Doubt the headline's premise? Check out this YouTube of audio from the Rush Limbaugh show, featuring a rendition of

Barack

Negro

by an Al Sharpton impersonator.

Hello, Federal Communications Commission?

"You don't need to be smart to be President."
- J.C. Watts, R-OK, referring to George Bush, quoted by the Washington Post, 06.11.2000

...and...

“Everybody likes Tom DiNapoli,” one of his supporters said during the vote. Mr. Silver argued that Mr. DiNapoli was the most qualified, “based on his demeanor, integrity and ability to get along with people, staff and others.”
- The New York Times, 02.08.2007

I've got nothing against Carl Kreuger, really. I know he means well here. But surely there's better legislation he could be spending his time on.

Having rescued the populace from dancing, trans-fats, and the Mr. Softee jingle (actually, credit for that last one), the lawmakers of New York now propose to save us from our ipods:

New Yorkers who blithely cross the street listening to an iPod or talking on a cell phone could soon face a $100 fine. [...]

Kruger says he will introduce legislation on Wednesday to ban the use of gadgets such as Blackberry devices and video games while crossing the street. [...]

"[W]hat's happening is when they're tuning into their iPod or Blackberry or cell phone or video game, they're walking into speeding buses and moving automobiles. It's becoming a nationwide problem."

I presume that some Senator will follow up with legislation forbidding us to daydream about Eliza Dushku while stepping off the curb?

Might I suggest an entire menu of rather-more-effective options for policymakers seeking to reduce pedestrian fatalities?

Update: As a commenter has pointed out, there are a lot of things to have against Senator Kreuger. I apologize for the moment of gentility, especially in light of my earlier post. Back to the trenches.

Or should we describe these as Cujo in the making?

Answer after the jump.

No wonder Matt had a huge grin on his face after this happened. I was so oblivious about who she was, I took it as one lesser mortal trying to upstage this goddess and blogdiva.

Oh yeah baby, I'm having a moment here.

The Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting was exactly that --a meeting to discuss the order of business within the DNC and it's caucauses. Fascinating stuff to witness for someone who is as clueless as I am on what people actually do within political parties.

So, during the general session there was some kind of a discussion lull involving financial reports. I stepped out to get a soda --an endeavor that at the horrid Washington Hilton took an eternity to complete.

When I come back to my seat, I see a woman sitting on my chair --notwithstanding the fact I had left my laptop, purse, camera, podcasting gear and basically everything that no self-respecting blogdiva would blog without.

My first thought was "bitch, get off my seat". Being the marginally professional diva that I am, I calmly requested the woman's attention and said to her : "Excuse me, you're in my seat."

Now, you have to understand something about this : This woman happened to be sitting in the credentialed bloggers section. This was were a big chunk of the top bloggers were covering the action. We were even making fun of Ezra loosing his coolness credentials because he was working that day and had to sit in the press section.

Several published reports - here's Norman Oder - indicate that Barclay's, the British bank recently in the news for sponsoring the Atlantic Yards arena, is sending out cease and desist letters to publications that have weighed in on the story.

We're still waiting, but here are a few thoughts. All correspondence should be addressed to editors – at – dailygotham – dot – com, by the way, just to be helpful. If we get something, we will publish it.

The bank asserts that it, contrary to published reports, had no connections to the slave trade, and that its founders were in fact abolitionists. There's no reason to doubt the latter assertion – Quakers, such as the founders of Barclay's, were in fact a driving force behind the early British abolitionist movement, which concluded in the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. The trade in slaves, which is at issue here, was banned by Act of Parliament in 1824; the Slave Trade Act banned the practice within the British Empire and, more importantly, was extra-territorial in its application, giving the Royal Navy the right to intercept slavers on the high seas. In consequence, the large-scale trade in slaves ceased, much to the annoyance, one might add, of the American slave states and their bankers on Wall Street.

So I cruise on over to the web site of Wingnut Maureen Maureen O'Connell, mainly to check whether she's got any mention of a woman's right to choose (nope) or has finally acknowledged being a republican (ditto). These are sore subjects, it seems, for that campaign.

While there, I checked her District Map page, reproduced above. And here's my question: what do the shadings of that map signify?

Please tell me the shades of brown don't stand for 'this is where the brown people live'. That would be just unbelievably crass.

[Update]: Okay, Okay, it's not about the brown people. Still, considering the republican track record, it's not as if that would be a totally unheard-of assumption.

Okay, take a deep breath New Yorkers. It seems our former Mayor may have decided to run for President of the loony-bin rather than for the United States of America. An Op-Ed published early this morning by Giuliani and another possible Presidential contender Newt Gingrich in the Wall Street Journal is raising a lot of eyebrows.

First off they realize that civil projects are necessary and that military solutions will not work. Whew, at least they are smarter than the current President. Their main idea is to create a job corps protected by U.S. troops to improve the city with public works and what not. Then they can buy goods with the money they earn and in turn everyone can be happy and peaceful. Why will this work when things have been falling to pieces for the last four years? I'll let them say it in their own words.

There are many lessons from the successful welfare reforms in New York City that can be readily applied in Iraq. In the early 1990s, New York City suffered an average of 2,000 murders a year while more than 1.1 million people--one out of every seven New Yorkers--were unemployed and on welfare. Too many neighborhoods were pervaded by a sense of hopelessness that came from a combination of high crime, high unemployment and despair. "Workfare" proved an excellent method to change this destructive decades-long paradigm. It required able-bodied welfare recipients to work 20 hours a week in exchange for their benefits. In the process, we reasserted the value of the social contract, which says that for every right there is a responsibility, for every benefit an obligation.

Time to wake up boys. Iraq is NOTHING like New York City. Not now, not in the early 90s, not ever! Two thousand murders in a year is a terrible statistic in any city, but in Baghdad the death toll easily top 2,000 each month and is constantly rising! Their solution is utterly implausible because Giuliani and Gingrich are ignoring the reality of what is going on in Baghdad and Iraq.

Rubyji is not the only one to have noticed the John McCain ads that have been popping on the site lately.

Last week I got pinged by Azi Paybarah, of the New York Observer's Politicker fame. I guess Azi needed to check out how babelicious I am and was perusing my (soon to be updated) bio and photo at lizasabater.com.

To his horror, he found this :

Yes, that's a John McCain ad right next my mug.

Now, there's the "sensible" explanation for this freakish political mashup and then there's the conspiracy theory. The explanation, though, will shed light into some of my web development skills and the techniques I have used to develop my sites.

So grab yourself a cup of coffee, pull up a chair and get yourself comfortable. Some major geekatude is coming your way.

Empire Zone does a nice job of summarizing Glenn Beck's musings on drowning New York City.

According to a CNN transcript of the program “Glenn Beck on Headline News,” when it was suggested that a hurricane could cause a 20- to 25-foot storm surge in New York City, Mr. Beck said, “Actually, that would clean the streets out. It might not be bad.” Liberal blogs have cried foul, noting that studies show such a storm would cause “heavy loss of life.” One local blog’s summary: “Glenn Beck wants to kill you.” (It should be noted his show is based here.)

So you have to wonder: why aren't people talking about this? And why does the man still have a job?

As the Zone notes, it's the liberal blogs, pretty much alone, that are talking about this; certainly not the rightwing blogs (who are more interested in hysterically yapping about war with Mexico and muttering darkly about their crypto-terrorist luggage). You might think that those folks would occasionally wonder if their allies aren't bigger threats than whatever it is that they exercise themselves over so loudly and often. But that would require a bit of critical distance from the rightwing Kool-Aid, and that's a step none of these folks seem ready or able to take.