Category: News and Opinion

From Bloomberg: “The Florida agency that manages about $50 billion of short-term investments for the state, school districts and local governments holds $2.2 billion of debt cut to junk status…Florida may not be in a position to bail out its funds, given how the construction slowdown is affecting its revenue and it has no income tax. ‘Where are you going to make this up? It has to come from the taxpayers, or spending cuts, or a combination.’” I’m shocked, shocked that politicians followed the advice of experts campaign contributors and invest in securities with a little extra promised short-term yield and a whole lot more long-term risk. “Florida isn't the only government whose short-term investments have been affected by rising mortgage defaults in the U.S. and investors' diminished appetite for the securities tied to them.” What’s in our public employee pension funds?

Mitt Romney, discussing the possibility of giving a speech on religion said –

 http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071113/FRONTPAGE/711130328 

"John F. Kennedy gave the landmark speech on the topic. He said what needs to be said," Romney said. "I don't know that there's something different that needs to be said than what he said. I guess I could go back and reprint it!"  

With people living longer and expecting to live better, the burden of retirees is becoming unmanageable throughout the developed world. The response has often been to preserve, or even enhance, benefits for older generations and those with power, while drastically increasing what must be paid in and reducing what will be available for younger generations. Few in my generation and those after have defined benefit pensions. Most do not even have 401K plans, or if they do have such plans, have been unable to save given their diminished circumstances. The retirement age for Social Security will be 67 for us, not 65, under a broken promise made 25 years ago; candidates are now proposing reduced benefits, or higher taxes, for us – but not for their generation. Yet in the face of this, there are those who feel entitled to work just 20 years, stop working at age 50, and live off the work of others for the rest of their lives. These people have a monopoly of an essential service — mass transit in a major, transit-dependent city — and are prepared to use blackmail to get what they want for themselves at the expense of others. Already entitled to a pension far more generous that others, they have already gone on strike recently and have indicated they will do so again, this time indefinitely.

“Stephen Harrison of Brooklyn's Community Board 10 will formally announce his bid to take on the city's sole Republican Congressman…

There I was in the subway handing out flyers as part of my Don Quixote run for (or rather against) the state legislature. It was 2004. I was running, with no chance of winning, to try to call people’s attention to decision after decision the state was making to diminish our common future while providing up front benefits to those who matter in Albany, and the complicity of both political parties in those decisions. One day, someone asked who I supported for President. I said I certainly wouldn’t be voting for Bush, or any national Republican, on generational equity grounds, but for reasons I was prepared to explain I might not vote for Kerry either. “How could you even think of voting for that Benedict Arnold,” he screamed at me. “You’re a Benedict Arnold if you won’t vote against that draft-dodging war monger” a woman passing by screamed at me. Then they started screaming at each other, something that went on for a long time. About Vietnam. For them I had disappeared, and state and local government issues, the future, questions of fairness and fair value in public services and revenues, even current foreign policy issues didn’t matter. All that mattered was the time of life that mattered for the generation that mattered.

I have a question for those people who think Mayor Bloomberg is running for either President or Governor and who would support him if he does.

Presumbably one reason you like Mike is because you think he's an honest guy. But if he is really planning to run, isn't he a dishonest guy since he keeps saying he won't do it?

 Continuing Legal Education
(as reported on registration forms)

“A principal reason Dear lacks the fitness to be a judge is that he has had little experience practicing law since he was licensed in 1994. Over the past eight years, he has filed sworn statements with the state courts reporting that he is a nonpracticing attorney. His last affidavit was dated Nov. 4, 2006…..But then Dear set his sights on becoming a judge, a position for which it's helpful to have a solid résumé as a lawyer. All of a sudden, he began filing official statements describing himself as an active attorney-at-law.

Tuesday is Election Day, but as far as I can tell (and from what I read here) the only election taking place is for judge. I have often said that since I, like most people, have no expertise or knowledge of legal issues, and since judges really ought to be administering the law and not making it, there is no basis for me to know who would be a good judge, and thus who to vote for. Thus, I have always held that judges should be appointed. When showing up to vote for other things, and finding an election for a judge on the ballot, I have generally voted for the person with the fewest ballot lines, out of a general contrariness that objects to the fix being in. Now I’ll have to go out of my way to vote for judge and nothing else, and with only limited knowledge of the office being contested and the people contesting it, that knowledge being discussed below. Should I vote on Tuesday?

With all the media coverage of Governor’s Spitzer’s plan to allow undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses, there has been at least one thing missing that could be instructive. 

Many stories state that seven other states issue licenses but I’ve yet to read of hear how this is actually working out in those states.