The Latest

CEOS & Others

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Today’s NY Sun had the following – 

"Going after a CEO just because somebody wants to have somebody to blame doesn’t make a lot of sense," Mr. Bloomberg, who is a former CEO, said.

An Non-CEO’s response –

Refusing to consider the possibily that a CEO could be to blame makes even less sense.

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The Grapevine #5 (A Lil Different This Time/Lol)

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Although in many instances it takes years to plan a run for public office, I usually see primaries as a one-hundred-day countdown. I usually start counting on the Sunday before the first Tuesday when petitions are circulated, and I take it down to the day of the primary itself. That’s the Sunday when you gather your troops (petition-carriers, technicians, relatives, friends, etc.), and put your final plans in place for the petition-effort. The next day you usually go to the printers with your drafts in hand, hoping to pick them up on the Tuesday morning. Well-to all my white friends reading this (especially) – let me say that’s how some of us do it on the other side of the tracks/lol. It aint pretty; in fact it’s pretty ugly sometimes. But it could be fun if you are a political-junkie like me. First, you roll up your sleeve, then you tap the receiving vein two or three times, then you take the election-needle and you stick it in. If you are a pro at this, you don’t even flinch. It’s a fix good for at least one hundred days.

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The Sincerest Form of Flattery

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"A real discussion of Manton would be instructive; he took a party from self inflicted extremis and in two decades turned it into the ruling power in the City, while successfully transitioning it through tumultuous demographic changes. I didn’t care for the man’s politics or his tactics, but it is hard to think of him as anything but a giant. "

Gatemouth; posted on "Daily Politics" at 11:20 PM on 7/23/06

 "Can there be another Tom Manton? He brought his county organization back from the wreckage of the Manes era, managing to impose something resembling unity on a wounded organization. And he did it in the face of massive change, staying ahead of Queens’ radically changing demographics by supporting candidates from emerging ethic(sic)communities."

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The Anti-CFE School Money Grab

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Those of you who read my first posts on this blog may recall reading that from 1990 to 2005 local government employment fell in New York City while soaring in the rest of the New York State, with public school employment a particular growth sector outside the City.  You may also recall that public school employment outside the city soared after the state implemented the STAR program, diverting even more of the state taxes paid by city residents away from the city’s schools, and in particular after the first ruling in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case.  It is almost as if the school districts elsewhere were rushing to establish “facts on the ground” that could not be taken away regardless of the needs of the city’s children or the burden on its taxpayers.  Well, more recent data from the State Department of Labor shows that from June 2005 to June 2006, that process continues.

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Mike & the Con Ed Mystery

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Everyone I speak to is wondering why Mike is continuing to defend Con Edison.

My theory is that it’s all part of the Presidential campaign and the energy crisis.

Think about it – Mike can say that the other candidates can promise to cut the use of oil but he’s done it. Look how much was saved in the last week by Queens residents who didn’t run their AC, computers, stereos, TVs or lights.

Hey – it makes as much sense as the other theories about Mike can get elected President.

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Happy 20th Anniversary To Roger “The Dodger” Green (Part I of II)

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About one year ago, on “The Politicker”, I called Brooklyn assembly-member Roger Green: “The Dodger”. This wasn’t done by accident, and it surely wasn’t meant to describe the contemporary legal woes from which he had pulled a Houdini-type exit. The nickname came into being because of an article about him, written many years ago in “Footnotes”-an esoteric political paper/website/blog, which has been covering Brooklyn’s political scene for more than two decades now. In that article, the editor/publisher (Maurice Gumbs) described Green as the luckiest politician in Brooklyn. He posited that anytime shit hit the fan, Roger was always lucky enough to avoid having it sticking to his suits. He further argued that Roger had an uncanny knack for extricating himself from very ticklish situations. Gumbs said that whenever the proverbial “political-bullet” was hurling straight for Roger, somehow he always managed to dodge it. Thus, I thought the nickname quite apropos.

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The NYPD: Good But Very, Very Expensive

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Most people agree that the NYPD has done a really good job.  But with the contract for police officers now going to arbitration, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association wants us to think we’ve had a good deal.  That isn’t necessarily so.  In fact, we’ve paid a huge price for the level of police protection we have received, according to local government data from governments division of the U.S. Census Bureau – even if the police officers, on average, haven’t received a big paycheck.

In Fiscal 2004, this source reports, the City of New York spent $11.01 on police protection for every $1,000 of its residents’ personal income.  The City, therefore, had to collect about 1.1% of our income in taxes to pay for it.  The national average was $6.21 in police spending per $1,000 of personal income, requiring local taxes of about 0.6% of income.  The rest of New York state, and New Jersey, were about average.  For New York City residents, the NYPD costs one out of every $200 they earn MORE than they would have to pay if they lived elsewhere.  And the city’s spending on correction, at $3.70 per $1,000 of personal income, was nearly double the national average as well.

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Credit Where Due

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Up in Albany, they are selling out our future to benefit narrow interest groups with one foot out the door.  It is government by the insiders, of the insiders, for the insiders, the rest be damned.  That is mostly what I write about on this blog (lots more to come when I get the time).

I’ve also been upset enough at some things Mayor Bloomberg has done to vote against him, after expecting to vote for him.  And if Speaker Quinn decides the say "screw you" to the people of the city by revoking term limits, we’ll she’ll have black mark in my book forever.  The federal government?  Forget it.

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Who’s Running – Part 3

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Previously I posted the list of candidates who filed petitions to run in NYC Democratic Primaries.

Now, I’ll discuss Primary contests in the Republican and Independence Parties.

There are no Conservative & Working Families Party Primaries.

Republican

Congress

11 CD  – 2 Republicans filed petitions to run in the district being vacated by Major Owens – Stephen Finger & Mariana Blume.

State Senate

15 SD – Senator and County Leader Serph Maltese is being challenged by Bartholomew Bruno. I suspect this race is part of the war between Maltese & his allies and Jack & Bart Haggerty for control of the Queens GOP.

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