From The Washington Times :

An analysis conducted by the Center for Responsive Politics found that Madoff and his wife, Ruth, gave the bulk of their campaign contributions to Democrats. The couple donated $238,200 to federal candidates, parties and committees since 1991, and Democrats received 88 percent of those donations.

Madoff gave $11,400 to nine Republicans in the same time period. None of them is in office now. Former Rep. Jack Fields of Texas received the most - $5,000. Other recipients included former Sen. Alfonse D´Amato of New York, former Rep. Vito Fossella of New York and former Rep. Michael Oxley of Ohio.

And people wonder why one of the truisms of a progressive blogger is that mainstream media has always tilted to the right if not to the hard-right.  read more »

Earlier this month I read of the case of a former Hassidim woman who was in the middle of a sexual abuse case against her father. The now 27 year-old was a sex slave of her father who first raped her at the tender age of 9. For 18 years she not only was robbed of her childhood, but was robbed of her humanity by a monster that was supposed to care for her and cherish her as her father.

This is not an isolated case, but it's been hard for child rape and pedophilia victims to get the word out and bring their abusers to justice. The Hasidim's cultural insularity makes it incredibly difficult for victims to seek justice or to find help, but that wall of silence around the community is starting to crumble. The bashing of that wall is coming from the community itself but it's meeting a lot of resistance.

Word is out that Orthodox Jewish and Hasidim organizations have created a lobby coalition against the passage of the Child Victims Act:  read more »

Fascinating piece in The New York Times this morning on the shifting balance of power in the state, as the smart money, literally, moves to Democrats.

Anticipating a Democratic takeover of the New York State Senate this fall, real estate executives have begun courting Senate Democratic leaders, hoping to fend off what they expect will be aggressive efforts by tenant groups to revamp rent regulations next year.

The effort represents a significant new approach for real estate interests, which for years have been closely allied with the Senate’s Republican majority. But after controlling the Senate for four decades, the Republicans now hold a bare one-seat majority and many strategists believe the Democrats are in a strong position to gain control of the chamber in November.

Looking to block or water down an array of pro-tenant measures, including the repeal of vacancy decontrol, that have won support in the Democratic-controlled Assembly, real estate industry executives have stepped up their campaign donations to the Senate Democratic leadership, a review of campaign-contribution records shows. They are also continuing to contribute to Republicans.

Upsides and downsides: on the one hand, this is a clear sign of confidence by an interest known for cool-headed evaluations in who is going to be running the Senate come January, and it's not Angry Old Man Skelos. On the other, Democrats need to stick to the agenda that's going to win them in the election.