Archive for January 18th, 2007
Lynn Marinelli doesn’t get it. Her job is not looking out for the politically connected, it is to see that Erie County is run in the most cost efficient manner possible.
A longtime Democratic Party operator is in need of a job. So the Democratic-controlled Erie County Legislature might create one today.
Lawmakers will consider refiguring their personnel budget to create a $56,884-a-year post for a “senior administrative assistant” to work on “intergovernmental relations.”
Chairwoman Lynn M. Marinelli, D-Town of Tonawanda, acknowledged the job is likely to go to Lawrence F. Adamczyk, a former Democratic elections commissioner who most recently worked for Assembly Majority Leader Paul A. Tokasz, D-Cheektowaga.
Overall, I’m not a fan of Control Boards, but I do hope that the ECFSA does the right thing by handing Marinelli a resounding NO on this position.
As chairwoman, Marinelli ordinarily has sole authority to hire and fire the Legislature’s staff. This year, she must request permission from the state-appointed control board in order to hire. The Fiscal Stability Authority has imposed a hiring freeze, which it lifts on a case-by-case basis.
Read the rest: Buffalo News - Democrats ponder job for Adamczyk
[tags]pork, patronage, Lynn Marinelli, Erie County Legislature, Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority, Lawrence Adamczyk, government, waste, libertarian[/tags]
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Rod Watson gets it.
He promised a new day in Albany. But in one respect, Eliot Spitzer is starting out like other governors before him - and political leaders everywhere.
When figuring out what Western New York needs, he’ll listen in large part to the same types of folks who traditionally make up an elected executive’s “Kitchen Cabinet.”
His list of informal local advisers revealed this week includes the same “suits” - politicians, bankers and business leaders - who always get entree.
But let’s face it: The mayor’s street will always get plowed, bank presidents can always get a loan, and friends of the party chairman will always get a job.
Just once, instead of getting only top-down advice, it would be nice to see a leader establish a mechanism to hear personally and regularly from those who will feel the brunt of what government does or doesn’t do.
There’s nothing wrong with listening to the “movers and shakers,” who no doubt have valuable insights.
But what about the shakees?
Source: Buffalo News - Spitzer needs to hear from other voices
[tags]Eliot Spitzer, New York, governor, Buffalo News, Buffalo, libertarian, economy, Western New York, Rod Watson[/tags]
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The attempt by the Bush administration to deflect charges of illegal spying on U.S. citizens by the NSA is meaningless. A secret court, comprising of 7 judges, established by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, will now oversee the spying program. This court has approved virtually every instance of domestic spying since its inception. It is common for this court to retroactively approve warrantless wiretapping. This is in no way a system of checks and balances that we are entitled to by the Constitution.
The Bush administration said yesterday that it has agreed to disband a controversial warrantless surveillance program run by the National Security Agency, replacing it with a new effort that will be overseen by the secret court that governs clandestine spying in the United States.
The change — revealed by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales in a letter to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee — marks an abrupt reversal by the administration, which for more than a year has aggressively defended the legality of the NSA surveillance program and disputed court authority to oversee it.
Read the rest: Court Will Oversee Wiretap Program - washingtonpost.com
[tags]wiretapping, F.I.S.A., Bush, spying, illegal, government, libertarian, warrantless, Constitution[/tags]
This is an update to my previous post. Please join Free New York, Inc. tomorrow for the unveiling of a billboard highlighting Niagara County’s high tax status. The details are in the previous post. Below is a rendering of the billboard.
[tags]Free New York, Free Buffalo, Free Niagara, taxes, libertarian, Niagara County, New York[/tags]
