Albany? ‘Sin City? Ya Think? if you didn’t think it, then your in for a rude awakening. Hoyt and Spitzer are only the newest and if you hadn’t heard of any before this it’s only because the local media didn’t and doesn’t cover it. There could easily be 30 minutes of strictly Albany politics every night on TV… The sex, drugs, parties and the payoffs or buying off our supposed representatives would make you sick, but maybe it would just wake you all up. Maybe, just maybe.
The worst of the sins is the waste fraud and abuse of having 212 legislators all with staffs, lawyers, legal staff and not just in Albany but in their district offices too. See they all get paid and get paid very well for doing what? For sitting on their asses while the three men in a room meet to work out details of legislation and more abuse of the taxpayers. Idle time for our legislators gets them in trouble, they fraternize with staff and interns, attend the fundraising parties all while getting paid. They reap the benefits and pay of a full time job, a good paying full time job, the per diem, the committee pay and all the other little perks, for once again, sitting on their asses waiting to be told when and how to vote.
The corrupt political atmosphere in Albany is by far the worst sin, and you and I are paying for it. Isn’t that special. Their all whores.
Buffalo Bean wrote about this today too….
Sex scandals earn Albany the tag of ‘Sin City’ : The Buffalo News
Power, youth make state capital ripe for scandal, insiders say, as list continues to grow.
A former legislative aide accuses an assemblyman of sexually harassing her.
An underage intern accuses an assemblyman of raping her in a hotel room, then recants and says it was consensual, although he gave her alcohol.
An aide to the Assembly’s top leader is accused of raping two women, and the assemblyman stands by him until very recently.
The governor resigns as a federal investigation uncovers he had been seeking the services of high-price prostitutes. His successor admits that he and his wife had had affairs.
And now a Buffalo assemblyman admits he had been unfaithful to his wife several years ago but says his conduct did not violate any laws or State Legislature rules.
What is going on in Albany? According to longtime Albany insiders, the state capital has more than earned its nickname “Sin City.”
“Albany is a conducive environment to this kind of thing,” said Barbara Bartoletti, legislative director of the League of Women Voters of New York State, who has spent 28 years in Albany. “That may be true of every capital in the nation. You have a lot of powerful people, and young people tend to be attracted to powerful men.”
Charmian Neary, who filed a sexual harassment complaint with the Assembly in 1992 against her former boss, said the capital was a hotbed of outrageous behavior when she worked there. The complaint was dismissed, but she later sued Assemblyman Alan Siegel and the Assembly, and they settled with her.
When Neary arrived in Albany in 1990, she remembered being stunned at the attention she received, including that of her married boss. She was 30, had long blond hair but had never considered herself a babe.
“I was always the smartest one in my high school, not the most popular,” she said.
Neary recalled how lobbyists threw fundraisers and parties every night the Legislature was in session.
“You never had to buy dinner,” she recalled.
Over the years, she has kept tabs on the various scandals that have hit Albany.
“There’s a lull,” she said, after each one. “Then it rears its ugly head again.”
The blatant boozing and shameless cavorting have calmed down in recent years, said a woman serving in the Legislature, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Albany Earns Label of “Sin City”…
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Damn if shameless lobbying and gratuitous waste of taxpayer cash makes it sin city cancel my reservations at The Mirage and get me a cot at Swinging Sam’s crib.
thanks