Even on days when it seems like the news coming out is all good, we can always assume that things are going to turn awful (or, at the very least, cynical) at a moment’s notice. So it’s good to take a break from all that and occasionally watch something that’s just…nice. And there’s no better way to describe the new video from Improv Everywhere in which the merry pranksters set up a lectern in the middle of New York’s Union Square, affixed a megaphone and a sign reading “Say something nice” to it, and recorded the results.

As if the current Republican presidential field wasn’t big enough, former New York Governor George Pataki is considering a campaign of his own, according to anonymous sources close to the former governor. But how well would he fare as a candidate? Pataki has been touted as a potential candidate for the past few months, but [...]

Texas governor Rick Perry has finally tossed his ten gallon hat into the presidential ring, and his campaign has gotten plenty of tongues wagging over whether America is ready for another George W. Bush. Many of those already making the comparison will see much of the 43rd President in Perry’s new ad, but the dark clouds over America, billowing Midwestern fields and cowboy imagery is a lot more Ronald Reagan than pre-presidential Bush.

So not only is George Soros an evil, shadowy figure manipulating foreign governments and hell-bent on creating a global One World Order, he’s also kind of a dick.

A new Quinnipiac poll finds disturbing news for President Obama and his hopes of reelection in 2012: he’s got a negative approval rating in “the most heavily Democratic large state” in the nation: New York. 49 percent of New Yorkers disapprove of the job the president is doing–and only 45 percent approve. As National Journal notes this morning, it’s the first time Mr. Obama has had a negative result in the Empire State. “The debt-ceiling hullaballoo devastated President Barack Obama’s numbers even in true-blue New York,” said Quinnipiac poll director Maurice Carroll.

Midwestern populism is certainly a topic that doesn’t get all that much play on the Daily Show, but when it does, Jon Stewart makes sure to point out how hard it is to follow the will of the people. If the Tea Party were “the people” in 2009, and “the people” staged a recall election against Republicans in Wisconsin, where Democrats were defeated by “the people,” then… who are The Real People?

It wasn’t clear that New York City would survive the 1970s. I mean, physically it would, of course – it wasn’t going to sink, grimy and graffiti-ridden, into New York Harbor. But in late 1975, the city was broke. The budget deficit, reported at $600 million, was in reality nearly four times higher – and the city held $14 billion in debt. In October, President Ford basically told New York to fuck itself; that the city would not be bailed out by the government. (Today, of course, they would only do that to everything north of Canal Street.)

The FBI has searched homes belonging to suspected members of Anonymous, a group linked to various high-profile hackings. Ten agents raided a home in Baldwin, NY, as well as two others on Long Island and one in Brooklyn. The Long Island and Brooklyn raids are ongoing as of this morning.

In Baldwin, agents confiscated at least one laptop as they searched for computers and “computer-related accessories” belonging to Giordani Jordan. The equipment is thought to have been used in implementing denial of service attacks against a number of companies.

The comparisons between the Watergate scandal and the current fracas threatening to engulf Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corporation may as of yet be premature, but one thing does tie them together: the dizzying number of people that may be involved. While most of the coverage has hovered over the British wing of the operation, Lawrence O’Donnell took a peek tonight at the American potentially involved, and suggested the secrets of Murdoch’s American operation may lie with one dubious source: corrupt former New York City police chief Bernard Kerik.

It’s a rule of course in local news that when weather strikes, reporters must be sent out to endure it–and the more visibly they can suffer, the better. Hence reporters in rainstorms, blizzards and heatwaves. So WNYW-TV reporter Dick Brennan, being ever the good sport (I had the pleasure of working with Dick back in the day), ventured out into steamy New York City to talk to folks braving the heat in Central Park. And that’s all pretty much by the numbers. Runners say remember to hydrate, Brennan rolls up his shirtsleeves, and then he makes a point of walking directly into a huge sprinkler, dousing himself from head to toe. Wait, what?

With the New York media abuzz that prosecutors are preparing to drop the rape charges against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, many here and in his home country of France are stirring up speculation that he could be on the verge of re-starting his political career by running for President of France — as he was expected to do before the scandal erupted. But Mediaite has learned that Strauss-Kahn himself appears well aware that he has no immediate political prospects and that a run for President right now is simply not in the cards.

Now that the dust has settled on the scandal that pushed Anthony Weiner out of office, New York Democrats have made their choice for the Congressman to replace him: NY Assemblyman and former NYC City Councilman David Weprin. Weprin will be running against a yet-to-be-chosen Republican from the NY-9 seat, and would hold it until the end of 2012.

A New York-based atheist group, the creatively monikered NYC Atheists, has taken its protest of a street sign honoring fallen 9/11 firefighters to the next level by threatening a lawsuit. “Seven in Heaven Way” in Red Hook, Brooklyn, is named for the seven members of Ladder Co. 101/Engine Co. 202 who died responding to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and while the atheists’ protest has spurred justified outrage, but the atheists’ argument that heaven is a “religious concept” that is ““specifically Christian” is fatally flawed.

In what is positioning itself to be the next great he said/she said of Summer 2011, Glenn Beck is railing against what he described as a cluster of vile liberal New Yorkers who spilled wine on his wife and otherwise made his family uncomfortable and a film screening in Bryant Park. But after Beck’s account went live yesterday, a witness claiming to be friends with the wine spiller sent a letter to New York disputing his claims, and claiming all was peaceful around the Beck family.

After last Friday’s historic gay marriage vote, one of the most forceful media narratives was the contrast between the leadership styles of Andrew Cuomo and Barack Obama. So it was only a matter of time before people started speculating on Cuomo’s national aspirations.

President Obama defended his record on gay rights during his news conference at the White House, arguing that his administration had done more to end inequality than any other president, and congratulating legislators in New York for passing a same sex marriage bill, becoming the sixth–and largest–state to do so. “We’re moving in a direction of greater equality, and I think that’s a good thing,” he said.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg made his first appearance on television since his state passed a law allowing same-sex couples to marry civilly, and Bloomberg was proud of his state. Bloomberg, a former Republican, told Last Word host Lawrence O’Donnell that he was happy to see the law pass because it was “not contrary to the things Republicans stand for,” including “marriage stability” and personal responsibility.

Former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey says the passage of New York’s gay marriage bill Friday indicates politicians are lagging behind voters on the issue, in many cases as Americans accept and support members of their own family who’ve come out of the closet. You understand a nephew, a son, a father is gay, a mother. And that begins to make it very personal,” McGreevey told CNN’s Eliot Spitzer on In the Arena. “People understand — people have a personal connection with someone who is a member of the LGBT community and it profoundly changes the dynamic.

It has been a while since religious personality and serial end-of-the-world predictor Pat Robertson warned that God would smite America over things he didn’t like– since last January, from our records. This week, Robertson’s fear that America will be destroyed has been stirred by New York legalizing same-sex unions. On the 700 Club this week, Robertson reminded his audience that the last city known for homosexuality, Sodom, had residents willing to rape visiting angels.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow extended her live program Friday night to cover the historic vote in New York on same sex marriage, but ultimately bailed before Governor Andrew Cuomo made held a news conference to talk about it (Fox News was also in tape–only CNN carried Cuomo’s remarks live). As Maddow told viewers as she wrapped the network’s live coverage, “we’ll resume with our normally scheduled programming right…(and she was clipped).” So what was in store for viewers who may have sought out MSNBC on a Friday evening in the summer because they cared about the vote in New York?

Last night, New York became the sixth and largest state to pass a law giving same-sex couples access to civil marriages. In celebration, many in New York City’s historically gay West Village took to the streets to celebrate, while others took to Twitter to chronicle the occasion. Here is some of the best of what Twitter had to offer last night of a very special beginning to Pride Weekend.

Shortly after the New York State Legislature passed a bill legalizing civil marriages for same-sex couples, the state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo took the podium in Albany to address the state’s residents on the historic vote. “We reached a new level of social justice this evening,” Gov. Cuomo told listeners, concluding that the vote, and the legislative session tonight in general, made him “especially proud to be a New Yorker tonight.”

Today, New York lawmakers announced the passage of the Marriage Equality Act, making same-sex marriage (and all its subsequent benefits) legal in the state of New York. But it didn’t just happen overnight: We came a long way, baby. In that spirit, let’s take a (brief and by now means entirely comprehensive) look at the history of gay marriage in the Empire State. Before today, same-sex marriage was legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, as well as in Washington, D.C.

Earlier tonight — just before the New York Same Sex Marriage bill headed to the Senate floor – NY Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell was on NY1, affirming that the yeas did indeed have a 32nd vote. Here is his simple yet incredibly eloquent rationale for same sex marriage:

The Senate of the state of New York is currently considering the legalization of gay marriage. Please watch the live and potentially historic vote of the same-sex Marriage bill unfold via live stream below, featuring terrific music choices during lulls in the action.