New York State of Mind and the First Twitter President

It has been a very long time since I have updated you on the happenings in New York. It's not that nothing has been happening. It's just that so much is going on, it's hard to know where to start! So let's start at...

Sports: Okay, the New York Rangers are battling the New Jersey Devils for something or another in the Stanley Cup playoffs. That's hockey for you non-sports enthusiasts.

In other sports new so far - the Yankees suck; the Mets don't suck so much and in basketball news, Brooklyn is getting its first professional sports team since the Dodgers moved to L.A. in the '50's! The New Jersey Nets will shortly be the Brooklyn Nets.

Local: Two issues have been making the headlines in the past few months involving our long-standing Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. First, the AP reported a few months ago that our very competent Joint Terrorism Task Force headed by Commish Kelly may have been fighting terrorism for real by violating the rights of terrorists by monitoring and thwarting the plans of terrorists to plan and execute acts of terrorism in NYC. Imagine that! The task force is accused of monitoring activities in mosques and Islamic-related organizations, websites, followers and neighborhoods with dense Muslim populations in the tri-state area. So far they have thwarted several potential terrorist attacks on bridges, subways, and trains on our fair city. All done legally within the confines of all local, state and federal civil rights laws. But since it targets a single group, then that is bad according to the ACLU and Muslims in the city. Incidentally, the AP won their Pulitzer this year because of their reporting on this issue.

In addition to that, Commish Kelly has come under fire for our long-standing "Stop and Frisk" policing too. This is where the police can stop, question, and frisk anyone that they suspect is up to no good. Since they instituted this policy in early 1990's under the Guiliani administration, murders have declined by about 75% - over 2000 murders at the peak in the '80's to 410 as of 2009. But here is the problem as the New York ACLU et al. see it - 54% of the people stopped are young and black, 34% were Hispanic, and 9% were white and almost all of the stops were in the very high crime/high minority areas of the city. It is no matter that 64% of the violent crimes committed in the city are by young, black men. That must just be a big coinci-dink. Fortunately, Commissioner Kelly and most of the grateful population are not buying any of the outrage. Kelly admits there are problems that can be addressed and updated, however he adamantly defends the policy as highly effective and successful. Interestingly, even the black community, with the exception of the usual race-baiters like Big Al Sharpton, are siding overwhelmingly with Commissioner Kelly.

Federal: Well, there must be a snowball having a high time in a very hot place these days! The Congressional Primary in New York is on June 26 and Charlie Rangel may finally be in big trouble. Since he was elected to the House in the '70's, Ol' Charlie has gone virtually unchallenged, but not anymore. Because New York lost two Congressional District in the last census, District 15 has been expanded to include a large swathe of Hispanic voters in the Bronx. So, now Rangel is now being challenged by the other major minority group in New York - the Hispanics - who are running their own very popular candidates. Respected candidates without the baggage of censure to weigh them down and, surprise, they are leading. It has not helped that Rangel has not been seen in D.C. since February due to a "back injury". He refuses to concede that he may be in trouble, but stated recently that he may consider dropping out if the Dems can find a viable candidate that could defeat him. Of course that came after Obama declined to endorse him and Bill Clinton publicly endorsed his former aide who is running against Rangel. This is definitely a district to watch.

Other Stuff: And finally. I have just joined the Twitter-verse and I just had to follow our Twit-In-Chief. I just couldn't help myself, but for the record, Twitter is a huge waste of time. Maybe it's my age, but seriously, it's stupid, but it's here and not going away. Well, not unless there is a massive solar flare that knocks out all electricity or a giant asteroid hit. But now that I'm here, look what's up...

If you thought that Hollywood was the only place that the entertainment elite meet to pay homage to their favorite Man of the People.

Your chance to join the President and First Lady at Sarah Jessica Parker’s home in NYC—airfare included: OFA.BO/vQCrw3

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 19, 2012

Yes, Sarah Jessica Parker waxed poetic:

"This November's election will determine whether we get to keep moving forward, or if we're forced to go back to policies that ask people like my middle-class family in Ohio to carry the burden -- while people like me, who don't need tax breaks, get extra help."

Of course, it is the same backward policies that allowed an actress with third-rate acting ability and an even worse singing voice to become a very successful superstar of stage, screen, and television with multiple multi-million dollar residences and women who she can pay handsomely to bear her children so she doesn't have to disfigure herself and who can ask 50 of her other wealthy friends to pony up $46K without batting a eye-lash. Think of what $2.3 million dollars could do for some local arts/music program or how that money could help some other middle class family in Ohio! But, hey, that's just me.

And not all of Obama's Twitter followers are supporters. I thought this was pretty clever...

@BarackObama Hey, a new show: "Socialists in the City"!

— Jim(@prepresscolor) May 19, 2012

Next time: The long, long list of elected officials who are currently on trial or have been convicted of graft, greed, and embezzlement of public funds this month...