I Heart New Jersey

Bush must love us in the Garden State.

First, he picks Michael Chertoff, former Seton Hall Law professor and native of Elizabeth, NJ as the Secretary of Homeland Security, -----when NY’s Bernard Kerik was forced to drop out of the running.

Next, when he needs a new Supreme Court Justice, he first chooses his former personal lawyer from Texas and then-current White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, Harriet Miers. When she tanked, where did Bush go once more? To NJ, to get the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Judge Samual Alito ---a Trenton born guy.

So, when his number one man in the White House, Karl Rove, submits his resignation ----where does Bush go again?

The Garden State, that’s where.

“Burlington County native Ed Gillespie has been a congressional aide, Republican National Committee chairman, campaign official for President Bush and a high-powered Washington lobbyist. Now Gillespie has accepted what could be his toughest assignment yet. In his recently acquired role as White House adviser, Gillespie, 46, is helping shape political and legislative strategy for the remainder of Bush's term.” (Chebium, Gannett)

But not everyone thinks he will do a great job:

"Ed Gillespie is a longtime Republican operative who will bring the same divisive brand of politics to the White House that has damaged the Republican Party and been bad for the country," said Karen Finney, spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee. He does not bring new ideas or a fresh approach, just more of the same."

So, Ed, we in the Garden State salute you. We wish you well over the next 496 days, or 11905 hours or 715,000 or so minutes, until the stroke of noon on January 20, 2009 when the long Bush nightmare is finally over.

Best of luck. Looks like you'll be stuck with the guy until then. Hope you've kept your New Jersey 'edge'.

Where are my free speech rights? I think I left them around here somewhere.

An old joke:

This guy is walking around and around a lamp post at night. This cop passes by and demands an explanation. "I lost my keys”, slurs the guy.

Cop: "Oh, so you lost them under the lamp post?"
Guy: "Naw, lost 'em two blocks down there. Under my car."
Cop (angrilly): "So why look for them under the lamp post?"
Guy: "Cause the light's so much better here!"

Unfortunately, the light’s not that good anymore in private planned urban communities in New Jersey like Twin Rivers. You’ll have to look elsewhere for your free speech rights –---maybe where the light is better.

Here in New Jersey, our Supreme Court says it’s OK to sign away your free speech rights if you want to live in a private community. When someone buys in to Twin Rivers, they sign an agreement that signs away a portion of their free speech rights. And the court said, in this case, that that is okay as long as the restrictions are not “unreasonable”. One may think that the act of signing away your constitutional rights in and of itself is an "unreasonable" requirement.

“This is America! How can they sign away their constitutional rights so easily?” you may inquire. I think as others do, that you need to be very careful about which rights you sign away. Some day you may discover that you need it bad: “Aha! Where is my freedom of speech? I think I put it here someplace….”

The trend in corporate America is to develop more and more large privatized areas –where the First Amendment must be given up at the door. Restrictions to freedom of speech in shopping malls in NJ were first challenged some years ago. Now the arena it's private condo communities. This is not a trend that bodes well for civil liberties. What could be next?

On the side of COMMITTEE FOR A BETTER TWIN RIVERS was the A-Team --- Prof. Frank Askin and the ACLU [Ed Barocas, the Legal Director of the ACLU explains why he thinks his team scored a ‘victory, anyway].

On the other side was the TWIN RIVERS HOMEOWNERS’ ASSOCIATION and their great attorney, ----my good friend, Barry Goodman. Barry and his team are the key reasons for the Twin Rivers 7-0 victory. Go ahead, Barry –do your victory lap. You deserve it.

The Twin Rivers-type communities of America may be wonderfully looking private neighborhoods with perfectly landscaped sloping lawns. The homes have doors and window fixtures all the same contractually-agreed-to-color. But, it is a slippery slope off of those lawns in to a privatized/corporatized America where people are willing to give up constitutional rights to achieve a little security ---and aesthetic beauty.

Maybe the folks who’ve bought into the private planned urban communities don’t even know they have waived their free speech rights to begin with. I don’t know.

But, remember what Ben Franklin said, “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety [and in this case, some aesthetic beauty] , deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

Wonder if Ben would have moved in to Twin Rivers?

Save $$$ in Property Taxes: Become a diplomatic mission to the UN

The folks in Mongolia hate property taxes as much as NJ does:

The US Supreme Court sided with Bloomberg and NYC last week --- that the government of Mongolia must pay the $ 2.1 million in property taxes their nation of 2,594,100 owes the Big Apple for buildings where they operate diplomatic offices.

Come on, Prime Minister Miyeegombyn Enkhbold: youse guys can certainly come up with that in either dollars or tögrögs, your official currency.

That’s less than a buck a head for every Mongolian man, woman or child! And certainly much less than we pay per head in New Jersey. You guys have a bargain in the Big Apple.

New York City has been trying to collect property taxes from nations that house their employees in the same buildings where they operate diplomatic offices. And there are plenty of these around Manhattan, given the United Nations building in town. Those “countries have tax exemptions for the diplomatic mission section of the properties, but the city says they must pay taxes for the space that houses employees,” according to Fox News.

Mongolia owes a little over a cool 2 mil. India owes over $16 million. And that's a lot of tögrögs or Indian Rupees any way you slice it.

We all have to pay property taxes. Even Mongolia and India. But tax exemptions for the diplomatic mission section of the properties?

This gives me a great idea for NJ property tax payers: Rent your house to a diplomatic mission. They get out of NY, and you get a tax break! It's win-win.

Let’s say you get a small nation to house their diplomatic mission to the UN in your house? That should get you some property tax relief in the form of the diplomatic exemption. Certianly not China, India or Russia ----they probably have huge delegations to the UN and need lots of space. But maybe Chad, Tuvalu, or San Marino can use the help. After all, how many delegates to the UN can a nation of a few thousand have? One, maybe two guys? And they’re probably at the UN most of the time.

So, maybe you can offer the rep from the Palau Islands in the Pacific Ocean near the Philippines your garage or the folks from San Marino your back bedroom for a few nights a week. And I am sure the folks from Tuvalu would not mind putting their feet up on your coffee table, chugging down a cool BudLight after a hard day of diplomacy, and listening to the Tuvalu national anthem. So, become an official diplomatic office ----complete with the property tax exemption it comes with.

I am sure you can easily explain that to your town tax collector.

So, Mongolia and India: I am certain that while NYC can give you a little more time to pay your property taxes ---- but after that, we folks in the Garden State will lend them the Sopranos to collect. After all, they're not busy in New Jersey any more.

The Laws of the Great Garden State

Our good friends at the ACLU of New Jersey asked the New Jersey Law Revision Commission to recommend that the New Jersey state legislature remove two laws from the New Jersey statutes --- two laws that have been held unconstitutional. The ACLU succeeded. It took four years, but because of the persistant efforts of Deborah Jacobs, Executive Director of the ACLU the job is now done. Click here for the post on BlueJersey.com by Deborah Jacobs, Executive Director of the ACLU.

The two laws are:

(1) A now out-of-date law requiring that students stand during the Pledge of Allegiance. This was ruled unconstitutional by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals almost 30 years ago and by the U.S. Supreme Court more than 60 years ago.

(2) A law requiring that minors seeking abortions notify a parent. This was ruled unconstitutional in an ACLU-NJ/Planned Parenthood challenge in 2000.

It seemed reasonable and prudent that the Law Revision Commission acted promptly this year and did what was necessary to help NJ residents avoid any further confusion on the issue. However, before they made the change, according to an article in the May 14th New Jersey Law Journal, the NJ Law Review Commission considered that such changes were too “controversial”. Seems that they were concerned that no one in the legislature would want to appear to vote against the Pledge of Allegience or on the issue of abortion.

Such decisions, of course, should not be political.

Kudos to Law Revision folks, on doing your job. Quadruple kudos to Deborah for her vigilance in keeping up this effort for all these years. For that effort, New Jersey thanks you.

In the future, maybe there are some easier laws the Law Revision Commission might want to start with, just to kick up their juices in order to get ready for the tougher laws...

Perhaps there are other laws still on the NJ books --- that we just don’t need or need to be updated.

Check these out:

N.J.S.A. 39:4-85. Passing to left when overtaking; passing when in lines; signaling to pass; passing upon right

The driver of a vehicle overtaking another vehicle proceeding in the same direction shall pass at a safe distance to the left thereof and shall not again drive to the right side of the roadway until safely clear of the overtaken vehicle….

The driver of an overtaking motor vehicle not within a business or residence district shall give audible warning with his horn or other warning device before passing or attempting to pass a vehicle proceeding in the same direction….

“…or other warning device”? Hmmm, what could legally pass for an “other warning device”?

Perhaps, it is not only legal to flip the finger to the driver in the next car when you pass him ----maybe it is required by N.J.S.A. 39:4-85. So when you’re on the NJ Turnpike, drive courteously, and follow the law. You don’t want to get points on your license, and up those already high New Jersey insurance rates. Go for the gold.

Another law the Law Review Commission should look at is ---

N.J.S.A 36:2-54

"Kindness Awareness Month in New Jersey" designated.

1.The month of May of each year is hereby designated as "Kindness Awareness Month in New Jersey." All citizens of this State are urged to partake in educational programs and activities to foster kindness.

Hmm. So, now kindness is legislated in NJ --- but only in May.
And giving loud or noticeable warnings to passing cars on the NJTpke or GSP is a must.

So, for the rest of the month, [especially the coming holiday weekend]--- be kind when passing cars, and signal them appropriately.