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Smarmie Doofus

(14,498 posts)
Sun Apr 7, 2013, 11:54 PM Apr 2013

"We have a system that only catches morons." Is political corruption worse in NYS?

It's hard to believe it's as bad elsewhere. I really don't see much difference between the two state parties , so I stopped contributing to NYS Dem party a few years ago and send the amount I had been contributing theretofore to PDA.

I can't believe this is the same DEM state party that produced Roosevelt, Lehman, O'Dwyer, Lowenstein, RFK, Abzug. WTF happened? It's one giant hacketeria.

Now they commonly cross-endorse. It's effectively a one-party system... at least in much of the state. And the people being elected are so fucking *DUMB*. You gotta read the verbatim of Assemblyman Stevenson on tape. ( It's not here. Google the NYT news story.) It is not to be *believed*. How did he get thru *high school*? Yet, he's a THIRD generation elected Bronx Dem.

What scares me most of all is that these people, i.e. the state legislature, basically run the public school system in this state. They're voting on issues like Race to the Top and what kind of teacher evaluation plan there should be. They have to understand things like "value added" statistical methodology... or at least *pretend* to understand it.

Mother. Of. God.

But there's some fun stuff here, too. Go for it.


Gail Collins, op-ed regular in NY Times:

>>>According to the indictments, one Republican official from Queens frisked a briber, who was actually an undercover F.B.I. agent, to make sure he wasn’t wearing a wire. Then failed to find the wire. Then took the bribe while being recorded. This all happened at a super-secret meeting at Sparks, the steakhouse where John Gotti had Paul Castellano rubbed out. I believe there should be an unwritten rule in criminal conspiracy that you do not schedule your big payoff at the most famous gangland murder site in Manhattan.

Prosecutors say Stevenson, the Bronx assemblyman, was also worried about whether he was being taped. He expressed those concerns to a co-conspirator who was actually doing the taping.

Everybody was taping everybody! Plus these secret plots seemed to require more participants than the cast of “Game of Thrones.” All of them muttering what sounded like lines stolen from Season Two of “Bad Knockoff Sopranos.”

“We have a system that only catches morons,” sighed a member of the State Legislature’s brave but not terribly large band of reformers.

Yeah, why didn’t these guys do things the normal way? A donation to the campaign war chest and a promise to “keep in close contact,” followed by a visit from a lobbyist with a copy of the proposed legislation?>>>>
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/opinion/collins-a-new-era-in-political-corruption.html

3 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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"We have a system that only catches morons." Is political corruption worse in NYS? (Original Post) Smarmie Doofus Apr 2013 OP
Hacketeria BeyondGeography Apr 2013 #1
Gail Collins is one of my fave writers... TreasonousBastard Apr 2013 #2
In other words... we're suffering from New Jerzification. My grandfather always said ..... Smarmie Doofus Apr 2013 #3

TreasonousBastard

(43,049 posts)
2. Gail Collins is one of my fave writers...
Mon Apr 8, 2013, 12:32 AM
Apr 2013

and she's perfect to "explain" Albany.

I'm going to have to tell her the secret is little ol' me.

Yeah, it's all my fault.


When I lived in new Jersey, it had the reputation as the most corrupt state in the union and actually beat out some less developed countries. All power was with the county chairmen, and two or three of them most people never heard of ran everything in the state. For instance, the Union County Dem chairman was also a state senator and ran the largest law firm in the state-- that did most of its business with the state. You needed something done? Go to Lesniak's firm, pay an outlandish fee and watch with amazement. And never did anyone get indicted, except the mayors of Jersey City and Camden who seemed to be suckers set up to take the fall for everyone else.

Now I'm back here in NY and while the last vestiges of Tammany Hall disappeared during my absence, a whole new crew of dumb crooks and fools has taken over Albany while Joisey is cleaning up its act and can't find anything worse than a nasty basketball coach.

Yeah, the curse of the crooks in the statehouse somehow follows me around.

(How can I make a buck out of it.)

 

Smarmie Doofus

(14,498 posts)
3. In other words... we're suffering from New Jerzification. My grandfather always said .....
Mon Apr 8, 2013, 09:21 AM
Apr 2013

there would be consequences if they went ahead and built that damn bridge.

Seriously.. I wonder if NJ isn't so much cleaned-up as its media is now corrupted. Instinct tells me it still goes on but there's better damage control. In other words... the media doesn't investigate, or apply pressure like they did in the old days.

It's pretty elemental. People don't know what they don't want to know as a general rule. If so... that'll happen here too, one supposes.

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