It is illegal to take a drug that is manufactured here in the United States across the border to Canada and then back into the U.S. and sell it. But making drugs in China and then selling them here is just fine.

This example of incredible insanity has led to the Heparin scandal. Heparin is a blood thinner, and much of it is manufactured in China. Unfortunately, we don't have full control over that manufacture, so when an imitation drug came across the Pacific marked as the real thing, it killed 19 Americans.

You would think that these deaths would cause Congress to wake up. But no, they're still asleep on the job. According to the NY Times, "Congressional Democrats are talking about authorizing more money so the F.D.A. can do more overseas inspections, particularly in China, where more and more drug ingredients are made."  read more »

Harlem-based community advocacy group Voices of the Everyday People (VOTE People) will announce a challenge to the City's proposed rezoning of 125th Street on Tuesday, April 1 at 9 am at City Hall.

The announcement will come as the Zoning Subcommittee of the City Council's Land Use Committee will hold a public hearing (at 9:30) and consider the proposal.

Come out to oppose the rezoning -- a proposal that would evict a community, destroy a history, erase a culture by paving the way for "luxury development" without protection for long-time cultural institutions, businesses and residents.

Be there at 9 to support VOTE People and the fight to save Harlem. Hang around 'til 9:30 and testify at the hearing!

VOTE People's position paper on the rezoning is available at: www.votepeople.net.

I have no doubt that the Republicans want to attack Iran. They have been trying to build their fake case for months. But the chances of them actually invading are very slim. Bombing runs are quite possible, but invasion would be the stupidest thing they have done in their entire stupid administration. We are bogged down in both Afghanistan and Iraq with almost no allies left and with a military stretched to a breaking point. And Iran is far tougher than any opponent we have fought since WW II. They kicked Iraq's butt when Iraq invaded. We cannot fight across the whole area of Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.

The latest rumor is that Dick Cheney told the Saudi king that we are going to nuke Iran, possibly in April, and Saudi Arabia is planning for nuclear fallout. This rumor has been making the rounds through the liberal blogsphere. While I believe Bush wants endless war, I do not believe this rumor at all.  read more »

Congressional Candidates Steve Harrison and Dominic Recchia will meet for a Forum hosted by Brooklyn Democrats For Change on Thursday, April 3rd. Location will be Knights Of Columbus, 8122 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn at 7:00 PM.

This is a rescheduled meeting from their March meeting when the Forum was originally scheduled. If coming by train the best way is the R train which I think stops at 79th Street and 4th Avenue then you can walk down to 5th Avenue and 2 blocks over to 81st Street.

ONE NIGHT ONLY,
MAKING A RARE EAST COAST APPEARANCE LIVE IN NYC:

ED SCHULTZ

Host of the #1 Progressive Radio Show in America and
Author of Straight Talk From The Heartland

In an industry where the conservative voice is king, Ed Schultz's popularity, talent and progressive political bent has helped him become the dominant progressive radio voice of the nation.

Monday, March 31
8 PM
The Green Room Theater
45 Bleecker St., New York
Tickets: $12.50
For more information: www.ShootTheMessengerNYC.com

"Daily Show" co-creator LIZZ WINSTEAD’s newest brainchild, Shoot The Messenger, is a satirical wrap-up of the week's news. A LIVE SKETCH COMEDY SHOW incorporating multi-media elements, Shoot The Messenger brings us the world as seen through the filters of the fictional producers and on-air talent at "Wake Up World," the worst morning news show in America. Shoot The Messenger is an indictment -- both hilarious and scathing -- not only of the newsmakers, but of the news media that mold them.  read more »

Tuesday, April 1, 7pm. Screening of Isabel Hill's Atlantic Yards documentary "Brooklyn Matters". Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School
357 Clermont Avenue, Brooklyn
(btwn. Greene & Lafayette Aves.). Co-sponsors: Society for Clinton Hill, The Fort Greene Association, and DDDB

This documentary has been very highly acclaimed. For example:

“It wasn’t until viewing Isabel Hill’s film that I realized the true scope of what is at stake for the future of Brooklyn in proceeding with the development of the Atlantic Yards in its present form.”
-Carmi Bee, FAIA, RKT&B Architects & Planners

“Brooklyn Matters is a remarkable film that slowly, quietly, calmly reveals the extreme ugliness at the heart of one of the most ill-conceived mega-development schemes in New York history.”
-Francis Morrone, Architectural Historian

"Isabel Hill’s revealing documentary about the proposed Atlantic Yards project takes an honest look at the complex role that race, class, power, and money play in the redevelopment of our communities and calls for a more open discussion about equitable urban development."  read more »

As Steve Harrison wraps up most of the local endorsements for his run for Congress (in both Bay Ridge and Staten Island) we need to get busy fundraising for him. After all, this is the only Congressional seat in NYC filled by a Repub, a corrupt one at that...and it's about time to get rid of him. Steve is the man to do that.

Steve has also recently signed on to the "Responsible Plan for Iraq," aimed at ending our military occupation of Iraq while preserving regional stability.

Here's a Staten Island fundraiser for him:

House Party for Steve Harrison for Congress
Sun., Mar. 30, 2008; 4:00 to 6:30
Hosted by Dave Hernandez and Rich Greve
125 Roe Street, Staten Island, NY
Suggested Donation $50

And if you can't make it but still want to help, you can donate at the Daily Gotham Act Blue site.

Chris Bowers over at BlogPAC emailed over some really exciting news I'd like to share with the Progressive community.

First, some backstory. There's probably not a single soul in Progressive blogdom who has not at some point railed bitterly about Democrats. Weak-kneed, spineless, ineffectual Democrats who fail to stand up and do the right thing for their constituents, their party, and so on. These Democrats are one of two reasons there is even such a thing as a Progressive movement (the other, of course, is the republican party in its full murderous and corrupt incompetence).

The interests of the netroots and the party have often aligned closely, whenever the goal was simply the election of more Democrats. They often diverge when the goal is the election of better Democrats. When the goal is Red to Blue, we all tend to be on the same page.

It's time to expand that goals horizon, and get us some better Democrats. BlogPAC is launching From Blue to Bluer, a program designed to bring national attention and resources to bear on state-level Democratic primaries.

From Blue to Bluer seeks to first identify, and then help elect, progressive, grassroots candidates who are running in competitive Democratic primaries in blue districts around the country. The primaries can either be for open seats or against incumbents who are either too conservative for their districts, or who are simply corrupt, or both. The goal is to find a handful of proudly progressive primary candidates for local and state legislative races, and then provide them with the national support they need to help put them over the top. Through this program, we can show Democrats across the country that that a fifty-state strategy means blue districts too, and that all Democrats, no matter how local, can be held accountable for not representing their districts or for selling out progressive ideals.

If there was ever a state this program was made for, it's New York. Leave your suggestions (I've already made mine, privately, to Bowers, as has Phil Anderson) in the comments: which primary challenger in New York deserves help against an entrenched incumbent? Or drop BlogPAC a line here.

I can't stress enough what an awesome opportunity this is for Progressive Democratic challengers across the country. And I'd love - love! - to see one of the Blue to Bluer designees being here in New York.  read more »

No Sweat Apparel is a company I have plugged before and which I purchase clothes from. I have shoes, flip flops, shirts and pants from them. Their products are all fair trade and/or union made. Most of their stuff is good quality (though occasionally shoes wear out fast) and their flip flops are really cool, designed by Indonesian children with some of the proceeds going to fund the education of that child. All in all, a good company with cool products that are fair to workers.

 read more »

Back in 1993, Jose E. Medellin was part of a Houston, TX, gang that raped, tormented and killed two teenaged girls. He was arrested and, after being Mirandized, confessed. But Medellin is Mexican, and under the terms of the Vienna Convention he was entitled to contact Mexican diplomats as well. He wasn't informed of that right.

Medellin was sentenced to death.

In 2004, the International Court of Justice ("ICJ," also known as the "World Court") ruled that Medellin's rights were violated by Texas authorities -- and Bush ordered the state of Texas to reopen the case. That's right, he actually went along with a ICJ decision!

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has now ruled that Bush had no power  read more »

A federal appeals court has decided that when you fly you have no rights to fresh air, water, food and bathrooms.

Following several incidents where planes were delayed for many hours, and passengers were stuck on these planes, sitting on the tarmac, without all the amenities listed above, Assembly Member Michael Gianaris sponsored a bill that would require all flights leaving airports in New York to provide these things if the flight is delayed long enough. Governor Spitzer signed the bill into law last August.

Now the law has been struck down, based on the airlines' claim that the "interstate commerce clause" of the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government, and only the federal government, the power to regulate the airline industry. They also used a 1978 law, the "Airline Deregulation Act," to bolster their argument.

The fight over control of interstate commerce goes back to 1824, when  read more »

Just a reminder to mark your calendar for tomorrow (Tuesday, March 25) at noon for a City Hall press conference on Clean Money, Clean Elections campaign finance reform.

After last week's crane collapse, it was revealed that there were 13 building code violations -- and news reports called that "normal." Meanwhile, self-certification of buildings by the builders continues. And how did they get that? They paid for it, with campaign contributions!

This "reform that makes all other reform possible" is vital to our safety as New Yorkers. Come out and support Clean Money, Clean Elections.

Brownsox at Daily Kos posts the DCCC's 2008 target list in its entirety here; the DCCC, of course, is the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party body charged with electing Democrats to the House.

The list for New York is long, grand, a thing of beauty.

NY-03 Peter King
NY-13 Vito Fossella
NY-25 Jim Walsh*# (Dan Maffei opposing)
NY-26 Tom Reynolds*
NY-29 Randy Kuhl# (Eric Massa opposing)

We're going to be very busy this year, because there's no reason why we shouldn't win all of those races. Get busy raising money, candidates.

What happens when the government gives no bid contracts with no oversight to a company closely associated with the Vice President? Yes, cronyism. Yes, corruption. But possibly worse than Republican cronyism and corruption are troops killed by the incompetance and callousness of a company that cares about nothing by profits.

As outlined in a Daily Kos diary, KBR, a branch of Halliburton, a company closely associated with Dick Cheney and favored heavily by the Republican Party for no-bid contracts with no oversight, has so bungled the maintenance of one of our Iraq bases that 12 of our troops have been electorcuted since 2004.

And this company has continued to get no bid contracts even though this problem was known. This is the worst kind of Republican corruption: sacrificing our troops for greed. That's goes even beyond the usual Republican war profiteering.

From a Houston Chronicle article:  read more »

Am I the only one who wants to smack those asshole right-wingers who keep talking about the "Democrat Party" instead of "Democratic Party" -- and those wimpy-ass Democrats who just roll over and let them get away with it?

Just curious.

The Cold Twenty Thousand

A Novel By James “Gatemouth” Ellroy

Chapter One

Roger Stone

“They sent him to New York to kill a Jew Prosecutor named Eliot Spitzer. He was sure he could do it.

The Senate Republican Campaign Committee flew him. They supplied first class fare. They tapped their slush fund. They greased him. They fed him twenty cold a month.

Nobody said it:

Kill that Jew. Do it good. Take our hit fee.”

***********************************************************  read more »

If you thought you were incapable of being shocked anymore by the ongoing scandal that is your state legislature, it's time to rethink that.

Here's the scenario. Your young daughter applies for, and gets, an internship opportunity at the state Capitol. A great opportunity, obviously, and one that many young people across the state vie for, putting effort into the requisite qualifiers: good grades, public service, community volunteer work.

Once in Albany, until 2004, this is what happened to your daughter: she, along with all other female interns, was herded into a newsstand in the Capitol, where legislators would pick and choose their staff based on attractiveness, not résumé. There's a name for that: an auction.

Digby:

However, this truly is beyond the pale and should be a matter for investigation. If politicians who corralled a bunch of women into a newsstand to be chosen for jobs in legislators' offices based on their sexual attractiveness to the disgusting pigs they were going to work for are still in office today, they should be exposed. That's not consensual behavior, that's sex discrimination. This practice apparently went on until 2004, and there's no excuse for it.

This is the natural and unavoidable consequence of the Albany system of legislators who draw their own district lines and who are more likely to die in office than to lose an election: they prey on your children, because they know that you can't do anything about it.

And there's not a damned thing you can do about it, because you're just going to keep on voting these people back into power. Given the glacial turnover in Albany, the people who bid on your daughter based on her fuckability - your teenage daughter - are all still in office.  read more »

The New York Times, front page, this AM: Slow Economy Likely to Stall Atlantic Yards.

The slowing economy, weighed down by a widening credit crisis, is likely to delay the signature office tower and three residential buildings at the heart of the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, the developer said.[...]

But Mr. Ratner has yet to secure an anchor tenant for the Miss Brooklyn building, and now plans to phase in the residential buildings slowly.

When this bill of goods was sold to the public, it was as a shot in the arm for downtown Brooklyn's economy (which is why a lot of public money is being thrown into the hole). The displacement of residents was to be offset by new construction, including a (debatably defined) number of affordable units to maintain some cohesion between existing neighborhoods and new construction. That's now being delayed, but you'll still get that arena, grateful Brooklynites.  read more »

"This was a military-style ambush from start to finish . . .a coup d'etat with David Paterson waiting in the wings, and perhaps Joe Bruno queuing up behind him."

District Attorney James “Gatemouth” Garrison

I am normally one to dismiss each and every conspiracy theory out of hand. Did Dubya steal the election from Kerry? No, Bush tried to steal it, but somehow managed to win it instead (no, not fair and square, but when is it ever thus?).

For the demise of Eliot “Ness” Spitzer (is the Costner connection a coincidence? —I think not) to be the coup de grace of a coup d’etat would require the participation of a ruthless blackbag man skilled at covert wet operations.

“Republican political operative Roger Stone, Eliot Spitzer's longtime antagonist, predicted his political demise more than three months in advance.
‘Eliot Spitzer will not serve out his term as governor of the state of New York,' Stone said Dec. 6 on Michael Smerconish's radio talk show. He gave no details.  read more »

[UPDATE: I have heard from two others that they have heard the same, that Recchia is dropping out. On the other hand, someone is claiming to have heard right from someone close to Recchia himself that the rumor is not true. Well...that's the nature of rumors! Take it all with a grain of salt.]

[SECOND UPDATE: I am hearing Recchia's campaign is denying the rumor. Time will tell. It may just be a case of them not being ready to bow out or it may be that a decision hasn't yet been reached by there has been discussion, or it could be Albany gossip was wrong.]

A rumor from Albany was passed along tonight at the Independent Neighborhood Democrats meeting. It is unconfirmed. I have only one person's word on it, but that person is not one to spread random rumors. That person thinks the rumor is reliable, but will check on it.  read more »

Join Council Member Tony Avella and me on Tuesday, March 25, at noon, on the steps of City Hall. Council Member Avella will be announcing the "Clean Money, Clean Elections" (CMCE) bill that he is sponsoring in the City Council. The more support we can get, in the form of people coming out, the more initial impact we'll make.

CMCE will virtually eliminate private fundraising for candidates. It will truly level the playing field for candidates who don't have access to big money. It will reduce the lower of lobbyists who use big campaign donations and bundling to gain access to our elected officials. In short, CMCE will make our elected officials responsible to constituents, not special interests.

This will be an enormous uphill battle. Entrenched special interests, and the politicians in their pockets, will fight tooth and nail to maintain the current system. They'll call it "the best in the country," without a shred of evidence to back that claim up. They'll put legislative hurdles in our path.

We need every body we can get on Tuesday -- and then the real battle begins!

See you at "high noon" on Tuesday at City Hall.

Sean Hannity And Bill O’Reilly Disgrace The Profession Of Journalism; Their Anti-Obama Agenda Is Shameful.

The gatekeepers at Fox News network like to boast that their news is fair and balanced: that’s bullshit. I think it is fair for me to say that Fox News network has an obvious right-wing slant that they don’t even try to disguise. And that’s okay to a point, since it’s their business. But when it comes to electing the next president of the USA, human decency should dictate that some level of fairness be considered when the principals are being reported on; and relative to how they are scrutinized and treated. Fox News network has been trying to destroy Barack Obama’s candidacy for quite some time now and it is time to stop this obvious vendetta. The world is watching.

Take the latest media craze: Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright; the former pastor of the church Barack Obama has attended for the past twenty years or so. Sean Hannity has been pushing this story for months; he has had help from the likes of Bill O’Reilly and others in the Fox family. Fine. Both Hannity and O’Reilly work for the network and are part of this anachronistic and almost all-white news club, which is flaunted everyday by those who are totally insensitive to the demands for fairness, equality and social justice, from people who are non-white. This insensitivity is the disgrace of America’s political right. It exposes them for what many of them really are: people who feel that humans who aren’t white (Caucasian) are inferior.

No one can accuse me of condoning the divisive aspects of some of Rev. Wright’s statements; I find them rather unfortunate and in some instances divisive. His choice of words in expressing his outrage at US foreign policy and such, are in some aspects: reprehensible. His analysis of various events and happenings (like HIV/AIDS) is troubling. His mind-set seems one filled of anger and venom; somewhat surprising for a Christian pastor. But this former marine- who grew up in the time of Jim Crow laws- is entitled to his first amendment guarantee of freedom of speech. This is the point to my column here: right wingers, white conservative types and those who carry water for them, are hypocritical when it comes to freedom of speech issues. They offer no sympathy, compassion or sensitivity for Wright- as a product of the racially oppressive days of Jim Crow- but give free passes to white ministers, televangelists, preachers, supremacists and demagogues, when it comes to freedom of speech issues and some of the similar things they say.  read more »

The cancer death, Wednesday, March 19, 2008 of anti-war free-lance photographer Phillip Jones Griffith gives those of us who learned to understand war through his lens and those who loved his brilliant photographs an opportunity to review his legacy. A somewhat mis-edited NYT obit is here which includes a link to a few photos. He sold his work through Magnum, a photographers’ cooperative of which became president and it is at the Magnum site that a massive display of his work is available.  read more »

Thomas Nashe. 1567–1601, Spring

SPRING, the sweet Spring, is the year's pleasant king;
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing—
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The palm and may make country houses gay,
Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,
And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay—
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,
Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,
In every street these tunes our ears do greet—
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
Spring, the sweet Spring!

Spring in Da Bronx

Spring is sprung,
Da grass is riz,
I wonder where da boidies is?
Da little boid is on da wing.
But dat’s absoid.
Da wing is on da little boid!

Another one bites the dust. Liz:

GOP sources confirm that Rep. Tom Reynolds, a Western NY Congressman since 1999 and ex-NRCC chairman, will announce around noon tomorrow in Buffalo that he will not seek re-election this fall. Reynolds spokesman LD Platt did not return an e-mail seeking comment. [...]

But the recent NRCC fraud scandal - some of which took place on his watch - has made his re-election effort that much more difficult in an already tough year (increasingly Democratic state, presidential election etc).

That makes things a lot easier for this guy:

The question now becomes whether Jack Davis, the guy who ran for the seat last time - and couldn't defeat Reynolds despite the latter's role in the Foley scandal - will now run as a Democrat in a primary against Jon Powers, or as a republican against likely contender George Maziarz.

Another bit of irony: if Reynolds is retiring over the NRCC scandal, it will prove once and for all that while you can get away with molesting underage boys in the GOP, you had better not lose their money, or you're toast.

On the web: Jon Powers for Congress