Newark Political Buzz Examiner
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New Jersey Political Buzz Index Late 2013
This is a continuation of the index begun as New Jersey Political Buzz Index 2012 and continuing with New Jersey Political Buzz Index Early 2013, continuing to cover those articles or sections of articles originally published at The Examiner in the latter half of 2013, now relocated here.
Mr. Young has a Juris Doctore from Widener University School of Law, and as a voter is an independent from a family of independents, tending moderately conservative but with some stronger sympathies in both directions on particular issues.
Earlier articles on legal topics from MJYoung.net are indexed here, including analysis of the ten Internet regulations proposed by C-Net some years back.
Future articles will cover half a year at a time; articles will be placed in categories rather than listed chronologically, but since some subjects were covered over several years the reader will want to locate the other index pages.
Subjects addressed in the first half of 2013 included:
Senatorial 2013
Coverage of the 2013 special Senate election began at the end of the first half of the year, and continued in detail through the fall.
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2013 New Jersey special Senatorial election candidate Sheila Oliver, appeared 7/2/13: the candidate who does the most to weaken Cory Booker's position, she was a surprise last-minute entry on the Democratic side.
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2013 New Jersey special Senatorial election candidate Steve Lonegan, appeared 7/9/13: in as the leading Republican candidate, Lonegan has significant political experience and ran against Christie in the Republican party primary for Governor last time; he is the most conservative candidate in the race.
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2013 New Jersey special Senatorial election candidate Alieta Eck, appeared 7/16/13: a newcomer to political campaigning, her experience to this point includes serving as the President of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and writing for The Conservative Pundit, and testifying before Congress on health care related issues.
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2013 New Jersey special Senatorial election candidate review, appeared 8/6/13: gives a brief look at the six candidates--Cory Booker, Steve Lonegan, Frank Pallone, Rush Holt, Alieta Eck, and Shiela Oliver--and the situation one week before the primary election.
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2013 New Jersey special Senatorial election primary reminder, appeared 8/13/13: a brief recap of the candidates and their distinctives, published on the day of the primary.
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2013 New Jersey special Senatorial election primary results, appeared 8/14/13: identifying the winners of the primary, the candidates who will be on the ballot for October's Senatorial race.
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2013 New Jersey special Senatorial election August update, appeared 8/27/13: looking at what candidates Lonegan and Booker are doing as the race begins.
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2013 New Jersey special Senatorial election September update, appeared 9/17/13: looking at what candidates Lonegan and Booker are doing as the race continues.
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2013 New Jersey special Senatorial election October update, appeared 10/15/13: taking a final look at the situation the day before the election.
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2013 New Jersey special Senatorial election results, appeared 10/17/13: provides a bit of post-election analysis along with the announcement.
With the election behind us, there is not much more to tell.
Gubernatorial 2013
Coverage of the gubernatorial election in 2013 began in the first half of the year, and concluded in the second half.
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The 2013 New Jersey Gubernatorial election July update, appeared 7/23/13: gives an overview of the issues and the situations of the candidates several months prior to the election.
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The 2013 New Jersey Gubernatorial election August update, appeared 8/20/13: gives an overview of the issues and the situations of the candidates as the election nears.
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Stronger Than the Democratic Candidate, appeared 9/10/13: explores the injustice of which Barbara Buono complains, that Chris Christie is using the campaign to revitalize the New Jersey shore as part of his re-election efforts.
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The 2013 New Jersey Gubernatorial election September update, appeared 9/24/13: gives an overview of the issues and the situations of the candidates as the election nears.
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The 2013 New Jersey Gubernatorial election October update, appeared 10/22/13: gives an overview of the issues and the situations of the candidates as the election nears, including commentary on the impact of the homosexual issue in the race.
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2013 New Jersey election ballot, with Public Questions, appeared 11/4/13: looks at the New Jersey ballot the day before the election, with particular attention to the gambling and minimum wage issues included.
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2013 New Jersey election results, appeared 11/6/13: gives somewhat detailed results of the outcome for governor, public questions, and state senate and assembly.
With the election behind us, this subject is closed--but there will eventually be another election.
Church and State
See also Marriage Law Articles, Freedom of Expression, Health Care, Discrimination.
Again, my biases in this area might be impugned, but it is sometimes necessary to address the arguments advanced by some in the name of freedom from religion. Some are no doubt well-meaning, but still misunderstand the sense of the First Amendment. There were previous articles in this series listed in the early 2013 index, and additional articles to be listed in the 2014 indices still ahead.
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Church and state: Right-wing Christians, appeared 10/1/13: responds to an article by a liberal atheist who claims that shutting down foodstamps is not a "Christian" policy decision.
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Wearing religious symbols, appeared 3/26/13: examines issues surrounding whether employers including governments can dictate articles worn as an expression of faith.
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The Radio Shack Boycott, appeared 12/3/13: considers both the religious and the political notions behind attempting to force a national retailer to mention "Christmas" in its holiday advertising.
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Holiday Greetings, appeared 12/24/13: negotiates the challenging waters of how to wish a joyous holiday on Christmas Eve to those celebrating that holiday without offending anyone in the process.
It is a topic that arises occasionally, and certainly will be revisited.
Marriage Law Articles
See also Church and State, Freedom of Expression, Discrimination.
The Examiner editorial staff requested that political columnists address the issues surrounding the homosexual marriage debate. This series began in 2012 and continued through early 2013 and on through 2014.
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Homosexual marriage: Lies, appeared 7/30/13: discusses the writings of one proponent of homosexual marriage who a few months ago was saying that there was no logic in the slippery slope argument who now is admitting that he, and those on his side, have always known it to be true but lied to get their way.
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Homosexual marriage: Governor Christie's concession, appeared 10/29/13: considers the impact of Governor Christie's decision to withdraw the appeal and allow court-ordered homosexual marriages to proceed in the state.
This has been a hot topic; please be certain to read
the first article, and to make all responses civil and amicable for purposes of discussion.
Miscellany
From time to time something will be written which does not fit conveniently into a category, so this "miscellaneous" section was added early in 2013. One article from this section is there, and the remainder are here.
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And Justice for Trayvon, appeared 9/3/13: expresses concerns about America's attitude toward its own justice system.
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Underdogs, appeared 10/8/13: considers the problems of the overmatched candidates in the 2013 elections, Republican Lonegan in the Senate race and Democrat Buono in the Gubernatorial.
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New Jersey Drug Court, appeared 11/12/13: a look at plans to expand the mandatory monitored rehabilitation system in the state.
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The New Year: 2014, appeared 12/31/13: a review of where the series has been, with holiday greetings and an invitation to readers to contribute to where it goes from here.
There have been no other "miscellaneous" articles through the end of 2014.
Privacy Issues
See also Search and Seizure.
The Supreme Court in the latter half of the twentieth century decided that several of the rights protected in the amendments to the United States Constitution implied a "right to privacy". While some of the consequences of this are their own issues, sometimes a matter appears which is simply about the right of a person to be left alone.
- Publishing Police Reports, appeared 11/19/13: considers a problem that arose in Hopatcong, New Jersey, when police published the identity of an accused rapist through social media and the public then provided the name of the underage victim.
New Jersey Issue Articles
See also Gubernatorial, Senatorial, Presidential, Miscellany.
We began this category in 2012 with a look at bond issues on the ballot; a couple more articles appeared this year, one in the spring and one in the fall, covering the Honorable Vincent A. "Vince August" Sacari case.
Coalition Government Articles
See also Presidential, Election 2014.
We published quite a few articles in 2012 about how coalition government works in America, and another late in 2013. There are more ahead, but not until the beginning of 2015.
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Polarization, appeared 12/17/13: considers the problems in America today, with the tensions between the extremists on both sides and the weakness of the middle ground.
If there are questions, we'll add more to this section.
That is the list of all articles published during our first full calendar year as Political Buzz Examiner; additional indices will cover the subsequent years.