Mayor Michael Bloomberg's politically convenient concern for the law has been bothering me for days now.

This topic that has caused my mind to fester is delicately referred to in the Gotham Gazette as "The Jersey Inequity." Most often raised by outer-borough politicians — especially state Assembly members, who not coincidentally are in a period of enhanced civic-mindedness, it being just a few months until November — this particular injustice concerns New Jersey drivers, who must pay $8 when they enter the city via the Holland Tunnel, for example.

Dear Mr. Mayor:

I write this letter to ask for the resignation of Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott and School Chancellor Joel Klein.

As I told you in Albany, in 2000 I was one of the only two Democratic elected officials who supported you for Mayor. I did that based upon your promise to me that you will be “The Education Mayor” and that the suffering, disadvantage, neglect, overcrowding, lack of material, lack of equipment – and that the discrimination toward Black and Hispanic children by the New York City Department of Education when it comes to assigning resources will end.

The New York City Public School system is not Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s private plantation. It is obscene that any single man whether White, Black, Yellow or Green would feel that he has the right to announce sweeping, monumental changes in NYC public schools without first consulting parents of children, teachers, educational groups, elected representatives, community representatives, religious leaders and even children themselves. This is the kind of crude, contemptuous and disrespectful conduct that can only be expected of an arrogant, multi-billionaire whose success has been based on being a dictator.

Mayor Bloomberg has committed himself to innovation when it comes to our city's children. He has even been willing to rethink shortcomings in his own initial reforms. I applaud his desire to tackle teacher quality. I applaud him for giving principals the authority and freedom they so desperately deserve and for insisting that the money follows the child. I am still concerned, however, that the education bureaucracy is not adequately serving schools and that major deficiencies within the education system – like science education – have yet to be tackled. Our public schools are still not remotely customer service oriented. Parents have to fight as hard as ever to get their kids a good education. Mayoral control of the school system was a golden opportunity to get these things right, but time is running out.

The most interesting thing about the Democratic Party's decision to host its 2008 convention in Denver is the fact that New York apparently walked away from the contest.

There are at least three New York Democrats (I'm including Bloomberg here) who want to be president -- Mike, Hillary, and Eliot. And none of them fought to have the convention in their hometown, or committed to raise the money. Neither did Chuck Schumer.

For very different reasons, none of them saw that association with explicitly partisan politics, and with the Democratic Party, as a plus for their national reputations. Mike's Mr. Independent; Eliot has a government to run; and Hillary -- going national -- just didn't seem to care much one way or the other. (As someone pointed out to me today, Hillary's fighting for Denver might have been the only way to convince Dean to put it in New York.)

Why can't anybody in NYC trace the origin of smells?

A maple syrup smell happens, and nobody know anything. Another maple syrup smell happens, nobody knows anything. Yet another maple syrup smell happens, still a mystery. And then yesterday, yeeech! My sister works for a Park Avenue firm, and she told me the whole place stunk.

Suppose it had been toxic? Suppose it had been a terrorist spreading something in the air? How can NYC be totally clueless about these things?

How could Mayor Bloomberg, not knowing the origin or cause of it all, knowing that his city STINKS, say that everything's perfectly fine? Didn't we hear these things somewhere before?

Here's the press release from the Mayor's press conference today at the Borden Avenue Veterans Residence. While my initial reaction is to applaud these initiatives, I note that some of these "new" initiatives were discussed as far back as last year's City Council Veterans Committee hearing on homelessness, in which there was no DHS rep. present and MOVA didn't stay to listen to testimony. In fact, one of the iniatives was something I have been saying for over the past 3 years! While 100 homeless veterans will be given housing in 100 days (1 a day) I also wonder what the city plans to do with the other 617 homeless veterans, or is it 314? What about the female homeless vets?

Arizona dedicated its $500,000 9-11 Memorial last month. It hasn't escaped the Little Green Footballs crowd that there are some anti-American statements on the memorial.

One LGF poster today even went so far as to say this:

"Some facts:

"The memorial is in fact shaped in a crescent if you take into account where the names end and the single piece of iron for the rest of the sculpture begins, its a perfect crescent.

"The hole where the sun is allowed to shine on the piece from the WTC is in the exact position that the star would be on the Islam Crescent.

The very day President Bush declared the Iraqi Mission Accomplished, 1st Lieutenant Paul Rieckhoff started "Chasing Ghosts" in one of central Baghdad's most volatile and dangerous neighborhoods.

On that day, and for the following 10 months, Rieckhoff led a Platoon of 38 soldiers through 1,000+ mounted and dismounted combat patrols.  Eventually, his would be the first reserve component unit in the Army to be awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge since the Korean War.  All thirty-eight of his men returned home alive; and so did Rieckhoff's fiercely independent desire to connect policy failures in Washington with events on the ground in Iraq.

I recently interviewed Rieckhoff, no holds barred.  He left no Party or New York elected official behind.

Are we all so used to the fact that Mike’s rhetoric has nothing to do with actions that it is no longer worthy of comment?

On Thursday, Mike spoke to a pro-choice group and the press reported:

“On this issue, you're either with us or you're not. Period. You can't have it both ways," said Bloomberg, a Republican, in a passionate noon address before the liberal NARAL Pro-Choice New York. "We can't let anybody equivocate."

Bloomberg said pro-choice supporters must stand tall against elected officials who "try to nuance themselves" away from a commitment to abortion rights "in the interest of political expediency and partisan politics."

Or Not?

Since the establishment (especially ours) tends to move in lockstep, should be interesting to see whether or not the Mayor's salary panel, the City Council Speaker and our other elected officials follow Hillary's lead on this one:

Sen. Clinton wants no raise without a minimum wage boost

Questions is, what can Council Members, BPs, the Public Advocate and others offer New Yorkers first, before suckin' on the public trough?

Curious minds (and taxpayers) want to know...

In case anyone was still under the impression that the Mayor would even think about supporting Staten Island Council Member James Oddo to replace State Sen. Marchi ... here's an exchange from today's Staten Island Advance.

"Replacing John Marchi with Jimmy Oddo is like Babe Dahlgren taking over for Lou Gehrig," a high-ranking City Hall source told the Advance.

Deal or No Deal?

The edit heads at the Daily News vote No Deal today for City Council pay raises (of which, Barry Popik reminds us).

But we here at Backroomie, we're in to matters even more ludicrous. And that's the panel that Mayor Bloomberg created to render advice on this matter.

Frank Lombardi of the said News recently reminded us that this panel historically is but a facade for money-hungry lawmakers, and that in the past 23 years they have never NOT recommended a salary increase. OK.