Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

NorthJersey.Com Reports: Radio and television personality Rabbi Shmuley Boteach said he would give up some of his media gigs if he were to win the 9th Congressional District seat, but added he would still try to write his thrice-weekly and mostly unpaid columns.

“Will I give all of them up? Yes of course, I’ll be committed to my constituents,” Boteach told the editorial board of The Record and Herald-News.

“Money has never been something I’ve pursued. The most important thing for me is relevance,” Boteach added. “I love relevance. Call it my insecurity, but I want to belong. I want to feel relevant.”

Boteach is one of three Republicans competing in a GOP primary that is often overshadowed by the intense clash between Democratic congressmen Steve Rothman of Englewood and Bill Pascrell Jr. of Paterson.

Also running in the Republican primary are Blasé Billack of Saddle Brook and Hector Castillo of Paterson. They are vying to run in a Democrat-dominated district that includes parts of Bergen, Passaic and Hudson counties.

The Facebook stock symbol is FB.

UPDATE: The demand for FB shares is huge; historic numbers, thus it is tough for the Nasdaq to start the flow on a stable note.

UPDATE 11:25: People are having problem to place or cancel orders, reports Bloomberg. Nasdaq cant handle the demand; to pause everything and let all dogs to run into the race at the same time.

Apparently, the DA is trying to uncover from where the intimidation against victims comes from, but it ain’t from the Rabbis, as per the wires that some victims had on when speaking with leaders.

Hynes says he is creating a law enforcement task force to get to the bottom of the intimidation issue. He will meet next week with the NYPD, the Rockets (Organised Crime) Unit, detectives and investigators “to try to come up with some alternatives to try and break down this wall of intimidation,” said Hynes.

]]> http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/05/18/shock-da-hynes-says-victims-had-wires-when-consulted-by-religious-leaders/feed/ 0 http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/05/18/dda-hynes-says-level-of-intimidation-in-orthodox-community-nearly-as-much-as-in-organized-crime/ http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/05/18/dda-hynes-says-level-of-intimidation-in-orthodox-community-nearly-as-much-as-in-organized-crime/#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 04:47:18 +0000 Yossi Gestetner http://gestetnerupdates.com/?p=14439 In a lengthy interview with NY-1, DA Hynes explained why he does not want to release names of Orthodox Jewish accusers ahead of a conviction. He argued the victims get it over the head: “The level of Intimidation is not found nearly as much in Organized Crime. It’s extraordinary just how relentless these people can be,” said the DA.

On the question that intimidation should also be prosecuted, the DA said: “Intimidating a victim is a crime but if someone does not want to report an abuse because of fear, how much luck will I have having them testify to intimidation.”

Mr. Hynes admits that he has yet to record an incident where a Religious leader has done anything illegal when talking to victims: “We have had a number of cases where we asked the victim to put a wire on and have the conversation with the religious leader and it has not worked out.”

]]> http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/05/17/rvelazquez-in-letter-bolivia-harming-its-reputation-in-the-us-and-throughout-the-world/feed/ 0 http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/05/17/j-street-leader-our-job-is-to-move-jews-to-support-washington-politicians/ http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/05/17/j-street-leader-our-job-is-to-move-jews-to-support-washington-politicians/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 21:57:53 +0000 A Contributor http://gestetnerupdates.com/?p=14405 Jewish Press Reports: Carinne Luck, J Street’s Vice President for Campaigns, and the person who sent out the mass email announcing the new J Street political initiative, is on video explaining to J Street members that what “the Administration” and people “on the Hill” want from J Street is for them to “move American Jews” towards their views, and so that is what J Street spends most of its resources doing.

Got that? The goal of J Street is not to represent American Jews on the left, but is instead “to move American Jews” to the left and to the Administration’s/friends on the Hill’s point of view, and to “provide them with cover.“  And so J Street is “spending the bulk of its resources” doing that. See the video here.

The actions today by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to block a vote on new Iran sanctions represents the Republican Party’s latest failure to take sanctioning Iran seriously. First it was Republican House members voting repeatedly against amendments that would have closed loopholes and strengthened sanctions. Now, McConnell is saying that the Senate GOP needs more time to study the legislation because he and members of his party want a clear declaration over the use of force.

The President and his Administration have repeatedly been crystal clear that military force is on the table to stop Iran. Perhaps McConnell missed that our Ambassador to Israel broadly said the military option is ‘ready’ and ‘fully available’ during a recent interview.

A key drive to today’s bad market were a series of activity from Europe where Greece was downgraded deeper into Junk by Fitch, according to CNNMoney, and the rating agency sees as “probable” a Greece exit from the Euro.

But Felder, who is running as a Democrat but considers himself a political free agent — and hasn’t decided if he will caucus with Democrats or Republicans, who currently control the state senate, if he makes it to Albany — say these insiders couldn’t be more incorrect.

“It is a myth,” he said. “The Orthodox community has a history of voting for candidates they feel will be most helpful in delivering resources and services to their community. The political party is irrelevant.”

So far, Felder is running unopposed in the September Democratic primary, and he says he wants to keep it that way. “I’m hoping, with god’s help, that I don’t have an opponent,” he said. “But anybody who runs for office has to assume that they will have an opponent and I’m prepared for that.”

Following is the full statement that I submitted this morning to the Editor of that website clarifying my work last night:

I was hired by event organizers to communicate with the press/media the goal of the Weberman event and to accommodate the news-gathering needs of the reporters. I informed this fact to each and every reporter when I arrived on scene.

It’s a standard practice at every major event with considerable public interest to have a representative for media/press outreach; exactly a service that I provided last night.

The by-line placed beneath my name on screen is above my pay-grade.

As for people sticking up for the defended vs. the victim, have in mind that victims have the full weight and funding of a professional staff at the DA’s office, while defendants  do not (always) have. It’s fair that both sides have the best legal teams on their side to battle out this case in a court of law, and for the public to perceive a defendant as… Innocent until proven guilty.

Here is the video the website is referring to:

In the shtetlsphere this morning, the takeway from the debate was clear: Kristol had surprised by praising Obama. “I am happy to agree with Obama to a considerable degree,” Kristol said, according to Haaretz. The Forward’s Gal Beckerman agreed, reporting that Kristol also said Obama “moved back to the center” and is “sensible.”

Over email this afternoon, Kristol clarified last night’s remarks:

I was pointing out that Obama had moved away from his 2009 J-Street-like Cairo-speech approach to the Middle East towards a more traditional mushy-liberal-sort-of-supportive-of-Israel attitude in 2012. In my enthusiasm to illustrate just how ineffectual J Street has been, I may have exaggerated how much Obama is now in agreement with ECI! But in any case, in a second Obama term, all bets would be off. So while it’s true most American voters won’t vote on Israel in November, pro-Israel voters should of course prefer [Mitt] Romney to Obama. ECI will certainly continue to

The Kennedys, who married in 1994, split almost exactly two years ago in  what friends say was a devastating blow to Mary. The May 2010 divorce filing, coupled with the media frenzy following her  arrest for drunken driving three days later, started Mary Kennedy on a tragic  downward spiral that ended with her suicide on her Bedford property, friends  said.

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