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ROCK HACKSHAW: Look, I have always felt that the hard-core readers of the Daily Gotham blog are latte-drinking Park-slopers, who balance their lap-tops on their knees, as they sip on sidewalk cafes. My hard-core readers (not the same as readers of other contributors here on R8) are probably people who drink rum without chaser, in places where the tables are chained to the floor/lol.
ROCK AGAIN: Gatemouth is one-fifth black, four-fifths Jewish and usually full of Scotch.
Okay; confession time is here. My quest for the 40th council district seat has been rather challenging over these past six months (surprise…surprise…lol). Those of you, who have been following this race via both mainstream and non-conventional media, have probably kept score on my manager changes, fundraising obstacles (I limited any one contributor to only 200 dollars/ max), my fights with campaign staffers, lawyers and advisors, and the other issues that have swirled around this campaign. Those who have been following it through the grapevines probably have heard even more outlandish stories circulating the district: don’t believe the hype.
“I tried so hard to be true, like I promised I'd do…
Hey Jimmy, Jimmy, oh Jimmy Mack” — MARTHA REEVES (now a Detroit City Councilwoman, she understood politics even then ) AND THE VANDELLAS
It seems like only two days ago I reported on the unusual alliance between psychotic anti-Semitic lunatic Jimmy McMillan of the “Rent is Too Damn High Party” and Eugene Myrick, the “Chocolate Brides” publishing magnate attempting to challenge Marty Markowitz for Brooklyn Borough President.
It became clear today that I had to do a follow-up, so I blew off Shabbat services at my Reform congregation even though the Rabbi was schedule to give an important update on our Youth Group’s plan to blow up the Statue of Liberty (Yes, Jimmy you were right!).
Friday’s Daily News quotes Hiram Monserratte’s high-paid (by somebody) mouthpiece. Joe Tacopina as saying:
Over the past decade or so, the cable television station New York One (NY1) has emerged as a prominent source for local news in this city. They break many stories. They also highlight many pressing issues facing this city; plus they permanently keep their fingers on the pulse of New York’s politics: much more so than all the other news stations here. Political junkies in this city try not to miss Dominic Carter at 7pm on weekdays; it’s a political high most nights. The “Road to City Hall” program is definitely one of the best ways to find out about the citywide races for mayor, comptroller and public advocate. It is also informative as to races for borough president, district attorney and/or city council member.
I have now heard and read all over the media that Congress is having difficulty passing a health care reform measure because Republicans and Democrats have become more ideologically cohesive internally, and therefore in greater conflict with each other, making bi-partisan cooperation more difficult. I do not believe for a moment this is true. Ideologies are points of view about what would be best, or fairest, for everyone. The political parties are not cohesive advancers of such ideologies, they are servants of powerful interests. And it is powerful interests that benefit from things as they are, even as inequity grows, the economy is wrecked, and the future borrowed against, that are blocking health care reform – unless the “reform” would be a system that rewards the powerful and diminishes the future even more. Want proof? How about Democrats in opposition to progressive taxation (and in favor of regressive taxation), and Republicans against curbing government spending? Well, that’s what we have.
THE BROOKLYN PAPER: Borough President Markowitz’s campaign now says that it must kick the Beep’s sole Democratic primary challenger off the ballot to ensure the “integrity” of the balloting process.
On Monday, three Markowitz allies filed objections against nominating signatures collected by political newcomer Eugene Myrick, who handed in roughly 6,000 signatures more than the 4,000 required to secure a spot on the Sept. 15 primary ballot… …Myrick…said last week that “it’s ridiculous that someone would challenge a virtually unknown newcomer.”
“Why not let the democratic process play itself out with campaigning, debates and allowing the people to vote?” he asked. “What are they afraid of?”…
The U.S. Census Bureau has released elementary and secondary school finance data for fiscal year 2007, and I’m pleased to see one publication has already covered it and done a computation or two. My contribution is summarized in the attached three spreadsheets. The numbers are available, and anyone is free to interpret them.
My main finding is that FY 2007 is the year that New York City public school spending, very low a decade earlier, went over the moon, soaring to an extreme high of $19,336 per student (all future figures on that basis), compared with the national average of $11,556. It is almost as high as the Downstate Suburban average of $20,120, and is far above the average for New Jersey ($18,094) and Massachusetts ($14,422). Even adjusting downward for the higher general wage rate here (in the private sector excluding the Finance and Insurance sector), New York City came in at $14,129, still a solid 22.3% above the national average and just below the Downstate Suburbs ($14,767) and New Jersey ($14,876) though well below Upstate New York ($15,632). That adjustment cuts Massachusetts to $12,764. For instructional spending alone NYC is now higher than any of those areas, meaning that funding is no longer an excuse for any educational deficiencies in the city – far from it. From FY 2002, the last budget before Bloomberg, to FY 2007, however, New York City’s extra spending did not go to administration, no matter what you hear, nor for the most part to higher teacher pay or smaller class sizes. It went to soaring spending on debts and employee benefits such as pensions and retiree health care, a shift the city had in common with other areas. Contract spending also rose.
Gatemouth and Domestic Partner had met Major Publishing Couple four years ago when Dybbuk first started pre-school. While Gate and DP maintained a fierce competition to see which of them could more effectively squander their considerable talents, the two halves of MPC each ran a major national magazine that had still managed to prosper in the age of the internet.
MPC Jr. suffered from what the pre-school Director had mis-diagnosed as shyness; her prescription was friendship with Dybbuk, who served as the school’s Mayor and Social Director. In making the match, she sternly warned DP not to be put off by the MPC’s celebrity status, which was most analogous to cautioning a nymphomaniacal size queen not to be intimidated by the prospect of pulling a train with Roddy McDowell, Milton Berle and Forrest Tucker.
DP and Mrs. MPC became regular breakfast buddies, and DP successfully convinced her to abandon her burgeoning editorial career in favor of becoming a part-time yoga instructor, with an occasional bit of freelancing on the side.
Let me call your attention to a post on The Housing Bubble Blog and a comment made in response. A 30-something person is dismayed when a couple in their 50s/60s buys a house, rents it out, keeps the rent and stops making mortgage payments, leaving their tenants at risk of eviction. “I’m frankly disturbed by the situation. I think it’s really shady for someone (in this situation) to be taking money from a renter and not put it toward the mortgage. Every month, they have been taking that money knowing they are not using it to make their house payments. I just think it’s wrong and puts the renters in a bad position…I can see why they would want to do this to help themselves, but again, it’s affecting the whole neighborhood. As far as how I feel personally/morally about the whole situation (and the fact that this is happening all over America) is that people really disappoint me.”
Now these circumstances are specific, but the response of one commenter could apply to much else in this era. What happens when most people, and particularly younger generations, realize they are getting robbed and start thinking like this?