[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

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 is also provides production facilities for Washington DC Cable Channel 98.

Chris is also negotiating with ION Television, the new name for the Pax Network, and CoLoursTV to broadcast the show.

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.

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.

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.

The lamestream media are predictably dismissive of today's announcement of a Presidential bid by John Edwards (or so it seems to me), perhaps because they've already decided that Hillary and Obama are the only games in town. My private theory to explain this is simple: journos are lazy, and 'Is the country ready for a black/female President?' stories are so simple they practically write themselves. Hence, they have more time to spend on expense reports and cocktail party chit-chat.

The real news, of course, is that Hillary labors under the widespread perception that she can't win/stands for nothing/will say whatever you want to hear/polarizes (one which I share), and that sheer politeness is all that is keeping the subterranean chatter about Obama's thin résumé quiet, for the moment.

By a simple process of elimination, that leaves Edwards as the guy to beat. Clark never quite caught on with the rank and file (for reasons which elude many), Kerry had his chance (and has that unfortunate foot-in-mouth problem), Gore seems sincere about not running, Vilsack is in fourth place in his native Iowa, and Mark Warner, ah, Mark Warner. Biden and Dodd are lovely Senators; Richardson may be laboring under too-high expectations.

The Washington Post: 57% of Americans trust Democrats in Congress to do the right things for the country; 31% trust Wienerboy in the White House. Mandate, anyone?

Also in WaPo: Senator Tim Johnson, Democrat of South Dakota, had emergency brain surgery last night and remains in critical condition.

The New York Times: what is described as "one of the country’s most important collections of artifacts devoted to the history of African-Americans" is seeking a new home.

Brian Keeler on "Why the Gonzalez indictment matters".

Rochester Turning discovers cross-promotion within media conglomerates, or as I like to call it, product pimping. What price credible journalism?

Capitol Confidential: Spitzer to legislature: take care of business, then we'll talk about a pay raise.

Lastly, with no link yet, NDM and other interested parties are putting together an event on legislative rules reform for next week. Stay tuned.

[Update]: Los Angeles Times must-read: Jonah Goldberg calls for an Iraqi Pinochet; neo-con heads explode.

It's STILL the Economy, Stupid!

That was the T-shirt I wore last night to a meeting of my local Democratic club, the Independent Neighborhood Democrats (IND). It proved to be a very appropriate shirt.

Last night, IND had a guest speaker, Hank Sheinkopf, political consultant, formerly a member of President Clinton’s re-election media team, and panelist on a NY-1 roundtable discussion. Sheinkopf is the ultimate Democratic insider and he came to discuss the 2006 election victory with us.

But first the warmup acts. There were two stand up routines and a farcical play. Well, not really. There were two good speechs by unexpected guests, Steve Harrison and David Yassky, and some club business.

Steve Harrison, whose followers were present last night in impressive numbers, showing that if he wants to run again, he may have an organization in place ready to go, spoke about finally winning NY-13. He pointed out that the district, contrary to popular "wisdom," is majority Democratic and that the fact that he did better with only $100,000 than Barbaro did two years ago with $300,000 shows that we are making progress. He did not say whether he would run in 2 years, but it sure seemed like he was trying to plant that seed. Good for him. Let's start now and I bet 2 years from now will be the year for us in NY-13.

Karol over at Alarming News (as an aside, can anyone explain to me how any Soviet emigré can vote republican? What, you're not happy unless your government maintains gulags and tortures people?) approvingly quotes this oblivious drool from Roger Ailes, the chief propagandist of Fox "News":

“We haven’t had to fire our executives or our reporters or our anchors or anybody else for making up the news,” Ailes continued. “Maybe we’re a little too in-your-face at times. But basically what we do is cover the story, and we haven’t been forced to eat our words because we’re actually telling people what’s going on. Sometimes there’s more than one point of view, and we try to reflect that.”

Ailes must have an Olympic pool filled with spiked Kool-Aid, or perhaps a truly remarkable control over his facial tics, to be able to publicly utter this kind of delusional drivel. Here, take a look at the Wikipedia entry titled "Fox News channel controversies".

Photocopied memos from Fox News executive John Moody instructed the network's on-air anchors and reporters to use positive language when discussing pro-life viewpoints, the Iraq war, and tax cuts, as well as requesting that the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal be put in context with the other violence in the area [3]. Such memos were reproduced for the anti-FOX News film Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, which included Moody quotes such as, "[T]he soldiers [seen on FOX in Iraq ] in the foreground should be identified as 'sharpshooters,' not 'snipers,' which carries a negative connotation." Former Fox News producer Charlie Reina explained, "The roots of Fox News Channel's day-to-day on-air bias are actual and direct. They come in the form of an executive memo distributed electronically each morning, addressing what stories will be covered and, often, suggesting how they should be covered. To the newsroom personnel responsible for the channel's daytime programming, The Memo is the Bible. If, on any given day, you notice that the Fox anchors seem to be trying to drive a particular point home, you can bet The Memo is behind it."

What is that weird lawyer ad with the guy pointing at me about?

For weeks now I have been planning to figure out - what is this weird ad with the lawyer on all the liberal blogs about? Well, the Wall Street Journal beat me to the punch (click here for full article).

Basically this add is a spoof by a phone company (Alltell) to generate "buzz" about the compnay by discussing a satirical lawsuit against it.

While this is likely not the smartest ad campaign, the fact that being sued is used as a publicity stunt speaks to a perception of the public's negative reaction to lawyers and lawsuits.

The add satirically describes the lawyer involved in the suit as having dedicated his legal career to satire suits like:

• Increasing national standards for elasticity in gentlemen's dress socks by almost 17%.
• Fighting for lick-less postage stamps.
• Suing his doctor for his "innie" belly button

In a nutshell, this add is an attempt to gain attention by satirizing the legal community and lawsuits.