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http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2008/06/indy-party-waits-for-bloomberg.html
State Independence Party Chairman Frank MacKay, who set up a national network in hopes that Bloomberg would run for president, said he’s now waiting for the mayor’s nod before putting that operation to work for someone else.
File this one under “Rock’s Predictions”. And for my detractors: don’t forget that as it relates to percentile, my political calls usually score in the high-nineties. I am willing to take bets on this one but I will offer one caveat. I don’t expect any takers, but I could always be surprised. So if you are out there and itching to try me; let’s get it on then; set it.
In Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood, the conviction of Assemblywoman Diane Gordon for soliciting bribes has left a vacancy in the 40th Assembly District. A crowded field is shaping up. The word is that next Tuesday when nominating petitions start circulating, you can expect to see at least six candidates. They are namely: Inez Barron (wife of NYC councilmember Charles Barron); Earl Williams- the current septuagenarian male district leader of the democrats- who is the presumptive favorite; Winchester Keys, who was once chief-of-staff to the former assemblyman (Ed Griffith/ prior to Ms. Gordon); Nathan Bradley, the current chief-of-staff to Ms. Gordon; Kenneth S. Evans, an attorney and community activist who has run for this seat before; and John Whitehead, who challenged Charles Barron for his council seat just three years ago. There have been some persistent rumors that there will be at least one other male entrant, who will bring the total to seven candidates. We shall see soon enough.
What most in mainstream media (MSM) refuses to acknowledge is that this absurd pseudo-issue of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and his lengthy relationships (since there are many different types here) with Barack Obama, has exposed, (a) white-America’s hypocrisy, lies, denial and immaturity; and (b) black-America’s paranoia, fears, distrust and immaturity. And maybe that exposure was a good thing; maybe. So as a preface, let me clarify a few things in this column.
I am defending what seems to have gotten lost in all the MSM hoopla around this individual (Wright): the man’s right to expound his opinions. Admittedly, I find some of his rantings -and also some of his antics- to be personally offensive, somewhat; but as long as he doesn’t yell out for a non-existent fire in a crowded place, he has -like every other American citizen- freedom of speech rights, that are protected under our hallowed constitution. It looks as though many whites, blacks and citizens of other races, nationalities and ethnicities, have conveniently forgotten this. And this deliberate and convenient form of amnesia is probably because Rev. Jeremiah Wright is a Negro; or as they say with another word (which is commonly accepted): “black”.
“I always joke that my intellectual formation was through Jewish scholars and writers, even though I didn’t know it at the time. Whether it was theologians or Philip Roth who helped shape my sensibility, or some of the more popular writers like Leon Uris.” –Barack Obama
I’m trying not to picture Senator Obama in the throes of passion with a piece of raw liver moaning “Yes we can”. But I did not come here today to wax Roth, but rather to discuss the major cause precedent to the Senator’s literary midrash excerpted above, Obama’s association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ, an association he has just terminated.
Last night, one of Brooklyn’s top Democratic political clubs, held their second round endorsement meeting of this 2008 cycle. Under the chairmanship of recently elected president Chris Owens, the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID) saw many potential candidates parade before their members in an interview process. Included in the crowd were Congressman Jerold Nadler, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Kevin Powell and Steve Harrison (the latter pair are both challengers for congressional seats). Also in attendance was East-Flatbush State Senator Kevin Parker.
The crowd was not as large as some CBID crowds go, less than 100 people came in and out during the lengthy meeting. In the questions and answers sessions, one candidate may have shown some leopard spots that may come back to embarrass him real soon. That candidate was Kevin Parker. Now before many of my detractors here jump all over me for this news item, please go and verify my reporting with club members who attended. TYVM.
In my humble opinion, the writer we know here as Gatemouth, loves to be the irascible joker at times, as a way of refusing to face up squarely to opposing arguments or columnists. His Houdini-like intellectual tricks are all meant to derive some perverse pleasure from his mental masturbation exercises; he is also a provocateur par excellence. He engages on his terms only, and he tries to use verbal inebriation as a cop out when he is cornered. He is also a recalcitrant school-boy type, who loves to escape from reality with verbose exposes that sometimes border on the absurd. He rarely ever apologizes; but that is Gatey, and that’s why we still read him, I guess. Most of us like him a little bit, and tolerate him a lot more, exactly because of who he is: pain in the ass and all.
GIS systems seem to have ushered in a golden age of cartography, with younger generations actually paying attention to less boringly named maps such as “mash-ups” that present information geographically. Well, there is a map I’d like to see the MTA produce and post for the benefit of those younger generations, so they can have an idea what is coming. AMNY reports the agency has acknowledged that service is going into decline, caught between rising ridership and increasing disruption due to maintenance problems. “Trains are falling farther and farther behind since at least March 2006. It's worst in the evening rush where NYC Transit rates itself as running 88% of trains on time in March – the most recent data available – down from almost 92% in March last year” according to this source, and “the number of delays is up as well – an average of 27% over the last 12 months.” The mean distance between failures of the subway cars themselves, whose reduction over 25 years is the pride of New York City Transit, is down 12% over a year.
As readers of my prior posts know, service is going to be a lot worse as the practice of paying for ongoing maintenance and replacement with 30-year debt runs its course, and ongoing maintenance and replacement is cut back, perhaps eliminated. Now those debts – not to mention the state and local tax-free, inflation-adjusted pensions for transit workers who get to retire at 55 and demand to be allowed to retire at 50 – have to be paid for, even as dedicated MTA tax revenues plunge. “The situation is worsened by the news that for the third straight month the MTA saw its revenue from real estate transactions drop below budget estimates,” according to AMNY, but to anyone who isn’t being paid to provide a bogus estimate those transaction tax revenues continue to be greater than the MTA has a right to expect. In the future, everyone will be affected by this. But in New York “the future” and “everyone” don’t matter at all politically. If they did, the New York State legislature wouldn’t have made so many decisions over the past 20 years that have wrecked everyone’s future. So let’s show who will be hurt the most the soonest.
‘‘He really has no experience or knowledge or judgment about the issue of Iraq and he has wanted to surrender for a long time,’’
John McCain 5/26/08
“Candidate Clinton has called for surrender and waving the white flag,”
John McCain 1/23/08
Am I a nerd or what? Yes I played a couple of sessions of paddleball with a friend, took two long bicycle rides with my wife, and attended a barbeque with relatives this Memorial Day weekend. But I also downloaded and crunched down fiscal 2005-2006 comparative state and local government finance data from the U.S. Census Bureau. I’ll write about it when I can, but for those with open minds and a willingness to look at tables, I’ve decided to post the spreadsheets right away.
One spreadsheet shows state and local taxes as a share of the personal income of area residents for New York City, the rest of New York State, and all the other states and the District of Columbia. The second shows revenues and expenditures in many categories, generally expressed as the amount per $1,000 of personal income of area residents, for local governments in New York City, the Rest of New York State, the U.S. and New Jersey. The output worksheets are primed to print on 8 ½ by 11 inch paper. I decided to keep track, and it took me about eight hours to get from the start of work to this point, despite being the fastest grunt-worker on earth (or so I believe). A few more notes follow, for those who haven’t read my posts on this subject before.
“You see, today, Hillary Clinton brought up the June 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy, ostensibly as a justification for her staying in the race this long. She apparently said this before the editorial board of a newspaper in South Dakota. It was disgraceful. Her words were something to the effect that, Robert (Bobby) Kennedy was assasinated in "June" that year. In other words:shit happens; and it can happen very late in the race. She needs to withdraw from the race immediately. The obvious implications of her statements are that Obama could be assassinated before the nomination is finalized at the August convention. This is shocking and beats all the disgraceful things she has already said and done in this campaign. This is indefensible. Once again she has messed with something that is sacred (and taboo) in American politics; and just like her Martin Luther King/ Lyndon B. Johnson remarks: she will pay a big price. Politically speaking: this woman is mortally wounded. She has finally assasinated herself. Desperation and hunger for power can do that.”