Category: News and Opinion

LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE: SENATOR KEVIN PARKER VERSUS WELLINGTON SHARPE (AGAIN). Remember to vote on Tuesday Sept 14th

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In New York City, political activists know that September is primary month; and soon enough Democrat State Senator Kevin Parker faces an old nemesis (Wellington Sharpe) in a primary for Brooklyn’s 21st senatorial district. It will be an intriguing contest: so fasten your seat belts all you political junkies.

The relationship between these two individuals has been “volatile” (to say the least). They have been in and out the courts for various reasons -with criminal, civil and political charges flying left and right. Sharpe has filed two legal actions against Parker: one civil and the other with criminal implications. Senator Parker has also filed twice in court: both times he attempted to knock Sharpe off the ballot. Parker has failed in both his legal political attempts to avoid a primary battle with Sharpe. Sharpe’s actions are a bit different in terms of results.

The Upcoming Televised Debates

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To those of you interested in the political process, and I hope that is everyone, it’s that time of year, to start watching LIVE DEBATES on NY1.

First of all, no organization in this state comes close to doing as great a job on debates as NY1. Hours and hours of preparation go into the debates. Hours and Hours of meetings and research.

It doesn’t matter if your politics are Left, Right, Conservative, Liberal, Progressive. Or Independent. These debates are an opportunity for the public, a “snapshot” for you to see the candidates without some type of a media filter.

The Opposite of Non-Partisan Elections

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Mr. Skurnick has pointed out that the proposed language in the charter text amendment concerning signature requirements in the draft report is different than what was described in the executive summary, which I read before writing the post below. Hopefully, the language in draft text, not in the executive summary, is what is intended to be done. The executive summary is confusing, and should be modified, if the intent is make the number of signatures required for independent candidates the same as for party primaries. The executive summary language is below.

What Would A Pension Cost For You?

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As some readers might recall, I wrote a series of posts based on a model of how much the pensions initially promised to New York’s public employees should have cost, how much they were underfunded based on excessive investment return assumptions, and how much some of the major pension enhancements (among the dozens) of the past 15 years and pension spiking have added to the cost. I found that most of New York’s public employees were promised pensions that, properly funded, would have cost 11.8% of their pay, with 8.8% paid by taxpayers and 3.0% by the employees themselves. For those in physically demanding jobs, the total cost would have been 16.2% of pay, with 13.2% paid by taxpayers; for police and fire it was 29.6% almost all paid by taxpayers. Subsequent deals and pension spiking have (just deals I’m aware of) more than doubled the expected taxpayer cost of pensions for teachers and those benefit from the “traditional pension incentives” repeatedly offered, while also drastically increasing the cost for workers in other categories.

Let’s say, however, that you are not a person who is in a position to live decades without contributing any thing to anyone else, and force other people who are worse off to pay for it, the way the public employee unions and politicians have? What does the model say about your retirement, assuming retirement for you will mean what it has generally meant historically – a few years of leisure at the end of a long working life? To answer that question, I have added a “reasonable” retirement scenario to the model, and find that you had better be saving 10.0% of your salary or more, assuming you are paying for your entire retirement yourself (or almost all of it).

Silver: The Dictator Governors Made Me Do It

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That's what he said, but it isn't true. He had no trouble saying no when he wanted to, unlike his members who are required to say yes. What he said yes to is what he has done. Silver's supporters have been given taken the highest state and local tax burden as a share of personal income in the U.S., and have provided less in return, mostly by diverting resources to those who do not work. Yes the Republicans and their contractor and Wall Street backers got their piece and their tax breaks too. And to keep the serfs from objecting, most of the cost was pushed off to a future none of them cared about to be inhabited by people none of them care about either.  We will pay more and more, and get less and less, as the beneficiaries die or leave for Florida with the difference.

Pataki and Bruno are gone, Thank God, but their damage lives on. Silver's still increases.  There were no dictators.  Silver and his backers got their piece of our hides.

SAY IT AINT SO AL: PLEASE SAY IT AINT SO.

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Of all the well known black leaders in this country, Al Sharpton has been one of the most enigmatic. Who else could have worn an FBI wire and still maintain a certain level of credibility in black nationalistic circles?  Who else could be so flawed in character -over his years of activism- and still have candidates such as Hilary Clinton (and now Andrew Cuomo) kissing his ring?  How the hell he has managed to stay out of prison is in itself a mystery: but then mysterious too have been all those fires that seem to have sprung up around him over the years; especially when the FEC, IRS, or some other governmental regulatory agency was on his back, or on the back of one of his organizations. 

E-Mosque-culated (The Gateway)

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Azi Paybarah says: GOP #nysen candidate Bruce Blakeman: "mosque in shadow of ground zero mocks the death of my nephew, Tommy" #wtc #groundzero #islam

Gatemouth says: wow–a two-headed cheap exploitation, but no matter how hard Blakeman plays for pathos, I can't stop laughing about how a politician emasculated by the public exposure that Paul McCartney was fucking his wife (sadly, his sole real claim to fame) is now running a therapeutic race for the US Senate, as he tries to soothe his limp and puny wounded masculinity with the political equivalent of buying a big sports car he can't afford.

　

Privatizing Social Security is Pure Nonsense

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Privatizing Social Security Is Pure Nonsense

 

By Michael Boyajian

 

The Republicans’ plan to privatize social security has raised its ugly head again only this time voters know it’s a stinker of an idea.  If social security had been privatized during the Bush Administration then many of our seniors would be out on the street because the financial meltdown would have erased most of their investment in an instant.

The President Stands For The Mosque

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The President Stands For the Mosque

 

By Michael Boyajian

 

The President of the United States, the leader of the free world, Barack Obama, has weighed in on the building of the mosque in lower Manhattan and rather than blowing in the wind with the opinion polls he made a firm stand in support of the mosque and American Muslims wishing to practice their religion in peace.  His command of the bully pulpit was reminiscent of another strong leader, Theodore Roosevelt.

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