Thursday, April 10, 2008

I'm liking that James Hogan kid running for Congress

I like his spunk. His candid way of expressing himself. I like that he has no idea what he's gotten himself into, yet he keeps plowing ahead wanting to make a difference. I like him because he makes me laugh.

Here's an email exchange we had this afternoon:

Subject: Who is the "Rob McLeod" guy I'm running against? I found out!

Art,
I thought I would forward this over to you as I had emailed it to a
few other people who seemed surprised at what my quick "research"
turned up. Before you get to this long email, you owe me a "I told
you so" because I'm pretty sure it was you who told me "Andy will be
gone as quickly as he came". It's crazy the way the system work and
I'm learning more and more about how it works each day which is just
building my motivation and drive more and more.

Anyhow, thanks again for the support you've shown me in the past and I
look forward to EARNING your support, and vote, through November and
through my term in office. As always, I'm open to critisism, comments,
suggestions, new issues or new perspectives on old issues. The email
I had sent to a few people this morning follows.

--
James Hogan
http://www.hoganforcongress.com/




I did some quick searching - after all, it is the year 2008 and Google
is everyone's best friend, right? I was thinking that if this McLeod
guy was a career judge, I'd have to find *something* about the guy...
so to Google we go:

Robert McLeod Congress -- in Google turns up nothing - I shouldn't
say that - it turns up a few blogs that mention my name and ask "who
the hell is McLeod?" Interesting....
FWIW - trying "James Hogan Congress" turns up many links to my website
and other websites that contain information, forums posts, opinions,
etc from me.

So I continued on in my search for Mr. McLeod:
Judge Robert E. McLeod -- turns up nothing really - you'd expect
SOMETHING in a 15+ year career right? The few interesting things that
DO come up:
1) http://www.atlantichighlands.net/news/010628/hawley_complaint.htm
from 2001 - nothing of real substance in my opinion - a dismissed
political case - seems like real non-sense to me - hopefully this was
dismissed without too much tax payer money wasted on court
expenses/salaries/etc and hopefully an innocent individual who was
accused of some crime didn't have to wait too long for their "hearing"
while this case was "heard"... not bad so far, dismissed a silly case,
looking good...
and
2) http://www.holmdeltownship-nj.com/content/1066/1088/default.aspx- pay your traffic tickets here..... uhhhh "yuck"! So it APPEARS that
I'm running against the traffic court judge - you know the guy who
presumes you guilty until you can convince the prosecutor to let you
off "cheaper". Mr. McLeod has made his career taking the money of his
neighbors through traffic tickets in a "court" without a jury. I think
we've all been to traffic court a few times and you certainly aren't
getting a fair trial there, and there is certainly no presumption of
innocence, and Mr. McLeod was the guy taking revenue for the township,
great, thanks for your work in the community.

But I wasn't willing to stop there - there HAD to be more this guy has
done in 15+ years, there just had to be....
So I try -- "Judge Robert E. McLeod" (ie, the name in quotes) and
BINGO - NOW I remember why the name sounded so familiar! From Google
Cache:
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:WGoaOd5HCOEJ:www.eteamz.com/vianneysoftball/+%22Judge+Robert+E.+McLeod%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us&lr=lang_en

This was the judge who heard the "case" of the St. John Vianey Girls
Softball coach who was accused of, and admitted to, and even returned
the "fence gate" and this is the judge who wanted his 15 minutes of
fame at the tax payer's expense and made a decision that the coach was
guilty but said that the coach should immediately appeal his decision
because it was a bad one. HUH!? That is the guy who wants to write
the laws now??? A traffic court judge who tries to hear a potentially
"real" case and bobbles it so tremendously that he makes a knowingly
bad decision and immediately recognizes the bad decision and says
someone else should make a better decision, ridiculous! "Following two
days of testimony....Kommendant was ordered to pay $316 in fines and
costs" *2 DAYS* of us tax payers paying for a court (at the tax payer
expense) and the coach/criminal pays $316. Remember that number, this
is leading somewhere, but don't forget McLeod found him guilty but
knew it was a bad call - in fact, McLeod seemed to think the whole
case was ridiculous but rather than dismiss the case and save the tax
payers some money, he wasted tax payer money and cost a good citizen,
a good coach, a lot of money and a good career.

At this point, I knew there HAD to be more - a guy who makes such a
crappy decision after 15 years of work HAD to have screwed up big at
least one or two more times... and then I found IT.....
http://forums.jerseyshoremoms.com/viewtopic.php?t=487&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30&sid=a0424a1d3762dbc0a0ba191af47c12ed

This is the judge, who ordered 13 youths to pay a $500 fine each for
drinking alcohol at PNC bank arts center! So again, $316 was paid by a
39 year old softball coach that this "judge" determined (poorly in his
own words) was a thief who stole $9,000 worth of goods but some "kids"
who drink alcohol at a concert are expected to pay $500 each for their
"crime"? That somehow makes sense to this guy? Doesn't make a whole
lot of sense to me, criminalize the youth of America, charge them more
money than they might get in gifts for a few birthdays or a holiday -
I suppose that according to Mr. McLeod, since they are "kids" they
deserve to be treated WORSE THAN CRIMINALS, just for being "kids", and
since these "kids" can't vote, Mr. McLeod will surely criminalize the
youth of American even more should be be elected and the youth of
America, who have no voting rights or representation, will just suffer
the wrath of this out of control, traffic court judge.

Mr. McLeod, a traffic court judge, who doesn't have a website
outlining any of his political positions two months before an
election, is clearly out of touch with the youth, the future, of
America Moreover, this traffic court judge clearly is unable to make
firm, sound decisions in his own court, and yet he believes that
somehow he can represent "we the people" and make sound decisions for
us in Washington DC? Please, save me the time and tell a friend about
this traffic court judge's history of wasting tax payer money and
making bad decisions - if needed, I'll be glad to provide references
from any and all of my previous bosses and co-workers who can attest
to my ability to make a sound business decision, quickly, and have
that decision proven to be a sound, reliable, long-term good decision
that is to the benefit of my employer. As a representative, you, the
people of New Jersey are my employer and it is you for whom I need to
answer to, serve and make sound decisions in order to represent you
best.

--
James Hogan
http://www.hoganforcongress.com/


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Hey Jim---
> I told you so!

Classic. :-)

> Thanks for the email. I'm going to use it on my blog
> Art

As I've said to others, I appologize that my writing is not more
"official" or "professional" looking and ready for the easy
"copy/paste". I write and say what I think and I don't hold much back
which seems to lead to rambling sentences. Also, a fellow youth
rights supporter friend of mine thinks it is wrong of me to attack a
judge's decisions or the legitamacy of his court room - I can see how
and why someone might look at my research and conclusions that way,
however, my point is simply that in a long public career as a judge,
one would hope to find many cases of good judgement and 15+ years of
good examples of fair and equal judgement and it seems like the few
cases that you can find attached to his name have rather disappointing
turnouts and I'm willing to bet (and bank on) Average Joe Voter not
voting for the guy who collected their parking ticket money, nor do I
think that Average Joe Voter is going to vote for someone who makes a
decision that is knowingly wrong. I mean, I for one, don't want a
representative that agrees to some act of Congress and then says "but
we should undo this legislation later cause it's wrong". Again, I
wouldn't tell my boss "I knowing coded all of this system poorly in a
depreciated language which is a bad decision but you can always hire
someone else to clean up the code and rewrite it later", that's just
silly talk.

Anyhow, keep up the great work on your blog. I've been
checking/reading daily since I last emailed you, good stuff.

--
James Hogan
http://www.hoganforcongress.com/

10 comments:

Barry Goldwater said...

This kid sent me the same one. You beat me to using it on my blog.

He is pretty good at self-promotion, at least.

ESedler said...

I'm liking this guy (I can't use kid, he's 4 years older than me) as well.

His slogan should be:
"James Hogan for Congress: Why the Hell not?!"

or

"James Hogan for Congress: At least he has a website..."

I don't agree with his position on foreign policy and I don't like Murray's seperate slate really..but who cares. If we are going to send someone to face the Pallone monster, we might as well send a 26 year old who's motivated enough to have a website and reach out to everyone he can think of.

Anyway, I just might give this guy my support, since I sort of reside in Frank Pallone's district now as a college student.(although I still vote in Bergen)

I want to interview this guy for redjersey...

Anonymous said...

Won't matter in the long run...he can't win. Neither will the "Judge".

But you do have to give him credit for plugging along on an impossible dream.

Teddy Roosevelt said...

I like this 'Kid" too. He has my vote.

How about "Kid Congressman" a gunslinger for you.

I guess Mcleod is no longer a judge anywhere because if he was he could not run for office. Why is he no longer a judge?

If he is who I am thinking off this guy thinks he is a real intellectual. He used to (does?) belong to a group that was a self styled philosphers club. He is A little pompous.

Barry Goldwater said...

That's the right guy, Teddy.

Anonymous said...

I'm not a big fan of that "Hogan kid." But I do believe in Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment and here he is violating that notion because he needs attention.

As far as I know, Robert MacLeod is not some party hack. I haven't heard anything negative said about him over and above that he is not the most dynamic guy in the world.

I don't think he got the party nod because he's corrupt or connected. I think he was nominated because he was a safe, i.e. non-controversial, choice for the nomination in a race where the Democrat is most assuredly going to win.

Young Mr. Hogan has no real cause to go after MacLeod. He can offer himself up as an alternative without doing that.

I've read a couple of Hogan's posts and one indicated he had been shut out of the nominating process when really he had missed deadlines for inclusion. Now, he goes after another Republican. And we are supposed to applaud his ability at self promotion?

If he were merely voicing his opposition to the process or to the chairmen who run the process, or even if he were to run against another Republican who had abused his governmental position and then attack, maybe I would take him more seriously.

To me, he's like a six year old who swears. At first, maybe he's funny. Then he becomes tiresome and eventually he becomes distasteful.

He seemed like an earnest and serious minded guy when I ran into him at the convention, but I'm not a fan of these tactics.

Lugar96

ESedler said...

Lugar:
Maybe the controversial choice would have been better?

I mean if you really think about it since we aren't going to win this one in November, why not nominate someone with the kind of motivation Hogan is showing here?

I'm not a fan of negative campaigns but my guess is Hogan doesn't have much money, so he's going to have to go after the party line guy a little bit here and get himself out there as cheaply as possible.

Hey look at the result, the judge responded and he's got a website now..maybe now these two and the other candidate (does anybody know who that is?!) can have a debate or two.

If we're going to lose to the Pallone Monster, we might as well give a shot to someone who doesn't seem like the typical sacrifice candidate. I'm pretty loyal, but come on...what does it really matter if we let Hogan go after Pallone instead of the judge?

Art: You should host a debate or two or some questions for both these guys on your blog. I think it would be great to see.

I disagree with a few of Hogan's positions and his website kinda scares me (esp. the local issues with the geese thing), but why the hell not?

Then again, I don't really have a say since I vote up in the 5th CD. But hey, since I temporarily live her until I graduate probably, I figure I might as well take an interest in Monmouth politics..ha.

Honest Abe said...

Teddy Roosevelt addressed...

"Why is he no longer a judge?

Because he retired at the end of 2007. There was never a secret about that. BONGA BONGA

Anonymous said...

Eric:

I don't mind going with a more controversial choice. My point was that the attack on MacLeod was unwarranted as was Hogan's complaint about the convention.

I'm not even saying that we all ought to back MacLeod for the good of the party or the sake of unity or any other reason that has nothing to do with the candidate himself. I don't believe we ought to reward Hogan for throwing bombs because that's all he can do to draw attention to himself.

If he wants to run against the system, fine. I think he could get support from people who disagree with the nominating process and make that his cause. He could then run against MacLeod, pointing out that MacLeod was the nominee as the result of the process he disagrees with. Then he's challenging the system without needlessly attacking a fellow Republican.

I reiterate that I do not claim that Hogan has no right to run in the Primary or that his doing so is wrong in anyway. I don't like what he has done in an attempt to attract attention to himself.

Fittingly, I could say the same thing about Murray Sabrin.

Lugar96

ESedler said...

Murray's done about 100 times worse than what Hogan has done..I didn't see a Hogan press release calling a Republican a "Liberal Loser Lobbyist"..hah

Anyway, I'm probably not going to officially back anyone since I don't vote in the distrcit, but I'm going to contact Mr. Hogan and get an interview him sooner than later..ha.

I'm not going to hold him accountable to anything Murray's done.