I recently saw a article written by Congressman Frank Pallone that demanded my response. Headlines “GOP reforms would break covenant ”
In that story Pallone berated the budget plan prepared by Congressman Ryan as he felt that it dealt too harshly with Medicare reforms. The first thing he does is to resort to fear mongering and scare tactics aimed at seniors and then the blame game.
The headline should have said ” Obamacare will Bankrupt the Country.”
Last year Pallone and his gang, for the first time in our history failed to pass a Budget even though they controlled all three branches of the government. Instead they kicked the problem to the next guy. How courageous of him. Congressman what may I ask is your solution to our staggering 14 Trillion dollar debt. Where is your plan or is it more convenient to just second guess the guy who actually has a plan. If we follow your history it’s to give sweet heart deals to the unions, Give phony cost numbers to the GAO so as to give Obamacare a high score. Give waivers to over 1000 unions and businesses to opt out of your Healthcare scam once they find the real cost.
Congressman the country is broke, how are you going to fix it. Don’t worry folks, Pallone knows how to work the system. Ask him how his wife got a cozy job with the EPA paying over $144,000,00 and a pension just after Obama’s election. They say “To the victor belongs the Spoil’s ” well these spoils are rotten. The job even has a fancy title Deputy Associate Administrator of Intergovernmental Relations of the EPA. This is the same out of control agency that has stopped oil drilling , closed down clean coal operations and is killing our manufacturing base with overzealous regulations.
Is Common Sense Decision Making A New Trend? Don’t Count On it!
By Art Gallagher
The New Jersey Department of Transportation completed its engineering study into the feasibility of allowing commercial trucks to travel the Garden State Parkway north of exit 105 with lightning speed.
The Asbury Park Press reported that the department’s engineers were studying the issue on Saturday. By Monday afternoon, Transportation Commissioner James Simpson announced that the truck ban would continue. The department’s engineers had concluded that there were significant engineering issues that would prevent even a preliminary consideration of the idea.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if common sense decision making was at work throughout our various governments as it apparently is in the Department of Tranporation. How much more affordable would New Jersey be if our leaders could do or not do something without first performing expensive studies simply because the answer is obvious.
Isn’t it obvious that it doesn’t make sense to pay men and women in the prime of the lives generous pensions for the last 30, 40, or 50 years of their lives while they pursue new careers either in or out of government “service?” Isn’t it obvious that paying for health benefits for those men or women and their families for life is not sustainable fiscal policy?
Isn’t it obvious that paying elected officials a pension and a salary for the same job, while they are in the job, is ludicrous?
Isn’t it obvious that it is wasteful and inequitable to pay someone who worked part-time for 20 years a full time pension if they work full time for 5 years at the end of their career.
Isn’t it obvious that the Abbott District experiment didn’t work?
Isn’t obvious that government employees having civil service protection and union contracts is overkill?
Isn’t obvious that guaranteeing a teacher lifetime job protection after three years gives no incentive to that teacher to preform exceptionally?
The audit into Ex- Brookdale President Peter Burnham’s spending irregularities has revealed questionable reimbursements in the amount of $48,109.75. Brookdale plans to file suit against Burnham. Burnham’s retirement funds have been frozen by the Treasury Department. The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office is investigating. All of this according to the Asbury Park Press.
Brookdale has already spent $12,500 on the audit. Legal fees to date likely add up to several thousand dollars more, not to mention the cost of the prosecutors.
Unless there is reasonable suspicion of a great deal more of inappropriate expenditures, and there might be….an earlier APP article that is no longer on their site said construction of athletic facilities was being investigated…, the Brookdale Board of Trustees should consider settling this matter and putting the controversy in the past.
Spending more money on audits and litigation than on what was misappropriated would be stupid and wasteful. That money would be better spent on new management controls to ensure that similar misappropriations don’t occur in the future.
Campaign Treasurer Claims 2011 Donations and Expenses Are Not Included–Disclosure Not Required
By Art Gallagher
The fledgling campaign of Anna Little to unseat Congressman Frank Pallone raised no money in the first quarter of this year, spent $5,600 of campaign funds left over from last year and has $1966.00 cash on hand, according to Little’s FEC Form 3, Record of Receipts And Disbursements, filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday.
The campaign owes its manager, Larry Cirignano, $2,123 and Little $700.00.
The $5,600 spent was for fundraising, accounting, rent and phone bills, according to the report.
Little’s $1000 sponsorship of the Bayshore Tea Party’s St. Patrick’s Day Celebration featuring guest speaker James O’Keefe was not reported. The sponsorship check was drawn on the account of Anna C. Little for Congress Inc. and dated March 11, 2011. Bayshore Tea Party founder Barbara Gonzalez verified that the check cleared.
Also not reported, either in this week’s filing nor in Little’s final 2010 report, was any expenditure for the campaign’s election night gathering at the Shore Casino.
Asked about the missing expenditures, Cirignano told MoreMonmouthMusings, “I don’t know anything about it.”
In an email to previous donors during the last week of March, Cirignano asked supporters to donate as much as they could by March 31 in order that Little’s report would have an impressive showing in the amount of individual donors, if not in the amount of money raised.
Little for Congress Treasurer Jane Frotton said that this week’s report applies to the 2010 campaign only. “Anna has not formally announced or filed that she is running in 2012,” said Frotten, “our expert in Washington said we don’t have to disclose 2011-2012 receipts or expenditures because we haven’t filed and because we have not raised enough money.” Frotten said the Bayshore Tea Party sponsorship was a 2011-2012 expenditure that is not required to be disclosed yet.
Frotton said the Shore Casino bill was “paid by somebody else. There is a $250 balance due that I haven’t paid yet.” When asked if the Shore Casino bill was reported as an inkind contribution or if the $250 balance due was reported as a debt, Frotton said “no.”
NJ.com blogger Paul Mulshine has a piece today criticising the Tea Party movement for not waging primaries against “safe” Republican state legislators. Add Mulshine to the list of so called conservatives who can’t count.
After the general election last year I was alarmed by the “RINO hunting” rhetoric I was hearing from activists I had come to know as volunteers for the Little campaign. Locally and nationally, the Tea Party efforts were focused on defeating Democrats with conservative Republicans. Why would we now focus our energy on defeating Republicans? Waging Republican primaries to compete for seats held by Democrats made sense last year. Putting “safe” Republican seats at risk doesn’t make sense. Not when we’re the minority party.
We live in a state dominated by a Democratic legislature. Defeating well known and well liked “safe” incumbents in primaries would those “safe seats” in play. Democrats would dedicate resources to winning those seats if they were “vacant.” Rather than “RINO hunting” the Tea Party activists would be wise to continue their efforts to defeating Democrats. Leave the RINO hunting until after we’ve won a majority.
That’s the advise I gave the Tea Party leaders who would listen to me back in November. I’m grateful that many heard the message, whether they heard it from me or somebody else.
Mulshine is making light of the Tea Parties having a convention and training sessions this weekend because without primaries the training won’t weaken the Republicans chances to pick up seats in November.
Some Tea Parties are making noise about waging third party campaigns. If that is the agenda and result of the convention than the organizers are crazier than Mulshine. Third party conservative campaigns in “safe” Republican districts will increase the Democrats chances of expanding their majority.
If the point of the Tea Party Convention is to make inroads into Democratic districts, then their efforts will be well spent.
Norine Kelly of Howell Township passed away yesterday after a long and courageous battle with cancer.
Mrs. Kelly was a dedicated community leader in Monmouth County and her beloved Howell Township. She served as the Vice-Chair of the Monmouth GOP, Chair of the Howell GOP, and on the Monmouth County Board of Elections.
She was the first President of the Southard School Parent Teachers Association. She served on the Howell Board of Education and the Howell Economic Development Committee.
Our thought and prayers are with Norine’s family.
Visitation will be Friday, April 15, from 3-5PM and from 7-9PM at the Clayton-McGirr Funeral Home in Freehold. A Funeral Mass will take place on Saturday, April 16 at the Church of Saint Veronica, Route 9 North, Howell at 9:30 AM.
The Bergenfield High School Class of ’76 had its 35th year reunion this past weekend. Thanks to facebook I’ve reconnected with many friends from my youth and attended my first reunion since graduation.
I suppose the good news is that I wasn’t the heaviest or the grayest member of my class in attendence. It was fun catching up with and remembering so many old friends. It felt odd pretending to remember others.
There were two people I got reacquainted with at the reunion that reminded me of how much the world has changed in 35 years.
I don’t remember who was designated “most likely to succeed” in my high school year book. The guy who succeeded is Glenn. He retired a year ago from the Bergenfield Police Department. His take home pay from his pension is $20 per month less than it was when he was working, so he says. He’s now a full time dad to his 10 year old son.
Bob probably should have been voted most likely to succeed back in 1976. I knew from facebook that Bob became a medical doctor, which impressed me. Seeing Bob on Saturday night for the first time in 35 years I congratulated him on his success. “You’re a doctor!” I said. “I have a family practice,” Bob said, without an ounce of pride or joy.
Family practitioners are small business owners. Bob and I had more in common than I realized. Life was sweet for us five years ago. Our educations and hard work were paying off and the future looked bright and comfortable. Now we are both facing a great deal of uncertainty and second guessing the choices we made decades ago. We’re getting squeezed by institutions we can’t afford to fight and by circumstances beyond our control.
The choices Glenn made look pretty good in hindsight.
Now that the Monmouth Democrats don’t have a candidate officially running for Senate in the 13th district, maybe they should take a page from the Burlington County Democrats and get a celebrity to run. In case you missed it, former Olympian and former music video star Carl Lewis is running for Senate as a Democrat in the 8th legislative district.
As much as I would like to see Tea Party Democrat Mark Falzon muck up the works by waging a write in campaign for the 13th Democratic Senate nod, the district has numerous celebrity residents that would make terrible candidates but be great for blog traffic.
Bruce Springsteen has recently become a policy wonk. The anti-poverty activist has estates in Rumson and Colts Neck. If he’s registered to vote in Rumson he can run in the 13th. If Bruce is registered to vote in Colts Neck, we’ll know who the third vote is for Democratic Township Committee candidate, our friend Rick Ambrosia, is in November.
Film maker Kevin Smith hails from Highlands.
Drummer and real estate developer Max Weinberg was a trustee of the Monmouth Conservation Foundation before subdividing his Middletown estate.
Is there no liberal hypocrite willing to challenge Kyrillos?
The potty mouth pundit says he supports incumbent Mary Pat Angelini, in large measure due to her pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage positions and that he is considering a challenge to Caroline Casagrande.
In his publisher’s message last week Jacobson said he supported Angelini because she was pro-choice and pro-gay marriage.
MMM has learned that Angelini is pro-life and that she voted against restoring Planned Parenthood’s funding that was cut from the state budget last year. We regret the error and promise to fact check the triCityNews in the future.
