REPRISE-POLITICS THE DEMOCRATIC WAY

No I was not drunk. When I wrote "Politics the Democratic Way" July 4. There is much that I must learn about speech writing on the PC. Somehow between the time that I dictate and proofread, new words , sentences and other weird things appear. I have 30 days to read the manual- who does that- or otherwise decide this program is as useless to me as others have been.

I intend to remove that post from the face of this earth and repost it in the form taht I meant it to be. I hope that the 4th kept most readers from wasting time reading this or else if they did I hope they hjad a good laugh. This is the way it was suppoosed to read.

This is been a very unusual week regarding politics. Gov. Sarah Palin announced that she was resigning as governor of the Alaska. She and all of her family have been under personal attacks from members of the national Democratic Party and fellow travelers. Even her 14-year-old daughter was the subject of a tasteless Letterman joke . Her badly mentality/physically compromise Down Syndrome child as also been the subject of ridicule.

It may be perfectly acceptable for a public figure to become the object of ridicule and personal criticism, but the family especially young children should be exempt from such goings-on.

Spokespersons for the National Democratic Party have made it a practice of abusing others while hiding behind the first Amendment. This has often been a tactic at all lower levels.

At a local level Councilman Adrian Mapp has been twice the victim of the Organized County Democratic Party'swraith. It was not the voters of Union County that denied Adrian Mapp his second term as a freeholder, but the "party" that had not renominated him.

It was not Mapp's performance at the Freeholder level. There are probably less then 10% of the voters who know what a Freeholder's role is. Even less are aware of what a financial plum the position represents.

Instead, it was the aberration caused by the temporary control of the Democratic City Party in Plainfield by McWilliams and those who subsequently designated themselves as 'New Democrats" that has focused DeFillipo's cronies ire on Mapp. Mr Mapp entered politics as a friend of McWilliams an d it was during the honeymoon period prior to the old timers regaining control of the Plainfield City Committee that he was nominated and elected Freeholder.

During the recent primary campaign. Green posted a letter blasting Mapp from the same Roselle Council Woman who is a member of the shared services group that brokered the deal with Roselle Park. and a member of the Official Democrat Party. I do not know whether the elimination of Mr. Mapp's job in Roselle was part of an attack upon the borough's Mayor or punishment for Mr. Mapp seeking be the candidate in Plainfield for the Mayor. I would suppose both.

Despite DeFillipo reported statement that she has no time to be bothered in the local county's municipalities, her position and past record would suggest otherwise. Certainly, there are two short term ex-Mayors of Hillside both members of a citizen's reformation group, that might testify that their resignation from office was the result of political harassment.

Of course our local Chairman has not the power to impact on other area towns. November is only 3 months away. It will be interesting to see how our local politicians will align themselves in the coming general election at the local level and also at the State level. Will enough Independents and resentful Democrats unite to elected a New Mayor. Probably not but the race will be interesting.

TV FIREWORKS

Not the same as the smell of cordite. New York-Macy's was the most spectacular. Washington DC had the best ambiance,best performers and was the most impressive with the Washington Monument as center piece. What is missed is the old Boston Pops concert on the Charles with the 1812 Overture as the music for the finale.

Still a Holiday weekend,Check around noon time for an additional posting.

A happy Fourth of July.

This is a first. I am dictating using a program called Dragon 10 and I seem to have only had one wrong word typed in this first paragraph.

Noteworthy of the news this week was the coup in Roselle New Jersey where by a vote of four to two the Council voted to eliminate the chief financial officer position held by Adrian Mapp, and use the services of a part-timer supplied by Roselle Park. The Mayor of Roselle has been in political conflict with the Union County Democratic Party. Shades of Honduras or the New York State Senate or the election in Iran where there were more votes cast that were register voters.

The other interesting item was the judge's decision that the First Amendment did not apply to a blogger in protecting her source of information. I believe that this will soon be in the higher courts including the Supreme Court. In the meantime this is a landmark case

Nothing serious today just be careful and have a safe and happy fourth of July

miniscule potpourri.

Nobody is going to read "nothing" this weekend. Something more earth shaking than the PMUA agreeing not to act like an autonomous facist state and not fine you for their not picking up your garbage to move me out of the doldrums and post some more philosophy .

From the numerous comments I received (3) plus my own commentary, I was right; Religion is non controversial. I am happy all agreed with me.

I am still working on a review of present Health Care systems in the USA, proposed solutions and my own sage commentary. There is no hurry because I don't think that the President has enough chits to get his own party to stop acting in their self interests. Idealism even if misguided can never overcome pragmatism.

Not to be a killjoy, but how much does it cost to fill a pothole? How much was the total cost for the half hour of fireworks? How many potholes could have been filled? Does the city have the right priorities? I enjoy seeing fireworks, but on the 2nd ? It is like Nero throwing a gladiator event in the Colosseum, keep the masses happy.

Have a safe 4th

:POTPOURRI

July 1, 2009 the Council adopted a three month temporary budget based on the 2009 budget.Councilors Storch and Mapp were absent due to previous commitments, and Councilor Reid participated via conference call phone. The Corporation Counsel opinion was that this was legal. One other item "Fire Engine Lease" was withdrawn by Administration. I expect it will reappear at the agenda setting meeting.

Jerry Green posted a most interesting blog June 30. I am re-posting 3 paragraphs unedited and in sequence with my comments inter spaced.

"As I stated last evening, this is not the time to point fingers. The time now is for ALL parties to come together and do RIGHT for the City of Plainfield. Anyone who has ideas, recommendation, and/or suggestions, I would be happy to sit with you and put those good ideas to use". see below.

"The issue of rent control came up last night, and I shared with the public that rent control is an issue that the Mayor and Council should deal with; it is not a State issue. I chose not to comment one way or the other because that task should be left to the local officials".

It is one of the issues but I disagree that it is purely "local". More important is proper codes and enforcement. This is #1.

"Also, it was mentioned by one of the bloggers recently, that there was a plan and a taskforce put together to deal with these problems and that I took part in dismantling it. That is not true. I am looking forward to working with everyone on this. However, let us stop pointing fingers and making assumptions, but let us move forward with fact-based conversations toward strengthening our City."

I found this disturbing and sent a commentary question to Mr. Green's blog wondering when and who made the accusation. I for one never mentioned a plan or task force except to attribute that to statements made by Dashield at the Council meeting and I believe quoted in the paper.

I never insinuated that the Assemblyman took part in dismantling "Safe Homes Initiative".

Besides attempting to find out the blog Green in question, I also mentioned my suggestions of a commission to study code and organization structure updating. I noted in that commentary-which as of this date apparently did not reach Mr. Green since he did not post it or reply- that no plan could succeed without his active participation which I hoped he would give.

Since I have no response to my private questions, I find it only appropriate to repeat them publicly.

OUT OF THIS WORLD

I received this from the editor of the 17th Airborn Div. news. These pictures are so spectacular that I think every one should enjoy.

Astronomers Select Top Ten MostAmazing Pictures Taken by HubbleSpace Telescope in Last 16 Years '...they illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful.' Michael Hanlon/AH (Nov 25th, 2006) After correcting an initial problem with the lens, when the Hubble Space Telescope was first launched in 1990, the floating astro-observatory began to relay back to Earth, incredible snap shots of the 'final frontier' it was perusing. Recently, astronauts voted on the top photographs taken by Hubble in its 16-year journey so far. Remarking in the article from the Daily Mail, reporter Michael Hanlon says the photos 'illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful.' Enjoy! Hubble Telescope's top ten greatest space photographs. Awesome!!! The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across. The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3, resembles an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes... The nebula lies within our galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from earth In third place is Nebula NGC 2392, called 'Eskimo' because it looks like a face surrounded by a furry hood. The hood is, in fact, a ring of comet-shaped objects flying away from a dying star. Eskimo is 5,000 light years from Earth. At four is the Cat's Eye Nebula. The Hourglass Nebula, 8,000 light years away, has a 'pinched-in-the-middle' look because the winds that shape it are weaker at the centre In sixth place is the Cone Nebula. The part pictured here is 2.5 light years in length (the equivalent of 23 million return trips to the Moon). The Perfect Storm, a small region in the Swan Nebula, 5,500 light years away, described as 'a bubbly ocean of hydrogen and small amounts of oxygen, sulphur and other elements'. Starry Night, so named because it reminded astronomers of the Van Gogh painting. It is a halo of light around a star in the Milky Way.

BLOGGER'S DOLDRUMS

For almost two weeks until the 30th there had been only a few sporadic postings by the political professionals. Except for a special meeting to approve a temporary budget or the city will grind to a halt. it is nearly two weeks before the next agenda session.

Well, there has been a change !JG finally posted about Plainfield and the Connolly mess. He states that he is being very active at the state level as well as locally to find solutions such as enforcement laws with teeth. Adrian Mapp reviews the ordinance about rental properties that was repealed in this Administration's initial year.

Meanwhile, I am still compiling material about the purse string holders and possible government plans.

While I am attempting to organize my thoughts about (A) Health Care, present and future availability, and (B) How to correct Plainfield's ills (C) Why my computer has a mind of its own; I ran across a letter I had written about 10 years ago to my niece in response to her questions about our extended family's various and conflicting religious commitments.

This is a good time to intersperse a non controversial subject such as religion. I am sure that sometime in their life every one has faced similar questions . I am also certain that some will find this repugnant. Never the less, because it is narrow mindedness that creates our ethnic and racial problems I am posting this in the hopes that all who read it will discard all thoughts of prejudice..

"Religion should be something that one is comfortable with.

We have no choice as children. However as rational entities we are free to choose the spiritual milieu that meets our dogma and ritual needs. Faith is a matter of indoctrination not genes. Unlike ethnic origins, people are not born Presbyterian, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim etc. We have a life directing choice.

The important thing is to have a concept of a benevolent being, since being agnostic or atheist is a dead end. No one can explain materialistic scientific reasons for life. Even if existence just started as a chemical process, why?

The sad fact is that in all faiths of the monolithic religions, which are based in some form upon the teachings in the "old testament", breed religious fanatics, who consider all that do not agree with their specific beliefs as unworthy. These uncompromising individuals are humanity's greatest danger, for they abandon the basic teaching of "peace on earth and good will to all men" to incite murder and destruction.@

The other sad fact is that dogma rather than inner feelings tend to be the
driving force in all religions. I suspect that "man" requires organization, conformity, and stability which is why these "hate leaders" obtain their power.

Animosity even today exists within all religions: Christianity with the division between Catholics, and Protestants. Among the later i.e.: Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptist, Quakers etc; there have often been violent disagreements. Islam has two major antagonistic sects, which have waged war upon each other. Judaism has irreconcilable differences between Orthodoxy, and the Conservative, Reconstruction and Reformed movements.

The religious leaders in Israel from the founding of the state are Orthodox and although in the minority in population have tremendous political influence. There are also major differences in Orthodoxy between the Sephardic (Spanish) and Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jewry. Among the Ashkenazi; the Hasidic and Lubevich sects with their blind devotion to their rabbi are not compatible with the rest of orthodoxy.

I would repeat that it is not what you chose that is important, but does your choice offer freedom of thought and consideration for those whose choice differs from yours?
If not both, I urge you to take a second look."

I hope you will express your opinion for posting and discussion.

@ S0me prime examples are the Taliban , or the Theocracy in Iran, The Inquisitions, the 100 Years' War, The destruction of pre-Spanish society in Central and South America., The Cathcart Crusade. etc.