Having suffered too many times watching Gerson Borrero on New York One, I'm inclined to believe that he possesses special expertise on the topic of loco behavior, but Gerson’s assertion that Ydanis Rodriguez is the Council's craziest member is rebutted in its entirety by the existence of Charles Barron.
Further, Borrero's complaint that Rodriguez "managed to alienate his own caucus when he took a committee chair position without consulting with them," omits mention of the fact that the specific purpose of this maneuver was to deny that slot to Barron.
It is unclear why this should bother the Post; frankly, it is probably the highpoint of Rodriguez's record.
And what's wrong with Rodriguez being "an ineffectual crackpot"? Do we really want our crackpots operating at optimum effectiveness?
Anyway, I think Rodriguez is a consensus builder; sometime in the last week, he's managed to have everyone in NYC agree with him for at least five minutes, and now he's brought us all into consensus.
Borrero also complains about Rodriguez's spotty record of participating in debates.
Well, at least he's never debated Curtis Sliwa (which is nearly as bad as helping him reproduce–what is it with the City Council anyway?) New York’s craziest councilman www.nypost.com
GATE: Though Hakeem Jeffries's election seems close certain, the Times seems intent on putting a kinehora on it.
As they say in Yiddish, “pooh, pooh.”
Normally, I would not comment upon such a subjective circle jerk as the paper of the establishment opining upon who has power, and certainly not to diss a candidate for whose victory I pray, but I cannot help noting that a district with a black population of under 53% does not qualify as "heavily black," that the district does not include the Crown Heights Hasidim, and that Jeffries can only be defined as a "moderate" if one defines "liberal" as "wanting to inflict violent injury upon white people."
COLIN: not that you're not completely spot on, but on education issues, he might be a moderate… and on LGBT issues, Barron might be the moderate
GATE: Had a conversation with a black writer last week about whether Barron's stance on LGTB issues gives him an opening among Orthodox Jews. I told her the rainbow aspect of Barron's coalition was that he united Yellow Stars and Pink Triangles. The Powers of New York www.nytimes.com
The case for Barron, made by a man most famous for reading over the radio a poem containing the lines: "Hey Jewboy, with that yarmulke on your head, You pale-face Jewboy — I wish you were dead." The People’s Republic faces a great challenge! www.amsterdamnews.com
The efforts by Vito Lopez and Nydia Velazquez to intervene on opposite Hasidic sides on behalf of their political allies in a dispute over an Ulster County summer camp permitting process is unseemly in so many ways that it is hard to count (though slightly more so for Lopez, whose district, unlike Velazquez's new one, includes relatively few of the camp's customers–depriving him even of the lame excuse that he is just helping his constituents).
Seems like choosing who runs a camp owned by a religious institution is not the business of any branch of government which does not wear black robes; the black robes have decided it is none of their own business—now, everyone else should follow suit.
Lopez also gets the disingenuous award, saying "She’s taken a minority position and maybe she might even win. Is that a smart political decision? You add up the numbers,” when, as the article makes clear, thanks to Lopez, the Zali group backed by Lopez wouldn’t vote for Nydia if she morphed into the matriarchs and parted the East River. Satmar war camps www.nypost.com
These fake testicles have legs.
I should also note that Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis's testicle obsession is long standing. Just nuts www.nypost.com
Given the hit Democrats have taken in reapportionment (mostly a by-product of their 2010 State legislative losses), the fact that the Dems are poised to pick up seats in the House is pretty miraculous, but barring an unlikely Obama landslide, they are unlikely to regain control. How close is the GOP to losing the House? www.politico.com
Publicly financed Sharia courts; what would Pam Geller say? The Jewish Chronicle – Why Islamic law is official in Israel website.thejc.com