Thursday, May 15, 2008

In Our Opinion...

It Shouldn’t Be All About Ratings; The Truth Matters

So now We are being told that Jeanine Pirro will be doing a Judge Judy-style show on the CW Network come September. Of course, We have heard similar predictions before; first, more than three years ago when she, and her County-paid mouthpiece, Annmarie Corbalis, told us she would be doing a gig on Court TV, and again, about a year ago, when We were told she would be doing a similar stint for Warner Communications. We wish to make it clear that We believe that everyone has the right to earn a living; and, We need not remind
anyone how fiercely We advocate Freedom of Speech.

However, having said that, a number of issues regarding Jeanine Pirro and the role she now claims she will be playing on television in about four months, bear reflection. For one thing, we have noticed, over the years, that the frequency of her television appearances always markedly increase when she is in the deepest “poop”. She seems to labor under the impression that she cannot, and will not, be brought to account for her prosecutorial misconduct and her various criminal acts if she is at the peak of her celebrity.

Here in Westchester, while she was District Attorney, there were times when she appeared on NEWS12 just about every other day. Her internet “stink”, alone, between July of 1999, beginning with the DeCarlo case, and December of 2005, when she left office, entailed approximately 110 cases, every one of which was turned into a “public hanging” on television. In fact, she was barely in office a year when Geraldo Rivera made her a television fixture in the O.J. Simpson trial, a mistake he continues to pay for.

The fact is, the People of Westchester are far more savvy and truthful about Jeanine Pirro than the media can ever allow themselves to be. NEWS12 was, no doubt, somewhat surprised by the results of a survey they ran last Monday in which they asked viewers to indicate whether they would be watching Pirro’s new show come September. A mere 26 percent said they would. The Journal News gave her hyped-up announcement front-page billing.

We believe the CW Network has done a very poor job of vetting their prospective new “judge” unless what they have in mind is Theater Of The Absurd or something with the integrity and intellectual appeal of the Jerry Springer Show. After all, if it’s a judge that she will be portraying, she ought to be someone whose own history, both personal and professional, represent models to be emulated. Surely, if that be the case, she fails on both counts.

We are not particularly concerned with her personal life, nor should we be, except where it has intersected, and interfered with, her official position and sworn duties. The fact that she was not named in a 67-count federal indictment for income tax evasion and fraud, 38 counts
of which her spouse was tried, convicted, and slapped on the wrist for, in no way mitigates her pro-active role between 1988 and 1997 in nine of ten years of their joint tax fraud. Her personal aggressive participation came through in damning testimony at trial despite the
political decision by then-United States Attorney Mary Jo White, to name only Al for fear that Jeanine’s “popularity” might derail the prosecution.

We do not believe that a person who committed so many acts of prosecutorial misconduct over a 12-year period: Arranging the kidnapping of Jing Kelly’s infant son Tristram; withholding 376 pages and 52 boxes and miles of audio tape of exculpatory information from Anthony DiSimone while allowing Nick Djonovic, the confessed actual killer of Louis Balancio, to escape; coercing witnesses and altering evidence to turn the justifiable self-defense killing of Charles Campbell by police officer Richard DiGuglielmo into a bias crime; the retaliatory prosecution of Marcy Stein, whose husband worked in the office of Mary Jo White; and, no fewer than six times preventing the testing of DNA material, over a period of six years, that she knew would have proven the innocence of Jeffrey Deskovic, a mere fraction of the self-serving, demonic acts she engaged in, can possibly qualify for consideration by any serious media outlet to act in the capacity of a judge.

Our Readers Respond....

Political Opponent Takes Issue With Supervisor Paul Feiner

Dear Editor


Before you advise someone else to “clean up his house,” your house should be spotless, or at least clean. Paul Feiner has been in charge of Greenburgh, the largest town in the county, second largest in the state, since 1991. After all those years, he is administratively, managerially
and financially challenged.

Payroll is on an upward trajectory; overtime is uncontrolled; capital projects have no oversight ( at least by someone conversant with the industry; taxes are in a double digit mode, to name but a few accomplishments. Policies are rati-fied on a Monday only to be disregarded by Wednesday (no exaggeration.) Ethics codes are rewritten to prevent acceptance of gifts of value from people with business before the Town, and these very same people cater events at which the author of the rewrite of the code is in attendance along with the Supervisor (Feiner who voted for the “new improve version”), fellow Board members, the Chairman of the Ethics board, as well as chairs of other boards- Zoning, Planning, building commissioner. In short, the people who decide.

With as blemished a track record as his, would you or Andy Spano “buy an idea,” fro Paul Feiner? On the other hand, when you need “Gimmicks-R-Us,” Paul’s your guy. While we’re at it, if he want to “investigate” the effi-cacy” of having a county government, I would like similar treatment. I would like to “investigate the “efficacy” of Greenburgh town government. The six villages within our town work very cost effectively. So why not create villages in Edgemont, Hartsdale, Fairview and North Greenburgh?

The school districts work. The village governments work. The DPW work. The libraries work. Son of a gun, come to think of it, if everything works why do we have to send money to determine the known? IT WORKS! So let’s do away with Greenburgh Town government; find a job for Paul at a sales promotion company; divvy up the people in the existing departments that are really necessary, and save a boatload of taxes?

Sometimes redundant systems do work. Sorry Paul, you should not have jiggled my mind.

Ed Krauss, Scarsdale, N.Y.