| Nutley Police Detective Steve Rogers, the first of two guest speakers, read a prepared speech that was heavy on buzzwords such as "roots of conservatism", "faith in god", and allusions to the founding fathers in 1776 but offered little in terms of detail except when he linked the "sanctity of life and traditional marriage" to the threats to national security. There was no further mention of how either concept affected the national well being, the audience just took it as fact.
Shifting gears just a bit, Rogers said the nation as "burning the embers of socialism" and the government was "leading us down a path of socialism" which are both sound bytes that one comes to expect at an event like this. Fair enough.
But what made Steve Rogers' message interesting was the messenger: Rogers serves as a detective in Nutley (government paycheck) and also in the Naval Reserve (government paycheck). If the message is socialism, surely there could have been someone who is not on the public dole to address the problem. (unless there are not many in the business community who support Roland Straten)
Fabrizio Bivona, a firefighter and RN who was a first responder on September 11 provided some of the more colorful imagery of the evening. As the theme of the evening was Homeland Securtity, Bivona told stories that was more suited for Hollywood than Homeland Security.
Beginning by telling the the audience that "there is a bull's eye on each and every one of us" and "they (Muslims) don't have a problem killing children ... that is what their God is telling them" Bivona played up the fear card as if reading from a FoxNews tele-prompter discussing how even moderate Muslims support "homicide bombers" (a term used only on Fox). "They are coming" .. "it's not what I say, it's what they say." He even punted the phrase "Victory Mosque at Ground Zero" to the audicence. Bivona didn't cite any sources as he made strung his scary yet colorful sound bytes together.
Straten's campaign manager then opened a peroid of questions and reintroduced the guest speakers using the term "experts" to describe them.
A question about illegal immigration prompted Bivona to reply that Phoenix is setting records for beheading and is number two in the world for kidnappings. Months ago the stories of beheadings and kidnappings were proven to be crazy internet rumors, with nary a one law enforcement agency to back up those claims. So much for being an expert.
Rogers jumped on the Illegal Immigration bandwagon stating that illegal immigration is the cause of the drug problem in the US. But if he were an expert he would know that illegal drugs are coming into the US primarily because the people in the suburbs are demanding them (if there was no demand there would be no supply). Rogers completely failed to point any blame on the Americans using the drugs, instead made the drug crisis an issue that falls squarely on the backs of immmigrants. (An expert would also know that someone who could make lots of money running drugs would not chose to clean toilets or pick lettuce between runs to the border, so his expertise failed here too).
The evening ended with a someone bitter-sounding old man making proclamations about Islam being "sand fleas." The audience laughed. He then called on Israel to nuke the entire Middle East. Everyone just let the guy speak without regard for the extremism he was espousing.
What struck me most about the Town Hall was that Roland Straten neither confirmed nor denied the assertions made, not the lies about beheadings, not the false claims about Islam, not the race baiting of Mexicans, not even "Mr Sand Flea."
The candidate just stood at this Nutley Town Hall meeting in a well appointed suit with a look on his face of a beloved elderly uncle who didn't understand the dirty joke that was just told at the Thanksgiving dinner table. (either that or he was left speechless but the broad strokes of hatred that were painted in a meeting that was supposed to be about him).
About 36 people, including campaign staff and guest speakers, attended the meeting at the Nutley Red Cross Building. |
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