The decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed and the other 9/11 conspirators in a public, civilian court within sight of Ground Zero is one of the strongest expressions of America's strength that I have heard in many years. There is no honor, no pride, no confidence in trying your enemies in secret. There is honor, pride and chutzpah for America to hold fast to our ideals, trust our democracy, and try our enemies in full public view.

The republicans are expressing an amazing amount of hysterical fear at the prospect of giving the terrorists a fair, public trial. I am proud as all hell that we FINALLY have the balls to do this. I have full confidence that our democratic system is strong enough to hold this trial and I thank the Obama administration for restoring our confidence in our own democracy. Bush dragged this out for 8 fucking years, making us all afraid, doubting America's strength. Obama is reminding us that we are strong, our democracy is strong and our court system is strong. The terrorists wanted to frighten us, to make us doubt America and its democracy. Bush fell right into their trap, spreading fear and doubt. Obama is sending a clear message to Americans, to the terrorists and to the world that America's democracy will NOT be frightened by terrorists anymore. We will put our faith in our own values and feel confident that we will prevail over the fears and doubts the terrorists and Republicans both seem to thrive on.

When the 1993 bombings of the WTC happened, we maintained our faith in our own American democracy and tried the perpetrators publicly in a civilian court. That showed balls. That is better than most countries in the world would do. We gave them a fair trial and they are serving their sentence.

I am proud to see those who planned the attack on our city are being brought right here to New York to stand trial. In many ways it makes me feel prouder than I have for a long time. It shows the world that YES America IS strong enough to trust in our core democratic values.

Mayor (Tsar) Bloomberg and his Trained Surrender Monkeys

(Bloomberg photo from WCBSTV; Quinn photo from The Chief-Leader; Yassky photo from Streetsblog; Dom Recchia photo from Daily News)  read more »

Thirty-five active members of the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee have, under the leadership of Morgan Pehme of the Brooklyn Optimist, signed an open letter to the City Council opposing the Bloomberg Putsch to reverse behind the scenes the term limits that were put in place by two referendums approved by the voters. Let me make two comments: first, my wife and I are among these 35 County Committee members who have signed on. Second, not everyone who has signed this letter believes in term limits. We all simply oppose an arbitrary mayoral and legislative reversal of the clear will of the voters of NYC. Here is the open letter we have signed:

An Open Letter from 35 Members of the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee to the New York City Council Opposing the Extension of Term Limits

cc: Mayor Mike Bloomberg
Council Speaker Christine Quinn
Ronald Lauder

Dear Council Members.  read more »

At 2:00p.m today (Sunday, 7th September, 2008), there will be a rally by those who support term limits, at City Hall in Manhattan. One of the organizers is Kevin Wardally of Bill Lynch Associates. Kevin is a well known political consultant and political operative/technician. He is also a Vice-President at Bill Lynch Associates -on of the top political consulting firms in New York. This firm counts Senator Hillary Clinton as one of their major clients.

Recently, word has been received by media sources that the mayor, the speaker and other city council members, were conspiring to overturn term limits by fiat. Many political activists have already filed their protests, with both Mayor Bloomberg and also with many council members -including the Speaker. This issue has been broiling for years; despite the fact that the people of New York City have twice voted for term limits through referendum; we the people need to settle this once and for all.

I am going to place myself firmly in the camp of those who support term limits; I will be at that rally today. I urge many of you who read my column (and support me on this issue) to show up at City Hall today. We need to tell these electeds that we will not stand for this affront to democracy.

Stay tuned-in folks. This fight has just begun anew.  read more »

Metro newspaper just published Voices: Spitzer floated on air, but lack of roots did him in, my Op/Ed on the Spitzer debacle.

Here's the money quote :

For netroots activists like me, who have had the chance to take a peek at the mechanical beast, the New York State Democratic Party, Eliot Spitzer was nothing but a political insider’s rock star that only needed “The (little) People” to vote so the “politics as usual” could rock New York and roll into Albany. Yet there’s a reason why “politics as usual” is losing the fight in the Democratic Party’s presidential primary.

Eliot Spitzer’s weakness has been the lack of a true grassroots base. He never had his feet held to the fire by his own party base, by The People who ended up voting for him. The Republicans have known this all along, and it’s not a coincidence that they tried to scare him last year by astroturfing the Internet with fake attack blogs.  read more »