Category: News and Opinion

The Gateway (Marty Golden: All Foreskin, No Schvantz Edition) [UPDATED—NEWSFLASH Gate Criticizes Obama]

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GOLDEN SHOWER; NO PLUMBING (AKA MARTY GOLDEN'S MISSING EQUIPTMENT): Cross-Party Petition challenges aren't quite as a rare as the dodo, but nonetheless deserve distinction. Voters deserve choices in every general election.  

State Senate candidate Mike DiSanto is sincere and hardworking, but if one had to profile his suitability for this district, you couldn't find much more going for him than the vowel at the end of his name, and that attribute didn't help Obama much here.

The incumbent, Marty Golden, has not faced a general election since 2002; one might think that, in a year when Republicans might actually do well, he'd welcome an opportunity to actually show his strength, which is probably considerable.

Instead, Golden proves himself a political castrato, as spineless as a pea-nutless butter and jellyfish sandwich, afraid to let the public have an actual choice in a November election.

Years ago, as a cop, Golden once got in trouble for losing his gun, which was never recovered; but I know where it is.

Next to his balls.

And they both shoot blanks. the albany project:: Senator Martin Golden Attempts to Knock Mike DiSanto off Ballot www.thealbanyproject.com  

The Cost of Pension Enhancements Part II

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I had to cut my prior post on the cost of pension enhancements short because it was already too long, and I was out of gas in any event, so I’ll finish the analysis here. To review, according to the model described in this post and present in the attached spreadsheet, I found that for those now approaching retirement from New York City, New York State and other New York local governments, the state had promised, when the employees were hired, pensions that would cost the taxpayer 8.8% of payroll for most workers, 13.2% of payroll for those in physically taxing jobs such as sanitation workers, and 28.7% of payroll for police and fire. But they didn’t set aside enough money to pay for those pensions, using the stock market bubble of the 1990s as an excuse (and still doing so a decade after it popped), as I showed in this post. In addition, the pensions were drastically, retroactively increased compared with those promised, in a series of deals between the public employee unions, representing those workers who were already or about to retire, and politicians seeking political support. At the expense of the general public, particularly those worse off, and the future, now the present. For most public employees, as this post showed, the result was pensions that, for those getting early retirement incentives, cost double what had been promised. Little of this has been paid for, and under a proposal by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, local governments outside New York City would not pay for another 10 years, up from the three year postponement the state legislature just passed.

So what about the cost of pension enhancements and other deals for those in physically taxing titles, police and fire? Read on.

Congressman John Hall for Veterans and the Environment

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Congressman John Hall for Veterans and the Environment

 

By Michael Boyajian

 

We are often quite aware of our soldiers when they are fighting for us overseas and in harm’s way but we often forget about them when they return home in dire need of medical treatment.  Not Congressman John Hall.  During my recent interview of the congressman he reported that he has been battling on behalf of veterans for many years.

The Death of the American Sunbelt

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The Death of the American Sunbelt

 

By Michael Boyajian

 

For decades we were conditioned to believe that the future of the country rested in the Sunbelt.  The Northeast and Upper Midwest were rusting away as the Sunbelt grew.  The idea peaked with the Los Angeles Olympics in the 1980s where the California dream showed off all it had.  But the idea reached a plateau with that although the region did continue to grow economically and politically with its population growth.

The Making of an American Political Prisoner

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The Making of an American Political Prisoner

 

By Michael Boyajian

 

So you leave New York City for the quiet life in Fishkill in the suburbs of Dutchess County only you discover a dark secret.  Developers had wanted to pave over the graves of hundreds of revolutionary war soldiers and most of the site, known as the Fishkill Supply Depot or New York’s Valley Forge, has been developed with unimaginable losses of historic artifacts at the hands of a back hoe.

The Gateway (Introducing “The Best of Gatey” Edition)

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Today my regular “Gateway” column will start implementing a new feature already present on Gate‘s Facebook Page, a regular repost from my “Best of Gate” archives. Sometimes,. As it does today, this feature will eschew high quality in favor of pertinence.

Last night, was the NYS deadline for filing nominating petitions for candidates running in primaries of ballot status parties; in honor of what was once a major nite of fun for me (I was the guy passing out the cigars at the Board of Elections after-party), today's "Best of Gate" is a long, mediocre and partially plagiarized O. Henry story about ballot access. Candidate B | Room Eight www.r8ny.com

　

Boycott this Boycott

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Community Response to AHAVA Boycott‏
From:  rabbi@bhsbrooklyn.org
Sent: Thu 7/15/10 5:45 PM
   

I just today received this compelling, researched and extremely informative letter from my friend and colleague Rabbi Samuel Weintraub of the Kane Street Synagogue in Cobble Hill. It offers a description of the organization behind the boycott protests of AHAVA products at Ricky’s. I am sharing it with you at his request and my endorsement.

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