Both Silver and Bruno published the records on the Internet, but only as gigantic computer files containing reams of printed-page-like images. It was the online equivalent of a 3,000-page fax.
....
Bruno's Senate staff also embedded a secret password in its files to lock up the contents of their public disclosure, making it difficult for anyone but the tech-savvy to break that security and extract a single page of information for e-mailing, or scan it with special software that converts images into text that analytical software can recognize.
When the Times Union asked Tuesday to obtain the pure data it had always requested, not pictures of data, and threatened to take the matter back to court, the Assembly's staff immediately reprocessed their records. Assembly staff re-published the data early Tuesday evening as searchable, usable PDF files containing text, not pictures of text.
But the Senate's staff refused to change anything.
....
"When they give out these 2,000-page, 3,000-page documents, it's practically useless," said Liam Arbetman, a New York City researcher for the public interest group Common Cause, who called the Senate's behavior "stupid."
"They've put it in the most unusable, cumbersome format they could," Arbetman said. "If you want to see member-item spending in your town, you're going to have to read all 3,000 pages."
Arbetman said he was already at work using optical character reading software to convert the Assembly's records into a spreadsheet -- work he was eager to avoid. He said he had broken the Senate's encrypted password and was at work setting up optical character reading software to convert the Senate's printed pages into usable digital data, a process he warned "won't be done quickly."
"Essentially, what they've done is provide ... stone etchings," Arbetman said of the Senate. "They're trying to take the freedom out of the information," he said. "It's like they don't want you to be able to use it."
....
Senate spokesman John McArdle said the Senate's staff believes it complied with the order for release of member-item data.
"What the Senate has been willing to do is to provide the information," McArdle said.
"Our understanding is that this is all you're entitled to," he said. "Bottom line, that's all you're going to get."
Wow. Did you catch that last bit? Guess what, Mr McArdle? YOU work for US, pal. You did everything you possibly could to insult your employers, to spit in the face of those you serve by making this massive pile of data as unusable as possible. Thank god there are people smarter than you are who are working to unscramble what you have attempted to obscure.
All that money you folks are spending up there to protect your jobs belongs not to you, nor to Joe Bruno. IT BELONGS TO US, jackass. And it's long past time you had to account for it.
When the people of New York finally reclaim their state government, arrogant pricks such as yourself will be the first on the street. Until then, you would be wise to fear the pointy end of my pen and my pitchfork.
Are we clear? Good.
This is YOUR STATE GOVERNMENT, people.
