Joe Bruno's recent conviction points up the need for serious change in the laws covering our legislators' behavior. Three years ago I wrote the following piece; it turns out to have been ahead of its time.

Read on ... but first, if you want to make a difference, go to ReBootNY and make a contribution.  read more »

No, seriously. There is a Google text ad on Daily Kos proclaiming just that.

The ad links to this site, Justice for Joe Bruno.

There's a statement, which reads in part:

For over three years, I have been the target of a “Get Joe Bruno Campaign.” Whether by former Governor Spitzer or a political U.S. Attorney’s Office and an overzealous FBI, I have had every relationship of my life poked, probed and scrutinized. Even my family was dragged into this and made to endure questions about their actions and motives.

So, after being hounded for three years, I am being indicted on a prosecutorial sleight of hand because, after years of effort, they cannot find one example of criminal activity or illegal intent.

No, Senator, you're being indicted because you're a crook.  read more »

First, we proved conclusively that now-former Bruno employee Roger Stone is behind the email campaign being waged against Eliot Spitzer.

In the same post, we proved that the origin of Stone's list was in an email by Ben Smith of the Politico.

Then, we found out that the email and web campaign contains another shell: a web site, linkedcampaign.com, that is sending out all of the Stone emails. Linkedcampaign.com, like all the Stone web sites, was registered through a private registration service called Domains By Proxy. Wait, here are the headers:

Return-Path: (update@nyfacts.net)
Received: from linkedcampaign.com (linkedcampaign.com [24.199.182.6])

Return-Path: (Stone@StoneZONE.com)
Received: from linkedcampaign.com (linkedcampaign.com [24.199.182.6])

Return-Path: (info@SpitzerFile.com)
Received: from linkedcampaign.com (linkedcampaign.com [24.199.182.6])

Return-Path: (WJMAHONEY@GOP-CLUB.COM)
Received: from linkedcampaign.com (linkedcampaign.com [24.199.182.6])

Linkedcampaign.com redirects to is a ripped copy of a web site for a company called Vertical Response.

Here's the fun part: I cross-posted the post that contained that information on The Albany Project, here. This elicited a response from Vertical Response's Director of Policy, Richard Huffaker.  read more »

The Albany Times Union is reporting that, not only will Albany DA David Soares release a report further exonerating members of Eliot Spitzer's staff in the so called "Troopergate" scandal, but he will also criticize Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's initial investigation as well as the "political theater" that dragged his office into a "needless investigation". It's got to be a rather stinging rebuke to the Bruno crew.

X-posted at TAP  read more »

Any hope that the Governor was adjusting his game plan in the wake of “Travelgate” is now officially over. It appears that weeks of pleading and prodding have had no discernable effect in light of his recent speech at the Chautauqua Institution on Tuesday.

Specifically, the Governor expressed his continued adherence to the belief that force is his only weapon against the Albany establishment. While acknowledging that passion had gotten the best of his administration in recent weeks, the Governor asserted that, “only when we are willing to confront power with power can we even begin to address the injustices of our time.” (NYT – Metro – B2 – 8/8/07)

This type of rhetoric and attitude was great when he was the so-called sheriff of Wall Street. However, times and circumstances have dramatically changed. He no longer has a badge and gun (figuratively). That is, he is no longer the Attorney General (a.k.a. – chief law enforcement officer) of New York.  read more »