Tag: Ridgewood Real estate

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The Travel Center/American Express Travel Service Representative
Azamara & Celebrity Cruises

invite you to a cruise night at :

Blend Restaurant
17 Chestnut Street,
Ridgewood, NJ
November 18, 2009
6-8 PM

Tapas
Cocktails at Happy Hour Prices
Seating is limited – Reservations required
Call The Travel Center 201.447-3311
Special Event Pricing!

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THIS FLIER IS CLASSIC AND I HOPE EVERYONE GETS A GOOD LAUGH OUT OF THIS ONE. YOU ONLY TURN 30 ONCE, SO WHY NOT ENJOY IT RIGHT! FREE ADMISSION FOR ANYONE THAT WANTS IT, JUST COME DOWN THIS THURSDAY NIGHT AND CELEBRATE MY 30TH.

LADIES I HAVE FREE CHAMPANGE FOR ANY GROUP OF 6-8 GIRLS THAT RSVP’S, A FREE BOTLLE OF YELLOW OR… PINK CHAMANGE. COMPLEMENTS OF ELITE AND UPSCALE PROMOTIONS.

$5 UV VODKA COCKTAILS ALL NEXT.
“TRY THE VIAGRA COCKTAIL ITS ADDICTIVE”

6-9PM DJ RICHIE RICARDO
HAPPY HOUR 1/2 PRICE OFF ALL YOUR FAVORTIE COCKTAILS.
MUSIC FROM THE 80’s-TODAY (House, Hip-Hop, Rock)

9-12AM DJ SHANT AND DJ RENOWN TEARING UP THE TURN TABLES. (House, Hip-Hop, Rock)

CLOSING OUT THE NIGHT DJ BRIAN EDWARDS PLAYING THE BEST OF THE BEST!Read More

>The Ridgewood blog would like Govenor Christie take a strong stance to assure the fairness of the electoral process and begin an investigation of the flood of absentee ballots received this past election . The state received a 180,000 absentee ballot requests and some 3,000 forms were submitted where signatures didn’t match the one on file with county clerks. New Jersey voters have a right to expect their votes are counted fairly without concerns that they the voters would not be disenfranchised.This would go a long way to assure the sanctity of the electoral process in the future.

the Staff of the Ridgewood blog

Recanvassing shows NY-23 race tightens even as Rep. Bill Owens is sworn into House seat

By Mark Weiner / The Post-Standard
November 12, 2009, 6:02AM

https://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/its_not_over_recanvassing_shows_ny23_race.html

Washington — Conservative Doug Hoffman conceded the race in the 23rd Congressional District last week after receiving two pieces of grim news for his campaign: He was down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night, and he had barely won his stronghold in Oswego County.

As it turns out, neither was true.

But Hoffman’s concession — based on snafus in Oswego County and elsewhere that left his vote undercounted — set off a chain of events that echoed all the way to Washington, D.C., and helped secure passage of a historic health care reform bill.

Democratic Rep. Bill Owens was quickly sworn into office on Friday, a day before the rare weekend vote in the House of Representatives. His support sealed his party’s narrow victory on the health care legislation.

Now a recanvassing in the 11-county district shows that Owens’ lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes over Hoffman, 66,698 to 63,672, according to the latest unofficial results from the state Board of Elections.

In Oswego County, where Hoffman was reported to lead by only 500 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted election night, inspectors found Hoffman actually won by 1,748 votes — 12,748 to 11,000.

The new vote totals mean the race will be decided by absentee ballots, of which about 10,200 were distributed, said John Conklin, communications director for the state Board of Elections.

Under a new law in New York that extended deadlines, military and overseas ballots received by this coming Monday (and postmarked by Nov. 2) will be counted. Standard absentee ballots had to be returned this past Monday.

Conklin said the state sent a letter to the House Clerk last week explaining that no winner had been determined in the 23rd District, and therefore the state had not certified the election. But the letter noted that Owens still led by about 3,000 votes, and that the special election was not contested — two factors that legally allowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to swear in Owens on Friday.

“We sent a letter to the clerk laying out the totals,” Conklin said. “The key is that Hoffman conceded, which means the race is not contested. However, all ballots will be counted, and if the result changes, Owens will have to be removed.”

Before Owens was sworn in Friday, Rep. John Garamendi, a Democrat who won a special election in California, was sworn in Thursday. The two gave Pelosi the votes she needed to reach a majority of 218 and pass the historic health care reform legislation in the House.

The bill passed 220-215 late Saturday with the support of only one Republican. The Republican, Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao of Louisiana, said he voted for the legislation only after seeing that Democrats had the 218 votes needed for passage.

Now Hoffman, who campaigned against the health care reform bill, is carefully watching as the 23rd District race tightens and he is left to wonder if he conceded too soon.

“I don’t know if we would have conceded on election night,” Rob Ryan, Hoffman’s campaign spokesman, said Wednesday while discussing the latest results of the recanvassing. “I’m someone who doesn’t like to look back. But would we have taken longer to make a decision on election night? Probably, if we knew it was only 3,000 votes making the difference.”

Ryan, while acknowledging that Hoffman’s chances of pulling off a come-from-behind victory are still remote, said the campaign is looking at its legal options.

“We’re basically watching and waiting,” Ryan said. “We’ve been looking very closely at the recanvass. We’re going to see how this week shapes up, and then we’re going to determine what to do.”

Ryan said an important factor in the decision to concede was the unexpected — and erroneous — close vote in Oswego County, where polls had Hoffman with a double digit percentage point lead heading into Election Day.

“That’s the thing that threw us off,” Ryan said.

Oswego County elections officials blame the mistakes on “chaos” in their call-in center that included a phone system foul-up and inspectors who read numbers incorrectly when phoning in results. Of 245 races in the county — not including the congressional and court races — 84 had incorrect totals reported election night.

In the congressional race, more votes were cast in Oswego County than any other in the 11-county district.

The district’s second biggest voter turnout was in Jefferson County, where Hoffman also has benefited from a turnaround since election night, gaining about 700 votes. Owens led Hoffman by 300 votes on the final election night tally. But after recanvassing, Hoffman now leads by 424 votes, 10,884 to 10,460.

Jerry Eaton, the Republican elections commissioner for Jefferson County, said inspectors found a problem in four districts where Hoffman’s vote total was mistakenly entered as zero.

“Hoffman definitely gained votes where he didn’t have them,” Eaton said.

Jefferson County, home of Fort Drum and the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, distributed 2,299 absentee ballots for the special election. As of this week, 1,303 had been returned but not counted, Eaton said. He said the county will begin counting the absentee ballots earyl next week.

Conklin, of the state Board of Elections, said officials did not have updated absentee ballot totals from the other counties.

When asked about the tightening race, Owens spokesman Jon Boughtin released a statement without directly addressing the election. “Since being elected, Congressman Owens has remained focused on the issues at hand: working with local leaders to address the Champlain Bridge closure, meeting with commanders at Fort Drum and continuing the work to strengthen Upstate New York,” the statement said.

Ryan said the absentee ballots are likely to favor Hoffman because most were likely mailed before Republican Dede Scozzafava suspended her campaign three days before the election.

“For Doug to win, we needed a three-way race,” Ryan said, adding that the campaign’s internal polls showed Hoffman would win with all three candidates.

“Given the majority of these ballots are from a three-way race, we think the ballots are going to break Doug’s way,” Ryan said.

Ryan declined to say what percentage of the absentee vote the campaign believes Hoffman would need to win the race. Nevertheless, Hoffman’s campaign is optimistic.

“When people look back at this race, it was a remote possibility that Doug Hoffman would be a contender,” Ryan said. “But miracles do happen.

Washington correspondent Mark Weiner can be reached at [email protected] or 571-970-3751

https://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/its_not_over_recanvassing_shows_ny23_race.html

>From the NEA website

https://www.nea.org/tools/17231.htm

Recommended Reading: Saul Alinsky, The American Organizer

Reveille for Radicals
by Saul Alinsky
Vintage; Reissue edition (October 23, 1989)
Buy It

Rules for Radicals
by Saul Alinsky
Vintage; Reissue edition (October 23, 1989)
Buy It

An inspiration to anyone contemplating action in their community! And to every organizer!

Saul Alinsky wrote the book on American radicalism – two books, in fact: a 1945 best-seller, “Reveille for Radicals” and “Rules for Radicals” in 1971. The “Reveille” title page quotes Thomas Paine… “Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul.”

Saul Alinsky, who was a labor and civil-rights activist from the 1910’s until he died in 1972, has written here a guidebook for those who are out to change things. He sets down what the goal is: a society where people are free to live, and also aren’t starving in the streets. A society where there is legal and economic justice. Then he sets out to say how to get there.

Alinsky spends a lot of time critiquing the idea that “The end does not justify the means.” What end? What means? He feels that there are circumstances where one can and should use means that in other circumstances would be unethical. I am not sure I agree, but Alinsky certainly speaks with the voice of experience.

Alinsky’s goal seems to be to encourage positive social change by equipping activists with a realistic view of the world, a kind of preemptive disillusionment. If a person already knows what evil the world is capable of, then perhaps the surprise factor can be eliminated, making the person a more effective activist. Alinsky further seems to be encouraging the budding activist not to worry to much about getting his or her hands dirty. It’s all a part of the job, he seems to say.

Alinsky, the master political agitator, tactical planner and social organizer didn’t mince words…

“Liberals in their meetings utter bold works; they strut, grimace belligerently, and then issue a weasel-worded statement ‘which has tremendous implications, if read between the lines.’ They sit calmly, dispassionately, studying the issue; judging both sides; they sit and still sit.

“The Radical does not sit frozen by cold objectivity. He sees injustice and strikes at it with hot passion. He is a man of decision and action. There is a saying that the Liberal is one who walks out of the room when the argument turns into a fight.

“Society has good reason to fear the Radical. Every shaking advance of mankind toward equality and justice has come from the Radical. He hits, he hurts, he is dangerous. Conservative interests know that while Liberals are most adept at breaking their own necks with their tongues, Radicals are most adept at breaking the necks of Conservatives.

“Radicals precipitate the social crisis by action – by using power. Liberals may then timidly follow along or else, as in most cases, be swept forward along the course set by Radicals, but all because of forces unloosed by Radical action. They are forced to positive action only in spite of their desires …

“The American Radical will fight privilege and power whether it be inherited or acquired by any small group, whether it be political or financial or organized creed.
“He curses a caste system which he recognizes despite all patriotic denials.
“He will fight conservatives whether they are business or labor leaders.
“He will fight any concentration of power hostile to a broad, popular democracy, whether he finds it in financial circles or in politics.
“The Radical recognizes that constant dissension and conflict is and has been the fire under the boiler of democracy. He firmly believes in that brave saying of a brave people, “Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!”
“The Radical may resort to the sword but when he does he is not filled with hatred against those individuals whom he attacks. He hates these individuals not as persons but as symbols representing ideas or interests which he believes to be inimical to the welfare of the people.
“That is the reason why Radicals, although frequently embarking upon revolutions, have rarely resorted to personal terrorism.”
Alinsky practiced what he preached. He said, “Tactics means doing what you can with what you have … tactics is the art of how to take and how to give.”

He uses eyes, ears and nose for examples…

Eyes
“If you have a vast organization, parade it before the enemy, openly show your power.”

Ears
“If your organization is small, do what Gideon did: conceal the members in the dark but raise a clamor that will make the listener believe that your organization numbers many more that it does.”

Nose
“If your organization is too tiny even for noise, stink up the place.”

Alinsky devised and proved thirteen tactical rules for use against opponents vastly superior in power and wealth.

1. “Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.
2. “Never go outside the experience of your people.
3. “Wherever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy.
4. “Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.
5. “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.
6. “A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.
7. “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.
8. “Keep the pressure on.
9. “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
10. “Major premise for tactics is development of operations that will maintain constant pressure upon the opposition.
11. “If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside.
12. “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.
13. “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.

“The real action is in the enemy’s reaction. The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength. Tactics, like life, require that you move with the action.”

Alinsky was hated and defamed by powerful enemies, proof that his tactics worked. His simple formula for success…

“Agitate + Aggravate + Educate + Organize”

https://www.nea.org/tools/17231.htm

>The “fat” in the school system lies in 1 place…at the top! We have a fat head, so to speak! I work in the school system and I have lived here for 17 years.

My particular school JUST got a new phone system. My 1st day on the job, I walked into a time warp- an antiquated phone that I shared with 4 other teachers and no voice mail. This was 4 years ago.

We (the people responsible for my school’s physical plant) do the best job with the monies available. No squandering.

Where the money flies out the window is with the high salaries of the administrators. Do we need as many? (a guidance counselor per grade? the last school I came from had 1, albeit a smaller student population) TWO crisis intervention specialists? Does a secretary at the ed. center really warrant a 6-figure salary? I make slightly more than 1/2 that and I am in the trenches every day, responsible for teaching my subject matter, dealing with students, etc WHILE doing my paperwork (grade-keeping, providing input for parent/teacher team conferences, input for the child study team, implementing my LEGAL responsibilities in the classroom for my students on 504 plans and IEPs. Does a secretary really provide that much more of a useful service?

We have many, many caring, capable and superb teachers and administrators. I think any fat trimming needs to come from the top. My humble 2 cents.