In which I blow your mind with a statistic about the differences between the rich and the poor and the different races

Are you ready? It involves marijuana too. OK, prepare to have your world shaken.

No city in the world arrests more of its citizens for using pot than New York, according to statistics compiled by Harry G. Levine, a Queens College sociologist.

Nearly nine out of ten people charged with violating the law are black or Latino, although national surveys have shown that whites are the heaviest users of pot. Mr. Bloomberg himself acknowledged in 2001 that he had used it, and enjoyed it.

On the Upper East Side of Manhattan where the mayor lives, an average of 20 people for every 100,000 residents were arrested on the lowest-level misdemeanor pot charge in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

During those same years, the marijuana arrest rate in Brownsville, Brooklyn, was 3,109 for every 100,000 residents.

That means the chances of getting arrested on pot charges in Brownsville — and nothing else — were 150 times greater than on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

GOLLY! More rich white people get away with shit than poor brown people? Oh me oh my, I never expected this. I bet there are more poor black people in our prisons than rich white people too and a massive sentencing disparity too! And there's a hypocrisy and staggering difference in enforcement with our drug laws? Next you'll be telling me the kind of cocaine a black person does is subject to a much harsher prison sentence that the type of cocaine a white person does.

Where's the fainting couch? I'm... I'm going to need to sit down. This is too much to handle.

Craig Johnson is my new favorite NY State Senator

Bill Simmons, when not serving as the irritating inspiration for KSK's Tommy from Quinzee character, was taking to the Twittertubes to ask his audience "What would be the worst celebrity sex tape of all time?"

After coming up with his own suggestion of William Hung and Helen Thomas and declaring it UNTAWPPABLE... NO ONE DENIES THIS!, NY State Sen. Craig Johnson took to his Twitter feed to offer up his own suggestion.

@sportsguy33 Susan Boyle and Abe Vigoda.

Blood curdling. Nicely played, Senator. Your years on the Inflicting Mental Anguish on the Populace Sub-Committee have served you well.

Things I like

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo... suing Bank of America for fraud.

Details:

Cuomo also sued the bank’s former chief financial officer Joe Price and the bank itself for not disclosing about $16 billion in losses Merrill had incurred before it was bought by Bank of America in an effort to get the merger approved. Afterwards, Lewis demanded government bailout funds, Cuomo said.

“We believe the bank management understated the Merrill Lynch losses to shareholders, then they overstated their ability to terminate their agreement to secure $20 billion of TARP money, and that is just a fraud,” Cuomo said today at a press conference. “Bank of America and its officials defrauded the government and the taxpayers at a very difficult time.”

Hey, at least there's one guy out there who is willing to use his power and legal jurisdiction to fight for some accountability for the financial giants and banks that molested our economy. Good luck with that.

And he's a political legacy kid, imagine that. I think the odds are that one out of every twenty isn't some kind of simpering idiot. I think NY is finding that out with Harold Ford Jr.

Quote of the day

Say anything for a buck, corporate owned, no real beliefs of his own, political hack/carpetbagger Harold Ford Jr. has decided that what New York needs is a Democratic Senator that is not only completely embarrassing, is the Democratic equivalent to Sarah Palin, but also tries to out-Lieberman Joe Lieberman. It doesn't sound like a great campaign strategy to me, but what do I know? I'm probably going to have to choose between Arlen Specter or Pat Toomey in November.

In between declaring how he's a real New Yorker because his helicopter once touched down in Staten Island thus technically qualifying him as having visited all five boroughs, flip flopping on gay marriage, opposing health care, backing large salaries for bankers while not understanding capitalism as a principle, and generally making people question what the hell he is doing and what the hell he is thinking, he dropped this little nugget in an almost 'too bizarre to believe it was anything other than a parody' NY Times interview:

Q. Guns. Let’s talk about this issue.

A: I never got an A rating, like my opponent — would-be opponent — has enjoyed. I don’t own them. I do shoot them, and I shoot them at things that can’t shoot back. And will continue to do that. And by that, I want to be clear, I don’t mean children.

Well, thanks for clearing that up. But I think you might want to soften that stance a little bit. It's New York and the kids there definitely do shoot back.

Still, it's a hell of a political slogan.

Ford '10! Let's be clear: I do not shoot children.

Beats the shit out of 'Hope' or 'Change'.

Republicans, we have found your teabag king

With Sarah Palin roaming the countryside promoting her book in a hellstorm of lies, ignorant policy statements, lies, softball interviews, lies, and petty gamesmanship, we are left with no doubt that she is the charming dainty Queen of the Grand Duchy of Teabaggery. Ahh, but who will rule alongside her in political irrelevance? Many suitors have tried to claim the crown, but few have succeeded, letting the taint of rationality and moderation scuttle their ascension. Thankfully, Doug Hoffman has stepped up to the plate.

Oh, you thought he went away when his carpetbagging maelstrom of teabagging wisdom and local ignorance cause the people of NY-23 to elect the first Democrat there since whites owned blacks? Nope! On the advice of Glenn Beck (bonus points~!), Hoffman has not only unconceded the race he already lost and for which the winner, Bill Owns, has already been sworn in for and is casting votes in the House for, but has unveiled a conspiracy so deep and so nefarious that it will no doubt shake the very core of teabagger society.

“As evidence surfaces, we find out that reported results from election night were far from accurate. ACORN and the unions did their best to try and sway the results to Obamacare supporter Bill Owens," Hoffman wrote on his campaign site. "Rest assured, they will not succeed, and I am therefore revoking my statement of concession.”
...
"The people of NY-23 deserve to have their ballots counted properly, but we can't let ACORN or the unions keep that from happening. They have more lawyers and more experience tampering with democracy," he wrote.

"We need to make sure that fair elections are a reality in NY-23, just like our Founding Fathers envisioned. So long as we remain the "land of the free," we MUST ensure every vote is counted. Help us today so we may be the first of many conservative victories during the Obama Regime."

Dougy, Dougy, Dougy, aren't we forgetting the black hand of...well.....blacks, illegal immigrants and abortion doctors that helped steal this election from your deserving hands? Surely ACORN and labor unions alone couldn't derail this Hoffman juggernaut, could it? No, it was a conspiracy. ACORN has even gotten to Oswego County GOP Chairman George Williams and made him deny the truth. To the beverage aisle of your local supermarket, teabaggers! Your new king is going to need a lot of visible tea bag support and birth certificate analysis. Good luck. Expose this fraud for what it is.

Quote of the Day

Dede Scozzafava, the NY-23 legislator who was sacrificed in an effort to please the tea baggers, showing that she's in real danger of a brain aneurysm if someone doesn't try to stop from getting her to try and ascibe logic or intelligence to the actions of Sarah Palin:

"How can Sarah Palin come out and endorse someone who can't answer some basic questions," Scozzafava asked. "Do these people even know who they are endorsing?"

Dede, this is a woman who felt she was ambushed in a Katie Couric interview after Kit-Kat set her brain ablaze with the ever difficult "Could you be more specific" and "Like what" questions. She probably saw a kindred spirit in Doug Hoffman. Also, as evidenced by the 08 election, she likes making history to help Democrats get elected.

If you can't make sense of that, don't worry, that makes 300 million of us. But it does make sense to those people waving birth certificates, so its best to let them have their fun.

Headline of the day

Conservatives on NY-23: We didn't lose

The last time there was a Democrat in that seat, white people could still own black people.

You lost.

Shaming

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) is quickly becoming one of my favorite elected representatives in the health care debate. He fights for a robust public option, seems to understand obvious truths, tries to humiliate and shame liars in public forums, makes a hell of a lot of sense on the issues, stays within the realm of fact, and his last name is Weiner, which is of critical importance to someone as childish as myself. Now, he's also getting into the 'shaming Republican hypocrites' business, which is admittedly easy, but he still does a good job of it.

WEINER: It’s more another way of looking at this debate, this discussion about the public option, to put it in focus. We went, just out of curiosity, looked at how many members of Congress get the public option. And I know a lot of people have said, “Well under the new bill, how many of you members of Congress would choose the public option?”

Well there already is one; it’s called Medicare. And we found 55 Republicans and 151 members of Congress are on Medicare right now. So they’re already getting the same type of public option that we’d like people who are without insurance to be able to get. And I guess the purpose of this list was to kind of point out some of the hypocrisy of this debate.

Yes, he's done his own study, naming names on who is full of it on the health care debate. These 55 oppose a public option while they themselves not only have a public option, while they not only have government run health care, but are using single-payer government run health care in the style of the Socio-fascist League of Homosexual European Freedom Haters that they despise so much.

Now there is one critical flaw in Weiner's plan: he is trying to point out hypocrisy in politicians and shame leaders who have no capacity for acknowledging hypocrisy and had their sense of shame removed in a procedure paid for by Medicare. Plus he's doing it in a media environment that can't find time to give srious proponents of the public option interview time, but can find time to let Overlord McCain warble on and on about nothing for the millionth time. And why not, Gramps won so convincingly a year ago. Still Mr. Weiner (tee-hee), the effort is appreciated. Maybe next time you'll want to accuse the 55 leeches of seeking to kill health reform because they want everyone's grandmother to die bankrupt. It's pretty much the only way to get on TV nowadays. Unless you've got a precocious kid who is willing to hoax the media about a balloon mishap. Don't know how you'd tie that into the health care debate.

Dream big, Bron Bron

We all have big dreams, whether they're finding a bag of money, seeing Glenn Beck completely lose his mind on live TV (I think we're two weeks away!), living long enough to see the Pirates put together an 82 win season, or finding a bag of money. Celebrities and athletes are no different. So when Maxim magazine got a chance to distract LeBron James from flipping through New York real estate listings long enough to answer a question about his dreams, he did not disappoint. He dreamt big.

[INTERVIEWER]: If there was one guy on the planet you could dunk on, who would it be? That teacher?

[JAMES]: If it doesn’t have to be a basketball player, George W. Bush. I would dunk on his ass, break the rim, and shatter the glass.

I can get behind this. So listen, White House, Congress, and Justice Department. If you aren't going to prosecute anyone in the Bush Administration for all those war crimes, Constitutional crimes, and other various and sundry laws they broke (and we know you aren't) then how about this proposition: pass a law decreeing that your basic murderer's row of Bush Administration crooks (Bush, Cheney, Rove, Gonzales, etc...) instead has to stand six feet from a basketball rim and take the full brunt of LeBron James wheeling down the court at top speed and powering down the lane to dunk the fuck out of a basketball. Maybe a Hurricane Katrina survivor can alley-oop it to LeBron. Whatever, it's his choice. If the Bush officials move or try to flop in an effort to not take the full brunt of King James' fury, then they have to get dunked on again...in a dress. If they can strip James of the ball or block the shot, they get one free Constitutional violation.

I'd act on this fast, because I want part of the punishment for them to be that they have to travel to Cleveland to get dunked on. If you wait until LeBron signs with the Knicks or Nets then you lose that aspect of the punishment package. Hold it at the Cavs arena, sell tickets, put it on PPV and I think we can raise enough money to pay for health care. Oh, one last thing: LeBron has to do it either dressed as Uncle Sam or as one of our more iconic Presidents. Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, whoever.

Posted without comment, as the joke is already evident

Giants Make Eli Manning NFL's Richest Player

Broken News: A-Rod accused of using steroids on his tongue so he can lie better

Photo excerpt from the new book, picturing Mr. Rodriguez checking his tongue for any needle marks

NEW YORK—With a tumultuous off-season that included the release of a book rife with credible allegations of steroid use, as well as a hip injury requiring surgery and the continuing scorn of the sporting public, Alex Rodriguez is preparing for the media circus to begin anew.

A new book by Selena Roberts, entitled Back For Seconds: I Found Another Corner of A-Rod’s Life That Wasn’t Completely Tarnished Yet, is set to unveil that in the months since the steroid and performance-enhancing drug story went public, A-Rod has taken up a regimen of HGH injected straight into his tongue and prefrontal cortex in an attempt to improve his ability to lie.

Sources close to Mr. Rodriguez feel that the 12-time All-Star and all-time total douchebag, felled by a series of poor interviews and press releases leading to his eventual admittance of having used steroids, thought that his ability to get away with years of steroid use scot-free had been hampered by his poor ability to brazenly lie to fans, reporters, and interviewers all at the same time.

Those same sources state that since the book revealing his steroid use had been released A-Rod has been on an intensive HGH cycle combined with supervised lying exercises to improve his ability to hide a litany of dark secrets, terrible truths and embarrassing anecdotes.

“I would just like to take this opportunity to categorically deny these new allegations,” said Scott Boras, agent of the 3 time AL MVP and perennial fuckwad, during a conference call this morning. “Any and all improvement my client has seen in his ability to lie has come about through hard work and dedication. The man is a world-class athlete and his commitment to living in utter fantasy should not be questioned in any way. He has worked very hard at rigidly repeating the same falsehoods over and over and I shudder to think of people trusting scurrilous accusations about tongue steroids over this man’s commitment to complete mental discipline in the service of dishonesty.”

But baseball statisticians are quick to point out that since A-Rod was rumored to have started his HGH fueled schedule of deceit his lying stats have skyrocketed. Whereas before when no one would believe his declarations that he tried in the postseason, knew the names of his teammates, and had never used steroids, people haven’t been able to stop themselves from believing his recent proclamations that he was sorry he took the steroids, it was a onetime thing, that he was in fact in possession of a discernible human soul, that he had not known the carnal touch of Madonna’s ancient, leathery hide, and that there was more to him than the image of a self-absorbed narcissist who only played baseball for an overwhelming love of money and fame.

Further complicating matters for the rotten shit is that current MLB regulations do not treat illegal drugs taken for improvement of baseball skills any differently than illegal drugs taken for personal reasons, as Manny Ramirez’s recent 50-game suspension for simply trying to stimulate the egg production of his withered uterus clearly shows.

If there is one silver lining for the man millions simply know as A-Roid, it’s that Major League Baseball currently has no comprehensive test to detect HGH. In fact MLB Commissioner Bud Selig already intimated that there was little he could do.

“Unless the players union agrees to more comprehensive testing, my hands are tied,” said Mr. Selig, while taking questions at the league offices in New York. “Besides, I already had a nice conversation with the young man over the phone this morning. He wanted to assure me that not only were these allegations untrue, but that I was also a ‘great, handsome, and virile man’, whose wrath he would be 'foolish to incur’. I think we ended in a good place and I’m glad he called to clear things up. Next question?”

When the assembled press pointed out that Mr. Selig’s looks were “a cruel joke on the human form” and that his haircut resembled that of a dead possum that had been Flowbee’d and placed upon his skull, Selig paused, the realization slowly creeping across his face. “That dirty motherfucker,” he was heard to mutter as he left the room.

For their part, fans have promised to be outraged at this new revelation until Rodriguez hits a few towering home runs in the late innings of one-sided games. From then on, they will return to hating him solely for sports related reasons, only bringing up the steroids in an attempt to inflict mental harm and shame on Yankees fans who have long since stopped caring about anything other than winning.

The Bronx won't have the Arabian oryx to kick around any more

How bad is the economy? Even animals are getting fired. That's right, you're going to have to elbow a goddamn ibex out of the way so you can pick up your unemployment check. Deer on the dole. You know deer aren't getting any jobs. Who wants to see a deer when you can see a lion sleeping?

Layoffs in the city have spread from the piggy traders on Wall Street to the animals at the Bronx Zoo.

The institution is closing four exhibits and shipping hundreds of creatures to zoos and aquariums around the country, officials told the City Council Cultural Affairs Committee yesterday. Deer, bats, porcupines, foxes, lemurs, caimans and antelopes will be pink-slipped as part of the 114-year-old zoo's effort to cope with a $15 million budget shortfall.
...
The Bronx Zoo -- the country's largest urban zoo, which 2.1 million people visited last year alone -- is shutting its World of Darkness, Rare Animal Range and exhibits of the Arabian oryx and blesbok, two types of antelope.
...
The shuttered displays were chosen based on maintenance costs and popularity among visitors, zoo officials said.

One question: How high can the maintenance costs be on a blesbok? Actually, second question: What the fuck is a blesbok?

That's gotta hurt, not only do they fire you and ship you off to somewhere like the Cleveland Zoo, they rub it in by telling you that it was also because you're massively unpopular. Somehow I don't think many tigers are getting the brush off that the antelope and all it's boring, bizarrely named antelope brethren are getting. Only $1.7 million of this is the fault of Mayor Bloomberg, which isn't really his fault. He was told if they cut funding for the zoo, then it would cause them to get rid of all the "lemurs and night monkeys", which he took as racist code. As of press time there is no clue as to what color he thought lemurs were a racist analogue for.

Fare thee well blesbok, dik-dik, caicano, guanaco, cok-cok, Arabian oryx, penis-penis, and caiman. You will be missed. Good luck finding a job in this economy.

The blind leading the informed

This is one way to boost approval ratings, especially when nearly half of your state's population lives in that godless, gay-loving commie enclave known as New York City.

Gov. Paterson will unveil legislation to legalize gay marriage on Thursday, a legislative source confirmed.

Paterson will introduce the measure - which revives a bill that died in 2007 - despite uncertain prospects for its adoption in the state Senate.

I suspect this has little to do with civil rights or embracing the all-but-foregone conclusion that, hey, gay people are people, too. Rather, Governor Patterson's bill is just the latest in a long series of supposedly leftist anti-'Merican initiatives aimed at bailing out the failing newspaper and PAC flier printers dotting the landscape between the Ohio River and the Rocky Mountains.

After all, if they can't hate tolerance and progress on the cheap, what good are they?

Regardless, good on ya, Guv'nah. Right wing nutjob-funded "Activisit Totalitarian Government" backlash in 3... 2...

Camelot gets tired of waiting

Well New York, you attempt to replace one famous last name with another hit a critical snag. It seems Caroline Kennedy is no longer able to hold her breath and stamp her feet until that nasty old blind man gives her Uncle Bobby's seat. Oh, fiddlesticks.

Caroline Kennedy says she is dropping out of a bid to win appointment to the U.S. Senate seat once held by her slain uncle, Bobby Kennedy.

In a statement released early Thursday, she says she told Gov. David Paterson that she is abandoning her attempt to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton for personal reasons.

Those personal reasons? According to the New York Post the most personal reason is that Patterson was simply no longer considering her for the seat. So she did what anyone would do in that situation: claim they didn't want it anyway and leak to the press that you're withdrawing. But where does this leave New York, tragically unencumbered with legacy/celebrity names vying to be the Senator-Select? Who knows, probably someone who got elected and worked in the legislature for years. It's almost enough to make you want to vomit.

But not to put to fine a point on it Patty-poo but shouldn't you, I don't know, have someone in mind by now? It's been months. The crooked fucker picked a guy in the middle of a sideshow. Delaware picked a guy. You can't figure it out? We're already into the new session of congress. Chuck Schumer isn't suddenly getting two votes now. I know it'll probably make some people mad, but this is what the people of NY elected Eliot Spitzer to do. But he likes hookers, so it's your problem.

Entitled political heir objects to maneuvers of entitled political heir

So it seems that someone has finally started to push back on the idea that you should name Caroline Kennedy to the NY Senate seat because her last name is Kennedy. Who is this brave soul valiantly trying to put the brakes on the nomination? Andrew Cuomo, who's more than a little torqued that she cut in front of him, is usurping his throne, and just in general all pissy that there's one prestigious last name in New York that's more famous than his. This will not stand, man.

Even as Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo insisted he was staying out of the competition for New York’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat, a top Cuomo aide urged labor leaders and upstate officials to refrain from embracing Caroline Kennedy for the job, according to several people with direct knowledge of the conversations.

Two of the people, including a prominent upstate Democratic operative, said the Cuomo aide, Joseph Percoco, had suggested the upstate officials give Ms. Kennedy a cold reception and had questioned her credentials.

“He said, ‘Don’t you think it should be someone who understands upstate? Don’t you think it should be someone with experience? Shouldn’t it be somebody who knows New York better?’ ” said the operative, who spoke anonymously out of fear of antagonizing the attorney general. “They’ve been trying to feed people.”

Shouldn't it be the person with the last name of a father who served the state more recently? I mean Mario Cuomo was Governor in 1994, I don't recall John F. Kennedy doing anything of note since late 1963. These legacy kids get rough when these offices of inheritance come up. Legally I don't know what claim Cuomo has on a Senator's seat, his father was Governor and thus he is the rightful heir to Patterson. Bobby Kennedy was a New York Senator, so that means Caroline has some sort of claim on the seat, but only if Robert Kennedy Jr doesn't step forward to take it. He hasn't so we're all clear on that front. I think that Caroline's move is legal under the Monarchical Succession provisions of the Magna Carta.

Listen, instead of all this political back biting and snippy calls to legislators, why don't we settle this the old fashioned way? You both sharpen your silver spoons to prison shiv quality knifing implements, meet in front of the statehouse, and have a 'to the death' shank off. Or have your butlers do it for you. Only then will we know who is ready to lead.

Poor bastards lament non-Kennedy status

This morning, via the New York Times, we learn of a sad tale. People without famous last names who want to be Senator of New York now that Hillary has moved on to her position of saying "The Israelis did what?" The sheer amount of repressed rage and positive assessments of Queen Caroline VIII through gritted teeth on display are enough to make you wonder if one of the also rans is going to take a swing at our appointed better. All I'm saying is that the reporter had to edit out a lot of curse words that these people muttered under their breath.

It is not easy competing with a Kennedy. This axiom of American politics has been true for more than half a century.

But nowhere is it more obvious than in New York nowadays, where United States Representatives Steve Israel and Carolyn B. Maloney, who both aspire to the Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton, have followed the lead of Caroline Kennedy and crisscrossed the state in a campaign-style dash through city halls, train stations and offices of local party leaders.

They have variously invited reporters to lunch, cheerfully passed around cream-filled pastries and publicized every stop on their schedules, but still attracted scant attention compared with the heiress to America’s most storied political dynasty.

Mr. Israel was greeted by four reporters Monday afternoon at the Mar-Logg Restaurant in Utica, where patrons barely seemed to notice as he held court in the rear of the diner. He said the low-key reaction did not trouble him.

What's worse, knowing you have no chance versus a Kennedy, or knowing that you still have no chance after her horrible stint of interviews, entitled air of "Why do I even have to do anything other than tell the Governor I want it", and Palin-esque media rollout? So listen, you are going to have to change your names or at least pretend that your name is famous for some reason.

If you don't want to become a Cuomo, Rockefeller, or Sharpton, then Steve I think you're going to have to claim you invented Israel. That might not be the most popular thing right now, but how many Palestinians can vote in a New York election? There definitely aren't any Palestinians in the Governor's mansion. Carolyn, just go by your first name and hope everyone confuses you with the other Caroline. As long as no one reads the name in print and only hears it audibly you have a shot. You could just waltz up to the Governor say "I'm Carolyn, give me the seat I want" and get it and if you can do a good impression of a Kennedy, you'll be able to get by Patterson. He sure as hell won't be able to visually ID you. His dog might figure out what's up, but I'm betting there's no 'fraud' bark. Otherwise? You have no hope, it was preordained when you fell out of the wrong vagina. Blame your mother.

Caroline Kennedy on track to inherit birthright

Good news everyone, Caroline Kennedy is winning people over in her bid to be appointed as New York's Senator. Voters? Democrats? Grassroots supporters? The blogosphere? No, party hacks and Clinton toadies.

When Caroline Kennedy first let it be known that she was interested in being New York's junior Senator, she received a chilly reception from Hillary Clinton backers and some members of the progressive community. Now, it seems, the tide of popular opinion is turning towards the former first daughter and Barack Obama confidante.

Several prominent voices have lent their support to her political aspirations, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Meanwhile, Clinton herself has let it be known that her supporters should do nothing to impede Kennedy. Already, members of the Clinton rank-and-file are sounding that very tune.

Oh good, Harry Reid is for it. Though if Dick Cheney got up in his face about it, he'd probably support appointing Jeb Bush to the seat. But if total hacks like Lanny Davis are for it, it must be a brilliant idea.

I think our elected betters just misheard. We said "new blood" they heard "blue blood". There is something inherent in the Kennedy DNA that makes all of them electorally desirable. All well, I guess Caroline can just hold it down until one of the Cuomo's has to appoint Chelsea to a seat. Do Ed Koch or Chuck Schumer have any kids that are old enough yet? New York needs to take it's cue from PA, here we make our legacy name trust funders run for the seat. We'll probably only elect Chris Matthews by a small margin too.

American monarchy: on schedule

Caroline Kennedy: Clinton Senate Replacement?

After a week of coy courtship and low-key feelers, Kennedy began working the phones in earnest Monday -- and signed up major Democratic fixer Josh Isay, who has deep connections to New York powerhouses Sen. Charles Schumer, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Rev. Al Sharpton...

Kennedy Reaches Out To Clinton Directly

Caroline Kennedy has called Hillary Clinton to discuss her interest in the New York Senator's seat, a source close to Clinton tells the Huffington Post.
...
Nevertheless, Kennedy's outreach to Clinton, who is leaving her seat to become Secretary of State, is another chapter in what is quickly becoming a fairly comprehensive public and private campaign for the Senate post.

We've dodged a bullet people. Someone who might have been not a Kennedy or perhaps not even famous or related to someone famous isn't going to become Senator of New York. Everyone loves a dynasty, especially when it involves no political career, never running for anything, and swooping in on a vacated seat based on the premise of "She's one of the non drugged out and drunk ones....right? I'm cool with that. What's she for again? It doesn't matter I guess. Kennedy is all I need to know."

Sigh of relief time people. The Bush dynasty might be dead, but the Kennedy's are back in it! Now we can focus on the important business: what Kennedy will replace Ted Kennedy? Can we make an allowance for Ben Affleck? CAMELOT!