Picture of the Day

This week’s award goes to the Troy Record, which boasted a glorious full-color shot of state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno living up to his moniker, Hollywood Joe. Bruno climbed aboard one of the roughly 100 rigs carted into Albany as part of Thursday’s truck show.

Or was that a convoy? Irregardless, Hollywood Joe scaled the metal beast, took a seat in its cab and then thrust his finger out the window as if to lead gaggle of somewhat irrational truckers forward to lower fuel costs. He also took an opportunity to pin the widening fuel crisis on Assembly Minority Leader Sheldon Silver, who has balked at giving an OK to the so-called “gas tax holiday” his Republican counterparts have blathered about for the past two months.

Were one to arbitrarily glance at the wayward Record or the Saratogian –its Spa City doppelganger –they might get the impression that Bruno is leading the way toward lower fuel costs. In fact, this quite obviously staged photo pretty much says Bruno will do anything to lower gas prices for his constituents, even if it means erecting the oil derrick himself.

Update: Kudos to the TU business staffer who notice Bruno appears to be leading the charge for the "BS Express." Never a dull moment during a Hollywood Joe photo shoot.

“All of us here today are directly impacted by the skyrocketing fuel costs,” Bruno remarked before taking to the truck. “Whether you’re a truck driver, a family struggling to make ends meet or a senior citizen on a fixed income.”

Of course, this is all showmanship. Does anyone honestly believe Bruno or anyone of his ilk is threatened by gas prices? Even if they were, Bruno and his cronies are helpless to do much of anything outside of staging bullshit photos and harping on about lessening the relatively miniscule gasoline tax, giving a handful of poor sots the impression that someone gives a damn.

There is one key exception to this assumption. Bruno could put his money where his mouth is and start enacting the plans outlined by John Egan, who delivered a report about the future of rail use in New York nearly two years ago for the senate High-Speed Rail Task Force. Care to guess who appointed him to that committee?

Fewer cars on the road would mean less traffic. Less traffic would mean less fuel expended. Less fuel expended would mean the market for gasoline would drop. And it doesn’t take an economic genius to tell you what happens when demand drops.

But instead, Bruno will continue to play his usual charade with Silver, while the working class they speak of suffer. The two can bite each other’s backs, maneuver for re-election and stage a few more photo ops with the all-to-willing media whores like the Record, or Mark Williams, the suet-brained squawk box WROW foists as an afternoon talk show host. Meanwhile, the rest of us rational thinkers can shrug while nothing gets done.