Time To Send Tony Avella To The Political Trash Heap

I have nothing but disdain for the the Independent Democratic Caucus, the group of breakaway Dems that governed with Republicans and helped Governor Cuomo with much of his pro-Wall Street, pro-education reform agenda.

The member of the IDC I have the most disdain for is Tony Avella, the "maverick" who stuck the knife into his fellow Dems earlier this year when he joined the IDC, allegedly because he felt the Democratic caucus was "dysfunctional" and he wanted to be able to pass legislature as part of the governing majority.

Avella was full of shit, of course - he had simply been paid off to join the IDC and help promote a center-right agenda.

Since the time of Avella's defection, Governor Cuomo was forced to agree to help Dems retake the State Senate as part of the deal that got him the Working Families Party endorsement, an agreement that is supposed to render the IDC non-operative, since a Dem-run State Senate would have no place for the breakaway IDC.

Too bad for Avella - it is starting to look like Avella joined the IDC at exactly the wrong time in its history.

We'll see if Dems actually retake the Senate and, if so, the members of the IDC actually rejoin the Democratic Party rather than continue to govern as Republicans.

In any case, Tony Avella's now whining because John Liu is targeting him in a primary:

In February, Mr. Avella joined a five-member group of breakaway Democrats that has shared control of the Senate with Republicans. By June, Senator Jeffrey D. Klein of the Bronx, the leader of those Democrats, who is also facing a primary challenge, ended that power-sharing arrangement by agreeing to reunite his coalition with fellow Democrats after the fall general election.

But depending on how the elections turn out, in September and November, some suspect Mr. Klein might make more political moves, particularly if he trounces his primary opponent, G. Oliver Koppell, or if the Republicans gain strength in the narrowly divided chamber.

“If the Democrats keep the same number of seats that they have now, which is one more than a majority, I think there will be that agreement,” State Assemblyman David I. Weprin said of Mr. Klein’s promises as he campaigned last week with Mr. Liu. “If for some reason the Republicans pick up a seat or two, all bets could be off.”  

Still, Mr. Avella wonders why Mr. Liu did not drop his challenge. “His whole issue with running was, I joined the I.D.C.,” Mr. Avella said, referring to the breakaway Independent Democratic Conference. “If the whole Liu candidacy was about the I.D.C., well, we’re going back.” 

... 

Mr. Avella called it “a disgrace” that the party bosses were trying to disenfranchise his campaign. He joined with Mr. Klein, he said, because the “Democratic conference was dysfunctional.” The conservative Democrats in the Senate made cohesion on liberal issues difficult, and votes elusive, Mr. Avella continued. Come January, he said, Mr. Klein’s agreement to join his Democratic colleagues is solid.

For their part, some Democrats in the district think Avella is "paying the price" for his disloyalty:

Representative Joseph Crowley, the leader of the Queens Democratic organization, said it was too late to turn back the forces lined up for Mr. Liu. He said Mr. Avella’s “empowerment of the Republican caucus” in the chamber was a betrayal because the party had backed Mr. Avella so strongly.

He predicts a close race, but said he believed Mr. Avella “will pay a price” among voters in the Democratic base for defecting.

Liu has more money than Avella but Avella has "roots" in the district.

I haven't seen any polling on the race but I'll take Joseph Crowley at his word that he thinks it will be close.

I do hope John Liu beats Tony Avella and sends him - and his expedient political career - to the trash heap.

Few pols running in this cycle deserve to be thrown in the trash heap more than Avella.

Christie Plans To Use Government Employee Pensions To Distract From BridgeGate Scandal

Because when all else fails, bash the government workers and their pensions:

It sounds counterintuitive: A Republican governor entangled in an imbroglio over his combative style girding for an ugly spat with government workers and their Democratic allies over New Jersey’s unfunded pension costs. 

But this is a Classic Christie Clash — a fight on behalf of forgotten taxpayers, challenging sacred cows, venturing where predecessors dared not go. (After outlining a painful solution to the $52 billion deficit, he said, “That’s not the typical thing you hear from a politician, right?”) 

No matter the outcome, the conflict is a proven winner with an immediate upside: It changes the conversation. Suddenly, New Jersey Democrats are talking about how to pay for public worker retirement benefits as often as lane closings at the George Washington Bridge.

“This is the better storm to deal with then the one he is dealing with now,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “It’s trying to gain control of both the agenda and the message, something he has always been able to do over his first four years and hasn’t over the past few months.”

And who didn't fund the government employee pensions?

Oh, right - the state of New Jersey's politicians, including Chris Christie.

But no matter, because as we have seen time and time again in this country, the only business deal that is not sacrosanct to Republicans, Democrats and the courts are the contracts unionized employees agree to work.

Here's hoping the evidence continues to tighten around Christie and it gets him before he gets your pension.

NY Post Uses De Blasio's Father's Suicide Against Him

We know from the hacking scandal that ended up with Rupert Murdoch's News of the World closed and dozens of Murdoch journalists from the NOTW and The Sun facing criminal charges for hacking, bribery and conspiracy that ethics is not a strong suit in the Murdoch Empire.

Murdoch's Post has been hammering Bill de Blasio for a few weeks now, calling him a commie pink, Sandanista-loving Marxist and all sorts of other things, but today, they really hit bottom.

Today, they used de Blasio's father's suicide against him:

Thatcher Funeral To Be Privatized

With the news of former British Prime Minister Margaret 'Let The Rich Get Richer" Thatcher's death today comes this:

Well said, Ken.

Morrissey responded to the news with a letter:

Every move she made was charged by negativity; she destroyed the British manufacturing industry, she hated the miners, she hated the arts, she hated the Irish Freedom Fighters and allowed them to die, she hated the English poor and did nothing at all to help them, she hated Greenpeace and environmental protectionists, she was the only European political leader who opposed a ban on the ivory trade, she had no wit and no warmth and even her own cabinet booted her out. She gave the order to blow up The Belgrano even though it was outside of the Malvinas Exclusion Zone—and was sailing AWAY from the islands! When the young Argentinean boys aboard The Belgrano had suffered a most appalling and unjust death, Thatcher gave the thumbs-up sign for the British press.

Iron? No. Barbaric? Yes. She hated feminists even though it was largely due to the progression of the women's movement that the British people allowed themselves to accept that a prime minister could actually be female. But because of Thatcher, there will never again be another woman in power in British politics, and rather than opening that particular door for other women, she closed it.

Thatcher will only be fondly remembered by sentimentalists who did not suffer under her leadership, but the majority of British working people have forgotten her already, and the people of Argentina will be celebrating her death. As a matter of recorded fact, Thatcher was a terror without an atom of humanity.

And some in Britain responded like this:

Me, all I can say is, the universe sure does have a sense of humor.

Here Thatcher lived to 87 and Kissinger is still kicking around in his wheelchair on the Upper East Side but Joe Strummer died at 50.

I know lots of people are playing The English Beat and Morrissey to mark her passing.

I'm going to play Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash

Backlash Against Bloomberg NRA Comment Grows

From the NY Times:

Of all the polarizing things Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has said and done over the years, from banning large sugary drinks to supporting congestion pricing, few have generated the sort of viral backlash that has unexpectedly mounted after his weekly radio show on Friday. 

The mayor had embarked on a lengthy stream of consciousness on the need to negotiate a new teacher evaluation plan with the United Federation of Teachers. Toward the end, Mr. Bloomberg, almost as an aside, likened the teachers’ union to groups like the National Rifle Association and others in which he said a few leaders were out of sync with large numbers of rank-and-file members. 

“It’s typical of Congress, it’s typical of unions, it’s typical of companies, I guess, where a small group is really carrying the ball and the others aren’t necessarily in agreement,” Mr. Bloomberg said to the program host, John Gambling. “The N.R.A. is another place where the membership, if you do the polling, doesn’t agree with the leadership.” 

The comparison drew somewhat of a muted response. Michael Mulgrew, the president of the union, issued a one-sentence statement later on Friday saying the remark was “completely inappropriate” and indicative of the continuing difficulty in the union’s relationship with the mayor

But by Sunday, 70 people had signed a letter by the union to the mayor, which said the union was among the first to give counseling and other help to those in Newtown, Conn., after the school shootings there on Dec. 14. 

Among those who signed the letter were most of the presumptive Democratic mayoral candidates. Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, had not signed it as of Sunday evening, but her aides said she intended to. 

And on Monday, the union was scheduled to hold a news conference to underscore its outrage and to demand that the mayor apologize. 

This was not the first time Mr. Bloomberg had invoked the National Rifle Association when registering his frustration with the city teachers’ union and others. He voiced similar opinions at a news conference in 2007, in the face of resistance to part of his educational agenda at the time. 

“As the mayor has said before, the union is a special-interest group focused on advancing its agenda, whether it’s in the public interest or not,” Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson said in a statement on Sunday. “Their refusal to agree to a fair evaluation deal is just the latest example of this.”

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers and the former president of its New York City affiliate, wrote a separate letter to the mayor, noting that two of the adults killed in Connecticut were members of her union. She said that despite Mr. Bloomberg’s “great work” on gun safety, he owed the city teachers and its union leaders an apology “for making such incendiary and insensitive remarks — especially coming on the heels of the tragedy in Newtown.”

Couple of things here:

Howard Wolfson is one of the slimiest people in the planet.

Do you know how you know when Wolfson is bullshitting you?

He's talking or issuing a statement, that's how.

So Wolfson can take his "Teachers are a 'special interest' group looking to promote their own agenda even though it hurts the kids!" comment and shove it deep.

If anybody pursues an agenda contrary to the public interest, it's scum like Wolfson - a political consultant without morals or scruples, a man whose sole political agenda is furthering his employer's agenda and thus furthering his own political career.

In fact, if anybody ought to be compared to an NRA member, it's political gun for hire Wolfson.

Next, Bloomberg won't apologize for this because he's too rich to have to apologize for anything.

He's like the Fonz on Happy Days - he just can't say when he's w-r-r-r-r-rong...

That neither Bloomberg nor Wolfson have the capacity to apologize for the slur comparing teachers to NRA members, especially after Newtown, just goes to show you what awful people they are.

Why Try And Help Somebody When They're About To Die When You Can Take Their Picture Instead?

Could the NY Post photographer who took the photo of this man about to be run over by a subway train have helped pull this man to safety?

The Post reporter said he did all he could by taking photos of the incident in hopes that the flashes would alert the driver of the subway train to stop.

That's the absolutely lamest excuse I have ever heard for why he took photos of a guy about to be run over by a train rather than running to the guy and trying to pull him to safety.

Of course the Post ran the photo on the cover of their rag this morning.

Why let a good death photo go to waste?

The people who work for Rupert Murdoch are some of the scummiest fucking people on the planet.