Now This Is Funny!

• Tweet

Piling on

An astute reader pointed out that Anthony Chiappone also appears on Vin Gopal’s the list of distinction on the Kucinich website. Some of you may recognize that name, he was also in the Assembly when he was indicted and pled guilty to election campaign finance crimes.

So for those of you keeping score at home, Vin Gopal lists three State Assembly campaigns he has worked on, and two of the three have been convicted of crimes involving their offices. Interestingly, both Vas and Chiappone were caught breaking campaign finance laws. Who was the common thread on their campaigns? Vin Gopal.

Don’t get me wrong, Vin seems like a good kid, if a little goofy. I don’t dislike him, heck, we are even friends on Facebook. But he is clearly unfit for elective office.

• Tweet

Putting the Brakes on Trenton

Kyrillos- “Brakes” from Jamestown Associates on Vimeo.

• Tweet

Corzine Resigns!

From MF Global.

Man, how we wish that headline was from 2006. But if it were, we may not have Chris Christie today. If we hadn’t had four years of Jon Corzine, New Jersey may not realize how truly bad it is under progressive big government rule.

Speaking of crony capitalism, Gary Gensler, the head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, who is investigating MF Global, is an old Goldman Sachs buddy of Corzine, who also worked with him on Capitol Hill and donated $10,000.00 to the NJ Democratic State Committee during one of Corzine’s elections. Many on Capitol Hill are already calling for recusal due to the conflict. Both Corzine and Gensler   have refused comment.

Here’s a prediction: Corzine will cooperate with investigators, avoid indictment, and skate with his fortune largely intact. Many of the peons at MF Global will either be indicted, lose their licenses, or be fired.

Occupy that, hippie progressives.

• Tweet

Election Day is Five Days Away!

By Barry Goldwater, Guest Blogger ([email protected])

Many of the readers of Art’s Blog may not remember me, but I was once a blogger myself, writing steadily on the “Voice of Reason” blog back in the hey day of Monmouth County political blogs, when Honest Abe, Teddy Roosevelt, Monmouth Rastaman, and others stirred the pot. Of course, back then, Monmouth Republicans were in a bit of disarray, but we’ve gotten our groove back.

In fact, I saw the re-emergence of GOP dominance coming, and my blog went dark just after Election Day, 2008. But during my brief blogging career, I broke some big stories, the biggest of which was the Ellen Karcher Christmas Tree story. What a heady time.

Unfortunately, now that the grown-ups are in charge in Monmouth County, the Monmouth State Delegation, and the Governor’s mansion, there really isn’t that much to  write about, especially since the Democrats are so inept. But in an effort to post some new content on Art’s Blog while he is “otherwise occupied” I submit the following.

In the 13^th District, there are no Democrats running, so the GOP team of Kyrillos, O’Scanlon and Handlin will easily win. Note, when I say there are no Democrats running, I mean they are on the ballot, they just aren’t running. I can’t even name them. It is that bad for the Democrats in the 13^th.

The 11^th District is much more interesting, if only to see how the County Clerk can fit the egos of Dan “Florio’s Favorite” Jacobsen and Vin “Left of OWS” Gopal on the same ballot.

This race is worth watching if only for the pure joy that comes from the humiliation of Vin Gopal. He is the Alex P. Keaton of the Progressive wing of the NJ Democratic Party. At a tender young age, he has managed the Campaigns of some of the most liberal Democrats both nationally and in New Jersey. And in this case, “Liberal” means  not always staying on the right side of the law.

Case in point: He was Campaign Manager for Joe Vas for Congress. You remember Joe Vas, who was Mayor of Perth Amboy while serving as an Assemblyman. (If you said “Double Dipper” just now, you were right) Vin ran a Primary Campaign for Vas against Albio Sires for the vacant Menendez Congressional Seat when Menendez moved up to the big house (senate, silly, not jail. Yet.)

Anyway, in that Primary Campaign, Vin got quite a reputation of being simultaneously incompetent and mean-spirited. He was also allied with Middlesex Sheriff and Democratic Boss Joe Spicuzzo, who is, coincidentally, currently under indictment.

Sorry, Vin, but you are judged by the company you keep. (Today, Vin is crying to the press about the fact he was simply an “intern” for Vas. If so, he should have someone take down this blurb from the old Kucinich Campaign website:

Advisor on Kucinich’s 2004 and 2006 re-election campaigns.  Legislative aide to New Jersey Deputy Assembly Speaker Herb Conaway and worked in Sen. Ted Kennedy’s press office.  In 2006 he served as communications director for Ron Rice Jr.’s successful election to the Newark City Council, field coordinator for Bayonne Councilman Tony Chiappone’s successful re-election campaign, campaign manager for Perth Amboy Mayor Joe Vas’ 2006 congressional campaign for U.S Sen. Bob Menendez’s open seat, and as a consultant to Dana Wefer for Morris County Freeholder and executive director of Americans Vs. George Allen in Alexandria, VA. Small business owner in New Jersey and works also as a syndicated columnist for Nassau Journals.  Worked as an assistant booker and director of radio relations for Jersey Championship Wrestling out of Lodi, New Jersey.  From Monmouth County, New Jersey.

In true self-promotion fashion, Vin puffs himself up, then backs off when caught. Put on your big girl panties and admit you lied, Vin.

Vin is now running on the “Change Trenton” bandwagon. He wants to “Protect” the middle class. Unfortunately, his past campaigns and politics are what is destroying the middle class in NJ and America.

By the way, here’s a note for the Democrats: While most Union Members may be Middle Class, most in the Middle Class are not Union Members. Don’t confuse war on public sector unions with war on the middle class. Idiots.

Vin’s running mate, Kathy Horgan, was a late substitute for the restauranteur Marilyn Schlossbach, who had to bow out since she didn’t live in the 11th District, oops, because her restaurants were damaged in Hurricane Irene.

Horgan is a non-entity. She comes out of the Red Bank “machine” where she is a member of the Borough Council. You may have never heard of her, because in Red Bank, the Borough Council doesn’t do very much. They are “inclusive” but they don’t work for the taxpayers. Their idea of fiscal restraint is to raise the water rates, then raid the Water Utility’s surplus every year to keep the tax increases manageable. They just had bad news about their Bond rating from Moody’s. The “hyper local” website RedBankGreen runs a series called “Churn” that chronicles all of the businesses going under, and a drive down Broad Street shows many empty storefronts. Yeah, we need her in Trenton.

There is a guy named Raymond Santiago running for Senate against Jennifer Beck. Apparently he’s a lawyer in Freehold. According to his firm website, if you need a lawyer, he’s your guy. Doesn’t matter what type of legal advice you need, he’ll give it to you. No wonder he is running for office.

Also running for Assembly in the 11^th is Dan “Florio’s Favorite” Jacobsen. Those with long memories may remember such things as the toilet paper tax, Hands Across New Jersey, and the other tax payer revolts that were spawned the last time Dan was elected to office. Despite being sent home after a cup of coffee in the Assembly 20 years ago, Dan is now running on a populist platform and urging people to “bullet vote” for him.

Everyone needs to realize something about Dan: His #1 constituent is Dan. End of Story.

A final note: All the “conservative” Beck, Angelini and Casagrande detractors need to realize that the real issue right now is the economy. The GOP candidates in the 11^th and 13^th (and the 12^th, which also has no Democrats running) are conservative when it counts. To not support them is to hand the keys to the treasury (and by extension, your pocket) to the unabashedly progressive Democratic candidates. We are on the right path. Stay on the path.

• Tweet

WHAT IF WE ASKED A PUBLIC QUESTION AND NOBODY CARED.

We recieved such a great response fron James Hogan’s last piece we are bringing you some more of his insights.

There is an election in less then one week, and no one seems to care.Voter turnout is expected to be low, Governor Christie has been rather silent in endorsing and pushing Republican candidates despite his popularity and successes and as sample ballots began to arrive, the few folks who didn’t just toss them in the trash have been trying to understand the public question.

The question as it appears on the ballot reads as follows:

Shall the amendment to Article IV, Section VII, paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the State of New Jersey, agreed to by the Legislature, providing that it shall be lawful for the Legislature to authorize by law wagering at casinos or gambling houses in Atlantic City and at current or former running and harness horse racetracks on the results of professional, certain college, or amateur sport or athletic events, be approved?

The interpretive statement reads:

This constitutional amendment would authorize the Legislature to pass laws allowing sports wagering at Atlantic City casinos and at racetracks. Wagers could be placed on professional, certain college, or amateur sport or athletic events. However, wagers could not be placed on college games that take place in New Jersey or in which a New Jersey college team participates regardless of where the game takes place. A wager could be placed at a casino or racetrack either in-person or from any other location through an account wagering system that uses telephone, Internet or other means.

For once, the question itself seems rather simple and straight forward, I suspect most people who take the time to read it will answer Yes but I could be surprised..

Unfortunately, the real issues here don’t appear to be so simple, and a Yes, or a No, may or may not mean much. Having tried to do some research through my short contact list, it seemed impossible to get someone to answer what seemed like a few simple questions.  None of my contacts seemed to have the time to provide what may have been political science 101 crash course for me, one noted “it’s just not that simple”, another said “who cares about the public question?” and one told me “just vote Yes, but it won’t matter”. Two different sources provided me with a link to this wiki page (http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/New_Jersey_Sports_Betting_Amendment,_Public_Question_1_(2011)) that seemed to explain the issue a little better.

Based on the information I was able to get from my short list of contacts, and the wiki page, it seems to come down to:

Yes — NJ gets to spend time and money fighting a court battle, likely all of the way up to the Supreme Court, and then if and when a federal restriction is lifted, then the state Legislature can write a bill and change the state law. Essentially a Yes next Tuesday means maybe some year much later in my expected lifetime, we’ll have a debate and vote in Trenton to legalize sports betting.

No — NJ continues on like all but 4 other states where sports betting is legal. Maybe or maybe not related: Nevada, one of the states where sports betting is legal, has the nation’s highest unemployment level at 13.4%. The other states, Montana, Oregon and Delaware have unemployment rates of 7.7%, 9.6% and 8.1% respectively compared to NJ’s 9.2% so I doubt that sports betting solves the slow economy problem and I suspect No votes would be more of a protest vote against a less than important issue for most struggling taxpayers.

Also worth noting, a Yes or a No for sports betting has nothing at all to do with the issue of VLTs at Monmouth Park or the Meadowlands, it would just make betting on sports games legal, after that federal law changes, if it changes. It seems a bit disingenuous for the state Legislature to be giving the appearance of working so hard to bring gambling tourism money into the state through sports betting when it can’t even get legislation that would bring  gambling tourism money into the state through VLTs and slots at our own racetracks on the floor and up for a vote. With that, it’s easy for me to understand why voters are angry or apathetic, and planning to stay home.

• Tweet