Final post here.

It's a long story. Anyways, I'll be blogging here for now on: www.williamdipinijr.blogspot.com

VIA THE MAN, IT'S ALL GOOD:

ALICIA COLON: “A Case For Guns”:

…The Second Amendment reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." What many control advocates forget is that comma after the word state. They would like us to think that it refers only to a militia. The comma makes it very clear that it is the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

It certainly was the right of Margaret Johnson to bear arms in September, when a mugger tried to rob the wheelchair-bound Harlem resident. She drew the pistol she was carrying and shot him in his elbow. Ms. Johnson, who has a gun carry permit, was on her way to a shooting range when she was attacked. Statistics from the National Safety Council show that firearms are used more than 80 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives.

How often do we have to read about an estranged wife or girlfriend getting gunned down by her ex? Enacting more gun laws hasn't protected women in this city. Maybe instead of going after the gun manufacturers, our mayor should be trying to enact legislation to toughen stalker laws and to increase the penalties for those who violate orders of protection. How about offering self-defense classes or gun permits and firearms training to battered women before they become death statistics?

Excellent piece. Read it all.

NYC’S WORST PERSON OF THE DAY: Edgar LaLuz.

WHEN PEOPLE CALL POLITICIANS "POLITICOS," do they mean that politicians view themselves as both a trustee and delegate?

Because I learned from school that there are several role orientations of the legislator: 1) trustee (lawmakers who see themselves as free agents; that is, they see themselves free to express their own views on matters of policy), 2) delegate (lawmakers who say that their constituency comes first in matters of public policy no matter what), and 3) politico (lawmakers who hold both the trustee and delegate roles).

GOOD QUERY: “How can Hevesi complain about misuse of public money when he himself chisled tens of thousands of dollars from the state to pay for a driver for his wife - and then lied about it?”

THE MERIT SELECTION is designed to reduce the influence of partisan politics when it comes to selecting judges. But how can it reduce partisan politics when the local bar associations organize the election of lawyers to panels/commissions? Hello! These are plaintiffs' and defendants' lawyer groups at work here. They're not apolitical.

And another thing: how can merit selection shield the courts from partisan politics and interest group influence if the governors appoint the nonlawyers – business and professional people – to the panels? I mean, nonlawyer commissioners are obviously likely to be politically aligned with the governors and their party. Thus, the commissioners’ party loyalties mold their choices.

At the end of the day, the lists of names sent to the governors invariably include one or two persons the governors want to appoint.

An anonymous commenter over at Room Eight got it right yesterday when he wrote “Politics is politics whether appointed or elected.”

Cross-posted at Room Eight.

GOOD NEWS: “New York state's unemployment rate fell to 4 percent in October, matching the lowest monthly rate recorded since the current system for setting the rate was adopted in 1976, state Labor Department officials said on Thursday.”

BARRY POPIK: “… it's simply not OK for the senior senator from New York [Chuck Schumer] to make a bigot-like comment in public, and then laugh it off.”

I concur. And is it true that the Daily Gothamers “think Chuck Schumer is God”?

SOUTH BRONX LANLORDS DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THE POOR:

Tenants at a Mott Haven building are demanding their landlord make changes after dangerously high carbon monoxide levels forced them out of their homes.

Residents hung signs at their building Thursday to bring attention to the landlord who they say puts profits above people. Many tenants are looking for new homes because they say the management has neglected the building, putting their lives at risk. They claim the landlord is not taking responsibility for the faulty boiler that firefighters say may have caused the leak.

Authorities say the tenants could have died if they were in the building 30 minutes longer during the leak Wednesday. Housing inspectors installed new detectors in some apartments after the incident. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development has 132 open violations on record for 602 E. 139th St., several of which are considered serious. The landlord did not return calls for comment.

UPDATED A FEW BLOG POSTS to allow comments.

UPDATE: Updated blogroll.

LATER UPDATE: Experiencing problems with comments. I'll install Haloscan comments and trackback in the future. But my email works!

I WISH I HAD THE WHEREWITHAL TO BUY A CAR: “An innocent bystander trying to catch a train home was shot and killed yesterday after a cursing match at a Brooklyn subway station ended in gunfire, police said.”

A few days ago, I was on the downtown number 2 train. An eerie-looking man -- looked like he had just been released from a psych facility -- boarded the train on 96th Street. His clothes were filthy and torn; they emitted a stomach-turning smell that forced me to cover my nose. Anyway, he sat across from me, beside a middle-aged woman. He looked at the woman and began uttering nasty things to her for no apparent reason – bitch, whore, etc. She ignored him. He then pulled out pretty big scissors from the inside of his jacket and said, “I should kill you right here.” I couldn’t believe it. I was flabbergasted. Terrified. Then he started waving the scissors very close to her face. My heart was beating the shit out of my chest. No one on the train said a word. A few seconds later, the train stopped on 72nd street. I fled.

“THE COST OF RECIDIVISM” is the title of this Times Union editorial. The edit-heads point to a report by The Independent Committee on Reentry and Employment on how to prevent former inmates from going back to prison.

The committee recommends, first and foremost, a wage subsidy program that would encourage employers to hire qualified ex-inmates. The cost is estimated to be about $25 million, but the payback would be huge -- some $3.6 million for every 100 ex-offenders who avoid rearrest or living on welfare.

Other recommendations are equally practical, such as more emphasis on "soft" skills training to better prepare inmates for jobs that do not require "hard skills" such as machine operation, and educating employers on hiring former offenders.

Sounds good to me. They think Eliot Spitzer and state leaders should check out the report.

I BET THE FIVE MEMBERS who didn’t show up today to vote on a pay raise were the lawyers.

GONNA BUY HIS BOOK?: "Former American football star OJ Simpson describes in a Fox television interview "how he would have carried out" the murder of his ex-wife and her friend, which he has denied committing for more than a decade, the network said."

IF YOUR WALLET IS AS THIN AS BORAT, I suggest you prepare a good meal at home and check out any of these free events. You don't have to be "ultra-rich" to have fun in NYC. Really.

THESE TWO WOMEN BOXERS are from the Bronx -- they're no joke.

AP: “More than half of New Yorkers believe "everything changes day one" under Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer, a poll released Wednesday shows.”

NY1: “Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer ran on a platform of shaking up Albany's status quo, but now a conference he attended in Puerto Rico last weekend is raising concern from watchdog groups worried about the influence of the companies that paid for the event.”

NOAH ON GIULIANI: “What do you think? Will he run? Will he be good? Will he suck?”

AP:

A state judge has ruled that the Legal Aid Society must be notified whenever the city moves to boot homeless people from its shelters.

State Supreme Court Justice Stanley Sklar in Manhattan said a 1981 consent decree requires the city to notify Legal Aid when it intends to evict a homeless person for failing to comply with rules that an appeals court permitted in 2003.

"While the city has taken many commendable steps to try to ensure that no one who is entitled to shelter is wrongly deprived of it, human error is inevitable and the risk of harm is too great to ignore this population, which contains many vulnerable individuals," the judge wrote in a decision made public Tuesday….

"Temporary housing assistance will not be denied or discontinued for failure of the individual ... to comply with the requirements of this subdivision when such failure is due to the physical or mental impairment of the individual," the judge wrote in quoting the consent decree.

AP: “Parents who oppose the cell phone ban in New York's public schools are ranting in e-mails to City Hall that the policy is unreasonable, irresponsible, and hints at "thoughtless fascism."

I've read all the arguments against the cell phone ban. I have to admit, they are all tenuous. I find this argument for the ban more reasonable. Even my son thinks it’s a bad idea to allow students to bring their cell phones to school -- he attends a Bronx public school.

LUNCH BREAK

THIS PROBLEM SEEMS TO BE UBIQUITOUS IN THE BRONX, particularly in poor, predominantly minority neighborhoods:

Charlotte Sapp says remnants of feces and urine from a flood in her apartment remain on the walls after floodwaters rose from her toilet and bathtub. Sapp, who claims her apartment has flooded six times, says her landlord sent a quarter of a bottle of bleach when she requested cleaning supplies. Sapp claims the stench in her apartment is so bad her kids can’t even sleep in their own beds.

Sad.

BUFFALO NEWS EDIT-HEADS: “…even in an election when voters across the country were primed to throw the bums out, the New York State Legislature remained solidly, unperturbably unaffected. Like a rock. Or a cadaver.”

THE JOURNAL NEWS:

New York's local governments are burdened by underfunding and overbearing state mandates, according to a report released yesterday by a delegation of mayors from across the state.

In the report, the New York State Conference of Mayors urged lawmakers to ease the state's unmatched taxes by making state aid to localities more predictable, repealing "archaic" mandates, and reforming the public-employee benefit system.

I KNOW A PERSONABLE, YOUNG WOMAN who told me the other day that she’s thinking about getting a puppy because her boyfriend doesn’t want children right now. Do you think she needs therapy? Via.

NY POST EDIT-HEADS: “Where did it [the GOP] go wrong? What did it do to deserve the electoral whooping it got at the hands of Democrats last Tuesday?” The title of the editorial answers their queries: “IT’S THE PRINCIPLES, STUPID” -- spending, pork and corruption, and broken promises.

Umm … what about the disastrously executed war? I say it’s the war, too, stupid.

UPDATE: Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno admits it.

MIKE BLOOMBERG SAYS that the city will not give Merrill Lynch a subsidy to keep them here if they decide to leave.

Recall that the city afforded Merrill Lynch a $28.5 million tax-incentive package several years ago. Now I think we can all agree that that was a significant package. But it was all good because there were strings attached: Merrill Lynch must add another 2,000 jobs. From what I know, they haven’t met their end of the deal. In fact, I read somewhere that instead they eliminated jobs and moved many of them to New Jersey. So why should we look out for them?

I’m redesigning my blog. Will be blogging soon.

“Millions of bottles of Aceta-minopen have been recalled due to the possibility of metal fragments within the pills.”

News 12:

Health care professionals took to the streets Saturday to warn residents to check the batch number of their pills to ensure they are safe. They say many Bronx residents purchase generic brand medication, and due to this, they must be extra cautious.

Doctors say the ingestion of pills with metal fragments can do server damage to the body during digestion. They recommend residents avoid purchasing generic brand pain relievers for a few months.

Unbelievable. And it's Acetaminophen, not Aceta-minopen.

Blog post of the day.

rwallnerny: "Howard Dean vs. the DLC-- a battle for the soul of the party."

Friday night reads.

“This election was no victory for centrists.” When you're done with the piece, I recommend you check this one out.

Enjoy.

Your morning espresso.

The outside incomes of five City Council members and more [Daily News]

Juan Gonzales: “Welcome to Westchester County, the Deep South of New York State” [Daily News]

Let the battle begin for a Wal-Mart in the Bronx [NYT]

"Gov.-elect Spitzer, Mayor Bloomberg chat about their "wish lists" and costly education lawsuit over breakfast" [Newsday]

"It doesn't mean I was on vacation. ... I was probably in the district at the time."

AM:

As City Council members mull giving themselves a 25% raise, an amNewYork review of individual attendance records found plenty of room for improvement -- particularly in the case of three legislators who have missed a quarter of their meetings so far this year.

The 51 members of the Council (a job that's officially part time and pays between $90,000 to $118,050 a year) had a collective absentee rate of 12% during the first nine months of the year, the analysis showed.

The three councilmen with the worst records. Joel Rivera (D-Bronx), Miguel Martinez (D- Manhattan) and Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) missed 26% of their scheduled meetings, the amNewYork analysis showed.

Read it all.

Lt. Governor-elect David Paterson on NY1’s Inside City Hall.

Patterson: I got no beef with Eliot and his peeps. I’m just the … umm … Lieutenant Governor? I dunno. Serious. Eliot hasn’t assigned any duties to me yet. What I do know is that I’m here for him.

Give him a lollipop or something.

Stephen Graves:

To those who wish to erode the ideology that has made this country great, subverting it by turning the US into a nanny state where no one has responsibility for their own actions but rather government is the solution to all problems - to you I say that although you may have fooled some of the people this year by bleating some conservative mantras and because the people were angry with their shepherds, your wolfen fangs will surely be revealed over the next 2 years. The wealth of our nation, the heritage of our fathers and the blood of our patriots will not long remain in the hands of those who do not honor them.

All Spitzer...

But where’s Paterson? Haven’t seen him on the news yet.

Move on sore losers.

NY Post edit-heads.

He “just loves cars..."

Daily News:

A 12-year-old boy angry at his mom got behind the wheel of the family car and took his kid brother on a two-hour joyride through Queens last night, police said.

Although baby driver Kenny Rodriguez and his 7-year-old brother, Miguel Pepin, cruised the busy Grand Central Parkway, they made it safely to a friend's house, where cops collected them.

"Thank God," said their shaken mom, Carolina Rivas, 33, at the 107th Precinct stationhouse in Fresh Meadows where she was reunited with her boys. "I'm glad they're okay and I just want to get them home. I don't care about the car."

Rivas said she had had words with her older son about his behavior in school and with a baby-sitter when he returned to his Kew Gardens Hills home after school.

"'Day One Everything Changes' makes me nervous because it's an awfully high bar."

Newsday reports that Tuesday’s defeat of John Faso was easy for Spitzer. Now comes the hard part: governing and fixing “a state government that, by all accounts, is ailing.”

Transparency in the budget process

The NY Times has a story about how the City Council speaker Christine Quinn is working toward making the city’s budget process more transparent.

Check out the inside of the new Bronx courthouse.

Here.

"I don't think the council should be voting itself a raise. . . . I think that is unethical."

Said Tony Avella (D-Queens).

The City Council met Wednesday to discuss voting themselves 25% raises that would give them six-figure salaries.

The controversial proposal would boost the 51 members' base salaries from $90,000 to $112,500 for what is still considered a part-time job. Many members would earn even more from stipends, nicknamed "lulus," for chairing various committees.

"The speaker believes that council members deserve a raise that is commensurate with their responsibilities and work. Additionally, this is the first raise council members stand to receive in seven years," said Maria Alvarado, spokeswoman for Speaker Christine Quinn.

What do you think?

Local officials to Spitzer: It's time to focus on the “bread and butter” issues.

Read it here. Here’s a snippet:

Mayor Mike Bloomberg: " ... there are a number of statewide issues. We can use some help in getting some of the big development projects. For example, Penn Station, which for reasons beyond me, was held up."

Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion: "The bread and butter issues are so overwhelming and so critical and when you look at what people are concerned about in their lives, that's what our governor should be focusing on, and any poll will tell you they're concerned about their children and education, about safety and security."

Charles Rangel on Rumsfeld’s resignation.

“ … it makes a lot of us feel more comfortable.”

“I’m an optimistic person. I knew we were going to lose seats. I just didn’t know how many.”

What Bush said today in the press conference:

1. Rummy is out (I think he said something to the effect that Rumsfeld will be working with the Baker-Hamilton Commission).

2. Americans didn’t vote yesterday to leave Iraq the way it is. “No question Iraq had something to do with it,” but what they really voted for is cooperation, a partnership [BushCo. and Dems] approach to the deteriorating situation. “The people expect us to work together.” And they want us “to win the fight.” We’re not going “to leave Iraq before the job is complete….That’s not going to happen.”

3. Cooperating with Dems: “If the goal is success, we can work together.” Not going to abandon principles.

4. Warning to terrorists: don’t see the election as a referendum to end the fight. We will not abandon the people of Iraq until they can hold their own.

Hmm. Sounds like more of the same to me.

Update: more.

“The American people have sent a resounding and unmistakable message of change and a new direction for America.”

Dems take control of the House. Senate a toss-up. Bush calling up Dems for lunch.