Author: Gatemouth

The Gateway (Reshma Saujani Learns Yiddish Edition)

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I don't know if one could call it ethnic pandering, but Congressional candidate Reshma Saujani has gone out of her way to show she knows the meaning of the word "chutzpah," by criticizing her opponent, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, for being insufficiently supportive of the Young Men's Islamic Association proposed to be located at the Holy mother Coat Factory.

On August 4th, when asked about the Park51 facility Saujani said, “I think we need to make sure none of the funding is coming from any terrorist organization, I think we need a process to do that.”

This is a position that puts her to the right of GOP Attorney General Candidate Dan Donovan.

Further, Saujani then upped the ante, proving she's not only a panderer, but totally ignorant of how local government operates. Her answer to who'd conduct such a complicated investigation: “This is where I think the community board can get involved and get engaged in doing that.”

As I pointed out previously, thanks to the efforts of the boyfriend of Saujani Supporter and former Pataki Administration Banking Commissioner Diane Taylor, NYC's Community Boards barely have enough money to evaluate local zoning and monitor City services in their areas, yet Saujani wants to saddle them with national security investigations unjustified by probable cause.

The State Senate Primaries (Part One): Play it in the Key of Be Sharp

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For Democrats, liberals, “progressives” and reformers, this year’s elections for New York State Senate usually are thought to involve achievement of three goals:

1) keeping the Democratic Majority

2) Actually making the Democratic Majority Democratic (with a large “D,” though small “d” would be nice too).

3) Ensuring the passage of same-sex marriage.

There are surely other aims as well, but (4) general liberal public policy goals (provided we can agree what they are, and (5) process reforms, get talked about far far less, though they are usually thought to go part and parcel with goals (1) and (2).

The Gateway (Soap and Fertilizer Edition)

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Carl Paladino wants to send the poor to prison to learn personal hygiene.

Query: will there be soap on a rope? Carl Paladino Will Teach Poor People to Stop Being So Dirty nymag.com

　

Maybe Espada didn't report the cost of the food he gives away because he grows it himself; he certainly has an ample supply of fertilizer. Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada runs afoul of state Board of Elections over food giveaways – NYP www.nypost.com

　

The Gateway (Rauf Going Edition) [slightly revised]

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Fox is giving aid and comfort to the enemy; don't we call that treason? Op-Ed Columnist – How Fox Betrayed Petraeus – NYTimes.com www.nytimes.com

 

A devastating column which kills, burns and scatters the ashes at sea of any idea that there can be another site in Lower Manhattan for the Young Men's Islamic Association.

Money quotes:

"'There are a lot of developers and a lot of agencies that know a lot about downtown,' said Paterson, who indicated he was looking for 'surplus property or land transfers or title changes that would ameliorate this situation.' It's an interesting idea, except for one problem – there aren't any properties like that. A half-dozen sources who make their living worrying about downtown real estate – in government and in the private sector – say they know of no other suitable space. More telling is that none of them has heard even a whisper of a rumor that Paterson, or anyone on his behalf, has started looking. 'I don't think there's anything there,' said one of them. 'I think this is just an idea of the governor's. Nothing more.'"

AND

"Still, let's imagine the governor could find another spot, one he could have some influence over. For example, the MTA owns the cash-cow parking garage over the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, but has in the past been curious about building a tower over the site. Since Albany regularly has its way with the MTA, suppose it master-planned a new office or apartment building there, setting aside space for Park51 as a community benefit. Suppose it found a lender willing to build a tower in a still-shaky market. Suppose it even won approval from multiple layers of government. Suppose Park51 decided to bow to the pressure to move, despite their constitutional right to stay there. That pipe dream would end up with an Islamic community center five blocks from Ground Zero. Does Paterson really think that would be enough to satisfy the critics?" Gov. Paterson's 'plan' for new site for mosque near ground zero not anchored in reality www.nydailynews.com

Michael Goodwin, winner of the Coney Island Whitefish Award:

Goodwin's complete and totally despicability is exemplified by the joke which begins this column: "I just applied for a building permit for a new house. It was going to be 100 ft tall and 400 ft wide with 9 turrets at various heights and windows all over the place and a loud outside entertainment sound system. It would have parking for 200 old cars and I was going to paint it snot green with pink trim. The City Council told me to f- -k off. So I sent in the application again, but this time I called it a mosque. Work starts on Monday."

Unlike his colleague, Andrea Peyser, there is no evidence that Goodwin is mentally retarded, so therefore he must realize that the NYC Council had no right of approval over the Young Men's Islamic Association proposed to be located at the Holy Mother Coat Factory. Unlike the atrocity proposed in this joke, the so-called "Mosque" is an as of right facility.

Further, Goodwin must realize that the proponents of this facility asked for and received no special treatment (at least so far). In fact, as Goodwin surely knows, it is only the opponents of this facility who've called for special treatment, sometimes benign (government provided land somewhere else) and sometimes malignant (misuse of eminent domain and land use, landmarking and public utility laws, to be applied differently than to any other landholder, in order to stop the project).

The Gateway (All the Mosque Stuff Buried at the End Edition)

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Senate candidate Randy Credico on his ballot access problem:

"I'm still a bit mystified by the manner in which I was kicked off. At the end I only had 13,350 out of the necessary 15,000 signatures. I thought I was well over the top when I turned those suckers in with your pals at the Board of Elections. However, I knew …something weird was going on when I walked in and noticed half the people sitting in the lobby were waiting for me to drop off my share of the multi-candidate joint petition. The two others candidates on the petition had earlier submitted their "volumes" containing what I thought were 2/3rds of the 30,000 signatures we had agreed upon. Little did I know the two gentlemen who I was convinced were working with me were actually working against me. They turned in a wagonload of blank pages and then left Albany in brand new automobiles. The joke was on me as I was soon to discover. How I allowed those jack-offs to insinuate their sorry asses into my campaign is beyond my knowledge. But I hope they enjoy their new wheels. I am sure neither you, Senor Schumer, nor your campaign, had anything to do with this bizarre caper. No, not you guys!"

Put a sock in it Randy, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Not being particularly crazy about Senator Schumer, I actually signed Credico's petitions on one of the few sheets that was not a blank page. So while I'm not totally unsympathetic, I happen to know Credico had been warned by an election lawyer (who was also no fan of Schumer’s), that if Randy did business with Jimmy McMillan’s crazed anti-Semitic “rent is Too Damn High Party” he would get nothing but empty pages, and sure nuff Randy did business with Jimmy McMillan and blank pages was all that he got.

If he'd only listened, or read Gatemouth's blog, all of this could have been avoided. Congratulations Chuck! You've Knocked Me Off the Democratic Primary Ballot www.huffingtonpost.com

　

The Catechism According to Monsignor Gatemouth

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According to the N.Y. Times, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan has made a pronouncement that he would gladly help mediate between the proponents and critics of the Young Men’s Islamic Association proposed at the site of The Holy Mother Coat Factory.

Dolan said it was his “major prayer” that a compromise could be reached, and that while he had no strong feelings about the project, he might support finding a new location for the center.

Archbishop Dolan invoked the example of Pope John Paul II, who in 1993 ordered Carmelite nuns to move from their convent at the former Auschwitz death camp after protests from Jewish leaders. “He’s the one who said, ‘Let’s keep the idea, and maybe move the address…It worked there; might work here.”

The article goes on to note that Dolan defended the religious freedom of Muslims, but said the project’s leaders should heed the views of those who have criticized it as an affront to the memory of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. He added, “those who wonder about the wisdom of the situation of the mosque, near such a wounded site, ask what I think are some legitimate questions that I think deserve attention.”

The Hendrik Hertzberg article I linked the other day details the ways in which the convent comparison is either untruthful or positively repugnant (e.g., in their fundraising appeal, the convent’s sponsors described the convent as “a spiritual fortress and a guarantee…as proof of our desire to erase outrages so often done to the Vicar of Christ,” which would seem to allude to the irrefutable documentation of Pope Pius XII’s inactivity in the area of trying to prevent the Holocaust), so I won't dwell upon that point.

In fact, for the purpose of this article, I’ll stipulate that Dolan is correct in his analogy, and in his point that it is only the location that is objectionable, and not the mosque itself.

© Room Eight