See What The Weak Dollar Brings?

More tourism:

Authorities say a resident of the Netherlands who came to New York as a “graffiti tourist” has been indicted on charges of spray painting a subway car and leading police on a dangerous chase.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said Thursday that 23-year-old Robbert Boxem of Zwolle, Netherlands — who uses the graffiti tag “KRAE” — faces charges including criminal mischief and reckless endangerment. If convicted, he could get up to four years in prison.

Part of the police chase occurred on subway tracks.

Brown says it’s believed Boxem, who was arrested on Sept. 9, came to New York for an international graffiti event known as Meeting of Styles.

The tourism board luvs u in the Bronx!

Maybe Few Believe Universal Health Insurance Is On The Way Any Time Soon?

I was wondering who exactly was agitating for the repeal of term limits, since it seems to be a relatively arcane argument, but now it makes sense:

The elected leaders pushing to overturn New York City’s term limits say they are motivated by principled objections to the 15-year-old law.

But should they succeed, many stand to gain a significant financial perk: lifetime retiree health insurance that costs the city up to $12,600 a year.

Those benefits could amount to millions of dollars in expenses over the next few decades, especially as health insurance costs surge, according to interviews with city officials.

Under current rules, city employees must work 10 years and pay into the pension system to become eligible for retiree health benefits. But the term limits law restricts members of the City Council, the mayor, public advocate, comptroller and borough presidents to two consecutive four-year terms — two years shy of the requirement.

Changing term limits to three consecutive terms instead of two, as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and members of the Council have hinted they might, would allow those officials — and members of their staff — to hit the 10-year mark without having to look for a new job with the city.

Politics: Snow Business For Ugly People

So I guess this means those countdown clocks have become a gigantic waste of money:

In an abrupt reversal, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday left the door open to supporting a change to the term-limits law through legislation.

“My job is if the City Council comes to us with a piece of legislation, we will look at it, we will consider it, and we’ll make what I hope is an informed judgment into what is in the best interest in the city,” the mayor said.

“The City Council has the right to change term limits if they want to.”

What Part Of 85 Activists Murdered, The Opposition Pulling Out Of A Runoff, Toddlers Having Their Legs Shattered And Elderly People Seeing Their Arms Broken Do You Not Understand?*

Clyde Haberman can’t say it so I will — Charles Barron is totally fucking disgusting for apologizing for Robert Mugabe in 2008. Wow:

Foreign leaders aren’t routinely honored with receptions at New York’s City Hall. In the last two decades, as best as we can tell, only two Africans have received this red-carpet treatment.

One was the revered Nelson Mandela. That was in 1990, when David N. Dinkins was mayor. Mr. Mandela had been released four months earlier from his 27 years of imprisonment in South Africa.

The other leader was President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Not many people put his name and “revered” together.

Perhaps they once did, when he led the liberation of his country, then called Rhodesia, from oppressive rule by its white minority. But by 2002, when he was ushered into New York’s seat of democracy, he was a certified human rights disaster.

Rights groups condemned him for jailing and torturing political opponents, for repressing independent-minded judges and journalists, for starving many of his people by denying government food aid to opposition-dominated districts.

His signature program, the seizure of white-owned farms, was blamed for contributing to mass hunger and for amounting to a land grab that benefited only his loyalists.

This was the man warmly welcomed at City Hall under the aegis of the City Council’s Black, Hispanic and Asian Caucus. His main host was Councilman Charles Barron of Brooklyn, a former Black Panther who has lost none of his zest for revolutionary oratory, 1960s-style.

Only a dozen of the Council’s 51 members attended the event. But the many who stayed away, fearing the third-rail potential of a racially sensitive issue, acquiesced with their silence. Gifford Miller, then the Council speaker, issued a statement calling the reception a matter of free speech.

Six years later, the human-rights situation in Zimbabwe has hardly improved. A runoff presidential election set for Friday has been marked by violence, with dozens of opposition supporters reported to have been killed. The opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, though he won the first election round, withdrew from the race and took refuge in the Dutch Embassy. On Wednesday, no less than Mr. Mandela registered strong disapproval, condemning the “tragic failure of leadership” in Zimbabwe.

Given all that, might Mr. Barron harbor second thoughts about having brought Mr. Mugabe into City Hall?

“Absolutely not,” the councilman said.

“Does he do things that I disagree with? Yes,” Mr. Barron said. But he clearly still regards Mr. Mugabe as a liberator more than an oppressor. “You didn’t care about black Africans when whites were killing them in Rhodesia,” he said. As he sees it, the real reason that Mr. Mugabe has come under strong attack from the West is the confiscation of white-owned farms.

Echoing Mr. Mugabe’s party line, he suggested that Mr. Tsvangirai is a tool of “British imperialism and the United States as well.” As for political violence, “I don’t think we can deny people are dying,” Mr. Barron said. “Who’s responsible and how many — we need to really get reports other than from the opposition.”

*Or do you not read the paper, moron?

You Don’t Really Want To Spend A Good Chunk Of Your Morning Reading A 3,000-Plus Word Piece Speculating Whether And How Bloomberg Might Run For Office, Do You?

Me neither.