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. . . but it sure as hell can ensure that all people are treated equally under the law and are not denied the protection and benefits of the laws of our land.
That’s why I get so disheartened by many Democrats when they debate gay marriage in NY State. This is a legal issue. The government is denying gay men and women rights they are entitled to under the NY State Constitution. It’s a simple fix. The state would no longer be allowed to discriminate.
The gay marriage bill has nothing to do with religion. Religious organizations will be free to sanctify, or not to sanctify, the marriages of their gay congregation members as they see fit. This bill will only apply to the state’s civil sanctioning of marriage.
Again, that’s why it depresses the hell out of me when Democrats lean on the tired crutch that marriage is between a man and a woman–yes, in many religions this is the case. However, the state has a different set of rules by which they must operate. It’s not the bible, it’s the Constitution. The state cannot continue to allow gay men and women to be denied the equal protection of our laws.
Democrats should know better. I’m calling you out Senator Valesky and you Assemblywoman Christensen. Valesky has hinted he will not support a gay marriage bill and Christensen has already voted against the bill that passed in the Assembly.
The Democratic party is the party of civil rights. If a Democrat cannot vote to end discrimination wherever it is found, even in the face of political pressure, they should find themselves a new party. There is another a party that doesn’t give a shit about discrimination and the struggle of people against oppression, and it is a grand old party. Dave and Joan would fit right in.
As we’ve been told by that noted modern philosopher Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois, an appointment to fill an empty seat in the U.S. Senate is “fucking golden” and shouldn’t be “given away for fucking nothing.”
The task is looked at a little differently by Governor David Patterson of N.Y. As related in the NY Times economics blog Freakonomics, Patterson notes that since 1960 there have been 48 Senators appointed by Governors to fill vacant seats. 10 of those appointments declined to run again. Only 18 of the 38 Senators seeking to win a term on their own merits won their subsequent election campaign. That’s less than 50%–in a body where incumbents routinely win 90% of the time.
Patterson wants to see a candidate that can win the two elections, in 2010 and 2012, that the new appointment would be forced to undergo to retain that seat. Retaining the seat is important since a large part of a U.S. Senator’s influence is their seniority–the clout they accumulate as they stick around.
But what do New Yorkers want out of a new Senator? Do we need a pork barrel Senator, someone whose only real concern is bringing as much of New York’s tax dollars back to the state in new federal spending? Or are we looking for an enlightened statesperson, someone willing to think long and hard about policy and the choices we as a nation will be forced to make. In an unparalleled time of two foreign wars topped off by an economy in recession with several major industries verging on collapse, don’t we need someone to think about the big picture?
The role of money in campaigns complicates the selection. I don’t know whether it is required by federal election law or NY state law, but appointees to a US Senate seat in NY are required to run at the very next election for that seat, that election is in 2010. The appointee would then be up with the rest of his/her class of the US Senate (the system that rotates one third of the entire Senate into elections every two years) for re-election in 2012. This will require an appointee to raise millions of dollars to pay for the media ads required to run statewide in New York and especially the most expensive media market in the country: NYC. The back-to-back elections will force candidates into non-stop, frenetic fundraising for the next four years.
The other option is to select someone who can finance a great portion of the races themselves. The names that pop into this category would probably include Bloomberg, Golisano and Kennedy, Caroline.
So many different variables: Pork v. policy, wealth v. fundraising prowess, upstate v. downstate, diversity v. same old white guys.
I still think Patterson should appoint himself Senator and endorse Bloomberg to run for Governor as a Dem. Of course, that would make the President Pro Tempore of the NYS Senate the new Governor (since the Lt. Governor seat is vacant). And that person is . . . well, we don’t know yet. The wheels keep turning.
So what do we do now? Governor Patterson is talking about a cumulative budget shortfall of $47 billion over the next four years and in a press release yesterday announced:
We need real leadership. We’re going to have to put politics aside…Don’t get me wrong. There will be hard and painful cuts. There is no segment of this budget that will not be cut.
Where does this budget crisis leave cities such as Syracuse (as well as their dependent school district?) Both the city and the schools have a structural deficit that can only be balanced with large infusions of cash from Albany. The city has salary, pension, worker’s comp and other obligations that it cannot meet with its property tax levies and share of local sales tax. Over 70% of the city’s budget is taken up by just three departments: police, fire and DPW–you could eliminate everything else and still not be remotely close to balance. And the school district’s budget is twice that figure.
How many programs are we willing to cut and how many services will we agree to forego? And what if even that isn’t enough? Will someone have the political guts to mention an increase in state income taxes? It doesn’t seem likely since Albany is releasing press notices about catastrophic budget emergencies and calling for deep budget cuts, yet it still sent me and millions of homeowners across the state a STAR rebate check for over $200–making sure it got out before election day.
Batten down the hatches, it’s gonna be a nightmare.
New York State, A Creepy Big Brother
Governor Patterson is hosting a
series of Town Hall meetings
around the state to gather information about the fragile economic security
of low income families in New York.
In order to register our folks to testify at the Syracuse hearing
I had to go to the website and send an e-RSVP.
This is what I got back in response:
“Thank you for making an RSVP request. The request has been sent and
will be looked at by the appropriate people. “
