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The Roses of FDR and Obama
By Michael Boyajian
The Poughkeepsie Journal recently reported that scores of people braved a frigid cold winter day to attend a graveside ceremony commemorating FDR’s 128th birthday. This was a testament to the enduring legacy of one America’s greatest presidents.
As the creator of the beloved Stoned Crackwhore, I am not unaware of the fun to be had from a good prank, but someone had surely outdone me this time
Right before my eyes on Room 8 was a column purporting to be authorized by former NY One anchor turned convicted wife beater Dominic Carter.
So much to do, with last minute Passover preparation.
What do you coat the chicken with when soy sauce is verboten? It is enough to make one consider joining Shas [even the most ultra-religious Sephardim have no problems with beans during Pesach, but my heterodox collective of Social Democrats and Euro-malcontents insist upon being hometz-free in the Ashkenazic sense].
Unfinished pieces concerning Israel, Republican insanity over health care, the implications of the 44th Councilmanic race, and the entire state government recusing itself from accountability for anything are piling up on my G Drive likes planes waiting to land at LGA.
I recently highlighted in my first piece: the fact that New York Democrats with this election year (and past ones) have a huge advantage regarding party enrollment alone. In other words —there are many more registered Democrats—than Republicans.
I added: “New York is as true blue as the uniforms of the NY Giants.”
One comment response brought up a very good point:
“If NY was so true blue how do you explain THREE terms of Pataki, two terms of Giuliani and three Bloombergs?”
I thought well that's a valid issue that requires an answer. How did these three republicans win in New York and then have the nerve to pull off re-election.
BROOKLYN COURIER: Here’s a crazy little tidbit that fell through the cracks during Monday night’s rally decrying the March 2 gay bashing on Luquer Street.
As every local elected official in the city cried out for justice, standing front and center with a vigil candle in hand was John Heyer.
No one seemed confused by the presence of this longtime Carroll Gardens resident and would-be elected official — even though Heyer is an opponent of gay marriage, a stance that earned him plenty of heat during last year’s run for the Council, a race that ultimately went to gay marriage supporter Brad Lander.
Even more surprising than Heyer’s presence at the anti-hate rally (after all, who likes hate?) was that Heyer somehow managed to get quoted in Lander’s follow-up press release about the rally.
Even zanier was that he somehow managed to insert his pro-life stance — another controversy from last year — to settle the score during his remarks about the anti-gay attack.
“A central tenet of my religious beliefs is the sanctity of human life,” he said in the press release. “Since I have been personally singled out due to my heritage and religious beliefs, I would never want anyone stigmatized or victimized because of race religion, gender ethnicity or sexual orientation.”
Lemon? Meet lemonade.
The Armenian Genocide: A Biblical Story?
By Michael Boyajian
My friend Harlan thinks about the Holocaust and is able to live with what happened by thinking of it in Biblical terms. Millions were killed but now the Jewish people have a homeland, Israel, for the first time since Roman times two thousand years ago. A modern day Passover story is how he describes it.
I’m back, after losing my internet service for a week and spending yet another day home waiting for Verizon (which threatened to keep me home an additional day besides). With the continual outages on the phone old lines that run to my house, I’ve probably spent three days of the 20 days off per year I get waiting for repairs. And now members of the City Council propose cutting my days off from 20 to 15.
Andrew Cuomo is laying low these days, but pretty soon—and you count bet the house on it— the Democratic party faithful will start to rally all around the State Attorney General as the next “great” Governor of State of New York. Hey the White House already weighed in right in front of the current governor David Paterson.
And let’s be clear about this. I'm a journalist and pride myself on being objective, but It’s very difficult—to see a scenario where the Republicans this year could actually win the Governor’s Mansion.
Number one—New York is true blue. As blue as the uniforms of the New York Giants football team! The Democrats already have the enrollment advantage when it comes party registration over Republicans in this state—and while it may be some intrigue for the media and political insiders—–It’s not good for the republican party to have more than one candidate in a race. These guys may end up killing each other with Cuomo having a front row seat. Ok, enough with being a diplomat, they will.
Normally it’s the Democrats in the circular firing squad—destroying each other but this time the honor belongs to the state GOP.
Five summers ago, Ben Smith -pioneer blogger extraordinaire- had the hottest blogging site in NYC. As far as I can recall, he was working for the Daily Observer Newspaper back then. This blog-site (the Politicker) is still around, but is nowhere as informative or as lively as it was in 2005. Maybe it is because most political entities now have strict rules for employees who used to troll blogs on company time back then.
Ben went on to work with the New York Daily News and created the blog-site that Liz Benjamin ably handles today. It’s where most political junkies check in daily to find out what’s going on in New York’s politics. For old-timers in this game, a day without Liz is like a day without your low-dose Cialis pills: it’s that good. But prior to this, Ben Smith hooked up with another visionary named Gur Tsabar and launched the blog-site aptly named “Room Eight New York Politics”: that was back in March of 2006. After four years it is still around; but what does the future hold for it?
The Third Testament
By Michael Boyajian
I know I am going out on a limb of controversy here but I feel compelled to go forward. There is much talk among Christians of a second coming of Jesus Christ or a savior. Well, what if the savior came but it wasn’t one Christ but eight and each was crucified. For arguments sake let’s just say they were saviors or prophets rather than Jesus.