Michael Kasparian Releases Party Reform Platform

Sounds Like Public Relations BS (4.00 / 1)

Thanks Bill W!!! (Though a source for your story would be nice and a complete sharing of the document would be better.) Initial thoughts:  Kasparian is a creature of pay to play. Pay to play is legalized bribery and  Kasparian hasn't condemned the practice. He's become very prosperous as a result of his connections to the BCDO and it's allies. Kasparian is Ferriero's hand picked heir apparant.

It doesn't surprise me that the Ferrierocrats would come up with a "platform" that promises to mend/ameliorate some of the abusive atrocious undemocratic paractices of Ferriero.  What else could they do?  Those practices have been thoroughly exposed and discredited as unethical at best and illegal at worst.  They are politically indefensible.   (Firing the lawyer who spoke some truth to power doesn't change the truth....so why hasn't Kasparian condemned that firing).   Sorry, Mr Kasparian, you haven't earned the trust of real Democrats, quite the contrary.  All indications to date are that, if you take power, you will simply be slicker and more devious and more careful about how you play the pay to play game....but that no real change would be forthcoming.  

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by: Nick Lento @ Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 15:43:20 PM CST

I guess I am just wary (4.00 / 2)

For example:
1) Ethics.  Ferriero was actually appointed chairman of the state Attorney ETHICS Committee by the state Supreme Court.  (I wish I was kidding.) I have actually attended classes at Rutgers for newly elected officials that was taught by an unapologetic Pay to Play attorney who told me he regularly donates to the BCDO.  I have since found out this same guy gets lucrative no-bid contracts with Bergen County.  They basically INITIATE new elected officials in NJ that Pay to Play is OK.

I don't have much hope for Corzine's ETHICS training if it is done by folks that already do it.

2) Posting the names of County Committee members is only helpful if you ALSO list their elected, appointed, and no show jobs with the County and quasi-governmental entities and shadow governments like the Utilities Authorities that kept Ferriero in prosciutto and filet mignon for years.

Posting the BCDO Bylaws is great - but only if the Bylaws are FOLLOWED by the Chairman.

3)  Lately, auditors themselves are under fire for not doing their jobs and being too chummy with the folks they audit.  Witness Bernie Madoff.  When Boss Joe showed up in AC at the League convention this year - he turned up like a bad penny at an AUDITOR'S party.  It all depends on the auditor chosen.

4) The third Party better be one chosen by BOTH sides, not just a retired judge beholden to Joe.

5) Charitable outreach.  Did Joe just form a new "consulting firm" we don't know about that does charitable outreach?  Blagovovich wanted a nice no-show job at a charity for his wife.  Is THAT where this came from?

6)  Committee process.  Even when we have committee meetings, the goons use parliamentary process to table any and all discussion.  The solution isn't just having meetings, it is getting rid of the goon brigade who use Robert's Rules to quell debate, not foster it.

I'll still be voting for Buzzy if the vote isn't postponed and there are no other candidates.


One Vote. Yours. It really does matter.

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by: carolh @ Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 15:49:48 PM CST

"Wary" Is An Understatement..... (0.00 / 0)

...You've just described, in detail (you know...wherein the "devil" is), the modus operandi of an ethically deficient BCDO under Ferriero.   There is no substantial reason to believe that any of the reforms Bill W  quotes will be anything other than more of the same kind of con job we've been getting from Ferriero for years.  

Let's hope the free press (what's left of it) is able to see through this smokescreen/window dressing/"lipstick on a pig".   Or, barring that, that some of them read these diaries and "get a clue".    

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by: Nick Lento @ Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 17:02:22 PM CST

[ Parent ]

replies to Nick & Carol (0.00 / 0)

Nick - My source was the mailing that I assume was sent to all County Committee members.

Carol - My inclination is also to support Dressel, though I'm disappointed that he doesn't seem to be mounting much of a campaign. He's not going to beat these guys by standing up and giving a good speech.

I suppose the ideal for me at this point would be to delay the election and give the candidates some time to meet with the Committee members. On the other hand, it's not as if we all weren't aware that replacing Ferriero was a distinct possibility -- why hasn't somebody been running for the last year?  

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by: Bill W @ Sun Jan 18, 2009 at 08:20:10 AM CST

So Where's Dressel's "Correspondence"? (4.00 / 1)

Is it possible the the CC addresses/contact info is available only to Kasparian?.................If yes, that almost sounds illicit, and if no then why indeed hasn't Dressel mounted "much of a campaign".    There are a superabundance both positive and negative points to be made, issues to be raised and reforms to be touted.     Further, Dressel should go totally public with his campaign.  The issues and stakes in this BCDO election will have real impacts on every resident of Bergen County and in the whole state!   The CC members who may feel some lingering fear of, or obligation/debt to Joe Feriero need to be disabused of that notion.   A machine run BCDO is the surest way to hand Republicans a club with which to beat Jon Corzine.  This is a year when "the machine" (as in Ferriero-ism) will NOT be an asset!!!!

In any event; whoever winds up leading the BCDO the whole idea of patronage jobs model of "doing business" is fucked up (I could elaborate at length but I'll spare you "War and Peace" ;-) .  Those people/employees are being paid with OUR tax money.  They owe US not Ferriero/Kasparian!!!   They need to get that message!!!   Public employees must NOT ever be afraid to speak their minds for fear of retribution: this is America not Nazi Germany!!!

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by: Nick Lento @ Sun Jan 18, 2009 at 10:12:10 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Dressel (0.00 / 0)

has been a visible candidate.  He is also well known to CC members.  He is known for being independent of Joe and he did address the Bergen Grassroots organization because based on previous experience, he probably would not get the chance to address the CC members and he certainly doesn't have the machine at his beck and call the way Kasparian and Ferriero do to send the two letters to the CC like I received.  

Kasperian's letters were crafted to sound like what we want to hear.  I believe it is because the BCDO can't afford another Primary fight.  They couldn't last time but Joe did it anyway.  But by acting like a dictatorship, they are creating the atmosphere for another showdown.  

One Vote. Yours. It really does matter.

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by: carolh @ Sun Jan 18, 2009 at 10:58:28 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Suggestions For BCDO Electoral Process.... (0.00 / 0)

I suggest that Dressel craft a message/letter addressed directly to all the CC members (most of which, obviously, weren't at the BGR meeting....which I, unfortunately, wasn't able to attend).    He should spell out his own specific ideas/programs for reform and democratization of the BCDO.   And he should then issue that to the press and make himself available for interviews.   In addition, he and his opponent should engage in a public debate in which the two competing programs, records, styles, and agendas can be shared before a live audience.   I hope that someone will scan the totality of Kasparian's campaign literature/letter to the CC and post it here.   The more all this stuff is exposed to the light of day, the better.

My sense is that the press would cover  a real BCDO election for Chairman.  The position, realistically, is one of great power......and the more people understand that fact and shed light on that fact; the less chances there are that that power will be abused in the future as it has been in the past.   What this "election" seems like so far, is another "fix" on the part of Boss Joe trying to maintain his grip on power even on (what should be) his political deathbed.  Bergen County deserves a better BCDO election  than this Ferriero driven farce in the making....................simply being less corrupt than the Republicans is way too low a standard.  

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by: Nick Lento @ Sun Jan 18, 2009 at 12:32:51 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Dressel's "Correspondence" (0.00 / 0)

Is it possible the the CC addresses/contact info is available only to Kasparian?

It would not shock me to learn that. On the other hand, I'd like the BCDO Chair to be someone who's resourceful. If he can't get his message out directly through the mail, why not (at least) post it here? There are a few County Committee members reading here. How about writing a piece describing his vision and bringing it to the Bergen Record, explaining that he's being illegally denied access to the membership? I can't imagine the Bergen Record would pass up an opportunity to stick it to Joe Ferriero. For that matter, why not show up at BCDO headquarters with Mike Kelly in tow, and ask whoever's in charge to "explain now to both of us why I can't pick up a list of County Committee members."
I'd like to see some creativity, in other words, a quality which I'm sure will be vital for anyone tasked with the job of reforming and rebuilding the BCDO.
I'm tired of wasting my time showing up in Hackensack to cast a protest vote that will change nothing.

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by: Bill W @ Sun Jan 18, 2009 at 16:34:27 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Dressel (0.00 / 0)

only threw his hat back in the ring AFTER Thursdays meeting was canceled - on Thursday.  I think we should give him a few days grace period.  Everybody in the CC knows him so this isn't a heavy lift for Buzzy.

One Vote. Yours. It really does matter.

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by: carolh @ Sun Jan 18, 2009 at 16:59:56 PM CST

[ Parent ]