Paterson

Q&A: Art Curator Olympia Lambert Explains Why We Should Ditch Manhattan's Art Scene And Head To New Jersey (For Now, Anyway)

Julie LohnesTug of War, 2009, video still​Art blogger-turned-curator Olympia Lambert is getting the hell out of New York and taking a bunch of artists with her. Escape From New York, her latest art show, which opens May 15, is just that -- a massive pilgrimage through the sticky streets of Che ... More >>

Scott Brown Embraced as Role Model by Local Politicians

​Stuart Applebaum, president of the powerful Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, calls Scott Brown's Massachusetts victory "stunning" and a "wake-up call," suggests it means Paterson is finished, and backs Cuomo. Paterson's campaign manager says, au contraire, "Yesterday's outcome i ... More >>

Governor Paterson's Campaign Fund One-Fifth of Cuomo's; Also Behind Levy's

The Times headline, "Paterson Has More Than $3 Million in War Chest," sounds promising for the Governor's 2010 campaign, until you find out further down that Paterson used to have $5.4 million, but spent a lot of it on peculiar ads, and has not been able to make the shortfall with donations, though ... More >>

Haiti Is The Only Story

​Our normal political pursuits are rendered even more trivial than usual by the footage of the corpse-lined streets of Port- Au-Prince. Ford vs. Gillibrand? Paterson's depleted campaign treasury? Senate expulsion for Monserrate? Thirty days in jail for Dominic Carter? Our everyday concerns sli ... More >>

Quick Hits

​ Twitpic via M_Solomon. With last year's Long Island Walmart Black Friday stampede in mind, the National Retail Foundation has established training, security, and traffic flow guidelines to prevent recurrences; Walmart has established its own new guidelines, in compliance with an agreement ... More >>

Senate GOP, Dem Leaders Unite to Oppose Paterson's "Soviet" Deficit Plan

Maybe by scaling back his demand for over $600 million in cuts to school aid by half was the fatal sign of weakness that invited the counterattack, but the state senators who have been remarkably slow about trimming the budget united against Paterson with great speed. Democratic leader John Sampson ... More >>

Coup In Review: Same Old Same Old

They had that special session last night in Albany and guess what? Nothing happened, again. That's why New York is pretending to have a Board of Ed today. (On the upside, the stalled senate kept a new city sales tax from going into effect.) Today in Albany there was a "leadership meeting" scheduled ... More >>

Hey, Guess What, David Paterson is Still Really Unpopular

The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute's been busy. Yesterday they released a poll on the legislature and how much we hate our state. Now they have new numbers on the Governor and other local characters. Will it surprise you to learn Paterson is unpopular? He's hanging in with a 61 percent disa ... More >>

Teitelbaum, Paterson Target, Quits

You saw Wayne Barrett's story earlier about Paterson's "knee-jerk reactions and posturing, attempting to look like an ethics crusader for a day" in the State Commission on Public Integrity case? Where he fired most of the panel, but they refused to leave? So the Governor lined up state officials pas ... More >>

"Spitzer" Joins "Paterson" on SNL

Are we awful for enjoying the Saturday Night Live Paterson gags? They're certainly dopey, focusing as they do on Paterson's blindness, drug and sex history, and epochal unpopularity. And New Jersey! But we like dopey sketches, and are pleased that Fred Armisen has found a political character that ... More >>

New Book: Caroline Kennedy Expected "Automatic" Appointment; Ted Drinks

Vanity Fair has published excerpts of another damn Kennedy book, Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died. Of special interest to us are the sections involving former Senatorial hopeful Caroline Kennedy. "She had expected that the appointment would automatically be hers," writes Edward Klein -- not ju ... More >>

Senator Diaz: Stopping Malcolm Smith was Paterson's Idea

Our colleague John DeSio via Bob Kappstatter points us to this wonderful interview with state senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., one of our favorite local politicians, in The Capitol. "I'm going to tell you something that I haven't told anyone," promises Diaz. (An ellipsis follows. Maybe he was trying to go ... More >>

Flash! Albany Working on MTA Plan

Albany lawmakers are behind closed doors, working on an MTA plan. A taxi surcharge and payroll taxes are among the remedies they're considering. Paterson's calling for "action." His new wrinkle is to offer constituents reimbursement of the payroll tax to their school districts -- a typical Albany Ru ... More >>

MTA: Expect Even Worser Service, and Maybe No Trains at Night

You know those MTA service cuts we were promised along with the new fare hikes as part of the Doomsday Fun-Pak? Well, the Authority's executive director just announced they'll be even worse and may include the end of all-night subway service. "I'm not sure the English language captures what goes be ... More >>

Transgender Bill Passes Assembly; Bellwether for Gay Marriage?

Before they get to Paterson's gay marriage bill, let's see if they can pass this first: the Assembly has cleared the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression in matters or employment, education, etc. It would ... More >>

Here's the Mayor Giving a Guy in a Wheelchair a Hard Time

As we mentioned earlier, Bloomberg gave a hard time to guy whose tape recorder went off during the gay-marriage thing at Paterson's office. Turns out the offender was Examiner reporter Michael Harris, who is wheelchair-bound and apparently dropped his recorder and couldn't get to it easily. Azi Pa ... More >>

Poll: Paterson Hated, Gillibrand Unknown

Paterson and his Albany enablers finally drove the limping budget over the finish line last week, and the Governor's reward is a 28 percent approval rating in a Quinnipiac poll. While that's two points better than the score he got a month ago, that poll was taken by the Marist Institute; by Quinnip ... More >>

Barrett: If Murdoch and Zuckerman are Whining, is the State Budget Really So Bad?

News flash! The state budget that's been so trashed in the tabloids does loads of good things you've heard next to nothing about. Whenever the rich are taxed, the only media contest in town is who will howl louder -- Rupert or Mort. Both are such class enemies of their own readers that, in a budget ... More >>

Albany Back to Budget Battle; Will Rich Take a Hit?

It was nice that Paterson and the legislature agreed to reform the Rockefeller laws, but there's still that pesky budget to contend with. When last we looked, the budget gap had suddenly grown by $2.2 billion to more than $16 billion, and the Governor was threatening to fire 8,900 state employees to ... More >>

Paterson Threatens 8,900 Layoffs to Close Budget Gap

Governor Paterson is playing hardball, or at least fast-pitch softball, with the civil service unions. He wants them to skip a pay increase and give back some on benefits, or else, he says, he may have to fire 8,900 of them to close his growing budget gap. That's about four percent of the government ... More >>

Schumer Steps Up for Gay Marriage, His Own Skin

So, what to make of Chuck Schumer's declaration in favor of gay marriage? It probably doesn't change much at the functional level, as Ruben Diaz and others hold marriage equality hostage in Albany. But with the states' Dems bruised by the unresolved state and MTA budgets and other issues, and the Go ... More >>

Quick Hits

We noticed freenapkin.com; now here's the Craigslist freebie Twitter feed, Free_NewYork. There you can get a free four-person hot tub -- but "please take it only if you need it." Since Paterson's "hiring freeze," Albany's payroll gained more than 8,000 salaries, says the Buffalo News. BuffNews ... More >>

Weiner Suddenly Not So Hot to Declare for Mayor

Just a month ago, Anthony Weiner toured the five boroughs and said, "there's a conversation we need to have in the city... and I'm going to be leading that conversation." He's been raising money for a mayoral campaign. So you may be forgiven for thinking Weiner is running for mayor. But not quite, ... More >>

Paterson Aide's New Job Suddenly a Big Deal

The New York Post semi-famously called for the hapless Paterson Administration to "Bring Back O'Byrne," meaning Charles O'Byrne, his former secretary and right-hand man, who'd resigned after it was revealed he hadn't paid taxes due to a mysterious mental illness. There was speculation that Paterson ... More >>

Thousands Throng Union Demo at City Hall

OK, teabaggers, here's how you do a protest at City Hall: a massive crowd of union members and sympathizers flooded the area around the seat of government this afternoon to voice their displeasure with proposed budget cuts that would affect their memberships. The demo was so crowded that we coul ... More >>

Sunday's Headlines: Hate-Crime Suspect Claims Self-Defense

HARKAVY is now blogging at The Smart AssetYour Sunday New York headlines...Hate-crime suspect Keith Phoenix claims self-defense in murder of Ecuadoran immigrant, his lawyer says victim kicked the door of Phoenix's van, reached for (nonexistent) weapon.Long-reviled Rockefeller drug laws swiftly being ... More >>

Dumped via Facebook? Probably. Hooked up by stimulus bill? Maybe.

This'll break you up: Revisiting the January 2007 Facebook parody from USC, directed by Mu Sun While you're waiting for the stimulus bill to hook you back up: • It's not you, it's my social-networking. Further confirmation in this morning's Daily News of something that thousands of you alre ... More >>

Who needs a bailout? The New York soldiers heading to Afghan War frontlines.

The frightening Taliban invasion of the Afghan capital Kabul, courtesy of Al Jazeera's Todd Baer. Compare the CNN and Al Jazeera stories. Bailout? If by accident of birth, you were in Kabul yesterday, you'd be dying to bail out. You would have been running for your life while crazed Taliban storm ... More >>

Albany Cools toward Kennedy, Catches Gillibrand Fever

We first noticed Democratic Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand when she pwned challenger Sandy Treadwell and Rudy Giuliani this election season, trumping them with her high NRA rating. Lately she's gotten more attention as a Senate replacement, not to mention a "Select Gillibrand" web site she claims ... More >>

Soda Tax Outreach Hits YouTube

Our with-it state government is pushing its soda tax with a YouTube video starring State Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines (who told us earlier this month that if this tax works out, they may move on to pizza and cheeseburgers). Daines tells viewers that "some taxes can be good for your healt ... More >>

Gov's Indian Smokes Law Blocked in Court

Roger Kimball, Runnin' Scared Endorse Riots

Bush makes Iraqis want to hurl

Smith Won't Drop Gay Marriage -- Deal with Dissidents Off

Governor Hassled for Rich Rug

Skelos Blows Off Paterson's Budget; Gov May Wait

Trump Weighs In on "Bottom-Heavy" WTC, Election, Etc.

Paterson Proposes $2 Billion in Cuts in Health Care, Schools, Civil Service, SUNY/CUNY

Daily Flog: Economy, Iraq missions accomplished, Bush finally tries Afghanistan rescue

Governor "Liveblogs," Delivering Non-Answers at Internet Speed

Paterson Grilled at Breakfast on "Bloodsuckers," Obama, Apt., Etc.

State's Subprime Bill Leaves Borrowers Bamboozled, Broke

Another Outrageous Governor Scandal! What Next?

Will the Last Governor to Have a Sex Scandal Please Turn Out the Lights?

Hail to the Chief: The New Era of David Paterson

David Paterson Talks About Albany's 'Prostitutes'

Another Brave New World

Glenn Mercer's solo debut could be a Feelies reunion. He's just too nice to make it one.

Books

Books

Oceans Apart

A Cuban Exodus Chronicled