Subject: Politics

• Iran to Hold Recount; Internet People Urge Twitter, Green Websites (Update: Recount Rejected)

  Following the lead of the world's greatest democracy, Iran will hold a "partial recount" of votes from their strongly disputed Presidential election. If it follows the historical precedent of Florida 2000, the recount will be rendered moot, Ahmadinejad will be certified, and Iran will invade Mexico. Social media is widely considered to be useful in the resistance of Moussavi supporters, with Twazzup and Friendfeed among the more popular aggregators. Some websites have made their banners green i

  June 16, 2009

• Barrett: Schumer Protects Gillibrand from a Primary Challenge Citing His Record On Such Matters -- So We Checked That Record

  Image from Howie Klein's "Down With Tyranny" blog (downwithtyranny.blogspot.com)As my colleague Tom Robbins explained last month, Chuck Schumer has been flexing his  considerable muscle to make sure that no elected Democrat challenges Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the accidental incumbent, in a 2010 Democratic primary. Schumer has been so persuasive, Rahm Emanuel, and the president himself, cajoled Congressman Steve Israel to get out of the race. Joe Biden even recently dialed up Carolyn Malo

  June 17, 2009

• Senate Dems Push to Get Espada Out

  There's a full-court press this morning from top state senate Democrats, calling for the Republicans to drop Pedro Espada as their negotiator, calling him "irrational."So far, senators Liz Krueger of Manhattan, Jeff Klein of the Bronx, and David Valesky of Syracuse have weighed in with email press releases blasting Espada --the Democratic turncoat now voting with the Republicans and who is serving as the number two negotiator on their behalf, alongside Republican leader Dean Skelos.The move is a

  June 18, 2009

• Gotbaum Hits Cuts to Her Office As "Payback from Speaker Quinn"

  Because the Mayor talks about "belt tightening" and "sacrifice" when he cuts the budget, and you never hear from the civil servants who get those cuts in the neck, you might get the impression that they heroically and uncomplainingly shoulder their burden like good soldiers. Therefore it is both refreshing and instructive to read today's statement from public advocate Betsy Gotbaum's office which begins: "For the past 7 years, I have had to take part in a ridiculous annual budget dance with t

  June 19, 2009

• Tim Gunn Voting for Bloomberg -- Why Shouldn't You?

  Photo from Project RunwayBy Jane C. TimmTim Gunn wants Mayor Mike for a third term, don't you?Bloomberg sent out a press release this morning, listing 68 gay New Yorkers who are endorsing him for a third term, including designer Isaac Mizrahi and a few politicos like Richard Socarides, a former Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton.Getting out the gay vote is clearly a priority for Mike, who has courted major gay rights groups like Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA), but that isn't stopping

  June 19, 2009

• Bloomberg Threatens Army of 3 a.m. Callers to Renew Mayoral Control of Schools

  While the Albany Coup are a good laugh for you and for us, Mayor Bloomberg has to worry about the fact that mayoral control expires tomorrow and the state senate has to reauthorize it. This weekend the Mayor underlined the urgency with a press conference, promising that the city would have to go to court if the school system is allowed to revert to its old school-board process. Chancellor Joel Klein added, "I don't want to spend my summer meeting with the lawyers." Bloomberg says he'll summon t

  June 29, 2009

• Bloomy Schools Doomsday: End of the World As We Know It

  School Armageddon is upon us. Or even worse, a planned economy. Today we find out if Mayor Bloomberg's doomsday predictions come true about what will happen if the state senate fails to renew legislation granting the mayor full control over city schools. Last week, Bloomberg thundered that letting the law expire -- or worse, toying with even a single word of the law -- was akin to putting Joseph Stalin in charge...

  June 30, 2009

• Board of Ed Revives But, Packed with Shills, Will Do Nothing

  We gotta admit, we thought it was a bluff. We assumed that when the Albany Coup senators let mayoral control of schools lapse at midnight, no one would step forward and say, "it is the time of the Judges!" But the Board of Education rose from the dead today and is meeting at the Tweed Courthouse to decide the fate of Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. But it doesn't look too dangerous for Klein or anyone else: earlier, Mayor Bloomberg appointed deputy mayors Patricia E. Harris and Edward Skyler to

  July 1, 2009

• Bloomberg, Avella and Thompson at WFP Mayoral Forum: Some Highlights

  Last night three candidates for Mayor of New York -- Michael Bloomberg, councilmember Tony Avella, and comptroller Bill Thompson -- attended the Working Families Party Mayoral Forum at the Hotel Trades Council on West 44th Street. (We should mention that Green Party candidate Reverend Billy wanted to be at the forum, but was excluded; "The Working Families Party have sent a cynical signal," his office tells us. "New York is not a corporation. New York is a city. A city in a democracy. Let's deb

  July 3, 2009

• School Daze: Charter Break-in at Harlem P.S.

  Back in February, Mayor Bloomberg threatened that there could be "riots in the streets" if mayoral control isn't renewed in Albany, and in today's Daily News, Juan Gonzalez reports the first mini-riot outbreak.The commotion came at P.S. 123 where yesterday workers showed up unannounced and started removing cylinder locks from classroom doors and removing desks and computers to make room for the expansion of a charter school, the Harlem Success Academy. Public school teachers rushed to block the

  July 3, 2009

• Our New Board of Ed: Seven Members, No Kids Now in School

  It may not be around much longer, but it seems worth noting that the new seven-member city Board of Education that met last week for the first time after the mayoral control law lapsed includes not a single current public school parent as a member. The closest to having a personal vested interest in the schools is Dennis Walcott, 57, the Bloomberg deputy mayor who was conveniently selected by Queens borough president Helen Marshall as her own rep to the board. Walcott's four kids graduated fr

  July 6, 2009

• Mayor Bloomberg Goes Party Shopping

  July 8, 2009

• Reverend Billy Campaign Update: Recuperates from "Palpitations," As Mayor Will Fire Ray Kelly

  Photo by Brennan Cavanaugh We caught up with Reverend Billy, the Green Party candidate for Mayor of New York we interviewed in April, and asked how the campaign was going. We're in the third act of this drama. The opening act was orientation -- the whole world of politics, a steep learning curve, It's a different set of instincts and signals. People act differently, it has that whole horse-race quality. After the Green Party approached us last winter, we were boning up. The second act wa

  July 16, 2009

• Bloomberg Wants Troopers to Grab Senators and Make Them Pass Mayoral Control

  As you may have expected, the state senate failed to pass anything like a reauthorization of mayoral school control before going on summer vacation -- though Democrats did attempt and fail to pass an alternative bill not to the Mayor's liking. This will require the Mayor's packed Board of Ed to do the things Bloomberg and Joel Klein would prefer to do without interference until such time as Albany gets it together. The Mayor is pissed off, and has asked Governor Paterson to dispatch state troo

  July 17, 2009

• Bloomberg's Biggest Scandal—The Deutsche Bank Fire—Should Be His Downfall. Why Isn't It?

  July 22, 2009

• The Bloomberg Dilemma: Favorite? Or Just No Obvious Alternative?

  July 22, 2009

• Barrett: Deal for Mayoral Control Close after Bloomberg Gets the Scalp He Wanted

  Senate Democrats and negotiators for the mayor have apparently worked out terms to settle the recent deadlock about extending the mayoral school control bill. Sources say the mayor has agreed to an amendment that would provide $1.6 million to the City University to oversee a parent training and exchange program, which was a key change sought by Senate Democratic Conference Chair John Sampson and other senators. Sampson is now trying to get the full Democratic conference to sign off on the four c

  July 23, 2009

• Barrett: Bloomberg All Fired Up for Builder Bovis

   By Wayne Barrett and Lucy JordanThe Voice's cover story this week, "Bloomberg's Biggest Scandal--the Deutsche Bank Fire--Should Be His Downfall" -- examined the determination of top city officials, including Bloomberg's longtime top deputy Dan Doctoroff, to ignore the risk of installing Bovis Lend Lease and its prime subcontractor Galt at the demolition site of the bank building. Doctoroff brushed aside warnings from the city's investigations department about Galt in deference to Bovis' re

  July 24, 2009

• Sotomayor Approved by Judiciary Committee

  Sonia Sotomayor's appointment to the Supreme Court has just been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee en banc. All the Democrats (Herb Kohl, Dianne Feinstein, Russell Feingold, Chuck Schumer, Benjamin Cardin, Dick Durbin, Al Franken, Sheldon Whitehouse, Amy Klobuchar, Ed Kaufman, Arlen Specter, and Chairman Pat Leahy) and Republican Lindsey Graham voted for her; all the other Republicans (Jeff Sessions, Orrin Hatch, Charles Grassley, Jon Kyl, Tom Coburn, John Cornyn) voted against. Highlig

  July 28, 2009

• Gerson 2nd City Candidate Thrown Off Ballot for Typo

  ​Another New York City elected official has been kicked off the ballot for apparently trivial reasons. First it was city councilmember Bill de Blasio, who was running a heady campaign for public advocate until last Thursday, when election officials found that the cover sheet on his packet of petitions to the Board of Elections claimed he had 131 volumes of petitions. In reality, he had 132 volumes. (Apparently he wasn't trying to overstate his successes, but he was punished anyway. He is a

  July 28, 2009

• Giuliani Gets Big Coverage Based on Rare Joke

  Today at a Crain's Business Breakfast Forum, former Mayor and unsuccessful Presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani told listeners that "the only way I could get elected governor is the way I got elected mayor -- things have to be so bad..." He got a big laugh there, but later said that, if he thought he could "make a real difference in the state," he would run, leading the New York Post, champing at the bit, to headline, "GIULIANI TO RUN FOR GOVERNOR -- ONLY IF THINGS 'GET WORSE.'" (Crain's itse

  July 30, 2009

• Times: Mayor's Office Put Felder's Name on $1.5 Million Payout -- But Felder Says He Didn't Request It

  It looks like the Mayor's been playing around with city finances. The Times reports today that Bloomberg's office forwarded $1.5 million in discretionary funds to a couple of nice-sounding non-profits -- Agudath Israel of America Community Services and Ohel Children's Home and Family Services . This would be OK, legally, if the funding had been requested by a city councilmember or a borough president. And the mayor's office had councilmember Simcha Felder's name on the ticket -- but Felder says

  August 4, 2009

• Bloomberg's D.C. Yak Gets Him Deposed in Local Firefighter Case

  Mayor Bloomberg's freewheeling testimony at the Sotomayor hearings seems to have landed him in court. Bloomberg testified, quite unnecessarily, in response to a non-question as to his interest and involvement in the case of black firefighters' group The Vulcan Society versus the city and the FDNY involving alleged discrimination in hiring. After hearing this, Judge Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, who happens to be presiding over that case in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, decided to invite the

  August 6, 2009

• Stung for His $1.5M, Thompson Wants Investigation of $1.5M (and More) Bloomberg Gave to Non-Profits

  Bill Thompson, the Democratic mayoral front-runner, needed to raise a quarter mil to qualify for federal matching funds at a six-to-one ratio. He didn't make it, says the New York City Campaign Finance Board. So he missed out on around $1.5 million. (His people are confident he'll qualify at the next test on August 20.) Now he's focusing on another $1.5 million -- specifically the city money Mike Bloomberg paid out to non-profits under councilmember Simcha Felder's authorization, which Felder

  August 7, 2009

• Thompson Said to Be DC 37's Choice

  Looks like Bill Thompson's getting a break in his race of mayor: Liz Benjamin says he's rumored to have the DC 37 endorsement locked up. That's the city's largest municipal workers union, whose name came up last week when the city council, like the Mayor's office, followed their example by raising staff salaries. DC 37 backed Mayor Bloomberg in the last election, which revealed divisions within the union. Thompson had recently picked up the endorsements of the RWDSU (unsurprising, considering

  August 10, 2009

• Cash-Strapped Cuba Almost Out of Toilet Paper

  ​This is for real. After being sacked by three horrendous hurricanes and exposed to the ravages of the global economic crisis, Cuban officials have reported that the country is fast running out of toilet paper. Reuters reports that that Cuba is in a terrible bind: it doesn't have enough raw materials to produce enough toilet paper to satisfy the wiping needs of its entire population of 11 million,and, with the economy in free fall, the country doesn't have the funds to import it. And the

  August 10, 2009

• What Do You Have To Do To Get a Bottle of Wine Around Here?

  August 11, 2009

• Sean Bell's Parents Endorse Aborn for D.A.

  ​The parents of Sean Bell, an unarmed man whom police fatally shot on the night of his bachelor party in 2006, endorsed Richard Aborn for Manhattan District Attorney today. In a press release put out by the campaign, Bell's parents said they threw their support behind Aborn after learning of his work investigating the NYPD in the 1990s after the fatal shooting of Amadou Diallo. Aborn, a gun control advocate who is considered the dark horse candidate in the D.A. race, was instrumental in

  August 12, 2009

• Inside the Heads of Obama's Health Care Town-Hall Rowdies

  August 18, 2009

• Giuliani All Up In State GOP Power Struggle

  Republicans were spreading the word today that Rudolph Giuliani was going to support state Republican chairman Joe Mondello for another term in charge of the GOP, against the challenges of Ed Cox and Henry Wojtaszek. But Liz Benjamin had heard things differently: Giuliani, she'd been told, was going to tell Mondello to step away, as Cox was quickly sewing up the country leaders and Mondello had no chance. This afternoon Modello announced he wouldn't stand for reelection, and would focus instea

  August 24, 2009

• Pol's Challenge Could Mean Trouble for "1st Non-Profit Election Consulting Firm"

  ​The city's campaign finance laws and matching fund program allow the public to see into a candidate's war chest as if it were made of glass. But as the unfolding story of the blurred line between the non-profit Working Families Party and the for-profit Data and Fields Services shows, those measures can be skirted. Now questions have emerged about a non-profit consulting firm called Grassroots Initiative -- "The world's first non-profit election consulting firm," they call themselves -- t

  August 26, 2009

• Tony Avella Throws High and Hard at Debate

  Listening to Queens councilman Tony Avella at last night's Democratic mayoral candidates' debate was like watching "Wild Thing" Vaughn, the rookie pitcher played by Charlie Sheen in the old movie, "Major League." Like "Wild Thing," Avella throws a torrid fast ball. Like "Wild Thing," he's also just as likely to kill a cruising seagull as find the plate. Avella's volleys of high hard-ones drew the loudest and most sustained applause from the audience. Undoubtedly, many people clapped to

  August 27, 2009

• A Big Post Boost for Fast Eddie Cox

  ​Forget about next week's Democratic primaries. The nastiest political race raging these days is the one to replace Joe Mondello as head of the near-moribund New York State Republican Party. On one side are what New York Post political editor Fred Dicker, in a nicely over the top op-ed column today slugged "Lobbyist Attack," dubs the "forces of destruction." Who might those be? Hold on to your Page Sixes, folks, it's all the ex-state leaders that the Post has been promoting for ye

  September 8, 2009

• Primary Results: Vance In; Comptroller and P.A. Go to Runoffs; Council Incumbents Suffer; Rose Romps in Staten Island

  Primary Day led to expected results, for the most part. For the Democratic mayoral nomination, Thompson romped, 70 to 21 percent, over Tony Avella. (Also someone named Roland Rogers got eight percent. Clearly a name to watch!) With no comptroller candidate making the 40 percent mark, John Liu and David Yassky are headed to a runoff election on September 29. The same goes for public advocate candidates Mark Green and Bill de Blasio (who actually came out ahead of the perennial candidate, 32-30 pe

  September 15, 2009

• City Council Representative Yassky's Zigzag Path to the Runoff

  September 22, 2009

• Bloomberg's Term Limits Scheme

  September 29, 2009

• Bloomy Flack Changes Speeds on Campaign Spending

  This weekend brought a good reminder about how campaign spokespeople are just hired guns, spinning the message for whoever is picking up the tab. When papers reported on Saturday that Mayor Bloomberg - who has refused to participate in the city's public campaign finance system that caps spending - has already spent an astonishing $65 million, chief Bloomberg campaign spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker told the Times the billionaire mayor's spending was "prudent." She took some shots at Democratic mayo

  October 5, 2009

• New York Philharmonic Not Going to Cuba

  ​If President Obama is a dictator-loving socialist, he has a funny way of showing it: his Administration has refused a request to let the New York Philharmonic go to Cuba for some concerts it had planned for the end of the month. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control denied the necessary licenses. This prompted North Dakota Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan to denounce the Cuba embargo on the Senate floor, and Cuba is pissed, but that is not expected to affect Treasury's

  October 6, 2009

• Is Mayor Bloomberg Expropriating City Resources to Further His Campaign?

  ​ NY1 reports this morning that 18-20 sanitation, anti-graffiti, and steam-cleaning trucks recently descended on Inwood in preparation for a campaign appearance by Mayor Bloomberg scheduled for that afternoon. Residents seemed astonished as city personnel removed graffiti, swept up garbage, and cleaned the facades of some buildings.

  October 8, 2009

• Tough Thompson at City Hall Rally: "Take a Hike Mike!"

  Is public anger over term limits enough to beat Mike Bloomberg? Polls say no, but city comptroller Bill Thompson seems to think so. This morning an energized and upbeat-sounding Thompson led a cheering throng of some 200 union members and representatives on the City Hall steps as he sought to batter Mayor Bloomberg over his flip-flop on the city's term limits law a year ago this month. The Democratic mayoral wannabe used his toughest words so far, almost as if he was daring the mayor -

  October 8, 2009

• "Bovine Spinal Columns" Lead Japan to Ban Tyson Beef Shipments

  In another big step forward for food safety and international diplomacy, a Tyson meatpacking facility has been banned from shipping beef to Japan after Japanese authorities discovered bovine spinal columns in 732 boxes shipped from the Nebraska plant. Although Tyson claimed the delivery was the result of a mix-up, this is the second time this particular factory has been suspended for shipping beef that failed to comply with Japan's strict safety standards. As the Post reports, Japan banned all U

  October 12, 2009

• A Bloomberg Score Card: The Mayor's Hits and Misses

  October 13, 2009

• Barrett: My Favorite Nugget from Last Night's Debate

  ​My favorite nugget from last night's mayoral debate was Mike Bloomberg's smug smile as he pronounced Joe Bruno a better majority leader of the state senate than Pedro Espada. Democrat Bill Thompson had already picked the-sometime Democrat Espada as the better of the two. By 3:12 a.m., the Post called it Thompson's "worst moment," describing Bruno as "the steady Republican" without mentioning his current eight-count felony indictment. Espada was acquitted the only time he's been charged w

  October 14, 2009

• Barrett: My Favorite Nugget from Last Night's Debate

  ​My favorite nugget from last night's mayoral debate was Mike Bloomberg's smug smile as he pronounced Joe Bruno a better majority leader of the state senate than Pedro Espada. Democrat Bill Thompson had already picked the-sometime Democrat Espada as the better of the two. By 3:12 a.m., the Post called it Thompson's "worst moment," describing Bruno as "the steady Republican" without mentioning his current eight-count felony indictment. Espada was acquitted the only time he's been charged w

  October 14, 2009

• Number of Stimulus Jobs Produced: 30,383. Number of These in New York: 54

  While the nation was preoccupied with hot air, the White House released its first list of actual jobs created thus far from the federal stimulus. Tallying up to a paltry 30,383 jobs, they've got a long way to go to reach the 3.5 million they'd hoped to create by the end of the year. To be fair, this list shows the impact of only one small part of the $787 billion stimulus package: According to the Times , these jobs were created by "$16 billion worth of stimulus contracts that were awarded dir

  October 16, 2009

• 'Crash' Director Paul Haggis Ditches Scientology

  "I am only ashamed that I waited this many months to act. I hereby resign my membership in the Church of Scientology." ​Over the past few days, a remarkable letter was published in four parts at the blog of Marty Rathbun, a former high-level Scientology official who has left the church and now criticizes Scientology's leader, David Miscavige. In the letter, written to Scientology's current national spokesman, Tommy Davis, 'Crash' director Paul Haggis explains why he is leaving Scientolog

  October 25, 2009

• We've Bailed out the Banks. When Do We Go After the Crooks Behind our Financial Collapse?

  October 27, 2009

• NYC Voters Still Pulling Levers On Those Ancient Machines

  Sure, it's 2009, well into the new century, but as us New Yorkers head to the polls today, we're still using the same clunky, decades old lever voting machines we always have. That's because an effort to purchase newer, more technologically advanced machines is still bogged down in Albany. The state has yet to formally certify machines from two competing companies: the Dominion Image Cast and the ES&S DS-200. Last year, the state found problems in 50 percent of 1,500 Image Cast machines that

  November 3, 2009

• Ulrich Turns Seven Months of Incumbency to His Advantage

  By Amanda Sakuma ​City Council member Eric Ulrich of Queens' 32nd district proved he's no longer "just a kid," reclaiming not only his seat in yesterday's election, but also his title as the council's youngest member. The 24-year-old Republican won even though 60 percent of registered voters are Democrats, beating an opponent who has been a civic leader since before Ulrich was a toddler. Ulrich's challenger, 60-year-old Democrat Frank Gulluscio, ran a campaign highlighting his experience

  November 4, 2009

• With Thompson Done, Union People Consider Their Options

  Photo (cc) eliotwb. By Steve Patrick Ercolani. As a crowded elevator car ascended to the third floor of the Hilton on Sixth Avenue Tuesday night, a campaign aide informed former Democratic mayoral nominee Fernando Ferrer that WCBS wanted an interview. "It seems like just yesterday I was at the Waldorf," he whispered to his aide. "But it's Bill's night tonight." That it was. The Hilton's third-floor ballroom was packed with depot lights and television crews. Members of the press and cocktail

  November 5, 2009