US mayor and son charged with hacking into opposition site

A small town US mayor and his son have been arrested over allegations they hacked into a website calling for his recall. Dr Felix Roque, 55, the mayor of West New York, New Jersey, and Joseph Roque, 22, of Passaic County, allegedly hacked into recallroque.com and illegally accessed e-mails in February. Joseph Roque is accused …

[Alyas]

I guess Mayor Roque went rogue.

[Anonymous Coward]

Aah, the American way of politics.

[Jeebus]

Sucks to be an intelligent American.

Democrats outvoted every time they try and help the country. Republicans growing more and more fundamentalist every day.

Outside of that independent politicians like Roque waging proxy war on people speaking out against them.

[Figgus]

You've GOT to be trolling.

The only people Democrats help is themselves by pandering. While the fundamentalist conservatives are bad, the fact is that without financial freedom ALL other freedoms suffer. The Democrats abhor financial freedom, as a dependent population can be counted on to keep them in power. Most intelligent Americans can do basic math, and can see the Democrat financial "plan" is nothing more than smoke and mirrors just to motivate their voter base: who are also incapable of math.

That said, there is a lot of fear among Dems so I am not surprised to see one pull this stunt. The normally apathetic middle class in the US has woken up since 2008 and is taking more of an interest in their government than ever before, and generally they are against handouts and subsidies (staples of the Democrat election process). The political advertising and media machinery have gotten ever more creative lately trying to prevent another 2010 landslide upheaval in Congress. Roque probably isn't the first politician to do this, but he might be the first one to get caught.

[Mike Moyle]

Re: You've GOT to be trolling.

Well, they say the devil recognizes his own...

"The normally apathetic middle class in the US has woken up since 2008 and is taking more of an interest in their government than ever before, and generally they are against handouts and subsidies (staples of the Democrat election process)."

Or if you're not trolling, perhaps you meant "The normally apathetic middle class in the US has woken up since 2008 and is taking more of an interest in their government than ever before, and generally they are against handouts and subsidies to the rich (staples of the Republican election machine)."

[Figgus]

Re: You've GOT to be trolling.

Or if you're not trolling, perhaps you meant "The normally apathetic middle class in the US has woken up since 2008 and is taking more of an interest in their government than ever before, and generally they are against handouts and subsidies to the rich (staples of the Republican election machine)."

Are you one of these doorknobs who thinks that tax breaks somehow are some form of spending "cost"? If so, I'm coming by your house, because if I don't steal your TV it will effectively "cost" me $500.

But hey, if you want to talk about everyone paying their "fair share" how about a flat tax so the 49% who currently pay nothing (or get money back for not working) can pay the same rate as those awful rich people who are plainly getting off scott free?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: You've GOT to be trolling.

Some statistics for you:

The top 20 percent of Americans earn 53.4 percent of the total U.S. income, but pay 67.2 percent of total income tax.

Figgus has his figures wrong on the number of Americans who don't pay tax. It isn't 49% it is 51%

In the UK the top 1% of earners pay a third of all income tax received by the treasury.

[Jeebus]

Hey, I know this place where they're having a tea party, you're invited Figgins.

[laird cummings]

So - you identify "commit Federal crimes" and "intimidate voters" with "intelligent" and "helping?"

I see.

Well, we know how much weight to place on your opinons now, don't we?

[Jeebus]

Have you intentionally not read my post, where it quite clearly states that independent politicians like Roque running campaigns of hate against people speaking out against them is yet another side in the hate of politics for all intelligent Americans.

But seen as you cannot understand what is clear as day, written in very clear, plain English then we know how much value you and your other sucker friends like Figgins opinions are worth don't we.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Jeebus

"Sucks to be an intelligent American."

Lemme fix that for ya: "Sucks to be intelligent, anywhere."

You'll have to take my word for it because intelligence is something that you obviously haven't got.

[JC_]

Dems being outvoted isn't a problem; it'd be lovely if the party with more votes got to enact legislation. Unfortunately, in the Senate the Republican minority filibuster everything and put unending holds on appointments, purely to stuff up the country enough that re-election for Obama will be more difficult.

[chris lively]

I'm pretty sure the intelligent Americans are not tied to either the republican or democrats. Because, quite frankly, the only difference between the two is what they want to overspend on.

[Fibbles]

Intelligent people of any nationality should not be attaching themselves to any specific political party. At an election review all of the candidates' policies, accept that none of them will represent your views 100% and then vote for the one likely to do the least amount of damage. Political parties are not football teams and should not be blindly supported.

[JC_]

No difference? Are you kidding?

You might feel superior saying that, but if Romney gets in any Supreme Court nominations he gets to make will be people like Scalia & Thomas. If you think the consequences of that are unimportant then you're being willfully stupid.

[Anonymous Coward]

Important stuff at the end

Notice how the party affiliation of the perps is omitted until the very end of the article? Typically when it's a Republican it's splashed across the title. Just the usual non-biased journalism.

[Jeebus]

Re: Important stuff at the end

He ran as an independent.

[perlcat]

Your parser's broke.

"independent conservative democrat" is how he describes himself.

Of course, I can't figure out what the hell an "independent conservative democrat", actually is. Do they attend Occupy Wall Street rallies wearing tricornered hats? If so, that'd be a hoot to watch.

Before anyone gets all worked up about media bias, it'd probably be best to find out what his *actual* party affiliation is. He can't be all three. Personally, I think he will be referred to as "inmate 23445678", and the title should stick to him for ten to fifteen with time off for good behavior.

[Arctic fox]

@Perlcat RE "independent conservative democrat"

I see that a couple of Repubs hooked onto the the "democrat" bit whilst ignoring the fact that the guy appears to by trying to cover the entire US political spectrum. How about "independent liberal teabagger"? It makes about us much political sense!

[Elmer Phud]

Re: @Perlcat RE "independent conservative democrat"

Sounds just like European mainland and its 'Christian Democrats' - usually a bunch of right-wing non-democratic fundamentalists (with 'mental' being more to the fore than 'christian')

[Jeebus]

Re: @Perlcat RE "independent conservative democrat"

We have some right wing loons commenting on this very story. I thought IT would be relatively free of such people, yet here we are. It's sad in 2012 they still move in groups because they can't justify themselves without posting anonymously as well as their accounts.

[Don Jefe]

Re: @Perlcat RE "independent conservative democrat"

Unfortunately no. El Reg is full of right wing loons. Just look at Lewis Page and Andrew O.

[Jeebus]

Re: @Perlcat RE "independent conservative democrat"

It really is a shame, like all right wingers they live in a world of complete and absolute cognitive bias. What a horrible and absolutely ignorant way to see the world.

[the invisible hand]

Re: @Perlcat RE "independent conservative democrat"

Perhaps a look in the mirror would be helpful. I find left wingers reflect your comments equally well.

Interesting that your cognitive bias results in you proclaiming that Felix Roque is an Independent. His party affiliation on his Wikipedia page shows Democrat. He did run as an Independent against the incumbent Democrat Mayor (Silvio Vega) in a recall campaign and won (in a very strong Democrat dominated area). It reminds me a little of Lieberman running as an Independent.

Even more interesting is your lack of concern for his tactics of political intimidation, regardless of party affiliations. There's another politician in the news recently for his attempts to intimidate his political opponents.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304723304577368280604524916.html

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Important stuff at the end

The fact is that party affiliation means very little at the local level.

[skeptical i]

Sign of progress ... not long ago someone's office would have been firebombed.

Live- from- the- scene reporting (the GoDaddy server farm?) is less exciting, though.

[Anonymous Coward]

US Attorney Paul Fishman

Obviously, he smelt something wasn't right.

[Local Group]

Old American Order

It's astonishing how many people (including many here) believe the American two party system would work very well if only their party won all the time. No matter which party you belong to, no matter which party is in office, the hard truth is America is a plutocracy and has been one longer than you've been alive. It's a testament to the American Plutocracy that they have concealed their operations behind the Democrats and Republicans, so most citizens don't believe plutocrats exist.

[Thomas_Kent]

...an "independent conservative democrat"

In other words, a DINO (Democrat In Name Only).