Category: News and Opinion

There has been a raging debate over immigration reform which has been taking place for too many years now. I have kept relatively silent for many solid reasons. One of which is the fact that I am foreign born. I didn’t want the silly people who troll these blogs to accuse me of some built-in bias.

Despite the fact that I do try to look at issues objectively for the most part, there are those trolls who just post crap in the threads for whatever reason their strange minds perceive. Recently, I was pleasantly surprised when V.J. Machiavelli told me to my face, that I am relatively open minded about most issues (or something to that effect); since VJ is one of those blog trollers I observe and study. He is very lucid when you meet him in person. He is nowhere near the silly and strange poster he sometimes projects.  I found him to be quite engaging: pleasantly so.

I have known John Sampson for near twenty years now. He is one of the most likeable politicians in Brooklyn. Period. He is not the type to make a lot of waves, nor is he the type to go looking for enemies, controversies or problems. He is essentially a diplomat. He is also a nice guy. He honestly tries to get along with all people. Unlike many elected blacks, he doesn’t harp on race and ethnicity – even though he skillfully played up his Caribbean-American heritage /ethnicity, to gain his initial victory fourteen years ago. His father was born in Guyana, South America; and his mother was an Afro from the South.

Conservative “think tanks” continue to push the so-called “fair tax” plan — replacing the progressive federal income tax with a regressive national sales tax. Their argument is that the U.S. needs to tax work and investment (income) less and consumer spending more, to rebalance the economy. The fact that the tax burden would shift from the wealthy to the middle class and poor, in this view, is merely an unimportant (and undisclosed) side effect. Meanwhile, a Federal Deficit Reduction Commission may recommend a federal value added tax – a sales tax that is more difficult to cheat – in addition to the income tax. Former Fed Chairman Volker has suggested it. The reason is the United States is broke, and we are facing higher taxes and diminished public services as a result. On April 15 the U.S. Senate, dominated by members of Generation Greed who do not want to admit what they have done to their children and the country, passed a non-binding resolution objecting to the addition of a value added tax by an overwhelming margin.

As usual, there is an option that I would be in favor of that no one is likely to consider – enacting a regressive value added tax as a replacement for the even more regressive payroll tax. If a shift in the tax burden from work to spending were the goal, and the shift from the rich to the rest were not, Republicans and conservatives would be in favor. If restraining excess consumerism while raising revenue without hurting exports, which President Obama proposed to double, were the goal Democrats would be in favor. And yet I have not heard anyone make this proposal.

Time to End School Bullying

By Michael Boyajian

My fondest memories of childhood were of joyously finger painting in New York City kindergarten.  Then mid-term my family moved to Long Island where I entered another kindergarten class as the new guy in school and my happy world came crashing down to a sad end.

Usually, when I disagree with one of my fellow writers on Room Eight New York Politics, I would simply go to the thread of the article and express my disagreement; but I couldn’t do that last week since the thread was closed off from comments in Dominic Carter’s last column. Carter wrote an article suggesting that Bill Thompson (former Comptroller of NYC) is the potential frontrunner to become the next mayor of this city. He believes that it is Thompson’s race to lose. Dominic Carter is way off base and way too early with his analysis. I don’t even think Thompson will be a candidate when the time comes; but we shall see. 

In New York Politics, it’s never too early to talk about the Race for Mayor.

The last contest was only five months ago, but that’s not stopping us from looking ahead to 2013.

A recent Marist Poll, with its excellent director of polling Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, had some very interesting numbers.

I was shocked to see despite the very strong finish of former City Comptroller Bill Thompson to Mayor Bloomberg, and another way to state this, Thompson’s much closer than expected loss—that Thompson in the Marist Poll is actually trailing Congressman Anthony Weiner.