New Jersey Public Schools are on the verge of becoming part of the government’s domestic spying apparatus. If the NSA misses something while going through your phone calls and emails, they will have the questionnaires your children fill out in school to fall back on, if the Sociological Strip Search bill passes, as amended by the Assembly last week, and is signed into law by Governor Christie.
In case you’ve missed our previous coverage of this proposed law, it authorizes schools to conduct intrusive surveys into the lives of students without parental consent. The bill, A/2421 in the Assembly and S/454 in the Senate, amends a current law passed in 2001 that requires written parental consent before school can question students about:
mental and psychological problems potentially embarrassing to the student or the student’s family;
illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating and demeaning behavior;
critical appraisals of other individuals with whom a respondent has a close family relationship;
legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians, and ministers;
income, other than that required by law to determine eligibility for participation in a program or for receiving financial assistance under a program;
The educational establishment uses the information mined from the surveys to apply for federal money. Not enough parents are providing written consent, like they do for field trips and extracurricular programs, so the ‘educators’ and the companies and non-profits that sell drug abuse and anti-bullying programs to the schools, want to replace written parental consent for the children to be subject to the intrusion with simple parental notification. They are counting on parents not taking the affirmative action of objecting to the surveys, thereby giving ‘negative consent.’
The bill passed the Assembly last week, largely along partisan lines. Four Republicans, Mary Pat Angelini, Betty Lou DeCroce , John Amodeo and Chris A. Brown voted with the Democrats to pass the bill. Today it goes back to the Senate for a second reading to concur with the amendments the Assembly made. The bill originally passed the Senate 25-15 in February.
Contact your Senator and ask her/him to vote NO today. Contact Governor Christie and ask him to veto the bill if/when it gets to his desk.
Brian Froelich, a Democratic candidate for Monmouth County Freeholder, signaled that he wants to use the Birdsall Engineering scandal as an issue against his incumbent Republican opponents earlier this month when he told NJ.com’s cub reporter Christopher Robbins, “There’s no way that we’re going to out-fundraise a 30-year incumbent institution,” Froelich said. “They may not have Birdsall anymore, but they have a lot more people willing to support incumbents and entrenched leaders.”
If Froelich wants to make an issue of the no longer secret donations that Freeholder Director Tom Arnone and Deputy Director Serena DiMaso received from Birdsall employees, he will have to first question Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal. Gopal received $1600 in Birdsall funds for his 2012 campaign for Chairman. Gopal’s opponent in that race, Marlboro Councilman Frank LaRocca received $4000.
Kevin McMillian’s name will be above Froelich’s on the ballot in the 11th Legislative District. The Democratic Assembly candidate received a ‘secret’ Birdsall donation of $300 for his 2011 campaign for Neptune Township Committee.
The Star Ledger this morning published a list of the illicit donations throughout the state from Birdsall employees that were reimbursed by the company in a scheme to get around New Jersey’s pay-to-play laws. Both Democrats and Republicans statewide received donations. Of the 1476 illegal campaign contributions made between 2008 and 2012, 761 were made to Democrats. 651 were made to Republicans and 64 are listed as “Other.”
U.S. Senator Bob Menendez has another sex and influence scandal brewing.
This time Menendez is alleged to have had an affair with Cecilia Reynolds, the married publisher of the Freehold based Spanish language newspaper, Nosotros, and to have used the power of his office in an attempt to thwart the federal investigation into his friend, Anibal Acovedo Vila, while Vila was the governor of Puerto Rico, according to a report in The New York Post.
Menendez and Reynolds traveled to Vila’s isolated beach retreat on Puerto Rico in 2007, according NYPost, who report they are in possession of a nude photograph of Reynolds on the beach and another of the couple dressed in shorts with Menendez wrapping his arms around her waist. The photographs and other documentation were provided to NYPost and other media outlets by an anonymous tipster who Reynolds said is a former disgruntled business partner.
Dr. Alieta Eck is not likely to be a U.S. Senator come October 17. She’s yet to choose a campaign manager for her primary race against Steve Lonegan in the August 13 special primary. She does not have a fundraising base nor the personal wealth to pay for a statewide campaign.
Lots of New Jerseyans lost personal wealth when Jon Corzine was governor. Eck told me she lost $200,000 to Corzine in the MF Global debacle. Fortunately she got $180,000 back, but that won’t fund a statewide primary or general election.
Based upon my interview with her, I don’t think she is quite ready to debate Lonegan, or the eventual Democratic nominee, most likely Cory Booker, on any issue other the healthcare, yet. But that could change. Eck is smart.
In honor of the occasion, MMM recommends that every Tea Party member and ‘Certified Constitutionalist’ familiarize themselves with the necessary and proper clause.
Investigators from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Middletown Township Police Department are seeking the public’s help with information regarding the shooting death of a 30 year old man from the Leonardo section of the Township.
Anthony Capella, 30, was found dead from a gunshot wound in his home at 17 Roop Ave on Wednesday evening, June 19 at approximately 8:25. The Middletown Police responded and contacted the Prosecutor’s Office for a joint investigation.
Acting Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramicconi asks that anyone with information pertaining to the shooting contact Detective Brian Weisbrot of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office at 1-800-533-7443 or Detective Adam Finck of the Middletown Township Police Department at 732-615-2100.
Governor Chris Christie today ordered that all State buildings will fly flags at half-staff on Monday, June 24, 2013 to recognize the achievements and contributions of actor James Gandolfini.
Gandolfini, best known for his depiction of Tony Soprano in the HBO series The Sopranos, died of a heart attach at age 51 on Wednesday while vacation with his family in Italy.
In a statement issued by his office, Christie said,
James Gandolfini, a New Jersey native born in Westwood, who graduated from Park Ridge High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University. James Gandolfini enjoyed an extraordinarily successful acting career across television, film and Broadway, including his popularly acclaimed role as Tony Soprano in The Sopranos, and advocated for United States servicemembers and veterans in his two documentaries, Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq and Wartorn:1861-2010. James Gandolfini was an iconic actor and will be remembered for the timeless impact he left upon television and film in the State of New Jersey and across our nation.
The Special Senate Primaries will go forward on August 13 and New Jersey will elect a new U.S. Senator in a Special Election on October 16.
The New Jersey Supreme Court effectively upheld the Appellate Division’s ruling that Governor Christie acted legally in calling for the Special Election yesterday when they declined to hear an appeal of the lower Court’s ruling.
The Special Election had been challenged by Marie Corfield, Joe Grillo and Joseph Danielson. Somerset County Democratic Chairwoman Peg Schaffer was their attorney.
Corfield is a Democratic Assembly candidate from the 16th district (Hunterdon, Middlesex, Mercer and Somerset counties). She lost a special Assembly election to Republican Donna Simon last November. Corfield first came into the public eye when the YouTube video of her exchange with Christie at a 2010 Town Hall meeting went viral.
Grillo is the Executive Director of the Monmouth County Democratic Organization. Danielson is the Chairman of the Franklin Township (Somerset County) Democratic Committee.
The Appellate Division’s ruling can be found here.
As an American of Christian Arab descent, I believe that arming the Syrian rebels is a mistake and will haunt the US in the near future.
The rebels are made up of 2 types of fighters. Some of the rebels are true democracy loving Syrians who want to free their people and nation from tyranny. The majority of rebels, on the other hand, are Syrian and non-Syrian (Al Qaeda) Muslim extremists who want to topple the government to replace it with a strict Islamist anti-western government. These two groups have become comingled and it’s nearly impossible to differentiate between the two. If we support the rebels how we can be sure we are not arming the Islamist extremists?
We can’t.
The Obama Administration’s decision to arming Syria’s rebels will deepen America’s involvement in a war that is being fought along sectarian lines, pinning Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and threatening the stability of Israel and Jordan.
I have spoken with a Christian women and her son who just fled Syria to the US, and they spoke of Christian persecution and mass murder and dismemberment of Christians in Syria. She also said that many of the Rebel fighters are imports from other Muslim nations like Chechnya, and Afghanistan.
There is no such thing as a good outcome of the Syrian uprising. It frightens me to see what is happening in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and other Muslim nations. There are fears that Assad’s stockpile of chemical weapons, believed to be one of the world’s largest, could fall into the hands of Islamic extremist groups.
The only safe solution is not to arm any of the parties, because choosing the lesser of two evils, is still dealing with evil. We need to make sure our allies in the Middle East like Israel and Jordan are safe and supported with humanitarian aid to help the refuges migrating to Jordan. We need to work closely with Israel and build up our defense systems in the region. We must NOT hinder Israel from doing what it believes is in her best interest. A United Nations no-fly zone would make a significant impact to protect civilian life and bring both sides to the negotiating table for a conference set to take place in Geneva in July.
He was best known for his portrayal of Tony Soprano and his most famous Monmouth County scenes were in Sea Bright and Asbury Park, but James Gandolfini kept working here after the HBO classic ended in 2007.
Gandolfini starred in the independently produced Down the Shore which was shot in Keansburg, Hazlet and Atlantic Highlands in 2008. The film grossed only $4800 when it opened last April.
While shooting in Down the Shore, Gandolfini shopped at IEI, Victor Scudiery’s retail electronics outlet at Airport Plaza in Hazlet. Scudiery tells us that the actor bought a stereo receiver for his trailer. IEI’s staff let Gandolfini be, not bothering him for autographs or pictures, but they excitedly saved the security footage of his purchase.
