In the age of wifi, a power failure may not stop you from reading this, but power or not, Room 8’s quirks probably will.
On 8/27/11, I wrote, wrote::
" As someone so militant about the First Amendment rights of Muslims that I criticized Bill DeBlasio from the left for being wishy-washy… in his defense of the Young Men’s Islamic Association proposed for The Holy Mother Coat Factory, I still have to say that, though a bit of legislative oversight might not hurt (although there are a few Councilmembers I might not trust with such info), I like it that NYPD has a strong intelligence program and cooperates with the CIA.
I do want NYPD to observe the Constitution, but I'm not losing much sleep over the idea that Bloomy has been too soft in protecting the rights of Muslims.
Maybe it’s the 9/11 survivor in me, but basically, I agree with this Goldberg piece; can anyone tell me why he is wrong? The NYPD's CIA-Influenced Spying Program (UPDATED) http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/08/the-nypds-cia-influenced-spying-program-updated/244198/ www.theatlantic.com"
So, I don't mind that Marty Golden agrees with me on the NYPD program (even if the language in his letter last year supporting it make some dubious and squirm-worthy assertions).
And I don't mind that his opponent, Andrew Gounardes, thinks the program is wrong. Like I said, strong scrutiny is what keeps such programs acting within proper boundaries.
I don't even mind Golden changing his mind on the topic.
But I do mind that Golden’s 360 degree backflip came without explanation or acknowledgement that he's changed his position.
I'd tell Golden to grow a pair, but it's obvious Golden's got balls he hasn't even used yet.
They're next to his gun. Golden claims not to support mosque spying, but letter says otherwise www.brooklynpaper.com
Romnesia Is Contagious Department:
First, Marty Golden forgets his position on police anti-terror surveillance; now Eric Ulrich shows his own signed of infection.
Colin notes that, despite GOP efforts to squeeze every black hat in Queens into the District they drew for Eric Ulrich, and Ulrich's relentless efforts to attack his opponent, State Senator Joe Addabbo on this issue, Ulrich admitted on New York One that he would actually vote against any repeal effort.
Admittedly, Addabbo's acrobatics on this issue have been dizzying. He voted against it once, and for it the next time, allegedly based on polling (perhaps not the best choice of words) his constituents. Called on it at a debate, Addabbo said he'd once again do a poll, which given the change in his lines, would probably mean another 360 degree pirouette. Morning Read: ‘A Big Bag of Wind’
GOP Assembly Candidate Joe Hayon is the nicest dangerous fanatic I know—unlike other GOP candidates like Eric Ulrich, who cynically attack the LGTB community out of purely cynical opportunism, Hayon is like Strom Thurmond on segregation. Joe “really believes this stuff.”
So, other than me , Joe's the only one honest enough to point out that Dean Skelos and his crew have been cynically exploiting for gain a same sex marriage law they are in large measure responsible for. Brooklyn Young Republican Club » New York State Assembly Candidate Joseph Hayon Blames Helene Weins www.brooklynyr.com
Empty suit debates empty chair (but does not throw it through a window, or break its glasses). Mindy Meyer misses a chance to be seen (with Kevin Parker) | Capital New York www.capitalnewyork.com
Proof David Storobin does his own writing:
“The people of my district and the entire (sic) Jewish community are deeply offended and appalled by the comment Mayor Bloomberg made the other day to ‘The Atlantic’, of (sic) how proud he is (sic) standing up to “10,000 black hats” protesting against his aggressive approach in imposing regulations on metzitah b’peh- an old-aged (sic) traditional practice of (sic) circumcision. The Mayor’s utter ignorance doesn’t stop by (sic) raising taxes and hurting small businesses in our community, but now by (sic) insulting and demeaning an entire community for standing up for their rights of religious freedom. This is the same ‘Black Hat’ Jewish community that supported Mike Bloomberg for 3 terms.
I call upon the mayor to retract his affronting (sic) comment and immediately apologize to the Orthodox Jewish community, or else be hold (sic) responsible and resign from his post.”
As Lou Reed famously said to a heckler: “If you write like you talk, nobody reads you.” Jewish Pols Demand Bloomberg Apologize For ’10,000 Guys in Black Hats’ Remark politicker.com
Colin Campbell: ..heh Jewish Pols Demand Bloomberg Apologize For ’10,000 Guys in Black Hats’ Remark politicker.com
Gate: Heh? Huh? Did you mean "feh"?
Colin Campbell: multiple reactions work
Gate: meh
As I’ve said before, at least part of the blame for the hysteria about the City's highly sensible proposal to require informed consent before a mohel performing a briss can engage in the procedure called metzitzah b'peh (which involves touching one's lips to the child's wound–a practice not embraced by liberal Jewish movements or the Modern Orthodox) came from the Mayor's ill-advised insistence on making speeches where it sounds like he wants to ban the practice outright.
Frankly, his statements were so extreme in that regard that he would have been better off asking for a ban, and then drawing back to his present position and calling it the Great Compromise.
Even better would have been to be clear from the get go how modest what he’s proposing actually is.
This latest outburst shows the almost narcissistic degree of the Mayor’s weenie wagging (perhaps not the best choice of words) display of machismo, on an issue where a soft and sensitive touch (perhaps not the best of words) is what the doctor called for.
Koslowitz: "[Halloran] thinks he’s a mega-Jew!”
Message to Karen Koslowitz; What the Dickens are you talking about? He's a pagan, not a Fagin. Dan Halloran: "Mega-Jew"? www.cityandstateny.com
Crain’s pulls an Emily Litella, and in the middle of a story about Grace Meng, admits that the story has no reason to exist. Candidate's family house triggers tax question – The Insider | Crain's New York Business mycrains.crainsnewyork.com
Collins nails it: The real crime of people like Mourdock and Akin is that their inartful language throws a sudden stark light on a stance that sounds so unthreatening when a candidate simply says: “I’m pro-life.”
Special Bonus NYS Snark: Mourdock is the only Senate candidate for whom Romney has appeared in a TV ad, although there are lots of beleaguered Republicans who could use his help:…the woman who’s running against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in New York. She’s against abortion even in cases of rape and incest, but, so far, very few New Yorkers know it because they have yet to learn more basic information, such as her name. Talk About a Way With Words www.nytimes.com
Last week, Andrea Peyser insisted: I also won’t be bullied into believing that a Republican administration will end legal abortion with the appointment of anti-choice Supreme Court justices. I think abortion is here to stay.
Then Chait called out other Romney supporters (David Brooks and Michael Gerson) for their seeming inability to acknowledge the reality of what the two parties actually stand for, and accusing them of being afflicted with "crippling denial."
I see this phenomenon again and again (especially among Jews who are voting for Romney solely on the basis of their perception of which candidate would be better for Israel).
Moderate Romney supporters either delude themselves that Romney was lying about what he says he believed in up until the last month, or they delude themselves into thinking he won't be able to implement his program and will immediately morph into Dwight Eisenhower, or they deny he's said everything he's ever said.
The only good reason to hope for a Romney victory is to watch the faces of his moderate supporters when their Panglossian delusions are shattered (but they'd probably just deny it). http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/10/today-in-moderate-republican-denial.html nymag.com
Sununu, a member of one of America's most maligned minority groups (he's an Arab-American) suggests that American icon Colin Powell is solely motivated in his Obama endorsement by ethnic concerns.
And perhaps Sununu is or Romney because he thinks a one-state solution will ultimately lead to the destruction of a Jewish State.
I don't really believe that's Sununu’s motivation (though he does seem to despise Israel), and if anyone believed my insinuation, I'd falafel. Sununu: Powell's Obama Endorsement Motivated By Race www.slate.com
Boy, do I miss Jean-Paul Sartre. The European Left and Its Trouble With Jews www.nytimes.com
Unlike some times in the past (e.g., his 2010 prediction that the Democrats would hold the house), Rock supplies a reasoned basis for his belief that Obama will win big.
And while we both agree Obama will win (well, actually, mine is a strong "probably") I cannot say, I accept his conclusions.
First, I believe that whoever wins the popular vote (and that, more likely than not will be Obama) will do so with somewhere in the 52s or lower.
While I myself have explained why, under the current rules, the popular vote matter somewhat less in a moral sense that one might first assume, it still means something when those American people who bother to vote split nearly equally, especially if the winner receives the votes of less actual human being than the winner (Rock seems to disagree).
But, even if the guy with more actual votes wins, I think one must call a close election "a close election," even if the victor breaks 300 electoral votes.
Which I don't think will occur.
From weeks of following tThe Smartest Man In America and other credible analysts, I would say Obama very likely break 280, and possibly 290, but he is unlikely to reach 300.
For Obama to get past 300 would require a victory in either North Carolina or Florida.
NC is very unlikely to happen. There will be a massive energized black vote for Obama, but the President's white support has significantly eroded from 2008.
In Florida, between the GOP’s largely unanswered lies about Medicare and the erosion of the Sunshine State Jewish vote, which will not be in the high 70s this time (I think low to mid sixties is more like it), Florida seems a long shot.
And I must disagree with some of Rock's other assertions. It is not impossible for Romney to break 60% of the white vote. Rock clearly thinks too well of white people.
I do agree with Rock that "the sampling of non-white voters has been structurally low," but smart analysts like Nate Silver account for that in their models, and, in some crucial states (New Hampshire, Iowa), non-white votes will have little impact.
Likewise, I agree with Rock that that with lifestyle changes like the gradual disappearance of landlines, polling is becoming more difficult, but I'm not sure it's impact upon accuracy cuts only one way.
A few other quibbles:
1) Colorado, which Rock leaves off his list of "highly volatile" states has actually (along with Virginia), been the nation's most volatile this year.
2) "Independent voters" are not a majority of the electorate; at 38%, they are a plurality.
3) Rock's comment asserting that the endorsement of Romney by the Log-Cabin Republicans shows "that gays are the most narcissistic of any demographic group in US society" is brutally ignorant. By becoming Log Cabin Republicans, this group’s members have already proven they care more about making the rich richer than they do about helping struggling families headed by LGTB couples. If one is being mean, one could observe that it is wrong to blame the entire LGTB community for the (statistically insignificant) self-haters among them. If one is being charitable, one can observe that Log-Cabin Republicans are sort of the flip side of poor black socially conservative Evangelicals who support the President based on economic policy (or the Sununu/Powell factor).
4) Like many former Nader voters, Rock seems obsessed with blaming Al Gore for losing his home state, which was part of an ongoing national trend affecting all peckerwoods (West Virginia used to be reliably Democratic and now no longer is). Gore lost because he was 500 short in Florida. This owes to a stolen election, and some acts of stupidity by local Dems, but without Ralph Nader, the Florida vote would not have been close enough to steal or fumble.
5) Rock's statement that "If Kerrey had won…I doubt the USA would have gone to war in Iraq: over invisible “weapons of mass destruction,” is strange, since we were already at war in Iraq by that point, thanks to the impact of Ralph Nader in Florida (and New Hampshire). As Rock notes, "Elections do have historical consequences." http://www.r8ny.com/blog/rock_hackshaw/this_is_what_the_talking_and_writing_heads_of_mainstream_medi www.r8ny.com
Comparing Support for Obama to Sex? How Novel.
GATE (8/29/08) on the 2008 Acceptance speech in Denver:
Sat, as I was at Invesco, in the section reserved for the “written press” located in the better area of the bleachers (Rock was on the floor rocking the vote with the true believers and the party hacks), my cynical remarks about much of the proceedings were greeted with little ill will; for sure, my neighbors and I were erotically attracted to the Man from Honolulu, but we intended to go home with our panties on. Yet by evening’s end, not only was seduction achieved, but in the morning we still had no regrets. He even sent me a text message! God, there were fireworks, even before they set off the pyrotechnics." Lena Dunham Tapes Innuendo-Filled Ad For Obama politicker.com