Thanks to this week's Non-State of the Union address, I found the site Speechwars.com. It lets you count how often any word has been used in State of the Union addresses. Presidents have said "liberty" 322 times, "economy" 799 times. "War" beats out "peace" 2757 to 1851.
Naturally I immediately compared New Jersey to New York, to see who gets more Presidential love:
We lose and it isn't even close: 144-11. Woodrow Wilson (1919) was the last President to mention us, but every President after Kennedy went for New York. Jersey was also acknowledged by Washington, Lincoln, Arthur, Cleveland, McKinley,and Taft too. But of course, New York has New York City too, so maybe we'd do better against Pennsylvania:
Pennsylvania also crushed us, 40-11. But at least New Jersey must be more important than our last neighor. Delaware has never had a President or more than three electoral votes:
Ouch: 25-11. No wonder so many New Jerseyans have a chip on their shoulder.
A radio promo for Spike TV's upcoming documentary series on drug enforcement in Newark has been spiked after Senate President Richard J. Codey voiced outrage over the commercial's depiction of the city.
The promotion for the new season of "DEA," scheduled to air next week, characterized Newark as "one of America's most dangerous cities," and asserted that "after 9/11 New York's ports shut down, severing the lucrative drug supply, so dealers moved across the river to Newark."
"As of right now, all the ads have been pulled until the new ads are swapped in," said Debra Fazio-Rutt, spokeswoman for Spike TV. "Yes, we heard from officials in Newark and the DEA, the mayor's office, and we are modifying our ad."
New York Times: In New York City, an Aromatic Mystery Solved
New York Daily News: What's that smell? Mayor Bloomberg reveals source of mystery stench: Food-additive plant in N.J.
New York Post: IT'S NEW JERSEY'S FAULT!
The Record: Smelly mystery solved
And the Wall Street Journal Law blog gave this flattering review:
Ever since the landfill on Staten Island closed, who in New York doesn't look to the Garden State when it comes to bad smells?
Lovely. You'd think that with everything else they blame us for, they wouldn't mind the sweet smell of syrup. Maybe SpikeTV will run ads about the smell when they replace the original ones that insulted Newark.
Gov. David A. Paterson has directed all state agencies to begin to revise their policies and regulations to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, like Massachusetts, California and Canada.
So, gay couples won't be able to get married in New York until their legislature acts, but can get married elsewhere. Seems like Atlantic City would be a natural...
Update (Juan): also, Governor Corzine and Attorney General Milgram could do the same thing in New Jersey right now.
First, to lay it out on the table, I support Andrews for senate and think that he should be our nominee come November. Before coming to that decision, however, I supported Lautenberg (and will do so if he is the nominee) and did as much research on him as I could. What I found in that time and subsequently is that Lautenberg doesn?t spend much time in New Jersey, doesn?t do much work for local Democratic committees and the state party, and hasn?t visited many counties in the state for quite some time, let alone talk to the voters in these counties about their concerns.
The following list represents the last-known appearance by Lautenberg in every county in the state. I used a variety of sources, all electronic, to compile it, ranging from Lautenberg?s own press releases to his own senate gallery to basic google search results to my own personal knowledge of his work. I encourage others who have knowledge of when and where Lautenberg visited these counties and towns in those counties to post such information; if your local or county Democratic committee has met with Lautenberg or he has worked with you recently, please do post such information. In short, I?m not trying to be dishonest towards Lautenberg in the least in the information below.
If you don?t feel like reading further, then let me summarize: according to my research, Lautenberg hasn?t been to a dozen or so N.J. counties, most South Jersey and Republican-leaning ones, in months, if not years; he only makes quick media appearances (Monmouth, Ocean) in other counties; and spends the majority of his time in the state in Essex, Hudson, and Bergen counties, if he is in the state at all.
New York PIRG has created a Straphanger's Campaign, www.straphangers.org, in the State that provides information to commuters, including how to best file complaints, a blog for commuters to discuss issues, and methods for them to become active in transit issues for the betterment of all riders. In New Jersey, no such organization exists to assist the approximately 800,000 daily commuters who take modes of transportation offered by New Jersey Transit every day. Given the frustrating experiences encountered on New Jersey Transit, an organization devoted to such issues would be welcomed by the commuter.
With all due respect to Reed Gusciora -- a great friend of Blue Jersey and a great legislator -- Al Gore lost my vote today.
I went to the Live Earth concert site to see what was up, and saw this image:
But there are no Live Earth concerts in New York. And anyone who goes to New York to see a Live Earth concert today is going to be really fricking disappointed because the show will be across the Hudson River in New Jersey!
Anyone who wants to be President of the United States of America -- and Al says he isn't running but isn't ruling it out -- should know the difference between New York and New Jersey. It's a little petty thing, but it's for real.
The fact is that New York isn't good enough to have done a show like this. If New York could have put on the show, they probably would have. But New Jersey was ready with the venue, the crowd, the security and everything.
And New Jersey passed and signed into law a tough emissions bill yesterday -- and Al Gore was there!. In fact, Governor Corzine held off signing the bill until yesterday to do it in concert with the concert, to help Al Gore's effort to get the message out. But that's not good enough to have Al's concert respect our borders for the purposes of an environmental concert.
It seems like every time something great happens in the Garden State our neighbors to the North and West get the credit. But every time something bad happens, it turns New Jersey into a late night joke fest again.
This hurts our tourism, our ability to draw businesses, our economy, our reputation, etc. It's about time that New Jersey be respected as the great state it is.
We've got the shore, the casinos, the Pine Barrens, the Delaware Water Gap, Fort Dix, Bruce Springsteen, the Giants, the Jets, an incredibly high per-capita income, Joan Jett, Round Valley, the Great Swamp, Bruce Willis, Cape May, Albert Einstein, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Edison, etc., etc., etc.
We invented the lightbulb, the telegraph, the telephone, patent leather, the electric motor, the record player, moving pictures, the transistor, the cell phone, the laser, cheez whiz, etc., etc., etc. For
It was in New Jersey that the lost cause of the American revolution turned in 1776 when Washington and his troops routed the Hessians at Trenton then marched up Quaker Road to Princeton and put a hurt on the British. When the Continental Congress had to flee Philadelphia because the PA militia couldn't hold the city, our founders came to New Jersey.
If Al Gore can't respect the Garden State enough to admit that his biggest American show is in Jersey, then he's lost my vote. I'm damned proud to be from New Jersey, and am sick of being called by another state's name.
Tonight the New York Assembly became the first house in any state legislature outside of California to pass marriage equality legislation. The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, passed 85-61, including the support of four Republicans. O'Donnell cited New Jersey as proof that civil unions don't work:
He also talked about evidence emerging from New Jersey's four-month experience with civil unions, in which both gay advocates and state officials have received hundreds of complaints from gay and lesbian couples who say that employers and institutions such as hospitals have not treated them as spouses, as the law requires.
Garden State Equality has reported that the civil unions law has a 13% failure rate.
This is what courage and leadership looks like. While our legislature blew their chance at equality, other states are learning from our very predictable mistakes and leading the way.
