insignificant thoughts

ALBANY – The state’s budget crisis hasn’t stopped lawmakers from spending big bucks to promote themselves.

Members of the Senate and Assembly have spent nearly $9 million in taxpayer money this year on constituent mailings, the Daily News has learned.

The spending comes as the state faces a $9 billion budget deficit and is preparing to lay off hundreds of government workers on Dec. 31.

If you’ve ever gotten one of these idiotic mailings, you understand why this number is so offensive. $9m for, essentially, a campaign flyer that the person sending it out doesn’t have to pay for.

A few years ago, my Assembly member sent me a mailer in the form of a double-sized post card. It was right after a fight over keeping MetroCard pricing the same, and on that mailing was a picture of a card being swiped through a turnstile, and her face with the words. “We Did It!” and then on the back, it said something like “We’ve kept MetroCard costs the same for millions of New Yorkers. Thanks for your support!”

If you figure that card went out to 2 million people at $0.42 per, that’s $840,000 on one meaningless mailing.

How much more careful do you think her office would’ve been had she been actually held accountable and had been made to pay for that mailing instead of just getting a freebie from taxpayers?

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for laying off government employees. Frankly, there are too damned many of them to begin with and way too many assistants, managers, and pencil pushers running around Albany and City Hall, but why are we so gung-ho on letting those folks go home without jobs while people in the highest offices of this city and state can send out junk mail at this rate with impunity?

How many workers at $50,000 could be saved with $9m?

Think about it.

Democrats have accepted more political donations than Republicans from executives at Bain Capital, complicating the left’s plan to attack Mitt Romney for his record at the private-equity firm.

During the last three election cycles, Bain employees have given Democratic candidates and party committees more than $1.2 million. The vast majority of that sum came from senior executives.

Republican candidates and party committees raised over $480,000 from senior Bain executives during that time period.

Recipients include Democratic senators facing tough reelection races this year, such as Jon Tester (Mont.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Bill Nelson (Fla.).

The Hill reviewed contributions made from the 2008, 2010 and 2012 cycles.

Romney has collected more money from Bain Capital employees than any federal candidate since the beginning of 2007, amassing more than $166,000 in contributions. He took more than $84,000 from Bain employees in the first three quarters of 2011. 

But President Obama received a sizable share as well. He has accepted more than $80,000 from Bain employees since the beginning of 2007. Bain Capital employees gave $27,500 to Obama during the first three quarters of 2011.

The donations were reported to the Federal Election Commission and culled in a database created by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks federal campaign spending.

Guess it’s okay when Democrats benefit from “vulture capitalism,” huh?

The funny thing with the Bain discussion is that people complaining the most seem to have the lowest level of comprehension of both what Bain does and what capitalism actually is, not that that’s surprising anymore.

Some more shots at the link above, too.

Creeped out?

They can take a beautiful woman and make it look like she’s about to get raped in a back seat.

Wow this one is bad.

The notion that the U.S. Constitution only protects U.S. citizens is palpably false. It is an indictment of our education system that any American could think such an outrageous thing.

The drafters of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were educated men. They chose their words carefully. They debated over precise word choice. One can assume every word they chose was done with a purpose.

The Constitution and the first ten amendments distinguish between the concept of “people/persons” and the concept of “citizen.” For example, Article I, Section 3, says “No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States…”.

A “person” is therefore different from a “citizen.” Everyone is a person, but only some are citizens.

Funny thing that those of us who have read the Constitution (and admittedly we’re a small group) can miss stuff like this. It’s nuanced, but that which has been learned cannot be unlearned.

This is why I love hanging around smart people. You always learn something.

Police nabbed a Jewish man Monday who was wanted for a string of anti-Semitic hate crimes since December, police sources said.

The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force tracked down David Haddad, 56, after several complaints were made – one by a relative and at least one other by a person known to him – for harassing them by phone and scribbling anti-Semitic symbols on apartment doors.

“Knowing someone put swastikas and derogatory messages on my door makes me sick,” said Susan Levin, who lives down the hall from Haddad, who allegedly wrote “All Jews Should Die” on her front door.

A neighbor called the cops after spotting five out of eight doors on the floor where Haddad lives scribbled with swastikas and anti-Semitic messages.

“It’s so shocking that it could happen in a building like this,” the Chelsea resident said of her home near W. 28th St.

“He told detectives he’s Jewish but not practicing,” one source said.

Haddad, a building manager who lives on 8th Ave. in Chelsea, was arrested at his job Monday after the task force traced at least one of his phone calls, police said. He was charged with aggravated harassment as a hate crime, police said.

Ponder this one for a minute. Hate crimes are so stupid that a Jewish man can be charged with a hate crime for putting anti-semitic symbols on Jewish doors?

If that’s a hate crime, is it a hate crime when a black person says “I’m gonna kill you nigga!” and shoots another black person in a gang-related crime?

This is why hate crimes are stupid ideas. It sounds like a good idea until you try to implement it.

ABC has relented to objections from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and cancelled the unbelievably bad comedy “Work It” after only two episodes.

It’s my guess that with the protests from GLAAD gearing up, ABC felt it would be hopeless to try and defend (note to Canada, you can probably take Detroit).

It also bespeaks a certain prejudice inside of GLAAD who has never said a word about Tyler Perry, Martin Lawrence or Eddie Murphy (who was once known to be quite transvestite-friendly despite his transvestite comedy). Of course, GLAAD has never been terribly courageous about confronting the black community. Political correctness forbids crossing racial lines.

This might reveal a hint as to why GLAAD felt empowered to attack “Work It.” The plot revolved around two men who are forced into women’s clothing just to get a job. Don’t they know that only women are discriminated against in the workplace (and only make three-fourths of a man’s salary)? Perhaps the writers’ ignorance of Women’s Studies 101 made GLAAD think it had been written by conservatives.

“Work It” seemed more of a rip off of “Bosom Buddies,” an equally forgettable sitcom remembered chiefly for launching the careers of Tom Hanks and the other guy, whose name I can’t remember (I think it was Andrew Ridgeley).

I don’t take issue with ABC for pulling the plug. Only half the audience from the show’s premier came back for the second episode (personally, I didn’t even make it to the first commercial). But that doesn’t mean transvestites aren’t funny; they have been a staple of comedy for generations.

The paragraph in bold is pretty interesting. Admittedly, I never thought of that. I’ve never heard a single word about Tyler Perry or Martin Lawrence’s behavior on camera, but this low-rated show that probably would’ve been canceled anyway was so offensive that it had to be stopped.

Something’s wrong here.

A CITYWIDE crackdown on street prostitution snared nearly 200 johns, police said Monday.

The arrests took place Thursday through Sunday in 27 different precincts.

Using female officers posing as hookers, police arrested 186 johns and charged them with patronizing a prostitute, police said.

Fifty-six of their vehicles were seized.

Meanwhile, 10 prostitutes were arrested.

“Operation Losing Proposition,’’ as police called it, was the NYPD’s response to complaints in various neighborhoods.

The 73rd Precinct, which covers Brownsville, Brooklyn, led the way with 16 arrests, including 13 johns.

As we keep hearing over and over again about how overstretched the NYPD is and how crime is making people nervous about a return to the bad old days of 1980′s New York, isn’t it comforting to know that 27 different precincts in the city are focusing on sex?

When are we going to stand up and tell the powers that be that we have no interest in them doing busywork bullshit like this?

Shaprton interviewed Paul Bergeron, the city clerk of Nashua, N.H., repeatedly states that voter fraud isn’t a problem in New Hampshire, but his own words to New Hampshire newspapers over the years suggest the opposite. Here’s what Bergeron said [my emphasis]:

SHARPTON: Now, Paul, according to what we`ve been able to get, including some of the information from Republicans, there`s been a case of one case of voter fraud in the last several years in New Hampshire. Just one in the whole state.

BERGERON: I`m only aware of one [instance of voter fraud]. It happened on the sea coast area and was a young man who used his father`s name to obtain a ballot. And he went to court and was found guilty and sentenced to community service.

SHARPTON: One out of three million votes. Just one. So if, in fact, this man Akit (ph) collected more than a dozen ballots during this film, he actually increased fraud in the state by 1200 percent to try to prove there was a problem that didn`t exist.

BERGERON: Yes, you don`t prove that there`s been voter fraud by committing it yourself. He`s establishing an activity that creates a voter fraud situation and it`s his own activity that should be looked at and prosecuted.

SHARPTON: So, Paul, you are there. You are the city clerk in Nashua. Do you feel there is a problem of voter fraud in the state?

BERGERON: No, I do not. I have not seen enough instances of any voter fraud in the state. I know the attorney general`s office investigates any claims of voter fraud and have not found any to be of substance.

The one instance that Bergeron was likely referring to is the case of Mark Lacasse, a 17-year-old from Londonderry who illegally used his father’s name to vote in the Democratic primary. Lacasse got caught when he bragged about it in school.

There’s a lot more to this story, so hit up the link.

The scary part is that Bergeron is outraged over O’Keefe’s activity (even though he clearly said no ballots were taken) and wants to take on O’Keefe under “wiretapping” laws. Last time I checked, there was no wire being tapped, nor was there an expectation of privacy in a public place, but so be it. Those kinds of accusations are usually made by guilty people anyway.

Read this whole story. I dare you to tell me it doesn’t boil your blood.

A despondent Staten Island girl who committed suicide by jumping in front of a bus last month was not bullied by her classmates, a police investigation has found.

Numerous interviews with close friends and family members have yielded no proof that torment from fellow teens caused Amanda Cummings, 15, to kill herself two days after Christmas, multiple law-enforcement sources said.

“No one had any previous signs of her being bullied,” said one source with knowledge of the case.

A 15-year-old girl who had been friends with Cummings since the age of 3 told investigators that her friend fell hard for boys and took breakups very badly, sources said. She also said Cummings had recently been drinking and smoking heavily, the sources added.

Another classmate, a 15-year-old boy, said Cummings had threatened to kill herself in the fall after a brief hookup ended, sources said.

He said Cummings sobbed uncontrollably after the split, wandered into traffic near the high school and said she was going to jump in front of a bus, the sources added.

Cummings had long battled depression, sources said, and was hospitalized in 2009 for cutting herself. But nothing in the psych records attributes her despondent mood to bullying, sources added.

Interesting, because this story has been turned into a jumping off point for numerous anti-bullying initiatives and public outcries. In fact, State Senator Jeff Klein (who just so happens to be my State Senator; oh joy) is using this opportunity to push new initiatives in the interest of keeping this sort of thing from happening again.

This girl’s suicide is tragic. The exploitation of her death is equally tragic.

The 1980s were a simpler time in game development, so it only stands to reason that one of the most iconic developments in gaming from the era would be justified by a simple cause. In a 2003 interview translated this week by GlitterBerri, Kazuhisa Hashimoto explains that he added the original Konami Code to the NES port of Gradius because he “hadn’t played that much and obviously couldn’t beat it [himself].”

The first game I had ever seen the Konami code in was Gradius, and even using it (which gave you the full accouterment of armaments) didn’t make the damned game any easier. That game was nearly impossible to beat on single player mode, and only mildly better on two player mode.