Valentine’s Day Blunder
Mike Bloomberg’s missing a real opportunity. On Friday, a New York State judge ruled that the state constitution, which places a much heavier emphasis on equal protection and civil rights than the United States Constitution, should be read as to allow same-sex marriage. Licenses for such same sex marriages could have been issued as early as tomorrow, if Mayor Bloomberg hadn’t announced that the city intends to appeal the decision to the state’s Court of Appeals. Bloomberg, who made a point of announcing his personal support for gay marriage, said he wanted to make sure that the decision was supported by the state’s highest court as soon as possible.
In fact, he is trying to have it both ways. He is trying to be pro-gay marriage for New York’s generally liberal general election voters, and anti-gay marriage for voters in the Republican primary, where he faces a real challenge from an actual Republican, former City Council Minority Leader Thomas Ognibene.
This is a shame, because Bloomberg could have done something so much bigger. This is February, which means not only are we on the heels of Bush’s State of the Union address, in which he reiterated his support of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, but we are just one week away from Valentine’s Day. I can’t think of a more grand, romantic gesture than the defense of equal rights and progress in the face of bigotry and reaction. Bloomberg should have opened City Hall’s steps to all couples, gay and straight, who want to get married on Valentine’s Day. It would be a potent symbol to the rest of the country that, while Bush won, his victory was narrow and regional and that, in New York at least, we’re not going to roll over for his agenda.
It also would have scored a lot of votes in the general election for Mike Bloomberg. But, he needs to win his primary before he can take his campaign to all of the city’s voters. The Republican party in New York City is tiny. There are more independents than Republicans and Democrats outnumber the Republicans by five to one. The tinyness is what appealed to Bloomberg in 2001. A socially liberal Democrat, with a huge personal fortune and media empire, he bought the Republican ballot line in 2001. Now he faces a real rebellion from this tiny collection of Archie Bunkers. Expect to see Bloomberg take two sides on a lot of issues in between now and September.
Ironically, if the Liberal party still had a ballot line, I think there would have been same-sex weddings on Valentine’s Day. It’s important to note that by the time of its demise the Liberal party was neither liberal nor a party, but a corrupt patronage mill with a name that appealed to enough voters as to allow the only two Republican mayors that New York elected in the last half of the 20th century to eke out wins. If Bloomberg could count on being on the Liberal ballot line in November, like Rudy Giuliani and John Lindsay before him, then even if he lost the Republican primary, he could still compete in the general election and maybe win (like Lindsay did in 1969).
Of course, one would expect someone who bought his way in to high office in order to do something good and leave his mark, to stake out the right position on same-sex marriage anyway, because it is the noble thing to do.
Recipe: Crab-stuffed Mushrooms
I had a taste of this dish at a restaurant in Washington’s Dupont Circle. I’ve ordered it at a few other restaurants, but found the quality to vary wildly (One diner in the West Village, which shall remain nameless, served up a hash of white button mushrooms and imitation crabmeat). I decided to take a crack at the dish myself. I thought it was promising enough to memorialize the recipe here for future experimentation.
Ingredients:
8 ounces of lump crabmeat (I found a can of Phillips brand crabmeat for $6; usually this will cost upwards of $10)
4 Portobello caps (No more than 3 inches in diameter)
1 small green pepper (I only used about 2 tablespoons of chopped pepper)
1 celery stalk
2 slices of bread
3 cloves of garlic
1 shallot
Olive oil
Small jar of alfredo sauce (Do yourself a favor and use light alfredo sauce)
1. Place the portobello caps, bottom side down, on a cookie sheet or tray and place in the oven at 350 degrees. Be sure to brush the mushrooms with olive oil so they don’t stick to the tray. Bake them for ten minutes, or until they begin to wilt.
2. Finely chop the garlic, shallot, celery and pepper. Toast the slices of bread and break them up into itty bitty little bits.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan or skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and shallot. Allow a minute or two to blend, then add the pepper and celery. Allow five minutes for vegetables to reduce.
4. Slowly mix in the crabmeat. Wait three minutes and then fold in the bread crumbs and alfedo sauce. Cook the whole mixture for an additional five minutes.
5. Flip the wilted mushrooms over so that they are upside down. Again, make sure to brush the caps with olive oil. Spoon the stuffing onto the mushrooms. Place back into the oven for five minutes, until the stuffing turns slightly brown.
6. Enjoy! Tell me what you think.
The Milton Friedman Memorial Bridge, Sponsored by Exxon
The roads are for sale. So are the bridges, and, for the right price, the ground underneath us. New York Gov. George Pataki is seriously proposing selling or leasing the Tappan Zee Bridge and the New York State Thruway for a one-time infusion of cash into the state budget. The buyers, of course, would be able to charge tolls for the life of the lease, or longer.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, whose Chairman, Peter S. Kalikow, held a press conference not too long ago to decry the state’s and city’s refusal to raise taxes or issue bonds to not only pay for basic maintenance (Welcome back, C train!) but to fund the expansion projects that are desperately needed (2nd Avenue subway, East side LIRR access, etc.), is also exploring the yard sale option. The 2nd Avenue subway, which has been no more than a hole in the ground for the last 30 years, is reportedly a likely candidate for privatization.
This privatization hokum is a pretty obvious shell game. Pataki wants to maintain his legacy of never raising taxes during his tenure. It’s his one bonda fide conservative credential that impresses the national Republican party (it’s so Presidential!). Taxpayers still pay for these roads, just more and for a longer time. Pataki’s idea, I think, is a non-starter.
The MTA’s proposal, however, is worth considering. The very first subways and trolley lines were, after all, built and run by private companies under contract with the city. Usually, those companies had real estate interests along the proposed transit lines that were made more lucrative once served by a station stop (why else would there be an 18th street station in between 14th and 23rd?!), and that’s how they made their money. The city-mandated nickel fares didn’t really pay their operating costs and they all eventually went bankrupt. Then the city took over their operations, cheap.
Sounds like a plan. Hey, Mr. Ratner, I’d love to visit your arena, but it’s so inconvenient from my Kew Gardens apartment. But, if you build a subway line from here to there, I promise to ride it all the time. Hey, I might even pay my fare occasionally.
“Run for the shadows in these golden years…”
Now begins perhaps the biggest fight long-planned by the “Republican Revolution.” With his re-election and substantial majorities in both houses of Congress, not to mention a majority of states’ governors, Bush has more clout and more power than any Republican has had since Theodore Roosevelt. Social Security pisses off free market Republicans because it is one social welfare policy of the government that remains massively popular, despite 25 years “big, bad government” rhetoric. Of course, Bush is willing to risk his legacy over this fight. After Social Security goes the minimum wage, the rest of our Pell grants, Roe vs. Wade…
They really aim to repeal the twentieth century.
The plan, of course, reduces guaranteed benefits for future retirees. Workers can divert up to 4% of their payroll taxes to a limited number of government-chosen mutual funds, and, at retirement, must divert some of their money into an annuity which will supplement the reduced monthly benefit.
Immediately, Bush’s “base,” the banks and brokerage firms, will make a fortune on user fees on millions of mutual fund investments. Again, the government will limit the number of plans that workers can choose, and those plans will be administered by a small number of companies under contract from the government (presumably, “bidding” on these contracts consists of donating the most money to the most Congressional campaigns).
In the short term, Bush finally establishes the primacy of the market. Once we’re all investors, do we worry about the impact of environmental legislation, corruption investigations and union campaigns on the companies in which we are invested? Certainly, the Powers That Be and the pundits will remind us of these conflicts of interest at every opportunity.
Finally, Bush plants the seeds for Social Security’s eventual, final collapse. As less money goes into the SS Trust, even the lowered guaranteed benefits won’t be met, but, by golly, the money invested in the market continues to pay off for most retirees, and, so, some future president will propose that we finally scrap the outmoded government portion of Social Security and simply switch over to 401(k)s.
Ironically, I spent today opening my IRA, with money that I rolled over from my previous employer’s 401(k). I can see my future career rolling out before me: it’s a series of company pensions that I’m never around long enough to become vested in, and 401(k)s with tiny matching percentages. To be fair, my last employer’s 401(k) funding was very generous. Even so, I’ve never had any faith that this money, invested in the market, would be there for my golden years quite like Social Security is currently guaranteed to be.
Moreover, nothing can make one feel quite as powerless as putting one’s money and faith in a series of mutual funds. The literature you are given to consider the funds never fully lists the companies that you will be invested in. The power to take your money away from a company with whose ethics you disagree is reserved for people with so much money that they probably don’t care much about ethics anymore.
In his first term, Bush seemed able to ram through any tax cut or war that he wanted, so it’s easy to feel a sense of inevitability about Social Security privatization. But there’s more of us than them. Already, in the lead-up to the State of the Union, Bush took a drubbing from our quarters for “fuzzy math” and scaremongering. We can win. Take action. Stay informed. Get ready to take to the streets.