BUSH APPOINTEE in Northern District of New York, Deals Right to Dissent a Death Blow! Options

[Livyjr]

"Mr. Abbruzzese's and Sen. Bruno's rights have been trampled on here," Jones said.

"That could have adverse consequences for those responsible when this investigation runs its course."

Boy ......

That sure does sound like a THREAT to me ......

That this hot-shot political lawyer F. Stewart Jones is making here .....

And coming from F. Stewart Jones .....

A REAL POWER-HOUSE LAWYER .....

IT WOULD BE A THREAT .....

Maybe the CORPORATE DOCTOR up there at Northeast Health, Inc. in F. Stewart Jones' city of Troy, New York ......

Is going to have to make out another couple of FRAUDULENT PSYCHIATRIC ARREST ORDERS here ......

And some direct admissions forms .....

To the SECURE PSYCHIATRIC FACILITY .....

Of the Samaritan Hospital in Troy, New York .....

For "those responsible for this investigation" .....

And so ...

"Bruno defends his dealings - 'We've followed the letter of the law,' says Senate GOP majority leader"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, December 23, 2006

ALBANY -- Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno Friday defended himself amid reports he collected consulting fees from a suspected lobbyist who led a company that got state grants from Bruno.

"Everything that we have done has been disclosed properly," Bruno told a reporter who asked him to discuss a Times Union report that Bruno's consulting company received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Jared Abbruzzese, a businessman and friend of the senator's.

The FBI is investigating the relationship between Abbruzzese and Bruno, R-Brunswick.

The Loudonville businessman is also suspected of violating lobbying laws by providing his aircraft to the senator while promoting horse racing legislation in 2005.

"I'm a businessman and what I do as a businessman we've followed the letter of the law," Bruno said when pressed about his relationship with Abbruzzese.

Bruno's remarks came the day the Times Union quoted Abbruzzese's lawyer, E. Stewart Jones Jr., saying his client paid Capital Consulting Group, Bruno's private business, for unspecified services.

A source pegged the payouts to Bruno in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Jones said there was no "quid pro quo" involved in the relationship between Bruno and Abbruzzese.

Bruno has refused to disclose his consulting customers or details of his business dealings, through which he collects income outside his $121,000-per-year legislative salary.

Besides consulting, Bruno also raises and sells thoroughbred horses and promotes a Connecticut investment management firm.

The disclosure of Abbruzzese's payments to Bruno became the latest in a series of stunning developments involving the FBI investigation of Bruno.

The story began Tuesday when Bruno announced the probe of his business dealings.

He has stressed they have been legal and proper.

Evident Technologies Inc., a Troy high-tech company that Abbruzzese directed -- and which his partner, Wayne Barr Jr. continues to direct -- received $500,000 in grants from Bruno's discretionary account.

The grants, which Evident received in 2003 and 2004, were member items, part of the $200 million annual pork account the Legislature and governor secretly split up.

Bruno's grants to Evident were extremely unusual because almost all member items go to nonprofit organizations.

Abbruzzese is being investigated by the state lobbying commission for letting Bruno use his airplane for political and fund-raising events.

Sen. John Bonacic, a Republican from the Hudson Valley and Catskills, said Bruno should have stepped down even before the probe became public.

"I had reservations before this broke," said Bonacic.

"I've got a new comptroller; I've got a new governor-elect."

"I think it would be better for the state of New York to have a new (Senate) majority leader and a new (Assembly) speaker."

"It's become more obvious on our side ... God forbid this man gets indicted, but what I'm reading and seeing it's not sitting right with me."

He said Bruno's predicament hurts the GOP conference.

With a slim 34-28 advantage over the Democrats, the conference doesn't need a distraction or a cloud over its leader, the senator said.

"It's about maintaining the majority," Bonacic said.

"I hope that Joe Bruno is exonerated, that they find no wrongdoing."

"He's a very likable guy."

"But I've watched the patterns when there are investigations."

"It gets dragged out."

Bruno framed the situation differently, calling the investigation "more a media event."

He said he is in good standing with the public and his GOP members.

"I have been elected by the public and my colleagues to govern," he said.

"I would appreciate the press -- if they would just give me an opportunity objectively and fairly to govern."

Three major union leaders in the state issued statements Friday supporting Bruno -- Dennis Rivera, leader of the influential SEIU Local 1999, which represents hospital and health care workers; Danny Donohue, president of the Civil Service Employee's Association; and Denis president of the AFL-CIO.

"Sen. Bruno's lengthy and distinguished career speaks volumes to his character," said Hughes.

"There should be no rush to judgment regarding his ability to lead."

A federal grand jury in Albany subpoenaed a host of records from Bruno; from James Featherstonhaugh as the custodian of Bruno's former land development business, First Grafton Corp.; from Evident Technologies; and from the state lobbying commission.

It also subpoenaed Abbruzzese and his wife Sherrie, and Abbruzzese's numerous businesses.

A spokesman for Empire Racing Associates, a group of horse racing interests that includes Abbruzzese, has not been subpoenaed.

Empire is a bidder seeking the state racing franchise.

Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.

This post has been edited by Livyjr: Dec 23 2006, 06:52 AM

[Livyjr]

"Mr. Abbruzzese's and Sen. Bruno's rights have been trampled on here," Jones said.

"That could have adverse consequences for those responsible when this investigation runs its course."

Bruno framed the situation differently, calling the investigation "more a media event."

"Livyjr, in the light of the past experience that people up there where you are have had with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Office of the United States Attorney, and this Senator Joseph Bruno, and a federal Hobbs Act investigation that was apparently suddenly terminated by the Office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York when the name of this Senator Joseph Bruno came into it in connection with questionable practices in the Rensselaer county Department of Health which were having an adverse impact on the lives, health and property of the people of Rensselaer County in New York State ....."

"Could you tell us how people up there feel ..."

"When they see this Rensselaer County lawyer E. Stewart Jones openly and blatantly threatening these federal prosecutors with retaliation against themselves and their employment in the pages of the Albany, New York TIMES UNION newspaper ..."

"And when they see this Senator Bruno himself, in the pages of the same Albany, New York TIMES UNION newspaper ..."

"Calling this alleged federal investigation a MEDIA EVENT ..."

"DO PEOPLE UP THERE THINK THAT SOMEONE IS GAMING THE SYSTEM HERE?"

HHHhhhmmmm .....

GAMING THE SYSTEM .....

Joe Bruno calls a BIG press conference ...

BIG FBI INVESTIGATION, FOLKS .....

BUT IT'S NOTHING .....

And then ....

SHADES OF 1989 .....

The Office of the United States Attorney comes forward and says, "well, how about that, we took a really, really hard look, but there was nothing there ...."

That is what people are expecting, actually .....

Some with GLEE ....

Joe Bruno's PARTISANS ....

And they are many, actually ....

And the rest .....

Well ...

I would say with TREPIDATION .....

Because then ....

CORRUPTION WILL BE STRONGER THAN EVER .....

AND IT WILL BE RIGHT OUT IN PLAIN SIGHT .....

UNTOUCHABLE .....

And this brings us to what many see as E. Stewart Jones' TRUMP CARD ......

Which is the fact that in December of 2005 .....

Just a short year ago .....

The federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City .....

PUT ITS SEAL OF APPROVAL .....

ON THE GRANTING OF "PROTECTED PERSON" STATUS HERE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ...

BY ELECTED OFFICIALS UP HERE IN RENSSELAER COUNTY ....

WHICH IS JOE BRUNO'S COUNTY .....

AND IF JOE BRUNO IS IN FACT DOLING OUT FAVORS AND PROTECTION HERE .....

IT IS NOT INCONSISTENT WITH WHAT THE FEDERAL SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS HAS ALREADY APPROVED ...

CONDUCT THAT THE OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ITSELF HAD NO PROBLEMS WITH BACK IN AUGUST OF 2001 .....

THAT BEING THE INTIMIDATION AND REMOVAL OF WITNESSES IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ....

BY THE "STATE" ITSELF ....

ON BEHALF OF ITS "PROTECTED PERSONS" .....

WHO GET THAT WAY .....

BY PROCURING PROTECTION .....

FROM ELECTED OFFICIALS IN NEW YORK STATE ...

And so ....

GIVEN ALL OF THAT PRIOR HISTORY ....

PEOPLE UP HERE HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO FAITH OR TRUST WHATSOEVER .....

IN EITHER THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION ....

OR THE OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK .....

And if people up here saw E. Stewart Jones returning from Washington, D.C. with an apologetic Alberto Gonzales in tow .....

To personally apologize to Joe Bruno .....

I DON'T THINK THAT THERE IS A SOUL UP HERE WHO WOULD BE SURPRISED ...

And I actually think that many are expecting exactly that .....

STARTING WITH THE PARTISANS OF JOE BRUNO ....

Who are many ....

And very powerfull .....

And so .....

[Livyjr]

"Well, Livyjr, there is some powerful corroboration for what you have been saying in your thread here, coming to us as it does through the pages of the Albany, New York Times Union, the newspaper for the CAPITAL DISTRICT of the State of New York, where all of this political retaliation crap described in this thread has been going on for so long now ..."

"And coming as it does from the lips of a REPUBLICAN LAWYER who himself was just a candidate for the New York State Supreme Court as a REPUBLICAN, that being this Tom Marcelle who is making this above statement here:"

"The reality is that the culture in Albany, the political culture, is that we have a rich tradition of retaliation for dissent ...."

"A rich tradition ...."

"Of retaliation ...."

"For dissent ...."

"And as this thread demonstrates, Livyjr, with this PSYCHIATRIC TAKE-DOWN approved for use by them by the federal SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS in New York City, they clearly have ALL THE FANCY TOOLS with which to retaliate with ..."

"SINCE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT APPROVAL OF THIS PSYCHIATRIC TAKE-DOWN AS A TOOL OF REPRESSION IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK NOW ALLOWS THE NEW YORK STATE GOVERNMENT TO TOSS DISSENTERS DIRECTLY INTO THE DUMPING GROUNDS OF SECURE MENTAL INSTITUTIONS, SUCH AS THE NORTHEAST HEALTH, INC. GULAG IN THE CITY OF TROY, NEW YORK ..."

"WHICH IS SOMETHING THAT YOUR ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION STAYED QUITE MUM ABOUT, I NOTICE ...."

"SO THAT THE PRACTICE, OR 'RICH TRADITION' OF RETALIATION FOR DISSENT IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK CAN CONTINUE ON UNIMPEDED ..."

"AS IT HAS FOR YOUR PLAINTIFF UP THERE SINCE 1988 ..."

"And so ..."

"And that conclusion about the federal SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS turning its back on medical malpratice and professional misconduct in the State of New York in this case wraps us right back around, Livyjr, to this June 11, 1991 letter on New York State Education Department stationary to you people up there, the concerned citizens in this matter, from this Mr. Lance R. Plunkett, Senior Attorney, Regulations Review Unit, New York State Department of Education, where he states:"

"WHERE A PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER IS GIVEN DIRECTIONS THAT REQUIRE HIM OR HER TO COMMIT PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT, IT REMAINS THE OBLIGATION OF THE PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER NOT TO COMMIT SUCH MISCONDUCT."

"ACCORDING TO ALL OF THE EVIDENCE THAT I HAVE SEEN IN HERE TODAY ..."

"TEN YEARS AFTER THIS MR. PLUNKETT MADE THIS STATEMENT, THE NEW YORK STATE OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL DISCIPLINE DID IN FACT TURN ITS BACK AND LOOK THE OTHER WAY ON AND AFTER AUGUST 22, 2001, WHEN THIS DR. JOHN CHRISTIAN BRAATEN AT SAMARITAN HOSPITAL IN TROY, NEW YORK DID PRACTICE PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT IN THE CASE OF HIS FALSE 'DIAGNOSIS FOR HIRE' OF THE PLAINTIFF IN THIS MATTER AS AN ALLEGED DANGEROUS MENTAL PATIENT, WHEN THIS BRAATEN HAD NEVER MET THE PLAINTIFF, LET ALONE EXAMINED HIM AS THE LAW REQUIRES ..."

"AND THERE IS THE MOCKERY, LIVYJR, OF THE LAW ..."

"AT LEAST FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF US COMMON CITIZENS OUT HERE IN AMERICA WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE RECIPIENTS OF THE PROTECTION AGAINST PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT THAT SUCH LAWS AND RULES ARE SUPPOSED TO PROVIDE FOR ..."

"The very clear message that has come to us, through this thread, from the federal SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS, in conjunction with the Office of the New York State Attorney General, the New York State Department of Education, and the New York State Department of Health is this:"

IF A PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK IS GIVEN DIRECTIONS THAT REQUIRE HIM OR HER TO COMMIT PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT, IT REMAINS THE OBLIGATION OF THE PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER TO COMMIT SUCH MISCONDUCT, REGARDLESS, BY ORDER OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ....

OR ELSE!

"That, Livyjr, is the message that I walk away with today, after having spent time with this thread and it contents over the last year or so ..."

"And it is a very simple message, indeed ...."

"DO WHAT YOU ARE TOLD TO DO, OR WE WILL BREAK YOU ..."

"And so, Livyjr, and so ..."

"Free expression must continue to ring - The First Amendment turned 215 years"

By PAUL K. McMASTERS

First published: Sunday, December 24, 2006

At its birth as it is today, this constitutional guarantee was a breathtakingly beautiful testimony to the value of freedom of conscience and expression.

When it was ratified as part of the Bill of Rights in 1791, the First Amendment secured all other freedoms because it provided protection for a nation of citizens to question their government, to foment change, to fight injustice.

It encouraged a democratized conversation in which individuals could freely create and criticize, give voice to passion and pain, give substance to their dreams.

It invited all Americans to proclaim their power as citizens and their worth as human beings.

The promise and wisdom of that compact has been affirmed time and again over the course of two centuries.

We have amassed a remarkable treasury of rights and progress, history and scholarship, science and art, all owing their existence to free speech and inquiry.

Today, however, the flow of information at times seems overwhelming.

We struggle to separate the good from the bad, reality from fantasy, the safe from the dangerous.

Rather than celebrate, then, many of us have become anxious and fearful about speech that we find to be too free, too coarse or too threatening to our values and our security.

Constant and rapid advances in new forms of media provoke new modes of speech -- and thus more anxiety.

The more ways we find to communicate with one another, the more reasons we find to silence one another.

We don't openly censor, of course, so much as we try to regulate.

We seek comfort in rating speech according to its content or ranking it according to its value.

And when we encounter speech that doesn't square with our view of the world, we prefer punishment to persuasion.

We crave serenity yet reject the balm of tolerance.

We toy with the tempting idea that we would be a lot better off if all speech came with a stamp of approval from the government, the majority or the most vocal advocacy groups.

In this environment, every day produces new assaults on First Amendment rights and values.

Polls show significant numbers of Americans uneasy about or ignorant of our free-expression traditions and principles.

Protesters are deterred and muzzled as officials herd them into "free-speech zones" and jail cells.

Dissent is routinely portrayed as treason.

Radio and TV broadcasters face severe penalties if they fail to sufficiently cleanse the image of our culture they present to their audiences.

Activists from the left call for the suppression of commercials targeting kids.

From the right, they demand punishment for over-the-air indecency.

In the center, parents yearn for government regulators to monitor the media for them.

Activists challenge libraries and schools for the books they offer.

Legislators propose laws to control Internet excess and rein in video-game violence.

Government prosecutors and lawmakers threaten journalists with prison if they don't give up their sources and notes and stop exposing embarrassing secrets.

Daily, we enlarge the list and expand the definitions of speech we want to restrict: indecency, violence, hate speech, commercial speech and dissent, to name a few.

And in recent years, the nation's highest court has taken fewer opportunities to affirm free-speech rights.

In its last four terms, the Supreme Court has accepted for review a fraction of the free-expression cases it used to -- and it has upheld the First Amendment claims in only a fraction of those.

It is an affront to the vision of those who brought the Bill of Rights into being and to those who have defended it throughout our history that we have sent to prison, denied a right or privilege or punished thousands of Americans who simply believed that the First Amendment meant what it said.

Each incursion into First Amendment freedoms is generally regarded as an isolated and incremental event, essential to national security, law and order, personal privacy, social civility, cultural refinement and protection of children.

Cumulatively, these concerns add up to a debilitating fear that the right combination of words, images or ideas will cause calamity.

A similar sort of fear of expression caused Justice Hugo Black to write in a 1961 Supreme Court decision:

"This trend must be halted if we are to keep faith with the Founders of our Nation and pass on to future generations of Americans the great heritage of freedom which they sacrificed so much to leave to us."

"The choice is clear to me," he continued.

"If we are to pass on that great heritage of freedom, we must return to the original language of the Bill of Rights."

"We must not be afraid to be free."

Happy birthday, freedom.

K. McMasters is First Amendment ombudsman at the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va. His e-mail address is pmcmasters@fac.org.

[Livyjr]

And this brings us to what many see as E. Stewart Jones' TRUMP CARD ......

Which is the fact that in December of 2005 .....

Just a short year ago .....

The federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City .....

PUT ITS SEAL OF APPROVAL .....

ON THE GRANTING OF "PROTECTED PERSON" STATUS HERE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ...

BY ELECTED OFFICIALS UP HERE IN RENSSELAER COUNTY ....

WHICH IS JOE BRUNO'S COUNTY .....

AND IF JOE BRUNO IS IN FACT DOLING OUT FAVORS AND PROTECTION HERE .....

IT IS NOT INCONSISTENT WITH WHAT THE FEDERAL SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS HAS ALREADY APPROVED ...

CONDUCT THAT THE OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ITSELF HAD NO PROBLEMS WITH BACK IN AUGUST OF 2001 .....

THAT BEING THE INTIMIDATION AND REMOVAL OF WITNESSES IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ....

BY THE "STATE" ITSELF ....

ON BEHALF OF ITS "PROTECTED PERSONS" .....

WHO GET THAT WAY .....

BY PROCURING PROTECTION .....

FROM ELECTED OFFICIALS IN NEW YORK STATE ...

And so ....

GIVEN ALL OF THAT PRIOR HISTORY ....

PEOPLE UP HERE HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO FAITH OR TRUST WHATSOEVER .....

IN EITHER THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION ....

OR THE OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK .....

And if people up here saw E. Stewart Jones returning from Washington, D.C. with an apologetic Alberto Gonzales in tow .....

To personally apologize to Joe Bruno .....

I DON'T THINK THAT THERE IS A SOUL UP HERE WHO WOULD BE SURPRISED ...

And I actually think that many are expecting exactly that .....

STARTING WITH THE PARTISANS OF JOE BRUNO ....

Who are many ....

And very powerfull .....

And so .....

"Investigation of Bruno widens - Grand jury subpoenas records of flight services company whose planes transported Senate leader"

By BRENDAN J. LYONS Senior writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, December 24, 2006

ALBANY -- A federal grand jury has subpoenaed the records of a private flight services company in connection with a widening investigation of Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and a Loudonville businessman whose jets have been used to fly the Republican leader on numerous occasions.

A source with knowledge of the federal investigation said FBI agents are examining travel logs to determine how many times, and for what purposes, Bruno flew aboard private jets that were either owned or leased by Jared E. Abbruzzese, the senator's business associate and close friend.

Mahlon Richards, president of Hudson-based Richmor Aviation, which has a fleet of private aircraft and also provides fuel, hangar space and other services at several small airports, did not return a telephone call seeking comment about the subpoena received by the company.

The state Lobbying Commission, which subpoenaed similar flight records for its investigation into Abbruzzese, has records of about five trips Bruno took aboard Abbruzzese's private aircraft.

But a source said Richmor's records, which do not necessarily contain detailed information on passengers who travel on private jets managed or piloted by the company, may show that Bruno had flown more times than are reflected in the Lobbying Commission's records.

Additionally, some Senate staffers also are being subpoenaed by the grand jury, including members of Bruno's staff, according to sources familiar with the probe.

The FBI's investigation of Bruno's business dealings comes as the senator is seeking to retain his powerful leadership post.

The Times Union reported Friday that the FBI is focusing on hundreds of thousands of dollars Abbruzzese paid to Bruno's private consulting firm.

Federal authorities are examining whether the fees allegedly were an attempt to influence Bruno in his legislative capacities.

E. Stewart Jones, an attorney for Abbruzzese and his wife, Sherrie, confirmed Thursday that Abbruzzese paid money to Bruno's consulting firm.

Bruno has declined to disclose his clients or earnings in the private venture, or what type of consulting work he does.

Jones said Bruno and Abbruzzese are close friends and active entrepreneurs who are being smeared by an exploratory investigation that has yielded no allegations of criminal conduct.

"Most people don't understand how business consulting works and naturally, because of Senator Bruno's position, they draw conclusions that are not consistent with the truth and are fundamentally unfair," Jones said.

"Full cooperation has been a hallmark of our response to this investigation."

Jones called Bruno "the most valuable political figure in this region in the last 50 years" and said information leaked to news organizations about the investigation has damaged Bruno's ability to retain that status.

Abbruzzese and Bruno, along with their families, are very close, Jones said.

He said federal prosecutors have an obligation to break their silence and release information that could clear up some of the mischaracterizations surrounding Bruno's dealings with Abbruzzese.

"Once again, the time frame illustrates the legitimacy of the relationship and the pure innocence of the relationship," Jones said.

"That's information that the government should release if they're the source of all this damning information."

"They should start being fair and start releasing something balanced."

The financial and business records of Abbruzzese and his wife, as well as their various companies and corporations, have been turned over to the FBI.

Federal authorities are said to be examining whether mail fraud or money laundering statutes were violated in connection with the business relationship, according to a source familiar with the case.

Bruno, 77, acknowledged last Tuesday that his "outside business interests" were the subject of an FBI investigation.

The senator said he was complying with subpoenas and "cooperating fully," and confident he has done nothing wrong.

Abbruzzese, 52, is a wealthy horse racing enthusiast involved in numerous business ventures, including a start-up nanotech company that received $500,000 in discretionary grants, called member items, at Bruno's direction.

The company, Evident Technologies, was served last week with a federal grand jury subpoena seeking copies of its records, according to the company's attorney, Daniel J. French, a former U.S. attorney in New York's Northern District.

A source close to the investigation said federal agents also are focusing on Abbruzzese's role as an investor and past director of Empire Racing Associates, which bid on the state's racing franchise that Bruno and other lawmakers plan to award within the next year.

Bruno formed his private firm, Capital Business Consultants, out of his Brunswick home after he sold his telecommunications company in 1990.

Bruno has refused to name any of his various business partners or clients, saying financial disclosure laws that apply to state lawmakers do not require him to make that information public.

He also said discussing the business would violate his clients' right to privacy.

J. Lyons can be reached at 454-5547 or by e-mail at blyons@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"Livyjr, in the light of the past experience that people up there where you are have had with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Office of the United States Attorney, and this Senator Joseph Bruno, and a federal Hobbs Act investigation that was apparently suddenly terminated by the Office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York when the name of this Senator Joseph Bruno came into it in connection with questionable practices in the Rensselaer county Department of Health which were having an adverse impact on the lives, health and property of the people of Rensselaer County in New York State ....."

"Could you tell us how people up there feel ..."

"When they see this Rensselaer County lawyer E. Stewart Jones openly and blatantly threatening these federal prosecutors with retaliation against themselves and their employment in the pages of the Albany, New York TIMES UNION newspaper ..."

"And when they see this Senator Bruno himself, in the pages of the same Albany, New York TIMES UNION newspaper ..."

"Calling this alleged federal investigation a MEDIA EVENT ..."

"DO PEOPLE UP THERE THINK THAT SOMEONE IS GAMING THE SYSTEM HERE?"

On Sunday mornings up here ....

Between 6 A.M. EST and 7:00 A.M. EST .....

There is a political commentary show on FM radio station WBKK ....

Which can be listened to online at:

http://www.wmht.org/radio/wbkk.php

And this morning ....

They had on Dr. Alan Chartock .....

Who is a well-known and well-respected political commentator in this area of New York state which surrounds the capital of the state in Albany ...

And this morning .....

He was commenting on this alleged federal investigation of New York State REPUBLICAN Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno .....

And he very publicly articulated the obvious which is on everyone's minds up here, right now ......

And that is .....

That it is the REPUBLICAN-controlled United States Department of Justice .....

Which is allegedly investigating a very powerful and well-connected REPUBLICAN in the State of New York .....

That being Joe Bruno ....

AND WHAT MESSAGE DOES THAT SEND?

As this Dr. Alan Chartock put it this morning .....

What message is the CHIEF of this investigation looking to send .....

AND TO WHOM .....

By undertaking the politically risky enterprise of investigating a powerful and well-connected REPUBLICAN like Joe Bruno ...

Dr. Chartock attributed it to REPUBLICAN fears after this last election ......

Send a message to the voters .....

Not all REPUBLICANS are corrupt ......

And with his own sources ......

Certainly Dr. Chartock's opinion is worth considering, anyway ......

AS TO WHETHER ANYONE IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS TRYING TO GAME THE SYSTEM ......

WITH A BOGUS INVESTIGATION OF JOE BRUNO ......

THAT WILL EXONERATE HIM OF ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING .....

And so .....

It goes without saying .....

Either way ......

That this is something that people are watching very closely up here ......

What with the THREATENING statements uttered recently by POWERHOUSE REPUBLICAN attorney and lawyer, E. Stewart Jones of Troy, New York ....

Threats of ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES to these federal prosecutors who are allegedly digging around in Joe Bruno's personal business dealings with whomever ......

THREATS by E. Stewart Jones of Troy, New York ....

Who is known to pack considerable POLITICAL HORSEPOWER himself ......

Possibly enough to have Alberto Gonzales here in Albany, New York on his knees .....

As some WAGS are speculating .....

Begging for Joe Bruno's forgiveness .....

On Christmas Eve .....

And so ....

TO BE CONTINUED ...

[Livyjr]

"The 5-4 Vote"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Dec. 14, 2000.

The great and vexing question of who the next president will be has been answered.

From his statements during the pre-election and post-election campaigns, as well as his address Wednesday night, it's now possible to begin to assess what the presidency of George W. Bush will be like.

The far more daunting matter today is what's become of the third branch of government.

Has the Supreme Court of the United States ever been more divided?

Has it ever appeared more partisan?

The presidency will endure under Mr. Bush.

But can the spirit of unity that Mr. Bush and Vice President Al Gore appealed to in their televised speeches to the nation be achieved, given the controversy over the court's decision?

The answer is self-evident under the American system.

The 5-4 ruling to stop the recounting of ballots in Florida must be accepted as the rule of law.

Mr. Gore emphasized that principle in his graceful and gracious concession speech, even while saying he strongly disagreed with the decision.

In essence, he was saying that accepting the ruling does not require accepting its reasoning on its merits.

Nothing before the court, not now and perhaps never during Mr. Bush's presidency, is more crucial than reassuring the nation that the justices have not abandoned their proper mission.

The criticisms are partisan, of course, but unsettling nonetheless.

The court cannot stand to be seen as an arm of Mr. Bush's campaign effort, a notion both Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas sought to dispel in their public comments Wednesday, as did the majority ruling.

"When contending parties invoke the process of the courts, however, it becomes our unsought responsibility to resolve the federal and constitutional issues the judicial system has been forced to confront," the unsigned majority opinion says.

Such an assertion, though, invites judicial skepticism.

"The appearance of a split decision runs the risk of undermining the public's confidence in the court itself," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in dissent.

"That confidence is a public treasure."

What, then, might the court have done instead?

It could, as Justice David Souter urged, have stayed out of the messy and perhaps irresolvable dispute over who received the most votes in Florida.

The court's majority stressed the principle of equal protection under the law.

But why not then set a uniform standard for counting votes?

A decision handed down on Dec. 12 that says a Dec. 12 deadline must be met for choosing members of the Electoral College invites suspicion.

It's up to President-elect Bush to begin the process of a national reconciliation.

He might begin by reassuring the country that the Supreme Court is supposed to uphold the broad national interest, and not just a narrow political interest.

He might promise to appoint justices who would do just that.

To begin the presidential transition that way would be a most welcome reaffirmation of the principle of the rule of law.

[Livyjr]

"Convention system harms democracy"

By JAMES SAMPLE and FREDERICK A.O. SCHWARZ JR.

Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Tuesday, December 26, 2006

New York's Constitution requires that the voters -- not unelected political party leaders -- select the state's principal trial court judges.

In spite of that, for more than 80 years, party leaders have employed a complex convention scheme to select major party nominees and rob voters of a real choice for Supreme Court justices on Election Day.

Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer said it best when he described the convention system as "the last vestige of real patronage in the political party structure."

This year, two federal courts described it more bluntly: unconstitutional.

New York now has a historic opportunity to right this wrong.

The courts held that the conventions violate the First Amendment because they deprive New Yorkers of their right to cast a meaningful vote, and prevent qualified candidates from competing for their own party's nomination.

The courts found that through the conventions, political party leaders unconstitutionally "arrogated to themselves a choice that belongs to the people."

Candidates, the courts ruled, simply "must be permitted an effective means of appealing to voters when it counts."

Some people think an appointment system is ultimately the best solution.

The debate over appointments versus elections is a challenging matter about which reasonable people disagree.

But two things are certain.

First, changing to an appointment system would require a multiyear constitutional amendment process.

Second, while there are pros and cons to elections and appointments, New York's conventions represent the worst of both and the best of neither.

Under court order, the conventions will be replaced with open primary elections until New York passes a constitutional scheme.

Some groups want the state Legislature to merely tinker with the convention system.

Their proposals recommend cosmetic changes to a system that 49 states categorically reject, a system the federal courts find unconstitutional and a system that rank-and-file voters rightfully distrust.

Their revisions include reductions in the number of delegates who attend the conventions and reductions in the signatures required to run for convention delegate.

These may make sense, but they ignore the heart of the federal court rulings -- the rank-and-file voter.

Indeed, the courts explicitly stated that the key proposal in such plans, judicial screening panels to advise the conventions, was simply "not relevant" to the constitutional issue.

The state Senate has other ideas.

It also has the leverage of the new status quo and the constitutional high ground.

In February, the Senate passed a bill mirroring the direct primaries ordered by the federal court.

That legislation had the support of every Republican and four Democrats in the Senate.

Sen. John A. DeFrancisco, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee who sponsored that bill, also has suggested a second very sensible solution that passes the constitutional test.

His alternative plan is modeled on the system of conventions and primaries already in place for all statewide elected offices in New York.

Designating conventions would occur in the spring.

All Supreme Court candidates with more than 50 percent of the delegate vote would be designated as the party's potential nominees.

Candidates receiving 25 percent of the delegate vote would earn an automatic spot on a September primary ballot.

Most fundamentally, candidates with grass-roots support could force a primary by gathering petition signatures among the voters.

That system, familiar to all in New York state politics, gives parties and their leaders a role -- but if a candidate can muster support, it gives rank-and-file voters the final say.

Lawmakers also should sharply reduce the size of judicial districts from which Supreme Court justices are elected.

Smaller judicial districts would reduce campaign costs, improve geographic diversity and significantly increase opportunities for candidates of color.

These are not merely passing concerns.

According to the 2nd Circuit, New York's conventions have "to put it mildly, failed to fully effectuate the state's goals as to geographic and racial diversity."

That is stating it mildly indeed.

When the lawsuit challenging the conventions began, five of New York's 12 judicial districts (including the 3rd, in which Albany is located) had a combined 81 authorized seats on the Supreme Court bench, but not one single minority justice.

Perpetuating such an abject failure is simply unacceptable.

That is one reason why seven minority bar and legal organizations from around the state have urged the legislature to let qualified candidates gain a primary spot through petitioning.

Earlier this month, in testimony before the Assembly Judiciary Committee, the Women's Bar Association of the State of New York added its voice to the growing chorus supporting petition-based ballot access.

When qualified candidates, with genuine voter support, are prevented from even accessing the ballot the system is not just anti-democratic, it is un-American.

Fittingly, the federal courts ruled the conventions violate the First Amendment.

It will take rank-and-file access, not tinkering, to change that.

James Sample is counsel and Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr. is senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. The Brennan Center represents the plaintiffs in Lopez Torres vs. New York State Board of Elections, the case in which the federal courts found New York's judicial conventions unconstitutional.

[Livyjr]

When qualified candidates, with genuine voter support, are prevented from even accessing the ballot the system is not just anti-democratic, it is un-American.

"No need for more state control of justice courts"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Your support of the plan to increase state control of justice courts (editorial, Nov. 27) is ill-conceived.

Justice courts are the courts closest to the people, the courts most people go to if they ever have to go to court.

The people who live in the towns and villages they serve are the people who elect the justices who staff them.

About 2,500 men and women serve as town and village justices, and most of them are dedicated, capable people who mete out justice well, usually over long hours and for modest pay.

When a nonlawyer is elected, he or she must take a state-run course and be tested each year.

(Lawyer justices need only take the annual training.)

Since the state already provides the training and the testing, aren't you saying that the state has failed if bad judges continue to be bad judges?

It may actually be that a higher percentage of local justices are disciplined by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct than the percentage of judges of "courts of record," the state-run courts, but I doubt it.

And who has the nerve to report a higher court judge or justice?

And, of course, I remember this newspaper writing a wonderful editorial supporting me as Niskayuna town justice when protesters complained to the commission about me.

Anyone can complain about anyone, and it is usually someone who did not like the court's ruling.

The state has diluted our votes by using city court judges, whom only city residents can vote for, as acting Family Court, County Court and perhaps Surrogate Court judges.

That means that voters in the towns and villages are judged by someone they could not vote for, and if the judge they did elect is on temporary assignment to another court, he or she is judging people who could not vote for him or her.

The state also uses people elected for specific judgeships -- on Family Court, Surrogate Court and County Court -- as acting Supreme Court justices, a court to which they were not elected.

We need less state control, not more, and we certainly do not need the added bureaucracy.

BRUCE S. T.

Niskayuna

The writer is a former town justice.

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp...date=12/26/2006

[Livyjr]

SO!

2/13/89!

And there we all were ....

Crowded into a smallish conference room in the Rensselaer County Office Building ....

For what was being billed by the land developers in Rensselaer County as ....

The "TRIAL OF THE CENTURY" .....

And before it all was to be over .....

Which was really March 31, 2005, in Federal District Court for the Northern District of New York, in Albany, New York ....

It ended up being quite a marathon, indeed ....

Although up until now, it was a story only a veritable handful of people even know transpired ....

Involving such giants in New York State, anyway, as Dr. David Axelrod, the controversial State Health Commissioner appointed by Democrat Mario Cuomo .....

VERSUS .....

Joseph "Big Joe" Bruno .....

A powerful New York State Senator from Rensselaer County who directly opposed Dr. Axelrod's efforts to clean out the corruption in the Rensselaer County Department of Health .....

And who further had the CLOUT .....

To blow Dr. Axelrod "right out of the saddle", and to thereby make him into an OBJECT OF DERISION in Rensselaer County ....

Which was to happen on March 16, 1989, but that was in OUR future yet, as of February 13, 1989, when We, and the FBI, and all the press and media for quite a distance around Troy, New York, were crammed in that conference room, listening raptly as the TRIAL OF THE CENTURY began!

And so .....

IF the problems are with the Rensselaer County Department of Health, as alleged, what role does the New York State Department of Health play in this on-going drama from the alleged corrupt EMPIRE STATE of New York?

For that answer, of course, the best place to start is right back with the March 15, 1989 Axelrod Report that was annexed to the original FEDERAL COMPLAINT in this above matter, where in the Executive Summary, Dr. Axelrod held as follows with respect to the role of the New York State Department of Health in causing or allowing or actually promoting all of the problems of misfeasance and malfeasance found in the Rensselaer County Department of Health in 1989:

"The State Health Department also did not provide adequate oversight of the realty subdivision and private water supply and sewage disposal programs which are supported in part by State Local Assistance Funds."

At page 9 of the Report, Dr. Axelrod was a bit more emphatic on what he meant by that comment:

"Finally, the State Health Department has not exercised appropriate oversight of county performance."

"Although the Public Health Law provides for a great deal of county autonomy with respect to the subdivision and individual sewage programs, the Department is charged by Public Health Law Section 201.1(a) to 'supervise the work and activities of the local boards of health and health officers' throughout the state."

"CLEARLY, SINCE 1978, THE DEPARTMENT HAS FAILED TO IDENTIFY THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE COUNTY PROGRAMS WERE DEVIATING FROM ITS OWN STANDARDS."

end quotes

SO!

1978!

How about that?

The magic number here, isn't it, where in 1976, two years prior to the date this "failure" of state oversight in Rensselaer County began, the State of New York itself KNEW that white collar crime in the State of New York was at that time already $44 BILLION, and spiraling ever upwards.

Which raises the question, rhetorical or otherwise, of what those people who had taken or stolen all that money were going to do with it, as ill-gotten gains?

How do you "clean up" $44 BILLION in ill-gotten gains, anyway?

Don't you need "something" legitimate in appearance to "LAUNDER" that money through?

Like real estate subdivisions and strip malls, for example?

Oh, but how did I know that?

Well, that's easy, I've already read the book once, and I really know it by heart now, which is why I can tell it so easy in here, FOR ......

I WAS THERE!

AND ......

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, and this FORUM, now you are too!

And so ...

And so .....

It goes without saying .....

Either way ......

That this is something that people are watching very closely up here ......

What with the THREATENING statements uttered recently by POWERHOUSE REPUBLICAN attorney and lawyer, E. Stewart Jones of Troy, New York ....

Threats of ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES to these federal prosecutors who are allegedly digging around in Joe Bruno's personal business dealings with whomever ......

THREATS by E. Stewart Jones of Troy, New York ....

Who is known to pack considerable POLITICAL HORSEPOWER himself ......

Possibly enough to have Alberto Gonzales here in Albany, New York on his knees .....

As some WAGS are speculating .....

Begging for Joe Bruno's forgiveness .....

On Christmas Eve .....

And so ....

"Bruno probe was months in making - Subpoena details grand jury efforts to probe Senate leader's flight linked to a business associate"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, December 27, 2006

The U.S. grand jury investigating the link between Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and a suspected lobbyist has been taking testimony since at least April 13, according to a subpoena disclosed Tuesday.

The Temporary State Commission on Lobbying received a notice to provide information to the grand jury in Albany on March 14, giving commission staff a month to provide investigative material it had collected on Bruno, according to a subpoena released by the commission under the state Freedom of Information Law.

The subpoena says commission members would be asked to talk about their investigation of the Dec. 1, 2005, flight Bruno took to LaGuardia Airport from Schenectady County Airport.

On that day, Bruno was denied use of Gov. George Pataki's aircraft to attend meetings in New York City.

Instead, the Brunswick Republican leader took a plane made available from Richmor Aviation, which handles planes owned by Jared Abbruzzese, a businessman who has used Bruno's private consulting business.

Abbruzzese also is the former co-chairman of Evident Technologies Inc., which received $500,000 in state grants, called member items, from Bruno.

The FBI has issued subpoenas to Bruno and Abbruzzese as part of the grand jury investigation, according to Bruno and a lawyer for Abbruzzese.

Bruno has said his business dealings have been legal and Abbruzzese's lawyer, E. Stewart Jones Jr., said the relationship has been "legitimate" and "explainable."

The Richmor trip record for the Dec. 1, 2005, flight says, "Mr. Abbruzzesse (sic) is paying for the senator's portion," according to Lobbying Commission investigation records that are part of a court case involving Abbruzzese's attempts to avoid testifying in the lobbying case.

He has maintained that he is not a lobbyist covered by the lobbying law, although the commission alleges he was lobbying to change racing laws.

On Tuesday, Empire Racing Associates said Abbruzzese, who was a director of the group, is divesting his investment and separating from the organization.

Empire is a bidder seeking the state thoroughbred racing franchise.

Empire leaders have been distancing themselves from Abbruzzese since he became the target of the Lobbying Commission for lending his plane to Bruno.

The flight record for the trip a year ago says Bruno took top staffers along -- John McArdle, director of communications for the Senate Republicans; Kenneth Riddett, chief counsel for the majority conference; Edward Lurie, legislative affairs director; and Steven Boggess, secretary of the Senate.

A Senate spokesman, Matthew Walter, said no Senate central staff members, including the four recorded as taking the Bruno trip, have been subpoenaed.

"I would defer everything to Richmor headquarters," said Mark Macomber, a pilot on the flight.

"I'm not at liberty to say anything."

Mahlon Richards, an owner of Richmor, refused to comment on the federal probe.

The Lobbying Commission's subpoena is one of a series that have been served by the FBI in connection with the matter, but it apparently is one of the earliest.

"We just turned over documents," said David Grandeau, executive director of the Lobbying Commission.

The subpoena called for materials collected by the Lobbying Commission as part of its investigation into Abbruzzese, of Loudonville.

The commission suspects he is a lobbyist who did not register as required under lobbying laws and who may have given Bruno a gift -- plane rides -- beyond the legal limit of $74.99.

Bruno's spokesmen have said his Senate campaign committee paid for the December flight and other flights arranged by Richmor aboard planes tied to Abbruzzese in 2005, including a flight to Kentucky with staff members and Abbruzzese's business partner, and a flight to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 28 with Abbruzzese.

The investigation is creating division within the Senate Republican conference.

On Tuesday, Sen. John Bonacic, R-Mount Hope, wrote to his colleagues in the majority conference complaining about Bruno's leadership and the grand jury probe.

"As a former prosecutor, I fully understand that people are innocent until proven guilty in the criminal justice system," Bonacic wrote.

"The leader is entitled to remain silent, he is entitled not to publicly divulge his outside business contacts."

"He can grant member items to companies whose principals later hire his consulting firm for legitimate services."

"None of those actions or activities may account for a crime."

"I hope they do not."

Bonacic said so far 150 news articles have been generated on the Bruno probe and more stories are likely.

"Had all of this broken on Nov. 1, there is a strong chance we would be in the Senate minority," he wrote.

"We need new leadership."

Walter would not comment on the letter.

But two Senate Republican members contacted the Times Union within minutes of Walter's refusal.

Sen. Kenneth LaValle of Port Jefferson and Sen. Martin Golden of Brooklyn said Bonacic's letter does not reflect the sentiments of most members of the conference.

"I don't know why Sen. Bonacic, and I like John Bonacic, would do divisive things," LaValle said, adding that history will show Bruno to be the best majority leader ever.

"Bonacic is a lone ranger on this," Golden said.

"I don't think you're going to find too many people supportive of the letter."

"Joe Bruno will be elected overwhelmingly Jan. 3."

Separately, Sen. Michael A.L. Balboni, R-Nassau County, who is joining Democratic governor-elect Eliot Spitzer's administration, praised Bruno and said he will vote for him to lead the Senate again.

"It's currently an investigation and nothing else," said Balboni, a lawyer.

Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"Well, Livyjr ..."

"One more time ...."

"You have brought us around a circle in here ....."

"BUT ..."

"This time ..."

"What you have done, by doing so ..."

"Is to make a solid connection ..."

"Between what occurred in the State of New York back in 1986 ..."

"AND WHAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ..."

"IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS ..."

"WHEN NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ELIOT SPITZER BECOMES GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK ..."

"WITH THE POWER TO APPOINT JUDGES ON THE NEW YORK STATE COURT OF APPEALS ..."

"WHICH COURT HELD IN 1996 ...."

"In Ricky Brown et al. v. State of New York, 89 NY2d 172 (Ct. of Appeals 1996) ..."

"THAT:"

Constitutions assign rights to individuals and impose duties on the government to regulate the government's actions to protect them."

"AND ..."

"It is the failure to fulfill a stated constitutional duty which may support a claim for damages in a constitutional tort action."

"AND ..."

Implicit in this reasoning is the premise that the Constitution is a source of positive law, not merely a set of limitations on government."

"ALL OF WHICH WAS REPUDIATED BY NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ELIOT SPITZER IN THIS MATTER UNDER DISCUSSION IN HERE IN 2005, FIRST IN THE FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ..."

"AND THEN IN THE FEDERAL SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS IN NEW YORK CITY IN NOVEMBER OF 2005 ...."

"SO THAT WHEN THE NEW YORK SUN STATES THAT THE GOVERNOR-ELECT HAS MADE HIS VIEWS ON THE LAW AND CONSTITUTION CLEAR ..."

"THANKS TO THIS THREAD ..."

"WE CITIZENS OUT HERE IN AMERICA WHO ARE CONCERNED ABOUT SUCH MATTERS ..."

"CAN REALLY SEE EXACTLY WHAT THAT STATEMENT MEANS ..."

"AND WHAT IT IS LIKELY TO MEAN WHEN ELIOT SPITZER DOES BECOME GOVERNOR ..."

"AND DOES APPOINT JUDGES IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK TO IMPOSE HIS VIEWS ON WHAT A CONSTITUTION SHOULD MEAN ON THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK THROUGH THAT HIGH COURT'S FUTURE DECISIONS ..."

"AND IT IS NOT AT ALL ENCOURAGING, LIVYJR ..."

"BECAUSE BY REPUDIATING RICKY BROWN IN THESE FEDERAL COURT PROCEEDINGS ..."

"WHAT THE GOVERNOR-ELECT OF NEW YORK IS SAYING ...."

"AND WHAT THE FEDERAL SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS IS UPHOLDING ..."

"IS THAT CONSTITUTIONS ARE NOT REALLY SOURCES OF POSITIVE LAW, ANYMORE ..."

"AND CONSTITUTIONS DO NOT ASSIGN RIGHTS TO INDIVIDUALS, ANY LONGER ..."

"NOR DO CONSTITUTIONS IMPOSE DUTIES ON THE GOVERNMENT TO REGULATE THE GOVERNMENT'S ACTIONS TO PROTECT THOSE RIGHTS ..."

"WHICH EFFECTIVELY IS AN ABANDONMENT ...."

"BY THE 'STATE' ..."

"OF THE RULE OF LAW ..."

"WITH THE CONSENT OF THE FEDERAL SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS ..."

"AND FURTHER ..."

"IT EFFECTIVELY IS A DISMANTLING OF CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT ..."

"AGAIN WITH THE CONSENT OF THE FEDERAL SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS ..."

"AND IF A FEDERAL CIRCUIT COURT IS GOING TO ALLOW THE STATE OF NEW YORK TO ABANDON THE RULE OF LAW ...."

"AND TO DISMANTLE ITS CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT ...."

"BY THE 'EXPEDIENT' OF SELECTING JUDGES ...."

"TO RE-DEFINE WHAT CONSTITUTIONS REALLY DO STAND FOR ..."

"THEN EVERY OTHER STATE IN THE UNITED STATES WILL SIMILARLY HAVE THAT 'RIGHT' TO DO THE SAME ..."

"AND BUT FOR THIS FORUM ..."

"WHICH HAS ALLOWED THIS THREAD TO KEEP RUNNING SO THAT WHAT IS REALLY AT STAKE HERE COULD BE DEMONSTRATED WITH EXTERNAL 'PROOFS" ...."

"WE WOULD NOT EVEN KNOW ANY OF THIS WAS HAPPENING ..."

"EVEN AS IT IS ..."

"WHICH IS TO OUR DETRIMENT AS AMERICAN CITIZENS ..."

"EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US ..."

"ALL OF WHOM COULD BE THE NEXT TO FALL VICTIM TO A SCHEME SUCH AS OCCURRED TO THE PLAINTIFF IN THIS MATTER ..."

"WHERE A POLITICALLY-CONNECTED MEDICAL DOCTOR CAN SIMPLY CERTIFY ANYONE NOW ..."

"THANKS TO THIS FEDERAL CIRCUIT COURT DECISION IN THIS MATTER ..."

"AS BEING IN NEED OF IMMEDIATE INCARCERATION IN A SECURE MENTAL FACILITY ..."

"WITHOUT THE DOCTOR EVER HAVING TO SEE THE PERSON ..."

"OR TO EXAMINE THE PERSON ..."

"OR TO HAVE ANY EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER TO JUSTIFY HIS ACTIONS ..."

And so ....

"Bruno probe was months in making - Subpoena details grand jury efforts to probe Senate leader's flight linked to a business associate"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, December 27, 2006

"I don't know why Sen. Bonacic, and I like John Bonacic, would do divisive things," LaValle said, adding that history will show Bruno to be the best majority leader ever.

"Bonacic is a lone ranger on this," Golden said.

"I don't think you're going to find too many people supportive of the letter."

"Joe Bruno will be elected overwhelmingly Jan. 3."

Separately, Sen. Michael A.L. Balboni, R-Nassau County, who is joining Democratic governor-elect Eliot Spitzer's administration, praised Bruno and said he will vote for him to lead the Senate again.

"It's currently an investigation and nothing else," said Balboni, a lawyer.

And this brings us to what many see as E. Stewart Jones' TRUMP CARD ......

Which is the fact that in December of 2005 .....

Just a short year ago .....

The federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City .....

PUT ITS SEAL OF APPROVAL .....

ON THE GRANTING OF "PROTECTED PERSON" STATUS HERE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ...

BY ELECTED OFFICIALS UP HERE IN RENSSELAER COUNTY ....

WHICH IS JOE BRUNO'S COUNTY .....

AND IF JOE BRUNO IS IN FACT DOLING OUT FAVORS AND PROTECTION HERE .....

IT IS NOT INCONSISTENT WITH WHAT THE FEDERAL SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS HAS ALREADY APPROVED ...

CONDUCT THAT THE OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ITSELF HAD NO PROBLEMS WITH BACK IN AUGUST OF 2001 .....

THAT BEING THE INTIMIDATION AND REMOVAL OF WITNESSES IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ....

BY THE "STATE" ITSELF ....

ON BEHALF OF ITS "PROTECTED PERSONS" .....

WHO GET THAT WAY .....

BY PROCURING PROTECTION .....

FROM ELECTED OFFICIALS IN NEW YORK STATE ...

And so ....

GIVEN ALL OF THAT PRIOR HISTORY ....

PEOPLE UP HERE HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO FAITH OR TRUST WHATSOEVER .....

IN EITHER THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION ....

OR THE OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK .....

And if people up here saw E. Stewart Jones returning from Washington, D.C. with an apologetic Alberto Gonzales in tow .....

To personally apologize to Joe Bruno .....

I DON'T THINK THAT THERE IS A SOUL UP HERE WHO WOULD BE SURPRISED ...

And I actually think that many are expecting exactly that .....

STARTING WITH THE PARTISANS OF JOE BRUNO ....

Who are many ....

And very powerfull .....

And so .....

"GOP senator calls for ouster of Republican NY Senate leader"

By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press
Last updated: 3:35 p.m., Wednesday, December 27, 2006

ALBANY -- A GOP state senator has called for the ouster of fellow Republican Joseph Bruno as Senate majority leader because of Bruno's announcement last week that he is the subject of a federal investigation.

In a letter sent Tuesday to his Senate colleagues, John Bonacic of Orange County included a raft of news stories about the Bruno investigation -- Bonacic said it was a sample from the 150 or more such articles that have appeared -- and a warning that Democrats will use them as election fodder.

"We all should be familiar with each of these 150 articles, as well as the associated TV news video coverage on dozens of television stations," Bonacic wrote.

"If the leader remains the leader, we will all be seeing them in the 2008 election cycle."

"We need new leadership," Bonacic wrote.

"The success of our majority is more important than the interests of any member."

Bruno's office said Wednesday he had no comment on the letter.

A Bonacic aide said the senator was traveling Wednesday and unavailable for comment.

But one Bruno loyalist, Sen. William Larkin, denounced Bonacic's letter and the attached articles as "11 pages of garbage."

Bruno, who staged a coup against fellow Republican Ralph Marino to become Senate majority leader in late 1994, stunned colleagues last week when he told a state Capitol news conference that his private business activities are under investigation by the FBI.

Among other things, Bruno runs a private consulting business.

Bruno said he has done nothing wrong and was cooperating with the investigation that he said began in the spring of this year.

While most of Bruno's fellow Republican senators have either publicly supported him or kept quiet about the probe, there was behind-the-scenes grumbling that he should have informed his colleagues much earlier about the probe.

Bonacic broke ranks, however, and told a reporter that Bruno should step aside as majority leader while the investigation continues.

On Tuesday, Bonacic went a step further, formally calling on his colleagues to remove Bruno.

The investigation appears to center on Bruno's dealings with businessman Jared Abbruzzese and some of his associates.

Bruno directed $500,000 in state grants over the past two years to a private company linked to Abbruzzese.

"Had all this broken on November 1, there is a strong chance we would be in the Senate minority," Bonacic wrote.

"One cannot claim to be the leader of a conference, with the goal of strengthening that conference, when he conceals issues of significance from that conference."

"The leader can dismiss this as a 'media event,'" added Bonacic, referring to a Bruno statement about coverage of the probe.

"The FBI is not a media event."

"A federal grand jury is not a media event."

In the November election, the Senate GOP lost one seat on top of the three lost in the 2004 elections.

As of Jan. 1, the GOP will control 34 of the Senate's 62 seats, with Democrats holding 28.

The two main Republican contenders to replace Bruno should he be forced aside are thought to be Sen. Dean Skelos of Nassau County on Long Island and Sen. Thomas Libous of Binghamton.

Libous said he intends to support Bruno when the Senate votes Jan. 3 on the majority leader's job.

Skelos, the chamber's deputy majority leader, did not immediately return a call Wednesday from The Associated Press to determine his position.

"I think Sen. Bonacic is a stalking horse for someone, but I don't know who," said Larkin, who -- like Bonacic -- represents Orange County.

------

Associated Press Writer Mark Johnson in Albany contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

"Improving the Business Climate"

by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer

New York State Business Council, Bolton's Landing, NY

[As Prepared for Delivery]

September 21, 2006

Thank you, Peter, for that kind introduction, and thank you all for inviting me here today.

I want to recognize Dan Walsh and thank him for his leadership over the past 18 years as President and CEO of the Business Council.

Dan, you have been an outstanding advocate for New York's private-sector business community, and you will be missed.

I also want to welcome Ken Adams as the Business Council's new President.

Ken, I look forward to working with you to make New York the best place to do business in the world.

But today, I want to speak about what I believe should be our first priority, and that is making New York companies more competitive by improving our business climate.

And we will streamline regulations to make them friendly to business.

To really bring our workers' comp costs in line with other states, we must confront the challenge of reforming our system of Permanent Partial Disability payments.

All ideas, including caps on benefits for all but the most serious injuries, must be on the table as we bring our program into line with other states.

Fifth and finally, New York State can also improve the business climate by making its government offices, regulations and programs much easier to deal with.

As Governor, I will ensure that the Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform places renewed focus on breaking the regulatory logjam in the State's permitting process for new development.

http://www.spitzerpaterson.com/main.cfm?ac...&s=spitzer3

"FBI gathers Bruno records - Boxes of documents linked to Senate leader's business dealings turned over under subpoena"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York

First published: Thursday, December 21, 2006

ALBANY -- Asked about the Bruno matter, Gov. George Pataki said:

"I have confidence in Sen. Bruno ... confidence in the judicial system ... confidence things will work out fine."

"Bruno defends his dealings - 'We've followed the letter of the law,' says Senate GOP majority leader"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, December 23, 2006

ALBANY -- Sen. John Bonacic, a Republican from the Hudson Valley and Catskills, said Bruno should have stepped down even before the probe became public.

"I had reservations before this broke," said Bonacic.

"I've got a new comptroller; I've got a new governor-elect."

"I think it would be better for the state of New York to have a new (Senate) majority leader and a new (Assembly) speaker."

"It's become more obvious on our side ... God forbid this man gets indicted, but what I'm reading and seeing it's not sitting right with me."

Bruno framed the situation differently, calling the investigation "more a media event."

"Livyjr, in the light of the past experience that people up there where you are have had with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Office of the United States Attorney, and this Senator Joseph Bruno, and a federal Hobbs Act investigation that was apparently suddenly terminated by the Office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York when the name of this Senator Joseph Bruno came into it in connection with questionable practices in the Rensselaer county Department of Health which were having an adverse impact on the lives, health and property of the people of Rensselaer County in New York State ....."

"Could you tell us how people up there feel ..."

"When they see this Rensselaer County lawyer E. Stewart Jones openly and blatantly threatening these federal prosecutors with retaliation against themselves and their employment in the pages of the Albany, New York TIMES UNION newspaper ..."

"And when they see this Senator Bruno himself, in the pages of the same Albany, New York TIMES UNION newspaper ..."

"Calling this alleged federal investigation a MEDIA EVENT ..."

"DO PEOPLE UP THERE THINK THAT SOMEONE IS GAMING THE SYSTEM HERE?"

"GOP senator calls for ouster of Republican NY Senate leader"

By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press
Last updated: 3:35 p.m., Wednesday, December 27, 2006

ALBANY -- A GOP state senator has called for the ouster of fellow Republican Joseph Bruno as Senate majority leader because of Bruno's announcement last week that he is the subject of a federal investigation.

"The leader can dismiss this as a 'media event,'" added Bonacic, referring to a Bruno statement about coverage of the probe.

"The FBI is not a media event."

"A federal grand jury is not a media event."

"Bruno probe was months in making - Subpoena details grand jury efforts to probe Senate leader's flight linked to a business associate"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Separately, Sen. Michael A.L. Balboni, R-Nassau County, who is joining Democratic governor-elect Eliot Spitzer's administration, praised Bruno and said he will vote for him to lead the Senate again.

"It's currently an investigation and nothing else," said Balboni, a lawyer.

"Spitzer nod opens GOP seat - Balboni's appointment to security post cuts lead of Republicans in Senate"

By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, December 27, 2006

ALBANY -- Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer has picked a prominent state Republican from Long Island to be his homeland security czar, potentially narrowing the GOP's already slim hold on the state Senate.

Spitzer, a Democrat, said Tuesday his selection of Sen. Michael A.L. Balboni as deputy secretary for public safety "proves once again that we are doing things in a way that is nonpartisan."

Balboni, an 18-year veteran of the state Legislature from Nassau County, is chairman of the Senate Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs Committee and serves on a federal task force that reviews the allocation of homeland security funding.

Spitzer said Balboni "has built a record that all respect, all admire, all appreciate," adding, "he has all the skills that we need."

Balboni said leaving the Senate will be difficult, but the post "is the one job I would have wanted in the administration."

He said he plans to focus on border, rail and infrastructure security and to improve communication with officials in neighboring states and Washington, D.C.

The senator said he was "tremendously surprised" when Spitzer offered him the job, but echoed the governor-elect's comment that political affiliation shouldn't matter in this case.

"A terrorist bomb will not discriminate between Democrat and Republican," said Balboni, who was joined by his wife, four children, parents and his law partners at Tuesday's announcement.

The post -- which does not require Senate confirmation -- will make Balboni the new administration's senior security and law enforcement official.

His salary has not yet been decided, Spitzer said.

Politically speaking, losing Balboni is a blow to the Senate Republicans.

They lost one member -- Sen. Nicholas Spano, of Westchester -- in the November elections and are reeling from Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno's admission last week that his outside business interests are being investigated by the FBI.

If the Senate Republicans lose Balboni's seat in a special election -- the date of which will be selected by Spitzer -- their edge over the Democratic minority will slip from three seats to two.

Spitzer said Tuesday he has no specific date in mind for the special election.

By law, the election must take place no more than 30 days before, or 40 days after, the governor issues a proclamation calling for it.

Spitzer, who campaigned hard this fall for a number of Democratic Senate candidates, particularly Sen.-elect Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who ousted Spano, insisted he did not tap Balboni as part of a larger plan to wrest the Senate from Republican control.

"This is not part of any ulterior scheme," Spitzer said.

Balboni, 47, has held his Senate seat since 1997, winning re-election even as the number of enrolled Democrats in his district grew steadily.

Democrats outnumber Republicans by 6,286 in the 7th Senate District, with an additional 47,406 so-called "blanks," who are unaffiliated with any political party.

However, special elections, which have a fast turnaround and low turnout, generally benefit the majority because the majority usually has more resources to draw upon to run a campaign for its preferred candidate.

The special election will be a test for new state GOP Chairman Joseph Mondello, a Bruno ally who is also Nassau County GOP chairman.

One potential Republican candidate is Nassau County Clerk Maureen O'Connell, a former state Assemblywoman.

On the Democratic side, Nassau County Legislator Craig Johnson, a staunch Spitzer supporter, has been mentioned.

Bruno almost had to find a replacement for Balboni this fall because Balboni considered a run for state attorney general.

His ambition to run for higher office was so well-known that it earned him the nickname "Senator Statewide."

Bruno persuaded Balboni to seek re-election to help preserve the Senate majority.

But, as troubles mounted for scandal-scarred GOP attorney general candidate Jeanine Pirro, a number of Republicans privately said they regretted Balboni's decision.

Pirro lost to Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, in the general election.

Balboni called his district "competitive."

Longtime political consultant Norman Adler agreed.

"Michael has made that into a personality seat, so it's hard to know how another Republican will perform," Adler said.

"Many people voted for Michael Balboni, not Michael Balboni the Republican senator."

In a brief written statement, Bruno did not address politics.

He congratulated Spitzer on his new appointment and said the Senate majority will "miss" Balboni, but looks forward to working with him in his new role.

Bruno has been under pressure from members of his Republican conference since he disclosed the FBI probe into his business interests last week.

Some have expressed anger that Bruno did not tell them about the investigation before they gathered in Albany last month to unanimously nominate him to serve as leader for another two years.

One Republican senator, John Bonacic, of Orange County, has since publicly called for Bruno to step aside as leader.

Bonacic is an ally of Deputy Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, also of Nassau County, who has long eyed Bruno's leadership post.

Other Republican senators privately grumbled that Bruno is too damaged to be the state's top Republican when outgoing Gov. George Pataki departs on Dec. 31, particularly as the GOP, which lost every statewide race to the Democrats in November, tries to rebuild.

The Senate Republicans will formally vote on Bruno as majority leader when they return to Albany on Jan. 3.

Balboni said Tuesday he intends to vote for Bruno before he departs the Senate, saying the majority leader was "very gracious" about his decision to leave and is entitled to the "benefit of the doubt."

Benjamin can be reached at 454-5081 or by e-mail at ebenjamin@timesunion.com.

Political background

Name: Michael A.L. Balboni

Age: 47

Home: Nassau County, Long Island

Political affiliation: Republican

Job: State senator

Appointed by governor-elect to be: Deputy secretary for public safety (senior security and law enforcement official)

Personal: Married; four children

Background: Graduate of St. John's University Law School. Elected to the Assembly in 1989 and to the state Senate in 1997. Chairs the Senate Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs Committee; serves on a national task force that reviews the allocation of federal homeland security funds; senior fellow at George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute.

[Livyjr]

"Bruno probe was months in making - Subpoena details grand jury efforts to probe Senate leader's flight linked to a business associate"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Separately, Sen. Michael A.L. Balboni, R-Nassau County, who is joining Democratic governor-elect Eliot Spitzer's administration, praised Bruno and said he will vote for him to lead the Senate again.

"It's currently an investigation and nothing else," said Balboni, a lawyer.

"Spitzer nod opens GOP seat - Balboni's appointment to security post cuts lead of Republicans in Senate"

By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, December 27, 2006

ALBANY -- Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer has picked a prominent state Republican from Long Island to be his homeland security czar, potentially narrowing the GOP's already slim hold on the state Senate.

Balboni said Tuesday he intends to vote for Bruno before he departs the Senate, saying the majority leader was "very gracious" about his decision to leave and is entitled to the "benefit of the doubt."

Political background

Name: Michael A.L. Balboni

Background: Chairs the Senate Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs Committee ....

"Livyjr, please pardon me .."

"I hope I'm not too late to add my thoughts to your thread, here ..."

"I am a slow reader, and I have been parsing sentences in here pretty carefully in an effort to understand exactly what the sequence of events was from the time that the PLAINTIFF was assaulted by Jeffrey Pelletier in August of 2001, to the time that PLAINTIFF was actually taken into custody at the Stratton VA Hospital in Albany, New York on August 22, 2001 on the apparent orders of federal VA Police Sargeant Arnold E. Kirkum, shield number 806, according to the evidence supporting the Amended Complaint in this matter which federal District Court Judge Gary L. Sharpe was relying on to say that PLAINTIFF was not taken into custody at the Stratton VA Hospital in Albany, New York on August 22, 2001, which finding is grossly inconsistent with the evidence itself, but that is another matter ..."

"Which then brings me to a matter of jurisdictions here, which is something that I have been pondering as a disabled veteran myself ...."

"And it all goes back to this August 8, 1996 letter above here to the PLAINTIFF and the New York State Division of Veterans' Affairs from the United States Department of Veterans' Affairs, New York Regional Office, 245 West Houston St., New York, N.Y. 10014 concerning the specific nature of what PLAINTIFF's true disability really is, and how he specifically accrued that disability, since each award of disability by the United States Department of Veterans' Affairs is specific to the veteran who has become disabled ..."

"Or in other words, there is no 'cookie-cutter' class of people who are disabled veterans, JUST BECAUSE ..."

"WHICH THEN TAKES US TO THIS FINDING ABOVE HERE OF FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK IN THIS RUHLMANN CASE THAT IN EVERY CASE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK WHERE A NEW YORK STATE MENTAL HYGIENE LAW § 9.45 'PICK-UP' ORDER IS ISSUED, THE FINDINGS SUPPORTING SUCH ISSUANCE MUST BE MADE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE GENERALLY ACCEPTED MEDICAL STANDARDS OF THE COMMUNITY ....."

"As that letter clearly indicates, this specific PLAINTIFF is considered disabled by the United States Department of Veterans' Affairs BECAUSE, AND ONLY BECAUSE there is medical evidence that PLAINTIFF is disabled ....."

"IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE GENERALLY ACCEPTED MEDICAL STANDARDS OF THE COMMUNITY UP THERE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK WHERE PLAINTIFF IS SPECIFICALLY LOCATED ..."

"WHICH STANDARDS ARE CLEARLY DELINEATED IN THAT AUGUST 8, 1996 VA REGIONAL OFFICE LETTER ABOVE HERE TO THE PLAINTIFF AND THE NEW YORK STATE DIVISION OF VETERANS' AFFAIRS ..."

"And this brings us to the place of where this matter seems confusing, until you sit down, as I have done, and figure it out based on dates and chronology of events ..."

"And perhaps being a disabled veteran myself, I have had more of a vested interest than others not similarly situated to spend this extra time trying to figure out this chronology, and SPECIFICALLY, HOW IT RELATES TO THAT PERIOD OF TIME ON THE MORNING OF AUGUST 22, 2001 WHEN DEFENDANTS ROBERT "BOB" REITER, WILLIAM "BUCK" SHEA, AND REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL NURSE ANDREA GALLERIE MADE CONTACT WITH VA POLICE SARGEANT ARNOLD E. KIRKUM IN CONNECTION WITH THEIR EFFORTS TO HAVE PLAINTIFF CAPTURED IF HE CAME TO THE STRATTON VA HOSPITAL THAT MORNING BY THE VA POLICE, SO THAT THE PLAINTIFF COULD THEN BE HELD IN SECURE PSYCHIATRIC CUSTODY AT THE STRATTON VA HOSPITAL IN ALBANY, NEW YORK FOR EVENTUAL SHIPMENT BACK TO THE SECURE MENTAL HEALTH FACILITY IN SAMARITAN HOSPITAL IN TROY, NEW YORK ..."

"WHERE THE PLAINTIFF HAD ALREADY BEEN CERTIFIED FOR DIRECT ADMISSION BY DR. JOHN CHRISTIAN BRAATEN AS AN ALLEGED DANGEROUS PERSON SUFFERING FROM A MENTAL ILLNESS THAT REQUIRED IMMEDIATE INCARCERATION AND TREATMENT, DESPITE THE FACT THAT BRAATEN HAD NEVER EXAMINED PLAINTIFF, NOR HAD HE EVER EVEN SEEN HIM, IN VIOLATION OF PLAINTIFF'S LIBERTY INTERESTS AS A FEDERALLY-CERTIFIED DISABLED VETERAN ..."

"Specifically, Livyjr, and I am not sure if you have noticed this yourself, since you have not commented on it specifically, ON AUGUST 22, 2001, VA POLICE OFFICER ARNOLD E. KIRKUM WOULD HIMSELF BE AWARE OF THIS AUGUST 8, 1996 LETTER TO THE PLAINTIFF AND THE NEW YORK STATE DIVISION OF VETERANS' AFFAIRS FROM THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS' AFFAIRS ...."

"Because that August 8, 1996 letter to PLAINTIFF and the New York State Division of Veterans' Affairs from the United States Department of Veterans' Affairs New York Regional Office at 245 West Houston St., New York, N.Y. 10014 IS THE EVIDENCE THAT THE United States Department of Veterans' Affairs relied on in CERTIFYING PLAINTIFF TO THE STRATTON VA HOSPITAL AS A DISABLED VETERAN IN THE FIRST PLACE ..."

"And as a VA Police Officer charged with protecting PLAINTIFF's rights in a federal facility where PLAINTIFF in particular is entitled to PROTECTION OF FEDERAL LAW, that being the Stratton VA Hospital in Albany, New York, VA POLICE OFFICER ARNOLD E. KIRKUM WOULD HAVE BEEN ONE OF THE FIRST PEOPLE AT THE STRATTON VA HOSPITAL TO KNOW THE NATURE OF PLAINTIFF'S STATUS AS A DISABLED VETERAN, SINCE THIS EXACT SAME LETTER WOULD BE ON FILE WITH THE STRATTON VA HOSPITAL IN ALBANY, NEW YORK AS PROOF OF PLAINTIFF'S DISABILITY ..."

"AND THUS, HIS IDENTITY AS A FEDERALLY-CERTIFIED DISABLED VETERAN WHEN PLAINTIFF WAS ON FEDERAL PROPERTY SUCH AS THE PUBLIC LOBBY OF THE STRATTON VA HOSPITAL IN ALBANY, NEW YORK WHERE PLAINTIFF WAS IN FACT TAKEN INTO CUSTODY BY VA HOSPITAL PERSONNEL ON AUGUST 22, 2001 TO BE HELD INVOLUNTARILY IN THE SECURE PSYCHIATRIC FACILITY OF THE STRATTON VA HOSPITAL IN ALBANY, NEW YORK ..."

"Based upon a fradulent New York State Mental Hygiene Law § 9.45 order that was issued in the City of Troy, New York on August 22, 2001 by Dr. John Christian Braaten, and was then faxed to the jurisdiction of the County of Rensselaer in the State of New York on August 22, 2001, and then from that jurisdiction to the jurisdiction of the government of the United States of America, apparently through the Office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York, and from there, to the Stratton VA Hospital in Albany, New York ..."

"So, Livyjr, to cut this short, what appears to have had to happen on August 22, 2001 is that defendants Reiter, Shea and Gallerie had to convince Kirkum to 'look the other way', while they actually gained access to PLAINTIFF's confidential medical records, which itself would be a breach of the security at the Stratton VA Hospital in Albany, New York that Kirkum would be responsible for maintaining, SO THAT REITER, SHEA AND GALLERIE COULD THEN INSERT FALSE MEDICAL DATA INTO PLAINTIFF'S CONFIDENTIAL MEDICAL RECORDS, SO THAT THERE WOULD THEN BE A JUSTIFICATION FOR KIRKUM TO ORDER PLAINTIFF'S ARREST ..."

"ON WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN AN OBVIOUS FRAME-UP TO KIRKUM, BASED UPON THIS AUGUST 8, 1996 LETTER OF EVIDENCE FROM THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS' AFFAIRS ITSELF, FOR WHOM KIRKUM HIMSELF WOULD BE AN EMPLOYEE ...."

"And as I think about this, what comes to mind at this moment in time is just how really cheap and worthless the United States government's OWN PAPER IS ..."

"IN ITS OWN COURTS OF LAW ..."

"That these three defendants, Reiter, Shea and Gallerie, could so easily circumvent any protections of law that should have accrued to the PLAINTIFF in this matter AT THE STRATTON VA HOSPITAL IN ALBANY, NEW YORK by virtue of having been found to be disabled by the United States Department of Veterans' Affairs New York Regional Office, 245 West Houston St., New York, N.Y. 10014 on AUGUST 8, 1996 because he had been harmed by PLAINTIFF's employment with the RENSSELAER COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ON AND AFTER OCTOBER 12, 1988 ..."

"As a disabled veteran myself, I am appalled at the ease with which these three persons were able to breach what should be OUR SECURITY in a federal Veterans' Administration Hospital anywhere here in the United States of America as disabled veterans, and what I find most appalling in this specific case is that both the United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York and the federal District Court for the Northern District of New York were apparent parties to this BREACH OF SECURITY, AND THE 'FRAME-UP' OF PLAINTIFF AS AN ALLEGED DANGEROUS PERSON WITH A SERIOUS MENTAL ILLNESS THAT OCCURRED AS A DIRECT RESULT OF THIS INTENTIONAL BREACH OF SECURITY DIRECTLY INVOLVING KIRKUM, RATHER THAN BEING PROTECTORS OF THE ESTABLISHED LIBERTY INTERESTS OF A VETERAN DECLARED TO BE DISABLED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES ITSELF ..."

"And these are just my thoughts, Livyjr, and they require no real reply ..."

"I just wanted to state them for the record, if it wasn't too late, and so ..."

"The 'KEY SILENCES', Livyjr ....."

"AS IN 'SILENCE IS GOLDEN' ....."

"Which saying, in politics, is often modified to read 'KEEPING SILENT CAN EARN YOU SOME GOLD' ..."

"And that thought came to me as I was reading this news article above here which informed us that this REPUBLICAN New York State Senator Michael Balboni who is set to become New York State Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer's HOMELAND SECURITY CZAR is presently the CHAIR of the New York State Senate Veterans' Committee, which Committee presumably has some type of oversight over the New York State Division of Veterans' Affairs, the New York State agency that was itself directly involved in having your PLAINTIFF falsely incarcerated at the Stratton VA Hospital on August 22, 2001 as an alleged dangerous, mental patient ..."

"IT WOULD SEEM TO ME THAT THE SILENCE OF THIS COMMITTEE AS TO WHAT WAS BEING DONE TO YOUR PLAINTIFF IN THIS MATTER BY THE NEW YORK STATE DIVISION OF VETERANS' AFFAIRS WOULD BE OF PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE TO THOSE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK WHO WISH TO KEEP THIS 'WEAPON', THE PSYCHIATRIC TAKE-DOWN INTACT ....."

"AND HERE WE HAVE ITS CHAIR BECOMING ELIOT SPITZER'S CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT CZAR ...."

"And checking the Biography of this Michael Balboni at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=6818 ......"

"I notice that he is not a veteran himself, this Michael Balboni, and that he is also a member of the New York State Senate Environmental Conservation Committee ...."

"SILENCE IS INDEED GOLDEN, Livyjr, in politics, anyway ..."

"OR IT CERTAINLY DOES APPEAR TO BE SO FOR THIS MICHAEL BALBONI ..."

And so ......

[Livyjr]

In the State of New York, today ....

Right now ....

IF you have the money ....

Money is always important, of course .....

And necessary .....

YOU CAN ENGAGE A LAWYER ....

A MEMBER OF THE BAR IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ....

And that lawyer can get for you .....

A PSYCHIATIC ARREST ORDER .....

That will allow you ....

To have the New York State Police ....

HAUL OFF TO A SECURE MENTAL FACILITY ....

FOR INCARCERATION .....

ANYONE YOU WISH TO HAVE INCARCERATED .....

IF YOU HAVE A LAWYER .....

And that is why the New York State Bar Association and its "membership" have been brought into this thread .....

As "parties", so to speak ......

BECAUSE OF THIS "SERVICE" .....

THAT ITS MEMBERS ....

ARE ALLOWED TO "SELL" .....

TO THOSE MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC UP HERE ....

WHO HAVE THE MONEY ....

Money being of importance, after all .....

TO PURCHASE THAT KIND OF SERVICE .....

WHICH IS AGAINST THE LAW, HERE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ....

BUT SO WHAT?

IF YOU HAVE THAT KIND OF MONEY .....

THAT YOU CAN GET A LAWYER .....

TO HAVE SOMEONE INCARCERATED IN A SECURE MENTAL FACILITY .....

BECAUSE YOU WANT THEM THERE ....

THERE IS NO "AGAINST THE LAW" FOR YOU .....

YOUR LAWYER SEES TO THAT .....

WHICH IS WHAT THIS THREAD IS ALL ABOUT ....

The "PROTECTION RACKET" in New York State ....

And the role .....

That lawyers and judges play in that "PROTECTION RACKET" .....

Lawyers and judges who are all MEMBERS OF THE BAR ....

And so .....

IF ....

You are a medical doctor in the State of New York ....

Right now ....

Today .....

A medical doctor licensed to practice in the State of New York .....

By the New York State Department of Education ....

And "regulated" by the New York State Department of Health ....

And you have a hankering ....

A "JONES", as it were ....

Or maybe it is just for the money ....

That you wish to be able to do this ....

To "DOLE OUT" .....

Or "MARKET" ....

Or "PEDDLE" .....

Maybe "TRADE FOR POLITICAL FAVORS" .....

FALSE DIAGNOSES OF PEOPLE THAT YOU HAVE NEVER MET ....

TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE THE WHEREWITHAL .....

TO PROCURE THIS "SERVICE" FROM YOU .....

SO AS TO BE ABLE TO HAVE THIS OTHER PERSON ....

INVOLUNTARILY CONFINED IN A SECURE MENTAL FACILITY ....

AND YOU HAVE A LAWYER TO REPRESENT YOU ....

A MEMBER OF THE BAR ....

IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ....

EVEN THOUGH THIS "SERVICE" OF YOURS .....

IS A VIOLATION OF THE LAW IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ....

IT IS NOT REALLY A VIOLATION .....

IN YOUR CASE ....

AT LEAST AS FAR AS THE NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION AND HEALTH WOULD BE CONCERNED ....

AND THE FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, AS WELL ....

WHEN YOU HAVE THE RIGHT LAWYER BY YOUR SIDE ....

A LAWYER ....

WHO IS A MEMBER ....

OF THE BAR ....

IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ....

And so .....

For those of you who are arriving here late to this thread .....

THAT IS WHAT THIS THREAD IS ABOUT ...

In large part ....

HOW THAT SCHEME REALLY DOES WORK .....

And the role that judges and lawyers play .....

IN PROTECTING THAT SCHEME ....

DESPITE THE FACT ....

THAT IT IS "AGAINST" THE LAW ....

And so .....

Right now ....

Today ....

In the State of New York .....

As we are speaking in here ....

If you are a CORPORATION ....

And you happen to operate a hospital .....

That is regulated by the New York State Department of Health .....

And you wish to provide ....

FOR THE RIGHT PEOPLE .....

Those themselves who are represented by a member of the bar in the State of New York ....

WITH THE FINANCIAL RESOURCES ....

THE "SERVICE" .....

OF INCARCERATING PEOPLE .....

AS ALLEGED "DANGEROUS MENTAL PATIENTS" .....

FOR YOUR "CLIENTELE" ....

AND YOU ARE YOURSELF REPRESENTED ....

BY A MEMBER OF THE BAR IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ....

Then you can provide this "SERVICE" .....

EVEN THOUGH IT HAPPENS TO BE "AGAINST THE LAW" IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK .....

AND YOU CAN DO IT WITH VIRTUAL IMPUNITY .....

SINCE YOUR LAWYER ....

A MEMBER OF THE BAR IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ....

WILL "MAKE IT ALRIGHT" FOR YOU .....

WITH THE NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ...

AND THE NEW YORK STATE OFFICE OF MENTAL HYGIENE ....

AND THE FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ...

AND THE FEDERAL SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS IN NEW YORK CITY ....

And so .....

For anyone coming to this thread late ...

That is in part what this thread is about ....

How that all happens ....

AND HOW YOU YOURSELF ...

COULD "GET IT DONE" .....

IF YOU HAD THE INCLINATION .....

TO HAVE SOMEONE THAT YOU DON'T LIKE ...

REMOVED FROM SOCIETY .....

PERMANENTLY .....

SO LONG AS YOU HAVE THE RIGHT LAWYER ....

TO PROCURE FOR YOU ....

THE "FRUITS" OF THIS "SERVICE" .....

THAT THE NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ....

ALLOWS THESE CORPORATIONS .....

TO PROVIDE .....

TO THOSE WHO HAVE THE WHEREWITHAL ....

And here ....

Money and the right lawyer are important ....

TO SECURE THESE SERVICES ....

And so ....

TO: Hon. Gary L. Sharpe, Federal District Judge, Northern District of New York

Shawn T. Nash, Esq., under penalty of perjury, affirms as follows:

1. I am an attorney and counselor-at-law and am duly licensed to practice in the Northern District of New York.

I am an associate attorney with the law offices of Napierski, Vendenburgh & Napierski, LLP, attorneys for Defendants, Kathleen Jimino, Rensselaer County Executive; Joseph Cybulski, individually and as Rensselaer County Director of Community Services; Timothy Holt, Rensselaer County Director of Central Services; Denise Ayers, NYSRPN 453486, Rensselaer County Public health Director; Roy Champagne, Rensselaer County Director of Environmental Health; and Robert "BOB" Reiter, Rensselaer County Director of Veteran's Services, and as such, I AM FULLY FAMILIAR WITH THE FACTS AND CIRCUMSTANCES, pleadings and proceedings heretofore had herein.

2. I make this affirmation IN OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFF's motion for a preliminary injunction seeking an order enjoining DEFENDANTS from treating the New York State Mental Hygiene Law 9.45 order ISSUED ON August 21, 2001 as valid, thereby returning him to his status as a non-dangerous person, and restoring his professional reputation and standing as a New York State licensed professional engineer.

8. Ms. Fiorino WAS INFORMED BY A RELIABLE SOURCE that PLAINTIFF had a history of psychiatric illness and had made numerous threats against his neighbor to various DEFENDANTS herein.

Ms. Fiorino reported the information conveyed to her to John Christian Braaten, M.D., a member of the staff of the Good Samaritan Hospital Behavioral Health Crisis Department.

UPON THE INFORMATION RECEIVED BY DR. BRAATEN, HE EXERCISED HIS STATUTORY AUTHORITY pursuant to NYS Mental Hygiene Law 9.39 and 9.40 and CERTIFIED THAT AN "EMERGENCY ADMISSION" to Samaritan Hospital's secure mental health facility was warranted.

DATED: September 20, 2004
Albany, New York

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT - NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

AFFIRMATION IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO DISMISS COMPLAINT PURSUANT TO FRCP 12(b)(6)

DAVID E. ROOK, ESQUIRE, UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY, AFFIRMS AS FOLLOWS:

1. I am an attorney and counselor at law associated with the law offices of Thuillez, Ford, Gold Johnson & Butler, LLP, attorneys representing the Defendants Northeast Health, Inc., Samaritan Hospital of Troy, New York, Adrian Anthony Morris, NYSMD 166342, John Christian Braaten, NYSMD 138415, Carol Fiorino, NYSRPN 230870, and Bernadette Rotter Hallam, NYSRPN 331662 (hereinafter referred to as the "SAMARITAN DEFENDANTS") herein, AND AS SUCH, I AM FULLY FAMILIAR WITH THE FACTS AND CIRCUMSTANCES, PLEADINGS AND PROCEEDINGS HERETOFORE HAD HEREIN.

6. As described more thoroughly in Samaritan Defendants' MEMORANDUM OF LAW, PLAINTIFF'S "AMENDED CIVIL RIGHTS COMPLAINT PURSUANT TO 42 USCS § 1983" should be dismissed.

10. THE PLAINTIFF'S ALLEGATIONS AND DOCUMENTS SUPPORT A CONCLUSION THAT HE WAS REFERRED TO THE STAFF OF SAMARITAN HOSPITAL AND UPON RECEIVING INFORMATION ABOUT HIS BEHAVIOR AND HISTORY FROM RELIABLE SOURCES EXERCISED THEIR STATUTORY AUTHORITY UNDER NYSMHL §9.39 and §9.40 TO CERTIFY AN "EMERGENCY ADMISSION" TO SAMARITAN HOSPITAL'S SECURE MENTAL HEALTH FACILITY.

12. ANY ACTIONS ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN TAKEN by the SAMARITAN DEFENDANTS were taken under the AUTHORITY of NYS Mental Hygiene Law and were taken FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PLAINTIFF AND SOCIETY AT LARGE.

DATED: November 10, 2003
Albany, New York

David E. Rook

"The 'KEY SILENCES', Livyjr ....."

"AS IN 'SILENCE IS GOLDEN' ....."

"Which saying, in politics, is often modified to read 'KEEPING SILENT CAN EARN YOU SOME GOLD' ..."

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT - NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Robert R. Ruhlmann, PLAINTIFF v. Ulster County Department of Social Services, Ulster County Department of Mental Health, Marshall Beckman, Ernest Townsend, Benedictene Hospital, Ruth MacGregor, Dr. Joel Ginsburg, Dr. Kevin Smith, and Dr. Diana Puglisi, DEFENDANTS

234 F. Supp.2d 140, 171-172

Judge Hurd, presiding

NOVEMBER 26, 2002

Thuillez, Ford & Gold Johnson, LLP, attorneys for DEFENDANTS Benedictene Hospital, Ruth MacGregor, Dr. Joel Ginsberg, and Dr. David Steres - Debra J. Young, of counsel

b. COMPLIANCE WITH NOTICE REQUIREMENTS OF NEW YORK STATE MENTAL HYGIENE LAW

Plaintiff also asserts he was not given proper notice of his legal status and rights pursuant to § 9.39.

Section 9.39 provides that a person, AT THE TIME THEY ARE ADMITTED INVOLUNTARILY, MUST BE GIVEN "WRITTEN NOTICE OF HIS STATUS AND RIGHTS AS A PATIENT UNDER THIS SECTION."

In addition, § 9.07 mandates that the hospital "post copies of a notice, ...., at places throughout the hospital where such notice will be conspicuous and visible to all patients, stating the following:

1) the availability of the mental hygiene legal service;

2) a general statement of the rights of patients under the various admission or retention provisions of this article; and

3) the right of the patient to communicate with the director, the board of visitors, the commissioner of mental health, and the mental hygiene legal service.

It is unclear from the record whether or not plaintiff was given a written copy of his rights, as required by § 9.39.

Benedictene argues that MacGregor did not have the power to "admit" plaintiff, that he was thus not "admitted" when she examined him, and that he was given his status and rights by a psychiatric nurse at 7:30 p.m. when he was admitted.

Benedictene also claims that plaintiff received paperwork regarding those rights that he did not retain, and that he saw a poster on a wall detailing his rights.

Benedictene also claims plaintiff, on March 27, had a meeting set up with the mental hygiene legal service for March 30.

In addition, argues Benedictene, it was MacGregor's "usual practice" to inform persons about the services available to them through the mental hygiene legal services, and that, in any event, "a copy of the status and rights notice is posted on the wall of the psychiatric E.R. in plain view."

In sum, Benedictene argues that plaintiff was aware of his rights.

Plaintiff, on the other hand, argues that he was not given written notice of his status and rights.

IT SHOULD FIRST BE STATED THAT THE POSTING OF A NOTICE OF RIGHTS AND STATUS IS IRRELEVANT TO THIS INQUIRY.

Such posting brings Benedictene in compliance with § 9.09, BUT HAS NO BEARING on whether its duties to give written notice were discharged under § 9.39.

THE ARGUMENT IS WISELY NOT ADVANCED, NOR WOULD IT BE WELL TAKEN EVEN IF ADVANCED, THAT THE POSTING OF THE NOTICE GIVES PLAINTIFF THE "WRITTEN NOTICE" REQUIRED BY § 9.39.

IT SEEMS CLEAR THAT THE WRITTEN NOTICE REQUIREMENT OF § 9.39 IS ABOVE AND BEYOND THE GENERAL POSTING REQUIREMENT OF § 9.09.

Thus, the fact that Benedictene may have had postings of rights and status at every turn in the hospital is of no aid.

WRITTEN NOTICE IS ALSO REQUIRED.

FACTUAL QUESTIONS EXIST AS TO WHEN, PRECISELY, PLAINTIFF WAS "ADMITTED" TO BENEDICTENE.

Benedictene seems to argue that admission occurred at 7:30, and that at that time, plaintiff was given proper notice of his rights.

Plaintiff claims he was admitted at 6:30, and that no proper notice was given.

THUS, A THRESHOLD QUESTION THAT NEEDS TO BE DETERMINED IS WHEN PLAINTIFF WAS ACTUALLY ADMITTED.

Even if plaintiff was "admitted" at 6:30 p.m. when Ginsberg signed the § 9.39 admission form, a factual question still remains.

If this is true, then the hospital must, under the law and under its own regulations, give plaintiff written notice of his status, rights and access to legal services.

No one is arguing that Ginsberg gave him such notice.

Thus, MacGregor must have given him the written notice shortly thereafter in order to have even a colorable claim of statutory compliance.

She completed the mental health evaluation at 6:50 p.m., the same time plaintiff signed a consent form, which among other things, stated that he was aware of and understood his rights.

As will be demonstrated under the subpart following this one, it seems doubtful that his signing of this consent form holds any weight.

Regardless, it is not a signed consent form that the statute requires; IT IS WRITTEN NOTICE OF STATUS AND RIGHTS.

Even if it might be MacGregor's usual practice to verbally inform patients of their rights, WRITTEN NOTICE IS REQUIRED.

If MacGregor, or anyone else for that matter, did not give plaintiff such notice between 6:30 and 6:50, assuming that this time gap is sufficient to constitute "upon admission," THEN THE STATUTORY MANDATES WERE VIOLATED.

If, as defendants claim, plaintiff was "admitted" at 7:30, a factual question is also presented as to whether plaintiff got written notice at that time.

According to defendants, he did and he lost it.

According to plaintiff, notice at this time was oral, and that he did not lose anything.

THE JURY NEEDS TO DECIDE WHEN PLAINTIFF WAS ACTUALLY "ADMITTED", AND WHETHER HE WAS GIVEN WRITTEN NOTICE UPON SUCH ADMISSION.

IF THE JURY DECIDES HE WAS NOT GIVEN WRITTEN NOTICE, IT IS UP TO THEM TO DETERMINE WHETHER PLAINTIFF WAS DAMAGED BY THE STATUTORY VIOLATION.

"The 'KEY SILENCES', indeed, Livyjr ....."

"Which brings me to a question that I have been pondering for some time now ..."

"And that has to do with this MENTAL HEALTH LEGAL SERVICES that federal District Court Judge Hurd is discussing in Ruhlmann above here ...."

"I have been going back and forth through this thread, and I have not found any mention at all of this MENTAL HEALTH LEGAL SERVICES ...."

"It would seem based on Judge Hurd's Decision in Ruhlmann that this MENTAL HEALTH LEGAL SERVICES should have some role to play here ..."

"And yet I see no mention of them ..."

"Have I missed something, Livyjr?"

NO ......

You did not miss anything .....

And MENTAL HEALTH LEGAL SERVICES got lost between the cracks in here, so to speak .....

And I am glad that you have brought them up at this time .....

BECAUSE THEY ARE INDEED ONE OF THE "KEY SILENCES" IN THIS MATTER .....

HAVING BEEN CONTACTED BY THE PLAINTIFF AFTER HE WAS RELEASED FROM HIS UNLAWFUL INCARCERATION IN THE SECURE MENTAL FACILITY OF THE STRATTON VA HOSPITAL ON AUGUST 22, 2001 .....

And that brings us over to a question that has never been adequately addressed in this matter up here .....

Which is this ......

WHO EXACTLY IS THIS MENTAL HEALTH LEGAL SERVICES, AND TO WHOM ARE THEY RESPONSIBLE?

The answer to that question, so far as we have ever been able to discern it, is that MENTAL HEALTH LEGAL SERVICES was created by the State of New York AS A CONSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARD .......

SO THAT WHAT HAPPENED IN THIS CASE COULD NOT HAPPEN .....

THAT PEOPLE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK COULD NOT BE UNLAWFULLY INCARCERATED AS ALLEGED DANGEROUS MENTAL PATIENTS BY DOCTORS WHO ARE "MARKETING" THAT "SERVICE" TO MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WITH THE FINANCIAL MEANS TO PROCURE THAT "SERVICE" .....

AND YET .....

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT DID HAPPEN ......

AND IN THIS CASE .......

MENTAL HEALTH LEGAL SERVICES WENT MISSING ......

AFTER THE PLAINTIFF CONTACTED THEM AND INFORMED THEM OF WHAT HAD TRANSPIRED IN THIS MATTER .....

And that is all we know of the matter, any of us up here ......

We were present when the telephone conversation took place between the PLAINTIFF and what was alleged to be the chief attorney for this Mental Health Legal Services shortly after PLAINTIFF had been released from custody at the Stratton VA Hospital......

Which telephone number had been provided to the PLAINTIFF by the same Albany, New York Police Officer who had intervened in the matter on August 22, 2001 at the Stratton VA Hospital .....

And we heard PLAINTIFF explain in some great detail exactly who he was, and what had transpired in the matter, just as it is explained in great detail in the federal civil rights lawsuit that was tossed out by federal District Court Judge Gary L. Sharpe on March 31, 2005 .....

AND THEN .....

WE NEVER HEARD ANOTHER WORD FROM MENTAL HEALTH LEGAL SERVICES ......

NOTHING .....

"A POLITICAL HIT ....."

"POWERFUL MEN ..."

"STAY OUT OF IT ...."

And so .....

"KEY SILENCES", indeed .....

And MENTAL HEALTH LEGAL SERVICES in the State of New York is one of them .....

And so ....

[Livyjr]

"Well, Livyjr ..."

"One more time ...."

"You have brought us around a circle in here ....."

"BUT ..."

"This time ..."

"What you have done, by doing so ..."

"Is to make a solid connection ..."

"Between what occurred in the State of New York back in 1986 ..."

"AND WHAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ..."

"IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS ..."

"WHEN NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ELIOT SPITZER BECOMES GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK ..."

"WITH THE POWER TO APPOINT JUDGES ON THE NEW YORK STATE COURT OF APPEALS ..."

"WHICH COURT HELD IN 1996 ...."

"In Ricky Brown et al. v. State of New York, 89 NY2d 172 (Ct. of Appeals 1996) ..."

"THAT:"

Constitutions assign rights to individuals and impose duties on the government to regulate the government's actions to protect them."

"AND ..."

"It is the failure to fulfill a stated constitutional duty which may support a claim for damages in a constitutional tort action."

"AND ..."

Implicit in this reasoning is the premise that the Constitution is a source of positive law, not merely a set of limitations on government."

"ALL OF WHICH WAS REPUDIATED BY NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ELIOT SPITZER IN THIS MATTER UNDER DISCUSSION IN HERE IN 2005, FIRST IN THE FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ..."

"AND THEN IN THE FEDERAL SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS IN NEW YORK CITY IN NOVEMBER OF 2005 ...."

"SO THAT WHEN THE NEW YORK SUN STATES THAT THE GOVERNOR-ELECT HAS MADE HIS VIEWS ON THE LAW AND CONSTITUTION CLEAR ..."

"THANKS TO THIS THREAD ..."

"WE CITIZENS OUT HERE IN AMERICA WHO ARE CONCERNED ABOUT SUCH MATTERS ..."

"CAN REALLY SEE EXACTLY WHAT THAT STATEMENT MEANS ..."

"AND WHAT IT IS LIKELY TO MEAN WHEN ELIOT SPITZER DOES BECOME GOVERNOR ..."

"AND DOES APPOINT JUDGES IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK TO IMPOSE HIS VIEWS ON WHAT A CONSTITUTION SHOULD MEAN ON THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK THROUGH THAT HIGH COURT'S FUTURE DECISIONS ..."

"AND IT IS NOT AT ALL ENCOURAGING, LIVYJR ..."

"BECAUSE BY REPUDIATING RICKY BROWN IN THESE FEDERAL COURT PROCEEDINGS ..."

"WHAT THE GOVERNOR-ELECT OF NEW YORK IS SAYING ...."

"AND WHAT THE FEDERAL SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS IS UPHOLDING ..."

"IS THAT CONSTITUTIONS ARE NOT REALLY SOURCES OF POSITIVE LAW, ANYMORE ..."

"AND CONSTITUTIONS DO NOT ASSIGN RIGHTS TO INDIVIDUALS, ANY LONGER ..."

"NOR DO CONSTITUTIONS IMPOSE DUTIES ON THE GOVERNMENT TO REGULATE THE GOVERNMENT'S ACTIONS TO PROTECT THOSE RIGHTS ..."

"WHICH EFFECTIVELY IS AN ABANDONMENT ...."

"BY THE 'STATE' ..."

"OF THE RULE OF LAW ..."

"WITH THE CONSENT OF THE FEDERAL SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS ..."

"AND FURTHER ..."

"IT EFFECTIVELY IS A DISMANTLING OF CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT ..."

"AGAIN WITH THE CONSENT OF THE FEDERAL SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS ..."

"AND IF A FEDERAL CIRCUIT COURT IS GOING TO ALLOW THE STATE OF NEW YORK TO ABANDON THE RULE OF LAW ...."

"AND TO DISMANTLE ITS CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT ...."

"BY THE 'EXPEDIENT' OF SELECTING JUDGES ...."

"TO RE-DEFINE WHAT CONSTITUTIONS REALLY DO STAND FOR ..."

"THEN EVERY OTHER STATE IN THE UNITED STATES WILL SIMILARLY HAVE THAT 'RIGHT' TO DO THE SAME ..."

"AND BUT FOR THIS FORUM ..."

"WHICH HAS ALLOWED THIS THREAD TO KEEP RUNNING SO THAT WHAT IS REALLY AT STAKE HERE COULD BE DEMONSTRATED WITH EXTERNAL 'PROOFS" ...."

"WE WOULD NOT EVEN KNOW ANY OF THIS WAS HAPPENING ..."

"EVEN AS IT IS ..."

"WHICH IS TO OUR DETRIMENT AS AMERICAN CITIZENS ..."

"EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US ..."

"ALL OF WHOM COULD BE THE NEXT TO FALL VICTIM TO A SCHEME SUCH AS OCCURRED TO THE PLAINTIFF IN THIS MATTER ..."

"WHERE A POLITICALLY-CONNECTED MEDICAL DOCTOR CAN SIMPLY CERTIFY ANYONE NOW ..."

"THANKS TO THIS FEDERAL CIRCUIT COURT DECISION IN THIS MATTER ..."

"AS BEING IN NEED OF IMMEDIATE INCARCERATION IN A SECURE MENTAL FACILITY ..."

"WITHOUT THE DOCTOR EVER HAVING TO SEE THE PERSON ..."

"OR TO EXAMINE THE PERSON ..."

"OR TO HAVE ANY EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER TO JUSTIFY HIS ACTIONS ..."

And so ....

"So, Livyjr ..."

"It appears that New York State Court of Appeals Chief Judge Judith Kaye does have a CRYSTAL CLEAR CHOICE here in front of her ..."

"If she wants to remain Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals ..."

"LOSE RICKY BROWN ...."

"AND THERE JUST MAY BE A PLACE FOR HER ..."

"IN THE ADMINISTRATION of New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer ..."

"AS A COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE ...."

"REPUDIATE RICKY BROWN ..."

"AND PUT THAT REPUDIATION IN WRITING ...."

"AND MAYBE ..."

"JUST MAYBE ..."

"ELIOT SPITZER WILL KEEP HER ON ..."

"SO LONG AS SHE GIVES UP HER BELIEF THAT:"

"Constitutions assign rights to individuals and impose duties on the government to regulate the government's actions to protect them."

"AND ..."

"It is the failure to fulfill a stated constitutional duty which may support a claim for damages in a constitutional tort action."

"AND ..."

"Implicit in this reasoning is the premise that the Constitution is a source of positive law, not merely a set of limitations on government."

"ALL OF WHICH, AS HAS BEEN STATED IN HERE PREVIOUSLY, HAS ALREADY BEEN VERY PUBLICLY REPUDIATED BY NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ELIOT SPITZER IN THIS MATTER UNDER DISCUSSION IN HERE IN 2005, FIRST IN THE FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ..."

"AND THEN IN THE FEDERAL SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS IN NEW YORK CITY IN NOVEMBER OF 2005 ...."

"And so, Livyjr ..."

"Such is history made ..."

"And thus is OUR future affected, adversely in this case ..."

"AND ALL OF IT BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, SIGHT UNSEEN ...."

"AS A RULE ..."

"AND BUT FOR THIS FORUM ....."

"We wouldn't even know this was happening ..."

And so ....

"So one of the real serious questions facing you people in New York State right now, Livyjr ..."

"As far as I can see ..."

"IS WHETHER CHIEF JUDGE JUDITH KAYE OF THE NEW YORK STATE COURT OF APPEALS WILL SACRIFICE THE INDEPENDENCE AND INTEGRITY OF THE NEW YORK STATE COURT OF APPEALS TO THE AMBITION OF NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL AND GOVERNOR-ELECT ELIOT SPITZER TO TRANSFORM THE STATE OF NEW YORK INTO 'THE BEST PLACE TO DO BUSINESS IN THE WORLD' ...."

"SO THAT SPITZER IN HIS TURN WILL RE-APPOINT HER TO THAT HIGH COURT AS ONE OF HIS 'ANNOITED ONES" ......"

"TO SPREAD HIS IDEOLOGY ..."

"AND TO DO HIS BIDDING ..."

"OR WILL SHE DETERMINE THAT HER OWN PERSONAL DIGNITY AND SENSE OF SELF-WORTH ARE JUST NOT WORTH THAT SACRIFICE?"

"And only time will tell, Livyjr ..."

"And either way, the clock is ticking ..."

And so ....

"Bruno facing FBI scrutiny - Federal investigators are looking into the outside business interests of state Senate majority leader"

By JAMES M. ODATO and RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, December 20, 2006

ALBANY -- Paul Larrabee, a spokesman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, said he could not comment on the legality of member-item grants going to for-profit organizations.

Asked repeatedly over the past week, Larrabee said he couldn't offer an opinion on the matter because "it's just not a priority at this time."

"Spitzer faces scandal-scarred state government"

By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press
Last updated: 10:52 a.m., Saturday, December 30, 2006

ALBANY -- In the week before Christmas, New York's state comptroller pleaded guilty to a felony and resigned the office to which he had just been re-elected.

A day earlier, the Republican leader of the state Senate announced he was under investigation by the FBI.

The week before that, a state senator from the Bronx, Democrat Efrain Gonzalez Jr., pleaded not guilty to charges that he was using charity groups in a scheme to steal more than $400,000 in state money.

In October, a powerful state Assembly member and major labor leader, Brian McLaughlin of Queens, was indicted on racketeering charges, accused of stealing more than $2.2 million.

In July, state Assemblywoman Diane Gordon was arraigned on bribery charges after prosecutors said they videotaped the Brooklyn Democrat demanding a developer build her a $500,000 house in return for her assistance on a land deal.

Questionable ethics, corruption and plain old thievery have become the hot topics at the state Capitol as state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer prepares to take over as New York's 54th governor.

"It's not a whiff, it's a stench," said Lee Miringoff, head of Marist College's Institute for Public Opinion.

"Stench is the word I would use."

"In the last few years, it's been unprecedented," said government watchdog Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Democrat Spitzer comes into office off a landslide victory fueled in large part by his successful crackdown as attorney general on mutual fund managers and other Wall Street institutions, consumer-popular initiatives that earned him the moniker "the Sheriff of Wall Street."

Spitzer has been afforded, according to Miringoff, an excellent opportunity to push ethics reform in Albany.

The governor-elect has called it a priority.

"What better time for the Sheriff of Wall Street to show up," said Miringoff.

"It's an agenda he would like to have and now it has actually come his way."

"The puck is sitting right in front of the net and they've pulled the goalie."

Whether Spitzer will really find it that easy to score in his attempt to reform the culture of Albany remains to be seen.

He will need the cooperation of the leaders of the state Legislature, state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Republican, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat.

In the past, both leaders and outgoing Republican Gov. George Pataki have all come up with proposals to overhaul the state's campaign finance laws, ethics statutes and lobbying regulations.

They have all pledged their commitment and then, most often, failed to agree on the details.

Some, like Horner, have long doubted how much the powers that be are committed to altering the landscape and thus making it potentially easier to topple those very same powers that be.

"It is the rope-a-dope strategy of debating the details," said Horner.

Added to the mix for 2007 is the fact that Bruno has said he is under federal investigation for his private business dealings.

He has said he has done nothing wrong, but it has come out that he directed $500,000 in state grants to a private company linked to one of his business colleagues.

Thus far, Bruno has refused to make public a list of clients who have hired his private consulting business, how much income he received from them or what services he performed for them.

Such public disclosure is not legally required.

Silver, who is on the payroll of a Manhattan law firm, has also refused to make public how much he makes from that job or his client list.

Spitzer and Pataki, on the other hand, have regularly allowed the news media to look over their income tax returns.

That is not legally required and does not provide a complete picture of their financial dealings.

It does, however, provide the public with information about their top government leaders that has been resisted up until now by legislative leaders.

But with the problems facing Bruno and the Dec. 22 conviction-resignation of Comptroller Alan Hevesi stemming from his use of a state employee as a driver-companion for his wife, Miringoff and Horner believe the climate may be ripe for change.

"The public wants things to change and if there's public interest, it makes it easier to get things done," Horner said.

"It's an opportunity for Spitzer," said Miringoff.

"It's tailor-made for him."

------

Marc Humbert has covered New York state politics and government for The Associated Press for more than 25 years. He can be reached via e-mail at mhumbert(at)ap.org.

[Livyjr]

IF you are a licensed professional engineer in the State of New York .....

Today ....

Right now as we speak ....

Licensed by the New York State Department of Education ....

And subject to the Rules of Practice in the State of New York ....

As promulgated by the New York State Board of Regents ...

And you have an opportunity to make some money .....

Money is important, after all ....

Signing off on plans that do not meet the requirements of the applicable codes, rules and regulations ....

And certifying projects that were not built in accordance with those applicable codes, rules and regulations .....

All you have to do ....

To get yourself some necessary "cover" .....

Is to secure the "SERVICES" of a lawyer who is a member of the bar in the State of New York ....

Preferably a lawyer who is also the local judge ....

And even though what you are doing is a violation of the law in the State of New York ...

YOU ARE TROUBLE-FREE ....

Because you have a lawyer who is a member of the bar in the State of New York to "cover your back" ....

To make sure that no witnesses will ever be able to come forward against you ....

To bring on a case in court ....

Or to "make trouble" for you ....

With the Office of Professional Disicipline of the New York State Department of Education .....

And so ....

For those of you who are just arriving at this thread now ...

And are wondering what the topic of discussion is in here .....

Well ...

That above gives you a capsule summary .....

THE "SERVICES" THAT MEMBERS OF THE BAR IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK CAN'T REALLY ADVERTISE ....

AT LEAST TOO OPENLY OR BLATANTLY ....

BUT CAN PROVIDE ....

IF YOU HAVE THE MONEY WITH WHICH TO PROCURE THESE "SERVICES" .....

Money is always important, after all .....

And so ....

"Bruno friend draws scrutiny from FBI - Senate majority leader, business associate have tangled relationship"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, December 31, 2006

ALBANY -- Sherrie and Jared Abbruzzese might seem to have it made.

A mansion in Loudonville.

Country club memberships.

His and hers Cadillacs and Mercedeses in their fleet of eight high-end cars.

Jets.

A 27-foot boat.

Horses.

People still talk about the 50th-birthday party thrown a couple years ago for "Jerry," as he is called, at the couple's 9,600-square-foot home, estimating it cost at least $100,000.

He is known to toss down $100 tips at the prestigious Schuyler Meadows Club, where he is an enthusiastic if average golfer.

But now Abbruzzese, 52, is being scrutinized in an FBI probe that has found he paid Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees.

Interviews and a review of court documents reveal that his business dealings have included accusations of fraud and deceit, and even a multimillion-dollar judgment that threatened to take his home until that ruling was reversed.

In recent years the entrepreneur has been dogged by complaints of deceiving stockholders and fleecing investors.

None of those complaints has ever been sustained in court.

Abbruzzese and his local lawyers have refused repeated interview requests, and there was no response when reporters attempted to reach him at his home.

Flashy and outspoken, the businessman is described by associates as a "close friend" and business associate of Bruno, the state's most powerful Republican politician.

But beyond friendship, their relationship is a tangled web of public money and private enterprise that has now drawn the attention of law enforcement.

Bruno and Abbruzzese share a love of thoroughbred horses and for business.

Bruno has declined to discuss Abbruzzese, although the senator has acknowledged that the FBI is probing his own private business dealings, which include serving as a consultant to Abbruzzese.

The disclosure of the federal grand jury's investigation has heightened interest in Abbruzzese's troubled history in business.

In one 2002 lawsuit in Texas, a jury found Abbruzzese liable for a $9 million fraud, but an appeals court overturned the verdict -- and then Abbruzzese, without admitting guilt, agreed to settle the matter out of court.

The settlement occurred shortly after a $5 million judgment was filed against Abbruzzese in state Supreme Court in Albany.

In those two related cases, Thomas Dixon and David E. Webb, two executives of a company acquired by Abbruzzese's CAI Wireless, an Albany-based telecommunications venture, alleged in federal court in Texas that Abbruzzese deceived them by persuading them to forfeit stock options Abbruzzese allegedly knew could soon become extremely valuable.

They said he persuaded them to quit in 1999 and take a modest severance package just as WorldCom Inc. was preparing to acquire all the stock of CAI Wireless.

Later, WorldCom collapsed in scandal and declared bankruptcy, but not before buying CAI for $414 million at $28 per share.

Dixon's and Webb's stock options would have allowed them to buy that stock at 87 cents a share.

Meanwhile, Abbruzzese and his wife, major shareholders of CAI, walked away wealthy, according to federal records.

"There's a strong case that could be made that Jerry ended up getting victimized," says Abbruzzese's lawyer, Christopher Rentzel, who casts him as "the last man standing" in that case.

Armed with their then-valid jury verdict, Dixon and Webb filed suit in Albany to foreclose on Abbruzzese's home, an eight-bedroom mansion assessed in 2003 at $1.5 million.

They alleged Abbruzzese had fraudulently conveyed title to the home to his wife, Sherrie, to keep it out of their reach.

After their verdict was overturned, Dixon's and Webb's foreclosure was stayed in court while Abbruzzese agreed to pay an undisclosed amount of his settlement by Jan. 15, according to court records.

In another recent case, Abbruzzese was sued in Delaware by the largest stockholder of Motient Corp., a wireless mobile data service business, for allegedly steering millions of dollars in business to other businesses he controlled, including his own Albany investment service and Tejas Inc., a small Texas investment advisory service whose shares are publicly traded.

The stockholder alleged in the suit that Tejas provided Abbruzzese with at least 100,000 shares of Tejas stock for delivering business to Tejas while shareholders of Motient were not made aware of that conflict of interest.

At the time, Abbruzzese had left his role as a director at Motient.

He became a director of Tejas, which acquired his Albany company.

Bruno purchased stock in Tejas a couple of years ago, according to a public document.

The purchase came around the time other records show Bruno used Abbruzzese's airplane and occasionally flew with Abbruzzese.

But the Motient lawsuit was dismissed by a Delaware judge who described it as "at best ... a weak claim of corporate waste."

The judge said the stockholder had failed to prove allegations that Motient directors, including Abbruzzese, lacked independence and made imprudent decisions.

In that case, the suing stockholder alleged that Motient was being managed by an associate of Abbruzzese, Gary Singer, who was supposed to be banned for life from serving as an officer of a publicly traded company.

A convicted felon, Singer had served prison time for fraud, money laundering and racketeering.

Investors in Abbruzzese's CAI Wireless enterprise also sued in 1996 and 1997.

Abbruzzese, who was chairman of CAI, was accused by stockholders in a lawsuit of selling his stock while pumping up the company to investors with misrepresentations, omissions and unrealistically positive public announcements.

The company later sought protection from creditors in bankruptcy court and merged with MCI WorldCom Inc.

The stockholder suit was settled out of court for $3 million, $2.2 million of which went to the shareholders, according to plaintiffs' lawyer Michael C. Spencer and court records.

The settlement said the defendants, including Abbruzzese, continued to deny allegations of wrongdoing and liability.

The liability insurance company for the directors and officers paid out the money as part of the settlement in July 1998, Spencer said.

Abbruzzese also owned about a 15 percent stake in Evident Technologies Inc., a high-tech startup business based in a historic building in downtown Troy, and was Evident's co-chairman.

In 2003 and 2004, Bruno personally earmarked two $250,000 grants in discretionary state funds to the company through Empire State Development Corp.

ESDC, the economic development agency controlled by Gov. George Pataki, separately gave the company another $525,000.

A private proposal by Evident to sell stock from December 2005 says the "Abbruzzese Group" owns 464,756 shares of Evident, including shares held by companies owned or controlled by Abbruzzese, such as Dove Interests LLC and Bazaguma (derived from the names of Abbruzzese's four children) LLC and 15,840 shares held by Sherrie Abbruzzese.

The same document says another Abbruzzese business, Niskayuna Development LLC, was granted the rights to buy 85,000 shares of stock in Evident at a discount for helping to secure Evident assistance from ESDC.

An official with the state economic development agency, Vanessa Cuti, said no record of Abbruzzese's involvement in any of the ESDC grants can be found.

Abbruzzese's business partner, Wayne Barr Jr., is an Evident director and also controls more than 90,000 shares of Evident stock, the document reveals.

Abbruzzese's newest company, Wave Technologies, is based in Corporate Woods office park on Albany's north side.

Abbruzzese also is a horse farm operator and enthusiastic fan of thoroughbred racing.

He led the charge to raise $3 million for Empire Racing Associates, one of the entities bidding to take over the franchise for New York's three thoroughbred racetracks.

The franchise of the New York Racing Association to run the tracks will expire at the end of 2007.

Until this spring, Barr -- Abbruzzese's business partner -- served as Bruno's appointee on the NYRA board of trustees.

NYRA is bidding to hold onto the franchise, competing with Empire and a third venture, Excelsior Associates.

It will be up to Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer and the state Legislature -- including, presumably, Bruno -- to determine who will get the lucrative racing franchise.

In October, after Abbruzzese became the target of the lobbying commission for alleged lobbying law breaches related to flights provided to Bruno, he was replaced on the Empire Racing Associates board.

Empire ousted him altogether on Dec. 26 -- after news of the FBI probe surfaced -- saying it will buy out his 6 percent stake.

"I guess he was bringing some negative publicity," said Richard Bomze, president of the New York State Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association.

Empire Racing includes several large gaming and track operators, including Magna Entertainment, which until late 2005 had employed Kenneth Bruno, the majority leader's son, as a lobbyist.

Timothy Smith, president of the former Friends of New York Racing, said he attended the New York City event where Bruno flew with Abbruzzese's help on Dec. 1, 2005.

It was an annual meeting in Manhattan of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which Smith once led before forming Friends to lobby for racing law improvements.

The Friends group also included Abbruzzese as a director.

At the New York City gathering, Bruno addressed the crowd, joking that he had to leave early to take the train back to Albany, Smith said.

Abbruzzese is a major donor to Republican campaigns, as is Barr.

Barr and Abbruzzese also own and race horses, Abbruzzese through an enterprise known as Weather Watch Farm.

Bruno raises and breeds race horses as well.

Sherrie Abbruzzese, 48, Abbruzzese's wife, who also owns a race horse, paid $90,000 in 2005 for a waterfront lot from First Grafton Corp., a secluded Rensselaer County development in which Sen. Bruno was a 25 percent investor.

The Abbruzzese land is near the property where Kenneth Bruno, a former Rensselaer County district attorney, has built his own home.

James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.

BIG ASSETS

* Real estate: 8-bedroom mansion on 5.27 acres in Loudonville "conservatively" appraised at $1.5 million in 2003.

* Vehicles: 2006 Land Rover; two 2006 Mercedeses; two 2006 Cadillac Escalades; 2002 Mercedes; 2007 Mercedes; and 2005 BMW

* Aircraft: Falcon-20 and Gulfstream-3 jets

* Watercraft: 27-foot Sea Ray

* Horses: thoroughbreds licensed to race in New York

BIG LIABILITIES

* Federal grand jury subpoenas and FBI investigation of his activities

* $5 million judgment obtained by two former business associates of Jared Abbruzzese

* Threat of foreclosure on Loudonville home if 24-month payment plan not completed by Jan. 15

* Lobbying commission investigation of his airplane rides for Sen. Joseph Bruno

* $3 million settlement won by shareholders of CAI Wireless, Abbruzzese's former company

CONFIDENTIAL OFFERING

Evident Technologies, which received a subpoena from the FBI in its investigation of links between Jared Abbruzzese and Sen. Joseph Bruno, was created in 2000 to develop products that could be used in the nanotechology industry.

It is considering becoming a publicly traded company.

Evident sought to raise $10 million from private investors in 2005.

Tejas Securities Group, an affiliate of Tejas Inc., was hired for the stock offering.

Abbruzzese is a director of Tejas Inc., which purchased one of his companies in 2005.

He was also co-chairman of Evident.

Bruno bought stock in Tejas in 2004, according to a public disclosure, and sent $500,000 in state funds to Evident from using his discretionary member item pot between 2002 and 2004.

MAJOR STOCKHOLDER

Confidential offering document shows Abbruzzese Group -- Jared Abbruzzese's companies, his wife Sherrie and affiliates -- owns nearly 15 percent of Evident as of Dec. 1, 2005.

FBI is investigating Abbruzzese's use of and payments to Capital Business Consultants, Bruno's private consulting firm based at his Brunswick home.

RELATED TRANSACTIONS

Abbruzzese received stock warrants from Evident -- certificates giving him the right to pay $10,000 to purchase 85,423 shares of Evident at $4.80 each -- for helping Evident obtain funding from a grant program run by Empire State Development Corp.

One series of Evident shares were priced at $14.38 and another at $10.41, suggesting Abbruzzese could profit by hundreds of thousands of dollars if he exercised his power to buy stock.

A final portion of the warrants became valid if Evident leased space at Russell Sage College.

Bruno helped arrange public funds to support a business incubator program at Russell Sage College used by Evident.

Sources: New York State Depart@@hyphen@@mant of Motor Vehicles, New York Racing & Wagering Board, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, Delaware State Court of Chancery, Albany County State Supreme Court, Albany County Clerk's Office, New York Legislative Ethics Commission, landings.com, Evident Technologies Preliminary Confidential Offering Memorandum.

[Livyjr]

"Bruno friend draws scrutiny from FBI - Senate majority leader, business associate have tangled relationship"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, December 31, 2006

ALBANY -- Abbruzzese also owned about a 15 percent stake in Evident Technologies Inc., a high-tech startup business based in a historic building in downtown Troy, and was Evident's co-chairman.

In 2003 and 2004, Bruno personally earmarked two $250,000 grants in discretionary state funds to the company through Empire State Development Corp.

ESDC, the economic development agency controlled by Gov. George Pataki, separately gave the company another $525,000.

A private proposal by Evident to sell stock from December 2005 says the "Abbruzzese Group" owns 464,756 shares of Evident, including shares held by companies owned or controlled by Abbruzzese, such as Dove Interests LLC and Bazaguma (derived from the names of Abbruzzese's four children) LLC and 15,840 shares held by Sherrie Abbruzzese.

The same document says another Abbruzzese business, Niskayuna Development LLC, was granted the rights to buy 85,000 shares of stock in Evident at a discount for helping to secure Evident assistance from ESDC.

An official with the state economic development agency, Vanessa Cuti, said no record of Abbruzzese's involvement in any of the ESDC grants can be found.

"Bruno facing FBI scrutiny - Federal investigators are looking into the outside business interests of state Senate majority leader"

By JAMES M. ODATO and RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, December 20, 2006

ALBANY -- Paul Larrabee, a spokesman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, said he could not comment on the legality of member-item grants going to for-profit organizations.

Asked repeatedly over the past week, Larrabee said he couldn't offer an opinion on the matter because "it's just not a priority at this time."

"Court: Lift shroud on pork - Times Union wins ruling ordering state leaders to reveal secret spending"

By CAROL DeMARE, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, October 25, 2006

A state judge ordered Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on Tuesday to turn over to the Times Union the names of lawmakers who sponsored member items -- known as pork barrel grants and projects.

The discretionary cash comes out of a $200 million pool of public funds within the state budget.

State Supreme Court Justice Robert A. Sackett of Sullivan County ruled Bruno and Silver "failed to articulate a rational basis for redacting the names" in documents turned over to the newspaper.

"It's a great day for New Yorkers," said Eve Burton, general counsel for the Hearst Corp., which owns the Times Union.

"The decision brings us back to the fundamental principles of democracy," said Burton, who argued the case two months ago.

"Voters are entitled to know how their representatives are choosing to use taxpayer dollars."

Spokesmen for Bruno, Silver and the attorney general's office, which represented the leaders, would not say whether there would be an appeal.

Darren Dopp, spokesman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, said as the Democratic candidate for governor, Spitzer has made his personal views on the need for transparency on member items clear.

But Dopp could not comment on the lawsuit due to "attorney-client privilege."

"We had a role to fulfill, and we continue to have a role to fulfill," he said.

Asked how Spitzer would advise the state on the question of appealing, Dopp declined to comment, saying the attorney general will "consult with the client as to what the next step will be."

"Investigation of Bruno widens - Grand jury subpoenas records of flight services company whose planes transported Senate leader"

By BRENDAN J. LYONS Senior writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, December 24, 2006

ALBANY -- Federal authorities are said to be examining whether mail fraud or money laundering statutes were violated in connection with the business relationship, according to a source familiar with the case.

"Spitzer faces scandal-scarred state government"

By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press
Last updated: 10:52 a.m., Saturday, December 30, 2006

ALBANY -- In the week before Christmas, New York's state comptroller pleaded guilty to a felony and resigned the office to which he had just been re-elected.

A day earlier, the Republican leader of the state Senate announced he was under investigation by the FBI.

The week before that, a state senator from the Bronx, Democrat Efrain Gonzalez Jr., pleaded not guilty to charges that he was using charity groups in a scheme to steal more than $400,000 in state money.

In October, a powerful state Assembly member and major labor leader, Brian McLaughlin of Queens, was indicted on racketeering charges, accused of stealing more than $2.2 million.

In July, state Assemblywoman Diane Gordon was arraigned on bribery charges after prosecutors said they videotaped the Brooklyn Democrat demanding a developer build her a $500,000 house in return for her assistance on a land deal.

Questionable ethics, corruption and plain old thievery have become the hot topics at the state Capitol as state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer prepares to take over as New York's 54th governor.

"It's not a whiff, it's a stench," said Lee Miringoff, head of Marist College's Institute for Public Opinion.

"Stench is the word I would use."

"In the last few years, it's been unprecedented," said government watchdog Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

"Spitzer's Cabinet and inner circle"

Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Sunday, December 31, 2006

Eliot Spitzer has so far named the following people to key posts in his administration:

Inner circle

These are among Spitzer's closest advisers:

Darren Dopp, Communications director

Held same title in the attorney general's office from 1999 to 2006.

Previously served as communications director to the state Assembly and a spokesman for Cuomo from 1988 to 1994.

Started as a reporter at the Binghamton Evening Press and The Associated Press.

[Livyjr]

Right now ....

Today ....

In the State of New York .....

As we are speaking in here ....

If you are a CORPORATION ....

And you happen to operate a hospital .....

That is regulated by the New York State Department of Health .....

And you wish to provide ....

FOR THE RIGHT PEOPLE .....

Those themselves who are represented by a member of the bar in the State of New York ....

WITH THE FINANCIAL RESOURCES ....

THE "SERVICE" .....

OF INCARCERATING PEOPLE .....

AS ALLEGED "DANGEROUS MENTAL PATIENTS" .....

FOR YOUR "CLIENTELE" ....

AND YOU ARE YOURSELF REPRESENTED ....

BY A MEMBER OF THE BAR IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ....

Then you can provide this "SERVICE" .....

EVEN THOUGH IT HAPPENS TO BE "AGAINST THE LAW" IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK .....

AND YOU CAN DO IT WITH VIRTUAL IMPUNITY .....

SINCE YOUR LAWYER ....

A MEMBER OF THE BAR IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ....

WILL "MAKE IT ALRIGHT" FOR YOU .....

WITH THE NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ...

AND THE NEW YORK STATE OFFICE OF MENTAL HYGIENE ....

AND THE FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ...

AND THE FEDERAL SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS IN NEW YORK CITY ....

And so .....

For anyone coming to this thread late ...

That is in part what this thread is about ....

How that all happens ....

AND HOW YOU YOURSELF ...

COULD "GET IT DONE" .....

IF YOU HAD THE INCLINATION .....

TO HAVE SOMEONE THAT YOU DON'T LIKE ...

REMOVED FROM SOCIETY .....

PERMANENTLY .....

SO LONG AS YOU HAVE THE RIGHT LAWYER ....

TO PROCURE FOR YOU ....

THE "FRUITS" OF THIS "SERVICE" .....

THAT THE NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ....

ALLOWS THESE CORPORATIONS .....

TO PROVIDE .....

TO THOSE WHO HAVE THE WHEREWITHAL ....

And here ....

Money and the right lawyer are important ....

TO SECURE THESE SERVICES ....

And so ....

IF you are a licensed professional engineer in the State of New York .....

Today ....

Right now as we speak ....

Licensed by the New York State Department of Education ....

And subject to the Rules of Practice in the State of New York ....

As promulgated by the New York State Board of Regents ...

And you have an opportunity to make some money .....

Money is important, after all ....

Signing off on plans that do not meet the requirements of the applicable codes, rules and regulations ....

And certifying projects that were not built in accordance with those applicable codes, rules and regulations .....

All you have to do ....

To get yourself some necessary "cover" .....

Is to secure the "SERVICES" of a lawyer who is a member of the bar in the State of New York ....

Preferably a lawyer who is also the local judge ....

And even though what you are doing is a violation of the law in the State of New York ...

YOU ARE TROUBLE-FREE ....

Because you have a lawyer who is a member of the bar in the State of New York to "cover your back" ....

To make sure that no witnesses will ever be able to come forward against you ....

To bring on a case in court ....

Or to "make trouble" for you ....

With the Office of Professional Disicipline of the New York State Department of Education .....

And so ....

For those of you who are just arriving at this thread now ...

And are wondering what the topic of discussion is in here .....

Well ...

That above gives you a capsule summary .....

THE "SERVICES" THAT MEMBERS OF THE BAR IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK CAN'T REALLY ADVERTISE ....

AT LEAST TOO OPENLY OR BLATANTLY ....

BUT CAN PROVIDE ....

IF YOU HAVE THE MONEY WITH WHICH TO PROCURE THESE "SERVICES" .....

Money is always important, after all .....

And so ....

"State must correct failure to reward whistle-blowers"

By ANDREW CUOMO

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, December 31, 2006

On Election Day, New Yorkers demanded a sea change in state government.

This week that call for reform will be entrusted in new leadership elected with a mandate to restore integrity and competence in government.

Yet, tomorrow, the very day we look forward to ushering in an era of reform, New Yorkers will pay a significant price, literally, for one of Albany's past colossal errors: its failure to empower and reward whistle-blowers to fight people and businesses defrauding state programs such as Medicaid.

Two critical events taking effect in the New Year, underscore the urgency for New York to act.

First, a little-known federal provision takes effect penalizing New York and other states that have neglected to pass False Claims Acts.

Such acts permit whistle-blowers who discover large-scale theft of state dollars to sue the perpetrators (typically large corporations) to recover the stolen funds for the state.

The act rewards whistle-blowers with a part of any recovery while defendants using fraudulent information (a "false claim") to obtain state funds must pay triple damages and face other sanctions, including the potential of criminal indictments by prosecutors.

Medicaid is a joint federal-state program, and the new penalty will cause New York to forfeit a 20 percent increase of its share from any successful Medicaid fraud litigation to the federal government.

New York, which has rightly complained for decades about the federal government shortchanging our Medicaid program, now risks giving up millions to Washington simply because it refuses to enact the nation's oldest, most reliable whistle-blowing tool.

The current federal False Claims Act was signed by President Lincoln to enlist citizens in the battle against crooked Civil War contractors.

In 1986, the law was improved, and during the past 20 years, whistle-blowers and prosecutors recovered more than $20 billion in stolen funds under federal and state false claims acts.

It has been estimated that taxpayers recover $15 of stolen funds for every dollar spent by the government on whistle-blower initiated investigations.

As President Clinton's secretary of Housing and Urban Development, I used the False Claims Act to go after swindlers stealing dollars from housing programs.

As attorney general responsible for state Medicaid fraud litigation, I would be notified of any whistle-blower suit, and could control the litigation or permit the whistle-blower to continue without government help.

Albany's inaction has persisted despite bipartisan support and mountains of evidence that in the war against fraud, whistle-blowers are the state's strongest ally.

Meanwhile, 16 states and the District of Columbia passed False Claims Acts.

New York must be next in line in order to avoid the above penalty and guard tax dollars.

Second, there is another, greater penalty on the horizon.

New York recently received a unique $1.5 billion federal grant to ease the pain of hospital closings and facilitate health care reform.

But there was a catch.

Governor Pataki committed New York to drastically improving its Medicaid fraud recoveries by strict yearly quotas that escalate and more than triple by 2011.

He also accepted sanctions for failing to hit the targets, which could reduce the grant by $500 million.

It will be extremely difficult to meet these targets even with a False Claims Act, and nearly impossible without one.

New York is confronting these two penalties at the worst possible time.

On Jan. 1, the Berger Commission recommendations to close and restructure hospitals become effective.

Protecting the federal $1.5 billion cushion for these painful closings, by enabling whistle-blower suits, is an imperative.

Finally, whistle-blower suits aren't just about money.

They have exposed unconscionable practices by Medicaid contractors, including discrimination against pregnant women, false marketing of AIDS medicine, and rigged diagnostic devices.

Whistle-blowers protect patients -- period.

More than 30 years ago, New York created the national model for statewide Medicaid fraud units.

Eliot Spitzer, the New York State Bar, New York State Assembly, the U.S. Congress, and even President Bush's Health and Human Services Department have all urged New York to pass a False Claims Act.

Further delays are unacceptable.

Instead of turning a blind eye to Medicaid cheats, New York can enlist an army of professionals and patients from within the health care system to fight Medicaid fraud.

In the process, two would-be federal penalties will be turned into hundreds of millions of dollars for health services to our neediest and middle class families.

It's time for New York to lead the nation again by bringing integrity and effective solutions back to state government.

Andrew Cuomo is attorney general-elect of New York.

[Livyjr]

Yes, that's right!

For an alleged payment of $80 GRAND in 1988 to the REPUBLICAN CONTROL of Rensselaer County in the State of New York, a group of people in Rensselaer County were literally able to "buy" through the protection of law afforded to a health officer in the State of New York, and have that person literally turned into an outcast, outside the protection of law foreveraftermore, and the "law" in the State of New York, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York merely shook their collective heads, and said, "YES, this is what we can do to you, whenever we want!"

And so it was to be!

But of course, back in 1988, October 12, 1988 to be exact, when the REPUBLICAN County Executive of Rensselaer County went on TV Channel 13, broadcasting out of Albany, New York, at SIX O'Clock P.M. to announce that he had just ordered this engineer to be kept out of the Rensselaer County Office Building, on alleged "grounds" that the engineer was "mentally unstable", we had no idea where this was all going, nor did we know that it would take so many years for this to all happen, as we did not know then the power that what are alleged to be "our courts" have to bury evidence, and people along with that evidence, when those people and evidence "threaten" the alleged corruption that allegedly feeds the coffers of the political parties, especially the REPUBLICANS up here in the State of New York, or the County of Rensselaer, in this specific case.

On that October 12, 1988 TV broadcast, which was seen by who knows how many thousands or millions of people in the greater North-East area where TV Channel 13 out of Albany, New York allegedly has "viewing audience", the REPUBLICAN County Executive of Rensselaer County freely and openly talked about the $80 Grand, "eighty thousand BIG ONES", in his terminology, as a causative factor in his decision to bar this engineer from further access to the Rensselaer County Office Building as of October 12, 1988, and it was that, as much as the fact of the actual barring of this individual, that caught not only my attention, but the attention of countless others across the Capital District area of the State of New York as well, and not all of those individuals were on the same side of this equation as I was!

In fact, I would say, from further experience, that I was in the very distinct minority, and when the FBI unceremoniously "beat feet" out of town, after having its chain publicly jerked by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York, that "minority" became very small indeed, to the point of being almost non-existent, OUT OF FEAR as to who would be next to go the "crazy man" route, now that the FBI was so very obviously gone, and with them, OUR hopes that rampant and endemic corruption in the Rensselaer County Department of Health would be gone, too!

$80 Grand!

The cost of the life of a health officer in Rensselaer County in the corrupt State of New York in 1988!

Pay $80 GRAND to the MAN and you are free thereafter to do whatever you will to this person, and with complete and total immunity from the law!

What a deal, eh?

And that is what this thread is about!

How the deal went down, and what it means to you in your home town, now that Federal Court for the Northern District of New York has apparently put its own IMPRIMATUR on this "local practice" as being "law of the land" in the United States as well, or that portion of it right now that is contained within the boundaries of the federal Northern District of New York!

Should you care?

Well, I guess that depends on whether or not you personally are corrupt, or make your living off of corruption!

If you do, then you will cheer this March 31, 2005 federal court decision that we are talking about in here, BECAUSE, you won, of course.

If you are not one of those people, then, maybe you have something that you need to think on, and so, we have this thread for that necessary information to be disseminated in.

SO!

There, folks, is where we are, right as of this minute in time!

SO!

Stay tuned if you will, for further developments, and thank you for your time, and your cares about the health of OUR REPUBLIC of America, if any of it is left, that is, outside of the corrupt EMPIRE STATE of New York, where this $80 GRAND deal went down, and without a BLINK, to boot!

Is this your own future that we are talking about in here?

Stay tuned and see!

"State must correct failure to reward whistle-blowers"

By ANDREW CUOMO

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, December 31, 2006

It's time for New York to lead the nation again by bringing integrity and effective solutions back to state government.

Andrew Cuomo is attorney general-elect of New York.

And what about the FBI, then, Livyjr?

What happened to the FBI?

And here is another important question, that needs to be addressed and understood, in assessing this matter that is under discussion in here, which is an alleged "ring" operating in the State of New York, consisting of at least two doctors, and a hospital, and a corporation, and a very powerful and politically connected law firm in the Capital District area, or "TECH VALLEY", as it is now called, of the alleged corrupt EMPIRE STATE of New York, who for an alleged "pay-off", will allegedly remove a witness in a court proceeding, or a witness who is about to initiate proceedings in court, by the expediency of having the doctor falsely and fraudulently "certify" the witness as being a "dangerous mental patient" who requires immediate care and treatment in a secure mental facility operated by the corporation, with the blessings of the "state", or the REPUBLICAN side of it, anyway.

Once "BRANDED" in this way, of course, the witness is done, literally done, and all who must depend on such witness to make a case of government corruption in a court of law are then done, too, which is what this thread is all about.

SO!

The FBI!

What happened to the FBI?

Simple!

They were turned off like a "light bulb", and that was that!

No more contact allowed, by ORDER of the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York.

How do we know this?

Well, for one, it came directly from the FBI special agent who was doing the digging into this matter of alleged corruption in the Town of Poestenkill Planning Board, and the Rensselaer County Department of Health, from approximately 1978, through 1988, and that is OUR best evidence, of course, and then that fact is also confirmed in Exhibit Q of the ORIGINAL COMPLAINT filed in this matter with Federal District Court for the Northern District of New York on June 18, 2003, about three months AFTER the President of the Albany County, State of New York Bar Association confirmed in a very public newsletter that in the Albany, New York area, where all of this was transpiring, and where the FBI investigation was being conducted out of, ATTORNEYS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ALBANY COUNTY BAR, have no ethics, which is to say, no integrity.

As the Bar Association President was to say, in paraphrase: "Ah, that GRAND and glorious feeling, give them a GRAND, and they feel just glorious", and folks, that is the way it is!

Money talks, and that is the only voice that can and will be heard in the courts of the State of New York, by order of the management.

Right after the FBI Special Agent filed his report which constitutes Exhibit P of the ORIGINAL COMPLAINT, which exhibit was quoted from above as concluding that the Rensselaer County Department of Health was violating State and local laws to facilitate developers in Rensselaer County, the Office of the U.S. Attorney TURNED THE INVESTIGATION OFF, like a faucet!

According to OUR account, which is based on a first-hand account by a witness, the FBI Special Agent then met with OUR expert and told him that the best course of action for him would be to leave, to just get out of town, and stay there, because OUR witness's "enemies" went way up higher than this FBI Special Agent's head, and where the Office of the U.S. Attorney had officially "turned off" the investigation, there was nothing further that he could do in the matter, and he was not going to jeopardize his career for us, who are essentially, just a bunch of nothing in the world of the rich and powerful in Albany, New York.

And why has this never come out before?

Well, where and how was that going to happen, would be my reply!

After all, it never was a secret in the first place.

Everyone in Rensselaer County at that time KNEW the FBI were investigating, because they don't blend in the first place, when they are around, and they definitely were around, right out in plain sight, trying to find people who would talk about having been threatened or shaken down by personnel from the Rensselaer County Department of Health for an "approval".

And not only was the FBI talking to people in Rensselaer County on what was to be a futile quest to find anyone, outside of OUR expert who would come forward as a witness, they were also present when OUR expert was put on "trial" by Rensselaer County for having made those reports to the State Health Commissioner which resulted in the FBI investigating this matter in the first place.

WE, who in mute witness, stand, were there, and WE saw the FBI there, and they saw us!

SO!

That is how we knew that there would be some kind of FBI records detailing the matter, and years later, through Freedom of Information, we were finally able to obtain copies of those records, which were then immediately "suppressed" again by the "powers-that-be" in Rensselaer County and the State of New York, and that brings us right on up to this present moment in time.

Thank you for your continuing interest.

To be continued .....

And this brings us to what is known in the State of New York as the "ESCAPA Covenant" ....,

Whereby in 1991 .....

Through the chicanery of burying amendments to the New York State Mined Land Reclamation Law in a "budget bill" .....

The Empire State Concrete and Aggregate Producers' Association, Inc. .....

"ESCAPA" ....

Was able to negotiate themselves .....

A "deal" .....

With the Governor of the State of New York at the time ......

That being Hon. Mario M. Cuomo .....

That essentially made them .....

And their members ....

Exempt

From the provisions of Section 4 of Article XIV of the New York State Constitution .....

And thus .....

Set off a series of lawsuits in the Town of Poestenkill in Rensselaer County ....

That caused the Town ......

And the state of New York ....

To ultimately remove the source of these lawsuits .....

By this unconstitutional and illegal device .....

Of the "PSYCHIATRIC TAKE-DOWN" that we are discussing in here .....

Where to remove a witness against itself .....

The modern "state" can simply have one of its "doctors" declare the witness a "dangerous mental patient" ....

And then order the New York State Police to transport the individual to a secure mental health facility or GULAG .....

Run by a CORPORATION willing to provide this "service" to the "state" ....

In the interests of maintaining corporate cash flow ....

At the expense of the people of the state!

SO!

Please stay tuned for further developments!

"It's time for New York to lead the nation again by bringing integrity and effective solutions back to state government."

This is quite an interesting comment right above here by the newly sworn-in Attorney General of the State of New York ......

Mr. Andrew Cuomo ....

Who is himself the son of the former Governor of the State of New York, Mario Cuomo .....

Who was the Governor of the State of New York .....

In 1991 ....

Who took it upon himself to ALTER the New York State Mined Land Reclamation Law ......

WITHOUT ANY PUBLIC NOTICE OR REVIEW .....

At the behest of the EMPIRE STATE CONCRETE AND AGGREGATE PRODUCERS' ASSOCIATION .....

A politically powerful "SPECIAL INTEREST" group in the State of New York ....

TO EXCLUDE CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN THE REVIEW PROCESS .....

OF APPLICATIONS ....

BY ESCAPA MEMBERS ....

TO CONDUCT MINERAL EXTRACTION OPERATIONS ....

IN OR PROXIMATE TO EXISTING RESIDENTIAL AREAS IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ....

IN VIOLATION OF OUR NEW YORK STATE CONSTITUTION .....

A move on the part of former-New York State Governor Mario Cuomo .....

In 1991 ....

That went a very long distance towards DESTROYING INTEGRITY IN GOVERNMENT in the State of New York .....

THE DESTROYED INTEGRITY .....

THAT SON ANDREW .....

NOW NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL .....

SO LOUDLY BEMOANS .....

In the pages of the Albany, New York TIMES UNION article above here from December 31, 2006 ......

WHICH IS WHAT THIS THREAD IS ABOUT .....

IN LARGE PART .....

THE DESTRUCTION OF INTEGRITY IN GOVERNMENT ....

IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ....

AND THE CRUSHING OF DISSENT .....

BY THOSE WHOM NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ANDREW CUOMO WOULD NOW CALL UPON TO BE "WHISTLE-BLOWERS" .....

TO FIGHT CORPORATE FRAUD IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK .....

IS ANDREW CUOMO MOCKING US HERE?

That is the question that is on the minds of the citizens of the State of New York up here in the Albany, New York area .....

Who have been witnessing this DECLINE .....

This INTENTIONAL TRASHING of INTEGRITY in government ......

BY THE "GOVERNMENT" OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK ITSELF ......

BEGINNING BACK IN 1988 .....

WHEN THEN-NEW YORK STATE GOVERNOR MARIO CUOMO'S NEW YORK STATE HEALTH DEPARTMENT STOOD IDLY BY ......

AS A HEALTH OFFICER IN RENSSELAER COUNTY IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK HAD HIS PROFESSIONAL REPUTATION DESTROYED .....

ALONG WITH HIS HEALTH AND WELL-BEING .....

AFTER THE RENSSELAER COUNTY DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL .....

OFFERED REPUBLICAN RENSSELAER COUNTY EXECUTIVE JOHN L. BUONO $80,000 .....

IN THE SPRING OF 1988 .....

IN THE PRESENCE OF A "REPRESENTATIVE" OF THE NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ....

TO "GET RID" OF THIS HEALTH OFFICER ....

BECAUSE HE WAS ACTING WITH INTEGRITY .....

AND THEY DID NOT WANT THAT ...

And so .....

[Livyjr]

"4 state agencies scrutinized - Albany County DA reveals probes as new attorney general reaches out"

By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, January 3, 2007

ALBANY -- Fresh from bringing down state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, Albany County District Attorney David Soares on Tuesday said he is investigating allegations of wrongdoing at four state agencies.

Soares' remarks came after he met privately with newly elected Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who spent his second day in office reaching out to officials who could partner with him in anti-corruption efforts.

Cuomo met later in the day with David Grandeau, executive director of the state Lobbying Commission.

"There's a lot to do."

"No one person can do it," Cuomo said.

Soares said he is looking into cases referred from a number of state agencies including the departments of Education, Health, Motor Vehicles, Labor and Insurance.

Some involve instances in which the agencies themselves have found that licensees or other people under their purview may have violated the law.

Other cases involve people who work for the agencies themselves.

The corruption, Soares, said, involves "many flavors of criminal conduct."

He didn't elaborate.

Grandeau called Cuomo "very supportive," and said he'd like to set up a system in which the attorney general and Lobbying Commission can share databases so they can help one another with investigations.

Tuesday's meetings seem to indicate that Gov. Eliot Spitzer's push to clean up state government -- the hallmark of his winning campaign -- is prompting other officials to step up their reform efforts.

It also illustrates how at least two agencies embroiled in disputes with their funding sources or their boards may be reaching out to Cuomo for support, and in the process making the new attorney general a pivotal player in anti-corruption efforts.

Soares, for example, wouldn't rule out seeking financial help from state agencies, such as the attorney general's office, to fund his top investigator Chris D'Alessandro, whose approximately $85,000 salary has been cut by the Albany County Legislature.

Soares, who beat a Democratic incumbent in a primary two years ago, has been in a long-running feud with county lawmakers.

In the D'Alessandro affair, the County Legislature invoked a law that law enforcement workers live in the county.

D'Alessandro is just now in the process of moving from Niskayuna, in Schenectady County, to Albany County.

But critics have suggested that county lawmakers, many of whom are aligned with Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, are angry at D'Alessandro from the days when, as an Albany police officer, he blew the whistle on problems in that department.

By seeking state help to keep his investigator, Soares could also be painting the Legislature as resistant to change or efforts at ensuring good government.

Grandeau, when asked his opinion, added that he'd be willing to hire D'Alessandro if the funding for his county job wasn't restored.

"If he wasn't able to stay with David, I'd love to have him," Grandeau said.

While Soares is tangling with the County Legislature, Grandeau is said to be under pressure from state lawmakers who resent his aggressive investigations.

Support from Soares and Cuomo certainly doesn't hurt him.

The three agencies have different roles and jurisdictions.

The Lobbying Commission oversees people and organizations who want legislation or contracts from the state.

The attorney general is the state's chief lawyer, but, as Cuomo noted, can try to collect fines from violators of state laws or get reimbursement for public money that has been misspent.

As district attorney, Soares can prosecute crimes that take place in Albany County.

That can be seen as a wide mandate, however, since most state agencies are based in the county.

Some of the state agency cases that Soares is investigating are referred to his office on a routine basis.

For instance, the Education Department licenses a variety of professions ranging from dentists to teachers.

If there is a license violation that includes criminal allegations, the case would be referred to the local district attorney, Education Department spokesman Tom Dunn said.

"If we have a bad dentist in Herkimer County or Colonie, it would go to the appropriate DA," Dunn said.

Government watchdogs, meanwhile, on Tuesday called on state leaders to strengthen New York's ethics laws.

They proposed an independent commission with jurisdiction over state workers, legislators and top officials, rather than the separate panels now in place; restricting campaign contributions from businesses, unions and lobbyists, and curtailing gifts and honoraria.

They also called for tighter constraints on personal use of campaign funds and better disclosure of pork barrel discretionary spending.

Karlin can be reached at 454-5758 or by e-mail at rkarlin@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"4 state agencies scrutinized - Albany County DA reveals probes as new attorney general reaches out"

By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, January 3, 2007

ALBANY -- Fresh from bringing down state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, Albany County District Attorney David Soares on Tuesday said he is investigating allegations of wrongdoing at four state agencies.

Soares said he is looking into cases referred from a number of state agencies including the departments of Education, Health, Motor Vehicles, Labor and Insurance.

Some involve instances in which the agencies themselves have found that licensees or other people under their purview may have violated the law.

Other cases involve people who work for the agencies themselves.

The corruption, Soares, said, involves "many flavors of criminal conduct."

And then .....

There is REPUBLICAN JUSTICE ....

Rensselaer County style .....

And so ....

"Berlin town justice removed from bench"

By BOB GARDINIER, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

Last updated: 11:47 a.m., Wednesday, January 3, 2007

BERLIN -- The state Commission on Judicial Conduct has removed a Berlin town justice from the bench for prohibited political activity and trying to intimidate the office of Rensselaer County District Attorney Patricia DeAngelis.

Robert H. Tembeckjian, administrator and counsel for the commission, issued a ruling Wednesday removing Justice John T. Greaney from office.

He had served for many years as a justice in the rural town of 1,901 in eastern Rensselaer County.

Greaney, 71, who also served as the town Republican chairman for two decades and was active in county politics, said he was fighting the move.

He said he has not stepped down.

"I have an attorney and cannot discuss it further,'' Greaney said.

Town officials could not be reached for comment.

According to Tembeckjian's report, Greaney allegedly engaged in prohibited political activity and knowingly produced and filed fraudulent candidate nominating petitions.

He also allegedly failed to cooperate with the commission's investigation by declining to answer questions under oath, stating that to do so might incriminate him.

Greaney, according to the report, allegedly attempted to intimidate DeAngelis from filing a complaint against him by reminding her he had been Republican town chairman for 20 years, knew a lot of "powerful'' people, was on a board that provides grants to the DA's office and would "not go down lightly.''

DeAngelis made a complaint to the commission anyway.

Her office refused comment on the matter.

The report also states that Greaney allegedly "failed to effectuate the rights of various defendants, engaged in prohibited ex parte communications and made statements in various cases that compromised his impartiality.''

"The numerous acts of egregious misconduct by Judge Greaney, topped by his failure to answer questions or even contest the charges, demonstrated his unfitness to be a judge and compelled his removal from office,'' Tembeckjian said in a prepared statement.

end quotes

The report also states that Greaney allegedly "failed to effectuate the rights of various defendants, engaged in prohibited ex parte communications and made statements in various cases that compromised his impartiality.''

HHHHhhhhmmmmm .....

* Failed to effectuate the rights of various defendants;

* Engaged in prohibited ex parte communications; and

* made statements in various cases that compromised his impartiality ......

THAT, FOLKS, IS WHAT THIS THREAD IS IN PART ABOUT .....

A federal district court judge in the federal Northern District of New York appointed to that position by REPUBLICAN George W. Bush ....

Who appears to have done similar .....

In this case under discussion in here involving our PLAINTIFF ....

And so ......

A PATTERN OF SIMILAR ACTIVITY .....

THAT CAN BE DISCERNED FROM THIS FOLLOWING STATEMENT:

Greaney, according to the report, allegedly attempted to intimidate DeAngelis from filing a complaint against him by reminding her he had been Republican town chairman for 20 years, knew a lot of "powerful'' people, was on a board that provides grants to the DA's office and would "not go down lightly.''

POWERFUL PEOPLE ....

AND THE REPUBLICANS ......

AND PROTECTED PERSONS IN RENSSELAER COUNTY ....

Where have we heard that before?

And so ....