Mark Penn, fresh after his brilliant performance in the Clinton campaign had an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal about bloggers.

At the beginning of the article, Penn made some observations that just didn’t smell right to this blogger.

Penn wrote:

The best studies we can find say we are a nation of over 20 million bloggers, with 1.7 million profiting from the work, and 452,000 of those using blogging as their primary source of income.

I wondered about those studies but the Journal was nice enough to link to them on-line. So I clicked on them and here is what I found out what the studies actually reported

http://www.nysun.com/opinion/giulianis-startling-departure-on-civil-unions/53313/

Nearly 20 years ago I proposed that the U.S. Census Bureau conduct a Census of Non-Residential Real Estate by adding a couple of questions to the economic censuses, which are taken every five years. The way it conducts a Census of Housing by adding a few questions to its Census of Population and related surveys. The proposal got as far as a test survey, but was ultimately turned down for budgetary and “respondent burden” reasons. Bothering businesses in the deregulatory era was considered a crime, and subsequent requests five and ten years later also failed. While I was spending twenty years getting paid to accomplish nothing in the public sector, meanwhile, some folks founded a business to survey commercial and apartment real estate themselves, the company where I now work, and sell the results to investors and underwriters. It can’t afford to be as comprehensive as I had proposed, and surveys landlords rather than all the tenants for “institutional grade” real estate only, which for retail means shopping centers and not storefronts owned by and leased to moms and pops.

So props (whatever that means) to Congressman Anthony Weiner for his survey of 5,991 storefronts in the outer boroughs. It is useful information, but requires a little background to be understood. According to Weiner “the recession is forcing small businesses to close shop at an alarming rate.” No doubt it has had an effect. But this being New York there has been an immediate call for all kinds of special subsidies, deals and breaks, for retail stores, retail landlords, or both. Before we start dooming our future by borrowing more money, raising taxes on the less favored, or gutting public services even sooner and more completely than is likely in any event, let’s ask why most businesses close and why stores are vacant. For example, perhaps the stores are vacant because the landlords are demanding rents that are too high.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS EDITORIAL: Yesterday, Gov. Paterson forced the topic onto the agenda by introducing a gay marriage bill and calling for speedy consideration by the Legislature. "This is a civil rights issue, and civil rights don't wait," said Paterson, flanked by Mayor Bloomberg and other political leaders.

Agree with Paterson or not, this is clearly an issue that deserves proper attention by the Legislature. This must be the time that the Legislature breaks with its secretive, boss-ruled way of doing business.

Some historians say that the Organization of American States is presently the oldest functioning regional organization in the world. That may be true. As a history buff, I generally hate to accept things as gospel; however there is evidence that this claim could be legit. If so, it is something to be proud of. 

Somewhere around 1826, Latin-American nationalist Simon Bolivar called for the creation of a regional body, with a multi-national parliamentary assembly, a mutual defense pact and a co-operative military arm. His vision was to unify Latin America against external aggressors and world powers (including the USA). 

Dear Tony: 

Let me get straight to the point and not beat around the george bush; my reputation -quite rightly earned- is that of a person who gives it straight with no chaser: so here goes.

Although I am personally going to wait for your announcement next month -as to whether or not you will run for mayor this year- many others are not going to afford you that luxury. Let me emphatically and unambiguously state that if you run, I will endorse you immediately. And yet, I still think you may have messed up with all this calalloo stuff, about waiting till the end of May to decide what to do (run for mayor or not). 

The Current Employment survey data has been rebenchmarked for this year, and the annual average data for 2008 has been released. Meanwhile with a recession underway and public money increasingly tight, politicians and lobbyists are once again spewing nonsense about where our tax dollars go, talking about anything and everything other than the categories of expenditure in which New York City and State are far above average, and on which spending has increased the most. And the news media is reporting some of the nonsense that is spewed, converting the press releases from PR people into stories. So I have decided to once again say the unsaid, since no one is paying me to say otherwise, in the hope that someone, somewhere will get it. And just in case there are some people who read my posts who can’t make sense of (or are bored by) tables of numbers, this time I am trying a simple chart.

In the attached spreadsheet the table and chart show 1990 to 2008 annual average employment, for New York City and the rest of the state; and for public schools, other local government, the substantially government-funded (via Medicare, Medicaid, and public employee and retiree health benefits) private health care and social assistance sector, and the rest of the private sector — the part generating the tax dollars that pay for all preceding. In the chart all of these are put in an index, with their level of employment in 1990 set to 100, so one can see how they have changed in the years since, in and of themselves and relative to each other. New York City is in black with solid lines, the Rest of New York State in gray with dashed lines, with different markers showing the different sectors. Hey media, want to present some facts? Please download the spreadsheet, print the chart, and read on.

Since I have gotten so many calls for a platform; and since many of you want to get my rationale for running; and since many of you have been using my lack of a public platform, as a basis for withholding your support (and money/lol) for my campaign for the New York City Council (District#40); I have decided to submit a first draft on some of the issues I feel strongly about. Do note that is not the finished product. Note also that I have deliberately withheld some aspects of my platform for some personal and minor tactical reasons. 

I haven’t talked about my view on term limits in the platform because I have written extensively about it. I am a supporter of term limits for ALL electeds (federal, state, city/local). I believe that the voters have spoken twice on the issue. If the immoral extension passed by some cowardly council members last year isn’t overturned by the courts soon, then we have to take it to referendum for the ratification of a 12 year (3 terms) limit in the next council (2010). We must also put into law that the methodology for overturning term limits in future has to be referendum (plebiscite). 

There are many people in New York who believe that the public defender’s office is antiquated and in need of repair: I concur. One of those working to change the status quo is a young community/political activist named Keith Kinch. Keith is well known in Brooklyn’s political circles (and all over the city for that matter), as one of those up and coming black under-30 activists that you should keep your eyes on. He is a hard worker for his cause. He also deals with politics from a hands-on place: he is unafraid to get directly involved in political races. He is intelligent, competent and personable. He is also a likeable chap (as they say in London/lol).