Badda-Bing Badda-Bloomberg

After Columbus Day parade organizers tried to get a federal court order barring NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg from bringing cast members of the hit TV show "The Sopranos" to Monday's Colombus day parade, Bloomberg said fughedaboudit -- he won't march in the parade and plans instead to lunch with the actors on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx and appear at two other parades over the holiday weekend.

from a different point of view, the NY Times says

New York parade without politics is like pretzels without beer — the former without the latter is hardly worth having.

Hey, this is NY.

Honored

NYC Firefighters stood in Madison Square Garden today and applauded their fallen comrades, including the 343 who perished at the World Trade Center.

Before the ceremony began, the audience in the Garden watched as the large screens showed thousands of firefighters marching up Eighth Avenue from 14th Street. The march included 356 firefighters carrying American flags to honor each of the dead..

Every family on the floor of the arena was presented with medals of valor from a uniformed firefighter and the Emerald Society Pipes & Drums marched four abreast onto the middle floor.

I join the City in honoring these fallen heroes, They made the ultimate sacrifice, we shall never forget.

Perspective

Robert Higgs makes sense

Bush urged that "we cannot wait for the final proof – the smoking gun – that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." Reiterating that Saddam can "develop a nuclear weapon to blackmail the world," the president opined that "the situation could hardly get worse" and therefore that the United States must eliminate the grave Iraqi threat before it comes to fruition.

This view of the world is so grotesquely out of proportion, so preposterously hyperbolic, that one scarcely knows what to make of it. The president, along with all those who find his presentation compelling, seems to have forgotten everything about the long Cold War, and he seems oblivious to nearly everything about the current world situation.

For some forty years, the United States lived under constant threat of nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. For those who have forgotten, the Soviet regime was not composed of poets and flower peddlers. If Saddam Hussein is, as the president insists, "a ruthless and aggressive dictator," what was Joseph Stalin? What was Leonid Brezhnev?

Nor did the rulers of the USSR play single-softball with respect to nuclear warheads. By the mid-1980s, the Soviet arsenal contained more than 10,000 strategic nuclear warheads and some 30,000 nonstrategic nuclear warheads. Unlike Iraq, which has no capability to deliver a nuclear weapon at long range, the USSR had more than 6,000 nuclear warheads mounted on more than a thousand intercontinental ballistic missiles, most of them programmed to strike targets in the United States within half an hour of launch. In addition, thousands of submarine-launched nuclear weapons and more than a thousand nuclear bombs carried by long-range jet aircraft augmented the Soviet threat.

Yet, notwithstanding the tens of thousands of Soviet nuclear warheads and their sophisticated delivery vehicles kept in constant readiness, the United States was not "blackmailed" by the USSR. Odd that now the United States should quake at the prospect of a single Iraqi softball of fissionable material.

Community control: an education disaster

"Community control" has been a disaster in New York City, writes James Traub in the New York Times Magazine. After 30 years of racial politics and patronage, corrupt local school boards are losing power; incompetent superintendents are being fired. Now the mayor and his chancellor -- an ex-lawyer with no education experience -- must figure out how schools should teach. (reg. reqd.)

Raaaay-O

Hi Ray-O

Mr Belafonte Sir, I've always been a fan of yours. I'm quite impressed by your record as an accomplished performer, singer, actor and humanitarian. Over the years, I've seen most of the movies that you've appeared in, I've listened to and danced to your music, I've even ascribed to some of your philosophies.

You music is such an exotic body of work I think, from ballads to blues to gospel to folk, someone ought to reissue these discs.

I was fortunate enough to see you perform just a couple years ago. I truly enjoyed it, you are a tireless performer, funny, charming and very real. You are certainly a crowd pleaser ... My mother loves you to death.

I also appreciate the fact that you have been honored by the American Jewish Congress, the NAACP, The Urban League, the National Conference of Black Mayors, the Anti-Defamation League of B'Nai B'rith, the ACLU, the U.S. State Department and the Peace Corps. I've read that you've received such awards as the Albert Einstein Award, UNICEF's Danny Kaye Award, the Martin Luther King Peace Prize, and the Kennedy Center Honors for excellence in the performing arts and, you were the first recipient of the Nelson Mandela Courage Award.

That is all true Ray-O

Yes, well, sir, you can call me Ray.

So, I'm watching CNN the other day and I hear that you made a statement about Colin Powell that was not well received. At first I was in denial but then Wolf Blitzer played the tape and that voice was undeniably yours ... what happened?

It was anecdotal and was taken out of context, I was painting a hypothetical picture, Unfortunately it was misinterpreted.

But you clearly said that:

"there's an old saying, in the days of slavery, there were those slaves who lived on the plantation and were those slaves that lived in the house. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master...exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him…Colin Powell's committed to come into the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture."

It appears that your feet may not have been planted firmly on the ground as you spoke.


Exactly, well, Ray-0, listen ... I am known as the King of Calypso, internationally adored for "The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)." I also spent the better part of my life working as a tireless civil rights activist and humanitarian. During my life, these two ideals have been intricately bound. Also, My silken raspy voice, staggering good looks, and a masterful assimilation of folk, jazz, and rhythms, and legacy as a consummate entertainer is unparalleled.

Of course, as a matter of fact, your anthology cd The long road to freedom is the number one Item on my WishList.

My birthday is coming up on November 22 and I expect that your cd set will arrive in my mailbox in a timely manner. I'm also a huge fan of your daughters Shari and Gina by the way, Two very lovely people.

Oh, hey, Ray-0, the holiday season is right around the corner, be sure to pick up my Harry Belafonte Christmas album if you're so inclined ... it is one of my favorites, I highly recommend it.

No offense sir, but I think that Nat King Cole has you beaten in the Christmas category, but I'll make sure to put it on my wishlist.

I suppose you haven't listened to my greatest hits box set either huh?

Excuse me sir, but I digress.

Congratulations by the way on receiving Africare's 2002 Bishop Walker Humanitarian Award for outstanding contributions to humankind worldwide and, specifically, to the civil rights struggle in the United States and to the struggles for political independence, children's rights and development, and freedom from HIV/AIDS Africa-wide.

I respect your accomplishments, It is my sincere hope that the recent comments were simply a faux-pas on your part. I'm sure Colin would love to hear from you, this time on more amicable terms. Carry on, and thanks for gracing this little blog-O thing of mine with your presence.

Ok Ray-O, Daylight come and me gonna go home

All the best to you sir.

Mark Fiore does it again

Hit Sadham where it really hurts.

'SOPRANOS' TOLD TO TAKE A HIKE: NOT WELCOME AT NYC COLUMBUS DAY PARADE

In response to published reports that Mayor Michael Bloomberg took it upon himself to invite members of the cast of The Sopranos to march in the Columbus Day Parade, the Board of Governors of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, the organizers and producers of the Parade for the past 58 years, wish to once again reiterate its policy that participation by anyone associated with this highly-offensive program has no place in a celebration of Italian-American pride and heritage.

Via (Drudge)

Web logs drifting into mainstream

Blogs: The forums, once used largely for online diaries, are eyed as a new frontier for news media.

Powell: Belafonte's remarks 'unfortunate'

Hi Ray

Mr Powell, Sir, I agree with you that the remarks made by Harry Belafonte yesterday, comparing you to a slave out to please the master was terribly unfortunate. Seems that he wasn't thinking when he opened his mouth. Perhaps he lost his mind for a few seconds, and didn't realize that his foot was in his mouth as he spoke.

It sure seems that way, when I heard about what he said I felt like grabbing him by th ....

whoa! Mr. Secretary, I understand, I'm sure he'll be calling you soon with a formal apology; it would seem like the right thing for him to do.

"If Harry had wanted to attack my politics, that was fine. If he wanted to attack a particular position I hold, that was fine, But to use a slave reference, I think, is unfortunate and is a throwback to another time and another place that I wish Harry had thought twice about using."

At first, when I heard the term House Slave I immediately thought of the poem by Rita Dove of the same name. But once I heard the story on CNN, I realized this was serious.

But, I think once Day-O man does his homework he will see the light and realize:

That you were a professional soldier for 35 years, during which time you held myriad of command and staff positions and rose to the rank of 4-star General.

That you were Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from December 1987 to January 1989.

That you were the 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest military position in the Department of Defense.

That during that time you oversaw 28 crises, including Operation Desert Storm in the victorious 1991 Persian Gulf war.

That you wrote your best-selling autobiography, My American Journey, which was published in 1995.

That your rose from humble beginnings graduated from the City College of New York (CCNY), where you earned a bachelors degree in geology. Participated in ROTC at CCNY and received a commission as an Army second lieutenant upon graduation in June 1958. And, also hold a Master of Business Administration degree from George Washington University.

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he comes to his senses.

And, Ray, don't forget to mention my two Presidential Medals of Freedom, the President’s Citizens Medal, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Secretary of State Distinguished Service Medal, and the Secretary of Energy Distinguished Service Medal. And, Several schools and other institutions have been named in my honor and I hold honorary degrees from universities and colleges across the country. Oh, I'm also chairman of America's promise an organization that seeks to mobilize people from every sector of American life to build the character and competence of our nation's youth

Oh, true, true ... and now, you are the Secretary of State of the greatest country on the face of the earth, what exactly does your job entail? I'm sure Harry needs to be briefed on such matters.

Well, Under the Constitution, the President of the United States determines U.S. foreign policy. The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the President’s chief foreign affairs adviser.

And, of course, I'm sure there's more to what you do than meets the eye, I'm also sure that if Harry wants to know more about what you do he will go here

I also understand that you and your staff feel that Day-O man should keep his Day-JOB and stay out of politics?

Yes, he should stick with the Banana Boat song and such, although I prefer the parody version of the song in which I make a cameo appearance.

Very cool, Well, I also have to add that I was in agreement with Oliver Willisyesterday concerning this mattter when he said: " Soon, I hope black notables and politicians can slam each other on the merit of their ideas, and not "who's blacker?"

I agree

Thank you sir, all the best to you.

Street Harassment Project

Every woman has had the experience of feeling threatened or demeaned by your average asshole who yells "nice ass" or "smile baby." The STREET HARASSMENT PROJECT holds weekly meetings at its NYC location to share stories and to plan workshops and demonstrations.

Join a "counter-harassment party" of women who patrol parks. Hand out cards to offenders saying, "This card has been treated with an invisible poisonous ink and within six hours your penis will fall off." But most importantly, next time you overhear some snide comment, let those bastards know that it is not OK to talk to a woman that way.