U.S. Attorney Battles New Jersey Corruption.

David W. Chen & Ronald Smothers, "U.S. Battles Lawyers for New Jersey Legislature in Effort to Obtain Budget Records," The New York Times, February 13, 2007, at p. B6.
Richard G. Jones, "Suit Seeks to Ensure Ballot Safety in New Jersey," The New York Times, February 13, 2007, at p. B6. (Dead voters also wish to be counted.)

"NEWARK -- Federal prosecutors are battling lawyers representing New Jersey's state Legislature for access to budgetary records" -- really, it's only the Democrats who don't want the feds to figure out how money was spent and who wound up with that money -- "leading to partisan sniping throughout the state on Monday over whether the inquiry was limited to a single lawmaker who has long been under investigation or had expanded to other members."

If you are honest, why would you care if the feds look at public financial records?

"The battle revolves around Senator Wayne R. Bryant, 59, a Democrat from Camden who has been a legislator for a quarter century. For months, state and federal investigators have been looking into whether Mr. Bryant improperly steered millions of dollars in state grants to the University of Medicine and Dentistry in exchange for a $38,000-a-year position there in which a federal monitor recently said Mr. Bryant did 'little or no work.' "

"On Sunday, The Star-Ledger [sic.] of Newark reported that Christopher J. Christie, the United States attorney for New Jersey, had issued a broad subpoena to the state's Office of Legislative Services ... seeking records related to millions of dollars in state grants. The article said the subpoena requested documents 'pertaiting to conflicts of interest for lawmakers and staffers.'"

What's really going on here?

Well, the feds have "reason to believe" that a lot of the loot "misappropriated" by the Democrat-Criminal-Organization that runs New Jersey is being sucked away by goons affiliated with the politicians, who then kick back cash under the table so everybody's happy. ("Does Senator Menendez Have Mafia Friends?")

Bryant was probably (and allegedly) more of a pig at the trough than most others -- but probably not by much. Most the scams and games in Trenton are about getting public money to distribute on your home turf -- if you're a political whore, and most of them are -- so your boys can get it and make sure that you're taken care of when nobody's looking.

How's Senator Robert "Bob" Menendez doing? Everything hunky-dory with him and that Grand Jury, I wonder? ("Senator Bob Struggles to Find His Conscience" and "Is Senator Menendez a Suspect in Mafia-Political Murder in New Jersey?")

The other side of this lucrative business for New Jersey politicians is getting plenty of jelly beans from lawyers who want to be Superior Court judges.

Does it still cost $25,000 in cash, under the table, to become a judge or has the price gone up? Maybe now you also have to arrange sexual favors for a few politicians or "justices"? ("Is Paul Bergrin, Esq. an Ethical New Jersey Lawyer?" and "New Jersey's Legal System is a Whore House.")

Traditionally, this was compounded by a partnership between politicians and organized crime. Illegal gambling machines were said to be placed in local businesses in West New York, Hudson County, for instance, by "off-duty" police officers moonlighting for local mobsters to make extra cash. The same local mobsters then would arrange dinners with town mayors and other elected officials.

Do a little research on the history of the old West New York Police Department, which is probably better than what they have now.

These are the political zombies appointed to "ethics" panels to judge the characters of others. The entire state (politically and legally) is a horrible, grim and obscene joke at the expense of the U.S. Constitution, made possible by a corrupt and inept New Jersey Supreme Court. When rising to a Supreme Court judgeship is a matter of politics and "contributions," you can expect mediocre or worse judges. These are the people (until recently) deciding death penalty cases.

Among the quaint traditions in New Jersey politics, tampering with computerized voting records and voting machines is, allegedly, routine and not especially illegal or bad. The Jersey boys do a lot worse. Maybe that tampering has something to do with why local Democrats always win. Finally, the feds are doing something about this charming local custom. The problem with the U.S. attorney and the FBI, an old Jersey hood once said to me, is "they have no sense of humor." How true.

"TRENTON, Feb. 12 -- Voters rights activists want a judge to prevent the state from using more than 10,000 voting machines that they say are not properly certified and are highly vulnerable to computer hackers."

Jersey's political and criminal machine has computer people on the payroll -- along with news reporters -- to alter election results or create "banking errors" or otherwise change inconvenient records or statistics. A new division of the U.S. Justice Department and other agencies are developing "cybersquads" to deal with criminal use of Internet provider services in order to censor or destroy inconvenient and overly independent Internet voices. ("How Censorship Works in America" and "What is it like to be tortured?")

Hey, you think that has something to do with the harassment I deal with every day? On February 13, 2007 at 5:53 P.M., I blocked http://view.stdmt.com/iview/msnnkhac001160x600xPROHO200093msn/diret;wi.160;hi600/01 and, as I write this, I am blocking numerous hacks and other obstructions: http://view.atdmt.com/APM/iview/masnnkdrv0010000522apm/direct;wi728;hi90/01 February 14, 2007 at 8:59 A.M.

Happy Valnetine's Day.