The messages appear to refer to Atlantic City’s resilience.   Is this an opening salvo from the AC Alliance?   Who is the anonymous patron?   Do you know who is behind this?   Leave your comments below.

Susan Thompson has a great demeanor and exercises much patience during CRDA’s public forums.   She has a talent for fielding input from the community.

日本のために　For Japan

In this far,
far East
the mourning comes quietly.
The Land
trembles with our flooded
hearts.
The Rising Sun
splits
the blackest hours.

We are in morning now.
おはようございます。Ohayou gozaimasu*
to another day.

The waking from dreams
furthers the nightmare.
We long for a lullaby
as the sirens stir us from sleep.

The ocean has no bounds.
Trespassing into homes,
into families,
into bodies.
Its water spills down my cheeks.
しょっぱい。Shoppai.**

The earth breaks.
More fragile than our hearts.
Hope is not uprooted
as the tender trees.
Love is not buried alive.
絶対諦めない。Zettai akiramenai.***

Translation Notes

* ohayo gozaimasu – good morning

** Shoppai – salty

*** Zettai akiramenai – Never give up

Conservative New Jersey’s Russ Bongiovanni blogs on this topic, featuring the thoughts of one of the local advocates of this pilot project: April Christine Kauffman.

Joe Nickels and I had a discussion on one of my radio shows.   He made the point that veterans should have some type of card, which allows them to get health care from anywhere that they want, rather than be forced to use a VA medical facility.   This solution would allow the free market – individual veterans – to make the decision of where they go for care, rather than have government administrators in the VA force veterans to go to only a select number of health care facilities.   I like Joe’s idea.

Regardless of where you live, contact your congressman and senators and tell them that the VA needs to be reformed.   Veterans should be able to receive care at the location of their choice.

(Image Source & Further Reading – http://wanderingvets.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/reform.gif )

JEFFREY ANDERSON’S VENDETTA
The following is the text of our ad that appears today in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
 
Anyone who thinks Jeffrey Anderson is in it just for the money is nuts. Sure, he’s made a fortune suing the Catholic Church over old cases of alleged priestly abuse, but money alone cannot account for his latest vendetta. Now he’s engaged in a media ad campaign to find anyone who claims he was abused by a priest, regardless of how flimsy the evidence or when the alleged act occurred. It matters not a whit whether the priest is long dead and cannot defend himself.
 
In one sense, Anderson is doing us a favor: the cat’s out of the bag. His integrity is shot. Any lawyer who would conduct a public relations hunt for one class of people to sue is not interested in justice. Quite frankly, if Anderson were concerned about all victims of abuse, he would not exclusively target alleged Catholic ones.
 
Imagine for one moment if a lawyer launched an advertising campaign pledging to find every last person who was ever abused by a public school teacher. Or imagine a campaign that sought to locate only those persons who were victimized by an Orthodox rabbi? The mind boggles just thinking about it. Anyone familiar with the data on sexual abuse knows that a) the Catholic Church never had a monopoly on this problem to begin with and b) it has less of a problem today than any other institution, secular or religious (the average number of credible accusations made against over 40,000 priests in the last five years is 8.6).
 
Anderson’s mad quest for new Catholic victims is of a piece with his pathological fixation on the Catholic Church. We’ve been on to his game for many years; his latest gambit should convince everyone of his real motive. It is not justice that drives him and his army of lawyers—it is a debased appetite to get the Catholic Church.
 
It’s time for a Catholic revolt. While all sexual abuse must be condemned unequivocally, all attempts to shake down one segment of the population must also be condemned. Bigotry has no legitimate role to play in the pursuit of justice.

(Source – http://www.uen.org/utahlink/activities/loadimg.cgi?p=/uploads/19809_a_crucible.jpg)

Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are 3 gigantic areas of financial obligation in the Federal budget.   Each year these programs become a larger and larger percentage of the budget.   Social Security is running out of money.   It does not have the money to pay out what it has promised to pay out to people.   Social Security is one big broken promise.

It is a disgrace that the Democrats and Republicans both lack the courage to reform Social Security.  

Howard Rich makes good points in a recent article: Social Security: Why America Can and Should Allow Private Accounts:

[T]here are three simple questions that can be asked of any government program – including Social Security – which if answered honestly will point us in the direction of sensible, sustainable reforms.

First, is the outcome the program seeks to achieve consistent with the founding ideals of this country (i.e. advancing liberty and prosperity for all people)?

Second, is government’s involvement absolutely necessary in order to achieve this outcome?

And finally (assuming the answer to the first two questions is ‘yes’), should government’s role in achieving the outcome consist of directly funding or managing a particular task? Or should the private sector bear that responsibility – with government assuming a more limited oversight or regulatory role?

In addition to this three question analysis, I add the additional injustice for young professionals.   Young adults will pay Social Security taxes their entire working careers and most likely see little – if any – of what they paid into the system, when it is their time to collect.   The time has come to begin transitioning into another system that puts our future on a stronger footing and a better path.

The solution to the immanent disaster of Social Security will live up to the current obligations of the program, but wean people off of the current level of government benefits and allow those who want to do so to begin investing their retirement savings into an investment vehicle of their choosing.   Let individuals prosper and fail through their own investment decisions, rather than have us all fail due to the central planning of the sinking ship of state of America.

Mr. Rich concludes his article by writing:

Permitting private accounts for Social Security would not break a contract with the American people – it would efficiently fulfill one of the founding ideals of our Republic. It would also help pull our nation back from the brink of economic ruin.

(Image source – http://vinylnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/sinking-ship.jpg)

There are two seats that are up for grabs in November 2011′s election.   Those 2 seats are held by Democrats Alisa Cooper and Jim Schroeder. 

Mr. Marino’s announcement comes on the same day that EHT Committeeman John Carmen also announced his candidacy for Freeholder At-Large.

(Image Credit – http://www.linwoodcity.org/mainpages/council_members.asp)

Fair hiring bill

Also this week, Assemblywoman Celeste Riley, D-Salem, Gloucester, Cumberland, led action to stop companies from posting job openings that excluded applicants who are unemployed.

“This bill is very simply the right thing to do for thousands of New Jerseyans who, through no fault of their own, found themselves without a job in recent years,” said Riley. “Judging a person by whether they have a job is not the way to fill job vacancies. I want to see everyone judged on their skills and ability to do the job.”

The bill, which passed the Senate this week after clearing the Assembly in October, would authorize a $5,000 penalty for a first offense and $10,000 penalties for subsequent offenses, which would be collected by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Positions on the bill:

PRO

From APP.com’s Capitol Quickies blog g:

“We’ve seen a lot of tough things during this recession, but this trend of purposefully bypassing unemployed people when looking to fill job openings is inexplicable,” said [Peter J.] Barnes, [III] D-Middlesex. “I see no reason for this practice that, when you think about, only helps perpetuate a high unemployment rate. It’s unfair and it must stop.”

CON

Again, from Capitol Quickies:

“I think this accomplishes nothing. The bill does not require employers to consider the unemployed. That’s a separate argument,” Assemblyman Jay Webber, R-Morris, said during the October committee hearing. “The only thing we’d be doing is telling companies they can’t say that in ads.”

What do you think about this bill?   Will it help the situation?   Is it the right type of action for government to take to ensure liberty and justice for all, or should the government just stay out of this matter and not intrude in the actions of private business and free citizens?

Leave your comments below.   The Governor has yet to sign this bill.  

(Image Source – http://www.engagecommunitychurch.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/you-decide001.jpg)

I am very excited to bring to you a special edition of the Jesse Kurtz Show this Saturday, 13 Saturday, 2pm – 4pm on WIBG 1020 AM in the Atlantic City, NJ Metro Market and online at http://www.wibg.com/listen5.html .

Presidents Abraham Lincoln (Republican), Andrew Jackson (Democrat), & Today’s Republican and Democrat Parties

Geoffrey M. Elliott of The Abraham Lincoln Blog (http://abrahamlincolnblog.blogspot.com) will join me in the 2pm hour to discuss Abraham Lincoln as the Father of the Republican Party.   What were President Lincoln’s ideas, actions, life, and spirit, and how does today’s Republican Party compare and contrast with President Lincoln?

Professor Harry L. Watson, Director of the UNC Center for the Study of the American South will join me in the 3pm hour to discuss Andrew Jackson and his influence on the Democrat Party.   What were President Jackson’s ideas, actions, life, and spirit, and how does today’s Democrat Party reflect and reject the values of President Jackson?

Our experts are very knowledgeable and this show may explain why the majority of Americans are dissatisfied with both political parties.   We may also see a roadmap to our roots in order to reclaim the heritage of both the Republican and Democrat Parties.

Please be sure to listen and tell a friend.   This is going to be a very special program!

 (Image Sources – http://checkraise.com/rants2/archive3/180px-Andrew_jackson_20bill.jpg & http://davidbjohnson.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/abraham-lincoln-picture.jpg)

Here is a sampling of what voters decided:

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