There are a few black electeds in this naked city who are courageous souls: Eric Adams is one of them. But then I have known this of Eric long before he got into elected office. I knew it back when he was tackling police-brutality issues, with one of the organizations he helped build: “100 Black Men in Law Enforcement”. In fact I knew it even before then; but that’s another story for another time.

Last Sunday, State Senator Eric Adams, stood up with a few dozen people from various organizations that are committed to fight against the reversal of term limits -being contemplated by the city council and the current mayor: Michael Bloomberg. Adams went farther than this present imbroglio, to announce that he supported term limits for legislators in Albany also (both Senate and Assembly). It was not the first time he showed courage under fire since being elected to office in 2006.

Not too long ago, Adams was wrongly criticized by some, for stating something on the senate floor that many of his colleagues were afraid to say: even though they wanted to. He said that the salaries of our state elected officials were too low. He is totally and absolutely correct. What he should have also said was that the salaries being paid to staffers of electeds are likewise too low. You can’t ask people to make the types of sacrifices they do for public service, and then pay them peanuts; and you can’t penalize them all just because the overall body is dysfunctional.

Adams was a key speaker at a press conference/rally held at City Hall. It was an impromptu one, hastily called by groups opposed to extending term limits for the city’s elected officials: from eight years to twelve. Also in attendance were Michael Myers, Norman Siegel, Bill DiBlasio, Ydannis Rodriguez, his brother Carlos Rodriguez, Terry Hinds, Reginald Bowman, Saquan Jones, Geoffrey Davis, Carlos Bristol, Wendy Washington (Brooklyn for Term Limits Organization), Gary Tilzer, Joanne Simon, Marquez Claxton, and many many others. Many potential candidates for next year’s council races also showed up to support this effort; even the irrepressible Michael “Frenchie” Bouldin showed up in duality (reporter/supporter/lol).  read more »

Yesterday, at remarkably short notice, a new group calling itself New Yorkers for Term Limits convened a press conference at City Hall. Their case was simple: New Yorkers decided twice, in consecutive referenda, that they want the terms of their servants to be limited to two, and that nothing short of a referendum suffices to repeal them, as a matter of basic small-D democratic integrity.

Norman Siegel in his remarks pointed out that the current mayor is only in office due to term limits, which prevented his predecessor from seeking a third term. The same applies to members of the Council. As Siegel spoke, he was surrounded by several candidates for seats that were expected to be vacant in 2009.

State Senator Eric Adams (D-SD-20) went one step further and demanded term limits at the state legislative level, saying that "there comes a time to pass the baton". That should ruffle some feathers, one would imagine.

Councilman Bill DeBlasio, the only sitting member of the Council to make an appearance - wonder how that happened - said this:

There is no way I will vote to extend the terms of current legislators. If we change term limits this way, at the eleventh hour, we can't expect the people to have faith in their democratic system. I will vote no.

Another speaker, Michael Myers, an activist with a civil rights group, decried the thinking-out-loud on term limits of the mayor and various members of the Council - in short, of the beneficiary class - as "desperate, despicable, shameless idiocy", characterized them as "an arrogant abuse of power", adding "not only are eight years enough, enough is enough".

Members of the coalition will be active in rallying the support of New Yorkers. There's a web site planned, and apparently, a Facebook group.  read more »

From Norm Siegel's website:

NORMAN TO HOST ANNUAL JULY 4th CELEBRATION IN CENTRAL PARK

NYS Senators Bill Perkins and Eric Adams, Reverend Billy, the Granny Peace Brigade and Grandmothers Against the War to join in public reading of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights at 12 Noon, Strawberry Fields, Central Park.

Come join Norman and friends for this annual July 4th celebration of the anniversary of US Independence and the birth of our civil rights and civil liberties. In addition to the actual text of these historic documents, Norman invites everyone to add their comments and observations to the mix. In years past, this has provided a spirited and memorable way to kick-off the July 4th festivities. Come join us and start your Fourth of July with Norman, Eric Adams, Bill Perkins, the incomparable Reverend Billy, New York’s famous peace-loving grannies and your New York neighbors.  read more »

This last weekend Joy and I attended two events of political interest to New York. First I want to mention that on Saturday Joy participated in the 3rd annual Center for Anti-Violence Education's Punch-a-thon held in a very wet Grand Army Plaza entrance to Prospect Park. The Center for Anti-Violence Education (CAE) teaches women, children, teens, and LGBT individuals verbal and physical strategies to protect themselves and break cycles of violence in their lives and communities. CAE has a commitment to serving low-income families and offer our violence-prevention courses on a sliding fee scale. Courses for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault are free of charge, and free childcare is available at all classes. The annual Punch-a-thon raises money to pay for self-defense and violence-prevention courses to those who can't afford it. I sponsored my wife in this event and she, like most of the participants, did 1000 punches. In all the event raised $5000 to date with more hopefully coming in. The political angle was that several elected officials had promised to show up.  read more »

Big Kick Off Fundraiser for Norm Siegel for Public Advocate

Monday, February 25th, 2008, 6pm to 8:30pm

Cafe Deville
103 Third Avenue (at 13th Street)
NYC

Let me just preface this with the comment that Joy Romanski, Marjorie Gersten and myself have already held a fundraiser for Norm Siegel...so maybe we should claim the Kick off fundraiser

Norman Siegel is the ideal candidate for NYC Public Advocate. In essence he has been our public advocate for decades, having been head of the NY Civil Liberties Union, defending the rights of NYC protestors against the 2004 Republican Convention, defending the rights of Critical Mass bicyclists, fighting destruction of Harlem neighborhoods, etc.

You can read more about my impressions of Norman Siegel here.

And you can attend this big, big fundraiser and meet the man himself:  read more »