ChangeNYC.Org was created to empower New Yorkers. As citizens, we all feel like we’ve been disconnected from our government for too long. That’s why ChangeNYC.Org is taking a strong stand to support a lawsuit brought by civil rights attorney Norman Siegel on behalf of a City Hall blogger and two other online journalists denied press passes by New York City.

We’ve begun an online petition calling on the City to reform its press credentialing system to assert and protect the First Amendment rights of bloggers. Norman Siegel’s lawsuit is so important because our City’s bloggers consistently do a better job of covering their neighborhoods, community issues, and local politics than the mainstream media. New Yorkers depend upon our online media to report the news as they see it, free of corporate bias and control. If our bloggers don’t have access to the halls of government, the people of New York won’t have access to the truth about City politics.

Please sign the petition below and forward it to everyone you know who cares about protecting democracy:

http://www.petitiononline.com/12151791/petition.html

Maybe it’s time for me to take off the kid gloves again. Maybe it’s time for me to start going after the many mistakes that Barack Obama makes; mistakes which some in mainstream media (and also in alternative media) tend to be lenient about. The campaign is over now, so those of us who didn’t want to negatively impact on his chances for victory can return from that hiatus from objectivity. He won.

I am quite perplexed by the many problems that Barack Obama often seems to create for himself: there is a pattern here. And because the media tends to be relatively lenient it doesn’t mean that he will forever get away from full scrutiny. Many times I have wondered if Obama really understands what he is getting into. Has this always been about raw personal political ambition? Is this about some death-wish for martyrdom? Or is this truly about “change”?

We don’t need just another ordinary American president right now: we don’t. We need an exceptional one: like yesterday. Barack Obama is inspirational, and that’s great; he gives many of us hope, and that too is great; since inspiration and hope often brings outstanding outcomes. But that’s not a given; we have got a long way to go.

Look; to many (myself included); re-cycling ex-officials and workers from the Bill Clinton administration is not quite our idea of change. Floating Hillary Clinton’s name for Secretary of State, when Bill Richardson offers him a chance to appoint the first Hispanic in the role, is nothing short of ludicrous. Especially after the many things the Clintons said about his foreign policy ideas during the primary. How do you square this? Are we still at politics as usual? Is this the change we can believe in? Or is “change” only a word? You know: “just words”? Words that gets you to the White House? And then what: same old same old?

Since I posted about the possibility of Congressman Vito Lopez a few hours ago, I have gotten bombarded with interesting emails from people with various opinions on the subject (most of whom apparently prefer to comment off the record for fear of retribution).

The most interesting tip I've received concerns a move Vito appears to be orchestrating behind the scenes to clear his path to Nydia Velazquez's Congressional seat. The Optimist's source, who claims to have inside knowledge of the dealings, says that State Senator Carl Kruger of Brooklyn, one of the three remaining members of the now infamous Gang of Three, has abandoned his push for State Senator-elect Pedro Espada Jr. of The Bronx to become Senate Majority Leader and now favors Senator Martin Malavé Dilan of Brooklyn for the job.

While no one seriously thinks right now that Marty Dilan could bypass Minority Leader Malcolm Smith and get elected to the State Senate's top post, the fact that these moves are even being made casts a fascinating light upon Vito's skillful maneuverings. If Dilan became Minority Leader, Vito would be rid of his chief potential rival for Velazquez's seat.

Please join organizers and activists for a Town Hall - The Future of Marriage Equality in New York State - this Monday at the LGBT Center.

Monday, November 24, 2008
Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm
Location: LGBT Community Services Center
Street: 208 West 13th Street
City/Town:
New York, NY

On Monday, November 24th, we will join with Marriage Equality New York for a town hall meeting to discuss impact of the election results, not just in California, Arizona, Florida, and Arkasas, but also right here in New York State. We'll have a full update on the New York State Senate, the situation with Senators Ruben Diaz, Sr. and Malcolm Smith, and a discussion of next steps for achieving marriage equality in the Empire State.

It's really interesting to notice how the vote on Proposition Eight in California has galvanized and mobilized the LGBTQ community and its allies. Apparently, people are sick and tired of being shit on.

Lorraine over at Fingerlakes Wanderers Blog reminds everyone that today is the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.

Gettysburg in late April is purple and green, the stone gray of the monuments interspersed along the paved roads that guide the tourists in their cars from blood-soaked field to blood-soaked field. The grass of the killing grounds has an emerald richness to it; blood is a great fertilizer, and the bits of brain, bone, and gore blasted into the earth those three days in early July of 1863 have left behind a tapestry of shades of green.

The Address, written by Lincoln on the back of an envelope on the train to the battlefield, has served ever since as a distillation of the ideas of citizenship and sacrifice for a common good. During a time when a significant slice of the population still suffers from discrimination, old and new, it calls to us to remember that all men are created equal.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

There won't be any grandiose celebrations today, I'm sure. So raise a glass with friends and family to the better angels of our nature, and the great and enduring legacy of Abraham Lincoln.

All this talk about Hillary becoming Secretary of State has my head spinning.

If Hillary does take the job, she could single-handedly start a chain reaction that could change a good portion of the political landscape of Brooklyn overnight.

It all starts with the open U.S. Senate seat. As Liz Benjamin reported last week in The Daily News, Governor Paterson would likely appoint Brooklyn/Manhattan Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez to replace Clinton. The rationale behind the move makes sense. Paterson is under fire by a duo of rogue Democratic State Senators from the Bronx for the dearth of Latinos in leadership positions - a sharp thorn in Paterson's side given that the two State Senators are threatening to keep the State Senate in Republican hands if the Democrats don't make concessions. Elevating Velazquez to the Senate seat could go a long way to diffusing this criticism, while at the same time scoring points for Paterson with women voters.

Here's where things get crazy. If New York suddenly has Senator Velazquez, who is most likely to run for her Congressional seat?

(drum roll)

Vito Lopez!

"It is a function of government and politicians to invent philosophies to explain the demands of its own convenience." - Murray Kempton

A couple of weeks ago New York City’s term limits law was extended legislatively by the New York City Council and Mayor Bloomberg based upon the rationale that the City needs consistent leadership to get us through the coming economic crisis. The editorial boards of all the city’s daily newspapers made this exact case to their readers and our elected officials echoed their argument. Council Speaker Quinn said “given the level of economic tumult that exists, I have decided to change my position [opposing the extension of term limits] because I believe the potential of consistent leadership by this council and this mayor would be in the best interest of the city during these hard economic times."

I remember doing a column earlier this year which dealt with the Fox News Network’s (FNN) unfair and unbalanced handling of the election coverage; I don’t think it got much attention, although it should have. You see, from my perspective FNN had a vendetta against Barack Obama. I know that their response to this column will be, that other mediums were in the tank for him; and as such, they weren’t about to go down the same highway.

I am not going to sit here writing this without admitting that Barack Obama charmed the pants off of many a journalist’s/reporter’s typewriter: he did. And he did it with brilliant speeches, surprising (to them) primary and caucus victories, a high-quality political organization, his decorum, temperament, intellect and more. His reassuring calm -especially when under fire- was as admirable a trait as seen in any presidential candidate in contemporary times. It is possible that mainstream media gave him the half-decent treatment he deserved; something that he earned; and not their usual ferocious pit-bull attacks. Despite his mixed-race (he is a mulatto) they treated him like the full human being he is; something admirable coming from mainstream media.

When you tally the newspaper endorsements shared between Obama and McCain, you find that Obama got more endorsements than his rival by about two to one. At university campuses you could easily double that spread. Some early studies are showing that Obama also got more favorable stories (reports) than his rival by about the same two to one margin. To analyze the reasons why will take a dissertation, so I wont try to do that here.

Yet, during the entire election season -including both primary and general election campaigns- you found that Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, and other right-wingers who troll the shows on FNN, perpetually attempted to demonize Barack. They attacked his patriotism, character, associations, positions, affiliations, ideas, vision, and the like. And they did this relentlessly; in fact: almost non-stop. It was way above and beyond the pale. In my recollection, this was abnormal for any presidential campaign I have experienced first hand.

(Note: Cross-posted from my website)

For generations, politicians across the spectrum have claimed to appeal to the "middle class." They have touted their "middle class values" and asserted that their programs - and only their programs - would benefit this "middle class." The problem is, nobody has bothered to define exactly what the "middle class" is. To complicate things even further, most polls show that the overwhelming majority of Americans consider themselves to be "middle class."

By dividing Americans into "lower," "middle" and "upper" classes, we get what is probably the broadest definition of "middle class." Under this definition (which we haven't yet completed), one-third of all Americans are "middle class." The simplest methods for dividing us are by income or by wealth. Since wealth is not only far more difficult to determine, and also far more variable (witness the tremendous wealth losses experienced in just the past few months), let us define "middle class" according to household income.

Three New York journalists, Rafael Martínez Alequin, Ralph E. Smith and David Wallis, have been denied press credentials by the NYPD with little explanation or appeals process. All three write for online journals and believe that they are being denied press credentials because they write for non-traditional media. The lawsuit alleges that the current Press Credential procedure violates the Constitutional Rights of the plaintiffs and interferes with the reporting of news in NYC.

Rafael Martínez Alequin, a long-time critic of Mayor (Tsar) Bloomberg, publishes the New York City Free Press, an online version of his earlier print version, the Free Press (originally the Brooklyn Free Press). His stated philosophy for the NYC Free Press is: