Category: News and Opinion

They’re Taking Our Public Services Away and Making Us Pay

|

Suddenly, and a decade too late, the press is buzzing with talk of state and local government bankruptcies.  State and local governments face a lost decade due to debts and retirement obligations, run up by privileged members of previous generations so they could have a better deal, according to the Wall Street Journal.  “Besides the near-term crisis, the other similarity states have with the old GM is an overhang of debt. Between 2000 and 2008, state debts—distinct from other municipal debts—almost doubled to about $1 trillion, according to the Census Bureau.” The burden of this debt has been masked by low interest rates, but these cannot be expected to continue. New York State, particularly New York City, is near the top in debts as a share of its residents's income.

“The bigger issue is retirement obligations. Like GM, many localities have struck generous deals with public-sector workers. In part, this reflected a desire to appease unions with promises for tomorrow that didn't have to be paid for until well after the next election. In a new study, the Pew Center on the States estimates there was a $1 trillion funding gap on $3.35 trillion of state health-care and retirement obligations as of fiscal year 2008.” The New York State pension system is among the least underfunded, although public services will have to be gutted to keep it that way. But the separate New York City pension system, and the MTA, are among the most underfunded.

What if the President were a Buddhist: A Direction Towards World Unity and Peace

|

What if the President were a Buddhist:  A Direction Towards World Unity and Peace

 

By Michael Boyajian

 

With the Dalai Lama’s visit to the White House there is speculation that may lead us to wonder what the world would be like if the President were a Buddhist.  He would surely realize that for the world to survive it must become unified so that world peace could therefore exist.  This realization would be an awakening.  When the Buddha was first asked what he was he replied I am awake.

Weight Bias Discrimination

|

Weight Bias Discrimination

 

By Michael Boyajian

 

Discrimination is a varied problem crossing all demographics of the population and most of its forms are protected against by a host of federal and state laws.  However, the Obesity Society reports that 66% of Americans are overweight or obese and Yale University’s Rudd Center goes on in its study to state that 43% of these people have been discriminated against because of their weight.

Can Mort Zuckerman Buy A Dictionary For The Daily News?

|

A really stupid story from today’s Daily News –

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/02/16/2010-02-16_i_got_intimidating_call_sez_monserrate_backer.html

A man suing to keep Hiram Monserrate in office claims he received an "intimidating" phone call from an assemblyman looking to replace the ousted Queens state senator.

Michael Nardiello told the Daily News he heard from Assemblyman Jose Peralta (D-Queens) last week after adding his name to a suit fighting Monserrate's historic Senate expulsion.

Talkin’ Trash and Filchin’ Good Names

|

Dateline: 2/16/10–Boynton Beach Florida (and yes, I will be visiting Maurice Gumbs)

Life is too short, and those unfortunate enough to be living in communities like East New York cannot be blamed if they decide to derive their entertainment through their elected officials, whether it be Councilman Chuckles Barron or their former Assemblywoman, Diane "House of the Rising Sum" Gordon.

When City Council Speaker Christine Quinn forced the firing of Councilman Barron’s Chief of Staff, Viola Plummer, for advocating an attempt on the life of another Council Member, I was shocked and bothered.

THE VINES (# 01 – 2010)

|

In my last Vines column (see # 10-09), I told you that I had inside info, which stated that upon finding out Eliot Spitzer’s team had tagged him for the Lieutenant-governor slot, David Paterson said: “they surely haven’t vetted me for this job”. And now Paterson goes up on a local radio station and directly corroborates said info. This had been a news item on the blogs (see Elizabeth Benjamin’s blog) last week. I hereby reiterate what I wrote in a column recently, calling for mainstream media (and alternative mediums too) to do a better job vetting candidates before elections are held; this is a responsibility placed squarely on the shoulders of the fourth and fifth estates (non-identical twins). And by fifth estate, I refer to all the alternative mediums that have sprung up with all the technological advancements in communications, since the founding fathers ratified the constitution (and the fourth estate). For example: the internet, twittering, blogging, texting and the like, can now be considered the fifth estate. 

The Intermediate Term Political Outlook

|

According to the Historical Statistics of the United States, the population of the 13 colonies in 1780 was about 2.8 million, compared with around 19 million in New York State today. Which means that David Paterson, Rick Lazio and Andrew Cuomo, given the population they are drawn from, could be compared directly with George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the first three Presidents of the United States.

What will politics be like a decade from now? After a decade in which taxes on those without special exemptions rise each year, but public services are cut, as more and more money is diverted to the debts and retiree benefits older generations have promised themselves? A decade during which younger generations see their standard of living fall below what their parents’ received, and they struggle to pay those higher taxes, even as top executives continue to receive massive pay and bonuses and public employees continue to retire in their 40s or 50s to a life of leisure? A decade in which those born after 1956 approach old age with no pensions and little savings, and are told that public safety net benefits for seniors will no longer be there for them? And who do we have as possible leaders as we head into this abyss? Paterson, Lazio and Cuomo, three creatures of the system supported by those who benefit from it. As Generation Greed, from the public employee unions to the lobbyists to the advertisers to Fox News, seeks to continue to avoid the uncomfortable truths and deflect the outrage through deception, as millions of people refuse to acknowledge the reality of a society that, collectively, has felt the right to take out more than has been put in, it is quite possible that U.S. politics five or ten years from now will end up something like this.

Saving the Endangered City Worker

|

Saving the Endangered City Worker

 

By Michael Boyajian

 

There is an old saying that goes what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.  If you’re the billionaire mayor of New York though, this axiom does not apply.

 

You see it was alright for the mayor to bend the rules and abolish term limits so he could run for a third term yet if you are a city worker who has left the city bounds you automatically lose your job because  of Mayor Bloomberg’s strict residency rules for city jobs.  You must live in the city to work for the city with few exceptions.