The president’s policies have failed to enforce the law and are hurting American citizens.
The crisis on our border is the direct and predictable result of President Obama’s sustained effort to undermine America’s immigration laws. As the president’s previous director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), John Sandweg recently acknowledged: “if you are a run-of-the-mill immigrant here illegally, your odds of getting deported are close to zero.” Enforcement has collapsed.
Today President Obama says he needs $3.7 billion from Congress to handle the crisis his lawless policies are creating. Amazingly, the funding request further advertises his administration’s amnesty efforts and our fraud-riddled asylum programs, while explicitly omitting any request for expedited deportation authority. The request is also not paid for. The administration wants to borrow every penny.
President Obama has yielded to the demands of open borders groups, to whom he pledged amnesty in 2008. He has dramatically abandoned his lawful duty to the American people. Immigration enforcement for the world’s most powerful nation is now held hostage by a small band of radical immigration activists. That is why the administration still refuses to deliver the crucial message necessary to halt this flow: if you attempt to cross our border illegally, you will be apprehended and deported.
Most egregiously, the president has announced his intention to yet again bypass Congress in order to expand his far-reaching non-enforcement directives. His unlawful actions guarantee that the $3.7 billion will be only the beginning, and that the deluge of illegal immigration — and the huge costs — will only grow.
Cupcake shop Crumbs shuttering all its stores including its Ridgewood Location
JULY 8, 2014, 6:39 AM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2014, 12:40 PM ASSOCIATED PRESS Print
NEW YORK (AP) — Crumbs says it is shuttering all its stores, a week after the struggling cupcake shop operator was delisted from the Nasdaq.
CARMINE GALASSO/RECORD FILE PHOTO Crumbs Bake Shop in Ridgewood. The chain is closing all its stores, it announced Monday.
The New York City-based company, which had stores in Ridgewood and at the Garden State Plaza, said all employees were notified of the closures Monday. A representative for Crumbs could not immediately say how many workers were affected or how many stores it had remaining on its last day.
“Regrettably Crumbs has been forced to cease operations and is immediately attending to the dislocation of its employees while it evaluates its limited remaining options,” the company said in an emailed statement. That will include filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.
A press release from its website in March listed 65 locations in 12 states and Washington, D.C. The website had not been updated with notification of the closures late Monday.
STAND YOUR GROUND: PROTESTERS DIVERT 3RD ROUND OF B– USES FROM MURRIETA by MICHELLE MOONS 7 Jul 2014
MURRIETA — Demonstrators opposed to illegal immigration stood their ground again at the Murrieta Border Patrol station on Monday, where U.S. Border Patrol had been scheduled to transfer a third round of buses, with approximately 140 illegal aliens aboard in total, transferred from overcrowded Texas detention facilities.
For a third time, the buses were rerouted to the San Ysidro, California Border Patrol station, near the U.S.-Mexico border, for processing. The demonstrators gathered in areas to the north and south of the Murrieta station after law enforcement blocked off the road near the station itself. Many told Breitbart News they considered their stand a success, since buses scheduled for Murrieta are avoiding it as long as demonstrators remain.
The anti-illegal immigration protests Monday brought out new, first-time demonstrators and onlookers from many different backgrounds–from young enlisted Marines to legal immigrants from Germany, Mexico, and Central America. Karen Siegemund of Rage Against the Media, comedian and author Evan Sayet, and radio host Kender Macgowan made it out as well.
Despite the news of buses being re-routed for the second time since a standoff with three buses in Murrieta July 1, anti-illegal immigration demonstrators plan to continue to monitor and be at the ready should any transfers of illegal aliens to the Murrieta station resume.
There was a time not so long ago when the young seemed destined to be liberal forever. Americans in their teens and 20s were to the left of their elders on social issues. They worried more about poverty. They voted strongly Democratic.
In retrospect, we refer to this period as the 1960s, and it didn’t last long, let alone forever. Less than a generation after young people were marching for civil rights and against the Vietnam War, they voted overwhelmingly for Ronald Reagan.
Today, of course, the young are liberal again, and it seems as if they will be forever. They favor same-sex marriage, marijuana legalization, stricter gun laws, citizenship for illegal immigrants and an activist government that fights climate change and inequality. The Republican Party, as you have probably noticed, does not.
But the temporary nature of the 1960s should serve as a reminder that politics change. What seems permanent can become fleeting. And the Democratic Party, for all its strengths among Americans under 40, has some serious vulnerabilities, too.
North Jersey blood banks issue urgent call for donors
July 7, 2014 Last updated: Monday, July 7, 2014, 1:21 AM
By EMILY MASTERS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Blood banks in New Jersey are in critical need of donors this summer, especially now, right after the July Fourth weekend.
“The unfortunate reality is hospital patients don’t get to take a holiday. They still need transfusions,” said Anthony Tornetta, the external-communications manager for the American Red Cross Penn-Jersey Blood Services Region. “It is important that the community rallies around that and donates blood.”
Blood supplies traditionally dip to their lowest levels during the summer months and the winter holidays, when schools are closed and many people are on vacation.
But after harsh winter weather kept many potential donors away, this year’s summer shortage has been more sorely felt.
Community Blood Services, which serves 19 hospitals in New Jersey, has been running 4 percent behind in collections since January, said its community affairs director, Karen Ferriday. “We are definitely falling short of our goal” of 250 donations a day, she said.
Ferriday said blood banks see far fewer corporations and community organizations hosting drives over the summer and also face a decline in the number of donors visiting centers, as people take vacations or visit family.
With shark sightings along the Jersey Shore and the Kardashians in the Eastend a safe ,local and traffic free environment awaits you at Graydon Pool.
The Village Council and the Ridgewood Department of Parks and Recreation are excited to announce memberships are now on sale for the upcoming summer season and all are invited to join the Graydon Pool facility as season members for the 2014 summer season. Come enjoy fun in the sun so close to home! Opening day is Saturday, May 31st.
Pool features include a shaded playground, water play fountains, shade kites, Adirondack chairs, picnic area, sheltered pavilion, charcoal grills, and The Water’s Edge Café. Additional amenities include a lending library of reading books, volleyball, basketball, ping-pong tables, shuffleboard, four-squares and hop-scotch. Special programs include “Storytime Under a Tree” for the little ones and swim instruction for children and adults, as well as an adaptive swim class. The Graydon Swim Team welcomes youth members, ages 8 to 14.
Resident fees are $120 per adult, $110 per child (ages 2 through 15) and $30 for seniors. Non-resident adults will be charged $200 and children, ages 2 through 15, will be charged $175 for the13 week season.
Badges are now on sale and can be purchased from the comfort of home on Community Pass at www.ridgewoodnj.net/communitypass (Visa and MasterCard are accepted). In person registration assistance will be available Saturdays, May 10 and May 17, 10:00 am to 12 noon, at the Graydon Pool Badge Office (onsite at the pool), 259 North Maple Avenue. Badges may be purchased daily throughout the operating season, May 31st through Septemer 1st.
Details are available at www.ridgewoodnj.net/graydon or you may call the Recreation Office at 201-670-5560 with any questions or if special accommodations are needed.
Border Meltdown: Obama Delivering 290,000 Illegals To U.S. Homes
The vast majority of 50,000 unaccompanied youths and children who have illegally crossed the Texas border during the last few months have been successfully delivered by federal agencies to their relatives living in the United States, according to a New York Times article.
A second New York Times article report revealed that officials have caught an additional 240,000 Central American migrants since April, and are transporting many of them to their destinations throughout the United States.
The 290,000 illegals — so far — are exploiting legal loopholes that allow them to get temporary permits to stay in the United States.
Experts say that President Barack Obama’s administration has failed to close the loopholes and is unlikely to deport more than a small percentage of the illegals, despite the high unemployment rates among American Latino, African-American and white youths, and the strapped budgets of many cities and towns.
The president’s policy has caused protests by frightened citizens in towns such as Murrieta. But Obama’s allies — such as La Raza, an ethnic lobby for Latinos — are eager to escalate the conflict and to paint the protestors as racists. Those protests may escalate before the November elections.
The man behind the camera, from the woman behind the man.
Anne LaGrange Loving
The rest of the staff of the Ridgewood blog would like to thank Boyd Loving for all his hard work , stay tuned more pictures to come from the Ridgewood 4th of July celebration .
Time to Reclaim our Independence : Let’s party like it’s 1776.
Thursday, July 3rd, 2014 by Daniel Horowitz
On this day 238 years ago, the Continental Congress adopted the 1338-word Declaration of Independence in which we declared, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
11 years later, as Benjamin Franklin left Independence Hall after the Constitutional Convention crafted the new constitution, he was reportedly asked by a lady, “well doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” He famously replied, “a republic, if you can keep it.”
Sadly, many of us are spending this 4th of July wondering if our Founders would recognize that republic – that beacon of freedom built upon a strong civil society and ordered liberty. So many ordinary Americans feel our republic is long lost to a foreign socialist utopia centrally managed by an elitist oligarchy in the form of two corrupt political parties.
This small minority of radicals has completely vitiated our most fundamental characteristic as a republic – our sovereign borders. We are now languishing from the flood of over 100,000 illegal immigrants teaming over our southern border, adding to the millions of illegals already here. At stake is nothing less than the preservation of our civil society, sovereignty, and solvency as a nation and as a stable economy. They drain our resources, health care, education, and criminal justice system.
Our veterans are suffering waiting for care under single-payer health care, while private health care providers are being forced to provide immediate treatment to illegal aliens and are being threatened with arrest for speaking out against the threat of diseases. Border agents protecting our republic are now being sued by illegal immigrants for doing their jobs.
We feel like strangers in our own country.
Even without the illegal invasion, our republic is hanging on by a thread.
Almost every American is involuntarily subservient to the federal government for his or her retirement security and healthcare. Over 46 million people, and one-in-four children, rely upon government for food stamps. Under the new Obamacare mandates, an estimated 79 million Americans will be enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP. This culture of dependency, an anathema to our spirit of independence, has saddled us with over $1 million in debt and unfunded obligations for every American taxpayer.
Meanwhile, ordered liberty in a constitutional republic needs a strong civil society and strong families in order to thrive, much like fish in water. Yet, the cultural degeneration, promulgated and encouraged by this small societal elite, has permeated every aspect of American life – to the extent that those of us who adhere to traditional family values are now ostracized and castigated. We have reached the point where we need a group of unelected judges to grant us small morsels of religious liberty from their high benches in Washington. The small minority who push this invidious anti-family agenda now seek to eradicate the very existence of gender to the degree that private individuals and businesses are now being forces to accommodate bizarre and licentious practices.
The “Republican” Party was supposed to serve as the bulwark against attempts to supplant our republican form of government, yet they have become part and parcel of the problem. Decades’ worth of treachery directed towards the party faithful from its leadership has finally culminated with the Mississippi election last week. A long-serving Republican, with the blessing of the entire party establishment, engaged in fraud and race-baiting to repudiate his own party base and steal the election.
We are now living through the worst consequences of elective despotism that James Madison warned about in Federalist 48. Indeed we are strangers in our own country and in our own party.
But thankfully, as we celebrate another Independence Day, there are signs that the original zeal for constitutional governance and freedom still runs through the veins and DNA of so many Americans. We have witnessed ordinary citizens risking their careers and reputation to challenge the entrenched political class with almost no funding and very little resources. Most of them came up short on the first try, but so many of them came close and have succeeded in exposing the duplicitous career politicians.
INDEPENDENCE DAY: WHAT JULY 4 REALLY MEANS by Tom Bowden | June 26, 2014
“I can say,” wrote Ayn Rand, “not as a patriotic bromide, but with full knowledge of the necessary metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, political and esthetic roots — that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world.”
Rand’s bold claim was based on the political philosophy contained in the Declaration of Independence — contained explicitly, in Jefferson’s immortal statement that government’s sole purpose is to protect the individual’s rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — and contained implicitly, in moral principles of rational self-interest that Rand herself made explicit almost two hundred years later.
“It is in this context — from the perspective of the bloody millennia of mankind’s history — that I want you to look at the birth of a miracle: the United States of America,” Rand wrote elsewhere. “If it is ever proper for men to kneel, we should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence.”
On July 4, we commemorate political independence from England and pay tribute to the Founders’ moral vision of the sovereign individual who deserves freedom to live by his own independent judgment. But to achieve that ideal in the twenty-first century, we desperately need Ayn Rand’s perspective on individual rights and how government can protect them. Here are some resources for those who want to explore the deeper significance of Independence Day:
The Clause Removed : That one was against the institution of slavery
In our study of the Declaration of Independence it was pointed out that there were originally 28 grievances though the final draft lists only 27. One grievance was removed. That one was against the institution of slavery.
“He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, & murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.”
One fact about the Revolution which is not commonly known was that some colonists joined the Patriot cause due to a desire to end slavery rather than a wish to be independent. Laws made by the colonial legislatures to limit the institution had been blocked by the royal governors. Great Britain had no desire to end the lucrative trade in slaves. They were left with but one recourse to end slavery, independence. With this as a motivation, why was slavery then continued in the new country? Why was the grievance against it removed?
Thomas Paine said,
“It is never to be expected in a revolution that every man is to change his opinion at the same moment. There never yet was any truth or any principle so irresistibly obvious that all men believed it at once. Time and reason must cooperate with each other to the final establishment of any principle; and therefore those who may happen to be first convinced have not a right to persecute others, on whom conviction operates more slowly. The moral principle of revolutions is to instruct, not to destroy.”
Because some of the Patriots and Founders had come to the conclusion that slavery was wrong, does not mean that they all had. Slavery was an ancient tradition. During the time of the Founders it was practiced all around the world. The society in which they lived contained multiple class levels from the king and royal family down to the commoner. Slavery was just one more layer. In addition the economy of many colonies was dependent upon slave labor. So is the question really why they failed to end slavery or is a better question how did any of them ever come to decide it was wrong?
Either because not all changed their opinion at the same time or because of the dependence on slavery, during the debates on the Declaration the colonies of the Deep South demanded that the clause be removed. The delegates from South Carolina and Georgia, possibly led by Edward Rutledge, threatened that their colonies would fight on the side of Great Britain if the section remained. This was not an empty threat. The southern colonies had a higher percentage of Loyalists than their northern neighbors, and Georgia was the youngest of the colonies, only 43 years old. Her ties to the mother country had not had much time to loosen. Faced with the possibility of disunited states, Thomas Jefferson had no choice but to remove the clause.
But the demise of the clause was not the end of the idea. Prior to declaring independence all thirteen of the colonies practiced slavery. As the states wrote their new constitutions, many put an end to it within their own borders. Most of the states took a gradual approach. A date was set. Those born after that date were free. That is how it came about that at the time of the Civil War, there were still slaves living in New Jersey, though by then too old to work. Others ended slavery more immediately. When the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled slavery to be illegal under a clause in the states’ constitution all slaves were freed. When Vermont was added to the union, its constitution prohibited slavery. By 1804, every state north of the Mason Dixon Line had outlawed slavery. Even those states that did not ban slavery outright, as Jefferson tried unsuccessfully to do in Virginia, placed limits on slavery such as banning the importation and exportation of slaves. And in 1807 Thomas Jefferson signed into law an act finally ending the importation of slaves into the United States.
Other actions revealed the Founders general views on slavery. In 1787, the Second Continental Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance. This act dealt with the territory north of the Ohio River. One of the most significant parts of it was the prohibition of slavery in U.S. territories. “There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory.”
It took 89 years for this particular promise of the Declaration to be fulfilled, but it was. Had the colonies been united at the beginning on the issue of slavery, or had the principles of liberty been followed by the succeeding generations, perhaps the Civil War could have been avoided and emancipation occurred sooner. Disunity and the ignoring of foundational principles had consequences. In our first century as a nation that consequence was war. What is it today?
Second Continental Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776
We have looked at Richard Henry Lee’s Resolution on Independence. We have learned about the Committee of Five who was responsible for writing the Declaration of Independence. We have read every line of the document and picked them apart. But what happened after it was adopted?
As already discussed the member of the Second Continental Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776. That should have been America’s birthday. It is not and the Declaration is the reason why.
The duties of the Committee of Five were not complete with the presentation of the Declaration to Congress. They still had one task to complete – getting it printed. As already shown, the Declaration was not signed on the 4th because it was not ready. On that date only John Hancock and Charles Thomson as president and secretary signed the draft which was then delivered to printer John Dunlap. Dunlap worked through the night and the next morning, July 5th, the Dunlap Broadsides were complete. It is estimated that around 200 of these were produced and sent out to the Patriot leaders in each state, to the Continental Army, and of course to Europe. John Adams even sent one to his wife Abigail in Massachusetts. These copies were read aloud in towns across the country, and the people were so moved that it was the date of the Declaration which is honored. Today there are 26 Dunlap Broadsides still known to exist.
The more familiar hand written Declaration was the work of Timothy Matlack, a name which should be familiar to fans of the film National Treasure. Matlack was a Philadelphian known for his fine penmanship. The engrossed copy he created was the one which was signed by the members of Congress. This copy was produced not on paper but on parchment, a material made from sheep or other animal skin. Today there are multiple copies of the engrossed Declaration made from the original. One of these copies is kept at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Another, thought to be Jefferson’s own copy, is in the possession of the Library of Virginia. The original, the one signed on August 2nd, 1776 is kept in the rotunda of the National Archives building in Washington, D.C.
In addition to the Dunlap Broadsides and the engrossed copy a third well-known edition was produced. In 1777 Congress asked Mary Katherine Goddard to create a new broadside which would include the signatures, something the Dunlap Broadsides did not include. Nine of these still exist.
The fact that multiple copies of a 200 year old document have been preserved with such care and are so highly valued by collectors should give us pause to consider how well we value this original founding document.
TSA implementing ‘enhanced security measures’ on international flights
By Keith Laing – 07/02/14 03:34 PM EDT
The Department of Homeland Security has directed the Transportation Security Administration to implement “enhanced security measures” at overseas airports where planes fly directly to the United States amid concerns about potential summer terrorist attacks.
The announcement comes after military officials raised concerns about al Qaeda affiliated foreign fighters using Western passports to evade terrorist watch lists.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the agency would take steps to minimize the inconvenience to airline passengers as the busy Fourth of July holiday weekend approaches.
Seasonal Water Restrictions – Stage 1 Restrictions Now in Effect
During the summer months, water use increases dramatically due to lawn and garden irrigation. Ridgewood Water strives to provide the maximum allowable amount of water. The supply is sometimes exceeded by the demand during hot and dry weather The excess demand lowers the reserves in storage tanks, jeopardizing the ability to fight fires..
June 1st – Stage 1 Water restrictions began and will continue to the end August.
Explanation of WATER RESTRICTIONS:
Stage I, Stage II, Stage III and Stage IV emergency regulations shall become effective upon declaration of each stage by the Village Manager of the Village of Ridgewood. Stage I shall become effective without such declaration on June 1 of each year and shall remain in effect through August 31 of that year except for any period where Stage II, Stage III, or Stage IV emergency regulations are declared. Exceptions to the user restrictions, such as for irrigation of newly planted lawns or shrubs, for cleaning cars or houses, for filling swimming pools or other such outdoor water usage, shall be determined by the Village Manager of the Village of Ridgewood or a Village of Ridgewood employee designated by the Village Manager. Use of any private well shall be exempt from these regulations, provided that said well is first registered with the local Health Authority.
Stage I Moderate Mandatory restriction of irrigation to Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays for properties with odd-numbered addresses and Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays for properties with even-numbered addresses. Irrigation using a hand-held hose shall be allowed at any time. No irrigation shall be allowed on Mondays except for the use of a hand held hose.
II Severe Mandatory restriction of irrigation to Tuesdays and Saturdays for properties with odd-numbered addresses and Wednesdays and Sundays for properties with even-numbered addresses. No irrigation shall be allowed on Mondays, Thursdays, or Fridays except for the use of a hand held hose. Irrigation using a hand held hose shall be allowed at any time.
III Pending/Critical Mandatory restriction of irrigation to the use of a hand held hose on Tuesdays and Saturdays for properties with odd-numbered addresses and Wednesdays and Sundays for properties with even-numbered addresses. No irrigation of any kind shall be allowed on Mondays, Thursdays, or Fridays.
IV Critical Irrigation is prohibited at any time. Exceptions for irrigation using a hand held hose may be allowed under conditions prescribed by the Village Manager of the Village of Ridgewood.
Ridgewood’s Fourth of July festivities to highlight Star-Spangled Banner
JUNE 30, 2014 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2014, 11:27 AM
BY JODI WEINBERGER
STAFF WRITER
In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner, Ridgewood’s Fourth of July festivities will kick off with a version of the song not usually heard – all four verses – and an interpretive dance accompaniment.
When the Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration Committee approached Yendi Anderson, secretary for the Ridgewood Division of Engineering, about singing the National Anthem, dancing was not part of the deal.
But the village employee said her research of the song’s history moved her to perform the music as well.
In 1814, Francis Scott Key was inspired to write what would become the National Anthem as he watched the 15-star, 15-stripe American flag fly over Fort McHenry in the aftermath of an attack of the Baltimore harbor during the War of 1812.
“Some of the soldiers that were held were praying that the flag would never touch the ground,” Anderson said, retelling what she had learned. “When some of the soldiers died, others would come and keep the flag up. It’s a very, very powerful story … and some things are better expressed through dance.”
