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This morning, President Bush is addressing the 62nd United Nations General Assembly. He is expected to discuss "global fight against terrorism, tyranny and poverty," as well as sanctions against Myanmar in support of the protest organized by Buddhist monks. However, he will only mention Iran briefly, and will opt to cover "broad themes." A White House spokesman said, "The president wanted this speech to focus on many other issues that are facing the world -- issues that people in Sudan and Zimbabwe and Burma and countless other countries are dealing with," referring to the United Nations' mission to ensuring freedom. more ›

Last night, President Bush addressed the country, and the world, with a speech that said American troops in Iraq could be start to be withdrawn gradually: "The principle guiding my decisions on troop levels in Iraq is 'return on success' -- the more successful we are, the more American troops can return home." In other words, there is no, as the NY Sun puts it, "no dramatic change in course." more ›

President Bush visited New York City yesterday to encourage Congress to reauthorize his No Child Left Behind program. Bush gave a speech at the Harlem Village Academy school and praised its founder, faculty and students and emphasized the importance of the NCLB Act. Bush made it a point to visit all eight classrooms and shake every student's hand, prompting one student to tell the Sun, "I think it was the best day of my life," and a teacher to ask Bush for more money to be added to NCLB. more ›

One of the first Carnegie Hall shows we went to, years ago, was the Tibet House Benefit. The President of Tibet House is none other then Uma's dad, Robert A.F. Thurman. The annual show he has help put on is now in its 17th year, and this time around will take place on February 26th. The lineup has been confirmed (why the press release is giving Ben Harper top billing is beyond us) and some of the artists include: Laurie Anderson, Ray Davies, Philip Glass, Deborah Harry, Lou Reed, Sigur Ros (pictured), Patti Smith, Michael Stipe. more ›

Ceasar Borja Jr., the 21 year old son of a cop who volunteered at Ground Zero and died last week, met with President Bush yesterday to discuss funding for September 11's first responders. With Bush in town for a State of Economy address - and having just announced $25 million in additional funding for WTC-related illness - the President had a 15-private meeting with Borja, his mother, brother and sister. Borja wrote about the experience for the Daily News:

He said, "You're all right, Ceasar," and he shook my hand. more ›

That look on the faces of former Mayors David Dinkins and Ed Koch comes "Listening to President Bush Speak." The President is in NYC today, speaking at Federal Hall downtown, giving a "State of the Economy" speech, and you can read about it here at the White House website. We'll update later with more of his specific remarks. more ›

While people downtown thought they would be able to breathe easy once I Am Legend finishes shooting at the Brooklyn Bridge (they are expected to wrap at 4AM tomorrow), they'll have to think again. Because President Bush is coming to the city tomorrow. more ›

You may remember Christopher X. Brodeur from his unexpectedly successful run for mayor, or from his spectacularly unsuccessful fight against aggravated harassment charges that landed him in the clink for six months last year. Well, he's back, and he's taking the fight to a new enemy: the Con Edison bill printing department! From an email he sent us this morning: more ›

Though canvassing is still being done in Virginia in the Senate race between Republican incumbent George Allen and Democrat challenger Jim Webb, the AP and other news organizations named Webb the winner, with his narrow margin of 7,000 votes over Allen. And the Democrats seized that news excitedly. The NY Times reports Senator Charles Schumer, who headed the Democratic campaign to take back Senate seats, as saying,"It is virtually 100 percent that Webb is going to win the race. I think you can say without any hesitancy or doubt that Democrats are going to be the majority party in the Senate." more ›

We haven't been listening to Sirius radio much, mostly (only) because we don't subscribe to it. Earlier this morning, however, one of the stations blogger/deejays, Jason Productshop NYC, posted a set of mp3's from the first of the acoustic in-studios on his Sirius show. more ›

(to which you can still enter to win some free tix and swag in our contest until 6 PM today) -- and revival and repertory programs, most of which happen to focus on French and Asian cinema. more ›

which is worth seeing solely for Philip Seymour Hoffman's brilliant channeling of Truman Capote. more ›

(screening Wed at 6 PM and Thur at 9 PM). We've heard mixed things about it, however, including from people who absolutely love the rest of Hou's work. more ›

It's less than 20 hours until the 2012 Olympics city is selected - 7:30PM in Singapore, which means 7:30AM tomorrow morning for us. And the NYC 2012 team has been doing its thing all over the world, having Mayor Bloomberg stump one last time, along with athletes like Muhammed Ali, Nadia Comaneci and Ian Thorpe, helping out. Gothamist loves the idea of Mayor Bloomberg giving "I Love NY" t-shirts to anyone and everyone he meets. The NY Times has had a series of articles looking at the Mayor and Olympic bid team's continued efforts to woo the International Olympics Commitee, including one from today that shows the importance of power tables at restaurants. And, today, Senator Hillary Clinton arrived in Singapore to lend the offensive her support. Gothamist was amused by the media's attempt to make this bipartisan trip controversial:

Clinton, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican, deflected questions at a news conference about possible political ramifications of the senator's role in the bid campaign. more ›

The New York City Transit Riders Council will be having a President's Forum meeting tonight at 6PM. The President's Foum "focuses on subway issues and is attended by the NYC Transit President and senior subway division staff." In other words, this is your chance to give some constructive criticism to NYCT President Larry Reuter. You can see what was discussed at last year's meeting and what President Reuter said in this PDF. [Via reader Allison; image from Laney B] more ›

We were brainstorming about a possible entry for moveon.org's "Bush in 30 seconds" contest. We didn't know if the White House even had a comment line, but we thought it would be interesting to see what people would say if they actually had direct access to their government and could get the President at the other end of the line. But the idea was too big for a 30 second spot. So we didn't enter the contest and made a 7 minute movie instead. Lawrence Konner from The Documentary Campaign really believed in the idea and agreed to finance the project. Without Larry's belief in the project, it never would have gotten made. more ›

Today, the President goes to the U.N. amidst Secretary General Kofi Annan's claim that the war in Iraq is illegal. The Washington Post says the President is looking for a bounce; a former Reagan official says it's a "great visual" for Bush, as the other world delegates will applaud (not boo) "because they're well-mannered folks." And Senator Kerry was at Late Show with David Letterman last night; check here for a clip and the top ten list. And Kerry was walking around Midtown because his car was stuck in traffic (traffic he and the President probably caused); Gothamist liked this photo of him in front of "The Phantom of Broadway" sign. more ›