Saturday, January 30, 2010

Arrogant Obama Doesn't Give a Damn What Voters Have to Say

During Obama's recent State of the Union address, he openly expressed his contempt for American voters: "But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors and stop insurance company abuses, let me know." Political commentator and TIA Daily editor Robert Tracinski provided a response that's an instant classic for its dead-on skewering of Obama's arrogance: "Let him know? How do you suppose we ought to let the president know what we think? Perhaps we should all show up at town hall meetings, or hold giant rallies across the nation and on the DC mall. Perhaps pollsters could fan out across the country to ask us our opinions. Perhaps Republicans in Congress could propose alternative legislation. Perhaps we could even hold an election -- let's make it easy for the president and hold it in left-leaning Massachusetts -- that would serve as a referendum on health care. Of course, we did all of those things, and the president made it abundantly clear that he doesn't give a damn what we have to say."

– Mark Kalinowski
North New Jersey Tea Party Group
Liberty, Free Markets, and Individual Rights

By the way, I encourage ALL liberty-minded folks to “friend me” on Facebook,

and also to join the official Facebook page for the North New Jersey Tea Party Group

For folks not on Facebook, please add your name to our e-mail distribution list by contacting us at nnjteaparty@gmail.com

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Game On!

On January 22nd lawyers representing The Committee to Recall Senator Robert Menendez filed their brief supporting the Recall initiative. The court requested that the same brief be served to Senator Menace--Menendez. In an article dated January 26th that was posted on NJ.com and Politico, Senator Menendez, on behalf of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee that he heads, revealed his strategy to drive a wedge between moderate voters and tea-party-type conservatives. See: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32003.html.

Since the recall effort was initiated by “tea-party-type conservatives” (myself included), it is probably logical to assume that we finally got the Senator’s attention-something we couldn’t do in a summer filled with faxes, petitions, rallies, phone calls, and letters. While his Democratic Party constituents may view his strategy as a way to preserve their party and their careers, others may see it as a transparent effort to preserve his own career by dividing the movement that seeks to unseat him. It’s the old “divide and conquer” philosophy that has worked well in historical battles, and it reveals the heart of a man who is more interested in political preservation than listening to the will of the people he represents. The question remains whether or not this strategy will work here in NJ.

One thing we can be certain of, an alliance between TEA Party patriots and the Republican Party would be a force that most likely would defeat Menendez at the ballot box. While many within the TEA Party movement are just as disappointed with the Republican Party as they are with the Democratic Party, I’ll refer to another old philosophy: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Whether Republican, Democrat, Independent, Constitutionalist, Conservative, Libertarian, or any other affiliation, we need to keep our focus on the challenge before us. We need to unite against a common enemy elitist who has undermined our prosperity and trampled over our Constitution. We can sort out our differences later.

On behalf of the Committee to Recall Senator Robert Menendez, I ask all NJ patriots to join forces to defeat our common enemy and restore the principles of government that prospered us and protected our liberties. Massachusetts (and America by extension) may have claimed a victory with the election of Senator Scott Brown – now it’s our turn to send the elitists packing – and victory is within our grasp!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Thomas Jefferson: Tea Partier

Our federal government has gotten out of control, seeking to violate individual rights to a massively intolerable degree. As such, the tea party movement -- the largest grassroots pro-liberty uprising of our lifetimes -- has surged forward to battle those politicians (and their enablers) who detest liberty. The tea partiers scored a resounding victory with the recent defeat of an anti-liberty Massachusetts Democrat who sought to win election to the U.S. Senate. This reminds me of words from founder Thomas Jefferson: "Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government... whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights." No doubt that were he alive today, Jefferson would be at the forefront of the tea party movement. Congratulations to all tea partiers -- past and present! Let us now not rest on our laurels, but instead grasp the momentum we have to further promote the cause of liberty.

– Mark Kalinowski
North New Jersey Tea Party Group
Liberty, Free Markets, and Individual Rights

By the way, I encourage ALL liberty-minded folks to “friend me” on Facebook,

and also to join the official Facebook page for the North New Jersey Tea Party Group

For folks not on Facebook, please add your name to our e-mail distribution list by contacting us at nnjteaparty@gmail.com

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Even Leftists Turning Against the Empty Suit Barack 0bama

It amuses me that even 0bama's fellow leftists are starting to turn against him. A key reason for this is 0bama's penchant for breaking his word. For example, on October 27, 2007, candidate 0bama said "I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank." That promise has obviously been broken. Another example comes from January 22, 2009 when 0bama signed a executive order closing the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba terrorist detention center "as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order." Yet here we are one year later, and the Guantanamo facility is still open. Interestingly, both of these were promises made to please 0bama's fellow socialists -- and he still broke his word! This has led to wailing and gnashing of teeth on the political left, such as this excerpt from a letter to the editor written by a hardcore leftist and published in my local weekly community newspaper: "I voted for President (Barack) 0bama. I believed, perhaps finally, we would get a person of courage and integrity. Sadly, I was wrong." Expect more political woes for 0bama as additional leftists discover what most Americans have already figured out: 0bama is an empty suit.

– Mark Kalinowski

North New Jersey Tea Party Group
Liberty, Free Markets, and Individual Rights

By the way, I encourage ALL liberty-minded folks to “friend me” on Facebook,

and also to join the official Facebook page for the North New Jersey Tea Party Group

For folks not on Facebook, please add your name to our e-mail distribution list by contacting us at nnjteaparty@gmail.com

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Encouraging Tea Partiers to Write Letters to the Editor

Frequently, tea partiers ask, "What can I do to help?"

One suggestion for you as you seek to promote liberty, free markets, and individual rights: actively write letters to the editor!

There are many benefits to doing this. For example, when you get published -- and be patient, you will! -- you will help thousands of others learn more about your views and principles. In turn, this emboldens the thousands upon thousands of individuals who may share your views, but don't quite hold them quite as passionately, or may simply not have time to write letters.

Also, thousands upon thousands of individuals could be swayed in part by what you have to say. Just look at Obama's plunging poll numbers -- clearly, millions of Americans have a meaningfully less favorable view of their president now than they did on inauguration day about a year ago. Part of this is attributable to the anti-reality philosophy Obama has chosen for himself, and the numerous poor decisions that he has made as a result of his harmful philosophy. But part of this is also attributable to the tea party movement in general, which has been vocal about its desire for the federal government to stop infringing upon Americans' unalienable moral rights. While part of being vocal means holding in-person rallies from time-to-time, in-person rallies aren't a daily -- or even a weekly or monthly -- activity for many of us. But you can write letters to the editor as your time permits, any day, any week!

Personally, I write about 3-5 letters per week -- and I send them to multiple publications. But if you don't have time to write that much, try 2-3 per week, or even 2-3 per month. And the letters don't have to be lengthy, either -- in fact, many newspapers prefer to publish pithy letters, such as the following two-sentence letter of mine published in its entirety by the New York Daily News this past December 14th:

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/12/14/2009-12-14_untitled__vox14ed.html

How do you write an effective Letter to the Editor? Click on the following link, which takes you to the article "How to Write an Effective Letter to the Editor" by political commentator -- and member of the Facebook page for the North New Jersey Tea Party Group -- Robert Tracinski:

http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?news_iv_ctrl=-1&page=NewsArticle&id=11070


You can send your letters to the editor to a wide variety of publications. For example, I send every letter I write to the New York Post at letters@nypost.com (making sure, as always, to include my name, address, cell phone number, and the phrase "OK to Print/Publish"). I've been fortunate to have over 20 letters of mine published in the New York Post over the last year and a half. And, since the New York Post enjoys the sixth-largest circulation of any newspaper in America, my letters have no doubt been read by plenty of folks.

Interestingly enough, though, I may actually get more mileage out of submitting letters to the editor to much smaller, more local publications. I live in Clifton, New Jersey, and here we have a local (and free) community newspaper delivered to the doorstep of each Cliftonite every Friday -- it's called the Clifton Journal. I e-mail the Clifton Journal two letters every week (since this paper is published weekly, I don't send them every letter I write) via cliftonjournal@northjersey.com. And, since the competition for publication is a lot less than that of a paper like the New York Post, I get published on average 2-4 times per month.

Odds are that you live in a town or city with a free community newspaper; start writing to them regularly and see what happens!

In general, I am not a fan of Wikipedia. (Wonder why? Click on this link.) Nevertheless, the following Wikipedia page lists dozens of New Jersey-based newspapers, many of which accept letters to the editor via e-mail:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey_Newspapers

Also, undertake activities that leverage any letters that you do get published. At the end of every month, I use Facebook to message about 100 individuals -- some personal friends, but most of them media personalities -- with links to some of my letters to the editor that get published. No doubt that most of these people don't click on the links I send them. But that's not the point -- the point is, no doubt that some do (even if I don't know for certain which ones)! As such, my letters not only get in the hands of readers of the New York Post and the Clifton Journal, they also get in the hands of some of our country's leading opinion makers.

In addition, I leverage what I write by regularly posting comments to the Duke Over America blog -- created by my good friend Thomas LaDuke, who is also a member of the Facebook page for the North New Jersey Tea Party Group. Even if I don't get a particular letter published, I can post it to the Duke Over America blog. Similarly, you can start your own blog, or become a contributor to a friend's blog that might already be in existence. That way, you can post what you write to a blog. (I also use my Facebook profile to link to every blog piece I publish, so that my nearly 2,000 Facebook friends are informed that I've published something. Some won't read my blog posts, but based on feedback I've received, many do.)

And of course -- I recently became one of the contributors to the New Jersey Tea Parties United blog, the blog you are reading right now. No doubt that in the future, I'll be posting political commentary to this blog. I hope you enjoy what I will have to say in coming weeks and months.

In the meantime... I strongly encourage you take up your metaphorical pen and starting writing letters to the editor. To paraphrase a common saying, the letter to the editor is mightier than the sword!

– Mark Kalinowski
North New Jersey Tea Party Group
Liberty, Free Markets, and Individual Rights

By the way, I encourage ALL liberty-minded folks to “friend me” on Facebook,

and also to join the official Facebook page for the North New Jersey Tea Party Group

For folks not on Facebook, please add your name to our e-mail distribution list by contacting us at nnjteaparty@gmail.com


Friday, January 8, 2010

America Rising - With Special Kudos to the States of Nebraska and Louisiana

If you have been following the Health Care debacle, you are well aware of the special negotiations and back door deals that have been stricken to impose the liberal ideologically driven health care bill upon the American people. Two state senators in particular exemplify the worst of what has befallen our great nation–elitism and career insurance. While elitism is easy to understand, being the attitude of “I’m superior to you and know better than you; therefore, my opinion should not be questioned”–career insurance is a more subtle character flaw. It pretends to do what’s good for those it represents, when all the while it is really only concerned with getting re-elected and furthering its own career.

Admittedly, I don’t know much about either Senator Ben Nelson from Nebraska or Senator Mary Landrieu from Louisiana, but I can tell you something about the patriots that live in their states. Both Senators fell victim to the temptations and pressures the White House and the democratic congress were imposing upon them-or were they merely more adept at making deals? The truth is that we simply don’t know their motivation (or their weakness, as the case may be). It is possible they gave in to pressure; it is also possible they struck a good deal for their state in hopes of bringing home the bacon and thereby securing their subsequent elections with their constituents. However, they didn’t count on the integrity, patriotism, and constitutional understanding of their citizens.

In the good state of Nebraska, Senator Ben Nelson’s poll numbers have exponentially declined, rending a death blow to his chances for re-election; and in the good state of Louisiana, the Secretary of State has just approved the petitions to recall Senator Mary Landrieu. These states deserve the admiration of the rest of us, as they rose above personal gratification and special sweetheart deals to support the greater good of our country. In other words, they didn’t sell out! Let this be an example to all of us and to the elitists in Congress. We the People can reclaim and restore the principles of republicanism at its finest if we look beyond our own short term interests. We need good men and women in congress and in all branches of government. Men and women who aren’t afraid to make good decisions based on what is right- and not on what might ingratiate them with their base (like the bridge nowhere in Alaska). The New World Order and the socialistic liberals may have thought America was in their grasp-that we would be willing to surrender our autonomy and sell out our country and our ideals for free healthcare (like we believe that really exists), or any other pot of gold at the end of the illusionary rainbow, but they didn’t count on patriots-the likes of which live in Nebraska, and Louisiana, and I’m happy to say in my home state of New Jersey. The truth is America and our ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are not dead–we are rediscovering and recommitting ourselves to the principles that made this country great in the past and will prosper it once again in the future – as long as we remain strong. Therefore I say – Long live America!

Monday, January 4, 2010

Constitutionality Issue Regarding the Recall of US Senators

On behalf of the Committee to Recall Senator Menendez, I would like to state that the Committee is aware of the Constitutional questions regarding the recall of a US Senator and we are prepared to address those questions at the appropriate time.

However, the Constitutional question is not to be construed as the legal issue encountered with the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State is neither court nor jury and ruling on legal argument is not within their purview. State law requires that the Secretary of State either approve or deny the submitted petitions based on wether the petitions conform to the clearly defined state statute. At this point, this is not a Constitutional issue - it is a matter of the Secretary of State complying with NJ laws.

To keep abreast of what's happening with the recall, visit either: www.njteapartiesunited.org or njrecallnow.blogspot.com. At either site you can view the prepared Press Release that we encourage everyone to circulate.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Specific Steps YOU Can Take to Promote Liberty, Free Markets, and Individual Rights

Folks who are rightfully frustrated with the direction of our country today frequently ask "What can I do to help change things for the better?" The purpose of this blog post is to keep you energized in our fight for liberty and individual rights, and to suggest some specific steps you can take that will help promote our principles:

* Become active in your local tea party movement -- the largest grassroots movement for liberty in our lifetimes! We will win some battles (as the defeat of spendaholic Governor Corzine at the polls last year shows); we will lose some battles. But no matter what, we must keep vocally advocating liberty!!!

* Get your pro-liberty Facebook friends to join the group page for the North New Jersey Tea Party Group!!! With over 1,800 members, we are the largest New Jersey-based tea party group on Facebook in terms of members. Let's shoot for 2,000... 5,000... 10,000!!! This group will remain active in spreading the word about and sponsoring pro-liberty events, particularly in New Jersey. It takes very little time to invite some of your Facebook friends to join our group -- do your part for liberty by sending out invitations today!!!

North New Jersey Tea Party Group's Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=172402990061

* And of course, you can become active in more than one tea party organization. Some additional tea party groups located in New Jersey can be found under the heading "Find Your Local Organizer Here" on the website for New Jersey Tea Parties United:

http://www.njteapartiesunited.org/

* Write letters to the editor. You can send the same letter to multiple publications, to cut down on the amount of work it takes. Some newspapers in New Jersey that you can write include:

(1) Newark Star-Ledger: eletters@starledger.com
(2) Bergen County Record: letterstotheeditor@northjersey.com
(3) Morris County Daily Record: letters@dailyrecord.com
(4) North Jersey Herald News: hnletters@northjersey.com

Also, some great tips on writing effective letters to the editor can be found at:

http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?id=11070

* Donate your money -- whatever you are comfortable sending -- to politicians that share your principles as regards less taxation, less spending, and less government control over our lives. Doing so in competitive districts -- even those that aren't your own -- can be incredibly helpful to candidates.

* One of the very most important -- and effective! -- things you can do is to discuss the issues you care about with your friends and family. For every one person attending a tea party, or marching on D.C., there are ten -- 100 -- 1,000 Americans who may not be there in person but who are there in spirit. Encourage these folks to become more active in the tea party movement -- some will, some won't. But even those that won't, are still more likely to vote against harmful politicians due to your efforts. Remember: being politically active means that you may not directly see the enormous beneficial effect you have on others. How many thousands of individuals in New Jersey voted against the taxaholic Corzine in part because of the pro-liberty enthusiasm of folks like YOU??? PLENTY!!!

* A final suggestion: if you have not yet read the novel "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, pick up a copy for yourself and read it ASAP! The mass-market paperback version can be bought for less than $10 (excluding shipping) at Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Shrugged-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451191145/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0

And of course, you can also read it for free by checking a copy out of your local library!

– Mark Kalinowski
North New Jersey Tea Party Group
Liberty, Free Markets, and Individual Rights

By the way, I encourage ALL liberty-minded folks to “friend me” on Facebook,

and also to join the official Facebook page for the North New Jersey Tea Party Group

For folks not on Facebook, please add your name to our e-mail distribution list by contacting us at nnjteaparty@gmail.com