CDBG $

Franco does a good job of summing up our own thoughts on this issue. We did have a good time at the meeting. It was very entertaining.

Despite our support, the numbers that are thrown around does give it the whiff of a "shell-game." Only time will tell.

One thing to watch: who becomes the program monitor. Will it be someone who has experience working with complicated government grants and programs? Or at least someone with some management and executive experience? After all, the area does have many people who worked at mid-level and high-level state jobs. People who were responsible for big budgets and overseeing complex programs. Maybe someone from the private sector. It should at leats be someone who doesn't think of high-school as post-graduate work.

Or will the job go to the son, daughter, nephew or niece of a Troy Republican or Conservative. Someone with no experience in such matters. A younger person who will be no more than a yes-person.


POOR JEANINE

PIRRO VEERS OFF THE MAP
By FREDRIC U. DICKER

March 16, 2006 -- ALBANY - Gaffe-prone Republican attorney-general candidate Jeanine Pirro has done it again - bragging about her knowledge of upstate areas while erroneously claiming New York has a border with Ohio.

Pirro's bumble occurred during an interview on Albany's WROW-AM, as she bragged about her upstate credentials: born in Elmira and educated at SUNY Buffalo and Albany Law School. "I've been to Chautauqua County, which is all the way on the west coast, I should say the west end, of New York, bordering Ohio," the ex-Westchester DA said.

In fact, Chautauqua borders Pennsylvania. New York has no border with Ohio. Pirro later offered up another malapropism after acknowledging her geography mistake: "Am I better than that? Absolutely not."

Vandenburgh did nothing but serve up softballs to the hapless Pirro. The guy is shameless. Once again, Pirro called the Attorney General the "state's highest law enforcement official." She's wrong. It's the State's Legal Department, it's not a super-DA's office. Jeanine, please read the statute that created the office. It's in The Executive Law.

Pirro also claimed to have "vast experience in rooting out fraud and corruption." Unfortunately, she couldn't root out her own husband's fraud and corruption.

Have a safe Saint Patrick's Day.