NEWS ALERT: Nothing changed in the Senate tonight!

Wait wait, so the Democrats grew balls in the Senate? (4.00 / 1)

Question, will Bruno move out of New York should we take the Senate?

Reality has a well known liberal Bias-Stephen Colbert

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by: pierredude @ Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 03:14:51 AM UTC

The Democrats have been standing up (4.00 / 2)

in the NY Senate for some time now but what is different tonight is that despite the autocratic rules and a slim Republican majority stacked against them they were actually able to maneauver the Republicans into a corner and keep them boxed in there.

Good start to the new Senate session!

Here's hoping we see more of the same as the year progresses and the Republican majority gets smaller. :)

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by: Andrew C. White @ Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 03:26:15 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

WAIT! What about the reform talk? (4.00 / 2)

...from the Republican Reformers?

We've got some work ahead of us.

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by: NYBri @ Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 04:33:35 AM UTC

Nada, zip, zilch... (0.00 / 0)

goose eggs, nothing, null, void...

... apparently not even a proposal, a hint, or an iota of a thought of a reform proposal.

Which leaves one wondering why they delayed voting on new rules for the year if they were just going to propose the old ones again.

Joe Bruno, Dean Skelos, and the Senate Republicans allowed themselves to get outplayed on this one. Methinks they are losing control already.

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by: Andrew C. White @ Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 12:59:09 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Krueger Reform Rule 6 ii (4.00 / 2)

should go down in NY History as the Bruno Legacy...

6.) Member Items:
i.) requires complete disclosure of items in budget bills, including name of sponsor, funding recipient and amount of funding;
  ii.) prohibits member item funding for private, for profit entities;
  ii.) requires member item disclosure on Senate web site.

the Reform Rules actually had to include a bar against giving tax dollars to your friends' for-profit companies!!!

 

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by: Senor Wylie @ Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 05:19:44 AM UTC

The Bruno Rule 6ii (4.00 / 2)

A new meme has been born.

We've got some work ahead of us.

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by: NYBri @ Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 05:40:02 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Would someone out there on Long Island... (4.00 / 1)

...please ask Maureen O'Connell one simple question?

"Do you support Joe Bruno?"

We've got some work ahead of us.

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by: NYBri @ Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 05:42:56 AM UTC

hear hear (4.00 / 1)

maybe they could do so, i don't know, maybe, like, today ?


TODAY is day one. It always is.

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by: phillip anderson @ Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 05:45:49 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Heaven forbid legislating might distract GOP senators from their real job (4.00 / 1)

called fundraising:

If there was bipartisan support for the budget changes, a fierce partisan battle broke out over a proposal to change the rules to make the State Senate more open. Senate Democrats, who wield little power, proposed that Democrats get the same staff resources and member item money as Republicans, and said that all votes on the Senate floor should be recorded - ending the practice of using unrecorded group "voice votes."

When the Democratic proposal appeared to die on a voice vote, Senator Thomas K. Duane of Manhattan called for a slow roll call vote, which would leave a record of Republican senators voting against a package presented as reforms. Republican senators said that slow roll calls were not allowed, leading to a flurry of appeals and counterappeals that left the house in a standoff lasting into the evening, just as some Republican lawmakers were eager to get away to fund-raisers that they were holding. In the end, they compromised and used a show of hands. The Democrats lost.

http://www.nytimes.c...

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by: Roatti @ Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 06:11:55 AM UTC

I contest that last sentence (4.00 / 2)

I'm not sure the Democrats lost at all.

The Democrats kicked the Republicans rear ends from one end of the Senate chamber to the other last night and from one newspaper and blog to another this morning.

Republicans are against reforming the most dysfunctional legislature in the nation.

Democrats are in favor of reforming the most dysfunctional legislature in the nation.

Republicans are against democracy in the New York State Senate.

Democrats are in favor of democracy in the New York State Senate.

Republicans are against the people of New York State.

Democrats are in favor of the people of New York State.

It's that clear. It's that simple.

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by: Andrew C. White @ Wed Jan 17, 2007 at 13:03:46 PM UTC

[ Parent ]