Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Rally against Albany corruption


From Fox 5:

The rallying cry at a protest in Lower Manhattan essentially was that New York politicians are out of control and it's time for a change. It seems like New York's most famous gallery of recent criminals and alleged rogues were or are elected politicians:

* Eliot Spitzer resigned in disgrace as governor in a prostitution scandal.
* His replacement, Gov. David Paterson is also under investigation.
* Former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno was convicted of corruption.
* Current Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada is under investigation.
* Former Comptroller Alan Hevesi was convicted of and resigned for misusing of state funds for a driver for his wife.
* State Sen. Hiram Monserrate was convicted of misdemeanor assault on his girlfriend.

So Friday, on the steps of City Hall, reformers, students, and some politicians rallied to clean up the state house in Albany.

Their goal is to get politicians to sign a pledge to be honest. A pledge that objects to lawmakers drawing their own district lines as a way of choosing constituents and voters, calls for closing obsolete public authorities, establishes independent watchdogs, and embraces public disclosure.

So far, 24 of New York's 212 state legislators have signed the bipartisan pledge for change. Reformers hope voters will express their anger at the ballot box.

Though their efforts are not connected to any pending legislation, these civic reformers hope this pledge will spark some change before the Legislature ends this year's session on June 21.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

And theres many more in this city besides the six politicians mentioned that need to be barred from politics and in jail for many of them.

We can thank Lazio for trying to dismantle the SEC which of course overseas and regulates the Wall St more often than not corrupt shady deals. The Gramm Leach act did much damage for oversight that is greatly needed and Lazio had contributions from Maddoff.
The excellent article also lays out his mortgage loan crisis connections and Lazio's dealing's with AIG and Citi bank as well as Gramm Leach benefiting his later employer, JP Morgan.

People's Champion? Rick Lazio Is a Wall Street Creature
His fingerprints are all over the recent economic collapse

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-04-13/news/rick-lazio-s-fingerprints-are-all-over-the-recent-economic-collapse/

Lazio, in 1999, introduced a bill to cut the fees investors paid that covered virtually the entire $340 million annual cost of running the Securities Exchange Commission. The bill was just one example of the many tumbling out of the Vassar files of Lazio getting his best ideas when a lobbyist sent them to him.

Gramm-Leach has since put Phil Gramm its Senate sponsor on Time's list of the 25 people to blame for the financial crisis.

Anonymous said...

i would be interested in reading that "TIMES "list .you did not have the unbiased gut to reveal their names for some reason.
are you guilty of corrupt journalism,like the state run media ?

andy ,you have a big H.U.D.problem also.

Anonymous said...

1. Angelo Mozilo
2. Phil Gramm
3. Alan Greenspan
4. Chris Cox
5. American Consumers
6. Hank Paulson
7. Joe Cassano
8. Ian McCarthy
9. Frank Raines
10. Kathleen Corbet
11. Dick Fuld
12. Marion and Herb Sandler
13. Bill Clinton
14. George W. Bush
15. Stan O'Neal
16. Wen Jiabao
17. David Lereah
18. John Devaney
19. Bernie Madoff
20. Lew Ranieri
21. Burton Jablin
22. Fred Goodwin
23. Sandy Weill
24. David Oddsson
25. Jimmy Cayne

Times List


Lewis Ranieri as a trader at Salomon Brothers in the 1980s who famously worked to develop the American market for mortgage packages and which are resold as securities by Fannie Mae and many banks and make mortgages cheaper for homeowners was an associate of Lazio and fundraiser.

Anonymous said...

This isn't about bad legislators on the federal level, it's about corrupt legislators on the state level.

Today's readers are too dense to understand what they are supposed to be commenting on. That's part of why these bastards get away with all this.

Anonymous said...

We need to vote out all the incumbents this November and put anyone voted in on notice that it's one term and out if there's even a hint of scandal

Anonymous said...

A pledge betters NOTHING. Look at city counci member James VAcca who stated who oppose the Mayor bill to extend term limits and then he flip flopped at the last minute. In return Quinn made him head of the FDNY committee with additional 10,000 stipend . Funny how Vacca negotiated himself a deal and brought NOTHING to his district. what a troll

Anonymous said...

These politicians mentioned in the list from Albany corruption have more than few that are connected to Wall St.
Look at the states without a deficit or major corruption? They are not connected to this unregulated mess of housing, banking, and tax breaks for wealthy developers.