Listen to An Angry Voicemail From A Ron Paul Supporter
Grace Meng Points Out That She Wasn't Always The Establishment Pick
Rev. Wright’s Successor Calls Ricketts Plan ‘An Attack on the Black Church’
Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s successor as pastor of Chicago’s Trinity Baptist Church, Otis Moss III, took to Twitter to comment on the New York Times‘ story about a controversial plan by a conservative Super PAC run by billionaire Joe Ricketts to attack President Barack Obama by associating him with Reverend Wright.
“We must fight this! Just got word about the structure of the ads. I will be calling on people of good will to stand with our church,” Mr. Moss wrote. “It is not about denomination or theology This is an attack on the black church, ministry and prophetic witness.” Read More
Stringer Calls Kelly’s Stop-And-Frisk Reforms A ‘Public Relations Gambit’
New York police commissioner Ray Kelly appeared before the City Council today, and said that he was adopting reforms suggested to him by Council Speaker Christine Quinn that call for greater oversight of the program and more training for officers.
But according to Manhattan BP Scott Stringer, the move was woefully inadequate.
“Today’s public relations gambit before the City Council by the NYPD does not honestly address a policing crisis which is dividing this city,” he said in a statement. ”The numbers speak for themselves: new data shows the City is on track to stop some 800,000 New Yorkers this year, the most ever. A reform plan that does nothing to reverse that trend is not real reform.” Read More
Cuomo Moves to Side-Step Bloomberg on Fingerprinting Food Stamp Recipients
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has staunchly defended New York City’s practice of fingerprinting low income residents as a prerequisite for receiving federal food stamp benefits, but it looks like Governor Andrew Cuomo will be implementing a new set of regulations to end the practice.
“There is never an excuse for letting any child in New York go to bed hungry,” Governor Cuomo said in a statement released this afternoon. “For too long, requiring finger imaging from those eligible for food stamp benefits has created an unnecessary barrier to participation in the program, causing a negative stigma and keeping food off the table for those in need. By removing this barrier, additional New Yorkers in need will be able to access the benefits they deserve without having to submit to this unneeded and burdensome requirement.” Read More
Joe Ricketts Would Never Call Obama a ‘Metrosexual, Black Abe Lincoln’
Brian Baker, the president of Joe Ricketts’s conservative super PAC, the Ending Spending Action Fund, just released a statement on behalf of Mr. Ricketts renouncing “The Ricketts Plan,” a proposal to revive the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright controversy for President Obama’s re-election campaign. Read More
Schumer Goes After Facebook Founder For ‘Disowning USA’
Yesterday, it was reported that Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin renounced his U.S. citizenship in order to avoid being hit with large tax bill when the company goes public.
Today, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer announced new legislation that would prevent such schemes.
“Mr. Saverin has decided to ‘defriend’ the United States of America just to avoid paying his taxes. We aren’t going to let him get away with it so easily,” Mr. Schumer said. “It’s infuriating to see someone sell out the country that welcomed him and kept him safe, educated him and helped him become a billionaire. This is a great American success story gone horribly wrong. We plan to put a stop to this tax avoidance scheme. There should be no financial gain from renouncing your country.” Read More
Christine Quinn Announces Stop-and-Frisk Changes
As the tension over the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policies escalates and various mayoral contenders are leaping out to get in front of this issue, Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced changes “in response to my letter and calls from others seeking reforms to stop and frisk procedures.” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly announced, Ms. Quinn said in a statement, “changes to officer training, monitoring, supervision, transparency, and accountability.”
While it’s not particularly clear if anything is necessarily being done to reduce the total number of stop-and-frisks, there will now be additional training and increased reaction to complaints about any officers accused of misconduct. In Ms. Quinn’s original letter requesting reforms, she requested “cultural sensitivity” training, which may be what Mr. Kelly will now be implementing, in some form. Read More
Obama Camp Tries To Hang Jeremiah Wright Story On Romney
A bombshell in The New York Times today revealed that a conservative Chicago billionaire is planning a $10 million ad campaign tying President Barack Obama to his controversial former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
The plan, however, appears to be backfiring. Not only did news of the ad campaign leak before any political damage could be done, but now Democrats are trying to tie the story to Mitt Romney, accusing him of acting “tepidly” and failing to John McCain’s standards of behavior. Read More
Romney Spokesman Crashes Joe Biden’s Spaghetti Dinner
While campaigning in Ohio last night, Joe Biden stopped at the Naples Spaghetti House where he crossed paths with a Romney campaign spokesman, Ryan Williams, who questioned him about his policies on coal. Mr. Williams discussed his run-in with Mr. Biden with The Politicker.
“I was sitting at a table next to him. One of his staffers seemed to inform the Vice President that I was a spokesperson for the Romney campaign,” Mr. Williams said. “The Vice President mentioned me by name, asked me to come over. I walked over, I shook his hand, he introduced me to his dinner companions, asked me to sit down. I didn’t sit down. … I asked him, I said, you know, Mr. Vice President, it’s interesting that you’re here in coal country today given your staunch opposition to coal. Do you disagree with that?” Read More
Billionaire DNAinfo Founder Joe Ricketts Commissioned Race-Baiting Obama Attack Plan
Joe Ricketts, the billionaire founder of New York media darling DNAinfo, commissioned plans for a $10 M. media campaign against President Obama’s re-election, according to a report in The New York Times. Read More
Last Lawsuit Against Redistricting Plan Stumbles
The State Legislative lines for the 2012 cycle are now set in stone.
Yesterday evening, a judge denied a Democratic request for a preliminary injunction against the redrawn map, which means that there won’t be enough time now for the trial to intervene before primary season begins for the State Senate and State Assembly elections this year.
Legal arguments against the lines based on population variances and other issues will continue, but any impact they have will be for future elections, not this one. Read More
