Entries in Jersey Conservative (4)

Monday
Nov132017

The mad, mad world of Dem expat John McCann

Last week, Jersey Conservative criticized candidate John McCann for not having a Facebook page.  So he got one in a hurry.  "In a hurry" being the operative phrase.

The problem when you react is that you often get things wrong.  Like this screw up:  "About:  John J. McCann is the only candidate with a proven track record of lowering taxes for New Jersey's 5th congressional district."

 

Now that's a lie.  McCann has never held office in New Jersey's 5th congressional district.  He was never in a position to have a track record of anything. 

 

Then there is McCann's crazy biography.

 

McCann begins by bragging about being from Massachusetts but claims to have moved to New Jersey because he likes it here -- except that he still has a place in New England.  We're told he's a Patriots fan. 

 

Then he writes that his mentor is disgraced Senator Arlen Specter -- a Democrat, who turned Republican, then turned back to Democrat after cutting a deal with President Obama, who was then dumped out of office in a Democrat primary.  Oh yea, he's also the moron who came up with the science-defying "magic bullet" theory in the investigation of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. 

 

McCann's big claim to fame was -- so he writes -- making up the chart that Democrat-turned Republican-turned Democrat Specter used to explain Hillary Care.  Specter would later side with Bill Clinton when he got caught having that canoodle with a young intern.  And this is the guy McCann tells us he's taking after?

 

In his biography that he wrote and posted on his Facebook page, John McCann explains to us that he worked for the Democrat Sheriff of Bergen County for six years.  How's that?  Yep, McCann held a patronage job courtesy of a Democrat Party elected official.  No wonder many observers believe he was recruited by the Democrats to screw the GOP's chances of re-taking the 5th congressional district.

 

He also writes that he currently works for the bi-partisan Sheriffs Association in New Jersey.  Yep, the same crew that has been criticized for their double-dipping and pension schemes.  Award-winning reporter Mark Lagerkvist has written extensively about how property taxpayers are being ripped-off.  In a recent NJ Spotlight report, Lagerkvist noted: " All told, the sheriffs on this list pull down about $3.3 million a year in public pay — $2.1 million in county salaries plus $1.2 million from state pensions." 

 

And get a load of this -- the top two rip-offs are elected Democrats from the 5th congressional district:

 

 1. Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino (D)

$267,987 – $138,000 salary + $129,987 pension as an Emerson Borough police retiree

2. Passaic County Sheriff Richard H. Berdnik (D)

$253,957 – $151,887 salary + $102,070 pension as a Clifton police retiree

 

What is John McCann doing shilling for these guys?  And how can he claim to be a tax saver when he represents tax rip-offs?

 

This is all self-inflicted.  He wrote this b.s. himself so he owns it.


Saturday
Sep022017

"Everything up to Heroin..."

Politicians get up to all kinds of things -- before, during, and even after holding office.  One only need look at the sordid love life of a former Senate President and Governor -- or indeed, of the fellow who followed him.  Sex, drugs, and rock & roll ain't just for the kids.

 

Locally, there is a town that put its tail on the line, when its mayor filed a false statement against someone.  Yep, he signed it, had it sworn to -- real legal and everything.  Turned out not to be true.  A felony in New Jersey.  And a civil case against his town.  And for the County politician who put him up to it.  Maybe for the County too.  Ouch.

 

Then there's the politician who was spreading defamatory rumors about someone, nearly got a poor shopkeeper sued when he posted what she said on Facebook.  That's still out there.  And let's not forget the blog those bozos put together that claimed criminal activity had gone on and a raid had been conducted.  All lies, but actionable both criminally and civilly for at least the next couple years.

 

When dealing with politicians, you have to roll as they roll, do unto them as they do unto you.  Let them set the rules, because they have the power and the property and the money.  What does Mr. or Ms. Average have?  Nothing to lose.

 

On this Labor Day weekend, we thought you might want to read this piece that appeared over on Jersey Conservative.

 

Gannett's Al Doblin fails the test of true liberalism

Writing in today's Bergen Record, Editor Al Doblin presumes to reach into a man's soul -- to determine whether he be good or evil. 

 

The man is a working-class farmer from rural northwest New Jersey.  It is a station-in-life that Mr. Doblin knows very little about.  Mr. Doblin is a confirmed one-percenter, a recognized member of the establishment and of the economic elite.  Residing in a kind of bubble world.

 

What a great opportunity then, this could have been, for Mr. Doblin to get out a little -- to stretch his legs, so to say, and make his way to a place, amongst people, he knows little about. 

 

Mr. Doblin's opinion piece concerned the logo of a rock band.  No, it wasn't the Nazi double-lightning bolts in the "KISS" logo.  The logo he objected to belongs to Hank Williams Jr. and his band.  It consists of the old rebel flag with Mr. Williams' face on it and lyrics from one of his songs.  Now those lyrics are not edgy in the way that most rap is, but you could certainly make the argument that they are edgy.

 

Mr. Doblin's objections appear to be confined to the Hank Williams Jr. logo.  Whether the logo is printed on a piece of cloth or paper or etched in metal shouldn't affect Mr. Doblin's emotions. 

 

Mr. Doblin objects to the farmer, and the farmer's wife, standing in front of the logo at a Hank Williams Jr. concert.  At a tailgate party.  Then they shared a photograph of it on Facebook.  And added a funny line. 

 

Yes, we're serious.  This was the subject of a lengthy editorial by Al Doblin.

 

Now Mr. Doblin would argue that we're leaving out something very important here:  The farmer was elected by his community to serve in the Legislature.  But that is a matter of identity, isn't it?   Because most people elected to the Legislature soon identify with that elite institution and with the establishment it represents.  That's why, in America, most people feel left out by the political process. 

 

The problem with the farmer is this:  He isn't behaving "as he should" according to the rigid "code" set by the establishment and economic elites.  He still identifies as "a farmer" and continues to behave that way.

 

It is not enough that just 3 percent of the legislators in America are blue-collar -- that's 3 percent to represent the 60 percent of Americans who are working class -- but economic elites like Al Doblin want to be able to set the agenda for that 3 percent too.  Instead of reflecting the values and folkways of the people they come from, Al Doblin wants them to reflect his values, his agenda.

 

In Al Doblin's opinion, the farmer's responses to those who object to the Hank Williams Jr. logo were "deflections" -- although he fails to explain how.  What Editor Doblin does is to engage in the sort of embellishment that would make the Ethics Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists cringe. 

 

Again and again, Doblin reaches into the farmer's mind to tell us what he was thinking, into his heart -- to tell us what his feelings and motivations are.  Al Doblin doesn't know this man, in any way, and yet -- as in a novel -- Doblin speaks to us from within the farmer's soul, as though he were inside, looking out.  This is a style of fiction, not of journalism.

 

You have to wonder about people who bathe in what they imagine to be the "faults" of others -- in order to signal the "virtue" that they possess.  It is not unlike what Joseph Conrad called "the stench of the repentant sinner."  And you have to wonder what are the sins that Mr. Doblin feels he needs to atone for, that makes him so earnest to demonstrate his very public "virtue"?

 

What small depravities, sins mortal and venial, dishonesties and behaviors unethical, are in Mr. Doblin's catalog?  Is he remembering all those union workers let go from well-paid, blue-collar jobs?  All those working class newspaper families made to find a new way to live?  Or the writers -- all those writers -- who went from earning a livable wage to a sub-standard one?  All detritus shrugged off by Al Doblin, who went on and on.  Save yourself, be a survivor, there is just one skin that is important.

 

Or is Mr. Doblin considering all those "political" accommodations he has had to make with the establishment over the years.  To develop "access." 

 

Suppressing a story about the number of employed lobbyists openly serving in the Legislature, for instance, or the corruption that has allowed convicted criminals to openly serve.  The number of mistresses quite openly on legislative payrolls.  The visits to sex clubs by legislators -- and all the rest he's been handed over the years. Would Doblin say:  Look, being convicted of a federal crime is one thing, but a Hank Williams Jr. logo?  Now you really have gone too far?

 

We will not do to Al Doblin, what he has done to others.  We will not step into his head and claim to know him.  We won't even qualify his acts of suppression as acts of common cause.  We will chastise him a little though, for missing a great opportunity to be a human being.

 

Once upon a time, old-fashioned liberals were pretty nice people.  Too nice, some said, but an old-fashioned liberal -- upon hearing or reading about the farmer -- would have reached out to him.  "Can I come over for a cup of coffee," he would have said.  And the old-fashioned liberal would have explained to the farmer why he thought his ways were in error. 

 

Now maybe they would agree or maybe they wouldn't, but they would come away, each with the measure of the other man.  The old-fashioned liberal would either understand that the farmer meant no harm -- or if he did mean harm, then the old-fashioned liberal would have cause to act.

 

 But people like Al Doblin don't do that today.  They rely on the media, forgetting that what they see is filtered, and then they re-filter it some more.  They filter out the human factor. 

 

Perhaps Mr. Doblin forgets that those living outside the bubble world of the economic elite have lives every bit as nuanced as his own.  Their lives matter too, so before you paint the stain of racism on someone -- and on everyone else who would have done the same thing without giving it a second thought -- take a moment to reach out.  Human to human.  Doesn't the Code of Ethics of your own profession demand as much?

 

A good old-fashion liberal once wrote: 

 

“It is his millions of relationships that will give man his humanity… It is not our ideological rights that are important but the quality of our relationships with each other, with all men, with knowledge and art and God that count..."

 

Mrs. Lillian Smith was a Southern writer and a pioneer in the battle to end segregation.  We don't know if she ever listened to Hank Williams Jr., but we're sure there were a few dear to her who did.

 

Mr. Doblin, you could have been a human being about this.  You could have been what used to be called "a liberal."  Instead, you chose to make it about you.  You chose to call someone else a sinner to deflect from your own sins and the sins of the establishment and economic elites that you serve.

 

Next time, try to act like a human being.


Friday
Jun022017

Is Save Jersey playing it straight?

From our friends at JerseyConservative.org

We remember when Save Jersey was created as a vehicle for the election of Chris Christie as Governor of New Jersey.  That's the actual origin of the website's name:  Chris Christie was going to "Save Jersey." 

Save Jersey was to be a Lonegan-bashing adjunct to Wally Edge's PoliticsNJ (aka PolitickerNJ and Observer.com).  The Christie people already had the somewhat mercurial David "Wally Edge" Wildstein in their pocket, so Save Jersey's young editor, Matt Rooney, worked slavishly to impress the boss.  The website even went so far as to mock conservative Steve Lonegan's blindness. 

There's been a lot of water under the bridge since then.  Rooney got out of school and failed to get that social media job at the Governor's office he had his eye on.  Wally Edge left his website, got a political patronage job at the Port Authority, did his BridgeGate thing, and pleaded guilty in federal court.  Chris Christie went from being (in Rooney's eyes) New Jersey's savior and potential occupant of the White House to a liability.  Rooney, along with Kim Guadagno, and an assortment of rats, "jumped ship" and began to attack their former master, the one-time object of their somewhat overly intense affections.

Once upon a time they praised Governor Christie for "reaching out" to secure the support of organized labor, much as Ronald Reagan had done.  Today, they treat anyone in a blue-collar as a pariah.

For the record, the contributors here at Jersey Conservative (except for Professor Murray Sabrin) were uniform in their support for Steve Lonegan in his 2009 gubernatorial battle with Chris Christie.  It is not that we have ever supported the Governor's agenda (although parts have been very worthy of that support), it is just that we abhor the craven, vulgar, opportunistic disloyalty shown towards Governor Christie, by those who once attacked us for not following him.  We marvel at how their intensity has not changed.  They were jerk-offs then and they remain jerk-offs now.

Take Matt Rooney as an example.  A shameless self-promoter, even by New Jersey standards.  He is a lawyer who belongs to a firm that exists in the highly political, you-scratch-my-ass-and-I'll-scratch-yours, world of municipal contracts. 

And we have to tell you, that for all Rooney's protestations about being anti-Democrat Party, he doesn't seem to mind being associated with a law firm that takes contracts from Democrat machine towns in South Jersey.  Hey, didn't someone say "follow the money"?  Okay, let's do that:

Save Jersey's Matt Rooney is a lawyer with the Camden County firm of DeMichele & DeMichele.  According to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, the principals of that firm hold the following public contracts/offices:

We searched for Matt Rooney, but came up with nothing:

But that doesn't jive with what Rooney puts in his lawyer's biography:

Matt Rooney has been a member of the New Jersey Bar since 2011 and the District of Columbia Bar since 2012. A significant portion of his practice concerns matrimonial matters including divorce, custody disputes, support modifications, and domestic violence. Matt also handles personal injury, municipal court, and a variety of other types of litigation. He currently serves as a municipal prosecutor in four (4) different South Jersey communities.

So what gives?  Aren't you the guy who is preaching disclosure?  So how about compliance with Local Government Ethics rules?

Matt Rooney

Photo credit: Madison Mae Photography (2014)

Phone: (856) 546-1350
Fax: (856) 546-1365
Email: matt@southjerseylawfirm.com
LinkedIN: MattRooneyNJ
Facebook: MattRooneyNewJersey


____

Practice areas: family law (divorce, child support, domestic violence); municipal court; personal injury; civil litigation; collections

____

Matt Rooney has been a member of the New Jersey Bar since 2011 and the District of Columbia Bar since 2012. A significant portion of his practice concerns matrimonial matters including divorce, custody disputes, support modifications, and domestic violence. Matt also handles personal injury, municipal court, and a variety of other types of litigation. He currently serves as a municipal prosecutor in four (4) different South Jersey communities.

 

http://southjerseylawfirm.com/blog/attorney-profiles/matthew-rooney/


Thursday
Dec222016

Politicians fight in municipal court

It's a new-found perk to holding municipal office:  When you don't like something someone says about you, instead of hiring a lawyer and going to court using YOUR money, just file a criminal complaint, have it signed-off on by a municipal employee whose job YOU control, and then have the part-time prosecutor (a lawyer also in private practice) whose job YOU control prosecute the case for you.  Heck, YOU even control the job of the municipal court judge you will be appearing before. 

 

And even if they transfer it to another court, it is still the same law firms chasing the same municipal court appointments.  One year you are the prosecutor in this town, the next in that, or someone in your law firm is -- and it goes for municipal court judges too who are also lawyers in private practice (an unheard of practice across America).  Which one of these attorneys is going to stand up to a Mayor or Deputy Mayor who holds their living in his or her hands each January when they select the attorneys to fill the lawyer-only part-time municipal jobs the property taxpayers will be paying for?   

 

Yesterday, the Star-Ledger reported on such a case in Union County between Assemblyman Jamel Holley and Roselle Mayor Christine Danserau:

 

"Assemblyman Jamel Holley (D-Union) faces a petty disorderly person's charge of harassment that carries a $500 fine, but the money isn't the point, said Roselle Mayor Christine Danserau.

 

'This is about the fact that harassment is unacceptable,' said Dansereau, who claims she was the target of Holley's obscene tirades.

 

...The strained relationship between Holley and Dansereau stems from a dispute over the borough's proposed $56 million library and recreation center, called the Mind and Body project. Holley has been pushing for the project to move forward, and Dansereau has pushed for more details about how much it will add to homeowners' tax bills."

 

Guess what?  The taxpayers are paying for all of it because it's a perk of holding municipal office.

 

This systemic corruption is being examined right now by the media, legal organizations, and by the New Jersey Legislature.  The Gannett publishing organization -- the largest in America by circulation, reaching over 21 million people every day -- has been taking the lead with its watchdog investigative series on municipal court corruption in New Jersey.  The series has focused on the too cozy relationship between court employees and the local governments who pay their salaries.

 

New Jersey's municipal courts have been described by the media as "a system that increasingly treats hundreds of thousands of residents each year as human ATMs." 

 

"Many cash-strapped municipalities have turned to the law for new revenue...

 

Towns have the power to pass new rules or increase fines on old ones. And just like the singular judge-jury-and-jailer of the old Western days, a town first enforces the higher fines through its police force, then sends the defendant to its local court — which is headed by a judge appointed by the town leaders who started the revenue quest in the first place.

 

While municipal judges are sworn to follow the rule of law and judicial ethics, the pressure to bring in the money is potent in New Jersey, lawyers and former judges told the Press. In Eatontown, email records between town officials showed that increasing revenue generation by the local court was the main reason the council replaced the municipal judge in 2013..."

 

The New Jersey Legislature is planning to address the corruption at municipal courts, with the Chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee  calling the "fairness of the system into question" and for the Legislature to "study municipal court reform."  Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (Republican Budget Officer) is promising to make it happen this year and plans on holding hearings across the state to understand the full extent of this local corruption -- case by case.  He calls the current system a "municipal money grab" and promises to explore "legal remedies."

 

According to the state Administrative Office of Courts, over 75 percent of the more than 4.5 million cases handled by municipal courts statewide are adjudicated with a guilty plea or a plea deal and some kind of payment to the court.  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is currently studying how municipal court corruption impacts the state's residents, especially the poor.

 

The Gannett report notes that the New Jersey State Bar Association earlier this year assembled a panel to study the independence of municipal judges and whether the political pressure they face through their appointment impacts decision-making. The panel is still receiving testimony and hasn't yet disclosed its findings.

 

The Gannett report also notes that "the municipal court system can be altered or abolished by an act of the Legislature at any time."

 

It cites a former member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Municipal Courts, who said that "the first step in fixing the broken municipal court system is to professionalize staff."  Most prosecutors and judges are part-time employees who work in multiple towns. 

 

Blogs like More Monmouth Musings and Sussex County Watchdog have received tip-offs about local municipal corruption in the past.  If you have anything to pass along confidentially, please contact More Monmouth Musings at artvg@aol.com or Sussex County Watchdog at info@sussexcountywatchdog.com.