Opinion

The Subway Series, which gets underway on Monday at Citi Field and concludes Thursday at Yankee Stadium, is a great way to take stock of our two Major League Baseball franchises. Last June the Mets dropped five out of six games against the Yankees, which served as a warning that their supposed terrific first half when they won 46 games was a mirage.

This year the Mets are not teasing their fans, as they have been playing at the low level that was expected of them before the season began. The Yankees, on the other hand, have been near or at the top of the American League East standings despite the loss to injuries of such household names as Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Texeira and Curtis Granderson. Granderson has returned to the team but was replaced on the disabled list by veteran pitcher Andy Pettitte.

Dear Editor:

The horrific Benghazi tragedy on 9/11/12 which resulted in terrorists murdering ambassador Chris Stevens and three staff members will never be forgotten.

It is a disgrace that Fox and GOP friends are making “political hay” from this sad ordeal. It’s obvious that this duo-team is out to manipulate a plot to kill Hillary Clinton’s political future.

Listen to two Fox “falling stars.” Mike Huckabee predicted Obama would not complete his second term. Bill O’Reilly did not mince words: “Right now the only thing on Hillary Clinton’s resume is the murder of our ambassador.” O’Reilly hit a new low for “fair and balanced” FOX news!

Here is what two GOP senators had to offer. Ron Paul (R-Ky.) said, “Clinton should never hold high office again.” It is obvious Sen. Paul’s goal is to eliminate Clinton, who would trounce him for president! Here is a stupid idea from Sen. James Imhoff (R-Okla.): Obama is headed for “I.” Folks, he was even afraid to use the word “impeachment!”

Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, invited (select) “whistleblowers” to his ... fishing expedition. If his intention was to bring down Obama and Clinton, he failed. His hearings have become a witch hunt with a tug of war over emails and talking points.

Ambassador Thomas Pickering’s accountability review board studied the question of security. He said those talking points had no relationship with security. Readers please note, Obama requested $128 million in 2011 and $331 million in 2012 in security funds. The GOP House voted only $88 million! It appears to me that the “duo team” plans to use those emails and talking points as ammo for their assault weapon ... aimed at Obama and Clinton.

It doesn’t say all that much for our political situation when it’s worth going out of our way to congratulate an honest politician. But that’s how it is.

“Shocker! Post finds honest NY politician” a New York Post page 2 headline blared last Saturday. That politician is Queens City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside), who blew the whistle on a builder’s alleged efforts to bribe him.

It’s been 30 years since the New York Islanders won their last Stanley Cup, and frankly, they have been abysmal for most of the years between 1983 and now. During this labor-dispute-shortened National Hockey League season, the Islanders played respectably enough to earn their first playoff berth in seven years as they clinched the eighth and final spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Islanders drew the unenviable assignment of playing Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the rest of the Pittsburgh Penguins, long an NHL powerhouse, in the first round. To their credit, the Isles showed that they weren’t merely happy to be there, as they battled hard to force the series to six games. Unfortunately for the Isles, they lost two overtime games at the Nassau Coliseum, including Saturday night’s finale.

The idea that the City of New York intentionally discriminated against minority applicants to the Fire Department was never more than a misguided misinterpretation of test results, at best, or a demeaning lie at worst.

Now a federal appeals court has agreed that it was wrong for U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis to determine that was the case because too few black and Hispanic applicants to the FDNY managed to pass the department’s entrance exam.

Dear Editor:

HR 1565 is new legislation in Congress to expand Brady background checks on gun sales. But despite the fact that nine in 10 Americans support expanded background checks, the gun lobby extremists are working overtime to kill the bill.

Strong, sensible gun laws preserve Second Amendment rights, prevent gun violence, and save lives.

While the Brady Law requires criminal background checks of gun sales at gun stores, these checks are not required at gun shows, online sales and other venues where unlicensed sellers operate.

Right now in most states, felons, domestic abusers and the dangerously mentally ill can walk into a gun show, flea market or even log on to the internet and buy weapons from unlicensed sellers, no questions asked.

Congress should require a simple criminal background check on gun sales. The Brady Law has stopped over 2 million felons and domestic abusers from getting guns at gun stores. Now it’s time to finish the job.

Completing the necessary paperwork for background checks takes mere minutes, and more than 91 percent of these checks are completed instantaneously.

I strongly support the Second Amendment. However, this right also requires basic responsibility, and as a society we are responsible for keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people like criminals, terrorists and the dangerously mentally ill.

In addition, there are exemptions from a check between family members, hunters and sportsmen who temporarily want to exchange firearms while hunting or participating in sports shooting activities.

I urge every reader to contact their representatives today and ask them to co-sponsor the bipartisan King-Thompson bill (H.R. 1565) to expand criminal background checks and save lives.

Dear Editor:

If an investigation of the Benghazi attack should reveal that there were members of the Obama administration, including the president himself, who knew what really happened and did nothing to prevent it from happening, then all of them should be forced to resign from their positions, including the president.

The anger of the American people is building regarding the entire incident. We have every right to know the full facts and truth about this tragic incident, which took the lives of several people. Why can’t our government ever admit that it was not totally honest with the American people?

It is time for accountability regarding the Benghazi attack. President Obama needs to take full responsibility for this major screwup. The Wizard of Oz could do a much better job of running the country.

Dear Editor:

There is much talk both positive and negative relative to the Keystone XL (KXL) Pipeline. It is planned to pump crude tar sand oil from Canada across the U.S to Texas where it would be distilled and sold overseas. I happen to be in accord with the latter since in no way does the XL profit the American people, but rather exclusively the already bloated petroleum industry. For the public, what is left is a 3-foot diameter filth-filled funnel snaking its way south through their land waiting to burst. (see: Mayflower, Ariz. spill and multiply by 10). Those with a positive view have been conned into thinking that this filthy crude will some how help us to become oil independent by fulfilling our needs.

Nevertheless, a pipeline could be a positive thing and truly benefit “we the people.” Imagine if in lieu of the KXL Pipeline, we built an H2O pipeline delivering desalinated water to our decimated states that have suffered through devastating droughts. No more Grapes of Wrath. Building t

hat pipeline would create those jobs that the pro-KXLers claim we would not, lest the KXL is built. Additionally desalinization stations would have to be built creating additional jobs. There are already more than 21,000 world wide. The technology is there. In 1791 Thomas Jefferson did it (in small scale), cruise ships serve thousands, submarines, Saudi Arabia, Australia, even our embarrassing Guantanamo Bay. No more disputes concerning the shrinking Colorado River while lowering, however infinitesimally, the rising ocean. We could convert deserts to gardens a la Israel.

It’s a win-win situation and if we can get lobbyists with enough of the necessary bribing collateral, Congress will love it and make it the law of the land (or sea). One critical measure however must be considered. President Obama must disapprove of the plan or it would undoubtedly be filibustered and blocked. As a proven “people’s President,” I’m certain he would comply.

• Breaking

September 2014 will mark the end of an era as CBS, the network that has broadcast the championship matches of the US Open as far back as anyone can remember, will not renew its contract with the United States Tennis Association when it expires next year, the Queens Chronicle has exclusively learned.

Preet can’t be beat, unless you think Loretta is better. The U.S. attorneys for the southern and eastern districts of New York, respectively, Preet Bharara and Loretta Lynch, are in the midst of stellar work that should do more to clean up the political corruption that seems endemic to Albany than most so-called reforms have ever managed.

They’re going after corruption in case after case and knocking down one elected domino after another. Any city or state lawmaker who’s on the take and hasn’t been charged yet must be very, very nervous.