The Latest

Job Posting

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Wanted, politically savvy transit manager willing to preside over the gradual re-collapse of New York City's transit system due to deferred maintenance while denying it is occuring, be publicly blamed for the consequences by those actually responsible (all of whom drive everywhere to parking spaces reserved for them by placard), and hated by the suckers who believe them. In exchange for decent pay, little work, and a fat pension.

The successful applicant is expected to live outside New York City in an undisclosed location, and not appear in public except during the first half hour of public hearings, during which elected officials castigate them for the very situation they created while the MTA head sits in silence. Among the key selection criteria are the willingness to not object to an assertion that a 20/50 pension enhancement wil cost nothing, the willingness to go on borrowing money the MTA cannot possibly repay, and the ability to make sure those affluent municipal bond holders and Florida residents get paid, no matter what. Any interest in actual transportation is optional, as most public services are optional as well. However, the ability to come up with cutsey distractions like shifting the transit map around to generate favorable New York Times press is always helpful. Apply to Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos Andrew Cuomo.

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“Bob and Weave”

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Today. Republican Congressional Hopeful Bob Turner, previously most famous for having a Mogen David tattooed on his prepuce by Dov Hikind and Ed Koch, got the NYC Political Blog Clusterfuck:

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The Deportation of Rupert Murdoch

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Many legal analysts when reviewing the Rupert Murdoch hacking scandal focus on what criminal charges can brought against him in Britain with some making the stretch to the U.S. by saying as the head of an American corporation he can lose all his TV stations here because the law forbids such ownership if you are convicted of a felony anywhere in the world.

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Is Room 8 in Trouble? (Includes My Comments on Rock’s Sampson Piece)

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I first apologize for using a different handle here, but this Room 8 meta stuff is not what my regular column is supposed to be about, and to make my column about such stuff is to let the terrorists win.  

It was very heartening when Rock reopened his comments section, because discourse is what this site is about.

It was sad that most, but not all the comments posted in response were ad hominem attacks on Rock and sycophantic response to them from Rock’s “fans.”

It would have been better if Rock and his “fans” had just ignored the insults.

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Profiles In Courage For An Anxious America

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There is a general anxiety creeping across America over the impasse in Congress that is taking our nation to the brink for the sake of self serving ideological malcontents.  But as my educator uncle said to me, this is a time when he recalls reading at age sixteen in the time between World War II and the Sixties a book that he found inspiration and inner strength in, JFK’s Profiles in Courage.

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The Gateway (Peyser Imbecilty Strikes Again Edition)

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Peyser on Town Clerks: "I cannot fathom why New York allows a rabbi, priest or Shinto minister to refuse, legally, to perform gay weddings — but the law extends not one lick of respect to nonordained individuals of faith."

Let me explain it to you real, real slow.

Clergy are officials of a religious denomination who are under no legal obligation to do anything but administer the tenets of their faith. You don't go to a Rabbi for a baptism or a Priest for a bris.

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IS SENATOR JOHN SAMPSON IN POLITICAL TROUBLE?

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Before I start this two-parter, let me first disclose that in the past I have worked for Senator John Sampson’s Campaign Committee on a pro-bono basis. Let me also sate that I once had a one-year advisor/consulting contract with said committee, which I will probably try to renew soon enough.   
I have known John for about twenty years now. Back in those days he was a young attorney with the law firm of Barbaro and Alter. His boss (Mitch Alter) is the amiable and venerable election-lawyer who plies his trade in Brooklyn’s courts (mainly).

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2011 Primary Contests

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Thursday was the deadline for candidates to file designating petitions for the Democratic, Republican, Conservative, Working Families & Independence Parties.

 

This year, being a real “off-year” in New York City politics, there are very few potential Primary contests.

 

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The Gateway (Piece of My Heart Edition)

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Jerry Ragovoy’s' greatest productions, for the likes of such cult favorite non-household names as Garnett Mimms, Erma Franklin, Lorraine Ellison and Howard Tate, convey the irony of a songwriter whose work is best remembered for covers by more famous artists who were members of the cults.

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