Some Food for Thought: Make the Change!

Attention All Independence Party Members
Caution: All Other Parties

Since the disgusting performance of the major political parties, the Republican and the Democratic, and the thuggery and bullying that went on during the so-called campaigns, which were nothing less than a neonazi display of mindlessness, we’ve been taking a serious look at the political party options in our Central New York region, and have come up with a real opportunity for voters who have had enough of being castrated and deprived of their voices in local and regional politics.

The Answer: the Independence Party.

We are making this statement based on our investigations of the Greene County New York Independence Party; we have serious reservations about the leadership of some of the surrounding counties, particularly Albany County, but Schoharie, Ulster, Columbia counties need some prodding to support each other. That’s a problem with their leadership (their committee chairs and executive committees) not with their membership. Independence party members, that is, the real people who register Independence Party are the salt of the earth. Real people, working hard to better their communities, and sick of the lies and stuffed shirts the major parties offer at each election.

True, there are some genuine people in the New York State Legislature, and one name pops up right away, Assemblyman Chris Teague, a Republican supported by the Independence Party, who is a genuine people  person. We’d like to hear from readers if there are any others like him. Just for kicks and giggles.

The Independence Party in Greene County, NY, has almost 2000 registered voters countywide, and that doesn’t count the non-Independence supporters from the other parties and those supporters not affiliated with any political party! The Greene County Independence Party has voter power big-time as well as being attractive to those Americans who want to put the “I” back in INDEPENDENCE, and leave those others who live in dependence on the failures of the Republican and Democratic Parties and those parties riding on their coattails, like the Conservatives and other useless fluff on the political scene.

Greene County’s Independence Party family is an active and outgoing group, who reach out to those neighbors looking for truth and integrity in politics, community organizations, everyone without exception or discrimination or snooty arrogance. The Greene County Independence Party is there to help rebuild our communities!

Some of the other counties in New York (like Albany, for example, who sold the Town of Coeymans down the river, backed a maverick sneak for Greene County Sheriff, among other scurrilous backroom political freak show acts), Greene County is up front, open, welcoming, honest. Anyone who knows Smalbany knows that if that were not true, we’d be singing another tune. Trust us!

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IMPORTANT NOTE

Greene County Independence Party

There are those out there, mostly the puppets of the major parties, who have nothing good to say about anything if it’s not going their way. And there are those out there who are sucking us dry when it comes to our rights and liberties, even our guaranteed right of freedom of expression (free speech).

We mention this because in our extensive research we have found some absolutely ridiculous claims being made in the media regarding the Independence Party’s name, because it contains the word “Independence,” which they want to change! They claim that Independence in the party’s name “confuses people” and causes them to register thinking that they are registering as voters independent of any political party, that is, as non-party affiliated voters.

Anyone with half of a brain would discard such rubbish not only as idiotic but also offensive to the voters registering. Such a statement would mean that voters are ignorant, can’t read, or are totally stupid. It’s a half-hearted, desperate attempt to try to further confuse the people. We could use the same stupid reasoning when talking about the “Republican” or the “Democratic” parties, but we’re far too genuine to play their idiotic games. After all, just about every foundation document in our nation’s history contains the words “republic” or “independence,” less frequently “democracy” or “democratic.” They are part of the American political vocabulary and carry huge meaning and significance. But does that fact come up as confusing people?

When you register to vote please understand that when you register as an Independent you are registering as a member of the Independence Party; if you want to be completely “independent” of any political party, that is, if you don’t want to be associated with any party, you need to register NOP or no party affiliation. There is a difference and we want you to know about that fact.

The Editor

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Everyone wants Independence votes!!!

In Greene County, the Independence Party includes almost 2000 registered voters in 12 communities. That’s a lot of votes and is the reason why candidates running for office at all levels run to the Independence Party to get the Independence voters to support them. This is extremely important for candidates who are concerned that their own party, the Republicans or the Democrats, won’t carry them through the election, or refuse to provide needed support, and they won’t have the votes to get elected. Everyone wants Independence votes!!!

Independence Party Members Working to Get their Own Independence Candidates on the Ballot

Enough is enough, people. Independence Party members in Greene County, at least, have to get together and stop giving the farm away! Why are Independence Party members wasting their time handing their votes to failing parties’ candidates? Why aren’t Independence Party members working to get their own Independence candidates on the ballot, and finally clean up local and regional politics for a starter?

They’re waking up and saying, “Hey! We have great numbers, a great vision, a great group of people working for the community. We can do it!”

The answer is likely that the Independence Party members simply don’t know the power they have! it’s the best-kept secret out there in politico-land. Why? Because, unlike Greene County Independents, the leadership in the surrounding counties see a good thing for themselves when they can play power-broker games with the major parties and their candidates. Most of the other counties and the State Committee are out of touch with everyone and everything but themselves. Greene County Independents are some of the first to wake up and smell the tires burning. They’re waking up and saying, “Hey! We have great numbers, a great vision, a great group of people working for the community. We can do it!”

Smalbany and many others agree, although some of those “others” are running scared and trying their best to kill any so-called “third party” from exposing the major parties’ failures. One such villain is Mario Cuomo, you know, the monkey-faced, angry, enraged governor of New York state who lets his only supporters out of the jails to endanger the lives of the rest of us. Cuomo is out with a vengeance to do a hatchet job on the third parties. He and his party handlers are running scared. They see the writing on the wall!

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, remarks in a speech: “We’re not going to make America great again. It was never that great,” and his audience gasps (August 15, 2018).That’s the kind of leadership our major parties provide!

Here are some numbers from the Greene County Independence Party. Note that Greene County is a small county in terms of population, and is historically Republican (old Republican, that is). So, when you get numbers like these in the major population centers in Greene County, it means something big is happening:

Registered Independence Party Members in Greene County NY (Source Greene BoE)

When you think about it, in most local elections a candidate is elected by 1 vote! Just think of all the recent elections where the major parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, couldn’t even come up with a candidate to run against the incumbent or the other party’s candidate, and then think that if the Independence Party ran a candidate, a real person, a people’s candidate, how different things would be.

Only Voters Change Things, Not the Politicians

The major parties are always preaching change but they never come up with any. Only the faces change; the circus goes on, business-as-usual. The fact is, only voters change things, not just registered voters but registered voters who truly want to make a difference, who truly want change, and who realize that they have the power right now right in their hands to make those changes. One of the first changes is to change your party affiliation from Republican or Democrat to Independence Party. Send the bastards a message!

Be Proud: Be Independence!

Fact is: The only thing you give up is your vote in the primaries which is not really a choice at all, because the party is telling you who you have to choose from. In the elections, you don’t have to vote for any major party candidate; you don’t have to vote for your party’s choice. You can vote for anyone you like! Use your head, not some label forced on you. Be yourself, appear at town and village meetings, be a good citizen and an even better neighbor, and be Independent. You’ll shine in the crowd, and you’ll be happier with yourself.

Acknowledgements: Special thanks to Mr George Acker, Sr., Chairman of the Greene County NY Independence Party (GCNYIP), Ms Irene Beede, Administrative Assistant, GCNYIP, and Ms Elisa Jarvis of the Greene County Board of Elections (GCBOE) for their much appreciated assistance and inputs making this report possible.

 

The Cabin Fever Reliever with Your Valentine!

Saturday, February 15, 2020, is a really special date. Mark you calendar!

Visit the Greene County Weasels blog!

We have a February Committee meeting coming up on Saturday, February 15, 2020, at 3:00 p.m. at the Red Rooster Roadhouse in Cairo, NY. Following that meeting there’ll be a buffet dinner dance on a special theme starting at about 5:00 p.m. There’ll be food and music and lots of fun! Please plan to be there and bring some friends! Pack the house! Show those crusty Republicans and those mushy Democrats how real Americans party, and thumb their noses to Old Man Winter’s Cabin Fever, and party with your Valentine’s Day heartthrob!

The Independence Party committee meetings are warm and welcoming and tend to be much more interesting than what you might think. The members welcome everyone, literally everyone with no question about political party affiliation and no pressure to listen to political rubbish. Party business is handled during the meetings; party partying is serious business and takes place after the meetings.

The Red Rooster Road House is a great place with good food, great bar, pool tables, and great hospitality. We first learned of the Red Rooster Roadhouse when some readers of our reviews of local Sunday brunch venues told us not to waste our time anywhere else, and to try the all-you-can-eat brunch buffet for only $9.95 + tax. Our readers never fail us and the advice was great — so was the brunch and the hospitality. Our only problem was the GPS directions. Our best advice is to go straight out of Main St. in Cairo, leaving the hamlet, for about a mile and the Red Rooster is on your left.

Greene County Independence Party Chairman Mr George Acker will be posting details on the Greene County NY Independence Party Facebook site and we’ll ask the Greene Weasel Whackers to post the information.

Remember: All politics, good and bad, start in the home. It’s time we started changing business as usual by starting in our own backyards. We are people, individuals, and independent of corrupt politics and corrupt politicians. That’s why we have the principles of the Independence Party.

Support the Greene County New York Independence Party

Take the first steps to improving our communities, neighborhoods, and lives by getting involved in positive political activity and forget the idiotic labels people have been conditioned to wear as if they were badges of merit! Those labels make you less than you are and less than you can be!

Don’t let Old Man Winter’s Cabin Fever get ya! Party with the Greene Independents on February 15, 2020!

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On a more serious note:

We were totally disgusted by many of the local elections and what went on. The major parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, were a complete disappointment in Coeymans, Cairo, New Baltimore, and so many other municipalities. We weren’t going to let the label-voters take the fun out of the holidays, though, and we didn’t want to sour yours by publishing the disgusting facts about what went on in Coeymans,

The State Independence Party Committee and the Albany County Independence Party Committee under Chairman Paul Caputo (who is also a State Committee vice-chairman) put themselves in our sights when the State Party Committee endorsed failed Greene County Sheriff candidate Diana Benoit, after she played her losing hand to get on the ballot in Greene County. She lost and is now tainted goods. The State Committee is going to have to come clean on that one, as will Mr Paul Caputo, Albany County Independence Party Chairman.

What’s worse still, and a double whammy for Caputo is the fact that his Albany County Committee actually backed the McHugh neonazi mobsters in Coeymans, totally ignoring the Democratic incumbents.

Caputo’s Friends in Coeymans

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The 2019 Wicked Weasel Award goes to Paul Caputo

Paul Caputo of the Albany County Independence Party Committee has received the unanimous nomination as the recipient of the 2019 Golden Weasel Award. Shame on you, Pauli!

Awarded to Paul Caputo for Shady Weasel Dealing.

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Here’s what we wrote to the NY State Independence Party Committee:

We are contacting you on behalf of the Smalbany Blog (https://w/smalbanynewyork.wordpress.com), a widely read social and political comment and information site with more than 500,000 readers.

The recent elections in November 2019 were nothing less than a display of non-support, dirty politics, and neonazi bullying in several municipalities in the Capital Region of New York.

One of the most disgusting and shameful displays was in the Town of Coeymans where Republican George McHugh and his mob obtained the support of the Albany County Independence Party, while in several other communities in Greene County, meritorious candidates languished while the Democrats ignored their candidates and the State Independence Party Committee (where was Mr Caputo?) and sister ID chairs and committees around Greene County were non-supportive of the Greene County Independence Party Committee.

Then there was the debacle of Diana Benoit, who ignored the Greene County Independence Party Committee and pulled some county (Albany) state vice-chair’s (Paul Caputo’s?) strings to get the State committee’s endorsement, but was given the thumbs down when she appeared before the Greene County Committee to explain and to apologize. She lost her own party’s (Republican) support and that of the Greenes; she pursued a dead campaign and managed to lose miserably in the elections. Payback!

With that preface, we would like the Greene Co. Committee’s comments on what went on and how Greene would like the State Committee to do to heal the wounds and establish good faith with local chairs and their committees, particularly in Greene County.

We are also looking at the role of sister committees and some questionable conduct by County IP chairs in counties neighboring Greene.

We will be running a series of articles during the month of January on what we have learned but would like to know what the Greene Committee and other neighboring Independence Party County Committees are prepared to do to support counties like Greene, and to compel Albany County and the State Independence Party Committee to give an accounting on how and why they supported the Republicans and ignored the Democratic incumbents.

All responses will be treated as confidential. Please reply to the the attention of the Editor at rcs.confidential@gmail.com.

We’ve also posted a request on the Greene County Independence Party Facebook page asking for committee and party members to come forward with what information they may have on the back-room politics that went on and screwed good candidates as well as the residents and taxpayers in so many communities.

We wholly and completely support the third parties like the Independence Party, particularly those dedicated and caring people in Greene County who are doing all they can to support good candidates and do the best for the people. That’s a hell of a lot more than we can say the Republican Party and Democratic Party committees in Albany and Green Counties have done even for their own people!

The only smart choice left for us!

 

Coeymans: Poster-Child of the “Sick Community Syndrome.” Part I

The recent elections in Albany County (NY) and in Greene County (NY), particularly in the Town of Coeymans (Albany County, NY), and the towns of New Baltimore (Greene County, NY), for example, have exhibited a troubling pattern forming in what was once a multi-party, participative democracy, free and courageous nation: Amid finger-pointing, immorality, self-service, and failures in our public servants, the main political parties, the Democratic and the Republican parties, have become irrelevant, frequently unable to muster up candidates to provide voters with a choice. Moreover, the third parties have become ballot brokers, political prostitutes, selling their support for future favors, and backing some of the worst scoundrels the polls have ever been sullied with.

The 2019 Local Elections:
Examples of the “Sick Community Syndrome”©

This analysis and commentary is based on the model of domestic violence and abuse, and shows how domestic violence and abuse plays out on a community scale in the framework of what I call the “sick community syndrome.” [anonymous]

Voting Normally Works….
Unless you live in a sick community. Coeymans Town Hall will experience an acute bout of parasitic infestation in January 2020, when the McHugh mob is sworn in.

The Sick Community Syndrome.

The sick-community syndrome is alive and well. It has become a permanent resident, it appears, in our communities, in the shady and corrupt characters running for office, misinforming the public and defaming incumbents, opposing candidates, or anyone,  who had clear who availed themselves of their guaranteed constitutional rights of free expression and freedom of assembly. Ignoring clear and conspicuous exemplary performance and records of accomplishment, the shadow figures intimidated residents and brainwashed the willing; this would have sent up red flags to most observers but not in a sick community. What’s worse, and with the Town of Coeymans as our poster-child, the fact that the least qualified candidates — and the most corrupt candidates — were elected to replace incumbents with records of accomplishment. This situation raised many questions and led us to coin the phrase “sick community syndrome” to describe the municipalities which, like the Town of Coeymans and towns like it dotting Albany and Greene Counties in New York, have a history of such self-destructive, self-abusive behaviors, marked by widespread abuse and psychological violence perpetrated on an apathetic and depressed — morally and economically — community of what can be called most accurately: sheeple.

Background Facts

The Town of Coeymans as the Poster-Child for “Sick Community Syndrome”

What about us?!?
You elected them and abandoned us!!!

The 2019 midterm election campaign scene in the Town of Coeymans, for example, included:

Two incumbents: 2-term Town Supervisor, Phillip Crandall (Dem), multiple-term Town Councilman, Tom Dolan (Dem), and a young man new to the political scene but not to town government, Michael McGuire (Dem), who is the Town of New Scotland Assessor.

Coeymans Opted to Oust Incumbents with Proven Track Records of Fiscal Responsibility, Economic Growth, and Vast Improvements in Infrastructure and Environmental Concerns. Why?

The Smalbany blog (nonpartisan) reported extensively on the candidates and the campaigning but in synopsis:

1. George D. McHugh, an attorney closely associated with local big business interests, a long history of ethics violations, a pattern of misinformation, disinformation, malinformation, and outright lies. A womanizer, married 4 times so far. McHugh was a one-term Coeymans Town Supervisor in 2000-2001, but did not run for a second term. His reasons for not having run for a second term change with the weather. He’s a skilled liar.
2. McHugh’s running mates included the son of a local family business (fuel oil and other products), Zacchary Collins (30), and a local man Brendan Lefevre (34), both with no life or political experience or any experience to speak of at all., In fact, Lefevre didn’t live in the Coeymans area until recently, and then returned only to take up residence in his father’s basement. Neither Collins nor Lefevre own any property in the Town of Coeymans but will be calling the shots for residents who do own property and pay property taxes. 
3. Upon reliable information, George D. McHugh never attended a Coeymans Town Board meeting save for one appearance at which he made a presentation on behalf of one of his business interests. Collins and Lefevre may have been seen at one Coeymans Town Board meeting shortly before the elections, but that is an unconfirmed report. They couldn’t be bothered to attend town board meetings but now are going to be running things as the Coeymans Town Council.
4. The McHugh campaign was extraordinarily expensive in terms of money spent in a local political campaign. Initial estimates indicate that the campaign spent in excess of $20,000. Final campaign finance reports are still pending, and we will obtain them and verify the exact amount spent. Will McHugh disclose every source of campaign money he and his group received? Support includes promises of future benefits to be received from LaFarge-Holcim, Carver Companies, Port of Coeymans, Coeymans Industrial Park, organized business groups in the town, and private interests. It’s all about money!
5. George McHugh is former owner of the local newspaper, the Ravena News Herald, and close friends with the current owner/publisher, Mark Vinciguerra. While the Ravena News Herald tried but failed to make a convincing appearance of fair and balanced campaign reporting, and the News Herald was monumentally unsuccessful in masking their flagrantly biased support of the McHugh group.
6. The far more disturbing aspect of the McHugh campaign was the clear close involvement of a group calling itself, Friends of Coeymans, which was in fact a trio of local thugs, Jeffrey “Jeff” LaQuire, Nathan “Nate” Boomer, and Christopher “Chris” Hagen. The so-called Friends of Coeymans made it a point of appearing at most public meetings of the Town of Coeymans boards, harassing the board members, intimidating pubic attendees, staging pubic comment together with collaborators, and generally making any meeting into a three-ring-circus affair. The bullying and thuggery reached such a point that the Town Board found it necessary to have police presence at meeting to ensure order. According to their Facebook page, they assure followers that their work has just begun! What does that mean to Coeymans residents? To residents who want to participate in local government? Who want to exercise their guaranteed rights? We’ve already seen the neonazi tactics used by the Friends of Coeymans and now we read that their work has just begun!
   

   Neonazi-like Clown Characters:
   LaQuire – Hagen – Boomer

7. The LaQuire-Boomer-Hagen trio did not limit their activity to public comment but frequently followed public attendees around videoing and recording their conversations, photographing attendees, and making comments about or to attendees during meetings. The trio not only have become despised and ridiculous public figures, they also host an abusive Facebook page that provided commentary, disinformation, personal attacks, and other obnoxious publications. It was purest neonazism in action and it was, regrettably effective.
8. The McHugh group received Republican (R), Conservative (C), and Independence (I) party lines on the ballot. Those endorsements will become something those parties will learn to regret. Lie down with dogs and wake up with fleas!
9. The majority of Coeymans voters opted to choose the greed and narcissism of a small group of corrupt clowns and to abandon their children’s and grandchildren’s best interests! The majority of Coeymans voters chose shame and guilt over and above responsibility to their community and to their children. Why?

A Majority of Voters — Not Necessarily the People of Coeymans — Elected Three Men of Questionable Character to Replace Incumbents with Proven Positive Performance. Why?

It’s difficult for a reasonably thinking mind to grasp Why? given the facts and the available options, the majority of Coeymans residents who bothered to go to the polls, actually voted for one of the most scandalous groups in modern Coeymans history!

On November 5, 2019, voters went to the polls, to elect Coeymans Town Supervisor, two Coeymans Town Councilmen, and one County Legislator. When the polls closed it was announced that the McHugh group had succeeded in receiving the majority of votes. The Coeymans Town Board was now 100% Republican, packed with McHugh and big-business puppets, and two incumbent Republicans, Daniel Baker and Kenneth Burns had already been exposed as moles on the Town Council, and both Baker and Burns proved their dubious characters according to past activities on and off the board.

Comeback Team (McHugh) Supporters Make their Way to the Polls
The Result of the Comeback Team’s Brainwashing!

The Smalbany blog reported extensively on the campaigning, including an extensive interview of Mr. Phillip Crandall, former Town Supervisor, and published in both excerpts and in full transcript. George McHugh refused to be interviewed and refused to debate Mr. Crandall on at least 3 occasions.Voters seemed to ignore McHugh’s cowardice.

This 2019 local campaign behavior was on the one hand, characterized by considerable publication of the challengers’ background and conduct, principally that of George McHugh, who had a past rich in questionable conduct and more recently, bare-faced lies that were easily exposed. His running mates were as unimpressive as McHugh was impressive (negatively). In contrast, the incumbents. Phil Crandall and Tom Dolan, and candidate Michael McGuire, were experienced, civil, productive, and forthcoming. Mr. Crandall, for example, was able to run down a long laundry list of accomplishments and programs, including remarkable fiscal recovery during his two terms.

So why does a whole community, that is, those who actually go to the polls, ignore the available factual information in favor of being fed disinformation and malinformation, to elect clearly morally, ethically, and clearly substandard and undesirable candidates like McHugh, Collins and Lefevre, while abandoning incumbents, like Crandall and Dolan, and a professional administrator like McGuire, who provided proof of their the high-quality performance and productivity. We are not pointing out pie in the sky accomplishments but accomplishments, which were clearly obvious day-to-day to anyone on the street, anyone enjoying clean air, soil, water, parks, and new sidewalks and newly paved streets!

This Behavior of Residents Raises Many Troubling Questions

Such community behavior raises many troubling questions about how the so-called voting public process facts, the value they place on truth and integrity, and why they would abandon incumbents with undeniably excellent performance records only to elect a man of highly questionable ethics, George McHugh, whose campaign was based largely on contradictions, lies, and the neonazi tactics of the Friends of Coeymans — Jeff LaQuire, Nate Boomer, and Chris Hagen —, and two inexperienced young puppets — Zachary Collins and Brendan Lefevre —, who would function conspicuously as McHugh’s tools on the Coeymans Town Board.

These are some of the questions we hope to clarify, if not help to answer, including:

• Why do people stay in sick communities while denying that they are being abused?
• Why do residents in sick communities refuse to confront the reality of the abuse and avoid changing?
• Why do residents in sick communities deny facts and truth about abuse, and call the messenger a liar?
• When offered a choice, why do residents in a sick community choose bad judgement over common sense?
• Do voters elect bad candidates out of shame and guilt, and is that behavior a way of punishing themselves?
• In other words, How do the abused, the victims then become self-abusers?

The abuse becomes the norm; anything else is not normal for them. Common sense would seem to indicate that a community should be able to choose how they want to live and, since it is a viable option, for the victims to do what they can to escape their abusers. But they don’t choose to escape their abusers! Instead, they hand them the keys to the community, and the vicious cycle of abuse continues and worsens.

The New Normal.
Abuse becomes the Norm.

Editor’s Note: If anyone already has the answers to these questions, please share them with us. You’ll save us a lot of research and writing time, and we can move on to other equally scary topics. But if you don’t have the answers, read the continuing installments of this series, Coeymans: Poster-Child of the “Sick Community Syndrome.”

Part II of this series is due to be published on
Saturday, November 16, 2019.
Stay tuned!

 

We Love Captain Weasel Whacker!!!

Republished with Permission from the Greene County Weasels site.

If you’re a weasel and you see this guy… Be afraid. Be VERY afraid!!! You can run for office but you can’t hide!

Hi, neighbors!

This is CPT Weasel Whacker. I just want to say that we’re out there whack’n those weasels, and you can bet they’re runnin’ scared.

This site was created to bring you the best quality journalistic reporting, and some well-researched opinion about our local politics and politicians. We’ll woo the wonderful and whack the weasels. Our slogan, if you haven’t noticed is:

Find’em, Expose’m, Whack’em. Integrity before Politics.

And that goes for all of us: No more alphabet soup voting for the Rs and the Ds. The Republican and the Democratic parties have degenerated and have consistently let us down. They lie to us, deceive us, take us for granted, and screw the life-blood out of us and everything we earn. They can’t come up with good, honest candidates so they give us weasels. If you don’t get weasels, they deprive you of your right to choose by not even running a candidate to oppose the other party.

Unless we do something and do something damned quick, we’ll be a dictatorship, a one-party system, a Big Brother State before you know it!

Well, neighbors, it’s time to think Declaration of Independence [Editor’s Note: … and Bill of Rights, how about that thing we call a Constitution?], and go Independent. Why do you think the Republicans and the Democrats are always coming to the Independence Party to ensure their candidate gets elected? Because they know their party [ Republican and Democrat] sheeple can’t do it alone; they need some credibility and integrity and they get that from the Independence Party.

Conservatives are half-baked Republicans; Democratic Party is a shame to their name, they’re failures and crooks like Cuomo and his Downstate Mob who elect Cuomo-the-Homo. You need to go independent of the two has-been parties: Be independent. Be an Independent!

I want to ask you to click the button to follow this blog; you’ll get email updates every time a new post goes up, and you’ll be notified when a friend or neighbor posts a comment.

You can share information or send us a tip by writing to us at captain.weasel.wacker@gmail.com. Anything you send me by email will be strictly confidential. I’ll never post any information until it’s been checked and verified. And your name or email will never be shared or made public without your written permission. You’re safe with us!

Stay tuned! We’ll be whacking another weasel shortly!

CPT Weasel Whacker

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The Weasels site is really very well done; some beautiful images of Greene County. Cpt Whacker is going for the gold…or the Greene. We wish him well! We’ve added a couple of notes (in grey) and some emphasis to the original Greene County Weasels message from Captain Weasel Whacker but nothing else. He seems to be doing a great job and doesn’t need any help from us. But they do need YOUR help. Please support the Greene County Weasel Wackers and their site. Maybe we can make one county in New York a better place to live … Albany County is a lost cause! The Editor Smalbany

 

If they want to be elected, we’re going to grill them! Re: George McHugh.

Incumbent Town of Coeymans Supervisor, Phil Crandall, has accepted our invitation to be interviewed, we are now negotiating a date and time for the interview.

In his email response to our proposed interviewer, Mr Crandall writes (September 3, 2019):

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“Thank you for reaching out to me in regards to an interview. I am happy to schedule that and should be able to get back to you after the holiday with my exact availability and some possible dates. Thank you again”

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We are now calling on Mr George McHugh, a candidate expecting to run against Mr Crandall this November, and hoping to take the office of Town Supervisor, and to take control of the Coeymans Town Council.

Our Reaction.

McHugh is campaigning behind an ambiguous campaign slogan, “Take Back Our Town,” which makes us wonder who is taking back whose town, and what’s going to be left for small businesses and for any remaining residents, after the so-called Friends of Coeymans all get their share of the post-election booty.

But in all fairness, we want Mr McHugh to have a fair opportunity to clarify some issues and to show that his commitment to transparency is no bullshit. Back to  our invitation to Mr McHugh. Here are our proposed questions for Mr McHugh:

Dance, Georgie! Dance for us, Georgie!

Proposed Interview Questions
George McHugh
Candidate, Town of Coeymans Supervisor

1. You were elected to be Town of Coeymans Supervisor back in 2001, served one term, and then did not run for a second term. Why was that?
2. The question of the Blaisdell Farm property and your housing project on that property has been the subject of a number of inquiries, particularly the fact that the property was annexed by the Village of Ravena at about the time you were Coeymans Town Supervisor, or shortly after you left office. Would you please comment on the circumstances of that annexation and how you benefited from it?
3. You were appointed to a federal administrative law judgeship. It would appear that you are no longer serving in that capacity. Can you tell us what happened to the judgeship?
4. Your campaign slogan is “Take Back Our Town,” from whom do you expect to take it back?
5. Who are the Friends of Coeymans? Do they have names?
6. According to our information, you serve in several capacities as a paid consultant or employee of the Carver Companies. Will you be resigning those positions if you are elected?
7. How will your cozy relationships with Carver Laraway and the Carver group of companies affect your fitness to be Supervisor of the Town of Coeymans?
8. You were outspoken in your opposition to the Town of Coeymans clean air law which purported to ensure good air and environmentally friendly air quality but you campaign on a promise to improve quality of life in Coeymans. That law was passed. How does opposition to clean air advocate quality of life for Coeymans residents?
9. In terms of improvement of quality of life, and other than opposing clean air, what other proposals do you have for QoL improvements?
10. In you campaign ads you suggest that you will do a number of things if elected. But our investigations show that you would not have the authority to make good on those promises, since most, if not all of those promises are state level powers. What do you have to say about that?
11. As former owner of the Ravena News Herald, can you please comment on your relationship with Mark Vinciguerra and the Ravena News Herald, now owned by V. as part of his Capital Region Independent Media?
12. Do you currently hold an ownership or financial interest in the Ravena News Herald?
13. What do you feel you can offer Coeymans that current Town Supervisor Crandall cannot?
14. What would be your major criticisms of Mr. Crandall and the current Coeymans Town Board?
15. Given the questions regarding the role of the Coeymans Police Department in the death of 19-year old Riley Kern: What would your plan be for the Town of Coeymans Police Department.
16. Hypothetically, if you were Town Supervisor, how would you good faith in responding to the many questions in the Riley Kern alleged wrongful death case?
17. There is evidence that acting Coeymans Police Chief Mr. Daniel Contento and Coeymans police officer Ian Foard had handled the Riley Kern investigation not only unprofessionally but professionally negligently. We are aware that you have been in contact and communicating with Mrs Kern about her son’s death. If elected, what would you as Town of Coeymans Supervisor, in cooperation with the Town Board that would be controlled by your group, plan to do to support Emily Kern’s efforts to get recognition for her son, and to make amends for the circumstances of his death?
18. What would be your five priority TO DO items for immediate action upon taking office, if you were elected Town of Coeymans Supervisor?
19. What would be your five priority TO UNDO items for immediate action upon taking office, if you were to be elected Town of Coeymans Supervisor in 2019?
20. Apart from any new industrial developments in the works, and given the small business situation in the Town of Coeymans, what would your plan be to encourage and to support small business creation and development in the Town of Coeymans, particularly in and around Ravena, the Hamlet of Coeymans, and the beautiful waterfront available to the Town and its residents and small businesses?
21. Will you be continuing your law practice if elected to be Coeymans Town Supervisor? If so, would you continue to provide legal services to Carver Laraway and the Carver Companies?

*****

Well, Mr McHugh and his running mates are running on a number of positions, one of them is transparency. Well, in our opinion, if transparency is such a big concern for McHugh and his group, then he won’t have much of a problem with our questions. Or will he? We’ll find out and when we do, you’ll know, too. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, please read our recent McHugh-related articles:

Russian Mafia in Our Back Yards?

Please don’t Mug Me! Just Pot Me!

The Russians are Coming!!!

To McHugh or Not to McHugh.

It’s your community, too, and we want you to have a say in all of this. That’s why we’re asking our readers to send us their questions for consideration. If your questions are selected, we’ll include them in the interview of Mr McHugh.

As we go forward with the interviews, we’ll post names and questions for the candidates we choose to interview, and ask for your inputs.

Of course, we’ll keep you updated and informed on how the candidates respond, and we’ll share their answers with our readers.

Please send your questions to rcs.confidential@gmail.com. You can also leave a public comment on this blog with your questions.

 

Our 2018 Election Picks for the Town of New Baltimore and Greene County

Let’s be clear: You don’t “elect” an unopposed candidate! “Elect” in the campaign sign is a LIE!

When you see a campaign sign that asks you to “elect” an unopposed candidate in an uncontested election, think

The legal definition of election is a selection process: In an election voters are presented with at least 2 candidates and choose one of them. Candidates may be “endorsed” by one or more parties but for an election or a selection process to take place, you need at least two candidates. One candidate is not a choice and is not an “election.”

It is the duty of the so-called political parties to present voters with a choice. There has been a disturbing recent trend in our so-called American democratic process — a trend that is becoming very conspicuous in Greene County and the Town of New Baltimore — of presenting voters with a single, unopposed candidate in uncontested “elections.” This is not a new trend and has been concealed from voters in at least 38 states for decades and has been permitted by state election laws, laws that deprive voters of their right to choose who governs them.

As many of our readers know, each election year we study the candidates and make our picks. We share them with you because we have done the research and have asked the questions. When, IF the candidates respond, we let you know what they had to say. Here are our picks and recommendations for November 6, 2018:

First of all, we’d like to start our election choices with a positive:
Peter J. Markou
for
Greene County Treasurer.

Peter Markou is a Five-Star Choice for Greene County Treasurer.
Experience, Integrity, Committed

Peter Markou is a five-star candidate.

Mr Markou is intelligent, a gentleman, honest, and so different from the bottom-feeders that are left on the ballot. Mr Markou has been Greene County Treasurer for several terms and there’s no one who can say anything negative about the man. Vote for Peter Markou for Greene County Treasurer; he’s honest, competent and has proved he can do the job like a real professional, not like a politician.

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Greene County Coroners

Bob Gaus (D) and Joshua Lipsman (D)

(Democrats endorsed by the Independence Party)
opposing
Richard Vigilio (R) and Paul Seney (R)

Gaus and Lipsman have kept their Democrat affiliation a bit under wraps, and have touted their endorsement by the Independence Party. That’s a bit sneaky in our opinion but HEY! we are reporting about much, much worse in this article.

Not many voters really understand what a county coroner does but many may at some time in their lives have to deal with one, so we’d like to make certain it’s the right one.

We have written several pieces on coroners in the past and our basic opinion is that it is an outdated office, political, and really should be made obsolete in favor of the medical examiner’s office. That having been said, and already having raised important questions about the ethics of funeral directors or physicians being involved with the politics of death investigations,we object only to the general ethics and the history of the office of coroner, and why it should be done away with and replaced by a competent, qualified and non-political medical examiner.

There are already two incumbent Greene County Coroners: Richard Vigilio has been Greene County Coroner for 24 years and a funeral director (Richards Funeral Home) for 63 years. We think it’s time for Vigilio to retire before he becomes a coroner’s case himself. Paul Seney is the second Greene County Coroner, and is a funeral director at Richards Funeral Home and Brady Funeral home.

As for the two individuals running for Greene County Coroner: Bob Gaus, a funeral director, and Joshua Lipsman, a physician/healthcare policy promoter, we can say but little about them in terms of competence or character. We’d lean more towards Gaus, given the necessary skills of a funeral director and his experience with death and deathcare on a daily basis. Lipsman? Well, he’s more qualified in the politics of healthcare and probably has much less experience with death and deathcare than Gaus. Could they do the job? Our bets would be on Gaus in terms of effectiveness. Given Lipsman’s history and training, we don’t think he’d be the best choice. Death is something physicians try to avoid (unless you’re a pathologist, which Lipsman is not)and you’ll have a tough time changing a physician’s attitude towards death and with it his attitude towards the survivors. Go with Gaus.

 

As for the second candidate, we’d go with Seney for a couple of reasons: First, he’s experienced and has had the benefit of Richard Vigilio, with whom he’s worked for several years. Second, he’s a funeral diretor and, although we still object to the ethics of a funeral director in the coroner’s position, if we must have a coroner, then the funeral director is intimately familiar not only with death but the paperwork and laws concerning death, and how to best deal compassionately with survivors. So, while we wish Richard Vigilio all the best in his retirement after this election, we think that Paul Seney would be a good man to partner up with Bob Gaus.

Gaus and Lipsman are both 61 years old; Lipsman is from downstate. Both are Democrats. It may seem odd putting a Democrat (Gaus) in office and running the risk of adding more corpses to the list of voters registered Democrat but dead, but Hey! Vigilio is getting close to being a corpse and is Republican; Gaus may have a few years of life left in him, and may be able to complete at least one term of office. What about Lipsman? Too political, too full of himself (he’s a Democrat, a doctor, into public health policy, etc. We all know what happens when a Democrat gets involved in health policy; even if only the dead are affected!) Let’s leave him to his interests in public health policy and his overly liberal politics; he’d be too much of a political prima donna in the coroner’s office. Head’s too big. Lipsman’s from downstate and doesn’t know local culture or people. Not a good choice.

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Now we’d like to handle the
Real Scoundrels List

We’ll have to wait til next year to go after New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso, but we’ve got enough on him already to put someone else in the Supervisor’s office. He won’t be able to save himself with anything worth mentioning in the coming year. He’s dead in the water already.

But we’d like to concentrate on this year’s failures:

Alan VanWormer

Running UNOPPOSED (Denying Your Voice and Wasting Your Vote)

So Why?!?! did the Republicans spend so much money on so many campaign signs for a guy who is running unopposed. In an uncontested election ONE campaign sign and NO votes would hand the election over to him since he’s already legally considered “elected.” Seems that wasting taxpayers’ money is still the way to go in New Baltimore!

This time he’s running on the Republican ticket, Unqualified, Gutless, No Training, No Education. We’ve already published an article dedicated to the problems we have with Alan VanWormer and you can read that article at The Problem with Alan VanWormer. We also are solidly against giving away a vote to any unopposed candidate and not having a voice in who gets into office. We have written a very well-researched article on the problems of unopposed candidates and uncontested elections and Why! they are a violation of our rights. You can read the article at Unopposed Candidates: The Denial of Your Vote!

Alan VanWormer just stood by and kept his mouth shut while Denis Jordan did his tricks in the New Baltimore Highway Department. Alan VanWormer was part of the corruption and didn’t do a thing to stop it. No Integrity! Alan VanWormer’s brother, Scott VanWormer, was hand-picked by Denis Jordan to be his Deputy Superintendent. No one lifted a finger. Dellisanti, Ruso, vanEtten, no one said a word. But New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso, the chief financial officer of the Town, and the New Baltimore Town Board approved sending Scott VanWormer to Ithaca, New York, for a three-day meeting — the Cornell Local Roads Program — all expenses paid plus his salary. The money and the time was wasted since Scott VanWormer doesn’t have the background or education to have understood what was going on. Furthermore, Alan VanWormer (Scott’s brother!!! And also employed by the New Baltimore Highway Department) is the one who is running unopposed for New Baltimore Highway Superintendent. Unopposed means he’s already got the job, so Why? didn’t they send Alan VanWormer to the Highway Meeting, if anyone? That’s the way Jeff Ruso and the New Baltimore Town Board thinks: They DON’T!!!

Question: Why are we still electing unqualified, dumbasses, with no training to the position of Town Superintendent of Highways. Most of them can’t even read!!! Yet New Baltimore still keeps them in a job and hands them hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, perhaps even millions of taxpayer dollars to play with and squander and no one seems to care. The job should not be up for election in the first place. The position of Town Superintendent of Highways should be a non-political, professional position filled on a competitiive application basis, with the successful hiree having the right qualifications and subject to discipline and even termination! Putting a professional in the position would more than pay for itself because of proper fiscal and human resources management and administration. That’s the Town Board’s job that they’re not doing. They’re a bunch of dumbasses sitting there thinking of ways to keep our Town Hall packed with political dumbasses and friends.

The Alternative: You don’t have one!

Let’s move on…

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Patrick “Pat” Linger (R)

Out of Touch (except in an election year), Doesn’t Care, a Political Fixture/Tool, No Accomplishments, a Wasted Vote.

We have already published an earlier article to Pat Linger and Greene County DA, Joe Stanzione. You can read what we had to say to them at Open Letter to County Legislator Patrick Linger and Greene County DA Joseph Stanzione.

Linger just didn’t think it important enough to tell voters what his accomplishments were during his last term — obviously he had none — but now he’s begging New Baltimore voters for another term. Take a hike, Patty! You ran and hid when residents needed you. You refused to respond to questions regarding your performance in office this past term. You handed New Baltimore Highway Superintendent Denis Jordan hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, and Jordan pissed them away, doing more damage than he was worth. Now the balless Republicans on the New Baltimore Town Board and New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso is following in the shite tracks of his mentor and now Deputy Supervisor Nick Dellisanti. We’re sick of the same old-same old and the dog and pony acts in Town Hall and in the County Legislature. Take a walk Patty. Your double-talking friends in Town Hall will be following you out the door!

The Alternative: Jim Eckl

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Joseph “Joe” Stanzione (R)

Running for re-election to the Office of the Greene County District Attorney

Joseph “Joe” Stanzione.
Pantywaist or Panty-waste?

Unaccomplished, Avoids Commitment, Violates his Oath of Office

Just like Pat Linger, Joe Stanzione is a dud, a panty waist.  We have enough duds and panty-waists in Greene County and in New Baltimore. Stanzione goes into hiding when the real issues come up. Did he defend New Baltimore taxpayers and residents when they asked for his help to get compensated for damage done to property by former Highway Superintendent Jordan and his gaggle of monkeys? NOT! Did he go after the New Baltimore Town Supervisor Dellisanti or after Jeff Ruso and the Town Board when they ignored residents’ and taxpayers pleas for relief, compensation for damage to their property? NOT! Does Greene County need a panty-waist District Attorney like Stanzione? NOT! 

Back in we published an open letter to Joe Stanzione. It’s worth a read at Open Letter to Greene County District Attorney Joseph Stanzione. Since then he’s done zilch but now wants to continue doing zilch. No way, José Stanzione! It’s the highway for you, dude!

The county district attorney is the county’s chief law enforcement officer. So Why? is Greene County nicknamed “Cold Case?” Because so little is being done by the Greene County District Attorney in terms of keeping local government honest and criminals prosecuted. That’s Why!

The Alternative: ??? We had a tough time finding out who is opposing Stanzione. We’re waiting for a reply from the Greene County BOE.

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George Amedore

Republican, Irresponsible, Indifferent, Bullshitter.
You know it’s an election year when you see or hear him.

A pink-eared jackass!

George Amedore shows up every election year to beg for the NYS Senate seat, 46th District, and to appear with his Republican cronies at the New Baltimore Republican Club rally to tell everyone fairy tales of what he’s done for New Baltimore and his district. Of course, the gullible back-woods politicians, committee people, and some misguided voters show up to listen to the mealy-mouthed promises never to be kept. In fact, Amedore was complacent and irresponsible when he was handing out state highway monies to Denis Jordan to burn up. We published an article about his legendary generosity with taxpayer dollars and his total lack of accountability. Denis Jordan is under investigation and had to resign; we think Amedore should do the same. He has some nerve asking for New Baltimore’s votes!

Read our article George Amedore, NY State Senator for 46th District, Needs to do Some Homework to learn more about what we told Amedore about New Baltimore and the New Baltimore Highway Department.

The Alternative: ??? Pat Courtney Strong, another woman-wanting-to-be-a-man from Kingston. OMG! That’s a choice??? (Note: Strong is from Kingston, like Amedore, a businesswoman. Problem: Strong knows about as much as Amedore about what New Baltimore and Greene County needs: both know nothing!)

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Antonio Delgado

Democrat, Racist, ex-Rapper, Anti-American.

The Racist Rapper and the Democrat Candidate.
The same face, different outfit.

Is that the best the Democrats can do for Upstate voters? 

Delgado is filth, a racist, ex-rapper whose rapping celebrated sex with porn stars and anti-American, racist lyrics. He might be the hero of give-it-all-away Liberal Democrats. And he might be able to attract votes in mostly minority New York City, but he’s a big dirty ball of crappola to Central and Upstate NY. He might be popular with low-class, inner-city minorities and illegal immigrants with a name like Antonio Delgado, but he’s a clear reject when it comes to people with values and morals. His skin color would get him the downstate minority vote but among people who look deeper than skin color when we vote, he’s a total reject.

We’ve already wasted too many words on a loser like Antonio Delgado. If that’s the best the Democrats can offer New Yorkers, we don’t wonder that they are going to hell in barf bag.

You’ll need this when going to the polls and seeing what the Dems have picked for you.

The Alternative: John Faso

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James “Jim” Eckl

A multiple-loser but our only alternative to Patrick “Pat” Linger, a loser and a scoundrel.

Well, the New Baltimore Democratic Committee made up of Janet Kash, Eileen Vosburgh, Doreen Davis , Beth Schneck. and district committee members Janet Foley,  Richard Guthrie, Judith Felsten, Anne Walsh Mitchell, Lee Davis (Yes. That’s the former loser town justice! Another Democrat loser scraped up by the New Baltimore and Greene County Dems!), Jim Eckl (Yes. That’s the same Jim Eckl the Dems are running against Patrick Linger). New Baltimore and Greene County Democrats have not only failed to give voters candidates, they can’t even get people to serve on their district committees! So they have to keep running losers from past elections.

James “Jim” Eckl, Democrat, Recycled Goods, Democrats’ Last Resort. Give him a chance to fly or fail. Anything’s better than Linger!

His party handlers, the New Baltimore Democratic Committee, Janet Kash, Eileen Vosburgh, Doreen Davis , Beth Schneck., couldn’t tell us why he should get your vote. We found that a bit odd because normally the political party committee members would be over the moon to tell us why their candidate should be elected. Not the New Baltimore Democraps! They didn’t want to say a word about Jim Eckl. Well, there’s not much to say about Jim Eckl, we guess.

The Alternative: Voters in New Baltimore are in a real predicament. You can chose between the Louse (Linger) and the Loser (Eckl).

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In the Town of New Baltimore and in Greene County, we don’t have much to work with. We residents, taxpayers and voters have so much garbage being handed to us You’d think we had a recycling plant or a transfer facility in the neighborhood; we get the dregs from the Republicans and the Democrats can’t even dig up a candidate from the many cemeteries in the area.

New Baltimore & Greene County Elections.
What we have to choose from.
Recycled Garbage.

None of the majority of candidates running are really worth a vote but where there’s at least a choice, that is, when the candidate on the ballot isn’t running unopposed, it would pay to cast a vote for either candidate. They’re garbage but at least you have a choice of which garbage.

When a candidate is running unopposed or in an uncontested race, New York Election Law has already “declared him elected,” and your vote is wasted; you have no voice in who gets the position. As in past elections we say don’t give them the numbers. Don’t cast a vote for that candidate (in New Baltimore, for example, that would be Alan VanWormer) because if you don’t cast a vote, you send the political party and the candidate an important message: You are offended by the fact that you were denied a voice in who to put in that office. If you vote for an unopposed candidate, you are wasting your vote; if you refuse to vote for that candidate, he’s already elected but at least he won’t get the numbers and you will have sent an important message to the parties.

DON’T WASTE YOUR VOTE ON AN UNOPPOSED CANDIDATE!

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If you’re trying to figure out who is running for what office, and you’re having a hard time getting the information, you’re not alone.

We are pretty good at getting information but when it comes to our fine Board of Elections and our Political Party Committees, you just can’t get anyone to say anything or cough up some names or information. If you are having the same problem, you might want to give your Greene County Board of Elections a call or send them an email. If you’re really lucky and they’re having a good day, you might actually get a response. Here’s the contact information:

Greene County Board of Elections

411 Main Street, Catskill NY, 12414

Telephone: 518-719-3550

email (general): elections@discovergreene.com

Republican Commissioner: Brent Bogardus, bbogardus@discovergreene.com

Democrat Commissioner: Marie Metzler, mmetzler@discovergreene.com

The Golden Turd Award
For Political Excellence

 

George Amedore, NY State Senator for 46th District, Needs to do Some Homework

George Amedore Jr, is the New York state senator representing New York’s 46th senatorial district. Amedore is backed by the Republican, Conservative, and Independence parties and was first elected to the Senate in 2014 for a 2-year term. Although he was first elected to the State Assembly on July 31, 2007, and held that seat for 5 years, he gave up that seat to run for the Senate in 2012. He lost to Cecilia Tkaczyk by a slim margin but ran again in 2014 and won the seat. Members of the New York State Senate serve two-year terms and are not subject to term limits. Amedore is up for re-election in 2018. The question we have is whether he’s up to the job. (Click here to view the map of the NY State Senate District 46.)

Amedore.
Totally Clueless

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If George Amedore is showing such fiscal irresponsibility and indifference as to how he’s shelling out state taxpayer dollars to nitwit incompetents like the Town of New Baltimore (Greene County) Highway Department to  enrich the likes of Callanan Industries, Inc., and to screw up our town streets, voters and oversight agencies need to take a good hard look at Amedore’s performance, possible corruption and abuse of pubic office, malappropriation of public monies, and potentially criminal behavior in the Town of New Baltimore Highway Department. Better do it now before any more money is wasted and any more damage done!

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We’ve been reporting on a large number questionable practices in the New Baltimore Highway Department, and how the money’s being spent and where. All we can conclude is that the New Baltimore Highway Superintendent Denis Jordan is totally incompetent and doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. He’s also been implicated in some shady operations for “friends” of Denis Jordan at taxpayer expense, including the misuse of town equipment and crews. (See our 2015 Election article, “Reasons Why Denis Jordan Must Go!“)

Our investigations have shown that Jordan has plenty of time to reroute creeks and lay expensive culverts on a friend’s property, and repair roads on Schoolhouse Road for some crony of his, but has ignored requests from residents in the Hamlet to fix numerous problems he’s created there by his lack of skills and poor planning — actually, Jordan doesn’t do any planning at all. Residents in the National Historic District can’t even get him to put a grate on a dangerous hole he created on one street in the Hamlet; he won’t even put a traffic cone to protect cyclists, pedestrians or motorists. (See our article, “Denis Jordan Avoids Duties to Serve Special Friends: The Case of the Disappearing Creek“}.

Our most recent investigation has uncovered even bigger problems created by Jordan. Yes, we have reported on his harassment of a local woman to take down a privacy fence for no reason at all. We have reported on his refusal to talk to the New Baltimore Town Board. And YES! we have reported on the rerouting of a creek on Lydon Lane, and the installation of expensive culverts on his buddy’s, R. Bullock’s property. From what we can confirm, residents’ claims that he did that work so Bullock would have a nice flat lawn instead of having a creek with a ditch. You see, you can really make out if Jordan is on your “A’ list. If you’re not, forget anything from the New Baltimore Highway Department…except maybe a flooded basement and ruined foundations. (See our article, “New Baltimore Town Highway Superintendent Harasses Local Woman“).

Well it does get worse, much worse.  Earlier this year (2017) requests for bids went out for repaving of a number of streets in the Hamlet of New Baltimore. Peckham Road Corporation  put in a bid, as did Callanan Industries, Inc., and Precision Roads and Driveways. Callanan, an old “friend” of Jordan’s was awarded the contract; they quoted to put down 2″ (two inches) thick layer of asphalt on the roads to be paved, an estimated 5,520 tons of material.

The concerned roads were Kings Rd, Mathews Pt, Pitcher Ln, Mill St., Washington Ave., Madison Ave., Nodine Mtn Rd, Cedar & White Birch Ln., New Rd., Union St., Liberty Ln., Baldwin Terrace, Gill Rd.  Well, if you reside in the Hamlet and don’t recognize some of the street names, it’s because either Jordan or his illiterate friends at Callanan couldn’t even get the names right. That’s a bad start already.

The paving operations were done in June 2017, and were supposed to have been done under Jordan’s supervision as New Baltimore Highway Superintendent, but he was often nowhere to be seen. One day, he left early while paving operations were going on so he could attend a local wake. He left at around 3 p.m. If it was his own wake we could understand his having to be there early but it wasn’t. It was only an acquaintance but Jordan left the work unsupervised with some very bad results.

Pedestrian Trap Designed by Denis Jordan

The bids for the job explicitly state a “2-inch” thick layer of asphalt (blacktop). Well, our investigations show that at least twice that amount of blacktop was deposited and in some places up to 4x. On some streets the roadbed was raised 4-6 inches, some edges of the street were raised a foot or more, leaving dangerous unmarked drop-offs. The idiots put a 12-14″ wide sloped curb on one side of the street which reduces the width of the street by almost 2 feet, and creates the hazard of falling if you try to get out of a car at roadside.

The drainage on New Street was worsened and more problems created. At one residence, the Highway Department created such a bank of blacktop that the front and side entrances to the residence could not safely be used. Jordan had to pour concrete steps to allow the entrances to be used but even the concrete was defective and was poured without proper foundation, and started crumbling in the first week!

Back to our little friend George Amedore. With all this going on and the Town of New Baltimore being served with Notices of Claim, the first step in a lawsuit, for many of these botched jobs by Jordan, it seems Amedore isn’t talking to anyone in the Town Hall, and his handing out money hand over fist. The paving by Callanan on Jordan’s watch is just one instance of wasted taxpayer monies. We’d like to ask Mr Amedore if he has inquired why if 2″ of asphalt were quoted more than 4 times that much was actually deposited on some of the roads, actually creating hazards!!!???

New Baltimore Math

Furthermore, the Section 248 Agreement required under the New York State Highway Law notes that a total of $284,732.00 was to be spent on the paving of the streets mentioned above. That amount is broken down with $174,732.00 coming from the CHIPS (NYS Consolidated Highway Improvement Program) and $100,000 coming out of the Town’s General Repair budgeted money. That’s the math taken directly form the Agreement for the Expenditure of Highway Moneys made between the Town Board and the Town Highway Department. The agreement also explicitly states 2-inch thick.

So, dear readers, if the Agreement states that the paving is to be 2″ thick and the bids were based on that figure, how did they manage to drop up to 4x times that much blacktop? If they stuck with the 2″ layer, wouldn’t that have reduced the price by 2-4x? So what’s the story here? Do we need an investigation by the State Comptrollers Office, by the State Attorney General? And where’s our good ol’ boy Joe Stanzone, Greene County District Attorney on this one? Can’t the Town Board do math? Isn’t anyone watching or asking any questions in New Baltimore?

Elections are just around the corner. How the New Baltimore Town Board Handles this Scandal will Determine the Outcome of the Elections. We can assure you of that fact. You know we’ll remember when Amedore comes up for relection in 2018. And when Joe Stanzone, the Greene County DA, starts stumping for re-election, we’ll remember him, too. So guys and gals, start doing what the public expected you to do when they voted you in: to clean up the crooks and to govern our town, county and state wisely. So far it doesn’t look good for you.

According to New York State Town Law, the New Baltimore Town Board has the power to investigate Jordan’s and Callanan’s opertations and to ask some very scathing questions. We’ve already asked some of those questions above but the ball’s in the Town Board’s lap now. New Baltimore Town Board: Either investigate or share the guilt. If you don’t launch an investigation you are as guilty as the crooks. After all, the entire board signed the Section 248 Agreement with it’s explicit and specific language, and the County Superintendent of Highways, vanValkenburg, signed off with no questions. Do we call that negligence, indifference, lack of due diligence? Corruption? It’s soon to be election time so you’d probably start burning rubber and get moving on this investigation. Right? 

The Greene County Superintendent of Highways, Robert Van Valkenburg, had to sign off on that Section 248 agreement. Is he math-challenged too?

Well back to our candy-ass Senator George Amedore Jr and his fine representation of the people and taxpayers of New York. Georgie boy, in a letter dated — this guy’s really numerically challenged; even his letter is undated —. No matter, the letter is stamped “RECEIVED April 28, 2017, Town Clerk, Town of New Baltimore.”

Amedore’s first sentence is a clear indication that he knows nothing of what’s going on in New Baltimore. He writes, “Maintaining safe, dependable roads is important to the safety of our communities an the health of our economy.” First of all, he has no clue how unsafe New Baltimore roads are. He has no idea what Denis Jordan is doing in New Baltimore. He has no idea of what he’s talking about when he uses the terms “health of our economy.” What economy? The only economy is real estate sales with the downstaters buying up our land and homes, and everyone else trying to sell to get out of the area!

George Amadore’s Math

Amedore then goes on to cheerfully announce to Mr Jordan that he’s handing him $142,255.00 from the CHIPS (Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program) as part of the states recent 2017-18 budget. Amadore then goes on to tell Jordan that he’s going to receive 32, 471.00 in funding under the PAVE NY program and $27,682 in funds under the Extreme Winter Recovery program.

Amedore must be on another friggin’ planet. He’s totally off base! He’s clueless how this money is being spent, wasted, criminally! And this is responsible government. This is an elected lawmaker aiding and abetting incompetence, abuse of office, waste of public resources? Why is Amedore handing out hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to the like of Denis Jordan?

Amadore’s, New Baltimore’s Idea of Fiscal Responsibility!

We almost puked when we read Amedore’s closing sentence: “A strong infrastructure is vitally important to strong , healthy communities. If you have any questions….” Do we have questions? Do we have QUESTIONS? Guess What? Mr Amedore, we do have questions. One of them is How in hell did you ever get elected?!?!? But then if Denis Jordan got elected…we withdraw the question.

George Amadore Puts the FAKE in Rubber-stamp Government!!!