This from Liz Benjamin:

Jack Uldrich, chairman of the Minnesota Independence Party, has issued a formal call for the Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent mayor to "give serious consideration" to a White House run.

"The two-party system has catastrophically failed America," Uldrich said. "America needs a serious, credible independent to right our sinking ship and get it back on track to a prosperous future.

"There is no one better positioned than Mayor Bloomberg to accept the mantle of this immense challenge."

To which i have to add a wake-up call: Bloomberg spent $102,000,000 of his own money to become chief realtor mayor of New York City. That's $175.00 a vote.

What does it translates to? Obama won with 65,182,692. If you consider that number for a minute, not the total of people who actually voted, then that would make Bloomberg's cost for running for president a staggering $11 406 971 100. Yes, that's $11 BILLION right there.

Blommberg didn't win because of his leadership. He bought himself a voting field devoid of any real opponents. And even the guy that was supposed to not even come close to beating him, didn't play his losing card the way he should have.
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Via Hakeem Jeffries' YouTube Channel

Highlights: Smackdown of Christine Quinn, Bloomberg's War on Middle Cass Renters

Hakeem seized the moment and ended the segment with some powerful statistics.

Many thanks to Joe Silvestri for inviting me to the convo. Shout out to Brett Larson our fantastic host and to Trace Anderson and Katie Manzi, our worthy GOP opponents.

Looking forward to more of these.

Just my silly thought on Bloomberg's attempt to get on line B.

Our Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg is part of the problem and so far, even the advice of progressive thinker Andrea Batista Schlesinger (who started work for the Bloomberg campaign this past week) has not helped him think about becoming part of the solution. Will falling poll numbers wake him?

Earlier this week Mr. Bloomberg -- in a move that marks him as a principled, not just an opportunistic, disciple of Mr. Bush -- refused to allow 13-14,000 (in my book a large number) of very low income New Yorkers access to food stamps unless they were enrolled in a NYC-run work experience project In my opinion, keeping food from these people is not just cruel (and it is cruel), it's dumb. See, this NY Times editorial in Wednesday's (2-25-09)

As reported in Julie Bosman's excellent NY Times article:

While cities and states are allowed under the stimulus provision to require participation in such workfare programs, advocates for the poor decried the policy as unwise and counterproductive, particularly as the recession swells the ranks of the jobless who need help buying groceries.  read more »

We think of progressive taxation, if we think of it at all, as a ten-dollar term for making the rich pay more of their fair share. But Thursday at Noon NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn Member David Yassky, advised by the Drum Major Institute, give it a newer twist: let lower income New Yorkers pay less . Is Ms. Quinn finally turning from the darkside of the Bloomberg Empire?

There are, as it turns out, almost 225,00 very low wage households in New York City in which workers are paying NYC income taxes even though they’re exempt from NY State and Federal tax (because they fall below the State and Federal, but not the NYC, tax minimum.)

Speaker Quinn will propose today to eliminate the income tax on NYC’s lowest income workers at the fairly modest cost to the City of $72 million. This will put, I am told, $321/year on average into the hands of families. That money will be spent immediately, creating a mini-stimulus, and easing the daily life of the most hard-pressed workers.

DMI explains:  read more »