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Saggy Pants Okay in Bloomberg’s Nanny State

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:15:01 +0000

Don’t be deceived by his crisp uniform; this man is not the fashion police. The notoriously regulatory Mayor Bloomberg—whose administration hasn’t hesitated to tell New Yorkers what they can eat , drink , and inhale —is refusing to use his power to protect citizens from the ubiquitous eyesore of saggy pants. After a judge threw out a disorderly conduct summons issued to a Bronx man because of his sagging trousers, Bloomberg weighed in on the divisive issue yesterday. But while other politicians, most notably State Senator Eric Adams, haven’t been afraid to make a stand on sagging , Bloomberg isn’t showing leadership. “I don’t know why people dress the way they dress,” Bloomberg told reporters yesterday. “I don’t judge people on how they look or how they dress. I judge people about how they act… Some dress the way I do. Some dress differently. I am certainly not the style police, much to my girlfriend’s annoyance… I don’t think the government should be in the business of telling people what they should wear.” We don’t know who this man is or what he’s done with Mayor Bloomberg, but it seems pretty obvious the powerful Saggy Pants lobby had a role in this.

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Saggy Pants Okay in Bloomberg’s Nanny State

Child Fatally Struck By MTA Truck In East Harlem

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:57:02 +0000

Google Street View of 125th Street and 2nd Avenue Around 9:40 a.m. this morning, a 7-year-old child and his mother were struck by a MTA tow truck at Second Avenue and East 125th Street. The boy was pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital. According to the Post , “The boy and his mother appeared to be jaywalking at the time of the accident” and the pair were trying to “coss an entrance ramp to the Triboro Bridge.” WABC 7 reports , “The tow truck was heading to assist a disabled vehicle on the bridge right when the mother and young boy were crossing the street. Sources tell Eyewitness News the driver probably never saw the two crossing the street. The tow truck is operated by the MTA Bridges & Tunnels.” The driver stayed at the scene and no criminality is suspected.

9/11 Health Bill Fails In House Vote, Weiner Gets ANGRY

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:10:02 +0000

Responders working at Ground Zero in the days after the 9/11 attacks (AP file) When does the Republican party abandon 9/11? When it’s time to provide $7.4 billion in medical treatment and compensation to first responders and residents sickened by the toxic dust after the September 11, 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center. Yesterday, the House’s 255-159 vote (243 Democrats and 12 Republicans supported the measure; 155 Republicans and 4 Democrats voted nay) fell short of the majority needed to pass the long-debated James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009 . Republicans called it a “slush fund” and an “entitlement program.” Rep. Anthony Weiner (D) slammed the partisanship in this rousing (and LOUD) speech. Rep. Peter King (R-NY) claimed the Democrats were taking “cover” by asking for the high majority. The NY Times explains , “Democrats used rules requiring a wider majority for approval to prevent Republicans from offering amendments on the floor that would embarrass Democrats in an election year”—amendments like denying illegal immigrants sickened during 9/11 benefits—”Republican opponents of the legislation expressed concern over the $7.4 billion cost of the program. But Democrats accused Republicans of being callous and vowed to bring the bill back for another vote in the fall.” Weiner, in response to King, yelled , “The gentleman is wrong! The gentleman is providing cover for his colleagues rather than doing the right thing! It’s Republicans wrapping their arms around Republicans rather than doing the right thing on behalf of the heroes!” Here’s the breakdown of where the money would go, via the Daily News : “The bill would spend $3.2 billion on health care over the next 10 years for people sickened from their exposure to the toxic smoke and debris of the shattered World Trade Center. It would spend another $4.2 billion to compensate victims over that span, and make another $4.2 billion in compensation available for the next 11 years.” Rep. John Shimus (R-Illinois) said it was wasteful because it pays at a higher rate than Medicare, “What this is is enfranchising a bunch of New York City hospitals.” Wait, isn’t Medicare socialist? Mayor Bloomberg said, “It was wrong for the overwhelming majority of Republicans to vote against the bill. and it was wrong for Democrats to bring the bill to the floor under rules that made passage so much more difficult.” However, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), one of the sponsors, tried to remain upbeat; in a statement, she said, “Today’s vote showed that we have the support we need to pass the Zadroga Act, and we look forward to passing the bill with a simple majority when Congress returns from its August recess. We thank our colleagues in the New York delegation for their dedication to those who were harmed by the terrorist attacks on our nation. We will not rest until we finally provide proper care for ailing 9/11 responders and survivors, and fill the last remaining gap in America’s recovery from the attacks. Nine long years after the attacks, the living victims of 9/11 are still suffering. We must pass this bill. It is the least we can do as a grateful nation.”

Aww, Chelsea Clinton’s Future Ex-Con Dad-In-Law Speaks

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:49:11 +0000

Chelsea Clinton wi ll be marrying Marc Mezvinsky on Saturday and the city of Rhinebeck is flooded with the curious and security ( one resident said to NY1 , “I think I just saw secret servicemen over at the Burts Bees corner of CVS”). One of the proudest people is likely Mezvinsky’s father, Edward, a former Congressman who went to prison for fraud. He told Inside Edition , “I’m remorseful for what happened, it was a terrible time, and I was punished for that. And I respect that and accept responsibility for what happened, and now I’m trying to move on and am grateful I have the opportunity for that.” What kind of fraud did the senior Mezvinsky committ? Well, the kind that stems from Nigerian email scams: According to the Blotter , “Prosecutors say Mezvinsky used his connections to the Clintons and his son’s social relationship with Chelsea to persuade people to give him money to participate in the scams. Mezvinsky traveled to Nigeria numerous times and ultimately lost more than $3 million as a victim of the scammers. Prosecutors say Mezvinsky fell particularly hard for what is known as the “black money” scam. Victims are told millions of dollars have been coated with black ink so the money could be smuggled out of Nigeria.” He told the Des Moines Register , “The man later came out with a chemical, threw it on the money, and it all turned to $100 bills. He gave me 10 to have them tested back home. And they were real.” But about the wedding: Mezvinsky happily said to Inside Edition, “I’m a proud papa and I think the siblings are really excited. The family’s excited. We all hope we can get through this without getting teary-eyed and stand up…We have a lot to be thankful for. These two are wonderful human beings that have a sensitivity about life and have a warm regard for family, and that’s really what it’s all about, in the long run, is how you deal with your family and enjoy the moment and be thankful for that.”

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Aww, Chelsea Clinton’s Future Ex-Con Dad-In-Law Speaks

Judge’s Grandson Racks Up 3 DWIs, No Jail Time

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:55:29 +0000

We hope you’re sitting down, because it appears that a relative of a big shot judge is getting preferential treatment by our justice system! Sorry to start the day on such a cynical note, but even Christopher Samenga’s attorney can’t quite deny the role his client’s pedigree played in the sweetheart sentencing for his third DWI. “I think [the judge] recognized the last name and that she knew that his grandfather had been a judge, but I don’t think this had much to do with it in terms of the case,” Samenga’s lawyer Peter Gerstenzang tells Newsday (paywall). That’s right, not “much.” Just a tad. Samenga, 34, of Massapequa, was arrested November 14th after he crashed into another car. There were no injuries, but his blood-alcohol content registered .19 percent. (The legal limit is .08 percent.) In 1998, Samenga pleaded guilty to felony DWI in Nassau County, and in 2003 he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor DWI in NYC. He received probation in both pleas, and we’re sure the sentencing didn’t have “much” to do with the fact that his grandfather is retired judge Alfred Samenga Sr., who was appointed to the State Supreme Court in Nassau in 1985 after serving in District and County court for two decades. Last week acting Supreme Court Justice Meryl Berkowitz sentenced Samenga to a third probation after he completed a six-month alcohol treatment program. Berkowitz’s sentence recognized that he was “motivated towards recovery,” but Berkowitz promised to send Samenga to prison if he relapsed. “She promised him on-the-record that any kind of slip and he’s gone,” his lawyer says. Hopefully that slip won’t involve people dying—or at least not anybody important. Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice tells CBS 2 , “This is another example of how society and the judiciary just don’t get it. Drunk driving kills and when you see cases like this you shake your head and say ‘how can this be?’”

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Judge’s Grandson Racks Up 3 DWIs, No Jail Time

Preview Of President Obama’s View Interview

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:15:13 +0000

President Obama and the View hosts, Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd, and Elisabeth Hasslebeck (ABC) President Obama’s historic* visit to The View will air at 11 a.m. tomorrow (*historic because he’s the first sitting president to visit a daytime talk show), but ABC has provided a preview—Barbara Walters asks him about his life’s pleasures and challenges, “In the last month what has been the rose? And what has been the thorn?” Video is below and a transcript is after the jump: He also explained why he’s not going to Chelsea Clinton’s wedding , “I was not invited to the wedding because I think Hillary and Bill, properly, want to keep this thing for Chelsea and her soon-to-be husband,” and joked, “You don’t want two presidents at one wedding. All the secret service, guests going through (metal detectors), all the gifts being torn apart.” Joy Behar has been Tweeting about the President lately—here are some from yesterday and today, “Herr Limbaugh says I will need knee pads when I interview President Obama. Please, the man is tall” (HA!), “I’m getting ready to interview President Obama. There’s so much security here at the View, you’d think Justin Bieber was back” ( heh ), “The President is here. Finally some good food in the Green Room,” and “With President Obama in the Green Room at The View. http://twitpic.com/29j28u” President Obama: Well in the last month the rose has to be a couple of days we took in Maine with Michelle and Sasha and Malia, and we went on bike rides and hikes, and the girls are getting old enough now where they’re not quite teenagers yet, so they still like you (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER), but they are full of opinions and ideas and observations, and it’s just a great age. Malia just turned 12 and Sasha just turned nine, and it couldn’t have been a better couple of days. Barbara Walters: Thorn? President Obama: Well, where do I begin here? (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER) Barbara Walters: At the top. President Obama: Obviously the country has gone through a tough stretch since I took office. When I was sworn in, I know you showed the Inauguration, we were losing at that time 750,000 jobs per month, the economy was shrinking at a pace of about 6.5%, which is unheard of since the Great Depression, and so the last 20 months has been a non-stop effort to restart the economy, to stabilize the financial system, to make sure that we’re creating jobs again instead of losing them, and in the midst of all that we’ve also had the oil spill, we’ve also had two wars, we’ve also had a pandemic, H1N1, that we had to manage, and a whole host of other issues. What has been gratifying is the fact that the economy now is starting to stabilize and grow again, and what’s been satisfying is seeing how resilient the American people are. As much as you said it’s been tough for me, the truth is, it’s not tough for me; you know I’ve got people, pundits on the news who may say things about me. Barbara Walters: You noticed? President Obama: Of course, you think about what the American people have gone through, losing jobs, seeing their home values go down, their 401Ks declining, those are the folks who I draw inspiration from because I get letters every night from them and I read them. And as tough as it’s been, they remain hopeful, they remain optimistic about America, and so I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about me. I spend a lot of time worrying about them.

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Preview Of President Obama’s View Interview

Barricades, Sanitation Trucks, Cops Protect Obama

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:03:09 +0000

President Obama is currently taping a segment at the studios of The View on the Upper West Side. Onlookers were greatly outnumbered by police, but that could have something to do with the various sanitation trucks and barricades set up on the quiet Upper West Side street (yup, if you saw the pictures of the set up outside Vogue editor Anna Wintour’s Greenwich Village house, the scene of one of two Manhattan fundraisers Obama will be attending, it’s that…uneventful). Some people were debating health care reform while others were wondering when the president would emerge. The closest to a complaint about Obama that we heard was, “There are no cabs in front of the building because Obama’s here .” He’s heading to East 57th next and then the Village .

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Barricades, Sanitation Trucks, Cops Protect Obama

Judge: Paterson Showed "Poor Judgement" But No Criminality

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:51:21 +0000

AP Five months have passed since former chief judge Judith S. Kaye took over the investigation into David Paterson’s role in his aide’s alleged assault against a former girlfriend. Today Kaye released her report [ pdf ], concluding that Paterson did not break any laws when he repeatedly contacted the woman, Sherr-una Booker, after his former top adviser , David Johnson, allegedly choked her, tore off her Halloween costume, and threw her against a mirrored dresser last October. There has been widespread speculation that Booker dropped her court case against Booker as a result of pressure from Paterson and the State Police . (She dropped the case the day after a phone call from Paterson.) After the New York Times published a series of incendiary articles detailing the Paterson administration’s response to the alleged altercation, Paterson reached out to Booker again, and instructed his press secretary to draft a statement for Booker declaring that “though our break-up was not friendly, there was nothing acrimonious about our relationship or its ending.” Booker refused to issue the statement. Paterson also left a voicemail message for Booker after the story broke. Here’s the awkward transcript: Sherri, this is David. You should see the way they wrote this story. They’re trying to make it look like I pressured you into dropping this court case. Please help me. Your lawyer — his statement makes it sound the same way. Um, I mean — I was trying to find out about the rumors involving myself. You placed the call to me around ten minutes to four on Sunday, Feb. 7 — it was the day of the Super Bowl. And, um, in the conversation, we just talked about the things that — that — you didn’t say anything about me, and I didn’t say about you. Then we went on to talk about other stuff, but — I hope, uh — you remember that I was not trying to make you do anything, and — I hope your lawyer will do something to help me here, because this, uh, doesn’t look good for me, and I wasn’t in this. Apparently, Booker had plenty of room on her voicemail, because Paterson went on and on like Jon Favreau in Swingers : And this is exactly what they’re after. And I — I was just not in this and didn’t — um, you know — want to play a role in it. And, to be honest with you, I believe you. So — um, anyway, uh — if you can help to clear this up, because it — that portrayal, that conversation — we didn’t talk for one minute, we talked for 10 or 15 minutes. And, um — I did tell you that I was there for you, and you could call me. But I wasn’t doing it to try to trade it for you dropping the ca — I didn’t even know the court date was Monday, to be honest with you. I’ll talk to you later. Paterson later testified that he reached out to Booker because he had heard that she needed help handling press inquiries. Kaye’s report states that “there were numerous telephone contacts between the Governor and Booker, some that he initiated even after he became aware of the serious nature of her accusations, and even just after he referred this matter to the OAG. Regardless of any good faith reasons on the part of the Governor for contacts that he initiated, these were errors of judgment.” But Kaye found no criminality on behalf of the Governor. So we guess this means he’s cleared to run for Governor again! Watch your back, Cuomo. Kaye’s report does say that there is “evidence reviewed warrants consideration of possible charges” against Johnson relating to the alleged altercation with Booker, who last week decided to continue with her legal action against Johnson.

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Judge: Paterson Showed "Poor Judgement" But No Criminality

Should Israel Pay for American Protester’s Lost Eye?

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:41:19 +0000

Emily Henochowicz is led away after being shot in the face. (Courtesy International Solidarity Movement) As you may recall, a 21-year old American student at Cooper Union lost an eye after getting hit in the face with a tear gas projectile during a checkpoint demonstration in Israel in May. Artist Emily Henochowicz was doing a semester abroad when she got involved with the International Solidarity Movement , and on May 31st she joined a demonstration against the the deaths of pro-Palestinian activists aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Rocks were thrown at Israeli border police, who, according to witness accounts, fired tear gas canisters directly at the protesters. Henochowicz, who was holding a Turkish and American flag and was not near the rock throwers, was hit in the eye. “The IDF maintains that the tear-gas canister bounced off a wall, and that they acted impeccably—but what wall? Where?” Henochowicz asks in this week’s Village Voice cover story . Avi Issacharoff, an Israeli journalist from the newspaper Haaretz, witnessed the incident and says, “The police fired a tear-gas grenade, and then another and another. I remember that what surprised me was the volley of grenade fire directly aimed directly at the demonstrators, not at the sky.” Now back in the U.S., Henochowicz has been putting a brave face on the injury, and says, “The cool thing about this is that paintings look more 3-D to me now. It’s your stereoscopic vision that makes paintings appear flat. I guess I can be grateful to the IDF for giving me the chance to see the world in a new way.” But she’s just beginning a legal battle with Israel over her hospital bills. Her father, who was born in Israel to Holocaust survivors whom he described as “ardent Zionists,” tells the Times he’s received a letter from Israel’s Ministry of Defense explaining that the government would not cover the medical bills because border police dealt lawfully with the “violent protest at Qalandiya,” and that the firing of tear gas was justified. The family’s lawyer replied, “It is insolent and preposterous to expect someone who was shot by the security forces, whether unintentionally, negligently or with criminal intention, to fund her own medical treatment.”

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Should Israel Pay for American Protester’s Lost Eye?

State Senate To Hold Special Session, Accomplish Nothing

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:34:16 +0000

The state budget was due on April 1 , so the State Senate is headed to Albany tonight for a special session . However, it’s not expected that anything will actually, you know, pass, because the Democrats have a 32-seat majority (the number needed to pass items) and not all Democrats are expected to show up (Malcolm Smith is on vacation). And while the Republicans could help pass something by agreeing to a Dem-backed plan, that seems unlikely to Governor Paterson , “What the Republicans are doing now is voting no on everything, and then quietly behind the scenes going to all of the donors and special interests and telling them, ‘we’re not hurting you.’ Well they’re not hurting them because they’re not saying anything.’”

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State Senate To Hold Special Session, Accomplish Nothing