Just when you thought Obama-Clinton was the only interesting race…

And you thought that the Obama-Clinton race was the only one grabbing headlines. How does this grab you?

Whiny Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson is really pissed off at Senator Lautenberg. Excuse me, while I cry and whimper. With his number one candidate dropping out of the race, and his new number one candidate acknowledging that he shows up hung-over at his office, Wilson sent via fax an angry letter to Lautenberg. Boo hoo. Wilson, if you can’t stand the heat…

He accused the Lautenberg campaign of tipping off the newspapers that about a lawsuit that led to new Republican Senate candidate Andy Unanue’s being dumped as Chief Operating Officer of Goya Foods.

The Daily Kos:

During a trial on a lawsuit about the firings, a company vice-president testified Unanue came to work drunk at least five times, possibly more. Unanue denied that, but admitted he had come to work hung over and drank a lot at company parties. "Work hard, play hard. That was my motto," Unanue testified.

Good luck with that, Wilson.

And from within the Democratic Party ranks…Former Democratic State Chairman Tom Byrne is giving some strong thought to running for Senate against Lautenberg in a primary.

He is waiting for the results of a poll, and will take the weekend to decide. Hopefully, he is not going out drinking this weekend with Unanue.

Tough Month For New Jersey and New York Guvs

It’s been a tough month for governors in the New York/New Jersey area.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you have noticed that one governor resigned after meeting with a high-priced hooker from New Jersey, and the other governor stayed put after meeting with about 200 mayors.Ours was the one to stay put and give them in person the bad news about state aid: There’s gonna be less of it.

I don’t know what was worse---having to resign in disgrace, or facing down a team of mad municipal mayors.

My hometown of Flemington stands to lose more than $250,000 in state aid, unless we figure out how to merge with the town that surround us. Raritan Township, the big gelatinous cell of a bedroom community, is the one that surrounds the Main Street nucleus that is Flemington.

Well let’s just look at that “merger”.

In 1910, Flemington separated itself from Raritan Township, and became it’s own community. I've read that the issue back then was much the same as it is today: property taxes that were too high. The residents of Flemington did not want to have to pay for the development in Raritan Township.

Ironically, we have still have the same issues today, as Flemington prepares for their centennial celebration. The fastest growing Township in Hunterdon County has placed nearly all its dense residential infrastructure around Flemington, choking the smaller town with traffic, stores and condo communities.

The governor has proposed to cut all aid for towns that have under a population of 5000. Flemington has a population of about 4200, and we are not about to jump over 5000 really soon. Raritan Township logs in at about 22,000 or so, according to the latest population estimates. So, according to the governor’s plan, their aid would not necessarily be cut.

What motivation would Raritan Township have to merge with Flemington? Maybe nonbe--So, it goes.

I am sure that the issue will be hotly debated in the state legislature, and be fought sharply by the fine folks of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities.

Love Client #9

[To the tune of 'Love Potion Number 9]

Love Client #9

He’s trekkin’ down south to the Beltway hub;

To book a hooker from the Emperor’s Club

Their club’s got girls that are really so devine,

Guv Spitzer’s now known as Love Client Number 9.

The IRS noticed he was playing tricks

Stashing away bucks just to pay his chicks.

His career was moving up, but now it’s in decline.

‘Cause Spitzer’s now known as Love Client Number 9.

On Wall Street’s corporate beat, he gave them a fright.

He prosecuted crime bosses all day and all night,

By prostitution rings, guess he did things right;

They helped his flag gettin’ raised by dawn’s early light.

He laid his pipe at the Mayflower Hotel.

Never thought that his call girls would tell.

Was the New York Guv and now he will resign;

‘Cause Spitzer’s now known as Love Client Number 9.

Love Client Number 9.

Love Client Number 9.

Love Client Number 9......

No Country for Old Anybody

I was driving from Woodbridge to New Brunswick just yesterday, staying off any highway, and passing through the town of Highland Park where my good friend Meryl Frank is the Mayor. I was on my way to take a required class at the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education.

As I was passing through Highland Park, I was caught in traffic on Route 27, the road going over the bridge toward New Brunswick. The car in front of me was stopped by a very old woman who appeared to me to be asking for a ride. I could see [but not hear] that the young driver was shaking his head, and giving some excuse to the old woman. The old woman returned to the sidewalk.

Thinking of my own family and my own grandparents, I decided to pull over and see if I could be of any help. I rolled down the window, and the woman approached the car. She said she had been waiting for a bus for quite a while, and needed to get home back to River Road. I told her to get in, and that I would take her there, since I was driving in that direction anyway.

She told me that she had been waiting for the bus for about 30 minutes, there was no bench at the bus stop, and she was too tired to stand any longer. She was from Germany, she shared, and had arrived in America 48 years ago. She spoke in a thick German accent. One thought that ran through my mind was the six degrees of separation---was she related or knew some one from Germany many years ago who had anything at all to do with any of my relatives in Poland who died in the Holocaust? A strange thought, I know. But I had it anyway.

She shared with me that she sometimes took the bus, sometimes had to pay for a cab [expensive, though] and sometimes got her daughter to drive her. I told her that when she reached my age, she could help a younger person like herself, too. She laughed, and said I had a good sense of humor

I dropped her off on River Road, and she kissed my hand and said thank you. I watched her walk slowly up the street to who knows where. I probably will never see that woman again, but I was glad to give her a ride.

I was curious about the local bus schedule in Highland Park, so I went to their website. No information on a bus schedule at all. I called the office of the Borough Clerk, and was told that she had no information on a bus schedule either; that she knew nothing about a local bus schedule in Highland Park at all. So maybe there are no local busses in town, and I got scammed.

Point is, if you see someone that needs help, give it to them. I list here, once again, as we move in to the spring, How to Build Community and How to Build a Global Community.

Makes Cents To Me

Way back in the early Seventies, I was in high school and helped organize a protest of the Viet Nam War with a group called the Students for Peace. The name was fairly straight forward, and the head of the student group was inspired by the kids from the Supreme Court case of Tinker v. Des Moines School District (1969), who wore black arm bands to protest the war.

We followed the lead of those Tinker kids by calling a moratorium and inviting students to not attend classes, and join us on the picket line outside the school. It was a fairly powerful method of disrupting the school day en masse. Of course, not everyone who joined us was actually protesting the war.

Most of the students just wanted to have a good reason to cut class. But, our methods certainly empowered our student group, Students for Peace, and made the administration fear us, or so we thought. The student leader of that group is now a wellknown national Weight Watchers organizer and weight loss guru. So, I guess the organizing skills he developed back then went to some good use anyhow.

So, I am always glad to hear that student organizing and protesting are still with us today----no matter what the issue.

Last week several student eighth-graders in Readington Township ---29 to be exact---protested the shortening of their lunch period to just 30 minutes by using pennies to buy their $2 lunches. This created a time issue for the cafeteria staff and more than 32 pounds of pennies to be dealt with. And school superintendent Jorden Schiff did not think that it made much sense/cents: He decided to punish the offenders with a two-day detention.

Some parents put in their two-cents plain and thought that the punishment fit the crime, and some thought it was too harsh. Either way, eventually Schiff decided to rescind the punishment: “The school community has been through a difficult period, and we need to move forward," he wrote in a note to the parents. "We discussed how the incident has been blown out of proportion and how it has affected our children and our school community."

Ahem. I think he just did not like all the publicity.

Now, it is true that time is money---whether you’re 14 in middle school or 40 and at your job. Thirty minutes is just not enough time to get a lunch, pay for it, and eat it. What the kids did makes cents to me.

Give them more time to eat lunch. Seems that a Superintendent making $153,000 a year could figure that out.

Unless he wants to get paid in pennies, too.