So, the County wants to spend more than $50,000 of taxpayers' money on mood pencils, light-up goldfish keychains, beach balls and glow-in-the-dark necklaces, imprinted wiith the names of Republican officeholders.  Cecilia and Doug oppose this, and it's been downright comical to read the reactions of our political opponents.

The county's attorney, Thomas Miller, said these things educate the public about county services.  "Sorry, we don’t see citizens learning anything from a beach ball with 'Somerset County Freeholders' printed on it," responded the Courier News in an editorial.  Well said!

Freeholder Peter Palmer has been talking about how great the 4-H Fair is -- as if that has anything to do with whether the County should be spending $50,000 taxpayer dollars on political giveaways. 

For the record...we LOVE the 4-H fair.  I particularly like the alpacas, the sweet corn, and the waffles with ice cream (only two of which I eat).

This is reminiscent of last year, when the Democratic Freeholder candidate (and many Republicans) called for the dissolution of the corrupt Somerset County Parks Commission.   The GOP spinmeisters tried to turn this into an attack on the parks themselves -- "but we have such great parks!" they opined, as if that somehow justified the misuse of large sums of taxpayer dollars.  As if we can't hope to have both great parks AND honest, efficient government. 

So, to summarize, here is our position on these issues:

4-H Fair: Great!  Wasting taxpayers money on political giveaways: Bad!
County Parks: Great!  Corrupt County Parks Commission wasting huge sums of money: Very, Very Bad!

The other day I signed up to be notified via e-mail of all Somerset County bidding notices.  I received my first notification today.  The first item going out to bid is:

    Qty: 1,500 --  Mood Pencil Lime Green, "Changes colors from green to yellow when touched."  These are to be imprinted with: "Frank Bruno, Surrogate."

Naturally, my interest was piqued.  The next item that caught my attention was:   

     9,000 16" beach balls imprinted with "Somerset County Freeholders Office"

I happen to know these cost more than $1 apiece, so isn't that a nice way to spend $10,000 of our taxpayer' money?

Other items of interest:

     600 kites emblazoned with the Parks Commission logo 
     1,500 light-up goldfish key chains (Roads & Bridges)
     5,000 plastic shopping bags "Imprint to be provided"
     400 stuffed animals with orange T-Shirt  (100 each: dog, cat, horse, cow) "Somerset County Animal Rescue Team"   
     1,500 glow necklaces (Bruno) 
     4,000 8" balsa gliders (Engineering)
     1,500 boxes of crayons  (Bridge Division)

And there are pages and pages of this stuff: magnifying glasses, microwave popcorn, key rings, fans, "plastic Whiz rings", etc., etc. 

Back in April, when Hillary Clinton was under fire for making up a story about being under fire in Bosnia, the comedian Andy Borowitz joked:

On the campaign trail, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) blasted China’s human rights record, telling an audience in Pittsburgh, "I have always fought for human rights in China, which is why I risked my life in Tiananmen Square."

In addition to getting a good laugh at Senator Clinton's expense, I was, of course, reminded that our own candidate for Freeholder, Cecilia Birge, actually did protest in Tiananmen Square as part if the student movement for Democracy in China on 1989. 

Today, June 4, marks the 19th anniversary of the massacre at Tiananmen Square, when soldiers opened fire on the student protesters and put an end to the peaceful six-week protest.  (Thankfully, Cecilia was not present for the bloodbath.)  China continues to surpress all information about the crackdown, so that many young people there have never even heard of the event.  Ma Jian has written an interesting op-ed piece in today's New York Times contrasting China's official recognition of the victims of the recent earthquakes with the suppression of the memories of the victims of Tiananmen Square. 

This anniversary reminds us never to take our freedoms for granted, and also to thank those before us who fought to secure these freedoms, as well as those who today fight to preserve them.

So, thanks, Cecilia, for standing up for freedom and fighting one-party rule, both in China and in Somerset County!

An independent report, paid for with more than $170,000 in taxpayer dollars, has uncovered a host of serious financial abuses at the Somerset County Park Commission.  According to the report, the Park Commission:

• Provided (and in some cases continues to provide) unwarranted perks to Commission employees, including: 
  • free (or nearly free) rental of million-dollar homes owned by the Commission
  • free full-time use of Commission-owned cars, with unlimited free gasoline for personal use
  • free limousines (with champagne) for trips to local social events and to Atlantic City
  • free golf
• Awarded large contracts without the competitive bidding process required by law

Paid $892,150.61 to Complete Electrical Installations of Raritan for work done without public bids and without contracts.  (This company contributes regularly to Republican Freeholder campaigns.)