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You’ve got to hand it to the Democratic Party here in New York State.  In keeping up with modern times the Dems have created their very own version of ‘Reality TV.’  You won’t be able to find what you’ve missed in the Democrat & Chronicle though.  They seem to be more interested in helping David Gantt run for re-election than reporting on what potential illegal activity is taking place at the highest levels of state government.

The New York Sun reported yesterday that newly minted NY Governor David Paterson did indeed use taxpayer dollars for unnecessary hotel stays near the capital, even though he only lives 11 miles away and has a state provided chauffeur to drive him around.  Paterson tossed former political colleague and ally, disgraced Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer, under the bus claiming that it was due to the demanding former Governor that Paterson needed to stay close by for the grueling schedule Spitzer forced then Lt. Gov. Paterson to keep pace with.

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Tags: Articles, David Paterson, Mr. Peabody by Mr. Peabody
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The D&C is reporting that the Appellate Division’s Fourth Department found in favor of the Monroe County School Board Association’s lawsuit it brought against the County’s FAIR Plan.  As you know, the intention of the FAIR Plan was to utilize collected sales tax revenues to pay for Monroe County’s increasing Medicaid costs prior to distributing the remaining funding the County shares with local school districts across Monroe County, except for the Rochester City School District, which would not have been impacted by the move. 

The County chose this course of action to pay for mandated welfare costs instead of increasing property taxes on homeowners.  But the Rochester Democratic Assembly Delegation (David Gantt, Susan John, David Koon & Joe Morelle) made it clear they would not allow Monroe County to raise its sales tax a penny to pay these costs.  Their resistance was meant to force Monroe County to raise property taxes on us homeowners instead.

Well, if the local Assembly Dems and democrats in the County Legislature have their way, we property taxpayers will foot the bill for these increased welfare costs.  I don’t know about you, but as a member of middle class I just can’t take another hit.  At least with the sales tax I could control my purchases.  Will my school district retract their huge proposed tax increase now that they don’t need the money?  Doubt it.  They’ll find another reason to need it “for the kids.”

Monroe County says it will appeal.  I hope to God they do or New York is losing two more people who are among the decreasing number helping to foot the bill.

Tags: Articles, David Gantt, David Koon, Democrat and Chronicle, Joe Morelle, Maggie Brooks, Mr. Peabody, Susan John by Mr. Peabody
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This afternoon, U.S. Congressman Tom Reynolds announced his retirement today to the residents of the Monroe County portion of his district.  He shared that one of the reasons for making the decision was his wish to spend more time with his family, namely his two grandchildren whom he says he rarely has the opportunity to see due to his position. 

Hopefully, you can still watch this video from 13WHAM for coverage on the Reynolds press conference here in Monroe County.

Earlier in the day, Reynolds made the announcement at a fire hall in the Buffalo area.

No one can deny that serving in elected office does indeed place a strain on a person’s family life, especially at the national level.  I don’t know many people that could handle this, or that would even want to.  The time spent away from your loved ones while you’re away.  Even when you’re back home, you’re still traveling across a large district meeting with groups of people and attending community events.  It’s easy to criticize these people and treat them like they’re not regular people, but they had everyday lives before they got into public service.  Walk a mile in their shoes.

I personally think Reynolds was going to have another tough election this year.  Last time he ran, the Democrat organization sunk to one of their lows in trying to smear mud on him in the form of the inappropriate actions of another congressman.  If the Democrats forced Reynolds to be “his brother’s keeper” back then, then the Democrats had better be prepared to make the same apologies for their top dog, the disgraced former Democratic Governor of NY Eliot Spitzer.  I seem to recall that it was Republicans who shouted the loudest for the resignations of both individuals.

To Reynold’s credit, he made the trip to Monroe County to let his constituents here, know of his intentions to retire.  Many others would very well have made their announcement close to home and called it a day, leaving the media to spread it across the district.  This speaks volumes to Reynold’s character.  He spent more time in EVERY portion of his district than Louise Slaughter ever did.  People in Greece, for example, will tell you that they saw Reynolds in town more during his first year representing them than they did, or have, Louise is all her many years.  Does anyone even know that she still represents a portion of north Greece?  Of course not.

And Reynolds delivered big time to the communities in western Monroe.  Funding we here at Monroerising.com doubt we’ll ever see here again if one of the Buffalo Democrats win this seat.  At least we know that state Senator George Maziarz (mentioned as a possible candidate for the seat) would care about us here.  He currently represents western Monroe towns and portions of the City of Rochester as part of his Senate district.  IMO, we’ll never see that with one of the Buffalo Dems.

Bottom line, Congressman Reynolds is a stand up guy who despite the nasty and malicious attacks made against him by the Democrat machine, truly cared about his constituents and his district.  Even in his retirement, the Dems still feel the need to smear him and his name for their own political gain.

Tom, if you happen to read this, we at Monroerising.com thank you for your many years of elected service to your constituents, we thank you for your hard work and personal sacrifice, and we wish you and your family the very best as you go back to having a normal, personal, family life.  Godspeed.

Tags: Articles, Federal Officials, Mr. Peabody by Mr. Peabody
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Numerous media outlets are reporting that Governor Elliot Spitzer, under federal investigation for money laundering, human trafficking and soliciting the services of a prostitute, will very well announce his resignation today.  It is widely reported that the Governor and his legal team are negotiating with federal investigators to exchange his elected position and possibly his law license for a much reduced sentence as part of his conviction.

The NY Times reported this morning that Governor Spitzer’s aides leaked to them that the Governor’s wife, Silda Spitzer is urging Governor to not resign his position.

Not only does Governor Spitzer completely humiliate his wife by having her stand by his side while he tells the media and the citizens of New York that basically he does not deny any of the rumors and charges against him, he is now using her “support” as a reason for possibly refusing to resign amidst this scandal.

Where is NOW to help and stand up for this poor woman during this horrible time in her life.

If they don’t come out to defend her, they lose what little shred of credibility they had left in serving as an organization created to support women.

Tags: Articles, Elliot Spitzer, Mr. Peabody by Mr. Peabody
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Elliot Spitzer did not deny that he was involved with a high priced prostitution ring.  This basically means one thing, Elliot Spitzer very well broke the law and engaged in sexual acts with a prostitute.  The New York Times is now reporting that Spitzer was identified as Client #9 in a federal wiretapping investigation into The Emperors Club VIP, an expensive prostitution service that charged between $1000-$5000 an hour. 

Here is a snipet from the article:

The man described as Client 9 in court papers arranged to meet with a prostitute who was part of the ring, Emperors Club VIP, on the night of Feb. 13. Mr. Spitzer traveled to Washington that evening, according to a person told of his travel arrangements.

The affidavit says that Client 9 met with the woman in hotel room 871 but does not identify the hotel. Mr. Spitzer stayed at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington on Feb. 13, according to a source who was told of his travel arrangements. Room 871 at the Mayflower Hotel that evening was registered under the another name.

Here is a link to Spitzer’s statement at the press conference as well as some additional reporting.

And the actual statement here:

Over the past nine years, eight as attorney general and one as governor, I’ve tried to uphold a vision of progressive politics that would rebuild New York and create opportunity for all. We vowed to bring real change to New York and that will continue. Today, I want to briefly address a private matter. I have acted in a way that violated the obligations to my family and that violates my — or any — sense of right and wrong. I apologize first, and most importantly, to my family. I apologize to the public, to whom I promised better. I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas, the public good and doing what is best for the State of New York. But I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard that I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family. I will not be taking questions. Thank you very much. I will report back to you in short order. Thank you very much.

In the audio, you can clearly here a reporter asking him to actually make the apology to his wife who was standing next to him at the press event.

In addition, reports are stating that Governor Spitzer had an account with The Emperors Club VIP and actually still owed on the account.  The federal complaint includes the taped conversation between “Client #9″ and the prostitute setting up the specifics for the encounter at a Washington D.C. hotel on February 13th.  News reporters are now asking about Spitzer’s money trail and how he made payments to The Emperors Club VIP.  Also noted are supposed e-mails regarding interaction between Spitzer and the club.

We had heard that Spitzer was going to announce his resignation at the press conference.  That didn’t happen, but word around the capital is that this may indeed still take place.  Some are intimating that it may have already, but quietly, occurred and that another announcement may take place later today or tomorrow. 

We’ll continue to keep you posted on any breaking events with regards to this story.

Tags: Articles, Elliot Spitzer, Mr. Peabody by Mr. Peabody
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The NY Times broke the story and CNN is reporting now that Governor Elliott Spitzer is about to hold a press conference discussing his involvement in a prostitution ring.

Oddly enough, he’s running late for his press conference which was supposed to start at 2:15 PM today.

We’ll keep you posted with more details.

Tags: Articles, Elliot Spitzer, Mr. Peabody by Mr. Peabody
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We at Monroerising.com have served in the unfortunate role of reporting on how bad Elliott “I’m a F***ing Steamroller” Spitzer’s proposed budget will be for the Rochester area and Upstate New York. 

Sadly, our local media has been mostly lackluster in it’s reporting on Spitzer’s cuts to the Rochester community.  Since the NYS Budget is such an important issue, I’m going to focus my attention here for the next few weeks.

We’ll begin our “Elliott Spitzer’s Budget Hurts… (fill in the blank)” series with a look at it’s impact on local taxpayers. 

First, let’s recap coverage we’ve reported and seen about school Funding.

“Elliott Spitzer’s Budget Hurts Schools and Children”

Prudence reported earlier on Spitzer’s $21 million in cuts to all of the school districts in Monroe County and the City of Rochester, just so he could funnel our funding to New York City.  So far, we’ve found that only State Senator Joe Robach has held a press conference calling on the Governor to restore these cuts to our schools.  Last year, Spitzer and the state legislature passed a 4-year school aid bill that provided a stable school aid funding formula for schools across all of New York State. 

Then, less than 1 year later, Spitzer throws the formula out the window and cuts the funding to all of the schools… well… not quite all of them.  Instead of cutting all schools across the board, Spitzer cuts the funding for all schools, except New York City.  Spitzer’s budget actually takes the funding he cut to everyone else (including all Monroe County and City of Rochester schools) and redirects it to NYC.  Apparently, Rochester’s high needs school districts don’t matter to Spitzer.

“Elliott Spitzer’s Budget Hurts Local Taxpayers”

The New York State Association of Counties points out how Spitzer’s budget will harm local taxpayers throughout New York.  But, instead of working to lessen burden he’s placing on these Counties, Spitzer is having his people basically call them all liars.  

County Executive Maggie Brooks is also taking on King Spitzer for cuts he’s making to Monroe County.  On a side note, I have to laugh at the 1 or 2 forum comments on the D&C article from people who believe Monroe County taxpayers deserve Spitzer’s funding cuts.  Who in their right mind would say we deserve what he’s doing to us?  They must be from New York City or as I like to call it - The Land of Plenty… of OUR Tax Dollars!

Stay tuned to find out who gets hurt by Spitzer’s Budget next.

Tags: Articles, Elliot Spitzer, Mr. Peabody, NYS Budget by Mr. Peabody
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A frequent visitor to Monroerising.com sent us a link to the above announcement from News 10 NBC (Thanks for the e-mail!  Glad you’re enjoying the site.)  Unfortunately, if you click on the link, www.whec.com - News 10 NBC Forum removed it no longer brings you to the story.  We’re not sure if Channel 10’s intention was to just have it serve as a one-day story announcement from Monday, March 3rd, or if the issue is back on the table for discussion.

Either way, I was able to read the link once while it still connected to the story (sorry for not getting this up sooner), but I’ll admit that I’m paraphrasing from my poor short term memory.  News 10 NBC basically stated that due to what they believed to be a number of inappropriate comments made by some posters on various stories, they felt that they could no longer support a comment section on their website and had made the decision to remove their forum.

Feel free to debate whether you believe this to be a good or bad decision on the station’s part, whether it’s a 1st Amendment infringement, or if you really could care less - but while I feel that online media forums serve a purpose (from allowing the public to debate an issue, to challenge the media outlet’s reporting, or to just vent their frustrations) I’d like to take a moment to at least review this station’s response to what they believe where, at times, out of control comments from anonymous posters that do cross a line with blatantly malicious intentions.

Wherever you fall in this discussion, I’m sure the vast majority of us would at the very least acknowledge that certain comments, words or phrasing, do not truly belong in such a public forum.  Just yesterday, Evan Dawson, who runs 13WHAM’s forum, had to reprimand a poster who made a very aggressive statement in a post that in any other venue just might have gotten this person a visit from his or her friendly neighborhood policeofficer.

While I’m not sure about the decision, I’ll give credit to News 10 NBC for at least addressing this problem.  More and more I wish the Democrat & Chronicle would do the same.  Kudos to their Community blog leaders who will interject themselves to try to bring discussion back to civility, but the storychats are often times a vicious free-for-all.  But hey, they’re trying to sell website advertising, so drawing viewers in to watch all the nasty forum fights must be worth it to them.

Tags: Articles, Democrat and Chronicle, Mr. Peabody, The Media by Mr. Peabody
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13WHAM TV Reporter Sean Carroll broke the story tonight that several sources have informed him that 29th District Congressional Representative Randy Kuhl will indeed seek re-election to his seat.  Here’s a snippet from Carroll’s piece:

At least four Republican sources now tell me that Congressman Randy Kuhl (R-29th) is going to announce Friday that he will seek re-election.  This comes as rumors swirl that the second term Congressman from the Southern Tier will retire at the end of his current term.

Rumors as to Congressman Kuhl’s re-election intentions have been running rampant lately.  But if Carroll is proven to be correct, it means two things:

1. Sean Carroll, a relatively new reporter in the Rochester area, is really getting his ear to the ground and is quickly making a name for himself in Monroe County and the surrounding communities.

2. The political rumor mills are about as trustworthy as a grade school grapevine; a ladies’ sewing circle; or a men’s corner barbershop.

Regardless of Congressman Kuhl’s final decision, this is some darn good in-the-trenches reporting from Carroll and the folks over at 13WHAM.

Tags: Articles, Federal Officials, Mr. Peabody by Mr. Peabody
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This story was in the Democrat & Chronicle today about Greece resident and Army 1st Lieutenant Robert Burke who returned home after being wounded in action while fighting in Iraq. 

There’s really nothing more to add other than a resounding “Thank You” to Lt. Burke.  Thank you for your selfless and dedicated service to our country.

Our sincerest and heartfelt wishes for your continued recovery.

Welcome home!

Tags: Articles, Mr. Peabody by Mr. Peabody
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