Here is a piece from Captial Tonight blog where Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz brags about his near last ranking by the state's Conservative Party. The party gave him a 16 percent rating based on his votes on 24 key bills. He voted yes on bills such as extending unemployment benefits, legalizing same-sex marriage, raising the maximum retirement age for judges, mandating microstamping of ammunition for semiautomatic pistols, requiring backseat passengers under 16 to wear seat belts, etc. In another bit of news involving Assemblyman Dinowitz, this article from the Queens Gazette reports that he was on a recent junket to Russia with fellow members of the Assembly--the photo to the left is a shot of their visit. I am sure there is a lot that can be applied from Russia to New York State politics.
These Assembly jokers should stay in Russia, were they would be eaten alive by the brutal "soft authoritarianism" of Comrade Putin and the oligarchs.
ReplyDeleteDoes any state legislator in this country really need to go on junkets to Europe? They should just stay here and do their jobs (which is making state laws)
ReplyDeleteDo NY taxpayers end up paying for these junkets?
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of that junket king Marty Markowitz (Brooklyn Borough President) who likes to think of himself as a visting head of state.
ReplyDeleteQUESTION: What's worse than a Jeffrey Dinowitz speech?
ReplyDeleteANSWER: A Jeffrey Dinowitz speech translated into Russian.
Instead of visiting Moscow's Gorky Park, these legislators should stay in New York and visit Zuccotti Park!!!
ReplyDeleteThe Russians have some pretty serious economic problems of their own, so I certainly hope that their government did not waste even an single kopeck on an unnecessary visit by New York pols.
ReplyDeleteI like the message that John A. Paulson sent to the anti-Wall Street protesters today.
ReplyDeleteMr. Paulson, the founder and president of hedge-fund firm Paulson & Co. Inc., is one of the world's wealthiest hedge-fund managers, ranking No. 17 on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans with a net worth of $15.5 billion.
Here is the full statement from the Paulson & Co.:
“The top 1% of New Yorkers pay over 40% of all income taxes, providing huge benefits to everyone in our city and state. Paulson & Co. and its employees have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in New York City and New York State taxes in recent years and have created over 100 high paying jobs in New York City since its formation.
New York currently has the highest income taxes of any state in the country and thousands of businesses have fled New York to states with no income taxes such as Florida, Texas and Nevada, or moved offshore.
Instead of vilifying our most successful businesses, we should be supporting them and encouraging them to remain in New York City and continue to grow.”
READ MORE HERE:
Billionaire Tells Occupy Wall Street to Get Off His Lawn
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/10/11/billionaire-tells-occupy-wall-street-to-get-off-his-lawn/?mod=wsj_share_twitter
I can understand that a New York State assemblyman might need to make some kind of official visit to a neighboring state, or even to a national conference somewhere else in the US, but it makes no sense having them go to other continents. It is a giant stretch to pretend that a vacation 5000 miles away has any substantial connection or real influence with matters in their local assembly districts. Let's face it, diplomats they ain't!
ReplyDeleteAhh yes, a flock of assembly members winging it to Russia for no reason. But it's not really surprising at all given what passes for public business in Albany these days.
ReplyDeleteWhy do politicians have such a bad reputation? This kind of foreign travel is just one of the reasons. They are pleasure trips thinly disguised as being of political importance. For such low level elected officials, there's no justification for globe trekking.
ReplyDeleteNot only is it ridiculous for Assemblyman Dinowitz to go on a junket to Russia in the frist place, it’s downright comical that he released a photo of himself in the act. Does he really think it’s a good idea to be publicizing this?
ReplyDeleteWhy just Russia? How about London, Paris and Rome, finished off with a little R&R in Monte Carlo?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Jeff Dinowitz will insist that his pointless world junkets are somehow beneficial to the United States.
ReplyDeleteTo all you complainers, how about you clean your houses and then worry about the mess others make….Time for us all to grow up.
ReplyDeletewas this trip necessary?
ReplyDeleteI defend junkets. Think about it. Should a group of Assembly Members whose legislative actions can affect not only their country but sometimes the entire world know only the problems of their districts at first hand, or should they observe the problems of other nations for themselves and for their constituents?
ReplyDeleteThe junket defender Anonymous @ Oct. 13, 2011 6:59 AM is clearly a highly skilled bullshitter, so perhaps he should be our next assemblyman.
ReplyDeleteFallen hedge-fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam was just sentenced to 11 years in prison and fined $10 million for one of the biggest insider-trading cases in American history . . . . Dang, we just lost a job creator!
ReplyDeleteDear 6:59 - What could the NYS Assembly possibly be doing that involved Russia? The usual freebie trips are the Dominican Republic, various Caribbean Islands, Ireland and Israel. Pols go because special interests groups fund the trips and it makes them look good in the eyes of some consituents (depending on your district). There is zero benefit to the people of this state and given the corruption in our state and local government, it should be banned.
ReplyDeleteFive NYS assembly members go to Russia: Alan Maisel, Sylvia Gottlieb, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Amy Paulin and Alec Brook-Krasny!!
ReplyDeleteOh that must have been a very important study mission. You gotta wonder what specific legislation will grow from such a trip?
Bon Voyage dirtbags!
ReplyDeleteIt is silly of Assembly Members Maisel, Gottlieb, Dinowitz, Paulin & Brook-Krasny to draw attention to themselves by leaving the continential limits of the United States for something so self-serving and meaningless.
ReplyDeleteI know that members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives like to argue as part of Congressional oversight they need to travel all over the world (at government expense) to see how Federal programs and policies are operating.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it is bombastic nonsense to claim that the members of the state legislatures have comparable oversight needs.
The lavish wastefulness of these elected officials is something to consider when they ask for our votes. Sorry to hear about this this, I was unaware of it.
ReplyDeleteIt's just plain arrogant for them to lord it over us like that with pictures of their freebie travels.
ReplyDeleteBAN THOSE OUT-OF-STATE JUNKETS!
ReplyDeleteWhether you're a rank-and-file assemblyman or the Majority Leader of the State Senate, you shouldn't be going on expensive trips to luxurious resorts on the public dime or at the expense of special interests seeking to influence your actions.
We all hear about those sponsored trips to luxury destinations (for example, lobbyist-paid Hawaiian holidays), or when lawmakers charge the state for their trips to “important” conferences in places like Orlando, Florida (where of course they get treated to a free day at Disney).
It is time to prohibit not only the publically financed junkets for legislators and aides, but also those privately financed junkets, which are really nothing more than legalized bribery.
so selfish
ReplyDeleteOh look, a group of itinerant New York legislators who couldn't they find a shul closer to home, or at least somewhere in the continental United States.
ReplyDeleteSo the legislAtors are having a good time at the taxpayer expense or at the expense ofg lobbyists promoting selfish interests. In my opnion they are nothing more than 1st-class freeloaders!
ReplyDeleteYes ... FREELOADERS!
ReplyDeleteI wish these traveling pols would just stay abroad. No use for them and their junkets
ReplyDeleteWhat can Russia possibly do to provide jobs and equal education opportunities to citizens in the Bronx?
ReplyDeleteIs Russia going to fix the Rikers Island type conditions on the Kennedy Campus, where students are treated more like chattel and less like human beings when they arrive for school in the morning? Or how about the fiasco that occurred at RKA in the Spring when students were caught posting unsavory videotaped activities occurring in RKA bathrooms on facebook? Maybe Russia can help us with the bully epidemic in our schools as well? How about the high unemployment rate in the Bronx? Will Russia help Assemblyman Dinowitz create jobs in the borough?
I have faith in Assemblyman Dinowitz...that his decision to visit Russia was altruistic in nature and that he will return with solutions to all of the problems/issues mentioned above. That's what he is paid to do and by golly I know he is the man for the job!
Name the freeloaders!
ReplyDeleteColleen R. Hanley sounds like she believes in conspiracies but she is not far from the mark on Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (a petty, mischievous, mean-spirited politico who spends most of this days toiling in obscurity).
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: I believe in conspiracy theories?
ReplyDeleteNo, I just have my own opinions...and those opinions are based upon facts and the preponderance of evidence. I then apply both to the Law and my own moral compass.
At least you and I can agree on some things.
Have a wonderful day.
My reaction to junket-loving legislators is that bad people do bad things, especially in politics.
ReplyDeleteThere is something seriously wrong with these comments. Assemblyman Dinowitz and his fellow lawmakers are great ambassadors for our state.
ReplyDeleteI am sure the voters do not care how the trip was paid for. Mr Dinowitz and his colleagues did what they thought was appropriate for them ... and it is perfectly permissible under the law.
Dinowitz and friends are NOT ambassadors and anyone who thinks that they are doing this out a sense of public duty is being way too kind and gullible.
ReplyDeleteYou just knew Colleen Hanley would be mentioned on this line of posts at some point. She's still not going to get her seat renewed next year. Dinowitz will make sure of it, like him or not.
ReplyDeletemaggots on holiday!
ReplyDeleteThey are totally out of touch if they actually think that publishing photos of their junket is good self-promotion.
ReplyDeleteI'm from Riverdale so I've never heard of any of those assemblymen, except for Dinowitz. And I can't take Dinowitz seriously with his whiney, bitchy, perpetual-victim demeanor.
ReplyDeleteHere are just a few of the issues within CB8:
ReplyDelete1) HOUSING: The Marble Hill buildings were supposed to have cameras installed a few years ago. The allocated funds are missing in action. In the meantime, 14 people were mugged in one building alone over the summer.
2) EDUCATION: The JFK Campus is busy preparing students for incarceration. This is a psychological tactic used on children of color in urban areas. When was the last time you paid a visit to JFK? If you did check up on neighborhood schools, you would find that the JFK campus is violating Chancellors Orders- and the Civil Rights of its student body - on a daily basis. If a kid forgets his or her ID Card you dont make them wait until 10am to enter the school. Not when you have a computer in front of you that can confirm the identity of students.
3) TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION: The condition of some of our roads have become a hazard to drivers and pedestrians. We need to push the DOT to repave our roads We, meaning all of us.
At the very least my children have gained a better understanding of "community". They now know their "community" is not limited to a six block radius of a neighborhood with its fair share of issues.
I am doing the best that I can. How about you, anonymous?
Board 8 just wastes time talking and then passes resolutions that mean nothing and go nowhere.
ReplyDeleteBronx Community Board 8 USED TO GET SOME BIG THINGS DONE, but now Board 8 basically gets nothing done. They should change the name to Board Zero!
ReplyDelete