Snaps, Election, Snap Election....
A runoff....
Eight votes lead....
Life is beautiful....
Congratulations to the newly elected and the re-elected....
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A runoff....
209 comments:
1 – 200 of 209 Newer› Newest»At least Danny Aquino didn't win! Score one for the good guys!
It was not a "A runoff due to eight votes."
13,510 ballots were cast and counted. 50% plus one of those required 6,756 to win.
Heinz and Arnold got 4,900 votes.
So they were 1,856 votes short of a majority, not eight.
Please change your story to:
A runoff....
Due to 1,856 votes....
or else:
A runoff....
After an eight (8) vote difference....
You guys must work for one of the local newspapers!
point taken....;-)
thanks.
Governor Fitial WILL WIN THE RUN-OFF ELECTION!
BIBA BE! LET IT BE! LET IT BE!!!
Governor Fitial WILL WIN THE RUN-OFF ELECTION!
BIBA BE! LET IT BE! LET IT BE!!!
Dear Brad,
Thank you so much for your well wishes. I look forward to seeing you soon!
Danny
Dear Willie Tan,
Please send more money via Western Union. I need to buy more Viagra and buy more votes.
Love,
Ben Tan Fitial
LOL!
So now will Heinz display is resume? Where did he go to school? What did he study? Bills introduced? Who is this guy? Young voters need to know!
Anon 6:01
You want to know about Heinz? Read this from the Variety:
This year’s youngest gubernatorial aspirant, Heinz has won all elections in which he was a candidate, except for the 2005 polls when he lost by 84 votes to Fitial. That was the closest gubernatorial election in CNMI history.
Heinz’s election record as Precinct 3 House member speaks for itself. He finished first six times and second twice. His constituents trust him and like his work.
In the House, he has introduced some of the most substantial and significant pieces of legislation on housing, the environment, labor, education, public health, utilities, local culture among other things. He authored the Commonwealth Environmental Protection Act, the Commonwealth Fair Housing Act, the appropriation for the beautification and development of American Memorial Park, the Managaha Marine Conservation Act, the laws repealing the 30 percent retirement bonus and other unfunded mandates. He updated the Sexual Violent Offender Registration Act, provided incentives to airlines, and supported tax breaks for new investors. He was a proponent of a minimum wage hike and a critic of the garment industry when factory owners and their lobbyists still ruled Capital Hill.
Some ask: Why can’t Heinz, a veteran lawmaker, do now what he says he’d do if elected governor?
Heinz has done what a serious lawmaker could possibly do — introduce key legislation, ensure its passage, raise public awareness regarding key issues while looking after his constituents.
Is Arnold flashing the LOSER sign because he's next to Danny Aquino? I'm glad that racist lost. I'm glad that racist Eric Atalig lost, too.
Eric has a progressive girlfriend.
Chamorros are for Heinz and Hoales and Carolinians are for Ben-tan.
not all haoles
Haoles might agree on the time of day, and somebody's going to tell me I'm wrong about that.
The not-so-silent minority probably voted pretty much like everyone else. Juan Pan, Kumoi and None of the Above might have done a little better.
To the United Nations assembled,
I am writing in regard to the upcoming run-off election, November 23, 2009, in the US Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands. Given the importance of this election to the decent citizens of the CNMI, I humbly ask the United Nations to monitor, oversee, and conduct the run-off election.
Given the NMI history of corruption, the well documented record of labor and human abuses, the strong influence foreign nationals have on the local government, and the close association to organized crime, prudence dictates that we seek all precautions available to insure and protect this election process and the democratic values of our nation.
The US may not have authority or jurisdiction to protect the reliability of this election; therefore, the people of these islands need United Nations intervention. Past United States elections have warranted, and a future America may need your internationally unbiased reputation for oversight as well, and setting precedence on US soil may serve the future security of our nation and the world.
Very respectfully,
Ron Hodges
Saipan
Damn- a month and a half in far off exotic places only to return to find that the gubernatorial contest is still unsettled.
Teach, they did a terrible job in Afghanistan, and the quality of contestants and the enormity of the issues they're faced with are such that it won't really make that big a difference who wins it in the end, will it?
Too bad about Tina. Maybe she should have waited and run for re-election as a Representative instead of trying to become a Senator. It would have given her some time to shake off some of the mistakes she made early in her first term and capitalize on some of the very positive things she started later. Too bad, she was almost too good to be true.
Goose - I have no reason to think the recent election was corrupted because there was no motive, as 9 of 10 were picking HA and BE in a runoff.
Now the chips are down and the direction of the CNMI is at stake, if not the reputations of the residents.
We have no issues to compare with Afghanistan, or Burma, or PI for that matter, due to our affiliation with the US.
We have serious security concerns in the upcoming run-off election wisdom would err on the side of caution.
teacher..I'm trying to like you but you really are such as dork.
The U.N. has no jurisdiction here since the termination of the TTPI on November 4, 1986.
We are under the sovereignty of the United States of America. Covenant Section 101.
If you want to spin your wheels somewhat more productively, your letters should be addressed to President Obama, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, or (if you have some actual facts) U.S. Attorney Leonardo M. Rapadas.
I hope you don't teach civics or social studies!
If enough Juan Pan and Kumoi supporters go to vote, get a ballot and leave it blank, there will be no 50% + 1.
People who want someone other than Fitial or Hofschneider should leave their ballots blank.
That won't work. See Gutierrez v. Ada (U.S. Supreme Court).
But it seems Bitter Ed, Devious Glen, or the other so-called forces of "change" (HA!) know most Juan Pan and Kumoi supporters are trending toward Ben and Eloy and are trying cynically to suppress the vote in violation of their civil rights.
Similar dirty trick tactics -- blanketing minority neighborhoods with flyers showing incorrect voting dates or polling places -- have been held to be federal offenses.
"Change?" HA!
Shame, shame on American soil!
There will be an answer.
How is that trying to "supress the vote"? You're trying to make sense, but you're not. A blank ballot submitted by a voter who has chosen to submit a blank ballot, in order to make a statement, is FAR from suppressing the vote.
The only "dirty tricks" are the ones that have been played upon the people by this, the worst administration in the history of the Commonwealth.
For the record, I am not the teacher, ed, glen, or anyone else you're trying in futility to portray as being the only one or two comment writers.
i thought that the reason Mr. Kumoi and Juan Pan ran against Mr. Fitial was because they did not like what the governor was doing, that they wanted to change the leadership and that they are concerned with the welfare of the people.
i thought that their supporters wanted no more of the same kind of governance by Mr. Fitial.
if my thoughts were correct, why don't Mr. Kumoi and Mr. Juan Pan urge their followers to vote for Mr. Hoffschneider?
shouldn't the welfare of the people come first? or maybe this is just an issue of "I am better than Mr. Fitial so i ran for office."
Anon 12:10:
UN monitors wouldn't solve any problems, but US monitors would be actually create new ones. Federal supervision of an election between pro-federal and anti-federal candidates is inherently untrustworthy. It's like having foxes supervising the elections of the chickens.
Juan Pan with his financial connections to Willie Tan will entice/throw his supporters to Uncle Ben's side. "Four more years" puke.......
Here's a little information about federal election law:
Anyone who pays or offers to pay another person (including the promise of a job) to register to vote, or to vote, is violating federal election law. See, e.g., 42 USC section 1973i, 18 USC section 597.
If any employee of the election commission, or any other public official, conspires to prevent voters from participating in an election by mailing out their absentee ballots too late for them to be returned in time to be counted, they would be violating federal election law. See 18 USC sections 241 and 242, 18 USC section 1952.
Some federal election crimes require that the violation have occurred in an election when there is a federal candidate on the ballot. Passage of the initiative that would have held all future Commonwealth elections in even numbered years, to coincide with those for our congressional delegate, would have ensured federal jurisdiction over all future Commonwealth elections.
IF ANYONE HAS ANY INFORMATION ABOUT ANY ALLEGED VIOLATION DESCRIBED ABOVE, PLEASE CONTACT THE FBI OR THE US ATTORNEY'S OFFICE.
Thank you, Jim.
Don't mention it Greg.
So our elections of all local candidates would become subject to federal criminal law just because there is also a single federal office (delegate) on the ballot, even if there are no criminal incidents regarding that office?
This is just absolutely typical federal overreaching bullshit. Did anybody know that before putting it on the ballot to align the elections? Was there anything about that in the voter education pro-and-con material? Did anybody know that when voting? Not me.
Fortunately, I voted against it anyway, on general principle (Why should we change our election to suit the federal schedule? If they don't like it, let them change theirs.) This, however, reaffirms my original view.
I think the AG's office is probably wrong about the meaning of "votes cast," but I am beginning to hope they are right.
I say let the federal arm reach out and grab these corrupt politicians! Promises of jobs are replete, especially from the Covenant Party. Why do you think Joe Camacho and company ended up supporting the BE team? It's not because they believe in BE's philosophy. It's because they were offered the most lucrative deal: they were promised jobs, contracts, etc.
If Jane Mack is right about "ballots" versus "votes," the winner of the run-off will get a five-year term, as we allign to federalized elections.
BE.
Noni 9:17AM:
That is right. And if she is correct than the CNMI Constitution needs to be upheld.
Jane can be counted on to support whatever bolsters the position of her left-leaning statist agenda.
If you want an opinion on the Constitution why not get Ambrose, the Contitoontional Skolar to give us his version.
It is sickening to any one with ethics to watch what we all suspected actually come to fruition. While young voters worry about Heinz's resume, Juan Pan and cronies reveal their real reason for running - divide the vote and then throw it to Fitial. How could any of the independents be so foolish as to actually think that Fitial has brought any $$ to the CNMI. Nothing he has done has resulted in any improvements.
Example, have you driven down middle road over the last three days and "enjoyed" the CHC intersection - who is in charge of this studpid problem?
Did everyone forget that over six years ago, the BB administration informed the public about the collapsing sewer system and was working cooperatively with EPA to resolve this issue when Fitial took over and stopped the negotiations?
Did everyone forget that Fitial et all blocked the hiring of Abe, the savior from AS over six years ago?
Did everyone forget that Matt Gregory, AG under Fitial, actually drove away OIA's support by thumbing his nose at the efforts of Jim B. and Cohen?
Did everyone forget that under BB the Democratically controlled house never introduced any legislation to federalize but as soon as Fitial was elected and started his game of screw the feds, they did?
Short term memory loss is truly the ailment of the CNMI voters.
The US should have made each and every resident of the CNMI in 1978 earn citizenship so that they actually valued it and understood that with freedom comes responsibility and not hand outs.
If you promise to vote for Fitial, he is paying for your CUC bills.
Fitial gave 10 people CUC jobs yesterday in exchange for their votes in the runoff.
DPW Traffic Division is responsible for the CHC Navy Hill intersection traffic light controls. The powers that be, the DPW Secretary is so underqualified and over whelmed with the responsiblity he can't even think straight. No funding was allocated for spare parts. Duhhhh.... can you put up with 5 (That's right 5) more years of this crap? This is CIP fundng... can't those idiots at DPW get it? The money is available, but the morons have no idea on how to secure it. Or maybe they just don't give a shit. Beer and BBQ brains.... Next DPW Secretary better have graduated high school....
The problem, Noni 3:11, is not STM but the dozen factual and logical errors in your post, my friend.
The voters see through them all and are not fooled by your sophistry.
For instance, the major cause of federalization is political vindictiveness by ultra-libs Nancy Pelosi and George Miller, aided and abetted by political animals David Barrett Cohen, Allen P. Stayman, and James J. Benedetto.
Fortunately, Governor Benigno Repeki Fitial was able to find skilled lawyers like Howard Penney Willens and Matthew Theodore Gregory to stand up for our people.
Thank you Uncle Ben!
Bite me, covenant swine
Fortunately the people have the last word at the ballot box and in the jury box, not officious, intermeddling federal bureaucrats like Stayman, Cohen, and Benedetto.
For the sheep that haven't closely followed this case, Juan Pan ran so Tan would have two horses in the race and the loser would throw his votes to the other.
Juan Pan and the Governor should go to fed prison for using our retirement fund like a personal checking account. They invested money, our money, to buy fishing boats and casinos for Willie.
Juan Pan's son even got a retirement fund house, the forner Ray Diaz repossessed home in As Matuis...cheap and fully financed.
Some mainland lawyers are even suing because people here are too stupid, too corrupt, to involved, or Ben tan offered their cousin a job with car.
The case below is both unbelievable and sad, and makes people in the CNMI to be illerate, corrupt, or sheep following Ben Fitial around as he drops 10. bills our his car.
In September 2009, Attorneys Jorgensen and Lord filed Plaintiff's Reply To CNMI Defendant's Opposition, which makes additional serious allegations. The reply stated:
Were there published a Black’s Law Dictionary pictorial edition, there might well be printed adjacent to the term “unclean hands” the CNMI governmental seal. This, in turn, the consequence of CNMI governmental misconduct, in violation of law, and wholesale disregard of equitable principles and fiduciary obligations, respecting the Fund and its beneficiaries including Plaintiffs.
The document discusses the fact that the Fund and its board have not made serious efforts to collect the $230 million judgment against the CNMI. It also emphasizes the CNMI's huge debt to the fund and unlawful practices.
From the document:
Plaintiffs claims respecting Fund/Board defendants evolve from breaches of fiduciary duty, and failure or unwillingness to meaningfully and expeditiously collect in an objectively reasonable and prudent fashion on a $230 million judgment against the CNMI---with plaintiffs seeking, in part, imposition of a federal equity receivership tailored to commence proceedings to ensure independent, arms’-length, recovery of judgment satisfaction, to protect Fund assets, to halt the Fund’s alarming fiscal chaos, and to ensure future Fund viability. By contrast, Plaintiffs claims regarding the CNMI derive from the CNMI’s longstanding debt delinquencies owed to the Fund, as evinced by unlawful patterns and practices over many years, and with no receivership as to the CNMI itself.
Where-oh-where then, are those in-house and quasi-private lawyers being paid hundreds-of-thousands, by the Fund/Board (footnote 3), ostensibly for the purpose of protecting and representing interests and property rights possessed by the Fund generally, and Plaintiffs and other retirees specifically?
PS When I see that line of supporters every night on the news spewing propaganda for the Guv, I don't hear what they are saying, I just imagine each one says "baaaa".
The Chamarro people need a leader to tell them what to do. 1st was the Spanish, then the Nazis, then the Japanese, then the Americans turned them over to capitalism and Bentan has told them all what to do ever since.
Saipan AP- Does anyone know if any state or territory has ever had their Lt. Governor locked up in federal prison, then re-elected that Governor, then had the 2nd term guv put into federal prison too?
19 have been indicted, plead guilty, in jail, or are currently giving cooperating testemony to the feds in the Jack Abramoff, Tom Delay, Ben Fitial, Willie Tan bribery case, so soon indictments will be playing in your neigborhood.
Maybe we can pay Ben throughout the trial just like we payed Tim.
Fortunately, the people have the last word at the ballot box, and not pompous, verbose, borderline senile, has-been volunteer lawyers.
Ben is sending his supporters over to CUC to collect information on delinquent customers. They are buying votes by promising to keep the lights on. We need to get this crook out of office!
The racists are out in force, making wild anti-Fitial allegations to stave off the supporters of Proven Leadership.
Out of all 94 U.S. Attorney's Offices in the entire country, there is only one without a single member of the bar for the jurisdiction in which they reside. The CNMI USAO.
At least Bruce Lee Jorgensen is a permanent member of the District Court bar, even though never admitted in the CNMI.
Fortunately, the people of the CNMI are extraordinarily fair-minded.
Noni 7:10 a.m.,
NMIRF investing in Willie's casinos and fishing boats?
Where do your sources make this stuff up?
The biggest danger to the Fund is being looted for attorneys' fees by the likes of E. Viola Alepuyo and Bruce Lee Jorgensen, a notable "change" advocate.
No way should NMIRF members consent to Bruce being "our" class action counsel.
Thankfully, Uncle Ben saved the Fund over $1 Billion by creating the Defined Contribution Plan.
Noni 11:05
Why should we care, as long as they are doing a good job?They convicted the Lt. Governor and the Secretary of Commerce. They are getting ice and guns off our streets (including the Governor's bodyguard). Maybe that's what bothers you?
BE must be short for befuddled
There's been nary a complaint about the outstanding performance of our hard-working AUSAs and FBI SAs, save that we need even more like them. The feds should have done so thirty years ago!
Perhaps the USAO and FBI should check out the Jorgensen lawsuit. Wire Fraud? Who is cheating whom?
Or maybe Bruce should get a job as an AUSA to "change" and fix all that is wrong with the CNMI?! Seeing how his permanent District Court bar admission makes him more "qualified" than the current four AUSAs. (!)
BE-fuddled, indeed. HA!
I GOT A MERCEDES, A PORCHE AND A LEAR JET FOR CHRISTMAS. GUESS WHO AM I VOTING FOR?
SO WHAT!!!!!
I GOT A MERCEDES, A PORCHE AND A LEAR JET FOR CHRISTMAS. GUESS WHO AM I VOTING FOR?
SO WHAT!!!!!
I GOT A MERCEDES, A PORCHE AND A LEAR JET FOR CHRISTMAS. GUESS WHO AM I VOTING FOR?
SO WHAT!!!!!
I GOT A MERCEDES, A PORCHE AND A LEAR JET FOR CHRISTMAS. GUESS WHO AM I VOTING FOR?
SO WHAT!!!!!
I GOT A MERCEDES, A PORCHE AND A LEAR JET FOR CHRISTMAS. GUESS WHO AM I VOTING FOR?
SO WHAT!!!!!
The politics of envy rears its ugly head.
Fortunately, the decent citizens do not succumb to calls for avarice in the guise of "change."
I don't envy any politician that want's to govern this group of islands. Band of thieves, wildcats.... Bud brews and BBQ's.
Good luck.
It's a thankless job, but someone's got to do it.
Let us pray.
I'm praying....but, not for you morons.
Our failure to hold our leaders up in prayer has been part of the problem.
That is one difference between those who respect traditional cultural values and practices as opposed to those who want to shove federalization down our throats, enforce degraded Hollywood mores, and promote transparency and change as the highest virtues.
The so-called morons are smarter than you think, endowed with common sense, and pray for our leaders no matter who they are.
There will be an answer.
Nah, you're morons. Don't spend to much time or energy trying to convince yourself otherwise. Try to keep a logical line of conversation with Faisao, Mafnas, Iguel, Tudela or Santos. Morons.
I see the epitome of our local intelligensia, ardent advocate of federalization and self-annointed protector of the down-trodden, is pulling out all stops to tell us all how bad the BE team is.
Only one problem.
The Unity March and the disastrous implementation of federal minimum wages and immigration have been terrible for local and guest worker alike.
It is these policies from Washington, pushed by those of us who consider themselves smarter than the rest, that have caused such terrible job losses and sent home so many of our brothers and sisters.
For generations, our young multiethnic vpoters will recall that it was the Covenant party that tried to preserve jobs, save our guest worker system upon which so many poor families relied, and thus keep families together.
The so-called "intelligent" opinion-makers are trying to shove down our throats the economic equivalent of unions, with their promises of high-paying jobs.
Great if you are connected enough to get one, but what about the rest of us?
As more and more Saipan-born citizens reach voting age, the memories will never fade!
Who sent away our parents, uncles, aunties, brothers and sisters? And who stood up for the engine of prosperity that had so benefitted Chamorros, Pinoys, Refaluwasch, and all our other people who seek not their own advancement at the expense of the alien or the poor.
The people reject the politics of envy, the politics of division, the politics of the Washington mandate.
We the people are empowered and can decide for ourselves! We do not need Zaldy or Tina to tell us what to think or how to vote.
A new generation has arrived, and we choose the best of our cultures and traditions, an honest day's work, not the empty promises of federalizers and unionizers.
Let it BE!
Don't forget that moron Sylvan Igisomar!
God damn! I wish Baka would stop this immature and mindless "Let it BE!" blogging bullshit and get to work on traffic cases!
WTF!
Did the governor put him there so that the AG would turn a blind eye to the recent vehicular death cases involving pedestrians?
What happened to the one in As Lito? The lady hit and killed a man and then the report changed to the driver being a man and till this day (months later) no name ever came up and no more information was released. What the hell are you doing BAKA? How do you sleep at night covering up for the governor and stealing votes by breaking the law?
What happened to the one in Kagman? The first report said alcohol and speed caused the vehicle to hit and kill that guy. the next report said no charges and blamed the man for not being in a crosswalk. WTF!!! Baka, this is shoddy and shitty work! MCV went to the scene of the accident and revealed that the car had VEERED OFF THE ROAD prior to hitting the man and perhaps caused him to flee into to the road before getting struck and KILLED!!!!!
This governor can hold hands and sing with baka "let it be" all fucking day! the truth is they are both corrupt assholes!!! I hope you dream nightmares of people being KILLED and you two covering shit up for votes!
What of the guy beaten by Fitials son in law at the prison????
BAKA cover-up again?
Baka, go to church and repent and hope to GOD you are forgiven.
Jusus H Crist, Ed. A drunken man runs out on the road in front of a car, is hit and sadly killed. --and this is Baka's fault? You need to get your ass into a church and take a close look at your sad sad self.
What a bunch of whiners and wheezers and unadulterated shitheads inhabit this, the last of the blogs.
Piss moan this - piss moan that. The slightest hint of rational conversation and you fucking morons, on both sides of the argument, run for your handbook of catchall phrases, spout a couple of platitudes and rightously explain to the rest of us how it must be in order to gain your approval.
Fuck you and fuck your approval. I neither need nor want it.
Speaking of morons 11:57PM, try holding that coversation in Chamorro you illierate twit. Oh, can't speak or read that language, or Carolinian either? Those represent two thirds of the 'official languages' of the CNMI and you and most of the other lilly white posters here can't even hold a conversation with a 5 year old in either one of them. Yeah, convince me of your brilliance.
Laughable.
Noni 4:03PM (Baka):
Wrong guess. I am not Ed Buckingham. I see though that you are pretty upset at him for getting the AG slot. Understandable. You are pushing pencils in traffic now. What was it 3 years as ACTING AG... That, my dear, is LAUGHABLE. Go fuck yourself!
Dumbshit!
Let it BE? Let you stay at traffic until January 11 and then you can go walk into a road.
So I guess that is the outcome of your investigation. Revealed in a blog. DRUNK GUY WALKING.
Hahahaha! Can you say "bullshit"!
Fucking corrupt assholes!
Go to church and repent.
Anonymous one at 4:03pm:
I speak both Carolinian and Chamorro. Don't try and justify the Governor's cabinet not being able to form coherent sentences on any type of language barrier. They sound as stupid in Chamorro as they do in English!
Laughable attempt!
Bitter Ed supports true change. HA!
Joseph Norita Camacho supports proven leadership? Why did he run with Juan Pan?
Somebody needs to buy that sexy guy a clue.
Claudio Norita gets fired twice by Benignorant, chairs Juan Pan campaign, then he runs back to Benignorant. I wondered what the payoff was.
This is what the best and brightest supporters of change have to offer?!
HA!
Anyone who suspects Greg would even THINK of using such foul language is even more clueless than the purveyors of ersatz "change."
There will be an answer.
There WILL be an answer and it will include, "Greg, you are FIRED! Pack up your bags and take your blogging blackberry ass outta here!"
That answer will come on January 11th when Heinz takes office.
Let it finally be the end of Fitial and his CRONIES!
Camacho got bought off with the promise of a judgeship
Attacking a government employee who is neither office-holder nor candidate seems no better calculated to attain victory than the similar tactics of Glen Hunter and cronies on behalf of Tina Sablan.
Indeed, it typifies the worst of CNMI negative campaigning and dirty politics, hardly any sort of real change at all.
Speaking words of wisdom.
Attorney General Edward T. Buckingam is yet another highly qualified appointment by the Fitial Administration.
One or both of the following premises advanced by a supporter of putative change just doesn't add up:
If Baka were (1) so disappointed in not being the AG, why would he (2) comment so enthusiastically for Fitial?
To keep his job? You mean a Naval Academy grad, the second-longest serving resident AUSA in the CNMI, is being extorted?
HA!
Chamberonomics 140… vote you’re conscience
Abraham Lincoln said "A house divided against itself cannot stand” and our community is bitterly split between two candidates for Governor of the CNMI.
One party protects the status quo and clings to the past. They refuse to work with the federal government. Their contempt o...f law and history of corruption created the need for labor and immigration reform. Their business allies flooded the NMI with alien labor and froze the minimum wages of local kids for a generation and they are leaving in waves. They mock decent citizens here by throwing lavish dinners, vote buying, job offers, temporary utility reconnections, and deficit spending of our future dollars with empty promises and bribes. Speaking of bribes, the Governor’s legacy is one of international shame and disgrace. The Abramoff, Fitial, and Delay bribery affair began when he bribed his way to the NMI House Speaker position, cheating of all people, then Rep. Hofschneider and every other citizen here, to temporarily stave off the feds for his master. They have recently retained legal counsel in America to fight those well documented crimes. They have plundered every NMI department into insolvency. They planned emergencies to broaden their power base and enriched themselves and their foreign partners. Ben Fitial will face charges in the conspiracy to block federalization and is an embarrassment to the people here.
Rep. Hofschneider and Speaker Palacios are experienced leaders in this community and they have promised change and reform. They are both straight talkers and men of their word. Their motives in office are not to enrich themselves but to build a better community for their children and ours. They have promised to fight corruption and have a detailed platform outlining workable solutions to our complicated problems. They will ensure a strong relationship with the US which will foster positive change and open opportunity to our US citizen children. Their plans to rescue our plundered power generation, develop a viable water system, stabilize our hospital and health care, improve the conditions and neighborhoods in our impoverished homestead areas, expand Russian and Japanese tourism, strengthen public education, improve investor confidence through stability, and force the private sector to train and employee citizens are brilliant and the commitment to the people here is admirable.
Our recent history is marked by poor choices, poor judgment, and poor leadership, so please vote you’re conscience.
I will vote for change, and I will vote for Heinz and Arnold.
Ron Hodges
Saipan, CNMI
Never forget what the Unity March and federalization did to our people, the thousands of jobless who have left the CNMI because of an utter failure of economic understanding.
Only the Covenant Party stood strong for us.
Filipinos for Fitial/Inos!
Vote "you're" conscience?
What subject do you teach, Ron?
My son says Ron teaches Real Estate 101 from his cell phone while in class.......
Well there goes the Filipino vote for Heinz. With Ron backing him the Filipinos who took a screwing from Ron as he led them down the path to Federal repatriation won't be casting many of their votes that direction. Ron thinks the Filipinos he wants off the island are as stupid as he is. Filipinos have memories, Ron. What comes around , goes around.
All Filipinos for Ben & Eloy?....Not!
May I sign up for a change please?
Why certainly, Sir, what kind of change would you like to see?
Could I please change to a couple of high school dropouts with no experience running anything bigger than a pep rally and a picnic table? I want them to run our government.
Why sure you can, just sign up at the baby blue sign and agree to turn over your financial future to Heinz and Arnold. They will happily turn your future into "change". Small change. Nickels and dimes where there used to be dollars.
I don't feel so good.
Noni 12:34,
No one has claimed that "all" Filipinos go Fitial/Inos.
The inability to make such simple distinctions, however, or the inability to consider the free choice and inherent individual dignity and worth of each human person, are what underlie the bogus theory that the Unity March and federalization have earned "change" activists the everlasting gratitude of the Commonwealth's Pinoys.
HA!
We can think for ourselves, thank you. The betrayal of contract workers by Tina Sablan, Jim Benedetto, Ron Hodges, and Wendy Doromal are seen by most Pinoys for what they truly are -- the economic devastation of our hopes and dreams.
The CNMI's guest worker program built this Commonwealth and served most of us quite nicely. It should not have been shut down.
Thank you for nothing.
And.........the kicker is all the contract workers sent most of their money back home. You did not invest in the local economy other than by buying consumables to live here.
Thanks for nothing? You always had the thought of bailing out of here anyway.
Filipinos for Ben is like Jews for Hitler
Hey anon 6:16
The only person I betrayed is your mama, even after she shaved her back
The true racism at the core of the "change" advocates is exposed yet again.
The CNMI guest worker program has helped so many Pinoys and others build better lives.
Some supported family back home, but many others met and married kababayan or other spouses here, raising U.S. citizen children here. For those like us, almost all of the money is spent here, and God knows it isn't much.
But it's better to have a job than not.
When our kids turned 21, they could have petitioned us. Now, because of the cruel hoax by Tita Wendy, Congresswoman Tina, and Sir Jim, many of us have to go home.
We will survive, and our kids will move to the mainland some day, bringing us later, but no one should fool himself about the consequences of the Unity March.
It was devastating to the poor!
Thank you, Ben, for standing up for a strong economy, and talking some sense to the racist, deluded, do-gooders.
Don't be so humble Jim boy. You did a real job on those contract workers. Feint left (of course), couple of quick jabs and then the knock out punch CNRA written by you, Cohen and Stayman. You served your masters well.
I especially like the way you advocate for their cause with the left jab then take them completely out (out of the country that is) all the while with that two faced grin and a pat on the old Pinoy back. Well done Jim B. They never saw it coming.
Who's next? Have your masters determined that there are still too many Chamorros and Carolinians here?
The CoveTan Party is a green flash in the pan. If you like what that gang of panhandlers and tanhandlers is doing for the Tans, Delgados and Jones boys, go for it.
Man, IF Jimmy B. REALLY did all that we all owe him a monstrous thanks.
And yup, there are still way too many Chamorros here.
Get busy Jim...
The racist politics of envy make yet another appearance two posts up.
Their Unity March "change" policies would drive away most businesses, and most of our decent, indigenous inhabitants of these isles.
Is that what Jim Benedetto, Glen Hunter, Ron Hodges and their cronies are up to?
Trying to buy out our islands on the cheap?
Ruining the business climate?
Boycott Miller Lite!
;-}
Noni at 12:00PM:
We ain't gonna run all of them bidnesses outta town, partner. just the scumbag ones like that old peice of shit porky's joint that was run by the lame ass fatty, Bruce the pig! I heard that Brucey and Greggy are best o' pals. Maybe after their wife swappin' sessions they can take another stab (pun intended) at running a bar? Thems gonna have ta wait until after the election though. Brucey won't be able to pay off the governor to keep his labor abuses secret again like he did with his shit bar Porks if Heinzy wins.
Excuse me, could I vote for some change here please?
Sure buddy, whattle ‘ya have?
Could I please get someone back into office who will increase the number of government workers around here? I need a job. These last Green guys keep reducing the government work force. It’s so bad there are a thousand fewer now than when he took office.
No problem, If you want tax and spend style governance sign up over at the baby blue sign. Heinz and Arnold can fix you up. With their 11th grade educations the math is a bit much for ‘em so they’ll just sign up whoever comes along. We’ll be back to 5,000 employees in no time. HAHAHAHAHA. Of course there won’t be any money to pay you. You’ll just have to get used to payless paydays.
I don’t’ feel so good.
Moses
Benedetto spent years helping contract workers. He never lied to us. Why don't you tell us who you are, then we can compare his record with yours?
Oscar Rasa exposed Heinz Hofschneider last night after Heinz spoke at John Gonzales live. Although spoken in vernacular, many understood what Rasa said that Heinz Hofschneider abandoned his first wife and baby daughter for no reasons at all and run away with his second wife. Therefore, Heinz can also run away from managing the government if he cannot control operations.
Rasa also said that Heinz was once suicidal, he tried commiting suicide 7 times. Very scary to have a governor with unstable mental state. Go vote for "One Who Flew To Cuckoo's Nest"
Why is it Heinz cannot reveal and show his credentials, educational attainment and work experience beside being a legislator. Do we need a governor that we do not know what they possess and their educational background. Do we just buy goods by a good salesman and sweet talker with out checking if the product he is offering meets good standards like UL listed products. Same thing to a governor that we are going to elect, we have to know their capabilities, education, experience and character.
The support or opposition of candidates and their most outspoken advocates for the Unity March and for Public Law 110-229 is at issue this Monday, not the "record" of any particular supporter.
This kind of economically devastating policy choice speaks volumes about which direction our Commonwealth could be headed.
But its not too late to stay the course.
Speaking words of wisdom.
Vapid "change" or Proven Experience?
Public Law 110-229 is not the issue this Monday. The supporters of the Unity March are not on trial. Covenant supporters would like federalization to be the issue, because then they won't have to talk about FITIAL'S FAILURES.
On Monday, the voters will decide whether to re-elect racketeers who have raided the public treasury, given sweetheart land lease deals to fly-by-night developers in exchange for kickbacks, appointed unprincipled yes-men to head every agency of the government, horribly mishandled the fight to keep local control of immigration, passed anti-business labor laws, ruined our relationship with the federal government, forced departments of the local government to hire more than 1000 unqualified political hires, ordered the reinstatement of prison guards caught bringing drugs into the prison, ordered the AG to drop charges against other guards who shackled and beat a prisoner, gave a known meth-head a gun and the keys to the governor's car, ran CUC into the ground, ran CHC into the ground, wants to staff CHC with doctors from the Philippines who can't provide any treatment without supervision by an American or Canadian doctor, clear-cut Marpi so they could promise homesteads that will never materialize, and have no respect for the rule of law.
We already know what to expect from the incumbent. Five more years of crooks controlling the cops and the checkbook. Let's give Heinz and Arnold a chance to turn things around. That's what Monday's election is all about.
VOTE REPUBLICAN! VOTE HEINZ AND ARNOLD!
Ben Fitial is a crrok.
The negative campaigning by those who support "change" represents all the worst in CNMI politics.
Notice the utter absence in these blogs of proposed plans and actions by the HA team to lead during these troubled times? Not even a resume. Change? Transparency? HA!
These politics-as-usual forces are the problem; we've not supported and reelected an incumbent since 1985!
Ben and Eloy are clearly the best of the bunch, and are the right choice to keep the CNMI from the perils that surround us.
Proven Leadership.
Proven Experience.
BE.
The Unity Marchers and Public Law 110-229 are not on trial?
As we speak, locals and guest workers alike are protesting and commenting online against the regulations belatedly issued under that detested law, passed after the Unity Marchers were duped.
Uncle Ben is standing firm for our economy, and the feds must still "consult" him under the law.
Do we want a Governor unafraid to stand up for the people of the CNMI, despite occasional misguided popular criticism? Or an accommotationist governor who obeys every federal whim to our detriment.
Federalizers Jim Benedetto and Tina Sablan have their choice.
We, the people of the CNMI, have ours.
Brothers Joe and Clyde surely sold out Juan Pan's campaign drive for Change. geez...
4 years ago CNMI voted for change when they elected the now Gov. Fitial. The idea of a change in leadership was not devastating to the CNMI. What was devastating was the choice made in who to vote for.
When things are not going right, change is needed. As it was 4 years ago, people are not satisfied with how things are and so must vote for a change in leadership.
In the past couple of years, you have complained about CHC, CUC, etc. No one seemed to listen. Now whether they like it or not, you will be heard.
Vote HA for a positive change!
Yup. They're prime examples of why no progress is ever achieved here- it's all about being the first to plant your face in the next ass up the political chain. They're all blinded to any genuine issues (and certainly any effective resolutions) except for the guy at the top, and he's free to do as he pleases as long as he maintains the structural integrity of the chain.
All the rare outsiders like Tina who still have sunlight on their faces can do is chip away at individual links here and there, but the power of the local political face/ass interface has reached the same levels as the Strong Force that holds atomic nuclei together.
It's going to be one hell of a bang when the whole thing fissures.
And as for Rasa 'exposing' Heinz for dumping his wife for no apparent reason- that's a kind of a risky charge to make, double edged as it is.
Boycott Miller Lite? The only time people drink it is when it's given away for free at promos.
Even then people buy Bud and Bud Light.
Proven Experience:
- Years working with Jack Abramoff. Taking our taxpayer money and shifting it into this CROOK'S hands. Calling him a friend. Asking for leniency. Having Jack steal the Speakership position for Fitial through CORRUPT Federal Contracting.
- Executive for the Garment Mogul, Tan. Fitial and Tan committed the worst labor atrocities in history against foreign workers that Fitial brought into the CNMI. They housed them in crates and did not pay them or feed them. They were brought to court and LOST. They were issued the largest labor fine in the history of the world. They were Slave Masters that got CAUGHT!
- Since becoming governor less than 4 years ago, Fitial has issued the most Emergency Declarations in the history of the CNMI. No administration has ever had 5 consecutive agencies under a state of emergency including a municipality. Fitial has! CUC alone has been under a state of emergency for 3 years with no plan of ever getting better.
- CUC experience. At the moment they Fitial has amassed the largest Federal Fine CUC has ever been hit with. NEARLY $1million dollars for not FIXING CUC!
- Fitial has experienced the largest court ordered judgment agains the CNMI in the history of the CNMI. over $200 million judgment ordered against FITIAL's administration for his failure to FIX the retirement fund or even pay the amount they should have been paying.
- Experience in ostracizing the CNMI from negotiations with the Federal Government. Expereince spending the most money in the history of the CNMI on a futile lawsuit. Fitial has spent $3 million on Jenner and Block over a 2 year timespan. This is a waste of taxpayer money and if he were to win would only guarantee he could still get his slave workers. Immigration would still be federalized.
Experience? The worst experience in the History of the CNMI! The worst experience in the history of the World!
Proven Leadership:
- Appointed LT convicted of Federal crime of STEALING TAX PAYER MONEY FROM CUC!!!! His friend and co-Leader Tim! Let him sit and collect more taxpayer money for a year while being tried for crime against us!!
- No AG appointment for over a year. Longest time in history of the CNMI without the leadership of an AG!
- 7 months without a LEADER appointed by the governor at CHC. People DYING! appointed leader gone for 7 months! Tim's brother? Questions of why he is still there. What kind of leader is not present during an emergency!
- Finance leader at CUC but still no financial compliance. No leader at Dept of Finance. Temp for over 2 years now. CUC in a state of emergency with a numbers guy who knows NOTHING about leading a utility company. no compliance with federal rules and regs.
Leadership? Leading us to the worst position the CNMI has ever been in!
Did someone say Porky's Bar? Isn't that the bar in Garapan that couldn't get anyone to come eat his dog meat burgers? They told me that the guy that ran that place never paid his workers and they shipped them off to the PI with the help of the government. I am so glad that dump is shut down. I am Surprised it wasn't burned to the ground by angry patrons and workers.
Is the CNMI better off than it was four years ago?
Twin shootings this morning at Banzai Cliff and Kannat Tabla
Schools closed, kids held inside to protect them from the shootings.
Some dingbat shooting people is the unsubstantiated rumor so far.
Where is Ron Hodges, Glen Hunter and Wendy Doromal when we need them?
May I get a Gubernatorial indictment please? Like... now?
All the phone calls have overloaded the Docomo system, like 9/11 in New York.
Who are we going to call? New info: another cop is in DOC.... Joe Agulto?
What the hell?!!
Eight victims. Four dead. One ICU.
Two perpetrators. One shot, one suicide.
Glen and Ron caught the shooter while Bruce B. and Greg B. sat on their fat asses and sang "Let It Be"!
That shouldn't surprise any of us. That is what those two buffoons have been doing since they got on Fitial's payroll.
Now Bruce thinks he can tell Angelo (a certified Democrat) what to do.
Someone is gonna beat the crap outta this Bruce fucker. Some place. Some time. Some where. BAM! when Bruce least expects it!!! Mutha Fucka!
Out of respect for the victims, the roadside waving this afternoon at Microl Toyota intersection has been cancelled.
Let us pray for healing in our land.
Covenant Party, too.
What we do not need in this Commonwealth is the hatred and violence in thought and word that infests these blogs.
That is NOT the sort of change we need around here.
What about public safety as a good reason to cancel too? Stay indoors and out of the streets...
Nothing like being a target for the political hatemongers posting on this site.... yikes.
Yeah, don't let that BE.
There are a lot of rumors flying around Saipan!
Landlines are still available.
Chalk another screw up under Fitial - now we can kiss tourism good-bye too. Great - who are you, who who who who??? Don't be fooled again!
Thank you, radical extremists!
Taya respetu.
Tipeye has gone to hell in a handbasket....
Who or what is "Tipeye"?
Taya Bida. "Nothin' Doin'"
Basta i Apbladurihas!
Joe Camacho: Wannabe Leader; The Guy who sold out Juan Pan. The Poster Boy for Eating your Words....
"The right man for the job" he said-- yeah, to supervise the chow line at tonight's rally....
Never met a meal he didn't like at Herman's.... still owes for that last supper when Juan Pan discovered the betrayal with brother Claudio.
- A Juan Pan supporter (a real one)
Todo siha na nesesidat i finatinas Satanas, taya i maolek na taotao siña ha chogue.
BE.
Someone tell Bruce Bateman to stop posting on blogs and get to God damn work! Start by explaining or removing the Pot Logo from our China MVA site:
http://www.mymarianas.com.cn/disport.htm
Look at the marijuna leaf in the left hand corner of the page.
I have been told that this is a symbol to inform Triad and other gang members from China that the CNMI is drug friendly.
Explains a lot. No surprise coming from this administration. Gangster thugs!
Four people are dead and six are injured in Saipan after a mass shooting took place this afternoon, said CNMI Department of Public Safety spokesman Officer Jason Tarkong.
Police believe that the shooter is dead, Takong said.
The shooter is believed to have committed suicide. Tarkong said.
Tourists are among the victims, Tarkong said.
There are two crime scenes, but only one shooter in the incidents, Tarkong said.
So it is only one perpetrator.
This is not going to help MVA or our tourist economy!
Maybe Smart Glen should kiss and make up with Bruce and get to work helping revive our visitor numbers.
Tafanmanayuyut!
Bruce should be fired!
http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?newsID=95267&cat=1
That's right, Glen, Edwin, and cronies, this crazy shooter is all Bruce's fault.
HA!
It is Bruce's fault!
Through their conduct in issuing the Interim Permit Rule, [Federalizer] Defendants have telegraphed their future intentions with crystal clarity. Notwithstanding their promises to the people of the Commonwealth, and indeed to this Court, Defendants intend to shut out the Commonwealth and its residents from the processes of self-government and the mechanisms of participatory democracy. Even decisions that could paralyze the CNMI economy and impoverish its residents, such as the decisions announced in the Interim Permit Rule, may hereafter be made by bureaucrats at DHS, the State Department, or the Department of Labor, cloistered in offices in Washington, D.C., and without consideration of the thoughts of those most affected.
Hear, hear!
Thank you for standing up for us, Uncle Ben.
There is no escaping the fact that these bureaucrats now wield the power of economic life and death over every single one of the Commonwealth’s residents. If they are permitted to wield that power in this fashion, it is not only the Covenant but also the APA and the very promise of accountability in American democracy that will be discarded as empty promises.
Thisshooting could not come at a worst time. CHC is fuckd. DPS is fuckd. Runoff in 3 days. Federalization in a week.
WHY?
Thank God I'm alive to type this.
During times of trouble we need an experienced hand on the tiller.
Five years is too long for an audition.
to noni 5:33 oh my god are u nuts. how can the feds be worse than these idiots
IDidnt say anyting about the feds being worse than this guy. I was just pointing outthe converging events since the general election. People are tense. Aren't you? I bet if you didn't have a blue pssport yu'd be kind ofanxious. Or if your working inth govt wondering if you'll have a job next year. Orif you work at CHC or a patient there at this point in time. Or if you are an agent of the law who is under increased scrutiny. Who knows perhaps federalization added to this guys lst of frustraions?
Section 903 lawsuit
The "very promise of accountability in American democracy" will be discarded?
Oh my god, I didn't realize, the Federales will make us all eat dog doo-doo and contract herpes from cheap streetwalkers and have sex with our sisters and brothers for their amusement! Our dark federal overlords will make us learn Chinese and work in dimly lit ball gag factories and only buy generic popcorn and cigarettes! Our condoms and car engines will be undersized and they will put saltpeter in our food so we can't get a woody anymore! And everything will be terrible and horrible and our toilet paper will be scratchy and all of our heads will explode and then everyone will say "Howard Willens was right," except we won't be able to hear it because Customs and Border Protection agents will have taken our ears as trophies for their walls in Washington, D.C.! And then Barack Obama will take away our guns and we will all live in a socialist hellhole and pay 150% of our income in taxes to pay for health insurance for radical jihadists in the Middle East!
If you start having idiotic thoughts again, and are tempted to post them online, just breathe deeply and slowly into a paper bag, and remember that nobody gives a fuck.
The federalizers preach accountability and transparency.
Yet they don't even follow their own Administrative Procedures Act!
Thank you for the laugh, though.
When the broken-hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer, let it BE.
This is not a time to be political and to make insults. This is a time to mourn and to come together as a community.
To all the supporters of Heinz and Ben, please stop your insults and start your prayers.
"I have been told that this is a symbol to inform Triad and other gang members from China that the CNMI is drug friendly."
Are you insinuating that the CNMI isn't drug friendly?
Edwin, insults should never have been part of “being political,” which is why so many question the ability to the forces of “change” to govern effectively or bring about healing in our land.
But as many Ben & Eloy supporters have posted above, now indeed should be a time of prayer and reconcilliation, even as we go about the critically important civic business of deciding who will lead and inspire us for the next five years.
That work must go on. The cause still lives. The dream will never die.
Triad? Ridiculous.
This is a symbol of a flipped out fruitcake going postal. It happens all over the world. Mostly it happens in America where is it almost to the ho-hum news stage, like flying into space. There it has become usual.
Here it seems so incongruous, so unbelievably out of place.
There is only one bright point that I can see. At least the nutcase that did this had the decency to kill himself so we don't have a long dragged out court proceeding with the attendant bad publicity and bad memories. With his well deserved death we can concentrate on helping the victim's families and on prayer and healing our peaceful community.
A Saipan Tribune writer describes the 501 vote lead of Ben and Eloy as making the election “too close to call” in view of up to 1200 absentee ballots still to come in by 7 December 2009.
But to prevail, they would have to fall over 850-350 in favor of Heinz and Arnold, wholly inconsistent with their 792-598 margin among those same absentee voters two weeks ago.
That is as likely as the factual accuracy of the historically unprecedented and rhetorically violent personal attacks thrown about these pages by the cronies of Bitter Ed and Smart Glen. HA!
TO EVERYONE FROM VARIETY:
It appears this election has been stolen.
If you analyze the breakdown, there were MORE votes counted for the gubernatorial runoff on Saipan than there were for the general election for all of Saipan.
Every single precinct in Saipan showed a higher number of votes for governor in the runoff than in the general election.
The more I think about it, the less sense it makes. Statistically, a higher turnout for runoff elections is unheard of anywhere else in the world. The private sector was still working. People went on vacation for Thanksgiving break. People who went to vote in the general election for any of the other 100+ candidates were less motivated to stand in line for this runoff.
Maybe ballot boxes were stuffed. Blank ballots remaining in each precinct were given to Fitial. Maybe individuals submitted multiple ballots. It wouldn\'t have been that difficult to sneak them in. The ballots would have been easy to duplicate or to obtain.
Other inconsistences:
There were conflicting explanations for why the election commission had to do handcounting. First they said the machines couldn\'t handle only one race. Today they said they didn\'t have enough time to order ballots that the machine could process. The commission changed its old policy of not counting absentee ballots all together. Polling places changed. CEC kept talking about wanting to maintain \"secrecy\" of the subprecinct results even after the ballots had been collected. Covenant leaders interviewed raved about the \"great turnout\" … but earlier media reports said that voters were \"trickling in\"
And then there are the absentee ballots. We should do an analysis of which voters got their ballots on time, which ballots never got sent out, which ballots came back because the commission \"accidentally\" forgot to put the proper stamps on them… AGAIN.
From the responses to your identical comment on Wendy's blog:
---------------------------
According to the TV coverage, the first thing that was done with each ballot box, even before the votes in it were counted, was to count the total number of ballots in the box, in order to make sure it was the same as the number of voters' names crossed off as having voted on the list at the polling place from which that box came. This was done with observers present from both parties. Only after it was confirmed that there was the same number of ballots as voters were the votes counted.
Under those circumstances, how is anyone supposed to get away with ballot box stuffing?
---------------------------
The high turn-out was because of high interest.
Ballot boxes were checked empty by CEC, OPA, and OAG employees, then double locked with separate CEC/OPA keyholders, and always under observation, including DPS, until counted in public.
These individuals are identifiable and ready to testify at any court hearing or grand jury.
With a 501 vote lead, and in light of the HA Nov 7 absentee victory of 792-598, the BE triumph is all but certain.
The lesson of this election is that the people of the CNMI, of all ethnicities, reject negative campaign advertising (including blog comments).
---------------------------
Both candidates got an increase in every single precinct!
Of course. The Juan Pan and Kumoi voters had to go somewhere.
Also, the hourly tally of ballots cast in each precinct was posted outside the door of each polling place.
The angst and illogic of the conspiracy theorists can be quite amusing.
---------------------------
The lines were very short and quick compared to the General Election because there was only a single choice to make.
Average voting booth time declined from some 5 minutes to less than 30 seconds.
At the General Election, all ten booths were frequently full.
In the run-off, there were seldom more than four stalls occupied -- people got in and out that fast.
This time, the “choke point” was not the voting booth but the sign-in desk.
The voting process was extraordinarily fair and efficient.
Noni 9:59am:
YOU ARE LYING!
"According to the TV coverage, the first thing that was done with each ballot box, even before the votes in it were counted, was to count the total number of ballots in the box, in order to make sure it was the same as the number of voters' names crossed off as having voted on the list at the polling place from which that box came."
Check the coverage from the general election (THE LIVE FUCKING TV COVERAGE)! Robert and the AAG both said that unlike previous elections THEY WERE NOT GOING TO RECONCILE THE BALLOT BOXES AT THE POLLS. I know you are with the Fitial Camp and most likely the AGO! Stop your blatant lies and corruption! The boxes were Reconciled when they got to the Multi purpose, hours after the polls were closed. YOU ARE A PIECE OF SHIT LIAR! WE COULD SEE THE RECONCILIATION HAPPENING IN THE BACKGROUND LAST NIGHT (FIRST TIME IN CNMI HISTORY TO WITNESS THAT HAPPENING AT THE CENTER NOT THE POLLS)!!!!!
My Scenerio =
1) Robert knew how many ballots came in from each precinct in the General Election. He had that number of ballots distributed to each polling locations (ie: 900 to 1A, 700 to 1b, etc).
2) Polls open Boxes are empty at the beginning.
3) People vote and names are crossed off.
4) Polls close.
5) No reconciliation at poll site. All remaining unused ballots (that match general election numbers) are filled in as votes for Fitial. *
6) Ballots reach multi purpose and are reconciled and counted.
7) Election stolen.
*They may never have actually put the Fitial Ballots in while counting. They may have just known the difference in the number and the ballots could have been added overnight or today with the Fitial bubble filled. Either way is simple enough.
You lied and said: "The high turn-out was because of high interest."
Higer interest than in the GENERAL ELECTION? That election had 155 people on the ballot ALL requesting that their family, party members, supporters, freinds, enemies, etc go to the polls and vote!
This one had 2 PEOPLE on the ballot.
MORE INTEREST?! Fuck no.
No gubernatorial candidate in the first election was wholehearted banking on a Run-off. All of them wanted badly to get a mandate in the first round! All of them urged for months their supporters to VOTE on Nov 7th. They had a week to get people out this time.
CHEATERS.
You lied and said: Also, the hourly tally of ballots cast in each precinct was posted outside the door of each polling place.
FUCKING LIAR!
I saw no such thing at 3 of the polls I visited! WHY THE BLATANT LIES!!!! NOTHING AT ALL ON THE ENTRANCES TO ANY OF THOSE LOCATIONS.
CHEATERS!
I voted in Precinct 1. I didn't see any hourly tallies. I don't think the commission ever even did that before. Who's the anonymous liar at 9:59?
The quoted posts are likely from more than one person.
Unused ballots are lined out and voided at the polling place.
Your seething anger and hostility are the likely reason your candidates did not prevail. Why would anyone vote for such hatred and irrationality?
Chairwoman Frances Sablan has been running these elections with utmost integrity for years.
Nice try, but "utmost integrity" doesn't apply to this election.
I also hate to point out the obvious, but even if Frances Sablan were a SAINT, she is still one member on a commission of Fitialees that includes a man who was recently charged with government theft.
Also, the main person running the show was the executive director Robert Guerrero. I don't know anyone who would describe anything he has done using the words "utmost integrity."
Do people have the right to be bitter and angry over this stolen election? Hell yes. Please keep your lies and nonsense preaching to yourself. It ain't over yet.
SMR -- can you start a new post on corruption in the CNMI?
I found this online discussion on fighting corruption in Africa from the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4396066.stm
You could just substitute CNMI for Africa and the comments would totally apply.
Scary stuff, but we need to face up to it. Talking about it is a good start.
Noni 12:49 & 12:36:
I am sorry we are not like the kiss-ass, yes men (i.e. Greg Baka, Matt Gregory, Tony Muna, Kevin Villagomez, Mike Ada, John Del Rosario, Mel Faisao, Frank Rabauliman, Jon Joyner, Charles Reyes, Theresa Kim, etc.) that bend over when asked by the Governor and take what ever he wishes to dish out with a smile.
All the irregularities leading up to this election and the numerous ones that occurred throughout it are grounds for all GOOD people to be upset. It is not only their right to be upset it is their duty. It is also imperative that something be done to remedy it.
----------------------
As Ben Franklin put it, “Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.”
---------------
"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
- Thomas Jefferson
---------------------
"Those who hate most fervently must have once loved deeply; those who want to deny the world must have once embraced what they now set on fire."
- Kurt Tucholsky
-----------------------
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable."
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
----------------------------
"If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution."
- Abraham Lincoln
---------------------------
"There you go again!"
-- Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1980 debate against James Earl Carter.
One of what I consider a major issue has not been addressed here lately. If I were living in Hawaii, I could have watched the election results (by various media) and cast my absentee ballot after I knew the end count in Saipan. How can you announce results when there are still up to 1200+ absentee ballots (if they ever got them) still able to be cast, notarized, and post marked up to 24 Sept 2009, 8PM (saipan time). To me, this would basically make the end election results tainted and invalid. Watch for the lawsuits, they coming.
Declaration of Independence:
"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."
Gerald W. Johnson:
We are reluctant to admit that we owe our liberties to men of a type that today we hate and fear -- unruly men, disturbers of the peace, men who resent and denounce what Whitman called 'the insolence of elected persons' -- in a word, free men.
There is no federal law that prohibits counting votes while balloting (absentee or otherwise) is still open. As for CNMI law, the International Dateline has been in place since before the CNMI began. Even the legislature is aware of this.
To avoid "discouraging" voter turn-out, the major U.S. television networks delays releasing east coast presidential election results for three hours while the west coast polls were still open.
But they have not extended this same courtesy to late-in-the-day voters of Hawaii and Alaska. No law requires it.
As for suing, that is one of the major problems of the CNMI -- too many frivolous lawsuits. A less relaxed judiciary would throw many of them out in their initial stages.
Regardless, the fiscal woes of the CNMI and its inhabitants also serve to check the filing of frivolous cases. Lawyers don't like to waste time if there is no chance of collecting judgments. But perhaps some idle lawyer with nothing better to do will take your case to keep his skills from going rusty.
At least election contests are quick.
If you have real evidence of corruption, don't blog about it. Tell the FBI and let them do their job.
It is truly a shame that very very few if any of our Men and Women in the Military, deployed to who knows where, fighting and putting their lives in danger everyday, will have the opportunity to cast their absentee ballots for the run off election as there is not enough time to receive them at their duty locations. The may receive their absentee ballot in a few weeks only to find it useless and that their vote don't count. The basic rights that they are fighting, one being the right to vote, has not been afforded to them.
I would just like to know how we could hold an election here. The Election Commission in not under a State of Emergency. I did not think any agency could function without it.
Noni 2:17PM:
You said: "one of the major problems of the CNMI -- too many frivolous lawsuits."
Hey, there is one less FRIVOLOUS and extremely costly for all us taxpayers ($5.6 million) lawsuit in existence today! 903 Litigation (Full of Shit) Lawsuit was thrown outta court today!
Turn out:
Gen Election vs Runoff
General Run-Off (+/-)
P1 3157 3192 +35
P2 961 962 +1
P3 2384 2381 -3
P4 1360 1370 +10
P5 1787 1846 +59
INSANE!!!! AND NEAR IMPOSSIBLE STATISTICALLY SPEAKING TO HAVE THIS OUTCOME. Nearly exact numbers in each precinct in Saipan as the General and even MORE in all but one.
This guys was spot on(CEC basically mimicked ballots and filled out blank as Fitial):
1) Robert knew how many ballots came in from each precinct in the General Election. He had that number of ballots distributed to each polling locations (ie: 900 to 1A, 700 to 1b, etc).
2) Polls open Boxes are empty at the beginning.
3) People vote and names are crossed off.
4) Polls close.
5) No reconciliation at poll site. All remaining unused ballots (that match general election numbers) are filled in as votes for Fitial. *
6) Ballots reach multi purpose and are reconciled and counted.
7) Election stolen.
Wow, on island voter turn out was up and off island turn out will most likely be down....way down compared to the general. HA was stong with absent Ballots in the General. Take this away and you have a better shot at taking the election. Investigate the handling and mailing of absent Ballots and you may be suprized.
People flew back to vote in the run-off and celebrate Thanksgiving at home.
Who in their rightmind would want to be governor of this island of wildcats?
Someone dedicated to humble service, and capable of ignoring prejudiced know-it-alls.
Someone who is using the position to enrich himself, his cronies and his Chnese masters, by stealing millions of public money and more millions in bribes?
Someone who will never yield to the racist politics of envy.
Someone who will help me place my bets at the illegal cockfights in As Lito on my juiced-up killer Cuban rooster.... better odds than an election and no different.
Biba Kumoi!
Fitial won't make it to the fifth year, the feds will take him down before than. Even "corporate neighbor" Bridge Capital knows that. They're making plans to leave the island but not before turning la Fiesta into a sex park/casino.
Fitial won't make it to the fifth year, the feds will take him down before than. Even "corporate neighbor" Bridge Capital knows that. They're making plans to leave the island but not before turning la Fiesta into a sex park/casino.
A little bitter at Bridge Cap there Solly? Girl friend not putting out now?
That's prob Jim Arenovski, he trashes Solly everywhere he goes.
Why sully Solly?
A sex park/casino would be a wonderful addition to the Saipan entertainment industry.
We've been without one for far too long and the community should demand that we erect one immediately!
I think it's noble that he would bring to light a positive project in light of the difference of opinion he has with Bridge.
And I think Jim "He's not heavy, he's the SCC President" Arenovski has better things to do than waste his time berating a woebegone haole who's on his way off of the rock.
Solly will likely become the new writer for "Saipan Sucks" or create his own version of the anti-Saipan campaign on the Internet.
Do you really think that Arenovski really gives two shits about Solly when he's crushing his nuts while drinking beer from atop his favorite bar stool at Godfather's Bar?
Easy answer: No
Stop laughing Stanley, you aren't looking to good either when you're passed out in the plastic peanut dish.
That shit of Jim Arenovski and Stanley is funny! More please! Never mind the politics. Let's get to more important stuff like "People acting stupid at Godfather's"
Godfather's: The New Ham's for Generation Y
Saipan is recovering... the civility is back to normal.
Do you think that the rest of the world even cares about "shooting spree saipan"? The only people who get their panties in a bunch over saipansuck.com are the people who live here.
Do you think that the rest of the world even cares about "shooting spree saipan"? The only people who get their panties in a bunch over saipansuck.com are the people who live here.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Even you. :-}
Um, they must care because the story was carried by news agencies across the world.
Touché!
Is this the sort of reform the Unity Marchers and “change advocates” have in mind for us, as in the Philippines?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091126/ap_on_re_as/as_philippines_hostages_killed
No thank you. I'll stick to good, old-fashioned, fair CNMI elections, thank you!
Oscar Rasa, Froilan Tenorio, and John Baldwin supported Ben Fitial...nuff said.
And Glen Hunter, Edwin Propst, and Goro Cruz voted HA! So what? We could probably find plenty more crackpots on either side.
The important thing is that the Governor's second term covers the entire Transition Program. So by law the Feds must consult a Governor who is unafraid to stand up for the citizens of the CNMI.
That is something to be thankful for.
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