Money: I am an ass dollar bill

Money: St. Jude dollar bill chain letter

Money: Psalm 103 dollar bill

Money: 1976 nickel, abused

NY Pub Adv re Target - yowza

Hi,
For a retailer that prides itself on being socially responsible, Target is throwing its money behind some troubling political causes. That makes them our first “Outrage of the Week”—our way of shining a light on the worst cases of companies distorting our political process under the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling.

Just last month, we learned that Target donated $150,000 to a group supporting right-wing candidate Tom Emmer for Governor of Minnesota. Emmer is a fierce opponent of same-sex marriage and a big booster of Arizona’s new immigration laws. In the past, he even introduced a law that would result in sex offenders being chemically castrated.

On Tuesday, our office teamed up with MoveOn.org to protest Target’s election spending right in front of the retailer’s flagship store in Brooklyn. We had a simple message: hands off our democracy.
Target is one of the first corporations to spend money on elections following Citizens United ruling, and unless we send them a strong message, it won’t be the last.

Take action to keep companies like Target from tampering with our elections:

• Forward your friends our video about the campaign to hold Target accountable or post it on your Facebook page.
• Join our Facebook group “Fix Citizens United: Disclose Political Spending!” and invite your friends.
• Join Public Advocate de Blasio and endorse MoveOn.org’s Fight Washington Corruption pledge.

We have 84 days until November’s election—now is the time to teach Target a lesson before other companies follow their example.

Stay tuned for our next Outrage of the Week.
Thank you,

Matt Wing
Communications Director
Office of the Public Advocate

But good news tonight, Roger B. Tawney is off the hook.

Juju sent a pointer to this Keith Olbermann commentary re the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. A sad event as seen from our window.  Lori's film, This Land is Your Land has a great section on corporate personhood (gack) and corporate free speech issues (gack gack).

Krugstah: dah beeg zero

I'm sure Lota & Juju have already read it, but if you haven't, here's Krugman's arithmetic re the ending decade.  The Big Zero.  

I really just can't talk about this redding thing

Somewhere between $90,000,000 and $140,000,000 gets you 50,000 votes more than $9,000,000.  I bet that causes the spender some mixed feelings.

Anyway, right here in the hood, I'm way happy for Bill de Blasio and Brad Lander.  (Brad, update the site - you won!)  And for the health of both the NYC Dems and Working Families Party.

(I'm linking to the Post from the map, though it's a Times graphic.  You know, I tried real hard to find a link on the NYT site to the full NY election results, and couldn't - had to back into it from Google news searches.  Then I grabbed the graphic and altered it for posting and had to go through the Google search again and the Post results came up higher, etc.)

NYC threatens to rip Garment District

Ah, Lorishki knew her when. The days of sample sales and N. Lapore's sassy jackets & Nick Thatos' jewelery. Nice Marketplace / American Public Media segment featuring Nanette L: NYC threatens to rip Garment District.

Something terrible is happening

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Thank you, Juju. Funny or Die, Move On, et alia.

Robots retreat from 3rd Ave / B75

Well, I was going to write to say it's funny traveling in to mean old Manhatto to see guys who live and play on the block or in the neighborhood (Michael Hearst and LEMUR at Joe's Pub), but then I read down to the bottom of the latest LEMUR email, and... gasp!

Due to economic considerations, we've been forced to close our space at 461 Third Avenue. It has become too expensive to maintain a space in the current economy.

Ah, well, it's not all doom and gloom, and they explain, but sheesh!
Kids, get out there and support your local musical robots and robot builder / composers. They need us, and we need them.

And let me describe this block on third Ave for those of you who don't know it. On the East side there's Bar Tano (makes my elbow sore just thinking about it), the League of Urban Musical Robots, and a storefront mosque. Across the street there's a newish real estate office, a Yemeni American friendship society, and a Mexican flat fix shop. I (blissfully without proof) blame the RE office for any rent increases on that block.

Thank you, Messrs Krugman and Lutes

Tomatillo 2, iPod 0

Dear diary,
knowing that I would not be buying tomatillos again today to ward off my techsplurge (but knowing I had leftover salsa in the fridge for tonight), at lunchtime I trucked up to faithful Tekserve, got blue ticket number 37 for the iPod store, was called and promptly ordered the model iPod I want, of which the inventory system showed 4 in the store. After a nice chit-chat with the iPod lady about Crown Heights, the Slope and the in-between neighborhoods, and after an unusually long wait for the silver and black thingy to arrive... Apologies!! There wasn't a thingy to be found, inventory system not withstanding!

The spirit of the tomatillo is clearly protecting me.

While I'm here, let me say that the peppers I used in the salsa last night were garden cayenne that I picked up at the frmers market in Oly WA weekend before last. And woof! The basil we used on the red tomatoes last night came from neighbors Doyle & Nikki's roof garden. Ain't summer grand?

Tomatillo 1, iPod 0

Dear diary,
at the end of the party we had for Bill de Blasio on Sunday, after most folks left and there were just a half dozen or eight of us, the heavens opened and there was crazy rain. We huddled under the tent and cracked open the anisette and the juju pongo's love balm and brought out some cheeses and fruit and maybe another bottle or two of wine and were guffawing along, all snug, when I saw that my iPod and sound-dockey-thing were out there in the rain, under the grapes, drip drip. Gzzzzzzp. Schwffffffpt.

OK, so after lunch yesterday I decided I'd pop into a shop by the office and buy another iPod. But they didn't have the model I wanted, and while I was deciding what shop to walk to next I noticed the little farmers' market by Bowling Green. I walked over to it, saw the fresh tomatillos and cilantro and peppers and... four dollars and fifty cents later I was headed to the office with a bag of goodies for the evening and wondering what I thought I needed an iPod for.

But what will save me today?

Cheap ain't

Mark Frauenfelder post at Boing Boing re Ellen Ruppel Shell's Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture.

Me, too. But of course it's a monied stance to take. I can not buy, because I don't need, and I can spend more because I have more. I'm in the choir.

I wish it was easier to download Nicholson Baker's article to my Kindle so I could read it on the subway

A new page. One of my favorite cranks. Coinkydink we broke one of our kindles this past weekend - something about unexpected thirds in our two-seater, seats rolling forward and backwards, and hard soled shoes. And, if the cost is high to replace the screen, will we do it?

Health care - I'm relaying a message from the Working Families Party

Hi -

Six Democratic Members of Congress from New York are putting the brakes on President Obama’s historic campaign to reform our broken healthcare system.

Healthcare legislation that would expand healthcare coverage for millions of Americans is gaining steam in Congress. But Reps. Michael Arcuri, Scott Murphy, Nita Lowey, Mike McMahon, Eric Massa, and Dan Maffei are stalling the bill because it pays for reform with a modest tax on the rich. Sign the petition here: http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/t/3865/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=631

This is our best chance for healthcare reform in a generation, but now these five Democratic members of Congress are putting real reform on hold - even though less than 1% of all New Yorkers would be affected by the tax.

We can fight back – but we have to ask fast. I just signed the Working Families Party’s petition calling on the 6 Representatives to put healthcare reform above protecting the wealthy. Will you join me?

http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/t/3865/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=631

Uh, that would be down, Bob

Wow. Great, frightening chart. Percentage job losses in post WWII recessions. We have 1948 firmly in our sites. From the June economic forecast at Calculated Risk. Via Daily Dish. Long & deep.

For four dollars and thirty two cents I can flush again

As I said to someone years ago when it was installed, I hate the low-flow in our downstairs WC off the kitchen: that you so often have to double-pump in order to get clear defeats the whole low-flow theory. Still, this is my private meditation chamber and I depend on it to clear my head and orient myself every morning while Lota is still in dreamland upstairs.

So when the tank started to empty all by itself shortly after each flush - leaving the system no-go unless you popped the top, jiggled float to refill the tank, and flushed quickly after it filled - I say, when this happened, I knew I needed to act quickly. In an exploratory operation on the mechanism (pop-topping, flushing, dipping, wiggling, etc.,) I decided that the flap was no longer sealing, even though I couldn't feel any rough edges or breaks. So this afternoon at Leopoldi's, for $4.32 (including tax) I bought a new one. It was red (sassy) rather than the black of the one I was replacing, and it was way supple, whereas the one I was replacing had become pretty stiff (and I imagine that's why it wasn't sealing reliably).

Voila. For $4.32, a couple of wet forearms, and a few minutes work, meditative equilibrium is returned to my life.

I know, that's sort of a big "So what?", except that I've been thinking a lot lately about money, about having it and not having it and about how you get it and how you spend it, about wasting it or using it, and the worth of things you spend it on. I've even (very, very unlike me) started a little black book tracking every penny I spend. I spend bazillions of them.

And, I can say very confidently, in this context, that today's $4.32 is the best spend I'm likely to see this month. (Current #2 was the $5 pulled pory from Lucky BBQ at the Smith Street street fair - with the Carolina style vinegar based sauce.)

Uh, Clem

Juju back-channeled this link. Lots of dizzying number counters, but to my eye the graphic is what's really enlightening. Yelp! And, Why shouldn't prices keep falling toward the historic norm? Historical Home Prices at US Debt Clock.