July 20, 2010 — Ulster County lawmakers dealt County Executive Michael Hein a major blow Tuesday when they refused to confirm Janet Caffo as the new director of the county Youth Bureau. Click here to read the article in Freeman.

Town of Rochester Supervisor Carl Chipman questions whether the change in leadership at the UC Youth Bureau is in the best interest of Ulster County youth.

Does it ring a bell?

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies.

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

The three different ceremonies marking the Memorial Day in the Town of Rochester made this day special

In the morning, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Veterans Park took place on the spot where the park — honoring all veterans — is going to be located: down the hill from the Town Hall. Among the participants: veterans, town residents, all Town Board members, the Highway Superintendent, and members of the Historic Preservation Commission working on this project. Three of the eight bronze plaques to be featured in the future Veterans Park were on display.

The Memorial Day Parade, which became a town tradition, ended with a ceremony at the Accord Fire House, where speakers were State Sen. John Bonacic and Town Supervisor Carl Chipman. The flag raised at the Fire House — flown on 9/11 — belongs to Gerry Fornino, town's Emergency Management Director.

The third ceremony took place at the Town Hall where a flag which was flown over Baghdad, belonging to Roy Santosky, son of former Councilman Ron Santosky, was raised for the day next to the monument honoring "the men and women who defend our liberty."

Calling for 1,000 plus patriots. Bring U.S. flags, posters and signs!
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Date: April 15, 2010
Location: Rt. 9W Town of Ulster (across from Wendy’s, near the Hudson Valley Mall)
Reason: To protect our Constitution, our Republic and God given liberties.
More information: www.kingstonteaparty.com

Gardiner will be holding its second April 15 Tax Day Tea Party on Thursday, April 15th from 5:00-7:00PM, at the Rail Trail and Rt. 44/55 in the hamlet. This is “we the people” being heard from Gardiner to DC. In the last year we’ve come a long way and are finally making our voices heard. We have a long way to go. But now is not the time to sit back and get complacent. Our freedom and liberties are in peril and we may never get them back if we lose them. Keep the fight going.
More information: gardinersright.org

We are not yet a people apt to acquiesce in dictates handed down by our lords and masters. When Britain and Canada drifted into socialism, there were no tea parties spontaneously formed by ordinary citizens to buck the trend. The British and the Canadians lacked the spirit of resistance – though, to be fair, it lived on in the likes of Margaret Thatcher.

We Americans are made of sterner stuff. During the Cold War, we defended the Free World. In our absence, I am convinced, everyone else would have given way...

In my view, [Barack Obama] and today’s Democratic Party represent the last gasp of the Progressive impulse. The tyrannical ambition hidden at the heart of Progressivism’s quest for what Franklin Delano Roosevelt termed “rational administration” Barack Obama has made manifest; and to all with eyes to see, the danger that we have temporized with for nearly a century is now perfectly visible... What is required in what he calls “this defining moment” is what Abraham Lincoln once called “a new birth of freedom.” The period we just entered could be our finest hour.

— Paul Rahe

Paul Rahe studied as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford and gained his PhD at Yale University. He spent 24 years teaching at the University of Tulsa before accepting his current position at Hillsdale College, where he is Professor of History and Political Science, and holds The Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Chair in Western Heritage. His research focuses on the origins and evolution of self-government within the West, with works including Republics Ancient and Modern: Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution (1992) and Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Tocqueville on the Modern Prospect (2009). His current project is entitled The Spartan Way of War (2010). He has also published many articles for journals such as The American Historical Review, The National Interest and The American Journal of Philology, and regularly speaks at venues across the world.

From: Michael Walkerwicz navyvetpatron49@gmail.com
To: The New York Republican State Committee info@nygop.org
Cc: Manuela Michailescu manuela@oldbrickhouse.com
Date: January 19, 2010 10:01:19 PM EST
Subject: Take a page out of Scott Brown's campaign

Dear Republican Leadership in NYS,

Wake up and take a page from Scott Brown; those seats belong to the people! As a lifelong republican voter who will never change, I plead with you to first of all run qualified candidates in all elections, never give up in any election, and we would not have a bum like Maurice Hinchey in Washington.  No more RINOs, we want conservative leadership not people who just want to sit in an office collecting the paycheck. No more criminals like Joe Bruno. Those seats in Albany belong to the people of New York not those who sit in them; they work for us. I am sure you've seen the Tea Party movement. Well, it's growing and just because the crowd was not that large in Albany – don't disregard us, in fact learn from us. If you can't find qualified candidates check with the local Tea Party people, they will find you one. No more backroom deals like what went down in Ulster County during the last election, or the Tea Party may just provide the winning third party candidate!!!

To my fellow republicans in Ulster County,

After what went on during the last election with Manuela Michailescu, if Republicans see ever again Democrats put on the ballot like they were Republicans, I would say you guys need to start looking for new jobs.  Never in my life have I ever been so sick then when I saw the Republican Party support democrats much less try and convince local voters those three democrats were republicans. The Tea Party is in Ulster County as well!

To my good friend and fellow Republican Manuela Michailescu,

Run again and run harder this time. I would bet that you will have the full support of the party! If not, check out the Tea Party, there they know a good candidate!

"Fair winds and following seas"
Michael J. Walkerwicz
Navy Veteran, American Patriot
"No Sanctuary in the Deep"
POW / MIA "You are not forgotten"
www.GreasyOnline.com

From: Imre Beke imrebeke.newyork@gmail.com
To: Kandy Santosky rons213@aol.com
Sent: 1/9/2010 12:04:59 P.M. Pacific Standard Time
Subject: Goals for 2010

Dear Kandy:

Probably you know that Terry Bernardino is our Town's Republican representative in the Ulster County Legislature.
I enclose her letter that may be useful in the future. Please forward it to your friends.
God bless,

Imre

Dear Fellow Republican Committee Members,

I am attaching the Legislative resolution that lays out the new Committees in the Legislature for 2010.

I am the Chairman of a newly created committee that I believe will be able to accomplish a tremendous amount of good work in Ulster County this year.

Majority Leader Paul Hansut and I are seeking input for our Goals for all of the Committees for 2010. I am reaching out to as many people as I can for their input.

Please share this information with the residents in the Districts in the Town of Rochester that you represent and let me know of any goals for the upcoming year that our residents would like us to work on.

Please contact me directly or via e-mail and I will keep you abreast of our work in the Legislature.

Terry Bernardo
home 845-626-0151
skate time 845-626-7971
cell 845-532-8664

Whoever pulls Mr. Beke's strings is not doing a very good job. Mr. Beke should have been asked to memorize the name of the local legislator (if you believe that Terry Bernardino is a typo, you don't know what a typo looks like). Go ahead Mr. Beke, send more emails as the one above. You may learn something from answers as the one below. jdm

From: Kandy Santosky rons213@aol.com
To: Imre Beke imrebeke.newyork@gmail.com
Sent: 1/10/2010 7:01:59 A.M. Pacific Standard Time
Subject: Goals for 2010

Mr. Beke,

Since I was probably Manuela's main supporter against Terry the "RINO", yes, I know the Town Republicans got stuck with a "Democrat" for our Ulster County Legislator representation.

She was proud to run as a Republican but even prouder yet to win as a Democrat. I'm sure you know that she DID NOT win the Republican support or votes. Most everyone can see her for the shallow and phoney person that she is and know that she is out to get what she can for herself, her husband and her friends.

Terry got what she wanted, said she had the qualifications, and she should have had some goals going in. Let her figure it out for herself. I don't have any "Democrat" friends to forward this to, and I will not bother my true Republican friends with the wants or needs of a Democrat.

Kandy

From: Imre Beke imrebeke.newyork@gmail.com
Date: January 6, 2010 2:22:53 PM EST
To: Manuela manuela@oldbrickhouse.com
Subject: Thank you and asking for your support

Dear Manuela:

I wish you a very Happy and healthy NEW YEAR.

I also would like respectfully ask for your support to re appoint Brian Drabkin to the ZBA Chair and Mel Tapper to the Planning Board Chair, as well as Fred O'Donnell to the ZBA.

I am sure that I do not even have to ask you to support Shane to the Planning Board. Shane's invaluable experience is self-evident. I have served on the Planning Board (as Chairman) for 14 years, so I know from personal experience how important is for our community to have good qualified persons to serve on both the ZBA and Planning Bd. By the way, Shane served with me faithfully and diligently (at least 10 y during my period) on the Board. I can not believe that anybody would even question his qualification.

In addition to all of the above, as our Party's Committee member, I would like to share with you my strong personal feeling that we have to show to all of our members (in an unquestionable way) that our party's leadership is united behind our nominees. Without that indisputable unity and collective support there is no chance to win anything at the next election. Now, that we have a strong, united and cohesive Committee, you know that you can depend on our support and I hope that we also can depend on our majority in the Town Council to support our Party's candidates.

Thank you for the great job that you have did and let's work together to continue to improve the quality of life for our neighbors. God bless you,

Imre

The above e-mail, coming from Mr. Beke, is — to put it mildly — hilarious. At the 2009 Ulster County GOP Convention, where two Republican candidates were seeking two of the four District 1 Legislator seats, Mr. Beke did not vote for Manuela Michailescu, his own Rochester Republican Committee's nominee for Ulster County Legislature. As a result, three Democrats were nominated on the Republican line. After Convention, Mr. Beke neglected his obligation — as a Rochester Republican Committee member — to circulate petitions for Manuela Michailescu. What on Earth stopped Mr. Beke to support a Republican candidate before we were blessed with "a strong, united and cohesive Committee"?jdm

Remember this past summer, when Len Bernardo & Co. (wife, Jeremy Blaber, Kathy Kuthy) executed their harebrained smear campaign against Town of Rochester Councilwoman Manuela Michailescu? When Len Bernardo was telling everybody who would listen that Manuela can't run for Legislature because she doesn't live in town?

Blue Stone Press — December 18, 2009 (page 3)

State AG supports Mihailescu's right to serve
Sherry Chachkin, BSP Reporter

Just as one controversy is settled in Rochester, another has emerged. The question of town board member Manuela Mihailescu's eligibility to hold elected town office has been finally determined in her favor.

However, the town is now engaged in a battle with Time Warner Cable over whether the county should receive federal stimulus money for increased broadband coverage in Rochester. (...)

Regarding Mihailescu's eligibility to hold elected office, Town Attorney MaryLou Christiana announced that she had received an opinion from the State Attorney General's Office in the matter. Christiana requested the opinion last July after the question was raised based on Mihailescu's bankruptcy filing in which she indicated that her primary address was located in Rego Park, New York.

Christiana said that while the Attorney General's opinion set out the relevant standards for determining Mihailescu's status, it advised that the ultimate decision must be made locally. Eligibility for office is determined by place of domicile, which, in turn, is indicated by facts which establish the person's intent to live at that location.

Christiana said that her July 18 opinion, which found that Mihailescu was eligible to hold office in Rochester, had relied on the relevant criteria and therefore was now confirmed. (...)

OFFICIAL RESULTS / REPUBLICAN LINE:
Manuela Michailescu — 1719
Terry L. Bernardo — 1304
Mary F. Sheeley — 1240
T.J. Briggs — 1193

You probably got a postcard in your mailbox asking you to vote for the "Republican" ticket in today's Republican Primary.

The sender forgot to mention that this "Republican" ticket is the result of back-room deal, best explained by Kingston Times:

"Last spring, Republican chairman Mario Catalano and Independence Party leader Len Bernardo thought they'd cooked the deal of the decade in swapping three incumbent Democrats for a free ride on the Republican ticket for Terry Bernardo, the chairman's wife. Town councilwoman Manuela Michailescu was the first to prick that balloon..."

"Catalano, cooked a deal with Bernardo to guarantee his wife, Terry Bernardo, a seat in the legislature."

"The Catalano-Bernardo deal screws voters, but then, that's what politicians do."

The "Republican" ticket is identical with the Democratic, Conservative and Independence tickets. 4 people for 4 seats. That's an appointment, not an election. Today's Republican Primary for Ulster County Legislature District 1 gives voters the choice denied by the Party's leader.

An editorial in Ellenville's Shawangunk Journal offers this opinion:

"One of the ways Republican voters can ensure that this type of shady, back-room deal doesn't happen again is by sending a clear message to their leaders in the primary on September 15.”

Please vote today.
If you stand for democracy, not deals, please vote for Manuela Michailescu.
Her name is first on the ballot.

"The problem, as we've discussed in an earlier editorial, is that the Democratic and Republican Parties engaged in a practice known as cross-endorsement for the four county legislative seats in District 1. The three Democrats managed to avoid a challenge from the Republicans as long as the Republicans got a chance to run their candidate, also unopposed in the fall election, for the fourth seat. If things had gone the way party elders had chosen, there would have been four candidates for four seats, no choice for the voters, nothing to see here, folks, please move along.

But someone decided to throw a democratic (small "D") monkey wrench into the Republican Party apparatus. Manuela Mihailescu, a current councilperson from the Town of Rochester, has challenged the GOP's anointed candidate, Terry Bernardo. This means that voters will have a choice, although this choice won't appear on the November ballot. No, the only honest-to-goodness democratic opportunity voters in District 1 will have for the county legislature this election season will be in the Republican primary on September 15, when Mihailescu and Bernardo face off against one another."

Read the whole editorial
Ellenville's Shawangunk Journal — September 3, 2009

In BlueStone Press (August 21, 2009), Pat Rowe signs an article headlined Legislator races taking shape now. Here is a paragraph obviously "inspired" by Legislature races take shape in Ulster County, a Daily Freeman article published on July 30, 2009:

Compare the BlueStone Press (above left) with the Daily Freeman (above right). The BlueStone reporter chose not to "borrow" the last sentence, which is the real news: "They are facing a primary challenge from Kerhonkson Republican Manuela Michailescu."

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We Con the World

Political Blogs Gone Bad

"Of course Blaber is not fully to blame, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the Bernardos are feeding him most of his material for their own political gain."

"To sum things up... Blaber has destroyed what little credibility he had left (and it wasn't much), and the way the Bernardos used Blaber to attack the character and integrity of many good people, while at the same time using Len's position to negotiate backroom deals to secure his wife a legislative seat, has all left a nastier than ever stench on some of the dirtiest politics the county has seen in some time."

A low Blow

About Jeremy Blaber: "This is without question the most vicious, idiotic, foolish, nonsensical, moronic, unfair, juvenile, and hateful attack piece I have ever seen. I have followed national, state, county, and city politics for many years.
I have seen some real nasty stuff thrown out there by irresponsible candidates. This, however, takes the cake."

— Richard T. Cahill

A local perspective on the decaying of America

Rochester Town Supervisor Carl Chipman On The Past, The Future, and Democrats
Ellenville's Shawangunk Journal

"We must not let the current election season alter our course. The mistakes of the past must not be repeated. There should be no tolerance for mean-spiritedness and negativity. Character assassinating website postings and anonymous nasty signs springing up in the night are the acts of mean-spirited individuals with narrow-minded agendas. The public deserves better than that."

Town of Rochester Councilwoman Manuela Michailescu won the right to a Republican line
Times Herald-Record

And in District 1, which includes Ellenville, Town of Rochester Councilwoman Manuela Michailescu won the right to a Republican line. Michailescu’s victory will kick incumbent Joe Stoeckeler off the line, but Stoeckeler has also been endorsed by the Democrats.

Legislature races take shape in Ulster County
Daily Freeman

IN DISTRICT 1 (Marbletown, Rochester, Wawarsing), Republican voters will choose from among five candidates for four spots on the Republican line. Democratic incumbents Joseph Stoeckeler, Mary Sheeley and T.J. Briggs, all of Ellenville, and Terry Bernardo, who is registered in the Independence Party, have the backing of the Ulster County GOP. They are facing a primary challenge from Kerhonkson Republican Manuela Michailescu.

Bad Behavior All Around
Ellenville's Shawangunk Journal

“...The reason for all of this mud is Mihailescu's quite reasonable objection to the political carve up in District One between Republicans, Independents, and Democrats. A backroom deal was made a few months ago between the major parties to cross-endorse, thereby deciding to go around the voters completely and make sure the 'right' people won the election without any of that disturbing democracy business getting in the way.”

Smear Campaign in Rochester?
Ellenville's Shawangunk Journal

Why are they afraid
of Manuela?
Daily Freeman

“At this point, I think it is fairly clear that Councilwoman Michailescu did not, in any way abandon her domicile in the town of Rochester, and therefore she can continue to hold her position on the Town Board.”

— MaryLou Christiana
— Attorney for the Town

Ulster County
Board of Elections...

...notified Manuela Michailescu that she was nominated as a candidate for Public Office by the Republican and Conservative Parties, to be voted for at the Primary Election to be held on September 15, 2009.

Solomon splits
Kingston Times

"Catalano, after cooking a deal with Bernardo to guarantee his wife, Terry Bernardo, a seat in the legislature..."

— Hugh Reynolds

John Morrow: thug or buffoon?
Speak Out

Wheels and Deals
Kingston Times

"The Catalano-Bernardo deal
screws voters, but then,
that's what politicians do."

— Hugh Reynolds

Rumbling in Rochester:
Will District 1 Have A Choice?
Ellenville's Shawangunk Journal

We the Voters want to vote for people who will represent us
Speak Out

We the People demand
an end to deals
Speak Out

Bernardos' Districks 1

Shame on you, Mario Catalano!
Speak Out

District 1 Voters Without Say in Upcoming County Election
Ellenville's Shawangunk Journal

Ulster County's GOP —
A Party Fractured?
Ellenville's Shawangunk Journal

What has happened
to democracy?
Ellenville's Shawangunk Journal
Daily Freeman
Blue Stone Press

Shame on the deal-makers!
Blue Stone Press

Dirty Party Politics?
Ellenville's Shawangunk Journal