New York, New York

Unless hermetically sealed in a dungeon you know that Governor David Paterson finally named Representative Kirsten Gillibrand to succeed Hillary Clinton. First let me address the fallout with respect to the disastrous public relations courtship between Caroline Kennedy, Governor David Paterson and his staff. Both Paterson and Kennedy are diminished from the entire process.

I never believed Kennedy was appropriate for the position or capable of withstanding the rough and tumble of New York politics. To her credit, Kennedy has been a citizen advocate for progressive causes and survived the public relations goldfish bowl far better than several other Kennedys who became entangled in scandals. Yet it was quite apparent during her “listening tour” that Kennedy did not have the right stuff.

Furthermore, Kennedy appeared to project a sense of entitlement about the position that was off putting. Other New York dynastic political figures such as Robert Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo repeatedly demonstrated toughness, the willingness to work for their support and the resilience to bounce back from self-inflicted wounds. Without those skills a politician has no shot in the unique New York media cauldron. Sadly, Kennedy’s image took a beating and this Camelot icon will never be looked upon the same way again. She asked for it but it’s regrettable nonetheless.

Putting Kennedy’s flaws aside however, Governor Paterson’s administration was graceless in publicly throwing her underneath the bus after she asked to no longer be considered. It was bad enough that Paterson appeared disorganized, narcissistic and inept during his own selection process. Even worse was his staff’s eagerness to kick Kennedy while she was down in order to salvage Paterson’s reputation. Yes, the New York Times reported that Kennedy had personal issues with respect to taxes and a household employee. It's also true that her public performances these past few weeks were uneven at best.

However, the New York media was already piling on and pouring more salt in Kennedy’s wounds only served to make Paterson appear small. It seems inevitable now that Paterson will be challenged in the 2010 Democratic primary. If Eliot Spitzer was a vindictive bull in a china shop then the previous 24 hours has exposed Paterson as a feckless barking dog with no teeth that cowardly refused to let Kennedy depart the stage with any semblance of dignity. It was Paterson’s fault the process with Kennedy went as far as it did in the first place. A putrid demonstration of leadership at a time when accountability and competence are needed most.

With respect to Representative Gillibrand, I am neither enthusiastic nor gnashing my teeth. I would have preferred a genuine liberal advocate such as state Senator Liz Krueger or Congressman Jerrold Nadler who unflinchingly opposed the Bush Administration’s worst civil liberties abuses. Gillibrand is a respectable choice but she’s no liberal and won’t be a counterweight to Chuck Schumer who is in bed with the banking industry, and also paved the way for Michael Mukasey to serve as George W. Bush’s Attorney General in spite of being pro-torture.

In 2006, I phonebanked for Gillibrand when she challenged four term Republican incumbent John Sweeney in New York’s conservative upstate 20th congressional district. Naturally, Gillibrand reflects the cultural mores of her upstate conservative constituents with respect to guns and is a member in good standing of the Blue Dog Coalition in the House of Representatives. Electing centrists such as Gillibrand was the price for securing a majority in the House and Gillibrand does have her good points too.

Gillibrand is a strong advocate of legislation to reinforce the National Instant Criminal Background Check System Improvement Act to keep guns away from criminals. She also courageously supports same-sex marriage and that is not an easy position for any upstate legislator to assume. Gillibrand has been a reliable supporter of abortion rights, stem cell research, and the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act. On fiscal matters she opposed the TARP bailout, supports extending the Bush 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and has a record of opposing Social Security privatization. In other words, Gillibrand has a centrist record. Pretty good on most social and civil libertarian issues but fiscally too conservative for my taste.

Gillibrand’s challenge now is persuade downstate urban voters like myself that she can represent the entire state’s diverse interests and views. Pro gun control congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy has indicated she will challenge Gillibrand in the Democratic 2010 primary. McCarthy as New Yorkers may recall first entered congress following the tragic shooting of her husband in 1993.

I’m pro gun control but will make my decision on whom to support over a wide spectrum of issues while evaluating Gillibrand’s performance. Robert Harding over at the Albany Project provides a useful guide about gun control with respect to upstate/downstate perspectives and Gillibrand in a post today that is worth reading.

Hopefully, there will be several Democratic primary challengers vigorously competing to provide options for both governor as well as senator. Party establishment figures often prefer the banality of “unity” but I’ve always believed that intra-party competition is healthy. Two years is a lifetime in politics and that is doubly true given our current economy. In the meantime, New York desperately needs both Paterson to quickly get his act together and Gillibrand to grow into her new job with dispatch. Otherwise New Yorkers will need viable options to consider as replacements.

ILJ Sourced In Wikinews

To my utter amazement, the Intrepid Liberal Journal was sourced at the bottom of an entry in Wikinews today. Longtime readers of this blog may recall my October 23, 2006 post entitled, Reminiscing About the Future: Barack Obama's Inauguration Speech. It was my attempt to draft a hypothetical inauguration speech in Obama's voice at the time. Unbeknownst to me, it was speculated that the same Obama photo I uploaded from a Google Images search was later used to create the iconic Barack Obama HOPE poster by artist Shepard Fairey. The mystery was ultimately solved by the resourceful sleuthing of Tom Gralish. Gralish identified Mannie Garcia as being the photographer of the picture used by Fairey

I've only recently learned how much controversy existed over this topic. During the campaign I was entirely focused on issues, the horserace narrative and my activism. These sorts of side topics did not interest me and it also never occurred to me that my post would generate interest because of the photo I used.

It's also amusing to read some of the comments from that post two years ago. Keep in mind when reading it that the Democrats hadn't even retaken congress yet. I also received numerous emails at the time accusing me of being crazy for even suggesting that a black man named Barack Hussein Obama could be elected president.

Ironic that the very day President Obama was inaugurated my hypothetical inauguration speech has received such high volume traffic. I was receiving emails from people with photography blogs and journalists hoping I might know who took the original photograph until Gralish figured it out. Such is life in the online world. Kudos to Tom Gralish for figuring it out.

A New Day

My advice to liberal activists is simple: enjoy today. Our recent past under President George W. Bush was tragic, criminal and shameful. The years ahead will be challenging and tough. At times pragmatic political expediency inside the Obama administration will clash with our convictions. Creative tension is inevitable and necessary to advance the cause of peace, prosperity and social justice. Americans are embarking on long-term project of rebuilding our house after putting out an eight-year fire. How we rebuild that house can and will be debated intensely.

For me however, today simply means drawing strength from a refreshing sense of hope and renewal. An intelligent, capable and decent human being becomes president today. That is no small thing after eight long years of George W. Bush’s insipid reign of indecency and incompetence. I busted my ass to help make it happen. So did many of you. I intend to fully enjoy the moment and hope you will too.

When America Burned After the King Assassination: An Interview With Author Clay Risen

Tomorrow, America honors the birthday of heroic civil rights activist Martin Luther King. Americans revere King across the political and ethnic spectrum for his wisdom, idealism, courage and practice of non-violent civil disobedience against the forces of racial oppression. Thanks in large part to the trailblazing efforts of King and his followers; America inaugurates its first black president the very next day when Barack Obama takes the oath of office on January 20th. Yet even as Americans celebrate the historical arc from Martin Luther King to Barack Obama, the scars of racial injustice remain woven into our country’s fabric.

Understandably, historians have overlooked the immediate aftermath of King’s assassination in a Memphis, Tennessee hotel on April 4th, 1968. The meaning of King’s life as well as the tragedy his loss represented has received considerable attention from historians and the body politic. Yet the immediate aftermath of King’s death was dwarfed by his iconic life as well as the assassination of Robert Kennedy and the violence that took place during the Democratic National Convention later that year.

Clay Risen, author of A Nation On Fire: America In the Wake of the King Assassination (John Wiley & Sons) argues that what transpired immediately after April 4th impacted America as intensely as King’s death itself. Within hours, there was rioting in Washington D.C. and before the violence subsided, the U.S. Army occupied three major American cities while National Guard units patrolled a dozen more. Overall, there were disturbances in nearly 120 cities. Ultimately, the riots helped facilitate forty years of conservative hegemony as urban America reaped the whirlwind of white resentment and indifference.

Risen specifically chronicles the period covering President Lyndon Johnson’s withdrawal from the 1968 campaign on March 31st, to King’s assassination on April 4th and culminates with Johnson’s signing of the 1968 Civil Rights Act on April 11th. The author relies on dozens of interviews as well as newly declassified documents to provide a dramatic day-by-day, city-by-city narrative of the riots, from the looting in Washington to violence in Chicago, Baltimore and other cities following King's death in Memphis.

Indeed, Risen skillfully takes the reader on a historical tour with larger than life personalities like the militant Stokely Carmichael to white racist vigilantes in Baltimore and political figures such as New York City Mayor John Lindsey, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, New York Senator Robert Kennedy and Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew. Perhaps the book’s most dramatic anecdote was when a young Deputy Attorney General named Warren Christopher, joined General Ralph Haines, and Public Safety Commissioner Patrick Murphy at a Washington DC gas station pay-phone to recommend to President Johnson that he deploy federal troops in the nation’s capitol.

George Pelecanos, author of The Turnaround and The Night Gardner issued the following praise for Risen’s book:

“Clay Risen’s A Nation on Fire is the long-awaited definitive account of one of the most important, underreported events of the 1960s. As important for its historical aspect as it is for understanding where we are today, it is an exciting, important document, excitingly told.”

Risen, was formerly an editor at The New Republic and is the founding Managing Editor of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. He has also contributed to Smithsonian, Slate, the Atlantic, and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. Risen agreed to a telephone interview with me in a podcast format about his book as well as the fateful days following King’s death. Our conversation was just over forty-seven minutes. Please refer to the flash media player below.



Either searching for the Intrepid Liberal Journal or Robert Ellman can also access this interview at no cost via the Itunes Store.

Bush Was Right

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I agree with one segment of George W. Bush's Farewell Address:

"But good and evil are present in this world and between the two, there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere.

Freeing people from oppression and despair is eternally right. This nation must continue to speak out for justice and truth. We must always be willing to act in their defense and to advance the cause of peace."

It is for the very reasons President Bush articulated in those five sentences, that I and other liberal activists opposed his administration, his party and his reign of indecency. In opposing Bush, we challenged a predatory ideology that perverted our nation's highest ideals to justify empire, sadism, corporatism, theocracy and needless war. I regret that our activism failed to prevent the crimes committed in my country's name. George W. Bush leaves behind a legacy of darkness, destitution and death.

This Video Speaks For Itself

As a Jewish American New Yorker I am appalled by many of the comments seen on this video. I am every bit as appalled as I was at the ignorant racist comments made against Barack Obama during the presidential campaign. The sheer disregard these people have for the Palestinian casualties in Gaza is repugnant. There is an old cliche that if one is not careful they're at risk of resembling their enemies. Some of the people seen in this video express the same sort of hateful diatribes uttered by "Islamic terrorists." I have no adequate words to express my anger and sorrow.

Memo To My Brooklyn Neighbors: Please Support Josh Skaller For City Council

In 2006, I was disappointed when liberal Chris Owens lost in his bid to be the Democratic Party nominee for the 11th Congressional District here in Brooklyn. Owens has been a steadfast advocate for renter interests against predatory developers. Longtime readers of the Intrepid Liberal Journal may recall that as a congressional candidate, Owens was my first podcast interview!

Well, I'm happy to report that Chris Owens remains a force in local politics and is currently Josh Skaller's campaign manager for City Council. As far as I'm concerned, Skaller could not have a better character reference then Chris Owens. Indeed, Skaller is a liberal very much in the Chris Owens mode with respect to developers. As Skaller puts it on his website:

"I love Brooklyn—our neighborhoods and our people, the incredible warmth I feel walking around our vibrant and diverse communities. Like you, I know that Brooklyn is a terrific place to live and raise our families. But everywhere we look these days, the things that make our borough great are under assault. Developers and out of touch politicians seem determined to transform our community into an endless series of high-rise condos and strip malls. I believe that unchecked development threatens the beauty and integrity of our neighborhoods, overtaxes public services, and places an incalculable burden on our fragile ecology. I’m willing to stand up to the developers, and I hope you’ll stand with me."

I realize many of us are focused on the incoming Obama administration as well as how Governor David Paterson and the new Democratic majority in the state senate grapple with high stakes issues in Albany. We should not neglect local politics however during these perilous times as New York City is forced to prioritize over a shrinking pie. Mayor Mike Bloomberg has repeatedly demonstrated that he is not on the side of our local community interests. Hence, we need representatives such as Josh Skaller in the city council to serve as a check. This is especially true should Bloomberg be re-elected.

From upgrading our mass transit, to addressing New York City's under-served public school system, affordable housing and accountability in city government, Skaller is in sync with the reformist values of New York City's progressive netroots community. He's been an effective force in local politics on behalf of the community as President of Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats for the past two years, as well as an executive member of Democracy for New York City.

As you might expect, Skaller is not accepting contributions from developers and is therefore relying on grassroots fund-raising to be competitive. I therefore urge my Brooklyn neighbors to click here and contribute to Skaller's campaign. He's the real deal and we need him.

A Vermont Carpenter & Poet Named Patrick Gillespie

Yes, I realize the world is going to hell and a hand basket. American forces continue to occupy two countries, Israel is going berserk in Gaza, capitalism is self-liquidating and global warming lurks as a ticking time bomb. Nonetheless, please allow me to take a break from my usual political/current events/policy blogging to promote my good friend Patrick Gillespie's poetry blog, PoemShape. Now more than ever, embracing artistic creativity is needed in our daily lives as a humanity touchstone.

Patrick describes himself as a,

"Carpenter & Poet living ‘up in Vermont’. I have three little girls, too many possessions, and too little time."

Hence, his blogging pseudonym, "Up In Vermont." Long time readers of the Intrepid Liberal Journal may recall the incisive and sometimes irreverent comments Patrick has posted here over the years. His comments are really a continuation of an ongoing twenty-year conversation. We've been talking, debating, mocking and pondering the world of politics and popular culture since we were sarcastic undergraduates at Sarah Lawrence College. Between us we must have every episode of the original Star Trek and Beatles song memorized.

In 1999, William L. Bauhan published a collection of Patrick's poems entitled, Opening Book. It was well received but not well promoted. My favorite review was from Robert Frost biographer Jay Parini who wrote,

"Patrick Gillespie writes with clarity and grace: two virtues often absent from contemporary poetry."

I pick up Opening Book whenever I'm despondent or simply need to feel as if I'm engrossed and floating at the same time. The book also includes Patrick's delicious "All Hallow's Eve" fable.

With his PoemShape blog, Patrick not only features his own work but also promotes appreciation for the art itself:

"I started the blog for two reasons. The first was to get my poems before the public, and the second was to talk about something I like - Poetry. Besides my poetry, if something I write helps another enjoy poetry then all the better."

Patrick's analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Chaucer's Iambic Pentameter style as well as his stated preference for "meter" over "free verse" is instructive and provocative. His commentary about Shakespeare's 145th Sonnet is especially vintage Patrick:

"This is one of my favorite Sonnets by Shakespeare. And it is the one sonnet, of the 154, that some Shakespeare 'scholars' consider to be apocryphal - which is to say, they think it isn’t by Shakespeare. I, drawing my line in the Vermont snow, say they are wrong. This sonnet, unless some letters are discovered, is as close as we may come to hearing Shakespeare’s unscripted voice."

Patrick's blog is worth reading for the detailed analysis he provides about Sonnet 145 alone. I can just hear Patrick's voice with the line: "I, drawing my line in the Vermont snow, say they are wrong."

Overall, avid poetry readers may not agree with Patrick's analysis or opinions but will hopefully admire his demonstrated love for the art. More importantly, novices will be inspired to learn about poetry for themselves after reading his blog. Either way, Patrick Gillespie's PoemShape blog provides nourishment in a time of turbulence.