Sweeney, grow up

New Jerseyans by now have grown rather numb to most of the political bickering in the Trenton sandbox. We all know the drill by now: Republicans and Democrats yammer away about the evils and incompetence and warped values of the other party, while holding themselves up as paragons of virtue and public service.

Change a few names, mix in a current event or two, then rinse and repeat, over and over again.

That’s what passes for leadership in New Jersey — and Washington, for that matter. But through it all some things still get done, the occasional compromise emerges, and government trudges along in its wildly dysfunctional but still vital way.

But the escalating feud between Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean Jr., R-Union, demands some special attention because it highlights just how spectacularly childish and egomaniacal these partisan battles can become. And more importantly, it’s a reminder of how damaging they can be to the public.

Kean has launched an aggressive campaign to snatch some legislative seats for Republicans, with Sweeney himself among his main targets. That’s the basic background of the fight — boilerplate stuff, not unusual in an election season.

But this has gone beyond party animosities into something more personal, and it’s having a direct effect on Senate operations. Sweeney has publicly vowed not to post any Republican bills for a vote indefinitely in retaliation for certain GOP offenses including, apparently, a refusal to help expedite a proposal to toughen background checks for gun purchases after a technical error delayed approval.

Each man blames the other for starting the entire mess, for escalating the fight, and for being too partisan. They both share responsibility, of course, but Sweeney’s response in purposely blocking all Republican bills simply because they are offered by the opposing party is unacceptable, like a playground bully taking his ball and going home.

Sweeney has complained that Kean wasn’t showing proper respect for Sweeney’s office, exposing an ego run amok. It’s Sweeney, in fact, who isn’t showing the proper respect for his own office, or New Jerseyans. The refusal to post Republican bills is simply an abuse of his power as Senate president, and while such heavy-handed control over legislation is hardly unusual in the Senate and Assembly, it’s not often this blatant or overtly petty.

What is the practical impact of the spat? One of the bills now being delayed by Sweeney calls for state takeover of the closing of the Fenimore Landfill in Roxbury, where persistent foul odors have sparked public health concerns among residents. The fate of that plan is far more important than Sweeney trying to win some sort of a turf war because Kean dared to disrespect the hallowed office of Senate president.

Our leaders need to grow up and do their jobs — which means they need to stop putting themselves and their parties first.

ANN COULTER LETTER

COULTER: WHEN DID WE VOTE TO BECOME MEXICO?

By: Ann Coulter  
5/22/2013 02:31 PM

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At first I thought the IRS scandal was leaked to distract from the Benghazi scandal. But that didn’t make sense because the IRS scandal is a more obvious abuse of power than the White House lying about the murder of four Americans in Libya.

Before I had resolved which scandal was distracting from which, we found out the Department of Justice was spying on The Associated Press — not to protect national security, but to prevent the AP from scooping the White House. Then, this week, it broke that the Department of Justice was also spying on Fox News for reasons that remain unexplained.

Meanwhile, Sens. Marco Rubio, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and John McCain are working feverishly to turn the country into Mexico.

So now I think all the scandals are intended to distract from Rubio’s amnesty bill.

For decades, Mexicans have been about 30 percent of all legal immigrants to the United States, while only a smidgen more than 1 percent come from Great Britain. Is that fair? Granted, their food is better, but why is it the norm is to have nearly 30 times as many Mexican as British immigrants?

We have been taking in more immigrants from Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Colombia, individually, than from England, our mother country. There are nearly twice as many immigrants from El Salvador as from Canada, and 10 times as many as from Australia.

Why can’t the country be more or less the ethnic composition that it always was? The 50-1 Latin American-to-European ratio isn’t a natural phenomenon that might result from, say, Europeans losing interest in coming here and poor Latin Americans providing some unique skill desperately needed in our modern, technology-based economy.

To the contrary, it’s result of an insane government policy. Teddy Kennedy’s 1965 Immigration Act was designed to artificially inflate the number of immigrants from the Third World, while making it virtually impossible for anyone from the nations that historically provided our immigrants to come here.

Pre-1965 immigrants were what made this country what it was for a reason: They were the pre-welfare state immigrants. From around 1630 to 1966, immigrants sank or swam. About a third of them couldn’t make it in America and went home — and those are the ones who weren’t rejected right off the boat for being sick, crippled or idiots.

That’s why corny stories of someone’s ancestors coming here a half-century ago are completely irrelevant. If their ancestors hadn’t succeeded, their great-grandchildren wouldn’t be here to tell the story because no one was given food stamps, free medical care and housing to stay. (And vote Democrat.)

Now we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel by holding ourselves out as the welfare ward of the world and specifically rejecting skilled immigrants.

As Milton Friedman said, you cannot have open borders and a welfare state. The reason a country’s average immigrant matters is that the losers never go home — they go on welfare. (Maybe if they had to work, immigrants wouldn’t have as much time to build bombs.) Airy statements about wanting to end welfare aren’t going to change that implacable fact.

It should not come as a surprise that a majority of recent immigrants are following a path that’s the exact opposite of earlier immigrants. The immigrant story of lore is that the first generation is poor but works hard, then the second, third and fourth generations soar up the socioeconomic ladder.

But innumerable studies have shown that Mexican first-generation immigrants work like maniacs — and then the second, third and fourth generations plunge headlong into the underclass.

By now, Mexicans are the largest immigrant group in America, with about 50 million Hispanics living here legally.

Marco Rubio’s amnesty bill will soon make it 80 million. First, there are at least 11 million illegal immigrants, a majority from Mexico, who will be instantly legalized. Then we’ll get their entire extended families under our chain migration system.

I wouldn’t want that many Japanese! I wouldn’t want that many Dutch (not that there are that many Dutch)! Why do we have to become a different country? Was there a vote when the country decided to turn itself into Mexico? No other country has ever just decided to turn itself into another country like this.

The nation’s plutocrats are lined up with the Democratic Party in a short-term bid to get themselves cheap labor (subsidized by the rest of us), which will give the Democratic Party a permanent majority. If Rubio’s amnesty goes through, the Republican Party is finished. It will be the “Nancy Pelosi Democratic Party” versus the “Chuck Schumer Republican Party.”

When that happens, the cover-up of murder in Benghazi, a little IRS abuse or governmental spying on journalists will be a good day for civil liberties.

A majority of Americans still do love this country — including, one hopes, legal immigrants who thought they were leaving Mexico. But a policy that will change America forever is about to slip through under the cloak of endless scandals from the corrupt Obama administration.

Kyrillos, Handlin & O’Scanlon Express Outrage at IRS Scandal

Obama Administration Must Be Held Accountable

The 13th District legislators today went on the record taking the Obama administration to task over the Internal Revenue Service’s actions targeting conservative groups. It has come to light in recent weeks that IRS investigators were singling out Tea Party groups for intense scrutiny when those groups applied for tax exempt status. IRS officials learned of the actions last year but said nothing.

“The outrageous actions of the IRS warrant a thorough, immediate investigation,” Senator Joseph Kyrillos said. “The resignation of an acting director does nothing to address a form of political spying at the taxpayers’ expense that does not belong in American democracy. I urge the President, Congress and the media to reveal who was targeted, why they were targeted and who directed the targeting. It would be naive to think that these decisions were made by civilian employees. Government must be held wholly accountable when it fails the people.”

Between 2010 and 2012, the IRS used keywords to single out assumed conservative groups by targeting groups with names including words and phrases such as “Patriot” or “Tea Party”. The revelation prompted President Obama to fire Acting IRS Director Steven Miller who was already set to resign later this year.

“The firing of the acting director is too little, too late,” said Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon. “This is a blatant abuse of power and inappropriate use of a federal agency for political gain. The IRS is an agency that operates under the President’s purview and he cannot simply wash his hands of the matter. The facts behind this scandal are incredibly disturbing and demand a thorough, bi-partisan investigation. This type of behavior is a black eye on our democratic process and serves to do nothing more than stifle new ideas and curb the involvement of citizens in government.”

“I condemn the actions of the IRS for trampling on ANY groups First Amendment Rights,” Assemblywoman Amy Handlin stated. “Congress needs to do a further investigation, and make sure whoever perpetrated these act is duly punished.”

Kyrillos praises National Park Service and Sandy Hook

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Says Opening Sandy Hook Critical to Helping Local Economy Recover from Hurricane Sandy

Senator Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) praised the National Park Service for its work in restoring the Sandy Hook Gateway National Recreation Area, which allowed the park to reopen to the public yesterday in time for the critical summer tourist season.

“The more than two million people who come to Sandy Hook every year are the lifeblood of countless local businesses,” said Kyrillos. “The great restoration work performed by the National Park Service to reopen Sandy Hook will ensure that a Jersey Shore economy already battered by Hurricane Sandy will not suffer the further devastation of a lost summer tourist season.”

During Superstorm Sandy, the park was pummeled by a 13-foot storm surge that devastated beaches and buried roads and other park facilities in sand.

Understanding that the scope of the damage would make it unlikely for the park to open for summer without a concerted and prioritized restoration effort, Kyrillos sponsored a Senate Resolution, SCR-137, urging the National Park Service to make the reopening of Sandy Hook by the summer of 2013 a national priority.

“With the hard work of the National Park Service to reopen our beaches and of local business owners to rebuild stronger and better, it’s clear that the Jersey Shore is on the rebound from Hurricane Sandy,” added Kyrillos. “Even though we’re not at 100 percent this summer and still have more work to do, the reopening of Sandy Hook should send a clear message to the many families from across the country who come to enjoy the Garden State’s beautiful beaches year after year: the Jersey Shore is open for business.”