In the past, I have generally found NY Times editorials hard to read, as their tendency had been to come up with lame excuses to back the incumbent, when they weren’t just endorsing the Democrat for President. But things have been getting better. With the exception of the final decision, I found myself agreeing with much of what was said about Spitzer and Suozzi as candidates for Governor today. The Times acknowledges Spitzer’s substantial accomplishments, but points out that Suozzi’s accomplishments are in some ways greater, because they were more difficult and involved greater personal risk. The Times all but says that although Spitzer’s record is excellent, Suozzi may be the better candidate.
Category: News and Opinion
Gatemouth Spanks the Monkey: Some Musings Concerning The Theory of My Political Evolution (Second of Two Parts)
|"I don't know just where I'm going, But I'm going to try for the kingdom if I can"
Lou Reed
As I’ve noted in Part One, left-of-center blogger Mole333 has taken public issue with my DLC-tainted brand of neo-liberalism, essentially calling me outside to settle it in the streets. In response, I questioned how far he’d evolved on the scale of political evolution. Beyond my ideology, or lack thereof, Mole has also taken issue with my tendency to look at politicians realistically. “And some (like, it seems to me, our friend Gatemouth) simply think all candidates are pretty much the same and despair of finding excitement in supporting a candidate…in fact they seem disdainful of anyone who actually shows some enthusiasm for a candidate.” He tends to conflate this criticism with my neo-liberalism, as if they were one and the same, but my cynicism towards pols is a tendency I share with not a few of his friends on the hard left, while muddle-headed idealism tends to blind at least some who sit in my political corner, particularly those who refuse to look at Joe Lieberman in a critical manner.
Case Closed: An Endorsement In The 11th Congressional District
|Let me start off by apologizing to my many fans who called and e-mailed, with concerns about my bi-weekly “Grapevine” column-which is now way overdue. The reason for the column’s absence is that I have been brought in as part of a team of half-a-dozen political operatives, trying to steer the Kenneth Evans challenge to victory in the 40th AD, over the final 4 weeks of the primary season. I am now doing 16 to 18 hour days on this campaign. We are hoping to take out the ethically-challenged and much tainted Assemblywoman Diane Gordon; and time is very very much against us. You all can help by sending funds or volunteers, or by donating some of your own time. Call or e-mail me if you want to help in this effort.
The Origins of the Liberal Species: Some Musings Concerning Political Evolution (Part One)
|“Not only has the left loudly pressured Democratic nominees into constant courtship, our ideological militants have also limited the Democrats ability to defend themselves from the Republicans…If you are a liberal officeholder, many of your hardest working supporters will tell you that you are “notsaposta” denounce the viciousness of those who commit violent crimes…or that America today continues to be one of the places in the world where political and artistic expression is the freest. In practice, then, the notsaposta is the passionately sincere but grievously mistaken view that acknowledging a troubling truth will weaken a party’s ability to resist the conclusions that its political opponents might draw from those truths"
The Candidates On Pensions: Suozzi Had the Best Answer
|Last week was Medicaid week, based on data I have collected and want to let people see. That was planned. This week is turning out to be public employee pension week. That was not planned, but is in response to an excellent series the Times has produced on the subject. Better than anything the Times has done on any subject where I have specific knowledge in years. Today, the Times smoked out the three remaining major party candidates for Governor on the state legislature’s practice of granting New York City public employee pension sweeteners over the objection of New York City. For the most part, all three candidates answered the same, but even so, Suozzi had the best answer.
More From the Times on Pensions
|May I call your attention to the latest NY Times articles here and here. And let me repeat what I said yesterday: these pensions will not be paid!
Twenty years from now, when the burden of debt and senior citizen benefits is leading to public service and benefit cuts, soaring taxes, and a crashing standard of living, and seniors of my generation, and those after, realize that they will have to work until physically unable and then face poverty rather than having the cruise-ship lifestyle of those who came before, then public employees who retired in their 40s and 50s will be as unpopular as the tobacco companies are today. Back room deals will be cut, and budgets passed with little review, but to their detriment, not their benefit. With no one else benefiting from this largess, they will be a big target for desperate times.
Why is the New York Times and other Major Newspapers Ignoring the Race in the 40th Assembly District?
|The New York Times is a fraudulent newspaper. There; I said it. To me it’s true. The editors are a bunch of scam-artists. Year after year, they project that they are the most liberal of all newspapers in this country; but that’s a lie, and it’s time to expose their hypocrisy. Okay; so there goes my future gig at the Times: whoop-dee-damn-do. I hate hypocrisy. I really do.
Two years ago Assemblyman Clarence Norman (43rdAD) was facing reelection-while at the same time facing indictments in Brooklyn’s courts of about 80 counts-the New York Times sat on their hands. They refused to enthusiastically endorse his competent opponent-attorney Edward A. Roberts. They also took a pass on Roger Green’s race (57thAD)-when an aggressive early stand could have helped prevent that embarrassment. This year, Diane Gordon is in a similar situation, and again the Times refuses to endorse in that race (40th AD). Either of Ms. Gordon’s opponents (Kenneth Evans or Winchester Key) is preferable to her. PERIOD. Ms. Gordon is also being opposed for District Leader/Female (she holds two positions in this district), and even there she should be voted out.
Don’t Be Wieners: A Fleeting Chance to Grow the Ferry System
|With the Second Avenue Subway, the Long Island Railroad to Grand Central, and other major rail projects planned, borrowed for, financially diverted from and abandoned, in some cases several times, new politicians on the block face a dilemma. Come up with even more money to carry out those plans, and they get the blame for the cost and disruption while the irresponsible pols that preceded them get credit for the improvement. Fail to do so and they might get blamed for the absence of such improvements. Thus, a few ambitious up and comers have hit upon water transportation as a new mode they can get credit for supporting, and have hit upon calls for public subsidies as a way to get their name in the news. Unfortunately, such subsidies would divert scarce resources from the existing subway system most New Yorkers rely on, to a new luxury mode that almost exclusively serves the better off — and relatively few of them at that. On a populist basis, such a proposal is easily and fairly attacked. There is, however, a potential transformational investment to that very subway system, one not on anybody’s radar screen, that would permanently increase the potential of ferry service as a transport mode. The opportunity to make that investment is about to close as a result of a development that would be built in its path. That investment is…
Yvette Clarke Picks Up Big Momentum
|In the race for Brooklyn’s 11th Congressional District, Yvette Clarke is picking up momentum ("Big Mo"- as it is called). She has snagged the endorsement of the powerful Health Workers (1199) Union. She has also snagged the endorsement of another major trade union: 32BJ.
Added to these endorsements, is another from city-councilmember Darlene Meily. Ms. Clarke – the only woman in the race – has been picking up endorsements left and right of late, and seems to be trying to make up for her lacklustre fundraising.
Most pundits seem to think that she is the frontrunner in this race.
Twenty Years From Now Public Employee Pensions Will Not Be Paid!
|Imagine it’s 20 years from now, the year 2026. After 43 years in which Social Security payroll taxes had been greater than Social Security payments, with the surplus used to finance the rest of the federal government (but also promised to future retirees), the Social Security system will have begun to run a deficit in 2018. Taxes will have been substantially increased, and many kinds of federal spending (housing subsidies at the top of the list) slashed to pay Social Security back, but now Congress has no choice but to bite the bullet and drastically slash Social Security benefits for future retirees. That’s bad for the 50% of private sector workers who have no retirement plan other than Social Security, and bad for the additional 30% who only have a 401K plan – a plan they now realize has nowhere near enough money to pay for decent retirement. The poverty rate among the elderly, who have been the richest and most privileged of Americans for the past 60 years, begins to soar.