I should really know better than to read the comments section on the TU's political stories. It is no way a representative sample of the population. It's people who are politically engaged, and I suspect, people who are affiliated with the campaigns but who do not identify themselves as such.

Anyway. Since I already made the mistake of reading this one, I'll also comment on it.

Fred Dicker is not the issue. I don't care who he is biased for or biased against. Frankly, I don't pay any attention to the guy. It seems unlikely that Dicker himself had anything to do with any supposed out-of-line photographers, but I'll certainly reconsider it if turns out that he did.

The issue is, every one of us needs to think of a situation in which we might have a disagreement with a Governor Paladino. It shouldn't be that hard to come up with something, even if you support the guy. And in that scenario, this is what you can expect. Heated threats. A fat slab of a guy getting in your face and making you the issue, instead of whatever the original disagreement was.

If that's your idea of a functioning governor's office, then I'm not sure what is left to discuss. We're going to discuss issues after that? Almost seems irrelevant.

http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/32350/the-manhandling-in-bolton-landing/

Dear TU,

Your coverage of this gentleman's protest is very exciting. It really opens the door for coverage of anyone who pulls some kind of public stunt. Why, think of the copy you would get if a local person decided to burn a Quran! That would be very exciting!

Also, too, I really can't think of a more valid, important subject for a protest than whether or not a public figure appears on a media figure's radio program. It's a cause I think we should all reflect on, at least for as long as it takes to finish this sentence.

Kudos to the city for doing the right thing and firing Sgt. McKenna.

Arbitrator: Sgt. McKenna showed no remorse

Scorn on the city for apparently not paying attention to what other employees are doing.

Albany asks independent counsel to investigate employee

Albany Med aiming $500,000 to help city neighborhood

Master negotiator, Jerry Jennings:

"It's an indication that they want to continue to grow here, and we should do everything we can to make sure that they do," Jennings said. "We've got a state that's taking jobs away from here. And on the local level, I have not seen many institutions making a $360 million commitment.

"They're not obligated to do that," Jennings continued. "They could just pack up and grow somewhere else."

[...] And he cautioned lawmakers against sending the wrong signals.

"They're not doing anything (to help the city) by sending a message that we're anti-development," Jennings said, "and that's what we're doing now."

Apprentice negotiator, John Rosenzweig:

"What are we going to do" asked Councilman John Rosenzweig, who represents the 8th Ward off New Scotland Avenue, "impose a residency law on a medical center?"

Fellas. It's not like you need to be antagonistic about things. But are you looking out for your own city, or are you just throwing up your hands and saying "let 'em do whatever they want!"?

Never mind. Asked and answered.

That area is going to be a suburban office park, wedged into an urban area. It won't be walkable, it's not mixed use. But Albany Med and BBL get what they want, and that's what's important here.

Update: For *%^$'s sake, Jennings was an educator, was he not? Have someone edit your letters, dude.

Public pay, special deals

Mathes, who worked for 16 years as chief of staff to former Sen. Charles Cook, R-Delhi, said criticisms by Brodsky, who is running for attorney general, are self-serving. "He should come down from his ivory tower or from his sweet area of White Plains and see what it takes to make a corn field into jobs," Mathes said.

He said county legislators should be mindful that he has been offered much higher paying jobs elsewhere and the incentive pay was a way for the IDA board to keep him.

"They provided a compensation plan that rewards performance," he said. "Quite frankly if that performance structure was not in place I would not be here for the people of Greene County. Why should public positions always have to settle for inferior talent? Why should the public sector always lose their best talent because it does not have the tools that the private sector has?"

What are we calling this sociological and psychological phenomenon? This phenomenon where a person who is caught in stunning acts of greed responds by saying just how darn important he or she is.

We've seen Wall Street defend their bonuses after they set fire to the country's economy, we've seen rich people whine about paying a few bucks more in taxes and threaten to leave the state. And now we have a "public servant" talking about just how great he is, and trying to talk past the fact that public money is going into his pocket, as opposed to going to the community he "serves."

Whatever happened to shame? Or is it now part of American life that people like this just brazen it out and their greed will be silently accepted?

Just noticed that the TU is hosting a Teabagger blog. I'm very tempted to go into the comments sections and start throwing rhetorical haymakers. But no good can come of that, just wasted time.

If you've ever heard or read a teabagger, you've probably realized that their politics and their understanding of history are muddled, at best. Surely the TU editors have come to that same conclusion. Which leads me to believe that hosting that blog is a pretty cynical bid for blog traffic on the TU's part.

The Times Union announces an exciting new method for it to obtain content for publication without paying the writers of that content.

Venture promises a different spin on news

This is in addition to the 23,550 blogs that the TU publishes by non-staff writers, who also are not paid.