I don’t care if Giuliani has a lead in the polls for the Republican nomination, this ought to finish him off:

When Rudy Giuliani faces Republicans concerned about his support of gay rights and legal abortion, he reassures them that he is a conservative on the decisions that matter most.

“I would want judges who are strict constructionists because I am,” he told South Carolina Republicans last month. “Those are the kinds of justices I would appoint — Scalia, Alito and Roberts.”

But most of Giuliani’s judicial appointments during his eight years as mayor of New York were hardly in the model of Chief Justice John Roberts or Samuel Alito — much less aggressive conservatives in the mold of Antonin Scalia.

A Politico review of the 75 judges Giuliani appointed to three of New York state’s lower courts found that Democrats outnumbered Republicans by more than 8 to 1. One of his appointments was an officer of the International Association of Lesbian and Gay Judges. Another ruled that the state law banning liquor sales on Sundays was unconstitutional because it was insufficiently secular.

There’s only one real issue in American politics: reproductive rights. And Rudy’s on the right side of it, which makes him the wrong candidate for the right wing.  He can get a big Confederate Flag tatoo on his forehead and he still won’t win the South Carolina primary.

Not sure how much you’ve been following the saga of the eight US Attorneys that Abu Gonzales has had fired (most likely for political reasons) over the past few months, but one of the fired US Attorneys is now speaking out:

The U.S. attorney from New Mexico who was recently fired by the Bush administration said Wednesday that he believes he was forced out because he refused to rush an indictment of local Democrats a month before November’s Congressional elections.

U.S. Attorney David Iglesias said two members of Congress separately called in mid-October to inquire about the timing of an ongoing probe of a kickback scheme and appeared eager for an indictment to be issued on the eve of the elections in order to benefit the Republicans. He refused to name the members of Congress because he said he feared retaliation.

Talking Points Memo lays out a list of suspects (for being among the Congressmen who called Iglesias) and Tom Reynolds (as head of the National Republican Congressional Committee) is on it. I’ll try calling Reynolds’ office for comment. If you’re a constituent, you might want to give it a try as well; the number is:

(202) 225-5265

Note: I doubt Reynolds was one of the callers. If you’re a Reynolds staffer and you’re reading this, feel free to drop us a line or leave comment verifying that Reynolds was not involved with this.

Update: Looks like the perpetrators were Domenici and Wilson of New Mexico.

Check out this article about how to build the upstate economy by Jon Greenbaum of Metro Justice.

The argument is that property taxes are not the major driver of business cost. Then there is this quote from Mayor Bloomberg.

But as billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg once put it: “Any company that makes a decision as to where they are going to be, based on the tax rate, is a company that won’t be around very long. If you are down to that incremental margin, you don’t have a business.”

The article discusses the unevenness of COMIDA distributions and the ultimate affect of lowering the tax base in exchange for the promise of jobs and the lack of accountability in achieving those jobs.

It’s a great article (I picked it up over at DragonFlyEye)

Of course you can see RTs COMIDA articles here

Funny:

This is nothing against County Executive Maggie Brooks, as she is basically following a trail cut long ago, but there’s no way to see her State of the County address on Monday as anything other than a campaign ad. The thing skipped the bad news, put a party dress on the good, such as it is, and made nice with the kind of voters she hopes will return her to office in November.

Tom Tobin’s on a roll. Check out the rest.

Update: Ok, that was weird. Links are fixed now, though.

Delta Two, Delta Two… This is Charlie Minor… We’re gonna need a task force on the double… got 17 year old thats just requested to look at naked chicks on the computer…

And thus Maggie made her move…

A joint task force was appointed today to study Internet policies at the Central library in Rochester.

A meeting of the Monroe County Library Systems Board and Rochester Public Library board approved a resolution to study the issue over the next 60 days and report back with any recommended changes.

…

Last week, Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks threatened to yank about $6.6 million in aid to the downtown library after it was revealed that the library’s policy lets adult patrons, upon request, view blocked Web sites that could be inappropriate or pornographic.

Wait, wait, wait… hold up! Last week she threatened to yank $7.5 Million out of the libraries? Is this $900,000 going to fund her “joint task force” or something?

Great job Maggie… Your rhetoric of diminishing returns is most astounding… If you want to save time and money, just read this and you’ll see that trying to censor computer access is not just stupid, it’s also pointless. Your library reform is like… hmm, what’s the expression… ah yes…

I’m sure you’ll catch it eventually.

Handsome Swede, in his excellent rebuttal picked up on this nugget from the State of The County:

“Monroe County’s unemployment rate is now at its lowest point in five years.”

True. But according to the Department of Labor fewer people are employed in Monroe now then when Brooks took office. All the unemployment rate means is that people are leaving.

And, IIRC, the unemployment rate doesn’t count folks that have given up looking. Oh, and how much are the jobs paying that are replacing the massive layoffs from Rochester’s “Big 3″? How will those sweet Wal-Mart wages keep the local economy humming?

Speaking of rebuttals, was there one from the Monroe County Dems? I checked their site and didn’t see anything. Who’s going to be Monroe County’s Jim Webb on this kind of stuff?

The D&C did ask an interesting question in an editorial today:

Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, in trying to explain why her State of the County address gave short shrift to the county’s serious budget deficit, said the speech wasn’t meant to emphasize fiscal issues.

She said her solutions would become clear in the fall. The fall? As in months from now? Resolving the deficit demands leadership from Brooks now.

I love it when they get snarky. Well done, my friends.

Brooks should accept that her plan to raise the sales tax to 8.75 cents on the dollar as part of a Medicaid refinance plan has no traction in the state Legislature. This idea has been on the table for months and is no closer to legislative approval than it was on the first day.

Following that acknowledgement of reality, Brooks should, as she herself suggested Tuesday during an Editorial Board meeting, engage towns and school districts on a possible redistribution of sales-tax money or other county support to help Monroe fix its money woes.

The county is talking to the city — which gets the biggest piece of the sales-tax pie each year — about the options, and that’s fine. But the schools and towns must be part of the conversation now.

And the debate should be open. The public deserves to know what kinds of deals are being contemplated with the taxes it pays.

Wait– why would they need to make a point about open government? Oh. Man, I don’t always agree with the D&C ed board, but when I do, I agree wholeheartedly.

There will be village elections in Pittsford, Webster, Honeoye Falls, Churchville, and Spencerport on Tuesday March 20. Some details are available at the Monroe County Board of Elections.

We’ll try to get more information about some of the candidates up on this site soon!

Since the Canandaigua VA Psych dept is now set to close!

I’m not 100% sure about this news source (primarily since I haven’t read a lot of news from India), but it looks like there’s been a major stem cell victory on the other side of the world.

A 23-year-old man, who was paralysed from below the waist, is now able to walk after the first successful stem cell therapy in India for spinal cord injuries was conducted at a hospital here.

…

He could not control his urine and bowel movements and was thus admitted to Lifeline Hospitals. The doctors there diagnosed him as a patient for autologous stem cell therapy wherein the stem cells from the patient’s body are taken and used at the injured spot.

…

Two months into the therapy, Ali has now regained 50 per cent sensation below his waist. He can control his urine for up to two hours and can also walk.

Now whether this is a legitimate announcement or not (I’m sure it will be all hashed out by the end of the day), this is the promise that stem cell therapy offers. If you live in NY-25, don’t EVER forget that your local Congressman, Jim Walsh, voted against funding Stem Cell therapy ensuring that these medical miricles occur on the otherside of the world not at the U of R.

I hope this one is legit… even if it’s not, it’s only a matter of time before one is.

Laura, I mean, not Condi. Here’s Saint Laura talking about how everything is fine in Iraq aside from a bombing each day.

I realize this isn’t local — sorry this really sticks in my craw. I’ve got some hard-core, old-school upstate Republican trivia on the way later this afternoon.

There’s lots of coverage of Maggie Brooks’ state of the county address this evening. Here’s the text of the speech, here’s WHAM-13’s summary, and here’s the D&C’s summary. We’ll more analysis of this later — I’m not really the county guy here, so hopefully someone over here who knows more will pick up on the particulars (my only personal goal with county coverage is to some day write a post titled “I Ain’t Gonna Work On Maggie’s Farm No More”). In the meantime, check out the Water Buffalo Press coverage..

WHEC Channel 10 speculates on who will run against Monroe County’s Iron Lady this fall (no for Morrelle, maybe for Koon, maybe for Frankel) and ends with this MCDC bombshell:

One thing we did learn from talking with democrats, Joe Morelle probably will return to his post as county democratic chairman.

Should Massa run again? Take the poll here.

I don’t have any time to write at the moment, but here’s the story… What’s everyone’s thoughts about this? Open thread… Go forth!

Maggie Brooks is giving her annual state of the county speech tonight. The D&C has an editorial about what to expect:

These are among more than 6,900 jobs that Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks can point to as evidence of progress on the economic development front since she took office in 2003.

In her 2007 State of the County speech tonight from the headquarters of Paychex Inc., in Perinton, Brooks, no doubt, will remind county residents of those job gains, as she should.

(snip)

Brooks has much to talk about in tonight’s speech that’s laudable, but there is no getting around the elephant in the living room — the county’s mammoth budget gap.

I was struck by this article about the other gift that keeps on giving - Rudy Giuliani. I think it is another example that he simply doesn’t get it.

“He called the concept [the resolution against the Iraq escalation]“a comment without making a decision.” America, he added, is “very fortunate to have President Bush.”

“Presidents can’t do nonbinding resolutions. Presidents have to make decisions and move the country forward, and that’s the kind of president that I would like to be, a president who makes decisions.”

Great Rudy, Make decisions.

Damn, if the primary qualification to be President is the ability to make decisions, Hell, millions of kids who make crazy decisions everyday are qualified to be President.

Frankly, I want someone who makes decisions because they are working for my best interest at heart - decisions with some thought behind them.

Look forward to to rereading your election playbook.