Friday, November 30, 2012


After Mayor Bloomberg
Seeking to position themselves favorably in the early stages of the New York mayoral campaign, four presumptive Democratic candidates outlined their credentials to a business-oriented audience.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Former Vice President, Al Gore. (photo: Mario Anzuoni)
Former Vice President, Al Gore. (photo: Mario Anzuoni)

Secretary of State Al Gore?

By Michael Tomasky, The Daily Beast
29 November 12
 
With opposition to Susan Rice mounting daily, Michael Tomasky proposes six alternative nominees for the top post at Foggy Bottom. Head of the list? The winner of the 2000 election.

hings maybe aren't looking so great for Susan Rice. The throw-down yesterday by Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins, who extended the Republican case against Rice back to the Clinton years, is one of those Washington smoke signals, and it's not a positive one. Let me therefore set aside for a day the question of the merits of Rice and raise another one: Who would make for some credible, interesting, outside-the-box choices to run Foggy Bottom? There are ample non-Rice options that would provide the nation with a strong chief diplomat and would piss off the wingnuts in the bargain. Here are half a dozen.
1. Al Gore. I first heard this suggestion from my friend David Greenberg, the historian who writes for Slate, and I though, nahhh. But it grew on me pretty fast. Tell me why not. He'd be great. He's known around the world. He's respected around the world, about 90 percent of which surely wishes he'd been the president instead of the guy he beat. I'm not saying he'd change the world; no one can do that. But he'd get a hearing everywhere. He knows a huge number of world leaders, and he knows the issues cold. He could dive right into the pool's deepest end, in the Middle East, on Iran, you name it.
What about his climate-change crusade, you wonder? Far from having to drop his signature issue, Gore could use his new position to push it with even greater vigor in a global context. Gore, and probably Gore alone, would be capable of elevating the climate change issue to the position it deserves on the national and global stage.
What we don't know that much about is the Gore-Obama relationship. In 2007 and 2008, Gore clearly tilted toward Obama (Gore's mere refusal to endorse Hillary Clinton over Obama indicated as much). Gore didn't endorse Obama until right after he'd secured the nomination, but the two were said to have talked regularly. That's good enough.
Finally: Man, would I love to see the Republicans try to swat down a Gore nomination. How? They'd poke around in his finances, remind America that he's now divorced. But unless there were some kind of smoking gun on the former point, no one would care. They could not really block Gore; too much stature, too obviously qualified. Can you imagine? John McCain would grind his teeth, assuming those still are his teeth, down to dust. That would be awesome to watch.
2. Jon Huntsman. A Republican reviled by the wingnuts, Huntsman has already served the anti-Christ in a diplomatic capacity, as his ambassador to China. He seems to have done an acceptable job in that posting, so why not just continue and augment the relationship? He clearly likes Obama pretty well and obviously (between the lines) was cheering for his reelection over a man he clearly dislikes.
It's hard to see Huntsman having confirmation problems. There would be a number of no votes and a lot of kvetching, but he couldn't be blocked. He might even do a good job, too. And putting him at State would clear out of Hillary's way in 2016 the GOP's leading sane candidate.
3. Richard Lugar. Yes, he's a pretty conservative Republican. But to mad-dog conservatives, he's a sell out, an Obama apologist, a treacherous Decembrist. He was defeated, as you'll recall, by a primary opponent who ran to his right, who defeated him on the basis of just such accusations. Those were absurdly exaggerated, but in fact, on a mere personal level, he was one of Obama's best buddies while Obama was in the Senate. So the president likes and presumably trusts him.
True, this one wouldn't go down so well with liberals. But hey, the president's the boss. If Lugar doesn't listen to his boss, his boss can just fire him. But I doubt Lugar would do that. He's Midwestern nice. He is rather old, though. Eighty. Travel is probably too grueling.
4. Colin Powell. Yet another Republican turncoat, Powell obviously endorsed Obama twice. And, uh, yeah, he held the job once before. Maybe this time he could tell the truth instead of make up fairy tales and undo the one black spot on his otherwise praiseworthy escutcheon.
Liberals would not like this by and large, so Powell would have to address that infamous U.N. briefing at any confirmation hearings. But all he'd have to do is find the right words with which to throw the blame back on Dick Cheney, and much (not all, but much) would be forgiven from the left. The right would go nuts.
5. Dianne Feinstein. OK, nothing about this pick would make Republicans go beserk. They kind of like her, at least on foreign-policy questions, on which she's awfully hawkish. She has been way too pro-Israel to be the honest broker in the Middle East the United States needs, but maybe that could work to her advantage-because the Israelis trust her, she could tell them things others can't and they'd listen.
6. Jim Webb. Also not a choice to anger Republicans at all, but possibly an interesting thought. Actually, maybe Webb makes more sense for the Pentagon, no? The more that I think about that, it makes all kinds of sense. Maybe the Army people wouldn't want a Navy man calling the shots, I don't know. But Webb to the Pentagon seems like a decent idea to me.
There you have it. I'm sure there are others (but no, not Bill Clinton-an ex-president holding a lower office is just a little too odd). Unsupportable as these attacks on Rice are, they may reach a point (and maybe very soon) where the president has to conclude that he's going to spend his political capital elsewhere. I'm not yet saying he should or shouldn't conclude that. But if he does, he has other places to turn.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Barry Soltz, a resident and a voter of the 34th NY State Senate District tell Senator Jeffrey Klein that he betray the people who voted for him— as a Democrat not at a DINO. Democrats and some liberal leaders have accused Mr. Klein of wanting nothing more than to amass power for himself.
video by Rafael Martínez Alequín
State Sen. Jeffrey Klein was one of the pols who stopped the soda tax in its tracks, Albany insiders say. >

Senator Jeffrey Klein a traitor and the second coming of Pedro Espada Jr.
Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for espada150.jpg

Pedro Espada Jr. Convicted Felon

Top Breakaway Democrat Favors G.O.P. Coalition in State Senate

When the State Legislature meets in January, Senator Jeffrey D. Klein and a faction of four fellow Democrats may hold the chamber’s fate in their hands.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012


Excited for Return to Brooklyn, Anthony Gets the Ending Wrong

Carmelo Anthony tried his best to start a new rivalry with a Knicks win at Barclays Center, a few miles from his childhood home, but he missed the potential game-winning shot.

In Hero of the Catholic Left, a Conservative Cardinal Sees a Saint
Dorothy Day, shown in Manhattan in 1972, was a prominent Roman Catholic social activist and antiwar campaigner.
Meyer Liebowitz/The New York Times
Dorothy Day, shown in Manhattan in 1972, was a prominent Roman Catholic social activist and antiwar campaigner.
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, New York’s conservative archbishop, has embraced the canonization cause of the Brooklyn-born social activist Dorothy Day.
Dorothy Day, shown in Manhattan in 1972, was a prominent Roman Catholic social activist and antiwar campaigner.
Meyer Liebowitz/The New York Times
Dorothy Day, shown in Manhattan in 1972, was a prominent Roman Catholic social activist and antiwar campaigner.
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, New York’s conservative archbishop, has embraced the canonization cause of the Brooklyn-born social activist Dorothy Day.
Mayor Announces Landlords of Storm-Damaged Buildings Must Immediately Take Action To Restore Heat and ElectricityVideo by Rafael Martínez Alequín

Monday, November 26, 2012

An Imperfect God

Leif Parsons
The “perfect” God that philosophers have tried and failed to establish is nowhere to be found. Not even in the Bible.

Sunday, November 25, 2012


An Unusual Absence in the Race for Mayor

The prospect of no major Jewish candidate in 2013 reflects New York City’s shifting demographics and a splintered electorate.


Kentucky State Rep. Tom Riner authored legislation inserting god into the homeland security department. (photo: Fox News)
Kentucky State Rep. Tom Riner authored legislation inserting god into the homeland security department. (photo: Fox News)

A Year in Jail for Not Believing in God?

By Laura Gottesdiener, Alternet
24 November 12

In Kentucky, a homeland security law requires the state's Homeland Security Officers to acknowledge the security provided by the Almighty God-or risk 12 months in prison.

n Kentucky, a homeland security law requires the state's citizens to acknowledge the security provided by the Almighty God-or risk 12 months in prison. The law and its sponsor, state representative Tom Riner, have been the subject of controversy since the law first surfaced in 2006, yet the Kentucky state Supreme Court has refused to review its constitutionality, despite clearly violating the First Amendment's separation of church and state.
"This is one of the most egregiously and breathtakingly unconstitutional actions by a state legislature that I've ever seen," said Edwin Kagin, the legal director of American Atheists', a national organization focused defending the civil rights of atheists. American Atheists' launched a lawsuit against the law in 2008, which won at the Circuit Court level, but was then overturned by the state Court of Appeals.
The law states, "The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God as set forth in the public speeches and proclamations of American Presidents, including Abraham Lincoln's historic March 30, 1863, presidential proclamation urging Americans to pray and fast during one of the most dangerous hours in American history, and the text of President John F. Kennedy's November 22, 1963, national security speech which concluded: "For as was written long ago: 'Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.'"
The law requires that plaques celebrating the power of the Almighty God be installed outside the state Homeland Security building-and carries a criminal penalty of up to 12 months in jail if one fails to comply. The plaque's inscription begins with the assertion, "The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God." Tom Riner, a Baptist minister and the long-time Democratic state representative, sponsored the law.
"The church-state divide is not a line I see," Riner told The New York Times shortly after the law was first challenged in court. "What I do see is an attempt to separate America from its history of perceiving itself as a nation under God."
A practicing Baptist minister, Riner is solely devoted to his faith-even when that directly conflicts with his job as state representative. He has often been at the center of unconstitutional and expensive controversies throughout his 26 years in office. In the last ten years, for example, the state has spent more than $160,000 in string of losing court cases against the American Civil Liberties Union over the state's decision to display the Ten Commandments in public buildings, legislation that Riner sponsored.
Although the Kentucky courts have yet to strike down the law, some judges have been explicit about its unconstitutionality.
"Kentucky's law is a legislative finding, avowed as factual, that the Commonwealth is not safe absent reliance on Almighty God. Further, (the law) places a duty upon the executive director to publicize the assertion while stressing to the public that dependence upon Almighty God is vital, or necessary, in assuring the safety of the commonwealth," wrote Judge Ann O'Malley Shake in Court of Appeals' dissenting opinion.
This rational was in the minority, however, as the Court of Appeals reversed the lower courts' decision that the law was unconstitutional.
Last week, American Atheists submitted a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to review the law.
Riner, meanwhile, continues to abuse the state representative's office, turning it into a pulpit for his God-fearing message.
"The safety and security of the state cannot be achieved apart from recognizing our dependence upon God," Riner recently told Fox News.
"We believe dependence on God is essential. ... What the founding fathers stated and what every president has stated, is their reliance and recognition of Almighty God, that's what we're doing," he said.
 

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Hector
Gary Hershorn/Reuters

Hector Camacho, Flamboyant Boxer, Dies

Mr. Camacho, 50, emerged from a delinquent childhood in New York City’s Spanish Harlem to become a world champion in three different weight classes.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Fruiday True News Updated: Quinn Politically Married to A Sexual Harasser

NYP Joins the Fight to Demand That the Quinn Stop the Sweet Heart District By the Redistricting Committee She and the Mayor Control 
Chris Quinn’s Vito problem(NYP Ed) New York City has its share of gerrymandered election districts — like the one that was pinched and squeezed and pulled and teased to the apparent advantage of a serial sexual harasser with eyes on a City Council seat.  Council Speaker Chris Quinn is expected to approve new maps that would slide Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s Brooklyn home into a more favorable district — and put him in position to cruise to a seat on the council if he runs next year.  Lopez lives in the council’s 37th District, but new maps approved last Friday would shift his home into the 34th District, which he has a better chance to win in (he can move before election day and run in the 34 District seat anyway under election law rules). * "Lopez line" that has caused a headache was proposed by Councilman Erik Dilan We wonder why the NYP left out of the editioral that Quinn was also funding non profit machines Ridgewood Bushwick with $873,589 in member items funds Lopez di$penser(NYP)
Why You Shouldn't Shop at Walmart Today
Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty)
Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty)
22 November 12

 
A half century ago America's largest private-sector employer was General Motors, whose full-time workers earned an average hourly wage of around $50, in today's dollars, including health and pension benefits.

Today, America's largest employer is Walmart, whose average employee earns $8.81 an hour. A third of Walmart's employees work less than 28 hours per week and don't qualify for benefits.

There are many reasons for the difference - including globalization and technological changes that have shrunk employment in American manufacturing while enlarging it in sectors involving personal services, such as retail.

But one reason, closely related to this seismic shift, is the decline of labor unions in the United States. In the 1950s, over a third of private-sector workers belonged to a union. Today fewer than 7 percent do. As a result, the typical American worker no longer has the bargaining clout to get a sizeable share of corporate profits.

At the peak of its power and influence in the 1950s, the United Auto Workers could claim a significant portion of GM's earnings for its members.

Walmart's employees, by contrast, have no union to represent them. So they've had no means of getting much of the corporation's earnings.

Walmart earned $16 billion last year (it just reported a 9 percent increase in earnings in the third quarter of 2012, to $3.6 billion), much of which went to Walmart's shareholders - including the family of its founder, Sam Walton. The wealth of the Walton family now exceeds the wealth of the bottom 40 percent of American families combined, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.

Is this about to change? Despite decades of failed unionization attempts, Walmart workers are planning to strike or conduct some other form of protest outside at least 1,000 locations across the United States this Friday - so-called "Black Friday," the biggest shopping day in America when the Christmas holiday buying season begins.

At the very least, the action gives Walmart employees a chance to air their grievances in public - not only lousy wages (as low at $8 an hour) but also unsafe and unsanitary working conditions, excessive hours, and sexual harassment. The result is bad publicity for the company exactly when it wants the public to think of it as Santa Claus. And the threatened strike, the first in 50 years, is gaining steam.

The company is fighting back. It has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board to preemptively ban the Black Friday strikes. The complaint alleges that the pickets are illegal "representational" picketing designed to win recognition for the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union. Walmart's workers say they're protesting unfair labor practices rather than acting on behalf of the UFCW. If a court sides with Walmart, it could possibly issue an injunction blocking Black Friday's pickets.

What happens at Walmart will have consequences extending far beyond the company. Other big box retailers are watching carefully. Walmart is their major competitor. Its pay scale and working conditions set the standard.

More broadly, the widening inequality reflected in the gap between the pay of Walmart workers and the returns to Walmart investors, including the Walton fammily, haunts the American economy.

Consumer spending is 70 percent of economic activity, but consumers are also workers. And as income and wealth continue to concentrate at the top, and the median wage continues to drop - it's now 8 percent lower than it was in 2000 - a growing portion of the American workforce lacks the purchasing power to get the economy back to speed. Without a vibrant and growing middle class, Walmart itself won't have the customers it needs.

Most new jobs in America are in personal services like retail, with low pay and bad hours. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the average full-time retail worker earns between $18,000 and $21,000 per year.

But if retail workers got a raise, would consumers have to pay higher prices to make up for it? A new study by the think tank Demos reports that raising the salary of all full-time workers at large retailers to $25,000 per year would lift more than 700,000 people out of poverty, at a cost of only a 1 percent price increase for customers.

And, in the end, retailers would benefit. According to the study, the cost of the wage increases to major retailers would be $20.8 billion - about one percent of the sector's $2.17 trillion in total annual sales. But the study also estimates the increased purchasing power of lower-wage workers as a result of the pay raises would generate $4 billion to $5 billion in additional retail sales.

This seems like a good deal all around.

Robert B. Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.


Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty)
Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty)

go to original article

Why You Shouldn't Shop at Walmart Today

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog

22 November 12





half century ago America's largest private-sector employer was General Motors, whose full-time workers earned an average hourly wage of around $50, in today's dollars, including health and pension benefits.

Today, America's largest employer is Walmart, whose average employee earns $8.81 an hour. A third of Walmart's employees work less than 28 hours per week and don't qualify for benefits.

There are many reasons for the difference - including globalization and technological changes that have shrunk employment in American manufacturing while enlarging it in sectors involving personal services, such as retail.

But one reason, closely related to this seismic shift, is the decline of labor unions in the United States. In the 1950s, over a third of private-sector workers belonged to a union. Today fewer than 7 percent do. As a result, the typical American worker no longer has the bargaining clout to get a sizeable share of corporate profits.

At the peak of its power and influence in the 1950s, the United Auto Workers could claim a significant portion of GM's earnings for its members.

Walmart's employees, by contrast, have no union to represent them. So they've had no means of getting much of the corporation's earnings.

Walmart earned $16 billion last year (it just reported a 9 percent increase in earnings in the third quarter of 2012, to $3.6 billion), much of which went to Walmart's shareholders - including the family of its founder, Sam Walton. The wealth of the Walton family now exceeds the wealth of the bottom 40 percent of American families combined, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.

Is this about to change? Despite decades of failed unionization attempts, Walmart workers are planning to strike or conduct some other form of protest outside at least 1,000 locations across the United States this Friday - so-called "Black Friday," the biggest shopping day in America when the Christmas holiday buying season begins.

At the very least, the action gives Walmart employees a chance to air their grievances in public - not only lousy wages (as low at $8 an hour) but also unsafe and unsanitary working conditions, excessive hours, and sexual harassment. The result is bad publicity for the company exactly when it wants the public to think of it as Santa Claus. And the threatened strike, the first in 50 years, is gaining steam.

The company is fighting back. It has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board to preemptively ban the Black Friday strikes. The complaint alleges that the pickets are illegal "representational" picketing designed to win recognition for the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union. Walmart's workers say they're protesting unfair labor practices rather than acting on behalf of the UFCW. If a court sides with Walmart, it could possibly issue an injunction blocking Black Friday's pickets.

What happens at Walmart will have consequences extending far beyond the company. Other big box retailers are watching carefully. Walmart is their major competitor. Its pay scale and working conditions set the standard.

More broadly, the widening inequality reflected in the gap between the pay of Walmart workers and the returns to Walmart investors, including the Walton fammily, haunts the American economy.

Consumer spending is 70 percent of economic activity, but consumers are also workers. And as income and wealth continue to concentrate at the top, and the median wage continues to drop - it's now 8 percent lower than it was in 2000 - a growing portion of the American workforce lacks the purchasing power to get the economy back to speed. Without a vibrant and growing middle class, Walmart itself won't have the customers it needs.

Most new jobs in America are in personal services like retail, with low pay and bad hours. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the average full-time retail worker earns between $18,000 and $21,000 per year.

But if retail workers got a raise, would consumers have to pay higher prices to make up for it? A new study by the think tank Demos reports that raising the salary of all full-time workers at large retailers to $25,000 per year would lift more than 700,000 people out of poverty, at a cost of only a 1 percent price increase for customers.

And, in the end, retailers would benefit. According to the study, the cost of the wage increases to major retailers would be $20.8 billion - about one percent of the sector's $2.17 trillion in total annual sales. But the study also estimates the increased purchasing power of lower-wage workers as a result of the pay raises would generate $4 billion to $5 billion in additional retail sales.

This seems like a good deal all around.

Robert B. Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.
half century ago America's largest private-sector employer was General Motors, whose full-time workers earned an average hourly wage of around $50, in today's dollars, including health and pension benefits.
Today, America's largest employer is Walmart, whose average employee earns $8.81 an hour. A third of Walmart's employees work less than 28 hours per week and don't qualify for benefits.
There are many reasons for the difference - including globalization and technological changes that have shrunk employment in American manufacturing while enlarging it in sectors involving personal services, such as retail.
But one reason, closely related to this seismic shift, is the decline of labor unions in the United States. In the 1950s, over a third of private-sector workers belonged to a union. Today fewer than 7 percent do. As a result, the typical American worker no longer has the bargaining clout to get a sizeable share of corporate profits.
At the peak of its power and influence in the 1950s, the United Auto Workers could claim a significant portion of GM's earnings for its members.
Walmart's employees, by contrast, have no union to represent them. So they've had no means of getting much of the corporation's earnings.
Walmart earned $16 billion last year (it just reported a 9 percent increase in earnings in the third quarter of 2012, to $3.6 billion), much of which went to Walmart's shareholders - including the family of its founder, Sam Walton. The wealth of the Walton family now exceeds the wealth of the bottom 40 percent of American families combined, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
Is this about to change? Despite decades of failed unionization attempts, Walmart workers are planning to strike or conduct some other form of protest outside at least 1,000 locations across the United States this Friday - so-called "Black Friday," the biggest shopping day in America when the Christmas holiday buying season begins.
At the very least, the action gives Walmart employees a chance to air their grievances in public - not only lousy wages (as low at $8 an hour) but also unsafe and unsanitary working conditions, excessive hours, and sexual harassment. The result is bad publicity for the company exactly when it wants the public to think of it as Santa Claus. And the threatened strike, the first in 50 years, is gaining steam.
The company is fighting back. It has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board to preemptively ban the Black Friday strikes. The complaint alleges that the pickets are illegal "representational" picketing designed to win recognition for the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union. Walmart's workers say they're protesting unfair labor practices rather than acting on behalf of the UFCW. If a court sides with Walmart, it could possibly issue an injunction blocking Black Friday's pickets.
What happens at Walmart will have consequences extending far beyond the company. Other big box retailers are watching carefully. Walmart is their major competitor. Its pay scale and working conditions set the standard.
More broadly, the widening inequality reflected in the gap between the pay of Walmart workers and the returns to Walmart investors, including the Walton fammily, haunts the American economy.
Consumer spending is 70 percent of economic activity, but consumers are also workers. And as income and wealth continue to concentrate at the top, and the median wage continues to drop - it's now 8 percent lower than it was in 2000 - a growing portion of the American workforce lacks the purchasing power to get the economy back to speed. Without a vibrant and growing middle class, Walmart itself won't have the customers it needs.
Most new jobs in America are in personal services like retail, with low pay and bad hours. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the average full-time retail worker earns between $18,000 and $21,000 per year.
But if retail workers got a raise, would consumers have to pay higher prices to make up for it? A new study by the think tank Demos reports that raising the salary of all full-time workers at large retailers to $25,000 per year would lift more than 700,000 people out of poverty, at a cost of only a 1 percent price increase for customers.
And, in the end, retailers would benefit. According to the study, the cost of the wage increases to major retailers would be $20.8 billion - about one percent of the sector's $2.17 trillion in total annual sales. But the study also estimates the increased purchasing power of lower-wage workers as a result of the pay raises would generate $4 billion to $5 billion in additional retail sales.
This seems like a good deal all around.


Robert B. Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.

In the Bronx, Distilling the Spirit of Puerto Rico

A trip to visit the famous Bacardi rum distillery in Puerto Rico inspired a doctor to open the only distillery in the B

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Man Arrested in Deaths of 3 Brooklyn Merchants Is Called ‘Serial Killer’

Salvatore Perrone, of Staten Island, was charged in three killings, and the police commissioner said Mr. Perrone had been seeking more victims.


Wednesday, November 21, 2012



Infographic

The Onion's Guide To Hosting A Perfect Thanksgiving

Every host wants to pull off the perfect holiday gathering with a delicious, stress-free meal that leaves friends and family happy and satisfied. Here are some helpful tips to ensure your Thanksgiving is pleasant and memorable:
  • Accommodate your vegan guests by providing a few unappetizing dishes
  • If guests bring dishes of their own, give the dog a bite first to confirm none is laced with poison
  • Invite guests to lend a hand in the preparation by periodically dropping a utensil in the kitchen, shouting an obscenity, and slamming the oven door shut
  • Instead of worrying about dirty dishes, leave them outside overnight for the raccoons to lick good and clean
  • Keep bringing out food to avoid participating in any conversations
  • I told you a thousand times to cook the stuffing in a separate dish, and now it’s all soggy. What the fuck is wrong with you?
  • Say a phrase like “Here it is!” or “It’s time, everybody!” when bringing out the turkey
  • Have children sit at a smaller table so they feel gigantic
  • Cook a dish representative of each guest’s ethnicity and then say, “This is for you,” as you hand it to them in front of everyone
  • Avoid potentially awkward situations with creative seating arrangements; for example, try putting a chair or two on top of the table and maybe one in the bathroom

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Michael Moore | An Open Letter to President Obama
Portrait, Michael Moore, 04/03/09. (photo: Ann-Christine Poujoulat/Getty)
Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com
Michael Moore: "All that stands in the way is your understandable desire to sing 'Kumbaya' with the Republicans. Don't waste your breath. Their professed love of America is negated by their profound hatred of you. Don't waste a minute on them. Fix the sad mess we're in."
READ MORE

Monday, November 19, 2012

Quinn poised for Vito vote boost

Council move would help her & ‘grope’ pol

  • Last Updated: 3:37 AM, November 19, 2012
  • Posted: 1:30 AM, November 19, 2012
Politics really does make strange bedfellows.
Christine Quinn, who wants to be the first female mayor of New York, is expected to give her blessing to a district change that would help the political career of Vito Lopez — who is accused of sexually harassing four female staffers, sources told The Post.
The redistricting could help elect the alleged lecher to the City Council. In return, Quinn would curry favor with what’s left of Lopez’s Brooklyn political machine for her mayoral campaign.
The district boundary change, expected to slide through the council in three weeks, will flip the disgraced pol’s Brooklyn house one district west, from the 37th to the 34th, by a half-block.
J.C. Rice
A district boundary change could help get disgraced pol Vito Lopez (above) elected to the City Council. the change would move his Brooklyn home from the 37th to the 34th district, where he has a better chance of winning a seat.
It was unanimously approved by the council’s redistricting commission Thursday, just days after the deadline for public hearings.
Lopez has a vastly better chance of winning the seat from the 34th District, which aligns better with his power base in Bushwick.
The seat is due to be vacated because of term limits next year by Diana Reyna, his former aide but now a political adversary.
“Anything that is done [by the redistricting commission] is done because Quinn wants it done,” said a source close to the commission. “I don’t know why anyone would be doing him a favor.”
“This is a disaster for Quinn,” another insider told The Post. “A woman running for mayor helping the most notorious abuser of women in New York politics. That’s what this looks like.”
Quinn told The Post yesterday that she had nothing to do with moving the district line. A spokesman said she has not decided whether she will oppose the plan.
“I think that is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard,” she said when asked of Lopez’s reputed council aspirations and of her own role in abetting them. “He wouldn’t get three votes! And I can’t imagine he would do it. He should [just] resign from the Assembly.”
Lopez no longer controls the Brooklyn Democratic Party but is close to new leader Frank Seddio.
He won re-election to his Assembly seat this month with 90 percent of the vote, despite two probes in a sex-harassment controversy that left him stripped of his influential housing-committee chairmanship.
He’s being investigated on the harassment allegations by the Staten Island district attorney.
The loss of power has soured Lopez on remaining in the Assembly, and he’s expected to quit if elected to the council.
Staying in office — any office — helps him financially. Lopez is sitting on about $1 million in unspent campaign funds. He can use it to pay his legal bills but, by law, only while holding elected office.
Quinn appoints five members of the redistricting commission. Mayor Bloomberg appointed seven members. The remaining three were appointed by the council’s minority leader, James Oddo.
The full council has three weeks to reject the plan; if it does not — as is expected — the redistricting goes to the federal Department of Justice, which must green-light it.
sally.goldenberg@nypost.com

Democratic Contenders for New York Mayor Agree Narrowed Field Is a Plus

As news spread of Scott M. Stringer’s decision to run for city comptroller rather than mayor in 2013, the remaining hopefuls scrambled to woo his supporters.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

 

Here's a thought: This Thanksgiving, you might want to give thanks that you weren't/aren't a victim of the white rampage through the Americas that began in the 15th century and resulted in the vast torture, death and exploitation of the indigenous peoples.
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                          FEAST and FAMINE

                      By Rafael Martínez Alequín

As we approach Thanksgiving 2012, Your Free Press takes this opportunity to wish all its readers a happy Thanksgiving. It is a cliché, but true nonetheless, that our attention is too much diverted by turkey and mythology when it should be focused on gratitude. It is human to react with thanks when life goes well, just as it is natural to curse one's fate when tribulation strikes. Godly men and women turn into atheist, at least temporarily, after watching thousands of children starve. Lottery winners and late-inning home-run hitters attribute their good luck to the personal intervention of the "Good Lord."

It is easy to focus on what we lack, especially in these days of lowered expectations. We don't have, and probably never will have, the prosperity that seems to be our parents' and our own birthright back in the 1950s and '60s. It takes two incomes to buy what one used to provide. Even so, we live as only a very small percentage of the human race has ever been privileged to live. Royalty has gotten by as paupers by comparison. Yet, most of humanity does not live in such plenty. Million in this country and elsewhere do not have enough to eat. Others live under daily threat of death from their governments or from the forces of a foreign government because of the political opinions they hold or are suspected of holding.

Most of us here in America do not suffer these deprivations, though we would be naive if we didn't recognize that all too many of us are ill-nourished or subject to racial and political harassment, and worse. Even across this country, hundreds of thousands are homeless, thanks to the policies of both local and federal governments. Surely we ought to give some thought to the ill-housed and homeless, to the hungry and the brutalized, even as we reflect on our own good luck. What joy can there be in our prosperity if a neighbor down the block, Haiti or in Central and South America or Afghanistan, Bangladesh or the Sudan, is deprived of the basic necessities or tortured for her or his political beliefs?

We can turn away from all of this, just as we eventually must turn away from the television when one too many emaciated Africans or mutilated Mexicans have been put before us. Portraits of happy Pilgrims sitting down to dinner with their happy Indian brothers and sisters seem more appropriate to the season. How much guilt can we expected to bear? Is it our fault we were born into a dominant culture? Must we always be reflecting on the sins of our ancestors and elected officials?

Of course, the answer is no. Life would not be bearable if we had to wear mental hairshirts all the time. Life is to be lived, enjoyed, reveled in. This is a lesson we can learn from the saints, both religious and secular: Those who do the most good seem to enjoy themselves the most. enjoy not just the virtue they practice but all the other good things of life—food, love, intellect, companionship—the entire range of possibility open to human experience. They show us that we have nothing to fear from our own compassion. It does not diminish but enlarges our life. How much greater our joy could be, then, if on Thanksgiving Day, or any other time, we can say that we have tasted the full of life, the joys of our own mind and flesh as well as the happiness and pain of others. That, surely, would be something to be thankful for.
Goodbye, Frustration: Roth Reflects on Retirement
Philip Roth discussed his decision to stop writing fiction: “I knew I wasn’t going to get another good idea, or if I did, I’d have to slave over it.”

Saturday, November 17, 2012


Top Prosecutor in Brooklyn Is Rebuked by U.S. Judge

A federal judge chastised Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, for defending and promoting a prosecutor in his office whose illegal tactics sent an innocent man to prison for 15 years.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Hevesi, Jailed for Corruption, Is Given Parole

Alan G. Hevesi, who has been incarcerated since April 2011, will be released by Dec. 19, the State Parole Board said.

Ex-Director of Agencies Controlled by Lopez Pleads Guilty to Contempt

Christiana Fisher, the former director of social service agencies that Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez controlled, admitted she had allowed inaccurate documents about a salary increase to be delivered to a grand jury.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

                You Didn’t Build That Alone!
Lessons From the Past, Guidelines for the Future
By Daniel Rose
November 2, 2012

The suggestion that I reflect on lessons learned from my six decades’ love affair with real estate has been thought-provoking.  My first thought was of Isaac Newton’s comment about seeing further by standing on the shoulders of giants.

It has been my good fortune to have learned from a number of giants of our time.   Their message about the importance  of character and competence—doing the right thing and doing it with  professionalism—has been proven time and again.  Learning not the “tricks of the trade” but “the trade itself,” and earning a reputation for reliability and for operational expertise have always been a winning combination.

Another message is the importance of understanding the “conventional wisdom” of the moment but also knowing when it is crucial to think “outside the box.”  Our tendency is to assume that all trends continue, but in the real world fluctuating economic cycles and demographic changes, changes in public taste or values, and the occurrence of “black swan” (unforeseeable) events do occur.  Charles Mackay’s 1841 classic Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds—which should be on every student’s required reading list but never is—tells of the “bubbles,” manias and witch-hunts of the past and those that inevitably will occur in the future.  “Bernie Madoff,” “sub-prime mortgages,” “Lehman Brothers”—these are stories with old plots but new names.

In America today, we are at economic and social inflection points whose timing and impact are unclear, unlike the decades after World War II when my career began.

From  the mid 1970’s, when I first saw 116 acres of nearly empty fields across I-95 from the Pentagon, to the moment in 1991 when Pentagon City received the Urban Land Institute award for the nation’s best mixed use development, what I was doing seemed obvious.  Similarly, developing office towers in Boston’s burgeoning financial district in the 1970’s—when  good sites, enthusiastic public officials, plentiful prospective tenants and abundant mortgage money were all available—seemed  like “shooting fish in a barrel,” as was my brother Fred’s development of residential towers in Manhattan.  No one would claim that today’s paths are as clear.

At this moment—Autumn 2012—the problems of the national economy are so formidable that they overshadow everything else.  American resilience, flexibility and common sense ultimately will prevail. But it may require a crisis and an aroused citizenry demanding that our short-sighted legislators retreat from the destructive  partisanship and resulting gridlock that make it impossible for government to function effectively.  Our excessive government expenditures and inadequate tax revenue produce deficits that are not sustainable, and Americans are worried.

To make matters worse, public confidence in our national institutions is at an all-time low. America is suffering from a profound crisis of authority; we have little trust in the integrity or competence of our political leaders, our bankers, our corporate chieftains, our educators, our news media, our law courts, even our religious leaders.  When  polls show a  10% public approval rating of the job Congress is doing, one wonders on what planet that 10% is living.

Fears of a “fiscal cliff”--$600 billion in automatic tax increases and governmental spending cuts set for the end of this year—are already dampening private spending, postponing business investment and coloring short term economic decisions.  Uncertainty about tax rates,  the continuity of government programs and the threat of another governmental shutdown over a debt ceiling increase encourage caution which weakens an already feeble recovery.  Add negative external factors—a worsening Eurozone crisis, slower growth in China and in emerging-market economies, turmoil in the Middle East which may lead to higher oil prices—and it is difficult to be optimistic in the short term.  With interest rates historically low, government options are few.   After the 2012 elections, Congress will be under pressure to face the  entitlement reform and increases in revenue we desperately need to balance our budgets over time; but short term pain seems likely.

The pendulum always swings back eventually, however.  2015 is the year auto industry forecasters predict the first 16 million car sales per year since the financial crisis began; and just as current pessimism can be a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” so can auto industry optimism.  Volkswagen is opening a new plant in Chattanooga, planning to double its U.S. sales.  Honda is expanding production facilities in Greensburg, Indiana; Kia is expanding in Georgia, and Hyundai in Alabama—all these facilities will be ready before 2015.

Goldman Sachs expects housing starts to reach 1.4 million in 2015, up from 700,000 this year. The durable goods sector of the economy—which produces products that last more than three years—also is  preparing for an upsurge in demand in 2015.  The multiplier effect will be impressive.  By 2015, personal debt is likely to be reduced, home equity values increased and, most important, America is predicted by some to achieve energy independence from Middle East oil by then, with a corresponding lowering of oil prices.

Although Europe may face an economic and social “lost decade”—as  Japan did in the 1990’s—our  economy can rebound if our legislators  make the short term, intermediate term and long term compromises  and

trade-offs indicated in “Simpson-Bowles” thinking ($3 trillion in budget cuts and $1 trillion in added revenues over the coming decade).  Reduced military budgets will require informed discussion and deliberation about our engagement in “wars of necessity vs. wars of choice” (Richard Haas) and about fighting our battles by “hard vs. soft power” (Joseph Nye).

When Americans spend less on  consumer goods and invest more on education, scientific research and public infrastructure (and infostructure); when we borrow less and save more; when an appropriate balance between “public goods” and “private goods” is restored; when “equality of opportunity” again becomes an accepted American goal, and when our politicians are no longer openly for sale to the highest bidder, we can regain our momentum toward a constructive future.

No crystal ball is unclouded and there are no easy answers, but we must make prudent “guesstimates” and assess reasonable probabilities.  In the world of real estate, Joel Kotkin believes that the suburbanization of America will continue;  but Alan Ehrenhalt points to trends showing exurbia shrinking, suburban middle classes re-attracted to the city and some inner city poor moving to older suburbs. If the tax-deductibility of home mortgage interest is lessened or mortgage lending standards are tightened, the negative impact on suburbs will be significant.  Richard Florida feels that future workers will change jobs more frequently and will prefer the flexibility that renting homes rather than owning them permits.  Edward Glaeser praises high density center city development for its face-to-face interaction, stimulus to creativity, competition, social and economic diversity and social mobility.  Everyone predicts continuing gentrification (Harlem is now 10% middle income non-black and Jane Jacobs would be dismayed to see her economically-diverse West Village now commanding the highest rents in New York).  That future development will be ecologically sound and environmentally sensitive is a given.

My own belief is that high density rental housing—with smaller apartments, smaller rooms and lower rents—built  over suburban mass transit stations (with retail and recreational facilities adjoining) will be an increasingly popular  model.  The appeal of housing, retail, recreational and cultural facilities in downtown office and industrial  centers will continue to increase;  Rose Associates’ current highest quality residential conversion of the 66-story, one million  sq. ft. Art Deco office tower at 70 Pine Street near Wall Street is an example.  The conversion of unused rail facilities into Lower Manhattan’s wildly successful “High Line” is another.

Over the long term, the mutually reinforcing factors of increasing automation and globalization will transform American society.  The automation story is told eloquently in the recent N.Y. Times headline “Skilled Work Without the Worker”; and globalization’s impact on sending jobs overseas is universally recognized.  The prospect of well-paying high tech and managerial employment for the well-educated few and low-paying “service” employment for the less-educated  is a challenge our society must face constructively.

Educating our youth appropriately in light of the new socio-economic patterns requires dramatic new educational thinking.

Stimulating economic growth and increasing national income while apportioning the proceeds appropriately require  new economic thinking.

Balancing the needs of the young, the old and the underprivileged while providing necessary incentives and rewards for those producing our income require new social thinking.



A)   Education

In 1870, when British factory owners found that their illiterate workers could not compete effectively against literate German factory workers, and when British politicians realized that the Reform Bills of 1832 and 1867 had given the vote to illiterate farmers who could vote against them, Britain passed its first compulsory education law not to benefit the workers and farmers but to help the nation  (i.e. the rich and powerful).  In 21st century America, the 1% must realize that an educated, motivated and productive 99% is in their best interest in an internationally competitive world.

Universal pre-school education—which instills in a child the self-discipline, self-confidence, curiosity and future-mindedness that are necessary pre-conditions for later educational success—is an important first step.  And the message must continue through elementary school to avoid “Head Start fade-out.”  The rest of the world—especially China and India—is increasingly providing good pre-schooling.  Europe already does—98% of Finland’s children receive excellent pre-schooling while fewer than half of American children do.

High quality teachers (drawn from the top 10% of the academic pool, as in Finland, rather than the bottom 25% of the academic pool, as in the U.S.) are key ingredients in the educational process at all levels.  Pay, perquisites and prestige should be  high enough to attract and keep the best teachers.

Teachers  must be held to high entry standards, given opportunity and encouragement to continue their professional development, and appropriate  recognition for outstanding performance. When some are determined by fair and widely-approved methods to be clearly inadequate, they should be removed from teaching.  (In Europe, teachers are considered professionals; in America they are viewed as union members, and treated accordingly.)

All children should be encouraged to advance to the highest level of their potential.

At the high school level, German- and Swiss-style vocational and apprenticeship options should be offered to those desiring them, and we must rethink the whole question of education and “life-preparation” for those for whom conventional schooling has not been successful.

At the college level, we should encourage the expansion and improvement of community colleges and junior colleges, which can be either “final” or “transitional” to four year colleges.

A “bigger bang for the educational buck” should be a national priority, with higher quality and lower costs achieved by longer school days and school years; so should an end to “lifetime tenure” for senior professors and more efficient use of faculty, including on-line education used where applicable and “live” teaching available for face-to-face interaction when discussion, questioning, debate and personal intellectual involvement are indicated.

Higher education in the sciences (four year college, graduate and postgraduate) should be available without cost—as a national investment—for all who qualify.

Expanded intramural athletics and an end to inter-collegiate athletics would lower college costs by as much as 10%, and produce healthier college students and fewer who later become “couch potatoes.”

Producing an educated public with the knowledge and skills required in the 21st century should be our highest national priority, and the necessary expenditure to achieve that must be considered our most important investment in our future.

B)  Our Economy

How to stimulate economic growth and how to apportion the proceeds appropriately are the questions our politicians should be debating, not “big government” vs. “small government” but how to achieve smart government—transparent, efficient, respected for its fairness and wisdom.  We should consider revenue producers like the V.A.T. (Value Added Tax), universal in Europe, that tax consumption rather than production without lessening incentives for high earners (with the proceeds specifically dedicated to scientific research programs, an infrastructure bank, etc.).

Since we cannot indefinitely distribute (or redistribute) wealth we have not created, we must begin by allowing and encouraging our free market economy to “make the pie bigger.”  This requires:  a) national savings guided by our financial sector to productive use by our innovators and entrepreneurs; b) incentives and rewards for wealth producers and c) necessary investment in human capital, industrial capital, mineral capital and social capital (infrastructure, institutions, etc.).

The proceeds (the U.S. $16 trillion GDP) of our “farm” should then be allocated (by market forces or by government dictate): a) to reward our “farmers”; b) to replenish our “seed corn,” and c) to distribute to “others.”

In the past, the American economy grew because we reinvested much of our proceeds in “the future.” Today we live for the present, and consume not only all we produce but all we can borrow from others or steal from the next generation by increasing the national debt and incurring multi-trillion dollar unfunded pension liabilities.

The economist Arthur Okun wished to be remembered for Okun’s Law which states “That which is not sustainable will not be sustained.”  Where are you, Arthur, when we really need you?

C)          Social Thinking

Although our cyclical economic problems can be dealt with by short term stimulus and long term rebalancing, our social problems are structural and more complex.

An important one is the growing stratification in American life—not by color, religion or ethnicity but by education.  The less-educated have demonstrably fewer “life chances” in employment, health, family stability and life satisfaction generally.  One quarter of U.S. students do not finish high school, and some 40% have no post-high school training.  How they will fare in an increasingly competitive world is problematic.

In that competitive world, America appears to be facing a “new normal” of inadequate job creation for our growing population. The resulting levels of unemployment and underemployment will likely have profound social effects.

When Work Disappears by William Julius Wilson and Citizens Without Work, the 1930’s classic by E. Wight Bakke, describe the destructive psychological impact of long term unemployment, and Nobel Laureate Edmund Phelps’ Rewarding Work discusses the degree to which our employment—or lack of it—defines us.  Providing employment, no matter how uneconomic, is less destructive than creating a culture of dependency, which demoralizes and immobilizes its victims. Dealing constructively with this will be one of our great challenges in the years ahead.

Conclusion:

Future historians may describe the period from 1945 to 2000 as “America’s Golden Age.”  During that time, “American” was the thing to be, New York was the place to be, real estate development was one of the things to do; and I was fortunate to have it all.

Born the week of the 1929 Great Crash, I celebrated my 70th birthday shortly before the World Trade Center terrorist attack; and I experienced all the national moods in between.

The “we’re all in this together” mindset of the Great Depression; the cocky determination of WWII; the G.I. Bill and Levittown optimism of the decades following the war; the sense of relentless progress in the Civil Rights advances; the social turmoil of the hippy,  Beatnik late ‘60’s; the smug complacency of our economic advances in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s; the troubled soul-searching after the George W. Bush years; the anxiety of the Great Recession.  All were temporary reflections of the conditions of their time; but the fundamental characteristics of American society remained constant.

The current widespread pessimism and loss of self-confidence America is experiencing will pass in due course; but I believe it will require some upheaval or the emergence of a charismatic new leader to galvanize us into action.

The self-absorption and focus on narrow material self-interest that pervades all aspects of American life today is, I hope, temporary.  A more communal-minded, future-minded ethos, with less emphasis on material possessions and more on life experiences and satisfactions will prevail in time.  And our young people may focus less on the verb “to have” and more on “to do” and “to be.”  With such values, our rich won’t deny proper free school breakfasts to our poorest school children; a da Vinci, a Mme. Curie or an Einstein born to poor parents will have the opportunity to develop his/her God-given talents; the vitality of our cities, the dynamism of our cultural life and our justifiable pride in the justice and fairness of our society will again be the envy of the world.

Printed on every U.S. dollar bill (above the pyramid) is the motto Annuit Coeptis—“God has favored our undertaking.”  Our Founding Fathers believed it, and I do, too—now and for the future.

Narrow material self-interest reigns today, but as Shelley said, “If Winter comes can Spring be far behind?”



(Daniel Rose’s talks may be found on www.danielrose.org)