Why Commend Inclan?

by: mikeshapiro

Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:06:00 AM EDT

A Deafening Yawn on Corruption

by: Thurman Hart

Mon May 05, 2008 at 10:02:50 AM EDT

But seeing the light late in the day doesn't erase what happened earlier. Corzine should have made it clear that regardless of how he feels about a young staffer, the ethical bar is not adjusted for size or age. Big and little fish are all the same in the eyes of the law.

I never thought or said that Inclan did anything horrendous.  But his actions allowed the horrendous to continue.  I'm not naive enough to think that he'd be where he is today (still in the Governor's office for ten more days) if he hadn't looked away - but if we are going to clean up the sewer, someone has to be the first to start calling a turd a turd.  There are undoubtedly dozens of people in the same position Javier Inclan found himself in Guttenberg a few years ago.  My advice: Call someone.  Call the state AG or the federal attorney.  

Just a word of correction - or maybe illumination - on Doblin's comments.  He writes:

Compare the conviction of former Newark Mayor Sharpe James to Delle Donna. James was a shark, while Delle Donna was a grouper. But for Christie it does not matter. Every fish caught counts.

Back to agreeing with Doblin:

However, Corzine's lack of public indignation remains problematic. There cannot be two ethical standards: one for staffers, who may be very nice people but who nonetheless make a poor judgment call, and another for more street-smart political operatives. Both groups of people should know better. Both groups are adults.

Little fish are eaten by bigger fish. That's Darwinian. Christie continues to drag the bottom feeders out of the water. That's justice.

But a lack of official indignation over an admitted bagman serving as the governor's deputy chief of staff ? that's just a bad fish story.

Now, riddle me this: How do you make the elections enforcement commission more effective?  Cut its budget, of course.  First up to be axed: publicly financed elections.  I just wish that was funny instead of so sad.

No Joy in Hudson

by: Thurman Hart

Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 09:10:59 PM EDT

Imagine that you are a poor man or woman in Honduras.  Imagine that your daughter packs everything she owns into a bundle of rags and heads out of town for the United States.  At fourteen, she is hardly a woman, but she is more than a girl and she deserves more than an itinerant farm-hand husband will ever provide. Vaya con Dios, mija!

Three years later, she finds her way back to your village.  Yes, she made it to the United States - almost all the way to New York.  But then the people that helped bring her so far beat her, locked her in an apartment, and told her she had to work in their bar.  She learned to drink and smile when strange men ran their hands over her body.  As one of the heffes said, "A body can make some money."  But what of the soul?

But the United States would not let such things happen unavenged?  What happened to those responsible?  Oh, some went to jail for a while.  One man, a very powerful man in the Governor's office, lost his job.  Well, actually, he resigned his job after the Governor told everyone what a brave, courageous man he was!

How would you feel?  Is this justice?

Javier Inclan still has his public pension and he still has the Rolodex he carried out of his office today (or will carry out - he still has a job until May 15).  If he faces no charges at either the state or federal level; then he's gotten off pretty lightly for making a business plan out of the bribe-passing that won Nidia Davila-Colon three years in prison.  Not a bad deal for what could most generously be called "a well-timed attack of conscience".

There are wounds in this community - and they reach far from tiny Guttenberg.  The state took over Jersey City schools because of patronage and an inability to conduct its business to a minimal standard.  What happens when it is the entire town?  Will the state take over the city government?  More to the point, will anything less make a difference?

There is no joy in Hudson County tonight, but there is a grim satisfaction.  But the point of justice is to make whole someone who has been injured.  We are still well short of that.

Addendum I want to thank everyone who stayed with me in not letting this story get swept out with the trash.  New Jersey can be a better place - this is just a tiny, tiny step towards turning in the right direction.

Inclan resigns

by: Hopeful

Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 08:28:43 PM EDT

The governor accepted Javier Inclan's resignation. He understands why Javier reached the conclusion that he did that it was necessary to resign,

I'll let Thurman say more on this.

h/t Bob Ingle.

Stick Ethics

by: Thurman Hart

Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 06:00:00 AM EDT

Was Justice Sold to Ambition in Hudson County?

by: Thurman Hart

Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 03:24:08 PM EDT

Yes, David and Anna della Donna were convicted of three out of five counts against them - and I'll be the first to celebrate the jailing of another guilty public official.  But if Luisa Medrano gets off scot free - like Javier Inclan - then there is no way to call this anything close to justice.  The della Donnas are guilty of letting greed rule their hearts and taking money to make legal problems go away.  Luisa Medrano is guilty of procuring slaves and beating them, if necessary, into submission so she could boost her profits (and, depending on your point of view, she may be guilty of murder as well).  Javier Inclan is guilty of simply not caring that this was going on.  He is guilty of smiling into the mirror at the cretin that was more worried about moving up in the Democratic Party than he was about anything - ANYTHING - that happened in his own community.

Complete trash.  Every stinking one of them.  But one of them will get up tomorrow and go to work as a representative of our state, work in our name, get paid with our money, and look at his boss with guilty eyes and say, "If I were guilty of something; they would have prosecuted me."

So why is Chris Christie willing to let this go unpunished?  Why is he willing to deal with modern-day slavers and corrupt politicians who are totally bereft of any political compass just to get two more convictions on his belt?  Does he fear angering the Hispanic voters by going after two shitbags that deserve to be shot more than prosecuted?  

Why is Anne Milgram letting this go unpunished?  Why is she not filing charges against a bar-owner who forced a woman held in slavery to take abortion medication after the clinic had told her that her pregnancy was too far advanced?  Why is she not pounding her desk in anger that Medrano ordered the actions that caused an infant to be born early and die horribly?  Why is she not hauling Inclan out of his office by the scruff of his neck and planting a stiletto heel against his backside?  Why isn't she sticking him in a witness chair and making him look at the picture of the child his nonchalance towards corruption helped to kill?  Does she need her next job so badly that she can't be troubled to fulfill the moral obligations of this one?

Why is Governor Jon Corzine so blind?  Why can he not see that his willingness to take no action actually blesses such actions and - not merely encourages - ensures that it will happen again and again and again?  Has he become so lost in Trenton that he cannot find his own soul?  Is he so enwrapped in Hillary Clinton's bubble that the angels of his heart cannot rouse him with the river of their tears?  Is he so sure of his Secretary job in DC that he is willing to crap all over the honest and decent people still fighting for a better New Jersey?

I'm asking everyone to send the following message to our Attorney General:

I would like to understand why charges have not been filed against Javier Inclan - he has sworn in open court during the trial of David della Donna that he violated any number of laws by not upholding his duty as Treasurer of the Guttenberg Dems.  Furthermore, Nadia Davila-Colon was convicted of doing the exact same thing Inclan admitted to doing.  Are there any plans to take action against him?

Then do the same for Jon Corzine.

The Battle for New Jersey's Progressive Soul

by: Thurman Hart

Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 08:58:42 PM EDT

The old saw that "no one plans to fail, but they often fail to plan" remains true, even if we don't have the time to hold summits and conferences or even talk much to our neighbor about what's wrong with things.  So I'm asking you to take some time and consider what you might be doing next year.

Corzine or Milgram - one, if not both, must act

by: Thurman Hart

Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 01:06:14 PM EDT

It was a lesson that Javier Inclan never learned.

Mr Corzine - Grow a pair!

by: Thurman Hart

Fri Mar 28, 2008 at 11:37:37 AM EDT

As sick as that is, it gets worse.  Make the jump.

NJDF free event :: Rush Holt & others on Election Protection

by: New Jersey's Democratic Future

Wed Nov 22, 2006 at 12:36:41 AM EST