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As part of their fare hikes, the MTA wants to double the price for Access-a-Ride, from $2 to $4.

People with disabilities already face many challenges, including a generally lower ability to earn a living. The MTA wants to hit them harder than everyone else with the new fare hikes.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, joined by other elected officials and advocates, will call on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to withdraw a proposal to double the current $2 fare for Access-A-Ride service for riders with disabilities as part of its budget for the next fiscal year, charging that the increase will be an increased burden on the most vulnerable riders, while producing minimal additional resources for the MTA budget.

WHERE:
Broadway and West 72nd Street
Outside the 1/2/3 Subway Station

WHEN:
SATURDAY, November 22, 2008
12 Noon

File this under stupid: the Bush admin wants to move the FDIC out of Lower Manhattan.

New York, NY: Elected officials will gather at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) regional office in Lower Manhattan on Sunday to protest the agency’s proposed move away from the Financial District, a move that would undermine our nation’s financial center, further erode investor confidence in the financial industry and unnecessarily increase the FDIC’s operating costs at a time of depositor need.

WHERE: Outside FDIC headquarters, 20 Exchange Place (east of William St.)

How about they, like, fixing the freaking economy instead of moving? Priorities, anyone?

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There are still the usual caveats, but apparently, Senator Clinton has decided to serve in President Obama's cabinet as Secretary of State.

Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to give up her Senate seat and accept the position of secretary of state, making her the public face around the world for the administration of the man who beat her for the Democratic presidential nomination, two confidants said Friday.[...]

Mrs. Clinton came to her decision after additional discussion with President-elect Barack Obama about the nature of her role and his plans for foreign policy, said one of the confidants, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the situation.

Mr. Obama’s office told reporters on Thursday that the nomination is “on track” but this is the first word from the Clinton camp that she has decided.

“She’s ready,” the confidant said, adding that Mrs. Clinton was reassured after talking again with Mr. Obama because their first meeting in Chicago last week “was so general.” The purpose of the follow-up talk, he noted, was not to extract particular concessions but “just getting comfortable” with the idea of working together.

All right, all you Clinton-haters: get control over yourselves.

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The Develop, Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) website lists, just in time for the holidays, all the businesses that have been supportive of their efforts to preserve Brooklyn. Here's that list below:

RESTAURANTS AND BARS:

7th Avenue Donuts Luncheonette (Park Slope)
Diner fare and fresh baked donuts.
324 Seventh Avenue (between Eighth and Ninth Street)
(718) 768-0748

Al Di La Trattoria (Park Slope)
Park Slope’s perpetually packed, widely-acclaimed Venetian institution.
248 Fifth Avenue (Near Carroll Street)
(718) 852-1572
www.aldilatrattoria.com
(I can personally vouch for this one. Absolutely excellent! The sage butter gnocchi and the saltamboca (sp?) are among the best as is their frozen cappuccino).

Antonio's Pizzeria (Park Slope)
Pizza since 1950.
318 Flatbush Avenue (between Park & Sterling Place)
(718) 398-2300

Bacchus Bistro (Boerum Hill/Cobble Hill)
French bistro.
409 Atlantic Avenue (between Bond & Nevins Street)
(718) 852-1572
www.bacchusbistro.com

Beast Bar (Prospect Heights)
A unique take on Spanish tapas, and bar.
638 Bergen Street (at Vanderbilt Avenue)
(718) 399-6855

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As you may have heard, Attorney General Mukasey (and New York native) Michael Mukasey collapsed during a speech yesterday. There's video.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

I've resisted writing about the budget crisis for a while, in large part because it's just so god-damned embarrassing. New York is the third-largest state in the union, with a population of nineteen million people, one of the largest economies in the world, a uniquely deep talent pool, and a budget, if you add it all up, of $200 billion. Pretty impressive, all told.

The problem is simply that forecasts suggest that the state will be spending more next year than is expected in revenue - a lot more. We can't borrow that money - there's no money to be borrowed anywhere, nor should the public borrow to meet current expenses. We've done that before, it didn't work out so well. So we need to either raise revenue, cut expenditure, or find some happy balance between the two.

If that seems reasonable and doable - we're talking about a cut of $5 billion out of, as noted, $200 billion - you don't know New York. The unions are already screaming at the top of their lungs that whatever cuts need to be made need to come out of a slice of the pie that is not theirs. The Senate republicans dragged the legislature to Albany, threw a hissy fit, and sent everyone home. Our friends at WFP have an answer as well, and it's the familiar one: raise taxes on millionaires. Meanwhile, Bigoted Shitbag - that's Ruben Diaz to those unfamiliar with the loving nom de guerre - is holding the entire state hostage to his fear that the Democrats may give the queers basic civil rights.

Okay, fine. So cut three billion in spending and raise another three with higher taxes on the moneyed elite. Simple, easy, and everybody feels some pain. Is that going to happen? Probably. But first, we're going to have weeks of dysfunction until the new Senate is seated, and in those weeks, everything is going to get worse.

Exciting, huh?

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At last night's Independent Neighborhood Democrats meeting Assemblywoman Joan Millman gave us a grim outlook for next year's state budget. I hear the same issue was discussed at Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats as well. This comes the same day the MTA forcasts an equally grim picture (but in their case we always have to question the numbers of an agency that keeps two sets of books depending on whether they want to show a surplus or a deficit). And from Governor Paterson we are hearing ideas like raising CUNY and SUNY fees and cutting education and health programs (our biggest outlays).

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ChangeNYC.Org was created to empower New Yorkers. As citizens, we all feel like we’ve been disconnected from our government for too long. That’s why ChangeNYC.Org is taking a strong stand to support a lawsuit brought by civil rights attorney Norman Siegel on behalf of a City Hall blogger and two other online journalists denied press passes by New York City.

We’ve begun an online petition calling on the City to reform its press credentialing system to assert and protect the First Amendment rights of bloggers. Norman Siegel’s lawsuit is so important because our City’s bloggers consistently do a better job of covering their neighborhoods, community issues, and local politics than the mainstream media. New Yorkers depend upon our online media to report the news as they see it, free of corporate bias and control. If our bloggers don’t have access to the halls of government, the people of New York won’t have access to the truth about City politics.

Please sign the petition below and forward it to everyone you know who cares about protecting democracy:

http://www.petitiononline.com/12151791/petition.html

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Maybe it’s time for me to take off the kid gloves again. Maybe it’s time for me to start going after the many mistakes that Barack Obama makes; mistakes which some in mainstream media (and also in alternative media) tend to be lenient about. The campaign is over now, so those of us who didn’t want to negatively impact on his chances for victory can return from that hiatus from objectivity. He won.

I am quite perplexed by the many problems that Barack Obama often seems to create for himself: there is a pattern here. And because the media tends to be relatively lenient it doesn’t mean that he will forever get away from full scrutiny. Many times I have wondered if Obama really understands what he is getting into. Has this always been about raw personal political ambition? Is this about some death-wish for martyrdom? Or is this truly about “change”?

We don’t need just another ordinary American president right now: we don’t. We need an exceptional one: like yesterday. Barack Obama is inspirational, and that’s great; he gives many of us hope, and that too is great; since inspiration and hope often brings outstanding outcomes. But that’s not a given; we have got a long way to go.

Look; to many (myself included); re-cycling ex-officials and workers from the Bill Clinton administration is not quite our idea of change. Floating Hillary Clinton’s name for Secretary of State, when Bill Richardson offers him a chance to appoint the first Hispanic in the role, is nothing short of ludicrous. Especially after the many things the Clintons said about his foreign policy ideas during the primary. How do you square this? Are we still at politics as usual? Is this the change we can believe in? Or is “change” only a word? You know: “just words”? Words that gets you to the White House? And then what: same old same old?

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Since I posted about the possibility of Congressman Vito Lopez a few hours ago, I have gotten bombarded with interesting emails from people with various opinions on the subject (most of whom apparently prefer to comment off the record for fear of retribution).

The most interesting tip I've received concerns a move Vito appears to be orchestrating behind the scenes to clear his path to Nydia Velazquez's Congressional seat. The Optimist's source, who claims to have inside knowledge of the dealings, says that State Senator Carl Kruger of Brooklyn, one of the three remaining members of the now infamous Gang of Three, has abandoned his push for State Senator-elect Pedro Espada Jr. of The Bronx to become Senate Majority Leader and now favors Senator Martin Malavé Dilan of Brooklyn for the job.

While no one seriously thinks right now that Marty Dilan could bypass Minority Leader Malcolm Smith and get elected to the State Senate's top post, the fact that these moves are even being made casts a fascinating light upon Vito's skillful maneuverings. If Dilan became Minority Leader, Vito would be rid of his chief potential rival for Velazquez's seat.

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While the Three Turds are throwing the entire state into disarray with their ad hoc mixture of petty divaness and open blackmail, Dem Leader Smith is moving ahead. Witness this op-ed from the Buffalo News.

As the leader of the incoming majority in the New York State Senate, I want to send a strong, clear message: Senate Democrats are committed to upstate.

Above all else, Senate Democrats are committed to an open door for new ideas and new approaches. We're committed to a bipartisan, nonideological approach that will allow us to combine the best ideas from Democrats and Republicans, business and labor, farmers and manufacturers. And we're committed to delivering results in the form of new jobs, new opportunity and a new day for upstate - and for all of New York, together.

That's just slightly more forward-looking than "hey hey look at me give me what I want now or I'll hold my breath and turn blue", wouldn't you agree?

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Here's an interesting rundown of the polluters in Brooklyn from the Josh Skaller for City Council website. The worst polluters in Brooklyn are (not in order): Con Edison - Hudson Ave Station, Gowanus Generating Station, Kings Plaza Total Energy Plant, American Sugar Refining Inc, Brooklyn Navy Yard Cogeneration Plant. These people are poisoning our air and water. Just a reminder of how bad pollution in Brooklyn can be, let me remind you of what the Gowanus Canal looks like: (two out of five lovely pictures of the canal taken by my wife July 26th, 2008)

See the lovely phase change between the solid slick and the water? Here's what it looked like on the opposite bank:

Yes...that is a glass bottle embedded and suspended by the muck.

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This comes from the American Jewish Committee in regards to the murder of Marcello Lucero on Long Island:

AJC Condemns Hate-Inspired Murder, Calls for Community Action

November 10, 2008 – Jericho, New York – The American Jewish Committee (AJC) Long Island Chapter is outraged by the brutal murder of Marcello Lucero. According to police sources, Lucero and a friend were attacked over the weekend by a group which was looking for a Hispanic to beat up.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the families of the victims, and our concern to our brothers and sisters in the Hispanic community, for whom this vicious crime must be especially painful,” said Caroline Levy, executive director of AJC’s Long Island Chapter. She praised law enforcement for the swift arrests of suspects in the crime.

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The Mormon "church" has been in the news quite a lot lately, due to that organization's successful attack on the civil rights of LGBTQ Americans in California. However, coverage drives more coverage, and now, there's this.

Holocaust survivors to Mormons: Stop baptisms of dead Jews

Holocaust survivors said Monday they are through trying to negotiate with the Mormon church over posthumous baptisms of Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps, saying the church has repeatedly violated a 13-year-old agreement barring the practice.

Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say they are making changes to their massive genealogical database that will make it more difficult for names of Holocaust victims to be entered for posthumous baptism by proxy, a rite that has been a common Mormon practice for more than a century.

But Ernest Michel, honorary chairman of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, said that is not enough. At a news conference in New York City on Monday, he said the church also must "implement a mechanism to undo what you have done."

"Baptism of a Jewish Holocaust victim and then merely removing that name from the database is just not acceptable," said Michel, whose parents died at Auschwitz. He spoke on the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi-incited riots against Jews.

"We ask you to respect us and our Judaism just as we respect your religion," Michel said in a statement released ahead of the news conference. "We ask you to leave our six million Jews, all victims of the Holocaust, alone, they suffered enough."

Is it even possible to do anything more offensive?

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Per The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, filthy sodomites are engaging in bestial marriage acts in the satanic state of Connecticut, aided and abetted by Jesus-hating judges.

Quick, somebody call the Mormons! Can't you just see the hate for Jesus dripping from these fiends?

Back in reality, congratulations to the State of Connecticut, and there specifically to my friends Richard and Ed and Ann and Jemetta, whose enduring partnerships put most straight marriages I'm familiar with - 50% divorce rate, my friends - to shame.

It seems like Al Vann has been around Brooklyn’s politics since George Washington was president of the USA; no joke. In politics, his name has been discussed more times than the daily weather report on any television station. I have been told that over the years he has been a teacher, unionist, political activist and elected official. He was an assembly member in the Albany legislature for 27 years (1974-2001). He won election to the New York city council in 2001. Some of his detractors have suggested that he came here on pre-retirement leave.

I know that there are some good things that Al Vann has done -in terms of public service- and I believe that one of these days a street in Bed-Stuy will be named after him. After all, he has held public office for about 35 years. Fine.

Lew Fidler is a fixture in NYC politics, has been so for years and years. It seems that he has spent a lifetime of heavy involvement in Brooklyn’s politics, especially in the areas of Midwood, Carnarsie and East Flatbush. For a pragmatic politician -as compared to a political idealist- he has done relatively well for himself. His mother was heavily involved in the politics of East Flatbush for eons, and many of his relatives are also stuck deep in the trenches of Brooklyn’s politics. There is nothing wrong with that. There seems to be some family friction but that’s personal stuff and I won’t touch it; not my political business.

Leroy Comrie has been around the city council for the last quarter century or so. Comrie was Archie Spingner’s chief of staff. For many years Spigner was the deputy speaker of that body. Spigner used to represent St. Albans in Queens until he was term-limited in 2001. He was the council member for about two decades. Then Leroy won the seat; so between the two of them, this district has been on Spigner-Comrie lock-down for a very long time.

Look; before I go forward here, let emphatically state that I have total respect for Al Vann, and his fights for black-empowerment, inclusion and respect. I admire and respect his contributions to the politics of this city; but you have got to know when to quit. You have got to know when you have gone past your prime and your usefulness.

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If anyone thinks that last week's crushing, humiliating defeat might have launched a process of self-examination among the defeated and rejected, think again. This is what's on the front page of The New York Times right now.

Democrats Seek Help for Automakers

Lobbyists Swarm the Treasury for Piece of Bailout Pie

Democrats in Congress are saving the collapsing auto industry; republicans at Treasury are throwing your money out the windows for the benefit of lobbyists. It doesn't get clearer than that.

As we asked some days ago, please come out today to protest the hateful and bigoted policies of the Mormon "church".

In the wake of the passage in California of the bigoted Proposition Eight, which took away the right of same-sex couples to marry, an effort bankrolled by the Mormon "church", protests are taking place nationwide.

In New York City, please join our friends and allies outside the Mormon temple on the Upper West Side.

Wednesday, Nov 12, 125 Columbus Ave at 65th Street
6:30pm to 8pm

The Mormon "church", apparently oblivious of its own rather checkered sexual past, has been at the forefront of hateful, ignorant anti-gay bigotry for the last decade. It's time to fight back.

And while you're at it, sign the petition to remove the "church's" tax exempt status here.

Update: It gets better: Mormons are resigning from their church en masse. Join them.

When I found out California and Florida were state's #29 and #30 in the banning of same-sex marriage, I was aghast. Yet what really pissed me off was the fact that the Church of Latter Days Saints alone spent 20 million dollars in pushing for a ban on same-sex "marriage" in California.

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Every year, the nation sets aside a day to remember its veterans. It is altogether fitting and right that we should do this. In a dimming historic echo, we mark this day of remembrance together with our allies in the Great War, which ended ninety years ago today. In France, there will be parades; in London, albeit with a delay caused by tradition, HM The Queen will lay a wreath at Whitehall's bone-white Cenotaph.

But we have wars going on today as well. For all the lip service given those who fought them, the services for the victims of these wars, the survivors, that is, are grotesquely underfunded. That will change once draft-dodger George Bush no longer wields the veto pen and Democrats control the government. Meanwhile, Bush was in town today, re-dedicating the Intrepid; the ship may have to be fumigated come January 20th.

Until then, please show your respect and appreciation of our brace men and women in uniform by giving to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.