Politics

Saturday

10 a.m. Activists urge amnesty for U.S. political prisoners outside the Harlem State Office Building, 126th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard. (1 p.m. March through Harlem; 3 p.m. Rally in Morningside Park between 112th and 114th streets.)

5:30 p.m. PETA activists dressed as zombies protest outside KFC restaurant; KFC Herald Square, 1286 Broadway, at 33rd Street.

6 p.m. Liesel Pritzker hosts fundraiser for Young Ambassadors for Opportunity; Gustavino's, 409 East 59th St.

7 p.m. Anti-war forum held at PS 41, West 11th Street near Sixth Avenue.

Sunday

Noon. Rally against changing the term-limits law on the City Hall steps.

Monday

7 p.m. Author Herb Boyd reads from and discusses his book Baldwin’s Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin at Revolution Books, 146 W 26th St.

And it's the last chance to see The Falls. 

"Wall Street extended its devastating decline Friday," reports the A.P.

Barack Obama announced a plan to help struggling small businesses.

John McCain said investors should not be forced to sell IRAs and 401(k)s.

Asked why McCain isn't talking much about the economy, campaign manager Rick Davis said, "There’s very little a candidate for president can say and very little the president can say about what’s happening in the stock markets except hope that they correct themselves."

A Fox News poll shows Obama over McCain 46-39.

Retiring Republican Congressman Ray LaHood said of Sarah Palin's campaign rallies, "This doesn't befit the office that she's running for.  read more »

A reader in the comments section tried connecting a few dots between Michael Bloomberg’s former consultants at Knickerbocker SKD and the role some key players in the term-limits debate are playing, including Christine Quinn and the powerful union 1199 SEIU.

It's speculative stuff, but here's what we know: Bloomberg, as the Times noted today, hired Josh Isay of Knickerbocker for his 2005 re-election campaign and is likely to rely on him again for the next one. (In a brief email exchange today, Isay politely declined to detail the role he’s currently playing for Bloomberg.)

Isay is also a consultant for Quinn, who hasn’t publicly stated her position on the effort to change term limits legislatively, although  read more »

And I thought we were obsessed with term limits.

NY1 is keeping a useful tally of how each of the 51 Council members plans to vote on the bill to extend term limits. At the moment, the Web site lists 14 "yes" votes, 17 "no" votes, and 20 undecided.

NY1 also plans on airing live coverage of the two hearings that will take place on October 16 and 17 at City Hall.

And most fun of all: Reporter Roger Clark has begun visiting the districts of each undecided Council member to talk to constituents.

Asked about issues surrounding his bid to change the term-limits law, Michael Bloomberg offered few specifics.

At a Governor's Island press conference about the park project, a reporter asked the mayor why the Charter Revision Commission--which could have put the issue of term limits on the ballot for voters to decide--still hasn’t been formed, even though the mayor announced he would do so back in January.

“We’ve been talking about it. You can’t get everything done,” Bloomberg said. He said he would appoint members after the November election.

Later, I asked him to elaborate on the process by which he sought public input before declaring he’d like a third term.  read more »

Gay marriage just become legal in Connecticut. [AP]

Sarah Palin spent $31,000 of state money on a public relations consultant. [Wash Post]

Some McCain officials are worried that their negative attacks on Obama are creating too much hostility at McCain-Palin events. [WSJ]

John Dickerson has many disturbing details from the campaign's rallies. [Slate]

Obama has worked the issue of angry McCain supporters into his stump speech.[JM]

Obama has gained ground in Ohio, and has a significant lead in Florida and Wisconsin, according to a new set of polls. [RCP]

Via Spin Cycle, the Times prints a letter from the guy who prosecuted Bill Ayers, and says connecting Obama to him is ridiculous. [Times]

Jay Carney agrees with Howard Wolfson that McCain's new ad makes no sense. [Swampland]

And here's the Golden Girls' Betty White on carrier pigeons and Sarah Palin. [BS]

The bloc of City Council members opposed to changing the law on term limits legislatively just got one more supporter.

Councilwoman Darlene Mealy of Brooklyn, according to a line buried in this NY1 story, has now said she supports putting the issue up for a referendum. Mealy had initially declined to comment on the issue.

Mealy's position was pointed out by the Working Families Party spokesman, who is keeping a running tally of where the Council member stand on this issue.

Two remarks stood out from Michael Bloomberg’s weekly interview with radio host John Gambling this morning. One explains why critics are opposing his run for a third term, and the other explains why he didn’t run for president. They both boil down to competition and fear of losing -- essentially, a political version of the free-market, rather than moral, argument.

In answering the critics of his plan to change the term limits law, Bloomberg said, “All this really does, John, is give the public more choice. And I find it fascinating, those who are arguing against it argue against it because they will have competition, which they didn't want.  read more »

Kornacki thinks that, with this election year playing out a bit like 1992, McCain's effort to link Obama to Bill Ayers is unlikely to succeed with voters.

George W. Bush will address the nation this morning after the Dow plummeted yesterday and global markets today are already in bad shape.

The Obama campaign bought half an hour of airtime on CBS and NBC for October 29--just before the election and the anniversary of the 1929 stock market crash.

A McCain campaign co-chair brought up Obama's drug use.

Michael Bloomberg could spend $80 million on his re-election campaign, but one aide told The New York Times, “There is no cap, there is no price tag.”

Here’s more on concerns freshman City Council members have about changing the term-limits law.

The deal Bloomberg struck with Ron Lauder is coming under scrutiny.

“These are rich men toying with the purchase of the public will,” writes Newsday’s editorial board.

"Tyranny" is how the Queens Tribune editorial board describes it.

Mike Schenkler, a fan of the mayor, writes, "Last week, Mike Bloomberg became a politician and I fear it all has changed."

Few doubt that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is on board.

The New York Times editorial board thinks David Paterson has a better approach than Bloomberg taxing cigarettes sold on Indian reservations.

Michael Bloomberg is trading at a lower price on the fantasy stock market.

The Queens Chronicle editorial board wonders if Bloomberg will get a job in D.C. during his third term, and calls Ron Lauder’s position on term limits “strange.”

The Queens Chronicle also has a front-page graphic saying nearly every City Council member from that borough is undecided about changing term limits.

Draft Eric Adams, says Rock Hackshaw.

Andrew Hawkins looks at the legal challenges facing Bloomberg and concludes none are airtight.

Here’s a cartoon showing Bloomberg as Superman.

Bloomberg gets a brief mention as a candidate to head the U.S. Treasury Department.

A frustrated Yoda suggests that it would save time and money to have Howard Rubenstein write the Charter Revision Commission report.

The New York League of Conservation Voters are endorsing both the Democratic and Republican State Senate candidates in Westchester.

Get ready for some news videos coming out of Rochester.

The Albany Project likes the sound of the gas-tax holiday coming from Democratic challenger David Nachbar.

A Republican Assembly candidate criticizes a Democrat for voting to eliminate the commuter tax. [last item]

This blogger thinks Bloomberg would be leading the presidential race if he were running.

Gary Tilzer wants U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia to investigate lots of people.

Rupert Murdoch wants to host a panel discussion about New York and stock markets.

Sheldon Silver works on a more direct way to get to Albany.

Republican congressional candidate Bob Straniere responds to Guy Molinari's endorsement of the Conservative Party candidate.

Republican Representative Randy Kuhl objects to the health care ad running in his district.

It’s good to be an outsider in some races.

This blogger isn’t upset with Bloomberg running because “it’s easy to pull the lever for the other guy.”

In the comments section, Kitchen Cynic thinks Bloomberg and others will wind up working in D.C.

And the supermarket tabloid Weekly World News "reports" Bloomberg held a secret ceremony to change Wall Street’s name to Main Street.

The Dow plummeted to below 9,000.

A year ago it was at a record high.

The federal government might now just give banks a "capital injection."

George W. Bush has ordered up transition teams for both candidates, remarking, "It has probably never been more critical that a transition from an administration from one to the next is as seamless as possible."

A blogger at Second Avenue Sagas wonders if the federal government will also bail out the M.T.A., which has a worse debt problem then originally.

In another sign the economy is not recovering, more people are failing to pay their Con Ed bills.  read more »

Two new polls show voters think Barack Obama won Tuesday's debate by a huge margin--one survey is 56-23, the other 45-28. [Political Wire]

A significant gain in support from white voters gave Obama six points in Virginia, where he now leads 51-43, according to a PPP poll. [RCP]

"Among white voters, Obama appeared to be rising on a pile of empty wallets." [Time]

Sandy Treadwell, a millionaire challenging Representative Kirsten Gillibrand, says if elected he will donate his salary to charity. [Cap Conf]

Congressional candidates Alice Kryzan and Chris Lee will debate tonight on the radio. [26th]

The federal plan to auction slots at New York City-area airports is going forward despite resistance. [AP]

On March 4, Hillary Clinton delivered the following remarks to supporters at her victory party in Columbus, Ohio:

"You know, they call Ohio a bellwether state. It's a battleground state. It's a state that knows how to pick a president. And no candidate in recent history, Democrat or Republican, has won the White House without winning the Ohio primary.

"You all know that if we want a Democratic president, we need a Democratic nominee who can win the battleground states just like Ohio. And that is what we've done. We've won Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Michigan, New Hampshire, Arkansas, California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.

 read more »

Here’s Anthony Miranda, Executive Chairman of the National Latino Officers Association of America, on the City Hall steps this morning, saying his group may withhold endorsements from elected officials who support changing the term-limits law.

He also said that if it passes, the organization may actively campaign against those who voted in favor.

Hiram Monserrate, a city councilman who won a Democratic primary for the State Senate seat in Jackson Heights being vacated by the incumbent, John Sabini, told a group of reporters on the City Hall steps just now that he's not sure how he will vote on the term-limits bill.

"I'm undecided," said Monserrate after approaching reporters on his way in.

Monserate is in the unique position of having some options.

He's pretty much guaranteed to win the State Senate seat, which has no term limits attached, or if the law changes, he can run for reelection to the City Council and is unlikely to face much opposition.