My friend, Kenn Lowy, owns the Brooklyn Heights Cinema, an independently owned and operated two screened cinema at 70 Henry St. in Brooklyn Heights. Here's what's coming up:

On Wednesday July 27th we continue our weekly 7:00 pm screening of the film Battle for Brooklyn. There is only one place to see this important documentary, and we only have it for a few more weeks.

On Thursday July 28th we're having a reception for Patricia Sener's "Toy Travel V" photography exhibit. Come by and say hello from 6:15 - 8:15.

And we also show movies like:
Project NiM:
Fri-Sun @ 2:30, 5:00, 7:00 & 9 pm

Beginners:
Fri-Sun @ 2:30, 5:00, 7:15 & 9:30 pm

Support your local independent cinema. Check out what is going on at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema.

This comes from Democracy for NYC, the local affiliate of Howard Dean's Democracy for America:

Democracy for New York City Endorses Jesus Gonzalez For State Assembly District 54 in Brooklyn

New York, N.Y., July 26, 2011 – Democracy for New York City (DFNYC) is pleased to announce the organization’s official endorsement of Jesus Gonzalez for the 54th Assembly District race in Brooklyn. The election will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011.

“We are excited to have endorsed Jesus Gonzalez in this important special election,” said DFNYC President Josh Silverstein. “Jesus is a committed progressive activist and has worked for years to help improve his community. The members of Democracy for New York City are ready to help him win this race and represent the district up in Albany.”

The 54th State Assembly District encompasses Bushwick, East New York, Cypress Hills, and part of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. The seat was vacated when Assemblyman Darryl C. Towns joined the Cuomo administration three months ago. ...  read more »

Before I start this two-parter, let me first disclose that in the past I have worked for Senator John Sampson’s Campaign Committee on a pro-bono basis. Let me also sate that I once had a one-year advisor/consulting contract with said committee, which I will probably try to renew soon enough.

I have known John for about twenty years now. Back in those days he was a young attorney with the law firm of Barbaro and Alter. His boss (Mitch Alter) is the amiable and venerable election-lawyer who plies his trade in Brooklyn’s courts (mainly). Mitch is an icon of Brooklyn’s politics. Mitch alone is good for a thousand political stories from this half-naked city: most of them will have you in stitches. One of these days I will write some of those Mitch Alter political stories if the trolls here were to ever stop messing with my blog (and comments-section).

The first time John Sampson ran for the senate, he was the classic rookie. He attended events but stayed in a corner as shy as any thirty-something year old virgin about to be deflowered. He surprised most pundits by winning the race, and in so doing he became the youngest member of that legislative body.  read more »

A friend of mine and reader sent this to me based on his own experience with News Corp. Reprinted with permission.

I am a former News Corp empplyee, working in IT in Australia between 2000 and 2003 in digital and print content management; news print and web publishing, advertising systems, archives, ecommerce, multimedia etc. I worked heavily with the production systems I am referring too below. Especially the global news paper production system, which is used at Wapping (News International) but is also the shared platform for most of the 140+ news papers in News Corp.

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The UK newspapers are one small set of a single, global newspaper production system which has included the New York Post for many years and now the WSJ.
140 newspapers share a single production system where all news is shared. So a crime in one newspaper is a crime for all.  read more »

Brooklyn is a fucked up place for Democrats. Seriously. And this is largely due to the insane, selfish and greedy machinations of the party leader Vito Lopez.

The most recent insanity that Vito Lopez's machinations have delivered to us is the candidacy of a horrible, anti-choice, anti-LGBT candidate for Assembly named Rafael Espinal. This guy is so awful that the Conservative and Republican Parties of New York wanted to endorse him. The only reason that the Republicans cannot endorse him is that he screwed up the paperwork, so can't be on the Republican line.

Opposed to this corrupt sleazebag are two candidates. First there is the useless candidate of the long-standing political Towns dynasty Deidra Towns. And then there is the REAL Democratic Candidate, Jesus Gonzalez, who is running on the normally corrupt and sleazy Working Families Party line, but this time seems pretty kick ass.  read more »

I was never a huge fan of Anthony Weiner. Don't get me wrong. Sometimes the guy could be brilliant. He slammed the Republicans in ways they sure deserved to be slammed. He called bullshit on Republicans more often than almost anyone, and believe me we need more people to call bullshit on the greedy bunch of Billionaire Koch Brothers lackeys that is the modern Republican party. Plus, the scandal that brought Weiner down, though it showed Weiner's stupider side, also showed the deep, deep, deep hypocrisy of the Greedy Oil Party who some how think Weiner's flirtatious texting is somehow worse than David "diaper" Vitter's hiring prostitutes and Newt Gingrich's and John Boehner's flat out cheating on their wives. As long as Republicans are led by the likes of lying, cheating Boehner they have NO RIGHT to complain about Weiner.

All that said, Weiner is out of the picture and presumably will not be in the public eye for awhile.

The special election for Weiner's seat pits Republican Bob Turner, a typical greedy, anti-working class, anti-middle class, right wing lackey of the Billionaire Koch Brothers, against Assemblyman David Weprin, a conservative-leaning but very thoughtful orthodox Jew who has served New York as Deputy Superintendent of Banks and Secretary of the Banking Board for New York State under Mario Cuomo, Queens City Councilman, and then in the Assembly. To me it is a pretty easy choice. Weprin has the experience, intelligence and dedication to be in Congress. Turner has nothing but typical Greedy Oil Party Herbert Hoover era crap that Weiner would call bullshit on.  read more »

July 2011's Eating Liberally meeting will be July 12th at 7 PM at Java
Indonesian Rijsttafel restaurant
455 7th Ave
(between 15th St & 16th St)
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(on the border of South Slope and Windsor Terrace)

Check out their menu here:

http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/java-indonesian-rijsttafel/menu