While we all wait to see exactly what the US Senate comes up with for it’s version of the stimulus package it seems certain that the total amount will easily blow way past the $819 billion House plan which passed Wednesday. So what will it mean for New York? Especially the state government which is facing a $15.4 billion budget gap?And what about New York City where Mayor Bloomberg is unveiling his doomsday budget today?
Monetarily Sen. Chuck Schumer calculates the state and cities will get roughly $15 billion over the …

Rish Limbaugh is an idiot.
No, liberals, not because he makes outlandish statements about Democrats that rarely have even the scent of truth. Rush Limbaugh is an idiot for helping Barack Obama marginalize the Republican Party in it’s hour of need.
Some Obama supporters have worried that the President was foolish in even acknowledging the existence of Radio Rush after the talk-show host said he hoped Obama would fail. They said Obama only gave the Rotund One more attention and therefore more power.
Exactly.
At a time when the Republican Party is in a …

The always snarky and starkly conservative New York Post editorial page presented a doozy today — in part because the piece on the stimulus package was correct about a few things. How out of character!
While the Post predictably rolls out the Republican talking points — the package is a “spendfest” with “no defined goals or objectives” that hands out money to undeserving “folks who may or may not pay any income taxes” — it makes a very good point about a critical Obama campaign promise and a missed opportunity.
Briefly to …

Facts? Who needs facts when you can have Republicans and Democrats trading misleading charges about the stimulus plan? Republicans say the $825 billion plan is just a vast waste of money, filled with non-essential items that Democrats want to push through under the over of “crisis.” They add it will take way too long to effect the economy.
Democrats have a different take, defending every dollar as critical to the recovery. House leaders defended money for contraceptives as necessary to help states (45 of which are now running budget gaps) offset …

Another poll — this one from Marist — proves an earlier point we’ve made here. New York’s new Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand is in an enviable position for a newbie.
Marist asked New York voters if they thought she was the right choice — remember this is after voters were led to believe top-shelf names like Caroline Kennedy or maybe Andrew Cuomo would get the nod. Marist says 46% say ‘yes’ to 24% who say ‘no.’ Note that 30% are ‘unsure.’
Next the poll asked about her favorability — 41% like her, 11% …

You gotta hand it to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He royally pisses the voting public off with his term limits power grab but they still lovvvvve him.
That’s what a new Quinnipiac Poll out Tuesday seems to suggest. By a margin of 56% to 42% NYC voters disapprove of the term limit extension Bloomberg and the City Council pushed through for themselves last year. So that’s bad news for Bloomy, right? Of course not!
A big majority of those same voters say they not only want Bloomberg to run but that they’ll vote …

Oh how quickly the news has moved on from Kirsten Gillibrand the “accidental Senator” to David Paterson the “doomed Governor.” Newspapers across the state from Buffalo to Gotham wrote up Paterson’s big problems this morning after the botched selection process to replace Hillary Clinton.
Now two new polls, one from Quinnipiac and the other from Siena, make several things abundantly clear:
1. Pundits be damned, the public is NOT blaming Paterson for the Caroline Kennedy fiasco (despite Liz Benjamin’s excellent report this morning indicating the public might want to think again).
2. Paterson …

This Sunday morning’s chatterfest was filled with deep and informed discussions about the relative merits of cutting taxes versus spending tax money as a way to get the economy on track.
OK I’m lying. From one gasbag to the next politicians and their economic enablers were allowed to make rather grand statements without worry of being confronted with any facts about what history has shown to be most effective.
On Fox News Sunday Senator John McCain said, “We need to make tax cuts permanent, and we need to make a commitment that …

All the huffing and puffing about New York’s newest (almost) Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is as amusing as it is beside the point.
Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy threatens to run against Gillibrand in a Democratic primary because the new Senator has perfect record with the National Rifle Association. Assemblyman Peter Rivera lashed out, “I find no compelling reason for the Governor to select a conservative Democrat to carry on the progressive work of now Secretary of State Clinton.”

And then there is Caroline Kennedy supporter Lawrence O’Donnell who is quoted in Monday’s New Yoker …

So usually we bestow a Mea Culpa on someone who admits he or she screwed up. U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts definitely screwed up in his first Presidential swearing-in reading the words of the oath wrong and making Barack Obama look screwy as well. Roberts didn’t exactly hold a press conference to talk about it — and frankly it was no big deal.
But kudos to Roberts for insisting on doing the swearing in again just to be sure and, according to some reports, to quash any right-wing conspiracy nuts …