Olbermann Catches O'Reilly's Contradiction On Guantanamo

Not that it is too hard to call bullshit on Bill O'Reilly, but Olbermann did just that on his show yesterday over remarks made about Guantanamo Bay. It's a tricky subject for Bill O....then again, so is pretty much every topic that he opens his mouth about.

The Latest From The Fightin' 11th Senate District

With only a few affidavit ballots to count, the final tally is going to come down to what happens in court. Padavan's lead has gone from the seven hundreds, to the four hundreds, back to the seven hundreds and now somewhere in the five hundreds. Nearly two thousand ballots must be examined and how that turns out is ultimately up to a bunch of lawyers and a judge.

From The Daily Politics:

The players in the fight over the 11th SD recount - now almost a full month old - are due back in court at 2 p.m. this afternoon, and the focus has now shifted to some 1,750 to 2,000 ballots that were ruled invalidated by the Board of Elections back before the recanvass began.

If you ask the Democrats, this is a perfectly reasonable request and to deny it would be a move to disenfranchise voters and an act of desperation by the other side, which wants the recount to end while incumbent GOP Sen. Frank Padavan is 580 votes ahead with just 252 paper ballots left in the so-called "box."

The Republicans, of course, say it's completely out-of-the-ordinary move and a desperate, hail-Mary measure by the Democrats who know their candidate, Coundilman Jim Gennaro, is unlikely to win.

Obviously there is plenty of politics on the side for the media and blogs (myself included) to lap up. While the Republicans currently have the lead, like I've said before, nothing is set in stone and until everything is examined, the winner is still unknown. There's plenty more drama in Liz's story, so have fun with that...I just wish they'd count the ballots that show the voters who intended to go for Jim or Frank, add em' up and let us know already.

Joe Bruno's Transparency Trick Foiled By Empire Center

I read this little gem last night by E.J. McMahon that shows with a little hard work, you can do an end-run around politicians that try to deceive the public they are supposed to be serving. The Times article yesterday featuring Joe Bruno was amusing in that his responses were so blatantly smug and arrogant. The irony of the piece is not to be missed, especially with Bruno's long history of doing things in secret and kept away from every New Yorker outside his office. Here is McMahon's reply to Bruno's phony attempt at making government more open and accountable.

From The Empire Center:

Today's New York Times profile of the ex-leader (here) highlights the irony that Bruno, who had to be sued before he would release details of pork-barrel expenditures during his last term, is now "preaching the virtues of smaller, leaner, more accountable government" in his new role as chief executive of an infotech and software consulting firm. And it recounts the following:

Mr. Bruno, for example, was the first Senate leader to require the release of every internal expenditure made by the Senate.

But those reports are published only every six months, in a book format that makes it extremely difficult to examine the spending in any systematic way. (Asked about it, Mr. Bruno joked, "You noticed that, huh?")

Well, here at the Empire Center, we sure noticed. To penetrate the Legislature's deliberate opacity, we translated all the Senate and Assembly expenditure reports into searchable databases at www.SeeThroughNY.net.

Memo to Times reporter Nick Confessore: you'll find those reports at this page.

Memo to former Senator Bruno: nice try.

Nice try indeed Mr. Bruno. Joe may not realize, but the age of the internet is a beautiful thing. Transparency and accountability will come to Albany, whether crooked politicians such as Bruno like it or not. Now let's see Confessore publish those reports in the Times. I for one will be anxiously waiting to see them for all to see.

Tales From The Loony Right

If you want to know how to remain irrelevant on the political right for the next four to eight years, follow the advice of John Ziegler. He's definitely going nowhere fast.

Obama Asks Governors To Help Craft Economic Stimulus

One of the hallmarks of the Bush Administration was that George always went with his gut (controlled by Dick Cheney and other neo-cons, but that's besides the point). That type of thinking complete lack of thought that went into decision-making has completely screwed our country over the last eight years. So with the grown-ups coming to town in forty-eight days, we're going to get a President that actually listens to people, such as our nation's governors that have been pleading for assistance.

From CNN:

Obama and Biden told those at the National Governors Association meeting that the federal government needs to build a deeper relationship with the governors in order to put America on the path to long-term prosperity.

"Change is not going to come from Washington alone," Obama said.

"It's going to come from all of you. It will come from a White House and statehouses all across the country that are working together, and that's the kind of partnership I that I intend to forge as president of the United States," Obama said at the conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. "I hope that this is the beginning of laying that foundation."

Obama said he wants the governors to help draft his economic plan instead of just helping to implement it.

While Bush stayed nice and cozy inside his bubble, President Obama is committed to staying open and listening to leaders that must balance their budgets no matter what. In these times, with credit card companies restricting credit to the tune of $2 trillion dollars our Federal Government must step up and help those affected by budget cuts on the state level. Plenty of money has been wasted on the banks thanks to clowns like Bernanke and Paulson, now it is time to make some of that Federal money count, at a more local level.

Chambliss Cruises To Victory

Now that the last Senate seat has been voted on (not counting the recounters in Minnesota) the Republicans can say (and probably will) that December is a great month for them. Of course, McCain won Georgia handily and Chambliss nearly won a majority last month. Run-offs generally have lower turnout numbers so yesterday was even tougher for Jim Martin to overcome.

From the AP:

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss handed the GOP a firewall against Democrats eager to flex their newfound political muscle in Washington, winning a bruising runoff battle Tuesday night that had captured the national limelight. Chambliss' victory thwarted Democrats' hopes of winning a 60 seat filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. It came after a bitter month long runoff against Democrat Jim Martin that drew political luminaries from both parties to the state and flooded the airwaves with fresh attack ads weeks after campaigns elsewhere had ended.

It was quite the campaign after the campaign but no matter how much Martin tried, it was too hard to even come close to Saxby Chambliss. Nationally, Democrats have ample opportunities to reach 60 and beyond in 2010. As for 2008, we couldn't have made the Senate filibuster-proof anyways because Lieberman is a shaky vote and not every Senator will toe the party line on each and every bill (that goes especially for Democrats). So that issue doesn't concern me too much based on yesterday's outcome. What is sad is that Georgia returned a degenerate man to the Senate by the name of Saxby Chambliss, I hope they come to their senses when he faces the voters again in six years.

Do You Care About Health Care? Let Obama Know!

Obama's site, change.gov has gotten plenty of responses on what to do and what Americans' concerns are, but I'm sure there are more opinions out there. So let's tell his team what we want!

Lawsuit Against The Campaign Finance Board Gains Speed

When the City Council decided to trample the will of the voters in New York when they passed the term limits extension, they probably expected some outrage but no real resistance. With lawsuits against the decision in the courts, talk of overriding the bill in the Statehouse (unlikely to go anywhere, but never say never) and challengers popping up to do battle with the Bloomberg 29, the heat is truly on. Now those politicians that were starting to run for higher office but are now going with a safer re-election bid have another hurdle to jump.

From Dan Jacoby at The Daily Gotham:

On the same day that Mayor Bloomberg signed the term limits extension into law (and held that mockery of a "hearing"), the Campaign Finance Board issued an "Advisory Opinion" in which they gave people who had spent a lot of money on higher office a "do over" if they choose to run for their current seat.

It's a clearly and obviously illegal ruling, to anyone who bothers to read NYC's campaign finance law, something the CFB theoretically should have done. For those who haven't read the law, ask yourself if high-spending incumbents should be allowed to pretend they didn't spend the money, just so that they can get your tax money to spend on their campaigns, and so that their opponents' spending was limited while they went crazy. Ask yourself if the campaign finance system, which was supposedly designed to level the playing field, should be [ab]used to tilt that playing field instead.

As Liz notes, the CFB says they're just trying to make things fair. The problem with their "leveling" of the playing field, is that it gives an edge to elected officials that already starting from higher ground. That is why several challengers in next year's Council races have signed onto this lawsuit and according to Jacoby, the fairest thing for the voters would be to quash the CFB's recent decision and let the rules stand as they were before.

Pro-Impeachment Ornament To Hang On White House Christmas Tree

Amazingly, it is December already and 2008 is coming to an end. Of course that means we're in the throes of the holiday season and for those of the Christian faith, spruce and pine trees are being dressed up in millions of homes across the country.

Over at the White House, George and Laura's last tree will be adorned with a very special ornament care of an artist in Seattle. That is, at least until they get wind of this story that sweeping the blogs today.

From The Washington Post:

When Deborah Lawrence got the invitation from the White House, the Seattle-based artist decided to make a lefty political statement.

But she never expected it would hang on the official Christmas tree.

Laura Bush asked members of Congress to pick local painters to decorate ornaments for this year's 20-foot Fraser fir in the Blue Room. The globes (to be unveiled by the first lady tomorrow) are supposed to showcase something special about each congressional district. Washington state's Rep. Jim McDermott contacted a local arts organization, which asked Lawrence, a collage artist, to create the local entry.

"I was at first nauseated, then realized it was an opportunity," said Lawrence, 55, who frequently combines politics and satire in her work and saw this as the perfect way "to highlight Jim McDermott because he's a hero of mine."

Now that is an early, heartwarming Christmas story! The White House claims they'll leave it up but you never know how Bush will take the news of a little artistic ornament that speaks truth inside the Bush's current residence.

Chambliss Lies About His Record On Social Security

As I type, voters are heading to the polls down in Georgia to decide whether Chambliss returns to Washington or Jim Martin replaces him to change one corrupted seat in the Senate. Last night, in a bid to woo Georgians that want to keep social security as it is, he lied about his pro-privatization record, contradicting a statement he made this July.

Bruno's Reformation? Hell Will Freeze Over First

Joe Bruno may not be one of the three men in the proverbial room anymore, but that doesn't mean he's stopped adhering to a similar way of doing business. While he is busy paying in and out of state lawyers to keep the FBI off his trail, seventy-nine year old Joe is working hard to lobby for his friends. That isn't too surprising, but what the company in question is hawking is quite hilarious.

From The NY Times:

Over the nearly 14 years he served as Senate majority leader, Mr. Bruno became to some critics one of the symbols of Albany’s secrecy, inefficiency and profligacy. Now, as the chief executive of CMA Consulting Services, an information technology and software firm based just outside Albany, Mr. Bruno is preaching the virtues of smaller, leaner, more accountable government. (The aforementioned Web site, by the way, is called Project Sunlight.)

Where Mr. Bruno once steered hundreds of millions of dollars in economic development money to his suburban Albany district, he now pitches municipal agencies on how to save money by switching to paperless payroll systems.

The man who went to court rather than reveal details of the Senate’s pork-barrel spending now speaks proudly of his company’s role in designing a program for the state comptroller that allows reporters or the public to examine any contract between a state agency and a vendor.

The Times does a good job of fleshing out the irony in the interview and as you read it, you can tell Bruno could care less how people feel about what he's doing and how he goes about it. In a nutshell, the lobbying he's doing now comes naturally to him and whether he's selling this technology or pork bellies, it really doesn't matter. The response to his critics really says it all.

“Bruno wasn’t some rank-and-file legislator,” said Blair Horner, the legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group. “The bottom-line corporate reason is, they’re hoping that he will fatten the bottom line, that his personal relationships will help them to keep and expand the amount of government contract work.”

Indeed, some do not buy Mr. Bruno’s new enthusiasm for transparent government or his claims that it is consistent with policies he advocated as senator.

Mr. Bruno, for example, was the first Senate leader to require the release of every internal expenditure made by the Senate.

But those reports are published only every six months, in a book format that makes it extremely difficult to examine the spending in any systematic way. (Asked about it, Mr. Bruno joked, “You noticed that, huh?”)

Yeah Mr. Bruno, we've noticed, but unfortunately for those that truly believe in good government, it is nearly too late to hold him accountable for all of his secretive actions. Now the focus has to be on the here and now, and hopefully the time of Joe Bruno will come to an end shortly after the man himself leaves Albany.

UES Fundraiser For Tony Avella Tonight!

That's right boys and girls, tonight on the Upper East Side the one and only outspoken Tony Avella will be the guest of honor in support of his bid to be our next Mayor. After eight years of the reprehensible Giuliani and several under plutocratic Bloomberg, New York City needs a progressive at the helm and overall, Tony is that guy. While other candidates are asking for a grand or two, all that is requested to attend tonight is a mere twenty-five dollars (or as much as you want up to the limit).

Via Evite:

THE REVOLUTION STARTS.......NOW!

Join your fellow Progressives!

Meet and greet Councilman Tony Avella, Candidate for Mayor 2009, at a fundraiser party on December 2nd from 6:00 to 8:00 PM, 2008.

Suggested Contribution: $25/person minimum. Make your check payable to Tony Avella 2009 and send to Tony Avella 2009 PO Box 570052 Whitestone, NY 11357.

Payment accepted at door.

Council Member Tony Avella is a fighter for our city who stands up for what is right. He has spoken forcefully against an extension of term limits, fought against over development while assuring landmark preservation in our communities, and advocated for reform and more transparency in city government. Tony leads the way in the City Council in supporting animal welfare issues, including a ban on the inhumane horse-drawn carriage industry and support for humane education and pets in housing. He has been a fighter on veterans' issues and benefits. And he is committed to keeping New York City taxes as low as possible. Tony Avella is dedicated to ensuring strong and vibrant communities and better quality of life and he stands for issues that matter for real New Yorkers. He truly is a public servant and a tireless advocate for us all.

Light Refreshments & Cash bar

Joann Robertozzi, an upcoming singer, actress, producer and one part dynamo of an exciting trio, Tre Bella, will perform. They just finished a very successful engagement at the Showboat Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. And they have just finished recording their first CD.

Yeah, you can give more than $25 and if you are already busy tonight but want to help, check out his website and donate! Even if you can't spare a few dollars, give some time by signing up here. While the 2008 grassroots work is almost done, there will be plenty to do in 2009 and New York needs as much progressive activism as we can get. Supporting Tony is a good way to start.