(continued of Page 3)

Albany Activists Seek Investigation

Before the much anticipated transfer of sovereignty back to Iraq occurred, Washington had already begun turning its attention to the other two countries in Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’, namely Iran and North Korea, and their persistence in acquiring nuclear technology. However, resolving the nuclear standoff with either of those two countries may present fresh challenges for America. After going to war ostensibly to prevent Iraq from acquiring weapons of mass destruction, the United States is now seeking UN support for sanctions against Iraq’s neighbor, Iran, after that country’s announcement that they will resume construction of centri-fuges, a component critical to the production of nuclear material. Centrifuges are used to enrich the uranium or plutonium to make it fuel grade, or potentially bomb grade material. According to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi, Iran’s interest in nuclear technology is for peaceful pur-poses only. “We have been very clear about this so there is nothing to worry about. What we are looking for is the peaceful use of atomic tech-nology, which is in fact our basic right” he said. An extension of the United Na-tions, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitors atomic technology and prolifera-tion worldwide, and is responsible for verifying that Iran is comply-ing with international treaties on

nuclear non-proliferation. “The international community is urgently seeking assurance from the agency that Iran’s pro-gram is exclusively for a peaceful purpose,” according to Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the IAEA. A recent resolution from the IAEA indicates that Iran has been cooperating with the IAEA on granting inspectors access to nu-clear sites. However, the same resolution finds that “Iran’s coop-eration has not been as full, timely and proactive as it should have been.” Iran has been building a nuclear facility with help from Russia that may be operational by next year. The announcement from Iran that they intended to continue making centrifuges prompted U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell to respond that sanctions may be an appropriate response for the UN Security Council to take when it reconvenes on this issue in Sep-tember, and that at that time,

U.S. Faces Remaining ‘Axis of Evil’ on Nukes

Special points of interest:

• This Month’s Interviews

• NY Pathologist Dr. Ward Stone

• County Legislator Herb Reilly

• Political news at the Federal, State, and Local levels.

• Legislative dockets of state and federal bills.

• Community events and projects.

Reagan’s Death Renews Stem-Cell Debate

3

Education Crisis in Albany County - A Possible Solution

5

The Legislative Dockets 6

Several Groups Protest Against Judges that Abuse the Law

8

League of Arts Now Closed Permanently

8

Interview: Dr. Ward Stone NY State Wildlife Pathologist

10

Interview: Herb Reilly Albany County Legislator

11

Events in July 12

Opinions and Letters to the Editor

13

Who is the Fourth Branch of America?

15

Inside this issue:

The Informed Constituent

Fourth Branch of America, LLC

Reagan’s Death Renews Stem-Cell Debate

One month before the former First-Lady's husband passed away, Nancy Reagan spoke at a Juvenile Diabetes Research fundraiser in Hollywood. “Science has presented us with a hope called stem cell research, which may provide our scientists with answers that have so long been beyond our grasp. I just don't see how we can turn our backs on this.” She spoke publicly on the issue of stem-cell research for the first time, having lived over a decade

with the debilitating effects of Alzheimer's Disease on her late-husband. Modern stem-cell research holds promise of treatment for many diseases, diabetes and Alz-heimer's included, treatments which seem miraculous, but very near real. In 2003, a Michigan teen, Dimitri Bonnville, was shot in the chest with a three-inch nail. The nail punctured his heart. He suf-fered a massive heart attack. Thirty percent his heart tissue was destroyed. Barely able to beat, his

heart functioned at twenty-five percent capability. It was predicted he would eventually require a transplant. European doctors have been ex-perimenting with a procedure similar to bone-marrow transplants used in cancer treatment, in which they penetrate the bone to harvest stem cells from a patients marrow and then implant the healthy stem cells into damaged tissue. Bonn-ville's doctors at Beaumont Hospi-tal, led by Dr. Cindy Grines and Dr. William O'Neill, suggested harvesting the stem cells from his

Volume 2, Issue 7 July 2004 Albany County Edition

50 cents

By RAY FELICIANO

By CHET HARDIN

“Bringing your government back to you”

By GREG HITCHCOCK

(continued of Page 12)

“judgments can be made as to what action might be appropriate.” However, the United States may find it harder to gain international support for actions against Iran, especially if those actions were to go beyond just sanctions. According to foreign policy ana-lyst Joseph Cirincione, the Ameri-can led war in Iraq has severely damaged our credibility in the Middle East, and forming a mili-tary coalition against Iran would be unlikely. “We really destroyed our rela-tionship with the Arab world, and we are now in a much weaker po-sition with Iran,” Cirincione said. North Korea has also been a nu-clear annoyance to the Bush Ad-ministration. In Beijing, China, a third round of talks regarding North Korea’s nuclear ambitions ended without agreement, other than to continue talks with a fourth round by the end of September. The six countries involved in the negotiations include North and

(continued on Page 2)

Isla Roona is a woman with a mission. As Executive Director of the Social Capital Development Corporation, she formed the Coali-tion for Accountable Police and Government, charged with the goal of cleaning up the Albany Police Department. On June 2, 2004, the Coalition presented a loaded gun to Mayor Jennings, a petition demanding the Mayor and the Albany Common Council to initiate an independent outside investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, or the U.S. Department of Justice into the Albany Police Department. This investigation would look into the firing of Police Commander Chris-tian D'Alessandro, the alleged mis-use of federal funds, overtime abuse within the Albany Police

™

1. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran 2. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il

“Unlike the previous talks, each party ad-vanced various proposals and ways, and had a discussion on them in a sincere atmosphere at the talks,” the North Korean statement said. “Some common elements helpful to making progress in the talks were found there.” Should negotiations and diplomacy with North Korea fail, a military option against the country would be risky. In addition to an effec-tive army, it is believed that North Korea may already possess a small handful of nuclear

weapons, and would be likely to use them if attacked. In his 2002 Presidential State of the Union Address, President Bush labeled Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as being an “axis of evil”, using the term used in World War II to de-scribe or enemies, Germany, Italy, and Japan. “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a

grave and growing dan-ger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred,” Bush said. While President Bush continues to equate the “War on Terrorism” to World War II, the White House has refused re-peated requests to confirm or deny whether or not Bush is saying that this is

World War III.

South Korea, China, Japan, Russia, and the United States. The proposal is to offer North Korea much needed fuel oil and non-aggression assurances from the United States promising that they would not invade North Korea. In return, North Korea would have to verifiably freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear capabilities. Under the Clinton Administration, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had a similar treaty where the United States provided North Korea with food and fuel oil in exchange for a halt to plutonium production. President Bush ended the practice when it was revealed in 2002 that North Korea had secretly continued to produce a nuclear bomb. It is hoped that this time the added pressure from the sur-rounding countries involved in the talks will compel North Korea to honor the terms of the agreement without deception. According to the North Korean Foreign Ministry, while no breakthroughs were achieved at the talks, some common ground was found.

U.S. Faces Remaining ‘Axis of Evil’ on Nukes

The Informed Constituent

Ray Feliciano — Publisher, Sr. Editor Kimberly Feliciano — Director of Operations, Editor Interns: Nafees Abdul-Hameed, Bryan Best, Sarah Meegan Contributing Writers: Frank Benlin, Melissa Bruno, Norman Campbell, Jim DeBerry, Kimberly Keith Feliciano, Ray Feliciano, Chet Hardin, Greg Hitchcock, Lawanda Horton, Jerry Keeler Photographer: Kimberly Feliciano, Ray Feliciano Copyright © 2004 Fourth Branch of America, LLC. All rights reserved. ‘The Informed Constituent’ is published monthly. Our subscription rate for home delivery is $19.95. To place ads call (518) 475-0303. Advertisements, as well as letters and column content do not necessarily re-flect the opinion of the TIC staff. Please send comments, suggestions, complaints, and letters to the editor to: The Informed Constituent P.O. Box 8558 Albany, New York 12208

Corrections The Informed Constituent makes every effort to ensure that the news and infor-mation reported is accurate at the time it is written. The following are corrections to a r t i c l e s c o n t a i n e d i n o u r June issue: In our “Gas Prices Soar” story, we had for-gotten to factor currency exchange rates into our calculations. Europeans have ac-tually been paying more than $5.50 American dollars per gallon!

(Continued from Page 1)

PAGE 2 THE INFORMED CONSTITUENT VOLUME 2, ISSUE 7

Ever wanted to try your hand at being a political

cartoonist?

How about a News Reporter?

The Informed Constituent would love to see your work! Please send your submissions to: The Informed Constituent P.O. Box 8558 Albany, New York 12208 Email: kjkeith@nycap.rr.com Or call (518) 475-0303 to arrange an interview.

Artist - Bob Gorrell, National/Syndicated

1. Iran contends it seeks nuclear power only for peaceful energy production. 2. North Korea maintains it has a right to defend itself from what it describes as western aggression.

"… The tyranny of the legislatures is the most formidable dread at present, and will be for many years. That of the executive will come in its turn, but it will be at a remote period." wrote Jefferson from Paris, urging upon Madison the need of amendments making a Bill of Rights

blood instead of bone marrow, which is easier and less painful for the patient. This was a new theory and had never been done. In a one-hour procedure they extracted the stem cells and injected them into his left ante-rior descending artery. Within three days his heart had returned to seventy percent func-tionality. The stem cells regenerated the dead tissue. Although the treatment was successful in Dimitri's case, the FDA has not yet approved the procedure. It is important to understand treatments using stem cells harvested from one's own blood are not controversial. Re-stricting the application of a new medical pro-cedure, to be first researched and tested be-fore getting the government's okay, is com-mon. The research which has generated con-troversy is based on the study of Embryonic stem cells. In an August 9th, 2001 fact sheet, the White House outlined the President's stance on the more controversial Embryonic stem cells. “As a result of private research, more than 60 ge-netically diverse stem cell lines already exist” President Bush said. “I have concluded that we should allow federal funds to be used for research on these existing stem cell lines where the life and death decision has already been made. This allows us to explore the promise and potential of stem cell research without crossing a fun-damental moral line by providing taxpayer funding that would sanction or encourage fur-ther destruction of human embryos that have at least the potential for life.”

The fact sheet continues on to state that federal funds will not be available to anyone using stem cells derived from embryos outside the existing sixty lines. “The creation of any human embryos for research purposes; or the cloning of human em-bryos for any purpose,” can continue with private funding. From out the confusion of politics, old rivals have faced off over this new science. Embryonic stem cell research is at the center of yet another political battlefield, Pro-life on one side, Pro-choice the other. Many scientists are concerned that the supposed 60 existing stem cells lines will not provide an adequate number of cells to conduct research on" NARAL, Pro-Choice America said in an October, 2002 release. “Many more lines will be needed in order to ensure a genetically diverse pool of stem cells with which to conduct research and treat ill-nesses.” However, the White House fact sheet claims that stem cell lines “created from the inner cell mass of a week-old embryo…cultured properly…can grow and divide indefinitely.”

Democratic Senator and presidential candi-date John Kerry argued from the campaign trail, “The American people deserve a Presi-dent who understands that when America in-vests in science and technology and higher education, we can build a new and stronger economy for the 21st century.” Kerry sup-ports legislation which allow more federal funding of Embryonic stem cell research. In a letter Kerry sent, along with 57 other senators, many republican -- “There are esti-mated to be more than 400,000 IVF embryos, which are currently frozen and will likely be destroyed if not donated, with informed con-sent of the couple, for research.” They urge the President to allow access to the embryos created in excess during the process of in vi-tro fertilization. The senators claim that access to the exist-ing stem cell lines is very limited and only 19 lines have become accessible to researchers, that these lines are contaminated with mouse feeder cells, and the United States , “despite the fact that U.S. scientists were the first to derive human embryonic stem cells, leader-ship in this area of research is shifting to other countries such as the United Kingdom, Singa-pore, South Korea, and Australia.” The science is still so new, and the potential for treatment so promising, proponents of Embryonic stem cell research see any restric-tion as destructive. “We must lift the barriers that stand in the way of science,” Kerry said. “So that re-searchers can find the cures that are there, if only they are allowed to look.”

Reagan’s Death Renews Stem-Cell Debate (Continued from Page 1)

$156 Grabs This Much Attention!

PAGE 3 THE INFORMED CONSTITUENT VOLUME 2, ISSUE 7

The U.S. Supreme Court had a busy month in June, handing down two noteworthy ver-dicts, including a setback to the current Bush Administration’s policy for detaining citizens as “enemy combatants” with no recourse to the law, and another banning enforcement of a law that would punish posting pornography openly on the internet. In the case “Rumsfeld v. Padilla”, the Court determined that the Administration can detain citizens as ‘enemy combatants’, but that they must have access to the courts to contest their detention. The case stems from the apprehension of Jose Padilla on suspicion that he plotted to commit terrorists attacks in the United States.

The plot allegedly included blowing up a ‘dirty-bomb’, which is a conventional bomb wrapped with radioactive material, in order to create havoc and panic. However, Padilla has never been formally charged and had been held for two years without access to a lawyer or method for contesting the charges. The new ruling changes that. “Padilla must be charged with a crime” says Donna Newman, at-torney for Padilla. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) said of the ruling, “The Supreme Court's verdicts show that, contrary to what the administration believes, we can have both security and liberty.” In another case, Ashcroft v. ACLU, the Su-preme Court banned the enforcement of a law that

would have fined people $50,000 for placing material potentially “harmful to minors” where a child may access it on the Internet without a verifiable password. The law, the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) was passed in 1998 to prevent minors from having easy access to pornography. In their 5 to 4 vote, the Court ruled that the law probably violates the First Amendment, but that the Bush Administration could try to argue that it does not violate free-speech rights in a lower court. On the Internet, pornography is the most commonly searched for category, with liter-ally millions of web pages easily accessible and dedicated to enticing the sexually curious.

Recent Supreme Court Rulings - Padilla and Porn By RAY FELICIANO

1. Nancy and Ronald Reagan. 2. Stem cells as they begin to divide.

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PAGE 4 THE INFORMED CONSTITUENT VOLUME 2, ISSUE 7

International Corner - “Fahrenheit 911” The Right to Dissent

SCOTLAND - This month I am going to open with two quotes: “The good of the people is the chief law.” -Cicero “It's easy to see without looking too far, That not much is really sacred… But even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.” -Bob Dylan Why, you may ask, have I introduced the ar-ticle like this? Well simply, it’s election time again. President George W. Bush now has to stand before the American people and be judged or damned for his actions of the previ-ous four years. You now get to decide whether or not Bush deserves to reign supreme for one more term. Have his actions been for “the good of the people”? Will he go down in his-tory as one of the greatest Presidents America ever had? Can he win the election legally and without the help of another “miscount”? Why are there so many questions surround-

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ing him? There I go again with another ques-tion. I am not American; I do not get to vote. I live in Scotland and can only view from the outside and attempt to peek into the psyche of the American public. To attempt to see what it is you seek in a President, the leader and figurehead of your country, the person that the rest of the world judges you on. When I watch Letterman, all I see is ridi-cule and scorn towards him and wonder if this is the consensus of the people or just good television. I read in the papers and see on the news, all about Michael Moore and his latest film “Fahrenheit 911” and his cri-tique on the Bush Administration, along with the problems he is having releasing the movie and the criticism he faces over the strong anti-Bush message within the film. Yet, after all he has printed and said, and in a country quick to litigate, he has not been taken to court. Moore is a man loved in Germany and France for his anti-Iraq war stance and recip-rocally he loves France and Germany for their respective anti-Iraq war stances. Do

they view him as a more accurate representa-tion of the “typical” American? Moore speaks lucidly and honestly, from the heart and genuinely seems to have the good of the common man close to his heart. Qualities that should be inherent in the leader of any country. They are there to protect the interests of the people who voted them there. Moore has claimed that Bush is there only to line the al-ready deep pockets of his Corporate America friends. So I think what I am trying to ask or say is that we all have to be careful about who we elect to lead us, no matter what it is we do in life. All too often it’s the pretty and the popular that are thrust forward to take responsibility, whether they are equipped or willing to accept it all or not. If you are unable to answer any of the questions asked here, just ask yourself one more before you score the ballot paper. Does the person I am voting for believe “The good of the people is the chief law”? norrie@norrie.co.uk

PAGE 5 THE INFORMED CONSTITUENT VOLUME 2, ISSUE 7

This past May marked the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision that changed the face of America’s education sys-tem. In the case of Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education, the Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision that declared the “separate but equal” clause, made legal by the courts ruling in Plessy vs Ferguson, (1896) un-constitutional as it applied to educational facili-ties. Over a century later, right here in the Capital Region, members of the New York State United Teachers, commemorated this historic event at their Latham headquarters. It is dis-heartening then to learn that an article featured in a recent issue of the Albany Times Union, revealed that a high percentage of minority stu-dents are just not making the grade. The Albany City School District, composed of over 10,000 students, is primarily made up of minority students who represent at least 74% of the district’s student population. Research that shows 2/3 of the minority students are fail-ing is a topic of a major concern to local resi-dents. According to the State’s Report Card on Schools, 713 ninth graders entered Albany High School in the fall of 1999. Of that 713, only 307 left carrying high school diplomas in 2003. Some attribute this achievement gap to a va-riety of socio-economic issues including in-stances of harsher punishments for undesirable behavior for minority students than for their white counterparts. In any event, many will agree that these numbers are indeed staggering and their impact crosses racial and socio-economic lines. Last May, members of the African American

and Latino communities expressed hope that the appointment of Michael Johnson, an Af-rican American, to take on the position of Superintendent of Schools, would help create an environment that was more sympathetic to issues affecting minority students. Last month, Johnson abruptly resigned from his position, allegedly due to a less than cooperative relationship with the Board of Education, and the City of Albany’s Mayor’s Office. Johnson’s time as Superintendent was marked by countless disagreements and criticisms of his policies and practices. Many believed that Johnson’s approach to the edu-cation problems was too aggressive and did not meet the needs of all area students. John-son proposed a plan to lower the number of failing students by denying them work eligi-bility. He also attempted to eliminate birth-day parties and other celebratory events from the classroom setting. School staff also criti-cized Johnson for making unannounced school visits. Johnson’s departure is also believed to be a result of his failed attempt at passing the school budget, a budget that focused primar-ily on the needs of problem students. The budget did not appeal to the middle class suburban voters, who turned out to vote in larger numbers than did minority supporters. Johnson told the Times Union when asked about the resignation and his plans for the future, “It’s still all about the children.” The education crisis confronting Albany’s Schools certainly leads one to wonder how much has really changed since the Supreme Court declared equal educational opportuni-ties for all students and drives us to search for a solutions for improving the quality of

education for all students. What can educators do to help students find the balance between the 3 R’s and the complex world that surrounds them? Recent studies show that many troubled dis-tricts have turned to the arts in education as a solution to the achievement gap. Proponents be-lieve the arts to be a unifying force in the class-room. The National Association for Arts in Education has performed many studies on the profound impact of the arts in creating partici-pation and a sense of engagement among those populations that feel most excluded, such as disaffected young people, and ethnic minorities. The central point of an argument for the arts in education is based upon the recognition that there are several forms of intelligence. It is be-lieved that teaching and learning strategies that develop different abilities young people have not only helps to demonstrate success in that area of learning, but can encourage success in other areas as well. A key element of this ap-proach involves fostering greater partnerships between area schools and community arts and cultural organizations. This community-based approach to education not only teaches students creatively, but it instills in them a sense of so-cial responsibility to their community. Some may argue again that the arts in educa-tion is also limited in that still not every student will respond to this sort of approach. Supporters of the arts in education acknowledged the need for both formal and informal learning tools. They believe that the arts provide students with a knowledge of that which is immeasurable and unquantifiable, important concepts to grasp in times characterized by such uncertainty.

By LAWANDA HORTON

The Education Crisis in Albany County… A Proposed Solution

Community Arts United

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“Community Arts Summit”

Saturday, July 24th at 1:00pm

Ten Broeck Mansion, 9 Ten Broeck Place, Albany

Community Arts United is an informal nonprofit arts organization geared toward increasing the presence of the arts in the Capital District. The summit will

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Bills in the U.S. Congress The Legislative Dockets

The Informed Constituent, in conjunction with the Fourth Branch of America, is dedicated to keeping the citizens of this country informed re-garding important legislation as it makes its way through Congress, the Courts, and the political process. It is hoped that this information will en-courage more participation by citizens at all l e v e l s o f g o v e r n m e n t , a n d encourage the discourse necessary to address the issues that face us all. - Ray Feliciano

PAGE 6 THE INFORMED CONSTITUENT VOLUME 2, ISSUE 7

H.R.218 To amend title 18, United States Code, to exempt qualified current and former law enforcement officers from State laws pro-hibiting the carrying of concealed handguns. Sponsor: Rep Cunningham, Randy (Duke) [CA-50] (introduced 1/7/2003); Cosponsors (297) Related Bills: S.253 Latest Major Action: 6/25/2004 Read the sec-ond time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calen-dar under General Orders. H.R.4067 To provide for a program of scien-tific research on abrupt climate change, to ac-celerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emis-sions in the United States by establishing a market-driven system of greenhouse gas tradeable allowances that will limit green-house gas emissions in the United States, re-duce dependence upon foreign oil, and ensure benefits to consumers from the trading in such allowances, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Gilchrest, Wayne T. [MD-1] (introduced 3/30/2004); Cosponsors (59) Latest Major Action: 4/23/2004 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Chairman. H.R.1298 To provide assistance to foreign countries to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Hyde, Henry J. [IL] (introduced 3/17/2003) Cosponsors (4) Related Bills: H.RES.210, S.CON.RES.46, S.1009

Latest Major Action: Became Public Law No: 108-25 S.2056 A bill to increase the penalties for violations by television and radio broadcasters of the prohibitions against transmission of ob-scene, indecent, and profane language. [excerpt]“the amount of any forfeiture penalty determined under this subsection shall not ex-ceed $275,000 for each violation or each day of a continuing violation, except that the amount assessed for any continuing violation shall not exceed a total of $3,000,000 for any single act or failure to act.” Sponsor: Sen Brownback, Sam [KS] (introduced 2/9/2004) Cosponsors (20) Related Bills: H.R.3717 Latest Major Action: 4/5/2004 Placed on Sen-ate Legislative Calendar under General Or-ders. Calendar No. 471. H.R.1904 “Healthy Forests Restoration Act” An act to improve the capacity of the Secre-tary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to conduct hazardous fuels reduction projects on National Forest System lands and Bureau of Land Management lands aimed at protecting communities, watersheds, and cer-tain other at-risk lands from catastrophic wild-fire, to enhance efforts to protect watersheds and address threats to forest and rangeland health, including catastrophic wildfire, across the landscape, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep McInnis, Scott [CO-3] (introduced 5/1/2003) Cosponsors (137) Related Bills: H.RES.239, H.RES.457,

S.1449 Latest Major Action: Became Public Law No: 108-148 S.1428 “Cheeseburger Bill” A bill to prohibit civil liability actions from being brought or continued against food manufacturers, marketers, distributors, advertisers, sellers, and trade associations for damages or injunctive relief for claims of injury resulting from a person's weight gain, obesity, or any health condition re-lated to weight gain or obesity. Sponsor: Sen McConnell, Mitch [KY] (introduced 7/17/2003) Cosponsors (10) Latest Major Action: 10/16/2003 Senate commit-tee/subcommittee actions. Status: Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. Hearings held.

“I A n’t Yo’ Uncle!”

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Friday July 9th: 8:00 pm Saturday July 10th: 8:00 pm Sunday July 11th: 2:00 pm

Bills in the New York State Senate

A11141 KARBEN—Relates to prohibiting funding of terrorist activities through dona-tions to not-for-profit organizations. Same as: S 7077-A 06/17/2004 amend and recommit to corpora-tions, authorities and commissions 06/17/2004 print number 11141a A11142 KLEIN— Relates to the preparation of water supply emergency plans; includes certain persons who supply drinking water to fewer than three thousand three hundred peo-ple within the definition of a water supplier which requires such person to file a water supply emergency plan; directs the commis-sioner of health and the county health depart-ments to provide guidance and assistance to community watersystems regarding vulner-ability assessments, emergency plans and ad-dressing potential threats to the provision of safe drinking water; and provides greater pen-alties for violations. 06/07/2004 passed assembly 06/07/2004 delivered to senate 06/07/2004 REFERRED TO RULES A11143 MAGEE—Relates to the regulation of American ginseng plants; provides for regulation by the department of agriculture and markets instead of the department of

environmental conservation. 05/10/2004 referred to agriculture A11145 MAGNARELLI—Requires all high school students to receive a 1/2 credit course of instruction in parenting skills and education; re-quires all high school students to annually view a video presentation on shaken baby syndrome. 05/10/2004 referred to education A11147 MORELLE—Designates the lilac bush as the official state bush. Same as: A10395, S 6702 05/10/2004 referred to governmental operations A11148 ORTIZ—Prohibits the use of social security numbers for identification purposes of individuals. Same as: S 6568 06/02/2004 held for consideration in consumer affairs and protection A11154 TOCCI—Requires the New York tem-porary commission on lobbying to annually pub-lish a directory, in bound book form, which makes available the list of the lobbyists who have filed a statement of registration with the commis-sion and who are engaged in lobbying activity. 05/10/2004 referred to governmental operations A11155 TOKASZ—Removes recreational bowling from the term "employment" for purpose of determining income for unemployment insur-

ance payments. Same as: S 5891 06/16/2004 passed assembly 06/16/2004 returned to senate A11164 SANDERS—Provides that any student who is determined by a school district to be held over for promotion or retained in a grade in ele-mentary school, and who was not previously evaluated for special education needs, shall be screened within ninety days of such determination by the school district for any medical or mental condition that might be the cause of such student’s academic failure; further provides that if a student is found to have some such disability or deficit, such student shall be immediately referred to the school district’s committee on special edu-cation for evaluation, and if necessary, for an individualized education plan; permits parents to opt out of screening. Same as: S 7235 05/12/2004 referred to education A11165 GALEF—Prevents insurers from using domestic violence as sole reason for failing to underwrite insurance policy and denying payment to innocent co-insured injured from domestic vio-lence when such policy excludes coverage for in-tentional acts. Same as: Uni. S 7288 05/12/2004 referred to insurance

S7269 LARKEN—Provides for enhanced su-pervision of sex offenders and penalties for their failure to register or verify as required by law; directs the division of criminal justice services to provide for reducing over-concentrations of released sex offenders in particular municipalities or portions thereof. Same as: A11444 05/11/2004 referred to crime victims, crime and correction S7270 LARKIN—Simplifies and rationalizes relationship between OTBs and in-state tracks to enhance revenue streams for local govern-ments; phases in adjustments related to video lottery gaming; makes certain provisions per-manent. Same as: A11360 05/11/2004 referred to racing, gaming and wa-gering S7273 GONZALEZ—Regulates the use of human subjects for medical research and ex-perimentation, including subjects with mental disorders and children; makes definitions; addresses exclusion or inclusion of subjects to participate in human research based on race, ethnicity or sex, the collection of data; pro-vides that no greater than minimal risk non-therapeutic human research shall be conducted

on a child without consent of a parent or guardian; makes related provisions. 05/11/2004 referred to health S7277 SABINI—Provides for the regulation, inspection and supervision of assisted living facilities by the department of health; requires all such facilities to be registered with the de-partment of health; establishes admissions standards for such facilities; establishes re-quirements for contracts for the provision of assisted living services and residency; grants enforcement powers to the commissioner of health; establishes the rights of residents of as-sisted living residences; creates the assisted living task force. 05/11/2004 referred to health S7294 FUSCHILLO—Eliminates the alterna-tive of community service for certain repeat alcohol related offenders therefore requiring them to be sentenced to a term of imprisonment. 05/13/2004 referred to alcoholism and drug abuse S7296 LIBOUS—Creates mental health parity for purposes of health insurance coverage; requires that adults and children with biologi-cally based mental illnesses, and children with

serious emotional disturbances receive the same health care coverage benefits as those provided for any other physical ailment; requires the su-perintendent of insurance to cause a study to be performed to analyze the effect of requiring mental health care parity. 06/22/2004 passed senate 06/22/2004 delivered to assembly 06/22/2004 referred to insurance S7311 MARCELLINO—Provides that where the court determines that there is relevant ad-missible evidence containing deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), such evidence shall be admitted. 06/21/2004 passed senate 06/21/2004 delivered to assembly 06/21/2004 referred to codes S7326 LAVALLE—Provides that any respon-dent committed to jail for failing to obey a law-ful order of support may be ordered to pay the costs of his or her incarceration. 05/24/2004 referred to rules S7391 GOLDEN—Establishes a long term care insurance education and outreach program within the office for the aging to provide direct assistance to the general public in choosing and obtaining long term care insurance; makes an appropriation there for. 06/03/2004 referred to finance

PAGE 7 THE INFORMED CONSTITUENT VOLUME 2, ISSUE 7

Bills in the New York State Assembly

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On June 10th, 2004, several political activist groups staged a small demonstration at the New York State capital in Albany to protest a judicial system they allege to be corrupt. It was sponsored by The Empire Journal, New York State Tyranny Response Team, New York State Oaths Project, and the Constitution Party of New York. Ten speakers harangued the crowd and the media about the implications for ordinary citi-zens to receive justice from such illegal means as ignored laws, ignored evidence, fal-sified court records, confiscation of property without due process, and involuntary assign-ment of do nothing probate lawyers that are unneeded, unwanted, and expensive. “We are putting you on notice!,” shouted Ginger Berlin, event MC, co-publisher of The Empire Journal, and State Chairman of the Constitution Party of New York, as she glared at the Court Building. Bill Gage, President of Citizens for Consti-tutional Government and Associate Com-mander-In-Chief of Northeast Jail4Judges which advocates for Judicial Accountability Initiative Legislation (J.A.I.L.), was the first to speak against judicial immunity. “We the People have no rights to accuse judges and hold them accountable for their actions,” he said. J.A.I.L. is a measure to give accountability to the People by creating Special Grand Juries dedicated to overseeing judicial misconduct and having the power to strip judges of their protection of judicial immunity who are the subject of civil complaints, and to investigate, indict, and initiate criminal prosecution of corrupt judges. June Maxam, co-publisher of The Empire Journal and coordinator of the New York State Oath's Project, spoke about her investi-gation into judges and other public officials who remain non-compliant in filing their oaths and/or bonds. “95% of judges and at-torneys are not compliant with filing their oath of office,” Maxam asserted. “An oath is a solemn promise which establishes trust be-tween officials and the people they serve. It is visually, psychologically, and legally bind-ing.” In a child custody case, Rebecca Rohrs of Ohio stated that 10,000 words in the court transcript were altered by the judge and it cost $11,000 to make corrections by the father. However, the Trial Court Magistrate only al-lowed 1300 words to be corrected. “This is

the most un-American situation there is,” Rohrs said. “The courts make it financially draining to seek justice thereby quitting your efforts and silencing you. Judges don't repre-sent the people, but the prisoners.” The crowd also heard from defense lawyer Mike Kuzma from Buffalo who spoke about corruption and inadequacy of the FBI in the Leonard Peltier case. Kuzma has been active in trying to free Peltier who has been impris-oned for 28 years for the deaths of two FBI agents during the 1975 shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Peltier was con-victed without substantial evidence or eyewit-nesses. Kuzma stated that 90,000 pages of material were not turned over to the defense attorneys. Other speakers told of how they were har-

Several Groups Protest Against Judges that Abuse the Law New York State News

PAGE 8 THE INFORMED CONSTITUENT VOLUME 2, 7

rassed by the judicial system for speaking out against corruption. Elsebeth Baumgartner was a lawyer from Ohio who filed reports against cor-rupt Northern Ohio government officials and courts. For her actions, she told how she was disbarred, imprisoned, and forbidden to file com-plaints about anyone. Dick Kern, Buffalo re-porter and housing activist, retired social worker, spoke about how he was prosecuted 15 to 20 times by the Buffalo DA's Office since 1995 on complaints filed by public officers who have been the subject of issues he addresses. Baumgartner compared the American Judicial System with Hitler's Germany. “Fascists thrive in secrecy. They're arrogant-the ends justifies the means-might makes right-a tendency to in-still fear in people-sociopathic disregard for the rights of others. These are the hallmarks of or-ganized crime,” she said. The other speakers at the rally were Zed McLarnon, founder and president of CASK Coa-lition Against State-sanctioned Kidnapping; Tho-mas Chandler, Director of the New York State Tyranny Response Team; and Jim Ostrowski, a trial and appellate lawyer and libertarian author from Buffalo. Ultimately, each group shared the goal of bringing more attention to judicial abuses of power, and the need for our nation to hold no one, including our judges, above the law.

By GREG HITCHCOCK

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Attendees at the rally listen to a speaker describe judicial abuses. (Photo by Ray Feliciano)

League of Arts Now Closed Permanently By KIMBERLY FELICIANO

“It's dead,” said Robert Briber, board presi-dent of the 58-year-old arts service organiza-tion. “I don't see any way out of it.” The Albany-Schenectady League of Arts has closed permanently and faces possible le-gal charges after spending nearly $30,000 in state grants intended for Capital Region art-ists and cultural organizations, according to the New York State Council on the Arts, which initially provided the funds. Under $130,000 of debt, the league's board of directors decided to close this past May af-ter concluding that it could not replace $28,000 of NYSCA grants. According to league officials, the money was used to cover daily operating expenses instead of being awarded to recipients. “The money went to maintain the league's cash flow,” said Briber, the board president. The NYSCA rules require the funds be kept separate from general operating expenses.

The $28,000 is part of $60,806 in Community Arts Connection grants awarded by the League of Arts to applicants from Albany and Schenectady counties. Fifty grants in amounts from $500 to more than $3,000 were awarded to organizations such as Albany Civic Theater, the Empire State Youth Orchestra and Salvage, a literature and arts magazine. The debt tripled from $30,000 to $90,000, and rose to $130,000 in the past two years. Briber blamed the financial difficulties on what he called “dreadful management.” Its closing leaves a membership of 820 indi-viduals and groups without services, including healthcare, legal services, and educational semi-nars. Schwartz said NYSCA is looking for another organization to take over the decentralization pro-gram for Albany and Schenectady counties. The league described itself as "the oldest con-tinually operating regional arts council in the United States.” It served 11 counties in the greater Capital Region.

On June 28th, the NYC Council passed a medical marijuana resolution by a landslide 44-4 vote. The resolution (Res. 71-A) makes NYC the third city in the state (after Albany and Buffalo) to call on the state legislature to pass legislation to protect medical marijuana patients from arrest and prosecution. It spelled out numerous reasons the City Council decided to endorse New York's medical marijuana bills, A.5796-A and S.4805, which would legalize the possession, manufac-ture, sale, administration, delivery, dispensing

and distribution of marijuana in connection with medical use for certified patients. It also cited the fact that federal law does not hinder states' rights to pass laws allowing medi-cal marijuana. Congress will be voting (around mid-July) on whether to end the DEA's attacks on medical marijuana patients. An amendment on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives will be offered to prevent the U.S. Department of Justice (which includes the DEA) from spending any money to raid medical marijuana patients in states where it's legal.

Medical Marijuana Bill Endorsed Again By KIMBERLY FELICIANO

The Fourth Branch of America

Invites You to Join Us In Our

Declaration of Interdependence

We recognize that we are stronger when we work

together, with each other, and with our government. We, the people, must end this feeling of separation from

our government, remember that it is our government made up of people like us,

whom we have elected to be our governmental ‘Representatives’.

We benefit from sharing information and ideas that serve the common good of the community.

We believe that good communication is essential to the success of any relationship, whether

that relationship is personal, business, or with a citizen’s own government.

To that end, we believe that it is essential that the people be kept informed

regarding what goes on in their government, be aware of legislation that is being considered, know the stance

their officials take, and understand the new laws that are enacted. This allows the citizenry to be

informed constituents in our democratic system.

We recognize that people will often have differing opinions on various issues, but believe

that we should always respect each other, even when we disagree. This paper, The Informed Constituent, has been

created to establish a forum for the community to open a dialectic with our government,

as is our right as citizens.

- Ray Feliciano

PAGE 9 THE INFORMED CONSTITUENT VOLUME 2, ISSUE 7

To All My Readers, Many people still ask me “So, I know you say that you’re non-partisan, but what’s your real agenda?” Our agenda is as we have previously stated. To inform the constituency as objectively as possible as to the workings of their government, to empower them to then act upon that knowledge, and to increase the dialect people have with their communities, their government, and their world. Sound too idealistic? It’s already happening. If you have enjoyed The Informed Constituent, published by the Fourth Branch of America (FBA), and believe that this newspaper is useful to the community, we ask for your financial support in whichever way is best for you. Be-come a member of the FBA by submitting the application found at the back of this paper. Subscribe to The Informed Constituent (TIC). Place an advertisement in the paper. Sponsor us more generously if you can. You can even con-tribute your personal talents and time if you are so in-clined. The profit of our organization is reinvested in spreading this project throughout America, and reinvested into our community. And this newspaper is only the tip of the iceberg. In ad-dition to starting editions of TIC across the nation, we in-tend to spread to radio and television as our sponsorship grows. We intend on becoming the source of choice for people wanting to get quick unbiased information regard-ing governmental issues, whether that’s reading the details of new legislation, researching the stance of their politi-cians on a particular issue, or finding out the agenda for the next local town hall meeting. That’s our agenda. Any questions? - Ray Feliciano Publisher and Sr. Editor of The Informed Constituent President of the Fourth Branch of America Patriot of the United States of America

I Love The Informed Constituent. How Can I Help?

So glad you asked! The Fourth Branch of America and The Informed Constituent are looking for people who believe that this project is worth supporting. As you might imagine, this paper costs money to produce. So would expanding our website to contain all the functionality we would like it to have, and further expanding into TV and radio media as well. But we’re determined to make it happen. And we have a good game plan for making it happen that we would love to share with you. If you would like to see the details of our business plan, please contact so that we may arrange it. We’re putting the finish-ing touches on our ‘Financials’ section, but in a nutshell, all our profit goes towards spreading this project across the nation, and then sponsoring additional projects that serve the community interests. We would love to discuss it with you. We thank you in advance for any and all support, Sincerely, Ray Feliciano

By RAY FELICIANO

FBA Founder/TIC Publisher Ray Feliciano

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On July 21st, Dr. Stone will have been with the DEC for 35 years straight. Recently, he took some of that time to speak with the FBA. As we toured the Delmar facility near the Five Rivers nature preserve, Dr. Stone expressed his concern for the environment. “There are a lot of good things about America, but these are very dangerous times,” he said. Q: What is your job as NYS Wildlife Pathologist? “To diagnose the causes of sickness and death in the state’s wildlife. That’s heavily toward the West Nile this summer. We are also looking for Chronic Wasting Disease. We will take samples from hundreds of deer in late summer. We are also studying the impact of Botulism in Lake Erie. We are looking for any kind of new diseases that might be headed our way. Whatever the cause of sickness and death, we do the forensic pathology.” Q: So there was a new $180,000 facility opened last year? A Necropsy room? “Yes. It’s a new room and we want to add to that room.” Dr. Stone lead us just outside the room where they test for the West Nile Virus. It’s a “low pressure room” so air rushes in, but no air will leave the room when the door is opened. It has a sophisticated ex-haust system that filters air going out and allows fresh air in. “Very little air is from the building. It posed a problem in January because we had so much fresh air coming in from below zero that it was in the 40’s inside the room. It was like a refrigerator in there.” Stone said they need heat in the room. “We’re pretty sophisticated for a state DEC. Of all the states, I think we’re #1. That might not be on facilities, but on discoveries. I’d say higher than the top 20%. That’s not my goal, but it is a strug-gle to stay modern, and it’s a struggle to get the money to update your facility. I don’t think we are doing anywhere near what should be done, not even close.” Stone said they get some federal funding and support from different parts of the state. “In our division, we’re considered not even essential.” The Fri-day of Reagan’s funeral Dr. Stone was ordered to shut down the facility. “Reagan was a good president, but he never shut nothin’ down. I wanted my people to work. Seems it’s better to be paid and not here, than ready to do the job.” Turns out that Stone and his staff worked that Friday anyway. “It’s not an easy place to run be-cause of the way the system works.” Stone is particularly adamant to continue the work due to the current terrorism threats. “There’s only one pathologist here and these people make almost nothing. They get a lot of special training. We have trouble keeping them on for the year because of the layoffs.” Stone expressed that it’s not easy to work like that, especially when at any moment it could be bio-terrorism in NYC, or like that day, the unusual deaths of birds. “We got about 50 birds in today from NYC alone, and you’re talking about a pretty small staff. The higher administrators cut people so they could stay in power., so they have money and can out rate. This game has been going on for a long time.” Q: What would you like to see done to modernize? “We need to rebuild it for the future, so that it can run experi-ments, hold animals, and have a better disinfectant pattern. They moved most everybody out of here to downtown on Broadway. There’s some field work going on out there, and some people come out here. Primarily, it made them more of a bureaucracy, a meeting-oriented kind of group.” Q: Are you experiencing budget constraints, even more so re-cently?

“Well, I’m one of the luckier ones in that I have more budget than they do. I think a lot of people, as budget restrictions hit them, they haven’t got anything to do, except reading emails and things like that, and that’s life for them. I think a lot of people are disgruntled. They don’t have the feel-ing of productivity that they had a decade or more ago.” Q: Are you looking for people to assist? “We use volunteers a lot. I’ve operated with volunteers all the way. It’s essential.” To contribute or volunteer, please call DEC (518) 478-3032. Q: What is the process of receiving animals with potential rabies? “We can get a call about anything at any moment, just like this was a call about 33 dead birds from the county of Chautauqua, from their health department.” When potential rabies comes in, Dr. Stone said he decides whether or not it might be rabid, what the history is, and whether or not a rabies test is necessary. The head is removed from the animal, which might be a cow, for instance. The carcass is taken care of and Stone orders a rabies test from the Health Department Rabies Lab in Guilderland. “Rabies is pretty prevalent in the raccoon. They live in attics, they go into cellars, into crawl spaces. It’s widespread. That’s home to them. We’ve taken the places with the trees, and they try to adapt to it. They are wise, intelligent species and they’ve done well.” He said the key is getting them out humanely, especially when there are babies. “The mother rac-coon will move out of the place with those babies before too long, and then you’ll have to repair the place, make it so that they can’t get in.” Stone said that rabies contracted from a raccoon is especially a prob-lem for children because they will play around and get into the feces. Chil-dren could touch the feces and put their fingers in their mouths. “These eggs hatch out in the body and go to the organs, and to the spinal cord and brain. It kills people, can cause blindness, along with other health threats.” Q: Do you test mosquitoes for the West Nile Virus? Stone said that the Health Department tests mosquitoes. “We do most, if not all, birds, and so you’re talking about thousands of birds. We also test squirrels, and other things for West Nile because we don’t know what other mammals the virus might go into.” Q: Do you feel optimistic about Sematech, Albany’s upcoming techno-logical epicenter , including Environmental and Energy Sciences? “No. You have all the industry coming in, yet it’s a seemingly ‘clean’ industry, but you have to look at all of these chips and their makeup be-cause there’s a lot of metals and stuff that are not anywhere nearly as be-nign as they’ve said they are, especially once they get out into the land-fills, thrown away.” Besides that, Stone said the buildings require a lot of support, there would be highway changes, and more people means more development. “So it means degradation of the environment, is what it means.” Regarding the contention that the technology could be applied to the rest of the world, Stone said, “Yeah, they always say that. You see more growth, you see more malls. When Americans get to be more and in tune with that, that’s the way they think the world is, and they get less and less in contact with reality, to know where water comes from, where food comes from.” Stone says we’re weird in a lot of ways because on the one hand, “we might eat five chickens in a week, and then worry about saving some bird in another part of the world, without paying attention to how these chickens are raised.” Stone has nothing against eating chicken, but believes looking into what you’re eating and where our food comes from is important to think about. Q: What about the increased population and sprawl? “In recent years we have more immigrants coming in than we have people born to citizens. So, with the immigration and the new people be-ing born, our population expanse has been more than what was thought to be likely. I think we put too much money into ourselves. Some of us more excessively than others. We could drive more economical vehicles. These hybrids will be nice with high mileage, and that’s the kind of things we

By RAY & KIMBERLY FELICIANO

FBA Meets with NY Pathologist Dr. Ward Stone

need.” Stone suggests that we do something to make the children of immi-grants more environmentally conscious, but that it’s imperative to train our own people first. “Mom and dad have to live an environmentally sound life, which is hard to do. That’s probably the absolute key, having mom and dad involved, a role model for the kids.” Q: We previously covered a cougar story, and have received several calls of recent sightings, even kittens being sighted in Vermont. “There’s no doubt they are expanding in range. I would not be sur-prised to find them here. One was shot in Saratoga County a few years ago. When I got it, I looked at the DNA, particularly in the mitochondria for the mom’s portion of the inheritance. We found in the DNA South American mountain lion.” This indicated the cat was imported. Q: Will the DEC acknowledge that cougars are back? “I sent a biologist over about a horse, but he did not come back with the it. I wanted the horse in order to do a post-mortem in one of these rooms here, to get the kind of testing that needs to be done. All we got were the pictures.” He pointed out their photos in our December 2003 issue of The Informed Constituent. “The coyotes might have been respon-sible for that horse. There was a circle where they thrashed around, but we did not see any evidence of a mountain lion. Scientists cannot say that something is something unless they have the evidence to prove it, and certainly, I did not see any evidence of a mountain lion being involved.” Regarding the fang marks on the horse’s neck, coyotes bite necks too. “Cats typically bite necks around the windpipe so the animal can’t breathe.” “You look at the map, and you see they are expanding this way from the Western part of the country. I would not be surprised more are here, but where is the good photo? You got to have the mountain lion placed with a spot, some kind of geographic feature to go with that picture to place it. I know people like Jim Close with the DEC who’s very into fol-lowing the mountain lions.” “There’s been stories that the DEC purposely released mountain lions to control the deer herd, and this is not true. The first person to be able to nail down that there really is a wild mountain lion would be get some fame and glory for that. There would be some zoological notoriety. You want to stay reputable, and I’ve been pretty lucky about staying reputable. It is a continuous battle to stay that way, though.”

PAGE 10 THE INFORMED CONSTITUENT VOLUME 2, ISSUE 7

NY State Wildlife Pathologist Dr. Ward Stone (Photos by Kimberly Feliciano)

“We’re getting better, but all these things take money and they take investigations. Field work is not cheap. They need to change it so they hire people so they have better salaries and don’t have 40-hour weeks.” Q: So is the problem the lack of staff? “Well, you got to know how to do it, and you got to have the technology to go with it. Looking for mountain lions is not our highest priority. On a day like this, my highest priority is diagnos-ing West Nile Virus, things where animal and human health is threatened. Human health is the highest priority of the DEC. We do work closely with the Health Departments, but there would have to be a lot more personnel, a lot more field work, and the academics are not going to pick up the slack, by far.” Q: Have you been warned to not talk to the press? “Oh yeah. It’s actually been good being a public scientist. There are times when there’s a lack of freedom, lack of freedom of speech, but if you have a good offense you can fight back, and I can fight back. I don’t give a sh*t. I haven’t for a long time. They worry about their careers, and worry about where they’re going, and I’ve never worried much about that. They don’t really do it to me like they do to others, because I just do it anyway. It was par-ticularly heavy back in the Quomo administration. There hasn’t been any problems with the Pataki administration as far as talking with the press.”

From behind a glass, an assistant confers with Dr. Stone regarding a dead bird specimen being tested for West Nile Virus.

Stone said he gets pressure from industry, like Reynold’s Metals, and from the malls. “My kids warn me not to go to Crossgates Mall. I don’t go to Crossgates Mall everrr! It’s a horrible place. There’s already an old mall here, Colonie, which took some Pine Bush, but Crossgates took Pine Bush when they knew about the limited habitat. So, that’s not a place that I think we should spend money. Well, it makes no difference because 99% of the people go there, time passes, and people forget.” “For people who are trying to do something about the environment, you really have to work at it, and you have to be at it all the time. It’s a lifetime commitment and a lifetime bit of action that you have to do. Every day you have to be on the side of the environment.” Dr. Stone is surprised that so many people have disappeared from the movement. “I think the younger generations are exceptionally busy. When the parents are working, and kids are organized in soccer and the rest, who the heck is really influencing these kids? Then you find kids can’t read because they spend so much time playing video games and watching TV.” “We seem to have some fine teachers in the very early grades, people saying great things about the world, taking care of the environment, not picking on any ethnic group or religion, very broadminded. But as soon as the kids get into middle school, the greed comes in, the hormones kick in, and it pulls kids in different directions.” Q: What’s the status on Lyme Disease? “There’s going to be a lot of talk about this next week, about Lyme Disease and West Nile. We got our first case of West Nile in a bird in Delmar just a couple of days ago. I’m really concerned about Lyme Dis-ease. Not only is it something that’s causing a lot of sickness in humans, but it’s also modifying the way we live.” He talked of many people not experiencing nature. “I’d say it’s an overreaction. I would do it anyway, but that’s my decision.” If you find a tick, Stone suggests pulling it out using tissue paper in order to capture the material for testing. “If you get that tick off before 24 hours, you are not going to get Lyme Disease from that bite. I know it’s hard to believe. If you get it off right away, you’re okay. The good thing is that when ticks feed they don’t feed again for a long time, about a month or so. In general, the conditions in the house are not suitable for them to survive. Symptoms include rashes and achy muscles,. People should talk to their doctor so the doctor can run tests. Dr. Stone said people need to re-member to look children over at bath time. You don’t have to leave your backyard to get Lyme Disease. Your kids can be playing and just brush up against the shrubs. Stone has a daughter who got Lyme Disease this way. She was immediately taken to the pediatrician, and saved by antibiotics. “One of my high priorities would be to do something about Lyme Dis-ease. To either find a vaccine or something that would limit the tick popu-lations without destroying the environment, like the bacteria we are using on mosquitoes. It would be nice to do that so people would not get sick, but also because it would get people back into the environment. Many young parents who have not been out in the environment much themselves decide to plop their kids down in front of a computer game, throw a cou-ple of videos on. We are limiting our environmental activities.” Q: Do you talk to the legislators? Stone said there was an Assemblyman on the Conservation Committee

who had a way of getting heard. “Now it’s much quieter about the envi-ronment. We’re not meeting and talking about the animals and what’s going on as much as we once did. The animals are easy to consider.” “It’s because they (the administrators) are looking at the money, they are looking at themselves. They got a seat on Broadway. They’re not doing any work. I got the live animals. They’re alive.” Q: What about invasive species? “The invasive species is incredibly important. There’s so many and we’ve always had them coming in. They are not all bad. For example, the dandelion. You can cook them up, they are high in vitamin C. Trying to get rid of them is an eternal battle. To me, they are more good than bad. On the other hand, there are some invasive species that do a lot of dam-age, like water chestnuts and the Longhorn Beetle.” Dr. Stone said one reason we are having trouble with invasive species is because of all the advancements in transportation and speed. “It takes just one insect, and today fish can be shipped across the world.” Q: Could a terrorist create an invasive species that was manipulated genetically to be more aggressive or dangerous? “Yes, if you have the right scientist that is demented, they could make their own virus using genetic engineering. It’s already been done by gov-ernment scientists. There are people who are living their lives to develop the most heinous weapons that they can. I’m not interested in doing that, but I’m interested in thinking about it because I want to think about what they might be thinking so I can counter it. We got to weed those people out. We should find those who made Anthrax and get them out. They could do it again, and I’m afraid they might do it again late this summer.” Q: How easy would it be for terrorists to get to our water supply? “They could certainly disrupt it for a time. We are very rich in water in this state, with emergency sources that we can tap. We are very lucky along those lines. Places like Arizona and New Mexico would be much more vulnerable than New England and the Northeast. Q: Are environmental issues getting the priority that they deserve? “Oh, absolutely not. The environment is more in danger now than ever. There is no governor in the country, and certainly not a president, who is really thinking about taking care of the environment. With Iraq and other issues, they are getting diverted to other factors, but you can’t let the environment go. New York is changing and quickly.” “Another thing we need to do is monitor the industries very carefully, air and water. We have too much of the ‘fox guarding the hen house’. We need more government sampling and looking into independent people who are not beholden to the industry to evaluate the data. The govern-ment does not want it. Some scientist comes along and says, ‘Look at what I got,’ and they want to control the scientists but the scientists don’t want to be controlled. Scientists are like artists. They don’t want to be restricted to where their minds can take them.” “I’ve always liked the Indian (Native American) philosophy of taking care of the earth. They have some good basic ideas. In my family we have Catholic and Native American Indian. I like the Indian far better.” “Within every person there’s a little boy or little girl. Society tends to pull it out of you. The curiosity, the interest, the wonder, it’s there. We restrict ourselves, but we are taught to. We’ve got to stay close to the natural world.”

It was a pleasure meeting Mr. and Mrs. Herbert W. Reilly, Jr. at their home for our interview. Herb represents the 33rd district in the Albany County Legislature, which includes parts of the Town of New Scotland, including the entire Village of Voorheesville, and parts of the Town of Bethlehem, including the Slingerlands area. He currently serves on the Conservation and Improvement, Public Works, and Pub-lic Safety committees. He also is a member of the Albany County Redistricting Commission. Herb began his service in the County Legislature in January 2000, after serving 12 years as Town Supervisor and 10 years as a Town Councilman in the New Scotland Town government. During his ten-ure, he devoted his energy to improving town finances, programs for seniors, and water and conservation projects. Referring to his time in office back in the 70’s, “There were not enough Democrats in this town, you could count them on one hand, so I ruffled a few feathers. I angered not only the Republicans but the Democrats over land use, lot sizes. So we locked horns and they threw me off the ticket. So I went and ran on the Independence line in 1995. I had my own little line, too, called the Constitution Party. I ended up running as an Independent with as many votes as the Republican and the Democrat candidates combined. (laugh) That was a good day for the Irish. We had a good time.” Q: Do you feel that it’s common to be reprimanded for not towing the party line? “Yeah. The other party can punish you also. Oh yeah. Definitely.” Q: What does a County Legislator do? “In the county legislative branch there are 39 seats, and each seat represents about 7,500 people. Actually, before the census, I had 800 too many voters in my district. When the census was done, we redis-tricted, and now I have only 95 extra voters, over the 7,500. That’s a much closer percentage.” Q: How did they come up with that number, 7,500 for each dis-trict? “They took the population of the county, which is about 300,000 and divided it by 39 legislators, and that’s where you come up with 7,500 people in the district.” Q: How do the extra constituents effect you as a legislator? “They are not weighted votes, and I don’t get that extra percentage. I will cast a vote that I’m representing 800 more people, for example, than some other legislator. Q: You ran on the Constitution Party line several years ago. FBA recently attended a protest by the Constitution Party regarding judges bending the laws as they like. ‘They’re supposed to interpret the law, apply the law, not impose

their own will. They can’t do that.” Q: Why do we need so many county legislators, rather than redistricting and saving the taxpayers money? “We have 39 legislators now, and 7,500 people per legislator. The Republican Minority has pushed for 21 legislative seats which would have increased my responsibility to about 14,000 people. That would have basically doubled my responsibility. I meet my constituents. It’s true what Tip O’Neile says, ‘All politics is local.’ I meet them at the Stewarts, I meet them at the library, at the church, and so on. If you double my constituency, it’s going to be extremely difficult to stay close to them.” “Another thing is the needs of the constituency. The county is so varied, from the city areas to the suburbs, and the real rural areas like Berne, Knox, and Westerlo. For me, that would take a district that would extend all the way up into Berne, which really I don’t have the expertise in dealing with rural issues like suburban issues. With the district I have now, the needs from people in this district are so much different than the needs of those people. Even these areas are a stretch, and I found that out campaigning. I’d be at one of the beautiful homes in Bethlehem, and they would be concerned about a water issue, for example. They’d say there was not enough pressure so they could have sprinkler systems working in their lawns. Then I’d be out at one of these homes out here off 85 and they’d say, ‘I don’t have enough water to flush the toilets.’ The needs are so varied, it’s hard to keep up with everything. If we had 21 seats, the end result is that my constituency would be so varied that I’m not sure I could adequately represent them.” “If you ask people to take on more responsibility, you’re going to end up paying them more money. There’s no question in my mind that they’re going to end up doing double the work. Our salaries are about $18,000. We did take a 3% raise this year. A year ago we had no raise, and prior to that they had gone a stretch of about 10 years with no raises. The county legislature did not take any raises, and when they finally had enough to do it, they did the 3% per year.” Q: Is it a lot of responsibility being a County Legislator? “It is definitely a lot of responsibility. I probably have about eight meetings per month. We have the regular board meeting, and a caucus, and I’m on three committees and three subcommittees. You find your parking space and meet at 112 State Street. I have a desk up there, and you have to set up, and there’s also a lot of homework. You see, I’m on Public Works, Public Safety, and Conservation Improvement, but there’s eleven committees, so I get very involved with the three I am on to help in the decision making process. Then we caucus, where the com-mittee chairman from each committee talks about social services, Pepsi Arena, the courthouse work that we’re doing, and so on. The county budget is I think $379 billion, which is a big budget, and so there is a lot of responsibility. Therefore, you couldn’t be versed in everything. The

County Executive (Michael Breslin) has to stay on top of it. He has a good executive staff, and we have a very good legislative staff too.” Q: What is the difference between a County Legislator and State Legislator? Why wouldn’t we go to our Assemblyman to discuss some of these things? “Why? Because as I said, all politics is local. Once you get up to Assemblyman Jack McEneny’s district, for example, he’s probably responsible for a couple hundred thousand people. My constituents know where I live, my phone number, and they call me at home and on weekends.” Q: Before you were County Legislator you were Town Supervisor for Town of New Scotland. What was that transition like for you? “The salary for Supervisor is $45,000 versus $18,000 as County Legislator. There are 39 of us, you see, and they couldn’t possibly pay us all that much money. When I was Supervisor, I was one of one, and I could personally do a lot more and get involved a lot more about all going on in the town. As County Legislator, I’m one of 39. I catch heat, but not quite as bad.” Q: How many hours per week do you work as County Legislator? “I would say at least 15 hours a week, and I still run my funeral busi-ness. I have two funeral homes.

FBA Interviews Albany County Legislator Herb Reilly At Home

Q: What is your opinion of the Patriot Act? “It’s a real threat against the Bill of Rights. The 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments. I would not trust my future to John Ashcroft. He’s too braise, too judgmental, and too much that God is on his side. I happen to believe in a God, and worship it, but I wouldn’t shove my values down somebody else’s throat. I would hope that they would see how I act and live, and say there must be something of value to what I believe in. Do it that way instead of punishing you. There’s a lot of the other, though, a lot of those very self-righteous people who are saying, ‘Do as I say, but not as I do.’ Unfortunately, Bill Clinton was guilty of lying to the public, but so many of those throwing the rocks had some pretty bad track records themselves. I saw a bumper sticker, ‘Clinton lied, but nobody died.’ Wow, that says a mouthful!” “I’m not happy with President Bush. I thought Reagan was a nice person, a gentleman, and he was hard-nosed, but he knew when to negotiate. Bush has a ‘ready, fire, aim’ policy. Reagan knew how far you could push somebody, and then it was time to let up a little bit before you lose all you gained. I believe that if George Bush was President during the nuclear crisis he would have blown the world up. No way would Reagan go to war with Iraq. He would give more time. The sanctions were working. They knew that.” Q: You are one of the sponsors of Resolution 327, requesting a congressional review of the Patriot Act. “I started it last year. I was happy to see it come to fruition. I felt that Al Queda was a huge threat to us, but if trying to defeat Al Queda causes us to defeat our own Constitution, then Al Queda won. If we suspend our Bill of Rights, we suspend our Constitution. I sup-port our troops 100%, but I would not have put them into that mess if it was me.” “In the funeral business I buried boys from Vietnam. As far as I’m concerned, war is the total breakdown of society.” Herb expressed his concern regarding the reasons why the terrorists are angry, and the importance of finding out the ‘why’ to their actions. Mrs. Reilly said, “We’ve made more enemies that we have killed.” Q: Do you see the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict contributing to the global situation? “Yeah, I do, unfortunately. I support Israel to have their home-land. You can’t antagonize people, not matter if they are green or orange (no matter what their skin color). Q: What is your stance on the recent Draft legislation? “It’s the only fair way to do it. Everybody’s got to make a sacri-fice. We haven’t seen George Bush’s daughter in uniform and we probably never will. Do that and then see if he would have a different perspective on the draft.” Q: A reader asked your opinion on the Rockefeller Drug Laws. “I don’t think those laws are helpful at all. Putting people in jail

does not solve the problem. They need proper care. You do the best you can do get it back together. I also think it’s a racist issue. We’ve got a county jail, which we’ve spent four years improving. It has better health facilities, for example. A person can end up spending their whole term there, but for drug crimes, they go to federal prison.” Mrs. Reilly com-mented, “Like it’s important for people to be flexible, our laws need to be more flexible.” Herb said, “It starts with the parents. Justice isn’t blind. We don’t encourage other people to trust us. I’d be more conser-vative fiscally, and more liberal assisting others.” Herb is particularly interested in the welfare of children. He told us a story of black child who was intimated by an officer who had a painting a white eagle attacking a black mouse, right on the front of his desk, where the child could see it. “It’s just not right,” Reilly said. Q: What are you going to do to improve government policy and procedures? “My philosophy is the less laws, the better off you are. If you do have to pass a law, make sure it’s very clear as to what the intention is and how it’s going to effect people. For example, the cell phone law and the automobile, they fail to see what’s between the danger of talking on the phone and drinking a cup of McDonald’s coffee and hitting a bump and having it land in your lap. Or, being a mother driving a car with children. It’s important to think of the consequences before you pass a law. And, if it requires a cost to enforce the law, put the funding with it. What is happening is that the higher bodies of government are legislat-ing laws saying to Albany County, ‘You enforce it.’ The state legislature has ruined our county budget by these Medicaid programs. For example, there’s a PINS program (Persons In Need of Supervision) for youngsters who are uncontrollable. It used to be up to age 16. Then, arbitrarily, the state legislature said to include kids up to 18 years of age. I would rather have 25 eleven-year-olds that two disobedient 18-year-olds. It was a huge problem for the county. It cost us about $4 million to do that. No money came to the county legislature for it. They say, ‘Do it.’ We say, ‘Fine.’” “It comes down to Medicaid, and there are a lot of children who need that supervision and we can’t help them because it’s not there for them due to the environment they are brought up in. We do a lot in the county. We are basically the ‘safety net’ for the people who don’t make it. So, when there is a recession going on and people are out of work, we end up with lower tax monies coming in because sales taxes are down and so on, but more responsibility is on our part to take care of their needs.” Q: Where does the County budget get its money from? “We get a lot from the state, but we get it for the services we provide, so the funding comes from some department in the state, say the Health Department when we had the SARS epidemic, or say Public Safety for upgrading our communications systems within the county. So, we get money from outside sources, and then we also get money from Off Track Betting, I’m sorry to say, and then we get money from sales tax, which is a fair tax, and then we get money from the property tax. Our property tax levy this year is less than the total cost of Medicaid program (so can’t pay for it). Our property tax is $45 million and the Medicaid program which is mandated by the State of New York is $64 million. Two years ago it was $42 million. It’s growing right through the roof. There are only two states in the whole country who bill their Medicaid costs back to the county. One is New York State, and I don’t know the other state. It’s a struggle.” By the way, to see the current Albany County adopted budget, go to www.albanycounty.com/_budget/_2004Budget.htm. In 2003, Albany County received the “Distinguished Budget Presentation Award”. Q: Does the county get all the property taxes or is it split between county and state? “Property taxes are for the county, but we share our money with the towns. We have a sales tax, and we share 40% with the towns. We have a mortgage tax and we share about 50% of it with the towns. The Town of New Scotland got a check for over $300,000 for their share of the mortgage tax. We just approved it (in June).”

By RAY & KIMBERLY FELICIANO

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Albany County Legislator Herb Reilly (D, WF) - 33rd District

Q: Do the towns then take care of the cities within it, like Delmar within the Town of Bethlehem? “But see, Delmar is not an incorporated village like Voorheesville, Alta-mont, Menands, Colonie, Green Island, and others. There are not many incorporated villages, but Bethlehem is a town that has these hamlets and they don’t receive any funding because they don’t have any govern-ment. We have five hamlets in New Scotland, but a hamlet is not a legal body. It’s a geographic location, like New Salem, Unionville, Slinger-lands, Elsmere, which are all hamlets with no government. We have in the Town of New Scotland six school districts, three major ones and three small ones. The amount of sales tax shared is based on per capita, and the mortgage tax is based not on the financial transactions (the pur-chase of a house).” Q: Are you concerned about transportation, particularly getting buses in more areas, and making it easier for people without cars? “I would like to see more use of public transportation. It’s hard to suggest to people to use public transportation when many are going all over the place, not just from point A to point B. We have bus transporta-tion, the CDTA (Capital District Transportation Authority), which is the public authority appointed by and under the sponsorship of Albany County Legislature.” “The rail transportation, which is local short lines, is not here, but the county is in process of trying to purchase the D&H railroad tracks, which is down the corner here (in Voorheesville). It would go all the way down to Broadway in Albany, which is nine miles. It’s going to be abandoned. If we don’t take it, and it gets fragmented by landowners, it will be lost forever. If Albany County buys it, then it becomes part of the United States Federal Rail Transportation Bank. So, if the need comes in the future for a commuter rail, the property will be there for it. In the meantime, we’re hoping to make it into a bike and hike trail. That would be real nice.” Q: How are you helping inform the community of your actions so the public knows what you’ve done and why they should vote for you in the next election? “I guess I should put out a newsletter. I’ve seen a lot of these news-letters, but I’m a very private person. I do my work and I don’t expect to be patted on the back and get all the credit. I just do my work and they know it gets done. I got a couple of libraries some grants this year. I helped the Voorheesville school district when they lost their fuel con-tract. We had the advanced life support program at the ambulance build-ing (in Voorheesville), and they had really been dragging their feet on the EMT’s, which is a very important thing, and I finally got it shot right through the legislature.” “I have contacts in the legislature, good friends who owe me votes. That’s just how it goes. I’ve done things for them, and they help me with issues, too. We talk to each other. It was the same with the Patriot Act. I knew some people who felt like I did, and I talked with them in private on it, and we started working together to get informational meet-ings about it, like at Bethlehem Town Hall.” “So, as far as informing people with newsletters, I’ve never been comfortable with that.” Mrs. Reilly stated that they are meant to be in-formation, but it’s also propaganda. Herb said that is exactly what it is, propaganda. “I don’t want to blow my horn. I was responsible for the road reconstruction over here, and also the one on Cherry Ave and Elm Ave. I caught a lot of flack on that, but that was a $5 million project that we worked with the federal government on. We have a 5-year capital project program, and it could be anything like buildings, nursing homes, roads, etc and so we put together a budget and look at the most pressing issues (by getting feedback from traffic studies, conditions of bridges and roads, for example). We have a bidding website besides the main AlbanyCounty.com that is a program we have for vendors who provide service to the county.” You can contact Herb at his Voorheesville office: (518) 459-1200.

Legislator Herb Reilly turns to see the public applaud the passing of Resolution 327, seeking congressional review of the Patriot Act.

(Photo by Kimberly Feliciano)

Albany County News

Department, cover-up and possible obstruction of justice. “Criminal justice can do good things or make things worse,” stated Roona. “We want an out-side investigation because it is known that the Albany Police Department has been deleting financial records. We don't want corrupt local officials handing out information that is often incomplete or missing.” According to Isla Roona, when Police Chief Bob Wolfgang re-tired, he received $200,000 from the city for his local tour bus company. “This is question-able,” Roona said. Isla Roona also stresses that there is a need for real community policing in the city of Al-bany with the appropriate resource allocation. “Neighborhoods with less need get greater at-tention, those with more need get little atten-tion,” stated Roona. “For example, the patrol officer assigned to Arbor Hill was put on leave without the Albany Police Department assign-ing another officer to take his place for a long time.” Roona charged that, “we get very aggressive police behavior. Racial profiling, intimidation, and people unwilling and fearful to speak out.” She stated that Commander D'Alessandro was a model that the Albany Police Department should have patterned itself after. “He was into a holistic approach to policing,” stated Roona.

N ew Bond and Building Proposal for Bethlehem Central Schools

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Albany Police Department Under Investigation

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“He went out of his way to meet with people, in agencies and in schools. He coordinated problems instead of having a revolving door system with a lack of empathy. He showed a proper attitude and followed through.” When D'Alessandro showed initiative in shutting down an Albany drug house for codes violations, the Albany Police Department re-warded him by forbidding D'Alessandro com-munity contact and was reassigned to adminis-trative duties, according to Roona. Soon after, he was fired. “They fired him on trumped up charges of being a racist,” stated Roona. “That

was just a smokescreen.” The new police chiefs were then hired from Internal Af-fairs which were the ones that let D'Ales-sandro go. “John Nielsen, the former Al-bany Police Chief and Commissioner of Public Safety moved to Haiti,” said Roona, “possibly forced out since he might talk about the corruption. Isn't that convenient?” According to Detective James Miller, Public Information Officer of the Albany Police Department, “Chris has a small group of supporters, but such a small number will not dictate policy to the city.” He was unable to discuss any par-ticulars about the matter, stating it was under internal investigation. “Financial records were turned over to the Control-ler's office and there is no evidence of misappropriation of funds,” Miller stated. “We are collecting more signatures for another petition,” said Roona. “The Mayor said we are a handful of dissidents and we want to show a broad constitu-ency in Albany.” So far, around 350 sig-natures were on the petition, according to Roona. She said, “The Coalition and the citizens of Albany call for fair allocation, accountability, and respect.”

Events and Meetings in July 2004

Every Thursday at 5:30pm, every Friday at 8:00am: Watch Channel 16 (Schenectady) to see Fourth Branch of America on TV! July 5 and July 19 (Mon): Albany Common Council Meeting, “Coalition for Accountable Police and Government” at Albany City Hall, council chambers, 2nd floor. Public comment begins at 7pm. For more info call 465-3160. July 9, 10, and 11 (weekend): Theatre performance to counter stereotypes, “I Ain’t Yo Uncle!” , Hilton Center for Performing Arts Music Conservatory, 40 Russell Road, Albany. 8pm/8pm/2pm. $10 (call for $8 tickets). Parental guidance advised. Call 935-4132 July 12 (Mon): ReconsiDer Forum on Drug Policy, Albany Public Library at 7 pm. Public welcome. Agenda includes potential fo-rums of local and Cogressional candidates with reform implications; breakdown of drop the rock legislation; moveon/meetup op-portunities. For more info: www.reconsider.org July 12 (Mon): Arbor Hill Arts and Culture Committee Meeting at the Arbor Hill Community Center conference room, 2nd Street Entrance (east of 2nd and Lark). Agenda includes: Staff from Albany Institute of History and Art; Barbara Smith - The future of the Inventory of Summer Activities for Children and Youth; The Stephen and Harriet Myers House - presentation; and Lawanda Horton from Cummunity Arts United presenting "Community Arts Summit 2004" coming July 24th. For info call 935-4132. July 15 (Thurs): Citizens for Transportation Bus Organization meets at 7pm, Albany Public Library, 161 Washington Ave. To im-prove the local bus services, bus riders need to take more action and speak out! The speaker will be Lydia Kulbida, News Channel 13 Anchor. A CDTA representative will be there. Plan ahead and come. To volunteer and for more info call 436-1944. July 15 (Thurs): Mansion Community Arts Inc, a not-for-profit whose mission is to restore St. Anthony's church (Grand & Madi-son, Albany) and program community arts having its weekly general meetings. All are welcome, artists and organizers alike. Starts at 7pm at 8 Elm St, Albany, The Free School. Please Come build forum for arts and awareness in all its forms. July 19 (Mon): Forming a Union of Citizens. 7pm at Albany Public Library, 161 Washington. Fourth Branch of America, pub-lisher of The Informed Constituent, looking for members, interns, volunteers, and donations to support our goal of bringing your government back to you! The key to success is communicating, working as a team, a union of citizens, to address our government. July 24 (Sat): Community Arts United presents “Community Arts Summit 2004”. Ten Broeck Mansion: 9 Ten Broeck Place, Al-bany. Network with local artists and arts organizations, and be a part of the cultural renaissance right here in Albany! Presenters will get the word out about what your group has to offer and what you need to get it done. Looking for student interns and volun-teers! For more information or if you plan to attend, please contact Lawanda Horton at 935-4132. July 26 (Mon): Critical Mass at Veteran's Memorial/Skaterboarder's Monument in Washington Park, Albany. Starts at 4:30pm. Critical Mass is a bike ride open to anyone using non-motorized transportation to raise awareness about and protest car culture, lack of space for pedestrians and bicyclists, and pollution. Please come ride with us if this is of interest to you. More info: satellite-crash@yahoo.com or 436-0929. Mondays 7pm (except 3rd Monday): Ironweed Collective Meeting, at 98 Grand St., Albany. The Ironweed Collective is a group of individuals working to undermine capitalism by fostering small, community based institutions to meet people's needs. We are organizing a space at 98 Grand St., which will be a meeting space for activists and community members, a library, and an artists workshop, including a music studio. For more info about our monthly calendar of events, call the Ironweed infoshop at 436-0929.

The termination of Cmd. D'Alessandro by the Albany Police will again be scrutinized. (Photo by Ray Feliciano)

This year's presidential campaign has an added flavor absent from past campaigns of re-cent memory: the opinions of leaders of the Church. Democratic candidate for president John Kerry has raised controversy among Church leaders for his support of abortion which has prompted action from some Church leaders. Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis urged Kerry not to come to Communion at any church in St. Louis. This warning was also echoed by Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, as well as the head of Kerry's archdiocese, Archbishop Sean O'Mal-ley, who has said that politicians who favor abortion should abstain themselves from Com-munion. The majority of Church leaders, however, do not see the need to deny Communion to politi-cians whose views differ from that of the Church. Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted and Bishop Gerald Kicanas, both of Arizona, have said they will not deny Communion to Catholic politicians who are in favor of abortion.

Bishop Olmsted sees the controversy as an op-portunity to teach candidates about the posi-tions of the Church, "My job is to get to know the key people in the state and appeal to their consciences," he stated. These views, however, differ from Vatican City's statement on the is-sue. Two years ago Pope John Paul II released a doctrinal note which advised Catholic politi-cians to "oppose any law that attacks human life." Abortion and capital punishment are both against Church teachings, which uphold the sanctity and value of every human life. Kerry cites the separation of Church and State on this issue, believing that "Church offi-cials shouldn't tell American politicians what to do in the context of our public life." How-ever, this begs the question, if Kerry is going to present himself as a good Catholic to woo Catholic voters (the largest religious voting bloc in the United States representing twenty-seven percent of registered voters), then shouldn't he abide by Church teachings? I f John Kerry believes in the separation of Church and State--that religious beliefs do not

Opinion By MELISSA BRUNO

PAGE 13 THE INFORMED CONSTITUENT VOLUME 2, ISSUE 7

A Question of Church and State: Religion and Politics

Opinions and Letters to the Editor! This is where we find out what you, the readers, think. Our purpose is to increase the conversation within our community, and better understand varying viewpoints. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Informed Constituent or its staff. OK. Here are the guidelines for submitting an editorial. Keep it civil. No profanity. No more than 600 words maximum. Electronic submission of a Word or Text file is best. Send to kjkeith@nycap.rr.com or mail to The Informed Constituent, P.O. Box 8558, Albany, New York 12208

belong in the political arena--then he should ab-stain from using religion as a potential strategy for procuring votes. Most serious Catholics al-ready take issue with Kerry's support of abortion and politicizing religion will not help him any further. Religious voters must be critical of their po-tential choice for president--or any political of-fice. Catholics and Christians alike understand the fundamental beliefs of their faith and if they decide to vote according to their morals they must be willing to evaluate a candidate's com-pliance with these beliefs. Ultimately, there is no way to tell if a political candidate using relig-ion is being disingenuous or not. We cannot un-derstand the personal beliefs of other human be-ings. We can, however look at a candidate's past actions, current beliefs, and future proposals to better understand his dedication to the morals of any particular faith. Many of the nation's sixty-five million Catholics will see this as their duty come November 2nd.

Losing our Religion

What has happen to our religions ways? Have we realized yet what “church” is really about? The church has told us for hundreds of years that if we are going to make it to heaven that we must give in and “fear God”. We be-come “indoctrinated”, brainwashed, hand-fed what to believe. They have convinced human-ity for hundreds of years that we are the root of evil, and so we will burn in hell forever if we don't do as they see fit. Well, if we are “made in the image of God”, how could we be inher-ently evil? We create evil. We only need to look at the present day Catholic church and all the trouble it has cre-ated—the wars, the guilt, shame, and fears. It is not just the Catholics. It is any extreme,

shove-it-down-your-throat, legalistic, funda-mentalist way of thinking. It is no wonder why the masses are turning to something else—maybe no religion, or no God. Some say they are spiritual, but not religious. Gen-erally, the church has lots credibility. Now with the internet and the inevitable globalization and sharing of ideas around the world, people are looking at alternatives, oth-ers ways and means to seek God. Spirituality is such a buzz word now. What makes it so different from religion? Maybe it’s the ability to see the beauty in all of Life, that there is an Intelligence, a Creative Force. I am personally drawn to the Native American path, and I seek enlightenment from within. I don't feel guiltily for being human. I don't be-lieve that I have to learn from a book that was

Opinion By JERRY KEELER written 2000 years ago. I am freer than many be-cause I don't live in fear of “hell”. I see nothing wrong with leaving the word God where it has been, but let’s remember that humanity is evolving, and the key to our pro-gress is tolerance. Furthermore, these political battles may not mean anything when not forced to acknowledge God. Remember our founding fathers and first of the ten amendments to our “sacred” Constitu-tion: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Gov-ernment for a redress of grievances.

Beware of the Monkey, Mr. President Opinion By TERRY PHELAN

I had intended to write this column around the Chi-nese New Year but somehow it got put off. Once again we are in the year of the Monkey. For those who are un-familiar with it, the Chinese zodiac repeats a 12-year cy-cle in which each year is symbolized with an animal. Ini-tially, this was based upon the observation of Jupiter's orbit. Jupiter takes roughly twelve of our Earth years to orbit the sun, and so Jupiter appears in a different con-stellation each year, until after 12 years, it is back to where it started. Some folks will tell you that your Chinese zodiacal sign gives you some description of your personality, but I've always been very skeptical of this. For one thing, an astrological sign based on the year of your birth means everyone in your high school graduating class would ba-sically share the same horoscope. Hard to glean anything personal from that. On the other hand, there may be some cosmic fortune that our birth year brings us. One year's graduating class enters a robust job market in a time of peace; another

year's graduates aren't so lucky as they find jobs are scarcer or they may find themselves drafted into war. Well, is Chinese astrology just a lot of hooey? Con-sider this: The year 2001, when the World Trade towers were destroyed, was the Year of the Snake. So was 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. So was 1929, when the stock market crashed to trigger the Great De-pression. Comparing the results of US presidential elections with the Chinese zodiac is particularly interesting. Since we elect a president on the first Tuesday in November every four years, all of our presidential elections have occurred in 3 Chinese zodiac signs: The Year of The Monkey, the Dragon, and the Rat. Clinton was first elected in the Year of The Monkey, then reelected in the Year of the Rat. So was Reagan, and before him, so was Nixon. To go all the way back to the beginning of the republic, Washington was first elected in the Year of The Monkey, then reelected in the Year of the Rat. John Adams was then elected in the Year of The Dragon and served but one term. Jefferson

was then chosen in the Year of The Monkey and re-elected in the Year of The Rat. Historically, for whatever reason, it has been very tough for Presidents first elected in The Year of The Dragon to win a second term in The Year of The Mon-key. The last president to achieve that feat was Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 and to find another before him you have to go all the way back to Ulysses Grant in 1872. (FDR was reelected in the Year of the Monkey 1944, but it was his fourth time around) Notable contenders who have failed include Herbert Hoover (1932), Lyndon Johnson (who chose not to run in 1968, The Year of The Monkey), Jimmy Carter (1980) and George Bush Senior (1992). Like his daddy, our current president was also elected (technically, selected) to his first term in the Year of The Dragon (2000). While the future cannot always be pre-dicted from the past, it's interesting that, irregardless of current poll numbers or funds raised, a Chinese zodiac analysis would determine his reelection prospects to be a long shot...

PAGE 14 THE INFORMED CONSTITUENT VOLUME 2, ISSUE 7

Opinions and Letters to the Editor!

Screw Your Draft, Rangel Opinion By JIM DeBERRY

Do we need to reinstate the draft? No. But let’s dispense with the political motivations be-hind this legislation, first. To his credit, House Representative Charlie Rangel (D-New York) is an honorable Vet, having served his time in the Korean War. He has introduced a bill (HR.163) to reinstate the draft or, compulsory military service to the government. But know this: Rangel couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the military nor the wel-fare of our troops. He’s trolling for the votes of the 20% of the undecided voters. He figures that an undecided voter, having had his child drafted and killed in the military while under a Republican Administration, might express (understandable) anger by voting a Democratic ticket come November. His rhetoric is tired and old hat--that past drafts have unfairly targeted the minorities and underclass. This is political pap. While it is true

that disproportionately more minorities and un-derclass make up the military than the general population, there are reasons for it, the main one being opportunity. Contrary to Hollywood myth, only 25% of the military in Vietnam were drafted. Most volunteered for want of a future, career, out of patriotism, etc., just as they do so today (yours truly included). About 86% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasian/Hispanic). Remember Elvis? Jimmy Stewart? Bush, Sr.? Yeah, them rich white boys had it easy, eh? But I digress. We should not reinstate the draft because, first and foremost, it is against everything my country was founded upon. From a Libertarian’s point of view, it is invol-untary servitude, slavery, if you will. But the real reason against a draft is that we don’t want draftees. Bigger guns don’t win a war. Morale does. Some of the most lopsided battles in history were won not with might, but good morale. An excellent example is General

Tony McAuliffe and his boys. In WWII, he was commanding the 101st Airborne Division during the siege of Bastogne. The Germans surrounded the town with overwhelming forces. When the Germans demanded their sur-render, McAuliffe sent back a one-word reply: “NUTS”. They held Bastogne. That’s morale, and you won’t get that from draftees. My first day in Boot Camp, I said to myself, “DeBerry, what the &%$# have you gotten yourself into?!” Then my betters kicked in, and said, “Son, this is your bed you made, now sleep in it.” I couldn’t argue with that, because I DID make that bed. And that’s the whole point. I doubt I’d have worked as hard at being at least a half-ass soldier had I been drafted. It was a good experience, the best experi-ence, worth more than the college money. But not for draftees. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them all drink.

Greetings: I read with great interest your June 2004 issue, and for the first time, The Informed Constituent. In reading your agenda or reasons for the paper, I am confused whether there is an “agenda” or if the articles are going to be based upon discernable facts that represent the true meanings behind our government and therefore allow the citizens who want meaningful representation to understand the right and proper role of government. With-out this, a citizen who is neither knowledge-able nor possesses the qualities of a citizen may utilize that “branch of logic which teaches the rules and modes of reasoning” or dialectic. A quick example is the article by Greg Hitchcock regarding Assemblyperson Ed-dington and her support of a .50 cal. ban. Mr. Hitchcock writes “Those that oppose banning .50 caliber rifles do so for a number of reasons, not the least of which is a per-ceived infringement of the 2nd Amendment, which guarantees the right to keep and bear arms.” Assemblyperson Eddington, 1) has no idea

who she works for, 2) has no understanding of what form of government we even are guaran-teed, yet this is not discussed yet only sup-ported by Mr. Hitchcock, “perceived infringe-ment”. Had Mr. Hitchcock understood himself what form of government we are guaranteed and the difference between a Democracy and a Repub-lic, the form of government we ARE guaran-teed, he would not have let Assemblyperson Eddington get away with her treasonous at-tempt at a law that violates her oath to uphold and defend the Constitution nor her attempt of slandered rights. His claim to the paper should have been misprision of treason committed by Assemblyperson Eddington! Briefly to finish, I would like to address the privileges some Assembly persons feel they have regarding rights. They have none, “As the people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitu-tional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived...” (Federalist 49) “There is no position which depends on clearer principles, than that every act of a dele-gated authority, contrary to the tenor of the

commission under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Con-stitution, can be valid. To deny this, would be to affirm, that the dep-uty is greater than his principal; that the servant is above his master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people themselves; that men acting by virtue of powers may do, not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid. (Federalist 78) Mr. Hitchcock, as all powers our representa-tives have, flow from our God given rights as citizens, and are granted to our representatives only as privileges and powers wherein, regarding among others the 2nd Amendment. Hamilton ex-plains the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, “Here in strictness the people surrender nothing; and as they retain everything they have no need of par-ticular reservations.”, (Federalist 84) therefore any argument that only police and military can posses certain weapons or there is a “perceived” right to keep and bear arms, is nonsense. Like it or not, if I can’t do it, my government with great certainty, cannot do it either. Now you are an informed constituent!

If I Can’t Do It, Neither Can Our Government Editorial By CHRISTOPHER SCHUH

Spiritual Practitioners Tortured and Murdered in China

Editorial By KIMBERLY FELICIANO

Thank you, Leejun Ivie, for your submis-sion to TIC regarding NY Senate Resolution 4809 commending the celebration of the 12th World Falun Dafa Day on May 13th. First introduced in 1992, Falun Dafa is a gentle yet profound spiritual practice, rooted in pre-historic China, and has traveled around the world, captivating millions through its ele-gant qigong movements and insightful teach-ings. Falun Gong is a peaceful spiritual me-diation that was introduced in China and is now practiced in over 60 countries around the world. Ms. Robin Farmer, a Falun Gong prac-

titioner from Florida, “I finally found in Falun Gong what my life had been missing - har-mony, health and a profound sense of peace and spiritual awakening.” Tragically, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in Mainland China have been persecuted for their spiritual practice. Falun Gong was banned in July 1999 by the erstwhile Communist Party leader, Jiang Zemin. Ms. Farmer said, “Despite the remark-able effects Falun Gong was having on Chi-nese healthcare costs and decreasing crime rate, when the number of Falun Gong practi-tioners gathering in parks to practice peace-

fully everyday grew into the millions, the communist leadership felt threatened and or-dered the persecution on July 20, 1999.” Hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong prac-titioners in China have been arrested and beaten, and thousands tortured and murdered for refusing to denounce their peaceful and healthy practice. Governments all over the world have spoken out against the persecu-tion, which is the single largest transgression of basic human rights happening anywhere in the world today. To learn more about Falan Dafa and how to help, go to www.falandafa.org.

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