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

[Livyjr]

"Building the future while preserving the past - Albany, historic group are in talks with a developer over Wellington Row"

By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Tuesday, May 29, 2007

ALBANY -- For 10 years, architect William Brandow has walked to work past the five forlorn buildings known as Wellington Row.

Brandow -- a savior of old buildings by temperament -- looked beyond moldering columns, pigeon droppings and moss growing on lintels.

He focused instead on two centuries of exceptional architectural history embedded in the derelict structures that command the crest of State Street hill in the shadow of the Capitol.

"These buildings show the evolution of Albany's most important street," Brandow said.

"Wellington Row is where the wealthiest citizens of Albany lived in the early 1800s and it's where the street first made the shift from residential to commercial."

Here is where John Taylor Cooper, from the famed Coopers of Cooperstown, settled in a sumptuous town house at 134 State St.

In 1832, he hired the noted architect, James Dakin, to remodel the 1820s house into a stunning Greek Revival residence befitting Cooper's social status.

Next door, the first two floors of the old Christian Brothers Academy bear remnants of a Federal-style town house built during the 19th century.

Similarly, at 140 State St., the defunct Berkshire Hotel includes a superstructure built around a Federal town house.

Over the years, instead of tearing down the residences, new commercial buildings were simply constructed above and around them, leaving the low-slung and ornate edifices embedded in the high-rises.

At 138 State St., the Renaissance Revival flourishes of the early 20th century Elks Lodge were created by the New York City architectural firm of M.L. and H.C. Emory.

"There's not a city in the world that wouldn't love to have those two buildings (138 and 140 State) next to each other, whether it be Paris or New York City," Brandow said.

In 2000, the Preservation League of New York State placed Wellington Row on its list of the most critical buildings across the state to be saved.

Last November, Wellington Row was bought for $925,000 by Columbia Development Cos. from London-based Sebba Rockaway Ltd. (which had paid $1.75 million in 1987).

Now, hopes are high among preservationists that the historic character of the buildings can be saved.

Columbia has proposed building a $60 million, 14-story office tower with street-level shops and condominiums.

The Albany developer has said it wants to preserve the exterior facades of the Wellington Hotel and two other buildings.

Discussions are under way regarding specifics of the project between the developer, city officials and representatives of Historic Albany Foundation.

Details of those negotiations are not being released, and Columbia officials were not available to discuss their plans.

"Keeping just the facade is one of my least favorite choices and the buildings would be much more stable keeping three walls as opposed to one," said Susan Holland, executive director of Historic Albany.

"I'm an eternal optimist."

"I believe the city and the developers are very sensitive and will come up with a great project we can all support."

Brandow's boss, architect Jack Waite -- who has won historic preservation honors for his firm's work at Tweed Courthouse, Baltimore Cathedral, George Washington's home in Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and other historic structures -- feels a sense of urgency about Wellington Row's fate.

"We can't afford to lose those buildings."

"There's no reason they can't be saved," Waite said.

"Wellington Row forms a very important part of the downtown Albany streetscape on one of the great streets in America in terms of intact architecture."

The site has been both a blessing and a curse for the city as far back as 1980, when the buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1986, the Wellington closed, bringing an end to a downtown fixture that had been home to generations of out-of-town visitors, University at Albany students and future governors Mario Cuomo and George Pataki.

When Sebba Rockaway bought the Wellington and two other buildings, it announced plans to tear them down and to build a new office tower.

The London developer and the city squared off and their battle raged for years, while the vacant, boarded-up structures continued to slide into severe disrepair due to the elements and neglect.

Mayor Jerry Jennings' 1994 Capitalize Albany plan, which featured a revitalized Wellington Row as the centerpiece of a tree-lined expanse of stores and outdoor cafes, receded further and further into the background.

With Columbia's new ownership, coupled with a $2.5 million state grant to assist stabilization of the cluster of buildings, a clearer picture of Wellington Row's future should emerge soon, said Michael Yevoli, Albany's commissioner of development and planning.

"The developer is analyzing the structural and economic feasibility of as much preservation as possible," Yevoli said.

"Preserving and re-using the buildings back into the fabric of the street would be a win-win for everybody."

Architectural historian Walter Wheeler, who has for years studied Wellington Row out of personal curiosity, wants as much of the buildings as possible to be preserved.

"They're fine buildings with nice proportions, good scale, excellent materials and wonderful use of shadow and light," Wheeler said.

"To settle only for the facades is rather defeatist," he said.

"I think we can do better than what you see in parts of Boston, where they preserved little four-story ciphers as facades fronting 40-story buildings."

"Those facades are token symbols that are basically meaningless."

Grondahl can be reached at 454-5623 or by e-mail at pgrondahl@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"Big raise helps ease struggle of city life"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Monday, May 28, 2007

What a difference a year makes, especially when you get a $40,000 raise.

On a May 18, 2006, TV show, Uri Perin told WABC Channel 7 Eyewitness News in New York City, "I make close to six figures and I'm finding it hard to survive in New York."

Perrin said she was moving to more affordable Minneapolis because "over the years the quality of life has become much more important to me," and New York City had become "a struggle to the point of whether you wonder if it's worth it."

Now, though, Perrin, 36, is making $120,800 a year as one of two state staffers for Silda Wall Spitzer, Gov. Eliot Spitzer's wife.

Perrin and Chrissy Stevens, 22, making $50,800, are helping Wall Spitzer with her First Lady duties, including trying to figure out why young upstaters are leaving New York, and how to reverse the trend.

Perrin wouldn't take press calls to discuss her situation.

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

Well, here it is Tuesday, the holiday week-end is over; it's back to business, and so ....

Upstate Dem, or anyone else for that matter, why is it that it was a felony for NYS Comptroller Alan Hevesi, an elected state official, to use a state employee to drive his wife around, but it is supposedly alright for "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer, another elected state official, to assign TWO state employees to his wife, The Lady Silda, the one at $120,800 a year, and the other at $50,800?

Edify us, if you please!

Thank you!

Posted by: John Galt | May 29, 2007 7:12 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...end.html?page=4

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Opposites Who Attack Share Power in Albany"

By DANNY HAKIM

Published: May 29, 2007

ALBANY, May 25 — Gov. Eliot Spitzer sees the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, as an old-school politician who treats the Senate like his personal kingdom.

Mr. Bruno, the state’s top Republican, sees the governor as a rich-kid-turned-tyrant who regards the Legislature as little more than a nuisance.

Together, they are like a dysfunctional power couple, and the evidence of their antagonism accumulates daily.

Consider just a few examples:

The governor sternly warned Mr. Bruno at a public meeting, “This is my room and we’ll play by my rules.”

At the same meeting, Mr. Bruno puckered his lips and blew air kisses when another lawmaker complimented the governor.

In a speech this month, Mr. Bruno mocked the governor before more than a thousand Republicans, recounting the way Mr. Spitzer once described himself as “a [expletive] steamroller.”

“Well,” Mr. Bruno said, “he’s right about the first part.”

Though tensions between governors and legislative leaders are part of Albany’s fabric, the escalating feud between Mr. Spitzer, the state’s first Democratic governor in 12 years, and Mr. Bruno, leader of the Senate for the past 12 years, has been extraordinarily public, punctuated by ad hominem attacks and sniping in the press.

To many lawmakers, it has made for entertaining political theater.

But it has also affected policy making.

The two men have forged agreement on some issues, including the overhaul of workers’ compensation, but their battling has impeded several of Mr. Spitzer’s more ambitious goals, including a tightening of the state’s campaign finance laws.

The conflict is partly political; Mr. Spitzer very much wants to bring a Democratic majority to the State Senate for the first time in more than four decades.

But the acrimony also reflects the two leaders’ sharply contrasting backgrounds and styles.

Mr. Spitzer, 47, was born into wealth in New York City and educated at Princeton and Harvard Law.

Mr. Bruno, 78, is a self-made man who grew up in poverty in upstate New York.

While the governor often speaks in biting and prosecutorial prose, Mr. Bruno rambles.

Mr. Spitzer’s eyes pierce. Mr. Bruno’s wink.

Mr. Bruno’s jovial manner and advancing age make him easy to underestimate, but many lawmakers say that the Senate leader, who is a former boxer and a Korean War veteran, held his own, and perhaps bested the governor, during this year’s budget negotiations.

Mr. Spitzer disputes that view.

There is little doubt, however, that in Mr. Bruno he has found a spirited antagonist who has challenged his ambitious agenda and educated him on the arcane ways of the Statehouse.

Mr. Bruno has also given the wounded State Republican Party a defiant voice and succeeded, with an assist from union allies, in softening up the governor’s poll numbers.

Barbara Bartoletti, legislative director of the League of Women Voters in New York State, heard echoes of the bitter, though less public, fighting between former Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat.

By the end of last year, those two men were barely speaking to each other.

“Our hope is that it doesn’t deteriorate into that kind of relationship, because it’s just not productive,” Ms. Bartoletti said.

“Joe is a wily guy,” she said of Mr. Bruno.

“He is smart about politics and he has figured out several ways to beat the governor at his own game.”

Mr. Spitzer’s first shot across Mr. Bruno’s bow came the day after Christmas, less than a week before his swearing-in, when the governor-elect selected State Senator Michael A. L. Balboni, a Long Island Republican, to become his top adviser on public safety.

When a Democrat won the vacant seat in a special election, the poaching narrowed Mr. Bruno’s majority to two seats in the 62-member Senate.

“Mike called me one hour before he was going to get sworn in,” Mr. Bruno recalled in an interview.

“I was not happy, for a couple of reasons, that it was done in such a clandestine way, secretive way.”

Mr. Bruno and Mr. Spitzer began to clash openly during the contentious race to replace Mr. Balboni, in which the new governor took an aggressive and public role.

In a recent interview, Mr. Spitzer said he found it puzzling that Mr. Bruno would treat the Senate as if he owned it.

“What Joe Bruno sought from me was an agreement not to seek to elect candidates who share my ideological world view, and I would not, nor would I ever, do so,” the governor said.

Mr. Bruno said a political assault by Mr. Spitzer on the Senate Republicans had “disillusioned” him about the governor’s trustworthiness.

“What I’ve said to him very directly was, I was looking forward to working with you and I can’t believe how you’re handling yourself,” Mr. Bruno said.

“All I need is to be upfront, to be direct,” he added.

“If you’re going to fight, tell me.”

Mr. Spitzer asserts that he has actually held his fire, recalling that he blocked campaign literature depicting Mr. Bruno — who is under investigation by the F.B.I. — as a symbol of Albany corruption.

“I don’t think it’s fair game,” Mr. Spitzer said.

“Have I been tempted?"

"You bet."

"But I have the will power to resist.”

Things worsened steadily during budget negotiations in March, as tensions burst into public with a sonic boom of vitriol and vulgarity on the second floor of the Capitol.

Shouting between the two men was so loud that one of the governor’s top aides looked out his office window, thinking a fight had erupted in a construction crew working on the building’s facade.

Several people who heard the argument said the exchange was as follows.

“You are calling me a liar!” Mr. Spitzer exclaimed in anger about comments Mr. Bruno had made on the radio that morning.

“You are disparaging the office of the governor!”

Mr. Bruno shouted back, “No, you tell me one thing and do another!”

“I’ve been dealing with rogues and thugs my whole life,” Mr. Bruno added.

“I haven’t been intimidated by them and I’m not going to be intimidated by you.”

Mr. Bruno was expressing frustration that Mr. Silver had not taken a more assertive role in the budget talk — “Every time I mention your name he wets his pants,” he told the governor — and that the Senate minority leader, Malcolm Smith, often seemed to be a proxy for the governor.

After Mr. Bruno made a lewd anatomical reference to the close political relationship between the governor and Mr. Smith, the governor stormed out of his own office.

The blowup came two weeks before the state’s budget deadline of March 31 and underscored a general belief that the new governor was going to shut down the government.

Within a few days, however, Mr. Spitzer abruptly changed course and decided to strike a deal with Mr. Bruno — against the counsel of his own budget director.

Mr. Spitzer’s proposal to distribute a greater proportion of education aid to New York City and a smaller proportion to wealthy Long Island districts, to make large cuts in the state’s Medicaid spending and to exclude the wealthy from new property tax relief posed problems for Mr. Bruno.

Eight of the 33 Senate Republicans are from Long Island.

For weeks, negotiations were at a standstill.

The governor seemed ready to play a game of chicken.

“The Senate would not negotiate on anything until they knew where we were on shares,” Paul Francis, the state budget director, explained, using the term for the proportional distribution of school aid.

“And we couldn’t cross the Rubicon on shares until we knew where we were on everything else.”

By Monday, March 26, when the governor met with Mr. Silver in his office, the two Democrats planned for a possible shutdown of the government and even discussed the poll numbers of Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey when he took his state in that direction.

But behind the scenes, aides to Mr. Bruno and the governor continued to negotiate.

While Mr. Spitzer is well known for his tough talk and combustible demeanor — a 2006 biography of him is titled “Spoiling for a Fight” — behind the scenes, even as state attorney general when he was battling corporate executives, he often followed public excoriations by cutting deals and compromising.

He did the same on the budget.

When his staff presented him with a framework for a compromise, Mr. Spitzer took it, agreeing to send hundreds of millions of dollars more to wealthier Long Island districts.

In return, the Senate agreed to means testing of new property tax relief and left in place the majority of the governor’s cuts in health care spending.

Several members of the governor’s staff agreed with the decision, but others, including Mr. Francis, said that the Senate was getting too much back in education aid, according to officials involved in the deliberations.

Asked about that, Mr. Francis said that “the governor was right.”

“When I think back at what it would have been like to shut the government down, it would have been a mistake,” he said.

Mr. Spitzer said in the interview, “If you’re a rigid ideologue, you’ll never get anything done.”

“My job isn’t to get to the point of perfection, because we’ll never get there,” he said.

“My job is to get things done driving the agenda forward."

"On that level, Joe and I have this Kabuki dance, screaming and shouting, but we manage to do it.”

In truth, the two men have something in common: They are centrist voices in their parties.

And that has made it possible for them to agree on issues when they have set aside their animosity, like permitting civil confinement of sex offenders who have finished prison terms.

Recently, Mr. Spitzer also proposed H.I.V. testing for people indicted on rape charges, a measure the Senate Republicans support.

Dale M. Volker, a longtime Republican senator from the Buffalo area, said the relationship between the men has “been rocky, no question, and I personally have had a good relationship with Spitzer.”

“We always call Joe an old street fighter; he grew up in a very poor household, and his opinion of himself is that he’s Joe Bruno and he’s not intimidated,” Mr. Volker said.

“One of the things about Governor Spitzer is that he’s so used to getting his way.”

What gets done in the last few weeks of the legislative session, and beyond, depends on how that personal dynamic plays out.

Mr. Spitzer’s top priority since the budget, overhauling the campaign finance laws, has been stalled.

“If you take a look at his list of priorities and our priorities,” Mr. Bruno said last week, “if he’s got 25, we are probably, I’m just picking numbers, together on 20 of them.”

So why is it that they cannot get along?

“Why?"

"Because he totally politicizes governing,” Mr. Bruno said, asserting that the governor has said that “he’s going to destroy our conference, he’s going to take me out, he’s going to take over.”

The governor said that he had “succeeded in working with Joe Bruno when he wants to negotiate in good faith.”

He continued, “But I will not buy any of his completely false rhetoric and duplicity in trying to portray the old Albany ways as being good for the public.”

At least they can still mock their own feud.

When Mr. Spitzer declared recently that it was “a gorgeous day” in the capital, Mr. Bruno, sitting next to him at the time, replied, “It’s going to rain tomorrow.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/nyregion/29spitzer.html?hp

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Opposites Who Attack Share Power in Albany"

By DANNY HAKIM

Published: May 29, 2007

ALBANY, May 25 — The governor sternly warned Mr. Bruno at a public meeting, “This is my room and we’ll play by my rules.”

The conflict is partly political; Mr. Spitzer very much wants to bring a Democratic majority to the State Senate for the first time in more than four decades.

Mr. Bruno said a political assault by Mr. Spitzer on the Senate Republicans had “disillusioned” him about the governor’s trustworthiness.

“What I’ve said to him very directly was, I was looking forward to working with you and I can’t believe how you’re handling yourself,” Mr. Bruno said.

“All I need is to be upfront, to be direct,” he added.

“If you’re going to fight, tell me.”

Mr. Spitzer asserts that he has actually held his fire, recalling that he blocked campaign literature depicting Mr. Bruno — who is under investigation by the F.B.I. — as a symbol of Albany corruption.

Things worsened steadily during budget negotiations in March, as tensions burst into public with a sonic boom of vitriol and vulgarity on the second floor of the Capitol.

Shouting between the two men was so loud that one of the governor’s top aides looked out his office window, thinking a fight had erupted in a construction crew working on the building’s facade.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/nyregion/29spitzer.html?hp

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

Well, EB is back, and reality once again intrudes on our lives here in NYS, now that the holiday week-end is over ....

And reality is that we have a little spoiled brat serving as governor of NYS!

An ignorant little spoiled brat, to boot!

As a NYS Senator, Joe Bruno has no real limits placed on him by either our state Constitution or laws!

As governor, Eliot Spitzer does!

Plain and simple!

If you don't believe me, well, hey, so what, actually ...

If you want to refute what I am saying, go first to Articles 2, 3 & 50 of Chapter 18 of the Laws of the State of New York, the "Executive Law, where in sect. 1001(2) of ART. 50, you will note that in NYS, the NYS Legislature makes the laws that govern the operation of the Executive Department of the State of NY!

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/nycodes/c39.html

And while you are doing so, note that the converse is not true!

In NYS, the governor does not set limits on the Legislature, other than by the use of his veto pen!

In sect. 4 of ART. 2 of the Executive Law, it is stated, as a CHECK AND BALANCE on the acts of the Legislature that:

"It shall be the duty of such counsel (to the governor) to advise the governor in regard to the constitutionality, consistency and legal effect of bills presented to the governor for his approval ..."

IF Eliot "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer, the little spoiled brat who we are stuck with as governor, were to be actually doing his required duty of "taking care that the laws are faithfully executed", instead of trying to be the star of some TV-soap opera that he has running in his head, he would be using the law and Constitution to actually restore good government here in NYS, since he has the power to make Joe Bruno look like a fool, through the law and the Constitution ....

But "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer is nothing but a second-rate actor in a third-rate made-for-TV comic opera in Albany, NY, that is mistakenly called "our government" ....

And so ...

Posted by: John Galt | May 29, 2007 7:53 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...the_day_32.html

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

With respect to this THE NEW YORK TIMES story "Opposites Who Attack Share Power in Albany" by DANNY HAKIM, published: May 29, 2007 that EB links us to above here, in a previous May 16, 2007 NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE item "Spitzer and Leaders Meet, Fight" by Danny Hakim:

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

One of the members of our disabled veterans' community up here, Livyjr, presented a number of posts concerning the relationship between the office of governor and the legislature in NYS pursuant to our state Constitution!

And they were all posted in the NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE, which can be confirmed by going to that link!

Then, in the subsequent NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE item from May 21, 2007 entitled "Civics Lessons in Albany" by Danny Hakim:

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

The voice of Livyjr on Constitutional issues in NYS disappeared!

If you go to that posting, and subsequent postings in the NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE, Livyjr is gone!

His light suddenly blinked out, and that is that!

Which makes us disabled veterans up this way appreciate the NY Daily News Daily Politics BLOG all that much more ...

Because CENSORSHIP is not being practiced here, as it now is at the NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE BLOG with respect to Constitutional issues here in NYS ....

And so ...

Posted by: John Galt | May 29, 2007 8:46 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...the_day_32.html

[Livyjr]

"Poll: New Yorkers want to reset Albany priorities"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 5:14 p.m., Tuesday, May 29, 2007

ALBANY -- Although Albany's leaders say a pay raise for legislators is alive and capital punishment for cop killers is dead as issues for the last four weeks of the 2007 legislative session, New Yorkers in a recent poll strongly disagreed.

By 62 percent to 32 percent, New Yorkers opposed a pay raise for members of the state Legislature that three years ago was deemed the most dysfunctional in the nation, according to the Siena Research Institute poll released Tuesday.

And 52 percent of those polled supported reinstating the death penalty for killers of police officers, a measure dropped from the late-session agenda by Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver despite support from Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

New Yorkers also want -- by 51 to 37 percent -- campaign finance reform that is pushed by the Democratic governor, but opposed by Bruno, the state's top Republican.

Spitzer had said he would only support a pay raise if lawmakers earn it by accepting campaign finance reform, which good government groups have long said keeps Albany beholden to special interests.

"On the issue of the Legislature giving itself a pay raise, New Yorkers say `no' strongly and loudly," said Steven Greenberg of the Siena College poll.

The Senate and Assembly base pay of about $180,000 a year -- increased by thousands for per-diem payments while in Albany and for leadership posts --hasn't changed since 1999.

"The public is beginning to realize that campaign finance reform is a necessary step to changing the way government operates and that is a critical message," Spitzer said in an interview.

"I hope that others look at this (poll) and see the public at large is supportive of the agenda I am laying out."

Bruno didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on whether the poll would affect his position on campaign finance.

For Silver's part, the poll numbers don't change anything on his death penalty stance, said Charles Carrier, spokesman for the Assembly speaker.

Carrier said Silver now believes life without parole and other changes in the criminal justice system are a better alternative to an expensive death penalty procedure that had previously not resulted in an executions.

The latest in a series of public leaders meetings convened by Spitzer is scheduled for Wednesday.

They will seek agreement on big issues before the scheduled end of the legislative session on June 21.

The poll found Spitzer was rated good or excellent by 57 percent of those questioned, slightly more than in April.

It was his highest number in the Siena poll since February, before his battles with Bruno, a powerful healthcare worker union and the Legislature over the budget and several other issues.

"It suggests to me that the public understands what I'm trying to do, is supportive of our objectives, appreciates the fact that I am pushing hard in areas that don't necessarily get easy resolution, but we're making real progress and we're continuing to push hard," Spitzer said.

But the poll also found 56 percent of New Yorkers felt Spitzer's aggressive fundraising at the same time he pushes to reduce the influence of money on politicians has made the reform effort more difficult.

The question notes that Spitzer has "voluntarily and significantly" reduced the size of donations he will accept to set an example, but doesn't note that he exhausted most of his campaign fund paying for his inauguration and producing television commercials to bolster his cost-cutting reform of the health care industry.

Health care unions and hospitals had a multimillion dollar TV ad campaign opposing Spitzer's effort and ultimately reversed some of Spitzer's cuts.

And by contrast, the inauguration of Republican Gov. George Pataki was paid by lobbyists and others doing or hoping to do business with the state, drawing protests from good government groups.

Siena's telephone poll of 620 registered voters was conducted May 18 through May 25 and has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

------

AP Political Writer Marc Humbert contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

"Chief judge pushes for judicial pay raises as judges take on debt"

By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press

Last updated: 1:23 p.m., Tuesday, May 29, 2007

ALBANY -- New York Chief Judge Judith Kaye, pressing ahead in her battle to win pay raises for state judges, offered up a new report Tuesday saying some of her colleagues are increasingly going into debt.

"Prior to 2005, it was rare for judges to borrow against their state pensions," said the 52-page report from the National Center for State Courts.

"Only 28 judges had outstanding pension loans at the end of 2004."

"That number doubled within a year, and has more than quadrupled in two years."

"As of March 2007, there are 117 judges -- about 10 percent of the entire (state) Judiciary -- who have outstanding pension loans," the report noted.

New York's judges haven't had a pay raise since 1999 and the report, requested earlier this year by Kaye, was the chief judge's latest salvo in her attempt to win judicial pay raises before the Legislature adjourns in late June.

Thus far, leaders of the state Legislature have refused to agree to pay raises for judges unless there are also raises for state lawmakers, who also haven't had one since 1999.

But, Gov. Eliot Spitzer has said he won't approve pay raises for lawmakers until they agree to some of his demands for reforming state government, including reduced limits on the size of campaign contributions.

"What a pity, what a shame, what an embarrassment," Kaye said Tuesday of the stalemate.

The report, calling for New York to provide the judicial pay raises demanded by Kaye, said the state's judges rank 48th in the nation when salaries are adjusted to account for New York's cost of living.

The report noted the pay for senior partners at New York law firms with 10 or more lawyers averaged $350,000 a year.

Kaye, New York's highest paid state judge, makes $156,000 a year.

For her news conference, held at the state Bar Association's posh headquarters just across the street from the Kaye-led state Court of Appeals in Albany, the chief judge trotted out a host of judicial and legal heavyweights.

Referring to the pay raise showdown at the Capitol as "this salary scandal," Michael Cardozo, New York City's corporation lawyer, said he was "speaking not just for myself, but on behalf of Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg."

"I say this: Legislators, stop fooling around with judicial salaries."

"Gov. Spitzer, stop fooling around with judicial salaries."

"Enact the judicial salary increase and enact it now."

Kaye has threatened to possibly sue Spitzer and the Legislature if they don't raise judges' pay.

The chief judge refused to discuss the results of a statewide poll out Tuesday from Siena College that found 62 percent of New York voters were opposed to pay raises for state lawmakers, findings that could complicate her efforts.

The poll did not ask voters for their feelings on judicial pay raises.

[Livyjr]

"New plant in works for GE - Healthcare medical imaging factory employing up to 200 workers possible at RPI tech park location in North Greenbush"

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

First published: Wednesday, May 30, 2007

ALBANY -- Plans to build a high-tech medical equipment manufacturing plant at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Technology Park will be announced soon under a deal structured by state, university and GE Healthcare officials, two sources familiar with the deal said Tuesday.

The proposed project involves a Wal-Mart-size plant at the tech park in North Greenbush to house workers making GE medical imaging machines, high-tech diagnostic devices that let doctors see inside patients.

The units are in growing demand by hospitals and medical researchers.

GE would sign a 20-year lease and build a 200,000-square-foot plant with dozens of jobs, perhaps up to 200, paying well above the average for Rensselaer County, the sources said.

The project would be in Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno's district and he is expected to commit some state resources to help put the deal together.

At the least, GE would want the maximum Empire Zone tax breaks.

The project has been on hold while RPI conducted a study on contamination that could come from the factory, according to the sources.

The study has been completed and concluded that the plant's pollution should not be a problem for the technology park, they said.

A projected cost of the proposal was unavailable.

One said the deal is on the verge of being concluded and would allow GE to build on some of the undeveloped acreage of the huge park.

The RPI board of trustees would need to convene to approve the project, one source said.

Brian McKaig, a spokesman for GE Healthcare, responded: "No comment."

"I can say we'll probably have more to say soon."

"There's some preliminary discussions with GE but there needs to be more due diligence before anything is finalized," said Jason Gorss, an RPI spokesman.

Bruno's office also had no comment.

But the senator has been teasing a major economic development project involving a high-tech industry.

He has also suggested he would need some state capital funds.

Today, Bruno is expected to meet publicly with Gov. Eliot Spitzer and other legislative leaders to talk about priorities for the rest of this session.

The agenda being developed Tuesday was expected to include capital project funding, something Bruno has been pushing to talk about for weeks.

At a similar public meeting earlier this month, Spitzer revealed that he is seeking $300 million to help lure Sematech, a chip research and development concern, to the University at Albany.

The Assembly almost immediately passed a bill supporting the project and providing the funding.

Bruno said he still wants to "debate" the Sematech project, although he has also said he is supportive.

Bruno also led his conference on Tuesday to passing a bill called "Upstate Now" that calls for $3.7 billion over three years.

The legislation seeks business tax cuts and funding for new ventures and tourism marketing and other initiatives aimed at stimulating the upstate economy.

Bruno is urging support from the Assembly and Spitzer.

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

[Livyjr]

"Breyer shares wit, wisdom - During Albany lecture, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice praises key role of Constitution"

By SCOTT WALDMAN, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, May 30, 2007

ALBANY -- U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer keeps the Constitution close to his heart.

Literally.

He pulled a copy of it out of his suit pocket during a lecture in Albany Tuesday night and said it was an essential tool for his job and for the country.

Breyer's speech -- the first in a lecture series at the Court of Appeals -- is also the first time a Supreme Court justice has visited the state's highest court in recent memory.

He spoke in the courtroom where the state's top judges hear appeals.

Breyer, 68, who took his seat on the Supreme Court in August 1994 after being nominated by President Bill Clinton, spoke for more than an hour about the relationship of democracy to the Constitution to a capacity crowd of more than 100 people.

He said the Constitution creates legal boundaries within which a society can thrive.

He said it ensures that the average citizen has a role in government.

"It isn't judges who decide how people will live in their community," Breyer said.

"It is those people who will decide, through democracy."

He said the Constitution encourages conversation, which strengthens the democratic process.

The Constitution often forces people with opposing points of view to reach some middle point of compromise during the American judicial process, Breyer said.

Breyer elicited numerous bursts of laughter with humorous self-deprecating quips, and jabs that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. -- who was appointed by President Bush -- needed a "little time" with complex cases.

Christine Ward, a state archivist, chuckled at many of Breyer's comments.

She said she was impressed that a man in such a prominent job could be so down-to-earth.

"I found it interesting to hear the humanity in the man," Ward said.

Breyer also told personal tales of some of his time on the Supreme Court.

He said it took him almost three years to adjust to life as a Supreme Court associate justice.

He got chuckles from the crowd when he recalled the understated advice of Associate Justice Harry Blackmun, whose retirement created the seat Breyer filled.

"He said, 'You'll find this an unusual assignment,' and I have," Breyer said.

Scott Waldman can be reached at 454-5080 or by e-mail at swaldman@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"Breyer shares wit, wisdom - During Albany lecture, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice praises key role of Constitution"

By SCOTT WALDMAN, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, May 30, 2007

ALBANY -- U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer keeps the Constitution close to his heart.

He said it ensures that the average citizen has a role in government.

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

Say, staffer ....

Who got Livyjr censored over there at the NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE BLOG?

We figure it must have been your crowd .....

Someone gave an editor over there a "cigar" ....

And a nice little pat on the head ....

Along with some marching orders as to what to leave out of the NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE BLOG ....

So that we can then all believe that this farce being presented to us in the "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer made-for-TV soap opera is really "good government" ...

Because "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer and the NY TIMES are telling us that it is ....

Even though that is nothing but pure hog swill ....

And so ...

Posted by: John Galt | May 30, 2007 7:00 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...e.html#comments

[Livyjr]

"New I Love NY campaign targets upstate - State chooses new ad firm to head multi-million dollar tourism promotion program"

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

Last updated: 12:07 p.m., Wednesday, May 30, 2007

ALBANY - The state has a new ad firm to market tourism and it will be trying to steer some of the 44 million annual visitors to New York City to upstate, Gov. Eliot Spitzer said today.

Empire State Development Corp. chose Saatchi & Saatchi to run the "I Love New York'' ad campaign.

The firm will be signing a three-year contract, having beaten two dozen competitors for the chance to tap into nearly $22 million tourism promotion program.

Spitzer said the state has failed to market itself effectively in the past, referring to the years when the program featured Gov. George Pataki as the tourism spokesman.

"I'm not going to be in the ads; elected officials aren't going to be in the ads,'' he said.

Instead, a "professional'' approach will be used.

Spitzer said ads will encourage upstate visits, particularly to the masses attracted to Manhattan.

"We want to make sure they expand their horizons,'' Spitzer said.

Destinations in all areas of upstate will be marketed, he said.

The program involves TV ads but also a bigger use of Web sites and "new media,'' the governor said.

Mary Baglio, chief executive officer of Saatchi, said her firm envisions ads that are "emotionally engaging'' and with an emphasis on "love.''

Pat Foye, co-chairman of Empire State Development Corp., said the first ads will likely come during the fall/winter period.

"I Love New York'' ads began 30 years ago next month.

The most recent ad director was Eric Mower and Associates.

[Livyjr]

"Funding bill in the works - Legislative leaders, Spitzer agree to craft spending plan for capital projects but argue over high-tech money"

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

First published: Thursday, May 31, 2007

ALBANY -- Legislative leaders and Gov. Eliot Spitzer agreed Wednesday to work out a new budget bill with hundreds of millions of dollars for capital projects, but a fight over money for high-technology companies that would relocate here erupted during the negotiations.

The package could end up including $300 million for the Sematech consortium's computer chip research and development center in Albany, a sum approved in a stand-alone bill by the Assembly, and $10 million for a GE Healthcare project in North Greenbush, which Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno said Wednesday he wants in a comprehensive capital budget.

In a public meeting of Spitzer and legislative leaders, lawmakers pushed the governor to consider a statewide list of mostly unnamed projects while adding funds Spitzer wants for Empire State Development Corp.

Spitzer called for breaking up $300 million for the capital projects and ESDC from money that would be made available for the University at Albany to expand its nanotechnology center to draw Sematech, which stands for semiconductor manufacturing technology, and its 450 jobs.

Bruno said upstate has many capital needs, at least $300 million worth.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver listed tens of millions of dollars in projects he wants funded, including upgrades at colleges, affordable housing, $50 million for a research center at the University of Rochester and money for urban areas to clear sites for revitalization.

The discussion came during some sharp debate in which the group also tentatively agreed to the first overhaul since 1964 of the Wicks Law, which requires municipalities to hire multiple contractors for construction projects of $50,000 or more.

The bill could raise the thresholds for multiple bidding.

Projects of up to $3 million could use a single contractor in New York City, while the threshold would be $1.5 million in the suburbs near New York City and $500,000 elsewhere in the state.

The leaders also made progress on a power plant siting bill by agreeing to allow more plants and encourage "clean coal" plants; on expanding the use of DNA in criminal investigations by requiring DNA samples from criminals; and on creating a "healthy schools" law that would seek to rid junk food from public schools while exempting existing vendor agreements.

The group also took steps toward an agreement on a law to punish people who sell violent or sexually explicit video games.

Debate over the GE Healthcare project continued during and after the public negotiation session in the Capitol.

Bruno defended the medical imaging plant being located in his senate district after Silver suggested it was rising in suburban Troy at the expense of Schenectady and isn't as important as the Sematech project Silver is trying to shepherd through the Legislature.

"He's wrong," Bruno responded, adding that GE selected North Greenbush but was poised to choose Texas or Oregon.

He said Silver and Assemblyman Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, who represents parts of Schenectady, ought to be thankful because the jobs are remaining in the Capital Region.

"Anyone working in Schenectady will be driving to this new site," Bruno said.

"It's minimally 100 more jobs and they're growing at 20 percent a year over there."

"You're not going to see any job loss."

"There may be an immediate transfer of technical people to get that plant up and running ..."

"It's a multibillion-dollar industry and they're at the beginning of the cycle."

Silver and Spitzer both urged Bruno to pass legislation needed for the state to pump $300 million into the University at Albany's nanotechnology center so Sematech will be assured that the state has fulfilled its commitment.

Sematech plans to move its research and development operations from Austin, Texas, to the Albany center.

The Assembly already passed the bill and Bruno has been holding out.

The research association's chief executive officer, Michael Polcari, met with Spitzer and Bruno on Wednesday.

Silver and Paul Francis, director of the Division of the Budget, said Bruno should end the anxiety about the $300 million and direct the Senate to pass the Sematech bill.

"This Sematech is coming from someplace else, it's bringing jobs, it's a proven track record of the kind of growth it can produce," Silver said.

He said there is a risk the Sematech board will be uneasy if the state doesn't lock up the legislation.

Silver noted to Bruno that the Assembly and governor have backed the Advanced Micro Devices project that Bruno lined up for Saratoga County.

The project calls for $1.2 billion in tax breaks and cash incentives to encourage AMD to build a computer chip factory and create 1,200 jobs.

"We don't have a ground-breaking on AMD," he told Bruno.

Spitzer said the Sematech project is of "unique importance" and called on the staffs of the Assembly, Senate and executive to negotiate the capital budget plan privately.

Capital spending was left aside when this year's $121 billion state budget was passed April 1.

"I want to do a whole package," Bruno said, indicating his continued resistance to a stand-alone bill for Sematech.

Spitzer said he will consider projects that would be spelled out in legislation but also wants funds for ESDC for the unspecified programs.

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

[Livyjr]

"I'M A $@#%%*&&*^%$@???*&&%$#@* STEAMROLLER, BABY ...."

- Threatening and POMPOUS statement allegedly made to New York State Assemblyman James "JIM" Tedisco by self-styled DICTATOR of New York Eliot Spitzer, as reported to WGY CLEARCHANNELS AM 810 by New York Assemblyman James "JIM" Tedisco, February 1, 2007 and verified by Spitzer in the same news broadcast

THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Opposites Who Attack Share Power in Albany"

By DANNY HAKIM

Published: May 29, 2007

ALBANY, May 25 — Things worsened steadily during budget negotiations in March, as tensions burst into public with a sonic boom of vitriol and vulgarity on the second floor of the Capitol.

Shouting between the two men was so loud that one of the governor’s top aides looked out his office window, thinking a fight had erupted in a construction crew working on the building’s facade.

“I’ve been dealing with rogues and thugs my whole life,” Mr. Bruno added.

“I haven’t been intimidated by them and I’m not going to be intimidated by you.”

Mr. Bruno was expressing frustration that Mr. Silver had not taken a more assertive role in the budget talk — “Every time I mention your name he wets his pants,” he told the governor — and that the Senate minority leader, Malcolm Smith, often seemed to be a proxy for the governor.

After Mr. Bruno made a lewd anatomical reference to the close political relationship between the governor and Mr. Smith, the governor stormed out of his own office.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/nyregion/29spitzer.html?hp

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

Eliot "THE F***ING STEAMROLLER" Spitzer must believe that we are all devoid of our senses here in NYS, so that when he speaks, we will not know that he is just spewing more BULL**** in our faces ....

Here he is, above here, talking about "openness" in the "legislative process", when just this morning, in the upstate Albany TU item "Funding bill in the works - Legislative leaders, Spitzer agree to craft spending plan for capital projects but argue over high-tech money" by JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, first published Thursday, May 31, 2007, it was stated:

"Spitzer said the Sematech project is of 'unique importance' and called on the staffs of the Assembly, Senate and executive to negotiate the capital budget plan PRIVATELY."

"Capital spending was left aside when this year's $121 billion state budget was passed April 1."

end quotes

Good old "SMOKE AND MIRRORS" Spitzer!

Yes, he tells us, he is bringing us "open government" and "transparency" ....

But because it is all "behind closed doors", it is us who must be confused, because we just cannot see it, even though the "SNOWMAN" Spitzer is telling us that everything is now "open" and "transparent" ....

Like these closed, private negotiations on his "capital budget" plan, where the money is to go to "UN-NAMED PROJECTS" that we, the citizens of this state, cannot know anything about ....

For our own good, probably ....

Or for the "benefit of society at large" ....

Who in the Spitzer-itic view of "democracy" should be kept totally in the dark ....

As to what it is that we are paying tax dollars for, here in OUR OWN STATE ....

And so ...

Posted by: John Galt | May 31, 2007 7:46 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...ng_part_iv.html

[Livyjr]

"Poll: New Yorkers want to reset Albany priorities"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 5:14 p.m., Tuesday, May 29, 2007

ALBANY -- But the poll also found 56 percent of New Yorkers felt Spitzer's aggressive fundraising at the same time he pushes to reduce the influence of money on politicians has made the reform effort more difficult.

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

And speaking of hog swill, some of the old boys down to the feedstore up this way were saying that some of "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer's servants from the "farm" were in to buy a couple of tons of hog swill, and they were saying that when "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer heard of that 11-year old boy down in Alabama shooting what was at first thought to be a hog weighing over 1,000 lbs. that was 9 feet long, that the "STEAMROLLER" literally went berserk and called the authorities down in Alabama to have that boy arrested on charges of suspicion of murder until an autopsy on that alleged "hog" could be conducted to see if it wasn't a human being, instead .....

Apparently the physical description matched that of one of "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer's best-producing "bundlers", some big NYC lawyer, I guess ....

And so ...

Posted by: John Galt | May 30, 2007 7:07 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...e.html#comments

[Livyjr]

"Funding bill in the works - Legislative leaders, Spitzer agree to craft spending plan for capital projects but argue over high-tech money"

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

First published: Thursday, May 31, 2007

ALBANY -- Legislative leaders and Gov. Eliot Spitzer agreed Wednesday to work out a new budget bill with hundreds of millions of dollars for capital projects, but a fight over money for high-technology companies that would relocate here erupted during the negotiations.

Silver and Paul Francis, director of the Division of the Budget, said Bruno should end the anxiety about the $300 million and direct the Senate to pass the Sematech bill.

And with respect to the on-going HYPOCRISY of this "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer, where the operative policy is "DON'T LOOK AT WHAT HE HIMSELF IS DOING", in the THE NEW YORK TIMES article "Opposites Who Attack Share Power in Albany" by DANNY HAKIM, published May 29, 2007, which EB linked us to a few days ago, it was stated:

"ALBANY, May 25 — Gov. Eliot Spitzer sees the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, as an old-school politician who treats the Senate like his personal kingdom."

end quotes

Then, this morning in the upstate Albany TU article "Funding bill in the works - Legislative leaders, Spitzer agree to craft spending plan for capital projects but argue over high-tech money" by JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, first published Thursday, May 31, 2007, it was stated:

"Silver and Paul Francis, director of the Division of the Budget, said Bruno should end the anxiety about the $300 million and DIRECT THE SENATE TO PASS the Sematech bill."

end quotes

SO!

Okay ....

Let me see if I have this right ....

"STEAMROLLER" Spitzer wants a lot of our state tax dollars for his own "pocket", so that the "STEAMROLLER" can then dole out those millions with absolutely no checks and balances on what he does with that money ...

BUT ....

To get that money, this "STEAMROLLER'S" crowd want Joe Bruno to treat the NYS Senate like it was his own personal kingdom, and DIRECT the Senate to pass the Sematech bill .....

Hhhhmmmm ...

Well, it just must be me, I guess ....

Eliot Spitzer is telling us that somehow, that all equates to good and open, transparent government here in NYS ....

And because he is saying it .....

It must be true .....

So it has to be me ....

Because all I can see is what looks like more rank HYPOCRISY on the part of this "STEAMROLLER" ....

Who is the biggest threat and open danger to real Constitutional government here in NYS that I can think of ...

Bar none!

And so ....

Posted by: John Galt | May 31, 2007 8:31 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...ng_part_iv.html

[Livyjr]

"New state chief administrative judge appointed"

By CAROL DeMARE, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, May 30, 2007

ALBANY -- Judge Ann Pfau was named the state's chief administrative judge Tuesday, replacing Jonathan Lippman, who left to become presiding justice of a Manhattan mid-level appellate court.

Pfau will oversee the administration and operation of the state's court system and its $2.4 billion budget, its 3,600 state and locally-paid judges and 15,000 nonjudicial staff members.

"Judge Pfau's record as an administrator for the New York Court system over the last 20 years has been exemplary," said the state's Chief Judge Judith Kaye in announcing the appointment.

Since 2004, Pfau has served as the state's first deputy chief administrative judge.

Before that she was an administrative judge of the Supreme Court.

A Brooklyn Law School graduate, Pfau also has a master's degree in special education from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree from Wells College.

Lippman was named by Gov. Eliot Spitzer last week as presiding justice of the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court for the First Department in Manhattan.

He was the longest serving chief administrative judge in state history, having been appointed to that position in 1996 while serving as a Court of Claims judge.

In 2005, he was elected a Supreme Court justice.

[Livyjr]

A SERIOUS MESSAGE TO THE CANDID WORLD:

TO THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG 10:58 AM EST; 1 June 2007

COMMUNICATIONS HAVE GONE DOWN:

John Galt is not posting in here because our communications network out in the countryside appears to have been compromised in some way that has severed our link with the outside world through Internet Explorer, along with this BLOG, our e-mail, and the NY Daily News Daily Politics BLOG ....

Interestingly, we can still access the NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE BLOG, but to no avail, since we cannot post anything there, having been apparently "locked out" of that BLOG, after one of the members of our disabled veterans' community out here in the countryside, Livyjr, had posted a series of articles on the constitutional separation of powers of our government here in NYS pursuant to the provisions of our NYS Constitution, which separation of powers in this state begins with WE, THE PEOPLE, and not Joe Bruno or Eliot Spitzer ....

This transmission is being posted from a random location which requires us to have to travel some distance to reach it, which makes its use by us a prohibitive expenditure of our scant resources ....

So until we can diagnose how our computer network was taken off the air, and repair the damge, our voices will no longer be heard ....

And so ....

[Livyjr]

"Palm Beach trip probed - Vacation, including a visit to a strip club, part of the Bruno-Abbruzzese inquiry"

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

First published: Sunday, January 14, 2007

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- At a chamber of commerce luncheon last week, Bruno again said he is not a target of a criminal investigation.

A source with intimate knowledge of the case would not say whether anyone will be charged with a crime, only that a criminal investigation is ongoing.

Bruno has declined to divulge details about his private consulting business, or why Abbruzzese allegedly paid the consulting firm several hundred thousand dollars.

Those payments are said to be a primary focus of the probe.

Sometime after the investigation began, according to sources involved in the case, Bruno placed several telephone calls to U.S. Attorney Glenn T. Suddaby, the top federal prosecutor in New York's Northern District.

The investigation is being headed by Suddaby's office and the FBI.

Bruno's spokesman disputes that account of the calls.

"Senator Bruno made one call to the U.S. Attorney's office when he was informed that they were conducting an inquiry," said John McArdle, director of communications for Senate Republicans.

"He did so to offer his complete and total cooperation."

"He did not call anyone repeatedly."

Suddaby declined comment, citing a policy not to discuss pending investigations.

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

"Suddaby: No Pressure On Me"

DN Capitol Bureau Chief Joe Mahoney bumped into U.S. Attorney Glenn Suddaby at the State Police Academy in Albany yesterday and asked whether, given all the allegations of partisanship swirling around the US Justice Department these days, anyone has ever tried to influence him or his office.

Suddaby responded:

"There is some debate that’s going on in DC that has nothing to do with what I am doing as US Attorney for the Northern District of New York."

"I have a job to do, a responsibility to pursue criminal situations within this district, which I am doing without regard to any political considerations."

Suddaby is overseeing the investigation into Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno's outside business interests (about which we have heard not a word lately).

Bruno himself has discussed the probe publicly, yet Suddaby refused to even acknowledge its existence.

"I feel badly because I know you have your job to do, but it is just not appropriate for me to say anything," the mustachioed federal prosecutor told Mahoney.

Mahoney asked Suddaby if he might be able to offer clarity, at some point, as to whether any highly-publicized investigation had been brought to conclusion without an indictment.

Again, refusing to acknowledge his office is looking at Bruno, Suddaby said:

"There are certain situations where I think that is appropriate."

Posted by Elizabeth Benjamin on May 31, 2007 2:45 PM

Comments

In the Sunday, January 14, 2007 Albany Times Union story "Palm Beach trip probed - Vacation, including a visit to a strip club, part of the Bruno-Abbruzzese inquiry" by BRENDAN J. LYONS Senior writer, it was stated:

"At a chamber of commerce luncheon last week, Bruno again said he is not a target of a criminal investigation."

*****

"Sometime after the investigation began, according to sources involved in the case, Bruno placed several telephone calls to U.S. Attorney Glenn T. Suddaby, the top federal prosecutor in New York's Northern District."

"The investigation is being headed by Suddaby's office and the FBI."

"Bruno's spokesman disputes that account of the calls."

"'Senator Bruno made one call to the U.S. Attorney's office when he was informed that they were conducting an inquiry,' said John McArdle, director of communications for Senate Republicans."

"'He did so to offer his complete and total cooperation.'"

"'He did not call anyone repeatedly.'"

"Suddaby declined comment, citing a policy not to discuss pending investigations."

end quotes

From the quotes in that Times Union article by John McArdle, director of communications for Senate Republicans, it would seem that it is now a matter of public record that Joe Bruno did in fact make one telephone call to this Suddaby dude, this at a time when Joe Bruno was lawyered up to beat the band, and everything Joe Bruno has said publicly since he made this acknowledged telephone call to this Suddaby dude has indicated that this alleged FBI investigation of Joe Bruno is nothing more than a media stunt, a GREAT BIG SHAM ....

And I have to say as a citizen of NYS that the silence of this Suddaby dude on this issue of what he and Joe Bruno discussed during this acknowledged telephone call from Joe Bruno to him sure does carry a whiff of garbage and sewage on the air with it ....

And so ....

Posted by: John Galt | June 1, 2007 6:51 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...sure_on_me.html

[Livyjr]

"A $2.5 million present"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Monday, May 28, 2007

The governor's campaign stands to make more than $2.5 million at another party for his 48th birthday, and donors include a number of lobbyists and at least one would-be casino developer.

The June 7 shindig is at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in New York City, and follows other high-priced Spitzer fundraisers.

In his continuing strategy of encouraging bundling, the governor asks for up to $100,000 from "chairs" of the get-together.

If they make their quota, they'll get a VIP reception, four seats at a private dinner with Spitzer and a program listing.

Vice chairs must raise $50,000; patrons $25,000; and sponsors $10,000, with declining levels of perks.

Based on a count of chairs, vice chairs, patrons and sponsors in the program, Spitzer stands to take in at least $2.5 million.

Tickets start at $1,000.

Several lobbyists and special interests are on the list of big donors: Alan Lubin of New York State United Teachers; Kelli Conlin of NARAL Pro-Choice; Gavin Donohue of Independent Power Producers; Suzy Ballantyne of the AFL-CIO.

Rochester-based shopping center developer Tom Wilmot is among the patrons.

He's looking to build a casino in central New York for the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma.

Mall magnate Robert Congel is also on the list of those bundling $25,000.

He's trying to create the biggest retail paradise in North America in Syracuse.

ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

Everyday People, when you hear of Eliot “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer calling what he calls “leader’s meetings” here in Albany, do you ever wonder what it is that he is the “leader” of?

We old folks out here in the countryside do, and we are in the process of preparing written testimony from ourselves to Joe Bruno for these up-coming hearings of his on the crying need for campaign reform in the State of New York that makes it so that it is against OUR laws here in NYS for the governor to be actively soliciting funds of any amount from anyone, while he is actually serving a four-year term as governor ….

You can raise funds while you campaign for governor, but once you take the oath of office, that is the end of it ….

For it is unseemly for the governor of the State of New York to be out there all the time as Eliot Spitzer is, strutting his stuff, and peddling his *** all over town, looking like he is for sale to the highest bidders and bundlers ….

We are looking at it from the perspective of the need to strengthen the language in the Executive Law of the State of New York, Articles 2 and 3, which pertain directly to the Office of the Executive, who is presently Eliot “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer …..

And if you look at Sect. 3 of Article 2, you note that:

Acting governor. Every provision of law relating to the governor shall extend to the lieutenant-governor, to the president of the senate, and to the speaker of the assembly respectively, while acting as governor in pursuance of law.

end quotes

We see power for the people in that clause of our Executive Law, Everyday People, for once the governor is prohibited by state law from directly soliciting any funds once in office, then there is a rational basis for extending the prohibition to other elected offices …..

And in the meantime, we are assured of having a governor who is not for sale all the time, as this “STEAMROLLER” appears to be ….

And so …

Comment by John Galt — June 1, 2007 @ 5:34 pm

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4747#comments

[Livyjr]

ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

And, of course, if you take a look at ARTICLE 3 of the NYS Executive Law entitled “EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT”, you immediately see from Sect. 30 that:

S 30. Executive department. There shall continue to be in the state government an executive department. The head of the executive department shall be the governor.

end quotes

SO!

In NYS, the governor is the “leader”, or “head” actually, of the Executive Department of OUR state government, which consists of:

S 31. Divisions. There shall be in the executive department the following divisions:

1. The division of the budget.
2. The division of military and naval affairs.
3. The office of general services.
4. The division of state police.
5. The division of parole.
6. The division of housing.
7. The division of alcoholic beverage control.
8. Commission against discrimination.
9. The division of safety.
10. The division of veterans` affairs.
11. The office of planning services.
12. State civil defense commission.
13. Office for technology.[

Now, it can readily be seen from a review of Sect. 31 of Art. 3 of the Executive Law above that in NYS, the governor is responsible for the Commission Against Discrimination in the State of NY, so that the governor should not be out there, soliciting money from the highest bidders, as that makes him look like he himself is for discrimination!

And the same can be said for the state division of veteran’s affairs!

If Eliot Spitzer is out there, peddling his *** all over town, taking in big money from people out there who for some reason bear enmity towards disabled veterans in the State of New York, how can Eliot Spitzer be depended on to do the right thing for these disabled veterans ……

One of whom is a member of our disabled veterans’ community out here in the countryside …..

And so, because of the unique nature of the duties of governor of the State of New York serving as head of the Executive Department of OUR NYS government …..

By law in the State of New York, the governor should be prohibited from soliciting any funds in any amount from anyone while actually serving in office …..

And so ….

Comment by John Galt — June 1, 2007 @ 6:15 pm

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4747#comments