Andrew mentioned something in a comment last week about needing a distraction with more arrests of politicians. And as always, the State of New York is always happy to oblige! New York leads the country in highest taxes, best of the worst states to do business and...well, apparently corrupt politicians! Woo-hoo! Oh, wait...
Since the first of the year, both the leaders of our state legislatures have been publicly led off in hand-cuffs. And because all if fair in politics, one was a Democrat and one was a Republican. And, if what the local papers say is true, then we might not have to wait too much longer to add the Governor to the list.
As I have written before, Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) used as an election "promise" in 2010 to investigate the rampant corruption amongst our elected official in the state. He did not start right away. But nearing his 2014 re-election, he finally started by appointing a commission to investigate ethics in the state - the Moreland Commission. But as soon as the Commission began to sniff a little too close to the Governor's mansion and threaten his re-election bid, he abruptly disbanded it.
That's when the U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara took notice and requested all the Commission's files. He picked up where their investigation left off which shortly had led to the two long-time leaders of the State Legislature being led away in hand cuffs. He has promised not to stop until he cleans up the state and right now Cuomo is in his cross-hairs. If that happens and Cuomo is implicated, this could be just the distraction Andrew was looking for! I will keep you posted. And I will keep my eye on Preet Bharara because his political star is on the rise...
As I have before, below is an incomplete list of politicians who have been arrested and mostly convicted in the last 15 years or so [with help from Wikipedia] Revel in our corruption knowing that your state will never measure up...
2010-2015
State officials -
1. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R) (and his son) was arrested for corruption on May 4, 2015. Case pending.
2. Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver (D) was arrested for multiple counts of bribery and corruption January 22, 2015. Case pending.
3. Majority Leader of the New York State Senate Malcolm Smith (D) was found guilty in federal court of conspiracy, wire fraud, bribery and extortion for trying to bribe a Republican Party official to let him onto the Republican ballot in the 2013 New York City mayoral race. (2014)
4. State Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa (D) sentenced to a year in jail for entering into a sham marriage in order to gain U.S. citizenship. (2014)
5. State Assemblyman William Boyland, Jr. (D) convicted of bribery (2014)
6. State Assemblyman Eric Stevenson (D) found guilty of bribery, conspiracy and other related charges. (2014)
7. State Assemblyman Nelson Castro (D) convicted of perjury (2013)
8. State Assemblyman Chris Ortloff (R) pleaded guilty to a felony charge of online enticement of minors for trying to have sex with a child after leaving his seat to become a member of the NYS Parole Board. He was sentenced to 150 months in federal prison (2010)
9. State Senator Shirley Huntley (D) convicted of mail fraud. She was sentenced to one year and a day in prison. (2013)
10. Majority Leader of the New York State Senate Pedro Espada Jr. (D) On May 14, 2012 a federal jury found Espada guilty of embezzling money from federally funded healthcare clinics, after 11 days of deliberation. (2012)
11. State Senator Vincent Leibell (R) found guilty of felony bribery, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice charges related to $43,000 in cash kickbacks he took from 2003 to 2006. (2012)
12. State Senator Nicholas Spano (R), convicted of federal income tax evasion. Spano pleaded guilty to the single felony. He was sentenced to 12 to 18 months in federal prison. (2012)
13. New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi (D), was convicted on charges surrounding a "pay to play" scheme regarding the New York State Pension Fund, and was sentenced to 1–4 years. (2011)
14. State Senator Carl Kruger (D) resigned his seat and pled guilty to charges of corruption and bribery. (2011)
15. State Senator Efrain Gonzalez Jr. (D) was convicted of fraud and embezzling $400,000 from the West Bronx Neighborhood Association Inc. and was sentenced to seven years in federal prison (2010)
15. State Health Commissioner Antonia Novello (R) pled guilty to costing the taxpayers $48,000 by making her staff carry out personal chores for her such as taking her shopping and picking up her dry cleaning. Her plea deal calls for 250 hours of community service at an Albany health clinic, $22,500 in restitution and a $5,000 fine. (2009)
Local
16. Mayor of Mount Vernon Ernie Davis (D) was convicted on federal misdemeanor tax evasion. (2014)
17. New York City Councillor Dan Halloran (R) convicted of taking bribes and orchestrating payoffs. (2014)
18. New York City Councillor Larry Seabrook (D) On February 9, 2010, a federal grand jury indicted Seabrook on 13 counts of money laundering, extortion, and fraud. Seabrook was convicted on 9 charges (2012).
19. President of the New York City council Andrew Stein (D) was convicted of tax evasion regarding a Ponzi scheme (2010).
2000-2009
State Officials
20. State Representative Anthony Seminerio (D) pled guilty to taking large sums of money from hospitals through a consulting firm while still a member of the New York State Assembly. His appeal was never heard but his conviction was abated due to death. (2009)
21. Supreme Court Justice Thomas J. Spargo (R), was convicted by a federal jury of attempted extortion and attempted soliciting of a bribe for pressuring a lawyer to give $10,000 to his defense fund. (2009)
22. State Senator Efrain Gonzalez (D) was sentenced to 84 months (7 years) in prison, followed by two years supervised release, following pleading guilty to two conspiracy counts and two wire fraud counts. (2009)
23. Majority Leader of the New York State Senate Joseph Bruno (R) was convicted on two counts of wire fraud. (2009) Update: Exonerated of all charges on appeal (2014).
24. State Representative Brian McLaughlin (D) was arrested in 2008 and sentenced to ten years in prison for racketeering.(2009)
25. State Senator Hiram Monserrate (D), convicted of one count of misdemeanor assault, and acquitted of two counts of felony assault and one other count of misdemeanor assault. (2009)
26. State Representative Gloria Davis (D) was sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years probation for bribery. (2003)
27. State Senator Guy Velella (R) was indicted for bribery and conspiracy for accepting at least $137,000 in exchange for steering public-works contracts to the paying parties.[179] He ultimately pleaded guilty to one count and received a year in jail. He served 182 days. (2002)
Local
28. New York City Councillor Miguel Martinez (D) pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy two days later. Martinez admitted to stealing $106,000 that was for children's art programs and low-income housing.[181] Martinez was convicted on three felonies, and was sentenced to five years in prison. (2009)
Sadly, this isn't the end of the list...
Since the first of the year, both the leaders of our state legislatures have been publicly led off in hand-cuffs. And because all if fair in politics, one was a Democrat and one was a Republican. And, if what the local papers say is true, then we might not have to wait too much longer to add the Governor to the list.
As I have written before, Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) used as an election "promise" in 2010 to investigate the rampant corruption amongst our elected official in the state. He did not start right away. But nearing his 2014 re-election, he finally started by appointing a commission to investigate ethics in the state - the Moreland Commission. But as soon as the Commission began to sniff a little too close to the Governor's mansion and threaten his re-election bid, he abruptly disbanded it.
That's when the U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara took notice and requested all the Commission's files. He picked up where their investigation left off which shortly had led to the two long-time leaders of the State Legislature being led away in hand cuffs. He has promised not to stop until he cleans up the state and right now Cuomo is in his cross-hairs. If that happens and Cuomo is implicated, this could be just the distraction Andrew was looking for! I will keep you posted. And I will keep my eye on Preet Bharara because his political star is on the rise...
As I have before, below is an incomplete list of politicians who have been arrested and mostly convicted in the last 15 years or so [with help from Wikipedia] Revel in our corruption knowing that your state will never measure up...
2010-2015
State officials -
1. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R) (and his son) was arrested for corruption on May 4, 2015. Case pending.
2. Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver (D) was arrested for multiple counts of bribery and corruption January 22, 2015. Case pending.
3. Majority Leader of the New York State Senate Malcolm Smith (D) was found guilty in federal court of conspiracy, wire fraud, bribery and extortion for trying to bribe a Republican Party official to let him onto the Republican ballot in the 2013 New York City mayoral race. (2014)
4. State Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa (D) sentenced to a year in jail for entering into a sham marriage in order to gain U.S. citizenship. (2014)
5. State Assemblyman William Boyland, Jr. (D) convicted of bribery (2014)
6. State Assemblyman Eric Stevenson (D) found guilty of bribery, conspiracy and other related charges. (2014)
7. State Assemblyman Nelson Castro (D) convicted of perjury (2013)
8. State Assemblyman Chris Ortloff (R) pleaded guilty to a felony charge of online enticement of minors for trying to have sex with a child after leaving his seat to become a member of the NYS Parole Board. He was sentenced to 150 months in federal prison (2010)
9. State Senator Shirley Huntley (D) convicted of mail fraud. She was sentenced to one year and a day in prison. (2013)
10. Majority Leader of the New York State Senate Pedro Espada Jr. (D) On May 14, 2012 a federal jury found Espada guilty of embezzling money from federally funded healthcare clinics, after 11 days of deliberation. (2012)
11. State Senator Vincent Leibell (R) found guilty of felony bribery, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice charges related to $43,000 in cash kickbacks he took from 2003 to 2006. (2012)
12. State Senator Nicholas Spano (R), convicted of federal income tax evasion. Spano pleaded guilty to the single felony. He was sentenced to 12 to 18 months in federal prison. (2012)
13. New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi (D), was convicted on charges surrounding a "pay to play" scheme regarding the New York State Pension Fund, and was sentenced to 1–4 years. (2011)
14. State Senator Carl Kruger (D) resigned his seat and pled guilty to charges of corruption and bribery. (2011)
15. State Senator Efrain Gonzalez Jr. (D) was convicted of fraud and embezzling $400,000 from the West Bronx Neighborhood Association Inc. and was sentenced to seven years in federal prison (2010)
15. State Health Commissioner Antonia Novello (R) pled guilty to costing the taxpayers $48,000 by making her staff carry out personal chores for her such as taking her shopping and picking up her dry cleaning. Her plea deal calls for 250 hours of community service at an Albany health clinic, $22,500 in restitution and a $5,000 fine. (2009)
Local
16. Mayor of Mount Vernon Ernie Davis (D) was convicted on federal misdemeanor tax evasion. (2014)
17. New York City Councillor Dan Halloran (R) convicted of taking bribes and orchestrating payoffs. (2014)
18. New York City Councillor Larry Seabrook (D) On February 9, 2010, a federal grand jury indicted Seabrook on 13 counts of money laundering, extortion, and fraud. Seabrook was convicted on 9 charges (2012).
19. President of the New York City council Andrew Stein (D) was convicted of tax evasion regarding a Ponzi scheme (2010).
2000-2009
State Officials
20. State Representative Anthony Seminerio (D) pled guilty to taking large sums of money from hospitals through a consulting firm while still a member of the New York State Assembly. His appeal was never heard but his conviction was abated due to death. (2009)
21. Supreme Court Justice Thomas J. Spargo (R), was convicted by a federal jury of attempted extortion and attempted soliciting of a bribe for pressuring a lawyer to give $10,000 to his defense fund. (2009)
22. State Senator Efrain Gonzalez (D) was sentenced to 84 months (7 years) in prison, followed by two years supervised release, following pleading guilty to two conspiracy counts and two wire fraud counts. (2009)
23. Majority Leader of the New York State Senate Joseph Bruno (R) was convicted on two counts of wire fraud. (2009) Update: Exonerated of all charges on appeal (2014).
24. State Representative Brian McLaughlin (D) was arrested in 2008 and sentenced to ten years in prison for racketeering.(2009)
25. State Senator Hiram Monserrate (D), convicted of one count of misdemeanor assault, and acquitted of two counts of felony assault and one other count of misdemeanor assault. (2009)
26. State Representative Gloria Davis (D) was sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years probation for bribery. (2003)
27. State Senator Guy Velella (R) was indicted for bribery and conspiracy for accepting at least $137,000 in exchange for steering public-works contracts to the paying parties.[179] He ultimately pleaded guilty to one count and received a year in jail. He served 182 days. (2002)
Local
28. New York City Councillor Miguel Martinez (D) pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy two days later. Martinez admitted to stealing $106,000 that was for children's art programs and low-income housing.[181] Martinez was convicted on three felonies, and was sentenced to five years in prison. (2009)
Sadly, this isn't the end of the list...
Bev, LOL! Nice list! :D
ReplyDeleteI heard something about Cuomo being investigated himself and potentially being in trouble. It will be interesting to see if that comes to pass. Of course, it could be the Clinton machine wiping out a competitor, so he may end up getting the chair for some nebulous crime. LOL!
Andrew - Stop laughing, it's not funny! Though interesting that you should bring the Clintons into it. I suspect that you may be partly right. He really could have been an actual viable opponent for Billary. Cuomo was going to throw his hat in the ring and now he dare not. Alleged corruption is very useful to one's political opponents when the timing is right. And the Clintons are masters of that game.
ReplyDeleteI made one correction (that wasn't a typo/grammar-po) -
#23 -Joseph Bruno (R/Senate Maj Leader) has been exonerated of all charges. Here's the story - When former Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D/Client #9) was Attorney General, he threatened Bruno and eventually charged him with corruption. For which I am almost certain Bruno told he would be wise not to pursue. Well, Bruno was arrested and convicted and shortly after, Spitzer abruptly resigned because it was revealed that he had a long history of hiring call girls to go to DC to meet him for "dinner" - (a federal crime - transporting women across state lines for reason of prostitution). I am certain that Bruno knew all of this and just waited for the appropriate time to reveal it for maximum damage.
The real irony is that Spitzer spent a great deal of time as AG on prostitution laws in the state to make them more severe...
Bev, I really don't doubt for a minute that the Clintons are behind it. I don't see them having any qualms to taking out a potential challenger.
ReplyDeleteSince when is transporting women across lines for the purpose of prostitution a crime? Oh... yeah. LOL!
"Since when is transporting women across lines..."
ReplyDeleteApparently when one is governor it is not really a crime punishable by jail, but I guess Spitzer got something much worse than jail - being exiled from politics forever...oh, and a very expensive divorce. His kind of exile is actually ibetter than conviction/jail because many of our jailed ones come back to run and win again all forgiven because they "done their time".
Off-topic: Kevin D. Williamson wrote a great response to the left's claims of racism on why, say, the Waco shootout is called a "gunfight" instead of a "riot" and why the National Guard was not called out like in Baltimore. Here is the one on the National Guard:
ReplyDelete"Of course there is a good reason that the National Guard wasn’t called out in Waco: It wasn’t needed. The Waco police did not follow the lead of the Baltimore police; the mayor of Waco did not follow the lead of the mayor of Baltimore and declare an outlaw-biker free-fire zone. Instead, the police swooped in, arrested the better part of 200 people, started booking them, and peace was restored.
And nobody in Waco gave any press conferences about the need to understand the legitimate rage of the poor white peckerwood dumbass class."
Full article here: LINK
Kit - That is a great response and one that I have read over and over. Now will anyone SEE the difference. Btw, the outlaw biker gangs have done what other gangs have done and gone and put a hit out on all cops. Again, the difference is that no one in Waco is complaining about what the cops did to protect the people of Waco and the police are free to protect themselves against outlaw bikers in anyway they can. No civil rights class action suits will ensue. And Obama will not send anyone to attend dead bikers' funerals.
ReplyDeleteOT Now that the Patriots are "not challenging" the ruling against them, the NFL media is treating them as some sort of selfless heroes. Just more bias.
ReplyDeleteWhat they really did was rather despicable. They smeared the report with false narratives and made up facts, attacked the integrity of Ted Wells, and attacked the integrity of the NFL. And now they are claiming the reason they aren't appealing is for the good of the NFL... very noble... when the real reason is that their defense proved to be crap. It was full of contradictions, falsehoods and unprovable assumptions.
In a way it's brilliant because they got their fake defense out there without it ever getting challenged so people could see how bad it really was, and now they have cut off any attack on it by accepting the penalty and claiming martyr status ("we would have won, but for the good of the league, we'll be your scapegoats...").
Of course, their sycophantic fans, especially in the media, are buying it hook line and sinker.
The problem for them, however, is that no matter how much they tell each other how innocent they are, the record stands and in 50 years they will only be remembered as cheaters.
Kit, "poor white peckerwood dumbass class"... those people drive me nuts. They are being glorified by modern country music.
ReplyDeleteBikers fascinate me. They have this warped sense of honor and politeness that's just scary. They will have a deadly shootout with the police, but weirdly just sit docilely in groups waiting to be processed for arrest. Yet, you touch their bikes in any way, they will tear your liver out.
ReplyDeleteBtw, did you know that this whole "riot" was sparked by someone accidently (or not) running over someone's foot?
From PA:
ReplyDeleteWell, it's hard to compete with all that. We haven't had such a high-profile arrest since former Pgh. police chief Nate Harper was arrested for embezzling public funds in 2013. He got a sentence of 18 months in prison last year.
That one hurt. I liked Harper. He had a no-nonsense attitude. Heck, in 2011, following a series of five homicides in a few days in Pgh. metro-area neighborhoods, he made the amazing statement: "these people chose the criminal way of life, and paid for it with their lives." If he'd been white, that statement probably would've cost him his job then. (The dead were all black and all involved in some kind of crime, btw.) Although, I'm sure black leaders weren't happy with him for not taking the 'victims' approach, either. Ah, well.
Side note: Harper's lawyers contend that then-Pgh. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl told Harper the embezzlement was ok since everyone did it. Fmr. aides to the ex-kid mayor- who basically disappeared during his last year in office- of course, deny this. I wouldn't be surprised if this was true. Still, it's not a good defense and Harper likely got what he deserved.
In other news, lawsuits are flying as recently-inaugurated Gov. Tom Wolf has issued decrees in an attempt to make it easier for Big Labor to organize home health workers. (Remember that thing in Illinois? Well, now it's going on here!) Basically, Wolf wants the SEIU to run PA. He's made no secret of the fact that he favors forced unionization. (Although he, of course, denies trying to make it easy for Big Labor by setting up a "union ambush election.") The lawsuits allege that Wolf illegally bypassed the State Legislature and went beyond the boundaries of his office. (Duh! Did I mention Wolf's campaign was heavily by Big Labor and that he adores Obama?)
A true shill for Big Labor, Wolf first made headlines this year at his inauguration party by banning Yuengling Lager, made by the country's oldest brewery. The crime? Owner Dick Yuengling supports right-to-work laws and gave his employees good salaries and benefit packages. The workers voted the Teamsters out of the brewery a few years ago.
Never paid any attention to bikers, but its idiotic that liberals are comparing a massive but brief fight in a strip club to the days long government sanctioned rioting that happened in Baltimore.
ReplyDelete