Author: hankkalet

Why is that Republicans never concern themselves with political reform when they are the majority party?

Consider the record: The party ran in 1991, in the wake of the unpopular Jim Florio tax hike, on a platform that included recall of elected officials and initiative and referendum. They controlled the Legislature for 10 years, the governor’s mansion for eight, and we still have no I&R.

And then, after the McGreevey administration came to power, the GOP started pushing for pay-to-play reforms — something that was off the table when the Whitman administration was botching E-ZPass and lottery contracts.

I raise this question after reading an Associated Press report saying that a pair of Morris County Republicans want to create a limited version of I&R for spending measures. The Assembly members, Richard Merkt and Joseph Pennacchio, say their plan would allow citizens to have a direct say in how public money is spent.

“This proposal would give New Jersey citizens direct control over state tax, spending and borrowing decisions,” Merkt said. “Trenton has failed the taxpayers of New Jersey and it is time that we put decision-making power back in the hands of the people.”

The plan, according to the AP report, would allow citizens to:

post questions on the ballot if they get signatures from 25 percent of registered voters in 14 of the state’s 21 counties. If passed by voters, a proposal would become law within 60 days. It could be stopped only if two-thirds of both houses of the Legislature voted to overturn the voter approval.

Put another way, petitioners could bypass some of the state’s largest and densest counties (Bergen, Camden, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex and Passaic — about half the state’s population) and still get something on the ballot. That’s absurd.

That doesn’t mean we should dismiss I&R out of hand. On the contrary, I&R theoretically enhances our democracy — provided there are tight controls on money spent during I&R campaigns.

But we have to ask hard questions not only about the plan being floated by Merkt and Pennachio but about the motivations behind it. The Assembly members say they are making their proposal — destined to die in committee — because of the summer’s budget fiasco and sales tax hike and the recent approval of money for stem cell research and needle exchange programs, but I have to wonder.

After all, we are entering an election year in which the entire Legislature is up for election, a Legislature that is not exactly popular in public opinion polls. Simply put, the proposal smacks of the kind of political opportunism that gave us the GOP majority in the early 1990s, a majority that slashed the state income tax without thought to future budgets, while burying its own reform platform in the back of its storage closet.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

James Brown, who along with a handful of others, created the music we know of as soul, died this morning. It lends an air of sadness to a Christmas morning spent watching my niece and nephews opening gifts.

Along with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and a handful of others, Brown was one of the major musical influences of the past 50 years. At least one generation idolized him, and sometimes openly copied him. His rapid-footed dancing inspired Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson among others. Songs such as David Bowie’s “Fame,” Prince’s “Kiss,” George Clinton’s “Atomic Dog” and Sly and the Family Stone’s “Sing a Simple Song” were clearly based on Brown’s rhythms and vocal style.

Chuck D, the great rapper from Public Enemy, said it best:

“James presented obviously the best grooves,” rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy once told The Associated Press. “To this day, there has been no one near as funky. No one’s coming even close.”

Rest in peace, Godfather.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Now he finds a good come back. If he would have made this argument two and a half years ago, we might have started extricating ourselves from the deadly mess that is President Bush’s Iraq War. Thanks senator.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

I’m not sure what possessed us, but Annie and I took a ride up to the Nassau Park shopping center in West Windsor to do a last-minute exchanges and hit Sam’s Club for some provisions.

After finishing up at Sam’s we grabbed some food at the new Mexican place. In the time it took us to walk there, order and sit down, the quiet parking lot turned into a massive traffic jam, cars everywhere. It looked like Giants Stadium after a game or a concert, only the traffic was coming in as well as going out.

Now, this is a bad lot in the middle of March, a traffic nightmare; three days before Christmas? Well, I should have known better.

But that’s not the point. The center’s management company should have known better and had security personnel out in force, directing traffic, managing crowds they had to know were coming.

I’ve learned my lesson. Has management?

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

There are few things dumber than

I received quite a few e-mails in response to my post and subsequent follow on the state of American radio. Most agreed with my observations, and nearly all wanted to put in a word for WFMU, one of the last remaining bastions of free-form radio.

FMU — along with WFUV, where the great Vin Scelsa plies his trade, and Y-Rock on XPN — is worth listening to. But it’s existence, as my e-mailers would attest, only further proves my point: That American radio has narrowed itself to the point of irrelevancy. The fact is, we’re left to tune in the tiniest of independent, often university-connected, stations to get beyond the computerized playlists that dominate.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick