National - Friday, November 20, 2009 9:30 - 0 Comments

Senator Rudy Guiliani?

Former New York City mayor and professor of 9/11 studies Rudy Guiliani will not run for Governor of New York against either David Paterson or Andrew Cuomo, according to The New York Times. But fear not! Rudy will not leave New Yorkers to the sanity of Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.

The AP reports that Guiliani is “seriously considering” challenging Democratic incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand. Gillibrand was appointed to the seat only last year, so Guiliani’s OCD (btw, 9/11) might not be as heavy a burden as it would be against Schumer.
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Featured, National - Monday, November 9, 2009 13:10 - 8 Comments

It’s Time to Impeach Lieberman

Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, no stranger to a fear-mongering, again showed his disrespect for the lives of American soldiers on Fox News Sunday, labeling the Fort Hood shooting “the most destructive terrorist act to be committed on American soil since 9/11.”

Note that an investigation is ongoing and second the tentative conclusion of investigators is that the shooter, Nidal Malik Hassan, was not part of a terrorist plot, but that’s apparently not good enough for Connecticut’s own Jack Bauer. He appeared on Fox News Sunday to announce his support for a separate Senate investigation into the shooting.
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City - Thursday, November 5, 2009 12:00 - 11 Comments

Bloomberg’s Narrow Margin of Victory Not a Surprise After All

The surprisingly close race between incumbent Michael Bloomberg and City who-cares Bill Thompson sent the media and blogosphere into a firestorm. “New Yorker’s Rebuke of Bloomberg Sends a Message,” was Mara Gay’s headline at the Atlantic Wire. Even the Times said Bloomberg “No Longer Seems Invincible”. Have any of these groups even looked at the results for more than a second? The numbers should not have been a surprise to anyone, and certainly don’t show the public turning on Bloomberg in droves.

At first glance, of course, it looks like Bloomberg just squeaked through, and he did. He took home 50.6% of the vote, to Thompson’s 46.0%, much less than polls had predicted. The mayor was expected to crush Thompson, but won by just over 4 points. Thompson must have done something right … right?

Actually Thompson took home 506,717 votes, almost exactly the same amount as Fernando Ferrer did in his disastrous run against Bloomberg in 2005. In fact, the difference between the two is less than a percentage point. This year however, turnout was lower overall; 1,100,640 people voted this year, compared with 1,289,935 in 2005. The difference was 189,286. What is striking is how similar that number is to the drop in votes for Bloomberg.
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National - Tuesday, November 3, 2009 9:45 - 2 Comments

Right Pressures Moderate Out of NY-23 Race

New York’s 23rd district will vote its House Representative today without a Republican vying for the seat. Dede Scozzafava, the GOP candidate, bowed to pressure from conservatives and suspended her campaign. Scozzafava had been in a tough situation, facing opposition from an insurgent Conservative party candidate, Doug Hoffman, in a very conservative district. Conservatives who endorsed Hoffman over the GOP nominee, like Sarah Palin and Fred Thompson, celebrated their strong-arming. Palin thanked Scozzafava for “acting so selflessly,” adding, “Now it’s time to cross the finish line with Doug Hoffman.” (Translation: Thank god we can forget about you now.)

Scozzafava (my new favorite person, by the way) struck back Sunday, reminding everyone she was not to be forgotten about, by endorsing the Democratic candidate, Bill Owens. Among her several reasons for endorsing Owens probably was the virulent hatred displayed by conservative pundits, like this gem from Michelle Malkin calling her (a Republican, remember) a “radical leftist.” Hmmm, I wonder why the party that vilifies its moderate members lost control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency?
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National - Thursday, October 29, 2009 12:00 - 3 Comments

Conservatives Battle Republicans Upstate

For fans of Republican self-destruction, it doesn’t get better than this year’s Congressional race in New York’s 23rd District. Dierdre Scozzafava, the Republican nominee, would normally be a shoo-in in the heavily red upstate district. However, conservatives upset with her comparatively moderate voting record (She supports raising taxes to pay for government services and balance the budget. Outrageous!) have rallied against her, running an insurgent campaign to elect Doug Hoffman, a local accountant, on the Conservative Party line.

The normally insignificant district in the Adirondack mountains has attracted the likes of Sarah Palin (she heard you can see Canada from up there) and Michelle Malkin, both of whom have endorsed Hoffman.
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Featured, National - Monday, October 26, 2009 8:30 - 0 Comments

Public Option Compromises Demystified

The public option is back from the dead once again, and this time it has a new bi-partisan image (in that Democrats’ best hope is getting the vote of ONE Republican who apparently isn’t even a Republican at all). Since making it out of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Max Baucus’ health care bill has been bombarded with compromise amendments seeking to add a public option. In contrast to the health care bills being debated in the House, these amendments have been throwing around new terms like “trigger” and “opt-out.”

The first idea, mostly associated with Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, is the “trigger” option. If adopted, it would create government owned and operated health insurance corporations in states where less than 95% of residents have access to “affordable” coverage. The entire point of the public option is to spur competition in areas where one or two private insurance companies dominate the market. The advantage of Snowe’s proposal is that it would be limited only to states where the private market is obviously not providing affordable options for consumers. It becomes much harder to Republicans to talk about a government-takeover of health care when it isn’t implemented everywhere. Of course, that’s also the downside of the plan. Suppose your state slips from a competitive to a non-competitive market; then the government has to create a health insurance provider from scratch. How long can, or should, residents of your state live without an affordable health insurance option?
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National - Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:10 - 2 Comments

New Jersey Governor Calls Opponent Fat; Butthead Jokes Soon to Follow

Jon Corzine, Governor of our fair neighbor/industrial wasteland across the river, New Jersey, may keep his seat for another 4 years, not because of his great performance or massive spending, but because his opponent is fat.

Republican challenger Chris Christie, has managed to mount a formidable campaign to unseat the governor of a solidly liberal state. Yet Christie’s lead in the polls (once at a high of 51.8% to Corzine’s 38.4%) has disappeared in the wake of a controversial attack ad hinting at his portly figure.
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National - Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12:00 - 0 Comments

DoJ to Avoid Cracking Down on Marijuana Use that Complies With State Law

On Monday, the Justice Department issued a policy memo discouraging the prosecution of those using medical marijuana for “medicinal purposes”, if they are in accordance with state law. This is a dramatic break with Bush administration policy, which demanded the prosecution of marijuana distributors, even those acting in accordance with state law.

Marijuana use is prohibited for any purpose at the federal level, meaning that no matter your state’s laws, it is still a federal crime to use marijuana. The Obama administration is saying that it will simply not enforce federal laws, as long as you are legal in your state, meaning they have effectively legalized marijuana in the thirteen states with medical marijuana laws.
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National - Thursday, October 15, 2009 12:00 - 4 Comments

Senate Health Care Bill Finally Awful Enough to Gain Republican Support

Max Baucus’ awful, awful health care bill has finally passed the Senate Finance Committee, this time with the vote of a Republican. Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, famous mostly because of the astounding intransigence of her Republican colleagues in Congress, said of the bill, “Is this the bill that I would want? Far from it … But when history calls, history calls.”

The Baucus bill, the summary of which takes up 223 pages, would establish private health insurance co-operatives that could not turn a profit, and hence would not spend millions compensating CEOs. The idea is that, like a public option, co-ops would avoid some of the pitfalls of the private insurance companies which, remember, are in the business of maximizing input (the premiums you pay) and minimizing output (the care you receive). Since co-ops don’t share this goal, they can offer lower premiums for similar care, providing effective competition for private insurers.
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National - Monday, October 12, 2009 15:05 - 4 Comments

Obama to Gay Rights Group: “Wait, Just a Little Longer”

President Obama spoke to the Human Rights Campaign Saturday night, giving the keynote address at its annual dinner. He addressed virtually every major LGBT issue, to his credit, though he often did so implicitly, or even misleadingly. Of course, this makes perfect sense given his tense relationship with gay rights groups.

Since taking office, Obama has struggled to please socially conservative members of his own party, the electorate, and gay rights groups like HRC. Recently, it has looked like he might be in trouble with his liberal base, a notion he moved to quickly dismiss this Saturday night.
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