Without Art to corral you donkeys, I thought I’d send the friendly admin my latest Random Thoughts, and try to incite a riot, as I’ve been discussing this very topic with neighbors in my town.
It’s no secret at this point, Jen Beck and Mary Pat Angelini have both come out in favor of gay marriage, a position that is off of the usual Republican line. Earlier this year, Jen Beck voted against a Christie line item veto for “women’s health funding”, which is also off of the line. Likewise, Mary Pat Angelini sponsored and pushed, what I would consider to be nanny state, anti bullying legislation and then pushed the student survey bill that would have asked students for personal information about their households like salary, religious beliefs, political affiliations among other items, again seemingly an off of the line bill. For me personally, both have been on the wrong side of Second Amendment legislation over and over again, supporting One Gun a Month legislation and doing nothing to get NJ’s laws in line with the nation’s firearms laws in light of recent Supreme Court decisions. I’m sure I’m missing a few places where they weren’t toeing the line, but these example should suffice.
But while Jen Beck and Mary Pat Angelini seem to stray from the party line on these few, relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, issues, they also can be accused of just toeing the line on many others. Both can be counted on to toe the line when it comes to pension and benefit reforms, both can be counted on to toe the line when it comes to the 2% property tax cap and other tax reforms. Both seem to toe the line on school choice, teacher tenure reforms and other school funding issues. In fact, one can certainly make the case that both Beck and Angelini always just toe the party line… usually.
So what do you want your elected representatives to do? Do you want them to just be consistent and toe the line, every time? Or do you want them to be free thinkers who sometimes stray from the party line, but try to represent local interests? Is there another option that allows free thinking and local representation without having the appearance of just toeing the line, or crossing the line at the wrong times? If no one on either side was willing to budge from their party line, would anything get done? Does anything, good, get done now with the current system? Where do you draw the line on toeing the line? As a county committeeman, would you accuse me of toeing the line for supporting candidates who don’t always toe the line, or am I getting out of line to support candidates who are sometimes out of line? Again, is there another option?
Feel free to discuss. In the meantime, don’t mind me – I’ll be out “toeing the party line”, or not, and asking everyone in district 11 to vote Beck, Angelini and Casagrande on November 8th because they have done a great job toeing the line or have proving their ability and will to get off the line and have a voice of their own. Either way you look at it, I’m happy with the general direction that the Great State of New Jersey is moving, and.I’m convinced that, in general, Beck, Angelini and Casagrande will continue toeing the line, or not, to keep our state moving in the right direction.
If Old Bridge residents continue to vote for party over policy they will get what they have always gotten. After 16 years of Democratic control Old Bridge residents have higher taxes, deficit spending, dictate, deceit and the State telling us to get our budgetary practices in order or they will have to step in.
The Democratic committee of Old Bridge calls themselves progressive and forward thinkers. All I have seen and experienced are my taxes progressing higher with a reduction of services. Desperate for votes the Democrats are promising tax relief during an election season, very convenient and finally transparent. I won’t give them my vote on an empty promise.
While the economy has been tanking for the past four years the Democrats have been fiscally irresponsible. Old Bridge residents are facing an $8 million deficit for 2012 and the Democrats blame lack of state funding. I blame them for their lack of commitment to be effective leaders and good stewards of our hard earned tax dollars. Where have they been under a progressive rock.
They have dictated by a 5-4 vote, along party lines, the early retirement health care ordinance for municipal workers. This reduces their years of service to Old Bridge from 25 to 15, allowing 10 years from other municipalities and Old Bridge residents left to pick up the cost of their health care until they pass. On a petition over three thousand resident signatures against the ordinance wanted a referendum on the ballot for the taxpayers to decide. This did not happen due to the deceitful shenanigans of a partisan democratically run town and county.
The State of New Jersey has warned the township several times in writing not to plan their budgets around non recurring revenues. They were told if they continued the state would have no choice but to step in. The OB Municipal Utilities Authority, water and sewer, has been an expedient slush fund for borrowing $1.3 million in 2009 and 2011 and selling OB land to them for $5.3 million while our water and sewer bill has skyrocketed. If the rumor is correct the Democratic council wants to sell the MUA, why would they sell our water rights away? Is this the way we want to run our township?
If anyone has ever watched the council meetings on public access they would see and hear how unprofessional the democrats attitudes are towards residents comments, verbally dismissing them, not returning resident phone calls and passing ordinances, without public comment, that effect their safety and pocketbook .
Due to the lack of a record to run on the Democrats have taken their money machine and have resorted to slandering Republican candidates while all these individuals did was contribute to their communities and be on boards in the town. Democratic Mayor Patrick Gillespi was disingenuous in the Suburban when he did not give credit to the planning board for their work on the master plan for OB. The credit belongs to Republican mayoral candidate Owen Henry and the other planning board members.
The Democrats will have to run on their 16 year record which is not good enough for me or the residents of Old Bridge. They can try to blame the Republicans but the residents are not stupid, the Democrats created the mess, allowed it to progress and haven’t fixed it to this point.
Remember, if you always do what you have always done you will always get what you have always gotten.
Vote Republican Column A on Nov 8th and together we can get Old Bridge back on track.
Art Appeared in Court today in front of Judge Thomas F. Scully. He did not waive his right to an extradition hearing. A hearing date was set for November 16. Additionally his Lawyer Michael P. Laffey of the Holmdel based Messina Law Firm filed a motion to have Arts bail reduced to $50,000.00 with a 10% option. It is currently set at $250,000.00 with no 10% option. That motion is being reviewed by the Judge. Mr. Laffey also informed the Judge that Art has an attorney in Delaware who is working on arranging for Art to submit to Delewares Jurisdiction. The Judge indicated that if that is arranged he will immediatly schedule a court appearance to waive the extradition hearing so that things can then proceed in Delaware.
The first row of seats in the Court Room were filed with Art Gallagher supporters.
After the hearing Mr. Laffey issued a statement that ‘Art Gallagher legally repossesed the buses in question. Watson Bus Company was in default under its lease agreement. There was no theft.”
Since this Blog is supposed to be about local Monmouth County politics I trolled the local Patch sites for something interesting involving local politics. The best I could come up with is this article in the Eatontown/Tinton Falls Patch. http://eatontown.patch.com/articles/board-of-ed-issues-a-call-to-action-to-tinton-falls-residents#comments. Maybe tommorrow something good will pop in Marlboro. Things are usually exciting there.
Anyway some interesting comments in this article. I see popular troll (and by that I mean smelly monster that lives under a bridge and eats goats Jim Sage jumped in.
So what do you pack of Hynaes masquerading as political pundits that Art calls an audience think of this story?
Did anybody see the debate? what did you think. I am wondering why they let Anderson Cooper moderate. The Democrats wouldn’t let Rush Limbaugh moderate their debates would they? Why are we so stupid?
As I am sure all my readers are now
aware I was arrested late Friday evening on a warrant issued out of the State
of Delaware.On the advice of my attorney I can not
discuss the charges against me at this time other then to say that they are
vigorously contested and that I did not commit theft.Right now I am concentrating on securing my
release from jail so that I can properly address these charges through my
attorneys.
When I am released I intend to
write about my experiences of the last few days.
I thank all of you who have
expressed concern for me and my family and I assure you that we are doing fine
given these difficult circumstances.
There has been a lot of hullabaloo recently about whether Romney’s religion is relevant to this election. Most recently because some preacher caused a stir by calling Mormonism a cult.
Funny how Republicans all thought the church Obama attended was relevant. The Democrats have no problem raising Perry’s religious beliefs about creation. Let’s sweep away the hypocrisy and rank political correctness and ask a general question, “Are a persons religious beliefs fair game in an election”?
Of course they are and anyone who says otherwise is a damn liar. If someone is a Muslim of the Wahhabi sect or Salafi( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabi) sect that is not going to play into whether you vote for them? What about if they belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Later day Saints that practices polygamy and child bride marriage or if they are scientologists a group that has been accused of being a cult and of engaging in criminal enterprises, does that matter? Then there are Santeria voodoo worshipping chicken sarificers and pot smoking Rastafarians and white supremacy churches, what about them?
Look me in the eye and say none of that matters.
Of course it matters. It matters because nothing tells you more about a person then their religious belief system.
Of course we don’t have religious tests for office and we have freedom of religion but it is a false dichotomy to suggest that this means we cannot as individuals question a person who will represent us about their belief system and use it to make an individual choice as to who to vote for.
For those who vilify anyone who questions Romney’s religious beliefs I ask this. Do you know anything about Mormonism, its tenets, its history? No well maybe you should before you make a decision. Don’t get me wrong I am not saying his religion disqualifies him. I am saying that questions about his religion and his beliefs and those of every single candidate are fair game. This is not a call for sectarianism. This is recognition that what we believe is important. I am claiming there is nothing wrong with saying I am not voting for John Candidate because I do not like his religious beliefs. I say that because those beliefs are integral to who that candidate is and how he think or she thinks. If you don’t like who they are you should not vote for them.
Let’s stop playing” the religion is not fair game” card and “it is a private matter” card. If you want to be a candidate defend your belief system. Tell us why it makes you a better person, a better leader or maybe you say I am a nominal whatever and it does not play a large part in my life. That says something about you too. Some voters will hate it and some will love it but at least we will all have a better idea of who you really are.
Earlier this week the Middletown Democratic Executive Committee reported to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission that they received a $2600 contribution from Bookazine Inc, a Bayone based book wholesaler.
Bookazine specializes in the wholesale distribution of homo-erotica. Their catolog includes such titles and Handjobs Anthology, Volune 22, Tug Harder 2, and Bustin’ a Nut. I’m not going to write the sub-titles.
Reached for comment, Middletown Democratic Chairman Joe Caliendo said, “What’s your problem?” Asked if knows what Bookazine sells, Caliendo said, “No comment on anything,” and hung up.
Democratic Township Committee Candidate Carol Fowler said, “I wouldn’t know about that,” when informed that Bookazine had contributed to the campaign. When informed about what Bookazine sells, Fowler said, “That’s too shocking to even process.”
Fowler’s running mate, Jim Grenefage, could not be reached for comment.
Mayor Tony Fiore, who is being challenged by Grenafege and Fowler said, “The Middletown Democrats should return that donation. If they have any sense of decency and what is right, they will return the money.”
Fiore’s running mate, Stephanie Murray, a book seller herself, said “The Democrats should know where their money is coming from. This contribution shows a lack of judgement and insight.”
