Fausta's blog

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The official blog of Fausta's Blog Talk Radio show.

Friday, August 19, 2005

The Democrats’ 9/11 slush fund, continued
Following up on the story: Yesterday Gay Patriot got an installanche by predicting that the NJ State Attorney General "the AG will be accused of misappropriation of homeland security funds in a time of war". Well, state Assemblyman Sean Kean, R-Monmouth, is calling for the AG's impeachment.

As Rick Hepp of the Star Ledger explains in his August 14 article, federal Homeland Security grants moneys were distributed based on reward, not risk:
The federal money was handed out based on an assessment of risk, determined by New Jersey's own attorney general, as well as other federal, state and county officials.

The state money was controlled by the governor's office, often as a way to reward Democratic Party loyalists.
. . .
Nowhere was the difference in funding strategies more evident than in Atlantic County, where 34 million visitors travel each year to enjoy its casinos and beaches. Atlantic County got more than $3 million in federal money based on critical areas that need protection, such as the casinos and utility companies. But the Republican county got no money under the state grant program.

By comparison, Democratic stronghold Camden County got $3.48 million in state money -- more than any other county under the state program -- but it received less than Atlantic County in federal funding, the analysis shows.
. . .
The Attorney General's Office tried to use a similar approach to distribute state Homeland Security aid after the Statewide Local Domestic Preparedness Equipment Grants program was created by McGreevey and the Legislature in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. But the McGreevey administration rejected the idea.

Instead, McGreevey's office, and later Codey's, doled out the money as if it were "Christmas tree" funding -- a term long used in Trenton to describe grants given along party lines for use on pet projects in home districts, according to internal government documents and e-mails obtained by The Star-Ledger. A total of 93 percent of the aid has been sent to towns in Democratic legislative districts over three years.

Codey spokesman Sean Darcy declined to comment, but Codey's office has said the final decision on which towns received the grants rested with the attorney general, which distributed the funds. Harvey's spokesman acknowledged late last week that a list of towns that applied for grants was forwarded to the governor's office for guidance.
Yesterday The Prop commented here that
Actually, it turns out the AG's office DIDN'T parcel out the anti-terror funding. The Guv's Office claimed that at first, but when the finger got pointed the other way, it was revealed that the decisions were made at the very top, that is, the Guv's office.
and he's right, from what Rick Hepp's investigation has revealed. Not that the Attorney General's office is not under pressure in this case, and in others. In a different investigation, Hepp reports that
A state Superior Court judge intends to appoint a special "master" to determine whether the Attorney General's Office should release secret recordings from an aborted South Jersey public corruption investigation that is now the subject of a lawsuit.
You can tell you've been living in NJ for a while when you realize that such things have long ago lost their power to amaze.

Update: Welcome, Gay Patriot readers!

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