"Let me take you back to the early eighties. Visiting friends in hospitals. We'd go in. We'd go in one night, in the morning they'd be dead. I'd bring them food. My family, bring them food. My friends bring someone food. But whoever was in bed would be dead before they could eat it."
"We'd leave it - maybe the nurses would take it home. No! They wouldn't eat it! 'Cause it's contaminated. Contaminated! Wouldn't touch it. Wouldn't go into the room. Wearing masks. Gloves! Gowns! Someone gets sick in the afternoon. They'd be dead the next day. Dead! And that went on for months, and then years. Dead! Dead!"
"You think if you got sick and your friends were dying that I would sit there and do nothing? No. But that's what happened. That's what happened. Every cold. Every virus. Every temperature. I thought I'd be dead, and so did so many people that I knew. Dead! You think you scare me? You think you can make be back off? Nothing scares me."
Seriously, watch it.
The bill passed. It passed 52-1. It will prevent people living with HIV or AIDS and receiving public assistance from having to pay more than 30 percent of their monthly income on rent.
So, who was the lone senator to vote against it? Who was the one guy who thought this was a bad idea? Who sat and listened to this speech from Duane and said to themselves "Eh. Screw 'em."
Marriage equality will pass this year. That's a prognostication, but I have two reasons for making it.
First, Pedro Espada supports it. I hate to think that someone with his less than stellar record has any power at all, but there it is. In addition, Tom Duane is willing to do whatever it takes to get it passed -- even conspire with such as Espada.
Second, Republicans want it to pass. They are tasting the possibility of being in control of the Senate again, and don't want to lose that control in a year and a half. If marriage equality is still an issue, there will be enormous amounts of money and people turning out for Democrats (real Democrats) next year. By passing marriage equality, Republicans will dam that flood.
Liz notes that Senator Tom Duane is speaking out about bloggers and journalists in the context of so called "shield laws." She quotes Duane thusly:
"New York has a proud tradition of having one of the strongest reporter's shield laws in the country," Duane said. "I was shocked to discover that in 2008, our law does not provide protections to journalist bloggers - one of the fastest growing mediums for obtaining news. This glaring omission must not be allowed to continue."
I will certainly applaud Senator Duane for recognizing that the law is lacking and need of a revision. The media landscape is changing as people have more and more options for their consumption of information. The new media phenomena is opening up all manner of questions about who is and who isn't a "journalist" and who deserves the protection of the law in the exercise of journalism. But, I would argue, as I did in a comment on Liz's post, that these shield laws should be protecting the act of journalism, the free dissemination of information as opposed to protecting individuals who have been deemed as a class as worthy of protection. Of course, it's certainly not that easy, but the questions raised by this explosion of citizen generated media are complex. I'll leave it to folks who are much smarter than I am to figure it out.
I guess my point is that we probably shouldn't dwell so much on who is worthy of protection by these laws, but what is worthy. I am of the belief that anyone can engage in acts of journalism and I am suspicious of attempts to label this person or that class of people as deserving of protections while others are not. It's the free flow of information and the right of the public to access it that needs protection, not so much those who someone else deems a "journalist" or not a "journalist."
Finally, some common sense here. Democratic State Senators Tom Duane and William Stachowski released a letter to Comptroller Tom DiNapoli today. In the letter they as the Comptroller to deny payment, as much as $500,000, to Bruno's pet partisan prosecutor, Joseph E. diGenova. From the emailed press release:
Senators Duane and Stachowski urge State Comptroller DiNapoli to deny payment for reported $500,000 contract in partisan Senate Investigations Committee probe
State Senators Tom Duane (D-Manhattan) and William Stachowski (D-Buffalo) today wrote a letter to Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli requesting that he refuse payment for the legal services of Joseph E. diGenova, a high-profile attorney hired by Senate Republicans to serve the GOP-led Investigations Committee in its partisan inquiry of the Governor's office.
Republican Senator George Winner, Chairman of the Senate Investigations Committee, announced diGenova's hiring yesterday without first notifying Democratic members of the committee. The Democrats only learned about the $500,000 six-month contract later through media reports. Under the alleged contract, diGenova could earn up to an estimated $21,000 per week.
Duane and Stachowski, who serve on the Investigations Committee, also requested that DiNapoli forward them a copy of the Senate Republicans' contract with diGenova so they could review its terms and conditions.
"Allegedly hiring a half-a-million-dollar-a-year Republican partisan lawyer on the taxpayer's dollar is completely unacceptable," said Duane, the committee's Ranking Democrat. "Talk about misuse of state resources -- here's a classic example. Rather than getting back to the people's business of tax relief and paid family leave, the Republican majority continues to waste taxpayer money and time pursuing their own political agenda."
Senator Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan), another member of the committee, said: "The Attorney General, Ethics Commission and the Albany County District Attorney either have or are investigating this matter. The Senate Republicans are proposing a ludicrous waste of taxpayer money to fund a partisan prosecutor. There is no rationale for this expenditure."
In their letter, the Democratic senators referred to Section 63 of the Legislative Law which authorizes the state's payment of a legislative committee's expenses only when "actual and necessary." With parallel investigations currently being conducted by the Ethics Commission and the Albany County District Attorney's Office -- in addition to an earlier inquiry by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo -- Senators Duane and Stachowski question whether diGenova's retainer meets this condition of "necessity." They also pointed out that they believed the Senate needed to approve the investigation by a vote of the full body.
"Not only is it insulting to ask that New Yorkers foot the outrageous bill for Mr. diGenova's contract, but we see absolutely nothing in the law that would authorize the state to pay for legal counsel in this matter," Stachowski said.
There will be light posting from me today as I'm attending the 2007 edition of the Personal democracy Forum. There's been much discussion about all things web 2.0 and new media and all that other shiny stuff that makes techies and consultants drool. Oh, and Tom Friedman got to talk for half an hour about his many conversations with North African Cab drivers with bluetooth phone thingy's in their heads. Hoo-ray.
Speaking of all that web 2.0 stuff, we've got a state Senator right here in New York who not only produces a podcast, he produces a really good one. State Senator Tom Duane has just released his third such podcast and it's one of the better I've ever heard. This is from the press release:
State Senator Tom Duane (D-WFP, Manhattan) today released his latest podcast, which features his first-person narration of a typically hectic Tuesday in the state capital, as well as his one-person-at-a-time introduction of podcasting to the denizens of Albany.
As he makes his way back and forth from his office in the Legislative Office Building to the Capitol, Senator Duane encounters lobbyists - amateur and professional, other legislators, government aides…and even Governor Eliot Spitzer.
Making his first appearance on Senator Duane's podcast, the Governor stops to say a few words for the Senator's loyal listeners.
State Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) also addresses the podcast's audience before he and Senator Duane enter an in-depth policy briefing with the Senate Minority Conference.
Since Senator Duane found that many in our state capital are not yet familiar with podcasting, he spent much of the walk introducing those he met to the concept - thus the episode's title: "Albany, Meet Podcast."
Senator Duane's podcasts are listed on Apple iTunes and all other major podcast directories and are also posted on Senator Duane's website at http://www.tomduane....
