This may be just optimism and a desire to bring quick closure to the matter of the security breach of BOE computers in Brooklyn.  If our information and conclusions are incorrect,  then the Board of Elections chairman should find a way to provide  facts which show that they are so. More important, those responsible for upholding Democracy and Law and Order in this town can end this type of suspicion and speculation quickly by providing the public with a true account of what appears to be an episode of hacking into  Brooklyn Board of Elections computers.

First, below is part of an article carried on Room Eight yesterday afternoon, John Ravitz Does the "Joe Hynes":

Wednesday is the first day of hearings on petitions at the New York City Board of Elections. In honor of that, I thought it would be good to point out some truths about the petition process in New York.

*A few candidates will be thrown off the ballots because of “technicalities” that no objective person should believe should remove a candidate from the ballot.

*These “technicalities” will NOT be using the wrong color, writing St. instead of street or leaving out a middle initial in a voter’s name.

If John Ravitz worked for a private corporation he would have been fired several days ago. I happen to know John personally, and he was always decent with me. He’s probably an honest guy, and  I don’t think he should be fired.  Just removed from that position.  John Ravitz has probably been turning to County hack lawyers for advice for too long, and that is probably what he has done in this situation. And once again, the Brooklyn District Attorney is asleep at the wheel. The Brooklyn Board of Elections office became a potential crime scene the moment that secret code was found on the BOE machine. The matter should have been taken out of John’s hands at that point.

Are you Jewish?

F-cking Jews!

Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world!

The Jews killed Christ!

Let me tell you, this Holocaust thing has been greatly overplayed. Six million Jews died? There are more Jews in Europe now after World War II than there were before!

Anti-Semitic? I'm not anti-Semitic! Some of my best friends are Jews!

In line with a growing number of sites, Room Eight has started paying small fees to bloggers. Sacrilege, we know.

As you've seen, we've been focusing quite a bit of attention on the state's congressional delegation, and the lobbying and earmarking that go on in and around it. Now we're hoping readers and bloggers will get in on the action as well.

If you're an interested observer or an insider with a story to tell, we will pay you $20 per post to share.

We're looking for short posts (bylined or pseudonymous) that follow the money, examine lobbyist activities and/or otherwise expose the behind-the-scenes wheelin' & dealins of NY Congress Members (more here).

The process, simple: send us a one-sentence pitch to story@r8ny.com by 6pm, and we guarantee you a same day yay or nay.

The NY Sun has an editorial today about the shooting at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

The gist of the editorial is that officials are too quick to declare attacks on Jews in the US by  Muslims to be that a lone gunman. The Sun points to previous incidents including NYC. I quote from the Sun -

When, on February 24, 1997, Ali Abu Kamal, a Palestinian Arab, opened fire on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, killing one and wounding six, the New York Times reported, "the Mayor said the gunman's motive was unknown, and he cautioned against drawing any conclusions about terrorism or the man's Palestinian background."

1997 - Who was the Mayor then?

In my prior post, I pointed out that although New York City’s poverty rate is 55% higher than the national average, its private, mostly non-profit employment in the Social Assistance sub-sector relative to population is 154% higher than the national average -- 2 ½ times that average.  Yet, despite all these people hired, at first glance, to tend to their well being, advocates and analysts say the city’s poor are not well off compared with poor people elsewhere.  Disaggregating 2004 annual average employment relative to population for this sub-sector into specific industries, on finds a complex picture that raises many issues, but let’s put the headline up front.  Excluding one industry, one finds that New York City employment in the rest of the Social Assistance sector relative to population is just 54% higher than the national average, dead on what one would expect given the city’s higher poverty rate.  On a net basis, therefore, that one industry can explain all the additional Social Assistance employment in excess of what one would expect given the city’s higher poverty rate.  In that industry, New York City’s employment per 100,000 residents is seven times the national average, a greater disproportion than for just about any other sector.  That industry is…

It's been a tough week for Republicrat Morshed Alam, who is Democrat Rory Lancman's opponent for the open 25th District State Assembly seat in Queens. First, he got caught using a non-union printer for his lit and posters, even though the lit in question touts his being a DC37 member and claims he "Supports labor's right to organize and for their members to be treated with dignity and respect." I guess that doesn't apply to workers in the printing trade. Then the New York Observer caught him fabricating endorsements. The reporter's conversation with Councilman Leroy Comrie is particularly funny ("He's been calling me and begging me and calling me and asking me and calling me and asking me."). Then the Queens Tribune outed Alam as also running on the Republican line (understandably, Alam was "reluctant" to discuss his Republican endorsement). And finally Alam's campaign finance filing showed him with barely $14,000 on hand. (Rory Lancman filed with over $78,000 on hand). Like I said, it's been a tough week for Morshed.

County lawyers with Jeff Feldman sitting among them in State Supreme Court, will begin working this week in an effort to knock independent candidates off the ballot.

Here’s what I believe the State Supreme Court must rule.

If  the Board of Elections cannot provide unequivocal evidence to refute the possibility that its computers and its data-base have been compromised, no candidate may be removed from the ballot on the basis of information found in those computers. Furthermore, even if it can be established categorically that no information has been altered or deleted, if the data-base has been breached, possibly giving an unfair advantage to the candidates bringing challenges, the Court should rule against those challenges.

Is New York City the best place to be poor?  If the measure of quality of life for the poor and troubled is the number of people hired to provide them with services, it certainly appears, at first glance, to be one of the best places.   Or at least it should be.

In 2004, according to data from the Governments Division of the U.S. Census Bureau attached to a prior post here, the City of New York employed 278 persons in “public welfare” agencies for every 100,000 residents.  The national average was 93; the rest of New York State averaged 231 and New Jersey averaged 121.  Much of the social service work in the city, however, is actually done by private, mostly non-profit agencies in the Social Assistance sub-sector which, according to the current industry classification system, “provide a wide variety of social assistance services directly to their clients.”  According to covered employment (ES202) data for the second quarter of 2005, New York City had 1,857 people employed in this sub-sector for every 100,000 residents.  The national average was 708; the rest of the New York State averaged 1,048 and New Jersey averaged 730.

I've had some mixed feelings about this race, although I started having bad thoughts towards Joe when he announced he'd run as an independent if he lost the primary (a point the Times did not mention).