It's no longer worth writing about this stuff because the rank rot corruption that has infested the entire AmeriKan $y$tem is oozing out of its own mouthpieces.
All $cum, all of them, and only when America is rid of these parasites will there be a chance to save it -- if it's not too late by then. I think it already is; it's a hulking and fetid carcass of an empire now that is irredeemable.
"Legislative speaker in N.Y. arrested on charges of graft" by William K. Rashbaum and Thomas Kaplan, New York Times January 23, 2015
NEW YORK — The speaker of the New York State Assembly, Sheldon Silver, was arrested on federal corruption charges Thursday and accused of using the power of his office for more than a decade to secure millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks and then covering up his schemes, according to court documents.
Silver, a Democrat from the Lower East Side of Manhattan who has served as speaker for more than two decades, is accused of a range of corrupt dealings that capitalized on his official position. They include using his position to obtain corrupt payments misrepresented as referral fees from a law firm, funneling state research funds and other benefits to a doctor who in return referred asbestos claims to the law firm where the speaker worked, and secretly helping real estate developers win tax breaks.
In recent years, a steady parade of lawmakers in Albany has been charged with corruption, and the complaint against Silver outlines a capital culture rife with back-room dealing, where money and influence shape public policy for the benefit of private agendas.
I'm $tunned.
Silver, 70, surrendered to FBI agents Thursday in Lower Manhattan, and the charges were announced at midday by the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara.
“For many years, New Yorkers have asked the question — how could Speaker Silver, one of the most powerful men in all of New York, earn millions of dollars in outside income without deeply compromising his ability to honestly serve his constituents?” Bharara said at a news conference. “Today, we provide the answer. He didn’t.”
Bharara said Silver had produced “a nice profit on being a public official.” He added, “Politicians are supposed to be on the people’s payroll, not on secret retainer to wealthy special interests they do favors for.”
Have you been down to Congre$$ lately?
Albany’s systemic corruption — and a series of cases brought by the same federal prosecutors who charged Silver on Thursday — prompted Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, a fellow Democrat, to create a special anticorruption panel, known as the Moreland Commission, to investigate wrongdoing and work to clean up state government.
But in March, Cuomo abruptly shut down the commission — “to the great relief of Sheldon Silver,” Bharara said.
(Blog editor just shakes his head at all these $cum)
Before the governor disbanded it, the panel had issued subpoenas as part of an investigation into the outside income earned by lawmakers, subpoenas that Silver and other lawmakers challenged in court.
At the news conference, Bharara offered a stinging assessment of a state capital where money flows freely and deals are cut behind closed doors — sometimes at the expense of taxpayers and to the enrichment of lawmakers.
Yeah, and?
Related: The Perils of One-Party Politics: Massachusetts' Democracy
It's been that way for a long time despite the talk!!
He said the charges against Silver “go to the very core of what ails Albany.”
Bharara added, somewhat ominously, that his office had a number of other ongoing public corruption investigations.
“You should stay tuned,” he said.
The arrest of Silver, one of the most powerful politicians in the state, sent immediate shock waves through the political establishment and upended the new legislative session. The assembly canceled its session Thursday as Democrats planned to meet privately to plot a course of action.
The state Republican party issued a statement calling for Silver to resign, joining several Democrats who also said he should step down.
Silver, entering 26 Federal Plaza before 8 a.m. to surrender, said, “I hope I’ll be vindicated.”
Not in the court of public opinion, $cum.
--more--"
NDU: SUNY looks to increase graduates
And the debt enslavement of the younger generation.
