Three New York journalists, Rafael Martínez Alequin, Ralph E. Smith and David Wallis, have been denied press credentials by the NYPD with little explanation or appeals process. All three write for online journals and believe that they are being denied press credentials because they write for non-traditional media. The lawsuit alleges that the current Press Credential procedure violates the Constitutional Rights of the plaintiffs and interferes with the reporting of news in NYC.

Rafael Martínez Alequin, a long-time critic of Mayor (Tsar) Bloomberg, publishes the New York City Free Press, an online version of his earlier print version, the Free Press (originally the Brooklyn Free Press). His stated philosophy for the NYC Free Press is:

Current TV is running some amazing footage from Hurricane Katrina today. They have five segments, adding up to an hour long program, filmed by Doug Kiesling, a freelance Weather Journalist. My wife and I watched it from 7-8 AM. It is next on at 11 AM (then presumably 3 PM, etc.).

So what does that respected font of journalist impartiality have to say about it's founder and now "Mayor of America"?

Bloomberg Candidacy Would Affect Both Parties Alike, Poll Says

Whenever I hear people trash talking us bloggers as media onanists, I like to think of Michael Bloomberg's 24/7 PR media empire. It is a fine example of the journalistic version of political masturbation.

Remember last year? The prevailing MSM conventional wisdom was that the 2008 race would be a battle between two nationally known Senate heavyweights, John McCain and Hillary Clinton. A done deal, inevitable as the tides in fact; nothing to see here, move on.

Well, that's not working out so well, is it?

As I wrote on October 5th, 2006, here:

If you want an example of the mainstream media babbling on endlessly on what they believe the story should be, look no further than the endless obsession with New York's junior Senator. Two years before the first primary vote will be cast, Hillary is today portrayed as the all-but-crowned and inevitable Presidential nominee (as is John McCain for the other side, in a striking parallel that only makes the pattern clearer). The verdict of the elite chattering classes is in: Hillary it is, in a face-off against McCain – a nice, solid storyline that plays to all the things the media like to see in their coverage, such as high name recognition, easy clichés, and nice little cookie-cutter boxes to frame their articles. Just think of all the 'Can a woman be President?' stories already written – pure speculation (not to say useless wankery), but these stories practically write themselves and let you head out to The Hamptons that much earlier.

And this...

The GOP base has a better memory, to its credit, than the media think; in their eyes, McCain is first and foremost the author of McCain-Feingold, a founding member of the treacherous 'Gang of 14', and an advocate of various policies that may make the media love him, but produce outrage amongst the true believers. The simple storyline is that the base will overlook these treacheries (as they see them) as the Bush administration continues its slow-motion collapse.

Again, no. Rather, as the efforts to re-brand George Bush as a liberal (and thereby to insulate conservatism from his failure) suggest, the base will look for a dyed in the wool true believer – and that is not going to be the treacherous John McCain.

Well, here are some of today's headlines:

The Iraq War has created many casualties. American soldiers, Iraqi civilians, America's reputation and military, and a good number of reputations, some a bit spotty to begin with. One thing that stands out most clearly in my mind at least from the beginning of the war is the fawning, uncritical media coverage; speaking of diminished reputations. Here are some photos from the week the war began, four years ago tomorrow.

I have discussed the craziness and duplicity of the denial lobby before (e.g. here). And I have been just beginning to discuss the need to move on, to evolve the discussion, from a supposed "debate" over whether global warming is happening (it is!) to a discussion of solutions. Personally, I do hope to help evolve the discussion. But sadly, the denial lobby continues its supid, suicidal crusade against science.

The latest salvo of the denial lobby was in England, though I am starting to hear eager references to it here in the US from our own denial lobbyists. On Thursday the 8th, the London TV Channel 4 aired a program titled "The Great Global Warming Swindle". This program turns out to be largely devoid of integrity and intelligence and, to quote two climatologists commenting on Real Climate, "it just repeated the usual specious claims we hear all the time." This program is just one more pack of denial lobby lies.

Washington Post: Richard Cohen wants to know how Hillary Clinton failed her country.

The New York Times: Eliot Spitzer is expected to approve the Freedom Tower, with a view to the booming downtown real estate market.

More Eliot in the Times, in reference to the Comptroller fiasco. A typo: the Times refers to one 'relatively obscure' Assemblyman, ignoring that they are all mostly obscure, and deservedly so.

Surprise! The new Q-Poll gives Spitzer a 61-11 positive rating, while Silver and Bruno – the bouncing baby boys of Albany dysfunction – receive a 48-31 disapproval rating.

Still not going away: The Daily News rips some more flesh from yet another worthless Assemblyite, noting that they're starting to get a vague apprehension that their hackery has been noticed.

And lastly, not a news item, but an appeal: can't someone start a process that would give us term limits for the state legislature? Here's an idea: Contact your Assemblyist and tell them exactly how you feel. Urge them to embrace term limits, step down, retire, whatever it takes. Just get those people out.

Hillary's flip-flopping on the war – "You have to find common ground, but you also have to stand your ground" – gets panned in New Hampshire.

The New York Times buys into the framing of the so-called 'ex-gay'-movement.

Capitol Confidential has Governor Steamroller in Westchester today, and speculates on further gubernatorial slams against untrustworthy Silverites.

More signs that the Comptroller fiasco is not going away quietly: Eliot wants to know how much money Silver makes at his day job.

The Daily News says it's time to pick sides, and goes with Eliot.

Errol Louis hits one out of the ball park, excoriating the various toothless, sellout minority caucuses for not backing a black candidate in the Comptroller fight. One might add that Martha Stark, the candidate in question, is an out lesbian, while there is speculation that DiNapoli might be closeted.

And lastly, The Albany Project has a live book club tonight. Check it out.

No wonder Matt had a huge grin on his face after this happened. I was so oblivious about who she was, I took it as one lesser mortal trying to upstage this goddess and blogdiva.

Oh yeah baby, I'm having a moment here.

The Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting was exactly that --a meeting to discuss the order of business within the DNC and it's caucauses. Fascinating stuff to witness for someone who is as clueless as I am on what people actually do within political parties.

So, during the general session there was some kind of a discussion lull involving financial reports. I stepped out to get a soda --an endeavor that at the horrid Washington Hilton took an eternity to complete.

When I come back to my seat, I see a woman sitting on my chair --notwithstanding the fact I had left my laptop, purse, camera, podcasting gear and basically everything that no self-respecting blogdiva would blog without.

My first thought was "bitch, get off my seat". Being the marginally professional diva that I am, I calmly requested the woman's attention and said to her : "Excuse me, you're in my seat."

Now, you have to understand something about this : This woman happened to be sitting in the credentialed bloggers section. This was were a big chunk of the top bloggers were covering the action. We were even making fun of Ezra loosing his coolness credentials because he was working that day and had to sit in the press section.