Author: Gatemouth

GATEMOUTH (7/24/08): In contrast to Dubya's Aggressive Isolationism, [Beinart] argues that “American greatness cannot simply be asserted; it must be proved….That American leadership is not American Empire.” As Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. said…, “The replacement of containment by the Bush Doctrine of preventive war…has screwed everything up with illegitimacy, tactical blunders, and utopian fantasy.”

Today in Berlin, 200,000 Germans gathered at a rally and waived American flags without an iota of irony. It was Camelot all over again; this time with a "Dark Knight", as they profoundly wished for an end to George Dubya‘s dark night. Their lips might have still have been mouthing “No”, but they looked at Barack Obama and their eyes said “Yes, Yes, Yes”. Or maybe, "Yes We Can"…

…Barack Obama is a Peter Beinart Democrat; someone who can restore American Leadership because he believes in American Honor, someone who understands that the first step in leading any alliance is to listen to your allies if you want to keep them….

Neil Young on Gatemouth: 'You're all just pissin' in the wind, You don't know it but you are."

Actually, I knew it all along. Two weeks ago, I said:

"this day is bound to be repeated shortly in Citywide form as Mark Green spends the next two weeks of his life preparing for an ass-kicking he can do nothing to prevent, as he become this year’s Liz Holtzman about to get the stuffings taken out of him by this year’s Alan Hevesi (possibly in more than one manner)."

“And some (like, it seems to me, our friend Gatemouth) simply think all candidates are pretty much the same and despair of finding excitement in supporting a candidate…in fact they seem disdainful of anyone who actually shows some enthusiasm for a candidate.” —MOLE333

Although I once made the observation above the subject of a long meditation, I cannot deny its essential truth. Though some of them are fun to drink and swap stories with, I don’t much care for most pols.

Though I’ve long disdained the oldtime hacks and their admirers, who measure accomplishment only in terms of bringing home treasure, I’ve not been impressed with the late models either.

With our pension system operating like a runaway bus which might explode if it slows down, what is called for is a City Comptroller with a reputation for honesty and integrity so shining that we are blinded by the bright light of their integrity.

Instead, we are facing a choice between two competitors–arguably, the two best competitors who sought the office this year–who’ve not blinded our vision with the bright light of their integrity, but rather, blurred it with the fog they’ve generated.

John Liu is seemingly incapable of admitting the simple truth about the most basic details of his own biography. By contrast, David Yassky has never lied about his personal history, preferring instead to confine his distortions to where he stands on any issue he may have to vote upon.

Dateline: 7/8/09 Washington DC

Patrick giggled as he read the words of praise for the new Lieutenant Governor published on “Room Eight”

“The man…had brought the MTA into the 20^th Century and just last year endeavored to bring it into the 21st;….

Today, in a stunning act of audacity, [The Governor] named him as Lieutenant Governor.

Bravo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A DAILY GOTHAM WRITER (7/25/08): I don't go out of my way to trash people to my left. I don't do that, despite the occasional temptation to do so, for the simple reason that I don't consider it strategically wise, and because I'm more interested in beating republicans. This is the Overton Window.

You, by contrast, invest copious amounts of effort into tearing down people who are on your side. When I critique Democrats, it's usually from the left or on the basis of good-government arguments. You do so from the right. What you do with that is validate rightwing frames. Congratulations if this has never occurred to you before.

Our Parent, Our Ruler; I have sinned before thee.

For the sin of endorsing worthy candidates, who seemed to have been jinxed as a result.

For the sin of failing to endorse and write on behalf of candidates I should have, because it was the path of least resistance.

For the sin of listening to imbeciles about who the strongest prospects were in districts I knew too little about (yes, Steve Behar did end up runner-up to Paul Vallone in that he ran fourth to Vallone’s third).

Even before last night’s Waterloo, those of us on the center and left who’ve railed endlessly against the perfidy of the WFP/ACORN/DFS axis of evil have found ourselves hamstrung by several inconvenient factors.

The first is that our outrage has inconveniently coincided with Republican outrage mostly focused on ACORN slovenliness, as opposed to illegality. Even I have defended ACORN from such calumny in the past, though Republicans may have a point about ACORN’s failure to adequately separate the not-for-profit sectors from the political sector. Of course, Republicans may want to reflect upon the fact that their insistence on privatizing so many government functions is what led ACORN to be the recipient of so many government contracts during their administrations.

Earlier in the year, it became clear that personal circumstances were going to keep me from endorsing in the 33^rd Councilmanic District, where I happen to live.

But nothing is going to stop me from saying who you shouldn’t vote for.

There are SEVEN candidates in this race. Only three of them (Steve Levin, Jo Anne Simon and Evan Theis) have any grasp on reality. The other four are running for a seat in the Borough of Oz.

Ken Baer is a pathetic little round-faced man , without a friend or a clue, constantly smiling without reason or comprehension and walking around in a lonely fog as other people cruelly laugh at him.

Dybbuk, shortly to enter the first grade, had just finished a week of drama camp, and was now set to return to the spa for children founded years before by a front group for the Communist Party.

“Bubbe” he asked his maternal grandmother, “did you go to camp?”

“No,” she sighed, “thank G-d we had an attic.”

Years later, Bubbe‘s cousin tried to get Yad Vashem to honor the Polish family who’d valiantly hidden them for four long years, giving them food when they barely had enough for themselves. Sadly, the only surviving member, who was but a child at the time, was too afraid of what the neighbors would think if they learned her family had hidden Jews.