He was a giant media mogal in Australia before coming to the states to start his News Corp. media here, which in current days includes Fox News, The Post, The Wall Street Journal and more smaller publications then I can list. When he purchased the Courier Life Group a few years back, I was sadly disappointed that some of the great local papers would now be the play thing of Murdoch.

As someone who loves and follows politics, I don’t agree with his right wing views, but that’s not my problem with him. My problem is the information that he sends out in his various media outlets is presented as facts, even when they are not.  Frank Rich said it best:

“An otherwise archetypal media colossus, with apolitical TV shows (American Idol), movies (Avatar), and cable channels (FX) like any other, is controlled by a family (and its tight coterie of made men and women, exemplified by the recently departed Rebekah Brooks) that countenances the intimidation and silencing of politicians, regulators, competitors, journalists, and even ordinary citizens to maximize its profits and power and to punish perceived corporate, political, and personal enemies. And, as we now know conclusively, some of this behavior has broken the law.”

He is dishonest and ruthless, which is why last summer’s scandal was so very, very sweet. Nothing like some good old fashion phone hacking to make this media king lose one of his most successful British papers,  News of the World.

This kind of controversy and scandal is healthy for all journalists. It keeps us in check. Yes, maybe Murdoch was caught because most people in power were just waiting for him to mess up. But it also shows journalists that they can’t break the rules to get information. I mean, who hacks into a 13 year old murder victims voice mail?

It's not Little bunny Foo- Foo

We need to learn from Murdoch. Don’t start using opinions as facts. Don’t write stories because it will be financially beneficial. And most importantly: Don’t break the law.

The first two things are immoral. They send out red flags. If you are doing that, then what else is going on?

When someone writes storied that will help their advertisers and political friends, it is no wonder that they will do whatever it takes to get stories to sell as many papers as they want. In the very famous Supreme Court case, New York Times Co. v. United States, Justice Black said ”The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.”

I hope you are listening, Murdoch.

For the most part, bloggers hear something, write about it for about a sentence, then spend five pages telling people what they think. I would like to link you to some examples, but searching for something so widespread my end up crashing my computer.

We need to hold our columnists to a higher standard then this, and for the most part I think they are doing a good job, especially in publications like the NY Times and the Daily News.

The NY Times has a lot of very well written opinion pieces in their paper. They have columns about international and national stories that are well researched. Unfortunately, I don’t care about most of these topics. Luckily, they realized this delema and have a section of their online paper called City Room, which has more local news, but it isn’t too much of column section.

In the last month, you could go on City Room and read about Occupy Wall Street or what the Mayor is doing. I want to say that I have one person that I follow in this paper, but I can’t name a single writer/ blogger/ columnist/ whatever other name you want to call them. In the last week, Kate Taylor has written an article about the Mayor, but their wasn’t much of an opinion piece.

The problem I have with City Room is that their Government & Politics section is not typically updated daily, unless there is some major breaking news. In the world we live in now, people are used to getting new information ASAP. We are like hungry information vampires, and we will attack if you don’t give us information.

'Give us your information!"

The Daily News has a better section, because they have more interesting topics. I used to read Elizabeth Benjamin, but she has left the paper a while back. There is also Celeste Katz, who writes good articles. Most of their columnists are like the Times, because they write about topics of national importance, but I think the News have more articles about local politics.

My big issue with both papers is that they aren’t local enough for me. We not only want to know what is happening every minute, we want to know what is happening in our neighborhood, and down the street. Publications like the NY Times and Daily News focus on the whole city, and A LOT about Manhattan. Since I don’t live by Wall Street, this doesn’t suit me very well.

My alternative is Sheepsheadbites. They cover various topics and Ned Burke, the founder of the site, gives his opinions on the politics in the neighborhood in a good amount of the articles, while also listing the facts. He is also neutral, so I can respect his opinion, since he may love a politician one day, and despise him the next.  The blog is so much more then politics, but every article keeps me entertained.

Since I love politics, I have to mention Room 8, which was almost like a bible to me a few years ago. Room 8 is interesting, but usually when there is an election going on. There are 2 main bloggers on that site. One is Rock Hackshaw, who tends to publish an article and then ask questions. This has gotten him into to trouble A LOT. He tends to start rumors, but I think it is unintentional. His sources are out of the game “telephone”, and by the time something comes out in print, names, events, facts, and any kind of details have been changed so much, that it’s hard to say what is true and what is not. Don’t get me wrong, I will still read him whenever I have a chance.

I have to give a shout out to Gatemouth on Room 8, because his articles are factually the polar opposite to Rock’s stuff. His articles are full of facts and honest opinions, but sometimes they are long and I move on to something else.

Long story short: There are some good political blogs out there, but it maybe difficult to find one that would cover your interests if you are looking for local politics.

Jeffries  filed papers on September 30th, 2011 to the Federal Election Commission to run for the 10th Congressional District seat under the name “Jeffries for Congress.”

His first fundraiser was on September 17^, which was called the “Young Professionals Fundraiser for Hakeem Jeffries Exploratory Committee”.

During the event Jeffries raised a lot of money and he  now has an official campaign, instead of just an exploratory committee.  According to the September 30^th Financial Disclosure records, he has raised a total of $173,873 and has only spent $14,928.

“We are happy with the money he has raised and we are proud of the cross section of people who have donated,” said Lupe Todd, Jeffries communications director. “More then 50% of our donors have given under $100, which shows that we have a lot of support in the district.”

Todd said that Jeffries has been in Albany since 2006 where he was working hard on many legislative matters, and Congress is the next step for him. In the Assembly he has been an outspoken voice for major issues that affect his district, such as the NYPD’s Stop and Frisk Policy, Housing and Education. He is currently a member of the Committee on Banks; Housing; Correction, and seven other Committees/ Subcommittees.

Todd is not new to races in the 10th Congressional District. She used to be Congressman Ed Towns’ Communications Director.

So far, incumbent Congressman Ed Towns is the only other candidate who is officially running against Jeffries.

Towns has held this seat for 28 years and has been losing his political support over the last year. He was weakened earlier this year after he lost the race to replace his son’s District Leader seat.

The Congressman has been holding various fundraisers, including an upcoming concert on November 3^rd with Jay-Z & Kanye West, which is sold out, according to his campaign staff.

“We are not only sold out, we are over sold” said the staffer. “Even staff can’t attend the event.”

Even though Towns has always had the ability to raise enormous amounts of money with help from many generous donors, including Former President Bill Clinton, this year he has been spending almost as much money as he is raising.

According to the most recent finance records, Towns has raised $322,331 and has spent all but $11,240. Even though he is an incumbent and has shown off his fundraising skills, he has only a small fraction of money left to spend compared with Jeffries.

The big difference in fundraising in this race is not just how much is spent and raised, but where it is coming from. For Jeffries, over 97% of his donors are individuals. They are people in the district and local support. For Towns, over 54% of his money comes from Political Action Committees (PACs), mainly from Health Industries.

Although it is still early on in an election, the fundraising trend shows a bigger picture of the race. Towns is an old-fashioned incumbent who is supported by big businesses and lobbyists . He has some support in the district, but individuals have only donated $151,087, and many of those individuals are employees of companies that would gain a lot of money if he would be reelected. Of the individuals, $11,600 comes from lobbyists, and $4,800 comes from people who work for Forest City Ratner Companies, which will be building the Nets Stadium in Brooklyn, thanks to help from many politicians, like Towns.

Jeffries has raised $168,910 from individuals in a much shorter period of time. The campaign’s style is more of a grassroots style.

Another person who is often rumored to be interested in this coming race is Councilman Charles Barron. Barron has been an enemy of Towns’ for many years and has either run against him, as in 2006, or strongly supported his opponents.  So far Barron has not disclosed any financial records, which means that he has not started fundraising.

One person who will not be in this race is Kevin Powell, who has run against Towns in 2008 and 2010. According to his blog post, Powell says, “While I am still very much dedicated to the issues I raised in our campaigns, I will not be running for Congress or any other office in 2012.”

This win essentially guarantees a win for him in November, which is why this silly little primary which cost the city $15 million dollars for 11% of registered Democrats.

When deBlasio gave his victory speach, he first thanked his kids and then wife. He thanked Green for running a good campaign, even though I’m sure he wouldn’t mind having won two weeks ago. He also thanked the other two Democrats that tried to win the seat on the 15th, and said he would work with all three of the losers in the future.

After that, he congratulated John Liu who won the seat for Comptroller. Both of the candidates essentially ran on the same ticket, although not offically. They were very similar candidates and appeared on the same litarature. They were also both endorsed by The Working Families Party.

And after all of that, he finally thanked the most important people, the people of NYC.

Bill deBlasio's Win

After thanking everyone, deBlasio promises to devote himself for next four years with four major issues.
First off, he will devote him self to improving our schools and getting better communication with the parents.
Second, he would like to improve on the way we develop our city, with a focus on working people with affordable house and the creation of jobs.
Third, he wants to protect the most vulnerable member of society. This includes seniors and working poor, homeless and hungry, and mainly protecting our children.
His last promise is for the improvement of the safety for community. He would like better connection between people and police. He plans to make that into a reality by establishing a civilian complaint review board. We will have to see within the next four years if he can keep these promises.

For a better video, you can also go to the NY1 website.

Before the night was over, we heard Mark Green’s concession speech. After thanking his campaign manager and family, he said that for now he’ll just write, comment on Air America radio and possibly do some teaching. It doesn’t look like he’ll be running for public office anymore, although he’s given that promise 8 years ago. We’ll have to see about that promise in the future as well.

John Liu faces David Yassky for Comptroller and Bill DeBlassio vs. Mark Green for Public Advocate. But what does this all mean and why should you care?

First off, let me explain why we are doing all this nonsense with runoffs and what not. A runoff occurs in nature when a single candidate for a citywide position fails to win at least 40% of the vote.

The Public Advocate is essentially the city’s ombudsman. That person (currently Betsy Gotbaum) basically watches our backs to make sure that we, the people, are not screwed over by greedy politicians and corrupt public agencies. That person tries to make our lives easier, supposedly.

During the primary election, the two men facing off on Tuesday also faced Councilman Eric Gioia and lawyer Norman Siegel. Green and DeBlasio were able to stay in the top two, so they have advanced to the next round.
The Comptroller, is a very important position. The Comptroller is like the biggest bookkeeper in NYC. That person audits city agencies and invests money into various companies. Lui and Yassky faced Councilmembers Malinda Katz and David Weprin on Primary day. This is not the last you will hear about me blabbing about this race.

We now come to the question as to why you should care about September 29th. Primary Day had the lowest voter turn out in modern history. Many poll workers had only 15 people, give or take, come out of their Electoral Districts (EDs) which could be 5 blocks long. September 29th will probably have about half that amount, if not less. Yet these few people (about 11% of registered Democrats, the first time around, and even less on Tuesday) will decided which individual will be fighting for us as a Public Advocate, and more importantly, which one will take care of our money.

So I don’t care who you vote for on Tuesday, as long as you vote. This time around, your vote actually does make a differnce.

John Liu

David Yasskey

Mark Green

Bill Deblasio

Councilman Kendell Steward lost by over 10% to community organizer Jumaane Williams during the Democratic Primary. This was incredible since Williams also had four others fighting for the seat. Some of the other challengers include Dexter McKenzie who advertised on dollar vans and Erlene King who was the only woman.

Most of time when there are many candidates running, along with the incumbent, the incumbent tends to win. But this time, that was not the case and Williams had many people to thank for it.  Low voter turn out (the lowest in modern history, according to the NY Times) played a major role in the victory. The Working Families Party’s efforts to get out the vote (GOTV) was also very helpful. Not to mention all of the unions and elected officials who endorsed him. Williams had some of the most powerful unions reaching out to their members to support him, including DC 27, 1199 and 32BJ.

One of the most important reasons he had beat Stewart, and why there were so many people running against him, was because of all the controversy that Stewart has found himself in. At the very least, Stewart had voted to over turn term limits. That is not as bad as the other major controversy that follows him. Two of his aides, including his chief of staff were indicted for embezzling tax-payer money.  Which leads the voters to think one of two things about the current councilman. Did he know what was happening and therefore should be prosecuted himself, or was he too incompetent to know what was going on right under his nose? Either way, he’s out of office in January.

Rock has given me the position of Campaign Manager. I know many people don’t envy me, but I do want to thank him for presenting me with such a challenging and exciting position. So you guys will be hearing A LOT from me very soon. Stay tuned.