Because They Could

WOW!

Council Votes, 29 to 22, to Extend Term Limits

I've seen some ballsy, brazen, outrageous things in my time, and we New Yorkers aren't known to be shrinking violets, but this just amazes me in its arrogance and shamelessness. It stuns me. After the people of this city voted for it by referendum twice, and after polls showed that nine out of ten New Yorkers DID NOT want them to do this, the city council went ahead and amended the term limits law. Now all city officials can serve three consecutive terms instead of two. The city council just changed the law, against the will of the people, to preserve their own jobs and those of their fellow city politicians, Mayor Bloomberg most of all.

They did it ... because they could.

Oh, I know the counterargument. "Nobody has to vote for Bloomberg or any of these people. You can vote against them. It's possible they might all lose. It's just giving the people another choice. It's more democracy, not less."

Please.

This is the kinda crap Bloomberg and his supporters have been arguing and it's totally dishonest. What they're really saying is, "we like power and want to keep it." The city council wouldn't have passed this bill if they thought they'd all lose. Incumbents in this town below the Mayoral level almost never lose unless they get indicted or caught shtuping a dead woman or a live boy. And Bloomberg, he'll just go through the pillows on his couch and and pull out another $100 million to buy a third mayoral election. Does anyone have a chance against him and his vast resources? Come on!!

Mike, the "indispensable" Mayor, the only man qualified and capable of being mayor of this town. Gimme a break!

This is a sad, sad day in NYC. No, it's not 9/11, no one died here and I'm not going to claim that democracy died today either. It just took a vicious hit.

The ironic thing is that I was always against the term limits law and voted against it in 1996. But guess what? My side lost! The will of the people had spoken! And now the city council said that the will of the people isn't really that important, not if it gets in the way of saving their jobs and the political class. So they just ignored it ... because they could.

Memo from NYC

In just under two weeks, we Americans will head to the polls to elect a new President and Congress. Notice that I had the chutzpah to say "we Americans" because, according to some people, folks like me in Blue States aren't real Americans.

Recently Sarah Palin has said that she will campaign only in "pro-American" states. This past Friday some wackjob Republican congresswoman named Michelle Bachmann talked about how the media should "launch an investigation" into members of Congress who were "anti-American." Apparently people who are "anti-American" or insufficiently "pro-American" are people who disagree with the likes of Madames Palin and Bachmann. Joe McCarthy is alive and well and, strangely enough, wears high heels and a skirt! Who knew he was a transvestite?

As a native New Yorker, I take exception with these self-appointed guardians of "Americanism". According to these people, your Americanism boils down to where you live or how you vote. It does not, however, have anything to do with how you or your family lives or contributes to American society.

Never mind that my father and grandfather fought in two of our nation's wars.

Never mind that one of my great uncles, a guy from Brooklyn, got blown up in WWII.

Never mind that it was NYC and Washington, DC, towns infested with liberal Democrats, that got attacked on 9.11.2001.

If you don't vote Republican or live in a Red State, that stuff still doesn't make you or members of your family "real Americans."

How does this work anyway? One side of my family is from "anti-America" NYC, the other side is from Western Pennsylvania, which John McCain just called the "most patriotic part of America." Does that make me half pro-, half anti-American? Do the pro and anti halves cancel each other out? Please clarify this for me, it's so confusing.

And what of the "real America" anyway? What is life like out there in those "pro-American" Red states?

If you read this 2006 article from Vanity Fair, Red State Babylon by James Walcott, it's ain't a pretty site. If fact, it's a creepy, grotesque, moral cesspool. Compared to Red States, Blue States are law-abiding bastions of squareness. The Red State narcissism of the likes of Palin and Bachmann -- that feeling of down home, Joe Six pack, hockey mom cultural superiority to their Blue State brethren -- appears to exist in inverse proportion to reality.

Did you know that Red States have the highest rates of violent crime and suicide? And the biggest numbers of obese people and pregnant teenagers (I can't think of any of our political leaders mentioned here who might know something about that). And when they aren't busy killing themselves or each other, or overeating and knocking up their teenagers, they're busy dodging exploding crystal meth labs on their way to losing money in Indian and riverboat casinos.

And talking about money, Red Staters have no business complaining about high taxes. Ohhhhhhhhh no. (Heck no, as Ms. Palin might say.) According to the blogger TaxProf, Blue States are a giant feed bag of tax dollars for Red States. All those "pro-America" Red States would have third-world economies if not for the financial largess of the "anti-American" Blue States. We New Yorkers send close to $10 billion a year in extra tax dollars to the federal coffers that gets sent to build pork barrel projects in the Red States. That's money that never comes back home here and doesn't go into improving our schools and public transportation or paying our cops and firefighters more. I agree with the Republican: taxes should be lower -- for Blue Staters. Red Staters should either pay their fare share or give us back our money. Now!

Most of all, these right wing nuts do a great disservice to their fellow Red Staters. I have relatives and friends in places like Tennessee, Missouri, and North Carolina who are some of the most progressive, open minded, kind hearted, generous people you'd ever want to meet (some of my best friends are Red Staters, ha ha ha). And what nitwits like Palin and Bachmann, et al do is make people in Blue States think that all Red Staters are mean-spirited lunatics which, I can personally attest to, they most certainly are not. But this is how the Republicans try to divide and conquer -- and it's disgusting.

If all goes well, these culture warriors will feel the pain on November 4th. It won't end this "anti" and "pro" America stuff forever but if they see that it's a loser politically, maybe they'll try something a little more productive for change. And then, maybe, just maybe, America can heal itself.

Sid & Nancy Live!

New York magazine has a great article this week about Nancy Spungen, she of Sid and Nancy fame. She died thirty years ago this month at the Chelsea Hotel on 23rd street, the victim of a heinous murder that, to this day, remains largely a mystery as to how and why it happened. She was only 20 years old.

Nancy was the princess of punk, the ultimate groupie, and one crazy chick. In death, she became elevated to the status of music icon even though she never played a note herself. Her relationship with Sex Pistols guitarist Sid Vicious (who couldn’t play either, but that’s a different story) has gone down in history as probably the most infamous relationship since Anthony and Cleopatra. Their sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll saga, short lived though it was, has left a permanent imprint on the psyche of rock music and America in general. They represented the end of an era, the coke-fueled, reckless train-wreck of the insanely selfish 1970s, Tom Wolfe’s Me Decade. Two years later Ronald Reagan would be elected president and a new conservatism would grip America. Sid and Nancy would have had no place in this world, a kind of collateral damage I suppose.

Sid was accused of Nancy’s murder, although whether it was intentional or the result of a drug binge remains unclear. Sid overdosed in jail four months later so Nancy’s murder has never been fully solved. In 1986, a movie about their crazy life together was came out called, simply enough, Sid and Nancy. Gary Oldman played Sid and the very under appreciated Chloe Webb was Nancy.

About a month before Nancy’s murder, they appeared on a local cable show in NYC (YouTube won't allow me to post it for some reason but this link should take you to it; the quality is grainy to say the least). This show is referenced in the article and it's a total riot.

Courtney Love modeled her whole life on Nancy Spungen’s. Let’s hope it has a happier ending. And let’s hope that, after thirty years, Sid and Nancy managed to find some peace in that big amplifier in the sky (preferably turned off, like the Six Pistols used to do to Sid during his awful playing).

Review: "Speed-The-Plow"

Twenty years ago Broadway saw the premiere of David Mamet's three-person play "Speed-the-Plow", a vicious expose of Hollywood and, by extension, the nature of American capitalism. I remember when it opened in 1988 (oh yes, I remember it well) because Madonna was making her Broadway debut. It also starred Joe Mantegna as hot shot movie producer Bobby Gould and Ron Silver as his uberloyal assistant Charlie Fox and has been revived many times since.

The most recent rival opened on Broadway last week and stars Jeremy Piven from Entourage as Bobby, Raul Esparza (Pushing Daisies and last year's Broadway revival of "Company") as Charlie, and Elisabeth Moss from Mad Men as Betsy (can you imagine playing a part originated by Madonna? The pressure!). The plot revolves around a can't miss movie project that Charlie brings to Bobby that they know will make them both very rich. In the meantime they make a bet for $500 that Bobby can sleep with his new secretary Betsy. Bobby lures Betsy to his house by asking her to read and report on a silly book that will never get made into a movie. But then ...

Needless to say, the clashing of sex and ambition leads to the story's not-terribly surprising ending. The moral of this story: doing what is right is unimportant if it gets in the way of making money. Making the movie that means something and has a positive message is irrelevant if it doesn't put people in the seats. A conscience is the enemy of ambition. Money conquers all.

This new production may be the most Mametesque of Mamet plays: a fast moving, bleak morality tale with super-stylized dialogue and a minimalist set. Piven is hypnotic as Bobby Gould, and while his performance reminds you a great deal of his character on Entourage, he crafts a man who wants to do the right thing but can't put his ambition aside. Elisabeth Moss does a decent job as Betsy but, to be fair to her, her part is a little underwritten (Mamet has never created a great female character in all honesty). The real star, the real blazing talent in this show, is Raul Esparza. He is a Broadway star if there ever was one and his Charlie Fox -- a totally heartless, self-centered narcissist -- is searing. I saw him in "Company" last year where he created a lovable Bobby but his talent is such that he does a completely convincing 180 to become the devil incarnate. His performance alone is worth the "price of admission."

So see "Speed-the-Plow" if you can. In these brutal economic times, it's a good reminder of how the almighty dollar controls us all.

The Al Smith Dinner 2008

McCain and Obama put on a good show at the Al Smith Dinner last week but forget about them for a moment. Al Smith was probably the greatest governor this state ever had and did so much to pull its citizens out of poverty. It's great to see that, each year, his legacy is honored.

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation

Colin Powell Endorses Obama

This is all the buzz this morning. How it will affect the election is anyone's guess.

Powell Endorses Obama

By the way, in case you didn't know, Colin Powell is a native New Yorker and graduate of City College. He was born in Harlem and grew up in the South Bronx. And today he made NYC proud.

The Brand Spankin' New TKTS Booth

Last week the new TKTS booth opened in Times Square to much fanfare. I went by it on Friday and it's really something to see. For those of you who don't know what TKTS is, it's the place where you can get same day, half-price tickets to various concerts and shows. Besides the big one in Times Square, there is another booth at South Street Seaport and also one at MetroTech in Brooklyn. Go here for more info.

This new "booth" is located at 47th street and Broadway and is actually more of a plaza now. The ticket windows are located on the northern part of the street and you check the available shows and prices on two large electronic monitors on either side of the block. The main attraction, of course, is the giant 27 step, ruby red glass staircase that encloses the booth. If you walk to the top, you can get a sweeping view of the whole blinking, vibrating, neon circus that is Times Square. It's also nice to know when there's another place where the public can literally get a new view of NYC.

Building this new booth took almost ten years due to numerous setbacks and various financial problems. It's great it finally came into being. See what other folks around town have had to say about it:

Atop the New TKTS Booth, Ruby-Red Stairs With a View of the Great White Way

The New TKTS Booth

New TKTS Booth to Take Credit Cards

Stepping Up: New Times Square TKTS Booth Finally Opens

Today in NYC

For a city that has existed for almost 400 years, there can only be a few single, solitary days that are worthy of the history books (January 1st, 1898 or September 11, 2001 spring to mind, obviously). October 16, 2008 will certainly not go down in the history books as a particular memorable day in NYC history. But it's a day that, in my opinion, shows the dynamism that is our city -- something comes, something goes, something is ... fought over. To whit:

The Queen Elizabeth II, one of the grandest transatlantic ocean liners to ever traverse the globe, made its final visit to New York harbor today. After over 800 visits, it left our city for the last time tonight, on its way to Dubai, the great Middle Eastern capital. There it will become a floating hotel, never to visit our shores or ports again. Something will never quite be the same in our city without the QEII docking here. But things change, and some things are lost to those changes. And life goes on.

Meanwhile, the City Council is hotly debating term limits. Should they be extended -- and how? By the council? By the voters? Should they be abolished? Should they be extended at all? Passions and voices are flaring, tempers reaching the boiling point. As I type, the council is hearing testimony both pro and con. How this will be resolved no one knows. To be continued ...

And yet, in the middle of losing the QEII and the maelstrom over New York City politics, there was a quiet triumph. In 2001, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine suffered a brutal fire and it's main organ was destroyed. But in the last few months, it was reassembled, piece by piece. And now a great house of worship has a great functioning organ once again. It took a long time and wasn't easy, but it finally happened. It shows that, while it may take time, problems can be overcome.

So on this day, NYC shows it's a place of constant change and constant drama. Never a dull moment. Would we have it any other way?

ABE BEAME FOR MAYOR 1965

This political season has made me think of elections past. In 1965 (years before I was born, thank you very much), City Comptroller Abe Beame ran for Mayor against Congressman John Lindsay and conservative pundit William F. Buckley.

Beame lost this race to Lindsay, who went on to be one of the worst mayors this town has ever had (he gave us the financial crises that took more than 20 years to dig out of). Beame was finally elected in 1973 and served one term, losing to Ed Koch in 1977. He died in 2001 at the age of 94.

Beame was the mayor when I was born and I've always felt a certain affection for him. A guy like this, a real salt of the earth New Yorker, could probably never get elected in Mike Bloomberg's New York but I would vote for him in a second. Go Beame Team!

Battle of Long Island Part II

Our dueling presidential candidates are going to be at Hofstra University tonight, squabbling about which one of them is best suited to lead the free world.

Call this the Battle of Long Island Part II. The last one was in 1776 between George Washington and William Howe. This one is between John McCain and Barack Obama and, thankfully, no one will get killed in this one.

Well, maybe politically one of them will. This is one of John McCain's last chances to "turn this thing around." He must say something so brilliant that it wins over the mushy middle and/or Obama must say something so damaging that it torpedoes him with this same demo.

Right now Obama is a thumpin' the grouchy old man in the polls but, as the pundits say, the only poll that really counts is the one on election day.

Good luck to them both (well, not really but let's not go there).

Hofstra debate cards: McCain vs. Obama

Hofstra's hosting of debate a costly affair