Yes, I know. It sometimes seems as if the entire world is going to hell. War, pestilence, mayhem, famine, republicans, it can be too much to absorb on occasion.

Here are two small things you can do that can make a difference.

First, if you haven't registered to vote as a Democrat yet, or need to re-register in time to vote in the Democratic primary on February 5th - I hear anecdotal reports that Greens are coming home to be able to vote for Obama - do so now. The deadline in New York is October 12th, 2007. (Hat tip casperr)

Then, after you do that, stand up and take a stand against the tyrannical régime in Burma. The Buddhist Peace Fellowship is organizing a rally/vigil outside that country's consulate in New York City.

New York -- New York City

Monday, October 1st
Rally for Human Rights in Myanmar Burma
12:00pm - 1:00pm
Permanent Mission of the Union of Myanmar (Burma) to the United Nations 10 East 77th Street, New York, NY (near 5th avenue, east side of Central Park). Closest Subway: "6" Train to 77th St., walk west towards central park
Organized by Amnesty International USA

For questions, contact Matthew Kennis at or 212 633 4200

That's at most two hours out of your day, and you'll have done something real.  read more »

LINDA STEIN & ANN SNITOW

cordially invite you to a fundraiser in honor of

NORMAN SIEGEL

Please come meet the People’s Advocate, and show your support for his campaign for NYC Public Advocate.

Wednesday, October 29th, 2007, 6:00 to 8:00pm

at the studio of Linda Stein 100 READE STREET

Bet. West Broadway & Church St. (Reade is one block north of Chambers St.)

Subways: A or C to Chambers St.; R or W to City Hall;

1, 2, 3 to Chambers St.; 4, 5, 6 to Brooklyn Bridge

PARKING ON SOME SIDE STREETS AT 6 PM; ON READE STREET AT 7 PM

Suggested Contribution: $25 to $250

Drinks & Refreshments will be served

RSVP to Theresa Canter at 212-448-6271

The L.A. Times is reporting (click here for the article) that the attempt to put a ballot initiative up for a vote in June to change the way California's electoral votes will be determined has been stopped for lack of money.

It was a strange effort from the start, and it turned out that the main backer was a Union, Mo. lawyer named Charles Hurth. According to yesterday's NY Daily News (article here), Hurth was ordered by a jury in 1990 to pay a woman $27,500 for biting her on the butt.

Those Repugs are all alike, aren't they?

This comes from a diary on Daily Kos from Rosalie907 (a resident in NY-13):

Only 2 days left to the end of the quarter

Steve Harrison is running here in New York's 13th Congressional District to defeat Vito Fossella the ONLY Republican member of Congress in New York City.

Vito Fossella has been my Congressman for 10 years and has been a yes man for the Bush Administration and the Republican Party all that time.

In 2006, with a late start and only a drop of support at the very end from the DCCC and very little money Steve Harrison got 43% of the vote (he actually only lost by about 13,000 votes). This time having already declared we ask that you donate to him either through his Web Site at www.steveharrisonforcongress.com or through his Act Blue page.  read more »

In the last few days, a tidal wave of condemnation has crashed over Congressional Democrats, following the asinine votes to condemn MoveOn.org in both chambers; TDG's take is here, and it wasn't pretty.

But it's too late, the idiocy has been read into the Congressional Record and thereby the history books, where it will stand imperishable until the end of days, unless Congress strikes it.

So what to do? John Hall, NY-19, has a moderately creative approach that should do something to quiet the base; a resolution to condemn Rush Limbaugh, noted drug addict and radio host.

Okay, fine. Condemn the man, and God alone knows that he deserves it many times over. But here's the thing: have the Democrats even learned their lesson from this? Do they understand that they're not supposed to help the republicans when these happen to be suckerpunching their allies?

And above all, do they get, at a deep and visceral level, that the anger over this vote was more pronounced because it was a last straw piled on failure after failure after failure?

We shall see. Me, I remain warily hopeful.

The Eagle has landed Do you love tall sailing ships? The US Coast Guard training ship The Eagle has docked at the foot of pier 17, at the South Street Seaport. The ship is great (no signs of its Nazi origin), the coast guardsmen and women charming; tours from 9:00-6:30 Sat & Sun. If you go Sat. morning, check out the asbestos decontamination exercise run by Fire at the Sanitation garage at the foot of Montgomery Street.

After years of torture and harsh confinement, US officials have decided to allow some "high value" Guantanamo detainees to lawyer-up . (Although at least one of them, already represented by counsel, has not been allowed to get letters from her).

The poor get sicker than the rich. Great and serious congratulations are due to Comptroller William Thompson who (I guess with staff support) has produced a really smart interesting and important analysis of the NYC health impacts of class and cash. Surpise!  read more »

Don't say you weren't warned in advance. Politico has an unsurprising story about freshman Representative Yvette Clarke, winner of the bitterly contested 2006 primary in the Eleventh District.

It’s been eight months and 22 days since Rep. Yvette Clarke was sworn in as a member of Congress.

Yet more than a third of the way through her two-year term, the New York Democrat has yet to introduce any bill, resolution or amendment on the House floor.

That fact makes her unique among 54 House freshmen; every other new lawmaker has proposed some floor legislation, if only a symbolic measure to congratulate a victorious golfer (from Iowa Democratic Rep. Dave Loebsack) or celebrate the bald eagle (from Tennessee Republican Rep. David Davis).

As a whole, the freshman class has averaged nine legislative measures per lawmaker.

Clarke said in an interview Wednesday that she has been occupied with other responsibilities.

“I have not really concentrated that much on crafting legislation,” she said. “Part of it was getting my bearings. I do have interest. I just haven’t made that my ultimate focus.”

It's gratifying to know, certainly for the people she represents, that Ms. Clarke has an interest in crafting legislation. Certainly, some of them might labor under the clearly mistaken impression that this is what Members of Congress do for a living.

Have you been following the fight to reauthorize and expand the State-Child Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP)? Tuesday, a large majority of Congress members voted for a House-Senate compromise which will make lower cost health insurance available to millions of children who are, at present, without any. UPDATE: Thursday night, the Senate voted for S-CHIP 67-29; greater than two-thirds majority. Every GOP Senator in a tight bid for reelection in 2008 voted for S-CHIP and against Mr. Bush. President Bush, that deplorable politician, has promised a veto.

The problem progressives face is that, even with 45 GOP votes, we are 24 votes away from a veto over-riding two-thirds majority. Peter King and Vito Fossella, perhaps with a wish to avoid political extinction, voted for the bill (They’d voted against earlier versions in the House). Two NYS GOP Congress Members voted with Mr. Bush against Child Health: John "Randy" Kuhl & Thomas Renyolds. A Century Foundation poll shows voters want to spend more to insure more children and oppose a Bush veto.

Moveon.org-Politcal Action* is preparing to fight back, if Mr. Bush vetos. I’ve agreed to help put on a Manhattan Rapid Response Rally at 6PM the day after the Bush veto. We’ve decided to rally at the West Side of Columbus Circle in front of the Time-Warner building. We are still begging for permits. More than 150 others are planned. Please click here to sign-up and help. More suggested action and background post-jump.  read more »

Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois and one of the leading contenders for the Democratic nomination, is doing something rather unusual in this non-swing-state City of ours; holding a campaign rally, that is.

September 27, 2007
Washington Square Park
Gates open at 4:30 pm

The rally's at 5 PM, gates open at 4:30. No umbrellas, and try to avoid big bulky bags; security is going to be tight, obviously.

Come to think of it, has Hillary ever done a rally like this in New York City? I mean, really, ever? Or is our obedient vote being taken for granted?

Dear Democrats, we need to have a talk. The subject of that talk is going to be just how much of a disappointment you are. And face it, you are a disappointment. Your poll numbers don't lie.

The newest installment of your chronicle of disappointments is one that is especially bitter, because it illustrates with startling clarity just how deeply, how irretrievably, you don't get it. I'm talking, of course, about the MoveOn.org censure vote.

The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted to condemn the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org for a recent advertisement attacking the top U.S. general in Iraq.

By a 341-79 vote, the House passed a resolution praising the patriotism Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and condemning a MoveOn.org ad that referred to Petraeus as "General Betray Us."

Fine job, ladies and gentlemen. Once again, you have been played like patsies. In New York, you are: Arcuri, Bishop, Engel, Gillibrand, Hall, Israel, Maloney, McCarthy, Meeks and Rangel.

Here's why this is so bad: ignore the disputed ad for a second. MoveOn.org is your ally. From now on, every time they're mentioned in either the lamestream or the rightwing media, presumably in a context that accrues to your benefit, it will be with an asterisk, as follows:

*MoveOn.org was condemned by the United States Congress. They're bad people.  read more »

Awhile back I wrote a diary about a Jewish cemetary in Vilnius, Lithuania, that was threatened with destruction due to development. It proved a controversial diary and I have gotten any emails and comments over the months about this cemetery. The comments seemed to break down into two categories:

1. Non-Jewish Lithuanians (some who lived in Vilnius) who claimed there WAS no Jewish cemetery there, that it had been destroyed by the Soviets, and that the story was in fact a lie.

2. Jews NOT from Lithuania who insist the story is true.

I have been on and off trying to follow up this story to find out the truth.

Choral synagogue in Vilnius

An old photo of the Jewish quarter.  read more »

Wednesday night is the first night of Sukkot, a fun and funny Jewish holiday (In Hebrew: “Sue COAT,” in Yiddish: “SOOK us”). During its seven days, Jews are commanded to build and live in an outdoor lean-to type structure (a Sukkah; sukkot is the plural) the construction of which is governed by incredibly detailed (petty?) rules. Standard decorations, mostly a kid activity, often include fruit and paper flowers. People may but mostly don’t live in their lean-tos. We often eat meals there. If you want the detailed how-to for the holiday, including instructions for waving plants around (yet one more commandment) click here

As with some other Jewish holidays, two things are being observed. In ancient times, people say, people slept out in their fields to bring in the harvest. Sukkot also commemorates the tradition that the children of Israel were homeless and slept in temporary shelters. (While to me, this seems like a perfect occasion to go camping; if you look carefully, you may see sukkot on high-rise balconies and brownstone backyards).

So why, apart from the commandments in Leviticus, should leftist, secular, agnostic, atheistic Jews like me eat under the stars, vulnerable to rain and cold (The roof of the sukkah, should be made with materials which grew in the ground and were cut – tree branches, stalks of grass which are only loosely bound)?  read more »

In Part I of this series, I described the way that government employees are being asked, in the name of Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12, to sign away their rights in order to keep their jobs (in essence). I should note that not all the blame for the problems are due to Homeland Security. Some are due to the way individual agencies are implementing the procedure. I should also note that the precise wording of the directive is not necessarily objectionable. Nevertheless, the requirement to sign a blanket waiver allowing an intrusive government investigation applies across the board and is the way in which the directive is being implemented.  read more »

Just before the 2004 election, Osama bin Laden released a videotape that is credited with giving George W. Bush a second term as President. Recently, pundits are again speculating over whether he will do it again just before the 2008 election, and what effect it will have.

Before delving a little deeper into this question (something the self-appointed pundits never seem to do), let us remember that over six years after bin Laden’s group hijacked four planes and killed almost 3,000 Americans he is still a free man. In that time, George W. Bush has shifted his position from “Wanted, Dead or Alive” to “not that interested” to … well, he seems to be ignoring bin Laden completely.

Could the two facts – bin Laden’s videotape and Bush’s nonchalance – be connected?  read more »

It's not exactly a secret that Rudy Giuliani is whoring the 9/11 attacks in his quest for a promotion to the White House. And I suppose you have to feel for the man - it's difficult to hawk mass death in an uplifting and tasteful way.

Too bad he and his supporters aren't even trying. Atrios calls it humping the corpse.

A supporter of Rudy Giuliani's is throwing a party that aims to raise $9.11 per person for the Republican's presidential campaign.

Abraham Sofaer is having a fundraiser at his Palo Alto, Calif., home on Wednesday, when Giuliani backers across the country are participating in the campaign's national house party night.

But Sofaer said he had nothing to do with the "$9.11 for Rudy" theme.

"There are some young people who came up with it," Sofaer said when reached by telephone Monday evening. He referred other questions to Giuliani's campaign.

Nice. That's one way to monetize the death of civilians under your watch. Now, I had always thought that Rudy had reached his personal taste abyss by telling his then-wife about his wish to divorce her via a press conference.

But Rudy, obviously, can dig deeper than that.

Dead heroes, it seems, can be used by anyone. For example, George Bush who promotes war on Iraqis abroad and war on low and moderate income people here, praises the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King – who, had he lived, would be marching in Bush protest. (See a funny dissection of a Bush invocation of King here .) Similarly, NYC Planning(sic) Chair Amanda Burden, who facilitates such monster over-developments as The West Side Stadium, Ratnerville, Yankee & Shea Stadiums and Columbia U’s northward march into Harlem, hides Mr. Bloomberg’s destructive unplanning goals under the mantle of Jane Jacobs . (Norman Oder has made lots of good fun Ms.Burden’s rather appalling attempts to body snatch Ms. Jacobs work and life here.

Those of us who remember Jane Jacobs, her fights for people-sized development and against eight-lane urban expressways or who read “The Death & Life Of Great American Cities” as a guerrilla guide to saving our city, will love the Municipal Art Society’s heroic attempt to bring Jacobs and her work back to life: Jane Jacobs & The Future Of New York

The exhibit, which opens Tuesday September 25, 2007, at the Municipal Art Society’s Urban Center which is located in the remnants of the wonderful Villard Houses behind St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 457 Madison Avenue at East 51st Street. Subway: 6 to 51st Street; E, V to Fifth/53rd (Madison Avenue exit); B, D, F to Rockefeller Center.  read more »

[Note: This article was co-written with my wife who helped both with the research and the writing]

In Part One of my Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12 coverage I discussed the implementation of this Bush decree, how intrusive it is, and how refusal to give the government a blanket waiver to investigate your life could prevent you from receiving an ID card that will allow you to get into your place of work. In it I introduced the two possible forms that a person would have to fill out to get their ID: Form 85 (intrusive) and Form 85p (even more intrusive). In Part One I focused on statements made by Professor Robert Nelson, Senior Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL). But I also pointed out that this is not academic. It affects my wife.  read more »

“Yeah, that's it. Just relax.
Have another drink, few more pretzels, little more MSG.
Turn on those Dallas Cowboys on your TV.
Lock your doors. Close your mind.
It's time for the two-minute warning.

Welcome to 1984
Are you ready for the third world war?!?
You too will meet the secret police
They'll draft you and they'll jail your niece”

--Dead Kennedys, "We've Got a Bigger Problem Now”

Have you been PERSONALLY affected by the Bush Administration’s erosion of our Constitutional Rights? Well, now my family is coming face to face with a direct assault on the Bill of Rights, an assault on my wife’s rights. This assault comes directly from Bush with no input from Congress whatsoever.

Homeland Security Presidential Directive Number 12…

This Presidential Directive is all about choice, or so they say. One of those twisted, Orwellian “choices” that isn’t a choice. My wife’s choice is she can either sign over to the Federal Government the right to investigate every aspect of her life (including fingerprinting, credit check, medical records, character references, etc.) or she can “voluntarily” choose to not be allowed entry into the building wherein she works. The choice is hers. The rights that are being lost are those of every single American citizen.  read more »

Every once in a while, you stumble across a story in the lamestream media that departs from the lemming mindset of our distinguished fellows in the press to a most remarkable degree. Today's story on Rudy Giuliani in the Washington Post is such a story.

Now, we all know the legend of Saint Rudy the Watchful, endlessly retold by every media outlet that can afford the newsprint: how he planted his 200-foot-tall hulking frame at The Narrows, ever on the watch against Islamist evildoers. How he would have leaped across Manhattan in a single bound to stop the planes hitting on 9/11, if that dastardly Bill Clinton hadn't had him under a mind-control spell. How siting his Emergency Command Center in the World Trade Center was just a ruse that Osama, of course, fell for.

The filthy iconoclasts at WaPo desecrate the national legend by offering up some chilling observations about Hizzoner's actual tenure, and how it's somewhat at odds with what he's saying now as he runs for higher office.  read more »

Been thinking about the Brooklyn Surrogate race and many people have been talking to me about it. I know to non-insiders this seems like a minor thing, but in reality the Surrogate Judge, and all judges, are important elected positions and the fact that the machine's lock on appointing judges has majorly slipped is a very big deal.

My post-primary piece might have been a bit overly pessimistic, though I think fairly accurate. But the reform clubs are celebrating and for good reason. I put down the reform clubs a bit in my last piece, but honestly they did help swing the race for Diana Johnson and did hand Vito Lopez a solid defeat.

And it really was a solid defeat. Diana Johnson won with almost 60% of the vote. That means Vito Lopez and his machine lost about as decisively as you really ever expect in a judicial election. There was a time when Surrogate Judge was the machine's to give away like a plum. It was one of the bigger plums the machine could give.  read more »

Once again, the Senate failed to pass a measure to bring our troops home and end the occupation of Iraq. This time, Democrats led by Carl Levin and Jack Reed couldn’t even muster 50 votes, much less the 60 needed to bring the bill to a final vote, but landed in a 47-47 tie. The constant failure to pick up Republican votes, and the continued refusal of Senate Democrats to seem willing to compromise, might seem like a sign of stubborn weakness matching only a similar set of traits at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. On the other hand…

Could there be a method to this madness?

For a long time political insiders have understood that the easiest way to win an election is to allow your opponents to block a popular initiative and then blame them for the failure. This “failure and blame” strategy was spectacularly employed by Harry Truman to win reelection in 1948 by attacking the “do-nothing Congress.”  read more »

What issues matter to you? National defense? The rights of working class Americans? Seniors issues? A woman's right to choose? The environment?

On all of these issues, New York Republicans are out of touch with America. Most Americans want a strong national defense, support the rights of working class Americans, women and seniors, and place a high value on the environemnt. New York Congressional Republicans have the wrong priorities on national defense, support Halliburton profits but not a minimum wage increase, want to privatise Social Security, place the rights of pollutors over the environment and the health of Americans, and oppose a woman's right to choose.  read more »

By now, everyone is familiar with the MoveOn.org ad in the New York Times asking the question, “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?” It has raised a firestorm. It should be clear that the general’s testimony before Congress was a pathetic bunch of lies, including cherry-picked data and outright perjury (who really believes that he didn’t run his prepared statement by the White House before making it?).

But worse that General Petraeus’s lies is the continued lack of a spine among Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and far too many of his followers. He actually allowed Republicans to get a vote on a resolution, sponsored by Texas Republican John Cornyn condemning MoveOn.org’s ad – a resolution that garnered 72 votes. (N.B.: Senator Barbara Boxer, D-CA, tried to put in a softer resolution, but it failed to get 60 votes.)

To her credit, Senator Clinton actually voted against the resolution. To his credit, Senator Dodd, another presidential contender (sort of) actually voted against the resolution. To their shame, Senators Obama and Biden ducked the vote. To their collective shame, many other Democrats voted for the resolution.

This is pathetic!  read more »

[I hope this post about the changes to No Child Left Behind proposed by Congress proves interesting. It was originally posted on Edwize and written by Edwize blogger Maisie.]

Lest you think that the debate over reauthorizing No Child Left Behind is hard-to-follow/wonkish/a tempest-in-a-teapot or anything like that, note that Jonathan Kozol today entered his 76th day of a partial hunger strike over NCLB.

In protest over that law, Kozol, the widely-published, passionate advocate of educational equality, has taken himself into the realm of serious danger.

He's sick of NCLB. Mandating math and reading tests and punishing schools and students who do not meet their targets is "turning thousands of inner-city schools into Dickensian test-preparation factories," Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page quoted Kozol as saying. It has "dumbed down" school for poor, urban kids and created "a parallel curriculum that would be rejected out-of-hand" in the suburbs.  read more »

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. "
--Edmund Burke

Did you know that most people don't care if their democracy works? Most people don't care if their judges are qualified or unqualified, honest or corrupt, purple aliens from Mars or deep sea squids. People don't care. I think two things define American Democracy: Apathy and a desire to complain.

Do you know what was the voter turnout in yesterday’s election to determine who would be the new judges in Brooklyn? I'll tell you: abysmally low, piss poor and just plain embarrassing.

All around the Borough I know people who voted. But that's because people I know are the people who vote. Some reported that at around 3 PM they were the first person to vote at their ED. One reported that at their polling place only 11 people had voted one hour before the polls closed. Another person reported only 14 people. People complain and complain and complain about "the system." Then they don't vote. Gee...wonder if there is a connection there. If all you do is whine but don't do anything, I say you are a chump.  read more »