Article never mentions that both Paterson and O'Byrne are Democrats.
Gov. David Paterson accepted the resignation of his embattled top aide on Friday, after a week of escalating criticism over his failure to pay $300,000 in taxes over a five-year period when he was clinically depressed.
Earlier, a state official said Chief of Staff Charles O'Byrne's resignation was accepted with regret by Paterson, his close friend.
O'Byrne, who has ties to the Kennedy family, has said clinical depression kept him from paying taxes from 2001 to 2005, before he took the job titled secretary to the governor.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2008 00:00 ||
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"clinical depression kept him from paying taxes"
Paying taxes makes me depressed too. It doesn't stop me though.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
10/25/2008 3:22 Comments ||
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Having known someone who suffered from serious depression requiring (not just inviting) medication I can well believe this guy didn't get it together to pay his taxes.
He should have fixed that or at least arranged a negotiated payment schedule before taking this job tho.
#4
It doesn't appear to have affected his woking, though. If we just look hard enough we can all find something that makes us Victims. This is the age of Victimhood.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/25/2008 9:41 Comments ||
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heh - now the Kennedy's won't get their loan paid back...at least not with tax dollars
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/25/2008 9:51 Comments ||
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#6
#1) He wasn't too depressed to generate income requiring $300,000 in taxes (which implies 6 figure incomes).
#2) Per the article: He was responsible for mapping out policy and politics as Paterson rose from the near powerless Democratic minority in the Senate to lieutenant governor and then governor after Democrat Eliot Spitzer resigned in March amid a prostitution scandal. . . Which seems to inconsistent with someone who was too depressed to pay someone to prepare his tax returns.
#7
An Obama administration won't make me too depressed to pay my taxes (since I figure jail would be even more depressing). But I can see it making me too depressed to work real ambitiously
Deacon's nailed it. Too many Americans insist on being victims. The NRA program title for self defense - Refuse to Be a Victim - really should apply to all of us in all possible ways.
#8
Re. Dr. Steve's comment on political affiliation of this seedy politician - I think the title of this whole page is redundant. I am finding it very difficult to find a non-seedy politician; seediness may be an essential ingredient of a politician.
The Miami trial of a Venezuelan entrepreneur who grew rich doing business with President Hugo Chavez's populist administration has exposed how some top government officials have profited from a corrosive web of corruption in the oil-rich country.
Kickbacks, bribes and secret payoffs have become a feature in the socialist administration, which had claimed a break from the past but instead has seen several officials implicated in multimillion-dollar corruption schemes, according to testimony and conversations taped by the FBI. The trial has also revealed the Chavez government's determination to funnel state funds to its allies in Latin America and the lengths it will go to to keep the aid secret.
"This shows that the charges made over the last few years about the profound nature of corruption were not some invention," said Teodoro Petkoff, an editor in Caracas whose newspaper, Tal Cual, opposes Chavez and has uncovered corruption scandals. "It shows that it is very hard to hide the big-time theft that has been going on."
The eight-week trial centers on whether the Venezuelan government dispatched five men to Miami to coerce and cajole a Venezuelan American man into keeping quiet about $800,000 in Venezuelan state funds that Chavez's associates allegedly tried to channel to political allies in Argentina.
In August 2007, customs agents in Argentina detained the man, Guido Alejandro Antonini, after he arrived at the Buenos Aires airport with the cash. Antonini, who had been close to the Chavez government, was soon released and went home to Miami. But as rumors swirled that the money had been designated for the presidential campaign of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the Venezuelan government sent operatives to Miami to urge Antonini never to reveal the truth, U.S. prosecutors said.
The Venezuelan operatives met with Antonini in cafes and restaurants to urge him to stay quiet, expressing concern that Fernandez de Kirchner would lose the presidency if it became known that the money had been destined for her campaign. "The truth can cost her the election," one of the operatives, Moisés Maiónica, told Antonini. Fernandez de Kirchner, a close ally of Chavez's, won the presidency in October 2007.
Maiónica and other Venezuelans did not know, however, that Antonini was cooperating with the FBI and had secretly taped their meetings and phone conversations.
Maiónica, along with another Venezuelan, Carlos Kauffmann, and an Uruguayan national, has pleaded guilty to the unusual charge of operating in the United States as unregistered agents of the Venezuelan state. U.S. prosecutors are searching for Antonio José Canchica, a high-level operative in Venezuela's intelligence service who was indicted in the case.
The defendant in the trial, Franklin Duran, 41, a business associate of Antonini's, was among those allegedly sent to launch the coverup. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison. "The Venezuelan government had a problem, directed Franklin Duran to assist, and he did so," Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley told jurors during closing arguments Thursday.
Duran's attorney, Ed Shohat, said his client was no Venezuelan agent and went to Miami to help a friend in trouble, Antonini.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm really becoming a conspiracy believer. A believer that is thinking, this media of ours, has some kind of contest, a race, a competition to see who can come up with The Story that will end McCain's or Sarah's career.
Who among them, will win out? Maybe instead of the Pulitzer Award, they are calling it the "Woodward Watergate Wooden Nickle Award."
#2
It's interesting: we're to take the word of a Vietnamese jailer without further ado, but you're never allowed to believe all the people we have working at Gitmo.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/25/2008 0:52 Comments ||
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I want to tell him that Im like his father. I was the one who gave him a second birth.
#4
If my memory serves, the released POWs were given quite extensive medical examinations upon their release by the North Vietnamese ... which provided physical proof of rather sickening long-term abuse, deprivation and torture.
Also - weren't there quite a lot of POWs who actually died of their mistreatment?
Of course, the good readers of the Times wouldn't believe a word of it for a second - it's only those nasty militaristic Americans telling lies about those innocent little brown people again...
#9
It's 10 days until election and this Obama hit piece seems aimed at his core supporters rather than the Great Middle. Isn't it a bit late to be playing to his base?
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
10/25/2008 16:56 Comments ||
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#10
*shrug* The Times is a London newspaper, so this article will have no effect on those who may actually cast votes in the American election. This story has been out for some time, believed by fools and fellow travelers, disbelieved by everyone else. However, it would be highly amusing were the more silly Brits to write to "An American Voter" in an attempt to influence votes here on the basis of that article.
#12
"I guess we'll never really answer the question, 'how low will they go?', will we?"
Not gonna happen, Raj. The Dems have a fleet of backhoes on retainer. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/25/2008 21:12 Comments ||
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Wow. I just had to slap myself to make sure I wasn't just dreaming this crap up. I can't believe any self-respecting media ... nevermind. Silly illuminati, destorying our country one "story" at a time.
She's now definitely made it to the Big Time! Recognized by Chavez himself.
CARACAS (Reuters) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, renowned for colorful insults of world leaders, called U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin a confused "beauty queen" on Friday after she said he was a dictator. Chavez, a leftist who often mocks U.S. President George W. Bush, invoked the advice of Jesus Christ on how to handle the slights by Palin, the Republican governor of Alaska and a former beauty pageant winner.
"I saw the vice presidential candidate, there she was talking about 'the dictator Hugo Chavez.' The poor thing, you just feel sorry for her," he said during a televised broadcast. "She's a beauty queen that they've pulled out to be a figurehead. We need to say as Christ did: Forgive her, she knows not what she's saying."
The highly popular Chavez, who ousted the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela in September, has described the United States as a decadent empire and has reveled in the U.S. financial crisis. The loquacious leader made headlines in 2006 by calling Bush "the devil" at a United Nations assembly. He also sparked controversy by calling German Chancellor Angela Merkel a political descendant of Adolf Hitler.
#1
So if Governor Palin is a beauty queen, what did he say about Cindy Sheehan?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/25/2008 19:58 Comments ||
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pretty articulate for a Castro handpuppet. Was his mouth moving?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/25/2008 20:34 Comments ||
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Cold, Rambler. Very cold. LOL!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/25/2008 20:49 Comments ||
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"described the United States as a decadent empire" I agree with Chavez on this statement alone...scary, but true. The only time he's made sense. I love how even the left illuminati liberals from other countries are afraid of Palin. Perhaps Chavez will console Obama when the appointed one loses.
Thirteen campaign workers for Barack Obama Thursday yanked their voter registrations and already-cast ballots in Ohio after being warned by a prosecutor that temporary residents can't vote in the battleground state. Earlier in the week, O'Brien spoke with lawyers for both camps and urged them to make sure their staffs met permanent-residency rules, or face possible felony charges.
A dozen staffers - including Obama Ohio spokeswoman Olivia Alair and James Cadogan, who recently joined Team Obama - signed a form letter asking the Franklin County elections board to pull their names from the rolls. The letter - a copy of which was obtained by palestra.net, a Fox News affiliate - came a day after prosecutor Ron O'Brien publicly urged out-of-state campaign workers for both Obama and John McCain to "examine your conscience" before the elections board beings begins opening absentee ballots today.
Also pulling his ballot yesterday was Hofstra University grad Jake Smith, an Obama volunteer who had voted in Knox County, Ohio.
#2
Nationwide? At least 400,000 new registrations are in the system. ACORN just admitted that of the 1.3 million new voters they'd claimed so proudly to have registered for this election, something like one third have been thrown out as invalid, and another one third are people who'd changed addresses or were already registered. We know there are fake ballots already in the system because there are other reports of felony vote fraud cases being prepared. The Ohio Secretary of State claimed that some 200,000 registrations contain errors, but she believes that most are data entry errors. Clearly some are not, but it seems that for the most part it will be blogger legwork that provides enough evidence for actual cases to go forward.
Download new music from members of the Philadelphia Club of the Young Communist League! This particular song, "Will of the People" is a tribute to the movement that has developed around Barack Obama.
#2
I must confess, the groove is catchy in a ho-poppin', big pimpin', ghetto-block-partyin' kind of way.
The lyrics and content, however, represent the pinnacle of sophomoric naivete and detached idealism with no regard for reality or the way the world actually works.
In other words, it's the perfect Obama campaign song!
#3
This could be the new CNN intro music or perhaps Obama will adopt it when he makes an entrance. Good lord its sad when young liberal illuminaties try to think. Perhaps we are pushing them too hard in school. Blah!
"State and local officials are investigating if state and law-enforcement computer systems were illegally accessed when they were tapped for personal information about "Joe the Plumber."
Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher became part of the national political lexicon Oct. 15 when Republican presidential candidate John McCain mentioned him frequently during his final debate with Democrat Barack Obama. The 34-year-old from the Toledo suburb of Holland is held out by McCain as an example of an American who would be harmed by Obama's tax proposals.
Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information on Wurzelbacher's driver's license or his sport-utility vehicle was pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times shortly after the debate.
Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed by accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department. It has not been determined who checked on Wurzelbacher, or why. Direct access to driver's license and vehicle registration information from BMV computers is restricted to legitimate law enforcement and government business.
This is minor compared to Chicago politics ...
Paul Lindsay, Ohio spokesman for the McCain campaign, attempted to portray the inquiries as politically motivated. "It's outrageous to see how quickly Barack Obama's allies would abuse government power in an attempt to smear a private citizen who dared to ask a legitimate question," he said.
Isaac Baker, Obama's Ohio spokesman, denounced Lindsay's statement as charges of desperation from a campaign running out of time. "Invasions of privacy should not be tolerated. If these records were accessed inappropriately, it had nothing to do with our campaign and should be investigated fully," he said.
"Sometime in 2017," he added.
The attorney general's office is investigating if the access of Wuzelbacher's BMV information through the office's Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway computer system was unauthorized, said spokeswoman Jennifer Brindisi. "We're trying to pinpoint where it came from," she said. The investigation could become "criminal in nature," she said. Brindisi would not identify the account that pulled the information on Oct. 16.
Records show it was a "test account" assigned to the information technology section of the attorney general's office, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Thomas Hunter.
Brindisi later said investigators have confirmed that Wurzelbacher's information was not accessed within the attorney general's office. She declined to provide details. The office's test accounts are shared with and used by other law enforcement-related agencies, she said.
On Oct. 17, BMV information on Wurzelbacher was obtained through an account used by the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency in Cleveland, records show. Mary Denihan, spokeswoman for the county agency, said the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services contacted the agency today and requested an investigation of the access to Wurzelbacher's information. Cuyahoga County court records do not show any child-support cases involving Wurzelbacher.
Gee, ya think you got a Obama mole in the child support agency?
The State Highway Patrol, which administers the Law Enforcement Automated Data System in Ohio, asked Toledo police to explain why it pulled BMV information on Wurzelbacher within 48 hours of the debate, Hunter said. The LEADS system also can be used to check for warrants and criminal histories, but such checks would not be reflected on the records obtained by The Dispatch.
Sgt. Tim Campbell, a Toledo police spokesman, said he could not provide any information because the department only had learned of the State Highway Patrol inquiry today.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Troopergate in Ohio? Investigation by Ohio State Legislate? Silly me...... ain't gonna happen.
#4
On Oct. 17, BMV information on Wurzelbacher was obtained through an account used by the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency in Cleveland
Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton has recorded a robo-call campaign message on behalf of Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Bratton, who was scheduled to deliver an address on urban policing at Johns Hopkins University this evening, could not be reached immediately for comment. The message reportedly criticizes the record of Republican Party presidential nominee John McCain on law enforcement issues.
A spokesperson for Bratton confirms that he has recorded the political campaign message but would not provide details of its content or where the Obama campaign plans to use it.
Bratton, one of the country's leading law enforcement figures, was widely seen as a strong supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton during her unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination.
The phone message apparently is the first time Bratton has waded into the campaign on behalf of Obama.
The call is bound to refuel incessant rumors that Bratton is looking to land the top spot at the FBI or Homeland Security in a Democratic administration next year. Bratton has staunchly dismissed the idea, saying he is committed to remaining LAPD chief until the end of his term in 2012.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2008 00:00 ||
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So will we see a Hatch Act investigation of this guy similar to the one launched against the PA sheriff who intro'd Palin?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
"State and local officials are investigating if state and law-enforcement computer systems were illegally accessed when they were tapped for personal information about "Joe the Plumber."
