“The moment my mom told me we had tickets, I said, ‘We have to go!’” Sidney said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

The two girls had very different inauguration experiences. Sidney got tickets from a family friend and attended with her mother; while Lucy, who had gone to the 2008 inauguration, did not have tickets. She went anyway, and stood with her family amid the throng of enthusiastic Americans near the Capitol.

“It was really cool to look behind me and see thousands of people watching the same thing,” Lucy said.

But it was also pretty frustrating, she conceded, because the Jumbotron malfunctioned and she was not able to see the president’s speech.

Her friend Sidney, on the other hand, felt fortunate and elated because her inauguration tickets included exclusive passes to a candlelight reception at the National Building Museum. There, she got to see the president and vice president somewhat up close and personal.

Neither girl actually had the opportunity to meet the president, but they were in awe of being so close to him.

“If I met the president, I really don’t think I’d be able to say anything!” Lucy said.

For both girls though, attending the inauguration was more than just a novelty experience; they are personally interested in many of the most pressing national issues.

“I’m really interested in health care, because my father is a doctor,” Sidney said. “I don’t like seeing people suffer.”

After thinking for a moment, Lucy, the quieter of the two girls, spoke up about her political passion.

“I really want gay marriage to be legalized,” she said.

“Oh yeah!” Sidney chimed in. “Equality for everyone is important too.”

And as two young women in an all-girls’ school, both Lucy and Sidney agreed that first lady Michelle Obama is someone to look up to.

“She’s such a role model!” Sidney gushed. “I want to be just like her.”

Rep. Charlie Rangel, who voted today in the Democratic congressional primary, is facing a challenge from State Sen. Adriano Espaillat and three other candidates. (Jon Lentz)

After navigating through a crowd of reporters and photographers to cast his primary vote in Harlem today, Congressman Charlie Rangel sought to link his campaign to President Barack Obama.

From the ongoing fiscal crisis and income inequality to healthcare reform and the high number of young people going to prison, Rangel asserted he was the only candidate in the Democratic primary race who could combat the ongoing problems and defend the president’s policies.

“It wasn’t the identification with his color,” Rangel said of the reason he had been inspired by President Obama. “It was the identification with his ideas. The fact that he realized that all Americans have to be invested in an education, and research and science, not because it’s the right thing to do, but if we’re going to compete with other nations, we cannot do it with a population that should be creative, rotting away in jail.”

He also applauded Obama for pushing through healthcare reform to address the problem of sick, uninsured people relying on emergency rooms. The Supreme Court is set to issue a ruling on the president’s landmark legislation later this week.

“We have to stop it,” Rangel said of the many uninsured people relying on emergency rooms. “Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals know we have to do it. Then he came with this exciting idea, that was adopted by Romney in Massachusetts, and hopefully will be adopted this week by the courts.”

Rangel, who touted his support from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bloomberg and other elected officials, started his press conference outside the polling station by seeking to dispel what he called “nonsense questions,” including concerns about his age and his ability to serve.

“Am I too old to run for re-election?” he asked. “Clearly, I’ve gone through the process. I’ve done what candidates are supposed to do. … I don’t think anybody that’s running – or not running – should challenge my health.”

To read the full article at City & State click here.

Certainly there has been some. President Obama’s tougher language about inequality was undoubtedly influenced by the protests. And in Albany, Gov. Andrew Cuomo dropped his opposition to continuing the so-called millionaire’s tax (it affects wealthier people who make considerably less) and extended part of it.
But is anything more coming? There are hundreds of congressional races this year, and the types of curbs Occupy wants on Wall Street firms ultimately would have to be implemented in Washington. Occupy could look to the Tea Party movement for guidance. Usually, neither the left- or right-wing groups like to be linked in any way, but given the timing of their creations and at least a few similarities, that’s a losing battle.

The Tea Party did accomplish many of its goals by sending more conservatives to Congress, which stiffened GOP opposition to tax increases as well as government investments to stimulate the economy such as transportation projects.
But the caution for Occupy is that the Tea Party may very well have cost the Republicans control of the Senate by nominating a couple of extremists who were not able to win general elections. These were races more moderate Republicans could have won.
Occupy prides itself on its leaderless nature and so far has shown little interest in the upcoming congressional races or in setting up a specific agenda. Longterm, a national change in attitude perhaps will lead to the real change Occupy hopes for, but that patience likely will mean change for the worse at first, As they say for the lottery, you have to be in it to win it.

By Max Sarinsky

Christopher McCormack has spent most of the past two decades pursuing notorious criminals in some of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods. So he may have felt a little out of place when in July, less than three months after being promoted to captain of the 20th Precinct on the Upper West Side, he received his first major assignment in the new position: to secure the neighborhood for President Obama’s appearance on The View at the ABC Studies on West 66th Street.

Captain Christopher McCormack made sure President Obama was safe on two recent visits to his Upper West Side precinct. After working high-crime areas, McCormack, for the first time, has a patrol area he can bring his wife to visit.

“He didn’t get hurt in my command, and there was no incident,” McCormack said wryly. “You know you live in a nice neighborhood when the president comes to visit twice.” (Obama returned to the district in September for a reception at the American Museum of Natural History.)

While McCormack is no longer fighting high-profile crime like he did in homicide and narcotics squads in the Bronx—his signature initiative now is cracking down on theft of attended property such as handbags—he’s found that his new job comes with its own challenges. He said that petty thieves can be just as hard to catch as murderers, since they rarely leave any traces.

“You’re basically fighting ghosts,” he said. “My whole career I’ve had to fight violence.”

McCormack said the best way to fight such crime is through sting operations, which he’s promoted heavily since taking command of the precinct in May. So far he’s happy with the results; in the first four weeks of October, the stings were responsible for the arrests of a half dozen individuals for grand larceny.

McCormack quickly developed a comfortable routine in his new role. His day begins each morning around 9:30 with a briefing from his crime analyst, which he uses to devise a patrol strategy for the 134 officers under his command. “You have to adjust your strategy” on a daily basis, he said. “If you wait a week, some guy could wipe out Columbus Avenue.”

Though he typically works most of the day from the precinct before leaving around 8 p.m., he hasn’t lost any passion for fighting crime hands-on.

“Once in a while, I like to get out on the streets and see what’s going on,” he said. “That’s the fun part.”

One aspect of his new post that McCormack warmed to immediately is the neighborhood. Having spent most of his 21-year career policing neighborhoods in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, he was surprised by the wide respect that the police commanded in the community.

“People really appreciate what you do,” he said of the Upper West Side. McCormack added that he and his wife Maddy, who live in Westchester with their son and daughter, have begun spending time in the area—the first time during their 18-year marriage that he’s taken her to the neighborhood where he works.

“Columbus Avenue is gorgeous,” McCormack said.

Even still, McCormack said that working on the Upper West Side hasn’t softened the suspicions he developed as a police officer. He said that he routinely reminds his wife at the movie theater to hold onto her pocketbook rather than leave it in the adjacent seat.

“Even if you’re in a nice area, there are criminals everywhere,” he said. “I don’t like anybody being up close to me.”

McCormack, 42, said that he expects to work another 21 years until forced retirement kicks in. But otherwise, he’s conflicted over the direction of his career.

“I’d like to get back into the work of stopping violence,” he said. “But this is the first time I’m at a stable location, and maybe I’ll stay here for a few years.”

The State Legislature, under Sen. Charles Schumer’s Albany allies Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, selected Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to fill the seat of former Sen. Clinton.

Now we have Schumer lobbying the White House. This resulted in President Obama calling a potential 2010 Democratic Senate primary contestant, Long Island Rep. Steve Israel, and asking him to drop out even before he declared his candidacy! Quickly following, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer also gave up. Long Island Congress Member Carolyn McCarthy and Manhattan’s own Carolyn Maloney will soon receive phone calls from President Obama making them similar offers. In exchange for dropping out, there will be the standard political quid pro quo: pork barrel member item projects, favorable passage of pet legislation to special interest groups and employment opportunities in Washington for friends of Israel, Stringer, McCarthy and Maloney. In Albany, Schumer will work with Paterson, Silver and Smith to insure favorable continued gerrymandered districts after the 2010 census. This will guarantee all three Congress members another decade in office. How ironic, since in the 1970s Schumer had no problem challenging the establishment in open primaries, which he won for State Assembly, Congress and Senate. Now Boss Schumer advocates selection by clubhouse leadership, denying voters a choice. He has morphed into Washington’s most powerful inside-the-beltway career Senator today.

Larry Penner
Great Neck, Long Island

Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity.

To the Editor:

Terrific editorial. I made the same points myself when I heard the president was intruding on the democratic process after he gained so much from exercising his democratic right to challenge in primaries.

Additionally, as a researcher who believes it was wrong to hold back research linking tobacco and health, and as an asthmatic whose condition was worsened by having to tolerate the “smoke filled” environment longer because of legal actions preventing data on smoking and tobacco from seeing the light of day, I am especially upset that Ms. Gillibrand is representing me. Yes, attorneys should represent clients, but some refuse to do things that they believe are immoral and quite often firms excuse these attorneys. However, Sen. Gillibrand took on her assignment vigorously, from what I heard.

Secondly, it is one thing for an attorney to defend her client in such an atrocious case but quite another to have such a person represent us in the United States Senate.

Arline L. Bronzaft, Ph.D.
Upper East Side

Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity.

To the Editor:

As a voter in the 20th District, where Gillibrand first stepped into national politics, I value her grasp of the upstate community needs, particularly as they apply to agriculture and the New York City watershed. Not all of New York State centers around the city. It is therefore appropriate for a U.S. Senator to represent the “other masses” of New York State—those of us who reside outside city limits.

At best, a U.S. Senator should champion the needs of its metropolitan constituents. And yes, city residents are experiencing many hard-pressing issues, including the economy. However, those of us residing in the outer counties have struggling economies, too—ones not based on Wall Street, which Gillibrand has recognized and championed on our behalf, during her few short years in office.

I’m sure Carolyn Maloney is worthy of the Senate seat. But New Yorkers should consider selecting a senator who best represents the interests of our state in its entirety, not just the five boroughs.

Tara Collins
Meredith, New York

Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity.