In Washington D.C., the City Council has voted to approve same-sex marriages in the district. It'll have to go for another vote, then the city's Mayor, who has said he'll approve. After that, the United States Congress has 30 days to review and potentially deny the law, due to the pesky way the district is ruled.

Meanwhile, via Metafilter, comes news that New York state is set to make gay marriage legal within a week or so. Talk about under the radar.

It's a day family and food and fun, enjoy your tryptophan induced coma. But if you need to escape the family for a moment, read up on these great moments in Thanksgiving politics where George Bush had his finest hour, Sarah Palin doesn't pardon a turkey, Al Gore got bad news, America was introduced to a kid named Elian Gonzalez and New York had a political massacre.

Now pass the stuffing!

Remember the NY-23 congressional race between 3 candidates, a Democrat, a Republican and a conservative, and how up in the air the election was? You know how Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava eventually dropped out and endorsed the Democrat, Bill Owens, while the Republican party machine put its weight behind Doug Hoffman, the Conservative party candidate, yet the Democrats went on to win the seat? Well, maybe (maybe!) the Democrats didn't win.

Owens won by 5,335 votes, but a re-canvassing has dropped that to 3,026 votes and the 10,200 absentee votes have yet to be counted, which were mailed out before Scozzafava withdrew. So there's a possibility that Hoffman could still win, despite having conceded the race on election night.

After Obama tapped Congressman John McHugh to be his Secretary of the Army, Democrats and Republicans turned the election to fill New York's 23rd district into a national referendum for their respective parties. Dierdre Scozzafava, a "a Pro-Choice, Pro-Union & Pro Gay Marriage Republican" became the GOP candidate, while Bill Owens ran for the Democrats.

Then Doug Hoffman decided to join the race and fight "for the heart and soul of the Republican Party" as an independent for the Conservative Party of New York (No official affiliation to the national party). Polls show the race as a dead heat, meaning if Hoffman wins, Republicans get to claim a victory and will definitely move further to the right (Sarah Palin endorsed Hoffman,that's how far right he is) in the 2010 elections.

However, considering that NY-23 is a solidly Republican seat anyway, it's hard to see this as anything but conflict within the Republican party.

David Paterson is the current Democratic Governor of New York and for now that means squat with only 1 in 5 New Yorkers approving of the job he's doing. The White House has taken interest in the issue, going so far as to have its political director meet with Patterson and assigning local volunteers to head up his campaign.

Same-sex marriage ceremonies began last night in Vermont. The new law took effect at midnight. Vermont is the first state to allow same-sex couples to marry through legislation rather than a court ruling. It was also the first state to establish civil unions as an option for same-sex couples (that was through legislation in response to a court case).

Here's a map and (not so readable) summary of the current status of gay marriage by state. More readable summary from Reuters.

Most enjoyable summary from Ben & Jerry's.

Naked Cowboy, longtime fixture of Times Square, has thrown his hat in the ring for New York City Mayor.

Self-styled 'America's Mayor' Rudy Guiliani remains coy about running for NY Governor next year.

The New York State Senate, long a Republican stronghold, went Democratic in the 2008 elections. That all changed yesterday as two Senators, Pedro Espada Jr and Hiram Monserrate worked out a bi-partisan power sharing deal, and the chamber flipped back to the Republicans, in a chaotic and dramatic session.

Was the change due to the upcoming battle over same sex marriage? No, you just have to follow the money.    Continues...

New York Congressman John McHugh (R) has been selected to be Secretary of the Army, setting off a scramble for replacements in the Armed Services Committee and New York's 23rd Congressional District. Thought it voted for Obama in 2008, the district has been traditionally been Republican, but in recent years that gap has narrowed and Democrats believe they have a chance to pick it up.

Note: When scheduling low flying planes over New York City, a person should tell other people.

If a person is arrested and put in jail, where is their residency, at the original home address or at the prison? There's a fight going about this across America as smaller, rural communities that have prisons argue the obvious:

"States and counties rely on population numbers from the census to draw their legislative districts. In New York and some other states, Republicans continue to have clout in legislatures because they are elected from safely conservative, rural districts even as those areas lose people. The exception to that population decline: inmates, whose numbers have grown because of tough mandatory sentencing laws."

Five things to watch in the NY-20 race.

The special specialness of this election.

There's a special election going on in New York's 20th Congressional District and the parties are watching it closely to see what it says about the Obama administration. Currently, Democrat Scotty Murphy is in the lead against Republican Jim Tedisco, but just barely, so the race could go either way.

According to fivethirtyeight, RNC chairman Michael Steele's reign is hanging on a special election:

According to multiple former high-level RNC staffers familiar with the dynamics involved, Steele is unlikely to survive in the post if favored Republican Jim Tedisco loses his open-seat race to Democrat Scott Murphy. The special election, scheduled for March 31, is to fill a vacancy left when Kirsten Gillibrand took Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat.

If Tedisco loses, the ex-staffers said, “Steele is done.”

Completely, definitively?

“Absolutely.”

By contrast, they said, the recent financial allegations against Steele are unlikely to bring about a resignation unless there’s a serious smoking gun that catches Steele in specific awareness or direction of any shady doings. It’s a mens rea standard.

President Obama (damn it's nice to write that) is set to allow California and 13 other states to pass a law enforcing stricter automobile emissions and fuel standards within their borders.

"The California law, which was originally meant to take effect in the 2009 model year, requires automakers to cut emissions by nearly a third by 2016, four years ahead of the federal timetable. The result would be an increase in fuel efficiency in the American car and light truck fleet to roughly 35 miles per gallon from the current average of 27."

Together, the states account for about half of all cars in America.

is an apparently (acc. to NPR) very popular conservative Dem congresswoman. WaPo called it (almost) back in November. But I'm personally disappointed that we couldn't double the diversity of the US Senate, all the way to 2%. (last link's a double)

Bits and pieces from around the web:

Obama picks Rick Warren, angering many Democrats and gays, but Andrew Sullivan puts it all in perspective.

Rod "Hey, I can get you a Senate seat wholesale" Blagojevich isn't going anywhere anytime soon says the Illinois Supreme Court. Who says the world doesn't make sense?

Shoe wielding Iraqi journalist to face trial next week. Bush, however, still roams free.

Caroline Kennedy wants to replace Hilliary Clinton, as does Andrew Cuomo. Hilarity ensues.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to announce he will seek to overturn term limits of his office, due to the financial crisis. The New York TImes goes further in proposing to completely abolish term limits.