The Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats is having a forum on term limits and the Bloomberg Putsch this Thursday, October 23 2008, 7:00pm - 8:00pm

CBID is having its general General Membership meeting and a forum on term limits at Old First Reform Church on 7th ave and Carroll in Park Slope.

Last CBID forum at Old First I went to was quite good, discussing impeachment and Iraq with Yvette Clarke, Anthonly Weiner and an unusually petulant Jerrold Nadler. So I have high hopes for their term limits forum.

Wonder if David Yassky will attend to hear his constituents' opinions?

This last weekend Joy and I attended two events of political interest to New York. First I want to mention that on Saturday Joy participated in the 3rd annual Center for Anti-Violence Education's Punch-a-thon held in a very wet Grand Army Plaza entrance to Prospect Park. The Center for Anti-Violence Education (CAE) teaches women, children, teens, and LGBT individuals verbal and physical strategies to protect themselves and break cycles of violence in their lives and communities. CAE has a commitment to serving low-income families and offer our violence-prevention courses on a sliding fee scale. Courses for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault are free of charge, and free childcare is available at all classes. The annual Punch-a-thon raises money to pay for self-defense and violence-prevention courses to those who can't afford it. I sponsored my wife in this event and she, like most of the participants, did 1000 punches. In all the event raised $5000 to date with more hopefully coming in. The political angle was that several elected officials had promised to show up.

Last night was CBID's annual dinner at the Montauk Club. My wife (an officer of CBID) and I went, having gotten babysitting for our baby. For those scandalized by my rubbing shoulders with party bigwigs at Cipriani and enjoying the music and food, well tough. Personally I liked the Montauk Club better than Cipriani, though the creepy, ghost-like Native Americans portrayed in relief on the walls, and the half-statue of a Negro (word used intentionally with all its racist connotations) banjo player on the landing halfway up to the second floor were a bit disconcerting, but the building is from a different time. And it is a very striking building, both inside and outside. The Montauk club is one of the more beautiful buildings in Brooklyn.

And the food was quite good. Chicken breasts that were mass produced for a large crowd but still moist and flavorful, vegetables that were not overcooked, and potatoes that, if a bit salty, were still quite good. Only the cake and coffee were dreadful. Everything else was good. Not as good as Cipriani, of course, but quite good.