As That Great Educational Mind Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi Once Said, “This Is The Democracy, We Will Have No Pretext”

On the one hand, this is debatable:

If Cathie Black can’t get a waiver to become the city’s next schools chancellor, it’s going to be tough to attract anyone else of such stature to the high-pressure post, Mayor Bloomberg argued yesterday.

“How would you get somebody else?” the mayor asked. “I don’t know what you’d do if you didn’t [get the waiver] . . . I don’t know why anybody would come if you didn’t do this.[“]

On the other hand, it doesn’t really matter, does it?:

New York State’s top education official on Friday named an advisory panel of eight experts, at least half of them with strong connections to the Bloomberg administration, to help him decide whether to approve Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s controversial choice to run the city’s school system.

Three panelists selected by David M. Steiner, the state education commissioner, worked as senior officials at the city’s Department of Education.

One of those three now works at a foundation that was, for many years, the vehicle for Mr. Bloomberg’s personal charitable donations.

A fourth panelist is the head of a museum that has received almost half a million dollars from Mr. Bloomberg in donations since he took office.

The Legacy Of The Third Term

“New York State Ranks Last for Voter Turnout”:

Despite contests for every statewide office for the first time in decades, a smaller share of eligible voters turned out two weeks ago in New York than in any other state. New York turnout was lower than in any midterm election for at least three decades.

On the basis of unofficial returns, about 40 percent of registered New Yorkers voted on Nov. 2. But an analysis by the United States Election Project at George Mason University found that only 32.1 percent of the 13.4 million who were eligible — citizens 18 and older who are not convicted felons — actually voted.

New York ranked lowest, just below Texas and Utah. Minnesota recorded the highest turnout (55.4 percent), one of six states in which more than half the eligible population voted.

These streets will make you feel brand new! The lights will inspire you! Let’s hear it for New York! New York! New York!

I Don’t Understand, Gossip Girl Makes Manhattan And Dumbo Look So Appealing

On the one hand, here’s a link to an op-ed that’s a total fucking waste of time and offensively condescending to boot, in the dippy way the Observer editorial board often is. The only good thing about keeping the Observer in my reader is knowing that I’ll never have to see its unmanly pink pages in real life.

On the other hand, here’s a link to a much more nuanced and substantive piece that goes a long way toward making sense out of what until now has been an inscrutable appointment.

On the first hand, just don your top hat and monocle and pretend everything is cool — this as you fritter away your inheritance on commercial real estate and the media.

On the second hand, shrug your shoulders, smile and say, “What does it really matter when the one side lives in Westchester or Florida off your city taxes and the other side jets off to Bermuda every other week to golf?”

Yay, New York Fuckin’ City!

Who Said It Was OK For Men To Walk Around With Their Shirts Off?

No shirt, no shoes, no justice:

“This is unbelievable — and super,” said Dalvin Jan, 21, who rents bicycles for a living on Central Park South. “I’m going to tell my wife to join in.”

With Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman” blaring from speakers and chants of “free your breasts, free your mind,” the troupe of bare-breasted women — and their enthusiastic male supporters — paraded their way along Central Park South.

“We’re all here for the same reason — to allow women to be free in the park like men,” organizer Sylvie Chabot, 54, of Montreal, told the crowd at a midday rally at Columbus Circle.

. . .

New York is the only state in the country where women can be topless legally, after a 1992 ruling in the state’s highest court. That means any woman can walk around the city at any time with no shirt on.

Discretion Is The Better Part Of Valor

Just try to read this without feeling any sarcasm or bitterness. It’s impossible. But really, who cares anymore? It’s all a game anyway:

Over the past fiscal year, which ends June 30, the Council spent $48.5 million on discretionary Council spending, according to spokeswoman Maria Alvarado.

But the city had a $5 billion budget surplus during that fiscal year, compared with a $5 billion revenue shortfall this time around.

The funds are disbursed by Council members to several thousand nonprofit and charitable groups that defenders say will help a wide variety of needy constituency groups.

But it also lets Council members — most of whom are running for third terms because they and Mayor Bloomberg lifted the prior two-term limit — boast they’ve brought home the bacon.

Then there’s this:

Following the discovery last year of a City Council slush fund that stashed dough for fake groups to later spend on pet projects, a rigorous review process was put in place. As a result, Bloomberg’s office yanked $10,000 slated for the Davidson center earlier this year, citing “poor performance on past contracts.”

But that didn’t stop Councilmembers Maria Baez and Joel Rivera. Both of the Bronx Democrats earmarked a combined $85,000 for the group in the budget, according to the lengthy list of grants.