Bergenfield's former deputy tax collector was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison for stealing more than $236,000 from the borough and a day-care program.
Marlon Mikesell admitted that he collected more than $196,000 in property tax payments from residents and took $40,000 from a non-profit child care program. He then used the money to buy himself a car and a laptop, and sent the rest of the money to his family in the Philippines, he said Thursday at his sentencing in Superior Court in Hackensack. "I would like to ask for forgiveness from the people of Bergenfield," Mikesell said. "There are no excuses for what I did."
As part of his sentence, Mikesell must pay the full amount in restitution. Judge Patrick J. Roma said he rescheduled Mikesell's previous sentencing dates to give him time to come up with the money, but Mikesell has not made any payment so far.
The borough has received compensation from an insurance company for its losses, Roma said, but the theft will still affect the town's future rates, Roma said. "The people who bear the pain of this defendant's actions will be the taxpayers," Roma said.
Defense attorney Joshua Cohn said Mikesell's scheme was not "well thought-out."
"This was not a criminal enterprise where he went out saying, 'I'm going to hurt people'," Cohn said. Mikesell and his family are still trying to transfer money from the Philippines to pay the restitution but are being hampered by bureaucratic red-tape, he said.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor James Santulli, however, said Mikesell conducted systematic fraud over a long period of time -- from August 2006 to March 2007.
Bergenfield Police Capt. Michael Carr, who led the investigation into the theft, told Roma that Mikesell made up fictitious employees on the payroll as part of his scheme to steal money from the daycare program.
Mikesell's sentence could be reconsidered if he pays the money. As a non-citizen convicted of a crime of "moral turpitude," he faces deportation at the end of his term.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2010 00:00 ||
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Rep. Charles Rangel, the most powerful tax-writing lawmaker in Congress and a 34-year veteran of Capitol Hill, knowingly accepted Caribbean trips from a corporation in violation of House rules, the House Ethics Committee ruled Thursday, The Associated Press has learned.
At least four other members of the Congressional Black Caucus who were also on the 2007 and 2008 trips were exonerated by the panel, according to a congressional source familiar with the findings.
The finding is certain to jeopardize Rangel's chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee. The tax-writing committee will take a lead as Congress determines the fate of former President George W. Bush's expiring tax cuts.
Rengel's ethics troubles also present an election-year dilemma for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who led a Democratic takeover of the House in 2006 on a campaign promise to end a "culture of corruption" in the GOP-led Congress.
The 79-year-old Rengel, D-N.Y., has been in the House 30 years. It was unclear whether the findings would affect whether he seeks re-election.
The committee found that the financing of the Caribbean trips was improper for all the lawmakers involved but that only Rangel was aware that a corporation that routinely lobbied Congress picked up the tab, said the congressional official who was not authorized to speak on the record.
The committee decided against issuing formal charges against Rangel that could lead to punishment such as a censure.
The ethics committee will issue its findings in a report scheduled to be made public Friday.
Additional ethics investigations of Rangel's finances and fundraising are still under way, but they are not connected to the ruling on the Caribbean travel.
Rangel had no immediate comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Additional ethics investigations of Rangel's finances and fundraising are still under way.....
but they too, will probably amount to nothing, nothing at all.
#3
A seventy-nine year old, 34-year veteran of Capitol Hill? Does anybody in their right mind believe this little Caribbean trip isn't just the tip of the iceberg? He's had a long, long time to practice his particular, peculiar little craft.
And this is the guy who writes our tax laws? I've said it before: the reason so many crooks in this country aren't breaking the law is that the laws are written for them by the likes of Rangel.
Hey, Charlie, how about if you just quietly retire? Surely you've acquired enough loot by now to live the rest of your life in style. Surely Eric Holder would be willing to leave you alone and let you keep it.
#4
I don't want this corrupt POS to quietly retire to his subsidized-rent 4-plex. Strip him of his faux-dignity, his reputation, his ill-gained wealth and put him in prison
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2010 12:16 Comments ||
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That would be the ideal, Frank G, if you could find someone to prosecute him.
All I saw was the press release where they said he did not violate the rules of the House, Pelosi said. And I think thats an important statement that they made.
Last fall, a woman went to court in the Bronx to testify that she had been violently assaulted by a top aide to Gov. David A. Paterson, and to seek a protective order against the man.
In the ensuing months, she returned to court twice to press her case, complaining that the State Police had been harassing her to drop it. The State Police, which had no jurisdiction in the matter, confirmed that the woman was visited by a member of the governor's personal security detail.
Then, just before she was due to return to court to seek a final protective order, the woman got a phone call from the governor, according to her lawyer. She failed to appear for her next hearing on Feb. 8, and as a result her case was dismissed.
Many details of the governor's role in this episode are unclear, but the accounts presented in court and police records and interviews with the woman's lawyer and others portray a brutal encounter, a frightened woman and an effort to make a potential political embarrassment go away.
The case involved David W. Johnson, 37, who had risen from working as Mr. Paterson's driver and scheduler to serving in the most senior ranks of the administration, but who also had a history of altercations with women.
On Wednesday night, in response to inquiries from The New York Times, Mr. Paterson said in a statement that he would request that Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo investigate his administration's handling of the matter. The governor also said he would suspend Mr. Johnson without pay.
Through a spokesman, Mr. Paterson said the call actually took place the day before the scheduled court hearing and maintained that the woman had initiated it. He declined to answer further questions about his role in the matter.
The woman's lawyer, Lawrence B. Saftler, said that the conversation lasted about a minute and that the governor asked how she was doing and if there was anything he could do for her. "If you need me," he said, according to Mr. Saftler, "I'm here for you."
Mr. Saftler said the governor never mentioned the court case, but he would not say if the call had influenced her decision not to return to court.
The call also came as The Times was examining the background of Mr. Johnson, whose increasing influence with the governor had disturbed some current and former senior aides to Mr. Paterson.
The woman's lawyer asked that she not be identified by name because she feared retaliation, in part because she works at a public hospital.
The alleged assault happened shortly before 8 p.m. on Halloween in the apartment she had shared with Mr. Johnson and her 13-year-old son for about four years, according to police records.
She told the police that Mr. Johnson, who is 6-foot-7, had choked her, stripped her of much of her clothing, smashed her against a mirrored dresser and taken two telephones from her to prevent her from calling for help, according to police records.
The woman was twice granted a temporary order of protection against Mr. Johnson, according to the proceedings in Family Court in the Bronx.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2010 00:00 ||
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Living well isn't only the best revenge. It's also a snappy legal defense.
More than a half-million dollars slithered through the porous bank accounts of Kwame and Carlita Kilpatrick last year, cash largely dispensed -- it now turns out, in legal filings -- to "keep up appearances."
Kilpatrick's new lawyer, Daniel D. Hajji, is the latest in a long line of Kilpatrick excuse generators, pleading with the state Appeals Court to understand that Detroit's deposed mayor, now living in lavish Dallas exile, is suffering from harsh treatment.
What unreasonable cruelty has Wayne Circuit Court Judge David Groner imposed? He has the audacity to suggest that Kilpatrick "live a middle class existence." Says Hajji: "Such an existence is inconsistent with earning a sufficient amount to (pay back the city)."
As we all know by now, the concept of an existence actually in keeping with his income is beyond Kilpatrick's ken. Instead, his lawyers continue to portray the former public servant as misunderstood latter-day royalty. A mansion bigger than the Manoogian is what he and Carlita have become accustomed to. And, heck, he has a sense of entitlement bigger than the Ritz.
He scooted out of the Manoogian Mansion, landing in even more spacious digs in tony Southlake, as he plied his new trade as a software salesman for Covisint, a subsidiary of Compuware, earning $120,000 a year.
But who knew -- before reading Hajji's pleadings on behalf of his client -- that a $120,000 a year salesperson must "function in the upper echelons of society."
Uh, not exactly, say industry executives. Chad Rowden, a senior executive recruiter in Dallas, who works with technology companies, says. Sure, there's entertaining. "But most of the entertaining done in the sales environment is taking someone out to lunch or out to dinner," Rowden says. "The company would reimburse for that or any normal business expenses." Rowden says that Kilpatrick's salary would be typical of someone in his position -- with the expectation that he could double his salary with commissions. "You have to be a hunter to succeed," he said.
A former Compuware executive says: "Right now, no company wants to see diamonds or a fancy house or what you flew in on. They know that will be reflected in the price of the product."
"As I was doing a deal, any multimillion dollar deals, nobody ever asked me what I was driving, how much money I made, or where my kids went to school," he added. "They wanted to know they could trust me."
More than a year since he began his new career, Kilpatrick has yet to close a deal. He blames his lack of success on the media, the judge and the prosecutor, as he lives beyond his means and lies to the court.
The saddest part of this endless -- and sometimes ridiculous -- saga is that Kilpatrick's business future hinges on qualities that his disingenuous legal defense undercuts. It's the content of Kilpatrick's character, not his wallet, that's at issue.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2010 00:00 ||
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Kwame needs to get a close-up look at the glamorous lifestyle in some of our better federal pens...
The inaugural British Tea Party will take place on Saturday in my home town of Brighton, and I'll be speaking. Do try to come: here are the details.
Labour has raised more than a trillion pounds in additional taxation since 1997. Yet, unbelievably, Gordon Brown has still managed to run up a deficit of 12.6 per cent of GDP (Greece's is 12.7 per cent). A far lower level of taxation brought Americans out in spontaneous protest last year.
If you happen to be coming to the Conservative Spring Conference, do please pop in: the Tea Party is five minutes' walk from the conference venue. It is, however, outside the security zone, and anyone is welcome to come. Oh, and this being England, we'll be serving actual, you know, tea. I hope to see some of this blog's readers there.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Are they going to disguise like French and throw American tea into the sea?
#5
This is awesome. MSM tried to ignore the US tea parties, then later insulted the participants, but this past years tea party was heard around the world. I will go to that blog and cheer the British on!
Posted by: war on terror ||
02/26/2010 18:50 Comments ||
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Detroit --Mayor Dave Bing said Wednesday he "absolutely" intends to relocate residents from desolate neighborhoods and is bracing for inevitable legal challenges when he unveils his downsizing plan. To quote Potemkin...
In his strongest statements about shrinking the city since taking office, Bing told WJR-760 AM the city is using internal and external data to decide "winners and losers." The city plans to save some neighborhoods and encourage residents to move from others, he said. "If we don't do it, you know this whole city is going to go down. I'm hopeful people will understand that," Bing said. "If we can incentivize some of those folks that are in those desolate areas, they can get a better situation. If they stay where they are I absolutely cannot give them all the services they require."
He said there's no timeline, price tag or estimate on the number of people who would have to be moved, but said federal funding would be needed. Bing said he plans to focus on the neighborhoods in which Detroit Public Schools plans to build schools with $500.5 million in bonds voters approved last year. "You can't support every neighborhood," Bing told WJR's Frank Beckmann. "You can't support every community across this city. Those communities that are stable, we can't allow them to go down the tubes. That's not a good business decision from my vantage point."
Bing acknowledged it won't be "an easy conversation." And he's already facing opposition from activists such as Ron Scott, who said he is "adamantly opposed" and believes the business community is pushing Bing to get cheap access to large tracts of the city. "Sounds like reservations to me, it sounds like telling people to move," Scott said. "The citizens of the city of Detroit who built this city, the working class, didn't create this situation. You are diminishing the constitutional options people have by contending you have a crisis."
Bing's staff is using its own data and a survey released last weekend by Data Driven Detroit. The block-by-block study of the 139 square-mile city showed that roughly one in three parcels are vacant lots or abandoned homes. The mayor's staff didn't elaborate on Bing's comments to WJR beyond a statement saying, "the mayor will utilize data from several sources including city departments, Data Driven Detroit, as well resident input, to prepare a viable land use plan."
Steven Ogden, executive director of Next Detroit Neighborhood Initiative, is using the group's data to come up with a plan for which neighborhoods his nonprofit should target in the next several years with time and money. He submitted a proposal to the Bing administration within the past several days on what areas he wants to partner with the city to target.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"If we can incentivize some of those folks that are in those desolate areas, they can get a better situation. If they stay where they are I absolutely cannot give them all the services they require."
Just unincorporate the areas, telling residence to look to their own needs for services....or move. By default in most places, that means the county picks up some of the services, others services default to the property owner.
#3
No need. Just declare Halloween for a week straight and all the abandoned structures will have been burned to the grown. Cost: zero.
Posted by: ed ||
02/26/2010 9:59 Comments ||
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#4
Ron Scott, who said he is "adamantly opposed" and believes the business community is pushing Bing to get cheap access to large tracts of the city.
yeah, that's the business plan of so many successful businesses: "Hey, I know! Let's move to Detroit and buy up desolate polluted wastelands and pay high taxes! Our kids will love to socialize with the natives and schools are sooo good there"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2010 10:53 Comments ||
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#5
Glenmore, first of all Obama is not furner. It could be that he doesn't fill the constitutional requisite of being born American but he is not a furner. Second: the problem of furners is probability of them not having America's interests at heart. Just as you could have had an ethnic Japanese turning more capable and patriotic than Spruance or a white officer turning out to working for the enemy.
But probability of being a traitor was higher for an ethnic Japanese not to mention that even a loyal one was more likely to have a few beers with not so loyal Japanese and end talking too much in front of them, so they were an unacceptable risk, specially at the time America was losing and its forces depended on secrecy to survive.
#6
Vlad Putin for POTUS! America needs leadership, and none of available candidates can provide it. Politicians prevailed during the past generation by flattering American complacency. Precisely the opposite is needed. Putin has the requisite tough-mindedness, with only one important deficiency: he is a nasty piece of work. Putin restored Russia's economy and global stature on the strength of one insight: the Russian people were the problem. After centuries of Tsarist brutality and three generations of communist terror, the Russian people had become a passive rabble incapable of defending their interests. The Americans, meanwhile, have met the enemy, and it is them. America has coasted on a quarter-century wave of power and prosperity. Americans no longer had to save; the rest of the world saved for them and lent them money at the lowest interest rates in half a century. Americans no longer had to study; engineers from India to Argentina programmed their computers. And Americans no longer had to face a strategic challenge after the death of the Soviet Union.
Putin understands how to exercise power. Unlike Iraq, the restive Muslim province of Chechnya now nestles comfortably in Putin's palm, albeit with about half the people it had a decade ago.
That is the sort of strategic thinking America needs. So my endorsement for the next president of the United States goes to Vladimir Putin.
One final note - Putin doesn't speak much English. But that shouldn't disqualify him. Neither did George W Bush.
I am not talking about birth certificates. I'm referring to something much more important. He grew up in Indonesia bowing to Mecca. He never was a Boy Scout, never played baseball, never went to a Veterans Day Parade, etc, etc, etc. The thing is that we are foreign to him. He doesn't understand America or its culture, and by all appearances doesn't want to.
#11
One final note - Putin doesn't speak much English. But that shouldn't disqualify him. Neither did George W Bush.
Speaking English should disqualify anyone for POTUS. The President should speak American. That is color and not colour, truck and not lorry. BTW, Bush read much more books (serious ones) than those people who looked at him upside down, from seventy to one hundred a year.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2010 16:02 Comments ||
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Procopius2k, add Alexander the Great to the list. He was Macedonian and although he expanded the Greek empire he did it at the cost of Greek soldiers who found themselves in fight after endless fight for their new leaders glory.
Sometimes, when a speaker tries telling a story to illuminate a point they want to make, they end up illuminating themselves more than any moral of their tale. Barack Obama fell into that trap yesterday during the health-care summit when he tried to argue that some insurance policies are not equal. As if that wasn't obvious enough, President Obama then made it clear that he doesn't get it at all. Greg Hengler captures the moment for Townhall:
When I was young, just got out of college, I had to buy auto insurance. I had a beat-up old car. And I won't name the name of the insurance company, but there was a company let's call it Acme Insurance in Illinois. And I was paying my premiums every month. After about six months I got rear-ended and I called up Acme and said, I'd like to see if I can get my car repaired, and they laughed at me over the phone because really this was set up not to actually provide insurance; what it was set up was to meet the legal requirements. But it really wasn't serious insurance.
Now, it's one thing if you've got an old beat-up car that you can't get fixed. It's another thing if your kid is sick, or you've got breast cancer.
Why would they have laughed at a Harvard graduate who tried to file a claim? Because Obama hadn't bought collision insurance. The only insurance drivers in most states have to carry is liability insurance, to cover damage they do to the cars of other drivers. Obama explained in this clip that he only bought the legal minimum, not collision or comprehensive, which would have covered his damage. When people buy insurance, it's made very clear exactly what it covers. Most drivers can understand it even the Harvard Law grads. That may have been why Acme' laughed when Obama attempted to file a collision claim when he hadn't bothered to buy that policy.
One more point: a rear-end collision is almost universally presumed to be the fault of the driver who hits the rear end of the other. Obama should have been calling that driver's insurance company if this actually ever happened at all.
If this anecdote proves anything, it's that Obama never learned a thing about insurance hardly the man we'd want to have remaking the entire health-insurance sector.
The New York Postreports that Governor David Paterson, Democrat of New York, will not seek reelection. He had been polling in the teens and the low 20s... in the Democratic primary.
UPDATE: A news release that arrives almost simultaneously:
KRISTIN DAVIS, MANHATTAN MADAM TO FORMALLY ANNOUNCE CANDIDACY FOR GOVERNOR AT A PRESS CONFERENCE
Kristin Davis, known as the Manhattan Madam who supplied call girls for Eliot Spitzer when he was Attorney General and Governor, will announce her candidacy for Governor of New York State as an Independent Candidate at 11am on March 1, 2010...
Mere coincidence? Probably, but...
Posted by: Mike ||
02/26/2010 10:02 ||
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Whew! Neither of us saw that coming
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2010 10:55 Comments ||
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I can see the TV ads now:
VOICEOVER: New York has a long history of electing governors who patronize call girls. Now, New York has a chance to elect a call girl as governor.
KRISTIN DAVIS: Let's cut out the middle-man and pass the savings on to the people of New York.
VOICEOVER: Kristin Davis for governor. On call for the people.
KRISTIN DAVIS: I'm Kristin Davis, the Manhattan Madam, and I approved this message.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/26/2010 11:14 Comments ||
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#3
Phew, for a second I thought is was this Kristin Davis. Anyway, I doubt a madame would charge as much as any politician to screw the taxpayer.
Posted by: ed ||
02/26/2010 11:18 Comments ||
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#4
I'm glad to see that the quality and ethics of the candidates has just improved.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/26/2010 11:24 Comments ||
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(CNSNews.com) -- Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern said he was open to serving on President Barack Obama's proposed deficit reduction commission, after it was reported that the White House was considering him for the post. He was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday advocating for additional deficit spending to stimulate job creation.
"I'd be honored, if I was asked," Stern told CNSNews.com, "but I don't know anything more than you've been able to read."
Stern, who runs one of the largest unions in the nation, has come under scrutiny for being a close ally of the Obama White House.
When the White House released its visitor logs last October, Stern was found to be the most frequent guest, stopping by 22 times--more than advisor John Podesta or former Majority Leader Tom Daschle--to visit Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, budget chief Pete Orszag, and seven times, President Obama.
As CNSNews.com previously reported, the group Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) has requested that the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Channing D. Phillips, investigate Stern for the visits. ATR President Grover Norquist said in a letter that he was concerned the visits could constitute lobbying, in violation of the Lobbying Disclosure Act, since Stern is not registered as a lobbyist. (The key question here would be whether Stern spent 20 percent of his work time in a quarterly period lobbying lawmakers. The SEIU has rejected an allegation of impropriety.)
Stern said Tuesday he expected he would be able to remain in charge of the SEIU while serving on the commission. "Yeah," he said, "I think it's--the members of Congress are serving. I assume they're not giving up their positions. I have no intentions of giving up mine."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2010 00:00 ||
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Rep. Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, just launched a full-bore assault on the faulty assumptions behind the claim that the Obama health care plan will reduce the deficit. Obama didn't even bother questioning Ryan's presentation. He changed the subject to Medicare Advantage. The expression on the president's face as Ryan made his case was absolutely priceless. Simply put, he looked like someone who realizes he's met his match.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I had the great fortune to hear Paul Ryan speak at a college commencement - he's sharp - and received a standing-O.
#2
I thought the Pubs would get waxed in a futile stage-play. I was wrong. They looked competent, knowledgable, reasonable, and articulate. The Donks had Oblahblah filibustering, sniping, scowling, and umming and ahhhing without TOTUS helping. Oh, and Louise Slaughter for comic relief with her "my constituent had to wear her dead sisters' ill-fitting dentures" story. Does Obamacare cover dentures? I thought not. What a bunch of idiots. The Pubs played it well. I was wrong
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2010 10:59 Comments ||
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#3
The Republicans were highly effective. You can tell by the MSM going in to overdrive in their coverage of the Killer Whales.
#4
They looked competent, knowledgable, reasonable, and articulate.
That's fine for those who pay attention. But on The Daily Show, John Stewart showed clips that he claimed were of President Obama nailing them to a wall... and the audience cheered.
#5
The problem for Big 0 is that he had to win and the trunks had to not lose. Of course the Daily Show loved Big 0. But he didn't change a single vote, so he lost. And he looked so bad doing so that the MSM aren't trying to spin it into a win. So the trunks didn't lose and thus won.
Scott Brown did not win in Massachusetts because Democrat Martha Coakley believed that Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling liked the Yankees. If you want to see the same chilling pattern that elected Brown in erstwhile Democratic Massachusetts, look at the latest Franklin and Marshall poll on Pennsylvania politics. Pennsylvania has voted for a Democratic president since 1992. It has two Democratic senators, a Democratic governor, and its congressional delegation consists of twelve Democrats to seven Republicans. It's a Democratic state.
It's also very typical of the Rust Belt/Midwestern states that Democrats need to win to take national elections. Its electorate is 82 percent white. Three quarters of its citizens did not graduate from college. Among states, it has the fourth highest number of union members. Democrats win elections there when they take close to half of the white vote--Barack Obama got 48 percent in 2008--and well over half of the voters from union households. That hasn't been hard in the last elections, but it has suddenly become very difficult indeed.
According to the Franklin and Marshall poll, which surveyed 1,143 residents of Pennsylvania, former Representative Pat Toomey--a Republican disciple of Steve Forbes and the Club for Growth--leads Democratic Senator Arlen Specter in the senate race by 44 to 34 percent among likely voters. He leads Democratic Representative Joe Sestak by 38 to 20 percent. If you want to get really worried about Democratic prospects, look at the breakdown. Toomey leads Specter among whites by 53 to 24 percent and among voters from union households by 44 to 41 percent. The only groups among whom Specter does well (besides registered Democrats) are non-whites and people with no religious affiliation. He's got that vaunted McGovern coalition wrapped up. Sestak, of course, does even worse, but he is still an unknown quantity in Pennsylvania. Specter and Toomey, who has run before, are well known to Pennsylvania voters.
If you really want to get depressed, look at the findings about the Tea Party movement. Sixty-two percent of Pennsylvanians know something about the Tea Party movement. Of these, 85 percent of Republicans, 58 percent of Independents, and 28 percent of Democrats (!) either strongly or somewhat support the movement. You can say that most voters don't know how wacky some of the Tea Party's ideas are, but what they do know is that it stands in strident opposition to the Obama administration and the status quo in Washington. That should be enough to send shivers through the timbers of Democrats in Washington.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2010 00:00 ||
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Sixty-two percent of Pennsylvanians know something about the Tea Party movement. Of these, 85 percent of Republicans, 58 percent of Independents, and 28 percent of Democrats (!) either strongly or somewhat support the movement.
The MSM party propaganda machine just isn't what it used to be. Can't make them a non-movement, can't effectively demonize it enough. I suspect the 28 percent of Democrats are legacy hold outs from the now bygone era of liberalism before the socialist cooped the party.
#2
For electoral purposes, Pennsylvania is made up of four counties, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery. These are the Philly suburbs that are in play in every election. Every place else votes the same way every election. Traditionally trunk, they have been trending democrat for some time. When they do not go solidly trunk, the donks can get enough dead people in Philly to swing the election in their favor. Now the suburbanites are seeing the fruit of their voting and they don't like the taste. Quelle surprise!
#3
You can say that most voters don't know how wacky some of the Tea Party's ideas are, but what they do know is that it stands in strident opposition to the Obama administration and the status quo in Washington.
Wacky ideas indeed without those union jobs you know how those bigoted rubes like to cling to their guns and religion.
#4
Now the suburbanites are seeing the fruit of their voting and they don't like the taste. Quelle surprise!
Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-02-26 09:01
Not only suburbanites; but also here in western Pa. I'm seeing some serious buyers remorse among those who voted not so much for Bambi as against Bush. I love asking them how they like the "Hope and Change".
#5
You can say that most voters don't know how wacky some of the Tea Party's ideas are, but what they do know is that it stands in strident opposition to the Obama administration and the status quo in Washington."
-yeah, like a return to fiscal responsibility, less spending, less taxes, self reliance and limited government as per the Constitution - what a whacky concept! (sarc/off)
#6
The media has been trying to paint the Tea Partys as racist or wacky and pulling out a handful of examples but it just isn't getting traction. Perhaps if this went down before the media lost all credibility... but not now. Now it just makes people curious about the Tea Partys and they look into things themselves.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Rep. Charles Rangel, the most powerful tax-writing lawmaker in Congress and a 34-year veteran of Capitol Hill, knowingly accepted Caribbean trips from a corporation in violation of House rules, the House Ethics Committee ruled Thursday, The Associated Press has learned.
The inaugural British Tea Party will take place on Saturday in my home town of Brighton, and I'll be speaking. Do try to come: here are the details.
Detroit --Mayor Dave Bing said Wednesday he "absolutely" intends to relocate residents from desolate neighborhoods and is bracing for inevitable legal challenges when he unveils his downsizing plan.
Jim Geraghty, "Campaign Spot" @ National Review.jpg)
Rep. Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, just launched a full-bore assault on the faulty assumptions behind the claim that the Obama health care plan will reduce the deficit. Obama didn't even bother questioning Ryan's presentation. He changed the subject to Medicare Advantage. The expression on the president's face as Ryan made his case was absolutely priceless. Simply put, he looked like someone who realizes he's met his match.
Scott Brown did not win in Massachusetts because Democrat Martha Coakley believed that Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling liked the Yankees. If you want to see the same chilling pattern that elected Brown in erstwhile Democratic Massachusetts, look at the latest Franklin and Marshall poll on Pennsylvania politics. Pennsylvania has voted for a Democratic president since 1992. It has two Democratic senators, a Democratic governor, and its congressional delegation consists of twelve Democrats to seven Republicans. It's a Democratic state.
