Part 1: Albany Reform

Surveying the national political scene these days is a thing of wonder and beauty for patriotic Americans, and cause for despair among republicans. In every region of the country, formerly red states are embracing Barack Obama and Democrats; we're leading in Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, North Dakota, Colorado and New Mexico. Our Senate candidates seem poised to win in such unfriendly terrain as Alaska and North Carolina and many others besides, putting a filibuster-proof sixty seat majority within our grasp. If we do capture majorities of this magnitude, we will transform the nation for a generation. Here's what the big map looks like today:

It's a truism in every Presidential election cycle: what really matters is the Supreme Court. The republicans certainly understood that in 2004; note how Bush's one signature achievement in his "second" term was the elevation to the bench of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, along with many others in a similar extremist, un-American vein to the lower levels of the Federal bench.

The main line of defense against the infestation of the Federal bench by extremist ideologues is at the state level. And here, again, the Senate is the first line of attack for the forces of reaction. The two main woman-haters in the upper house are Serph Maltese and Frank Padavan, offering between them four pieces of anti-choice legislation.

Bill Number: NY S6645
Defines pregnancy and conception in such a way that it could jeopardize access to contraception. Requires women receive state-mandated lecture which includes medically inaccurate information prior to obtaining abortion service and prohibits abortion unless women wait an additional 24 hours after receiving lecture. Subjects abortion providers to burdensome restrictions.
Sponsor: Maltese (R)

Bill Number: NY S6644
Allows certain individuals to refuse to perform any abortion services in all or most circumstances. Allows certain individuals to refuse to provide or dispense contraceptives in all or most circumstances.
Sponsor: Maltese (R)

But wait, there's more.

Bill Number: NY S3117
Amends definition of person in several sections of the criminal code to include "unborn child at any stage of gestation."
Sponsor: Maltese (R)

The only other anti-choice bill offered in the Senate in 2008 was Frank Padavan's NY S4431. The likely effects of these bills on women's reproductive freedom are profound. Maltese's three bills represent a three-pronged attack on women themselves: by defining a fetus as a person, during pregnancy, a woman is a ward of the state, responsible to the government, not her family or her doctor, for the well-being of a citizen. No comparable burden exists for men under any circumstances. By allowing providers to refuse to dispense contraceptives, and to refuse to provide required medical services, women are reduced to second-class citizens in a vital area of their lives, their health.

There's no reason to expect, what with a Democratic majority in the Assembly, that any of these bills will ever become law. However, the republican majority in the Senate precludes any affirmative steps on women's reproductive autonomy. Now, things are looking good for the forces of freedom right now; but remember, as Team Rove learned at its cost, that political fortunes can change in a historical instant. If we want to enact strong protections for choice, for access to contraception, and other issues of concern to women and men both, as a backstop against future reversals at the Federal level, we need a Democratic state Senate.

All of us get literally dozens of emails every day from our various fine candidates. Since not every one of these warrants a separate entry, we're going to condense stuff into a daily evening post.

Barack Obama released a new economic blueprint today, which you can read here.

On Thursday, the New York Democrats are organizing a rally to coincide with the last Presidential debate at Hofstra.

Brian Foley, running against withered incumbent Caesar Trunzo, released a new ad.

As did Rick Dollinger, running against awful Wall Street suckup, Joe Robach, in Rochester.

Dollinger was also endorsed by Governor Paterson.

Don Barber is making his way to New York City to raise funds in his race against insurance guy, Jim Seward. Please see the attached file for details, and by all means, do go, because Don is awesome.

And finally, the folks over at WFP are trying to get David Yassky to, hahaha, commit on term limits. Yeah, like that's going to happen.

You have got to be kidding me.

On Sunday, the mayor won the crucial, if expected, backing of the powerful City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn. But the timing and the tone of her news conference seemed to reflect the desire by the Bloomberg administration and its allies to build momentum for extending term limits for public officials from eight years to twelve.

The campaign, which has drawn sharp rebukes from a collection of grass-roots groups, has reinforced Mr. Bloomberg’s image as a sometimes imperious leader who may be in sync with a world of business executives but less attuned to the attitudes of ordinary New Yorkers.

The one and only hearing scheduled by the Council on lifting term limits - that's right, one hearing - is this Thursday.

Date: Thursday, October 16, 2008
Time: 1:00pm - 11:00pm
Location: City Hall
City/Town: New York, NY

You should go.

This is a quite wonderful video for several reasons. One, it should lay to rest some of the febrile racist idiocy oozing from the republican side of the aisle regarding candidate Obama; and two, it demonstrates that, even if we've spent the last eight years trying to convince the world that America is merely the sum of Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, the world still has hope for us.

It occurs to me that our Democrats haven't really yet made the larger, overarching case for why this state needs to toss the do-nothing, spend-your-money republican majority in our State Senate. So, over the last few weeks of the campaign, we're going to try to make that case here on the blogs with a view to several policy areas that will benefit immensely from Democratic control of the legislature. We'll be looking at things like Albany reform, choice, economic opportunity, taxes, civil rights, labor, and other subjects that really don't get treated with seriousness in the back-and-forth - "You're a poopiehead!" "No, you're the poopiehead!" - of a campaign involving the party of Karl Rove, Joe Bruno and George Bush.

I'm not alone in thinking that the most important subject at stake this year is Albany Reform, as articulated in the Brennan Center Report. Briefly, while the average New Yorker may think that we have a legislature - there are biennial elections, committees, bunting of the most convincing sort - that's actually not true. The two chambers of our legislature are run by two men, Sheldon Silver in the Assembly, and Dean Skelos in the Senate. By "run", you need to understand "no, you're a member of the other party, you can't have a pencil" and "no, sorry, your bill will never make it to the floor - ever" and "Oh, so you want a debate. Ha, that's cute".

Malcolm Smith and hiis Democrats have been adamant that they will enact the Brennan Center Reforms, probably with some minor filing at the edges. But the Democrats are serious about doing this, for several reasons: one, because a lot of money for our push for the majority comes from the reform community, and two, because it's the right thing to do for everyone, including republicans.

Now, passing these process reforms is not a panacea for what ails Albany; the conventional wisdom is that, once the Senate changes its rules, the Assembly will follow suit. I'm not personally very optimistic on that score, at least not immediately; there's been some messaging recently defending as much power for Speaker Silver as he can hold on to. But if you want to change the way Albany does business, and to make it more responsive to you, the citizen, your best hope - really, your only hope - is to help the Democrats take the Senate.

In my continuing coverage of Republican racism and anti-Semitism, one of the stupidest Republican memes was "gee, uh, duh, isn't Obama a Moooslim?"

My first reaction was "so what if he was?" Why couldn't a Muslim be an American leader? But that is beside the point. There has never, ever been the slightest evidence that Obama was Muslim.

Those who listen to this lie and believe it are, quite honestly, abyssmally stupid or amazingly gullible.

But who originated the "duh...Obama is a Moooslim" lie?

Seems an unstable anti-Semite, named Andy Martin, started it. And Fox News let this unstable anti-Semite assert lies without questioning him...yet another connection between Fox News, lies, and anti-Semitism.

I only wish I could claim credit for the title, but alas, it goes to the NY Post. Their Page Six article says that if Quinn gets a third term but doesn't remain as Speaker, she'll quit her Council job to become a Deputy Mayor.

That, apparently, is her price for supporting Bloomberg's power grab.

One of the biggest crises for working families in America is the lack of affordable, quality child care. The choices available are few and often very exclusive (I hear rumors of people having to give stock tips to day care owners to get their kids in) and/or very expensive.

My wife and I were lucky. We got our son into the Berkeley Carroll child care center. Berkeley Carroll child care is far from cheap, but they provide all day care so both my wife and I can work full days, so it is worth it. They offer first come-first serve sign ups for new applicants, so it is as egalitarian as you can get given the price. This means there is a wide variety of children who attend from all over the city. The quality of care is exemplary. Parents are encouraged to be involved and are listened to (message to Bloomberg: successful schools listen to the parents!). Children are happy and learn at an amazing rate. My only complaint is the price but you get what you pay for, so even there it isn't really a complaint.

A former student of mine called in anger recently. Of course the issue was this pending malevolent attack on term-limits (and probable hijack) by Mayor Bloomberg and a New York City Council majority; via proposed legislation altering the term limits law voted in by the people. The student was livid.

With typical youthful innocence and idealism, he kept challenging me to make sense of all this. How could a plebiscite be overturned without going back to the voter via referendum? Why were there two referenda on this issue, when the legislators could just come in and sweep away the people’s vote (will) at anytime? And what is to stop them from extending the limit another four years, when 2013 rolls around? Is this the “democracy” that we Americans love to boast about to the rest of the world?

So today at her press conference, I asked the Council Speaker Christine Quinn, for some clarification relative to the future. Does the proposed bill extending term-limits, include provisions safeguarding it from another whimsical hijack four years from now? I could have gone further and asked if there were any inclusions in the proposed bill, which would prevent the mayor and council members, from abolishing term limits altogether at any point in the future? Of course the latter question was implied.

Together, Columbus Day and Thanksgiving are the foundation myths of America. I have been ambivalent, in the litteral meaning of the word, towards Columbus Day for years now. I celebrate America and Columbus' "discovery" of the "New World" because the result of his discovery and the ultimate founding of America is that my family, myself included, is alive and thriving today. Without America, my family would have been exterminated in the genocide of Nazi Germany if not before that in the genocide of the pogroms in Tsarist Russia and later Stalin's genocide in the Soviet Union.

But I am reminded every Columbus day of the genocides on which the founding of America was based. My family had a refuge from genocide because of a previous genocide committed against the natives of America. How's THAT for ambivalence?