Apparently, in this vast and shining City of over eight million people, there breathes only one man capable of running it: Michael Bloomberg, the incumbent mayor. In fact, the need for Mr. Bloomberg's services is so dire, so pressingly urgent, that an inconvenient law, passed twice by popular referendum, needs to and no doubt will be overturned. In the process, a bunch of otherwise unemployable members of the City Council will get a shot at a third term as well. Coincidentally, because that election is only thirteen months away, sorry, suckers, the City doesn't have the time to put it to a new referendum.

This is the kind of bullshit we used to snicker about when it happened in some colonial backwater someplace. We used to be - I don't know, back when we had a real currency, I guess - a serious country that held that laws are more important than individuals. Instead, now, like in every third-world backwater banana republic, the Council is likely going to vote to extend Caudillo Bloomberg's lease on governance, and thereby, coincidentally, its own.

You know what that means, right? Not just Bloomberg, but four more years of Betsy Gotbaum. If this happens, and it will, it should be considered as what it is, a legislative coup. It's insulting to New Yorkers, it's insulting to the fine crop of apparent candidates running for office - who apparently just can't do Maximo Lider's job, even if one of them is presently the City's Comptroller - and it should be rejected. If the council has even a glimmer of respect for the voters, as opposed to being a bunch of self-serving ass-kissers, it will be rejected.

Don't hold your breath.

The NY Times reports that Michael Bloomberg will announce Thursday his intention to run for a third term next year.

My view: I voted against term limits -- twice -- and still oppose them, but am more firmly opposed to overturning, by legislative fiat, the twice-expressed will of the people.

It's never too early to let your City Council member know how you feel.

The Alaska Republican Party is quite probably the most corrupt state party around today, though I will say that it has competition from the Missouri, Kentucky and Ohio Republican parties. From the VECO scandal to Troopergate, almost the entire Alaska Republican Party is under investigation, indicted or, for some State level Republicans, in jail. One of the Republican Senators and Alaska's House Rep are part of this culture of corruption.

Now it seems to be Sarah Palin's turn.

When I was first told that John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his VP, my response was "is he crazy?" To pick someone who is ACTIVELY under investigation and who is a member of the most corrupt state party in the country seemed insane given the fact that Republican corruption was the number one issue in 2006...and one that led to a major Democratic victory. For McCain, himself linked to the old Savings and Loan scandal, to pick someone actively under investigation seemed to be among the dumbest things he could have done.  read more »

The New York Sun, the City's rightwing rag for people who find the Post too crude, will cease publication today, per the newspaper's web site.

Ben Smith contributes a fond farewell here.

Naturally, one could draw the conclusion form this that newspapers in general are going the way of the dodo. There are many reasons to think this: the decline in print circulation occasioned by the internet, the loss of advertising revenue to cable and the web, and so on and so forth. The irony is that more people read newspapers today than probably at any point in history. The challenge for the industry isn't to attract more readers - they're doing that quite well - but to monetize the new distribution channels made possible by the online revolution.

James Carville has his occasional uses, including his polling firm, Democracy Corps. Take their results with a smallish grain of salt - their results are usually very friendly to Democrats - but their newest battleground poll is worth checking out.

This latest Democracy Corps and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner survey of the competitive battleground districts reveals an intensely angry electorate, even more sour on Republicans who have not distanced themselves enough from Bush and are now at risk even at the edge of the current map of competitive congressional seats. Democratic candidates are now ahead by 4 points in the 40 most vulnerable Republican seats, even in the bottom tier. A near majority of 48 percent in these Republican seats say they “can’t vote to re-elect” their Republican incumbent, while Democrats are ahead in the open seats.

When Democracy Corps last surveyed these Republican-held Congressional seats in July,>[1] the Republicans had made gains, incumbents had protected themselves and we thought the battleground would contract to fewer seats. We were wrong: the opposite has happened. Increased anger about the country and a sharper focus on the economy has damaged Republican incumbents and put even more Republican seats in jeopardy. Democrats are in a position to take half of these seats or more and clearly the battleground extends beyond these 40 districts.

They don't break the results down by Congressional District - and probably shouldn't, considering the sample size and the margin of error a break-out would produce - but if you're interested in discomfiting some of our endangered republican Congressmen, this poll is good news.

Yesterday's 777 point drop in the DJIA was the 18th steepest percentage decline in history, nestled between the drops on July 20, 1933 and July 30, 1914. The drop on October 26, 1987 was worse, as was the drop on October 27, 1997. Eventually, we rebounded from all the drops, and we'll rebound from this one too. (Stocks are headed higher at the opening.)

But it wouldn't hurt for our government to do something to make things easier.

I was pleased that the "Paulson plan," modified as it was, still failed yesterday. My fear is that Congressional leaders won't make the substantial changes the plan needs in order to be a good one. One place they might turn is to Rep. Jim Marshall (GA-8). Contrary to what is becoming conventional wisdom, that people in "safe" distrcits voted yes yesterday while those in tough races voted no, Marshall voted yes despite being in a tough race.

Then he wrote an op-ed piece that is available on CNN's website. I think his ideas could be exactly the right way for government to go, and would also be politically feasible.

More to come as things develop.

Alrighty: to prepare for the final push, we're going to start collecting and publishing resources for New Yorkers to get active online and offline. Here's some groups you need to be in on Facebook. If there's a title but no link, there's no extant group, something we'll try to remedy and update going forward.

Federal Races:

Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)

Bridge to Somewhere: A Brooklyn Evening for Barack Obama

DailyKos Kossacks

Eric Massa for Congress '08 (NY-29)  read more »

An interesting press release today from Jim Gennaro.

FLUSHING, NY (Sept. 29, 2008) Governor David A. Paterson today endorsed Democrat Jim Gennaro, who is battling 36-year incumbent Republican State Senator Frank Padavan in Northeast Queens' 11th District.

"In his seven years on the New York City Council, Jim Gennaro has established himself as one of the most effective legislators in New York City," Governor Paterson said. "He is a champion public servant who fights tenaciously for Northeast Queens on education, health care, tax relief and quality of life issues. On the issues of environmental protection and greener, more affordable energy, his record is unsurpassed. Jim's fearless, reform-minded independence are exactly what Albany needs, and I'm delighted to endorse his candidacy for the New York State Senate."

Councilman Gennaro said that the endorsement is a clear indicator of his campaign's momentum and that Governor Paterson is committed to ending the gridlock that Albany suffers by helping to elect legislators who promise to work hard and work together.

"I cannot be more proud today in receiving the endorsement of Governor Paterson, who has proven to be a successful steward for progress in Albany," Councilman Gennaro said. "By endorsing the Gennaro for New York campaign, Governor Paterson is sending a clear message that the way to fix government and make it more responsive to New Yorkers is by electing fresh new leaders who will fight for what's right for their constituents."

Councilman Gennaro is running as a new choice in a district where the leadership has gone stale after too many years in power, he said. He argues that the current incumbent has squandered too many chances to serve working families, especially in the areas of fiscal fairness and sufficient education and transit funding.

Apparently - the governor is also backing Rick Dollinger against Joe Robach, and rumor has it he'll shortly become far more active - David Paterson has decided that a Democratic Senate is in his best interest. Good for all of us.

Happy New Year, everyone. To mark the occasion, here's something quite funny from Birthright Israel.

L'Shanah Tovah!

Rumor has it that the New York Sun, the right wing propoganda paper that they sometimes had to give away it had such a small audience in NYC, is folding. I don't see definitive confirmation of this rumor, but the NY Observer seems to have some confirmation.

Right wing fanaticism is now passe. It is time to move on and realize YET AGAIN that right wing economics fail (whether it is the Great Depression or the current depression), right wing government fails (whether it is Bush's Katrina preparation, Bush's fight against al-Qaeda, Bush's maintaining our levees and bridges, or Bush's reaction to global warming and the energy crisis), right wing foreign policy fails (Iraq, where Republicans set up Saddam Hussein, then had to take him down...Afghanistan where Republicans installed the Taliban, then had to take them down...Saudi Arabia where we prop up a fanatical Muslim government that funds anti-American organizations...etc.).  read more »

Via email, the Wall Street bailout has failed in the House, 205 to 228. More details as they become available.

And via Die Zeit, here's vox populi.

Update: The Dow is down 500 points (10,649), and has now officially moved below the level it had when George Bush took office eight years ago(10,659). How's that MBA Presidency working out for you, Wall Streeters?

Update 2: Via TAP, here's the roll call. Yeas: Ackerman, Arcuri, Bishop, Clarke, Crowley, Engel, Fossella, Hall, Higgins, Israel, King, Lowey, Maloney, McCarthy, McHugh, McNulty, Meeks, Nadler, Rangel, Reynolds, Slaughter, Towns, Velazquez, Walsh, Weiner. Nays: Gillibrand, Hinchey, Kuhl, Serrano

Update 3: The final tally: the Dow is down 777 points for the day, the highest one-day point loss in history.

It is no consolation that Hillary says that given the secrecy of the Bush Administration, "we do not know what we do not know". That's not good, that supposedly our US Senators do not know what is exactly at stake in all of this.

That's why we need to stop the vote and give people time to take a closer look at details.

BTW, it looks like Hillary's push to help people in foreclosure was derailed.

I just found out that the "Rich People's Election's Ransom Request", aka, the "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008" is being put to a vote at 1:00 pm.

Call Schumer, Clinton and your US Rep (in my case, Carolyn Maloney) and ask them to give the people time to take a look at this proposal and comment on it.

Sen. Charles Schumer
202-224-6542 [voice]
202-228-3027 [fax]

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
202-224-4451 [voice]
202-228-0282 [fax]

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (NY14)
202-225-7944 [voice]
202-225-4709 [fax]

Then go to the Sunlight Foundation's Read The Bill First! petition and sign it.

Finally, please use the comments section to leave the phone number of your US Rep (please specify Zip Code and district). It should serve as a reference to others. 

Let's start by assuming that Nancy Pelosi is a shrewd political operator. Despite what many people (myself included) may have said about her, you don't get to be Speaker of the House without a significant amount of political savvy, so let's grant her that.

Let's further assume that her primary goal is to guarantee Democratic victory in the upcoming election. This is also a defensible assumption; she did nothing in 2006 to further a real agenda, but relied on a vague "drain the swamp" slogan. As a result mostly of Republican scandals (thank you again, Mark Foley), Democrats took control of Congress, but thanks to Nancy Pelosi they had nowhere to go from there. If her primary goal is to win the next election, and she doesn't look beyond that, it would explain the lack of real progress in the 110th Congress.

Since the easiest way to win an election is through failure and blame, it stands to reason that Pelosi would want the bailout bill to fail in a way that she could blame the Republicans. And that's exactly what happened.  read more »

I have to reblog this because last night I saw one of the best quick comments about this bailout travesty : On the eve of a black man coming into the White House, they hustle all the money out of the Treasury. (H/T Ruby and Professor Kim)

Michael Moore sees it more broadly : this is the way the wealthy stage a coup before they're taxed in the coming administration.  read more »

The bill went down, 205-228.

The stock market tanked at first, but is rebounding somewhat. The DJIA was, at one point, down over 700 points, then rebounded to recoup half that loss as word went around that arms were being twisted on the House floor (remember the prescription drug bill?), then dropped again as the votes seemed to be impossible to get, and is now (as I write this) off by about 460 points. We still have two hours of trading left today, and all day tomorrow (and tomorrow, and tomorrow) to go.

The other good news -- crude oil prices are off by over $8/bbl.

The possible disability fraud involving LIRR retirees, as uncovered by the New York Times recently and now the subject of state and Federal investigations, unsurprisingly casts republican leader Dean Skelos in an unflattering light, reports Spin Cycle.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) has long been the state lawmaker most involved with the Long Island Rail Road, with cordial union ties and a hand in its capital funding. Asked Thursday about state and U.S. probes into a federal board’s suspiciously routine granting of disability pensions, he said: “If somebody’s creating a crime, they’re creating a crime, and they should be punished for it.” He said his house's investigation committee could look into it but indicated that such a decision would likely await the outcome of work by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has in effect been deputized by Gov. David Paterson for the probe.

Roy Simon, Skelos’ Democratic challenger, said the situation “smacks of someone asleep at the wheel in the Bush Administration's regulatory bureaucracy.”

In short, no Senate investigation, because, you know, that would rock the boat, and that's not something you can afford when you're clinging to your crumbling majority for dear life. Just one more example of where divided state government leads.

Planned Parenthood has sent out an email specifically outlining why Sarah Palin is NOT the choice for women. Here is the text:

Dear Sarah Palin,

You are not our candidate.

You are not our candidate because you required women in Wasilla to pay for their own medical examinations after being raped.

You are not our candidate because you do not support a woman's right to choose, even in the case of rape or incest.

You are not our candidate because you've cut funding for teen moms and comprehensive sex education, while promoting failed abstinence-only programs.

You are not our candidate because, as vice president — a heartbeat away from the presidency — you would jeopardize health care for women everywhere.

We are teachers, doctors, athletes, programmers, artists, lawyers, secretaries, CEOs, students, designers, nurses, factory workers, mothers, and fathers. We are conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, country and city people. We are women and men. We are voters. We are the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.  read more »

Right wing terrorism is alive and well in America and being ignored. On 9/11/2006 there was a terrorist attack on a woman's health center in Davenport, Iowa. There was the Delaware Pogrom where Jewish and Muslim families were driven out of a small town for not being Christian. The list goes on. And mostly it is just ignored by the media, but Homeland Security...by everyone.

The latest attack is a chemical attack on children in a mosque in Ohio. From Daily Kos:

On Friday, September 26, the end of a week in which thousands of copies of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West -- the fear-mongering, anti-Muslim documentary being distributed by the millions in swing states via DVDs inserted in major newspapers and through the U.S. mail -- were distributed by mail in Ohio, a "chemical irritant" was sprayed through a window of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, where 300 people were gathered for a Ramadan prayer service. The room that the chemical was sprayed into was the room where babies and children were being kept while their mothers were engaged in prayers. This, apparently, is what the scare tactic political campaigning of John McCain's supporters has led to -- Americans perpetrating a terrorist attack against innocent children on American soil.  read more »

I have read the 110-page bailout plan (available from the NY Times), and have a few comments:

First, the Treasury Secretary can buy almost anything he deems to be a troubled asset. This is more than a little too broad for my comfort. In addition, the first "oversight" committee consists of the Treasury Secretary (huh?), the Fed. Chair, the Director of the Federal Home Finance Agency, the SEC Chairman, and the Secretary of HUD -- in other words, five people appointed by the President, including the guy who's in charge of the program.

Another problem -- the Treasury Secretary can waive parts of the "Federal Acquisition Regulation," specifically those parts that require minority participation and opportunities, very easily and with almost nobody allowed to complain about that.

We're just getting started; there's more.  read more »

The voter registration deadline for New York State is October 10th. To find out if you're registered, go here; to get the forms required to register, go to your post office or click here.

Looks like there is new verseion of republican racism: pitting Hispanics against blacks. Divide and conquer has always been the only way the Republicans could win, and too often it works. They are at it again but this time it is NOT working and, in fact, has led to the downfall of a racist republican.

From the racist GOP chairman in New Mexico's Bernalillo County:

"The truth is that Hispanics came here as conquerors," he said. "African-Americans came here as slaves.

"Hispanics consider themselves above blacks. They won't vote for a black president."

Of course this is a complete lie, as the polls have consistently shown. I have reported before that Hispanics overwhelingly support Obama over McCain. That trend continues not just nationally, but in New Mexico as well:

SurveyUSA, 9/14-16:

New Mexico Latinos:

McCain (R) 28
Obama (D) 69

Nationally, according to the Research 2000 daily tracking poll for Daily Kos:

McCain (R) 27
Obama (D) 68

Thanks to Daily Kos for this info.  read more »

Note this under calculatedly horrible timing: Shelly Silver has conveniently flip-flopped on reinstating the same commuter tax he helped kill in 1999. This comes in the wake of his slap-down of congestion pricing, a proposal not entirely dissimilar in its effects on the City's fiscal outlook.

Newsday:

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver supports bringing back the New York City commuter tax he helped eliminate in 1999.

But a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), says the GOP is opposed to any tax increases.

Silver spokesman Daniel Weiller says the speaker supports the concept of the tax, but hasn't presented a specific proposal. He had no comment Friday on why the Manhattan Democrat has changed his position.

It's fair to assume that if there's no majority in the Assembly for congestion pricing, that there is no majority for a commuter tax. Not that this matters, because there's also no legislation, and definitely no majority in the Senate. Meanwhile, Democrats are running highly competitive races in a number of outer-borough and suburban Senate districts - Maltese versus Addabbo, Gennaro versus Padavan, Foley versus Trunzo, McElroy versus Hannon, Johnson versus Donno - and now need to contend with the entirely gratuitous impression that Democrats want to raise the taxes of their prospective voters. They don't want that, of course, but subtleties tend to get lost on the campaign trail.

The commuter tax may or may not be good policy. But talking about it, without an actual legislative proposal, without the votes to pass it, with no public support, isn't helpful; unless, of course, the idea is to let Senate Democrats run against the not all that popular speaker, in which case it would be brilliant political ju-jitsu.  read more »

Seems not to have hit the mainstream media so much as Ted Kennedy is taken to the hospital, bombs are exploding in India and Syria, and Obama almost unanimously is viewed as the winner of the first debate...but it seems Paul Newman, actor, liberal political activist, and philanthropist has died. Details on Daily Kos. And it seems confirmed by Newman's Own, the company founded by Paul Newman which donates all its profits to charity.

If you want to honor Newman's memory, please donate to Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang, a camp for children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.

UPDATE: Now seeing it hit the MSM.

I was disturbed to read in yesterday's Times that individuals who have lost their homes due to foreclosure are in danger of losing their right to vote as well if they don't re-register at their new location.

If this isn't the height of audacity, I don't know what is. First people lost their homes and then they lose their right to vote as a result. As if people who become homeless have time to think about whether they have re-registered.

And, of course, people who have lost their homes are not likely to vote Republican.