An online retailer called HeroBuilders.com is selling a talking action figure of Jimmy McMillan, the gubernatorial candidate of New York state's The Rent Is Too Dam High Party.

The cost for said action figure? $49.95.

Sorry, but that's too damn high.

Driving through Uptown Kingston today, I noticed the windows of two vacant storefronts — one on John Street, the other on Fair Street — plastered with campaign signs for U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley.

In this economic climate, I'm not sure Democrats want to be drawing attention to unoccupied commercial buildings.

A new poll from the Siena Research Institute shows Democratic Rep. Scott Murphy trailing Republican challenger Chris Gibson by nine points in New York's 20th Congressional District race. This just a month after the same poll showed Murphy ahead by 17.

But then, Siena is the polling outfit that showed Republicans Carl Paladino and Rick Lazio in a dead heat just days before Paladino won New York's GOP gubernatorial primary by 24 percentage points last month.

So the new poll in the Murphy-Gibson race is probably best taken with a grain of salt.

According to a Gannett News Service report, New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino has no public appearances planned for today.

It's the Saturday leading into the final week before Election Day, and Carl Paladino is laying low? This is traditionally one of the busiest campaigning days of the year, with candidates for offices high and low knocking on doors, strolling through neighborhoods and greeting people at pumpkin farms, apple orchards and fall festivals.

And Carl Paladino is not out stumping for votes today?

Perhaps he's finally realized that he does more harm than good every time he shows his face in public and every time he opens his mouth.

Is there anything sweeter than watching Alex Rodriguez strike out to end the Yankees' season — against Texas, the team he abandoned, no less?

I think not.

Great commercial, especially for those of us who are parents of 16-year-olds.

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat, came to Kingston on Wednesday to announce he was crossing party lines and endorsing Republican George Phillips in the state's 22nd Congressional District race over incumbent Democrat Maurice Hinchey.

Koch said that, as was the case in 2004, when he endorsed Republican George W. Bush for president, he disagrees with the GOP on virtually all domestic issues but favors the party (and, by extension, Phillips) for its stand on foreign policy matters, particularly those pertaining to Israel and the fight again terrorism.

Just one problem: Every major poll this year has found people's votes in the upcoming midterm elections are being driven by domestic issues (principally the economy and jobs). So whether he realizes it or not, Koch, while endorsing Phillips, told the electorate he thinks the would-be congressman is not qualified to solve the problems that are foremost in voters' minds.

Sharron Angle, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Nevada, claims at least two communities in the United States are at risk of falling under "Muslim law."

Christine O'Donnell, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Delaware, has dabbled in witchcraft

Carl Paladino, Republican candidate for governor of New York, portrays himself as a family-values candidate despite having fathered children with both his wife and his mistress.

And Rich Iott, Republican candidate for Congress in Ohio, dresses up in Nazi garb for World War II re-enactments, refuses to say the Nazis under Hitler were "not valiant men" and belongs to a history group on whose website the World War II section makes no reference to the Holocaust.

This was supposed a pendulum-swinging year in which Republicans, largely out of power in this country since January 2007, came storming back to win a majority of the seats in Congress and and retake control of dozens of statehouses.

But with people like Angle, O'Donnell, Paladino and Iott on the ballots, the GOP might just find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

A New York Daily News story says Mayor Michael Bloomberg already is planning the Yankees' World Series victory parade in lower Manhattan's Canyon of Heroes.

I'd suggest Bloomberg check out the hitting prowess of the Texas Rangers, who the Yankees likely will face in the American League Championship Series, and the incredible pitching of the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants, one of whom is likely to represent the National League in the Fall Classic, before he starts booking any marching bands and signing off on police overtime.

I've been predicting a Rangers-Phillies World series for weeks now, and I'm sticking to that. As for the result, I'll say Phillies in six games.