Joshua Malbin

Look, I appreciate it’s his normal desire to have things all ways, but David Paterson is being an even bigger weenie than usual:

Gov. Paterson said Tuesday the developers of the mosque near Ground Zero might consider moving the project – and even floated the idea of offering them state land.
…

Paterson said the anxiety felt by mosque opponents was “not without cause” and that New York still suffers from the Sept. 11 attacks.

Paterson stressed however that he has no objections to the proposed center, which houses a mosque, and that there is “no reason” why it should not be built.

Unacceptable. There is no legitimate “cause” for 9/11 victims to be upset here. Any equivocating on that point implies that there is a legitimate connection to be drawn between crazy terrorists and the world’s 1 billion Muslims, even if in the next breath you say the opposite explicitly.

Share on Facebook

Well this is an extremely big deal.

No, not the legislature finally passing the budget. That’s just hugely overdue.

This part:

Lawmakers also passed a controversial measure requiring that prisoners be counted as residents not of the mostly upstate prisons where they reside, but of the areas where they lived before they were incarcerated.

This was a long time coming. As long as people can’t vote from prison, their numbers shouldn’t be transferred to a new district.

For more on why this was important, see here:

In New York State one out of every three people who moved to upstate New York in the 1990s actually “moved” into a newly constructed prison. The State bars people in prison from voting, but their presence in the Census boosts the population of the upstate districts whose legislators favor prison expansion. Without using prison populations as padding, seven state senate districts would have to be redrawn, causing line changes throughout the state.

Share on Facebook

Saw this on Andrew Sullivan’s blog, of all places. One of his emailers gets all goopy about how great this means New York is, but the important thing is that this is a glimpse inside my favorite taxi stand! Usually a spot for Sikh taxi drivers to buy tea, on weekend nights it fills up with drunk twentysomethings looking for late-night munchies. I used to be one of those. Now I try to stay out of the East Village on weekend nights. But I still love me some Punjabi taxi stand.

Bhangra in the East Village from Derek Beres on Vimeo.

Share on Facebook

This is the first article about Andrew Cuomo in a long time that’s made me seriously consider sticking with Paterson in the primary.

Their relationship of five years has already put her at the center of a political dynasty and raised the possibility that the state’s next first lady will be a celebrity chef, decorator and party planner whose wealth and star power outstrip that of the governor himself.

Just horrifying.

Share on Facebook

Apart from my rooting on anybody who’d challenge the odious Pedro Espada, I actually know this guy and can vouch for his karaoke skills. We duetted on “Forgot About Dre” this one time and it was HYPE.

Support!

Share on Facebook

Hiram Monserrate is essentially running on pure gay-baiting. There’s nothing else for him. Mind you, he voted for gay marriage a couple of times.

Via Joe. My. God.

The “Si se puede!” at the end is in part because Monserrate, having been booted from the Democratic party, is running on the newly invented Yes We Can! party line. He’s also stolen Obama’s logo, against the wishes of the DNC.

Fortunately none of this BS seems to be working, as Peralta leads by 45 points in the latest poll.

Share on Facebook

It takes some balls, after being expelled from the NY State Senate for lying about assaulting your girlfriend, to try to regain your seat through naked gay-bashing. Hiram Monserrate is truly just vile.

Share on Facebook

Time for Mort Zuckerman to write a bitter op-ed in the Daily News explaining how he would run because all other New York and national Republicans suck, but he won’t because he loves the Republican Party so much. (I think he’s a Democrat, but he would have run as a Republican, much like Mike Bloomberg.)

The field in the battle for a New York Senate seat became a little clearer Tuesday when Mortimer B. Zuckerman announced he would not join the race.

Mr. Zuckerman, chairman and publisher of the Daily News, said personal and professional reasons were behind his decision not to challenge Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

Share on Facebook

So demonstrateth Harold Ford in his op-ed declaring his noncandidacy for the Senate in New York. Why isn’t he running? Of course it has nothing to do with not paying taxes in New York until this year, or the fact that he’s now an average of 20 points back in the primary. No, he’s just being a good party soldier.

If I run, the likely result would be a brutal and highly negative Democratic primary — a primary where the winner emerges weakened and the Republican strengthened.

I refuse to do anything that would help Republicans win a Senate seat in New York, and give the Senate majority to the Republicans.

It only makes sense, therefore, to pen a bitter op-ed in the nation’s leading newspaper that takes as many shots as possible at the current Democratic officeholder and the state Democratic party. Nothing says “I refuse to do anything that would help Republicans win a Senate seat in New York” better than, oh:

…The party bosses who tried to intimidate me so that I wouldn’t even think about running against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who had been appointed to the seat by Gov. David A. Paterson, are the same people responsible for putting Democratic control of the Senate at risk… Too few in the Democratic Party are really willing to break with orthodoxy to meet these challenges. …Voting for health care legislation that imposes billions in new taxes on New Yorkers and restricts federal financing for abortions is not good for the people of this state. Voting against critical funds necessary to ensure the survival of the financial services industry — the economic backbone of this state — is not good for the people of New York.

Who could be so delusional as to think that standing up for banks and stopping health care reform is Democrats’ best chance for retaining the Senate in November?

Share on Facebook

Here’s the NY Times big story that was supposed to make David Paterson resign. It won’t, but he really really really won’t win now, as opposed to just really one time.

I assume that when we were all waiting for it before (around Feb. 8, remember), that probably had to do with this bit:

…just before she was due to return to court to seek a final protective order, the woman got a phone call from the governor, according to her lawyer. She failed to appear for her next hearing on Feb. 8, and as a result her case was dismissed.

Share on Facebook