Email Shows State Department Rejecting Request of Security Team at US Embassy in Libya
ABC News has obtained an internal State Department email from May 3, 2012, indicating that the State Department denied a request from the security team at the Embassy of Libya to retain a DC-3 airplane in the country to better conduct their duties.
Copied on the email was U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in a terrorist attack on the diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, Sept. 11, 2012, along with three other Americans. That attack has prompted questions about whether the diplomatic personnel in that country were provided with adequate security support.
No one has yet to argue that the DC-3 would have definitively made a difference for the four Americans killed that night. The security team in question, after all, left Libya in August.
But the question – both for the State Department, which is conducting an internal investigation, and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is holding hearings next week – is whether officials in Washington, D.C., specifically at the State Department, were as aware as they should have been about the deteriorating security situation in Libya, and whether officials were doing everything they could to protect Americans in that country.
In a Shocking and Unprecedented Attack, Sitting Congressman Bill Pascrell Threatens Opponent and Financial Donors
October 3, 2012
By shmuleyforcongress
BILL PASCRELL THREATENS “SUFFERING” FOR RABBI SHMULEY AND SHELDON AND MIRIAM ADELSON
Englewood, NJ, October 3, 2012— Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Republican Congressional candidate in New Jersey’s 9th district, is speaking out against Congressman Pascrell following an October 1st article on NJSpotlight.com (https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/12/09/30/super-pac-money-enlivens-congressional-race-in-9th-district/), in which Pascrell was quoted threatening Boteach and his financial donors, Jewish mega-philanthropists Sheldon and Miriam Adelson.
The article quotes Congressman Pascrell saying about Rabbi Shmuley: “He’ll have to suffer with the people who he’s getting the money from.” Referring to the Adelson Family, who are maxed-out donors to Shmuley’s campaign, Pascrell continued, “We know their record. We know they’re being investigated. If he wants to take money from them, fine.’’
Congressman Pascrell sits on the House Committee on Ways and Means, which has jurisdiction over all taxation, tariffs and other revenue-raising measure. The implication is clear as day: Congressman Bill Pascrell is using his position to intimidate and silence his critics.
In response to Pascrell’s shocking, unprecedented and reprehensible attack, Rabbi Shmuley has issued the following statement:
“I find it bone-chilling that a sitting Congressman would threaten his opponent for simply engaging in the democratic process. It is one thing for Bill Pascrell to try and intimidate me and my supporters. It is completely another to threaten unspecified retaliation in the form of ‘suffering’ for simply exercising First Amendment rights. We expect harassment of political opponents in Iran and the former Soviet Union. We certainly don’t expect an elected official in New Jersey to act in this manner. The Adelsons are the foremost Jewish philanthropists in America. It is particularly troubling that a sitting Congressman would threaten people who have done so much good in the world.”
Rabbi Shmuley added, “I find it rich that Pascrell who spent $2.5 million to defeat Steve Rothman just three months ago is suddenly whining about money and politics.”
For more information about Rabbi Shmuley and his platform, please visit www.shmuleyforcongress.com.
Bergen County GOP organization poll: Voters favor county police merger
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2012 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY OCTOBER 4, 2012, 12:42 AM
BY JOHN ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
A recent poll commissioned by the Bergen County Republican Organization has found that likely voters favor consolidating the County Police into the Sheriff’s Office by a better than 2-1 ratio.
The survey, which has a margin of error of 5.6 percent, found that 62 percent of the respondents strongly or somewhat agreed that consolidation of the County Police into the Sheriff’s office is a good idea that would save taxpayers millions without jeopardizing public safety.
That compares to 30 percent who strongly or somewhat agreed that police consolidation was a bad idea that would not likely yield meaningful savings and would jeopardize public safety. Another eight percent were undecided or declined to answer.
The poll also found that 52 percent of the respondents said they would more likely to vote for a freeholder candidate who supports consolidation versus 29 percent who said they would be less likely to vote for that candidate. Another 19 percent either were undecided or said it would have no impact on their vote.
The poll was conducted by Voter Survey Service through a scientific random telephone survey of 300 people between Sept. 20-22. The Record obtained a copy of the poll results this week.
Bergen freeholders decide against merging county police, sheriff’s office
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2012
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
The effort to merge Bergen County law enforcement into one mega-department came to a decisive end Wednesday when the freeholders defeated an ordinance to absorb the County Police into the Sheriff’s Office.
People in the the audience applaud the county freeholders’ decision Wednesday night to reject the attempt to merge the county police into the Sheriff’s Office.
By a vote of 3-2 with two abstentions, the board rejected the move to disband the 89-member County Police force, proposed as a cost-saving measure, after an tense evening that capped more than a year of hotly contested debate.
The vote to end the 95-year-old department would have faced an almost certain court challenge and a veto from County Executive Kathleen Donovan.
Donovan vowed during a tense and angry freeholder work session earlier in the evening that the ordinance — which she termed “idiotic” — would never be implemented.
Job growth continues to sputter—this morning’s jobs report shows that 12.1 million Americans are still out of work.
Going against other economic indicators, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent. Economists are already looking into the drop, saying it seems to be a statistical fluke, because it doesn’t match up with the sluggish job creation and recent downward revision of GDP growth. Heritage’s J.D. Foster says:
One time out of a hundred, the true figure will be much different than the reported figure. One time out of a hundred for a monthly survey means about once every eight years. What seems to have occurred with the September household survey is the one time in a hundred. The last time the household survey showed such a huge jump in employment was in 1983 during the Reagan-era economic boom. Today’s economy does not look much like the Reagan boom.
The real story, then, from the more reliable employment survey is the economy created a paltry 114,000 jobs, leaving 12.1 million out in the cold. This story is getting old. And the economy has no good news to look forward to.
Congress has gone home until after the election. When it returns to Washington, the end of 2012 will be staring us in the face. In just a few short months, the largest tax increase in history will hit America. It sounds like hyperbole, and we only wish that were the case. It’s been dubbed Taxmageddon, because for millions of workers it will be an end-of-working pink slip scenario. But on January 1, a nearly $500 billion tax increase will slam the economy.
Not only will this mean individual tax increases—if you’re a middle-class family, your taxes will go up around $4,100—but the whole economy will also suffer. The Congressional Budget Office has said that unless Congress and the President act, we will be plunged into a new recession extending through 2013—when we haven’t even recovered from the previous one.
The irresponsible behavior of Congress and the President in bringing the nation to this state means a significant slowdown is already almost certain. Mounting uncertainty about what, if anything, Washington will do is rapidly draining the vitality out of the economy.
The facts are plain: The economy will shrink and unemployment will spike unless Congress acts to prevent Taxmageddon. If Congress and the President choose to continue to play politics with the economy, we stand to lose 1.6 million more jobs.
Why can’t we seem to recover from the most recent recession? According to a new report by Heritage’s Salim Furth, a select group of businesses isn’t hiring: start-ups.
“Even in recessions, start-up job creation has been a constant—until now,” Furth reports. “Employment at start-up companies has fallen for five years in a row, reaching unprecedented lows in 2010 and 2011.”
This is devastating because start-ups normally create the vast majority of the net new jobs in the economy, he says. Larger businesses do expand with new jobs, but significant job creation comes from new businesses. And it’s more difficult than ever to jump through all the government hoops to create a new business. The system is completely against job creation right now. As Furth says:
With new regulations and business requirements in health insurance, small-business finance, environment, energy, and tax compliance, not to mention the ever-expanding reach of state licensure boards, it is expensive to open a business.
Businesses, and those who would start businesses, are looking at looming tax hikes and new regulations and simply deciding it isn’t worth it. There are many new regulations coming soon, but the Administration has gone silent on what they will be. So employers can’t even prepare.
Repealing the heavily regulatory Dodd-Frank law and Obamacare, with its 18 new tax hikes, would remove major burdens on businesses and individuals. But that won’t happen before next year.
Our elected leaders can prevent Taxmageddon. It would be the best thing they could do for the economy, including job creation, in the short term. There is still time, though it is growing short.
Another Trillion Dollar Deficit
October 5, 2012
Rep . Scott Garrett
As we wrapped up Fiscal Year 2012 on Friday, the United States saw our fourth straight year of trillion dollar deficits. Without including September’s total, the 2012 fiscal year deficit has already reached $1.6 trillion. It seems many elected officials have become comfortable on this unsustainable path, I have not.
It didn’t have to be this way. Our annual budgetary process came and went with President Obama offering a laughable budget that failed to earn a single vote in either chamber of Congress while the Senate didn’t even bother to propose a budget at all. Without a guideline for how to spend taxpayer money, the government is simply ‘winging it.’
Imagine, for a moment, if your household took the approach of the federal government and spent indiscriminately, using all of your monthly income and charging the rest on a credit card with no limit. Things would spiral out of control pretty quickly and people would probably accuse you of being reckless and irresponsible. Why is it any different when the government does it?
As we all know, actions have consequences. Last quarters’ economic growth was a dismal 1.3%, Americans are spending more money on gas, leaving less for other expenses while household incomes are in a downward spiral. This is not the recovery President Obama promised.
Every dollar our country borrows dims the light of American prosperity and crushes the dreams of future generations burdened by inherited debt. The sacrifices Americans make to ensure a better future for themselves and their families should be sacred, instead they are jeopardized by a spending spree in Washington of historical proportions.
It is immoral and selfish to continue this rate of spending at the expense of our children’s liberty. As the national debt surpasses $16 trillion, I’m reminded of the words of President Ronald Reagan, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” As vice chairman of the House Budget Committee, I will continue to fight for a balanced budget and a government that lives within its means to preserve our republic and the American Dream.
N.J. drops plan to require extra documents to get driver’s license
Published: Friday, October 05, 2012, 3:53 PM Updated: Friday, October 05, 2012, 7:17 PM
By Mike Frassinelli/The Star-Ledger
The state is abandoning its plans to pursue stricter new driver’s licenses that would have required 6 million New Jersey drivers to show additional proof of residency and disallowed previously approved documents such as military cards.
The more stringent license — which would have had a gold star in the upper right corner signifying it was a federally approved document New Jerseyans needed to board a plane or enter a federal building — initially was touted as a necessary security measure in a post-9/11 world.
But in May, the ACLU of New Jersey won a court order blocking the new ID over privacy concerns and a lack of public input regarding the changes.
The state Motor Vehicle Commission, which will keep its existing ID verification, is addressing security in other ways. Earlier this year, it began implementing “facial recognition technology” to fight license fraud, scanning photos of applicants with such accuracy that the distance between eyeballs on a photo could distinguish an individual applicant.
Fridays Controversial Jobs data: Happy Days are here again or are they?
October 6,2012
PJ Blogger
Ridgewood Nj, Friday mornings jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is being met with heavy skepticism. The report found that, from August to September, the unemployment rate dropped from just above 8 percent to 7.8 percent. In fact, when Labor Secretary Hilda Solis appeared on pro Obama- CNBC Friday, the first two questions for her were whether the books have been cooked.
As expected the mainstream media on Que ran with the numbers and began singing happy days are hear again. Our first reaction was ,are they now counting food stamp recipients as part time jobs?
The anemic job growth survey showing only 114,000 NFP (non farm payroll) new jobs , left many economist to scratch their heads. Former Chairmen of GE Jack Welch started a fury when he commented on twitter , “Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers”
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former economics adviser to John McCain and the former head the Congressional Budget Office, called the numbers on CNBC “implausible.”https://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/jobs-report-met-skepticism_653731.html
But econmist Larry kudlow comments via twitter to my good friend Jack Welch, bulging household and part-time jobs brought unemployment rate down.No conspiracy. Recovery?
Larry was also quick to point out the facts ,”7.8% unemployment from 600k part-time workers and 118K self-employed .873K rise in households No conspiracy. But 114K NFP weak.2% economy ”
This was verified by Zero hedge which does a pretty good job deciphering economic numbers ,”The reason: the biggest reported jump in the number of employed people since January 2003, at +873,000 to 142,974. At least according to the Household data survey, which just happens to be used in the calculation of the unemployment rate. Just little bit off from the Establishment survey of +114,000.” https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-05/nfp-prints-114k-top-expectations-115k-unemployment-rate-tumbles-78-expectations-82
Again According to Zero hedge ,”The reason is that the number of part-time people employed for economic reasons soared by 582,000 to 8,613,000, the most since October 2011, and the largest one month jump since February 2009, when “restoring” confidence in the economy was all the rage… and just before the Fed announced the full blown QE1 in March of 2009.” https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-05/reason-todays-unemployment-rate-plunge-part-time-jobs-economic-reasons-surge-most-qe
Another words part-time Jobs for economic reasons surge most since QE1 announcement. Meanwhile the Labor force participation rate rises from 30 year lows to 63.5%. to 63.6%.,not exactly stunning. The grim facts remain the same in order to get this economy moving along the US still needs to produce 350- 450,000 (NFP) per month ,maybe even more at this point.
Parents of Tyler Clementi decide not to sue in Rutgers webcam case
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2012 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY OCTOBER 5, 2012, 11:33 AM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The parents of a Rutgers University student who killed himself after his roommate used a webcam to see him kissing another man have decided not to sue the university or anyone else involved in the case, preferring instead to focus their energies on the foundation started in his name.
“They’re just in a spot now where they have this opportunity because of the fact that the media has made this case so well known to do some very good things through the foundation,” Paul Mainardi, an attorney for Joseph and Jane Clementi of Ridgewood, N.J., said Friday.
The couple had accused New Jersey’s flagship public university of failing to prevent their son’s suicide in 2010, which occurred just days after the webcam spying, and had filed court papers preserving their right to sue.
But Mainardi said the Clementis feel Rutgers has been “very responsive” and the school is working with The Tyler Clementi Foundation on a number of projects.
Physicist from Ridgewood who worked on Nobel Prize-winning discovery speaks at alma mater
FRIDAY OCTOBER 5, 2012, 6:08 PM
BY EVONNE COUTROS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — A physicist who collaborated in a Nobel Prize-winning discovery returned Friday to the high school from which he graduated in 1952 to offer hope to students who hadn’t excelled in their studies or stood out as prodigies.
David Hand Coward, a 1952 graduate of Ridgewood H. S., spoke to Ridgewood H.S. students at an assembly.
David Hand Coward, whose work aided in the discovery of quark particles some four decades ago which led to physicists at Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology winning a 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics, came clean on Friday: he wasn’t a stellar English student in high school and he wasn’t a star at Cornell University where he studied physics.
Coward, 77, who is attending his 60th class reunion this week and is being recognized with a Distinguished Alumni award, told 400 students at Ridgewood High School that he was no slacker, either.
Are big thumbs upping ad clicks?
Oct. 3, 2012, 7:30 a.m. EDT
Stubby fingers may be the reason many consumers end up checking out ads on smartphones and tablets.
Facebook FB +2.06% , Google GOOG +0.73% and other tech companies have puzzled over how to make advertising work on mobile devices. But it turns out that tablet and smartphone users, when reading news sites, are more likely to click on ads than those using computers, a new survey suggests.
Consumers don’t appear to be turned off by mobile ads, according to a survey of nearly 10,000 people by Pew Research Center and The Economist Group. Half of tablet and smartphone users notice ads when they’re getting news on their mobile device. Of that amount, roughly 15% click on ads. “People notice ads on mobile devices and may be even more likely to click on them than they are to click on other digital ads,” the report states. A recent Ad Age study, in stark contrast, found that less than 1% of people click on digital ads regardless of the viewing platform.
Officials: 1,000 N.J. residents injected with medication linked to meningitis
Friday, October 5, 2012 Last updated: Friday October 5, 2012, 2:26 PM
BY LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITER
The Record
About 1,000 New Jersey residents, including some from a Teaneck pain specialist’s office, were injected with a steroid medication linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak, state officials said today.
But no cases of the rare fungal meningitis have been reported in New Jersey, state Health Commissioner Mary E. O’Dowd said Friday.
Nationwide, five people have died, and about 35 have been sickened in six states, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is leading the investigation.
Ridgewood Library’s Reel Voices Film Festival starts next week
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2012
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Oscar-nominated documentarian Rebecca Cammisa will be speaking at Ridgewood Public Library on Oct. 12, after the opening reception of the annual Reel Film Festival, because, as she puts it, “Ridgewood asked.”
Oscar-nominated documentarian Rebecca Cammisa will speak and present her film, ‘Which Way Home,’ on Oct. 12.
“People who will come to see the film have probably not seen anything like this before,” said the director, whose film “Which Way Home” will be screened at 7:30 p.m. after an hour-long reception.
The film, about the harrowing journey child migrants make to cross the Mexican border into the United States, partly highlights the sense of desperation driving many people to leave home who would rather not, Cammisa said.
“There are a lot of people who feel compelled to come who don’t want to leave their county. They just want to survive,” she said.
Bob Woodruff, Ridgewood war veteran support students’ fundraising initiative
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2012
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
“This could be it.”
It’s a simple phrase, but it provides a small insight into what soldiers go through so that others never know war.
“Every time you go out on a mission, you don’t know if you’re coming back or not. It’s getting into that mentality: ‘This could be it,'” said Ridgewood resident and Iraq War veteran Mark Steppe.
Steppe suffered a brain injury from a roadside bomb explosion during his service and later developed post-traumatic stress disorder. It took him two years “just to be normal,” he said. Today, his suffering is far from over. He deals with severe pain due to a mysterious illness that caused lesions to form in his body, potentially linked to his exposure to depleted uranium in Iraq.
Seeing him suffer has been difficult for his family, including his two sons and his wife Amy McCambridge, a Ridgewood High School (RHS) graduate and former Marine.
Last Friday, McCambridge and Steppe briefly shared their story at several Ridgewood schools in a show of support for a student-based effort to raise money for the Bob Woodruff Foundation, a charity established by American journalist Bob Woodruff and his family to help wounded soldiers and their families.
