deciminyan Posts

The upcoming visit of Pope Francis to Philadelphia and the accompanying World Meeting of Families (which may bring 2 million people to Center City) presents many challenges regarding the Constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.

I actually like Donald Norcross. I've had a chance to have a couple of one-on-one conversations with him, and he's a really pleasant individual. But as a Congressman, he has a lot of room for improvement.
Recently, he granted C-SPAN an extended interview on their call-in program. You can listen to the whole thing below the fold. I'll admit that I only listened to a small part of it. But that was enough.
Norcross was proud to respond to the moderator's question about one of his first votes in Congress - a vote to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline. Norcross claims it is about jobs, bu

Contradicting press coverage portraying even fundraising, FEC records show Tea Partier and Congressional candidate Tom McArthur is demolishing his Democratic opponent. The difference? His opponent's money comes mostly from voters. McArthur's $3 million advantage comes from him and him alone.

Laws have been passed to eliminate discrimination based on gender affiliation, but New Jersey, through its county committee election rules, institutionalizes this injustice. It's time to eliminate the "male" and "female" designation in the selection and election of county committeepeople.

Ever since he took office, Chris Christie has been an enemy of clean air and clean water. One of his first actions as Governor was to cancel the ARC Tunnel project. Not only was that project a job creator, but when completed, it also would have made train travel into New York City more attractive, taking cars off the road and reducing pollution-spewing traffic jams.

When Olympic medalist Carl Lewis announced that he was going to run for the State Senate back in 2011, a sense of pride permeated his hometown of Willingboro. Then NJ Gov Chris Christie stepped in and threatened to withdraw support for a statewide physical fitness program in which Lewis was involved. A GOP lawsuit later proved victorious and Lewis was ruled ineligible to run.

With the recent spate of scandals and sub-par performance from charter schools, I went back into my video archives and decided to re-post these brief remarks that were delivered by Senator Barbara Buono back in July, 2011. The venue was a fundraiser at a private home for Marie Corfield's Assembly campaign. Buono's words about Chris Christie's approach to teachers and to education "reform" ring true today. She labels the reformers' approach as a "simplistic solutions to complex problems." Listen.

Anyone who cares about education in New Jersey should work to send Bu

Hurricane Sandy has been a disaster not only for the people who have lost their homes and jobs, but also for the rule of law. We've seen this in how Governor Christie has bypassed environmental regulations and ethical contracting in his quest for re-election.
Now, New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith has joined that cadre of Sandy opportunists. He has introduced a bill (H.R. 592) that would erode the wall of separation between Church and State and would prov

When someone is sworn in as New Jersey Governor, they take (and sign) an oath promising to uphold the laws of the United States and those of the state of New Jersey.  They don't have the option to uphold only the laws that they agree with - they have to uphold all laws.
Barack Obama faced a conundrum with this during his "evolution" on marriage equality. He was under oath to uphold the misnamed "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA) while publicly promoting equal rights for the LGBT community. He correctly chose not to defend DOMA in court (while the Republicans decided to spend $3 mi

I met with Senator Barbara Buono at her law school alma mater, Rutgers-Camden, on Friday to discuss how her campaign is progressing and the issues facing the people of New Jersey.

Disclaimer: I am a supporter of Senator Buono and have contributed to her campaign.

At yesterday's press conference on medical marijuana, Dr. Joseph Jimenez talked about his frustration in treating patients due to the slow implementation of the medical marijuana law - a law that was signed over three years ago.

At yesterday's press conference on medical marijuana for palliative care, Vanessa Waltz of Princeton talked about her experience and frustration with Governor Christie's inaction and stonewalling.

If Governor Christie gets his way, New Jersey's water will soon contain toxic and radioactive materials. That's because he vetoed a bill that would prohibit the transport and storage of waste water from hydraulic fracturing, better known as "fracking."
If you think it can't happen here, remember the recent accident in Paulsboro where a train full of toxic chemicals fell off of an ill-maintained bridge and displaced dozens of people from their homes for weeks. Now multiply that impact by several orders of magnitude. That's what's hanging over the people of New Jersey if the Governor's veto i

The compassionate use of marijuana for palliative purposes was legalized in New Jersey even before Chris Christie occupied the State House. But as Governor, he does not have the power to choose which laws to obey - he is obligated to execute the laws that he agrees with and those with which he disagrees.
Today, the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey held a press conference urging the governor and lawmakers to carry out the law which the Governor has stonewalled ever since he took office. Every day that the Governor delays is anothe

I don't know the name of the person who said it:
" Christie would be a fool to sign an early voting bill."

There have been a couple of posts on Blue Jersey lately (here and here) regarding Governor Christie's plan to privatize the state lottery and ship jobs out of New Jersey. It's hard to understand the governor's motivation since the state lottery is one of the few revenue streams that are meeting projections. Today, I interviewed Seth Hahn, the Legislative and Political Director of CWA, to learn

"The evidence released today by Dominican law enforcement authorities proves what we have said all along: that the smear campaign against Senator Menendez is based on lies, lies we now know were paid for by interests whose identities have not yet been fully disclosed.  These lies were peddled to reporters by Republican operatives, as ABC has reported, and also sent to the FBI by parties yet unknown. Making such intentionally false reports to a federal law enforcement agency is a criminal offense, and we hope the proper U.S. authorities will investigate this matter, as their Dominican coun

That was the testimony of Jacob Rudolph, a young man who underwent gay conversion "therapy" when he was a minor.
Today, the Senate Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizens Committee heard three hours of testimony concerning a bill sponsored by Senators Lesniak, Sweeney, and Weinberg (and co-sponsored by Senator Buono) that would protect minors by prohibiting counseling attempts to change sexual orientation - so-called "gay conversion therapy."
The panel heard compelling stories from gay individuals who have been traumatized as children when forced to undergo these conversion attem

Yesterday, the NJEA endorsed Barbara Buono for Governor. In her remarks to the press, Buono summed it all up: "Public education is the foundation of our democracy."
This race is winnable with the help of folks like CWA, NJEA, and Blue Jersey readers. Don't sit back and give Chris Christie another four years.

Prodded by the right wing truth-challenged propaganda machine, the mainstream media are relentlessly looking for a smoking gun in the dealings of Senator Robert Menendez. Now that the prostitution allegation has been shown to be a false sensationalistic report promulgated by the Breitbart Bunch, the media have shifted their attention to campaign contributions and a grand jury investigation, implying that Senator Menendez granted a quid pro quo to a longtime friend, ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen.
Melgen is not only a contributor to Menendez, but also has given money to many other politician