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CBS Jury Nullification?
Is CBS Radio seeking via courts what it can't win over the airwaves? No, not money - attention? "Vince V.," who posted on the New York Radio Message Board, writes: Its interesting that while he was on the air, Infinity allowed the Sirius infomercial to go on the air for 15 months (except for a one-day suspension) & now that the advertising revenue gravy train has ground to a halt, they break out the lawyers.
He did the opposite of screwing (CBS) over, he brought them even more money than they would have made if he didn't talk about that stuff. I'm not a big fan of Howard but I hope he counter sues and takes CBS for everything. This may be the type of lawsuit where, even if CBS wins, it loses. Ratings can always come back. Reputation is another matter, entirely.
By Ed Moltzen · 28 February 2006
Redesigning Eliot
Sources close to Eliot Spitzer suggest to the Times Union's Elizabeth Benjamin that a Spitzer discussion board was yanked from its web site last weekend "in anticipation of a redesign of the entire Web site." The Spitzer camp pulled the discussion board from public view just as criticism was coming in regarding his running mate, David Paterson, and Paterson's proposal to all but ban cops' use of deadly physical force on the job. The discussion board, which contained at least one fiery criticism of Paterson on the police issue, was the only part of the site to be taken off line "in anticipation of a redesign." Earlier in his campaign, Spitzer was the only candidate who allowed readers to leave comments - either on the discussion board or on his blog. Now none of the major candidates for governor let you post your comments. You can send your comments on this topic, which will be posted here, to emoltzen-at-gmail.com. MORE: The Daily News reports that Paterson is doing some yanking of his own: He's pulling his deadly-physical-force bill off the table. By Ed Moltzen · 28 February 2006
New York Blog-a-rama
The Big Apple Blog Festival, which is always worth reading, is now up for your enjoyment and infotainment. By Ed Moltzen · 27 February 2006
Should Bruno Pull A Hastert?
Last year, when a chorus of anti-war congressmen in the House of Representatives - led by Democratic Rep. John Murtha - began calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert ended the debate thusly: He had the issue put to a vote on the House floor, where withdrawal was defeated overwhelmingly. For New Yorkers, closer to home there's an issue that could prove thorny in the statehouse. State Sen. Minority Leader David Paterson is proposing legislation that would charge cops with manslaughter if they used deadly physical force to protect themselves in many situations. Paterson is running for lieutenant governor on the ticket led by Democratic Attorney General Eliot Spitzer - who says he opposes Paterson's proposal. It's created a thorny issue for Spitzer with some nasty blowback. How could Republicans maximize their position? State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno could put it to an immediate vote on the floor of the Senate. He could make Paterson stand up in the chamber and, on camera, defend a bill that Republican gubernatorial candidate William Weld has called "a prescription for dead cops." Among other things, the bill says would call for second-degree manslaughter charges against a cop when: He or she is a police officer or peace officer who kills a person by use of a loaded weapon, for a purpose otherwise justified by law, with the intent to kill, rather than stop, such person, and beyond the minimal amount of force necessary to stop the person. There's no real chance the bill would ever pass in an up-down vote and, in the event it did, Republican Gov. Pataki would almost certainly veto it. But it would put Democrats and Spitzer's camp in the untenable position of continuing to back Paterson's candidacy. And it would keep an unwanted limelight on an issue Spitzer would rather have go away. By Ed Moltzen · 27 February 2006
Straw Poll Week
New York's Democratic Rural Conference opens Friday in Ithaca, and the attention-getter will be the conference's straw polls. It will be the first beauty contest between Eliot Spitzer and Tom Suozzi in the governor's race. Spitzer, who has been campaigning for months, should be favored by a wide margin. (Note: While a link is provided, above, to Spitzer's web site, the site was actually down as of 7:15 a.m. this morning. They may be trying to fix a few things.) By Ed Moltzen · 27 February 2006
Spitzer Doesn't Want To Hear It
Eliot Spitzer, New York's attorney general and frontrunner in the state's gubernatorial race this year, has hidden a message board on his web site and has removed the cability of commenting on his blog entries. He has also removed previous comments when he provided that capability. Luckily, via a Google cache search, you can find the hidden link to Spitzer's discussion board here. One of the last comments placed on Spitzer's discussion board, before he shut the whole works down, ripped into his selection of state Sen. David Paterson to be his running mate. Paterson is proposing legislation to restrict police officers' use of deadly physical force - a proposal that has outraged the law enforcement community. Here's a message board post that the Spitzer camp doesn't want you to see: Patterson a joke To be fair, none of the other candidates in the race provide a message board or the ability to leave comments on their sites. (Tom Suozzi relaunched his web site yesterday, the same day he formally threw his hat in the ring to challenge Spitzer.) NOTE TO READERS: Comments and contact information on this web site are, er, down - but for technical reasons that are being worked on. If you have a comment on this or any other entry, email emoltzen-at-gmail.com and it will be posted (provided there's no profanity or libel.) By Ed Moltzen · 26 February 2006
Tom Suozzi, Candidate
Tom Suozzi announced his gubernatorial campaign today. He is now positioned to run in a tough Democratic primary against Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Some, including the Buffalo News, look back to the last time there was an open seat in the governor's office in New York - 1982 - when upstart Mario Cuomo stunned then-New York City Mayor Ed Koch and won the Democratic primary. From the Buffalo News: Koch notes the comparison between those two earlier primary races and this year's primary is not precise. Koch's recollection isn't exactly precise, either. Cuomo beat him in 1982 with not just labor support, but a coalition of labor, social liberals and suburban/upstate voters fuming at Koch's earlier "the suburbs are sterile" remark in a Playboy interview. Suozzi is already showing the beginnings of a coalition forming behind him: Wall Streeters eager to exact revenge on Spitzer for his many regulatory lawsuits; suburban property owners who are paying the highest property taxes in the country; and moderate Democrats who see Spitzer with the ready support from the far left including NARAL, Rep. Charlie Rangel; and the MoveOn.org-like Citizens Action of New York. A lot can happen in six and a half months, when the state holds its primary elections. It may not be 1982 redux, but Spitzer-Suozzi will be the most interesting race in New York in a long time. MORE: Elizabeth Benjamin has more on the Suozzi announcement. MORE: The Liberal Walrus is not impressed. By Ed Moltzen · 25 February 2006
D'oh!
Nobody won last night's jackpot. Mega Millions Tuesday jackpot is now $256 million. By Ed Moltzen · 25 February 2006
Friendly Fire
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and his running mate, state Senate Minority Leader David Paterson - who have been running together all of a month - are already having their first major political disagreement, according to the New York Sun: A push by Eliot Spitzer's gubernatorial running mate, David Paterson, to restrict police officers from using deadly physical force in the line of fire has opened a rift between the Harlem state senator and the state attorney general. Police groups will, undoubtedly, tell Spitzer that if he feels strongly enough about the issue he should fire Paterson from the ticket. Spitzer's key opponent for the Democratic nomination, Tom Suozzi, may also do the same. Then what? If Spitzer and Paterson held different views on education reform, tax rates or transportation spending, a rift like this wouldn't be a big deal. But a law-and-order, life-and-death issue involving cops? This one's not going away unless Paterson shelves the proposal. By Ed Moltzen · 24 February 2006
Spitz-a-pedia
Elizabeth Benjamin at the Times Union's political blog notes that there's a rather bold entry regarding the 2006 New York governor's race over at Wikipedia. According to the entry: Barring dramatic changes in the electoral landscape, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a popular politician in the state, is the favorite for the Democratic nomination. Some political analysts have dubbed the election the "Obama of 2006", in reference to the Illinois Senate race of 2004 in which Democrat Barack Obama won an open seat with 70% of the vote. Here's another good one: Taking advantage of New York state's electoral fusion system, that allows for a candidate to run on multiple party's ballot lines, Spitzer gained the early nomination of the left-leaning Working Families Party in January 22, 2005. The deal effectively consolidates Eliot Spitzer's frontrunner status, while cementing the WFP's reputation as a kingmaker third-party in New York. Got that, Tom Suozzi, John Faso, Pat Manning, Randy Daniels and Bill Weld? The Working Families Party has already chosen its king, so you can stop all that messy campaign work... The campaign should make for some interesting updates to that entry as the year progresses. By Ed Moltzen · 23 February 2006
DLR
The David Lee Roth experiment doesn't appear to be going all that well. I realized I really do hate David Lee Roth. After 4.5 seconds of listening to him and his stupid techno lounge music, immediate irritation happens. David Lee Roth who sounds like he has no clue what he's doing... Compounding this is Dave has about 6 different uncatchy catch phrases that he uses over and over again and in his two months of broadcasting I've already heard the same stories a couple dozen times. Guess what. It doesn't seem possible, but they do get more and more boring with each telling. uhhhh. david lee roth radio sucks. now this is not your fault since nobody can replace howard stern. but you mr. david lee roth = a f------- goofball. and not in the funny cool way. First thing yesterday, Lloyd was on David Lee Roth's new radio show. There are clips online at: http://david.freefm.com/pages/1726.php and it is obvious that David Lee Roth is a terrible radio show host. Lloyd does okay tho. if i had the time, i would share with you all (who am i kidding, no one reads this blog!) my hatred for David Lee Roth every single day when i got to work in the morning. becuase the radio S***KS, i continue to tune into 104.1 for his crappy show and continue to want to rip my hair out listening to his ego-filled, cheesy, slimy commentary on the entire world. ugh. i can't even describe him. if the quote above isn't enough of an indication of his vileness, here's my attempt to communicate to you the DLR "Roth Radio" experience: Here's a positive comment, though. On balance though, the reviews don't appear to be all that stellar. By Ed Moltzen · 23 February 2006
The Bush Administration's UAE Policy, Revealed
Congress knew the details of the Bush Administration's strategy for working with the UAE as early as November 16, 2004, in the administration's argument in favor of a Free Trade Agreement with the United Arab Emirates. You can read the administration's letter to Sen. Ted Stevens explaining it all here. Here's one excerpt: An FTA will also allow the United States to work more closely with UAE customs and port authorities that manage Jebel Ali and other transshipment points, an important opportunity for cooperation similar to that provided by our FTA with Singapore and the agreement we are negotiating with Panama. There's also a good bit of detail about economic and strategic commercial cooperation between the U.S. and UAE in the administration's letter, which probably goes to "quid pro quo" questions raised by many this week, including Glenn Reynolds. By Ed Moltzen · 22 February 2006
Digging In
Conservative Party boss in New York, Mike Long, has endorsed John Faso for governor. All signs continue to point to a split between the state Republican Party and the state Conservative Party in the 2006 governor's race, with top Republicans - including chairman Steven Minarik and state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno tilting toward William Weld. The Times reports that it was a bad day yesterday for Weld, for a couple of reasons. By Ed Moltzen · 22 February 2006
A Time To Go
Just as things are heating up in this year's New York governor's race, one of the most memorable Republican candidates for that job in this era, Pierre Rinfret, is retiring...from the web, that is. (Rinfret lost to Mario Cuomo by 22 points in 1990, after running a somewhat erratic campaign that included an on-the-record reference to comptroller candidate Carol Bellamy as "that idiot woman" and bizarre threats to reporters.) By Ed Moltzen · 21 February 2006
Suozzi Campaign Set In Stone
Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi's camp just sent out this note to supporters: At 12:30 PM on Saturday, February 25, Tom will be making a major political announcement in his hometown of Glen Cove. We hope you'll be able to make it, so please join us in Glen Cove at Second Street and St. Rocco's Place at 12:30 PM on Saturday. That jangling sound you just heard was the extra $10 million Attorney General Eliot Spitzer will now have to spend in his effort to get the Democratic nomination. MORE: The Politicker, The Observer's political blog, provides some observations on a potential move by Spitzer to keep Suozzi off the ballot. (Hint: It's not a very flattering assessment.) By Ed Moltzen · 21 February 2006
House Races '06
Gallup reports its latest House of Representative survey results find 50 percent of registered voters would pick a Democrat in the fall election, while 43 percent would pick a Republican. That shows Republican gains from several months ago, when the margin was 52-to-40 for the Democrats. But that's not all the bad news for Dems, according to Gallup: Typically, this early in the election year Gallup does not ask the "likely voter" questions that are designed to identify the subset of registered voters (RV) who are most likely to vote. Still, our experience over the past two mid-term elections, in 1998 and 2002, suggests that the RV numbers tend to overstate the Democratic margin by about ten and a half percentage points. Given that Democrats currently lead by seven points that could mean that among people who will definitely vote, Republicans actually lead by three to four points. February is a long distance from November and, in modern politics, a two-hour, televised funeral can dramatically alter election outcomes. But the numbers have to leave leaders in the party of Howard Dean shaking their heads. By Ed Moltzen · 21 February 2006
Not Welded Shut On Gay Marriage Issue
Has William Weld changed his position on gay marriage? It looks that way, according to this missive put out by the New York State Democratic Committee: Observers note that Bill Weld used to fight for legalization of gay marriage & even performed a homily at a gay marriage Here's a timeline put together by Democrats. Here's the question, though: If Weld used to favor same-sex marriage, and now opposes it, does hit help him or hurt him? If it helps him get the Conseravative Party endorsement, it would appear to be a net plus in the electoral math department. Of course, it gives Democrats an interesting talking point. MORE: Too Saucy does not appear to be pleased with the developments. MORE: Weld may be angling for Conservative Party support, but this item from Gun Legislation & Politics in New York has a different take, as State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno is apparently set to back Weld. Bruno, apparently, thinks Weld's liberal policies will help Senate candidates in more liberal and moderate areas, and Gun Legislation writes: This is the same philosophy that is the root cause of Republicans losing seats across the state for the last 10 years. They don’t have the conservative vote. Every time they pander to the left, it doesn’t get them any new votes from liberals, but it does alienate conservatives who withhold their money and votes from the Republicans. The numbers seem to back this argument, looking at the last major statewide campaign between Republican U.S. Senate candidate Howard Mills (who?) and Democratic incumbent Sen. Chuck Schumer. By Ed Moltzen · 20 February 2006
Quailgate: Net Effect
Rasmussen's tracking of Bush's poll numbers over the past week shows that there's been no dent in his approval despite all the fuss over "Quailgate." Not everyone got through the week so successfully. By Ed Moltzen · 19 February 2006
Fun With Election Disclosures
Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, appears to be a contributor to liberal, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's campaign for governor. (Full report can be accessed here, under "Schedule A Individual/Partnerships.) Don't be too surprised. Luskin is a Democrat. By Ed Moltzen · 17 February 2006
Suozzi's In
Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi will announce his campaign for governor next week, according to Newsday. Not only does Suozzi stand to the right of Democratic rival and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on a number of issues, he stands to the right of Republican frontrunner William Weld on a number of issues, including abortion. In addition, Suozzi's entry in the race could likely have the consequence of splitting Wall Street - where financiers have been lining up to support any challenger to Spitzer they could find. That would be bad news for Weld, especially if Weld has to run and finance a primary against John Faso - who has growing conservative support. The 2006 New York governor's race, right now, looks like it will be fairly dizzying. If the state Conservative Party wanted to create mischief, the leadership could seek a special meeting with Suozzi to consider throwing their endorsement to him. MORE: A pro-Spitzer, left-of-center group, Citizen Action of New York, is already sharpening one tactic against Suozzi: going after his acceptance of campaign contributions from those doing business with Nassau County government. (Via The Albany Times Union's political blog.) By Ed Moltzen · 17 February 2006
More On The NY Gov's Race
John Faso's live, televised announcement this week that he's running for governor - which you can view here - doesn't exactly speak highly of the state of affairs in New York under the reign of his old Assembly colleague, George Pataki. And, Faso appears to be making a big effort for the Long Island vote when he says, "Local school property taxes must be capped." By Ed Moltzen · 16 February 2006
...But More Importantly
Pitchers and catchers report today. By Ed Moltzen · 16 February 2006
Keeping Quiet
One of Long Island's most successful radio stations is WALK-FM, owned by Clear Channel. Yesterday, the station's veteran on-air traffic reporter, Jim Buckley, was arrested on kiddie porn charges. This morning on its drive-time news reports, it was the one story the station was not covering. Here's its current list of news items that it's reporting on air. The station reported not word one about the arrest of a major personality at the station, a 26-year figure in Long Island media. However, earlier in the morning, its news reporter noted, on air, that Vice President had still not issued a public comment on his weekend hunting accident. MORE: One unhappy listener: "And no doubt that, even if no one speaks publicly about what happened, morale at the station will drop a few notches. (If the crappy music playlists don't do that already, that is.)" By Ed Moltzen · 15 February 2006
Idolatry
Michele Catalano has not retired from blogging. She's just focusing on new topics, like American Idol: Punch this chick. In the mouth. Who needs to TiVo the program? By Ed Moltzen · 15 February 2006
Lots Of Rich People Smiling
What were you up to last night? (Keep scrolling.) By Ed Moltzen · 14 February 2006
NY Governor's Race Update
John Faso, who is slightly leading the pack in the race for the Conservative Party endorsement, formally announces his campaign for New York governor tonight on T.V. Things are already getting ugly, according to the NY Sun: ALBANY - A Republican candidate for governor of New York, Patrick Manning, is accusing another Republican gubernatorial candidate, John Faso, of threatening, through a campaign staffer, to expose that Mr. Manning is getting a divorce. Manning does not explain, however, how he planned to keep from the New York media and public a public divorce, while running for governor. By Ed Moltzen · 14 February 2006
Watch out, Wall Street
Elizabeth Spiers is on her way. (And they thought Eliot Spitzer bothered them...) By Ed Moltzen · 10 February 2006
Split Ticket
All signs are pointing to a Conservative Party - Republican Party split for the New York governor's race this year. While Republicans are leaning heavily toward William Weld, former Assemblyman John Faso is getting a lot of Conservative support. Faso is set to formally "announce" for governor next week. By Ed Moltzen · 10 February 2006
New York Gubernatorial Gymnastics
The New York State Republican Party boss Stephen Minarik is quoted in today's NY Sun as saying this about potential Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi: "I think Suozzi has a decent message," Mr. Minarik told The New York Sun."I do think he would be more difficult to defeat than Spitzer. I mean that. He speaks like a Republican many times, certainly in reforming Albany." Well, he sounds less liberal than Eliot Spitzer, the state's attorney general and Democratic frontrunner for governor. Consider this announcement Suozzi made the other day, in which he's proposing a $1 million fund in the county to be used to prevent abortions. Sounds like a Republican? Talking about preventing abortions? The divergence between Suozzi and Spitzer is more than just a liberal versus moderate split. It's shaping up as a classic Silk Stocking Liberal Democrat versus a suburban Democrat race. A Howard Dean Democrat versus a Hillary Clinton Democrat. A MoveOn.org Democrat versus a DLC Democrat. The differences between Suozzi and Spizter could not be more different. Among everything else about Spitzer, consider this story: In the opening pages of Byron York's book The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy, he details a June, 2004 fundraiser in Washington, D.C. in which Spitzer appeared with noted liberals including Arianna Huffington and George Soros and, speaking to the crowd, compared President Bush to a less-favorable version of Richard Nixon to hoots and hollers. The event raised money for the ultra-liberal Campaign for America's Future. Suozzi, on the other hand, is the first Democrat to win election to run government in Nassau County in anyone's memory - it's a county that was once one of the most notable Republican strongholds in the country. He took over a county in fiscal ruin and is generally given good grades for turning it around. And he's willing to spend money to prevent abortions. The Republicans, on the other hand, look set to endorse William Weld for governor in 2006 - and Weld may in fact be to the left of Suozzi on a number of issues. Weld has already started campaigning as if Spitzer is a lock to be his foe in the general election; running against Suozzi would cause him to change his strategy pretty significantly. If Suozzi jumps into a primary campaign, at the very least it will force Spitzer to spend a ton of money and publicly spell out his (very liberal) views on a number of issues. If Suozzi doesn't, Weld, overnight, looks like a conservative. By Ed Moltzen · 8 February 2006
Pop Quiz
An ugly accident happens in front of you on a major highway, where a tractor trailer slams into an SUV and four people are gravely injured. You: A) Stop the car, get out and immediately try to help; Guess which answer a number of motorists picked yesterday on the New York State Thruway? By Ed Moltzen · 8 February 2006
Blog Thieves
Amy Langfield, who has her own blog and who also runs the incredibly good NewYorkology.com, is getting ripped off. Granted, she gets way more traffic than her plagiarists, but blog theft in any form usually gets more than a frown in the blogosphere. By Ed Moltzen · 8 February 2006
Howard Stern Call Your Office
The Manhattan grand jury returned an indictment against three individuals and five corporations connected to the Scores nightclub in New York City: The investigation began as a result of a series of complaints from customers of Scores about overcharges applied to their credit cards while patronizing the club. While no charges have been brought with respect to the alleged overcharges, the investigation uncovered a massive tax evasion scheme by the owners and managers of the nightclub. That probably won't make Mitchell Blaser any happier. By Ed Moltzen · 7 February 2006
Mensa Schmensa
This, from the Queens D.A.'s Office: Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a member of Mensa, the high IQ society, has been conficted of welfare fraud while engaging in a reign of terror against his ex-girlfriend. The smart guy, Steven Finkelstein, could receive 14 years in state prison when he's sentenced. His ex-girlfriend, by the way? Another Mensa member. By Ed Moltzen · 7 February 2006
Big Money
Powerball jackpot is up to $210 million. The drawing is Wednesday. By Ed Moltzen · 7 February 2006
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