According to Monday's New York Daily News:

"Senate candidate Jeanine Pirro is set to unleash a one-two endorsement punch from former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Gov. Pataki, sources close to her campaign told the Daily News yesterday." Given their bios, does getting a nod from these two freaks actual constitute a positive event for Pirro?

^^After terrorizing black people for eight years, Rudy Guiliani went on to shill full time for the Republicans, whoring out 9/11 in the name of of the presidential campaign, whose highpoint for Rudy was blaming the troops for Bush's failed war.

^^It's hard for people to believe that George Pataki has reached term limit given that he has accomplished SO LITTLE during his time as NY governor. In total craptastic fashion, he sold out New Yorkers who voted for him based on his moderate positions by vetoing easy access to morning-after pills. Way to go Hacky!

^^Mainly famous for her husband, who is a typically crap-ass baby daddy. Cast from the same mold as Bush, she also has difficulty speaking publically unless it's all spelled out for her in BIG BLOCK LETTERS.

Warning: If you're in the midst of eating lunch, you might want to wait until AFTER to read this story--I know it stopped me from finishing MY yogurt mid-cup.

I am opposed to circumcision. I believe it is a horribly cruel process to put a newborn through, not to mention there's not good reason for doing it in the first place. As far as I'm concerned, the decision to have a circumcision should be made by a man for himself only, not for a two-day old baby that has zero ability to consent.

All that being said, I bend somewhat to the idea of performing a circumcision as part of religous ritual. I appreciate the idea of a shared experience--however barbaric it might be.

Still, if parents are going to choose to perform a circumcision on their baby, it should be done in a way that narrows any possibility of complications, including secondary infection.

Today while reading Wonkette, I noticed that she linked to an Slate article by the always opinionated Christopher Hitchens. Today, I happened to agree with what he had to say on circumcisions being performed by some Orthodox Jews In New York City. Here's an excerpt, which he himself pulled from a recent New York Times article:

A circumcision ritual practiced by some Orthodox Jews has alarmed city health officials, who say it may have led to three cases of herpes—one of them fatal—in infants. … The practice is known as oral suction, or in Hebrew, metzitzah b'peh: after removing the foreskin of the penis, the practitioner, or mohel, sucks the blood from the wound to clean it.

For anyone who thinks Bloomberg is a Democrat at heart, hopefully this news story will set you straight once and for all. When asked to comment on Cindy Sheehan, Mike did his best version of the Harlem Shuffle and came out sounding like the Republican stooge that he is.

Pukeworthy:

"It's not a local issue, and I don't have anything to say," Bloomberg replied when asked about Sheehan's ongoing protests near President George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. Sheehan's son Casey, 24, died in Iraq last year.

The brother of a young man killed in this stupid, senseless war handily destroys Mike's weak-ass argument:

The mayor's response, or lack thereof, elicited an emotional reaction from Carmen Depompeis, whose brother, Pfc. Hernando Rios, 29, was killed earlier this month in Baghdad. The father of three, who lived in Woodside, was one of 10 members of the Manhattan-based Fighting 69th Army National Guard regiment killed in Iraq.

"He was born in Manhattan, he was raised in Queens, he was a local issue," said Depompeis, 40, who opposes the war and supports Sheehan. "Many soldiers from his unit have died. That's a local issue."

The mayoral candidates, predictably, jumped all over Bloomberg. It would have been nice if we had known they felt so strongly BEFORE it looked like their only purpose was to add their opinion to the pile.

I listen to a lot of urban radio (I'm sitting here enjoying the hell out of Wendy Williams as I type this) and I can't help but be bummed by the Freddy Ferrer radio spots I've been hearing.

I want to start by saying that despite the fact that I think Bloomberg is an okay guy, I will not vote for Bloomberg. What ever he may believe in his heart, he is raising gobs of money for the enemy and in my book that is unforgiveable.

So I keep waiting and hoping for Ferrer to impress and give me a reason to vote for him. But he hasn't. Now in all fairness, his radio spots have improved. The first one was one of those "meet the candidate" type spots whose theme was how Ferrer pulled himself up by the bootstraps and made himself into someone. Frankly, I don't care about his past and I don't feel like I need to know about his hard-knock childhood. Seriously, this is a tired theme that was beat to its final death in the recent presidential campaign with John Edward's 18 millionth mention of his father's tough life as a millworker.

On Saturday DailyKos front-pager Armando mentioned on DKos that he would be in town today and would like to meet up with NYC Kossaks. We quickly organized a meetup, which will take place tonight, June 13, starting a 6:30. The location is at the Grassroots Tavern, located in the heart of the East Village at 20 St. Marks place between 2nd and 3rd Avenue. Let's come out and give Armando a warm welcome to the third DKos meetup (I think it's time to start cross-promoting them as Dkos/DG meetups, no?)after which we can pepper him with questions re: the pie fiasco. He says he's in a listening mood these days so here's your chance to have your opinion heard. (If you need more info, please email me at JaneKnowles@Gmail.com or Lipris at BunkerFilms@Gmail.com.) I'll see you all later!