If it wasn't for Democracy Now!, I wouldn't have even heard about this story.

GOP Candidate Paladino Questioned over $3M Tax Breaks

In political news, New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino is coming under criticism for receiving $3 million in tax breaks by promising to create more jobs in the Buffalo area. According to an investigation by the New York Daily News, Paladino created only twenty-five jobs. To justify tax breaks in one instance, he sold a dozen vacant lots he owned to himself and then claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars in “real property investments.” Paladino is a multi-millionaire real estate developer backed by the tea party. He has campaigned on a platform attacking government spending.

Every news outlet in the state and all the national news media should have picked up this story. They should be pressing Paladino on this scandal. Here are some of the questions he should be asked.

1) Did he pull any strings to get this deal?

2) Are sleazy tax breaks for the rich how he plans on cleaning up Albany?

3) Can he be taken seriously when he says he wants to clean up the MTA?

4) Will he support an independent investigation of this deal?

5) Why did he accept a bailout of his real estate business?

Reporters should be doing the research to find out what government services were cut to pay for this bailout. How many jobs were lost?

The corporate media seem to have little interest in doing their jobs.

Photo: elisfanclub

 

"Kool Aid Gets Fired" is the title of a fab comic book I found last weekend at New York Comic Con NYC. It is topical in many ways, including job loss, jobs being replaced by technology, and the ruthless and arbitrary power of corporations over people. Seeing Kool Aid frown and smoke cigars alone was worth the reading. I liked it so much I bought the mug too.

You can find out more about this and other work by Tim Piotrowski at www.glitchworks.com. "Kool Aid Gets Fired" even has its own webpage, with a funny animation. One difference between comic and graphic novel signings and regular book signings is that the artists often draw little illustrations with them. The one of a cranky and dejected Kool Aid rocked.

This was the first time I went to a Comic Con, and I got lucky, stumbling into the Small Press and Artists Gallery section before going to the main convention hall. That's where I found out about the trials of poor Kool Aid. I also bought a few issues of "How to Survive Working in Retail," a zine format book which details the tribulations of young people stuck in the lower rungs of our service economy. I found fab queer content in the form of the "Cavalcade of Boys" set by Tim Fish which I'm looking forward to reading.

The quirkiest thing I found was "God the Dyslexic God." I bought the first issue with a blenderized version of pantheism and an apparent opposition to animal experimentation. I also found a printouts of a couple of promising web comics, "Curls" and "Revolvers."

I should point out that the American Library Association also had a booth, where they promoted their 2009-2010 banned books brochure. The ALA also has a list of resources on stopping bullying against queer youth.

I got burnt out on superhero comics a while back. Maybe being middle aged is part of the reason. In any case, New York Comic Con, like comics in general these days, has subject matter much broader. My first senses of this were buying "Ghostworld" after seeing the movie and with Alison Bechdel's autobiographical "Fun Home", the latter being something that every queer should read.

Rediscovering the comic book art form is really refreshing, especially since there is a lot of content that appeals to my interests later in life. I wonder how much could be done with comic books and graphic novels to communicate liberal views and values. There was a lot of nutty rightist content at Comic Con too, but it didn't have a monopoly by any means. I hope the voices in comics from the left get more numerous and louder.

 

As you probably know, evil former EBay CEO Meg Whitman is trying to buy the governor's office in California. Some people are fighting back with comedy.











The sinister Meg Whitman doesn't take too kindly to parody, and sometimes has her goons try to physically intimidate the jokesters.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has put up two important videos of people talking about how important it is to pass ENDA, the Employment Non Discrimination Act.





I think it is critical that we discuss queer issues in human terms. When we do so, we usually win. When the debate gets deflected to religion or other abstractions, we don't do so well.

 

Former nude centerfold and current rabid homophobe Scott Brown did something I thought even he wouldn't do recently. He condoned simulated necrophilia. Linda McMahon's campaign has provided video proof that Brown has actually campaign for her.



Keep in mind that Ms. McMahon's WWE put simulated necrophilia on nationwide TV while she was CEO. This is widely known in New England, yet Brown appeared at the rally and promoted the former WWE CEO/Diva as a Senate candidate.

Obviously, Brown is not sufficiently opposed to broadcasting simulated sex with the dead. It must not be that big of a deal to him. Otherwise, he wouldn't be campaigning for McMahon. Brown is a train wreck.

I wonder if her WWE content or her WWE layoffs are more responsible for Linda McMahon's falling poll numbers.

 

The thing that pisses me off the most is that my tax dollars subsidize this heterosexist bullshit. (New York City taxpayers have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to the Yankees, even though it is a profitable business that needs no help.)



I will never vote for any politician that gives a dime of city or state money to that homophobic, greedy organization again. I will never forgive ultra homophobic Mayor Bloomberg for pushing the last stadium subsidy through.

 

Considering how little coverage Global Warming has gotten as a campaign issue this year in the corporate media and how much time and ink those outlets give to corporate shills who lie about the problem, one might think that the issue wasn't heavily present in peoples' minds.

That would be wrong. On 10/10/10, there were over 7,000 events for people fighting Global Warming. These "work parties" had a serious message. The start of 350.org's press release gives a general idea of what went on.

"Work Parties" Issue a Political Challenge: Get to Work on Climate Solutions
World's Biggest Day of Climate Action Unites 7,000 rallies in 188 Countries

Washington, DC – Just weeks before elections in the United States and climate talks at the United Nations, citizens from Afghanistan to West Virginia joined 350.org's "10/10/10 Global Work Party" to issue a unified demand that politicians stop dragging their feet and get to work on climate solutions.

Leading by example, citizens in 188 countries joined more than 7,000 climate "work parties" over the weekend to get to work installing solar panels, weatherizing homes, planting trees, and then calling politicians to ask a simple question, "We're getting to work, what about you?"

"The fossil fuel industry may have thought that the collapse of the Copenhagen talks and its victory in the U.S. Congress were the final word—that people would give up in discouragement," said acclaimed environmental writer and 350.org founder Bill McKibben. "The turnout today—at what is almost certainly the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history—demonstrates that people are fed up with the inaction of their leaders and ready to take matters into their own hands. Game on."

The press release also provides us with an idea of the extent of involvement.

10/10/10 Global Work Party highlights include:

* In Instanbul, Turkey, 7,000 marched for climate action
* In China, 30,000 students joined over 300 events across the country
* In Bangladesh, citizens demonstrated knee deep in the flood waters that are affecting hundreds of thousands of people
* In Hamadan, Iran, hundreds of students attended an environmental symposium
* In Afghanistan, groups of students planted trees in a valley outside Kabul
* In South Africa, a local business installed solar panels on the roof of an orphanage
* In the United States, there were over 2,000 rallies with events in all 50 states, including 400 clean energy rallies in California

Climate Change is a big deal, not just in terms of the planet, but as an issue people want addressed.

One thing you can do to fight Global Warming is to learn about the dangers of coal and educate others.



Learn More and Sign the Sierra Club's Petition!

 

The rampant racism among the teabaggers has gotten a lot of coverage on the left, but their heterosexism has yet to get the attention it should. Sarah Palin's Mini Me in Delaware, Christine O'Donnell was a vocal homophobe and was a press spokesperson for the venomously homophobic "Concerned Women for America." CWA was, and still is, a militant Christian supremacist hate group designed for a membership of women but under the control of men.

Now, teabagger candidate Carl Paladino, a wealthy real estate speculator in Buffalo, is spewing heterosexist hate every chance he gets. On NY1, he is quoted saying these things in front of a group of orthodox rabbis.

"I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don't want them to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option. It isn't," said Paladino.

The remarks came right after Paladino said it was time to stop pandering to "pornographers and perverts."

...
"I oppose the homosexual agenda, whether they call it marriage, civil union or domestic partnership," said the Republican candidate.

The fact that Paladino has a gay nephew makes his comments even more reprehensible. He should know better. Also, why is it that bigoted politicians always feel they have free reign to spew bigoted filth in front of orthodox rabbis?

Paladino couldn't stop there either. On the Today show, he spewed the following:

He said, however, that he took issue with the decision of his opponent, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, to take his two daughters to a gay pride parade.

"I don't think it's proper for them to go there and watch a couple of grown men grind against each other. I don't think that's proper, I think it's disgusting," Paladino said.

Paladino doesn't complain about heterosexuals bumping and grinding, which they do all over TV and in public. What a hypocritical, bigoted jackass. I feel sorry for Paladino's family. That man is a horrible mess. I feel especially sorry for his nephew.

Not surprisingly, Paladino's bigotry is far from limited to hetersexism. From the Today show coverage:

Paladino, who apologized for forwarding racist and sexist e-mails early on in his campaign to replace Democratic Gov. David Paterson, was campaigning on Sunday through traditionally Jewish conservative neighborhoods of Brooklyn.

This is an important lesson. Bigotry is seldom limited to heterosexism. Racism, misogyny, and heterosexual supremacy all are part of an interlinked worldview, one which is pushed at us every day by the rich and the powerful. When queers on the right don't want LGBT organizations to support the struggles of other oppressed groups, they are furthering the oppression and violence that us queers face.

Another weird aspect of this is that Paladino's first audience was made up of militant, Jewish fundamentalists who encouraged Paladino's bigoted nonsense. Obviously, they have no sense of enlightened self interest. The vast majority of homophobes hate Jewish people too, even if they are less vocal about it. Anytime a politician says anything against queers, that should automatically raise red flags among anyone who isn't Christian.

Illustration: ddogbreath

 

Last winter, the economy was improving. Absent a new problem, we were headed towards a recovery.

Then, Greece happened.

Obviously, it was much shittier for the Greeks, but it dramatically slowed our economy. For months, our economy started to look as if it were heading towards a double dip recession. Since then, our unemployment rates have remained stagnant.

Now, we are starting to get some good news again. It looks as though we've starting to get through the temporary problems caused by the Greek crisis/bankster holdup. Here are some examples.

US jobless claims hit 3-mo low as soft patch fades (Reuters 10/7/10)

Mortgage Rates At Record Lows (ABC News 10/7/10) [Note: Rates have been artificially high compared to the prime rate since the Crash of 2008.]

U.S. service sector growth picks up (CBC )

GDP report: Economic growth slightly faster (CNN Money 9/30/10)

Things aren't fabulous, but they are starting to show early signs of improvement. The freezes on home foreclosures by many major banks caught doing illegal foreclosures should help the economy too.

 

Think what we could have done with all the money we wasted.

 

Our society is reticent about discussing suicide in general. However, there are two specific forms of suicide which have gotten very little discussion in corporate media outlets, being blocked out even more than suicide in general. One of them is the high suicide rates of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. This censorship is due to corporate media outlets trying to keep as many people supporting these pointless wars as possible and to keep potential military recruits from finding out what they might be getting themselves into.

The other form of suicide that is especially censored is queer teen suicide. This has been motivated by prejudice. That may be changing.

A Rutgers student was outed sensationally by having video of him having sex with a man posted on the Internet. He killed himself. This story was so bizarre and extreme that it broke a media taboo. Other news stories of teenagers killing themselves after being bullied in school have surfaced.

This is long overdue. Ellen DeGeneres has eloquently responded to this. What she said is more than worth listening too.



The Trevor Project has been working on the issue of queer teen suicide for over a decade. Hopefully, the recent publicity on this concern will cause more people to take note and take action.

Hopefully, the coverage and interest of suicides and bullying of queer youth in the corporate media will not be a "flavor of the month" story to be dropped when the next trend comes along. I also hope that suicide among veterans gets the attention that issue deserves too.