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

[Livyjr]

NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE COMMENTS:

April 10th, 2007 9:25 am

Emotional press conferences by Chief Judge Judith Kaye in a room filled with members of the state’s highest court, lawyers and representatives of business, district attorney and bar associations aside ….

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp...sdate=4/10/2007

And flowery press releases by Ravi Batra aside, as well, the REAL ISSUE here has to do with restoring constitutional processes of government with respect to budgeting to WE, THE PEOPLE, who were not at all in attendance at this press conference, nor were we at all represented in this press conference called by Judge Kaye, which is quite a telling statement about where matters now lie in NYS with respect to the lack of independence and integrity of the court system in NYS, given that lawyers and representatives of business were in attendance at this press conference.

In 1996, in Ricky Brown et al. v. State of New York, 89 NY2d 172, the New York State Court of Appeals stated:

“Constitutions assign rights to individuals and impose duties on the government to regulate the government’s actions to protect them.”

“The underlying rationale for the decision, in simplest terms, is that constitutional guarantees are worthy of protection on their own terms without being linked to some common-law or statutory tort, and that the courts have the obligation to enforce these rights by ensuring that each individual receives an adequate remedy for violation of a constitutional duty.”

“If the remedy is not forthcoming from the political branches of government, then the courts must provide it by recognizing a damage remedy against the violators much the same as the courts earlier recognized and developed equitable remedies to enjoin unconstitutional actions.”

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

IF Chief Judge Judith Kaye wishes to restore integrity to the state court system here in NYS, and if she wishes the people to believe that the court system here in NYS is not simply another willing mouthpiece for the politicians, perhaps what Judge Kaye should have done was to quote from OUR Constitution at this emotional press conference of hers, and she should not have been seen standing in a room full of lawyers and representatives of business while discussing “horse-trading” with the Legislature, which does not represent OUR interests as mere state citizens, and the “STEAMROLLER”, who is seen by WE, THE PEOPLE as having less integrity than the Legislature.

Judith Kaye appears to want money in her pocket a lot more than she seems interested in equal justice for us here in NYS, for which the sentiment out here in the countryside is that she and her court system are not worth a dime.

And so …

— Posted by Livyjr

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

Times Herald-Record

"Trials & Tribulations: Albany's 'judgment' day May 1"

April 13, 2007

If the people who run New York state don't ante up some money for judges, we could be hearing chants of "no judges, no peace" in Albany come May 1.

That's Law Day.

It's also the day that some of the 1,300 judges who get paid by the state are selecting as their own day of outrage.

Judges are generally a pretty restrained bunch, but New York's judges haven't seen a raise since 1999.

So that's why e-mails like this one are being fired around an electronic mailing list:

"Close your calendars May 1."

"It's short of a strike."

"However, commitment from all judges acting as one will 'show them' that we have the will and our will is what it's going to take to get their respect," writes a judge from the Buffalo area.

By "them," the judges don't mean us, the public.

They mean the three-headed Albany dragon that runs New York: Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Traditionally, raises for judges are tied to raises for state lawmakers.

So much for that whole separation-of-powers deal we learned about in grade school.

A state Supreme Court justice earns $136,700 in this part of New York.

In one lively e-mail exchange between judges who sit outside the mid-Hudson, a judge says, "The average Joe or Josephine thinks that is too much already."

Another judge replies that the average "Joe or Josephine thinks that athletes make way too much, but they still buy season tickets."

A spokesman for the state court system predicts that A Day Without Judges wouldn't be well-received by Joe or Josephine Average, or by the bosses: Chief Judge Judith Kaye and Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman.

"We expect that the judges will comport themselves in a professional and judicious manner, and understand that to harm the public would in no way help their cause," said David Bookstaver, spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration.

Kaye pointed out this week that New York ranks 38th in the country for judicial pay when you factor in cost-of-living increases.

Even without the cost-of-living factor, New York's state-paid judges rank 11th in the country in salaries, according to the National Center for State Courts.

And state workers with union contracts have seen raises, unlike the state's judges.

Kaye said that judges might have to resort to suing the state over their salaries.

That would be a history-making lawsuit.

The New York Law Journal has published articles about kids going straight from law school to New York City firms and making more money than judges, right out of the gate.

And while private-sector lawyers can pile up billable hours until their wingtips squeak, judges can't do any other legal work besides being judges.

But in an age of $3-a-gallon gas and the precarious financial condition of big chunks of upstate New York, the idea of judges marching on Albany for economic justice might not go over too well with the vast majority of people who aren't judges.

Which may be why one judge on Long Island sent this e-mail to her colleagues: "It is important to communicate, but this is not a secure site."

Trials & Tribulations is the Times Herald-Record's weekly roundup of news, updates and anecdotes about local courts and criminal justice. Tips and threats are welcome. Call Oliver Mackson at 346-3130 or e-mail omackson@th-record.com.

Judicial outrage

Here are some e-mail excerpts from an electronic mailing list used by New York judges:

"When a public official demands a payment to himself for the performance of his (or her) official functions it's called a 'BRIBE,' but when a public official demands a pay raise for approving a long-overdue pay raise for judges, it's called POLITICS" - Delaware County Court Judge Carl Becker

"Simply put, the 'three men in a room' believe we have no negotiating power and we need to show them we do."

"We are the workers without whom the courts cannot function." - Erie County state Supreme Court Justice Joseph Glownia

"Why shouldn't marching or demonstrating be part of a 'new dynamic?'"

"Would it be counterproductive for some reason?" - Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Joan Madden

"Justice Glownia is right - perhaps all judges should close their calendars May 1st and meet in Albany."

"It may not be the most dignified approach, but it will show unity."

"For those judges unwilling to march on Albany, just close your calendars." - Erie County Family Court Judge Kevin Carter

"The public does need to be educated both as to why we deserve an adjustment and why we have not been getting one" - Brooklyn state Supreme Court Justice Wayne Saitta

"Heck, we have correction officers in Nassau who transport prisoners earning more than judges" - Nassau County District Court Judge Jerald Carter

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...337%2F-1%2FNEWS

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK SUN

"Whistleblowers Protection Bill Would Face Veto"

By SARAH GARLAND

Staff Reporter of the Sun

April 12, 2007

Mayor Bloomberg said he would veto a City Council bill aimed at protecting city employees who report the "educational harm" of a child, and suggested yesterday that the teachers union is behind the proposal.

At an anti-smoking event at a Queens middle school, Mr. Bloomberg stood beside a cigarette industry whistleblower, Jeffrey Wigand — made famous in the movie "The Insider" — and said the expanded whistleblower protections were unnecessary.

"I think that everybody has to be able to be sure to come forward and say what's on their mind," he said.

"There also should be some responsibility."

"You can't just go and stand up and accuse somebody without any merit of doing something just to be nasty and mean or to hurt them."

The mayor said the union had fought for the expanded whistleblower protections to be included in their contract last fall, but the proposal was dropped during negotiations.

He said the union now was trying to "run around" its defeat.

The bill overwhelmingly passed a City Council education committee vote yesterday.

A spokesman for the mayor, Stu Loeser, later confirmed that the mayor intended to veto the bill if it passes.

City law protects whistleblowers that report criminal activity, corruption, conflicts of interest, mismanagement, or abuse of authority.

The bill is written to protect city employees who report actions by their superiors that harm the "health, safety, or educational welfare of a child."

The bill defines educational welfare as "any aspect of a child's education or educational environment that significantly impacts upon such child's ability to receive appropriate instruction, as mandated by any relevant law, rule, regulation, or sound educational practice."

The president of the United Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, has said the bill is necessary while the school bureaucracy undergoes a major transformation this year.

"This is not about contract issues," she said.

"The mayor and the chancellor should want to have teachers blow the whistle on misconduct, cheating scandals, or anything else that hurts children."

http://www.nysun.com/article/52331

[Livyjr]

The New York Observer Politicker

"Cuomo 'Totally' Supports Judicial Raises"

Andrew Cuomo is frimly supporting efforts by state judges to force a pay raise.

"I support it totally," said the attorney general in a rare interview this morning on WROW.

"She is right," he said of the state's Chief Judge, Judith Kaye, who is leading the effort.

"You know, we're in this conundrum."

"We need to get the best and the brightest into public service, especially in the judiciary."

"And, especially in the legal community, you have to pay a wage that is going to attract the talent.

"You can't have a situation where you're paying judges basically less than you're paying first year legal associates who are coming out of top schools."

Cuomo went on to say his office was asked by Kaye to research the feasibility of a suit against lawmakers to force them to raise judicial salaries.

State judges haven't gotten a raise since 1999.

Kaye currently makes $156,000 a year.

-- Azi Paybarah

http://thepoliticker.observer.com/2007/04/...ial-raises.html

[Livyjr]

"Real change still possible in next budget"

By BARBARA BARTOLETTI

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, April 15, 2007

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno instructed the Legislature's Budget Conference Committee that it should not "devolve into debating," he proved what many voters already sensed: Reforms promised to fix New York's broken budget process were a sham.

The goal of the conferencing system -- begun in 1998, to end perpetually late budgets -- was to start a reform process in which budget talks would be more transparent, more legislators could help craft budgets and voters could follow the process and share views with lawmakers when public input might make a difference.

In January, Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the Legislature enacted a budget reform law promising legislators more complete information when they voted on budgets.

The results would be more deliberative budgeting and a healthier democracy.

What New Yorkers got instead was plenty of process but no reform.

The governor and legislative leaders negotiated the budget in private.

Even other legislators remained in the dark until the leaders emerged to hastily report -- not to discuss and certainly not to debate -- what back-room deals already had decided.

In the frenzied days before the April 1 budget deadline, leaders tasked conference committees with crafting details based on numbers too rushed to add up, directives too confusing to follow and schedules too hasty for considered judgment.

As closed-door deals trickled out, lobbyists and lawmakers packed hearing rooms, straining to hear what a $121 billion budget would include, with no time to digest or affect policies on taxes, health, education and the judiciary.

As the deadline passed, lawmakers rubber stamped 2,000 pages of budget bills, hot off the presses, before they were public.

On most, there was zero debate.

Disclosures required by the new budget reform law to explain the amount of money being spent were missing and, in some cases, the Legislature could not say how much it was spending.

So much for reform.

Now that the budget process has broken down yet again, it's time for New Yorkers to recall what a healthy budget process is and why a healthy process is as important as a good outcome.

The governor and the Legislature must reinvent the budget process now -- when pledges of reform still echo amid the groans of the budget debacle.

The changes must be real reforms, not window dressing, or we will be doomed to repeat the chaos that clouds the budget process.

The good news is that the four principles of a healthy budget process are obvious:

First, the process must be public.

All documents must be accessible not just after the fact but long before decisions are made, with time for meaningful public input that can affect outcomes.

Second, the Legislature must not fly blind.

All lawmakers must know the budgets they vote on and be able to meaningfully influence them at all points in the process.

Third, the governor must lead.

He must enforce a process that fully engages the entire Legislature.

Fourth, the process must be timed rationally.

There must be enough time and breathing room for full engagement, sound judgment and transparency, and there must be a firm deadline with real consequences.

A healthy budget process disperses power to help prevent abuse of the public purse.

It provides lawmakers with the time and tools they need to represent the voters who elected them.

And it gives voters the time and tools they need to detect and speak out against potential missteps.

By contrast, the fewer and more hidden the real levers of power, the more likely deals for well-connected lobbyists will inflate or skew budgets.

A healthy budget process leads to the best budgets.

But budget openness is not an absolute or a cure-all.

In all democracies, deadlines and healthy dissent can yield brinksmanship, and breakthroughs may require leadership and intensive talks that, by definition, do not involve a full public body and thus are not public.

Not even the most enlightened democracy conducts all budget talks in public.

Nor is disclosure a panacea.

As New York's sham budget conference committees show, nothing is transparent about disclosing decisions made in private and then quickly rubber-stamping them without public analysis or debate.

Time is the key ingredient that New York's broken budget process lacks -- time for rank-and-file legislators to study and debate and modify budgets, time for the public to understand and effect outcomes, time to let cool heads prevail, and time to foster the best decisions.

Late budgets are irresponsible and disruptive, but rushed budgets crafted behind closed doors and voted in the dark of night -- without time even to read them -- can be the most irresponsible and cynical of all.

New Yorkers were promised real reform: Everything -- and especially the budget process -- was supposed to change.

Hopefully the mess that was the 2007 budget won't prove the old adage that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story...&TextPage=1

[Livyjr]

RULES OF THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK - 2007-2008

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

[Livyjr]

NEW YORK POST

"GOV TO RAOUL: QUIT - OR ELSE GOV. SPITZER - Dismayed by 'Schmucks!'"


April 16, 2007 -- GOV. SPITZER yesterday called on celebrity lawyer Raoul Felder to quit the state Commission on Judicial Conduct or face possible ouster because of "inappropriate" comments in his new book, "Schmucks," co-authored with comic Jackie Mason.

"The comments that are in the book are inappropriate and simply wrong for one who sits, as Mr. Felder does, in a position as chair of a commission that judges the behavior of judges," Spitzer, a former attorney general and a Harvard Law graduate, told The Post.

"It is one matter for him to say, 'I have First Amendment rights,' as, of course, he does."

"But it is a totally different matter for him to make comments that would be highly inappropriate for members of the bench and for him to sit and pass judgment on our judges, who made similar comments that would be appropriately criticized and lead to sanctions."

"In light of this fact, I think it would be appropriate for Mr. Felder to seriously consider resigning his position as both chairman and as a member of the commission."

The governor said he would personally relay his views to Felder - most likely by letter - as soon as today.

Spitzer said he'd probably initiate a disciplinary process that could remove Felder from the post if the lawyer does not step down voluntarily.

But "I hope it doesn't get there," he said.

Felder, named to the powerful commission by Gov. George Pataki in 2003, was denounced by his fellow commissioners Friday after the publication of "Schmucks! Our Favorite Fakes, Frauds, Lowlifes, Liars, the Armed and Dangerous and Good Guys Gone Bad."

He vowed to fight any effort to remove him.

He could not be reached for comment on Spitzer's statements.

A review of the new book by The Post found many crude and insulting references to prominent people on the liberal or left side of the political spectrum - including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, and the Rev. Al Sharpton - deemed "schmucks" by the generally right-of-center authors.

While there were several "ethnic" references, including several gibes at Felder's and Mason's fellow Jews, there were no explicit examples of racial insults and several statements in favor of racial equality.

But Latinos could well be offended by the book's argument - spiced with a number of loaded Yiddish words - against making Spanish an official language.

Referring to immigrants from Latin America, the authors write, "All these schnorrers, schnooks, shlubs, pishers, putzers, shlemiels, and, yes, schmucks come to our country looking for a better life, speaking only a shmeckel of English, and now they expect us to become Spanish mavens?"

"What dreck [rubbish]!"

fredric.dicker@ny post.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04162007/news/...c_u__dicker.htm

[Livyjr]

NEW YORK POST

"GOV TO RAOUL: QUIT - OR ELSE GOV. SPITZER - Dismayed by 'Schmucks!'"

April 16, 2007 -- GOV. SPITZER yesterday called on celebrity lawyer Raoul Felder to quit the state Commission on Judicial Conduct or face possible ouster because of "inappropriate" comments in his new book, "Schmucks," co-authored with comic Jackie Mason.

"The comments that are in the book are inappropriate and simply wrong for one who sits, as Mr. Felder does, in a position as chair of a commission that judges the behavior of judges," Spitzer, a former attorney general and a Harvard Law graduate, told The Post.

"It is one matter for him to say, 'I have First Amendment rights,' as, of course, he does."

"But it is a totally different matter for him to make comments that would be highly inappropriate for members of the bench and for him to sit and pass judgment on our judges, who made similar comments that would be appropriately criticized and lead to sanctions."

"In light of this fact, I think it would be appropriate for Mr. Felder to seriously consider resigning his position as both chairman and as a member of the commission."

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04162007/news/...c_u__dicker.htm

FROM THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

With respect to "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer agreeing with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct that its chairman, celebrity divorce attorney Raoul Felder, should go because his new book, co-authored with comic Jackie Mason, is "inappropriate", we countryfolks up here would refer your readers to what we call up here the "Lawyers' and Judges' Coming Out of the Closet" speech by Michael P. Friedman, President of the Albany County Bar Association, dated March 2003, and if one scrolls down to the 2d page, one sees the smiling face of Chief Judge Judith Kaye in the same publication, and I would maintain to "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer and the state Commission on Judicial Conduct that it was this very document, which received wide distribution up this way, long before this Felder book became an issue, that served to destroy any illusions that anyone up this way had about the integrity of the bar and judiciary in NYS, and by appearing in this document along with many of her fellow judges, it is our opinion that Judge Judith Kaye failed to avoid the appearance of impropriety, and that failure on her part then caused a major erosion in any trust and confidence the public up here might have had for the judiciary, as can be seen in these following excerpts from the "THE LAWYERS IN NY COME OUT OF THE CLOSET" SPEECH, and this at a time when the "STEAMROLLER" himself was up in Albany, serving as the state's top lawyer:

"As I spoke, I realized that the practice of law is essentially amoral."

"Our advice to clients is not designed to guide anyone in ethical behavior."

"We do not exist to tell anyone what is right or wrong."

"We are all but prohibited from doing so!"

"Our duty is to advise of the legal consequences of actions, and to promote the interests of our client within the boundaries of the legal system."

"For this reason, we do not necessarily advise the guilty to accept their punishment, nor do we chastise the adulterer, the negligent driver and the trespasser."

"So, we don't deal in fairness, we deal in legal results, without regard to ethics."

"You think clients come to us for our opinions on good and evil?"

"Think again, Jack."

"We are not the clergy."

"After all, it is just 'Ethical Considerations' in the Code of Professional Responsibility, as in 'OK, I've considered it, now here's what we do' ....."

"It is this fine line between the practice of law and the absence of moral judgment that confounds the public in so many ways."

"After all, we stand in defense of the most heinous members of our society, and I'm not just talking about defense negligence lawyers here, of course."

http://www.albanycountybar.com/MarNL-03.pdf

Posted by: John Galt | April 16, 2007 8:02 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli..._2.php#comments

[Livyjr]

FROM THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

"As I spoke, I realized that the practice of law is essentially amoral."

"Our advice to clients is not designed to guide anyone in ethical behavior."

"We do not exist to tell anyone what is right or wrong."

"We are all but prohibited from doing so!"

"Our duty is to advise of the legal consequences of actions, and to promote the interests of our client within the boundaries of the legal system."

"For this reason, we do not necessarily advise the guilty to accept their punishment, nor do we chastise the adulterer, the negligent driver and the trespasser."

"So, we don't deal in fairness, we deal in legal results, without regard to ethics."

"You think clients come to us for our opinions on good and evil?"

"Think again, Jack."

"We are not the clergy."

"After all, it is just 'Ethical Considerations' in the Code of Professional Responsibility, as in 'OK, I've considered it, now here's what we do' ....."

"It is this fine line between the practice of law and the absence of moral judgment that confounds the public in so many ways."

"After all, we stand in defense of the most heinous members of our society, and I'm not just talking about defense negligence lawyers here, of course."

http://www.albanycountybar.com/MarNL-03.pdf

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli..._2.php#comments

NY TIMES - The Empire Zone

"Spitzer Learns His Job Comes at a Cost"

By DANNY HAKIM

Published: April 16, 2007

ALBANY — Gov. Eliot Spitzer has taken some lumps in the press during his first 105 days in office, while Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo has been riding a wave of positive publicity about his investigation into student loan practices.

In a Quinnipiac University poll this month, Mr. Cuomo even surpassed the governor’s still solid job approval numbers for the first time, a development that did not go unnoticed in the capital.

“As attorney general, there are a series of binary choices between right and wrong and good and evil,” Mr. Spitzer said in an interview last week when asked about the difference between the public perception of his current and previous jobs.

“As governor, one is always making very difficult allocations, decisions in a zero-sum context, and necessarily there are winners and losers.”

And as attorney general?

As Mr. Spitzer put it, “One is always on the side of righteousness.”

In other words, it is often easier for the public and the press to extrapolate good guys and bad guys in investigations brought by an attorney general, as compared with, say, the dueling budget proposals being wrangled over by the governor and the Legislature.

Mr. Cuomo’s latest investigation has revealed that top officials at several universities had lucrative financial ties to a major student lender.

Mr. Spitzer and his aides, in the meantime, have been trying to explain why they compromised with Senate Republicans in budget negotiations more than some observers had expected.

How does the governor feel about his first 105 days?

“It has been a remarkably successful stretch,” he said.

“I don’t mean to suggest successful in terms of the governor versus the Legislature."

"I think successful in terms of showing that we can govern the state, that Albany need not be dysfunctional.”

Mr. Spitzer ticked off a number of previously intractable issues that he forged consensus on, including major agreements on the workers’ compensation system and the civil confinement of sex offenders.

The governor also has insisted that he achieved his major goals in the budget, winning substantial increases in education aid and property tax relief and $1 billion worth of Medicaid cuts.

The Legislature returns today after a two-week vacation, and top items on the agenda include negotiating campaign-finance reform legislation and wrapping up leftovers from the budget, including a bill delineating capital projects.

“Doing the job of governor properly necessarily means losing friends, saying no to supporters and making decisions that will have political costs,” Mr. Spitzer said.

“Life is much more complicated.”

Bruno Reads Up on Spitzer

What’s on the reading list of the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno?

“Spoiling for a Fight,” the 2006 biography of Governor Spitzer written by Brooke A. Masters, now a reporter at The Financial Times.

Mr. Bruno, the state’s top Republican, was the governor’s principal sparring partner during the budget negotiations, even getting into a shouting match with Mr. Spitzer in the governor’s office.

Many observers in both parties said Mr. Bruno, 78, held his own against the 47-year-old governor, winning concessions on health care and increased education aid for Long Island, a stronghold of Senate Republicans.

Why read up now on the governor’s back story?

“He had certainly heard some things about the book, and after 100 days, he thought it would be a good opportunity to get to know the governor a little better,” said John McArdle, a spokesman for Mr. Bruno, right.

Mr. McArdle has his own copy of the book on his desk.

DANNY HAKIM

Idle Talk About the Speaker

Chalk it up to spring fever.

In recent weeks, the Capitol hallways have echoed with unlikely chatter about who might succeed Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, right, though Mr. Silver has shown no interest in voluntary retirement and little vulnerability to the forced kind.

(He put down a coup once before, in 2000, led by Michael J. Bragman, now a former assemblyman.)

Some published reports have Richard L. Brodsky, an outspoken and ambitious Westchester assemblyman who made a bid for the state comptroller’s job this year, angling for Mr. Silver’s post.

Mr. Brodsky called the reports “silliness of the highest order.”

“I’ve done nothing differently than I’ve always done, for better or worse, in terms of speaking my mind and being willing to defend things I think need defending,” he added.

“I supported Shelly for speaker, and I still do."

"There’s nothing to this stuff at all.”

Also making the rounds is talk that Joseph R. Lentol, a long-serving assemblyman and dean of the Brooklyn delegation, is being promoted by some fellow Brooklyn Assembly members as a Silver successor.

Reached by phone, Mr. Lentol said he was “not actively seeking the position” and had no plans to do so.

“There is a sitting speaker,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s anyone, including Mr. Brodsky, for all the fanfare, who is looking to take out the speaker.”

Not that he would not be interested.

“Members do look to me for advice,” he said, “and I hope that they would think of me as a possible leader, should that opportunity ever arise.”

NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

Out of Albany, in the Money

Former Assemblyman Ryan S. Karben left the capital under a cloud last year, but he continues to serve as a fund-raiser for Governor Spitzer, above right.

Mr. Karben, 32, was at a breakfast last week at which the governor discussed, among other things, his new federal political action committee, which he plans to use to support Congressional candidates.

“He’s got a really exciting vision for the state that I first saw when he was running for attorney general in 1998, and I’ve been supporting him ever since,” said Mr. Karben, who resigned last year after being accused of improperly fraternizing with interns.

Mr. Karben also has been invited to serve on the governor’s 2010 re-election finance committee.

“I would anticipate committing to raise a minimum of $100,000 for his election,” said Mr. Karben, who has a law practice in Monsey, N.Y.

DANNY HAKIM

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin

[Livyjr]

"Spitzer says judicial official should resign"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 5:17 p.m., Monday, April 16, 2007

ALBANY -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer says the chairman of the state panel that rules on judges' conduct should resign after co-authoring a humor book that said the accused are likely guilty.

Manhattan attorney Raoul Felder, the unpaid chairman the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, wrote a book with comic Jackie Mason titled "Schmucks! Our Favorite Fakes, Frauds, Lowlifes, Liars, the Armed and Dangerous, and Good Guys Gone Bad."

Felder's colleagues on the commission have already called for him to step down, citing several passages in the book it considered offensive, including:

"anytime you hear the word 'allegedly,' you can bet it's true," and "nothing in our country is more insidious than affirmative action."

Spitzer weighed in on Monday on Felder, who said his free speech is protected by the First Amendment.

"He does not have a First Amendment right to be chair of the commission on judicial conduct," Spitzer said Monday.

"By virtue of having that position, he accepts certain limits upon his own behavior, just as judges do."

"Just as other elected or governmental individuals do, whether appointed or elected."

Asked if he would seek to remove Felder if he doesn't resign as chairman, Spitzer said:

"Let us see how this plays out."

In an interview Friday, shortly after the commission announced its vote of no confidence, Felder said he would defend his First Amendment rights in court.

"I would feel better as an American if they could point to something, some official act I have done, where I haven't acted appropriately or somebody feels their rights were infringed by anything I've done," Felder said.

"And they can't do that."

The panel said the book is "crude, biased, vulgar and otherwise demeaning" and "repeatedly invokes racial, ethnic and religious invective."

Panel members said the affirmative action statement "raises a reasonable perception that the speaker could not pass fair judgment on anyone he perceived to have benefited from affirmative action."

The commission rules on complaints against judges including conflicts of interest and inappropriate behavior.

The commission seeks to remove Felder as chairman, but not as a commissioner.

Felder's term ends next year.

He was appointed by former Gov. George Pataki.

------

On the Web: http://www.scjc.state.ny.us/

[Livyjr]

NY1 NEWS - Top Stories

"Clarence Norman Sentenced To Additional Time In Jail"

April 16, 2007

Former Brooklyn Democratic leader Clarence Norman was sentenced Monday to another one to three years in prison.

In February, a jury found Norman guilty of demanding money from a judicial candidate in exchange for his support.

The trial was the last of four criminal cases against Norman.

In two previous trials, he was found guilty of stealing funds from his own re-election campaign and concealing contributions made to him.

He has already been sentenced to two to six years in prison, but he is out on bail.

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?s...1&aid=68777

[Livyjr]

NY TIMES - The Empire Zone

"Spitzer Learns His Job Comes at a Cost"

By DANNY HAKIM

Published: April 16, 2007

ALBANY — Gov. Eliot Spitzer has taken some lumps in the press during his first 105 days in office, while Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo has been riding a wave of positive publicity about his investigation into student loan practices.

Mr. Spitzer and his aides, in the meantime, have been trying to explain why they compromised with Senate Republicans in budget negotiations more than some observers had expected.

How does the governor feel about his first 105 days?

“It has been a remarkably successful stretch,” he said.

“Doing the job of governor properly necessarily means losing friends, saying no to supporters and making decisions that will have political costs,” Mr. Spitzer said.

“Life is much more complicated.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin

NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE

April 17th, 2007 7:48 am

As a life-long citizen of NYS who resides up-state and who has been following the affairs of NYS government for some 30 years or so with great interest, I can say with some degree of authority that up here, no one outside of the “brown zone” down in Albany ever expected “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer to enter Albany with a magic wand and clear away all of the dysfunctional stuff, period!

And that is because by the time that the “STEAMROLLER” became governor, he had already been an integral part of all the Albany “dysfunctional stuff” for several years in his capacity as state Attorney General, so absent a complete and total transformation of the “STEAMROLLER”, which never happened, nor did we expect it to, Albany politics being what they are thanks to the efforts of people like “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer, we expected more “dysfunctional stuff”, and the “STEAMROLLER” has not disappointed us at all in that regard, favorable comments about himself by himself in the news media notwithstanding.

And with respect to the role that the “STEAMROLLER” has played in perpetuating “all of the dysfunctional stuff” in Albany, I refer first to a news item in the upstate Albany TU entitled “Media join lawsuit in pork case - Times Union action to obtain information on spending draws support from major news groups” by JAY JOCHNOWITZ, State editor, Albany, New York Times Union, first published Wednesday, August 2, 2006, wherein is stated:

“ALBANY — More than two dozen news organizations moved Tuesday to join a Times Union lawsuit against Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver over their refusal to reveal the names of lawmakers who helped direct millions of dollars for pork barrel projects.”

“The case in state Supreme Court alleges Silver, D-Manhattan, and Bruno, R-Brunswick, violated the state Freedom of Information Law by refusing to disclose which lawmakers asked for specific grants for community projects, part of $170 million in annual discretionary spending.”

“Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office, in papers filed Monday, said the names are protected under the state constitution, which says ‘for any speech or debate in either house of the legislature, the members shall not be questioned in any other place.’”

“Spitzer’s office argued that disclosing ‘information concerning a legislator’s involvement with particular pieces of legislation could potentially chill the legislator’s activities.’”

And then there is the story “Six groups back suit against legislators - ‘Friend of the court’ briefs filed in support of Times Union’s bid for information on member items” by JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union, first published Saturday, August 5, 2006, wherein is stated:

“ALBANY — Six government-reform groups filed court papers backing a lawsuit against the leaders of the Legislature for withholding the names of lawmakers who influence the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayers’ funds.”

“The groups filed a ‘friend of the court’ brief Thursday supporting the Times Union in its suit against Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R-Brunswick, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan.”

“The two officials, who are seeking re-election this year, have turned down Freedom of Information Law requests by the newspaper, which sued for full disclosure of documents showing how lawmakers carve up $170 million a year in discretionary money.”

“The funds pay for lawmakers’ pet projects, or ‘member items.’”

“The Brennan Center for Justice, Citizens Budget Commission, Citizens Union of the City of New York, Common Cause, League of Women Voters of New York State and New York Public Interest Research Group filed court documents that say keeping such records secret can breed corruption and foster public cynicism.”

“Legislative leaders, represented by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office, have moved for dismissal, arguing lawmakers don’t have to answer for what they say in the legislative process.”

“Spitzer’s office argued that disclosing ‘information concerning a legislator’s involvement with particular pieces of legislation could potentially chill the legislator’s activities.’”

And there is the “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer that we have come to know up here in the Albany area over the time that the “STEAMROLLER” was the state AG, and all during that time, and right up to the present moment, in our minds, anyway, associating this “STEAMROLLER” with true reform of our state government to bring it back to what our state Constitution mandates it be is a real joke, on us.

And so ….

— Posted by Livyjr

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

[Livyjr]

"Spitzer says judicial official should resign"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 5:17 p.m., Monday, April 16, 2007

ALBANY -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer says the chairman of the state panel that rules on judges' conduct should resign after co-authoring a humor book that said the accused are likely guilty.

Manhattan attorney Raoul Felder, the unpaid chairman the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, wrote a book with comic Jackie Mason titled "Schmucks! Our Favorite Fakes, Frauds, Lowlifes, Liars, the Armed and Dangerous, and Good Guys Gone Bad."

Felder's colleagues on the commission have already called for him to step down, citing several passages in the book it considered offensive, including:

"anytime you hear the word 'allegedly,' you can bet it's true," and "nothing in our country is more insidious than affirmative action."

On the Web: http://www.scjc.state.ny.us/

THE NEW YORK SUN

"Floyd Abrams May Stand By Raoul Felder's Side"

By JACOB GERSHMAN

Staff Reporter of the Sun

April 17, 2007

ALBANY — A First Amendment lawyer, Floyd Abrams, said he would consider providing legal counsel to a celebrity divorce lawyer, Raoul Felder, whose satirical new book has ignited an effort to oust him from his position as chairman of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

The dispute between Mr. Felder and commission members has the makings of a high-profile freedom of speech case.

On Friday, Mr. Felder, a Pataki appointee who became chairman last year, received a unanimous vote of no confidence from the other commission members, who argued that passages in Mr. Felder's book concerning race, ethnicity, and religion compromise the dignity of the state body and undermine his ability to appear impartial when reviewing allegations against judges.

Mr. Abrams, a Manhattan lawyer who has defended clients in some of the most important First Amendment cases of the past 40 years, said he hasn't spoken with Mr. Felder or finished reading his book co-written with comedian Jackie Mason, "Schmucks!"

Mr. Abrams said Mr. Felder's allegation that his First Amendment rights are being violated is a "close" call.

"He can't be dismissed simply because he wrote a book that has disagreeable ideas," Mr. Abrams said.

"At some point the totality of views expressed based upon considerations of race and national origin could so compromise his real or reasonably expected conduct that it could be appropriate to dismiss him."

As chairman, Mr. Felder is head of the disciplinary agency that reviews complaints of judicial misconduct in New York.

The commission said in a statement announcing its no confidence vote that Mr. Felder's book is vulgar and "invokes racial, ethnic, and religious invective."

Mr. Felder said the claim is an "offensive lie" and that he would go to court to keep his position.

Governor Spitzer said he supports the commission's vote and insists that Mr. Felder resign from his position.

Commission members are weighing their options and could vote to dismiss Mr. Felder.

In an interview, Mr. Felder said he had been planning to step down as chairman by September, but that he changed his mind and would fight it out.

"I can't surrender on this issue," he said.

Mr. Felder, who is writing an autobiography and is also working on a Broadway play about the life of his late brother, songwriter Doc Pomus, previously said he did not have enough time for the job and was searching for a replacement.

He is also writing a second book with Mr. Mason scheduled to be completed in September.

http://www.nysun.com/article/52606

[Livyjr]

NEWSDAY

AP New York - Former Brooklyn Democratic leader sentenced for extortion"

April 16, 2007, 4:55 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) _ Former Brooklyn Democratic Party Chairman Clarence Norman Jr. was sentenced to one to three years in prison Monday for shaking down a judicial candidate in 2002.

It was the third criminal conviction in two years for Norman, a former state assemblyman who remains free on bail and has vowed to appeal.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said in announcing the verdict, "This trial showed how Clarence Norman manipulated the judicial system and perverted the way judges are elected in this county."

Norman's lawyer, Edward Wilford, said he believed his client would prevail on appeal.

Norman was found guilty in February of grand larceny in what prosecutors called a scheme to extort judicial candidate Karen Yellen.

Norman was also found guilty of one count each of attempted grand larceny and coercion but was acquitted on five other counts.

At two trials in 2005, Norman was found guilty of stealing $5,000 donated to his re-election committee in 2001, and of trying to conceal $10,000 in contributions.

He was acquitted last year of charges of unlawfully billing the Assembly for mileage on a Lincoln Town Car leased by the Democratic Party.

In the latest case, Yellen, a Brooklyn civil court candidate defeated in a 2002 primary, testified that Norman had demanded she pay his favored consultant thousands of dollars for a get-out-the-vote effort.

Monday's sentence will follow two consecutive one-to-three-year sentences for Norman's previous convictions, bringing his total sentence to three to nine years in prison.

Norman was forced to resign from the Assembly following his first conviction.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/new...egion-apnewyork

[Livyjr]

"Assembly has about $40M left to spend - Fewer appearances for Speaker Sheldon Silver on $46.2M list of grants"

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

First published: Wednesday, April 18, 2007

ALBANY -- The Assembly on Tuesday released a list of $46.2 million in member item grants for this year for uses ranging from housing for homeless dogs to cultural programs in Albany and Manhattan.

Notably absent is the sponsorship of Speaker Sheldon Silver for many causes he has championed in the past.

The total is considerably less than the $85 million the Assembly is authorized to spend this year in "community project fund" appropriations, also known as legislative pork.

Tens of millions of dollars in items the Assembly used to sponsor, including legal aid services, were instead included in Gov. Eliot Spitzer's executive budget, said Silver spokeswoman Sisa Moyo.

With nearly $40 million left for the Assembly to spend, more projects could surface in another appropriation bill later this year.

The Senate, which also has $85 million to spend under the $121 billion state budget approved April 1, plans to release its list on Thursday or Friday, said Mark Hansen, a spokesman for Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno.

Assembly and Senate minority conferences and some individual legislators released their lists, lacking some details, last week upon request.

It was unclear why the majority conferences have had difficulty providing the detailed data, but the Assembly posted all the items for its 150 members on its Web site Tuesday afternoon.

The public postings, which include the sizes of the grants, the recipients' names, addresses and telephone numbers, the names of the sponsoring members and what they're for, started last year after the Times Union successfully sued for disclosure of the full information.

The items on the Web reveal that big initiatives were sponsored by rank-and-file members instead of Silver.

In the new posting, for example, Assemblymen Ron Canestrari, D-Cohoes, and John McEneny, D-Albany, were listed as the sponsors of a $150,000 member item for the Center for Disability Services Inc. in Albany.

The money is for a health care clinic and equipment.

The project director is listed as Kristin M. Proud, a former top fiscal officer for the Assembly Democrats who left to work in the nonprofit industry.

Spitzer recently hired her as a director of health and human services.

Canestrari and McEneny had said their member items were for nominal amounts of about $5,000, and lists they released of their projects didn't include money for the center.

Both said they didn't consider the funding part of their member item allocation of about $180,000 each, and that the center received money at their request after Spitzer didn't include funding in his budget.

Such an addition might have been listed as a Silver member item in the past, Canestrari said.

In another instance, $285,631 was granted to Albany-based TASC (Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime) of the Capital District Inc. from four Assembly members, none of whom live in the region.

One of them, RoAnn Destito, R-Rome, explained that members involved in public safety committees were listed on such grants to spare Silver from being listed as the sponsor.

In two past years of member item spending, Silver funded $15.2 million in member items personally, and more than $23 million with other members.

Canestrari was also listed in the new posting as granting $250,000 to the New York University School of Dentistry for a "mobile dental van for pediatric outreach" that isn't expected to travel to the Capital Region.

He's also down as sponsor of $150,000 for Capital Culture Inc., doing business as Capital Repertory Theater in Albany, which wasn't on the list of member item grants his office released.

The amounts for local Assembly members, according to their offices, were $185,000 for Canestrari; $185,000 for Assemblyman Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam; and $180,000 for McEneny.

Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, had $544,000, while his members had at least $100,000 each.

Following heavy media scrutiny of the member item system, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he is requiring all recipients to answer questionnaires and disclose any relationships with legislators or staffers.

They must prove good standing with the state, promise the money is for a public purpose and enter into contracts with implementing state agencies.

Members worry many small nonprofits will be burdened with paperwork and won't get funding this year, if ever.

Many member items don't reach their destinations for a variety of reasons.

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reported this week that $278 million in past member item money was still unspent at the end of March.

The Assembly list shows grants to many typical groups -- local sports organizations, YMCAs, ethnic organizations and domestic violence services.

Several ASPCA chapters, animal shelters and humane societies also received grants.

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

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS - The Daily Politics

"Buley Unplugged (Updated)"

DN Albany Bureau Chief Joe Mahoney reports:

Public Service Commissioner Cheryl Buley, at a commission hearing today on ConEd's handling of the power outage that darkened Long Island City last summer, accused Spitzer administration energy advisor Steve Mitnick of pressuring her to delay a decision on putting the utility on trial for its alleged negligence.

Buley also claimed that Mitnick "threatened" her, implying she would be canned from the PSC if she did not follow his instructions.

The Spitzer press office did not have an immediate response.

Buley stunned those in the hearing room when she declared that Mitnick repeatedly called her to get her to refrain from coming out in favor of allowing a so-called prudency petition against the company to move forward.

The other commissioners said no one had pressured them in the manner outlined by Buley, an appointee of former Gov. George Pataki and the estranged wife of former state Repulican Party chief counsel Jeff Buley, a onetime lobbying partner of Al Pirro.

Reporters surrounded Buley during a break.

Mahoney's transcription of the group interview with her follows after the jump.

Buley: "I was so concerned about (Mitnick’s) approaches to me that I’ve taken notes."

"Each time he has called he has suggested that he is managing my career plans in some respects."

"And when those conversations started tying themselves to policy decisions, that’s when I became concerned that there was undue influence on his part to suggest my disposition."

"I felt threatened."

Q: How many calls?

Buley: "I would say roughly five, and frankly I have been so busy preparing for session I am going to download all of the notes I have taken and catalogue these conversations.

"It was on five or six occasions, and on each time he had contacted me, it consistently he has unduly threatened my role as commissioner."

"I served with honor and dignity for the past six years on the New York Racing and Wagering Board, and also as chairwoman of that board."

"And I had a growing concern that my honor and my integrity was being challenged."

"He was suggesting in somehow his intimidation would be an effective tactic."

Q: Did he say why they wanted a delay?

Buley: "He didn’t explain that at all."

Q: Did he say the governor was involved?

Buley: "No, he basically in a veiled or not so veiled way said I should not support the Assembly position and that I should not only be moderate and measured, but not speak out about the need to commence a prudency investigation immediately."

Q: What type of communications?

Buley: "Telephone, and then finally, just yesterday, he called and said he wanted to have a really productive working relationship, and I said I would no longer speak with him."

"You know, I’d be happy to talk about constructively about policy issues, but I would not longer speak at all with him about my career or accept his threats about my career or accept his threats about my career, and he agreed to extricate himself about any further discussions and apologize for his bad judgment."

Buley was asked about her marriage to Jeff Buley, whom she had previously accused of domestic violence in a police report before withdrawing that allegation.

Her response:

"I’m involved in a divorce proceeding with my husband."

"He has absolutely nothing …"

"He has not lived in the house with me for the past couple of years…so…."

"I’m an independent commissioner and I’m proud to say that I have been.

Q: So you don’t think there would be any criticism that the only one speaking out is someone with ties to the Republican Party?

Buley: "Maybe I have some courage, and I take pride in the fact I will not be the subject of any attempt to coerce my position as an independent commissioner when I took my oath of office .. I took that oath with a sense of deep integrity, and a lot of this discussion about transparency raises the need to disclose that I have been attempted (for) coercment (sic) on policy decisions, and it is wrong."

Q: When were these communications made?

Buley: "For the past few months ..."

"My term is set to expire in 2012."

"It’s a six year term which commenced in July."

"He was asking me to look at the law, Section 4-B, about removals."

"I was left with the sense that at any given moment, if I didn’t do what he wanted me to do, then perhaps I would be ousted from my position."

Q: Was it your sense he was trying to get you to take the side of Con Ed?

Buley: "That’s a good inference."

Q: Do you believe you were the only one so approached by Mitnick?

Buley: "I have courage."

UPDATE: Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp denied Buley's claims that she was pressured and threatened by Mitnick.

"Her allegations are false," Dopp said.

"There is no mechanism for removing a person (from the PSC) once they are appointed.

Dopp said there is nothing improper about Mitnick having contact with PSC members, since he is the administration's energy expert.

Posted by Elizabeth Benjamin on April 18, 2007 2:17 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...ugged.html#more

[Livyjr]

"Ex-attorney general's firm faces fine - Dennis Vacco lobbying company could get $325,000 penalty in probe of casino deal"

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

First published: Wednesday, April 18, 2007

ALBANY -- The lobbying firm of former Attorney General Dennis Vacco could be fined $325,000 for allegedly hiding an illegal contract for millions of dollars if a tribal casino was built in the state, the Temporary Commission on Lobbying said Tuesday.

The commission agreed to set up a civil penalty hearing in June at which Crane & Vacco can respond to charges it broke the law by contracting for a contingency fee that would have richly rewarded the lobbyists if a tribal casino for the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma came to pass.

The investigation stems from a case the firm proposed settling last year for $50,000 but failed to follow through, said Lobbying Commission Executive Director David Grandeau.

Now it faces $325,000 for failing to disclose the allegedly illegal "success fee" contract and not filing reports about it and instead filing a "false" report, lobbying commission documents say.

The case involves a 2004 deal, first reported in the Times Union, between the lobbying firm, led by Vacco and James Crane, and Caywil, a Rochester development group headed by Thomas Wilmot.

Wilmot held development rights with the Seneca Cayuga, which was proposing casinos in the Catskills and Rochester area.

Vacco and Crane have denied any wrongdoing and Albany County District Attorney David Soares concluded a year ago that the case lacked the evidence necessary to bring criminal charges.

Representatives of the firm could not be reached for comment.

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK SUN

"Floyd Abrams May Stand By Raoul Felder's Side"

By JACOB GERSHMAN

Staff Reporter of the Sun

April 17, 2007

ALBANY — A First Amendment lawyer, Floyd Abrams, said he would consider providing legal counsel to a celebrity divorce lawyer, Raoul Felder, whose satirical new book has ignited an effort to oust him from his position as chairman of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

The dispute between Mr. Felder and commission members has the makings of a high-profile freedom of speech case.

On Friday, Mr. Felder, a Pataki appointee who became chairman last year, received a unanimous vote of no confidence from the other commission members, who argued that passages in Mr. Felder's book concerning race, ethnicity, and religion compromise the dignity of the state body and undermine his ability to appear impartial when reviewing allegations against judges.

"He can't be dismissed simply because he wrote a book that has disagreeable ideas," Mr. Abrams said.

"At some point the totality of views expressed based upon considerations of race and national origin could so compromise his real or reasonably expected conduct that it could be appropriate to dismiss him."

As chairman, Mr. Felder is head of the disciplinary agency that reviews complaints of judicial misconduct in New York.

The commission said in a statement announcing its no confidence vote that Mr. Felder's book is vulgar and "invokes racial, ethnic, and religious invective."

Mr. Felder said the claim is an "offensive lie" and that he would go to court to keep his position.

http://www.nysun.com/article/52606

NY TIMES

Metro Briefing | New York

"Albany: More Trouble for Felder"

By DANNY HAKIM

Published: April 19, 2007

The state commission overseeing judges said yesterday that its chairman, Raoul Felder, no longer speaks for the panel.

Last week, Mr. Felder received a unanimous vote of no confidence from the nine other members of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct after they accused him of invoking “racial, ethnic and religious invective” in a book that he wrote with Jackie Mason.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has also called for Mr. Felder to step down, but he has refused to do so and has disputed characterizations about his book.

The commission said yesterday that the staff administrator would speak for the commission, and that the clerk would sign the panel’s orders.

Mr. Felder said he did not oppose any of the steps being taken.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin

[Livyjr]

NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE

April 18, 2007, 2:50 pm

"Commission: Felder Doesn’t Speak for Us"

By Danny Hakim

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct, stepping up its cold war with its chairman Raoul Felder, said today that Mr. Felder no longer speaks for the commission.

He also will no longer sign commission orders or official letters of caution or dismissal sent to judges, according to resolutions passed by the commission at a meeting yesterday.

This comes in the wake of the other nine commissioners taking a unanimous no confidence vote in Mr. Felder last week, after they accused him of invoking “racial, ethnic and religious invective” in a new book he co-wrote with Jackie Mason.

Mr. Mason rallied to Mr. Felder’s defense yesterday, but the governor has called on him to step down.

Mr. Felder has said he intends to serve the more than 11 months he has left as chairman.

Comments so far...

April 18th, 2007 7:45 pm

As an older upstate NY-er, I find myself somewhat puzzled and perplexed by the fact that anyone in America thought this celebrity divorce lawyer Raoul Felder had any credibility whatsoever BEFORE he co-authored that foolish little book “Schmucks! Our Favorite Fakes, Frauds, Lowlifes, Liars, the Armed and Dangerous and Good Guys Gone Bad”, for which he was denounced by his fellow commissioners Friday.

Put another way, who actually thinks that comments about “the other spouse” made to judges by celebrity divorce lawyers in the course of being celebrity divorce lawyers for politicians like Rudolph Giuliani are appropriate and simply right for one who sits, as Mr. Felder does, in a position as chair of a commission that judges the behavior of judges?

As we countryfolks see it out here, this Mr. Felder did not talk any different in that book than he has been talking verbally for all the years that he has been a celebrity divorce lawyer for people like Rudolph Giuliani, and so, it is quite hypocritical of the members of this state Commission on Judicial Conduct to be getting all uppity now because they have been sitting there all this time with a celebrity divorce lawyer as their chair who talks like Raoul Felder does in that foolish little book, which they now have a problem with, but didn’t before the book was published.

Which raises the question of who would even take the time to bother to read the thing in the first place to be insulted by it, assuming that one could even understand what is written in there in the first place, which is not certain, since in his April 16, 2007 NEW YORK POST article entitled “GOV TO RAOUL: QUIT - OR ELSE GOV. SPITZER - Dismayed by ‘Schmucks!’”, Fred Dicker had to translate excerpts from the book, just so the average reader would even know what this celebrity divorce lawyer Felder was saying in the “divorce lawyer-ese” that he speaks.

I know that I wouldn’t, and quite frankly, I can’t see some Spanish-speaking person taking the time to read it, either, especially with the need to translate as you go, because with Jackie Mason’s kind of humor involved, you already know it is going to be mainly derogatory, and who wants to bring that **** into their lives voluntarily, when it is just too easy to walk on by.

So, quess what, members of the state Commission on Judicial Conduct and “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer, as well, out here in the countryside, you already didn’t have a lot of credibility before this celebrity divorce lawyer who is your chair wrote this book, because you had for your chair a celebrity divorce lawyer, who is not looked upon by us more conservative countryfolks up here as any kind of role model that we would care to emulate, nor do we find ourselves overly impressed or confident about the type of values that a celebrity divorce lawyer would bring to the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, and that was before he wrote the book.

And we are curious, with a man whose job it is to make someone’s spouse look bad before a judge to get a better settlement for his high-paying client, what exactly is it that he would then find unprofessional in a judge, who happens to be a member of the bar, as well as Felder.

And “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer, who calls himself a “****ING STEAMROLLER” while he sits in judgment of Felder, who only calls people schmucks.

And so …..

— Posted by Livyjr

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

[Livyjr]

NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE

April 19, 2007, 12:39 pm

"Nine and a Half Weeks, Albany-Style"

By Nicholas Confessore

That’s how much time Gov. Eliot Spitzer has left to carry out the remainder of his agenda, as the governor himself noted today.

That agenda now includes, as per the major speech Mr. Spitzer delivered today at a breakfast sponsored by Crain’s Business, an ambitious effort to lower the state’s energy consumption through both new conservation efforts and the construction of new clean-power energy plants.

But it will not include gay marriage — something Mr. Spitzer was asked about by the breakfast’s moderator, who wondered what had happened to the governor’s earlier committment to the issue.

“It’s there,” Mr. Spitzer replied.

“And it is also something I believe in."

"I’ve been unequivocal about that.”

The list of priorities he unveiled Monday, he added, were “a statement of what the priorities are for the next few weeks, that I was listing bills that I think we can and should get passed by the Legislature in the next few weeks."

"And so I am focusing now on politics as the art of the possible.”

We also learned a few other things.

He’s not going to raise taxes during his term.

He’s going to “vigorously contest” the State Senate races next year, when the Democrats have a chance to finally retake that chamber (and solidfy the party’s dominance of state government).

He still wants to get a judicial pay raise and plans to introduce legislation to that effect.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Spitzer is also still saying that he basically won on the budget, though it increased spending at three times the rate of inflation.

“It was not sufficient fiscal discipline,” the governor conceded, but it was “substantively the right budget” and also on-time.

We suspect we’ll be hearing a lot of this “on-time budget” claim, especially when the next election rolls around.

Technically, of course, the budget was late, though only slightly.

Comments so far ...

April 19th, 2007 4:34 pm

In the state of NY, where the budget process is very tightly defined and controlled by ART. VII of the NYS Constitution, there is no such thing as “Technically, of course, the budget was late, though only slightly”, and this newspaper should be the very first to know that, based upon its own story from January 18, 2002 entitled “Court’s Budget Ruling Hands Pataki a Big Victory” by James C. McKinley, Jr., wherein was stated in relevant part to this very discussion that:

“But Justice Bernard J. Malone, Jr. of Albany ruled today in the governor’s favor, saying the Constitution and previous court decisions unequivocally gave the executive the power to include policy changes in the descriptions of appropriations.”

“In essence, Justice Malone said Article VII, Section III of the Constitution gives the governor the choice of folding any policy changes he thinks necessary to carry out his spending plan into the budget bill or submitting those changes in separate bills.”

“He ruled that the Legislature’s contention that appropriation bills should consist only of a list of numbers with short descriptions of their purpose would render that part of the Constitution meaningless.”

So, according to this newspaper’s own reporting, in 2002, NY Supreme Court Justice Bernard J. Malone, Jr. of Albany ruled in favor of the New York State constitution, and in 2002, “Eliot “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer was state A.G., so there is no way that the “STEAMROLLER” could be ignorant of that decision, and yet here he is, in the pages of your newspaper, mocking us and treating us like a bunch of chumps by telling us his budget was “substantively the right budget” and also on-time.

Pardon me here, but that is a bunch of absolute crap, and shame on us for not calling “STEAMROLLER’s” Spitzer’s cards on this gross abuse of our constitutional processes for state budgeting here in NYS as they are delineated in ART. VII of our state Constitution.

Pursuant to sect. 3 of ART. IV of the NYS Constitution, “The governor shall …. take care that the laws are faithfully executed”, and with respect to the state budget, that “law” which thoroughly binds the governor, any NYS governor, including “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer, is ART. VII of our Constitution, and instead of taking care that ART. VII was “faithfully executed” with respect to this budget, “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer simply trashed the NYS Constitution and did things his own way, for which we upstate people believe he should be removed from office, right now, as soon as possible, for he is an oath-breaker and he is a danger to our democracy here in upstate NYS to boot.

An unconstitutional budget is not “late, though only slightly” as your newspaper maintains, and would apparently have us believe, as if we were really all nothing more than a bunch of ignorant chumps up here who would fall for anything any roaming “drummer” or snake-oil salesman or ordinary con-artist would sell us; to the contrary, an unconstitutional budget in NYS is a nullity - it doesn’t exist, because you cannot get something lawful out of an unlawful, unconstitutional process!

In your own newspaper just five years ago, in 2002, it was stated with respect to our present constitutional budget process as follows:

“The state’s current budget-making system was drawn up during a redrafting of the Constitution in 1927, at a time when the public had grown tired with the Legislature’s penchant for spending.”

“The changes were refined again in a 1938 revision.”

“Those amendments gave the governor the power to write and submit appropriations bills as well as others needed to carry out the budget and severely limited the Legislature’s ability to change the appropriations.”

“The governor was given the power to veto any additions, but the legislature was barred from passing other appropriations until they took ‘final action’ on the governor’s bills.”

There, I submit, right in the pages of your own newspaper, is the “bones” of what is laid out in more exacting detail in ART. VII of our state Constitution, and it is too bad this newspaper has such a short memory that it forgets its own words of yesterday about such an important issue to us in upstate NYS today, that being the crafting of our state budget according to our Constitution by both the governor and the Legislature, because just like in 1927, which was just before a major U.S. depression, once again we, the people have grown damn sick and tired with the Legislature’s penchant for spending, along with that of “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer ….

And so …

— Posted by Livyjr

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

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK POST

"PANEL PLACES GAG ON RAOUL - STRIPPED OF SOME POWER"

By FREDRIC U. DICKER State Editor

April 19, 2007 -- ALBANY - Celebrity lawyer Raoul Felder was in more trouble with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct he chairs yesterday, as members revealed they had stripped him of his right to speak and sign letters for the commission.

Felder, the target of an unprecedented "no confidence" vote by commission members last week because of the contents of "Schmucks!" a book he co-wrote with comedian Jackie Mason, blasted the commissioners for "acting like hysterical children."

"This doesn't disturb me at all," insisted Felder, who has vowed to remain at his unpaid post despite calls from the other commission members and Gov. Spitzer to resign.

The latest anti-Felder action came at an unannounced commission teleconference Monday where a resolution was adopted declaring, "Only the [commission] administrator will speak publicly on behalf of the commission and answer substantive press inquiries."

The commission also resolved that "until further notice," all "letters of dismissal and caution" sent to judges under investigation should be signed by the commission vice chair, and not by Felder.

Felder, who chose not to participate in the meeting, said he didn't object to either of the actions.

"I never believed I should speak for the group," he insisted.

He also said he spent considerable time away from New York and, therefore, didn't object to having the vice chairman sign letters.

But Felder conceded that the actions were taken against him in the wake of his controversial book, saying, "The reason they did this is a little hysterical."

Commission members claim the book - which skewers "our favorite fakes, frauds, lowlifes, liars, the armed and dangerous, and good guys gone bad" - contained racial and ethnic "invective," ridiculed the legal presumption of innocence, and attacked affirmative action.

fredric.dicker@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04192007/news/...tate_editor.htm