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<p>Like most progressives, Bill de Blasio is a champion of public financing for political campaigns. And with good reason.</p> <p>For all his railing against the evil of big money in politics, he’s been quick to take advantage of big fat donations to fuel his agenda — provided they come in a way that doesn’t require him to leave his fingerprints on them.</p>

Saturday, November 02, 2013 It's De Blasio Time Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog Do you miss the old New York City? Remember when subway trains were covered in graffiti, a news hour began with six shootings and everyone who lived in the city had been mugged at least once? Remember when Times Square had more strip clubs than theaters and when you could afford an apartment in the village because it was a drug infested mess? Remember when the city and everyone living in it were on the verge of bankruptcy and the only people who...

NEW YORK (AP) — Time may be running out for the iconic horse carriages that carry tourists around Central Park. Mayor Bill de Blasio already has declared his intention to shut down the industry, saying it is inhumane to keep horses in modern-day Manhattan. While that debate could be over, at least one nagging question remains: What will become of the horses? In Pennsylvania's Amish country, which is the source of many of the horses that wind up working in Central Park, this oversupply plays out weekly at the New Holland Livestock Auction. Every Monday, buyers for foreign meat factories...

2014 is the Year of the Liberal Lie By Kyle Smith Bowe Bergdahl. The IRS’s missing e-mails. Lena Dunham. “Hands up, don’t shoot.” Jonathan Gruber. GM and that faulty ignition switch. Andrew Cuomo and that anti-corruption commission. The Secret Service and that White House intruder. Rachel Noerdlinger and her “disabled” son. Rolling Stone and gang rape. 2014 was the year when truth was optional. 2014 was the year when convenient fabrication was the weapon of choice for celebrities, activists, big business and politicians. 2014 was the Year of the Lie. In each case, the liars used their powerful positions to...

Officials and various candidates for office joined in the flood of outrage tonight following the not guilty verdict in the racially-charged trial of George Zimmerman for the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. Former Comptroller Bill Thompson, the mayoral race’s only black candidate, released and tweeted a terse, one-line statement slamming the decision, which was read tonight just before 10 p.m. “Trayvon Martin was killed because he was black,” declared Mr. Thompson. “There was no justice done today in Florida.” City Council Speaker Christine Quinn further slammed the acquittal as “a shocking insult to his family and everyone seeking justice...

Bill de Blasio, the New York mayor, says he knows why Democrats lost the 2014 election. Income inequality defines our times, he said during a visit to Washington this week, and his party did not talk about the issue enough. De Blasio needs a hearing aid. Democrats speak of little else. Dodging questions about Hillary Clinton, de Blasio praised Elizabeth Warren. He called the liberal heroine “one of the indispensable voices” among Democrats, and appeared with her at a Center for American Progress event later that day. The policy conference featured other darlings of the left: Julian Castro, Tammy Baldwin,...

Mayor Bill de Blasio says he won't reimburse the taxpayers for personal trips when his security detail is at the wheel, even though New York City's other top elected officials have said they would. For the first time Monday afternoon, Mr. de Blasio addressed criticism from government watchdogs and former elected officials who have questioned his ethics for allowing the public to fund out-of-town private travel, an issue raised in report published last week in The Wall Street Journal. Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, said he would abide by a March 2009 advisory opinion from the city's Conflicts of Interest...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is maneuvering to run for president in 2016 and will use his progressive credentials to derail former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s expected bid for the White House, according to a prediction from the chairman of the Republican Party in New York. Ed Cox, the New York state GOP chairman, also said de Blasio’s plan will be successful, according to the New York Post. “It’s like Barack Obama; he was a brand-new freshman senator, and he ran for president and won. I think de Blasio is going to do it,” Cox said at a...

Taxpayers pay their salaries — but that hasn’t stopped two Bronx public defenders from appearing in a vile online rap video that urges black people to kill NYPD cops. The sickening video, for a rap called “Hands Up,” shows black men holding guns to cops’ heads and features the disgusting lyric, “For Mike Brown and Sean Bell, a cop got to get killed.”

With only weeks before New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s first year in office comes to a close, the Big Apple’s voters are starting to sour on their famously progressive mayor. While a majority of voters continue to approve of the job the mayor has done in office (52 percent, according to the latest New York Times/Siena poll), a figure that remains largely unchanged from an April Siena poll, voters are turning on how the city is managed. 52 percent say that de Blasio’s New York City is on the “wrong track.” Only 41 percent disagree. That is a...

New York City’s mayoral mansion has gotten a higher fence after White House fence-jumping incursions raised security concerns. A spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that the head of the mayor’s security detail decided to raise the fence around Gracie Mansion. It sits in a public park. …

--SNIP-- The new fence — constructed just inside an existing red brick wall and a wrought-iron fence ringing the historic property — was actually dubbed a “privacy fence” by de Blasio and first lady Chirlane McCray, sources told The Post. “So much for being mayor of the people. That brick fence was good enough for Rudy Giuliani and his family, and for Ed Koch and all the mayors before him,” a law enforcement source said. “They didn’t need a taller fence. That’s the same house where everybody else lived for years.

A 22 year old Israeli Jewish man was stabbed Tuesday morning (roughly 2:00 am EST) in Crown Heights, outside the Chabad-Lubavitch building at 770 Eastern Parkway in New York City. The man’s condition is defined as stable, but serious; he was reportedly stabbed in the neck. The public has been asked to pray for him; his Hebrew name is Levy Yitzhak ben Raizel. Police arrived at the scene and apprehended the perpetrator, now revealed to have been a 40-year old African American man. He may have also been Muslim, but this has yet to be confirmed. The attacker died after...

Unlike his predecessor, left-wing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will not commit to rejecting a bill that would allow non-citizens to vote in city elections. In January, City Council member Council Daniel Dromm will reportedly introduce legislation that would grant non-citizens voting rights in local elections, hoping that the bill will have a better chance of passing now that former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who opposed the bill, is no longer in office. “The legislation I’ve seen so far, I think, has a number of challenges and issues that have to be addressed, so I was not...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law a measure that creates a municipal identification card that can now be used by illegal immigrants to access government services, rent an apartment and open a bank account. “Today we’re living up to our highest ideals, and today we’re saying that no one should be left out,” said City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, calling the signing of the bill into law an “historic” moment, the New York Daily News reported. Ms. Mark-Viverito, along with fellow council members Carlos Menchaca and Daniel Dromm — all Democrats — said the new ID...

NEW YORK, April 17, 2014, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A New York City councilman has effectively told traditional marriage supporters they are “not welcome” in the Big Apple. In response to Chick-fil-A’s proposed plans to expand their business and set up restaurants in several locations, including New York City, Councilman Daniel Dromm told the Huffington Post that the fast-food chain would not be welcome in the most populous city in the country. Councilman Daniel Dromm “We don’t need bigots coming to New York City,” Dromm told HuffPost. “They are not welcome here unless they can embrace all of New York’s diverse community,...

That was a big wide smile on Bill de Blasio’s face the other night, and why not? He sure as hell earned one. He was the only Democrat in a cluttered primary field to recognize—and then to capitalize on—the lesson Barack Obama taught the nation in 2008: That is, it is no longer necessary to do important things to win high office; it is only necessary to talk about doing important things. Obama rode that insight into the White House, and de Blasio—bless his progressive heart—is at the cusp of the New York City mayoralty. … (W)hat de Blasio really...

New York City could soon become the first major city in the country to give non-citizens the right to vote. The proposal, which would allow certain non-citizens to vote in local elections, appears to have a veto-proof majority in the New York City Council—enough to overcome opposition by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. As hearings on the proposal get underway Thursday, supporters are optimistic it will become law by the end of the year and believe it will have an impact beyond the five boroughs. “It’s going to be huge and just imagine the implications that are involved here,” Councilman Daniel Dromm,...

A startled carriage horse took a jaunt around Central Park without any passengers or its driver. The horse became detached from its bridle on Monday evening and ran into the Manhattan park, following its usual route, the union that represents carriage drivers said. It was unclear what startled it. […] Advocacy agency NYCLASS, which is seeking to end the carriage horse industry, released a statement saying carriage horses and city streets don’t mix. “It’s time to retire the carriage horses and replace them with something that doesn’t spook or dart dangerously through traffic and pedestrians,” it said. …

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 The Left's War on Horses Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog At Grand Army Plaza, beneath the golden equestrian statue of General Sherman, the horses stand, lazily flicking their ears, tasting the grit of 59th street and occasionally glancing about as a yellow taxi driven by an angry Pakistani wheels around past the Plaza Hotel, brakes squealing, an Al Qaeda friendly Nasheed or a little  Atif Aslam, either sounding more unpleasant than the brakes, blaring through the open window. Feathered plumes, scarlet red, sapphire blue, electric purple, matching the colors of the plush...