By Patrick Brodrick

            CLINTON –“Fucking faggots,” yelled the men in the vehicle as they drove past a group of Jim Leblanc supporters, a gay man that has the nerve to run for a seat on the Board of Selectmen during this year’s election, last week.

            To any rational thinking person, the venom and hatred in the men’s verbal assault is stomach churning; just another sad commentary on the polluted river of ignorance that has tainted not just a vocal segment of the town’s population, but the upcoming election as well.

            At barbershops, supermarkets, convenience stores and coffee shops, I’ve heard a number of people talk about the importance of this election, but I wonder if they truly appreciate the significance of what it means to the town. This election will stand as a watershed moment in Clinton — a point in time that will not only rattle the pillars of the political foundations, but will also shape the town for years to come. This election is also a chance for voters to send a clear message to the blatant racists, bigots and homophobes that lurk in secret Internet chatrooms that have come out to support both Selectmen Robert Pasquale Jr. and Joseph Notaro Jr., the incumbents up for reelection come May.

            Supporters of both Notaro and Pasquale have taken a cue from their candidates and have begun to paint themselves as victims on local discussion forums. In fact they have gotten so used to playing the role of martyrs that if Notaro and Pasquale manage to get reelected their first order of business should be to erect a giant wooden cross in the middle of Central Park. That way when they or their supporters feel unappreciated they can climb up and nail themselves to it.

            It’s that same mentality that must be blinding them to their bullshit rhetoric, so allow me to shed some light on the glaring contradictions espoused by Notaro and Pasquale’s supporters to show a fraction of their hypocrisy, and what these people are capable of in their quest to hold onto the reins of power to further their agenda.

A Pound of Flesh

            Several months ago when I discovered, with the help of The Independent’s readers, a smear site targeting Selectman Kevin Haley that was launched by supporters of Pasquale and Notaro, I was floored by its sophomoric language and images —

 one photo showed someone evacuating their bowels – ladies and gentlemen I give you the base of Notaro and Pasquale’s campaign.

            The site’s founders, as well as Notaro’s supporters, are up in arms because Kevin Haley participated in discussions regarding a liquor license for Via Alto, the new Italian eatery on High Street, but recused himself when it came time to vote because of a potential conflict of interest due to his job as a banker.

            “BTW, why don’t you do an article on why Selectman Haley (a frequent patron of this site) abstained from the vote for the liquor license for the Italian restaurant, yet participated in all the discussions leading up to the vote,” Greg Stahl, a rabid Notaro supporter, said in a post on this very site.

            “Coming soon: The story of how I talked my fellow selectmen into giving the Italian restaurant a liquor license! And how I abstained from the vote,”read kevin-haley.com.

            It’s ironic that both Stahl and the smear site are looking for a pound of flesh from Haley, but are more than willing to overlook the fact that Notaro brokered a $2.8 million land deal that directly benefits his brother! It’s conceivable that Notaro’s brother will see a portion of the money generated by the sale of the land to the town since he is married to a relative of Fred Rauscher. Not to mention that his property value just shot through the roof because his house is surrounded by 62 acres of conservation land in his backyard. Pull up any map of the area and located right in the middle of all that conservation land is Notaro’s brother’s home. Talk about a sweet deal. 

            Both Stahl and the founder of the Haley site also turn a blind eye to the fact that Notaro participated in interviewing candidates for a position in the Department of Public Works in which his cousin, Pete Notaro, was interviewing for the job. When his cousin was up for nomintion, Notaro voted on the first three candidates, abstained when his cousin came up for a vote, and then continued to vote on the remaining candidates! One of the candidates that was eventually hired actually worked at Pasquale’s flower shop, but had to turn the position down because it would have jeopardized his state pension.

            But the hypocrisy doesn’t end there.

            When Pasquale and Notaro voted to remove George Kittredge from the Retirement Board, a board he single-handedly at times kept running for 12 years, and replaced him with Robert Champagne Jr., whose father served with Notaro on the Charter Commission and worked closely on his campaign in his first bid for a seat on the board, their supporters lauded their efforts. (Champagne managed to submit his letter of interest for the board three weeks before an advertisement ran in local papers, and wound up serving a whole year before he walked away.)

            “It’s plain old ridiculous and stupid if you ask me. If he loves Clinton that much let him move back and reapply to the Retirement Board next year,”one of Notaro and Pasquale’s supporters posted on a local discussion forum.

            Months later, the same people — apparently using Orwellian logic — that were against allowing someone from Sterling to serve on the Retirement Board were bullshit that Sterling resident “Doctor” Anthony Carboni – a festering pustule of a human being, who I find so inconsequential that if found in my toilet bowl I wouldn’t bother to flush – was passed over in his quest to become Clinton’s newest health agent. I find it amazing that the same people crying loudest about nepotism and cronyism have managed to ignore the blatant political-payback appointments of Notaro and Pasquale – apparently as long as it benefits the people you like, it’s OK.

Bring Me Their Heads

            Maryann Castillo, Brendan Bailey, George Kittredge…

            The list of metaphorical scalps and hides that adorn the walls of Pasquale and Notaro’s political trophy room is a long and sordid one, and offers a glimpse into the twisted landscape that exists inside the skulls of two power-drunk fiends.

            When Notaro and Pasquale were elected two years ago from a field of candidates where a monkey dry humping a doorknob would have garnered at least 500 votes they promised to stomp on the throat of the nepotism they saw riddled throughout town. However, the Notaro/Pasquale regime ushered in a new era of unprecedented cronyism that would make the Bush Administration blush, and have since used every opportunity to appoint friends and political allies to various posts throughout town.

Despite the urgings of Planning Board Chairman Jack Hastings, both Notaro and Pasquale voted to move forward with appointing Anthony Marini, another supporter of both men who could be seen holding signs for Notaro last weekend, to the vacant Planning Board seat. Hastings asked the board to postpone a vote until a majority of his board could be present at the meeting.

Hastings attended the meeting with fellow board member Rebecca Stahl, Gregg’s wife, who openly admitted to having an ulterior motive for wishing to get a member appointed to her board. The ulterior motive? The Stahls’ neighbor was proposing converting his home into a duplex, which managed to meet the town’s zoning bylaws, but was opposed by the Stahl family. During the meeting Mrs. Stahl openly admitted she had an ulterior motive for anting to move forward with the appointments despite not having had a chance to peruse the letters of interest. (This has been contested by Stahl himself, as well as his supporters, but I urge anyone to go listen to the tape of the meeting to see whether or not it was said.)

Ignoring a previous instance in which the board voted to delay appointing a member to the Parks and Recreation Commission, despite the urgings of the members of the commission, Notaro and Pasquale voted to postpone making the appointment until a majority of the commission could attend the meeting.

Coincidentally, when a position on the Personnel Board was vacated, Notaro and Pasquale both voted to appoint Gregg Stahl, and during last year’s election, Notaro openly campaigned for Stahl in his failed bid for a seat on the board.

Notaro and Pasquale also didn’t miss an opportunity to collect the head of Castillo to be mounted on a pike outside Town Hall when she reapplied for a post on the Personnel Board. The two candidates, still smarting from Castillo’s questioning of their decisions to hire former Building Inspector Bentley Herget outside of the town’s pay grid, ousted the business owner and replaced her with a criminal – literally, the guy was convicted of crimes.

Dirty Politics

For the past three years Clinton has been held hostage by Notaro and Pasquale’s political ineptitude — their inability to broker some type of arrangement between Fire Chief Richard Hart, Herget and representatives from the Clinton Polish American Veteran Clubs and Turner Hall, and their blind devotion to the practice of isolationism.  If any of the surrounding towns ever want to work with us again it will be a miracle.

But even more important than the obvious failings of both Notaro and Pasquale, is that for the last three years a large group of their supporters have done nothing but smear the names, or outright attacked a person’s sexual orientation, and tried to tarnish the reputations of people whose only sin is to disagree with their chosen representatives. People that have donated their time and effort to try and better their community; have had their reputations, names and personal lives attacked in free speech chatrooms run by supporters of Notaro and Pasquale.

Simply put, a vote for Notaro or Pasquale on May 5 is a vote to condone the failed policies of both candidates, but it also supports the racism, ignorance and intolerance espoused by their supporters. It’s a vote to sit idly by as friends, neighbors and relatives are targeted by an organized smear machine. In short, a vote for Pasquale or Notaro places all of us in the shotgun seat of that vehicle with those men that found it perfectly acceptable behavior to scream “fucking faggots” out the window of a car.

Frankly, it’s not a ride that I want to take.

(Editor’s Note: Were the two men mentioned in that vehicle actually supporters of  Notaro and Pasquale? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t put those actions past some of the people that support them. The truth is a number of them have said far worse about people that are trying to serve the town in their secret chatroom. If those same people that claim they are working to make the town a better place, the first plae they should start is by cleaning up the swill in the free speech sty. Otherwise, all their bullshit pronouncements are just another example of their glaring hypocrisy.)

By Patrick Brodrick

            (Spoiler Alert: If you honestly think that you don’t know who the Times & Courier will be endorsing for selectmen in the next several weeks you should probably stop reading now.)

            With only five weeks until the culmination of this year’s vicious and vile campaign season the traditional traces of a pending election have started sprouting up all over town – candidate’s signs adorn lawns, the back-alley bartering of favors in exchange for votes has begun, and political junkies can be found huddled in doorways and behind dumpsters, track marks running up and down both arms, tweaking as they try to open a collapsed vein to mainline the latest public opinions.

            And as this hell-bent, runaway train continues to barrel down the tracks, I’ve been asked by a number of people if I have any plans on endorsing any of the candidates in this year’s election. The answer, simply, is no.

            Anyone that reads this blog should be able to make a fairly educated guess as to who I won’t be endorsing and/or voting for.

Fortunately for me, and I never miss an opportunity to point it out to my duped friends or anyone that’ll listen, I was one of the few people that didn’t vote for Selectmen Robert Pasquale Jr. or Joseph Notaro Jr., the two incumbents up for reelection this year, in their first bids for a seat on the board, so I’m sure as shit not going to vote for them this time around. I wouldn’t vote for either candidate to be a bath mat, never mind selectmen. For some reason I was able to see through both candidates’ bullshit veneer, and recognize the two politicos for what they truly are – a power-drunk duo with a complete lack of a moral compass, and an ill-tempered child’s inability to admit to their mistakes or see an issue from any side that doesn’t directly benefit them or their supporters.

Personally, I’ve always found the act of endorsing a candidate to be incredibly pretentious, but for voters that are looking to be led like lambs into the slaughterhouse when it comes time to head to the polls I’m sure the Times & Courier will offer its endorsements – an epic charade masquerading behind the guise of a bona-fide political process. And anyone that hasn’t been walking around wearing their ass as a hat for the last seven months should have the wherewithal to see the Times & Courier’s endorsements for what they truly are – political pandering.

            If you’re surprised when the T&C announces its endorsements of Pasquale and Notaro, make no mistake about it that’s who the paper will endorse, you need to get your head out of the sand.

            I’m sure in the endorsement you’ll see terms and phrases like “proven leadership,” “integrity,” “both candidates possess a deep understanding of issues facing the town,” or “experience as a community leader and someone who isn’t afraid to think outside the box,” but in my time covering the Board of Selectmen during the Notaro/Pasquale Regime, I’ve never seen any of those characteristics exhibited by either candidate.

Jesus, I’ve stepped in puddles with a deeper understanding of the issues facing this town, and the only leadership either candidate has exhibited is a willingness to be the first one to vote to raise taxes on residents. Notaro and Pasquale’s idea of thinking “outside the box” is to tax residents; apparently their problem-solving skills are limited to simply throwing enough taxpayer dollars at any problem to simply bury it without actually trying to solve it.

I’ll have more on what I believe to be the failings of the two incumbents as the election draws near, but this is really a commentary on the sad state the Times is in. I know there are some, many of them the same people that will be supporting Notaro and Pasquale come May, that will claim the paper is under better stewardship now than at any point in its history, which is absurd and illustrates how the paper has become a puppet for Pasquale and Notaro’s propaganda. Pick up the paper on any given week and you’ll see both politicians’ agenda regurgitated, verbatim; a contradictory viewpoint hardly ever expressed.

So in the next several weeks, when the Times & Courier announces its endorsements you’ll see Notaro and Pasquale’s names scrawled in blank ink across the page. Editor Michael Ballway has no choice now, like a good puppet he’ll follow the orders of the puppeteers; the only problem is when a local news organization decides to hop into bed with local politicians, it’s the voters that wind up getting screwed.         

By Patrick Brodrick

            To anyone that reads The Independent, it’s no secret that I supported Mary Rose Dickhaut and Kevin Haley in last year’s election, and many of those same readers have called me a “water carrier” for both politicians. The irony always brings a smile to my face, because the same people that have been lauding my recent work on The Independent are the same people that called me a “water carrier” for Bill Connolly Jr., Selectman Joseph Notaro Jr. and their fellow Rifle Range Supporters during my stint at the Times & Courier.

            But when you peddle the truth – a strange, fluid and fluctuating entity – that’s the burden you have to bear; someone is always going to be pissed at you and you damn well better get used to it.

            So when people contacted me to voice their discontent over recent postings claiming I have an “agenda” because I hardly mention Selectwoman Mary Rose Dickhaut and Selectman Kevin Haley on The Independent, I just have to shrug my shoulders. It’s not that I’m some lap dog for the two, despite what some may think, it’s just that the disagreements I have with Dickhaut and Haley, and their actions, are minor compared to the colossal clusterfucks that Selectmen Robert Pasquale Jr., Joseph Notaro Jr. and Anthony Fiorentino continue to steer the town into time-and-time again. Decisions that I believe have had far-reaching impacts on the town, and not in a good way – how many lawsuits is Clinton involved in now because of their litigation-first approach to issues in the last several months? Three? Four? To be honest I stopped keeping track.

            However, in the last few weeks both Dickhaut and Haley have allowed their personal feelings to get in the way of doing what is in the best interest of the town, and for the first time since last year’s election I can honestly say that I’ve been disappointed at their stomp-their-feet, take-my-ball-and-go-home attitudes during a recent selectmen’s meeting.

            (Note: Being disappointed in my candidates is a far cry from regretting my decision to vote for them, and I stand by my choice and respect both candidates a great deal. The only other option would have been to elect Haaavaaad Professor Gregg Stahl — a pompous and bloated bag of flesh stuffed with pig shit and monkey brains — which wasn’t a choice at all. The thought of having Stahl serving on a board with Notaro, Pasquale and Fiorentino causes me to throw-up a little bit in my mouth, and makes me piss my pants and forget who I am for a half-hour.)

Great Expectations

            About a week ago I got a call from Haley, asking me about my recent postings regarding a smear site that was created to defame his reputation. He casually asked me what type of response I had gotten – surprisingly, more positive than negative – and then recounted a recent meeting when selectmen scheduled time to discuss a report from the state. The report listed a number of areas of town government that could stand to see some much-needed changes; however, when it came time to discuss possible solutions to the complex problems both Haley and Dickhaut simply threw their hands up in the air.

            “You should have seen it, I just sat there, looking up at the ceiling and didn’t say a word,” Haley said. “Joe [Notaro] was like, ‘I don’t know why no one is saying anything.’ Mary Rose just looked at him and said, ‘You go ahead and do whatever you want Joe.’ You should have seen it, it was great.”

            I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I had a lot of adjectives running through my mind at the time and “great” wasn’t even on the list; childish and cowardly, but not great.

            I understand that both Haley’s and Dickhaut’s actions were fuelled by frustration over having their names dragged through the bilge water of the HMS Free Speech by a group of juveniles; but that frustration manifested itself into something that did more to harm to the town than the slight momentary satisfaction it could have possibly have wrought in either politician.

            Haley, however, defended his actions and said his silence during the discussion was because he felt it was inappropriate for the selectmen to be implementing changes to governmental procedures without the input of the variousboards that would be affected.

            “This report is an important issue and I don’t believe that venue was the proper forum to have that discussion,” Haley said. “These issues should be addressed in a working meeting and should involve all the department heads so they have a chance to give us their input. I don’t think we should be making decisions that affect departments without input from the heads of those departments — that’s crazy.”

            Believe me, I can only take wild shots in the dark at the anger, frustration and disappointment both politicos must feel at having to serve with the mouthpieces of the people that have tarnished their names. Hell, I don’t like the idea of living in the same town with some of these cretins, never mind what it’d be like to sit in a meeting with their chosen representatives, but that doesn’t justify either Haley’s or Dickhaut’s actions.

            This report is a chance to make some significant improvements to the town and how it functions on a daily basis. I’m sure both Dickhaut and Haley are hedging their bets that it will only be a few more weeks until at least one of the incumbent board members is voted out of office, but I’m not one to count chickens before they’re hatched. And, as terrifying as it is, there is a chance that both candidates could be reelected.

A Fight Worth Fighting

            When I cast my vote for both Haley and Dickhaut I did so because I wanted to see some semblance of a discussion on any given issue instead of a blanket consensus vote that was most likely determined long before the meeting was called to order. I was sick and tired of watching the controlling majority of the board vote in the best interests of their base instead of the best interest of the town.

            In short, I voted for the two people that I thought would get on the board and drag the devious actions of the majority, kicking and screaming, out into the light. I voted for the two candidates that were going to fight – and I mean a knock-down, drag-em-out, kick-the-hell-out-of-them brawl — for what they thought was right, not just throw their hands up in the air with a just-wait-until May mentality.

            Hell, if I wanted someone that was going to simply roll over and play dead every time Pasquale, Notaro and Fiorentino opened their mouth I would have voted for Gregg Stahl.    

“My one intention is the [political] destruction of the undesirables who continue to make miserable the life of ordinary people…I have paid them back in their own coin.”

– Michael Collins

By Patrick Brodrick

“Notaro said this week he has no connection with that site [www.kevin-haley.com] and he does not condone personal attacks on public officials. ‘It’s not appropriate to do that to anyone,’ Notaro said.”— Times & Courier, March 6 

“I think it’s pathetic that who I thought had one of the most professional non basis opions [sic] when it comes to reporting has turned into a one sided Davey vs Goliath brute with regards to his new career as a blogger…All I can say is Pat Broderick [sic] says a lot of fancy nothings in his opinions, and he is definitely way off track with his facts, and so what if one person was smarter than he was with regards to this blog crap!

— Selectman Robert Pasquale Jr. Times & Courier Blog 

     I’ve always considered myself a student of irony, so I can’t help but smile when two of the most deplorable politicians to ever be elected in Clinton preach about the importance of taking the high road, while at the same time painting themselves as helpless victims.

     Shortly, and I mean days, possibly even hours, after he was elected, Pasquale, a life-long Democrat suddenly switched his political affiliation to be closer to Notaro, a registered Republican. In turn, Notaro lobbied his allies on the Republican Town Committee to indoctrinate Pasquale as a full-fledged member. It was such a controversial move that the chairman of the committee threatened to resign in protest. (It was actually kind of sweet; can’t you just picture Notaro and Pasquale driving full-tilt over the edge of a cliff, hand-in-hand like some bastardized version of Thelma and Louise? The only problem is the rest of the town is trapped in the backseat during this hellbent joyride.)

     And just like that, one of the most devious political pacts since Lucifer and Judas was forged in a baptism of bullshit.

     But just how attached at the hip are Notaro and Pasquale? Well, when I worked at the Times & Courier I routinely spoke with both men on the phone, and I used to play a game, unbeknownst to them, where I would throw a verbal Molotov cocktail that I knew would piss them off. If I called Pasquale, within days, sometimes hours, without fail, I would get a phone call from Notaro repeating exactly what I had just said, verbatim, and grilling me on my intentions.

     Within days of the story on Kevin Haley announcing his intentions of running for a seat on the Board of Selectmen I got a call from both Pasquale and Notaro.

     “What? He doesn’t think we’re doing a good job?” a petulant Notaro said, upset that anyone would have the gall to seek a seat on his board. “He’s a big drinker you know.”

     Pasquale essentially said the same thing, “He’s a big drinker you know.”

     I couldn’t help but feel that each politician was trying to entice me into doing a smear piece on Haley.

(To his credit, once Haley trounced the candidate Notaro was backing during last year’s election, he called and said he was wrong about him; however, in my opinion Notaro’s mea culpa had all the high-gloss sincerity of a cereal box. So you’ll have to forgive my barking laughter when I read quotes from Notaro claiming he doesn’t condone “personal attacks” on elected officials.)

     So when I discovered, with the help of readers, and exposed a Web site created by the rotten base of these two pillars – and I use that term very lightly – of the community, I immediately thought back to those phone calls. The story was eventually picked up by the Times & Courier, which produced one of the most slanted screeds of journalism this side of Fox News and completely missed the point of the story, further cementing my opinion that the paper has simply become a puppet for Notaro and Pasquale’s propaganda. If the executives at Gatehouse Media are wondering why the Times & Courier is hemorrhaging subscriptions, I would offer that story as one of many smoking guns.

Six Degrees of Separation

     While I’m not making allegations that either politician is behind the smear site, their supporters clearly are, so it’s hard to imagine that Notaro had no knowledge of the Kevin Haley site.

     In his disjointed, and poorly spelled, ramblings on the Times & Courier blog, Pasquale said I am “way off track with my facts.” Well, here are the facts that I’ve been able to prove, which until now have been ignored by the “mainstream media” in Clinton.

     Notaro’s faux Local Independent site was designed by a company named Jesco Inc., and has an administrative contact listed on Devenwood Lane in Clinton. A quick search of the corporate records at the Secretary of State’s Office has no listing of a Jesco registered in Clinton. I’m sure it is purely coincidental that Notaro’s brother’s in-laws live on Devenwood Lane.

     Coincidentally, the person responsible for designing the Kevin Haley site was named Jess. And Jess is quite the entrepreneur, selling the Web site to the highest bidder. If you’re interested, simply contact her/him over at a certain free speech swamp that is riddled with close friends and supporters of Notaro and Pasquale.

     But the Kevin Haley site isn’t Jess’ first foray into the sleazy world of URL selling. Nope, she has a number of other gems for sale as well including thatfagfromclinton.com and queerpondpeople.com. And, apparently, there is such a cash windfall to be made selling domain names that Notaro decided to try his hand in the cyber-sleaze market by selling thelocalindependent.com.

     Since my last post, detractors have said that these twisted ramblings are the work of someone with an agenda, and they’re absolutely correct. My agenda is the political destruction of the undesirables that continue to make miserable the life of ordinary people. I say there is no room for these hypocrites and their smear tactics, bigotry and ignorance in Clinton politics, let alone Clinton, and come May voters will hopefully decide that it’s time to pay these swine back in their own coin.