Earthquake Felt In Monmouth County

A rare east coast earthquake struck this afternoon.  Conflicting news reports  say the epicenter was in Washington, DC, Virginia, and North Carolina.

There are reports that the quake has been experienced in New York, Boston and Cleveland

One MMM reader from Highlands reported her home shaking for over 30 seconds at 1:55 PM

If you have something to report about the earthquake, please do so in the comments.

From USGS:

• This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

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Linker and Irace On The Real Jersey Guys Radio Show

By Art Gallagher

Ian Linker is the only declared Republican candidate for the nomination to challenge U.S. Senator Robert Menendez in the 2012 election.  The attorney who resides in Bergen County wrote an Op-Ed piece on education reform that goes a step further than State Senator Mike Doherty’s proposal in bringing equality to New Jersey’s education funding.

Linker is embracing the the New Jersey Parental Rights Act, legislation sponsored by Morris County Assemblymen Anthony Bucco and Michael Patrick Carroll which would grant scholarships or vouchers directly to parents of school age children to use at the school of their choice.  Linker is also calling for the elimination of teacher tenure and wasteful duplication is school administration.

Former Senator Dick LaRossa and I will be talking to Linker about his proposal and his candidacy for U.S. Senate.

Oceanport Councilman Joe Irace is probably the best known councilman in Monmouth County, if not all of New Jersey.  Without a doubt he is the best know councilman in Trenton.  Unlike many politicians, the media savy Irace does not use his social media and public relations skills to promote himself.  He uses the media to generate support  for and interest in the multitude of challenges that the small Borough of Oecanport has faced since he has been an elected official.  From Fort Monmouth to Monmouth Park and the Horse Racing Industry, Irace is an effective and outspoken leader for the interests of Oceanport.  He has stood up to and often frustrated powerful special interests and Trenton insiders.

Irace will be joining us at 5:30 for the second half hour of the show.

The LaRossa and Gallagher: Real Jersey Guys On The Radio Show is broadcast every Tuesday from 5PM till 6PM on WIFI 1460 AM and on the Internet here.   The show is sponsored by Repatriot Radio.

You are welcome to join the show with your questions and comments.  The numbers to call in our 609-447-0236 and 609-447-0237.

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Fodder For The Christie For President Buzz

By Art Gallagher

Despite his repeated and colorful denials of interest, the Republican calls for and media speculation about Governor Chris Christie entering the 2012 Presidential race is not going away.

In large measure that is because Christie doesn’t seem as though he wants it to go away. 

“No, I’m not running.  I don’t know what to do short of suicide to convince you that I’m not running. Oh, and thanks for asking, I’m really flattered that you are asking, again and again and again, and that you’re willing to raise hundreds of millions of dollars if I change my mind, but I’m not changing my mind.”   That’s an invitation to keep asking.  It’s a tease.   “No, I won’t do it under any circumstances.  I’m not ready. But ask me again.”

By most accounts, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels really wanted to run for president.  Yet, when he announced that he wasn’t running because he didn’t want to put his family through a presidential campaign, Republican rain makers and the media stopped asking him to run or if there was any chance that he would reconsider.

That’s obviously not the case with Christie.

As I said in my radio conversation with Bob Ingle last week, the only way I can see Christie running is if his wife Mary Pat becomes convinced that another four years of President Obama would have a more detrimental impact on the lives of the Christie children than a Christie presidency would have, and if New Jersey’s First Lady became convinced that Obama was likely to be reelected if her husband didn’t run against him.

As rehearsed and coached as the Christie family appeared in their Piers Morgan interview, after viewing it I was convinced they had made a family decision that Christie wouldn’t run in 2012.  I admired their family unity.  I admired a marriage that puts the children first.

Yet, why do an interview like that if you’re not running for national office?

I stopped taking the Christie for President buzz seriously after the Morgan interview. Karl Rove’s vibrations about Christie after Texas Governor Rick Perry stole the limelight from Michele Bachman didn’t make me think Christie was running.  Ross Douthat’s  New York Times columns, here and here didn’t make me think Christie would run.   The Daily Caller and Weekly Standard reports that Christie and Congressman Paul Ryan made an pact that one of them would run made me wonder just a bit.

Something happened today that made me wonder if Christie isn’t getting ready to run.  It wasn’t the news that Ryan’s not running, according to The Weekly Standard.

Four times today the Christie’s press office sent out email announcements to the press about something Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno is doing, including a video.   Usually Guadagno’s public appearances are included in the daily itinerary for the Governor that the press office sends out with little additional mention, if any.  Today’s activity was unusual.

The Governor and his team are extraordinarily disciplined.  It’s rare that something happens for no reason.  If the Governor’s office is intentionally raising Guadagno’s public profile, there is a reason for it.

It makes me wonder if Mary Pat is getting concerned about the Republican field of presidential candidates, our country, and her children’s future.

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Measley Issues Apology To Lautenberg. Challenges The Senator To Turn His Wealth Over To U.S. Treasury

Charles Measley, the 21 year-old Brookdale grad and Rumson GOP committeeman, who created a media storm last week with his “We must eliminate the rich” graphics on a YouTube video of U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg’s remarks in Belmar, issued the following statement this afternoon:

On August 14th I filmed and uploaded a video of Senator Frank Lautenberg speaking on the boardwalk in Belmar, NJ. The video, which was uploaded to YouTube, featured the Senator calling on “the rich” to pay more taxes. The Senator stated that “there’s another place to get your money, and it’s to get it from people like me.”  This argument has become an all-too-familiar refrain from the super-elite worth more than $50 million, as is Senator Lautenberg.

Towards the end of the video I misunderstood what the senator was saying. I thought the Senator at one point said “eliminate the rich.” However, after others brought up concerns regarding the video, I examined the footage more carefully and have since determined that the Senator did not say “eliminate the rich.” Rather, he muddled what sounds like a mix of the words “ways” and “waste.”

I would like to formally apologize for misunderstanding and misquoting the senator.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg is not against the presently rich; he is against people becoming rich, lest they become part of his exclusive club. Those who are super-rich, like the senator, are worth millions of dollars. The Senator can afford to live off the $50 Million he has amassed over his 50-year political career and doesn’t need any new income streams. Raising income taxes on the super-rich like Senator Lautenberg would not affect people like the Senator because they have already accumulated their wealth.

Rather, raising the income tax rate prevents individuals in the middle class from becoming rich like Senator Lautenberg. It does this by taking away their means to become rich and that is bytaxing their income.

Senator Lautenberg has been an unfailing member of the class warfare party (i.e. Democrats) for half a century and in that time he has become extremely wealthy on the backs of the middle class. Yet his policies and those of his party have resulted in nothing but the near-complete prevention of middle class Americans achieving the American Dream.

I challenge Senator Lautenberg to write a check to the U.S. Treasury for $50 million dollars. His Senate salary, together with the Social Security he collects, should be plenty off of which to live. Millions of less fortunate Americans do it every single day.

In closing, while Senator Lautenberg may not have actually said “eliminate the rich”, by his policies he has prevented untold numbers of hard-working Americans from becoming rich like him. “Preventing” and “eliminating” in this sense, are one and the same.

 

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Lautenberg Video Goes Viral Then Gets Corrected Or Pulled

By Art Gallagher

When John Shoonejongen of Gannett’s Captial Quickies listened to the video of Senator Frank Lautenberg’s  remarks in Belmar on Wednesday he heard the senator say “we need to eliminate the waste,” not, “we need to eliminate the rich.”

By the time Shoonejongen got second and third opinons and talked to the Asbury Park Press reporter who was at the Belmar event and told him  “Lautenberg definately said waste,” the video had gone viral.  In addition to MMM, Save Jersey, Real Clear Politics and FoxNews.com had picked it up.

Shoonejongen posted on Captial Quickies that the type, “We need to eliminate the rich,” was inaccurate and that Lautenberg said, “we need to eliminate the waste.”  Throughout the electronic media, websites started issuing corrections and pulling the video.  It’s my turn.

Upon a second listening, Lautenberg said “we need to eliminate the waste, we got to eliminate the fraudulent practice.  I didn’t listen closely enough the first time.

MMM has pulled the video and the post it appeared in.  We’re not doing so to hide our mistake which we freely admit to, but to prevent a future reader from going directly to the post through search and thereby not seeing this correction.

Charles Measley, the Rumson GOP Committeeman, Bayshore Tea Party activist and MMM advertiser who shot and edited the video told MMM, “I heard him (Lautenberg) say rich and that was consistent with the context of his remarks, but I’m not 100% sure now that I got it right.”

Lautenberg’s communications director Caley Gray said, “It is very clear that the Senator said waste.  Do you really think he would say ‘eliminate the rich?’  It is pathetic that someone tried to mislead the public over something so obvious.”

MMM apologises to Senator Lautenberg.

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What does it take for Trenton to move on VLT’s?

By Joe Irace, Oceanport Councilman, delivered as remarks at a council meeting on August 18th

Yesterday’s announcement by Perretti Farms, the largest standardbred
breeder in New Jersey, that they are putting up the “for sale” sign and
closing shop in the state is the latest blow to our racing industry.  Mr.
Perretti had made it clear in the past that Trenton needed to change their
way of thinking in order to allow our farms a chance to compete with the
surrounding states.  Once again, slot machines, VLT’s or a gaming casino in
the Meadowlands would have been the answer to keep Perretti Farms not only
viable, but successful.  What becomes of Peretti Farms one can only wonder,
Mc Mansions, condos, strip malls?

Yesterday’s news led Assemblywoman Connie Wagner of Bergen County to become the latest member of Trenton to call for VLT’s in the Meadowlands.
Assemblyman Ralph Caputo was quoted in the paper a day earlier calling for
the same.  Our District 12 Representatives Senator Jennifer Beck, Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon and Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande have been vocal for years on this yet it continues to be held up by parochial politics and not common sense.

More Monmouth Musings blog says that over 100 farms are listed as for
sale at bargain basement prices in New Jersey.  Where does it end?  As Perretti closes and takes 30 fulltime jobs and countless ancillary jobs away from the state what more does it take for Trenton to move on VLT”s?

As we know from our own experience with Fort Monmouth, the last thing New
Jersey needs is additional strip malls and more housing.  I urge all our
elected representatives to bring this issue up for a vote in the Assembly
and Senate.  Every day we waste hurts our farms, race tracks, horsemen and
most importantly the taxpayers of New Jersey.

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Dustin Racioppi Leaving RedBankGreen

Prolific Reporter Is Joining The Asbury Park Press

Dustin Racioppi is taking his considerable talent to The Asbury Park Press.  Hopefully the creative and entrepreneurial scribe will not be stifled by the suits at Gannett.

“Hopefully I won’t become a “Nudnik'”, said Dustin when confirming his move.

In his two years at RedBankGreen Dustin demonstrated an enviable ability to report local events from car accidents to council meetings with a compelling flair that kept readers coming back for more.  He contributed mightly to the impressive growth of RBG and to the emergence of the “hyber-local” news business that the corporate media giants are now unwittingly attempting to homogenize.

Focus is a key to Dustin’s success. He lived and breathed his beat of Red Bank, Fair Haven, Rumson and Middletown.  Last year while preparing to cover Congressman Frank Pallone’s office hours in Long Branch, I reached out to Dustin to see if he was going to cover it.  “Long Branch is Jupiter to us,” was his response.

I was surprised when I first heard that Dustin was leaving RBG.  While preparing to move MMM to this domain from the old blogspot site I sent a feeler out to Dustin about joining me.  “I love working for John Ward,” was his immediate response.  That was obvious from the quality of his work.

And Ward, owner/publisher of RBG, obviously loved having Dustin work for him.  In an “Help Wanted” ad for reporters on RBG, Ward says:

We’re interested in teaming up with people who can quickly gather information and shape it into brief stories that are factually solid and fair, yet more than mere stenography. A distinctive and confident writer’s voice, or a desire to develop one, is a must. So is a broad range of interests, from the arts to public policy to business. The ability to take a decent photograph is a big plus. Wannabes, whiners and prima donnas: please don’t waste our time. We’re interested in working only with those who demonstrate entrepreneurial energy and focus on what needs to be done. Yeah, they sound boring, but they’re the most fun to be around. And we do have fun here.

In other words, John is looking to clone Dustin.   Not an easy person to find, as I have learned over the last year. If you’re out there and love politics more than sprinkling fire hydrants or fireworks shows, call me first, or last.

Dustin’s move comes at a difficult time for RBG as it faces competition for advertising dollars from the patch.com sites and perhaps The Two River Times.  Two weeks ago, Dan Jacobson reported in the triCityNews that TRT’s new publisher Ellen McCarthy was planning to convert the weekly paper’s website to an active news site with daily updates.  If McCarthy has started doing so, I haven’t noticed.  It’s probably still in the planning stages.  Diane Gooch is still listed as publisher on the TRT site, an indication that they haven’t gotten to working on the website yet.

MMM wishes the best for Dustin at APP, and for Ward and RBG.  While we’re at it, we wish the best for McCarthy and TRT and we pray the Neptune Nudniks learn from Dustin rather than trying to train him into a dead tree scribe.  The more quality sources of local information available the better for all of us in this Internet age.  I’m pretty sure Ward knows that.  Maybe the Nudni’s are beginning to figure that out, but probably not.  Jacobson doesn’t care.  Only Dan knows how to make dead trees sing.

We don’t wish Patch well so much.  We’d love them if they put out a consistently quality product, but that’s difficult if not impossible to do with part-time writers working for an extra $50-$100 per week.  In the mean time they’re only mucking up the revenue side of the business.  Patch’s only hope long term is for AOL/Ariann Huffington to pay Ward, Jacobson or me hundreds of millions of dollars and then leave us alone to do what we want to do. 

Not likely to happen.

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Christie And Cuomo Direct Port Authority To Scale Back Toll Hikes

Governors Chris Christie of New Jersey and Andrew Cuomo of New York sent a joint letter to Port Authority Chairman David Samson and Vice Chairman Stanley Grayson today directing that the toll and fare increases the authority proposed two weeks ago be scaled back and that a comprehensive audit of the capital plan and operations take place.

A copy of the governors’ letter can be found here.

Christie and Cuomo said that their commissioners were able to identify $5 billion in savings within the capital plan over the last two weeks. 

Imagine what they could have found if they weren’t in a hurry.

Tolls for cars on the Hudson River crossings will increase by $1.50 in September and then $.75 in December in each year from 2012-2015.  The Port Authority’s proposal would have raised these tolls by $4.00 in September. Overall tolls on cars will increase by $4.50 over the next five years rather than the $6.00 PANYNJ proposed over four years.

Drivers paying cash rather than using EZ Pass will pay a $2.00 penalty.

Tolls on trucks using EZ Pass will increase by $2.00 per axle in September, and then an additional $2.00 per year per axle starting in December, 2012-2015.

Trucks paying cash will pay the same increases, plus $3.00 per axle.

Fares on the PATH trains will increase $.25 per year for the next four years.

The governors said that these increases would stop the fiscal crisis at Port Authority and allow for the completion of the World Trade Center and hundreds of other projects that “will ensure the safety and economic viability of a transportation system that millions of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans rely on.”

This toll deal, since the Port Authority’s initial announcement through today’s joint letter by the governors is just too cute for my liking.

Why institute five years worth of toll increases before the comprehensive audit is completed?  What happens if the audit reveals another $5 billion in savings?  Will tolls be reduced by another $2.50 like the governors were able to reduce the proposed increases with $5 billion in savings discovered in two weeks?  Who will conduct the audit?  Is prevailing wage on the table for reform? Will the audit be made public?  How long will the audit take to complete?

If there is a real fiscal crisis at PANYNJ with a possibility of defaulting on bonds, a more reasonable alternative would have been to grant temporary toll and fare increases, for six months to a year, until the audit could be completed, studied and money saving reforms implemented.

The fact that this fiasco happened during two weeks in August while so many people are vacationing before the back to school rush increases my cynicism and disappointment.  It makes me fear what might be in store for us during the last two weeks of December and during the lame duck session of the legislature.

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Wisniewski’s Policies Cause Credit Downgrade

Assembly candidate Shane Robinson and LG Kim Guadagno. That's a light fixture over Guadagno's head. She's not wearing a crown.

By Shane Robinson

Yesterday, Fitch downgraded New Jersey’s credit rating from AA to AA-. The reasons they cited were unfunded pension and benefit liabilities, a structurally imbalanced state budget, and reserve balances that “are expected to remain narrow, offering limited flexibility to absorb unforeseen needs.”This is just the most recent example of how New Jersey cannot afford to continue electing politicians like John Wisniewski any longer. Mr. Wisniewski and his colleagues have been standing in the way of important reforms that would help get our state back on a sound financial footing. His tax and spend policies have bankrupted our state, and have made New Jersey an increasingly unaffordable state to live in. People are leaving New Jersey in droves, because of the cost of living, lack of jobs, and the unwillingness of certain Trenton politicians to take the necessary steps to fix what ails our state.

It has become very clear that John Wisniewski doesn’t have the right solutions for New Jersey. Maybe he’s too busy with his job as state Democrat Party Chairman to see how much New Jersey working families are struggling or to come up with anything that puts New Jerseyans back to work. We need leaders who are going to fight every day for an affordable state. We need leaders who understand that in order to help New Jersey’s families, we have to keep their taxes low, stop spending money we don’t have, and make it easier for businesses to operate and stay in New Jersey.

It’s time for some new blood in Trenton. John Wisniewski represents the old tax, spend, and tax again policies that have failed our state and caused our credit rating to be downgraded. I’m running for the New Jersey State Assembly because I understand what New Jerseyans have been going through, and will fight to make New Jersey affordable again.

Shane Robinson is a GOP candidate for Assembly from the 19th Legislative District.

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How Much You Want For That Assembly Seat?

By Dan Jacobson, also published in the August 18 edition of the triCityNews

When you’re running for office in America, there’s the inevitable question about the seriousness of your campaign:

 How much money are you going to raise?

People are now starting to ask that about me. Because I’m running for the state Assembly as an Independent. And I’ve been getting lots of attention lately by bluntly stating my positions in this space. Exactly as I’ve always done as Publisher of the triCityNews.

In fact, serving as an Assemblyman would be an extension of my work as a journalist. It would provide another platform for my advocacy at the state level. But most rewarding would be how I’d hold the office – with complete independence to say and do what I want. I’d owe no one. And I completely reject politics as we know it today.

Yeah, I admit it. I have some big ambitions here. I want to break the mold of politics in this state.

And that starts with my campaign.

Of course, I’d love to do the actual work of an Assemblyman. But I’m certainly not obsessed with getting elected. And that obsession is what I can’t stand about politicians. I can’t even listen to candidates anymore. It’s too infuriating. In fact, politics today is downright cheesy. I think it’s demeaning to those running. It’s actually embarrassing to watch.  

So whether it’s glad-handing at political events, handing out the same old campaign literature, mouthing the typical bullshit or getting caught up in the money chase – I’m rejecting it all. Yup, I won’t do it. And I don’t give a shit. If that’s the only way to win, then I don’t win. No problem. I don’t want the office any other way. I don’t want to be a cheesy politician.

Which brings me back to fundraising.

“Dan will wake some people up,” said powerful Republican blogger Art Gallagher on his More Monmouth Musings blog about my candidacy recently. “But unless he raises and spends some serious money, he will not be a factor.”

Art may indeed be right. The major party candidates, backed by their state party organizations, have been known to spend over $1 million in hotly contested legislative districts. Of course, everyone knows what that money represents – and where it comes from. It’s gross. I know firsthand. I was in such a race 20 years ago in my late 20s when I won one term in the state Assembly. Never again. It’s disgusting.

Look, I’ve stated flat-out that I don’t expect to win. No Independent in New Jersey has won an Assembly seat in 50 years. So the odds are overwhelmingly against me. And conventional wisdom says that you’ve got to raise serious money to be a serious candidate.

Then again, I’m not a conventional guy, and I’ve always rejected conventional thought. I make my own judgments. And I would not run if I didn’t at least think I could win. It is possible.

This is a five candidate race featuring two Republicans, two Democrats and me. We are competing for the two Assembly seats in the 11^th District. Voters can vote for up to two candidates. I may get only 10 percent of the vote. Or I may win by 10 votes. Maybe I’ll lose by 10 votes. Perhaps I’ll come in first by 1,000 votes.

I really don’t care. That’s the liberating part. I know exactly how I want to run this campaign. And I know exactly how I’d serve if elected. That’s all set in stone. There’s no deviating from it.

That means winning or losing is out of my hands. As it should be – because I won’t change who I am or what I say to affect the outcome. Got no interest in doing so. That’s why this campaign may have a special resonance with voters if they pick up on it.

My beliefs are united by one thing – a knee-jerk reaction against the concentration of power, wherever it may be found. That includes government employee unions who use mandatory dues to elect those sitting across the bargaining table. That includes powerful corporations that get government favors instead of competing in the free market. It also includes big media – my disgust with the Gannett-owned Asbury Park Press is well-documented. And it includes political parties who order elected officials what to do. I recoil against it all.

As for social issues, I’m pro-choice and in favor of same sex marriage. Government should not be involved in such private matters.

By the way, there will be some money spent on this campaign. I’m not disclosing how much. That will eventually be on the campaign finance reports. But it will certainly not be considered “serious money”.  Yup, I want to be that cheap. I’ll owe no one.

Keep in mind, however, that there are two things I know quite well: Communications and politics. In the end, I say my unconventional campaign – run purposely on the cheap – will have as much punch as a conventional one spending $100,000.

Still, is that enough for an Independent to win? Probably not. But it’s not impossible.

So why do this at all?

Here’s my motivation: It would be tremendously satisfying to win this campaign by saying exactly what I think. Literally not changing one word. I’ve never seen that done before. What an accomplishment that would be!

That, in turn, would lead to the most professionally rewarding experience possible in government: Holding an elected office without owing anyone. After running a campaign where you told voters the truth.

That’s the fantasy of all decent people who’d like to serve in public office. And that’s the only way I’m willing to do it.

(The 11^th District where I’m running includes: Asbury Park, Long Branch, Red Bank, Ocean Township, Neptune, Neptune City, Interlaken, Deal, Allenhurst, Loch Arbour, West Long Branch, Eatontown, Shrewsbury Borough, Shrewsbury Township, Tinton Falls, Colts Neck, Freehold Township and Freehold Borough.)

Editors note: All candidates for any office are welcome to submit material to MMM.  You don’t even have to be a candidate for office to submit.  As long as I think your stuff will be of interest to my readers, I’ll probably publish it, unless it needs more than 30 seconds worth of editing.  If your stuff needs lots of editing, I probably won’t open your second email.

If you quote me and stroke my ego, your chances of publication are very good.  Send to Artvg at aol dot com.

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