No, we know, that's not a lot of money for Bloomberg, a guy worth $25 billion. (In fact, it's the equivalent of someone with a net worth of $100,000 donating $1.) But it's still nice of him. Don't be like that.
Read more posts by Dan Amira
Filed Under: equal rites ,michael bloomberg ,politics
The NYPD and Manhattan district attorney announced charges today against 64-year-old Mitchell "Mickey" Collins and fifteen others from various Harlem crews — including the East River Army, Six-Net, and Total Money Gang — for selling about 88 illegal firearms to undercover officers over the last ten months. The department also seized more than 100 weapons in the operation they dubbed "Mickey Mouse Trap," because they had to call it something.
Read more posts by Joe Coscarelli
Filed Under: guns ,crimes and misdemeanors ,harlem ,nypd
As expected, the soda industry has banded together with local New York City restaurants in an attempt to stop the Bloomberg administration's restriction on sugary drinks over sixteen ounces. According to the Times, the lawsuit charges that the Board of Health did not have the power to pass the rule, which got the go-ahead last month. Consumers concerned about their right to buy a cola the size of a 2year-old child are one thing, but only those whose bottom-line could be affected are really giving this fight a go.
Read more posts by Joe Coscarelli
Filed Under: soda ban ,lawsuits ,the third terminator ,michael bloomberg
*If you live in Denmark and you want a new iPhone and you not only have a small penis but you have the smallest penis out of all the men who send photos of their penises to a certain Danish "erotica site." For everyone else, nothing has changed.
Read more posts by Dan Amira
Filed Under: tiny penises ,it's friday ,denmark
The outing of Reddit's king troll, which sent the site into such a tizzy this week, confirms pretty much what you'd expect: He's a cat-loving 49-year-old white guy with a mustache and a bunch of creepy interests. And soon enough, he'll be jobless.
Read more posts by Joe Coscarelli
Filed Under: the internet ,reddit ,gawker ,feeding the trolls
That's how many people watched the vice-presidential debate, according to Nielsen. The number is down sharply from the 69.9 million who tuned in for 2008's debate, but that included Sarah Palin at a time when people cared about Sarah Palin.
Read more posts by Dan Amira
Filed Under: master debaters ,politics
A single bullet shattered a glass window at the Obama campaign's Denver office yesterday at around 3 p.m. While there were people working inside at the time, nobody was hit. The police are studying surveillance video for a vehicle that might be linked to the shooting.
Read more posts by Caroline Bankoff
Filed Under: barack obama ,politics ,colorado ,scary things
Five months after a jury convicted the former State Senate powerbroker (and Four Amigos alumnus) on four counts of theft, Pedro Espada Jr. stood in Brooklyn federal court yesterday and pled guilty to one charge of tax evasion. "Yes, Your Honor, I accept responsibility," he said, although he didn't apologize for embezzling $400,000 from his Bronx healthcare charity, notes the New York Times. Espada's confession was part of a deal with the government, whereby remaining charges against him will be dropped and he won't contest his prior convictions.
Though Espada said he felt "relief" that he can now move on with his life, he still faces up to seven years in prison and a wrecked reputation. Hence, this gloating statement from Governor Andrew Cuomo: "Mr. Espada's reaction was to lash out again and again and to falsely disparage and accuse my office of engaging in a politically motivated witch hunt. Today, I give Mr. Espada the last word — when he says, 'Guilty.'"
Read more posts by Andre Tartar
Filed Under: politics ,pedro espada jr. ,pedro espada ,crimes and misdemeanors ,tax evasion
During Thursday night's Vice-Presidential debate, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan had a particularly heated exchange over the circumstances surrounding the September 11th attack on the United States consulate in Benghazi. Ryan accused the Obama administration of failing to demonstrate "leadership" by initially blaming the incident on that Innocence of Muslims movie you may have heard about. He also suggested that White House officials had not ensured that the building was properly protected.
Biden dismissed the charges as "malarkey," and went on to say that the administration had not been told that the Benghazi team had requested additional security. The Romney campaign seized on the statement, using it to accuse the Obama administration of contradicting State Department officials who, earlier this week, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that there had been requests to extend the tour of a 16-member military security team in Libya. (Though it's unlikely that the team could have prevented the attack, as they were based 400 miles away in Tripoli.)
White House spokesman Jay Carney clarified Biden's remarks in a Friday statement explaining that decisions about security in Libya were made by midlevel State Department security officials, and did not involve Hillary Clinton. "There was no actionable intelligence regarding the Benghazi facility" that could have prevented the deaths of four Americans there, he said. Carney added that saying otherwise was part of "an effort here to politicize this, to turn this into an issue in the campaign." Later, Clinton herself told reporters, "There is nobody in the administration motivated by anything other than trying to understand what happened. We do not have all the answers. No one in this administration has ever claimed otherwise."
Unsurprisingly, the Romney campaign was not satisfied. During a Richmond, Virginia rally on Friday, Romney said that "there are more questions [about Benghazi] that came out of last night because the vice president directly contradicted the sworn testimony of State Department officials." He added that Obama and Biden were "doubling down on denial, and we need to understand exactly what happened." Meanwhile, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Ryan repeated much of his language from the debate, telling supporters, "We’re talking about blame. First they blame a YouTube video and a nonexistent riot, then when the country is getting upset about it, they blame Romney-Ryan for getting people upset about it." A vicious cycle indeed.
Read more posts by Caroline Bankoff
Filed Under: politics ,joe biden ,mitt romney ,paul ryan ,hillary clinton ,libya
Ed Koch's relationship with the Obama campaign has been pretty loveless over the past few months. However, the former New York City mayor continues to tepidly support the president, despite their differences of opinion when it comes to Israel (among other things.) So, you can't blame Israel's richest cheerleader, billionaire Mitt Romney-backer Sheldon Adelson, for at least trying to get Koch on his team. During his traditional Saturday lunch circle, Koch recalled a recent visit Adelson made to his office.
"His opening line was, 'People have told me you're the only person in the world that can elect Romney in Florida,'" Mr. Koch said. "I said: 'Don't be ridiculous. It is not true,'" he added. "I wanted to say, 'Well maybe it's partially true.'"
Adelson's reasoning is based on Koch's popularity among Jewish retirees, and it seems the visit wasn't entirely unprompted. A former prosecutor at the lunch volunteered that he'd told a friend of Adelson's that Koch, who has cited health concerns as the reason he's stopped campaigning for Obama, might be swayed by a call from Romney himself. No news on whether Romney's called the 88-year-old New Yorker, but it looks like a charm offensive is certainly afoot.
Read more posts by Andre Tartar
Filed Under: politics ,ed koch ,sheldon adelson ,mitt romney ,election 2012 ,israel ,flattery
Two weeks ago, people arriving at the Barclays Center for Jay-Z's opening night shows were sent through airport-style metal detectors, as were those who showed up for the Harlem Globetrotter game last Sunday. Meanwhile, attendees of Barbra Streisand's Thursday Brooklyn homecoming concert were merely "wanded," notes the New York Post. Having taken into account the demographic differences between your average Jay-Z and/or Harlem Globetrotters fan and your average Babs devotee, some visitors accused the stadium of racial profiling.
When reached by the Post, a Barclays Center spokesman insisted that the different security standards were "absolutely not" racial profiling, but an attempt to minimize the long lines that plagued earlier events. Still, it doesn't look very good. As Brooklyn Councilwoman Letitia James put it, "There shouldn't be a double standard. […] It shouldn’t matter if you come by limousine, subway or your own two feet." Even if those feet are clad in sensible flats as opposed to sneakers.
Read more posts by Andre Tartar
Filed Under: barclays center ,jay-z ,barbra streisand ,harlem globetrotters ,double standards
The victims, a 38-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man, were reportedly killed by a lone gunman in the parking lot of Co-op City's Holiday Motel early Saturday morning. According to witnesses, the suspect (described as a bald man) ignored the woman's cries of "Don't do it! Don't do it!" before shooting the pair and speeding off blue Honda sedan.
Read more posts by Caroline Bankoff
Filed Under: the bronx ,crimes and misdemeanors
This photo of the not-so-subtle look, taken at Friday's campaign rally in Lancaster, Ohio, doesn't really require further description. (A Romney spokesperson went with "reprehensible.") We don't even want to know what the front of the shirt says.
Read more posts by Caroline Bankoff
Filed Under: mitt romney ,politics ,racism
Despite telling the New Yorker earlier this year that he planned to stay out of the 2012 election, Bruce will join Bill onstage in Parma, Ohio this Thursday. It's not clear whether the appearance will have a music-playing component, but we sincerely hope that Clinton uses it as an opportunity to bust out his saxophone.
Read more posts by Caroline Bankoff
Filed Under: bruce springsteen ,bill clinton ,politics ,dynamic duos
According to a new Siena College poll, 47 percent of New York state residents believe that they are worse off financially than they were four years ago. Only 37 percent said they are better off and — while the report did not say how many city people were included in the sample — we're pretty sure that at least some of those 37-percenters are Manhattanites.
Read more posts by Andre Tartar
Filed Under: economy ,new york state ,new york city ,polls ,the other 47 percent
The media mogul of a certain age has been made hip to what his more youthful counterparts are up to, and he is impressed: "Who's heard of VICE media?" Murdoch asked the Twitterverse today. "Wild, interesting effort to interest millenials who don't read or watch established media. Global success." Sure, the story of the Do's and Don'ts clearinghouse's transformation into an 800-person digital news and entertainment machine isn't exactly breaking news, but we guess there's a chance that Murdoch was the only old schooler to not see Page One.
He also took the time to address a more familiar topic: the election. Today, he focused on the "huge spending" underway in Ohio and concluded that, "Obama tv buying operation infinitely smarter." Of course, the bar for that is pretty low.
Read more posts by Caroline Bankoff
Filed Under: scandal-stained wretches ,rupert murdoch ,vice ,media
Thirty minutes after Mitt Romney declared war on Big Bird and PBS in the first Presidential debate, an LA animation executive and a political science student in Idaho were on the phone, plotting a counter-attack: The Million Muppet March is exactly what it sounds like, and it will take place November 3rd at the National Mall in Washington. (Obviously, the Sesame Street creatures are not technically Muppets, but we're sure they have a lot of common goals.) The group's Facebook page doesn't quite have a million fans yet, but it does have 13,500 likes and a YouTube tutorial on how to make your own sock puppet. Now, there are two (hopefully) meme-generating debates in between now and the first week of November, so it's possible that enthusiasm for the idea might fade in the meantime. On the other hand, people really love puppets.
Read more posts by Andre Tartar
Filed Under: pbs ,protests ,big bird ,mitt romney ,the million muppet march
Robert Gibbs, a senior Obama campaign adviser, sat down earlier today with CNN's Candy Crowley (the moderator of Tuesday's town hall-style Presidential debate) and promised that President Obama would be far more "passionate" behind the podium this time around. "He knew when he walked off that [Denver] stage, and he also knew as he watched the tape of that debate, that he has to be more energetic." Gibbs also gave an updated assessment of Mitt Romney's runaway win in the first debate. Having previously called it a "masterful performance" (built on "fundamental dishonesty"), he's now calling it "magical and theatrical." Since everything that politicians and their campaign operatives ever say is thoroughly and doubly fact-checked, we're guessing that the Obama team must've discovered Ohio Senator Rob Portman's side job as a Wiccan — tutored by Christine "I'm Not a Witch" O'Donnell, perhaps — and unearthed footage of a secret GOP drama club staging of Wicked, where Romney plays a suit-wearing, data-guzzling Wizard.
Rather than lower expectations for his own candidate — every campaign's go-to pre-debate strategy — it seems that Gibbs is out to characterize Romney as an actor who got lucky (or got away with a little political sleight of hand). Not this time, he pledged.
But now Obama has a lot to prove. Vice-President Biden may have re-energized a panicky Democratic base on Thursday, but there's little evidence that he or Paul Ryan swayed voters in any serious way, and Mitt Romney's post-debate bump looks to have calcified. According to Nate Silver, 15 polls from across the "skewed" and "unskewed" spectrum show Romney up an average 4.6 points this Friday as compared to before the October 3 debate — which, at this stage of the game, is (channeling Biden) "a big fucking deal."
In a race as neck-and-neck as this one suddenly is, you can be sure that both sides will pull out all the stops in the weeks to come, and possibly even a political wizard's kettle or two if things look dire.
Read more posts by Andre Tartar
Filed Under: politics
For those who have unsubscribed to the Obama campaign's e-mail blasts: As of today, four million people have donated to the campaign and the DNC more than 10 million times, raising just shy of $1 billion for the president'e re-election effort.
Read more posts by Andre Tartar
Filed Under: politics ,money primary ,barack obama
Arlen Specter, the party-switching former Pennsylvania senator who made what many consider to be the deciding vote on Obamacare, died today at his Philadelphia home after a months-long battle with cancer, reports the Associated Press. While Specter was Republican for most of his 30-year career, he caused a right wing uproar when he voted for President Obama's stimulus package in 2009 — one of only three GOP Senators to do so — and two months later switched to the Democratic Party after finding himself "increasingly at odds with the Republican philosophy." At 7:05 on the morning of December 24, 2009, Specter voted with the rest of his newfound party to break a Republican filibuster and pass President Obama's healthcare law. Mitt Romney and the conservative Club for Growth later called him the "crucial 60th vote."
As it happens, Arlen Specter finished his political career in January 2011 — he lost a primary bid for his own seat in 2010 — back in the same party where he began in the sixties, as a Democratic assistant district attorney in Philadelphia. But his membership was brief. After making a name for himself locking up corrupt Teamsters bosses and working on the Warren Commission (investigating President John F. Kennedy's assassination), Specter won the election for Philadelphia district attorney and soon after switched to the Republican Party.
Specter ultimately made it into the U.S. Senate as part of the Reagan wave of 1980. (He'd already tried once, unsuccessfully, before making a failed bid for governor.) Seven years later, he proved his centrist roots by blocking the Supreme Court nomination of Yale Law School professor and avowed originalist Robert H. Bork, earning himself plenty of enemies on the right. Four years later, he grilled Annita Hill during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, accusing her of "flat-out perjury," earning himself plenty of enemies in the women's movement. In late 2004, he was named chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Specter was, it seemed to many, an equal-opportunity adversary and advocate: As a member of the appropriations committee, he funneled federal dollars to stem cell research, not exactly a cause close to the GOP's pro-life heart. Looking back, he may not have been loved by many in his party, or even been trusted by Democrats after his 2009 conversion, but he was one of the few centrists left in an increasingly polarized and partisan Congress.
Read more posts by Andre Tartar
Filed Under: obits ,arlen specter ,politics
