Big media would have us believe, the dirty unorganized uninformed pinko commie spoiled brats camping, organizing and protesting at Zucotti Plaza don't know what we want. Well, here's sample of what we don't know what we want:  read more »

I want to go on record that both NYC charter amendments are bunk put out by Michael Bloomberg simply for his own personal reasons. Some aspects of the amendments are outright useless because they are superseded by state law and therefore would be knocked down in any lawsuit. Other aspects are pure hypocrisy on Bloomberg's part.

To quote reform Assemblyman Jim Brennan regarding the flawed and corrupt charter amendment process:

James Brennan, Assemblymember, Brooklyn
In January good government groups, recognizing the Mayor would create a Charter Commission, wrote him asking that any commission “be given sufficient time to do its important work…“ I also wrote the Mayor asking, “Will the Charter Commission be taking a serious look at the City government?”

Borough President Scott Stringer urged the Commission to put its questions on the ballot in 2011, and the New York Times urged the Commission to postpone placing questions on the ballot until 2012. The hope was for broad public engagement.  read more »

So here I am taking a break from some pretty heavy efforts to head off an imminent return of Bush-republicans to office to comment on the most recent, and extremely predictable, scandal here in NY State.

As I scan most of the country, including NY State, I see a Republican Party awash in corruption, scandals, racism and intolerance. When Carl "Horse Sex" Paladino and Christine "Mouse Brain" O'Donnell are your poster children, you have serious problems and whatever happens November 2nd, the bulk of the Republican Party candidates this year are either scandals in progress or scandals waiting to happen. And the thing is this has been the case now for more than a decade and it was these scandals that led to Republicans taking such a beating throughout the country in 2006 and 2008 and I believe will deliver them a beating again soon. It seems corrupt Republicans cannot or will not learn their lesson. (for a nice rundown on Republican Corruption, visit the good folks at Liberals Like Christ).

Unfortunately, here in NY State it seems Democrats and other leftists also have trouble learning the same lesson.  read more »

Since 2004 my wife and I have had the dubious pleasure of being elected (let me emphasize elected, not appointed) members of the Kings County Democratic County Committee and been privy every 2 years to the circus of the Brooklyn Machine's inner workings...or should I say the shoddy facade to those inner workings which are actually reserved mainly for the Party Boss and his Cronies alone.

Our first County Committee meeting was then Party Boss Clarence Norman's last before going to jail. My son, Jacob, was nearly born during those proceedings. He was already overdue and my wife went into labor soon after. My wife regrets that Norman's last County Committee meeting wasn't upstaged by her going into labor...she imagines the machine chastising her for not following the script (yes, there is a real script people read off of).  read more »

Newly elected District Leader and State Committee member Chris Owens is already proving his worth, publicly calling Vito Lopez's latest scandal "obscene."

Seems Vito Lopez is running his so-called no profits for the personal gain of his cronies. Of course this should surprise NO ONE familiar both with Vito Lopez and with the way these highly politicized "non-profits" are run in NYC. From the Brooklyn Paper:

Vito’s ‘Money Honeys’ get big salaries — subsidized by you
By Aaron Short - The Brooklyn Paper - 9/16/10

Assemblyman Vito Lopez, Brooklyn’s powerful Democratic party leader, steered more than three-quarters of a million dollars to both his campaign treasurer and his girlfriend, who work at the nonprofit he founded.

The treasurer, Christiana Fisher, is also the executive director of Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, a Bushwick-based social services organization that Lopez founded. Last year, she nearly tripled her salary, earning $659,591 compared with $234,234, almost six times the amount of her peer executive nonprofit leaders in Brooklyn.  read more »