Free Republic

A federal appeals court panel has ruled that a defamation case brought by gun store owners against New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg should proceed in Georgia's Cobb County Superior Court, not federal court. Finding that the federal courts don't have jurisdiction over the matter, the Dec. 19 ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the lawsuit be sent back to Marietta, where it was filed originally. Jasper lawyer Edwin D. Marger, who represents the gun store and its owners, said his clients "absolutely" have a better chance of prevailing on their defamation suit in Cobb County...

December 15, 2008, 4:00 a.m. He’s No RudyBloomberg busies himself with meddlesome gestures while ignoring his core responsibilities. By Deroy Murdock The winner of the 2008 Nero’s Fiddle Award is New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. The richest guy in Gotham recently visited the Eugene O’Neill Theater on West 49th Street to promote an initiative called Broadway Goes Green. The Great White Way’s marquees soon will feature 30,000 more compact-fluorescent light bulbs, the mayor marveled. Playbills and sets will be recycled. Also, costumes will be washed in cold water, not hot. “That is going to have an impact that...

As everybody knows by now, the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, is so indispensable at a time of financial crisis that he had to get enough hacks in the City Council - led by chief hack Christine Quinn - to overturn the city's law on term limits so he could run for a third term. It is Bloomberg's position that of all the people who want to be the mayor next year, only he, Bloomberg, can save New York from certain disaster.

After once calling an effort to revise his city's term limits law “disgusting,” Michael Bloomberg, the liberal mayor of New York City, has decided to gut the law so he can seek a third term in office. This nasty little tyrant who wants to control nearly every aspect of New Yorkers' lives is reportedly ignoring the advice of his three top aides at City Hall. Bloomberg plans to change the law through city council, rather than by going to the voters who put the law in place by referendum in the 1990s. Guys like Bloomberg are why term limits were...

After months of speculation about his political future, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg plans to announce on Thursday morning that he will seek a third term as mayor, according to three people who have been told of his plans. ight now, Mr. Bloomberg is barred by law from seeking re-election. But he will propose trying to revise the city’s 15-year-old term limits law, which would otherwise force him and dozens of other elected leaders out of office in 2009, the three people said. In his announcement, Mr. Bloomberg, a former Wall Street trader and founder of a billion-dollar financial data firm,...

A South Carolina gun dealer who sued New York's mayor for saying that his shop engaged in "criminal behavior," has asked judges in two states to put his case on hold so he can fight an unrelated criminal charge. Licensed firearms dealer Larry Mickalis was indicted earlier this month on a charge that he illegally sold a rifle to an ex-convict two years ago at his pawn shop in Summerville, S.C.

NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he is not running for president. The New York mayor says in a New York Times op-ed piece that he has listened carefully to those who encouraged him to make a bid for the White House but that he is not and will not be a candidate for president. Bloomberg, an independent, for two years has played coy about his presidential ambitions. He declares in the piece, posted on the newspaper's Web site, that he might lend his support to a candidate who, in his words, takes an independent, nonpartisan approach.

Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, back-to-back mayors of New York, use nearly identical sales pitches as they try market themselves to a nation often wary of city folks. Being New York City mayor "is about as good a preparation for being president as exists," Giuliani said one morning last spring in Houston. Bloomberg coincidentally was across town delivering a similar message that same day. Giuliani, he said, "couldn't have been more right. I could not have said it better myself." Two months before the first presidential primaries, Giuliani is nursing the front-runner's position among the Republican candidates. Bloomberg is considering...

Twenty-five years ago, long before Rudy Giuliani became mayor of New York City, he made a decision that advanced the cause of gay rights nationally. As the Justice Department's number three official in 1982, Giuliani authorized the hiring of the first openly gay lawyer for a prosecutor post requiring a security clearance, according to records and interviews. That precedent-setting but little-known action, combined with his successful push as mayor for domestic partnership and hate crime laws in New York, make Giuliani an anomaly: a front-runner for the GOP nomination who is a top champion of gay rights. Like the other...

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- Pro-abortion mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent in a move many say is a stepping stone to an independent bid for the presidency. Should he decide to run, the mayor's $5 billion fortune provides him with the cash necessary to make a huge dent on the 2008 race. Bloomberg released a statement Tuesday in association with his party switch and it largely avoided any comments about his plans for 2008. He said he filed papers “to change my status as a voter and register as...

Associated Press New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg left the Republican Party on Tuesday and switched to unaffiliated, a move certain to be seen as a prelude to an independent presidential bid that would upend the 2008 race. The billionaire former CEO, who was a lifelong Democrat before he switched to the Republican Party in 2001 for his first mayoral run, said the change in his voter registration does not mean he is running for president. "Although my plans for the future haven't changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Mayor Bloomberg is decrying the state of the 2008 presidential race, faulting the major party candidates for offering shallow, simplistic prescriptions, and scolding the press for failing to demand more from those seeking the White House. During an appearance at Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg said the televised debates among the presidential candidates have been, in essence, a waste of time. "They have absolutely nothing to do with the job and the qualifications. And they don't tell you anything about whether or not any of those candidates would be good or bad presidents....

Mayor Michael Bloonberg has announced that he is leaving the Republican Party, and will continue his Mayoralty as an Independent.

August 24, 2006 -- Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will join Mayor Bloomberg at an Association for a Better New York forum next week to push for increased accountability in public schools. The two co-wrote an op-ed piece in The Washington Post ...

Democrats and Republicans here are taking seriously talk that Mayor Michael Bloomberg will run as an independent for president in 2008. One source close to Mr. Bloomberg predicts he will dispose of his multibillion-dollar business holdings next year, give much of it away to charity, and use some of the remainder for a high-stakes presidential campaign. At a dinner party I attended last month, much of the talk was about whether the mayor might run. Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, noted that the people around Mr. Bloomberg were clearly making noises about the possibility.

PHILADELPHIA - The economy of the country's largest city and the entire nation would collapse if illegal immigrants were deported en masse, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a Senate committee hearing Wednesday. New York City is home to more than 3 million immigrants, and a half-million of them came to this country illegally, Bloomberg testified. "Although they broke the law by illegally crossing our borders ... our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported," he said. "The same holds true for the nation." The hearing, led by...

Is Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg weighing a run for president? The answer, depending on where you are these days, could seem to be "maybe." Just about everywhere he goes, Mr. Bloomberg fields a question or two about whether he is interested in a run for the White House. His answer is generally no. Sparring with the New York press corps, Mr. Bloomberg has issued flat denials, tending toward some version of "What part of no don't you understand?" But on Sunday night at a cozier event where apparently just one reporter was present, Mr. Bloomberg appeared to flirt with the...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign has picked up a $44,600 donation from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The billionaire mayor contributed the money - the maximum contribution allowed under state law - on Friday, state records show. It's not the first time Bloomberg has done a good turn for his fellow Republican. In March 2005, the mayor was a featured speaker at a New York City fundraiser that raised $500,000 for the actor-turned-governor's political operation. Bloomberg's check suggests a shift in loyalties. In 2001, before he was mayor, records show he donated $1,000 to California state Treasurer Phil Angelides, one...

B>Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani has described seeing the horror of the 9/11 attacks on the city's twin towers. He told the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui that he was unwilling to believe people were jumping from the buildings until he saw it with his own eyes. The jury has to decide whether the self-confessed al-Qaeda member should be executed. Mr Giuliani is testifying for the prosecution. The court will also hear from relatives of some of those killed in the attacks. Mr Giuliani told the jury the image of two people jumping together from the World Trade Center, holding...

With his decisive re-election victory behind him, Michael R. Bloomberg has been acting more like the man he once was before he entered politics: namely, like a Democrat. Freed from the political considerations of a campaign and with no aspirations for higher office, Mr. Bloomberg seems to be shedding his already thin Republican skin, and has taken a number of positions that are fully, even aggressively, at odds with the party he joined months before his 2001 mayoral run. Witness: Last week, Mr. Bloomberg donated $100 million to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, "anonymously," and stipulated that part of the...

MAYOR Bloomberg has decided to write a check for more than $300,000 so his re-election campaign won't have to contest the summonses it got for plastering the city with more than 4,000 illegal posters. "The decision has been made to pay all that," one mayoral aide said last week. The mayor's campaign had been positioning itself to challenge at least some of the 4,218 summonses that poured in between Aug. 10 and Nov. 9.

December 31, 2005 -- Mayor Bloomberg yesterday lavished astronomical bonuses of more than $1.5 million on his campaign workers — including a $400,000 check for his former campaign manager. Bloomberg, a billionaire, paid for his own campaign, spending more than $80 million to win a second term, and the special bonus payments also came out of the mayor's own pock Excerpt, click source URL for rest of article

Despite lambasting rival Fernando Ferrer for taking campaign cash from tobacco-company employees, the mayor's Republican-convention host committee accepted nearly $500,000 from cigarette makers, records show."Either you're against smoking or you're with smoking," Bloomberg charged after his campaign revealed Ferrer had taken some $36,000 in donations from tobacco workers.But as chairman of the New York City Host Committee, which organized the 2004 GOP convention, Bloomberg didn't object to accepting $461,000 from three tobacco giants."Michael Bloomberg has taken hypocrisy and arrogance to a new level, even for him," said state Democratic Committee spokesman Blake Zeff.

by Mark Finkelstein November 9, 2005 - 08:29. Imagine that a Democrat had been elected mayor of the nation's largest city, a place where Republicans enjoyed an overwhelming registration edge. Picture too the Dem winning in record-breaking fashion. Do you think the Today show might have mentioned it the next morning? So do I. Yet, incredibly, Katie & Co. this morning never once mentioned the historic triumph of Mike Bloomberg in the very New York City from which their show is broadcast. Bloomberg not only won re-election, but his 20-point margin was the largest ever by a Republican candidate in...

Billionaire Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg stormed to a second term Tuesday with an overpowering victory over Democrat Fernando Ferrer -- the culmination of a campaign that will go down as the most expensive mayoral re-election in history. With 47 percent of precincts reporting, Bloomberg had 321,775 votes, or 56 percent, compared with Ferrer's 237,821 votes, or 41 percent. Ferrer conceded the race shortly after 10 p.m. in a phone call to the mayor, who told him he ran a great race and was a "gentleman" for calling. Ferrer gathered his supporters at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, where his grandmother once earned...

This is a vanity for freepers to vote in NYC. Please vote against question one, which would let the dem legislature tax and spend even more. Also Patrick Murphy is in a CLOSE RACE for councilman and I have voted for the Conservative candidate Ognibene, since Bloomie has this in a walk. We need to start somewhere for conservatives to heard.

As Democrats pursue an uphill battle to recapture City Hall on Tuesday, this year's mayoral campaign has already exposed the long-term fracturing of Democratic power in the city, from splinters in the black and Hispanic vote to defections in liberal bastions like the West Side. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's popularity and his $66 million in campaign spending are two pressure points as the campaign winds into its final phase this weekend. Yet it is the permanent structural changes in New York politics - such as term limits, campaign finance reforms and evolving demographics - that are really shaking the once-dominant...

Ferrer wastes photo op in subway Supporters greet Democratic mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer as he arrives for last night's debate. A candidate does not need millions, only common sense, to know that a Harlem subway station is likely to be dirtier on the downtown side than on the uptown side in the morning. That was certainly the case at 11 a.m. yesterday at the W. 135th St. station on the B and C lines. The commuters heading downtown had littered the platform with more than enough papers, food wrappers, juice containers and spent MetroCards to have accorded a nifty photo...

November 5, 2005 -- Mayor Bloomberg has opened up his biggest lead of the race against Fernando Ferrer — a virtually insurmountable 34-point edge, a new poll yesterday found. The Marist College poll just days before Tuesday's election reported that Bloomberg had pulled further away from his under-financed challenger in recent days, grabbing 64 percent of the 466 likely voters surveyed, compared to Ferrer's 30 percent. Three days before, the Marist poll had Bloomberg ahead by 31 points, 62 to 31 percent. "Bloomberg's really running up the score," said pollster Lee Miringoff. "It's all playing his way now." The latest...

Fernando Ferrer says because it’s an election year, the city is getting cleaner. He was at a Harlem River ballpark Wednesday taking issue with its conditions. Right before the event, city workers were out picking up garbage. Ferrer claims it’s because they knew he was going to shed some light on the mess. “The clean up crew here left recently. I wish we had time to go to all the subway stations and all the parks in this city that have been left behind to make sure that they were clean," said Ferrer. NY1 saw one worker collecting garbage. The...

October 30, 2005 -- IF he gets re-elected, Mayor Bloomberg is prepared to support a Democrat as his successor four years from now. "I have said that the quality of the person is much more important than the party label they run under," Bloomberg told Post editors and reporters last week. "To me, it's the person." The mayor said he'd cross party lines "if you find me someone in another party that has fiscal common sense and compassion and drive and can encourage people to have confidence in this city and keep crime down and keep welfare rolls down."

New Yorkers used to share with the rest of the nation a conviction that the city was, for all its good points, basically ungovernable. That seems quaint now - like the idea that Broadway is populated by colorful Runyonesque guys and dolls, or that cab drivers are all wise guys from Brooklyn. The city has put the financial meltdown of the 1970's behind it, along with its legendary icons of dysfunctional government - Fort Apache, subways as graffiti art, armies of homeless people sleeping in cardboard boxes. Three other mayors played a part in pulling New York out of its...

NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Times enthusiastically endorsed Mayor Michael Bloomberg for re-election, saying he was on course to be one of the best mayors the city has ever had. The overwhelmingly positive editorial published in Sunday's editions said Bloomberg, a Republican, has not been as entertaining as his predecessors but "has been better at running the city." "If he continues his record of accomplishment over the next four years, he may be remembered as one of the greatest mayors in New York history," the editorial said. Recent opinion polls put Bloomberg wellahead of his Democratic challenger, Fernando...

Bill gives Freddy nod amid static By MICHAEL SAUL DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU Former President Bill Clinton endorsed Democrat Fernando Ferrer's mayoral bid yesterday, but his enthusiasm and his words of praise were a bit muted - literally. Appearing together in the South Bronx, Clinton noted that Ferrer had endorsed his candidacy for President in 1992, saying he was "glad to be here to return the favor." In a 130-second address, Clinton mentioned Ferrer's name only once - which might have been a problem if the crowd on Charlotte St. could hear him. Before Clinton and Ferrer arrived, aides...

For New York Democrats seeking to take back City Hall, it was supposed to be a picture-perfect moment: Bill Clinton in the Bronx yesterday to rally voters behind Fernando Ferrer, the party's beleaguered candidate against Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. But a run-of-the-mill campaign stop turned into a bizarre frenzy after the Clinton team removed the entire sound system during a dispute with low-level Ferrer supporters, who were trying to make the event more dramatic. As a result, a crowd of 1,000 people could barely hear Mr. Clinton praise "this good man." The moment was a telling example of the odd...

NEW YORK (AP) Former President Clinton threw his political heft Thursday behind the Democrat running against Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but it was far from a seamless campaign stop. Fernando Ferrer and the former president walked down Charlotte Street in the South Bronx, which they visited together during Clinton's second term in 1997, when Ferrer was borough president. Clinton credited Ferrer with "trying to help the people of the Bronx reach their full potential.'' "I saw the progress made here on these streets, through his leadership,'' Clinton said. Ferrer's underdog campaign has struggled to make a dent in Bloomberg's lead,...

Former President Bill Clinton endorsed Democrat Fernando Ferrer's mayoral bid yesterday, but his enthusiasm and his words of praise were a bit muted - literally. Appearing together in the South Bronx, Clinton noted that Ferrer had endorsed his candidacy for President in 1992, saying he was "glad to be here to return the favor."

Monday afternoon's Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee luncheon at the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan was supposed to boost Fernando Ferrer's faltering campaign to unseat New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. But according to the New York Post, Ferrer's appearance was just window dressing compared to the real star of the show - Hillary Clinton - who was feted by the city's Democratic Party elite as the next president of the United States. "She is already the Democratic front-runner for the presidency in 2008," declared Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields while introducing Clinton. New York State gubernatorial hopeful Eliot Spitzer positively...

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean met with Fernando Ferrer's mayoral campaign to jump-start his fund-raising yesterday, even as another blunder dogged the Bronx Democrat's campaign. "We have a plan to increase the fund-raising and to be as helpful as we're allowed to be under the law," Dean said following a closed meeting with top campaign officials. "It involves showing people around the country why it's important that Freddy Ferrer be the next mayor," Dean explained at a campaign event with Ferrer in Union Square. "Mayor Bloomberg has spent an enormous amount of time raising money for right-wing Republicans." Dean...

City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. and his father, former Speaker Peter Vallone Sr., crossed party lines yesterday and endorsed GOP Mayor Mike Bloomberg over Democratic challenger Fernando Ferrer. Speaking at Mike's Diner in Astoria, the father-and-son Democrats said Bloomberg was doing a bang-up job. "We have a good mayor, why would we change him now?" the elder Vallone said. "It has nothing to do with party labels." The Vallones said Bloomberg had proven himself by leading the city after 9/11, and had delivered on issues such as education. They also said their decision was no slight to Ferrer. "I have...

It's official. There will not be a Republican primary for mayor today. A federal court has refused to hear an expedited appeal from Thomas Ognibene to restore him to the ballot. The Board of Elections threw him off last month after Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Ognibene did not have enough valid signatures on his nominating petitions.

As he campaigns for re-election this fall, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg never mentions that he is a Republican. Far from it: He has gone out of his way to oppose both President Bush's nominee for chief justice and a federal reconstruction plan for the Gulf Coast, and he expressed disappointment that the Freedom Center was evicted from ground zero by another Republican, Gov. George E. Pataki. But when it comes to donating money to politicians, Mr. Bloomberg's Republican bona fides are as good as they get, judging from his campaign finance records. As mayor, he gave $250,000 to the same...

ALTHOUGH I think Mayor Bloomberg has been good for New York City and should be re-elected, the recent Quinnipiac poll suggests that Fernando Ferrer has an excellent chance of winning. On the surface, the survey seems to indicate the opposite — it shows the mayor beating the Democratic challenger by 52 percent to 38 percent, a comfortable 14-point margin. But a close reading of the survey shows the opposite — that Bloomberg may be in trouble. Most undecided voters usually go for the challenger and against the incumbent. So the mayor's 52-38 lead is really likely showing a much...

Craig Livingston, a Caribbean-American real estate developer and Democrat who lives in Harlem, has never voted for a Republican in his life. But on Nov. 8, he is prepared to do just that, casting his ballot in the New York City mayoral race for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg over his Democratic opponent, Fernando Ferrer. Mr. Livingston feels that the mayor has been accountable on his chief concern, improving the public schools, while Mr. Ferrer has failed to demonstrate that he is more than a lifelong politician. But there is no consensus among black voters in his circle. His cousin is...

Democrats send man in President Bush mask to Bloomberg campaign event in Times Square By SARA KUGLER Associated Press Writer September 21, 2005, 4:34 PM EDT NEW YORK -- Democrats sent a man wearing a President Bush mask to a campaign appearance for Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday to remind him he can't "run away from Bush," the party's state chairman said. "Mike, you know you love me," read the man's sign, as he stood across the street from Bloomberg's news conference in Times Square. The mayor was announcing an endorsement from theater and film unions and did not...

Among the organizers of Democrats for Bloomberg, a new group working to create bipartisan support for the Republican mayor, is a businessman who figured in a bribery scandal involving Donald R. Manes, the Queens borough president who killed himself in 1986. The businessman, Michael A. Nussbaum, was convicted in 1987 of soliciting a $250,000 bribe for Mr. Manes, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. The appeals court ruled that Mr. Nussbaum could not be charged with bribery because he was not a public official, and that there was insufficient evidence linking Mr. Manes - the only public official implicated...

I'm against Roberts' nomination, mayor says By DAVID SALTONSTALL DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF Seizing a chance to distance himself from the Republican leadership, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday came out against the nomination of John Roberts for the U.S. Supreme Court. Bloomberg said earlier this summer that he would support President Bush's choice for chief justice only if Roberts gave "a clear indication" that he supported the Roe vs. Wade decision that protects a woman's right to abortion. "Unfortunately, Judge Roberts' response did not indicate a commitment to protect a woman's right to choose," Bloomberg said in a statement, referring...

NEW YORK -- Campaigning for re-election in an unquestionably liberal city, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has broken with fellow Republicans, saying he opposes President Bush's pick for Chief Justice of the United States.

A legal services firm with strong ties to the Democratic Party plans to ask a State Supreme Court justice Friday to halt a possible runoff election between Fernando Ferrer and Anthony Weiner, arguing that it would waste up to $12 million in city funds. Following Weiner's concession to Ferrer, no one is arguing that a runoff is necessary, but the question is whether or not the law requires it. The Board of Elections says it does. The public advocacy group filing suit says the Board of Elections is misreading the law. The President of the Board of Elections tells the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday opposed John Roberts' nomination to be U.S. Supreme Court chief justice, making him the first noted Republican to break with the Bush administration over who should lead America's top court. Bloomberg, a former Democrat seeking re-election in a heavily Democratic city, said Roberts had failed to show a commitment to upholding the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision establishing a right to abortion. "I am unconvinced that Judge Roberts accepts the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling as settled law," Bloomberg said. Roberts' answers to questions in Senate confirmation...