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Senator Jeff Sessions addresses the lack of a federal budget in this week’s GOP address

Posted: September 22nd, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 Congressional Races, 2012 Presidential Politics, 2012 U.S. Senate Race, Economy | Tags: | Comments Off on Senator Jeff Sessions addresses the lack of a federal budget in this week’s GOP address

Obama caught between Iraq and a Myspace

By Ernesto Cullari

iPad’s are great. Like most Americans who own one, I use mine to check work and personal e-mails. You probably check sports scores, update your Facebook status and send out an occasional Tweet. But you and I wouldn’t dare to think that it takes the place of human relationships and personal interaction. But did you know that President Barack Obama uses his iPad to read the Top Secret President’s Daily Brief (PDB), rather than attend these critical and time sensitive meetings with seasoned intelligence officers in person? Despite the turmoil in the Middle East and elsewhere, author and investigative journalist Bob Woodward recently reported that President Obama does not “regularly attend security briefings”.

 

According to History.com, PDB’s are like a laundry list of sensitive intelligence matters, configured in order of importance. They are vital lists containing time sensitive data that are pertinent to both our imminent and long-term national security. Each morning the head of the CIA and other intelligence branches are to meet with the President, so that they can explicate in detail any development that would catch the Commander in Chief’s eye. In fact, every President since JFK has attended the President’s Daily Brief in person, with the exception of Barack Obama.

 

Marc Thiessen and the Government Accountability Institute report that Obama has attended only 38% of all PDB’s in the last 3 years and 9 months.

 

That’s right, the leader of the free world prefers what amounts to treating America’s national security like a social network, where he can simply log on and log off or change his status to “offline” when he doesn’t want to be bothered with defending the nation. Resorting to simply reading the brief rather than meet with its authors amounts to gross negligence and dereliction of duty.

 

On September 11th 2012, Al Qaeda operatives stormed the American Embassy in Benghazi, Libya. Terrorists then reportedly raped and murdered US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. Two former Navy Seals were also murdered in the terrorist attack. After the embassy was stormed, a black Al Qaeda flag replaced the American flag.
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Posted: September 20th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 Congressional Races, 2012 Presidential Politics, 2012 U.S. Senate Race, Barack Obama, Bob Menendez, Ernesto Cullari, Frank Pallone, Media, Middle East, National Security | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments »

Menendez puts personal and political interests before national interests

While most of the media is justifiably covering the events in Libya and Egypt today, I thought I’d bring some attention to a foreign policy issue in the Middle East that has been going on for two years involving our junior New Jersey U.S. Senator Bob Menendez that has escaped the attention of the New Jersey media.

MMM readers may remember how Menendez blocked U.S. Magistrate Patty Shwartz’s nomination to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals because her boyfriend was the lead prosecutor who investigated the senator in 2006.

It came to our attention today, via the president of Azerbaijan, that Menendez has been similarly abusing his senatorial courtesy power in the domain of foreign affairs.

Yesterday, President Ilhan Aliyev said that Menendez is racist and that he is cooperating with a political adversary of Aliyev’s on behalf of the Armenian lobby in his country.

His compatriot Breivik killed about 80 people and he was sentenced to 21 year imprisonment. And it means that he got 3 month of imprisonment for each people.Is that possible? Why does he keep silence about this? Or there is one pro-Armenian Senator Menendez and he is against Azerbaijan and Islam. His last work was that he was not allowed to extend the term of the former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan and to prevent his nomination for two reasons. The first reason is that the US ambassador does not recognize the so-called “Armenian genocide”. And he should not recognize as the U.S. government does not recognize this “genocide”.

The second reason is that the ambassador’s wife is of Turkish origin. It is racism. However, I want to stress that no one can affect my will, opinion, action, and have never affected.’

The ambassador that Aliyev is talking about is Matthew Bryza.

President Obama nominated the career diplomat Bryza to be the ambassador to Azerbaijan, an oil rich former Soviet state which is a rare constitutional secular republic with a predominantly Muslim population, in 2010.  Menendez and California Senator Barbara Boxer put a hold on the nomination because, The Washington Post Editorial Page Editor says, of the senators ties to (and donations from) the Armenian community. 

Azerbaijan and Armenia are long term geopolitical and cultural rivals.

Despite Bryza’s strong endorsement from the elite of the diplomatic community, Menendez held out his judgement as superior to that distinguished bipartisan group and that of Obama, in a letter to the editor of the Washington Post.

Obama made Bryza a recess appointment.  Menendez continued to oppose his nomination and Bryza’s diplomatic career came to an end this past January.  Because Bob Menendez and Barbara Boxer get political donations and support from Armenians, a talented ambassador to an important Middle Eastern country was sent home.

MMM knows little about the Azerbaijan/Armenia conflict.   We highly doubt it will be an issue in the campaign between Menendez and GOP nominee State Senator Joe Kyrillos, as Kyrillos has exceptionally close ties to the Armenian community. Joe’s wife Susan is of Armenian descent.  The conflicts between the two countries and cultures is not the point.

The point is that Menendez has a pattern of abusing his power for his own personal and political interests, to the detriment of our national interests.

New Jersey’s mainstream media has not covered the Menendez/Bryza disgrace.  Yesterday the President of Azerbaijan gave them a reason to cover it.  When the head of state of a foreign country calls a U.S. Senator a racist, that should be news.  MMM is happy to point the story out to our mainstream media friends, just in case they missed it with all the other pressing foreign affairs news.

Posted: September 12th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 U.S. Senate Race | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments »

Democratic source: Obama winning NJ by 18%, Menendez by 12%

The Obama campaign is so confident of winning New Jersey comfortably that the prime responsibility of its New Jersey staffers is to recruit volunteers to go to Pennsylvania for the rest of the campaign, according to a high level Democrat who spoke to MMM on the condition of anonymity.

“Menendez will win by at least 10 points,” said the source, “the internal numbers have Obama up by 18 and Menendez up by 12.  Elsewhere in the country, the Senate and Congressional candidates are doing better than Obama, but not in Jersey.  Menendez needs Obama’s coattails, but he’ll have them.”

The source said Menendez is working harder than he ever has in his life. “He’s out shaking hands with commuters every day at 5:30am and doesn’t stop campaigning until midnight.”

“We don’t see Kyrillos working that hard,” the source said as a dig to the GOP challenger.

Menendez 2012 Communications Director Paul Brubaker has still not called back.

Posted: September 10th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 Presidential Politics, 2012 U.S. Senate Race, Barack Obama, Bob Menendez, Joe Kyrillos | Tags: , , | 4 Comments »

Bathgate joins Kyrillos for U.S. Senate campaign as finance chair

Middletown, September 10… Today the Joe Kyrillos for U.S. Senate campaign formally announced that attorney Lawrence E. Bathgate II, of Lakewood, has been named Finance Chairman.

“Susan and I could not be more pleased and humbled that such a well-respected and influential fundraiser, business and community leader, has joined our ranks as Finance Chairman,” said Senator Joe Kyrillos. “My friend, Larry Bathgate is a man of integrity, and I know with his hard work and leadership, we will have the means necessary to beat our opponent, Bob Menendez, in November. I appreciate his acknowledgment of how important this election is not only to the future of our state, but also of our nation. Larry brings decades of experience to my campaign and will be a tremendous leader of our finance team.”

“I know that Joe Kyrillos is the right man to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate,” said Mr. Larry Bathgate. “I am proud to join the Kyrillos team and together, we will bring the same kind of reform that Joe Kyrillos has brought to New Jersey’s capital to the nation’s capital.”

Mr. Bathgate served as Republican National Finance Chairman under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and also served in the same capacity for Governor Tom Kean. He is the co-founder and senior managing partner of the Bathgate, Wegener and Wolf law firm and has been recognized as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America by the National Law Journal.

Posted: September 10th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 U.S. Senate Race | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments »

Menendez Ducking Debates

Kyrillos calls on U.S. Senator to defend his 20 year record in Washington

Is Bob Menendez planning to dance back into office without defending his record and debating his opponent?

That seems to be his strategy so far.  Menendez refused to accept a written challenge to debate from GOP nominee Joe Kyrillos last month.  This morning, the Kyrillos campaign announced that Menendez is also ignoring media and academic invitations to debate.  Menendez has not responded to then following invitations according to the Kyrillos release:

1. League of Women Voters/WPVI-TV, WABC-TV, and Univision

2. The Record/FIOS 1 News

3. Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University and WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show/WNYC Radio and NJPR AM Radio

4. William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey/ NJTV

5. Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey/Jewish Standard News

6. The Uribe Society/Hudson County TV

“One of us will be the next United States Senator from New Jersey,” said Senator Joe Kyrillos.  “New Jerseyans need to know our position on the issues before, not after the election.  I’m ready to talk about my record of saving New Jersey taxpayers $11.9 billion in new taxes and bringing bipartisan reform to Trenton.  I’m proud of my record and it’s time for Senator Menendez to stop running from and defend his.”

MMM left a voice mail for Menendez 2012 Communications Director Paul Brubaker asking if Menendez would be accepting any of these invitations.  Brubaker has yet to respond.  Nor has he called back, as promised, for comment on the polls that were released last week.

Posted: September 10th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 U.S. Senate Race | Tags: , , | 6 Comments »

Look who is sitting in the nose bleed seats

Posted: September 6th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 Congressional Races, 2012 Presidential Politics, 2012 U.S. Senate Race | Tags: , , , | 9 Comments »

Quinnipiac: In New Jersey, Obama leads Romney by 7%, Mendendez leads Kyrillos by 10%

Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney for President, 51%-44%, and Bob Mendendez leads Joe Kyrillos for U.S. Senate, 50%-40% among likely New Jersey voters, according to a Quinnipiac poll released this morning.

Quinnipiac says that this is their first likely voter survey and it can’t be compared to eariler polls of registered voters. The university surveyed 1471 likely voters between August 27 and September 2. They did not disclose the partisan breakdown of those responding to the survey which they say has a margin of errror of +/-2.6%.

The methodology of the Quinnipiac poll differs from that of the internal poll released yesterday by the Kyrillos campaign in that Quinnipiac randomly calls phone numbers, land lines and cells, and the respondants self identify as voters or likely voters by the way they answer the questions.   The Kyrillos pollster called a data base of known voters.  Kyrillos’s poll showed him trailing Menendez by 4% with 65 days to go before the election.

“Our poll shows we are within 4 points of Bob Menendez and gaining and the Quinnipiac University poll shows positive movement as well,” said Kyrillos Campaign Manager Chapin Fay.  “That’s because Joe Kyrillos has a plan to create jobs and opportunity for New Jersey families, while Bob Menendez is proposing more of the same- more debt, more spending and more job killing regulations.”

Menendez 2010 Communications Director Paul Brubaker still hasn’t called me back from yesterday when I asked him to comment on the Kyrillos poll.

 

Posted: September 6th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 Presidential Politics, 2012 U.S. Senate Race | Tags: , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Internal Poll has Kyrillos within 4 points of Menendez

The Kyrillos for U.S. Senate campaign released an internal poll this afternoon that shows the GOP challenger within 4 points of the incumbent, Democrat Robert Menendez, with 65 days left to go before election day. 45% of those survey said they would vote for Menendez, 41% would vote for Kyrillos and 14% are undecided.

Of the Menendez voters, 76% said they were definitely voting for the Hudson County incumbent while 24% said they probably would.  71%  of Kyrillos voters were solid compared to 29% probable.

The poll, which was conducted by Magellan Strategies between August 30 and September 3rd, is a survey of 746 likely general election voters from New Jersey.  The margin of error is +/- 3.5% with 95% confidence.  The survey was weighted based upon past general election turnout demographics.

29% of the respondents were Republicans, 39% Democrats and 35% Independents.  27% of the respondents consider themselves conservative, 16% say they are liberal and 51% say they are moderate.

“Joe’s message of creating jobs for the middle class and working together with members of both sides of the aisle is resonating with the voters of New Jersey,” said Kyrillos Campaign Manager Chapin Fay. “It’s clear New Jerseyans want change and, if this surge continues, in two months they will have it when Joe Kyrillos is elected the next US Senator from New Jersey.”

“This marks another poll in which Menendez is yet again under 50%,” said Adam Geller of National Research, the Kyrillos campaign’s pollster.

Menendez 2012 communication director Paul Brubaker was not immediately available for comment.  This post will be updated if he calls back.

If they follow their usual pattern, Quinnipiac will likely release a Kyrillos-Menendez poll from the survey they took August 27-September 2 within the next few days.

Posted: September 5th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 U.S. Senate Race, Adam Geller, Bob Menendez, Joe Kyrillos | Tags: , , , , | 8 Comments »

New Kyrillos Ad Hits The Airwaves

Kyrillos spokesperson Meaghan Cronin issued the following statement about the ad:

“Senator Kyrillos has a record of fighting for women, the environment and New Jersey families. He has always put the needs of the people ahead of political affiliation or ideology.  This stands in stark contrast to Senator Menendez who consistently puts politics ahead of the people resulting in record unemployment, skyrocketing debt and loss of opportunity.  Unlike Senator Menendez, Joe is committed to providing a spirit of bipartisanship to the United States Senate.”

Posted: September 3rd, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 U.S. Senate Race, Bob Menendez, Joe Kyrillos | Tags: , , | 5 Comments »