Politics

Cuomo's Women's Equality Act Brings The A-Word To New York State Politics

In the video below, Governor Cuomo lays out his intentions for the Women's Equality Act - a plan that would focus on erasing specific gender biases in New York State law. Akin to the gun control bill passed in December, it's a landmark piece of legislation for the Cuomo administration and, per usual ... More >>

LGBT Purists to Christine Quinn: We'd Love a Gay Mayor. Just Not You.

After Boston Bombing, Rightbloggers Turn on Immigration (Mexican or Whatever)

There's a bill working its way through Congress that would offer a "path to citizenship" to the sort of immigrants currently known in some circles as illegal. Though its application is general, it's obviously aimed at U.S. guests of the Mexican persuasion, and it only has a chance of passing because ... More >>

Bloomberg: Britain & Teen Smoking Rate Were Causes For Cigarette Age Proposal

As we reported yesterday morning, City Health Commissioner Tom Farley and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn joined forces Monday to announce a proposal to raise the age to buy cigarettes to 21. And then we went into the electoral blowback this could have for Quinn in the upcoming mayoral campaign ... More >>

Poll Confirms That A Weiner Campaign Would Shake Up Mayoral Race

When word spread last week that former Representative Anthony Weiner was contemplating a mayoral run, the questions of what it meant for the electoral future immediately arose. How would his candidacy affect the race? Would the Democratic primary become a showdown between Weiner and Quinn? Could peo ... More >>

Bloomberg's Gun Control Group Undeterred by Congressional Inaction

With Rep. Gabrielle Gifford alongside him, President Obama called it a "pretty shameful day for Washington." Nearly five months after the massacre at Sandy Hook, the gun control package making its way through Congress shut down in the Senate yesterday. Democratic politicians were unable to muster th ... More >>

Along With Anti-Bribery Measures, Gov. Cuomo Proposes Election Reform

Might as well use this recent scenario to hit two birds with one stone. Last week, Governor Cuomo announced the Public Trust Act. The bill, which came in the wake of the scandals that rocked New York politics this month, would expand the powers given to state bribers to locate and detain those invo ... More >>

Cuomo Introduces "The Public Trust Act" After Last Week's Scandal Fest

Last week, New York government, on both a city and state level, bore witness to corruption in its purest form. In a matter of days, a mayoral rigging scheme was uncovered that involved City Council, the State Assembly and business interests. And then we found out about yet another hatched plan in ... More >>

Halloran/Smith Scandal Quickly Becomes Latest Mayoral Drama For Quinn

As you may have heard yesterday, City Councilman Dan "America's Top Heathen" Holleran is in a whole lot of trouble. Along with State Senator Malcolm Smith, the two were involved in a rigging scheme that planned to posit Smith as a Democrat switching over to the Republican side to run for Mayor of ... More >>

The Community Safety Act Puts Mayoral Candidates' NYPD Views on Display

We're almost close to labeling 'NYPD actions' as the hot button issue for this mayoral race. Two weeks ago, the Voice reported that the NYPD had committed its 5 millionth stop-and-frisk. Then, a few days later, hearings began downtown on Floyd v. New York, which challenges the practice all together ... More >>

Democrats Worried About Other Democrats With Bloomberg's $12M Ad Blitz

Yesterday, we reported on Mayor Bloomberg's announcement to spend $12 million on a campaign set forth by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns to counter the NRA in battleground states. The move is the largest yet from the Hizzoner to translate ideology into action on the topic of gun control and, in effe ... More >>

Supreme Court Hears Arguments Against California's Same-Sex Marriage Ban, Punts

At approximately 10:15 this morning, the U.S. Supreme Court started hearing arguments on Proposition 8, the 2008 California initiative that banned same-sex marriage in the state. It was the court's first major hearing of gay rights in 10 years, and will be followed by consideration of the Defense of ... More >>

With His $12M Ad Blitz, Bloomberg Is Finally The Opponent The NRA Needed

The substance of this story was almost fit to print. We all know Mayor Bloomberg's stance on guns. He is a co-founder and head of Mayors Against Illegal Guns - a group of America's most powerful metropolitan leaders that all share a very strong stance on gun control. And he's backed his message wit ... More >>

Bloomberg to Pass New Law to Keep NYC the Most "Immigrant-Friendly" City in the U.S.

Today Mayor Bloomberg will sign off on two hefty pieces of immigration legislation that will maintain New York's reputation as one of the most immigrant-friendly cities in the nation. The two laws, which passed 40-7 in City Council at the end of February, are a reaction to Secure Communities, the h ... More >>

It's Official: Christine Quinn Wants To Be Your Next Mayor

Yesterday, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn released this video to the Internet. And her campaign tweeted the below out, too. Both were an affirmative nod to New Yorkers that, yes, she is officially running for Mayor and, yes, she is fighting for the middle class. If elected, Ms. Quinn will be t ... More >>

SCOTUS-Backed Surveillance Law Built on a Bush-Era Lie

New Yorkers Not So Hot For Stop and Frisk Campaign, But Still Like Ray Kelly

New Yorkers aren't so pleased with the NYPD's stop and frisk campaign, though at the same time, they give Police Commissioner Ray Kelly high marks, according to a new poll from the folks at Quinnipiac University. Only 39 percent of folks approve of the stop and frisk campaign, including just 19 per ... More >>

Bloomberg Squares Off Against Quinn Over Street Vendor Fees

This is either a clear sign that City Council is starting to realize that New York is becoming a street food metropolis more and more every day or that a mayoral race is quickly approaching. You may have noticed over the past few months a particular sign plastered on street vendor carts across the ... More >>

The Mayoral Third Is Here: Adolfo Carrion Accepts Independence Party Nom

Enter the independent candidate for Mayor. And, for the first time in a while, it is not Mr. Bloomberg. Last night in SoHo, the Post reported that the Independence Party voted unanimously to elect Mr. Carrion as their nominee of the upcoming race for the keys to City Hall. He will go against whoeve ... More >>

Benjamin Netanyahu's Annual Ice Cream Budget is $2,700

Outrage erupted in Jerusalem over the weekend when a financial newspaper announced that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allocated $2,700 per year for ice cream. According to the report in Yediot Aharonot, Metudela, a local shop near the PM's residence, served as the official dessert parl ... More >>

Obama's Drones Turn Rightbloggers Into Civil Libertarians, If Only Temporarily

NBC recently brought to light the Obama Administration's policy of conducting drone attacks on civilians "even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S." so long as "an informed, high-level" official thinks they're warranted. This is apparently ap ... More >>

Alan Dershowitz to Brooklyn College: Academic Freedom For Me But Not For Thee

It has become a safe assumption that otherwise liberal and open-minded New York politicians will make an exception for Israel. Case in point: 10 members of the New York City Council have declared that they support academic freedom, just not the freedom of public universities to host events that do n ... More >>

Who's Bros With Who? City Council Candidates Rep Their Friends Lists

As City Council contenders gear up for the race to City Hall, they want to make sure we know that they have lots and lots of friends. Because only popular kids are allowed to eat at the City Council table, right? Ari Kagan, currently the district leader of Brooklyn, recited names from his Facebook ... More >>

A Look Inside Mayor Bloomberg's Last Budget

Before he leaves, he'll have to go out with a bang. Yesterday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg released his final preliminary budget plan for 2014, worth $70.1 billion -- a proposal that will close a $1.1 billion deficit facing the City. In it, we see remnants of this past year's controversies as well a ... More >>

Union Insists Mayor Holds Ultimate Power to End School Bus Strike

Leaders of the Amalgamated Transit Union hosted a town hall teleconference last night to clarify facts surrounding the school bus strike--facts that they argue have been distorted by the Bloomberg administration and the media. Last night's telephone town hall was held for the constituents of City ... More >>

Joe Lhota & Christine Quinn Lead The Polls For Next Mayor

Could this be the race we're half-heartedly doomed to cover?According to a recent way-too-soon survey conducted by Quinnipiac University, the frontrunners (so far) are clear for this year's 'Who Will Run City Hall After Bloomberg?' On the Republican side, former MTA chairman Joe Lhota has captured 2 ... More >>

Poll: New Yorkers Heart Police Commissioner

Everybody loves Raymond. A Quinnipiac University survey of 1,332 residents of New York City made public today gives the commissioner a record high 75% approval rating. This is Kelly's highest rating to date. A large majority of voters--across gender, race and party lines--would prefer that Ray Kel ... More >>

New York Becomes First State To Pass Gun Control Bill After Newtown

Last week, Governor Andrew Cuomo's State of the State address was entitled 'New York Rising.' What happened yesterday in Albany might explain why. In a 104-to-43 vote, the New York State Assembly officially passed the NY Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Act on Tuesday afternoon. Th ... More >>

Obama Announces Gun Control Proposals, Signs 23 Executive Orders

Just before noon, President Barack Obama addressed the nation to propose wide-ranging reform to curb gun violence in the country. "While there is no law or set of laws that can prevent every senseless act of violence completely, no piece of legislation that will prevent every tragedy, every act of ... More >>

Mayor Bloomberg, President Obama and the Politics of Gun Control [UPDATED]

UPDATED (1/15/13): On the one-month anniversary of Newtown, we heard yet more news about gun control from our Mayor and President. In Baltimore, Mr. Bloomberg attended a summit on the topic at John Hopkins University and, once again, called for more action on a national level. His speech outli ... More >>

John Catsimatides, Supermarket Mogul, Latest Name in Swelling Mayoral Race

Day by day, the wide open upcoming race to replace Mayor Michael Bloomberg is getting more entertaining, and morphing into a new year's gift for reporters, political junkies, and maybe the public. Last week, Mayor Giuliani's former deputy mayor, Joseph Lhota, a man not known for conversational sub ... More >>

The Gawker/Christine Quinn Gun Owner Database Debacle

We were a bit afraid that this would become a "thing." Two weeks ago, we reported on the Journal News, a newspaper based in White Plains, published the names and addresses of all the gun owners in and around New York City. As a result, readers and media folk alike flipped out, leading one blogger ... More >>

With Compromise In Sight, Gov. Cuomo Talks Gun Control In State Of The State Address

In recent weeks, we've been following the Governor's actions regarding gun control quite closely. After the Newtown tragedy, Cuomo proposed a handful of measures to hopefully curb gun-related violence; one of which would be the strictest magazine clip ban in the nation. However, the momentum hit a w ... More >>

What 'Meaningful Contributions' Could NRA Offer To The National Discussion On Friday?

As the horrific news came out of Newtown last Friday, the National Rifle Association went silent. Its Twitter was inactive, its Facebook shut off and no word came from the organization that was on everyone's mind this weekend. It witnessed its strongest political advocates bail, with Sen. Joe M ... More >>

UPDATE: City Council Committee Votes in Favor of Revised Minority Business Law

The amended Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise bill is headed to the Mayor's Office after the city council voted 45 to 2 yesterday in favor of the measure. Among several improvements, the amended Intro-911-A bill lifts the $1 million cap on M/WBE contracts and implements additional accoun ... More >>

After Gun-Control Talk Reportedly Banned on Fox News, Murdoch Turns to the Post

It appears that media mogul Rupert Murdoch may have some level of, dare I say, morality and compassion inside of him. A day after New York Magazine reported that higher-ups at Fox News directed producers and reporters to avoid engaging in gun-control talk, Murdoch's New York Post published an edit ... More >>

Make Way for More Media Giants: FCC Paving Way for Titans to Cross-Own Entities

The FCC may allow the media landscape in top-20 markets to resemble the one in New York City -- where media mogul Rupert Murdoch is permitted to own television stations and newspapers. The internet has been abuzz for the past month with news that FCC chairman Julius Genachowski circulated a plan to ... More >>

After Newtown, Rightbloggers Agree: Guns Don't Kill People, Everything Except Guns Kills People

After the gruesome murders of children and teachers by Adam Lanza in Newtown, Connecticut, apparently mostly performed with a Bushmaster AR-15 ("the civilian version of the military's M-16 and M-4," says the New York Times, "a logical choice for anyone whose goal is to kill a lot of people in a shor ... More >>

Bob Costas, Jovan Belcher, and the Fear of Talking About Gun Control

In case you missed it, during the second half of December 2nd's Eagles-Cowboys game, NBC ran a story about the Kansas City Chiefs' victory over the Carolina Panthers and how the team had dealt with the suicide of their teammate Jovan Belcher after murdering Kasandra Perkins, his 22 year old girlfrie ... More >>

In New Vision of Politics, Rightbloggers Denounce Boehner the Leader, Praise DeMint the Leaver

Jim DeMint, one of the most ideologically pure and least effective legislators in the U.S. Senate, announced he would leave Congress to run the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank; or, as the Foundation itself put it, "Jim DeMint to Lead the Battle of Ideas." It would seem to us that, compar ... More >>

Mr. Cuomo Goes To Washington (To Beg For Cash)

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's got a busy day ahead of him in Washington D.C. -- which includes meetings with White House officials, the House speaker, and the Senate majority leader -- where he'll make the case for New York's need for a $42 billion appropriation to help the state recover from Hur ... More >>

Mayoral Hopefuls Denounce School Closings and Co-Locations at Education Forum in Harlem

A crowd of more than a thousand students, parents and teachers packed First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem last night to hear mayoral hopefuls pitch their plans to improve the city's fractured educational system. The candidates continued to distance themselves from many of Mayor Michael Bloom ... More >>

Concealed Weapons Not Protected By The Second Amendment: Court

Unlike some states (we're looking in your direction, Arizona), in New York it takes a little more than a trigger finger to get a permit to carry a concealed handgun -- under state law, a person needs to have "proper cause" to carry a concealed firearm."Proper cause" is defined as "a special need for ... More >>

Mitt Was Too Moderate To Win, Say Conservatives

Funny, I thought he was too conservative to win. But the really right-wing Repubs are furious that their candidate let them down and came out with views that were too-soft for them to find him inspiring and triumphant. Says one Tea Party Patriot in the linked blog, "We wanted someone who would fi ... More >>

GOP Super PAC Gunning For Shelly Silver -- And Why It Won't Make A Bit Of Difference

A recently formed GOP Super PAC has Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver in its sights and says it will actively campaign -- and drop an estimated $1.5 million -- to see to it that he's not re-elected as Assembly speaker.The Super PAC -- which is being financially fueled by the group Americans for Real Ch ... More >>

NY GOP: Andrew Cuomo's Election Day Executive Order Disenfranchises Upstate Hurricane Relief Workers

Yesterday, Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order allowing residents of "federally-declared disaster counties" to vote at any polling place they want.Included in the governor's order are relief workers who "reside in one of the federally declared disaster counties."Problem is, not all the r ... More >>

NY GOP Confident, Arrogant at Midtown "Victory Party"

The New York State Republican Party is holding its election night "victory party" on the third floor of the Westin Grand Central in Midtown right now, and spirits are high amongst GOPers as their horse in this year's presidential election appears to stand a chance at pulling off a victory."I think i ... More >>

SWING STATE UPDATE: The Iowa Decision

MSNBC has just called Iowa, with a total of six electoral votes, for Barack Obama. The incumbent is now 14 electoral votes away from winning the 2012 presidential election, up on Romney 256-203.

Christine Quinn, Best Bud

The City Council Speaker's conspicuous Sandy presence

Presidential Election Night Party