† Specter The Defector: The Washington Post’s Dan Balz notes that glad as Repubs are to see the back of Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), Dems aren’t exactly embracing him with open arms because everyone knows he’s just the sort of political mongrel that bites the hand that feeds him:

[H]e looks like just another embattled politician trying to find his way around town. His former party is glad to be rid of him. His new party has put him through the equivalent of a ritual hazing. And having ducked a Republican primary, he may yet have to fight hard in 2010 to retain his seat in the Senate. …

Democrats knew this when the switch was in the works, but in case some forgot, Specter has gone out of his way to remind them. On NBC's "Meet the Press" this past Sunday, he declared that he would not march in lockstep with his new party. "I did not say I would be a loyal Democrat," he told host David Gregory.

Specter added significantly to his woes this week. Asked by the New York Times Magazine whether he was concerned by the absence of Jewish Republicans in the Senate, he said, "There's still time for the Minnesota courts to do justice and declare Norm Coleman the winner."

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) told CNN's Wolf Blitzer yesterday that he asked Specter about that remark. "I forgot what team I was on," Reid said Specter told him.

Democrats are not yet convinced that Specter is really one of them.

Balz writes that “Specter is learning the consequences of switching parties at a moment of weakness.” A huge consequence - for him and for his state - is that after 29 years in the Senate, he has lost his seniority in that body and on five committees, reports The WaPo:

[T]he Senate approved a resolution that made Specter the most junior Democrat on four committees for the remainder of this Congress. (He will rank second from last on the fifth, the Special Committee on Aging.) …

Democrats have suggested that they will consider revisiting Specter's seniority claim at the committee level only after next year's midterm elections. …

The loss of seniority could prove costly to Specter in his campaign to win reelection in 2010, denying him the ability to distinguish himself from a newcomer in his ability to claim key positions.

Specter said last week that becoming chairman of the Appropriations Committee was a personal goal of his, and his Senate service seemed to put him in position to be the third-ranking Democrat there. Now, though, he will not hold even an Appropriations subcommittee chairmanship in 2011 - a critical foothold Specter has used to send billions of dollars to Pennsylvania.

Seniority was Specter’s trump card and PA Dems now have little reason to vote for him over a younger, more energetic challenger who will support the party’s agenda.

† Living In These Mad, Mad, Madoff Times: Everything old is new again. The New York Times reports that rent parties are making a comeback:  

When times were good, Daniel Marks could make $1,700 a week at his job selling luxury men’s wear. But starting in January, not even his brightest smile could sell a French cuff. …

Mr. Marks’s income is based on commissions, so when his weekly take fell to $325 last month, he couldn’t afford the $850 he pays for his third of a 1,700-square-foot apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

“I had struggled when I was younger,” said Mr. Marks, 29. “But after several years of relative prosperity you forget how to do that.”

A history buff, Mr. Marks had read about rent parties in Harlem in the first half of the 20th century, and the idea appealed to him. “The climate’s right for it right now,” he said.

So on March 14, he gave his first rent party, serving potato chips and Georgi vodka from plastic jugs — and charged $12 a head. Mr. Marks cast a wide net for guests through Facebook, inviting 200 people, from close friends to some he had not seen for years. …

Mr. Marks made $400 that night. Until things pick up, he plans to hold events monthly and hopes he can find enough people willing to pay. 

Marks isn’t the only NYer having trouble coming up with his monthly nut. The Times reports that middle-class residents are falling behind on their eye-popping (in any other part of the country) rents are facing eviction in increasing numbers:

A registered nurse came close to losing her $1,550-a-month apartment on the Upper East Side after being let go from two jobs in three months. A woman found herself dipping into a 401(k) to keep her $3,375 unit in Peter Cooper Village after her husband was laid off in February from his six-figure marketing job. A father of two with an M.B.A. and a law degree owed $5,400 in back rent in Stuyvesant Town after he struggled to find steady work and lent money to his wife’s family.

Lawyers, judges and tenant advocates say the staggering economy has sent an increasing number of middle-class renters across New York City to the brink of eviction, straining the legal and financial services of city agencies and charities. Suddenly, residents of middle-class havens like Rego Park in Queens and Riverdale in the Bronx are crowding into the city’s already burdened housing courts, long known as poor people’s court.

Even some affluent people in high-end places are finding themselves facing off with landlords. One man, laid off by Merrill Lynch, was forced to move out of his $5,700 apartment in TriBeCa, owing $20,000 in back rent. Todd Nahins, a lawyer who represents owners of luxury residential buildings, has been busy negotiating payment plans for tenants in arrears.

If your first reaction is, “Well then, these folks should move out of their fancy doorman buildings in Manhattan and find cheaper digs in The Bronx or Staten Island,” the article cites over-the-top rents in all five boroughs – on average, at least 35 percent of take-home pay. There’s a reason why rent control and rent stabilization laws remain on the books. Landlords may gripe about “fair market value” - and the recession may yet provide a reality check on what is  “fair” and “market value” - but without these subsidies, the middle class would be forced out of the city entirely and NY would become a ghost town.

† Attorney Throws Snake Eyes In Casino Lawsuit: Disbarred Queens, N.Y., lawyer Arelia Taveras, who admitted stealing $130,000 from her client escrow account to cover gambling debts – and who tried to sue seven casinos for $20 million for failing to stop her from gambling - was sentenced to three to nine years in prison by NY Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grosso, reports New York Law Journal.

† What Freedom Of Speech Means To Muslims (The U.S. Edition): Devaughndre Broussard, 21, who was a handyman at the now-shuttered Your Black Muslim Bakery, pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter for following the orders of his boss, Yusuf Bey IV, to shoot Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey and a homeless man whose nephew killed Bey's brother, reports the San Francisco Chronicle:

Broussard … entered the plea as part of a deal with prosecutors to secure his testimony against Bey and Antoine Mackey, another bakery figure. Both men face potential death sentences if convicted of murder for the 2007 deaths of Bailey and two other men, Odell Roberson Jr. and Michael Wills. …

Broussard told prosecutors he had shot Bailey and Roberson but that Bey had ordered the killings. Bey and Mackey, both 23, are scheduled to be arraigned next week.

According to Broussard, Bey wanted Bailey killed because the journalist's reporting had contributed to the 2003 death of Bey's father, bakery founder Yusuf Bey, and because Bailey was working on a story about the Oakland group's internal and financial problems. …

If he testifies truthfully against Bey and Mackey, prosecutors say, Broussard will be given a 25-year term. Had he been convicted of murdering Bailey, he would probably have been sentenced to 50 years to life.

† Updates To Previous Posts (second item, Protected Class Warfare): After the Washington, D.C. Council voted 12 to 1 to approve a bill recognizing  same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), who cast the dissenting vote, was derided as having taken a “bigoted” position and local black ministers who had been witnessing the proceedings were incensed, reports The Washington Post:

Enraged African American ministers stormed the hallway outside the council chambers and vowed that they will work to oust the members who supported the bill, which was sponsored by Phil Mendelson (D-At Large). They caused such an uproar that security officers and D.C. police were called in to clear the hallway. …

Barry, who said he supports gay rights and civil unions, warned after the vote that the District could erupt if the council does not proceed slowly on same-sex marriage.

"All hell is going to break lose," Barry said. "We may have a civil war. The black community is just adamant against this." …

Barry, a prominent figure during the civil rights movement, said that he "agonized" over whether to oppose the bill but that he decided to stand with the "ministers who stand on the moral compass of G-d."

"I am representing my constituents," said Barry, who later told reporters that "98 percent of my constituents are black, and we don't have but a handful of openly gay residents."

† Updates To Previous Posts (Multiculturalism: Jihad By Other Means): Egyptian cleric Safwat Hijazi and several other Muslim extremists, white supremacist Stephen "Don" Black, and Jewish-American radio talk show host Michael Savage are amongst 16 people who have been banned stepping foot in England for "fostering extremism or hatred," reports The Washington Post:

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who is responsible for domestic security, said she decided to make the names public to show the kind of behavior that Britain is "not willing to have in this country."

The list includes six Americans. Perhaps the most prominent is Michael Savage, a nationally syndicated conservative radio host who has made controversial remarks about immigrants and Muslims, such as urging Americans to "burn the Mexican flag on your street corner" and saying that "when I see a woman walking around with a burqa, I see a Nazi."

Smith told the BBC that Savage was "someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country."

Padraig Reidy, news editor of Index on Censorship, tells the WaPo that "you have to wonder” whether the "bizarrely eclectic" list “was a deliberate move … as if to say it's not Islamists being picked out."

For his part, Savage tells the San Francisco Chronicle he was shocked at the company in which the British government put him:

"When I woke up and saw this this morning ... my first thought was, damn, there goes the summer trip where I planned to have my dental work done," the "Savage Nation" host joked. "My second thought was, darn ... there goes my visit to the restaurants of England for their great cuisine."

But, he added, the issue is no laughing matter - and represents a serious threat to free speech.

"Today it's me. Tomorrow it's someone else," he said. "My first reaction is, this can't be happening ... that the land of the Magna Carta has now become the land of the mini-Carta." …

I've been on the air 15 years. My views may be inflammatory, but they're not violent in any way." …

But now "who else will be banned - all the people who listen to my show, 10 million people? Should they also not go to Britian?"

† Updates To Previous Posts (fourth item, Never Again Or Forgive And Forget?): Accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk has asked the Supreme Court to intervene and stop his deportation to Germany to face a trial on 29,000 counts of accessory to murder during World War II, reports The Associated Press:

A federal appeals court in Ohio has cleared the way for deporting him. The 89-year-old retired autoworker, his family and his lawyer say he's in poor health and too frail to be sent overseas.

The Supreme Court didn't say when or if it would rule. The appeal goes first to Justice John Paul Stevens, who can decide the request on his own or refer it to the full court. …

Demjanjuk sought the Supreme Court's help last year, without success.

Update: The Supreme Court declined to take up Demjanjuk’s appeal, and he has been served with a notice to surrender to an immigration office in Cleveland, reports The Associated Press.