The Morning Read: Monday, November 27, 2006
The mayor has better relations with minorities than during the police shooting of Amadou Diallo seven years ago.
The cops involved in the shooting had at least five years of experience on the job.
Two Council members have called on the police commissioner to resign.
Christine Quinn's citywide speaking tour is generating buzz about a possible mayoral run.
An advocacy group wants congestion pricing in the city.
The state Assembly will make public a detailed list of pork projects it funds.
Political parties can now spend money during primaries in New York.
The head of the Executive Director of the state's Lobbying Commission may be ousted.
Eliot Spitzer will get to fill at least two upcoming vacancies on the state's highest court.
2008 wouldn't be the first time Rudy Giuliani tested the presidential waters.
Al Gore told Time magazine that despite traveling by jet to promote his global warming lecture, he does live eco-friendly.
Newsweek looked at Mitt Romney's opposition to same-sex marriage in his last days as governor of Massachusetts, and wonders if he can ride that issue into the White House.
Time magazine simply asks whether a Mormon can be president.
Jonathan Chait, writing in The New Republic, argued that "psychotic mass murderer" Saddam Hussein should be restored to power [subscription]in Iraq.
"Under his rule, Iraqis were shot, tortured, and lived in constant fear. Bringing the dictator back would sound cruel if it weren't for the fact that all those things are also happening now, probably on a wider scale."
And Andrew Cuomo told Page Six that he asked Louis Freeh, a Clinton foe, to be on his transition team because of his legal expertise, not because of politics.
-- Azi Paybarah
Not all Legislative funding (member items, earmarks, initiatives) is "pork."
Would it be unreasonable to ask the lazy critics in the media to distinguish between the absurd cheese museums and bridges to nowehere versus the deeply needed programs to serve the elderly and children in crisis because the executive branch of Federal, State or City government is indifferent to the crises that may affect people who fall between the cracks.
It is high time to consider serious review now that there is finally some transparency of the funding initiatives and actually grade them for performance and credit or discredit their sponsor.
Spitzer team will include Health Commissioner Jon Cohen; Housing Shaun Donovan; Motor Vehicles will go to Assemblyman Gary Pretlow; Children & Family Services to Assemblywoman Susan John; Human Rights to Assemblywoman Deobrah Glick; Temporary Disability and Develop Assistance to State Senator John Sampson; Environmental Conservation will go to a Republican Senator Cathy Young; Transportation will go to a Wall Streeter to be named later; as will Insurance and Banking Superindentants; Empire State Development Corporation will go to someone who can clean out the stench of Gargano and his cronies, most likely a forensic accounting team and then a Wall Streeter; and Budget will go to Tony Shorris who is pushing for the Port Authority job but will have to settle.