Not if our State Senate has anything to say about it.  Let’s face it, it’s time for even the most die-hard of Democrats to admit that big government is out and fiscal responsibility is in, even if it means whittling away at key social welfare programs like early childhood education. While most other states are using every resource they can find to plug the leaks in their budgets, New York legislators are just adding to the waterfall.

Bill Hammond says the “worthless State Senate,” which has rejected Paterson’s proposals to cut spending, will carry on funding overburdened, inefficient state programs until New York is functionally bankrupt.  He writes:

Rejecting virtually every one of Paterson’s modest midyear budget cuts, the Democrats instead propose to break open every piggy bank and run up every credit card to max – in a desperate attempt to keep the spending party going for a few more months.

This recipe for fiscal disaster was theoretically authored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn). But it might as well be the handiwork of the hospital lobby and the teachers union – whose talking points were parroted by Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson of Brooklyn.

Blame the legislators, blame the unions, blame anyone you want–it doesn’t change the reality that someone in this state needs to wise up and stop the spending-spree.  Governor Paterson has tried but, apparently, his words are not enough.  The Democratic party in this state is in dire need of a new generation and we at MYD should be the beginning of that.  Let’s start forming a new Democratic organization in New York that isn’t afraid to stand up to corrupt and lazy politicians (Espada, we’re looking at you) and won’t continue to drain our resources until we are so bankrupt and our credit rating is so shot that we have nothing left.

Is Obama-mania like a trendy charity?

Sure we all had our buttons, lawn-signs (well, not in NYC, but you get my point), posters, t-shirts…the list goes on.  But where are they now?  More importantly, what happened to the intangibles like our thirst for change and motivation to turn America around?  Have they gone the way of the charity-rubber-bracelet trend?  The Times suggests, indeed, they may have.

…that fervor has died down — noticeably. And while young people remain the president’s most loyal supporters in opinion polls, a lot of people are wondering why that age group isn’t doing more to build upon their newfound reputation as political influencers.

Good question.  Why aren’t we doing more to help President Obama’s initiatives gain popular support?  Of all the hypotheses put forth by the Times, the most persuasive is that young people have a hard time translating how the big-picture issues like health care (something we as a cohort use very little of) directly impacts our lives or will  be impacted by our involvement.  I think we understood clearly how much the campaign needed our help to get to the White House but have not grasped how much that help is still needed.

Well, there will be no excuses after you’ve read this because MYD makes it really easy to have an impact! Here are a couple things you can do right now to help Obama and the progressive agenda move forward:

Call Senator Schumer and thank him for supporting the Public Option, and ask him to stand strong in his position — Finance Committee is voting on legislation TOMORROW!

Watch and share MoveOn’s video about Dawn, who was denied coverage from CIGNA to treat her brain tumor.

Submit a 30-second video to tell your personal story about why we need Healthcare Reform on the OFA website. Deadline is Oct 18.

Donate $10 to support an ad campaign in Maine to support ME. The opposition is pulling out all the stops and trying to pass something like Prop 8 — don’t let them do it!

Join New York Equality, a coalition brought together by MYD to fight for marriage equality right here in NY. We’re in a holding pattern until it is brought to the floor of the NY State Senate, but we’ll get you plugged in as soon as that happens.

There are always things to do, and most of them are super simple and only take a few minutes. So dust off that Obama pin and get clicking and calling, young’us–the country needs us!

Recently, ACORN employees were caught on tape giving business advice to an aspiring sex trade entrepreneur by telling him to market his business as “performance artists” and how to avoid taxes.  Perhaps they’ve taken the mission of community action too far?  Lipson reasons:

Independent prosecutors should not be appointed lightly. But in this case, there are good reasons why Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and other political appointees in the Justice Department should step aside. First, although no allegations have yet touched the Obama campaign, ACORN did have significant ties to the campaign and other progressive causes. Published reports show that ACORN and its subsidiaries received some $800,000 from the Obama campaign to get out the vote. Second, ACORN is intimately tied to the Service Employees International Union, one of President Barack Obama’s most powerful and vocal supporters.

Are the ties to the Obama campaign enough to warrant a special prosecutor?  Does this mean the administration has to recuse itself in every case involving an entity which helped out during the campaign?  Either way, we’ll certainly be watching to see how this unfolds.

Despite young people’s support of the health care plan, there is one big hurdle to translating that approval into action:

No matter how they vote, older voters turn out in heavy numbers in a midterm election, like the one looming next year…

And it is yet to be seen whether the surge of young voters who turned out for Mr. Obama in last year’s presidential elections–and who helped Mr. Obama overcome a relatively weak showing with voters over 65–will return without Mr. Obama on the ballot.

Even though the midterms are a year away and NYC government is not exactly responsible for the health care reform bill, Nagourney’s words still show us how important every election is and how much is riding on the turnout of young voters.  From the president to Mayor, Public Advocate, Comptroller, District Attorney and City Council it is important to get out there and vote for progressive candidates who share your views!

Let’s get out the vote, everyone–see you at the polls! Find polling info here.

A recent article from the Chicago Tribune, however, says otherwise.  Even though young people are in favor of reform, the article says, they don’t see much need for health care for themselves.  Thus, they seem to have tuned out the specifics of health care reform despite generally supporting it.

Members of Congress and activist groups are now urging young adults to tune in. Earlier this month, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., held a news conference with people who represent youth organizations, including Rock the Vote, which mobilized millions of young voters to turn out on Election Day.

…The term “young invincibles” is often used to refer to the 13.2 million young people without insurance, who some say are gambling on not getting sick. Berendt Lavoi [who suffered from an unexpected illness while uninsured] says she wants people to realize what’s at stake.

“Young people, we joke about how we cannot afford health insurance,” she said. “To be going after your dream and not have something in place that can help you, it scares me.”

It is easy to see why young people have mostly ignored the specifics.  We are generally healthy and the debate has become marred by the ridiculous “death panel” business and the like.  Young people, however, are primed to be the ones to get the debate back on track.  If we all really do support health care reform as much as the polling data suggests, let’s put our money where our mouth is and get involved!  Start by checking out Young Invincibles online (and by joining the MYD Health Care Committee).

While figuring out there is a difference between the opinions of older and younger people isn’t rocket science, many of us don’t realize just how vast the difference is.  The graphic below illustrates the views on same-sex marriage of people 65 and over (blue diamonds) and people 18-29 (red squares):

Ryan Sager of True/Slant rightly points out that this chart tells us that

If people over 65 in each state made the laws, 0 states would have gay marriage; if people under 30 made the laws, 38 states would have gay marriage.

Astounding. Even in a state like Massachusetts where young support of gay marriage is very high, support among those over 65 is still only at a tepid 35%.  Thankfully, trends show that today’s young people are not likely to change their pro-gay rights stance as they reach their twilight years.  The reason for this is that young people mostly grow up knowing someone who is gay where as old people claim they did not, and this simple fact makes our generation more amenable to changing the marriage status-quo.  (Note this phenomenon that people who are familiar with something are more accepting of it is true for many issues, e.g., areas with low immigrant populations tend to be much more concerned with illegal immigration than areas which have a high percentage of immigrants.)

You know what else this chart shows us?  New York is one of the states where current policy is incongruous with public opinion. Well, not if MYD has anything to say about it!! Check out http://www.newyorkequality.com for info about how to tell Albany that you are sick and tired of their inaction it’s about time they did the real people’s business.

Hat Tip: Marty

During his sophomore year at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, he volunteered in Honduras with a campus group and was struck by the extreme poverty he saw — barefoot children collecting cans and sleeping in the streets. Fujiyama says he realized he could help give other children their own second chance.

Today, his organization, Students Helping Honduras, brings education and community projects to children and families in need through student service trips and fundraisers.

“Seeing the country and being able to make a difference really opened my eyes to a lot of things,” he says. “I saw such a great need. I wanted to keep helping.”

Shin now spends his summers in Honduras while his sister lives there full-time to oversee the organization’s efforts.  Their mission emphasizes grassroots outreach and understands the mentality of many young people that you do not need to be a wealthy professional to effect meaningful change–and they’ve raised over $750K to prove it!  To learn more about the organization check out their website.

A couple of weeks after the mayor left the door open about the possibility of extending term limits a second time and attempting to stay in office for a total of sixteen years, he once again alluded to the notion of four more (more) years. This time the slip came during his weekly radio broadcast while the mayor was discussing a campaign initiative which would have 120,000 New Yorkers graduating community colleges by 2020. He said, “Community colleges are really a step for a lot of people. We did it as part of something where I was trying to lay out in the campaign [what] you would do in a fourth term, which I think you have a responsibility to do.”

Just as with the last instance of the mayor expanding his horizons, a spokesman was quick to insist afterward that Bloomberg intended to say his third term. The city college graduation plan would actually come at the end of a fifth Bloomberg term, which the mayor has not yet commented on.

So was this a Freudian slip or true political ambition…or both?

Clyde Haberman’s July 13th column for the New York Times points out:

There are six statewide elective offices. Four of them are now filled by politicians who were not the people’s choices. They fell into their positions by virtue of someone else’s malefaction or ambition.

The governor, as noted, is unelected. He has now named a lieutenant governor, an appointment whose legality is uncertain. The state comptroller was handed the job by his Assembly colleagues after his elected predecessor resigned in disgrace. The junior United States senator is also an appointee, selected by the unelected — dare we say accidental — governor.

So much for democracy, right?  New Yorkers certainly deserve to have a choice when they head to the ballot box and while Gillibrand may very well have won in the end anyway, it was nice to think that there would at least be some competition.  Even if Representative Maloney was not favored to win, she should still be recognized for her efforts to imbue a litte more democracy into our state.

The real kicker is that these fees were not really due on Monday….in fact, they were due in 2001 after Espada ran for Bronx Borough President eight years ago.  The New York Daily News reports:

For a second straight day, Espada’s lawyer Laurence Laufer said payment was “imminent.”

Espada said a check was to be delivered to Laufer late yesterday. The lawyer would then send it to the board.

“They’ll get their money,” Espada said.

In addition to the $61,000 Espada owes the city, he owes the state $10,309 in late campaign finance fees as well as 23 disclosure reports.  All this from your esteemed Senate Majority Leader?  Espada continues to sit at the helm of the State Senate while he defrauds the state and his constituents in the Bronx (or is it Westchester?).  It’s time for our leadership in Albany to step up and act respectably.

But remember…Don’t get mad, get the t-shirt!  “Don’t Vote for Pedro” t-shirts are still for sale!  Order online here.