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Corporate Democracy
By Michael Boyajian
The battle against corporate tyranny must go beyond shareholder rights to providing voting rights to employees. Corporations are creatures of the laws of the states and federal government and have been given certain rights that go beyond those afforded to individuals and in some cases the very governments that created them.
I’ve been putting off doing a full-scale piece on Charles Barron and his “Freedom Party” for some time now. And each week the dynamics have been changing.
I understood from the get-go the impetus behind the “Freedom Party” as a protest vote. Though Andrew Cuomo really got to chose only one member of his ticket, he did not use that opportunity to chose a person of color; giving Democrats their first all white Statewide ticket since 1990. In fact, since 1962, a majority of the Democratic Party’s statewide tickets have included a person of color.
Were Bob Duffy’s credentials so impressive that Andrew Cuomo could not find one person of color in the entire state whose prowess exceeded them? He surely was not restricted to elected officials in his choice.
As a political-commentator, it is never advisable to make predictions that can be seen as “out on a limb”, but many of us do it anyway. The fact is that even a supposedly safe prediction can backfire and undermine one's credibility in just a single special-election, far more a whole national election-cycle. It's probably always better to couch your predictions a bit: a lesson I learned again recently.
You see, a few months ago I appeared on a BCAT cable-television program in Brooklyn, with Tom Robbins (staff writer/ The New York Village Voice) and Tom Tracey (The Brooklyn Paper). We were discussing the then upcoming primary elections. I am sure one can “Google” and find the show on the Internet. In that discussion I told the viewing audience that Carl Paladino was going nowhere fast. I essentially felt back then -and still do now- that he is totally unfit to be the governor of New York State. I thought Rick Lazio was going to clean his clock in the Republican primary: boy, was I wrong!
Steel Like Roman Fortitude
By Michael Boyajian
I once did extensive reading on Ancient Rome and visited the ruins that were the very nerve center of that Empire and there is one thing I learned about its emperors, generals and senators. They all had steel like Roman fortitude and risked their very lives for glory and victory and advancement of empire.
Gay Apartheid and the Paladino Conundrum
By Michael Boyajian
A reader recently challenged my assertion that Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino was advocating a form of Apartheid for the gay community. You see that is just the thing with Paladino and his supporters. They say one thing, then back track, then forward track and in the end mean just what they originally stated. In this case they made homophobic remarks and then denied they were homophobes in a form of circular logic and that is the Paladino conundrum. It is the riddle of what he truly stands for other than profits through government rents and tax breaks.
The quality of life, the extent and quality of state and local government public services, and the level of state and local taxation are not determined solely, or even primarily, by policy decisions made in a given year. They are also determined, in large part, by decisions made in the past that provide current and future residents of a community with assets, or stick them with liabilities. This post, and the two spreadsheets attached to it, use data from the Governments division of the U.S. Census Bureau to evaluate how residents of New York City, the Rest of New York State and New Jersey have fared by this measure, compared with other places and the national average.
One spreadsheet contains data on state and local debts, pensions, and capital construction expenditures for FY1972 and all years (excluding those for which none was collected due to budget cuts) from FY1977 to FY2008, for New York City, the rest of New York State, the U.S. total, New Jersey, California and Illinois, presented in a series of ten line graphs (Charts 1 to 10). The second presents similar data, in a table set to print on two pages, for all 50 states plus the District of Columbia for FY 2007 alone, and ranks these states (plus NYC and the Rest of the State if they had been separate states) according to a single “sold future rank.” I suggest downloading the spreadsheets, and printing out charts 1 to 10 and the table, to follow along as you read the rest of this post and the one following.
Congressman John Hall Fighting for Voting Rights of New York’s Soldiers
By Michael Boyajian
Congressman John Hall reports that military personnel from four New York counties and New York City have yet to receive their absentee ballot packages. Congressman Hall rose to action on the news demanding that the State Board of Elections mail them out immediately.
This is amazing on so many levels.
Most importantly, Carl Paladino clearly has no taste buds. He ate the pastrami at Gottlieb’s and still manages to give the place a recommendation? Have you ever eaten the pastrami at Gottlieb's? They take the pastrami out of a plastic package and microwave it.
Although some of the prepared specialties are OK, the only edible sandwich at Gottlieb's is the brisket (which is pretty damned good). If you're not kosher, you'd be better off going to David's Brisket (just keep heading south on Lee till it turns into Nostrand) in Bed-Stuy. The brisket is at least as good, while the pastrami and corned beef are the equal of (or better than) any other Jewish style deli in Brooklyn (not that there's much competition anymore).
Raise High the Roof Beam
By Michael Boyajian
Conservative economic policies are nothing more than a sham. During the 1950s and 60s government spending was robust as we fought the Korean and Vietnam Wars, landed a man on the moon and engaged in a cold war with the Soviet Union. Yet we experienced prosperity unmatched in the annals of human history.