Author: Yoda

The NY Sun has a column today by Michael Barone

In it, Barone says – 

"I remember a conversation I had with a broadcast news executive many years ago.

"Doesn’t the fact that 90 percent of your people are Democrats affect your work product?" I asked.

"Oh, no, no," he said. "Our people are professional. They have standards of objectivity and professionalism, so that their own views don’t affect the news."

"So what you’re saying," I said, "is that your work product would be identical if 90 percent of your people were Republicans."

Former College President and candidate for Governor Bill Weld probably thought he had a full proof way to jump start his sinking campaign. Propose a stupendous tax cut and Republican & Conservative base would swoon. After all it worked before for Reagan, Pataki, Tom Kean, Christie Whitman & both Bushes among others. But poor Bill, the normal cheerleaders for any tax cut are complaining his numbers don’t add up. Funny the fact that the numbers didn’t add up any better for the before mentioned candidates didn’t seem to matter before.  But Bill is being criticized. See Wednesday & today’s NY Sun. If former editors of the Wall St. Journal won’t salute a tax cur it’s time for Bill to quit the race. Maybe he can use his experience as a educator and go back to Massachusetts and apply for the Harvard Presidency.

Mayor Mike’s tough testimony in DC concerned a bill that prevents the City and others from getting gun trace data. According to the Times, the restrictions began as a result of a law suit againt gun manufacturers & dealers started by Rudy’s administation. Wouldn’t it be a good idea for reporters to ask Rudy about this? Does he still support holding manufacturers & dealers responsible for gun violence? Does he agree with Mike’s rhetoric? Will he stop raising money for pro-gun Republicans?

From NY SUN – "Council Member Charles Barron of Brooklyn expressed his views on landmarking in general. "I appreciate historic preservation, but also I appreciate the freedom for property owners to have control over their property. That’s the real challenge here because it really could be an infringement on property owners," he said".

You all probably remember the controversy over Andrew Cuomo and the Vote for Cuomo not the Homo signs. To quickly sum up, at a meeting of the Stonewall Dem Club, Andrew was asked about his role in distributing such signs in the 1977 Ed Koch-Mario Cuomo race. Andrew used the phrase "urban legend" about the signs. Some folks took that to mean that Andrew was saying there never were such signs. He (Andrew) later said he meant the urban legend was that he or any officials in the Mario Cuomo campaign were responsible. Most in the media and Ed Koch accepted Andrew’s explanation. This despite the fact that Andrew in 2002 was quoted as saying there never were such signs.

I think it’s time to defend KT McFarland from the jackals of the press. While it’s true that her candidacy is a joke as she has no chance to win and the initial press she received was absurdly out of proportion to what she deserved, now both the Times & Post are going overboard the otherway. Last week’s Times story that said she lying about her resume was disproved by the quotes from the Deputy Secretary of Defense who she worked for. Saturday’s Post story about her "crazy" comments about Hllary spying on her was weakly sourced. No Post reporter was there. KT claimed she was joking about Hillary and that everyone knew it. The only people quoted by name as saying she wasn’t joking were 2 supporters of her GOP opponent John Spencer. That didn’t stop the Post from doing a followup story & an editorial on Sunday.

Some recent events have highlighted how completely full of it, Mike & Doctoroff & the Jets were last year in pushing for the West Side stadium.

#1 – Cablevision has announced they want to build a new MSG near the new Post Office. Anybody want to bet on whether Mike will offer them millions in subsidies even though last year Cablevision was attacked by the Administration for not paying enough taxes.

#2 – Corzine wants to re-open negotiations on the new stadium for the the Giants & Jets and he thinks maybe it should have a dome, so it can be used more often. Both the Giants & Jets don’t want a dome and say it would be a deal breaker. The West Side stadium was supposed to have a dome and Mike & Dan & Jay Cross claimed that  the dome would make the stadium much more succesful.

#3 – Last year, the NFL pulled the NFL draft from MSG because Cablevision was an enemt of footbal fans. This year, the draft will be held at Radio City, another Cablevision property. What changed?  

Yoda has followed NY politics for many years. The first local campaign he remembers was 1961 when Mayor Wagner ran a reform campaign against his own administration.

He is a Democrat but believes that all sides of the spectrum deserve to be criticized and plans to do so on the blog.