Not too long ago, there was a conversation between some of us political bloggers; it went on across the country and across state lines. We talked about this: How long do you think it will be before somebody on the right takes Ted Kennedy's memorial service, and what will inevitably be said there, and trashes it like they did Paul Wellstone's?
That struck me. I count two things as the engines behind everything I'm doing in politics right now. Howard Dean's What I want to know ...speech. And the massive arena celebration of the lives of Paul & Sheila Wellstone. Sen. Wellstone was not perfect; he was not angelic. But what he was, was brave. An ordinary, everyday guy with a Minnesota Senate seat.
Ted Kennedy was a very different guy. Tried most of his life to connect with the ordinary. And you bet there's going to be an effort to remind grieving congressional Democrats that health care was the cause of Kennedy's life. They'd better damn well pass it. And there's no way the right will not challenge that.
The answer to that question - How long? - is now. Today, Rush Limbaugh ridiculed Wellstone's memorial, that arena brimming with people who knew early that change was coming, and there was work to be done. Forward-thinkers, progressives, and fearless local organizers. There was more loss, and backlash, before there was winning. But that memorial - those people, those speeches - meant everything to me. And I can't just sit and listen to what was just said on the radio, without saying this:
Paul Wellstone didn't die. Not like they wanted him to.
Speaking from the Wilkins Theater at the university in Union, the Elizabeth native discussed the potency of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the direction of the Department of Homeland Security.
"Far from stifling FEMA, it has actually been an enabler for them that has permitted them to do things they could never do as a stand-alone agency," said Chertoff.
Do things they've never done, you mean like not effectively handle emergencies? Chertoff went on to clarify that the benchmark for judgment is apparently the pathetic Katrina response:
As an example, Chertoff compared the relatively minimal loss of life during Hurricanes Ike and Gustav this summer to the devastating deaths during Hurricane Katrina three years ago, attributing the difference to the department's new direction under his leadership.
Does he mean that they didn't put people up in hazardous trailers or let 170 million pounds of ice just melt? That's like me trying to tell someone that if you compare me to a little person, I'm a giant at only 5'6". You can't just arbitrarily pick a low point to say you've exceeded those already minimal expectations. Let's see just how good that Ike Response has been, since he thinks it's going so well:
Over 3 months after Hurricane Ike hit, 30 miles of trash still lines the Texas coastline. The Associated Press' Michael Graczyk reported, "alligators and snakes crawl over vast piles of shattered building materials, lawn furniture, trees, boats, tanks of butane and other hazardous substances, thousands of animal carcasses, perhaps even the corpses of people killed by the storm."
Here's video of Rachel Maddow talking about the remaining Ike devastation:Do things they've never done you say? Like in a good or bad way?
(Keep an eye out for City Belt's first edition which will be out Sept 1st. Their initial distribution areas include Jersey City, Hoboken, Montclair, Newark, New Brunswick and Princeton. If you don't live in those areas, you can also subscribe for a year for $15. - promoted by jmelli)
Today at City Belt, we're happy to be posting our first story to the Web that will actually be in our inaugural print edition, coming out this Friday. We thank the readers of Blue Jersey for being supportive of this new journalism venture in our great state.
The story we post today isn't befitting a celebration though -- it's a look at the dismantling of public education in New Orleans, post-Katrina. Author Leigh Davis was part of a trip to the Crescent City this summer, and has come back with a fantastic look into the mess that has become the Orleans Parish School District.
Pols and pundits of both political stripes are heaping praise on the Garden State's brand new Attorney General nominee Stuart Rabner. Says Sen. John Adler, (D-Cherry Hill) "I've greatly enjoyed working with him as the governor's counsel. If he brings the same integrity and intelligence to the Attorney General's Office, then the people of New Jersey will be much better off."
Sen Tom Kean Junior was equally effusive: "(Rabner's) got a stellar reputation for independence and a nonpartisan respect for the law." Of course standing in contrast with Zulima Farber is about enough to make anyone look damn good, but it's still nice to hear some agreement coming out of Trenton.
It's bizarre and ironic that clowns like Charles Epps and Sharpe James can hold down multiple posts within state government but Antonio Latona is forbidden to do the same. Latona was elected to the Clifton City Council last spring, he was advised by the city that he would have to leave his job as (get this!) a fireman.
After he was sworn in on July 1, he took a leave of absence from the fire department, where he had worked for six years, and where his annual salary was about $75,000. While he awaits a court ruling on whether he can do both jobs at once, he is drawing the princely wages of a councilman: $4,000 a year.
Having to choose one public job over another seems an odd dilemma in a state that has enshrined a practice that most other states have outlawed: dual office-holding. Of the 120 members of the State Legislature, 20 are also elected municipal or county officials and many others collect either a paycheck or a pension from some other public job. So why can’t Antonio Latona be both a fireman and a councilman?
On the topic of Katrina's wrath, the Camden Roman Catholic Archdiocese is sending a team of 450 volunteers to aid the ongoing cleanup effort. The Camden Diocese has been committed to the cause since the hurricane hit, sending over a million dollars for relief to the victims. "One year later, it is easy to forget. It is easy to let complacency set in," Bishop Joseph Galante said yesterday in a statement. "But the need there is still immense."
