Quote:

Copy, Paste and make some stickers and secretly stick them on the back of all city owned cars, buses and trucks........just joking, but that would be funny!

PLEASE make some t-shirts from that! Jersey pride, yo.

You know those fundraiser signs that towns put in front of their town halls, sometimes to measure donations for a new ambulance or a town pool or playground or something like that?

We need one of those to measure incompetence.

Maybe I will build one this weekend.

Yeah!!!

I've been going to this place for years - best lunch in Jersey City, and free parking!

Just watch out for the floors - a little slippery, leave the stillettos home.

-Soup # 12 Beef Navel with Round Eye (sounds funny - look at the menu) delicious!

-The beef stew appetizer is a complete meal for $3.50

-ask for Halo-Halo for dessert, it's a Southeast Asian specialty.

I've eaten on the streets of Ho CHi Minh city and it tastes the same.

Durian shake eh?

Quote:

What a fcuking dumb-ass useless piece of horse siht of a fire captain.
He'll get his pension, the cops will soften the charges because no-one was hurt and some lame-ass 'buddy' officer will get his job.

I wasn't worried for one second, that some idiot public servant wouldn't fcuk up every 2 weeks.

There should be some kind of celebration, if city hall or emergency service employees can make it through 1 month without some sort of screw-up.

Quote:

I don't profess to know the ins and outs of DWI law but I expect that he was charged with a DWI (Driving While Impaired) because he was impaired. Just because you aren't legally intoxicated from alcohol doesn't mean you aren't impaired. That's why they can charge you with a DWI for driving while on drugs.

He may not have legally intoxicated from alcohol but his driving abilities were impared (as evidenced by the crash and the fact that he failed a field sobriety test) due to the combination of alcohol and whatever drugs (perscription?) he may have been taking.

He's charged with DWI even though he was under the limit? Can someone explain how this law works? I'm kinda confused over the seatbelt law too.

Quote:

jenn, because of his length of employment and how much he paid into his pension, even if he left today, it would not effect him.

There is a bill in the State house you all may want to see.

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/decor/bills2006.gif

S67 Imposes mandatory terms of imprisonment and forfeiture of pension and retirement benefits for public officers or employees convicted of certain crimes involving or touching their office or employment. *

1/10/2006 Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee
6/26/2006 Reported from Senate Committee as a Substitute, 2nd Reading
6/26/2006 Referred to Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2006/Bills/S0500/67_I1.HTM

Ballot-fight judge promises decision today

Thursday, April 19, 2007
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

NEWARK - After two days of testimony and legal argument, Administrative Law Judge Joseph V. Paone said yesterday he'll announce today at noon his decision on whether Sandra Bolden Cunningham's name will appear on the June 5 Democratic primary election ballot.

Bolden Cunningham, widow of Jersey City Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham, is running for state Senate in the 31st District. Her opponent, Assemblyman Lou Manzo, D-Jersey City, has challenged the validity of her qualifying petitions based on the fact that the signatures were gathered on forms for the general election, not the primary.

Conceding mistakes were made, Bolden Cunningham's attorney, Stephen J. Edelstein, argued the penalty shouldn't be to cast her from the primary.

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but Mr. Manzo is trying to get a free pass through the primary by kicking Ms. Cunningham, a formidable candidate, off the ballot," Edelstein said in his closing argument.

Manzo's attorney, Angelo Genova, argued that rules matter.

"The voter is being duped - that's what transpiring here," Genova said. "We might as well take this transcript paper and collect signatures."

Lips pursed, eyes rolling, Bolden Cunningham bristled at Genova's questions.

"I do not count signatures," said Bolden Cunningham. "I did not review signatures. I might have glanced at them."

Edelstein pointed out that two clerks with the state Division of Elections accepted the petitions on April 5 and April 9 and gave the campaign receipts with the box checked for the primary.

Genova did not manage to poke holes in one of Bolden Cunningham's main arguments: that voters knew what they were signing. All the forms had marked on them "Democrat" and "Hudson County Democratic Organization" - indications they were for the primary.

But Paone - based on the testimony of Bolden Cunningham and others - appeared convinced that both those slogans had been written on the petitions after the signatures had been collected. Bolden Cunningham is endorsed by the HCDO and expected to run on its line in the primary.

Paone's decision will be taken into consideration by the state attorney general when he certifies or rejects Bolden Cunningham's primary candidacy.

War burns over car seizure plan

Thursday, April 19, 2007
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Downtown Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop blasted Police Chief Tom Comey as a "political hack" early last week for raising questions about his proposal to seize the cars of "johns" and drug buyers.

"This is politics," Fulop said. "The guy (Comey) doesn't get paid to make excuses. He gets paid to confront crime.

"It really comes down to the fact this is being pushed by me," Fulop added. "That's why he's pushing back."

At a caucus meeting of the council last Monday, Comey raised several concerns about Fulop's proposal to crack down on drug dealing and prostitution by requiring police to seize the cars of their customers.

Located near Liberty State Park, the city's car pound has a capacity of 700 cars and takes in roughly 300 every month, Comey said.

Comey said he'd also have to see what effect the additional legal work would have on the Prosecutor's Office and court system.

In addition, Comey raised legal concerns about seizing the car of an individual who simply lent their car to a friend or family member.

"I'm trying to do what's in the best interest of the city," Comey said. "I still have a job to do. I think I'm acting prudently as the (city's) chief law enforcement officer."

Fulop proposal is based on "Operation Losing Proposition," a police effort in New York City implemented in the early 1990s to crack down on street prostitution, had as its hallmark the seizure of the cars belonging to "johns."

According to a Harvard University study, the arrests of street prostitute customers rose from 196 in 1992 to 2,756 in 1994. The total revenue produced from the forfeitures to the Police Department increased from $322,538 in 1992 to $940,821 in 1994," the study said.

So he just needs to drag this out till August, retire before he gets charged with anything, and then he can retire with full pension?

Fab? Faaabbb?????? Oh please tell us what you think of this!

Feds subpoena WNY documents
Probe focuses on $7.2M in grants

Thursday, April 19, 2007
By JARRETT RENSHAW
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

As part of a growing statewide investigation, federal prosecutors have issued a subpoena to West New York Town Hall in connection with the millions of dollars in controversial state grants the town received while Albio Sires served as mayor and in the state Assembly.

Federal prosecutors subpoenaed documents related to discretionary grants placed into the state budget without public review dating back to 2004 and up to the present day, according to West New York attorney Daniel Hogan.

Sires was not specifically named in the subpoena, which did not identify any specific grants.

Sires, a Democrat who is now the congressman representing the 13th District, served as mayor of West New York from 1995 until 2006 and as Assembly speaker from 2002 until 2006. He gave up those posts after he was elected to the House in November, taking the seat of Robert Menendez, now a U.S. senator.

"We have complied with the subpoena, and we will continue to comply if more records are requested," said Hogan.

The controversial legislative practice of dishing out millions of dollars in discretionary state grants - commonly referred to as "Christmas tree" grants - through a secretive budget process has been under scrutiny by investigators for months.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie has also subpoenaed documents from the Governor's Office, the governor's chief counsel, two state departments, legislative leaders and legislative staff. Christie has refused to talk publicly about the investigation, but it is widely believed he is looking into whether lawmakers benefited from the grants.

Assemblyman and Union City Mayor Brian Stack is one of three legislators to also receive subpoenas. The others are Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, and Joseph Coniglio, D-Bergen.

The subpoena comes shortly after a Jersey Journal analysis revealed that since 2005 West New York scored the overwhelming majority of "Christmas tree" grants when compared to the county's 11 other municipalities.

West New York nabbed at least $7.2 million, roughly 40 percent of the $18.7 million in such grants doled out in Hudson County during the same time period. Comparatively, the much larger Jersey City got $3.56 million.

When asked about the disparity, a spokeswoman for Sires, Julie Roginsky, said: "You need to ask Jersey City legislators that question."

"He's not going to apologize for doing his job for the people of West New York," she added.

Some said the wide disparity underscores the power and influence party leaders wield as they divvy up the discretionary funding among the legislative districts, as well as raising questions about how those party leaders steer money into their home districts.

The projects included $2.75 million for renovations to the town's Department of Public Works garage and $450,000 to improvements to McEldowney Park.

The town's Parking Authority also received a $2 million state grant in fiscal year 2006 and the West New York Senior Outreach Transportation Program received a $250,000 state grant in fiscal year 2007.

These grants were not included in the Journal's analysis, suggesting the actual tally of pork barrel funding was much higher than initially reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

FIGHTING THE LAW
Mayors: Feds handicapping us by not sharing gun info

Thursday, April 19, 2007
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The Coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, came to Jersey City yesterday to call for the repeal of a law that restricts federal agencies from sharing data with local officials on the sources of illegal guns.

The event - which was held at City Hall and also featured the coalition's co-founder Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Newark Mayor Cory Booker - began with a moment of silence for the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings.

"It's a terrible tragedy that happened two days ago in Blacksburg, Va., but every day 30 Americans are murdered," said Bloomberg. "If one day is cause for you to think, what about 365 days?"

The majority of murders in America are committed with guns and the majority of those guns are purchased or possessed illegally, he added.

The coalition seeks repeal of the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from sharing with local governments data about the origin of guns that were used in crimes. It also bars local police departments from sharing such information - if they are able to obtain it - with one another, said Jersey City Police Chief Tom Comey.

Bloomberg said 1 percent of gun dealers are responsible for the guns that wind up in the hands of criminals. Opponents of the Tiahrt Amendment argue that this handful of dealers are selling to "straw purchasers" - people without criminal records who buy guns for those who do - and may be violating other federal gun laws.

Earlier this year, Jersey City requested from the ATF trace information on guns used in crimes from 2001 to 2006; the agency responded that it could not provide information "except to a federal, state or local law enforcement agency or prosecutor, and then only when such disclosure relates to a bona fide criminal investigation or prosecution."

Jersey City Corporation Counsel William Matsikoudis said the city had received information on only 30 of the 429 guns it had taken off the street.

Healy said 85 percent of guns used in crimes in Jersey City come from out of state.

The amendment, first passed in 2002 as part of an appropriations bill, has come up for renewal - and been passed - each year since then.

"This is a federal plague and it needs a federal cure," said Healy.

A spokesman for the amendment's sponsor, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., said yesterday that the ATF requested the language in the amendment and it is aimed at protecting law enforcement officers by not releasing gun trace information. The spokesman, Chuck Knapp, said it is supported by the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest law enforcement association in America.

Knapp said Bloomberg met with Tiahrt in Washington a few months ago and came to some agreements about changes in the amendment.

"We were pretty surprised when Bloomberg started this tour, when the congressman was working in good faith to alleviate some of the concerns of law enforcement," Knapp said.

The bipartisan coalition is made up of 214 mayors, 27 from New Jersey.

During yesterday's event, Bloomberg noted that his mother grew up in Jersey City and went to Dickinson High School.

Fire captain facing DWI charge

Thursday, April 19, 2007
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A Jersey City fire captain was charged with driving while intoxicated last Tuesday when police noticed he had trouble standing and speaking after his sport utility vehicle slammed into a car stopped at a traffic light, officials said.

Capt. Thomas E. Landry, 48, of Boyd Avenue in Jersey City, was also issued summonses for driving an unregistered vehicle and having no proof of insurance, Jersey City Police Deputy Chief Peter Nalbach said yesterday.

The 24-year-veteran of the department had been on sick leave for a few weeks at the time of his arrest, said Fire Department Director Armando Roman. The department would not consider suspending Landry until he returns to duty, Roman noted.

Fire officials have filed departmental charges against Landry, citing him for conduct unbecoming an officer and failing to notify his superiors that he had been arrested, Roman said. Roman would not say why Landry was on sick leave, citing privacy issues related to medical matters.

Last Wednesday at 4:25 p.m., Landry was driving his 2001 Ford Explorer at Ocean and Danforth avenues when it slammed into the rear of a car stopped at a traffic light, Nalbach said. The force of the impact propelled the car into the vehicle in front of it, Nalbach said.

A witness flagged down police officers, who watched as Landry stumbled out of his vehicle, smelling of alcohol and slurring his speech, Nalbach said.

Landry failed a field sobriety test, Nalbach said, adding that he was then taken for a Breathalyzer test at the Port Authority Police Department station at the Holland Tunnel. The test revealed Landry's blood alcohol level was only .05 percent, considerably lower than the .08 percent legal limit for driving, Nalbach said.

Landry told officers he was also taking prescription medicine, which may have had a synergistic effect, Nalbach said.

The man driving the car struck by Landry's SUV complained of pain and was taken to the Jersey City Medical Center, but he did not appear to be seriously injured, Nalbach said. The woman whose vehicle was also struck in the chain reaction refused medical attention, Nalbach said.

Landry is married and has one child, Roman said. Landry joined the Fire Department in 1982 and he will become eligible to retire on Aug. 25, 2007, Roman said, adding that he works on Route 440, supervising equipment repair.

Grab pair in armed robbery

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Armed robbers knocked a woman out while robbing a deli in Jersey City's Marion section Tuesday and an observant witness helped cops track down the men, who were arrested after a car crash, officials said yesterday.

At about 10 p.m., police arrested Nathaniel Sanders, 39, of Arlington Avenue, and Aleem Mallard, 27, of Fulton Avenue, charging them with robbery, a weapons offense and receiving stolen property, with Mallard additionally charged with resisting arrest, Police Director Sam Jefferson said.

Cops responded to the Logan Avenue Deli at 8 p.m. and spoke to the victims, who said two men came and one of them brandished a gun, reports said. They slugged a man in the back of the head, cutting him, and punched the woman in the face, reports said.

The robbers took about $1,200 and left, but a witness thought they looked suspicious and got their plate number as they drove off, reports said. Police traced the plate to Mallard's home and an officer who went to take a look spotted the car heading down Garfield Avenue, reports said.

The cop called for backup and followed the car, but the driver spotted the tail and crashed into a pole at Fisk and West Side avenues while trying to get away, reports said. Both men ran but were caught by police, who found a gun in the car and also recovered $831 and the deli owner's credit cards.

MICHAELANGELO CONTE

COMEBACK KID
Provisional, absentee ballots give McCann school seat
Thursday, April 19, 2007
By COTTON DELO
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Former Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann has pulled ahead in the city's school board election thanks to absentee and provisional ballots, making him the third of three winners.

The voting machine count on Tuesday night, with 99 percent of districts reporting, showed School 28 parent Jenny Garcia leading McCann by a slim margin, 1,229 to 1,176. But the 661 absentee ballots and 48 provisional ballots deemed valid by Hudson County elections officials determined the final result yesterday.

The final tally has McCann ahead of Garcia, 1,476 to 1,455 - a margin of just 21 votes. It will be certified by the Hudson County clerk today or tomorrow, according to county Board of Elections clerk Michael Harper.

McCann joins former St. Anthony High School and NBA basketball star Terry Dehere and incumbent Angel Valentin as Tuesday's winners.

Garcia said last night she will challenge the result.

Along with Valentin and Dehere, Garcia was on the slate of candidates backed by the teachers union, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy and County Executive Tom DeGise.

In contrast to the union's sizable war chest, McCann - who was mayor from 1981 to 1985 and then again from 1989 to 1992, when he was removed due to federal fraud and tax evasion convictions for crimes unrelated to his office - says he spent only $480 on his campaign.

"When you run a big-time campaign, you have to go out and raise money, and I never wanted to be dependent on people that I would owe something to if I was elected," said McCann.

He attributed his victory to opposition by the union, which he thinks produced a backlash and helped his cause.

"They spent a lot of money to defeat me, which just angered me and made me work harder," he said.

COTTON DELO can be reached at cdelo@jjournal.com.

You can make something happen. Councilman Fulop is creating a paper trail and is pursuing action with the MUA but momentum is needed. If you've have flooding issues, an absolute must is to send an email to Councilman Fulop's aide, Tracy at tracylabad0@hotmail.com.

Your email should include your address and if you have any picture of the sewer backup or flooding, all the better if you can attach them.

Next call the NJ DEP. Enough calls and they have the power to fine the MUA into action.

Finally, call the JCMUA. In all likelihood, they won't be very helpful (and possibly even negative, like "its your mistake if you're living in a ground floor apartment") but they do record the incidents and the paper trail may be the most important thing you can do.

Next pass the message along to others who have been flooded. Numbers here are the most critical thing. The more complaints, the more "real" this is. The Chief Engineer from the JCMUA told an audience last summer that they don't get many incident calls except for the usual complainers. Hence their point was that there wasn't a real problem. His final piece of advice, "Don't make your ground floor space habitable and you won't have problems". What a gem of a guy!

Finally, its worth mentioning that there is a standing decree by NJ DEP that Jersey City seperate the sanitary and storm sewers. The JCMUA automatic reply, "there is no money". Hmmm...given that many municipalities in NJ require developers to pay $4000 to $5500 per unit in a development, why is JC leaving loads of money on the table by only charging $1700/unit? With all the units coming online and the added sewage load on the 100+ sewer lines, JC is missing the boat.

It is clear that the JCMUA is asleep at the wheel. We need to WAKE them up.

if you could ride your bike on the light rail it would be sick.

I guess BMWs and Benz are out for Greg Palast; they kill Americans on our roads and are made in Germany home of the Nazis

PS-

Walter- Germany
Glock- Austria

[quote]
Pipeline......



The Walther .22 comes from Austria. Hitler came from Austria, too. The Glock 7mm student-slayer comes from Germany. With the legal protection handed them by Bush
and Reid, the two Teutonic weapons profiteers can skip free of legal judgment with that line well-practiced by their countrymen: "We were only taking orders
-- for our product."

**********

Soshin,

That is one of the most unintelligible and moronic arguments I have ever read (I'm referring to the op-ed you posted). The author confuses arguments, metaphors and data throughout the piece. I dare say it does more harm to the cause of gun control than to the politicians who front for the NRA.

On another note, the below piece was in the WSJ, and I think comes off well reasoned, even if I don't agree with all of the conclusions.

Cho's Madness
April 18, 2007; Page A16
The mass murder at Virginia Tech is the kind of traumatic event that unleashes a torrent of pop sociology and national psychoanalysis, so allow us to weigh in with a more fundamental explanation: There are evil and psychotic people in this world willing to do great harm to others if they aren't stopped. The dilemma in a free society is how to stop them.

Cho Seung-Hui seems to fit the profile of a social misfit who snapped. Like many other mass killers, the 23-year-old is being described by acquaintances as a "loner," given to bursts of hostility and other antisocial behavior. We will learn more in the coming days, but our guess is that those who knew him will conclude that they saw the warning signs.

The calculation of his murder spree also suggests some deeper evil at work -- if we can use that word in liberal company. Cho used chain locks to bar students from escaping, lined some up against a wall, and emptied his clips with brutal resolve. "There wasn't a shooting victim that didn't have less than three bullet wounds in them," one of the doctors on the scene told CNN. This was a malevolent soul.

How can a society that wants to maintain its own individual freedoms stop such a man? The reflexive answer in some quarters, especially overseas, is to blame any killing on America's "lax" guns laws. Reading a summary of European editorials yesterday, we couldn't help but wonder if they all got the same New York Times memo, so uniform was their cultural disdain and their demand for new gun restrictions.

Yet Virginia Tech had banned guns on campus, using a provision in Virginia law allowing universities to become exceptions to the state's concealed carry pistol permits. Virginia is also known for its strict enforcement of gun violations, having implemented a program known as Project Exile that has imposed stiffer penalties and expedited gun cases.

In any case, there is no connection between recent mass murder events and gun restrictions. As Quebec economist Pierre Lemieux noted yesterday, "Mass killings were rare when guns were easily available, while they have been increasing as guns have become more controlled." The 1996 murders in the Scottish town of Dunblane -- 17 killed -- occurred despite far more restrictive gun laws than America's.

You could more persuasively argue, as David Kopel does nearby, that the presence of more guns on campus might have stopped Cho sooner. But as a general rule we are not among those who think college students, of all people, should be advised to add guns to the books in their backpacks.

Any gun control crusade is doomed to fail anyway in a country like the U.S. with some 200 million weapons already in private hands. While New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg seems ready to stump for gun restrictions, we doubt many Democrats will join him. They did so after Columbine in 1999, only to lose the 2000 election in part because of the cultural backlash in America's rural and hunting counties. We'll concede that this political reality has changed only when New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton decide once again to pick up the gun control cause.

A better response than gun control would be to restore some of the cultural taboos that once served as restraints on antisocial behavior. These columns long ago noted the collapse of such social and moral restraints in a widely debated editorial called "No Guardrails." Instead, after Columbine, there was a rush to blame violent videogames. But videogames or other larger media influences don't inspire mass murder when there are countervailing restraints and values instilled by families, teachers, coaches and pastors. Two generations ago, colleges felt an obligation to act in loco parentis. Today, the concept is considered as archaic as the Latin -- and would probably inspire a lawsuit.

However, even those benevolent influences -- were it possible to restore them -- might not have made a difference in the case of Cho Seung-Hui, whose madness can't be explained by reason.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

McCann pulls ahead in wild school board race
Former Jersey City Mayor and local lightning rod Gerald McCann has pulled ahead in the school board election thanks to absentee ballots, putting him as the third of three winners, election officials just told The Jersey Journal.

If the current count stands, McCann, former basketball star Terry Dehere and incumbent Angel Valentin will be the three electees to the board.

According to Michael Harper, clerk of the Hudson County Board of Elections, 773 ballots were counted after Jersey Journal presstime last night, and 112 were rejected.

In the tally of the 661 valid ballots, McCann garnered 283 extra votes, Valentin had 211, Moses Ballon, Jr. had 34, Jenny Garcia had 205, Benjamin Lopez had 81, Aida Sanchez had 31, Michael Esposito had 164, William Frasca had 31, Dehere had 239, Jenny Campbell had 54 and Arnold Williams had 81.

If the count stands, McCann would have collected 25 more votes than Garcia -- he presumptive third board member -- at this stage.

Fifty-one provisional ballots will be reviewed and counted later this afternoon when Harper meets with commissioners.

Stay tuned to Jersey Journal Now for more results in the topsy-turvy election.

Cotton Delo

I'd imagine that Bloomberg would argue that the gun shops are turning a blind eye to state borders anyway so why shouldn't he. Here is an interesting article on the Iron Pipeline......

---------------------------------


The Accomplices: Sundance George and Butch Reid and the Virginia Tech Massacre

by Greg Palast
Tuesday, April 17, 2007

He had accomplices. Don't kid yourself: 23-year-old Cho Seung-hui didn't forge his two little pistols in his smithy shop.

He had a dealer, a guns-and-bullets pusher-man who put the heat in his hand, took the kid's money and pocketed it with a grin.

"Whether you are looking for a pistol for affordable training or simply the excitement of shooting, the P22 is the pistolfor you!"

That's the ad on the Walther website for the student-reaper, a Walther .22.

Not that Walther, or its fellow murder-maker, Glock, which crafted the other Weapon of Student Mass Destruction, the Glock 7mm, kept all of the killer kid's money. The gun makers religiously tithe a portion of their grim reapings to
their friends in Washington.

This report isn't about gun control legislation or the right to bear arms or any of that sideways crap. This is about a group of co-conspirators who dropped two killing devices into the hands of someone who shouldn't have had access to a plastic spoon.

But before we bring in the suspects for questioning, let's pull back the camera ens for the bigger picture. Because what we saw at Virginia Tech was just a concentrated node of a larger, nationwide killing spree that goes on day after
day in the USA. Eighty-thousand Americans take a bullet from a hand gun in any year. Thirty-thousand die. That's one thousand shooting deaths off-camera for each victim at Virginia Tech.

Sundance Bush is right now at the school for his photo op. The President is, "saddened and angered by these senseless acts of violence." But will our senseless and violent President do anything about it? He already has: On July 29, 2005, the US Senate passed, then Bush signed, a grant of immunity from lawsuits for Walther, Glock and other gun manufacturers.

Now, corporations that make hand-guns can't be sued for knowingly selling firearms to killers. Like that? No other industry has such wide lawsuit immunity -- not teachers, not doctors, not cops -- only gun makers.

Here's how Cho got his guns. It's a story you won't hear on CNN. It begins with something known as, The Iron Pipeline. At one end of the Pipeline are states like Alabama where gun laws are loosey-goosey. Gun makers including Glock stuff the 'Bama end of the pipe with far more guns than can ever be bought legally in that state, knowing full well that the guns will be illegally shipped up the pipeline into states where gun laws are tougher. Virginia law prevents
"gun-trafficking"; in Alabama, they could care less.

In every state in America, a bar owner is liable to lawsuit if a bartender serves too many drinks and a customer dies in an auto accident. Hand a chainsaw to a child, you're in legal trouble. Until Bush signed the 2005 protect-the-gun-makers law, the same common law against negligent distribution
applied to firearms.

Bush was aiming at Stephen Fox. Steven can describe feeling pieces of his brain fly from his skull after a mugger shot him. He's permanently paralyzed. A jury charged the makers of .25-caliber hand guns with negligent distribution -- and Bush went wild.

He was especially worked up because the City of New Orleans sued the gun makers for the cost of hospitalizing cops shot by armaments pooping out the end of the
Iron Pipeline. The NAACP joined in the suit with the effrontery to demand the gun-pushers alter their marketing programs to keep their products out of the hands of maniacs and murderers.

Do the gun manufacturers know their .22's are being used for something other than hunting long-horned elk? Every year, the federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency sends 800,000 requests to the gun companies to trace weapons found at crime scenes. As Fox's attorney told me, criminals are a much-valued, if unpublicized, market segment sought out and provisioned by these
manufacturers.

But they're safe, the gun-makers, even if we aren't, because of Bush's immunitylaw. But Sundance Bush didn't act alone. There was Harry 'Butch' Reid, leader of
the Senate Democrats, riding shotgun on the immunity bandwagon.

The Walther .22 comes from Austria. Hitler came from Austria, too. The Glock 7mm student-slayer comes from Germany. With the legal protection handed them by Bush
and Reid, the two Teutonic weapons profiteers can skip free of legal judgment with that line well-practiced by their countrymen: "We were only taking orders
-- for our product."

**********

This report is adapted from, "Just Put Down that Lawsuit, Pardner, and No One
Gets Hurt" in the Class War section of the new edition of Greg Palast's
bestseller, "ARMED MADHOUSE: Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of A White House
Gone Wild."

I understand why you can't bring a bike on the light rail, PATH or ferry at rush hour, but that really hurts people who need a bike once they get to Manhattan, or to jobs in downtown Jersey City.

Solution: set up some kind of well-monitored paid bike parking places by Exchange Place and by the WTC PATH station. Maybe establish a bike replacement program so that, if people's bikes are stolen from storage, they can get free temporary loaner bikes and cheap replacement bikes.

I really don't understand how everyone is calling this election without A22 votes being counted or the absentee and provential ballots. I know it is most likely that these three candidates won, but I really feel all the votes should be counted first.

Althea

This isn't Fulop's proposal... it is existing police policy called a general order. The JJ got it wrong and even the JC Reporter is misleading. This policy has been on the books for over 5 years. Fulop is saying, actually enforce the policy or remove it from the books. From what I have slowly been gathering the points on both sides seem to be more thoughtful and intelligent than what is being portrayed.

That being said, thank you so much Phillygirl for enlightening me. I don't think I would have ever figured out the system. I guess it should be weighed in cost factors as well as quality of life.

The only question I raise is that we should not do this due to the economic stress that it puts on the system... it seems not to be an arguement that holds much weight on its own. Defending those on death row has an astronomical cost. Then again, look at Guliani in NYC when everyone was being arrested and there was no increase of staffing in the court system... people were just put back on the street.

I still don't feel comfortable about this policy, but I guess the question as voters is:

Do you want the policy already on the books instituted or do you want it removed? This is what you should be telling your council people.

looking forward .....

In Hoboken, voter turnout was about 1/3 of registered voters and the "reform" - "independent" slate won three of four seats. The Hoboken school board elections saw some initial reform in the early 90's.

If Hoboken is finally turning the corner (will have to see with this spring's municipal elections) after 20 years or so of false starts, maybe we will see seeds of change and improvement over the next ten years here in JC.

As per Sue Mack's post, there will be a coming election to determine whether the school board will continue to be elected or appointed. A lot to think about. Given poor turnout, a reform coalition, if it dragged out a couple thousand votes, could succeed in a election, but I wonder for how long - before the stalwarts would be re-organized in the next election.

This election saw Healy and DeGise's endorsed slate win, if it was more hotly contested would they have been out in more of a force?

Putting the board under the mayor, with the history of our public boards with few exceptions, I find depressing ... its like admitting that democracy cannot work in Jersey City.


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Okay, I am WAY too lazy to read this whole thread. But that will not stop me from offering up an opinion on the Fulop proposal. (Seriously, when has actual information or data ever stopped me from offering an opinion?)

Does Mr. Fulop, or anyone on the council, have any idea how much of a HUGE pain in the neck it is for prosecutors to file forfeiture petitions? It is a nightmare -- you know, that whole constitutional right to due process for property and all. Forfeiture is not handled within the criminal prosecution. It requires a separate civil action in a separate civil court; it has different legal elements and requires different kinds of proof; officers have to submit and affirm different affidavits; cops have to fill out another whole set of papers at the time of the seizure, thus taking more time before they can get back on the street. It goes on.

Do we really think that this is an effective use of the limited time and resources of our criminal prosecutors and police officers? They already have the discretion to do it. If the offense is eggregious they have the power to seize the car. Forcing police and prosecutors to waste huge amounts of their time because the council thinks that they are too lenient (!) is ridiculous.

I am all for many of Fulop's proposals. This one is terrible. Sometimes discretion is better left in the hands of those at the scene.