Quote of the day: Gay-marriage edition

From yesterday's New York Times:

With his position still undeclared, Senator Mark J. Grisanti, a Republican from Buffalo who had sought office promising to oppose same-sex marriage, told his colleagues he had agonized for months before concluding he had been wrong.

“I apologize for those who feel offended,” Mr. Grisanti said, adding, “I cannot deny a person, a human being, a taxpayer, a worker, the people of my district and across this state, the State of New York, and those people who make this the great state that it is the same rights that I have with my wife.”

About that draft pick

And, to the Knicks....

Iman Shumpert of Georgia Tech.

Cue the moaning and booing fans.

I guess at pick no. 17, we shouldn't care. But Iman Shumpert was a player most scouts and draft watchers had falling to the second round.

And they passed on Chris Singleton, who the same scouts view as a lock-down defender.

Shumpert is also supposed to be a good defender, so maybe this is just a lot of unnecessary jabbering.

But this is the Knicks, a team that has proven that when a mistake can be made it will be made.

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The end of labor as we know it

I've been trying to decide what to write in response to last night's benefit vote, but I realized that I'd pretty much said what I needed to say a few days ago. Here it is.

To sum things up: The benefits bill strips public workers of important elements of their collective bargaining rights, unilaterally altering existing contracts without offering them any compensation in return. The vote was a political maneuver that continued the scapegoating of public workers and should signal to organized labor that its affiliation with the Democrats has left it vulnerable. It leaves every worker at the mercy of management.

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Announcing an end that is not an end

The draw down has been made public.

The plan: 10,000 troops out by the end of the year; another 20,000 by next fall and a steady draw down after.

That's not exactly a sprint and, of more concern, it leaves about two thirds of the troops in place as President Obams's first term comes to a close -- or his presidency ends. Either way, that's too many men and women in Afghanistan and makes it too easy for the nation's leaders to back away from the withdrawal plan.

This is not, despite what the president said tonight, an end to the war in Afghanistan. The war is going to continue to smolder for several years, just as the war in Iraq continues to smolder.

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Winners in the pension reform debate? Not workers and not NJ taxpayers

Tom Moran says it took "real leadership" for the state Senate to change the state's pension and benefit rules.

I'd call it shortsighted -- and not because it has angered the state's public worker unions.

The problem with the reform bill, which passed today, is that it accelerates the race to the bottom. The argument being made is that public worker benefits must be brought in line with private sector ones, that the public workers are getting a free ride paid for by the rest of us. It is a brilliant move, of course, because it divides workers, pitting them against each other and ending any chance that workers will act in unison and demand better retirement and health benefits.

Instead, we have private sector folks demanding that public worker benefits be gutted, that they be made to deal with the same crappy benefits offered by the private sector.

The problems we face were created by state legislators and governors of both parties who refused to pay what was needed into the state pension fund over the last two decades and who have spent longer than that pretending that we can expand services without asking anyone to pay.

And now that the bill has come due, we expect the court clerk and the cop on the beat to cover the tab.

We should be demanding that private sector workers get the same benefits as public workers, that we get the same pension benefits and that the rich -- who are paying less in taxes now and who are raking in record profits -- cover the costs. That can't happen as long as we scapegoat unions and public sector workers.

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Clarence, rest in peace, big man

Clarence Clemons has joined Danny Federici on the other side.

From brucespringsteen.net.

The Big Man, who suffered a stroke recently, died today at 69, about two years after his fellow E-Streeter succumbed to cancer.

I've seen Springsteen 10 times in concert and it is hard to imagine him introducing the band without the man whose presence on the Born to Run album cover helped turn that into an iconic image

Rest in peace, Big Man.

And rest in peace, Kevin Kavanaugh, keyboardist for the Asbury Jukes -- another keystone of the Jersey Shore sound. I hope both of you are jamming with Danny and the others.

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End collective bargaining on health care -- by expanding Medicare to everyone

The governor -- with support from the Democratic leadership of both houses of the Legislature -- wants to end collective bargaining over health benefits for New Jersey public sector unions.

Governor Chris Christie was the big winner last night when he and the state’s top Democratic and Republican legislative leaders announced they had reached agreement on legislation that would require teachers, police, firefighters and other government employees to pay more toward their pensions and healthcare.

The agreement would effectively strip public employees of the right to bargain over health benefits in their union contracts by having the state unilaterally set health benefit contribution levels through legislation. The unions will undoubtedly challenge any such law in court, but previous court opinions in New Jersey, Wisconsin and other states have upheld the legality of such laws.

Maybe they are on to something.

We should end collective bargaining over health benefits -- by instituting a single-payer system, a Medicare-for-All. Seems pretty simple to me.

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The scandal is business-as-usual

Peter Scheer gets the absurdity of the Anthony Weiner scandal right -- Weiner was arrogant and probably should have resigned, but what he did is nothing compared to the ongoing and too-often legal corruption we witness from Congress, the White House and the state houses and legislatures.

Weiner (along with former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer) had been strong progressive voices, aggressive in their defense of workers' rights, consumer rights and the like, but they both got caught with their pants' down and paid what I think was an appropriate cost.

Charles Rangel, however, remains in office despite his well-publicized financial shenanigans. Bush and Cheney avoided impeachment despite the various illegalities engaged in by their administration. And the list goes on.

Business as usual in Washington is the real scandal.

In the end, we have to ask ourselves what's worse -- Weiner's tweets or a presidential administration's illegal spying. I know the answer. Too bad, the press corps seems not to.

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Think anyone at the Times actually read this paragraph?

Anyone notice the contradiction in this sentence from The New York Times on Anthony Weiner's resignation?

“I don’t think she has made a firm decision, but she is very loyal,” said the friend, who requested anonymity so as not to betray confidential conversations.

So, it's not a betrayal of a confidence if you don't use your name?

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Small victories

A frivolous and dangerous challenge to last year's ruling by a gay federal judge that shot down the state's ban on gay marriage has been tossed out.

Chief U.S. District Judge James Ware said former Chief Judge Vaughn Walker did not have to divulge whether he wanted to marry his own gay partner before he declared last year that voter-approved Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.

Lawyers for backers of the ban argued at a hearing Monday that Walker should have recused himself or disclosed his relationship because he and his partner stood to personally benefit from the verdict. Walker publicly revealed after he retired in February that he is in a 10-year relationship with a man. Rumors that he was gay had circulated before and after he presided over the trial in early 2010.

Ware said the ruling by Walker, who did not attend Monday's hearing, raised important questions and called it the first case in which a judge's same-sex relationship had led to calls for disqualification.

He said there probably were similar struggles when race and gender were the issues.

Just so the issue is clear: This ruling was not about same-sex marriage, but about the attempt to undercut judges. If the challenge had been upheld and Walker's ruling was overturned, it would have made it impossible for gay judges to rule on gay issues -- and opened the door for challenges to decisions made by black judges on racial issues, Latino judges on immigration issues, women judges on gender issues and so on.

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Everything is on the block

Maybe I should just accept it, but there is something unsavory about turning school property into an opportunity to make a buck.

South Brunswick approved a plan last night to allow advertising on its property, hoping it will lead to a boost in revenues that will allow the district to increase spending on education. The advertising initiative is allowed under a relatively new state law and is part of a historical trend in which public facilities are put of for sponsorship.

While the district has no plans to create, say, a Patch.com Field House or the AOL Elementary School, you have to wonder just how long it will be before we have that discussion.

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Even lefties can be creeps

The list of politicians who have been caught publicly with their pants down extends beyond the usual family-values suspects and now includes a progressive Democrat. Anthony Weiner now joins the long list of elected creeps and he needs to be held just as accountable as Larry Craig, Chris Lee and the others.

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War powers should not be partisan issue

Democrats in Congress ignored their responsibilities in military matters today when they failed to force the Obama administration to include the House of Representatives in it's Libya deliberations.

Republicans, playing their own partisan games, are at least nodding in the direction of constitutional limits on presidential war-making, though it is pretty clear based on recent history that this is about Obama and not the constitution.

This partisan bickering is an affront. It should not matter who is in the White House or who runs Congress. It is the House of Representatives' responsibility to take the nation into war, or keep the president from doing so.

The trouble with journalism

Dean Baker at the Center for Economic Policy Research cuts to the chase in describing the failure of big-foot journalists in a post today to his blog.

Basically, he says, journalism has been infected by the disease of he-said-she-said, allowing politicians to spout whatever nonsense they want because they know that none of the major media organizations will do anything to place their blathering in context.

The Republicans blamed the economy's weak job performance in May on the deficit and regulations. Is there any coherent story that they can tell on this or does the WSJ not care?

Suppose the Republicans blamed the weak jobs numbers on the Chicago Bulls loss in the NBA semi-finals. Would this also just be repeated without comment. How about if they blamed it on the color purple? Sure, it's just a he said/she said world.

For the record, if a serious person made this argument then they would back it up with evidence. For example, firms that make longer hiring commitments would be doing less hiring than firms in industries with rapid turnover. (Try to explain the loss of temp jobs in May.) We should also see a big increase in average hours worked, since this does not require any commitment by employers. (We don't.)

You'd have thought we'd learn from all the times this failure has led to disaster -- the war in Iraq, the economic meltdown and subsequent stagnation -- but we haven't. Baker again:

If reporters did their jobs, politicians would actually have to make coherent arguments when they talked about the economy, instead of just saying whatever nonsense advanced their political agenda.

It's not an issue of bias, after all; it's just laziness.

Knicks: One step forward, two steps back

In a world ruled by sane men -- which generally leaves the folks at Madison Square Garden outside of the mix -- the Knicks would have retained Donnie Walsh as president and general manager and let Mike D'Antoni go at the end of his coaching contract. Walsh, after all, has done a remarkable job of cleaning up the mess he inherited and getting the Knicks into the playoffs.

So, where does this team go now?

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The debt debate: Taking bets on Democratic cave-in

Moody's has issued a warning that should shorten the debate over the debt ceiling.

Moody’s Investors Service warned on Thursday that it might downgrade the nation’s sterling credit rating if Congress does not increase the nation’s debt limit “in coming weeks,” putting a spur to sputtering talks between party leaders and the White House to reach agreement on a long-term deficit-reduction plan. 

The debt ceiling has been used as a political football by the GOP this year, though Democrats have been unwilling to acknowledge that some of the questions raised by their Republican opponents about mounting debt are legitimate.


Debt is a long-term problem and will need to be controlled, but the prescriptions being pushed by the GOP are downright mean-spirited and disingenuous. We can deal with the deficit by ending our multiprong war on terror, reducing our military footprint world wide, creating jobs (a healthy economy will go a long way toward generating added tax revenues), reversing the Bush tax cuts and closing corporate tax loopholes. We don't need to gut Medicare or Social Security.

But don't expect Democrats to fight for these kinds of remedies. Instead, we probably should be taking bets to see how quickly Democratic leaders cave in to Republican demands as a way to avert a catastrophe created by GOP recalcitrance.

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Chris Christie, family man

Gov. Christie arrives by state police helicopter Tuesday afternoon at St. Joseph Regional High School in Montvale for the school's baseball game against Delbarton. Christie's son Andrew plays for Delbarton. Credit Christopher Costa for Patch

At another time, this might be just the cliched tempest in a teapot, just another governor abusing the perks of office.

But in 2011, with a great budget-balancer slashing state spending and being talked up for national office, Chris Christie's arrogance gets placed on full view for national consumption.

The story goes like this (broken by our colleagues at the Ridgewood Patch):

Governor Christie landed in Bergen County in a state police helicopter late Tuesday afternoon to attend his son's baseball game against St. Joseph Regional High School in Montvale.

Christie arrived shortly before 4 p.m. to watch his son Andrew play baseball for Delbarton School. He was driven from the helicopter about 100 yards to the field in a black car with tinted windows.

The governor then flew back to Princeton for a meeting with Iowa Republicans -- you know, Iowa, where the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses will be held in 2012.

Previous governors -- Jim McGreevey, Jon Corzine -- were criticized loudly by the Republicans for their use and misuse of taxpayer-paid transportation. I would have thought the governor, who is as savvy a politician as there is in the state, would have seen the controversy coming. But, and this is key, he not only is savvy, but horribly arrogant -- probably the most arrogant and imperious man to occupy the New Jersey State House in memory.

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Dramatic, yes, but missing the point

Trailer

I just watched HBO's Too Big to Fail and I have to say that, dramatically, it lives up to the hype. The story moves along at a brisk pace and the star-studded cast turns in a collection of powerful performances.

And yet, Too Big to Fail fails in the same way that historical recreations often fail: It simplifies the 2008 financial disaster, turns a massive systemic derailment into a story of individuals. Hank Paulson and Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke and the leaders of the big banks and investment houses -- these are the players, the decision-makers and the men (almost exclusively) who nearly drove the nation off a cliff and then, at the last minute, righted it.

This makes for great cinema and storytelling, but it is lousy history. The 2008 financial crisis had far deeper roots than the film implies. They go far deeper than just the Clinton-era financial reforms that turned the Street into a casino, deeper than the deregulatory mania of the Carter and Reagan years. The problem is capitalism itself, which is prone to boom-and-bust cycles and demands profits at all costs.

Too Big to Fail is, in the end, insider baseball, the story of how Washington insiders averted a crisis of their own making.

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