Free Republic

So much for that “anti-incumbent” mood! Out of 33 potential contested seats in Albany and in Washington, there will only be 11 primary elections this year — and many of them are sure to be incumbent blowouts. Out of the 27 elected officials representing Brooklyn in Albany, only seven are facing Democratic primary opponents. And since Democrats overwhelmingly outnumber Republicans in the borough, that means that least 20 state incumbents will be back in their cushy leather seats come January — despite everybody crying about how ineffective and dysfunctional our state legislators are. It’s not that much better in Congress:...

City cops are livid over a legislative proposal that could handcuff the brave officers involved in life-and-death confrontations every day -- requiring them to shoot gun-wielding suspects in the arm or leg rather than shoot to kill, The Post has learned. The "minimum force" bill, which surfaced in the Assembly last week, seeks to amend the state penal codes' "justification" clause that allows an officer the right to kill a thug if he feels his life or someone else's is in imminent danger. The bill -- drafted in the wake of Sean Bell's controversial police shooting death -- would force...

ALBANY, July 21 - Over a five-year period, 11,474 bills reached the floor of the two houses of the Legislature in Albany. Not a single one was voted down. And during that period, from 1997 through 2001, the Legislature held public hearings on less than 1 percent of the major laws it passed. When those laws made it to the floor of each chamber for a vote, more than 95 percent passed with no debate. Civic groups, policy advocates and even some lawmakers have long rolled their eyes at what has become known as Albany's "dysfunction." But a study released...