News
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Police Accountability Project
The officer's name is Joseph R. Rios, III. In 2008 he was paid $79,995. He has been on the force for six years. The Passiac Police Departments phone number is (973)365-3958. City Hall can be reached at (973)365-5500.
UPDATE: Officer Rios and his partner have both been suspended without pay. Officer Rios claims he did nothing wrong and that his actions were justified because Holloway became verbally abusive after being told to zip up his shirt. Is it surprising that someone would be "verbally abusive" after receiving uninvited fashion advice?
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Policy News
Today the NJ Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee voted to move A804 out of committee. The vote was 8 to 1, with 2 abstentions. The bill now moves to a vote before the state Assembly. Contact your State Assembly representatives and urge them to vote for this bill.
Listen to the testimony below.
This bill has come a long way. It a has already passed the State Senate, and Corzine has committed to signing it.
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- Written by: Austin Peterson
- Category: Latest News
While the world watches Susan Boyle lose the top prize and cowers in the wake of the dreaded swine flu, the world financial crisis deepens and worsens. The American people are slowly waking up to fiscal realities as our iconic car dealerships and banking establishments flounder in an ocean of red ink. Everywhere we turn something else blows up, and we can’t seem to find a bottom to the stock market. Prices seem inflated much beyond what government measurements are reporting.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Policy News
A804, NJ's medical marijuana bill is scheduled for a legislative hearing on Thursday in Trenton. We have gotten S119 through the Senate, we need a repeat performance on A804. The following is a message from the Drug Policy Alliance:
Here in New Jersey, you and I have been working hard to end the drug war. Next up is medical marijuana. Today, you can take action to help pass our state's Compassionate Use Act.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
From an early age our society falsely teaches us that our country was founded as a democracy. School teachers, journalists, and politicians alike all wrongly praise democracy. In our government schools, the adamant opposition to democracy of our country's founders is not taught. Our founders specifically avoided the creation of a democracy. Rather they created a Constitutionally Limited Republic.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
Over the past weekend, I was watching a report concerning the Bernard Madoff scandal. The report focused on how Madoff defrauded investors and robbed a great majority of them of their life savings through a Ponzi scheme. Overall the reporting was informative, probing and unequivocal. The interviews were top notch and very good. What struck me most about the interviews, however, was when a question was asked. The question was "Should government bail out the victims of Bernard Madoff?" A majority of the victims, including former Colorado Congressman, Tom Tancredo, responded that it should. All were in agreement. I came to a different point of view, however.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
Watch Your Wallet When Driving Through These 10 States
With the first major driving holiday of the summer season approaching, we have analyzed the laws across the country to determine the best and the worst states when it comes to exploiting the motoring public.
These state rankings were calculated using seventeen criteria related to specific traffic laws, enforcement practices, and the treatment of traffic ticket defendants. The rankings are designed to provide guidance to travelers who do not want their vacation ruined by speed traps, arcane laws or “kangaroo” traffic courts.
Read the full article at National Motorists Association site...
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Candidates and Elections
At his desk in Parsippany, Kenneth Kaplan reviews talking points for his Libertarian Party campaign for governor.
Photo by Robert Wiener
Libertarian candidate’s fusion of Right and Left
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NJJN Staff WriterMay 21, 2009
Ask Kenneth Kaplan why he is the Libertarian Party’s candidate for governor of New Jersey and he’ll tell you he’s a “child of the ’60s” who “believes in individual liberties.”
In the category-defying case of the Libertarian Party, those range from doing away with most taxes and opposing gun control to approving same-sex marriage and legalizing the medical use of marijuana.
“Most Republicans and Democrats would say they believe in individual liberties, too, but they really don’t,” Kaplan said as he sat in his real estate office in Parsippany.
“They believe in bigger government that controls more and more of what we do, and I don’t believe in that. I believe in voluntary relationships between individuals rather than relationships imposed by the government.”
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
Inspired by a posting at A Boring Blog, Trenton officials have officially changed the sign on the Lower Trenton Bridge.
NJ and California seem to be on parallel paths.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
There is this mindset among liberals, "moderates," some conservatives and a majority in the mainstream press that believe that the welfare state is a national blessing and that it works and helps citizens meet their needs. They also believe that it is noble and that it can be sustained. With a report that was recently released by the government pertaining toward Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid showing that it will face financial difficulties sooner than expected, and with the nation's deficit projected to become $10 trillion soon, it is very clear that this belief is an illusion. However, these individuals are not deterred. They will continue to peddle this fantasy to the detriment of the nation and to the detriment of its citizens. Though I am an optimist, one must wonder when these individuals will hit bottom and face reality. The moment of truth may be coming soon.
Excerpted from The Tax Foundation:
The trustees of Social Security and Medicare put out their annual report this week on the financial status of the two government programs. Medicare will be in the red this year, paying out more in benefits than it receives in tax revenue. (All Americans pay a 2.9% Medicare tax on their wages, half remitted by the employer and the other half withheld from the employee’s paycheck.) Social Security is still in the black but is expected to enter the red in 2016. (Americans pay a 12.4% Social Security tax on their wages up to an inflation-adjusted cap each year, again half remitted by employer and half withheld from paychecks.)
During Reason Weekend, the annual event held by the nonprofit that publishes [reason.org], The Wall Street Journal's Jason Riley, author of the recent book Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders, gave a spellbinding presentation about the myths surrounding immigration.
Riley walks through the history of German, Irish, and Mexican migrants in rich and compelling detail, deflating nativist hype while also complicating easy narratives about the United States as a mythic destination for all the wretched of the world.
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- Written by: Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
- Category: Selected Blogs
In 1920–21, the United States faced a grave economic crisis, worse than the first year of the Great Depression. Double-digit unemployment and a 21 percent decline in production over the previous twelve months greeted the new president.
That president, the now-despised Warren G. Harding, told Americans that the bust following the artificial, credit-induced boom of the war years had to be faced up to, and that no government, however wise, could make it disappear:
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- Written by: Jacob G. Hornberger
- Category: Selected Blogs
Not surprisingly, immigration warriors are using the swine flu outbreak to buttress their case for closing the borders to the outside world. In the process, they miss a big problem, however, one that I have raised for many years. If we’re going to have the government close the borders to people coming into the country to protect us from infectious diseases, then we’re going to have to also close the borders in the other direction, which means prohibiting Americans from traveling to other countries, where they can catch diseases and bring them back. And that necessarily will mean a lot of control and tyranny, as citizen of North Korea will attest.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Candidates and Elections
The hardest part of petitioning is overcoming the self-consciousness about doing it. Once you decide to get started, the rest is easy.
What You'll Need
- A properly filled out petition. Get the name(s) of the candidates right. On the "party or party principle" line, put "Libertarian Party."
- A ball-point pen. The ideal one that will write easily on non-horizontal surfaces.
- A clipboard.
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- Written by: pugmaster
- Category: Selected Blogs
Political Scientist, David Easton, developed a formula concerning politics and government. It was called the "Input/Output Model." The "input" came when people demanded something from the governmental system and the "output" came when people got what they wanted. If the people of a state or country demanded so-called "Universal Health Care," for example, they usually got it. The same with other legislation designed to spend funds. The problem with this is that it evades very important questions It is here that that questions are never asked. People usually think it is "free" when the reality is that it is not. Someone pays for it.
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- Written by: Brian Cañares
- Category: Candidates and Elections
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NJ Libertarian Party Nominates Kenny Kaplan for Governor
New Brunswick, NJ - On Sunday, the NJ Libertarian Party State Committee unanimously selected Kenneth Kaplan to be the party’s candidate for Governor. Born in Newark, the 61 year old Kaplan grew up in West Orange but currently resides in Parsippany. He is a graduate from Brandeis University and NYU Law School. For twenty-two years, he was associated with the Archie Schwartz Company but currently serves as President of KenKap Realty Corp., a company he founded after a six year term at Edgerton Realty.
As Governor, Kaplan’s priorities are to phase out the state income tax and reduce the size and cost of government. Addressing affordable housing is one way he plans to solve this problem. Kaplan offers a creative solution to the decade’s long quest to create affordable housing in New Jersey. He wants the state to enact legislation to supersede local zoning ordinances, removing zoning barriers.
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- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Following is the text of a letter I sent to the Government Records Council today following up on my earlier requests for a rule change allowing records requestors to submit requests on either the agency's specific request form or the GRC's model request form. The letter, with attachments, is on-line HERE.
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- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
When I was in college, I was taught that journalists were like Joe Friday from the television show “Dragnet.” All they cared about was “just the facts, madam” and nothing more. That may have been true once. It is no longer the case. Today many journalists put ideology ahead of the news and the profession has been the poorer for it. If one were to take a look at organs like the New York Times, The Star Ledger, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and other outlets, you can tell that there is very much of a liberal bias in how the news is reported. They will deny it and say that “bias is in the eye of the beholder,” as the late Peter Jennings did, but in surveys, in the journalists’ own words, in the choice of content, in the prominence of play, there is no denying this truth. It is because of this bias that people are going elsewhere to get their information whether on the internet, talk radio, other cable channels or elsewhere.