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Politics Idle

Museum of Political Corruption Planned For New York (npr.org) 97

Posted by samzenpus from the you-may-bribe-me-now dept.
McGruber writes: In Albany, NY, Bruce Roter has secured approval to build the Museum of Political Corruption, dedicated to the state's long history of scandal. In the last decade alone, more than 30 state officeholders have either been accused or convicted of wrongdoing. On Monday, the former Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, was found guilty of taking nearly 4 million dollars in bribes and kickbacks. He was convicted on charges of conspiracy, fraud and extortion. The former Senate majority leader continues to face separate corruption charges in court. "I tell people, quite frankly, I want to institutionalize corruption," Roter says. "I want to put it in this museum. I want it to be laughed at, and I want people to learn about it." New York leads the list of states Americans view as having the most political corruption, according to a poll by New Jersey's Monmouth University.
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Museum of Political Corruption Planned For New York More

Museum of Political Corruption Planned For New York

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  • NY, NJ, ILL (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Spy Handler ( 822350 ) on Wednesday December 02, 2015 @03:29PM (#51043949) Homepage Journal

    Aside from having the most corrupt politicians in the country, what else do these states have in common?

    • Off the top of my head: cold winders, mass transit, sea access, toll roads, multiple airports, heavy industry, terrible traffic, high populations, a comic combination of absolute nature against urban decay, rich people, poor people, middle class people, ferry boats, busses, skyscrapers, donald trump ownership of major buildings, a history of mafia, grown men who go by the names "vinnie", "joey", "paulie" or "frankie", strong unions, history of worker exploitation, heavy immigrant populations, ....

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Same as Pennsylvania, Michigan and California. Major cities with high populations and completely selfish governance (New Jersey has a significant collateral effect from New York and Philadelphia). If you look at the nature and self-identification of the governance in those major cities, you will probably notice a trend, but I leave that as an exercise for the reader.

    • Lots of gun control laws. :p

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by amiga3D ( 567632 )

      Prosecutors that attack corruption. A very valuable commodity. Sadly in the Federal government corruption is glossed over and ignored or even rewarded. I congratulate New York for their stance against corruption.

      • Ha! NYS' stand against corruption? Sure, as long as it's someone else's corruption. Best not look too closely at Cuomo. He might shut your commission down:http://nypost.com/2015/05/31/preet-bharara-creeps-closer-to-cuomo-with-latest-indictment/

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by guises ( 2423402 )
      NY, NJ, and ILL do not have the most corrupt politicians in the country, they're just populous enough that you hear about it when their politicians go bad. Mining companies essentially own Idaho and Montana, so much that Montana had a law specifically trying to reign that in (removed by the Citizens United decision [washingtonpost.com]).

      Really, if you accept corruption as a given, the fact that people still hear about it and get up in arms over it in some places should be a little encouraging - those people aren't so beaten

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      I've looked up the methodologies used to rank states by corruption; and it's more complicated than you'd think at first.

      The top six states by the number of convicted officials (the most commonly used ranking metric) are in order: New York, California, Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania, then Texas. Note carefully, however, that the top six states by population are in order: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. It's no surprise that by raw number of convictions that New York tops t

    • From another commenter: "Things get a bit more interesting when you look at convicted officials per capita. Then the top five corrupt states are, in order: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alaska, South Dakota, then North Dakota. So the states with the most corruption convictions per capita are small-to-middle sized states"

      Aside from having the most corrupt politicians per capita in the country, what else do these states have in common? If you look at the nature and self-identification of the governance, you may not

    • Wow $4 million for the former Speaker. In RI our last Speaker of the House is serving a federal prison term for accepting a $50,000 bribe but not reporting it to the IRS.
  • Where is the money for this coming from?

    • From a government grant of course!

    • Where is the money for this coming from?

      From bribes.

      No, seriously. Follow the first link in the summary.

      Well okay, they're better known as donations and admission fees. The museum-creators are calling them bribes for fun.

    • >> Where is the money for this coming from?

      The Clinton Global Initiative?

  • ... from the U.N. building that they already have?

  • Chicago (Score:5, Funny)

    by WrongWay ( 26772 ) on Wednesday December 02, 2015 @03:40PM (#51044019)

    Chicago paid them to put it in NY..

    • $12.50 to get in?!? At those prices, it makes more sense to bribe the doorman to let you in on the down low.

  • "accused or convicted" (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    > more than 30 state officeholders have either been accused or convicted
    Because those two are totally equivalent, right?

  • Please, please, please have a banquet/meeting space called Tammany Hall. That would be awesome.

  • ...finds NY with the most corruption? I wonder how New Jersey managed to put the shade on New York, given their own history?

  • The Smithsonian should open up a National Museum of Political Corruption right on the Mall in Washington D.C, between the Capitol and the White House. There is plenty of source material there, and more coming daily. Maybe some public shaming would actually get these twits to...oh, I don't know, WORK FOR THE PEOPLE!
    • I thought that was called K Street.
      • Eff K Street, I want this museum right in the middle of the Mall, facing the Capitol Building. I want it lit up at night, with a screen illuminated with the name of the latest political scumbag to get caught shown in 20 ft tall letters. I want the astronauts on the ISS to see this building from orbit.

  • <meme>Yo dawg!</meme>

    • Well, they considered Chicago but those folks are too mired in the details to be impartial about exhibits.

  • Don't they already have this building? I believe it goes by the name "City Hall"

  • Just put docents and exhibits in the NY capital building. No need for a separate museum.

  • Shouldn't it be in Chicago?

  • Doomed To Fail (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    New York state has an area of 54,555 square miles. That's not nearly enough area for such a museum.

  • Note that Washington DC is listed as #6 in "perceived political corruption" among US States.

    DC is not a State.

  • "I tell people, quite frankly, I want to institutionalize corruption," Roter says. "I want to put it in this museum. I want it to be laughed at, and I want people to learn about it."

    So let me get this straight. A state in our union has been identified as having so much corruption in its past and present that you want to enshrine this activity in a fucking museum so we can laugh at it, while getting fucked over by the results of this corruption.

    Quite frankly, I'd rather we create laws strong enough to actually deter corrupt fuckers from repeatedly getting rich off it and walking away with a slap in the wrist if they get caught. It's clear we haven't learned a fucking thing from his

    • Why not? There is a Creationist museum. Where you can laugh at the follies of people who have an imaginary friend while at the same time having your laws being fucked up by them regardless.

  • Corruption is written into law:

    6. To accept, hold and enjoy gifts, donations and bequests on behalf of the Department from the United States government and agencies and instrumentalities thereof, and any other source, subject to the approval of the Governor. To these ends, the Director shall have the power to comply with such conditions and execute such agreements as may be necessary, convenient or desirable, consistent with applicable standards and goals of the Board;

    In other words, you want a Bahamas beach house to let our corp provide overprices phones/commissary/medical care to inmates? It is legal!

    This is from Virginia code 53.1: http://law.lis.virginia.gov/va... [virginia.gov]

  • Here's something you can put in a display at the Museum of Political Corruption:

    https://www.opensecrets.org/or... [opensecrets.org]

    • You're surprised that an organization that is pro-gun doesn't given many donations to politicians in the party that is largely anti-gun? Please explain how that's any indication of corruption.

      Would you also consider this corruption: https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/toprecips.php?id=D000000083&cycle=2014 [opensecrets.org].

      The NRA doesn't even crack the top 50 [opensecrets.org] in terms of money spent and looking at that list, most of the top organizations given heavily to one party or the other. Only 7 of the 50 are shaded gray and h

      • Would you also consider this corruption:

        Of course. My example just happened to be more topical, given the fact that another jackoff(s) with guns shot up a bunch of social workers in a center for the disabled today in San Bernadino.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tsotha ( 720379 )
      The power the NRA brings to Washington isn't money - your Congressman wouldn't lift a finger for these kinds of piddly sums.

      • The power the NRA brings to Washington isn't money - your Congressman wouldn't lift a finger for these kinds of piddly sums.

        You write a $20,000 check to your congressman, he'll take your calls.

        You tell your congressman you'll spend $1,000,000 to defeat him if he doesn't vote the way you want, and he'll suck your dick. Then vote the way you want.

  • Fascinating article [city-journal.org] over at City [city-journal.org] detailing how Silver's legislative agenda was to support corrupt government because he benefited from corruption personally, including this nugget:

    Silver thought the people’s money was his money. For years, he helped lead a regime in which legislators from both parties received millions of dollars to distribute as “earmarks”—money handed out directly by elected officials to favored organizations outside of the state’s regular contracting or gran

  • "Museum of Politicians" is sufficient.
  • Eh? They should have just mothballed city hall.

  • I read it as we're about to get a museum for political CORRECTNESS. For a moment I was happy, thinking we finally put that crap in a museum and be done with it.

  • So who did they have to pay off to get this approved? ;)
  • Is 1005 respondents to the poll sufficient for so many conclusions about 50 states and 3 political variations (R, D, and I)? The report offers NO margins of errors. It's just useless buzz.
  • That would require leveling 3/4 of the city for the NYPD wing.

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