Pigs Squeal

School Superintendents who stand to take pay cuts and loss of generous perks when Governor Chris Christie’s pay caps take effect are starting to squeal like pigs in the press.

Bloomberg has an article this morning, Christie Attack on Pay Enrages N.J. Republican Towns `Bullied’ by Governor. 

Bloomberg must be sharing their headline writers with the Asbury Park Press. The article doesn’t report on enraged Republican towns.  It quotes a superintendent that will take a pay cut, McGreevey’s education commissioner,  and a school board member from Franklin Lakes.  Senator Ray Lesniak was quoted as saying that superintendents will “convey the message to the families and to the students.  They are going to be very upset.”

Why are these superintendents upset?  I thought we had to pay them $200,000 + because that is what the market is for good superintendents.  If that is what they can get elsewhere, why don’t they shut up and go get it?  Because they are really love to the kids they are superindenting now and don’t want to leave them? They love them all right.  They love they lifestyle the kids provide that the supers could never earn in the competitive private sector and will not be found in school districts in other states.

The market has changed.  Superintendents are going to have to deal with that like the rest of us.

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DOHERTY DRAFTING NEW LEGISLATION TO REIGN IN TSA ABUSES

Legislation to Be Introduced At the December 6 Session of the Senate

Senator Michael Doherty, a member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement regarding legislation he is drafting to curb the abuses of civil liberties by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). 

“I am of the belief that our society is founded upon our ability to exercise our individual civil liberties freely, and I stand ready and willing to defend those liberties when they are threatened. It is with great sadness that I have come to recognize that one of our greatest threats have been presented by officials of the TSA that have begun to implement intrusive searches of law abiding Americans who are traveling within our borders,” Doherty stated.

“In response to the attitudes and actions of the TSA and top Obama Administration officials, I am drafting new legislation that will make it perfectly clear that in New Jersey, our constitutionally granted civil liberties are treasured and will be protected. I am calling upon my colleagues in the legislature to step up and co-sponsor legislation that will protect the rights of citizens in New Jersey,” Doherty continued.

“If an individual is touched in a private area during a search, when there is no arrest or probable cause that is affirmed by oath or affirmation, the person who violated that individual’s privacy will be guilty of the crime of “sexual assault”, and will not be immune from prosecution in the state of New Jersey.”

“If an image is generated that provides detail of an individual’s private parts that violates New Jersey’s privacy or child pornography statutes, the person who generated that image will not be immune from prosecution in the state of New Jersey.”

Finally, if imaging technology that uses technologies that are believed by the legislature to be dangerous to individuals due to their broad or random use in security applications such as airports, the state of New Jersey will prohibit such use and will provide no immunity to individuals who violate any New Jersey state law in New Jersey.

“When the federal government is actively limiting the liberties and rights of law-abiding American citizens, the Several States have both a right and obligation to respond to misguided leadership at the federal level,” Doherty concluded. “I believe that one of the founders of the nation addressed this issue most eloquently: ‘They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety,” Ben Franklin.

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O’SCANLON: NEW JERSEY NEEDS REAL REFORM NOT POLITICS AS USUAL

Assemblyman O’Scanlon today responded to the Democrat press conference concerning arbitration reform. At that press conference, Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Speaker Sheila Oliver announced a bill with a 2 percent cap that allows for raises above the cap as long as the average yearly raise does not exceed 2 percent. After three years, the cap would be lifted and the arbitration process would be evaluated.

“This is not real reform; these guys just don’t seem to get it.  It’s astonishing, frightening actually, that our legislative leaders don’t seem to understand the most import policy reform we’re likely to discuss this session.” Said O’Scanlon (R- Monmouth/Mercer). “Any legislation allowing for a sunset does not help our towns. This is merely a temporary salary freeze that the unions can contract around a few years down the road.

“The legislature passed a 2% budget cap last year, but we did not give our towns the tools necessary to live within that cap,” O’Scanlon continued. “Arbitration reform is one of the keys to existing within that cap. There is no sunset on this budget cap, so why should there be a sunset on arbitration reform? This is not reform, it is pandering of the first order. The Democratic leadership is looking to preempt Governor Christie, and is doing so at the cost of true, workable reform.

“This sunset requires towns to go through this fight all over again three years from now. How does this help towns or relieve the property tax burden on our tax payers?” O’Scanlon asked. “It doesn’t. This is a token measure which allows the Democrats to declare a political victory when, a few years down the road, we’ll revert back to the same, unsustainable County and municipal budget crushing policy we have now and this ‘reform’ will be but a memory.

“Some people are arguing – or accepting – that the arbitration cap is only needed in these ‘tough economic times’. We must make clear the problem we’re addressing. It is the long-running property tax issue that we’re trying to tackle here, and that problem won’t be gone in three years,” O’Scanlon concluded.

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Congressional Staffer Busted For Soliciting A Minor

New Jersey Congressman Steve Rothman announced that he fired his Chief of Staff, Bob Decheine, following Decheine’s arrest in Maryland for soliciting a minor, according to a report on Politickernj.

If convicted, Decheine faces a possible 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine before he can apply to work as a TSA screener.

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Bloggers Featured on NJN

On the left, Jay Lassiter and Jeff Gardner of BlueJersey.com. Michael Aron of NJN, seated center. On the right, Art Gallagher and Murray Sabrin of MurraySabrin.com

NJN’s Reporters Roundtable will be a bloggers roundtable this week.

I was privileged to join BlueJersey’s Jay Lassiter and Jeff Gardner, along with Murray Sabrin for the taping on Michael Aron’s weekly show this afternoon at NJN’s studio in Trenton.

The half hour show will air Friday evening at 7PM and Sunday morning at 10AM and be posted on NJN’s website on Monday the 29th.

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Vote For Frank Pallone

Politickernj has a poll running, “Who is the Democrats’ best 2013 candidate for governor?” that includes Congressman Frank Pallone.

Governor is probably the only higher office that Pallone would run for because can run in an odd-year election and not risk his congressional seat.  He declined to risk his seat to take Senator Robert Torricelli’s place on the ballot in 2002.

The only way Pallone could win the Democratic nomination for Governor in 2013 is if no one else wanted to run against Chris Christie.

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Middletown Is Not Going Broke

You might have been concerned if you saw the Neptune Nudniks’ head line yesterday, Middletown missed loan deadline for dredging of lake.

Middletown did not miss a loan payment.  It didn’t even miss a deadline as the headline states.  The township’s leadership chose not to apply for a loan now for a project, the dredging of Shadow Lake, that they don’t anticipate happening until 2012.  Why would they?

If your bank was having a special on home mortgages that expires on on Friday, but you’re not in the market to buy a new home, did you miss the deadline for the mortgage special?

The Asbury Park Press article does present interesting and useful information about the Shadow Lake situation. It reveals that township officials are on top of the situation and are examining their alternatives.  It is unfortunate that the Nudniks chose to spin the information as if there was crisis.

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Freeholders Meeting Today

The Monmouth County Board of Freeholders is meeting today at 1PM for their workshop session and at 4PM for their regular meeting.

The workshop agenda can be found here.  The regular meeting agenda is here.

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Rush Holt Steps Up For TSA Sanity

By Art Gallagher

It’s not often that you will see New Jersey’s most conservative state legislator, Senator Mike Doherty, and our most liberal member of Congress, Rush Holt, on the same side of an issue.

The disgraceful security procedures deployed by TSA are such an issue.

Holt has written to John Pistole, the administrator of TSE, questioning the veracity of the agency’s claims regarding the radiation safety of the full-body scanners, whether the scanners are effective in detecting concealed weapons, weather the intimate images created by the scanners are indeed deleted once a passenger is cleared, and declaring that our airport security system is broken as evidenced by three year-old children being aggressively patted down by TSA screeners.

Holt praised Israel’s methods of airport security:

I’ve visited Israel many times in my life, including this fall.  I have been impressed by how effective-and minimally intrusive-their airline passenger screening system is, particularly given the daily terrorist threat to Israel’s citizens.  Clearly, our government would learn much from their system.  If a country as small and threatened as Israel can effectively protect their flying public, there is no reason why American children and their parents cannot be protected using the same layered, common sense-based system employed by Israel.

The Congressman requested a meeting with Pistole to discuss the following questions:

1)    Any reports from independent entities that have validated the effectiveness of the AIT systems currently being fielded to detect the full range of explosive threats known or anticipated to be employed by potential terrorists.

2)    Whether any independent entity has verified that the AIT machines have been modified so as to ensure that no permanent record of a passenger scan is retained, retransmitted, or otherwise copied either directly from the AIT machine itself or by TSA or other personnel utilizing any form of videorecording technology.

3)    The measures TSA has taken to address GAO’s concerns and recommendations regarding the employment, cost-benefit analysis, and expected over all costs of fielding these AIT systems.

4)    The measures TSA has taken to improve and validate its Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program, as discussed in GAO’s May 2010 report on the program.

5)    Why TSA does not systematically use watch list-derived intelligence information to screen passengers more selectively via AIT systems and the SPOT program.

6)    Whether or not TSA has sought or received recommendations from the government of Israel about how TSA could improve its screening programs without invading the privacy of passengers.

Hat tip to BlueJersey’s Rosi Efthim for publishing Holt’s letter.

I’m with Rush on this one.

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