Three Men in a Room

A must read for anyone interested in the politics of the Empire State is Seymour Lachman's, Three Men in a Room. Lachman served as a Democratic Senator from Brooklyn for a decade and provides an inside out view of the unseemly politics that dominates the legislative and executive relations in Albany. In short it's a highly critical first hand examination of the most dysfunctional state legislature in the country: New York The writing's very clear and the stories of skullduggery, malfeasance, and raw political power-plays make the book a page turner. I have some criticisms of the book but believe it is a valuable contribution to our understanding of Albany politics.

The central weakness of Lachman's analysis of Albany's dysfunction lies in his lack of explanation of why and how Speaker Silver and Senate Majority Leader Bruno obtained their power. The centralization of power, which according to Lachman is nearly absolute (he's correct about this), was the result of a need to act quickly to the economic crises affecting NYC and NYS in the early 1970s stemming from a national recession and excessive borrowing. Political power was concentrated in these two offices but the cause wasn't the economy. It was members of the Assembly and women and Senators voluntarily giving away their authority, which, by the way, was conferred upon them by voters. The cause wasn't the economy, the cause lies with individual legislators.

What's so infuriating about the Three Men in Room government that we have in NYS is that our legislators are unwilling to take the necessary collective steps to simply vote in the GOP and Democratic conferences and not elect Bruno and Silver and then change the rules of the institutions. That's what it takes. Is that difficult to do? Yes. And, is it easier than holding a constitutional convention, which is what Lachman believes is necessary to revamp our entire state political system. He's correct that a convention does open up all of our government to the scrutiny it deserves but if one seeks legislative accountability and representation, then all that's needed is for our legislators to act collectively. Unfortunately they have not been willing to do so for nearly two - three decades.

I hope that Silver and Bruno are so monumentally angered by this book that they have health problems and must leave their respective chambers. That said, another way of changing the relationship between our legislators, who are motivated by their grotesque salary of 78,500 per annum and reelection, is for voters to institute legislative term limits. With term limits Bruno, Silver and others are outta here and the chances that some upstart will not go along to get along are significantly increased and we can get some real representation and accountability in this state.

Perhaps the chapter that angered me the most on our shadow government of public authorities of which we have over 700. These authorities are created for various purposes and reasons, with one being to serve the public interest. Unfortunately the proliferation of these institutions now serve narrow interests of the Speaker, Governor, and Majority leader. There's no legislative oversight and the chimera of a budget that's produced (or not which is often the case in NY) doesn't include the debt that these authorities create and which must be paid largely by taxpayer dollars. They are in many instances, mechanisms for our government to again dip into our pockets to assist the three men in a room with their pet projects.

I cannot recommend this book enough. Read it and then pass it along to your friends.

Power to the People!

Brennan Center for Justice

If you're ever seriously interested in knowing the degree to which New York State government institutions are fouled up, visit www.brennancenter.org. In particular, I recommend reading this document on the state's Assembly and Senate. It's truly eye opening.
www.brennancenter.org/programs/downloads/albanyreform_finalreport.pdf

If ever there's need for reform the NY legislative branch is a clear cut case. Wake me up when Sheldon Silver and Joseph Bruno are out of office - can anyone say term limits?

Power Struggles in the Adirondacks

Power Struggles in the Adirondacks. Wind turbines are slowly but surely encircling the park - and can soon be found within the park. One good piece in AL for Sept/ Oct is a piece David Summerstein writes on the location and politics surrounding turbines. Despite the potential loss of birds, bats, and possibly lethal flying ice from these giant windmills, they're a good source of renewable energy we should all embrace. Amen to that brother. Summerstein highlights other contentions -noise and loss of aesthetics but also the upsides - energy w/out CO2 being the biggest. This is a reasonable article from a thoughtful person - the same cannot be said about Bill McKibben's piece. GLOOM & DOOM...

McKibben, the author of The End of Nature, writes not just another non-persuasive piece predicting the end of the planet but that while we're doomed let's be morally superior too. (Read pompous ass). In just a few short pages McKibben is able to make the reader feel like they need Prozac or that they should just end it all. The gist of his piece: the Earth is heating up (true); humans are to blame (true); there's essentially nothing that we can do to stop it (false); to demonstrate our moral superiority (that we were correct about the pending calamity before others took action), we should build the turbines even though it won't matter (false). Horrible, horrible, horrible piece of garbage that's been written before and adds nothing to the current discussion of placing turbines w/in the park or expanding the use of renewables. My suggestion to BM is that if you're concerned with changing people's ecological consciousness you may want to try another approach. Scare tactics (despite the truth behind the claims) rarely work - just look at all the people that smoke cigarettes having been warned of the consequences. Give it a rest and try something new.

Snooze... From Bootstraps to Big Government

Catching up on my readings I stumbled into this pedestrian article in Adirondack Living - From Bootstraps to Big Government, by Brian Mann.

Writing on those who reside within the blue line (inside the boundary of the Adirondack Park) Mann makes the startling claim, hold on, that while many claim a handsoff approach and general conservative philosophy to politics (smaller government, fewer programs and the like) that they acutally are the recipients of state and national government largesse. HOLY COW! What's new and revealing about this? Nothing. Political scientists, sociologists and historians routinely point this out. Look at the federal dollars being funneled to Fla, Alabama & Mississippi after hurricaine Katrina (to use another annoying metaphor -they're Red states). For us who've lived in the western USA know all to well, ranchers and farmers often vote Republican while receiving subsidies, price supports & etc. that contradict their stated values of smaller, leaner and less government involvement. Is there hypocricy in Adirondack residents and western growers who say one thing and vote another - yes but tell me something I don't know.

Two points Mann should've made: Adirondack residents believe their sacred programs are not part of the problem (hell it's necessary - like ethanol subsidies for Iowa, Nebraska, Montana, & Kansas farmers); two, Republican and Democratic representatives at all levels of government (almost without fail), despite what they say in public, will do anything and everything to aid their reelection efforts. If it means bringing home a little bacon paid for by down-staters (easterners for those out west) they'll do it. Claim credit and you get reelected. Governor Pataki and Northcountry Republicans could ill afford to lose voters and claiming a little credit here and there is a way to preserve political power - the central goal of political parties.


http://www.adirondacklife.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=66