It's a waste of time to compromise with Republicans. The Lame Duck Congress must prove it's not lame. The House must pass the repeal of the Bush Tax Cuts for the top two percent and the Senate should use reconciliation to avoid a filibuster. The Bush Tax Cuts were originally passed via reconciliation.

The savings from the cuts' repeal could then be used as pay-go for extending unemployment benefits. I don't know if the unemployment benefit extension is deem and pass eligible, but linking them to the repeal may mean reconciliation is a legal tactic.

I hear little talk in the liberal media and blogosphere and zero from the Obama administration and elected officials, about using reconciliation to permit the upper income cuts' expiration.

The cuts will be extended if deem and pass isn't employed. The Republicans will definitely filibuster any legislation that doesn't extend the cuts, if not make them permanent and the Democrats will cave in the game of chicken over the extensions of the middle class tax cuts. The President's "I didn't reach across the aisle enough" comment foreshadows Democratic wimpdom on the cuts.  read more »

Bloomberg always touts the idea of running the city like a business as his strength. Well, one can certainly argue whether running things like schools and hospitals on a business model makes any sense at all, but even if you buy into that premise, in what way is hiring someone with no experience for a job good business sense?

Bloomberg has always made it amply clear that he doesn't care at all about Public Education in NYC. All he has done is increased testing, often awarding the expensive contracts for this testing to out of state buddies, thus draining money from NYC itself, and has done nothing to improve class size. Objective test scores have shown that NYC has in no way improved more than surrounding districts which didn't "benefit" from Bloomberg's "reforms," thus showing Bloomberg's reforms have made NO IMPACT AT ALL on education in NYC, but rather have merely concentrated yet more power into Bloomberg's hands and allowed him more options for awarding paid positions to his cronies. And then he blames the problems on teachers rather than take responsibility for the failure of his own so-called reforms.  read more »

This was sent to me by Lambda Independent Democrats:

If you're curious about the future of grassroots organizing, down-ballot online politics, or the next crop of Brooklyn progressives - join us!

Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn is partnering with New Kings Democrats for a panel discussion about just how these Brooklyn street fighters took on machine boss Vito Lopez - and won.

Hear (newly elected) District Leader Lincoln Restler, Campaign Manager Sarah Baker and Field Director Chris McCreight. They will explain what precise mix of new media and old-school canvassing techniques worked - and what grassroots campaigners can learn from their experience.

When: Friday, Nov. 12th, 6pm

Where: Spike Hill, 184 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
Take the L Train to Bedford Ave.
RSVP at www.actblue.com/page/newkings

In the aftermath of the election l almost forgot this was coming up!

The November meeting of Central Brooklyn Eating Liberally will be TODAY,
Tuesday, November 9th at 7 PM at Born Thai, 293 Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn NY 11217, Phone: (347) 663-3674

The very first meeting of Central Brooklyn Eating Liberally was at
Born Thai and it was among our favorite restaurants. So we are happy
to get back to it. This month we can discuss the elections, including
the fact that it looks like Greens have now achieved ballot access
and presents an alternative to Working Families Party for progressives
who want to vote on a line other than Dem. We can also discuss if we
want to stick with the current cycle of restaurants in the Prospect
Heights area or if we want to expand our field (I am eying restaurants
in the Gowanus and South Slope areas which we can add on).

See you Tuesday! These Eating Liberally meetings have been proving
to be a valuable connection among Progressives in Brooklyn and the
more we get coming, the more we can collaborate.

Maybe the third time will be the charm: on Tuesday, New York City voters approved, again overwhelmingly, term limits for City elected officials.

The vote became necessary after not one but two prior referenda - in 1993 and 1996 - had been overturned by a vote of the City Council, goaded along by gentle prodding from the mayor's office. Conveniently enough, the law was changed just in time to allow said mayor to run for a third term.

It really was as if the political class had said to the voters 'yes, we know you wanted that thing, but are you sure you still want that thing?'

So, just to be clear: yes, we do want that thing.