Food provided by Eating Liberally & Jimmy's No. 43
Open bar (beer, wine, liquor).
Beer and specialty drinks provided by by Six Point Craft Ales; Bitters, Old Men; and Bluecoat, American Dry Gin
Meet this year's honorees, enjoy the company of fellow Liberals from across our network, raise a glass to our successes and help support our continued expansion.
No, not the how-to of cheating at cockfighting or fixing elections. Roscoe, William Kennedy's 2002 classic of Albany politics, certainly explores all that, but mostly it's a study of a man deeply embedded in a political machine. Roscoe Conway helped build it, profited by it, and now mostly wants to retire - but can't. The machine needs him, for now, even if its participants don't all realize it.
Roscoe is a scoundrel, and even he seems aware of it, though he continues nonetheless. His journey through post-WWII Albany illustrates how the machine works, how it justifies its work, and how the social ties of political relationships sustain it especially when it's under attack.
Roscoe is always thinking about this, but rarely brings it all to the surface. One paragraph, describing a photo of Jimmy Walker, Roscoe, and his comrade-in-the-machine Patsy, though, gives a taste:
This is a war photo: three warriors marching into combat against what Roscoe calls the Morality Plague...
The Plague comes out of oblivion every seven or so years and, like the locust, builds its white houses in public cemeteries, and propagates, with evil simplicity, "truth" and "honesty" as political virtues. This has the popular appeal of chocolate, the distorting capacity of gin.
But Roscoe wonders: Since when has truth been a political virtue? Can you name one truth that is everywhere welcome? Certainly there are none in play in any quest for, or defense of, political power - Jimmy's for instance - for power is based in the deep comprehension and perverse love of deception, especially self-deception, and any man who seeks power through truth is either a fool or a loser.
Roscoe knows of no candidate's ever making a campaign pledge to reveal all his own self-inflation, all those covetous, envious, lascivious, venal, and violent motives that drive every move he ever makes in politics and will continue making if elected. Roscoe certainly did not invent the perverse forces that drive human beings and he can't explain any of them. He believes they are a mystery of nature.
He concedes that a morally pure society, with candidates unblemished by sin and vice, might possibly exist somewhere, though he has never seen or heard of one, and can't really imagine what one would look like. "But I'll keep looking," he concludes. (page 235, paragraph breaks added)
This is a painfully familiar cynicism, echoed in the hallways of power regularly. "We are flawed," it says, and denies that any improvement on those flaws is possible, unless perhaps an impossible utopia springs up. It questions the right of reformers to ask for more of their elected officials. It assumes that the greater knowledge - indeed the cynicism - of those already in power outweighs any possible claims to political virtue of those outside the machine.
Of course, it stands ready to welcome those willing to play its games, and machine politics have a long history of absorbing reformers, turning the last decades's reforming challengers into next year's old guard. Sometimes it can apply its power to defeating reform challengers, and other times it's had to stand aside and wait for the Morality Plague, as Roscoe puts it, to run its course.
Kennedy's Author's Note at the end reminds us that "This is a novel, not history", but like all of his Albany novels, he does an excellent job of capturing a time and a place and a city in ways that usually elude historians. I didn't read Roscoe expecting biographies of Mayor Corning or Dan O'Connell, and I wonder if they experienced quite as much drama as Kennedy presents here. Perhaps.
Roscoe's lessons aren't limited to Albany the city, either. They still apply today - minus many of the exciting period details - to Albany the state capital. Somehow I wasn't surprised to find Assemblyman Jack McEneny listed in the acknowledgments. After all, beyond his interest in history, a decade after Roscoe was written, he was the Assembly's face on LATFOR, continuing a long tradition of selling out the voters in favor of privileging those already on the inside through creative redistricting.
Roscoe has a lot to teach us reformers. Read it, weep, and know your opponent. It took me years to make myself finally read it. It was worth it.
The corrupt piece of human garbage otherwise known as former State Senator Carl Kruger got his comeuppance today: seven years in the clink:
Mr. Kruger, 62, was the first defendant to be sentenced in a widespread bribery conspiracy case that originally ensnared eight people, and was seen as offering yet more evidence of the apparently unending wave of corruption in Albany.
Prosecutors had asked the judge, Jed S. Rakoff of Federal District Court, to impose a prison sentence of 9 to 11 ¼ years, as recommended under the advisory federal guidelines. The judge issued the lesser sentence to Mr. Kruger, citing his "many good deeds." But he made it clear that such credit was outweighed by the fact that Mr. Kruger had entered into "extensive, long-lasting, substantial bribery schemes that frankly were like daggers in the heart of honest government."
There is a big push on to enact campaign finance reform in New York state. Almost every "good government" group is on board, as is former NYC Mayor Ed Koch and a team of high-money businessfolk led by Barry Diller.
Okay, great. We all know that campaign finance reform is desperately needed. What New York doesn't need, however, is the kind of political hackery masquerading as reform that is being put together.
The bill being crafted is modeled on the NYC system. For almost a quarter of a century, NYC has had a partial public funding system in place. It was implemented, and has been dramatically modified several times, always (one assumes) with the best of intentions. Unfortunately, we know which road is paved with good intentions.
Nobody out there is asking whether that system actually makes a difference in how the government operates. If they honestly asked that question, and honestly strove to find the answer, they would discover that the system has failed completely. With one minor exception (details below), nobody has ever gotten elected because of public funding. And everyone still wins the same way, by raising a boatload of money, principally from large-dollar donors. In 2009, for example, the big losers -- people who finished third or lower -- still raised over 60% of their money via large donations; the winners raised nearly 80% of their money that way. And that's just for City Council; for citywide officeholders the large-dollar donors made up about 95% of money raised!
Taking the recent Supreme Court arguments over the constitutionality of the 2010 federal health care law as a hook, Republican Senate hopeful Wendy Long is attacking Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's support for the measure, sometimes called Obamacare, by pointing to its impact on medical device manufacturers.
Long's aides put out an industry-funded report honing in on the law's 2.3 percent tax on medical devices - some of which are produced in Warren and Washington counties. The report estimated a $3 billion hit on the industry, meaning a loss of 39,000 jobs nationwide.
Wingnut Republican attacking a Democratic Senator based on an industry-funded report -- what could go wrong with that?
Long got 47 percent of the weighted vote, followed by Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos with 27 percent and Rep. Bob Turner, special-election winner in September of NY-9, Anthony Weiner's former district, with 25 percent (just enough to avoid having to petition to get on the primary ballot).
At the Conservative meeting in NYC today, Long was the unanimous choice, because she is clearly more conservative than the others, especially on the social issues that appeal to the GOP base and the old Catholic guys running the Conservative Party, but no one else.
For example, Long believes that Roe v. Wade was "a horrible decision," and that "nobody would even notice" if it were overturned.
But while Long would be a tasty sacrificial lamb in November, she may not get there.
The obama campaign released this video yesterday, narrated by Tom Hanks and Directed by Davis Guggenheim. It is true- Obama inherited a disaster and has turned it around. Let's make sure that millions of people see this video before election day.
The adjusted maps, publicly disclosed late Monday, did not significantly depart from earlier versions that Mr. Cuomo said were "unacceptable."
Still, Mr. Cuomo said they showed "progress," and Senate Republicans insisted they were fairer toward Democrats, removing situations where incumbent Democrats would be forced to run against each other.
Cuomo, who is usually so good about realizing when he has a good political hand, would be making an inexcusable mistake in caving on this. Let me say one thing: The status cuo is reform. If a federal court redraws the legislative district lines, that is an impartial, uninterested third party. Victory requires doing nothing except breaking out the veto pen. To do anything to change the trajectory of the status quo would be to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Don't make a foolish mistake, Governor.
Every year, New York's Catholic bishops sponsor a Lobby Day in Albany, usually around St. Patrick's Day.
Given what the national media have been interested about regarding the Catholic hierarchy and public policy, one would assume that the Lobby Day is all about contraception, abortion, and same-sex marriage.
Now and then, there are things which are just jaw-dropping.
Via Roswell Park Cancer Institute, emphasis mine:
In January, physicians and researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) announced a phase I clinical research study of a vaccine designed to both eradicate cancer cells and prevent disease relapse. Developed at Roswell Park, the vaccine will be manufactured in RPCI's new Therapeutic Cell Production Facility using a unique FDA approved process - making RPCI the first research facility in the US to use a custom made, cost efficient machine, and the first in the world to use this system in an approved, government regulated study.
This exciting development and others like it at RPCI may be threatened by the New York State budget. The Governor's 2013 budget would essentially end critical state funding in a mere 2 years. This is disastrous to our community and to the cutting edge clinical care and research conducted at Roswell Park. The state funding to Roswell Park accounts for 14% of the budget which is essential to meeting current state and research operating needs.
Next week, as you begin the budget debate, we need your help to ensure that Roswell can continue its life saving research. Thank you for interest in Roswell Park.
Yes, you read that right: the proposed 2013 New York State budget actually defunds what is currently considered as one of the most promising potential cures for cancer. And yet it still pays for the New York State legislature, which is in itself cancer-ridden.
Fortunately for everyone, there's a quick and easy means you can use to tell the Governor, your state legislators, and the legislature "leadership" to continue funding vital medical research.
Well, folks, the contest to see who wins the king of the crazy prom is having a big day today, with contests to help decide who gets the Christian Nationalist Party GOP nomination.
My predictions are as follows:
Ohio- Santorum
Tennessee- Santorum
Georgia- Gingrich
Oklahoma- Santorum
Virginia- Romney by default, but Paul becomes the stand-in for the anti-Romney vote and does surprisingly well
North Dakota- Santorum surprises
Alaska- Santorum but Paul does well
Massachusetts- Romney
Vermont- Romney
Idaho- Romney but Paul does well
As you may have heard, the judge in the NYS redistricting case is receiving proposed maps from interested parties. You may not have heard that "interested parties" also includes the public: anyone can submit a map up until the deadline on Friday. Below, you can see photos of the maps that I submitted, along with the text of my cover letter.
[This is cross-posted from Living in Dryden, and focuses on Upstate and Tompkins County in particular. I fear I lack the strength to even open the Downstate maps after looking through the Upstate maps.]
The Federal Courts have had enough of Albany's delay on Congressional lines, and ordered the legislature to hand over the maps. You can see the docket for the case (missing the Assembly maps?) and a complete set of maps submitted.
Assembly Democrats' map of Congressional districts
Assembly Republicans map (9.2MB PDF) - Outer Tompkins County towns in huge Southern Tier district to Jamestown, Ithaca/Danby to Binghamton/Utica district
Assembly Republicans' map of Congressional districts
All of these maps are bizarre, to put it mildly. The intervenors map (I don't know who they are, really), seems like a crazy effort to paint diagonal lines across Upstate New York with bonus strange gerrymandering in Broome County. The Assembly Democratic map creates a district that lurches from Binghamton and Cortland to Lake Champlain. The Senate Republicans map is at least mostly more compact, except for our district and the odd way they split up the Hudson Valley. The Assembly Republicans worst moment is here - they make sure that Tompkins stays weirdly divided.
(Senate Democrats didn't submit a map. At first I thought that was gutless of them, but as it turns out the contrast makes them look good.)
So far, the only map I've seen that resembles sane is the Common Cause Reform Plan (8.3MB PDF), which actually creates compact districts of places that have something to do with each other beyond packing and cracking by partisan results...
This week, there were 2 major education-related stories in the news. First, the State and the Teachers' Union reached an agreement on teacher evaluations. And second, acting under a court order, the City Department of Education publicly released test-result-based evaluations of 18,000 teachers. Sadly, both of these events will not help improve education in the state.
The agreement, announced at a news conference in Albany, allows school districts to base up to 40 percent of a teacher's annual review on student performance on state standardized tests...
The remaining 60 percent of a teacher's rating is to come from subjective measurements, primarily classroom observations by principals.
This is a huge missed opportunity for the state. First, there is a large portion of individual teachers' evaluations based on test scores. This is a bad idea because it wastes classroom time teaching to the test. And the remaining 60% is based mostly on principal evaluations, which can be highly subjective. It would be better to have an evaluation system where parents and students can have a say in teacher ratings, in addition to principals. Furthermore, test-score based evaluations often lead school districts to bend ethical standards. It's better to base evaluations on data that matters, like grading schools on their graduation rate, college attainment, incarceration rates, and employment of its students when they are adults. And finally, these evaluations have no teeth. Even if they were good measures of teacher achievement, there is no downside for tenured teachers who end up being evaluated poorly.
The publication of teacher's evaluation scores by the City is also the wrong solution. All it will achieve is publicly humiliating the bottom 50% of teachers, and will leave the bottom 5% still teaching in our schools. A better solution would be to not hurt teacher morale and make teaching a less attractive career choice for our best and brightest. Let the worst 5% get fired, and constantly work to make the remaining 95% feel appreciated and empowered and pay them more and treat them like the professionals they are. But that is not currently on the agenda in New York.
