Congrats, Al Franken
You might recall we posted here about “A Dollar A Day To Make Norm Go Away“–a campaign to get Norm Coleman to drop his lawsuit keeping Minnesota Senator-elect Al Franken from officially taking up his seat. Good news! MN Supreme Court has ruled in his favor:
Just now, the Minnesota Supreme Court handed down its unanimous verdict [PDF] on the long-running, unresolved contest between Al Franken and Norm Coleman to determine who will fill the state’s vacant U.S. Senate seat. Specifically, the decision pertains to which candidate received the most votes and whether those votes were counted (and recounted) properly. This was the whole basis of Coleman’s case against Franken, rejected by a lower court, and now rejected by the state’s highest court as well.
Hopefully this will put an end to the matter and Coleman will not appeal.
Minnesota Supreme Rules for Franken
MYD Does NYC Gay Pride!
June 30, 2009 by Taylor
Filed under MYD Itself
This past Sunday MYD Members participated in the annual New York City Gay Pride Parade. This year, we were proud to be more than casual observers to the parade. We have worked hard to push for Marriage Equality in New York State, and will continue to work hard to guarantee equal rights for all. Don’t forget to check out our website www.newyorkequality.com to email your State Senator today!
That being said, the parade was AWESOME! We joined our friends The Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats, along with Council Speaker Christine Quinn, State Senator Tom Duane, Borough President Scott Stringer and Councilman David Yassky for one of the first really summery days of 2009! We’re not very picky, so we were all anticipating a casual stroll down 5th avenue to the West Village. We came prepared with our sneakers and sun block only to find that GLID had a flatbed truck with an amazing DJ! Three hours of non-stop dance party later, we were all exhausted and dehydrated (as I write this its Tuesday and my voice still hasn’t recovered) but very happy to have been a part of such a terrific day! Thanks to everyone who came, and rest assured we’ll be doing it again next year!
Stay tuned for more pictures and videos!
Update: Photos here.
Shake That Fist At The MTA (Again)
June 30, 2009 by Emmy
Filed under MYD Itself, News
Enjoying that fare hike that went into place over the weekend? ($2.25 per ride now, hooray!) Here’s another reason to be annoyed with the MTA:
Not surprising, but still troubling: A new study from the University of Washington and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health shows that subways are the loudest forms of mass transit in the city. Some of the noise levels recorded in the subway exceeded 100 decibels, which is loud enough to cause permanent hearing loss for regular straphangers if they’re exposed to it for even as little as two minutes a day.
Lovely. Oh, by the way, if you’ve noticed your weekend commute feels longer than usual, it’s not just you:
[A]ccording an internal memo from NYC Transit President Howard Roberts, straphangers probably won’t notice too much—he said they’re already used to the longer waits because of the weekend construction they already put up with. [I]t turns out that all the feet dragging that led to the eleventh-hour bailout may be to blame since MTA officials say transit workers had already locked in their summer schedules under the original proposal. Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign told the News, “Instead of aiming to improve things, transit officials want to make it official that weekend service stinks!”
Pissed off about the dismal state of the MTA and other transportation-related issues in NYC? Join MYD’s Transportation Issues Committee and get involved today.
Crusading New Yorkers
June 30, 2009 by Emmy
Filed under For Your Reading, News
Some cheery news from beyond New York State borders! The Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 that state attorney generals have the right to investigate nationally-chartered banks for violating consumer protection laws.
NY AG Andrew Cuomo wanted to see if national banks were engaging in discriminatory practices by funnelling minorities into dangerous sub-prime loans. Fannie Mae estimates that more than half of sub-prime borrowers qualified for prime loans; many were minorities suffering under redlining practices. The map…shows the distribution of foreclosures in New York City; foreclosures are most dense where minorities are concentrated, in large part because of these practices.
But when Cuomo tried to look into the problems, the banks told him that their national regulator preempted any state efforts to monitor their business. Since the national regulator, the OCC, didn’t really do much at all, it was licensce to behave poorly. But now the OCC is set to be shuttered under the Obama administration’s financial regulation plan, and Cuomo has free reign to protect the consumers of his state thanks to the Supreme Court.
It’s great to see New York public officials making an impact like this on a national scale. Earlier this year, a “Credit Cardholder’s Bill of Rights” passed the U.S. House, and it was sponsored by New York Representative Carolyn Maloney.
Rock!
Supreme Court: Banks Can’t Hide Behind National Law – TAPPED
“Ayes, 32″
Apparently Republican Senator Padavan walked through the chamber while the Democrats were having yet another not-really-a-session. Democrats are now passing a huge list of non-controversial legislation, claiming “Ayes, 32″.
But Padavan has told Paterson he wasn’t present:
Paterson takes Padavan’s word that he was not in chamber during session and [will] not sign bills passed this afternoon.
You can watch the proceedings live here (scroll down).
Senate Shows Up - The Albany Project
“Only” 5% of GDP
June 30, 2009 by Emmy
Filed under For Your Reading
One of Manzi’s central points is that climate change just ain’t all that damaging, economically speaking: it will reduce global GDP by “only” 5 percent one hundred years hence, he writes, even arguably pessimistic assumptions by the IPCC about both the magnitude of climate change and its economic impacts.
The problem with GDP is this: it varies greatly across counties, by a factor of 800 or so on a per-capita basis between Burundi and Luxembourg, or nearly 2,000 if you count Zimbabwe, which effectively does not have an economy. A lot of countries contribute almost nothing to global GDP, even though they may have tens or hundreds of millions of people. You could literally wipe them from the globe and the impact on global GDP would be de minimis.
How To Destroy (Almost) Half the Planet for the Low, Low Price of Just 5% of Global GDP – FiveThirtyEight
GDP and the Developing World – Yglesias
Non Sequitor: Hour-long Awesome MJ Remix
June 30, 2009 by Emmy
Filed under Non Sequitor
Nearly-hour-long-DJ-remix of MJ’s lesser-known songs making the rounds of the creative types with whom I work. Download here.
Hat Tip: Matthew K
What Citizens Will Conclude
“You have a unique opportunity as elected officials to take the high road; do the right thing for the greater good.
Otherwise there are those citizens of the public who would conclude, if they have not already concluded, that these members have placed their own interests ahead of all other citizens of this state to the benefit of their own personal and selfish interests, and that those same people may also conclude and define that conduct as rude, inconsiderate and egotistical.”
So said Judge Teresi in issuing his order for all 62 Senators to report to a regular session tomorrow morning at 10AM. Unfortunately, the GOP+1 attorney has already filed an appeal, so it looks like the order has been ’stayed’ for the time being.
Judge Sides With Gov; Slams Senators As ‘Rude,’ ‘Egotistical’ (Updated)
Students: Start Your Own MYD Chapter!
June 29, 2009 by Al
Filed under MYD Itself
Do you want to meet and work with young New Yorkers who think like you and share your progressive values?
Do you want to join a group that educates other people on the political process in New York City?
Do you want to be a leader and make a difference?
If you’re a high school or college student and answered with a resounding “YES” to the three questions above, you’ve come to the right place. Here, you will find information on how to start your very own chapter of Young Democrats at your school.
MYD is all abot encouraging young people to take action, and that goes for high school and college students, too! We will help get you started and support you, and you’ll be included in all age-appropriate MYD activities.
The high school application is up, with college applications on the way shortly. Go here for more information!
Politics 3.0: Just Too Cheesy/Awesome Not To Post
June 26, 2009 by Emmy
Filed under Politics 3.0
Putting aside the pros and cons of gov’t efforts to leverage social media for citizen outreach, my favorite part is the range of perspectives offered up in the comments on the YouTube page itself:
aliceperez25: tax dollars hard at work. i’m overjoyed.
dphdoptdk: This is cool! Awesome!
browncoat697: This was a parody put out by the government. That seems a bit strange, yet it lets us know that? the government is only mostly out of touch…
neva69eva: no man. this ain’t no parody.
And this one gets extra points for some seriously astute observation skills:
madad0406: The glisses up on the piano while the actual sound of the piano glisses down. Hmm…
