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After several years of NYC go-go dancing and wacky radical fun (including a trip to the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago) Carola Von H. became a No Wave band leader and Mail Artist. Picking up change as a free lance writer. Her pen ranged widely. Covering cult films, punk rock, and politics for scene rags and men's mags. Writing educational art and lit materials for high school kiddies. In the late 80's Carola converted to Catholicism. Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) and G. K. Chesterton were inspirational. Along came the Internet. She embraced it. Mondo QT was born. The rest is the hidden history of political corruption and other eternals...
SHARE Sunday, August 7, 2011 Cambodia's Curse, Mexico's Manana, Reckless Endangerment Stateside
Summer reading circa 2011: "Cambodia's Curse" by Joel Brinkley, "Manana Forever?" by Jorge Castaneda, and "Reckless Endangerment" by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner. The first two a trip to strangely familiar flailing states, the last a crime procedural about our very own real estate bubble. Got justice? Hey-- who needs a cow when the milk is so cheap!
SHARE Monday, March 28, 2011 Gaming the Game: Baba, Elvis, and the NBA Betting Scandal
Sean Patrick Griffin's new book "Gaming the Game" won't make ex NBA referee Tim Donaghy happy. In 2008, Donaghy (aka Elvis to his cohorts) was convicted of feeding pro gambler Jimmy "Baba" Battista picks on NBA games. Elvis claims Baba made him do it . Griffin says no way...
SHARE Friday, March 4, 2011 Left, Right, Third Party in Sight?
Big government and big finance pumped the housing bubble. Then came the bust. After years of investigations, Republicans and Democrats can't agree on who-done-it. However, we will be able to hang some teachers and sanitation workers out to dry. In our state capitalist times, Joe and Joan Average are increasingly on their own...
SHARE Friday, February 18, 2011 Mortgage Fraud! Mollusks! Taxpayers Rush to Invest
Ah, mortgage fraud. The unsung power tool of the housing bubble. Miss the big grift? No need. New scams are on fire! Government sponsored programs are being mined. Meanwhile, in Hoboken NJ, mollusks are undermining the new urban waterfront. Hurry hurry-- time to reinvest. Before shipworms swallow Sinatra Drive...
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, January 10, 2011 Governor Andrew Cuomo: Day One, Everything Freezes
And so it begins. Not with a bang but a brrrrr. On January 5th, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo laid down his first State of the State address in a freezing cold auditorium at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany. The space wasn't frigid by accident. Some like it hot, but Andy does not. Why is a mystery. Some cite his "shark-like" eyes, saying he needs the deep chill. But I disagree...
SHARE Tuesday, November 2, 2010 All Fired Up: The Downtown Albany Real Estate Game
When you talk about Albany to people outside the Capital Region most think you mean New York State government. In election years the reality of Albany as a specific place, not a symbol of pols-gone-wild, becomes even more difficult to convey. A shame, because the city of Albany has all sorts of exciting stuff going on. Particularly on its downtown real estate scene.
SHARE Monday, October 18, 2010 Robin Palmer: Weatherman Yippie Right Wing Rebel Forever
Robin Palmer died this August. He was a born rebel. Never without a cause. Usually multiple causes. Which sometimes seemed wildly contradictory. Let's see; there was radical bomber Robin, guerilla theater Robin, and right wing Robin. Or was he just Robin wing all along? Whatever. I'm glad to have been his friend...
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, August 9, 2010 Empire State Circus Circus: Cuomo, Lazio or Paladino?
New Yorkers are rolling in the aisles. The summer of our discontent (economic, political, you name it) has been made glorious circus by the race for the governor's seat. A clown car of candidates is lurching round the ring...
SHARE Thursday, June 10, 2010 The Garden of Traveling Pimp Hands
Traveling pimp hands-- animal, vegetable, or political? U B the judge. From White House plots to the gardens of assorted local governments and/or crime scenes, pimp hands are invasive...
SHARE Friday, May 7, 2010 Atlantic Yards-- Roll Out the Dough, Land Grab to Go
I love the smell of eminent domain abuse in the morning. It smells like land grabs and taxpayers being soaked. A truly fragrant blast of the stuff is wafting up from Brooklyn...
SHARE Wednesday, April 7, 2010 Obama, O'Dubya, O Maltese Falcon
When considering a third party option vs. supporting donkeys or elephants ask yourself-- what would Sam Spade do?
SHARE Wednesday, February 10, 2010 Jersey City Trumps Jersey Shore: U.S. v. Leona Beldini
Jersey Shore? Fuhgeddaboudit. Jersey City is the gem of reality TV. "Jersey Shore" is MTV. Jersey City is FBI. Like, how real is that? Video tapes of pols talking trash have been unspooling in federal court in Newark at the trial of Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini. Charges? Bribe-O-Rama!
SHARE Saturday, December 12, 2009 Andrew Cuomo and the Incredible Industry-Wide Mortgage Fraud Investigation
Cast your mind back to November, 2007. When the bursting housing bubble made it seem as if mortgage fraud perped by parties larger than brokers, bank clerks, and appraisers might finally matter. New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sent an ominous missive to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He was launching an "industry-wide investigation into mortgage fraud"...
SHARE Sunday, November 1, 2009 Atlantic Yards, Shadow Government, and Albany Frozen in Amber
The big chill of eminent domain abuse is challenged in the highest court in New York. The case is Goldstein et al v. New York State Urban Development Corporation-- aka Empire State Development (ESD). Godzilla of the state's quasi-private Shadow Government. Meanwhile, revitalization in Albany continues as usual...
SHARE Friday, September 25, 2009 Abbie Hoffman's Contrarian Shoes
Abbie Hoffman was master of the culture jam. Whacking the establishment with its own wack. I interviewed Abbie in 1981. He told me all about his contrarian shoes. Now folks in other ideological places are doing the jam...
SHARE Monday, August 10, 2009 Fish For Obama My Precious
Ahoy President Obama! I hear you want folks to send you any fishy emails they receive about your health care reform plan. (Whatever the heck it is.) So I'm enclosing the ones I've received. Not all the messages diss your plan, but all are pretty fishy...
SHARE Tuesday, July 28, 2009 Jersey City Dreaming: Bullets, Bribes, and Unreal Real Estate
Summer bloody summer boils over behind Jersey City's Gold Coast. A deadly shootout erupts in Smack Alley and the Feds sting pols greasing wheels for developers. Jersey City once had a case of corruption-- till the new improved U.S. Housing Mission turned it into an epidemic.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, June 15, 2009 Life, Inc: Tripping the Corporatism Fantastic with Douglas Rushkoff
Spoiler alert for the last few folks who take Alan Greenspan seriously-- don't read chapter two of Douglas Rushkoff's new book Life, Inc. The scene where Greenspan addresses attendees of the 2008 Wealth Expo in New York City via satellite is pure twisted comedy.
SHARE Tuesday, June 2, 2009 Obama Montana and the Morbidly Obese VAT Tax
Whew. President Obama's first 100 days are done. Ditch the give-him-a-break and those holy magazine pics. Hey-- didya hear? Obama and Hannah Montana are king and queen of the Wal-Mart prom! But Sam's choice chow can't top Spam. Sales are surging. Just another green shoot in the Obama guided economy. Despite rumors, the Marquis de Sade didn't ghost write the phrase "100 Days of Stimulus."
[humor/satire]
SHARE Friday, May 8, 2009 Arlen Specter Zelig, America's Unsung Pulp Star
For 45 years Arlen Specter has appeared at critical points in lurid national dramas, skipping from part to part like a pulp fiction Zelig.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Hoboken Tax Revolt: BYO Tar & Feathers
In early March the mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey was tarred and feathered by a mob of city residents enraged by a gigantic property tax increase. April Fool late! Twas only an effigy of Mayor Dave Roberts that got the T & F treatment. Still, it's the thought that counts. On May 12th, a mayoral election will be held. Roberts won't be
(6 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 7, 2009 Stimulus IBM Style: Take the Jack, Ship out the Back
IBM CEO Sam Palmisano knows good stimulus! Tech infrastructure projects will "reignite growth" and "create jobs". Meanwhile back at assorted IBM ranches, workers are being fired. No need to fret. IBM has Project Match. The Big Blue Foreign Legion...
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 28, 2009 Alice in Mail Art Land/Traveling Light with a Pinhole Camera
January 27th is/was Rabbit Hole Day. Birthday of Lewis Carroll. For those lost in uffish thought of slithy pols, Carroll is a beacon of better. Time to leave town on the Alice Express, in the car marked "Mail Art". All aboard for the Pinhole Parcel Project...
SHARE Monday, January 12, 2009 Like New Jersey Corruption, Stimulus is Forever
Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey wants a special $1 trillion stimulus for states. Taxpayers need not fear; twill only for last 2 years. Those who know Jersey know better. Once federal funds start passing through corrupt hands, need never dies. Stimulus is forever baby!
SHARE Wednesday, December 24, 2008 Shovel Ready Xmas/Gifting Our Public Servants (humor)
Get off the stick consumers. Tis way past time to do your patriotic part to bolster the economy. Not enough names on your gift list? Super size it with public servants. Now you're spending like an eggnog addled sailor!
SHARE Tuesday, December 2, 2008 Might Makes Blight: Eminent Domain v. Free Speech in Clarksville, Tennessee
Hop the last train to Clarksville, Tennessee. Where Mayor Johnny Piper, the Downtown District Partnership, and the Clarksville City Council have a blight pretty plan to seize other people's land. So private developers can "maximize the potential". Home owners and small businesses in Blightville object. They say bad things in newspaper ads. "Libel" scream the pols/developers.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, October 31, 2008 Nightmare on Election Street
Hit the road Halloween. For those who loathe politicians (count me in) there's no more horrific time than the final days of a presidential race.
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, October 13, 2008 Obama McCain: A Man For This Season
Evil omens re the economy hath melded Obama and McCain into one man, living in the cramped quarters of one craven political soul.
SHARE Tuesday, September 30, 2008 The Big Bailout Circus
The Big Bailout Circus has the nation in stitches. Taxpayers are being sewn into a skin-tight forever suit by an amazingly bipartisan group of government clowns. But despite the agreement about the need for a slap dash redo of the U.S. financial system-- and by extension our political system-- the designing bozos disagree about details. And none can resist an occasional hit of the rubber chicken...
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 26, 2008 Bloody Toto Guilty of Mortgage Fraud
Go Brooklyn. A jury in that fair borough has found Emmanuel "Toto" Constant and grand larceny. Emmanuel Constant is the former founder and leader of FRAPH, the Haitian paramilitary group that in the early 90's, systematically tortured and murdered thousands of supporters of deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 2, 2008 The Albany Show/See Bruno Go/Did Spitzer Know?
New York's ex-Governor Eliot Spitzer must be kicking himself round his Manhattan real estate office. If Spitz had played his cards sharper he could be in Albany watching state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno take flight from the capital sans state-owned helicopter.