Perfect Together

Senators Bob Menendez and Barack Obama with Governor Jon Corzine at a 2006 Menendez rally. Photo credit: Dith Pran/NY Times

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Stick and stones may break your bones, but farting can get you shot in the head

A 72 year old Teaneck man was arrested on Monday night after allegedly threatening to shoot his neighbor in the head for farting, according to reports in The Record and The Star Ledger.

Daniel Collins threaten to shoot his 47 year old neighbor, who’s identity is being withheld because there is no evidence of the flatus, after the neighbor cut the cheese while passing Collins’s apartment door.

Collins denied pointing his finger gun at his neighbor and gave the Teaneck Police permission to search his property.  A .32 caliber revolver that matched the description the man gave was found under the front seat of Collins’ car.

Collins was charged with aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and terroristic threats.  He was released on his own recognizance.

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The Return of Corzine Democrats…..and Whitman Republicans

Photo Credit: NJ.com

Governor Chris Christie has taken to the town hall stump declaring that the Corzine Democrats are back.

“In the last couple weeks, we’ve seen an ugly type of Democrat start to rear its head again,” Christie said during a town hall last week. “I think you thought you had slayed this type of Democrat in 2009 — that you had taken the wooden stake and out it through this type of democrats heart. But I am here to tell you today that I fear this type of Democrat has returned to the state legislature. You know what kind of Democrat I’m talking about: A Corzine Democrat.”

The governor will likely expand on the Corzine Democrats theme at his town hall meeting in Brick this afternoon, as he did last evening in his statement about the budget passed by the Democratic State Legislature yesterday:

“With today’s budget, Corzine Democrats reversed course and sent a loud and clear signal that they want to go back to the eight years prior to my administration when taxes and fees were raised every 25 days. After two years without raising taxes, the only way to feed the Corzine Democrats’ obsession is to hold tax relief hostage. I will not allow New Jersey to go back to the same failed policies that nearly put our state over a fiscal cliff. Tax relief for our hardworking families is long overdue and that is exactly what I will continue fighting for.”

But the budget the Democrats passed doesn’t raise taxes once every 25 days.  It doesn’t raise taxes any day.  It also doesn’t reduce income taxes as Christie’s budget proposed.  Nor does it reduce property taxes as the proposal that Senate President Steve Sweeney reneged on would have done.

The budget that the Democrats passed spends $400 million less than the budget Christie proposed.

Christie’s budget would have increased spending 8% with a phased in 10% income tax reduction.  It relies heavily on one shot gimmicks and increased borrowing.  Christie’s revenue projections, which the Democrats have acceptted, are based upon extremely optimistic assumptions that seem to have little grounding in reality. New Jersey’s economy would have to suddenly start growing faster than the rest of the country in order for Christie’s revenue projections to come close.   That sounds a lot like the fiscal cliff that the Whitman/DiFranceso/Bennett Republicans drove New Jersey over in the 1990’s until New Jersey voters kicked them out of power in 2003.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Beachwear Ban On Asbury Park Boardwalk

Asbury Park GOP Chairwoman Louise Murray wants the city to start enforcing an old, but current, ordinance that prohibits citizens from wearing beach attire on the boardwalk, according to a story in the Asbury Park Sun that was picked up by the Star Ledger, NJ 101.5, but not the Asbury Park Press.

Murray made her appeal to the city council during their meeting on June 20:

“I don’t want to go back to 1940 or 1950 but the bottom line is you have on your books an ordinance — no person clad in bathing attire shall be on the boardwalk or public walks adjacent thereto,” Murray said. “Asbury Park was known for being the classiest boardwalk in the summertime. You never went down there unless you were dressed.”

In the past, beachgoers could not walk the boards barefoot without someone telling them to put their shoes on, recalled Murray, who is also a former city councilwoman.

“I’ll be darned if I want to be standing at a bar and have somebody slither up in a Speedo or bikini that shouldn’t be in a bathing suit,” Murray said. “It’s disgraceful … I implore you to enforce this, but do not amend it.”

Deputy Mayor John Loffredo responded, “I honestly don’t disagree with you.”

The ordinance specifically states, “No person clad in bathing attire shall be on the boardwalk or the public walks adjacent thereto.” It also prohibits holes deeper than 12 inches to be dug in the beachfront

Of the 5418 registered voters in Asbury Park, 390 are registered Republicans.  Murray must be trying to expand her base by appealing to the city’s social conservatives and law and order types.

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Dress To Get Wet and Dirty

The Bayshore Watershed Council and the American Littoral Society are conducting a field training for volunteer oil spill spotters, tomorrow, Tuesday, June 26 at 7PM.  The training will be conducted at Bayshore Waterfront Park in the Port Monmouth section of Middletown.

Bayshore Watershed Council Co-Chair Joe Reynolds said, “The Bayshore region is downstream from the Port of NY & NJ, you never know when an oil spill accident will take place. A Spill Spotter volunteer will be the eyes on the water before, during and after an oil spill or other catastrophic pollution event.”

Volunteers will be trained to identify and document coastal wildlife through a biological assessment using serine nets, binoculars and clam rakes.  After the workshop, the trainees will adopt a coastal spot near their homes to monitor throughout the  year.

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Monmouth County Courthouse to reopen Tuesday at 1:30 PM

Officials don’t know what caused illnesses that befell over 70 people

The State Department of Health and Senior Services has given the green light to reopen the Monmouth County Courthouse which was closed last week due to over 70 people falling ill.

Laura Kirkpatrick, Public Information Officer, told MMM that normal court operations will resume on Tuesday, June 26 at 1:30PM.  State and county employees should report to work as instructed by their supervisors.

The announcement from the State Department of Health said that the Courthouse  indoor air tested within normal ranges for chemical and environmental contaminants.  However the announcement did not disclose the cause of the illnesses that occurred on Friday June 15th and again on Monday June 18th. 

Donna Leusner, Director of Communications for the department said that “we don’t know the definitive cause at this time.”

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Jersey Style Appointments and Hearings

Monmouth County Prosecutor Peter E. Warshaw, Jr was nominated by Governor Chris Christie to become a Superior Court Judge on June 14.  The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold his confirmation hearing today.  He is likely to be confirmed by the full Senate before the end of the week, ending his 18 month tenure as county prosecutor.

First Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni is expected to be nominated to replace Warshaw as the chief prosecutor in Monmouth County.  Word in the legal community is that Gramiccioni, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney under Christie, was the governor’s first choice to become Monmouth County Prosecutor in 2010 but that he was 18 months short of the residency requirements.

Former Monmouth County Sheriff Joe Oxley, also former Monmouth GOP Chairman, was nominated to the Court on May 14. Oxley’s confirmation has yet to be scheduled by the Democratically controlled Judiciary Committee, due in part to a Star Ledger report that federal informant Soloman Dwek accused Oxley, Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assemblywoman Amy Handlin of trading favors for campaign contributions.  

Dwek’s allegations were revealed in discovery documents in the civil case of former Hudson County Assemblyman Louis Manzo who unsuccessly sued the U.S. Attorney’s office to recover $100K in legal fees that resulted Manzo’s 2009 Operation Bid Rig indictments. Manzo was accused under the Hobbs Act of accepting bribes from Dwek in exchange for future help in zoning and permit applications should Manzo be elected Jersey City Mayor.  Manzo was running for Mayor for the fifth time when the alleged bribe occurred.  Federal Judge Jose Linares threw out the charges on the basis that the Hobbs Act applied only to elected officials, not candidates.  The Appellate Court affirmed Linares’ ruling.

The discovery documents in Manzo’s civil case miraculously found their way to the Star Ledger in what Kyrillos called an “oppo (opposition research) dump” by U. S. Senator Robert Menedez’s reelection campaign.  Kyrillos is the GOP nominee to unseat Menendez and a minority member of the State Senate Judiciary Committee which reviews judicial nominations.

Expect the Judiciary Committee to schedule Oxley’s confirmation hearing in September or October as the general election campaign is heating up.  Democratic Senator Ray Lesniak has called for Dwek, who is in federal prison, to testify at Oxley’s hearing.  That would put Kyrillos, as a member of the committee and also accused by Dwek of trading favors for contributions, in a hot seat at the height of the U.S. Senate campaign.

In another potential twist in this tangled web, Gramiccioni was one of the federal prosecutors working on the Bid Rig investigations, including Manzo’s, according to Bob Ingle and Michael Symons in Chris Christie: The Inside Story Of His Rise To Power (page 90).  Should Gramiccioni be nominated Monmouth County Prosecutor, as expected, his nomination will also be subject to a Judiciary Committee hearing.

Gramiccioni’s wife, Deborah, is Governor Christie’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Cabinet Liason.

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Media Glare Shining On Monmouth County Court

Monmouth County’s Court is likely to get a great deal of media attention this week…and not because of the contaminants that forced the closure of the Courthouse.

The New York Post picked up the story of Rachel Alintoff’s complaints about the way Judge Paul Escandon is handling her divorce that MMM first reported on May 9.   Nine other women have come forward for the Post’s story, including one woman who fears losing any contact with her children after Escandon altered a custody agreement that had been in place for five years, thereby granting custodial rights to her mobster ex-husband who she fears will end up in the witness protection program or worse.

Alintoff told MMM  that national television media outlets are calling her and the other women about their stories.  She expects the women’s story to be featured on at least one network morning show this week.

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Monmouth Courthouse to remain closed on Monday

The source of the illnesses that befell over 70 people at the Monmouth County Courthouse last week is still unknown and the the Court will remain closed on Monday, according a press release from Monmouth County’s Public Information Office.

Results of the tests performed by officials from the State Department of Health and Senior Services on Thursday and Friday are not yet available.

A New Jersey Judiciary announcement of how the Court will handle emergent matters can be found here.

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Jersey Boys: Christie and Springsteen

Jeffery Goldberg’s account in The Atlantic of the Springsteen concert he attended with Governor Chris Christie and his entourage at The Rock is a must read for friends and foe of Christie.  Mitt Romney’s vetters and the DGA will be reading it.  You might as well.

Hat tip to our friends at InTheLobby.

Christie is having a Town Hall meeting in Brick on Tuesday the 26th, four days before the State’s budget is due or the government shuts down, except for the State Police and the Casino Control Commission.

Bruce is invited but probably won’t show.  You are invited too!

The meeting is at the Lake Riveria Middle School, 171 Beaverson Road, Brick.   It starts and 3PM.  Doors open at 2:15.  RSVP here is you are going.

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