But Monserrate, who also bolted the Democratic Party to caucus with State Senate Republicans in 2009 and later year voted against marriage equality, refuses to vacate the Senate chambers. A special election has been called for March 16 to fill his seat and the Queens Democratic Party has chosen to run State Assembly member Jose Peralta for 13th District. Peralta’s opponent is none other than Monserrate himself, who is now running as Independent.

But there is still another sick twist on this unbelievable story of insolence and preposterousness. Monserrate, in hopes that a perceived connection to President Obama will launch him back in the State Senate, is now using a modified version of the Obama “O” symbol and the “Yes We Can!/Si Se Puede!” slogan on his Web site.

As Democrats, it is imperative that we stop Hiram Monserrate in his attempt to attach himself to our President and the Democratic Party when he has worked against the party and its values in the past. It is even more important for voters to know that the Democratic Party and President Obama is in NO WAY backing an narcissistic domestic abuser for the New York State Senate.

Please do what you can to support Democrat Jose Peralta in his run for Monserrate’s seat. Canvass, phone bank, donate, whatever you have the resources for. Afterward, please consider visiting Reboot NY’s Web site. We are the group that began the Fire Monserrate campaign last year. Also consider becoming our fan on Facebook or or following us on Twitter. It is imperative that we get the word out to as many New Yorkers as possible that our State Senate needs to be fixed.

“I have been encouraged to look at it, and we are making calls to chairs and talking to them about it, and trying to gauge the support that might be there,” Vanderhoef confirmed to me by phone. “This is exploratory, getting a sense of what’s going on in the state.”

Vanderhoef, who fought a dirty campaign against Thom Kleiner to win a fifth term as County Executive just this past November, has told the Albany Times Union that he’s reached out to county party chairs upstate, despite some of them having endorsed Bruce Blakeman, who has been actively running for the Senate as a Republican. Billionaire Mort Zuckerman recently announced that he will not seek the Senate nomination. According to the Times Union, Vanderhoef is working with a well-connected GOP operative.

In addition to his interest in running for Comptroller and Senator, the former which he announced the only one day after he began his fifth term as Executive, Vanderhoef has run for Congress and Lieutenant Governor while at the helm of Rockland County. There have also been reports that Vanderhoef has sought the Presidency of Rockland Community College and an top position with Giuliani Partners while Executive.

While I am not against politicians seeking higher office, Vanderhoef has made it very clear that he does not care much for his job. His public job-search exploits have been a distraction and many people have begun to wonder whether Vanderhoef is paying enough attention to the County and its serious financial problems. Under his watch the County has consistently faced eight-digit shortfalls due to the Executive’s perennial revenue miscalculations. Vanderhoef has become Rockland County’s King Nero that fiddles as the County budget burns. While our taxes have risen, services have been cut, and County salaries have been frozen, Vanderhoef  had the nerve to ram through a 12.5 percent salary increase for himself in December. And just a few months into another four-year term, does Vanderhoef think he has accomplished what he was elected to do?

Right now, many people are wondering, and rightfully so, whether Governor David Paterson should resign his post. Beyond his ethical lapses, the question is whether Paterson can competently handle matters of the State of New York while being distracted with other serious issues. I believe the same criteria should apply to Vanderhoef; if the County Executive will become too busy running for higher office over the next eight months should he continue to serve the county? Rockland is in the midst of its greatest financial crisis in a generation and attending to our problems should trump political aspirations. I, for one, do not like the idea of unelected underlings of Vanderhoef’s taking the helm of the county while he abandon’s his post for a full-time statewide campaign.

I’m putting politics aside and my concerns for the Rockland first when I ask that the County Executive either drop the idea of running for the Senate or resign as County Executive. This is no time for an absentee leader.

• High Tor State Park. The pool will be closed.
• Stony Point Battlefield State Historic Site. The site will be closed.
• Tallman Mountain State Park. The pool will be closed.
• Harriman State Park. The Anthony Wayne park area will be closed and there will be reduced maintenance at group camps.

Five years ago, residents in Orangetown voted down a bond to build a municipal pool on the site of the Rockland Psychiatric Center. Unfortunately, there is now no public place in Orangetown where children can swim outdoors this summer. That is, unless some enterprising local politicians decide to do something about it. Perhaps the Town of Orangetown can convince the State to keep the pool open or rent the pool from the State. How about purchasing the pool at Tallman Mountain for a nominal amount to take it off the state’s hands? It certainly would be an inexpensive way of finally providing this town service

Also, our exceptional State Park system is a revenue and jobs generator for the State. Our parks attract out-of-state tourists and generate up to $2 billion in annual economic activity.  Every $1 of taxes spent on parks generates $5 in jobs and economic activity. So the loss of parks in Rockland county also means a loss of revenue and wealth in the region.

In addition to these sites in Rockland, many other regional parks will be affected:

• Knox Headquarters Historic Site (Orange County). The site will be closed.
• New Windsor Cantonment SHS (Orange County). The site will be closed.
• Schunnemunk State Park (Orange County). The park will be closed.
• Donald J. Trump State Park (Westchester County). The park will be closed.
• FDR (Roosevelt) State Park (Westchester County). Reduced Swimming Pool Season
• Hudson Highlands State Park (Putnam County). Arden Point Area will be closed.
• James Baird State Park (Dutchess County). Reduced Golf Course Season
• Mills Norrie State Park (Dutchess County). Reduced Golf Course Season
• Olana State Historic Site (Columbia County). Closed two days per week
• Philipse Manor Hall Historic Site (Westchester County). The site will be closed.
• Rockefeller State Park Preserve (Westchester County). The park will be closed.
• Taconic Outdoor Education Center (Putnam County). The site will be closed.
• Taconic State Park – Rudd Pond (Dutchess County). The site will be closed.
• Wonder Lake State Park (Putnam County). The park will be closed.

The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation released the suggested list of closures and cuts for the State. The office is facing a $29 million cut in funding, which is about 16 percent of its annual budget. It’s fiscal year begins in April.

Getting very little press, President Obama’s PERAB (President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board) is where Obama’s economic wunderkind Austan Goolsbee was stashed away after the election, working under Paul Volcker, former Fed Chairman for Presidents Reagan and Carter.

PERAB is an advisory-only panel designed to review input and ideas from across the country and from all quarters, including the financial sector, industry and average American citizens just like you.

Since it’s first fully-transparent official meeting with the President (full video, full transcript), PERAB has opened their doors to leaders in business, labor and policymaking to discuss investment in infrastructure, green jobs initiatives such as home retrofitting, the role of community banks and credit unions, manufacturing and healthcare.

But PERAB is also going further, soliciting public and private input on a spectrum of tax reform proposals including filing simplification, shoring up enforcement and retooling our tricky corporate tax codes. PERAB is not, however, considering changes that would raise taxes on families making under $250,000.

PERAB will be compiling recommendations into an “almanac” of options that will be presented to President Obama, representing a broad range of viewpoints. Hundreds of suggestions have already been submitted by individuals, business groups and advocacy organizations, available for public viewing here.

Just this week, grants were distributed for 51 strategic transportaion projects including roads, rail, bridge repairs and more, demonstrating that PERAB initiatives do (eventually) find their way into real legislation. Last month, Goolsbee’s white paper became central to the White House proposal to limit risk-taking by banks who were recipients of bailout funding, curbing proprietary trading, hedge fund activity and more.

We should all endorse those reforms that increase economic and environmental sustainability, emphasizing localization, job creation and job retention over short-sighted wealth-creation. We should also advocate for regionalizing food supply lines, greater transparency in government and strengthening of the Earned Income Tax credit which recognizes the efforts of hard working families, manufacturing, production and service above “passive” income derived from dividends, investing, inheritance and other forms of “paper pushing” that benefit the already-rich.

Many do not realize it was then-governor Reagan who helped develop the Earned Income Tax credit as he successfully sought to incentivize work-over-welfare in California. As president, Reagan would later adopt “trickle down” incentives, lowering tax burdens for the rich in the expectation they might create jobs and not just pocket the cash.

Tempered by Newt Gingrich’s Congress, it was President Clinton’s expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit that saw a record number of millionaires created in the U.S. while reversing the growth of the deficit dramatically. CBO projections then calculated that the deficit could be fully repaid by 2009.

But after 2000, President Bush reinstated tax cuts for the rich alongside unprecedented levels of debt spending and industry deregulation. Again, income levels flat lined as work hours increased, benefits were cut and the dollar weakened. By 2008, job losses soared and the economy was in a state of disaster by any measure.

Obama’s current proposal for a direct tax credit for the creation of each new job is preferable to the “supply side” method which devastated the American middle class both times it was tried. We should all hope America’s middle class can be revitalized by a more equitable distribution of tax breaks, seeing through the ruse of trickle-down theories, and rewarding ONLY those businesses who create jobs in their communities.

But regardless of where you weigh in on today’s economic debates, you all have a chance now to be a part of the process and let the President’s Recovery Board know what YOU think. You can submit your ideas here using this web form, or direct email here.

Our group has met several times since. Our first project was the Fire Monserrate campaign, an online movement calling on the ouster of State Senator Hiram Monserrate. We understood that expelling someone from an elected position wasn’t a task to be taken lightly. However, as Sen. Monserrate was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend, we felt circumstances dictated that the Senate had to act. Domestic violence, we agreed, has no place in society, let alone the Senate chamber.

Our online petition gathered about 2000 signatures which included many public officials and political office holders. We received countless emails of support and the media came calling to find out who we were and why we thought this was important. In some, not insignificant way, we believe we helped lead the effort which concluded in last Tuesday’s State Senate resolution to expel Monserrate from office.

While we’re pleased with this grassroots effort, we know that cleaning up the Senate doesn’t end with the expulsion of just one Senator. Our ad hoc group that met last fall has now become a full-fledged political action committee with the purpose of ousting many of our dysfunctional State Senators and replacing them with reform-minded individuals. We call our organization ReBootNY.

ReBootNY is dedicated to electing better State Senators; Senators who will change how business is done in that chamber so it benefits all New Yorkers instead of those who pay the price of admission to secret rooms of power. We have made it our mission to rebuild state government, with the Senate being our first, and most important task. We are working to elect new, honest, ethical leaders committed to reform so that elected officials can focus on their true mission; solving New York’s desperate problems and making it the best state it can be.

But 30 people can’t win this fight. We need thousands of New Yorkers to join us in our cause. I invite you to visit ReBootNY’s Web site, become our fan on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. And last, it’s never been my style to ask for contributions, but if you are fortunate enough to have a few extra dollars in these hard times, please consider making a donation to ReBootNY. It would be money well spent to help put our state back on the right track.

Cross-posted at Nyack News and Views.

Verizon’s FIOS service has not offered MSNBC in much of the NY/NJ Metro area because of a deal it’s parent company, NBC struck with Cablevision several years ago. The contract blocked the news channel from appearing on services that compete with Cablevision’s Optimum service.

Verizon had filed complaints with the Federal Communications Commission in order to get the network on FIOS. It is not clear whether intervention by the government led to this development. Nor is it clear that this is a result of an agreement betweeen Cablevision, FIOS, and NBC’s new corporate parent, Comcast, which is yet another cable television provider.

Progressive stalwarts such as Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, and Ed Schultz can now be watched on channels 103 and 1545 (in high definition). The service on FIOS begins February 2.

But Democrats shouldn’t be fooled by Harold Ford. Instead, they should get to know Ford behind the slick persona that has mesmerized some of our local political leaders.

And I’m not going to even get into the fact that he’s Vice Chairman of Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, a bank that received $45 billion in TARP loans, but continues to screw this country out of a much needed recovery by tightening credit lines and choking the aspirations individuals and small businesses.

No, what I want to talk about is much worse than that: Ford has run as an anti-abortion candidate in Tennessee as recently as his Senate run in 2006. While real Democratic candidates and public servants were campaigning hard to promise they would fight to ensure women’s reproductive rights, Ford promised the opposite.

As Bush’s conservative appointees began to dominate the Federal Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, reproductive rights were at risk, but Ford did not stand up for women. Instead, as a Member of Congress, a candidate, and a political commentator Ford claimed to be “Pro Life” and even supported a ban on partial-birth abortion.

Being pro-choice means a politician fights unwaveringly for a woman’s right to her own medical decisions, even when it is not popular. Ford, however, played politics with this issue in his Tennessee Senate race and proclaimed himself pro-life and spending campaign money on ads to showcase his anti-choice record.

Now he decries the “Pro Life” label in the New York Post because it being “Pro Choice” suits his political ambitions in New York. But in Tennessee in 2006, he stated clearly that he was “pro-life” and that you “don’t run from that.”

Beyond the issue of reproductive rights, Ford has been far from progressive in other areas.

While a member of Congress, Ford supported a ban on benefits for same-sex couples. Later Ford supported the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have banned same-sex marriage nationwide.

Ford was a supporter of the Iraq war as a Congressman, going as far as to chide his fellow Democrats that they should be more supportive of the war.

Ford was also one of the few Democrats to support the Republican Party’s efforts to intercede in the Terri Schiavo case and offered no apologies afterward, even when her autopsy backed her husband Michael’s Schiavo’s argument that his wife was in a persistent vegetative state state from which she could not recover.

Ford currently sits as the chairman of the conservative Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), which has used the strategy of triangulation between the political left and right to create it’s own so-called “centrist” base of power. In the long run, this strategy has lead to countless concessions by the Democrats to the Republicans, while alienating labor and progressive voters. Moreover, columnist David Sirota says that the DLC’s pro-business stances leads it to consistently sell out to corporate interests. Sirota is not far off, the DLC has basically become a right-wing implant in the Democratic party. Some of its leaders, such as Marshall Whitman, also being associated with the Christian Coalition.

Harold Ford, Jr. might be running for the Senate, but he’s also running from the facts. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who once held the seat that Ford is seeking, said: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” The facts are clear: Ford is not the Democratic Senator New Yorkers are seeking.

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The opinion expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Rockland Progressive Democratic Caucus.

There’s already a lot of finger pointing going on. Martha Coakley is pointing fingers at the party, the party is pointing fingers back. They both share in the blame. That neither Democratic National Chairman Tim Kaine nor Coakley saw this train wreck coming tells us that we had the wrong people at the helm.

Coakley won’t be going to the Senate, but Kaine continues to chair the DNC. He’s keeping his job, it seems. But I think that Democrats must wake up now and realize that Tim Kaine is no Howard Dean.

The media is having a field day with Kaine’s counterpart, Michael Steele. They doubt every move he makes and ridicule every off-the-cuff remark. Steele, in the eyes of the media and many Republicans, is nothing more than a buffoon. I happen to agree. The Republican Party is in trouble: they have no cash, there’s dissent within the party, and they continue to partake into wedge-issue politics. The GOP’s pick of Dede Scozzafava to run for an open Congressional seat in New York was a blunder of epic proportions. Bill Owens barely winning in that district was not so much a victory for the Democrats as it was a default decision since he ended up with no Republican Party rival.

But Michael Steele, as incompetent as he is, has also won two important gubernatorial elections and one Senate election. Tim Kaine has not won anything for his party. He didn’t even win the Virginia Governor’s Mansion that he vacated for his party. If Michael Steele deserves no credit for the Republican victories in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, then Tim Kaine deserves all the blame. If you can’t outmaneuver a fool like Steele and let him take three leadership positions away from your party, what worth are you to your party?

You can’t just dismiss these three elections by claiming that one state was leaning conservative, another hated its governor, and the third was hobbled with a bad Democratic candidate. There are no excuses! Just a year ago, the Dems, under Howard Dean, greatly increased its presence in State Houses across the nation, in governor’s mansions, in the House and Senate, and it’s Presidential candidate won by a landslide. The Democrats were crushing the Republicans. Some pundits thought it was the end of the Republican Party.

Then Dean stepped down as DNC chair and Kaine took the reins. Kaine has gone back to the old strategies of raising money and hoping that your candidates can win without a message.

This is what the Democratic Party has returned to: Take money from lobbyists, give into their demands on legislation, and try to win elections by outspending the opposition. The problem is: that doesn’t work. Voters are starting to believe that the Democratic Party is selling out to corporate interests and I’m not so sure they’re wrong from the looks of the latest Health Care Reform bill.

Now we’re getting our asses kicked by a party that’s continues to be in disarray and that’s lead by an obvious bonehead.

One sad thing that I noticed in the Massachusetts Senate race was that that quite a few single-payer health care proponents were supporting Brown. They wanted to “Kill the Bill” as it now reads, because all it guarantees is access to health care, without dealing with affordability, and requiring mandates. So, the Democrats lost their progressive base in a progressive commonwealth. So explain to me how do you win without your base?

In Massachusetts, they’re currently suffering over a poorly cobbled together health care law—Mitt Romney’s crowning achievement by the way—that has been a disaster because premiums are skyrocketing in the state and it’s killing small business owners. Now we have a Democratic Party that is trying to pass through a similar, watered-down health care bill on the national level. So what do you expect from the residents of the Bay State? It’s no wonder why so many Democrats voted for Brown.

Yes, Coakley ran an extremely bad campaign. She acted aloof and entitled. She became the Rabbit to Brown’s Tortoise. All Brown had to do was drive a pickup truck through the Commonwealth, get the attention of a few tea-party crazies to go with the angry (but misguided) moderates and independents that began to lean his way and he had a enough troops to make it a race.

Meanwhile, the progressive base of the Democratic Party—those that were motivated to get out the vote in 2008—have been neglected ever since that election. Rahm Emanuel insulted progressives at every turn and Tim Kaine said nothing. President Obama governed from the right-center, not even throwing these stalwarts a bone.

Being mocked by Emanuel and ignored by Kaine and Obama upset many of my progressive colleagues, and many of them won’t raise a finger to help Democrats now. Some of them, as I said above, even voted for the other side. They feel used. After all, it was the progressives that gave the Democrats a majority in 2006 and an unprecedented majority and the White House in 2008. And then they were kicked to the curb.

While this race should be a wake-up call for the Democrats to run better candidates, I think it proves my theory that without your base, you’re nothing. And the progressives are the base of the Democratic Party.

Tim Kaine lost yesterday’s election. He also dismissed the progressives since his ascent to the DNC Chair a year ago, which helped the Democrats lose that election. It’s now the turn of progressives to toss Tim Kaine.

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The opinion in this column is the viewpoint of the author and not necessarily that of the Rockland Progressive Democratic Caucus.

They’re now just short of predicting that Democratic Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy will be switching parties in his run for the Governor’s seat.

In regards to a NY Daily News article where the Albany County Republican Chair, they’re convinced that a party change is in the cards.

The fact that Levy is even considering switching parties to seek the governorship is in part a testament to the weakness of the field. That said, Levy has run with Republican endorsements before – as recently as in 2007, in fact. But he would not be considering this bid if he did not see a golden opportunity to win the highest office in the state.

The Albany Republican Party Chair, John Graziano is impressed with Levy and said he would be willing to support him, as long as he switches parties.

RedState.com, however, is treating this scenario (especially that Levy has been endorsed by the GOP in the past) as somehow unique to New York politics. Little to they know that in the land of fusion politics and Wilson-Pakula, these kind of machinations are common, and while they sometimes bear fruit, they’re more likely some wishful thinking by desperate political insiders.

My thoughts are that this scenario has probably been hatched by new New York GOP Chair Ed Cox, who’s son Chris is hoping for the party’s nod to challenge Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop in the 1st CD.

Perhaps Cox & Co. see the possibility of Levy running as a Republican and to help the Nixon bloodline back into DC [shudder].

But it should also be noted that:

Levy, whose aides have steadfastly refused to confirm or deny reports that he is meeting with GOP leaders, including state Chairman Ed Cox, has run on the GOP and Conservative lines in the past and drawn heated criticism from Latino Democrats for his right-leaning stance on immigration.

All this says to me is that Levy is flattered by the attention. He’s not even considered a strong Democratic Gubernatorial candidate. It’s pretty pitiful if the New York Republicans can’t find a better candidate of they’re own and they feel the need to poach relatively nameless also-rans in hopes of beating Paterson or Cuomo.

Sorry, RedState, rather than seeing this as part of your GOP “growth industry” in the North East, I see this as the state party grasping at straws while hoping that party switching by Levy would help get Tricky Dick’s grandson in Congress.

Political maneuvers are rarely so tidy in New York.

All residents of the Village of South Nyack who are registered Democrats are encouraged to attend. The offices of Village Trustee (2) and Village Justice are up for election.

The term of Trustee is for two years and Village Justice is for four years. South Nyack residents interested in running for these offices on the Democratic Party line are encouraged to attend as well. Further, potential candidates should contact Cliff Weathers, the South Nyack Democratic Caucus Chair, at cliffweathers@gmail.com before the meeting.

We are especially interested in finding a candidate for Village Justice. It is a part time position (two times a month for night court, plus infrequent arraignments) that pays approximately $8,000. Practicing attorneys are preferred.

South Nyack Village Hall is located at 282 S. Broadway, just south of Mansfield Ave.