Wednesday, January 30, 2008
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
Thursday, January 24, 2008
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.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
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.
Friday, November 16, 2007
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.
