Move Over Media Matters, Here Comes Fox News

Whenever I need a laugh, or a reason to throw something at the television/computer monitor (take your pick) I catch a video clip from Fox News. Their latest talking point goes after ABC for committing the unspeakable crime of giving President Obama a platform to talk to the nation about his health care plan. I know, I know, I'm just as outraged as you.

Dems Will Drink Monserrate "Lemonade" While Spilling Out The Espada

State Senator Liz Krueger puts it best when assessing the situation where the Democratic caucus got one of two senators that defected. Monserrate is most certainly a lemon as far as the Democratic party goes but having him around for now keeps Espada's plans at bay, at least for the time being. Between now and the 2010 elections, before Pedro can be defeated at the polls, the caucus has an idea for Republicans to start the business of the Senate up again.

From The Daily Politics:

The Senate Democrats are trying a new tactic in their ongoing war with their Republican colleagues, calling on them to dump Pedro Espada Jr. as temporary president and replace him with somebody else.[...]

So far today, I have received no fewer than three press releases from Senate Democrats - Klein, Liz Krueger and Dave Valesky (they're really covering the spectrum here, both geographically and ideologically) - calling for the Republicans to chuck Espada overboard. (Make that four: Sen. Craig Johnson sent one out, too, so they've got the Island covered).

This is interesting, because it almost seems like the Democrats are acknowledging that Espada is indeed president - why would he need to be bumped if he wasn't actually in the post? Klein rejected that idea, however, insisting state Supreme Court Justice Thomas McNamara's ruling did not address that point.

All the Democrats are saying is that they understand Republicans see Espada as President and if anyone wants to make any progress in negotiating a power-sharing arrangement, then Espada has to be pushed to the back of the GOP bus. Espada is a dangerous individual who has no place in the state senate to begin with, and for him to be so close to the governor's office is a disgrace to our state. Until the voters take care of him next year (or the justice system, whichever comes first) the Republicans had better keep Espada contained.

Another Increase From The Rent Guidelines Board

Summer is upon us (even though it doesn't look like it outside today) and for landlords of rent-stabilized buildings, it is time to salivate over how high the Rent Guidelines Board will raise rents. Of course, the tug of war will consist of the usual, "rents are too high" versus "our expenses are too high so we must have a large increase" and in the end the Board will pick something in the middle of the preliminary numbers. For this year, that means 2 to 4.5% for one year leases and 4 to 7.5% for two year leases.

Gothamist has some more details:

Of course, that doesn't sit well with the tenants. One told NY1, "A year and a half ago I had pneumonia and I was hospitalized due to lack of heat. They do not deserve an increase at all and many many other tenants are going through the same thing." And Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer pointed out that last year's hikes—4.5% for one-year leases, 8.5% for two-year leases—was approved when landlords said energy prices would rise, when in reality they didn't. Stringer said, "So come clean, admit you made a mistake and the reason you freeze the rents is because you rent gauged last year based on a faulty set of assumptions." But landlord Jimmy Silber said, "If people want a rent freeze, let's have a freeze on real estate taxes and water and sewer taxes, plumbing increases and legal increases."

Basically, no matter how much screaming and shouting occurs from either side, there will be an increase of some sort. If people really want to change how this is done, they'll want to get rid of Pedro Espada and his GOP buddies so that the Democratic senate can get back to enacting reforms to help tenants get back rights that Republicans and a few developer-friendly Democrats (like Espada) have been stripping for the past few decades.

Crazy Palin Supporters On Parade

Sarah Palin has accepted Dave's (unnecessary) apology for making jokes about her daughter and A-Rod, but her diehard supporters are still demanding Letterman resign. Cenk Uyugr takes a look at just how loony this bunch was outside of the Ed Sullivan theater this week.

Thompson Should Answer De Blasio's "Excellent Question"

Despite the attention given to the clusterf*&k in Albany, Mayor Bloomberg still gets tons of press and amplifies it with tens of millions in campaign advertising. We all get that he is running for re-election, but is there a race? One smart voter asked that question of City Councilmember and Public Advocate candidate Bill de Blasio. His response is something that actual mayoral candidate Bill Thompson should take to heart.

From PolitickerNY:

De Blasio said it was an “excellent question” before going on to say, “It’s up to us to make sure there is a mayoral race in this city. There is one and we have to regard it as such, we have to talk about it as such."

He goes on to say it’s “irresponsible” to consider the race a forgone conclusion. “There is a deep desire for change among the populace, a lot of frustration with City Hall, tremendous frustration over the economy, obviously” and “a lingering anger over the term-limits decision.”

Of course, Bill is not one to talk about frustration with City Hall and wanting change. Still, it is right that people want change. The only problem is that New Yorkers need to know who can actually provide it. Thompson must get out there if he stands a chance against King Bloomberg.

Wacky Albany Wednesday

As ridiculous as all this early June rain is in NYC, we'd have to see cats and dogs fall from the sky to keep up with Albany's pace of insane batshit craziness. Wednesday was another day of drama and childish behavior run amok on display by our state senate. While the judge has recused himself from resolving Espada, Monserrate (at least for the first few days) and Skelos' coup, the senate has become even more of a pathetic mess. Where the end of this is, nobody knows.

Espada and Skelos have been busy plotting to hold onto their usurpation of power. Needless to say, their idea is going absolutely nowhere as long as there are 31 Democratic senators. The TAP thinks the GOP overplayed their hand and since nothing legislative is being accomplished in the 11 days this has gone on, each day of this stalemate will make those responsible for the coup look even worse in the public's eye.

Newly designated conference leader John Sampson wants to go home instead of wasting the taxpayer's time and money and at least one senator has the guts to say what is really going on. One thing is for sure though, I will definitely not being voting for Pedro next year (and I'll show it on what I wear), and I encourage everyone in the East Bronx to do the same.

Then again, like Espada's former pal Hiram Monserrate, he might be indicted and be put on trial before he even gets a chance to be re-elected. DA Robert Johnson is on the trail and he's collecting evidence. Espada, being the slimy weasel that he is, claims that this is a politically motivated stunt and that because a jury let him go last time, obviously he'll be let go this time. He asked the Inspector General to look into the DA's motives, but even that guy instantly shot him down. Until then though, Espada will talk all kinds of crazy, such as the premise that he can have two votes to break the deadlock. Now that is some fuzzy math.

And now on to Thursday....I wonder if it can top Wednesday? Wait, of course it will, this is Albany folks!

Heuvel Vs. Cantor, Not Even Close

When it comes to health care, or any issue for that matter, smart, strong women like Katrina vanden Heuvel will decimate GOP hacks like Congressman Cantor anytime, any day. Here on MSNBC, she made him look like a fool when discussing the merits of having a public option in the upcoming health care reform legislation.

Pots And Kettles Show Up For NYC Controller Debate

To David Yassky, John Liu, Melinda Katz and David Weprin's credit, at least they showed up to debate each other. Yet since all of them have a chance at winning, it is simply politics 101 that a candidate attend events that gives free public exposure. Yet when as the Daily News points out that all four Controller hopefuls have similar viewpoints, these debates can get ugly, as they did last night.

This exchange about what races they've run for was quite amusing:

"I emphatically see the controller job, not as a steppingstone but an unbelievable opportunity to change city policy," said City Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn).

Councilman John Liu (D-Queens) scoffed that Yassky recently ran for Congress and Brooklyn district attorney.

"Dave, you've got to admit that this is like the fifth office you've run for in a number of years," Liu said.

But Liu was himself a late entry to the controller race after campaigning much of last year for public advocate.

He infuriated fellow Queens Dem David Weprin when he changed races, and Weprin wasn't about to let that slide.

"I just wanted to point out, since Councilman Liu brought it up about Councilman Yassky, that Councilman Liu was actively running for public advocate for a long period of time prior to announcing, only after Mark Green entered the race, that he was now running for controller," Weprin said.

Weprin agreed with Liu that Yassky had run for too many offices.

When Yassky insisted he had never run for district attorney, and had merely considered a run, Weprin said he attended a DA fund-raiser for Yassky.

"I was supporting you!" he said.

The comedy writes itself, but really, it is sad when four elected officials resort to calling each other out on being stereotypical politicians. Most voters are aware they are this way and for the most part, have accepted it. What they should be talking about is how they'll be effective controllers who will stand up to the overpowering office of the mayor. Though according to the Daily Gotham, you can at the very least cross Katz and Yassky off that list. At least Weprin and Liu have some relevant experience. Perhaps they can talk more about it and over the petty accusations of who has the most slime on their record.

More Than Meets The Eye For Education In The City Budget

Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn stood up proudly earlier this week to say that they managed to reduce cuts to education. Heck, they are even keeping libraries open on Saturdays! Yet education advocates are not jumping up and down, because the reality of the situation is that the city's budget is still putting an extreme strain on the public school system. Bloomberg and Quinn can claim that they won't be firing any teachers (in large amounts and most importantly, for the meantime) but there is more to education than that.

From NY1:

"After school programs, art, music, staff are going to be laid off. We don't know the exact numbers, but it could be somewhere between two to 3,000 staff members," said City Councilman and Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson.

A Department of Education spokesperson says no teachers will get laid off, although some teacher vacancies won't be filled.

The department has ordered school principals to cut nearly four percent out of their budgets for next year by this Thursday. But education advocates warn there's little left to cut without affecting the classroom.

"We're cutting into the bone of a system where the majority of kids don't graduate on time," said Geri Palast of Campaign for Fiscal Equity.

Of course we have to acknowledge that these are dire times and the budget deficit has been a hard one to fill with so much Wall Street tax revenue that has gone up in smoke. Yet if we want New York to have a solid future, we need to fix our public school system and not make it solely about passing the standardized tests that Bloomberg loves under his complete control of the system.

Examining The Protests In Iran

The images are inspiring to see, hundreds of thousands of Iranians demanding that their leaders adhere to the rules of democracy. It has to drive the hard line clerics mad. Yet as much as we here in America might want to help the opposition along, all we can do is be supportive from the sidelines and let the situation play itself out all on its own. We've made enough of a mess in Iran in the 20th century, let's not continue it in the 21st.

Pedro Espada: Renters' Public Enemy #1

Millions of New Yorkers better take notice. Renters who were hoping for reform under that new Democratic majority have Senator Pedro Espada to thank for extinguishing all hopes of getting something done this year. Sen. Hiram Monserrate also shares in the blame, but if you have to give top billing to one of them, it would be Espada. Good government groups have been up in arms over his refusal to follow campaign finance laws and now we have a lead on why. The most powerful lobbying group, the real estate industry, has a very good reason to financially support Pedro and it is one he'd rather not talk about.

From The NY Times:

In the weeks before Mr. Espada bolted, Senate Democrats were poised to vote on the most significant expansion of rent regulation and tenant rights in a quarter-century, including legislation that could have cost the owners of the more than one million rent-stabilized apartments in New York City and its suburbs billions of dollars on their investments.

Mr. Espada, as chairman of the Senate Housing Committee, had assured Democratic leaders he would take up the bill, already passed by the Assembly, but repeatedly blocked it, citing technical objections and scheduling issues. Last Monday, after he defected to the Republicans and ascended to the Senate presidency, he announced he was opposed to the legislation.

His move has all but assured that the bill will die this year.

“It’s dead,” Michael McKee, a leading advocate for tenants, declared last week.

Democrats said Mr. Espada’s actions raise questions about whether he received financial support from real estate interests as he contemplated his switch of allegiance to the Republicans. As chairman of the Housing Committee, he would be expected to be a primary beneficiary of contributions from the industry, which is among the most powerful in Albany.

But no one knows how much money he got from them, because Espada shuns his responsibility from the law (I wonder where he learned that one from). All he cares about is himself and how much money he can make, presumably before he gets kicked out of office, but I'm sure there's a lobbying group that'll love to have such a sniveling snake as he.

Now Monserrate presumably has said he's a big champion of vacancy decontrol (an important part of tenant reformers goals) and if he does stick to such a principal, that could be one of the reasons he came back to the Democratic caucus after a week. Yet if he had done five minutes of homework, he would have seen that his "friend" had been stalling rent reforms for the entire session this year. It wouldn't have taken a rocket scientist to figure out Espada wasn't a friend of the renters in his district or any other in the state.

Monserrate will be gone if and when he is convicted of slashing his girlfriend in his face but Espada thus far has not been charged with any crime (though he is being investigated for several). It is Mr. Espada that we must focus on, because his lust for power can do far more damage than I believe Monserrate ever dreamed of doing.

Tortured Detainee Admits He Told Interrogators What They Wanted To Hear

This was last night's news, but it bears repeating. When Dick Cheney or any other torture apologist tries to say that breaking the Geneva Convention helps procure good intelligence, they are lying. Recently released information from the White House adds to the overwhelming evidence that torture does not work, just ask one of the guys they tortured.

From ThinkProgress:

The Bush administration has long justified its use of torture by claiming that it obtained valuable information from torturing 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Late last year, former Vice President Dick Cheney said, “Did it produce the desire results? I think it did.” He explained:

I think, for example, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was the number three man in al Qaeda, the man who planned the attacks of 9/11, provided us with a wealth of information.

But according to documents released by the Obama administration in response to a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, Cheney was lying. Mohammed told U.S. military officials that he gave false information to the CIA after withstanding torture:

“I make up stories,” Mohammed said, describing in broken English an interrogation probably administered by the CIA that concerned the location of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

“Where is he? I don’t know. Then he torture me,” Mohammed said. “Then I said, ‘Yes, he is in this area.’”

Interrogation experts have always maintained that torture does not work, and actually hinders an investigation because of false information being told to make the pain stop. The very fact that we are having this debate is bad enough, but at least the truth can come out that shows people like Dick Cheney, John Yoo, George Bush and the rest of them are full of it when it comes to fighting terrorism with torture.