Not for the squeamish: a video of Mindy Meyers driving a car and making her case to black voters.

In both cases, a wreck is avoided, but only barely.  

Not for nuthin, but 90% of Mindy's ride takes place on Avenue J between Coney and Bedford, all of which is in the in the “Super Jewish District” Mindy lives in, rather than the minority & yuppie district where's she's actually running. 

But my fave part is where Mindy tells a voter that her being a Republican is only a technicality (which, these days, is apparently only true if you're a Democratic State Senator. Driving the Diva forward.com 

That all being said, I have to draw a line in the sand. It is time that this girl be quarantined.  

Why do I say this? Some stats: 

The newly redrawn 21st SD is the sixth-most Democratic district in the state. It has the third-most Democrats by enrollment in the state; there are 121,414 more Democrats than Republicans. 

Demographically, it is the third-most Black district in the state. The Voting Age Population is 55.76% Black. It is also 6.20% percent Asian (most South Asian & Muslim), 13.46% Hispanic, and 2.47% Multiracial/Other.

The district is only 22.11% percent Non-Hispanic White, and based on enrollment, the majority of those Whites are presumably Democrats too.

Those whites live in places like Park Slope, and unlike on Avenue J, those whites vote the way they enroll. In fact, the entire district does.

Unlike other districts in Brooklyn, where the enrollment advantage and/or demographics don’t correlate with actual election returns, this district is generally the State's most consistent in Democratic performance:

Cuomo- 90.4%; DiNapoli 87.0%; Schneiderman 90.6%; Gillibrand 91.7%; Democratic Congressional Candidates 2010 93.0%; Democratic State Senate Candidates 2010 92.4%; Democratic Assembly Candidates 2010 94%; Obama 94% (by contrast, Obama got 42% in the old seat which elected Storobin); Democratic Congressional 2008 93%; Democratic State  Senate Candidates 2008 94.0%; Democratic Assembly Candidates 2008 94.%

The State Senate numbers reflect the vote share received by the combination of Adams and Parker in this newly configured district. (The pieces of Parker's old district that ended up in the Super Jewish 17th (where Mindy lives) were not as strong for Parker in 2008 or 2010 (when he actually lost them).

In other words, the GOP has given a hopeless task to an empty headed freak. This is their usual MO (other than not contesting such seats at all). The fact that the Democratic is arguably an empty-headed freak himself is of little significance given the facts on the ground.

November’s election will feature the rarity of several local Senate and Assembly races which might develop into actual contests.

They are dying for real and substantive coverage; by and large, they are not getting it. 

Certainly, they are not getting the fraction of attention being dedicated to this freakshow (I myself plead no contest).  Mindy Meyers is sucking all the air out of the room.

Let us move on.

  
Before I get off my pulpit, a couple of other sermons are in order. 

This week's news brought to mind something I said in 2011:

"I do not want to cavalierly visit the sins of the father upon the son. There have been several politicians who’ve been the children of mobsters without themselves being implicated in such dealings. One of them was the former Mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani, who though close ...with some of the children and grandchildren of his father’s East Harlem associate, Lou Carbonetti, and sometimes turning a blind eye to the corruption of his own close associates, seems to have had an almost Oedipal hatred for mobsters and their associates...Another example is a former State Senator with an exemplary record of public service. The third, a Judge, who wouldn’t even attend her father’s own sentencing."

Let’s judge the Grace Meng/Dan Halloran race on the qualities of the people actually running in that election.

One more sermon, before I get back to the jokes.

Let me lay it out for those who have trouble with subtle distinctions (a group which apparently includes our Council Speaker:

1) A private citizen may ban bigots, holocaust deniers or even liberal centrists from their blog or editorial page. It's their page, and it is their First Amendment right to print whatever they see fit and not print anything they don't.

2) A private citizen may boycott or organize boycott against a business based upon their conduct. I find most boycotts personally distasteful, but they are sometimes justified, and I certainly don't disapprove of people avoiding putting money into the hands of folks who will use that money to deprive them of their rights. I probably would not eat at a Chick-Fil-A, even if they did serve something there my doctor allowed me to eat.

3) While I certainly think government has the right and duty to enforce all civil rights laws (which includes respecting the exemptions to them), it is a First Amendment violation for government to use its heavy hand to deny people the right to operate their businesses based upon their free expression of their political views.

Bloomberg is right and Chris Quinn should be ashamed of herself. Quinn Breaks With Bloomberg Over Chick-fil-A: ‘Not Welcome’ in NYC politicker.com     

Kyle Smith makes the case against environmental justice. After all, if these people were really interested in the health of their children, they’d have gotten a better job (or have been born to wealthier parents) and moved to a move expensive neighborhood. Liberal rubbish www.nypost.com    

Newsflash: The bromance between Marty Golden & the Brooklyn Dems is over (Part 1). Petty Feud Breaks Out Between Marty Golden and Bill Colton | City & State ww.cityandstateny.com    

The bromance between Marty Golden & the Brooklyn Dems is over (Part two).

While it remains to be seen which side this is worse news for, Golden appears to be scurrying around like a hermit crab, claiming everyone else's shells are his own . Local Pols: “It’s About Time” For City-Funded Asian Senior Center | Bensonhurst News Blog www.bensonhurstbean.com    

A Neil Simon production:

Abe George as Felix Unger; Abe Rubin as Oscar Madison. Joe Hynes as Murray the Cop. http://orthodoxpundit.blogspot.com/#!/2012/07/the-odd-couple-two-abes.html  Orthodox Pundit: News & Political Analysis orthodoxpundit.blogspot.com   

“Martin Dilan was more confident of his own re-election chances in a race against Jason Otano – especially since he believes the Zalmanite faction of Brooklyn’s Satmar Hasidic community will come out strongly for him. “Parts of the community are in my district and I believe I will do as well as (my son) Erik, who got over 6,000 votes,”

Not for nuthin, but most of them are in Dan Squadron's district. NY7 Update: Dilan Doubts Zaloynim Delivered 7K Votes | Gestetner Updates gestetnerupdates.com

The steaks are high. Vito’s 3G union take-and-steak www.nypost.com    

David Denby put it best, calling Alexander Cockburn “a talented, despicable writer who enjoys vicious teasing as a kind of journalistic blood sport...irresistibly readable."

Typically, Cockburn from then on featured the quote every week in his Village Voice “Press Clips” column.

How despicable was Cockburn? He was perhaps the world's leader exponent of the denial of Joe Stalin's version of the Holocaust.

All the rest is commentary.
 
Yet, Cockburn's “Press Clips” column was, for those who do media criticism, the father of us all, left, right and center.

Without Cockburn, there would be no Chait, no Goldblog, and no Sully.

And for that, we do owe the SOB; and we owe him large.

I would be remiss if I did not also note that without Cockburn, there would be no Gateway. In fact, Domestic Partner feels that the Denby quote shows that, if any, I am minimizing Cockburn's influence on my work.

That being said, I do wish Chris Hitchens outlived Cockburn, so he could have produced an obit for him even one-half as nasty as the one Cockburn produced for Hitch. Alexander Cockburn www.theatlantic.com