Former Mayor Mike Halfacre’s nomination as the Director of the Division Alcoholic Beverage Control was unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon.
In answering questions posed by members of the committee, Halfacre expressed his commitment to combat underage drinking and to run his agency has a regulatory and enforcement body, not a policy making body.
Halfacre was appointed Assistant Attorney General and Acting Director on February 6. His nomination is scheduled be voted on by the full Senate on March 15.
According to a Quinnipiac poll released this morning, Mitt Romney has erased a 10 point deficit from a February 27 poll and now leads Rick Santorum by 3 points in the Ohio GOP presidential primary which will take place tomorrow.
Four boys under the age of 10 were bound, gagged and photographed in the bathroom of a Long Branch elementary school, according to report posted yesterday on Long Branch Patch. Patch credited The Link News with breaking the story on its facebook page.
Two Gregory Elementary School janitors were suspended with pay. An Asbury Park Press report posted this morning says the suspensions are with pay.
In a statement quoted by Long Branch Patch, Long Branch Schools Superintendent Michael Salvatore said that the acts are claimed to have been made without malice and in jest. Salvatore contacted the authorities and safeguards have been taken.
“Contraception is working just fine. Leave it alone.” ~Mitt Romney answering George Stephanopoulos’s questions regarding States having the right to ban contraception during the New Hampshire GOP presidential debate
President Obama and his allies in the mainstream media completely fabricated the recent contraception controversy in order to distract America from its real problems which are likely to get worse between now and November 6.
Rather than talk about almost 25 million working age Americans without jobs, Obama wants America to be afraid that his Republican challenger would ban birth control if elected.
George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, formerly President Bill Clinton’s Communications Director, went to great lengths during the New Hampshire GOP presidential debate to get a sound bite of Mitt Romney saying that States have the right to ban birth control in early January.
In November of last year, Obama told then Archbishop, now Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, the leader of the Catholic Church in the United States, that he “get most of what he wanted” regarding contraception as the White House was hashing out the implentation of ObamaCare.
By early February, Obama changed his mind,betrayed Dolan and shifted the national debate away from the economy and on to issues that were “working just fine” — birth control and religious freedom — when he announced the ObamaCare regulations that requires all employers, including those affiliated with religious institutions, to provide health care that includes the cost of contraceptives.
Romney avoided the trap in January, but Rick Santorum jumped into it with both feet in February, as did Republicans in the House and Senate.
Rush Limbaugh did the congressional Republicans a favor by drawing attention to himself, and away from the Blunt Amendment which was never going to pass, with his crass remarks about Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown Law School student who is as much a part of this Obama change the subject gambit as Stephanopoulos is.
But Limbaugh did Obama a bigger favor. The President called Fluke yesterday to thank her for speaking out for women’s rights. Now he’s framing the contraception debate as a women’s right’s issue.
Fluke is not a 23 year old coed who can’t afford birth control as originally reported in the media. She’s a 30 year old women’s rights activist. It was no fluke that the Democrats wanted her to testify before congress. She’s likely to be the President’s 2012 Obama girl.
“New Jersey needs Joe Kyrillos in the U.S. Senate”
Morris, Somerset and Union Counties – March 2… Today, Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean and Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick endorsed Senator Joe Kyrillos for United States Senate.
Senate Leader Tom Kean said, “Joe Kyrillos has been a reliable conservative warrior on behalf of New Jersey taxpayers throughout his entire career. Joe has been a leader in the Senate and a valuable ally as we change business as usual in Trenton. I consider Joe and his wife Susan to be among my closest friends and as the people across New Jersey get to know Joe throughout this campaign, they will come to realize just as I have, that Joe is just the reformer we need to send to Washington, DC to change business as usual in our nation’s capital.”
Assembly Leader Jon Bramnick said, “Joe Kyrillos has been an incredible ally in our effort to fix New Jersey’s fiscal mess and I am proud to endorse him today. Not only has he been an ally, but he’s also been a leader – he led the charge for us in the Senate as we fought together for Governor Christie’s ‘Tool Kit’ initiative to reform government and cap our property taxes. He has played a vital role in the reforms we have been able to pass to get the New Jersey comeback started. When you compare Joe’s record of accomplishment to Bob Menendez’s failed record, it becomes crystal clear – New Jersey needs Joe Kyrillos in the U.S. Senate.”
Senator Joe Kyrillos said, “I am proud and humbled to have the endorsement of two of New Jersey’s leaders and most accomplished legislators. Today’s endorsement of my campaign by my friends Senator Kean and Assemblyman Bramnick demonstrates that our message of reform is resonating across this great state. Our representatives in Washington are failing us. They offer us nothing new or different—just more of the same: More spending, more debt, more job-killing regulation. I am running on my record of reform and I know that together, we can prove again what a free and enterprising people are capable of. We can renew America’s promise of opportunity, and make New Jersey proud. I don’t take this responsibility lightly, and I won’t let you down.”
Senator Joseph M. Kyrillos, Jr., 51, is married to Susan Doctorian Kyrillos and they live in Middletown with their children Max and Georgia. He began serving New Jersey’s 13th Legislative District in 1988 when he was elected to the General Assembly. After spending two terms in the Assembly he was elected to the Senate where he has served since 1993. In addition to his official duties, the Senator is employed as Senior Managing Director of Colliers International, the commercial real estate services firm with offices in New York and Parsippany. He is also an advisor to the Newport Capital Group in Red Bank, NJ.
As Governor Christie has often said, Republicans underestimate President Barack Obama at their own peril.
Using the authority granted to him in the ObamaCare bill that had to be passed before America could find out what was in it, Obama mandated that contraceptives be covered by all health insurance plans, including those provided by employers affiliated with religions that are morally opposed to contraception.
Obama laid a trap for Republicans. They fell for it like a horny teenage girl whose boyfriend promised her he would pull out. It’s almost too late to reverse the consequences.
Now the national debate is over contraception. Not unemployment. Not foreclosures. Not war. Not terrorism. Not the price of gasoline. Not the national debt. Not the mandates of ObamCare. We’re having a national debate about contraception. Republicans have been framed as anti-contraception and as too far out of the mainstream to be a relevant political party.
Republicans could have framed this debate in context of their commitment to repeal ObamaCare if the law is not overturned by the Supreme Court. Instead they got into a national debate over contraception that will hamper, if not destroy, their chances of winning the White House and/or the Senate, even if the Court overturns ObamaCare.
Republicans in Washington and on the presidential campaign trail need to stop talking about contraception. They don’t have the votes to stop what Obama is doing. If they keep doing what they are doing, they never will.
