the Town of Greenwich by Frank Trotta

It’s okay for Congress to wait until the last minute to do its job — but it is not okay for the citizens. The Senate hasn’t passed a budget in 4 years, and Congress is waiting until the last minute to address the “fiscal cliff” issue, but what if you waited to the very last moment to do your tax planning? You’d be up the creek, thanks to that same procrastinating government.

First, the IRS announces on the Friday before the long Christmas weekend that they were going to take it upon themselves to stop issuing tax-id numbers at 3 p.m. on December 27. You can’t open a bank account without a tax id number. Indeed, it is nearly impossible to make a substantial gift without a tax id number — and a lot of residents of the Town of Greenwich wanted to do just that before the gift-tax reverted to its high rates on January 1.

Then, the Post Office decides to close at Noon today — the last business day of the year. Want to mail your Connecticut taxes to get the deduction in 2012? Don’t count on the Post Office for a 2012 postmark.

This is the same Post Office that installed P.O. Boxes in its new branch in no logical order. Do you think PO Box 141, for example, is between 140 and 142? Wrong! It is between 66 and 211, with box 30 to the north of it and 161 to the south of it.

This is also the same Post Office, or Postmaster, who when the lower Greenwich Avenue landmark Post Office closed and moved up the street, decided to make it tougher to mail anything on lower Greenwich Avenue. The Post Office replaced the double-load mailbox in front of Richard’s with a single one PLUS reduced the number of pick-ups at that box to one a day (at 11 a.m.) rather than the three pick-ups they used to make. To compound the problem, they remove the mailboxes from in front of the People’s Bank on Greenwich Avenue, and in front of the old Post Office building.

Government and its agencies are supposed to SERVE the people. Instead, they seem to be working actively to provide disservices to the public. But I guess we get the government we vote for.

Have you been to the new post office in downtown Greenwich yet?

Well, if you are a post office box holder, you are in for a treat.

The new PO Boxes are arranged RANDOMLY. Do you think PO Box 141, for example, is between 140 and 142? Wrong! It is between 66 and 211, with box 30 to the north of it and 161 to the south of it.

As one wag sarcastically put it, “I never would have thought of a way to keep customers in my store longer. Who says no innovation comes from the public sector.”

On Thursday, at the Greenwich Hyatt a young man dressed as Superman was “tased.” No, it was not an “EDP” (“emotionally disturbed person”), or a “perp” — it was an aspiring police officer. Robert Warnecke, a graduate of the Greenwich Citizens Police Academy (“GPD CPA”) Class of 2011, who hopes to become a police officer, donning a “Superman” shirt under his suit, volunteered to be the target of taser darts and thousands of volts of electricity on the cue of GPD Sgt. Michael Reynolds in a staged presentation at the second annual reunion of the GPD CPA Alumni Association.

Nearly 200 alumni and police officers filled the Grand Ballroom at the Old Greenwich hotel and witnessed not only the taser-stunning, but a GPD K-9 “bite” demonstration at the program after the dinner. Guests took advantage of the photo-op on one of the GPD motorcycles and even bid in a silent auction on uniquely police items. Funds raised at the event benefit the public works of the GPD Silver Shield Association and might help fund another class of the CPA.

The group heard from First Selectman/Police Commissioner Peter Tesei who said how proud he was of the GPD community policing program, and GPD Chief James Heavey. Chief Heavey, who recently returned from an FBI school for police chiefs told the audience how he was the envy of the other chiefs when they learned that in addition to his 155 sworn officer, he had over 300 CPA graduates to help his agency. He told the CPA alumni that he considered them “on the job” (police lingo, nationally, for a fellow officer). The Chief told the alumni that he intended to utilize their training to start a “CERT” (Citizen Emergency Response Team) in the Town of Greenwich.

Sgt. Reynold gave a recap of the GPD benchmark events of 2011, including an engagement of two GPD officers which happened the night before, and plans for the 2012 CPA, as well as the possibility of a CPA for high school students. The CPA alumni were also recruited for the Community and Police Partnership (CAPP) also run out of the Community Impact Office which Sgt. Reynolds runs.

I was reminded in the weekly bulletin of St. Mary’s on the Avenue, that “the [Catholic] bishops of the United States have designated Saturday, January 22, as a special Day of Penance for the Pro-life cause. They have designated this as a day for all Catholics in the United States to either abstain from meat (as on Fridays in Lent) or to perform some other Act of Penance (saying the Rosary, Stations of the Cross, etc.) in reparation to God for the sins against life committed in our country and as an act of prayer for the protection of all human life.” (more…)

The other day a friend sent me an email with this link to the blog of law professor Ann Althouse. (READER WARNING BEFORE YOU CLICK ON THE LINK:  Professor Althouse’s site links to the website of Rush Limbough, which apparently offends some readers.)

The quote, below, on Professor Althouse’s website, (a quote I wish I said) highlights the human rights abuses in China:“The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Winner hosted a dinner for the guy holding the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Winner in prison…”

I would have felt proud if at the dais of the recent State Dinner for China the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner had placed an empty chair for the 2010 winner as a noble silent protest. I guess I’d never make it in the diplomatic corp. I’m told etiquette dictates you shouldn’t insult someone you invite for dinner.  So maybe the root question is should there have been a State dinner at all for China’s President Hu Jintao.  Some people, including former White House Advisor Karl Rove think we shouldn’t have. (more…)

I have every sympathy for the victims of a robbery. It must be a traumatic thing to experience. So, it would be logical for one to assume that high-running emotions were behind the crass school-boy language used in a NYC television interview by a victim of a recent jewelry heist in Greenwich. While his invective was uncivil it was understandable. What is not understandable is the continuation of the sarcasm, ridicule and vitriol weeks after the trauma.

This past week we read two more stories in our local daily about the owner of a Greenwich Avenue jewelry store recently robbed. He is demanding that a police officer be stationed feet away from his store at taxpayer expense. The owner said he intends to make this a political issue in the next local election. I welcome that. It would be the “Tea Party” in reverse. Perhaps we could call it the “Silver Spoon Party.” (more…)

Isn’t it time for the fans to unite against “Big-Sports”?  Let’s start a “fans’ union.” (View on Parcbench )

In the last Presidential election, I was recruited to use my election law background to help try to keep the election honest in Philadelphia. Even though I was a veteran of defending against Election Day fraud in places in New York, nothing prepared me for the blatant transgressions I saw in the City of Brotherly Love.  (more…)

Choose your news, choose your music. What’s not to like? But is customized content just making Americans insular and polarized, parochial and provincial? ( Fox Forum Post )

Weren’t the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) talking?

An  FBI press release this morning proclaimed  “NEW MOST WANTED TERRORIST: First Domestic Fugitive Added to List” and stated that the domestic terrorist being sought is “an animal rights extremist wanted for allegedly bombing two San Francisco-area office buildings in 2003.”   (more…)