Three Men in a Room
That’s right. The rules for a more open government are being negotiated secretly by Mr. Cuomo; Dean Skelos, the Senate majority leader; and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
Mr. Skelos and Mr. Silver have helped pass a few modest reform efforts over the years, but they always manage to avoid fundamental change. One of the biggest gaps is the weak disclosure requirements for legislators’ outside businesses. Outside income is listed, but only in wide ranges, and even that isn’t disclosed to the public. The 45 members who are lawyers are not required to reveal clients even if they do business with the state. That includes Mr. Skelos and Mr. Silver, both of whom are affiliated with high-powered law firms.
Newsday reported that Senator Skelos’s firm has $1.75 billion in contracts with state agencies and public authorities. Mr. Skelos denies any conflict, but how can we know? We have no idea whether Mr. Silver’s firm has business with the state. We hope in his tête-à-têtes, Mr. Cuomo is pushing disclosure hard.
Campaign finance laws need to be a lot tougher (no more $500 fines) and they need to be enforced. The state needs public campaign financing, starting with the comptroller’s office. The reform law should also create an independent ethics commission — not an in-house cop — to oversee both the governor’s office and the Legislature. As Mr. Cuomo is fond of saying, self-policing is an oxymoron. We hope he’s making that case in his private meetings.
Reform must also include the creation of a nonpartisan redistricting commission to end the gerrymandering that all but ensures re-election for nearly every legislative incumbent, no matter how incompetent or venal.
State Senator Michael Gianaris and Mr. Silver — both Democrats — are pushing a sensible law proposed by the governor last month. Mr. Skelos and his Republican caucus are trying to slither out of their campaign promises on redistricting reform by pushing for one that could not possibly take effect until 2022. Talk about a fake.
There is no time to waste. The 2010 census numbers are in and the 2012 election is just 19 months away.
Mr. Cuomo could move things forward if he reminded legislators of his campaign vow to veto any politically skewed maps. That would send the redistricting to the courts and a special master. With an independent commission the Legislature would still have input — choosing some members and voting on the commission’s maps.
Mr. Cuomo has also vowed that if the Legislature fails to adopt real reform, he will take matters into his own hands and create a Moreland Act Commission to investigate legislative abuses. Some Albany hands suggest that this 104-year-old law doesn’t allow the governor to investigate the Legislature, but Mr. Cuomo could still threaten to hold hearings, subpoena witnesses and generally embarrass legislators for their wayward or even illegal ways.
It may come to that. But Mr. Cuomo could increase his chances of success if all New Yorkers — not just three men in a room — could see working drafts of an ethics bill. Voters are rightly fed up with Albany. They are the governor’s best allies for real reform.
How Much of a Threat?
Thousands of Japanese citizens are dead or missing after last month’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, hundreds of thousands have lost their homes and Japan’s government and power company are still struggling to control three badly damaged nuclear power reactors.
As part of that struggle, authorities have been venting limited amounts of radioactive water into the ocean and radioactive gases into the air, and leaks exacerbated by explosions have spewed radioactive materials. People in Japan and in this country are rightly concerned. But, as of now, potential health risks appear to be limited in Japan and virtually nonexistent in the United States.
We stress “as of now.” Operators have still not been able to restore emergency cooling systems for the reactor cores and spent fuel pools. Nuclear fuel could still melt and release huge amounts of radioactive materials. Aftershocks pose a continuing threat. But the radioactive material that has been released so far — deliberately or accidentally — seems too small to pose a present danger.
Top officials from American health agencies said this week that Americans are in no danger from the trace amounts of radiation being detected in this country’s air, water or food supplies. Thomas Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said emphatically: “There is no threat to health in the U.S. from radiation coming from Japan.”
That means there is no reason for anyone here to take potassium iodide pills or any nostrums being peddled as protective. The Food and Drug Administration is testing food imports from Japan for traces of radiation just to be safe, and the Japanese government is banning or monitoring various food exports before they leave that country.
In Japan, the biggest radiation doses have hit workers within the plant. Beyond the plant boundaries, small amounts of radioactive material have fallen on land, but not enough to be an immediate health hazard. Much bigger amounts of radiation have been detected just off shore, although the levels appear to be diminishing and a major leak has been plugged.
The ocean should disperse and dilute radioactive materials to safe levels. However, a fish caught dozens of miles away from the plant was found to contain high levels of radioactive iodine, showing the potential for radiation to concentrate in marine life. Officials in Japan and around the globe will need to keep monitoring the air and water and the fish supply for many months, if not longer.
Cue the Obama Money Bundlers
President Obama’s campaign machine is telling its chief money raisers to go all out in the big-dollar political art called bundling. The goal is to enlist 400 or more bundlers — specialists in packaging contributions from deep-pocketed supporters — to pledge to raise $700,000 each for the 2012 campaign.
The high-stakes preparation reported by Politico is not surprising as Republicans bolster their war chests. But the president’s bid for hundreds of millions in private support should make voters wonder whatever happened to his 2008 pledge — after he spurned public financing — to repair the less-corrupting and less-expensive public system created in the wake of Watergate.
There is no question that the 1976 subsidy formula needs updating to reflect inflation and the higher cost of campaigning. The White House has not pushed Congress to tackle the problem. But some House Democrats have a good proposal and there are plans for one by Senate Democrats. They dearly need the president’s vocal support. Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans are determined to kill off public financing. While the White House has issued statements of opposition, there’s been no ringing promise of a veto, should the G.O.P. prevail.
In the 2008 campaign, Mr. Obama reaped a windfall in small Internet donations, declaring, “We have created a parallel public financing system” to challenge “the wealthy and the powerful” who buy political influence. This time around, the president clearly wants to have it both ways by galvanizing bundlers and their wealthy and powerful friends as much as small Internet donors.
This is not surprising considering the Republicans’ expected edge in unlimited corporate donations that the Supreme Court has now invited with the Citizens United decision. Mr. Obama rightly denounced that ruling. His convictions would be a lot more credible if he were also pushing to reform and revive the public financing option.The Vocal Stylings of New York City Transit
New York City is a very up close and personal sort of place. But we’ve been struck recently by the number of automated voices we hear. Commuters, in particular, travel to the backdrop of those voices. The accents often sound homegrown. But there is often something just slightly, deliciously off.
Some of the voices, speaking from on high, are computer-created, grafting individually spoken words together. This is the kind you hear on the West 86th Street subway platform. “There IS ... a DOWNtown ONE train apPROACHing the STAtion” — a recognizably human, male voice speaking with decidedly nonhuman articulation.
Catch the shuttle at 42nd Street, and you hear a male voice speaking an entire sentence instead of patched-together words. The voice is deep, almost Barry White in pitch, and rich in personality. “The next train arrives on track three ... baby,” it seems to say, as if to assure you that this is the big time, so why not be cool about it?
At Grand Central a voice descends from the ceiling zodiac offering self-guided tours of the station: “You may be surprised at what you learn.” This is the antithesis of the shuttle voice, higher in pitch, with a Wouldn’t-it-be-swell? lilt. Listen closely, and you realize it is the voice of a young New York father explaining to his daughter, on Christmas morning, why a bicycle is much more practical than a pony.
Then comes the long ride up the Harlem Line on Metro-North, the train saying at each station, “THIS is the TRAIN to Southeast,” as if it were saying, “MY name is BOB.” The stations pass one after another, each one announced with professional assurance. All but one, that is. After Croton Falls comes “BREWster!!,” which the train says as if in gleeful answer to the question, “What goes cock-a-doodle do?”
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