Rock Hermon Hackshaw

Ten years ago, Bill Clinton signed into law an anti-terrorism measure, that has turned out to be one of the worst pieces of legislation impacting on the Caribbean and Latin-America. One of its provisions included repatriating immigrants-both legal and undocumented- for  infractions here. It also expanded deportation programs which targeted those undocumented, even though undocumented aliens are amongst the most law-abiding (with the obvious exceptions, of course) of people living here. Within a year, some were deported for as simple a thing as jumping the subway turnstile in New York City. Initially, there were many who seemed to see no problem in all this, after all, if you are residing in a host country, it behooves you to obey the law – probably, even moreso than if you were still residing in the country of your birth. Well, not really. Only one country saw the deeper problem that this new policy would manifest. That country was Argentina.

From Saturday’s Daily News

The increases announced Thursday by the New York City Housing Authority average 10% to 44% over two years and would affect families with annual gross incomes of more than $20,000.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer agreed the hikes would be a hardship. "These are the poorest people in the city," he said.

Councilman Hiram Monserrate and some other Queens’ pols are seizing on the Independent Budget Office report that the city low-balled its estimates of the real cost to taxpayers of a new stadium for the Mets.

But don’t be fooled into thinking Monserrate and the others are friends of us taxpayers. Since the stadium is going to cost more than advertised, the pro-taxpayer position would be to fight to cut the City’s subsidy to the Mets. Instead these opponents to the Mets want to increase the amount of taxpayers’ dollars spent by forcing the City and the Mets to spend more on “community benefits”. Remember a fact not mentioned by the pols that are trying to shake down the Mets is that every dollar the Mets spend on Little League diamond that Monserrate wants is tax deductible!

One doesn’t have to be a friend of Al D’Amato to think that this NY Times story about Bill Weld and Al is unfair to D’Amato – starting with the headline – Hints of Truth-Stretching in Weld-D’Amato Feud and continuing throughout.

The premise that both Weld & D’Amato are not telling the whole truth is probably technically correct. But whereas Al is wrong about a relatively minor point – when they first met, Mr. Weld is shown to be telling whoppers about everything else. He is wrong about when Al gave him money, about how much money Al gave him and about whether Al threatened him.

During the transit strike, defenders of the TWU when asked why the union was striking while other municipal unions did not strike even as negotiations dragged on for years, fell back on one defense – that the TWU had a policy of no contract – no work. Now even at the time, this was a pretty weak argument for so called progressives to make – "tradition requires a strike". But now, as we are in the 5th month of no contact, I’m wondering what happened to no work? Even the anti-Toussaint militants aren’t demanding an immediate strike . Has this important policy gone the way of the token?

Last week I took a deserved "spring break", since being out of the city for a bit is always re-invigorating. Thanks for the e-mails and phone-calls from those of you who missed me here and were concerned. I am fine , except for a lil hypertension- which is genetic. I must admit that I was surprised (and no, Gatemouth wasn’t one of them), it tells me that people are reading "Room 8". So let’s take our hats off to Ben Smith and Gur Tsabar. Real pioneers in this day and age.

I walked right in to the poll showing Spitzer still leading big, and yes I am a bit taken aback that Suozzi hasn’t cracked the twenty- percentile as yet. I am still hopeful though. I hate coronations even more than I hate royalty. I like a good old- fashioned horse race. After all, in November we democrats will be all lining up behind our nominee, to ensure that another Republican like Pataki ( "Potato-head") doesn’t trick us anymore. 

In researching my three part series on the race for the Democratic nomination in the 11^th Congressional District, I came across a remarkable document which bears discussion. It is a “10-point reform plan” for the Kings County Democratic Party written by Congressional candidate Chris Owens. The plan is interesting not so much for what it says about Owens (nothing not already suspected), as for what it says about “reformers”. In undertaking an uphill and not unmerited battle for reform of the Kings County Democratic Party, would-be reformers are well advised to first do two things: 1) Get Your Facts Straight, and 2) Get Your Goals Straight. The Owens document fails on both counts.

You might recall the flap last year over the differences between the various public polls on the Mayoral Election and the actual results. Freddie Ferrer supporters claimed that inaccurate polls doomed his candidacy. This wasn’t the first and won’t be the last time candidates will complain about these polls.

What is has been missed by many is that there is a major difference between the NY1, Quinnipiac and Marist polls and the private polls conducted by political campaigns- a difference that often explains why so many election results are quite different than the poll projections.

Friday’s Daily News had this little gem in Lloyd Grove’s gossip column who was taking time out from making fun of his rival s at the Post –

Here’s another reason why I miss Teresa Heinz Kerry – she’s fabulous gossip fodder.

Who can forget, for instance, how the Mozambique-born billionaire would boast to black audiences on the 2004 presidential campaign trail: "I am African-American"?

Who can forget it?

Who can remember it?

In an election like the 11^th CD Congressional race, where so little separates the candidates on most issues, perhaps it’s time to looks at the candidates’ characters. Unfortunately, there is no better topic to bring one back to a discussion of the issues.

Chris Owens must have the most unique campaign for Congress ever conducted in New York’s sorry, sleazy political history. In a certain sense he’s selling himself as the cross-racial unifier, the only candidate with appeal across both sides of  the color-line, but it’s a peculiar appeal indeed. To white audiences he essentially says “this is an historically black seat which a white candidate has no moral right to hold, so vote for me, because I’m the one black candidate who shares your values” (this may only be a Brownstone phenomena, as white guilt does not play a big role in the politics of Midwood). To black audiences he essentially says “the whites are trying to steal our seat, which is part of our birthright, I’m the best guy to stop them, because I’m the only one who can get white votes.”