[Ed. Note]: Promoted.

Hi Betsy,

Wow! You sure have been a busy bee lately.

I just received a copy of the press release you sent yesterday announcing you were traipsing to Brooklyn to blast! Blast! BLAST! conditions (?!?!) at Bushwick Houses.

Let's forget the silly little detail that you scheduled this 'blasting' for ten o'clock in the morning. What I found most intriguing was this little bit of wisdom written by John Collins, your communications guy and I assume signed off by you : That you are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore because senior citizens were left stranded until 2am waiting for the elevator to be fixed.

Now ... ahem ... let me get this straight Betsy ...

A 47 year-old Puerto Rican woman died on August 20th due to said broken down elevator --along with the multiple daily little violences she had to contend with living in that building-- but somehow that didn't catch your attention?

An African American woman, also in her 40s, was the sheroe who got Errol Louis and me into that building after being ignored numerous times by 311, NYCHA, your offices, and numerous media outlets around the city ... and yet now you find the time to "blast" about it?

If I were a public advocate, I would assume that one of my principal points of focus would be to help the poor of the city --anywhere, everywhere, regardless of gender, age, race or ethnicity.

Yet ... and yet ... Betsy, are you telling me that all it took was to tell you that some senior citizens were left out in the cold one night, for you to do something about it?

Please Betsy, don't tell me these senior citizens happen also to be white; because that would be the ultimate insult not only to the memory of Lillian Milán, but to her living and very real Puerto Rican husband who is still living in that building.

Seriously Betsy, tell your communications guy that what he is communicating is not just troublesome but unbelievably nasty.

Anyhow, I hope you had fun with the blasting.

Have a great day,
liza  read more »

mole333 mentioned Chris Owens's TV show, Inside the Congressional Black Caucus (iCBC, the lower case "i" is part of the logo and intentional), in a December blog, but the launch was delayed until now.

iCBC airs Mondays 9 PM and Midnight Eastern Standard Time on the Black Family Channel (152 on Time Warner in NYC, see your local listings elsewhere). iCBC is scheduled to premiere on April 30 with footage of California Congressperson Maxine Waters and Michigan representative John Conyers and an interview with the Rev Jesse Jackson.

Chris Owens, the Harvard and Princeton educated son of former Brooklyn, NY Congressperson Major Owens and a 2006 Congressional Candidate himself in the frequently discussed in the Daily Gotham 11th CD race, is the co-host and executive producer. Chris isn't the only Owens with a TV career, brother Geoffrey played Elvin on the Cosby show.

iCBC is a joint production effort of the Black Educational Network (BEN, Which he co-founded) through iCBC Productions LLC and historically black college University of the District of Columbia, UDC). UDC also provides production facilities for Washington DC Cable Channel 98.  read more »

I received a request from Internet radio provider Pandora to contact my Congressman before tomorrow's Congressional hearing concerning royalty payment schedules for web based stations. I didn't recall ever giving them my street address, but they somehow knew that unfortunately Vito Fossella is my Congressperson.

I wrote back that any requests to Vito from me would go deaf ears considering I spent most of my 2006 waking hours trying to cause him to be unemployed.

Unlike terrestrial radio, which pays fairly small fees to music copyright licensing companies such as ASCAP and BMI, Internet stations are charged ridiculously high per song rates by Sound Exchange which receives royalty payments for artists and the major record labels.

The new fee schedule will essentially kill web based music radio by making the cost of playing music prohibitive.

I rarely listen to terrestrial commercial music radio anymore because the playlists are repetitive or just outright suck.

Pandora is an interesting service. You can give them an artist or a song and they will put together a compatible playlist.

I put together a station based on the 70s Genesis song, "Supper's Ready". Tonight's Supper's Ready radio station music selections included Genesis, YES, Phish, Procol Harum and Jethro Tull.  read more »

Back in 1988, the Democrats fielded a lackluster bunch of candidates that were referred to by the press as "Gary Hart and the Seven Dwarfs." Truth is some of those political "Dwarfs" were actually extremely good people who would have made excellent presidents...my favorite was bow-tie wearing Senator Paul Simon. But the truth was, none of them had broad appeal and the field definitely struck the media and the voters the media influenced as political dwarfs with little national stature. The entry of Joe Biden, one of the LEAST interesting of the 1988 "dwarfs," into the 2008 field of candidates practically forces a comparison with the 1988 situation.

And the comparison is heartening to any good Democrat. In 1988, the Republicans were riding high on Ronald Reagan's popularity. Whatever I might say regarding some disastrous things Reagan did, he certainly knew how to work a crowd and his popularity remains undiminished to this day despite the fact that some of the consequences of his bad policies haunt us to this day. In 1988, the Republican Party was in the ascendancy with its far right wing fringe suddenly in the forefront, with an amiable and genuinely nice man, Ronald Reagan, at its lead. Had it not been for Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Sr, would never have been more than a political dwarf himself in presidential politics, though his accomplishments elsewhere were respectable.  read more »

The Politicker's Azi riffs on Apple's new must-have, the iPhone, noting that it reserves its most appealing and fun features for when the beautiful thing is in a WiFi network.

Thing is, WiFi is still not anywhere near the coverage of cell phone networks. So yes, there are political ramifications from this product launch. If this new gadget is anywhere near as successful as the iPod, it will have the unintended side effect of showcasing that broadband access is of right a public utility, a necessity akin to roads and running water.  read more »