The Marathon Must Go On, The People Be Damned

While millions of New Yorkers are still without electricity and cleaning up from the devastating impact of Hurricane Sandy, New York's pompous, billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg insists the City's famed marathon must go on. The optics shown by this New York Post story couldn't be worse.

As hundreds of thousands of Big Apple residents suffer in homes left without power by Hurricane Sandy, two massive generators are being run 24/7 in Central Park — to juice a media tent for Sunday’s New York City Marathon.

And a third “backup” unit sits idle, in case one of the generators fails.

The three diesel-powered generators crank out 800 kilowatts — enough to power 400 homes in ravaged areas like Staten Island, the Rockaways and downtown Manhattan.

Since emergency executive orders have been issued, the governor, mayor — or even President Obama — could take the generators for a more important use, explained Pace University law professor Bennett Gershman . . .

"We’re struggling here, and we want the city to know that,” Councilwoman Margaret Chin of Chinatown said yesterday.

She asked the Office of Emergency Management on Tuesday for a generator to run pumps to get water to stranded seniors.

“They’re telling me there are other priorities,” Chin said . . .

Meanwhile, sources told The Post precious city resources were also being diverted to prepare for the marathon, including more than a dozen NYPD flatbed trucks taken from disaster-relief work at sites including Breezy Point, Queens, where more than 100 homes burned to the ground . . .

Bloomberg defended the decision to keep the race on track.

“The marathon is not going to redirect any focus. Keep in mind, by Sunday, we’ll have electricity back downtown,” he predicted.

“That will free up an enormous number of police.” . . .

Plans call for up to 100 cops from all around the city to deploy the barricades today.

“You know what this is about? This is all so Bloomberg can stand at the finish line Sunday and tell the world we bounced back,” the source said . . .

“How can you run a marathon when you have people starving in Manhattan?” he asked.

Other sources said NYPD and Department of Transportation personnel who had been providing relief on Staten Island were told to drop what they were doing and report to Brooklyn today to get ready for the marathon.

Official race preparations yesterday included closing all lanes on the Staten Island-bound upper level of the Verrazano Bridge for more than an hour of work.

Staten Islander Joseph Masella, 62, called running the marathon “the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Have some respect for our citizens . . . They’re still finding bodies here,” he fumed.

Staten Island Councilman James Oddo said, “The notion of taking one cop, one first responder, one resource, one asset and diverting it so that they stand at a post to watch runners go by when we’re still searching for bodies? It’s sinful to me!’’

Brooklyn Councilman Vincent Gentile said, “With some neighborhoods still smoldering, I think postponing the marathon would be a better option.”

Frankly, I don't understand how any self-respecting athlete could run in the New York Marathon knowing how many millions throughout the city are suffering through the worst storm to hit in more than a hundred years.  It looks like Mayor Bloomberg's heart is as cold as President Obama's was when our officials at the consulate in Benghazi, Libya were on the phone begging his administration for help in their final hours on this earth. I suppose for the elitists who know they will have the comfort of living in the underground, well-stocked and secured facilities our government has diverted trillions of dollars to construct over the last couple of decades when the end comes for the rest of us very soon this is just par for the course.

Check out this story on people resorting to dumpster diving to find food. Unbelievable.

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

UPDATE: Bloomy caved under pressure and called off the running of the marathon this weekend.

Will Hoosiers Cancel Out Their Vote?

Four years ago, Hoosiers narrowly voted to send Barack Obama to the White House despite overwhelming evidence that the man represented the opposite of everything Hoosiers hold sacred. Hoosiers learned their lesson and Obama is not even contesting Indiana this year, conceding it to Republican Mitt Romney months ago. If a Howey Politics/DePauw poll is to be believed, Hoosiers are going to reject Richard Mourdock for the U.S. Senate and, instead, send a tax and spend liberal congressman who has backed the Obama big government agenda the past four years. The poll claims Mourdock's support collapsed following a comment Mourdock made during the candidates' last debate in which he said that a pregnancy resulting from rape was something "God intended." It shows Joe Donnelly leading Mourdock by 11%, 47-36%, with Libertarian Andy Horning receiving the support of 6%. Never mind that Donnelly's position on abortion is essentially the same as Mourdock's and that he co-sponsored legislation that would deny abortions in cases of rape and incest.

If the poll is accurate, Donnelly will defeat Mourdock next Tuesday simply because of those few words spoken by Mourdock. This same poll shows Mike Pence leading John Gregg in the race for governor by only 7%, 47-40%, with 5% support for Libertarian Rupert Boneham, and it shows Tony Bennett with a small, 40-36% lead over his unknown Democratic opponent, Glenda Ritz. Giving one pause to the accuracy of this poll is the result in the presidential race compared to the governor's, where it shows Romney leading Obama by 10%, 51-41%. I don't see Romney carrying the state by a bigger margin than Pence, but I could be wrong. I can see where the third-party candidacy of Rupert Boneham could hold down Pence's winning percentage, but not his winning margin because Boneham will take at least as many votes from Gregg as he takes from Pence.

It would be truly unfortunate if Indiana voters would help elect Mitt Romney but vote to continue with a Democratic-controlled Senate, which under the leadership of Dirty Harry Reid will obstruct and block every major initiative Romney presents to the Congress. Make no mistake about it. Joe Donnelly is not a moderate. He is a committed liberal who will vote in lockstep with Democrats in the Senate just like he's done all these years as a member of the House of Representatives. His actions as a liberal member of Congress speak far more loudly than his words. If you want your vote to count, you have to elect a Republican senator to help Mitt Romney pass his legislative programs. Otherwise, you may as well just vote to re-elect Barack Obama and declare the end of America, which after all is the ultimate goal Obama is carrying out for his New World Order masters.

Marion County GOP Chairman Calls Homestead Tax Credit "Wasteful Taxpayer Subsidy"

Would someone please wake up me up and tell me this a just a bad nightmare? I just received an e-mail from the Marion County Republican Chairman Kyle Walker discussing the budget battle between Mayor Greg Ballard and the Democratic-controlled City-County Council. The e-mail accused Democrats of "playing politics with public safety" because they adopted a budget that assesses a $15 million payment-in-lieu of taxes on the Capital Improvement Board to help fund a new class of police and fire recruits. Despite campaigning on a promise of making public safety job one, Mayor Ballard has cut the number of police officers patrolling city streets by more than 300, even though he came into office with the benefit of a 65% increase in the local income tax, which was passed by a prior Democratic-controlled council and signed into law by former Mayor Bart Peterson. As a candidate, Ballard railed against that tax increase, as well as skyrocketing property taxes. He rode a wave of taxpayer discontent to upset the well-funded incumbent mayor on a shoe-string budget.

Laying all that aside, Mayor Ballard proposed raising property taxes on mostly middle-income homeowners by $9 million to close a budget gap in the budget that he submitted to the council, which the council rejected. Ballard's budget provided no funding for new police and fire recruit classes and robbed the TIF funds to balance his budget on paper. The CIB, despite claiming insolvency three years ago, is sitting on $67 million in cash reserves after a bailout package backed by Mayor Ballard became law that raised hotel taxes as a condition to receiving new subsidies payable from state sales tax revenues. No sooner had the bailout package been passed than the CIB announced it was awarding a $33.5 million subsidy to billionaire Herb Simon's Indiana Pacers, which claimed without substantiation that its NBA franchise was losing money. The CIB was also allowed to tap downtown TIF funds derived from property tax revenues to subsidize the operations of the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association. No budget action taken by Mayor Ballard during the past five years has evidenced any support for his campaign slogan that public safety was job one. Making sure that the CIB is flush with cash to subsidize the billionaire sports team owners and the downtown convention business has taken a priority over every other public expenditure under Ballard's leadership.

Now, if that isn't enough to turn your stomach, wait until you see what Chairman Walker had to say about the homestead property tax credit that Mayor Ballard and the Republican-controlled council is hell bent on eliminating. "Council Democrats refused to eliminate an antiquated, wasteful tax subsidy that costs taxpayers $9 million per year--money that was budgeted for public safety," Walker said. A property tax break for middle-income homeowners is "an antiquated, wasteful tax subsidy that costs taxpayer $9 million per year?" What does that make the $33.5 million subsidy the Mayor supported giving to billionaire Herb Simon's Indiana Pacers? Or what about the $6.5 million that Mayor Ballard gave to his favorite pay-to-play city contractor, Ersal Ozdemir, to construct a parking garage in Broad Ripple that he alone will own and from which he will receive all of the income? The audacity to equate a tax increase on ordinary taxpayers to a "wasteful tax subsidy" is simply beyond reproach and exhibits a hostility towards the taxpayers that I would never have dreamed I would live to see coming from the mouth of a Republican leader. As a life-long Republican, I am shocked and dismayed by the utter contempt this administration and this county leadership have towards taxpayers. What they are telling me is that they are less concerned about the tax burden of ordinary taxpayers than their concern for having money to give away to the billionaire sports team owners who lavish them with campaign contributions and free tickets to sporting events.

To hear Walker describe it, the Democratic-passed budget that takes $15 million away from the CIB to fund public safety is "robbing Peter to pay Paul." No, Kyle, it's more like robbing Joe Sixpack to pay Herb Simon. You and Mayor Ballard want to raise taxes on working families by eliminating the homestead property tax credit and leaving the money in the hands of the cash-flush CIB. Mayor Ballard's claim that the Democratic-passed budget created a $35 million structural budget gap is no more true than the budget gap that exists under his proposed budget. As with all of his recent budgets, Mayor Ballard arrives at a balanced budget only by a series of fund transfers, delayed payments and other tried and true budget-balancing gimmicks. In a mean-spirited, partisan move, Mayor Ballard eliminated $35 million in critical funding for county agencies run by the opposing party through the use of his line-item veto, including the prosecutor's office, the sheriff's department, the assessor's office, the auditor's office and even the court system, while leaving city agencies under his office, including his own staff budget that provided double-digit pay raises for more than a dozen people of his staff untouched. Delivering a second middle finger directed at the council, the Mayor eliminated funding for a line item that funds the council's outside legal counsel and its financial adviser. Governance by blackmail is the only way to describe the Mayor's actions. He would risk putting crucial government agencies in the ditch in order to get the tens of millions of dollars that he has promised Herb Simon in consideration for all of the campaign contributions and gifts he's lavished on him. It's government at its worst.

Watching the Republicans on the council defend this corrupt Mayor's actions and vote against over-riding his overreaching at tonight's council meeting has never made me more ashamed to call myself a Republican. Not only did the Republicans vote in lockstep against the budget overrides, they even voted against overriding the veto of an ordinance that would have outlawed the practice of the city to issue multiple parking ticket violations at $20 a pop on the same day for a single violation.

Trump Charge: Obama Attended School As A Foreign Student

Donald Trump challenged President Barack Obama to release his college and passport records and in exchange he promised to contribute $5 million to the charity of his choice. Trump gave Obama until today to produce the records. Now that Obama has declined to take him up on his offer, Trump is charging that he won't release the records because they will reveal that he attended American schools as a foreign student. Trump said in a press release today that Obama will not release the records because they are "very bad." "Obviously, he wasn't born in this country, or if he was, he said he wasn't in order to receive financial aid and a very easy path into a college or university," Trump said. "Only a very stupid person would believe otherwise," Trump added. Trump said Obama's election as a U.S. President "will go down as the greatest con in American politics, or perhaps, the greatest con of all time."

Trump did not produce any evidence to back up his claims; however, Obama has steadfastly withheld from the American people the fact that he was adopted by his Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, that his name was legally changed to "Barry Soetoro" and that he became a citizen of Indonesia, after his mother Stanley Ann Dunham married Soetoro. These facts were uncovered by conservative bloggers during the 2008 presidential election but were ignored by the mainstream media. Obama may have been born in Hawaii, but his reputed father, Barack Obama of Kenya, never lived with Obama's mother as her husband, despite their reported marriage in Hawaii before Obama, Sr., a foreign student, left Hawaii to attend Harvard. His mother began attending classes at the University of Washington in Seattle within weeks of the date Obama was reportedly born in Hawaii. She and her son did not return to Hawaii until after Obama, Sr. had left the state to study at Harvard.

Investigators who have searched for evidence of Obama's birth in Hawaii have come to the conclusion that Obama, Sr. was not identified on Obama's original birth certificate as his father, and that it was changed when he was adopted by his stepfather. The long-form birth certificate released by Obama last year is a bad forgery. Records released by the INS revealed that American immigration officials had doubts that Obama had a bona fide marriage with Dunham. Obama, Sr. listed young Obama as his son on some of his applications with the INS, while he left him off on other applications he filed. The name of his father on his original birth certificate was likely left blank. Claims that a birth announcement that ran in two local newspapers in Honolulu identifying him as the son of Obama, Sr. are based on microfiche records of the newspapers, which some speculate were altered many years later to make it appear that a birth announcement that was never published in the newspapers appeared at the time of his birth. Documentary film producer Joel Gilbert claims in his latest production, "Dreams From My Real Father," that Obama's real birth father is Frank Marshall Davis, with whom Obama bears a family resemblance unlike the short-statured Obama from Kenya. Davis was close friends of Obama's grandfather, and nude photographs of Obama's mother taken by Davis were unearthed by Gilbert during the research for his documentary. Davis was married to a white woman from Chicago at the time of Obama's birth, and had a son and daughter close to Obama's age, both of whom look remarkably like Obama. Davis wrote in his book about having sex with an underage girl who went by the name "Ann."

Northwest Indiana Times Does Reporting The Star Refuses To Do: Questions Officials' Use Of Contractor's Florida Home

It happens far more often than you would think. Our elected officials take trips to Florida and other vacation destinations on the dime of pay-to-play government contractors who help bankroll their campaigns. The Northwest Indiana Times questions the decision of Portage Mayor James Snyder and his brother, Porter Co. Assessor Jon Snyder, to travel to Florida for a golfing and fishing trip to Bonita Springs, Florida recently where they spent three nights at the home of Chuck Shields, an electrical contractor who does business with the city of Portage. From the Northwest Indiana Times:

Both Snyder and Shields said they believe nothing was inappropriate, but some city officials are calling for a further investigation.

Councilman Mark Oprisko, a Democrat, believes there should be an investigation and Snyder should produce receipts from the trip to show he did not accept any gifts from Shields beyond staying at his home.

"It's a definite conflict of interest. He used poor judgement. It's not like you are going out to lunch in Portage," Oprisko said.

Shields defended the mayor's action.

"He stayed at my home and rode in my vehicle," Shields said.

"He's a friend of mine, as well as his brother. He isn't the first mayor that stayed at my house," said Shields, who would not say what other mayors have also taken him up on his hospitality. Shields added he offered to pay for meals, golfing and other expenses.

"I didn't pay for anything. (James Snyder) wouldn't allow it," Shields noted.

Jon Snyder said he asked Shields if he could come to the annual golf outing and if his brother could come along.

"This trip was my idea," Jon Snyder said. "At the time I didn't think about any contractual relations with his office."

He said he has no contractual relationship with Shields in his position as Porter County assessor.

James Snyder issued a written statement Wednesday afternoon.

"Two weeks ago, I took a trip with three friends to Florida in which we all paid our personal expenses. We lodged in a home of a Portage contractor who does business in and for the City of Portage.

"After learning of the questions related to the lodging of the trip, I reviewed the state conflict of interest law and the city's ethics ordinance. Based on that review, no conflict of interest law or city ordinances have been violated. My department heads and I will be the first Portage administration to comply with the economic interest disclosure as stated in Sec. 2-177 of the city code since the ethics ordinance was passed by the city council in 1996," Snyder wrote.

The city's ethics ordinance requires officials to file an economic interest disclosure annually. It also prohibits the acceptance of gifts valued at $500 or more over the course of 12 consecutive months.

Oprisko said he authored the city's ethics ordinance and will review it to determine if it needs to be "tightened up."

"I'm holding final judgement until there is a full investigation," Clerk-treasurer Chris Stidham said, adding he does believe the mayor acted inappropriately by spending the night in the home of a businessman who has received no-bid work for the city.

"Just from a smell test, it just doesn't smell right. It is just something you should know better not to do," he said.
 

Far worse happens in Indianapolis with Mayor Greg Ballard all the time, and the Indianapolis Star refuses to investigate it. Ballard insists on taking useless all-expense paid junkets to overseas destinations all over the world accompanied by his wife that are funded by Develop Indy, which solicits contributions from pay-to-play contractors to help pay for the trips billed as "trade missions," even though they are nothing more than opportunities for a select group of pay-to-play contractors to travel overseas with Mayor Ballard to wine and dine him out of the view of Indianapolis residents. Ballard doesn't report the trips on his statement of economic interest that he files annually with the city despite the value of the more than a half dozen overseas trips he's taken since becoming mayor reaching into the tens of thousands of dollars. Ballard also doesn't disclose the value of the free country club memberships he has accepted since becoming mayor at private clubs where membership fees run into the tens of thousands of dollars or the tens of thousands of dollars in free tickets he has accepted to sporting events and concerts. It doesn't take much analyzing to figure out that Ballard actually receives as much value in gifts as he earns in salary as Indianapolis' mayor, and it certainly shows in the decisions he makes that screw over ordinary taxpayers in order to aid the people showering him with campaign contributions and gifts.

Smut Merchant Larry Flynt Aids Donnelly's Campaign

One of the sleaziest men of the porn industry, Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, has weighed in to Indiana's hotly-contested senate race between Richard Mourdock (R) and U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly (D). Flynt has offered Mourdock $1 million to prove that when a woman becomes pregnant in the horrible situation of rape that "it is something that God intended to happen." “You have to wonder why Larry Flynt wants Joe Donnelly elected," Mourdock's deputy campaign manager Brose McVey told the Indianapolis Star. “Larry Flynt is just another public endorser of President Barack Obama coming to the aid of Joe Donnelly,” added GOP Chairman Eric Holcomb. Flynt made the challenge to Mourdock in the print edition of the Star today with a paid advertisement. The Star, quoting the ad, writes:

“I will accept for purposes of this reward any verifiable transcript of your personal conversations with God; letters, email or text messages or videos from God, or messages addressed to you from God transmitted by any third party, including the Republican National Committee” or the campaign of Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Flynt goes on to state in the advertisement that he assumes Mourdock would not have made his statement — a response to a question on abortion during the Oct. 23 Senate debate — unless he had been “authorized by God.”

“No one who believes in God would ever use the Almighty’s name in vain,” the ad states. “That would be blasphemy.”

Flynt in the past has made public offers to pay money to any person who would produce evidence to him of sexual infidelity on the part of prominent Republican politicians. Last year, he targeted Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

New Jersey's Sen. Robert Menendez Caught In Prostitute Scandal

New Jersey residents, who are reeling from the devastating damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, awoke to news this morning that their U.S. Senator Robert Menendez has been accused of using the services of prostitutes while vacationing at a wealthy donor's home at an exclusive resort in the Dominican Republic. According to the Daily Caller, Menendez paid two women for sex during a trip to the island nation over Easter weekend this year but then stiffed them, paying them only $100 after promising to pay them $500. The women told the Daily Caller they were brought to the Casa de Campo where Menendez campaign donor, Salomon Melgen, owns a home. Melgen is a wealthy Florida ophthalmologist who has contributed $14,700 to Menendez' campaign committee and who owns a private plane that Menendez has used in the past. The Daily Caller confirmed that records show the plane flew from Melgen's home in Florida to a private airport near Menendez' home in New Jersey and then traveled to a private airport in the the Dominican Republic near the resort where Melgen owned a home over the Easter weekend this year before returning to the U.S.

The two women who claim they were paid to have sex with Menendez told investigative reporter Matthew Doyle during a videotaped interview of the encounter after identifying a photograph of him as the man with whom they were paid to have sex during the Easter weekend, although they didn't know he was a senator until later. The women spoke through a translator with their attorney present. Their images were blurred for "fear of reprisal" in their native country. Menendez, who is divorced, is is running for re-election this year, but he has been a heavy favorite to win re-election in the heavily Democratic state. A Menendez spokeswoman declined to respond to the women's allegations, which she referred to as "a completely false accusation." I'm always leery of accusations of this sort when they surface so close to an election and there is little time to check out the story before voters go to the polls to cast their votes. I have serious doubts that this late-breaking story will have much impact on Menendez' race. Menendez called for the firing of Secret Service agents who were accused of patronizing prostitutes during President Obama's trip to Columbia earlier this year. "If the facts are true, they should all be fired," Menendez said. "The reality is is that the secret service not only protects the president of the United States, they represent the United States of America. They were on duty. If the facts are true as we are reading in the press, they shouldn't have a job."

Somerset Pays $500,000 To Settle Fair Finance Fraud Claim

Somerset CPAs, P.C. has agreed to pay $500,000 to the Fair Finance bankruptcy trustee to settle a claim made against the accounting firm for more than $760,000 convicted Ponzi schemer Tim Durham funneled to the firm through affiliated companies he controlled according to a court filing in a Ohio federal bankruptcy court. Trustee Brian Bash alleged that Fair Finance did not receive any value in exchange for the fees Somerset charged to the affiliated businesses, including Fair Holdings, DC Investments and Obsidian Enterprises, because they were insolvent at the time the services were performed and relied entirely on funds made available by Fair Finance to operate, making the transfers to the accounting firm fraudulent.

Meanwhile, an attorney for Durham has filed his objections to a recommendation by federal prosecutors in the southern district of Indiana that he receive a 225-year prison sentence and be ordered to pay $209 million in restitution to the small Ohio investors of Fair Finance who he was convicted of defrauding. Durham's attorney disputes the size of the losses incurred by the investors and blames federal prosecutors, in part, for the demise of the company. Durham's attorney John Tompkins called his proposed sentence "absurd." Tompkins attributed the company's demise to a raid of the firm by FBI agents and the ensuing bad publicity discussing the allegations that he operated Fair Finance as a Ponzi scheme.

Early Voting In Marion County Down 25%

Ten days ago, Marion County elections officials were reporting that early voting was up 18% over early votes cast during the same period of the 2008 presidential election when Obama narrowly carried red state Indiana by the narrowest of margins. County election officials in the state's largest county now report that early voting is down 25% from 2008. Fox 59 News, quoting election officials, says that approximately 35,000 votes had been cast through Tuesday compared to 47,000 votes that were cast during the same period in 2008, a 25% decrease in early voting participation. Marion County Clerk Beth White is blaming the fall off on the fact that voters only have a choice of voting at her office in the City-County Building, while in 2008 there were two satellite voting sites for early voting. White touted the uptick in voting in news reports ten days earlier despite having only one location at which to cast an early vote. A decrease in early voting participation in Marion County may bode well for the prospects of Republican statewide candidates. In 2008, Obama carried Marion County by a more than 100,000-vote plurality compared to a less than 50,000-vote plurality for Gov. Mitch Daniels in his landslide win over Jill Long-Thompson. In the Attorney General's race and the School Superintendent's race, the Democratic candidates carried Marion County by a more than 60,000-vote plurality. The Democrats also handily won county-wide races for Treasurer, Coroner and Surveyor in 2008.