The death (and life) of ethics reform

by: Dan Jacoby

Tue Feb 09, 2010 at 11:08:03 AM EST

This bill wasn't it.

This bill created entities that would not have had any real power to require compliance with anything.  The financial disclosure requirements had enormous loopholes (dare I say that they were specifically designed to benefit Sheldon Silver and John Sampson?).  Overall, this would have allowed our corrupt politicians to claim the mantle of reform while locking in the very corruption they were claiming to end.

I give high marks to Governor Paterson for standing up and saying no, particularly in the face of overwhelming odds that his veto would be upheld.

I also give high marks to the folks at Common Cause, who were willing to call this bill the piece of garbage that it was, when every other self-described "good government group" was unwilling to say that the emperor had no clothes.

I give low marks to Senate Republicans for voting for a bill and then voting against it.  If they truly believed that the bill was bad, they should have voted against it from the start.  Hypocrites!

I give low marks to Democratic leadership in Albany, on both sides of the capitol, for pushing such rotten legislation.  They should be ashamed of themselves, except that they seem to have no shame.

I have a warning to all New Yorkers -- fasten your seat belts.  It's clear that our state government has not yet reached rock bottom, and that we will have to endure more corruption, childishness, and other shenanigans, hurting our state even more, before real action is taken.

The message of hope is that governments far worse than New York state's government have failed to bring down a society.  We will endure, and we will come out of this with real government reform.  It may take a couple more years before the process can truly begin, but it will happen, if only because there will be a tipping point where New Yorkers throw enough of the bums out to send a message to the bums who are left that they had better act like decent human beings.

Let's hope that message is sent this fall.

NY-Sen: Ford's LIEberman flack's first lie

by: devtob

Mon Feb 08, 2010 at 12:49:58 PM EST

Sun debuted today with an absurd lie about the excellent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

Details, below.

Paterson To Resign?

by: phillip anderson

Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 20:22:25 PM EST

People keep asking me if I have heard anything more than what everyone else has. I haven't.

You?

Not Wild About Harry

by: Dan Jacoby

Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 15:09:48 PM EST

It's time we learned a lesson.

Reid, like his most recent Democratic predecessor Tom Daschle hails from a moderate state and is thought of as a moderate Democrat.  The idea in making him (and Daschle) Majority Leader may have been to appeal to a broad range of Senators in a misguided attempt to forge bipartisan relations.

It is misguided, of course, because those Republicans who are still around have no interest in bipartisanship; the party has been hijacked by right-wing extremists.  The result is that any moderate Democrat is going to hear extremist views from across the aisle, while being prodded to provide something from the left wing of his own party.

This is why nothing gets done without an extraordinary amount of dealmaking, mostly to appease right-wing interests.  The leader looks weak, because he is unable to succeed at bringing people together.  Then the Republicans target the moderate Democratic leader at election time.  They were successful the last time, and may be successful again.

The solution is to abandon the failed policy, and replace Reid with a much more left-wing Democrat in the Majority Leader's position.  Republicans will know that they can't get much of anything from such a leader, while left-wing Democrats will be more accepting of compromises made with moderate Democrats.  After all, if we start way over on the left, a fair amount of movement toward the center will be far better than if we start near the center and move even a little bit to the right.

There are some who say that Chuck Schumer should (and could) be the next Majority Leader.  It's possible, but I think we still need someone from a state that isn't safely blue.  That's why I suggest Carl Levin.  Aside from his loyalty to GM, he has proven to be a pretty progressive Democrat, smart, willing to crack the whip when necessary -- and being from Michigan he can help shore up Democratic support in that increasingly Republican state.

Soundpolitic Sundays: Super Bowl of Crap Edition

by: Soundpolitic

Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 12:46:43 PM EST

Nowadays, after a years' worth of depression "due to" unemployment in my chosen field of paralegal studies and growing and frustration for lack of professionalism in indie rock, I've got the writing bug again.  Out of respect for all living beings, I refuse to swat it.  I've been feeding it like a fiend.

I had big plans for my return.  Summarizing the Talking Heads shows, going topical again, ect., ect., ect....but this proved to nothing more than some intangible idea to make a move back to wind-baggery.  It wasn't real.  

What follows below the fold certainly is:  I just starting writing an e-mail to a very dear friend of my father while he generously offered use of his computer to compose a freelance piece on traditional-string-based contemporary rock.  The two of us had gone to dinner last night and spoke a bit about the Big Game coming up today.  Naturally, we talked more about commercials than about football.

I decided to shoot her a quick e-mail link to the famous Apple 1984 commercial on YouTube.  Then I added a couple of blurbs from the web to give more information.  Then I kept writing and, voila!  I was blogging again, just for the love of putting words together.  I blind-copied it to a bunch of friends, but then decided if I left it at that, I'd have left all of you guys out.  So no fair...read on for the first installment of Soundpolitic Sundays.

NY-29: Win $10,000 for Eric Massa.

by: Adama D. Brown

Sat Feb 06, 2010 at 19:32:14 PM EST

In support of one of our hardest fighting upstate Dems, I'm asking you to help me stuff the ballot box. Simply fill out the form, select "Massa, Eric (NY-29)" in each of the drop down boxes, and hit submit. Then you're done--and hopefully so is Massa's Republican challenger.  

NY-Sen: Spitzer's trial balloon

by: devtob

Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 22:13:33 PM EST

And Spitzer is also dropping hints that he may join Harold Ford of Tennessee, Merrill Lynch, the DLC, NBC and the Park Avenue Regency in challenging the excellent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand this year.

According to Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast, "Spitzer is making fresh noises about running against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in New York."

Grove notes that Spitzer is trying to exorcise his prostitute-ridden past by talking somewhat openly about it in a Big Think interview, and that his media profile rose with his appearance this week on The Colbert Report.

Details, below.

Again?

by: simonstl

Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 17:10:33 PM EST

I've been holding off on writing about this, because it seems to come drip by drip. There are more of them appearing lately, though - Liz Benjamin, NGD, and now Capitol Confidential. The New York Times seems to be the journalistic epicenter of the story - we'll see what happens, I guess.

Destiny may not always be what it seems. If this turns out to be real, I fear for New York State going forward.

There are four special elections on Tuesday

by: sabachi

Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 14:50:39 PM EST

Saland's email - part of Congressional Republican campaign

by: HylasBrook

Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 09:36:05 AM EST

The rest of the email is full of Republican talking points and lies.  (See below)  Looks like Republicans are working on keeping Republican state legislators in office.

One more thing we need to counter.

We love parks - as long as we don't have to pay for them

by: Norbrook

Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 07:43:44 AM EST

Gov. David Paterson's proposed state budget calls for $29 million in spending cuts at New York's 35 historic sites and 135 state parks, including Moreau Lake State Park and Saratoga Spa State Park in Saratoga Springs.

This is just the latest in a series of cuts.  Over the past 18 months, the parks budget has been cut by 40%.  In addition to the cuts to the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historical Preservation (OPRHP), the Department of Environmental Conservation is also looking at more cuts.  

NY-Sen: Ford's flack problems -- fibs and the LIEberman connection

by: devtob

Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 14:12:19 PM EST

Davidson Goldin is the basic campaign flack, hurling insults at Gillibrand at every opportunity, and Tammy Sun will be filling in for him for two weeks while he's honeymooning, and may work for the campaign once it staffs up.

Goldin has been a nasty attack-dog flack from Day 1, and a fibber several times. He also flacked for state Sen. Hiram Monserrate, who will soon be booted from the Senate for a vicious assault on a woman friend.

Sun was press secretary for Joe LIEberman in his 2006 general election campaign, when LIEberman well earned having the first three letters of his name capitalized.  

Details, below.

One Person, One Vote

by: Charlie Albanetti at Citizen Action

Wed Feb 03, 2010 at 15:32:28 PM EST

Last Thursday (January 28th), we kicked-off a new campaign to end prison-based gerrymandering, the undemocratic system for using people in prison to inflate population counts.

At the campaign kick-off, Rev. Al Sharpton said that this is "the voter rights and civil rights issue of the year in the state of New York."

Here's the problem: right now, the US Census Bureau counts people in prison as being residents of the area in which they are incarcerated.

While New York's constitution (Article II §4) states that incarceration will not change a person's residence, the State still uses the Census numbers for the purposes of drawing legislative district lines, effectively denying fair representation to the communities where most people in prison come from: specifically urban areas and communities of color.

That's why we're working with a coalition of organizations from across the State of New York to pass legislation to end this practice. The legislation, sponsored by Senator Eric Schneiderman in the Senate and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries in the Assembly, will use Department of Correctional Services data to amend the Census population counts used for redistricting. Because the legislation doesn't change how the Census actually counts people, and instead changes how the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment uses Census data to draw district lines, this won't affect any state or federal funding for any community that is tied to Census data. It will, however, correct the decades old injustice of giving certain communities more representative power at the expense of others.

"Corruption costs money"

by: robinia

Tue Feb 02, 2010 at 23:31:27 PM EST

Paterson got some 'splainin' to do.

NY-Sen: Blakeman bombs before Conservatives

by: devtob

Tue Feb 02, 2010 at 14:47:41 PM EST

Evidently, only one newspaper covered his speech, and unfortunately it's stupid-paywall Newsday, who presumably only cared because Blakeman is from Long Island.

The few sentences you can read at Newsday are a straight-forward report, but another attendee, former Schenectady Gazette reporter Bob Conner of Planet Albany, was more critical.

A lot more critical, as you'll see below.