This month's Central Brooklyn Eating Liberally meeting will be Tuesday, Dec. 13th, 7 PM at Kaz an nou in Prospect Heights.

Kaz an nou
53 6th Ave,
http://kazannou.com

This is one of the best restaurants in our rotation and tends to fill up even on a Tuesday, so best to arrive right around 7 PM to make sure we get a big enough table.

Hope you can join us for excellent food and some good political discussion.

Here we are in America, home of the free, land of the brave; or so we keep on telling ourselves. We have inalienable rights: the right to speak our mind without fear, the right to read what we please, write what we want, worship as we choose, or not, to equality in the eyes of the laws passed by people we elect for the purpose, and to assemble peaceably.

I've always thought that the opening line in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather was one of the most powerful moments in cinema: "I love America". Because it rang so true; we all love this country to a greater or lesser extent and in our own unique ways, not just because this is our home, but because of the rights we have here. They are what make America special; a republic, if we can keep it.

That high ideal is now crashing against the reality of the brutal crackdown by our billionaire mayor and his ilk on the Occupy Wall Street protests, here and around the nation. Blood has been spilt.  read more »

Actually, there's no punch line or joke forthcoming, because that's exactly what I did this Tuesday; head down to Staten Island for a blogger debate with my friend and sometime sparring partner Gatemouth, hosted by the Staten Island Democratic Association. Attention whore that I am, I said to myself, "Well, why the fuck not?", and got on the boat. In the dark. By myself.

Now, I like to flatter myself on my gleaming prose and the knife-like penetration of my intellect, which is perhaps an excess of vanity. But to tell you a not very well-kept secret, under the façade, the clipped upper-class English, the designer clothes and the chiseled face, lies a somewhat shy, sweet young man a bit unsure of his place in this world. Fine. The narrow surface part of me, however, the one you'll likely be dealing with unless I choose otherwise, is precisely that façade, and lives for the well-turned phrase or shocking statement, the aforementioned glittering knife in a verbal parry and thrust. If I'm known for anything, that would be it, and that's the part of me that blogs.

My physical comfort zone is also rather narrowly defined: some, not all, parts of New York City, Paris, London, some beach resorts. My world, by and large, ends at the Hudson. As far as my blogging is concerned, like most of my friends, the people who started and defined this medium, I do not shrink from controversy. That's the whole point, isn't it; to tell stories that no other medium will or can touch, and to do so in a voice that demands attention. If I had to give a definition of blogging, that would be it.

So how did I wind up on 'the rock', as it's affectionately called? What with everything else that's going on, Occupy Wall Street, the Netroots New York conference coming up, Thanksgiving, the Presidential campaign, what not else? And me, of course, being, well, me?

Very simple: I was asked. And I'm quite curious. Curious to see what it would be like to debate old Gatey in public, curious to meet these people who wanted to know more about what we do, and lastly, curious to meet a new friend, someone interesting and smart and, I think, special, I met via that Twitter thingie that's consuming altogether too much of my time. Curious, and a bit apprehensive; that whole comfort zone concept.

And you know what? I had a fucking blast. Staten Island Is gorgeous, and the cocktails are cheap. Gatemouth, say what you will, is probably one of the smartest people you'll ever meet in the world of New York politics. That new friend, one Daniel Bauer, is an amazing human being with a fascinating story, one he's just now beginning to tell. A story like that, and the many others like it unfolding day by day in this shining City, are why I started blogging in the first place. These stories are the very fabric of humanity, the messy stuff that makes us fully human. And while my relationship with most Democratic clubs is best described as one of deep and abiding loathing, the good people - and make no mistake, they are good people - at SIDA, could not have been more pleasant. Yes, they took rather pointed exception at my penchant for swearing like a sailor, but what of it? It was their home, not mine.

What I found again that night, when I walked out of that room and left the island, was something I thought I'd lost years ago in the tumult and agonies of my life: the sense of joy and sheer pleasure that writing on a blog used to give me. I have my voice back. There are so many stories to tell. Finally, I can tell them again.

But perhaps I'll swear a bit less going forward. Time will tell.

Dear Dictator Bloomberg,

Remember me? I am one of the people (along with my then-8 months' pregnant wife) who you called a terrorist for protesting the Republican Convention in 2004. So I have long known you don't like American freedoms or democracy. Of course you showed your disdain of democracy (along with your trained surrender monkeys in the City Council) when you overturned a popular vote by the people so you could serve a third term.

Well now your third term will be remembered as the one where you stomped on the 99%.

But you can't stop democracy THAT easily, Dictator Bloomberg. Despite your targeting them with particular vehemence for years, Critical Mass STILL RIDES the last Friday of every month in Manhattan (meeting at Union Square Park 7PM!) and in Brooklyn (second Friday of every month meeting at Grand Army Plaza at 7 PM).

Well Occupy is similar to Critical Mass...a disorganized bunch of American Citizens who like to exercise their Constitutionally guaranteed rights against dictatorial bozos like yourself. All of those angry members of the 99% are still out there, only now you have pissed them off more.

Let's see the kind of people you are dissing here.

How about Marine Vets:

How about Robert Reich of the Clinton Administration:

Robert Reich Speaks at Occupy SF 19 Oct 2011 from Peter Menchini on Vimeo.

How about Jeffrey Sachs, leading environmentalist and economist, and a respected Professor at Columbia University:

Teachers unions:

Transit Workers Union:

TWU: Occupy Wall Street from TWU International on Vimeo.

American Veterans:

Just to name a handful of the support for Occupy Wall Street.

More than ever we are pissed at the banks you serve. Bank of America, Chase, Citibank and Wells Fargo are now associated with the anti-American attack on our Constitutional rights that you have carried out. Move your money day was just a start. People are learning that there are better banks and credit unions out there than the Predatory Banks that you, Dictator Bloomberg, love to serve. People are going to continue to take their money out of the Predatory Banks.  read more »