Tom Moran's Terrible Take on Tenure

by: Jersey Jazzman

Sun Dec 04, 2011 at 11:06:21 AM EST

If the teachers union is for it, it must be bad.

I guess following this rule is easier than using research and logic and facts to form an opinion. Witness today's latest attack on the NJEA: an op-ed decrying tenure that deperately tries to transforms Perth Amboy Superintendent Janine Caffrey into a folk hero.

It's worth noting that Moran saw fit to give Caffrey a big patch of the op-ed section last week to whine about how hard tenure makes her job. I tried to set her and Tom straight, but it looks like it didn't take. So let's go again:

Caffrey says tenure keeps her from dismissing teachers who are undeniably awful. But even Moran has to acknowledge that she herself is a huge part of the problem:

To be fair, districts share some of the blame as well. Tenure rules might be crazy, but it is possible to get rid of the worst teachers if the district builds a solid case with a paper trail. In the case of the refusenik teacher, Perth Amboy failed to do that. The teacher had won satisfactory evaluations in the past, as nearly all teachers do.

Let me get this straight: Caffrey couldn't get her administrators to do their jobs and document how bad this teacher was. And it may well be that this teacher was being defiant because he or she is incompetent, it is also possible the teacher is standing up to Caffrey, her principal, and even her colleagues on a matter of principle.

But because Caffrey is - according to Moran - unable to work with her administrators to build what should be an obvious case, we'll never know. So this "bad" teacher stays.

Ledger Logic - Billionaire Boys Club Edition

by: Jersey Jazzman

Mon Oct 24, 2011 at 09:00:00 AM EDT

Let's start with Moran's long, wet kiss to David Tepper, hedge fund multi-billionaire. After the predictable Horatio Alger claptrap about Tepper's hardscrabble young life in Pittsburgh, Moran sees fit to devote one small paragraph to how this man made his money:

His style is to take huge risks. His firm, Appaloosa Management, made a killing after the financial crash by investing billions in failed banks. After the government bailouts, the value of the shares skyrocketed and his firm made $7.5 billion.

That's not the whole story, as we have reported here at Blue Jersey (h/t DS Wright). Tepper took a position on bank stocks knowing the government was going to pay more than market value for them. By his own admission, his wealth came from a direct transfer of money from the federal government to his firm involving little risk at all.

Legal? You bet. Unethical? Well, probably not according to today's standards on Wall Street. Devoid of any social value? I'd say yes, absolutely. This is the sort of deal the Occupy Wall Street movement is all about. This is the hottest topic in our national discourse at the moment.

Star Ledger Names @bluejersey a Twitter Must-Follow

by: Rosi Efthim

Mon Oct 17, 2011 at 02:02:00 PM EDT

But the homeblog's jazzed to read that the Jersey paper we read and link to every day's taking notice too, particularly since we rag on them plenty (when they deserve it). So, we're proud that Star-Ledger's Inside Jersey Magazine, in a feature by @MeganDeMarco, lists us as a must-follow if you follow politics in Jersey.

Who else is on their list? One Republican (guess which), several Democrats, including 2 looking to rise, a couple political blogs, and Chris Christie's constant Ledger shadow, reporter Ginger Gibson.

Thanks, Twitter followers.
Are you you following @bluejersey?

A Challenge For Tom Moran:

by: Jersey Jazzman

Sun Sep 11, 2011 at 01:00:00 PM EDT

As the Editorial Page Editor of the largest newspaper in New jersey, you command a pulpit on public policy that is arguably second only to the governor's. Today, you used that pulpit to, once again, push a specific version of education "reform":

Sadly, the first casualty could be education reform, the next big item. Christie wants to reform tenure, introduce merit pay for teachers, provide vouchers for private schools, and expand and improve charter schools.

And yet not once in this column - or in previous columns about this subject - have you made the case that this "reform" will actually work.

The Real Coming Hurricane

by: deciminyan

Fri Aug 26, 2011 at 05:00:00 PM EDT

By all accounts, Irene is predicted to be one of the worst natural disasters to hit New Jersey in a long time. There will be millions of dollars of damage, lots of inconvenience as we are diverted from our daily routine, and, tragically an inevitable loss of life.

Memo to Star-Ledger Editorial Board

by: Rosi Efthim

Mon Aug 15, 2011 at 06:27:05 PM EDT

Yesterday, S-L ran an editorial: Can you hear us now? Knock it off. It says, among other things, that striking union members are:

... childish ...
... militant ...
... irresponsible ...
... knuckleheads ...

Our Ledger friends ask whether the good people of New Jersey will even want Verizon workers in their houses ever again after witnessing them in the act of striking. Witnessing what? S-L reports the FBI is investigating 90 acts of 'sabotage'. That's 90 'incidents' over 9 days of striking, in states from Massachusetts to Virginia, with 45,000 people out on strike. Really?

Strikes are a challenging business for both sides as S-L notes in their first paragraph (then promptly forgets). Their story deals only with striker behavior. And they have to pull from the entire Eastern Seabord for alleged stories of BB guns, blocked trucks, and cut cables. They, like many right-wing websites, are particularly scandalized by a worker "using his young daughter as a roadblock for Verizon trucks". I thought you should see that video. Does she look scared to you? Maybe she knows the well-financed PR assault her Daddy's up against.

What about what may be bad actions of scabs? Did S-L even consider the longstanding union-busting tradition of management sabotaging equipment so that striking workers are blamed? No. (Let alone snafus like managers rusty at dangerous 'hands-on' work [apparently] doing stuff like blowing transformers).

A few things for S-L to consider:

$258 million: compensation for Verizon's top 5 execs over the past 4 years
$6 billion: Verizon's annualized profits for 2011
$6,800: increased health care costs to each worker if Verizon wins

This isn't about getting rich off this company. Top Verizon execs have that covered. It's about retaining living wage jobs; that's what unions are supposed to do. The company's asking for about 100 give-backs including freezing pensions, cutting paid holidays, and exporting jobs to foreign companies.

Where's Star-Ledger's outrage at that? The people on strike are the people who built Verizon, literally. Verizon's claiming their back's against the wall because the market's transitioning from land-lines to wireless. Investment experts say even if Verizon succeeds in cutting worker benefits there's no guarantee it will stop their market share loss in landline. And the union makes the case its workers helped build Verizon's highly-profitable wireless side, which is not unionized. So why not support workers earning a living wage, and trying to keep their jobs in America?

So, difficult as strikes are - we get that, S-L - maybe you've overplayed the inconvenience to this company its workers built, that wants to shave worker benefits to rake in even more money. And maybe you haven't noticed many of its customers support the strike.

Jump for a video on the strike from the workers' side:  

A Fine Bromance

by: Jersey Jazzman

Fri Jul 15, 2011 at 04:00:00 PM EDT

... when the guy has no real chance at all of winning?

Ledger Logic

by: Jersey Jazzman

Sat Jun 18, 2011 at 03:07:32 PM EDT

The problem is that Moran's piece is full of illogic, botched facts, and self-contradiction.

Let's start with this:

Inside the Statehouse, within earshot of the rally, senators on the budget committee cast a vote that amounted to a punch in the gut. Public workers would pay more for less, bringing their health and pension benefits back to earth.

Wow - those benefits must be outrageous! We should cheer that we're getting these fat-cat public employees back under control!

Or, you know, not (from the same article):

"What do we do now?" asked Edward Pierce, a CWA member, one of hundreds at the rally wearing the union's trademark red t-shirt. "I think we need to take a more creative approach. They're coming after us."

That people like Pierce will lose health and pension benefits is no cause for celebration. He takes care of the disabled at a developmental center. He is no millionaire. He is not the greedy thug of the governor's imagination.

Well, Tom, which is it? Are middle-class public workers saddling the taxpayers with out-of-this-world benefits, or are he and his fellow workers not "greedy thugs"?

Then there's this:

Star-Ledgers Perfect Little 6-inch Graphic: Christie & Women

by: Rosi Efthim

Sun Jun 05, 2011 at 01:27:01 PM EDT

Today, in case you didn't catch it, this is how Star-Ledger's editorial board illustrates - perfectly - the hostility Gov. Chris Christie has shown to New Jersey women legislators who dare to disagree with him. And, at the same time, an depiction of the gender gap between how men view the way Christie's doing his job, and the way women do. Star-Ledger's graphic is titled: Hey, Christie, what is it about women?

Christie Takes Credit for Obama's Stimulus

by: deciminyan

Wed May 18, 2011 at 03:27:33 PM EDT

According to the Star-Ledger's Megan DeMarco, Governor Christie is once again twisting the facts by taking credit for the slow but steady Obama economic recovery. The governor is claiming that the unexpected increase in state revenue, reported at yesterday's Assembly Budget Committee meeting, is due to his economic policies. This completely ignores the fact that the country as a whole is starting to see the impact of the economic stimulus.

We have seen recently that, contrary to the Governor's claims, manufacturing businesses are leaving the state. Take, for example, long-time Burlington County employer Ocean Spray. When asked about their move to Pennsylvania, their spokesman never mentioned taxes, but rather infrastructure - something that Christie has suffocated.

Hopefully the mainstream media will not simply reprint the governor's lies and talking points, but will provide a critical analysis of why our state's economy is lagging the national recovery.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (NYC) & Wolf Muslin Undergarment Company Fire (Newark)

by: Rosi Efthim

Fri Mar 25, 2011 at 04:45:00 PM EDT

Do you know that a deadly factory fire presaged the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory? Exactly 4 months to the day before. On November 25th, 1910 at the corner of Orange & High Street (now Martin Luther King Blvd) a factory, the Wolf Muslin Undergarment Company, burst into flames, after gasoline was spilled in a lamp factory one floor below. The factory building had a mix of different industries, including an explosives company. Nineteen people lept to their deaths, some impaled on a spiky metal fence. At least six burned to death. The youngest worker was just 16. In a city-wide expression of grief, more than 100,000 people came to bear witness in the days after. New York City's fire chief warned that that kind of tragedy could happen in any of the sweatshops of Manhattan, unless something was done to improve the working conditions. And so, the memory of the Newark fire was fresh in workers' minds when 146 people, most immigrant women and girls, died at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.

One hundred years ago, high up in a building a block from Washington Square Park, most of the girls and women were getting ready to leave for the day. It was 4:45pm, and they were working on a Saturday. Packing up their things, getting ready to walk down the long stairs. Fire broke out on the eighth floor, and the women rushed to get out. The fire escape twisted with their weight, and women in long dresses plunged to the street below as men rushing from the park held out their arms to try and catch them. On the ninth floor, the exit was locked. Fire ladders only went as high as the sixth floor. New York City police were weeping as women sailed to the pavement; many of them had beaten back some of those same women as they marched for better working conditions in the weeks before.

The earlier Newark fire was almost forgotten; we remember it only because a Star-Ledger reporter, Guy Sterling, researched it and retrieved it from history. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, bigger, worse, if such a thing is possible, we remember.

The spark of action and change after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was driven by progressives. From that, and from the lives of those lost women and girls we have reform of workplace heath and safety conditions, a drive to organize garment workers, and fire safety precautions. We have a labor movement - Look for the union label - that grew strong, built the middle class, made the American dream possible for millions, a labor movement now very much at risk.

All the progress of the last 100 years can be reversed in the face of union-busting governors with compliant state legislatures, even Democratic-controlled state legislatures. That is what is worth remembering. Collective bargaining is about workers having a measure of self-determination, because history teaches us what happens when they do not. We know which side we are on.  

So Can There Be any Happy Medium Here??

by: Senator Loretta Weinberg

Mon Mar 07, 2011 at 09:00:00 AM EST

On one side we have our tough (and sometimes mean) acerbic Governor enjoying the limelight! He actually criticized President Obama for suggesting that elected leaders should not vilify public employees.  He seems to enjoy escalating the noise level while he calls our public safety personnel, the "Me First" group.

There's the building trades who, though we know they have suffered terribly during this economic downturn, it is still suprising seeing their lack of public support for public employees. Whatever happened to the sisterhood and brotherhood I grew up with?

We, Democrats, have to overcome the noise coming from the administration We should recognize that Senate President Steve Sweeney is calling attention to real issues of escalating pensions, health benefits and sick leave. His responsibility is to put forth ideas for the public and their legislative representatives to discuss and debate.  But I believe we need to negotiate these (not legislate them) with union leadership who also must be willing to clearly state they understand the plight of the highly taxed New Jersey homeowner, and they're ready to become a part of the solution!

more  below

Star-Ledger Christie caption FAIL

by: Rosi Efthim

Sun Mar 06, 2011 at 05:42:28 PM EST

It's a simple mistake Star-Ledger made this morning - I've made the same - but it's been up since 5:30am. It seems fitting that it's the caption in Tom Moran's column about Gov. Christie's lying (he might call it something else), bad attitude and nastiness. See also Good Sunday Reading.

For your amusement (sorry, Star-Ledger):, an unintentional comment on the over-high opinion the Governor has of himself:

Thanks to the Washington Post, and Chris Cillizza's readers at The Fix

by: Rosi Efthim

Mon Feb 28, 2011 at 07:01:37 PM EST

The Fix's Best State-Based Political Tweeters for New Jersey:

@JoshuaHenne
@lisafleisher
@michaelcmuller  
@NJDSC
@bluejersey
@jason_springer
@CoryBooker
@GingerGibsonSL

Cillizza apparently was thinking (here's his call for tweeter nominations) most of people he chose would be reporters. In his NJ list, only 2 are; Ginger Gibson of the statehouse bureau shared by Star-Ledger & Bergen Record and New Jersey reporter for the Wall Street Journal Lisa Fleisher both made Cillizza's list.

The rest of us are all progressive or Democratic partisans. more below

Star-Ledger doubles statehouse bureau staff

by: Rosi Efthim

Thu Feb 10, 2011 at 12:00:08 PM EST

Three years ago, Star-Ledger laid off 40% of its newsroom staff, which the New York Times noted at the time was one of the largest reductions in a single move by a major American paper. The Times had just had its own round of editorial layoffs - a first for the Times - and was soon to lay off another 100 newsroom staff, and the national paper of record no longer covers New Jersey news as closely as it once did. Across the country newsrooms were and are hurting; advertising down, and costs up - from bedrock papers like the Times and Ledger to smaller, locally-essential weeklies. The Delaware Valley News, which covered the river towns along the New Jersey and Pennsylvania banks of the Delaware, closed three years ago too - the first paper I ever worked for. Around the same time, Politicker's national expansion took a dive, shutting down 12 state sites. (Juan Melli, who became Associate Editor at politicker.com 3 years after founding Blue Jersey, was out with that round of layoffs).

With massive shifts in editorial staffing have come changes, new ventures like newjerseynewsroom.com, formed out of the ruins of the Star-Ledger layoffs by journalists whose experience "adds up to over 1,000 years". And into the reporting void, hyperlocals are springing up to catch news a new way, in very focused geographical areas. Citizen's Campaign's new NJ Hyperlocal News Association is helping hyperlocals develop, an effort Blue Jersey is involved in, in our own small way.

The latest bad news for newspapers came in a one-two punch over the last few days. It was the last day at work for nearly half of Gannett's editorial staff with job losses at Courier News, Home News Tribune and Daily Record. One of those let go, Daily Record's political columnist Fred Snowflack, who outed himself as a Democrat on his way out the door. And - bad timing - that bill that would allow municipalities to post legal notices on their websites rather than requiring them to pay newspapers for the service. Newspapers, the Star-Ledger in the lead, are charging that this is less a cost-cutting option for government and less an effort by government to control their content and cripple them financially. Jury's still out on that one, for me.

So, I'm liking new reporting muscle at the state house. Good luck, Star-Ledger. Politicker too. Good luck.

Democratic Response to State of the State Address

by: deciminyan

Wed Jan 12, 2011 at 05:10:00 PM EST

Below are two videos, one from NJN where Michael Aron interviews Senator Sarlo and Assemblyman Cryan right after Christie's address.  The second video is from the Star-Ledger and is a press conference among several Democratic leaders commenting on Christie's assertions.

From NJN:

Quote of the Day: Funniest Man in New Jersey Edition

by: Rosi Efthim

Sun Jan 02, 2011 at 01:52:30 PM EST

Q: Gov. Christie and Lt. Gov. Guadagno were both out of state when the blizzard hit this week. Should an effort be made to have at least one of our executives in-state at all times?

BYRNE: I never thought we needed a lieutenant governor, but we've got one, so we have to live with it. And maybe living with it means we need to anticipate what's coming up. Still, (then-Acting Gov. Stephen) Sweeney has done a masterful job.

KEAN: Luckily, we had no big problems as a result of the storm. But, like any corporation, either our No. 1 or No. 2 person should always be on duty.

BYRNE: I think 30 inches of snow is a big problem.

KEAN: I meant we didn't have any major problems beyond the snow. ... nothing that would have required the presence of the governor.

BYRNE: Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?

"The heat is nothing compared to what it would be if the tapes ever got into the public domain."

by: Rosi Efthim

Wed Dec 01, 2010 at 04:12:19 PM EST

Rush Holt, Chair of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel &  senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, spoke out when the Justice Department closed a 3-year investigation into the destruction of those taped records, without filing criminal charges.

Over the weekend - I'm catching up with it now - Tom Moran published an excellent Q & A with Holt about this, as usual Moran asked a lot of the right questions. I won't reprint it all here, just the first couple questions, and I'll direct you to Moran's post at nj.com for the rest:

Q. What do we know about the contents of the tapes?

A. Evidently, they showed practices that any reasonable person would call torture, practices we would never want carried out against Americans.

Q. Why did CIA officers destroy them?

A. It was not for lack of space in their storeroom. They destroyed them because they contained things they didn't want anyone else to know. In particular, so that Congress would not learn about them.

QoTD: Who Doesn't Talk, and Who Talks Entirely Inappropriately Edition

by: Rosi Efthim

Sat Nov 06, 2010 at 03:24:41 PM EDT

I just was able to read the email [from Rochelle Hendricks, that she would not attend]. I've known Rochelle for 25 years, and I've always admired her work and her passion for education. And I just don't believe ... I know she signed it ... I question whether she actually wrote it. I think it was dictated or handed to her, and said 'Here's what you're going to do.'

As the teachers were meeting, Gov. Christie gave a talk to the kids in the Boys & Girls Club in Trenton, to inform them that their greedy teachers and union reps are the reason their schools are short on supplies.

What I don't understand is why the adult authorities at any school, Boys & Girls Club, or neighborhood association would allow Gov. Christie to have access to children, particularly when what he intends is to discuss with them his actions and their impact on their schooling and their futures. It's remarkably irresponsible that a governor - highest authority in the state - is talking to children and suggesting their teachers are not to be trusted, don't care about them, and want to take from them. Why any responsible adult would allow Gov. Christie to speak that way to children - without intervening and quietly escorting him from the room - is beyond comprehension.  

Farmer Clock times out again

by: Thurman Hart

Wed Dec 10, 2008 at 09:29:57 AM EST

In 1993, he lost a rematch in a regular election.

In 2001, he was beaten by Glenn Cunningham and Tom Degise, which went to a runoff before a Cunningham victory.

In 2004, he was beaten by Jerramiah Healy.

In fact, it appears that the only consistant part of Manzo's record is that he has lost an election to every (elected) mayor for the last seventeen years.  "Anyone but Manzo"?