Category: News and Opinion

This week, the Wall Street Journal’s John Fund, wrote a column attacking the Obama Administration for supposedly trying to politicize the census at the expense of science.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123423384887066377.html

Fund wrote – President Obama said in his inaugural address that he planned to "restore science to its rightful place" in government. That's a worthy goal. But statisticians at the Commerce Department didn't think it would mean having the director of next year's Census report directly to the White House rather than to the Commerce secretary, as is customary. "There's only one reason to have that high level of White House involvement," a career professional at the Census Bureau tells me. "And it's called politics, not science."

Friday’s New York Times reports that Comptroller Bill Thompson and Congressman Anthony Weiner have raised money from limited liability corporations and partnerships despite the law enacted by the City Council banning these businesses from contributing to City candidates.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/nyregion/13donations.html?ref=nyregion

Finally some good news out of Albany. The Binghamton Press-Connect reports that according to Governor Paterson, without a change to the “orgy of self-interest” in state government, which will not happen, New York will be bankrupt in 18 months. “I'd say without a reversal of the traditional process of delaying trouble into the future, I'd say about 18 months away,” the Governor said at a meeting. New York might follow California “into receivership or some sort of development corporation.” He seemed to imply this would be a bad thing. But in bankruptcy, all the existing deals, favors, exemptions, contracts, and privileges would be swept away, and everyone would start over at zero. As painful as that would be, the more likely scenario is even worse — most of those privileges remain in place, and others — and younger generations — will be left with a level of taxes and public services and benefits so awful that no bankruptcy court or other body of reasonable people would think to impose it.

Almost exactly one year ago, the NY Times Editorial Board said the idea of tolls on the East River & Harlem River bridges was a dud – now they are suggesting it as a solution to the MTA’s problems.

No explanation about what changed in 54 weeks is printed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/opinion/24thu4.html?scp=6&sq=congestion+pricing&st=nyt

In his strongest language yet on the issue, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday warned of "riots in the streets" if state lawmakers don't renew mayoral control of the city's schools.

"If they didn't do that, I think that there'd be riots in the streets, given the improvement" to schools, Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show

TOP 10 OTHER THINGS MAYOR BLOOMBERG THINKS MIGHT CAUSE RIOTS IN THE STREETS

10 – Politicians criticizing Con Edison

It’s tax time again, and time to take stock of how the events of the past year have affected two fictional couples, the Young Hopefuls, now both age 29 with a three-year-old child, and the Senior Voters, now both age 69. You may recall from last year’s post on this subject that in 2007 each couple had an income of $100,000. The Young Hopefuls, with no savings or health insurance or pension, and living in a rented one-bedroom apartment, paid $22,214, or 22.2% of their income, in federal taxes that year based on a TurboTax analysis, while the Senior Voters, who owned their home, had a pension, and benefited from Medicare, paid $11,791 on the very same level of income, or 11.8% of it. The Young Hopefuls paid $10,814 in state and local income taxes and (indirectly as part of their rent) property taxes, or 10.8% of their income. The Senior Voters paid just $2,378, or 2.4% of their identical income, in state and local income and property taxes, one quarter of what the younger couple paid. That is $33,028 in taxes for the Young Hopefuls and $14,169 for the Senior Voters on the very same cash income, even though the senior citizen couple in this example had far more wealth and non-cash benefits. After paying for taxes and housing the Senior Voters had $83,405 left to spend, the Young Hopefuls $46,980. So what happened to these couples in 2008?

In Last Week’s Episode, I told the tale of Republican Party which faced a leadership battle including two relics of Jim Crow (Katon Dawson and Chip Saltsman) and two African Americans (Michael Steele and J.

You may have heard that today the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics announced, based on the monthly survey of business establishments, that U.S. payroll employment fell by just under 600,000 from December to January. That is the worst month since 1974, I read.  What you may not have heard, however, is that based on the monthly survey of households, BLS also reported the number of employed residents of the United States fell by 1.24 million, or more than twice as much. Double. More than 1.2 million in one month.  Those who consistently read my posts, including this recent one, know how the difference may be explained: the household survey includes the self-employed, people who own their own businesses, freelancers, and independent contractors.

It's hard to get motivated to write about the city budget, given that it's too late to do anything about most of the things that have bothered me for so long. The vested interests are vested, powerful and insatiable, and its time to give up on public services for anyone else in the future, or even the basic needs of the less well off, even though this will still be a relatively rich country when it is through getting poorer. It's also hard to say something worth saying, given that what is out there as a proposal may bear little resemblance to what actually occurs from July 2009 to June 2010, and is misleading about even what is expected at this point. So rather than spend time to write a long analysis few people will read or care about anyway, I'm going to make just one point. As predicted and oh-so-predictable, the Mayor's proposal under-funds the massively costly pension benefits the powerful have promised to themselves, deferring while increasing their cost until after his re-election. Just as is happening elsewhere in the country. Are there any philosophers or theologians out there who can assure me that people actually have free will?

Most of us who have been involved in New York’s politics for a while now, know that C. Virginia Fields has paid a lifetime of dues in politics and community development. She is -amongst many things- a social worker with a Master’s degree in sociology or social work. She cut her teeth in the civil rights struggles of the nineteen-fifties and sixties. She was born in the South; one time she was even arrested (and locked up) with Dr. Martin Luther King for participating in a sit-in. She was only sixteen years old then. She took her young life into her hands: talk about sacrifice and bravery.