Gulp! Jerseyites Unite!

New Jersey Senate Action This Afternoon Imperils Drinking Water. Call Your State Legislators Now!

A New Jersey Senate Committee announced just yesterday it will hold a critical hearing and quite possibly an even more important vote today, Tuesday, January 25 some time in the afternoon.

Please take one more minute right now to finish reading this e-mail and make 4 phone calls - a total of less than 5 minutes to protect New Jersey's drinking water.

The hearing and vote will be to consider two nominees for the New Jersey Highlands Council, the agency charged with regulating development to ensure the protection of more than half the state's water supply.

The two nominees, Sam Race and Richard Vohden, are well known opponents of the Highlands Act, which the Council is charged with implementing! Further, they would take the seats of the two strongest environmental champs on the Council.

Please make the following 4 calls, leave a message with each receptionist that you oppose these nominees and urge Senators to do the same:

1. 609-292-5215, Senate Democratic Trenton Office
2. 908-232-3673, Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean, Jr.
3. 856-251-9801, Senate President Steve Sweeney
4. Your own local state Senator - you can find that number online)

Click the headline for the originator of this article -- Jaxonia believes in full disclosure :-)

Health Care for Dummies

Prologue

Most readers -- admit it, no one's going to call you on it -- don't really know much of anything when it comes to the intricate workings and even the definition of healthcare, and that ignorance is only exacerbated by the complication of extending that healthcare to 320 million people. We are only confused by media sound bites from two polarized political parties, each with its own agenda that, most times, has nothing to do with healthcare itself. We formulate our responses based on our political�predilections; conservative thinkers listen more favorably to GOP sound bites, while liberals tend to believe the Democratic version.

Jack Ohman, Portland Oregonian

So what's the story? Is there a simple truth we can latch onto that can cut through the fog of Washington power brokering? �Maybe. Here are some factoids to chew on.

Read more �

Pretty Freaky, pretty damn good

If you're a teacher, if you care about education, if you like to read, check out Pretty Freaky. It's also included in Jaxonia's approved blogs, on the right.

Boys and Girls together

"Marsha, you sit next to Thomas; Angela, take the seat behind John; Michael, your seat is just ahead of Mildred. 
"All right, fold your hands on the desk. Be quiet. I'll now take the roll."

Somewhere between Sister Mary Evelyn's second grade class and today, we've lost the elemental skill she was teaching -- how to organize, co-exist and make progress in large, diverse groups. Congress, as you read this. is working hard with a crib sheet from the good Sister, trying to assign seats for the President's upcoming State of the Union address.

The planet is in jeopardy, two-thirds of the world is starving, the entire country is caught in a whirlpool of self-righteous enmity, and Congress is busy planning a seating chart! 


One of the over-used analogies these days is 're-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.'  Usually analogies limp; not this time.

Click on this article; can you find your seat? New Congressional Seating for State of the Union - NYTimes.com