Chris Christie makes the Cubans an offer they can refuse: Mulshine

There is some speculation that our governor will eventually bow out of the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination in return for a position in the administration of the next President Bush. I doubt that will happen. But if it does, let’s hope the position in question isn’t secretary of state. Earlier this week, Chris… Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

O’Scanlon: There’s no silver bullet to resolve New Jersey’s budget issues

By Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon

Politicians like to talk about budgetary issues and challenges in pieces -ignoring the big-picture, and inconvenient,  collateral effects of their proposed solutions. Even the public, and well-meaning editorial boards, fall prey to this segmentation mentality hoping there is an answer that doesn’t eviscerate their particular sacred cow.  Throw in the fact that there is a general belief in a magic bullet that will fix our budget problems and you have a dangerous mix of ignorance and irrational expectation.  It is time to clear that up.  Governor Christie is right when he says our budget problems are serious. The solutions are going to be painful.

First, let’s understand that the causes of the problem are rooted in the actions, over the last 20 years, of legislators and governors – Republicans and Democrats – who were either well-meaning, but ultimately ill-informed, or those who consciously opted for political expediency knowing their actions would ultimately bankrupt the state.  The former motivation is sad, the latter reprehensible.

Making certain assumptions about things we can and can’t fund, our structural deficit is around $6.75 billion – inclusive of $1.6 billion in transportation investment per year but exclusive of things we’d love to do like cut property taxes.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Winter is Coming

By Stuart J. Moskovitz

Stuart Moskovitz

As we look around these days what we see is not good.

Obama is attempting to unilaterally wipe out sixty years of American foreign policy in Cuba by recognizing a government that has kept its nation in the nineteenth century and has served as a role model for America’s enemies in Venezuela and elsewhere in Central and South America. He is throwing under the bus hundreds of thousands, if not millions of legitimate immigrants who escaped the corruption and oppression of a regime that has shown no remorse and no intention to improve.

ISIS is gaining momentum and we are watching battles between various forms of the same Satanic invasion, whether it be the Sunni ISIS, the Shiite Hezbollah and Iran aiding Syria, the Turks trying to rebuild the Ottoman empire, all of whom seek to impose Sharia law throughout this Earth in a world-wide caliphate. It’s like watching the Green Bay Packers play Seattle. You hope they both lose and you know that won’t happen.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Nancy Pelosi: An American treasure

Not Nancy Pelosi

By Stuart J. Moskovitz

By now most people are aware that Jonathan Gruber has stated on several occasions over the last few years that in order to pass Obamacare, it was necessarily to 1. Lie to Congress and the American people, and 2. Depend on the “stupidity” of the American voter to accept this health care act.

Nancy Pelosi, the representative from Pacific Heights, and currently the second scariest resident of Pacific Heights, second only to Jim Belushi’s character in the movie of the same name, claims that she has no idea what he is talking about, because she never met him and has no idea who he is. As the major force behind the passage of Obamacare in the House, even more than Frank Pallone, who declared as “lousy” every insurance policy purchased by Americans prior to Obamacare, including those policies covering procedures no longer covered by Obamacare, and costing far less than Obamacare, Nancy Pelosi’s statement would carry considerable weight. If this were still 1995. Today, of course, we have social media recording just about everything said by anyone in public view. This includes the speech by Nancy Pelosi in 2009 when she assured everyone that Obamacare was a perfect health plan because it was carefully written by Jonathan Gruber of MIT, the person who she claims now did not write the plan and whom she had never heard of.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Opinion: Divided We Govern, Both in Trenton and Washington, D.C.

Credit: Amanda Brown Dick Zimmer The smart money is betting that the gridlock that plagued the legislative process in Washington, D.C., during the past four years will become even worse now that Republicans have won decisive majorities in both houses of Congress. Surely, nobody will be shocked if lawmaking in Washington remains paralyzed for the next… Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Now and then, Good does prevail

By Stuart J. Moskovitz

In every election there are winners and losers. This year was no exception. On the national scene, the obvious losers will be written about by most pundits – Obama and the Clintons. Obviously Harry Reid has probably seen his last days of power in any form. But there are other losers. The entire Democratic platform — the so-called war on women, the freebie mentality, the irresponsible blind eye to international distress, the cowardly acquiescence of the Democratic congress to Obama’s war on Israel, are all losers. Republicans elected young people, African-Americans, women, as diverse a group as anyone would want to see. In many cases these were the first of such to be elected in their state — an accomplishment the Democrats never managed and never would manage. These Democratic campaign platforms were as fake as their claim for the last forty years that Republicans would overturn Roe v. Wade. The electorate is simply not as naive as they were in 2008 and 2012. No more. Obama has accomplished at least that.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

A-Team disenfranchises hundreds?

Asbury Park ballot applications wrong again

Dan Jacobson

By Dan Jacobson

ASBURY PARK — For weeks, I’ve been blasting the A-Team slate for taking custody and control of hundreds of vote-by-mail/absentee ballots, with their supporters and paid operatives delivering them to voters. The voter then completes the ballot and mails it back for counting — or the A-Team delivery person can even take them back. It’s absurd.

The A-Team led by Mayoral candidate Remond Palmer is on track to deliver 500 of these ballots, known as vote-by-mail [VBM] ballots. That’s the election right there. Of course, this law was originally for invalids or shut-ins who had trouble getting their mail and wanted an absentee ballot. The A-Team is trying to drive hundreds of votes through that loophole.

I’ve consistently said they’re doing it wrong. In fact, we went down this road last year, with the Board of Elections disqualifying 250 ballots the A-Team organization delivered to voters in the 2013 election. A Judge agreed and said the applications for the ballots were flawed and the ballots can’t be counted.

Guess what.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Opinion: For Gov. Chris Christie, October’s Been the Cruelest Month

Carl Golden In his 1922 epic poem “The Waste Land,” English poet, essayist, and playwright T. S. Eliot opened with the line “April is the cruelest month … ” For Gov. Christie, though, it’s October. This October. Consider: + For the first time in four years, more poll respondents hold an unfavorable view of him, 45… Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

A Case For Keeping The John L. Montgomery Care Center County Owned

By Jennifer Gregory, CTRS

I am writing this letter in response to the countless articles written by the Asbury Park Press, their editorials, the treatment of Monmouth County Employees and the family Members of the Monmouth County Care Centers.  I am an 18 years employee of Monmouth County and I work at the John L. Montgomery Care Center in Freehold, NJ.  We are a long term Care facility that takes care of Monmouth County’s most vulnerable young citizens. There are 62 residents under the age of 59.  Currently, our youngest resident is just 17 years old.  I mention the age of our population because several of your articles have pointed out how many empty Medicaid beds are available in other private Monmouth County Nursing Homes that our residents could easily be transferred to, should Freeholder Curley succeed in Closing, Selling, or Privatizing the John L. Montgomery Care Center.  These “typical” other private nursing homes are perfectly fine for your average geriatric residents but are not suitable alternatives for residents of John L. Montgomery.  Our residents are in their teens, twenties, thirties, and forties, who are not grandparents or your elderly parents but they are your children, your brothers, and your sisters…  They are not looking to reflect on their lives but looking to live their lives to the fullest with the possibility of new experiences, friendships, and futures.  That is what Monmouth County provides its citizens with at the 5 Star Rated John L. Montgomery Care Center.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Inside the Beltway: Brace for the climate change mega-storm

photo via algore.com

One thing is for sure about Al Gore: It never rains on his global warming parade

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet