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This belongs to you. Take it back...
Air Bruno 
Tue Jul 10, 2007 at 21:17:15 PM EDT
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I get a lot of email. I get email pushing this story or that angle or whatever everyday. I get lots of really weird email. I get conspiracy theory email. I get email giving me "tips" on all sorts of crazy stuff. I get email from those thinking about running for office and I get email from those wanting to spread rumors about those already in office. I get plenty of odd email that I can really only laugh at. (Kieran Michael Lalor, I'm lookin' at you, kid.) I guess it just comes with the gig.
But today I started getting mail from a fairly secretive sender. I got two emails from a domain called "NYFacts.net." Of course, "NYFacts.net" doesn't actually display a page with, ya know, facts about New York. In fact, it displays nothing. Both emails contained the full text of articles written by New York Post whackadoo extraordinaire Fredric U. Dicker.
It looks like I'm not the only one.
The fight between Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno has gone electronic, with a secretive operation setting up shop today, apparently to circulate stories on the Bruno’s behalf.
In an e-mail with the subject line “Spitzer’s Abuse of Power” that went out to various Capitol reporters today, a sender identified only as NYFacts.net circulated a clipping of a New York Post story about an allegedly “unprecedented State Police surveillance program” of the senator. The July 5 story formed the basis of a request by Bruno that same day to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate Spitzer.
NYFacts.net didn’t respond to an e-mail inviting it to tell more about itself. A visit to Web sites with variations of the name turned up blank pages (not “page not found” errors, though). The .com versions led to ads for a firm offering ways to earn money on the Internet.
Moveover, a check of NYFacts.nets’ Internet registry shows that whoever create it took extra steps to shield its identity. Its registration was dated today Monday, using a special proxy service that offers private registration.
Bruno’s office said it knows nothing about this.
As if I needed yet another wingnut pushing me Dicker Drivel...
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Tue Jul 10, 2007 at 16:28:29 PM EDT
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As Azi asks, "how often does CNN cover Albany?". Well, they are covering the Spitzer vs Bruno story. I was only able to capture about two thirds of the report, but here it is for those who may have missed it when it aired yesterday afternoon.
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Tue Jul 10, 2007 at 10:47:13 AM EDT
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As many lawyers say, when the facts are on your side, bang the facts. When the law is on your side, bang the law. When you've got neither, bang the table. It's becoming increasingly clear that Uncle Joe Bruno, an Albany Hardballer from way back, is banging the table with abandon these days. "Wild" Bill Hammond of the Daily News takes him to task:
Now playing in Albany: Joe Bruno's last stand
Like Claude Rains in "Casablanca," he's shocked - shocked! - to find that hardball is being played at the state Capitol. His faux outrage is convincing enough that some people actually buy him as the victim - even though he was the one flying to political fund-raisers in Manhattan using state police helicopters.
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This victim shtick is absurd coming from Bruno, a former boxer who has done his share of hitting below the belt through the years.
The guy sputtering about rough treatment from the governor is the same one who promises big bucks to community groups in Republican senatorial districts, then summarily yanks the money when Democrats win the seats.
He's the same guy who, in a hard-fought race three years ago, set up a sham fund-raising committee so he could skirt election laws and meddle in a Democratic primary.
In another race, Bruno allegedly leaned on a state contractor to fire an employee who was running against Bruno's preferred candidate.
And who can forget Bruno's starring role in "Three Men in a Room," the Albany exposé co-authored by former state Sen. Seymour Lachman. According to that book, Bruno offered the Brooklyn Democrat a safe seat if he would switch to the GOP, and threatened to gerrymander him out of office if he refused.
The good senator pontificates about abuses of power now. But he saw nothing wrong with having his son work as a lobbyist at the Capitol, exploiting his family name for big bucks. When one of his son's clients, Cablevision, opposed a stadium on the West Side, Bruno helped torpedo the project.
Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating possible conflicts between Bruno's private business affairs and his actions as a government official. He personally arranged, for example, $500,000 in state grants to a high-tech firm founded by his pal, donor and business associate Jared Abbruzzese.
So Bruno is no babe in the woods.
What's really driving Bruno in this feud is not moral outrage, but raw political fear. He's two electoral losses away from losing his Senate majority - and with it the power to dole out state funds to friends, withhold it from enemies, set up family members with cushy jobs and have taxpayer-subsidized buildings named after him.
That's why Bruno keeps throwing fuel on the fire, because going mano a mano with Spitzer changes the subject, rallies the GOP troops and makes him look like a big guy - rather than a desperate politician whose career is circling the drain.
Keep bangin', Uncle Joe.
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Mon Jul 09, 2007 at 17:43:04 PM EDT
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Azi has the press release from the Attorney General's office:
STATEMENT BY JEFFREY LERNER
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS FOR THE N.Y. ATTORNEY GENERAL
We have been gathering information from the Governor's Office and other sources on allegations about improper use of state aircraft. We
have also received a letter from Senator Bruno's office, dated July 5th, regarding allegations as to the use of the State Police and the use
of state aircraft. Our Public Integrity Bureau is gathering information on all these issues and will proceed accordingly.
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Tue Jul 03, 2007 at 18:23:09 PM EDT
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A number of well connected individuals have come forth this afternoon to claim that they met with Joe Bruno while he was on trips to NYC that seem to have been exclusively for fund raising events. I guess we'll have to take their word for it as Bruno himself is still refusing to release the records from these tax payer funded excursions on state aircraft. Newsday has the scoop:
Businessmen say Bruno's contested flights were on state business
Spokesmen for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Shell Oil Co., the New York City mayor and a major Manhattan developer on Tuesday said Senate leader Joseph Bruno met with them on official state business on days when Bruno's use of a state helicopter is being challenged.
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Corporate officials told The Associated Press they met with the senator on May 3, May 17 and May 24, providing the first details of the trips Bruno listed on a form requesting state aircraft as "legislative business meetings." Bruno is expected to be questioned by the state Attorney General's Office and the Albany County District Attorney's Office about the trips.
"It was lunch," said Bill Miller, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, about his meeting with Bruno on May 17. "We talked about taxes." He said U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue also attended the meeting.
Miller said the meeting was at CV Star & Co. on Park Avenue, the address where state police records say Bruno was taken at 12:30 p.m. that day. That is also the company headed by insurance magnate Maurice Greenberg, a Republican donor who had conflicts with Spitzer when he was attorney general.
Another meeting that day involved oil company executives and Bruno, said a spokesman for one of the companies.
"It was a substantive meeting," said Bruce Gyory, a lobbyist. He said he arranged a May 17 meeting between executives of TransCanada and Shell Oil Co. with Bruno. "It was on energy and the Broadwater issue."
Broadwater Energy _ a consortium of Shell Oil and TransCanada _ is seeking federal permission to build a $700 million terminal in Long Island Sound. Some Long Islanders are lobbying to block the project.
On May 3, Bruno stated in the records, he was in "legislative business meetings" in New York City.
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Bruno, however, has refused to say who he met those days, but said he would cooperate with authorities. Bruno and his spokesman, John McArdle, insist that releasing who they met with would have a chilling effect on people providing information about the need for legislation or regulatory enforcement.
I mean, if you can't trust a spokesman for Shell Oil, who can you trust, right?
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Tue Jul 03, 2007 at 13:59:16 PM EDT
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This story just keeps getting funnier and funnier. Apparently, Uncle Joe has finally had enough and has cancelled his TU subscription. He also is telling some truly bizarre story about being solicited to buy ads in the paper to ensure that his side of the story gets ink. The old man is getting goofy.
Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno put out a statement today announcing he’s cancelling his Times Union subscription.
Bruno accused the paper of a “partisan, political agenda,” and also claimed his office received a call today from an advertising salesman at the paper, quoting him as saying that buying ads in the paper “would be an effective way to let the public know about the good things the Senator is doing and to get across his side of the story.”
Bruno characterized the call as telling his staffer “that I would need to by ads in the paper if I wanted to get fair coverage.”
His office says the call came in this morning, and that the purported offer was declined.
If Bruno's people were smart, they'd get him the hell out of town and away from the microphones for a few days. I so hope that doesn't happen.
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Tue Jul 03, 2007 at 09:31:59 AM EDT
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There's plenty of coverage this morning of the "Air Bruno" flap. Here's a sampling from around the state:
The Albany Times Union:
Interest grows in Bruno's travels
Soares, Cuomo seek documents on senator's flights; Spitzer orders review of alleged threats
The flap surrounding Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno's use of state aircraft widened Monday, with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Albany County District Attorney David Soares requesting documents related to the Brunswick Republican's flights to New York City on state aircraft.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer's office also ordered State Police to conduct a formal "threat assessment," which could clarify whether Bruno was entitled to State Police drivers who transported him from New York City airports and helipads to his destinations in the city.
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Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp said Bruno's requests for police escorts were in New York City, not the Capitol Region. Dopp also said Bruno has a "standing request" that police be allowed to use their sirens and emergency lights when they drive him in New York City to speed his progress through traffic.
"Numerous times he requests lights and sirens and we say no," Dopp said, explaining that even the governor doesn't get such escorts.
A "standing request" that cops use their sirens and lights so he can get to fund raisers around NYC faster? Whatever, Uncle Joe.
Investigating Air Bruno
There was state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, indignantly demanding the resignation of then-state Comptroller Alan Hevesi last fall for using state employees as drivers and aides for his wife. When the question came up as to whether Mr. Bruno had also used state employees as drivers, he dismissed it as inappropriate.
Almost a year later, the answers to similar, and entirely appropriate, questions about Mr. Bruno's use of state resources reveal that he can't dodge such questions. Mr. Bruno seems to have no reservations about using state-owned helicopters to fly to political fundraisers in Manhattan, or having the State Police chauffeur him and his aides around.
Nothing short of a vigorous inquiry by a government entity with enforcement power can satisfy the questions that arise when it's clear that Mr. Bruno requested the use of the state's helicopters for "legislative business meetings."
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It's well worth remembering that Mr. Bruno is not, say, the governor, with whom he has engaged in a power struggle that overshadows so much of state government. He's instead one of the leaders of an ostensibly part-time Legislature.
The New York Times
State-Financed Trips Weren’t Improper, Bruno Says
Mr. Bruno also said he used State Police transportation in part because he was the target of threats.
“They told me, the authorities, not to open mail at my home at times, not to open packages,” he said
He said a “deranged” man had been stopped outside of his office door once. “He was trying to get in, and when they asked him he said he was going to kill me,” he said. “So, you know, give me a break.”
Newsday
Spitzer wants Bruno's travel records reviewed
"I'm not concerned about anything," he told reporters. "We have not done anything illegal, we have not done anything improper." Asked whether he'd ever used state aircraft only for political events, Bruno said: "Of course not. That would be just plain stupid.
The Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin
Bruno rips Spitzer: Governor a 'dictator'
"That would be just plain stupid ... It would be criminal. It would be dumb. It is dumb for anybody stupid enough to allege that somebody would do that," he said.
I'll be posting the most hilarious and bizarre bruno quotes of the last 24 hours shortly. I think Uncle Joe is losin' it...
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Mon Jul 02, 2007 at 10:51:35 AM EDT
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Since yesterday when the story of Joe Bruno using state aircraft and drivers to travel to fund raising events broke, Bruno's spokesman, John McArdle, a man who is paid a hefty state salary to spin for the Majority Leader, has advanced no less than three different and somewhat contradictory defenses for his boss' behavior.
1. The "this is nonsense, the trips were legitimate" defense:
"On those days, we met with government officials and did legislative business," McArdle said Sunday. "The notion that he uses the helicopter for personal use is nonsense."
2. The "the Governor does it too" defense:
"If they pursue this, they are going to find themselves subject to an inquiry based on the exact same things that they're alleging," said Bruno spokesman John McArdle. State Republican Chairman Joe Mondello called yesterday for just such a probe.
3. The "People want to hurt Bruno" defense:
Mr. McArdle said Mr. Bruno needed police escorts because his life had been threatened.
“There clearly continue to be threats against Senator Bruno,” he said. “In the past, he has been advised by the state police and others to have protection in the city.”
And let's not forget the super special combo defense/dodge; the "the trips were legitimate but we won't release the itinerary - why? because the governor won't release his (he does so regularly)" defense:
McArdle wouldn't release details of the government business conducted on each of the three days, explaining that Bruno won't release that detail because Gov. Eliot Spitzer doesn't.
Spitzer spokesman Paul Larrabee said they would turn over travel schedules if asked. "We routinely provide the schedules for public review," he said.
Pick one, Mr. McArdle. We pay you a hefty public salary to spin us. We expect something more professional. At least do it with some modicum of skill.
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