Category: News and Opinion

A Fan Letter

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SHOWCASING A  NEW YORK GEM  WITH  A  PRICE ABOVE RUBIES

Dear Gatemouth,

You are truly a valuable New Yorker  who  is generationally significant and historically important, endowed as you are with your unique and magnificent background, turbo- boosted with intellectual firepower, you have delivered an awesome series of columns which addresses not only the issues before it with the clarity of an eagle’s eye and the unyielding grip of undeniable logic, but even identified some of the remedies that voters might wish to address by unleashing their democratic instincts. 

Your columns, aside from being poetry-in-action and some of the finest pieces of political  thinking and writing, has secured to our children's children a coherent worldview  for the ages and beyond into paradise himself, which without your efforts, might, in the vision of Milton, be lost  for eternity. Your work is also the convergence and coexistence of thought and reason. It is like the late leader of the Brooklyn Democracy himself, drawing his partner’s share while filling my pockets with bountiful receiverships. Your efforts are truly  masterpieces, on the level of  the “The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation” or “Bitches Brew”.

New 2005 Poverty Data: Everyone Gets it Wrong

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The U.S. Census Bureau released 2005 economic data from its American Community Survey data yesterday, and having looked at those numbers and having analyzed similar numbers professionally for 20 years, the first-day stories in the newspapers surprised me.  As far as I am concerned, everyone got it wrong – so wrong that they must have written the stories before they came out and plopped in the numbers when they arrived.

The story as reported is that poverty is unchanged, and this shows that New York City is not a good place for the poor.  The view appears to have been pushed by poverty advocates, who are advocating for more money to be sent their way.  The reality is that poverty has declined significantly, but this isn’t necessarily good news for the poor either, because the advocates and analysts fundamentally misunderstand the factors that influence the poverty rate at the local level.  At the national level, the poverty rate is determined by changes in the economy, in society, and in public policy.  The national poverty rate was significantly higher in 2005 than in 2000, though slightly lower than in 2004.  At the local level, on the other hand, the poverty rate it is a function of who moves in (or is kept out), who moves out (or is pushed out), who is born and who dies off.  Local changes in the poverty rate may have nothing to do with whether individuals are getting richer or poorer whatsoever.

Consolation Prize: The AG Race (Third of Three Parts)

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The press coverage of the campaign for State Attorney General has so far concerned either mudslinging, or who is ahead in the horse race, rather than the substance; but, it’s hard to blame the press, because so little in the way of substance has been raised by either of the major candidates (or, for that matter, any of the others). Perhaps this is because neither one of the major candidates  really wants the job.

Mark Green thinks he should be US Senator, would like to be Mayor, and now understands that, like Alan Hevesi, his future glory lies in the past, and it’s time to settle for one of those elected positions to which New Yorkers like to give life tenure. If he serves as long as Louie Lefkowitz or Arthur Levitt, he can maximize his pension while becoming a beloved alter kocker and having a state office building named for him which will eventually be turned into luxury condos.

Christkillah’s Consumer Guide

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DUD OF THE MONTH

Chris Owens: Love Is The Way (Loser Single ’06).  This is clearly aimed at a crossover market which may not exist. The rap elements lack serious street cred, leading to charges of fakin’ da funk (which is admittedly better than fakin’ da diploma), while the reggae elements might seem more at home on a Belafonte record. The Kansas/Styx type organ clearly makes one wonder if the man has any understanding of the white crossover elements he seeks to attract. Still, the boy can sing and he sings his heart out. Says Azi: "he's probably the best singing politician since…Gifford Miller and Joseph Crowley (Sorry Patrick Jenkins.)", begging the question, "what about John Hall?" Well, having attended Hall's recent concert at Town Hall, I'd give the nod to Owens. As to the message, it’s all in the title. The solution to all the world’s problems is “Love”. One wonders if Mr. Owens has ever visited the matrimonial part of Brooklyn Supreme Court. Maybe he should ask his dad. And, even if one restricts the prescription purely to matter of foreign policy, it seems a mite simplistic. As the Israelis might query concerning Hezbollah, “what if my love is unrequited?”  But Chris Owens is not where one goes for nuance. He is clearly a Quaker who's feeling his oats; he will not settle for the troops coming home tomorrow; only today will do. Me, I’d settle for sometime next week. B-

New York’s Blogger of Record

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"Mr. Yassky is undoubtedly an opportunist, as are most politicians and certainly all those in this race. …The residents of the 11th District deserve the best representation possible. In this race, that is David Yassky, who gets our endorsement"

The  New York Times Editorial Page 8/30/06

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"There’s a touch of opportunism is Yassky’s candidacy which has echoes elsewhere in his record … Yassky is still the smartest, most knowledgeable, and best on the issues.  In a better world that would be game, set and match."

Slow Week, Slow Year

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This is a slow week, so it’s not the best time to post anything that takes a lot of work.  But it is a good time to post a prediction, so it can be referenced if it turns out to be true, but will be forgotten if it isn’t.  Especially a about something I know nothing about. 

The New York political blogosphere has evolved at an opportune time, with a Presidential election in 2004, a Mayoral election in 2005, and a Gubernatorial election in 2006.  In 2007, however, this fledgling medium will face a year of dead air, with no election scheduled for that November.  There is the likelihood that major public policy decisions and non-decisions will be made, especially in Albany, that will affect my life, my friend’s and neighbors lives, and my children’s lives into the far-off future.  But if people paid attention to such decisions more people would read my posts, and someone other than myself and Daniel Millstone (who is that guy? I ought to meet him for a beer and save some bandwidth) would post on Gotham Gazette.   So the political appointees, consultants, and activists who inhabit the blogosphere will probably go silent.  Until something happens to make the 2007 election significant.  That something will be…

The Homophobe v The Racist: The AG’s Race (Part Two of Three)

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In trying to put together a column on the race for Attorney General, I followed my usual method of pulling up all the prior comments I’ve made on this topic from the web. Once I finished my study of the minor candidates in Part One, I deleted all those posts and was left with two piles of garbage; one talking about “Cuomo, Not the Homo” and the other about Freddy Ferrer kissing Al Sharpton’s ass; so much for the majesty of the law.

For the record, I think that both of these rattling closet skeletons amount to far less than meets the eye. However, since mention of one almost begs the question of the other, one wonders about the good sense of both campaigns for keeping these matters alive. And since a fish rots from the head, which seems to be the point in both purported scandals, the fact that these matters have sucked up so much air does not speak well of either of the competitors.

Kidney Punch: The AG’s Race (Part One of Three)

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Thank to Robert Moses, New York has one of the strongest Governorships in the country. The Moses-created state budget process is actually designed to strip the legislature of its legislative powers. The legislature’s response has been to use the lemons it’s been left with to churn out the sour juice of obstruction, which is not quite the same as demanding accountability. There are, however, other places we might look for such relief. Ideally, the offices of NYS Comptroller and Attorney General are perfect opportunities to create oppositional institutions within the state’s Executive Branch which could be used for such a purpose. With that goal in mind, I became an early supporter of the Attorney General candidacy of the State Assembly’s in-house pitbull, Richard Brodsky of Westchester, in spite of the fact that he is a pompous and overbearing blowhard. My theory was that Brodsky, an unrelenting muckraker, was guaranteed to drive whoever was elected as governor stark raving mad, which they would undoubtedly come to deserve. Brodsky also plays a mean blues piano.

Six months on Room Eight

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In a matter of days Room Eight will be six months old. All indications are that this was a very successful experiment. We all owe our thanks and praises to Ben Smith and Gur Tsabar, for their foresight and creativity. I appreciate their invitation to be a pioneer blogger here. To say the least, it has been quite interesting. I would like to take some credit for having “guru” Maurice Gumbs use here as a pit stop, on his way to his “Footnotes” wire/blog/periodical. He has sure taken a site that was already flying high to even greater heights. The resident writers here are quite learned and informative; and of course Gatemouth is unique (I will miss you “H”/lol). I have had lots of feedback from people, who sneak on here to browse, peek, spy or pry. I have also gotten feedback from those who aren’t real pleased at some of the things stated here.

A Modest Proposal on Vouchers

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I have a “modest proposal.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal.  Rather than creating a voucher system in education, as some have suggested, why not convert Medicare — which is a voucher system — into something that works like the public schools?

Under the Medicare program, the federal government pays for health care, but the elderly are allowed to choose any health care provider they please.  If the nearest public clinic isn’t good enough, they are allowed to use other non-profit, for-profit, and public health facilities elsewhere, and still have Medicare pay.  Moreover, the level of Medicare reimbursement is the about same (with an adjustment for the cost of living) whether the patients were dishwashers or doctors in their working lives, and whether they live in Scarsdale or the South Bronx.