(X-posted in modified form from The Albany Project.)

Our spring intern at The Albany Project is beyond awesome. Many of you read about him in the many diaries about the DFA scholarship program to Netroots Nation as I mercilessly flogged his candidacy at every opportunity. Young Robert harding has been tirelless in his efforts to help us build netroots infrastructure in New York and has proven himself to be a peerless asset to the New York blogosphere. Through the efforts of many of us here in the Empire State and many of you around the country, Robert was awarded one of those scholarships. Now we need your help once again to make sure he gets to use it.

How you can help on the flip...

Much like a doctor on ER I called the time of death of he New York Republican Party tonight at 9:38 pm EST. That was the moment that there was no way in hell that they could win the state Senate special election we weren't even supposed to be competitive in, yet were running away with. This one was supposed to be a walk for the GOP. It wasn't.

More on the flip...

X-posted from the albany project

Former Army Captain Jon Powers, the man who will beat the Bush rubber stamping, pedophile coddling Tom Reynolds next year, picked up the endorsement of former NATO Commander General Wesley Clark today. From an emailed press release:

Clarence, NY –

Jon Powers, NY-26 Congressional Candidate has announced the endorsement of General Wesley K. Clark.  

Fittingly, the Iraq war veteran's announcement that Clark is supporting his candidacy came just days after Veterans Day.  

"General Clark is someone I have admired for a long time both professionally and personally," Powers said.  "It gives me great pride to know he sees in our campaign the same values of service, accountability, and leadership by example that he himself has demonstrated in his service to our country."

More on the flip...

I guess we now know what the Red Staters were alluding to when they warned yesterday about "more bad news this week from DOJ."

Read 'em and weep, GOoPs. The Inspector General at DOJ is investigating whether Gonzo lied under oath about a number of subjects, to Congress no less. Oh, and they are also looking at whether Gonzo "sought to improperly influence a witness who was under investigation by Congress and the Justice Department."

Really.

Justice Dept. Investigating Gonzales's Testimony

The Justice Department is investigating whether departing Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales gave false or misleading testimony to Congress on a broad range of issues, including the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program and the removal of nine U.S. attorneys last year, the lead investigator said today.

The disclosure by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine shows that internal investigations that began with the prosecutor firings have widened substantially to include a focus on Gonzales's actions and statements.

More on the flip...

(x-posted from the albany project)

This is a hugely important bill for New York, but also for the rest of the nation. This coalition and this type of legislation is replicable elsewhere. It's the reason it's gonna be so damn hard to pass because the TelCos know that if we can pass something this good through a dysfunctional cesspool like Albany, it can be done just about anywhere.

The post as it appears at TAP:

Unfinished Business: Pass The Telecom Reform Act

The Legislature left Albany last week with much unfinished business. The Governor issued a statement expressing his disappointment with lawmakers for so abruptly abandoning a number of viatl pieces of legislation before leaving for home.

This record is totally unacceptable.

New Yorkers expect and deserve dedicated and aggressive action to revive the upstate economy and reform state government.

...

In the days and weeks ahead, I will be traveling the state to remind lawmakers of their obligation to address pressing issues.

MUCH more on the flip...

(x-posted from the albany project)

I can understand why Wingnut Extraordinaire Tom Tancredo would skip a debate sponsored by Univision, the nation's largest Spanish language broadcaster (and fifth largest network overall) -namely that he's a single issue nutjob and that issue involves demonizing brown folks who speak Spanish. But, why on Earth is New York's Junior Senator skipping the debate, especially given that Hillary's campaign believe that they have the most to gain from engaging Hispanics in 2008? Seriously, what gives, Hillary?

Clinton tunes out Univision debate

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is going to turn down the Univision TV network's invitation to participate in what would be the first presidential debates to be conducted in Spanish, while the other major candidates are undecided.

Much more on the flip...

X-posted at the albany project.

During last year's campaign then candidate Eliot Spitzer repeatedly affirmed his support for full marriage rights, not civil unions, for same sex couples. I personally heard him more than once proclaim that when he became Governor full marriage rights for same sex couples would "be the law of the land in New York state." Today he is keeping his promise to introduce legislation to extend full marriage equality to same sex couples.

Spitzer Offers Gay Marriage Bill Today -- Friday, April 27

A senior official in Eliot Spitzer's administration has confirmed to Gay City News that the governor will introduce his program bill enacting marriage equality for same-sex couples on Friday, April 27.

More on the flip...

Let me preface this by saying that I have yet to see any hard, credible evidence that the British sailors and marines were in Iranian territorial waters when they were seized and that I believe that the onus of proof is certainly upon Iran to make the case as they were the ones who precipitated an international incident by taking those personnel prisoner. I also do not approve of the treatment described by those folks upon their return to the UK.

That said, who the hell do we think we are to "condemn" the treatment those poor souls received at the hands of the Iranians?

US condemns Iranian treatment of Britons

CRAWFORD - The White House on Friday condemned as "unfortunate and extremely disappointing" any mistreatment by Iran of British naval personnel held captive by Tehran for roughly two weeks.

"What the sailors said this morning is unfortunate and extremely disappointing if they were treated inappropriately in any way," national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters.

More gut busting gall on the flip...

(Crossposted from the albany project)

I say "just might" because he isn't an announced candidate yet, but, should he officially throw his hat in the ring, I think he's got an excellent chance of ridding us of the child predator enabling, pedophile coddling Tom Reynolds, who just happens to be the most recent chair of the NRCC. The Buffalo News reports that Iraq War vet and founder of War Kids Relief, one Jonathan Powers is mulling a run at him for New York's 26th Congressional seat. I really like what I see.

So, just who is Jonathan Powers? Find out on the flip...

Originally posted at the albany project.

Seriously. I know that being a Republican and all, you are predisposed to both extra-legal surveillance and, ya know, lying about it, but please, for the love of Fiorello LaGuardia, please stop bullshitting me. It's unseemly and it makes you look like an even bigger ass. Today I read in the New York Times that you had to unleash the NYPD on all those "potential terrorist" and "anarchist" groups that may have been "planning to cause or take advantage of any disruptions", but that "We were not keeping track of political activities" and "We have no interest in doing that."

Bullshit. You know it and so do I.

Originally posted at the albany project

If nothing else, John Edwards is a trooper. Hours after a press conference announcing his wife's cancer recurrence, Edwards made scheduled appearance in NYC as part of DL21C's "Road to the White House" series. Though he was obviously and quite understandably tired, he soldiered on and gave what appeared to be an only slightly modified stump speech. He did touch on the events of the previous 48 hours a few times and the capacity crowd received him very, very warmly. Much of the chatter before his arrival was simply about how amazed many folks were that this event was still happening.

The contrast between last night's event and last week's appearance by Wes Clark was pretty stark in some ways. First, while Clark's event was certainly very well attended, there was virtually no press present. Every TV outlet in town had satellite trucks out front of the venue last night. There was also quite a line of folks waiting to get in to see Edwards. It seemed everyone in town wanted to be a part of this event.

Ok, "Breaking" but, hardly surprising. (x-posted at the albany project)

This just in to the least surprising news of the week  dept, Eric Massa has just announced that he will indeed run again for New York's 29th Congressional seat in 2008.

Massa to run again in 2008

Democrat will take another shot after narrow '06 loss to incumbent Kuhl

Democrat Eric Massa, who nearly unseated incumbent Rep. John R. Kuhl Jr., R-Hammondsport, last November, will seek the 29th District Congressional seat again next year.

Massa announced today that he is officially opening an exploratory committee to prepare for the contest.

More Massa and the Mau Mauing of Randy Kuhl on the flip...

(Adapted from a post at the albany project)

This could be the beginning of a whole new era in the relationship between the NY Democratic party and the progressive net/grassroots. I certainly hope so.

The post as it appears at TAP on the flip...

adapted from a post at the albany project

New York State Senate Republicans are awfully sore losers and, well, they are taking it out on the pooties. Seriously.

Some Background: Republicans, who control our state Senate, actually lost a seat this year (Woo-hoo! We won a seat! ). Actually, they lost a seat this year that they lost two years ago, but that's another diary.

The loser? One Nick Spano. Seems Spano promised all sorts of state money (we call them pork "member item" grants here in New York) to various organizations in his district during the campaign. Those grants were approved before the vote.

Then he lost. Now the GOoPers are taking their pork and going home.

The full TAP post and a call for help on the flip...

X-posted at the albany project

What does "No Reform/No Raise" mean? It's simple, really.

The New York state Legislature has the third highest pay in the nation - base pay of $79,500 for what is at best a part time job - and yet they are regarded by many as the most dysfunctional state legislature in the nation. It's true that state lawmakers haven't had a raise in 8 years, but then again, what exactly have they done to earn one? In our opinion, not all that much.

This hasn't stopped newly minted state Senate Minority Leader Smith from floating the idea of raising pay for legislators in the upcoming special session. To his credit, Smith has spoken of such a raise while at the same time speaking about passing badly needed reforms.

Reform first, we say. Now, we all know why Smith and others are interested in seeking a raise now in the special session. A sitting legislature can not raise its own pay. If they don't get it now, they'll have to wait another two years to see those paychecks get a little fatter.

X-Posted at the albany project, which I encourage all NY'ers to come visit!

Joe Bruno, our GOoPer State Senate Majority Leader, is something of a dick. As we have noted here, both the State Senate and the Assembly have released information about their pork "member item" spending. We haven't played with the Assembly stuff much yet, but when wycatz first opened up the doc dump from the State Senate, he noticed the password security on the docs right away. Not only had the Senate folks released a pile of very un-user friendly data, they had actually placed security on their stuff to prevent anyone from actually using or organizing this material into something that might actually, ya know, be of benefit to the public.

jump the dots, kid...

Four years and two days ago I started my very first blog. It was born out of a variety of frustrations both personal and political and always strayed back and forth between them with frequent forays into the world of rock and roll.

I recently revived it after a rather long hiatus. Earlier today, I was going back through the archives and found what turned out to be the single most read post that I ever made on the site. It's also absolutely the most heartbreaking. It was awfully sad then and it's even worse now.

On March 5, 2003, I posted some letters,  from children from a school in Baghdad that were written to other children in the US. They were brought back to the states from Iraq by a teacher friend of mine and some of the letters haunt me to this day.

Here's what I wrote to introduce them:

--Robert Frost "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening"

The sun has set here and polls will open before she rises again. There's a big, fat full(ish) moon high above the Hudson Valley this evening and I'm exhausted. I decided that I needed to just sit down and just be still for a few minutes. When I stepped back from the chaos and the nerves and the coffee for a precious minutes, I was overwhelmed by a profound sense of gratitude to all those countless folks who, much like you and much like millions of other folks across the country you and I will never meet, are fighting like hell to take their country back.