bring up the Jewish question in contexts where it didn’t quite belong. One was made aware, too, that he suspected Franklin Roosevelt of playing a dark hand in bringing on Pearl Harbor and still nurtured an admiration in his breast for the dashing Charles Lindbergh, leader of the American isolationist right in the 1930s…
…I have now just finished reading a long interview…in which Vidal decides to go slumming again and to indulge the lowest in himself and in his followers. He openly says that the Bush administration was “probably” in on the 9/11 attacks, a criminal complicity that would “certainly fit them to a T”; that Timothy McVeigh was “a noble boy,” no more murderous than Generals Patton and Eisenhower; and that “Roosevelt saw to it that we got that war” by inciting the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor. Coming a bit more up-to-date, Vidal says that the whole American experiment can now be described as “a failure”; the country will soon take its place “somewhere between Brazil and Argentina, where it belongs”; President Obama will be buried in the wreckage—broken by “the madhouse”—after the United States has been humiliated in Afghanistan and the Chinese emerge supreme. We shall then be “the Yellow Man’s burden,” and Beijing will “have us running the coolie cars, or whatever it is they have in the way of transport.” Asian subjects never seem to bring out the finest in Vidal: he used to say it was Japan that was dominating the world economy, and that in the face of that other peril “there is now only one way out. The time has come for the United States to make common cause with the Soviet Union.” That was in 1986—not perhaps the ideal year to have proposed an embrace of Moscow, and certainly not as good a year as 1942, when Franklin Roosevelt did join forces with the U.S.S.R., against Japan and Nazi Germany, in a war that Vidal never ceases to say was (a) America’s fault and (b) not worth fighting." February 2010: Christopher Hitchens on Gore Vidal www.vanityfair.com
"You Mean He Wasn't Dead Already?" Department:
Tony Martin is mostly remembered today, when he's remembered at all for the ghastly "Tenement Symphony" which disfigured the already lame Marx Brothers vehicle "The Big Store" back in 1941.
Do yourself a favor and see "Duck Soup" instead. Tony Martin, Debonair Pop Baritone, Dies at 98 www.nytimes.com