Sen. Baucus (Dem - Montana) Drunk on Senate Floor

Sen. Max Baucus (Dem - Montana) is one of the main authors of the horrendous health care bill. It's a disgrace he had to go drunk on the Senate floor and defend it. Or was he trying to honor the memory of one of the pioneers of Government healthcare - Ted Kennedy?

Taxpayer Money Earmarked for SC End Up in CA

Because there still are a few idiots who think that Government can efficiently manage $2.5 trillion dollars... Earmark meant for the library in Jamestown, SC, ends up in Jamestown, CA. Which doesn't even have a library. Government efficiency at its best.

Read here the full story.

Chris Christie Names Liberal Paula Dow for AG

Governor-elect Chris Christie named today Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow as his AG.

For many, it's just another disappointing move from Christie. Dow is a Democrat, and is known as a bleeding-heart liberal. Her record shows she's just one of those liberals who are reluctant to prosecute crime, for various social reasons. Here are some examples (I'm sure many more will surface in the following days):

September 2009 - A man whose long and violent record includes killing a witness to one of the bloodiest crimes in Newark's modern history was sentenced just on weapons charges, to a maximum 10 years in prison. Paula Dow agreed to drop the murder charge and recommend Michael Melvin be sentenced to no more than 16 years in prison.

August 2007 - Dow declined to arrest the suspect in a schoolyard shooting that left three college students dead. The NY Times article highlights the strained relations between police (that gets criminals off the street) and prosecutors (that lets them back on the street) in Newark:
Some officials in Newark Police Headquarters and City Hall, who have complained in the past about Ms. Dow’s reluctance to make arrests in murder cases that rely on a single eyewitness.
This is not acceptable in a very high crime area lie Newark.

June 2009 - She failed to get a indictment against Jose Gabriel Vega, who shot a man last year in Newark.

Obama Encouraging More Irresponsible Behaviour

In a meeting with bankers today, Obama implored top bankers to increase lending.

So after a recession caused by a credit crisis created by easy money, foreclosures and other loan defaults, how can this ignorant idiot keep a straight face while telling banks: "You gotta lower your lending standards even more, guys".

About Raising the Debt Ceiling

The Congress Democrats are planning to raise the debt ceiling by a staggering $1.8 trillions as soon as possible, so they don't have to do it before the 2010 elections. I previously heard the argument that they'd have to do it no matter what, and there's no way they can't do it.

Really? Can't they? So what if the debt ceiling is not raised? I mean, there are people who were foreclosed, and had their credit card accounts cancelled... What do they do, the first thing? They stop spending. Wouldn't that be an interesting exercise? To see what the Government would do when they reach the legal debt limit (think of it as the credit card limit) and they can't go over it?

Eco-Hypocrites Converging on Copenhagen

This is a very comprehensive article about the eco-hypocrites:
Taking the private jet to Copenhagen

Examples:

• Sheryl Crow, leading a Stop Global Warming concert tour across America. It was revealed that while Crow travelled in a biodiesel tour bus, her 30-person entourage followed in a fleet of 13 gas-guzzling vehicles.
• John Travolta produced in 2006 an estimated 800 tons of carbon emissions, more than a hundred times the output of the average Briton.
• Harrison Ford makes do with a smaller Cessna Citation Sovereign eight-seater jet, four propeller planes and a helicopter.
• U2 is estimated to produce the carbon equivalent of the annual emissions of 6,500 British homes.

Stimulus is Working in NJ

The Obama administration set up a website, Recovery.gov, to track stimulus spending throughout the country, and its results, especially the numbers of jobs saved. It's an extensive operation, financed with about $84 millions, and it's almost a real-time aggregation of various data, sortable by zip codes, congressional districts, industries, etc.

I looked at the New Jersey page, and the data is very encouraging. 384 jobs were saved in the 40th congressional district! 3 millions spent in the 17th district! That's great news!! There's only one problem. New Jersey only has 13 congressional districts. So what's going on here? Is it a programming error, or a way to hide spending?? Obama's website shows that $5,637,012 has been spent in the 15th district, and $7,095,859 more in the 0th district. Wouldn't that be called "money laundering"??

Despite this data being publicized in recent days (it applies to almost every state), there was no official explanation from the White House, and no attempts to fix it.

NJ Congressional Races in 2010

Now that the election is over and NJ turned red, it's time to start thinking about winning back the Congress next year. It is supposed to (finally) be a good year for Republicans, and many incumbents are vulnerable. I looked over the NJ congressional races, and here's a summary:

Most vulnerable:
NJ-3: John Adler (Jon Runyan??)

Vulnerable:
NJ-6: Frank Pallone (no challenger yet)
NJ-12: Rush Holt (Mike Halfacre)

Potential:
NJ-8: Bill Pascrell (Ian Walsh)
NJ-9: Steve Rothman (Steve Lonegan??)

Note that Mike Halfacre is the only established challenger so far. Ian Walsh just announced he's running. Former Eagle Jon Runyan said he's just considering. Steve Lonegan said that the world must end before he's running for Congress, but the rumors are hot.

Adler seems to be the most obvious target. Don't be deceived by his vote against the healthcare bill. He narrowly won in a strongly Republican district, maybe he was trying to save his job, but he's still a Dem. I'd say NJ-3 should be ours, if we can take 1-2 more seats in NJ, it would be a huge victory. We need at least 30 nationwide.

Government is Denying Twice As Many Claims as Most Private Insurers

How many times have you heard the complaints that the evil medical insurance corporations are denying claims and leave people to die? And even more, that we need the Government to step in, and fix this problem? So you think that once Government takes over healthcare, you'll have a less chance of having your claim denied? Let's look at some facts.

The American Medical Association is publishing reports on health insurers' performance, split by lots of criteria. I'm looking at their report card for 2008 and I went to Page 5, which summarizes claim denials:

Payer	Count of Records	Denied Records	Percent Of Claim Lines Denied
Aetna	637,239	43,317	6.80%
Anthem	250,070	11,546	4.62%
CIGNA	263,728	9,060	3.44%
Coventry	40,487	590	2.88%
Health Net	4,975	193	3.88%
Humana	143,026	4,142	2.90%
Medicare	6,938,431	475,566	6.85%
UHC	1,127,691	30,177	2.68%

Interesting, isn't it? Medicare (the Government) has the highest percentage of claim denials. And if you exclude Aetna, the Government is denying about twice as many claims as all the other evil private insurers!

But go ahead people, drink the Kool Aid, and keep dreaming that Government-run healthcare will mean your treatment will be more likely approved. As facts shown, you'll be twice as likely to be DENIED!

Thank you Mike Proto for finding this information!

V-Day in Monmouth County and the State of NJ

"Middletown Democrats got Byrned and came up Short" - Art Gallagher

Last night I attended my first victory party, with the Middletown Republicans at the Lincroft Inn. By the time I got there, our local races were pretty much settled.

Steve Massell won by a huge margin, of 24%. I think everybody was expecting him to beat incumbent Patrick Short, but few expected the victory to be so big. I think this will bring a bit more sanity to the township committee meetings, now that Republicans return to a 4-1 lead. Everybody was happy last night, Steve brought his entire family and was surrounded by his new colleagues, Mayor Brightbill, Deputy Mayor Scharfenberger and Committeeman Fiore.

Steve Massell delivering his victory speech

When I got there, Assemblywoman Amy Handlin was still watching the results, but she told me everything looks good. She and Sam Thompson won easily, by a 2-1 margin, against Bob Brown and Jim Whatshisname, despite some bogus Dem polls showing that the race is close. All in all, the Republicans swept all four Assembly races in Monmouth County, by an average of 2-1, so a big congrats to all of them: Handlin, Thompson, O'Scanlon, Casagrande, Rible, Angelini, Malone and Dancer.

Me and re-elected Assemblywoman Amy Handlin, on Sunday

We were also relaxed about John Curley's race for freeholder. Last year, he lost by a handful of votes, in what was a bad year for Republicans. But he didn't give up, John came back and campaigned as hard as he could. I've never seen a better, stronger campaigner than John Curley. He faced unfavorable odds: Democrats had won the previous three freeholder races in Monmouth County, breaking the 5-0 majority that Republicans had enjoyed for over 20 years. Our slogan this year was "Take back Monmouth County", as barely 9 month into power the Dems started running it into the ground. Last week, John told me he was polling 17% ahead of Middletown committeeman Sean Byrnes, but he didn't trust that and he'd cut it in half. Well, on election night he won by almost 21%! I don't think anybody expected such a big margin, even his most optimistic supporters. This means he'll join Lillian Burry and Rob Clifton and starting January 1st they'll do what they do best - keep Monmouth County a great place to live.

With new freeholder John Curley and re-elected Assemblyman Dave Rible, last Thursday at Bar A

So by around 9pm, we had three races nailed, and one remaining - the big one. Chris Christie against unpopular incumbent Jon Corzine. Everything was against Christie, especially NJ being a very blue state, where no Republican has won a statewide election since 1997 and Obama won last year by 15% (but also, no Democratic Governor has been re-elected here since 1978 - says a lot about what a great job they've been doing). When I first met Chris in February, he was a long shot, and all we could do as hope. Then over the summer he went to a comfortable lead in the polls, but in the last weeks before the election Corzine's negative adds paid off and they became statistically tied. But it was still better than recent years, when no Republican candidate went into election day with real hope of winning.

Back to Lincroft Inn. Around 10pm, the networks started calling the race for Chris Christie, as he was leading by 4-5% with two thirds of the vote counted. There was an explosion of hapiness in the room, but somehow it quickly calmed down, as it was still quite close and everybody was afraid the number could reverse in the end. It was extremely tense, as everybody left their tables and we were all stuck around the TV, cheering every time the percentage of the vote counted went up, and the difference stayed the same. Then Patrick Short made his way to the crowd, and went to Steve Massell to congratulate him for his own. I was a bit surprised and I think it was a nice gesture. He thanked him for a clean campaign, and forgot about all the mud he'd thrown at Steve's family. I wonder if he said again, like on his inauguration day, that "The People have spoken". Must've been a really short party for the Democrats, as they lost all their races.

Pat Short conceding the race

Minute after minute, it became more and more clear that we can't lose this victory, and the Christie-Guadagno won, by 49% - 44%. And 3rd party candidate Daggett got only 5%, despite polling around 10% or higher. It's a very big margin, it was never close as even Republicans had forecasted. And I think that what turned the tides was the strong endorsements, just over the past weekend, from the most conservative Republicans. People that had attacked Christie for month, and vowed to write in another name or vote for a 3rd party candidate, decided with a few days before the election that getting rid of Corzine is more important and, led by Steve Lonegan, urged all their followers to go out and vote for Christie. Without these endorsements, I'm afraid it would've been very close or Corzine might've stolen the win.

So it was a great night for the Monmouth Republicans. All state contests were won by around 2-1, including the Governor's race. In February, Chairman Joe Oxley promised Christie a 27,000 votes win. He delivered 64,000. Congrats to Joe who, in his first full year as Chairman, stopped the Democrat surge and won big in all the county-wide races. And it trickled down to many township races. Incumbents were thrown out, like in Middletown, the county's biggest township. In Howell, Republicans won their first seat since 2004. In Freehold Boro, the first since 2001. Even losing in Red Bank, a Dem stronghold, they lost by only 8 votes.





This is only the beginning. The great wins in NJ and VA should send a strong message to Obama and his cronies. And next year is even bigger than this one, as we have to take back the House, and stop Pelosi from trying to destroy America. We have Mike Halfacre here, taking on Rush Holt, and we need a strong candidate to take on Frank Pallone. If formerly blue New Jersey could do it, I'm sure America can do it.

Who Am I Voting For

Tomorrow is finally Election Day. Although it must be pretty clear for followers of this blog, here's how (and why) I'm voting for:

STEVE MASSELL for MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE
I've been asked several times how will Steve change things in Middletown, how will he make it better. The thing is that Middletown is doing pretty well now. I think it's called "the best-run town in New Jersey". I see new construction here almost every month, so people are moving into Middletown. So the idea is to keep Middletown as it is now - a great place to live. Steve's opponent, Pat Short, is focused mainly on opposing the good things the Republican leadership is doing. And he's in favor of COAH which would negatively affect our way of life here in Middletown. Steve is the young voice we need on the committee.

JOHN CURLEY for MONMOUTH COUNTY FREEHOLDER
Monmouth County is one of the best counties to live in not only in New Jersey, but in the entire nation. For 30 years, the Republican majority has made sure it stays like this. The Democrats have been in power for just one year, and they're already trying to run in into the ground. They fired police officers and hired their political cronies. They want to privatize the county jail, but keep the useless youth detention center. They want to remove essential programs, but introduce a lot of wasteful spending. One year was enough, and I think Monmouth residents woke up and will vote for John Curley so you can Take Back Monmouth County.

AMY HANDLIN and SAM THOMPSON for STATE ASSEMBLY
Amy's and Sam's record on ethics and controlling spending is very clear. They're two of the most dedicated Republicans in the Assembly. We can't afford to lose any seat there, as we're trying to cut into the Democratic majority. It won't happen this year, but maybe it will in 2-3 years, and then I'm sure Amy will have an important role in the new leadership.

CHRIS CHRISTIE and KIM GUADAGNO for GOVERNOR/LT GOVERNOR
This is of course the main race in our State. Republicans have a unique chance to win their first statewide election in 12 years. Since Christine Todd Whitman won in 1997, no Republican candidate went into Election Day with clear chances of winning. I know there's a lot of disagreement on Christie's positions, but it's clear that he'll reduce taxes, control spending, and appoint more conservative judges on the Supreme Court. He also promised to help us get rid of COAH. This will be a close election, so everybody must go out and vote for Christie. His former opponent, Steve Lonegan, said it best on Sunday: "you must not vote for a third party candidate, or write in someone's name; only a vote for Christie will ensure that we don't get four more years of Corzine". We can't afford Corzine any more, and voting for Chris is the only way to prevent that. I'm very glad to see that even the most conservative Republicans changed their mind and have publicly declared their intention to vote for Chris&Kim. When Rick Shaftan, Mike Illions, Mike Proto or Steve Lonegan urge people to vote for Christie, you know we can't lose this election!

Pre Election Sunday Rallies

On the last Sunday before the elections, I attended two very different rallies, but both had the some goal: getting people to vote for Christie, and get rid of Corzine! There've been many differences between the moderate and the more conservative Republicans, and I know there are a lot of Republicans who don't like Christie, but for now he is the best (and only) choice in this election. I understand some friends took a vow not to vote for him, and kept saying they'll write in some other name, or vote for a 3rd party candidate, but that is equivalent to voting for Corzine, and I never understood how any of them could think that four more years of Corzine would be somehow better than electing Christie.

My first event today was the Morristown Tea Party, in front of Washington's Headquarters. The Morristown group is famous as being one of the first ones in NJ, and attracting the biggest crowds at each of their rallies. I met Jeff Weingarten, the Morristown leader, and we both agreed that the tea party groups should come together, go to the events together, and clear their differences. Now I know there are quite a few other tea party leaders who don't like Jeff, and I think this is really dumb. I can understand where the conflict between conservative Republicans and moderate Republicans comes from, but the conflict between conservatives who like Jeff and conservatives who don't like Jeff is beyond me. The thing is, tea partiers don't really care about that, they're just looking for a forum to express their beliefs, and this bickering just puts some leaders in a bad light.



The event was nicely organized, a crowd of maybe a couple hundred people, and there was a band to entertain the people during the breaks. The first speaker was Steve Lonegan, who came out strongly for Christie in recent days. I think this is a big victory for Christie's campaign, to get Lonegan on his side, as this could finally determine the conservative "rebels" to not waste their vote on a meaningless candidate. And we saw the first results. I met there Mike Proto, very conservative blogger, who despite all his claims over the past few months, said he'll vote for Christie (although he formulated it very differently). I also met Alice (the one with the Restaurant) who's also determined to vote for Christie. At the end of his speech, Steve Lonegan thanked his primary voters, and urged all of them "not to write in his name, but vote for Christie to make sure Corzine doesn't get four more years".




The highlight of the Morristown Tea Party was the appearance by Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina, the one who famously told Obama "You Lie!" when the president tried to mislead the nationwide audience. To make that clear, Joe Wilson called Obama on his claim that the healthcare bill doesn't cover illegal immigrants. People at home could've believed that, but Joe knew it very well, because Republicans in the house had tried 3 times to introduce an amendment to deny coverage to illegals, and 3 times had the Democrats voted it down. So it was not a mistake, or a provision that could be interpreted, Obama's people have intentionally refused to keep illegals of taxpayer-funded insurance. And Democrats reacted quickly, the day after Joe Wilson called that like they discreetly voted the amendment into the law.



Joe Wilson was a very friendly guy, he was funny and witty, but he was dead serious in his speech when he said that we have to vote for Christie, not only because we couldn't stand four more years of Corzine, but a victory here and in Virginia would send a clear message to Nancy Pelosi that Americans are waking up, and the Democrats' rule in Congress is coming to an end. Wilson started by making a few ties to New Jersey (best line was that he likes our shore... although it's not really Hilton Head), praised Reagan on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and then hammered the healthcare bill that the House will be voting on. As he said, it's a 2,000 pages bill, and 2,000 pages can't be a bill on healthcare, but a bill on taking over America and taking control of our lives. It's about replacing the doctor-pacient relationship with a doctor-53 government agencies-pacient relationship. It was very nice of Congressman Wilson to come to NJ and help our cause in the upcoming election.




It was a very good event in Morristown and it's the first time that I see Chris Christie supporters and tea partiers really mingling together and rallying for the same cause. From Morristown I drove back to Middletown where the Bachstad Tavern hosted a stop on Chris Christie's bus tour. And of course I found my local fellow tea partiers there, who stopped their weekly protest short and came in full force to support our candidate. The Tavern was packed, there were hundreds of people, all the local officials: assemblymen, senators, mayors, committeemen, GOP officials, Middletown republicans, and many more. Our freeholder candidate, John Curley, gave a passionate speech, as did Senator Kyrillos, Chairman Oxley, NJ GOP Chairman Jay Webber, Lt Governor candidate Kim Guadagno and, of course, Chris Christie. Chris mentioned everything that's wrong about Corzine, told us how the DNC is paying robocalls in favor of Daggett, and reached out to Lonegan supporters, thanking him for helping with his campaign. The crowd was very energetic, and I left with a very good vibe that NJ Republicans might finally win a statewide election for the first time in 12 years.



Only less than two days are left and now it's more important than ever to get everybody out to vote, and to vote for the only candidate that can assure the democrats' defeat: CHRIS CHRISTIE!

Meet DeMaurice Smith, the New Football Czar

I think not too many people are aware that the director of the NFL Players Association is for the first time not a player, but DC attorney and Obama friend DeMaurice Smith. So indeed we now have an NFL Czar. The players union, last led by Gene Upshaw, has always been directed by players, until this political appointment. DeMaurice Smith worked for Washington lobbyists, for Eric Holder's DOJ, and was a part of Obama's transition team. Last year, he contributed $3,300 to Obama's campaign.

FYI, he was the one who opposed Rush Limbaugh's involvement with the St Louis Rams. The players contract expires next year, and DeMaurice Smith threatened with a strike in case Limbaugh is allowed to invest in the Rams.

Protesting Obama and Corzine at FDU

Yesterday, on Oct 21st, Obama made his second visit to NJ to endorse Jon Corzine for Governor... A national failure coming to endorse a local failure. Like last time, at the PNC Arts Center, a few groups came to protest both guys, although now it was more focused on Corzine.

I hooked up with a few College Republicans coming from all over the state and we met at BCRO, which was impressive, a huge HQ with dozens of phones, lots of space for meetings, and tons of volunteers working. After we got about 15 people, we drove as close to FDU as we could - which was right across the road. Our "mascot" was George dressed up as a chicken. The Chicken had two meanings... one was that he was representing Corzine, who chickened out of disclosing his campaign contributions, one was that he was holding up a sign saying "Cluck-U Corzine!"

Me and the one, the only, the Chicken!

As we were looking for a place for our protest, we first passed by a group of people with "Support our Troops" signs. I insisted there's something fishy, but we ended up stopping to talk to them. First of all, they told us not to take their pictures. Why? Because we are fascists. Actually, they called me fascist about 4-5 times (or was it 7?). I asked why and they couldn't say, they just told me I'm a fascist, that's all. One lady pointed to my sign, and said "that's why". My sign read "Obama, welcome to Corzine's retirement party". I tried to find out what was fascist about it, but still no answer. We suggested that support for the troops is a bipartisan issue, but they said it's not, because we are fascists. They asked us to take OUR picture, so they can show the press what kind of fascists Chris Christie is sending. To make things clear, I was aware of that group, it's some kind of far-left communists, the kind that think Obama is a right-wing nut. And they all looked like the hippies protesting the war in the 60s, only that they haven't shaved, bathed or changed clothes ever since. The next group we saw were the ubiquitous Lyndon La Rouch freaks. What can be weirder than a group of black guys holding up a big poster of Obama as Hitler?

Finally, the biggest group were our tea party friends, mostly from the Hackensack area, about 30-40 of them, with the usual anti-socialist, pro-freedom signs and the yellow flags. We joined forces with them for the rest of the day, and more and more people joined us on the corner of the access road into FDU. The College Republicans put up a fun protest, with music and dancing (by the Chicken, of course). They had bullhorns, so we could chant pretty loud, favorite chants being "Two more weeks", "Bye Bye Corzine", "Goldman Sachs / Take him back", and of course the "Na-na-na-nah, hey-hey-hey good bye!".

The Chicken Dance

Most of the cars apssing by were honking, and waving at us in support. There were about 3 cars that shouted obscenities at us and interestingly enough, all 3 of them were Priuses. But we had fun, and many others, young and old joined us for about 2 hours. Even some EMT guys who were standing nearby came to us to take pictures. At one point, a Hackensack police officer came to us and told us city ordinances prohibit the use of bullhorns, and asked us not to use them anymore. We asked if being dressed as a chicken is against any ordinance, and he said that no, it's hysterical, and he would take a picture with us if he weren't in uniform.




Around 5:30, all traffic was stopped and it became eerily quiet (good occasions for us to chant our slogans). After a few minutes, we realized that the POTUS would take another access road into FDU, and we all marched to the next corner. Lot more people joined us, mostly workers from the nearby stores. The motorcade showed up, and from his limo I'm sure Obama saw us and heard us, since we were shouting as loud as we could. And then he went in, and he addressed the bused-in union members telling them how great Corzine is, and that if we want him to continue his failed policies, we should vote him again.

Tea partiers lined up to wait for the President

Lyndon LaRouche freaks

I didn't go to many anti-Obama protests, but this was definitely the best. The College Republicans (the best party on campus) put up a good show, and although I know this doesn't accomplish anything, it's a way of showing people and the media that not everybody is in awe of the Messiah, and more and more Americans disagree with him.

Thomas Stokes' Statement on Sean Byrnes' Unethical Behaviour

By Thomas Stokes
October 19, 2009

Please refer to the attached documentation that I submitted with my formal complaint against Sean F. Byrnes, Esq., to the local Finance Board in Trenton and to the Attorney Ethics Committee in Monmouth County. I believe you will find it complete, but I ask that you independently verify these facts before going with this story.

It seems very clear that the Democrat candidate for Monmouth County Freeholder is guilty of unethical conduct as a township committee member in Middletown. I am tired of public officials thinking they are above the law, regardless of political party affiliation. Both parties have had their share of problems relating to this "culture of corruption". This is just another example of such arrogant behavior.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, in an address to the Roman Senate, once said, "The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome fall". How timely these words are, even though spoken more than 2000 years ago! Every public official, from local officeholder, to the president, should be forced to memorize these words (and, hopefully, adhere to them).

The Law is quite clear in this matter.

40A:9-22.5 Provisions requiring compliance by local government officers, employees
Local government officers or employees under the jurisdiction of the Local Finance Board shall comply with the following provisions:

d. No local government officer or employee shall act in his official capacity in any matter where he, a member of his immediate family, or a business organization in which he has an interest, has a direct or indirect financial or personal involvement that might reasonably be expected to impair his objectivity or independence o/judgment;

The democrat candidate for Monmouth County Freeholder has been involved in an adversarial relationship with myself, through litigation, since at least 2001. Yet, even though he had this business and personal, adversarial relationship, he failed to recuse himself when my appointment to the Township of Middletown Sewer Authority was discussed. As an attorney, he knows, or should know, better. His refusal to obey the law in this regard should disqualify him from holding any public office, let alone a higher office.

It is indeed unfortunate that I did not discover his personal involvement (I thought it was another Law Firm) until very recently. I only discovered this when he issued a subpoena. After doing diligent research, I discovered he has been involved in litigation as opposing counsel since at least 2001. Litigation is still ongoing, and I was to be deposed by the democrat candidate for Monmouth County Freeholder this Tuesday, October 20. (I was told at 4PM today that it has now been cancelled.) The final portion of the evidence presented, Exhibit VI, I discovered on October 16, 2009.

On January 6, 2008, while I was in an induced medical coma, after my near death experience of December 26, 2007, the democrat candidate for Monmouth County Freeholder both discussed and voted on my appointment to an independent authority. The township committee meeting minutes confirm this and that his vote was against my appointment.

In an editorial, a daily newspaper endorsed the democrat candidate for his being a, "proponent of openness" and “increasing transparency”. Let me see, the record reveals he has refused to obey state ethics law and hides his conflicts of interest by not revealing his involvement. Some “openness”, some "transparency"! Marcus Tullius Cicero also said, "Ability without honor is useless."

Is it any wonder why the majority of people, of all parties, are disgusted with public officials whose arrogance and elitism lead them to believe that "the law does not apply to them" and that the law only applies to others.


One more point, the democrat candidate for freeholder and his supporters seem to be trying to hide his membership in the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS). In the interest of “openness and transparency”, the fact is, as a matter of public record, the democrat candidate is a member of PERS, has 10 years and 3 months pension service credit (apparently from a political patronage job, or jobs, one of which was in Atlantic Highlands). He actually has enough PERS credit now to file for a retirement. If he were to be elected to the freeholder position, this would only substantially pad his pension entitlement at taxpayer expense. Now that’s a fact he and his supporters don’t want you to know about. (I had to search the Star Ledger public employee database for 2007 (showing 2006 records), as this will not show up in the 2007 or 2008 records.)

“Openness and transparency” seem to be swept under the rug by the democrat candidate for Monmouth County Freeholder.

Lord Monckton's Warning on the New Climate Treaty

Last week, Lord Christopher Monckton gave a very dire warning about the new upcoming climate treaty. Lord Monckton is a British scientist, former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, who unsuccessfully challenged Al Gore to a debate on global warming, and got a British court to acknowledge 9 factual errors in Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth.

This is the full speech Lord Monckton gave in St Paul, MN, on Oct. 14th:

At Copenhagen, this December, weeks away, a treaty will be signed — Your president will sign it. Most of the third-world countries will sign it because they think they’re going to get money out of it. Most of the left-wing regimes around the world, like the European Union, will rubber-stamp it. Virtually nobody won’t sign it.

I have read that treaty and what it says is this: That a world government is going to be created. The word, government, actually appears as the first of three purposes of the new entity.

The second purpose is the transfer of wealth from the countries of the West to third-world countries in satisfaction of what is called, coyly, a ‘climate debt,’ because we’ve been burning CO2 and they haven’t and we’ve been screwing up the climate. We haven’t been screwing up the climate, but that’s the line.

And the third purpose of this new entity, this government, is enforcement.

How many of you think that the word election or democracy or vote or ballot occurs anywhere in the 200 pages of that treaty? Quite right. It doesn’t appear once.

So, at last, the communists who piled out of the Berlin Wall and into the environmental movement and took over Greenpeace so that my friends who founded it left within a year because they’d captured it. Now the apotheosis is at hand.

They are about to impose a communist world government on the world. You have a president who has very strong sympathies with that point of view. He’s going to sign. He’ll sign anything. He’s a Nobel Peace Laureate. Of course, he’ll sign it.

And the trouble is this: If that treaty is signed, your Constitution says that it takes precedence over your Constitution. And you can’t resile from that treaty unless you get the agreement from all the other states, parties. And because you’ll be the biggest paying country, they’re not going to let you out.”

So thank you America. You were the beacon of freedom to the world. It is a privilege merely to stand on this soil of freedom while it is still free. But, in the next few weeks, unless you stop it, your president will sign your freedom, your democracy and your prosperity away forever and neither you nor any subsequent government you may elect will have any power whatsoever to take it back again.

That is how serious it is. I have read the treaty. I have seen the stuff about government and climate debt and enforcement. They are going to do this to you whether you like it or no.

But I think it is here, here in your great nation which I so love and I so admire. It is here that, perhaps — at this 11th hour, at the 59th minute and 59th second — you will rise up and you will stop your president from signing that dreadful treaty. That purposeless treaty for there is no trouble with the climate — and even if there were, economically speaking, there’s nothing we can do about it.”

So I end by saying to you the words that Winston Churchill addressed to your president in the darkest hour before the dawn of freedom in the Second World War. He quoted from your great poet, Longfellow: “Sail on, oh Ship of State. Sail on, oh Union, strong and great. Humanity, with all it’s fears, with all the hopes of future years, is hanging, breathless, on thy fate.” Thank you.

Dem Freeholder Candidate Sean Byrnes Facing Ethics Charges

Thomas Stokes of Middletown just filed over the past few days formal complaints against Democrat Middletown Committeeman and Freeholder candidate Sean F. Byrnes, Esq, with the Finance Board in Trenton and the Attorneys Ethics Committee in Monmouth County.

Mr. Byrnes has been involved (as an attorney) in litigation against Mr. Stokes over the past years. Despite this adversarial legal relationship, Mr. Byrnes refused to recuse himself (as a township committeeman) when Mr. Stokes appointment to the Middletown Sewer Authority was discussed. Mr. Byrnes made comments on that appointment and voted against it.

This is against the state law, which states:

40A:9-22.5 Provisions requiring compliance by local government officers, employees
Local government officers or employees under the jurisdiction of the Local Finance Board shall comply with the following provisions:

d. No local government officer or employee shall act in his official capacity in any matter where he, a member ofhis immediate family, or a business organization in which he has an interest, has a direct or indirect financial or personal involvement that might reasonably be expected to impair his objectivity or independence o/judgment;

As an attorney, Sean Byrnes should've been aware of this statute and obey the law. Tom Stokes has been in litigation against the law firm of McKenna, Dupont, Higgins and Byrnes since 2001. Litigation is still ongoing, and Mr. Stokes will be deposed by the Freeholder candidate on Oct 20. However, on Jan 6, 2008, committeman Byrnes both discussed and voted against Mr. Stokes' appointment.

Thomas Stokes' supporting evidence can be downloaded here.

Meeting the Candidates in Middletown

Yesterday, Oct 15th, the Lincroft Village Green Association hosted a candidates night in Middletown, moderated by the League of Women Voters. It was a good occasion to meet the local candidates and hear them speak, although people in attendance were quite partisan, meaning that everybody already knew who they're voting for in November. The meeting was set up like a Q&A session, with the moderator asking a question, and the candidates answering it in turn. There was no actual debate, although some shots were fired. The questions were mostly about local issues and generally, with very few exceptions, all candidates seemed to agree on the same positions, although differently formulated.

So here are the candidates we met last night:

Steve Massell is the Republican candidate for the Middletown Township Committee. He was the new kid on the block, the only candidate with no prior political experience. He seemed nervous in the beginning but as he got more comfortable he was getting better and better at expressing his views. He was right on point with all the questions. His main point is about preserving the quality of life in Middletown, the city where he was raised and where he returned to raise his own kids.

Steve Massell

Patrick Short is the Democrat candidate in Middletown. He's running for his second term and in his first 3 years he leaned strongly left, following the Democrat party line coming down from Corzine, Cryan, Caliendo, Norcross and the other party bosses. When he wasn't reading the answers, he was hard to follow as he was often losing his train of thoughts.

John Curley is the Republican running for the 2nd year in a row for the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders. Among all five candidates present he stood out as the best speaker and he's a great campaigner. He has both the most experience in politics and also in business, as the owner of a GM car dealership.

Sean Byrnes is a Democrat Middletown Committeeman and he's also running for Freeholder. He was the lawyer in the group, and he was just talking and talking and talking, without really conveying any message, but he was very good at filling the entire space allotted for each question. The appeared the same way he's in the committee meetings, arrogant and with an air of superiority. He was trying to look cool and gave the impression that he doesn't belong with the crowd, but it's something he has to do.

Stan Rosenthal is an independent running for Freeholder and was the big unknown of the meeting. He's obviously an outsider, and he performed like an outsider. He looked amateurish, and his main selling point was the need of an independent on the board. Not sure if anyone understood what his positions are, other than that. He also delivered the funny quote of the evening, saying that when 40 politicians were arrested in July, none of them were independents, they all had a D or an R next to their names. He also answered very honestly to a few specific questions, saying that he doesn't know the problem to well, and wouldn't want to comment on something he doesn't know. Very straightforward, and more politicians should say that, although it makes them look bad. After all, the candidates knew the question before, so there's no excuse for researching the issue.

I won't go into all the questions and issues discussed, I'll just talk about a few of them.

COAH
This is becoming a major issue in NJ, especially for nice suburban towns like Middletown. Building hundreds of low income housing units as mandated by the State would gravely affect the quality of life, with overcrowding of schools and streets and raising crime rates. It's interesting that both Massell and Curley but also Short and Byrnes seemed to agree on that point. But Steve Massell (who promised to fight COAH with all his means, if he's elected) correctly called Pat Short and Sean Byrnes for voting against a resolution condemning COAH in the Middletown Township Committee (the resolution passed 3-2). Byrnes and Short went on the defensive, and they explained their vote by a technicality - claiming that some of the numbers in the resolution were not accurate. But they didn't openly show support for COAH, although they're secretly for it (but they know you can't win in Monmouth County if you support COAH). John Curley went further, asking for a complete dismantling of this program, while Rosenthal was the lone COAH supporter, saying his daughter lives in affordable housing and it's a good thing to use taxpayers money on. The COAH issues came up a few times, including in regards to the Avaya property in Lincroft where Middletown has to build its quota of low-income housing.

Sean Byrnes

The problem with COAH is that towns and counties have little say in it, as it's a state regulation. Even more, it's not a statute but a court ruling, so if elected even Chris Christie can't do much about it (despite his strong claims), the only thing he can do being to gradually appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court, but he'll meet strong opposition from the legislature on that.

Committees
Two questions were asked regarding the formation of committees. The first one was about a finance committee in Middletown. Massell spoke against it, while Short supported it. Personally I can't say I'm totally against it. It shouldn't be done the way the Democrats wanted, like an ad-hoc committee that would just delay the budget approval, but could be a general committee. Middletown is a big enough township to need its own finance corps, as none of the committee members are economists.

The other questions about the creation of an ethics board, both at township level and at county level. John and Steve were against it, calling it just a layer of bureaucracy, while Sean and Stan supported it. As John said, we don't need this new bureaucracy, we already have a very good ethics board called the FBI, which arrested quite a few politicians in recent years. Pat and Stan seemed to avoid answering the question.

Patrick Short

Traffic
A few questions revolved around traffic management issues, especially on Route 520, which seemed to be the only road in town since it was so prominently featured (or maybe it's because the meeting was held on Route 520). One of these issues was about creating roundabouts on 520 to help with traffic management. Everybody except Rosenthal (who said he doesn't know the problem well enough) seemed more or less in favor of it. I think they just didn't know what position to take and skirted around the issue. And by showing any level of support it was clear they have no clue about it. Roundabouts are a traffic hazzard, and the trend is to eliminate them (as it recently happened in the Wall Twp area, although there are still a few dangerous ones around there). I am against them from 2 personal experiences. First, as a cyclist, I often have to go through the existing roundabout at Brookdale, but I usually ride into incoming traffic and cut to the paths of Thompson Park, rather than having to go through that nightmare. Second is that they seem to be quite popular in Europe, especially France, where they're a nightmare. I drove 200 miles from Paris to Normandie, and I went through probably 40 roundabouts, and they're a big, dangerous nuisance. But it's typical politician attitude, to support something that sounds good even if the proof is to the contrary. At least John Curley said he'd first listen to an engineering research on this. I'm relieved to know that there are a few committee members in Middletown who wouldn't vote for it.

Another traffic issue was the installation of speed bumps and speed humps on side streets. Massell took the time to explain to us the differences between humps and bumps, gave the example of accidents happening because of the roundabouts, but didn't openly oppose them. Short delivered again the politician response, saying let's install them (plan, pay, use the resources), and then see if they're good or not (the general Democrat party line, used in the stimulus, health care and other bills). Byrnes said... well, no idea what, but he spoke for a minute and a half, while Curley gave the best response, saying that as the owner of an auto shop he's all for speed bumps, as he likes getting all the shock absorbers repair business. Rosenthal, as expected, said he's not familiar with the issue. If you ask me, I'm ready to send all my suspension repair bills to the township committee members, if that happens (but again, some existing committee persons are already against it).

John Curley

There were many other questions asked, about pollution, Belford flooding, etc, but there were no big differences between the answers, no controversies. I think both Steve Massell and John Curley will win by large margins, and there are Democrats who already admitted defeat.

Steve Massell Plans to Put Taxpayers First in Run for Middletown Township Committee

As a father of four born and raised in Middletown, Steve Massell was compelled to run for Township Committee this year out of a growing concern over the disastrous impact that policies dictated by Jon Corzine are having on Middletown. Rather than complaining while watching tax bills increase, Massell decided to get involved.

“Trenton takes millions more from Middletown taxpayers each year while sending less money back and requiring Middletown, by decree, to provide low income housing and other unfunded mandates,” said Massell. “This is simply unacceptable — Middletown cannot maintain the quality of life we all enjoy while certain local elected officials embrace these policies.”

When pressed for details, Massell explained that his opponent, Democrat Pat Short has regularly voted in line with Jon Corzine. Earlier this year, Short did vote against Resolutions condemning Corzine’s State budget and the expansion of COAH — the Council On Affordable Housing — which, Massell added: “requires Middletown to provide obscene amounts of low income housing at immense taxpayer expense.”

“I am not suggesting that Pat Short is a bad person, in fact, while I didn’t vote for him, I had high hopes that he would do what he promised three years ago and help us lower property taxes,” explained Massell. “Instead, Pat Short has towed the Democrat party line with Jon Corzine and Middletown taxpayers simply cannot afford another term for either one of them.”

In addition to his fight for lower taxes and against State-mandated low incoming housing, Massell suggested that there are many other local issues that are of significant concern that need to be addressed.

“Middletown is one of the largest and most diverse communities in the State and each section of town faces different challenges that need to be addressed by the Township Committee,” Massell says. “For years, Lincroft residents have had to contend with unsafe and overcrowded roadways in a predominately residential area of town, and residents in the Bayshore have endured years of flooding that was supposed to be addressed by the federal government, but has not been despite decades of false assurances from Congressman Pallone.”

In both of these instances, Massell believes that local governments in suburban communities like Middletown are being forced to take a more active approach while politicians in Washington and Trenton redistribute billions to inner cities that have been devastated by decades of high taxes and corruption that drove out the businesses and residents that once contributed to their tax base.

Having worked in the private sector his entire life, Steve Massell believes that it is time for him to give something back to the community he grew up in. Steve already serves on the Middletown Planning Board and wishes to expand this public service to promote smart growth policies, such as preserving Middletown’s remaining open spaces and continuing implementation of the Green Initiative to help reduce taxes and traffic when on the Township Committee.

You can find out more about Steve Massell’s campaign for Middletown Township Committee at www.middletown2009.com

Amy Handlin to Dems: "You're So Out of Touch, No Wonder You're Extinct"

Tonight I attended Assemblywoman Amy Handlin's reception. Amy had a short speech and what stood out was a reference to Jurassic Park. When Jeff Goldblum discovers that dinosaurs can't see in the dark, turns off the lights, and teases the T-Rex: "You're so out of touch, no wonder you're extinct!" This so perfectly applies to Democrats in NJ and elsewhere, and they'll start being extinct here after Nov. 3.

One reason is: 115. This is not the answer to the ultimate question about life, universe and everything. It's the number of tax increases in 4 years of Corzine rule. Everything is taxed in NJ, even taxes are taxed (see the corporate surcharge tax). Amy mentioned that only the air we breathe is not taxed, but I think it will be, once the tax&trade bill passes.

Rush Holt and Frank Pallone Vote to Fund ACORN

Our local representatives, Rush Holt and Frank Pallone, again showed they're out of touch with reality, as they were among the 75 democrats in the House voting to fund Acorn. This means, they voted to keep sending money to an organization that provides advice on tax evasion, finances brothels, and approves or teenage prostitutes.

Besides Holt and Pallone, 3 more NJ congressmen voted for Acorn funding: Bill Pascrell, Albio Sires and Donald Payne.

Rush Holt's opponent, Mike Halfacre, responded to this:

Once again, Rush Holt has shown how out of touch he is with the people of the 12th Congressional District and that his attempts to portray himself as a moderate are just that- a portrayal. He was to the left of even his own party on cap and trade; he is to the left of his own party on healthcare reform and now, when 70% of his own party voted against giving any more funding to this controversial group, once again, Rush Holt stood with the far left of his party to continue funding them with taxpayer money. We seem to have a representative who thinks he represents San Francisco and not central New Jersey.

Proof that the Fed is Monetizing the Debt

I hear a lot of people who're saying that nooo, the Fed is not monetizing the debt, because there are many buyers interested in our debt. For those who don't know what monetizing is, it means that when the Treasury doesn't have investors to finance our national debt, the Fed prints the money and buys the debt. Printing the money just creates fictitious money which only results in inflation.

And here's an easy proof of what's going on. First check out this Treasury debt sale:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/press/preanre/2009/R_20090730_1.pdf

It's on July 30th, note the instrument's ID: 912828LD0.

Then go to the New York Fed's search page (that's the office which runs open market operations for the Fed):
http://www.ny.frb.org/markets/pomo/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=showSearchForm

As date range, enter 8/6/2009 - 8/6/2009. It's one week after the Treasury debt auction mentioned above. And look in the results. 3rd row from the top, surprise! The same 912828LD0 debt instrument that was sold barely a week before to interested investors!

If that's not obvious that we're heavily monetizing debt, then I don't know what is. Instead of the Fed buying the debt outright and admitting monetization, it's using a 3rd party to hold the debt for a week before buying it back. I wonder who that 3rd party is, and if this wouldn't qualify as conspiracy.

Remember folks, this happened when they had trouble selling $300 billions of debt. Few people were interested to buy it. What will happen with the other 9 trillions that Obama is planning to spend??

Credit for this story go to Glenn Beck and Chris Martenson.

Cash-for-Clunkers Savings and the Government's Genius Business Plan

A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of gasoline.

A vehicle at 25 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a year.

So, the average cash-for-clunker transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.

Government bought 700,000 vehicles so that's 224 million gallons / year.

That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.

5 million barrels of oil is about ¼ of one day's US consumption.

And, 5 million barrels of oil costs about $350 million dollars at $75/bbl.

So, we all contributed to spending $3 billion to save $350 million.

How great a deal was that ???

They'll probably do a great job with health care though.

(Thank you Joe Schilp for the information and numbers)

Perth Amboy Tea Party

On Saturday, Sep. 5, the first day of the Labor Day weekend, I went to the Perth Amboy Tea Party. A lot of people warned me that this is a dangerous area, and it might not be a good place for an anti-socialist event, but while the downtown looked a bit scary, the Circle Park where the tea party took place was a very nice, safe venue. There were not too many people, no more than a hundred, but this was a tough day for a protest. Very nice day, maybe the last nice summer weekend, when people would rather be at the beach, or having a barbeque at home. So thank you to everyone who attended.

The first thing that struck me was that, while the other protests I've been to seemed very disorganized, here you had a few well-organized groups. One was that of independent gubernatorial candidate Jason Cullen's and his associate running for Aseembly, Jim Poesl. The other one was the FairTax.org organization. And there were maybe 30-40 other people who showed up spontaneously, including a few that I've seen at out Middletown rallies.

Kurt Epps as Gov. William Franklin

The tea party organizers had a nice setup, with a podium for speakers, under an arch which held the "We The People" sign. The speakers were both good and bad. To open, we had a guy dressed up as Gov. William Franklin, who had a funny speech, combing the history of the NJ colony and current events. Then, we had Jason Cullen, who might be a smart conservative guy, but I don't think he's doing us any service. As a conservative candidate, he'll just drain votes from Chris Christie, which ultimately means votes for Jon Corzine. His speech wasn't bad, and he's a nice guy, but I think he's just a self-absorbed young politician who wants his 15 minutes of fame.

The first good speech was from Michael Johns, a well-known blogger and conservative activist, who's worked for the White House and spoke as many tea parties nationwide. He offered us a broad view of the Obaministration's socialist plans, focusing on the healthcare reform. But probably the best surprise was the impromptu speech of Brian, a simple guy from the attendance, who asked for the microphone and gave us a spontaneous 10-15 minutes speech which drew everybody's attention. He spoke to us about the way Government is taking our freedoms, trampling the Constitutions, going against everything America stands for. He didn't need a script, and everything he said was right from his heart, it was a very inspiring speech. And even more, he's a union carpenter, and unions are the last place where you'd expect a passionate conservative, but as Brian said there are a lot of smart people in the unions who see that the union leaders' positions are plainly wrong.

Michael Johns addressing the crowd

There were a few snoozers taking the podium, but two more speeches stood out. One was from a very passionate African-American lady, who was Obama's hardest attacker, and who explained that disliking Obama has nothing to do with race. Then it was my friend Joe Schilp who gave a very factual talk on business and taxes, and how socialism is bad for business, therefore for us, Americans.

Joe Schilp delivering his speech

But the highlight of the tea party was probably Col. Manly Rash's final appearance. Manly Rash is another well-known blogger, who regularly appears in a Continental Army uniform. You can read about this tea party on his blog, complete with videos, but check back soon since he's having a series of postings.

Manly Rash suffered the most at this event, since it was so hot and his full uniform must've been baking him inside. But he didn't complain, he waited for his turn, and I'm glad I stayed until the end. Col. Rash climbed on the NJ Liberty Bell monument, opposite the podium in the park, and started by ringing the bell with his sword. Then followed a very inspirational speech, focused on the history of our Republic, the Constitution, and the principles our Founding Fathers stood for. He slipped in and out of his Revolutionary character, talking about our current situation, and what we must do to protect our freedoms. He was the only speaker on that day who didn't say anything negative. We all know what's bad about Obama, his plans, his bills, and socialism in general, so we didn't need to hear it again. What we heard from Col. Rash was the positive, what we must do as a nation to make sure we survive Obama's term.

Rush Holt's Middletown Townhall According to Col. Rash

Col. Manly Rash had a series of postings that provide the best view of Rush Holt's Middletown townhall on Aug 26th, both inside and outside.

The Rush to Dissemble - Part 1 presents the atmosphere outside, before the townhall, as well as inside, shortly before Holt's appearance. In the 2nd clip, about 1:15 in, you can see my 2 friends from Middletown taking a stand against liberals who called us "a nation of a-holes".






The Rush to Dissemble - Part 2 describes Rush Holt's speech as well as his first answers. Holt didn't want anybody from the audience to be heard, he had them write down questions, and he chose which ones to answer, and how to read them so they fit him better. But if you listen to him, he doesn't do a very convincing job.








The Rush to Dissemble - Part 3 is the conclusion of the Q&A session. About 6:15 into the clip you can see my friend again who didn't like Holt's idea of not having a dialogue with the constituents. He stood up and asked a simple business question, but Rush Holt obviously doesn't understand business in our country.