You ain't seen nothing yet!

My teenage daughter was recently followed by a strange man when she was on her way to school. She managed to get away from this person and run into her school. Two days ago, someone bumped into her and stole her cellphone or she lost it. Any information downloaded or other use of that phone, once it was no longer in her possession, should not be her responsibility. It's weird that such things happened so closely together.

Several essays at my msn group have again been altered by hackers, notably my long article on Godwin and Wollstonecraft. I will make repairs as quickly as I can. Please see "New Jersey's Feces-Covered Supreme Court" and "Bob Menendez Has Not Been Indicted -- Yet!" June 7, 2007 at 11:57 A.M.

Attempts to print items from my group left me with a blank piece of paper bearing this address:

http://view.atdmt.com/MSN/iview/msnnkhac00178x90xWBCBRB00110msn/direct/01


Tina Kelley, "Asbury Park: Sewage Spill Closes Beaches," The New York Times, June 6, 2007, at p. B8.
David Kocieniewski & Andrew Jacobs, "McGreevey Finds Revising An Image is Not So Easy," in The New York Times, September 15, 2006, at p. B5.
Laura Masnerus, "New Jersey Opposition Leads to Utility Merger's Collapse," in The New York Times, September 15, 2006, at p. B5.
David Kocieniewski, "Guilty Plea Expected From Former Senate Leader in Trenton," in The New York Times, September 15, 2006, at p. B1.
David Kocieniewski, "Ex-Leader of New Jersey Senate Is Guilty of Corruption," in The New York Times, September 16, 2006, at p. B2.
David W. Chen, "A Legal and Political Force: U.S. Attorney Emerges as Factor in Campaign for the Senate," in The New York Times, September 16, 2006, at p. B2.
David W. Chen, "A Push for $3 Billion for New Jersey School Projects," in The New York Times, September 15, 2006, at p. B5.


"About two miles of beaches from Del south to Bradley Beach, were closed yesterday after a pipe broke at the Asbury Park sewage treatment plant, Monmouth County officials said."

The legal and moral sewage being released into the American legal and political systems from New Jersey is far more unbearable and threatening to the health of Americans. The poisons of corruption, graft, organized crime involvement in court decisions is escaping from New Jersey's putrid neighborhoods, then insinuating itself into innocent communities located elsewhere in the country.

"The pipe ... released about half a million gallons of partly treated sewage into the Atlantic Ocean between 3:00 A.M. and 9:30 A.M. yesterday, said William Simmons, the county's environmental health coordinator."

Is "untreated sewage" kind of like "shit"? Didn't Mr. Simmons once work as a chaufer? Anyway, I am sure that this sewage will add to your pleasure when you visit the Jersey shore on your vacation this summer. Stop by Trenton and ask the politicians: "How the hell are ya?" Talk about "shit-covered." In every sense, New Jersey can only be described as "feces-covered" territory. Make that "sewage-covered." (I am making corrections of "errors" inserted into this text, fully expecting to make the same corrections again, as the "brain dead" goons from New Jersey help to prove my point about them.)

New Jersey is a place that should serve as a warning to other states. It is the example of what can happen when some of the worst tendencies in American political culture are allowed to go out of control and metastasize, becoming an enormous tumor that devours the political body. Drug money, judicially protected prostitution syndicates that exploit young women and men, illegal gambling operations that hurt tax paying Atlantic City casinos -- all have excellent representation in Trenton. Law-abiding residents of New Jersey often have no such representation.

For decades a partnership developed between New Jersey's organized crime "families" and local politics, where all mechanisms of the state -- including courts, police, public educational institutions and medical facilities, social scientists and other "experts" on the public's tab -- were regarded as a treasure chest to be exploited and emptied of contents, looted by a cabal of political operatives or "made men" of the organization, playing musical chairs with appointed positions in government, even as their buddies "arranged" to get themselves elected to office.

Voters were given few options. Many were pressured to vote "a certain way" in order to keep their public jobs, so as to make money to support their families. Others -- usually minority group members, who did not know any better -- were and are used as front people, to convey a false impression of "diversity" and (conveniently) to take the fall when the feds get a little unhappy. Thank goodness Ms. Cunningham was elected in Jersey City, things may actually improve on her watch.

Political ideologues or persons committed to specific policy issues are duped into serving these power-brokers by being told that struggles are about contested issues. Machinations and political wars in New Jersey are never about anything but political power for the "Jersey Boys," who have no beliefs or political ideals, other than a firm commitment to their own enrichment, preferably at the expense of the public. How are you, Senator Bob?

A case in point is the trajectory of former Senator John A. Lynch, Jr. and his one-time "apprentice" and side-kick, former Governor James McGreevey. Lynch was Batman; McGreevey was Robin. These two were made for each other. Their counterparts are still out there, in the aromatic marshlands of political bosses and operatives, along with their media friends. If you get past the cigar smoke (though never in public places), you will find these hacks plotting to put "Joey in there" or to take "Richie" out of there. "There" is New Jersey government. These are the soldiers and crews selecting cadidates for judgeships, representative office, public committees, zoning boards and all other "spots" where money flows -- flows right into their pockets.

The recent collapse of a proposed utility merger that might well have resulted in much cheaper and more efficient energy for middle class communities (now losing power every time there is a rain storm) was said to have been derailed by so-called "connected" appointed officials, following orders to flex their muscles.The idea, allegedly, is to let Governor Corzine and others know that the "Machine" can control such matters.

The public and the corporate interests who might have gained from this transaction -- including those in other states who approved the deal -- will be "screwed," as it were, unless the Trenton Syndicate gets what it wants, which is absolute power in New Jersey and a license to steal. They already steal without a license.

I don't care if McGreevey or anyone else wants to have sex with a moose or an advark. I don't care about anyone's sexual preference. I am in favor of same sex unions receiving due recognition from the legal system. People's sexual lives are not the state's business. Putting your "main squeeze" on the public payroll for a six-figure salary, so you can have little "afternoon delight" whenever you want it, that's not so cool. Let's all chip in and get McGreevey a copy of Oscar Wilde's "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" or "The Importance of Being Ernest."

I fully expect a barrage of viruses and other difficulties in posting my essays immediately after I write this one. I don't know why. You think it's a coincidence? McGreevey's patron and (allegedly) one of the traditional "five bosses" running state politics, offered a ...

"... public apology for adding another chapter to New Jersey's storied history of political corruption, [none other than] the former Senate president, John A. Lynch, Jr. -- once the most influential power broker in the state -- pleaded guilty on Friday to charges of official misconduct and tax evasion." ("Ex-Leader of New Jersey Senate is Guilty of Corruption," p. B2.)

In addition to a tax evasion charge, "Mr. Lynch, whose political machine once gave him the power to APPOINT JUDGES, shape legislation and pave James E. McGreevey's path to the governor's office, admitted that in 1998 and 1999 he used his public office to help win permit approvals for a mining company that eventually funneled more than $25,000 to him as a 'success fee.' ..." Id.

It was a "success" all right. Is this unusual? No. I bet Lynch was a lawyer and the OAE didn't see a thing. There are probably worse offenders still in state government. They will not receive the attention of the corrupt and inept legal ethics enforcement mechanism (OAE), which is reserved for politically powerless and unruly attorneys, preferably minorities. Asking Lynch to surrender his law license after the feds have convicted him of his crimes is irrelevant to my point.

New Jersey's legal ethics system is a farce, controlled by and responsive to political pressures, sold out and even criminal in its contempt for the rights of those it pursues, while ignoring the worst offenders who happen to be "connected." The OAE is used as a weapon in political struggles by the Jersey Syndicate. The agency's reputation for stupidity and incompetence, political influence, and staffing by "make-believe" lawyers (really beaureaucrats) was confirmed in my experience. There are excellent, honest, highly ethical attorneys working at the AG's office and for the OAE, but their hands are tied by politics and unofficial decision-making. There are also hacks, morons, political whores in Trenton's positions of power.

"Although the plea involved only one deal in a career that spanned nearly three decades, lawyers familiar with the case said that after scouring Mr. Lynch's business and political records for more than four years, investigators were preparing to push for indictments on a wide range of charges involving at least six different transactions."

The typical response by the Machine to the daily reality of corruption charges against their own is to destroy honest prosecutors or judges in the media, so as to intimidate people. Media people are said to be on the payroll. Maybe that explains some of the poor thinking and dreadful writing recently in elite publications. Hence, all the "happy news" in New Jersey's "free" community newspapers. Legal ethics committees, again, are often staffed by "politically active" members of the bar who can be used, sometimes unknowingly, to hurt political radicals or others not "playing ball" with the powers that be in Trenton. It is no response to these charges to hack into my computer and insert a typo in my essay.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie is an equal opportunity corruption buster. He doesn't care if you're a Republican or Democrat. He objects to theft of public funds by anybody, even during election season. Hence, the recent subpoenas served on the Menendez campaign in connection with receipt by Menendez of $300,000 in rent payments over ten years by an organization receiving federal money during that same period. Quid pro quo? (I have just corrected an "error" in this last sentence.)

The U.S. Attorney's Office is no joke. You don't "make a phone call" to fix things with them, which makes the office incomprehensible to people in New Jersey: "What's with this guy?" Cheech says: "Who do we gotta talk to about about this trouble maker? Geez. Nothing's easy no more." Such comments are easily overheard in Trenton's corridors of power or near the New Jersey Senate building.

Suggestions that Mr. Christie is politically motivated are nonsense. He is hoping to destroy or damage a system of political corruption that has destroyed lives for decades, that threatens the legitimate poltical system of that jurisdiction, the Constitution -- and your rights, if you live there. Attempts to smear Mr. Christie are a final indication of both the desperation among the machine's players and their lack of scruples.

"... two former federal prosecutors in New Jersey [Democrats] said in interviews on Friday that investigations and subpoenas are often driven from the ground up by career prosecutors, not from the top down. 'If Chris Christie went into a section chief's office and said,' 'I saw this in the paper and I want you to drop subpoenas,' the guy [or gal] would resign,' said one former prosecutor, a Democrat who deals regularly with Mr. Christie's office. 'In my experience with the U.S. attorney's office, timing is not something that they care about.' ..."

Finding himself described as "the one-eyed man who is king," will not deter Mr. Christie from going after the bosses telling judges and justices, as well as other legal players, what to do in New Jersey. Christie's "one eye" seems to work pretty well at spotting political corruption.

Corruption is costing the people of New Jersey billions of dollars, reducing the quality of public services, destroying the professional reputations and lives of many good people in government (like Zulima Farber), intimidating law enforcement and turning New Jersey into an Orwellian nightmare. Crooks are using public information and power for nefarious purposes at the behest of unelected "big shots." It also makes New Jersey's Supreme Court look incompetent and ridiculous, which it is. Somebody should wake them up. The answer is not to threaten the lives of critics or their family members -- who may be children -- but to make necessary reforms and acknowledge judicial errors. Ethics? Is solicitation of grievances "ethical," fellas? How about when a target is selected, secretly, by politicians?

Why or how the New Jersey Supreme Court can continue to cover-up -- as I am sure it does -- torture sessions by shrinks, like Terry Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli, working (surreptitiously) for state agencies is beyond me. Does mob influence in New Jersey extend to the state's highest court? I hope not. It is those "big shots" who are finding it difficult to sleep easily these days, since the bells that toll in Trenton are tolling for them. There will be a day of reckoning. Soon.