Dino's Forum

Ode to Sarah Palin

2008-08-31T21:23:00.002-04:00

My tribute to Gov. Sarah Palin and the wise decision Sen. McCain made to all but take all of the wind out of Barack Obama's sails!

Paterson Public Schools: A Lawsuit in the Making?

2008-08-25T14:05:00.005-04:00

If there's one thing Paterson's educators are good at, it's working with the cards they're dealt. If it's not working in buildings that would be considered uninhabitable by any normal standard, it's their valiant effort to try and educate the children of Paterson despite the inferior cirriculum that they are given to work with as a result of a corrupt administration and is not only tolerated, but exacerbated by the NJEA and its lawyers.

It is now getting to the point where there is talk of a class action lawsuit being filed as a result of the children being issued diplomas without an adequate education. It's no wonder seeing as though the powers that be in Paterson, whose credentials are questionable at best, apparently like to falsify progress while lining their own pockets as the NJEA seems content to sit back and allow it.

For all of the television ads the NJEA likes to run touting how wonderfully Paterson public schools perform, you can't help but wonder how honest they're numbers are as a result of what has been taking place there. Meanwhile, educators who go against the grain and are true student advocates, are being represented by attorneys from the NJEA, the same organization that praises the corrupt district. Will the children and educators who want to provide them with a thorough and efficient education ever catch a break?

District and state officials will fail to tell you how court ordered Abbott funding does not go to help inner city teachers educate kids, but rather, to give politically connected friends high paying and often times, do nothing jobs.

Mayor Steve Lonegan, who has been working extremely hard touring the state touting tax reform and going so far as to file lawsuits against the government for spending money without checks and balances, would be wise to investigate this further and see what he could do in order to get involved. Corruption within New Jersey's public education system is costing taxpayers more than corruption on any other level. It's time to start taking the NJEA, big shot lawyers and all, to task for allowing school districts like Paterson to operate in such disarray.

Needless to say, I think the first few weeks of school in Paterson will be more exciting than usual.

Cartoon of the Week

2008-08-22T07:53:00.003-04:00

Dino to Sen. McCain: Joe's the Man!

2008-08-15T08:36:00.002-04:00

If you're John McCain and your objective is to defeat a hardline leftist in Barack Obama, the handpicked messiah of the George Soros/Move On marxist left, who do you think would be the best choice to make that happen? The answer is the man who successfully beat them back in resounding fashion two years ago, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman.

As we all remember quite well, Sen. Lieberman came under attack by the well funded Move On mafia in his bid for re-election in '06 when they decided to put up marxist Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary in which Lieberman was narrowly defeated. This defeat was short lived however when the state of Connecticut spoke as a whole and handed Sen. Lieberman a landslide victory. Even hardline conservatives had lined up behind Joe Lieberman for his independent candidacy in the general election over Republican candidate Alan Schlesinger whom they deemed a lost cause and saw backing Lieberman as the best chance they had at defeating a hardline leftist.

While some if not many conservatives voice their disgust over this possibility, they also have a lot of explaining to do as the overwhelming majority of these conservatives were among the aforementioned who supported Lieberman in '06. For all of their sabre rattling and empty threats of revolt, would they rather see Barack Obama become President? I have absolutely no reason to believe that the conservative base of the party won't fall in line and support a McCain/Lieberman ticket for the greater good.

There is no doubt that Joe Lieberman is more than capable of defeating the hard left as he has done so in the past. If we ever needed somebody like that in our corner, it's now. Let's do what we have to do and make our voices heard. Let's do all we can to see to it that Sen. McCain selects the right man for VP.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman

Greatest Campaign Ad EVER!!!!

2008-08-01T14:46:00.001-04:00

Kudos to David Paterson

2008-07-31T08:08:00.003-04:00

It's not often, that I get to commend a Democrat for a job well done. Having said that, I have never been above giving credit where credit is due in the rare instance that a Democrat actually gets something right every once in a while.

On that note, I would like to commend New York Acting Governor David Paterson for his opposition to raising taxes and taking on his one of his own party lawmakers, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in the process.

On raising taxes to help balance New York's budget, Paterson said the following:

"The reason I'm avoiding taxes is because I think taxes are addictive.
What happens is, when you start taxing, people start thinking of ways to spend money . . . I would only use that as a last resort and don't want it to be the first option right out of the barrel."

Are you listening, Trenton???

Gov. Paterson also said he doesn't want to even hear talk about possible tax hikes "because it just reignites the hopes of those who [think they] can escape the situation by taxing wealthy people, businesses, anybody they can find.

Paging Trenton!!!

On the other hand, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, perhaps best known nationwide as the man solely resposible for preventing Jessica's Law from being voted on in New York, believes in the typical Democrat "solution" to solving fiscal woes, raising taxes on "the rich".

Gov. Paterson has not only decided against raising taxes, he has also ordered state agencies to cut seven percent from current-year spending and has ordered a hard freeze on the hiring of new state employees. So, not only is he opposing tax hikes, he is also looking to reduce the size of government.

Needless to say, David Paterson has shown a tremendous amount of courage on this issue. He is well aware of the fact that a tax increase will start a slippery slope of bloated government, wasteful spending and corruption.

Too bad New Jersey isn't as fortunate to have a Governor with such resolve. Perhaps Gov. Corzine should take the advice of my friend George Ajjan and "Grow some gonads, dude!"

Much Ado About Blog Fatigue

2008-07-29T11:48:00.002-04:00

I came across this aritcle from last summer on Blog Herald and I thought is was fantastic. It basically outlines what is known as 'blog fatigue'.

Blog fatigue is something that hits each and every one of us to one degree or another. It hits particularly hard when you are a one man operation. The article starts off by outlining Kent Newsome's five stages of blogging from creation to abandonment

1. Excitement: While setting up a new blog, the blogger is full of great ideas, is inspired, and expectations are high.

2. Expectation: When starting from zero, little things mean a lot and progress seems exponential.

3. Frustration: Blogging meet diminishing returns, turns into inefficient work, and the blogger finds it harder and harder to get attention amid the multitude of other blogs.

4. Alienation: Rejection of the blogosphere.

5. Abandonment: A dead blog.

The article also has some great links so if you get an opportunity, especially if you are in the midst of a case of blog fatigue yourself, this piece is for you!

Two Whole Years of Yours Truly!

2008-07-28T17:30:00.002-04:00

I can't believe that I've been at this for two years now! To be perfectly honest, it really wasn't my intention either.

For those readers and commentors who have never managed a blog, it can be very difficult at times for a litany of reasons. The primary reason being time. When you're a busy individual, it is extremely difficult to devote time to something that you don't get paid to do. There are plenty of instances when managing your blog, namely having to work for a living and pay bills, ends up on the bottom of the totem pole.

Furthermore, it is not an easy task to find issues to talk about, especially in such an enormous New Jersey blogosphere, or at least one that everybody else isn't already discussing. One of the things that has really kept me going is my coverage of the Paterson Public School System and all of the great people there who have given me more to write about. I thank each and every one of you for keeping me in the loop and I can only hope that somebody finally figures out how to run things out there who isn't just there to carry out their own personal and/or political agenda.

I've put a lot of hard work and devotion into Dino's Forum over the last two years. Over that time, I've been called a neocon, a liberal and a 'RINO' by everybody who disagrees with me which you can imagine, amuses me to no end. I suppose that's another reason why I've kept at it for this long. I've attracted all different walks of life.

At the same time, it saddened me a great deal that I had to start filtering comments earlier this year. I initially started this blog because I was censored from commenting on the old Politics NJ and I wanted to create a forum where people could feel free to leave a comment, whether they agree with me or not. Unfortunately, I was getting heavy traffic from Ron Paul trolls who monopolized and took advantage of that courtesy. It bothered me so bad that I almost folded up shop. In hindsight, I decided against that because I was not about to let a handful of kooks discourage me from doing what I like to do which is discuss politics, whether it be on a municipal, state or national level.

So, to cut a long story short, I thank all of you who have kept me going and have given me a reason to keep on going. It may not be easy, but you guys definitley make it worth the time!

Obama Love

2008-07-24T08:21:00.003-04:00

A fitting tribute to the psychosis known as "Obamamania" that has taken the American mass media by storm.

You Better Don't Mention Obama!

2008-07-17T16:41:00.001-04:00

Bobby Murcer: 1946-2008

2008-07-12T23:48:00.002-04:00

Remembering Tony Snow

2008-07-12T10:59:00.003-04:00

After a long and hard fought battle with colon cancer, former White House Press Secretary and conservative TV/Radio personality Tony Snow passed away early this morning. He was 53 years old.

Snow was a regular fixture on Fox News Channel since its inception in 1996, was a regular guest host on the Rush Limbaugh show and also had stints in acting and music before becoming White House Press Secretary, succeeding the now disgraced Scott McClellan.

Snow is survived by his wife Jill, son Robbie and daughters Kendall and Kristi.

Jackie Mason: Obama Flip Flops

2008-07-10T12:25:00.002-04:00

Is the Left Playing Opossum?

2008-07-10T08:06:00.003-04:00

If you believe what you've been seeing or reading lately, the left has a bone to pick with Barack Obama as he attempts to distance himself from his hard left stances in the primary season and voting record in the Senate and tries to make a giant leap to the center for the general election. He has irritated left wing blogs, Move On and Jesse Jackson alike and they are making their voices heard whether they mean to or not. Or don't they?

With all of the money and effort that went into getting Barack Obama the nomination over Hillary Clinton, you can't help but wonder the same thing I'm wondering. Is this anger and disdain for Obama's new found centerism on the part of the left genuine, or is it a "Rope a Dope?"

For all of the money and power they wield among their consitiuency, I'm pretty sure that people like Jesse Jackson as well as left wing groups like Move On and various influential left wing blogs are well aware that they can't afford to beat people over the head with or outright push forward with their agenda and/or ideology with Obama because it will mean certain doom as the majority of the country does not think like them. They fully grasp that they are at best, polarizing.

The bottom line is that they have invested far too much financially and emotionally to come this far and lose. This means that they will resort to any tactic they can to help Barack Obama get elected President. That includes playing opossum and putting on a contrived show of self righteous indignation to show their "disgust" with Obama's newfound mainstream facade. The more anger and "accidental disgust" Jesse Jackson and the left shows toward Obama, the more independent and moderate undecideds warm up to the idea of voting for him and in the end, they will ultimately get what they want.

The far left on a worldwide scale has a notorious history of pulling the wool over the eyes of the ignorant and hiding their true agenda in order to get their way and this latest farce is no exception.

Do not be fooled.

Obama Outlines His Agenda

2008-07-09T09:05:00.002-04:00

After doing nothing but spewing empty shallow rhetoric and contradicting himself, Barack Obama has finally outlined his agenda for America.

Then again, can you outline what you NEVER HAD to begin with???

An Independence Day Message

2008-07-04T08:48:00.002-04:00

The following is a speech given by President Theodore Roosevelt on January 26, 1883 on the duties of American Citizenship.

Of course, in one sense, the first essential for a man's being a good citizen is his possession of the home virtues of which we think when we call a man by the emphatic adjective of manly. No man can be a good citizen who is not a good husband and a good father, who is not honest in his dealings with other men and women, faithful to his friends and fearless in the presence of his foes, who has not got a sound heart, a sound mind, and a sound body; exactly as no amount of attention to civil duties will save a nation if the domestic life is undermined, or there is lack of the rude military virtues which alone can assure a country's position in the world. In a free republic the ideal citizen must be one willing and able to take arms for the defense of the flag, exactly as the ideal citizen must be the father of many healthy children. A race must be strong and vigorous; it must be a race of good fighters and good breeders, else its wisdom will come to naught and its virtue be ineffective; and no sweetness and delicacy, no love for and appreciation of beauty in art or literature, no capacity for building up material prosperity can possibly atone for the lack of the great virile virtues.
But this is aside from my subject, for what I wish to talk of is the attitude of the American citizen in civic life. It ought to be axiomatic in this country that every man must devote a reasonable share of his time to doing his duty in the Political life of the community. No man has a right to shirk his political duties under whatever plea of pleasure or business; and while such shirking may be pardoned in those of small cleans it is entirely unpardonable in those among whom it is most common--in the people whose circumstances give them freedom in the struggle for life. In so far as the community grows to think rightly, it will likewise grow to regard the young man of means who shirks his duty to the State in time of peace as being only one degree worse than the man who thus shirks it in time of war. A great many of our men in business, or of our young men who are bent on enjoying life (as they have a perfect right to do if only they do not sacrifice other things to enjoyment), rather plume themselves upon being good citizens if they even vote; yet voting is the very least of their duties, Nothing worth gaining is ever gained without effort. You can no more have freedom without striving and suffering for it than you can win success as a banker or a lawyer without labor and effort, without self-denial in youth and the display of a ready and alert intelligence in middle age. The people who say that they have not time to attend to politics are simply saying that they are unfit to live in a free community. Their place is under a despotism; or if they are content to do nothing but vote, you can take despotism tempered by an occasional plebiscite, like that of the second Napoleon. In one of Lowell's magnificent stanzas about the Civil War he speaks of the fact which his countrymen were then learning, that freedom is not a gift that tarries long in the hands of cowards: nor yet does it tarry long in the hands of the sluggard and the idler, in the hands of the man so much absorbed in the pursuit of pleasure or in the pursuit of gain, or so much wrapped up in his own easy home life as to be unable to take his part in the rough struggle with his fellow men for political supremacy. If freedom is worth having, if the right of self-government is a valuable right, then the one and the other must be retained exactly as our forefathers acquired them, by labor, and especially by labor in organization, that is in combination with our fellows who have the same interests and the same principles. We should not accept the excuse of the business man who attributed his failure to the fact that his social duties were so pleasant and engrossing that he had no time left for work in his office; nor would we pay much heed to his further statement that he did not like business anyhow because he thought the morals of the business community by no means what they should be, and saw that the great successes were most often won by men of the Jay Gould stamp. It is just the same way with politics. It makes one feel half angry and half amused, and wholly contemptuous, to find men of high business or social standing in the community saying that they really have not got time to go to ward meetings, to organize political clubs, and to take a personal share in all the important details of practical politics; men who further urge against their going the fact that they think the condition of political morality low, and are afraid that they may be required to do what is not right if they go into politics.

The first duty of an American citizen, then, is that he shall work in politics; his second duty is that he shall do that work in a practical manner; and his third is that it shall be done in accord with the highest principles of honor and justice. Of course, it is not possible to define rigidly just the way in which the work shall be made practical. Each man's individual temper and convictions must be taken into account. To a certain extent his work must be done in accordance with his individual beliefs and theories of right and wrong. To a yet greater extent it must be done in combination with others, he yielding or modifying certain of his own theories and beliefs so as to enable him to stand on a common ground with his fellows, who have likewise yielded or modified certain of their theories and beliefs. There is no need of dogmatizing about independence on the one hand or party allegiance on the other. There are occasions when it may be the highest duty of any man to act outside of parties and against the one with which he has himself been hitherto identified; and there may be many more occasions when his highest duty is to sacrifice some of his own cherished opinions for the sake of the success of the party which he on the whole believes to be right. I do not think that the average citizen, at least in one of our great cities, can very well manage to support his own party all the time on every issue, local and otherwise; at any rate if he can do so he has been more fortunately placed than I have been. On the other hand, I am fully convinced that to do the best work people must be organized; and of course an organization is really a party, whether it be a great organization covering the whole nation and numbering its millions of adherents, or an association of citizens in a particular locality, banded together to win a certain specific victory, as, for instance, that of municipal reform. Somebody has said that a racing-yacht, like a good rifle, is a bundle of incompatibilities; that you must get the utmost possible sail power without sacrificing some other quality if you really do get the utmost sail power, that, in short you have got to make more or less of a compromise on each in order to acquire the dozen things needful; but, of course, in making this compromise you must be very careful for the sake of something unimportant not to sacrifice any of the great principles of successful naval architecture. Well, it is about so with a man's political work. He has got to preserve his independence on the one hand; and on the other, unless he wishes to be a wholly ineffective crank, he has got to have some sense of party allegiance and party responsibility, and he has got to realize that in any given exigency it may be a matter of duty to sacrifice one quality, or it may be a matter of duty to sacrifice the other.

If it is difficult to lay down any fixed rules for party action in the abstract; it would, of course, be wholly impossible to lay them down for party action in the concrete, with reference to the organizations of the present day. I think that we ought to be broad-minded enough to recognize the fact that a good citizen, striving with fearlessness, honesty, and common sense to do his best for the nation, can render service to it in many different ways, and by connection with many different organizations. It is well for a man if he is able conscientiously to feel that his views on the great questions of the day, on such questions as the tariff, finance, immigration, the regulation of the liquor traffic, and others like them, are such as to put him in accord with the bulk of those of his fellow citizens who compose one of the greatest parties: but it is perfectly supposable that he may feel so strongly for or against certain principles held by one party, or certain principles held by the other, that he is unable to give his full adherence to either. In such a case I feel that he has no right to plead this lack of agreement with either party as an excuse for refraining from active political work prior to election. It will, of course, bar him from the primaries of the two leading parties, and preclude him from doing his share in organizing their management; but, unless he is very unfortunate, he can surely find a number of men who are in the same position as himself and who agree with him on some specific piece of political work, and they can turn in practically and effectively long before election to try to do this new piece of work in a practical manner.

One seemingly very necessary caution to utter is, that a man who goes into politics should not expect to reform everything right off, with a jump. I know many excellent young men who, when awakened to the fact that they have neglected their political duties, feel an immediate impulse to form themselves into an organization which shall forthwith purify politics everywhere, national, State, and city alike; and I know of a man who having gone round once to a primary, and having, of course, been unable to accomplish anything in a place where he knew no one and could not combine with anyone, returned saying it was quite useless for a good citizen to try to accomplish anything in such a manner. To these too hopeful or too easily discouraged people I always feel like reading Artemus Ward's article upon the people of his town who came together in a meeting to resolve that the town should support the Union and the Civil War, but were unwilling to take any part in putting down the rebellion unless they could go as brigadier-generals. After the battle of Bull Run there were a good many hundreds of thousands of young men in the North who felt it to be their duty to enter the Northern armies; but no one of them who possessed much intelligence expected to take high place at the outset, or anticipated that individual action would be of decisive importance in any given campaign. He went in as private or sergeant, lieutenant or captain, as the case might be, and did his duty in his company, in his regiment, after a while in his brigade. When Ball's Bluff and Bull Run succeeded the utter failure of the Peninsular campaign, when the terrible defeat of Fredericksburg was followed by the scarcely less disastrous day at Chancellorsville he did not announce (if he had any pluck or manliness about him) that he considered it quite useless for any self-respecting citizen to enter the Army of the Potomac, because he really was not of much weight in its councils, and did not approve of its management; he simply gritted his teeth and went doggedly on with his duty, grieving over, but not disheartened at the innumerable shortcomings and follies committed by those who helped to guide the destinies of the army, recognizing also the bravery, the patience, intelligence, and resolution with which other men in high places offset the follies and shortcomings and persevering with equal mind through triumph and defeat until finally he saw the tide of failure turn at Gettysburg and the full flood of victory come with Appomattox.

I do wish that more of our good citizens would go into politics, and would do it in the same spirit with which their fathers went into the Federal armies. Begin with the little thing, and do not expect to accomplish anything without an effort. Of course, if you go to a primary just once, never having taken the trouble to know any of the other people who go there you will find yourself wholly out of place; but if you keep on attending and try to form associations with other men whom you meet at the political gatherings, or whom you can persuade to attend them, you will very soon find yourself a weight. In the same way, if a man feels that the politics of his city, for instance, are very corrupt and wants to reform them, it would be an excellent idea for him to begin with his district. If he Joins with other people, who think as he does, to form a club where abstract political virtue will be discussed he may do a great deal of good. We need such clubs; but he must also get to know his own ward or his own district, put himself in communication with the decent people in that district, of whom we may rest assured there will be many, willing and able to do something practical for the procurance of better government Let him set to work to procure a better assemblyman or better alderman before he tries his hand at making a mayor, a governor, or a president. If he begins at the top he may make a brilliant temporary success, but the chances are a thousand to one that he will only be defeated eventually; and in no event will the good he does stand on the same broad and permanent foundation as if he had begun at the bottom. Of course, one or two of his efforts may be failures; but if he has the right stuff in him he will go ahead and do his duty irrespective of whether he meets with success or defeat. It is perfectly right to consider the question of failure while shaping one's efforts to succeed in the struggle for the right; but there should be no consideration of it whatsoever when the question is as to whether one should or should not make a struggle for the right. When once a band of one hundred and fifty or two hundred honest, intelligent men, who mean business and know their business, is found in any district, whether in one of the regular organizations or outside, you can guarantee that the local politicians of that district will begin to treat it with a combination of fear, hatred, and respect, and that its influence will be felt; and that while sometimes men will be elected to office in direct defiance of its wishes, more often the successful candidates will feel that they have to pay some regard to its demands for public decency and honesty.

But in advising you to be practical and to work hard, I must not for one moment be understood as advising you to abandon one iota of your self-respect and devotion to principle. It is a bad sign for the country to see one class of our citizens sneer at practical politicians, and another at Sunday-school politics. No man can do both effective and decent work in public life unless he is a practical politician on the one hand, and a sturdy believer in Sunday-school politics on the other. He must always strive manfully for the best, and yet, like Abraham Lincoln, must often resign himself to accept the best possible. Of course when a man verges on to the higher ground of statesmanship, when he becomes a leader, he must very often consult with others and defer to their opinion, and must be continually settling in his mind how far he can go in just deference to the wishes and prejudices of others while yet adhering to his own moral standards: but I speak not so much of men of this stamp as I do of the ordinary citizen, who wants to do his duty as a member of the commonwealth in its civic life; and for this man I feel that the one quality which he ought always to hold most essential is that of disinterestedness. If he once begins to feel that he wants office himself, with a willingness to get it at the cost of his convictions, or to keep it when gotten, at the cost of his convictions, his usefulness is gone. Let him make up his mind to do his duty in politics without regard to holding office at all, and let him know that often the men in this country who have done the best work for our public life have not been the men in office. If, on the other hand, he attains public position, let him not strive to plan out for himself a career. I do not think that any man should let himself regard his political career as a means of livelihood, or as his sole occupation in life; for if he does he immediately becomes most seriously handicapped. The moment that he begins to think how such and such an act will affect the voters in his district, or will affect some great political leader who will have an influence over his destiny, he is hampered and his hands are bound. Not only may it be his duty often to disregard the wishes of politicians, but it may be his clear duty at times to disregard the wishes of the people. The voice of the people is not always the voice of God; and when it happens to be the voice of the devil, then it is a man's clear duty to defy its behests. Different political conditions breed different dangers. The demagogue is as unlovely a creature as the courtier, though one is fostered under republican and the other under monarchical institutions. There is every reason why a man should have an honorable ambition to enter public life, and an honorable ambition to stay there when he is in; but he ought to make up his mind that he cares for it only as long as he can stay in it on his own terms, without sacrifice of his own principles; and if he does thus make up his mind he can really accomplish twice as much for the nation, and can reflect a hundredfold greater honor upon himself, in a short term of service, than can the man who grows gray in the public employment at the cost of sacrificing what he believes to be true and honest. And moreover, when a public servant has definitely made up his mind that he will pay no heed to his own future, but will do what he honestly deems best for the community, without regard to how his actions may affect his prospects, not only does he become infinitely more useful as a public servant, but he has a far better time. He is freed from the harassing care which is inevitably the portion of him who is trying to shape his sails to catch every gust of the wind of political favor.

But let me reiterate, that in being virtuous he must not become ineffective, and that he must not excuse himself for shirking his duties by any false plea that he cannot do his duties and retain his self-respect. This is nonsense, he can; and when he urges such a plea it is a mark of mere laziness and self-indulgence. And again, he should beware how he becomes a critic of the actions of others, rather than a doer of deeds himself; and in so far as he does act as a critic (and of course the critic has a great and necessary function) he must beware of indiscriminate censure even more than of indiscriminate praise. The screaming vulgarity of the foolish spread-eagle orator who is continually yelling defiance at Europe, praising everything American, good and bad, and resenting the introduction of any reform because it has previously been tried successfully abroad, is offensive and contemptible to the last degree; but after all it is scarcely as harmful as the peevish, fretful, sneering, and continual faultfinding of the refined, well-educated man, who is always attacking good and bad alike, who genuinely distrusts America, and in the true spirit of servile colonialism considers us inferior to the people across the water. It may be taken for granted that the man who is always sneering at our public life and our public men is a thoroughly bad citizen, and that what little influence he wields in the community is wielded for evil. The public speaker or the editorial writer who teaches men of education that their proper attitude toward American politics should be one of dislike or indifference is doing all he can to perpetuate and aggravate the very evils of which he is ostensibly complaining. Exactly as it is generally the case that when a man bewails the decadence of our civilization he is himself physically, mentally, and morally a first-class type of the decadent, so it is usually the case that when a man is perpetually sneering at American politicians, whether worthy or unworthy, he himself is a poor citizen and a friend of the very forces of evil against which he professes to contend. Too often these men seem to care less for attacking bad men, than for ruining the characters of good men with whom they disagree on some pubic question; and while their influence against the bad is almost nil, they are sometimes able to weaken the hands of the good by withdrawing from them support to which they are entitled, and they thus count in the sum total of forces that work for evil. They answer to the political prohibitionist, who, in a close contest between a temperance man and a liquor seller diverts enough votes from the former to elect the liquor seller Occasionally it is necessary to beat a pretty good man, who is not quite good enough, even at the cost of electing a bad one- but it should be thoroughly recognized that this can be necessary only occasionally and indeed, I may say, only in very exceptional cases, and that as a rule where it is done the effect is thoroughly unwholesome in every way, and those taking part in it deserve the severest censure from all honest men.

Moreover, the very need of denouncing evil makes it all the more wicked to weaken the effect of such denunciations by denouncing also the good. It is the duty of all citizens, irrespective of party, to denounce, and, so far as may be, to punish crimes against the public on the part of politicians or officials. But exactly as the public man who commits a crime against the public is one of the worst of criminals, so, close on his heels in the race for iniquitous distinction, comes the man who falsely charges the public servant with outrageous wrongdoing; whether it is done with foul-mouthed and foolish directness in the vulgar and violent party organ, or with sarcasm, innuendo, and the half-truths that are worse than lies, in some professed organ of independence. Not only should criticism be honest, but it should be intelligent, in order to be effective. I recently read in a religious paper an article railing at the corruption of our public life, in which it stated incidentally that the lobby was recognized as all-powerful in Washington. This is untrue. There was a day when the lobby was very important at Washington, but its influence in Congress is now very small indeed; and from a pretty intimate acquaintance with several Congresses I am entirely satisfied that there is among the members a very small proportion indeed who are corruptible, in the sense that they will let their action be influenced by money or its equivalent. Congressmen are very often demagogues; they are very often blind partisans; they are often exceedingly short-sighted, narrow-minded, and bigoted; but they are not usually corrupt; and to accuse a narrow-minded demagogue of corruption when he is perfectly honest, is merely to set him more firmly in his evil course and to help him with his constituents, who recognize that the charge is entirely unjust, and in repelling it lose sight of the man's real shortcomings. I have known more than one State legislature, more than one board of aldermen against which the charge of corruption could perfectly legitimately be brought, but it cannot be brought against Congress. Moreover these sweeping charges really do very little good. When I was in the New York legislature, one of the things that I used to mind most was the fact that at the close of every session the papers that affect morality invariably said that particular legislature was the worst legislature since the days of Tweed. The statement was not true as a rule; and, in any event, to lump all the members, good and bad, in sweeping condemnation simply hurt the good and helped the bad. Criticism should be fearless, but I again reiterate that it should be honest and should be discriminating. When it is sweeping and unintelligent, and directed against good and bad alike, or against the good and bad qualities of any man alike, it is very harmful. It tends steadily to deteriorate the character of our public men; and it tends to produce a very unwholesome spirit among young men of education, and especially among the young men in our colleges.

Against nothing is fearless and specific criticism more urgently needed than against the "spoils system," which is the degradation of American politics. And nothing is more effective in thwarting the purposes of the spoilsmen than the civil service reform. To be sure, practical politicians sneer at it. One of them even went so far as to say that civil-service reform is asking a man irrelevant questions. What more irrelevant question could there be than that of the practical politician who asks the aspirant for his political favor - "Whom did you vote for in the last election?" There is certainly nothing more interesting, from a humorous point of view, than the heads of departments urging changes to be made in their underlings, "on the score of increased efficiency" they say; when as the result of such a change the old incumbent often spends six months teaching the new incumbent how to do the work almost as well as he did himself! Occasionally the civil-service reform has been abused, but not often. Certainly the reform is needed when you contemplate the spectacle of a New York City treasurer who acknowledges his annual fees to be eighty-five thousand dollars, and who pays a deputy one thousand five hundred dollars to do his work-when you note the corruptions in the New York legislature, where one man says he has a horror of the Constitution because it prevents active benevolence, and another says that you should never allow the Constitution to come between friends! All these corruptions and vices are what every good American citizen must fight against.

Finally, the man who wishes to do his duty as a citizen in our country must be imbued through and through with the spirit of Americanism. I am not saying this as a matter of spread-eagle rhetoric: I am saying it quite soberly as a piece of matter-of-fact, common-sense advice, derived from my own experience of others. Of course, the question of Americanism has several sides. If a man is an educated man, he must show his Americanism by not getting misled into following out and trying to apply all the theories of the political thinkers of other countries, such as Germany and France, to our own entirely different conditions. He must not get a fad, for instance, about responsible government; and above all things he must not, merely because he is intelligent, or a college professor well read in political literature, try to discuss our institutions when he has had no practical knowledge of how they are worked. Again, if he is a wealthy man, a man of means and standing, he must really feel, not merely affect to feel, that no social differences obtain save such as a man can in some way himself make by his own actions. People sometimes ask me if there is not a prejudice against a man of wealth and education in ward politics. I do not think that there is, unless the man in turn shows that he regards the facts of his having wealth and education as giving him a claim to superiority aside from the merit he is able to prove himself to have in actual service. Of course, if he feels that he ought to have a little better treatment than a carpenter, a plumber, or a butcher, who happens to stand beside him, he is going to be thrown out of the race very quickly, and probably quite roughly; and if he starts in to patronize and elaborately condescend to these men he will find that they resent this attitude even more. Do not let him think about the matter at all. Let him go into the political contest with no more thought of such matters than a college boy gives to the social standing of the members of his own and rival teams in a hotly contested football match. As soon as he begins to take an interest in politics (and he will speedily not only get interested for the sake of politics, but also take a good healthy interest in playing the game itself - an interest which is perfectly normal and praise-worthy, and to which only a prig would object), he will begin to work up the organization in the way that will be most effective, and he won't care a rap about who is put to work with him, save in so far as he is a good fellow and an efficient worker. There was one time that a number of men who think as we do here to-night (one of the number being myself) got hold of one of the assembly districts of New York, and ran it in really an ideal way, better than any other assembly district has ever been run before or since by either party. We did it by hard work and good organization; by working practically, and yet by being honest and square in motive and method: especially did we do it by all turning in as straight-out Americans without any regard to distinctions of race origin. Among the many men who did a great deal in organizing our victories was the son of a Presbyterian clergyman, the nephew of a Hebrew rabbi, and two well-known Catholic gentlemen. We also had a Columbia College professor (the stroke-oar of a university crew), a noted retail butcher, and the editor of a local German paper, various brokers, bankers, lawyers, bricklayers and a stone-mason who was particularly useful to us, although on questions of theoretic rather than applied politics he had a decidedly socialistic turn of mind.

Again, questions of race origin, like questions of creed, must not be considered: we wish to do good work, and we are all Americans, pure and simple. In the New York legislature, when it fell to my lot to choose a committee - which I always esteemed my most important duty at Albany - no less than three out of the four men I chose were of Irish birth or parentage; and three abler and more fearless and disinterested men never sat in a legislative body; while among my especial political and personal friends in that body was a gentleman from the southern tier of counties, who was, I incidentally found out, a German by birth, but who was just as straight United States as if his ancestors had come over here in the Mayflower or in Henry Hudson's yacht. Of course, none of these men of Irish or German birth would have been worth their salt had they continued to act after coming here as Irishmen or Germans, or as anything but plain straight-out Americans. We have not any room here for a divided allegiance. A man has got to be an American and nothing else; and he has no business to be mixing us up with questions of foreign politics, British or Irish, German or French, and no business to try to perpetuate their language and customs in the land of complete religious toleration and equality. If, however, he does become honestly and in good faith an American, then he is entitled to stand precisely as all other Americans stand, and it is the height of un-Americanism to discriminate against him in any way because of creed or birthplace. No spirit can be more thoroughly alien to American institutions, than the spirit of the Know-Nothings.

In facing the future and in striving, each according to the measure of his individual capacity, to work out the salvation of our land, we should be neither timid pessimists nor foolish optimists. We should recognize the dangers that exist and that threaten us: we should neither overestimate them nor shrink from them, but steadily fronting them should set to work to overcome and beat them down. Grave perils are yet to be encountered in the stormy course of the Republic - perils from political corruption, perils from individual laziness, indolence and timidity, perils springing from the greed of the unscrupulous rich, and from the anarchic violence of the thriftless and turbulent poor. There is every reason why we should recognize them, but there is no reason why we should fear them or doubt our capacity to overcome them, if only each will, according to the measure of his ability, do his full duty, and endeavor so to live as to deserve the high praise of being called a good American citizen.

How Much Do Glascoe and Rush Make?

2008-07-01T09:10:00.002-04:00

The following link was sent to be by one of my anonymous posters who I thank a tremendous deal.

Paterson Public School Salaries

If you're interested in finding out just how much money Glascoe and Rush among others are raking in, look no further.

Another Stupid Comment from an Obama Supporter

2008-06-30T09:04:00.003-04:00

I recently received yet another ridiculous comment from an Obama supporter.

"Dino... There's nothing wrong with the new logo... stop living in the past... Mr. Obama will hopefully be the next President of the United States and yes he's black and He's open minded to all religions... get used it !!... we are living in 2008 buddy ... stop believing in what they tell you at the KKK meetings :)"

Barack Obama's black? Really??? I totally didn't notice!

I was also completely unaware that it was 2008 and that I was a card carrying member of the KKK. Then again, I was always wondered how I got on Robert Byrd's Christmas card list.:-P

The irrationality and overall psychosis of the rabid members of Barack Obama's mass cult would be comical if it wasn't so disturbing.

Apparently Obama wants to run the same type of campaign against John McCain that he ran against Hillary Clinton which is; "If you're white and you don't vote for me, you're a racist who hates black people."

Is this the litmus test by which we should choose our Commander in Chief?

Just How Arrogant is Barack Obama?

2008-06-25T14:07:00.005-04:00

As this year's Presidential campaign remains in its formative stages, I can only keep asking my self the same question over and over again. Just how arrogant is Barack Obama? I even ponder the possibility from time to time that he could be doing it to see just how much he can get away with.

This new display of sheer arrogance however takes the cake. I have never seen anything like this. It seems as though Barack Obama has seen fit to "modify" the Official Seal of the President of the United States.

My biggest question amid all of this is this, How much longer is the media going to give this man a free pass every time he does something stupid? When are they going to stop aiding and abedding their chosen messiah? The reason I ask this is because while it has been mentioned here and there, it really hasn't gotten as much attention as it should. You would think after all, that the desecration of Presidential Seal would be a newsworthy story.

What's next? An giant American Flag with the Obama logo in the middle in the background during one of his speeches? After all, we are all well aware how fond Obama supporters are of Che Guevara's role in bringing the Castro regime to power during the Cuban Revolution.

No matter how much his campaign staff and the overwhelming majority of mass media try to hide it, there is no denying that both Barack Obama and his supporters are arrogant Marxists who promote an extremely dangerous agenda for the United States.

It's going to be up to us to send this empty suit packing for the good of the country.

Ronald Reagan Impeaches Obamacare

2008-06-24T10:09:00.003-04:00

I've posted this video clip in a previous thread here but I'm doing it again for a an extremely important reason. To show that Barack Obama is a pure, unadulterated Marxist and that his agenda for the United States will prove to be extremely harmful to our way of life as we know it.

Don't take my word for it, take it from The Great Comunicator himself who started exposing this agenda and its beginnings decades ago.

George Carlin: 1937-2008

2008-06-23T08:36:00.002-04:00

We use up words like "spiritual" so fast in this culture. Twenty years ago "spiritual" had a distinct meaning. But now there's a lot of jack-off thinkers who just love to talk about the spiritual. And there is a lot of bogus -- is "bogosity" a word? It should be -- a lot of bogosity in these spiritual seekers. So you have to find another way to express it. I just call it "how I fit."- George Carlin

Quote of the Weekend

2008-06-20T14:34:00.001-04:00

"You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality."- Ayn Rand

Breaking News

2008-06-19T14:06:00.002-04:00

Multiple sources out of Paterson are telling me that Paterson School District Superintendent Michael Glascoe and Deputy Superintendent Michael Rush have been federally indicted. I will have more on this development once it is confirmed.

Yet MORE hypocrisy from Barack Obama

2008-06-19T10:00:00.003-04:00

As if Barack Obama couldn't be any more of a hypocrite, he has once again shown glimpses of his true colors.

Politico.com is reporting that two muslim women were prohibited by the Obama campaign from sitting behind the podium at a rally in Detroit in an attempt to keep them off camera as Obama addressed the crowd.

“I was coming to support him, and I felt like I was discriminated against by the very person who was supposed to be bringing this change, who I could really relate to,” said Hebba Aref, a 25-year-old lawyer who lives in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills. “The message that I thought was delivered to us was that they do not want him associated with Muslims or Muslim supporters.”

This blunder also happened to take place in the state of Michigan which has a very large Arab population and in an attempt to save face, Campaign Spokesman Bill Burton released the following statement:

“This is of course not the policy of the campaign. It is offensive and counter to Obama’s commitment to bring Americans together and simply not the kind of campaign we run,” said Obama spokesman Bill Burton. “We sincerely apologize for the behavior of these volunteers.”

So where have we heard this all before? To say that Barack Obama is inconsistent, whether it's in reference to the influence his pastor, Jeremiah Wright had in his life, his desire to meet the world's worst dictators without preconditions or now his message of uniting the country is a complete understatement! As Jackie Mason said of him, the only thing Obama ever seems to change is his story.

Barack Obama is clearly one who likes to change his story whenever it's convenient for him in his attempts to promote his own self-serving, marxist agnenda. The problem with this is that this nonsense may work with the Daley/Cook County Machine Kool-Aid Drinkers in Illinois but it will not work on a national level.

The majority of Americans are too smart to fall for it.

Sirius/XM Merger is a Go...FINALLY!!!

2008-06-16T10:53:00.003-04:00

After over a year of red tape and unneccesary government interference, FCC chairman Kevin Martin has finally decided to do the right thing by the combined 17.3 million satellite radio subscribers by giving his approval to the Sirius/XM merger in which Sirius will purchase its rival. It appears as though this could be the final hurdle to this long overdue deal finally getting done. The merger had been announced in February '07 and was approved by the Justice Department back in March of this year.

Both Sirius, which is headquartered in New York City with smaller operations in Los Angeles and Memphis, Tennessee and XM, which operates out of Washington D.C. have spent billions of dollars on advertising and attracting high profile personalities but have failed to turn a net profit since launching their respective satellites. Neither company has been able to significantly attract subscribers and in the age of iPods and various MP3 devices, it is believed that this merger will help satellite radio compete better by allowing them to lower subscription costs and offer a better quality product.

The merger will also make sports fans happier as well. Sirius owns the excusive rights for the NFL, NBA and NCAA Football and Basketball and NASCAR while XM owns the rights to MLB, NHL and Indy Car racing. NHL coverage was split between the two until XM bought the exclusive rights last year.

It will also probably help move the stock price for Sirius which has long been stagnant and did not receive the boost that was expected when they signed Howard Stern in 2006. As of now, the stock price which opened this morning at $2.54 a share is already up $.14 in early morning trading.

Sirius currently operates 135 channels of music, news, talk, sports and weather while XM currently operates 156.