Category: News and Opinion

In several past posts, and in several future posts, I’ve discussed the winners, those categories of services and people who get far more public funding here than the national average, in some cases more than in anywhere else in the United States.  But despite state and local taxes that were 43% higher than the national average in FY 2004, relative to personal income, and lots of fee income besides, taxpayers are not the only losers in New York City.

Spending on the city’s public schools has been below national average as a share of income, often far below, as far back as the data goes.  Parks, recreation and culture had been above the national average until1989, Ed Koch’s last year in office.  It has been far below average ever since, despite lots of private donations.  Major transportation projects are proposed and planned, but never built here.  Yesterday, the Daily News reported that the city’s libraries are rarely open.  http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/441273p-371556c.html.  No surprise there.

"Have I defended Lieberman? I don’t think so. I’ve never particularly cared if Lieberman or Lamont represents Connecticut–Lieberman’s annoyingly sanctimonious, and less of a neolib than a neocon. Maybe the self-righteousness is why he’s never actually convinced many fellow Democrats to change their minds on anything, the way President Clinton changed minds on welfare, for example, or Fritz Hollings changed minds on the budget. Lieberman blew his one chance at greatness when he kowtowed to the race-preference lobby at the 2000 convention. ("Please don’t end it." It’s that pathetic ‘please’ that cuts it for me.)" – Mickey Kaus

It’s time to admit it:  like just about everyone else in New York City, I’m a criminal, but my life of crime may be coming to an end.  My particular crime:  allowing the kids’ dog off leash in Prospect Park, during the designated hours listed on the park’s website.  How is that a crime?  It is a crime because New York City has an ordinance on the books that says at all times, and in all places, all dogs must be on a leash no less than 6 feet long when in public.  No exceptions.  No exclusions. 

When off leash hours were established, the city didn’t bother to change that ordinance.  It decided instead to not enforce the ordinance during certain hours.  It decided, in effect, to make me a guilty criminal, but to let me get away with it.  Now some folks out in Queens who don’t like off leash hours have filed a lawsuit.  It’s goal?  To force the city to enforce its own laws, and ticket those who allow their dogs to be off leash.  Who could argue with that?  I will argue against the city’s original decision to avoid changing the ordinance, and as part of general principle of law and ethics rather than as a specific canine case.  This is a long post, but if you are interested but that bothers you, you can copy it, paste it, and print it out.

Friday’s NY Times had one of their weekly stories speculating about Mike running for President.

It jumped to the conclusion that Mike having dinner with the Execurtive Director of the DLC meant he was running for President.  I guess when Mike had lunch  a few years ago with stars of  The Sopranos, it meant he was buying HBO.

But one part stood out in the lame story – "the mayor himself has sent mixed signals about his plans".

As I recall Mike has consistently said  he was not running and  has used the phrase "what part of the word No don’t  you understand".

A few days ago I wrote some comments previewing the hearing on petitions at the New York City Board of Elections.

I attended the hearing for a few hours and here’s some of what I observed.

A few candidates for Delegates to the Republican Judicial Convention were disqualified because they were, in fact, registered Democrats.

A candidate who wanted to run for the Assembly from the 55^th Assembly District was removed because the address he is registered to vote from and which he put on the petition was in the 40^th A.D.

It’s time for Al Sharpton to shut up. It’s time; case closed. It’s also time for mass-media to stop foisting this charlatan on us. He has been discredited over and over and over and over and………………… Enough already. Integrity is the cornerstone of any person’s reputation: “Sharp-tongue” has none. So it’s time for him to shut the f*** up. Period.

Last week, he and Jesse “James” Jackson injected themselves in the Connecticut Democratic primary race by endorsing Ned Lamont over Joe Lieberman. Prima facie that’s okay; they do have the right to endorse any candidate that they want to. But it’s when you dig a little deeper that you expose one of Sharptongue’s many flaws: he is both a political pimp and a political whore, at the same time.

The title of this piece is actually stolen from a well-known political consultant/lobbyist, but I’ve utter confidence he’d not want his authorship of this bon mot to be widely disseminated, so I’m jumping his claim and taking it for my own. He was speaking of the Working Families Party (WFP), and so am I.

I have nothing against adding more parties to the ballot; let a thousand flowers bloom in our glorious democracy! Let’s lower the scandalously high signature threshold for independent candidates, but eliminate cross-endorsements (except in the case of qualified incumbent judges, who should, ideally, be exempted from facing partisan campaigns for re-election; although retention elections would be an even better idea).  Parties should run their own candidates instead of operating glorifed extortion rackets preying upon others.

As I recall from high school Latin, “scrute” is trash, and the word scrutinize, from which it is derived, means to pick through the trash.  Using data from the Governments Division of the Census Bureau, and the New York State and U.S. Departments of Labor, this essay will pick through the trash at the NYC Department of Sanitation to find out what kind of deal we are getting.  That isn’t as easy as for, say, schools and policing, which are provided in every locality, because not everyone has public trash collection.  But I did the best I can, and from what I can see, our deal stinks.

"The truth is that many gay men are acting like Bill Clinton, because, like Bill Clinton, they are full of testosterone, and, like Bill Clinton, they can get sex when they want. Clinton gets it and has gotten it because of his charm and his power (which he regularly abused for sexual harassment purposes). Many straight men would do the same if they could get away with it. Can you imagine the lines for straight bathhouses if women were as eager to get it on with strangers as men are?

Gay men get it because their emotional and sexual universe is all-male and so twice as testosterone-laden as the straight male sexual universe. [Boldface added]" – Andrew Sullivan

It’s no longer news that Rudy Giuliani is campaigning for candidates who agree with him on virtually no issues.

The latest is Ralph Norman, running for Congress in South Carolina.

Here are some highlights from Norman’s website:

I am proud to be a concealed weapons permit carrier myself and in Congress, I will fight to protect these rights for South Carolinians.