NJ Today

2009-11-11T11:13:00.002-05:00

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.

2009-08-28T20:20:00.000-04:00

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.

2009-06-01T02:21:00.001-04:00

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?

2009-05-29T14:52:00.004-04:00

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.

2009-05-24T15:54:00.002-04:00

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.

2009-05-19T18:31:00.002-04:00

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.

2009-05-08T03:05:00.002-04:00

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.

2009-04-23T13:08:00.000-04:00

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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2009-04-12T18:51:00.000-04:00

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.

2009-03-25T01:08:00.002-04:00

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.

2009-03-16T14:27:00.002-04:00

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.

2009-03-09T19:03:00.002-04:00

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.

2009-02-12T01:08:00.000-05:00

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.

2009-02-10T16:35:00.001-05:00

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.

2009-02-02T12:14:00.002-05:00

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.

2009-01-28T21:38:00.002-05:00

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?

2009-01-16T09:53:00.003-05:00

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

2008-12-26T18:08:00.000-05:00

New Jersey's hard working people deserve an honest government.

That's why Democrats must nominate an alternative to Jon Corzine in the 2009 primary election for governor.
Corzine's name is attached to inaction, failure and corruption and that reputation was earned by the former Wall Street CEO during his foray into politics.
The politics and the problems facing our country are very different today than they were when this political speculator got booted out of the board room decided to buy himself an elected office.
The mentality of Wall Street and Washington and Trenton has been revealed as being in conflict with America's main stream thinking.
In democracy, we have a political system that holds everyone is equally valuable and entitled to basic rights. Capitalism is an economic system that rewards those who exploit people the most and gives inordinate advantages to those who are already better positioned financially.
Our common people have lost faith in politicians and corporate thieves like Corzine and his ilk because they have betrayed our trust.
Those arrogant people who once believed themselves to be Master of the Universe are no longer respected. They are masters of lies and greed and they offer society nothing.
Putting government back to work for people requires that we eliminate the influence and control of greedy, sinister forces. This is the change Americans want.
New Jersey's hard working people deserve an honest government and the Democratic Party must rise to the challenge of giving it to them.

2008-11-11T13:16:00.003-05:00

Is any real Democratic leadership left in NJ?

The election of Barack Obama only reinforces my belief that Gov. Corzine can be defeated in a Democratic primary next year. Let's face it, there may be something wrong with turning the Democratic Party over to former Wall Street CEOs who spent their lives vigorously pursuing money until they decided to buy an elected office.

Obama is not going to spare New Jersey of its disastrous governor and if he is not challenged by a Democratic candidate who actually shares the values of this party, then we are handing the GOP a chance to regain power in this state.

Three problems face America under all the talk about economic crisis and war in Iraq and terrorism and health care...

One, too much wealth is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. This upsets the balance of things necessary to maintaining the nature of capitalism and it allows the rich and powerful to undermine democracy. America faces a risk that democracy will be lost unless our government acts to balance the scales. The rich should pay their fair share in taxes to support the state, which enabled them freedom and security to become rich.

Two, the instrument for containing "the moneyed interests" -- government -- seems dominated by ideologues who profess that this concentration of wealth is a good thing and others, who seem only interested in their own status. Aside from the evil or corrupt, there are a large number of cowards who won't take on battles so big that they can make a difference, for fear of offending the rich and power or their greedy counterparts.

Three, Democratic Party leaders have become much like the Republicans, leaving the large majority of people unrepresented in the halls of power. A former Wall Street CEO like Jon Corzine cannot share the values of common middle-class and poor people who should be the bedrock of the Democratic Party. Do you have the capacity to understand and sympathize with billionnaires?

Corzine promised an ethical performance, but instead he bought himself the loyalty of power brokers and political bosses with our tax dollars. Corzine promised financial wizardry, fair taxes and education reform, but he delivered only band aids and proposals for digging NJ deeper in debt while discarding our assets.

Corzine has been an empty suit when it comes to real ethics reform. We have elected officials benefiting from public contracts and holding multiple taxpayer-funded jobs, which puts them at the mercy of those who control such contracts and jobs.

When did the Democratic Party become the party of aristocrats and crooks? More than 100 political figures have been indicted or convicted of corruption but no real law enforcement action has come from the state.

After Jim McGreevey led what may have been the most corrupt administration in NJ history, people want a change. Corzine promised that change and he cheated us by being just like McGreevey.

You know, my dog could be remembered as the greatest governor in history if we put him in the State House and let him borrow $40 billion, but someone who followed would suffer for it along with all the residents remaining when the bills came due. Corzine failed to hoodwink us the first time around but whether he may do it in a second term unless a Republican replaces him.

Either way, New Jersey deserves better. New Jersey deserves real Democratic leadership. The only question is, 'Is any out there?'

A candidate who challenges Jon Corzine in the 2009 Democratic primary would be entitled to two dollars in public funding for every qualified dollar raised from grassroots supporters (once the threshold is reached). While Corzine may again write a $60 million check to fund his own campaign, he cannot escape from his record and a Karl Rove style campaign will only make him look more like a George Bush clone.

With the $4 million-plus available to a Democratic challenger who is successful at maximizing public funding, the smaller and more sophisticated primary electorate may be reached in a way that levels the playing field and gives real people the chance to take back out party. Remember when Hillary Clinton was the inevitable nominee?

These are times of great change, but people better avail themselves of this opportunity.

2008-09-24T12:33:00.002-04:00

More of the same with Sen John Complain

Why would any American believe Sen John Complain can effect 'change' after 26 years in Washington, DC? Consider this Republican records and ask yourself if America can afford more of the same with John Complain:

• Perpetual War with Death, Chaos, and Destruction

• Mismanaging Federal Treasury Funds

• Fear Mongering at Home

• Increased Governmental $pending while cutting Taxes to the Wealthy

• $11 Trillion Dollar National Debt

• Privatizing Profits while Socializing the Bailouts of failed Corporations

• Unfair Taxation of the Middle Class

• High prices for GASOLINE, Electricity, and Everything Else!

• High Medical Costs and Prescription Drugs

• Bank Failures and Record Home Forclusures

• Pollution

• Invasion of Privacy and disregard for our Constitution

• Corruption, Corruption, Corruption!

• Religious Hypocrisy

• Politicalization of the Justice Department

• Degradation of our Infrastructure

• Continued overseas export of American Jobs

• Slave Labor

• Decline in US stature and respect among the World Community

2008-09-18T07:08:00.003-04:00

Presidential campaign takes on a new low

As America approached the seventh anniversary of 9/11, the presidential campaign took on a new low of irrelevance with Republicans taking a comment by Democratic nominee Barack Obama totally out of context. As it turns out, John McCain used the same line about lipstick on pigs earlier in the year in remarks specifically directed at Hillary Clinton while Obama made no comparable reference to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

With concrete differences between Obama and McCain on a host of issues, the national media dutifully wasted days on this nonsense. This is the genius of the Republican propaganda outlet, Fox News, because its role in subverting the attention of the voters actually turns real news organizations into weapons of mass distraction consequent to their 'follow the leader' mentality.

The meaningless flap was mentioned in at least 2,684 articles from newspapers, television, radio and other media. Instead of dealing with news, America's news organizations are talking about Palin who -- despite being unqualified, hypocritical, a religious extremist on par with anyone in al Qaeda and an ultra-right wing nut -- is the most widely discussed distraction in the campaign. John McCain used his years of Washington experience instead of putting country first by choosing as his vice presidential running mate an oddity who will enable the media to keep voters from thinking about any of the dozens -- maybe hundreds -- of reasons why a third presidential term for Republicans should be unthinkable.

A third presidential term for Republicans should be unthinkable.

The government wasted millions of dollars on no-bid contracts handed out for Hurricane Katrina work, including paying $20 million for a camp for evacuees that was never inspected and proved to be unusable, investigators say. New Orleans residents remain scattered and robbed of their property: homes, hospitals, schools and neighborhoods.

American troops remain bogged down in Iraq, while Afghanistan grows more turbulent and our military is dangerously unable to respond to other global threats or domestic emergencies.

The challenge of defeating crazed religious extremists is growing more complex and more dangerous, as one of them has been selected as the Republican vice presidential nominee. Al Qaeda, strengthened by years of Arab antipathy toward America due to the Iraq War, has begun a new campaign of terrorist bombings at US embassies.

McCain has spent most of his quarter-century in Congress advocating deregulation, the kind of lawlessness that allowed money market funds, insurance companies, banks and other traditionally conservative institutional investors to gamble in securities linked to subprime mortgages and other risky debt.

U.S. stocks tumbled as bank lending seized up in the wake of the government's takeover of American International Group Inc., raising concern that more of the nation's biggest financial companies will fail. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, the two independent Wall Street securities firms remaining after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed and Merrill Lynch & Co. was taken over, plunged the most ever. Wachovia and Washington Mutual, the nation's largest savings and loan association, are being watched for signs of an impending death.

General Electric Co., the world's third-biggest company, fell 8.7 percent and U.S. Steel Corp. slid 11 percent. Yields on three-month Treasury bills sank to a 54-year low as investors sought the relative safety of government debt, and a measure of corporate borrowing costs surged to the highest since the crash of 1987. Global banks racked up $516 billion in credit losses and asset writedowns stemming from the first nationwide decline in home prices since the 1930s.

Americans have over $3.5 trillion deposited in money market funds and, if that money cannot be withdrawn, we could be looking at a depositor panic such as that of 1933, when thousands were pounding on bank doors to retrieve their lost life savings.

As the Bush administration takes over trillion-dollar AIG, there is a growing tide of anger as layoffs, long-term unemployment, home foreclosures, students struggling with college loans, and retirement savings evaporating become problems encountered by more and more people.

Republicans seem able to find sums seemingly too large to calculate being spent to bailout billionaires in the wake of reports of larcenous CEOs departing shipwrecks of their own making with untold millions while at least $10 billion a month is wasted bringing death and destruction to Iraq. The fact that our tax dollars are killing children has yet to emerge in the American consciousness, but 46 percent of the violent deaths involving coalition forces in Iraq were children younger than 15.

From the standpoint of your average American, the Republicans have done everything wrong.

The Republicans tried to 'privatize' Social Security and gamble your retirement on the stock market, which then crashed as a result of deregulation, another Republican initiative that created an atmosphere of lawlessness among investment banks, securities brokers as well as traditional thrift and insurance companies.

The Republicans shipped American jobs overseas plus sold off the companies that once paid taxes and employed US workers. They allowed unfair foreign trade competition to destroy America businesses and then permitted unsafe products from other countries to invade our markets.

The Republicans imposed racist barriers that prevented many people from legitimately pursuing the American Dream, but failed to control the borders so the number of undocumented immigrants doubled to 12 million after 9/11.

The Republicans decided it is okay to hold captives without charges indefinitely, deny such prisoners access to lawyers or courts, and even subject them to torture. The Republicans disgraced the meaning of our Constitution. They engaged in illegal spying on American citizens and retroactively forgave the telecom companies that aided in that crime.

The Republicans killed hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq without any cause because George W. Bush wanted to be remembered in history as a 'war president.' The Republicans lied to get approval to invade Iraq, they botched the job after our brave soldiers, sailors and marines executed their orders, and they created more sympathy for our terrorist adversaries. In doing so, they squandered they unanimous worldwide sympathy and support for America that followed the 9/11 attacks (which occurred while the Republicans were asleep at the switch) and instead they repeatedly exploited those horrors purely for political gain.

The Republicans have still failed to capture Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda is reported to be twice as large as it was seven years ago. Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers or the Pentagon.

The Republicans have for many years consistently made bad decisions in favor of big corporate special interests instead of America's working families.

The Republicans think they can fool Americans, and the sad part is that they did it successfully in 2004 and, at least according to polls, they have a chance to do it again this year.

Voting for Republicans is not patriotic, it's idiotic.

2008-06-03T10:34:00.001-04:00

Here is an interesting turn of events that merits some exposure. Newspapers and journalists sometimes call themselves objective or suggest they are independent of the subjects they cover.
The Star-Ledger, for example, claims to hold itself to a high level of ethics and intergrity. In fact, the Ledger is a partner in Union County government corruption either willingly in as a result of manipulation, and it is being noticed.

Tina Renna wrote a column published online at http://countywatchers.blogspot.com/ titled: The Star-Ledger has a stunning reversal in policy.

"When the New Jersey State Attorney General's office served subpoenas at the Union County Improvement Authority where the Director is the Union County Democrat chairman Charlotte De Filippo just weeks before the general election in 2007, the Star-Ledger chose to suppress the news claiming it is their policy not to interfere with local elections," she wrote, adding, "DeFilippo had been served with subpoenas in September and October..."
"In direct contrast to that policy on Friday, May 30, 2008 just 4 days prior to the Primary Election, and today May 31 just 3 days prior to the Primary Election, in which Elizabeth Board of Education board member president, Armando DaSilva, an outspoken opponent of Elizabeth Mayor Bollwage and the Union County Democrat Committee is running for City council, the Star-Ledger chose to break a story and continue by publishing another story the following day about the Corzine Administration sending a team of inspectors to the Elizabeth school district that week after auditors alleged they have found far-reaching spending abuses. Lucille Davy, the state’s Education Commissioner whose husband James was in Governor James McGreevey’s cabinet and currently has a no-bid county consulting contract, issued the subpoena on behalf of the state Board of Education," scribed Renna. "Quoted in today’s Ledger article is Kirk Nelson, general counsel for the Elizabeth board 'The politicization of the state Board of Education is frightening on the weekend before a municipal election.'"

Renna might be taken to task for run on sentences, but she makes a valid point.
Either a news black out serves to keep elections honest or the public is able to discern the meaning of politically-charged allegations loosed on the eve of balloting.

You cannot have it both ways and still claim to be independent.

Then the Star-Ledger took one step more in the direction of openly taking sides. In a precedent setting move, the Voice of New Jersey failed to publish a story about the hotly contested Elizabeth mayoral election. Nothing. Nada. Zip, Zilch.

In what can only be described as an extention of Mayor J. Christian Bollwage's "No news is good news" philosophy, the state's largest daily newspaper completely ignored the campaign of challenger Edward Bryant Koon, the first black Democrat to mount a serious attempt at becoming mayor.

The council candidate who was sullied by the politically-inspired subpoena, DaSilva, never got a paragraph describing his herculean door to door effort.
Former Councilman Sammy Rodriguez, pursuing a return to public office 20 years after his unsucccessful challenge to the previous mayor, was also ignored by the Ledger.
Democrat George O'Grady, who won a closely contested ward council race in 2006 only to have the victory stolen by political bosses who riggest the election, did not get a brief mention because the Ledger failed to publish even an abbreviated missive about the candidates mounting a challenge to political insiders whose corruption is manifest.

Mayor Bollwage was sued by the ACLU after he went around destroying copies of a newspaper published by his political adversaries and now a former newspaper publisher says Bollwage inspired a criminal conspiracy to deprive him of taxpayer revenue.

If this sort of behavior is accomodated by the state's largest newspaper, how much freedom of the press is left? Is the Ledger undermining its future by sacrificing integrity?

Vladimir Putin erased political opponents and other critics of the government from Russian news and political talk shows. Political humor has been exiled from television.

Senior government officials in Russia and Union County deny the existence of government infringements on the press, but the Ledger is going to find it harder to explain why they missed two stories that had a direct bearing on two different elections while running one that had a substantial credibility gaps.

2008-06-01T00:53:00.002-04:00

Bollwage belongs in jail instead of City Hall

by James J. Devine

I have known Chris Bollwage since my childhood. We grew up in the North End of Elizabeth. His father was a mailman and before mine died, he had been a reporter at the Daily Journal and director of the city's industrial commission.

As an adult, I worked closely with Bollwage in city politics. I helped him become a city councilman and encouraged him to run for mayor. I thought he was my friend.

Chris Bollwage is a person with deep and wide character flaws. He is fundamentally dishonest. Bollwage's inadequacies and fears have compelled him to act in a manner unfitting any public official.I have heard him use the words 'spooks' to describe black people and 'spics' for Latinos.

As mayor, Bollwage traded favors from government with those who gave him campaign contributions,cash and travel, accommodations or even sexual rewards. Instead of using his office to serve the public that elected him, Bollwage evolved into a Jim McGreevey politician.

I could not provide law enforcement officials with proof sufficient to assure a conviction, but that does not absolve my inaction. Bollwage kept cops among his closest allies and allowed corruption to plague the Elizabeth police force. It’s hard to prove bribery, official misconduct or any other crime of public trust. You see the results, however.

When Mayor Bollwage turned against me, he initiated a criminal conspiracy to inflict political retribution by stopping my business from earning government money. When my newspaper reported that half of Bollwage's council candidates lost the 2006 primary elections, the mayor insisted that political bosses cut off the News Record, New Jersey's oldest weekly newspaper, from all revenue by county government sources.

Now, first of all, it is a crime to withhold public money as a form of political revenge, so Bollwage was demanding that some of Union County's most well-known and respected people participate in a criminal act.

Second, many of those involved -- Sen. Ray Lesniak, Charlotte Defilippo, Sheriff Ralph Froehlich and others -- knew me as a friend.

Bollwage was asking them to commit a crime to hurt a friend.

Finally, the ideas 'liberty of expression' and 'freedom of the press' are subjects at the very heart of democracy.Bollwage was asking people to hurt a friend by committing a crime that violated the core values of America.

That's what they did -- Lesniak, Defilippo, Froehlich -- all of them.

This contributed to the destruction of my business. It almost killed New Jersey's oldest weekly newspaper, which was saved by an inexperienced but brave new publisher, Lisa McCormick.

The unfair application of power is evil. This abuse of power is a crime against not only me or today's taxpayers, but against the concepts of freedom that make America great. These crimes by Chris Bollwage may be overlooked or punished by the voters, but your choice will influence the lives of your children. As Americans, it is our duty to struggle for a better nation.

I do not expect to run for any office but I can help worthy candidates achieve their goals and fulfill the sanctity of this democratic republic. Ray Lesniak has declared that he is a power broker and he calls me an 'extortionist.' The truth is that on Dec. 20, 2006, when he asked if I "wanted to talk" about Bollwage, I replied: "There is nothing to talk about."

There may be no negotiation on principle, regardless of the cost. Instead of bargaining with corrupt powerful officials, I would seek to remove them from the elected positions that empower them. Maybe my economic status could have been restored, but that is worth far less than my freedom and many times less than the right of my children to be free men.

People who only value money may not understand why I refuse to trade, but if you value integrity the simple truth plainly makes sense.

Now it is up to you to vote. As a Democrat, I am staking my faith on you. I trust that you will do the right thing, because anything else would be wrong.

Power brokers like Ray Lesniak and those who do their bidding -- from Jim McGreevey to Chris Bollwage -- can only be exposed. The power to stop them rests in your hands and your ballot.

You can stop Bollwage by voting in Tuesday’s primary election.

Bollwage and Lesniak say I am bad, but I admit my errors and beg your forgiveness.

Meanwhile they show no regret or remorse. I lost some money, which led to being put in jail for failing to pay alimony and getting evicted from my apartment.

These indignities are far less a price to pay for freedom than many others have paid.

I will get back on my feet, but am telling you what kind of people hold power in the Union County Democratic Party so that you can react.

I am asking you to end the corrupt reign of Chris Bollwage, a perverted thief with no values, no morality and no conscience. I am also asking you to forgive me for going along with political bosses who promoted unqualified or otherwise flawed politicians. Whether I was kept unaware or mere deluded myself, I should have known better and fought. I have made my statement and I stand by every word. I shall willingly submit to any examination to evaluate my accuracy, honesty and sincerity.

I have met the person running against Mayor Bollwage on June 3.

Edward Bryant Koon is a senior detention officer who has served to protect and rehabilitate juvenile offenders in our county for 23 years.

I advise you to place your confidence in him, along with former Councilman Sammy Rodriguez, Armando DaSilva and George O'Grady by voting Column D in the June 3 Democratic primary election.

If these Column D candidates are not Democrats you can trust, they still can be no worse than crooks you have in there now.

2008-04-09T03:02:00.000-04:00

Howard Dean made some good points in his recent message about John McCain's huge gaffe... but he made a statement that raises a fundamental question about what ought to be America's real priority in the debate about the Middle East conflict.

Here's what the chairman of the Democratic National Committee said:"John McCain so badly misunderstands Iraq that he's content to stay there for 100 years, something he's said multiple times. He has also failed to explain how he would pay for a war that is now costing you and me $12 billion each month -- money we could be using to help our economy here at home."John McCain wants us to believe that his decades of foreign policy experience make him the natural choice to lead our nation's war with terrorists."

Unfortunately for McCain, we need a leader who can defeat terrorism and command the global respect needed to achieve peace. Clearly, Barack Obama meets this qualification better than any other prospective nominee on either side of the political fence.

Obama's vision has been compared to that of Bobby Kennedy -- and his combination of talent, experience and youth provide assurances that we can rely on his leadership although the GOP sleaze machine will undoubtedly try to tear this nation apart before he enters the White House.

Where I think Dean's comments missed an important point is that the $12 billion in American taxpayer money wasted each month by the Republican war machine is the smallest cost of this conflict.

People are dying. Human beings are being maimed and mutilated. Life itself is being squashed, children are subjected to terror, families are being torn apart.

A general declared that "War is Hell" and we must never forget that fact.

Millions, billions, trillions... you cannot measure the value of human life in dollars. The destructive power of the American military is great, but it is the most terrible thing about this country.

America is not defending itself in Iraq. George Bush is not plotting an invasion of Iran to protect you. Our nation's unforgivable aggression is contributing to greater hostility against us and causing rapid growth in the terrorist networks that would really hurt our children.

America must stop killing other people and sacrificing the lives of our military troops in this unjust cause.

To achieve peace, America must be strong enough to accept peace. America must be resolute, courageous and principled. Fortunately, we are capable of that goodness.

I believe Americans would gladly save $12 billion, but saving the lives of thousands of children and other innocents is the real reason we need to stop the war.

2008-03-31T13:07:00.000-04:00

Another taxpayer-funded political hack job
Voice of the People
by James J Devine

The first New Jersey lieutenant governor will be elected in 2009. When New Jersey selects our first lieutenant governor next year, that person will still not be someone with a statewide electoral mandate if he should come to succeed a governor who leaves office, whether by death, impeachment or resignation.

The Legislature created an office of lieutenant governor that deprives voters of any meaningful role in the selection process.

The choice of a lieutenant governor be entirely in the hands of one person the candidate for governor who wins the general election. No convention will ratify the choice. Nobody will "run" for lieutenant governor because the job will be filled by one person who casts the only vote.

A vice presidential nominee for a major political party is selected by the same convention delegates who formally nominate each presidential candidate. That's how Dick Cheney and Al Gore each got the job.When Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller were appointed vice president, they had to win the approval of a majority in both houses of Congress.

The New Jersey Legislature virtually guaranteed that our state will never have the best qualified lieutenant governor. The gubernatorial nominees will pick someone expected to enhance their capacity to attract votes among some segment of the state's population, such as a geographic area, sex, race or ethnic group.

If a lieutenant governor should die in office, quit or be impeached, the constitution authorizes the governor to name a replacement without the approval of the voters, the Legislature or anyone else.

The Legislature created another taxpayer-funded job for a political hack, and by doing so, it improved the chance that succession will ultimately fall into the hands of a tool of corrupt politicians instead of some genuinely decent public servant who is interested in service the people.

2008-01-30T23:23:00.001-05:00

Foolish Fools Fooling You

Sinking the nation deeper in debt to offset inflated costs of living is a blind fool's approach to economics.

Gasoline prices are up about 84 cents a gallon from one year ago, while food prices are up five persent and dairy products spiked 20 percent.

Washington poiticians want to give American workers earning under $75,000 a rebate of $600 plus $300 per child as part of an economic stimulous plan.

Consumers will most likely spend rebates on food, gas and groceries while other nations like communist China continue to advance beyond America in manufacturing and other industries.

The essential problem that politicians are ignoring is that more and more wealth is being concentrated in the hands of fewer people. This eliminates the middle class and threatens democracy itself, but the situation is worsened by a lack of opposition action among politicians who are embedded in a fundamentally corrupt system.

We need a trust-buster like Teddy Roosevelt who understands the high cost of war, inflation, deficit spending and the risk associated with failing to require the rich pay their fair share of taxes. Until Americans stop being conned by profiteers who do more to benefit communist China than they do for our own country -- and I mean such companies as Walmart -- we will continue to witness the decline of democracy and prosperity in the United States.

The best economic stimulus plan would be a withdrawal from Iraq and a true dedication to peace, so our greatest minds and richest investors can work on things like renewable energy.

2008-01-30T22:54:00.001-05:00

2008-01-30T14:57:00.000-05:00

Barack Obama means real change,
Hillary Clinton offers same old story

America decides Tueday, Feb. 5

Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4th, 1961. The rich and varied experiences of Barack Obama's life - growing up in different places with people who had differing ideas - that have animated his political journey.

In the Illinois State Senate, this meant working with both Democrats and Republicans to help working families get ahead by creating programs like the state Earned Income Tax Credit.

As a candidate for the United States Senate in 2002, Obama put his political career on the line to oppose going to war in Iraq, and warned of “an occupation of undetermined length, with undetermined costs, and undetermined consequences.” Obama has been a consistent, principled and vocal opponent of the war in Iraq.

In the U.S. Senate, he has focused on tackling the challenges of a globalized, 21st century world with fresh thinking and a politics that no longer settles for the lowest common denominator.

His first law was passed with Republican Tom Coburn, a measure to rebuild trust in government by allowing every American to go online and see how and where every dime of their tax dollars is spent. He has also been the lead voice in championing ethics reform that would root out Jack Abramoff-style corruption in Congress.

As a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Senator Obama has fought to help Illinois veterans get the disability pay they were promised, while working to prepare the VA for the return of the thousands of veterans who will need care after Iraq and Afghanistan.

Recognizing the terrorist threat posed by weapons of mass destruction, he traveled to Russia with Republican Dick Lugar to begin a new generation of non-proliferation efforts designed to find and secure deadly weapons around the world.

Knowing the threat we face to our economy and our security from America's addiction to oil, he's working to bring auto companies, unions, farmers, businesses and politicians of both parties together to promote the greater use of alternative fuels and higher fuel standards in our cars.

Obama wants to preserve the integrity of our borders. He supports additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on the border & our ports of entry, and believes we must fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy.

He says the gravest danger to the American people is the threat of a terrorist attack with a nuclear weapon and the spread of nuclear weapons to dangerous regimes.

Obama will make the investments we need so that our military -- the finest -- in the world is prepared to meet 21st-century threats. Obama will give our troops new equipment, armor, training, and skills like language training. He will also strengthen our civilian capacity, so that our civilian agencies have the critical skills and equipment they need to integrate their efforts with our military.

I know a lot of Democrats like the Clinton's, but the bottom line is that Bush divided Americans and Hillary Clinton offers only more of the same.

Learn more at http://www.barackobama.com

2008-01-24T12:02:00.000-05:00

Keep your opinion to yourself

Environmentalists, small business owners, taxpayers and commuters who pay tolls were not listed among the special interest groups briefed in advance about Gov. Jon Corzine’s proposal to raise tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, Atlantic City Expressway by 800 percent and start charging motorists along Route 440.

In order to escape the vast public debt Corzine plans to borrow $38 billion, for which the commuters and truckers who use toll roads will pay more than $200 billion during the next 75 years, without asking permission from voters.

Borrowing $38 billion at a cost of $200 billion is no way to get out of debt.Polls show that nearly 60% of New Jersey residents oppose Corzine’s scheme, 15% support it and 25% don’t have an opinion, but undeterred by public opinion, Corzine is pushing the legislature to pass the plan in March.

Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan and South Jersey radio personality Seth Grossman were arrested last weekend while peacefully protesting Corzine’s proposal.

Corzine’s reputation as a financial genius seems a silly. Maybe the guy has no more fiscal ingenuity that someone who hit the lottery.

Corzine also plans to borrow $2.5 billion, over and above the toll road scheme, to build new schools but he does not want to put that measure before the voters either.

2008-01-08T15:49:00.000-05:00

Corzine's School Switcheroo

All six African-American senators opposed Gov. Jon Corzine's state school aid plan but the measure cleared both houses of the Legislture with the minimum number of votes needed for passage. The senate vote was 21-8, with the Assembly approving the measure with a 41-36 vote.

Corzine hailed passage of the complex bill, which he made a centerpiece of the legislative agenda he promoted during the short lame-duck session that followed November's legislative elections. Nothing got done on the ethics reform package that was promised so many times, but we were also spared massive toll hikes and billions in new public debt.

"The new law replaces a flawed system with an equitable, balanced and nonpartisan formula that addresses the needs of all students, regardless of where they live," said Corzine. "This formula puts the needs of all children on an equal footing and will give them the educational resources they need for success."

Corzine's new formula will cost poor cities hundreds of millions of dollars, but lobbyists from the New Jersey Education Association were able to overcome objections by minority lawmakers and other education advocates.

"The governor's formula is deeply divisive and fundamentally flawed," said David Sciarra, the lead attorney in the long-running Abbott vs. Burke state Supreme Court case.

Unfortunately, the conflict leaves New Jersey's 618 school districts in terrible disarray with vast shortfalls in the learning achievements of our children.

The quality of education will not be addressed, and neither will the inequity of funding schools with high property taxes, until politicians take real responsibility.

That is, unless the state Supreme Court imposes an Abbott vs. Burke style ruling that eliminates the current hodge podge of 618 districts and demands a single statewide system of free public schools, as the state constitution clearly requires.

The state constitution is really a remarkable document. It would do a lot of good if lawmakers and others responsible for implementing government policy took the time to read it.

Meanwhile, it's politics as usual in Trenton. Black lawmakers will get pushed to the back of the bus by white multimillionaires like Corzine, as taxpayers and children go on being cheated by incomeptence, corruption and greed.

2007-11-16T09:15:00.000-05:00

Dead kids don't vote

Elizabeth Mayor J. Christian Bollwage said the shooting that left 13-year-old Elijah Henderson dead on the sidewalk on the gritty 200 block of Fulton Street reminded him "of the crack wars of the ’80s.”

“It’s the same issue now,” Bollwage said. "The media loves to couch it in terms of gangs, but it’s nothing more than a drug war.”

Bollwage criticized the anti-gang plan recently announced by Gov. Jon S. Corzine, saying “It’s all rhetoric,” without proposing any solutions of his own.

Bollwage also had no praise for neighbors who routinely hold block-watch sessions to help the under-staffed police force in the area where the shooting occurred, as if trying to address the problem of violence is an act of futility among black and hispanic residents.

Bollwage said that about 20 new officers would join the city’s 360-member department next year before he seeks a fifth term in the June Democratic primary election. Asked what else the city could do, Mr. Bollwage said: “You grieve. That’s what you do.”

Bollwage and the city's Democratic power brokers have for years been at war with members of the school board, which is seeking to curb violence with innovative methods. Elizabeth Board of Education member Tony Monteiro says the district is providing school uniforms to all students, helping children identify as part of a community and providing an easier way to make sure people are in their proper places.

Monteiro is dismayed by Bollwage's approach to violence in the city, remembering a time when the mayor worked with him as a leader of the North Elizabeth Youth baseball League.

Bollwage long ago moved away from the North End neighborhood where he grew up, opting for a home in the exclusive Elmora Hills section one block away from the Union border.

Meanwhile, Bollwage denies that widespread drug activity. prosititution and gangs have emerged while conditions on the streets deteriorate with these very problems.

More concerned with turning land over to wealthy contributors and building malls and hotels near Newark Liberty International Airport, Bollwage seems out of touch with the needs of people trying to survive on the city's mean streets.

Elizabeth has the 10th-highest rate of violent crime among New Jersey’s 15 largest cities, but the police department is below full strength and no superior officers or detectives are black. Most city cops live in shore communities an hour away from the neighborhoods that are increasingly dominated by criminal gangs.

It's easy for those 'out of touch' political bosses such as Bollwage to ignore problems that led to the death of one child last week and say there's nothing to do except grieve. For parents and other residents who live among the chaos, finding a cure for urban violence is a much greater priority that cannot be addressed merely by throwing up one's hands.

2007-10-30T05:53:00.000-04:00

Another Cryan Arrested Drunk

The politically-connected Cryan family lost another round in its long battle with substance abuse last week, when the brother of Assemblyman Joseph Cryan and owner of Cryan's Ale House in North Branch was arrested for drunken driving.
A son of former Essex County Sheriff John Cryan Sr. was charged with charged with drunken driving almost four years to the day after his guilt in a prior DWI case was confirmed by an Appellate Division tribunal.
Police stopped John Cryan Jr., 47, for a traffic violation on westbound Interstate 78.
According to authorities, the Pittstown resident failed to maintain his lane and showed signs of intoxication when police pulled him over.

Police reported that the suspect was released to the custody of a family member, who was not identified, but his vehicle was towed and impounded. It is not believed that the family member was the lawmaker, because the brothers are alleged to each have domestic violence restraining orders against each other.
Cryan was previously charged by the Bedminster Police Department with DWI on August 14, 2001 after he crashed his car into a tree at about 2:00 a.m.
Cryan argued that case all the way to the Appellate Division, which confirmed his guilt established in two lower court trials in a decision issued Oct. 27, 2003.

A cousin of the suspect and lawmaker, Morristown Councilman John Cryan, pleaded guilty to assaulting a bartender in January, 2006 and was sentenced to 20 hours community service, mandatory AA meetings, and a $725 fine.
Assemblyman Cryan's son, also named John Cryan, was jailed for a month this year after having failed drug tests that were part of a probation sentence imposed after he brutally beat a motorist with a baseball bat as two friends punched and kicked the victim.

The assemblyman, is an undersheriff in Union County, vehemently denies any addiction to alcohol or chemical substances, although a court ordered psychological report does refer to "his alcohol abuse."
"(Karen Golding) acknowledges that she endured, excused and minimized Mr. Cryan's inappropriate behavior by choosing to believe his alcohol abuse was responsible for his actions," wrote Margaret R. Curvin, LCSW, a court-appointed psychotherapist in a Dec. 8, 2006 letter to the probation department.
Curvin was named to evaluate Karen Golding, a former girlfriend of the lawmaker, who was arrested on stalking charges after she has tipped a newspaper reporter about financial discrepancies in a non-profit fund controlled by Joseph Cryan.

Sheriff Ralph Froehlich hired Joseph Cryan as second in command seven months after the politician lost his job as bartender in his father's Metuchen pub in 2002.
While serving as Essex County Sheriff in 1979, John Cryan, an Irish immigrant who owned several drinking establishments, was charged with various counts of official corruption but was freed on a technicality.
The elder Cryan, who died in 2005, was also a former Essex County Democratic Party chairman and a member of the state Assembly.
In addition to his multiple salaried government jobs, Assemblyman Joseph Cryan is the Democratic State Committee chairman and political boss in Union Township.

2007-10-24T01:08:00.000-04:00

Stark Raving Mad

I would like to point out, for all those feeble minded politicians in Washington who are prancing and complaining about Congressman Pete Stark's remarks, that the courageous men and women of our armed forces are putting their lives on the line for our freedom to make statements that are not pleasant and welcome by everyone.

That's the right to free speech and it is important because if not for outrageous remarks, nobody would have rebelled against a king in 1775. You don't need to fight for the right to say, "Have a nice day," but sometimes you do with comments that end with the phrase, "and the horse you rode in on."

Hopefully you are sitting, because this is exactly what Congressman Stark said: "You don't have money to fund the war or children but you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq, to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."

Now let's examine the statement.

"You don't have money to fund the war or children." With deficits in the range of $500 billion, the federal government is spending far more than it has. This would then be right on the mark.

Part two is: "you're going to spend it, to blow up innocent people" -- and again, that is correct. Many of the war casualties are not terrorists or even combatants. Two million people have been displaced and starvation is common in war zones.

I have said before that George Bush is a murderer and a thief and I stand by that so I am going to have to concede the congressman is 100 percent correct on this statement as well.

Part three: "if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq" is obviously related to the notion of children's health care. By his veto of the SCHIP legislation, President Bush is throwing sick American children out into the street. Clearly some of those kids may die from illness or injury because their families lack funds to pay for medical care.

I suppose there will still be plenty of young Americans to send off to war, even though there appears to be no end in sight to Bush's folly in the middle east. Not necessarily on the money, but fair enough in the poetic realm of legislative debate.

Part four: "to get their heads blown off..." Congressman Stark might be reminded that some of the dead and wounded soldiers lost legs, arms, parts of their torso and so on. It's not just heads that get blown off in war, but despite being imprecise this remains accurate as a descriptive phrase meaning 'to be killed.'

President Bush is not just a murderer of Arabs, but many American military personnel have lost their good reason.

Finally, "for the president's amusement." That's about as good a reason for this war in Iraq as I have heard so far. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq since President Bush's father's administration ended the Reagan-era policy of supplying such devices to Saddam Hussein. They don't like to hear it, but it is the truth. Iraq has nothing to do with al Qaeda or 9-11 and efforts to connect them were lies propagated to get us into this war. I could make a long list, but there was no legitimate provocation for this war.

Until President Bush stops lying, I am going to have to give credence to suggestions that the war is for his amusement or for oil or for any number of things.

Anybody in the military should feel insulted that the war is for President Bush's amusement, but not merely because someone acknowledges this concept.

Nancy Pelosi said Congressman Stark's remark was inappropriate, but I have to disagree.

Inappropriate would be getting control of Congress with a mandate to end the war and stop George Bush's crimes, then immediately taking impeachment 'off the table' and continuing to fund more unwarranted death and destruction.

Pelosi, drunk with power, is concerned only about the 2008 presidential election and its impact on her continued (lack of) leadership. No matter who wins the election next year, I want to see action to end this conflict now.

Return of the American Revolution

2007-10-15T23:07:00.000-04:00

Return of the American Revolution
Raising the state sales tax last year from six percent to seven percent cost an extra $275 a year for the average family in New Jersey, but the impact of borrowing $3 billion to mail out 'property tax rebate checks' just in time for the election is going to be staggering.

It just continues the same irresponsible budget gimmickery of the McGreevey & Whitman administrations. The cost of this economic voodoo is unnecessary and ill-advised. Whitman's theft of $2.8 billion from the state employee pension funds has snowballed into a $97 billion unfunded liability (that means debt taxpayers will someday be forced to pay).

The guilt goes around to both Democrats and Republicans, so there's no argument that this is a partisan problem. It is a cultural catastrophe because New Jersey has tolerated the culture of corruption too long. It is time to get off this disastrous road and back on track -- and the best way voters can help assure change is by voting against incumbents in the upcoming general election --- preferably electing independents when they appear on the ballot.

In Union County there is a slate of independent candidates challenging Sen. Raymond Lesniak's corrupt party insiders. With 30 years in Trenton, Lesniak has to own up to his record of burying the state in debt and increasing expenses without providing quality service in return. Instead, the lawmaker has enriched himself at taxpayer expense.

Documents released last week show his law firm made $3.3 million from no-bid public contracts last year alone. Money that should have been spent on schools paid for the senator's $2 million shore house. Money that should have been spent on homeland security paid for the senator's his 300-acre villa in the south of France. Money that should have been spent protecting public health paid for the senator's Italian suits and gourmet meals.

If some of our kids lose their chance for a successful future, or your neighbors perish in violence or if people in your community die a slow and painful death, at least Sen. Lesniak will be able to hide these horrors from his eyes.

The American Revolution was a revolt by people who refused to be victimized against the injustice of rich and powerful people who were taking advantage. It is time for another American Revolution, so mark your calendar for Nov. 6 and elect some independent leadership in Union County.

Cryan is a GOP campaign commercial

2007-10-15T21:48:00.000-04:00

Way to go, Joe.
The Republicans have seized upon incompetent & corrupt Joe Cryan as the poster boy for Democrats in their campaign to take over control of the state Legislature. Now Cryan is a GOP campaign commercial.

Not that we can blame them, since Cryan provides ample ammunition and such leaders as Gov. Jon Corzine & Sheriff Ralph Froelich have embraced this sleazy pol instead of tossing him under the bus (where he belongs).

The commercial posted on YouTube uses Cryan's triple-dipping politician status to inflict guilt by association on poor, unsuspecting Democrats fighting an up hill battle in the heavily Republican 24th District.

SEE THE VIDEO FOR YOURSELF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUFh_Lqois8

On a national level, Democrats are demanding an end to the culture of corruption. It would be nice to see some progress in that direction here in New Jersey.

Tobacco Joe Cryan Taken To Task

2007-10-11T09:26:00.000-04:00

Instead of fighting to protect New Jersey residents from the dangers of smoking, Assemblyman Joseph Cryan has been an advocate for the tobacco industry who collects large campaign donations from cigarette makers and dealers.
Cryan accepted donations from at least $3,000 from one local tobacco dealer, Deep Amin of Union. Tobacco giant Philip Morris has repeatedly provided Cryan and committees he controls with campaign cash.
In turn, Cryan strongly opposed the state's indoor smoking ban and worked behind the scenes to cushion the tobacco industry from tax increases.
Critics who say Cryan sold out are among the reform Democrats that formed an independent slate in this year's election.
Marlene Abitano and Lester Dominguez are challenging Cryan and his incumbent running mate, Assemblyman Neil Cohen. No Republicans filed petitions seeking election to the Assembly in the district, which includes Elizabeth, Union, Roselle and Kenilworth.
The tobacco industry is typically aligned with the Republican Party, but New Jersey's culture of corruption makes relationships such as that of Cryan and big tobacco quite common.
More than 325 million packs of cigarettes were sold in New Jersey in 2005, according to tobacco industry figures that also projected a $65 million profit from Garden State residents alone. "
All those involved in the production and marketing of tobacco products are 'terrorists', declared Dr John Seffrin, president of the American Cancer Society, who notes that smokers lose an average of 13 to 15 years of life.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that second-hand smoke causes up to 62,000 deaths among nonsmokers each year in the United States, where 300,000 children develop respiratory infections from exposure to second-hand smoke.
The independent challengers will test whether voters are willing to tolerate a politician like Cryan lining up with tobacco companies in the effort to kill kids.

Racism Only Removed On Purpose

2007-10-10T17:24:00.000-04:00

A white student beaten in a schoolyard fight in the predominantly white town of Jena, La., was well enough to attend a school function the same evening, but six black teenagers were arrested, five of whom were charged as adults with attempted murder. There is something wrong in America.

An unqualified politician hired by Sheriff Ralph Froehlich gets paid $7,000 more than an 18-year law enforcement veteran in the same job title who is black. Undersheriff Joseph P. Cryan was hired by Froehlich in 2002, seven months after he lost his job as bartender at his father's Metuchen pub, but Cryan is paid $7,000 more than Undersheriff Gerald Green. There is something wrong in America.

After taking a picture without the knowledge of an elderly black couple in Newark to reflect his concern for minorities in campaign literature, Chris Bollwage -- now the mayor of Elizabeth -- entitled the photograph, "Spooks on a Bench."There is something wrong in America.

We are surrounded by one example after another of just how far America has to go in order to measure up to our self image as a just and morally superior nation.Racism is removed by conscious effort and continuous work, but despite progress made in many areas, we remain pitifully beleaguered by this social epidemic.

Democrats in Union County have largely ignored the black community. African American officials are routinely disgarded like trash when they prove unwilling to follow the orders of party bosses.

Hispanics and women are also victims of the neglect and contempt exercized by political insiders who are predominantly white men. Not one of the Democratic incumbents in the 20th Legislative district are black, female or hispanic.

Three rich white men get to cast votes in Trenton and their record reflects the short road to corporate profits, not the will of the local populace.

The state senator whose district includes more hispanic residents that any other in New Jersey quietly insults that constituency by learning to speak French. ¿Habla Francais?

In addition to his six-figure tax-funded salary in the sheriff's office, Cryan collects $49,000 a year as a state assemblyman.

It's not enough to exclude women and minorities, these gluttons need too flaunt their contempt.

In Cryan's case, he did that by arranging the arrest of his lover instead of just breaking up with her. Turning law enforcement into a tool for personal and poltical retaliation was only one act of injustice.

Tipping his hat to the young black men who virtually fill our state prisons, Cryan's son was sentenced to a stiff term of probation after beating a man with a baseball bat after an episode of road rage.

Women of all races plus men who are black or hispanic already know of too many forms of injustice perpetrated against them every day.

What they don't know is they have the power to change things with their votes.

We cannot blame racist politicians for what we, as a society, can remedy.

Corzine appoints lobbyist, disappoints public again

2007-10-10T17:21:00.000-04:00

TRENTON – Gov. Jon S. Corzine appointed a lobbyist and a retired Supreme Court justice to the Public Officers Salary Review Commission.

The commission was created in 2000 as a creative way of giving state legislators some cover when it came to granting pay hikes for the Governor, cabinet officials, judges and prosecutors.

That way legislators wouldn't be held accountable to the voters, judges or prosecutors because they could claim they were just following the guidance of the blue ribbon commission.

The most recent pay hike for top government officials was sponsored by Assemblyman Neil Cohen, of Roselle.

Last week, Corzine, who says he wants to be held accountable, made his two appointments: former state Supreme Court Justice James Coleman of Scotch Plains, and lobbyist Hazel Gluck.

This puts Gluck in the position of suggesting pay hikes for people she lobbies -- perhaps giving the appearance that this violates the intent of the bipartisan bill, which says no one should be appointed who "are in positions that would be affected by the commission's recommendations."

The same thing could be said about Senate President Richard Codey's appointee, Michael Critchley, a criminal defense attorney from Essex County who often represents allegedly corrupt public officials in court.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts and Minority Leader Alex DeCroce each named a retired Superior Court Judge (Alan Vogelson and Robert Muir, respectively).That means three of the seven commission members so far are ex-judges.

If retired judges want to give their former colleagues pay raises, few political insiders will view that as shocking news.The final member of the vommission will be named by the newly-appointed state Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, who has already advocated judicial pay hikes.

While the governor won't benefit from his appointments -- Corzine only takes a salary of $1-per-year -- the highly ethical Rabner could personally benefit from the vote of the commission member he appoints, unless he decided not to accept his own salary increase.

Six Years Later....

2007-09-06T21:04:00.000-04:00

America remembers the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on The World Trade
Center, The Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa. as that gruesome event's
sixth anniversary passed this week.
Osama bin Laden remains free in the world, where he continues to plot against Americans, but our country's military is bogged down in an unnecessary quagmire in Iraq.
Only after he secured re-election in 2004 did George Bush's incompetence manifest itself in terms so clear almost 80 percent of the public now disapproves of his job performance.
The disaster leading up to and after Hurricane Katrina, illegal spying on Americans without warrants, exposing the identity of an undercover CIA agent, tax cuts for the rich plus budget and trade deficits that guarantee more Americans will be poor, amnesty for illegal aliens (the number of which grew by 6 million since the terrorist attacks), and many more examples have shown that America made awful mistakes in 2000 and 2004.
Now, Rudy Guiliani hopes to ride into the White House on his record following the al Qaeda attacks and the 'party of the people' seems dominated by candidates who are funded by corporate interests that represent everything real Democrats should be against.
New Jersey's local political scene is rapidly changing due to record numers of arrests and convictions for government corruption, but too many crooked politicians remain immune to electoral defeat or criminal indictment.

May the victims of 9/11 rest in peace. We who survive cannot afford to relax until some sanity returns to our government.

NJ Today

2007-06-11T12:35:00.000-04:00

Welcome to NJ Today!

Much of New Jersey is in mourning today for the hit HBO series, "The Sopranos." The series finale aired last night.

Millions in America tuned in to see the finale, but the fate of Mafia boss Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini, remains a mystery.Series creator David Chase's dangling ending seems primed for the big screen. Although there's been no serious talk of making a film, "a couple of years from now, who knows?" said Steven Van Zandt, who played Tony's consigliere Silvio Dante, who added cryptically, "We're not sure it's ending."
Fans lined up three-deep at the bar of Satin Dolls, the Lodi strip club that doubled as the mob family's headquarters, the Bada Bing. Out of respect, the dancers took an hour off and joined the customers in marking a moment of television history. The series ended with a final cliffhanger scene of Tony and his family eating onion rings at a cozy family restaurant, where one shadowy figure slipped into rest room and two other suspicious looking people entered the diner just as the mob boss' daughter arrived and the screen went black.
TV critics and viewers were divided about the Sopranos finale, with many complaining that millions of Americans believed their cable had gone out at one of the most important moments in the history of televised drama.Others say Chase, faced with deciding between a bang and a whimper, chose neither. "The suspense of the final scene in the diner was almost cruel," according to New York Times critic Alessandra Stanley, who wrote, "The abrupt finale Sunday night was almost like a prank, a mischievous dig at viewers who had agonized over how television's most addictive series would come to a close."Tom Jicha, of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, called the ending "a bizarre, infuriating conclusion."Michael Imperioli, who played Tony’s nephew Christopher Moltisanti, defended the ambiguous curtain call.“I think it's a great ending. It’s a good way to go out,” Imperioli said. Most fans said they would truly miss the show, particularly residents of the blue-collar north Jersey that were home to most of its locations. They had closely followed Tony, Carmela, and the rest of the cast since the show debuted on Jan. 10, 1999.Not everyone has been enthralled with the depiction of Italian-Americans as mobsters, a stereotype that has become a staple of popular culture."It seems as though bigotry is not OK, except when it comes to Italian-Americans," said Emanuele Alfano, head of Italian American One Voice, a coalition of Italian-American organizations. "They have shown us as the lowest of the low: Killers, drug addicts, wife-beaters. The women are always promiscuous, the young people are always stupid. People don't see it; as long as they're being entertained, they don't care."