Sign the BoroughVoter.com petition asking elected officials to abide by the term limits voted on by the voters. The link is www.boroughvoter.com/?cat=55

The petition text is as follows:

We the undersigned ask all affected Staten Island elected officials to abide by the Term Limits law voted on by the voters of New York City in 1993 and 1996. Without a voter-approved referendum, we ask all Staten Island elected officials affected by the recent Term Limit extension to not abide by the City Council's vote. If it is true that elected officials represent their respective constituencies, then the unanimous vote by Staten Island City Councilmen against this measure should speak loud and clear on the behalf of all Staten Islanders.

Therefore, we ask all affected Staten Island elected officials to abide by the term limits voted on by the voters in 1993 and again in 1996.

Eliot Spitzer

Let me be up front. I have never been a fan of Jesse Jackson. I appreciated the movement he tried to create, but always was leery of the man himself. I was viewed with some suspicion by some of my white liberal friends because I didn't jump on the Jesse Jackson bandwagon, but the truth is he creeped me out.

The first chance I had to directly observe Jesse Jackson in action was when then bishop Desmond Tutu came to speak at UC San Diego where I was a student. This was back when Tutu had to be very careful what he said or he might join Mandela in prison. His speech was amazing, and had the main message that too often America put itself on the wrong side...and for once we should do the right thing, back the right horse.

Through the entire event, Jesse Jackson was there, often pushing himself to the forefront and hogging the spotlight. I found his presence irritated me, and this despite all the good things I had heard about him from fellow liberals. And it seemed to me, though I may have just been projecting, that Tutu himself seemed to look a bit askance at Jackson.

In looking for information about the New York Congressional delegation's awkward non-endorsement endorsement of Barack Obama (many haven't uttered the "E" word yet because they're waiting for Clinton to say it first), I stumbled upon a liveblog written by about this sort of "Hillary Watch" non-event. Now that we are down to the wire on her "endorsement" to Barack Obama, the newspaper seems to have been getting reports flying in on what the New York political establishment did and did not do regarding Ms. Clinton's insistence in painting herself as a sore loser.

I caught myself reading the whole darn thing and was struck speechless by this :

Obama met with Clinton last night to discuss party unity and such things. What caught my eye on the CNN report was this bit of news :

Some of Clinton's closest supporters — the nearly two dozen House Democrats from her home state of New York — switched their endorsements to Obama Thursday.

[...]

"We're Democrats. Dammit to hell we fight. When it's over, we come together and go out there to win," said Rangel, the dean of the New York delegation.

The New Yorkers, said Rep. Gregory Meeks, have a duty "to lead this transition" to full party support of Obama.

Yesterday I wrote the following about Hillary Rodham Clinton :

Shameless.

Despicable.

Unfit to be President of the United States.

My words hit the front pages of both Daily Kos and The Moderate Voice. By evening Keith Olbermann had the following to say about Hillary Clinton's latest "gaffe" :

The most important part of the transcript is after the jump :

Tonight was the annual dinner of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID), an organization my wife is an officer of. First off, let me say we missed the annual dinner of the club I am on the board of, the Independent Neighborhood Democrats (IND), largely due to lack of time, money and a babysitter, and the fact that the IND dinner is much less convenient for us to get to. Generally I try to make it to both.

Joy and I arrived a bit late, so we missed some of the speeches. Yvette Clarke and Jerrold Nadler spoke before we made it. [CORRECTION: Nadler and Clarke were present for schmoozing purposes and did not give speeches]. Pity because they can both give a good speech and it would be interesting to have heard if either of them brought up impeachment, an issue dear to the club that Yvette and Jerrold disagree on.

Very exciting news, brought to you by CNN's Political Ticker.

Well this totally sucks. Not only that, but not one of the netroots blogs from New York State --you know, the ones that actually help the party raise money for their candidates-- got into the state pool.

Who gets in? Oh, yeah, right, the blog owned by the pro-Clinton journalist that now rights for Politico.com.

Nice.

UPDATE : Hopefully we will be able to bundle our state bloggers with the culturekitchen.com national bloggers and get credentialed.

I just find this odd, that none of the blogs that have helped the NY Democratic Party raise thousands of dollars for local candidates and worked hard to get out the vote here in the state, not one of them got credentialed in the state pool.

This is very odd indeed.

I am on the host committee for a fundraiser for Jimmy Dahroug and I hope you can all attend, spread the word, and/or contribute. Jimmy's fundraisers are pretty damned good and this one includes special guest Jim Dean, brother of Howard Dean and head of Democracy for America.

From the Jimmy Dahroug Campaign:

Wed., May. 14, 2008
Manhattan Cocktail Reception
Campaign Co-Chair Dr. Bonnie Maslin and her Husband, Dr. Yehuda Nir are hosting a cocktail reception for our reform campaign. Democracy for America Chair Jim Dean will be the Guest speaker
Location: 1050 Park Avenue, at the corner of East 87th Street
When: 6:00 PM
Ends: 9:00 PM

Wherever you live in New York State, the upcoming election in my district will affect you, me, our friends, and our families for generations to come.

Today, we are only two seats away from gaining a Democratic majority in the New York State Senate. This will end the stagnation caused by four decades of Republican domination including the Republican gerrymandering which has prevented us from turning more of New York's congressional seats blue.