Here's a straightshooter for you. Zachary Fink of NJN asked Senator Lance if he would allow his picture to be taken with President Bush when he comes to town tomorrow. Lance gave us this non-answer:
I was unaware, but did you know that the only cameras which exist are owned by the media, who apparently didn't get an invitation to the secret Bush-Lance-Myers fundraiser either. It's amazing the lengths they go to avoid being seen with their unpopular President while they shovel his money in their pockets hand over fist.
Maybe Lance & Myers will just get stuck in traffic like Tom Kean Jr. when he avoided Dick Cheney. If the fact that the media won't be there is the only holdup, I'd like to volunteer to take the picture . I promise to share with others too.
Thank you to the NJ Democratic State Committee for today's caption contest. In advance of Monday's Bush-Lance-Myers fundraiser, they give us this:
This movie is rated F (for Failure) Parental guidance isn't enough. The best way to prevent a Bush sequel is to deny admittance of Republicans to any & all elective office.
New Jersey Democrats are pleased to welcome George Bush to New Jersey to promote the newly-created Lance-Myers Trust Fund.
The President doesn't have too many friends left, but he obviously has two good friends in Chris Myers and Leonard Lance. Mr. Myers and Mr. Lance seem reluctant to remind everyone of their political and financial ties to George Bush, so we'll help by extending an "invitation" to the Bush fundraiser next Monday to aid his loyal allies Chris Myers and Leonard Lance.
For those who think Eight Is Not Enough, helping Myers & Lance is the best way around the 22nd Amendment.
Myers looks to George Bush visit for fundraising boost
The Adler campaign offered a pretty funny comment regarding the lack of attention from the NRCC in contrast to the big bear hug from the President:
"The president is unpopular, but he is still a mega-fundraiser for the Republican Party," Warren said. "While the NRCC (National Republican Campaign Committee) has chosen to fund candidates in 26 other districts before the Myers campaign, it's clear the president is committed to raising big dollars for his protege Chris Myers."
So much for sending out email invites and trying to keep things on the down low. I think it's safe to say the secret is out.
Apparently George Bush is coming to Colts Neck next week to raise money for Chris Myers and Leonard Lance since they aren't able to raise money on their own.
$50 to anyone who can get a picture of them all together.
Bush is scheduled to be in Colts Neck Sept. 22 for a private fundraiser for state Sen. Leonard Lance and Chris Myers.
But the Lance-Myers New Jersey Trust, which is hosting the event, has not announced the visit by the unpopular president, leading Democrats to charge that the candidates do not want to be publicly associated with Bush.
I'm assuming everyone received their invitation, but if you missed the secret email, there's a copy of it on the right - just don't tell anyone (it's a secret!). I can't say I'm surprised that Lance and Myers don't want to have their picture taken with the President publicly, they just want his money.
"This has become the game plan for Bush loyalists in New Jersey who want to take the money the president can bring in without getting caught on film," said Democratic State Committee spokesman Richard McGrath. "But Chris Myers and Leonard Lance are Bush Republicans and they have the campaign cash to prove it."
The event is being hosted by Mike Ferguson and Jim Saxton in honor of Leonard Lance and Chris Myers and the disclaimer lists the Lance-Myers NJ Trust, the RNC and the NRCC.
I had never heard of the Lance-Myers trust so I decided to look it up on the FEC site. The committee has collected no money at all. The documents for the committee were sent Fed Ex on August 26. The thing is, it's not even a NJ Committee. According to the FEC, it is a committee that is filed in the State of Virginia. If they had used their own candidate committees, many donors would already be maxed out. This allows them to start fresh. How convenient.
So the next time Leonard Lance and Chris Myers tell you how independent they are from President Bush and their party, remember that out of the public eye they are desperately trying to pick up the change that is still left from his coattails. I guess they also found another way to get some more of Jim Saxton's money.
In its first national labor scorecard, the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations said more than 10 percent of Americans are unemployed, discouraged from seeking work or underemployed. That is a nearly 25-percent increase from one year earlier.
Here are some more statistics on the state of our workforce:
-- About 530,000 were subject to mass layoffs in the last year, growth of nearly 5 percent, but a lower rate than five and 10 years ago.
-- The median weekly earnings for American workers have not grown in real terms over the last eight years.
-- At $6.55, the federal minimum wage is worth 40 cents less per hour, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than it was a decade ago.
-- While employer-assisted childcare and employee wellness programs have grown quickly over the last decade, they still cover less than one quarter of American workers.
-- Roughly 4 percent of the workforce wants to work full-time, but is working part time because they can't find full-time work.
[Senator McCain] doesn't understand how the policies he has supported and wants to perpetuate have so terribly misfired.
We cannot afford four more years of failing economics and a failing economy.
Our children can't afford more of the same.
Our seniors can't afford more of the same.
Our working families can't afford more of the same.
John McCain's good friend Phil Gramm says we're in a "mental recession," and that the middle-class folks worried about their futures are just "whiners." Barack Obama knows that pursuing the failed policies of the past is no way to build America's future.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (IL):
This election comes down to a simple question: do we want four more years of Bush-McCain or do we want the change we need?
George Bush has put the middle class in a hole and John McCain has a plan to keep digging that hole with George Bush's shovel.
The Walshes and families like them can't afford four more years of playing second fiddle to the well-connected and the powerful. And our country can't afford four more years of Bush-McCain economics.
Gov. Ed Rendell (PA):
[G]uess who voted with President Bush 90 percent of the time? Senator John McCain.
Now, as another Republican convention approaches, we are hearing more of the same
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (MD):
This November, we can't afford four more years of the same.
Gov. Joe Manchin (WV):
[The people of West Virginia] can't afford four more years like the last eight.
Gov. Jim Doyle (WI):
We are ready to reject John McCain's campaign that offers nothing but four more years of the same.
Bill Clinton is, as we all know, a terrible example for children and should have been put in the stocks for his terrible sexual peccadilloes. George Bush is, of course, a good Christian man who helps our teenage girls to stay pure and good until their marriage night with abstinence only education.
At least that's what the media and the right wing noise machine will tell us, equating the Democrats with weak morality and the Republicans with "family values."
But the evidence rarely shows that to be the case. Here's more info that puts the lie to conventional wisdom:
With teenage birth rates rising nationally for the first time in 15 years, a majority of New Jersey residents worry that pregnancy among teens is a major problem in the state, according to a Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll.
Fifteen years ago? What happened 15 years ago, in 1993? Oh, Bill Clinton became President and ended a streak held by George Bush the First of increasing teen pregnancy.
And he implemented programs that taught kids about HIV and safe sex, and for the rest of his term pregnancy rates continued to fall.
It wasn't until the good Christian and moralist George Bush the Second trashed all those safe sex programs and spent seven years telling kids they would be OK as long as they ignored those sexual urges God gave them that teen pregnancy rates began to rise again.
Sixty-one percent of New Jersey adults believe teenage pregnancy is a major problem, while 27 percent say it's just a minor concern, and 10 percent have no opinion.
Those 61 percent probably think that the damn immoral relativist Democrats are to blame, and will consider voting for McCain over Obama. Even though McCain cheated on his first wife and got married just a month after he divorced her.
Senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales broke the law by using politics to guide their hiring decisions for a wide range of important department positions, slowing the hiring process at critical times and damaging the department's credibility and independence, an internal report concluded Monday.
What does all this have to do with Chris Christie?
President Bush held a press conference yesterday to re-assure everyone just how great the economy was doing, despite the fact that it's not doing very well at all. One comment made by the president during his ramblings struck me as familiar, as though I'd heard it before:
I think the system basically is sound, I truly do," Bush said
Hmm, where have I heard such nonsense before? Oh that's right, 3rd district GOP Congressional candidate Chris Myers has had his head in the sand regarding the economy as well:
Myers called the economy "basically strong" during an interview on 1210 AM.
Basically, it's time for a new talking point. At the time, I pointed out the ridiculousness of that statement and I think the same analysis applies, possibly even more today. Maybe Myers and Bush should read the Burlington County Times series called Tough times in County, which is examining how the economy is affecting people in Myers own Congressional District:
* Applications to the county Board of Social Services for programs such as welfare, Medicare, job placement and food stamps have increased 22 percent between May last year and this past May. Applications for food stamps increased 8 percent.
* The unemployment rate in the county for the first five months of 2008 was averaging 4.5 percent, up from an average of 3.8 percent in 2007.
* Major county-based employers Jevic Transportation in Delanco, Sybron Chemicals in Pemberton Township, U.S. Pipe in Burlington City and Sallie Mae in Mount Laurel closed or reduced operations during the past year, resulting in hundreds of layoffs.
Those are just numbers. Burlington County residents can attest to sacrifices they have been forced to make.
So exactly what part of that is basically strong or basically sound?
(Anyone who wants to claim they support our troops should be outraged over President Bush's willingness to send them to their deaths, but not to pay for a college degree. (ahem, Senator McCain?) - promoted by Thurman Hart)
This morning, John Adler, our Democratic nominee for Congress in New Jersey's 3rd District, sent a letter to President Bush urging him to withdraw his opposition to Senator Jim Webb's Post 9/11 GI Bill and sign it into law...
I am writing to express my deep disappointment with your opposition to the 21st Century GI Bill and to strongly urge you to reconsider your position. Given your professed support for our brave veterans who have put their lives on the line for us all, it seems inconceivable that you would deny them the benefits they need upon their return home.
The Webb GI Bill will provide for free in state tuition to any public university for all armed services members serving a minimum of three years. The bill takes bases tuition off the most expensive public school in the state, which guarantees that the education is free. New Jersey alone has 3 of the top 10 most expensive public schools in the country. Also, the Webb bill provides for a $1,000 a year stipend to help pay for books, equipment, etc.
Follow me below the jump to read John's letter to the President...
I know folks who come to this site are not going to be surprised that another George Bush policy is breaking the law, but what may surprise you is that he got caught and can't enforce his anti-child policies anymore.
The Bush administration violated federal law last year when it restricted states' ability to provide health insurance to children of middle-income families, and its new policy is therefore unenforceable, lawyers from the Government Accountability Office said Friday.
The ruling strengthens the hand of at least 22 states, including New York and New Jersey, that already provide such coverage or want to do so. And it significantly reduces the chance that the new policy can be put into effect before President Bush leaves office in nine months.
The letter in question says that states can't provide health insurance under the SCHIP program for families with two kids making about $53K until they provide insurance for 95 percent of kids in families making about $42K. In essence they are saying that if you can't find every family at $42K and make them sign up, then you can't sign up any kid from a family who makes more than $42K.
Governor Corzine appealed on behalf of NJ, as did a bunch of other states, to overturn the decision. It is particularly important to NJ where cost of living is so much higher than in other states, and $54K for four people doesn't go very far.
It ain't over yet, and there's still little chance that more kids will get health insurance. The Bush Administration says they don't care, and aren't gonna do anything different than they currently are.
But Jeff Nelligan, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said, "G.A.O.'s opinion does not change our conclusion that the Aug. 17 letter is still in effect."
New Jersey voters chose Senator Hillary Clinton as the candidate they?d be the most likely and most unlikely to support in the general election, according to a new study from Fairleigh Dickinson University?s PublicMind. In a survey conducted from January 14 through January 20, likely primary voters, regardless of party affiliation, were asked who among the field of candidates they are most likely and most unlikely to support for president. Clinton tops both lists with 25 and 27 percent, respectively.
Wow. It would seem that for every person who really wants to vote for Hillary there is someone waiting to vote for ANYONE else. What a great candidate! Jump with me for more insights.
Despite his low approval ratings, President Bush will still be welcome on the campaign trail for Republican congressmen in 2008, said Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).
Only a fifth (20%) say they approve of the job President Bush is doing, a seven point drop from October. And stark partisan differences are evident, with just 4 percent of Democrats approving of President Bush but about half of Republicans approving of him (48%).
Do you think Chris Myers, John Kelly, Kate Whitman and Leonard Lance want the President to come join them on the trail and "give them a boost"? Maybe someone should ask them.
The New York Times reports ( http://www.nytimes.c... ) that the Bush EPA has denied California's request to enact stronger controls on pollution emitted from cars. That effects NJ and 16 other states that had planned to follow California's lead.
The California regulations would have forced the car companies either to sell two separate fleets of vehicles - one for states with the higher standard, one that met the federal standard - or more likely, to achieve the higher standard across all vehicles.
The operational part of that quote is the bit that makes it clear that with 17 states (mostly large) mandating a much higher standard; the auto manufacturers would have been forced to comply throughout the whole nation.
See below for more info, some hope, something we can do and a nifty video!
Most of the time Mike Ferguson would rather talk about fictional toll roads than discuss his position on the Iraq War, but the Express Times got him live and on the record.
U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson, R-Hunterdon, said he would not impose a withdrawal timeline upon the White House.
"I haven't supported it in the past, and I wouldn't support it if the vote were tomorrow," Ferguson said.
The two GOP incumbents made those statements in response to the congressional testimony they heard this week from Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, and Ryan C. Crocker, the U.S. Ambassador in Baghdad.
This is the guy, remember, who claims to be pro-life. He's not. He's just anti-contraception and anti-abortion. About our soldiers and the Iraqi people he apparently doesn't care.
It'll be a fancy dress party, Jersey style at the next week's Governor's Gala.
Mark the date: June 8th.
It's a chance to raise money for the state party and the Democratic slate in this November's elections. (Expand the majority. Hello!) And with former President Bill Clinton on hand as featured guest, folks might find themselves feeling nostalgic for a not-so-long-ago era of peace and prosperity. Peace, prosperity? Ring and bells?
But enough about my fantasies.
I suspect this event shall lie in stark contrast to the little NJ-GOP extravaganza cumdebacle this past week. I also am guessing that Clinton will be warmly received by the state's democrats. Likewise, it's a safe bet that our Clinton soiree bring in a lot more ducats than the Bush/NJGOP shindig. I just betcha.
One thing is for sure: At $1,500 a pop, the Democrats know the deal: No. Dixie. Cups. Ever.
By now, you've heard that $300 will get you exactly one plastic cup from which you can swill your favorite chablis. Or martini. Or Kool-Aid.
That's kind of insulting, but since I'm not a Republican donor, I don't feel bad. But I think the real story is the President's failure to actually, well, raise money (that is why he came here in the first place, right?). According to PoliticsNJ, the President "helped earn $675,000" which allowed the NJGOP to "clear about $400,000" from the event. That's downright anemic for a sitting President.
.gif)
