I love charts. Anything that visualized data is like *shiny* to me. It also shows that at least someone in Congress or the Senate has been doing their homework. Particularly when pointing out there were more jobs created under the private sector under the Clinton administration than under Bush.

The knee-jerk reaction would be to say, "how partisan". Yet that data on those charts make it hard to debate. Sure, the numbers could be off, but it's the kind of work I am seeing more and more from Democrats in Congress than from Republicans on these video clips from the floor.

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 »

All the fun of ridiculing Mayor Bloomberg’s (all-fall-down) Building Department has subsided as yet another Crane collapse killed two, injured one, and damaged nearby buildings on East 91st Street Friday. (See also the NY Daily News excellent team report.). Ironically, (can I still use that word?) Mr.Bloomberg’s Building Dept. had just eased-up stringent rules requiring crane movements to be supervised by a DOB inspector . Dead at the scene was Donald Leo, 30, crane operator of Staten Island, who was in the cab as it fell. Sewer worker Ramadan Kurtaj, 27, of the Bronx and Kosovo, died in the hospital and a third was gravely injured. (For more on the lives of the fallen here is Lisa W. Foderaro's well researched follow-up.) "Union carpenter Simeon Alexis survived a gash to the chest," Newsday reported He was released from the hospital Saturday.

Update: The Manhattan DA's office is said to be investigating a possible crime in the crane collapse premised on the reuse of the cracked rotating plate (see below). More updates at the end of the post.

This was, of course, not the first crane trouble at this site and – in case you forgotten—not the first fatalities from falling structures like cranes around NYC In response to criticism Mr. Bloomberg suggested that perhaps the crane’s steel was defective, that construction was a dangerous job, that it wasn’t the DOB which had fallen down on the job, but the Contractor and finally, that the situation was “unacceptable and intolerable” --without explaining what he didn’t accept and what he wouldn’t tolerate.  read more »

Several hundred activists gathered at Columbus Circle Thursday night to start the battle to over-ride the veto by President Bush of the expanded State-Children's Health Insurance Program. The rally, one of 250 nationwide, was organized by Moveon.org-Political Action with significant help from SEIU Local 1199 and and Unite-Here. (You can see some photos of the rally here .)

NYS Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried told the crowd about how newly insured children he had met had averted life threatening medical problems because of the availability of health care. 1199 Organizer Andy King set the crowd chanting for health care and cheering his promise that the union would work with us until the veto is overturned.  read more »