Colts Neck Man, 22, Pleads Guilty to Federal Kiddie Porn Charges

Chad Weber, 22, of Colts Neck pleaded guilty to one federal count of possession child pornography charges today before U.S. District Court Judge Anne E. Thompson in Trenton.

Weber admitted possessing sexually explicit images of a 12-year old Pennsylvania girl with whom he had an online relationship in 2013, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

The young man was released on unsecured bail of $100,000 and subject to home confinement with electronic monitoring when he surrendered to federal authorities last June.  He remains free on unsecured bail until his sentencing which is scheduled for June 22, 2015.  The electronic monitoring device was removed from Weber today, according to a spokesman for Fishman.

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In Sandy’s aftermath, the battle of the beaches is coming to a head: Mulshine

On a recent weekend I drove to a spot along the beach in Brick Township to see how my tax dollars were doing. About 40 million of them are going to build a steel wall that will protect a four-mile stretch of beach running from Mantoloking southward. Once I parked, I realized there was no way… Read the rest of this entry »

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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 »

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Another Conservative Who Can’t Count

By Art Gallagher

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.

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Mulshine: It’s Guadagno’s fault if his cat poops on the rug

By Art Gallagher

Paul Mulshine says he will blame Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno if his cat poops on the rug.  Really, he said that.

Mulshine’s cat usually poops outdoors, but the usual spot, probably on a neighbor’s property, is snow covered and the pussy won’t go where it usually goes.  Mulshine wasn’t prepared for the storm.  He couldn’t navigate the snow covered roads to get kitty litter so his pussy would have a warm place to do it.

Guadagno is at fault because she’s on vacation out of state at the same time Governor Christie is out of state, leaving Senate President Steve Sweeney in charge as Acting Governor.

Mulshine speculates that Guadagno vacationing at the same time as Christie could be the end of her political career.  He quotes Rick Shaftan as saying that “nothing will screw up your poll numbers more than snow.”  Shaftan, who is famous for talking to Mulshine and for running Steve Lonegan’s 2009 gubernatorial primary, noted that former New York Mayor John Lindsay lost the 1969 GOP primary due to mishandling a snow storm.  Lindsay was reelected on a third party line. 

If Shaftan, Lonegan, Mulshine and the ideologues were in charge of the NJ GOP, like they want to be, a third party candidate could get elected in New Jersey too.

Mulshine and Shaftan speculate that Guadagno wants the GOP nomination to run against U.S. Senator Bob Menendez in 2012.  Yet another example of ideologues who can’t count. 

If the NJ GOP mounts a top tier talent challenge to Menendez in 2012 we’re in deep trouble as a nation.  Barack Obama will be on the top of the Democratic ticket in 2012.  The only way a Republican is going to win a state wide race in 2012 is if Obama is unelectable in New Jersey.  If that is the political environment in 2012 the economy will be in worse shape than it is now.  Obama’s poll numbers are over 50% in NJ now, as bad as things are.

Mulshine and Shaftan have a strange bedfellow in windbag Senator Ray Lesniak who called in from Florida to criticise Guadagno and Christie for leaving Sweeney in charge of cleaning up the snow.

Sweeney assured Christie he wouldn’t create mischief while keeping the Governor’s seat warm.  If Christie didn’t trust Sweeney to keep his word, other arrangements would have been made.  If Sweeney breaks his word, other arrangements will be made in the future.  

The constitutional purpose of the Lt. Governor’s office is to prevent one person from controlling two-thirds of the state government, as was the case when Dick Codey was Governor and Senate President after Jim McGreevey’s resignation and when Don DiFrancesco held both offices after Christine Whitman’s resignation.  The current banter is nonsense.

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Christie Is Right To Sink ARC

By Harold V. Kane, Monroe Township

In the editorial page of October 12 Paul Mulshine, correctly, continued to question the ARC rail tunnel. Inadvertently, the Star Ledger business section supported Mr. Mulshine’s position.The business section (page 7) stated that there is almost 40M square feet of office space available in NJ. 40M square feet of space will support 200,000 employees, at an average of 200 square feet per employee. The ARC supporters refuse to consider that NJ residents would actually prefer to work near their homes in NJ, rather than commute to NYC. Even if they had to take a pay cut to work near home, it would be worth it. As a former commuter I can make this statement.

Governor Christie was correct to cancel the tunnel. It will be New Jersey’s version of Boston’s “Big Dig”. One major difference between the two projects is that Massachusetts was forced to pay the lion’s share of the cost as the cost spiked from $8B to $24B. But, in this case the benefit accrued to Massachusetts and the Mass. construction unions. In the case of the ARC tunnel all of the benefits accrue to NYC, with NJ getting the cost overrun tab. If you do not think that there will be cost overruns, then you know nothing about construction-related activities in NYC.

New Jersey needs to get out of this 1960s mindset that states that anything that the public sector proposes has merit and must be done. A great first step in this direction would be to stand by the decision to cancel the tunnel and to implement tax and economic policies designed to fill up these 4M square feet of empty space.

Harold V. Kane is the GOP candidate for Middlesex County Clerk

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