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Saturday, March 29, 2014
North Carolina is looking better by the day
So yesterday we heard that our esteemed governor, Chris Christie, had been completely exonerated of any wrongdoing by lawyers who are his political allies, that he paid for with a million dollars of New Jersey taxpayer money. What a surprise. What was at least a little surprising, was the misogynistic viciousness of the report, which blamed the closing of local lanes to the George Washington Bridge last September on Alex Forrest Bridget Kelly, as some sort of irrational, psychotic payback to her alleged former lover, Christie ally Bill Stepien. Or something. And then there's Hoboken mayor Dawn Zimmer, painted by the report as a delusional liar.
Hey 57% of women who voted for this thug last November -- how do you feel about him now?
I've been wanting to move to North Carolina for years. It's not that I love the climate, Goddess knows I don't. But I've been tired of New Jersey for a long time. The road rage. The traffic. The potholes. The big hair and chewing gum and the lack of realization that the characters on "The Sopranos" were NOT people you were supposed to want to emulate. People who say "Down the shore." Springsteen and his ersatz Woody Guthrie schtick composed in his bigass house in Rumson. I've lived here since 1958, and I've had enough.
Back in 2005, I survived a layoff where I was working. In a way, it was the worst thing that could have happened to me. Mr. B. was unemployed at the time, it was the top of the housing market, and we could have sold the house and headed south without looking back. But I did survive, and then he got a job, and so we stayed. He never really wanted to go anyway. He always refused to believe me when I came home from my sister's and talked about all the geeky aging hippies down there who thought the way we did, and about the venues that had more of the music we like than New York City had, and how yes, you could get good Indian food in Durham. He just could never get past Jesse Helms. Now granted, we'd be moving to the Triangle, not to the areas where they still marry their sisters, but even that area was still represented by Jesse Helms.
It's not that it's so much better now, especially since 2010, when disappointed Obama voters stayed home in droves, allowing a wingnut contingent that makes the teabaggers look sane to take over the statehouse in Raleigh and the governorship. They've enacted one of the most restrictive voter registration laws in the country, tried to enact a law that would allow the state to establish a state religion, and introduced legislation to ban making scientific predictions of sea level rise. Governor Pat McCrory is a puppet of Duke Energy. The state is a workshop for the worst kind of retrograde legislation, to the point that a once-hot destination for high-tech companies is in danger of becoming another Alabama.
But not if Moral Mondays has anything to say about it.
Whether the Moral Monday movement, which started in North Carolina but has spread to Atlanta, can be effective or if it is just another bunch of white progressives marching with signs, remains to be seen. If there's a place where even bad Democrats are better than any Republican, it's in North Carolina, where another four years of wingnut rule could very well turn North Carolina into another polluted, ignorant southern cesspool. Maybe the state needs me.
Or maybe I'm just looking for an excuse.
Because right now I feel like an alien in my own life and in my own house. When Mr. B. was here I used to say that the time before I met him felt like someone else's life. Now the thirty years I spent with him feel like someone else's life, and I am trespassing on it. The Job That Ate My Life, the house that's now eighteen years into the five-year remodeling plan and still needs another $40,000 worth of work just to get it ready to sell -- none of it feel like mine anymore. The man-cave still has a fair amount of Mr. B's effluvia in it -- the stuff I didn't donate or toss when I was still numb enough to do it. Nine suits in 42L and 44L waiting to be donated. Dressers that are falling apart and need to be dragged downstairs and put out for pickup day. Three boxes of comic books that need to be triaged to see what's worth selling and what is just junk. Records. CDs. Bits of a life now gone for good. The upstairs bedroom has a bed frame but no bed, the bed having been carted away by ServPro as hazmat nearly five months ago. His size 13 sneakers are still in the hall. In the linen closet are a dozen sand-color towels to be donated because when I have the upstairs bathroom done, it won't go with sand-color towels. So much stuff from a life that is now compleely alien to me. And that's why I feel the pull -- to get off this insane merry-go-round of impossible deadlines and office politics and 7-day work weeks, to head south and find a place that doesn't have three unused rooms -- maybe a house with a front porch and a screened porch in back and a deck and pine trees and a shed where I can set up a commercial kitchen and make 20 flavors of granola to sell. To set up a widows/widowers meetup group for old hippies. To sleep more than five hours a night. To stop and smell the flowers. To breathe. To live.
Because one thing I've learned is that none of us knows what tomorrow will bring. When I stood at my mother's graveside in December of 2012 with Mr. B. at my side, I could not have fathomed that less than a year later he would be gone too. I look through the boxes of photos that I still haven't organized from my mother's house and get smacked in the face at how many of the people in them are gone. Mom. Lionel. Generations of pets. Mr. B. And those of us still left aren't getting any younger. In a way it's a relief that when I'm gone, they can just light a bonfire and burn the whole mess if they want to. Because after a generation or two, who remembers who is whom in family photos? And after that, who even cares? All we have is now. I want to have some contentment in my now. Because EVERYTHING in life is only for now.
Power-mad thugs like Chris Christie should think about this.
Hey 57% of women who voted for this thug last November -- how do you feel about him now?
I've been wanting to move to North Carolina for years. It's not that I love the climate, Goddess knows I don't. But I've been tired of New Jersey for a long time. The road rage. The traffic. The potholes. The big hair and chewing gum and the lack of realization that the characters on "The Sopranos" were NOT people you were supposed to want to emulate. People who say "Down the shore." Springsteen and his ersatz Woody Guthrie schtick composed in his bigass house in Rumson. I've lived here since 1958, and I've had enough.
Back in 2005, I survived a layoff where I was working. In a way, it was the worst thing that could have happened to me. Mr. B. was unemployed at the time, it was the top of the housing market, and we could have sold the house and headed south without looking back. But I did survive, and then he got a job, and so we stayed. He never really wanted to go anyway. He always refused to believe me when I came home from my sister's and talked about all the geeky aging hippies down there who thought the way we did, and about the venues that had more of the music we like than New York City had, and how yes, you could get good Indian food in Durham. He just could never get past Jesse Helms. Now granted, we'd be moving to the Triangle, not to the areas where they still marry their sisters, but even that area was still represented by Jesse Helms.
It's not that it's so much better now, especially since 2010, when disappointed Obama voters stayed home in droves, allowing a wingnut contingent that makes the teabaggers look sane to take over the statehouse in Raleigh and the governorship. They've enacted one of the most restrictive voter registration laws in the country, tried to enact a law that would allow the state to establish a state religion, and introduced legislation to ban making scientific predictions of sea level rise. Governor Pat McCrory is a puppet of Duke Energy. The state is a workshop for the worst kind of retrograde legislation, to the point that a once-hot destination for high-tech companies is in danger of becoming another Alabama.
But not if Moral Mondays has anything to say about it.
Whether the Moral Monday movement, which started in North Carolina but has spread to Atlanta, can be effective or if it is just another bunch of white progressives marching with signs, remains to be seen. If there's a place where even bad Democrats are better than any Republican, it's in North Carolina, where another four years of wingnut rule could very well turn North Carolina into another polluted, ignorant southern cesspool. Maybe the state needs me.
Or maybe I'm just looking for an excuse.
Because right now I feel like an alien in my own life and in my own house. When Mr. B. was here I used to say that the time before I met him felt like someone else's life. Now the thirty years I spent with him feel like someone else's life, and I am trespassing on it. The Job That Ate My Life, the house that's now eighteen years into the five-year remodeling plan and still needs another $40,000 worth of work just to get it ready to sell -- none of it feel like mine anymore. The man-cave still has a fair amount of Mr. B's effluvia in it -- the stuff I didn't donate or toss when I was still numb enough to do it. Nine suits in 42L and 44L waiting to be donated. Dressers that are falling apart and need to be dragged downstairs and put out for pickup day. Three boxes of comic books that need to be triaged to see what's worth selling and what is just junk. Records. CDs. Bits of a life now gone for good. The upstairs bedroom has a bed frame but no bed, the bed having been carted away by ServPro as hazmat nearly five months ago. His size 13 sneakers are still in the hall. In the linen closet are a dozen sand-color towels to be donated because when I have the upstairs bathroom done, it won't go with sand-color towels. So much stuff from a life that is now compleely alien to me. And that's why I feel the pull -- to get off this insane merry-go-round of impossible deadlines and office politics and 7-day work weeks, to head south and find a place that doesn't have three unused rooms -- maybe a house with a front porch and a screened porch in back and a deck and pine trees and a shed where I can set up a commercial kitchen and make 20 flavors of granola to sell. To set up a widows/widowers meetup group for old hippies. To sleep more than five hours a night. To stop and smell the flowers. To breathe. To live.
Because one thing I've learned is that none of us knows what tomorrow will bring. When I stood at my mother's graveside in December of 2012 with Mr. B. at my side, I could not have fathomed that less than a year later he would be gone too. I look through the boxes of photos that I still haven't organized from my mother's house and get smacked in the face at how many of the people in them are gone. Mom. Lionel. Generations of pets. Mr. B. And those of us still left aren't getting any younger. In a way it's a relief that when I'm gone, they can just light a bonfire and burn the whole mess if they want to. Because after a generation or two, who remembers who is whom in family photos? And after that, who even cares? All we have is now. I want to have some contentment in my now. Because EVERYTHING in life is only for now.
Power-mad thugs like Chris Christie should think about this.
Labels: Chris Christie, personal musings, wingnuttia
Monday, November 04, 2013
Blogrollling In Our Time: Are You SURE You Want This Man To Be President? edition
Hello, kind readers,
It's been a tough four weeks, as I'm sure you can imagine; weeks in which the important developments in the world just don't seem all that important to me when there is constant business to attend to involving death certificates, letters of administration from the county, certified mail, transferring car titles, and that's all without getting back to work and going through stuff so I can have a massive yard sale. All of this punctuated by otherworldly wailing that upsets the cats a great deal. Most of the time I am so exhausted that I can hardly function, let alone write in a coherent, enlightening and entertaining way about the nightmare that is today's Republican Party.
But I wanted to add a new blog to the blogroll, since much of what I've been doing lately where that's concerned is purging blogs that no longer exist (though I'm happy to report that TBogg, one of our oldest links, could not stay away from the siren song of ranting and is now ensconced over at Raw Story with a new name, Panic in Funland.
Jersey Jazzman's fifteen minutes of fame started when he received a report from one Melissa Tomlinson, a teacher from south Jersey, about her encounter with Joe Scarborough's true love, Chris Christie:
Click over to see the photograph of the monster that is Chris Christie -- a hothead who thinks he's always right, will not countenance any dissent, and refuses to acknowledge errors even when presented with facts. And in case you think this is just an anecdotal story from a blog, here's the Star-Ledger's article on this confrontation.
So because Chris Christie is, thanks partly to a cowardly and craven Democratic Party that refused to support his opponent (and indeed had planned not to even try), going to be re-elected in a landslide on Tuesday, and because the inevitable presidential timbre blowjobs from the media will begin immediately thereafter, we are adding Jersey Jazzman to the blogroll under "Brilliant New Jersey Blogs" so that the two dozen or so of you who still read this blog can tell all your friends who only hear what Joe Scarborough tells them about Chris Christie what the man really is.
It's been a tough four weeks, as I'm sure you can imagine; weeks in which the important developments in the world just don't seem all that important to me when there is constant business to attend to involving death certificates, letters of administration from the county, certified mail, transferring car titles, and that's all without getting back to work and going through stuff so I can have a massive yard sale. All of this punctuated by otherworldly wailing that upsets the cats a great deal. Most of the time I am so exhausted that I can hardly function, let alone write in a coherent, enlightening and entertaining way about the nightmare that is today's Republican Party.
But I wanted to add a new blog to the blogroll, since much of what I've been doing lately where that's concerned is purging blogs that no longer exist (though I'm happy to report that TBogg, one of our oldest links, could not stay away from the siren song of ranting and is now ensconced over at Raw Story with a new name, Panic in Funland.
Jersey Jazzman's fifteen minutes of fame started when he received a report from one Melissa Tomlinson, a teacher from south Jersey, about her encounter with Joe Scarborough's true love, Chris Christie:
Well, I was in a crowd of all Christie supporters with my sign. They were all eyeing me apprehensively. A few tried to stare me down. Some of them even blocked me from the crowd.
When his bus arrived one of his henchmen went on the bus to speak to him. I was right at the door. It was like he was told to deliberately turn away from me when he got off of the bus.
I went to listen to him speak. I stood in the front of the crowd that was standing towards the back. I know he caught sight of me. He stared at me a few times during his speech. I left right as his speech was over to position myself right at the door of the bus. He came out, shaking everyone's hands as he was getting on the bus. I asked him my question, expecting him to ignore me but he suddenly turned and went off.
I asked him: "Why do you portray our schools as failure factories?" His reply: "Because they are!" He said: "I am tired of you people. What do you want?" I told him I want money for my students. He fought back with the amount that he has spent on education. My response was along the lines of the fact his amount was not actually an increase from the previous years, given the rate of inflation and other factors.
Click over to see the photograph of the monster that is Chris Christie -- a hothead who thinks he's always right, will not countenance any dissent, and refuses to acknowledge errors even when presented with facts. And in case you think this is just an anecdotal story from a blog, here's the Star-Ledger's article on this confrontation.
So because Chris Christie is, thanks partly to a cowardly and craven Democratic Party that refused to support his opponent (and indeed had planned not to even try), going to be re-elected in a landslide on Tuesday, and because the inevitable presidential timbre blowjobs from the media will begin immediately thereafter, we are adding Jersey Jazzman to the blogroll under "Brilliant New Jersey Blogs" so that the two dozen or so of you who still read this blog can tell all your friends who only hear what Joe Scarborough tells them about Chris Christie what the man really is.
Labels: bloggers, Blogroll Amnesty Day, Chris Christie
Wednesday, November 07, 2012
Bill, Chris, and Sandy
Bill, Chris, and Sandy.
Those are the three most important names to keep in mind as we heave a collective sigh of relief this morning that we are not going to have four-to-eight years of Paul Ryan kicking old people out on the street, John Bolton as Secretary of State, more prom night dumpster babies, millions of women scratching their heads at the local Walgreen's wondering why they can't refill their Yaz prescription, and an austerity-induced second plunge into recession.
It isn't that the Republicans didn't TRY to steal it, what with possibly rigged unverifiable voting machines, last minute unverified "software patches", telling Spanish-speaking voters to vote on the wrong day, reporting of a legitimate poll observer as a member of the New Black Panthers, and long waits caused at least partially by Republican
There were other factors, of course. There was the 47% video and the Etch-a-Sketch that tried to turn Willard Rmoney from a "severe conservative" into the Defender of the Poor, which made people wonder just what they would be getting of Rmoney were elected. Then there was the increasing hysteria of the last days of the campaign, in which Rudy Giuliani, the man who set up New York City's command center in the World Trade Center, called for President Obama to resign and Paul Ryan insisted that America's "Judeo-Christian" values were threatened by Barack Obama's re-election in some mysterious way that they weren't in the last four.
But in the end, it was those three names that ultimately turned the tide in this country towards at least some semblance of sanity and toward the future.
Bill Clinton got the ball rolling at the convention, when he laid out the case for not just why it was taking so long for the economy to recover, but exactly what the obstacles were. Clinton's gift has always been in his ability to explain complex concepts in simple terms and do it with a twinkle in his eyes, and the gift he has of making you willing to follow him anywhere started to make even skeptics take another look at this young president who navigated economic waters more treacherous than anyone since FDR has had to deal with.
Then there was Hurricane Sandy.
It's one thing to talk about "smaller government" in the abstract. It's one thing to talk about "let the states handle it" when there isn't an emergency. And it's easy to talk about self-sufficiency when you're talking about poor black people taking shelter in a football stadium while their town is drowning. But when the images of devastation in the media are of white people picking through their belongings in a landscape that looks like an asteroid hit their community, it becomes far more difficult to marginalize those affected as being "the other", even if you live in Iowa or Ohio or Wisconsin. The sad fact of our society is that until misfortune happanes to white people, far too many white people can still remain detached from it and not extrapolate the possibility of disaster to themselves. No one is calling for the people of Staten Island and Lindenhurst and the Rockaways and Mantoloking and Ortley Beach to pick themselves up by their bootstraps.
The Republicans have made great hay of painting Barack Obama as a weak sister, a pussy, a girly-man. They've said he's not a leader because he doesn't beat his chest and proclaim to the world that he's the biggest, baddest dick on the block. But what Americans saw in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy was the kind of leader one wants to see in a crisis -- organized, calm, efficient, comforting; one not calculating the political points to be gained but offering both words of comfort and actions to those affected. Anyone can bluster, but a leader actually gets things done. And here Americans saw a kind of leadership that does not need to advertise itself in giant neon letters.
And finally there was Chris....Chris Christie.
Who would have believed that Chris Christie, he of the bullying bluster, would end up as arguably the statesman of the year? When the biggest test that a governor can tackle came about, Christie put the good of his state above ideology and above party and not only toured the devastated areas with the same President he had excoriated days earlier, but consistently praised the President for his leadership and cooperation -- no doubt damaging his future, perhaps fatally, in the Republican Party as a result. For those still sitting on the fence, watching a respected rising star in the Republican Party praise this Democratic President, must have been food for thought.
And so today those of us who yesterday were terrified of a nation in which women are nothing but vessels for the continued power of white Christian men; of a nation in the discredited neocons of the Bush era are allowed to start even more unnecessary wars; of a nation in which them that's got shall get and them that's not shall lose; of a cruel winner-take-all society, can breathe just a little easier, in no small part because of Bill, Chris, and Sandy.
Labels: 2012 election, Bill Clinton, Chris Christie, Hurricane Sandy 2012, President Barack Obama
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Some Jersey comeback, eh?
New Jersey's corpulent governor, Chris Christie, has had a rollercoaster ride this year. He went from making a thrill go up Joe Scarborough's leg as a drool-worthy VP running mate for Willard Rmoney to a less-than-flattering Newsweek cover story titled "Has Christie Blown It?".
And through it all, Christie has been touting "The Jersey Comeback". For two years he's been painting himself as a responsible fiscal conservative, despite planning in 2010 to borrow even more money for the state's Transportation Trust Fund and even now, with revenues less than expectations, insisting on an income tax cut and presenting a budget with increased spending.
Yesterday, Christie's touting of himself as a "job creator" had a giant bucket of slops poured over it as Roche Pharmaceutical announced that it would close its Nutley, NJ US headquarters, eliminating almost 1000 jobs.
Christie was quick to blame the state's tax structure, saying the state's high taxes make it hard to compete with lower-tax states like Pennsylvania.
Except for one thing: Roche is not moving the jobs to a lower-tax state. The company is moving its operations to Germany and Switzerland.
Germany has a significant corporate tax structure:
So it isn't taxes that drove Roche out of New Jersey; if it were, Roche would have moved to Pennsylvania, or Mississippi. But as the Star-Ledger editorial board noted today:
Mississippi has the lowest literacy rate in the nation, with 20% of adults unable to read. Somehow I don't think a state like that is going to appeal to a pharmacuetical or other high-tech company, no matter how low the taxes are.
And through it all, Christie has been touting "The Jersey Comeback". For two years he's been painting himself as a responsible fiscal conservative, despite planning in 2010 to borrow even more money for the state's Transportation Trust Fund and even now, with revenues less than expectations, insisting on an income tax cut and presenting a budget with increased spending.
Yesterday, Christie's touting of himself as a "job creator" had a giant bucket of slops poured over it as Roche Pharmaceutical announced that it would close its Nutley, NJ US headquarters, eliminating almost 1000 jobs.
Christie was quick to blame the state's tax structure, saying the state's high taxes make it hard to compete with lower-tax states like Pennsylvania.
Except for one thing: Roche is not moving the jobs to a lower-tax state. The company is moving its operations to Germany and Switzerland.
Germany has a significant corporate tax structure:
A German corporation (AG or GmbH) is subject to corporation tax in Germany. From 2001 until 2007, distributed and retained income was taxed at a uniform rate of 25 percent. Since 2008, profits are subject to a corporation tax rate of 15 percent. In addition, corporations have to pay a so called solidarity surcharge which is calculated with 5.5 percent on corporation tax. Based on a corporation tax rate of 15 percent, solidarity surcharge amounts to effectively 0.825 percent. Corporations are also subject to trade tax which amounts to an average rate of 14 percent. The overall tax burden for corporations in Germany therefore amounts to around 30 percent.Germany also has robust worker protections, unemployment insurance that doesn't run out, and paid parental leave. Rather than laying off staff, German companies will cut hours or institute job sharing. Say what you will about the high taxes paid in Germany, but German citizens get a lot of bang for their tax buck, unlike in the US, where far too much of our taxes go into the black hole of the military. Switzerland, by contrast, is an low-corporate-tax country at a total of about 13.5%. But it too boasts a robust social safety net.
So it isn't taxes that drove Roche out of New Jersey; if it were, Roche would have moved to Pennsylvania, or Mississippi. But as the Star-Ledger editorial board noted today:
If you listen to Gov. Chris Christie, this is all about taxes. His economic program boils down to this single piece of dogma: Cut taxes, especially on the rich, and the economy will boom. Raise taxes, and you will kill jobs.
The Roche case shows that this formula is simplistic nonsense, and that there is much more to it. Note, first, that Roche had already moved its top executives and its sales and marketing operations to San Francisco, which has higher taxes than New Jersey. The work it now does in Nutley will move to Switzerland and Germany, two more places where taxes are higher than here.
These facts are not likely to penetrate the governor's conviction that lower taxes are the holy grail. President George W. Bush promised his tax cuts would create a jobs boom, and the strategy failed miserably, leaving behind only a mountain of debt.
Now Mitt Romney promises more of the same. This stuff is baked into the GOP's DNA.
The reality is that many other factors are at play when a company selects a spot to invest. An educated workforce counts. A modern transportation system. The pharmaceutical companies that have left New Jersey often go to high-tax states, like California and Massachusetts, where they can form partnerships with elite research universities. Companies also look at quality of life, and good public schools for their kids, both major draws for high-tax New Jersey.
If it were all about taxes, then Mississippi's economy would be booming.
Mississippi has the lowest literacy rate in the nation, with 20% of adults unable to read. Somehow I don't think a state like that is going to appeal to a pharmacuetical or other high-tech company, no matter how low the taxes are.
Labels: Chris Christie, New Jersey, Republican lies, unemployment
Saturday, March 10, 2012
And this is the man who's the conservative pundits' dream candidate for the presidency
And we thought George W. Bush wanted to be a dictator.
Labels: assholes, bullying, Chris Christie, thuggery
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
The opening salvo of the 2016 Republican primary race
Yes, you read correctly: 2016. For there's a little flame war going on between Evita Mooselini and that OTHER media attention whore, Chris Christie:
Uh...yeah. Right.
The New Jersey governor made headlines over the weekend by calling Newt Gingrich an “embarrassment” to the Republican Party, but this rhetoric, according to Palin, was nothing more than a “rookie mistake.”
“Poor Chris. This was a rookie mistake. He played right into the media’s hands,” Palin said on Fox Business Network late Monday. “The host had asked Chris, ‘Does Newt embarrass the party?’ I think he asked him twice, and there, Chris played right into it.”
She added, “You know, sometimes, if your candidate loses in just one step along this path, as was the case when Romney lost to Newt the other night — and, of course, Romney is Chris Christie’s guy — well, you kind of get your panties in a wad, and you may say things that you regret later. And I think that that’s what Chris Christie did.”
Palin charged that answering the question the way he did in response to the host’s question demonstrated a “lack of self-discipline” on Christie’s part — a mistake the former Alaska governor boasted she herself had already learned not to make.
Uh...yeah. Right.
Labels: Chris Christie, pot meet kettle, Sarah Palin, You can't make this shit up
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
OOH, Shiny!
During the last few weeks, as we've watched first Michele Bachmann anointed by the Washington punditocracy as Palin-with-a-brain, and then watch them fall in (and quickly out of) love with yet another dimwitted Texas governor in cowboy boots, it's struck me just how much this presidential race on the GOP side really IS, as Jon Stewart so accurately said last week, a race for the mayoralty of Pundittown.
It's not that the press falling in love with someone else every five minutes is anything new; we saw it in 2004 when Howard Dean made the cover of Newsweek when he was surging, and once it looked like he could actually win the thing, they covered a a rally he held after the Iowa caucuses in which he was trying to lift the spirits of his dispirited campaign workers and conveniently turned the volume down on the crowd noise to make him look like a madman. We certainly saw in in 2008, where the choice of a wife of a former president with whom their relationship was already tumultuous, and a black freshman Senator, for the Democratic nomination, had them so confounded they didn't know what to do. We also saw it when the guy they've been in love with for years, John McCain, selected an attractive bubblebrain to be the potential backup to a septuagenarian cancer survivor.
But this year the fickleness of the punditocracy has reached the point of ridiculousness, because whom they love can turn on a dime, and often on a daily basis. And this year, for some reason, they're like teenaged boys with a double standard -- they love their chosen one until he puts out (i.e. declares candidacy) and then suddenly the one they pursued for so long doesn't look so good anymre. As long as Rick Perry wasn't running, he was the Coveted One. Then after he declared, the press covered his cammpaign with the fervor of a fifteen-year-old who's still huffing the euphoria of those first few nights in the back seat of a car...until Perry offered up the equivalent of a fart during sex, and then suddenly the Pursued and Won One became just another failed candidate.
So now, as has happened before whenever the punditocracy gets restless, their attention turns to New Jersey's governor, Chris Christie, which is striking only because they seem to have skipped over the logical next choice for their affections, Herman Cain, who trounced all others in the Florida straw poll last weekend. After all, if Michele Bachmann became Chuck Todd's next choice for the presidency after winning the Iowa straw poll, who shouldn't Herman Cain get some lovin' after even MORE decisively winning Florida's straw poll? Gee, I wonder why....
So off they go, chubby-chasing Chris Christie. What they forget is that as recently as June, Christie's approval rating in the state where we actually have to deal with him was just 43%:
Now he's up at 54%, which these days is a perfectly fine rating, but still means that almost half the state doesn't like what he's doing. The Star-Ledger may think that Christie's tough stands with the unions accounts for his popularity, but as a denizen of New Jersey, I can tell you that the improvement in his ratings can be attributed to just six words, uttered as Hurricane Irene was approaching our coastline: "Get the hell off the beach." There isn't a person in this state who didn't applaud him for cutting right to the chase. He also gained respect from even those of us who disagree with him when he had the guts to call someone who was asking about protection from sharia law "crazy." These are Christie-the-regular-guy at his best. The problem is that the flip side of Christie-the-regular-guy is Christie-the-bully and Christie-the-hothead. Everyone seems to have forgotten that while he did a great job before and after the hurricane, he kind of HAD to, since he was off on vacation during last winter's blizzard.
Like George W. Bush, this is a guy who charges full speed ahead, certain of the correctness of every move he makes, every word that comes out of his mouth. But it's one thing to tell people who think it'd be fun to stand in the pounding surf during the hurricane not to be assholes. It's quite another when someone with a complete lack of internal word filter is handling delicate discussions with, oh, say, Pakistan.
There is video after video after video of Chris Christie saying he's not ready ot be persident. We agree. But the siren song of GOP apparatchiks who embraced the Teabag Monster and now are completely unable to control it, and the flowers-and-candy being offered by a smitten Washington punditocracy, may be impossible for him to resist. So I suspect he will run, and he'll have a joyful few first dates, until he farts. Then they'll find another girl about whom to fantasize.
It's not that the press falling in love with someone else every five minutes is anything new; we saw it in 2004 when Howard Dean made the cover of Newsweek when he was surging, and once it looked like he could actually win the thing, they covered a a rally he held after the Iowa caucuses in which he was trying to lift the spirits of his dispirited campaign workers and conveniently turned the volume down on the crowd noise to make him look like a madman. We certainly saw in in 2008, where the choice of a wife of a former president with whom their relationship was already tumultuous, and a black freshman Senator, for the Democratic nomination, had them so confounded they didn't know what to do. We also saw it when the guy they've been in love with for years, John McCain, selected an attractive bubblebrain to be the potential backup to a septuagenarian cancer survivor.
But this year the fickleness of the punditocracy has reached the point of ridiculousness, because whom they love can turn on a dime, and often on a daily basis. And this year, for some reason, they're like teenaged boys with a double standard -- they love their chosen one until he puts out (i.e. declares candidacy) and then suddenly the one they pursued for so long doesn't look so good anymre. As long as Rick Perry wasn't running, he was the Coveted One. Then after he declared, the press covered his cammpaign with the fervor of a fifteen-year-old who's still huffing the euphoria of those first few nights in the back seat of a car...until Perry offered up the equivalent of a fart during sex, and then suddenly the Pursued and Won One became just another failed candidate.
So now, as has happened before whenever the punditocracy gets restless, their attention turns to New Jersey's governor, Chris Christie, which is striking only because they seem to have skipped over the logical next choice for their affections, Herman Cain, who trounced all others in the Florida straw poll last weekend. After all, if Michele Bachmann became Chuck Todd's next choice for the presidency after winning the Iowa straw poll, who shouldn't Herman Cain get some lovin' after even MORE decisively winning Florida's straw poll? Gee, I wonder why....
So off they go, chubby-chasing Chris Christie. What they forget is that as recently as June, Christie's approval rating in the state where we actually have to deal with him was just 43%:
Respondents objected to a variety of Christie’s policies, with 65% opposing his cuts in education spending, 58% opposing his removal of a surcharge on the state’s highest earners, and 51% opposing the cancellation of a planned tunnel to New York.
Christie’s favorability rating is now at 43%, while teachers, whom he tussled with on benefits and pay, are at 76%. “Teachers I know got laid off because of him,” said one respondent. “He’s not in favor of the average working person.” That view seemed pervasive: 68% believed Christie stands with the business community, while just 22% said he sides with “ordinary New Jerseyans.”
Now he's up at 54%, which these days is a perfectly fine rating, but still means that almost half the state doesn't like what he's doing. The Star-Ledger may think that Christie's tough stands with the unions accounts for his popularity, but as a denizen of New Jersey, I can tell you that the improvement in his ratings can be attributed to just six words, uttered as Hurricane Irene was approaching our coastline: "Get the hell off the beach." There isn't a person in this state who didn't applaud him for cutting right to the chase. He also gained respect from even those of us who disagree with him when he had the guts to call someone who was asking about protection from sharia law "crazy." These are Christie-the-regular-guy at his best. The problem is that the flip side of Christie-the-regular-guy is Christie-the-bully and Christie-the-hothead. Everyone seems to have forgotten that while he did a great job before and after the hurricane, he kind of HAD to, since he was off on vacation during last winter's blizzard.
Like George W. Bush, this is a guy who charges full speed ahead, certain of the correctness of every move he makes, every word that comes out of his mouth. But it's one thing to tell people who think it'd be fun to stand in the pounding surf during the hurricane not to be assholes. It's quite another when someone with a complete lack of internal word filter is handling delicate discussions with, oh, say, Pakistan.
There is video after video after video of Chris Christie saying he's not ready ot be persident. We agree. But the siren song of GOP apparatchiks who embraced the Teabag Monster and now are completely unable to control it, and the flowers-and-candy being offered by a smitten Washington punditocracy, may be impossible for him to resist. So I suspect he will run, and he'll have a joyful few first dates, until he farts. Then they'll find another girl about whom to fantasize.
Labels: Chris Christie, hack journalism, irrelevant has-been pundits, mainstream media
Saturday, August 06, 2011
Dog Training for politicians
It's been demonstrated many times that positive reinforcement is a training method that works. It works with dogs, who seek praise from the human alpha of their pack. It works with children. It works with employees, who sometimes just want to know that they aren't just drones.
So why not do it with politicians and government officials? By all means, let's show them when we disapprove, but let's also give credit where credit is due. Chris Christie is still a misogynistic bully who's going to ruin the state of New Jersey, but with conservatism being so characterized by anti-Muslim bigotry, he puts the "guts" that make a thrill go up the leg of television pundits to good use:
Good on the governor. Now....We Can Has Moar Liek This Plz?
So why not do it with politicians and government officials? By all means, let's show them when we disapprove, but let's also give credit where credit is due. Chris Christie is still a misogynistic bully who's going to ruin the state of New Jersey, but with conservatism being so characterized by anti-Muslim bigotry, he puts the "guts" that make a thrill go up the leg of television pundits to good use:
Good on the governor. Now....We Can Has Moar Liek This Plz?
Labels: Chris Christie, credit where credit is due
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
A governor's job is not to be "fan-in-chief"
One would think that now that New York has legalized gay marriage and the world hasn't ended, New Jersey would be the next likely place for equality to take place. Unfortunately, we have a governor who thinks that just because HE is a Roman Catholic (and frankly, a church hierarchy that has harbored and protected child molesters for decades ought to have no moral authority over anything), he, not the voters, gets to decide whether everyone in the state should have this right.
What bothers me most about Chris Christie's stand is the language he used on the David Gregory Fellate the Republicans Hour on Sunday: “I’m not a fan of same-sex marriage.”
No one is asking Chris Christie to be a "fan" of same-sex marriage. No one is asking him to sit in the stands with a plate of nachos, three hot dogs, and an extra-large beer, and watch gay people get married. I would be hard-pressed to find any gays in New Jersey who would even WANT Chris Christie at their weddings -- or at their Sunday barbecues after the honeymoon, either. Gay marriage is not something you should be a "fan" of -- as if it's some kind of team game. This is about the same fundamental rights the rest of us have. If Chris Christie isn't a "fan" of same-sex marriage, then he should do the same thing as someone who isn't a "fan" of the New York Yankees does -- just ignore it.
After signing legislation codifying equality into law.
What bothers me most about Chris Christie's stand is the language he used on the David Gregory Fellate the Republicans Hour on Sunday: “I’m not a fan of same-sex marriage.”
No one is asking Chris Christie to be a "fan" of same-sex marriage. No one is asking him to sit in the stands with a plate of nachos, three hot dogs, and an extra-large beer, and watch gay people get married. I would be hard-pressed to find any gays in New Jersey who would even WANT Chris Christie at their weddings -- or at their Sunday barbecues after the honeymoon, either. Gay marriage is not something you should be a "fan" of -- as if it's some kind of team game. This is about the same fundamental rights the rest of us have. If Chris Christie isn't a "fan" of same-sex marriage, then he should do the same thing as someone who isn't a "fan" of the New York Yankees does -- just ignore it.
After signing legislation codifying equality into law.
Labels: Chris Christie, gay rights, theocracy
Friday, June 24, 2011
Remind me again why we're supposed to support Democrats
Here in my little town in Outer Whitelandia, a populace that's been asleep for thirty years is finally waking up to the reality of the one-party rule that's been running the town for the last three decades. The primary intersection in town is a bottleneck every single day at rush hour. There are nights when it can take me twenty five minutes to go twenty miles, and another twenty minutes to go two. This intersection is in a residential neighborhood, but a small gas station on the corner has been grandfathered in, and there is a large catering hall on another corner, owned by a guy who has over the last decade been quietly buying up houses on the main drag and letting them fall apart. For the last five years, the first thing you see when you come into town is a house with boarded-up windows and a hole in the roof. There have been rumors that the catering hall puts up its undocumented workers in these hell houses, but they are just rumors.
Now the owner if the catering hall and the owner of the gas station have simultaneously come up with grand plans to turn the gas station into a Wawa-like convenience store/gas and diesel station complex and the dilapidated houses into a strip mall containing a CVS with a drive-thru, a hair salon, and a coffee shop -- while a quarter mile down the road, there is already a half-empty strip mall with plenty of parking on site that has a Rite-Aid, a hair salon, a Dunkin Donuts, and a bagel shop. And finally the citizenry has awakened, even though the local government refuses to allow the public to talk at the zoning board meetings that are supposed to be where people can be heard.
In 2008, the town held its first contested election in thirty years -- and the sheeple in this town voted back in the same people who had been giviing crony contracts to their friends for years. Part of the problem was that in New Jersey, we vote not office-by-office, but on a giant screen where each candidate is in a party's line. So if you tend to vote Republican, as most people in this town do, you are not going to jump around the ballot. It of course didn't help that the Democratic candidate, who had lived in town barely two years, was the brother of one of the biggest Democratic Party hacks in he state.
It's like that in Democratic Party politics. Not a month goes by when someone doesn't tell me to run for office in town, but believe me, you do not want to touch these people or play their game. Every two years, they either refuse to run a candidate to run for Congress against the odious teabagger Scott Garrett, who was a teabagger long before the Tea Party kooks even existed; or else they run a weak candidate and then refuse to support that candidate with money. The New Jersey State Democratic Party, like the natonal party has been under everyone except Howard Dean, is only interested in fighting battles it knows in advance it can win.
And so the stage is set for the travesty that happened in Trenton yesterday, where Governor Gasbag, Chris Christie, succeeded in getting bipartisan support in the state Assembly for a law to gut public worker benefits and remove their ability to collectively bargain, with the help of Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex), who had shepherded the bill through the state Senate on Monday.
Everyone knows that the state pension system is dramatically underfunded, after being stiffed for decades by governors of both parties, What most people don't understand is that the police, firefighters and teachers who receive these pensions also pay in. So when politicians decide to gut these benefits, it's money paid out to these workers that's stolen for other needs -- mostly to keep from having to raise taxes on the wealthiest people in the state.
If the Democrats on the national stage won't stand up for people who pay into Social Security and Medicare all their lives and are then told not to depend on it because they stole all the money; if Democrats won't stand up for the rights of all Americans to be the same under the law; if Democrats won't stand up for the rights of workers; then why on earth should we reward them with our votes?
We know what Republicans are -- greedy, venal, hateful, cold-hearted and devoid of empathy. Republicans will do what Republicans do. We know this. Our problem is not them; it is the Democrats -- the party that increasingly pisses down our backs and then tells us it's raining.
Now the owner if the catering hall and the owner of the gas station have simultaneously come up with grand plans to turn the gas station into a Wawa-like convenience store/gas and diesel station complex and the dilapidated houses into a strip mall containing a CVS with a drive-thru, a hair salon, and a coffee shop -- while a quarter mile down the road, there is already a half-empty strip mall with plenty of parking on site that has a Rite-Aid, a hair salon, a Dunkin Donuts, and a bagel shop. And finally the citizenry has awakened, even though the local government refuses to allow the public to talk at the zoning board meetings that are supposed to be where people can be heard.
In 2008, the town held its first contested election in thirty years -- and the sheeple in this town voted back in the same people who had been giviing crony contracts to their friends for years. Part of the problem was that in New Jersey, we vote not office-by-office, but on a giant screen where each candidate is in a party's line. So if you tend to vote Republican, as most people in this town do, you are not going to jump around the ballot. It of course didn't help that the Democratic candidate, who had lived in town barely two years, was the brother of one of the biggest Democratic Party hacks in he state.
It's like that in Democratic Party politics. Not a month goes by when someone doesn't tell me to run for office in town, but believe me, you do not want to touch these people or play their game. Every two years, they either refuse to run a candidate to run for Congress against the odious teabagger Scott Garrett, who was a teabagger long before the Tea Party kooks even existed; or else they run a weak candidate and then refuse to support that candidate with money. The New Jersey State Democratic Party, like the natonal party has been under everyone except Howard Dean, is only interested in fighting battles it knows in advance it can win.
And so the stage is set for the travesty that happened in Trenton yesterday, where Governor Gasbag, Chris Christie, succeeded in getting bipartisan support in the state Assembly for a law to gut public worker benefits and remove their ability to collectively bargain, with the help of Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex), who had shepherded the bill through the state Senate on Monday.
Everyone knows that the state pension system is dramatically underfunded, after being stiffed for decades by governors of both parties, What most people don't understand is that the police, firefighters and teachers who receive these pensions also pay in. So when politicians decide to gut these benefits, it's money paid out to these workers that's stolen for other needs -- mostly to keep from having to raise taxes on the wealthiest people in the state.
If the Democrats on the national stage won't stand up for people who pay into Social Security and Medicare all their lives and are then told not to depend on it because they stole all the money; if Democrats won't stand up for the rights of all Americans to be the same under the law; if Democrats won't stand up for the rights of workers; then why on earth should we reward them with our votes?
We know what Republicans are -- greedy, venal, hateful, cold-hearted and devoid of empathy. Republicans will do what Republicans do. We know this. Our problem is not them; it is the Democrats -- the party that increasingly pisses down our backs and then tells us it's raining.
Labels: Chris Christie, Democratic sellouts, just another outrage, New Jersey
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Not to know him is to love him
New Jersey's embarrassingly crude bully of a governor may make a thrill go up teabaggers' legs, but those of us who have had direct experience with his policies say, "Thanks but no thanks", or (dare I say it, as a horizontally-challenged person?) We Don't Want Him You Can Have Him He's Too Fat For Us. Because when you have to live in Chris Christie's world, it's not a very nice place, as Jerseyans are finding out:
Now if he wants to be Governor of Iowa, THAT we'd support.
UPDATE: Here's Chris Christie's kind of leadership:
Bully and bluster has consequences, as Mr. Christie is just now starting to find out.
New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie, beloved by some and despised by others for his bluntness, has a Minus 18 job approval today as speculation continues about whether Christie should run for President. 38% of NJ adults approve of the job Christie is doing, 56% disapprove.
According to this latest Eyewitness News Poll conducted by SurveyUSA exclusively for WABC-TV in New York City, NJ voters by 5:1 say Christie should not run for President.
* By 2:1, NJ voters say Christie would be a worse president than Barack Obama.
* Obama carried NJ in 2008 by 15 points. Obama's approval rating in NJ today is Plus 14 (54% approve, 40% disapprove).
* Voters split evenly on whether Christie would be better president than George W. Bush.
Christie has cut state spending on education. In those Jersey homes where a school teacher lives:
* Christie's job approval is Minus 30 (33% approve, 63% disapprove).
* 6:1 say Christie should not run for president.
* 5:2 say Christie would be a worse president than Obama.
In union households:
* Christie's job approval is Minus 36 (31% approve, 67% disapprove).
* Obama's job approval is Plus 15 (55% approve, 40% disapprove).
* 8:1 say Christie should not run for president.
* 2:1 say Christie would be a worse president than Bush.
Republicans and Conservatives have mixed feelings about whether Christie should stay focused on the Garden State or allow himself to be talked into putting both feet onto the national stage.
* Among Republicans, Christie's job approval is Plus 29. But: by 2:1, Republicans say Christie should not run for President.
* Conservatives by 2:1 and Republicans by 3:2 say Christie is qualified to be President.
* Conservatives and Republicans by 3:1 say Christie would make a better President than Obama.
* Even among the state's comparatively few Tea Party members, where Christie's approval is Plus 49, there is division: 38% say Christie should run for the White House, 39% say he should not.
* Among Independents, Obama's job approval is Plus 7, Christie's is Minus 11.
* Among Moderates, Obama's job approval is Plus 28, Christie is Minus 23.
* Among lower-income voters, Christie is Minus 32. Among upper income voters Christie is Minus 5.
Now if he wants to be Governor of Iowa, THAT we'd support.
UPDATE: Here's Chris Christie's kind of leadership:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he won’t criticize the state’s Democratic U.S. senators for a lack of federal funding for a vital bridge repair. Nope, that just wouldn’t be fair.
“I feel badly about it,” the Republican governor said Thursday, reflecting on the lack of federal funding to replace the aging Portal Bridge, ”because I wish they would have been more powerful and more successful in being able to get more resources for New Jersey, but obviously they failed in that regard.”
Christie said he was sure New Jersey Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez did the “best they could” to secure federal money to pay for the train passage over the Hackensack River, which needs a $750 million replacement.
The state will benefit from a $2 billion federal injection announced earlier this week into high-speed rail projects, which includes nearly $800 million along in the corridor connecting Boston and Washington through New York.
But, as the Journal reported earlier this week, the bridge was not funded in part because U.S. officials were reluctant to start another major project with Christie after he killed a trans-Hudson rail tunnel that was partially federally funded, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bully and bluster has consequences, as Mr. Christie is just now starting to find out.
Labels: assholes, Chris Christie, Republican brownshirts, thuggery
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Because all you need to be is a spoiled, whiny five-year-old to be governor of New Jersey
Sometimes the snark just writes itself:
Especially now that Chris Christie has demonstrated that throwing a tantrum when you don't get your own way is the most important qualification.
A New Jersey boy who cried on a YouTube clip that he’s too small to be governor was all smiles as Gov. Chris Christie made him honorary chief executive.
Christie signed a proclamation Wednesday making 5-year-old Jesse Koczon, of Old Bridge, honorary governor for the day and his fraternal twin brother, Brandon, honorary lieutenant governor.
The boys, dressed in collared shirt, ties and trousers, appeared at a news conference with their parents, Jon and Dawn Koczon, Christie and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.
Christie, who has four children in elementary through high school, said he “related as a father,” when he saw the video clip of the boy crying.
On the video, Jesse’s mother asks him why he’s upset. Jesse replies, “Cause everyone tells me I’m too small to be the governor of New Jersey.”
Christie responded on Twitter: “Don’t worry Jesse, people gave plenty of reasons why I couldn’t be governor, though being too small wasn’t one of them.”
Christie said Jesse may be a natural for the state’s top job.
Especially now that Chris Christie has demonstrated that throwing a tantrum when you don't get your own way is the most important qualification.
Labels: And You Want To Give Power Back To These People?, Chris Christie, kvetching, whining, You can't make this shit up
Thursday, March 10, 2011
But lies are part of the IOKIYAR rule
When you're a Republican, you can lie with impunity and the media will continue to applaud. As long as you're emphatic about what you say, and you say it with macho pride, the manly-men of the media and the Republican Party will call you "a strong leader":
It's one thing to take shortcuts. It's one thing to try to explain things in a way someone who can't handle a more complex concept than 2 + 2 can understand. But it's another to outright lie and call it "straight talk" as long as it's done emphatically. This is what got us into an expensive, intractable and unnecessary war in Iraq based on lies about weapons of mass destruction that weren't there. This is what Bernie Madoff did when he convinced people that his 18% returns when the markets were flailing around were real. Just because you say something loudly doesn't make it true. And it's high time the media started doing their homework instead of this worship of "straight talk" that isn't straight at all.
New Jersey’s public-sector unions routinely pressure the State Legislature to give them what they fail to win in contract talks. Most government workers pay nothing for health insurance. Concessions by school employees would have prevented any cuts in school programs last year.
Statements like those are at the core of Gov. Chris Christie’s campaign to cut state spending by getting tougher on unions. They are not, however, accurate.
In fact, on the occasions when the Legislature granted the unions new benefits, it was for pensions, which were not subject to collective bargaining — and it has not happened in eight years. In reality, state employees have paid 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health insurance since 2007, in addition to co-payments and deductibles, and since last spring, many local government workers, including teachers, do as well. The few dozen school districts where employees agreed to concessions last year still saw layoffs and cuts in academic programs.
“Clearly there has been a pattern of the governor playing fast and loose with the details,” said Brigid Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State University. “But so far, he’s been adept at getting the public to believe what he says.”
Mr. Christie, a Republican who took office in January 2010, would hardly be the first politician to indulge in hyperbole or gloss over facts. But his misstatements, exaggerations and carefully constructed claims belie the national image he has built as a blunt talker who gives straight answers to hard questions, especially about budgets and labor relations. Candor is central to Mr. Christie’s appeal, and a review of his public statements over the past year shows some of them do not hold up to scrutiny.
[snip]
Misstatements have been central to Mr. Christie’s worst public stumbles — about how the state managed to miss out on a $400 million education grant last year, for example, and whether he was in touch enough while he was in Florida during the blizzard in December — and his rare admissions that he was wrong. But Peter J. Woolley, a politics professor and polling director at Fairleigh Dickinson University, said there had been no sign, so far, that these issues had much effect on the governor’s political standing.
“People prefer directness to detail,” Professor Woolley said. “People know it’s not unusual for politicians to take the shortcut in public debate, that they’re not academics who are going to qualify everything.”
It's one thing to take shortcuts. It's one thing to try to explain things in a way someone who can't handle a more complex concept than 2 + 2 can understand. But it's another to outright lie and call it "straight talk" as long as it's done emphatically. This is what got us into an expensive, intractable and unnecessary war in Iraq based on lies about weapons of mass destruction that weren't there. This is what Bernie Madoff did when he convinced people that his 18% returns when the markets were flailing around were real. Just because you say something loudly doesn't make it true. And it's high time the media started doing their homework instead of this worship of "straight talk" that isn't straight at all.
Labels: Chris Christie, mainstream media, Republican lies
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Get Christie Love. (Please.)
The Washington gasbag circuit has been all but fellating New Jersey governor Chris Christie on national television ever since the horizontally-challenged bully was elected and immediately set the stage for guys like Scott Walker by deciding that the state's entire problem was caused by the New Jersey Education Association. The insiders are desperately looking for a non-crazy Republican to prop up for the 2012 race, and the pickings are pretty lean. The GOP loves its authoritarian daddy figures even more than it loves its aging high school mean girls, and for sheer Because-I-Said-So bombast, nobody beats Chris Christie.
Today's New York Times focuses on the GOP flavor-of-the-month, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, and gets past the bombast to the actual record:
The question is what this state will look like by the time he gets done with it, and people realize that the reason for a good chunk of his spending cuts is that he has continued the noble tradition started by that OTHER Christie, Christine Todd Whitman, of stiffing the state pension fund for other purposes. In Whitman's case it was for income tax cuts, from which the pension fund has never recovered, and in Christie's case it's for cooking the books.
Last week I hired an appraiser for the purpose of a property tax appeal. The value of my house has dropped over $100,000 since the last town revaluation in 2005. I'm not upset about that; after all, in no sane universe is a dormered Cape Cod with a 1970's kitchen and an original black-and-mint-green 1950's bathroom worth almost a half-million dollars. But the taxes on my little POS in one of the less prestigious towns in the county are upwards of $8000 a year -- and that's lower than many surrounding towns, where taxes on a house like mine can run into the five figures. This is just insane, and it's going to get even MORE insane when the full brunt of Christie's budgets start to hit municipalities. Because anyone familiar with local governments in New Jersey knows that no matter what the political affiliation of those running the town, it's all about cronyism, patronage, and no-bid contracts.
My town, which saw the first contested election in thirty years back in 2009, proceeded to elect the same people who had been on the council for that whole time -- and is now outraged that they're doing exactly what they've done for decades -- spend like drunken sailors, hire their friends for no-show municipal jobs, and give contracts to their friends. One councilman is attempting to have himself also named the town attorney so that he can get taxpayer-paid health insurance for his family. The school district is about to spend $3 million on enhancements to the high school football field. When you shift expenses and taxes to towns, and these towns elect corrupt people because there are no options on the ballot, you aren't addressing the biggest problem about which people complain.
If you read the comments section in this article, you'll see that all the Christie Love is coming from outside of New Jersey. Here, where we're actually SEEING what these policies do, it's a different story:
I'll close with the words of one of those demonized state workers, who nails it on where residents SHOULD be pointing their fingers:
Today's New York Times focuses on the GOP flavor-of-the-month, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, and gets past the bombast to the actual record:
Yet his agenda of balancing the budget, rescuing a pension fund that could go broke within a decade and curtailing rising property taxes — the holy grail of politics in his heavily suburban state — is far from achieved. And he still could face the wrath of voters who discover that the costs of government have merely been shifted onto their local tax bills.
“People have heard the tough talk, but they haven’t felt the full effect of what he’s done,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “That may happen in the next year. And voters tell us that if their property taxes don’t go down, they will hold him responsible.”
In his first year, Governor Christie closed a yawning budget deficit that he estimated at almost $11 billion, though in part by skipping a $3 billion payment to the pension system. At $29.4 billion, spending is down more than $5 billion from its peak two years earlier.
In proposing his budget on Tuesday, the governor is expected to call for more cuts to close another huge deficit. With major union contracts set to expire in June, he is calling for a wage freeze, which polls show the public supports.
But the state will still be deeply in debt, and facing a growing shortfall in its pension fund — $54 billion and counting — that helped spur a downgrade of the state’s bonds.
[snip]
Mr. Christie’s record has not been unblemished. He botched an application for $400 million in federal education money at a time when he was cutting twice that amount.
And in December, Mr. Christie was at Disney World during a blizzard that paralyzed the state. He refused to apologize, saying he had kept in touch with the acting governor, Mr. Sweeney — but Mr. Sweeney said they never spoke.
Yet such gaffes have not transcended the state’s borders, while Mr. Christie’s YouTube rants against teachers and their union leaders have become widespread. Mr. Christie is less popular in New Jersey than with national Republicans: polls show that only about 50 percent of residents approve of his performance.
Where his poll numbers head now may depend on whether Mr. Christie can begin to show success in solving seemingly intractable problems like high property taxes before voters start to hold him responsible.
“When you cut billions of dollars from local government, you can’t turn around and say ‘It’s the mayor’s fault’ — you’re the one who did it,” Mr. Sweeney said. “In Chris Christie’s New Jersey, class sizes are going up, and crime is going through the roof in our inner cities. Eventually, people are going to realize, ‘I’m paying a lot more now, and I have a lot less.’ The people have not realized it yet. But he’s the governor, and the music’s going to stop.”
The question is what this state will look like by the time he gets done with it, and people realize that the reason for a good chunk of his spending cuts is that he has continued the noble tradition started by that OTHER Christie, Christine Todd Whitman, of stiffing the state pension fund for other purposes. In Whitman's case it was for income tax cuts, from which the pension fund has never recovered, and in Christie's case it's for cooking the books.
Last week I hired an appraiser for the purpose of a property tax appeal. The value of my house has dropped over $100,000 since the last town revaluation in 2005. I'm not upset about that; after all, in no sane universe is a dormered Cape Cod with a 1970's kitchen and an original black-and-mint-green 1950's bathroom worth almost a half-million dollars. But the taxes on my little POS in one of the less prestigious towns in the county are upwards of $8000 a year -- and that's lower than many surrounding towns, where taxes on a house like mine can run into the five figures. This is just insane, and it's going to get even MORE insane when the full brunt of Christie's budgets start to hit municipalities. Because anyone familiar with local governments in New Jersey knows that no matter what the political affiliation of those running the town, it's all about cronyism, patronage, and no-bid contracts.
My town, which saw the first contested election in thirty years back in 2009, proceeded to elect the same people who had been on the council for that whole time -- and is now outraged that they're doing exactly what they've done for decades -- spend like drunken sailors, hire their friends for no-show municipal jobs, and give contracts to their friends. One councilman is attempting to have himself also named the town attorney so that he can get taxpayer-paid health insurance for his family. The school district is about to spend $3 million on enhancements to the high school football field. When you shift expenses and taxes to towns, and these towns elect corrupt people because there are no options on the ballot, you aren't addressing the biggest problem about which people complain.
If you read the comments section in this article, you'll see that all the Christie Love is coming from outside of New Jersey. Here, where we're actually SEEING what these policies do, it's a different story:
The people in my very Republican town are furious with him for what he is doing to our school district. He decided that he had to reduce the state funding of education, but rather than deciding on a district-by-district basis what cuts should be made, he simply chopped the state funds provided to districts across the board as a fixed percentage of their general operating budgets. This reduction did not take into account whether districts had been spending way below the state average per pupil or way above. My district had always managed its finances well and spent well under the average, while maintaining an exceptionally high-quality program. For that we were rewarded by having 82% of our already small state funding yanked from us. To add to the problem, he also reduced the amount by which local taxes could be raised. There is no way to make up the shortfall, and we are now being forced to make very painful program cuts.
What I would have wanted from this governor would have been a far more nuanced approach to the education cuts. He is, however, all about bluster and bullying, but deep thought about the fairness and impact of his actions escapes him. He is like a blindfolded man with a chainsaw who is trying to trim the shrubs - loud, unseeing, dangerous, and indiscriminate.
I'll close with the words of one of those demonized state workers, who nails it on where residents SHOULD be pointing their fingers:
I am a NJ state worker and have been for more than 25 years. I have consistently cared about my work and about doing a good job. I have never lost sight of the fact that as a public sector worker I am responsible to my fellow citizens and to the consumers of my agency's services. I am at this moment in time solidly middle class and do not live lavishly in any way.
I am watching with alarm what's going on in our country, something that's been going on for a while now, and that's the systematic turning of people's minds against workers like me, as if our salaries will destroy our neighbors' futures. This is the result of a frighteningly effective information campaign launched against public sector workers in every state in the union, so successful that it has caused people to totally forget about who the real destroyers are -- the bankers who, through a diabolical criminal conspiracy, took the hundreds of billions of dollars out of all of our pockets and laughed as they did it, and laughed as they gave themselves bonuses to celebrate their success.
Folks, it's not your own working neighbors who have set about dismantling the security that was once inherent in our way of life -- go see the film "Inside Job" and read Matt Taibbi's article in the current issue of Rolling Stone magazine. There are obscenely wealthy criminals out there who deserve prosecution (although there are perhaps no prosecutors left who can or will take them on), but your neighbors who pay taxes and mortgages, and who shop in local stores and dine at local restaurants and get their cars repaired in local garages -- your neighbors are not the problem. Please seriously consider rejecting the manipulations of the politicians who are doing the work of the wealthy ones who don't want you to notice that they took all the money away from all of us.
Labels: Chris Christie, The Right Wing War on the Middle Class
Saturday, January 22, 2011
There go Chris Christie's presidential aspirations
Chris Christie has of late become the latest target of Republican man-love over at the sausagefest that is Morning Schmoe. I suppose that in an era where a screeching lunatic like Michele Bachmann is a potential presidential candidate, your garden-variety bully who declares war on teachers, plans to replace state toll collectors contractors making ten bucks an hour with no overtime, and relishes the prospect of inflicting pain on all New Jerseyans EXCEPT the wealthiest, who won't have to pay another penny in taxes, no matter how many people get thrown out on the street or die from lack of health care for the indigent, would look like a Republican demigod.
But I think he may have blown his chances with this one:
This is actually one of the few things Christie has done that shows something other than knee-jerk Republican idiocy. Mohammed has been an intermediary between law enforcement and the state's growing population. More visionary stuff like this and less "Fuck the Poor and Middle Class" policy, and I might even give him kudos.
But I think he may have blown his chances with this one:
Last week, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) announced seven judgeship appointments to the New Jersey Superior Court, including the appointment of Sohail Mohammed to serve on the court in Passaic County. Mohammed is an immigration lawyer in Clifton, NJ who notably defended many Muslims caught up in post-Sept. 11 dragnets, in which the Department of Justice quickly and secretly arrested hundreds of Muslims in the wake of the attacks. Often, the false pretense of an immigration violation was used to hold these men for many months, even though a vast majority of them had no connection to terrorism whatsoever.
Several prominent anti-Muslim voices on the right have reacted with characteristic vitriol to the elevation of a Muslim in the U.S. justice system, calling Mohammed “the enemy” and accusing Christie of turning New Jersey into a “Sharia State.
This is actually one of the few things Christie has done that shows something other than knee-jerk Republican idiocy. Mohammed has been an intermediary between law enforcement and the state's growing population. More visionary stuff like this and less "Fuck the Poor and Middle Class" policy, and I might even give him kudos.
Labels: Chris Christie, Islam
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Hey, Governor Christie, meet your re-election opponent
While Chris Christie, the latest Republican rising star who makes a thrill go up Joe Scarborough's leg, got outta Dodge and took his kids to Disney World when the snowflakes from the Sunday blizzard were already falling, here's what another New Jersey pol was doing:
And if Christie thinks that this video is not going to be in heavy rotation when Christie runs for re-election, or even if he decides for President, guess again. Ditto for Mike Bloomberg -- another would-be Savior of Our Great Nation.
And if Christie thinks that this video is not going to be in heavy rotation when Christie runs for re-election, or even if he decides for President, guess again. Ditto for Mike Bloomberg -- another would-be Savior of Our Great Nation.
Labels: a real mensch, Chris Christie, Cory Booker, heartlessness
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Now we know why Chris Christie has declared war on the teachers' unions
It's because he's an uneducated, willfully-ignorant moron and wants a state of people just like himself:
Gov. Chris Christie says he's skeptical that humans are responsible for global warming.
The governor, a new darling of the Republican Party, made the remark at a town hall meeting he hosted in Toms River Tuesday afternoon.
Asked by a man attending the event whether he thought mankind was responsible for global warming, Christie says he's seen evidence on both sides of the argument but thinks it hasn't been proven one way or another.
Christie says "more science" is needed to convince him.
Labels: American Idiots, Chris Christie, The War Against Science, wingnuttia
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
And speaking of Republican hero Chris Christie...
Another Republican hypocrite perfectly happy to take government money for his own benefit:
Somehow I don't think I should hold my breath waiting for Joe Scarborough to ask Christie about the hypocrisy of rhetoric against government spending while using expense accounts to stay at a level of luxury he couldn't afford otherwise.
I just got back from a conference. Because I combined the trip with a visit to family, I paid my own baggage check fees (because I took a bigger suitcase for 5 days than I would have for just the three), even though I got a free ride to the conference hotel. It isn't because I didn't have documentation, it's because the baggage check for the larger suitcase was for my own purposes. And this is a corporate expense account, not a government one. Now why is it that a liberal pagan like me has a sense of ethics about these things when it's a corporation's money, but the voceriferously devote Catholic and conservative Chris Christie doesn't when it is the taxpayers' money?
Gov. Christie, while serving as U.S. attorney, billed taxpayers for luxury hotels on trips and routinely failed to follow federal travel regulations, according to a report released Monday.
The report, released by the U.S. Department of Justice's inspector general, found that while many U.S. attorneys and their subordinates approved their own travel and expenses, the vast majority complied with the approved government lodging rate.
However, the investigation found, "a small number of U.S. attorneys routinely exceeded the government rate, by large amounts, with insufficient, inaccurate, or no justification."
The report does not name any individuals, but the Associated Press identified Christie as "U.S. Attorney C" in the report, based on a comparison of details in the report and public records of Christie's travel expenses released under the Freedom of Information Act during his campaign for governor.
Christie, who spent recent weeks campaigning for fellow Republicans across the country and has been hailed by conservatives as a possible candidate for national office, declined Monday to respond to the report. His communications office referred reporters to comments he made in 2009, when the campaign of his opponent, then-Gov. Jon S. Corzine, obtained Christie's travel documents.
Christie said at the time that he stayed in more expensive hotels only when cheaper ones were not available.
Christie served as the U.S. attorney in New Jersey from 2002 to 2008. As a candidate for governor and in his first year as governor, he has called for spending cuts and more ethical behavior from public officials.
[snip]
During one stay in Washington, for example, Christie stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel at a cost of $475 per night, more than double the government rate of $233 per night, justifying the cost by explaining that he was scheduled to speak at the hotel early in the morning.
The report also took note of Christie's reimbursements for transportation to and from airports. In Boston, for example, to travel a distance of four miles, he arranged for car service that cost $236 round-trip, instead of a taxi. And in London, car service between the airport and a hotel cost taxpayers $562 for a round trip.
Christie declined to be interviewed by the Inspector General's Office, but provided a letter stating that he was unable to provide "any other specific information" to supplement the travel documentation.
"Most of the justification memoranda that we found simply stated that the government rate was unavailable, but provided no substantiation for this claim," the report says. "In four cases, there was no justification memorandum at all."
Somehow I don't think I should hold my breath waiting for Joe Scarborough to ask Christie about the hypocrisy of rhetoric against government spending while using expense accounts to stay at a level of luxury he couldn't afford otherwise.
I just got back from a conference. Because I combined the trip with a visit to family, I paid my own baggage check fees (because I took a bigger suitcase for 5 days than I would have for just the three), even though I got a free ride to the conference hotel. It isn't because I didn't have documentation, it's because the baggage check for the larger suitcase was for my own purposes. And this is a corporate expense account, not a government one. Now why is it that a liberal pagan like me has a sense of ethics about these things when it's a corporation's money, but the voceriferously devote Catholic and conservative Chris Christie doesn't when it is the taxpayers' money?
Labels: Chris Christie, Greedy Republican Bastards, hypocrisy
Sunday, September 26, 2010
It's people like you what causes unrest
New Jersey's thuginator, Chris Christie, he of the jihad against teacher and public employee unions, he of continuing to stiff the state pension fund, he whose policies are going to give New Jersey taxpayers one wallop of an increase in their property taxes as municipalities scramble to make up the revenue, he who these days makes a thrill go up Joe Scarborough's leg, went to California to stump for billionaire Meg Whitman, and hilarity ensued which showed Christie for the thug that he is, as Ed Schultz noted last week:
If you saw Bill Maher on Friday night, you saw him allow Andrew Breitbart to filibuster the entire show, leaving the great Seth MacFarlane doing nothing but sipping out of his Real Time mug and grinning like a cheshire cat. And this is how Republicans operate. They filibuster, they shout, but if you dare to use their own tactics back at them, they say it's YOU who are the problem.
Too bad the guy Christie was bullying turns out to be a wealthy guy who believes (like Seth MacFarlane) that he doesn't really need a tax cut.
I never thought that Monty Python's "Fish License" sketch would start to resemble political discourse in this country:
If you saw Bill Maher on Friday night, you saw him allow Andrew Breitbart to filibuster the entire show, leaving the great Seth MacFarlane doing nothing but sipping out of his Real Time mug and grinning like a cheshire cat. And this is how Republicans operate. They filibuster, they shout, but if you dare to use their own tactics back at them, they say it's YOU who are the problem.
Too bad the guy Christie was bullying turns out to be a wealthy guy who believes (like Seth MacFarlane) that he doesn't really need a tax cut.
I never thought that Monty Python's "Fish License" sketch would start to resemble political discourse in this country:
Labels: Chris Christie, Greedy Republican Bastards, thuggery
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