Open Forum
You asked for it so here it is.
When you want to blog, chat, rant or rave about a topic not covered in one of our posts, put it here.
This is your Open Forum.
You asked for it so here it is.
When you want to blog, chat, rant or rave about a topic not covered in one of our posts, put it here.
This is your Open Forum.
More than half of the contributions Delegate to Congress Donna Christensen has received in the current election cycle are linked to a Washington contractor who is the subject of a federal inquiry.
According to an article today in the Washington Post, Christensen has received at least $37,000 from contractor Jeffrey Thompson, who is suspected of using “straw” or phantom donors to evade contribution limits that are set for candidates running for office. His operations have drawn the attention of Federal authorities.
According to the article, Thompson’s accounting firm Thompson, Cobb, Brazilio and Associates, has 189 contracts with the federal government, worth $17.1 million. The company has done some business in the Virgin Islands, auditing grant funds awarded by the U.S. Department of Education and the Federal Highway Administration. TCBA recently advertised for an accounting position based in Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands.
Recently, Christensen has urged the Federal Election Commission to investigate the election system of the Virgin Islands, citing public discontent with the way the Board of Elections in operating. Perhaps this current development will hasten their acceptance of her request.
As many of you heard recently, CIF President Michael Springer, at left, delivered the first in a series of radio announcements that will target specific issues and offer analysis on our most pressing concerns.
The feedback on the comments was extremely positive, so CIF will sponsor then as often as possible, and we thank those of you who have already donated! But airtime costs money and we're seeking your help.
If you'd like to help keep our voices on the air, please donate whatever you can using the PayPal button below. We thank you in advance for your support.
john woods is also in the Lodge
@ Anonymous on February 17, 2012 at 11:10 pm,
Part II.
Here another perspective:
There is a perspective that there exists pools-of-money in (1) lending-financial institutions and (2) government funding, and then there exists circles-of-associates in (1) friends, (2) in engineering firms, and (3) in construction corporations.
In the situation of the sports complex, whereas the funding is secured through Diageo cover-overs, the financial obligation is not so much a concern by a financial institution making money, but the (1) Construction and (2) Engineering aspects are!
In the end, the ASSOCIATES, the CONSTRUCTION and ENGINEERING FIRMS and CORPORATIONS will roll away with the lion’s share of the budget of the $350-million sport complex. This is a constant, not a viable!
The public or the community will be left with an empty building or empty bag while the associates, engineering and construction firms and corporations will be levitated with bags-of-profits.
There is a perspective that the proposed sports complex is yet another tangible, provable, and verifiable example of “the Rich gets Richer.”
typo: variable
Web ADMIN
ON your election today concerning RR I think you mean continuing NOT to disclose, please correct.
Why is noami so boring and sorry!!!!!!!!
and then she lets Bert talk for an hour and put us to sleep
WTF is Russel talking about with the misuse of media, when he’s the one on the radio every weekend talking ish….
@ Anon @ 3:39
So right. Thank you.
CIF Admin
The “contractor” for BCB was John DeJongh’s Campaign manager Roberts. Do you think John is making him refund or re-do anything?
EWO, do you have split personalities? No disrespect, but I’m confused, first you were blogging that people are being too negative about this complex and that STX would end up bring the poorhouse of the VI. Then you are now exposing the lopsided possibilities of the deal. Don’t get me wrong I agree that it probably stinks, but I just don’t understand what your true position is.
After perusing many of the CIF blogs it occurred to me the same reader/contributor response theme reverberates throughout them all. You see it too. Lots of accusations, finger pointing and veiled threats. Over and over and over. I suppose this is all necessary catharis, because this medium (CIF) allows us all to vent our frustrations at the crisis du jour. We all need a shoulder to wail on. But does anything ever change? No. Could it? No. Should it? No. And once we accept who we are and what we are and how historical events have shaped our lives and destiny, we can relax. This is the way it is and this will be the way it always will be. As Einstein once said, Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So why don’t we just face the music and instead of stepping on one another’s toes, learn to waltz?
Want to know how and why we got where we are? Read “Annals of the Big Island” by Robert Hoffman. Read it and weep.
Here goes Russell again – takling about the misuse if the media. He just can’t stand to be challenged. The fact is we know he is useless and he can’t hide it. I will never forget his support of (sen?) Juan Saville, after he ripped apart local radio for allawing free speech, Russell quickly added that “people shouldn’t be allowed to say what they want” on the radio, especially if it directed towards the government. Those two should have kept their noses up each other’s butt, and leave the rest of us alone.
jonnycake………..How many things revealed on this blog have turned out to be true? Who said anything about “And once we accept who we are and what we are and how historical events have shaped our lives and destiny, we can relax?” We have much work to do, but how can we build on a foundation of lies and exploitation without first correcting the ills that have brought us to this point? It’s like building a castle on sand.
I have been a freedom fighter since my Mother pushed me out of her womb and our continued exploitation has never allowed me a chance to relax. My Mother died standing up against the tyranny and wrong doings to the people of her Virgin Islands. She never left, instead by staying she was ostracized by many of her “own” people because the system considered her a trouble maker. Ask Dr. Lezmore Emmanuel, oh I forgot he was one of”those” troublemakers too.
She would not give up our rights to be just for tourism or light industry or anything that went against Virgin Islanders inherent right to live and die freely in their homeland, the Virgin Islands of the United States. I am here continuing her ideals and dreams. We will prevail. She would have LOVED Crucians in Focus had she still been with us in the physical.
1000 Thank You’s CIF for continuing to keep us aware by shinning your light.
Education and knowledge – that is what scares your so called leaders more than any thing. Just look at Russell and his rantings on his broadcasts and public statements. Don’t let him (them) get away with it. The key to the future are well educated and disciplined and proud children. But they need to be encouraged to stay here to make those changes in government and in our society, and only then will we see a change. If any of our current public schools were located in the states, even in the poorest state, they would be shut down in a heart-beat. The next time you use the word pride to descibe yourselves, you also have to ask what you are proud of. Drive by one of your schools and look at where you send your children each day for “lock-down”. Robert Hoffman is correct.
Anonymous on February 19, 2012 at 7:54 pm,
Paiewonsky dragged these islands kicking and screaming into the twentieth century with the expansion of our industrial and tourism base; now in the twenty first century, we have just been given the news that Hovensa will close soon and Cuba will reopen soon.
There should be no argument that these two engines drive our economy.
With the DEMISED OF HOVENSA and soon to be DIMINISHED TOURISM, many unprepared Virgin Islanders may literally find themselves in the dark hungry!
Why do I say this?
Have you heard of a comprehensive plan either by the chief executive or our elected representatives to address our situation, be it immediate, intermediate, or long term?
For instance, where will the fuel come from? How much will it cost us?
Finally, it is not about Vacillating-on-the-issues; it is more of having Vision-of-the-future by assessing present conditions, trends, and patterns
back to GlobeVest. Does ANYBODY know ANYTHING about this organization and the relationship with John deJonge? How could deJonge have signed any agreements without anybody in the Virgin Islands (we the People) knowing about it? Did he already commit at least $25 million to this project??? Has the land already been given to Globe Vest? Why is the VI investing ANY money at all, if this is supposed to be such a money maker? Isn’t that what banks are for? Honestly, is this really the best way to spend the Peoples money when the VI treasury is almost bankrupt???????
what about the board of elections running out of money. you know all of rights are just ignored. elections are suppose to be funded at all times. I means how messed up is this. Sounds like some expenses need to be cut so that we can hold elections. Like election officials salaries which are 10000% more than normal boards of elections.
When will the senate make it law that sex offenders register here in the VI. It seems that we need it. We have these idiots raping our babies, literally. Also we need to make sure there aren’t any of these sex offenders working with our children because whether any one has realized it but we have a serious problem here. If something will protect our children it will be to start to know who they are and where they are.
To Marooned1 – we are on different paths, but with similiar aspirations and destinations for the VI, specifically St. Croix. Thank you for keeping me straight when I wander.
EWO – the Hovensa closing caught EVERYONE by surprise, even those that may have heard the distant thunder. No one believed Hovensa could or would ever shut down. But boom! she gone bush. No one had a Plan B. And since the Government usually operates under crisis management principles, their Plan Bs are oft-times less than thorough (Alpine, Diageo, etc). Who pays the price?
Don’t we wish we had a body of tough-minded yet fair men and women in the senate who had that “…vision-of-the-future by assessing present conditions, trends, and patterns…”
I keplooking forwhat th virginislands can do to stand out and attract tourist and visitors, like it or not we are going to have to rely on tourists and agrculture. let me be clear i do not use marajuna, i am a liscenced boat captin and get tsted regularly. I do how ever belive that there is an opertunity that we could exploit with the legaisation of the use and growing of marajuna. 1. alowing it to be grown to be sold to the vi goverment who can then tax it and sell it to on site use bars and taverens.
2. decriminlising its possesition will dramaticly decriminalise our popuation, it will reduce the criminal element that imports guns and dangerous narcotics along with marajuna.
we can incorperte the laws of alaska who alows home use and home growing, and the laws of holland where on premisis use bars and clubs are one of the biggest tourist attractions in europe.
while we look for pie in the sky attrctions like ball parks /stadiums, we refuse to take the more lucrative path, one that is a populist movement here, one that is in harmony with our rescorces. Ou choices get more and more limited each day, cuba will soon ope its doors to tourists andthe entire focus on th antillies as a premier destaination for carribian tourist will be gone.
its a sad testment to our leders that we wont simply take the roads open to us, we wont persue the options that will ensure a viable attraction to our teratory.
for those who claim some vitalfederal cutng of funding for our action if we do this look no further thn alaska, where in fact the feds embrace the marajuna laws of that state.