Submitted by John Galt, Apr 4, 2007 07:59

As one of this state's many disabled combat veterans, and as one who was born here in NYS, and as one who has studied extensively about our state's history, it's Constitution, and its laws, so as to be a better, more-informed citizen, I find myself taking great exception to this statement in your newspaper that "the Spitzer administration is looking forward to resuming the governor's role as unfettered state executive".

In point of fact, NYS does not have an "unfettered state executive", and any assertions to the contrary by Christine Anderson or the Spitzer administration are simply empty statements that border on the seditious, a bold attempt by this "STEAMROLLER" and his crowd to subvert the processes of OUR state government, from which springs forth OUR democracy here in NYS, and this taking place right before our eyes, as was just the case with this bogus budget process, which was done in open violation of ART. VII of OUR state constitution, to be quite frank about the matter.

According to our own history, NYS has had long experience with "governors", going all the way back in time to the director general, who administered New Netherland under the Dutch from 1624 to 1664; and then the royal governors, including the infamous Lord Cornbury, who administered the colony under the British until 1776, at which time New York severed its ties forever with Great Britain when its representatives signed the Declaration of Independence, and thereby, gave us the blessings of freedom which we are to enjoy in this state to this day, and tomarrow as well, through the body of OUR state constitution.

As to the very limited office of governor in the State of New York, in April 1777, the Convention of Representatives of the State of New York (renamed the Fourth Provincial Congress) adopted the first State constitution, and New York's constitution of 1777 created the office of governor "to take care that the laws are faithfully executed" and right up to the present time, that is essentially all that the governor of the State of NY is given to do by the people of this state, through section 3 of ART. IV of our state constitution, and nowhere have we given him any authority at all to just willy-nilly step outside of the "law" and become "unfettered" with respect to dissolving our towns and villages here in up-state NY.

In point of fact, the forms of our local governments here in NYS are spelled out in great detail in OUR state constitution, and nowhere does OUR state constitution give this "STEAMROLLER" any authority to unilaterally combine or dissolve OUR towns and villages.

To the contrary, ARTICLE IX of OUR state constitution, entitled "Bill of rights for local governments", states in Section 1 as follows: "Effective local self-government and intergovernmental cooperation are purposes of the people of the state", and as "people of the state" outside of NYC, we disabled veterans especially take this constitutional language quite seriously, just as we do every other word that is written in our constitution, and after this budget fiasco, where the "STEAMROLLER" took our constitution and wadded it up into a litle ball and threw it into the trash, right before our eyes, as if it and we did not matter, our name for him has become "PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1" up here in the countryside, and rapidly, through the miracle of the internet, the word is now getting out that this "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer is the greatest threat to our democracy and constitutional way of life here in up-state NY that there has been since we gained our independence from Great Britain back in 1776.

And if this "STEAMROLLER" intends to persist in this misplaced belief of his that he really is "unfettered" as NYS governor; that he really is "entitled" to be outside of OUR laws, free to do as he pleases with respect to spitting on OUR constitution, as he just did with respect to the state budget, then it seems that we are in for some interesting times ahead, just as was the case back in the early-1700's, when the people of the state got together to have LORD CORNBURY himself removed as colonial governor for transgressing on our rights, and in this case, thanks to our constitution, we can simply start lobbying our state legislature to remove the "STEAMROLLER" from office for gross and abject failure to live up to his constitutional oath to "take care that the laws are faithfully executed", which starts with OUR organic law as it is spelled out in the entire body of the NYS Constitution.

And so ....

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