Author: Yoda

In an article on The Politico website about the problems that Republican Presidential candidates are having with the abortion issue, Rudy Giuliani’s spokesperson says something interesting –

“He presided over a decline of abortions, promoted adoption as a real alternative and saw adoptions increase and abortions decrease,” says Comella.

It’s true that the abortion rate went down in the country and New York City during the Clinton years which largely paralled the Giuliani administration. But I don’t remember any city sponsored drives to promote adoption instead of abortion. Does anybody out there think this really happened?

I'm confused.

The City's Independent Budget Office has released a report stating that New York City residents pay much higher state and local taxes than residents of any other city in the US.

How can this be possible?

From 1994 until 2002, wasn't our Mayor a conservative and a tax cutter? Didn't he cut the welfare rolls and refuse to cave into unions. Isn't he the natural heir to Ronald Reagan. Doesn't his conservative fiscal policy mean that Republican primary voters should vote for him despite his views on social issues?

Can Fred Siegel, Steve Malanga, the other folk at the Manhattan Institute, the editorial writers at the NY Post and NY Sun explain how this could have happened?

We are all used to Presidential candidates revising history (or as I like to call it – lying) to help their candidacies.

But former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is setting a new standard for blatant falsehoods that can be easily be refuted.

On the heels of his changed positions on abortion & gay rights, his latest revision involves the 1992 Presidential Election.

http://news.bostonherald.com/politics/view.bg?articleid=183509

With all that has been going on lately (Spitzer wins in Nassau. Spitzer loses in Albany, Spitzer goes nuts, Anna Nichole Smith dies, etc), it’s likely most political junkies missed the news that the proposed Jeanine Pirro TV show died.

The part of the story I most appreciated was the description of the show that the former District Attorney, former Judge who at one point was considered a serious candidate for Governor of New York or US Senator or Attorney General would star in –

“The show would have featured celebrities including musician and comedienne Charo and actor Corbin Bernsen ruling on real-life, small-claims lawsuits” 

In Mayor Bloomberg’s State of the City speech, he proposed the following – “let's work with our partners in Albany to abolish the anti-democratic Public Authorities Control Board.” This is a result of the Board stopping his plan to build a stadium for the Jets in Manhattan. I’m reminded of the old joke that the definition of chutzpah is when a person murders his parents and then asks for mercy because he’s an orphan. The only reason that the Board was involved in the stadium decision is because Mike did not want the normal democratic land use procedure to cover his dumb idea. Mike did not want to go through ULURP and require a City Council vote because he wasn’t sure he and the Jets could buy off (I mean persuade) a majority of the Council to approve it.

The Albany Times-Union and Politicker blog have a new Maureen O’Connell ad on their sites. She’s the Republican running for Mike Balboni’s State Senate seat.

Both correctly point out the news in the spot is that O’Connell is endorsed by Balboni’s wife,

But I was most impressed by the substance of the ad.

It said that O’Connell has a real plan to cut property taxes. And then listed the details –

This week’s story in the Village Voice about former Brooklyn County Leader Clarence Norman selling judgeships begins with a little history.

The darker secret was that the bench itself had been bought, that its polyester black robes were on a perpetual special-sale rack, that smarmy party bosses, ensconced at 16 Court Street across from the supreme court they ruled, demanded cash tribute to "make" a judge. The district attorney, Joe Hynes, who first heard the rumor 36 years ago when he was a young prosecutor running the office's rackets bureau, said in 2003 that he'd have to be "naive to think it didn't happen," that it was "common street talk that this has been going on for eons."

TRENTON – Eight-term State Sen. Leonard T. Connors Jr. said yesterday he would not seek reelection because he didn't want to be "associated with the downfall of this great state." "To be frank, I just don't have the stomach for it anymore," Connors said. "New Jersey's course is set straight for the ice fields, and I no longer have any desire to be a crew member of the Titanic ………… His son, Assemblyman Christopher J. Connors, is expected to seek the open Senate seat.

On Wednesday, House Democratic leaders had their Capitol news conference disrupted by a group of anti-war activists led by Cindy Sheehan.

According to press accounts, Sheehan said "We put them back in power," she said of the Democrats. Passing out fliers calling for defunding the Iraq war, Sheehan shouted: "These are our demands. And they're not requests — they're demands."

New York Post

When 81 percent of Americans say they'd be willing to consider voting for an independent candidate for president, you have the makings of a political revolution. Okay, the rhetoric may be a bit overheated, but the American electorate is hot, angry and now, for the first time, afraid. We were always sure the future would be better than the past, but no longer. The national mood is not just anti-incumbent, and it is not just anti-Republican. Thanks to a whole lot of federal failures – Katrina, illegal immigration, wasteful spending, perceptions of economic stagnation and political corruption – we have become anti-Washington. A credible presidential independent will be someone who is not tied to the Washington political establishment but can point to a record of results. He (or she) will say "no" to the lobbyists and special interests but still have the financial means to run a serious national campaign. Such a candidate will attract considerable attention – and perhaps some serious votes. There's only one person in America who fits the bill: New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.