"Hey, wadda ya know? -- nothing from nothing, right!"

March 2, 2007 at 9:14 A.M., I am unable to change the image in my profile. I will continue to run scans and keep trying. March 9, 2007 at 4:53 P.M. my security system is paralyzed.

"The president of the State Senate [in New Jersey,] Richard J. Codey, imposed rules yesterday to prevent senators from adding last-minute grants to towns and organizations to the state budget, and to require senators proposing a grant to disclose whether they have a relationship with the recipient. The move comes AFTER the United State's attorney's office issued subpoenas on February 16 for documents showing how grants have been awarded since 2004. The Assembly Budget Committee chairman said he would institute similar rules." The New York Times, February 27, 2007, at p. B4. (emphasis added)

Everybody in Trenton is, as the saying goes, "shitting red bricks" over these federal subpoenas. No one knows "who's going to get busted" since everybody has skeletons rattling around in the closet -- especially Democrats from urban counties -- who can no longer remember how much money they've stolen or how many conspiracies they are involved in at the moment. Try shouting the words: "Money laundering!" People in Trenton will pack their bags and head for Philadelphia, where such things are only minor offenses. Cheese steak, Senator Bob?

These issues never came up in the past since New Jersey Democrats had control of "everything" (as I heard one of them explain) and could extract concessions from the national party in exchange for political support and votes on election day. "Remember, you'll need us for the presidential election, so call off the U.S. attorney and don't bother us when we're stealing." This need to influence the national party and policy probably explains the decision to move the primaries to an earlier date. It probably also explains attempts to smear New Jersey's federal prosecutor and other federal officials in the media. I do not know whether Eric Holder can be intimidated. We'll see.

For decades -- under Democratic administrations -- this unspoken deal was not violated, with the proviso that stealing by New Jersey's hoods and/or politicians should be somewhat ... "inconspicuous." If people were notorious criminals and seen as such, then the authorities would have no alternative but to act to prevent "undermining the credibility of state governmental institutions."

New Jersey's crooks in high office promptly responded: "What credibility? This is New Jersey." They have a point.

Regrettably for the Trenton Syndicate levels of theft have reached such astronomical levels -- hundreds of millions of dollars gone, a state on the verge of bankruptcy, "alleged" partnerships between people in power and organized crime, protected child porn and prostitution rings, and worse -- that even a chronically cynical and apathetic, utterly defeated population that now assumes the criminality and incompetence of low level judges, New Jersey Supreme Court justices, and politicians is demanding action to halt these disgusting practices.

This is to say nothing about the constant harassment and censorship efforts aimed at critics, like little-old-me. People engaging in efforts to damage these texts should think twice about their co-conspirators. You may be liable for every act committed in furtherance of a conspiracy you joined in a "fit of absentmindedness."

There were (and are) lots of criminals among New Jersey lawyers. Mostly the near-fatal problems afflicting that horrendous legal system result from astonishing levels of stupidity among powerful legal officials, which is one result of a system of appointments where judgeships, for example, are too often rewards for political operatives and "contributors." Merit should have something to do with appointments to the bench. In New Jersey, legal talent or intelligence may well be irrelevant to one's professional prospects and may even get you disbarred. Don't give anybody your business card if you're a judge.

One judge explained that he did not care if lawyers had to be in other courtrooms at the same time as they were expected in his impressive tribunal. It was up to the members of the bar "to figure out how to be in two places at once." This was a man who found it difficult to be in one place at once.

The feds sent an Eliot Ness-like uncorruptible prosecutor -- Christopher J. Christie -- who has been wiping the floor with political crooks in New Jersey for several years and may be on the verge of breaking the back of the criminal organization that runs the state. This is something the U.S. Justice Department has worked for decades to achieve. It is finally possible. The Jersey Boys are desperate to find some distraction or bullshit, by using their media friends maybe, to escape liability. Like mice stuck on glue paper, the Jersey Boys have been caught with their hands in taxpayers' pockets (this is no metaphor). The glue paper may be electronic.

Guess how many people are reading these essays in many places in the world? I wonder whether the Jersey Boys and their hirelings realize the electronic breadcrumbs they leave behind? ...

All of this charming give-and-take makes for entertaining reading in the newspapers. Here is what makes this horror less than funny. New Jersey's crooks have looked the other way as polluters have turned the state into a "radiactive toilet" with impunity, even as OAE "ethics officials" go after people who piss on the sidewalk. New Jersey's residents are dying of horrible illnesses linked to these industrial carcinogens and the dangers in nuclear power, due to inadequate or nonexistent monitoring and maintenance of facilities, rationalized with some nonsense about the concern over terrorism somehow "justifying" keeping unsafe facilities going:

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday rejected ... New Jersey officials' contention that the threat of terrorism should be taken into consideration as part of an application to extend the license of Oyster Creek nuclear power plant here. The commission found that the consideration of a potential terrorist attack was beyond the scope of the license hearing. Lisa Jackson, the state environmental commissioner, expressed disappointment with the decision and said the state would decide whether to appeal it." The New York Times, February 27, 2007, at p. B4.

I wonder whether Ms. Jackson has visited my sites. I can only hope that New Jersey is not representative of American law and that things are better elsewhere. They must be. I recall one truly loathsome political lawyer explaining, with a satisfied chuckle, that when asked about corruption in the public entity for which he served as attorney, he routinely answered:

"We're looking into it. After a few months or years," he said, "people stop asking 'Where's the money?' and the stealing goes on as always." He patted his stomach. "Business as usual," he said.