Mad Men Season 5 Trailer - The Wait is Over

Ray Kelly is watching you! If you're a liberal, that is ...

Since the 9/11, NYC has grown to become a security state. This is understandable, obviously, and surveillance has been a big part of it. Undercover spying of terrorist groups or suspected terrorists and the like is, again, understandable.

But the NYPD under Ray Kelly has gone way beyond its brief.

Apparently their spying has creeped into surveillance of liberal advocacy groups. In the warped, twisted mind of this man, these groups are somehow on the level of terrorists. 

What a waste of taxpayer money and police resources. Has this spying ever resulted in an arrest? In the breaking up of a terrorist cell? No. So why does it continue.

But Ray Kelly and the NYPD have an authoritarian, fascist mindset. If they don't like your politics, they think you're "the enemy." How sick.

Ray Kelly has got to go. 

The Story Behind Marriage Equality

When marriage equality was passed in New York state last year, it was greeted by supporters and the public alike as a miracle. Considering the violent opposition that exists to marriage equality here and across the country, and the fact that a vote on the matter failed in the legislature in 2009, it was hard to see its passage in 2011 as nothing less than magical.

But nothing is that simple.

In fact, the battle for marriage equality in New York and across the country has a been a highly coordinated and very well-financed effort by a vast array of supporters. It includes gay right activists, celebrities, billionaires, politicians, and any number of "movers and shakers." Even straight people and Republicans have been involved, making the alliances and "strange bedfellows" of the effort even more diverse. They came together, used their power and influence, engaged the public to generate support, outwitted their reactionary opposition, and won.

Here's how it happened. 

T-T-T-Tebow and the Jets

Say, New Yorkers, have you heard the news?
Yes it's happened: T-T-T-Tebow and the Jets
Oh this is weird and this is wonderful
Oh Tebow he's really fierce
He's got a strong throwing arm loves that God
You know I saw it the media
T-T-T-Tebow and the Jets

Robert De Niro's 1970 Rare Car Commercial (AFI)

Diary of a Very Boring Call Girl

Because the real news is so depressing (war, recession, the Republican presidential primary), it's always great when something about sex becomes newsworthy.

Sex doesn't just sell -- it distracts.

The big news around town for the last couple of weeks has been about a suburban soccer mom who was busted for being a big time Manhattan madam. Apparently she had lots of girls (sometimes, in the parlance of the trade, referred to as "bitches") who she hooked up with clients for about $1000 a pop (hehe). Basically she would just call or text the girls, tell them to go to a hotel or an apartment, the gal and the client would shtup, and then they would go their separate ways. 

And now one of the girls speaks! Read all about it in this anonymous tell all!

And what she has to say is amazingly ... uninteresting.

This gal would just sit around and wait for a call, go practice her trade and then ... wait for another call. She didn't like working in an office or doing anything else apparently, so she just did nothing else except wait for a call. The guys she banged were not, according to her, famous or even really rich. They were basically middle aged executives. No governors or senators or big time actors -- just upper class working stiffs. She said that she didn't even mind having sex with gross guys. Or anyone.

This broad makes her sex sound really, really boring. 

No one beat her or handcuffed her. No one wanted a certain kind of "discipline" administered. Sometimes a guy would want a threesome -- and even that was apparently less than fun.

After reading all this, my only question is, what were they paying her for? For $1000, her clients deserved better. If I were one of them, I would be demanding a refund.

It's a deal!

Big news in the world of NYC baseball today (and, no, I'm not talking about the return of Andy Pettite to the Yankees).

The Wilpons, owners of New York's greatest baseball team in history, the Mets, (I kid, I kid) saved  their ownership of the team today.

Long story short: the Wilpons had been investors with Bernie Madoff. When the scam was exposed, the trustee who was charged with recovering the stolen loot, Irving Picard, sued the Wilpons. Why? Because instead of losing money, Picard charged that the Wilpons had in fact known about the Ponzi scheme and had received money over and above their original "investment" (also known as fictitious profits). Picard sued the Wilpons for as much as $300 million which would have forced the family to sell or relinquish the team.

Now they won't have too.

The Wilpons settled the suit for $162 million which is still A LOT of dough but they will be able to pay it over time. Both sides are apparently happy with the deal and a sad chapter in this awful saga is now over.

And I'm sure Wilpons will continue doing such a great job running their team (ha ha ha). 
 

Bloomberg at the Vampire Squid

You may have heard about the now former Goldman Sachs employee who wrote a resignation letter via New York Times editorial last week. He said, in so many words, that the firm is an evil, cynical, greedy corporation that rips off its customers and the general public a like.

This op-ed was such a bombshell that Goldman's share price took a nosedive and they've been on a furious PR defense since then.

They got some help from Hizzoner, Mayor Bloomberg. Yes, the Mayor off, by and for the 1% decided that he wanted to show his solidarity with Goldman by visiting them this week. He went there to pep up and soothe the hurt feelings of some of the richest people on earth. 

It's really amazing: we have massive poverty and unemployment in this city but what gets Mayor Bloomberg's sympathies fired up? What gets him feeling sorry for people? A bunch of rich people who've been told what a bunch of greedy bastard they are.  

These are the people who Bloomberg feels sorry for. 

He can't get out of office soon enough. 

Best of New York

A little late to posting this but New York magazine published their annual Best of New York list. It's not, to be honest, the best list they've ever produced but it's still worth checking out.

Memo from NYC

As part of Mr NYC’s look back at presidential election years past, this one’s certainly interesting. It’s a creepy look at the things that would shape so much of the first decade of the 21^st century.

It’s election night 1996. Bill Clinton has already won a second term as president – the first Democratic president re-elected since FDR. He’s just gone over the top of the needed 270 electoral votes and has defeated Senator Bob Dole.

Shortly thereafter, on CNN, Larry King and Bob Woodward interview Dole’s campaign chairman – one Donald Rumsfeld. Yes, that Donald Rumsfeld, Mr. Stuff Happens, the man who would later become Bush’s secretary of defense and totally mishandle the Iraq War from 2003-2006. 

Obviously he had also totally mishandled Bob Dole’s presidential campaign in 1996.

What’s fascinating in this clip is to see what a scary and deluded fool Donald Rumsfeld was even back then. How out of touch with reality he was even before he became, as John McCain called him, one of the worst secretaries of defense in American history.

Here King and Woodward try to get Rumsfeld to reflect on why Bob Dole lost. After all, as you can see on the screen – it’s over! Clinton clearly has 275 electoral votes – he’s won! So you would think that Rumsfeld would be basically saying things like, “Well, it was a tough campaign, did the best we could, Bob Dole’s a great man, but the deck was just stacked against us and that’s why we lost.” You know, stuff like that. Nothing to be ashamed of.

Not Rumsfeld.

He lies and prevaricates and shows that he’s totally disconnected from reality. He says things like “It’s not over” and “If he’s elected …” and “He intends to win!” You gotta watch this – it’s mind boggling how insane Rumsfeld was and clearly still is. His candidate had already lost but Rumsfeld keeps saying that he just might win.

Sound familiar? Reminds you of the Iraq war – we were clearly losing but he and Bush and Cheney kept saying that we were winning.

I know that spin is a part of politics but when you’ve clearly lost an election – or a war – you should stop and admit it. In 1996, he lied about Bob Dole’s political fate. In 2006, he lied about the fate of more than 3000 American soldiers. You can see just from this clip, Donald Rumsfeld’s deluded, dishonest, just totally bizarre way of thinking. What a horrible man

But wait – there’s more!

Later on, King and Woodward interview Roger Clinton, President Clinton’s brother, and they ask him if his sister-in-law, Hillary, has any plans to run for office. Roger says he doesn’t know but, obviously, he thinks she’d be great in elective office.

Well, of course we know how this story ended -- Hillary would move to New York and be elected our junior senator in 2000. She would run unsuccessfully for president in 2008 and is now President Obama’s secretary of state. She will be retiring from public office this year, bringing an amazing 20-year run of being a first lady, a senator, and now a secretary of state to a close. But in 1996, she was just getting started and the best from Hillary was yet to come.