Category: News and Opinion

Hillary, Bill and Barack: The column I refused to write last month.

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In July of last year, in my finale of the three-part series on Barack Obama, I made a few predictions about the presidential race. One of those predictions upset many of my friends. It was the one where I said that Barack Obama will be president of the United States of America, unless a couple things happen: one of which was “an assassination”. I have never retracted this. In fact I wrote later in the year that the Secret Service needed to step up their detail, and protect this man at the highest level ever afforded a presidential candidate. I also berated Barack (slightly) for his cavalier attitude towards the fears of many many black people. I wasn’t kidding. I have met him on three different occasions and I didn’t like what I saw as the security arrangements around him.

Will Someone, Anyone Please Tell The Truth About the NYC School Budget?

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As I read the circular finger pointing about the NYC school budget, and get the e-mails asking me to protest the budget cuts, I am increasingly sickened. It seems like a grand conspiracy of deception, with all the proposed antagonists in on it, parents and taxpayers being played for fools, and the newspapers playing along. The teacher’s union and Sheldon Silver claim the state is wonderfully bestowing money on the schools and the city is taking it away. The teacher’s union also points to the contract budget and administrative costs at the Department of Education as if they were high rather than low. The Mayor and Chancellor Klein claim the state is unfairly directing money away from better off children to less well off children, playing the two off against each other. And they point to the teachers no one wants sitting in the rubber rooms, who have always been there. Everyone is coming up with all kinds of reason why the quality of education is going to be going down, and pointing at each other.

As I wrote here, however, the truth is that according to Census Bureau data two years ago in fiscal 2006 New York City’s instructional spending per child, at $8,679 after adjustment for the cost of living, was 56.3% higher than the national average ($5,552), and about as high as the adjusted Downstate Suburbs ($8,676) or Upstate New York ($8,555). That was after massive increases compared with the past, when the city’s schools were under-funded. The instructional employees — the teachers — had all the money they ought to need then. Yet from fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2008, according to city budget documents, NYC Department of Education spending has gone up an additional 17.1%. And in addition, the Mayor’s proposed budget increases school spending by 2.8% next year despite on onrushing fiscal crisis, and increases spending on teacher pay by 5.1%. So what is the problem? Everyone pointing the finger at each other knows, and none of them will say, because they were all in on it.

FROM HYSTERICAL FRICTION TO HISTORICAL FICTION (an overly long and thoroughly botched token of sincerity)

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“So how did the DNC choose to recognize the growth of local blogs "in line with Governor Dean's 50-state strategy"? Mostly, they got it right. At least in 45 states. But they blew it big time in five others, dissing some of the best state bloggers in the country.

In New York, the excellent Albany Project was passed over for a site focused on NY City founded by the Politico's Ben Smith. Go to that site, and it's nothing but press releases. [Update: That press release page is a lower-level page, which I got when I clicked on the "blog" link in their navigation. They have real writers on their home page.]”

A Capital Idea: Painting the Brooklyn Bridge

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For those of you who haven’t heard, various events are planned this Memorial Day weekend to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. As someone who has always enjoyed walking over it, and who now rides over it on a bicycle three or four says per week (I take the Manhattan Bridge home), I recommend taking a stroll. As The Great Bridge, a history of its construction, put it “to be on the promenade of the Brooklyn Bridge on a fine day, about halfway between the two towers, looking over the harbor and the city skyline, was to be at one of the two or three most soul stirring spots in America, like standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon.”

You might not want to look too closely at the steel on either side, however, because if you do you’ll see all the spots of rusting bare metal. And then instead of celebrating the monument we inherited from our ancestors, you might end up thinking about the fact that, one atom of iron oxide at a time, we are taking it away from our children.

Is NYC Councilmember Tish James in trouble?

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Word out of the 35th City Council District is that NYC councilwoman Letitia “Tish” James is in political trouble, and may be headed for legal trouble too. Rumors have been circulating for over a year now that Ms. James was under investigation of some sort(s). The veracity of this rumor has never been confirmed by official sources, but as time has elapsed the rumor has perpetuated. Given the recent scandals surrounding Speaker Christine Quinn and also many of the other council members -for their improper use of taxpayer dollars (at least prima facie)- it is not surprising that at least three potential challengers are already lining up to unseat Ms. James -if she is still in office next year. At least one of these challengers believes that it will be an open seat. Sources are saying that Tish is going down (for the full count). They expect the shoe to drop real soon. We will see; all I am doing here is giving you the 4-1-1 in terms of what is being said on the rough and tough political streets of Brooklyn. And though I may piss-off many of my detractors by doing this: some folks seem to think I do this real well, and they love to read my columns.

Educating William Kristol

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In today’s NY Times (Monday, May 19), the Republican flack, who the Times claims is a conservative commentator William Kristol wrote the following

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On Tuesday night, while the G.O.P. Congressional candidate was losing in a Mississippi district George Bush carried in 2004 by 25 points, Barack Obama was being trounced in the West Virginia Democratic primary — by 41 points. I can’t find a single recent instance of a candidate who ultimately became his party’s nominee losing a primary by this kind of margin

Nobody’s Gonna Pay You to Tell the Truth

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Annual retrospectives seem to be the custom here at Room Eight, so I thought I’d write about what motivates me to spend my time researching data and writing essays for this site. I do so without pay or compensation of any kind, and without knowing how many people actually download the spreadsheets and read the essays, if any at all. In part I’m just doing what I was trained to do – compile and analyze information bearing on government policy. That’s a skill I found to be worth little in government because public policy generally consists of deals, favors and non-decisions rather than decisions, and for those no background information is required. And in part I’m taking the opportunity to raise questions about those deals and favors, and their effect on people I care about and our future, which is my children’s future. It is a response to my frustration that there are so many open secrets that no one dares to talk about. In general, the only way to get paid to compile public policy information is to work for a privileged group seeking to maintain or expand those privileges at everyone’s expense. A fair analysis of comprehensive information is not in their interest. No one is going to pay you to tell the truth.