Many of us have been angry at Fox News for years for their constant comparisons between liberals and Nazis, a completely irresponsiible and stupid comparison...not to mention DEEPLY offensive to Jews and other groups who were targeted by Nazi genocide.

Now some of the top rabbis in America are finally fed up with Fox News and its offensive trivialization of the Holocaust. From the Washington Post:

A coalition of rabbis wants Fox News chief Roger Ailes and conservative host Glenn Beck to cut out all their talk about Nazis and the Holocaust...

The ad is signed by the heads of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements as well as Orthodox rabbis.

"We share a belief that the Holocaust, of course, can and should be discussed appropriately in the media. But that is not what we have seen at Fox News," says the ad, signed by hundreds of rabbis and placed by the Jewish Funds for Justice, a nonprofit advocacy group. Earlier this month, the group organized a letter-writing campaign asking Murdoch to remove Beck from the air.  read more »

Been reading about what is a pretty nasty crime spree in Jamaica, Queens, with women being abducted and robbed. I think it should be obvious that the more you cut back on police funding, social services and education (as has been happening in NYC) and the worse the economy is (and the recovery may be picking up a bit, but jobs are still scarce), crime WILL increase. It has been shown over and over that jobs, education, more beat cops, and social services keep crime down better than typical revenge-oriented "get tough on crime" policies.

Here is City Councilman Jim Gennaro's statement on the recent crime wave in Queens:

Elected officials and community leaders today called on their neighbors to remain vigilant and safe after a string of recent robberies in the area.

Officers at the 107th Precinct are searching for several suspects who are abducting women and stealing their personal belongings and ATM cards around Jamaica Estates.  read more »

This comes via DFNYC:

The Ad Hock Committee To Stop School Closings & Charter Takeovers is hosting the following rally. Although DFNYC has not formally voted on this issue, many members of DFNYC have shown strong support for this effort through their response to our question "Charter Schools - What's Your Opinion?" http://dfnyc.org/content/view/2595/

Rally to Stop School Closings & Charter Takeovers

When: Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 4:30pm - 6:30pm
Where: City Hall Plaza - Across from Brooklyn Bridge entrance

From the event organizers:

"Mayor Bloomberg's Department of Education plans to close 26 schools and open more buildings to privately-run charter schools. Stand up to school closings, charter takeovers and the privatization of public education. Defend public education! Rally with parents, students, teachers and community members and declare that our schools and children are not for sale!"

For more information or to add your school/organization to the list of endorsers for this event, contact Gloria: gbran289@aol.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

For more from the event organizers:  read more »

Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope is having their 2nd Annual Climate Awareness Day this month. Given that 2010 has just been determined to be the hottest year on record since 1850 (tied with 1998 and 2005), it seems this event is quite timely.

2nd Annual Climate Awareness Day 2011

Parents for Climate Protection in partnership with Congregation Beth Elohim are running an event where you can learn about the national climate movement, discuss solutions to the climate challenge on the state and local levels, and take action! Keynote speakers will be Liz Butler, Campaign Director at 1 Sky, the nation's largest, collaborative climate campaign, and Donna Goodman, Executive Director of the EarthChild Institute. Following this, break out sessions will be held with NYPIRG, Transportation Alternatives, Brooklyn Food Coalition and Rabbi Daniel Bronstein. While this is happening there will be eco-activities and free childcare for kids 3-12. To reserve for kids activities email: parentsforclimateprotection@gmail.com or call 347-585-1443

I moved out of Manhattan in 1988.

Living in the outer boroughs, I am keenly aware, as are many TDG readers, of the Manhattan-centric rules under which this city often operates. Once in a while, however, someone (usually from an outer borough) finds a way to make things a little better. In this case, TLC Commissioner David Yassky is proposing a method by which we can hail (legally) a gypsy cab in the outer boroughs.

Under the proposal, the "livery cars" would have to be licensed, equipped with meters, GPS systems and credit card payment systems. That way, what we would get is, for all practical purposes, the same as a yellow cab. And since yellow cabs don't patrol outside of Manhattan, and the gypsies could only pick up street hails in the outer boroughs, it would help ease the problem.

It's an excellent proposal. It will solve a problem without creating new problems. I predict that in a few years they will expand it to upper Manhattan as well.

Walmart has made several attempts to invade NYC. Each and every time, whether they were aiming to screw Brooklyn, Queens or Staten Island, New Yorkers fought back and kept them out.

Well, they're at it again, even starting a website to try and head off opposition. Bloomerg and the right wing New York Post have been pushing for Walmart to open up in NYC even though Walmart has been shown to deliberately destroy small businesses, use illegal immigrant labor paying them slave wages, and treating their workers badly.

I don't mind big chain stores. I like IKEA and CostCo and Trader Joe's in particular. But Wal-Mart has been shown to be bad for communities they open up in. Walmart will be BAD FOR NYC too. Destruction of small businesses, replacing them with low-paid jobs that Walmart often fills with illegal labor to cut costs...AND sucks at taxpayer money to do it. They KILL jobs in the long run.

Learn about Wal-Mart’s Dismal Record on Worker and Customer Safety (PDF)  read more »

This is a cool upcoming event on Friday, January 14th at 7 PM in Park Slope, Brooklyn (particularly given the levels of intolerance and hate speech in America today):

On the Friday night before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we will see how Jewish values and international human rights standards grapple with issues of discrimination and tolerance in a diverse society and, in particular look at our obligations as a Jewish community to address Islamophobia.

There will be a slightly shortened Friday night service led by Rabbi Bachman and Noah Aronson, joined by a special inter-generational CBE choir. Following straight on from this there will be food and a panel discussion with Daisy Khan from the American Society for Muslim Advancement, Iain Levine from Human Rights Watch and Rabbi Bachman. The panel will be moderated by Lisa Miller, the Religion Editor at Newsweek.

Please come and join us for this exciting event. For further information and to RSVP please contact Isabel Burton at 718-768-3814 ext. 243 or iburton@cbebk.org

This month's Central Brooklyn Eating Liberally meeting will be
Tuesday, January 11, 7 PM at Java Indonesian restaurant in the South
Slope (trying out a different neighborhood this month).

We are getting people from both Prospect Heights and the South Slope
attending, so I figure maybe I will try alternating neighborhoods to
see what people like better. Java is a place that has been in Park
Slope for many years but Joy and I only finally tried it recently. We
liked it and I think it would be good to add to our list.

455 7th Ave
(between 15th St & 16th St)
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Come join us for some good food and some intense political discussion.
There are always local political scandals to discuss as well as
general discussions about how progressives can fight back against the
resurgent Bush Republicans.

(Note: This column is cross-posted on my website.)

One of the signatures achievements of the Bloomberg administration is the advent of 311. People who have complaints about a city agency, or a landlord, or a business, or who want information about a wide variety of items, can call one clearinghouse number and get everything taken care of.

Well ... not exactly. Read on...  read more »

Governor Cuomo has not announced whom he will appoint as the new NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner, but he is apparently considering John Hanger. Hanger is the outgoing Secretary for Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and has presided over the widespread escalation of hydraulic fracturing across much of that state. Hanger has been criticized for failing to respond to ongoing catastrophic fracking accidents, many leading to widespread water contamination, that have happened on his watch. Some examples after the jump:  read more »