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In honor of retiring Senator John Marchi and because this might be the first time since 1978 there could be a serious contest here, the 2nd installment of who votes is about Marchi’s 24th Senate District.
These percentages are based on data in the Prime New York voter file and these reports come with the usual caveats – ethnic data is based on last names so are not 100% accurate, past voting behavior is not always predicative, etc.
Estimated Percentages
Democrats 40%
Republicans 36%
The Sacramento Bee published an editorial criticizing local Congressman John Doolittle for, paying his wife a 15% commission on contributions to his campaign committee. The Bee points out that they can find only 1 other Congressman doing that – NY’s own John Sweeney who pays his wife 10%.
The Bee makes a strong case that this may violate House ethics rules. Read the editorial and see but wonder why no NY paper (to my knowledge) has criticized Sweeney for this action.
Yesterday was Palm Sunday, and true to form -like on most holy days – the "Christian" volcano within me started rumbling again. I must be truthful in saying that I have been long estranged from my christian roots. In fact, I presently consider myself a non-conformist. However, on days like these ( significant in religious lore), perspicacity seems to always set in, and before you know it, I am off on some excrutiating mental journey. Yesterday was no different. And yes, my religious mama did say that there would be days like this. She did.
"PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER CALLS WESTERN AID CUTOFF "BLACKMAIL" – New York Times, April 9, 2006 (page 11)
Guys, cutting off the aid isn’t "blackmail". Giving the aid in the first place was a "bribe".
Last week, in a Brooklyn Court House, far removed from the glare and scrutiny of the New York media, Senator Kevin Parker squared off with his political nemesis Wellington Sharpe ( through lawyers of course), once again. The last time these two had squared off was fall 2004, when they both attended a birthday party for NYC council-member Kendall Stewart, at Cafe Omar in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. This is where Sharpe claims that Parker physically assaulted him for the second time that year. And for the second time Sharpe made a complaint to the NYPD. The first complaint had come a few months earlier, after they had attended an event in Brooklyn sponsored by Haitian-American activists. Don’t expect these two to be exchanging Christmas gifts any time soon folks.
The race for Congress in the 11th Congressional District works best when viewed as a morality play, allowing the audience to comfortably weigh their own competing values against one another, while pondering their irreconcilability. At the end of such a play, one can walk out satisfied that one has exercised their intellect, and then one can discuss it for hours on end over a double latte or a crisp white pinot, without ever actually feeling obligated to convert one’s conclusions into an actual course of action.
The race for Congress in the 11th CD works worst when viewed as an actual election, because once the curtain falls, one is obligated to actually vote for one of the candidates.
It’s really amazing. The Bloomberg administration is so used to telling lies about the Olympics; they can’t help themselves even if it serves no real purpose. On Friday, a small item in Metro New York concerned Mike being asked at the press conference announcing the new stadium for the Mets about whether there were any plans to have the stadium designed so that it could serve as an Olympics stadium if the City bid for one again.
Mike responded “You could not use this for an Olympic stadium. Olympic stadiums hold 150,000 for track and field.”
To complain about scandals in Albany is like griping about someone farting while you're walking through an open sewer. Acts of actual illegality are the exception rather than the rule, and are usually the function of laziness and inattentiveness to paperwork. Far more significant are the acts which are moral outrages, but perfectly legal. And, finally there is the press, too jaded or dumb or lazy to pay attention, and nearly always getting it wrong. The stupidity often festers until it becomes the conventional wisdom, so that even those who know better decide that it’s the west and you print the legend. The stupidest Albany legend is the one repeated by Ed Koch, time and again, while everyone nods their head at it’s sage wisdom: “Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver was responsible for killing the commuter tax in 1999, and he did so to help the Senate Democrats win a special election”. WRONG!!!
Did you notice all the chatter on TV about Donald Rumsfeld saying he didn’t know what Condeleezia Rice was talkimg about?
Neither did I but there it was in the Washington Post.
One reason why nobody on TV was talking about it was because they were talking about the self-indulgent foolish actions of a liberal Democrat.
And that’s why the Cynthia McKinney story is important.
Because this "progressive" who cares about poor people, who wants to end the war in Iraq put her personal demons ahead of all those issues she cares about.
Back in Trinidad when I was in high school, I fancied myself a boxer. So I would go to the gym on many an afternoon, trying to emulate the moves of the many great professionals that I had seen or read about. Sometimes I would showboat (hot-dog) , because I had quick hands and feet. To my chagrin, the coach would always admonish me to "keep it simple". I hated to hear him say that: "just keep it simple, no need for all that fancy stuff".
Then I left high school and found that coach’s words could be applied to life, and usually that the simpler you keep it the better. So after doing my research on the latest Cynthia McKinney news-making incident, my old coach came to mind.