[Ed. Note]: Promoted.

Hi Betsy,

Wow! You sure have been a busy bee lately.

I just received a copy of the press release you sent yesterday announcing you were traipsing to Brooklyn to blast! Blast! BLAST! conditions (?!?!) at Bushwick Houses.

Let's forget the silly little detail that you scheduled this 'blasting' for ten o'clock in the morning. What I found most intriguing was this little bit of wisdom written by John Collins, your communications guy and I assume signed off by you : That you are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore because senior citizens were left stranded until 2am waiting for the elevator to be fixed.

Now ... ahem ... let me get this straight Betsy ...

A 47 year-old Puerto Rican woman died on August 20th due to said broken down elevator --along with the multiple daily little violences she had to contend with living in that building-- but somehow that didn't catch your attention?

An African American woman, also in her 40s, was the sheroe who got Errol Louis and me into that building after being ignored numerous times by 311, NYCHA, your offices, and numerous media outlets around the city ... and yet now you find the time to "blast" about it?

If I were a public advocate, I would assume that one of my principal points of focus would be to help the poor of the city --anywhere, everywhere, regardless of gender, age, race or ethnicity.

Yet ... and yet ... Betsy, are you telling me that all it took was to tell you that some senior citizens were left out in the cold one night, for you to do something about it?

Please Betsy, don't tell me these senior citizens happen also to be white; because that would be the ultimate insult not only to the memory of Lillian Milán, but to her living and very real Puerto Rican husband who is still living in that building.

Seriously Betsy, tell your communications guy that what he is communicating is not just troublesome but unbelievably nasty.

Anyhow, I hope you had fun with the blasting.

Have a great day,
liza

The New York Times reports on a lawsuit brought against the City by a Muslim counter-terrorism officer. The suit concerns anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate speech contained in emails by a City contractor, who was presumably quoting various republicans. This war on terror business isn't serious enough, I guess, to maybe stop hating our own intelligence guys if they happen to belong to the wrong religious or ethnic group. Muslim: for Michelle Malkin and others, it's the new n****r. Call it what it is.

Also in the Times, a glaring setback for "Public" Advocate Betsy Gotbaum. It turns out that the court handling the Brooke Astor case couldn't substantiate the claims of elder abuse brought against Brooke Astor's son; the Astor case, of course, was a cause celèbre eagerly taken up by Gotbaum, who tends not to make an appearance when, say, 100,000 normal-income people lose power for nine days. By the by, rumor has it that she's running for mayor, god help us all.

The Albany Project celebrates its first week. Good work, gentlemen; you're showing why we need citizen blogs.

DMIblog has a downright shocking piece on comparative incarceration rates.

Heh. DailyKos guffaws at republican lawmakers' indignation over the new, more work-heavy schedule to be adopted by the House in January. No more four day weekends for you.

"The best investment a government can make is to put milk into babies". Said by Churchill, now taken up by Schumer.

Lastly, more Schumer: The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle calls on the senior Senator to bring back tax deductibility for college tuitions. That does seem more worthwhile than a flag-burning amendment.

U.S. Airways has made an offer to buy Delta Airways. This is huge.

Betsy Gotbaum has finally found an issue worthy of her attention as Public Advocate: The cell phone ban in public schools. As a reminder, a blackout in Queens that left 100,000 without power for nine elicited not a peep from her office; she has yet to make a public statement about any development, from Atlantic Yards on down; she heard about Gitmo on the Hudson, the lockup during the RNC, from newspaper reports; the list goes on. Here's a thought: email her at schoolcellphoneban@pubadvocate.nyc.gov ; that's an address that is apparently taken seriously. Tell her what else she's missing.

In The New York Times freshly re-elected Joe Lieberman, "Independent Democrat" of Connecticut, is being welcomed back with hugs, perhaps because he has the Senate Democratic majority by the balls.

The Village Voice continues the drip, drip, drip of coverage of the State Senate Democrats' self-inflicted debacle in this election cycle:

A tribute to the genius of computerized reapportionment, the GOP senate victory was also a commentary on the calamity of Democratic strategy and resolve, even in a year of historic opportunity. Little of the multimillions spent by the statewide Democratic players trickled down to the troops in the senate trenches, and the compromises that local party leaders have made with their GOP counterparts over the years came back at prime time to haunt the senate effort.

The Washington Post: spending bills and a free-trade deal with Vietnam stall in the Congress. Even in defeat, republicans just can't do their jobs.

Pondering John Murtha: Taegan Goddard says it's all sewn up; Ruth Marcus in The Washington Post says he's 'unfit to be Majority Leader'. Let's be honest, no matter which way it goes, this is not an auspicious start; better get ironclad ethics reform passed pronto.

Lastly, The Daily News has a Rudy-gasm - here and here and here.

Photo Courtesy of the New York City Public Advocate's Office

Four more years of the phantom New York City Public Advocate. There is a photo of her allegedly giving food out in Queens. Nice? WHAT THE F&*#K IS HER PROBLEM!

The Public Advocate should be voice of moral outrage of the people of New York. Handing out sandwiches is the best Gotbaum could do?

It utterly pains me to see how this woman has turned that post into a charade. I don't care if Bloomberg stripped the position of any actual governmental mandate. Then raise hell, use the media access you've got with the post and raise utter, raging hell. No media access? Then take it to the people. Take it to the streets.

There is no reason whatsoever for people in Queens to be in the situation they are at the moment.

Facilitating the implementation of alternative sources of energy for emergency situations like this ought to be the #1 priority of New Yok City, especially after the 2002 Blackout. And if it is not on the agenda of the mayor or City Council, then shame them publicly for their oversight.