New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg has recently made quite the fuss about how he is a true independent, who doesn’t fit into the general Democrat-Republican mold. As a result, there has been quite a bit of talk about him running for president - kind of a Crassus of our modern times: A man who uses his considerable wealth to obtain political power. But maybe Mr Bloomberg isn’t quite so different after all. Take the new rules for public photography currently being considered by the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting, which would open the door to the kind of discriminatory enforcement the current occupant of the White House has been so actively promoting. It’s not hard to see how such a development would be an enormous loss (and a violation of the US’ First Amendment [don’t count on the new Supreme Court to agree with that, though!]) for one of the photography capitals of the world. If you want to do something about it, you can either leave a message for Katherine Oliver, the commissioner in charge, or probably better, get in touch with Mr Bloomberg directly.