Category: News and Opinion

Sometimes I don’t give myself enough credit. A friend wrote to remind me that I predicted Gary Ackerman’s retirement in September 2010.  

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade took a new turn this week when this year’s grand marshal stated that the parade was about Irish culture “and religion,” making the parade into some type of religious procession throwing into doubt the legality of having public institutions march in a country where there is a separation of church and state.

He we go again. Thanks to the unwillingness of most Americans to arrange their lives, and/or pay extra for alternative technologies, to reduce our dependence on imported oil during the 39 years since the Arab Oil boycott of 1973, the U.S. once again faces a potential economic and foreign policy crisis. Iran is threatening to close the Straight of Hormuz, gas prices are rising, and the U.S. is facing the possibility of yet another recession caused by oil prices and yet another war to keep its economic drug coming. It is a political crisis too, because many Americans seem to believe it is the federal government’s job to keep gasoline cheap, and blame the President when the price goes up. A recent poll referenced in this article said that Americans considered gas prices the third most important issue. So what do I want President Obama to do about it? Show leadership, as I define it, for perhaps the first time in his administration.

As I noted in my review of Mayor Bloomberg’s first two terms, the job of a public executive is in reality three jobs. Management, as CEO of a large multi-function enterprise. Policy, because in combination with the legislative branch the executive helps to determine the direction of the government. And Leadership, because the President is a leader (one of many leaders in both the public and private sectors) of Americans, with an ability to influence how they live and what they believe, above and beyond the role of government and its ability to compel people to do or not do things. What I want the President to do about gas prices is help Americans, not all of them just those willing, to organize themselves to use less gasoline. Right now, independently of government policy or programs. Those unwilling, the whiners, would benefit from lower prices as well.

I want to apologize to Micah Kellner, Vanessa Gibson and Marco Crespo for inadvertently leaving them off my initial list of NYC Assemblymembers who voted “No” on the redistricting bill.

The big news from tonight's meeting of the 52nd AD's Independent Neighborhood Democr

Ladies and Gentlemen and school children of all ages, meet Martine Guerrier: Gate's nominee for the smartest, most exciting dark (perhaps not the best choice of words) horse candidate for state legislature this year. I will have more to say about this topic in the near future.

DAVID STOROBIN: The above point is hard for most people to understand.