J And B 2000 Band Performing

The J & B 2000 Band performing at the gazebo in front of the Bethel Municipal Center on 13 July 2008.

Phil Gallagher Rant Against Senior Tax Relief On 26 March 2001

Phil Gallagher Rant Against Senior Tax Relief On 26 March 2001

The Selectman Phil Gallagher's rant during the 26 March 2001 Board Of Selectmen Meeting on why Bethel's Seniors should not receive tax relief.

The entire BOS Meeting is shown here, including public comments at the start of the meeting, in order to present his rant in its context.

It is said attitude is everything and this is further proof of this - especially from publically elected officials.

Mr. Gallagher is currently the Bethel, CT Finance Board Chairman.

Bethel's Bizzy Bender

I am happy to add another of the wonderful musically based shows from the archives and this one was with Bethel, CT based contempary singer songwriter Bizzy Bender.

Time Out has had a long tradition of having musical artist on the show. I came across her from an article in the Newstimes that year. Her webpage is http://www.bizzybender.com/ and you can get a lot of really good info about her and her music there.

Christian songwriter and performer Bizzy Bender talks about her life, performing, song writing and influences in this half hour show.

She performs several of her songs during the show. Originally broadcast 12 & 15 March 2004.

The Proposed Charter Changes

Below are the proposed changes to the Bethel Charter. I am posting these for your consideration:

Summary of Draft Report on Charter Revision

The following is a summary of significant changes to the current Charter of the Town of Bethel as proposed by the Charter Revision Commission that was established by the Board of Selectmen in May 2006. This summary is intended to assist the residents of Bethel in identifying proposed changes to the current Charter. It is not intended to be a substitute for an examination of the actual proposed changes to the language of the Charter.

C-3-3 and C-7-2 B: The proposed Charter extends the amount of time allowed for the Board of Selectmen to fill vacancies in elected and appointed offices to 60 days. The current deadline of 45 days is tight given the numerous steps required to fill vacancies as follows:

A resignation is filed with the Town Clerk, who notifies the First Selectmen of the vacancy. The vacancy must be filled with an elector who is affiliated with the same political party as the person who resigned from the elected or appointed seat. The First Selectmen notifies the respective Town Committee Chairman. The Town Committee Chairman notifies their Vacancy Committee Chairman who convenes the Committee to identify a candidate for the vacancy. At the next monthly meeting of the Town Committee, the Vacancy Committee's recommendation is presented to the Town Committee for approval. Thereafter, the Town Committee transmits its recommendation to the First Selectmen for consideration at the next semi-monthly meeting of the Board of Selectmen. The timing of the resignation could cause there to be inadequate time for the endorsed recommendation to be delivered to the Selectmen in order for them to act within the required 45 days. The additional 15 days would resolve this tight time frame for filling vacancies.

C-3-12 The Town Clerk position is a professional one that requires training and state certification. It takes approximately 2 years to obtain the certification. It is in the best interest of the Town to have stability in the Town Clerk's office. An elected four-year term is proposed by the Charter Revision Commission to attract a career-minded candidate. It would promote stability in the office while retaining the accountability of elected office. In addition the Charter Revision Commission proposes that a candidate for Town Clerk be elected on the gubernatorial cycle, as is the Bethel Probate Judge. Running with the gubernatorial cycle will better insulate the Town Clerk position from the politics of local elections held in odd numbers years. To transition from the current two-year term to a four-year term, Charter Revision proposes that in November 2007 the Town Clerk position would run for a three-year term. However, if the referendum on Charter Revision is held in November 2007, then the transition language would have to provide for a Town Clerk election in November 2009 to a five year term to align it with the 2014 gubernatorial election.

C-4-7 G The proposed Charter would clarify that the First Selectman is responsible for undertaking Capital Projects on behalf of the Town.

C-5-1 F The proposed Charter would make the First Selectman the permanent chairman of the Procurement Committee. The current Charter already names the First Selectman to the Procurement Committee, but is silent on the chairmanship. It is the current practice that the First Selectman is the Chairman of this Committee.

C-6-3 A2 The proposed Charter takes "reject" out of the powers of the Town Budget Meeting as written in the current Charter. Actually, under current practice, the budget is rejected by not approving the "motion to approve the budget" rather than approving a "motion to reject the budget."

C-6-3 A4 The proposed Charter changes the word "adjourn" to "recess" the Town Budget Meeting in the event that the budget fails to be approved at the Town Meeting. The Town Budget Meeting is then resumed the following evening.

C6-3 B2 The proposed Charter requires that two budget questions regarding the Town Operating budget and the Board of Education budget be presented at the referendum.

C-6-3 B3 The proposed Charter provides for advisory questions on each the Town Operating Budget and the Board of Education Budget.

C-6-3 C1 The proposed Charter provides that in the event of a failure to adopt by referendum the Town Operating Budget and/or Board of Education Budget, the Board of Finance revises the rejected budget(s).

C-6-4 C The proposed Charter requires that prior to considering the sale or purchase of real estate, the Board of Selectmen shall refer the matter to the Planning and Zoning Board. There is no proposed change to the requirement that the Board of Selectmen recommend the action, that the Board of Finance approve the action and that a Town meeting be held. While this has been the recent practice, the Charter should formalize this.

C-6-5 B The proposed Charter eliminates the Town Budget Meeting(s) from the authority to petition to over rule a Town Meeting and send the matter to referendum. In the case of a Town Budget Meeting, the decision is automatically referred to referendum. Also, due to the required time frame for the Budget Referendum, a petition to over rule the Town Budget Meeting could be submitted after the Budget Referendum has been held.

C-7-1 A The current Charter does not list the Youth Commission, Ethics Commission and Permanent Site and Building Commission as permanent commissions that have appointed members. Also under this section separate paragraphs will be drafted to cover the size of each of these commissions and their duties. These paragraphs will become: C-7-8, C-7-9 and C-7-10, respectively.

C-8-13 C.4. The proposed Charter requires that the Town must competitively bid professional services in excess of $30,000, except for Town Counsel. This paragraph was also divided into four sections for clarity.

C-9-1 The proposed Charter requires that elected Boards and Commission annually elect officers (Chairman and Vice Chairman), as part of their first meeting following the first Monday in December. Appointed Boards and Commissions shall annually elect officers after all vacant seats have been filled with new members, but no later than March 31st. The proposed Charter also provides for election of interim officers for appointed boards.

C-9-1 D The proposed Charter requires all boards, commissions and committees to provide for public input at all regular meetings.

C-10-2 D The proposed Charter requires that in preparing the budget that there be a separate report on the Town Operating budget and Board of Education budget.

C-10-F The proposed Charter requires that the recommended budget separate the Town Operating budget and the Board of Education budget.

The Letter They Were Too Afaid To Print

Over a week ago I sent to both The Bethel Beacon and the Newstimes a letter to the editor regarding the new scanner type vote fraud machines that Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz has forced upon every person in the state.

I have already done three shows on these machines and how dangerous they are to our great republic. You can watch these shows here on the blog or on both Google Video and You Tube.

To see all of the different videos I've got on youtube.com go to www.youtube.com/kgallagher01 and you can see them there as well.

I hope that you will get educated on the use of these and the dangers they pose and ultimatly who profits by their use. Bysiewicz bought these machines through LHS Associates in MA and they are a front company that handles on diebold products. There has been much discussion among bloggers and some of the intimate connections between Bysiewicz and the officials at this company.

On another note, the chief programmer for these software code on these codes was none other than Jeffery Dean, who is now serving jail time in Canada for 24 counts of VOTE FRAUD.

As far as I am concerned, no one should cast a "vote" on any of these machines, all referendums and elections should be boycotted by the people until they are removed and replaced with the use of paper ballots. This is the only way to insure the integrity of the votes cast by the people of our great state.

So below, is the letter to the editor that both The Bethel Beacon & The Newstimes where too afraid to print:

Fraud is defined as deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain.

Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz has imposed these fraudulent electronic voting machines upon the people of Connecticut. These are the scanner type made by Diebold and where featured in the HBO film Hacking Democracy.

These machines are not designed to accurately count votes, these are designed to easily be hacked by the non-savvy computer user to deliver the desired results.

Examples of this hacking are not anomalous, they are the norm, with literally thousands of instances around the nation.

People believe the use of electronic voting machines meet the requirements of the Have America Vote Act of 2002. This is false. The HAVA Act requires two things, first that the handicapped can vote without assistance (in privacy) and the Town of Bethel has been in compliance with this since the last election. Second is the voting machines produce a paper trail to show how the vote totals were reached.

House Bill 550 by NJ Rep. Rush Holt requires these machines have a printer hooked up
to produce a "paper trail." All this would do is spit out a register receipt with vote totals, not a paper trail. Why the need for these printers if the machines meet the requirements of the HAVA Act?

These machines have nothing to do with election integrity, its about eliminating the people’s voice and controlling the results. It’s also about eliminating the influence of third parties.

Soviet dictator Stalin said “It counts not who votes in the election, it only matters who counts the votes.”

I, for one, will not allow my vote to be privatized or owned by Diebold. I will not participate in the fraud. Neither should you.

Kevin J. Gallagher

Vote Fraud Pre-Emptively Comes To Bethel

Here is the last live show which was on these fraudulent electronic voting machines that Connecticut Sec.Of State Susan Bysiewicz has forced onto every town and city in Connecticut. The machines being used will be the Diebold Accu-vote scanner type which are the very worst of the worst.

In the HBO documentary "Hacking Democracy", it is seen how easy it is to hack the results of an election by a non-savvy computer user. Below is a clip of Bev Harris showing Howard Dean how easy it is to hack what is called "the master tabulator."



Our Sec. of State is using misrepresentations and misconceptions the general public has regarding the HAVA Act of 2002 or the very mis-named "Have America Vote Act of 2002."

This act makes clear two standards that each state must meet. First is that any machines used to register votes have a paper trail (ironically, none of these electronic devices have one) and that the handicapped are able to vote without assistance which means they are able to vote in private. THERE IS NOTHING IN THE ACT THAT STIPULATES THAT ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES BE USED BECAUSE THEY DO NOT MEET THE STANDARDS SET DOWN IN THE ACT.

In Bethel, the second part of this act has been complied with as of the past election cycle according to Bethel's Town Clerk.

Case in point, Rep. Rush Holt (NJ) has HR 550 in the house that would require a printer to be hooked up to these machines. But this is only smoke & mirrors because these electronic voting machines DO NOT offer any transparency in the tabulating process. All these printers would do is confirm the fraud that took place inside the machine and give the registrar a ticker tape read out of the "results". This clearly IS NOT a paper trail.

Here is how they hacked one of these machines in question in less than 9 minutes at the Univeristy of Princeton.



This is the video of the testamony of Clinton Curtis, who has been hired to hack many elections around the country.



So please bear this in mind when watching my live show from 7 March 2007. On camera with me this evening was local attorney Jerry Leaphart. On the telephone with us are the co-editors of www.hackedelections.com, Vicki Karp and Abbe DeLozier.

As always, I look forward to hearing your feedback. I can be reached by writing kgallagher01@ comcast.net

Here is link to a really great webpage that is published by Daneen Peterson, PHD, and has some really terrific information about the proposed North American Union. She has appeared on many radio shows nationwide, including The Power Hour. (www.thepowerhour.com)

http://www.stopthenorthamericanunion.com/

Welcome All To Bethel News & Views

This web blog will focus and the news and views regarding the happenings in the Town of Bethel, Connecticut. You comments are very welcome and this will be the place to get informed and to discuss what is happening in the town.