New York Journal

Strike

by the Decree of the New York Journal Senior Executive Steering Committee — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:25:43 +0000

The ungreateful staff of New York Journal are on strike. We will be doing our best to keep the news coming with greateful employees who are willing to work!

-Thank you for your patience,

Mortimer “Mike” Colling
Publisher, CEO
NewsCapitalMedia

Rudy Giuliani Sure Likes Making Money

Jay Emsey — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:34:58 +0000

A man you can trust. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America)

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani travelled to Serbia last week, two weeks ahead of a pivotal national election, and met with the opposition party, former allies of nationalist war criminal Slobodan Milosevic.

Of course, Rudy wasn’t making an endorsement of the party – that wouldn’t be appropriate. His company will simply be consulting for them, should the nationalists return to power. And he just wanted to check the place out, a couple weeks before a very close election. Time constraints did not allow him to meet with officials of the ruling Democratic Party. But this was clearly not an endorsement.

Only his ex-wives’ lawyers know how much Rudy is really worth these days, but as a CNN/Money profile from 2007 shows, America’s Mayor made a lot of money, very fast, in the 2000s.

Some of that came from book sales. Much of it came from a ton of beautiful speeches about leadership and heroism. Some of it came from representing the manufacturers of OxyContin, a highly addictive painkiller abused throughout rural America.

The long list of Rudy’s often shady and sleazy dealings is run down in this thorough Washington Post piece. Suffice to say, it’s not the brilliant policy ideas that make Giuliani Partners so valuable.

In 2002, Giuliani Partners was paid $4.3 million by the government of Mexico City to consult on crime prevention. Rudy toured the city for a day, and his firm produced a blueprint for crime reduction.

Former Mexican Ambassador to the United States Jorge Montaño said, “The people who paid Mr. Giuliani and his associates really made a great mistake. With all honesty, nothing that they suggested was successful. His recommendations were not based on the Mexican reality.” Giuliani Partners recommended, among other things, that Mexico City crack down on graffiti and squeegee men.

Should the former Milosevic allies of the Serb Progressive Party take power, they will be paying Giuliani for similar analysis. In this painful interview, Rudy told “Serbia’s David Letterman” that Belgrade must clean up graffiti and reduce corruption by cutting regulations.

He seized on a run down area of the city known for prostitution and likened it to Times Square. This was the key to rebuilding Belgrade and reducing unemployment. “If you can fix a core part of the city, the rest of the city then fixes itself.” $4 million well spent.

The former Mayor’s policy advice is clearly not that valuable. It’s only the lingering image – probably more convincing overseas these days – of Giuliani as a powerful and successful American public official that compels foreign politicians to parade him about in times of dire electoral need.

But then, what better spokesman for the American way than our own Rudy Giuliani? He, perhaps better than anyone else, demonstrates that anyone really can make it here, if they want it bad enough.

And they’re in the right place, at the right time.

Queens Is Totally The New Florida Right Now | Friday Links

by the Decree of the New York Journal Senior Executive Steering Committee — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:50:45 +0000

This fruit that some people find tasty was the subject of a highly subjective question on an exam that determined the future of children across New York State. (Source: ibotanicalgarden.com)

Bill Clinton congratulates less charismatic, northern version of himself for getting something lame done on time.

More government money to harness the awesome power of our biggest star!

An increase in New York City jobs is leading to more unemployment?

Keeping fracking decisions local could mean end of fracking in New York :D

Could Union Square get its groove back this May Day?

It sounds like some disgruntled, stoned, philosophy major is writing the questions on New York State standardized tests that determine how many more disgruntled, stoned philosophy majors our state can endure.

This election is STILL going on.

Editorial Cartoon

Max Paige-Vieux — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:03:28 +0000

Gioia Shebar for Taxnightmare.org

Taxnightmare.org

Gold On The Ceiling: Your Committee To Save New York

Charles Benson-Hearst — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:36:00 +0000

The Committee to Save New York from left to right: Bizarro Eliot Spitzer, H. Carl McCall, Lex Luthor, The Riddler, Felix G. Rohatyn, Kathryn S. Wylde, Some Green Dude and Aquaman's nemesis, Black Manta

Perhaps you have heard about the Committee to Save New York (CSNY) in recent weeks and thought, “I want to save New York. Where do I sign up? Look at me rolling up my sleeves right now!” Perhaps you were inspired by their recent advertising campaign* promoting Gov. Cuomo’s $132.5 billion spending plan, which promises to “put New Yorkers back to work.”

Perhaps you’ve heard that CSNY spent $12 million on lobbying last year and thought, “Shit: That’s pretty gangster. Saving New York is not cheap. I’m glad some deep-pocketed richies are out there saving New York.”

Perhaps, then, you are the corporeal manifestation of this straw-man New Yorker I just made up! Let me school you on who CSNY is.

Explaining The Committee to Save New York In A Way That Will Make Landlords Upset

Much like folk-rock supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY), the Committee to Save New York (CSNY) is a group of old guys who talk a really noble game politically, but mostly go around enriching themselves off the general public by peddling overpriced crap. Also, much like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the group is really built off of older, very similar groups.

Among the most prominent is the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY): a coalition of real estate developers, owners and finance people whose president Steven Spinola, chairwoman Mary Ann Tighe†, and executive committeeman (wastrel real-estate princeling) Rob Speyer all hold prominent positions on CSNY.

As one could discern from a look at REBNY’s annual reports, their lobbying activities tend toward the “lower taxes for rich people” variety. As Kevin Coner of the Public Accountability Initiative observed, REBNY has advocated “for equal income tax rates for billionaires and bus drivers, a continued ‘carried interest’ tax break for hedge funds and real estate investment firms, and a continued tax abatement for condo owners in Manhattan.”

From Left: REBNY and CSNY multitaskers Mary Ann Tighe, Steven Spinola, and Rob Speyer, just in case you ever see them at a groundbreaking ceremony or a $1000 per entrée fundraising dinner. (Images Compiled, Seriously, by newyorkrealtortools.info)

To understand REBNY’s disproportionate presence in CSNY, (e.g. Rob Speyer’s fiefdom, Tishman Speyer, has donated $1 million to CSNY, and REBNY’s billionaire chair emeritus Stephen Ross and REBNY board member Douglas Durst have given generously as well) it might help to familiarize yourself with “growth coalition theory.”

State and local politics are not exactly national politics in miniature. As with physics, you start to notice quantum strangeness as you shift your focus to these smaller scales and previously negligible forces start to wield theory-altering levels of influence. On the national scale, politics is ruled obviously by money. That money is more-or-less tied exclusively to companies who profit from what are “exchange value” commodities (goods, services, whatever), but on the local level avaricious coalitions of landowners have more to gain with their money and typically more sway.

They differ from normal captains of industry in that their driving goal is exclusively maximizing the cash-making potential of their dumb, little parcels of land: their “use value” commodities. They want to build. They want to build tall things because every story is another space to rent out. They want to build fashionable things they can charge extra for. They will always want to attract bigger businesses into the area over the vocal objections of local neighborhoods, environmental activists and small businesses. The standard of living must always go up, for rents to go up.

Of any economic group, the real estate community most resembles economist Thorstein Veblen’s description of the “business community” as parasites. A heavy level of their involvement in any cause is always a fairly good indication that that cause is total garbage. Just try and imagine the hypertrophied Glengarry Glen Ross viciousness that goes on in the real estate major league that is New York City against the knowledge that REBNY’s long-standing, self-selected nickname for their annual gala is the Liar’s Ball.

Never forget this: Landowners don’t need to live remotely near the lucrative messes they make, but they always can register to vote there.

Explaining The Committee to Save New York In A Way That Will Simply Make Landlords Bored and/or Mad Sleepy

Beyond its sizable landowning contingent, CSNY could be classified simply as a grassroots coalition of protesting billionaires. Its board has 11 members that overlap with the 2010 Forbes’ list of the Richest 400 Americans: including subprime securities scammer John Paulson, News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch and (obviously) a Rockefeller (David Rockefeller Sr.). The two other business associations, besides REBNY, that are heavily associated with CSNY are the Partnership for New York City and the Business Council of New York State.

News coverage has typically placed the CEO of the Partnership for New York City, Kathryn Wylde, at the vanguard of efforts to organize CSNY. In September 2009, she helped plan a precursor to the Committee to Save New York hosted in the offices of JPMorgan Chase by that firm’s CEO, a Partnership board member and widely reviled supervillain of the financial crisis Jamie Dimon. Wylde is also a board member at the New York Federal Reserve, which according to internet commenter RPaul_ReLOVEution means “she is a shapeshifting inter-dimentional reptilion manipulating our fiat currency system.” The endgame, RPaul_ReLOVEution tells me, “is to yolk New York state into a fascistic ‘one world government’ ruled by elite reptillions,” and I have no evidence to either bolster or discredit this view. Wylde has however been an occasional contributor to The Huffington Post.

However, I can say that, in its similarities to former New York governor Hugh Carey’s 1975 business committee, CSNY evokes a similar attempt by the business community to seize power during a fiscal crisis and force austerity measures over raised government revenue. While they were unable to keep current NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo from signing the “Millionaire’s Tax” into law, they have succeeded in keeping him from closing corporate tax loopholes. (Cuomo created a commission to study the issue, while going ahead and proposing cuts to programs that benefit the working poor.) They’ve also seemingly won on the new pension system reform pushed by Cuomo.

There’s quite a bit more that could be inferred, (Observant local medievalists have compared its power and reach to that of a dragon.) but this is what’s concretely known about the Committee to Save New York, given that it refuses to disclose most of its donors on 1st Amendment grounds.

As REBNY/CSNY man Steven Spinola explained it to an inquisitive reporter for The New York Times, “We don’t have to report it, so why tell you?”

—————–

*I put it here for you.

† Tighe, a former TV executive, helped launch the cable channel A&E. In 2011, she was also the “Most Powerful Woman in New York” according to Crain’s business magazine. However, to put that in perspective, she didn’t even rank on the 2011 list of “Most Powerful Women in the World” in the bodybuilding periodical Women’s Physique World.

Upcoming Shows

Jay Emsey — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:37:22 +0000

A typical concert.

The Week Ahead

First of all, if you live in Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, or Syracuse, you should know upfront that basically there are no good shows for you this week, nor for the foreseeable future. Like months. You should probably just start a band or learn how to make music on your computer or something like that. Don’t shoot the messenger.

Lambchop

As for the rest of the state, nothing very all that interesting happens until Thursday, when Lambchop, a large group of accomplished musicians and one guy who sings like a frog, bring their very beautiful music to Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan. They play again at the Bell House in Brooklyn Friday night. Google it. Here’s what you can look forward to.

Terry Malts

The dudes in Terry Malts used to be in some crappy indie pop band that sounded like a boring version of the Smiths, but then they decided to play their songs with distortion, and that improved everything a lot. They are at Glasslands in Brooklyn on Saturday night.

Washed Out

This is pretty much the worst way to ride a motorcycle ever. You should always keep your eyes on the road – for starters – and sunglasses at night, despite that song, are not super practical and kind of something that people will make fun of you for in real life. Otherwise, this is a good song. You probably also know their biggest hit, “The Song from Portlandia.” Washed Out play the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan on Sunday.

That Didn’t Last Long

Jay Emsey — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:02:11 +0000

Dead on Arrival.

A bill introduced by Democratic Senators Velmanette Montgomery (Brooklyn) and Keith Wright (Harlem) that would have taken control of New York City’s school system back from Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been shot down by Senate Republicans.

In related news, read about the charter school profiteering network that has formed an influential lobby in Albany.

Schools Fight Dominates Record Spending on Lobbying

Max Paige-Vieux — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:47:55 +0000

With this story, The New York World launches The Lobbies at the Top, a guide to spending on political influence in New York State. The first edition takes a look at the power players of 2011, who won gay marriage, teacher concessions, a Medicaid deal and more.

The schools group chaired by former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein was last year’s fourth-biggest Albany lobbyist. Photo: Gotham Schools

by Alice Brennan and Curtis Skinner for The New York World.

Published 4/16/2012.

The future of the fight over public schools has a fresh, highly visible face, and it’s called StudentsFirstNY.

But the new school-reform supergroup, founded by former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and ex-D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee, is in fact not that new at all. It builds directly one of the biggest lobbying forces in New York State, called Education Reform Now.

In the last two years, Education Reform Now and the associated Education Reform Now Advocacy have spent more than $10 million to influence state law on hiring and firing of teachers, as a counterforce to the state’s two major teachers’ unions. Those funds helped force a change in teacher evaluations that unions had opposed, and also backed Mayor Bloomberg’s push for layoffs based on teacher performance in place of the current system, in which the most recently hired teachers must be the first to be let go.

The $10 million is as much money as StudentsFirstNY director Micah Lasher — until now, Mayor Bloomberg’s chief Albany lobbyist — says the new group will spend to influence the next mayoral election.

Click here.

Klein chaired the Education Now board until this month, when he resigned to serve instead on the board of StudentsFirstNY. The state group will be affiliated with Rhee’s national StudentsFirst organization, which now operates in 17 states.

“They’ve always been closely allied,” said Steven Brill, author of the book Class Warfare, of Rhee’s national group and Klein’s New York State effort. The new alliance, he believes, “surfaced publicly to fire a warning shot at the mayoral candidates. It was their way of saying there would be two strong groups instead of just one standing watch over the race.”Last week, Education Reform Now’s sibling political group, Democrats for Education Reform, announced that it will be joining forces with StudentsFirstNY as part of a new statewide coalition, to be known as the New York State Education Reform Council.

“We’re going up against one of the most powerful interests in Albany,” said Joe Williams, who directs both Education Reform Now and Democrats for Education Reform, to the New York Post. “We don’t stand a chance if we’re not aligned and focused.”

Those interests are the state’s two major teacher’s unions, United Federation of Teachers, which represents New York City public school educators, and United Teachers of New York State. Their combined 900,000 members hold heavy influence over the state’s Democratic legislators; combined, the unions spent $7.5 million on lobbying last year alone to Education Reform Now’s $3.8 million.

Most of that money has poured into TV and internet advertising. State lobbying records reveal that Education Reform Now / Education Reform Now Advocacy — two related groups that registered as a single lobbying entity — spent $7.5 million in 2010 and 2011 on ads via consultant SKD Knickerbocker, part of a total $10.4 million in influence spending during those two years.

That ad blitz vaulted Education Reform Now/Education Reform Now Advocacy to fourth on the list of biggest lobbying spenders in New York in 2011, just behind the state teacher’s union in spending last year and ahead of the city’s United Federation of Teachers.

Ad buys in the education wars helped drive New York State lobbying spending last year to a record high of $220 million.

Last year, the group’s spending boosted Mayor Bloomberg’s demand for a change in seniority rules, so that administrators could lay off the worst-performing teachers instead of those most recently hired.

Education Reform Now TV ads featured city school teachers opposing their union’s position. “If there have to be layoffs, we should keep the best teachers — it’s that simple,” declares Rogelio Herrera Jr., a Bronx public school teacher. “You’re talking about losing young minds.” Jane Viau echoes his words. “ Whether that means they’re a second-year teacher of a 22nd-year teacher,” she says, “you’ve got to keep great teachers.”

A 2010 ad, which aired in Albany and New York City, sought to break the legislative impasse over teacher evaluations that blocked nearly $700 million in federal funds. “Albany is listening much too much to the teachers union,” complained a woman in the commercial.

That campaign prevailed a year and a half later when Governor Cuomo brokered a last minute deal with the unions on a new evaluation system, clearing a path for the state to receive the funds.

Also in 2010, the group played a critical role in pushing the legislature to more than double the number of charter schools authorized for the state, up to 460. Some of Education Reform Now’s $6.5 million in spending that year sponsored ads in support of the measure.

Joel Klein isn’t the only connection between Democrats for Education Reform and StudentsFirstNY. The Education Reform Now board includes some heavy-hitting charter school donors from the hedge fund world, including John Sabat of SAC Capital and Sidney Hawkins Gargiulo of Ziff Brothers Investments. Democrats for Education Reform was co-founded by John Petry of Columbus Capital Management, who also serves on the board of both that organization and Education Reform Now. All three board members are deeply involved in the Success Charter Network run by former City Councilmember Eva Moskowitz – who herself will serve on the StudentsFirst board.

Williams told The New York World that Klein’s new group and his old one will likely share some of their funders and board members. “I imagine there will be a large overlap among the donors,” he said. “But it’s not clear yet what role we’ll actually play.”

Education Reform Now does not disclose its donors, but among those who have publicized contributions are the Bill and Melinda Gates, Walton, Starr, Broad and Pershing Square foundations.

Independently, some supporters of the group have also sought to replace legislators perceived as too friendly to the teacher’s union. In 2010, board members and advisors to Education Reform Now and affiliates contributed more than $200,000 to the State Senate campaign of Basil Smikle, who opposed outspoken charter school critic Bill Perkins in that year’s Democratic primary. Smikle won just 20 percent of the vote, but Perkins heard a strong message.

“They ran a head hunt against me because I launched the first ever hearing into the who was actually running charter schools,” Perkins said. “Their attitude is, ‘Think our way or we’ll punish you.’”

In the meantime, state Senate leadership has advanced measures to aggressively expand charter schools. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) removed a provision from the Senate version of this year’s budget that would prevent for-profit entities from establishing charter schools.

The measure didn’t make it into the final budget, but Perkins says it’s a prelude for what’s to come. “They really showed their hand, slipping this one in,” he said, “The wars are going to escalate.”

Center for Working Families Uncovers Yankees’ “Minor League” Political Donations [GET IT!!!!!!! They're CHEAPOS!!!]

Charles Benson-Hearst — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:52:37 +0000

Follow the petty cash! Fabulously wealthy, millionaire baseball players at the New York Yankees donated $25,600 Whole American Dollars between 2003 and 2006 to city and state lawmakers key to the development of the New Yankee stadium. Can you believe it? We’re talking wheelbarrows of one dollar bills here! Some experts are saying that the team donated this money to avoid having to load all their change into that broken Coinstar at C-Town.

If anything, we should all be scandalized that the Yankees got millions in subsidies with such a cheap initial investment. For $50,000 in donations to the Bronx Democratic County Committee (over five years), $8,850 to Assemblyman Jose Rivera (and his sons), and $18,000 to former-Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (over two years), the team received overwhelming financial support for pennies on the dollar. For these paltry sums, and $300,000 in lobbying expenses, the Yankees netted $108 million in subsidies.

You can read the Center for Working Families full report here:

Yankees Fact Sheet 4-12-12

Protest America-Hating Massachusetts Band Dom at Glasslands This Friday

Jay Emsey — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:19:52 +0000

Watch this video a thousand times, and you’ll find a thousand reasons to be outraged.

Dom, a band of America-hating snark addicts who live in Massachusetts, will be performing at Glasslands in Brooklyn this Friday. We strongly encourage all readers to protest their catchy, anthemic songs by attending the show and making noise after the conclusion of each song.