The NYSDC launched an effort today to gently prod Joe Bruno's caucus back to work. Cool thing: the campaign is being run exclusively online and spread out to newspaper web sites, blogs and other sites across the state. The ads will point to a site where readers can see a presentation by the governor laying out the unfinished agenda the voters sent him to Albany to enact.

The fun part: the Dems are naming names. Some of the ads are personalized for individual markets, calling out Senators Alesi and Robach in Rochester, DeFrancisco in Syracuse, plus all the Long Island Senators.

And Joe Bruno in Albany himself.

“We wanted to let New Yorkers know that Joe Bruno’s GOP Senate left early last week and left the people’s business unfinished. They were so excited to get to the golf course, or to the La-z-boy that they couldn’t manage to finish their jobs,” said State Dem Co-Chair David Pollak.

Chairwoman June O’Neil added, “It’s disgraceful that when they could find the time to vote themselves a pay raise, Senators like Kemp Hannon, John DeFrancisco and Jim Alesi couldn’t vote yes on vital pieces of legislation – including an important power plant siting bill and publicly agreed-to Wicks Law reform. These bills are key components of Governor Spitzer’s plan to revitalize our upstate communities.”

Wait, did we say ad? Here's an example, after the jump:

As I was coming back from the gym about an hour ago, I saw the mess of traffic that had accumulated at 14th Street and First Avenue.

First Avenue was blocked from 14th all the way up past 23rd. A suspicious looking package was found in the 23rd and First area.

Ironically, it's during mini-crisis like these these that downtown Manhattan turns into a pedestrians' paradise. Can't tell you how much I love it when streets and avenues are closed down here. The quiet makes you forget you're in the heart of the world's capital.

I can't wait for that $8/vehicle charge to enter downtown goes into effect.

Warning: the following post includes confusing details meant to discourage public participation. Some patience and bravery is advised.

In a stunning move of extreme waffling, the office of Melinda Katz has rescheduled the public hearing on Duffield Street from April 11 to May 1. Or maybe it will be April 17, but we won't know for sure until a few days before the meeting.

Action Advisory:
Email Christine Quinn at quinn@council.nyc.ny.us and
Melinda Katz at katz@council.nyc.ny.us

Write that the destruction of the Underground Railroad deserves a fair hearing. The City should not waddle through the seizure by eminent domain of private homes in a haphazard manner.

Stick to the announced date of May 1 for the public hearing on the Duffield Street Abolitionist homes!

In their messy attempt to help squelch any further exploration of this history, the City Council has in the space of about three weeks rescheduled the public hearing on this three times. The EDC, with AKRF (a private entity dedicated to destroying communities in the way of big development plans), spent two years studying the historical record. The 500+ page report was released 3/13/07 and the first public hearing was scheduled 3/20, giving the public no time to review the report. After some pressure from Tish James and others, they rescheduled the meeting to 4/11. On April 5 at about 5:00 pm, Council Member Katz's office let word out that the meeting will be delayed until May 1. Or maybe not.

Ok, here we go: The New York Times reports that Rudy Giuliani, lately running for President, was briefed about the mob ties of his freshly nominated police commissioner-to-be, Bernie Kerik.

Rudolph W. Giuliani told a grand jury that his former chief investigator remembered having briefed him on some aspects of Bernard B. Kerik’s relationship with a company suspected of ties to organized crime before Mr. Kerik’s appointment as New York City police commissioner, according to court records.

Mr. Giuliani, testifying last year under oath before a Bronx grand jury investigating Mr. Kerik, said he had no memory of the briefing, but he did not dispute that it had taken place, according to a transcript of his testimony.

Kerik, if your memory isn't serving, is the sleaze who carried on an affair with Judith Regan in an apartment set aside for rescue workers overlooking Ground Zero. She later resigned as publisher of her eponymous imprint after making one anti-Semitic remark too many while trying to publish O.J. Simpson's If I did it memoir.

But back to Rudy Giuliani, Saint. Let's just say this: if you're told that the guy you're nominating for police commissioner has mob ties, you have several courses of action. None of these include forgetting about that little piece of information; that is, if you even extend him the benefit of the doubt on forgetting it while under oath in the first place. People forget dinner reservations, not being told that their nominee for police commissioner has mob ties.

Lipris over at The Albany Project, quoting the barking rightwing wackjobs at the New York Sun, delivers this gem:

This is too rich. For quite some time now, many opponents of the Atlantic Yards Ratnerville project in Brooklyn, including Assemblyman James Brennan, have been trying to get a hold of the business plan one would assume the developers had submitted to the Empire State Development Corporation before the the ESDC would agree to dole out hundreds of millions in public money and other goodies to the controversial development. Brennan eventually sued ESDC last month to get his hands on the plan. There was one problem, however. The developers never submitted one and the ESDC therefore has no plan to produce. Really.

Two really simple and basic points:

One, Since FCR wants your money to build its monstrosity, the least, the absolute least they can do is tell you how they intend to spend it.

And two, this is the kind of crap that happens when you don't have a real legislature. Neither the State Assembly nor the State Senate have ever held hearings on a $4 billion development subsidized with public money and, as we're now finding out, for which the developer

Has.

Not.

Submitted.

A business plan.

If anyone can imagine a better example of a complete failure of oversight, please, I'd like to hear it.

Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass Points to Shoddy Research

MARCH 25, 2007, BROOKLYN — There is no dispute that Downtown Brooklyn was once a hotbed of Abolitionist activity. During the Civil War era, most of New York was pro-slavery, so these brave souls would bring firearms with them when going to church because they faced the real risk of being lynched.

The issue has become urgent again because developers, with their friends in City government, want to destroy a few homes to build an underground parking lot and an access road for a hotel.

Residents claim that their homes should not be taken by the City through eminent domain because there is historical proof that their homes were part of the Underground Railroad. In 2004, in order to undermine the residents, the New York Economic Development Corporation (EDC), with their private contractor AKRF, claimed that they consulted prominent historians. Unfortunately they were caught lying: Christopher Moore of the Schomburg Center came before the City Council and testified that he had not been consulted, as claimed by AKRF.

So AKRF went back to the drawing board, and on March 13, 2007, they released a 500+ page document trying to prove that there is insufficient evidence to save these houses from destruction.

There's a big story in The New York Times today, confirming what many people involved have long suspected: the NYPD's intelligence unit infiltrated and subsequently filed reports on various Progressive left political groups in New York City that were engaged with the 2004 Republican National Convention under the pretext of stopping criminal activity in opposition to that event. This also provides a case study into government dysfunction in New York on several levels.

But potential troublemakers were hardly the only ones to end up in the files. In hundreds of reports stamped “N.Y.P.D. Secret,” the Intelligence Division chronicled the views and plans of people who had no apparent intention of breaking the law, the records show.

These included members of street theater companies, church groups and antiwar organizations, as well as environmentalists and people opposed to the death penalty, globalization and other government policies. Three New York City elected officials were cited in the reports.

In at least some cases, intelligence on what appeared to be lawful activity was shared with police departments in other cities. A police report on an organization of artists called Bands Against Bush noted that the group was planning concerts on Oct. 11, 2003, in New York, Washington, Seattle, San Francisco and Boston. Between musical sets, the report said, there would be political speeches and videos.

“Activists are showing a well-organized network made up of anti-Bush sentiment; the mixing of music and political rhetoric indicates sophisticated organizing skills with a specific agenda,” said the report, dated Oct. 9, 2003. “Police departments in above listed areas have been contacted regarding this event.”

Well, the march to war with Iran may have gotten quite a boost. Seems Iran has captured 15 British Naval personnel, according to BBC news.

The men were seized at 1030 local time when they boarded a boat in the Gulf, off the coast of Iraq, which they suspected was smuggling cars...

The Ministry of Defence said: "The group boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters.

All I can say is "Oh-oh!"

Liveblogged from NBC News:

She may have a fracture on the left side and may have something suspicious on her right side. Wednesday they went to the hospital. The cancer has returned and it is malignant.

She has had a battery of results. Her cancer is bad. It is confined in bone --he is saying it is a good thing.

When it goes into the bone it is no longer curable, it is only treatable. The tumor is small and that is why they are optimistic. John is saying that many patients go on to live for a long time. It is similar to what diabetes patients have to live with.

Elizabeth says the needed to talk to their family and the kids, The kids thought that it was cool for her to loose her hair the first time and are disappointed she may not go bald again.

She is saying that every cancer survivor goes through this. They know the ache on a side, that any symptom might be putting you into alarm mode. This is something that every survivor has to live with for the rest for their life. She doesn't forsee changing anything.

She is asymptomatic. Cracking the rib was a 'fluke'. Had she not cracked the rib, she would not have had the opportunity to catch the cancer.

Looks like yet another in a long line of Halliburton Republicans is guilty of crimes. Scooter Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, has been found guilty by a jury. From Salon.com:

Eleven jurors -- the 12th was dismissed after being exposed to press reports about the case -- found Libby guilty of 1) obstructing justice by lying to the grand jury about how he learned and whom he told about Plame; 2) making a false statement by lying to the FBI about a conversation he said he had about Plame with NBC's Tim Russert; 3) committing perjury by lying to the grand jury about his conversation with Russert; and 4) committing perjury by lying about his conversation with Cooper and other reporters.

What was left off that list of charges was treason. Libby was part of a conspiracy that revealed the identity of a covert agent who was involved in the War against terrorism. Revealing that identity compromised our defense against terrorism and constitutes treason. That is the real charge that should have been leveled against Libby.

Now, what was Dick Cheney's role in all of this? Was his underling acting alone or under direction?