We've all heard about that Obama surge in voter interest and more tangible measures of participation, such as registration and voting. It's real. The campaign of Jim Gennaro, the City Councilman who's running against odious reptilian wingnut Frank Padavan in SD-11, just emailed some astonishing numbers.

(Gennaro, with Democratic super-activist and City Council candidate Steve Behar to his immediate stage left)

Newly Registered Voters Provide Dems, Gennaro With Strong Advantage
New Voters in Northeast Queens, Excited by Prospect of Change at State and Federal Levels, Are 6-1 Democratic

FLUSHING, NY (Sept. 23, 2008) – State Board of Elections records for Northeast Queens show a wave of new voters registering for this year's state and federal races, with the overwhelming majority of them enrolling as Democrats. The new voters, clearly eager for change in the upcoming presidential and state legislative races, give a distinct advantage to New York City Councilman Jim Gennaro, a Democrat who is running to replace 36-year Republican incumbent Frank Padavan in State Senate District 11.

Between January and August of this year, 6,859 new voters enrolled in Senate District 11, according to the Board of Elections. Of them, 711 are Republicans and 4,083 are Democrats, giving the latter party a nearly six-to-one advantage with these voters.

Democrats also overwhelmingly outnumber Republicans in Senate District 11's overall enrollment, 88,494 to 33,123 (a nearly three-to-one advantage).

Conscious of this disadvantage, Padavan is not noting his party affiliation anywhere on his literature or Web site.

Yeah, if I were a republican, I'd try to hide that too. Unfortunately, there's that pesky thing called a voting record.

This is the last of the videos I shot at Elizabeth Upton's class at LaGuardia Community College. They are recent (and not so) immigrants who are in her English as a second language class (or the CUNY Language Immersion Program).

Here is part one of the series.

Then mozie on to part two.

Sultana asks the questions we all've been waiting for:

The students worked hard at coming up with questions. Sultana is actually asking the question for another student, Malva, who knocked it out of the part but was too shy to get on camera to speak her own words.

Here are more of Elizabeth Upton's student submissions to 10Questions.com. They are in the CUNY Language Immersion Program at LaGuardia Community College.

The previous videos are here.

Maria has a simple question about Iraq:

Magdalena is worried about the internet :

Elizabeth wants to know about how they will handle violence in schools:

My friend Elizabeth Upton teaches English as a Second Language at LaGuardia Community College. I went to her class to talk to them about what new things people are trying to do with technology to foster a more participatory democracy.

I have a longer post on my field trip, I just wanted to give you the students clips first.

Here's Susana (Colombia) with a question about terrorism:

Olga (Uzbekistan) on the future of the middle class:

And Miguel Ángel (Mexico) on drug trafficking:

If you've read Corinne's liveblog of yesterday's Marketplace of Ideas Event on fighting against predatory mortgage lending then you know there was some really interesting discussion.

Now you can watch video clips from it too.

Senator Schumer announces his new lending bill:

and Councilman James Sander's responds to Mayor Bloomberg's assertion that the government can not address the mortgage loan crisis:

This comes from the Municipal Art Society: (I can't make it...will be doing the final practice run of my talk for the International C. elegans Meeting at UCLA, but sounds good!)

New York’s waterfront is being transformed. From Brooklyn Bridge Park to Throg’s Neck on the East River alone, over 1000 acres of redevelopment is slated to occur over the upcoming years. This scale of development is an enormous opportunity - and a risk. Too much waterfront development in recent years has created sterile, privatized places that don’t do justice to New York.

Now is the time to set an agenda to ensure we create an East River waterfront that reflects the diversity, vibrancy and future sustainability of New York. Responding to the Mayor’s bold plan to reclaim 90% of New York’s waterways for recreational use, the Municipal Art Society and the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance are part of a coalition of over 40 groups that is launching the East River Agenda on next Thursday, June 21st on East River Day.

So this is actually quite funny: in yesterday's City Section, here, is a report on the efforts by republicans to stave off the imminent death of their party.

It looked like an exam room for an S.A.T. A week ago Saturday, in a small conference room in a hotel in Bayside, Queens, rows of tables stood covered with neatly laid-out papers. The type of people filing into the room, however — mostly middle-aged and older — suggested otherwise.

This was, in fact, the first Candidates’ School of the Queens County Republican Party, where Republican hopefuls, in a city and state dominated by Democrats, had gathered for a crash course from campaign experts and party leaders on how to become better candidates.

You can have the best candidates imaginable - virginal Nobel Prize winners cum war heroes cum volunteers at the local homeless shelter - but they will founder on the deeply unpopular message which they must of necessity represent; brand GOP is dead in New York.

As the Sean Bell case moves forward, some may think it could not get more politically motivated. However it will. This year, DA Richard Brown is running for re-election in September. This makes this case the possible legacy of District Attorney Brown.

DA Brown has been dealing in the legal world for over 50 years, and as much work as he has done to better the system, he may be known as the guy who worked the Sean Bell case. How will this change the work on the campaign trail this summer?

At every stop along the trail, his years of work or the many convictions he garnered will mean nothing. One question, one topic will be at the tip of the voters tongue.

Now many would think I am assuming that if someone runs against Richard Brown this would happen. Trust me: there will be someone and not the type of candidate you expect. It will not be the black candidate who is the voice of the unheard that the Sharptons, Barrons pick or whom other community leaders pick.

Why do I say this?

The voting numbers show it will not work. The community may march, cry, and protest but they do not vote. A case like this, where many are screaming from the rooftops for change, many will not take a moment to go downstairs and turn the lever to vote. I have seen a line at 6 am in the morning at FootLocker for a pair of ugly Jordans, but no one comes out to vote during the walk home from work. So if DA Brown did a half ass job during the investigation or was not impartial, would it matter? If there was a change of venue or some other move that may imply a plan to get the officers off, what would the Black and Latino community do? Two segments on ABC news and on CNN of how we are mad, and then back to regular life. Think about this, all you possible candidates licking your chops and printing out your petitions. Also a friendly reminder to those who want hundreds of meetings to talk about how we need to make a statement and begin to change the system.

Give Queens Republicans some credit: they're reaching out to their grassroots by appointing blogger Robert Hornak to chair their Candidate Recruitment and Development Committee. Meanwhile, Urban Elephants reports, the new County Chair is doing some energetic outreach of his own:

Newly elected Queens County Republican Party Chairman Phil Ragusa, as part of his pledge to focus his energies on rejuvenating and growing the Queens GOP's grassroots infrastructure, has been tirelessly touring the County visiting local Republican clubs, stopping by to discuss and share his plans for the future of the Party with the Queens Village, Northeast Queens, Whitestone, and Frank Kenna Republican clubs, with visits to the Rego Hills, Women's Club and Rockaway clubs already scheduled.

Imagine how nice it would be to see the same kind of commitment from our Democratic county leaders.

Of course, as one commenter at the Daily Politics post pointed out, Queens Republicans have larger problems, involving the fact that their two endangered state Senators are currently busy selling out their own constituents to Joe Bruno's machine in the budget battle. But there's no doubt that Hornak has some good ideas:

The announcement of Hornak’s appointment was accompanied by the unveiling of plans for an ambitious "Candidates’ School," to be held by the County scheduled for May, as aspiring candidates, prospective campaign managers and treasurers are instructed on the fundamentals of ballot access and campaign organization by leading experts from the Republican delegations in the State Senate and Assembly, as well as party leaders.

Another DP commenter observed that what Hornak is planning to do, essentially, is replicate the New York County GOP's intriguing new School of Applied Politics.

Here's my question: do New York Democrats have anything similar to this? If so, I haven't heard of it. The organization I work with, New Democratic Majority, will be bringing back its Activist Academy this spring, in an effort to provide the very same kind of service. But we're a grassroots group digging for change behind the sofa cushions. It would be great if local Democratic leaders realized the utility of putting resources behind something like this. The Republicans took control of American politics by being better organized and more politically innovative than the Democrats. I'm not saying they'll take over in New York, but it never pays to be complacent when your opponent is being creative.