Sunday, March 21, 2010

Cahill the Conservative

And CORRUPT as sin!

What does it say about a state that has such a self-serving piece of slime as Treasurer?

And he thinks he has a shot a governor, or is he just trying to help Patrick?


"Cahill navigating uncharted waters; No independent has won statewide race" by Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff | March 15, 2010

No independent candidate has won a statewide election in Massachusetts. None has come close.....

If this campaign were a referendum on chutzpah, state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, the political renegade running for governor, would be ahead in the polls, not trailing incumbent Democrat Deval Patrick and the leading GOP challenger, Charles D. Baker, as a recent Rasmussen Reports survey indicated....

The Zionist terminology makes me laugh. It makes the self-internalized bias so crystal clear. I only use the word to toss it back in their faces.


Cahill, 51, has $3.3 million in his campaign account, more than Baker or Patrick. Most was raised when he still had a “D’’ next to his name and before he became a lame duck, however, and Cahill has been dogged by media reports that some of his money originated from firms seeking treasury business.

Yeah, that is coming up and wait until you see where!


A Democrat for 30 years until he left the party in July, Cahill has always been something of a maverick — a conservative, at least on fiscal matters, in a party dominated by liberals and mandarins who view him as an overachiever.

The closest thing Cahill has to a blueprint is Republican Scott Brown’s electrifying upset in the January special election for US Senate. Brown cleaned up among independent voters to defeat the Democrat, Attorney General Martha Coakley.

“The lesson is that anything is possible, and the politics of Massachusetts is much less settled than people thought,’’ said Cahill, who last year tried to recruit Brown to be his running mate. (Brown declined and is supporting Baker.)

As am I.

Even though I detest politics now Massachusetts does need a Republican executive. This terrible four-year experiment with Deval Patrick has failed, and he will not get my vote again.

I'm sorry, Massachusetts, for helping to put you through it with my vote. It won't happen again.

**************************

An accomplished retail politician, Cahill has a direct style and moves easily on the campaign trail as he prospects for support in diverse environments. On Wednesday, he outlined his economic platform for about 65 leaders of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council in Plymouth, and the next day met with a Tea Party organizer in Boston and addressed leaders of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.

A busy day of politicking Friday began in his hometown of Quincy, where Cahill worked the crowd before a forum with leaders of The Arc of the South Shore, an advocacy group and service provider for people with developmental disabilities. The group is mobilizing against more proposed reductions in state funds that provide half of its $7 million annual budget....

Cahill has proposed drastic measures, including a rollback of state income and sales taxes to 5 percent, which would slash annual revenues by about $1.5 billion.

Yeah, that would be all well and good if it wasn't coming from a self-serving political shill.

Running on supply-side economic principles, Cahill says deep tax cuts are the way to make the state more competitive and stimulate new businesses, jobs, and tax revenue.

How about GETTING RID of the DAMN THINGS?

The only place they are going into the pockets of guys like him with their tax-loot-awarding kickbacks, the favored, agenda-pushing interests, and bank interest payments from what I can tell.

Every state agency and program would be on the table for possible offsetting spending cuts, he said.

How would Cahill balance the need for cuts with those of people who need state services?

“These people want a fiscally responsible government, too,’’ he said. “They pay taxes . . . If you’re going to provide state funds, you need to create revenues by putting people back to work’’

Cahill often invokes voter registration statistics to buttress his rationale for an independent candidacy. Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 3 to 1, but so-called unenrolled voters now constitute 51 percent of the electorate. The numbers, however, do not mean that most voters represent the equivalent of an independent party. Polling data invariably show that most think of themselves as either Democrats or Republicans but shun a partisan label.

“It’s a mistake to think of that big bucket of registered independents as being truly independent or up for grabs, because most of them are Republicans or Democrats in their voting behavior,’’ said Andrew E. Smith, director of the Survey Center at the University of New Hampshire, which conducts polls for the Globe.

If history is indicative, Cahill faces a steep climb. In 1992, presidential candidate H. Ross Perot tallied 22.8 percent of the vote in Massachusetts, finishing third as an independent. In 1980, independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson tallied 15.2 percent of the vote in the Bay State....

Didn't I say something about politics?

Look at all the print tied up in that (literal) shit for a going-nowhere candidate (unless the vote scanners are going to be rigged, 'eh? Patrick survives because of third-party?).

The most significant victories by independents were not in statewide contests....

Both were running as independents in name only to avoid crowded Democratic primaries.

Cahill is aware of the odds. Last year he clipped a Globe story in which an unnamed Baker operative said he “will be lucky to hit 10 or 15 percent.’’ Cahill keeps it in his wallet as a motivator....

Who gives a s***?

--more--"

Maybe he could stop the pay-for-play schemes and campaign fund shakedowns, huh?

See
: Cahill the Corrupt

"Cahill attacks health care law; Candidate says it’s bankrupting state; Calls national plan repeat of a mistake" by Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | March 17, 2010

State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, an independent candidate for governor making a play for fiscally conservative voters, said yesterday that the state’s universal health care law is bankrupting Massachusetts and will do the same nationally if Congress passes a similar plan.

Well, the last couple days have been filled with posts regarding that topic, readers. He is right on that one -- even as the government weasels here lie about it.

“If President Obama and the Democrats repeat the mistake of the health insurance reform here in Massachusetts on a national level, they will threaten to wipe out the American economy within four years,’’ Cahill said at a press conference....

That's if we can last that long because of the disappearing bees as well as the carbon tax that be the death blow.

All planned by globalist scum, folks; no accident.

“It is time for the president and the Democratic leadership to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan that does not threaten to bankrupt this country,’’ said Cahill....

Wow, he sounds like an EXTREME RIGHT-WINGER!!

WTF? In Massachusetts?

So he is now an independent because Democrats here kicked him out, huh?

Gotta work with 'em, but.... us voters will soon take care of that soon.

No more treasury treats for Mr. Cahill after the next election.

Asked for solutions, Cahill suggested “leveling the playing field’’ between hospitals that charge different rates for similar procedures, though he offered no specific remedy; increasing competition by allowing health insurers to sell plans across state lines; slashing benefits mandated under state law; and directing more patients to community hospitals, which can be less expensive.

Cahill also said he is open to scrapping the current fee-for-service system and paying providers a per-patient annual fee, called a global payment, to cover all of a patient’s medical care....

Of course, HE IS FINE with HIS TAXPAYER-PROVIDED HEALTH CARE for LIFE!

Cahill said the law is sustained only with millions of dollars in federal aid, which he suggested the Obama administration is funneling to Massachusetts to help the president make the case for a similar plan in Congress.

Oh, I BELIEVE THAT!! You bet I do!

No way the MODEL can be seen as the FAILURE it is!!

See: Boston Globe Omissions: Hiding Health Care Failure

Oh, someone ALREADY TRIED IT before we did and it failed?

But the same failure is being proposed as the solution to the very problem it caused?

Isn't that the definition on insanity?

“The real problem is the sucking sound of money that has been going in to pay for this health care reform,’’ Cahill said. “And I would argue that we’re being propped up so that the federal government and the Obama administration can drive it through’’ Congress....

And that sound is also coming from your office, scum!

State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, who arrived on Beacon Hill eight years ago as a moderate Democrat, has suddenly become a frequent conservative voice on Fox News, joining its roster of Tea Party activists and right-leaning media stars battling to defeat the Democratic health care plan in Washington.

Cahill, with his blistering criticism of the Massachusetts health care law, has made four appearances in three days on national Fox News programs, including yesterday afternoon on Glenn Beck’s show, one of the most-watched public affairs programs in the nation.

Yeah, the Globe doesn't sound to happy with Cahill over the pet project they helped promote, do they?

So they are watching TV down there in the Glob newsroom, huh?

I could do that.

I don't want to and won't watch TV news anymore, but I could.

That's what being a "reporter" is now? Watching TV?

The state treasurer, who left the Democratic Party last summer to run for governor as an independent, has also bought ads on the right-leaning Drudge Report and given interviews to several national conservative magazines, including National Review, American Spectator, and Reason.

Oh, heavens!

Why the abrupt and high-profile appeals to the right?

I'll give you one guess, readers.

His advisers say Cahill is merely trying to use the health care debate to define his independent ideology, which is rooted in his fiscal conservatism. They point out that his views on other issues — he supports abortion rights and gay marriage — are more moderate.

Others see another motivation, saying that Cahill, whose fund-raising has severely lagged in recent months, is trying to present himself as a Tea Party-friendly conservative who can attract the kind of out-of-state money Senator Scott Brown did in his US Senate race. After Brown caught fire, he generated $14.3 million in the final stretch of his campaign....

Related: Who Bought Brown's Election?

Oh, no, we don't want him as a governor.

Jeffrey M. Berry, a Tufts University political science professor, said Cahill has made a strategic decision to use his opposition to the health care plan to win financial and political help from conservatives furious with attempts by President Obama and congressional Democrats to push through a bill. Berry said Cahill is a perfect voice for conservative media.

“Part of the larger conservative strategy is to knock down the Massachusetts plan and try to claim it has failed,’’ Berry said. “They need some credible voice like Cahill who can say that and claim that the Massachusetts plan is ‘Obama-care’ in practice.’’

It is.

Joining Cahill on Beck’s show yesterday — on which the host frequently derides the health care bill as a radical socialist experiment — were US Representative Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Republican and a Tea Party hero, and Rick Santorum, former senator and Republican of Pennsylvania, who is best known for his hard-right views on social issues such as gay rights and abortion.

Related: Slow Saturday Special: Tea Bags Steeped in S***

Sorry, I'm not a "'bagger."

Although he evidently did not speak out against the law when Governor Mitt Romney signed it in 2006, Cahill has been critical of the state’s health care plan since last summer, when he was plotting his candidacy. On Tuesday he ramped up his attacks at a press conference in his State House office, saying the law was “bankrupting’’ the state, and the next day launched his national appearances.

On Wednesday, Cahill was interviewed from Boston on “Fox Business.’’ The next morning he appeared on the network’s “Fox and Friends.’’ Yesterday, after taping Beck’s show in New York, he moved to another studio to appear again on “Fox Business.’’

It's called making the rounds, and it is not an issue for scores of other slime.

Obviously, Mr. Cahill here pissed off the Boston Globe here.

Cahill’s attempts to capitalize on the health care furor comes amid sluggish fund-raising and signs in recent polls of his falling behind Governor Deval Patrick and Republican challenger Charles D. Baker Jr., who is heavily favored to win the GOP nomination.

Yeah, the WHOLE "controversy" and reason for speaking out now(?!) is POLITICS!

Cahill, drawing on major law firms, state lottery contractors, and those seeking to invest state pension funds, has built a war chest of more $3.3 million. But those sources have not been as fruitful lately, as Cahill has redirected his political career toward higher office.

They RECOGNIZE a LOSER when they see one, and NO ONE BETS on a LOSER!!!

They came in batches, nearly 250 checks, most for $500, from real estate lawyers, property managers, and realtors in far-flung states, all dedicated to the election of state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill.

The contributions, almost all of them deposited on three separate dates in 2002, 2003, and 2005, total more than $100,000 — part of the $3 million war chest that Cahill is now tapping for his independent run for governor this year.

Nothing obvious connects Cahill to these donors, whose companies are based in such states as Texas, Missouri, Florida, and Colorado. But an extensive Globe review of Cahill’s aggressive fund-raising practices uncovered the common link: Michael A. Ruane, a Boston investment manager who employs those firms to handle the vast real estate holdings he has bought for his investors — and who counts the Massachusetts pension board as one of his clients.

Since Cahill became the board’s chairman in 2003, Ruane’s investment management firm has been allocated $500 million in pension funds to invest — and has earned $34 million in management fees.

Nice to have friends who have friends, huh, readers?

In fact, the largest one-day infusion of Ruane-connected campaign donations, $40,250 from business associates and their relatives in 12 states, was deposited on Aug. 13, 2003, a day before the Pension Reserves Investment Management board voted unanimously to give Ruane’s company $100 million to invest.

Yeah, must have just been a "coincidence."

Make that COINCIDENCES(?)!!!!

Cahill and Michael Travaglini, the state pension board’s executive director, insist that there was no connection between the fund-raising and investment decisions and said that Ruane’s firm, TA Associates Realty, has been one of the pension fund’s best managers, even before Cahill’s time. Ruane’s company already handled $300 million from the state pension fund when Cahill took office.

Related: Playing With the Mass. Pension Fund

Travaglini is "earning" how much to lose taxpayer money funding "public servant" perks?

Cahill, in an interview, expressed no qualms about receiving campaign contributions from companies that have or want business from the treasurer’s office and the five agencies he oversees, including the pension board.

Yeah, I thought I smelt a stinking s*** around here somewhere.

In fact, he acknowledged that he and his campaign aides routinely seek contributions from such companies.

That's why you are a discredited scum-s*** like all the rest, Mr. Treasurer.

Caring more about his own "WAR CHEST" than the TAXPAYER TREASURY, folks!!!

Soliciting campaign contributions from pension fund managers is legal, although the US Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed regulations that would bar those who invest public pension funds from donating to — or soliciting funds for — the politicians who pick investment managers.

That doesn't make it right, or make the stinking s*** stain go away.

“We sometimes just sit there and brainstorm . . . Who can we call? Who are the people that we think can raise money?’’ Cahill said, describing how he and his aides decide how to solicit campaign contributions....

Cahill said he is aware that this could lead to a “bad’’ story because of the questions that might be raised about connections between campaign contributions and his decision-making. But he added: “The worst story is when you’re not fund-raising, and you’re not a viable candidate.’’

Is he aware of the stinking arrogance, or.... ?????????

Ruane, 59, who has never made a contribution to Cahill, declined several requests for an interview. In several e-mail exchanges, he did not provide an explanation for the money donated by companies connected to his firm but asserted that he never raised any substantial funds for Cahill. For the Globe to suggest otherwise, he said, would be a “falsehood in reckless disregard of the facts.’’

How the funds are raised

Cahill, meanwhile, offered three conflicting descriptions of his dealings with Ruane.

Isn't it GREAT to have a TREASURER that TELLS LIES!!!???


On Dec. 9, he told the Globe that Ruane had raised funds for him, and “maybe’’ helped him with one fund-raiser, but wasn’t a “prolific’’ fund-raiser. Asked why so many Ruane-connected companies were listed on his campaign reports, Cahill replied: “I mean, obviously if they’re on there, it’s not because of Mike Ruane that I know of.’’

But a week later, Cahill issued a statement in which he flatly denied Ruane had ever raised funds for him. Ruane may have introduced Cahill to people who subsequently became donors, the statement said, but not until sometime in 2005 — after most of the donations in question had been made and the pension board had already allocated the additional $500 million to TA Associates. Aides who spoke to the Globe on condition of anonymity said the treasurer issued the statement after conferring with Ruane.

In January, however, Cahill inched closer to his first account, acknowledging that even before 2005, Ruane had “connected him with people who subsequently chose to contribute.’’

Okay, you guys GOT YOUR LYING COVER STORY STRAIGHT, do ya?

***********************

Widely publicized “pay to play’’ scandals around the country, some of them involving financial relationships between politicians who oversee state pension funds and those hired to make the investments, have already prompted 17 states to impose fund-raising restrictions on pension fund managers. In Rhode Island last August, Frank T. Caprio, who is also running for governor, returned $54,250 in donations from law firms Caprio had picked to do state business.

Yeah, and THIS GUY is UP TO HIS NECK in it!!

The SEC has yet to adopt its proposed rules — which Cahill said he opposes — and Massachusetts has not imposed any of its own restrictions.

Yeah, CORRUPTION is KING here!

Pamela Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause/Massachusetts, said a ban on campaign contributions from anyone who seeks or has state business is long overdue. Such restrictions are even more urgently needed, Wilmot said, for pension fund managers, who in Massachusetts compete vigorously to handle the state’s $43 billion in pension assets.

You know, all the GENEROUS, TAXPAYER-FUNDED PLANS that "PUBLIC SERVANTS" awarded to themselves, taxpayers!

The kinds you can NOT HAVE!!!!

Given the enormous amounts of money at stake, Wilmot added, “the public has to have confidence that decisions are made strictly on the merits and that campaign contributions do not influence those decisions.’’

I don't think that is possible anymore.

I don't know what the solution is because this political rot has been working from the inside for so long the system is beyond fixing.

Corporations own the "public servants" in AmeriKa now, and they no longer listen to their constituents.

They li$ten to the you-know-what $igns, American.

Cahill's public campaign filings are anything but transparent, with more than 4,000 donors -- including many of Ruane's business associates -- listed with little identifying information.

So the TREASURER tried to HIDE the BOOKS, huh?

In many cases, the Globe was only able to connect individual donors to companies that had done work for TA Associates — a privately held firm that Ruane founded in 1982 — by searching through public filings and public announcements of business dealings, identifying the names of officers who work for the company, and then matching those names against Cahill’s campaign finance reports.

How f***ing tedious when it shouldn't be; however, that is the FIRST LESSON of POLITICS!

OBFUSCATE!

Using a similar method, the Globe found more than 100 donations from officers or relatives of officers of two other investments firms, Ivy Asset Management and Earnest Partners, who have been allocated $643 million in Massachusetts pension assets on Cahill’s watch.

Nice to have friends who have friends, huh, readers?

The cross-matching turned up $46,500 in donations from officers of the two firms and their family members. In not one case did the campaign report list the donor’s occupation or employer. A spokesman for Ivy declined to comment. The chief executive of Atlanta-based Earnest Partners did not respond to a phone message left by a reporter.

In an interview, Cahill denied that there has been “any intent, personal intent’’ to deceive anyone about the source of donations. If that had been his intent, Cahill said, “then I wouldn’t have reported the donations at all.’’

So WHICH ONES HAVEN'T YOU REPORTED then, scum?

And the ARROGANCE just OOZES off the PAGE!

And the ties go a long way back, Bay-Staters!

Old-time connections

Ruane’s relationship with Cahill dates to Cahill’s term as Norfolk County treasurer, when Ruane’s firm invested some of the county’s funds.

During the 2002 campaign for state treasurer, an improbable win for Cahill, the candidate raised more than $1 million. And companies with business ties to Ruane helped make that victory possible....

According to Travaglini, and to records he made available at the Globe’s request, TA Associates and the four other real estate investment management firms that invest state pension assets all received increased allocations in 2003 and 2004 — prompted by a June 2003 state pension board decision to increase the percentage of pension assets invested in real estate.

But on March 27, 2003, three months before that decision and less than three months after Cahill took office, TA Associates, alone among the firms, was given an additional $200 million to invest.

On Aug. 13, 2003, the Cahill campaign deposited $40,250 from companies in 10 states that, according to Globe review of public documents, do real estate-related work for TA Associates’ commercial, industrial, and residential properties.

The next day, the pension board voted to give TA Associates another $100 million.

On June 3, 2004, TA Associates was awarded $200 million more. On June 8, 2005, the Cahill campaign deposted checks totaling $30,950 from Ruane business associates and their relatives, according to the Globe analysis....

Gee, what a bunch of weird "coincidences," huh, readers?

The Globe sought comment from the five Ruane-connected companies that sent the largest number of contributions to Cahill’s campaign [see accompanying chart]. All declined to comment or did not respond to e-mail or phone messages.

Cahill, though he offered differing explanations of his dealings with Ruane, was steadfast on one point: that whatever Ruane has done for him was unrelated to the $500 million that flowed to TA Associates in 2003 and 2004.

Which means it was related.

“Whether Michael was helpful to me, or not helpful to me — or whatever level he was helpful to me — they’ve done a tremendous job of managing money, in good markets and in bad markets,’’ Cahill asserted. “And that statement has nothing to do with Michael’s support of me.’’

Translation: It has EVERYTHING to do with it!!!