The Gateway (Occupy Andrew Edition)

Revenge is Sweet Department: Occupy Albany comes out swinging for the Millionaire's Tax. Good for them! (as well as being good for them; and good for us too). Occupy Wall Street Goes After Cuomo In His Own Backyard | PolitickerNY www.politickerny.com  

 

 

Many in OWS have also started pushing for support for the Millionaire's Tax–would it not be a good idea for their General Assembly to take a position? the albany project:: Thousands Sign #OWS Pledge to Stop Tax Break for Millionaires & Billionaires www.thealbanyproject.com  

 

 

It's really time for some folks to grab the name for themselves; articulate some issues attached to some concrete proposals, and say “We are no longer about Zuccotti Park, we are about your town,” and to say that “Lower Manhattan is merely one of our many communities and we are everywhere.” http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/node/1035152 drezner.foreignpolicy.com  

 

 

An OWSer makes an urgent plea for a Good Neighbor Policy. Monday Night Urgent OWS Message nplusonemag.com  

 

 

The tightest race of the year: the contest to be the biggest douchbag among the GOP candidates. Perry On Birtherism: It's Fun! andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com  

 

 

Goldberg: Mormons aren't Christians and I don't care. Gatemouth agrees: Mormonism Isn't Christianity www.theatlantic.com  

 

 

The State Senate cuts back staff big time, but the article fails to indicate how disproportionately the cuts fell. The other day, a source told me that the entire central staff for Senate Dems was 17 people. When I worked there last century, it was more like 150. GOP boasts leaner Senate www.timesunion.com                           

 

 

I include this to correct a false insinuation in the Times article about a subject close to my heart (and home): Brownstone blocks adjoining housing projects.

"The map showing the neighborhood on the Web site of the Boerum Hill Association — a group dedicated to preserving and enhancing “the unique qualities of our neighborhood” — includes Warren Street but runs up and around to Wyckoff at points to cut the projects out."

What the Times doesn't say, probably out of ignorance, is why that is so.

The Boerum Hill Association was created as a civic association for the residential areas adjoining Atlantic Avenue, west of Court Street and East of Flatbush Ave.

The northern border was Schermerhorn Street, which, at the time, was where the area stopped being residential and started being almost solely commercial.

By contrast, the southern border being sneered at here was a pre-existing phenomenon. It is the border between Community Board Two and Community Board Six.

It was perfectly logical for a small civic to decide to stay within one Community Board instead of two, and within one precinct, instead of three. And it was perfectly logical at that point to include all of Board Two south of Atlantic.  

Shame on the Times for its wretched insinuation of bigotry. Brownstone Brooklyn Between 2 Housing Projects www.nytimes.com  

 

 

Rock spins an interesting tale concerning Brooklyn Politico Geoffrey Davis, brother of the late Councilman who died from an assassin’s bullet in 2003.

However, some of us remember an alternative version of the tale.

ROCK: At the time of his assassination, James was seeking re-election to the council seat (35th Council District). This seat encompasses parts of Crown Heights, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. When the question of a replacement came up, I remember suggesting that James’s mother (Thelma) should run; to me her victory was assured based on an anticipated outpouring of sympathy from voters. However, she had other ideas: she wanted her baby (Geoffrey) to fill his bigger brother’s shoes.

Without fear, Geoffrey waded into the political waters having no clue as to what was about to hit him: a political tsunami., 

There are a few crucial facts missing here.  

At the time James Davis died, he was in the process of getting himself renominated without opposition.

One opponent, Othniel Askew, shortly to be Davis’ assassin, neglected to file his petitions (if he is to be believed, he left them in a bag outside the Board of Elections Office sometime after the deadline for filing).   

The other opponent, Tony Herbert, was in the process of being knocked off the ballot through James’ efforts.

If Herbert was knocked off, had James Davis lived, he would have been nominated without opposition.

And if Herbert was knocked off after James’ death, that would mean that the Democratic nomination would be determined by the Vacancy Committee named on James’ petitions.

The Vacancy Committee consisted of one person: James’ mother Thelma. Normally, that nomination would be tantamount to election.

So, “without fear,” as Rock puts it, Geoffrey Davis decided it was his moral responsibility to continue his brother’s lawsuit against Tony Herbert and take away the choice of a City Council member from the voters of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights and Crown Heights, and instead ensure that choice was made by one person alone.   

My G-d, what a brave soul was this courageous young man Geoffrey Davis! 

This was bravery allright, the bravery of a politican gone mad with ambition so it overrode good sense, which Hunter Thompson analogized to a bull elk gone mad with lust:

a bull elk in the rut, crashing through the timber in a vever for something to fuck. Anything! A cow, a calf, a mare–any flesh and blood beast with a hole in it. The bull elk is a very crafty animal for about fifty weeks of the year…but when the rut comes on, in the autumn, any geek with the sense to blow an elk-whistle can lure a bull elk right up to his car in ten minutes if he can drive within hearing range…The dumb bastards lose all control of themselves when the rut comes on. Their eyes glaze over, their ears pack up with hot wax, and their loins get heavy with blood. Anything that sounds like a cow elk in heat will fuse the central nervous systems of every bull on the mountain. They will race though the timber like huge cannonballs, trampling small trees and scraping off bloody chunks of their own hair on the unyielding bark of the big ones.”

Normally, one would expect Rock Hackshaw to find revolting this rape of democracy in favor of nepotism and primogeniture. But apparently not, provided that that one voter chose one of Rock’s friends.    

ROCK: Geoffrey Davis is one of the most likeable young rascals you will ever meet…The problem was he had done a few silly and stupid things in his youth: nothing major just minor stuff.

He had chased some pussies he shouldn’t have chased. He had smoked some reefer (marijuana) he shouldn’t have smoked publicly; and as a young man, he was busted for possession, and also for receiving some stolen property too (if I recall correctly). It was really silly stuff; stupid stuff.

Once he even had a fight with some girlfriend, and she made a report of domestic violence. The cops busted him without getting to the bottom of it….

…Anyway; during the election, the mainstream media whipped Geoffrey like he was cream. You would think he was Kool (whip). They dug up near everything they could on him. It wasn’t nice. They dug up inane things like some fights he had in junior high school; some car tires he probably let air out of; some candy he probably pilfered in the school cafeteria; stupid shit like that -if you catch my drift. They did a political hit on poor Geoffrey. It wasn’t nice. It was a hatchet job.

When the fix is in, mainstream media in NYC can become nothing short of prostitutes…

.Mainstream media also failed to highlight that despite his checkered past Geoffrey had gone beyond a Bachelor’s to obtain a Master’s Degree. And that he was working in the education field. And that he was working with troubled youth and doing good things to atone for some of his youthful indiscretions and the like.

You see, in that race, the fix was in… Despite the fact that Geoffrey had the Dems party-line, the establishment democrats deserted him like he had lice in his hair…

Well, that is one way of putting it.

Another way would be to look at the facts.

James Davis was assassinated on the floor of the New York City Council Chambers in full view of dozens of witnesses.

There is no mystery about the identity of the assassin, who was himself slain on the scene almost immediately.

Stories about Othniel Askew poured out from day one. Since the assassination, only two people have questioned the idea that the assassination was the work of a single deranged lunatic without any justification or excuse.

One was “journalist” Christopher Ketcham, who portrayed Askew as an embittered "insurgent who had been forced off the ballot one too many times and, apparently been driven nuts by the system".

The other was Geoffrey Davis.

Shortly after his brother’s death, while speaking to reporters, Geoffrey opined:

Who did it? You all did it. Every white racist person who’s standing in front of me did it. Every black racist person standing in front of me did it. This ain’t that coincidental… Who killed Malcolm?

Shortly thereafter, he told another reporter “I'm telling the killer or killers to reload."

The second comment came almost simultaneous to Geoffrey Davis announcing he was running for his brother’s seat and the press’ realization that Geoffrey’s election was virtually a foregone conclusion.

The strange and revolting comments, and the seeming inevitability of a man clearly a couple of Big Mac’s short of a Happy Meal becoming a member of the City Council for a full term without any real election could only have alarmed the press more if a living breathing Othneil Askew had been the only candidate left standing.

The press smelled smoke, and knew there was likely to be fire.

They went looking.

They were not disappointed.

Arrests. Convictions. Child Support issues. Orders of Protection. Some of the events of a fairly recent vintage.  

The press was on a crusade to make sure there was a real election.

Even if one thought Geoffrey Davis was an ideal Councilman, it was hard to argue that voters shouldn’t have a choice.

The news stories ensured they had one.   

The Working Families Party had also nominated James Davis, and they also had a Committee on Vacancies on his petitions; one which did not consist of Davis’ mother. They nominated Letitia James, who been the runner up in the prior election.

The Republican sacrificial lamb candidate, Frank Voyticky, graciously decided to step aside the only way he legally could do so—by leaving the State (he moved to Ireland for the duration of the campaign). The GOP then nominated Tony Herbert.

Davis now had two credible opponents.  

Contrary to Rock, the press did not ignore Geoffrey’s advanced degree or his resume. For example, see: here, here, here and  here.

What the press could not ignore was Davis response, or rather, lack of response to their questions. This did not merely extend to Davis’ legal issues, it also extended to the press’ efforts to get answers from Davis to questions on political issues, most of which Davis appeared to lack any acquaintance with.  

As to the Democratic Party, few leader or officials felt any obligation to a candidate thrust upon them in such an undemocratic manner.

By contrast, David Weprin’s much criticized nomination in a special election by a Party Leader (himself chosen by elected District Leaders) after extensive consultations with Party Leaders in the affected catchment area, was a model of representative democracy.  

Can anyone blame these other Democrats for not feeling bound by the matriarchal whims of Thelma Davis?

Especially when the winner was going to be a Democrat regardless?

At any rate, Geoffrey did get pro forma support from his County Leader, Clarence Norman, although Party Spokesman Bob Liff could barely bring himself to admit it: "We are in the business of supporting Democratic candidates, and Geoffrey Davis is the Democratic candidate,"   

Contrast this to Vito Lopez, who can’t even bring himself to support Democratic candidates who actually were chosen by enrolled Democratic voters in contested Party primaries.

Perhaps Rock is right that Geoffrey Davis should not have to pay his entire life for his mistakes (though child support means he will pay at least 18 years for some of them), but  pardon me for thinking that such youthful mistakes, combined with more recent arrests, might have been legitimately seen  as relevant when they concerned a candidate without any record of public service or knowledge of the issues, who’d proven prone to delusional conspiracy theories and was chosen by his mother and his mother alone.

I think this is one of those rare instances where it can be said unequivocally that the press performed a public service.

Kudos as well to the GOP and WFP.

The defeat of Geoffrey Davis was a victory for democracy.

As to the shameful sin of beating poor Geoffrey by telling the truth about?

Well, as Malcolm might say:

By Any Means Necessary.