In its liberal wisdom the NY Times endorsed Cuomo. Guess what? According to the New York Times - Nothing Has Changed! According to the NY Times when Mr. Cuomo kicked off his 2010 campaign for governor, he stood outside the Tweed Courthouse in Lower Manhattan, named for the famously corrupt leader of the Tammany Hall political organization. “Albany’s antics today could make Boss Tweed blush,” he said. But when Mr. Cuomo closed down the Moreland Commission, his cleanup effort came to a halt. But Mr. Cuomo, at times, has suggested there is not all that much more to do. “I got 85 percent of what I wanted,” he said in October, justifying the Moreland Commission’s disbandment. On his last weekend of campaigning, he was asked to explain how he arrived at that 85 percent figure. “It’s metaphoric,” he said. From cat food to swimming pool covers to leisurely trips punctuated by bar stops the Albany political mess rolls on unabated. Who is playing solitaire and reading bible verses while being paid at your expense? Read on! Geez, it makes one wonder which side of its mouth the New York Times is talking out of this week versus last week. We are living in the most heavily taxed region in the United States led by a politician endorsed by the NY Times which keeps reminding its readers that there is terrible piggery, some might call it corruption, in Albany. Here is a summary of todays New York Times article on Albanys malfeasance led by the Governor that the New York Times endorsed for re-election ....... The Moreland Commission found that State Senator Gregory R. Ball, a local Republican, financed excursions to Cancún and Acapulco and a leisurely road trip using money from his campaign. He sprang for thousands of dollars in bar and restaurant bills in Texas — and entry fees for an extreme obstacle-course race called Tough Mudder. A lawyer for Mr. Ball, acknowledged his client’s accounting left much to be desired, but that the senator had done nothing wrong and that he was confident Mr. Ball would not be charged with a crime. Mr. Tacopina said some of the spending was for bona fide political purposes but that he also was owed money by his campaign, and sometimes used the campaign account for personal items to run down that debt. Sheldon Silver, the powerful Democratic speaker of the State Assembly, failed to disclose some of the income he earned in the private sector. While he has disclosed earnings from a major personal-injury law firm for years, prosecutors found other law-firm income that he did not detail as required. A spokesman for Mr. Silver said that he had disclosed all of his law-practice income, but declined to answer questions about its source. Powerful politicians — including the governor himself — continue to exploit a loophole in state law that allows corporations to funnel huge donations to them in smaller gifts that disguise the true sources of the money. Lax personal financial disclosure laws, critics say, give corrupt legislators a way to mask political payoffs under the guise of part-time jobs. A 2011 reform presented as requiring disclosure of some clients was so narrowly drawn as to be meaningless, and another enacted this year allowed enough wiggle room that lawmakers could well continue to avoid scrutiny. The line between political donations and outright bribery remains murky. Some politicians used their campaign treasuries as piggy banks for personal expenses, the commission’s investigators found, and bank records showed that lawmakers had failed to report some donations and expenditures altogether. A new, beefed-up Board of Elections enforcement unit has yet to show its strength. Lawmakers (or should we say lawbreakers) are negotiating with the governor to return to the state capital for a special session in the coming days — to give themselves a pay raise! With so much money pouring into campaign coffers, investigators worried about how it was being spent — and what prevented politicians from turning donated cash into their own private slush funds. They concluded that little did. Emboldened by the lack of clarity in the law, some legislators took an expansive approach, buying everything from cat food to a swimming-pool cover Who is watching over how our elections are handled? There are election investigators of course except a former Board of Elections investigator told the Moreland Commission that his superiors gave him so few cases to work on, he spent his days playing computer solitaire and studying Bible verses. Unlike Governor Cuomo, he was not speaking metaphorically - he was categorically playing card games and studying the Bible on your tax dime! So given it endorsed Governor Cuomo to be the best candidate to lead New York State, why is the New York Times bleating now about cat food, piggery, and corruption? nytimes/2014/12/08/nyregion/after-moreland-commission-shutdown-by-gov-cuomo-loopholes-live-on-in-albany.html?emc=edit_th_20141208&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=4141847
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 10:20:48 +0000
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