Three New York journalists, Rafael Martínez Alequin, Ralph E. Smith and David Wallis, have been denied press credentials by the NYPD with little explanation or appeals process. All three write for online journals and believe that they are being denied press credentials because they write for non-traditional media. The lawsuit alleges that the current Press Credential procedure violates the Constitutional Rights of the plaintiffs and interferes with the reporting of news in NYC.

Rafael Martínez Alequin, a long-time critic of Mayor (Tsar) Bloomberg, publishes the New York City Free Press, an online version of his earlier print version, the Free Press (originally the Brooklyn Free Press). His stated philosophy for the NYC Free Press is:

Well, having just highlighted the anger people feel about the Bloomberg Putsch in my "Tsar Bloomberg and his Trained Surrender Monkeys" piece, I think it might be good to discuss the heroes of this fight and their actions to stop Bloomberg and the City Council from screwing the voters. A lawsuit has been filed.

From the Norm Siegel for Public Advocate website:

On Monday, November 10th, Norman, along with Randy Mastro and other attorneys of The law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, filed a federal lawsuit challenging the extension of term limits from 2 to 3 terms without a public referendum. Below is Norman’s statement regarding that lawsuit:

Today, we filed an important civil rights lawsuit regarding the extension of term limits from 2 to 3 terms.

The lawsuit is filed on behalf of 26 Plaintiffs, including voters, elected officials, citizens who aspire to be elected officials and good government groups.

There's been a troubling spike in anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry in the last few weeks of the Presidential campaign. The reason is obvious: the Democratic Presidential candidate is an insufficiently blond, insufficiently blue-eyed guy for the tastes of some, and his middle name - don't tell anyone - is Hussein. Quite a few topline GOP surrogates have jumped into that pit with naked feet, gleefully crowing about cough different cough anti-American cough terrorist, as if everyone didn't know exactly what they meant.

It's very tempting to make that sad fact into a blunt partisan cudgel. Tempting, but not up to the historical moment, because something more important is going on here. Witness this video of McCain supporters rejecting and shaming one of their own.

(Via American News Project)

Muslims are in America to stay, just as Japanese stayed after Korematsu, just as Jews a century ago were not deterred from finding their dreams despite a vicious anti-Semitic backlash. Even better, Muslims are organizing politically.

All Americans have a real opportunity in the midst of this intolerant backlash. There are things happening these days that are truly, as Governor Palin would say, anti-American. Now is the time for all Americans of good will to stand up and say that they won't be a part of that.

The Bronx State Supreme Court - which is not the same thing as the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals - in a ruling issued Tuesday backed governor Paterson's executive order to state agencies to recognize out-of-state marriage licenses for same-sex couples.

The New York Times:

The decision, issued by Justice Lucy A. Billings of State Supreme Court in the Bronx, a trial-level court, is the latest in a string of rulings by state courts that have upheld the right of same-sex couples who were married in other jurisdictions to have their marital status recognized in New York, even though gay couples may not marry within the state. A bill to allow gay unions passed the State Assembly last year but has not come up for a vote in the Senate.

The suit was filed in June by lawmakers who opposed the governor’s order and by other opponents of same-sex marriage, who argued that Mr. Paterson had effectively usurped the Legislature’s role by issuing the order. The governor said the order, issued in May, was made to protect the state from litigation by gay couples legally married in places like Canada or Massachusetts.

The decision was rendered in a suit filed by Serph Maltese, Marty Golden and the virulently bigoted Alliance Defense Fund, and will now probably be appealed through the state court system by deep-pocketed extremist interests allied with the embattled Senator Maltese.

Ironically, Maltese and the other dead-enders who joined his suit have only to look to their own party's convention, currently unfolding fitfully in St. Paul, to see a shifting tide.

A group of gay and lesbian Republicans has traveled to the site of the GOP convention this week to help convince its party that it is time to stop being on the "wrong side" of the same-sex marriage issue.

"Clearly, the tide is turning," said Scott Tucker, communications director for the Log Cabin Republicans. "It's important for the Republican Party to be inclusive on this issue, because we are risk of being on the wrong side of history."

New York republicans aware of this state's demographics like to pretend that they're not quite the same people as their extremist, hateful cohorts in other states. They're the reasonable ones, supposedly.

Problem is, that's just not true.

Let me be up front. I have never been a fan of Jesse Jackson. I appreciated the movement he tried to create, but always was leery of the man himself. I was viewed with some suspicion by some of my white liberal friends because I didn't jump on the Jesse Jackson bandwagon, but the truth is he creeped me out.

The first chance I had to directly observe Jesse Jackson in action was when then bishop Desmond Tutu came to speak at UC San Diego where I was a student. This was back when Tutu had to be very careful what he said or he might join Mandela in prison. His speech was amazing, and had the main message that too often America put itself on the wrong side...and for once we should do the right thing, back the right horse.

Through the entire event, Jesse Jackson was there, often pushing himself to the forefront and hogging the spotlight. I found his presence irritated me, and this despite all the good things I had heard about him from fellow liberals. And it seemed to me, though I may have just been projecting, that Tutu himself seemed to look a bit askance at Jackson.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

DEMOCRACY FOR NEW YORK CITY BLASTS PASSAGE OF FISA BILL

Democracy for NYC is severely disappointed that the House of Representatives has
voted to pass a bill that is unnecessary at best, and a severe blow to freedom at
home and abroad. The House vote on H.R.6304, the “FISA Amendments Act of
2008,” indicates a denial of reality among both Democrats and Republicans, and a
repudiation of the foundation of the American way.

Under current law, the President may already authorize wiretaps before even asking
for a secret warrant. There is absolutely no chance that a potential terrorist
operation will go undetected because of a legal technicality. As such, the 1978 law
still upholds the American system of checks and balances while also allowing the
government agencies charged with protecting us to act quickly whenever they
believe that quick action is needed. The law as it exists today works very well,
which is why both left- and right-wing groups and publications have stated that we
don’t need to change it.

Unfortunately, too many people in the House of Representatives don’t understand

Via email from Matt Browner Hamlin comes this:

If you support gay marriage...

Governor Paterson has said that NY will recognize legal same-sex marriages from other states and countries. He's doing a poll on whether people support it. If you're interested in taking 15 seconds to lodge your support, just call 1-518-474-8390 and say 'I support the Governor's directive on marriage,' then give them your 5 digit (New York) zip code.

The number reaches the Executive Chamber. Let them know that you support equality for all New Yorkers.

(Of course, if you don't, that would be an opportunity to also air your case for whites-only drinking fountains. Your call, but it's the same principle.)

Governor Paterson has instructed state agencies to begin recognizing same-sex unions performed in other jurisdictions, domestic and foreign, in the state of New York.

In a directive issued on May 14, the governor’s legal counsel, David Nocenti, instructed the agencies that gay couples married elsewhere “should be afforded the same recognition as any other legally performed union.”

The revisions are most likely to involve as many as 1,300 statutes and regulations in New York governing everything from joint filing of income tax returns to transferring fishing licenses between spouses. [Emph. added]

Think about that for a moment: everything from income tax returns to fishing licenses presently treats gay and straight New Yorkers differently. Think about that massive legal disability when next you see a republican election mailer complaining about the 'special rights' gay people supposedly seek.

I often wind up being focused on Brooklyn over development schemes, fighting such excessive plans as Atlantic Yards. But we have to remember that the entire city is plagued with these excessive development plans that destroy whole neighborhoods and benefit wealthy develpers more than communities. And, more often than not, they are shoved down our throats practically by force...or at least using the threat of eviction.

Harlem is another neighborhood threatened by overdevelopment that could destroy its historic character. As with Atlantic Yards, the Harlem development plan will displace lower and middle income families, driving them from the center of NYC and replacing them largely with luxury high rises.

VOTE People is a community organization that, in its own words:

...works to manifest the needs and intent of the people of communities in which policy and legal reform is proposed, through a holistic approach including legal and political advocacy and social and cultural movements.