This is just a quick summary of a couple of articles in the April 1, 2008 Times Union out of Albany, NY.  As oil prices shoot higher and corn/ethanol gets to be more of a commodity for energy than food, it's having effects in places one might not expect, and a larger impact than might be expected.
Port Aims for Ethanol Project

ALBANY -- An ethanol production plant costing up to $350 million and capable of producing 165 million gallons of the corn-based fuel annually is planned for 18 mostly vacant acres at the Port of Albany.

Corn Costs to Drive Other Prices Up

Corn prices have skyrocketed in recent years, helped by the burgeoning ethanol industry, which turns the crop into fuel, and rising worldwide demand for food. The higher prices have affected poultry, beef and pork companies, who use corn to feed their animals.

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The New York Post is running the possibility of Giuliani for NY Governor in a special election this fall.

It seems

In the latest twist in New York politics, Rudy Giuliani is eyeing a run for governor in a special election this fall should Gov. Paterson be forced to resign, sources say.

A top adviser to the former mayor, who pulled the plug on his presidential bid in January, yesterday dangled the possibility of Giuliani's running in a special election

And our NYers might weigh in whether the state GOP sees this as an opportunity to keep pushing. I think forewarned is better than no warning, even if it's speculation. Be very afraid...or pop open a beer and laugh your ass off at Rudy's further political humiliation....

As a New York State Democrat who donated to the Spitzer campaign and volunteered my time to get him elected, I am writing this diary to say:

Stop making excuses for Eliot Spitzer, people. Spitzer brought this disgrace on himself, and he should have known better.

It looks like the New York State senate may flip now or soon after eons of Joe Bruno's Republican control. Good. Bruno is corrupt and his latest effort to save his party as the party of upstate interest over downstate interest couldn't be more divisive. He's pathetic, with his son's no-show job and the stadium with his name outside of Troy.

Problem is, Sheldon Silver, Manhattan democrat who runs the house, is just as bad. He takes clients for his law practice, no disclosure, stops projects on a whim with no explanation and chose a crony to take over the comptroller's office just to show the democratic governor who's boss.

This state is badly run and I don't expect the democrats to improve it.

Despite the fact that we have a two announced candidates to fill the seat of retiring Democratic Congressman Mike McNulty, it appears that the people the media aren't satisfied with a two-way race.  Yesterday, the Times Union blog saw fit to break news that former Assemblyman and current NYSERA president Paul Tonko has taken the giant step forward of...registering domain names on the internets.

I was hoping we were out of the long speculative stage of the race.  But the press doesn't seem to want that, and I think it provides a bit of proof for my earlier theory that progressive Democrats are subject to a media blackout already.  To wit: none of the major media outlets in this area bothered to report when candidates Phil Steck or Tracey Brooks registered their domain names, much less when they actually launched their websites.  This surely means a lot of people are going to be left in agonizing anticipation for Mr. Tonko's imminent announcement...or at least I guess that's we're all supposed to be thinking.

Full coverage and food for thought below the fold for fighting twenty-firsters...

It was nearing winter-time and the incument was not running again.  Both parties saw an opening and the list of possible candidates numbered in the double digits.  A primary was expected and it is still all up in the air...

Alright, enough of my bait-and-switch blogging: this is not about the presidential primary, which is going nuts today.  This is about retiring Democratic Congressman Mike McNulty's seat, the Representative from New York's 21st District, which includes the cities of Albany, Schenectady, Troy, and Amsterdam, and the blend of rural-and-suburban counties inbetween.  Recent press has suggested that a race all-but-forgotten about in the midst of Super Tuesday will likely take shape after those named on the short list conclude their advocacy for president.

MUCH more below the fold for Capital Region Kossacks...

I've just returned from Townsend Park in Downtown Albany.  You could see the Capital Building of the State of New York...if you could see above all the people and the signs and the thick fog of enthusiasm.  I am new to the Obama campaign, having switched from being a staunch Edwards supporter within hours of John's withdrawl.  I can say with absolute certainty that our Senator from New York could very well be in for a big surprise on Super Tuesday.  Check the latest polls from pollster.com for New York.  It's a five-point bump for Obama each week...

I am thankful for John Edward's campaign because it got me involved in the issue.  And while I was saddened by his departure, I saw no reason to waste time.  I drove straight down to the Obama HQ in Albany to sign up and volunteer.  This is an opportunity the Edwards campaign could not afford me, due to a lack of funds.  But John's mark has been made, and his movement now lives on...several of the people I rallied with  were former Edwards supporters.  And as my first rally ever, it was experience I will remember all my life.

For those interested in New York State and NYC politics, I had an interesting evening last night at a fundraiser for Jimmy Dahroug's run for State Senate with Jim Dean as a guest. For those not familiar with NY State politics, our state legislature is among the most dysfunctional in the country. There is a rule that allows many key decisions to be made by only three men: the Assembly Speaker (currently the rather entrenched and lazy Sheldon Silver), the head of the State Senate (currently the very obstructionist and anti-progressive Republican, Joe Bruno, perhaps best known for using state funds to build monuments named after himself) and the governor (now Eliot Spitzer). Democrat Eliot Spitzer and Lazy Democrat Sheldon Silver have been trying to enact actual legislation, which often passes the Assembly. This is an improvement over the Pataki regime when BOTH then governor Pataki AND Joe Bruno would block real legislation. But Joe Bruno is still there trying to keep things blocked up in Albany, like a constipated patient. The Republicans hold only a two seat majority in the State Senate. Two seats. Last night I met Jimmy Dahroug and came away convinced he can win in 2008.

My friend Dan asked me to post a link to an exclusive report on his blog,
http://www.albanyweblog.com/
about the seat opening up in NY-21 with the announced retirement of Mike McNulty at the end of his present term. The seat, based in Albany County, is as blue as the sky: the constituents are divided between old line machine Dems dating back to the Dan O'Connell/Erastus Corning era, now led by Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, and a growing progressive movement that defeated the machine to elect David Soares Albany County DA. McNulty, having reversed his position on Bush's Iraq war from kneejerk support to passionate opposition, has had support from both camps.

McNulty himself was elected by one man, one vote - that one man was Leo O'Brien, then head of the machine.  The incumbent, Sam Stratton, announced his decision not to seek re-election after the filing deadline for the Dem primary, so O'Brien simply appointed McNulty to be the Dem candidate, tantamount to election.  

Dan was hobnobbing with some of the prominent area progressive Dems  when the incumbent State Senator, Neil Breslin, told him "...If all goes well, I'm looking at an anouncement in two or three weeks."  

The topic below was originally posted in  my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal as well as the Independent Bloggers Alliance, The Peace Tree, The Wild Wild Left and Worldwide Sawdust

Erastus Corning 2nd was elected mayor of Albany, New York eleven times, serving forty-two consecutive years, an unsurpassed tenure in American political history. Even before birth, Corning's destiny as Albany's "mayor for life" was scripted.

Primaries in New York are Tuesday. In Albany County, there are a dozen primaries for the County Legislature , a hot mayoral race in Cohoes, and an increasingly nasty fight for County Comptroller. I've already written here about Patricia Slavick, the party's and my choice. Interestingly, she's not the incumbent. That's Mike Conners. His father was a well regarded local political figure for years. He's nutty.

He never criticizes Republicans. He loves to criticize Democrats and then beat his chest about how independent he is.

Easy. Support a rock solid Democrat who's a financial professional. Or support someone who endorses Republicans and takes a $ half million to run as a Republican for State Senate, loses, and re-enrolls as a Democrat. The easy choice this time is the right choice. Choose the real Democrat.

I know this isn't really a state politics site, but there are so many New Yorkers who post here, that I am curious to know everyone's take on the Eliot Spitzer situation.  Yes, my diary title is probably objectionable to some.  Bruno isn't exactly smelling like a rose either, and the whole thing stinks.  But what else do you call it when a governor who swept into office riding mainly on an image of ethical reform and "law and order" winds up embroiled in an embarrassing scandal that gets uglier by the hour?  (For those not up to date on what's going on, here's a link to today's developments.)

(Cross-Posted at Upstate Blue)

News just broke from The Times Union Local Politics blog that the long controversial New Covenant Charter School in Albany, New York will be closing at the end of the current academic year. New Covenant, like many other charter schools across the state, has long dealt with severe academic and financial performance issues.

      While the countdown to the inevitable pardon has started, Scooter Libby's conviction on multiple counts of perjury and obstruction of justice is being portrayed as the work of an overzealous prosecutor by the right wing.  Forget that neither the facts nor the law support Libby's case. Forget that Libby never dared take the stand in his own defense. Poor little Scooter has been railroaded and should be pardoned. Or so the outraged right wing would have it.
     Where they ask, is a conviction for revealing the identity of a CIA agent? Where are indictments of the other people who were also dropping her name all over the place?. How come there's no investigation of just who started them off?  It's kind of a Catch 22; on the one hand they argue that Scooter should have been charged with the 'real' crime if he was going to be charged at all while on the other they try to pretend it was not that big a deal.
     If the FBI NSL abuses didn't do it, if the US Attorney firings didn't do it, if all the other things didn't do it, there's still one story that demonstrates the Right Wing does not believe in the rule of law. Nope, for them the justice system is just a tool to strike at their enemies and shield their friends - a political weapon. (more)

When Maureen O'Connell was told to run for the New York State Senate, she took it seriously.
O'Connell is running from her party name, running from her State Assembly record, running from the other republican State Senators and seemingly running against them.

Cross-posted at The Albany Project.

New York's State Legislature is the most dysfunctional in the nation.  This is not hyperbole.  This is fact.  

In an exhaustive 56 page study, The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law illustrated in depressing detail how truly F-ed up our State's Senate and Assembly have become.

The entire study can be read here.  (warning: pdf).

The short version - individual rank and file legislators have no power.  Senate and Assembly committees have no power and serve no purpose.  Everything, and I mean everything, is decided unilaterally by the State Senate leader, Joseph Bruno, and the State Assembly leader, Sheldon Silver.  And it's all done secretly.  Simply put, the old Soviet Union's Politburo was more of a Democratic institution than the New York State Legislature.

For a few more details, here are some of the report's findings:

      Yesterday a verdict was rendered in a government case against two men in upstate New York. The Albany Times Union has the story. (Shorter version at the NY Times, which made an effort to post scary photos of the defendants along with the story.)

      ALBANY -- Two Muslim immigrants who were targeted in an FBI sting were convicted on Tuesday of charges they supported terrorism by taking part in a fictitious plot to launder money from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile.
     The case had galvanized the area's Muslim-American community, many of whom accused the FBI of using a manipulative and underhanded informant to unfairly target two hardworking immigrants who had no criminal history or direct links to any terrorist figures.

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