Please vote on Tuesday Feb 9 at The Nyack Library for Dee O’Hagan for Nyack's Library Board. All registered voters living in the Nyack School District can cast their ballots between 10am and 9pm.
Dee is a South Nyack resident with two young children. I first met her about six years ago when she lived on Aldine Park. I have since found her to be an extremely measured person with a great understanding of children and education.
O'Hagan is currently a librarian at Nyack High School. Thus, she understands the fiscal responsibilities involved in running a library. She would provide a great perspective on how to make cost-effective decisions for the Nyack Library.
Typically the Library Board elections a rubber stamp of the standing board; members run unopposed. But Dee carried a petition, received 41 signatures, enough to get her on the ballot, and tied incumbent Michael Growney with 107 votes in the initial election last month. Tomorrow's vote is a runoff between these two candidates.
I think Dee would make an excellent addition to our library's board. Please take a moment from your day tomorrow and vote for her.
There will also be a library budget vote tomorrow, Tuesday February 9th. Polling is at both the Nyack and Valley Cottage libraries.
Also, there is a requested budget increase of 4.2 percent. This should amount to about $23.14 per year for the average household.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Library Vote in Nyack Tomorrow
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Maddow and Olbermann come to FIOS in NY, NJ
MSNBC is coming to Verizon's FIOS service in Bergen, Rockland and Orange Counties. This is big news for progressives and liberals in the area. FIOS subscribers have either have had to go without the popular news channel, or those wanting to subscribe to FIOS have delayed switching to the fiber-optic cable alternative.
Verizon's FIOS service has not offered MSNBC in much of the NY/NJ Metro area because of a deal it's parent company, NBC struck with Cablevision several years ago. The contract blocked the news channel from appearing on services that compete with Cablevision's Optimum service.
Verizon had filed complaints with the Federal Communications Commission in order to get the network on FIOS. It is not clear whether intervention by the government led to this development. Nor is it clear that this is a result of an agreement betweeen Cablevision, FIOS, and NBC's new corporate parent, Comcast, which is yet another cable television provider.
Progressive stalwarts such as Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, and Ed Schultz can now be watched on channels 103 and 1545 (in high definition). The service on FIOS begins February 2.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Harold Ford, Jr. in his own words: "I am not pro-choice"
Former Tennessee Congressmember Harold Ford Jr. is contemplating a run for Senate to represent New York State. There is no confusion about Ford's anti-choice positions. Don't take our word for it. Listen to his own words from this video.
Thanks to NARAL Pro-Choice New York for providing this video.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
It's time to toss Tim Kaine
The special election to fill Teddy Kennedy's Senate seat was the Democratic Party's to lose. And the Democrats did what they always do best when they ignore their base, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.There's already a lot of finger pointing going on. Martha Coakley is pointing fingers at the party, the party is pointing fingers back. They both share in the blame. That neither Democratic National Chairman Tim Kaine nor Coakley saw this train wreck coming tells us that we had the wrong people at the helm.
Coakley won't be going to the Senate, but Kaine continues to chair the DNC. He's keeping his job, it seems. But I think that Democrats must wake up now and realize that Tim Kaine is no Howard Dean.
The media is having a field day with Kaine's counterpart, Michael Steele. They doubt every move he makes and ridicule every off-the-cuff remark. Steele, in the eyes of the media and many Republicans, is nothing more than a buffoon. I happen to agree. The Republican Party is in trouble: they have no cash, there's dissent within the party, and they continue to partake into wedge-issue politics. The GOP's pick of Dede Scozzafava to run for an open Congressional seat in New York was a blunder of epic proportions. Bill Owens barely winning in that district was not so much a victory for the Democrats as it was a default decision since he ended up with no Republican Party rival.
But Michael Steele, as incompetent as he is, has also won two important gubernatorial elections and one Senate election. Tim Kaine has not won anything for his party. If Michael Steele deserves no credit for the Republican victories in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, then Tim Kaine deserves all the blame. If you can't outmaneuver a fool like Steele and let him take three leadership positions away from your party, what worth are you to your party?
You can't just dismiss these three elections by claiming that one state was leaning conservative, another hated its governor, and the third was hobbled with a bad Democratic candidate. There are no excuses! Just a year ago, the Dems, under Howard Dean, greatly increased its presence in State Houses across the nation, in governor's mansions, in the House and Senate, and it's Presidential candidate won by a landslide. The Democrats were crushing the Republicans. Some pundits thought it was the end of the Republican Party.
Then Dean stepped down as DNC chair and Kaine took the reins. Now we're getting our asses kicked by a party that's continues to be in disarray and that's lead by an obvious bonehead.
One sad thing that I noticed in the Massachusetts Senate race was that that quite a few single-payer health care proponents were supporting Brown. They wanted to "Kill the Bill" as it now reads, because all it guarantees is access to health care, without dealing with affordability, and requiring mandates. So, the Democrats lost their progressive base in a progressive commonwealth. So explain to me how do you win without your base?
In Massachusetts, they're currently suffering over a poorly cobbled together health care law—Mitt Romney's crowning achievement by the way—that has been a disaster because premiums are skyrocketing in the state and it's killing small business owners. Now we have a Democratic Party that is trying to pass through a similar, watered-down health care bill on the national level. So what do you expect from the residents of the Bay State? It's no wonder why so many Democrats voted for Brown.
Yes, Coakley ran an extremely bad campaign. She acted aloof and entitled. She became the Rabbit to Brown's Tortoise. All Brown had to do was drive a pickup truck through the Commonwealth, get the attention of a few tea-party crazies to go with the angry (but misguided) moderates and independents that began to lean his way and he had a enough troops to make it a race.
Meanwhile, the progressive base of the Democratic Party—those that were motivated to get out the vote in 2008—have been neglected ever since that election. Rahm Emanuel insulted progressives at every turn and Tim Kaine said nothing. President Obama governed from the right-center, not even throwing these stalwarts a bone.
Being mocked by Emanuel and ignored by Kaine and Obama upset many of my progressive colleagues, and many of them won't raise a finger to help Democrats now. Some of them, as I said above, even voted for the other side. They feel used. After all, it was the progressives that gave the Democrats a majority in 2006 and an unprecedented majority and the White House in 2008. And then they were kicked to the curb.
While this race should be a wake-up call for the Democrats to run better candidates, I think it proves my theory that without your base, you're nothing. And the progressives are the base of the Democratic Party.
Tim Kaine lost yesterday's election. He also dismissed the progressives since his ascent to the DNC Chair a year ago, which helped the Democrats lose that election. It's now the turn of progressives to toss Tim Kaine.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Is Steve Levy really considering a switch to the GOP?
The Republicans on RedState.com are calling the GOP a "growth industry" in the North East, as they're already dancing beneath the goalposts over their supposed win today in blue Massachusetts.
They're now just short of predicting that Democratic Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy will be switching parties in his run for the Governor's seat.
In regards to a NY Daily News article where the Albany County Republican Chair, they're convinced that a party change is in the cards.
The fact that Levy is even considering switching parties to seek the governorship is in part a testament to the weakness of the field. That said, Levy has run with Republican endorsements before - as recently as in 2007, in fact. But he would not be considering this bid if he did not see a golden opportunity to win the highest office in the state.
The Albany Republican Party Chair, John Graziano is impressed with Levy and said he would be willing to support him, as long as he switches parties.
RedState.com, however, is treating this scenario (especially that Levy has been endorsed by the GOP in the past) as somehow unique to New York politics. Little to they know that in the land of fusion politics and Wilson-Pakula, these kind of machinations are common, and while they sometimes bear fruit, they're more likely some wishful thinking by desperate political insiders.
My thoughts are that this scenario has probably been hatched by new New York GOP Chair Ed Cox, who's son Chris is hoping for the party's nod to challenge Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop in the 1st CD.
Perhaps Cox & Co. see the possibility of Levy running as a Republican and to help the Nixon bloodline back into DC [shudder].
But it should also be noted that:
Levy, whose aides have steadfastly refused to confirm or deny reports that he is meeting with GOP leaders, including state Chairman Ed Cox, has run on the GOP and Conservative lines in the past and drawn heated criticism from Latino Democrats for his right-leaning stance on immigration.
All this says to me is that Levy is flattered by the attention. He's not even considered a strong Democratic Gubernatorial candidate. It's pretty pitiful if the New York Republicans can't find a better candidate of they're own and they feel the need to poach relatively nameless also-rans in hopes of beating Paterson or Cuomo.
Sorry, RedState, rather than seeing this as part of your GOP "growth industry" in the North East, I see this as the state party grasping at straws while hoping that party switching by Levy would help get Tricky Dick's grandson in Congress.
Political maneuvers are rarely so tidy in New York.
South Nyack Democratic Caucus Meeting
The South Nyack Democratic Caucus will meet at 3p on Sunday, January 24 at South Nyack Village Hall for the purpose of nominating candidates for office in the South Nyack election to be held on Tuesday, March 16.
All residents of the Village of South Nyack who are registered Democrats are encouraged to attend. The offices of Village Trustee (2) and Village Justice are up for election.
The term of Trustee is for two years and Village Justice is for four years. South Nyack residents interested in running for these offices on the Democratic Party line are encouraged to attend as well. Further, potential candidates should contact Cliff Weathers, the South Nyack Democratic Caucus Chair, at cliffweathers@gmail.com before the meeting.
South Nyack Village Hall is located at 282 S. Broadway, just south of Mansfield Ave.
