Democrats Move Party Away From The People

Only days after voters expressed dissatisfaction with New Jersey by firing Jon Corzine, who failed to assert control over the government and curb the power of party bosses, those political insiders are scheming to move on as if nothing has happened.

Sheila Oliver of East Orange, and Joseph Cryan of Union, are said to be leading candidates for top Assembly leadership positions while Steve Sweeney is about to become state Senate President. All three of them are double dippers, freeloading politicians who collect more than one paycheck at taxpayer expense.

Essex County Administrator Oliver, Union County Undersheriff Cryan and Gloucester County Freeholder Sweeney represent politics as usual, a system where public officials take for themselves and serve their masters without a care for the people -- those whom government is made by, for and of.

Democrats need bright and articulate new blood who can challenge the GOP, but power brokers are advancing the same tired old hacks.

We need leaders who do not have a government job or a second elected office, where their self interest creates a conflict that prevents them from honestly representing voters who elected them.

After making dual office holding illegal -- but not doubling up on taxpayer jobs -- the Senate is going to elect a dual office holder as its president and two other job hogs are going to be placed in charge of the Assembly.

The New Jersey Legislature is no longer controlled by the Democratic Party, but by the corrupt power brokers who have displaced good government with greed.

It is time that someone must accept responsibility for this condition, and that is me and you. We elected the people who hold public office, and if the same old crooked insiders run unopposed, it is because too many of us sit on the sidelines without taking action.

Americans are not the kind of people who die quietly without a fight. We did not become a beacon of freedom by lying back while indignities are heaped upon us.

This condition of political apathy is a relatively new thing, inspired in part by miles of broken promises and in part by the destructively negative, scortched earth campaigns waged by many politicians. If you are depressed about not having a job, just think of how you will feel if your children are denied the rights and opportunities you have taken for granted all these years.

The solution is not hard to figure out. Get on the phone right now, assemble your friend and neighbors and hold a discussion about who should be elected to replace the politicians who have disappointed us.

Start with replacements for your council members and mayor then identify potential candidates for county freeholder and state legislator.

As you develop lists, join with like minded citizens who have done the same and approach prospective candidates about taking action and saving our society.

I will be glad to help insurgent citizens who step forward to challenge failed politicians, but win, lose or draw, by offering competition in primary elections you will have succeeded in pushing government back in the right direction.

Participation is a vital part of democracy. It is up to you to show up and make yourself matter.

Mainstream Media Play Stupid While Health Care Bullies Sway Opinion

by Tim Fleming

If ever any intelligent, objective citizen needed proof that the American media is a bunch of impotent, corporatized, weak-kneed shills--emasculated by and terrified of the right wing--you need only watch the nightly news or read your local paper.

Day after day, mobs of phony anti-health reform vigilantes threaten others at town hall meetings, yet the TV networks, the Associated Press, and major dailies report this as legitimate news (perhaps because Pfizer, Merck and Eli Lilly sponsor some of these "news" reports?).

A serious journalistic investigation, even a half-hearted one, would reveal that most of these "protestors" are paid by the health insurance corporations or their lobbyists.

The rest are mindless neanderthals, propagandized by Rush Limbaugh and the usual gang of fascists. But Brian Williams, Katie Couric, and Charlie Gibson don't see it that way. To them, the hostile mobs are just average Americans exercising their constitutional right to deprive 46 million people of health care.

What's most galling is that the bullies shout down the pro-reformers with lies about "death panels" and "universal vaccinations" and the end of Medicare, and God knows what else; and the media never challenge these lies.

It would be like Goebbels claiming that Jews are really descended from rats, and the media, instead of dismissing this outrageous prevarication, reports Goebbels' comments (and the psychopaths it unleashes) as legitimate news. (I guess Huey Long was right when he said, "Fascism will come to America, but we will call it democracy. And a corrupt, complacent press will let it happen.")

Meanwhile, polls show that public health care for all, once favored by 80% of Americans, is now dying a slow death. All because a small minority of red-faced extremists and paid propagandists are being facilitated by a brain-dead media.

This is the state of the mainstream media in this country today. Newt Gingrich goes on cable talk shows saying we have the best health care system in the world; Sean Hannity repeats this lie on Fox News. Neither are challenged.

The fact is, the USA's health care system ranks 37th in the world according to the World Health Organization. Dick Armey goes on "Meet The Press" and asserts that having public health care for all would kill thousands of people. It is never revealed that Armey is a paid lobbyist for the health insurance industry.

This is democracy in action; this is your free press at work.

Let's be real. Health insurance corporations have billions of dollars available to flood the free market of ideas with lies and distortions, spread by the politicians, news organizations, and lobbyists it owns.

Profit will always defeat the welfare of the people, when the people are cowed by fear and misinformed by a media that's "for sale." A friend of mine put it this way, "I don't watch the national news any more. You won't find the truth there."

Tim Fleming is a retired English professor and author of the recently published novel, Murder Of An American Nazi, which may be purchased at barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com.

Where are the revolutionaries?

Christie Todd Christie's leading fundraiser has been receiving a paycheck from New Jersey taxpayers for one of the countless no-show jobs that keep political insiders enrolled in the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS).

Christie's advisor, John P. Inglesino, was given a job state Senator Joe Pennachio who, received $2,300 from Inglesino during his failed run for U.S. Senate in 2008.

During Christie's outrageous interview with the NJ 101.5 'Jersey Guys,' he repeatedly lied about the scandal to protect himself and the hundreds of out-of-touch politicians who commonly add friends, donors, and political cronies to a payroll and pension structure that is crushing taxpayers.

The controversial practice of putting associates on the public payroll was a well-known way to cheat taxpaying constituents by allowing those with political connections to rack up credits in the state's troubled pension fund without working.

Taxpayers provide these political insiders lifetime health benefits as well as the opportunity to really cash in, because payouts are calculated by only the average of the total wages collected earned during three years with the greatest salaries.

If you get in the system holding a $3,000 no-show job for 25 years, then get yourself appointed to a $130,000 post for three years, your retirement pay is the same as if you worked full time for those 28 years.

The pension racket is a brazen abuse of the voters, the taxpayers, the people all elected officials pledged to serve. It is wrong,

According to Christie, Inglesino did nothing wrong because "that's the rules the way they are now;" but we must not confuse 'legal' with 'wrong ' because the time has come to change.

The simple fact is, lawmakers alter the rules to suit themselves. It's not illegal to rob the taxpayers because they who do it wrote the laws to make their practices legitimate.

Wrong is wrong whether protected by statute or not. If the law set the age of consent at nine, then sex with a ten-year-old would be legal although it would still be wrong.

A law can change what's legal, but morality and justice are inflexible about some things.
Instead of expressing outrage at his friends who got caught with their hands in the cookie jar,

Christie's reaction was to explain away the details and minimize the offense.
I doubt Christie would make a serious difference as governor, and lacking the determination to enact real change I view him as 'unelectable.'

New Jersey does not need a governor in despair over the extent of corruption in the state or one who cannot tell the difference between legal and right.

If you are not outraged by the abuses pulled off every day by political insiders, then you have not been paying attention.

Jon Corzine and Christie Todd Christie both represent the status quo in a state that is in desperate need of sweeping reform. New Jersey is known as the ‘Crossroads of the Revolution,” which sort of begs the question: Where are the revolutionaries?

Decontaminate Polluted Politics

New Jersey's political structure currently discourages opposition by allowing unfair advantages to candidates with great personal wealth or the support of special interests.

New Jersey experimented with public financing for legislative races through a limited "Fair & Clean Elections" test in 2005 and 2007, but that effort was scrapped this year.

Although the state has public financing for gubernatorial elections in both the primary and general elections, no Democrat emerged to mount a serious challenge to Gov. Jon Corzine, despite his vast lack of popularity and the troubled economy.

Indeed, when Corzine was a US Senator he announced that he would seek nomination for governor before the incumbent declared his intentions. Gov. Richard Codey, who became extremely popular after he ascended to the office when James McGreevey resigned, decided not to run. This is an example of economic power as brute force.

Likewise, New York City voters twice adopted laws imposing term limits, but Mayor Mike Bloomberg got City Council to permit him to seek a third term. His likely Democratic challenger is given long odds (and virtually no media attention) despite the fact that, quite literally, Bloomberg should not be in the race.

It is beyond reason to believe that Bloomberg's wealth has not influenced the situation. Monopolies and collusion undermine the prospect of benefits from Capitalism and a grossly disproportionate advantage with money has a similarly destructive impact on democracy.

Term limits have not been a problem for the presidency or New Jersey's governors. A constitutional limit on the number of consecutive terms would help keep democracy alive much as the heart maintains blood flow through the body. Unfortunately, this necessary provision is not enough.

Democracy, like Capitalism, requires competition and it is within our ability to assure such competition in an even more realistic way.

Most attempts to assure a balance have focused on restricting contributions or campaign spending. That is not what is needed. The courts have almost always ruled that such restrictions are unconstitutional obstructions to free speech.

Political competition requires a floor, not a ceiling. Instead of trying to limit what one can do, government may empower all electoral contenders to exercise their free speech in an effective manner. It is the absence of such ability that makes winning difficult.

The capacity to effectively distribute messages is dependent upon having access to the intended recipients. The government should provide free to each candidate who submits petitions a database of voters with mailing address, telephone number, email address, party affiliation, age, and record of participation in all elections held in the last ten years.

By responding to a mailed notice of upcoming elections (sample ballot) or by indicating a preference at the time of registration, or by selection at the polling places, voters themselves may be frequently afforded the opportunity to define contact preferences among direct mail, telephone, email and SMS.

The Internet was developed by government for the benefit of the public. It belongs to the people. Net neutrality should be required, but that is not enough. Each bona fide candidate for public office should be enabled to distribute information about his or her candidacy to voters without impediments created by ISP providers or the law.

If John Q. Public wants to ignore political messages, he is free to do so. AOL should not be allowed to prevent him from getting the opportunity to make that determination.

Every candidate should be allocated television and radio broadcasting time. The airwaves belong to the public and the ability for some of us to use a small piece of them is a fair price for any broadcaster to pay for what they currently get for free.

Likewise, telephone, cable and satellite systems would not exist without the consent of government agencies. Therefore it is entirely reasonable to require such companies to permit candidates to use their services without charge.

As it turns out, the most efficient organization for widespread general mail delivery is also owned by the government. The US Postal Service has a method of low cost bulk mail entry for non-profit organizations. It would not be an undue burden to allow candidates to send mail to voters for free.

Every candidate could also be given a sum of money with which to wage a campaign without resorting to begging special interests that will expect future paybacks. The government belongs to the people and it is appropriate that we use its resources to assure the selection of officials who are beholden to the public and nobody else.

The appropriation of sufficient funds to wage a campaign would be a radically reduced amount if candidates did not need to pay for broadcasting ads, postage or phone service. It would be necessary to only subsidize production, printing, and shoe leather.

Qualification for public financing should be made dependent upon the collection of small contributions from a reasonable number of voters within a jurisdiction and an agreement not to use personal funds or money from outside interests.

That is almost everything, so let’s review the changes that would help Americans preserve democracy as we have discussed them so far:

• Constitutionally-imposed term limits
• A list of voters with contact information based on recipient choices
• Freedom from ISP interference or other impediments
• Free use of public resources: airtime, postage and phone service
• Public campaign financing for those who qualify

As a final note, voters should have an opportunity to choose "none of the above" for every elected office. If we are going to empower politicians to communicate with us, we may as well inspire them to raise the level of debate.

Christie Todd Christie's bobbing & weaving

Ask someone about Christie Todd Christie's position on any issue and you are likely to come up with a dumb answer, because until this point we have yet to hear where the former Bush-appointee stands. His campaign has sought to elude specifics by ducking debates and using many words to say very little about substance.

That is why it is perplexing to hear that Christie would be a worthy challenger against Corzine after having predicted that Lonegan will emerge as the GOP nominee. I do not agree with Lonegan on a long list of issues, but I can at least respect his integrity and determination.

Christie bores me to sleep. Corrupt and incompetent Gov. Jon Corzine will easily defeat the liberal Republican because New Jerseyans will not get excited over nothing.

Here are seven issues that are guaranteed to sink Christie's general election campaign:

1. He bought a job in the Bush administration by raising $500,000 for the 2000 Republican presidential campaign, including a good deal of that from within his own family.

2. He gave former Attorney General John Ashcroft a no-bid monitoring contract worth $25 to $50 million.

3. He gave another no-bid monitoring contract worth $10 million to a law firm whose partners then returned the favor by giving his campaign $25,000 in donations and raising thousands more from clients and other contacts.

4. He gave yet another no-bid monitoring contract worth $5 million to the former federal prosecutor in New York who decided not to indict Christie's brother Todd, although it seems Todd Christie (that is his real name) did exactly the same or worse as the 14 people who were indicted for the kind of stock market manipulation, which caused the current national economic crisis.

5. He gave a woman involved with trafficking 14-year-old girls for prostitution a plea bargain that resulted in five years probation.

6. He broke all sorts of rules to get his name off a list of US Attorneys targeted for firing by the Bush administration because they did not give Republicans a partisan advantage by persecuting Democrats; and his name dropped off the list when he made a particularly public probe of US Sen. Bob Menendez during his 2006 campaign, even though no charges resulted from that media-rich investigation.

7. Christie is named in a federal tort claim lawsuit charging that as US Attorney, he used his federal power to coerce a party to a civil lawsuit in which the plaintiff had previously been represented by Christie in his private practice.



Of course, I can call him "Christie Todd Christie" because he represents the same liberal wing of the Republican Party that has been exterminated in much of the United States and as conservative Star-Ledger columnist Paul Mulshine said, he stands "a little to the right of Corzine" in much the same manner as ever-popular ex-Gov. Christie Todd Whitman.

Christie's bobbing & weaving seems to make sense, because if Republicans think about their primary election choices, his sinking will take place a few months earlier than New Jersey's political establishment has planned.

Candidate Christie Cooks the Books

The prospective gubernatorial nominee who has been universally embraced by GOP organization leaders is using a falsehood to define his record as a Bush-administration political appointee and distorting math to manipulate voter opinion.

His record of sending 130 corrupt politicians to justice as U.S. Attorney is the lynchpin of Christopher Christie's gubernatorial campaign, but the figmentary number has been unquestioned by the main stream media and the Republican's campaign could not supply proof to support its accuracy.

An independent review of Christie's record found one instance where the former federal prosecutor claimed to have nabbed 150 crooked politicians, but most accounts assert that his victims number 130.

Our extensive review could identify only 89 elected or politically appointed defendants who were brought to justice during Christie's tenure. To be sure, that's not an insignificant number but instead of standing on the truth, Christie's campaign fudged the numbers.

Christie's campaign manager and a top strategist refused to respond to requests for verification, but said they stand by the assertion.

In an attempt to denounce Lonegan’s flat tax plan, Christie's campaign fudged the numbers the same way.

Instead of telling the truth, which is that without exemptions or deduction the Lonegan plan could result in a tax hike for some low income wage earners; Christie's campaign fudged the numbers again.

Peter Lawrence, a former state treasurer, was cited as the source of a claim that Lonegan’s flat tax plan would produce a tax hike for 70 percent of New Jersey residents.

Lawrence also mistakenly predicted that stock market increases would fund public employee pensions without state contributions. Those accounts are now in the red by about $75 billion.

The Lonegan plan would increase taxes only for individuals who earn less than $30,000 and economists say that it could stimulate higher income for those low wage earners.

"Steve Lonegan's economic plan is the best medicine for New Jersey's ailing state economy," said Dr. Arthur Laffer, the advisor to President Ronald Reagan who defined supply-side economics.

During the last debate between arch-conservative Lonegan and his more liberal opponent, Christie said he became a lawyer because he is "not good at math and science." Lonegan seized on the comment to rip into Christie's failure to articulate a tax plan.

The Annointed Con

I intended to title this article, 'The Annointed One,' but a typo offered a much smarter name to go identify with the GOP establishment's purpose behind its intended coronation.

I thought the argument of inevitability was ridiculous when Hillary Clinton used it in the early primaries last year. It is no less of a fraud when applied to the Bush-appointed media darling whose cloak of lovability disolved once he bathed in the pool of political opportunism, which leads to a question: When did Chris Christie become the only Republican who can beat Jon Corzine?

It appears that Christie Todd Christie may not be able to beat Steve Lonegan in a GOP primary, which should be unsurprising given the popularity of liberal Republicans these days.

So treacherous has the GOP become for moderate and liberal members that they are likely to be eaten alive by the carnivorous conservatives who have made the Republican Party attractive to just 20 percent of all Americans.

Rats fleeing this sinking ship, such as Pennsylvania's US Sen. Arlen Specter, show that the party of Lincoln is now officially the party of Shrinkin' (and if the reader could see me now, you would notice that I am a-winkin' like Sarah Palin).

Still, if Christie has a chance against Corzine then so would any Republican nominee (even if that happened to be an actual Republican such as Steve Lonegan) and the reason would be because voters come to recognize the incumbent multi-millionaire as an aristocrat and not a Democrat.

Beside paying off Carla Katz and greasing the palms of political bosses, climbing in bed with those who profit from state corruption, closing a dozen hospitals and driving our government to the point of ruin, Corzine has done very little.

If Nero fiddled while Rome burned, but Corzine is just singing the blues as New Jersey is looted by corporate crooks, eroded by rising property taxes or unemployment and buried in wasteful debt.

The moniker 'Christie Todd Christie' is another result of my poor typing, but that is also a high-powered analysis of the liberal Republican's presumed appeal and the genuine disdain experienced among the GOP rank-and-file.

As Governor, Christie Todd Whitman combined the patronage preferences of a Republican loyalist with the economic shrewdness of a lottery winner, the ideology of a Democratic liberal and a sense of ethics that was about as perverted as it could get -- until Jim McGreevey and his cronies rolled into town.

Christie is losing his shine as a media darling now that attention has turned to his awarding of lucrative, no-bid contracts to friends who earned millions of dollars monitoring companies as part of settlements in criminal cases.It would be interesting to speculate about whose administration would most resemble McGreevey, Corzine or Christie.

Still, not everyone is counting out the preordained choice of political insiders, despite poll numbers that show his support weakening.

Three-time Liberal Party nominee and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told reporters that Christie is the only candidate for governor who can solve New Jersey's budget crisis.

After finding a $2 billion budget gap upon his arrival at City Hall, Giuliani left his successor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, with a projected $2.8 billion deficit that ballooned to $4.8 billion in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The guy who wears women's clothing also had the audacity to refer to Christie's "tax and spend opponent in the primary" because Lonegan’s flat tax proposal would cost some workers slightly more than the current state income tax.

Like Christie, Guiliani ignored the concern voters have expressed about the crushing burden of property taxes, as if the real problem is whether my state income tax bill is $1,750 or $1,950 and not whether homeowners must pay $5,000 or $12,500!

In an email message to Christie’s supporters, campaign manager Bill Stepien wrote: “The only option Corzine has is to attack because he has nothing else to stand on.” Then to prove he has a powerful message, Christie began a series of wild attack ads that attempt to sully Lonegan's conservative ideas.

Christie is not the only Republican who can beat Corzine, but he seems like the only contender capable of neglecting issues as much as the incumbent.

Americans are dying for a national health system

The idea of a single payer national health system for all Americans is not even part of the agenda being considered in Washington DC.

Real Democrats and progressives should adopt the position that nothing would be acceptable that is less than universal health care for all.

Why should Americans continue to bear the cost of a health insurance industry that has made access to care so difficult in order to secure greater profits?

This is a time for change but if we make small modifications then we are wasting the historic opportunity that has eluded Democrats since the emergence of the military-industrial complex President Eisenhower warned about. In fact before Ike was elected, Harry Truman advocated a national health policy and his effort was blunted by a "Do-Nothing Republican Congress!"

This is worth fighting for because insurance company profits are not worth dying for.

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Does Marriage Need Saving?

Divorce and adultery are severe threats to the institution of marriage, as well as to the 'nuclear family' we once believed was 'normal' in America.

A group based in New Jersey called the National Organization for Marriage is not paying any attention to those problems however, because in politics as in marketing, sex sells.

I find nothing in anyone's agenda about restricting or prohibiting homosexual conduct and that raises a number of questions. If people may engage in homosexual sex, live together and otherwise practice homosexual conduct, then why would it be appropriate for any citizen, group, business or government agency to deny gay people any opportunity or benefit that is available to others?

Would it be appropriate for a fast food cashier to deny service to a homosexual customer? How does anyone know if other people have sex, let alone determine what kind of acts take place in private?

The National Organization for Marriage says it has a mission to protect marriage and organize opposition to same-sex marriage initiatives in state legislatures.

Apparently, their key to success is advocating homosexual promiscuity because if gay couples form permanent exclusive partnerships based on love, trust and respect then heterosexual people would no longer be able to enjoy similar unions.Judging from the divorce rate, large numbers of heterosexuals began equating monogamy with monotony a long time ago.

Personally, I wish I had been protected from my first marriage but I remain attracted to females (with the exception of one in particular).

It is possible that their concern is if we allow gay couples to marry then their offspring would be less likely to be straight than if one parent were male and the other female.

Rationalizing that fear would require acknowledging that homosexuality really is genetic while ignoring some pretty significant fundamentals of biology.

I know religion is described as a powerful motive, but to me it seems that if sins may be forgiven, God is going to judge us all and Jesus commanded us to love one another, so no mortal has a right to judge whose behavior is sinful.

he more I think about it, the less I understand the desire of some people to instill in law a right for themselves to discriminate or persecute people who do what the some find distasteful.

The test of patriotism in a nation "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" is allowing others the right to make their own choices without interference of retribution.

Meghan McCain's progressive views on supporting gay marriage have irritated the Republican Party's base, but her most obnoxious view as far as Republicans are concerned is her support for Obama to succeed as president.

"He's our president and when the election was over and when President Obama won, all negative feelings were gone," McCain said on the CNN's "Larry King Live" show. "I support the president."

That kind of unfettered patriotism and American loyalty is anathema to Republicans, who would rather see worldwide chaos and destruction than improvement following their electoral loss.

Sen. John McCain's 24-year-old daughter, who is now a columnist for TheDailyBeast.com, had better shine her jack boots and stop thinking so much, or Sarah Palin's party will just have to ditch'er.

Real Republicans, like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Timothy McVeigh, would never support a Democratic president.

The Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey has got to change its name

When one of a handful of Hispanic state lawmakers announced he would not seek re-election, the leader of the Middlesex County Democratic Party reportedly said, "nobody from the Latino community has shown an interest in that seat..."

Although South Amboy Mayor John T. O'Leary has been campaigning for the seat held by Assemblyman Joe Vas and he is likely to be given the 'organization line,' the Hispanic community should be faulted for not responding to the alteration in the political dynamics created by Vas' indictment. By not even coming up with a single name for consideration as a 19th District legislator in 2009, the Alliance has forfeited its right to assert leadership of anything.

The mission of the Latino Leadership Alliance is to mobilize and empower Latino communities to obtain political, economic, and social equity. Without advocating the election of Hispanic representatives, they cannot do that. Latinos have not achieved a degree of representation in the Legislature that is commensurate with their share of the population or for the Hispanic community's contribution to the state’s progress.

It is worth noting that the Alliance failed to participate in the election of New Jersey's first Latina mayor in Perth Amboy the year before. More precisely, the group withdrew from active involvement in Mayor Wilda Diaz's campaign after it pledged significant support.

It remains true to this day: 'Evil can only prevail when enough good people do nothing.'

I do not doubt that the members of the organization from the grassroots to the top are well-intended, but New Jersey cannot prosper unless people take action against the forces of corruption that have pervaded government at all levels. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but it is action that constitutes good deeds.

The black community in Union County's 20th District could be accused of an equal failure, but there is no organization that presents itself as the voice of African-Americans in that region, although one is sorely needed. For that matter, New Jersey labor unions should not be content to let affluent political insiders carve up the state's resources among themselves and their corporate special interest patrons.

The times call for angry mobs storming the State Capitol, not quiet acquiescence. Primary election contests have become a rarity in the Soprano State, while government failure and corruption have become common.

Now that tens of thousands of people have lost their private-sector jobs through no fault of their own, voters should be treated to much more competition for public offices. Are Americans fresh out of ideas or just afraid to take a stand for anything?

"Go along, get along," is the motto of those who advance corrupt control over the political process. People in a position of power who do not want to make waves are drowning the opportunity to progress for all Hispanic people, or anyone who is poor or middle-class.

If the Latino Leadership Alliance and the people within the communities it purports to represent are unwilling to rock the boat, they shall never achieve progress. Instead, they will be co-opted and subjected to pandering and exploited, but most significantly, they will be ignored when it comes to substantive policy.

Hispanic residents are a key constituency in New Jersey's Democratic Party, and their failure to come forward when opportunity presented itself is a loss for all Democrats as well as for the principle of diversity. African-Americans and organized labor share a similar unfulfilled responsibility, and there is a good chance that you do, too.

Not having contests for public office means politicians are allowed to grow arrogant as they become entrenched. Political bosses are permitted to pass judgment on candidates instead of letting the public decide. Those who would question authority are forced into silence and those who would right injustice are forced out of the way.

Those who look at such failures as the Katrina disaster, over-crowded for-profit immigration detention centers, rising joblessness and a floundering economy, and other examples of government in action that lead to disgust, must look at their own inaction as a powerful part of the cause.

Our society is seriously flawed.
That mitigates against making small modifications to set things right and more strongly indicates a need for dramatic action: Big, revolutionary changes.
Of course, nobody likes making big changes and revolution scares the wits out of them.
That does not change the fact that we have to engage in massive restructuring so we can afford to send our kids to school, care for our sick people, employ all those who want to work and enjoy a standard of living comparable to or better then the one we know.
We can do what needs to be done, but we have to start doing it now.
All that 'doing the right thing' takes is enough faith in ourselves and enough love for one another.
I am disturbed by those pollsters who seem to have concealed the fact that Jon Corzine is not 'electable' in a contested primary even though he could prove 'unbeatable' in November.
Worse yet are those who call themselves Democrats, who accept corruption and incompetence from someone like Corzine simply because removing him is a difficult task that would require courage and effort.
Jon Corzine is not 'electable' in a contested primary because just 37% of Democrats believe he deserves re-election. He has closed hospitals, wasted opportunities to create jobs, improve state finances and cleanse the pervasive corruption that plagues New Jersey.
Jon Corzine is a waste, but he also bought his way into Democratic politics in a demonstration that there is no moral superiority in being the one giving out bribes as opposed to being the one taking them.
Having betrayed his promises and failed to achieve his potential, former Wall Street baron Jon Corzine should be fired.
Democrats believe Jon Corzine should be fired, but we are not going to replace him with a Republican just a year after George Bush made such a mess of our nation by plunging us into multiple wars, showing unparallelled incompentence with Katrina and wrecking the economy.
Independents believe Jon Corzine should be fired, but they too are unlikely to embrace any Republican so soon after Bush. No Republican has gotten 50 percent in a statewide New Jersey election in 20 years and there are 600,000 more Democrats now than there were in 2007.
Only 1-in-10 New Jerseyans feel that the structure of their government, including both state and local government, works well enough as it is now.
The cost of living, property taxes, and health care, along with the political corruption that makes it impossible for our government to address any of these problems, should require New Jerseyans to act like Americans, or people who do something about it.
Jon Corzine must be stopped in a Democratic primary or he will not be stopped at all, and New Jersey will surely suffer for it.

Supreme Court Seeks Clerk
The New Jersey Judiciary is seeking an experienced attorney to serve as Clerk of the Supreme Court.
Applicants should submit a cover letter and resume by Feb. 19, to: Cheryl Whiting (#09-10-15) Judiciary Personnel Office, Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex, PO Box 989, Trenton, NJ 08625 - OR- Recruitment.Mailbox@Judiciary.state.nj.us.
The job calls for excellent administrative, analytical, and leadership skills and has a salary range of $104,010 to $137,821.
This position is responsible for the overall management of the Supreme Court Clerk's Office, the Board of Bar Examiners, the Committee on Character, and the Board on Attorney Certification.
Assigned tasks include ensuring the efficient processing of the cases before the Court, attorney and judicial disciplinary matters, bar admissions, the attorney certification program, and miscellaneous applications such as petitions for review from Supreme Court Committee decisions.
The person hired will be responsible for scheduling Supreme Court oral argument calendars, setting conference agendas, recording votes, drafting orders, filing opinions, and undertaking such other tasks as may be assigned by the Chief Justice.
The job is also responsible for the management of the Supreme Court's budget, purchasing, information technology, and personnel actions other than workers hired directly by the justices.
The director of the Office of Attorney Ethics, the chief counsel to the Disciplinary Review Board, and the executive director of the Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection will all be supervised by the court clerk.
In addition, the position undertakes special assignments and administrative duties as may be required by the Chief Justice and the Court.

Councilwoman's Sister Alleges Discrimination

ELIZABETH -- The city council president's sister has filed a lawsuit in federal court charging officials in the administration of Mayor J. Christian Bollwage with racial discrimination.

Linda J. Perkins filed charges in 2005 complaining that Community Development Program Director Susan Ucci treated her unfairly because she is black and other municipal officials in the Bollwage administration failed to take any action.

Linda Perkins is a sister of Councilwoman Patricia Perkins-Auguste, a Bollwage ally who was rejected by the Union County Democratic Committee in a special August 19 election to replace former Assemblyman Neil Cohen.

According to the complaint, Linda Perkins claims that the Bollwage administration violated her constitutional rights, the federal Civil Rights Act, the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and the state's Civil Service Act.

The suit says Linda Perkins was hired as a program monitor by the city on July 23, 2001, but assigned to a lower paying job title as senior planning aide.

When her job title was changed to program monitor in 2004, Linda Perkins claims that her salary remained at the lower pay grade.

Linda Perkins also claims that throughout her tenure in city government, Ucci has degraded and ridiculed her and other black employees.

"Ucci would yell at (Perkins) and speak to her in a demeaning tone," according to the complaint. "Ucci did not speak in this manner to the non-black employees."

The complaint alleges that Ucci rearranged the office to inconvenience Perkins and that she got no response from approaching Ucci's supervisor, Planning and Community Development Director Oscar Ocasio.

Perkins said Ucci had acted in a discriminatory manner against other city workers, including Jumilah Abdul-Baatin and Viola Cade, who have asked supervisors for assistance.

"The city and Ocasio have done nothing to address this pattern of racial discrimination," said Perkins, who claims that she was unable to locate a municipal official responsible for handling racial discrimination or affirmative action.

In an amended complaint, Perkins says she was forced out of work and spent a year on disability while prescribed anti-depressant medication until officials compelled her to return under a promise that she would be protected against Ucci's harassment.

That complaint says Ocasio and Ucci have since engaged in retaliatory actions against Perkins, denied her reinstatement because her position had been assigned to another employee and instead place her in a part-time post as juvenile curfew officer.

Perkins is demanding a pay raise and promotion, as well as compensatory damages for her claim of lost wages plus an undisclosed amount in punitive damages under six counts.

Cranford attorney Robert F. Renaud, who has been hired by Elizabeth officials to represent Ucci, filed papers with the court denying all allegations against the supervisor. Bollwage declined to comment on the case through an administration spokesperson.

Death Penalty Foe No Human Rights Hero

Sen. Ray Lesniak rightfully claims credit as the leader of NJ's abolition of the death penalty, but the self-described political boss / power broker is no advocate of freedom, even as he claims an international award in the Memorial de Caen International Human Rights Competition.

I was a longtime friend of Sen. Lesniak who got thrown under the bus in 2006 when the mayor of Elizabeth demanded that my newspaper business be subjected to an illegal boycott by government entities and grant recipients. Chris Bollwage did not like the news published about him and Lesniak accomodated retaliation against my newspaper business.

Freedom of the press, or any form of freedom of expression, is a fundamental right that is essential to human justice. I am not the only victim of this treatment, with former Freeholders Adrian Mapp and Don Goncalves or former Councilman Tony Monteiro being among those that most readily come to mind.

A democracy is not just a place with majority rule; it is one where minority rights are protected. Lazyboy Lesniak is a soulless politician who would silence those who disagree with him by any available means because that is less challenging than the real work of statesmanship.

He does this because he has unjustly extracted millions of dollars from taxpayers through legal fees awarded to his firm by politicians that the senator installed in office.

Those ill-gotten riches are far more important than a mere principle to Lesniak, whose 30+ years in office have coincided with the emergence of a horribly broken government, infected by corruption and unable to address the simplest of society's needs.

The death penalty was never used in New Jersey despite legislation to implement it that Lesniak voted to enact back in the 1980s. The abolition of NJ's capital punishment law is akin to throwing away a broken vacuum cleaner.

I have always believed that the risk of taking an innocent life made capital punishment an unwise penalty, but there may be cases -- Megan Kanka's killer Jesse Timmendequas comes to mind -- where it is appropriate.

Rather than undertaking the hard work of clearly defining justice under law, Lesniak took a shortcut to glory and he seems to enjoy basking in acclaim. Meanwhile, people in Union County and other parts of New Jersey endure persecution imposed by their government because power-broker Ray Lesniak is an apostle to expedience.

New Jersey's growing prison population is mostly black (63%) and one third are incarcerated for drug offenses. Hidden within prison walls, ruling gangs command drug distribution, the weak are routinely subjected to violent sexual abuse and there are few inquiries by such 'human rights' advocates in the Legislature as Sen. Lesniak.

Incarceration rates in the Land of the Free are greater than anywhere else in the world, including communist China.

New Jersey's incarceration rate experienced dramatic growth during Lesniak's tenure in the Legislature while vital questions about education fairness and funding have remained unresolved. The point being that education is the surest alternative to prison for the poor, which is a population group concentrated more in Lesniak's turf than any other New Jersey legislative district.

Last year in New Jersey, forty percent of all admissions to state prison were people who had been inmates before. The number of prisoners released without parole supervision, a virtual invitation to return, has been growing over the past ten years.

The death penalty is one among many harsh but ineffective policies supported by Lesniak during a time when government degenerated and justice became irrelevant, as if to demonstrate that he has no real interest in human rights.

It is good for Raymond that he is not a deep thinker in addition to being crafty and clever. If he were, he would suffer that to which life sentences are supposed to subject convicts: his own conscience.

Balut Is Still Running

Democrat Ken Balut is still working to get elected as New Jersey's next Governor.

"Jon Corzine cannot be trusted and he is irresponsible with money," Balut says, pointing to several examples without raising the obvious and obscene campaign spending for which the former Wall Street CEO is known.

"Gambling away NJ's pension funds," is one of Balut's complaints that will resonate with many Democratic constituencies, as will, "Closing hospitals," in a state that has lost a quarter of its acute care medical facilities.

Balut also faults Corzine for, "Ignoring rampant corruption," and "Protecting Secret Emails," which make the incumbent appear more like something out of the Bush administration than a choice for change that Democrats are likely to embrace.

At his blog -- http://balut4governor.blogspot.com/ -- Balut makes a strong case for independents and others who may currently be routing for one of the four GOP contenders, most notably former US Attorney Christopher Christie.

"No Republican is going to be elected governor of New Jersey, where Democrats have won 15 of the last 17 statewide elections," says Balut. "The gap between Democrats and Republicans is greater than ever. George Bush left the GOP so near death, it's almost surprising there are enough Republicans in New Jersey to have a four-way primary."

Ken Balut is the only challenger waging a serious primary campaign to defeat multimillionaire Jon Corzine, and he is calling on Garden State Democrats to rise to the challenge.

His fledgling campaign is already rooted on Google and Facebook but supporters say a full-blown website is in the works that will seek to garner 10,000 individual contributions of just $34 each -- to give Balut the magic number that will qualify the campaign for public matching funds.

Is New Jersey ready for real democracy and a real Democrat?

Unethical Lawmaker Seeks New Complaint Hurdles

One of New Jersey's most unethical lawmakers has proposed a bill that would require any complaint filed with the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards to be in writing and signed by the complainant with a notarized certificate of acknowledgement.

In addition the legislation, Assembly Bill 2713 sponsored by notoriously unethical Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, would bar the committee from accepting a complaint that is submitted by fax.
Cryan, who has been the subject of numerous ethical allegations, reportedly accepted a $2,000 cash contribution that never turned up on his campaign finance reports.
Cryan also has another government job as a top deputy to Union County Sheriff Ralph Froehlich, who is constitutionally prohibited from holding a seat in the General Assembly.

Besides holding two apparently conflicting jobs at taxpayer expense, Cryan is chairman of two Democratic Party committees, each serving a distinct level of jurisdiction.
As state party chair, Cryan is the chief apologist for the ethically-slow Gov. Jon Corzine, while Cryan hand picks members of the Union Township Committee as that municipality's political boss.
The Union Township Committee awarded two charitable organization taxpayer-funded no-bid grants, one for $17,000 and another of $26,000, on Sept. 13, 2005 -- just weeks after each of the groups made illegal political contributions to Cryan's election fund.
The Center for Hope Hospice made its donation to Cryan on Aug 8, 2005 and the Boys & Girls Clubs delivered a check for the political committee on Aug. 1, 2005.
In another apparently corrupt political deal, Union Township's governing body granted a developer rights to build housing on a parcel of land owned by somebody else, just days after he hosted a $75,000 fundraiser for Cryan.

By making it more onerous to file charges with the ethics committee, Cryan clearly hopes to create opportunities for the panel to dismiss accusations on technical grounds instead of holding lawmakers to account for their actions.
The ethics panel was recently the subject of reform because, as it was previously constituted, the committee overlooked such acts as those for which former Sen. Wayne Bryant is serving federal jail time.

The most recent ethics complaint against Cryan, filed on Jan. 9, alleges that the politician abused his office by having a legislative aide perform work related to the assemblyman's role as state party chairman.
"There is no less an ethical conflict to employ legislative staff at taxpayer expense in performing political tasks related to Mr. Cryan's role as chairman of a partisan organization, than it would be for a mayor to have a city public works crew repair his home driveway," said James J. Devine, a Democratic strategist and author who has been a frequent critic of corrupt politicians.
Froehlich appointed Cryan , although he has no law enforcement experience, to the $97,138 a year job as undersheriff just weeks after Cryan lost his job at a Metuchen bar owned by his father. Cryan's Sheriff's Office salary has since increased by more than $15,000 a year.

To see the legislation, please visit the official State of New Jersey website at http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2008/Bills/A3000/2713_I1.PDF