Self and better half just got back from casting our ballots (or, more accurately, pulling the god-damned levers). We waited in line for about twenty minutes; turnout seems to be high.

When you're done voting, get on the phone and make calls into swing states.

If you don't know where your polling place is, check out this web site.

If you have a problem voting, please go here. Remember: if you're a registered voter and show up at your polling place, they have to let you cast a ballot.

If you run into problems at a polling place in New York, please go here.

And of course, you should vote for Obama on the WFP's Row E. I just did, and it felt really good. Make your voice heard for Progressive change.

I dropped by the Obama office on Broadway today to soak up some of the atmosphere. The place is electric; filled with hundreds - no exaggeration - of volunteers, it's busy as a beehive on steroids. One of several statewide locations, the New York City office is the largest of a network of offices that will make three million calls before Tuesday. The Obama campaign isn't paying anyone to make phone calls - the entire effort depends on volunteers. Volunteers like you. Plus, odds are, you'll run into some interesting people; Sarah Jessica Parker was there on Thursday, today, they had Congressman Anthony Weiner, City Comptroller Bill Thompson (but not Michael Bloomberg, hint, hint), Tennis Star John McEnroe, and Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary.

Sarah Jessica Parker (Thursday)

State Director Dave Pollak

The front desk

Half of one gigantic room, one of several, filled with volunteers calling away as if the election depended on them. Which it does.

Look exciting? Be a part of it. Go here and find your local phone bank - they've been set up all over the state.

Apparently, in this vast and shining City of over eight million people, there breathes only one man capable of running it: Michael Bloomberg, the incumbent mayor. In fact, the need for Mr. Bloomberg's services is so dire, so pressingly urgent, that an inconvenient law, passed twice by popular referendum, needs to and no doubt will be overturned. In the process, a bunch of otherwise unemployable members of the City Council will get a shot at a third term as well. Coincidentally, because that election is only thirteen months away, sorry, suckers, the City doesn't have the time to put it to a new referendum.

This is the kind of bullshit we used to snicker about when it happened in some colonial backwater someplace. We used to be - I don't know, back when we had a real currency, I guess - a serious country that held that laws are more important than individuals. Instead, now, like in every third-world backwater banana republic, the Council is likely going to vote to extend Caudillo Bloomberg's lease on governance, and thereby, coincidentally, its own.

You know what that means, right? Not just Bloomberg, but four more years of Betsy Gotbaum. If this happens, and it will, it should be considered as what it is, a legislative coup. It's insulting to New Yorkers, it's insulting to the fine crop of apparent candidates running for office - who apparently just can't do Maximo Lider's job, even if one of them is presently the City's Comptroller - and it should be rejected. If the council has even a glimmer of respect for the voters, as opposed to being a bunch of self-serving ass-kissers, it will be rejected.

Don't hold your breath.

(On Union Square)

It's been an odd political season in New York.

Everyone, more or less, agrees that our political system is dysfunctional. As we pointed out before, here and here, term limits in the City are an object of near-universal agreement (except among those who stand to lose their paychecks due to them, which shouldn't surprise anyone).

So one would naturally be led to believe that the raft of primaries hitting today would provoke an angry flood of disgusted citizens streaming to the polls carrying, at least in spirit, the occasional pitchfork. Change is the big buzzword of this election; Democrats declined to hire quasi-incumbent Hillary Clinton for the Presidential race, while on the other side of the aisle, where the crazies dwell, George McBush is providing endless comedy fodder by play-acting the change agent. Meanwhile, here in New York, we're actually on the cusp of real change, if Democrats succeed in our goal of taking the State Senate. Make no mistake: taking the Senate majority would be revolutionary for the governance of this state.

The problem is that the main agent of change, the left, is divided and incoherent in today's primary.

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.

Lord have mercy.

I was checking my Facebook this morning when I saw on my main page an entry by Kevin Powell. So I go to check it out and what did I find?

O.M.F.G.

Just look after the jump so you can see all what Kevin needed to get off his chest. Let's just say it was more than just a couple of things.

And, mind you, I have cut and pasted the text just as it appears on the Facebook page. Exactly. I have changed not one word and have not added any spacing.

So take a peek and let Kevin now what would have been a better way to go about putting his message out to the world and US Rep. Towns.

(From the Feet in 2 Worlds blog ...)

Could the nation’s undocumented immigrants please stand up? The government will be happy to deport you.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) will encourage the nation’s roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants to voluntarily turn themselves into immigration authorities for deportation in the coming months in an unorthodox new program designed to help the agency combat unauthorized immigration.

ICE Director Julie Myers leaked the new federal effort on Univision this past Sunday at the end of an interview with Jorge Ramos, the anchor of the popular public affairs show ‘Al Punto’ and in advance of an anticipated formal announcement next week.

In a landmark announcement Tuesday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared that all 100 city agencies that serve the general public are now required to translate key documents and provide interpretation for the city’s millions of immigrant residents in the top six languages spoken by New Yorkers.

The new policy, outlined in Executive Order 120, reflects the linguistic diversity of New York, where half of city residents speak a language other than English at home. Now communicating to residents in Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian, and French Creole will be given the same priority as English. The new citywide policy is expected to assist the nearly 1 in 4 New Yorkers who have a limited ability to read, write or speak English with accessing city services.

What’s more, the announcement of Executive Order 120 spins the government requirements as a matter of customer service and government accountability. The new policy mandates the creation of a new Customer Service Group, housed within the Mayor’s Office of Operations, to help city agencies figure out how to make sure their services and programs are reaching immigrant New Yorkers.

The announcement establishes New York City at the forefront of policymaking efforts to encourage immigrants to access government services. It also provides a stark contrast to the reinvigorated local initiatives that seek to declare English the sole language for signs and services. Many cities and states are also increasingly opposed to policies that help immigrants access government services, even if they are legally eligible for them.

(Read the full post by checking out Feet in 2 Worlds blog...)