I took some heat for posting about Democratic City Council Candidate Kevin Kim hiring Michael Tobman as a consultant given Tobman's past record of Karl Rove style tactics and recent record of being part of losing campaigns. I suppose the reason I got heat was because I quoted a Republican source in my article, though my info regarding Tobman's poor record on both ethical and efficacy grounds was based largely on my own experiences.  read more »

Bloomberg and his Trained Surrender Monkeys on the City Council overturned the will of the voters when they overturned term limits. And this was a widely unpopular move. Poll after polls showed dissatisfaction. Many talked of a backlash from the voters. What was this backlash? In the end, 24/29 City Council members who voted for the Bloomberg Putsch against the will of the voters won re-election, many overwhelmingly, some unopposed. Add to that Bloomberg's win and you have 25/30 of the people who overturned the decision of millions of New York voters handily won re-election. Really shows you the strength of NYC voters. You can do anything to them and they don't do anything back. Which empowers Bloomberg and his allies, empowers the local party machines and developers (the number one source of political contributions in the city). These are the power brokers: Bloomberg, the machines and developer money.  read more »

So it has been a long and tiring primary/runoff/general election. And the net result is not really that different from where we started. Money and machines won most races. Corruption paid off in most cases. A few interesting upsets occurred to keep things interesting, but by and large, things stay the same.

The mayor will be the same pro-business, anti-labor dictator he has always been. In fact I expect him to be worse. He has just pulled off one of the biggest coups of recent history by flat out telling the voters they don't matter. It doesn't matter if the voters want term limits, Bloomberg will push those limits aside like Moses parting the Red Sea and simply spend any amount of money to win. NYC voters, $200 per vote. His ego will of course be boosted by this and he is bound to feel like there are no checks or balances on his power. And by and large he is right. NYC is run more dictatorially than any city I have lived in. That struck me during Giuliani's reign and it strikes me even more since the Bloomberg putsch. NYC doesn't need voters. Just sit back and trust Papa Bloomberg. I predict a bad third term.  read more »

After 16 continuous years of Republican mayors in New York City, you would think that there would be an urgency amongst democrats (nationwide) to get rid of this present pompous and arrogant mayor Michael Bloomberg: well you could have fooled me. After watching President Barack Obama (and surely his political director /Patrick Gaspard too) insult the democrat’s nominee William (Billy) Thompson, with what must be described as the worst half-assed endorsement ever given to a mayoral candidate for a major political party, I am demanding an explanation from the White House.

What the hell is going on?

The democrat’s primary took place on Tuesday 15th September, 2009; there were exactly seven weeks to the general election; you can’t tell me that in those seven weeks the White House did not schedule a few campaign appearances with the nominee (Billy Thompson) for Barack and Michelle Obama, Joe Biden and his wife, the Clintons, et al.

Who dropped this ball?  read more »

Come next Tuesday 3rd November 2009, Mr. Carrie Solages will be on the ballot for County Clerk of Nassau. This Long Island native is a thirty year old lawyer employed at his family’s law firm (Solages and Solages). He has been described as “the young rising star of the Nassau County Democratic Party”. This description came from none other than Thomas (Tom) R. Suozzi himself: Nassau’s County Executive. Suozzi made this comment last May when he nominated Solages for the post.

Mr. Solages has been a member of the Nassau County Commission on Human Rights since 2007, and was an assistant District Attorney in the Bronx before starting with this law firm. He was born on Long Island to a black immigrant couple from the Caribbean nation of Haiti. If elected he will be the first black person to have ever held this position. Many Caribbean-Americans here (and not just Haitian-Americans) are quite proud of this candidate; expect a bump in turnout in certain parts of the county.  read more »