Election Chaos Throughout New Jersey

It could be a week or more until New Jersey’s votes are tallied due to the huge increase in provisional ballots cast both at the polls and via the email/fax voting system that Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno announced this week to accommodate voters displaced by Hurricane Sandy.

  is reporting that the vote by fax or email allowance has resulting in mass confusion and fear that thousands of votes will not be counted.  Guadagno extended the deadline to apply for a ballot until 5PM today and the deadline for the ballot to be received until 8PM on Friday.

Thousands of voters are complaining that their emails applying for ballots are bouncing back from full email boxes and that phone numbers are busy or going unanswered.

In addition to the email/fax voting problems, polling places are accepting provisional ballots from displaced voters and from out of state law enforcement/recuse workers who have traveled to New Jersey to assist in the recovery efforts.  Each of those provisional ballots will have to be manually verified before being counted.

Ballots cast by early voters at county election offices throughout the state will have to be checked to be sure that those who took advantage of the early voting privilege did not also go to the polls to vote.

In Middletown, approximately half the the voting districts voted exclusively by paper ballots due to a voting machine programing errors, primarily in the 6th congressional district portion of the Township, according to Mayor Tony Fiore.  “Epic Fail on the part of whoever was in charge of those voting machines,” Fiore said, “the county only provided us with about 50 paper ballots.  We reproduced ballots on our own at a secure location.”

There is record turnout at the polls in Asbury Park and Long Branch, according to a Democratic source.

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Vin Gopal: Obama has a good chance of winning Monmouth County

Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal thinks President Barack Obama will do better in Monmouth County than he did four years ago.

Speaking to a Star Ledger reporter in Charlotte during the Democratic National Convention, Gopal said:

“I think President Obama has a great shot to win Monmouth County this year,” said Gopal. “He came very close four years ago. The Republicans are hoping that people have amnesia and don’t remember the eight years under George W. Bush.”

Gopal knows where his votes are:

“We want to get our votes out for the President in Democratic constituencies like Long Branch, Neptune and Asbury Park to help make sure he gets four more years.”

In 2008, Obama lost Monmouth County to John McCain by only 12,000, due to an extraordinarily high Democratic turnout in Long Branch, Neptune and Asbury Park.  Obama’s coattails helped sweep Amy Mallet to victory over John Curley for freeholder, giving the Democratic Party control of the Freeholder Board for the first time in twenty years.

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Christie addreses the dismal July jobs report, New Jersey Comeback

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Christie to visit Asbury Park on Monday August 20

Governor Chris Christie will be holding a press conference on the Asbury Park boardwalk tomorrow afternoon, Monday August 20.

Following his meeting the press at 3PM, Christie is scheduled to greet boardwalk patrons and beach goers along the boardwalk and emphasize the importance of clean beaches and waterways to the New Jersey shore economy.

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Asbury Park Mayor Ed Johnson will not seek a new term

Asbury Park Mayor Ed Johnson announced that he will not seek a second four year term next May, according to the Asbury Park Sun.

In a letter posted on his website, Johnson thanked Asbury Park residents for the opportunity of serving for the last 13 years as city’s Urban Enterprise Zone, councilman and mayor.

Asbury Park elects all five members of its governing body every four years in non-partisan elections that take place in May.  The city has a referendum to study a change in its form of government on the ballot this November.

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There Will Be No Bathing Suits on The Road to Serfdom (but in this case I might not mind)

By Tommy DeSeno, first posted on Ricochet.com

This story requires one to consider social mores, conservatism, government powers, libertarianism, class, classlessness, tradition, expression, subsidiarity, humility, pride and manners.  In other words, it’s practically the reason Ricochet.com was created.

My beloved little city of Asbury Park, NJ made national headlines in 2010 when a local storekeeper, while attempting to drum up business, made a push for the City by the Sea to have a nude beach.   The measure was ultimately rejected.  That it was seriously considered at all shows how liberal Bruce Springsteen’s adopted hometown has become (of the 5,418 registered voters, only 390 are Republican).

What a difference two years makes though.   Former councilwoman and Republican Committeewoman Louise Murray has found a 50 year old ordinance on the books that says people in Asbury Park may not wear bathing suits on the boardwalk.  At a recent council meeting she pleaded with the City to once again enforce it.   Her plea has been picked up as newsworthy locally, regionally, and nationally now that Drudge has given it a headline.  The City Council is considering her request.

I don’t know if there is a social conservative backlash to the Obama Administration going on in this country but this might actually be proof of it.  Here is an exchange between Ms. Murray and Asbury Park Deputy Mayor John Loffredo as reported by a local website, www. moremonmouthmusings.net:

“I’ll be darned if I want to be standing at a bar and have somebody slither up in a Speedo or bikini that shouldn’t be in a bathing suit,” Murray said. “It’s disgraceful … I implore you to enforce this, but do not amend it.”

Deputy Mayor John Loffredo responded, “I honestly don’t disagree with you.”

Why is that exchange important?  Loffredo is one of New Jersey’s first openly gay elected politicians and a Democrat.  He’s a liberal.  He supports Asbury Park’s annual Gay Pride Parade (and you know how they dress marching in that).   Yet he doesn’t disagree with Ms. Murray about this.  A shift in social mores?

A bit of history about Asbury Park for context.  It was founded as a Methodist retreat in the late 1800s.  It had been a dry town where certain sports were originally banned as they might attract bettors.  This one square mile City still has nearly 40 churches.   So full of elegance was it that when I was a boy people would dress up to walk downtown and women working at the local department store were forbidden from wearing pants.

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Black Kids In Asbury Park Shooting Each Other, Part Two: The 35 People Who Are At Fault

By Tommy DeSeno, also published in the April 26 edition of the triCityNews

In the last issue of Justified Right we printed Part One of this series, wherein the “Moynihan Report” of 1965 was revisited for its thesis that the reason poor black children in America struggle is due to the absence of a father in the household.

Statistics, as pointed out in that report, reveal that the nuclear Black family with both parents in the household see their children grow up on average with higher IQs, less crime and more financial success than their single mother counterparts.

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Black Kids In Asbury Park Shooting Each Other, Part One: Why It’s Happening

By Tommy DeSeno, also published in the April 12, 2012 edition of the triCityNews

We were warned in 1965 but failed to listen.  In that year Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, one of the most respected Democrats to ever live, issued a report to the Department of Labor that has become known as “The Moynihan Report.”  It was entitled “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action.”

Brevity requires me to get right to the paper’s thesis, simply stated therein:

The fundamental problem, in which this is most clearly the case, is that of family structure. The evidence – not final, but powerfully persuasive – is that the Negro family in the urban ghettos is crumbling. A middle class group has managed to save itself, but for vast numbers of the unskilled, poorly educated city working class the fabric of conventional social relationships has all but disintegrated.

Deteriorating “family structure” is the problem.  What specifically is Moynihan referring to?   The absence of a father in the Black household:

In essence, the Negro community has been forced into a matriarchal structure which, because it is out of line with the rest the American society, seriously retards the progress of the group as a whole, and imposes a crushing burden on the Negro male and, in consequence, on a great many Negro women as well.

It has to be acknowledged that the ideal situation to live in, giving the most likely chance for success of a family, is the traditional nuclear family with a father and mother supporting one another in the household.  As Moynihan points out, that isn’t a knock on other matriarchal societies.  However, when a majority in a nation is not matriarchal, and the minority is, that is devastating, even emasculating, to the male minority.

It is recognized that human situations won’t allow all to grow up in a nuclear family.  Also, since we are talking about a sample of 300 million people in America, you will be able to find some examples of children from single mother households who have done better than children from nuclear families.  That, however, is highlighting the exception while hiding the rule.

Statistics, as pointed out in The Moynihan report, reveal that the nuclear Black family with both parents in the household see their children grow up on average with higher IQs, less crime and more financial success than their single mother counterparts.

The report notes:

The role of the family in shaping character and ability is so pervasive as to be easily overlooked. The family is the basic social unit of American life; it is the basic socializing unit. By and large, adult conduct in society is learned as a child.

What role should young boys learn from their fathers?  The Moynihan Report quotes cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead:

“In every known human society, everywhere in the world, the young male learns that when he grows up one of the things which he must do in order to be a full member of society is to provide food for some female and her young.”

Moynihan adds to that:  This pattern is not immutable, however: it can be broken, even though it has always eventually reasserted itself Replicas Inflatable Cemento.

It couldn’t be clearer that the pattern among poor blacks has been toward households empty of fathers.  Unfortunately, despite the devastation it can bring to the children, fatherless Black households are growing.  Black children are learning more often than not that leaving families behind is an acceptable choice (I acknowledge the growing trend among white fathers today too).

Back in 1965 when the Moynihan Report was written, on average 36% of Black children were living in broken homes at any given moment.  That number has risen since then for both whites and non-whites, but today’s numbers for Blacks are alarming:  Nationwide 70% of Black children are born into single parent households, while in Asbury Park estimates have been as high as 90%.  The poor Black family has continued to disintegrate.

Understand, so there is no mistake, that Moynihan finds no shortcoming of the Black male or female: Genetically, the intelligence potential is distributed for Black infants in the same proportions as Icelanders, Chinese and every other group.

However, when testing Blacks alone, the pattern is clear that Black children from stable families fare far better than those from fatherless homes. 

Included in the areas where Blacks from broken homes fall short is crime.  Moynihan quotes several sources, including a study that showed 3/4ths – or twice the expected ratio – of Philadelphia’s Black juvenile delinquents came from one parent households. 

Moynihan was careful to note the outside pressures on the Black male, including segregation, alienation and prejudice in obtaining employment.  His point, however, is that the Black child from a stable family is given the emotional support to deal with it, while the child of the single parent family is often left with a hopelessness and quitting attitude based upon the actions of his absent father.

The shooting of young people in Asbury Park is not occurring to middle class children with stable homes.   This behavior was presciently predicted by Moynihan.  

So who is to blame for Asbury Park’s fatherless homes and children shooting each other?  I have narrowed it down to 35 people here in the City.   In the next issue of triCityNews, I will name names and tell you who is at fault.

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Jacobson Launches Asbury Park Sun

triCityNews publishers Dan Jacobson has launched a hyper-local news site, The Asbury Park Sun, which will cover local events in Asbury Park, Allenhurst, Interlaken, Loch Arbour, Ocean Grove and Wanamassa.

Molly Mulshine, the very talented Stimulus Girl, has signed on as the site’s editor.

MMM welcomes our friends to Al Gore’s greatest invention and is pleased to be the first to get them listed on google.

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Some Thanksgiving Football Questions For Mike Golub and Warren Lapp

By Tommy DeSeno

It is oft cited, as it was again today in this column by Asbury Park Press writer Steve Falk, that the oldest shore Thanksgiving Day football rivalry is Toms River South v Lakewood, at 92 straight games.
 
Knowing that Asbury Park played Neptune on Thanksgiving more than 92 years ago, I asked Mr. Falk if his info was correct.  He told me that there was a period of about 20 years somewhere around the 1920s to the 1940s where Asbury Park did not play Neptune on Thanksgiving, so TR v Lakewood is the oldest continuous Thanksgiving rivalry.
 
I was just wondering three things from you Neptune guys:
 
1.  Any idea why Asbury Park didn’t play Neptune for 20 years (I assume it was Neptune’s fault)?
 
2.  Any idea who Asbury beat (naturally) and Neptune lost to (naturally) during those years?
 
3.  Will either of you Neptune Turkeys be there tomorrow when Asbury Park (9-1) carves up Neptune (9-1) by a score of 21 to 6?

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