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Featured PostsNOT Another Gatemouth Parody
"With the loss of Cynthia McKinney Charles would do well to fill her shoes. He has the anger and the wisdom that will keep him from assaulting a cop..." From The Amsterdam News' endorsement of Charles Barron for Congress. Voter Contact Phones: Powerful, Badly Used and Often AnnoyingMost campaigns use phones as an afterthought. Candidates at times have money unspent at the end of a campaign and occasionally no one is sure who is winning, it is too late to do another mailing, all the radio and TV that can be bought is up, so someone will say, “Let’s put out robo calls.” (A call placed by a dialing computer using the prerecorded voice of the candidate or someone of note asking for the voter’s support and reminding them to vote.) Unfortunately, five other campaigns did the same thing, and some even left a message on an answering machine and called back again to get a live body. Not only did the phone call annoy the voters—it actually had no effect. Studies have shown that type of call does not increase turnout of favorable voters nor does it persuade undecided voters to pick a side. The campaign almost certainly wasted the money. Even at the end, other approaches are better. For more information read, Green, Donald P. and Gerber, Alan S. Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout. Brookings Institution Press: 2004.
Pick your PoisonYvette Clarke falsely claims that she graduated from Oberlin College. Yassky falsely claims he is familiar with a district of 654,000 people. Whish is the more brazen and dangerous liar?
Flying High On Government Funding: Biplanes and Bipartisanshipby Mrs Panstreppon $300,000 Earmark for American Airpower Museum The draft HHS appropriations bill lists a $300,000 earmark for the American Airpower Museum located at Republic Airport in Farmingdale, New York which is in Rep. Steve Israel's district. Jeffrey M. Clyman, founder and trustee of the American Airpower Museum, and his wife, Jacklyn, have contributed a total of $5,750 to Steve Israel's campaigns, according to Campaign Money: 2002 - $2,500 A Fan Letter
SHOWCASING A NEW YORK GEM WITH A PRICE ABOVE RUBIES Dear Gatemouth, You are truly a valuable New Yorker who is generationally significant and historically important, endowed as you are with your unique and magnificent background, turbo- boosted with intellectual firepower, you have delivered an awesome series of columns which addresses not only the issues before it with the clarity of an eagle’s eye and the unyielding grip of undeniable logic, but even identified some of the remedies that voters might wish to address by unleashing their democratic instincts. Your columns, aside from being poetry-in-action and some of the finest pieces of political thinking and writing, has secured to our children's children a coherent worldview for the ages and beyond into paradise himself, which without your efforts, might, in the vision of Milton, be lost for eternity. Your work is also the convergence and coexistence of thought and reason. It is like the late leader of the Brooklyn Democracy himself, drawing his partner’s share while filling my pockets with bountiful receiverships. Your efforts are truly masterpieces, on the level of the “The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation” or “Bitches Brew”. Quinn's Hillary GambitQuinn Lends Staffer to Hillary Because Hillary needs the help? Or, b/c ... Ramon Martinez's work at the City Council is done? Roomie's confused, Ms. Speaker. Prey tell what you've done with this $180,000 resource. Surely there's work on term limits to be done, no?
I Ran For Office, And All I Got Was This Lousy Fine --------- Can't complain too much (though I tried). All things considered, I guess $100 fine seems pretty fair for having made $2,000 worth of what the CFB deemed "non-campaign-related expenditures," and for paying on a portion of these commitments one day late, right? The irony - I was fined for my Dollars for Democracy program, the part of the campaign where I was to put my money where my mouth was. My mouth was saying that instead of just using tax-payer funds to buy-off political club endorsements, why not redirect some of these monies to community organizations that were consistently adding real value to New Yorkers on the ground?
Open Email to Jeanine
 In mid-June, I read on one of these blogs that Jeanine was going to march in the LGBT Pride Parade with the Log Sodom Republicans. Wondering about her stance on the bell-weather LGBT Issue of the day—same-sex civil marriage (not that it should be, but it is)—I went to her website. Finding nothing there of any help, I emailed her campaign. I was polite and non-confrontational; it was via the webform on her site, so I don't have a copy, but it was words to the effect of "I read that Ms. Pirro is marching in the LGBT Pride Parade. I was wondering where she stood on same-sex marriage." I never got a reply. I did, however, get on her mailing list! Today (um, more than two months later) I got this email:
New 2005 Poverty Data: Everyone Gets it WrongThe U.S. Census Bureau released 2005 economic data from its American Community Survey data yesterday, and having looked at those numbers and having analyzed similar numbers professionally for 20 years, the first-day stories in the newspapers surprised me. As far as I am concerned, everyone got it wrong – so wrong that they must have written the stories before they came out and plopped in the numbers when they arrived. The story as reported is that poverty is unchanged, and this shows that New York City is not a good place for the poor. The view appears to have been pushed by poverty advocates, who are advocating for more money to be sent their way. The reality is that poverty has declined significantly, but this isn’t necessarily good news for the poor either, because the advocates and analysts fundamentally misunderstand the factors that influence the poverty rate at the local level. At the national level, the poverty rate is determined by changes in the economy, in society, and in public policy. The national poverty rate was significantly higher in 2005 than in 2000, though slightly lower than in 2004. At the local level, on the other hand, the poverty rate it is a function of who moves in (or is kept out), who moves out (or is pushed out), who is born and who dies off. Local changes in the poverty rate may have nothing to do with whether individuals are getting richer or poorer whatsoever.
Piquing Sue's Interestsby Jiji Lee It's no secret that Rep Sue W. Kelly of New York's 19th district receives most of her campaign contributions from political action committees. In fact, grassroots blogs like Take 19 and the subtly named Sue Kelly Poop Sheet rebuke Kelly for accepting contributions from business behemoths. According to the FEC's 2005-2006 candidate summary report, Kelly received a total of $1,431,202 in campaign donations and nearly 54 percent of these contributions came from PACs, with a majority in business sectors. Bank of America, Deloitte Touche, and Ernst and Young were a few of the top donors. But what motivates big businesses to donate to a congresswoman who calls herself a proponent of small business rights? Consolation Prize: The AG Race (Third of Three Parts)
The press coverage of the campaign for State Attorney General has so far concerned either mudslinging, or who is ahead in the horse race, rather than the substance; but, it’s hard to blame the press, because so little in the way of substance has been raised by either of the major candidates (or, for that matter, any of the others). Perhaps this is because neither one of the major candidates really wants the job. Mark Green thinks he should be US Senator, would like to be Mayor, and now understands that, like Alan Hevesi, his future glory lies in the past, and it’s time to settle for one of those elected positions to which New Yorkers like to give life tenure. If he serves as long as Louie Lefkowitz or Arthur Levitt, he can maximize his pension while becoming a beloved alter kocker and having a state office building named for him which will eventually be turned into luxury condos. Clarke Wiki WatchA reader turns up what happens when one types in "Yvette D. Clarke" at answer.com, which bills itself as the world's greatest encyclodictionalmanacapedia (the correct pronounciation of which you can hear here). Apparently, answer.com - which touts the slightly more naunced Wikipedia entry on "Yvette D. Clarke" as its source of information - is ... how shall I put it ... not so subtle about its views. The closing paragraphs on Clarke read:
Has E. Spitzer Stifled Investigative Journalism In New York?------------------------------------------------- “The MSM, this blog included, will never have the single-theme focus on Brooklyn corruption that the blogospheric gadflies can maintain; it’s not what we do. It’s true that for one short stretch while I worked at the New York Sun, that paper ran 40-plus consecutive news stories on the mess in Brooklyn, backed by columns and editorials. The burst of activity was only possible because the paper’s editor, Seth Lipsky, gave us permission (read: marching orders) to blow the thing open, chase down every lead, and build pressure on the district attorney to fulfill his promise to root out corruption. This was matched by a similar level of commitment by the Daily News editorial board (before I arrived) and made for a brief, dramatic surge of news coverage. Christkillah’s Consumer Guide
DUD OF THE MONTH Chris Owens: Love Is The Way (Loser Single ’06). This is clearly aimed at a crossover market which may not exist. The rap elements lack serious street cred, leading to charges of fakin’ da funk (which is admittedly better than fakin’ da diploma), while the reggae elements might seem more at home on a Belafonte record. The Kansas/Styx type organ clearly makes one wonder if the man has any understanding of the white crossover elements he seeks to attract. Still, the boy can sing and he sings his heart out. Says Azi: "he's probably the best singing politician since...Gifford Miller and Joseph Crowley (Sorry Patrick Jenkins.)", begging the question, "what about John Hall?" Well, having attended Hall's recent concert at Town Hall, I'd give the nod to Owens. As to the message, it’s all in the title. The solution to all the world’s problems is “Love”. One wonders if Mr. Owens has ever visited the matrimonial part of Brooklyn Supreme Court. Maybe he should ask his dad. And, even if one restricts the prescription purely to matter of foreign policy, it seems a mite simplistic. As the Israelis might query concerning Hezbollah, “what if my love is unrequited?” But Chris Owens is not where one goes for nuance. He is clearly a Quaker who's feeling his oats; he will not settle for the troops coming home tomorrow; only today will do. Me, I’d settle for sometime next week. B-
New York's Blogger of Record
"Mr. Yassky is undoubtedly an opportunist, as are most politicians and certainly all those in this race. …The residents of the 11th District deserve the best representation possible. In this race, that is David Yassky, who gets our endorsement" The New York Times Editorial Page 8/30/06 ************************************************* "There’s a touch of opportunism is Yassky’s candidacy which has echoes elsewhere in his record … Yassky is still the smartest, most knowledgeable, and best on the issues. In a better world that would be game, set and match." |
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