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I see an upset — Anthony Weiner will beat Ferrer but come up short of the 40% necessary to avoid the run-off with him.

My date for the evening and I shall be going to a party tonight sponsored by the Bloomberg c ampaign tonight. I’ll tell y’all about it later.

Claudio

Any of you Mets fans who saw Carlos Beltran and Mike Cameron collide face-first in midair last night are urged to keep both in your prayers.

We here at The (vast) Right Wing Conspiracy are praying for a speedy and full recovery for both players. It really showed some heart and competitive edge to put themselves all the way out there for that liner, and simply highlights the passion and commitment of both players.

Ya Gotta Believe!

I still havent’ seen any anti-Muslim signs.

Dorian Davis is a genius.

Claudio

Also posted at Scott from Slantpoint’s amazing new NYC Republican-HQ, Urban Elephants.

From The Man:

Top 10 Uses For the UN Building

The Onion published the perfect solution for NYC’s UN problem. I have a few more suggestions for the site.

Top 10 Uses For the UN Building

10. Additional nesting space for Pale Male’s bitches
9. Yet another Starbucks in the area
8. NYC’s first Wal-mart Supercenter
7. Anything other than the UN
6. The new Iraqi embassy
5. World’s largest bodega
4. More overpriced apartment studios
3. Headquarters for the 2012, 2016 Olympic bid committee.
2. New York City’s GOP Headquarters (probably only needs a few hundred square feet)

and the #1 use for the UN building
1. An East Side Football Stadium

If you have anything you would like to see on the site, add it to the comments section.

How about a public shooting range?

Claudio

This was what Democratic Mayor Mike Bloomberg had to say about petty petition challenges back in the day (2004):

It’s become a whole cottage industry of you don’t have to beat the other guy based on positions or your ability to serve; all you’ve got to do is beat him because you got a better lawyer who can get him thrown off the ballot. I think it’s time to end this ‘gotcha’ kind of technique where lawyers comb petitions to find some technical violation. [Emphasis mine.]

Right. Now fast-forward to 2005. Same Mayor Mike, but now with a real Republican potentially challenging him in a primary:

The Bloomberg campaign plans today to try to prevent a Republican primary for mayor by challenging the nominating petitions of Thomas V. Ognibene, the former city councilman who is seeking to run on the Republican line.

Bloomberg campaign aides said they had found problems with Mr. Ognibene’s petitions, including signatures of people ineligible to vote or not enrolled as Republicans, signatures that did not match those on voter registration cards, and incomplete forms. The flaws, they said, will most likely drop the number from the 8,116 signatures submitted to well below the 7,500 needed to qualify for the ballot.

By trying to halt a primary challenge by Mr. Ognibene, a conservative, the Bloomberg campaign is seeking to avoid not only a distracting primary battle, but also a confrontation with elements of the Republican Party who think Mr. Bloomberg is too liberal.

Hmmmm. Dare I say “flip-flop”? Ognibene’s response is priceless:

It seems that the only thing that Bloomberg isn’t willing to spend money on is a fair fight. Why participate in the democratic process when you can simply write a check, and buy it?

Indeed. Oh, and couple that with the fact that Democratic Mike is getting endorsements from NARAL and potentially not supporting President Bush’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge John G. Roberts (even Hilary is supporting the man for goodness’ sake!):

Mayor Mike will be endorsed by the New York chapter of the National Abortion Rights Action League at a 12:30 press conference at Brooklyn’s Kings County hospital, sources say.

Key question: Will Bloomberg now take a harder stance against Bush administration Supreme Court nominee John Roberts in line with NARAL’s opposition to his nomination? (Yesterday, the mayor punted, saying he’d have to examine Roberts’ record more carefully).

Could I dislike this guy any more than I already do? Is it even possible? We’ll see in the days and weeks to come…but something tells me even now, that it is more than possible, it’s likely.

Claudio

PS - My brother Thomas will return to light-blogging here at The (vast) Right Wing Conspiracy soon. He has been interning at State Senator and Queens County Republican Chairman Serph Maltese’s office (the only county party head to endorse Ognibene) and has been able to meet with the Senator on an almost daily basis. We’ll ask him to share his thoughts and predictions regarding future clashes between Serph and Mike and the future of the Queens GOP.

For anyone that happened to be at Shea Stadium this afternoon…

…yes, the guy with the black Mets jersey, orange shirt, and black Mets hat who was on DiamondVision during the 7th inning stretch was me.

6-0 today and my Win/Loss record at Shea stands at 4-1.

–Pat

…just like that…

New York Mets 12, San Diego Padres 0

Claudio

EUROPEAN THEMED UPDATE: In honor of my European friends, who do not care much for American baseball and instead prefer to be football (no, not the real football) fanatics, I leave you all with this:

USA Soccer ranked sixth in world (better than France, UK, Germany, Spain, Portugal — all those good soccer teams - er, football clubs) and reaches North/Central American international tournament finals.

Just think: the only thing that Europeans can still say they’re better than us at is soccer — OH WAIT, NO THEY CAN’T!

Pobre cito! (Ed. — You’re in an unusually obnoxious mood today!) Why yes, I is!

Claudio

Alright, good news coming from the Ognibene camp. It seems Tom has 7,800 petition signatures, 300 more than the 7,500 needed to secure a place on the ballot in the mayoral primary. Some are arguing that the signatures may not be valid as 1,000 or so of them were inherited from the now-defunct campaign of Steve Shaw (see Slantpoint comments for discussion).

I think Bloomberg’s people may try to challenge, but the petition will stand. Ognibene on the ballot means finally a chance to send a message to Bloomberg and the state GOP.

Claudio

Hilary Clinton has long begun her campaign for the presidency. She is now targeting New York City universities, as I have received this email from her office:

Dear [somebody],
My name is [somebody else] and I am an intern at Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign office. The interns are interested in increasing college awareness about the upcoming Senatorial re-election in 2006. More specifically, we are looking to expand political visibility throughout the campus as well as raising money for the campaign. We are looking to sell Hillary t-shirts at a reduced college rate and to distribute information about the campaign. Please let us know who we could contact regarding this issue. Thank you for your help. The number at the office is 212-213-xxxx or you could email us at [email].

Grrr. Well fine, if Hilary’s peeps are beginning their assault on the college campuses, then I will do my part to counter it. I urge all of you to go and register to volunteer with the Ed Cox campaign. Also, I will try to bring Cox, Ognibene, and some other real Republicans to City College in the fall. I will keep y’all posted on that as it progresses.

Claudio

Ed Cox for New York Senate, 2006

So we don’t get the Olympics. Didn’t think we would anyway. Maybe now Bloomberg can be mayor again, instead of posing as the international NYC PR rep for some inane games that would cost taxpayers insane money and Americans would dominate anyway.

No biggie. But if Paris gets the games and I hear just one French person try to construe that as proof that they have the greatest city in the world, he’ll have Freedom Fries coming out of his nostrils.

Claudio

UPDATE: London gets the games. Fine. Better them than the French. If a terrorist tries to attack the games, at least the Brits will do something about it.