>Pro Valley Russell Forenza : rolls out the check book News Flash: Mr. Forenza has run a full page advertisement in the Ridgewood News. A quarter page advertisement costs over $1,100. I can only guess what a full page advertisement would cost.
Additionally, I have now seen many new Forenza signs going up. These are a new batch and look different from the original ones put up two weeks ago. This fellow may have “backers”. None of the other three candidates are running any commercial advertisements in news papers or putting up many signs because its very costly. Unfortunately, candidate expense reporting is not available until 30 days after an election. This is unfortunate, as we learned with the prior election when two candidates took union money. Thankfully that incident was exposed on election day and I think it really affected the outcome. Accepting donations from outside interests has the serious potential to compromise the village in any bargaining processes.
I sincerely hope that is not the case here and I hope Mr. Forenza will come out and at least confirm that the money is his, if that is the case, or did not come from unions that do business with the village, unions that do business with the City of Patterson or Valley Hospital. This is a very sticky issue for many of us. We respect the privacy of donors but we can’t be naive and not look at motivations either. This is one reason why Villagers strongly prefer candidates that spend little beyond the sweat of their brow on local electioneering.
Again, I am sure Mr. Forenza is an honorable person but I would like to see clarity on this issue before the vote. I, for one, could not vote for Mr. Forenza without his comment on this issue. I know many Villagers feel the same. If it’s his own money paying for his campaign advertisements-more power to him! If not: Villagers beware!
>The League of Women Voters of Ridgewood Reminds YOU: Don’t forget to Vote this Tuesday, November 2
The League of Women Voters of Ridgewood Reminds YOU: Don’t forget to Vote this Tuesday, November 2. Polls open from 6AM-8PM. Your polling location is listed on the sample ballot that was mailed to every registered voter.
Please read the sample ballot carefully. There are three sections: General Election; Public Question; and NonPartisan Municipal.
Ridgewood’s municipal election candidates are listed on the very bottom of the ballot.
>Sen. Frank Lautenberg says he has launched an investigation into tunnel to Macy’s basement
Lautenberg to waste more of your money
Thought you had heard the last of the politicking about the tunnel to Macy’s basement. Ah, no. Sen. Frank Lautenberg says he has launched an investigation of what happened. Let me save you and the taxpayers a bundle of dough on this, senator, not that saving taxpayers money was ever a concern of yours. (Ingle, Asbury Park Press)
The erosion of Barack Obama’s popularity has lessons in it for every American who wishes to remain interesting and current, both professionally and personally. The real story in this election is not that America has no jobs, that the economy continues to falter, or that the national debt continues to balloon. While all three are true and, more importantly, Obama has failed to fix them, it is also true that these conditions existed prior to Obama’s election. Yet somehow his personal charisma and captivating charm elevated the electorate. The real story of campaign 2010 is how boring Obama has become. Obama, who had never run anything except a campaign in his entire life, performed an almost unprecedented conjuring act in 2008, getting the electorate to embrace him regardless of the utter absence of managerial skills. They believed not necessarily in Obama’s capacity to fix America’s transient problems but in his ability to focus us on more eternal, upbeat themes like hope, faith, and the future. Yet, this time his very presence seems irritating. A man whose oratory lifted him to earth’s highest office can’t seem to deliver a single uplifting speech. As a connoisseur of great oratory, I used to love hearing Obama’s staccato delivery, perfect timing, and mesmeric self-confidence – the mark of any great speaker – even as I disagreed with him on many of the issues. But Obama’s speeches have now become insufferable, devoid of charisma and personal magnetism. Here are three principal reasons why.
First and foremost, Obama has utterly overexposed himself. As a marriage counselor I always advise husbands and wives that, paradoxically, their marriages require intimacy on the one hand, but barriers and distance on the other. Wives walking around a bedroom unclothed, for example, is an invitation to erotic boredom and a dilution of body’s natural attractiveness. Overexposure, as everyone knows, breeds contempt. The Catholic Church is a master of mystery – from the shadows of its darkly lit gothic cathedrals to its insistence on innumerable divine mysteries – and it is therefore no wonder that it grew to become the world’s largest faith. It is the same reason why, in Judaism, Torah scrolls are secreted in an ark, obscured first by doors, then curtains, then a velvet covering, all of which increases hiddenness and thus reverence. In Hollywood it is specifically those celebrities who understand the need to stay out of the public eye that achieve the greatest longevity in it. Obama, by contrast, has the unfortunate flaw of always needing to be loved. He is forever in our face. From weighing in on every issue right down to the Ground Zero mosque to becoming the President who travelled most in his first two years, Obama lives permanently in the sun. President Bush used to vacation on his ranch where he’d disappear for two weeks. Not so Obama who even on holiday is constantly photographed buying ice cream and shooting hoops. Less is more, Mr. President. Sometimes you have to give the people the opportunity to miss you. Superman knows that his grand entrances depend on being disguised the rest of the time as Clark Kent. But by being forever available, Obama has made himself pedestrian. He went from Messiah to mortal, rock star to bland stone.
Second, Obama has betrayed a lack of substance. When he was more mysterious, Obama encouraged our belief that there was subterranean depth beneath the gleaming surface. Just give the man some time and out will come the magic. But it turned out that vacuous speeches on hope and change were not the thin veneer that concealed great complexity but the very substance itself. I have yet to hear one truly new or exciting idea from Barack Obama since becoming President. President Bush was dismissed as a lightweight. But love it or hate it, the Bush doctrine of preemption and its corollary of exporting democracy to recalcitrant states was a compelling and divisive idea that invited ferocious debate. But with Obama we are back to the tired, yawn-inducing discussions of big versus limited government and whether Keynesian stimulus spending or reducing the national debt is the best way to kindle the economy. I’m bored.
Third, Obama comes across as perfect. The most interesting people are always the most tortured. Bill Clinton clogged his arteries with cheeseburgers and had sex with an intern in the Oval office. Yet, he left the presidency with a sixty percent approval rating. America never lost its fascination with this angst-ridden and highly imperfect leader, so unpredictable that we never knew what he’d get up to next. Not so no-drama-Obama who evinces an imperturbable cool utterly bereft of inner trauma. Of course we don’t want the President to cheat on his wife. But show us a tiny demon or two, other than the fact that you light up a cigarette. Demonstrate that you wrestle with moods the way we do when we can’t pay our bills, that you struggle with life’s disappointments like us ordinary mortals. When I was a boy I revered but had no deep interest in our founding fathers because they were portrayed as marble busts who were perfect. It was only later when we discovered how inconsistent the slave-owning Thomas Jefferson could be about human freedom, how depressed and suicidal Lincoln became, and how Martin Luther King, Jr. wrestled with marriage that these aloof figures were humanized and became so endlessly fascinating. In this sense I believe Obama was poorly served by seemingly being a golden boy who suffered few setbacks. Perhaps it’s time for him to talk about the pain of being an abandoned child who was later orphaned of his mother as well, or the pain of seeing his popularity plummet. Perfect people are boring and monolithic. But flawed human beings who rise above adversity to reach great heights are inspirational. And if the President wants to recapture the public imagination, he would do well to expose a wart or two before the November elections.
>New Jersey Tea Party Coalition : Mr. DeStefano has no connection to any legitimate Tea Party in the State
On Thursday, October 28, the New Jersey Tea Party Coalition received word that fraudulent advertisements (Google Ads) have been appearing on the internet connecting the NJTPC to Peter DeStefano. Mr. DeStefano has no connection to the NJTPC, nor does he have a connection to any legitimate Tea Party in the State.
In New Jersey’s Third Congressional District, Congressman John Adler (D) is in a tight race with challenger Jon Runyan (R). Peter DeStefano is a third party challenger claiming to be the Tea Party Candidate.
According to press accounts, Congressman John Adler’s campaign manager Geoff Mackler directed the collection of signatures to get DeStefano on the ballot as a third-party spoiler.
A poll sponsored by Richard Stockton College’s Hughes Public Policy Center puts Jon Runyan and John Adler in a statistical dead heat. We can only conclude that this attempt to link Peter DeStefano to the NJTPC is an attempt to legitimize his candidacy in the minds of conservative voters and to draw votes from John Runyan’s campaign.
At this point, we have filed complaints with Google in regard to at least 6 different ad links. We are awaiting a response. The NJ Tea Party denounces these advertisements as well as the actions of the DeStefano and Adler campaigns and is seeking the person or group that has placed these ads. We believe this action was not only corrupt and immoral, but illegal as well.
We would ask anyone with knowledge of who placed these fraudulent ads to contact us through our website: www.njteapartycoalition.org
>Oliver Train responds to accusations Wow. Do a little work, take my kids to a Halloween party for a few hours…look what happens.
I live and breathe computers…I know that nothing that I would post Anonymously here would truly be anonymous. Why would I bother? Especially for a post that I think is right on. Even better – how do you know that the posts marked Oliver Train are really me? There could be several “Oliver Trains” running around posting away. Anybody can type Oliver Train… at the end of a post.
This is a blog, not a newspaper or other journalistic outlet. All that’s happening here is that PJ is providing a forum for people to interact. Believe what you want.
That one sentence at 11:16 sparked almost entire day of accusations and name calling. All of which are trying to draw attention away from the fact that Steve was not at the meeting. That’s the issue here. Not credentials, not who’s a nice guy, not who is posting what — who is going to show up and do the job they were elected to do. And that’s me.
Oh, yes, to the brilliant “detective”. I don’t have an accurate head count of the meeting, but I do know that Lou and I were there from the begining with about 20-25 others, including reporters from all the news outlets in the Village. A group did get up at around 8:00 and went into the hall. No Russ, and no Steve. So yes, if Steve had somehow snuck past the people in the hall (including the Mayor at one point to quiet them down) and arrived to the meeting late, I would have been one of the few people in a position to see him. You are forgetting one pretty critical fact though – I could have told somebody else that Steve wasn’t there. In fact I did, I made sure the reporters knew it, I made sure my supporters knew it. There were also people watching on TV. They knew it too.
8:21 – what’s baseless about Steve not showing up at a meeting? Please explain.
Correct 9:34 – Emory never had a Football team, so it could not be in the Ivy league. Lots of Kudzu, no Ivy.
>Pascack Valley : Governor Chris Christie is doing the right thing
Pascack was always a great hospital serving many in the region with wonderful and professional care. There are many who would refer to Valley Hospital as “Death Valley” long before casting that aspersion on Pascack. Remember Pascack closed because of financial mismanagement: ” the hospital succumbed to a litany of ills that have downed other health care institutions, including reduced federal Medicare and charity-care reimbursement and growing competition from doctors who set up their own clinics for reconstructive surgery and other specialties that attract wealthy patients.” Pascack will reopen with management restructured to ensure success!
Governor Chris Christie is doing the right thing and we should all be thanking our lucky stars he is OUR governor! He is the first governor in a long time working as a governor of the people and for the people. Hopefully he will expedite the reopening of Pascack and we can all look back at the unconscionable behavior of Valley & our Planning Board and chuckle as the Village of Ridgewood is saved from this Master Plan debacle!
For Tracey “unofficial witch of ridgewood” who’s not a “fan of the governor” but “maybe there’s hope for him yet”; which encore performance would you prefer Corzine or McGreevey?
The Ridgewood Soccer Association has openings in its special needs program for children ages 5-14 who require the individualized attention available in a smaller group setting. Open to children in Ridgewood and neighboring towns, the program provides an enjoyable hour of soccer for players of all skill levels.
A unique feature of the program is the participation by highly skilled and caring volunteers from the Ridgewood High School Girls Soccer team who serve as mentors for the players. Whether a player is new to soccer or a seasoned veteran of the program, the aim is to develop skills, promote fitness, and emphasize the fun aspects of soccer.
Clinics are run on Saturday afternoons in Ridgewood from early September through early November. The cost is $60 for 8 sessions. Each player receives an RSA team shirt and soccer ball. Complete program details and access to Community Pass, the
RSA on-line registration system, are available at https://www.ridgewoodsoccer.org/. Questions can be addressed to registrar@ridgewoodsoccer.org.
looks like this proves what many of us have long thought Rutgers salary study was released today :
“Public workers without much education fare much better than similarly-educated private sector workers. For instance, the average salary for a public worker without a high school diploma is $41,000, while it’s only $25,238 for a private sector worker without one.”
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—————Cheese Shop Coupon————– 50% off One Cheese with the purchase of any two (discount applies to cheese of lesser value)
Valid till Aug 12, 2010 with this coupon, not valid with any other offer ————————————————————————— New Arrivals
Bindi’s Gelato We just put in a selection of Bindi’s Gelato we just couldn’t resis!. They are very, very good! Three favors hazelnut, vanilla, chocolate a lemon sorbet plus single serve parfaits.
Liederkranz (pronounced ‘LEE-duhr-krahntz) An American original, created after Germany’s limburger cheese. This surface-ripened speciality cheese features a unique bold aroma, a creamy-smooth body and distinct full flavor. Hasn’t been made since 1985. 6 oz……..$6.99
Sun-Ni String Cheese (pronounced ‘Sunny”) Just found this wonderful marinated spicy with a touch of pepper, string cheese, made by hand since 1925, based on the Eupopean family recipe of the grandpa. As the package suggests and we sampled, great on a pita melted in the oven. So simple, easy….delicious! Where have you been all my life? 8 oz….$5.99
Specific information to include property address, date of application, the contact phone number, and name, will allow for proper followup of the time delay if any.
The Building Department is fully functioning and handling an increasing volume of applications.
I wanted to inform everyone of the arrangements for Caitlin Alvaro, who passed away this week.
WAKE Today, 7-9pm Friday, 2-4pm & 7-9pm At Feeney Funeral Home 232 Franklin Avenue Ridgewood
FUNERAL MASS Saturday, 9:30am Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church
The youth center will be open this evening from 8pm until whenever needed. Any teen needing a place just “to be” is welcome. Please feel free to invite friends who need a place as well.
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