In my earlier posts expressing amazement that Mike Bloomberg takes seriously the wackos in Virginia, otherwise known as that the Independent Green Party, I focused on the fact that the Indy Greens don’t think there’s anything strange about supporting both Mike Bloomberg and Chuck Baldwin, an anti-abortion, pro-gun  right-wing nutcase.

I did, take at face value, the assertion by the Indy Greens that they gathered the impressive total of 70,000 signatures for the Bloomberg “campaign”

Apparently Mayor Mike takes the "leader" of the Virginia Indy Greens a bit more seriously than I do.

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/

Says mayoral spokesman Stu Loeser today: "He hasn't made any decisions and hasn't had a chance to speak with Mr. Campbell yet. But this is a call for post-partisanship that Mayor Bloomberg hopes the major parties will hear."

I wonder if Mr. Campbell will attempt to convince Mike to embrace the policies of Campbell's 2nd choice for President and support the repeal of Roe v Wade, thrown the UN out of NYC and support those oppressed gun owners.

If there was ever a doubt that many advocates for third party Presidential campaigns are not concerned about anything that is actually important, as opposed to their belief that being “independent” has some inherent value, Monday’s story in the Daily News should be a clincher.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/08/17/2008-08-17_mayor_bloomberg_on_virginia_ballot_as_ca.html

Thursday’s New York Times published two stories that reported what the Times apparently feels is news – that rich people with influence have benefits that poorer people do not have.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/nyregion/17rangel.html?ref=nyregion

At Lenox Terrace, the luxury development in Harlem, management uses two sets of standards when it comes to rent-stabilized tenants, many residents say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/nyregion/17discretion.html?ref=nyregion

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2008/06/indy-party-waits-for-bloomberg.html

State Independence Party Chairman Frank MacKay, who set up a national network in hopes that Bloomberg would run for president, said he’s now waiting for the mayor’s nod before putting that operation to work for someone else.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/07/13/2008-07-13_mayor_bloombergs_pals_can_count_on_him_a.html

New York Times story link:

His first general election ad, boosted by a large media buy in swing states this month, was all about war. It invoked his Vietnam heroism and tried to have it both ways on Iraq by at once presenting Mr. McCain as a stay-the-course warrior and taking a (timid) swipe at President Bush. “Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war,” Mr. McCain said in his voice-over. That unnamed fool would be our cowboy president, who in March told American troops how he envied their “in some ways romantic” task of “confronting danger.”

From the Boston Globe -

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/11/mccain_ad_asserts_his_hatred_of_war/

By Sasha Issenberg, Globe Staff  |  June 11, 2008

WASHINGTON - John McCain, who credits his defiant defense of the Iraq war for his comeback victory in the Republican primaries, is using his first major television ad of the general election to show his dovish side.

"Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war," McCain says over mournful strings against a bleak backdrop, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. "I hate war, and I know how terrible its costs are."

The following appeared on politico.com:

After McCain said last year that Rumsfeld, Cheney’s friend and mentor in the Ford administration, would “go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history,” the vice president made plain his displeasure.

“I just fundamentally disagree with John,” Cheney told ABC News in an interview. “John said some nasty things about me the other day, and then next time he saw me, ran over to me and apologized. Maybe he’ll apologize to Rumsfeld.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/06/06/khalid-sheik-mohammed-on-same-sex-marriage-value-of-counsel/?mod=googlenews_wsj

For the past five years, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has been under the care of federal civilian and military employees who have taken an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

The experience apparently has not enamored him of the document. At his arraignment here Thursday, the alleged 9/11 mastermind said he would not accept any attorney, even a fellow Muslim, “who is sworn to your American constitution.”

Displaying a surprising understanding of such concepts as federalism and dual sovereignty, Mohammed referenced recent decisions by state courts in California and Massachusetts under the powers reserved to them under the Tenth Amendment.

Friday’s New York Times profiles Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard on her major role as an advisor and flack for John McCain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/us/politics/06fiorina.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

The story notes that she was fired by HP, paid $42 million to walk away and is “widely criticized for mismanaging one of Silicon Valley’s legendary companies.”

Fiorina defended her tenure at HP by saying -

http://www.uticaod.com/election2008/x43066911/Independence-endorsement-goes-to-Hanna

The state Independence Party has dropped U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri from its endorsement roster and thrown its support to his opponent.

At the announcement at Hotel Utica, the party’s state Vice Chairman John Dote said … Arcuri said in 2006 that he would work to get U.S. troops out of Iraq, but they were still there.

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2008/06/indy-party-waits-for-bloomberg.html

Of the numerous things Rudy Giuliani did that I disliked, possibly the worst was his habit of using slurring critics and others by using past “criminal” behavior.

The most notorious instance was his illegal leaking of the sealed juvenile record of Patrick Dorismond, a completely innocent man killed by NYC police officers. But that was not the only time Rudy did this.

I was surprised on Sunday to see the Bloomberg administration is now behaving in a similar way.

The Daily News printed the following –

As someone who has blogged for over year that Mike Bloomberg was not a serious candidate for President, I’m happy that the local press has now decided that Mike saying in print the same thing he has said out loud for two years, that he was not going to run, means that he is not going to run.

However now that one farce has ended a new one has started.

We will now be bombarded with endless stories about who Mike will support for President.

Today’s NY Sun starts the new mania by interviewing Bloomberg pollster Doug Schoen, who as part of the PR blitz for his latest book, talked about a bunch of other thing Mike could do to help a Presidential candidate.

The following appeared on The Politico.

Imagine if the names were changed from Rick Renzi to Charlie Rangel (or any NY Democratic Congressman) and from John McCain to Hillary Clinton?

Wouldn’t this be a much bigger story?

http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0208/McCain_in_Oct_2006_Renzi_has__tenacity_honesty_and_integrity_beyond_reproach.html#comments