Warning: the following post includes confusing details meant to discourage public participation. Some patience and bravery is advised.

In a stunning move of extreme waffling, the office of Melinda Katz has rescheduled the public hearing on Duffield Street from April 11 to May 1. Or maybe it will be April 17, but we won't know for sure until a few days before the meeting.

Action Advisory:
Email Christine Quinn at quinn@council.nyc.ny.us and
Melinda Katz at katz@council.nyc.ny.us

Write that the destruction of the Underground Railroad deserves a fair hearing. The City should not waddle through the seizure by eminent domain of private homes in a haphazard manner.

Stick to the announced date of May 1 for the public hearing on the Duffield Street Abolitionist homes!

In their messy attempt to help squelch any further exploration of this history, the City Council has in the space of about three weeks rescheduled the public hearing on this three times. The EDC, with AKRF (a private entity dedicated to destroying communities in the way of big development plans), spent two years studying the historical record. The 500+ page report was released 3/13/07 and the first public hearing was scheduled 3/20, giving the public no time to review the report. After some pressure from Tish James and others, they rescheduled the meeting to 4/11. On April 5 at about 5:00 pm, Council Member Katz's office let word out that the meeting will be delayed until May 1. Or maybe not.

As we come up on the 4 year anniversary Brooklyn Parents for Peace will be hosting event to honor our heroes in Iraq.
Whether you for the war or against the war we all support our troops.

The information for the event is here is here:

"Endless" War Memorial:
Sunday March 11 to Friday March 16
sunrise to sunset
Read the names of war dead, civilian and military, from both
sides
Times Square Recruitment Center
Broadway and 44th Street, Manhattan
Sponsored by: Granny Peace Brigade NYC, The Critical Voice,
Brooklyn Parents for Peace, and others
Add your name to the list of participants, and schedule a time
to read
E-mail endlesswarmemorial@gmail.com [1] or call 212-533-2125

Torrington, Connecticut

Hallelujah. I have WiFi, coffee, cigarettes, and a hangover - in short, life on the road is beginning to take on the familiar trappings of home.

So how is the War on Christmas developing?

Interestingly, flags in Connecticut today are at half mast; this because, presumably, the state has again had casualties in the real war, the one that republicans started in Iraq. Local television coverage this morning announced another such death; a young Marine was killed in Afghanistan, where we're losing as well, it seems.

Also on television, and elsewhere: there's a new war going on in Africa, and since it involves Islamic extremists, needless to say, we'll be involved in some way.

There's another war going on here: the Wal-Mart war on American prosperity. Torrington used to be a thriving, prosperous mill town. You can see just how rich this town used to be when you see their magnificent municipal library, an elegant sandstone jewelbox from the nineteenth century. Now, of course, the industry that nourished this prosperity has withered away, and hasn't been replaced.

North Easton, Massachusetts

The War on Christmas, in my little non-traditional family, annually takes on the characteristics of a drawn-out, give-no-quarter guerilla campaign. Sadly, I feel compelled to report that us grinches - OK, the grinch that is me - seem to be losing this internecine conflict.

Certain elements of the body politic claim that other elements, of a Bolshevik persuasion, are trying to exterminate, or more accurately denature, the year-end, seven-week holiday that is Christmas. We seem not to be making much headway in that effort. This perhaps because our opponents use tactics that are both demoralizing and wantonly cruel. We are carpet-bombed with canned cheer, some of it dating from the middle of the last century, and none the less distracting from age; I'm referring, since it's blasting about me at the moment like so much napalm, to Connie Francis and her spirit-crushing rendition of 'Baby's First Christmas'.

In theory, there should be no more favorable battleground in Bill O'Reilly's war. I'm halfway between Martha's Vineyard and Beacon Hill, in a district represented in Congress by Barney Frank. If there's a culture war going on, the front lines should be running rather close to right here.

The papi chulo of ethnic polling has this to say about today's elections :

"You can expect the majority of Hispanics to show up to vote in New Jersey, where they are more than 10 percent of the electorate," Miami-based [Sergio] Bendixen said.

The border states of Arizona and New Mexico may also see Hispanics influencing the ballots in a year when immigration became a hot political topic.

Arizona was in the center of the immigration debate, and Republican congressional candidate Randy Graf has taken a hardline stance on illegal border crossings in his race against Democrat Gabrielle Giffords.

In neighboring New Mexico, Hispanics could play a key role in deciding whether Republican Rep. Heather Wilson (news, bio, voting record) loses her re-election bid to Democrat Patricia Madrid, the state's Hispanic attorney general.

"Graf could lose to a Democrat with his strong anti-immigrant speech, and in New Mexico, Patricia Madrid may very well take the congressional seat of Wilson," said political analyst Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia.

SWING VOTE IN FLORIDA
Bendixen said Hispanic votes could also play a key role in the Florida governor's race to replace outgoing Republican Gov.
Jeb Bush,
President George W. Bush's brother.

"Based on recent polls, this is going to be a very close race, so Hispanics can be the swing vote," he said.

Source : Reuters via Yahoo!News

I've met Sergio Bendixen and I have to tell you, nobody makes statistics sound sexier than Mr. B.