The Daily Gotham

Been awhile since I've done a restaurant review, but feel inspired today to write one of a restaurant we have been to a couple of times in the Murray Hill area.

Indo Munch on Lexington near 31st St.
182,Lexington Avenue,
NY, NY - 10016
Ph:212-545-0010, 212-545-0017

Took me awhile to try the new fusion Indian/Chinese cuisine that hit Lexington last year. First stuff I tried was some ready made Indian/Chinese food I bought from a company in India that sells in bulk those packaged prepared Indian food. Good stuff, but not speectacular. Hadn't tried any restaurants until recently. But we started trying a couple of places in the last few months and have quite liked it. The mixing of Chinese and Indian flavors works very nicely, though often individual dishes will lean quite a bit towards one or the other cuisine. Many dishes are served either "dry" or in "gravy." I think the dry is slightly better, but both are good.

Here is a sampling of what we have tried:

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Via email from the Steve Harrison campaign:

For Immediate Release June 27 2008

Democratic Congressional Candidate Steve Harrison names former Deutsche Bank director Greg Collett campaign manager

(Staten Island/Brooklyn) Democratic Congressional Candidate Steve Harrison (NY 13 CD Staten Island/Southwest Brooklyn) has named former Deutsche Bank director Greg Collett campaign manager. Collett, a George Washington University Law School grad, recently stepped down as a director at Deutsche Bank, where he developed and managed the Bank’s exchange traded commodity fund business. Collett replaces Laura Sword, who stepped down from the campaign earlier this week.

Before his work at Deutsche Bank, Mr. Collett had experience as a legislative aide to a New Jersey State Senator and on various campaigns.

In 2006, Harrison against long time incumbent Vito Fossella, received a higher percentage of the vote than any Democrat ever, under NY‘s 13th Congressional District’s current configuration. A scandal ridden Fossella has declined to seek re-election in 2008.

"Greg first contacted me last year looking for a volunteer position on the campaign after hearing our message," said Harrison. “I was humbled to have someone with Greg’s credentials, so we included him in the campaign in a fund raising capacity."

"In light of Greg’s ample organizational and communication skills, when he became available this week, the choice became obvious," continued Harrison. He has the skill set, drive, and dedication to be successful. He has an infectious winning attitude that should inspire our many volunteers. I’m thrilled to work with Greg. He will be a fresh presence in the district with a fresh perspective on the race.”

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This comes from the Jewish Heritage E-Report (June 27, 2008)
World News about Jewish Art, Architecture & Historic sites from the International Survey of Jewish Monuments (ISJM)
Edited by Samuel D. Gruber / Contact and send news items to
samuelgruber_at_gmail.com

Jamaica: Documentation of 18th Jewish Cemetery at Hunt's Bay
(Ainsley Henriques, Rachel Frankel, Anne Hersh and Samuel Gruber contributed to this article)

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Per The New York Times, the Council and Mayor have agreed on a $59.1B budget for the new fiscal year just ahead of the July 1st deadline. The budget shifts funding away from infrastructure and towards taxpayers and consumers of City services.

During the news conference, Mr. Bloomberg and Ms. Quinn offered a few of the highlights. The New York City Housing Authority would receive $18 million more than Mr. Bloomberg proposed in May. Libraries would continue to be open six days a week and not five as was originally suggested.

The city’s capital budget would be trimmed by 20 percent. All agencies would absorb across-the-board cuts in operating expenses. And financing for City Council-sponsored programs, now at the heart of a federal investigation, was cut by 38 percent. There would also be less money to pay for security guards at cultural institutions, and a chess program for schools was cut.

A City of this size, complexity and age can get away with cutting capital spending for a year or two; beyond that, due to the age of our infrastructure, deferred maintenance inevitably results in higher costs down the road.

This is, in short, a classic election-year budget. Voters don't see the capital budget in the same way and with the same immediacy as they see their local library branch staying open for an extra day a week.

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I declare a caption contest.

Liz Benjamin picks up an editorial from Outlook Long Island, which talks about Brian Foley's refusal to answer questions on marriage equality.

The fact is, it isn't enough to have 32 Democrats in the state Senate. If too many of them are against decent, progressive values, then we won't get the changes we need. Brian Foley is one of those who will get in the way of progress and change.

Board of Education Chancellor Joel Klein spoke last night at the Citizens Union annual meeting. It was a great speech. Unfortunately, his actions over the past six years have been diametrically opposed to last night’s words.

I’ll list three examples:

He started by talking about the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. Later, he returned to that decision. His words seemed to indicate that he felt it was a great decision. But recently, his new zoning and variance regulations and have led to more segregation in our schools, not less.

That’s right – this past year’s kindergarten classes were more segregated, thanks to Joel Klein. One prime example is P.S. 199 in Manhattan, a school where the older grades have a mix of minority students. The five kindergarten classes, however, contained not one African-American child among them, and few, if any, hispanics.

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For the past couple of months, I've been working on an economic essay, designed to rebut 30 years of right-wing propaganda. The idea is that after all that time most people meekly accept the right-wing line (cutting taxes raises revenue, for instance), and somebody needs to step up and challenge it.

In my essay, I endeavor to debunk the following right-wing economic postulates:

1. Entrepreneurs, and the venture capitalists who back them, create jobs.
2. Lowering tax rates results in more revenue for the government.
3. Reducing restrictions on business activities is good for business.
4. Free trade agreements increase economic activity and raise the standard of living.
5. Government cannot do anything domestically to increase economic activity.
6. A flat tax is fair.

I like to think I've done a pretty good job, but feel free to decide for yourself. It's too long to post here; the essay is available on my website. Just click on #173, "Right-Wing Economics vs. Reality" on the right-hand column, and enjoy. (Note: At the end is a link to an 11-page PDF version.)

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You can't make this shit up: the Supreme Court just struck down the millionaires amendment as being too restrictive to millionaires trying to wage a campaign for public office.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has struck down the "millionaire's amendment" as an unfair way to help opponents of wealthy candidates who spend from their personal fortunes.

The law allows candidates to receive larger contributions when their wealthy opponents spend heavily from their personal fortunes.

The court says by a 5-4 vote that the law violates the First Amendment.

The law was challenged by Jack Davis, a New York Democrat who has so far spent nearly $4 million of his own money in two losing campaigns for Congress and says he will spend another $3 million this year.

Davis says the law unfairly rewards his opponents by allowing them to exceed campaign fundraising limits simply because Davis has chosen to dip into his personal funds.

In other news, you now have a constitutional right to own a handgun. Quick, guess what the majority in those decisions looked like.

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Do an experiment today: ask any New Yorker whom you know or meet randomly on the street who their state representatives are. The odds are very good that they won't know. This is because that knowledge makes little pertinent difference in their lives.

The ramifications of that simple fact are laid out in two Daily News pieces today that should make you cringe. One is headlined Ex-staffer says top Shelly aide raped her and Silver did nothing about it, the other, New York burns while Albany fiddles.

The first piece deals with an alleged rape incident in the State Assembly.

[Alleged rape victim Elizabth] Crothers, 32, was a young staffer for an upstate Republican assemblyman when she brought an internal complaint in 2001 with the Assembly that she was raped by Silver's then-counsel Michael Boxley.

Crothers and her boss met directly with Silver, who she said was callously eating pretzels as she recounted her story.

Boxley later in an unrelated incident pled guilty to misdemeanor sexual assault.

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Global warming is hitting us already. It is no coincidence that some of the biggest storms and an unexpected number of storms are hitting us now. Nor are food shortages coincidence...nor are they caused primarily by biofuels. Extreme weather, an expected part of global warming, is hitting us hard, damaging crops around the world. Crops are established based on a particular climate. That climate has changed and it will take time for agriculture to adapt and infrastructure to be put into place. Time and money.

Global warming isn't our future. It is our now.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

DEMOCRACY FOR NEW YORK CITY BLASTS PASSAGE OF FISA BILL

Democracy for NYC is severely disappointed that the House of Representatives has
voted to pass a bill that is unnecessary at best, and a severe blow to freedom at
home and abroad. The House vote on H.R.6304, the “FISA Amendments Act of
2008,” indicates a denial of reality among both Democrats and Republicans, and a
repudiation of the foundation of the American way.

Under current law, the President may already authorize wiretaps before even asking
for a secret warrant. There is absolutely no chance that a potential terrorist
operation will go undetected because of a legal technicality. As such, the 1978 law
still upholds the American system of checks and balances while also allowing the
government agencies charged with protecting us to act quickly whenever they
believe that quick action is needed. The law as it exists today works very well,
which is why both left- and right-wing groups and publications have stated that we
don’t need to change it.

Unfortunately, too many people in the House of Representatives don’t understand

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“The excitement underpinning Senator Barack Obama’s campaign rests considerably on his evocative vows to depart from self-interested politics. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama has come up short of that standard with his decision to reject public spending limitations and opt instead for unlimited private financing in the general election.”
-New York Times Editorial 6/20/08

WRONG!

Michael Kinsley’s famous rule that “the scandal isn’t what’s illegal, it’s what’s legal“, now has “Gatemouth’s converse“: “the ideal imperfectly replicated in a reform may be preferable to the status quo (or status quo ante), but it is not to be mistaken for the ideal itself.”

Take public financing of presidential campaigns, a reform enacted in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. The idea was to eliminate many evils: the nefarious influence of special interest pay for play money; the nefarious influence of big donors with disproportionate influence; dirty tricks, often untraceable to their source; etc., etc.

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It is time to gear up for November with some serious voter registration, Effort now can win big in November. There are already voter reg efforts in nearby states. This comes from someone at Independent Neighborhood Democrats:

Dear Friends,

I'm excited to announce that our first voter registration trip to Philadelphia will take place Saturday, July 5th. I'm very pleased that we are partnering with Pennsylvania ACORN. Upon arrival in Philadelphia, we will report to their office for a brief training session, after which we will be dispatched to the streets crawling with unregistered voters eager for our assistance.

Pennsylvania has been a pivotal swing state over the last several presidential election cycles. Indeed, Republican strategists have made no secret that they view Pennsylvania as a key target in 2008. We must make sure that Pennsylvania is firmly in the Obama column. At stake is not only the White House, but most certainly the Supreme Court, where 88 year old John Paul Stevens holds the deciding vote on issues such as a woman's right to choose, Affirmative Action, right to trial, and a host of other civil liberties.

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Breaking via NYT:

The Republican-led state Senate moved on Tuesday to install Dean G. Skelos, a Long Island senator for more than two decades, as its new majority leader.

Mr. Skelos, who will replace Joseph L. Bruno, the powerful majority leader who said on Monday that he would not seek re-election, is expected to be elected by his colleagues in a closed-door conference later in the day.

The selection of Mr. Skelos was confirmed by Thomas Libous, a Republican senator from Binghamton who was widely seen as the Long Island senator’s rival for the job.

Say hello to the last republican Senate Majority Leader.

There was a major staff shake-up in the campaign of Steve Harrison (D-NY-13) yesterday, with three aides, including the campaign manager Laura Sword, leaving the campaign.

The campaign and the departed staffers are currently working on a statement to explain the development, which would seem to indicate the decision was amicable.

More details when we have them.

[Update: Campaign statement below the fold]

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Over at Open Left, David Sirota makes a seamless transition from his perma-hawking of his new book into a diagnosis of why taking the New York State Senate matters to, literally, all Americans.

(Not as much as it would matter to buy his eminently prescient new book, but it matters).

[T]hat battle has national implications because of the size of New York's economy. Getting Democrats full control of the New York legislature and governorship means that one of the largest economies in the world - the one that encompasses Wall Street - would be regulated by a Democratic (and hopefully progressive) government. Bruno's retirement brings Democrats one huge step closer to that goal.

He's right. New York has the third-largest economy in the country, after California and Texas. Democratic control of the government gives us a chance to set regulatory standards that would, because of this state's sheer size, have impact far beyond our borders. The clustering of key industries - banking, finance, media, advertising, technology, transportation - would make that impact even more keenly felt in those sectors.

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Back in January 2006 I had as my goals:

1.) defeating the Bush/Gingrich/McCain agenda nationally

2.) defeating the Pataki, Bruno and Silver Albany constipation

3.) defeating the local Brooklyn Vito Lopez machine.

Still working on #3 through several channels. And it remains to be seen whether indictments or ill health or Brooklyn fatigue with corruption bring down Vito Lopez. For my part I prefer indictments to ill health. But Charles Hynes, the Brooklyn DA, has pushed that aside and has focused on other, also worthy efforts. So we wait to see who will replace Lopez in time.

Goal #1 began to happen in 2006 with a massive take over of the House and an evening up of the Senate. And we have a damned good shot at continuing this in 2008 with MORE House seats, a REAL takeover of the Senate and a White House win by Obama.

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Joe Bruno's retirement throws open the settled nature of New York politics, so it's worthwhile speculating on some possible developments.

His departure from the scene breaks the all-but-statutory requirement for GOP Senators to seek re-election as long as they're tolerably animate wide open. It's not unreasonable to expect Senators who have continued to serve at Bruno's request to now head for the exits; names being floated are Caesar Trunzo (born 1926), Owen Johnson (no birth date given, but first elected in 1972), Kenneth P. LaValle (no birth date given, again, but first elected in 1976), and Hugh Farley (first elected to public office in 1970, elevated to the Senate in 1976). It's an open secret in Albany that several of these lawmakers had wanted to retire for some time, but were kept in the fold by a majority leader anxious to preserve his majority. That's over, and no one would blame them for seeking retirement.

It's also reasonable to expect other Senators from the soon-to-be minority to seek greener pastures in other legislative bodies. For example, George Maziarz would probably be the strongest candidate for his party in NY-26, just as Andrew Lanza would be for the race in NY-13, where there is presently no GOP contender. I would take bets that the NRCC is on the phone with both Maziarz and Lanza right now to save something from the wreckage that republican fortunes in this state will likely become in November.

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