Monday, June 08, 2009

New York Senate Breaks Down

Funny stuff going on in New York.

The thank yous to Pedro Espada and Hiram Monserrate were because the two controversial Democrats crossed party lines and voted for Skelos to lead the Senate. The flip of the senators give Republicans a 32-30 edge in the chamber.

During the coup, Democrats fled the chamber, turned out the lights, and cut off the Internet feed of chamber proceedings, leaving Republicans and their two Democratic friends to take the vote in the dark.

Honestly, the tactics used by the Democrats here are deplorable.  I don’t mind them fleeing the chamber.  That’s their right.  If they don’t want to vote… fine.  But cutting power and internet is just plain assholio.  The citizens of New York deserve better (well, most of them).

(8) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2241 hrs
Politics + Politics - General

  1. I think what’s even better is the Republicans trying to take back control with the help of an indicted girlfriend beater and a guy who subscribes to the Gary George definition of district residency.

    Does anyone look particularly good here?

    Posted by Recess Supervisor on June 08, 2009 at 2324 hrs


  2. Wow… that’s as bad as grabbing the mike of an assembly person while they’re calling a role-call vote!

    Happened in our own capitol, a few years ago…

    Posted by Strings on June 09, 2009 at 0431 hrs


  3. Reading the article it’s clear that there’s plenty of asholio to go around.  From your prior posts I’d have thought you might be against backroom deal-cutting, though.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 09, 2009 at 0636 hrs


  4. I grew up in NY- you haven’t seen anything until you go to a village council meeting. It’s like something out of a movie.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 09, 2009 at 0853 hrs


  5. Similar thing happened in Kentucky when a Republican joined the Democrats to flip the Senate.  Elected officials are like children, no matter what the party.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 09, 2009 at 0937 hrs


  6. Time to call the waaaahbulance for Patterson.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on June 09, 2009 at 1114 hrs


  7. A large part of reason for the switch was large the large tax increase passed by the New york state government.  Another intresting part of the story was the role of Tom Golisano.  He is a billioaire who helped broker the deal.  He is moving from New York to Florida because of the large tax increase imposed by New York state.  With Limbaugh and Golisano leaving New York and who knows how many more rich people have fled New York because of tax reasons, it is clear raising taxes is not the solution.  New York has lost hundreds of thousands, if not millions of tax revenue because of the tax increase and they are probably not replacing those people with new millionaires.

    Posted by Dan on June 09, 2009 at 1303 hrs


  8. Two people supposedly leave because of taxes, so therefore we can assume that a bunch more are?  Way to use rhetorical obfuscation in an attempt to turn anecotal evidence into something real.

    Funny thing about these tax rates is that for every person who claims they drive mobility decisions, there are bunch of others, including a number of conservatives, that say those people are full of crap.

    Does raising taxes hurt the economy?  Of course.  But most wealthy folks are pretty immune to the economy at large in terms of their own standard of living.  Rational people move for the same reasons that they do everything else - to maximize their utility.  And utility is measured by countless other variables as well - cost of living, quality of schools, parks, proximity to family, crime rates, pollution, recreational opportunities.  Tax rates are just a small component in overall happiness.

    Posted by Recess Supervisor on June 09, 2009 at 1436 hrs


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