THE "PORK" IN NEW YORK, Thoughts of an older American on Constitutional Government in the USA Options

[Livyjr]

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

We The People of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for our Freedom, in order to secure its blessings, DO ESTABLISH THIS CONSTITUTION

ARTICLE III - Legislature

Section 1. The legislative power of this state shall be vested in the senate and assembly.

§ 11. For any speech or debate in either house of the legislature, the members shall not be questioned in any other place.

http://www.senate.state.ny.us/lbdcinfo/senconstitution.html

"Cut spending or else, Spitzer tells lawmakers"

ALBANY - Gov. Spitzer is talking tough again - threatening to go back on the road to bash lawmakers in their own districts if they don't rein in their spending.

"I won't hesitate after a vote to pass judgment on the way votes are cast," Spitzer said yesterday, less than a month before the Legislature comes out with its spending plan.

Spitzer, who has sought to cut the state's health care spending, is now under pressure to relent because the state will be getting $575 million more than expected in revenues this year.

The governor said if he were to up health care spending, it would be limited to "prevention, detection, research and smart public policies that focus on patients, not institutions."

Spitzer's proposal for voters to get a $2 billion bonding request to fund embryonic stem-cell research in New York also will face a test next week when Edward Cardinal Egan comes to the Capitol to call for its defeat.

Egan, however, backs Spitzer's call for a $1,000 tax deduction for families who pay private and parochial school tuition.

Teacher unions have announced their opposition to that proposal.

Joe Mahoney

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/regional/s...7p-424220c.html

[Livyjr]

WHEN WE ARE TALKING ABOUT "PORK" ....

HERE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK .....

WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT JUST A PART OF THE PIG ....

WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THE WHOLE HOG ....

CHARACTERIZED .....

BY THESE PEOPLE OF QUALITY .....

WAY ABOVE US COMMON FOLKS IN THE SOCIAL ORDER, OF COURSE ....

WHO WON'T "SERVE" .....

UNLESS THEY GET ....

"A TOUCH OF THE HAT" .....

WHICH IS A PHRASE WITH MANY MEANINGS ....

WITH ONE OF THEM BEING THE "TUG OF THE FORELOCK" .....

OR A TOUCH OF THE FINGER ....

TO THE BRIM OF THE HAT ...

AS A SIGN OF DEFERENCE ....

TO THEM ....

THESE "PEOPLE OF QUALITY" .....

FROM US ....

THE COMMON FOLKS ....

AS IF THIS WERE SOME FEUDALISTIC SOCIETY THAT WE ARE LIVING IN UP HERE ....

WITH THEM BEING THE "LORDS OF THE MANOR" ....

AND US THE SERFS ....

And so ...

NY TIMES

February 26th, 2007 7:14 pm

With respect to young Andrew Cuomo’s alleged “landmark initiatives to fight government corruption” in the State of New York in 2007 …

I myself recall in 1986 his father, then-Governor Mario Cuomo, stating in a Governor’s Approval memorandum for ARTICLE 460 of the New York State Penal Law, which memorandum can be found in the New York State Legislative Annual -1986, at p.236, as follows:

“TEN YEARS AGO, a study by the Joint House-Senate Subcommittee on Investigations estimated the costs of white-collar crime at MORE THAN forty-four BILLION dollars”.

“The incidence of white-collar crime has not abated in the last decade; instead, it has spiraled ever-upward as economic crime has become increasingly profitable and sophisticated!”

“The effects of major economic crime can be devastating: THE WHOLE SOCIETY suffers as crimes against business become crimes against consumers.”

“GREEDY, WHITE-COLLAR PROFITEERS WILL NOT BE STOPPED until we adopt strong measures to stop them!”

And with respect to ARTICLE 460 of the New York State Penal Law, which is entitled ENTERPRISE CORRUPTION, that ARTICLE OF LAW being a part of TITLE X of the New York State Penal Law ….

Entitled ORGANIZED CRIME CONTROL ACT ….

The relevant part of that state law which pertains directly to this discussion in here ….

Is as follows:

S 460.00 Legislative findings.

The legislature (of the State of New York) finds and determines as follows:

Organized crime in New York state involves highly sophisticated, complex and widespread forms of criminal activity.

The diversified illegal conduct engaged in by organized crime, rooted in the illegal use of force, fraud, and corruption, constitutes a major drain upon the state’s economy, costs citizens and businesses of the state billions of dollars each year, and threatens the peace, security and general welfare of the people of the state.

Organized crime continues to expand its corrosive influence in the state through illegal enterprises engaged in such criminal endeavors as the theft and fencing of property, the importation and distribution of narcotics and other dangerous drugs, arson for profit, hijacking, labor racketeering, loansharking, extortion and bribery, the illegal disposal of hazardous wastes, syndicated gambling, trafficking in stolen securities, insurance and investment frauds, and other forms of economic and social exploitation.

The money and power derived by organized crime through its illegal enterprises and endeavors is increasingly being used to infiltrate and corrupt businesses, unions and other legitimate enterprises and to corrupt our democratic processes.

As to how this now-20-year-old law applies directly to CORRUPTION of OUR state government here in New York, a quick perusal of S 460.10 of the New York State Penal Law provides as follows in the “Definitions”:

The following definitions are applicable to this article.

2. “Enterprise” means either an enterprise as defined in subdivision one of section 175.00 of this chapter or criminal enterprise as defined in subdivision three of this section.

Going over to Section 175 of the New York State Penal Law, we have:

ARTICLE 175 OFFENSES INVOLVING FALSE WRITTEN STATEMENTS

S 175.00 Definitions of terms.

The following definitions are applicable to this article:

1. “Enterprise” means any entity of one or more persons, corporate or otherwise, public or private, engaged in business, commercial, professional, industrial, eleemosynary, social, political or governmental activity.

SO ….

IF an “enterprise” in the State of New York means “any entity” of one or more persons, engaged in “POLITICAL or GOVERNMENTAL ACTIVITY”, it would certainly appear that back in 1986, then-New York State Governor Mario Cuomo gave his son Andrew all the tools that Andrew Cuomo can now use to clean this corruption out of OUR government that was identified by the New York State Legislature way back in 1976 ……

Being Governor Cuomo’s son, surely young Andrew Cuomo must be aware of this legacy that his father left to the PEOPLE of the State of New York in the form of this law, and hopefully, young Andrew will have the gumption to overcome some 20 years of inertia here in the state by starting to finally enforce this law against those who are corrupting our government in New York State ….

One can hope, anyway …

— Posted by Livyjr

http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/0...-town/#comments

And that is part of why this thread is now running ....

Because this thing of "PORK" is really an attitude .....

On the part of our elected officials .....

Here in this state .....

That they are beyond the operation of the law, themselves .....

And so .....

And so .....

In here ....

I am using this ISSUE OF "PORK" .....

To make a bigger demonstration ....

Which is how OUR CONSTITUTIONAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT ....

Here in the State of New York ....

IS BEING DISMANTLED .....

WHILE AT THE SAME TIME .....

RULE OF LAW IS BEING ABANDONED ....

WHILE WE, THE PEOPLE ....

ARE BEING SHUT OUT OF ACCESS TO OUR COURTS UP HERE ....

WHICH CUTS US OUT OF PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNMENT ....

And so .....

Rather than bring in information about "PORK" from all over the United States .....

Which would take a lot of research on my part to properly develop .....

I want to go slow in here ....

And I want to develop this topic of CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT .....

WHICH IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK .....

SHOULD PRECLUDE "PORK" ....

IF IT WERE ADHERED TO ....

WHICH IT IS NOT .....

BECAUSE WE CITIZENS UP HERE ....

CANNOT GET INTO A COURT OF LAW ....

TO ENFORCE OUR CONSTITUTION UP HERE ....

And so ....

NY TIMES

"State Investigates Auditor’s Approval of Payments"

By MICHAEL COOPER

Published: March 6, 2007

ALBANY, March 6 — The money was supposed to be used to find sites for residential facilities for people with mental illness.

And since 1998, investigators found, an auditor at the state Office of Mental Health approved more than $1.2 million in payments for site studies to a company called “Very Important Property,” or V.I.P.

But when investigators working for Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo took a closer look at the company, they found a number of unusual things.

The state auditor who approved the payments, James L. Leggiero, was also the vice president of the company that received the payments, according to court papers.

And V.I.P. was little more than a post office box and a bank account opened by Mr. Leggiero, investigators said in affidavits.

The bank account made no payments to architects or engineers, they said, but did make mortgage payments and car payments for Mr. Leggiero, who drove a Cadillac Escalade and owns three Corvettes, including one from 1958, even though his state salary as a principal auditor is roughly $79,000 a year.

So a team of investigators from the attorney general’s office raided Mr. Leggiero’s home in Slingerlands, N.Y., and his state office in Albany this morning, carting away computers and boxes of records that they believe can help them.

Mr. Leggiero, who has not been charged with any crime, did not respond to calls made to his home or office today, and no one answered the door this afternoon at his home in Slingerlands, just outside Albany.

But officials at the attorney general’s office said that they intend to take the case to a grand jury.

In court papers that the attorney general’s office filed on Monday to obtain the search warrants and to freeze Mr. Leggiero’s assets, investigators claim that V.I.P. was a “sham entity” that Mr. Leggiero created in order to defraud the state.

“Leggiero used V.I.P. funds to pay for expenses related to the recreational soccer activities of himself and his family, his mortgage, child care for his family, telephone bills and other personal uses, and provided funds to family and friends,” the attorney general’s office wrote in a complaint filed at State Supreme Court in Rensselaer County.

The investigation opened a new front in the activities of the public integrity unit that Mr. Cuomo expanded this year.

The unit has already begun scrutinizing the “member item” pork barrel spending of lawmakers, moved to create a Web site where the public can more easily track campaign donations and lobbying, and voided the attempts of members of a state housing agency to award themselves post-retirement health benefits.

Now the unit is turning its attention to state operations, and the contracting operations of a state government whose annual budget will soon be $120 billion a year.

“That’s where the money is,” said a senior official in the attorney general’s office.

Investigators said they were troubled that the scheme went undetected for more than eight years.

“This wasn’t a very sophisticated scam,” the official said.

Ellen Nachtigall Biben, the deputy attorney general in charge of the public integrity unit, said, “This case is a complete breakdown in internal control mechanisms.”

The case was referred to the attorney general’s office in January by the state comptroller’s office, which noticed during a routine audit that V.I.P. had only a post office box, but no physical address — raising a red flag.

Investigators from the attorney general’s office quickly uncovered a number of surprising things, which they detailed in a series of court papers that they filed in order to get the search warrants.

They reviewed dozens of payments, from a few hundred dollars to more than $99,000, that Mr. Leggiero approved to V.I.P. in order to conduct “feasibility studies” to identify sites for residential treatment centers for people with mental illness.

Mr. Leggiero signed a line that said, “I certify that this claim is correct and just, and payment is approved.”

Over all, the state has paid $1,232,072.42 to V.I.P, investigators said.

But V.I.P. had no listed telephone number, and does not appear to be incorporated, investigators said.

The accompanying paperwork listing the sites that they claimed to study listed incomplete addresses that made it impossible to determine whether any of the sites the company claimed to have studied even existed.

And in letters to the Office of Mental Health, V.I.P. claimed that someone named “Michael Raymond” had prepared architectural feasibility reports on the sites.

But investigators found no one by that name on the list of licensed architects and engineers maintained by the state, and no payments from V.I.P.’s bank account to anyone by that name.

Officials at the attorney general’s office said that the investigation in continuing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin

end quotes

THE FIRST OBVIOUS QUESTION THAT ARISES HERE ....

IS WHY THE NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL HAS FILED THESE PAPERS IN RENSSELAER COUNTY SUPREME COURT ....

INSTEAD OF IN ALBANY COUNTY SUPREME COURT ....

WHICH IS WHERE THE ALLEGED OFFENSES TOOK PLACE ....

AS WELL AS BEING THE HOME COUNTY OF THE SUBJECT OF THE INVESTIGATION ...

WAS THAT DONE TO CREATE A "LOOPHOLE" FOR THIS V.I.P. DUDE TO ESCAPE OUT OF?

HE GETS HIMSELF A FANCY LAWYER WHO POINTS OUT TO THE JUDGE IN RENSSELAER COUNTY THAT VENUE IN THIS CASE IS IMPROPER?

"OH, AH, SORRY, FOLKS, WELL, WE THOUGHT WE HAD A 'SLAM-DUNK' HERE, BUT, AH, WELL, YOU KNOW ...."

AND YES, WE DO ....

WOULD BE MY RESPONSE ....

YES, WE DO KNOW ....

WHICH IS WHY THIS THREAD IS RUNNING IN HERE ...

And so ...

[Livyjr]

"New comptroller criticizes Gov. Spitzer's first budget plan"

By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press

Last updated: 3:34 p.m., Wednesday, March 7, 2007

ALBANY -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer's $120.6 billion state budget proposal would increase spending "at an unsustainable rate" and leave New York with a whopping three-year budget gap of $13 billion, new state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Wednesday.

While the new governor's fellow Democrat praised Spitzer's proposal as one that "takes a significant step toward budget reform," DiNapoli said it simply would spend too much.

"The $120.6 billion budget calls for increasing spending at two-and-a-half times the projected rate of inflation," DiNapoli said.

Under the Spitzer plan, state spending would rise by almost 8 percent.

The budget proposal is for the state fiscal year that begins April 1 and final decisions about it rest with the state Legislature.

The comptroller's critical budget analysis came on the same day that several thousand people rallied outside the state Capitol, braving subfreezing temperatures to protest Spitzer's proposals to trim more than $1 billion in health care spending.

That plan is being opposed by the state's largest health care workers' union and hospital and nursing home groups.

Both sides in the fight have mounted expensive television advertising campaigns, Spitzer paying for his ads with campaign funds.

"The governor agrees with the comptroller that the out-year budget gaps are still too large, and that is why he believes it is vital to enact the health care reforms and other savings priorities he proposed this year," said Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson.

"The governor's budget presents a completely new approach to managing New York's finances by offering a savings plan to pay for new initiatives while beginning to reduce the state's structural deficit."

"If adopted by the legislature, the savings proposed in the budget will help hold the annual growth in spending to a manageable level," she added.

Even as the Spitzer critics rallied outside the state Capitol in Albany, the governor was staging his own event in New York City where Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, endorsed the governor's efforts to expand access to health care coverage to all children.

"Children are too young to vote, they have no voice in Washington's corridors of power, and they can't afford to pay powerful lobbyists."

"So the American people must take up this fight for children's health and lives," Edelman said at a Children's Aid Society neighborhood facility in Harlem.

Back in Albany, meanwhile, state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, cheered on the Spitzer critics.

"No one disputes that the cost of health care is exorbitant and becoming more so, but cuts by themselves do not constitute reform, and name-calling -- from whatever corner it comes -- adds nothing but anger and uncertainty to the daily suffering we are supposed to be fighting," said Silver.

While the Spitzer plan would reign in spending on Medicaid and other health care programs, it would dramatically increase spending on education and in some other areas.

In his report, DiNapoli praised Spitzer for seeking to make the budget process run more smoothly and to pump more money into state budget reserve funds.

But DiNapoli faulted the new governor for the projected future year budget gaps.

"While the executive recommends applying projected surpluses to close these gaps, the underlying cause of the gaps -- burdensome spending -- is not addressed," DiNapoli said.

DiNapoli also complained about the continued growth in state debt.

He said that under the Spitzer budget plan, state debt would increase to $65.6 billion by the end of the 2011-12 fiscal year, a 27 percent increase over five years.

Relations between DiNapoli and Spitzer have gotten off to a rocky start and the report probably will do little to improve that situation.

DiNapoli was a state assemblyman when his colleagues in the state Legislature elected him Feb. 7 to become state comptroller, replacing Democrat Alan Hevesi.

Hevesi, who had just been re-elected to a new, four-year term in November, resigned as comptroller in December after pleading guilty to a felony charge for using state employees as drivers and companions for his wife.

Spitzer had unsuccessfully tried to get the Legislature to appoint a non-lawmaker as comptroller and complained after the vote for DiNapoli that he was "thoroughly and totally unqualified for the job."

[Livyjr]

"New comptroller criticizes Gov. Spitzer's first budget plan"

By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press

Last updated: 3:34 p.m., Wednesday, March 7, 2007

ALBANY -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer's $120.6 billion state budget proposal would increase spending "at an unsustainable rate" and leave New York with a whopping three-year budget gap of $13 billion, new state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Wednesday.

While the new governor's fellow Democrat praised Spitzer's proposal as one that "takes a significant step toward budget reform," DiNapoli said it simply would spend too much.

"The $120.6 billion budget calls for increasing spending at two-and-a-half times the projected rate of inflation," DiNapoli said.

Under the Spitzer plan, state spending would rise by almost 8 percent.

DiNapoli also complained about the continued growth in state debt.

He said that under the Spitzer budget plan, state debt would increase to $65.6 billion by the end of the 2011-12 fiscal year, a 27 percent increase over five years.

"State Employee Payroll Is Second Highest in U.S."

By ELIZABETH SOLOMONT

Special to the Sun

March 6, 2007

New York State has the second-highest payroll for government employees in the nation, doling out $5.4 billion to city and state workers in March 2006, according to new data released yesterday by the Census Bureau.

The salaries in New York State were second only to those in California, which paid $8.9 billion to government workers, the data show.

Nationwide, public employees were paid more than $60 billion that month.

Based on its population, in March 2006 New York ranked third for its per-capita payroll expenditures, about $280, following only Arkansas and Wyoming.

West Virginia ranked last, with $154 percapita payroll expenditures.

"It has to do with the mix of public services that exist, and that's a function of urbanization," an economist with the Fiscal Policy Institute, James Parrott, said.

"There's variation in public employment that depends on the character of state economics and the density of settlement."

Mr. Parrott pointed to transit and public safety needs in New York City as two industries that could boost employment and payroll in the state.

Overall, the New York State payroll represented a slight increase from the year before, and reflected an increase in the number of municipal employees.

According to the annual survey, New York State ranked third among states in the number of government employees, with nearly 1.2 million "full-time equivalent" employees, which includes full-time and part-time workers.

Among them were 71,600 local police officers, 48,596 transit workers, and 9,543 library employees.

Overall, the number represented a jump of about 6,000 employees since March 2005, the last time the Census Bureau published the employment and payroll report.

It also was an increase from 2000, when there were just over 1.1 million state and local government employees.

"Generally what it shows — this is with the exception of New York City — the public sector grows even when the private tax base isn't," the director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, E.J. McMahon, said.

"One of the main reasons for the ‘perfect storm of unaffordability' is this increase in payroll," he added, referring to Governor Spitzer's description of the high cost of state and local government.

In September, Mr. McMahon said, his group completed a report that looked at changes in employment in New York since 2000, and found a "significant" increase of about 17,500 municipal workers throughout the state.

"The growth has been in the local" governments, Mr. McMahon said yesterday, adding that most of the workers were outside New York City.

According to the census data released yesterday, education was one of the employment categories that saw an increase.

There were 327,557 elementary and secondary school instructors in New York State in March 2006, up from 321,891 in 2000.

However, the increase in the number of employees in the noninstructional area was greater than the increase in the number of actual teachers, the data show:

There were 135,747 non-instructional school employees in March 2006, up from 117,683 in 2000.

"It basically confirms other data we've seen, which is that there is an increase in government at a local level, and it's largely school employees," Mr. McMahon said.

http://www.nysun.com/article/49880

[Livyjr]

"GOV'T JOBS MAKE N.Y. A WORK FORCE"

By DAVID SEIFMAN

NY POST

March 6, 2007 -- State and local governments in New York employ more workers per capita than other big states, including neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut, according to data released yesterday by the Census Bureau.

The bureau reported that there were 1,190,287 people in the state collecting paychecks from state and municipal governments in March 2006, including 249,208 from the state.

But the overall number is up only 7 percent from 1995, when then-Gov. George Pataki first took office.

He left at the end of 2006 after serving three terms.

By comparison, government employment in New Jersey jumped 17 percent during that period.

In Connecticut, it increased 14 percent, according to figures extrapolated from bureau data.

On a per-capita basis, there was one government worker for every 16 residents in New York, one for every 17 in New Jersey and one for every 19 in Connecticut.

E.J. McMahon, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said the latest figures reflect retrenchments achieved by the Pataki administration following a burst of hiring under his predecessor, Mario Cuomo.

"It's largely because Pataki reduced and held down the head count," said McMahon.

"The payroll grew very bloated under Cuomo."

Most of the new hires in New York over the last decade were teachers.

There were 327,557 elementary and secondary school teachers employed in 2006, up from 253,954 in 1995.

Andrew White, director of the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School, said governments in New York have operated under a boom-and-bust cycle for decades.

"There's always been this trend," he said.

"[Former Mayor Ed] Koch cut deeply when he came in, then [when times got better] grew the payroll like no one ever before him grew it."

To be fair, White noted that Koch was grappling with the aftermath of the fiscal crisis of the late 1970s and many of those entering the government in the 1980s were teachers.

"Spending was constricted under [Mayor David] Dinkins," added White.

"It tightened when [Rudy] Giuliani came in, but then [later under Giuliani] there was a big increase."

"[Mayor] Bloomberg has definitely kept the cap."

White also pointed out that the bureau's figures don't include services provided by vendors, such as the nonprofit agencies that run many of the homeless shelters under contract with the city.

"It's included in the expense budget, but they're not on the payroll," said White.

John Tirinzonie, the Connecticut labor commissioner, urged those looking at his state's figures on the bureau's Web site to do so with caution.

He said different counting methods have made it hard to pin down employment numbers in the past.

For example, thousands of croupiers, cocktail waitresses and others in the gaming industry, which is operated by native Americans, are classified as government employees, he said.

"If you exclude the casinos, local government employment is in line much more with other governments," he said.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03062007/news/...vid_seifman.htm

[Livyjr]

Dear Livyjr:

Thank you for your message regarding “pork” in the New York State Budget.

I appreciate you sharing your views on this issue.

In addition to being a strong supporter of sweeping reforms that will allow the citizens of New York State to witness firsthand the inner workings of our Legislative and Executive branches, I am committed to bringing clarity to the process by which our tax dollars are spent.

While I am pleased by the steps taken thus far to increase transparency and accountability in the so-called “Member-Item” process, they represent only a small part of the solution to a large problem.

I have been made aware of at least fifty “secret slush funds” dating back to the 2000-2001 State Budget listed as lump sum allocations without specific projects or legislators identified.

These “slush funds” total nearly $3.4 billion, far surpassing the $200 million “member-item” fund.

These monies have been allocated in a manner not subject to full public scrutiny, a practice which must stop with the current Legislature and Executive.

We need greater transparency, accountability, and awareness.

You can be certain that I will continue to work to give the people of New York a state government they can trust and be proud of.

If you should have further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

James N. Tedisco, Assembly Republican Leader

DISTRICT OFFICE: 12 Jay Street, Schenectady, New York 12305, (518) 370-2812, FAX (518) 370-2862
ALBANY OFFICE: Room 933, Legislative Office Building, Albany, New York 12248, (518) 455-3751, FAX (518) 455-3750[/size]

NY TIMES

News Analysis

"It’s Pork. It’s a Pet Project. It’s a Christmas Tree."

By RONALD SMOTHERS

Published: March 5, 2007

TRENTON, March 2 — In New Jersey and New Mexico they are called “Christmas tree” items.

New York calls them “pet projects.”

Other states call the items “WAMs,” for walking around money.

And in Alabama, in a rare fit of candor, it is called “pass-through pork.”

What they all have in common is that they are items in state budgets that were placed there — often at the last possible moment to discourage scrutiny — by a legislator for a particular benefit to his or her district.

In some cases there is concern that the money improperly benefits friends or relatives.

Whether the items involve as little as $25,000 or as much as $10 million, their provenance is often murky and anything but transparent in the cold, monotonous lines of those documents.

But what they do is not murky at all.

And in the minds of many, they brashly cross that political Maginot Line between what is seen as being in the best interests of the state and its inhabitants and the financial well-being of the recipients.

In recent months, New Jersey and New York have been moving toward changing these practices.

They have tried to introduce into the system a new transparency, and a paper trail of sorts, for how the items get into budgets.

Of course, in the case of New Jersey, the United States attorney’s recent interest in these Christmas tree items and how they have found their way into the budgets has provided additional incentive for the reform movement.

The movement toward change in New Jersey began with a look into the dealings of one Democratic state senator, Wayne R. Bryant.

He has faced allegations that he steered millions in aid to the state medical school in return for a no-show job there.

The inquiry by the United States attorney, Christopher J. Christie, appears to have broadened beyond a look at Mr. Bryant’s records.

While Mr. Christie’s office will not discuss exactly what investigators are looking for, he has subpoenaed documents concerning Christmas tree items from the Legislature’s majority and minority offices, the governor’s office, and the Departments of the Treasury and Community Affairs.

Both governors — Jon S. Corzine in New Jersey and Eliot Spitzer in New York — came into office promising to change the process.

Even legislators who have inserted items into budgets have become somewhat concerned about the spending.

By most accounts, Christmas tree-type spending practices are rare among state legislatures.

Arturo Perez, a fiscal analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures, said that a few states, including New Jersey and New York, have incorporated a process into budget deliberations that allows members to insert, often in secret, grants for pet projects.

Other states “tend to have a process where members and state agencies come forward with proposals," Mr. Perez said.

“They are debated and they move on to other committees, which debate them more,” he continued.

“You don’t usually have closed-door meetings and it is mostly out of tradition.”

So where does the tradition come from?

Ronald Utt, a senior research fellow and expert in transportation financing with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research organization in Washington, said that Congress was the culprit.

Mr. Utt said that such items, once known as pork and these days known by the more genteel term of earmarks, increased beginning in 1985.

For example, Mr. Utt said that in research he did for a paper he will soon publish, he found only three earmarks for transportation projects, now a favorite of Congress, in federal budgets between 1970 and 1985.

By 2005, he said, the federal budget had 900 transportation items among 15,000 total earmarks.

In the interim lobbyists had begun to see earmarks as a way to satisfy clients, accelerating the increase, he said.

“They brag about it in their Web sites and their marketing to their clients,” Mr. Utt said.

“It has become part of a commercial transaction.”

While the practice of earmarking spending is going through changes at the federal and state levels, many observers question how long this spirit of reform will last.

New York lawmakers and Governor Spitzer have reached an agreement to list each member item, thereby making it public and subject to the governor’s line-item veto.

In New Jersey, lawmakers have adopted rule changes that require that all such grant requests be submitted with details of the projects and with a disclosure form indicating whether the official has family members or business associates who will benefit from their approval.

In addition, the requests would have to be submitted 21 days before a June 27 deadline.

In the last four budget cycles, Christmas tree items found their way into discussions in both chambers and were quickly — and anonymously — lumped into a pool of spending labeled “property tax assistance and community development grants.”

Leaders from the Democratic and Republican parties, as part of the budget negotiations with the governor’s office, would agree how to divide the money, with the majority party getting most of the money, although New Jersey governors have the power of the line-item veto.

Indeed, Governor Corzine cut out 53 such items last year that amounted to about $31 million.

He subsequently found himself defending the fact that he did not trim even more.

Before recent changes, it was almost impossible to track the spending.

Once the budget was approved, the only way to see where the grants went was through the Legislature’s Joint Budget Oversight Committee, which keeps record of such grants but was not required by law to make them public.

“It’s like closing the barn door after the horse has gotten away,” said the Senate minority leader, Leonard Lance.

Republicans and Democrats are divided on the history of the practice and which party used it more.

While Senate President Richard J. Codey and other Democrats said it has existed for years, Mr. Lance insisted that Republicans had kept their items under control when they controlled the Legislature.

Republicans estimated that the items totaled more than $340 million in the current $31 billion budget, though Democrats put the figure at $170 million.

By comparison, Democratic staff members calculated that in 2001, when Republicans last controlled the Legislature, the items totaled $120 million.

But more important, Mr. Lance said, was that under Republican control, the items were publicly introduced in committees, discussed and vetted rather than last year, when lawmakers hurriedly inserted them.

But from 1986 to 1990, when Democrats controlled the Senate, the practice of allowing Christmas tree items was suspended altogether by John Russo, the Senate president at the time, who called them “a rip-off.”

What often gets lost in the questions about the process, many lawmakers and experts on the subject said, is that the practice is not illegal and that often the grants are worthwhile.

To be sure, however, the recent flood of subpoenas in Trenton has clouded the public perception.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/nyregion...mp;ref=nyregion

[Livyjr]

Good morning, America .....

And the candid world, as well ....

My name is Livyjr ....

And way back when ....

In the opening days of this forum .....

Right after the November 2004 elections, to be exact ....

I was reading a book entitled The Power of Many by Christian Crumlish ....

Who himself had experience with the use of the internet as a real professional "tool" for communications among separate and disparate groups of people in the world during the Dean Campaign ....

And one of the many points that he made to me in that book ....

Was the level of difficulty that the Dean campaign had in translating communications on the internet ....

INTO ACTION ....

Out there in the REAL WORLD ....

The world that we all exist in in our physical forms ....

As opposed to "in here" ....

Where we all are imaginary, in many senses .....

OTHER THAN OUR WORDS ....

On a piece of virtual paper .....

And being an older American myself ....

Although far from the oldest in here .....

Where at least two members are in their eighties ...

I have a lot of thoughts ....

ON WHERE OUR AMERICA is going ....

And by that, I don't mean with respect to how people look or dress or talk ....

Since those things are always changing, anyway ....

Rather, my concerns have to do with that thing called CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT ....

Here in OUR America .....

Which I do not believe ....

From my interactions with my fellow Americans over time ....

Is very well understood ....

And here ....

I mean the fact ....

(OR IS IT, REALLY?)

That OUR state and federal CONSTITUTIONS ....

ARE ACTUALLY LAWS .....

ORGANIC LAWS .....

That bind OUR governments .....

State and federal, as well as local ....

To certain STANDARDS OF CONDUCT .....

ON BEHALF OF US ....

The PEOPLE of OUR America .....

Today ....

If you went up to someone ....

And you said to them ....

"You know, we really are the government here in OUR America ..."

Many of them would immediately make warding gestures .....

As if you were the devil out to tempt them ....

And they would likely say, "LEAVE ME OUT OF THAT ..."

"I DON'T WANT TO BE INVOLVED ..."

And that would be that .....

Literally ....

End of the conversation ....

AND PERHAPS ....

As a result ....

THE END OF CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT ....

Here in OUR America ...

And perhaps, America .....

IT REALLY IS TIME FOR THAT, I SUPPOSE ......

PERHAPS THERE REALLY ARE TOO MANY OF US ....

FOR ANY OF US TO HAVE A SAY, ANYMORE ....

AND PERHAPS, AMERICA ....

WE REALLY DO NEED TO BE RULED ....

BY RULERS WITHOUT CONSTITUTIONAL CONSTRAINTS PLACED ON THEM ....

BY THE PEOPLE ...

SINCE WE JUST MAY BE TOO IGNORANT .....

TO PLAY ANY ROLE IN SELF-GOVERNMENT, ANYMORE ....

And so .....

That is the THEME of this particular thead .....

NY TIMES

February 26th, 2007 7:14 pm

With respect to young Andrew Cuomo’s alleged “landmark initiatives to fight government corruption” in the State of New York in 2007 …

I myself recall in 1986 his father, then-Governor Mario Cuomo, stating in a Governor’s Approval memorandum for ARTICLE 460 of the New York State Penal Law, which memorandum can be found in the New York State Legislative Annual -1986, at p.236, as follows:

“TEN YEARS AGO, a study by the Joint House-Senate Subcommittee on Investigations estimated the costs of white-collar crime at MORE THAN forty-four BILLION dollars”.

“The incidence of white-collar crime has not abated in the last decade; instead, it has spiraled ever-upward as economic crime has become increasingly profitable and sophisticated!”

“The effects of major economic crime can be devastating: THE WHOLE SOCIETY suffers as crimes against business become crimes against consumers.”

“GREEDY, WHITE-COLLAR PROFITEERS WILL NOT BE STOPPED until we adopt strong measures to stop them!”

NY TIMES

"State Investigates Auditor’s Approval of Payments"

By MICHAEL COOPER

Published: March 6, 2007

ALBANY, March 6 — The money was supposed to be used to find sites for residential facilities for people with mental illness.

And since 1998, investigators found, an auditor at the state Office of Mental Health approved more than $1.2 million in payments for site studies to a company called “Very Important Property,” or V.I.P.

But when investigators working for Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo took a closer look at the company, they found a number of unusual things.

The state auditor who approved the payments, James L. Leggiero, was also the vice president of the company that received the payments, according to court papers.

And V.I.P. was little more than a post office box and a bank account opened by Mr. Leggiero, investigators said in affidavits.

The bank account made no payments to architects or engineers, they said, but did make mortgage payments and car payments for Mr. Leggiero, who drove a Cadillac Escalade and owns three Corvettes, including one from 1958, even though his state salary as a principal auditor is roughly $79,000 a year.

In court papers that the attorney general’s office filed on Monday to obtain the search warrants and to freeze Mr. Leggiero’s assets, investigators claim that V.I.P. was a “sham entity” that Mr. Leggiero created in order to defraud the state.

“Leggiero used V.I.P. funds to pay for expenses related to the recreational soccer activities of himself and his family, his mortgage, child care for his family, telephone bills and other personal uses, and provided funds to family and friends,” the attorney general’s office wrote in a complaint filed at State Supreme Court in Rensselaer County.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin

end quotes

THE FIRST OBVIOUS QUESTION THAT ARISES HERE ....

IS WHY THE NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL HAS FILED THESE PAPERS IN RENSSELAER COUNTY SUPREME COURT ....

INSTEAD OF IN ALBANY COUNTY SUPREME COURT ....

WHICH IS WHERE THE ALLEGED OFFENSES TOOK PLACE ....

AS WELL AS BEING THE HOME COUNTY OF THE SUBJECT OF THE INVESTIGATION ...

WAS THAT DONE TO CREATE A "LOOPHOLE" FOR THIS V.I.P. DUDE TO ESCAPE OUT OF?

HE GETS HIMSELF A FANCY LAWYER WHO POINTS OUT TO THE JUDGE IN RENSSELAER COUNTY THAT VENUE IN THIS CASE IS IMPROPER?

"OH, AH, SORRY, FOLKS, WELL, WE THOUGHT WE HAD A 'SLAM-DUNK' HERE, BUT, AH, WELL, YOU KNOW ...."

AND YES, WE DO ....

WOULD BE MY RESPONSE ....

YES, WE DO KNOW ....

WHICH IS WHY THIS THREAD IS RUNNING IN HERE ...

And so ...

In the book The Power of Many by Christian Crumlish ....

The author makes the observation based on his experience with the Dean presidential campaign ....

That IF people come in to a computer forum such as this ....

AND THEY ONLY TALK TO ONE ANOTHER ....

IN "HERE" ....

Because in "here" ....

It is easy to talk ...

AND "OUT THERE" ....

They don't speak ....

Or talk ....

With anyone ....

THEN ....

The IMPACT that any forum can make ....

In terms of what I will call OUR CITIZENSHIP RESPONSIBILITIES ....

Here in OUR America ...

Is very limited .....

BECAUSE IT DOES NOT CONNECT WITH THE "PEOPLE AT LARGE" ....

Which really are the people that one needs to reach ....

If one wishes to affect the views of a large enough segment of the population ....

To effect real change for the better in OUR government, here in OUR America ....

WHICH IS AN EXPERIMENT ....

HANDED DOWN TO US ....

BY OUR FOREFATHERS IN LIBERTY ....

BACK IN 1776 ....

WHEN THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE "UNITED STATES" OF AMERICA WAS SIGNED ....

And as a disabled combat veteran here in OUR America ....

Having shed blood for OUR Constitution ....

I take citizenship here in OUR Americas very seriously ....

And since I am now old and disabled ....

I perhaps have the time to devote to this endeavor that a younger person might not ....

ESPECIALLY CHILDREN ....

Whose future is in OUR hands today ....

IN TRUST FOR THEIR TOMARROWS ....

And so, when I have the time ....

I come in here ....

And I work at CITIZENSHIP ....

And by doing so ....

IN A FORUM SUCH AS THIS .....

WHICH HAS "CREDIBILITY" ESTABLISHED OUT THERE IN THE REAL WORLD NOW ...

Eventually, my words get read by others ....

And in this particular case ....

The questions that I raised above here in this post about the auditor in the State of New York being investigated by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo ....

Were picked up and posted in another forum ....

By a poster named John Galt ....

And that provoked a reponse by another poster on that forum ....

Which led to the exchanges below ....

In another forum that is now linked to this one ....

Which heartens me, actually .....

SINCE IF WE ONLY TALK TO EACH OTHER IN HERE ....

AND TO NO ONE "OUT THERE" .....

OUR VOICES WILL NEVER BE HEARD ...

And so ....

Comment by disgustedwithNYS — March 7, 2007 @ 1:45 pm

John Galt - the reason for charging that auditor in Rensselaer is probably because he had a post office box in East Greenbush - hence Rensselaer County.

Haven’t you ever heard of MAIL FRAUD?

Comment by John Galt — March 7, 2007 @ 5:52 pm

John Galt has indeed heard of many things in this lifetime ….

And mail fraud would indeed be one of those things ….

But the one thing John Galt did not hear …

And did not read in the New York Times ….

Was that the mail box was actually in East Greenbush, N.Y.

That is information that you have from some other source, obviously …

Which gives you one up on me ….

And that information makes this story even that more interesting ….

For East Greenbush fits directly into another item that is posted in here concerning Eliot Spitzer helping to derail an investigation by one licensed professional engineer pursuant to the Rules of the Board of Regents into alleged professional misconduct by a politically-connected engineer in East Greenbush who had the local Justice as his personal attorney …

http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/for...mp;#entry694976

And East Greenbush figures prominently into a story posted on the internet concerning an FBI Hobbs Act public corruption investigation in Rensselaer County that began in or about 1988, and was subsequently allegedly turned off like a light bulb by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York when Joe Bruno’s name came into it through a REPORT OF INVESTIGATION OF MISFEASANCE AND MALFEASANCE IN THE RENSSELAER COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH which was filed with the Office of the Rensselaer County Clerk by Dr. Axelrod of the New York State Department of Health on March 15, 1989 ….

Who incidentally was state Health Commissioner under Mario Cuomo, young Andrew Cuomo’s father, who gave us people here in the State of New York the ENTERPRISE CORRUPTION LAW that hopefully young Andrew will not be too shy about applying around here ….

And especially down there in Albany …

And so ….

The last item of interest comes from the NY TIMES story “State Investigates Auditor’s Approval of Payments” by MICHAEL COOPER, published March 6, 2007, wherein is stated:

“Investigators said they were troubled that the scheme went undetected for more than eight years.”

In light of what was done to this engineer in Rensselaer County who got incarcerated in a secure mental facility at the stratton VA Hospital on August 22, 2001, for looking into the wrong places in Rensselaer County ….

Where the New York State Department of Law under Eliot Spitzer defended the doctor who issued the FRAUDULENT INVOLUNTARY COMMITMENT ORDER that was used to take this engineer into custody at the Stratton VA Hospital on August 22, 2001 ….

DESPITE THE FACT THAT WHAT THE DOCTOR DID WAS A VIOLATION OF THE LAW …

ISSUING THE INVOLUNTARY COMMITMENT ORDER SIGHT UNSEEN, AS HE DID ….

THE IMMEDIATE QUESTION WHICH COMES TO MIND ….

Is what did Eliot Spitzer have to do with that eight-year period of lack of detection of this scheme?

Where was Eliot Spitzer’s attention turned while this deal was going down?

Hopefully, with your sources, which are certainly better than mine, you can delve these questions for us …

And report back with what you find …

Which would be a great public service for all of us in here …

And “out there”, as well …

And so …

Comment by topo gigio — March 7, 2007 @ 7:19 pm

Mr. Galt,

1) The source for the East Greenbush P.O. Box information is none other than the world famous Albany Times Union in which you are posting.

Here is the link.

See the fifth paragraph down which states:

“VIP operates from a post office box in East Greenbush and was contracted by OMH to do 'site feasibility studies'.”

"VIP was supposed to make reports on potential locations for OMH-sponsored residential treatment facilities.”

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp...wsdate=3/7/2007

2) Andrew Cuomo has no reason to screw up this case.

It is pure publicity “gold” the new A.G.

It is a gift from above for Andrew who will milk this cow for all that it’s worth (and rightly so).

You worry too much.

I’m going to pass on trying to decipher who did what on the Eliot Spitzer stuff that you mentioned since it makes my hair hurt to even think about it trying to work all that out.

But you may recall that there has been a change in administration in Albany recently and the Republican influence over things in places such as Rennselaer County may be a bit shakey — what with Uncle Joe under FBI investigation and all and the Republicans in serious danger of losing their majority in the Senate.

Bruno’s ship is taking on water and sinking fast.

3) We salute your ability to reference a 20 year old bill memo.

It was very interesting but “simple is best” IMHO.

Let’s start with mail fraud and work our way up to other things as the investigation progresses.

4) I am also personally impressed by the John Galt/Ayn Rand protagonist connection in your nom de plume.

Not to mention I believe that Mr. Galt was an architect.

Comment by topo gigio — March 7, 2007 @ 8:28 pm

I stand corrected again.

Howard Roark in The Fountainhead was the architect.

Galt was mentioned elsewhere in her novels.

Comment by John Galt — March 8, 2007 @ 7:36 am

Twenty-one years ago ….

Young Andrew Cuomo’s father, Mario, got right up on the PRESS BANDWAGON, as young Andrew, the son, is doing now ….

And he told us people out here how life in New York State was going to be better, YADA, YADA, YADA, because of HIS Enterprise Corruption Law ….

And then, like everything that comes out of Albany in the name of “reform”, as soon as the press conference was over, that law went right into the trash barrel ….

And the politicians went back to trying to find and get some of that MORE THAN forty-four BILLION dollars that a study by the Joint House-Senate Subcommittee on Investigations estimated in 1976 was floating around out there, JUST LOOKING FOR A HOME ….

MORE THAN FORTY-FOUR BILLION DOLLARS …

And that was in 1976 ….

So the question arises, WHAT EVER DID HAPPEN TO ALL THAT MONEY?

For it didn’t go into someone’s trash, is my thought on it, anyway …..

And if one studies history ….

And John Galt has been known to do that ….

One finds that CORRUPTION in NYS began to increase after 1976 ….

Especially in “IRON DUKE” Joe Bruno’s personal fiefdom of Rensselaer County ….

Where the “old DUKE” is indeed all the “law” there is ….

And the serfs had damn well better know the difference, or else ….

Which brings us to the FBI ….

Who were allegedly sent running and yipping and ki-yiying like whipped dogs with their tails between their legs back to Albany back in 1989 for looking too closely into “BIG JOE” Bruno’s personal affairs over here ….

Which does not make us feel very trusting of the FBI or the Office of the U.S. Attorney over here today ….

Where in the article “Feds follow cash trail - Authorities examine whether payments to Bruno’s consulting firm were bid to gain influence” by BRENDAN J. LYONS published Friday, December 22, 2006 ….

POWERHOUSE RENSSELAER COUNTY REPUBLICAN LAWYER AND MOUTHPIECE E. STEWART JONES CAN BE SEEN CLEARLY THREATENING THE U.S. ATTORNEYS ALLEGEDLY LOOKING INTO “BIG JOE’S” BUSINESS ONCE AGAIN:

“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.”

While in an article entitled “Bruno defends his dealings - ‘We’ve followed the letter of the law,’ says Senate GOP majority leader” by JAMES M. ODATO published Saturday, December 23, 2006 …..

The “IRON DUKE” himself is quoted as follows:

“Bruno framed the situation differently, calling the investigation ‘more a media event’.”

MORE A MEDIA EVENT ….

So …

Put two-and-two together, the way we do “math” over here ….

And we don’t see a thing happening ….

Just like the last time ….

In 1989, when the FBI Special Agent digging around over here in connection with a federal HOBBS ACT investigation got his “*** scorched” for looking too closely at “BIG JOE” Bruno’s affairs ….

So …

WHERE DID WE SAY THAT MORE THAN $44 BILLION WENT TO, AGAIN?

The money and power that young Andrew Cuomo’s father Mario told us back in 1986 was being derived by organized crime through its illegal enterprises and endeavors that was increasingly being used to infiltrate and corrupt businesses, unions and other legitimate enterprises ….

AND TO CORRUPT OUR DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES ….

AS THEY MOST DEFINITELY ARE TODAY ….

One wonders if young Andrew Cuomo might have heard father Mario speculate on any of that around the dinner table way back when ….

WHICH WOULD THEN GIVE HIM A “LEG-UP” ON FINDING THIS CORRUPTION THAT IS CORRUPTING OUR DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES HERE IN NEW YORK STATE TODAY ….

SO THAT HE CAN FINALLY ERADICATE IT ….

AS FATHER MARIO FAILED TO DO ….

BACK IN 1986 ….

Perhaps because there was just too much illicit money in play back then …..

To put a stop to the game ….

Because if there is one thing that a politician’s pocket never ceases to be fond of ….

IT IS A WHOLE BIG PILE OF MONEY ….

SUCH AS MORE THAN $44 BILLION …

THAT WAS ALREADY IN PLAY BACK IN 1976 ….

And so …

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=3969#comments

[Livyjr]

And so ….

The last item of interest comes from the NY TIMES story “State Investigates Auditor’s Approval of Payments” by MICHAEL COOPER, published March 6, 2007, wherein is stated:

“Investigators said they were troubled that the scheme went undetected for more than eight years.”

In light of what was done to this engineer in Rensselaer County who got incarcerated in a secure mental facility at the stratton VA Hospital on August 22, 2001, for looking into the wrong places in Rensselaer County ….

Where the New York State Department of Law under Eliot Spitzer defended the doctor who issued the FRAUDULENT INVOLUNTARY COMMITMENT ORDER that was used to take this engineer into custody at the Stratton VA Hospital on August 22, 2001 ….

DESPITE THE FACT THAT WHAT THE DOCTOR DID WAS A VIOLATION OF THE LAW …

ISSUING THE INVOLUNTARY COMMITMENT ORDER SIGHT UNSEEN, AS HE DID ….

THE IMMEDIATE QUESTION WHICH COMES TO MIND ….

Is what did Eliot Spitzer have to do with that eight-year period of lack of detection of this scheme?

Where was Eliot Spitzer’s attention turned while this deal was going down?

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=3969#comments

"$1.23M state scam alleged - Cuomo accuses auditor of using phony business to fund lavish lifestyle"

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

First published: Wednesday, March 7, 2007

ALBANY -- A 25-year state employee with a taste for vintage Corvettes, a passion for local soccer clubs and an eye for upscale homes is in trouble with his employer and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who Tuesday accused the man of scamming the state out of $1.23 million to support his lifestyle.

As a result of his Public Integrity Unit's investigation, Cuomo is seeking indictments from a Rensselaer County grand jury against James L. Leggiero, 49, of Slingerlands.

Leggiero and his wife, Kathleen, work for the state Office of Mental Health, and he operates of an illegitimate business under contract with OMH, according to court records Cuomo's office filed Tuesday in state Supreme Court of Rensselaer County.

Kathleen Leggiero is not accused of wrongdoing in the documents.

Investigators say Leggiero, an auditor with the agency, stole $1.23 million from the state during the last eight years by allegedly approving payments on behalf of OMH to his company, Very Important Property.

VIP operates from a post office box in East Greenbush and was contracted by OMH to do "site feasibility studies."

VIP was supposed to make reports on potential locations for OMH-sponsored residential treatment facilities.

But investigators don't think much work was done because many of the addresses VIP charged the state for scouting may not exist or would not qualify for residential living.

Beyond that, VIP's expenses don't seem to have anything to do with the business.

"VIP appears to be a sham entity used by Leggiero to engage in an extensive fraudulent voucher scheme," Michael Battisti, a senior investigator for the attorney general's office, wrote in an affidavit.

The affidavit was part of a request for a warrant to search Leggiero personally as well as his red Cadillac Escalade, his 3,000-square-foot house and its three-car attached garage in a high-end housing development, carriage houses, sheds and pool houses, computers and his state work space.

Attorney general officials found he owns five cars, including a vintage 1958 Corvette and two more recent Corvettes, plus the Escalade and a Chevrolet Trailblazer.

Cuomo's office seized the cars Tuesday, said spokesman John Milgrim.

Officials also froze Leggiero's bank accounts and searched him.

Leggiero, a $79,000-a-year auditor for OMH, approved the vouchers to VIP, Battisti said.

He and his wife, a $77,624 budget unit employee of the agency, are both linked to VIP, according to court and state records.

"It seems unlikely that Leggiero would have been able to afford these assets based on his and his wife's state salaries alone," Battisti said.

Jill Daniels, an OMH spokeswoman, said "appropriate administrative steps" will be taken once findings of the investigation are obtained by the agency.

She said Leggiero didn't appear at work Tuesday.

Starting today he won't be allowed to return to the agency, she said.

She had no information about Kathleen Leggiero's status.

The Office of the Comptroller triggered the investigation when it found that VIP had no telephone number and only a post office box, and suspected something was amiss, the records say.

Bank records for VIP list only one telephone number -- which is assigned to James Leggiero's state work desk.

Further investigation showed VIP lacked a valid employer tax identification number on file with TrustCo Bank and the comptroller's office.

"There obviously has been a lack of control for him to do this," said Milgrim.

Checks drawn from VIP, according to the records, went to several local soccer organizations, mortgage payments, cash to Leggiero, and a child care company.

None of the draw-downs seemed to be for business expenses, the records state.

The auditor and his wife appeared to try to conceal their association with VIP, which began working for OMH in 1998.

Neither reported the business on their Ethics Commission filings as required, although James Leggiero lists himself as vice president of a soccer club; his wife lists herself as president of a soccer club.

The ethics filings also say she has two children, and he has three.

The attorney general's office alleges Leggiero engaged in grand larceny, fraud, money laundering, falsifying business records and offering a false instrument, as well as violations of the public officer's law.

Records show he also purchased a house in 2000 with an former OMH employee, Kelly A. Marhafer, 43, paying $195,500 for a Rensselaer County dwelling.

Marhafer continued to work with the agency until 2002 when she transferred to the comptroller's office.

She is paid $38,590 in the job.

She and the Leggieros did not return messages left at their residences.

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

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp...wsdate=3/7/2007

[Livyjr]

NY TIMES

Metro Briefing | New York

"Albany: State Auditor Suspended Amid Investigation"

By MICHAEL COOPER

Published: March 8, 2007

A state auditor who is being investigated for approving more than $1.2 million in payments to a company he owned was suspended without pay yesterday, officials said.

The auditor, James L. Leggiero, is being investigated by the office of State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo for approving dozens of state payments to what investigators described as a “sham entity” that he then used to make mortgage and car payments.

Mr. Leggiero was suspended from the state’s Office of Mental Health yesterday, and officials there were preparing to fire him, said Jill Daniels, an agency spokeswoman.

Mr. Leggiero did not return a telephone call yesterday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin

[Livyjr]

"Cuomo nixes benefits for board members"

Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today ordered the New York State Power Authority and the Thruway Authority to stop paying health insurance premiums for their board members.

Short of that, he’s asked them to submit the names of current and former board members receiving such benefits, and said he will “inspect the lists and consider appropriate enforcement actions.”

Cuomo said his office is also sending approximately 100 letters to New York State authorities “that appear to have enabling statutes prohibiting the payment of benefits to board members."

"The authorities are being informed that compensation for their board members is illegal.”

More letters may follow, he said.

“For too long, public authorities have operated without adequate oversight."

"Authorities, like all public entities, must be held to the highest ethical standards."

"My office’s actions today are a first step toward providing that needed oversight and ensuring that the hundreds of public authorities in this state will act with the integrity that the public rightfully demands,” the AG said in a statement.

The orders come in the wake of a Feb. 28 opinion that the New York State Housing Finance Agency and State of New York Mortgage Agency also could not pay health insurance premiums for current or retired board members based on statutes barring members from receiving “salary or other compensation.”

The opinion had been requested by the agencies.

The Associated Press reports that members of the two housing boards had been getting the benefits since 1998; last year, they voted to give members and their spouses benefits that would continue after they retired.

Power Authority spokesman Michael Saltzman, speaking to the AP, disputed Cuomo’s assertion that paying the health insurance premiums was illegal.

Thruway spokeswoman Betsy Graham told the AP the authority was reviewing Cuomo’s legal opinion.

http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2007/03/08...-board-members/

[Livyjr]

"Mr. DiNapoli's warning"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Friday, March 9, 2007

In his first major statement since taking office this year, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has warned Gov. Spitzer that he is spending at an "unsustainable rate" and that, if left unchecked, there will be a $13 billion budget deficit in three years.

Not only that but, according to the comptroller, state debt could soar by 27 percent, to $66 billion, by the 2011-12 fiscal year.

But running the numbers is only half the challenge for Mr. DiNapoli.

The other half is persuading the public, and state leaders, that his budget analysis represents the best objective assessment of New York's finances now available.

Ordinarily, that would not be a problem.

Comptrollers are expected to be fiscal watchdogs who scrutinize the bottom line without regard to partisan concerns.

But Mr. DiNapoli came to office amid a heated controversy that pitted Gov. Spitzer, who wanted an independent panel to select candidates to succeed Alan Hevesi, against the Legislature, which selected Mr. DiNapoli, a former Long Island assemblyman, even though he was not on the screening panel's list.

That standoff will likely hover over every pronouncement Mr. DiNapoli makes.

For the moment, his detractors will wonder if his budget analysis is really a payback for Mr. Spitzer's opposition.

Then again, Mr. DiNapoli's numbers can be viewed as reinforcing Mr. Spitzer's call to control Medicaid and health care spending -- a call that has met early opposition from Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, and prompted a curt observation by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, that "cuts by themselves do not constitute reform."

Mr. Spitzer's office, meanwhile, told The Associated Press that the governor agrees that looming deficits are too large, but that Mr. Spitzer's budget addresses the need to bring the numbers in check by including a savings plan for new initiatives and a plan to reduce the state's structural deficit.

"If adopted by the Legislature, the savings proposed in the budget will help hold annual growth in spending to a manageable level," a spokeswoman said.

Those words have a more constructive tone than Mr. Spitzer's initial assessment of Mr. DiNapoli as "thoroughly and totally unqualified for the job."

And they also throw the ball back into the Legislature's court.

Will Mr. Bruno and Mr. Silver support Mr. Spitzer's save-as-you-go plan, as well as his proposal to contain medical costs?

Or will they advocate instead that short-term surpluses be used for added spending?

At this moment only one thing is clear: They have been warned about spending, and warned by someone who was only recently one of their own.

[Livyjr]

And if there was a genesis for this thread on the "PORK" in New York ....

This AMD story would certainly be a part of it ....

From the CORPORATE WELFARE side of it, anyway ....

The MODERN STATE has a DUTY to help out the needy corporations in America ....

To ensure that their stockholders will continue to rake in the fruits of the profits ...

Which is what "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer's new PORKOLOGIST, or PORKMEISTER, or PORK DISPENSER ...

Up from Pennsylvania at $190,000 per year is here to do ...

Keep that money flowing into the shareholder's pockets ....

By taking it out of OUR pockets to do so ...

Which the MODERN STATE sees as being "fair" ....

Since CORPORATIONS are the ones who put the BIG BUCKS back in the pockets of the politicians ...

Who CONTROL the MODERN STATE ...

To ENRICH themselves ...

At OUR expense ...

And so ...

"Money woes muddy plan for Malta site"

By JORDAN ROBERTSON, Associated Press

First published: Saturday, March 10, 2007

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The high-flying Advanced Micro Devices Inc. of 2006 has given way to a company in financial peril, saddled with debt and bleeding from a brutal price battle with its larger and suddenly resurgent Silicon Valley archrival, Intel Corp.

AMD -- which is planning a $3.2 billion computer chip factory for Saratoga County -- finds itself the subject of rumors of a possible takeover or private-equity cash infusion.

While it wasn't long ago that AMD was stealing a big slice of the microprocessor market and emerging as a long-term threat to Intel, those very gains may have left AMD's well running dry.

Industry analysts said both companies are suffering from the need to balance the near-term goals of shareholders and the huge expenditures required to stay competitive.

"What this comes down to is the companies are playing a long-term game," said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research.

"The financial people would be delighted to hear AMD would not be investing in any factories."

"They would be delighted if Intel would not compete on price to gain market share and would focus on margins."

"That's great for the next three quarters, but a train wreck for both companies."

AMD officials say they are still on track to make a decision about whether to build a 1.2 million-square-foot "chip fab" at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta.

New York state has offered the company $1.2 billion in financial incentives, including $650 million in cash, and AMD has between now and July 2009 to make its decision.

Company executives were in the Capital Region in January talking to community and business groups, political leaders and news organizations and sounded extremely upbeat about the company's chances of building here.

"The nature of our business is a cyclical business," spokesman Travis Bullard told the Times Union Friday.

"That's just the nature of the business."

"I'd hate for people to take a short-term look at the finances."

Though the price competition has cut into both chip makers' profits, Wall Street has punished AMD's stock particularly hard.

Its shares have plunged more than 60 percent over the past year on fears about the company's ability to continue gaining share without hurting profit margins.

Meanwhile, Intel's stock is down just 4 percent.

AMD is currently undergoing a 12-week initial design review of the Luther Forest project to create a rough draft of what the fab will look like.

The company is also undergoing its biannual long-range forecasting process.

Executives will take information from those reviews to make a formal recommendation to the company's board of directors on whether to move ahead with the project this year or to table the decision for a later date.

"It's not a decision that's based on one, two or three quarters of performance," Bullard said.

"This is a long-term project."

"We're kind of used to the roller-coaster ride."

If built, the Luther Forest factory would employ 1,200 people.

But local economic development officials say it would create thousands more construction and high-tech jobs and possibly help to attract additional semiconductor companies to the region.

"Building a new fab is a long-term process," AMD said in a statement also issued Friday.

"We have a great development package in place with the state of New York, and our project timeline is continuing on schedule."

"We've started the initial design review phase, and we anticipate making a final decision sometime this year."

The shifting fortunes highlight the challenges facing AMD as it squares off against a company with seven times its annual revenue and a history of spending heavily on research.

"AMD, as a company, has enough strong parts that it will survive, but I think it's going to be a rough couple of years for this organization," said Stephen Kleynhans, a research vice president at Gartner Inc.

AMD captured about 4 percent of the overall processor market from Intel in 2006, according to Mercury Research.

AMD scored a particularly big victory by partnering with Dell Inc., once an exclusive Intel client.

But Intel, which still controls about three-quarters of the total market, has unveiled a lineup of powerful and energy-efficient processors that appears to be slowing AMD's offensive.

AMD continues to gain market share in desktops and laptops, but its share of the lucrative server market has leveled off at about 22 percent after gaining 5 percentage points against Intel in the first half of 2006, according to Mercury Research.

Last month, Intel announced an alliance with server and software maker Sun Microsystems Inc. that will put Intel chips back in Sun servers and workstations after several years of AMD exclusivity.

AMD is banking on regaining momentum with the mid-2007 launch of its new server chip, code-named Barcelona, which has four computing engines and an updated design.

The company acknowledges that Intel beat it to market with four-core chips that launched in November.

But AMD insists its design for getting the cores to communicate with each other will serve as a key advantage.

"Five years ago no one knew who we were in the server space, now we're a player," said Mario Rivas, AMD's executive vice president for the computing products group.

"This will allow us to be a serious contender in the server space and regain the performance crown."

"There is a halo effect that goes with that."

But analysts are not optimistic about a quick turnaround for AMD.

This week, AMD warned it was unlikely to meet its first-quarter revenue guidance of $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion.

Wall Street is worried that AMD is in dire need of cash after its $5.6 billion acquisition of graphics chip maker ATI Technologies Inc. and heavy spending on factory upgrades.

AMD bought ATI last year under the philosophy that combining traditional processing chores with graphics capabilities in one chip would give AMD a long-term advantage over Intel.

But the deal reverberated through AMD's finances.

At the end of 2006, AMD was sitting on $1.5 billion in cash but had $3.8 billion in debt, including $2.2 billion associated with the ATI acquisition.

AMD said in its annual report that the big debt may crimp its ability to borrow more money and pay for $2.5 billion in capital expenditures planned in 2007, most of which is expected to be spent at its Dresden, Germany, operations.

"It's a dilemma -- we believe AMD needs to spend the money to build the fabs (chip factories), but they may have to find some additional financing to achieve those goals," said analyst John Lau of investment bank Jefferies & Co.

Intel ended 2006 in a healthier financial position: $10 billion in cash and $2 billion in total debt.

Its R&D expenditures have helped Intel pull ahead of AMD in producing chips based on 65-nanometer and 45-nanometer technology, which shrinks chip circuitry to 65- and 45-billionths of a meter.

AMD said it is closing the gap with Intel and believes its partnership with IBM Corp. makes rolling out the technology more cost-efficient.

Perhaps one lifeline for AMD will come from none other than Intel itself.

AMD is suing Intel for antitrust violations, claiming that Intel undercut AMD by forcing customers into exclusive deals and offering secret rebates.

Trial isn't due to begin for two more years, but there's precedent for a settlement.

In the mid-1990s, AMD and Intel agreed to resolve several legal claims against each other, and one result was that AMD won the right to keep producing chips on the x86 design architecture -- which both companies still use today.

Staff writer Larry Rulison contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

"Pact puts Capitol on notice - DA Soares, Cuomo vow to share resources to clean up corruption in state government"

By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Friday, January 12, 2007

ALBANY -- In what they touted as a historic pact, Albany County District Attorney David Soares and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launched a joint effort Thursday to root out corruption in state government.

"This is not the changing of the guard," Cuomo said.

"It's the changing of an era."

As the state's top legal official, the attorney general has jurisdiction in civil matters, but only partial jurisdiction in criminal cases.

Most cases the office prosecutes involve violations of Executive Law rather than Penal Law.

But the Criminal Prosecutions Bureau also handles criminal cases when the governor appoints the attorney general to supersede a district attorney.

The alliance with Soares extends the attorney general's reach, impact and power into the criminal realm.

Under the agreement announced Thursday, lawyers in Cuomo's office will now have access to the grand jury.

From the web-edition of the Albany, New York Times Union ....

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4009#comments

Comment by John Galt — March 9, 2007 @ 9:22 am

And while we are on the subject of some necessary clarifications in here this morning ….

With respect to young Andrew Cuomo and his alleged “corruption-fighting initiatives” here in Albany, New York ….

In an article entitled “Pact puts Capitol on notice - DA Soares, Cuomo vow to share resources to clean up corruption in state government” by MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON published Friday, January 12, 2007, it is stated:

“In what they touted as a historic pact, Albany County District Attorney David Soares and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launched a joint effort Thursday to root out corruption in state government.”

“This is not the changing of the guard,” Cuomo said.

“It’s the changing of an era.”

“As the state’s top legal official, the attorney general has jurisdiction in civil matters, but only partial jurisdiction in criminal cases.”

“Under the agreement announced Thursday, lawyers in Cuomo’s office WILL NOW HAVE ACCESS to the grand jury.”

What I would like to do ….

As an older New Yorker who still recalls OUR having had a state Constitution, once, anyway, when I was young …

Is to point to the BILL OF RIGHTS of OUR New York State Constitution ….

Specifically to section 6 of ARTICLE I ….

Wherein is stated …

In language that is both clear and easily comprehensible to the common citizen with a minimal education …

Language that does not require interpretation by a lawyer, SINCE IT IS OUR CITIZEN’S BILL OF RIGHTS, and not theirs …

As follows:

“No person shall be subject to be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense; nor shall he or she be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself or herself, providing, that any public officer who, upon being called before a grand jury to testify concerning the conduct of his or her present office or of any public office held by him or her within five years prior to such grand jury call to testify, or the performance of his or her official duties in any such present or prior offices, refuses to sign a waiver of immunity against subsequent criminal prosecution, or to answer any relevant question concerning such matters before such grand jury, shall by virtue of such refusal, be disqualified from holding any other public office or public employment for a period of five years from the date of such refusal to sign a waiver of immunity against subsequent prosecution, or to answer any relevant question concerning such matters before such grand jury, and shall be removed from his or her present office by the appropriate authority or shall forfeit his or her present office at the suit of the attorney-general.”

“THE POWER of grand juries to inquire into the wilful misconduct in office of public officers, and to find indictments or to direct the filing of informations in connection with such inquiries, SHALL NEVER BE SUSPENDED OR IMPAIRED BY LAW.”

Now, that language cannot be misunderstood, except by a politician or lawyer, perhaps ….

And being in OUR BILL OF RIGHTS, as it is, what that language does is to INSTRUCT OUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS, AND OUR GOVERNMENT ….

And this would seem to include young Andrew Cuomo ….

As to what OUR intentions as citizens were, back when we still had a Constitution with a BILL OF RIGHTS, before “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer’s crowd abandoned it, anyway ….

And clearly, IT WAS OUR INTENTION back when we still had a Constitution with a CITIZEN’S BILL OF RIGHTS that OUR grand juries had the RESPONSIBILITY, on OUR behalf, to dig, and dig hard, into public corruption, here in New York State, despite the attempts of crooked politicians and lawyers-on-the-make to have it be otherwise ….

And the vehicle for starting that process, was the ARTICLE 78 ….

Wherein the common citizen, WITHOUT THE NEED FOR A LAWYER, was able to obtain an initial ruling from a state Supreme Court Justice that a public official had acted in violation of the law ….

Without going into detail in here, which would be extensive, suffice to say, that that provision of OUR New York State BILL OF RIGHTS has indeed been STRIPPED from us, by the politicians and the BAR ASSOCIATION ….

To OUR detriment …

So that what we have now is BIDNESS AS USUAL down there in CORRUPT Albany …

With a flurry of press releases telling us that young Andrew Cuomo is trying to get the train back on the track ….

Well, out here in the country ….

It is OUR collective opinion that IF young Andrew Cuomo really is sincere in fighting corruption here in New York State ….

He will get right up there on the PRESS BANDWAGON …

And he will acknowledge section 6 of ARTICLE I of OUR state Constitution ….

And then he will do more than simply issue press releases paying lip service to OUR Constitution ….

He will actually get out there instead ….

And he will start using section 6 of ARTICLE I of the New York State Constitution as it was intended to be used ….

ON OUR BEHALF AS CITIZENS OF THIS STATE ….

And the best place for him to start, in our collective opinion …

Would be down there in the federal district court for the Northern District of New York …

Where in an article entitled “Feeding off taxpayers no crime, lawyer says - Cronyism, big spending called usual government practice at Strevell trial” by JAMES M. ODATO published Thursday, January 18, 2007 ….

It was reported that:

“A defense lawyer for the Rensselaer County entrepreneur whose organization got more than $1 million in member item grants directed by Sen. Joseph L. Bruno is arguing in federal court that dishonesty isn’t necessarily a federal offense.”

“William P. Fanciullo, lawyer for J. Felix Strevell, the former director of the now-defunct Institute for Entrepreneurship, also said that Strevell’s actions, including putting relatives on the state payroll, were normal practices in government.”

“The case before U.S. District Court Justice Gary L. Sharpe centers on Strevell’s lavish spending on himself and on parties that honored lawmakers who helped him get public money.”

It is our belief as CITIZENS FOR THE CONSTITUTION here in New York State that the provisions of the New York State Executive Law governing the conduct of the New York State Attorney General, and this would include young Andrew Cuomo, provide that the New York State Attorney General could and should intervene in this matter on behalf of the CITIZENS of this state to say “IT IS NOT SO, ACCORDING TO NEW YORK STATE LAW” …..

Elsewise, it seems that we are going to have this BUSH APPOINTEE, Judge Sharpe, ruling on behalf of the United States government that CORRUPTION is indeed the normal practice here in New York State ….

Which, of course, would reflect REALITY AS IT IS, but not how it should be …

And so …

[Livyjr]

From the web-edition of the Albany, New York Times Union ....

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4009#comments

Comment by John Galt — March 9, 2007 @ 9:22 am

“No person shall be subject to be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense; nor shall he or she be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself or herself, providing, that any public officer who, upon being called before a grand jury to testify concerning the conduct of his or her present office or of any public office held by him or her within five years prior to such grand jury call to testify, or the performance of his or her official duties in any such present or prior offices, refuses to sign a waiver of immunity against subsequent criminal prosecution, or to answer any relevant question concerning such matters before such grand jury, shall by virtue of such refusal, be disqualified from holding any other public office or public employment for a period of five years from the date of such refusal to sign a waiver of immunity against subsequent prosecution, or to answer any relevant question concerning such matters before such grand jury, and shall be removed from his or her present office by the appropriate authority or shall forfeit his or her present office at the suit of the attorney-general.”

“THE POWER of grand juries to inquire into the wilful misconduct in office of public officers, and to find indictments or to direct the filing of informations in connection with such inquiries, SHALL NEVER BE SUSPENDED OR IMPAIRED BY LAW.”

Now, that language cannot be misunderstood, except by a politician or lawyer, perhaps ….

And being in OUR BILL OF RIGHTS, as it is, what that language does is to INSTRUCT OUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS, AND OUR GOVERNMENT ….

And this would seem to include young Andrew Cuomo ….

As to what OUR intentions as citizens were, back when we still had a Constitution with a BILL OF RIGHTS, before “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer’s crowd abandoned it, anyway ….

And clearly, IT WAS OUR INTENTION back when we still had a Constitution with a CITIZEN’S BILL OF RIGHTS that OUR grand juries had the RESPONSIBILITY, on OUR behalf, to dig, and dig hard, into public corruption, here in New York State, despite the attempts of crooked politicians and lawyers-on-the-make to have it be otherwise ….

And the vehicle for starting that process, was the ARTICLE 78 ….

Wherein the common citizen, WITHOUT THE NEED FOR A LAWYER, was able to obtain an initial ruling from a state Supreme Court Justice that a public official had acted in violation of the law ….

And continuing with that exchange ...

From the web-edition of the Albany, New York Times Union ....

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4009#comments

Comment by Smith — March 9, 2007 @ 1:07 pm

Dear John Galt,

Ever filed an Article 78 proceeding?

First, it’s not cheap enough to be within the means of an ordinary citizen trying to get some simple government service.

Second, no - you do not need a lawyer, but if your opponent (some government) uses a lawyer (a certainty), then you are at a severe procedural disadvantage if you don’t use one.

If the AG wants to be an advocate for the public interest, let him have at it.

Same with the Governor.

Comment by John Galt — March 9, 2007 @ 6:47 pm

Indeed, indeed ….

John Galt has filed and won several Article 78’s ….

In Albany County Supreme Court ….

Against some of the best attorneys in this area ….

Including one of the members of the vaunted and widely famed “CAPITAL DISTRICT AREA DREAM TEAM” featuring E. Stewart Jones and Company ….

And John Galt prevailed in an appeal in the Appellate Division, Third Department against the New York State Attorney General in a matter involving section 1 of ARTICLE IX of the New York State Constitution, the BILL OF RIGHTS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK in relation to the New York State Mined Land Reclamation Law …..

Winning in court against lawyers in an Article 78 is easy ….

I have generally found them to be full of crap ….

And little more …

While it would be my habit to be armed with the law and the facts …..

Elsewise there was little sense in going to court, you see?

And the ones from the Attorney General’s Office are condescending and ill-tempered to an extreme ….

Very snippy and quite dismissive ….

And not at all squeamish about losing some evidence and testimony to keep a federal civil rights lawsuit involving a disabled veteran out of the federal District Court for the Northern District of New York ….

Including a sworn statement of an eye-witness account by an Albany Police Officer of an unlawful imprisonment at the Stratton VA Hospital on August 22, 2001 ….

The New York State Attorney General always taking the lead, you see ….

Throwing its considerable weight around ….

In defense of “clients” who my paperwork demonstrated had violated the laws of the State of New York …..

PROTECTION!

The New York State Attorney General peddles influence and PROTECTION …

And when challenged …..

As it was ….

When LORD CORNBURY REBORN “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer was Attorney General ….

It can become quite dangerous ….

And did ….

Which is an on-going story ….

http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/for...mp;#entry695616

Over in another parcel of the BLOG-O-SPHERE …

Out there in the far reaches of CYBERSPACE …

And so …

[Livyjr]

As an older American ....

Who has been largely "cut out" of POLITICAL DIALOGUE ....

The majority of his life ....

Due to a whole host of reasons ....

I find this a fascinating time to be alive, quite frankly ....

And that is due to this COMMONGROUNDCOMMONSENSE FORUM ....

In large part ....

Precisely because this FORUM provides me ....

The commonest of common citizens out here in OUR America ....

With an incredible ability ....

To communicate with people all over America ....

And the candid world, for that matter ...

AT THE LITERAL DROP OF A HAT ....

So as to be able to learn about that world, on the one hand ....

And in turn, to be able to make my voice and thoughts known to that world ....

Despite the remoteness of my actual physical location ....

Or my inability to travel ....

And so ....

This is an EXPERIMENT IN PURE DEMOCRACY ....

Which OUR forefathers could likely never have conceived of ....

Instant commuications with each other on issues of importance to us all ....

No matter how far we might be removed from each other ....

Out there in the "real world" .....

And so ....

[Livyjr]

And so ....

This is an EXPERIMENT IN PURE DEMOCRACY ....

Which OUR forefathers could likely never have conceived of ....

Instant commuications with each other on issues of importance to us all ....

No matter how far we might be removed from each other ....

Out there in the "real world" .....

And so ....

And with respect to that ON-GOING EXPERIMENT IN GOVERNMENT OF, BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE ....

Which was set in motion back in 1776 ....

Here in OUR America ....

By the United States Declaration of Independence ....

We have a continuing example of it ....

The direct CITIZEN-TO-CITIZEN part of it, anyway ....

From the web-edition of the Albany, New York Times Union ....

As follows ....

And so ...

Comment by John Galt — March 10, 2007 @ 4:19 pm

When one takes a look at the New York State Constitution …

Which dates back to the very time of the Declaration of Independence of New York from Great Britain ….

AND WHICH IS REALLY QUITE ELEGANT IN ITS SIMPLICITY …

Being easy to read and understand ….

BY THE COMMON CITIZEN ….

For whom the New York State Constitution is for …

The first thing one comes across is the PREAMBLE, which sets the TONE for all of what is to follow:

“We The People of the State of New York, grateful … for our Freedom, in order to secure its blessings, DO ESTABLISH THIS CONSTITUTION ….”

GRATEFUL FOR OUR FREEDOM …

IN ORDER TO SECURE ITS BLESSINGS …

We then have OUR New York State Bill of Rights, next ….

OR FIRST, IF YOU WILL …

Before SUFFRAGE, the LEGISLATURE, and finally, and lastly, the EXECUTIVE …

In that descending order ….

And when one looks at § 17 of OUR New York State BILL OF RIGHTS ….

One finds as follows:

“Labor of human beings is not a commodity nor an article of commerce and shall never be so considered or construed.”

Now, that language should be readily understandable to a “SKADDEN MAN” like “STEAMROLLER” SPITZER ….

Or LORD CORNBURY up from New York City to view his possessions, and holdings ….

As he is known out in the country, up here, anyway …

Especially since the “SKADDEN MAN” Spitzer was also New York State Attorney General ….

With a duty pursuant to New York State Executive Law to defend the CONSTITUTIONALITY of existing New York State statutes ….

And so ….

It seems unseemly …

Not to mention quite off-putting ….

To keep seeing these expensive TV commericals being put out by the “STEAMROLLER” ….

That seem to treat the labor of of these nurses just as if it were indeed a commodity out there in the SPITZER-world market place, or as an article of commerce …..

PURSUANT TO OUR NEW YORK STATE CONSTITUTION …

The job that “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer now has in the State of New York …

While he is drawing a paycheck as governor, anyway ….

IS ONE THAT IS REALLY QUITE SIMPLE …

AND QUITE LIMITED, AS WELL ….

Which can be determined by studying OUR New York State history …

In conjunction with ARTICLE IV of OUR New York State Constitution …

WHEREIN “STEAMROLLER” SPITZER’S REAL JOB AS GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK IS DEFINED AS FOLLOWS IN SECTION 3 of ARTICLE IV, to wit:

* The governor shall communicate by message to the Legislature at every session the condition of the state, and recommend such matters to it as he or she shall judge expedient …..

*The governor shall expedite all such measures as may be resolved upon by the legislature; and

*Shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed ….

Now, that is “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer’s FULL-TIME JOB as New York State Governor ….

And if he were to be out there really doing that job ….

24/7 ….

Instead of spending BIG BUCKS to attack people in this state, whoever they may be …

With respect to the issue of health care, anyway ….

“STEAMROLLER” Spitzer would be paying GREAT HEED to the provisions of § 3 of ARTICLE XVII of OUR NEW YORK STATE CONSTITUTION ….

WHICH IS THE VERY FIRST “LAW” THAT HE SHALL “TAKE CARE” IS FAITHFULLY EXECUTED …

24/7 ….

And wherein is stated:

“The protection and promotion of the health of the inhabitants of the state are matters of public concern and provision therefor shall be made by the state and by such of its subdivisions and in such manner, and by such means as the legislature shall from time to time determine.”

And upon reading those words …

IN OUR ORGANIC LAW ….

Which go back to 1938 ….

What the “STEAMROLLER” should then be doing ….

Instead of spending BIG BUCKS attacking people …

Would be finding out exactly what has been set in place here in New York State by the LEGISLATURE to PROTECT AND PROMOTE OUR HEALTH …

SINCE 1938 …

STARTING WITH PREVENTION …

AS THE NEW YORK STATE PUBLIC HEALTH LAW REQUIRES …

IF IT WERE TO ACTUALLY BE ENFORCED AND UPHELD, THAT IS …

And out of that study …

IF THE “STEAMROLLER” WAS ACTUALLY DOING HIS DUTY ….

TO TAKE CARE THAT THE LAWS OF THE STATE ARE FAITHFULLY EXECUTED …

INSTEAD OF PLAYING AT CHEAP THEATRICAL POLITICS ….

BY SPENDING BIG BUCKS ON GLOSSY TV ADS TO ATTACK CITIZENS OF THIS STATE …

ANY DEFICIENCIES IN THE EXISTING HEALTH CARE SYSTEM FOUND BY THE “STEAMROLLER” ….

AND THIS WOULD START WITH DEFICIENCIES IN PREVENTION …

DUE TO LONG-TERM NEGLIGENCE IN THAT MATTER BY THE NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH …

AND ITS COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENTS ….

All of whom have been required since 1988 to have in place Municipal Public Health Plans approved by the New York State Health Commissioner ….

TO KEEP DOWN THE COSTS OF HEALTH CARE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK …

BY STRESSING AND PROVIDING PREVENTION, BEFORE THE NEED FOR TREATMENT BECOMES OVERWHELMING …

Any REAL PROBLEMS uncovered by the “STEAMROLLER” …

In OUR existing health care system, including and starting with prevention …

Would be brought back before OUR LEGISLATURE ….

By the “STEAMROLLER” …

For discussion and further action …

IN THE CIVILIZED MANNER ENVISIONED IN OUR CONSTITUTION …

By WE, The People of the State of New York, grateful for our Freedom, in order to secure its blessings ….

AND THEN REAL SOLUTIONS TO THESE PROBLEMS COULD BE FOUND ..

Again in a civilized manner ….

Instead of this POLITICAL CRAP that is being jammed down OUR throats by this “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer …

As he continues to attack these nurses ….

IN A VERY PUBLIC, UNSEEMLY AND OFF-PUTTING MANNER …

And so …

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4017#comments

[Livyjr]

And with respect to that ON-GOING EXPERIMENT IN GOVERNMENT OF, BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE ....

Which was set in motion back in 1776 ....

Here in OUR America ....

By the United States Declaration of Independence ....

We have a continuing example of it ....

The direct CITIZEN-TO-CITIZEN part of it, anyway ....

From the web-edition of the Albany, New York Times Union ....

As follows ....

And so ...

And yet again ....

From the web-edition of the Albany, New York Times Union ....

Comment by John Galt — March 11, 2007 @ 8:24 am

To take a really hard look at this issue of Medicaid in the State of New York …..

I would suggest to the lay-person that the place to start is a story in the New York Times entitled “New York Medicaid Fraud May Reach Into Billions” by CLIFFORD J. LEVY and MICHAEL LUO, published July 18, 2005 …

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/18/nyregion...nyt&emc=rss

In that aticle can be found the following set of quotes, which serve to set the stage for where we are right now with this issue of MEDICAID and “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer’s unseemly attacks on these nurses, as if they were the sole cause of the problems we are now facing with this expensive program here in New York State:

“It’s like a honey pot,” said John M. Meekins, a former senior Medicaid fraud prosecutor in Albany who said he grew increasingly disillusioned before he retired in 2003.

“It truly is.”

“That is what they use it for.”

And then, lo and behold, in that same NY Times article, a familiar name pops right out at us:

“This continues to be an area where we think that we have made substantial progress,” said Dennis P. Whalen, executive deputy commissioner of the State Health Department.

The essential specifics concerning Mr. Dennis P. Whalen and his direct connection to “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer in this matter of MEDICAID FRAUD in the State of New York are to be found in the AP article from the TU entitled “Joining Spitzer’s ‘get-it done’ set - Mix of associates, outsiders are named to key administration posts” by MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press, published Saturday, December 16, 2006:

“ALBANY — Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer says ‘a get-it done attitude that state government desperately needs’ is shared by the people he tapped Friday for top level jobs in his administration.”

“When Spitzer won the office in November by a historically large margin, he promised to bring experts to government offices, not political ‘cronies’.”

“Other appointments included Dennis Whalen, who has served in Pataki’s Health Department.”

“He will be Spitzer’s deputy secretary for health and will report to the governor.”

“Whalen has been a widely respected executive deputy commissioner since 1996.”

“He isn’t a physician, so can’t be named commissioner, but his deputy secretary role appears to be above the commissioner’s level.”

“He is a graduate of Marist College and the National Preparedness Leadership Institute at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.”

And then Mr. Whalen’s name pops up once again, in connection with the New York State Department of Health, in the TU article “Hospital CEO up for state health job - Spitzer nominee Richard Daines would have task of carrying out Berger plan” by CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY published Friday, January 19, 2007:

“Gov. Eliot Spitzer Thursday nominated a New York City hospital CEO with a reputation for improving patient care as the state’s next health commissioner.”

“‘Governor Spitzer has chosen a commissioner with an extensive background in hospital management, and we welcome him,’ said John Klein, president of Nurses United, CWA Local 1168.”

“‘At a time when New York’s hospitals are being faced with a scalpel, it’s good to know we’ll have a doctor in Albany.’”

“Daines, a Republican, will serve in the Democratic administration under Dennis Whalen, Spitzer’s choice for the new position of deputy secretary for health.”

And going back to the New York Times article with mention of the name PATAKI and the word REPUBLICANS, we find:

“Despite the debate, and the enormous sums at stake, Albany has never formally studied how much of the huge government investment in Medicaid is lost to criminal activity and abuse.”

“For their part, federal auditors have made New York a leading target for inspection as Washington has begun to crack down on Medicaid spending abuses.”

“The lax regulation of the program did not come about by chance.”

“Doctors, hospitals, health care unions and drug companies have long resisted attempts to increase the policing of Medicaid.”

“The pharmaceutical industry, which has spent millions of dollars annually on political contributions and lobbying in Albany, has defeated several attempts to limit the drugs covered by Medicaid; other states have saved hundreds of millions of dollars annually with such restrictions.”

“Earlier this year, after the Legislature agreed to impose such a limit and steer patients to generic drugs, the industry won a major loophole that allowed any doctor to substitute a higher-priced brand name with a simple phone call to the state.”

“Governor Pataki would not be interviewed about Medicaid for this article, and his aides referred questions to the State Department of Health, which is part of his administration.”

“The health commissioner, Dr. Antonia C. Novello, also declined to be interviewed.”

“In defending the department’s performance, Mr. Whalen, the executive deputy commissioner, said it had saved $9.3 billion in recent years through investigations of providers, a new computer system and other measures.”

“Asked repeatedly to provide an in-depth explanation of their claim of major savings or for any state records or other documentation to back up the figures, department officials would not supply any.”

The New York Times article then continued:

“A review of thousands of pages of state, federal and local records turned up repeated examples of cost savings and waste reduction used by the federal government and other states, but not by New York.”

“The investigation found audits on Medicaid spending that were brushed aside, and reports on waste that appear to have been shelved.”

“There have been multiple warnings from watchdog agencies in New York and in Washington that indicate that the program is becoming increasingly porous.”

“Prosecutors said state regulators had all but lost interest in bringing Medicaid thieves to justice, preferring instead to focus on recouping money through a few civil cases that have little deterrent value.”[/i]

The New York Times article then cited several examples of Medicaid fraud in the State of New York, and reading through that article in connection with those specific examples, one finds:

“The Department of Health and the state attorney general’s office blamed each other for failing to stop Dr. Rosen and Dr. Silman.”

“The department said it had alerted the office that it should investigate possible improprieties with their practices.”

“The office said the department had botched its inquiry.”

SO ….

There, folks, is where we started ….

With this business of MEDICAID FRAUD in the State of New York …

Which “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer seems to be laying blame for on these nurses ….

With both “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer, and Dennis P. Whalen right there square in the middle of the fray ….

STARRING AS APPARENT INCOMPETENTS …

OR ACCOMPLICES, as some of the wags up this way are saying anyway …

AND NOW ….

THEY HAVE BOTH BEEN PROMOTED ….

“STEAMROLLER” Spitzer by the PEOPLE of the State of New York ….

And in his turn, REPUBLICAN Dennis P. Whalen from the PATAKI ADMINISTRATION has been promoted by the “STEAMROLLER” to serve above the REPUBLICAN DOCTOR who will serve as the “STEAMROLLER’S” Commissioner of Health …..

So, folks ….

WHAT REALLY DID CHANGE ON DAY ONE?

Besides a substitution of the name Spitzer for that of Pataki?

Anything?

Or as usual, here in Albany, nothing at all ……

And why should these nurses bear the sole blame for that, is my thought this morning …

And so …

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4017#comments

[Livyjr]

And the EXPERIMENT IN DEMOCRACY ....

In the State of New York ....

Spurred on by this COMMONGROUNDCOMMONSENSE FORUM continues .....

And so ....

Comment by John Galt — March 11, 2007 @ 4:35 pm

Manifestos ….

It is interesting that someone can look at our laws and state Constitution as MANIFESTOS ….

But such is life, I suppose, that in it, one can encounter all different points of view, including those who will view OUR laws and Constitution as MANIFESTOS ….

Be that as it may be ….

If the alleged DYSFUNCTIONAL (NEW YORK) STATE HEALTH DEPARTMENT were to actually do its job and enforce the provisions of Title 1 of Article 6 of the New York State Public Health Law ….

Each county health department in the State of New York, and this would include both Albany and Rensselaer Counties, would have a Municipal public health services plan in place pursuant to section 602 of Title 1 of Article 6, and said plans would provide as follows:

1. Every municipality shall biennially, on such dates as may be fixed by the commissioner, submit to the commissioner for his approval a public health services plan.

2. The plan shall include at least the following:

(a) an estimate and description of the immediate and long term needs for public health services in the municipality, particularly those services that are needed to promote public health and prevent illness;

(b) a statement and description of the public health objectives which the municipality intends to achieve, including how the public health services funded by this title will maintain and improve the health status of its residents, maintain and improve the accessibility and quality of health care, and assist in containing the costs of the health care system;

© a description of the programs for achieving those goals;

(d) a projected two-year plan of expenditures necessary to implement the programs;

(e) a general description of the availability of health services;

(f) the number of staff people required to provide the services as funded by this title;

(g) a fee and revenue plan pursuant to subdivision one of section six hundred six of this title;

(h) EVIDENCE that the governing body of the municipality has adopted the plan as the basis for the municipality`s public health activities;

(i) such other information as the commissioner may require pursuant to rules and regulations that he may adopt.

3. The commissioner shall review each health services plan submitted to him and, on the basis of such review, issue a notice of intent to disapprove the plan or approve the plan, with or without conditions, within ninety days of his receipt of the plan.

In determining whether to approve or disapprove a plan, the commissioner shall consider the following:

(a) The extent to which the plan, once implemented, will satisfy standards which the commissioner has promulgated through rules and regulations after consulting with the public health council and county health commissioners, boards and public health directors.

Such standards shall be for services funded under this title and shall include but not be limited to the effects such services shall have on mortality and morbidity and the reduction of potential public health hazards.

The commissioner shall not have the power to prescribe the number of persons to be employed in any municipality.

(b) The extent to which services in the plan will promote the public health, which, as defined herein, shall be enhancing or sustaining the public health, protecting the public from the threats of disease and illness, or preventing premature death, and which assist in containing the costs of the health care system.

Services that promote the public health are the following:

(1) family health, which shall include activities designed to reduce perinatal, infant and maternal mortality and morbidity and to promote the health of infants, children, adolescents, and people of childbearing age.

Such activities shall include family centered perinatal care and other services appropriate to promote the birth of a healthy baby to a healthy mother, and services to prevent and detect health problems in infants, young children, and school age children.

(2) disease control, which shall include activities to control and mitigate the extent of non-infectious diseases, particularly those of a chronic, degenerative nature, and infectious diseases.

Such activities shall include surveillance and epidemiological programs, and programs to detect diseases in their early stages.

Specific activities shall include immunizations against infectious diseases and prevention and treatment of sexually transmissible diseases.

(3) health education and guidance, which shall include the use of information and education to modify or strengthen practices that will promote the public health and prevent illness.

Such activities shall encourage people to assume personal responsibility for maintaining and improving their own health; increase their capacity to utilize appropriate health services; help them better control an illness they may have; and, provide information to stimulate community action on social and physical environmental factors that impact on health.

Special emphasis shall be given to providing health education and guidance to individuals at the same time as they are receiving a health service.

(4) community health assessment, which shall include an analysis of community vital statistics and mortality and morbidity indices to detect the source of illnesses and diseases, particularly those of a carcinogenic and mutagenic nature, in order to prevent in an efficient manner as many persons as possible from contracting such illnesses and diseases and to assist in addressing other problems adversely affecting the public health.

Such analysis shall also include data relating to toxic sites and occupational illnesses.

(5) environmental health, which shall include activities that promote health and prevent illness by ensuring sanitary conditions in water supplies, food service establishments, and other permit sites, and by abating public health nuisances.

The commissioner shall promulgate rules and regulations that define the specific activities within each of the five categories.

The commissioner prior to promulgation of rules and regulations defining the nature of the specific activities, shall consult with the public health council and county health commissioners, boards and public health directors.

The list of specific activities may be altered by the commissioner as necessary and after his consultation with the council, commissioners, boards and public health directors named herein.

© The extent to which the municipality shall provide effective administrative support and guidance to implement the plan.

(d) The extent to which there will be coordination among public health service programs.

(e) The extent to which the plan is consistent with the state health plan, the statewide plans, and program goals adopted by the commissioner.

(f) The particular capabilities of the municipality submitting the plan taking into account available state and local resources.

4. The commissioner shall notify such municipality, in writing, of the approval of the municipal public health services plan and the fee and revenue plan required pursuant to section six hundred six of this chapter or, if the plans or any parts thereof appear deficient, he shall advise them in writing of the deficiencies.

The municipality shall have an opportunity, within thirty days of the notice, in consultation with the department, to resolve the deficiencies.

Upon failure to resolve the deficiencies, the commissioner shall notify the municipality in writing of his intent to disapprove the plans or any portion thereof.

The notice of intent shall state the specific portions of the plans that are not approved, the reasons for the determination which must include, when appropriate, an explanation of how the plans or portions thereof would not have satisfied the standards promulgated pursuant to paragraph (a) of subdivision three of this section.

Any municipality which has received a notice of intent to disapprove shall have the right to a hearing pursuant to section twelve-a of this chapter.

Following a hearing, the commissioner shall issue a decision approving or disapproving the plans or any portion thereof.

If the plans or any portions thereof are disapproved, the municipality may, within thirty days of the commissioner`s decision, submit a revised plan in conformance with the commissioner`s decision.

A decision disapproving either plan or any portions thereof shall be reviewable pursuant to article seventy-eight of the civil practice law and rules notwithstanding the submission of a revised plan by the municipality.

5. The approved public health services plans and the fee and revenue plans may be amended at any time with the commissioner`s approval in
accordance with regulations which the commissioner may adopt.

6. The commissioner may approve a public health services plan in which the municipality actually provides fewer services than those set forth in paragraph (b) of subdivision three of this section as long as the plan identifies the availability of other services, who will provide them, and the manner in which they will be provided and financed.

AND EACH COUNTY WOULD BE ACTUALLY IMPLEMENTING AND ADHERING TO ITS HEALTH PLAN, which would keep the costs of public health services in the State of New York as low as it would be possible to have them be:

S 603. Municipal public health services plan; implementation.

1. In order to be eligible for state aid under this title, each municipality shall administer its public health programs in accordance with its approved municipal public health services plan and standards of performance established by the commissioner through rules and regulations and shall, in particular, ensure that public health services are provided in an efficient and effective manner to all persons in the municipality.

2. The commissioner may withhold state aid reimbursement under this title for the appropriate services if, on audit and review, the commissioner finds that such services are not furnished or rendered in conformance with the rules and regulations established by the commissioner or that the expenditures were not made according to the approved public health services plan required by section six hundred two of this title.

In such cases, the commissioner, in order to ensure that the public health is promoted as defined in paragraph (b) of subdivision three of section six hundred two of this title, may use any proportionate share of a municipality`s per capita or base grant that is withheld to contract with agencies, associations, or organizations.

The health department may use any such withheld share to provide services upon approval of the director of the division of the budget.

Copies of such transactions shall be filed with the fiscal committees of the legislature.

S 604. Supervision of public health programs.

In order to be eligible for state aid, under this title, each municipality shall employ a full-time local commissioner of health or public health director to supervise the provision of public health services and to implement the approved public health services plan for that municipality.

IN CONCLUSION ….

THE LAW IS WELL-WRITTEN …

THE LAW IS QUITE COMPREHENSIVE …

THE LAW IS ALL-ENCOMPASSING …

THE LAW IS QUITE COMPREHENSIBLE ….

AND VERY EASY TO UNDERSTAND ….

Therefore, there is no good reason for the New York State Department of Health to be DYSFUNCTIONAL …..

AND IF IT IS …

THEN IT IS BY INTENT ….

WHICH IS NEGLIGENCE, MISFEASANCE AND MALFEASANCE ….

ON THE PART OF THE NEW YORK STATE HEALTH COMMISSIONER ….

WHICH IS GROUNDS FOR REMOVAL FROM OFFICE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK …

And so ….

There is a MANIFESTO for today ….

And so …

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4018#comments

[Livyjr]

And the EXPERIMENT IN DEMOCRACY ....

In the State of New York ....

Spurred on by this COMMONGROUNDCOMMONSENSE FORUM continues .....

And so ....

Comment by bm8631 — March 11, 2007 @ 12:15 pm

Maybe…

Mr. Galt…

Could stop posting…

Like this…

And maybe…

Connect an intelligent point…

All in one paragraph…

And Spitzer…

Was voted in…

By about 70% of the State of New York…

And still maintains about 70% of our support…

As…

What else…

Oh my god…

No…

Gasp…

A STEAMROLLER.

…

…

… Sarcasm.

Comment by John Galt — March 11, 2007 @ 3:39 pm

It is absolutely immaterial how many people voted for Eliot Spitzer for governor ….

Absolutely immaterial ….

Just as it is absolutely immaterial how many people now are “in like” ….

Or even “in love” ….

With “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer today ….

The irrefutable facts of the matter are that the New York State Constitution IS THE ORGANIC LAW of this state ….

And according to said ORGANIC LAW, the REAL JOB of this LORD CORNBURY REBORN “STEAMROLLER” SPITZER is very precisely defined ….

And very precisely LIMITED …

AND HE CANNOT JUST GO OUT AND WHIP UP SOME MOB OUT THERE INTO A FRENZY AGAINST SOME DEFINED SEGMENT OF OUR CITIZEN BODY LIKE THESE NURSES BECAUSE SOME ALLEGED SIXTY OR SEVENTY PERCENT OF A LITTLE OVER A THOUSAND PEOPLE POLLED BY MAURICE the “MIRACLE MAN” CARROLL of QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY SAY THAT THEY ARE FOR THIS “STEAMROLLER” DOING IT, SUCH AS THIS bm8631 ABOVE HERE APPEARS TO BE ADVOCATING ….

We do not have POPULAR GOVERNMENT here in New York State where this LORD CORNBURY AND HIS “CORNBURY RING” can do just as they please, CONSEQUENCES TO OTHERS BE DAMNED ….

Just because some out-of-state “NUMBERS DUDE” over there in Connecticut is willing to make the RIDICULOUS CLAIM that “MOST NEW YORKERS ARE FOR THIS STEAMROLLER” ….

When in reality …..

According to WCBS NEWSRADIO 880 ….

http://www.wcbs880.com/pages/233397.php?co...ontentId=324953

THE NUMBER IS ONLY IN ACTUALITY A LITTLE OVER 600 REAL PEOPLE …..

“Quinnipiac’s telephone poll of 1,049 voters was conducted Feb. 6-11 and has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.”

OUT OF MILLIONS OF ACTUAL PEOPLE ….

SUCH AS US DISABLED VETERANS OUT HERE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE, FOR EXAMPLE ….

WHOM MAURICE THE “NUMBERS MAN” FROM OVER THERE IN CONNECTICUT ……

COMPLETELY OVERLOOKED …

AND DISMISSED …

OUT OF HAND …

And so …

IT IS OUR CONSTITUTION THAT THIS bm8631 AND THE MAURICE CARROLL “SIXTY-ONE PERCENTERS” ADVOCATE THIS “STEAMROLLER” TRAMPLING ALL OVER …

AND PURSUANT TO § 8 of the BILL OF RIGHTS OF OUR CONSTITUTION, THIS bm8631 has that right to ADVOCATE AGAINST OUR CONSTITUTION, AND TO ADVOCATE FOR “STEAMROLLER” SPITZER TRAMPLING ALL OVER IT, AND THESE NURSES, AND WHOMEVER ELSE THE “SPITZER MOB” SHOULD CHOOSE AS THE NEXT VICTIMS OF ITS IRE:

“Every citizen may freely speak, write and publish his or her sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press ….”

And so …

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4017#comments

[Livyjr]

"Cutting hospitals is not the way to fix Medicaid"

Letters to the Editor, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Monday, March 12, 2007

I want to thank you for your coverage of the Medicaid cuts proposed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer and your publication of Susan McDonough's Feb. 24 letter regarding St. Peter's Hospital.

Cuts to this region's hospitals or any in New York are not a good idea.

As a registered nurse at one of them, I can tell you there is no waste of New Yorkers' money here, especially when compared to that used by our former health commissioner's practices as shown in your Feb. 18 article.

We have pulled together under very good leadership, and continue to give the very best care to all our patients, regardless of whether they can pay.

That is what community hospitals do.

I agree that there is a lot of waste in Medicaid, but why make a blanket cut to the hospitals?

Take the time and do the work to find where the system is broken.

Then fix it.

It may be a little harder, but it is the right way to fix the problem.

If our doctors operated your way, they would be amputating limbs instead of suturing cuts.

Start the cleaning up in your house first and you will save the state more than you will picking on the hospitals.

PETER E. M., R.N.

Ravena

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story...sdate=3/12/2007