Democratic Primary Endorsements!

If it's a year that ends in a number, we have democratic primaries (September 9th is our second one of 2014!).  One of these was easy.   The other was a harder choice, but a choice still must be made.

Governor/Lt. Governor:  Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu

This was the easy choice.  Governor Cuomo has had plenty of opportunity to embrace the leftward shift of the Democratic party and has not.  He is ultimately responsible for the SUNY's outrageous bad faith behavior and mismanagement of Long Island College Hospital.  We might still have a full hospital if we had a negotiating partner in Albany.  Unfortunately, Cuomo stood by while his appointees repeatedly acted in bad faith over the course of 2013 and 2014.  Cuomo has repeatedly raided dedicated transit funds to artificially depress marginal income tax rates.  He summarily stripped transit provisions from the Tappan Zee Bridge after years of work . . . and has attempted to raid environmental cleanup funds to help pay for it.  Cuomo single-handedly killed the millionaire's tax that would have provided reliable funding for universal pre-k . . . while embracing elements of the charter school "movement" that seek to undermine public education and destroy teacher's unions.  His decision not to hold special elections has left many Brooklynites without representation in Albany.

I'm willing to take a chance that two very, very smart professors can do better.  At the very least, Governor Cuomo needs a wake-up call from Democrats in NYC.  I'll be voting Teachout-Wu on Tuesday.

Assembly District 52:  Pete Sikora

This was the tougher choice, as we have two well-qualified candidates for the position, and I've known both candidates for at least six years.  I was as surprised as anyone when Joan Millman's retirement was announced just a few months ago, and I assumed I would support Jo Anne Simon, who announced her candidacy almost immediately.  But then another friend, Pete Sikora, announced his candidacy.  I decided to sit out the campaign as best I could for the summer, and I told both candidates that was my intention.

But there comes a time when you actually have to pull the lever, and that time is almost upon us.  I've been following the campaign, of course, and over time Pete has persuaded me that he is the best candidate for the job.  I first met Pete when we were both working to elect progressive candidates in 2008 and I was impressed by his energetic and engaging approach to voters.  I was even more impressed by Pete's creative efforts to persuade a recalcitrant Cuomo administration to keep our hospital open.  As it turns out, Cuomo and his SUNY people had no interest in working with anybody.  But a lot of people worked very hard to make him see the light, and Pete in particular played a central role in that effort.  Pete has an extensive history as an advocate for progressive causes and after a couple of good conversations on transportation and economic issues, I am convinced Pete is the best candidate for the job.  Pete Sikora is someone who will make waves in Albany, and  I will be casting my vote for him on Tuesday.

St. Patrick's Day Parade Enters 21st Century Next Year

Better late than never!  Excellent news and kudos to Mayor de Blasio and the city council for doing the right thing.   It looks like Guinness and NBC added pressure after the pols took a stand this year, and in a couple of years even the opponents will wonder why the hell gays were ever excluded in the first place.

Since 1762, the Irish in New York have gathered on March 17 to celebrate their heritage and maybe drink some beer. Not welcome in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade down Fifth Avenue, however, were groups identifying as gay, because Catholics aren’t traditionally into that kind of thing. But following Bill de Blasio’s decision to sit out the parade this year — the first mayor to do so in two decades — to protest the organizers’ exclusionary practices, the next parade will finally enter the 21st century, allowing an LGBT group to march. It’s a step forward, sure, but it also appears to be about the money. Isn’t it always?

It's great day for for everybody, even spittle-flecked outrage machine Bill Donohue.

More Street Carnage Yesterday

A woman had her legs crushed on Court Street at Atlantic yesterdsay:

A livery cab driver jumped a curb and smashed into a woman on the sidewalk before careening into the side of a Court Street building on Tuesday afternoon, according to police and an eyewitness.

The cabbie was heading down Court Street towards Carroll Gardens at 12:46 pm and was attempting to turn right onto Atlantic Avenue when he hopped the curb and took out a light pole, then slammed into the 29-year-old pedestrian and, subsequently, a building, cops said. A witness said the victim was “broken from the waist down.”

I'm still not clear on the role of the semi truck; I have seen two different descriptions of the collision: one where the truck struck the cab from the rear, and another where the truck was making a right turn from the left lane (as tractor trailers must do at most intersections) and the black car failed to yield.  I thought everyone knew that you don't ever want to pass a turning truck on the right.  Interestingly enough, there were also two separate tractor-trailer-on-car collisions snarling traffic on the Gowanus yesterday morning.  In each of those cases the tractor and car had collided during an attempted merge or lane change.  It was difficult to tell who was at fault in those crashes.

And this is just mind-boggling:

The unlicensed teen driver who fatally mowed down 4-year-old Ariel Russo while fleeing police last year was busted Sunday for allegedly dragging a cop 100 feet and nearly striking a pedestrian while driving illegally, the Daily News has learned.

Franklin Reyes, 18, was back on the road and once again trying to evade capture in Washington Heights after being stopped at W. 181st St. and Amsterdam Ave. [by] cops, who instructed the defiant accused killer to place the car in park, according to Reyes’ criminal complaint.

NYC is making strides with the Vision Zero program - and there is very clearly a lot more work to be done, both in the area of design and enforcement.  NYPD and TLC have big roles to play, and I hope they will continue to up their game to match the great work that DOT has been doing.  We've got to change the culture of our streets, and it will take a broad inter-disciplinary approach to do it.

NYPD Needs More Training On Basic Civil Rights

I was surprised to see that the mother in this story was someone I had met: Chaumtoli Huq, who as General Counsel for Public Advocate Tish James worked with us on the LICH litigation after the mayoral transition.  If the allegations here are true, whatever happened to Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect?

A mother and former top government lawyer waiting for her husband and kids to use the bathroom at a Times Square restaurant was arrested for blocking the sidewalk, in what she calls an attempt by the NYPD to target her for being Muslim, according to a pending lawsuit.

Chaumtoli Huq, 42, a human rights lawyer and former general counsel for Public Advocate Letitia James, said she had just left a pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square on July 19 with her husband and two young children when they stopped to use the bathroom at Ruby Tuesday at 41st Street and Seventh Avenue.

I personally know a lot of police officers who are consummate professionals.  But as we've seen repeatedly in NYC and elsewhere, especially with various types of 1st Amendment activities (see, e.g., Occupy, 2004 GOP Convention, 2003 Iraq War protest) there are also some who like to throw their weight around.  And that is not acceptable.

Imbeciles on Dirt Bikes Jam Up Can Wyck

The two guys they caught are 30 and 39.  Grow up, people.

ATV & Dirt Bike Riders Wreak Havoc In Queens

"The NYPD seized five more ATVs and dirt bikes off the city's streets after a group of bikers flooded the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens, driving against the flow of traffic and jumping onto the median. Police received reports of unruly bikers on the expressway near Hillside Avenue yesterday at around 5 p.m. According to an NYPD release, officers saw the rider of a blue Yamaha ATV drive against the flow of traffic down an exit ramp, until he was forced to stop after being confronted with a wall of vehicles who had stopped to avoid hitting him."

http://gothamist.com/2014/08/31/nypd_seizes_more_atvs_dirt_bikes_in.php

And don't sell the damn things at auction.  Drill the engines and scrap them.

The King of Unintentional Comedy

Peter King is a clown. Yet as long as Iowa's Steve King remains, he's not the stupidest guy named King in Congress.

Eternally Outraged Congressman Not Trying to Be 'Trivial,' But Doesn't Think Obama's Tan Suit Was Appropriate

"President Obama's ugly beige suit has quickly gone from stupid joke — "The president stands squarely behind the decision he made yesterday to wear his summer suit," the White House press secretary said today — to stupid faux controversy thanks to who else but Long Island Republican Representative Peter King. "There's no way, I don't think, any of us can excuse what the president did yesterday. I mean, you have the world watching," said King on right-wing internet TV today."

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/08/peter-king-outraged-over-obamas-tan-suit.html

Bless his heart.

Saint Ronnie, Patron of Domestic Spying and Foreign Skullduggery

The cult of Reagan worship is creepy (see Noonan, Peggy) and for many, rooted in profound ignorance of what Reagan actually did.  The guy was actually a terrible president with awful policies in pretty much every category.

Ronald Reagan issued Executive Order 12333 in 1981, reversing the Carter and Ford reforms of government surveillance (sparked by the Church Commission, convened in the wake of Nixon's wiretapping scandal); GWB expanded it twice more, once during each term. This order is the legal cover and excuse deployed internally by spy agencies when they break the law and violate the Constitution. In Ars Technica, Cyrus Farivar tracks down many internal memors, and statements from a wide variety of ex-spies, including the famous NSA whistleblowers Bill Binney and Thomas Drake, to paint a vivid picture of how 12333 is the all-purpose excuse for any kind of funny business. Farivar also notes that Snowden asked several pointed questions about 12333, without getting any kind of satisfactory answers, before he left the NSA, taking many damning documents with him.

http://boingboing.net/2014/08/28/the-secret-oral-history-of-t.html#more-327684

We'll be paying for this actor's cowboy ways for decades more to come.