There’s not enough frivolity on Room 8, so I’m going to simply report on something I came across today that amused me.

I noticed some political literature on the seat on the L train this morning. Someone I never heard of, “Bro.” Andre T. Mitchell, is running for State Committee; a friend of mine collects such crap so I picked it up and then I decided to read it. I noted that he was Charles Barron’s campaign manager for his reelection campaign last year.

Friday's NY Times had one of their weekly stories speculating about Mike running for President.

It jumped to the conclusion that Mike having dinner with the Execurtive Director of the DLC meant he was running for President.  I guess when Mike had lunch  a few years ago with stars of  The Sopranos, it meant he was buying HBO.

But one part stood out in the lame story - "the mayor himself has sent mixed signals about his plans".

As I recall Mike has consistently said  he was not running and  has used the phrase "what part of the word No don't  you understand".

A few days ago I wrote some comments previewing the hearing on petitions at the New York City Board of Elections.

I attended the hearing for a few hours and here’s some of what I observed.

A few candidates for Delegates to the Republican Judicial Convention were disqualified because they were, in fact, registered Democrats.

A candidate who wanted to run for the Assembly from the 55^th Assembly District was removed because the address he is registered to vote from and which he put on the petition was in the 40^th A.D.

Something has gone strange and sour in New York City and particularly in Brooklyn.

There appears to be some type of common interest which has joined the New York media, Elected officials, County political leaders, Board of Elections employees and even once-dependable and honest Reformers in a bond of silence. I believe that the common interest has to do with the traditional Incumbent Protection Plan(ICP) which in extension protects vested financial interests from “raving maniacal insurgents”.

So this is a Conspiracy Theory.  Sometimes a Conspiracy theory is the product of an addled brain. But then there are times when the accusation of paranoia is used as a blindfold by wrongdoers in authority who seek to  prevent the public from becoming aware of an inconvenient and dangerous truth.

For those of you watching Brooklyn's 11th congressional district primary, it may be of interest to learn that veteran Tennessee state Sen. Steve Cohen  won yesterday’s 15-candidate Democratic primary for Tennessee’s open 9th congressional district seat. The win is likely to result with Cohen  becoming  another  white House member representing a black-majority district.

Cohen is running to succeed Harold Ford, a black candidate running to succeed Bill Frist in the U.S. Senate. The Democratic Party candidate is heavily favored to hold this Memphis district.

As I recall from high school Latin, “scrute” is trash, and the word scrutinize, from which it is derived, means to pick through the trash.  Using data from the Governments Division of the Census Bureau, and the New York State and U.S. Departments of Labor, this essay will pick through the trash at the NYC Department of Sanitation to find out what kind of deal we are getting.  That isn’t as easy as for, say, schools and policing, which are provided in every locality, because not everyone has public trash collection.  But I did the best I can, and from what I can see, our deal stinks.

Mayor Koch writes the Forward, weighing in on Mel Gibson's lame attempt at an apology:

Mel Gibson deserves a similarly unequivocal response from the public, and from his Hollywood colleagues. Gibson's public apology is welcome, but it's far from sufficient. A foxhole conversion-type apology, issued in the hope of retaining one's job or public status, can't be taken as meaningful evidence of a sincere change of heart. That kind of change does not happen overnight.

You can read the piece in its entirety here.

In this race to replace Representative Sherwood Louis Boehlert, only 2 viables remain. And while ideologically different, financially ... not so much.

State Senate Republican Ray Meier has raised $496K to Oneida County DA, Democrat Michael Arcuri's $455,000; and Meier has about $90K more cash left on hand.

by Seth Williams

Since the Congressional race in NY-10 hasn't been on anybody's radar yet, let me lay out some of the key dynamics in this truly bizarre race.  The incumbent is Representative Edolphus Towns, who has held the seat for 24 years and done very little with it.  Which is a pity since many of the district's neighborhoods, like Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights, are in bad shape and in need of serious leadership.  Towns spent the last few decades basically floating, bringing occasional draughts of money to Brooklyn for hospitals and schools, and occasionally drawing fire for his close and questionable ties to the energy lobby.

It’s no longer news that Rudy Giuliani is campaigning for candidates who agree with him on virtually no issues.

The latest is Ralph Norman, running for Congress in South Carolina.

Here are some highlights from Norman’s website:

I am proud to be a concealed weapons permit carrier myself and in Congress, I will fight to protect these rights for South Carolinians.

Freshman Assemblyman Mark Schroeder wrote a letter to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver asking him to step aside in anticipation of a Spitzer victory in November.

Schroeder, who believes Spitzer will be elected in November, said the attorney general will have a difficult time getting through his reform ideas with what he calls the "accumulated power" of Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. He also said Senate Republicans should also consider replacing Bruno. Spitzer is running against Democrat Thomas Suozzi and Republican John Faso.

It's over 90 degrees as I sit here, and I'm thinking about energy, the environment, and leadership.  If you read my prior post on the subject, you know that I believe leaders are those who can convince people to cooperate toward a common goal, trusting that their goodwill will not be abused by those who are just out for themselves.  I said there was no leadership on energy.

We don't have air conditioning because in this climate, unless you have it and become dependent on it, you only really miss it a few days a year a few years a decade.  And on those days, you are begged not to use it.  With energy scarce and the environment only capable of holding so much carbon, with with so many billions living in multiple dwellings without cross ventilation, with so many people who are old and without health problems, I’ve decided air conditioning is one amenity we can live without.  But somewhere in the west, I’m sure Dick Cheney, who considers conservation a “personal virtue,” has an air conditioned dog house.