I was only able to stay for part of the press conference announcing the new Atlantic Yards lawsuit. Around when they started announcing the details, a tantrum was brewing in my son, so we left before he upstaged the main event.

But, in the age of the internet, you can usually find the details online. And now that the tantrum is over, we are home and Jacob is having lunch.

The press conference was held at Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden, one of those nice little community gardens that help make a city as giant as NYC feel like a community. I was told that the garden used to be bigger...until Ratner took part of it over and bulldozed it in a typical example of how sensitive Ratner really is to the community.

Everytime I am up by Flatbush near Atlantic I am reminded of how insane traffic is there and how unsafe I feel crossing those streets. And I inevitably wonder how much worse it will get once Ratner begins building his monstrosity. Speaking of monstrosities, I also wonder everytime I look across at the ugly megamall Ratner built how ANYONE would hire him to build ANYTHING ever again. He bulldozes community gardens and he builds really some of the ugliest projects I have ever seen...and I used to live in the San Fernando Valley, the spiritual home of Malls, Galerias and Valley Girls. Ratner's stuff is worse.

The first phase of what is likely to be a groundbreaking (no pun intended)...or maybe landmark (uh, oh...another pun)...okay, precedent setting eminent domain lawsuit has been decided in favor of the plaintiffs and against the Ratner/Pataki/Bloomberg axis of crony capitalism. The case is "Goldstein vs. Pataki" though it is understood that "Pataki" is nothing more than a cardboard cutout that Ratner is hiding behind, so I consider the case "Goldstein vs. Ratner." The defense had filed a motion to dismiss, but the presiding judge has found ample grounds for the lawsuit to procede:

In his report, Judge Levy found that the plaintiffs' case was certainly appropriate for the federal courts, and that contrary to defendants' arguments, was ripe to be heard. "Clearly, the proposed condemnations, and the consequent disposition of plaintiffs from their homes and businesses, pose a significant threat of harm," wrote Levy in dismissing the defendants' claims that the case was not yet ripe for federal court. He added that the "Plaintiffs' Amended Complaint raises serious and difficult questions regarding the exercise of eminent domain under emerging Supreme Court jurisprudence."

Why is Alberto Gonzales still the Attorney General?

Two weeks ago, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales said, “there is no express grant of habeas in the Constitution.” His reasoning, or rationalization, behind this extraordinary statement is that the Constitution merely prohibits suspension of the right, except under special circumstances, but the Constitution doesn’t explicitly state that the right exists.

Well!

The Constitution merely states that “Congress shall make no law” prohibiting the free exercise of religion, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press (Amendment I). Under the “Gonzales doctrine,” this means that there is no inherent freedom of religion, speech, or the press.

The Constitution merely states that, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.” (Amendment VI).

New York State’s capital punishment law is in limbo, but the federal courts retain the power to put New Yorkers to death. And suddenly it’s looking like a trend. Just days after the sentencing of Ronell Wilson, a jury in Brooklyn's federal court convicted drug kingpin Kenneth McGriff of hiring hit men to murder his rivals. Prosecutors are expected to pursue the death penalty.

As the Albany Times-Union reports, Wilson's prosecutors may have been trying to make an end run around the New York Supreme Court's 2004 decision overturning the state's death penalty - "forum shopping," it's called. The United States of America will still strap a man down and put the needle in his arm, if New York won't. Of course, the Wilson jurors were New Yorkers, so let's not let ourselves too far off the hook here.

Last week I posted about the kvetching and cavilling over Sarbanes-Oxley, the corporate transparency act passed in response to Enron and other boardroom scandals. Senator Schumer and Mayor Bloomberg were the latest to throw their lot in with the anti-government conservatives and the panicky Wall Streeters, predicting economic doom for America - and New York in particular - if SOX were not "reformed" to within an inch of its life.

The Wonkster points to this week's James Surowiecki column in the New Yorker, which provides a number of nice big grains of salt for you to take with all that criticism. Surowiecki outlines some of the many different reasons why companies seek out foreign markets for IPOs, and points out that attracting foreign listings is not necessarily indicative of economic health anyway. He goes on:

And there is no evidence that America’s attractiveness to investors has diminished. Its share of global stock-market activity in 2005 was actually three points higher than it had been a decade earlier. In the same period, the market capitalizations of the New York exchanges rose almost twice as fast as the market cap of the London Stock Exchange. And, according to the New York report, if you look at the annual growth in equities—which is what Sarbanes-Oxley would presumably be a drag on—you find something unexpected: from 2001 to 2005, the U.S. market grew significantly faster than that of Europe or the U.K. Does that really look like an industry crippled by regulation?

There’s no doubt that Sarbanes-Oxley is an imperfect piece of legislation, but it is not a harbinger of doom for America’s capital markets, and we should be skeptical of any analysis that says it is. Wall Street, after all, has greeted practically every important market regulation introduced in this century with howls of dismay and predictions of disaster.

The right-wing ideologues will always attack corporate regulation - even when that regulation ultimately contributes to the health of the market. And New York politicians will always feel pressure to bend to the manias of Wall Street.

But let's not forget why Sarbanes-Oxley exists. It exists because ordinary people lost their jobs, their pensions, and their futures thanks to shady accounting and irresponsible corporate governance. It exists because no economy can prosper without strong investor confidence. It exists because sometimes the private sector only works when government sets boundaries.

The Albany Project has a brilliant run of the numbers from November's election for the state Senate. Bottom line: Democratic candidates got 51.1% of the votes, republicans 47.7%. However, the resultant distribution of seats in the legislature is 45.2% Democrats, 54.8% republicans, at 28 to 34 seats respectively. The average population size for a Democratic district is 310,339; for a republican district, the number is 302,558. The over-representation of republicans in the legislature amounts to 7.1%, based on the discrepancy between their total of the popular vote and their number of seats, or, read differently, gives them a representation that is 26% higher than they would have been entitled to if the popular vote were the controlling factor.

Theodore Roosevelt once quipped that the state Senate is constitutionally republican, and so it has been since almost beyond living memory. The question should be whether that is a sufficient legal shield for Joe Bruno's well-crafted majority-protection scheme. There appear to be two legal bases for challenging the districts of the state Senate: one man, one vote and the 14th amendment's guarantees as spelled out in the Voting Rights Act.

The Huffington Post: Eight years ago today, the republican House voted to impeach President Clinton. Impeachment was put into the constitution as a measure to deal with inconveniently popular Democratic Presidents, and is not applicable to republicans, goes the conventional wisdom.

Also in HuffPost: That female Marine officer killed in Iraq the other day? She was escorting republican felon Oliver North and a Fox "News" crew, along with some guy from Newsweek. Even the manufacturing of republican talking points, it appears, gets people killed.

The New York Times: "Attacks in Iraq at Record High, Pentagon Says".

Also in the Times: Hevesi is negotiating with the Albany District Attorney, instead of doing what everyone is wishing he would do: just quietly go away.

The Albany Times-Union says an indictment could come as early as Friday.

The Washington Post: E.J. Dionne analyzes the death of Red America.

DMIBlog: "White Progressives Don't Get Race".

Lastly, The Albany Project has a book club. Now, heh, where have I seen that before? It's all good.

In school your payoff comes from giving up your personal responsibility, just doing what you're told by strangers even if that violates the core principles of your household.
Shocking Origins of Public Education, John Taylor Gatto

I will be coming out soon from a gag order I've been on about anything having to do with education. I have been reticent about writing on the subject for a whole variety of reasons. When we were homeschooling, or may I say "unschooling", life became our learning platform and as many of you know by my writing there's not a lot I write about my private life, especially when it comes about my kids. It's hard to write without including massive details about the spawnage. I do believe children have a right to privacy.

Now that my kids have been in school since September, I am ready to explode. I have been biting my fingers and tongue because, grock, I hate the culture of schools.

Homeschooling in New York is a double full time job for secular parents with no church groups to pick up the slack of classes, workshops, study groups or just plain old playtime and baby-sitting. If you are one of the thousands of evangelicals, mormons or conservative jews homeschooling in New York, you will have a church, tabernacle or temple as a support system that's got your back. If you are an atheist like us, good luck.

Well, Ratner's supporters kept saying it wouldn't happen, but now it has. Eminent Domain is now being officially used by NY State to condemn property owned by one private individual to benefit another private individual. What's the difference? The beneficiary private individual happens to be a law school buddy of Pataki's.

Eminent Domain Abuse comes to Brooklyn.

Will our Public "Advocate," Betsy What's-her-name, going to finally stand up?

A spokesman for Gotbaum's campaign says simply, "If eminent domain is part of the project she's not supporting it."

With half of America trapped on freeways or grumbling intemperately in airports, and the other half slaving over stoves, there's not that much news to report.

DailyKos ponders the turkey.

Taking a step away from the 2008 glamour contest for the Presidency, Hotline takes a look at the Senate races. It's worth noting that in 2008, 21 republicans are up for re-election, as opposed to only 12 Democrats. This stark fact prompts nervousness over at Redstate.com.

The New York Times: Senator LieberAss, psychopath of Connecticut, hires John McCain's former press flack, one Marshall Wittman.

Mr. Wittmann, meanwhile, is a Trotskyite turned Zionist turned Reaganite turned bipartisan irritant turned pretty much everything in between — including chief lobbyist for the Christian Coalition, the only Jew who has ever held that position.

Also in the Times: New York's system of village and town courts, three centuries old, gets an overhaul. Here's hoping that the legal system's gears grind more quickly when it comes to marriage equality for gays and lesbians.

Lastly, The Daily Politics recalls JFK; today is the anniversary of his assassination.

Happy Day before Thanksgiving, y'all.