New Jersey Baby Boomer

I have to admit that I haven’t quite grasped the Tax Day Tea Party movement, it’s my own fault, haven’t really taken the time to explore it. Not because I don’t care, just distracted by other seemingly more important things lately. To learn more, I’ll be watching some of the special coverage on television.  Since this seems to be a conservative movement, FOX News, will probably be the station to watch…the station that claims to be “Fair and Balanced” but is definitely a bit more right-leaning.  They are going to have some great coverage today.

I decided to do a search this morning to see what Tea Parties will be taking place in NJ, there may be more than you’ll see on the following list of parties taking place only on the 15th, found at taxdayteaparty.com, so feel free to comment if you know of other NJ Tea Parties taking place….if you live in another State, visit the link above, and find the link to your State:

City: Belmar
When: April 15, Noon - 3:00pm
Where: 16th Avenue boardwalk
Contact: EMAIL

City: Cape May
When: April 15, 6:00 pm  - 8:30pm
Where: Harbor View Park, Texas Avenue at the harbor
Contact: EMAIL
Other Info: Participate by land or sea, bring your boat, flags and patriotic American Spirit!!

City: Flemington
When: April 15, Noon - 2:00pm
Where: The northwest corner of Main Street and Court Street
Contact: EMAIL
Other Info: http://flemingtonteaparty.blogspot.com/

City: Hackensack
When: April 15, 4:00 pm - 6:00pm
Where: Bergen County Court House, Hackensack, NJ (Court Street Side)
Contact: EMAIL

City: Jersey City
When: April 15, 3:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Where: Liberty State Park
Contact: EMAIL

City: Morristown
When: April 15, Noon
Where: On The Green at the center of Morristown
Contact: EMAIL
Other Info: Yahoo Group
Facebook Group: CLICK HERE

City: Newark
When: April 15, 12:00 pm
Where: Gateway Center One - 782 McCarter Highway, Newark Offices of Senator Lautenberg and Menendez conveniently located in the same building.
Contact: EMAIL
Other Info: Parking: 66 Edison Place, Newark
Google Map: Click Here
Facebook Group: CLICK HERE

City: Piscataway
When: April 15, 5:00pm
Where: Johnson Park (River Road, Piscataway Township)
Contact: EMAIL
Other Info: http://www.americansforprosperity.org/032409-new-jersey-tax-day-tea-party

City: Trenton
When: April 15, 11:30am - 4:00pm
Where: New Jersey State House, 125 W State St
Contact: EMAIL
Facebook Group: CLICK HERE

City: Vineland
When: April 15th, 1-4PM
Where: 722 E Landis Avenue, Vineland, NJ 08360
E-mail: t@thomassnow.com
Phone: 973-406-4688
Web Site: http://tomsnow.serveblog.net
Face Book: CLICK HERE

Please add your tea party info in a comment, if you like, and let me know what you think about all of this. I’ll probably do more on this at Married to Politics later today.

It’s local primary day in my State today, and the political signs are everywhere. My husband is on the County Committee for the party we support in our local area, and has just called me to remind me to get out and vote. A privilege and honor that I often take for granted. I was browsing some articles written about our local area, and here’s one I found. I’m not posting it because I agree or disagree with it, just because it shares a bit about the politics of the State this baby boomer lives in.

Jon Corzine’s Compassionate Conservatism

By: Stuart Nachbar

Here in New Jersey, the Garden State, we have a governor who has just proposed to make $500 million in permanent spending cuts, refinance state debt, reduce municipal aid, eliminate two cabinet departments, and introduce tougher standards in math and science education.

These are proposals that you might expect from a Republican, but Jon Corzine is a fiscally conservative, moderate to liberal social issues Democrat. Corzine, a former chief executive of Goldman Sachs, one of the oldest white shoe Wall Street investment firms, governs New Jersey as if he doesn’t need the job. He’s taken his budget on the road to the voters; for the most part the media has shown that they have a tough time swallowing the bitter pill, but they are willing to listen. New Jersey does not have the best reputation for honest politics; two journalists just came out with a book calling Jersey the Sopranos State, but Corzine may be just the man to turn that image around.

There is a difference between Jon Corzine and the so called compassionate conservatives who try to sell tax and spending cuts, as well as standards, and hope things all work out before the next election.

The debate in New Jersey is not over what government should give up, but on what it should do well. Garden Staters north and south place a premium on environmental protection, toll roads and public transportation, given New Jersey is sandwiched between New York City and Philadelphia. We are also a state with over 570 municipal governments and over 600 school districts; local control is sacrament in education more than any other public service.

Corzine is not trying to force feed draconian cuts or impose values on others; he’s raised a debate to tell the legislature and the voters that the state can’t afford to be business as usual. His own proposals are a challenge to Democrats — who control the legislature and Republicans to put up or shut up and come up with a plan. There are services that every state government must perform for its citizens: law enforcement and public safety, judiciary, Medicaid disbursement, K 12 and higher education, maintain state highways, negotiating compacts with other states on transportation and environmental issues, being examples. Then there’s the rest of the budget.

For instance, on the surface, Corzine’s proposals to eliminate the departments of Agriculture and Personnel make more sense than other cuts. Agriculture is but one sector of our state’s economy; it makes no sense to give a cabinet level position to a single industry. We don’t have a secretary of technology or pharmacy. Agriculture is but one plank on an economic development platform in any state government. There’s no need for a state department of personnel when each and every state agency has their own human resource professionals who can align their work, jobs and wages to their agency’s mission. There’s no need for another set of bureaucratic hoops.

When this was proposed I had to wonder: why didn’t a previous governor think of it before? This makes perfect sense.

It’s the kind of creative thinking we need in our state.

(Originally published at Educated Quest blog and reprinted with permission of the author, Stuart Nachbar).

Author Resource:-> Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicle, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com.

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I was listening to the weather today, and heard some not so fun news about one of our beautiful shore points, Cape May. They are experiencing some flooding. They showed a picture of water-filled streets that someone captured on their camera.

I’ve also heard that a woman went overboard late last night from a Norwegian Cruise Line ship at Atlantic City, another popular shore point, and it’s not easy to search for anyone during coastal storms like we’re experiencing today. I guess we’ll hear more about that later today.

I hope all will turn out okay, and I’m not here to post a lot of “gloom and doom”…life goes on, and life in Cape May is beautiful.

We have had the pleasure of vacationing there on a few occasions, and I had a class trip to the area when in 8th grade. To get there from here, we have to drive the length of the State of New Jersey…we live almost as far north as you can get, and Cape May is almost as far south as you can drive in NJ…approximately 3.5 hours away. Pictured is the Cape May lighthouse.

Cape May is not far from Wildwood, so we enjoy both beaches when we’re there. The walk to the water on Wildwood’s sandy beach is a long one on the hot sand if it’s a hot summer day, but that makes for a lot of area to enjoy the beach.

Wildwood is known for it’s LONG boardwalk (pictured). Walking the boardwalk is fun, and a fun activity is to ride bicycles on the boardwalk during hours when it isn’t too crowded.

There are spots as busy as Morey’s Pier in Wildwood:

or as serene as the sound of waves crashing on the beach:

(Pictures taken from Webshots…clicking any will take you to other photos.)