Disqus - Latest Comments for Dan_Jacoby

Re: OP-ED: The unintended victims of a $15 minimum wage are small businesses and their employees

Dan_Jacoby — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 22:07:12 -0000

The Seattle study, conducted at the University of Washington, is well known to be fatally flawed because it ignored the thousands of workers who moved from low-wage to higher-wage jobs. The study considered them to have lost their jobs when in fact they saw a raise.

I don't know about the other "studies" reported here, but it seems to me that if you're going to claim that studies show something you need to make sure that the studies you use are legitimate.

Re: To Incentivize Investment, Shoreline Expands Property Tax Exemption To Station Areas

Dan_Jacoby — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 11:15:28 -0000

You got the reasons entirely wrong. Shoreline extended the PTE in order to allow developers, and people who want to leave the city, to make more money. Period.

Re: Chelsea Clinton to get lifetime achievement award

Dan_Jacoby — Wed, 22 Mar 2017 15:44:45 -0000

I wish people would stop being so stupid in their reporting.

If Sen. Gillibrand runs for President in 2020, she will NOT have to vacate her Senate seat, because she's up for reelection in 2018. After her reelection, if she wins the presidential race in 2020 and does have to resign, the governor of New York will appoint someone to succeed her, just as Governor Paterson appointed her in 2009 to succeed Hillary Clinton (who resigned to become Secretary of State).

This means that there wouldn't be an election for the Senate seat until 2022 (a special to finish the term, just the one that Gillibrand won in 2010). And if Sen. Gillibrand doesn't run for President, the next Senate race for that seat (after 2018) will be in 2024. Either way, there will be NO RACE in 2020.

This isn't rocket science, it's basic arithmetic, plus a basic understanding of the Constitution of the United States. Political reporters who get this wrong are idiots.

Re: Poll: Clinton would easily beat Trump

Dan_Jacoby — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 12:44:43 -0000

It's not in the headline, where it belongs. Only a fool would see this and not believe that it is a slanted piece.

Re: Thanks Obama: Obama blamed for Kingsport counterfeiting

Dan_Jacoby — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 13:16:58 -0000

You mean that if she believes the "online report" that trashes President Obama, she has to be a Republican.

Re: LePage attempts to ‘pocket veto’ remaining bills

Dan_Jacoby — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 12:00:12 -0000

The Maine state constitution is clear. As long as the "same legislature" is going to meet again there can be no pocket veto. The Governor does have the opportunity to veto the bills and return them to the legislature "within 3 days after the next meeting," in which case the legislature can vote to override the veto (or sustain it).

This article shamefully fails to put it all together and report the facts. Similarly, if there is any confusion on the part of any government official, it is to their shame as well, since the state constitution is quite clear.

Re: The Seattle Times On Single-Family Zoning: Inflammatory and Factually Inaccurate

Dan_Jacoby — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 13:27:19 -0000

You're completely wrong! You say that the report says only that "proposed changes would likely only apply to Urban Villages and/or their surrounding areas." Your problem is that you saw the part where it recommends converting single-family zoning in Urban Village areas, and then you stopped reading. You need to keep reading — and not even very far.

On page 11 of the draft HALA report, it says, "HALA recommends allowing more flexibility and variety of housing in Single Family zones to increase the economic and demographic diversity of those who are able to live in these family oriented neighborhoods. In fact, HALA recommends we abandon the term 'single family zone' and refer to such areas as low-density residential zones. "

Now — it doesn't take a genius to see what they really mean, which is that they are recommending not just changing the name, but (without trying to say it directly, because it's a terrible idea) changing the actual zoning citywide. Notice that in that first sentence they don't say "some" Single Family zones, because they really mean "ALL" Single Family zones.

Re: Lessons From Mississippi on Obamacare: It’s Not Just the Words, It’s the Music | Commentary

Dan_Jacoby — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 18:10:41 -0000

So extremist right-wing voters in Mississippi (meaning extreme right-wing by Mississippi standards) are indicative of the mainstream voting public? That's a really stupid analysis.

Get a clue!

Re: Why Obama is Pushing Republicans Over the Fiscal Cliff > Policy Blog > Institute for Policy Innovation

Dan_Jacoby — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 14:18:51 -0000

Wow, are you wrong!

It is not President Obama, but tea party and other extremist right-wing Republicans who are willing to destroy our economy to save their precious (and fatally flawed) ideology. The Tea Party has it as a given that the entire economic structure will collapse in the next few years, and then they can move in and take over. They are eager to make this happen.

Don't believe me? Then ask yourself why Speaker Boehner's "Plan B" failed to get enough Republican votes. It was a great strategy -- pass something that allows you to claim you've done the job, and dare Democrats to match you. But, of course, that there are too many tea party nuts, and Boehner's plan failed.

Even Mitch McConnell ended up filibustering HIS OWN bill on the debt ceiling, once he discovered that there were enough Democratic votes to pass it.

Your theory, that "the Obama administration is willing to sink the economy in order to gain at the midterm elections" is so totally at odds with reality as to be considered insane. It is the Republicans, particularly the extremist right-wing Republicans but including almost all Republicans, who are willing, even eager, to destroy us.

Re: Power Making Its Way Back On

Dan_Jacoby — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:52:48 -0000

The numbers don't add up.

88% of "nearly one million" is almost 880,000, leaving less than 120,000 without power. If 88% of the original powerless customers have had their power restored, and there are 181,000+ customers still without power, then the original outage reached over 1.5 million. If the original outage was less than one million customers, then only about 81% have had power restored.

I wonder who's playing with the numbers here.

Re: Schneiderman Targets On-Line Tobacco Retailers

Dan_Jacoby — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 13:56:36 -0000

There's something seriously wrong with the key statistic that only 24,100 children start smoking every year. According to the CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/..., 850 children between 12 and 17 become smokers every day. Multiply 850 by 365, and you get over 310,000 new child smokers every year.

Re: Top American Rabbis Take on Fox News

Dan_Jacoby — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 22:31:41 -0000

What the heck took the rabbis so long to complain?

Re: Moonlighting Lawmakers

Dan_Jacoby — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 11:37:39 -0000

Disclosure isn't enough; legislators' pay must be raised significantly, the job must be reclassified as full-time (it's currently considered part-time), and outside income must be limited.

I wrote about this five years ago; it's available online at http://danjacoby.com/politi....

Re: Krueger: Hate Senate Deadlocks? Blame Dean

Dan_Jacoby — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:04:18 -0000

It would be nice to get a plain English explanation of how the number of Senators is determined. That number is laid out, in very muddy language, in Article III, Section 4, paragraph 3 of the state Constitution, which reads:

"The ratio for apportioning senators shall always be obtained by dividing the number of inhabitants, excluding aliens, by fifty, and the senate shall always be composed of fifty members, except that if any county having three or more senators at the time of any apportionment shall be entitled on such ratio to an additional senator or senators, such additional senator or senators shall be given to such county in addition to the fifty senators, and the whole number of senators shall be increased to that extent."

Huh?

Re: Campaign Contribution Limits Going Up (Updated)

Dan_Jacoby — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 13:53:20 -0000

The key is getting the right kind of public funding system. The NYC system, for instance, is a complete waste of tax money -- it never changes who gets elected or how they get elected, so it doesn't change how they behave once they are elected. The system in use in Maine, on the other hand, works quite well, much to the chagrin of the drug lobby (see Maine Rx-plus).

Re: Campaign Contribution Limits Going Up (Updated)

Dan_Jacoby — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 13:51:06 -0000

I spent 15 years checking the "no" box on my Form 1040 for the Presidential Election Fund, because I fully understand your point. In a perfect world, that would be the end of the discussion.

But I also object to even more of my tax money going to wealthy special interest groups that don't need it, and only got it because they contributed a lot to some candidate who won. Many of them contribute to all candidates in a race, secure in the knowledge that they have special access no matter who wins. The return on investment (ROI) on these things is about 1,000%, much higher than you're going to get even with the most spectacular hedge funds.

In other words, I'd rather give $10 to Paladino et. al. than $100 to Paladino's parking concessions.

Re: Campaign Contribution Limits Going Up (Updated)

Dan_Jacoby — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 13:15:12 -0000

This is why we need real campaign finance reform. Not just the usual pap parroted by hack politicians (and many very good politicians too, who just don't understand the issue thoroughly), but FULL public funding of campaigns, along with some creative ways to encourage people to participate and to head off the flow of "independent" expenditures.

Re: Duffy’s Replacement Resigns

Dan_Jacoby — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:26:37 -0000

Is this as insipid as it sounds? By this standard, nobody could ever run for reelection.

Re: Sen. Diaz Has Plans

Dan_Jacoby — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:11:21 -0000

A minor correction: Sen. Diaz is not the last of the amigos; Sen. Kruger is still there.

Re: The Snow is Too Damn High

Dan_Jacoby — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 09:31:19 -0000

Following up, it is now too late for the mayor to tamp down the investigations. The NY Times has an exposé on how neither the city nor the MTA reacted to the increasingly dismal forecasts. And the Post has an article saying that Sanitation bosses deliberately slowed down the response as a way of protesting budget cuts.

Re: NOW Statement on WalMart Sexual Discrimination Suit

Dan_Jacoby — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 10:41:38 -0000

WalMart's claim is ridiculous on its face. If one single class-action lawsuit is too unwieldy for WalMart to handle, how will they manage thousands, or tens of thousands, of individual lawsuits?

We know what this is about. WalMart doesn't want to go up against a well-funded team of legal experts in a single, massive lawsuit. They would much rather go up against a bunch of little, single, underfunded lawyers in miniscule lawsuits, where they can shove their weight around.

Re: Are New Jersey Nets Becoming The "Brooklyn New Yorkers"?

Dan_Jacoby — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:31:15 -0000

"Desperately needed?" Huh??? Stadiums are money-losers and job- and neighborhood-killers. Since when is such a rotten investment "desperately needed?"

The rest of the article is fun.

Re: We are not afraid

Dan_Jacoby — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:42:15 -0000

If there was any doubt, the right-wing reaction to Attorney General Holder's decision proves conclusively that they are un-American cowards.

They are un-American because they don't believe in the American system of justice.

They are cowards because they are afraid -- even of people we have already caught.

Re: Gas drilling -- an issue Mayor Bloomberg gets right

Dan_Jacoby — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:16:01 -0000

He is pushing for a statewide ban.

Local politicians are constrained from telling the rest of the state what to do, and too many upstate electeds have drunk the Kool-Aid the gas drillers are pouring. It is a long, hard battle to turn things around, but local electeds DO understand and are trying to convince our upstate neighbors that a) the money promised by the gas drillers will not materialize (many Pennsylvania farmers are getting less than 10% of what they originally expected), and b) the health costs are larger than even the promised monetary benefits.

Re: Replacing Miguel Martinez (Gotham Gazette, July 20, 2009)

Dan_Jacoby — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:01:22 -0000

The nominating petitions people sign clearly show the names and addresses of the "vacancy committee," so the argument that people didn't sign up for a replacement isn't accurate. When people voted for Eliot Spitzer in 2006, David Paterson was on the same ballot, and people understood that if anything happened to Spitzer, Paterson would step in as Governor. This situation is not far different.

The current system is not perfect; an incumbent can petition for reelection, and then once it's too late for anyone else to enter the race the incumbent can bow out so that the handpicked vacancy committee can choose the incumbent's handpicked successor. It happens far too often. The solution is not to replace the current vacancy committee system, but to create a system where incumbents are regularly challenged when running for reelection.