You know you’ve said something pretty damn stupid:

I don’t know about you, but Joe Bruno’s getting a few chuckles in my household over his statement that he raises his campaign dough the hard way, unlike rich boy Gov. Eliot Spitzer. I don’t know if Bruno has ever put out a bigger line of fooey. Well, except for the stuff he said right before he declared himself the poor man’s candidate. He said Spitzer’s campaign finance proposal, which would lower the highest individual contribution limit in the nation, was basically un-American and certainly un-NewYork. Bruno has been plying the special interests and big-money guys as long as he’s been Senate majority leader. He doesn’t need to raise big bucks in his district as he’s had the seat so long he could run and win from the International Space Station. Bruno’s an old-style pol who cuts deals in secret, pals around with money and is about as much in tune with the grassroots democratic process as Donald Trump is with a $10 haircut.

I’ve decided to preserve the spirit of Tobin’s original post by not including any links to exactly what Joe Bruno said .

An alert reader clued us in to the latest I-Team 10 investigation, which aired last Thursday. Apparently, Brooks and co. decided to hush a Monroe County Sheriff for his whistle blowing of a wide array of disturbing, and often sexual, harassment at the department.

Of course, the hush deal, which cost almost $500,000, was approved by the county leg in executive sessions and everyone involved was forced to sign a confidentiality agreement.

This beautifully illustrates how much the county GOP really cares about these issues and it proves that they are only using the library “porn scandal” as a political tool.

The D&C reported on it here. Petrena covers it on her Greece blog as well. A commenter there brings up a good point:

Why do we have to file a FOIL to see what the County leg does in Executive session? Doesn’t seem like Open government to me.

This seems indicative of a greater problem.

And as our reader suggests:

I think it’s time somebody gave the county administration, and anyone else who needs it, a swift kick in the behind to bring them back to reality.

I agree– the kick is going to be called “Election 2007″.

Eric Massa’s got a new blog piece up at Daily Kos titled “Global Warming and People-Powered Politics” and it’s well worth reading. He’s a bit more optimistic than I am about the effect blogs are having, but I’m happy to hear it:

Because of the overwhelming evidence and the tireless efforts of Al Gore and others and perhaps partially due to the fact that Democrats won control of both houses of Congress in November (link), big oil (even Exxon Mobil!) is backing away from the fake science it helped create and admitting that Global Warming is indeed a problem. (link) Score one for the people!

This is just one area where blogs, which are often the mouthpiece for people power, have helped put forth stories that the more traditional media have not been covering as they should be. With some notable exceptions, before the US Congress changed hands in November Global Warming was often discussed in the “he said/she said” version all too common in journalism meant only to entertain or intentionally slant rather than truthfully inform. Critics of global warming were often presented as equals rather than minority voices. Some discussion of that can be found here or here.

(hat tip to The Albany Project)

The D&C has an editorial on Iraq that I like pretty well today. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but, unlike many editorials, it makes the point that the various branches of government are supposed to disagree and that solutions can come from these disagreements.

Yes, it’s sad that is now noteworthy when an opinion page grasps the idea of a democracy with separate branches of government. But you go to war with the newspapers you have, not the newspapers you wish you had.

This is a great story. The House finally passed the the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination ACT (GINA, they’re calling it). The bill passed 420-3; it guarantees that people cannot be discriminated against on the basis of analysis of their DNA (which could be come a problem now that the genome project has come so far).

The bill was strongly backed by Republican Congresswoman Judy Biggert, who pushed it for years only to have die in committee when the Party of the South still held sway over the House. She asked:

“We had 420 votes,” she said. “Why did it take us this long?”

Here’s the answer:

a key committee staffer opposed the effort and helped keep it bottled up. So did the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which gives largely to Republicans in federal races and has often rated Biggert as voting its way on more than 90 percent of issues it tracks.

Why did this popular bill finally get through now after all of these years? Our own Congresswoman, Louise Slaughter, who has been fighting for this bill since 1994 has the simple answer:

“Democrats,” Slaughter said. ” … That’s all there is to it.”

Got a spare $24-$95 ? Conservative crazy Glenn Beck is bringing his “An Inconvienent Tour” to CMAC at Finger Lakes Community College on June 15th. Show starts at 7:30. Check his website.

Think Lonsberry will be there?

On Thursday, The Albany Project posed an interesting question regarding the LLC loophole for campaign contributions… simple question, where does your Senator stand?

From the Albany Project:

Does Your state Senator support closing the LLC loophole? There are many aspects of the Governor’s CFR proposal that was “killed” by Bruno on Monday that I enthusiastically support. Campaign finance in New York is a mess. It’s like the wild west out there. With a modicum of creativity and a ton of money, one can essentially give pretty much as much money as you want to whomever you want. Even within the current law, wealthy individuals and interests can give enormous sums to buy influence.

But, how anyone can defend with a straight face the practice of wealthy donors creating infinite numbers of corporate subsidiaries and LLCs to flood the process with more and more money is simply beyond me.

So, where does your state Senator stand on this issue? Why not give them a call and find out. You can find contact info or even figure out who your Senator is here.

Give them a ring and simply ask, “Do you support closing the LLC loophoole?” It’s a simple question and it deserves a simple answer. Yes or no should suffice. If you are able to get an answer, let us know. You can post it here or drop me some mail. We’ll keep a running tally of where every Senator stands on this issue.

So where does your State Senator stand? Give ‘em a call and let us know what you hear.

Contact info below the fold:

__(’Read the rest of this entry »’)

Keep this in mind.

A group of former intelligence officers delivered a letter to Harper Collins Publishers, publisher of George Tenet’s book.

They mince no words calling bs on Tenet’s ‘victim’ defense and strongly suggest “royalties from your book sales to the veterans and their families, who have paid and are paying the price for your failure to speak up when you could have made a difference. That would be the decent and honorable thing to do.”

Indeed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tgbusill/182342980/

Keeping his promise, Governor Eliot Spitzer has offered a gay marriage bill for NY State. I’m 100% in favor of this bill, end of story. I believe there is no reason Homosexual couples should be denied the rights that Heterosexual couples enjoy, and Spitzer done the right thing… Anything else is 17th century bigotry in my book.

Our pals at The Albany Project have the story…

This isn’t local and in some sense it is even political, but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t pass it on.  Remember Randall Tobias, the Deputy Secretary of State who resigned Friday when it was made public that he used an escort service?  Well, there’s new information out, courtesy of ABC news and an astute commenter on the blog Balloon Juice:

1. * Mr. Tobias is the author of a book called “Put the Moose on the Table.”
2. * He compared meeting with the, ahem, “massage therapists” to “ordering a pizza.”

Busy schedules and the like. Yep I know.  So we will help you.

Need to find out what perscriptions you taking?  Ask the Government.  They apparently are keeping track.

Exile complements Tobin (because Tobin was right in this case) but here points out the difference between a circus dog and the D&C editorial board with regards to the bill recently passed funding the troops and destined to die on the President’s desk.

Oh, while we are on the D&C editorial board - check out how well they perform alchemy as they attemp to create sympathy for Paul Wolfowitz.

Oh - COMIDA is really a racket.   Bad business plan - COMIDA to the rescue.

A link to last week’s In case you missed it…

There’s a good letter in today’s D&C:

The U.S. attorney general brings Rochester money. He receives a Page 1A story with a color photograph, and the briefest reference in the fifth paragraph to “controversy” about the man in Washington. The unthinking reader is encouraged to react with, “Same old story, politics, politics.” This recalls the visit to Rochester by President Bush when his objective was to promote a plan to change the Social Security system. He received considerable attention from the Democrat and Chronicle and other media by visiting a public school and giving someone a plaque.

Bill Moyers this week did an important program on PBS called Buying the War. One major lesson is that we all share responsibility for staying on the surface and seldom using critical faculties demanded for constant inquiry.

The concern is not with success of this or that political party, but with the massive failure to act as reasoning citizens demanding responsible conduct from our governmental servants.

We warn our children not to take candy from strangers.

Speaking of the Torture Czar, I wish someone had done this at Gonzo’s photo-op in Rochester. It’s a sad day for Rochester progressives when we’re outdone by a bunch of law students.

[ev type="youtube" data="cdbOp9U1ZZ4"][/ev]

‘Ah! The Chair Defense: I was in the room as an inanimate object’
-Jon Stewart on US AG Alberto Gonzales

As evident Congressman Kuhl can not wait to sign the bill ‘Noon on Tuesday’ and show NY-29 how he ’supports the troops’.

Contrary to his personal beliefs, Congressman Randy Kuhl decision to vote ‘No’ means extending troop deployments, cutting critical funding for Walter Reed Hospital, VA Healthcare, and leaving our brave men and women as pawns in Bush’s endless war.

Are you looking for leadership and moral courage to stand up to President Bush?

If asked, Congressman Randy Kuhl would likely respond with ‘write on a comment card’ or ‘let me get back to you’.

Lets face it. Congressman Kuhl is indeed an inanimate chair.

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=113204789&size=m

This headline is straight off of Comedy Central:

Kuhl says proposal would embolden the enemy

Does anyone buy this kind of talk anymore? I’ll bet most of the 25 percenters who go around repeating don’t even believe it at this point.

I wonder which enemies he’s refering to: the Shiite death squads, the Sunni insurgents, the foreign fighters from Saudi Arabai and Syria, the Kurdish forces in the north who may end up in conflict with Turkey? Which ones? Or will all of them be emboldended? And if my enemy’s enemy is my friend and everyone one of these groups is the enemy of one of the others, how can they all be our enemies?

Remember when Dick Cheney came to Rochester to support Randy Kuhl in a fundraiser? Yep, status quo Randy raised a lot of money that night. Well, we wrote about the protest here and pictures here.

That protest produced some memorable pictures including this one from the Nazareth College Republicans who came out in support of VP Cheney.

Well, Cheney looking for a safe disclosed location has asked to give the commencement speech at BYU. See, in Utah, one can assume that that is a safe Republican stronghold. Safe enough for Dick Cheney to speak without being heckled.

Well - check this out. Seems that students at BYU are pissed that Dick Cheney is casting a shadow over their commencement.

“The problem is this is a morally dubious man,” said Andrew Christensen, a 22-year-old Republican from Salt Lake City. “It’s challenging the morality and integrity of this institution.”

Anyway the speech came and went. Here is a report on the speech from NPR. A video of the protest here.