You gotta dance with them what brung ya.

When it was announced that Pat Gallivan had won the Republican nomination for the New York State Senate 59th District, Pat's political patron, longtime senator, Dale Volker crowed "The people in Albany are excited."

And indeed, they must be; "the people in Albany" have invested pretty heavily in Pat Gallivan. Today I received the above mailing. Was it from somewhere in the 59th district? Lancaster or Warsaw, maybe? Was it from the fine folks in Geneseo or Canandigua? Orchard Park, or Attica, perhaps?

Nope. Albany.

"The people in Albany" are so happy to have Pat Gallivan working for them that they are willing to spend thousands of dollars on big glossy mailers for him. So before we cast our votes this November, let's remember that before a potential Senator Pat Gallivan takes his first vote, he has been bought and paid for by the same Albany insiders that have run our state into the ground.

Ognibene deve finire-- All Good Things Must End...

No, this post will not include multiple intersecting time-lines, but it will have multiple intersecting campaigns for governor of New York.

Crazy Carl Paladino has triumphed in the New York Republican Gubernatorial primary. Either his voters are very dumb or very sophisticated.

It seems that Crazy Carl's running-mate [first name] Ognibene was defeated by Rick Lazio's running-mate [first name] Edwards. (As neither of these men has any chance of ever being elected lieutenant governor, I'm not bothering to search for their first names.) This sets up a situation where Paladino is running with Edwards on the Republican line, Edwards is running with Lazio on the Conservative line and Ognibene is running with Paladino on the Taxpayers Party line. (I plan on writing a whole post on just how asinine a "Taxpayers Party" is in the future.) If this is all starting to sound like some sick mash-up of Twilight and The Jersey Shore, then you are giving far too much credibility to the class and intelligence of New York Republicans.

I have a hard time believing that people who would vote for Paladino are informed enough to have researched the relative qualities of Edwards and Ognibene and come to the conclusion that while they support Crazy Carl, they prefer Edwards due to his superior policy positions.

I don't even know if Edwards teabags.

This creates a legal conundrum whereby votes for Paladino as a Republican cannot be added to votes for Paladino as a Taxpayer-er(?), because the tickets are not the same.

So which team are you? Team Edwards or Team Ognibene?

The Carl that could have been

Real estate developer Carl Paladino is running for governor of New York in the Republican primary and the newly-minted "Tax-payers Party." The Paladino campaign has wallowed about, embracing the most divisive issues, rhetoric and personalities of the Tea Party Movement and paleoconservative section of the Republican Party. In addition to a non-sensical platform, and rambling rhetoric, Paladino has alienated many potential allies by promising to "clean up Albany with a baseball bat" and defending his indiscriminate e-mailing of emails with bestiality and racist commentary. Carl's chances of being governor are pretty much slim to none, but it didn't have to be that way.

Thinking back to 2008 or so, I knew that Carl Paladino was a successful real estate developer. He used extensive connections in both the Democratic and Republican parties to secure sweetheart deals, and extensive incentives. Several of his projects were solid examples of the good that could be accomplished through public/private partnerships. I also knew that he forcefully used lawsuits for the public good, like removing the toll barriers on the I-190 when public officials like Dale Volker claimed it wasn't worth their effort. Paladino has been highly critical of the wasteful, cliquey and ineffective institutional business organizations in Buffalo.

Imagine if you will that Carl Paladino, instead of going off of the deep-end, campaigned as a successful businessman who could work with people of all political parties, a deal-maker who could accomplish where others could not, someone who was bold, forceful and forward thinking. He could have done it, but instead Carl Paladino decided that divisive, hateful, looney-tunes rhetoric was more valuable than actual policy positions and proposals to govern.

Dale Volker comes out of the closet

After years of blaming all of his failures on "New York City people," Dale Volker finally explicitly blames the late budget on Jews, African-Americans and Latinos. It is long past time that Dale Volker stop embarrassing his constituents and be forcefully retired.

Out of touch.

I haven't blogged in a while. My last post was a lament that the New York Senate had blocked marriage equality. I lamented especially that my senator, Dale Volker, voted to deny the rights of New Yorkers. With that in mind, I post the e-mail that I received TODAY (January 20th, 2010). Someone is very out of touch and needs to be out of a job!:


from Dale M. Volker
to xxx@gmail.com
date Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 1:34 PM
subject [NYS Senator Autoreply] Vote YES
mailed-by vox01.advomatic.com
hide details 12/2/09

Thank you for contacting your senator. Your email has been received and will be processed shortly.

A New York State of Blind

As the state of New York slouches toward bankruptcy, it's industry sapped by silly and oppressive taxes, fees and regulation, its youth leeching out to Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Florida, jobs vanishing daily, I watched in horror this week as the New York State Senate took time instead of addressing any of these issues to explicitly DENY basic human rights to New Yorkers by voting down a law to extend the right to marry to all New Yorkers.

I, needless to say, am absolutely disgusted by this act. My disgust is only strengthened by the absolute cowardice of those who voted against marriage equality. Of the 38 cowards who voted against marriage equality, only one had the testicular fortitude and intellectual honesty to speak on the floor of the Senate to justify his vote.

My personal coward is Dale Volker. I have e-mailed, and called Dale to try to get an explanation out of him. I even sent him a message on facebook. No response. Nothing. Not a peep.

I'm including a photo of this hateful coward so that if you happen to see him, you can give him a piece of your mind, and maybe somehow try to get some sort of an incoherent jumbled explanation out of his addled brain as to why he thinks discrimination is ok.

(Tip of the hat to Buffalo Pundit from whom I borrowed the photo)

Freedom of Speech

Does the First Amendment give one the right to falsely tweet "OMG F1RE" in a crowded theater?