Sensible Centrists and Christie's Magic Budget Beans

Almost all of my centrist friends loved them some Chris Christie.  The few that would listen discounted what I told them: that the guy was utterly full of crap and a fully partisan political animal.  Note: it's ok to be partisan!  But they all believed he was a bipartisan straight-shootin' centrist. And that was just an act. 

The Other Christie Scandal

"What is it that makes self-proclaimed centrists such easy marks for right-wing con men? Actually, it's not that much of a mystery: the centrist creed is that the two parties are symmetrically extremist, and this means that there must, as a matter of principle, be Serious, Honest Republicans out there — so such people must be invented if they don't actually exist. Hence the elevation of Paul Ryan despite clear evidence of his con-artist nature. And hence, also, the love affair with Chris Christie."

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/30/the-other-christie-scandal/

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This guy killed the biggest public works project in the country, during a recession, so he could funnel the money from a rail project into new highway contracts.  Thus, a massive slush fund for Christie to ladle out,  and at the same time artificially keep NJ gas taxes below the prevailing norm.  Truly, a great fiscal conservative. 

Typos courtesy of my iPhone

That Pounding Sound? The Lightstone Site

Yesterday and this morning anyone standing on the Brooklyn Streets of Carroll Gardens could hear (feel?) the rhythmic pounding of a piledriver.  If you assumed it was related to one of the construction sites in the Gowanus, you were correct.

It didn't occur to me as I heard the noise on 1st Place between Court and Clinton that the elementary school kids might be undergoing testing at the same time, at schools much closer to the construction site.  A concerned parent wrote to the PS58 board:

If you are concerned about the pounding sound (and vibration) associated with the pile driving going on today, tomorrow, and Friday at the Lightstone Property (363-365 Bond St and 388 Carroll St) during the tests our kids and the PS 32 and MS 442 kids are taking, consider giving the Lightstone Construction Hotline (646-362-1500) and/or 311 a call (although it doesn't sound like 311 can do anything in a useful timeframe).
It would be great if Lightstone could voluntarily hold off during the testing hours (maybe that's 9am-12pm?) just for the next 3 days out of consideration for the community.  

The person I spoke to this morning at Lightstone (Manual Rivera) said he would look into it but it would be unlikely that they could do anything about today's pounding.  Maybe some more phone calls to Lightstone could help. 

Construction is a fact of life in the city, but it would be nice if the developers could work around the kids' testing schedule.

'Game of Thrones' Author George R.R. Martin: The Rolling Stone Interview

Excellent interview with GRRM in Rolling Stone.  Though I'm of a younger generation, I can relate to this part:

I don't think America has ever quite recovered from Vietnam. The
divisions in our society still linger to this day. For my generation
it was a deeply disillusioning experience, and it had a definite
effect on me. The idealistic kid who graduated high school, a big
believer in truth, justice and the American way, all these great
values of superheroes of his youth, was certainly less idealistic by
the time I got out of college.

For me, it was the no-fly zones and sanctions on Iraq after the first gulf war, as well as the "War on Drugs" policies that first caused me to question my underlying assumptions.  Believe it or not, I was pretty much Alex P. Keaton (minus the educated liberal parents) when I was 15.

Rightwing Hypocrites

Yes, that's a bit redundant.  But just look what these freedom fighters are up to now in Nevada. Scratch a libertarian, find a tin-pot despot underneath.

Nevada Militia Sets Up Armed Checkpoints, Demands to See Drivers' I.D.

They came to defend an old cattleman and their principles of life, liberty, and property. But apparently other rightful property owners in rural Nevada don't feel terribly free under the security regime recently built around them by the militiamen protecting rancher Cliven Bundy.

Often amazed by some people's complete lack of self-awareness.

Neoliberalism: A Fancy Term For Intellectual Bankruptcy

Enough of this fake-centrist bullshit policy that doesn't work and perpetuates the underlying problems.

No, the answer isn't more asset building for the 99%. The answer is boosting wages over assets. by @DavidOAtkins

So instead of doing something about radical inequality, the new neoliberal answer is to give the 44% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck more savings vehicles and incentives to stash away money to pay for those increasingly impossibly high mortgage and tuition costs. As the inequality problem becomes more and more severe and as Piketty's arguments gain increasing influence, look for all the neoliberal asset addicts to make ever more preposterous arguments to defend incentivizing boosting assets over boosting wages.

I'd compare these buffoons to Rube Goldberg, but at least his contraptions worked.

Kerry On Israel

If the offending statement is the one quoted below, I don't understand the controversy.

John Kerry Regrets Saying Israel Could Become an 'Apartheid State'

Kerry's use of the term during his remarks to the Trilateral Commission on Friday was first reported by The Daily Beast's Josh Rogin on Sunday. While explaining "how imperative it is to get to the two-state solution," Kerry said, "A two-state solution will be clearly underscored as the only real alternative. Because a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second-class citizens—or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state."

That is prima facie a true statement.

Centrist Wankery

Today's wanker: Chris House.

The Hunt for False Equivalence

But centrists have a very hard time acknowledging this asymmetry; they love to assert that both sides are equally wrong — and often seem to feel the need to invent extreme positions when they don't actually exist. Which brings me to this critical piece by Chris House. A while back House declared that both Ed Prescott and yours truly say crazy things; when asked for an example of me saying something remotely equivalent to something like Prescott's declaration that there is no evidence that Fed policy matters, he never did answer.

I'm so sick of the manufactured "both sides do it" narrative that is foisted upon us by the corporate news media.  Why does one have to go to a comedy program to get decent news coverage these days?

A Good Day For Staten Island Democrats: Rep. Grimm Surrenders To Federal Authorities

And some on the Brooklyn side of the Verrazano Bridge as well.  Things are looking good for Domenic Recchia, who is set to challenge Grimm this fall.  Grimm has other problems to worry about in the meantime.

Rep. Grimm Surrenders To Federal Authorities

Congressman Michael Grimm has turned himself into authorities to face charges . According to NBC New York's sources , "Grimm is believed to be facing charges related to a private business deal that he…

This has been rumored for months.  The surprise is in the charging details.  Not exactly what I was expecting.

Netflix and The Importance Of Net Neutrality

I've personally noticed a dramatic slowdown of Netflix here in Brooklyn over Verizon FiOS and in Massachusetts over Verizon DSL.  This is not an isolated incident, it's corporate policy.

This Hilarious Graph Of Netflix Speeds Shows The Importance Of Net Neutrality

Since Netflix gave in to Comcast's demands for payment in exchange for a promise to deliver movies smoothly over the Internet to Netflix's customers, speeds on Comcast for Netflix users have rocketed …

I still have some hope that Obama will recognize the folly of his new FCC commissioners and overrule the recent proposal for a two-tracked system. 

Reminder: Ed Rendell Is The Worst Sort of Democrat

A relatively minor side note in this story, but don't forget it.

Welcome to Comcast Country

The effort to sideline concerns about consumer protection was pioneered in Philadelphia in 1999, when Comcast was aided by City Hall in keeping a rival company, RCN, out of the local cable market. "Good God!" Mr. Rendell recalled telling RCN, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. "We have to tear up the streets so you can come in here and compete against one of our best corporate citizens?"

The best plutocracy money can buy.

Cliven Bundy: "A Welfare Queen In A Cowboy Hat"

How indeed.

How Conservatives Reacted to Cliven Bundy's Racism

And then there's the hypocrisy: Bundy's entire claim to fame is refusing to pay for the public land he's using — freeloading, you could say — while then claiming black people are "dangerously dependent" on the government. "How are you not sort of a welfare queen in a cowboy hat?"

To The Surprise of Exactly Zero People

Nobody could have predicted, etc.

Call Captain Renault

Because we are shocked...SHOCKED!! that there is racism going on in this guy's residence. "I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro," the rancher began as he described a "government h…

http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/2014/04/call-captain-renault.html

Michael Gordon: The Case Against Meritocracy

Actually, yet another case against the existence of meritocracy in elite journalism.  In a meritocracy, Michael Gordon would be writing filler for Steppin' Out.

Michael Gordon Strikes Again

It's amazing that he's managed to keep his exulted position on foreign affairs and foreign wars at the NYT through several changes of editors, going back to his role as co-conspirator on some of Judy …

Funny how a guy who gets it consistently wrong the right way gets to keep his high profile gig.

Defining Hipster Downward

I literally burst out laughing a while back when some knucklehead in comments referred to me as a hipster.  The word has lost all meaning.

Other People Are Horrible

The term "hipster" used to refer to poor 20somethings who drank PBRs, wore skinny jeans, had beards (the men) and tattoos, worked as bartenders or baristas, and probably were in a band. Then it referred to "rich white people moving into Brooklyn with their two young children." Now it seems to mean "anyone who embraces anything vaguely trendy that I don't like."

Brooklyn Library Announces Free Searchable Archive of Brooklyn Daily Eagle

This is pretty awesome news, no pun intended:

The Eagle has landed! In collaboration with Newspapers.com, and building on an earlier digitization initiative funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, BPL now offers the full run of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper, from 1841 to 1955, as a free online resource. Learn more about using this databasehere, and visit the Brooklyn Collection to explore materials on Brooklyn's rich history, including books, photographs, prints, directories and maps and atlases.

American Dream Not Just Dead, It Was Murdered

The Koch Brothers, Pete Peterson, Alan Greenspan, Ronald are again and George W. Bush, all unindicted conspirators in the murder of the American Middle Class.  And Rupert Murdoch as an accessory.

The American Dream is dead. Long live the American Dream

I've said it before and I'll say it again: contrary to what the Ayn Rand followers or the Rush Limbaugh acolytes will tell you, the American Dream is not to be richer than Croesus, although that's certainly one of the appeals of the American system. Most Americans are practical sorts and to them it is the dream of middle class security --- a house of your own, a good job, the chance to educate your children well and retire with dignity. Those things are becoming out of reach for more and more of us. Young people are in debt, middle aged people are squeezed by the need to care for their parents and their children, and the elderly are living longer with less. Workers aren't as physically mobile as their parents were, burdened with homes they cannot sell and their freedom curtailed by a job market that forces them to cling to work they hate for fear of not finding anything better. The idea of an average person starting a business feels like a suicidal leap without a net. Of course there have always been those who were closed off from the American Dream due to systemic bigotry and suffocating poverty but for a time the dream was even opening up to those who had been denied --- racial and ethnic minorities were able to become middle class workers and enjoy many of the economic and social benefits that came with it. But with the shrinking or the public sector and the unions, that toe hold into the middle class is becoming tenuous again.

This country would be a Randian hellscape if it weren't for unions.  I've always been classified as a professional employee as an adult and not eligible for a union.  But I am aware of enough history to know that the labor movement is responsible for the worker protections that benefit all of us.  Too many people don't seem to realize that.

Fire At 81 1st Place

I'm told there was a fire at 81 1st Place just this afternoon.
Numerous FDNY trucks on the scene and hydrant work.

FDNY has allowed the neighbors back in to their (our!) homes.
Thankfully it appears there are no injuries.

UPDATED:
I feel terrible for the tenants in the affected apartment(s) and the family that owns the building.  They've hauled a ton of debris out of the building in the last couple of days.  I don't think the fire spread far but the water damage from extinguishing the fire was substantial.  Apparently the lower levels are ok.

Bill Kristol Has Never Been Right About Anything, Ever.

America's foremost nepotism hire has another brilliant prediction.

Bill Kristol Floats Hillary Clinton–David Petraeus Ticket in 2016, Is Wrong

Because what Hillary Clinton really needs is a running mate who resigned in disgrace over an affair with a much younger woman, a.k.a. a constant reminder of the darkest time in her public and private life …

This man gets paid, quite handsomely, to share his opinions.  Meritocracy!

The Worst Person In The World

Is Fred Hiatt.

America's Most Powerful Conspiracy Theorists

The belief that President Obama not only should but can lure Republicans to support higher taxes on the rich is the most insanely wrong thing that is believed by respectable people. Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt's column today once again recites this belief, which is both preposterous and banal. The combination of the banality and the preposterousness is what lends this belief its special fascination. There are, after all, all sorts of fantastical beliefs at large among the American population — conspiracy theories involving aliens or the World Trade Center, or pseudoscientific theories linking vaccines to autism, and so on — that attract adherents who are alienated in some way from the established channels. The interesting thing about Tax Trutherism is not only that is is shared by esteemed elites but that, somewhat like the predations of Bernie Madoff, esteemed elites are the only people who are taken in by it.

Fred Hiatt is an awful, awful human being.

Body Found In Gowanus Canal

Terrible news.

GOWANUS: Body found in Gowanus Canal

A corpse was found floating in the Gowanus Canal this afternoon, according to police. The body was spotted in the fetid waterway beneath the Union Street bridge at 3 pm, an officer said. Fire personnel fished the man, who was fully clothed, out of the channel and pronounced him dead on the scene, cops said.

Sounds like an awful way to go.

The Aristocrats!

We are speeding towards another age of feudalism. In our new gilded age, your children can have a glorious future as domestic servants and/or sex workers for the 0.1%.  Or we can do something about this widening gulf of wealth inequality. It's your choice.

The most important skill necessary for success in our "meritocracy"? Brown-nosing the new aristocrats.

I have taken to telling people that if they want to make a decent living they will need to find a job that serves the rich. It's the smart move in a society such as ours. That's where the money is. And it appears that one needs to apply this principle to all issues in our society. Even the government is getting into the act:

On a crisp morning in late March, an elite group of 100 young philanthropists and heirs to billionaire family fortunes filed into a cozy auditorium at the White House.

Their name tags read like a catalog of the country’s wealthiest and most influential clans: Rockefeller, Pritzker, Marriott. They were there for a discreet, invitation-only summit hosted by the Obama administration to find common ground between the public sector and the so-called next-generation philanthropists, many of whom stand to inherit billions in private wealth.

The finest plutocracy money can buy.

Please Draw The Necessary Inference

What Atrios said.

Is Our Elites Learning

The problem with the Lifestyles Of The Not Quite Rich Enough genre is there's never any hint that anyone involved (reporters, subjects) take the next step and think, "oh, gosh, if I can't live on $300K what must it be like to live on $50K!!!!"

Unprosecuted War Criminal Whines About Bad Press

Not prosecuted yet, that is.  What Mitchell and Jessen did was monstrous. It's also a crime. I hope we are willing to come clean with ourselves about just what went on here. That means declassifying all of this sadistic, evil behavior and holding the perpetrators to account.

Torquemada was not a whiner

But Mitchell, who was reported to have personally waterboarded accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, remains unrepentant. "The people on the ground did the best they could with the way they understood the law at the time," he said. "You can't ask someone to put their life on the line and think and make a decision without the benefit of hindsight and then eviscerate them in the press 10 years later." The 6,600-page, $40m Senate report is still secret, but a summary of its 20 conclusions and findings, obtained by McClatchy News, alluded to the role Mitchell and another psychologist under contract to the CIA, Bruce Jessen, played in the torture program. The committee's chair, Democrat Dianne Feinstein, has said the report "exposes brutality that stands in stark contrast to our values as a nation". She added: "It chronicles a stain on our history that must never again be allowed to happen."

Mitchell and Jessen should rot in prison for the rest of their lives.

Schumer Outraged By Con Ed Bills

Our electric bills were almost double last year's amount for the past two months.  What the hell is going on?

Schumer Investigating Your Outrageous Con Ed Bills

At a press conference held at his office today, New York Senator Charles Schumer announced that he'd requested an immediate investigation by the Federal Trade Commission into the skyrocketing gas and …

Bloomberg Data: How Americans Die

Fascinating interactive infographics.  Note the dramatic rise in drug deaths, which (surely by coincidence!) correlate with the aggressive marketing of opiate painkillers by the pharmaceutical industry.

Now consider this, from Fortune/CNNMoney in 2011:

Consider these statistics, all for 2010: 254 million prescriptions for opioids were filled in the U.S., according to Wall Street analysts Cowen & Co. Enough painkillers were prescribed to "medicate every American adult around the clock for a month," the federal Centers for Disease Control reported on Nov. 1. It estimated that "nonmedical use of prescription painkillers costs health insurers up to $72.5 billion annually in direct health care costs." Opioids generated $11 billion in revenues for pharmaceutical companies, says market research firm Frost & Sullivan.

Sellers include giants such as Abbott Labs (ABT), Novartis (NVS), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and (in the future) Pfizer (PFE), as well as smaller fry like Endo Pharmaceuticals (ENDP) in Newark, Del., which makes Percocet, and UCB of Belgium, which makes Lortab. Most opioids are made by big generics companies such as Watson Pharmaceuticals (WPI), with companywide sales of $3.6 billion last year, and Covidien (COV) of Ireland, with $10.4 billion.

Two decades ago opioid sales were a small fraction of today's figures, as such drugs were reserved for the worst cancer pain. Why? Because drugs whose chemical composition resemble heroin's are nearly as addictive as heroin itself, and doctors generally wouldn't use such powerful meds on anybody but terminal cancer patients. But that changed years ago, and ever since, addiction to painkillers has become a staple of news headlines. There are periodic lurid crimes, such as the quadruple homicide in a Long Island pharmacy this summer committed by an addict desperate for hydrocodone. More often, there are the celebrities, such as Rush Limbaugh, who admitted on his radio show years ago that he was addicted to painkillers, or actor Heath Ledger, who was found dead with oxycodone in his system, or rapper Eminem, who entered rehab to address his reliance on Vicodin and other pills.

The Atrocious Transportation Funding Policies of Chris Christie

Before there was Bridgegate, there was Christie sticking the shiv in a new train tunnel between NY and NJ that was decades in the making. 

It was all about raising the funds for Christie to lard onto favored contractors, and paper over the reality of New Jersey's bankrupt transportation fund. The reality is that NJ's gas tax is far below what it needs to be (and far below its neighbors on all sides).

How to fund these repairs, however, is a grave problem. The governor loves to talk of the New Jersey Miracle, but his state is a transportation pauper. Its transportation trust fund teeters on insolvency, with most of its money going to pay off old bonds. Desperate to find funds, the governor embraced the chop shop option. First he killed a planned $8.7 billion commuter train tunnel under the Hudson River. Many argued this tunnel would ensure the future health of the region's economy. Whatever: Today trumps tomorrow in politics. Federal officials tried to renegotiate the cost of that tunnel, and the governor and his aides kept shaking their heads. "They could never take 'yes' for an answer," a transportation planner familiar with these negotiations said. "They needed the money to fix their roads." Once Mr. Christie cashed in that Hudson tunnel, he demanded the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey allow him to use the unspent money for his bridges and roads. There was a rub, however. As The Record pointed out in a fine article a few weeks back, the Port Authority is not a transportation piggy bank. Its funds can only be used on roads leading to the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln Tunnel. The Pulaski bridge, alas, leads to the Holland Tunnel, which does not qualify, as it was built before the creation of the Port Authority. The governor stomped and demanded. Soon the Port Authority's lawyers rebranded the Pulaski Skyway an "access road" to the Lincoln Tunnel. Legal fiction is a creative field. The governor had other options. He could have sought to raise New Jersey's gas tax, which is the second lowest in the nation. Every penny added to that tax is good for about $50 million. Raise the tax by a dime and you can repair a lot of bridges and roads.

ABC News Publicly Shamed For Trying To Grab Pulitzer Cred

Brian Ross is an atrocious reporter.  He is walking proof against the concept of meritocracy.

"The Center is prepared to show in great detail how little ABC's Brian Ross and Matt Mosk understood about even the most fundamental concepts and key facts and how they repeatedly turned to Chris to advise them or, in some instances, to do their work for them," he wrote. ABC News has not responded. In its last message to Buzenberg, published before the open letter, Kerry Smith, yet another ABC News executive, left it like this: "CPI's management's decisions in submitting an inaccurate and misleading entry without consulting us and not acknowledging our true role after winning have brought us to this point."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/abc-news-center-for-public-intergrity-pulitzer-credit

You Want NYC College-Related Outrage?

This whole post is amazing to me.

NYU Converted Duplex For President Sexton's Son During Housing Scarcity

At New York University, one of the most expensive colleges in the country, tuition covers all the basics: affordable housing, Chick-fil-A, access to world-renowned professors at an internationally rec…

http://gothamist.com/2014/04/16/nyu_built_duplex_for_presidents_son.php

It must be nice to be a member of the aristocracy.

Income Inequality Institute Will Pay Paul Krugman $25,000 Per Month. So?

Paul Krugman is a huge get in terms of developing CUNY's prestige.  In terms of "star" professors this is not even at the top of the range.  No outrage here.

Income Inequality Institute Will Pay Paul Krugman $25,000 Per Month

In late February, the City University of New York announced that it had tapped Princeton economist and New York Times blogger Paul Krugman for a distinguished professorship at CUNY's Graduate Center a…

http://gawker.com/income-inequality-institute-will-pay-paul-krugman-25-0-1563245534?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gawker%2Ffull+%28Gawker%29

Typos courtesy of my iPhone

The Worst Person In The World, Mass Transit Edition

This is one of very few things that will send me into a boiling rage.

Smoker joker

This guy was shamelessly spitting and smoking inside the 7 in Corona. I told the operator when I got off but I don't know if they did anything. Anyway I wish there was a way to publicly shame these …

http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2014/04/smoker-joker.html

Typos courtesy of my iPhone

5 Ways Nevada Rancher Militia Resembles Pakistan’s Taliban

The American Taliban.  Not that fool John Walker Lindh, but patriarchal rightwing religious conservatives.

5 Ways Nevada Rancher Militia Resembles Pakistan's Taliban

1. Federal versus local control of land Pakistan The Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) of Pakistan is ruled directly from the capital, Islamabad, rather than having an elected provincial gov…

http://www.juancole.com/2014/04/resembles-pakistans-taliban.html

Typos courtesy of my iPhone

Word Games

Apparently it's only "terrorism" if the perpetrator is brown and/or muslim.

Just two years ago, they made a big deal out of Harpham’s ties to Miller and used that to substantiate the severity of Harpham’s crimes. Yet not only did the FBI not catch Miller in a sting before he killed. But they’re not even calling Miller a terrorist … yet.

Miller and Harpham were participants in the same kind of network the FBI uses, if they’re Muslim, to identify targets for increased law enforcement attention. Harpham was convicted as a terrorist, in part, based on his ties to Miller.

And don't get me started on torture, the crime that dare not speak its name in American media, unless some other country or group is accused of doing it.

Greenwald and Gellman Win Pulitzers For Courageous Acts of Journalism

And miserable, bootlicking toadies like David Gregory and Jeff Toobin have only their massively overinflated paychecks to comfort them.  It is good to see real journalism recognized, even if the system is such that riches are showered on the Gregorys and Toobins and Woodwards of the world. 

Top 5 Pulitzer Prize "Traitors" in American Journalism

The Pulitzer Prize committee's opinion that Edward Snowden is a public servant rather than a traitor or criminal, as evidenced in its award to The Guardian and The Washington Post for their reporting from his trove of government documents, is a scandal on the American Right. But it is not a new scandal. Journalism is about the public's right to know what our government is up to. The National Security State is about preventing us from knowing what it is up to. The potential for black cells to operate within the secret government, beyond oversight of any elected official, should be obvious. Those who value order and authority and obedience over critical public debate abhor investigative journalism. Always have, always will. Voltaire had to flee several courts and several cities over the course of his lifetime, because of his writings, under threat of arbitrary royal decrees. The other impact of the Pulitzer to The Guardian (USA edn) is to lay to rest the question of whether Glenn Greenwald is a journalist. Of course he is, and a very good one, but the middle-of-the-road American tradition of faux 'objectivity' of tone in journalism had led some to view him as an 'activist.' Note that Judith Miller was not tagged in a similar way, so apparently having strong commitments is only bad if they rock the boat of the Establishment.

Typos courtesy of my iPhone

The Bridgegate Scandal Keeps It Fresh

Another resignation, and another investigation as Cy Vance gets in the mix.  I remember when even a few of my liberal friends were complaining about the initial media coverage.  Something about "manufactured outrage".

Port Authority Commissioner's Resignation Definitely Has Nothing to Do With D.A.'s Investigation

The Bridgegate scandal has led to far more scrutiny of the Port Authority's activities, and in addition to several probes into the Fort Lee lane closures, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. recently subpoenaed records related to high-profile projects at the agency, including the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. On Monday Port Authority Commissioner Anthony Sartor resigned, making him the fourth top official at the agency to step down since the scandal broke – though Sartor says in his resignation letter that the "tipping point in motivating me to retire from public service now" was actually his grandson's 13th birthday party.

Of course, of course. 

Ciao, Savoia On Smith

My go-to at Savoia was the Diavola Pizza with hot soppressata and kalamata olives.  Another neighborhood fixture gone.

Savoia On Smith Street Closed For Good

Savoia, the Italian eatery and wine bar at 277-279 Smith Street has called it quits. Despite a note in the window indicating that the restaurant was "closed today", the signs have been up for more than two weeks now and a neighboring business owner confirmed that the space is now for rent. Inside the restaurant, all the chairs have been stacked up and equipment has been moved to the front.

http://pardonmeforasking.blogspot.com/2014/04/savoia-on-smith-street-closed-for-good.html

Fourth of July Fireworks Will Return to East River This Summer

Well this is excellent news.  After five years, fireworks will return to the East River.  Everything's coming up Brooklyn.  Senator Squadron snet out an email this morning:

Later today I'll officially announce, along with Mayor de Blasio and my colleagues, that Macy's 4th of July fireworks show will finally be moved back to the East River. 

This has been a long time coming. The last time Macy’s held its fireworks show on the East River was in 2008. In 2009 it was moved to the Hudson to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage; it has stayed there since, for New Jersey to enjoy -- until now.

Aaron Reilly, 1976-2014

If you're wondering about the light posting this week, I lost my only brother this Saturday long before his time.  Down the road a bit I might have something more to say about the circumstances.  For now, I'll just say he was an extremely talented guy that had some demons to contend with.  He left behind some beautiful children.  He was funny, handsome, charming, intelligent, a gifted athlete, a hard worker, gifted with his hands.  He was fearless of physical harm to the point of recklessness; I have a picture of him holding a six foot Timber Rattler that he caught with his bare hands.  I personally witnessed him save a man's life after a truck wreck one cold winter night in New Gretna.  This past Tuesday well over a hundred people gathered to share their memories of Aaron and grieve with his family.

He is sorely missed.

Revisiting The Housing Issue At Brooklyn Bridge Park

Whether or not this effort is successful, it is worthy. Shoehorning those two towers into two small lots at the foot of Pier 6 was never a great plan.

Pols Ask De Blasio to Nix High-Rise Apartments in Brooklyn Bridge Park

"A group of local pols is urging Mayor de Blasio find an alternative way to finance Brooklyn Bridge Park — one that doesn't include building two more high rise towers at Pier 6. They wrote a letter to the mayor on April 7, expressing their opposition to the "breakneck speed" of housing construction at Pier 6 and asked the new administration to "work collaboratively on alternative park financing, rather than moving forward with the Bloomberg plan," The New York Times reported. State Senator Daniel Squadron, State Assemblywoman Joan Millman, U.S. Representative Nydia Velázquez, and City Council members Steve Levin and Brad Lander all signed the letter."

That Smoke Smell Is Coming From A Fire In The Pine Barrens

I grew up in the Pine Barrens, which do not look at all like they were depicted on the Sopranos.  And it's a forest fire in my old stomping grounds that you are smelling this morning  all over town.  The smell was strong in Carroll Gardens this morning, but I even smelled it in midtown.

Wharton, New Jersey's largest single tract of land within the state's park system, is in Hammonton, located about 75 miles from Staten Island's Tottenville sectionand is sandwiched between Atlantic City and Philadelphia.

The fire, which can be seen for miles, has burned more than 1,500 acres, or about 2 square miles, along Batsto Road in Wharton State Forest, according to the Associated Press.

Smoke could be seen for miles, said NBC 10 Philadelphia. Crews dropped water on the fire from airplanes and used backfires to contain the fire, and the fire did not threaten structures or people, the report noted, adding how the fire started is under investigation.

I try to get out, but they keep pulling me back in.

The cycle of a pine barren ecosystem involves periodic forest fires.  Those scrub pines can go up like torches; they're designed for it.  I hope they get this under control, because once these get going they can turn into massive conflagrations.

Feds Conducting Bridgegate Grand Jury

Grand juries, of course, investigate criminal matters.  I'm not sure what if any charges this will yield, but I am certain that Chris Christie's political career is over.

In January, the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey confirmed that it was looking into the lane closures, which caused a multi-day traffic jam in Fort Lee, N.J. in September. But as ABC News reports, the existence of the grand jury confirms that the matter has evolved into a criminal investigation. Last week, a legal team representing Christie's office released a report claiming the governor had no role in the closures, and pinning blame for the plot on two former Christie allies: former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive David Wildstein and former Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly.

And really, to hell with the New Jersey Democratic Party power brokers who stabbed Barbara Buono in the back and helped Christie get re-elected.  

Parking Policy Madness

In our neighborhood, or at least our community board, people tend to be at least slightly better than described below.  But there is still an unhealthy and counterproductive tendency to demand parking in new projects.

Do The Maths

But parking is an issue that just makes people stupid. I realized this when it was apparent that local developers had an easier time getting neighborhood approval for projects if those projects included street facing garages because of parking concerns. Realize that street facing garages remove one public parking spot and replace it with a private one. If you're concerned about your ability to find a parking space, this is unequivocally a negative. But those concerned with parking were happy that these developments "provided" parking...by taking away public parking. And, yes, the width of one Philly rowhouse is basically one parking space.

Crony Capitalism, Corporate Welfare and Awful Foreign Policy

But I repeat myself.  USAID, the CIA, the NSA, even the State Dept. and the military are contracting out to all sorts of mercenary private contractors.  I've already complained about the foolish idiocy of our wasteful cloak and dagger operations.   But this is also the worst sort of corporate welfare.

An eye-catching A.P. story, published Thursday, revealed that, in 2010, the United States Agency for International Development (U.S.A.I.D.) covertly deployed a social-media program in Cuba in the hope of bringing about a Cuban Spring. The network, called ZunZuneo, was offered to Cubans via the country’s mobile-phone network as a free text service, and attracted forty thousand subscribers before mysteriously ending operations in 2012. The contractors who ran the program are said to have concealed its U.S.-government origins via an offshore system of front companies and foreign servers, and to have collected data on subscribers’ “political tendencies” and “receptiveness,” among other useful information. The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, declared that ZunZuneo was a “neither covert nor an intelligence program,” preferring instead to call it a “discreet” form of humanitarian assistance to Cubans who lived in a “non-permissive environment.” This kind of bald-faced disingenuousness is risible. Whatever it is labelled, there seems to be little doubt that ZunZuneo functioned as a secret intelligence operation aimed ultimately at subversion. The A.P. reported that one of the aims of the program was to help foster a resistance that could stage “smart mobs” to protest Castro’s rule. That U.S.A.I.D. is now being used for such purposes is not in itself a surprising thing, nor even necessarily a breach of its charter. U.S.A.I.D. was conceived during the Kennedy Administration as a civic-action bolster to the C.I.A.’s underground activities abroad, and in the intervening years some U.S.A.I.D. programs have kept one foot in the shadows. Alan Gross, a U.S.A.I.D. subcontractor who brought in network-communications equipment for political dissidents, has been in jail in Cuba since 2009.

Why can't our corporate welfare be spent on building real, useful infrastructure here at home?  If we're giving out money, why do we insist on giving it to belligerent idiots and foreign policy charlatans?

More On Participatory Budgeting - Vote!

There are more participatory budgeting events going on then just the 39th District.  Street safety advocate Dave "paco" Abraham from our neighboring Cobble Hill Association has provided a helpful compendium of South Brooklyn* Participatory Budgeting proposals that focus on street safety:

This is the big weekend for Participatory Budgeting.  http://pbnyc.org/

It's your chance to weigh in on how select City Councilpersons spend $1 million of City funds in various neighborhoods. A number of Brooklyn City Council members are participating so read through the links below and if you live in one of these districts, be sure to vote either Saturday or Sunday. (Any district resident can vote, ages 16 and up.)

There are many worthwhile projects, and when it comes to safer streets these stand out to me... but obviously read the full list for each district & judge for yourselves.

City Council District 33 - STEPHEN LEVIN

(BK Heights, Dumbo, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Boerum Hill, North Park Slope)

http://stephenlevin33.tumblr.com/pb2014projects

Notable safer streets items include 

- Greenway Sidewalk Reconstruction

- Independence Community Plaza Reopening

City Council District 38 - CARLOS MENCHACA

(Greenwood Heights, Red Hook, Sunset Park, Windsor Terrace)

http://pbnyc.org/sites/default/files/Ballot2014-DISTRICT38en-Mar-20-0543pm.pdf

Notable safer streets items include 

- Electronic “Bus Location” Signs at B61 Stops

- Pedestrian Safety: Sidewalk Extensions

- Street Improvements and Resurfacing of Roads in CB7

City Council District 39 - BRAD LANDER

(Columbia Waterfront, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington, Borough Park) 

http://bradlander.com/2014-participatory-budgeting-ballot

Notable safer streets items include 

- Pedestrian Safety on McDonald Ave at Ft Hamilton

- Street Safety Improvements on 4th Ave, 8-18th Sts
- 12 Electronic “Bus Location” Signs at B67/69 Stops

City Council District 44 - DAVID GREENFIELD

(Borough Park, Midwood and Bensonhurst)

http://pbnyc.org/sites/default/files/Ballot2014-DISTRICT44en-Mar-20-0543pm.pdf

Notable safer streets items include 

- Resurface the worst streets in Borough Park

- Resurface the worst streets in Bensonhurst

- Resurface the worst streets in Midwood

City Council District 45 - JUMAANE WILLIAMS

(Flatbush, East Flatbush, Flatlands, parts of Midwood and Canarsie)

http://pbnyc.org/sites/default/files/Ballot2014-DISTRICT45en-Mar-20-0527pm.pdf

* Pretty much everything west of the Gowanus Canal and south of Atlantic Avenue was South Brooklyn/Red Hook, per our departed neighbor Celia Cacace, who did not put much stock in our current neighborhood labels.

Hoping For Once It's Not Projection

Considering how often the the rightwingers project their own id onto liberals, it actually is pretty scary when people with power and bottomless pockets regularly go to the Godwin well.

Equivalences

But wait, there's more. What I've been hearing from Koch defenders is that people like me have no standing to ridicule billionaires. You see, I sometimes say sarcastic things about the arguments of people who disagree with me, and even question their motives when they say things I consider obviously wrong. And that's just like comparing such people to Hitler. The thing is, I don't think the crybaby thing is an act, put on for strategic purposes. I think it's real. Billionaires really are feeling vulnerable despite their wealth and power, or perhaps because of it. And the apparatchiks serving the .01 percent are deeply insecure, culturally and intellectually, so that ridicule cuts deep. It's kind of sad, really – but also more than a bit scary: When great power goes along with fragile egos, seriously bad things can happen.

Though I think supporters of Franco or Pinochet is the more apt historical analog.

Participatory Budgeting Is Here - Vote!

Councilmember Brad Lander has sent out a reminder that this year's Participatory Budgeting voting round is upon us.  We'll be voting at the library on Saturday, and I hope you'll join us this weekend.  Take a look at the items on the ballot this year at Brad's website - there are brief video clips for each of the proposals.

Vote Dates

Saturday, April 6, 10 AM - 7 PM

Carroll Gardens Library
396 Clinton St (at Union St)

PS 230 Lower School
425 McDonald Ave
(between Church Ave & Albemarle Rd)

Old Stone House
336 3rd St (Washington Park)

Sunday, April 7, 10 AM - 5 PM

Beth Jacob Day Care 
1363 46th St (at 14th Ave)

Kings Bay Y at Windsor Terrace1224 Prospect Ave
(at Vanderbilt St)

Park Slope Armory YMCA
361 15th Street
(between 7th and 8th Ave)

Carroll Park House
Carroll St and Smith St

We've got a million bucks to allocate.  Here are some of the proposed uses:

• Repair and repave the cracked and unusable basketball court at Ennis Playground as a first step toward a renovated park - $250,000
• Repair and resurface pathways that flood and are covered in mud: Endale Arch, East side of Lake, and Villa parking lot - $215,000
• Install security cameras in each of the District's four police precincts, especially near Prospect Park - $200,000
• Pedestrian Safety on McDonald Ave at Ft Hamilton; Expanded sidewalks will shorten crossing distances, reduce speeding, and improve safety for pedestrians - $300,000
• Improve safety, reduce speeds, and green 4th Ave between 8-18th Streets with raised medians, plantings, benches and more - $300,000
• Install 12 electronic signs at busy B67/69 stops that tell riders the location and arrival time of their bus - $240,000
• A media van so Rooftop Films can strengthen community and school partnerships and show over 50 public screenings per year - $45,000
• Beautify John Jay Educational Campus building's exterior with benches and plantings, making sidewalk more welcoming for the whole community - $150,000
• Enable tech access across diverse communities: laptop carts for 3rd-5th graders at PS 130, 321 & PS 230's ELL adult program - $195,000
• 24 smartboards for PS29 and 131 will improve tech access and move classrooms into the 21st century - $140,000
• Industrial shredder and shed to enhance Gowanus composting center; will process food scraps, leaves, trees, lunch trays - $105,000
• A green roof for Windsor Terrace Library that will reduce energy use, limit stormwater run-off, improve air quality, add wildlife habitat & beautify - $250,000
• Solar panels on firehouse to capture clean solar energy to meet hot water needs of firefighters and make firehouse more resilient to extreme weather - $140,000

Sadly my CitiBike station for Smith Street suggestion didn't make the cut for PB, but there's more than one way to skin a cat.

The Ahistoricity and Hypocrisy of American Conservatives

Modern conservatives really are a marvel to watch. They combine the wisdom of Ron Burgundy with the self-awareness of Michael Scott.

Public-Private Poutrage

So it shouldn't be surprising that conservatives' perception of their ongoing defeat in the culture wars is exactly the opposite of reality on every level too. But that doesn't mean we can't laugh at the ahistorical ranting. Cue the Powertools, lamenting the resignation of erstwhile Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich: "So the liberals claim another scalp. This is something new in our history, as far as I know. Until now, private citizens could hold whatever political beliefs they wanted, and support political causes as they chose."  Ever heard of the McCarthy hearings? Where a wingnut senator persecuted private citizens and destroyed their livelihoods because of their political beliefs? See, when the party of free markets decides to regulate political beliefs, it does so via the government. What happened to Eich is a free market phenomenon. You can make the argument that the companies and developers who balked at the prospect of working with a CEO who thinks gays are icky should have given Eich a chance. But the companies and developers are independent agents who are free to vote with their feet because freedom."

Always with the projection.

Port Authority: End The Silverstein Gravy Train

The low hanging fruit in the get-back-to-basics reform of the Port Authority is to shut off the gushing spigot of money to Larry Silverstein.

Now Mr. Silverstein wants to shake the tree again. In March, as Charles V. Bagli reported in The New York Times, he asked the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to guarantee up to $1.2 billion of his construction loans. The authority’s board could vote on the proposal this month. As chutzpah, this was impressive. As public policy, it was less salutary. Kenneth Lipper is a board member of the Port Authority, a former deputy mayor under Edward I. Koch, an investment banker and a novelist with a keen eye for currents of power, municipal and financial. In an interview on Monday, he described how the board had signed off this winter on a capital plan, carefully assigning priority to rebuilt bridges, a new terminal at La Guardia Airport and — Mr. Lipper’s personal favorite — the rebuilding of that corroding pile of metal and concrete that is the Port Authority bus station in Midtown. No choice was easy. The Port Authority’s bond rating is sterling, which keeps its interest rates low. In the end, its rating is backed by hundreds of millions of toll-paying commuters. Then Mr. Lipper saw the request from Mr. Silverstein. “Am I in ‘Alice in Wonderland’?” he recalled thinking. “I wanted to get a modern bus terminal built and we’re talking about putting $1.2 billion into a private developer, in which he gets the gain and we take the hit? “Is it the role of an agency representing taxpayers and toll payers to speculate in real estate?”

Focus on the core mission, which does not include endless subsidies to Larry Silverstein.

SUNY Taps Brooklyn Health Partners To Run Full-Service Hospital At LICH

Some breaking news on the LICH front from WNYC:

The group would retain LICH as a medium-size hospital with 300 to 400 inpatient beds, and part of the campus would be developed as 1,000 residential apartments, one-third of which would be designated “affordable.” Formal negotiations begin Friday and have 30 days to conclude.

Groups representing the local neighborhood and the doctors and other staff members of LICH greeted the news enthusiastically.

“I am relieved that the bid is going to a full-service hospital and that Brooklyn Health Partners has demonstrated a true commitment in providing medical service to downtown Brooklyn that hopefully includes a smooth transition and very few layoffs,” said Sue Raboy, the coordinator of Patients for LICH. “They took the time to speak with and listen to community members and to familiarize themselves with the neighborhood served by LICH.”

One of the members of the Review Committee, Fred Hyde, said that Tennessee-based Quorum Health Resources, the main financial entity behind Brooklyn Health Partners, has a good reputation.

“They’re the nation’s largest manager of non-profit hospitals,” said Hyde, a former hospital executive who teaches at Columbia University and consults with health care unions. “And while they don’t appear to have any experience in this particular region, they’re very good at what they do.”

I'm not one to count the chickens before they're hatched, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

Friends of Carroll Park Announces Spring Movie Series

Ho boy, some good selections for movies in Carroll Park.

SPRING MOVIE SCREENING SERIES KICKS OFF FRIDAY, MAY 9! 

More than 150 votes were cast to determine the titles of the Carroll Park spring movie series, and we're excited to share the results!

The first three screenings will be family friendly, and we'll wrap up the spring series with a grownups-only night:

Friday, May 9 - "Raiders of the Lost Ark"

Friday, May 16 - "Mars Attacks"

Friday, May 23 - "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

Friday, May 30 - "True Romance"

The rain date for each of the Friday night movies will be the following night. Permits are pending for all events.

And a plug for the delightful group that makes it happen - their monthly meeting is tonight:

Friends of Carroll Park is an all-volunteer group which maintains all of the park's gardens, coordinates dozens of annual events and activities, liaises with the Department of Parks and Recreation and NYPD to help keep maintenance and infrastructure problems at bay, and facilitates use of the park space by other groups and companies.  

We're always in need of reliable volunteers for everything from gardening, painting, and repairs to event planning and general assistance. If you'd like to get involved in any fashion, we'd love to have you on board! Join us at our monthly meetings the first Thursday of each month at 7:30 p.m. in the Robert Acito Park House or send us a note at friendsofcarrollpark@yahoo.com.