Staten Island - Now, Here is Some Voter Suppression

79.6% of the 500,000 citizens of Staten Island are Roman Catholic and along with their neighbors, it sure seems likely that the Catholic vote is being suppressed.  More importantly, these Americans are ignored and in mortal danger.  Some powers that be don't seem too interested in these voters - whatsoever.

There will be a New York Marathon.
  
Staten Island in New York is very much like my own neighborhood - working class, Catholic, ethnic and largely white.  This borough is home to fireman, cops, transit workers, skilled tradesmen, nurses and teachers - urban helots.

These folks won't (how in the Christ could they?) have a vote come Tuesday, but Manhattan will have a Marathon on Sunday.

This is the Middle Class the political wizards, spin-merchants and ad men whine about with such love and compassion that it would sicken a slug.

Staten Island is hurting.  People are missing.  Kids are freezing.  Old People endure the unimaginable with grace and faith.

Mayor Big Gulp is setting out the Big Apple welcome mat to Marathon runners from Kenya, Boston, L.A. and Switzerland on Sunday while a half a million of his citizens starve, suffer and strive against nature and political hypocrisy*.

Staten Islanders are a half-million people - Median Household Income -$55,000.

Home Values Before the Storm:
Estimated median house or condo value in 2009: $449,400 (it was $216,600 in 2000)

Staten Island:	$449,400
New York:	$306,000

Mean prices in 2009: All housing units: $538,672; Detached houses: $605,969; Townhouses or other attached units: $417,785; In 2-unit structures: $623,790; In 3-to-4-unit structures: $510,487; In 5-or-more-unit structures: $285,074; Mobile homes: $261,596; Occupied boats, RVs, vans, etc.: $389,490

Recent home sales, real estate maps, and home value estimator for zip codes: 10301, 10302, 10303, 10304, 10305, 10306, 10307, 10308, 10309, 10310, 10312, 10314.

 

Religion: 79.6% Roman Catholic
 

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/city/Staten-Island-New-York.html#ixzz2B6bQunRq

Now, that's suppressing the vote - the Catholic vote.

It sure does seem like a monstrous way to keep people from the polls - ignore their suffering.      


             

Update at 5:01 PM CST

The marathon, Bloomberg told reporters, will "give people something to cheer about in a week that's been pretty dismal."
"You can grieve, you can laugh, you can cry, all at the same time," the mayor said.
He also said the race would pump much-needed money into the city's economy, which was brought to its knees by the storm.
CHRISTINE BRENNAN: A confounding and unseemly decisionSTATEN ISLAND: Help was slow in comingMary Wittenberg, president of the New York Road Runners that operates the event, also tried to fend off criticism by saying this year's event will involve more private contractors than in past years to ease the strain on city services.
The marathon, which has run every year since 1970, brings an estimated $340 million into the city, and race organizers say some of it will be used for recovery efforts.
New York Road Runners will donate $1 million to the recovery fund and said more than $1.5 million in pledges already had been secured from sponsors.
Bloomberg's critics, however, were blunt.
Councilman James Oddo, from the devastated borough of Staten Island, where the race will begin, lashed out at the mayor on his Twitter feed:
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer weighed in, saying the city is trying to recover from the blow by Sandy and now is not the time to hold a marathon.
He said in a statement that New Yorkers throughout the city "are struggling to keep body and soul together, deprived of basic essentials as temperatures drops."
The race should be rescheduled, he said, "in order to focus all of the city's resources on the crucial task of helping our neighbors recover from this disaster."
"New Yorkers deserve nothing less than to know that the entire government is focused solely on returning the city and their region back to normalcy," Stringer said.

If they take one first responder from Staten Island to cover this marathon I will scream. We have people with no homes and no hope right now

The Genius Ben Stein Rolls The Fatuous Mayor Bloomberg's Salt-Free Abortions

Ben Stein is a gentleman to the backbone. Mayor Bloomberg is a parsing dweeb with billions of dollars. One is a mensch and a half and the mayor a nebish squared. . . or as Skinny Sheahan might say, "Ben's a Pair and Mike's Lacking Both."

I read this brilliant piece by Ben Stein in the The American Standard - published and edited by Fenwick Friar Bob Tyrrell.

I am endlessly amazed at how backwards we humans get things in our lives. Just let me give you two very basic examples, one of which is a crime against humanity.

I keep reading in the New York Times that Mayor Bloomberg, a billionaire health nut, is on a campaign against having too much salt in foods in New York City restaurants. His belief is that New Yorkers and visitors shorten their life spans by eating too much salt and therefore raising their blood pressure in a dangerous way. If he took control over the salt content in New York restaurants, he could save a few dozen lives per year, he believes.

But, wait a moment. I also read in the New York Times that New York City is one of the abortion capitals of the nation, with a much higher rate of abortion than most other parts of the nation. And Mayor Bloomberg is a great fan of "…a woman's right to choose…" to abort her baby.

As I calculate it in a rough way, New York City has about 8 million persons living there, or about (very roughly) 3 per cent of the nation's population. And New York has a much higher abortion rate than the rest of the nation. So it is possible that New Yorkers have about 50,000 abortions per year, or maybe a lot more.

That is 50,000 killings of totally innocent children every year. Does Mayor Bloomberg think that his anti-salt campaign means much compared with that number? If he wants to save lives, why doesn't he throw his tiny weight and his huge purse behind right to life? That's a truly life-saving act.

This whole subject endlessly fascinates and horrifies me. We campaign against obesity -- and we should -- because it shortens life. But nothing else makes life as short as abortion. We campaign for more exercise -- and I heartily agree -- because it lengthens life. But, again, no amount of exercise would offset the over 1,000,000 excess American deaths each year caused by abortion of the totally innocent. We want safer cars. We want cleaner air. We want cleaner water. All to save life. But there is nothing we could do that would save more lives than to truly stop abortion in all but the most extreme cases of need.

Why? Why are we so blind to the mass murder of the innocent?

It do give one pause, Ben.