T-Shirt Tracker Special Edition: OMG WTF MTA?

Okay, so it’s not a “campaign” t-shirt per se, but I’m still tagging this post as part of our ongoing Campaign T-Shirt Tracker series.  Well played, Working Families Party…well played.  Via Gothamist:

The MTA may be able to keep the WFP from posting their parody posters in subway stations, but they can’t keep disgruntled straphangers everywhere from wearing these shirts! (Or can they?) The Working Families Party sent out an email to supporters saying, “This shirt expresses the reaction of so many New Yorkers to the MTA’s ever-worsening fare increases and service cuts — and it helps send a message to politicians in City Hall and Albany that they should be doing more to support transit riders.”

And technically, you don’t even have to buy it; just make a donation of at least $14 to the party and they’ll send one to you. Though it accurately uses the real colors for the F and soon-to-be-discontinued W line, they missed a huge opportunity by notusing the turquoise that will be featured on the forthcoming 2nd Avenue T line. Perhaps a veiled comment on how it may never actually exist?

Rep. Anthony Weiner with MYD, Telling It Like It Is.

As promised, here’s a compilation of three of my favorite moments from Anthony Weiner’s pre-Q&A comments at our great event celebrating the passage of the Big F***ing Deal on Wednesday night…

Apologies for the poor quality, but that’s what I get for bringing a smartphone when a true videocam was clearly called for.

Complete video to follow.

Campaign T-Shirt Tracker! — Inaugural Gillibrand Edition

Let’s face it – we’re into politics, and we’re young enough that we can still remember college.  And what’s one of the hallmarks of the college experience?  All the random t-shirts for things.  And we at MYD love t-shirts, from last summer’s Don’t Vote For Pedro to the Big F***ing Deal.

So, it’s a state election year.  With all of our statewide elected offices up for election this year (including BOTH U.S. senators), what looks to be a wild multiple-candidate throwdown in the election for state Attorney General, AND both houses of the state legislature up for reelection…there will be a lot of competitive campaigns, a lot of campaigning, and therefore a lot of campaign swag.

So, when 2010 NY campaign t-shirts come our way, we’ll be posting pics, sometimes with comments.  Above left, here’s a look at our first catch of the 2010 cycle, a Gillibrand shirt we snagged at the Senator’s low-dollar event last week.

At right is a close-up of the logo design on the t-shirt.  It’s bold and busy, with lots of familiar NYC symbols (interesting when you consider that she represented an upstate district in congress).  I’m usually not a fan of t-shirts this busy – between the symbols substituting for letters (or crowding in on top of them), the variation in letter sizes, etc.  That said, I think it hangs together.

I’m a huge fan of the fact that Gillibrand is all over the Democratic brand, prominently displaying the color blue, the word Democrat, and even the donkey logo.  This kind of reflects her current style as a senator and candidate — instead of  trying to be all things to all people, Gillibrand’s been taking strong positions on issues we care about, from healthcare to equal rights issues like Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and doing what she can to move the ball forward.

As always, this post does not constitute an MYD endorsement of Senator Gillibrand, as MYD does not render endorsements in contested Democratic primaries.

Awesome: New Video from Fight Back NY

Via Liz Benjamin, here’s a new video from the well-funded political action committee that’s been gunning for state senators who voted against marriage equality, starting with Senator Hiram Monserrate.  It’s “Jaws-themed” and it’s kind of awesome.  Take a look:

Reality Check

State Senator Jeff Klein (D-Bronx, Westchester), who heads the state senate Democrats’ campaign organization, should get props for the most appropriate reaction to the trouble Gov. Paterson finds himself in and his decision to suspend his campaign.  From the Journal News’ Politics on the Hudson blog:

State Sen. Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, who also represents parts of Yonkers, Mount Vernon and several other communities in Westchester, issued a statement earlier today about the troubles facing Gov. David Paterson.

“It is unfortunate that at a time when our state is in the midst of a severe economic crisis and we need to direct our energy to putting New York’s fiscal house in order, we are embroiled in chatter about who will or will not be on the ballot nine months from now. We need to keep our eye on the ball. I’m focused on the budget and finding ways in which we can better protect the people’s money, put more tax dollars back in people’s pockets and restore the financial health of our state. Political conversations can be had after we’ve met our obligations and responsibilities to New Yorkers.”

Word.

Ladies and Gentlemen: U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner

When Anthony Weiner breaks through the fake DC collegiality and tells it like it is on healthcare (“I mean, you guys have chutzpah. The Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of insurance companies.”) the Republicans get offended and ask that his “words be taken down” (disciplinary procedure for “inappropriate language”).

So Anthony Weiner retracts his statement, and then goes on to say (this is at about the 2:25 mark in the video):

Make no mistake about it, every single Republican I have ever met in my entire life is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the insurance industry.

Awesome.  My favorite moment is when the Republican asks that his words be taken down the first time, and Weiner just crosses his arms and tells him “you really don’t wanna go here.”  The Video:

Avella Planning Campaign Against GOP State Senator (Who Voted Against Marriage Equality)

This story has been floating around for a while, but it’s jumped from likely to extremely likely: it looks like former NYC Councilman Tony Avella is going to take on GOP State Senator Frank Padavan in Queens.  From the Queens Times-Ledger:

Avella said he will probably jump into the race by the end of the month and plans to focus on the same issues he championed on the Council, such as fighting overdevelopment and ethics reform, along the campaign trail.

Avella’s earned his reputation as a reformer and someone unafraid to tackle tough challenges.  He attempted an uphill primary against Bill Thompson for the Democratic nomination for mayor last year.  He opposed the extension of term limits for city officials that Mayor Bloomberg forced through, and didn’t take try to take advantage of the extension once the deed was done.  So Avella looks like he’s got the right resume to bring some change to Albany, and he definitely knows the score:

“The one thing I found surprising on the Council is how little power the city has and how much of the legislation I introduced was dependent on Albany,” he said. “I think I have the reputation for being a reformer. If there’s any place crying out for reform, it’s Albany. I want to make government more responsible and ethical.”

Word.

Keep your eyes on this one, and get psyched for it.  Frank Padavan is one of the 30 Republicans who voted no while polling indicated the majority of New Yorkers were ready to say yes to marriage equality as long ago as last summer.  Padavan is also one of the 30 Republicans without whose help the coup could not have happened and our state would not have been held hostage by two opportunistic senators, both one of whom is still in the senate.  So essentially Frank Padavan is:

• For turning Albany into even more of a mess than normal
• Against equal rights
• (A Republican)

Get psyched for this campaign – it’ll be one of (hopefully) several opportunities for NYCers to take our government back in 2010.

Thought The MTA Was An Issue Last Year? Things Could Get Even More Interesting.

Ben Muessig at Gothamist is one among many reporting today that a fare hike jumping monthly metrocard rates to over $100 may be on the way.

Meanwhile, the Daily News reports that members of the Assembly are speaking out against the MTA’s threat to charge students to commute to school (right now students can commute for free).  All of this is against the backdrop of teachers unions and others getting ready for a rally today against the proposal to hit up half a million students for money to help plug the MTA’s shortfall.

Unfortunately, the $800 billion needed to plug the MTA’s budget gap is going to have to come from somewhere.  But taking money from students trying to get to school is, well, dumb.

We’re going to be hearing a lot more about this as the politics play out.  It’s no coincidence that the Transport Workers Union is running ads on 1010WINS this month.

Fingers Crossed: Stimulus Money May Stimulate Moynihan Station!

Investing in our mass transportation infrastructure: this is a key, key function of government, and one that ours has ignored for way too long.  This is why one of the two key rail hub in New York is the nasty maze underneath Madison Square Garden known as Penn Station.

But hope is on the horizon!  The forever-stalled project to turn the old Farley Post Office into a real live honest-to-goodness train station may actually happen, thanks to the injection of stimulus funds for the first phase of the project.  At right is a pic of an atrium planned in a Moynihan Station concept.  Sunlight and trains! In the same place! Amazing!

Stuff like this is a perfect demonstration of good economic stimulus in action – instead of budget-busting tax breaks that may or may not actually cause businesses to hire more people, make more stuff, or do anything else particularly useful for getting the economy back on track, this money can go directly to employing people (yay!) who will be working on laying the groundwork for increased economic activity (in this case, better rail access).

Bottom line, infrastructure spending is investing in America, essentially.

Then again, even with the allocation of the stimulus funds, the future of the Moynihan Station project isn’t certain.  From the Observer:

All is not to say that a shiny new train hall is about to become a reality. With the project always collapsing under its own ambition, the state and Port Authority in 2009 restructured it into “bite-size chunks,” in the words of one official, and the stimulus money is going toward just the first phase, $267 million in infrastructure work that would build new entrances along Eighth Avenue and expand an underground concourse on the western end of Penn Station’s platforms.

Taken in isolation, this first phase does not seem a project worth the significant money being devoted to it, and now the concern becomes whether the second phase will indeed ever happen. Private developers the Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust-a partnership between which once planned a far grander scheme that involved moving Madison Square Garden-still say they are interested, and Amtrak has signed an agreement to move to the Farley Building, should a train hall be built.

But the history of the project dictates this will never be as easy a task as it seems. The question with the potential start of construction within months is whether or not Moynihan has actually turned a corner.

More on this from City Room.

Holy #%@&, What Happened Yesterday?!

Yesterday was one frakking eventful day in NY politics.  Let’s review:

Good News: The NYS Senate voted overwhelmingly to tell Hiram Monserrate to take a hike.

"I feel a lot better about us as an institution right now, that we finally did something that was correct. It was a step forward," said Albany Senator Neil Breslin.

Word.

For those who have blocked out this one and/or weren’t following the story, Monserrate is part of the “thug and thief” tag-team that started the state senate coup last summer.  He was convicted of misdemeanor domestic assault charges recently but acquitted of felony charges, prompting many to demand that the senate Fire Monserrate.

While Monserrate will go to court to overturn the senate’s decision, the panel that recommended expelling him did a great job digging up a long line of precedents on the right of state legislatures to expel members for intolerable conduct.  I doubt Monserrate will succeed in overturning this.

Bad News: We got thumped in yesterday’s special elections for four assembly seats.

Republican Bob Castelli (who is a fan of the tea partiers, apparently) beat Westchester County Legislator Peter Harckham by about ten points.  I volunteered for Harckham, who is a great guy and one of the best and most effective legislators in Westchester, and his campaign did pretty much everything right.  Democratic voters are angry and dismayed and don’t want to come out to vote for Democrats.  Young people were especially absent on this one – on a college campus (SUNY Purchase) with over 1,000 registered to vote, only 25 pulled the lever on election day.  The state controls tuition, marriage equality, and tons of other key issues – young people need to come out and vote, if only to fight for our interests in the face of state budget squeezes.

Elsewhere, David Weprin held on to his brother’s old Assembly seat in Queens, but other than that, we lost yesterday, failing to capture a vacated Republican seat in Nassau County and failing to hold onto a Democratic seat in Suffolk County.

Against the backdrop of these setbacks, etc, our leaders clearly need to learn a key lesson.  To avoid a backslide into Republican dominance, Democrats will need to be bold, buck the national leadership when the national leadership is failing, show a commitment to fighting for results.  We need to be a party worth believing in.

I’m-Just-Not-Going-To-Characterize-This News:

NYC Councilman Larry Seabrook turned himself in to the Feds yesterday after they announced an amazing, sixty-six page indictment.  From the DN:

The litany of larceny for the married politician ran the gamut from funneling $322,800 to his girlfriend through dicey nonprofits to collecting $177 in expenses for a $7 bagel and diet soda.

"I don’t know about the bagel," said his defense attorney, Murray Richman. "But bagels can be expensive."

I’m shocked his lawyer didn’t claim instead that a $177 bagel is only a little worse than the $175 burgers available at the Wall Street Burger Shoppe.  *Sigh*…

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