New York Is #1 … In Political Corruption

Congratulations, New York, You’re #1 In Corruption

 

 

 

 

 

” Other states have plenty of corruption, but it’s hard to beat New York when it comes to sheer volume. The indictment Monday of Dean Skelos, the state Senate majority leader, and his son Adam came just three months after charges were brought against Sheldon Silver, then the Assembly Speaker. Having the top leaders in both chambers face indictment in the same session is an unparalleled achievement, but Skelos is now the fifth straight Senate majority leader in Albany to face indictment.

  New York doesn’t so much have a culture of corruption as an entire festival. So far, Senate Republicans are standing by Skelos, but if they decide to make a change, they probably won’t turn to Thomas Libous, the chamber’s Number Two leader. He faces trial this summer on charges of lying to the FBI, while his son faces sentencing later this month on similar charges. All told, more than two dozen members of the New York state legislature have been indicted or resigned in disgrace over the past five years. “Albany for a long time has had a culture of self-interest, where private gains are woven in with public policy,” says Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause in New York.

  Clusters of corruption and even convictions are not unique to New York. Silver was one of four state House Speakers to face indictment over the past year (Alabama, Rhode Island and South Carolina are home to the others). In Massachusetts, three Speakers prior to current incumbent Robert DeLeo all resigned and pleaded guilty to criminal charges. When Dan Walker died last week, it was hard for obituary writers not to note that he was one of four Illinois governors over the past five decades who ended up in prison. “While I’m a proud New Yorker and want my state to be ahead in everything, I’m not sure we’re ahead on corruption,” says Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor who teaches law at Columbia University.

  Richman is kidding, but he makes a serious point. Give any U.S. attorney a year and 10 FBI agents and he or she can probably come back from the state capital with a passel of indictments. Having said all that, however, the waters in Albany have long been heavily stocked with potentially big fish. Remember in the movie Lincoln, when the president decides he has to resort to low dealings to get the anti-slavery amendment through Congress? The characters he relies on to do the trick come from Albany.”

 

Politico has the details

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Another Cuomo Term Is No Longer Inevitable

Why Cuomo Is No Longer Invincible

 

 

 

” As his run for re-election starts to gear up, Gov. Cuomo is in surprisingly weak shape. With a huge war chest in a heavily Democratic state, he’s still the odds-on favorite — but he’s suddenly looking a lot more vulnerable.

Here are 10 big reasons why the governor has to worry.

  He burned Mayor de Blasio. Sure, he made himself look good to centrist voters by humiliating the new herald of progressivism on both pre-K and charter schools. But he also earned a black eye with the left — and made an enemy of the mayor, who after all is the top politician in a city where Cuomo needs a lot of votes come November.

  He’s annoyed the public-employee unions. He tightened the state school-aid spigot and put in his property-tax cap, making it harder for teachers locals across New York to win higher pay. Then he pushed for test-based teacher evaluations, anathema to the unions. (Yes, the scheme never had real teeth, but unions can’t stand the precedent.) And he topped it all off with his embrace of charters — which the unions, not without reason, see as a naked bid for fat hedge-fund donations. Other unions feel burned because he forced modest contracts on most state-employee unions and won minor public-pension reforms. They won’t go to war on him for that — but why should they lift a finger to help?Now his sudden rush to win some union friends is getting ugly. Few voters will notice or care that the Transit Workers Union contract pays for raises by adding hundreds of millions to the MTA’s long-term liabilities — but they can understand a $6 million TWU slush fund.

  His robotic pretense that he’s still “studying” fracking after three-plus years is an oozing political sore. It tells people leading hardscrabble lives all across Upstate that he cares more about millionaires and special interests than he does about them — and doesn’t even have the guts to be upfront about it. The hypocrisy of his pose is so rank, it’s hard to see how anyone can trust his word on anything, public or private.”

 

Read the entire , heartwarming analysis at the NY Post

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Could “Prince Andy” Cuomo’s Re-Election Bid Be In Trouble ?

Cuomo, Amid Moreland Struggles, Realizes He Might Lose

 

 

 

 

” After his worst week in office since becoming governor, Andrew Cuomo is now viewed for the first time by important Democrats as potentially vulnerable to Republican challenger Rob Astorino, The Post has learned.

  The changing sentiment results from the extraordinary criticisms Cuomo received last week from corruption-fighting Southern District US Attorney Preet Bharara — because of the governor’s summary dismissal of his anti-corruption Moreland Commission panel — and from an assortment of “good-government’’ over his transparently phony plan for a severely limited system of publicly financed elections.

“ It was a disastrous week for Andrew. He was being attacked all over town, and it appeared to be the culmination of not just weeks, but months, of eroding support for the governor from within his own Democratic base,’’ one of the state’s most influential Democrats told The Post.”

The NY Post has more

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Plot To Poison City Water Supply Uncovered

 

Muslim Plotted To Kill 100,000 In Chemical Attack

 

 

” A Muslim man arrested last month in a terror plot in New York was planning to kill as many as 100,000 people by contaminating the air or water supply in a major U.S. city, the FBI alleges.

Ahmed Abassi, 26, was studying chemical engineering at Laval University in Quebec City, reports Canada’s CBC News.

Abassi’s plan did not materialize beyond discussions, but he is also being linked to Chiheb Esseghaier, one of two Canadian residents arrested in the alleged plot to derail a Via passenger train.

CBC News said American investigators have accused Abassi of fraudulently applying for a visa to stay in the U.S. to “facilitate an act of international terrorism.”

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement that Abassi “had an evil purpose for seeking to remain in the United States – to commit acts of terror and develop a network of terrorists here, and to use this country as a base to support the efforts of terrorists internationally.”

Abassi traveled to the U.S. in March, according to Canadian authorities, but did not enter the country directly from Canada. Authorities say it’s unclear how he entered the U.S.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bloomberg vs Cuomo – The Battle Of The Nannies

Mayor Bloomberg Tees Off, Hints Gov. Cuomo Partly To Blame For Albany Circus

 

 

 

” It was the ultimate putdown of state lawmakers caught in the corruption spotlight. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said they’re not qualified to get real jobs.

The circus has returned to Albany.
The man known in some parts as “El Bloombito” took out his rapier to cut state lawmakers down to size with a jab only a self-made billionaire could fire off, CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer reported Friday.

“The average legislator who has to make policy on things that influence our lives, our kids’ lives, our future, would they ever get a job in the private sector making policy on big things? No, not a chance,” Bloomberg said.

After a week of almost non-stop corruption revelations, including charges that Bronx Assemblyman Eric Stevenson took bribes to write a bill to help his friends, Bloomberg also included Gov. Andrew Cuomo in his revulsion of all things Albany, implying that one of the things that aids corruption is the practice of the governor sending lawmakers something called a “message of necessity” so a bill can pass quickly, without anyone having a the chance to study it.

“Why can’t you give it time? Well, the answer is they don’t want anybody to see it. That’s the only explanation,” Bloomberg said.”

 

 

 

 

 

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Related articles

• Yet Another NY State Lawmaker Accused of Corruption (longislandpress.com)
• McLaughlin: We need a Moreland Commission (timesunion.com)
• One Assemblyman charged, another to resign (updated) (timesunion.com)
• Governor Cuomo Decries ‘Appalling’ Corruption Allegations (timesunion.com)
• Cuomo, leading lawmakers reach $135B budget deal (troyrecord.com)
• Lawmaker accused of bribes in NYC mayor race plot (cnsnews.com)
• Cuomo Blames Bloomberg, Brady Campaign for SAFE Act (thetruthaboutguns.com)
• Hispanic, Black Lawmakers Say Their Issues Were Sidelined In Budget Talks (gothamgazette.com)

 

 

 

 

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