S. Morgan Friedman (l) and Michael Malice (r)

Posted by leboheme at 04:48 PM

when Mayor Guiliani moved in with his gay friends during his seperation a raspy voiced woman from canarsie said.

"I'm so dispointed with him, I didn't know he was that kind of guy"
-WT

Hello,

Great show today!

I wanted to tell you about another site where overheard NY conversations are posted. It's called Really Small Talk.
-SS

Two girls coming from work on 6 train.

girl1: So this movie actor came into work today, I was so excited.
girl2: Who?
girl1: Yeah, he's an actor on the OC he came in with his wife, he like had a picture of the nechlase he wanted on his phone and I helped him. My boss gave me a greak afterwards cause I was so excited.
girl2: What was is wife like?
girl1: She was hot, I would attach that...
-AS

Feedback

Posted by leboheme at 04:43 PM

NO PREACHERS OF ANY KIND!
-GD

rowdy high school students should lose their train passes.....3 p.m. is dangerous on platforms and trains
-AS

No Picking Your Nose Wiping It On The Pole! I've seen it happen on
the B train!!
-I

How about no spreading your legs so wide that you take up a half seat on each side of you? This is a rule for MEN, who are the main culprits. It should be a double offense when there is a woman in one of those seats (usually she is cringing and trying to make herself as small as possible to not have to rub thighs with the offender). Call it the CLOSE YOUR LEGS RULE.
-CJ

I would like to see a spandex-free zone and a covered navel rule-no more exposed belly-buttons
-JK

A rule I’d like the MTA to enforce is directing passenger traffic. Walkways should be split into two so that one is solely for entering while the other is solely for exiting the subway. This would reduce chaos and aggression, especially during rush hours. This exists in London subways and other European cities; New York should follow suit. I believe this would greatly improve the quality of subway commuting.
-AN

Having been riding the #6 for the better (or worse) part of my 72 yrs., I am an accreditted authority on subway riding ; my recommendations :

- BACK PACKS ON THE FLOOR BETWEEN YOUR LEGS ; on the back the damn things take up another person's standing room (good luck with that one )

- We all know the cops will not be bothered with most of the nonsense being proposed w/o an immediate complaint or even with same. I was once doused with coffee by a rocking standee, a cop was on the train and he told the guy to "be careful ". As you may or not know, there IS a law on the books already prohibiting open containers on trains).

- I also watched a cop FLEE a car when he thought the guy opposite me, arguing with his friend, reach down into his pants leg/sock to retrieve something - FLASH, THE COP WAS GONE (through the connecting door, of course !) . The kid was getting his cigarettes !

Again, as an (cynical but realistic )authority, I will tell you NOTHING WILL CHANGE .
-TT

Feedback

Posted by leboheme at 04:34 PM

Very interplanetary: Chris Bannon (r) and Jad Abumrad (l) discuss the original "War of the Worlds"

Jennifer Gonnerman shares battered women's stories

The prophetess of co-ops, Sylvia Shapiro

Feedback

Posted by leboheme at 04:27 PM

Here on the 27th floor, we have a real weakness for last names that reflect the actvities of their owners. And ever since the trial of Edgar Ray Killen, we've been wondering what other murderers give themselves away in their names.

Today we got an answer--but does it count? Shron Killings stabbed a police officer at a Dunkin Donuts yesterday in Brooklyn.

The trail goes cold there, for now...but does anyone remember Cardinal Sin of the Philippines, who passed away just last week?

Feedback

Posted by leboheme at 03:06 PM

Sperm detective David Plotz

Guest host Mario Murillo

Posted by leboheme at 02:46 PM

Have you been wondering about those spots that went into rotation today, you know the ones where Brian admonishes you to "be nice to the guest hosts" and introduces something called "Democracy Wonk"? Allow us to explain:

Be nice to the guest hosts: no joke. Brian is out all this week, and we've planned a great lineup of fill-ins, including Errol Louis, Mario Murillo, Chris Bannon, and Sarah Crichton.

Democracy Wonk: Brian has sworn us to secrecy about this while he's away, but we can tell you that it will be highly interactive, occasionally infuriating, and lots of fun.

When is Brian coming back? He'll be back next Monday (July 4), just like he says on the spot. No, we can't tell you what he's doing for vacation, but if you miss BL, catch him on CUNY TV's Brian Lehrer Live this Wednesay.

What does Errol Louis look like?
Oh, a little something like this:

(but he's done hosting for this week)

Feedback

Posted by leboheme at 04:02 PM

It's Friday afternoon, and we are afflicted with a bad case of Supreme Court fever! The rumor is that a whole host of important rulings (intellectual property, the ten commandments, cable TV) will come down Monday morning...and possibly the announcement of a resignation.

Bill Kristol says O'Connor, not Rehnquist, may be the one giving notice.

The Washington Times reports today on the headhunting committee (which includes one possible headhunt-ee, Alberto Gonzalez). Slate looks at the likely nominees.

Check out SCOTUSblog's visual breakdown of who voted how in cases this week.

Medill School of journalism has a great summary of this season's cases.

Feedback on yesterday's Kelo decision, which made it easier for governments to take away private property through eminent domain.

Kelo interpreted the U.S. Constitution's 5th Amendment. This decision does not affect the New York State's Constitutional restrictions on the exercising of the power of eminent domain. There would have to be a change, not only in State statute but probably also in the New York State Constitution to allow purely "economic condemnation" in New York, like that which occurred in New London.
-WB

A caller, Leonard, on Brian Lehrer’ Soapbox speaking about eminent domain, made an analogy regarding the acceptance, in this country, of taking property from the poor and giving it to the wealthy and the non-acceptance of the Cuban government taking property from the wealthy and giving it to the poor. What is left out of that analogy is that in this country eminent domain does call for “just compensation” and as far as I know, in Cuba no compensation is given.
-HL

Your guest said that any Eminent Domain taking would involve a "carefully considered development plan, considered by all the relevant city committees"

Not true. In the case of the proposed Ratner development, they will be bypassing all the relevant planning committees and the city altogether.
-SM

Feedback

Posted by leboheme at 03:00 PM

The magazine for p.o.'d users of Benecard Services?

Huh? Huh again?

Feedback

Posted by leboheme at 01:46 PM

Reverend Robert Johansson

Pastor Gregg Farah

Posted by leboheme at 01:38 PM

Public Broadcasters' Tightrope Over Funds...all publicity is good publicity, right? Who said that, again?

Feedback

Posted by leboheme at 08:43 AM

The financial planner for the young, old, gay, straight, and definitely unmarried

Posted by leboheme at 04:04 PM

Subject: Bush's intentions
I'm sorry, I have as much distaste for Bush and his policies and actions as most of your left-leaning listeners, but since when is it an impeachable offense to "have in mind" to want to defeat an evil dictator, or even just anyone. Fraudulent documents or statements are certainly bad things, but come on, it is not illegal to have an agenda!
-JT

Subject: bloggers
i think it is a mistake to include bloggers -- left or right -- in a discussion as sensitive as that attending the downing street memos.

unlike the london times reporter, bloggers answer to no editors but themselves and are free to "report" unchallenged whatever pleases them.
-FB

Subject: use of the verb to "fix" in the UK
There is an uncommon British English usage of the verb to fix in the sense that Christopher Hitchens used it -- to establish. It is present in the financial markets, specifically in the metals trading on the London Metals Exchange.

Still, the attempt to extrapolate that rare usage into this case is disingenuous. As someone who has lived nearly as much of her life in the UK as the US, I can't imagine any Brit of my acquaintance applying that definition to this example. Unless, of course, they were trying to "fix" the facts to support their theories...
-SM

Subject: downing street
in your efforts to be fair you are really going over the top with questioning the authenticity of the memos. if they were fake someone would have exposed that fact by now. this is a typical right wing smear agagainstnformation and facts that they disagree with.
-RW

Subject: In That Clip Doesn't Blair Say the Memo is Real?
Your conservative guest said that Blair never said the memo was real: "Let me remind you that that memorandum was written before…" Isn't that acknowledgement? Then he tells a lie about Sadam complying with the U.S.
-SM

Posted by leboheme at 02:40 PM

A different take on state funding for public broadcasting from a friend in Japan (bolding our own):

The right wing in America does not like public broadcasting because they think you are too liberal?

That's interesting! Because it's opposite to Japanese situation! In Japan, I believe the public broadcarting - NHK - is considered rather conservative and other commercial TV stations are considered generally liberal.

The NHK doesn't get any funds from the government but it have to receive Diet approval annually. They recently have had a problem, some producers showed a certain touchy program previously to some representatives and slashed it by following their advice. (The representatives dinied the fact though....)

Its funds depend on people's fees for television viewers. Almost all Japanese families pay the fees. it's kind of obligations for every family which has TV.

These days, there's been an anti-NHK movement in Japan. Many people reject to pay the fee.

As I saw it, in America, there are a lot of TV or radio stations which are rather or too conservative, right? But we don't have any conservative commercial stations in Japan! Big differences between us!

Anyway, I think American peple do need public broadcasting like WNYC to know the truth. And of course, like me, other country's people do need your station, too! Also I think your station is not too liberal. Like you said, it's balanced.

I'll listen to you tonight!

Oh I have to get ready for dinner.
Have a great day, Brian!

more: 223,000 homes stop paying fees to NHK; many cite neighbors' refusal [the Japan Times]

Posted by leboheme at 03:33 PM

Check out this pdf from New Yorkers for Parks.

Posted by leboheme at 11:46 AM

Our latest reading project is almost at hand. The best-laid plans have produced this exciting lineup for Wednesday morning:

Michael Smith the (London) Times muckraker who procured and publicized the docs.

Atrios (AKA Duncan Black) says the memos reopen "all the key questions about the deceit and lack of judgment by the Administration".

Bill Crawford of allthingsconservative thinks the documents could be fakes.

More opinion and analysis

What do you think? Feedback!

Posted by leboheme at 10:23 AM

A perhaps-surprising amount of pro-funding cuts (or at least anti-sense-of-entitlement) calls and emails today, in response to a plan in congress to slash money for the CPB.

Some samples:

I happen to love NPR, I am a fairly new listener (since late 2004) It's what I've been searching for on the radio and never knew it was there. But funding from the government makes me not so trusting of what's being said. When republicans are buying newscasters that makes me think twice about any and everything the government is involved in.
-DL

WHAT I WANT TO SPEAK ABOUT IS A PROGRAM CALLED "NOW"....I remember an editorial spoken and perhaps written on that program by Bill Moyers....he was particularly vicious, and if i considered myself less the liberal than once I was, voting for Bush, finding the Democrats incapable of functioning...but, not to say I am a conservative, but, Moyers, in that vicious editorial was insulting....it seems that he was on some sort of vendetta against Bush and his boys
-BVZ

i am an avid listener to your show and many others on pbs. i am a conservative and support the current admin. the views liberal views discussed on your show and others is far better expressed than on any other media available. consequently i would have no objection to listening to commercials or paying for the privledge of hearing the programing on pbs.
-RL

Posted by leboheme at 04:36 PM

Laura makes the case for federal funding of public TV and radio

Posted by leboheme at 04:28 PM

Andrew Meldrum loves the mic

Bill de Blasio keeps it real

Posted by leboheme at 05:05 PM

Monday morning we finally tackle the ruckus emanating from Capitol Hill and the CPB. Undoubtedly, many of you have received email forwards about this, or heard WNYC President Laura Walker's radio spots about it.

The short short version is this: a House committee has passed a spending bill that would cut funding for public TV and radio (including streams that reach WNYC) by about half. Supporters of the cuts say America should have other budget priorities. Opponents see an idologically-driven plot to starve NPR, PBS, and other public broadcasters.

Next monday morning: WNYC President Laura Walker explains how the cuts could affect this station. Although money from the government is only a small part of WNYC's budget, effects would be felt here.

Posted by leboheme at 04:15 PM

Christopher Hitchens lays off the cigs in the nonsmoking confines of our studio

Liz Garbus (l) and Liz Gaines (r) share the plight of the children of the incarcerated

Posted by leboheme at 05:04 PM

Did Brian pique your curiosity with his reference to Emma Bloomberg's wedding last weekend (foie gras was the connection, it was apparently served at the ceremony)? Veiled Conceit and The Politicker have some interesting speculation about the mayor's daughter's nuptials.

Feedback
Both "Downing Street Memos" only reinforce the evidence that President Bush lied and lied again about the necessity and our preparedness for the invasion of Iraq and thepost "shock and awe" bombings of the country. These abject lies are definite reasons for impeachment of Geroge W. Bush.
-JK

The Hudson Valley gentleman is under the impression that just because some Veterinarians say that the overfeeding of ducks and geese is not cruel doesn't make it so (and the opposite is true, too). But I work in the fine dining industry and I don't touch foie gras, nor veal, due to it's cruelty and it is apparent when you eat it. Veal is, essentially, no longer a red meat and bland in its fatness, and foie gras has a soapy taste, it's so fat. When one sees the size and color of foie gras, I can't see how anyone can refute that it doesn't look unnatural.
-CC

For awhile I was all for ending the force-feeding of geese because it did seem cruel. However, why all of the sudden are people becoming so self-righteous about certain topics and not others. I would be more willing to engage in this discussion if these same people arguing it should be banned also were willing to say we should ban industrial chicken raising or cow milk production. It is so hypocritical and I think they do it because it is easy since so few people eat fois gras so there is little opposition to such an initiative.
-BT

Posted by leboheme at 04:47 PM

Has anyone else noticed that the Post has been publishing fewer unflattering, deer-caught-at-a-political fundraiser photos of New York's junior senator lately? Has even defended the virtue of the first lady whose husband Poststers used to enjoy tarring? The Observer's Ben Smith has some fascinating theories about a potential Murdoch-Clinton alliance that would be bigger, even, than, say, Pataki-Rivera or Giuliani-Cuomo.

We will believe it when Andrea Peyser is made to retract this conclusion of a 2004 column about a speech Clinton gave at the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence:

Hillary, normally as controlled and calculating a customer as they come, has, unintentionally, revealed the phony character rotting inside.

As always, she gets a pass.

Tell us what you think!

Posted by leboheme at 03:06 PM

Yesterday was Flag Day. Did you notice? Neither did we--until this morning. Here are some of your resonses to the question "why is every day Flag Day in some parts of America?"

How about "Welcome Home Troops"? "Support Our Troops" sounds like an admonishment? Who is the audience?
-NS

Regarding the flags on car dealers car lots, i think it is somewhat similar to what we used to have in india: There, the "dirtier" the politician, the whiter the clothes that they would wear. I think that the dealers who have bigger flags are the ones who I would trust less to give me a fair deal (tho' car dealers and fair deals usually never go hand-in-hand).
-VP

I am a former soldier and presently a police officer. I rarely if ever fly the flag and would never have a "support our troops" magnet on my car.

I have dedicted my life to uniformed, public service to this country and city. The flag is redundant for me. My neighbors and I know what country we live in, and the values we hold and the way we treat each other says more about our patriotism than any symbol we can display.

As for a magnet about supporting our troops, it's too often the case that the magnet is the sole support they are giving. Supporting our troops means at lot more than that, and if people gave actual support, displaying the magnet, like the flag, is simply redundant. On top of that, you can't sport the magnet these days without implying that you support the policy that put our troops there.
-BDB

There are various theories that seek to account for this, but it is generally agreed that no other industrialized democracy is so flag possessed as America. Visitors to the U.S. such as my in-laws who were here last summer from France, are astonished to see American flags flying everywhere. It's uniquely American — it just isn't done in other countries.
-SM

Feedback

Posted by leboheme at 02:29 PM

Two British government documents raise questions, and shed some light on planning for the Iraq war and its aftermath. We'll be talking about the documents in the weeks to come, so if you want to come to the discussion armed (with facts and opinions) check out the articles below (the list will be updated periodically).

The July 23 memo (the "Downing Street memo")
The July 21 memo

Atrios: "the Brits--who had access to the prewar intelligence--saw that the WMD case (based on that intelligence) was, as Jack Straw observed, weak"

Bill Crawford: We will never know if the memos were authentic because the originals were destroyed.

Tim Cavanaugh: "Most Americans already know what's in the Downing Street Memo. They knew it before the memo was even published. And they don't care."

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly "Democrats Investigate Downing Street Memo"

Fred Kaplan: "The Downing Street Memo will be a key footnote in the history books"

Michael Kinsley: "I don't buy the fuss"

Mark Danner: "the President's decision to go to war had long since been made"

Tod Lindberg: "there is nothing in the document but more proof for partisans already persuaded"

John Hinderaker: "It adds nothing to our knowledge of the important issues surrounding the Iraq war"

Ray McGovern: "Blair did a good job of obfuscating"

Allthingsconservative: "We will never know if the memos were authentic because the originals were destroyed"

Media Matters: "mainstream media cover-up"

What do you think? Feedback!

Posted by leboheme at 09:58 AM

Just one day before his WNYC interview, 9/11 Victims' Compensation Fund master Kenneth Feinberg published a must-read opinion piece in the Star-Ledger, arguing, among other things, that:

>the victims of future terror attacks probably should not be compensated by the federal government

>if compensation is given after future terror attacks, it should be a flat rate for every victim, not calibrated to projected future earnings

>9/11 was a truly exceptional circumstance, different even from the 1998 Africa bombings and the Oklahoma City bombing, and the government's response should not serve as a precedent

Your thoughts:

As a person who filed a claim for my brother who lost his wife, I found the program very disturbing. It was run well, but it paid my brother, a banker, a lot of money that he did not need. There are a lot of people and businesses that actually do need help.
-Anonymous in Queens

I was thinking exactly the sentiment that one caller expressed - great appreciation for the work Mr Feinberg undertook. I worked for the Red Cross for several months following 9/11 disbursing funds to survivors and it was extremely tricky.
-SH

The richness of our country is incredible. Just this morning the big news is that the US, and other rich nations, are forgiving something like 40 billion dollars of African debt. And we are talking about distributing 7 billion dollars in payments to the victims of 9/11. Those families deserve ALL the generosity of the American public but the juxtaposition of the two amounts this morning stopped me in my tracks.
-SG

Did I hear that someone actually got $500 for a broken finger? I mean seriously, who claims that kind of injury? Isn't that kind of opportunistic?
And that leads me to my question, were there many of these types of claims and was the whole compensation effort one big feeding frenzy?
-AA

Posted by leboheme at 04:40 PM

from an anonymous source on the WNYC softball team:

Last night, The WNYC Softball team handed Air America a beating…..17-4!

Next up: Vanity Fair…They can have their Deep Throat Exclusive…we will win where it counts…on the field!

Posted by leboheme at 03:17 PM

The phones really lit up in the last ten minutes of today's show, when we asked "who is/was the greatest American"?

Since AOL and the Discovery Channel are new to this craze, we thought you might enjoy scrutinizing other countries' lists.

Canada (#1: Tommy Douglas [who???])

Czech Republic (#1: Jara Cimrman-- a fictional character)

Finland(#1: C.G.E. Mannerheim)

France (#1: Charles de Gaulle)

Germany (#1: Konrad Adenauer)

Great Britain (#1: Winston Churchill)

The Netherlands (#1: slain rabble-rouser Pim Fortuyn)

What do you think? Feedback!

Posted by leboheme at 03:13 PM

Wealthy Candidates - Good. What would this country be without the contributions to government made by those who have demonstrated their acumen intelligence and capacity for success first in the private sector? Both parties have representatives here (at least in the NJ Governor’s race) so it’s not as though it’s only skewing in one direction. And hasn’t Bloomberg the business man been able to keep the city solvent? What’s to complain about here?
-PF

I am a 60-year-old white female New Yorker. I enjoyed very much your
interview with Myrlie Evers Williams this morning (Thurs. June 9) and
am so glad that Medgar Evers' life work is finally being documented. But Mrs. Evers' use of the expression "Uncle Tom" grates on me enough to make me leap to my computer. That title character, as I remember him (I also should re-read the book), was not an obsequious toady but a hero! Mrs. Stowe portrayed Tom (the "Uncle" was dropped very early in the book) as a quiet, dignified resister who allowed himself to be beaten to death in the end
rather than disclose the whereabouts of a pair of runaway slave women.

-MD

I get a feeling, as do others I have talked to, of xenophobia among Bayonne residents. I have really tried to like going to Bayonne, but have never really felt comfortable there.
-DC

Councilman Martinez misinformed the audience today about Marble Hill and you passed on incorrect information several times as a result: it is by state law a part of Manhattan, not the Bronx. We vote for Manhattan officials, serve on Manhattan juries and the home owners in our neighborhood pay Manhattan taxes. One of the reasons we get unpredictable services out of the City is because they don’t know where we are and who is supposed to take care of City services here. (One section of the Marble Hill Projects, on the west side of B’way, is in the Bronx.)
-RM

Posted by leboheme at 03:42 PM

The Washington Post's Anne Applebaum picks up where we left off with her last week on Amnesty's use of the term "gulag":

"Amnesty's Amnesia"

Did Applebaum Fall Far From The Tree? (BL blog)

Posted by leboheme at 04:10 PM

"Illegal" or "undocumented"? A reader responds to Brian's use of the term "illegals" to describe foreigners who live and work in the United States without having cleared immigration. We got this email questioning the host's use of language. What do you think?

I know you've heard the term "undocumented" used to describe immigrants who are illegally residing in a particular country. I think it's important to use it as a way of respecting those inviduals who are struggling to make a decent life for themselves and their families. I don't think people can actually be, "illegal". And, if we can get used to hearing the term, "undocumented," which is a more neutral term, then this may be a beginning in helping to change attitudes.
-CM, Brooklyn

This producer thinks the term "illegal" is more accurate-- "undocumented" suggests that someone just lost the paperwork. "Illegal", without passing judgment, suggests that the individual is there in violation of the law.

What do you think? Feedback!

Posted by leboheme at 04:03 PM

Bob Hennelly, our City Hall/ New Jersey correspondent was sounding positively like a political science professor when giving his take on Doug Forrester's Republican primary victory on the show this morning, introducing all kinds of vocab that had us reaching for our history books. A sample:

Pay attention!--we'll be talking about this tomorrow.

In the age of the new feudalism, Brian, of the 21st century where only the lords can acquire the mansion they may not want to live there, and let homeless people live there instead.

[Forrester] had a very savvy media buy, he never stopped running, and that's part of the new feudalism if you're a gentleman of that kind of accomplishment, with that kind of excess capital

The new feudalism though is a little deeper in the sense that what goes on is--and this is gonna come back to haunt Senator Corzine--is the millions of dollars given to people like George Norcross who is a boss down in Southern Jersey whose voice has showed up on some tapes from the Attorney General looking into allegations of political patronage...what happens now is these well funded candidates give money to other candidates running for other offices--and that's the feudalsim analogy

After having the chance to cover Mayor Bloomberg I've been asking people about this because of his significant wealth--I mean, he's like über wealthy compared to these pikers from Jersey--but I often think there's a kind of roots to our Calvinism in this country that we bestow great virtue upon great wealth, that if you have great wealth you will not concern yourselves with issues of tawdry corruption.

Where did the new feudalism come fromanyway?

The Architecture of Modern Political Power

Sustainable Development: The New Feudalism!

Lott A Victim Of The New Feudalism

Feedback!

Posted by leboheme at 03:57 PM

Help the folks at National Review name their new media blog (as with the Brian Lehrer Show news quiz, you could win prestige and a very modest bit of swag).

Posted by leboheme at 04:23 PM

It's a delightfully fun new game, perfect for long summer drives to the beach with the kids, waiting for the subway late at night, or after listening to the Brian Lehrer Show...

Sheldon Silver
Hero: The New York Times
Villain: The New York Daily News

Mark Felt
Hero: Richard Cohen
Villain: Bob Novak
[Confused: David Brooks]

The person who told Bob Novak that Valerie Plame was a spy
Hero: National Review
Villain: Bob Novak (via The Talent Show/ CNN's "Capital Gang")

Feedback!

Posted by leboheme at 04:16 PM

We're pretty sure Anurag Kashyap can spell this one (quick, close your eyes: can you spell the young bee champion's name?): skepticism.

Beth Fertig: I think a lot of people out there testing is a mystery to them- how are tests developed, can you really compare on years tests to the next? That’s why there is a lot of skepticism. And in addition I think there is

Dennis Wolcott: You know I only, I heard you, I heard what you said Beth, I have heard you say there is a lot of skepticism I have heard skepticism from of political opponents more than anything else.

Beth Fertig: okay fair enough but in the press corps I think there is a lot of questions

Dennis Wolcott: When you say a lot of skepticism again I think you have to be careful, I’m sorry.

Beth Fertig: Skepticism perhaps was the wrong word, questions would be more correct word, people have questions. They don’t understand how tests work, they want to know more

Dennis Wolcott: testing is a very very complex process. And I am not trying to undermine questions people have. But when you say a world like skepticism then I have to draw the line there

MAILBAG:

Hello,

[name withheld]

Posted by leboheme at 04:31 PM

Today's conversation on discrimination in employment of domestic workers provoked a spate of entertaining and bizarre email explaining/perpetrating stereotypes.

I do not consider it discrimination to avoid people who do not understand my values. We are happy to pay nannies professional rates in exchange for professionalism. Interestingly, we do not hire Americans as nannies (too lazy and they eat too much junk and give it to the kids) or West Indians (they socialize with themselves and tend to pay little attention to the children).
-JS

Your question to the caller was right on point: you asked whether she thought there was any legitimacy to an aversion to speakers of a particular language. Right away, the discussion moved away from language to dialect. The caller voiced concern about the children picking up a stigmatized dialect. This is an absolutely standard, classic way to rationalize bigotry.
-RR

years ago my cousin had a German speaking nanny...and to this day my cousin speaks with a German accent.

my grandsons are learning Spanish with their nanny and in a bi-lingual pre school.....she doesn't give the lessons, as Ms Brown said (the nanny is not paid to teach them Spanish) she just speaks with them- and they learn the same way we learned English from our parents et al
-AS

Could you ask about the Williamsburg trend of Tibetan and Sherpa
nannies?
-RK

Posted by leboheme at 04:15 PM

Doth the Nassau County Executive protest too much? Months (years?) of speculation about the political aspirations of Tom "the fifth Baldwin brother" Suozzi came to a head on the front page of the Times metro section today ("Nassau Leader Considers Run Against Spitzer, Pleasing G.O.P.").

The Long Island pol's attention-getting stunts have included the "Fix Albany" campaign, getting excluded from Sheldon Silver's picks to travel to the DNC in Boston last summer, and scores of favorable mentions on the Times editorial page (OK, maybe there were a half dozen).

In our interview with TS today, the exec would not confirm or deny the rumors, but had this to say.

"right now I'm focused on being Nassau County Executive"

"I'm focused on being county executive of Nassau County right now."

"I pledge 100% to do what's in the best interest of the people of Nassau County"

"Doing what's in the best interests of the people of Nassau County could include a lot of different things"

"Right now, I'm focused on being Nassau County Executive and being re-elected to that position in November. And I enjoy the speculation."

"I'm in politics for three reasons: One, I wanna make the world a better place to live in. Two, I like the attention, and three, I like the competition."

Feedback!

Posted by leboheme at 03:45 PM

Amnesty International has taken some flak for likening conditions in the enemy combatant camps at Guantánamo Bay to gulags in the Soviet Union.

President Bush called the report "absurd".

Is the description apt? We asked Anne Applebaum, the author of Gulag: A History, and a Washington Post columnist for her thoughts.

You can listen to Applebaum's remarks here. The short version: gulags were forced labor camps where death was a frequent side effect. Amnesty has done a lot of work on the Soviet Union and should know better to confuse those camps where at least 1 million people perished with "a bad solution to a very complicated problem" (Guantánamo Bay).

Your thoughts:

Anne Applebaum totally misses the point. It's not whether Guantanomo is a
precise parallel to the Soviet gulags. Amnesty was making a point, using
rhetoric, and it worked -- the president is having to respond, and you are
doing a segment.
-RB

I do think that the spokesman tips his hat that use of the word "gulag" might well have been a considered rhetorical strategy to secure a Bush administration reaction. On that basis, it was well reasoned.
-JW

Speaking of the misuse of language, how about Bush's use of "disassemble" in place of "dissemble"? I love that he went on to define the word (albeit the word he meant to use).
-RB

Anyone agree? Disagree? Share your thoughts!

Posted by leboheme at 02:39 PM