Daily Kos has August fundraising numbers from the netroots.

37% of of people surveyed by Pace University/New York Magazine want a definitive timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Rock Hackshaw wonders why the Times opted not to endorse indicted Brooklyn Assemblywoman Diane Gordon or either of her two challengers.

Empire Zone watches John Spencer's new ad and wonders "Has anyone actually seen them on television?"

And for anyone keeping track...the Spitzer biography is ranked 14,400 on the Amazon.com sales rank. Wayne Barrett's new book on Rudy Giuliani is ranked 752.

-- Azi Paybarah

Apparently Albany on Friday announced some $30 million in aid to the New York Racing Association, the private firm that runs the racetracks at Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga on a state franchise,to keep it from filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. From the AP:

See, the big plan to make New York's racetracks profitable was to institute video slot-machines at the tracks. Go to gamble on the horses, stay to press a button that's kind of like the arm of a one-armed Jack!

But that wasn't going to work if NYRA went under first.

Video slot-machines are controversial in other states, like Connecticut and New Jersey, where economic development has already been tied to gambling operations. Donald Trump was no friend to the idea of video slot-machines at the Meadowlands, for instance. Not really a problem here, it seems.

- Tom McGeveran