Newark Fraternal Order of Police President Derrick Hatcher cut off negotiations with Mayor Cory Booker on Monday, forcing 167 police layoffs, according to a reports in the Star Ledgerand Bloomberg.com.
Hatcher did not allow his rank and file to vote of the Mayor’s proposals.
Bloomberg quoted union Vice President Walter Melvin blaming the spike in violence in Newark over the Thanksgiving weekend on the impending layoffs:
“The criminal element out there realized this and believed it had already happened,” he said in a telephone interview following Booker’s announcement. “It’s a fallacy to think public safety is not going to be an issue here. Any thinking, logical person can see that.”
That’s right. The police union knowingly chose no sacrifice for its senior members over the jobs of its junior members and over public safety.
This is a perfect example why union membership is inappropriate for government workers. The union leadership now has more impact on public safety in Newark than the Mayor and the police department leadership does.
Booker is closing a $89 million budget deficit. $9.5 million of the deficit will come from the police layoff. 400 civilian employees are also being laid off in Newark.
America’s public-sector unions have transformed the landscape of our political system with major implications for taxpayers. In Shakedown, Steven Malanga shows how unions have aligned themselves with politicians and activists to grow government and increase public spending. The bill for this growth is now coming due, and Malanga chronicles how it has all but bankrupted once-rich states like New Jersey and California. From undermining welfare reform in the 1990’s to the War on Poverty to slashing mortgage standards, Malanga provides a comprehensive summary of how these groups impact you and why we need constructive change more than ever.
Senator Jennifer Beck, Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon and Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande will be hosting the fourth in a series of informational sessions on Governor Christie’s Property Tax Reform Toolkit on Wednesday, December 8th at the regular meeting of the Colts Neck Township Committee at 7:30 p.m
Similar informational presentations have taken place throughout the 12th District in Marlboro, Tinton Falls, and Manalapan. The Legislators give a presentation on how enacting these reforms will benefit municipalities, followed by a question and answer period. All area residents are encouraged to attend and learn more about how these proposed reforms will help make New jersey a more affordable place to live.
My family and friends think my appearance on NJN’s Reporters Roundtable with Michael Aron was wonderful.
My brother emailed me that his wife said I looked good. I responded, “No wonder you love her, she is very generous!” “Yes, she is,” was his reply.
The final broadcast of the first “Bloggers Roundtable” featuring yours truly, Murray Sabrin, and BlueJersey’s Jay Lassiter and Jeff Gardner is at 10AM this morning. NJN is channel 23 on Comcast in Monmouth County. Check your local listings if you have a different TV provider.
If you miss the broadcast you can view the video here.
Written for the first Small Business Saturday in 2010 and reposted
By Art Gallagher
American Express has created a self serving campaign to support small businesses by encouraging shoppers to patronize such establishments tomorrow. Today is known as Black Friday. Monday has become known as Cyber Monday. The two days are the busiest shopping days of the year. Amex wants to make the Saturday after Thanksgiving a new shopping day.
While the goal is laudable, this campaign will serve American Express at the expense of the small businesses they are purporting to support. As most small business owners know, the fees that American Express charge businesses that accept their card are often 50-150% higher than the fees other credit card companies charge.
You’ve probably used and heard the word “happy” more in the last few days than you have all year. How many “Happy Thanksgiving” greetings have you given and received? We’ve entered happy season.
For the rest of the year, and for a few days into next year “happy” will replace “nice” as in “Have a nice day” as our standard hello and good-bye greeting. Really happy people will allow themselves to say and hear “merry.” People who are not so happy will be offended when they hear the “merry” phrase. Those who are moderately happy won’t be offended by hearing merry, unless there is someone else within ear shot that is offended by it. If two or more people who want to say merry but are concerned about offending each other if the say it discover that none of them are offended by merry, they will be happy and jolly, momentarily.
After January 4, you must go back to saying “nice”, unless you’re addressing someone on or about the anniversary of their birth or marriage. Then you can say “happy”, but not “merry.” “Merry” is reserved for the truly happy and only to be used after the 4th Thursday in November.
Why do I say “merry” is reserved for the truly happy? Only a conservative would unapologetically say the merry phrase without concern for PC BS. As Dennis Prager points out in his column, Why Unhappy People Become Liberals, in the National Review Online, conservatives are happy and liberals are not.
Prager identifies four reasons for this phenomena.
1) Liberals view society as out to hurt people. Prager uses racism as an example.
“Take black Americans, for example. It makes perfect sense that a black American who is essentially happy is going to be less attracted to the Left. Anyone who has interacted with black conservatives rarely encounters an angry, unhappy person.
Why?
Because the liberal view on race is that America is a racist society. Therefore, for all intents and purposes, a black American must abandon liberalism in order to be a happy individual. It is very hard, if not impossible, to be a happy person while believing that society is out to hurt you. So, the unhappy black person will gravitate to liberalism and liberalism will in turn make him more unhappy by reinforcing his view that he is a victim.”
2) Life is hard.
“The unhappy gravitate toward the Left for a second reason. Life is hard for liberals and life is hard for conservatives. But conservatives assume that life will always be hard. Liberals, on the other hand, have utopian dreams. At his brother Robert’s funeral, the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy recalled his brother saying: “Some men see things as they are and say, ‘Why?’ I dream things that never were and say, ‘Why not?'”
Utopians will always be less happy than those who know that suffering is inherent to human existence. The utopian compares America to utopia and finds it terribly wanting. The conservative compares America to every other civilization that has ever existed and walks around wondering how he got so lucky as to be born or naturalized an American”
3) Conservatism demands self-reliance, which makes one happy.
“Imagine two Americans living in essentially identical socioeconomic conditions. They earn $45,000 a year, they have the same amount of debt on their homes, and both have the same number of dependents. One seeks governmental assistance wherever possible; the other eschews any governmental help. Which one is likely to be the liberal and which one is likely to be the happier individual?
This is not a question only an oracle can answer. The one who yearns for governmental help is the one who is likely to be both liberal and less happy. Conservatism, which demands self-reliance, makes one happier. The more a man or woman feels like captain of his or her ship (as poor as that ship may be), the happier he or she will be.”
4) Liberals are governed by their feelings. Conservatives know that behavior, not feelings, is what matters and that to be truly happy, one must govern their feelings.
“A fourth explanation for greater unhappiness among liberals is that the more people allow feelings to govern them, the less happy they will be. And the further left one goes, the more importance one attaches to feelings.
It is liberal educators and liberal parents who have clamored for protecting young people from the pain of losing games. The liberal world came up with the idea of giving trophies to kids who lose; they don’t want their children feeling bad. Conservatives, on the other hand, teach their kids how to lose well. They are less worried about their children feeling bad.
Those who know that feelings must not govern us, but that we must govern our feelings, are far more likely to be happy people.”
Prager concludes that given his thesis, defeating the Left is amazingly simple.
There is an amazingly simple way to defeat the Left: Raise children who are grateful to be American, who don’t complain, who can handle losing, and who are guided by values, not feelings. In other words, teach them how to be happy adults.
Prager’s right, but his solution will take a least a generation.
In the meantime, encourage all people to be happy and merry. This is the perfect time of year to do it. The Lefties won’t even notice.
I was privileged to join Murray Sabrin along with BlueJersey’s Jay Lassiter and Jeff Gardner as panelists on Michael Aron’s Reporters Roundtable on NJN.
The video is just under 27 minutes long. The show will be broadcast on television Friday evening at 7PM and Sunday at 10am.
I’m looking forward to being with family today, even if it means several hours of driving round trip. Last year much of my extended family was scattered geographically during the holidays. As I look forward to sharing today with them I realise how much I missed them throughout the past year.
Thank you for being a MMM reader. Five years ago when I started musing on the Internet, I never imagined I would have the voice I have today. Thank you for that.
If you need a respite from food or football today, check out NJN’s Reporters Roundtable with Michael Aron, featuring Jay Lassiter and Jeff Gardner of BlueJersey, Murray Sabrin, and yours truly. I’m thankful that NJN posted the show early. It will be broadcast on TV Friday at 7PM and Sunday at 10AM. Channel 23 on Comcast locally. Maybe a commenter will post the Cablevision channel in the comments.
The link to the Reporters Roundtable video is here.
Governor Chris Chrisite dissed former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin last night during his appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Asked by Fallon if he thought Palin could be President, Christie shook his head and said, “It’s an amazing world.” Fallon followed up with “Crazier things have happened?” Christie said, “I don’t know, it’s an amazing world.”
Christie’s dislike of Palin has been well known in Republican circles for quite some time. He did not invite her to participate in his successful gubernatorial campaign last year and he instructed New Jersey’s Republican congressional candidates this year that his support was contingent upon Palin not being invited to New Jersey. Palin cancelled an appearance in Ocean County for Jon Runyan during the last week of the 2010 campaign.
His slight of Palin during the Fallon show was the first public show of dislike between the national Republcian “rock stars.”
My family and friends think my appearance on NJN’s Reporters Roundtable with Michael Aron was wonderful.