Pataki's "Borrow and Steal" ---> Resignation of CUNY Trustees?
For years I have been occasionally listening to a 5 a.m. Saturday morning broadcast on WNYC out of Albany called "Capital Connection," which is hosted by a recently retired SUNY faculty member, Alan Chartock, who is also President and CEO of Northeast Public Radio WAMC:
alan@wamc.org http://www.wamc.org/alan.html
I don't know why WNYC only schedules this program at this ungodly hour (in the middle of the Sabbath), but it is regularly informative in its interviews with NY state officials of various kinds.
This morning's interview was devastating and leads me to believe the George Pataki will not be running again for NY state governor; he is more likely to be appealing his sentence for corruption and complicity in massive thefts from the state -- along with a number of other Republican officials, appointees, and their beneficiaries.
Chartock's interview with Westchester State Assemblyman, Richard Brodsky, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, has exposed a Pataki pattern of corruption through appointment of cronies to our various state 'independent' commissions and authorities who have been systematically selling off state resources to Pataki cronies and supporters as LOWEST BIDDERS thereupon. Even the Ombudsman's office which is supposed to regulate such authorities has been similarly corrupted.
The one major exposure widely reported in the press so far was the Erie Canal deal -- more than 1,000 miles of resources for a token $30,000.00 -- emblematic of the bold extent of theft of our state's assets conjoined with tax slashing for the super rich and cutbacks on such basics as health care and schooling for our kids:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/31/nyregion/31canal.html?. . . etc.
Brodsky apparently hopes to join the Democratic ticket, replacing Eliot Spitzer as state Attorney General when the latter runs for governor. I was astounded at Brodsky's documented litany of Republican state corruption, which included a $500,000 payoff to former Senator Al D'Amato for his assistance in overriding a state commission lawyer's rejection of a contract -- denied by D'Amato and yet boasted in a public hearing by this very corrupter!
Pataki's modus operandi has been to appoint compliant cronies to our various 'independent' authorities (MTA, Thruway Authority, Power Authority, and even the Ombudsman's office charged with keeping them honest) and then steering things from behind the scenes while denying responsibility. Some of these appointees are beginning to run for cover, exposing Pataki to increasing criticism and weakening the Republican party generally -- beware of Yalies who were members of the Party of the Right when they were undergraduates, as well as the DKE and Bones men. Brodsky has explicit emails from Pataki's office stating precisely how dirty a game they play -- 'Accuse them of playing politics when they expose us, but don't let anyone know that we told you to do so'.
How has Pataki been able to get away with these scams?
1) According to Brodsky, while there are explicit rules requiring open bidding on contracts to provide SERVICES TO the state, there are absolutely none required for SELL OFFS OF STATE RESOURCES -- such as the Erie Canal deal exposed by Brodsky (website above).
2) There has been, thus, nothing to prevent a 'Procurement Lobby' from grabbing whatever despite Pataki's toothless executive order pried loose under pressure late in the game 6/16/03:
http://www.lwvny.org/SBR/november_2004.htm
3) 'BORROW AND STEAL' has been Pataki's game plan, leaving our wealthy state on the verge of bankruptcy with the various under funded crowd pleasers that have been built, which will have to be paid off by future generations. It is called buying votes with the voters' own monies not so disclosed. See the West Side Stadium deal as more of the same. I have previously cited the refurbished library on our Brooklyn College campus -- $79 MILLION from Dormitory Bonds -- to be paid off by my current students and their children. And we have yet another costly major 'tear-down- and-rebuild' project underway there this year!
Alan Chartock, as a recently retired Faculty member of SUNY, also angrily mentioned the ugly force-out attacks on some of the best of our SUNY faculty and administrators by the equally inappropriate hatchet men (and women) Pataki appointed to the SUNY board!
On the basis of this brief half hour program it is manifest that Pataki Republicans:
a) have placed our state in great financial jeopardy and
b) are emulating (or setting the pattern for?) the Republicans in Washington under Bush.
Cut the taxes for the super wealthy while slashing the basic service budgets. All this is done with massive false propaganda campaigns organized and funded by major beneficiaries thereof such as Richard Mellon Scaife and the 300 right wing institutes which he and other corporate interests fund along with the coalition of the willing Republican pols and their henchfolk who carry out their programs of bait, switch, and smear:
http://archive.salon.com/news/1998/04/07news.html
I hereby formally ask:
1) that those of you were appointed by Pataki as trustees to the CUNY board IMMEDIATELY RESIGN! We are horrendously under funded and facing now the cruel veto by Pataki even of funding this next year authorized by our state legislators. So far as I can tell, you have done nothing to reverse Pataki's veto. Massive Pataki-centered scandals finally will be exposed this next campaign year and Pataki's appointments of you MAKE YOU ALL SUSPECTS as a part of his cover for sabotaging public education at all levels in NY. I know that some of you at least have been close enough to Pataki not to be surprised by this report. Don't fall into the trap of claiming that this report is just 'politics'. This cheap gambit is now exposed for what it is.
I am an angry teacher who has been committed to getting CUNY students launched into productive and high quality lives since I first joined the the faculty in 1966, following my work while a student as aide to J. Raymond Jones (the "Harlem Fox") who, along with Kenneth B. Clark, the distinguished CCNY psychologist (who died this past December 16), began to implement his dream of open enrollment and a college education for all willing to work hard for it.
I deeply resent your efforts to sabotage that dream with your cooked up claims of "improving standards to CUNY." You are the ones who have been lowering our standards by not fighting to increase our funding so that we can restore our drastically reduced full-time faculty, forcing us to depend for coverage of our classrooms on hurried part-timers -- dashing hither and yon from campus to campus to the detriment both of themselves and the quality of teaching that we can offer to our students!
I have passed along to you the principal elements of Richard Brodsky's brief half hour interview with Alan Chartock. May I ask particularly Jeffrey Weisenfeld, as former executive assistant both to Governor Pataki and to Al D'Amato and now a CUNY board member appointed by Pataki, to take the initiatives here. I don't think you are a crook, but I can't believe that you don't know what has been transpiring here:
http://www.state.ny.us/governor/press/year99/june9_99.htm
Please correct whatever is in error and I will pass along your comments. As a graduate of Bronx High School of Science and Queens College, CUNY, you must maintain our standards -- NOT subvert them!
2) that the NY Times and New York Daily News assign teams of investigative reporters to follow up on what Brodsky has reported so as to remove this matter of high import from the arena of state politics and move it on to the state and national level of reporting absolutely essential for our democracy to function -- you, as the Fourth Estate, are a critical force and must function as such. The New York Post is, of course, hopelessly mired in Murdock money-making schemes.
I would suggest that we Democrats detach ourselves completely from the corrupt Republican slogan, "Tax and Spend" and tell is like it really is. Pataki has been 'borrowing and stealing' and that is also the current agenda of Bush in Washington: "Reform" Social Security is as much an abuse of the word as was "Reform" Welfare was in '96. It is time for our press and we to speak clearly as we begin to expose Republican scandals at all levels of government -- national, state and local. They will make the notorious Teapot Dome ventures of the discredited Harding administration that preceded the Crash of '29 look like veritable amateur stuff in comparison:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome
One need only substitute "Texas Gang" for the "Ohio Gang," which also involved a hidden bidding scheme to raid national resources!
I am directing this to my own students and to the trustees of CUNY and sending blind copies widely. Edward Kent, Department of Philosophy, Brooklyn College, CUNY 212-866-6058 (h)
This report may be used by anyone who finds it useful without obtaining permission from me. Please send me a copy of whatever and indicate whether I should keep it confidential or disclose it -- as you choose. Please correct any errors in my report based on the above mentioned interview -- it was an early morning wake up for assimilating such horrendous stuff.
alan@wamc.org http://www.wamc.org/alan.html
I don't know why WNYC only schedules this program at this ungodly hour (in the middle of the Sabbath), but it is regularly informative in its interviews with NY state officials of various kinds.
This morning's interview was devastating and leads me to believe the George Pataki will not be running again for NY state governor; he is more likely to be appealing his sentence for corruption and complicity in massive thefts from the state -- along with a number of other Republican officials, appointees, and their beneficiaries.
Chartock's interview with Westchester State Assemblyman, Richard Brodsky, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, has exposed a Pataki pattern of corruption through appointment of cronies to our various state 'independent' commissions and authorities who have been systematically selling off state resources to Pataki cronies and supporters as LOWEST BIDDERS thereupon. Even the Ombudsman's office which is supposed to regulate such authorities has been similarly corrupted.
The one major exposure widely reported in the press so far was the Erie Canal deal -- more than 1,000 miles of resources for a token $30,000.00 -- emblematic of the bold extent of theft of our state's assets conjoined with tax slashing for the super rich and cutbacks on such basics as health care and schooling for our kids:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/31/nyregion/31canal.html?. . . etc.
Brodsky apparently hopes to join the Democratic ticket, replacing Eliot Spitzer as state Attorney General when the latter runs for governor. I was astounded at Brodsky's documented litany of Republican state corruption, which included a $500,000 payoff to former Senator Al D'Amato for his assistance in overriding a state commission lawyer's rejection of a contract -- denied by D'Amato and yet boasted in a public hearing by this very corrupter!
Pataki's modus operandi has been to appoint compliant cronies to our various 'independent' authorities (MTA, Thruway Authority, Power Authority, and even the Ombudsman's office charged with keeping them honest) and then steering things from behind the scenes while denying responsibility. Some of these appointees are beginning to run for cover, exposing Pataki to increasing criticism and weakening the Republican party generally -- beware of Yalies who were members of the Party of the Right when they were undergraduates, as well as the DKE and Bones men. Brodsky has explicit emails from Pataki's office stating precisely how dirty a game they play -- 'Accuse them of playing politics when they expose us, but don't let anyone know that we told you to do so'.
How has Pataki been able to get away with these scams?
1) According to Brodsky, while there are explicit rules requiring open bidding on contracts to provide SERVICES TO the state, there are absolutely none required for SELL OFFS OF STATE RESOURCES -- such as the Erie Canal deal exposed by Brodsky (website above).
2) There has been, thus, nothing to prevent a 'Procurement Lobby' from grabbing whatever despite Pataki's toothless executive order pried loose under pressure late in the game 6/16/03:
http://www.lwvny.org/SBR/november_2004.htm
3) 'BORROW AND STEAL' has been Pataki's game plan, leaving our wealthy state on the verge of bankruptcy with the various under funded crowd pleasers that have been built, which will have to be paid off by future generations. It is called buying votes with the voters' own monies not so disclosed. See the West Side Stadium deal as more of the same. I have previously cited the refurbished library on our Brooklyn College campus -- $79 MILLION from Dormitory Bonds -- to be paid off by my current students and their children. And we have yet another costly major 'tear-down- and-rebuild' project underway there this year!
Alan Chartock, as a recently retired Faculty member of SUNY, also angrily mentioned the ugly force-out attacks on some of the best of our SUNY faculty and administrators by the equally inappropriate hatchet men (and women) Pataki appointed to the SUNY board!
On the basis of this brief half hour program it is manifest that Pataki Republicans:
a) have placed our state in great financial jeopardy and
b) are emulating (or setting the pattern for?) the Republicans in Washington under Bush.
Cut the taxes for the super wealthy while slashing the basic service budgets. All this is done with massive false propaganda campaigns organized and funded by major beneficiaries thereof such as Richard Mellon Scaife and the 300 right wing institutes which he and other corporate interests fund along with the coalition of the willing Republican pols and their henchfolk who carry out their programs of bait, switch, and smear:
http://archive.salon.com/news/1998/04/07news.html
I hereby formally ask:
1) that those of you were appointed by Pataki as trustees to the CUNY board IMMEDIATELY RESIGN! We are horrendously under funded and facing now the cruel veto by Pataki even of funding this next year authorized by our state legislators. So far as I can tell, you have done nothing to reverse Pataki's veto. Massive Pataki-centered scandals finally will be exposed this next campaign year and Pataki's appointments of you MAKE YOU ALL SUSPECTS as a part of his cover for sabotaging public education at all levels in NY. I know that some of you at least have been close enough to Pataki not to be surprised by this report. Don't fall into the trap of claiming that this report is just 'politics'. This cheap gambit is now exposed for what it is.
I am an angry teacher who has been committed to getting CUNY students launched into productive and high quality lives since I first joined the the faculty in 1966, following my work while a student as aide to J. Raymond Jones (the "Harlem Fox") who, along with Kenneth B. Clark, the distinguished CCNY psychologist (who died this past December 16), began to implement his dream of open enrollment and a college education for all willing to work hard for it.
I deeply resent your efforts to sabotage that dream with your cooked up claims of "improving standards to CUNY." You are the ones who have been lowering our standards by not fighting to increase our funding so that we can restore our drastically reduced full-time faculty, forcing us to depend for coverage of our classrooms on hurried part-timers -- dashing hither and yon from campus to campus to the detriment both of themselves and the quality of teaching that we can offer to our students!
I have passed along to you the principal elements of Richard Brodsky's brief half hour interview with Alan Chartock. May I ask particularly Jeffrey Weisenfeld, as former executive assistant both to Governor Pataki and to Al D'Amato and now a CUNY board member appointed by Pataki, to take the initiatives here. I don't think you are a crook, but I can't believe that you don't know what has been transpiring here:
http://www.state.ny.us/governor/press/year99/june9_99.htm
Please correct whatever is in error and I will pass along your comments. As a graduate of Bronx High School of Science and Queens College, CUNY, you must maintain our standards -- NOT subvert them!
2) that the NY Times and New York Daily News assign teams of investigative reporters to follow up on what Brodsky has reported so as to remove this matter of high import from the arena of state politics and move it on to the state and national level of reporting absolutely essential for our democracy to function -- you, as the Fourth Estate, are a critical force and must function as such. The New York Post is, of course, hopelessly mired in Murdock money-making schemes.
I would suggest that we Democrats detach ourselves completely from the corrupt Republican slogan, "Tax and Spend" and tell is like it really is. Pataki has been 'borrowing and stealing' and that is also the current agenda of Bush in Washington: "Reform" Social Security is as much an abuse of the word as was "Reform" Welfare was in '96. It is time for our press and we to speak clearly as we begin to expose Republican scandals at all levels of government -- national, state and local. They will make the notorious Teapot Dome ventures of the discredited Harding administration that preceded the Crash of '29 look like veritable amateur stuff in comparison:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome
One need only substitute "Texas Gang" for the "Ohio Gang," which also involved a hidden bidding scheme to raid national resources!
I am directing this to my own students and to the trustees of CUNY and sending blind copies widely. Edward Kent, Department of Philosophy, Brooklyn College, CUNY 212-866-6058 (h)
This report may be used by anyone who finds it useful without obtaining permission from me. Please send me a copy of whatever and indicate whether I should keep it confidential or disclose it -- as you choose. Please correct any errors in my report based on the above mentioned interview -- it was an early morning wake up for assimilating such horrendous stuff.
posted by Ed Kent at 1:18 PM
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