Author: Gatemouth

So much nonsense has been written recently about the Southern Brooklyn State Senate seats lately that my head is spinning from all the spinning.

A legal symposium on Bob Dylan and the Ruben “Hurricane” Carter case. The keys point for me were denial of due process and Scarlet Rivera's violin.

Multiple sources report that, encouraged by strong southern Brooklyn performances in recent elections, the State Senate Republicans are planning to take advantage of the much anticipated death of <

Andrew Cuomo’s line, that he's a "progressive Democrat who's broke," is a fabulous, witty and insightful gem.

The Odd Couple: The two State Senate Democrats who voted against every budget bill were Tom Duane and Ruben Diaz.

Though I've sometimes had problems with Nettie Mayersohn’s record, her story is one of a kind.

In 1982, as a female leader, she defied her Co-Leader Donnie Manes, who was then at the height of his power as both Broough Preisdent and Queens democratic boss, and got their local club to dump Manes' handpicked Assemblyman (and virtually lock Donnie out for the summer), and then she cleaned his clock in the primary.

As an Assemblywoman Mayersohn continued her record of not going with the flow, often in ways that annoyed her conference and her leadership.

Worst of Both Worlds Department: Least surprising budget revelation: Given a choice between folding on funding cuts or LIFO, the Teacher's Union chose to save LIFO.

I may be in the minority here, but I am firmly of the belief that the fights over the public and party office vacancies in the 54^th AD might turn out to be much bigger than one Assembly seat and one District Leadership. It might very well the first shot in the revolution–or not; Ed Towns might very well just be making a play of some sort.

I think that might not have been Towns original intent, but like in “Duck Soup” I think someone’s just been called an “Upstart” and the road to war may now be irreversible.

As I’ve noted before, the fact that my house, practically on the shores of the Gowanus Canal, shares a councilman with Greenpoint is not, in and of itself, proof that the lines for Brooklyn City Council districts are preposterous.

Districts have to end somewhere and, even under the fairest of plans, some neighborhood is going to get split in a manner which will seem unfair to those so victimized.

That being said the lines are ridiculous.

As we all know, the figures are out and everyone with the software is free to draw their own fantasy reapportionment maps.

Me, I’d prefer to concentrate on realities, and my intent is to dwell upon them, no matter how unpleasant, as I embark upon an occasional series on the topic of Redistricting.