reMajority of VOters worried about the Obama Economy (....New Jersey V (one small problem, wingnut...)
Date: 2009-11-15, 10:29AM CST
Reply To This Post
The exit poll questions merely asked what was most important....the majority responded "the economy"...not the "obama economy" in fact, you uneducated worthless fuck, according to a FOX NEWS POLL, 59% of the people in this country blame the economy on Bush...and rightfully so. But, like I always say, talking about economics with someone who barely got out of high school ( that would be ...you) is rather pointless...
GOT IT NOW GOPWIPES???? Ok then. Carry on. Nice, VERY NICE, SO VERY VERY NICE INDEED !!!!!!!!!!!!
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You call Good Ole GEROGE an AIRHEAD?But your MUSLIM PRESIDENT is destroying America......10.2 % Unemployment,1.4 TRILLION Deificit and growing,No Recovery in sight,George had a 4.5 % Unemployment rate and 750 Bil deficit and Liberals were screaming.
HUSSEIN OBAMA promised to pull troops out instead he escalated the War.He promised so many things but none became true and will not become true because He is Incompetant it just takes a while for Liberals to Understand they made a Huge Mistake,How about bringing the Country together?How about Bi Partisan Politics?How about Posting every Bill on Line for the Public to read before signing?
What about the FRAUD do you like that He is a MUSLIM?Or that He is Destroying the Country with Debt that Americans will not be able to repay for Centuries.What part Of OBAMMMANTION do you like?
TRANSPERANCY in GOVERNMENT? NO MORE LOBBYISTS?(LOBBYISTS in WASHINGTON have trippled since the FRAUDUALANT Administration took office
Tell me what part you like...A President of the USA bowing sown in front of World Leaders? The Mochery Of the Justice System by a Att.Gen Holder that should be in Prison?Or maybe the head of the IRS that does not File his own taxes and claims it was just a Mistake????$150.000.00 Mistake?
How about Acorn and the FRAUDS connection with it as a Leader and Sponsor and Defense attorney?
Please tell me what part of the FRAUDULANT ADMINISTRATION YOU LIKE SO FAR???
In fact, I am a resident in a country not of my birth. I have adhered to all their laws. During my residence (nearly 7 years now), I had to surrender myself to Immigration officials due to a change in my status when I lost my job due to a prolonged illness which my employers felt was a disinterest in working. Therefore my visa was cancelled and without the proper authorization required from the Immigration Department to legally remain, I was illegally in the country. The only solution I saw as reasonable was surrendering to the authorities. When I surrendered I asked that if I would be allowed to present evidence of the events that made me illegal to the Head of Enforcement and his boss, the Head of Immigration. As a result of this experience, I developed and maintain good rapports with both men. In January 2010, I will be eligible to apply for citizenship (which I have not made a decision on due to my desire to return to the U.S. to live).
Due to the relationships, I have developed I assisted a fellow American in discreetly negotiating an amnesty agreement after discovering that he was illegal. He had been here legally and then allowed his legal standing to expire and decided to just do his own thing. He survived just fine. In fact, he did very well here working for himself. He spewed the same garbage I have heard in the current U.S. immigration debate when I asked why he would do such a thing. It was very simple from my perspective so I gave him a choice after I made it clear that I did not agree with what he was doing, turn yourself in or I will. That was the beginning of how his situation was resolved because that day I offered to broker his surrender and departure from the country. If he did not go with my idea, would I have turned him in? YES. Do I believe Americans who break foreign laws should be prosecuted for their crimes? YES. Do I think that a country that appears to play Red Rover with its own citizens at our shared border can claim any moral high ground? No, HELL NO!
In truth, the Mexican government should round up the illegal aliens in their country, deal with them accordingly then repatriate them. The U.S. should round up ALL of the illegal aliens in the country, deal with them accordingly then repatriate them…ALL OF THEM NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE FROM. If you break the law or provide material support by aiding someone else in breaking the law, you should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Do you hear me Chicago City Council?!
How do so many of you support these well dressed criminals with such regularity?! It’s time to take out the trash Chicago because your elected officials are not representing you and your best interest. They are only representing their personal agendas. They will never act in the best interests of the legal citizens of Chicago.
What about the FRAUD do you like that He is a MUSLIM?Or that He is Destroying the Country with Debt that Americans will not be able to repay for Centuries.What part Of OBAMMMANTION do you like?
TRANSPERANCY in GOVERNMENT? NO MORE LOBBYISTS?(LOBBYISTS in WASHINGTON have trippled since the FRAUDUALANT Administration took office
Tell me what part you like...A President of the USA bowing sown in front of World Leaders? The Mochery Of the Justice System by a Att.Gen Holder that should be in Prison?Or maybe the head of the IRS that does not File his own taxes and claims it was just a Mistake????$150.000.00 Mistake?
How about Acorn and the FRAUDS connection with it as a Leader and Sponsor and Defense attorney?
What the liberal mind is passionate about is a world filled with pity, sorrow, neediness, misfortune, poverty, suspicion, mistrust, anger, exploitation, discrimination, victimization, alienation and injustice. Those who occupy this world are “workers,” “minorities,” “the little guy,” “women,” and the “unemployed.” They are poor, weak, sick, wronged, cheated, oppressed, disenfranchised, exploited and victimized. They bear no responsibility for their problems. None of their agonies are attributable to faults or failings of their own: not to poor choices, bad habits, faulty judgment, wishful thinking, lack of ambition, low frustration tolerance, mental illness or defects in character. None of the victims’ plight is caused by failure to plan for the future or learn from experience. Instead, the “root causes” of all this pain lie in faulty social conditions: poverty, disease, war, ignorance, unemployment, racial prejudice, ethnic and gender discrimination, modern technology, capitalism, globalization and imperialism. In the radical liberal mind, this suffering is inflicted on the innocent by various predators and persecutors: “Big Business,” “Big Corporations,” “greedy capitalists,” U.S. Imperialists,” “the oppressors,” “the rich,” “the wealthy,” “the powerful” and “the selfish.”
The liberal cure for this endless malaise is a very large authoritarian government that regulates and manages society through a cradle to grave agenda of redistributive caretaking. It is a government everywhere doing everything for everyone. The liberal motto is “In Government We Trust.” To rescue the people from their troubled lives, the agenda recommends denial of personal responsibility, encourages self-pity and other-pity, fosters government dependency, promotes sexual indulgence, rationalizes violence, excuses financial obligation, justifies theft, ignores rudeness, prescribes complaining and blaming, denigrates marriage and the family, legalizes all abortion, defies religious and social tradition, declares inequality unjust, and rebels against the duties of citizenship. Through multiple entitlements to unearned goods, services and social status, the liberal politician promises to ensure everyone’s material welfare, provide for everyone’s healthcare, protect everyone’s self-esteem, correct everyone’s social and political disadvantage, educate every citizen, and eliminate all class distinctions. With liberal intellectuals sharing the glory, the liberal politician is the hero in this melodrama. He takes credit for providing his constituents with whatever they want or need even though he has not produced by his own effort any of the goods, services or status transferred to them but has instead taken them from others by force.
It should be apparent by now that these social policies and the passions that drive them contradict all that is rational in human relating, and they are therefore irrational in themselves. But the faulty conceptions that lie behind these passions cannot be viewed as mere cognitive slippage. The degree of modern liberalism’s irrationality far exceeds any misunderstanding that can be attributed to faulty fact gathering or logical error. Indeed, under careful scrutiny, liberalism’s distortions of the normal ability to reason can only be understood as the product of psychopathology. So extravagant are the patterns of thinking, emoting, behaving and relating that characterize the liberal mind that its relentless protests and demands become understandable only as disorders of the psyche. The modern liberal mind, its distorted perceptions and its destructive agenda are the product of disturbed personalities.
Here is the speech of the average joe, Chairman, Party for Freedom, the U.S.A. , introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing the Facing Mexican Jihad takeover of the U.S.A. .
Dear friends,
Thank you very much for inviting me.
I come to you with a mission. All is not well in the new world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Mexicanization of America . This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of America itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing a Mexicanization .
First I will describe the situation on the ground in America . Then, I will say a few things about Mexicans.
The America you know is changing.
You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world. It is the world of the parallel society created by Mexican mass-migration.
All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Mexixan neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of sombrero's, where women walk around in sharpie eyebrow couture, with baby strollers and a group of 9 children. Their husbands, or drunks if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With taco stands on many street corners. The taco stands have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any indigenous activity. These are Mexican ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Mexican neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across the U.S.A. . These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of America , street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city.
There are now thousands of immigration centers throughout America . With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every America city there are plans to build super-barios that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.
Many America cities are already one-quarter Mexican: just take Chicago , Los Angeles and Tuscon in Arizona . In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Mexican. Chicago is now surrounded by a ring of Mexican suburbs.. Jesus is the most popular name among boys in many cities.
In some elementary schools in America the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the fruit picking, and that would be an insult to Mexicans.
Many state schools in Chicago and Los Angeles only serve Spanish food to all pupils. In once-tolerant San Francisco gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Mexican gangs. Non-Mexican women routinely hear 'whore, whore'. Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to latino stations in the country of origin.
In Chicago school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Mexicans, including Robert Frost and Hemingway; the same is increasingly true of Darwin . The history of the Europeans can no longer be taught because of Mexican sensitivity.
In Los Angeles courts are now officially backlogged with Mexican drug dealer and gang cases burdening the legal system. Many neighborhoods in Chicago are no-go areas for white women without mace. Last week a white man almost died after being beaten up by Mexicans in Cicero,Il. , because he was a white man.
Whites are fleeing neighborhoods in record numbers. Spanish can be heard on every corner and these Mexican illegals do not want or are not capable of the learning process needed to learn English.
A total of one hundred million Million Mexicans now live in America . San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 50 percent of the population in America will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Mexican majority by the end of this century.
Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Mexican-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of illegal Mexicans see their loyalty to Mexico as greater than their loyalty to America . One-third of illegal Mexicans do not object to gang banging, theivery and drug dealing. holidays.
The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept spnish language if there is a Mexican majority.
Mexican demands are supported by unlawful behavior, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Chicago has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs. I call the perpetrators 'settlers'. Because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies; they come to integrate our society into their Bario like existence. Therefore, they are settlers.
Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Mexicans, forcing many native people to leave their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries. Moreover, Mexicans are now a swing vote not to be ignored.
The war against America. It is a war against the West. It is jihad. America is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no America , Mexican invasion would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to American parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, Americans can sleep well and dream, aware of the dangers looming.
Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughout the USA , American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to America 's children in the same state in which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with Mexicans. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so.
The Trojan Moose Ho is slouching towards The White House. We are in awe, Reptoids.
"Run, baby, run!" We are counting on Palin's unique ability to torpedo her own party. Democrats haven't had to wait until the next presidential election to reap the benefits of the "Palin effect" (think political black hole). Palin's endorsement of Doug Hoffman in New York's 23rd Congressional District special election boosted the eventual Democratic winner, AND lent another vote to the healthcare reform effort. Thanks, Sarah!
Thank you for supplying the Rogue Ho kiss of death to that candidate in the NY-23 race! Bravo! More!" our message to Palin.
She's either as dumb as a bag of rocks or the most brilliant Democratic operative in history.
Stop posting that stuff, you're making me upset. If I want to worship a make believe god and his make believe son, that's my business. Go ahead and burn your Bible, you're taking it out of context anyway, all those senseless murders are a matter of interpretation. Sometimes God needs to kill inoocent people to prove how mighty and strong he is. That's what my mom taught me. Just leave us alone, we like living in a delusional world where child killing is acceptable, we like being stupid, and shallow minded. Bwahahah ! yuk yuk yuk yuk ! Fuck all you stupid, cross worshipping asswipes.
Ask an independent party to look at the posts and see if they think you are acting rationally. Don't tell them its you. then, when you find tha even that independent party believes you have acted oddly, reconsider everything you are saying. And look into Prime Mover theory.
Bob, you are committed. Or perhaps you should be...
Sheila Croucher, a professor of political science at Miami University in Ohio and author of "Globalization and Belonging: The Politics of Identity in a Changing World," made these observations about San Miguel de Allende:
1. San Miguel de Allende attracts one of the largest foreign populations in Mexico.
2. Most do not learn the local language and reside and socialize within an isolated cultural enclave. These immigrants practice their own cultural traditions and celebrate their national holidays. Grocery stores are stocked with locally-unfamiliar products that hail from their homeland.
3. American professionals largely work illegally in San Miguel and pay no taxes.
4. They typically do not pay their servants the Social Security taxes required by law.
5. The illegal businesses run by the American gringo community rips off the local San Miguel de Allende government in excess of more than four million pesos a year in unpaid taxes.
6. Some Americans are actually illegal aliens and do not bother with proper documentation.
7. Some are even involved in the Illegal Drug Trade and take drugs across the different Mexican state lines.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MMA Heavyweight Champion, former NFL player and Professional Wrestler Brock Lesnar died earlier today, after collapsing in Canada from a reported mononucleosis infection.
Lesnar's death comes mere hours after being admitted to Calgary's Peter Lougheed Hospital after it was determined that the infection had reached his bloodstream. While hospital officials are not releasing details of Lesnar's death, reports from the hospital indicate that his death was caused by a cardiac arrest due to sepsis.
Lesner's family had no comment when contacted by CP, and public relations with UFC said that a statement would be released shortly.
I agree with Scott Johnson, Steve Gilbert, Andrew Malcom, and many others that the President of the United States should not be bowing before any head of state. But unlike these astute observers, I actually know a little something about the art of the bow in Japan, having lived in Japan four different times on a resident visa, taught East Asian Studies at Harvard, and counseled many hundreds of American, European, Middle Eastern, and Australian executives on how to work and negotiate with the Japanese -- including teaching them the right way to bow.
Obama's bow (below) violates a fundamental precept: NO TOUCHING while bowing.
Obama's botched bow
Here is one of many websites that illustrates how to bow in Japan. The one thing that virtually everyone who teaches bowing etiquette stresses is under no circumstance try to combine a bow with a handshake.
The Emperor appears to smile, which is something polite Japanese are taught to do when embarrassed. Unlike just about everyone who comes into the Emperor's presence, Obama obviously received no instruction on Imperial etiquette. (Note: The Japanese take their monarch and etiquette in general about 100 times more seriously than do the British.)
That's fine with me. I wouldn't like our president to receive such instructions from a foreign entity. But he obviously did not indicate to any of the American embassy staff, nor to any aides familiar with Japan that he intended to bow, and bow deeply. Anyone with about two days' familiarity with Japan knows about bowing. The average person in Japan bows dozens of times a day. You see it everywhere.
Another fundamental precept of the ordinary bow: it must be reciprocated. To do otherwise is a grave insult. Yet, we see in this short video clip that the Emperor did not even nod his head. To be honest, I am not sure the Emperor is ever supposed to bow back to anyone. He is, after all, according to Shinto, a god.
I suspect the poor Emperor was so shocked by the faux pas that he just pretended it didn't happen. That is one way Japanese people deal with breaches of etiquette, especially from the powerful, who are also ignorant. But the end result is that Obama has been snubbed royally. Imperially, in fact.
The following domains are officially for sale!
whocanyousue.org
whocanyousuetoday.com
whocanyousuenow.com
whocanyousue.info
whocanusue.org
whocanusuetoday.com
whocanusuenow.com
whocanusue.info
The clinic helps all, no questions asked other than those required by law. We have no qualms about helping anyone of any race, nationality, sexual preference or any other descriptive not mentioned. We are staffed by professionals volunteering their services. Most, not all, are retired or semi-retired. We offer free medical services such as physicals, minor cuts, abrasions, colds, ect. Any thing requiring major medical procedures we recommend a physican and/or hospital to the client. We then assist them in their efforts to get free or reduced payments for these services. We assist them with all paperwork and provide financial counseling along with private and public financial assistance.
All that being said, we have had an increase of over 83% in clients in the last year. Most of that increase has been people that have been good, hard working, God fearing, Americans who have been responsible, raised or are raising children, paid their taxes and bills on time and eked out a few dollars for a vacation or a few simple pleasures. They were hoping for and building a better life for themselves and their children. Most had a little money in an IRA or 401k and a few dollars in the bank. All gone now.
Now, they are jobless, some homeless, dispirited, broke and evey other bad word that can be used to describe misery. All are just broken in spirit. I could go into some of the stories I hear, but I fear they would just make you cry.
I am not blaming any one person, group, or political party for the circumstances in the U.S. today that has caused this human problem. However, I am really upset. No, I am enraged and upset. We have insurance companies that are raping people, I agree we need Insurance Reform. But our "elected leaders" are thrashing about and debating over a package that will cost the American people even more for insurance than they are now paying. The package does nothing to lower prescription costs and bans re-importation of medicine from Canada where it is 90% less on average. The package does nothing about tort reform which costs about 9% of the total cost of insurance and leads to defensive medicine. One example of this I can describe because it happened to me. I needed some minor surgery to remove some extraneous steel I carried thanks to a foe in a land far, far away. To have the surgery, I had to have a physical form signed by my GP, my Cardiologist, my surgeon and another physical at the hospital. All because each had to perform the physical to keep from getting sued in case any thing bad happened to me. What a crock and a waste of time and resources and money.
All of our manufacturing jobs have been handed to other countries, either in the name of corporate profits, taxes, cheaper labor, ecological costs, hiring restrictions and world money trading. As a result we have lost millions of jobs. No one seems to care about those workers who want to work but can't. This was caused and agreed to by our "elected leaders" and great financial gurus.
Wall Street is doing great! We hear that every day. Yeah, the big financial firms that we bailed out with money borrowed from China that will have to be repaid by the American taxpayer are making money hand over fist. Over a trillion dollars and who knows how much more in the future. They are planning or are paying billions of dollars in bonuses to each other. Yet the American who wants a decent job with a decent paycheck can have neither. He can't be given a loan even if he is working because the banks won't loan him his own money. Money that was loaned to them to help Americans. What a total backstab of the American worker and taxpayer.
I could go on, but I think you get the picture. The American people have been, are and will continue to be screwed royally if we don't do something. I don't know all the answers, but I know enough to understand one answer. Get rid of politicians, get rid of lobbists, get rid of corruption. Take our country back before we have no hope left.
I'm not trying to blame Bush, Obama or any one person or political party. This is like a boil that has been festering too long. It needs to be lanced, treated, and healed before it becomes cancerous.
Thank you for reading my diatribe. If you have any suggestions, let's hear them instead of trading insults. Serious.
RETypical GOP "Self-Stimulus Package". Another Watergate to add to the list. This is what they mean when they yap about "Fiscal Conservatism", WAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAA.
HARRISBURG — Former House Speaker John Perzel, one of the most powerful members of the General Assembly since 1994, was charged Thursday with 82 felonies for allegedly masterminding a "sophisticated criminal strategy" to spend more than $10 million of taxpayers' money on political campaigns, Attorney General Tom Corbett said.
Most of that money paid for computer technology to help Perzel, a Republican who represents a Northeast Philadelphia district, and other House Republicans win elections, a statewide grand jury concluded. Perzel is charged with theft, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and conflict of interest.
"By all accounts, Perzel was aggressive in the acquisition and retention of power," the grand jury report said. "He demanded obedience and loyalty, and punished or eliminated those, whether elected officials or employees, who challenged that power."
Perzel, 59, was charged with nine other Republicans, including a former legislator and Perzel's former chief of staff, based on recommendations of the 188-page grand jury report, said Corbett, a Republican candidate for governor.
Through his attorney, Brian McMonagle of Philadelphia, Perzel released a statement saying he is innocent and questioning Corbett's motives.
"I never used public funds for my personal or political gain. ... It smacks of political opportunism at the expense of my reputation, and I am going to fight very aggressively to prove my innocence."
Corbett denied any conflicts in handling the case because he's a gubernatorial candidate. "I'm not running against any members of the House or Senate," he said. "I have a job to do, and we're doing that job."
Brian Preski, 44, a Philadelphia lawyer who headed Perzel's staff when he was House speaker, was charged with theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest. Corbett said Perzel gave Preski authority to implement his plan, making Preski a principal conspirator and "arguably one of the most powerful" Republicans in Harrisburg.
"It's clear Brian will be exonerated once he has a day in court," said his lawyer Hayes Hunt.
Former House Appropriations Chairman Brett Feese, 55, who resigned Nov. 3 as chief counsel for House Republicans, is accused of theft, conspiracy, conflict of interest and obstructing justice. His attorney, Joshua Lock of Harrisburg, could not be reached for comment. Feese, of Lycoming County, attempted to thwart the investigation by hiding evidence and manufacturing misleading notes, Corbett said.
Investigators conducted hundreds of interviews and reviewed millions of e-mails, faxes, contracts, letters, memos and other documents, before presenting thousands of pages of testimony to the grand jury, Corbett said. The grand jury said House Republicans hindered the investigation, causing significant delays. An obstruction of justice investigation within the House Republican Caucus and three other caucuses continues, Corbett said.
In 2004, Perzel's campaign committee donated $25,000 to Corbett, along with a $1,219 in-kind contribution to pay for a reception. "Even if they've helped, and they've done something wrong, we go after them," Corbett said.
Corbett said Perzel used "dirty tricks" such as automated phone calls against fellow House Republicans who opposed him, including Rep. Curt Schroder of Chester County and Rep. Will Gabig of Carlisle.
"It's like a modern-day version of the (Watergate) plumbers," Schroder said. He said voters in his district received anonymous calls in 2006 after he aggressively pushed a property tax reform plan as an alternative to one Perzel backed.
Perzel kept a "ghost employee" — his brother-in-law, Samuel "Buzz" Stokes, 66, of Philadelphia — on the House payroll to do campaign work, the grand jury said. From 2000 to 2006, Stokes was paid $196,808 in taxpayers' money, Corbett said. Stokes is charged with theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest.
The others charged are Perzel's chief of staff, Paul Towhey, 38, of Blue Bell; Perzel legislative aide John Zimmerman, 61, of Hummelstown; Perzel campaign aide Don McClintock, 41, of Voorhees, N.J.; Feese aide Jill Seaman, 57, of Dauphin; former Feese and Perzel aide Elmer Bowman, 34, of Red Lion; and former House Republican Information Technology Deputy Director Eric Ruth, 34, of Boca Raton, Fla., who is Perzel's nephew.
The charges are part of a broad, 3-year-old investigation into whether Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate used state resources for political campaigns.
In July 2008, Corbett filed charges accusing 12 people with ties to House Democrats, including two former legislators, of using state resources for campaign activity. The charges against Democrats involve $3.6 million in bonuses paid secretly in 2005 and 2006 to legislative staffers, some of whom worked on campaigns. Five of the 12 defendants have agreed to plead guilty.
As in the first phase of the investigation, Corbett said, the grand jury uncovered a concerted plan to use taxpayers' money, employees and resources for political campaigns. But the difference was that Democrats used taxpayer-paid bonuses to reward staffers, and Republicans sunk taxpayers' money into technology to fuel campaigns, he said.
Perzel, a fixture in state politics for three decades, won his first House election in his predominantly Democratic district in Philadelphia in 1978. Ten years later, he won his first leadership position in the Republican Caucus and became Republican Policy Committee chairman. He was elected speaker of the House in 2003, a post he held until 2006. He served as majority leader for nearly a decade before that.
Although he won re-election in 2006, he lost his leadership post after staunchly defending the ill-fated 2005 legislative pay raise. But it was his narrow victory in the 2000 election that became a "defining moment" for Perzel, Corbett said, prompting Perzel to seek computer software to get voters to the polls and catalogue data on them at taxpayers' expense.
The Republican Caucus paid almost $9.3 million to GCR & Associates of New Orleans for sophisticated computer work, of which about $4.5 million was for work on campaigns. Under the "Edge" program, the user had a Web-based tool to "mine" voter data. It would produce a database showing voters' political party, gender, jurisdiction, religion and other details. Perzel wanted to use another program, "Blue Card," to help him run for governor next year, the grand jury said.
Republicans paid Washington-based Aristotle Inc. $6.2 million, mostly for campaign work, Corbett said. Officials from the companies were not charged with wrongdoing and cooperated with the investigation, he said.
Perzel, Preski and their wives attempted to enrich themselves by selling information collected by the taxpayer-purchased campaign programs, the grand jury said. The venture apparently was not successful, Corbett said.
Legislative staffers spent hundreds of hours preparing fundraising mailers for Perzel, the grand jury said. They were sent to constituents Perzel dubbed "the little people," who made contributions as low as $5 and $10, Corbett said.
Extra information on the accused
Brian Preski, 44, of Philadelphia
• Legislative aide on various committees from 1995 to 2000, when he became John Perzel's chief of staff. He left that position in 2007.
• Charged with 72 counts of theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest.
Brett Feese, 55, of Muncy
• State representative from 1994 to 2006, including stints as chairman of the House Republican Campaign Committee beginning in 2003 and majority chairman of House Appropriations Committee beginning in 2004. Did not seek re-election in 2006.
• Hired as chief counsel to the House Republican Caucus in 2007. Resigned Nov. 3.
• Charged with 62 counts of theft, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and conflict of interest.
Elmer Bowman, 34, of Red Lion
• Former aide to Feese and senior staff member in the House Republican Policy Committee. Resigned last week.
• Charged with 48 counts of theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest.
Samuel "Buzz" Stokes, 66, of Philadelphia
• Perzel's brother-in-law and former campaign manager. Was on the House payroll, but allegedly performed little or no legislative work.
• Charged with 42 counts of theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest.
Jill Seaman, 57, of Dauphin
• Former executive assistant and paralegal for Feese in the House Republican Caucus.
• Charged with 46 counts of theft, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and conflict of interest.
Paul Towhey, 38, of Blue Bell
• Perzel's chief of staff.
• Charged with 24 counts of theft, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and conflict of interest.
Don McClintock, 41, of Voorhees, N.J.
• Perzel campaign aide.
• Charged with 24 counts of theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest.
Eric Ruth, 34, of Boca Raton, Fla.
• Deputy director of House Republican Information Technology; nephew of Perzel's wife.
• Charged with 48 counts of theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest.
John Zimmerman, 61, of Hummelstown
• Legislative aide to Perzel.
• Charged with two counts of hindering apprehension or prosecution and obstruction of justice.
]]>
]]>
]]>