Author: Yoda

Last week, I posted a comment that lazy reporting in the NY Times resulted in them echoing GOP Senate candidate John Spencer’s line that he never denied his affair with a secretary who he promoted to Chief of Staff.

Today (Thursday), the Times comes back to the story and this time comes close to the truth –  

After refusing to discuss the relationship for years, Mr. Spencer acknowledged it publicly in 2002. 

A letter to the editor in Wednesday’s New York Times reminded me why I hate Ralph Nader and his Green Party supporters.

 The letter from Theresa Amato, Nader’s Campaign Manager responding to Thomas Friedman’s assertion that Nader cost Al Gore the election in 2000, reads in part:

 “The writer blames Ralph Nader for George W. Bush, despite the millions of Democrats who voted for Mr. Bush in 2000; Al Gore’s loss of his home state; and the Florida legal battles”

 My problem with Nader and the Greens is that they won’t take responsibility for their actions.

Ed Rollins remarks about John Spencer’s “affair” once again is a fine example of how the New York Times covers New York politics (as opposed to say, a parlimentary election in Ukraine)

They cover it badly!

Thursday’s  NY Times story on the remarks says –

“Mr. Spencer has never denied that while he was mayor, he had a long affair with his chief of staff while he was married, and had two children with her before they were married”

But the Times reporter or editors apparently didn’t read Wednesday’s Journal-News. The paper, which covers Westchester paper, had this to say–

Bill Weld in accepting the endorsement of the Libertarian Party said he disagrees with the Party on legalizing drugs and prostitution but he concurs that government should be "kept out of your bedroom". Isn’t this a contradiction?

Are we all so used to the fact that Mike’s rhetoric has nothing to do with actions that it is no longer worthy of comment?

On Thursday, Mike spoke to a pro-choice group and the press reported:

“On this issue, you’re either with us or you’re not. Period. You can’t have it both ways," said Bloomberg, a Republican, in a passionate noon address before the liberal NARAL Pro-Choice New York. "We can’t let anybody equivocate."

Bloomberg said pro-choice supporters must stand tall against elected officials who "try to nuance themselves" away from a commitment to abortion rights "in the interest of political expediency and partisan politics."

According to ABC News The Note, the New Republic has a profile of George Allen that might interest those who have been debating the Vote for Cuomo-Not the Homo issue.

Some highlights –

"Another classmate, who asks that I not use her name, also remembers Allen’s obsession with Dixie: ‘My impression is that he was a rebel. He plastered the school with Confederate flags."

"It was the night before a major basketball game with Morningside High.The mostly black inner-city school adjacent to Watts was coming to the almost entirely white Palos Verdes High to play. When students arrived at school on game day, they found graffiti spray-painted on the school library and other places. All five people who described the incident say the graffiti was racially tinged and meant to look like the handiwork of the black Morningside students. But it was actually put there by Allen and some of his friends. ‘It was something like die whitey,’ says Campbell."

Am I the only person who thought it strange to see Pat Lynch, President of the POLICE union on NY1 applauding Roger Toussaint saying he’d break the law again?

From Saturday’s Daily News

The increases announced Thursday by the New York City Housing Authority average 10% to 44% over two years and would affect families with annual gross incomes of more than $20,000.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer agreed the hikes would be a hardship. "These are the poorest people in the city," he said.

Councilman Hiram Monserrate and some other Queens’ pols are seizing on the Independent Budget Office report that the city low-balled its estimates of the real cost to taxpayers of a new stadium for the Mets.

But don’t be fooled into thinking Monserrate and the others are friends of us taxpayers. Since the stadium is going to cost more than advertised, the pro-taxpayer position would be to fight to cut the City’s subsidy to the Mets. Instead these opponents to the Mets want to increase the amount of taxpayers’ dollars spent by forcing the City and the Mets to spend more on “community benefits”. Remember a fact not mentioned by the pols that are trying to shake down the Mets is that every dollar the Mets spend on Little League diamond that Monserrate wants is tax deductible!

One doesn’t have to be a friend of Al D’Amato to think that this NY Times story about Bill Weld and Al is unfair to D’Amato – starting with the headline – Hints of Truth-Stretching in Weld-D’Amato Feud and continuing throughout.

The premise that both Weld & D’Amato are not telling the whole truth is probably technically correct. But whereas Al is wrong about a relatively minor point – when they first met, Mr. Weld is shown to be telling whoppers about everything else. He is wrong about when Al gave him money, about how much money Al gave him and about whether Al threatened him.