Battlestar New York

BREAKING NEWS: THIS CAN'T BE GOOD::: Iranian nuclear facilities under "massive attack" by Stuxnet worm UH - OH!

There's an awful lot of buzz now that one single solitary poll indicated that Andrew Cuomo's commanding lead in the New York Gubernatorial contest may not be "all that" and Carl Paladino is certainly within striking distance of Mr. C: there are some folks who swear that without Rick Lazio giving up his Conservative spot on the ballot, Paladino cannot win. Of course, we all know (we're constantly being told) that long-standing political beliefs (and politicians) are ripe for crushing.

Voters in New York have, for decades, hated the Legislature, yet returned their local senator and Assembly member to office 95 percent of the time. This year’s throw-the-bums-out anger has voters, for the first time, including their own lawmaker. And Republicans and Democrats in part are campaigning on the big Albany issue — which party will control the Senate. The Long Island Press article continues:

“Three quarters of voters think major changes needed to be made in Albany,” said Lee Miringoff of the Marist College poll. “There is a significant group who thinks it’s broken and can’t be repaired.”

The Assembly’s supermajority of Democrats faces no serious threat but the fight over the Senate’s volatile 32-30 Democratic majority, where 32 votes are needed to pass legislation, may be Albany’s most important contest. Each party believes two to four seats could flip this November, either handing power back to Republicans or solidifying the majority for Democrats.

Most notably, the piece in the LIP states " There are no statewide TV campaign ads, no multimillion dollar fundraisers with rock stars, and little attention being paid to this fall’s New York state Senate races." I'll disagree withthat a little bit. I think there is some degree of attention being paid to the Gillibrand vs. What's-his-name contest, albeit not that much. And we do have the Murphy-Gibson Congressional race to follow!

While the focus statewide is on the Governor's race, cooler heads are prevailing on the National and World stage: The United Nations is reportedly preparing to appoint it's first amabassador to space aliens. Perhaps the UN should wait and appoint Cuomo or Paladino or Gillibrand or Gibson or whoever might be left to choose from once the elections are over... or, better yet, maybe the UN could appoint an entire "delegation" for appearances at cosmic meet and greets!