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.