...AND IN THE LONG RUN, DISEASE IS MORE HUMANE THAN WAR OR STARVATION. MY, ISN'T THAT GLOOMY (David & Leigh Eddings)

WEST NILE VIRUS REPORT

With mosquito season in full bloom we should all be aware and concerned about West Nile Virus which is transmitted via mosquitoes. This virus which first was noted in Africa around 1930 and spread to American around 1999 with an outbreak in New York City is now prevalent in our area during mosquito season. Birds carry the virus which is picked up by mosquitoes and transmitted to humans through mosquito bites.

Most of us when exposed via mosquito bites experience no symptoms, but around 20% develop a fever, headache and body aches which are for the most part temporary. For a very small number of people the virus does permanent neuralgic damage that can lead to death.

Mosquitoes breed in standing water and at some level their infestation can be minimized by dumping pots, tires and other outdoor items that collect water after a rain fall. DEET is a fairly good mosquito repellent. For children the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends products containing no more than 10% DEET for children between 2 and 12. Insect repellents should not be applied under clothing.

It is important to report dead birds that might have the disease in our area to the Health Department at (609) 645 5971...on weekends call (609) 641-0111

MULLICA TOWN MEETING TUESDAY MAY 22ND AT TOWN HALL AT 6:30 P.M.

THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO, INSTEAD OF LISTENING TO WHAT IS BEING SAID TO THEM, ARE ALREADY LISTENING TO WHAT THEY ARE GOING TO SAY THEMSELVES (Albert Guinon)

Subject: Just Not Listening: Larry, eleven Republican congressmen have spoken against the war. It strikes me as odd that the number of Republican congressmen listening to their constituents back home is not a much larger number. With public opinion polls all showing the majority of people want the war to end, more than 11 lawmakers should be telling the president what they're being told back home. Party politics should take a back seat to common sense. It also goes against common sense to believe we are demoralizing our servicemen, many of whom were pulled from their normal lives to fight this war. If it were announced tomorrow that they were coming home, we would be able to hear them cheer from here. There are many important domestic issues that are being shoved to the back burner while we wait for a solution in Iraq. It's way past time for all congressmen to start listening to the people who elected them. RL

RESPONSE: While overall the vast majority of Americans who define themselves as 'Independent' or 'Democrats' want the war to end and the troops to come home now...the sad reality is that around 70% of those who define themselves as Republicans have bought the lies of the chicken hawks who are in control...and most Republicans will run in the Primary and need to appeal to the dumb Republican core who continue to support the war.

THE THING I HATE ABOUT AN ARGUMENT IS THAT IT ALWAYS INTERRUPTS A DISCUSSION (G. K. Chesterton)

GERTRUDE LAUER SCHOOL DECISION TO BE DISCUSSED

Members of the Mullica School Board and THE CORRUPT MULLICA 5 AKA IDIOTS R US have scheduled a meeting for June 4th to discuss options regarding what to do with the two room school house that is no longer being used by the Mullica School system. Various proposals have been floated by members of the community, including, using the building as a senior center, a Mullica historic center, selling the property as a potential home, etc.

The School Board would like to unload the property as it is costing around $6,000 to maintain and would cost at least $50,000 to redress some environmental issues like lead paint. Mullica’s governing body seemed to be interested in exploring taking over the school property for a nominal fee (a dollar) from the School Board and that will be discussed at the June 4th meeting.

GadFly also notes the on going meetings with the Green Bank School System regarding combining services that have been taking place with the Mullica School Board and Administration in both Districts.

YOU WILL FIND IT A VERY GOOD PRACTICE ALWAYS TO VERIFY YOUR REFERENCES SIR (Martin Routh)

Subject: re: waszen re-forestry plan: So it falls to Mullica’s watchdog, the gadfly, to check out and expose the truth again. Mayor Chasey with her cell phone that we pay for can’t check out the re-forestry plan, Sandman with his sixteen percent salary raise this year can’t check it out, the prosecutor cashed the $1,800 campaign check from waszen so he has no interest in checking it out, our Judge forgetaboutit, our solicitor has no problem just lying again to us and the rest of our IDIOTS just don’t care I guess. Larry, we all should thank you and how the rest of these people justify their existence is a mystery. Amazed in Devonshire

YOU DON'T COMPROMISE PRINCIPLES, BUT YOU HARMONIZE TACTICS TO PRESERVE UNITY

Subject: Postponing Responsible Actions: Larry by waiting until the end of 2008 for responses regarding the threat caused by carbon dioxide emissions, President Bush is only trying to postpone doing anything to benefit the environment and, as some suspect, prevent states from passing their own regulatory laws. If Bush really wanted to protect the environment, he could be proposing new legislation for limiting emissions and reducing greenhouse gases. Instead, the administration refuses to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and denies that regulating tailpipe emissions is necessary, claiming it would be bad for the economy. With the U.S. being the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide in 2005, it is necessary that emissions be regulated in our country now. If individual states are willing to limit their greenhouse gas emissions, then the nation should be willing to support them and follow in their footsteps. Stacy

RESPONSE: The disdain at every turn of this Republican administration for anything that protects the environment is well established. Clean air, water pollution, endangered species…it has all been policy wise to let industry reap more profits and pollute the environment. There was a time, tracing from Teddy Roosevelt thru Nixon, when Republicans had a proud record of environmental concern. No longer, today’s Republicans hold positions that the environment is for sale for campaign contributions.

This latest proposal comes only after the Supreme Court ruled that the refusal of the Bush administration to regulate auto emissions was an illegal act. The lawsuit being brought by many of the States who have a concern about the health of their residents. The only concern today’s Republicans have … at least those who control the Party … is for greater profits…and too hell with the health of the children.

I'LL KNOW MY CAREER'S GONE BAD WHEN THEY START QUOTING ME CORRECTLY (Lee Marvin>

GADFLY CORRECTION OF MISPELLED NAME

A notorious poor speller … often times names of people are misspelled on purpose … however the recent misspelling of Mullica’s 'Teacher of the Year,' Ms. GALAIDA, was inadvertent and GadFly sincerely apologizes for the error.

HE HAS TRUE GLORY THAT DESPISE IT (Livy)

MULLICA POLICE OVERTIME – APRIL

In April of 2006 the Mullica Police Department ran up an overtime billing to the taxpayers of $7,228.27. In April of 2007 under the leadership of the new Chief of Police, Joe Barbera the overtime billing was $5,245.16. It seems that there is a more effective use of man power ...thus lowering overtime charges to Mullica taxpayers under the new Chief.

I AM SURE THAT THE POWER OF VESTED INTERESTS IS VASTLY EXAGGERATED COMPARED WITH THE GRADUAL ENCROACHMENT OF IDEAS (John Maynard Keynes)

Subject: A Howling disgrace: Larry, for an administration in which utter smirking defiance of law and the will of the American people is the only operational mode, IMPEACHMENT is the only remedy. How bad can it possibly get before Congress will act? In explosive testimony this week before the Senate, the former number two official in the Justice apartment, James B. Comey, testified that Alberto Gonzales tried to bully a deathly sick John D. Ashcroft into signing off on a secret and massive domestic wiretap scheme which had already been determined to be profoundly illegal. Even the Washington Post was compelled to editorialize on Wednesday as follows: "the straight-as-an-arrow former No. 2 official at the Justice Department, yesterday offered the Senate Judiciary Committee an account of Bush administration lawlessness so shocking it would have been unbelievable coming from a less reputable source." And if that were not bad enough, Gonzales had previously testified UNDER OATH, that there had been no disagreements in the department about implementation of the program. So he just bald-faced lied and perjured himself again, and again, and again. And he's still doing it. The situation is so bad that 56 members of Alberto's Harvard Law school graduating class took out an ad also in the Post excoriating him for his outlaw abuse of power. The Harvard Crimson further reports that there was NO dissent whatsoever in this from members of that class, even among those who for professional reasons could not sign on publicly. So what is the response of Congress? Some Democrats today proposed a no confidence vote. What exactly is that supposed to accomplish? How many times have you heard Bush say, "Well, he has my confidence", in the face of dramatically manifest incompetence and malfeasance by his appointed cronies? When is Congress going to confront the fact that we are dealing with a Constitutionally criminal organization in the White House from top to bottom? When will Congress stop being a damn debating society and exercise the POWER we gave them in November.? What part of exercising power don't they get? Look at the side show going on right now about another Bush gang member, Wolfowitz, who has long outstayed his welcome the World Bank, and still will not give up power until they pry it out of his fingers. It was actually reported yesterday that Wolfowitz was demanding that the bank accept culpability for some part of his wrongdoing as a condition of stepping down. Isn't that just a little like a bank robber demanding that a bank share guilt for making itself too easy to rob? We'll frankly be surprised if Bush doesn't demand for Gonzales a seat on the Supreme Court as part of his severance package. What'cha gonna do, Congress? You better start dusting of that impeachment clause in the Constitution quick, fast and in a hurry. We're really gonna need it If the millstone were around the other neck, every right wing cable news pod person would be screaming for impeachment, not only for Gonzales, but for the whole lying, stealing, preemptive war murdering lot of them. Falwell would be howling from his casket right now. Maybe it's time for us do a lot more howling of our own. Pen

I AM IN EARNEST; I WILL NOT EQUIVOCATE; I WILL NOT EXCUSE; I WILL NOT RETREAT A SINGLE INCH; I WILL BE HEARD (William Lloyd Garrison)

SWEETWATER CELL TOWER UPDATE

While the pouring of concrete had been rained out several weeks ago and has apparently not taken place yet…there is some progress to report. On May 17th a requested electrical inspection was done by a Mullica Electrical Inspector awarding approval for work done..the running of an electrical line from the street underground back toward the tower. “Can you hear me now?” NO!!!

IT SEEMED THE WORLD WAS DIVIDED INTO GOOD AND BAD PEOPLE. THE GOOD ONES SLEPT BETTER... WHILE THE BAD ONES SEEMED TO ENJOY THE WAKING HOURS MUCH MORE (Woody Allen)

MULLICA ACTS TO CHANGE JUNK YARD OPERATING HOURS

At the May 8th Mullica Town Meeting, an Ordinance was adopted after a public hearing to change the hours of operations of Mullica Junk Yards on Saturday. The initial change had been to require Junk Yards to close on Saturday at 1 P.M. …at the first reading of the Ordinance at the previous Mullica Town meeting that time change had been pushed back to 3 P.M. as the closing time on Saturday.

Three Junk Yard operators/owners were present at the meeting as well as residential neighbors of the old Jordan Junk Yard on the Pike. The three Junk Yard operators all opposed the change in hours. One Junk Yard operator (Quality) telling THE CORRUPT MULLICA 5 AKA IDIOTS R US that his operation was a seven day a week one and he needed to be open to support his family and pay his bills.

The extant Ordinance called for no operation of Junk Yards on Sunday in Mullica. The operator of Quality, Willie Wygan indicated that he had always operated on Sunday and was not going to change. Mullica offica DUMB indicated that Code Enforcement Officer, Tom Sandman would selectively decide which Junk Yards were in violation and in effect told Wygan not to worry about his operation.

larry THE PEDANTIC MISANTHROPIC S.O.B. angel pointed out to THE IDIOTS that some operators had dual use permits of their land ...and as in the case of Quality it was also an Auto Repair Shop. The issue again, was left to Sandman -- to decide who was in violation and who was not.

Citizens and neighbors, complained at the Hearing repeatedly about the noise, smells and past operation and harassment of the various operators at the old Jordan Junk Yard. The new owner of Mike’s Junk Yard down on 5th Avenue felt that a closing on Saturday at 3 P.M. was unreasonable and felt that a more accommodating closing time on Saturday would be 5 P.M. After much public give and take, the change in hours of permitted operations for Junk Yards in Mullica was adopted unanimously.

RANSOM, n. THE PURCHASE OF THAT WHICH NEITHER BELONGS TO THE SELLER, NOR CAN BELONG TO THE BUYER. THE MOST UNPROFITABLE OF INVESTMENTS (Ambrose Bierce)

Subject: Understanding the Thugs: Larry, the U.S. military is offering a reward of up to $200,000 for information leading to the return of three missing American soldiers, which proves, yet again, that the United States does not have a clue when it comes to dealing with Al Qaeda. For four years, the U.S. has been offering a reward of more than $20 million for the capture of Osama bin Laden, and no one has taken us up on that offer. What makes these mental midgets at the Pentagon think that $200,000 is going to do the trick? Our money does not interest hard-core radical thugs; all they want to do is murder more Americans, and they will continue to do so as long as we remain in Iraq. Will anyone in Washington ever get this? Jean B

VACATION IS WHAT YOU TAKE WHEN YOU CAN'T TAKE WHAT YOU'VE BEEN TAKING ANY LONGER (The Lion)

MULLICA SCHOOL 30+ YEAR EMPLOYEE RETIERS

Corrine Connolly who has worked in the Mullica School cafeteria for over 30 years has submitted a letter of resignation to the Mullica School Board. We all hope that Ms. Connolly a long time Mullica resident enjoys her retirement.

POLITICS ARE A LOUSY WAY FOR A FREE MAN TO GET THINGS DONE. POLITICS ARE, LIKE GOD'S INFINITE MERCY, A LAST RESORT (P. J. O'Rourke)

Subject: Campaign: Larry, As a relatively new reader of the Gadfly, I must say that I am very impressed with the clarity in which you view issues, both locally and nationally. I admire your principles, dedication and intellect. While I think you are an asset to Mullica, I think you could be an even greater asset if you were to be on Council. I recall you running some years back. Would you consider another run for local office? Given your notoriety, you certainly have name recognition and I am sure if you appealed to your readers for support they would support you. Sweetwater

RESPONSE: Welcome to GadFly and thanks for the kind words. My hope would be that in terms of my "notoriety" that I have offended at one time or another every group out there. The pride in the GadFly site comes from the fact that there is no censorship of input...whether observations of others or my own views. Political candidacy puts tremendous pressure on anyone to censure their positions. One need only look at the national candidates in both Parties. Democrats for the most part are cowards regarding the need to end the war the sooner the better and Republicans are seen cowering before the large say that Christian extremists have today in that political Party.

REFLECT ON YOUR PRESENT BLESSINGS, OF WHICH EVER MAN HAS MANY; NOT ON YOUR PAST MISFORTUNES, OF WHICH ALL MEN HAVE SOME (Charles Dickens)

Subject: MULLICA RIVER BLESSING: Larry, thought this might be of interest to your readers. Saturday, May 19th at 2:00 p.m. - BLESSING OF THE MULLICA RIVER at the Historical St. Mary's in the Pines Cemetery, Jackson Road & Pleasant Mills Road. Fr. Jim Betz, St. Nicholas Church Officiating. Guest Speaker John E. Pearce - Pastor, Historian Author of "Heart of the Pines". All are welcome to attend. Light Refreshments will be served. For additional information phone (609) 561-4595 or (609) 965-2413

IN A DEMOCRACY DISSENT IS AN ACT OF FAITH. LIKE MEDICINE, THE TEST OF ITS VALUE IS NOT IN ITS TASTE, BUT IN ITS EFFECTS (J. William Fulbright)

Subject: Catalyst to Terrorism: Larry, two of the many fallacies regarding the war in Iraq are revealed in the "Fort Dix Six" incident. The first is that we're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here. That's clearly not rue. I guess we are fighting them there and here. The second fallacy is that the Iraq war deters terrorism when it actually acts as a catalyst to transform taxi drivers and pizza delivery men into terrorists. These individuals view the war and subsequent occupation as an attack on their religion. P

RESPONSE: It is your second point that is the most telling. Our actions are making more members of the Muslim faith perceive our actions as an attack on their religion and thus embrace terrorism as a means of defending their religion. Further, as under Republicans we abandon more an more of the things that we claim make us a better society (torturing prisoners, holding captives without any recourse to prove their innocence for years, secret kidnapping, wire tapping and accessing personal private records without a Court Probable Cause Standard) our claim of the higher moral ground is destroyed.

The actions of Bush Republicans continue to create more terrorists both abroad and at home. The battle is (or should be) one for the hearts and mind of people throughout the world rather than one that seeks militarily to impose our perception of Democracy. And of course, the actions of Bush Republicans have so distorted the perception of American, that where democracies have been elected in the Middle East they are religious, and fanatic and non-secular and view America as the enemy. Nothing so unites a people as being attacked by foreigners. Supporting Bush Republican policies only make America less safe.

KNOW THYSELF? A MAXIM AS PERNICIOUS AS IT IS UGLY. WHOEVER OBSERVES HIMSELF ARRESTS HIS OWN DEVELOPMENT. A CATERPILLAR WHO WANTED TO KNOW ITSELF WELL WOULD NEVER BECOME A BUTTERFLY (Andre Gide)

GYPSY MOTH PROBLEMS CAN BE ADDRESSED BY HOMEOWNERS

As our area is a mix of pine and oak forest ... in recent times our woodlands have been inflicted by gypsy moth infestations that have most damaged oak trees…one of their favorite feeding tree species. It is in the caterpillar stage (and there are 4 caterpillar stages) that the insect does the most damage. In the 3rd caterpillar stage the insects tend to reside in tree tops and the pattern of destruction appears shot gun like in terms of holes in the tree foliage.

It is in the final 4th stage that the caterpillars eat entire leaves in late May and June and the leaf loss becomes most obvious. In addition, the caterpillars at dawn tend to crawl down tree trunks in this stage to find new feeding and hiding places. This is when they often are seen crawling up furniture and on the side of homes. June is the time when massive defoliation can appear appalling as late stage caterpillars feed voraciously.

The banding of trees can be a most effective manner of saving trees. For the most part trees have to be severely damaged two or more years in a row to kill the trees. Barrier banding around the tree trunks are successful often in preventing caterpillars from reaching the leaf canopy of trees from the ground. These bands should be put in place in April. There are also what are called ‘hiding bands” that should be placed on trees NOW – in early June to be most effective. These bands trap the insects and need to be removed daily…or every other day with gloves.

Sex attractive traps have been shown to be ineffective for home-owner control of Gypsy Moths. The spraying of insecticides like (12.5 WP, Marlate, Orthene, Sevin and B.t. can be effective too. It is not recommended that sides of homes be sprayed however and the spay can be dangerous to other flora and fauna…it may well be too late for spraying by home owners NOW.

Mullica is not participating in the aerial spraying program this year...and GadFly supports the decision to NOT spray this year made by THE CORRUPT MULLICA 5 AKA IDIOTS R US...yes, at times even IDIOTS get it right. Clearly some areas of Mullica and Atlantic County have a gypsy moth problem this year and home owners are left to their own to address the problem. An intensive neighborhood tree banding program can be most effective where the problem exists this year and residents should ban together to save their trees.

While too late this year, GadFly notes that egg mass remediation next year should be done…masses removed and destroyed before April when egg hatching begins should be done. Gypsy Moths favorite tree species are, oak, sweet gum, linden, willow, birch, apple, alder, boxelder and hawthorn. Keep in mind that deciduous trees usually can tolerate up to 50% defoliation without serious effects. It is repeated defoliation that can be fatal. It is not too late to take action this year to mitigate damage.

THE WOODS ARE LOVELY, DARK, AND DEEP,
BUI I HAVE PROMISES TO KEEP,
AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP,
AND MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP (Robert Frost)

WASZEN RE-FORESTATION PLAN CHARADE

Once again, it falls to GadFly to find the failings of Mullica offica DUMB. Repeated representations to Mullica’s Municipal Court Judge, Buddy Broome have been that a re-forestry plan has been filed with The Pinelands. The fact that steve THE SCOFFLAW waszen had pled guilty to clearing over 1,500 square feet of land at the eastern end of the old Perona Bros. Junk Yard property that he owns in violation of the law that requires Pinelands approval for clearing over this amount of land.

With the guilty plea to this illegal clearing had come the agreement to re-forest the illegally cleared area…and NO additional FINE. HUH? Well, the prosecutor at that time was jim THE ETHICALLY CHALLENGED curcio who had accepted $1,800 in campaign contributions from THE SCOFFLAW waszen…that just might have played a role in the failure to seek a fine…you think?

Subsequently, at two separate Mullica Court Hearings the new attorney for THE SCOFFLAW waszen, frank THE CENSURED olivo had informed the Mullica Court that the re-forestry plan had been filed with The Pinelands. A call to The Pinelands on May 8th, by GadFly garnered the information that no such plan had been filed!!

When larry THE PEDNATIC MISANTHROPIC S.O.B. angel pointed this fact out at the Town Meeting that night, Mullica’s whore Republican solicitor, $$$ tim THE GIRLY MAN SHYSTER Maguire $$$ spun the matter … caught in the lie… that as a County Republican player to which organization THE SCOFFLAW waszen had made campaign contributions, he claimed hehad seen the re-foresty report and thus doubted the GadFly representations that it had not made its way to The Pinelands...and he spoke in glowing terms of his fellow Republican lawyer THE CENSURED olivio...this last resulting in it being pointed out that last year Olivo had been censured by the bar for bad behavior as a lawyer.

A conversation with Mullica’s Code Enforcement Officer, Tom Sandman, several days later, May 15th confirmed the ‘FACT’ that no re-forestry plan had been filed with The Pinelands. Sandman, indicating that he had called The Pinelands and been so informed some days after the Town Meeting.

The record of incompetence and/or collusion with those who give money to Republican candidates just seems to go on and on. The willingness to accept the word of anyone associated with THE SCOFFLAW waszen … given the record of ‘truthiness’ and honor to one’s word should result in a need to validate compliance at every turn. The GadFly sobriquets seem so validated; SCOFFLAW, SHYSTER, ETHICALLY CHALLENGED.

THAT GOVERNMENT IS THE STRONGEST OF WHICH EVERY MAN FEELS HIMSELF A PART (Thomas Jefferson)

THOSE WHO DIED IN IRAQ FROM MAY 6TH TO MAY 12TH

Sgt Sameer Rateb 22 Absecon NJ; Sgt Virgil Martinez 33 West Valley UT; Spc Robert Dixon 27 Minneapolis MN; Pvt Kevin Thompson 21 Lancaster UK; Cpl Anthony Bradshaw 21 El Paso TX; Sgt Joel Lewis 28 Sandia Park NM; Sgt Jason Harkins 25 Clarkesville GA; Cpl Michael Pursel 19 Clinton UT; Cpl Matthew Alexander 21 Gretna NE; Sgt Vincenzo Romeo 23 Lodi NJ; Sgt Christopher Kiernan 37 Virginia Beach VA; Spc Kyle Little 20 W Boylston MA; Sgt Blake Stephens 25 Pocatello ID; Spc Dan Nguyen 24 Sugarland TX; Cpl Walter O'Haire 20 Lynn MA; Sgt Bradly Conner 41 Coeur d'Alene ID; Pvt Roy Jones III 21 Houston TX; Pvt Anthony Sausto 22 Lake Havasu AZ; Sgt Jason Vaughn 29 Luca MS; Spc Michael Frank 36 Great Falls MT; Maj Douglas Zembiec 34 Albuquerque NM; Pvt William Farrar Jr 20 Redlands CA; Pvt Daniel Courneya 19 Nashville MI; Sgt James Connell Jr 40 Lake City TX; Pvt Christopher Murphy 21 Lynchburg VA. 426 Iraqi sisters and brothers were killed.

THE FLAG IS THE EMBODIMENT NOT OF SENTIMENT, BUT OF HISTORY (Woodrow Wilson)

Subject: flag: Larry, its true the Republicans in Mullica do some despicable things, but they are not alone. Their Republican counterparts in Washington Township have for weeks been flying a shredded and tattered flag over townhall. Today, the American Legion took it upon themselves to lower the flag. Quite a statement

RESPONSE: Well, in fairness, one has to acknowledge the fact that there are more than likely a number of Democratic controlled towns where the same kind of disrespect for the flag occurs. It is the nature of ‘power’ to be contemptuous of the people. I return again to one of my favorite quotes…Tom Paine said, THE DUTY OF A PATIROT IS TO LOVE HIS COUNTRY AND PROTECT IT FROM ITS GOVERNMENT.

We all, as blessed citizens of America need to show less loyalty to political tribe and more to ethics and principles of right and wrong. Too often, we demonstrate how little different we are than ‘good Germans’ looking the other way during the Nazi era, or the Catholic/Protestant battles in Ireland, or the Sunni/Shia battles in the Middle East...loyalty to clan over principle. The loyalty to tribe, religion, clan, race and political Party is the enemy of good government. The job of the people is to be ever wary of those in Power…as that Power inevitably gets abused.

IT IS SAD THAT WHILE SCIENCE MOVES AHEAD IN EXCITING NEW AREAS OF RESEARCH, FINE TUNING OUR KNOWLEDGE OF HOW LIFE ORIGINATED AND EVOLVED, CREATIONISTS REMAIN MIRED IN MEDIEVAL DEBATES ABOUT ANGELS ON THE HEAD OF A PIN AND ANIMALS IN THE BELLY OF AN ARK (Michael Shermer)

TEN LITTLE WHITE MEN – GETTING SMALLER

The recent second debate in South Carolina showed off the ten middle aged while guys running for the Republican nomination for U.S. President next year...'big tent' Republican Party, it ain't. The first debate showed that 3 of the ten (Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma residents) simply did not believe in evolution and bought the Bible version that the planet earth is only 5,000 years old. These guys just repudiate science at any level of contradiction with a literal reading of their Koran/Bible…and they differ from extreme dangerous Muslims in their desire for making America a country governed by religious laws as revealed in their special holy book, HOW?

Hey, but that was 3 of 10 and they were really the less known guys for most of us. So the second debate earlier this week, revealed stuff about the three chief Republican guys ...that should really be scary to rational Americans. In fairness, the forum was before that all newly important core element of today’s Republican Party…Christian ultra right nut wing extremists of the Taliban ilk of Pat Robertson and recently deceased Jerry Falwell (who if there is a hell, has a front row burner set on 'high' reserved for himself).

The 3 Republicans at the top of today’s media list are McCain, Gulliani and Romney. Romeny when asked about closing the illegal prison where the Red Cross and other human rights groups have alleged prisoners are tortured and the international community which include many countries that are our friends ...have reviled the ‘gulag’ like lack of due process…calling for the prisons closing…Romney told the assembled Christian Fascists that he wanted a ‘doubling in size’ of Guantanamo, ‘where enemies of America could be held without access to lawyers’ or any kind of opportunity to prove their innocents via the constraints of the U.S. Constitution and its foolish reference to inalienable human rights and fairness (due process). HUH?

Then there was Rudolph Gulliano fully using as a touchstone to his Italian roots seeming to embrace ‘Il Duche’ (Fascist, Mussolini) in calling for the torture of prisoners as long as we don’t call it torture…water boarding he has no problem with and other stuff , well, just don’t call it torture. The Fascists in the audience just loved it …as the loud applause indicated.

Yes, John McCain got the torture question for the most part right!! As a prisoner of war for 5 years in Vietnam, he articulated the position of our Founding Fathers; that America holds itself to higher standard than other countries and seeks to uphold human principles that don’t allow for torture. He further noted that torturing so called ‘enemy combatants’ to save known lives at risk, only places thousands more American lives in danger via the creation of more people who hate America…and torture validates that hatred. McCain got this one so right and it is at our peril that we embrace the ‘fear’ of ‘them’ that Fascists use to justify their holding on to power.

John McCain however lost it when he repudiated his courageous vote against the Bush tax cuts for the super rich. The abandonment of the core GOP doctrine of fiscal conservatism and responsibility is an effective tool in getting elected by today’s Republicans. The calling for more and more tax cuts that pile more an more debt on the future. Bush Republicans elected with a surplus and in control of the Presidency and Congress have just looted the treasury and exponentially run up a massive deficit with tax cuts and sweetheart deals for their campaign contributors.

They talk about tax cuts and limited government as they expand government and spend more and more pork for their friends and run up ever greater debt … all the while believing that the American people are too stupid to see the scam. So far they have been right…and the audience of southern white Christians seemed too stupid or inbred to see through the lies and betrayal of the heritage of America.

The old Southern populist Huey Long would not have been fooled, ...he said, FASCISM WILL NOT COME TO AMERICA AT THE END OF GUN…BUT WRAPPED IN THE AMERICAN FLAG. Today’s Republicans are validating that epiphany.

And just to further establish the fact that there is a difference, Democrats have introduced legislation in Congress to close Guantanamo.

MULLICA SCHOOL ENROLLMENT – APRIL

Mullica School enrolment continues to drop. At the end of March the combined Primary and Middle School enrolment was 736 students. A month later, the end of April Mullica School enrolment was down by 2 students…734 students.

OF ALL NOISES, I THINK MUSIC IS THE LEAST DISAGREEABLE (Samuel Johnson)

MULLICA SCHOOL MUSIC PROGRAMS

Two upcoming school music programs; Tonight, May 17th, at 7 P.M. the Middle School band will perform for the public. On Thursday, May 24th the Middle School Chorus will perform. These are worthwhile nights out for our community and are free.

Yesterday, Wednesday, the Elementary School Writers’ Reception took place with a ‘Bohemian Coffee Shop’ readings. All elementary Mullica School students had written poems and yesterday was the day each child read to their assembled grade level. The ambiance of a 1950s Bohemian Coffee Shop Poetry Reading might have been lost on the kids…but it was right on the mark. GadFly was impressed with room ambiance and respect the kids gave one another’s reading after poking in on the 4th Grade Class readings. These School events help to bring our community together and are worthwhile as well as entertaining for all of us to attend.

Hey, and Friday, May 18th is Family Movie Night…come on out and join your neighbors with the family movie presentation of ‘Night at the Museum.’ The event at the rec. soccer field off Elwood Road starts at 8:15 P.M. and is free…food will be sold…the movie shown on a 20’ screen is sponsored by the PTA and Education Foundation and is a great family event…children must be with adults.

LIFE IS A LONG LESSON IN HUMILITY (James M. Barrie)

Subject: The NJ Death Penaly Question, Insights: Friends, Today, after two decades of wrongful incarceration, New Jerseyan Byron Halsey walked out of a Union County courthouse to his family and his freedom. This Innocence Project case will be on local TV news reports tonight and will also be prominently featured in New Jersey newspapers in the morning. A Star Ledger article on the case is below. It is important to note that though Byron Halsey ultimately received a life sentence, his was a death penalty case. What happened to Mr. Halsey was tragic and it would have been even more tragic had he received the death sentence that the State had sought for him. This is from the Innocence Project press release: With New Jersey in the middle of a serious discussion about whether the death penalty is worth its risks and costs, it is imperative that we learn the lessons of Byron Halsey’s case. The fact is that Byron Halsey is lucky he is alive to see the DNA test results in this case. The state fought hard to execute him for a crime that, two decades later, science proves he did not commit,” said Barry Scheck, Co-Director of the Innocence Project. Last week, a New Jersey Senate committee approved legislation that would abolish the death penalty in the state. Please take just a few minutes tonight or tomorrow to write a letter to the Editor about the Halsey case and to address the risk of executing an innocent person. The message is simple - as long as the death penalty continues to exist, the next mistakenly convicted person may not have the opportunity to walk out of prison. It is heartening that Mr. Halsey is finally free and reunited with his family. But, we are mindful that the family of the victims still suffer from their heartbreaking loss of two beautiful children. We keep both families in our thoughts this evening. (Here is the aricle Larry)

Man released from prison after DNA wins him new trial in killings of two children, Posted by _The Star-Ledger; More than 19 years after he was convicted for the rape and murder of two children, Byron Halsey walked out of the Union County Jail this afternoon after a DNA test prompted a judge to overturn his verdict. Halsey, who was convicted in 1988, was released on $55,000 bail pending a decision by prosecutors whether to retry him or drop the charges. In a brief press conference with lawyers for the Innocence Project who worked for his release, Halsey was somber and appeared uncomfortable as he faced a cheering crowd, dozens of television cameras and reporters. He said the years in prison were hard on him. "What was done to me was criminal at best," he said. Asked how he got through his ordeal, he replied, "I wasn't going to let nobody take my life from me." Wearing a white shirt, dark jeans and work boots, the 46-year-old emerged through a green side door of the Union County jail at 2:35 p.m.. He hugged his mother and brother in the afternoon sunshine, hours after Superior Court Judge Stuart L. Peim had granted him new trail. "More nice people around me now than have been around me for a long time," Halsey said softly as he embraced his relatives. After going back into the courthouse to finish processing for his release -- and changing into fresh clothes -- he took part in a news conference on the courthouse steps. "My grandmother told me if you're innocent, then fight them and the truth will come out," he remarked. Thanking his lawyers, Halsey would not say what his immediate plans were. "I just want to be thankful and pray. I want to go to church and get my Jesus on," he said. "It's a wonderful day," his mother, Eloise Halsey, told reporters. "I am a happy lady today. I did not give up on him. I knew he was innocent." Innocence Project co-director Barry Scheck noted that Halsey had faced a possible death penalty before being sentenced to two life terms plus 20 years. "Nobody should forget that but for the grace of God Byron might not have been here," Scheck said at the afternoon news conference. Judge Peim agreed to throw out the convictions against Halsey after he concluded that new evidence "would probably change the verdict." Halsey was convicted of sexually abusing, mutilating and murdering the children of a girlfriend he lived with at a Plainfield rooming house. The bodies of Tyrone, 8, and Tina Urquhart, 7, were found in the home's basement in November 1985. According to accounts of the trial, Tyrone had been smothered with a pillow and stabbed with scissors; Tina had been choked, sexually assaulted, and her skull fractured with a brick. The killer also drove four nails into Tyron's skull. The judge's decision to overturn the case was based on a DNA test that indicated a neighbor may have been responsible for the sexual assault and murder of the children. The neighbor, Clifton Hall of Plainfield, is now in prison for raping two young women and attempting to rape a third on the streets of Plainfield in the early 1990s. During a brief court session this morning, Halsey did not speak but appeared emotional as the judge vacated his conviction. His mother and brother were in court to support him. The judge set a hearing for July 9 for prosecutors to say whether they will pursue a new trial or drop the charges of murder, aggravated sexual assault and child abuse. A spokeswoman for the Union County Prosecutor's Office said it would not comment before then on how it would proceed. The mother of the victims, Margaret Urquhart, said in a statement issued through the Innocence Project: "I knew Byron loved Tyrone and Tina. It didn't make sense to me that he could have done this. But I didn't know what to do about them. I'm thankful that the DNA testing has identified who really did this to my children and that Byron is being released today. I want justice done in this case." Halsey said his views toward Urquhart never change. "I know in her heart she knows I'm innocent," he said. He declined to answer any questions about the neighbor. Following the press conference, Halsey left the courthouse, wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, and walked down Broad Street with his lawyers and his mother, before getting into an SUV. Larry Peterson, the last person to be exonerated in New Jersey with help from the Innocence Project, was there to watch. "Another member of our family to bring light on injustice in America," he remarked. Contributed by Jonathan Casiano and Wayne Woolley

RESPONSE: New Jersey hopefully with Democrats in control will become the first State to ban the death penalty. While Republicans talk about their concern for life in reality they push for a faster Court process to execute those convicted of capital crimes. Their concern is only about the un-born. Mullica residents saw that contempt for the lives of the wrongly convicted as THE CORRUPT MULLICA 5 AKA IDIOTS R US refused at the last Town meeting to take a stand after being asked to do so by the GadFly.

THE FUTURE WILL BE BETTER TOMORROW (Dan Quayle)

MULLICA ROAD DEPARTMENT OVERTIME – APRIL

In April of 2006 the Mullica Road Department ran up an overtime billing to the taxpayers of Mullica of $383.38. The April overtime billing in 2007 for the Road Department was only $146. This reflects over the past two years with the firing as Mullica Road Department Supervisor, george THE SLACKER forman of saving ofthousands of dollars for the taxpayers as THE SLACKER was perceived as a thief ...who padded his time card and was caught on several occasions doing private things while on the taxpayer's clock.

Credit for his firing goes to now deceased Mike Jacobs ... the other Republican members of THE CORRUPT MULLICA 5 AKA IDIOTS R US repeatedly acted to protect this thief’s job even after he repeatedly got caught stealing time ...once by the State Police doing private work in an unlicensed vehicle while clocked in as working for Mullica as Road Dept. Supervisor…and of course there was the other time where THE SLACKER forman was ticketed for parking a block away from a notorious sex club in Philadelphia in the township truck and had no business being anywhere near where the ticket was issued and he simply failed to pay the parking ticket issued to the township truck...which would have hidden his seeming illegal prurient encounter while on the clock from public knowledge. Mullica taxpayers are much better served by the new road department supervisor, Pete Bernado as the Road Department overtime billing reflects for the second year in a row.

THE COST OF LIVING IS GOING UP AND THE CHANCE OF LIVING IS GOING DOWN (Flip Wilson)

NEW HIGH SCHOOL TO BE BUILT –GEHR

Plans to build a (new) third high school for Greater Egg Harbor Regional School District (Hamilton, Galloway, Egg Harbor City, Mullica) are complete and as required by law, a public referendum election has been scheduled for September 25th . While more than half the funding for the construction of the new High School to built in Egg Harbor City will come from the State, the four towns that send their students to GEHR will have to approve a bond to borrow the millions of dollars they will have to contribute to build the new high school.

The GEHR school administration will make a number of presentations to the public to spell out the case for passing the bond question. At the May 14th Mullica School Board meeting the best way to educate the Mullica citizenry was discussed on this project. The consensus seemed to be to try to hold at least two public meeting to allow the public to question the project.

There was also some indication that the Mullica Board and administration was looking seriously at the GadFly suggestion to tape meetings and make them available for viewing by the public on the School web site. This was pointed out when the discussion turned to ways to make the presentations more easily available to the Mullica citizenry and larry THE PEDANTIC MISANTHROPIC S.O.B. angel pushed for at the very least this GEHR presentation be placed on the school web site. GadFly will have more commentary on these proposed meetings and was requested by the Board to inform GadFly readers of when and where the pubic question meetings about the proposed new high school project will take place.

GadFly notes the strange feeling of being perceived as a communicative asset to the community by elected offica DUMB. But the ability to take in what is often the making of point in the most rude and often confrontation manner by GadFly which oft is rebuffed regardless of its merit…which is the norm with THE CORRUPT MULLICA 5 AKA IDIOTS R US crew…may be less evident with the Mullica School Board. The suggestion to make the School Board meetings viewable either on TV or through the School web site…initially rebuffed…now seems something the Board and school administration (to the surprise of GadFly) is reconsidering. Gee, the ability to reevaluate an initial position with new information is startling in the poisoned atmosphere of national and local Republican power.

PATIENCE HAS ITS LIMITS. TAKE IT TOO FAR, AND IT'S COWARDICE (George Jackson)

Subject: Which is Worse: Coward or Criminal: Larry the new Gallup Poll just came out, and lo and behold, as unpopular as still sinking president Bush is, Congress now has a LOWER approval rating. There is a simple and complete explanation for this. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DESPISE COWARDS MORE EVEN THAN A CRIMINAL!!! We put Democrats in control of Congress in November on the possibly vain hope that the yellow stripes down their backs were not permanent tattoos (not that the Republicans are any better on this score). But instead of biting the bullet, and getting our troops the hell out of the monstrously illegal occupation of Iraq, all we are getting from both sides of the aisle are tweaking "limp along with the failure" proposals. One presidential aspirant was quoted this week as saying we are 16 votes away from ending this brutal insanity. What a dismal abdication of leadership! They have the votes RIGHT NOW to stop the funding, period. Hell, they could have a 100-0 majority and they STILL
wouldn't do it on their own, for fear of losing even one seat of that 100, for fear of being called insufficiently patriotically blood-thirsty. It only takes 41 votes to filibuster the supplemental appropriation. What would that do? That would EXTEND debate UNTIL amendments were passed to put an END to their abortion of a
foreign policy immediately. If they had any courage whatsoever. If they weren't so
entirely tone deaf to the will of the American people more politely expressed. Maybe they need to start hearing from more people calling them out for being such gutless cowards, which is what they are. Cowards on bringing out troops home. Cowards on impeachment. Cowards, cowards and more cowards! The Feingold-Reid Bill SB 1007, which if the truth were known is just a half-hearted sop to the anti-occupation majority of the American people, which the "leadership" is not even sincerely pushing, and even if it were to pass it would just be vetoed. But call anyway. Call their bluff. Demand they actually pass the bill, and not just use it as a "look we tried and this is why you need to elect more Democrats" campaign photo-op. And while you are at it, tell them to vote DOWN the supplemental next week. NO
supplemental. Not a penny more to finance the deaths of our troops in Iraq, who don't have the luxury of hiding in Congressional cloakrooms pretending there is nothing really effective they can do to stop the senseless murder and destruction.

IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO AIM; YOU MUST HIT (Italian Proverb)

Subject: Not Enough: Larry, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney resigning from office is not enough. The definition of treason is " the act of betrayal to one's country" and to impeach " is to call to account and charge a public official before an authorized tribunal with misconduct in office." Larry, I'm not sure even this would suffice given this administration's egregious and horrific behavior. DHB

I BELIEVE THAT ANY MAN'S LIFE WILL BE FILLED WITH CONSTANT AND UNEXPECTED ENCOURAGEMENT, IF HE MAKES UP HIS MIND TO DO HIS LEVEL BEST EACH DAY, AND AS NEARLY AS POSSIBLE REACHING THE HIGH WATER MARK OF PURE AND USEFUL LIVING (Booker T. Washington)

WASZEN PAYS DUE PORTION OF FINE

Yesterday, around noon time, steve THE SCOFFLAW waszen waddled up to the Mullica Court Clerk's window and plunked down $10,000 in cash as required by the Court Order in terms of the payment schedule of the remaining portion of the $184,000 fine. But we have been here before with due payments being made and later in the process THE SCOFFLAW waszen simply stops paying. However, we are off to a good start here and that should be acknowledged despite the inherent stupidity of THE CORRUPT MULLICA 5 AKA IDIOTS R US in their willingness to absolve THE SCOFFLAW of previous contempt that would have raised close to another $100,000 in payments into Mullica.

The argument that was made by the attorney for THE SCOFFLAW regarding the fine reduction was that the efforts to clean up the old Perona Bros Junk Yard site that had been an eye sore and potential health hazard thus leaving Mullica better should be taken into consideration as doing something good for the citizens of Mullica and in that context there should be a fine reduction. HUH? The clean up of the site which is evident and substantial, was done to bring a garbage rail transfer station to Mullica with undoubtabley the type of operation, by THE SCOFFLAW waszen that is typical at his other locations ...with garbage piled eight feet high on the ground and rats dining and breeding in Mullica. There was altruism here...the effort was to cloak the garbage rail operation in the mantel of neither local nor State regulations to act with impunity in creating a garbage dump in Mullica. The fact that under the persuasive coddling of connected County Republican players...Mullica offica DUMB bought this nonsense is a travesty.

THE DOCTOR OF THE FUTURE WILL GIVE NO MEDICINE, BUT WILL INTEREST HER OR HIS PATIENTS IN THE CARE OF THE HUMAN FRAME, IN A PROPER DIET, AND IN THE CAUSE AND PREVENTION OF DISEASE (Thomas A. Edison)

Subject: Fixing Health Care: Larry, the problem I see with many universal healthcare proposals is their reliance on the current system. Most proposals also perpetuate the employer-based model that is outmoded in today's society. Putting patches on the current system to cover more people would only further complicate the system and ultimately cost more money. I believe a universal healthcare plan can be devised that increases efficiency and still provides quality care and preserves patient choice. To do so, however, will require us to move beyond what has been tried in the past. WILLIAM MCREE

RESPONSE: I could not agree with you more. The Hillary plan and Mitt Romny plan and the Schwarznager plan all use the present profit driven insurance model that in truth places profits above the providing of the right to quality health care to everyone. A governmetn run plan that removes the profit driven insurance industry from any role in providing health care will lower costs and result in medical decision being made based on good doctor decisions rather than the present system that factors in the profit motive in the medical decision making process.

'CAREFUL WITH FIRE' IS GOOD ADVICE WE KNOW. 'CAREFUL WITH WORDS' IS TEN TIMES DOUBLY SO (William Carleton)

Subject: Working Together for the Good of the Country: Larry, when the Democrats took over Congress, President Bush stated that he would work cooperatively with them. With the war looming over both branches of government, each side is falling once again into their ideological positions. After trying to pass a bill that would set a timeline for withdrawing troops, Congress is now passing a bill that just reflects "public impatience with the pace of progress in Iraq." Although forms of this bill have been passed in Congress many times, the president refuses to sign one. Right now, Democratic Congress looks as though it is trying its best to cooperate with the president to get legislation done smoothly, rather than the president putting in much effort — inverting the roles each branch assumed at the beginning of this year. JJ

RESPONSE: While 70% of those who define themselves as Republicans continue to support the war and Bush and the leading contenders in the Republican Party all support the continuation of the war even when questioning the conduct of the war by Bush...the American people as a whole have seen that Bush is a liar and uses words like 'compassionate conservative' or 'bringing democracy' to the Middle East as cover for actions that often move in the opposite direction of the stated word marketing to the American public.

It was recently reported that half of Americans continue to believe that there was some kind of linkage between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein. The explanation given was that at every opportunity the Bush administration mentions terror and Saddam, or 9/11 and Saddam, or al Qaeda and Saddam...implying a linkage that the facts simply don't sustain. And for those who get their news form right wing talk radio of Fox News, there is little interest in setting the record straight...Saddam had no connection to 9/11 or al Qadea.

ONE MAN'S WAGE RISE IS ANOTHER MAN'S PRICE INCREASE (Harold Wilson)

Subject: The Sandman big raise: Larry, I recently read in US News that the average salary raise this year will be 3 percent. The fact that the secretary as you report is likely to get a raise of 4 percent which is what other town hall employees are getting makes that a pretty good deal. You have pointed out that every year our employees whether at town hall or working at the school get raises that are above average in terms of the increase in the cost of living and in terms of salary increase in the private work place. The 16.6 percent raise for Sandman this year and then a 7 percent raise the next year and that one is followed by a 6.6 percent raise is crazy. Your claim that this is the reward for being a loyal member of Mullica's Republican Club makes one wonder about those who if not members of the Club are Republicans. Your "HUH" moments just fail to capture the anger this type of raise, that is more than five times the average salary raise this year in the nation should cause. Your exposing of this type of activity may be what led to theft of your laptop. Angry in Mullica

RESPONSE: You certainly are not the first one to suggest some kind of linkage, regarding the theft ...to Mullica Republicans interest in shutting down the GadFly blog. The Sandman raises are obscene and they seem a slap in the face, not just to taxpayers, but to other Town Hall employees who make an effort to take update classes to more knowledgeably serve the community. Sandman who has been in the position for over three years ...has taken NONE of the required classes to get a certification in that time for the position of Code Enforcement Offical....this would make him deserving of a nominal raise, HOW? Yep, another 'HUH' moment.

BAD TIMES WAKE US UP TO THE GOOD TIMES WE WEREN'T PAYING ATTENTION TO (Matt Damon)

FROM THE MULLICA POLICE BLOTTER

On Sunday, May 13th, around 7:40 P.M a vehicle driven by Richard Baxter (born 1975) of Mullica was traveling south on Heidelberg approaching the White Horse Pike when it was struck by a vehicle driven by Bryon Schroer (born 1981) of Galloway that was headed west on the Pike and making a right turn on to Heidelberg. Mr. Schroer was cited.

On Sunday, May 13th, around 8 P.M. a vehicle driven by Frank Giordano (born 1983) of Hammonton was traveling out of the recreation fields on to Elwood Road near Jeans Court and it went out of control and into the woods. Mr. Giordano was cited.

ANYONE NIT-PICKING ENOUGH TO WRITE A LETTER OF CORRECTION TO AN EDITOR DOUBTLESS DESERVES THE ERROR THAT PROVOKED IT (Alvin Toffler)

Subject: RE: walk n roll: The web site is www.firstgiving.com/princessciara for donations and www.firstgiving.com/curesma to register to walk. Let me know if you have any problems...Judy Martinez [mailto:ciaramonse@yahoo.com]

HE TALKED WITH MORE CLARET THAN CLARITY (Susan Ertz)

Subject: Crystal Clear: Hey Larry, I don't know why you Democrats continue to question Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, when he has made his position crystal clear. He justifiably fired U.S. attorneys whose personnel files he never reviewed, based on a list drawn up by unknown individuals in his department using criteria of which he was unaware. Howard

RESPONSE: Your clarity in explaining this should make the intelligence of the decision making of the Republican Bush administration as clear as it can get. HUH?

I LOVE DEADLINES. I LIKE THE WHOOSHING SOUND THEY MAKE AS THEY FLY BY (Douglas Adams)

MULLICA, PARIS, NORTH KOREA -- DEADLINES

Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 15th is the deadline for steve THE SCOFFLAW waszen to make his first $10,000 payment on the newest Mullica Court Order fine payment schedule. THE SCOFFLAW waszen will be on the Court docket for Tuesday's Court in the morning, but will not have to show up if he makes the payment as the Order calls for...if he fails to make the payment by 4 P.M. a warrant will be issued for his arrest. But the record here, is that when a warrant was issued for his arrest earlier this year for failure to make agreed upon payments of the $184,000 Mullica fine...he ignored the warrant with impunity.

Ignoring the payment schedule in the past carried a $1,000/day late payment fine and totaled around $80,000 in contempt late fine payments. However, no penalty was assessed for this contempt and a further incentive to be contemptuous of Mullica Court Orders was inserted into the latest Court Order...that the earlier assessed fine of $10,000 for an earlier contempt of Mullica Court Ordered payments might be washed away. The pattern of getting away with ignoring Court Orders is will established by the Republican MORONS who run the Township. The relationship to campaign contributions to Republican candidates seems obvious.

For tabloid readers the deadline for Paris Hilton to do 45 days in jail for her contempt of Court in another jurisdiction may see THE SCOFFLAW waszen and Paris in jail together. The reality of course is that Paris is more likely to be in prisoner orange than THE SCOFFLAW waszen...not just because she enjoys flouting loud colors sartorially but because the record seems to suggest WASZEN'S long standing ability to profit from ignoring Court Orders. After all, he didn't get THE SCOFFLAW sobriquet for honoring Court Orders. Here in Mullica with THE CORRUPT MULLICA 5 AKA IDIOTS R US being misled by the whore County Republican Mullica solicitor, $$$ tim THE GIRLY MAN SHYSTER maguire $$$ into forgiving the fines assessed on THE SCOFFLAW and the inept Mullica Judge Buddy Broom feeling no inclination to address the fact that he is being made to appear inept and ineffective by THE SCOFFLAW via ignored Court Orders, over and over again...Waszen is unlikely to be wearing orange even if a warrant were issued regardless of how will the color orange might hide his obesity.

The North Korea deadline is today, ...that the agreement to halt their nuclear program will be honored is a perfect parallel to THE SCOFFLAW waszen pattern of ignoring past signed and sealed agreements. Kim Il Jong might be able to teach THE SCOFFLAW waszen lessons on breaking agreements...but then again, a look at the record suggests that it might be the other way around.

ONLY FOOLS ARE POSITIVE (Moe Howard)

Subject: scam: Larry, bought some items at a Mullica Twp. store- Butterhof's feed. As in the past the people there were very reluctant to give me a receipt. When I persisted the clerk handed me a small piece of adding machine tape, but first he tore off the name of the store. What is your opinion about this. Do you think this store is cheating the state and the federal government?

RESPONSE: I recently bought something there as well, but was not as observant as you. Clearly, the situation as you portray it raises suspicions. It is not unusual for games regarding sales tax and income to be played by some store owners. I don't know that this is the case here, but the situation as you describe it is certainly suspicious.

WE ALL LEARN BY EXPERIENCE BUT SOME OF US HAVE TO GO TO SUMMER SCHOOL (Peter De Vries)

Subject: A summer break: Larry, I have regretfully been a tepid supporter of the war because I believe the carnage on our departure would make current events look like a day at the beach. I had thought that if done right, there could have been a good outcome. But if the Iraqi parliament takes a two-month summer break, then I would support a withdrawal as soon as possible. Iraq's lawmakers are even worse than ours. Actually a two-month vacation may be a Great idea; in fact, our troops in Iraq should do the same. Two months when Iraqi lawmakers can enjoy some leisure time, and two months when young American soldiers will not die. Sounds fair. This reminds me of Marlon Brando as Col. Kurtz in "Apocalypse Now" chanting, "Insanity, insanity." The Bush administration's strategy seems to be that if what we have done up to now doesn't work, let's do more of it and get more people killed. Have we become so blasé about this disaster that it is less important than the "Spider-Man 3" box office, Rudy Giuliani's divorces and Hermes shopping bags, all on the front pages and nightly news? NP

ACCIDENT, N.: A CONDITION IN WHICH PRESENCE OF MIND IS GOOD, BUT ABSENCE OF BODY IS BETTER

Subject: Dirt-bike crash kills rider in police pursuit: By SHAWN HARDIE Staff Writer, The Press; MULLICA TOWNSHIP — A Hammonton man being pursued by police died after his dirt bike collided with another vehicle at a local intersection Thursday evening, police said. John Gorman, 30, was traveling north on Elwood Road about 8:30 p.m. at an excessive rate of speed while being pursued by two Mullica officers, police said. Gorman ran the red light at the intersection of Elwood and Moss Mill roads and collided with a vehicle driven by Lindsey Hicks, of Hammonton, traveling west on Moss Mill Road, police said. Gorman was thrown from the bike and hit another car that was stopped at the red light, police said. The driver of the third vehicle was Elwood resident Mark Manasala. Hicks, 30, and Manasala, 17, were not injured. Gorman was airlifted to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, where he died as a result of his injuries, police said. Gorman was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident and his dirt bike was not registered or insured, police said. The accident is under investigation by Mullica police and the Fatal Collision Unit of the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office. Police attempted to stop Gorman because he was not wearing a helmet, his motorcycle did not have a license tag, and the bike was not equipped with a headlight, turn signals and other equipment that is necessary to register it for use on the road, Mullica Detective John Thompson said Friday.

RESPONSE: Somewhat of an irony here, as at the May 8th Mullica Town meeting a new Ordinance was introduced to address the local problem of off road vehicles in Mullica. Exactly what the parameters of the new law as is the norm, were not explained to those in attendance at the meeting by the Mayor, cathy THE BAG LADY chasey.

Mullica's various gravel pits had been for a long time an attractive destination of many out of towners to bring their ATVs and other off road vehicles to Mullica for recreation and had become a problem to neighbors and also in terms of public safety. The statistics on ATV deaths last year were about 140,000 killed and of those untimely deaths about 30% were children under 16. The recommendations of the medical profession is that ATV usage by those under 16 be totally banned by States as these vehicles account for so many accidents to children and are judged to be harder to drive than automobiles. Of course, the lobby group for the manufacturers are opposed and they tend to own the politicians with campaign contributions in both parties.

I CAME TO REALIZE THAT LIFE LIVED TO HELP OTHERS IS THE ONLY ONE THAT MATTERS AND THAT IT IS MY DUTY...THIS IS MY HIGHEST AND BEST USE AS A HUMAN (Ben Stein)

Subject: FW: Walk N Roll For SMA Help a Little Girl from Mullica: Hello everyone, I am emailing everybody to let you know that we are doing the walk n roll for sma again. It's on Sunday, June 3rd in Philly. Anyone who is interested in entering for the walk or just want to make a donation please visit www.firstgiving.com/princessciara. If you have any questions please email me. Please register asap. Also, just a reminder, Ciara was chosen for the Elwood Fire Station annual Golf fundraiser in Oct. We are looking for sponsors, golfers, donations, volunteers.. I am also trying to set up a Kids Day fundraiser for the summer, it's alot of work anyone who would like to help please also let me know. Please contact me. Thank you in advance, From: Judy Martinez [mailto:ciaramonse@yahoo.com]

ACTIONS LIE LOUDER THAN WORDS (Carolyn Wells)

WORD GAMES IN MULLICA -- NOISE OF SIGNIFICANCE

At the May 8th Mullica Town meeting, the first business item on the agenda, the approval of the minutes from the previous meeting of April 24th, which normally would be a 'badda bing' process, ...encountered a lengthy debate about the appropriate word to use to define the ambulance report that had been discussed. bill THE GARRULOUS kennedy who was a member of the ad hoc committee that prepared the ambulance report, indicated that the word 'draft' in the minuutes was not a correct description of the ambulance report, as it was the final report to THE CORRUPT MULLICA 5 AKA IDIOTS R US and should be describes as such...and not a 'draft'.

The Mayor, cathy THE BAG LADY chasey indicated that her view was that it was only a 'draft' and was not final until the IDIOTS R US grouping made a decision about the report. The report had called for going to a paid ambulance squad, which THE IDIOTS decided not to do. THE BAG LADY chasey indicated that she wished the minutes to reflect the report as only a 'draft' and a motion from fellow Republican janet THE AUTO INSURANCE FRAUD QUEEN OF ATLANTIC COUNTY forman 'as is' to approve the minutes could find no second.

Kennedy then proposed that the minutes be accepted with the change he proposed and his motion got a second. The vote, however, tied, as THE BAG LADY chasey, and THE AUTO INSURANCE FRAUD QUEEN forman, voted 'No,' with Kennedy and Kerhli voting 'Yes' and Turygan having to abstain as he was not at the meeting and could not vote to approve minutes for a meeting he was not at.

Well, the minutes have to be approved in some form, so there was this bizarre deadlock. Turygan who was a member of the ad hoc committee that had drawn up the ambulance report informed all that there had been a draft report but it was redrawn and the report presented at the previous meeting was not the draft, but the final report. Compromise of some sort was needed...and the decision was to amend the accepted minutes with a reference and clarification of the report being the final report from the ad hoc committee.

So what was the issue that forced THE BAG LADY and THE AUTO INSURANCE FRAUD QUEEN to insist strangely that the report was only a 'draft'? Well, a 'draft' report can more easily be ignored as one might argue that it was only a draft and thus carried no final conclusions. Remember this is what the Republican morons did with the State audit a decade ago that recommended increasing the liquor license fee from $250 to $2,000. They chose to sell out the larger community and not anger some of their Republican friends by raising the liquor license fee...the spin...it was only a draft. Here to with the ambulance report they chose to show allegiance to their Republican friend and supporter Gary Franklyn rather than acting on the fiscally wise conclusions of the report they rejected in April...calling it only a 'draft' played better politically...even if not a good thing for the community as a whole.

VACANT MINDS MUST HAVE THEIR USES, YET IT SEEMS A PITY TO WASTE FIRST CLASS BODIES ON THEM

THOSE WHO DIED IN IRAQ FROM APRIL 29TH TO MAY 5TH

Pvt Jay Ornsby-Adkins 21 Ione CA; Sgt Glenn Hicks Jr 24 College Station TX; Pvt Paul Donnachie 18 Berkshire UK; Pvt Brian Botello 19 Alta IA; Sgt Alexander Funcheon 21 Bel Aire KS; Sgt Jay Martin 29 Baltimore MD; Ltn Travis Manion 26 Doylestown PA; Maj Nick Bateson 49 Kent UK; Pvt Zachary Gullett 20 Hillsboro OH; Cpl Johnathan Kirk 25 Bellhaven NC; Spc Astor Pineda 20 Long Beach CA; Ltn Ryan Jones 23 Massachusetts; Pvt Katie Soenksen 19 Davenport IA; Spc Andrew Weiss 28 Lafayette IN; Ltn Colby Umbrell 26 Doylestown PA; Spc Matthew Bolar 24 Montgomery AL; Spc Kelly Grothe 21 Spokane WA; Sgt Coby Schwab 25 Puyallup WA; Pvt John Flores 21 Barrigada GUAM; Sgt Felix Gonzalez 25 Sun Valley CA; Pvt Jerome Potter 24 Tacoma WA; Sgt Christopher Hamlin 24 London KY; Pvt Larry Guyton 22 Brenham TX; Cpl Charles Palmer II Manteca CA; Sgt Kenneth Mack 42 Fort Worth TX. 125 were seriously maimed. 53 were returned to kill fields. 414+ Iraqi sisters and brothers were killed.

NOTHING IS A WASTE OF TIME IF YOU USE THE EXPERIENCE WISELY (Rodin)

Subject: Stuff the rest of the world reads about us: Haditha marine 'watched superior kill surrendering civilians', Mark Oliver and agencies; Guardian Unlimited UK; A US marine told a court yesterday that he had "pissed" on the head of one of 24 dead Iraqi civilians killed by his unit and watched a superior officer kill five Iraqis as they tried to surrender. Sergeant Sanick Dela Cruz made the admission at a pre-trial hearing ahead of a series of military trials over the killings and alleged cover-up at Haditha, 120 miles west of Baghdad, in November 2005. He said he knew urinating on the dead Iraqi was wrong but was enraged after one of his colleagues, Lance Corporal "TJ" Miguel Terrazas, had been torn apart by a roadside bomb. "I know it was a bad thing what I've done, but I done it because I was angry TJ was dead and I pissed on one Iraqi's head," Sgt Dela Cruz said. The Haditha killings have prompted the biggest US criminal case involving civilian deaths in the Iraq conflict. A total of seven US marines face charges, including three marines who have been charged with murder. He said he watched how his squad leader, Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, shot five Iraqis who were trying to surrender and then told his men to lie about the killings. The Iraqi civilians had been standing by a white car with their hands interlocked behind their heads when they were shot, Sgt Dela Cruz says. After the five men died, a team of marines led by St Sgt Wuterich allegedly attacked two houses with grenades and gunfire in an effort to find insurgents. The dead included women, children and the elderly. The marines involved have said their response was a legitimate action because they were under attack. Yesterday Sgt Dela Cruz was giving evidence ahead of the trial of Captain Randy Stone, a Marine lawyer. Cpt Stone is accused along with three other officers of dereliction of duty for failing to investigate the deaths. Capt Stone's civilian attorney, Charles Gittins, contends Capt Stone, 34, did nothing wrong because he thought the killings were a legitimate outcome of combat. Mr Gittins said Capt Stone reported the incident up the chain of command and said he had been told not to investigate further.

RESPONSE: If as many claim the war against terrorism is one for minds and not merely superior military killings of the opposition...this kind of story multiplied thousands of times over, is why the war simply is not winnable for America. Add to this, the validation of torture and holding prisoners for years without any kind of opportunity to prove their possible innocence, or even know what they are charged with ...is such a large betrayal of the American claim to a better and more higher principled form of government...that this war as it is being fought by Bush with ...support from 70% of people who define themselves as Republicans, is NOT winnable...and most Americans get that reality.

Only 'dumb' Republican loyalists, continue to support Bush. Interestingly, more and more moderate life long Republicans feel betrayed by today's Republican Party. Famous names from the past, who have proudly been members of the GOP, with family names that resonate, like Susan Eisenhower feel abandoned by today's Republican Party ...which is no longer in any way the Party of fiscal responsibility...entering office with a large surplus, and running up massive deficits.

Also, we have Theodore Roosevelt IV, another life long Republican feeling abandoned in terms of the legacy of concern about the environment ...which at every level is for sale by today's Republican inhabitants of the White House, Roosevelt is considering no longer supporting the Republican Party. Even a proud conservative with the Goldwater name, Peggy Goldwater, claims that her Party 'is taking on more than I feel they can handle.' Ergo, more and more moderate Republicans see today's GOP, no longer as representing fiscal responsibility, protections and stewardship of the environment, and wariness of foreign adventures. DUH!!!

WHEN YOU HAVE ELIMINATED THE IMPOSSIBLE, THAT WHICH REMAINS, HOWEVER IMPROBABLE, MUST BE THE TRUTH (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Subject: Citizen complaint against troopers in Corzine crash thrown out: By MICHAEL CLARK Staff Writer, The Press; A municipal judge found no probable cause in speeding and reckless-driving complaints filed by a Somers Point attorney against two State Police troopers involved in the April 12 crash here that injured Gov. Jon S. Corzine. Judge Christopher A. Brown threw out the complaints presented by Seth Grossman, the second private citizen to file charges relating to the accident, after a 10-minute hearing in which the attorney presented his case. “Without any direct evidence from you or anyone else, I can't go forward with this,” Brown said. “I cannot make a judgment on hearsay within hearsay evidence.” Grossman, who filed the complaints against Corzine's driver, Trooper Robert Rasinski, and State Police Sgt. Jim Ryan, who was driving behind Corzine's SUV on the Garden State Parkway, submitted three pieces of evidence: a State Police news release and two articles from The Press of Atlantic City. Grossman said the statements in the news release and in the Press article made by authorities regarding the timeline of the accident were conflicting. “So, this paperwork is unreliable?” asked Brown. “Yes, it is,” Grossman said. Brown said later in his decision that if Grossman considers the evidence he submitted inaccurate, then it's not acceptable evidence. “I'm not an expert in this part of the law,” said Grossman, who has been a lawyer for about 32 years. “But the mere fact that a car runs off the road going 91 mph, that's enough to show cause.” Grossman is the second private citizen to file a complaint against those involved in the crash. Larry Angel, a Mullica Township resident, filed a complaint against the governor at the end of April for not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident. The complaint was later dropped after Corzine's apology and payment of a fine. Brown was informed by the Attorney General's Office that they, along with the State Police, are still investigating the accident. “I have confidence ultimately that it will be handled appropriately,” the judge said.

RESPONSE: Given the fact that the bar at a 'Probable Cause Hearing' is so low, the belief here is that Judge Brown's decision to dismiss the Grossman Complaint was incorrect. The State Police investigatory reports in the media that the vehicle was traveling over 90 mph should have met the necessary bar of proof at this level of a judicial procedure. However, the notion that had the matter gone to trial before a Judge the State Troopers would have been found guilty I find a reach...but I am not a lawyer..."JD" does not follow my name...more often than not, it is "JO."

THE IMPORTANT THING IS NOT TO STOP QUESTIONING (Albert Einstein)

MULLICA AUDIT REPORT -- NO QUESTIONING ALLOWED

At Tuesday's Town Meeting the Mullica auditor, Kenny Moore was present to present to the public the annual Town audit. His presentations was reminiscent of when Ford, Scot, Seidenberg and Kennedy were the Republican auditors of Mullcia and the Business Administrator, pete THE THIEF ponzetti was stealing taxpayers monies with various schemes and yet the Republican auditor represented that everything was superbly run.

Indeed, the mutual admiration and patting on the back that went back and forth between Moore and THE CORRUPT MULLICA 5 AKA IDIOTS R US was unctuous and off putting. Everything was fine and the $1.7 million in bond debt coverage was an indication of the fiscal health as the surplus had increased (borrowed funding making that possible, perhaps) and all was fiscal health. HUH?

When Moore was done the Mayor, cathy THE BAG LADY chase turned to the members of Committee and inquired if there were any questions of the Town auditor...NONE ... she sought to dismiss the auditor without opening to questions from the public. As Moore turned to leave, larry THE PEDANTIC MISANTHROPIC S.O.B. angel asked if the public would not be allowed to ask questions of the auditor. THE BAG LADY chasey, said 'NO,' and Mr. Moore left. HUH? The public not allowed to question the Town audit? What the hell are these bastards hiding.

Indicative of the Fascist nature of Mullica governance of Mullica was the fact that as the public was shut out...NO ONE OBJECTED. All the other members of Mullica offica DUMB were silent. Also the public ... like good little Germans, were silent and allowed the stomping into compliant silence of the checks and balances that should be emblematic of any viable democracy. Sadly, like the country at large regarding the Fascist and/or Communist tendencies of Republican obliteration of the basic principles of good government as enshrined in our Constitution ... Mullica's public is silent and thus complicit in bad government and abuse of power. SHAME ON ALL IN ATTENDANCE.

Ironically, later in that meeting THE S.O.B. angel was graveled silent with the threat of removal from the meeting by the Deputy Mayor, janet THE AUTO INSURANCE FRAUD QUEEN OF ATLANTIC COUNTY forman for criticizing a Town employee. Later at the end of the meeting, Mullica's solicitor, $$$ tim THE GIRLY MAN SHYSTER maguire $$$ lectured THE S.O.B. angel, on the fact that he always found fault and never recognized the good things being done by government. HUH?

THE SPEED OF THE BOSS IS THE SPEED OF THE TEAM (Lee Iacocca)

Subject: Complaint filed against Corzine's driver: By ELAINE ROSE Staff Writer, The Press; An Atlantic County attorney has become the second private citizen to file charges in the April 12 crash on the Garden State Parkway that seriously injured Gov. Jon S. Corzine Seth Grossman, of Somers Point, said he filed the complaint Wednesday afternoon in Galloway Municipal Court, charging Trooper Robert Rasinski, who was driving the governor's vehicle, with speeding, careless driving and reckless driving. He filed similar charges against the trooper driving the vehicle directly behind the governor. The “black box” on the SUV that was taking Corzine from Atlantic City to a meeting at the governor's mansion in Princeton indicated the vehicle was traveling 91 mph in the seconds before the crash. The speed limit on the parkway is 65 mph. State Police are conducting an inquiry into the crash, in which Corzine broke his sternum, his collar bone, 11 ribs and his left femur. The governor was not wearing a seat belt. If the police had concluded their investigation, he would not have taken any action, Grossman said Wednesday evening. But the 30-day time period for citizens to file a complaint ends today. “I have no intention to replace normal law-enforcement channels, but I had concerns” about missing the deadline, Grossman said.
A probable-cause hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. today in Galloway municipal court, Grossman said. Larry Angel, of Mullica Township, filed a complaint against Corzine for not wearing a seat belt the week of April 20. He withdrew the complaint after the governor publicly expressed remorse for his failure to take the legally mandated safety precaution. The governor later voluntarily paid the $46 fine for the traffic offense.

RESPONSE: There is an important lesson here...that citizens who don't feel well served by government authorities can sign citizen Complaints themselves. GadFly had been urged by a number of people to sign a Complaint against the State Trooper...but, the feeling was that this speeding with a State Police escort and lights blinking was a well established procedure. While that procedure is now being re-evaluated it seems ubiquitous throughout the other States...and thus holding the individual State Trooper culpable seemed unfair.

Gad Fly notes, that at the last Town meeting on Tuesday, residents complained about on going failure of the Township Code Enforcement Officer, Tom Sandman, involving hours of operation of junk yards in Mullica and that these issues were not being addressed with Complaints. When GadFly pointed out that citizens can sign Complaints and the notion of depending upon government to address every violation is irresponsible, especially in a rural community...and resulted in higher property taxes.

Republicans at some level get this one partially right...expecting 'mommy and daddy' government to take care of every issue and not acting oneself to sign Complaints when government ... represents a lack of good citizenship. We all need to take responsibility in addressing violations of our laws and not depend solely on government as that represents a false dependency and a failure of good citizenship.(Sadly, this did not seem to resonate with the complainers.)

ONCE CONFORM, ONCE DO WHAT OTHER PEOPLE DO BECAUSE THEY DO IT, AND A LETHARGY STEALS OVER ALL THE FINER NERVES AND FACULTIES OF THE SOUL (Virginia Woolf)

Subject : Gadfly laptop stolen: Larry, Are there windows missing in your house? You must make your home more secure. You are a target for crime due to the nature of your website. We have also read that you are a senior citizen!. Do you have a house dog? Maybe plant some land mines until you find a gated community. Spend a dollar on a Pick 6 or Megamillions lottery ticket. Sincerely - A Gadfly reader

RESPONSE: Thanks for your insights...hopefully someone saw something either Monday or Tuesday ... a car in my driveway or someone walking carrying stuff ... like a lap top.

TO JUDGE THE REAL IMPORTANCE OF AN INDIVIDUAL, WE SHOULD THINK OF THE EFFECTS HIS DEATH WOULD PRODUCE (Peter de Gaston Levis)

THOSE WHO DIED IN IRAQ FROM APRIL 22ND TO APRIL 28TH

Cpl Ray Bevel 22 Andrews TX; Sgt Steven Tudor 36 Dunmore PA; Pvt Alan Jones 20 Liverpool UK; Pvt Jeffrey Avery 19 Colorado Springs CO; Ltn Kevin Gaspers 26 Hastings NE; Pvt Garrett Knoll 23 Bad Axe MI; Sgt Michael Vaughan 20 Otis OR; Sgt William Moore 27 Benson NC; Spc Michael Rodriguez 20 Sanford NC; Sgt Kenneth Locker Jr 28 Wakefield NE; Spc Jerry King 19 Browersfield GA ; Sgt Randell Marshall 22 Fitzgerald GA; Sgt Brice Pearson 32 Phoenix AZ; Cpl Dale Peterson 20 Redmond OR; Spc Jeremy Maresh 24 Penn Forest PA; Cpl Adam Loggins 27 Athens AL; Cpl Willie Celestine Jr 21 Lafayette LA; Cpl Christopher Degiovine 25 Lone Tree CO; Pvt David Kirkpatrick 20 Upland IN; Spc Eddie Tamez 21 Galveston TX; Pvt Nicholas Riehl 21 Shiocton WI; Sgt Peter Woodall 25 Sarasota FL; Sgt William Callahan 28 Easton MA; Sgt Michael Hullender 29 Little Falls NJ; Cpl Cole Spencer 21 Illinois; Sgt Norman Tolbert 30 Columbus OH. 26 were seriously wounded and maimed. 122 were returned to kill fields. 578 Iraqi sisters and brothers were killed.

THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH ADVERBS (Stephen King)

FROM THE MULLICA POLICE BLOTTER

On Saturday, April 14th, around 6:15 A.M. a vehicle traveling on Richards Avenue went off the road and hit some trees. The driver left the vehicle and fled the scene. The vehicle was registered to Marcas Hernadz of Reading PA. He was cited and did reclaim the vehicle claiming to have loaned it to a friend whose last name he was unable to provide to the police.

On Sunday, May 6, around 1:30 P.M. a vehicle driven by David Debrielle (born 1963) of Mullica was traveling north on Route 658 near Sailor Boy Road when he hit a deer.

WHEN THE PRESIDENT DECIDES SOMETHING ON MONDAY, HE STILL BELIEVES IT ON WEDNESDAY -- NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENED TUESDAY (Stephen Colbert)

Subject : A comparison of two President Georges: From the article, “When We Forget to Remember” by Sheila Samples, "Government is a "force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." George Washington. "Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," he screamed, "It's just a goddamned piece of paper." George Bush

RESPONSE: Gee, or we could compare father to son; Father George Bush a war time pilot -- son an AWOL Vietnam draft dodger, Father a football star at Yale -- son a cheerleader, father a successful business man -- son a repeated failure in the business world, father a distinguished record of public service -- son elected on father's name and an ultra-right religious pandering idiot.

HEROISM ON COMMAND, SENSELESS VIOLENCE, AND ALL THAT LOATHSOME NONSENSE THAT GOES BY THE NAME OF PATRIOTISM -- HOW PASSIONATELY I HATE THEM (Albert Einstein)

Subject : More senseless deaths: US attack 'kills Iraqi children' By James Shaw, BBC News, Baghdad; An attack by a US helicopter against suspected insurgents in Iraq has killed a number of children at a primary school, Iraqi security sources say. The attack took place in Diyala province north-east of Baghdad, the sources say. A spokesman for the US military said there had been helicopter activity in the area but he was not able to confirm any other details. The school is in the village of al-Nedawat close to the Iranian border. The officer said police had spoken to eyewitnesses and that six children had been killed and six injured but the figures have not been independently confirmed. A spokesman for the US forces in Iraq, Lt-Col Chris Garver, said the US tried to do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties, which was why it was taking the reports seriously and conducting an investigation. There has been an escalation of violence in Diyala in recent weeks. On Sunday, a convoy of US armoured vehicles was hit by a bomb which killed six soldiers and a Russian journalist who was travelling with them.

RESPONSE: In the beginning the call was for a troop level of 300,000 to govern Iraq after the fall of Baghdad...but that was blown off by the Bush administration. The 'surge' pushes the troop level to less than 20,000 and the hatred of America as a result of 'collateral damage' is ten times what it was after the initial seeming victory.

Reed is right, the war is 'lost.' Yet we still have Republicans talking about victory and stating that we lost in Vietnam because we were unwilling to 'stay the course.' So another 50,000 deaths are clearly acceptable to today's Republicans...of course that was not enough deaths to win in Vietnam. So maybe 100,000 more American deaths are acceptable to today's Republican leadership. Again, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group whose report was to pull out and talk to Syria and Iran and let the international community attempt to limit the bloodshed is being ignored by the Bush team and Republicans running for President next year. And, yes, they are all calling for more tax cuts for the super rich and more flag draped coffins.

Better to protect American borders than to bring 'democracy' to places that so clearly have not interest in such concepts. The purple fingers of the Iraqi vote was not about a desire for democracy but rather a desire that the majority religious group control the country so it can oppress the minority religious group...sort how Hitler came to power in Germany...first elected and then an oppressive dictatorship.

DON'T WORRY ABOUT PEOPLE STEALING AN IDEA. IF IT'S ORIGINAL, YOU WILL HAVE TO RAM IT DOWN THEIR THROATS (Howard Aiken)

GADFLY LAP TOP STOLEN

Last night while in attendance at the Mullica Town meeting GadFly's home was entered and the lap top used to post on this site was stolen along with some other minor small items. The time was roughly around 6:30 P.M and 7:30 P.M. As it seems only items that could be carried were taken the speculation here is that the thief was on foot. Anyone who might have seen someone walking along Weekstown Road around that time last night is encouraged to call the Mullica Police Department. While information about contributors to this site was on that computer...it is doubtful that access would be available to the thief. This incident will result in postings at a more erratic schedule and GadFly apologizes to readers. The phone line had also been cut to the house.

UNQUESTIONABLY, THERE IS PROGRESS. THE AVERAGE AMERICAN NOW PAYS OUT TWICE AS MUCH IN TAXES AS HE FORMERLY GOT IN WAGES (H. L. Mencken)

Property Taxes Due: Larry, I think that you should remind forgetful readers that Mullica’s quarterly, obscene property taxes are due by tomorrow, May 10th, to avoid paying even more money. Signed, a Disgusted Mullica Taxpayer

HE ATTACKED EVERYTHING IN LIFE WITH A MIX OF EXTRAORDINARY GENIUS AND NAIVE INCOMPETENCE, AND IT WAS OFTEN DIFFICULT TO TELL WHICH WAS WHICH (Douglas Adams)

Subject: Zoning Office: Larry - I read your website all the time - find it very interesting, informing and among other things funny. This is the first time I write since it seems to me that a lot of people write in order for u to get as accurate information as possible on several subjects. Well let me tell u my story and maybe u can get some info. I have been trying to get info from the zoning office since last Thursday(?). I asked the ladies in another office where was the lady normally works there they told me that the lady was sick and did not know her exact return date and that the zoning officer was not in and that he should be in later in the day. Later he was not there, I was told he should be on Monday 8am, at around 10 am no zoning officer. Tuesday he was to be in. Again they said that he was out but that maybe the building officer could help me. The man sat there eating and told me that he could not answer my questions since he was not the zoning officer he only answered building questions which was his department. Today is Friday and I have yet to meet or talk to him. First let me say that the lady that is normally there (I don't know her name) has been very helpful to me on several occasions. Last night we were talking about our problem with some friends - Among the stories my friends told me was that his friend had lost a deal to sell his house because she was told by one lady that she could not build any additional sheds but that she should speak to the zoning officer as he would make the final call. When the friend went back to speak to him he told she could build basically anything she wanted. To make a long story short she could not build. They also said that they went in one day and came out almost an hour later with no answers because the officer had to do research but new half the officers life including that his father drove a milk truck in Philly(?). Needless to say my friends also read your site. So we continued to talk about the hours and raise that this man is getting. I now also understand why Mr. Kennedy voted no on the contract the only smart one in the bunch while the other "Corrupt Mullica 4 aka IDIOTS R US, voted yes the zoning officer is also a republican. What I want to know is why are they giving a 4 year contract and from what I heard almost $20 p/h to a man that still does not know after 3 years the set backs/lot coverage etc to a particular lot because he obviously gave wrong info to not only my friends friend but from what I hear to a lot of people. How could two people in the same office give two different answers to the same question? My second question u have not mentioned on your site (and since I do not attend all meetings) what does the building officer make and is the lady getting a raise too. My wife and I have a bet my wife says that the lady is probably the lowest paid person in that office as she is not a man and will not be getting a raise. Signed Concerned Residents Paying Taxes to Pay MORANS!!

RESPONSE: It seems reasonable to assume that the lady who works in the zoning office (Zoe) was pissed about the raise and expressed her frustration that she was not getting a raise like Mr. Sandman. However, she has a contract and those negotiations are on going at this time. Being female and Hispanic in an administration with a long record of bigotry does not bode well for her being treated equally. She will likely get the same contractual raise as other Town employees did ...around 4%. That by the way is as is the norm sadly in government well above the Cost of Living Increase (CPI) or inflation rate. Mr. Sandman was given a 16.66% raise this year and next year he gets a 7% raise and the following year a 6.66% raise. One has to wonder who he is sleeping with...as this is simply obscene and a brutalization of Mullica taxpayers..

If you are asking me to justify the 4 year contract and raise for Mr. Sandman ... I cannot. It seems a reward for being a loyal sycophant to the Mullica Republican Party again ...on the backs of Mullica Tax payers. The four year contract which goes till the end of December 2010 with raises each year well above the likely inflation rate is simply, a payoff to an unqualified Republican henchman...sort of copying the pattern of the national GOP under Bush. Further, given the disdain of idiot Republicans for any kind of bench marks, Mr. Sandman’s contract does not require him to be certified in the job until the end of 2010 when the contract ends and places no criteria for working toward that certification in terms of benchmark yearly classes required for said certification. Mullica Republicans once again have sold out the people who elected them both financially and in terms of professionalism. Sandman in the 3 years he has been on the job, has taken no classes toward certification and competence in the job he performs as Mullica’s Code Enforcement Officer.

The fact that Sandman has been on the job now for over three years and taken no courses and as a result repeatedly made costly bad judgements for the taxpayers of Mullica in a number of cases like the Dibabbo fiasco that cost the taxpayers over $20,000 in lost fine income to the Township and the Waszen case where literally tens of thousands of dollars in fines have been forgiven despite on going contempt of Mullica Municipal Court Orders ...represent additional property tax charges that will now be placed on all Mullica land owners.

As you note the sole Democrat on Committee, bill THE GARRULOUS kennedy voted against the contract and deserves credit for standing up for the taxpayers of Mullica while the other four who are Republicans once again sold the community out and showed loyalty to Party over their oaths of office to treat all equally in Mullica.

The lack of training in the job has repeatedly resulted in mistaken calls regarding zoning by this office under Mr. Sandman. The Waszen fence permit and re-forestry issue are in many ways emblematic of the lack of professionalism and the poorly way this office is run today. Mr. Sandman attends Town meetings on a regular basis and often when actions by THE CORRUPT MULLICA 5 AKA IDIOTS R US are criticized by the public he is allowed to speak last during public discussion and acts as an apologist for mistakes and seeks to intimidate those who comment on the failings of his elected friends in the Mullica Republican Club...obviously, that has paid off handsomely for him, given the large 16%+ raise this year and in years to come...and again the Mullica tax payers are the losers.

THE ADVICE OF FRIENDS MUST BE RECEIVED WITH A JUDICIOUS RESERVE; WE MUST NOT GIVE OURSELVES UP TO IT AND FOLLOW IT BLINDLY, WHETHER RIGHT OR WRONG (Pierre Charron)

Subject: Rice blind to Bush’s faults, says book: (I read somewhere that Rice and the President even work out together.) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did not raise questions when the administration marched towards war in Iraq during the first term of President George W Bush because of her loyalty to the President, a new book says. “Rice tended to enable the President’s missteps rather than check them. … (S)he molded his instincts, she didn’t challenge them. So as the administration marched toward war in Iraq, she didn’t push back,” says Newsweek’s Marcus Mabry in a yet to be released biography of Rice, the National Security Advisor during the US military operation in Iraq. Even Rice’s friends, most of whom happen to be Democrats, say her affection for Bush blinded her to his failings. “She thought he could do no wrong,” said one. “She didn’t question troop levels or the Defense Department’s rosy post-Saddam scenarios. She didn’t demand the administration devise a single, unified plan after Saddam’s statue fell,” says Mabry. Excerpts from the book have been published in the latest issue of Newsweek. While Secretary of State Rice admits the administration made mistakes, she says they had nothing to do with “dysfunction” in the inter-agency process she ran. …The author quotes some administration officials as saying Rice as national security advisor concentrated too heavily on advising the President, rather than managing the national security “process”. “They point to her remark at a Washington dinner party in 2004, when Rice inadvertently said, ‘As I was telling my husb...’, before abruptly correcting herself, ‘As I was telling President Bush’.” … Rice had told her friend that she does not want the job in Bush’s second term. But three days later, she accepted when the President offered the job of Secretary of State to replace Colin Powell. “Of course, her friends and her stepmother Clara Rice offered a simpler explanation for why she stayed: ‘she just can’t say no to that man’.” … “In a political sense, I think he kind of courted her. He really went after her. He’s very charming,” said one of her friends. And Rice was drawn to Bush. “First of all, I thought he was wonderful to be around,” she recalled in an interview with the author. “He was warm and funny and easy to be around. I thought he had just an incredibly inquisitive mind ... You could barely finish an explanation before he was digging into it,” Rice says. Rice’s friends, Mabry says, insisted the attraction to Bush was platonic, but Brenda Hamberry-Green, her hairdresser, who had spent years commiserating with Rice over how hard it was for successful black women to find a good man, noticed a change when Rice started working for Bush. “He fills that need,” Hamberry-Green decided. “Bush is her feed.”

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE FINISHED SPEAKING BEFORE YOUR AUDIENCE HAS FINISHED LISTENING (Dorothy Sarnoff)

Subject: Done!! Larry, I wonder why setting a timetable always seems to imply that the enemy will rise up. We have been in Iraq for four years. Why doesn't the Bush administration think our side could step up and take charge instead of the enemy? Or is there another reason to keep the war going that we don't know about? As I remember, there were two initial goals of the Iraq war: Remove Saddam Hussein from power and find weapons of mass destruction. Hussein is dead. We didn't find any weapons. We are done now. John

HERE ARE MY STRONG RESERVATIONS ABOUT THE WAVE OF COMPUTER NETWORKS. THEY ISOLATE US FROM ONE ANOTHER AND CHEAPEN THE MEANING O ACTUAL EXPERIENCE. THEY WORK AGAINST LITERACY AND CREATIVITY. THEY UNDERCUT OUR SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES (Clifford Stoll)

MULLICA SCHOOL 2006 STATE TEST SCORES

GadFly has been posting the grade by grade test scores from the ‘New Jersey State Assessment Report 2006. The State Test (New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge – ASK) was a new test and many had been led to believe that the 2006 test was merely a trial to work out kinks in the test...that did not prove to be the case however. But, all schools were in the same position and thus a comparison gives insights as to where various school Districts are in comparison to other New Jersey School Districts. GadFly has posted grade by grade the Mullica scores for Literacy and Math and in some cases the test included Science. Having posted the Reading and Math scores for the 3rd and 4th Grade, 5th Grade and 6th Grade ...and the Science scores for the Mullica’s 4th graders; GadFly now posts the scores for MULLICA 7th Graders READING (LANGUAGE ARTS LITERACY).

Group............# students.........% Advanced....% Passed.....% Fail

Total students.......100.................2.0%...........74.7%..........23.2%
Gen. Ed.................80...............2.5%............85.0%...........12.5%
Special Ed.............17..................0.0%............35.3%.........64.7%
Limited English.......2....................0%.................0%..............100%

Migrant....................1....................0%.................0%................100%

Economically
Disadvantaged.......36..................0.0%............65.7%............34.3%

White.................71..................2.8%............77.5%..............19.7%
Black..................7.......................0%...........57.1%.................42.9%
Asian..................1........................0%..........100%.......................0%
Hispanic..............21.....................0%...........70.0%..............30.0%
Other...................0.......................0%.............0%..................0%

Gender
Female...............56.....................1.8%...........76.8%.............21.4%
Male...................44.....................2.3%............72.1%..............25.6%

(Note; Mullica had no students in the 7th grade that were Pacific Islander or American Indian/AK Native)

It is noted that the No Child Left Behind parameters require a break down into various ethnic, economic and other groupings. It should also be noted that for the 7th Grade Reading Test the State average was 75% passing and 25% failing. While Mullica 7th graders meant that criteria...having this large number of students fail and calling it success is ludicrous.

ONE OF THE MOST BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR MAKING AND KEEPING PEACE WITHIN AND BETWEEN NATIONS. ...IS THAT IN POLITICAL, MILITARY, MORAL, AND SPIRITUAL CONFRONTATIONS, THERE SHOULD BE AN HONEST ATTEMPT AT THE RECONCILIATION OF DIFFERENCES BEFORE RESORTING TO COMBAT (Jimmy Carter)

Subject: Bring Them Home - LA Times Editorial: Iraqis need political reconciliation, not occupation; and U.S. troops shouldn't referee a civil war. WHATEVER THE future holds, the United States has not "lost" and cannot "lose" Iraq. It was never ours in the first place. …After four years of war, more than $350 billion spent and 3,363 U.S. soldiers killed and 24,310 wounded … The U.S. military presence — opposed by more than three-quarters of Iraqis — inflames terrorism and delays what should be the primary and most pressing goal: meaningful reconciliation among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. This newspaper reluctantly endorsed the U.S. troop surge as the last, best hope for stabilizing conditions so that the elected Iraqi government could assume full responsibility for its affairs. But we also warned that the troops should not be used to referee a civil war. That, regrettably, is what has happened. Better to begin planning a careful, strategic withdrawal from Iraq now, based on the strategies laid out by the Iraq Study Group, than allow for the 2008 campaign season to create a precipitous pullout. … there is no reason to believe that the surge will help bring about an end to what is, in fact, a multifaceted civil war. … as long as civil war rages in Iraq, even the post-surge force of 160,000 troops cannot achieve more than marginal progress. The Bush administration should convene national peace and reconciliation talks as early as possible — say June 1. …But an important element needs to be taken off the table: American blood. The U.S. should immediately declare its intention to begin a gradual troop drawdown, starting no later than the fall. … Iraqi political compromise is more likely to come when Washington is no longer backing the stronger (Shiite) party. U.S. troops could then be repositioned to better wage the long-term struggle against Islamic extremism. The question is how best to manage the risks. First, there is the grim prospect of a bloodbath in Iraq. But the best way to forestall slaughter is political reconciliation, not military occupation. Second is the worry that Al Qaeda will establish a beachhead in Al Anbar. Yet Iraqis have already turned against the foreign fighters. Third, the neighbors may meddle. Alarmists fear an Iranian proxy state in Baghdad; southern Iraq is already allied with Tehran. But Iraq's neighbors are more likely to be helpful once withdrawal is assured, and instability is not in their interests, especially without a U.S. occupier to bleed. … the longer we delay planning for the inevitable, the worse the outcome is likely to be. The time has come to leave.

A SINGLE DEATH IS A TRAGEDY; A MILLION DEATHS IS A STATISTIC (Joseph Stalin)

Subject: baby found: Larry, Rumor has it that a baby was found in Sweetwater??? Have you heard anything?

RESPONSE: My information from the authorities is not that a baby was found...but sadly, that a two year old baby died in Sweetwater.

WE MUST NOT BE HAMPERED BY YESTERDAY'S MYTHS IN CONCENTRATING ON TODAY'S NEEDS (Harold Geneen)

Subject: Debunking Some Myths Regarding Impeachment: "We need to work with the Republicans to pass legislation. Impeachment would be divisive." - Bush's actions undermine our entire system of government. That must be fixed before we get back to the daily business of governing. - If Bush is not impeached for his actions then this will set a precedent that allows future Presidents to start wars at will, torture prisoners, wiretap citizens without warrants and suspend habeas corpus. We must act now to prevent that from happening again in the future. - Members of Congress take an Oath of Office promising that they will defend the Constitution from "enemies both foreign and domestic". This is their primary duty. When the Constitution is safe then they have the luxury to attend to other matters. - Impeachment will only involve parts of Congress for a short time. Clinton's impeachment only took about four months. The actual trial in the Senate only took two months. Other business can take place in parallel. "It is political suicide to call for impeachment." - A majority of all Americans favor impeachment. It may be political suicide to be on the wrong side of this issue. - Legislators take an oath to protect the Constitution so it is their duty to protect it from Bush's crimes by calling for impeachment regardless of the political consequences. - Democrats won in a landslide in the election after drafting Articles of Impeachment against Nixon. - Republicans lost in the election after impeaching Clinton, not because people opposed impeachment in general but because they opposed impeachment over a personal matter. "Why bother with impeachment when we need a 2/3 majority in the Senate to convict?" - To convict Bush we only need 16 Republican Senators in addition to all the Democrats. - After investigations and the trial, it will be obvious to everyone that Bush is guilty of serious crimes. At that point, many Republicans will feel compelled to vote for a guilty verdict. - Many Republican politicians oppose Bush because they feel he is hurting them politically. If Senators want to get reelected they may have to vote Bush guilty. - Bush committed crimes and it is our duty to oppose those crimes and defend the Constitution regardless of our chance of success - If we can force a debate on impeachment then it will expose Bush's crimes even if he is not convicted. - It is better to fight for justice and lose then to accept injustice. "But won't we just end up with Cheney as President and he is worse than Bush?" - Cheney would be included in Articles of Impeachment. - An investigation into possible grounds for impeachment serves an educational and political purpose, whether or not we get to impeachment. We shine a light on the misdeeds of the administration and its supporters in Congress, and we help to build an opposition. - It would be virtually impossible to investigate Bush or Cheney without incriminating the other one. - Cheney is already running the show now backstage. "We (Congress) do not have a mandate from the public." - The victory for the Democrats in November of 2006 was widely seen as a vote against Bush and against the Iraq war. Exit polls confirmed this. - Congress does not need a "mandate" to defend the Constitution. They already took an Oath of Office promising to do that.

AS THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF OUR THOUGHT EASILY SHOWS, MAN IS AN INVENTION OF RECENT DATE. AND ONE PERHAPS NEARING ITS END (Michel Foucault)

Subject: incorrect date: The committee meeting is May 8th (you have Tuesday, but then have the 7th as the date).

RESPONSE: Thanks, I have corrected the mistake.

A DISCOVERY IS SAID TO BE AN ACCIDENT MEETING A PREPARED MIND (Albert Szent-Gyorgyi)

UPCOMING MULLICA MEETINGS

Tuesday, May 8th, Mullica Town Meeting at Town Hall, 6;30 P.M.

Mullica Zoning Board Meeting on Wednesday May 9th has been cancelled

Monday, May 14th, Mullica School Board Meeting, Mullica School Library at 7 P.M.

Note new School Board meeting time...meeting starting at 7 P.M. NOT 7:30.

I HATE THE WORD HOUSEWIFE; I DON'T LIKE THE WORD HOME-MAKER EITHER. I WANT TO BE CALLED DOMESTIC GODDESS (Roseanne Barr)

Subject: BATSTO QUILT FESTIVAL -- SUNDAY MAY 20TH: Larry, it is time for an area event that is special to many of us, THE BATSTO ANNUAL QUILT FESTIVAL -- which is presented by Batsto Quilters and BCCI on May 20, 2007 and is dedicated to the principle of ‘HONORING OUR FREEDOM.’ The event will start at 10 a.m. with a Flag cememony by BSA Venturing Crew 49 and include a performance at 1 p.m. of ‘Seven Quilts for Seven Sisters’ the performance has limited seating that can be reserved by calling 856 768-2222. There will also be Quilting Demonstrations, a Live Quilting Bee, Interactive Children’s Programs, Quilting Turning (presented by Mary and Kathy) and verbal quilt appraisals by Merry May (cost $5). Hope to see gadfly readers and their friends at this great family event.

USUALLY, TERRIBLE THINGS THAT ARE DONE WITH THE EXCUSE THAT PROGRESS REQUIRES THEM ARE NOT REALLY PROGRESS AT ALL, BUT JUST TERRIBLE THINGS (Russell Baker)

Subject: Progress: Larry as a public schoolteacher, I will lose my job if I fail to meet President Bush's No Child Left Behind benchmarks that show accountability and progress in my class. It is ironic that this same administration and its Republican supporters in Congress, which wantonly squander our tax dollars and the lives of our children, tell us we have no right to expect accountability and progress with their protracted war in Iraq. Helen

A GREAT MANY OPEN MINDS SHOULD BE CLOSED FOR REPAIRS (Toledo Blade)

MULLICA ROAD CLOSURE – PLEASANT MILLS ROAD

The County will be closing Pleasant Mills Road between Jackson Road and Elwood Road starting Monday May 7th for about two weeks. The target reopening date is Friday May 25th.

WE MUST NOT LET OUR RULERS LOAD US WITH PERPETUAL DEBT (Thomas Jefferson)

VETERANS VOTE REPUBLICAN – HUH?

The military tends to vote Republican, both active and veterans over the years have tended to support Republican candidates and one wonders why. Besides sending our troops to war based on lies and miscalculations with out adequate equipment ...echoed by Rumsfeld’s quote “"As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." When one looks at the recent record of support for our brave veterans by this Republican administration the issue of support for Republicans by veterans gets more strange.

As the Iraq war grew, the Bush administration successfully sought to cut Veteran health care benefits. The Walter Reed scandal really was just the tip of the ice berg. High placed Bush appointees in the Department of Veteran Affairs deliberately seemed to have misled the American people in their phony numbers to justify the cuts in veteran care programs just as more wounded and needy veterans were coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. .

The most recent outrage...sort of giving the CIA chief Tenent the Medal of Freedom for his ‘slam dunk’ comment in misleading the American people into the war or the ‘you’re doing a great job Brownie’ as the New Orleans debacle unfolded, ...we have the recent reports of big bonuses ranging up to $33,000 to Veteran Affairs officials involved in the foul-up now coming to light of a $1 billion shortfall for veterans health care programs. These bonuses were given after the Republican government had become aware of the miscalculations if not lies to justify the Bush administration veterans’ cuts in funding for health care. HUH?.

Investigations by the Congressional Government Accountability office, determine the VA had used misleading accounting to support and reward Bush loyalists. This also justified all those large tax cuts for the super rich on the backs of cut backs in benefits and care for veterans.

“Hundreds of thousands of our veterans remain homeless every day and hundreds of thousands more veterans wait six months or more for VA disability claims decisions,’ said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense. “The lavish amounts of VA bonus cash would better spent on a robust plan to cut VA red tape.” HUH? Voting Republican by the military...one has to wonder whether military intelligence is indeed a contradiction in terms.

HE WHO PRAISES YOU FOR WHAT YOU LACK WISHES TO TAKE FROM YOU WHAT YOU HAVE (Don Juan Manuel)

Subject: Former Supervisor Extols Fired Prosecutors: By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer, (T)he Justice Department's inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility are investigating whether a former Gonzales aide, Monica M. Goodling, illegally considered political affiliation in reviewing candidates for positions as career assistant prosecutors for offices with interim or acting U.S. attorneys. A review of Justice Department records shows that at least three dozen of the 93 U.S. attorney's offices fell into that category at some point during Goodling's tenure as a senior counselor to Gonzales, which began in fall 2005. Officials have declined to provide details about the allegations or to say how many offices may have been affected. Goodling has resigned and refused to testify to Congress, invoking her right not to incriminate herself. The House Judiciary Committee has offered her immunity and is waiting to learn whether Justice objects on the grounds that immunity could compromise future prosecutions. … Comey [the Justice Department's second in command from 2003 until August 2005] said it was "very troubling" to hear allegations that political considerations may have been taken into account in the hiring of assistant U.S. attorneys, or AUSAs. "I don't know how you would put that genie back in the bottle, if people started to believe we were hiring our AUSAs for political reasons," he said.

RESPONSE: HUH? This totally corrupt Republican administration has placed people in position of leadership throughout the government who pervert and ignore accepted science, as well as well as established laws and procedures for their two political goals...large excessive profits for campaign donors to Republicans and enforcing the religious dogma of the extreme fanatical members of the Christian faith who hold undue sway in the Republican Party.

With Congress now in the hands of Democrats and the investigations and hearings into the corruption and theft at almost every level that occurred when Congress was controlled by Republicans who chose to support Bush and allow the looting of the treasury and piling on of debt as they also shredded the Constitution ...what will be revealed should be startling.

Of course, Bush and his merry band of Fascist criminals, with the startling support of Republican members of Congress, has indicated that he will not allowe subpoenaed members of his administration to testify under oath. HUH? The scum-bag Bush has claimed that the recently issued subpoenas were "unprecedented" and indicated the Karl Rove and Condi Rice will not testify under oath nor other members of his corrupt inner circle.

HUH? During the Clinton years with a Republican Congress in control of Committees, the same damned Republicans who are supporting the President's stonewalling of testimony under oath, issued more than 1,000 such subpoenas to Clinton officials...who testified. The scandals of course of Clinton era cost the lives of no one...as opposed to the Republican lies and scandals that led to war ...with a death toll of over 3,300 Americans and tens of thousands of others coming home with broken bodies and minds. All this remember as Republicans cut funding for veteran health care programs. This November, every @#$/&% Republican needs to be defeated by all of us who care about, and love America.

EDUCATION IS THE GUARDIAN GENIUS OF DEMOCRACY. IT IS THE ONLY DICTATOR THAT FREE MEN RECOGNIZE, AND THE ONLY RULER THAT FREE MEN REQUIRE (Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar)

MULLICA SCHOOL STUDENTS GET $4+ MILLION GRANT

WOW!!! This is an amazing opportunity for Mullica kids. First announced at the last Mullica School Board meeting and then at the next nights Town meeting as a joint GEHR and Mullica school grant of $535,000 over five years for 4th through 12 graders after school enrichment programs. In reality it turns out to be only for Mullica students in grades 4 thru 12 and will be started in the new school year after this summer.

Under ‘No Child Left Behind” criteria this extra funding is intended to set up a 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) in Mullica which is defined as a center which offers academic, artistic, and cultural enrichment opportunities to students and their families when school is not in session. The offered programs will all be run here in Mullica with Mullica High School students bussed in after school for the enrichment offerings between 3 P.M. and 6 P.M. and students will also be bused home.

The goals here are to implement activities within the following categories: remedial education and academic enrichment learning programs; mathematics and science activities; arts and music educational activities, entrepreneurial educational programs; tutoring services and mentoring programs; programs that provide after-school activities for limited English proficient students that emphasize language skills and academic achievement; recreational activities; telecommunications and technology education programs; expanded library service hours; programs that promote parental involvement and family literacy; programs that provide assistance to students who have been truant, suspended or expelled, to allow students to improve their academic achievement; and drug and violence prevention programs, counseling programs and character education programs.

Mullica will hire a Director to oversee this program. While no students from Mullica will be turned away the focus hopefully will be on enticing the staggering high number of Mullica students who test failing in Math and Literacy testing. A special effort needs to be made to draw these failing students into this program and GadFly will report on what hopefully will be a dramtaic education return on this large amount of grant money.

The primary goal of the 21st CCLC program is to supplement the education of children who live in high-poverty areas with academic, artistic and cultural enrichment during out-of-school time hours, so that they may attain the skills necessary to meet state core curriculum content standards. In addition, the centers must offer literacy and other educational services to the families of the participating students. Mullica as a “B” socio-economic rated community nd was thus eligible for this funding that will offer students a broad array of enrichment activities that can complement their regular academic programs before and/or after-school, or during hours when school is not in session; and offer literacy and other educational services to families of participating students.

If one focuses on where Mullica is doing a terribly poor job in educating local kids one would hope that there will be a major effort to entice these kids into this important program. The failure of Mullica teachers, Board and administration is stark in some areas. 7th Grade test scores in Math show 52% failing ...and in Reading , 23% fail!!! Those are ugly numbers that should shame anyone connected with the Mullica school system. With a very low target in terms of numbers of students for this important program (70) the focus needs to be on getting Mullica’s large number of failing kids involved in this after school program. Failure to target the Mullica students who are doing poorly would be to waste this $4 million. Hopefully there will be some statistical analysis of what kids are recruited into this program and a follow through in improving test scores.

THERE ARE TWO THINGS I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED MADLY... WOMEN AND CELIBACY (Nicolas De Chamfort)

Subject:Another Wrong Strategy: Larry, would someone please tell me why the U.S. government is imposing fundamental views on birth control on African nations plagued with poverty, AIDS, famine and political strife? It would seem to me that funding sensible family planning would be highly desirable. Yet managing director Juan Jose Daboub has allegedly ordered the removal of references to family planning from a "Strategy for Health, Nutrition and Population Results" for Madagascar. Madagascar has made improved family planning a national commitment and would greatly benefit from a World Bank loan to help in this area. Should the World Bank actually scale back its "long-standing support for family planning," there will be an exponential rise in maternal and neonatal deaths as well as an escalation in older siblings growing up without a mother and possibly as orphans. This is contrary to the belief in a right to life and is a guarantee of death for mothers and their families in developing countries. Not only would a rollback in family planning be pro-death and anti-health, it would amount to a misogynist policy. Separation of church and state is once again flouted by the Bush administration. Doris

RESPONSE: Well, we have a born again phony Christian in the Oval Office who vetoed the stem cell bill and the end the war bill and bring em' home bill and now is threatening to veto any attempt to council poor people in foreign countries about birth control because it offends the base of the new Republican Party...the Christan Taliban Christian extremists.

CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG, BUT HASN'T THE FINE LINE BETWEEN SANITY AND MADNESS GOTTEN FINER (George Price)

Subject: Americna soldiers are fleeing the Iraq war for Canada: Salon.com, Mar 3, 2007- With the Iraq war in its fifth year, an increasing number of American soldiers have been going AWOL and fleeing to Canada, particularly over the last six months. One lawyer who works on their behalf puts the number of American war resisters currently living in Canada at 250 or more. Advocates for them here talk of a kind of "underground railroad" that has developed south of the border to help war resisters make their way north.....

RESPONSE: These men and women, many who have served already one or two terms in Iraq and Afghanistan are heros of conscience. If Republicans, including those three jerks (McCain, Julliani and Romney) who are running for President really believed the 'stay the course' rhetoric they spouted the other night in support of the war, they would be calling for a universal draft...and if there were a draft, the people in the street protesting would dwarf the Vietnam protests. They shame the old GOP mantra of wariness of foreign adventures and long ago abandoned the Republican motif of fiscal responsibility..as they continue to call for more tax cuts for the super rich.

IT REQUIRES A VERY UNUSUAL MIND TO UNDERTAKE THE ANALYSIS OF THE OBVIOUS (Alfred North Whitehead)

MULLICA POLICE TICKET NUMBERS – APRIL

In April of 2006, the Mullica Police Department wrote 212 tickets. In April of 2007 that performance improved ...as they wrote 226 tickets.

HEGEL WAS RIGHT WHEN HE SAID THAT WE LEARN FROM HISTORY THAT MAN CAN NEVER LEARN ANYTHING FROM HISTORY (George Bernard Shaw)

Subject: Learning from experience: President Bush will go to any lengths to blame others for his own shortcomings. Unable to accept responsibility and learn from experience, the president accuses Democratic leaders in Congress of seeking to substitute their own judgment for that of the generals in the field. He says nothing of the generals whose advice he dismissed and whom he and his administration treated with contempt. The president says nothing of the distorted intelligence he repeated endlessly to justify the war, or the cockeyed predictions about the flowering of democracy throughout the Middle East. The American people have had more than enough. Congress provided funding for our troops in Iraq; President Bush vetoed the funding. I'm sorry my president no longer supports the troops who are giving their lives to protect me. The Iraqi people have to settle their differences through political negotiation. The likelihood they will do so while American troops fight and die is exactly nil. It's time to bring this fiasco to an end. Donald

EXPERIENCE IS A GOOD TEACHER, BUT SHE SEND IN TERRIFIC BILLS (Minna Thomas Antrim)

MULLICA TEACHERS HONORED WITH GOVERNOR’S RECOGNITION AWARD

Every year the New Jersey Governor’s recognition of outstanding teachers are honored. This year the honor went to Mullica 5th Grade teach Jill Lloyd-Pino and Kindergarten teacher Janette Glida. CONGRATS!!

YOU CANNOT MEASURE A MAN BY HIS FAILURES. YOU MUST KNOW WHAT USE HE MAKES OF THEM. WHAT DID THEY MEAN TO HIM. WHAT DID HE GET OUT OF THEM (Orison Swett Marden)

Subject: Re: Republican Failures: Larry believe me, I'm the first to blame President Bush for anything and everything, but the unpopularity of the Republican Party is not his fault alone. Do the names DeLay, Cheney, Lott, Armey, Hastert, Frist, Cunningham and Inhofe ring a bell? The Republicans let their party be hijacked by the neocons and religious nuts as they stood by and did nothing. And now they're crying that it's Bush's fault? And who was in charge when 9/11 happened — the Republicans. How can the people who were supposed to be keeping us safe when catastrophe hit be looked upon as the ones who will keep us safe the next time around? The 9/11 terrorists caught our Republican administration flat-footed, even though we had glimpses of the terrorists' playbook. How Republicans were able to use this defensive failure as a way to pump up their credentials as strong on defense is beyond me. BD

TO BE AN ADULT IS TO BE ALONE (Jean Rostand)

Subject: speed limit: What is the speed limit for most of the Garden State Parkway?

RESPONSE: While the speed limit is 65 mph, the reality is that anyone traveling at that speed in the left lane will be passed on the right, tailgated, high beamed or worse...as the average speed in that lane is much faster.

The push to ticket the State Trooper is ridiculous and unfair as the focus now should be on a change of policy regarding speeding officials to get to affairs/engagements that in no way are life and death matters. Again, for the small, petty, 'pound of flesh' crowd out there...the test of adultness is not that we don’t make mistakes, but we are able to take responsibility for mistakes and change course. Yes, that makes our President a failure as an adult...but he is used to that reality.

THANKS TO TV AND FOR THE CONVENIENCE OF TV, YOU CAN ONLY BE ONE OF TWO KINDS OF HUMAN BEINGS, EITHER A LIBERAL OR A CONSERVATIVE (Kurt Vonnegut)

Subject: Conservatives love Larry Angel: Larry, this was sent to me by friends in the St Louis area and I thought you would find it amusing.

Council of Conservative Citizens National Blog, St. Louis CofCC Blog;
Somebody Cares -- Webmaster -- Larry Angel is my new hero. But he’s probably not going to make a friend of Jon Corzine anytime ever, that incredible speeding and seatbeltless governor. KSDK-NBC-5: TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A self-described gadfly withdrew his complaint Tuesday against Gov. Jon S. Corzine for failing to wear a seat belt when he was critically injured in a highway crash. State police have not yet decided whether to ticket the governor. The complaint filed by Larry Angel was withdrawn just as a judge was to decide whether to approve the complaint. Corzine was released from a hospital Monday and apologized for not wearing his seat belt when his official SUV crashed on April 12. “I was troubled initially that neither the governor nor anybody in his office seemed to take responsibility,” Angel said Tuesday. “He obviously, if you listened to his statements, seemed to me to credibly take responsibility. I don’t think those were crocodile tears or emotion on the part of the governor.”

IRRESPONSIBLE POWER IS INCONSISTENT WITH LIBERTY, AND MUST CORRUPT THOSE WHO EXERCISE IT (John Calhoun)

Subject: A consistent policy? Larry does West Point give classes in long-term occupations of foreign countries against the will of their citizens? Does it have guest lecturers in settling rifts between religions and their factions? Do generals have some special knowledge that would stop a repressed majority from seeking revenge after the ruling tyrants are overthrown? Are Arabic and Farsi part of the language requirements to graduate in our military colleges? Of course we don't want to demoralize our soldiers by bringing them home, when it's obvious that they are all thrilled to stay in Iraq to bring the Iraqis the same freedoms our other allies, such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, have. Harold

I'M OFTEN WRONG, BUT NEVER IN DOUBT (Ivy Baker Priest)

Subject: A SET UP: HEY LARRY I JUST HAVE ONE QUESTION, HAD THIS BEEN REPUBLICAN FRANK LOBIONDO OR CHRISTIE WHITMAN WOULD YOU HAVE WITH DRAWN THE COMPLAINT? LIBERAL JON CORZINE AND LIBERAL ACLU LARRY WITHDRAWS THE COMPLAINT. WAS THIS ALL A SET UP.

RESPONSE: A fair question, that I cannot answer honestly. I would like to think that given the same situation involving a Republican who I don’t like that it would have resulted in the same decision to withdraw the Complaint. The issue was taking ownership for a bad judgement. But I can’t honestly know how I would have reacted. I hope I would have withdrawn the Complaint against frank THE HYPOCRITE lobiondo in a similar situation involving sincere ownership of the mistake of not wearing a seat belt.

JUSTICE IS THE END OF GOVERNMENT. IT IS THE END OF CIVIL SOCIETY. IT EVER HAS BEEN AND EVER WILL BE PURSUED UNTIL IT BE OBTAINED, OR UNTIL LIBERTY BE LOST IN THE PURSUIT. IN A SOCIETY UNDER THE FORMS OF WHICH THE STRONGER FACTION CAN READILY UNITE AND OPPRESS THE WEAKER, ANARCHY MAY AS TRULY BE SAID TO REIGN AS IN A STATE OF NATURE, WHERE THE WEAKER INDIVIDUAL IS NOT SECURED AGAINST THE VIOLENCE OF THE STRONGER; AND AS, IN THE LATTER STATE, EVEN THE INDIVIDUALS ARE PROMPTED, BY THE UNCERTAINTY OF THEIR CONDITION, TO SUBMIT TO A GOVERNMENT WHICH MAY PROTECT THE WEAK AS WELL AS THEMSELVES; SO, IN THE FORMER STATE, WILL THE MORE POWERFUL FACTIONS OR PARTIES BE GRADUALLY INDUCED, BY A LIKE MOTIVE TO WISH FOR A GOVERNMENT WHICH WILL PROTECT ALL PARTIES, THE WEAKER AS WELL AS THE MORE POWERFUL (Alexander Hamilton)

Subject: Tenet: CIA Warned of ‘Anarchy’ in Iraq: Throwing caution to the wind, Bush plunges America into a long, costly and disastrous war; Just like the American press, no one in the administration questions the reasons or considers the consequences; By SCOTT LINDLAW, Friday, April 27, 2007, SAN FRANCISCO, (AP) – The CIA warned the Bush White House seven months before the 2003 Iraq invasion that the U.S. could face a thicket of bad consequences, starting with "anarchy and the territorial breakup" of the country, former CIA Director George Tenet writes in a new book. CIA analysts wrote the warning at the start of August 2002 and inserted it into a briefing book distributed at an early September meeting of President Bush's national security team at Camp David, he writes. The agency analysis painted what Tenet calls additional "worst-case" scenarios: "a surge of global terrorism against U.S. interests fueled by deepening Islamic antipathy toward the United States"; "regime-threatening instability in key Arab states"; and "major oil supply disruptions and severe strains in the Atlantic alliance." Tenet's recollection of the memo also comes at a time when Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress are locked in a high-stakes dispute over war funding and whether to set hard timetables for ending the war. The book is highly critical of Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration officials, who Tenet argues rushed the United States into war in Iraq without serious debate … Beyond that, he contends, the administration failed to adequately consider what would come in the war's aftermath. Tenet laments that "there seemed to be a lack of curiosity … before committing the country to war." Tenet assigns his own agency part of the blame, saying the intelligence community should have strived to answer the questions not asked by the administration. For the first time, Tenet offers an account of his own view of a historic moment in the run-up to war: Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 2003 speech before the United Nations, with Tenet sitting just behind him. "That was about the last place I wanted to be," Tenet recalls. "It was a great presentation, but unfortunately the substance didn't hold up… "One by one, the various pillars of the speech, particularly on Iraq's biological and chemical weapons programs, began to buckle," he writes. "The secretary of state was subsequently hung out to dry in front of the world, and our nation's credibility plummeted."

RESPONSE: Hey, I watched this Clinton appointment on ‘60 Minutes’ attempt to justify his role in the Iraq quagmire and found the man without any redeeming qualities. Cox and Richardson resigned in disgust from the Nixon administration and Tenent had to be pushed out as his ‘slam dunk’ assessment is right up there with ‘MISSION ACCOMPLISHED’ as emblematic of the all pervasive incompetence of the Bush administration and as a Clinton appointee he was scapegoatble.

His book expresses concern about “a surge of global terrorism against U.S. interests fueled by deepening Islamic antipathy toward the United States" relating to our actions and yet somehow this man defends the torturing of captured detainees as saving American lives. HUH?

Accepting the likelihood that plots were unearthed by American torture of those it defined as ‘enemy combatants’ ...the reality is that for every life so saved, thousands of Muslim terrorists were made through actions that have in the past been perceived as the behavior of less civilized people and never done in the name of America. We are not only a tarnished people in the view of the world...something that will take a generation to overcome...but we are way less safe in the making of more terrorists through these short sighted actions.

The principles that we are a people of law and that torture and other Bush actions that shred the US Constitution ...that set us apart on the high road ...are so badly soiled by the continuing support by decent Republicans of this scum bag Republican administration is hard to understand. It is Democrats who are calling for repeal of some of the un-American laws and policies that Bush ...like Hitler, using ‘fear’ as a tool to usurp power has wielded effectively against the principles of our Founding Fathers that for over two hundred years have proudly defined us as Americans.

WE ARE BORN BRAVE, TRUSTING AND GREEDY, AND MOST OF US REMAIN GREEDY

MULLICA CRIME REPORT – APRIL

With a more active police department we see not just more tickets written but a safer community. April saw 23 adult arrests and 3 juvenile arrests reported to the State under the reporting criteria of State law.

The 3 juvenile arrests were; 2 as runaways and 1 for theft (Note, there seem to be a kid or two who are constant runaways).

The 23 adult arrests were; 13 outstanding warrants, 2 Simple Assault, 1 Theft, 1 Weapons Possession, , 4 Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance (Drugs), 2 Distribution of a Controlled Dangerous Substance.

GREEDY EATERS DIG THEIR GRAVES WITH THEIR TEETH (French Proverb)

MULLICA CELL PHONE BILLING FOR MARCH

The latest billing for cell phone usage in Mullica was for March, $456.65. With all of Mullica elected offica DUMB but one having recognized the inherent abuse that was so prevalent in the past and turned in their taxpayer provided cell phones ... overcharges have markedly decreased. The only elected official with a record of making personal calls and charging them to Mullica taxpayers to fail to turn in her cell phone, of course, is the piggish cathy THE BAG LADY chasey who ran up in March 311 minutes of calls charged to the taxpayers of Mullica.

I'M NOT CONCERNED ABOUT ALL HELL BREAKING LOOSE, BUT THAT A PART OF HELL WILL BREAK LOOSE... IT'LL BE MUCH HARDER TO DETECT (George Carlin)

Subject: Bush the Lesser: Some poor soldier returning from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder may try to assassinate Bush. Let's see if Bush has the same inferior armor as our military. There isn't a helmet big enough to surround his severely inflated ego ....surely isn't much brain matter inside there. Signed...a former VA employee, and not proud of it. Another thought: Is our Dick Cheyney still alive? I have never seen such an invisible vice president never seen by the public. Is he in hiding with Bin Laden?

THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US; LATE AND SOON,
BETTING AND SPENDING, WE LAY WASTE OUR POWERS:
LITTLE WE SEE IN NATURE THAT IS OURS;
WE HAVE GIVEN OUR HEARTS AWAY, A SORDID BOON (William Wordsworth)

Subject: Ambulance Report: Larry, It seems to me that deciding to spend several hundreds of thousands of dollars in local property owners’ money for what can be described as pork should be an issue that the taxpayers would like to have discussed in a public hearing first. Signed, A Poor Mullica Taxpayer

RESPONSE: You think...DUH!!! ...but in Mullica with Republicans in control nothing gets honestly discussed...the decisions are made int he back room and the public is consistently discouraged from giving input until after the decision has been made and even then they are treated rudely or with the complicity of the partisan Town Clerk, kim THE QUISLING CHRISTIAN BIGOT johnson thwarted in attempts to get background information....but the voters will have an opportunity of sending not just Bush a message but also the local arrogant Republicans a message by voting against every Republican out there this November.

ALL MEN PROFESS HONESTY AS LONG AS THEY CAN. TO BELIEVE ALL MEN HONEST WOULD BE FOLLY. TO BELIEVE NONE SO IS SOMETHING WORSE (John Quincy Adams)

Subject: Interior offical quits ahead of hearing: Another Bush appointee, whose role was to further weaken the Federal government, resigns; Interior official quits ahead of hearing, By MATTHEW DALY, The Associated Press; An Interior Department official accused of pressuring government scientists to make their research fit her policy goals has resigned. Julie MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, submitted her resignation letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, a department spokesman said Tuesday. MacDonald resigned a week before a House congressional oversight committee was to hold a hearing on accusations that she violated the Endangered Species Act, censored science and mistreated staff of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. MacDonald was recently rebuked by the department's inspector general, who told Congress in a report last month that she broke federal rules and should face punishment for leaking information about endangered species to private groups. Interior Department spokesman Hugh Vickery confirmed MacDonald's resignation but declined to comment further. MacDonald, a civil engineer with no formal training in natural sciences, had served in her post since 2004. … Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said MacDonald had "betrayed the mission she swore to uphold," adding that her actions "undermined both the work and the integrity of the Fish and Wildlife Service and its many dedicated employees." Wyden placed a hold Monday on President Bush's nomination of Lyle Laverty to be assistant Interior secretary for fish, wildlife and parks until allegations against MacDonald were resolved. The inspector general's report said MacDonald tried to remove protections for a rare jumping mouse in the Rocky Mountains based on a questionable study, and reduced by 80 percent the amount of streams to be protected to help bull trout recover in the Pacific Northwest.

RESPONSE: Is there some where in this Republican administration an single honest person. We see the retired military officers coming forward now about the lies and mismanagement but where are the others...the Richardsons and Coxs from the Nixon days. Republican commentators have owned the reality that the war has been lost and mismanaged but what about the more mundane aspects of this administration's corruption...which seems to be the legacy of BUSH THE LESSER ... not a single honest administration official.

FINANCE IS THE ART OF PASSING MONEY FROM HAND TO HAND UNTIL IT FINALLY DISAPPEARS (Robert W. Sarnoff)

MULLICA BOND RATING FROM MOODY -- Baa1

Insights into the fiscal health and mangement, or lack there of, of Mullica Township after over a decade of Republican control raise some legitimate questions whether it is not way past time for change in Mullica. The Bond rating which is indicative of the judgement by the bond market of how will a community is being run in terms of its financial health seems to raise serious questions about the Republican leadership despite substantial tax increases over the long period of Republican dominance in the town and what are some of the highest property taxes and least services compared with other towns in Atlantic County.

Insight in to Moody’s rating shows that their assessment of the “Best Quality’ bonds at Aaa, next in their rating system are bonds they rate respectively at “Aa1, Aa2, and Aa3 as “High Quality” and then there ratings system goes down to ‘Upper Medium Grade with bond offerings at A1, A2 and A3.

The Baa1 rating of Mullica Municipal Bonds recently is just above what Moody’s describes as ‘speculative.’

"Aaa" - Bonds rated Aaa are judged to be of the best quality. They carry the smallest degree of investment risk. Interest payments are protected by a large or by an exceptionally stable margin and principal is secure. While the various protective elements are likely to change, such changes as can be visualized are most unlikely to impair the fundamentally strong position of such issues.

"Aa" - Bonds which are rated Aa are judged to be of high quality by all standards. Together with the Aaa group they comprise what are generally known as high grade bonds. They are rated lower than the best bonds because margins of protection may not be as large as in Aaa securities or fluctuation of protective elements may be of greater amplitude or there may be other elements present which make the long-term risks appear somewhat larger than in Aaa securities.

"A" - Bonds which are rated A possess many favorable investment attributes and are to be considered as upper medium grade obligations. Factors giving security to principal and interest are considered adequate, but elements may be present which suggest a susceptibility to impairment sometime in the future.

NO QUESTION IS SO DIFFICULT TO ANSWER AS THAT TO WHICH THE ANSWER IS OBVIOUS (George Bernard Shaw)

Subject: Ticket Locals! "I wish the governor well, but there is this perception that the laws are not always administered fairly. I just don't think that serves society well." Larry, I can't agree with you more. By that same token the Mullica Cops often let residents off with warnings for speeding. Then these guys go out to corridor roads and ticket out-of-towners because they are out-of-towners. All the while it often seems that my neighbors are the worst and go past my home at warp speed. Could this unwritten and well known policy of "let locals go," be to blame? The laws in this town are not being administered fairly and law abiding residents like me suffer for it.

MEN CAN ONLY BE HAPPY WHEN THEY DO NOT ASSUME THAT THE OBJECT OF LIFE IS HAPPINESS (George Orwell)

Subject: Average Speed: Enough already!!! Everyone drives fast on the parkway. The average speed on the Parkway is 85 miles an hour. Rule of Thumb, keep up or get run over. It was an accident. Move on!!!

RESPONSE: Well I don’t know that the average speed is 85, but it is certainly close...and going 85 mph on the Parkway ain’t that unusual. While it was an accident...and that is important...the rule of thumb is keep up or get over to the right.

Subject: No One Cares: Why should Corzine pay his own medical bills?? He is absolutley crazy!! If he has insurance use it. Don't Be A Hero!! No One Cares!!!

RESPONSE: The reality is that ...same set of circumstances and the average badly injured person not wearing a seat belt in the passenger seat would NOT have been ticketed. However, the politics of the situation is you tell the State Police to ticket you and when you are a very wealthy guy, you pay your own medical bills...and at bottom Jon Corzine is a politician now ... not the head of Goldman Sachs.

Shouldn’t make a difference but it does. Gee, if we only had a President who had the ability to read the temperament of the people and take in new information and reassess a previous position...Gonzales, tax breaks for the rich during a war, Iraq, torture, habeas corpus, wire tapping and reading mail without a warrant, rendition to foreign hidden prisons...and we could go on and on here.

VIRTUE IS ITS OWN REWARD. THERE'S A PLEASURE IN DOING GOOD WHICH SUFFICIENTLY PAYS ITSELF (Sir John Vanbrugh)

Subject: Corzine pays fine for no seat belt: By THOMAS BARLAS Staff Writer, The Press; Gov. Jon S. Corzine voluntarily paid a $46 fine Tuesday for violating state law by not wearing a seat belt in his near-fatal car accident on the Garden State Parkway in Atlantic Co-unty last month. Corzine spokesman Anthony Coley said Corzine met with State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes, state Attorney General Stuart Rabner, and two State Police investigators for a half-hour Tuesday at the governor's mansion in Princeton to discuss the April 12 accident. As the meeting ended, Co-ley said, Corzine asked Fuentes for a ticket. He said Fuentes wrote one and Corzine wrote a check for $46. A few hours earlier, Mullica Township resident Larry Angel appeared in Galloway Township Municipal Court, telling a judge he was dropping the complaint he filed earlier in an attempt to have Corzine charged for failing to wear his seat belt during the accident. Corzine left Cooper University Hospital in Camden on Monday, tearfully apologizing to the state for having set a “very poor example,” adding, “I certainly hope the state will forgive me.” “I was totally moved,” Angel said of Corzine's apology, adding, “They weren't crocodile tears.” Angel told Municipal Court Judge Christopher Brown that he also was dropping the complaint because Corzine was taking “ownership” for his mistake, something he said the governor's administration seemed to be ducking after the accident. Angel also apologized to the court for creating what he called a “circus” around Tuesday's court proceedings. That “circus” included news vans lined up outside the municipal building, and television cameras in the courtroom. Municipal court staff reserved one row of seats in the courtroom for the media, who sat through some video arraignments — including the arraignment of one man who told Brown to “have a nice day” after he set up an acceptable fine payment schedule — before Angel's case was heard. “I hope you enjoyed your 15 minutes,” Brown told Angel. “I'm glad it's over,” Angel replied. But it wasn't: News crews followed Angel outside of the municipal building to question him further about his decision to file the seat belt complaint. “I guess you're going to make it 17 minutes,” Angel said. Angel said he still believed he did the right thing by filing the complaint, as “word on the street” made it seem as through Corzine would escape the ticket that average folks probably would receive. Angel said he hasn't been contacted by the governor's office in connection with his complaint. When asked if Corzine should be cited for failing to wear a seat belt, Angel replied, “That's for some one else to decide.” Angel was asked by a reporter to describe himself. “A loudmouth?” another reporter asked. “I've been called that at times,” Angel replied. Corzine suffered 11 broken ribs and fractured his left femur during the accident. His SUV was traveling 91 miles per hour at the time, and its emergency lights were flashing. The crash occurred when a truck pulled out of the way of the governor's motorcade and then moved back into the right lane to avoid hitting a mile marker. That caused another vehicle to hit the governor's SUV, which went out of control and hit a guardrail. Tom Shea, Corzine's chief of staff, said after the accident that Corzine should be ticketed for failing to wear a seat belt. Coley said the $46 check will be sent by overnight mail to a municipal court in Galloway Township, Atlantic County, where the accident occurred. A special state police review board began investigating the accident on Monday. It will consider whether the accident was preventable and, if so, Corzine's driver may face either training or disciplinary actions.

Subject: The Waning of the GOP: 4/28/07, National Review, By William F. Buckley Jr.; The political problem of the Bush administration is grave, possibly beyond the point of rescue. The opinion polls are savagely decisive on the Iraq question. About 60 percent of Americans wish the war ended — wish at least a timetable for orderly withdrawal. What is going on in Congress is in the nature of accompaniment. The vote in Congress is simply another salient in the war against war in Iraq. Republican forces, with a couple of exceptions, held fast against the Democrats’ attempt to force Bush out of Iraq even if it required fiddling with the Constitution. President Bush will of course veto the bill, but its impact is critically important in the consolidation of public opinion. It can now accurately be said that the legislature, which writes the people’s laws, opposes the war. It is simply untrue that we are making decisive progress in Iraq…General Petraeus is a wonderfully commanding figure. But if the enemy is in the nature of a disease, he cannot win against it. Students of politics ask then the derivative question: How can the Republican party, headed by a president determined on a war he can’t see an end to, attract the support of a majority of the voters? …The general makes it a point to steer away from the political implications of the struggle, but this cannot be done in the wider arena. There are grounds for wondering whether the Republican party will survive this dilemma.

RESPONSE: This from Bill Buckley a Republican of some repute. The wry observation that BUSH THE LESSER only gets it right after he has exhausted every other option seems too close to the truth. But this one he has yet to get right. The new commander in Iraq and new Secretary of Defense are great improvements, but to just about anyone who is not a Republican whore the consensus seems ‘too little, too late.’ The situation in Iraq now is universally acknowledged to be a ‘civil war’ and there has been so much collateral damage in terms of innocents being killed and maimed that the average Iraqi blames America and believes that they were better off under Saddam...and they were!

The fact that so many elected Republicans are willing to be loyal to this discredited administration and accuse Democrats of a lack of patriotism and support for the troops is the height of fatuous arrogance that the American people simply see through. If such a long time Republican stalwart as Bill Buckley gets it ...one has to wonder why so many Republicans in Congress are foolishly supporting Bush and sentencing more of our bravest to die for nothing. Do they really believe that the rhetoric that the loss of this war can be blamed on Democrats after the Republican record of failure to listen to the advise of the military from the beginning of the Iraq invasion by this Republican administration and the on going failure to support the troops as they come home as exemplified by Walter Reed and cuts to Veterans programs combined with an agenda of more tax breaks for war profiteers contributors to the GOP. HUH!


Subject: We have a really sick puppy running this country: This person just about says it right. I listened to him tonight. He cannot speak without a script and he cannot follow the script unless he reads one...sentence...at...a...time. He seems uninvolved, distracted, disconnected. He now blames the anti war folks for the surge of Al Quida in Iraq. He takes no responsibility at all. He talks about politicians running the war from 6,000 miles away but exempts himself from that group. He was an idiot who has become a maniac. He does not have the brain power to keep a thought in his head long enough not to be prompted. He has no empathy, no conscience, no humanity. He will never negotiate because he has not the intelligence that it takes to negotiate. He may be a puppet, he may be a drunk, but I know he is a politician without a shred of decency. He is a very dangerous man right now. We will survive him if we are smart about 2008 but it will take until after I am dead and gone to make things right again, if we ever can. Very sad night tonight for us and this country and this world. Very sad.


Subject: While Bush is searching for a “War Czar”, the people lose confidence in the president: Four years and more than 3,300 US combat deaths later, … (n)early) 3 in 4 Americans disapprove of the president's conduct of the war, according to a poll released last week by CBS/New York Times. Asked who should have the final say about troop levels in Iraq, 57 percent say it should be Congress; only 35 percent say it should be the president, according to the same poll.

RESPONSE: Who are these one four ...who continue to support this President and his lackey followers? HUH?

I WAS GOING TO BUY A COPY OF THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING, AND THEN I THOUGHT: WHAT THE HELL GOOD WOULD THAT DO (Ronnie Shakes)

MULLICA RELEASES SECRET AMBULANCE REPORT

The hidden from public ambulance service evaluation secret report that sought to assess the options for Mullica in terms of providing ambulance service that was completed in August of 2006, was released to the public at the last Town meeting in April. That report recommended that the best course of action for providing reliable ambulance service to the citizens of Mullica would be to contract with the paid Hammonton Rescue Squad for that service at around $50,000 per year.

That report focused purely on the financial aspects and ignored the issue of time response that GadFly has spoken to many times here. The present Mullica Rescue Squad has found it difficult to recruit new members and at times despite the dedicated effort of a small crew of volunteers is unable to respond to calls during half of the day ... and Mullica is paying the Hammonton Squad to cover for ambulance service during the day time hours. The difficulty of fielding a crew during the hours when Mullica's squad is responsible puts lives at risk and as noted a volunteer squad is required by law to have one EMT while when a squad is paid the State laws require that two EMTs be on each ambulance.

Recently released closed session back room executive session minutes (not taped under corrupt Republican changes in the procedure) show that the sole Democrat, bill THE GARRULOUS kennedy on Committee, repeatedly called for the report prepared by an ad hoc committee of two Republicans and one Democrat (Kennedy) be released to the public and he was stone walled by the other Republican members of Mullica offica DUMB as the evaluation remained hidden from pubic view.

GadFly, got a hold of a copy of the secret ambulance report and over a period of time has posted it here for the public to read. Thus it was that at the last Town meeting in April THE CORRUPT MULLICA 5 AKA IDIOTS R US decided to release the document to the public and also to continue its support for the extant volunteer ambulance squad which has trouble meeting the needs of the community. The spin given this decision was that paying $15,000 more per year for less reliable Mullica squad was a good deal. HUH? In fairness, Committee person Janet Forman did note that going with Hammonton would require residents to fork out around $75 per year in dues per household as that is the formulation in Hammonton.

The only member of the ad hoc committee that prepared the hidden report in attendance at this meeting was the inarticulate Kennedy as both Republicans, Dan Turygan and Mullica’s Chief Financial Officer, Dawn Stollenwerk were absent...but as is the norm under Republican control of Mullica ... the decision had already been made in the back room and Kennedy seemed simply beat down by the inevitable.

The head of the Mullica ambulance squad, Republican sycophant Gary Franklyn, obviously aware that the decision had been made in the back room in his favor only spoke at the end of the Town meeting to indicate that he hoped that the issue would not be part of this year’s political campaign ... and that he could not vote for anyone who opposed spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in hard earned Mullica taxpayer’s dollar for the continuation of the extant ambulance paradigm that would soon require the purchase of new ambulances and the desire of the few members of the extant squad to have their own home paid for by Mullica taxpayers. HUH?

PERHAPS THE ONLY TRUE DIGNITY OF MAN IS HIS CAPACITY TO DESPISE HIMSELF (George Santayana)

Subject: Thinking (?) Style: Larry, Bush will not accept the inevitability of stem cell research. I think Bush's position is better explained by this president's thinking style: He lives by a strong belief system in which no set of facts can alter his position. This is also true for his views on global warming, the situation in Iraq and the performance of his attorney general. How could any president conclude that Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales' testimony "increased my confidence in his ability to do the job" unless he were in a state of denial. Bush's propensity to deny reality pervades his whole record. Most of President Bush's "dead-ender" policies will become increasingly hard to sustain, but here's a suggestion for rallying support for his stand against embryonic stem cell research. The president, his extended family and like-minded political leaders (and their families) should gather at the White House to affirm their beliefs. With cameras rolling, they can all sign a proclamation stating that they will never, under any circumstances, accept any form of medical treatment for themselves or their children derived from embryonic stem cell research. Example has always been an effective component of leadership. Roger B

RESPONSE: Well, we all saw last night with the second veto, the Bush arrogant 'smirk' and inability to admit any kind of mistake as with Republican support, more of our bravest will be killed and maimed for this poorly planned and diasterous invasion of Iraq. To talk about not supporting the troops which has been the hallmark of this Republican administration actions in Iraq seems to stretch credulity to its breaking point and as you note just be another example of how this draft dodging Republican is incapable of reassessing a situation with new information. The Iraq War Study group which recommended pulling out and doing exactly what the Democrats are calling for was bi-partisan...one can only hope that this November the public will see the emperor has no clothes on and defeat every Republican candidate out there as a message of disgust.

THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN INCREASING IT'S SPEED (Mahatma Ghandi)

Subject: Seat Belt what about speeding: Larry thanks for calling attention to the seatbelt issue. I believe that ther real issue is speeding, and speeding to get to the Imus apology fest so his face could get press. The passenger is vicariously liable for the acts of the employee driver. Speeding risks the lives of others no seatbelts are a risk if they cant pay medical bills. The finger pointing at the red pickup, the state trooper were discusting and typical of the Gov's business career. He approaches the job of Gov as a vanity title for an entitled psudo-populist plutocrat. ex jersey resident without standing. Ernie Theurer

RESPONSE: Clearly speeding played a role in this situation, however, it apparently was the norm, not just for the NJ gov. but for other govs. One hopes that the priorities of politicians rushing to meetings that are clearly not an emergency will be addressed with new guide lines. Citing the State Trooper as some have called for seems unfair as this was normal acceptable behavior in the past...hopefully no longer.

I BELIEVE THAT EVERY RIGHT IMPLIES A RESPONSIBILITY; EVERY OPPORTUNITY, AND OBLIGATION; EVERY POSSESSION, A DUTY (John D. Rockefeller Jr)

Subject: corzine: Forget the $46 ticket. I am sure the governor is trying to cut medicaid, while having the residents of New Jersey pay millions of dollars for his health care costs, all the result of his joyriding escapade. Have the governor pay for the cost of his accident. Council Mattoon, 382 Mishnock Rd West Greenwich, RI 02817

RESPONSE: Respectfully, my understanding is that Corzine has indicated he will pay for his medical care. I have also been informed by the Philadelphia Inquirer that he has ordered the head of the New Jersey State Police to issue a seat belt ticket to Jon Corzine.

SINCE WHEN IS PUBLIC SAFETY THE ROOT PASSWORD TO THE CONSTITUTION (C. D. Tavares)

Subject: NEW DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY WORKS TO REINSTATE THE CONSTITUTION: Senators vow to restore rights to detainees; By Susan Cornwell, (Reuters) - Influential U.S. senators vowed on Thursday to restore to foreign terrorism suspects the right to challenge their imprisonment, saying Congress made an historic blunder by stripping them of that right last year. Hundreds of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members held at a U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be affected. The United States has drawn international criticism over its continued detention of terrorism suspects in Guantanamo, with human rights groups demanding the prison be closed and detainees charged with crimes or released. Last year's Congress, with a Republican majority, passed a law setting specific rules for U.S. military tribunals. It included a ban on non-citizens labeled "enemy combatants" from using "habeas corpus" petitions to challenge the legality of their detention in court, asserting that military panels at Guantanamo were a substitute for court review. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy warned that the rights of some 12 million legal aliens in the United States -- as well as any foreigners visiting the country -- had also been infringed by the new law. "This new law means that any of these people can be detained forever ... without any ability to challenge their detention in federal court, or anywhere else, simply on the government's say-so that they are awaiting determination as to whether they are enemy combatants," the Vermont Democrat said. "This is wrong. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American," Leahy said in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, which would share jurisdiction on changing the law. Leahy, along with Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, has introduced legislation to restore habeas corpus right to detainees. With the help of Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, "I hope we can fix this serious and corrosive problem by this summer," Leahy said. The writ of habeas corpus -- the phrase in Latin for "you have the body" -- has been a centerpiece of Anglo-American jurisprudence since it was first developed over 300 years ago in Britain. It gives defendants the right to have their imprisonment reviewed by a court. (C)ivil liberties groups criticized an administration proposal to restrict the number of meetings between Guantanamo prisoners and their lawyers and to limit the attorneys' access to some classified evidence in their cases. "Creating a legal black hole where rights are denied is as un-American as it is illegal," said Anthony Romero, of the American Civil Liberties Union. A U.S. appeals court has scheduled a hearing on May 15 to consider the administration's proposed restrictions.

RESPONSE: Our Founding Fathers properly called them unalienable rights and codified them in our Constitution as basic human rights that the Creator bequeaths to all humans. Of course, today's Republicans have shredded those principles like Hitler using fear to scapegoat and stigmatize people by defining them as 'enemy combatants' and thus holding them in hidden prisons or the infamous Guantanamo outside the United States where they can be deprived of the basic rights that our Founding Fathers claimed were universal human rights.

Even some Republicans get this...as the above notes, Republican Arlen Specter shows he gets it...but when the recent vote came his loyalty was to tribe and not the U.S. Constitution. Now hopefully he has reconsidered and will join with Democrats to restore America's pride and heritage...the U. S. Constitution. Bush and the present day Republican Party have brought much shame on America and the rest of the world sees our betrayal of our heritage by the present Fascist manipulation of 'fear' by today's Republican Party.

THE BIBLE CONTAINS SIX ADMONISHMENTS TO HOMOSEXUALS AND 362 ADMONISHMENTS TO HETEROSEXUALS. THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT GOD DOESN'T LOVE HETEROSEXUALS. IT'S JUST THAT THEY NEED MORE SUPERVISION (Lynn Lavner)

Subject: Rumor...Mullica’s 1st “Civil Union” Registration papers completed! Larry, Rumor ... Mullica's 1st "Civil Union" Registration papers completed! Michael & Mike owners of "Country Cottage" are going to have a Civil Ceremony on Friday, May 4th, 2007. No one in Mullica would perform the 5 minute ceremony. It will be held in Atlantic City Court House 9:30 am, 1201 Bacharach Ave. Atlantic City. (2nd Floor Room 2-F) Family and friends have been invited. Performed by Honorary Superior Court, Judge Nelson C. Johnson. How do you feel about this topic? Are gays moving to Mullica be an asset? No kids in schools. Better homes. (fixed up anyway) Of course impeccably landscaped decorated! Do you mind Fairy's in the Forrest? They could probably add some curb appeal to you home! Free consultation of course! Gay Pride or any Pride always Helps any Community. Could "No Hope" become New Hope? Please Respond, Thanks, Michael

RESPONSE: My sincerest best wishes for a happy life together to you both. I am saddened if not surprised that Mullica’s Republican Mayor, cathy THE BAG LADY chasey has apparently embraced the bigotry and prejudice that is a hallmark of today’s Republican Party. THE BAG LADY chasey is no longer doing weddings in accordance with the State Attorney General’s interpretation that as a public servant,... if one performs marriages one must perform ‘Civil Unions.'

You gentlemen are both an asset to our community and I urge supporters to visit 'Country Cottage' on the Pike in Elwood to show their support and buy a Mother's Day gift. Diversity and tolerance is an asset in any community and sadly it comes as no surprise that the small minded trash element in our community is a constituency in Mullica that THE BAG LADY chasey assiduously courts and whose ugly bigotry she shares. We all are the losers here and the reputation of our community is besmirched by the callow leadership again demonstrated by Mullica Republicans. Our community should be ashamed and I suspect many our by this kind of ugly bigotry. Hopefully it will NOT tarnish this happy day for you both.

POLITICS IS NOT THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE. IT CONSISTS OF CHOOSING BETWEEN THE DISASTROUS AND THE UNPALATABLE (J. K. Galbraith)

Subject: America’s Dark Ages: From polls that imply that a competing candidate has an illegitimate black child to the outing of an active CIA agent in order to discredit a critic, White House political advisor Karl Rove has fought dirtier than just about anyone in modern American politics. And won. As Americans grow increasingly disenchanted with the Bush administration's failures, Rove and his cynical tactics have been pushed into the spotlight. Given the sheer number of scandals involving so many different abuses of power, a comprehensive review of how this White House does business will serve as an important document in one of the darkest periods in the history of American presidential politics. Not only does President Bush continue to prove that he lives in a parallel universe not at all related to reality, his comments about Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales demonstrate that his low bar of expectations is not even off the ground. John

IN THE CONDITIONS OF MODERN LIFE THE RULE IS ABSOLUTE; THE RACE WHICH DOES NOT VALUE TRAINED INTELLIGENCE IS DOOMED (Alfred North Whitehead)

Subject: school enrollment: Larry, The local public school enrollment has shrunk substantially by 50 students this year. A real eye opener evidencing a large number of disgusted parents withdrawing their children to educate them privately. A Mullica taxpayer

HAVE REGARD FOR YOUR NAME, SINCE IT WILL REMAIN FOR YOU LONGER THAN A GREAT STORE OF GOLD (Ecclesiasticus)

Subject: LIVE FROM MULLICA..... DEAR MR ANONYMOUS, POT...KETTLE ...BLACK ???!!! SIGN YOUR NAME WHY DONT YA!

IT'S NICE TO SEE A DEMOCRAT BLOW SOMETHING BESIDES AN ELECTION (Arsenio Hall, after Clinton's saxophone debut on his show)

Subject: Being Democrat Doesn’t Always Mean Doing The Right Thing: A mistaken belief of “I’m getting mine, screw the rest of you” or a case of “Money talks” or “I may not be a Republican but I’m just as dumb” The Plot Against Medicare, Paul Krugman (Economist) The plot against Social Security failed: President Bush’s attempt to privatize the system crashed and burned when the public realized what he was up to. But the plot against Medicare is faring better: the stealth privatization embedded in the Medicare Modernization Act, which Congress literally passed in the dead of night back in 2003, is proceeding apace. Worse yet, the forces behind privatization not only continue to have the G.O.P. in their pocket, but they have also been finding useful idiots within the newly powerful Democratic coalition. And it’s not just politicians with an eye on campaign contributions. There’s no nice way to say it: the NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens have become patsies for the insurance industry. … To appreciate what’s going on, you need to know what has been happening to Medicare in the last few years. The 2003 Medicare legislation created Part D, the drug benefit for seniors … At the same time, the bill sharply increased payments to Medicare Advantage plans, which also funnel Medicare funds through insurance companies. As a result, Medicare … is becoming, instead, a system in which the government pays the insurance industry to provide coverage. And a lot of the money never makes it to the people Medicare is supposed to help.… Reasonable estimates suggest that if Congress had eliminated the middlemen, it could have created a much better drug plan — one without the notorious “doughnut hole,” the gap in coverage once your annual expenses exceed $2,400 per year — at no higher cost. With the Democratic victory last fall, you might have expected these things to change. But the political news over the last few days has been grim. First, the Senate failed to end debate on a bill — in effect, killing it — that would have allowed Medicare to negotiate over drug prices. … 42 senators, all Republicans, voted no on allowing the bill to go forward. At the same time, attempts to rein in those Medicare Advantage payments seem to be running aground. …(B)oth the NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens sending letters to Congressional leaders opposing plans to scale back the subsidy. What seems to have happened is that both groups have been taken in by insurance industry disinformation…Public opinion is strongly in favor of universal health care, and for good reason: fear of losing health insurance has become a constant anxiety of the middle class. Yet even as we talk about guaranteeing insurance to all, privatization is undermining Medicare — and people who should know better are aiding and abetting the process.

RESPONSE: Single payer government run health care...call it socialized medicine would indeed remove the middle man, the insurance companies, who are profit driven and as a result make medical decisions too often based not on medical information but on their bottom line as they reject this or that medical treatment that doctors recommend. The scam Republican plan of Republicans in Massachusetts and California to force their residents to buy health care insurance is the latest salvo in the Republican markets solve all problems scam.

The Medicare ‘D’ scam that Bush Republicans passed when his sycophants controlled Congress which forbid any kind of bargaining for lower drug prices because of the purchase of large quantities of drugs (isn’t that what a ‘market’ does) is but the latest indication of the sell out of the American public to large corporate interests in return for campaign contributions. We saw when Democrats took over Congress the attempt to allow government to bargain for lower drug prices killed by Republicans in Congress...and of course our own Bush lackey frank THE HYPOCRITE lobiondo voted against lower prices via market force bargaining. HUH?

The irony of course is that Democratic constituencies who have union provided health coverage are content with the present system as they are fine and so we see in effect teachers, cops, government workers, and casino workers ... saying to their fellow citizens...’I got mine and don’t care about you.’ Of course, many of these selfish folks vote Republican.

RESPECT YOUR EFFORTS, RESPECT YOURSELF. SELF-RESPECT LEADS TO SELF-DISCIPLINE. WHEN YOU HAVE BOTH FIRMLY UNDER YOUR BELT, THAT'S REAL POWER (Clint Eastwood)

Subject: Corzine speaks; man files seat-belt complaint: By TOM BALDWIN, GANNETT STATE BUREAU, Gov. Jon S. Corzine Thursday uttered his first public words since suffering critical injuries in a car wreck two weeks earlier, saying, "I'm the most blessed person who ever lived." Corzine spoke to an Associated Press photographer as he sat in a chair next to his hospital bed in Camden, on the same day that word emerged of an Atlantic County man who had signed a complaint against Corzine for not wearing a seat belt when he got into the imperiling wreck. That man, Larry Angel, said he had twice voted for Corzine and would likely do so again. "I'm a fan," said Angel of Mullica. "I'm a Democrat. I'm probably to the left of the party. I voted for Jon as a senator. I voted for him as governor. I would probably vote for him again. "It seems unequivocal that he was acting in an irresponsible manner, like we all do at times," said Angel. "I wish the governor well, but there is this perception that the laws are not always administered fairly. I just don't think that serves society well." Corzine is now entering his third week at Cooper University Hospital in Camden. He's in stable condition; doctors Thursday removed a tube from the left side of his chest that had been used to drain fluid from around his lung. Corzine spokesman Anthony Coley said the governor had several hours of physical therapy Thursday and sat upright comfortably in a chair. Angel, 65, said he tried to file the complaint Tuesday but was rebuffed by police. When he returned Wednesday, "They were extremely courteous." "On Tuesday, he'll review the complaint," Galloway Township Court Administrator Roseanne Lugg said of the municipality's judge. Angel said he hopes Corzine, who is recovering from critical injuries to his legs and ribs, will make a public-service announcement about the wisdom of wearing seat belts. "I would hope he would say something," said Angel, who described himself as a "local gadfly" who is "quasiretired" from odd jobs. Corzine could face a $46 fine. State law says drivers and front-seat passengers must be belted. Corzine had been unbelted in the front-passenger seat of a trooper-driven Chevrolet Suburban driving 91 mph April 12 when it got in a chain-reaction crash and plowed though a Garden State Parkway guardrail in Galloway Township. By Thursday, no police citation had been issued to Corzine, though that can transpire up to 30 days after the incident. People who are seriously injured in crashes often are not ticketed for failing to wear a seat belt. Tom Shea, Corzine's chief of staff, has said he believed Corzine should be cited.

Subject: Corzine target of seat belt lawsuit (From The Press regional week in review) A Municipal court judge will review a complaint that a citizen filed against Gov. Jon S. Corzine for not wearing a seat belt when he was injured in an April 12 crash on the Garden State Parkway, the court administrator said Thursday. Larry Angel, of Mullica Township, long known for attending public meetings and being a gadfly to local officials, filed the complaint against the governor earlier this week in municipal court. The crash occurred on a section of the parkway in Galloway Township. Judge Christopher Brown will review the complaint before a court session Tuesday morning, court administrator Roseann Lugg said. If he can’t find probable cause to issue the ticket to the governor based on Angel’s complaint, a public hearing will be scheduled.

RESPONSE: Tuesday, May 1st the Probable Cause Hearing in Galloway Municipal Court will occur with larry THE PEDANTIC MISANTHROPIC S.O.B. angel ordered to be in Court.

THERE IS ALWAYS A RIGHT AND A WRONG WAY, AND THE WRONG WAY ALWAYS SEEMS THE MORE REASONABLE (George Moore)

Subject: And the Beat of Corruption Continues: It doesn't matter what rock at the White House we turn over. There's nasty stuff under them all. And now just as the subpoenas of accountability are finally starting to fly, they tell us that millions of White House emails, required to be preserved and archived by federal law, have up and disappeared. Or so they now claim. And isn't this yet ANOTHER admission of administration law breaking. Was it not enough that they lied us into a war that has killed more of our citizens than 9/11 and as many as a million in foreign countries? Was it not enough to conduct illegal wiretapping of our personal communications, while simultaneously swearing they were doing no such thing? Was jeopardizing our national security by outing a key figure in tracking down the REAL weapons of mass destruction, was that not enough? Was an official government policy of torture, to our shame around the world, not enough? It's just one high crime after another, and either the president is totally not in charge of anything, in which case he should be impeached for that dereliction alone, or all this pipes right through Karl Rove into the Oval office. And whether Cheney is in charge of everything or just half the treason, he's got to go too. Rosie O'Donnell was speaking for a lot of people when she exclaimed recently, "What do you have to do to get impeached in this country?" But what will make it really happen is when each one of us speaks for ourselves, and we contact our members of Congress to finally demand Constitutional responsibility, and keep doing it again and again. We don't believe for one second that the Bush administration hasn't now on top of everything else totally corrupted our federal justice system by requiring selective and wrongful prosecutions of members of the other party as a CONDITION for continued employment as an attorney general. The corruption goes completely to the core of everything our country is supposed to stand for. The last time we checked the Pledge of Allegiance ended with the words "justice for all". You got that, George? ALL! And that means you don't just prosecute non-Bushies and let yourself and your cronies off the hook. But of course he doesn't get it. He's never going to get it. Instead Bush is going even deeper into tantrum and denial mode, demanding even more and more power to grossly abuse, without any accountability whatsoever, as if the results of the last election had not even taken place. They think they're just going to plow ahead with new proposed laws to expand domestic surveillance even further, as if all those rubber stamping Senators voted out in November were still around. He's not going to stop on his own folks. He's incorrigible. And the only force that can stop him is the pressure of public opinion, coming from our individual voices to our members of Congress, to call on them to honor the Constitution and do what should have been done years ago already. We can't wait until 2008 to be rid of them. Impeach the president and vice president now.

THE JUVENILE SEA SQUIRT WANDERS THROUGH THE SEA SEARCHING FOR A SUITABLE ROCK OR HUNK OF CORAL TO CLING TO AND MAKE ITS HOME FOR LIFE. FOR THIS TASK, IT HAS A RUDIMENTARY NERVOUS SYSTEM. WHEN IT FINDS ITS SPOT AND TAKES ROOT, IT DOESN'T NEED ITS BRAIN ANYMORE SO IT EATS IT! (IT'S RATHER LIKE GETTING TENURE) (Daniel Dennett)

MULLICA CLERK GETS TENURE

At the March 27th Mullica Town meeting, before a packed room of supporters, family, and well wishers, Mullica’s highly partisan Clerk, kim THE QUIZZLING CHRISTIAN BIGOT johnson was reappointed for her second term as Town Clerk thus providing her with tenure. The unctuous accolades by Republicans for a woman who has repeatedly demonstrated her contempt for the law and willingness to pander to parochial interests in violation of her oath of office bodes poorly for the future of Mullica Township.

THE CHRISTIAN BIGOT johnson, who earned that sobriquet for what initially was clearly an honest misjudgement of indicating that Town Hall would be closed for Veterans Day with a drawing of a cemetery cross marker. When informed that this was inappropriate as Veterans’ Cemeteries contained over 30 different markers for brave veterans of other faiths, THE CHRISTIAN BIGOT johnson indicated she saw nothing wrong with the poster. A formal Complaint resulted in subsequent Town notification of how improper the Veterans Day sign was and a commitment from the Town to comply with honoring all veterans in the future.

THE CHRISTIAN BIGOT johnson was also sanctioned recently for her arrogant and repeated violations of the Open Public Records Act and while she argued to the State that she was just too busy to do her job and provide the public in a timely manner with executive minutes as required by the OPRA law, her lame palliative which was in reality a ploy to hide from the public records that Mullica Republicans did not want released, and thus THE BIGOT johnson was sanctioned by the State.

Sadly, that partisan lack of professionalism continues to this day with a recent request for ‘all documents’ on the Waszen settlement being repeatedly rejected as lacking specificity. According to the State, requests for ‘all documents’ allow for rejection of said OPRA request. The State went on to inform GadFly that a town Clerk knows what documents on a matter they may have and as an employee of the people has an obligation to assist the pubic in filling out these request with the type of specificity that allows for public records to reach the public. In Mullica, THE QUIZZLING CHRISTIAN BIGOT johnson has repeatedly demonstrated her immaturity and partisanship...she sadly perceives herself as working for the Mullica Republican Party and not the people.

Oh, and THE QUIZZLING reference was another example of a coverup of knowledge of and apparent participation in the doctoring of a time card for a loyal Republican employee.

{FEMINISM IS} A SOCIALIST, ANTI-FAMILY, POLITICAL MOVEMENT THAT ENCOURAGES WOMEN TO LEAVE THEIR HUSBANDS, KILL THEIR CHILDREN, PRACTICE WITCHCRAFT, DESTROY CAPITALISM AND BECOME LESBIANS (Pat Robertson)

Subject: Wiccan Victory: Hey Larry I hope you caught the recent decision by Department of Veterans Affairs that adds the Wiccan five-pointed star to the list of ‘emblems of belief’ allowed at Veterans Cemeteries. You might want to point this out to our Clerk, Kim Johnson who you have repeatedly defined here as a bigot because of her efforts a couple years ago during Veterans’ Day to have our town only honor Christians who have fought for our country and ignore those of us who are of different religions recognition as veterans. I guess she and THE MULLAH bob hageaman are Mullica’s Christian Taliban. Mullica Wiccan

I'M NEVER GOING TO BE FAMOUS. MY NAME WILL NEVER BE WRIT LARGE ON THE ROSTER OF THOSE WHO DO THINGS. I DON'T DO ANY TING. NOT ONE SINGLE THING. I USED TO BITE MY NAILS, BUT I DON'T EVEN DO THAT ANY MORE (Dorothy Parker)

Subject: LIVE FROM MULLICA IT'S JANET: WHY DOESN'T JANET JUST SIGN HER NAME WHEN SHE WRITES IN. WHAT IS SHE AFFRAID OF???

TO BE A SAINT IS THE EXCEPTION; TO BE UPRIGHT IS THE RULE. ERR, FALTER, SIN, BUT BE UPRIGHT. TO COMMIT THE LEAST POSSIBLE SIN IS THE LAW FOR MAN. SIN IS A GRAVITATION (Victor Hugo)

MORE ON THE CORZINE SEAT BELT COMPLAINT

While the initial perception was that the Galloway Municipal Court Judge would decide before Court on Tuesday, May 1st whether there was probable cause to issue the seat belt ticket to Governor Corzine, ...the Complaint signed by larry THE MISANTHROPIC PEDANTIC S.O.B. angel ...a letter from the Galloway Court Administrator directs THE S.O.B. angel to be in Court on May 1st for the Probable Cause Hearing.

The following back ground on this seat belt incident from the MSNBC web site; Corzine was riding in the front passenger seat without a seat belt when his SUV, driven by a state trooper at 91 mph, crashed near Atlantic City. The governor has not been cited over the seat belt by police, who have 30 days to act. No decision has been made on Corzine’s case, state police Lt. Gerald Lewis said Thursday. The citizen complaint was filed Wednesday by Larry Angel of neighboring Mullica, Lugg said. Angel, 65, did not respond to a phone message or an e-mail seeking comment. Angel, regularly attends public meetings and comments on elected county officials. He ran unsuccessfully for a municipal office as a Democrat in 2003 and hosts a blog called “Gadfly,” where he referred to the Corzine complaint in a Thursday posting. Tom Shea, Corzine’s chief of staff, has said the governor should be ticketed if he wasn’t buckled up. Corzine spokesman Anthony Coley referred a reporter to those comments Thursday when asked about Angel’s complaint.

(This is from The Denver Post) Spotlight on official drivers of governors – Speeding because the boss is late isn't allowed, a national survey of state travel policies shows. By Angela Delli Santi, The Associated Press, According to an Associated Press survey of travel policies nationwide, governors' drivers - who are state law enforcement officers - are expected to obey traffic and safety laws and not to speed or use warning lights just because their bosses are running late or want to get somewhere quicker. Still, these drivers typically are allowed to speed and use flashers in emergencies, and in some states they are allowed to speed to avoid potential security risks that may come with standing idle in traffic. The survey of gubernatorial travel in all 50 states found: All other governors say they use seat belts, even New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, whose state is the only one without a law mandating seat- belt use. Governors typically sit in the front seat if they're riding alone but in back if aides are traveling with them. Governors may use a plane, helicopter, state car or SUV, depending on their schedule, the weather and the distance they're traveling. Officials in several states reported having no written policy on gubernatorial transport.