LIBERTYandPROSPERITY.org UPDATE
1.??? Last call for Richard Somers? Ceremony at Somers Point City Hall, New Jersey Ave. and Shore Road, Somers Point tomorrow, this Sunday, September 9 at 2 PM.?? There will be a fundraising buffet with cash bar one block away at 3pm at Gregory?s Restaurant and? Bar, 900 Shore Road, Somers Point, NJ?? Tickets are $35 per couple, $25 per person.?? If you paid online or by mail and did not yet get your tickets, your tickets will be at the door.???? You can still pay at the door, or online at http://www.
2.? ?Enforce Federal Immigration Laws!???? This is the Point Two of our Ten Point Program posted at http://libertyandprosperity.
3.? ?They Come to America. . . September 11, 2001. I am a block away from the World Trade Center. I cry as I watch people jump 80 floors to their death. The images of my fellow Americans who died that day are forever burned in my mind. Fast-forward a decade. I travel the U.S. making a film about a topic I know nothing about, illegal immigration. I meet white-collar professionals who cannot find work because they don’t speak Spanish. I find a handyman sleeping in the snow because illegal workers undercut him. I find Arizona ranchers defending themselves against drug smugglers who invade their homes. A police officer tells me he finds prayer rugs along the border fence. The list goes on.
4.? ?They Come to America. . . ? ? The images of my fellow Americans struggling are forever burned in my mind. Here we are today. You’re about to watch the must see film so many people don’t want you to see. And that’s because my unbiased lens finds our economy, schools, prosperity and safty being compromised in exchange for cheap votes and cheap labor. It’s because I put an American face on illegal immigration. I count the costs, both human and financial. I challenge politicians to take a stand. I show compassion to illegal aliens who want a better life, but I expose the ones who will take the money and run. I find us at risk for another 9/11. And I introduce you to a guy who vows to never forget or accept the images burned in his mind until the problem is solved.
“An Oscar worthy must see” – Brian Kilmeade, Fox and Friends
5.???? LibertyAndProsperity.org on the radio.?? Saturday morning 8AM to 9AM on 92.1FM, WVLT Vineland, is heard in Philadelphia, Wilmington, Cherry Hill, and most of South Jersey.?? Seth Grossman is also a guest with Larry Trulli and Dan Klein on 1020AM, WIBG (Ocean City, NJ) on Mondays from 8AM to 10AM.
6.? ?There is a question on the November 2012 ballot for New Jersey to borrow $750 million for various union only construction projects for New Jersey state colleges.?? Why is LibertyAndProsperity.org the only organization talking about this?
7.?? At this weekend?s breakfast, George and Cyndi Gallenthin explained how the George Norcross/Steve Sweeney political machine used raw government power to take his land in Paulsboro and put him out of business.????? Gallenthin bought and developed land with a railroad siding that was perfectly suited to unload river mud from barges used in dredging the Delaware River.??? This allowed him to compete with less suitable locations.????? But before Gallenthin could start his business, various government entitites controlled by George Norcross and Steve Sweeney used eminent domain to seize his land and put him out of business.??? Now taxpayers are paying millions of dollars on projects that the Gallenthins would have done as private businesses that would have paid taxes on their profits.
8.? New Jersey ?pay to play? politics at Phillies game??? Last week some 35,000 fans at a Phillies saw something that looked like a demonstration of New Jersey pay to play politics.?? Before the game began, the announcer said ?Tonight, 15 year old Alex Norcross of Cherry Hill, son of George Norcross, will throw out the first ball?.? And he did.??? Most fans had no idea as to who George Norcross was, or why his son was given such an honor.??? Do you??? If so, please reply to this email and let us know.
9.? Do you own real estate in Florida???? If so you know that your tax assessments are automatically adjusted EVERY year to show the true value of your property.???? In New Jersey, tax assessments stay the same unless you go through a time consuming and often expensive tax appeal process.?? The deadline for filing tax appeals is April 1.
10.??? In Florida, tax assessments are reduced BEFORE local budgets are made.?? That way, if a town has less property to tax, it spends less money.??? But in New Jersey, tax appeals reduce tax assessments AFTER budgets are made.??? That means local budgets in New Jersey assume the town will collect money on tax assessments that don?t exist.??? This year, local officials in Atlantic City agreed to spend $102 million in taxes that they cannot collect because assessments were reduced.??? That comes to roughly half the city?s budget.?? But instead of? cutting spending in half, the City is borrowing $102 million over the next 20 years, even though there is no way to pay this money back without doubling or tripling taxes in the near future.??? Right now,? blocks and blocks of Atlantic City are empty fields because few residents or businesses can afford Atlantic City taxes.
11.?? Some states have high state sales and income taxes, but low real estate taxes.??? Other states have high real estate taxes, but low state sales and income taxes.?? Only New Jersey has high state sales and income taxes AND high property taxes?and one of the highest electric rates in the country (to pay for solar panels, and windmills, and free electric service for people who don?t pay or who pay more than 6% of their income on utility bills).
12.? Another reason why drugs are so expensive??? ?Johnson and Johnson agreed to pay $181 million to settle dozens of state claims that it engaged in illegal off-label marketing of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal. . . ?New Jersey government will received $5.3 million.?? The drugs are FDA approved to treat schizopohrenia and bipolar mania, but doctors may also legally prescribe Risperdal to treat Alzheimer?s disease, dementia, depression, and other disorders.??? But because the FDA did not formally approve use of that drug for those other uses, several state governments, including New Jersey, sued Johnson and Johnson. . . ? (Reported by ?New Jersey Law Journal on 9/3/2012)
13.? Is Republican Governor Christie plan to ?privatize? New Jersey Lottery the same as Democrat Governor Corzine plan to ?privatize? Turnpike, Parkway, and Expressway???? The whole idea of giving ?New Jersey government a monopoly to run the state lottery was that private businesses could not be trusted.??? But now, state government will choose one private business to run the lottery, and it will be a crime for any other business to compete with it.??? And that one, selected business will pay more than $100 million to the state government this year, for a monopoly that will last for 20 years?just like Corzine?s toll hike scam.?? This is also just like Democrat McGreevey?s tobacco settlement bonds.??? Cigarette prices went from 50 cents per pack to more than $7 per pack for a ?tobacco settlement?.??? Then New Jersey government borrowed and spent hundreds of millions of dollars in one year?after promising to charge high prices for cigarettes for the next 20 years.
13.??? Become a full voting member of LibertyAndProsperity.org! Dues are $60 per year, attend 3 business meetings each year, and work on at least one volunteer project each year. Or be a non-voting supporting member for just $30 per year, with no other commitment.
14.??? Please? read the rough draft of Seth Grossman?s proposed column for the Current and Gazette weekly newspapers in Atlantic and Cape May Counties.??? Many of Seth Grossman?s columns deal with controversial topics.? But this topic is so controversial, Grossman makes it clear at the beginning that his personal views on this subject do NOT represent the views of LibertyAndProsperity.org and will not be used in any of our radio messages.??? Why do Democratic candidates do everything they can to put the abortion issue into every campaign???? How are Republican candidates responding??? How should they respond???? Is this a subject that can be openly discussed by LibertyAndProsperity.org or any broad based, non-religious organization without tearing itself apart????? Can LibertyAndProsperity.org be the most important liberty organization in New Jersey and ignore an important issue like this? ??Please forward your corrections and suggestions for improvement to Seth at sethgrossman49@gmail.com.
15.? ???????The views set forth in this week?s column represent my personal views only, and probably do not represent the views of most members of LIBERTYandPROSPERITY.org.
As with most Americans, most of our members have very strong opinions on the abortion issue.?? And because each side bases its opinions on a different set of assumed facts, it is almost impossible for either side to change the opinion of the other.
?Pro-life? assumes an unborn fetus is a human being from the moment of conception.?? Therefore, the government has the constitutional right and duty to adopt laws to protect its rights.
?Pro-choice? assumes an unborn fetus is part of the mother?s body.? Therefore? the 9th and 10th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution prevent the government from interfering with the right of any man or woman to control his or her own body.
Since arguments over abortion do nothing but divide people and make them angry, we at LibertyAndProsperity.org avoid them.
The few people who talk about abortion these days are sincere, principled ?pro-life? activists, who normally vote Republican.?? And cynical and calculating? Democrats who call themselves ?pro-choice?.
The Democrats know that public opinion polls, like Rasmussen Reports,? show that 52% of Americans are ?pro-choice? on the abortion issue, while only 41% are? ?pro-life?.
This means that when abortion is a big election issue,? Republicans lose votes and Democrats win.
That is why Republican party leaders tell their candidates and supporters to keep quiet about the abortion issue.?? But this never works.?? First, ?pro-life? Republicans are fiercely independent and rarely? keep quiet.??? Second, the Democrats? and left leaning TV networks and daily newspapers make abortion an important issue in every campaign and debate?even when Republicans don?t bring it up.
Years ago, Democrats had this same problem with the death penalty issue.?? Back then most voters supported the death penalty, while most blacks and university liberals?the base of the Democratic Party– opposed it.??? Republicans brought up the death penalty in every campaign.? And they clobbered any Democrat who opposed it for being ?soft on crime?.
The Democrats eventually solved that problem by forcing people to admit that the issue was difficult and complicated.?? They spent lots of time and money on DNA investigations to claim that some innocent people had wrongfully been convicted of murder.?? And on endless appeals that stopped all executions in states like New Jersey.?? Once they made the death penalty issue difficult and complicated,? voters stopped punishing Democrats like Jim Whelan who opposed it.
Maybe Republicans should drop the simple ?pro-life? and ?pro-choice? labels and recognize that the abortion issue is also difficult and complicated.
For 3,000 years Jews and Christians struggled to determine exactly when human life begins.? Exodus? 21:22 of the Bible indicates that the accidental killing of a fetus? in a pregnant woman is less serious than the accidental killing of someone already born.??? But Jeremiah 1:5 indicates that this great prophet was anointed while still in his mother?s womb.
In ancient times,? the widespread practice of Greek and Roman pagans in? putting unwanted newborn babies into clay pots and leaving them on the side of the road to die was considered murder by both Jews and Christians.
But early Jews and Christians did not believe unborn fetuses were protected by the Seven Laws of Noah until they developed a soul–some 40 to 60 days after conception.
During the Middle Ages, Catholic doctrine changed.?? Today the Catholic Church (and many Protestant denominations) teach that human life begins at conception and that life should be protected during the entire pregnancy.?? But many Jews, Catholics, and Protestants still follow the earlier doctrine.
Recent polls show that some two thirds of Americans today think late-term ?partial birth? abortions are as barbaric as what pagan Greeks and Roman did to newborn babies in ancient times.? And that they should be outlawed.????? Even many ?pro-choice? women agree that they lose some of their freedom to the ?unalienable rights? the recognizable human being they allow to develop within them if they wait too long.
But most Americans, including many moral and religious Catholics, Protestants, and Jews don?t feel that? way about very early term abortions ? once often called ?d and c?s?.? Especially when other issues like rape, likely birth defects, and physical and mental health of the mother are involved.
And so many of them will vote for liberal Democrats because they are afraid of ?pro-life? Republicans–even though many support the entire 10 Point Program of LibertyAndProsperity.org.