MORE STUPIDITY FROM C.B.SMITH

With only a few days until Election Day, C.B. Smith had nothing better to discuss today than an old cartoon that’s been floating around town for a month. But that’s typical, instead of addressing the numerous issues about his candidates, he post a cartoon, what an original thought.

He also mentioned State Supreme Court Candidate James G. Gilpatric will be visiting their little “rally” tonight. Considering that both Gilpatric and Sobo seem to have issues following judicial ethics regulations, we’re not surprised he’s showing up, maybe he plans to give Josh some pointers. According to the Times Union, Gilpatric has “
been operating political committees and giving money individually for seven or eight years in violation of judicial ethics regulations”, isn’t that the same thing Sabo appears to be doing. We’re starting to wonder if this is a common practice for these people, they really don’t seem bothered by the fact that they’re violating judicial regulations, or want to answer the allegations when raised. Now we’ve come to expect some of these antics from the regular politicians, but for judicial candidates it’s disgusting. If they can’t follow the law off the bench, how can we expect them to follow it while on the bench?

We’re getting a lot of emails about the blog, and we just wanted to say thanks for the compliments, comments and tips. One of those comments had to do with the disappointed of the North Greenbush Democratic Committee (NGDC) and their lack of information about their candidates agenda. As one person who emailed us put it “I’m sick of Charley Smith telling us what was wrong in the past, for once I’d like to hear him tell us what his “professional management team” is going to do for us in the future. Day after day he keeps repeating himself about the same things, none of it has anything to do with the future of North Greenbush. They talk about change, but what changes are they planning to make?”. I have to say I couldn’t agree more, voters have a right to know what you’re going to do if elected to office.

We also received the following news story from a reader, seems the Attorney General is looking into the mixing of money between charities and political campaigns. The reader suggested we send our post on the DANA/SABO/GBP charity issues to the AG. Here is the full article.

And in yet another email we received it was suggested we compare the 2007 bio of Josephine Ashworth to her 2009 bio, it seems someone added some fluff to make it appear she fit the “professional management” profile C.B. is promoting.

In her 2007 bio she claimed she simply owned a consulting company and worked for the State, in her 2009 bio, someone appears to have strategically added the buzz-word “management” to her former company as well as her State job. Hey, if Kevin Harrington can misrepresent his military service on his job application Josephine Ashworth is entitled to as well. Here are some snips from her two bio’s.

It also appears that Charlie Smith likes funny pictures, well so do we. Here’s one that we’re willing to bet if it appeared on Tuesday’s ballot would be voted a hell of a lot funnier than John Hebert’s .

PROFESSIONAL CAMPAIGN TEAM

Constable Warren

northgreenbusg@gmail.com

Follow The Money

If you really want to know what’s going on in politics, they say all you need to do is “follow the money”, and with campaign finance records being available on-line, it’s pretty easy to do. But as with anything, where there’s a will, there’s a way to defeat the systems, and as you know I’m always looking for anything strange.

Take for instance an expenditure of $500 by Josh Sabo to the North Greenbush Democratic Committee(C.B. Smith Treasurer) on October 3rd for 1/7th the cost of advertising (see below). At first glance nothing really appears to be wrong, some committees and candidates can share campaign costs. With 7 candidates running on the Dem/GBP ticket, at first glance it appears to be legit. But they is SABO/NGDC/GBP/DAN/C.B. Smith, so I dig a little deeper. Now if $500 = 1/7th then the NGDC should have a $3,500 expenditure for advertising, as well as 6 other reimbursements in their financial disclosure reports. The other six would be Ray Elliott, Jan Liberty, Josephine Ashworth, Rich Fennelly, Trish Noel and Mark Premo.

(click on image to expand)

Below are the two recent expenditure reports for the NGDC, keep in mind Sabo did not become a candidate until August 27th, so the expenditure would have to be after that date.

When we added ALL the advertising expenses paid by the NGDC it only totaled $2,253.27, that’s for everything that may have to do with advertising, USPS, The Advertiser and One Call, so where is the $3,500 advertising expense?

As a judicial candidate Sabo is restricted from making certain contributions, and the Judicial Ethics rules are VERY clear, stating ” A candidate for judicial office, whether a sitting judge or a non-judge, may not make a payment to a political party’s campaign committee that is supporting all candidates being endorsed by the party, nor make any payment to the party in order to be considered for its endorsement, but may only reimburse the committee for his or her proportionate share of the campaign costs.”,
Opinion 01-21. Meaning, if the NGDC didn’t have a $3,500 advertising expense which included advertisements for Sabo, then Sabo’s payment is illegal, and he or C.B. Smith has some questions to answer.

Since we didn’t see a $3,500 expense in the NGDC reports, we decided to look at the other seven candidates to see if any had reimbursed the NGDC their 1/7th of the “advertising” expense, guess what, we didn’t find any. Ray Elliott had no such expenditure, but did have several large advertising bills for signs and palm cards etc., so it appears he paid his own way. Jan Liberty is registered, but has not submitted a single disclosure report, same for Ashworth, she’s registered but no reports on file. Fennelly and Noel are not registered so there’ no reports at all for them, and Premo lists no advertising expense paid back to the NGDC. So where’s the $3,500 bill, and where’s the other 6/7ths of reimbursement?

If you go back and look at Sabo’s expenses you’ll see that he paid for his own palm cards as well as his own lawn signs, so the advertising expense didn’t come from that. If you add up all the NGDC advertising expenses it only totals $1,745.27, of which Sabo would be responsible for 1/7th or $249.32.

It appears one of two things happened, either Josh Sabo tried to sneak money to the NGDC, or C.B. Smith scammed Josh Sabo. Now we do know that the NGDC is having trouble raising money this year. In 2007 the NGDC had raised $21,452 for the year by the time the filed their 11-day Pre General Report, this year they’ve only raised $7,988.65 for the same point in time, which is about a 63% loss compared to 2007. So when we say there are money issues that could force them to shift money, it’s not speculation. Consider this invitation.

In my opinion “send your contribution as early as possible” so we can “utilize this revenue” is a statement of desperation and shows the NGDC is hurting for money. With only $1,799 left in their coffers tat the time of their 11 day Pre General report, they’re broke by now considering what they spent in the advertiser this week.

So again we sit and wait to see if either C.B. Smith or Josh Sabo will address the issues, but considering last post was answered by Doug Sauer the CEO of NYCON not Sabo, I suspect we may see either Gov. Paterson of the President answer this one, who knows.

If these people can’t be honest and transparent while campaigning for office, how can we expect them to be honest and transparent if they’re elected to office.

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MORE PROBLEMS FOR HARRINGTON, WHAT STORY WILL C.B. SMITH CREATE FOR THIS

We have another charity story for you, and this one doesn’t have a happy ending either. We picked up on it this morning reading the blog over on northgreenbushvertias, where someone commented about a post on the troypolitics blog, which references the story we’ve posted below. In a nutshell, it has to do with the raises that the county legislatures received back in ’05. You remember the ones the dems have been flapping their gums about for four years, but seem to have a case of amnesia when it comes to remembering that voted for it to. In all fairness there were two dems who didn’t, or sjhould I say couldn’t, because they had been voted into office, but their terms had not started, Kevin Harrington and Brian Zweig.

Now being freshmen legislators they didn’t want to miss a Kodak moment, and soon they were firing off press releases denouncing the raises. In a gesture I’m sure they thought would win them the Nobel Prize, they each pledged to donate their raises to charity. Considering the raises were worth $5,000 a year, at four years each, that was a $40,000 gift to charity. And of course James Franco from the Record didn’t miss the Kodak moment either, and wrote all about it, HERE’S what he had to say, and I included an excerpt below.

Raise game played very well

By: James Franco, The Record
12/29/2005

Two newly elected Democrats who had no vote on the pay raise, Kevin Harrington and Brian Zweig, are giving their extra $5,000 to charity, but so far they are the only ones to step up and do the right thing.The GOP also gave two popular politicians, County Executive Kathy Jimino and County Clerk Frank Merola, a $12,000 and $10,000 raise, respectfully, so the legislature doesn’t look so bad. Jimino now makes $116,000 and Merola gets $80,000. At least they are pretty much in line with similar positions in the area, and they actually work for their money.

As we said above, when it comes to politicians we believe no one until they prove themselves, so we decided to dig a little further and see if we could ascertain where Messers Harrington and Zweig donated the money, after all $40,000 is a lot of money. We only had one problem, we couldn’t find any record of their donations. Zip, zilch, nada, nothing, not even a press releases on the Legislative Minority web site.

Now I happen to know Kevin, and I know how he operates, so I’m going to speculate that he never intended to make any donation from day one, as for Brian, I don’t know what his intentions were, but as I said I found nothing that shows they donated any money to charity. Now I’m sure if push comes to shove, they may be able to produce a receipt of two for donations, but I’m not talking about $30 or $50 here and there, I’m talking about $40,000 these two pledged to charity, and no DANA doesn’t count.

Now Messers Harrington and Zweig have spent a great deal of time this year ranting about a raise they may not have voted on, but are receiving with each paycheck and have pledged to donate to charity. We ask that they produce the documents showing that this money was donated as pledged and we’ll be happy to post them here.

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OPEN LETTER TO TRISH NOEL

It was with great interest that I read your message in the advertiser this week, after all you’ve been a candidate since the August 27th caucus and this is the first public message I’ve seen from you to the voters of North Greenbush, and it comes only days shy of the election.

While I’m sure you’re “honored” to have won your endorsements at the Democratic Caucus and the WFP Primary, and I congratulate you for that, I have to question what honor can you feel by being endorsed by the Greenbush Party (GBP). Have you considered that the Democratic Party as well as the Working Families Party both operate in the open, and through a democratic process whereby the people of the party choose their candidate, and the Greenbush Party is not? The GBP is a closed door secrete society, only open to select individuals, who’s masters are the sole individuals allowed to select candidates. In the two years the GBP has existed, I have yet to see or hear of any announcement of open meetings promoting their membership or their platform. I have not seen, nor heard of the GBP taking part in any civic functions for the betterment of our community other than elections. In fact you need only to look at their blog and see that it’s been dormant since the elections of 2007, that is until this election season.

The residents of North Greenbush are not that naive to believe that the GBP is not a re-branded Defreestville Area Neighborhoods Association. While it’s their right to call themselves whatever they want, to change your name simply to deceive the voters is wrong. But then again they have a history of doing that, first it was Defreestville Citizens Action Committee, then the Defreestville Area Neighborhoods Association, then the Village Incorporation Committee and now the Greenbush Party. They can change the name all they want, but if the names of the leaders remain the same, they’ll always be DANA

The Greenbush Party was also formed under the pretense of ” choice at the ballot box” because they felt it was wrong for a candidate to be endorsed by four parties, yet you and your fellow D/WFP/GBP candidates are all running with three endorsements, is there really a difference having one less, doesn’t it still take choice away from the voters? When an organization fails to uphold the very principle it was formed under, what does it say about the organization.

Your correct by stating it’s “disheartening to hear outrageous remarks” and see “hateful material being circulated”, but what I guess you fail to realize is most of it is coming from the very people you are running with and supporting. If you as a candidate, expect us the voters, to believe that C.B. Smith is not responsible for the northgreeenbushpipeline blog, and the very material that appears to upset you, then I say you are not in touch with the people of North Greenbush or your own party. Mr. Smith through his pipeline and mailings has spent the past several years personally attacking every candidate and or board member who has served this town, simply because they were not aligned with the North Greenbush Democratic Party.

I’m perplexed by your comment “all the evil in North Greenbush is “our” fault, Please define who you mean by “our”, as you’re using it in a possessive term to include you, and I don’t recall where I or anyone else has specifically blamed you for any “evil”. The same holds true for your statement “we are somehow responsible….”, who is we. As I see it, you’re classifying yourself a part of the North Greenbush Democratic Machine, which if true, you are being very naive about the very information you’re questioning.

As for this being an “opponents blog” I can assure you that I am not running for any office, therefore I am not your opponent or an opponent to any of your fellow candidates. Nor do I hold a position in any political party other than being an enrolled member, and I’m not on any candidates payroll. What I am Trish, is a taxpaying voter who lives in the Town Of North Greenbush, and there’s 8,000 others just like me. I’m a taxpaying voter who is truly upset with the political antics of Dan Ashley, C.B. Smith and Josh Sabo who feel they have a right to attack those who don’t have the same political beliefs. Last but not least, I’m a citizen of the United States who has the right to sit here and express my beliefs without being subject to a C.B. Smith political attack. An attack whereby he’ll search to the depths of hell to find one little piece of information about my past to use against me, and if he can’t find it, he’ll make it up, but you know that, as you were his campaign spokeswoman in 2001.

Constable Warren

northgreenbush@gmail.com

DANA & The Greenbush Party, Charity Or A Scam?

For many years residents of North Greenbush have wondered how the Defreestville Area Neighborhoods Association (DANA) could afford to pay for their numerous lawsuits and attorney’s fees. Many have estimated the cost associated to DANA for 4 & 43, Oak Hill and the Village exceeding $200,000. When you break that down, DANA would have needed to raise $100 from 2,000 people, or $400 from each signer of their village petition just to raise $200,000.

It’s no secret that DANA and the Greenbush Party (GBP) are one in the same, although they have never publicly admitted it, they haven’t denied it either. The GBP financial disclosure reports filed with the NYS Board of elections read like a Who’s Who of DANA, and we’re pretty sure they’re one in the same. Yet when you look at the money raised by the GBP, only $6,000 in 2007 you have to ask where did DANA come up with $200,000. This year the GBP was only able to raise about $4,000, a far cry from $200,000. So how did DANA raise all that money to pay their legal bills?

What if we told you that Josh Sabo, former DANA/VIC attorney, former Greenbush Party candidate for Town Supervisor, current Greenbush Party candidate for Town Justice is the President of a nonprofit corporation that collects and distributes donations for charities.

What if we told you that DANA is registered as a charity with Mr. Sabo’s organization NYCON
(formerly the Council of Community Services of New York State, Inc. , as well as registered as a charity with the New York State Attorney General’s Office of Charities.

How does a group whose only function has been to oppose the development of land, become a registered charity in NYS? We’ve read several definitions and have yet to find a definition of charity that fits the Defreestville Area Neighborhoods Association as it functions.

With DANA’s current registration as a type 7-A Nonprofit NYS Organization, they are allowed under NYS Executive Law 7-A to solicit “contributions (including grants) from New York State sources (including without limitation residents, foundations, corporations and government agencies). DANA is allowed to solicit and collect money from the GOVERNMENT!!! It’s scary to think that our hard earned tax dollars may have found their way into DANA’s coffers to pay for the lawsuits they filed against us, they taxpayers of North Greenbush. To find out if we did, we attempted to look at the annual reports they’re required by law to file with the NYS Charities Bureau, but they haven’t filed any reports since at least 2006, making them at least three years behind and in violation of NYS Executive Law 7-A.

When we tried to ascertain how much if any Mr. Sabo’s NYCON gave to DANA, we found that that information was not provided on the NYCON website. Bit according to NYCON they only deal with 501(c)(3) organizations, and they “believe in organizational accountability and transparency for all nonprofits, according to New York State law. ” , yet it appears they don’t hold DANA to that standard. NYCON also claims they deal only with 501(c)(3) charities but DANA is not registered with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a 501(c)(c).

As a 501(c)(3) charity DANA would be prohibited from being involved with the GBP as well as making any contribution to any political campaign. There are also significant restrictions placed on charities and their involvement lobbying efforts, such as lobbying for a comprehensive plan or lobbying for the formation of a village.

When we consider that Mr. Sabo has been heavily involved with both DANA and the GBP, and has been a candidate in the past as well as the present, it raises many questions about the financial ties of these two organizations. We also have to consider that Richard Fennelly is a member of DANA and a current GBP candidate, and the involvement of Josephine Ashworth and her husband Chip who is a member of DANA. Last but not least is Maureen Flanigan, the current GBP Treasure, and we believe is/was the Treasure for DANA.

It’s more than a coincidence that these people have kept these organizations close to hart and closed to outsiders. When we consider the above facts, and the failure of DANA to file the information required under NYS Law, the above candidates/members of DANA become obligated to the people of North Greenbush to fully disclose the financial connections between DANA, GBP and NYCON. Additionally Mr. Sabo should immediately release his financial disclosure statement he was required with the Unified Court System Ethics Commission. DANA should release all annual reports, current and past, as well as all document, forms, applications and certificates pertaining to their status as a charity as well as a 501(c)(3) exempt organization.

Constable Warren

northgreenbush@gmail.com

 

More Drama, Deception, Lies and Violations And A Side Order Of Stupidity

It appears C.B. Smith wants win the election by way of drama, not facts or the qualifications of his candidates. In his latest move he appears to have written a letter by long time operative John Hebert and submitted it to The Advertiser, the letter claims in part that Town Justice Stephanie Piel is illegally serving on the North Greenbush GOP Committee, a claim that has been refuted by North Greenbush GOP Chairman.

As we’ve pointed out in many of our past posts, the validity of the information provided by C.B. Smith is always questionable, when you add John Hebert to the mix, it’s a 99.99% guarantee that the information is false. Many will recall the letter purportedly written by the Wynantskill Fire Department and submitted to the Advertiser during the attempt to incorporate the Village of Defreestville. It was determined that the letter was a forgery, sources close to the investigation at the time stated John Hebert was the chief suspect. Hebert is also the one responsible for the creation of C.B. Smith numerous political cartoons, as well as some of the cartoons that were used by DANA, and of course there’s his famous 2004 Democratic National Convention incident where Hebert assaulted ” a pair of elderly women” over a Bush campaign sign and made national news.

With all of that in mind, we find it more than a mere coincidence that Hebert’s letter referenced an email, a copy of which also appeared in the Advertiser, with no explanation attached, was paid for by the North Greenbush Democratic Committee (NGDC), Ashley, Sabo, Smith and Ashworth. Ask yourself, what are the chances that a letter by Hebert, and a C.B. Smith paid copy of an email appearing at the same time. So was John Hebert’s letter that of a concerned citizen or that of political operative looking to misguide voters with misinformation. Consider that just days prior to Election Day 2007, Mr. Smith and Josh Sabo used a similar tactic by claiming that the 2008 North Greenbush budget prepared by Sabo’s opponent was illegal, yet there was never a formal charge.

Copy of NGDC Ad as it appeared

Rule number one for any judicial candidate is to avoid the appearance of impropriety because a judge does not represent the voter, they represents the law. It’s our opinion that the latest revelation by Mr. Hebert was done at the direction of members of the NGDC, of which Joshua Sabo is 1st Vice Chairman, a position he’s prohibited from holding as a candidate for judicial office(see 100.5(A)(1)(a) of the Rules Governing Judicial Conduct) . A Judicial Ethic Opinion (01-44) on the subject states ” The inquirer correctly notes that section 100.5(A)(3) of the Rules Governing Judicial Conduct permits a non-judge candidate for elective judicial office to remain as a member of a political organization during the electoral campaign. However, the inquirer is also aware of section 100.5(A)(1)(a) of the Rules, which prohibits both judge and candidates for judicial office from acting as a leader or holding office in a political organization”. Has Mr. Sabo resigned from the Rensselaer County Democratic Committee and the North Greenbush Democratic Committee? We have seen no such announcement, or any announcement of a replacement if he did, but were sure C.B. can make one up.

Now if the NGDC is manipulating John Hebert into writing letters that misrepresent the truth, and Sabo is a member of that committee, what does this say about Josh Sabo and his qualifications to be Town Justice? As 1st Vice Chairman Mr. Sabo also sought out, and accepted the endorsement of the NGDC for Town Justice, which surly gives the ” appearance of impropriety ” in that he may have used his influence as 1st Vice Chair to get the endorsement over other potential candidates.

We also believe Mr. Sabo crossed the line in his campaign literature by stating “With a law office on Route 4 in DeFreestville, Sabo will be accessible to law enforcement officials for arraignments at any time during the day or night.” The statement gives the implies that the location of his office is better suited for a Town Justice than the other candidates due to its location, making it an “appeal to passion fear or prejudice”, which is also prohibited. In reality a candidate is not required to have an office, as arraignments can be held just about anywhere, including the judges office at the Town Court, or better yet in the court room at the Town Hall, and besides, is Sabo really going to be at his office 24/7?

He again crosses the “appeal to passion fear or prejudice” line with the following advertisement, paid for by the NGDC of which Sabo is 1st Vice Chair.

This advertisement is clearly designed to place the fear in residents that if they don’t vote “Row E”, Route 4 will turn into Wolf road, the statement pertains to a hotly debated political issue, which Mr. Sabo is prohibited from engaging in as a judicial candidate, yet his name appears in the advertisement. This type of advertisement is clearly prohibited by the Rules for Conducting a Judicial Campaign in New York. Additionally, development is an issue that Mr. Sabo was personally involved with while representing the Defreestville Area Neighborhoods Association, which also precludes him from becoming involved in the issue as a judicial candidate.

Now let’s talk about Mr. Sabo’s endorsement by the Working Families Party(WFP), and how he obtained it. A town resident who is enrolled in the WFP contacted us after receiving a letter from Jim Welch, Rensselaer County Chair of the WFP. That letter stated the WFP was endorsing Sabo and Fennelly for the September Primary election, the resident upset that the WFP would endorse two individuals who tried to block the unionization of town employees, called Mr. Welch. After explaining their displeasure to Mr. Welch, Welch replied that ” Sabo had helped the party in the past, so we wanted to help him out”, sorry Mr. Sabo but accepting a political endorsement in exchange for something of value is prohibited by a judicial candidate, and clearly gives the ” appearance of impropriety”, nothing does.

Holding a committee chair, endorsements and campaign literature are not Mr. Sabo’s only issues, he also has a few issues with his campaign finance. The Rules for Conducting a Judicial Campaign in New York clearly state ” Neither a judicial candidate nor a member of the candidate’s immediate family may solicit campaign funds, except from family members. Campaign funds should be solicited only through campaign committees.” A review of Mr. Sabo financial disclosure report shows that he received donations not only at his home, but at the home of his “immediate family” as well.

The reason judicial candidates and their immediate families are prohibited from handling and donations is they’re not supposed to know who the contributors are, again from the Rules for Conducting a Judicial Campaign in New York “To prevent the appearance of impropriety, the names of campaign contributors should be kept secret from the candidate to the extent legally permissible. The candidate should not seek access to a list of contributors, nor should the candidate seek in any other way to learn the names of contributors.” It’s kind of hard for it to be a secret when it’s mailed to your house.

It is also our understanding that a fund raiser may have been held at the home of Mr. Sabo’s parents, again the Rules for Conducting a Judicial Campaign in New York clearly states “campaign funds should be solicited only through campaign committees” and “neither a candidate nor a member of a candidates immediate family may solicit campaign fund”. With donation being recorded as received at both the home of Mr. Sabo, and that of his parents, Mr. Sabo has some questions to answer.

It would appear C.B. Smith needs to clean his own house before he worries how clean everyone else’s is, as it appears Mr. Sabo has many more issues to deal with that Ms. Piel.

A side note to C.B. Smith:

In the coming days we can only hope that you will realize you are only performing a disservice to your party and its enrolled members with your actions. The people of North Greenbush not only have the right to a fair and impartial election, they deserve it.

With very few days remaining before the election, you could better serve your party, and its members by providing honest and sincere information about your candidates and their platforms, allowing them to make an informed decision on Election Day.

On the other hand, if you wish to continue with your attempted smear campaign, feel free, as we believe we’ve proved that we are more than prepared counter all your misinformation, whatever it may be, and will do so right up to election day.

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MORE STUPIDITY FROM C.B. SMITH

Admiral Smith of the North Greenbush Democratic Navy spoke to his sailors this morning and was quoted as saying “Call it the “nuclear option”. For every action there is an equal an opposite reaction”, those words of wisdom were just to get the troops fired up, and he soon follow with more words of wisdom which were “A General Discharge under Honorable Circumstances is an honorable discharge. Sawyer and the military knows it”. Admiral Smith has now been promoted to Secretary of the Navy and is making policy changes as we speak.

Hey C.B. can I see your Form DD-214, I mean if you know so much about the military, you must have served right. And I’m sure your familiar with MILPERSMAN 1910-300, which clearly states the following:

Characterization. The following types of separation are authorized:

a. Honorable (HON).

b. General (Under Honorable Conditions) (GEN).

c. Under Other Than Honorable (OTH).

d. Entry Level Separation (ELS).

e. Order of release from the custody and control of the Naval Service by reason of void enlistment or induction.

Seems the military doesn’t “know” that a “honorable” and a “general” discharge are the same as they have them listed separately.

Now “general” separation or discharge (what Kevin has admitted receiving) is administrative, and there are only two way for it to happen, as spelled out in MILPERSMAN 1910-304 , by the way of a “specific finding of a review board” or in the absence a review board based on the members record. Meaning if a member is charged with some serious infraction, and Navy has determined that they no longer want him, he has two choices. First he can take his case to a review board and risk receiving a higher level of punishment, or having it stay the same, or accept the fact he screwed up and walk away with a general discharge based on what’s already in his record, including the current charges, basically a plea bargain.

Now what I really can’t understand is if you an Kevin has admitted to receiving a general discharge, and several million veterans know it takes some form of misconduct to receive a general discharge, yet you nor Kevin can accept the fact. Hey, if you and Kevin believe otherwise, release his Form DD-214. Otherwise your just admitting that what everyone already knows.

As I said in a past post, Kevin’s records are accessible to the general public, and I have requested a copy of those record, and plan on posting them once I receive them. So Kevin can either act like an adult and produce the records, or look like a total ASS when I post them, it’s his choice.

I know you love posting anything and everything about Lou Desso’s past, but no matter how you put it together, he didn’t kill anyone, Kevin did. In my book that makes Kevin the bigger sinner. That is what this is all about isn’t it C.B., past sins, isn’t that way your posting all this, you want to save us from the sinners. if you’re trying to save us from the sinners than why is there an issue with Kevin’s past?

Oh, and by the way, Adultery is a sin as well, wasn’t Fennelly involved in an adulterous relationship in the past? Did Rich go to the Vatican and get a pardon from the Pope, is that why you forgave him?

You know C.B. they say you can judge a person by the company he keeps, you and your crew are a textbook example proving that’s it true.

North Greenbush Dem Club Chairman Caught Trashing Desso Signs

It came as no surprise when we learned Bob Price had been seen trashing campaign signs belonging to Lou Desso, and replacing them with signs belonging to Richard Fennelly, after all Price has been an operative for Charlie Smith for years. It’s also not the first time Price was caught “trashing” things that don’t belong to him. In January 2006 police were called when Price removed town property from the Town Hall and reportedly threw it in the trash. The property was a brand new chair that the town had purchased to honor Lillian Parsons, a long time town resident who’s attended over 1,000 town meetings. The chair wa placed in the front row of the meeting room and is reserved for Lillian. Price it seems didn’t like Parsons or the chair, It was reported that he took the chair to Parson’s house where Lillian, who loved the chair but knew it was town property refused to take it. Price then reportedly took the chair and threw it in the trash. After the police were called, the chair was returned to its place the meeting room in the Town Hall.

Now is seems Price has again targeted his enemies, this time it’s their campaign signs he’s trashing. A report filed with the North Greenbush Police included the below statement, where Frank Catone stated he witnessed and confronted Price who was removing a sign belonging to Lou Desso, and replacing it with a sign belonging to Richard Fennelly. Based on that statement, the North Greenbush Police paid a visit to Mr. Price and it’s our understanding that a warning was issued, and Mr. Price has promised to behave himself (yea right).

Richard Fennelly hasn’t issued any statement about the incident or stated what his involvement was. We would have to assume that Fennelly, who’s running for North Greenbush Town Council would be responsible for the distribution of his own signs. Considering his close ties with the NG Democratic Committee, as well as ties to Price, Fennelly will avoid issuing any statement hoping the issue fades away in time for elections.

 

Considering we have two weeks until Election Day, and the fact that there’s lots of signs around town, we had our in house artist create a composite sketch of the suspect, if you see this man near any campaign signs contact us immediately

 

 

For those of you who are not familiar with the North Greenbush Democratic Club, it’s a PAC or Political Action Committee created by Dan Ashley and C.B. Smith to funnel money into the North Greenbush Democratic Committee. Robert Price appears to be both Chairman and treasurer, as well as a charter member along with C.B. Smith’s cousin Kevin Harrington. There’s more information about its formation HERE.

What we don’t understand is why the North Greenbush Democrats need a PAC in the first place, other than to have a means to hide campaign contributions, it really serves no purpose. And if it is legit, why is Bob Price both chairman and treasurer? The financial disclosures for the North Greenbush Democratic Club can be found HERE.

Back to missing signs, it seems the sign removed by Bob Price wasn’t an isolated incident. Here’s another report where signs that were placed on private property with the owner’s permission and were then removed and replaced democratic candidates signs WITHOUT the owner’s permission. The report also states that 14 other signs have been stolen.

You have to be a real stand-up character to go on private property, remove private property and replace it with your own. I mean are they “that stupid” to think no one is going to figure out who did it?

 

It’s also been reported that when campaign literature for Malone, Hammond, Harrington and Zweig was being distributed in on the north end of route 4, several signs disappeared belonging to Leon Fiacco, yet signs for local candidates remain untouched. Again you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out this out. One minute the signs there, next its gone, but attached to your mail box is campaign material from Hammond, Harrington, Malone and Zweig. Some real stand-up candidates they must be if their using thieves to distribute their material.

Now many people will say that this is just normal campaign shenanigans, but it’s not, it’s a crime. Private property was trespassed, and property was stolen.

What everyone really needs to consider is if a candidate for office is using people who are willing to commit criminal acts just to win an election, what kind of people will these candidates select to serve in appointed positions if their elected?

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PAUL TAZBIR ENDORSES MIKE MINER FOR TOWN SUPERVISOR

For some good news that we’re sure many of you have already heard. Former Town Supervisor Paul Tazbir has endorsed Mike Miner for Town Supervisor. Paul made the announcement during Tuesdays fund raiser for Mike and Kelly Hoffman, where he also spoke of his support for Kelly and Joe Bott. One key points in Paul’s statement was that he didn’t play party politics when he came into office, and at the risk of backlash from his own party made appointments based on qualifications, not affiliations. As a result he said he had a “great team that enjoyed coming to work every day”, and working for the people of North Greenbush. Tazbir, an enrolled republican has once again risked backlash from his own party by not endorsing Mark Evers, and endorsing Mike. We believe Paul has make a great choice.

Dear North Greenbush Voters,

As a resident of North Greenbush and former North Greenbush Town Supervisor I am fully aware of the needs of our community, the expectations and responsibilities of Town Government and the qualities and character needed to effectively lead our Town government in the role of Supervisor. It is for this reason that I am writing to express my support for Michael Miner in his campaign for Town Supervisor.

During my four years as Supervisor I worked closely with Michael and saw firsthand his dedication, honesty, leadership and character. Mike has ten years experience as head of the Building department, serves on the North Greenbush Youth Board and was formerly the Youth Director and Teen Center Director. Mike has been involved with budgeting, planning, grant writing, recreation programs, park improvements, and has a strong understanding of all aspects of Town government. He has worked closely with Planning and Zoning Boards, Emergency Services, as well as several town administrations. Mike has always been an advocate for the safety and well-being of our seniors, as demonstrated by his operation of the Emergency Shelter at the Town Hall during last winter’s ice storm. In addition, Mike is a lifelong resident of North Greenbush graduating from Gardner-Dickinson School, LaSalle Institute and R.P.I. For nearly twenty years Mike has shown a constant willingness to serve the community of North Greenbush and has demonstrated an ability to effectively communicate with people, businesses and professionals. Having worked directly with officials from New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation, Department of  Transportation, The Department of State, The State Comptroller’s Office, Rensselaer County’s Health Department, Highway Department, Bureau of Public Safety and Bureau of Finance. Mike is well prepared for the responsibilities and
expectations of this position.

Although I am a strong supporter of the Republican Party and typically ask for support for the party’s candidates, I am asking for you to make an exception in this instance and vote for the most qualified candidate for Supervisor. I believe Michael is the right choice for Supervisor. On Tuesday, November 3rd please elect Michael Miner as our next Town Supervisor.

Sincerly,
Paul Tazbir

 

Having known Paul for a number of years I can say that this endorsement is not given lightly. Paul has spent many years in public service, and is well respected by all political parties. The man knows what it takes to do the job and worked with Mike during his two terms in office. I would have to say Paul has allot of confidence that Mike can do a good job, or he wouldn’t have given his endorsement.

 

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MORE DRAMA FROM C.B. SMITH, I GUESS HE IS THAT STUPID

 

C.B. Smith must have been home sick from school the day they taught the definition of credibility, so for C.B. here is the short version, ” the quality of being believable or trustworthy”.

It appears C.B. has again called upon one of his long standing operatives to do his dirty work, there’s only one problem, C.B. has again selected someone with little or no “credibility”, John Hebert.

As we already pointed out, Mr. Hebert was suspected of or being the individual who mailed and had published a forged letter claiming to be from the Wynantskill Fire Department during the Village elections. John is also the individual who made national news during the 2004 Democratic National Convention when he had a confrontation with two little old ladies, here’s an excerpt from the New Yorker.

” Two sullen objectors—a pair of elderly women—sat smoking on a nearby park bench, holding “Bush-Cheney” signs.

“The whole media’s for Kerry,” one of them, named Betty, said. “We’re Republicans. We have been since Ford, because he didn’t want to bus our kids, neither.”

John Hebert, a firefighter and Democratic Party volunteer from North Greenbush, New York, spotted the women as he left the clambake. “What’s someone doing with that sign?” he said. “Bush sucks.” He circled around behind the women, snatched a sign, and threw it on the ground in front of the delegation’s buses. “Am I the king?” he asked, taking a seat on a bus

Betty didn’t think so. “Make him pick that up,” she yelled, charging the bus and attracting the attention of a cop. “He’s very uncouth.”

The policeman requested that Hebert step off the bus to apologize.

“I was just kidding around,” Hebert said.

“No, you were not,” Betty said. “You are an idiot—a New York idiot.”

As the convoy pulled away, Hebert held up his middle finger: an Empire State salute. “Hey, folks,” he said, “if I offended anyone, I’m sorry. But you know what? It was worth it. Bush does suck.”"

Yea, he’s a class act with allot of credibility. So anyway Mr. Hebert has penned a letter to The Advertiser questioning the status of Town Justice Stephanie Piel, he signed that letter “John Hebert, Wynantskill”. Funny John claims he live in Albany in his self written bio:

“John’s bio – written by John: John Hebert has been many things…or he’s been CALLED many things. He was a semi successful comic book artist drawing such title as X-Men Adventures, Punisher, Nomad and Deathlok for Marvel as well as Jonny Quest, Wild Wild West and Mars Attacks for various other publishers. After leaving comics, he went on to become a firefighter, EMT, and fingerprint examiner which he remains to this day as a supervisor at the NY State Division Of Criminal Justice Services, helping to keep our streets safe-by keeping himself off of them as much as possible. Born in the far away land known as Wynantskill, NY, he now makes his home in Albany where he dabbles in politics, tending his car collection and pushing the envelope in pretty much whatever he does. The self proclaimed “Hunter S. Thompson of comic book art” has recently begun a return to comics after a lengthy exile, excitedly taking on some Captain Action assignments for Moonstone Publishing as well as a super top secret project involving a character with a red cape and a name that begins with “S” and ends with “N”. He can be reached at Hawkeyepierced@yahoo.com”

Hebert has some history with C.B. Smith, and I for one have my doubts about the validity of the claims Hebert has madew, but we’ll have to wait and see what see what Judge Piel has Greg has to say.

In the mean time, since C.B. has decided not to take are advice, and proven beyond a doubt that he’s the poster child of stupidity when it come to political campaigns, our next post will be on Joshua A. Sabo and his numerous violations of the Judicial Campaign Guidlines

 

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UNANSWERED QUESTION

 

We’ve raised a lot of valid question here in the past few weeks, and it seems the Democrats have no desire to answer any of them. As we see it, their lack of answers proves they hold themselves above the voters, and that don’t believe they’re accountable to anyone but themselves.

They all claim they’re for ethics reform and transparency, yet they can’t operate ethically and transparently before the elections, why? A tiger doesn’t lose its strips when it leaves the jungle, nor does someone instantly become ethical once they’ve become elected to office.

We also have to clarify that by democrats we mean the current controlling members of the local party, Dan Ashley, Charles “C.B.” Smith, Joshua A. Sabo,

We can take back our government, but we have to do it one village, town city, county and state at a time.

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C.B. Smith, Are You Really That Stupid?

Now we’ve always know that C.B. was a few sandwiches short of a full picnic, but when it comes to Kevin Harrington’s past we thought C.B. would be smart enough to let a sleeping dog lie, guess not.

For some reason, C.B. still wants to claim Kevin Harrington possess an honorable discharge, when he doesn’t. What’s even more peculiar is Kevin himself has admitted that he didn’t receive an honorable discharge, so why is his cousin C.B. Smith claiming he did? Somehow C.B. believes that he can offset Kevin’s past by overshadowing it with Lou Desso’s, one problem, Lou isn’t hiding anything,

Here’s what we’ve been able to put together from the information that’s out there (remember C.B. the only secret is the one you never tell anyone). Kevin Harrington went into the Navy shortly after he was involved in a fatal automobile accident that claimed the life of a young girl. Based on a news account from the time Kevin Harrington was the driver of a car that failed to negotiate a turn, went airborne, flipped over and ejected all of the occupants before the car landed on its roof. Based on these accounts, it appears speed was a factor, although there was a police investigation, details were never released.

It was shortly after the accident that Kevin joined the US Navy, and some have speculated he may have used voluntary military service to avoid charges or prosecution that could have resulted from the accident. In the “old days” it was common for a court to give the “accused” a choice between the service or prison. According to Kevin’s profile on classmates.com, he graduated from Troy High in 1987 and was also serving aboard the USS Mount Baker the same year, considering time for boot camp and “A” school, he had to enlist around July or August.

While in the Navy, some event triggered Kevin’s early separation with a general discharge. Normally general discharges are not issued to someone who completes their four or six year commitment.

Contrary to what C.B. Smith may claim, a general discharge IS NOT AN HONORABLE DISCHARGE. A general discharge is an administrative discharge characterization which is given when significant negative aspects of the member’s conduct or performance of duty outweigh positive aspects of the member’s military conduct or performance of duty outweigh positive aspects of the record. The key words of that definition are ” significant negative aspects”, for those who weren’t in the military it means you were FIRED! A general discharge is given for cause, such as the inability to conform to military rules and regulations, such as drugs, alcohol, criminal offenses, it will also be given when the service member has emotional/mental problems, and is rarely given for anything other than a disciplinary problem. In fact many times it’s give as a form of a “plea bargain” to avoid court martial.

Each member of the service upon separation is given a form DD-214, Certificate Of Release Or Discharge From Active Duty. That document is your history of military service and includes information such as your length of service, duty station, specialty, decorations, education and more importantly your “character of service (box 24)”, “separation code(box 26)” and “narrative reason for separation (box 28)”. What s also important on this for is Box 12, record of service. From this you can tell if the person was separated early which is usually another sign of some form of misconduct.

 

As you can see by the above example, one form contains the significant portions of your military history, and Kevin Harrington can clear up any questions about his military service by releasing a copy of the form.

Now a person who receives a general discharge may or may not still be classified as a veteran by the government it depends on the reason for the separation. Amongst veterans, receiving a general discharge is considered a disgrace. It’s a simple concept, why should someone who failed to serve honorably receive the same classification as someone who did. In his latest rambling C.B. is claiming that veterans are already angry, but “not at Harrington, but at Sawyer for allowing himself to be used by Crist and the GOP to attack Harrington’s military service”. Hate to burst your bubble buddy, but the veteran’s aren’t angry with Tyler Sawyer, Rich Crist or the GOP, they’re anger with Kevin for two reasons. First, he fail to uphold the traditions of honorable service to the US Military and was discharge for cause because of it, second, he lied about it.

Now one Tyler Sawyer has become a “Charlie Target” after mailing a letter to veterans in Harrington’s district. Tyler Sawyer, who many will remember as our former town Comptroller, and also served as Grafton Town Supervisor for 10 years mailed that letter to veterans for a reason, he’s a resident of Rensselaer County, and he’s also a veteran, and Kevin Harrington sits on the County Veterans Committee, so Tyler Sawyer was well within his right to send the letter.

Now of course C.B. needs to add as much drama as he can to any story, after all you can’t sell a story without drama. So he adds in all of his buzz words like bogus, criminal, police, police report and caper. The one I love is ” Sawyer was named in a town police report as the person who entered the town clerk’s unlocked records room to grab the town oath book”. So friggin what, he was named in a police report, how many police reports have your name on them C.B. Did the police find that Tyler by “enter[ing] the town clerk’s unlocked records room to grab the town oath book”, commit a crime, no they didn’t. Was he authorized to go in there, yes he was, was it a “burglary” as C.B. claims, no it wasn’t, just more drama from C.B.

But since you brought up Tyler, and we’re talking about military records, let’s compare Tyler to Kevin, it won’t be hard.

Tyler F. Sawyer was HONORABLY discharged after serving 23 years in the United states Navy where achieved the rank of a Senior Chief Petty Officer(E8), William Kevin Harrington involuntarily separated from the Navy with the rank of Seaman Apprentice(E2) (rank information can be verified on military.com). So when it comes to questions about military service, Kevin couldn’t carry Tyler’s “ditty bag”. In fact if you consider Kevin’s rank of E2, he was either a complete failure or demoted prior to his discharge, normally someone with 4 years of Navy service would obtain the rank of E5.

Is C.B. that stupid to think he can attempt discredit an individual with Tyler Sawyer’s record as a means to make his cousin Kevin look better, what is this man thinking.

So C.B. it’s time to put up or shut about, Kevin was a disgrace to the United States Navy and was discharged for some act of misconduct, he lied about the class of his discharge on a job application and got caught, if I’m wrong, prove it by releasing the documents, if I’m right shut up and tell Kevin to do the same. Myself and other who have served honorably are tired of hearing the two of you cry about. Bottom line is Kevin cheated the taxpayers by getting trained to do a job, failed to do his job, and got shit-canned because of it. In the eyes or real veterans he’s a lowlife. If I’m wrong, prove it and post his DD-214

As for Lou Desso and his history, you’ve been beating that drum for four years, and apparently people are not that offended by it, after all he had the highest total vote in the last election, even after all of your press releases. The question for this year is, are the people going to be offended more by Lou’s past of Kevin’s? If what I hear is true, Kevin’s issues with the Navy had to do with drugs. That kind of makes Lou and Kevin equal there doesn’t it? So now we have to consider Kevin’s military service and the accident, and if he was any way responsible for the young girls death. Was he speeding, drunk or stoned, again we won’t know unless Kevin releases information. Considering that the car went airborne, flipped and ejected three people he was at least speeding, which makes him responsible.

And on the subject of police reports and forgeries, wasn’t John Hebert named in a police report as being the main suspect who forged a letter from the Wynantskill fire Department during the village elections? Isn’t he the same person you’re using to draw all of your cartoons? Hell maybe he’s the one that forged all the WFP ballots down in Troy. You hang with some classy characters C.B.

The North Greenbush Version of “Price Is Right”

Sometimes I really have to wonder where Charlie Smith get his facts from.  As I’ve said in the past, I suspect it ‘s Miss Cleo and the Psychic Hot-line, but then again she had a better percentage of being right than Charlie.

It appears Mr. Smith has his panties in a knot due to the overtime expenditures in the Town Clerks office, and once again he’s attempting to spin it into a criminal matter with all the drama of an episode of “Days Of Our Lives”.

Again we find our self questioning the reality of Charlies numbers, as he has recently circulated one of his famous “mystery fliers”, you know the ones, they’re not signed, no return address, and they have a John Hebert cartoon on them. This one claims there’s been $5,000 in overtime in the Clerk’s office in two years, but then, on the same sheet of paper, he claims the Clerk won’t disclose the records.  So, um Charlie, where did you come up with the numbers if you don’t have the records?

We believe it went something like this.

Miss Cleo:  Hello Psychic hot line

Charlie:  Yes I need the overtime figures for the North Greenbush Town Clerks Office.

Miss Cleo:  I need your credit card number

Charlie:  Yes, it’s a Visa, number is XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-7023, name on the card is North Greenbush Democratic Committee

Miss Cleo:  OK, you need what now.

Charlie:  I want the overtime figures for the North Greenbush Town Clerks Office

Miss Cleo:  Why don’t you just FOIL them instead of paying me $59.99.

Charlie:  Well the clerk is the FOIL officer and she doesn’t like me anymore.

Miss Cleo: How come?

Charlie:  I don’t know, we used to be BFF’s, but now she doesn’t like me anymore, as a matter of fact, nobody likes me.

Miss Cleo:  Well I don’t have those numbers.

Charlie:  Oh, OK, are you still going to charge me %59.99.

Miss Cleo:  Well yes sir, you did make the call to us.

Charlie:  But you didn’t answer my question.

Miss Cleo:  If you read the fine print on the commercial, you would have seen this is for entertainment only.

Charlie:  But I really need those numbers.

Miss Cleo:  Just make something up, you’ve done that before.

Charlie:  How do you know that.

Miss Cleo:  Because I’m a psychic.

Charlie:  WOW! Can you tell me who’s going to win the election.

Miss Cleo: Sure, for another $59.99

Charlie:  O.K

Miss Cleo:  The winner will be……..

At this point the line went dead and Charlie made several attempts to call back, but Miss Cleo wouldn’t take his calls.  So on the advice of Miss Cleo, Charlie started making up numbers.

For once it would be nice if Charlie and company could put together some factual information that would truly aid the people in making a decision come Election Day.  But instead he likes to run with bits of information and add hype.

Now, what’s his issue with overtime anyway?  I mean if people work extra hours, are they not entitled to additional pay?  Last I looked a the labor law, they are.   Now was the Clerk’s office allocated funds for overtime in this years budget, not sure I would have to look at a copy of the budget, but that’s not the point, someone worked overtime and they’re entitled to get paid for it, that is unless it’s the village of Defreestville where they all work for free. .

Look, things happen, like Katie having back surgery and being out of work because of her sergury, it wasn’t planned. So what do we do, close the clerk’s office?  Imagine the fun Charlie would have with that.  Consider last years ice storm, how much was spent on overtime with the highway dept?  Did the highway department go over budget? Did the storm cleanup stop because of the budget?  That’s why it’s called a budget, save a little here, spend a little there, and try to keep your overall numbers from going over.

What really makes me sick is in the past Charlie and company fought tooth-and-nail to defend Katie, and I clearly recall being at the Town Board meeting the night it was disclosed that she failed to sign the oath book (the first time).  Charlie, Ashley, Ashworth and Sabo all came rushing to her aid , they claimed it was a conspiracy to block the village vote.  They started a big witch hunt looking for the persons who supposedly broke into her office, they had locks changed, a security system installed and the police started an investigation second only to Watergate.

Now we fast forward a few years and the story has changed.  Now Charlie and company claim Katie left the office unattended while she went out to have a smoke, and that there was no break-in, so it was all Katie’s fault.  Come on Charlie, pick a story and stick to it, then let us know which one you want us to believe.

Now if you want to know what to expect from Charlie and his professional management team, consider this.  Charlie and company have stood by Katie for years and defended all her questionable actions.  For some reason Katie decided enough was enough, and cut Charlie off, Charlie is now on the attack.  Within HOURS of taking office, Mark Evers and Ernie Kern found themselves in the same boat, and have been a Charlie target for the past four years.

Charlie can no longer afford to surround himself with people who will do nothing less than follow his every order, the professional management team are nothing more than Charlies tin soldiers, he can’t risk having anything less.

More Bad News For North Greenbush Dems

Trick-or-treating at the Smith house

UPDATE

Robert Price, Chairman/Treasurer of the North Greenbush Democratic Club has been caught tampering with campaign signs in North Greenbush.  It was reported that Price removed signs belonging to Rensselaer County Legislature Candidate Lou Desso and was seen throwing them in the nearby woods .

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It seems Charlie Smith’s world my be imploding around him, as more and more bad news comes out.

First we heard today that his right-hand man and favorite mouthpiece was caught taking signs belonging to Lou Desso.  We’re awaiting a confirmation, so we’ll wait on naming him,  you can enter your guesses in the comments section. A police report was filed, when we get a copy we’ll post it.

But it only gets better, a we received an email telling us that a resident had a sign for Leon Fiacco stolen off their front lawn, one minute it was there when they came back from a neighbor’s house, then it wasn’t.  Ironically at the exact same time campaign workers for Kevin Harrington, Keith Hammond, Brian Zweig andPhil Malone were placing campaign literature on mailboxes in the neighborhood.  They said it all happened within 5 minutes.  By the way, they also filed a police report, if we get a copy we’ll post it.

We’ll assume that Messrs Harrington, Hammond, Malone & Zweig, don’t know that placing items on a private mailbox without paying postage is a crime, but then again crime seems to be very common subject amongst your organization.  We also find it interesting that you’re crying about taxes and deficits, well the USPS has a deficit, and when you cheat the USPS by not paying postage, it isn’t helping their deficit.  As I understand it, a complaint is also being filed with the USPS.  So that you may better understand the requlations, we posted the relevant section below.

3.0 Customer Mail Receptacles

3.1 Basic Information for Customer Mail Receptacles

3.1.1 Authorized Depository

Except as excluded by 3.1.2, every letterbox or other receptacle intended or used for the receipt or delivery of mail on any city delivery route, rural delivery route, highway contract route, or other mail route is designated an authorized depository for mail within the meaning of 18 USC 1702, 1705, 1708, and 1725.

3.1.2 Exclusions

Door slots and nonlockable bins or troughs used with apartment house mailboxes are not letterboxes within the meaning of 18 USC 1725 and are not private mail receptacles for the standards for mailable matter not bearing postage found in or on private mail receptacles. The post or other support is not part of the receptacle.

3.1.3 Use for Mail

Except under 3.2.11, Newspaper Receptacle, the receptacles described in 3.1.1 may be used only for matter bearing postage. Other than as permitted by 3.2.10, Delivery of Unstamped Newspapers, or 3.2.11, no part of a mail receptacle may be used to deliver any matter not bearing postage, including items or matter placed upon, supported by, attached to, hung from, or inserted into a mail receptacle. Any mailable matter not bearing postage and found as described above is subject to the same postage as would be paid if it were carried by mail.

I don’t know how anyone could vote for a group that acts like this, they have no respect for the law, and will go to any extreme to win.  I’m sure their all going to say it wasn’t them, it was their workers, but remember, they hired the workers.

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Last week Charlie Smith had a field day posting some old news about Lou Desso after it was revealed that Charlie’s cousin Kevin Harrington received only a general discharge from the US Navy, and may have claimed he received an honorable discharge on a job application with the NYS Assembly.  He also accused the republicans of obtaining that information illegally.  We hate to burst his bubble, but the public can get military records from the National Personnel Records Center, here is what you can get.

“The public has access to certain military service information without the veteran’s authorization (or that of the next-of-kin of deceased veterans).  Examples of information which may be available from Official Military Personnel Files without an unwarranted invasion of privacy include:”

• Name
• Service Number
• Dates of Service
• Branch of Service
• Rank and Date of Rank
• Salary *
• Assignments and Geographical Locations
• Source of Commission *
• Military Education
• Promotion Sequence Number *
• Awards and decorations (Eligibility only, not actual medals)
• Duty Status
• Photograph
• Transcript of Court-Martial Trial
• Place of entrance and separation

We’ve sent in our request.

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We also learned today from the troypioliticsblog.com that Kevin Harrington was involved in an automobile accident in 1987 that claimed the life of a young girl.  The post in the comments section appeared to come from a news paper archive,  so we looked on the Times Union’s web site and were able to confirmed the information.  At first we we’re a little confused because it said William Harrington, but then there was another post explaining that Kevin Harrington also goes by William Harrington as well as W. Kevin Harrington.

The article also stated “Police were investigating to determine if charges should be filed”, but we couldn’t find any additional information.  The article stated Kevin was the driver “when the car struck a guard rail, flew into the air, flipped and landed on its roof in a culvert” additionally “All three teenagers, who were not wearing seat belts, were thrown from the car”.  The time of the accident was 12:40 a.m.

Now considering all the heat Charlie Smith has given Lou Desso about a purported criminal past, we think Charlie should check into this and answer some questions like:  What was the outcome of the investigation? Was Kevin charged with a crime?  Was Kevin speeding? Was he drinking or high on drugs? Was Kevin to blame for the girls death?  Why weren’t they wearing seat belts (it was the law even back then)?

By the way Charlie, this isn’t an “assault on [any]one’s character”, these are questions that voters have a right to know.  It appears Kevin had some issues with his past, and you made the past fair game four years ago with Lou Desso.

The Great North Greenbush Hypocrite Part II

 

hyp⋅o⋅crite
[hip-uh-krit]

–noun

1.	a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.

 

2.	a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, esp. one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements.

 

As I put this bog post together, I wonder how many people will read the above definition and immediately know that I’m writing about Charlie Smith.

Today Charlie has blessed us with a rant about the late filing of Lou Desso’s campaign finance disclosure report. Now we watch the campaign finance report pretty close, as should you, so timely filings are important , as they say “follow the money”. So if Lou hasn’t filed his 32 day pre-general report, yes he’s in violation of the NYS Board of Elections filing requirements so shame on Lou.

Of course Charlie Smith wrote his rant using many of his favorite “buzz words” like , failed, law, violation and obey, then he threw in “church going” and “law abiding” to give it a nice touch. In the real world, that is outside of Charlie’s spacetime continuum, late filings are an everyday occurrence, just as Josh Sabo who didn’t file his 11-day pre primary or his 10-day post primary reports. Josh just rolled it all into his 32-day pre general report, making it a 3-in-1 report.

According to Mr. Sabo’s disclosure report, he had a total of 58 contributions prior to the August 31st cutoff date for the 11-day preprimary report, and 2 contributions prior to the September 21st cutoff for the 10-day post primary report. The 11-day pre primary was required to be filed by September 4th, and the 10-day post report was due by September 25th. Mr. Sabo filed his 3-in-one report on September 26th, making him 22 days late on the pre primary report, 1 day late on the post primary report.

Again we find our man of good government Charlie Smith using the old double standard, and policing everyone but his own. Why is it Charlie that you never find any issues within your own party? Sure Lou is late, so was Josh, if that makes Lou a bad candidate, it makes Josh a terrible candidate considering all of his other shortcomings.

Charlie, if you really want to discuss campaign finance, let’s talk about the co-mingling of money between the NGB Dems and the Greenbush Party. Now that’s something to discuss, but we’re going to save that for another day.

In the mean time we suggest everyone check out the NYS Board of Elections Campaign Finance site http://www.elections.state.ny.us/recipientstext.html. Just type in the name of a candidate of committee and if they have a report on file, you’ll be able to see who’s giving money to who and how it’s spent. If you have any questions post them here or email us.

Constable Warren

northgreenbush@gmail.com

More Damage Control For North Greenbush

From the looks of C.B. Smith’s post today, the accusation against his cousin Kevin Harrington may have struck a nerve or two.  But once again, his candidates are all saints and do no wrong, when they do, shift the blame to someone else.   What a perfect little world he must live in.

It only took Mr. Harrington two weeks to respond to the allegations about his military service, but in reality has he  responded?  Instead of addressing the issue, Mr. Harrington and his cousin C.B. Smith, are now trying  perform damage control by shifting the focus of the issue by claiming it’s a “character assault”.  Although Mr. Harrington has admitted to receiving only a ‘general discharge”, he has not addressed the issue of his job application nor the reason for the general discharge.  Sorry Kevin but you don’t get a general discharge for following all the rules. ,

As part of the damage control Mr. Harrington released a statement he titled “Harrington Proud of Military Service”.  If Mr. Harrington is so proud of his service,  there should be no reason not to release a copy of his DD214.   Mr. Harrington alone has the power to clear up the questions that have been raised, not C.B. Smith with a bunch of false information being posted on his blog.

Case in point, Charlie claims that Kevin Harrington was “honorably discharged”, a statement that couldn’t be further from the truth.  There is a distinct difference between an honorable and general discharge, and anything less than an “honorable discharge” is not considered honorable, even if it says “under honorable conditions”.   With a general discharge you can be excluded from both the GI Bill and VA benefits, you’re also excluded from membership with the American Legion, an organization authorized by the US Congress in 1919.  If you doubt me, just ask when you have your rally on October 30th at the American Legion Post, I’m sure you’ll get a warm welcome from the real veterans who were really “honorably” discharged.

Another false statement made by C.B. Smith’s to attempt damage control is that there are “numerous definitions and categories” of discharges, wrong again.  There are only five classifications of discharge,  Honorable, General, Other than Honorable, Bad Conduct and Dishonorable.   A General Discharge under honorable conditions is NOT CONSIDERED AN HONORABLE DISCHARGE, never has been, never will be, end of story, wrong Charlie.  There’s a reason why the military has this classification, and it is used more often than not as a means to plea bargain before an official court martial is held.  But without a copy of a DD214, and two very important pieces of information, the “separation code” and the “reentry code”, we won’t know.  The separation code will tell why the member was separated and the reentry code will tell if the member is eligible ever serve in the military again.  Again, if Kevin is “proud” of his service, wants to set the record straight, all he needs to do is release the information.  I suspect that if he did, he would no longer be able to say he was “proud” of his service.

As for the information about Lou Desso, we have to question why you didn’t want to post his name this time.  For the past four years you’ve been beating the Lou Desso felony drum, no you don’t want to add his name, why?  We suspect the reason can be found in your statement about “potential additional convictions”, meaning there were no other convictions for the charges you implied, and your buddy John Hebert wasn’t able to pull find any records at his place of employment, DCJS.    Meaning the information you’ve posted is inaccurate, and you don’t want to subject yourself to a lawsuit for posting inaccurate information, do you Charlie?  You’re the master of insinuation.

As we see it, there’s a big difference between Lou’s past and Kevin’s.   Lou has never tried to hide his past, but it appears Kevin has.  Lou embraced his past and has a proven track record of using it not only to better himself, but others as well.   Kevin on the other hand appears to have tried to hide from his past, and has no record of using his past failures to better himself or others, and in fact if the rumors are correct, the issue that got Kevin booted from the Navy is still an issue today.  But we may never know because Kevin won’t release the information.

As for “assaulting ones character”, Charlie you’ve been doing it for years, and as a result you should know the difference between assaulting someones character and questioning ones credibility.  Kevin is not being “assaulted”, rather people are questioning his credibility.  Cry foul all you want, I don’t know how the information got out, and I don’t care.  What I do know is that if Kevin hadn’t lied, then he wouldn’t of had to worry about someone finding it, but they did.

Kevin has had two weeks to prove any or all of the accusation wrong, but he didn’t, why?  To me it only proves there must be some truth to the claims.  As any veteran can tell you, a DD214 is complete history of your military service, it one piece of paper that most veteran file with the county clerk upon their discharge,because it’s that important.   There should be no reason for Kevin not to disclose it other than he’s hiding from the truth.

Sorry Charlie, but any veteran will tell you, we can spot someone who’s bullshitting us about military service from a  mile away, and Kevin’s story doesn’t add up, nor do your excuses.

As for the candidates from  Stephentown and Troy, who cares, this is North Greenbush and we don’t care if Stephentown and Troy both run Jack the Ripper for office, we have enough issues to deal with here. So sorry, you can’t use that to draw the heat off your cousin Kevin.

I’m sure you’re working hard on a story for Rich Fennelly, and why he has a $240,000 mortgage in Berlin that requires him to live in the house.  I just hope it’s a better story that the one you wrote for Kevin.

As we’re less than three weeks from elections, we ask that everyone pass this blog as well as northgreenbushvertias.wordpress.com on to your friend and family who live in North Greenbush.  Together we can inform the voters and make a smart choice on Election Day.

Constable Warren

northgreenbush@gmail.com