DiNapoli does it big

It's been a while, we've been having a hard time posting through all the vomiting the legislative action (what legislative action?) in Albany has induced. But Tom DiNapoli brought us back. Today, 31 days into the "stalemate" that inspired AlbanyFAIL, finally NY State Senators are losing out on their prized paychecks. We hope this is a permanent change.

First step Resign, Second Step Seppuku

AlbanyFAIL's forward thinking agenda for the future of NY State Government is slowly trickling into the main stream. Today Rob Astorino, the Republican candidate for Westchester County executive, called on leaders in the New York State Senate — Democrats and Republicans — to resign their leadership posts if they can’t resolve their differences by Friday.

“The Senate leadership fight is adversely affecting counties throughout New York State and it needs to be resolved now,” Astorino said in a statement. “Whatever the reason, the current leaders of the Republican and Democratic conferences cannot come to an agreement, so it is time to let others try. It’s time for new leaders in Albany to put the state’s interests ahead of partisan interests. This hyper-partisanship has gone on long enough.”

We don't think Mr. Astorino goes far enough. This isn't just a failure of leadership. This is a systemic failure. Let's close up shop and start from scratch.

We can't believe we're saying this but, Rudy Giuliani's prescription of a constitutional convention isn't off base. We think his other recommendations belong in the same place the NYPD liked to put plungers during his tenure as Mayor, but we'll leave the Rudy bashing for another day.

If the groundswell for an overhaul to our legislative system does somehow appear out of thin air (and get past all of the logistical hurdles-hahahaha yeah right), we hope they take the opportunity to go well beyond the bogus term limit recommendations Rudy offered. None of the members of the State Senate have earned a right to keep their jobs. It's time to come to terms with reality and boot them to the curb.

PANDAmonium

Here's how Jimmy Vielkind put it: "Around 3 p.m., pandemonium broke out in the State Senate chamber, proving the ongoing leadership struggle in the chamber is anything but resolved." Unfortunately, this wasn't our preferred kind of PANDAmonium...

1,000 Words

This speaks volumes:

"Fisticuffs"

Sen. George Winner comes out strongly against fisticuffs to the Daily News: "I'm certainly not going to get into fisticuffs with someone at the podium."

But what happens if Governor Cleveland get's out of line? Maybe they should try defenestration?

Or Seppuku?

Nickelodeon-Span

The Senatate Democrats have locked themselves in the Senate chamber in preparation for the 3 p.m. extraordinary session called by Gov. Paterson. Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins is sitting at the dais ready to preside. I guess this is the "WE WERE HERE FIRST!" theory of governance.

This is very forward thinking, I think I read about this political theory in my Archie comic books in 3rd grade. But there's no telling what happens when the teacher comes back.

We at AlbanyFAIL wish that there was a live video feed to watch at our desk. Do we have any readers who work for Nickelodeon? This seems like your target market...

Espada Signs-on to One Leg of AlbanyFAIL Campaign

The AlbanyFAIL campaign is a three-legged stool, here they are in order of importance:

Leg 1: Stop Cashing Tax-Payer Funded Paychecks

Leg 2: Resign

Leg 3: Seppuku

Today, AlbanyFAIL learned that Sen. Espada has offered to sign-on to the first leg of our campaign. He even showed real Espada-style leadership, saying he would do it only if other senators did it too, that's courage.

"I would volunteer to give up my paycheck, if those senators do the same. I will join them."

The question remains, will he still get paid to not-cast his second vote? We have already advocated Sen. Espada's double resignation. I guess he has to give up two paychecks too.