Letter to the Asbury Park Press- FDR's being misquoted 10-26-06
The Asbury Park Press
The Randy Bergmann Blog
Just read the comments by Robert Municchi regarding the GOP bribing voters with free food! But it wasn't FDR that said or promised a "Chicken in every pot!" It was Herbert Hoover, another "illustrious" Republican who had borrowed that line from Henry IV in 1610. "I want there to be no peasant in my realm so poor that he will not have a chicken in his pot every Sunday." Unfortunately he also said, right before the 1932 election, on October 25th, that "The grass will in the streets of a hundred cities." It took FDR to rid the streets and open lots of "Hoovervilles." It will take a Democratic Congress in 2007 to rid us of the excesses and failures of a more modern and malevalent day Hoover, one George W. Bush!
RJ Garfunkel
Topic of the Day, Hoover not FDR 10-24-06
TOPIC OF THE DAY: Barnegat election
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 10/24/06
Too hungry for victory
When my daughter ran for class office last year, she bought 200 Dum Dum lollipops and put a label on each one that said, "Don't be a dum dum, vote for Stephanie for president!"
I thought it was cute, but I am shocked at the level the candidates for Barnegat Township Committee have stooped to. I recently received an invitation to attend a free, all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast sponsored by the Barnegat Republican County Committee.
Are you kidding me? How hard up are these people? They have distanced themselves from the GOP and the Bush Republicans by forsaking the traditional red, white and blue along with the elephant from their campaign signs, instead using green and yellow. Hey, why don't they just borrow from FDR and say "A chicken in every pot," and a grand for every vote.
I know it is said that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but I'd rather eat humble pie, myself.
Robert Municchi
Just read the comments by Robert Municchi regarding the GOP bribing voters with free food! But it wasn't FDR that said or promised a "Chicken in every pot!" It was Herbert Hoover, another "illustrious" Republican who had borrowed that line from Henry IV in 1610. "I want there to be no peasant in my realm so poor that he will not have a chicken in his pot every Sunday." Unfortunately he also said, right before the 1932 election, on October 25th, that "The grass will in the streets of a hundred cities." It took FDR to rid the streets and open lots of "Hoovervilles." It will take a Democratic Congress in 2007 to rid us of the excesses and failures of a more modern and malevolent day Hoover, one George W. Bush!
Letter to the Journal News 10-21-06
Letter to the Editor: Journal News
In less than three weeks the American public will exercise its Constitutional right and its democratic obligation to vote. We have an opportunity to make a strong statement on the many issues that both affect and concern all of us. We can send a pointed message to the leadership in Washington that we wish to have greater oversight on our foreign policy adventures, and influence over the direction of our domestic economy. Over the past few years the American people have been constantly asked to support the "staying the course" option. Our current leadership has also told us that the Democrats have no plans, alternatives, or consistent positions. If, and when, the Democrats control Congress in 2007, we will then only learn whether that argument is true. One thing is obvious, we do have a two-party system, and when one party dominates the executive and legislative branches it is their record that is on the line. We have found out, the hard way, that the lack of proper oversight and investigation imperils our well-being and future. We need, therefore, to seriously consider the consequences of the current leadership's actions and answer the following questions. Are we happy with the debacle in Afghanistan? Are we satisfied with the current military conditions in Iraq? Are we happy with the administration's tax policy favoring the super -rich? Are we satisfied with the blurring of the "Establishment Clause" and are we concerned with the continued erosion of our rights? In other words, are we happy with the direction our country is going? I support dramatic change that can only come through "check and balances" from an independent Congress. Hopefully this change will start to reverse the "culture of corruption" in Washington, address our porous borders and the crisis of illegal immigration, arrest the decline of the middle class and the runaway costs of healthcare, education and housing. No party has a monopoly on truth or ideas. Time has come, not only here, but also all over America, to start to reverse this course while we still have a chance.
Miracle in Yonkers- October 10, 2006
Miracle in Yonkers
It seems that while the rest of the more so-called sophisticated world was daydreaming through life, the old Hudson River City of Yonkers was attempting a breakthrough of communications that Ehrich Weiss aka Harry Houdini would have been proud of, and thrilled at the same time. The Mayor was trying to contact my parents! It was the great Houdini, who not only made a wildly successful career out of escaping from chained crates while submerged in various bodies of water, but also became famous for exposing charlatans who conducted séances. He had offered $10,000, a very large amount of money in the 1920's to anyone who could contact the departed. (By the way Houdini, who was born in Hungary in 1874 died from peritonitis, which had resulted from a burst appendix. He had a standing offer that he could withstand a blow to the stomach from anyone. After a performance in October 1926, some college kids came backstage to his dressing room and, the subject came up about his ability to withstand a punch. Unfortunately before he was able to brace his stomach, he was hit three times by one of the students. It seems that as a result of those blows his fatal condition ensued!)
Houdini, before his untimely death, on October 31, 1926 (Halloween) had made an arrangement with his beloved wife Bessie, (Beatrice Raymond) about her trying to communicate with him from the grave. His plan was to have his wife engage in an annual Halloween séance to attempt to communicate with him and to have her only informed of their pre-arranged message, which was "Rosabelle, believe…" (Rosabelle was the name of a tune Bessie had sung at Coney Island.) When the séance would invariably fail, this would be his way of exposing the myriad of phony "mediums" or "spiritualists" who preyed on their grieving clientele. Houdini spent his life and his death in the pursuit of these charlatans. For many years until her death in 1943, Bessie would try in vain to communicate with the late Houdini on Halloween, the day of his death.
The Mayor, one Philip Amicone, has been sending out Jewish New Year's greetings to his "Jewish" constituents. But, invariably many of these letters do not go to only Jews, but to people with Jewish sounding names. It seems that the Mayor also attempts to reach people who are no longer able to communicate. As a result, my parents, who now are unfortunately gone, received a letter wishing them a "Happy New Year!" I was a little offended about that mailing, and I thought it "smacked" of bad taste and a waste of the taxpayer's money. I contacted Mr. Phil Reisman, of the Journal News, who writes a column in that paper, and you can read his attached words. It seems that Mr. Reisman, who also gets unsolicited best wishes on Jewish holidays, was a kindred "spirit."
Speaking of "spirits," I am extending an early Happy Halloween greeting to all of you and yours from Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow. Tarrytown was the location of the ride of the "Headless Horseman," who in 1790, as Washington Irving relates, scared one Ichabod Crane. The "Horseman" who was the ghost of a Hessian soldier, who lost his head in battle, wound up chasing the frightened schoolmaster Crane to the Old Dutch Burying Ground in Sleepy Hollow, which is still located up Route 9!
Reisman: Political marketing sometimes misses its mark
By PHIL REISMAN
(Original Publication: October 10, 2006)
It's a nice, warm feeling to be told "Happy New Year."
I get the greeting twice a year — once on Jan. 1 and once at Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.
I love it. It's cool, a twofer. It's sort of like doubling your luck, or having your bases covered with the secular and nonsecular. And the beauty of it is, I'm not even Jewish!
On the other hand, I regularly consult with The Journal News' prestigious religion writer, Gary Stern, who is Jewish. (Stern and I mostly talk about football and music, which are religions to some people, especially at Super Bowl halftime when a sort of interfaith communion of beer, chips and salsa is taken at the high-def TV altar.)
I have a Jewish last name, thanks to my father's father, whose Jewish parents left Hungary more than a century ago and were probably so happy to escape whatever it was that compelled them to leave that when they landed in New York they kept going and didn't look back until they wound up in Minnesota. After a few twists in the path of lineage, I was raised a Presbyterian, which is about as far as you can get from being Jewish, unless you're a Southern Baptist.
I don't know this for an absolute fact, but there may actually be fewer Presbyterians in Yonkers than there are Jews. Nevertheless, every October I get a Jewish new year greeting from the mayor's office at Yonkers City Hall — and you bet I'm glad to get it.
The letter from Mayor Phil Amicone begins
"It is my pleasure to extend my best wishes to the Yonkers Jewish Community. During this period of introspection, repentance and awe as the Year 5767 is inaugurated, all of us pray for the well-being of our neighbors, for greater tolerance in our society and for peace in the Middle East."
Nice sentiments. To paraphrase an old commercial about rye bread, you certainly don't have to be Jewish to buy into that message.
On Friday, The Journal News reported that 4,200 Yonkers households received the Rosh Hashana letter and about 1 percent were mistakenly sent to families who were not Jewish, but had Jewish-sounding last names. City spokesman David Simpson said about a half-dozen people called the mayor's office to ask what was up.
"I think they were a little curious as to why they would get something like that," Simpson said, adding that none of the callers were angry.
Off and on, I've been getting mail like this for years. Usually, the letters are either invitations to join a synagogue or position statements on Israel. U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey has conscientiously kept me informed about Israel's travails almost since the first day she took office.
Simpson said the city had contacted the Jewish Council of Yonkers about using its mailing list — a pretty cheeky attempt, I think, at breaching the wall between church and state. Anyway, the council refused, which is to its credit.
Instead, the city relied on a demographic information service.
That tactic apparently caused all the mistakes, including the holiday letter that was sent to Milton and Ethel (Peggy) Garfunkel on Palmer Road.
The mistake had nothing to do with religion. The problem was that the Garfunkels were no longer living. Milton died in May 2005 at the age of 101 and Peggy died in June at age 98. Their son, Richard Garfunkel of White Plains, who regularly corresponds with me about political matters, was only slightly amused.
"If this is the way to reach the departed, the mayor of Yonkers should receive the Nobel Prize for communications or physics," he said. He added, "Unfortunately, they do not vote by absentee ballots."
Garfunkel said politicians are only pandering and wasting taxpayers' money with this sort of thing. He has a point.
Still, I like being reminded now and again about my Jewish heritage. I'm proud of it. Come to think of it, U.S. Sen. George Allen of Virginia, a possible Republican candidate for president who recently became acquainted with his nongentile background, ought to be proud of it, too.
The year 5767. We've come a long way, baby.
I only hope the planet makes it that far on the regular calendar.
Letter to the Editor 10-3-06
Posted on October 3, 2006 by rjg
The public should demand a full criminal investigation of this latest case of the GOP's hypocritical leadership of Congress. The Republican fiction writers, in and outside, of Congress, (Rush Limbaugh, Bill Bennett, etc.) have been hectoring the public on morality for years. But what is the true reality? We are saddled with a party whose leadership has been constantly compromised by the likes of Jack Abramoff's casino influence peddling that has already forced the resignation of Bob Ney, military payoffs to imprisoned, yacht sailing Congressman "Duke" Cunningham, the latest Congressional page sex scandal, and the resignation of the now disgraced Congressman Mark Foley. When is the public going to wake up to the non-leadership and cover-ups of Dennis Hastert, John Boehner and Bill Frist? We need a wholesale change in the fetid climate of corruption that currently controls power in Washington. A new leadership will re-institute Congressional oversight and we will finally get the truth on Iraq, our sky-high gasoline prices, and a myriad of other abuses.
Letter to the Poder Blog on the future of George Allen 10-1-06
The Poder Blog
Response to Article about George Allen, Jr.
by- RJ Garfunkel
Why he he is going to win re-elections!
Daniel G. Garza
George Allen is a light-weight, who got to where he is on his father's name and reputation. He has neither said nor done anything that would qualify him to be President or even hold his current seat. The use of the "N" word is nothing new for people of his background and upbringing. He, like others have said many things in their feckless youth. But, of course, if he would have apologised for that youthful indiscretion, almost all would have been forgiven. But in the context of the "macacca" remark, where he denied the meaning of the word, and his so-called ignorance of his mother's Jewish roots, his true level of candidness was exposed. He made the statement, when asked, that he did not remember saing the "N" word. Of course it was quoted by the wife of his former coach, who had been telling that story for 20+ years. On "Hardball," Chris Mathews has said numerous times that he could not believe his story on the use of the word "macacca." Any thinking or rational person could easily understand that he picked up the slur, possibly inadvertantly from his Tunisian-born mother. Maybe she used it in the home, in a private way, like many people do. But to attempt to make us believe that he invented the word is a joke. With regards to George Allen's past, just read about him from his sister in an article on the Huffington Blog. She's not too flattering of her brother and his insane antics as a young adult. In fact he comes across as a viscious boor. But if the GOP sees him as the natural heir to George W. Bush, they are probably right. They both are boorish louts. I have been paying attention to American politics since I was 12. I graduated, as an American history major, from Boston University 39 years ago, and have directly involved in politics, with my wife, for 37 years. I read about politics and American history constantly and have been in local government. I sincerely believe that there has never been a worse President than George W. Bush. The list of his inadequacies goes on and on. But the other George, named Allen, with his simplistic platitudes, his faux drawl, his cowboy boots, his good old boy red-neck flat-earth thinking and hypocritical morality would be perfect heir to the current disaster. I hope that George Allen is beaten and we, as a people, start to cultivate Republicans who are not captives of the nativistic impulses of the evangelicals and who go back to their roots of thrift, real family values, and decency.