As both readers of my blog know, I recently concluded that only two candidates for Congress in the 11^th CD, David Yassky and Christopher Owens, met the minimum standards to be fit for service, but while I found Yassky more promising, I was reluctant to support him because he is a white candidate in a black majority district. I sort of feel ashamed about this, but my reluctance to support him is a pragmatic judgment, not a moral one.

Yassky's whiteness is going to hang from him like a target and every two years he is going to face another racial crusade. This presents several problems. The first is that it does little for community comity. The ugliness of this race has already been damaging to community relations in Brooklyn, and will become more so as the primary approaches. This animosity is fueled by other candidates (especially Chris Owens), free lance community opportunists, and parasitical institutions of the Fifth Estate like Ed Weintrob’s repulsive collection of Brooklyn Paper rags.

Here is an article from the Staten Island Advance about potential candidates for the now open State Senate seat.  

There are things that happen in this city, that elicit an immediate outcry from black leaders, once they occur. And then there are things that happen, where  these same leaders  stay awfully quiet, when they shouldn’t. Last week we saw this play out once again.

On  East 125th Street in Harlem, a young white male was struck by a car, while running to avoid being robbed and beaten by a group of young kids of color. The young man  subsequently died from the injuries he suffered. He happened to be a student of New York University on his way home.

In honor of retiring Senator John Marchi and because this might be the first time since 1978 there could be a serious contest here, the 2^nd installment of who votes is about Marchi’s 24^th Senate District.

These percentages are based on data in the Prime New York voter file and these reports come with the usual caveats – ethnic data is based on last names so are not 100% accurate, past voting behavior is not always predicative, etc.

Estimated Percentages

Democrats            40%

Republicans            36%

The Sacramento Bee published an editorial criticizing local Congressman John Doolittle for, paying his wife a 15% commission on contributions to his campaign committee. The Bee points out that they can find only 1 other Congressman doing that – NY’s own John Sweeney who pays his wife 10%.

The Bee makes a strong case that this may violate House ethics rules. Read the editorial and see but wonder why no NY paper (to my knowledge) has criticized Sweeney for this action.

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, and true to form -like on most holy days – the "Christian" volcano within me started rumbling again. I must be truthful in saying that I have been long estranged from my christian roots. In fact, I presently consider myself  a non-conformist. However, on days like these ( significant in religious lore), perspicacity seems to always set in, and before you know it, I am off  on some excrutiating mental journey. Yesterday was no different. And yes, my religious mama did say that there would be days like this. She did. 

"PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER CALLS WESTERN AID CUTOFF "BLACKMAIL" – New York Times, April 9, 2006 (page 11)

Guys, cutting off the aid isn’t "blackmail". Giving the aid in the first place was a "bribe".  

Last week, in a Brooklyn Court House, far removed from the glare and scrutiny of the New York media, Senator Kevin Parker squared off with his political nemesis Wellington Sharpe ( through lawyers of course), once again. The last time these two had squared off  was fall 2004, when they both attended a birthday party for  NYC council-member Kendall Stewart, at Cafe Omar in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. This is where Sharpe claims that Parker physically assaulted him for the second time that year. And for the second time Sharpe made a complaint to the NYPD.  The first complaint had come a few months earlier, after they had attended an event  in Brooklyn sponsored by Haitian-American activists. Don’t expect these two to be exchanging Christmas gifts any time soon folks. 

The race for Congress in the 11^th Congressional District works best when viewed as a morality play, allowing the audience to comfortably weigh their own competing values against one another, while pondering their irreconcilability. At the end of such a play, one can walk out satisfied that one has exercised their intellect, and then one can discuss it for hours on end over a double latte or a crisp white pinot, without ever actually feeling obligated to convert one’s conclusions into an actual course of action.

The race for Congress in the 11^th CD works worst when viewed as an actual election, because once the curtain falls, one is obligated to actually vote for one of the candidates.

It’s really amazing. The Bloomberg administration is so used to telling lies about the Olympics; they can’t help themselves even if it serves no real purpose. On Friday, a small item in Metro New York concerned Mike being asked at the press conference announcing the new stadium for the Mets about whether there were any plans to have the stadium designed so that it could serve as an Olympics stadium if the City bid for one again.

Mike responded “You could not use this for an Olympic stadium. Olympic stadiums hold 150,000 for track and field.”