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.

Estabrook Supports a Waiting Period…when answering a question.

Generally speaking, it’s not a good thing for a candidate for office to like the Sounds of Silence. Maybe the song, but certainly not while on the stump.

Now some may differ, like Mark Twain who said, "It's better to keep your mouth shut and have your peers think of you as a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

But that advice is too late for Anne Esterbrook, Republican candidate for Senate, either way. The issue that shot Estabrook in the foot was, ironically, gun control and the Second Amendment.

Ms. Estabrook was speaking to the Woodbridge Republican Club, a small group in a Democratic bastion of a town. She appeared with UberLibertarian Dr. Murray Sabrin, who was videotaping the event for his website.

The question that shut her up was about her support or lack thereof.for the Second Amendment.

Her first assertion was that she supported Federal legislation currently on the books that requires that gun shop owners to be told if a prospective gun purchaser is one who has been a mental health risk.

Sounds reasonable, even for a Republican.

Next, she said she supports a ‘waiting period’. Unfortunately, we’re not sure if she meant a ‘waiting period’ for the purchase of a handgun, or a ‘waiting period’ when answering a question.

In the middle of her answer, she fell silent, shuffled through her papers, hummed and hawed and waited a full ‘Final Jeopardy 30 seconds’ to say that she supports a “Criminal background check”. Good for you, Anne.

If she does that in each and every debate with Senator Frank Lautenberg for each and every question, the debate could take a while.

Senator Leonard Lance wins hometown support in Hunterdon

No surprise there: Five of the other candidates are from Somerset. His biggest target [before Linda Stender] is his good pal’s daughter, Kate Whitman. Both are claiming to be the ‘fiscal conservative’ in the race. I am sure Whitman will be chanting “I know you are, but what am I” real soon.

In his speech to his

Hunterdon homies on Monday night, Senator Lance waxed on eloquently as he quoted one of the last two best Republicans, President Lincoln, as he stated, “America is still the world’s last best hope on earth." How true, Mr. Lance, how true. As long as there is no Republican in the White House come January 20, 2009 at 12:01pm, America still is.

Whitman The Younger was boastful about raising the most money thus far. She declared, “…loyalty will not be enough to hold on to this seat.” She urged the Hunterdon Republicans assembled to “abandon the tradition” and support her instead of Lance.

Kind of ironic, ain’t it? I mean, a Whitman asking Hunterdon’s stalwart supporters of Lance to “abandon …tradition”. Go figure.

Lance claimed to have a two digit lead over Linda Stender, while Whitman the Younger has only a single digit lead. Perhaps that was a poll taken of only the current 7th CD candidates on the Republican side. Right now there are 8 candidates; that number should thin out by June.

Dark horse: Tom Roughneen, the Iraqi veteran.

By the way, the second last great Republican: Teddy Roosevelt.

Hillary Clinton Goes For Corporate Sponsorship In Debate.

There has been lots of finger-pointing from each presidential candidate ---Senator Obama and Senator Clinton ---regarding fund-raising issues. Obama has accused Clinton of taking too much money from lobbyists and corporate interests. And Clinton has accused Obama on fudging numbers on how many actual donors he has.

But the Thursday night CNN debate revealed something troubling about Senator Clinton’s campaign fund-raising. The new issue in this race is "product placement".

Apparently, this might be a new way for a candidate to get their hands on corporate cash, but is it with the campaign finance rules? It is not a donation, per se----the corporate entity is getting some value out of the exchange, but is it kosher?

For those of you unfamiliar with ‘product placement’...

“Product placement advertisements are promotional ads placed by marketers using real commercial products and services in media, where the presence of a particular brand is the result of an economic exchange...Product placement occurs with the inclusion of a brand's logo in shot, or a favorable mention or appearance of a product in shot. This is done without disclosure, and under the premise that it is a natural part of the work. Most major movie releases today contain product placements."

When a TV sitcom family sits down for breakfast, and has a box of Frosted Flakes with Tony the Tiger’s face prominently displayed, that means that Kellogg’s gets a good plug.

Or, for example, in the movie, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”, the stranded alien gets hooked on Reeses Pieces, which increased sales of the candy’s sale by eighty percent. Sometimes it’s done rather inconspicuously as when a bag of Wise potato chips or empty diet-Coke can is placed on the table in the lunch room at the hospital on “E.R.”

Well, on the CNN debate between Obama and Clinton, it seems that Clinton may have engaged in some product placement dollars coming her way. This, from a well-known maker of copiers with the following exchange regarding her charge of plagiarism lodged against her opponent.

Obama: “…we’re starting to get in to the silly season of politics…”

Clinton: “…It’s not change you can believe in, it’s change you can Xerox.”

And the crowd may have contained more fans of the other photocopier companies---like Canon or Ricoh ---because they certainly booed Hillary.

What’s next for product placement in the presidential race? Nike Shoes sponsoring candidates walking in a New York City parade? Gerber’s sponsoring the kissing of babies? An underwear company sponsoring the popular campaign theme of ‘change’?

And it won’t end there—what if Hillary becomes president ---will Swanson's Dinners sponsor state dinners? Will Continental Airlines sponsor flights of Air Force One? Or maybe movie promos for the movie Air Force One on Air Force One?

It’s a slippery corporate slope, folks. Also, as a lawyer, Hillary should know not to use the trademarked term "Xerox" in such a generic manner.

We Miss Rush Holt

If you’re like me in Central Jersey, and you used to have Congressman Rush Holt representing your interests in D.C., you miss him.

Once again, Rep. Holt proved his mettle by standing up to the president on the issue of illegal wire-tapping of American citizens. It’s good to have someone who is able to teach Bush Jr. about the constitution.

Holt, courageously said:

"There has been a fundamental shift under the Protect America Act in the relationship between the people of this country and their government. It is whether or not the government regards the ordinary American with suspicion first…Think about it. The reason this country and our liberty have survived so well is because the government understands they are subservient to the people."

The Protect America Act just recently passed the Senate by a 68-29 margin. In the past, Obama and Clinton both voted against the Act.

Ironic, though, that the “law and order” Republicans have no problem giving “retroactive immunity” to those telecommunications companies who broke the law and allowed phone conversations of law-abiding Americans to be listened to. Go figure.

The Protect America Act [recently passing the Senate] allows the government to monitor “foreign-to-American” phone calls without obtaining a warrant. So, all those customer service phone calls to gas companies and electric companies that are outsourced to call centers in India---can all be listened in to by the NSA.

Good going, Rush. Keep up the great work. You and the New Jersey Giants rule.

Central New Jersey Report Cards

Do you remember the days before report cards were available online or via email ---when you might dread bringing home a bad report card for your parents’ to sign? Well, the Department of Education’s report cards were due last week. And if you’re Central New Jersey, you might have that same queasy feeling you did years ago if you had bard grades.

According to the Department of Education, the poorer districts in Central New Jesey like New Brunswick and Plainfiend produced the lowest test scores. The wealthier districts like Metuchen and East Brunswick produced higher test scores.

Details in the report included stats and numbers about student demographics, drop-out rates, the kind of qualifications that teachers and administrators have, and college plans for those graduating.

There have been some improvements, but overall the gap between rich and poor districts in Central Jersey continues to grow in the area of test scores.

The libertarian conservatives will tell us that the money spent on the Abbott districts is not helping. Well, the answer certainly is not giving the districts less money.

Can’t tell the players without a score card.

In the 7th Congressional District, all the Democrats are supporting Assemblywoman Linda Stender. No confusion there. And, I wish to state that I endorse her candidacy, too. She has my enthusiastic endorsement.

But, the endorsements on the Republican side----maybe that’s a message a bit tougher to decipher. There seems to be little rhyme or reason.

Some are pretty straight forward, after that it gets mucky. Former governor Christie Todd Whitman, whose family [The Todds] are long time friends with the Lances, is supporting ---let’s see---her own daughter, Kate Whitman.

This is in spite of the fact that her daughter has tried to create some distance from her mom by declaring that she is “more conservative” than her mom.

Gov. Mom helped her “more conservative daughter” get the thumbs up from Somerset County Clerk Brett Radi and Freeholder Rick Fontana. Whitman the Younger tried to follow in the footsteps of Whitman the Elder’s footsteps last year and become a Somerset County Freeholder, but fell short and lost in a primary.

On the Lance side, thus far is State Senator Kip Bateman and Assemblymember Denise Coyle and Pete Biondi are supporting Senator Lance. Senator Ton Kean is supporting Lance, too ----over the candidates that come from his neck of the woods [Kelly Hatfield and Mayor Martin Marks].

Now, fellow Trenton Republican legislators Jon Bramnick and Eric Munoz are not supporting Lance, but giving the thumbs up to Hatfield ----they think she is the real McCoy. But maybe that will lead to a feud.

None of the other Republican congressional hopefuls -- Bridgewater Councilman Michael Hsing, Warren Mayor Vic Sordillo, former Hillsborough Councilman Chris Venis and Thomas M. Roughneen, a Watchung attorney and Iraq War veteran ----seem to have the gravitas to line up ‘top shelf’ name endorsements as of yet.

The Republican County conventions should prove interesting. Maybe I will attend one to observe their process, and report back.