9/11 did not happen yesterday. It happened almost a decade ago. Maloney had a decade before that to acquire "seniority," (instead of seniority, what she has acquired is senioritis) and to learn the ropes in Congress, and she has had a decade since to bring those skills to use to the service of the firefighters of this city, and she has failed. And Al Hagan has failed with her.
No one said their trying to get this bill passed was a bad idea, and I hope it passes in some form down the line, because it is a necessary bill.
"...you should be joining the scores of advocates in support of its future passage."
Well Al Hagan, that is precisely the plan. That is what she intends to do when she is in Congress starting this Fall. And that is why you need to at least go neutral in this primary. Just because you have been hanging out with Maloney over the years does not make her worth endorsing. Let the democratic process decide who should be your Congressperson.
Al Hagan's logic goes something like this. 9/11. I am a labor boss. 9/11. Maloney is in Congress. 9/11. We wanted this 9/11 health bill passed, but that was almost a decade ago. 9/11. We have been trying every year since to get it passed. 9/11. We have been failing. 9/11. I had coffee with Maloney the other day. 9/11. I hope you did not hear about it, but the bill's passage failed all over again. 9/11. And if you are going to criticize my incompetence, and Maloney's incompetence, do not forget that 9/11 happened. 9/11.
This is as convoluted as logic gets. This logic is so convoluted, I think this guy is capable of a hate crime.
And we thought Maloney was the only one behind the failed 9/11 health bill. All sorts of people are now coming out of the woodworks saying me too. Where have you been? El Dorado?
To stand by Maloney is to stand by Rangel is to stand by ethics violations. Nadler needs to take precautions here. I don't know much about him but he comes across like he might be a good guy. But even good guys sometimes make mistakes. And he is making one now.
Maloney is a sinking ship. Vacate.
Look Nadler dude, it is like this. The party you are a member of is on its way to an intellectual bankruptcy by 2016. You prevent that by bringing along Reshma Saujani. Why do you think Maloney is so scared of debating Reshma? It is because she knows Reshma is going to talk 2016 ideas. Maloney has no idea what those 2016 ideas are. Do you care about the future of your party? If you do, you are standing on a sinking ship. Vacate immediately.
That is the hard fact for Al Hagan, the firefighters' labor boss dude. Carolyn Maloney tried to pass the 9/11 health bill. That shows her heart is in the right place on the issue. But she failed to pass it. That shows she is too incompetent to do her job.
Al Hagan should have been questioning her right now. Look, Carolyn, whatever you did there is not working. Instead he is defending her failure. Why would that be? I think I know why. Because Hagan himself was part of that Maloney effort. Maloney failing is Hagan failing and perhaps the firefighters of this city should keep that in mind the next time this dude is up for reelection for his office of firefighter labor boss.
He still has the option to do the right thing. He can look at the facts. And he can say, look people, I was betting on the wrong horse. I thought Maloney could do it, but she was not able to. And so let's have a change of guard. Let's get ourselves a new Congressperson who might actually be competent. And then let's try to get the 9/11 health bill passed. Hopefully we will with new, capable leadership. Let's shoot for 2011.
This don't you criticize us, we are the 9/11 firefighters attitude is not flying with me. That is one of many wrong uses of the 9/11 tragedy. That is disrespectful. The issue here is that there is a job that needs to get done and it is not getting done.
I was slightly worried when the labor bosses were all with Hillary in the fall of 2007. Bu then once the election results started pouring in it became very obvious to me that these labor bosses are like reptilian tails, they are like the big tail of a dinosaur. You don't look at that tail to look at future trends. That tail is absolutely the last to move. The labor bosses don't give you victory. They come to you after your victory. And that's fine. We welcome them to our victory party on September 14 with open arms.
Maybe these labor bosses are not educated people. When was the last time they read a book?
They are like, oh, Maloney voted for health care reform and so we are for Maloney. The election against the Republican candidate is in November, stupid. The two people on the ballot on September 14 were both for health care reform. They are both Democrats.
Maloney voted for health care reform. Of course she voted for health care reform. She is your classic checkbox Democrat. But someone who votes for health care reform is not good enough to be representing District 14. District 14 is special. You want someone in Congress who would have provided leadership on health care reform. You want a thought leader. You want a national halo around your Congressperson. You want a Super Star. You deserve better than Maloney. Maloney is too "ordinary." (The Washington Post)
I would like to make a major push for Iran at this blog. I want Iran to become my primary focus at this blog now going forward. I want to get some work done. (Iran, Obama 2010, Reshma 2010)
Working on a democracy movement is a very different mindset. It is more intense, more on the edge. Working on a democracy movement is a different skill set. So much so I wonder if being good at it makes you less good at something slower like legislative moves. It is perhaps a specialization. You are a doctor, but a doctor of what?
Iran features prominently on my mental heat wave map right now. Iran has implications.
In January of 2006 I predicted a "French Revolution" in Nepal with an organization that was the first organization I landed on after moving to the city, having been a Deaniac from 2004. (The French Revolution And DFNYC) These people had been driving me impatient. I was asking them to do small things like maybe raise a thousand dollars - one fucking thousand dollars! - and get some elected officials to write letters of support to the democracy movement in Nepal, and they would not budge! It was a we-simply-don't-care-one-way-or-the-other attitude. "Stuff happened in Rwanda, and I was not bothered" was one comment.
I was trying to argue that this was not just about Nepal. This was about the War On Terror. The only way the War On Terror is going to end is when all Arab countries have been turned into democracies. And we can get there the Bush way, a trillion dollars per country, or we can do it my way like in Nepal. This Nepal work boosts the progressive cause in America. All that logic fell on deaf ears. So I bootstrapped. I did what I could. Fundraising never having been one of my core strengths, I struggled.
The French Revolution did happen. In April 2006 over a course of 19 days one third of the country's 27 million people poured into the streets to completely shut the country down until the dictator bowed out. Every single village, town and city poured out.
I was of course holed up that entire time. I lost weight, I did not need to. I had to get glasses in the aftermath. I was too busy monitoring the situation. It was an intense experience. When it was over, I emerged. I showed up for a DFNYC event in Brooklyn. I was living in Brooklyn at the time. This was my first DFNYC event in Brooklyn. At the time I still had my car that I moved into the city with. I drove over. I had no idea what had happened in Nepal had also taken over the news spectrum in NYC. I had been trained by DFNYC to think people in NYC just did not care about Nepal. Nepal was too far away.
I saw Leila Noor at the event. I said, hey, thanks for that article on Nepal you forwarded to me over email. That was much appreciated. Told me you knew.
What are you talking about, she said. Everyone knew. It was a hit me moment. I then realized Nepal had been on TV, Nepal had been in the New York Times, Nepal had been everywhere.
Subsequently Howard Dean showed up at a DFNYC Mixer and this guy Josh was doing crowd control on me. I was the reason Howard Dean showed up in the first place and this mofo was doing crowd control on me! Mandela calls it "a thousand little indignities" in his book.
Barack
This was a much easier prediction to make. I predicted at the beginning of 2007 that he was going to be president. (Jupiter And Obama) Barack has this messiah quality to him. He even looked like one to me at the Washington Square Park rally with the bright lights in the background. (The Largest Rally In US Presidential Campaign History) When I watch a speech from him, it feels like a cool breeze is brushing against my face. It is a spiritual experience to watch him in action. He is Gandhiesque.
John
I was at John's victory party last year, and the thought first occurred to me. I remember thinking, this guy could be Mayor in four years. I blogged about it. At his inauguration he was still unsure because the smell of Thompson was still in the air, but no more. For now John gets to deliver the labor bosses to me, if possible.
Reshma 2010's victory on September 14 is going to be the biggest political event in New York City since Barack almost won Brooklyn in February of 2008. In many ways bigger because I don't hold that against him but Barack is a Chicago guy. September 14 is the day this country gives birth to The New Woman. The New Woman wants to, is able to, and takes equality for granted. The New Woman does not rest until that same has been achieved for women across the world.
Reshma was a White House intern as a college student at the Harvard of the Midwest, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I have walked around that campus, by the way. The Quad is so beautiful. Larry Ellison dropped out of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign like Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard. (Larry Ellison, Larry Ellison's Personal Life, Larry Ellison's 1995 Network Computer Vision, Rich People's Kids) It bothers me when people only talk about Harvard and Yale when talking about Reshma. That East Coast bias has to go. She organized for Clinton Gore 96. She organized for Gore 2000. She was one of John Kerry's top 10 fundraisers in the country. She was a big shot with Hillary 08. This woman is not made for the legislative branch. This woman is custom made for the White House. But a run for the White House can not be your first run, and hence Congress. She is going to do the FDR thing of putting a New Yorker in the White House. She is going to do the Lincoln thing of going from the House to the White House. She is going to end the global trafficking of women like Lincoln ended slavery.
But I would like to mess up with her House to White House trajectory. I am going to make a case with Barack.
"Look, I suffered for you, I went on the cross for you. (The First Time I Heard The Obama Name, Obama, Reshma, Charlie Rangel: Motherfucker, Rangel Has Gone Radioactive) I want my woman on the ticket in 2012. Trust me, Joe will understand. He no longer has the foreign policy advantage that he once had if he ever did. You are a seasoned world stage player in your own right. By the way, can I take a look at your Nobel medal? Because I would like one for myself. You did construction work as a student in New York City and you have goat herder heritage. That is as working class as it gets for me. Barack the glass ceiling, I mean break the glass ceiling, put a woman on the ticket. (Barack The Glass Walls, Ceilings, Smash 'Em) It is about time. Putting Malia and Sasha into the White House has not just been about the self esteem of black children, it has also been about the self esteem of young girls across the world."
Reshma 2016 is the biggest rationale for Reshma 2010. If it is about Reshma, she could run in 2016, 2020, 2024 all the way to 2040. But it is not about Reshma. It is about the country and the world. And that makes 2016 her year. 2016 will be time for the first woman President Of The United States, and the top woman to watch in New York City is that woman. (Reshma Saujani: Top 10 Women To Watch In America)
I read the Ted Sorensen book Kennedy when I was in middle school. It is a thick book. I read it cover to cover.
Right now Reshma 2010 takes up a lot of my time. It has been a healing experience for me. It feels to me like slowly but surely I am regaining my health, I am regaining my sprint. And a Reshma 2010 victory on September 14 will allow me to pick up where I left off with Barack. June 2008 to August 2010 will have been a long gap, but better late than never. I am beginning to feel the November victory already. A victory in November would be to defy history, but then this dude defied a much bigger history trajectory in November 2008. I see him doing it again. And I intend to play my part.
Reshma 2010 is my on ramp to Obama 2010. Reshma 2010 is going to merge fully with Obama 2010. The national effort is going to become Reshma 2010's primary focus after September 14, because her district is comfortably Democratic. The Republican candidate does not stand a chance. And her national visibility is only going to add to her November inevitability. It is not like her national involvement will come at the expence of her personal chances in November.
But I am a Third World guy, a Global South dude. The political challenge that my heart really, truly aches for is the democracy movement in Iran. I need to do some fundraising to be able to pour myself into that.
Image via Wikipedia
