Three student protestors were arrested at Hunter yesterday..."Occupy Everything" the New School group that is basically behind mandating most protests for the school sent Gothamist a video showing the turnout and one of the arrest. I can safely say I have no comment (which may in itself be a comment?)
Also: "Newschool Reoccupied" blog.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
PUSH PIN DRAMA?!?!?
so i went to langmetrognome email to figure out the push pin thingy, but only laura's articles were available for edit. how do i list my posts on the map edit page of the public gmail account?
Man Who's Allergic to the Radio
Popular Science magazine recently published a interest article on their website
about a man who is forced to live in the middle of no where because he is allergic to radio waves emitted by modern communication devices and its infrastructure.
about a man who is forced to live in the middle of no where because he is allergic to radio waves emitted by modern communication devices and its infrastructure.
Students, professors to protest education cutbacks
Today their will be a series of protests nation-wide at various Universities and on the streets all protesting against raised tuition and budget cuts.
CNN has created a neat map detailing this.
CNN has created a neat map detailing this.
Playing in the Dirt of Old New York
Mike Strunk is a forty something Chinese food delivery man who has seen a few things. A man full of stories, Mike would guaruntee an entertaining profile of New York before the Giuliani clean up. I had to wait for him to finish his NES game of Wizards and Warriors before I could have his full attention. Meanwhile, I surveyed the apartment’s stylized accruement of horror movies and retro kitsch. The living room is the epitome of artsy eccentricity, a schlocky haven of grind house sleaze mixed with garish cabaret glamour. Mike and his fiancé, Renee, are gurus of a very particular aesthetic, a nostalgic celebration of pre internet decadence. Posters of David Bowie, Adam Ant, Prince, and Bjork accent, instead of merely cover, the walls. These artists represent a queer, campy, sexed-up fantasy world that is the ethos of the weekly Art Thursdays hosted by Mike and Renee. I became friends with these patrons of kitsch at these Thursday night art socials. I attend to them as both a friend and journalist, interested in witnessing the goings on of what is the ground work of a scene. After Mike saves the last princess, I issue my questions improvisationally. With the exception of the tape recorder, the interview is not unlike most of our conversations:
Me: So Mike… During what time of your life did you live in New York City?
Mike: (deep sigh) …About the time the album Purple Rain came out.
Me: Uhh do you know what year that is?
Mike: I think-I think it was the mid eighties… I think. Yeah…
Me: And can you describe the climate of New York in the mid eighties?
Mike: Uhhh… Something like… ehhh… Any bad—
Me: Did you run into CHUDs?
Mike: CHUDs… Oh many a CHUDs… Anything you would see off a 70’s crime drama—Deathwish, Dirty Harry.
Me: Did you see lots of dead bodies?
Mike: I saw a few. There was one area in the Bronx before the big clean-up, I remember it was called Morrison Avenue, and there was no electricity for blocks and there were pieces of buildings in the middle of the road so you couldn’t drive through there, and you never saw anything there except for mafia town cars or, on occaision, ambulances… on occaision. And there were bodies back there. There was one guy who they caught after a while, and he was just this weird hillbilly that came into New York, and he would go into that area and just kill homeless people.
Me: Whoa.
Mike: And what he would do was he would just kick the shit out of them and then douse them with gasoline and light them a fire live. So they found enough bodies that looked like this, that were killed in this way that the police narrowed it down and they did actually bust this guy. But most people could get away with anything there. It was an absolute wasteland… So yeah I saw one or two [dead bodies].
Me: Did you see any live bodies?
Mike: Live bodies? Lots of live bodies… You mean humans?
Me: Yeah, sure.
Mike: Ummm… Where did I live? I moved out there when I was fifteen years old because I was a creep. And I was nuts. They didn’t have Zoloft back then. And I just dropped out of school and moved up there with a person who lived here in Pennsylvanian who was moving back to his hometown in the Bronx. And he offered me a place with him, and I said sure. I lived up in Pelham Bay, last stop on the 6 train, Westchester Sq. And there were Guardian Angels, and every subway was completely covered with graffiti to where you couldn’t see anything.
Me: What are Guardian Angels?
Mike: Guardian Angels are a group that formed in the Bronx as a kind of vigilante protection group. They ran around without weapons, and they made citizen’s arrest and called the police. They were just a local group that protected their community. You know they tried all kinds of things… the Guardian Angels. In the Italian section where I lived, they really had it figured out best of all because if someone fucked with them, they killed them. And that’s the way things should be in a place like New York City because people are extremely greedy and extremely anarchistic in a lot of these areas and they needed the whip. So they hired Giuliani who’s a complete right scumbag, but, he had a pretty liberal looking democrat smile, which is bullshit, but he would do lots of underhanded things to get what he needed done. Therefore he was perfect for New York City because New York City was insane, and it was fascinating. There were pimps in brightly colored coats and hookers everyfuckingwhere, junkies all piled up on the street, people getting arrested, rows and rows of boxes lining alleys filled with homeless people. Just tons and tons of stuff.
Mike tells me about how he tried out for the band, Anthrax, and how the band members huffed paint and were the worst most bottom of the barrel kind of druggies. He explained how he lost his hair after contracting encephalitis from a near lethal combination of acid binges and cat scratch fever. When I ask him if he thinks they’ll ever get rid of all the CHUDs, he tells me about when his sister came out of the closet, and so to help her feel part of gay community took her to the Stonewall Anniversary Celebration. “It was just unbelievable. There were drag queens on stilts and Liza Minelli singing on floats, people coated in glitter, all kinds of decadent merriment. We were all having a great time until we ran into the church groups near mid town. Up until then it had been a completely CHUD free day. But I got to punch out a minister, and that felt pretty good. But yeah… Almost no CHUDs.”
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
You Want to Record A Call?
This website : www.freeconferencecall.com will set you up with a phone number and a calling code to get onto a conference call. Once you sign up for an account (all free) you will get an e-mail with instructions how to call and how to record. They then send you a link to a streaming recording of your call which you can dowload off the web.
Want a Reason to Take the Subway?
Want a reason to take the subway? How about 22-year-old Wasim Khalid Cheema? The New York cab driver has lost his license after earning more than $40,000 from overcharging passengers. According to news station NY1, authorities discovered that Cheema was setting his meter to suburban fare rates, which are double those used in the city.
Cheema used the same tactic to overcharge nearly 600 customers during the month of July alone. The Taxi and Limousine Commission removed Cheema’s license in January, but the decision was not made public until last week. Cheema had 11 prior traffic offenses, including speeding, disobeying traffic lights, driving without a license, and a prior conviction for overcharging, none of which had caused his license to be revoked. Cheema has worked as a cabbie since 2007.
“It’s bullshit,” said local New York cab rider Randy Smith, “I work my ass off and take a cab home for the speed and convenience. It’s expensive enough as it is, I don’t need any more money taken from me.”
The cabbie had an easy time switching the fares, all it took was the press of a button. Cabbies select a limit rate based on whether they’re staying in the city or driving beyond the limits to somewhere like Newark or Westchester.
An investigation began after one of Cheema’s passengers noticed the meter price quickly increasing during an inner city trip. The TLC discovered that Cheema had stolen over $40,000 between February and July of 2009 through use of a GPS system linked to his car (a device that all cab drivers must use).
Judge Alessandra Zorgniotti told the New Jersey Real-Time News that Cheema’s actions were “reprehensible” and recommended a $500 fine.
G Train Service Changes
It’s likely that if you live off Brooklyn’s G train, the words “shuttle bus” make you cringe in an inconvenient repulsion. Notorious for service changes which re-route or close the line altogether, the train has garnered a reputation for it’s poor reliability and general annoyingness. “I lived off the G train for 3 months when I moved to New York and let me tell you, three months with the G train was long enough” says Brooklanite Lauren O’Donnell. “I moved off the L Line a month ago.”
With service from Brooklyn to Queens and back, the G train services New York City’s two most populated boroughs. Brooklyn alone holds 2.5 million residents, while Queens adds another 2.3 million to the stat. Doubtless to say, 4.8 million residents have led to the frequent use of the G.
The most recent disruption on the line began on February 5th and culminated on the 8th. The MTA said the reasoning behind the re-route was due to “several maintenance projects.” More specifically these projects include asbestos removal at stations along the line, track service, and various other improvements. The alternative for travelers is usually a shuttle bus, which runs above ground and takes them to various express stops along the train’s normal route.
The shuttle bus is where traveler hostilities are born. “I’m glad they are improving the stations along the G train,” asserts O’Donnell. “The stations are clearly frequented often and need maintenance. The frustration I had was the harebrained shuttle train business. The MTA needs to realize that a shuttle bus tacks an extra 40-60 minutes onto any journey. After waiting in line for a bus, then waiting in traffic above ground, you’re late to work.”
The MTA lists “budgets” and “lack of trains” as reasons the G train does not provide the service its traveler’s desire. MTA employee Jackson Fenton speaks frankly, “The money just isn’t there and until it is, changes are likely to be few and far between.”
A World of Pain On the G Train
Waiting for the shuttle on Union Avenue (via)
"It's frustrating to act like people don't need to take the train on the weekend," says Williamsburg resident Kelly McMahon, who relies on the G to get to her weekend job as a barista in Long Island City.
Weekend service on the Brooklyn-Queens Crosstown Line has been suspended since the middle of January, replaced by shuttle buses. Last weekend, some service was to have resumed, between Court Square in Queens and Bergen-Nostrand in Brooklyn, but all work was cancelled due to the snowstorm and the train ran on its regular weekend schedule. According to the MTA, there will be no service for the next two weekends between 71st Avenue and Court Square, and after that regular service will resume.
The line has been shut down for several maintainence projects, according to Gothamist: "a switch replacement at Bedford-Nostrand, asbestos removal at Greenpoint Avenue, fan plant replacement at Jackson Avenue and track maintenance work at various locations."
Kelly McMahon is dissatisfied with the inconsistency of G service. She says that it takes some of her co-workers an hour and a half to get to work when the train isn't running. According to McMahon, the shuttle buses are even worse than the train.
"After work the other day, I waited for forty minutes for a shuttle," she says. "I watched four or five full shuttle buses go past. I ended up taking a regular bus that didn't even drop me off near my house."
According to the MTA's Transit Service Reduction report, regular weekend service on the G will decrease. On Saturdays and Sundays, service frequency will be reduced from eight minutes to ten minutes. However, according to the Straphangers Campaign, the G already comes less often than average. Service will also be discontinued between Court Square and 71st Avenue.
McMahon, for one, is not happy about that information.
"There's no alternative to get from here to there," she said.
The Loom is Weaving its way into Bushwick Life
In the midst of an economic crisis a new mini-mall is opening its doors in Bushwick, Brooklyn, on the corner of Knickerbocker St. and Flushing Ave. The mall, dubbed "The Loom", is in the ground floor of an old pillow factory and the neighbors are not other shops, but rather residential lofts. The area has seen a great deal of change in recent years, and the chatter on local blogs claim it could be the next Willamsburg. The tenants are willing to take the gamble of opening shop in a non-existant retail location.
The shop-owners feel they can see the future and think the area has a lot of potential . "I was the first to open up in here," said Rose, the owner of Brooklyn Yarn Cafe, " I say by June the place will be completely full, it will actually be a mall." Her shop is a combination yarn store/ cafe, offering everything from coffee and tea to sandwiches and cupcakes; with some knitting and crocheting on the side.
Rose decided to open her cafe in the area because of the lack of places like it. " There is really nowhere for people to eat and enjoy" she explained, " I decided to do the cafe and the yarn to give people the opportunity to learn to knit for free." Rose gives knitting classes a few days a week and often has groups of people sitting at the long communal table in the cafe.
Another shop-owner, Paul Johnston, decided to open his vintage furniture business, Brooklyn Vintage, in the mini-mall because of the neighborhood and the change he has already seen happen around him. He has lived near the location of the mall for four years and has seen the demographic change, he has seen the gentrification happen and he thinks the mall will further that change.
" The people moving in here are pretty cool businesses," he continues, " they are going to help usher in the full on gentrification." Paul added, " there is not really a replacement of one socio-economic group into another," he went on, " you have failing businesses being turned into lofts."
The people willing to pay the rent($1,100-3,500), and take a chance on opening a business with the future of the neighborhood as the deciding factor may likely play a part in the further change the neighborhood will see. Mini-malls such as The Loom, and the business owners with hope for the future may not only change the neighborhood, but may be at the forefront of a new economic movement."This mini-mall is a good model for the new New York local economy," Paul went on, " as big businesses fall and the economy continues to contract there's a lot of people, intelligent, well educated, motivate people [who] are beginning to band together, and thats happening at places like this."
"Let's See What You Don't Know..."
PhotoCreditLinkThe New School’s Tishman Auditorium was standing-room only on Wednesday night as investigative journalist Seymour Hersh took the podium to kick off the Social Research conference "Limiting Knowledge in a Democracy". Attendants were undergrad student and 60-something-year-old doctors alike all lumped together into one category: no one knew what he knew. Hersh took a strikingly nonchalant approach to some of the bolder issues that most journalists (and Americans for that matter) steer coverage and conversation away from. Anything and everything that media censorship or poor un-investigative journalism has failed to bring to our attention Hersh set out to at least mention in his one and a half hour address.
Here’s some of what Sy Hersh says we don’t know enough about:
- Obama’s Pathetic First Year– Generals are still bullying Obama, Hersh says, finding loopholes– instigating advancement and perpetuating the inherited war. Hersh went on to address the President’s lack-luster, passive approach to nearly every issue “except for Israel”. He did end on a hopeful note, saying this next year could make all of the difference.
- Americans Implementing Torture– “It still happens folks. A lot.” Hersh explained that the first 72 hours of an enemy’s capture are barely documented and it is while they are still “on the line” that most of the torturing goes on. And water boarding? Oh yeah. Hersh claimed that a few Al Qaida leaders have been water boarded hundreds of times.
- Our Secret Jails– “I’m not going to tell you where, because I’m not a charity, but they’re all over the place,” Hersh joked to the audience. He emphasized that really they are all over the place, briefly citing Africa as a broad, but definite locale.
- Taliban’s control over American Armed Forces– Hersh claims most (if not all) current translators in Afghanistan are Taliban approved. He mentioned knowing at least four intelligent US military officials, with translating capability, that have been assassinated. And assassinations? Yes, lots of them. And no one ever told you.
So why don’t we know so much? And why do reporters like Seymour Hersh have to outsource to international colleagues to find out anything worth knowing in regards to our international affairs? Maybe the job description of "reporter" has evolved to include seeking nods of approval from government and military officials alike… Or maybe the "pandering" reporters should take a couple of key notes from Seymour Hersh.
Grass Roots Video Games: How one small shop faces the big dogs
Lee Maverick has a name befitting his profession. Rolling off tongue in a fashion that entices excitement Maverick sits well with the likes of Kent, Wayne, Parker, and Starks. Lee Maverick however unlike the Iron Man and Batman comics he peddles he is in fact real but no less a hero.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Council District 48, A Home to Constituent Services
Merging two senior centers because they’re a couple of blocks apart makes sense, but if one has reached its capacity then it doesn’t. Mayor Bloomberg advocated for such a fusing in the Council District 48, the district with the most senior citizens. 
Councilman Michael Nelson fought and successfully kept this from happening. Since 1999 Nelson has not comprised over his constituents comfort.
Which can be somewhat difficult when dealing with the Mayor.
Bloomberg “looks at the bottom line,” explains Nelson’s Chief of Staff, Charles Kahn.
“It's cost effective, but not people orientated," explains Kahn. Nelson understood the importance of specific, quality ethnic food and fought for the benefit of the people.
All You Need is The Meetles
On Sunday evening, the sounds of the Beatles could be hear over the roar of trains in the Times Square subway station. It wasn’t a recording, though: it was a performance by The Meetles. “They’re my favorite subway performer,” said fan Lisa, 22. “Sometimes I go out of my way to see them perform, they sound so good.”
The Meetles are a Beatles and 1960’s tribute band who play in the 34th Street and Times Square subway stations every weekend. Since their debut last year, they’ve garnered a following with their energetic and fun covers of popular songs. Fans and commuters alike often dance to the music in the busy stations.
Unlike the famous foursome, The Meetles has a long list of members: Danny on vocals, Naomi on vocals and bass, Rob on keyboard and guitar, Maggy, Yusuke, and Steve on guitar and vocals, Barry on guitar, Tarun on harmonium and trumpet, and Eric on drums. That’s not even counting guest musicians, who often play with the group.
The group’s unique name was chosen in a poll on the New York City Beatles Meetup website. The Meetles was voted winner with 54% over names like “The Rubber Soulmates” and “Eric Pollen & the Bumblebeats.”
The Meetles are a member of MUNY, or Music Under New York, a division of the MTA’s Arts for Transit program. The program, created in 1985, allows “official” subway musicians to perform in designated spaces at designated times.
To become a part of MUNY, musicians must apply for an audition. The MTA then chooses sixty applicants to audition before a panel of music industry reps, MTA station operators, and other musicians in Grand Central Terminal. The performers are graded on their quality, variety, and if they are fitting for the subway scene.
Thanks to MUNY, fans can find out where The Meetles are playing every weekend on their Twitter and Facebook pages.
Fans can show their pride by buying I Heart The Meetles buttons. The Meetles also have four albums featuring their music available.
The Meetles perform above ground, too: they have played at Strawberry Fields in Central Park on John Lennon’s birthday and The Fest for Beatles Fans (formerly Beatlefest) at the Crowne Plaza Meadowlands Hotel in New Jersey.
Photo Credit: BrooklynParrots
Limiting Knowledge: Jameel Jaffer
At Arguments for and Against Limits on Knowledge in a Democracy on Thursday, Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU's National Security Program, discussed public and private information. "Things should be public, except when they shouldn't be," he said. He discussed how there isn't a specific basis that decides what is public and what is private, but that democratic ethos plays a major part.
Jaffer also talked about how our government is more secretive now compared to ten years ago, even though the rules haven't changed. "The amendments were made to make more info public, not less," he said. The difference between ten years ago and now is that, in the past, the government was driven by confidence. Now, due to events, the government is more anxiety-driven.
Jaffer also talked about how our government is more secretive now compared to ten years ago, even though the rules haven't changed. "The amendments were made to make more info public, not less," he said. The difference between ten years ago and now is that, in the past, the government was driven by confidence. Now, due to events, the government is more anxiety-driven.
conference
Phillip Kitcher, a professor at Columbia University, and extremely successful and well-respected author, just spoke at a conference held at The New School University. The topic was one he knew well, after writing the article “ An Argument about Free Inquiry”, in 1997, He was asked once more to speak about this topic.
Here is a sample of what he had to say on this topic:
“ To undermine something I think is taken for granted in our present, political and social redirect, about the value of freedom of inquiry and im going to talk about varieties of freedom and the ways in which they get distributed across various societies and in particular, our own contemporary American democratic society.”
Here is a sample of what he had to say on this topic:
“ To undermine something I think is taken for granted in our present, political and social redirect, about the value of freedom of inquiry and im going to talk about varieties of freedom and the ways in which they get distributed across various societies and in particular, our own contemporary American democratic society.”
Fighting For The Right To Be Mobile In New York
It would be a long day for Jean Ryan, who had to travel out to Long Island for a wheelchair evaluation. To get around New York, she would normally call for the Access-A-Ride, an alternative form of transportation for the city's disabled. In order to make the trip, Jean arranged for a pick-up by Access-A-Ride to drop her off at a mall, where she could switch to another para-transit company in Long Island called AbleRide. This second ride would take her to the wheelchair place. She would have to reverse the process to get back home.
The driver of AbleRide that day would only lift Jean up into the vehicle as she faced backwards, a common practice of para-transit workers. When she is raised into the bus, it is hard to distinguish at what height she is and how secure the wheels are to the metal lift. It is a moment that lacks trust, as she has no way of keeping an eye on the person operating the lift. She has little mobility due to neuropathy, a loss of nerves and sensations, in her arms and legs. All she can look to is beyond the parking lot of the suburban mall as she, slowly, she recedes into the vehicle.
The experience can be terrifying and embarrassing for wheelchair riders such as Jean, who are forced face away from the bus as it lifts them upwards into the vehicle. It is also a matter of preference, as the rider feels it is their right to decide what they are comfortable with.
"I told him that the ADA said we could board either way and I can't see very well, I have vision problems and I need to board forward for safety reasons," says Jean. "He said it's his bus and I have to do things his way, and that's the way he was trained so I have to do it that way."
Jean had posted a photo of herself being lifted onto the bus facing forwards with the phrase "Either Way Is OK," along with a Customer Bill of Rights, in order to make this right clear. Both documents were posted at every Access-A-Ride terminal, vehicle and office. It was an act in response to the drivers who were being told that wheelchair riders could only board the lift of the bus backwards.
These incidents were not the first bouts of protestation by Jean toward Access-A-Ride. Since 1994 she has been using the service, and since then she has been fighting to improve the system. Before moving to New York in 1968, Jean was an activist in her college years, in the South during the Civil Rights era. Her disability activism began when she, years later and working at Hunter College, needed a proper place to park and charge her scooter at night. Jean's issues were constantly passed around (according to her, like a "hot potato") until the Dean gave the situation attention. Though her boss told her they couldn't hand her a favor, she filed a complaint with a 504 coordinator and was granted a space.
The school wanted her to sign a liability waiver, but she refused. "I said they didn't require that of anyone else and I wouldn't do it until they did the same for every other student, staff member, and faculty member," says Jean. "I pointed out that she had an office full of personal things and she didn't do it and other people kept things in Hunter, too. They were trying to single me out. All this made me an immediate activist again."
In the late 90's, Jean retired because Access-A-Ride was wearing her down. She made the decision to become a volunteer disabilities rights activist after retirement, and came into contact with a group called Disabled in Action. Her focuses have been on the improvement of buses and the Access-A-Ride system, as well as elevators in subway stations.
Since then, Jean has seen a lot of improvement with the Access-A-Ride due to various demonstrations, letters and publicity pieces in newspaper, hearings at City Hall and even investigations by the Federal Transit Administration. She has been on two Paratransit Advisory Committees and is currently on one which meets every two months at the Access-A-Ride headquarters. Disabled In Action has brought attention to the MTA's lack of response to complaints and was recently able to push for a three hour late-cancellation on AAR rides, when any late cancellations made an hour before resulted in penalties for the riders.
"We complained that we were being stranded in places with confusing pick-up points and got designated pick-up points such as Port Authority and various hospital pick-up points," says Jean. "We got the MTA to publish the list of designated pick-up points on their website and we publish it on our website. We had a joint meeting with the Mayor's Office of People with Disabilities and DOT about enlarging and redesigning the AAR signs for the pick-up locations."
Following the event in Long Island, Jean contacted AbleRide's customer service, but received no answer. A day later, a customer service representative called, explaining it was company police that they could not allow wheelchair riders to board backwards. Jean insisted that she had posted documents explaining the rule of "Either Way is OK", but according to Jean, the representative didn't want to hear it. Instead, Jean made several phone calls, including one to the head of the buses in the MTA and finally, an e-mail to Tom Charles, head of Access-A-Ride.
"I seldom do that because a pest gets ignored," said Jean. "I got a call back late Friday. I was so excited because when I asked him who was over AbleRide, he said he was! I said Yippeee!"
Tom Charles said he was unaware of the policy and would look into it. "I know he'll take care of it," said Jean. "I told him I don't want to have a confrontation with another driver or be stranded out in Long Island the next time I go out there which will be next month."
Jean Ryan is the Vice President of Public Affairs for Disabled in Action, and resides in Brooklyn.
Photo Courtesy of Disabled in Action Website.
Drama doesn't stop in high school
Looking over the events that make up the last year of Senator Kristen Gillibrand’s political life, it may appear that she is fighting for her spot as Queen Bee in a competitive suburban high school. Since taking Hillary Rodham Clinton’s seat as New York senator in mid- December, unimpressed New Yorkers have watched Senator Kristen Gillibrand accumulate one failure after another. Even with her summer fighting for “Don’t ask, don’t tell” and anti-abortion Stupak amendment to the health care reform bill, Senator Gillibrand could not seem to catch the attention of her public. The public appeared to have forgotten about her.
Gillibrand is not eeking out her place amongst a group of pre-teen girls, however. Her latest nemesis comes in the form of conservative Harold Ford, a former Tennessee congressman who plans to run against her in the primaries. The tides have slowly begun to change as New Yorkers compare her viewpoints against Ford’s extremely conservative takes on gay marriage and abortion rights. According to a hopeful account presented in The National Journal Online, the percentage of New Yorkers who said they hadn’t heard enough about Gillibrand dropped from 58 percent to 44 percent.
Gillibarnd seems to have quite literally been born into and for her position. Born in Albany and raised upstate New York, Senator Gillibrand now lives on the banks of the Hudson River in Hudson, New York, with her husband, Jonathan Gillibrand, and their two young sons, five-year-old Theodore and one-year-old, Henry. After attending Albany's Academy of Holy Names, Senator Gillibrand graduated in 1984 from Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, the first all women's high school in the United States. A magna cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College in 1988, Gillibrand went on to receive her law degree from the UCLA School of Law in 1991 and served as a law clerk on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. During the Clinton Administration, Senator Gillibrand served as Special Counsel to the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Andrew Cuomo. She then worked as an attorney in New York City before becoming a Member of Congress.
Job creation and economic development have always been Senator Gillibrand’s top legislative priorities. Using her seat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Gillibrand has worked to increase investment in infrastructure, rural broadband, health care information technology, and renewable energy, and worked closely with the Obama Administration and Senator Charles Schumer to ensure that New York gets its fair share of federal dollars.
Most recently, Gillibrand has been making headlines as she and Ford square off about hot-button issues like health care and job creation. At the same time, each is struggling to avoid personal tax questions. But taxes are only part of the mini-campaign as each side attempts to highlight jobs that each Democrat has held that might not play very well with primary voters.
The Gillibrand campaign threw the first stone, charging that Ford needs to clarify whether he paid New York taxes on his income as vice chairman of Merrill Lynch before becoming a full-time resident here. Ford, after several days of confusing answers, says he has. The attack continued as the Gillibrand campaign referenced Ford’s banking connections, "New York depends ... on Wall Street executives to report their income honestly and appropriately," said Gillibrand adviser Jefrey Pollock, clearly playing up the deep public distrust toward Wall Street.
Not to be outdone, the Ford campaign followed with its tax-related rebuttal, saying Gillibrand needed to release all tax returns dating to her time as a "tobacco lawyer." Garnering public attention is not something with which Gillibrand has always struggled. The reference made by the Ford party is to a multiyear stretch in the 1990s in which Gillibrand defended tobacco giant Philip Morris against charges it had lied about the dangers of smoking. Lawyers working the case did so by choice and Gillibrand has since faced questions about campaign contributions made by those in the tobacco industry. "How much was the unelected senator paid to help big tobacco cover up the addictiveness of nicotine?" asked Ford spokeswoman Tammy Sun. "Did she file tax returns for her windfall on behalf of big tobacco?"
One of her recent political stands Gillibrand has taken up is that of Public Option in Obama’s health care reform plan. After a failed attempt last year, Gillibrand and 15 other senators are trying to revive the plan for a government-backed insurance plan. This revival has come in lieu of budget reconciliation, which would mean that the plan would be allowed to be passed with only 51 senators backing it rather than the former 60.
“Despite New Yorkers being widely opposed to the Democrats’ plans for health care reform and the ‘public option,’ Senator Gillibrand continues to align herself with the extreme left-wing of her party,” state GOP chairman Ed Cox said in a statement to the New York Post. “By urging parliamentary-style trickery and backdoor measures, Senator Gillibrand attempts to ramrod through healthcare legislation that would bankrupt New York State and cripple the country’s health care system.”
The Ford camp, anxious to perpetuate any argument, has said, “First, Senator Gillibrand became one of only seven Senators to vote for taxpayer funding of ACORN, and now she joins the gang-of-four supporting an esoteric rule-making device after failing to make their case to the voters. New Yorkers need a Senator who will legislate and govern in their interests, as opposed to the far left of the Democratic Party.”
While the future remains uncertain, Gillibrand has responded in turn. Making the case that ignoring the health care crisis is simply not an option. Her campaign has stated, “Ed Cox, Harold Ford, and the entrenched special interests all ignore the fact that New Yorkers support President Obama’s plans to reform health care.”
Recent polls put Gillibrand ahead of Ford. "The areas where he is most vulnerable and most out of step with New Yorkers are areas where she has led in her first year in the Senate," said Gillibrand spokesman Matt Canter. A Siena Research Institute poll found that Ford has 16 percent amongst Democrats in comparison to Gillibrand’s 42 percent.
Jameel Jaffer Connects the Dots
On February 25th, day two of "Limiting Knowledge in a Democracy: A Social Research Conference at The New School," Jameel Jaffar, a litigator for the American Civil Liberties Union and Director of the ACLU's National Security Program, spoke on the dynamic between the government’s “strong” interest in secrecy and the “public’s interest in transparency.”
“Information should be public, except when it shouldn’t be,” Jaffer said in the beginning of his segment. Thus emphasizing that the government follows general rules and maintains a vague understanding on what should be withheld from the public. The public’s attitude towards the link between public transparency and good government, or democratic ethos, is central to the assumption of democracy.
The government takes grave measures to keep things guarded. Jaffer mentions Cheney’s One Percent Doctrine, which operates on the basis that even if something appears to have a 1% threat it should treated as a full on threat. Along the same premises is the Mosaic Doctrine, which is the thought that even innocuous information can “be dangerous and used against us.” So even if an individual piece of information may seem trivial it can be part of a greater picture, therefore dissemination of any given information appropriated by should be restricted.
Limits Of My Knowledge
I went to the keynote speech given by Seymour Hersh. His speech consisted of what he called a "world tour" where he talked about all the political hot zones concerning the U.S. Things that stuck out: the U.S. is still using torture, but the current (?) brand of torture is not as bad as it used to be; the U.S. is using secret prisons for detaining terror suspects; the U.S. is retailing assassinations as it has since I don't know; finally, there is no evidence of weapons in Iran.
So... It would appear that America is kind of... evil? As a silly, naive twenty something, I feel like the subjects Mr. Hersh covered belong to a world of adults that I have yet to inherit. It depresses me to think that some of my college peers will ascend to levels of sophistication where they will hold unjust sway over the civil rights of others. And somehow I will be part of that grumbling go-nowhere conversation where I am shouting from the base of that ivory tower that will become an attic, waiting for the man who was a kid to remember a perhaps fictitious time when we might have been friends, or peers, or dishwashers without any deluded to concern as to how either might usurp the corrupt seat of adulthood. I don't follow the news, but I knew vaguely about all the topics Mr. Hersh discussed. Without doubt, my generation is the bride to be of the tortured torturer. "Good night and good luck."
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Limiting Knowledge in Democracy: Philip Kitcher
Note - Whoever is our "Tech Master", feel free to cut this with a read more link. I'm still a little fuzzy on how to do it and this write-up is sort of long!
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I found the lecture by Columbia University Professor Philip Kitcher really interesting. It concerned arguments for and against the limiting of knowledge in democracy, and he framing his argument by using the philosophies of writer John Milton and philosopher John Stuart Mill. Both suggested the idea of an equal playing field for truth in falsity to interact so that people could make a final assessment on the two.
What it boiled down to, he said, was the idea of "Freedom of Inquiry" - an idea that the people of a democracy have the freedom to pursue their own good in their own way without impeding of the good of others. In order to obtain this good, truth and knowledge are important as they guide us to make decisions which aid in finding this good in our lives. In other words, we should be on an equal playing field, all of us, in terms of finding out for ourselves what is good, and the only way for us to know is to be given straight truth.
The conflict nowadays, according to Kitcher, is that the free discussion of truth gets in the way of good, and this is because of ignorance (he, at this point, put a Fox TV/News logo up on the projection screen). Ignorance, he said, gets in the way of good in a multitude of ways: Remedial Ignorance (as in, you have enough background to consult sources and make decisions. Indirectly remedial would be that you know the experts who have this background) and Irremedial Ignorance (You cannot even determine the experts, who in some cases base their information of the motivations of people or certain views). Disputing the expertise of those discussing these topics calls into question the idea of expertise itself. According to Kitcher "There is an ethical responsibility for people who of themselves as pursuing free inquirers"
In this case, knowledge is invested in Journalists, Academics and Scientists. To Kitcher, they are responsible for finding out information for purely people, so they can "pursue their own projects in their own way".
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I found the lecture by Columbia University Professor Philip Kitcher really interesting. It concerned arguments for and against the limiting of knowledge in democracy, and he framing his argument by using the philosophies of writer John Milton and philosopher John Stuart Mill. Both suggested the idea of an equal playing field for truth in falsity to interact so that people could make a final assessment on the two.
What it boiled down to, he said, was the idea of "Freedom of Inquiry" - an idea that the people of a democracy have the freedom to pursue their own good in their own way without impeding of the good of others. In order to obtain this good, truth and knowledge are important as they guide us to make decisions which aid in finding this good in our lives. In other words, we should be on an equal playing field, all of us, in terms of finding out for ourselves what is good, and the only way for us to know is to be given straight truth.
The conflict nowadays, according to Kitcher, is that the free discussion of truth gets in the way of good, and this is because of ignorance (he, at this point, put a Fox TV/News logo up on the projection screen). Ignorance, he said, gets in the way of good in a multitude of ways: Remedial Ignorance (as in, you have enough background to consult sources and make decisions. Indirectly remedial would be that you know the experts who have this background) and Irremedial Ignorance (You cannot even determine the experts, who in some cases base their information of the motivations of people or certain views). Disputing the expertise of those discussing these topics calls into question the idea of expertise itself. According to Kitcher "There is an ethical responsibility for people who of themselves as pursuing free inquirers"
In this case, knowledge is invested in Journalists, Academics and Scientists. To Kitcher, they are responsible for finding out information for purely people, so they can "pursue their own projects in their own way".
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