Author: Rory B. Bellows

Last night, the New Jersey State Senate Judiciary committee passed legislation legalizing gay marriage by a 7-6 vote. Republican Bill Baroni, pictured right, was the decisive vote. The bill will now face a full floor vote on Thursday. My gut prediction is that this will fail, much like it failed last week in New York. Two Democrats, Committee Chair Paul Sarlo and Vice Committee Chair John Girgenti, voted against the bill in committee and getting this to 21 votes in the full Senate will be difficult. Most likely, the Democrats just want to be able to say they took action.

I never write much, if anything ever, about social issues. Social issues are not what wake me up in the morning. However, since the State Senate is considering the legislation, and it is the most high profile issue confronting our elected representatives, I suppose I will weigh in. This type of social engineering is the province of the voters. If they want gay marriage, so be it. If they do not, so be it. Marriage is not a civil institution. Defining marriage is not one of the two or three essential functions of government and it should be up to the people to decide what type of society they want to live in.

If this issue were confronting me via the initiative and referendum, I would probably vote no. Government does not exist to define personal relationships. Expanding the definition of marriage to include same sex couples would expand the power of government to create and bestow rights. There is nothing stopping a gay couple from buying two rings and calling each other a married couple. What they want is the official government signed, sealed and approved piece of paper saying they are married. Why do we want government to have that type of power over our lives? The pro-gay marriage side argues this is a fundamental issue of liberty but how free are you in a world where you have to obtain an official permission slip from the government in order to call you and your partner a married couple?

Author: Rory B. Bellows

Last night I posted that The Save Jersey Blog broke the news that the latest FDU Poll would have Corzine in the lead with 44% of the vote.

Well, the actual poll results have been released today and the situation is even more dire. Politico reports that Daggett is polling at 17% and Christie favorable/unfavorable is 38/45. This that the campaign is now between Christie and Daggett. Corzine’s numbers are not moving but Christie’s are droppng and Daggett is on the rise. Maybe today’s edorsement by the second largest environmental group will help Christie capture some Daggett voters. Maybe.

What this means is that Christie is going to have to ignore Corzine and attack Daggett. This diminishes Christie’s stature and only further elevates Daggett. This campaign is now an uphill fight for Christie. I am not sure what he can do to turn the momentum around because the dye is pretty close to being cast.

Author: Rory B. Bellows

Star Ledger Columnist Paul Mulshine makes a forceful case that New Jersey conservatives are being sold down the river by Gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie.

Mulshine always generates consternation among Republican Party figures because he is the most vocal and visible conservative in New Jersey media. He has never been, and nor should he ever be, a cheerleader for the Republican Party. He is a principled advocate for the conservative movement, which is not the same thing as the Republican Party.

As a conservative, Mulshine is correct to be outraged by the policy positions staked out by Christie. His endorsement of the Obama Regime’s energy policy flies in the face of not only conservative thought, but sound economic and market principles. The left has planted their flag with these absurd alternative energy fantasies. If these technologies were practical, the private sector would be all over them and they would not require massive government favortism in the form of subsidies to be viable.

The Republican party is supposed to be grounded in realism. Let the Democrats preach about utopian fantasies that government will create, the Republican Party are the grown ups who know fantasy land rubbish when they see it and are responsible stewards of the tax payer dollar. Christie backing Obama’s energy plan is pure pie-in-the sky idealism that all things are possible and that ideas should not be judged on their practicality, but rather on how they make us feel and how noble the goals they seek to accomplish are.

If the Republican Party is ever to make a comeback it is going to not be based on moderating principles but in (re)embracing realism and prudence. The Bush Adminstration abandoned the realism camp abroad, with the adventure in Iraq, and domestically with massive government interventions in the form of No Child Left Behind and Medicare Part D. Christie is rejecting prudence and realism for fantasy not only with his backing of Obama’s energy proposal, but also with his promise to cut the state income tax and increase property tax rebates. As Mulshine points out, this is impossible. The income tax funds property tax rebates. You cannot decrease one and increase the other. Making promises with no ability to pay for them is exactly the course George Bush took the Republican Party down with the Medicare presicription drug entitlement and it is the same thing Republicans are rightly thrashing Obama for with his proposal to socialize medicine.

The base of the Democratic Party in New Jersey is depressed. Polling shows that Obama will have no impact in the race. Chris Christie does not need to pander to democratic constituencies in order to win this election. What he needs to do is offer a realistic alternative to Corzine. New Jerseyans want property tax relief, not rebates. Property tax relief can easily be delivered by moving away from affordable housing and allocating school funding equally. These ideas can be sold in practical, non-idelogical terms based on the simple fact that the Abbot School funding program and affordable housing policies have not worked. Everyone knows they have driven up property taxes. The Christie campaign is worried about being labeled too far to the right. Fine. There is a conservative philosophical argument against these programs but Chrisite does not have to go there. The numbers tell the story.

We have had 8 long years, at the state and national level, of idealists, both Republican and Democrat as captains of the ships of state. We have suffered mightly for turning our backs away from prudent thinking with our country engages in endless conflicts abroad, a collapsed housing bubble and an economy in tatters due excessive borrowing by both government and consumers.

Friedrich Hayek famously dedicated The Road to Serfdom to the socialists of all parties. I dedicate this post to the idealists of all parties.

Author: Rory B. Bellows

While I am strong supporter of Steve Lonegan, I find some aspects of his email criticizing the NJ GOP troubling. I fully support his criticisms of the Republican turncoats who voted for the Crap and Tax bill. That vote was a disgrace. However, some of his other claims are puzzling. Lonegan is outraged that the leadership of the stat committee blocked a move to adopt the national Republican Party platform for the state party. Lonegan and his supporters want the state party to adopt the national platform because of its strong pro-life planks. On one hand, they are arguing that the GOP should not be afraid to support pro-life positions. On the other hand, this is the party platform that John McCain adopted. McCain is the anti-Lonegan. He is a big government liberal Republican. That conservative activists would want anything to do with a platform adopted by a national party that he activists correctly argue has drifted leftward is puzzling. Would they also like the adopt the 2008 Republican Party position on the bailout bill? How about the McCain campaign’s support for Cap and Trade? This party platform represents the positions of a national party that drifted absurdly far from conservative principles and was soundly thrashed at the ballot box by a marxist street organizer. Yeah, let the state Republican Party follow that lead. Not that the NJ GOP needs any help to suffer crushing defeats.

Lonegan’s backing, which I am sure is done out of principle, is also odd because the focus of his campaign was on fiscal matters. The Republican committmen who wanted the state party to adopt the national platform only are doing so because of the abortion issue. And it’s foolish. Even if the Governor of New Jersey is pro-life, and the party adopts a pro-life platform, the Roe decision will still be the, unfortunate, law of the land. While I am a pro-life libertarian, much in the tradition of Ron Paul, Murray Sabrin and Judge Andre Nopolitano, the true conservative and federalist position is that social issues fall under the province of the tenth amendment and thus are matters of state’s rights. There should not be a national position on any of these issues unless it is that the issue of abortion is left to the individual states to decide. Conservatives like to rally around that the states represent 50 different labratories for democracy when opposing the oppressive once size fits all policy prescriptions of the Marxocrat Party. A conservative philosopher such as Steve Lonegan should be rallying around THAT idea.

Author: Aaron

Barack Obama wooed the youth, convincing them that his progressive policies would help the country. Jon Corzine has not been as succesful.  Today the Students Against Corzine (SAC) launched their website, and plan to use grassroots movement tacticts to remove Jon Corzine from Office.

After all, Jon Corzine is crippling the future of the youth in New Jersey.  It is the youth that once finished with college will be forced to decide whether or not the steep property, sales and income taxes of New Jersey are payments they would like to make.  One of the little known facts about New Jersey is that one out of eight residents of our once great state move out. One out of eight students in New Jersey go to out of state colleges, The youth in this state although obsessed with Obama, may finally be realizing that the democrats have pushed us into a deep state of recession, and their solution is to tax us more.

Finally college students are standing up against the Democrat regime and the don of that regime Jon Corzine. They are also planning to protest the July 16th Obama-Corzine rally .

Check out their website for more information on the rally, and get on their mailing list, Take back New Jersey!

www.StudentsAgainstCorzine.com

Author: Rory B. Bellows

Rasmussen Reports shows, leaners included, Chris Christie leads Jon Corzine 53-41.

Author: Rory B. Bellows

Wow. What a few weeks to take a break from blogging. Despite the MSM narrative of a part in disarry in the wake of the Sanford and Ensign scandals and the Palin resignation, things are looking up for the Republican Party in the 2009 and 2010 election cycles.

We’ll start with the off-off year governorship races in New Jersey and Virgina. In New Jersey, Republican Chris Christe continues to trounce Jon Corzine in the polls, holding a 10.2% advantage in the latest aggregate. Things are going so poorly for Corzine that he has released a negative ad. In the first week of July.

Down in Virgina, Republican Bob McDonnell holds a 6 point lead in the latest poll over his rival for the Governorship of Virgina.

Right now, the odds are that the GOP will sweep these races. Some will try and argue this is not a sign of things to come in 210, but not so fast, my friend.

Candidate recruitment is picking up for the GOP. Candidates who wanted no part of races in 2006 and 2008 are entering races across the country. In Oho, Barack Obama’s aproval rating has nosedived 13 points in the last two months to 49%. Governor Ted Strickland, once of the nation’s most popular Governors now holds a 46% approval rating. This has led to quaity challengers such as former Congressmen Jon Kasich an Bob Portman to run for Governor and Senate respectively. At one point in time these Republicans trailed Democratic incumbants by double digits. Those leads have fallen to single digits.

Yesterday news came out of New Hampsire that the party’s top choice to run for retiring Senator Judd Gregg’s seat, Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, would in fact enter the race against Democratic Congressmen Paul Hodes. Ayotte was the only Republican who led Hodes in a hypothetical head to head matchup poll.

New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio and Virgina are four states where the GOP has gotten their brains beat in the last two election cycles. New Jersey and New Hampshire represented a consolidation of the Democratic base and Ohio and Virgina were beach heads for Democratic incursion into traditionally strong Republican areas that saw support for the Party erode to local corruption and the national unpopularity of President Bush.

Now that the corrupt local officials and President Bush are no longer around, quality Republican candidates are emerging and the euphoria of the course change of 2006 and 2008 is wearing off now that the realities of Democratic governence is setting in.

New Hampshire and

Author: Rory B. Bellows

Even mainstream Republicans are realizing the farce that is Leonard Lance’s congressional career. He votes for SCHIP expansion, he votes for the Lily Leadbetter Act, he votes for paid family leave and now he votes for the Cap and Rape bill. And this guy claims to be a fiscal conservative?

Do you realize this Cap and Rape bill prevents you from selling your house unless it meets federal energy efficiency standards? There is no way Congressman Lance read this bill and his dereliction in voting for a bill that he had not read is grounds for firing him. This bill is a massive federal power grab and was a key component of the Obama agenda. Lance rationale is that we need to make America more like New Jersey. For Congressman Lance to say we need to make America over-taxed, over-regulated and completely hostile to business is bullet in the brain stupid.

I’m usually not for intra-party firing squads but Lance’s “representation” of his district has proved that he is a loyal foot soldier for Chairman Obama. The sad part is, this is a 180 degree for Lance. In the State Senate he was viewed as a reliable vote against outrageous spending and big government boondoogles. If Lance’s first few months are indicative of how he will vote on Chairman Obama’s attempt to socialize medicine, 7th district Republicans will have a hard time makig up their mind as to which primary challenger they are going to vote for in 2010.

Author: Aaron

1. Bono Mack (CA) 202-225-5330
2. Castle (DE) 202-225-4165
3. Kirk (IL) 202-225-4835
4. Lance (NJ) 202-225-5361
5. Lobiondo (NJ) 202-225-6572
6. McHugh (NY) 202-225-4611
7. Reichart (WA) 202-225-7761
8. Chris Smith (NJ) 202-225-3765

Author: Rory B. Bellows

Another poll, this one by Strategic Vision shows Chris Christie with a commanding 51-39 lead over Jon the Taxer. I predict we won’t see much of Obama in the state, more likely lesser figures such as Joe Biden and a cabinet official or two, but they White House won’t risk any prestige over a sure loser like Jon Corzine.

Obama basically threw Corzine under the bus the other day when he said that the election would be decided on local issues and would not be any sort of referendum on his administration. Translation: Your own, buddy.

Author: Aaron

According to this study released back in February by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; New Jersey is the 2nd least free State in the union.  Only behind our good neighbor New York…

Thanks Jon Corzine!

Free States

Author: Rory B. Bellows

Chris Christie will name freshmen Assemblymen Jay Webber as the new NJ GOP Chair. Webber is an authentic conservative voice and we applaud this selection. We also thank out going NJ GOP Chair Tom Wilson for his service.

Selecting Webber as NJ GOP Chair indicates that the LG selection will be an establishment moderate Republican, but having a true conservative voice heading the party for the next 4 years is more important than the symbolic pick of a running mate who has no real responsibility and will only be made to generate a day or two’s worth of headlines and buzz. It’s more important for New Jersey conservatives to have one of our as party chair who will do the work in the trenches to build the party back up. Webber is someone the grassroots can connect with and believe in. As Howard Dean proved for the dems on a national level, having a true believer as party chair is not the worst thing in the world and exciting your base is the first step in rebuilding a party.

Congrats to Chrisitie for an inspired pick.

Author: Rory B. Bellows

9% of democrats voted for some unemployed guy and another 8% voted for a guy who thinks 9/11 was an inside job. Around 21% of Democrats voted for someone other than Jon Corzine.

Author: Aaron

I know most of the people that read this blog hate the New York Times.  I am not one of them, in fact if you get passed some of the liberal propaganda in the paper, it is actually quite great.  I think this article in yesterday’s Times portrays New Jersey’s Republicans very well.  It is an extremely funny piece by Peter Applebome, and I highly recommend everyone take some time to read it.

“True, the site was the Steve Malzberg conservative talk radio show Wednesday afternoon on WOR, not WrestleMania XXV. But, as the June 2 primary approaches, it’s hard not to see New Jersey politics as more and more like professional wrestling, only with guys you really, really don’t want to see in spandex tights or black unitards.

The performers all play familiar, tightly scripted roles: the fire-breathing conservative, the electable Republican moderate, the Democratic heavyweight. The elections play out in predictable cycles, first in the right versus right-center Republican undercard and then in the main bout in November. And upsets happen with the frequency of the Undertaker delivering a Tombstone Piledriver to a semiconscious opponent and not winning a match.

Aside from Bret D. Schundler, an unconventional conservative who was the Republican nominee for governor in 2001, the establishment moderate always seems to win the Republican primary. And their reward has been losing every statewide race since Christie Whitman was elected governor in 1997. New Jersey hasn’t elected a Republican senator since Clifford Case in 1972.

One could argue that circumstances this year are particularly propitious for a different script. It would, in fact, be true. One could also argue that Rey Mysterio, hit on the head with a chair and lying half dead in the ring, can’t possibly get off the mat until, wow, he stirs and miraculously recovers.

Even Steven M. Lonegan, the former mayor of Bogota, and this year’s conservative standard-bearer, concedes the story line has been déjà vu all over again, with the Republican establishment candidate running right in the primary, winning the nomination, then tacking back to the left in the general election and losing.

“It’s the same show over and over again, and over and over again the Republicans have lost,” he said. “And the worst thing is that we haven’t done anything policywise to turn New Jersey around and make it an economic power again. It’s been an utter failure on the part of the party.”

Mr. Lonegan, who played the same role in 2005, has appealed to the Republican base with conservative staples (anti-abortion, anti gay marriage, cracking down on illegal immigration, solving the fiscal mess in Trenton), combined with a centerpiece issue of a flat tax and calls for radical downsizing of state government.

It got enough traction with Republican primary voters that Christopher J. Christie, the former United States attorney for New Jersey, who seemed inclined to dispense with the preliminary act, was forced to re-engage, establish his own conservative bona fides and run ads taking on Mr. Lonegan. Polls now show Mr. Christie with a lead of around 20 percentage points, but some say the race is tighter than that.

THE primary reason for thinking the main bout could be different, of course, is that polls indicate Mr. Corzine is in worse shape than Mickey Rourke’s character in “The Wrestler.” Amid a widespread sense that New Jersey government is hopelessly broken, and crushing property tax bills, Mr. Corzine, with approval ratings hovering around 40 percent, defines an incumbent in danger of losing his job. If Mr. Christie wins the Republican nomination, his image as a corruption-busting prosecutor won’t hurt, either.

But Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said it’s still the same story line, with voters needing more than a compelling personal story to elect a Republican.

“What voters really respond to is the level of specificity that gives them a way to hold someone accountable, and Chris Christie is avoiding like the plague making any such statement about any issue, and I think that’s going to hurt him when this becomes a race of attacks back and forth on personal levels, which it will,” Mr. Murray said. “He has nothing to fall back on.”

And, given the off year, with only a smattering of major races including Virginia governor, New York City mayor and New Jersey governor, the national Democrats — starting with Barack Obama — can do a lot more to help Mr. Corzine than the national Republicans (Newt Gingrich? Dick Cheney? Sarah Palin?) could do for Mr. Christie.

Nothing is forever, and maybe this will be the year the New Jersey Republicans manage not to lose. Given the state’s horrific fiscal mess, it would be a novel idea if the main event came down to who has the best ideas for solving it, starting with property taxes. But that’s probably a story line too outlandish for anyone to believe.”

New York Times Link

Author: Aaron

Chris Christie received another big boost today when former Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney endorsed him in Haddonfield.  While Christie’s conservative character has been questioned by those on the far right, the endorsement of a prominent conservative and front runner for the Republican Nomination for President in 2012 should quell some of those skeptics.

While I am an ardent Lonegan supporter, I have a deep respect for the job Chris Christie has done as attorney general, and will support the candidate if he beats Steve Lonegan in the primary. As the June 2nd primary gets closer, it seems as if the Lonegan campaign is fading into the night, and that the Chris Christie train is way ahead of the game.  While I believe that Lonegan is the stronger conservative choice for New Jersey, something has to be said for the string of conservative endorsements that have gone the way of Christie.  The Lonegan campaign is having a very hard time painting Chris Christie as the the moderate of the race, while he is picking up every major conservative endorsement in the nation.

Lonegan’s endorsements do not stack up with Christie’s, neither does hisi rhetoric.  While Christie was busy being endorsed by Mitt Romney, a prominent national figure; Steve Lonegan pickd up the endorsement of the Minutemen.  The group of angry Americans “protecting” our border, from the “scary” illegal immigrant.  Please Lonegan, how can the State Party take you seriously when you blast the institution, try to portray Chris Christie as an abject failure, and then pick up endorsement from Joe the Plumber and the Minutemen?  While you did pick up the support of Congressman Ron Paul, he did not do you the favor of showing up at a rally or a fundraiser for you.  He simply sent out an e-mail to his following in New Jersey delivering his “support”.

It is a shame that Lonegan has a terrible campaign team that cannot set the record straight with New Jerseyians.  It is terrible that his campaign decided to turn his actual accomplishments and beliefs into complete jokes for the rest of the moderate Republicans to laugh about.  New Jersey needed a conservative voice and Lonegan was that individual, unfortunately his campaign butchered his image, made him look like an angry politician, and put the endorsements of the Minutemen and Joe Wurzelbacher on their pedestal of fame.  Sorry guys, but the Minutemen are crazy, flat out.  Want to protect America’s border? Join the border patrol, don’t prance around the sun-belt toting guns and confederate flags.  The reason why the Republican Party is in jeopardy is because of trash like you. Please stay away from the Republican Party, because you don’t help us, you hurt us.

Joe the Plumber, look you were able to get something out of Barack Obama that no other politician or talk show host could.  Good for you.  But please, leave the Republican Party and conservatives alone, your endorsement is not a plus for any campaign.  In fact it shows a lack of credibility within a campaign, similar to the way an endorsement by an organization like the John Birch Society would show.

New Jersey, had a chance with Steve Lonegan but blew it. Now with less than a week until the Primary, we must hold our breaths and hope that he could pull out a miraculous win.  If Lonegan by some miracle wins, he should fire his entire campaign team and start from scratch.  And if Christie wins, we must all back him with everything we got.  It is not merely individuals that we elect but ideas.  Christie believes in the vast majority of basic conservative principles, and if he wins we must help him defeat Jon Corzine in November.

Author: Aaron

The Republican Governors Association has re-launched the Corzine Times.  An online “newspaper” that will keep New Jersey, and the rest of the Nation up on happening of our failure of a governor, Jon Corzine.

Author: Aaron

Rory, I couldn’t agree with you more. The Republican Party has had a PR problem of late, but a candidate like Marco Rubio could transform the Party. Similar to the way Barack Obama took the Democrats by storm in 2004, Marco Rubio has the charisma, character, and conservative principles to lead the Republican Party. It is a complete and utter sham that the NRSCC came out in support of Charlie Crist. Crist represents more of the John McCain’s of the Republican Party, not the new leadership that we so desperately need.

Republicans in the Senate have declared time and time again, that we lost the election in 2008 due to a lack of standing for principles. They have said time and time again that the only way to appeal the masses in the United States is to return to those conservative principles. The NRSCC endorsing Crist over Rubio shows more of the same. The same failed policy that eventually led to our embarrassing defeat last November, and a policy that will undoubtedly be a loser on 2010 and 2012.

A return to Conservative principles is vital to Republican success. However principles alone will not grant us victory, while we were all quick to bash the celebrity like persona of Barack Obama, the Republican Party needs a candidate that can appeal to the public the way Barack Obama did. We need a candidate with charisma, we need a candidate with people skills, that is young and appeals to all voters. The Republican Party is quick to reference Ronald Reagan, as a true conservative. We say time and time again that Reagan Democrats have to be lured back to the Republican Party in order to win again. However, Reagan Democrats didn’t just like Reagan because of his Conservative politics. They liked him because he appealed to their belief system and way of life.

Reagan didn’t dismiss everything Democrats said, heck he had to deal with a democrat controlled House his entire 8 years in office and had to deal with liberals like Tip O’Neill. Yet Reagan still managed to have his legislation passed, we need someone with great communication skills, but most of all we need Republican Outreach.

Ronald Reagan was the “Great Communicator” because he appealed to all sorts of Americans. In fact, Reagan may have been the most successful outreach politician in the History of the United States. If the Republican Party wants to emulate Reagan, start with outreach. Start with bringing in the Hispanic, black and gay vote. In 2004, the Hispanic vote carried then President Bush to re-election. While he only garnered 45% of the Hispanic vote, that was a 10-point increase than the votes he received in 2000, and represented 1.2% of the entire popular vote. However McCain returned to 2000 numbers and lost the Hispanic vote 67%-31%, not only losing those millions of voted, but giving them to Obama in his stead. If the Republicans want to return to dominance we need to bring that support back to our base.

The Republican Party should not stop at the Hispanic vote, rather they should begin outreach to the black population as well. Historically, Republicans and the Black Community share a common ground on civil rights and social conservatism. While fiscally the two may grow further apart, outreach has to start somewhere, and if we want any support from the black community we must garner at least 25% of the black vote. The Black vote, as we saw in 2004 can change an election, both statewide and nationwide. In California critics claim that the Black Vote single handedly defeated proposition 8, while nationally they helped elect Barack Obama to the Presidency.

The Gay vote is another demographic that the Republican Party should embrace, not distance itself from. While once again we may not agree on every issue, outreach is about drawing a group of people in, not pushing them away. While socially the Republican Party may disagree, fiscally Gay Americans could be as conservative as Barry Goldwater. However without the proper outreach and acceptance of Gay Americans in the Republican Party, we may never discover that potential.

The Republican Party has a serious outreach problem, however just as conservative principles do not agree entirely with the gay vote, or black vote, keep in mind that neither do all liberal policies. The difference is that the democrats have embraced these minority voters because they give leeway on some issues. Ronald Reagan, widely considered one of the most conservative, and definitely most beloved President of our generation did the same. We are quick to forget that the federal government expanded on Reagan’s watch. The conservative desire to outlaw abortion was never seriously pursued. Reagan broke with the hardliners in his administration and compromised with the Soviets on arms control. His assault on entitlements never materialized; instead he saved Social Security in 1983. And he repeatedly ignored the fundamental conservative dogma that taxes should never be raised.

Reagan was so successful because he brought everyone in. He didn’t determine who could and could not participate in Republican politics, he was great at PR, and due to his mastery in communication, conservative principles were more easily implemented.

Republicans are doing themselves a disfavor by not endorsing politicians like Marco Rubio. Rubio encompasses a Reagan like persona that we have not seen since Ronald Reagan and may never see again. He is conservative, principled and most of all appeals to all voters, because in the eyes of Marco Rubio every person is important, and that mentality is exactly what the Republican Party needs.

Author: Aaron

Why is gay marriage a hot topic for the Republican Party? That question baffles me time and time again, and each time I think about the issue I get more and more frustrated. The Republican Party is the party that was founded on equal rights, the party that ended slavery and most of all the party that is supposed to embrace the constitution. So why do so many republicans fight against gay marriage? Is it really that detrimental to society, will it really hurt America? If people actually believe that gay marriage will hurt society, well I have news for you. Equality does not hurt a nation it only makes it stronger.

Please, don’t go around claiming that I am now a liberal, that is the type of nonsense driving herds of potential followers away. Call the taxing, swindling, global warming hysteric a liberal. Call the individual that calls for “spreading the wealth” a liberal, but it is time to stop calling proponents of gay marriage liberals. The tag liberal is offensive, flat out, when I or anyone else calls someone a liberal it is meant to make them feel inept, those that pursue freedom should not be offended.

In reality we should be worried about those that oppose gay marriage. These are people that are trying to clamp down on personal and individual freedoms. Were those that fought against anti-miscegenation laws liberals or freedom seekers? Did they harm America by fighting against laws that banned members of opposite race to marry? The famous Supreme Court case Loving v. Alabama, which claimed all anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional, was solved only 42 years ago. 42 years is not that long of a time, but surely only white-supremacists that resemble more of Nazi Germany than the United States of America would find these anti-miscegenation laws permissible in today’s world.

The Republican Party has an opportunity to open up to a whole range of new supporters. Supporters that believe in true conservative values, but shy away on Election Day due to what is in large part, blatant homophobia. Imagine if the United States told a heterosexual male or female that they cannot marry the person they love of the opposite sex. That would infuriate all heterosexuals, especially those that believed in abstinence. Yet when it comes to infringing the rights of people who are just as much in love as a heterosexual couple, conservatives often claim that they are not “normal” and it is not “natural”. Who made you the judge? Why is it that you are conservative on every issue, from taxation to gun laws, but when it comes to the the pure essence of what America was founded on, individual freedom, you swing to the side of fascists like Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.

Either you believe that the state should control the lives of its citizens, or you believe that freedom is acquiescent to America. Its one or the other, if you believe in hypocrisy, that some individual liberties should be controlled by the state and others shouldn’t, that doesn’t make you a conservative, it makes you a Democrat.

It bewilders me when Republicans condemn the actions of gay Americans, but gush over television shows like “Who Wants to Marry A Millionaire” and “The Bachelor”. The American media has made love into a game show that revolves solely around good looks and wealth. Meanwhile those that find true love are discriminated against on a daily basis in 46 of 50 states. If you have religious convictions keep them to yourself, this is America, although we are free to practice any religion that we choose, we are not free to enforce Judeo-Christian laws on the rest of the country. And another tidbit for those that question gay marriage based on religious beliefs; look at yourself in the mirror before you question the “faith” of others. Do you follow the 10 commandments? The 10 commandments that god said are punishable by death if not followed? Or do you only criticize others for “going against the bible”.

Republican Party, it is time to drop the subject. Our country faces far greater threats than the love that two people of the same sex have for each other. A financial crisis that has no end in sight, a war with religious extremists that want us all dead, and a government that is trying its hardest to push the US into a socialist peoples republic. Not only should the Republican Party support gay marriage, they should lead the way in fighting for it. Once again, we are the party that fights for the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Let’s stick to our constitutional values, especially when it comes to individual freedom.

Author: Rory B. Bellows

There they go again. Teachers Unions are apoplectic about Kean University President Dawood Fahari’s plan to cut costs as his institution faces a $7 million budget shortfall. Under his plan, teachers may actually be forced to work a full week and useless, naval gazing departments like social work may be eliminated.

Boo-hoo. A bunch of unaccountable teachers with tenure may have to show up for work. Heaven forbid they have to earn a paycheck. That may put them in rare company amongst unions, union jobs are the ones you look for when you want to get paid a bunch of money you don’t deserve for work you rarely do, so I see why they would take offense at this scandalous outrage.

Eliminating departments like social work can only be a good thing. Since the 1960s, these departments are havens for leftist radicals to indoctrinate campus youth in the ways of liberal guilt.

Kean is running short on loot this year. Everyone is. Higher education funding was cut in the budget. It happens. Institutions have to make do and the President of Kean University is acting in a responsible manner.

Author: Rory B. Bellows

Should Steve Lonegan win the Republican nomination for Governor in the June 2nd primary, there are reports that the establishment may not let him have the courtesey off choosing his own state party chairman to serve until the campaign is over.

This is foolish. In past elections, insurgent candidates have thrown the establishment a bone and nominated an acceptable party chair to serve the customary 6 month interim term. These days we have a new Lt. Governor position and Lonegan could choose a nominee to the laregly symbolic position as an effort to unite the party.

However, while Lonegan will make efforts to unite the party they must be returned. Having insiders, as opposed to the nominee, pick the party chair is a clear signal to Lonegan’s supporters that they have their place in the party but it is not at the head of the table. One of the reasons the New jersey Republican Party is do disspirited is because conservatives are constantly reminded that they are not welcomed guests. New Jersey conservatives get invited to the party because they kicked the door in, not because the host wants them there.

Author: Rory B. Bellows

Worried about losing their make work tax payer supported jobs, over 2,000 hacks from the CWA mobbed a Civil Service Commission hearing about Jon the Taxer’s proposed 12 day furlough.

Would we really miss any of these people? In all honestly we should probably fire 99% of our public employees. It’s not like the economy would suffer. They only get paid because the state steals money from the tax payers and gives it to them. Then in turn they go out and organize and vote for the Democrat Party every November. If we just fired them all the economy wouldn’t miss a beat. All the money they get would be returned to its rightful owners and they could spend it or save it how they see fit.

Author: Rory B. Bellows

Former Democratic State Senator Joseph Coniglio was convicted on 5 counts of mail fraud and 1 count of extortion for his role in securing a plumbing contract with Hackensack Univeristy Medical Center after securing state funding for the institution.

This is another body blow to the corrupt state Democratic Party months before an election where the GOP frontrunner is the man who pulled back the curtain on the sleazy practices that have come to define the Democratic Party during a period in which they controlled both houses of the legislature and the governor’s mansion.

Author: Rory B. Bellows

It was nice to see some patriotic Americans in the state of New Jersey. Despite the cold weather and the small venue there was a good turnout. Everyone there, Republican, Libertarian, Independent and even some Democrats are fed up with Corzine, ever increasing taxes, ever increasing spending and ever increasing government reach into our lives.

The yahoos on MSNBC want to treat these events with disdain, and I imagine their coverage would have been different had this been an anti-war rally when Bush was still here to kick around, but the people who attended these events are people with real concerns about the direction our country is going. The fact that there were 700 of these events in all 50 states, largely organized on Facebook, and not by the Republican Party, is representative of the unease with which a large segment of he population view our government and both political parties. The attendees at the Piscataway Tea Party were just as outraged over President Bush’s bailout as they were with Obama’s creeping socialist policies.

Author: Rory B. Bellows

Today is Tea Party Day. While it may be the Democrats the favorite day of the year, today is the day you are supposed to voluntarily turn over your protection money, I mean taxes, to the benevolent, wise government.

Normal people despise this day and April 15 has traditionally been Tea Party Day where Libertarian Part activists would protest the government’s confiscatory tax rates and ever expanding role in our lives. Inspired by this rant by CNBC’s Rick Santelli:

National and local Republicans have jumped on the bandwagon. Conservative and limited government acitivist Steve Lonegan will speak at three tea parties in New Jersey today. Here is the list of Tea Parties Lonegan will attend.

Even if you don’t care about Steve Lonegan, go. Be seen and be heard. Let the Obama Administration, Jon Corzine and their leftist toadies in the media know what the people think of them and their tax, borrow and spend policies.

Author: Rory B. Bellows

Mercer County Republicans seem determined to torpedo the effort of a young Republican who has earned his position on the ballot. Mercer County Republicans have recruited 31 year old lawyer Bill Harvey to run for the Assembly seat in the 14th legislative district.

Great. Now the Republican party will face a contested primary that has the potential to give birth to hostile feelings between two counties that make up what should be one of the most competitive Assembly races this November. Why is Brian Hackett’s age being held against him? What have “experienced” candidates that Mercer County voters suppsoedly take seriously done for the GOP? They have been rejected by the voters in the past.

I’m sure Bill Harvey is a nice man and a good Republican. But the machinations of Mercer County Republicans to undermine the candidate legitimately selected by Middlesex County Republicans, well, stink.