"To audit or not to audit?" That is the question.

State Auditor Stacey Pickering reportedly will be live on the Paul Gallo Radio Show tomorrow, March 25th at 9:00 am. He is expected to address the ongoing battle in Madison County where residents and at least two of the five Supervisors are requesting a procedural audit of the county's dealings with County Engineer Rudy Warnock.

Some resident activists were on the radio show on March 18. A WAPT report on that same day noted the findings of an independent investigation by Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler through Detroit-based PMA Consultants. The investigation found potenital illegalities in subcontracting, an issue that has been discussed for several months according to Hawkins-Butler, and the spending of as much as $2 million without proper oversight from the Board of Supervisors.

Warnock has said he is the victim of politics, and that the investigator, Richard J. McAfee, was nothing more than a "hired gun."

"This bears further investigation," McAfee said in an interview. "Any government in the business of serving the people need to have better checks and balances. There are so many inconsistencies it would make sense to perform a thorough audit."

Pickering's office currently has 160 active cases probing misused funds. The state auditor's duties are to protect the public's trust by independently assessing state and local governmental and other entities to ensure that public funds are properly received, spent and reported.

"We are going to pursue each one of these and do it in a fair and just manner," Pickering said of the pending cases.

Pickering has recovered more than $3.6 million in embezzled, misspent or misappropriated funds since being elected in 2007. He announced today that his office has collected more than $1,038,000.00 in unpaid court assessments since February 22, 2010 from counties and municipalities, and that an estimated $1,061,000.00 was yet to be turned in. So, his effectiveness is not in question. The question is will he finally answer a simple question,

"Will you or won't you add this particular audit in Madison County to that list and help the taxpayers of Madison County potentially recover millions?"

And, if the answer is no, "Why not?"

Related articles: Madison County Supervisor Asks for Audit Of Engineers Contracts . . . Again.

Want to be a Congressman? Stupak and others targeted and threatened (Listen)

Bart Stupak Left Threatening Messages for Health Care Vote

In the wake of his vote in favor of health care reform legislation, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), a strong opponent of abortion rights, has been on the receiving end of a string of extremely hostile and threatening messages, including death threats.

Stupak's office released some of those messages to CBS News, and you can listen to them here.

"Congressman Stupak, you baby-killing mother f***er... I hope you bleed out your a**, got cancer and die, you mother f***er," one man says in a message to Stupak.

"There are millions of people across the country who wish you ill," a woman says in a voicemail, "and all of those thoughts that are projected on you will materialize into something that's not very good for you."

CBS News also obtained copies of faxes sent to Stupak, which include racial epithets used in reference to President Obama and show pictures of nooses with Stupak's name.

Read the rest of the article at CBS News

Prior to the vote, Stupak also received threatening messages from supporters of the Health Insurance Legislation.

The Catholic Failure

From March 22nd post on The New Ledger Blog:

The roster of names is so long that its recitation would be a total rebuke to the authority of any American Catholic bishop now living and many dead. Kennedy, Leahy, Kucinich, Drinan, Durbin, Pelosi, Casey (Jr.), Mitchell, Sebelius, Cuomo, I could go on. These are men and women who have made it the goal of their careers to advocate the abortion license, to preserve it and expand it. The leaders in the fight to keep public funding of abortion were overwhelmingly self-professed Catholics. Last night, they succeeded.


They teach by word and act that abortion is, at worst, an unfortunately necessary convenience, and is more often a good. They create scandal. They do so as Catholics.

Who among them has been publicly remonstrated by his bishop? Who among them has had to stand in public and choose between an honest recitation of the Nicene Creed and Planned Parenthood v. Casey? Who among them has been reminded of Christ’s injunction about scandal and millstones where their audiences and constituencies can hear?

Why would anyone expect Bart Stupak — otherwise a consummate Democrat — to hold up a health care reform bill against his Party and his Party’s President when even the men who are supposed to stand against evil every waking moment of their lives appear more concerned about the environment, about immigrant rights, about the death penalty? What Catholic sitting in the pews or watching on TV would think there’s anything wrong with abortion when Mario Cuomo’s dishonest justification has stood without censure or excommunication for over a quarter of a century?

The blood of millions will now be shed by the public coffers. That blood lies on the hands of the men with mitres.

Read the entire post at The New Ledger