During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln went through Generals the way that Liz Taylor goes through husbands. His most controversial firing was of that of George McClellan. McClellan then went on to represent the Democrats in 1864 as their Democratic candidate for president.
I'd love to find some old newspapers from that time but I suspect that the media criticized Lincoln for his often short fuse with Generals. Whether or not Lincoln gave some of his Generals enough time to allow their strategy to work is a matter of debate. Given that Lincoln won the war eventually we will have to cede judgment on that issue to him. What Lincoln did get right was this. If he didn't like what a General was telling him or how he performed, he got rid of him for a new one.
President Obama is at a crossroads in his presidency. Afghanistan is deteriorating and he has a choice to make. His top General has presented him with a strategy and he wants more troops. President Obama wants to review the strategy before giving him the go ahead. If he isn't 100% behind his General, then President Obama must remove him. It's that simple. That's what Lincoln did and he did it a lot.
Instead, President Obama continues to show confidence in his General but not the specific strategy his General is asking to employ. That's not how these things work. Presidents either cede to the advice of the General or they get rid of them. It's that simple. Instead, President Obama continues to be hesitant to give his General what he wants. That's the worst of all worlds. General McChrystal is weakened because confidence in him isn't immediately shown. Yet, he's expected to continue to lead troops in the field.
President Obama fired the General in Afghanistan, General Mckiernan, in March and replaced him with General McChrystal. At the time, he also announced that we were implmenting a new strategy. The specific strategy was then not clear. It appears that General McChrystal has now formulated that strategy and he's asking for more troops as a part of it. If the President has lost confidence in McChrystal, he must remove him, period. If he hasn't, he must approve the troops immediately. If he has to review the General's recommendations himself, it doesn't sound as though he has confidence in him. He can't, however, not approve the General's request and still keep him in place. The president has a very simple choice. Either he goes with the recommendations of the General on the ground, or he finds a General with recommedations he likes. It's that simple. There is no third option and it's long past time he made that choice.
Monday, October 5, 2009
A Half Hour With Two Chicago Whistleblowers
I met Pat McDonough about a month ago. The best way to describe McDonough is by this Shakespeare quote.
For McDonough, his greatness if you will was thrust upon him. I doubt Pat would call it greatness and he'd also want to admit that all things being equal, he might even take his earlier life. That said, Pat McDonough is one of a handful of whistle blowers that was instrumental in uncovering the Hired Truck scandal about five years. He told me that he acted as a pseudo deep throat to some of the biggest breaking stories on that scandal. For his trouble, he was targeted by a large part of Chicago's political structure. That included superiors and even his union. He is now square in the cross hairs of Mayor Daley.
Upon becoming a whistle blower, McDonough also became an activist. He started the web site Chicago Clout. This site tracks incidents of corruption in the city. The site was like most blogs, viewed somewhat sparingly, until a few of his friends did a song to "celebrate" the corrupt nature of the city. The group, affectionately known as the Clout Meisters, became a near instantaneous viral sensation and McDonough received publicity that has helped raise the profile of his site. From time to time, he and fellow whistle blowers put on a half hour television show that runs on CAN TV locally and gets posted on his site. Neither Pat nor his colleagues are professional broadasters, and when you view the video you won't mistake any of us for Bill O'Reilly. Still, Pat and his colleagues all share one thing, they were put in a position to report on Chicago corruption. They did, and for it, they were targeted. Now, they aren't merely plumbers, plumbing inspectors, and union laborers, but activists. Greatness if you will has been thrust upon them. None asked for it, but none was willing to look the other way when they came face to face with corruption.
I did a show with two of Pat's compatriots on Friday, John Swietczak and Michael McGann. Swietczak was also a whistleblower on the Hired Truck scandal, however, Swietczak has since been a whistle blower on numerous incidents of corruption. On some he takes credit and on others he remains anonymous. In fact, about a week prior to taping on Friday, Swietczak blew the whistle on exactly the sort of corruption that is likely common place throughout Chicago. While making his rounds as a plumbing inspector, Swietczak noticed that a truck doing resurfacing work was taking water from a city fire hydrant without a permit and without a device to prevent construction debris from contaminating Chicago's water system. Swietczak approached the truck and asked that the operator produce the proper permit. They didn't have one and instead got the owner of the trucking company on the phone. The owner, Michael Tadin, owns MAT Construction and MAT Construction was one of the biggest firms involved in the Hired Truck Scandal. According to Swietczak, when Tadin got on the phone, Tadin responded to the request as such.
When Spielman called Tadin for comment, he remembered the conversation differently.
Whatever happpened, it's not in dispute that the truck was operating without a permit. What happened next was pure Chicago. Spielman was hurriedly gathering all details to finish the story and the story was unfolding as she was working on it. Keep in mind that not only was this truck using the city's water supply illegally but this company had already been implicated in a previous scandal. Normally, we'd expect the government to sever all ties with the company pending an investigation. That's not what happened here. Instead, in the matter of hours a permit was rushed and approved for MAT. In fact, it was rushed and approved all while Spielman was gathering evidence. Swietczak told me that normally such a process could take weeks. This took hours and Spielman added that to her story. For blowing the whistle on this corruption, Swietczak expects to be targeted and he said as much in the video.
Michael McGann is also a fellow plumbing inspector. In the next couple weeks, I expect to do his story in detail in the next couple weeks. Here it is in a nutshell. In October of 2007, he was called to De Diego Elementary School following a water main break. McGann found a series of violations that he felt were so serious that it was dangerous for the kids in the school to drink the water out of the water fountain. Rather than taking his concerns and REPORT seriously, superiors attempted to bury it. He complained to his union and to the Inspector General and later found that those complaints lead to retaliation. He has been the target of a series of retaliations since but worse than that, in his opinion, the structural problems with the school's plumbing hasn't been fixed and as such the kids' water continues to be at risk.
Pat is trying to send me the embed code for the video but in the meantime, please go to the link and watch the video of our three conversation on his site.
UPDATE:
Here's the video.
Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.
For McDonough, his greatness if you will was thrust upon him. I doubt Pat would call it greatness and he'd also want to admit that all things being equal, he might even take his earlier life. That said, Pat McDonough is one of a handful of whistle blowers that was instrumental in uncovering the Hired Truck scandal about five years. He told me that he acted as a pseudo deep throat to some of the biggest breaking stories on that scandal. For his trouble, he was targeted by a large part of Chicago's political structure. That included superiors and even his union. He is now square in the cross hairs of Mayor Daley.
Upon becoming a whistle blower, McDonough also became an activist. He started the web site Chicago Clout. This site tracks incidents of corruption in the city. The site was like most blogs, viewed somewhat sparingly, until a few of his friends did a song to "celebrate" the corrupt nature of the city. The group, affectionately known as the Clout Meisters, became a near instantaneous viral sensation and McDonough received publicity that has helped raise the profile of his site. From time to time, he and fellow whistle blowers put on a half hour television show that runs on CAN TV locally and gets posted on his site. Neither Pat nor his colleagues are professional broadasters, and when you view the video you won't mistake any of us for Bill O'Reilly. Still, Pat and his colleagues all share one thing, they were put in a position to report on Chicago corruption. They did, and for it, they were targeted. Now, they aren't merely plumbers, plumbing inspectors, and union laborers, but activists. Greatness if you will has been thrust upon them. None asked for it, but none was willing to look the other way when they came face to face with corruption.
I did a show with two of Pat's compatriots on Friday, John Swietczak and Michael McGann. Swietczak was also a whistleblower on the Hired Truck scandal, however, Swietczak has since been a whistle blower on numerous incidents of corruption. On some he takes credit and on others he remains anonymous. In fact, about a week prior to taping on Friday, Swietczak blew the whistle on exactly the sort of corruption that is likely common place throughout Chicago. While making his rounds as a plumbing inspector, Swietczak noticed that a truck doing resurfacing work was taking water from a city fire hydrant without a permit and without a device to prevent construction debris from contaminating Chicago's water system. Swietczak approached the truck and asked that the operator produce the proper permit. They didn't have one and instead got the owner of the trucking company on the phone. The owner, Michael Tadin, owns MAT Construction and MAT Construction was one of the biggest firms involved in the Hired Truck Scandal. According to Swietczak, when Tadin got on the phone, Tadin responded to the request as such.
The guy straight out tells me he's been doing this for 25 years, and he's never
bought any permits," Swietczak said, noting that contractors pay $13.16 per day
for hydrant use.
When Spielman called Tadin for comment, he remembered the conversation differently.
I never said that. I said this is the first time I've been checked for a
permit in 10 or 12 years
Whatever happpened, it's not in dispute that the truck was operating without a permit. What happened next was pure Chicago. Spielman was hurriedly gathering all details to finish the story and the story was unfolding as she was working on it. Keep in mind that not only was this truck using the city's water supply illegally but this company had already been implicated in a previous scandal. Normally, we'd expect the government to sever all ties with the company pending an investigation. That's not what happened here. Instead, in the matter of hours a permit was rushed and approved for MAT. In fact, it was rushed and approved all while Spielman was gathering evidence. Swietczak told me that normally such a process could take weeks. This took hours and Spielman added that to her story. For blowing the whistle on this corruption, Swietczak expects to be targeted and he said as much in the video.
Michael McGann is also a fellow plumbing inspector. In the next couple weeks, I expect to do his story in detail in the next couple weeks. Here it is in a nutshell. In October of 2007, he was called to De Diego Elementary School following a water main break. McGann found a series of violations that he felt were so serious that it was dangerous for the kids in the school to drink the water out of the water fountain. Rather than taking his concerns and REPORT seriously, superiors attempted to bury it. He complained to his union and to the Inspector General and later found that those complaints lead to retaliation. He has been the target of a series of retaliations since but worse than that, in his opinion, the structural problems with the school's plumbing hasn't been fixed and as such the kids' water continues to be at risk.
Pat is trying to send me the embed code for the video but in the meantime, please go to the link and watch the video of our three conversation on his site.
UPDATE:
Here's the video.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Why Everyone Should Care About Dr. Anna Chacko
UPDATE: Please also check out my new book, The Definitive Dossier on PTSD in Whistleblowers, for only $3.99, in which I dedicate chapter four entirely to the exploits of Dr. Anna Chacko.
My second job out of college was with H.J. Meyers. Don't bother looking it up because it no longer exists. If anyone has ever seen the movie Boiler Room, it wasn't exactly that firm but it was close enough. While all the companies we sold did exist they were mostly the junk no one else wanted. There I met a legendary Chicago stock broker named Wil Rondini. Rondini was equal parts legendary, infamous, and genius. He's one of the greatest salespeople to ever live. He was also certifiable. By the time I'd met him, he'd been in the business fifteen years. He'd made millions many times over and he'd lost them. He'd once worked at Lehman Brothers but was now relegated to working in this pseudo chop shop because he'd become too big a hassle for most firms.
Wil rarely closed anyone all that long. It's as though he had an instinct and could tell. Yet, on one occasion, he kept closing this potential investor. The rule of thumb was you give someone ten closes and that's enough. Wil had long passed that. He was at thirteen or fourteen before he finally closed the guy. He got off the phone, rubbed his forehead and said, "that was close, I already bought him that stock". Things got so bad at H.J. Meyers that eventually our compliance officer had to call each and every person after Wil brought in a buy or sell ticket to confirm the trade. Among investment professionals, there's something called a U 4. It's essentially a detailed history of your investment career. Wil's U 4 was 72 pages, so I heard, by the time I met him. That's because over the years there were so many complaints from clients and colleagues that it got that long.
As such, Wil's job opportunities shrank and shrank. This U 4 essentially told the investment world just how much of a sociopath he was. I was thinking about Wil when trying to put into perspective the exploits of Dr. Anna Chacko. As brilliant and pathological as Wil was, he couldn't have dreamed up one tenth of the things that Dr. Chacko has. Furthermore, Wil always made money for himself and his firm. Eventually, he became such a problem that the money wasn't worth it. Dr. Chacko doesn't even do that. Instead, she comes into a hospital and simply causes damage. As I've said several times before, she came to St. James Hospital in Butte, Mt. There were four lawsuits. She took the radiology department from being seven figures in the black to deep in red and she left fourteen months later and took the other radiologists in the department with her.
That's the sort of damage that Dr. Chacko creates and she's been doing it for more than two decades. When Wil would switch jobs, his new employer would receive his U 4 and know exactly who they were getting into bed with. Wil was a stock broker for heaven's sake. It's rare to find a less respected profession. Yet, the system that governed Wil appears to have been much more strict in documenting his exploits than our health care system did in documenting Dr. Chacko's exploits.
We'd all think that it's impossible for someone to terrorize the medical field for two decades and continue to simply get away with it but Dr. Chacko has done it. We'd all think that medical boards, medical societies, and other medical governing bodies would have been accumulating her misdeeds all these years and warn future employers like the U4 did to Wil. Yet, they didn't.
Dr. Chacko has nothing to explain to any employer the way that Wil would have to explain his U4. That's a problem and in fact it's a huge problem. That's because Dr. Anna Chacko is a Psychopath. Someone isn't a Psychopath sometimes or once in a while. They are always a Psychopath. So, I've tracked her at several hospitals, the Pittsburgh VA, Lahey Clinic and St. James. You can bet, however, that similar stories exist at all her past employers. Those include the United States military where she served for 20 years. Somehow, Dr. Chacko managed to never have to worry about anything on the equivalent of a U4.
That's a massive problem. If a Psychopath can manipulate our medical system so that they can continue to abuse the system, get away with it and never face any serious consequence then our system has real problems. We need to then fix all the areas she exploited. We can only do that if the matter is fully investigated. The key question I have asked since I begin to follow this story is how did she get away with so much. I've only partially answered that question and that's because I only have part of her story. There's a twenty year military career that I know little about. She's spent time in Texas, Hawaii, San Francisco, Colorado, the University of Rochester, and at Boston University Medical Center and I don't know what happened there yet. I know that it followed the same pattern at all the places I have a good grasp of.
Dr. Chacko took advantage of our legal system to sue anyone that ever got in her way. She also made sure to lock up agreements of silence with each prior employer so that they couldn't then tell future employers exactly what happened. She took advantage of our politically correct society. Whenever she could, she would pull out both the race and gender card and accuse others of racism and sexism. Such accusations would cause others to back off. Our medical system was designed as such so that each and every hospital was more encouraged to settle with her, keep her quiet, rather than deal with her so that she never did it again. Worse yet, Dr. Chacko used clout, the clout of politicians and other powerful people, to get things no one else could get. As such, no matter who got in her way, she always had more powerful friends to take care of them. All of this is a huge problem.
If Dr. Chacko can exploit our medical system for nothing but evil, anyone can. Make no mistake, that's exactly what she's done. A Psychopath knows nothing but evil. The medical system was her accomplice in this evil for more than two decades.
I reported yesterday that as of Friday she was on "indefinite administrative leave". Let me put the last two and a half years of Dr. Chacko's employment history into perspective so that everyone knows just how critical it is to know her entire work history. She arrived in Butte, Mt. in July of 2007. She spent fourteen months there. She created such chaos that no less than four lawsuits occurred as a result of her behavior. She ran the radiology department into the ground and turned it from deep black to deep red, and when she left, she took the other radiologists with her. Then, she arrived at the Pittsburgh VA. Almost immediately, complaints were filed against her. Then, in March, the hospital held an investigative board. That board recommended that Dr. Chacko be removed. Dr. Chacko was able to reach out to Congressman Brad Miller and he reached out to General Eric Shinseki. Then, word came down from Shinseki's office to keep her in her place. She returned to work on August 1st. She behaved even worse following her return. In part that's because her ability to overcome the VA's attempt to fire her made her more intimidating not only to staff but even her own bosses. Then, following several of my stories and a story from the Pittsburgh Tribune, she was two days ago again put on indefinite administrative leave.
If this story is let go, she'll possibly be able to figure out a way to get back into the Pittsburgh VA. More like is that she's removed from the Pittsburgh VA and she winds up at another hospital somewhere. She'll almost certainly sue the Pittsburgh VA and that's because nearly all her previous, if not simply all, have faced lawsuits from her. Then, Dr. Chacko will again be free to continue to engage in this somewhere else. She has to. Dr. Chacko spends money in such a way that no matter how much she makes it's not enough. She owns three homes, Butte, Mt., Hawaii and Pittsburgh, that I know of. Her expenses will simply not allow her to retire quietly. She has to keep working.
Beyond that though, all the weaknesses that Dr. Chacko has exploited her entire medical career will continue to be open. A medical system that allows for a Psychopath to create a lucrative and profitable medical career is a flawed medical system. That's what happened and it happened because our medical system is flawed. The only way to fix the flaws that Dr. Chacko exploited is to investigate her entire career fully. There are reasons why, despite burning bridges each and every time, Dr. Chacko was able to find another hospital to hire her. The public needs to know those reasons so that no one else is ever able to do the same thing. Everyone should care about Dr. Chacko, and her exploits, because she abused and manipulated our military, medical, legal, and cultural systems, and no one like her can ever manipulate them the way she has again. To do that, we must know the truth. To know the truth the public must care. So, that's why, in my opinion, everyone should care about Dr. Anna Chacko.
Epilogue:
Here's the definitive dossier on Dr. Chacko.
My second job out of college was with H.J. Meyers. Don't bother looking it up because it no longer exists. If anyone has ever seen the movie Boiler Room, it wasn't exactly that firm but it was close enough. While all the companies we sold did exist they were mostly the junk no one else wanted. There I met a legendary Chicago stock broker named Wil Rondini. Rondini was equal parts legendary, infamous, and genius. He's one of the greatest salespeople to ever live. He was also certifiable. By the time I'd met him, he'd been in the business fifteen years. He'd made millions many times over and he'd lost them. He'd once worked at Lehman Brothers but was now relegated to working in this pseudo chop shop because he'd become too big a hassle for most firms.
Wil rarely closed anyone all that long. It's as though he had an instinct and could tell. Yet, on one occasion, he kept closing this potential investor. The rule of thumb was you give someone ten closes and that's enough. Wil had long passed that. He was at thirteen or fourteen before he finally closed the guy. He got off the phone, rubbed his forehead and said, "that was close, I already bought him that stock". Things got so bad at H.J. Meyers that eventually our compliance officer had to call each and every person after Wil brought in a buy or sell ticket to confirm the trade. Among investment professionals, there's something called a U 4. It's essentially a detailed history of your investment career. Wil's U 4 was 72 pages, so I heard, by the time I met him. That's because over the years there were so many complaints from clients and colleagues that it got that long.
As such, Wil's job opportunities shrank and shrank. This U 4 essentially told the investment world just how much of a sociopath he was. I was thinking about Wil when trying to put into perspective the exploits of Dr. Anna Chacko. As brilliant and pathological as Wil was, he couldn't have dreamed up one tenth of the things that Dr. Chacko has. Furthermore, Wil always made money for himself and his firm. Eventually, he became such a problem that the money wasn't worth it. Dr. Chacko doesn't even do that. Instead, she comes into a hospital and simply causes damage. As I've said several times before, she came to St. James Hospital in Butte, Mt. There were four lawsuits. She took the radiology department from being seven figures in the black to deep in red and she left fourteen months later and took the other radiologists in the department with her.
That's the sort of damage that Dr. Chacko creates and she's been doing it for more than two decades. When Wil would switch jobs, his new employer would receive his U 4 and know exactly who they were getting into bed with. Wil was a stock broker for heaven's sake. It's rare to find a less respected profession. Yet, the system that governed Wil appears to have been much more strict in documenting his exploits than our health care system did in documenting Dr. Chacko's exploits.
We'd all think that it's impossible for someone to terrorize the medical field for two decades and continue to simply get away with it but Dr. Chacko has done it. We'd all think that medical boards, medical societies, and other medical governing bodies would have been accumulating her misdeeds all these years and warn future employers like the U4 did to Wil. Yet, they didn't.
Dr. Chacko has nothing to explain to any employer the way that Wil would have to explain his U4. That's a problem and in fact it's a huge problem. That's because Dr. Anna Chacko is a Psychopath. Someone isn't a Psychopath sometimes or once in a while. They are always a Psychopath. So, I've tracked her at several hospitals, the Pittsburgh VA, Lahey Clinic and St. James. You can bet, however, that similar stories exist at all her past employers. Those include the United States military where she served for 20 years. Somehow, Dr. Chacko managed to never have to worry about anything on the equivalent of a U4.
That's a massive problem. If a Psychopath can manipulate our medical system so that they can continue to abuse the system, get away with it and never face any serious consequence then our system has real problems. We need to then fix all the areas she exploited. We can only do that if the matter is fully investigated. The key question I have asked since I begin to follow this story is how did she get away with so much. I've only partially answered that question and that's because I only have part of her story. There's a twenty year military career that I know little about. She's spent time in Texas, Hawaii, San Francisco, Colorado, the University of Rochester, and at Boston University Medical Center and I don't know what happened there yet. I know that it followed the same pattern at all the places I have a good grasp of.
Dr. Chacko took advantage of our legal system to sue anyone that ever got in her way. She also made sure to lock up agreements of silence with each prior employer so that they couldn't then tell future employers exactly what happened. She took advantage of our politically correct society. Whenever she could, she would pull out both the race and gender card and accuse others of racism and sexism. Such accusations would cause others to back off. Our medical system was designed as such so that each and every hospital was more encouraged to settle with her, keep her quiet, rather than deal with her so that she never did it again. Worse yet, Dr. Chacko used clout, the clout of politicians and other powerful people, to get things no one else could get. As such, no matter who got in her way, she always had more powerful friends to take care of them. All of this is a huge problem.
If Dr. Chacko can exploit our medical system for nothing but evil, anyone can. Make no mistake, that's exactly what she's done. A Psychopath knows nothing but evil. The medical system was her accomplice in this evil for more than two decades.
I reported yesterday that as of Friday she was on "indefinite administrative leave". Let me put the last two and a half years of Dr. Chacko's employment history into perspective so that everyone knows just how critical it is to know her entire work history. She arrived in Butte, Mt. in July of 2007. She spent fourteen months there. She created such chaos that no less than four lawsuits occurred as a result of her behavior. She ran the radiology department into the ground and turned it from deep black to deep red, and when she left, she took the other radiologists with her. Then, she arrived at the Pittsburgh VA. Almost immediately, complaints were filed against her. Then, in March, the hospital held an investigative board. That board recommended that Dr. Chacko be removed. Dr. Chacko was able to reach out to Congressman Brad Miller and he reached out to General Eric Shinseki. Then, word came down from Shinseki's office to keep her in her place. She returned to work on August 1st. She behaved even worse following her return. In part that's because her ability to overcome the VA's attempt to fire her made her more intimidating not only to staff but even her own bosses. Then, following several of my stories and a story from the Pittsburgh Tribune, she was two days ago again put on indefinite administrative leave.
If this story is let go, she'll possibly be able to figure out a way to get back into the Pittsburgh VA. More like is that she's removed from the Pittsburgh VA and she winds up at another hospital somewhere. She'll almost certainly sue the Pittsburgh VA and that's because nearly all her previous, if not simply all, have faced lawsuits from her. Then, Dr. Chacko will again be free to continue to engage in this somewhere else. She has to. Dr. Chacko spends money in such a way that no matter how much she makes it's not enough. She owns three homes, Butte, Mt., Hawaii and Pittsburgh, that I know of. Her expenses will simply not allow her to retire quietly. She has to keep working.
Beyond that though, all the weaknesses that Dr. Chacko has exploited her entire medical career will continue to be open. A medical system that allows for a Psychopath to create a lucrative and profitable medical career is a flawed medical system. That's what happened and it happened because our medical system is flawed. The only way to fix the flaws that Dr. Chacko exploited is to investigate her entire career fully. There are reasons why, despite burning bridges each and every time, Dr. Chacko was able to find another hospital to hire her. The public needs to know those reasons so that no one else is ever able to do the same thing. Everyone should care about Dr. Chacko, and her exploits, because she abused and manipulated our military, medical, legal, and cultural systems, and no one like her can ever manipulate them the way she has again. To do that, we must know the truth. To know the truth the public must care. So, that's why, in my opinion, everyone should care about Dr. Anna Chacko.
Epilogue:
Here's the definitive dossier on Dr. Chacko.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Video, Quote, and Word of the Day
raffish
vulgar
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
Albert Einstein
On the Brink of Collapse: Bad Roofs, Corruption and Murder IV
UPDATE: Please also check out my new book, The Definitive Dossier of PTSD in Whistleblowers by going to this link where in chapter three this case is explored in further.
In the world of New Hampshire politics, the Executive Council holds a great deal of sway. It's a six member panel that represents each of six regions of the state. One of their duties is to approve the nominations of Superior Court Justice nominees. On the 23rd of September, the Council held a marathon session that included a public hearing in which people could speak on both sides of potential nominations of a series of Superior Court Justices. One of the nominees is Marguerite Wageling. Marguerite Wageling is currently the Hillsborough County Attorney, the equivalent of a DA in most states. Wageling has held that post since the beginning of 2004. Wageling has the support of the state's main newspaper the New Hampshire Union Leader. The majority of the speakers at this hearing held a similar opinion to the Union Leader. One speaker in particular, however, saw it differently. That speaker was Gerard Beloin.
Gerard Beloin is a local area roofer but for about the last seven years he has been consumed by a story that has taken him away from his business and instead had him cross paths with the law, area politicians, and Attorney Wageling herself. About seven years ago, he bid on a project for Goffstown High School, a high school in a town that neighbored his own. In preparing for the bid, he inspected the roof. He found the roof was not only not up to code but constructed in a way that could cause it to cave at any moment. It was made of tectum which is a material that is strong initially but weakens when it gets wet. Years of rain had caused the tectum to weaken. Beloin informed the school board president, Dr. Craig Hieber. Dr. Hieber shared Beloin's concerns and began speaking with other members of the school board. Months later Dr. Hieber was found dead. The circumstances of that death appeared suspicious to Beloin and so he began carrying around a tape recorder.
Over the next few years, Beloin was able to tape local power brokers and others with connections to the political structure engaging in extortion, discussing arson, and alluding to murder. In 2005, he took all the tapes he had collected along with supporting evidence to his County Attorney, Marguerite Wageling. Wageling never prosecuted anyone on any of the recordings except for Beloin himself. She prosecuted Beloin because he had made these recordings without the permission of the other party.
Over the next four years Beloin has been in court several hundred times defending himself against these charges. The case has been thrown out on numerous occasions and often with prejudice. He was eventually convicted of a misdemeanor related to one of these charges and spent a day in jail. No one else on any of the recordings has ever been charged or convicted with any crimes.
Beloin told me that he feels that Wageling's handling of his case makes her unfit to be a judge and he wanted to play several of the recordings as evidence. Beloin was only able to play one of the recordings. That's because members of the Council began to object as they felt that Beloin was presenting evidence of a crime and not presenting evidence relevant to the proceedings. Beloin feels that the council didn't give him his right to the first amendment.
I spoke with State Representative Al Baldassaro, who signed in to the meeting in support of Wageling. He has been familiar with Beloin's case for more than two years. Back in 2007, Beloin brought many of the recordings to Baldassaro's office. Baldassaro is NOT Beloin's Representative but Baldassaro told me that at the time he was working on legislation that related to several issues that related to Beloin's case. When Baldassaro heard the recordings, he believed that something was "very wrong". Baldassora told me, "I don't think that Beloin is crazy" and "there is something seriously wrong here". Upon hearing the recordings, he forwarded them and all related evidence to the Attorney General's office. The AG of New Hampshire refused to prosecute and eventually joined in prosecuting Beloin for illegal recordings. Baldassaro said he was "in and out"during Beloin's testimony and didn't want to speculate on it specifically. He did maintain that in his opinion there's "something very wrong" but that he's also not a law enforcement officer and so not in a position to make the proper judgment.
I contacted all members of the council and was able to speak to Bev Hollingworth, one of the council members. Hollingworth told me that she felt that the council gave Beloin the same opportunity that all other speakers were given. She also told me that she wasn't sure how his testimony was relevant, but she also said that transcripts of all his recordings and a photo Beloin said he received anonymously of several severed heads were all entered into the public record. She also said that all his evidence was forwarded to the Attorney General of New Hampshire.
What follows is a transcript of Beloin's testimony and his interaction with the Council. Speakers include Beloin himself indicated by GB, Raymond Burton, a Council member, indicated by RB, Debora B. Pignatelli, another Council member, indicated by DP, and John Shea also a Council member, indicated by JS. In the recording that Beloin plays appears a local real estate investor, John Janiczek, and he is indicated by JJ.
RB: Now let’s go through the list of those would like to speak in opposition. The chair will call upon Gerard Molie
GB: Beloin
RB: Did I say that right? Is that correct?
GB: That’s Beloin. Beloin. Bear with me for just a second here. Um, I really don’t have much to say. I just have uh… something. My story is quite different than the ones you have been hearing. And I sent you all an e-mail containing links to these recordings last night. Councilor Pignatelli said she received it but didn’t look at it.
DP: Ah. Excuse me.
GB: Did I get that right.
DP: No. You did not get that right.
GB: I’m sorry.
DP: I received it. I looked at it. I tried e-mailing you back. It did not go through.
GB: I stand corrected. Um. Here uh. I have some transcripts. I want to quantify these uh transcripts before passing them out. They’re the official transcripts of these recordings from the Hillsborough County Court House. They have never been contested. Two judges at the Hillsborough County Superior C have authenticated them to be authentic. And one NH Supreme Court Justice has called them authentic. Nobody from the state has ever offered any alternative or transcribed any alternatives. They are the official court records concerning this case.
They are also available online if anybody else wants to see them. I have some extra copies to pass around.
In 2002 I competed for a construction contract in Goffstown. It was a $12 million contract in all. It was $1.5 million for the roof about. And um. I was not the lowest bidder. I lost the bid originally. I complained to Dr. Hieber, the Chairman of the school board about it. Uh, I showed him the… how the process, the bidding process is gamed and scammed by members of organized crime. Showed him the official report from the State of NJ Commission of Investigation of how the scam is run. Showed him letters from Mr. Doug Wicks who was the driving force behind the State of NJ Commission of Investigation. And all the State of NJ Commission does is investigate organized crime and racketeering as it applies to public corruption and law enforcement. He took my side of the issue. We were going to have the contract rescinded and assigned to me. That was our plan. He went to prosecutor Kerry Steckowych who was a member of the Goffstown School Board with his plans to go public with this. Shortly after that he dropped dead. Not long after that, one of his personal messengers came to see me and let me know in no uncertain terms what would happen to me at the hands of Prosecutor Steckowych and the Goffstown PD if I didn’t stop exercising my 1st Amendment rights.
On page one, uh… the first one says “Worry about somebody shooting you.” I believe that this recording starts right at the bottom where it says “JJ: They are worried now.”
RW: What are we doing here? ……Inaudible
GB: I just want.
RB: The Hillsborough County Attorney’s Office, how it would lead to Marguerite Wageling being a nominee to the Superior Court. And Uh, the Chair would request that you get right to the point. You are obviously listed as appearing in opposition.
GB: Correct.
RB: And this your submitting for our perusal and part of the testimony we are collecting here. I assure you that it will be looked at. Um and Um the question that we have before us as a body is do we vote yes or no on this particular Nomination. And over the years we sent and collect and receive through different media a lot of information and we have to boil it down at this table to a yes or no. In this case there is some ??? Gerry and.
GB: It’s Gerard.
RB: Um …Um…This is in support of your opposition.
GB: Uh, Yea. In support of my opposition. Correct. But the bottom line is that Attorney Wageling had all of these in her possession and did absolutely nothing about it. And you have to listen to this and this is members of organized crime, who, I’m not saying this, in there own words, describing what’s going to happen to me if I don’t stop exercising my 1st Amendment rights of speaking freely.
GB: I’m wondering if they’re sending a signal or (this is) just a coincidence.
JJ: No. They’re….
GB: …sending a signal?
JJ: They’re worried now. This (letter) will take that heat off of you and you won’t have to worry about somebody shooting you some night. It’s to your benefit, I’m telling you. These guys…, we may be a small town but we can think of some small towns where there are 5 or 8 hundred people and things like this happen where they shoot them. You got 18,000 here!
GB: Well, Dr. Hieber. He knew everything.
JJ: He knew what was going on and they said we better get rid of him.
RB: Was this information submitted to the Hillsborough County Attorneys Office to the desk of Hillsborough County Attorney Marguerite Wageling?
GB: By certified mail.
RB: By certified mail and it was acknowledged?
GB: No. There was never a response. What they did was they prosecuted me for making these recordings.
RB: An how did that come out of the. What decision did the court render?
GB: All charges were dismissed with prejudice.
RB: Okay. Um.
GB: What it is if you look online connected to that e-mail I sent you will see the 3rd MOTION TO DISMISS filed May 2006. After I filed that motion, prosecution defaulted on the motion. That prosecutor was fired. They hired another prosecutor. That prosecutor defaulted on the motion and then it went to a hearing and the prosecution defaulted at that hearing. The case was dismissed with prejudice. I have the recordings, the transcripts and then the court records were then falsified to show that the case was not dismissed with prejudice. So we’re looking at felony after felony, after felony of perjury, suborning perjury and conspiracy to commit perjury and nobody is doing anything about it.
RB: Did you refer and bring to the Attorney Generals Office of this state. Who under the constitution is the chief law enforcement officer of the state all of the information and if so if you care to tell this council how that was disposed of at the Attorney Generals Office.
GB: Yes. At the Attorney Generals Office I was assigned to Investigator G. Michael Bahan. G. Michael Bahan is the investigator who was in charge of investigating Judge John Fairbanks. He’s the one that said that Judge John Fairbanks had committed no crimes. Shortly after he said Judge John Fairbanks had committed no crimes, Judge Fairbanks was on the run from the law and on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list. In that meeting, Chief Investigator Bahan threatened me. I got it on tape. It’s on tape at the NH Attorney Generals Office. He threatened to have me arrested and prosecuted…. for complaining. For filing a false police report against Steckowych. Steckowych is threatening to kill me through his subordinates.
GB's note: G. Micheal Bahan is the same investigator Chairman Burton denigrated as being corrupt in the 1990's.
RB: Well, again, um I think that……
GB: I have the recordings. This is the last recording here.
RW: We can’t hear a court case here.
GB: It’s not hearing a court case. These are what we submitted to Marguerite Wagling to be investigated. This one is very simple. I’ll read it from the transcripts. This is an informant who knows
Informant: "He's talking about he's got a buddy out in the f***in boat in Gloucester. He's got a big 100 ft. f***ing fishing boat. He's talking about chumming people. He don't give a f**k. He's just the guy to do it man. I know his family. They're all crazy and they want a shot at whatever is going on so."
GB: They are discussing a hit contract being put out on me and the people that they want to share it.
RB: And you took all of this information to the Attorney General’s Office of this state.
GB: To the FBI. Attorney Pignatelli also.
RB: I believe, speaking for myself, not the other councilors, but I think we’ve heard your case, your situation if you want to put it that way. I’m satisfied that we can move on and it will be up to this council and Governor Lynch to call for a vote of confirmation on this particular nominee to the Superior Court.
GB: The reason why it matters is because Prosecutor Wageling or attorney Wageling was prosecuting me for making recordings of members of organized crime, I want to finish this. They’re talking about sending people up from NJ, the politicians, where they’re going to take me, cut my body up into little pieces, run it through a meat grinder and feed it to the fish in the ocean.
RW: Getting up quickly to leave.
GB: I know it’s uncomfortable Ray Wieczoreck but this is the truth.
RW: No. No. She’s calling me.
GB: I’m sorry.
RB: You believe that the law enforcement system, starting with the Attorney General. You were not satisfied with how this case was received. You are obviously are not satisfied with how it was prosecuted or dealt with through the court system of this state. Unless there is objections from members of the council, um I’m going to ask that this testimony to be terminated at this particular point. And I’m not going to ask the nominee to respond unless I’m overruled by the council. Under the rules of procedure, I can as Chair be overruled the members of this council.
GB: All I’m saying is that I’m not the one saying this. Investigator G. Michael Bahan was called a liar, politically corrupt, implausible, unbelievable, uh, uh, there 11 of them. I lost track of them. All by a Governor, Executive Council members, NH State Reps and NH State Senators, back in the 1990s. The same names. The same people looking the other way at heinous crimes being committed by people in power. Happening just a decade and a half later. The same names doing the same thing. When is everybody going to wake up??
BH: Can I just? If I could? We unfortunately can not do this at this time. This is … We hear what you are saying. We think that the candidate did not do her job. Ah and that therefore we should deny her nomination. Is that what your saying?
GB: No. I have.
BH: That’s all that we are here for. That’s all that we can address. We can not… This council does not have the law in which we can make a decision based on what you’re bringing here. All we can do is hear your objections to the candidate and take that under consideration. That is why, I believe is why, the Chair is saying we have to terminate this at this time.
GB: I agree with what you are saying. I’m just saying that she did not do her job. I have her on tape committing perjury and conspiring to commit perjury. I have that on tape on the Goffstown Town meeting.
RB: If you leave one copy of this with me I will put it in the messenger system asking the current Attorney General.
GB: I want you to see the last page. Somebody mailed that to me (photo of several severed heads spread out on the floor) after my appeal at the NH Supreme Court was accepted. They don’t want my head figuratively. They want it literally.
RB: This went to the Attorney Generals Office.
GB: No. No. They did not get this yet.
RB: If you leave your name and address, I will ask as chair of the proceeding here that the Attorney General respond if appropriate.
GB: Just Google my name you can get anything you want. It‘s now taking up 6 pages of Google. I have people setting up websites across the country looking into this and in NH, nothing but cricket sounds of silence. I’m asking you to do the right thing. Attorney Wageling has looked the other way.
RW: This is not the forum to do it.
GB: It is. She is being appointed to a judgeship when she looked the other way with these crimes, heinous crimes being committed.
RB: The Attorney General will look into this. We will send it over there. We will put your phone and address. And I will request a response directly to you, if appropriate, by the chief law enforcement officer of the State of NH, Attorney Michael Delaney and his staff. Now as far as I’m concerned, unless I’m overruled, this testimony is terminated.
DP: I’m not overruling this but I think we ought to hear Marguerite Wageling the opportunity to respond if she so chooses.
RB: If appropriate, it is my ruling that she not be allowed to respond. This is not a court proceeding here but our rules that we adopted on how these hearings are to be run the chair can be overruled. So if there are other councilors that want to hear from Marguerite Wageling then that’s the case.
GB: I appreciate you forwarding this to the NH Attorney Generals Office and I think that’s the right thing to do. But Attorney William Delker, sitting over there, I have on tape, one of his associates saying that he is committing perjury, suborning perjury and conspiring to commit perjury. So that’s what I’m getting at the NH Attorney Generals Office.
RB: Mr. Beloin your testimony is terminated. Give me your name and address and I’ll put it in your messenger system. As a matter of fact it will go the normal route and will be responded to if the correct mailing address is there if appropriate by the Attorney General of the State of NH.
GB: I appreciate that but they have refused to interview me over the past few years. They have never even spoken to me. So…
RB: Well, that will be the decision of our new Attorney General who was just confirmed recently.
GB: Hopefully. Allright. Well thank you.
RB: Executive Council? Am I overruled? Carry on. Your testimony is terminated.
GB: I just want you to look at this. This is the modern day equivalent of a horses head in your bed. Thank you.
Here's a link to audio that includes this exchange.
...
On a separate, though possibly related, issue, Beloin is currently in the middle of a criminal trial stemming from an incident in which a gun found in his computer bag set off a metal detector in the entrance of a court. That has its own complicated story and so I encourage all readers to click the link. Beloin has created a website to track his travails. It goes without saying that the site is one sided but is much more detailed than what is here. The Council is expected to vote on all the Superior Court Nominees on October 7th.
In the world of New Hampshire politics, the Executive Council holds a great deal of sway. It's a six member panel that represents each of six regions of the state. One of their duties is to approve the nominations of Superior Court Justice nominees. On the 23rd of September, the Council held a marathon session that included a public hearing in which people could speak on both sides of potential nominations of a series of Superior Court Justices. One of the nominees is Marguerite Wageling. Marguerite Wageling is currently the Hillsborough County Attorney, the equivalent of a DA in most states. Wageling has held that post since the beginning of 2004. Wageling has the support of the state's main newspaper the New Hampshire Union Leader. The majority of the speakers at this hearing held a similar opinion to the Union Leader. One speaker in particular, however, saw it differently. That speaker was Gerard Beloin.
Gerard Beloin is a local area roofer but for about the last seven years he has been consumed by a story that has taken him away from his business and instead had him cross paths with the law, area politicians, and Attorney Wageling herself. About seven years ago, he bid on a project for Goffstown High School, a high school in a town that neighbored his own. In preparing for the bid, he inspected the roof. He found the roof was not only not up to code but constructed in a way that could cause it to cave at any moment. It was made of tectum which is a material that is strong initially but weakens when it gets wet. Years of rain had caused the tectum to weaken. Beloin informed the school board president, Dr. Craig Hieber. Dr. Hieber shared Beloin's concerns and began speaking with other members of the school board. Months later Dr. Hieber was found dead. The circumstances of that death appeared suspicious to Beloin and so he began carrying around a tape recorder.
Over the next few years, Beloin was able to tape local power brokers and others with connections to the political structure engaging in extortion, discussing arson, and alluding to murder. In 2005, he took all the tapes he had collected along with supporting evidence to his County Attorney, Marguerite Wageling. Wageling never prosecuted anyone on any of the recordings except for Beloin himself. She prosecuted Beloin because he had made these recordings without the permission of the other party.
Over the next four years Beloin has been in court several hundred times defending himself against these charges. The case has been thrown out on numerous occasions and often with prejudice. He was eventually convicted of a misdemeanor related to one of these charges and spent a day in jail. No one else on any of the recordings has ever been charged or convicted with any crimes.
Beloin told me that he feels that Wageling's handling of his case makes her unfit to be a judge and he wanted to play several of the recordings as evidence. Beloin was only able to play one of the recordings. That's because members of the Council began to object as they felt that Beloin was presenting evidence of a crime and not presenting evidence relevant to the proceedings. Beloin feels that the council didn't give him his right to the first amendment.
I spoke with State Representative Al Baldassaro, who signed in to the meeting in support of Wageling. He has been familiar with Beloin's case for more than two years. Back in 2007, Beloin brought many of the recordings to Baldassaro's office. Baldassaro is NOT Beloin's Representative but Baldassaro told me that at the time he was working on legislation that related to several issues that related to Beloin's case. When Baldassaro heard the recordings, he believed that something was "very wrong". Baldassora told me, "I don't think that Beloin is crazy" and "there is something seriously wrong here". Upon hearing the recordings, he forwarded them and all related evidence to the Attorney General's office. The AG of New Hampshire refused to prosecute and eventually joined in prosecuting Beloin for illegal recordings. Baldassaro said he was "in and out"during Beloin's testimony and didn't want to speculate on it specifically. He did maintain that in his opinion there's "something very wrong" but that he's also not a law enforcement officer and so not in a position to make the proper judgment.
I contacted all members of the council and was able to speak to Bev Hollingworth, one of the council members. Hollingworth told me that she felt that the council gave Beloin the same opportunity that all other speakers were given. She also told me that she wasn't sure how his testimony was relevant, but she also said that transcripts of all his recordings and a photo Beloin said he received anonymously of several severed heads were all entered into the public record. She also said that all his evidence was forwarded to the Attorney General of New Hampshire.
What follows is a transcript of Beloin's testimony and his interaction with the Council. Speakers include Beloin himself indicated by GB, Raymond Burton, a Council member, indicated by RB, Debora B. Pignatelli, another Council member, indicated by DP, and John Shea also a Council member, indicated by JS. In the recording that Beloin plays appears a local real estate investor, John Janiczek, and he is indicated by JJ.
RB: Now let’s go through the list of those would like to speak in opposition. The chair will call upon Gerard Molie
GB: Beloin
RB: Did I say that right? Is that correct?
GB: That’s Beloin. Beloin. Bear with me for just a second here. Um, I really don’t have much to say. I just have uh… something. My story is quite different than the ones you have been hearing. And I sent you all an e-mail containing links to these recordings last night. Councilor Pignatelli said she received it but didn’t look at it.
DP: Ah. Excuse me.
GB: Did I get that right.
DP: No. You did not get that right.
GB: I’m sorry.
DP: I received it. I looked at it. I tried e-mailing you back. It did not go through.
GB: I stand corrected. Um. Here uh. I have some transcripts. I want to quantify these uh transcripts before passing them out. They’re the official transcripts of these recordings from the Hillsborough County Court House. They have never been contested. Two judges at the Hillsborough County Superior C have authenticated them to be authentic. And one NH Supreme Court Justice has called them authentic. Nobody from the state has ever offered any alternative or transcribed any alternatives. They are the official court records concerning this case.
They are also available online if anybody else wants to see them. I have some extra copies to pass around.
In 2002 I competed for a construction contract in Goffstown. It was a $12 million contract in all. It was $1.5 million for the roof about. And um. I was not the lowest bidder. I lost the bid originally. I complained to Dr. Hieber, the Chairman of the school board about it. Uh, I showed him the… how the process, the bidding process is gamed and scammed by members of organized crime. Showed him the official report from the State of NJ Commission of Investigation of how the scam is run. Showed him letters from Mr. Doug Wicks who was the driving force behind the State of NJ Commission of Investigation. And all the State of NJ Commission does is investigate organized crime and racketeering as it applies to public corruption and law enforcement. He took my side of the issue. We were going to have the contract rescinded and assigned to me. That was our plan. He went to prosecutor Kerry Steckowych who was a member of the Goffstown School Board with his plans to go public with this. Shortly after that he dropped dead. Not long after that, one of his personal messengers came to see me and let me know in no uncertain terms what would happen to me at the hands of Prosecutor Steckowych and the Goffstown PD if I didn’t stop exercising my 1st Amendment rights.
On page one, uh… the first one says “Worry about somebody shooting you.” I believe that this recording starts right at the bottom where it says “JJ: They are worried now.”
RW: What are we doing here? ……Inaudible
GB: I just want.
RB: The Hillsborough County Attorney’s Office, how it would lead to Marguerite Wageling being a nominee to the Superior Court. And Uh, the Chair would request that you get right to the point. You are obviously listed as appearing in opposition.
GB: Correct.
RB: And this your submitting for our perusal and part of the testimony we are collecting here. I assure you that it will be looked at. Um and Um the question that we have before us as a body is do we vote yes or no on this particular Nomination. And over the years we sent and collect and receive through different media a lot of information and we have to boil it down at this table to a yes or no. In this case there is some ??? Gerry and.
GB: It’s Gerard.
RB: Um …Um…This is in support of your opposition.
GB: Uh, Yea. In support of my opposition. Correct. But the bottom line is that Attorney Wageling had all of these in her possession and did absolutely nothing about it. And you have to listen to this and this is members of organized crime, who, I’m not saying this, in there own words, describing what’s going to happen to me if I don’t stop exercising my 1st Amendment rights of speaking freely.
GB: I’m wondering if they’re sending a signal or (this is) just a coincidence.
JJ: No. They’re….
GB: …sending a signal?
JJ: They’re worried now. This (letter) will take that heat off of you and you won’t have to worry about somebody shooting you some night. It’s to your benefit, I’m telling you. These guys…, we may be a small town but we can think of some small towns where there are 5 or 8 hundred people and things like this happen where they shoot them. You got 18,000 here!
GB: Well, Dr. Hieber. He knew everything.
JJ: He knew what was going on and they said we better get rid of him.
RB: Was this information submitted to the Hillsborough County Attorneys Office to the desk of Hillsborough County Attorney Marguerite Wageling?
GB: By certified mail.
RB: By certified mail and it was acknowledged?
GB: No. There was never a response. What they did was they prosecuted me for making these recordings.
RB: An how did that come out of the. What decision did the court render?
GB: All charges were dismissed with prejudice.
RB: Okay. Um.
GB: What it is if you look online connected to that e-mail I sent you will see the 3rd MOTION TO DISMISS filed May 2006. After I filed that motion, prosecution defaulted on the motion. That prosecutor was fired. They hired another prosecutor. That prosecutor defaulted on the motion and then it went to a hearing and the prosecution defaulted at that hearing. The case was dismissed with prejudice. I have the recordings, the transcripts and then the court records were then falsified to show that the case was not dismissed with prejudice. So we’re looking at felony after felony, after felony of perjury, suborning perjury and conspiracy to commit perjury and nobody is doing anything about it.
RB: Did you refer and bring to the Attorney Generals Office of this state. Who under the constitution is the chief law enforcement officer of the state all of the information and if so if you care to tell this council how that was disposed of at the Attorney Generals Office.
GB: Yes. At the Attorney Generals Office I was assigned to Investigator G. Michael Bahan. G. Michael Bahan is the investigator who was in charge of investigating Judge John Fairbanks. He’s the one that said that Judge John Fairbanks had committed no crimes. Shortly after he said Judge John Fairbanks had committed no crimes, Judge Fairbanks was on the run from the law and on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list. In that meeting, Chief Investigator Bahan threatened me. I got it on tape. It’s on tape at the NH Attorney Generals Office. He threatened to have me arrested and prosecuted…. for complaining. For filing a false police report against Steckowych. Steckowych is threatening to kill me through his subordinates.
GB's note: G. Micheal Bahan is the same investigator Chairman Burton denigrated as being corrupt in the 1990's.
RB: Well, again, um I think that……
GB: I have the recordings. This is the last recording here.
RW: We can’t hear a court case here.
GB: It’s not hearing a court case. These are what we submitted to Marguerite Wagling to be investigated. This one is very simple. I’ll read it from the transcripts. This is an informant who knows
Informant: "He's talking about he's got a buddy out in the f***in boat in Gloucester. He's got a big 100 ft. f***ing fishing boat. He's talking about chumming people. He don't give a f**k. He's just the guy to do it man. I know his family. They're all crazy and they want a shot at whatever is going on so."
GB: They are discussing a hit contract being put out on me and the people that they want to share it.
RB: And you took all of this information to the Attorney General’s Office of this state.
GB: To the FBI. Attorney Pignatelli also.
RB: I believe, speaking for myself, not the other councilors, but I think we’ve heard your case, your situation if you want to put it that way. I’m satisfied that we can move on and it will be up to this council and Governor Lynch to call for a vote of confirmation on this particular nominee to the Superior Court.
GB: The reason why it matters is because Prosecutor Wageling or attorney Wageling was prosecuting me for making recordings of members of organized crime, I want to finish this. They’re talking about sending people up from NJ, the politicians, where they’re going to take me, cut my body up into little pieces, run it through a meat grinder and feed it to the fish in the ocean.
RW: Getting up quickly to leave.
GB: I know it’s uncomfortable Ray Wieczoreck but this is the truth.
RW: No. No. She’s calling me.
GB: I’m sorry.
RB: You believe that the law enforcement system, starting with the Attorney General. You were not satisfied with how this case was received. You are obviously are not satisfied with how it was prosecuted or dealt with through the court system of this state. Unless there is objections from members of the council, um I’m going to ask that this testimony to be terminated at this particular point. And I’m not going to ask the nominee to respond unless I’m overruled by the council. Under the rules of procedure, I can as Chair be overruled the members of this council.
GB: All I’m saying is that I’m not the one saying this. Investigator G. Michael Bahan was called a liar, politically corrupt, implausible, unbelievable, uh, uh, there 11 of them. I lost track of them. All by a Governor, Executive Council members, NH State Reps and NH State Senators, back in the 1990s. The same names. The same people looking the other way at heinous crimes being committed by people in power. Happening just a decade and a half later. The same names doing the same thing. When is everybody going to wake up??
BH: Can I just? If I could? We unfortunately can not do this at this time. This is … We hear what you are saying. We think that the candidate did not do her job. Ah and that therefore we should deny her nomination. Is that what your saying?
GB: No. I have.
BH: That’s all that we are here for. That’s all that we can address. We can not… This council does not have the law in which we can make a decision based on what you’re bringing here. All we can do is hear your objections to the candidate and take that under consideration. That is why, I believe is why, the Chair is saying we have to terminate this at this time.
GB: I agree with what you are saying. I’m just saying that she did not do her job. I have her on tape committing perjury and conspiring to commit perjury. I have that on tape on the Goffstown Town meeting.
RB: If you leave one copy of this with me I will put it in the messenger system asking the current Attorney General.
GB: I want you to see the last page. Somebody mailed that to me (photo of several severed heads spread out on the floor) after my appeal at the NH Supreme Court was accepted. They don’t want my head figuratively. They want it literally.
RB: This went to the Attorney Generals Office.
GB: No. No. They did not get this yet.
RB: If you leave your name and address, I will ask as chair of the proceeding here that the Attorney General respond if appropriate.
GB: Just Google my name you can get anything you want. It‘s now taking up 6 pages of Google. I have people setting up websites across the country looking into this and in NH, nothing but cricket sounds of silence. I’m asking you to do the right thing. Attorney Wageling has looked the other way.
RW: This is not the forum to do it.
GB: It is. She is being appointed to a judgeship when she looked the other way with these crimes, heinous crimes being committed.
RB: The Attorney General will look into this. We will send it over there. We will put your phone and address. And I will request a response directly to you, if appropriate, by the chief law enforcement officer of the State of NH, Attorney Michael Delaney and his staff. Now as far as I’m concerned, unless I’m overruled, this testimony is terminated.
DP: I’m not overruling this but I think we ought to hear Marguerite Wageling the opportunity to respond if she so chooses.
RB: If appropriate, it is my ruling that she not be allowed to respond. This is not a court proceeding here but our rules that we adopted on how these hearings are to be run the chair can be overruled. So if there are other councilors that want to hear from Marguerite Wageling then that’s the case.
GB: I appreciate you forwarding this to the NH Attorney Generals Office and I think that’s the right thing to do. But Attorney William Delker, sitting over there, I have on tape, one of his associates saying that he is committing perjury, suborning perjury and conspiring to commit perjury. So that’s what I’m getting at the NH Attorney Generals Office.
RB: Mr. Beloin your testimony is terminated. Give me your name and address and I’ll put it in your messenger system. As a matter of fact it will go the normal route and will be responded to if the correct mailing address is there if appropriate by the Attorney General of the State of NH.
GB: I appreciate that but they have refused to interview me over the past few years. They have never even spoken to me. So…
RB: Well, that will be the decision of our new Attorney General who was just confirmed recently.
GB: Hopefully. Allright. Well thank you.
RB: Executive Council? Am I overruled? Carry on. Your testimony is terminated.
GB: I just want you to look at this. This is the modern day equivalent of a horses head in your bed. Thank you.
Here's a link to audio that includes this exchange.
...
On a separate, though possibly related, issue, Beloin is currently in the middle of a criminal trial stemming from an incident in which a gun found in his computer bag set off a metal detector in the entrance of a court. That has its own complicated story and so I encourage all readers to click the link. Beloin has created a website to track his travails. It goes without saying that the site is one sided but is much more detailed than what is here. The Council is expected to vote on all the Superior Court Nominees on October 7th.
Stimulus on the Horizon
After the grim jobs report for September, the latest D.C. watercooler rumor has the president extending a few different programs that are a part of the stimulus package.
The three programs that the president is looking to extend are the beefed up COBRA credits (credits to allow unemployed workers continue to pay for their health insurance), beefed unemployment benefits, and the $8000 first time homebuyer credit.
These three look like naturals for the Obama administration. He's always been a big fan of any program that supports the poor and downtrodden and so the first two fit there. With the success of cash for clunkers (yes it's debateable), the first time home buyer credit is another program Obama would favor. We've seen some movement in housing over the last few months and many analysts have given this credit at least some of the credit.
The problem of course is that these programs have dubious effects on creating jobs. After all, it's the latest sour jobs report that has spawned talk of extending these three. It's hard to make an argument that extending COBRA or unemployment will create any jobs. They may make it easier for those without a job, but creating jobs is another story. In fact, you could even make an argument that extending these benefits hurts job creation because they are an incentive to stay out of work. As for the first time home buyer's credit, we've seen car sales depress following cash for clunker. Cash for clunkers has proven that such credits really only steal from future sales. The housing market is nowhere near settling, and so, unless the president extends this credit in perpetuity, we're only putting off a housing hangover for a few more months by this extension. Meanwhile, all of these extensions cost money and run the government deeper in debt.
Beyond this, he has several political problems with these extensions. First, the extensions are inherent evidence that his initial stimulus didn't work. If it had, he wouldn't need to do this. Second, if he's extending parts of the stimulus, that's technically a second stimulus. That's something the White House wants desperately not to have these extensions be referred to as a "second stimulus".
So, instead, it's being referred to as an "economic triage". I presume that's because it's three extensions all at once. Of course, if you're extending three programs originally in the first stimulus, that sounds to me like a second stimulus. The bigger problem, in my opinion, is that Obama continues to implement policies that have shown absolutely no sign of success.
After another grim jobless report, President Obama is turning his attention to extending a lifeline to the unemployed and making the case that his health care plan would create jobs by making small business startups more affordable.
The Obama administration has begun talks with congressional Democratic leaders on moves to extend health insurance subsidies, the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit and jobless benefits, congressional and administration officials told FOX News late Friday.
The three programs that the president is looking to extend are the beefed up COBRA credits (credits to allow unemployed workers continue to pay for their health insurance), beefed unemployment benefits, and the $8000 first time homebuyer credit.
These three look like naturals for the Obama administration. He's always been a big fan of any program that supports the poor and downtrodden and so the first two fit there. With the success of cash for clunkers (yes it's debateable), the first time home buyer credit is another program Obama would favor. We've seen some movement in housing over the last few months and many analysts have given this credit at least some of the credit.
The problem of course is that these programs have dubious effects on creating jobs. After all, it's the latest sour jobs report that has spawned talk of extending these three. It's hard to make an argument that extending COBRA or unemployment will create any jobs. They may make it easier for those without a job, but creating jobs is another story. In fact, you could even make an argument that extending these benefits hurts job creation because they are an incentive to stay out of work. As for the first time home buyer's credit, we've seen car sales depress following cash for clunker. Cash for clunkers has proven that such credits really only steal from future sales. The housing market is nowhere near settling, and so, unless the president extends this credit in perpetuity, we're only putting off a housing hangover for a few more months by this extension. Meanwhile, all of these extensions cost money and run the government deeper in debt.
Beyond this, he has several political problems with these extensions. First, the extensions are inherent evidence that his initial stimulus didn't work. If it had, he wouldn't need to do this. Second, if he's extending parts of the stimulus, that's technically a second stimulus. That's something the White House wants desperately not to have these extensions be referred to as a "second stimulus".
The economic moves were recently pulled together by White House economic advisers as an act of economic triage aimed at millions of chronically unemployed Americans. The White House is loathe to call this emerging package a second economic stimulus.
So, instead, it's being referred to as an "economic triage". I presume that's because it's three extensions all at once. Of course, if you're extending three programs originally in the first stimulus, that sounds to me like a second stimulus. The bigger problem, in my opinion, is that Obama continues to implement policies that have shown absolutely no sign of success.
Point Counter Point Weekly Address
Boy, this latest weekly address sounded like something I had heard before. That's because it was. The president focused on the economy and about a minute in he made the segway to health care reform. Again, he said that he inherited an economy and the brink. He said the economy had come a long way since when he took over and we were losing about 700,000 jobs monthly. He said all of this to soften the blow from the latest jobs report which showed that we lost 264,000 jobs. By comparison, it certainly looks better.
On health care reform, we heard all the same talking about again. Health care costs are unsustainable, they're crushing small businesses, and his health care reforms will do all the same things: curb costs, cover those with pre existing condtions, and give coverage to everyone.
The only thing of note was the president's naivite on health insurance's costs on small businesses. If health insurance is killing small businesses, the right question isn't how to make it cheaper for small businesses but why our system is designed so that businesses are expected to give them health insurance. Instead of designing a system that would drive health insurance away from employers, which would free up all sorts of money, the president is designing a system that he says will make it cheaper for small businesses to get health insurance for their employees.
That doesn't fix the problem. Because health insurance is tied to employment, all sorts of employment decisions are made with that in mind. In my opinion, proper reform moves health insurance away from the employer and to the individual. Instead, the president is designing a system that, in theory, makes it easier for employers to give their employees health insurance. That seeems to me to feed the problem.
Congresswoman Candice Miller of the 10th District of Michigan delivered the Republican response. Just as President Obama defended his policies in light of the latest jobs report, Congresswoman Miller attacked them. Obama's problems on the stimulus, beyond its policies, are entirely self inflicted. He made all sorts of unrealistic promises and now those promises are used against him. The Republicans' use of his promise not to have unemployment not go above 8% has become a broken record. Congresswoman Miller took that card out again for this speech. She also pointed out that he promised that jobs would come back immediately.
Both those promises were silly and unrealistic. We were in the middle of a deep and wide recession and near a depression. No one knew just how bad it would get and he used the 8% number boldly. That will haunt him most of his administration. Most stimuli, be it fiscal or monetary, takes at least six to nine months to filter into the economy. Yet, he promised that jobs would come back immediately. It's simply about mismanaging expectations. He should have prepared the country for much greater difficulties and he'd be on better footing now.
Congresswoman Miller also attacked the cap and trade, or tax as you will, bill. She pointed to the recently released White House memo that said that cap and trade will cost the average family about $1800 in energy bills. Obviously, increasing energy costs is a bad idea in most times and certainly now especially. Congresswoman Miller pointed this out.
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