The Bush administration that Governor Christie honed his political skills in the supposed non-political role as US Attorney was best at what I can only generously call "false advertising". Whether it was "Mission Accomplished" or "No Child Left Behind", "Clear Skies Initiative", the "PATRIOT Act" or "Help America Vote Act", there was an overemphasis on names that sounded as great as the underlying policies or details were contradictory.
Chris Christie has learned from this and is trying to perfect it here in New Jersey before the citizens of this State find out. One can certainly look at his consistent "aggressively defensive" behavior when called to defend its questionable nature when it comes to what you see is NOT what you get, as much as he likes to say it is.
And as he enters his second year as Governor, we also see signs of the carefully crafted façade meant to hide a very disturbing and dark side more interested in accumulating power to settle personal scores. He talks about "education reform" but sides with an admitted liar smear artist making an example of a special education teacher who happened to throw herself in front of a van to save her students as a contrast to his so-called virtuous side. A side that has him portraying himself as looking out for students and "good teachers"; yet he blames teachers for the students not having adequate supplies and calls the students "drug mules" in the fight he picked with the teachers union.
Even his "YouTube moments", where he gleefully starts a fight with a constituent, a reporter or anyone who doesn't suck up to him are completely manufactured - and that is when someone sneaks through his handpicked "fanboy" Town Hall meetings - just like the ones that George W. Bush used to hold when he was trying to dismantle the social security system.
His "Reform Jersey Now" fund that is controlled by friends and political allies with secret donations and no transparency is a backdrop for his hand-picked Town Hall meetings where he is all about other people's transparency - as long as he and his closest buddies don't have to abide.
And his signature issue - the property tax "toolkit" and cap masquerade as something new, even though a cap already exists, his proposals merely shift any responsibility from him to the local levels and none of them address the real underlying issue of "home rule" and consolidation of services; for starters.
We already know that he doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt for his many contradictions and conflicts of interest and "do as I say, not as I do" edicts. We also know that Christie uses the same methods of distraction to cover up the fact that what he says and what he does are usually opposite.
And when many top NJ lawyers pointed out that Christiedidn't have any experience in criminal law and his appointment was directly connected to the above hundreds of thousands in donations for Bush, that was just a coincidence.
Once again, what Christie says should apply to everyone else and what applies to him are exactly the opposite. Under "Christie's rules", seniors, the middle class, public employees, commuters, women and all but a privileged few must sacrifice as part of belt tightening. But the other side of "Christie's rules" is that Chris Christie gets to do what Chris Christie wants - regardless of the conflict of interest or hypocrisy. Lead by example? Not by a longshot.
Case in point: the just-released report by the US Department of Justice, Inspector General's office on US Attorney travel that exceeded the Government lodging rate
In terms of the percentage of travel, U.S. Attorney C was the U.S. Attorney who most often exceeded the government rate without adequate justification. The U.S. Attorney provided insufficient, inaccurate, or no justification for 14 of 23 trips (61 percent) that exceeded the government rate.
And that is just from 2007 - 2009.
As always, emptywheel is all over this, just as we mentioned during the campaign as well - even when his expenses were approved by a subordinate, which is Rule number one on avoiding conflicts of interest. Two of the many egregious examples include a 4 mile roundtrip trip from a luxury Boston hotel to and from the airport - costing $236; and a car service from the airport to his hotel in London (why is a US Attorney is taking overseas business trips again?) costing almost $600.
This was not a one -time thing, or even a few "transgressions". I'll repeat: Chris Christie overbilled the US Government for excessive travel and luxury hotel costs more than every other US Attorney and for more than 60% of his total trips.
More from the report on Christie's serial abuse:
U.S. Attorney C declined our request for an interview. In a letter to the OIG, U.S. Attorney C's attorney stated that the U.S. Attorney was unable to provide "any other specific information" to supplement the travel documentation that we had provided to him for review.
In sum, we concluded that U.S. Attorney C did not comply with the travel regulations or show that his lodging costs which exceeded the government rate were appropriate. The U.S. Attorney or his staff did not make an adequate effort to determine whether the government rate was available within a reasonable distance of his meetings. Most of the justification memoranda that we found simply stated that the government rate was unavailable, but provided no substantiation for this claim. In four cases, there was no justification memorandum at all.
Way to set an example, Governor. I guess when it comes to eliminating excessive government spending, that only applies to everyone else.
I randomly found something interesting. I stumbled onto a New York Times article about Xanadu, and here's what our governor had to say about spending money to supplement billion-dollar projects three months ago:
With the Xanadu entertainment and shopping complex three years behind schedule and in need of an estimated $875 million to open, Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday that it was time for the state to help resuscitate the project.
So using state money to save a private, unnecessary entertainment complex funded by billionaires is more important than supplementing federal funds already appropriated to add a lifeline to a failing train fleet?
Remember back to one of Governor Christie's earlier lines of nonsense about "strings being attached" to stimulus money - but only to pander as we all know that what Christie wants for everyone else and what Christie's rules are for himself are two very different things:
Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney and others blasted Christie on Friday for reportedly saying he would refuse federal Recovery Act dollars if there would be strings attached.
Fast forward to the recent news that Facebook bazillionaire Mark Zuckerberg is donating $100 million to Newark for education. Christie is all smiles on his Oprah tour, lying talking about how much he really truly cares about education or some other nonsense that his actions clearly contradict.
Asw Mary Pat Angelini's legislative office number is 732-974-1719 - promoted by Rosi
I usually don't pay much mind to press releases, but today I read a few of them as I was asked to help draft one myself. And when I saw this press release from Republican Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini about a husband who pretty much raped his wife and the need for a court to order a restraining order, I thought, well, good for the Assemblywoman for getting behind women's health issues.
And then I wondered what her position is on providing medical funding to women like this one - women who are in need of medical care in the event of rape or other crisis and otherwise can't afford to pay themselves.
If Angelini and her Republican colleagues - ESPECIALLY those who are female - have any conscience whatsoever, they will vote for what is right as opposed to with their chauvinistic Governor. This includes those in the Senate who are now cowardly changing their votes as well as those in the Assembly like Angelini who find it ok to use something as personal and horrific as a rape (let alone by a spouse) - which is the exact term that Angelini used in her press release - but then slap these same women in the face when it comes to something more than just grandstanding.
TRENTON - Nearly twice as many people are making $100,000 or more in Gov. Chris Christie's administration than were in former Gov. Jon S. Corzine's.
An Associated Press analysis has found that while Christie, a Republican, is proposing laying off 1,300 state workers, he is spending nearly $2 million more on annual salaries than did his predecessor, a Democrat.
According to an Asbury Park Press online database of 2009 public payroll records, 18 people made $100,000 or more in 2009 under Corzine. According to payroll records posted on Christie's Web site on April 8, 34 people in his administration make six figures - including the governor himself, who makes $175,000.
Of course....
Christie spokesman Mike Drewniak disputed the difference in salaries, saying Corzine parked staff members in other departments to make it look as though there were fewer people on his payroll.
The problem for Christie is that the story actually lists the numbers (not including LG Guadagno).
In his speech to the legislature, Governor Christie said that solving NJ's problems would require shared sacrifice and said that we would all have to have faith and jump off the cliff together. But from his proposed budget, it seems that Governor Christie meant that only the poor and middle class folks in New Jersey are going to have to take that jump. All the rich citizens of NJ (god bless them), aren't going to have to jump off the cliff. They will get to stay safe on top of the cliff, enjoying their tax cut.
Let's face it, this is a civil rights issue.....and just like the struggles for de jure (we're still working on de facto) equality in the 50's and 60's, on the racial front, the chief/underlying motivation for the opposition to marriage equality is bigotry. Plain and simple.
People back then also used quasi-religious rationales....but it always boils down to an irrational fear and loathing of "the other" i.e. bigotry.
Even the elected officials who may not themselves be bigots, but will still vote against equality under the law, are voting that way because they are afraid of losing the votes of bigots.
Yesterday's NY vote made it very clear as only ONE of the no votes had the guts to speak out on the floor (and that was a "Reverend")....all the rest voted in silent shame.
Bigots have to be named and shamed.....I DO NOT believe that the majority of my fellow New Jerseyans are bigots......that's why this issue is an eventual winner both morally and politically.
As an older straight person I know just how much attitudes have changed in this state over the last 45 years, it's dramatic.....if marriage equality is not passed in this session it needs to become a major plank in the state Democratic party platform (which we need to develop) and it needs to be one of the chief VOTING issues upon which progressive primary challengers seek to unseat incumbents who are stuck in the toxic "mud" of the status quo.....and that toxicity includes way more than the tendency to appeal to the bigot vote on this one issue......but it's all related.
The same type of person who is afraid to offend bigots is also more likely to want to keep the pay to play machine politics as is. It's all connected, and it's a matter of values. New Jersey voters really are eager to throw the BUMS out......we progressives just have to have the guts to run for office and to call out the bums and to keep a bright spotlight on them.
Marriage equality needs to come to a vote, if only to publicly "out" those who would dare to vote on the side of ignorance, fear, intolerance and, yes, bigotry
It's one thing to have a "holier than thou" attitude when talking about important issues like crime - that is, if you can back it up, and you are squeaky clean then people may overlook the judgmental attitude and lectures on "right vs. wrong" and the "rule of law". But when you also prove to be a hypocrite, that really rubs people the wrong way (see Spitzer, Eliot, for example).
We New Jerseyans have gotten a heavy dose of this over the past few years with one Chris Christie - a man who truly epitomizes the phrase "do as I say, not as I do".
And then, when it comes to tax evasion, "Christie's rules" come back into effect - he prosecuted tax evasion (although there are also questions as to the type of deal that Christie cut for the tax evader), but then when it came to not reporting interest income or disclosing a loan to a subordinate on his own tax return, it was a "mistake" that is being overly politicized.
Most recently, there was the disturbing behavior with respect to Christie's driving history. 25 points on his license, multiple infractions and tickets (including an unregistered and uninsured vehicle), conveniently "dropping the fact that he was US Attorney", having "NO DEAL" written on the tickets (but getting a deal anyway) and shifting stories about who was in the car with him. While this is something that can and does happen, for Christie - Mr. "law and order" - to blow this off by joking about breaking the law and endangering lives shows an arrogance that is really unsuitable for Governor.
Christie was driving a rented BMW sedan and apparently had lost his way when he attempted to turn right onto a street that was one-way in the other direction, according to the police report. A motorcyclist, Andre Mendonca of Elizabeth, was riding towards Christie, and both men saw one another and put on the brakes, police said. Christie's vehicle came to a stop, and the motorcycle then "fell on its side and slid into his vehicle," according to the police report.
Mendonca was taken by ambulance to University Hospital in Newark, Cosgrove said. He said he did not know the extent of Mendonca's injuries or "the seriousness of the condition." Mendonca could not be reached for comment tonight.
When an officer arrived at the scene, Christie explained what happened and said he was on his way to the swearing-in ceremony of Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow, Cosgrove said.
"He did identify himself as U.S. attorney," Cosgrove said.
So not only did he drive the wrong way down a one way street, causing an accident that resulted in injuries to a motorcyclist, he used his position as US Attorney to avoid a ticket and continue to where he was going - not even being held up.
As for whether this was an abuse of power, don't take my word for it:
"The officer has a lot of discretion at that point," Cosgrove said. "He could've issued a summons in that case, but he did not."
Asked whether Christie's job title factored into the officer's decision, Cosgove said, "I don't think I want to make that kind of deduction, but I think the facts speak for themselves."
This fits in a long pattern, and now we have 2 incidents where he puts people's lives in danger in his personal life with his acts - yet he uses his professional position to walk away from any accountability.
Can this state really afford and can the residents of this state trust someone who has one set of rules for everyone else and another set of rules for himself? Didn't we just have a President whose administration played by those rules? And wasn't Christie rated as "loyal" to that administration?
A spat among two new GOP state committee members, Donna Ward and Rob Eichmann, and new state chairman Jay Webber over whether to accept last year's national Republican platform has escalated.
At issue is a motion made at the GOP's organizational session June 17, where two new Republican committee members, Donna Ward and Rob Eichmann, wanted the party to accept the national Republican platform from last year's presidential race. Among other things, the platform says, "We assert the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life, which cannot be infringed." Such language could add potency to Gov. Jon Corzine's ongoing attack on Christie's anti-abortion stance in moderate New Jersey.
Here's what they had to say:
"Why does the Republican State Committee not want to call ourselves Republican and support the platform of the Republican National Committee?" Ward and Eichmann wrote in the missive, which they also sent to the national Republican chairman, Michael Steele. Steele is expected to appear with Christie in South Jersey tomorrow. "We want Republicans, first and foremost the New Jersey Republican State Committee, to proudly and loudly proclaim that we are Republicans!"
And they also said this:
"We hope that the committee is open to all points of view in the Republican family . . . but we came away from (the session) with some concerns," according to the letter. "Failing to adopt this resolution is tantamount to saying that the New Jersey GOP really isn't Republican at all."
Maybe they should reach out to Chris Christie's web designer and tell them to stop hiding his values behind technical difficulties. But the GOP State chair wants you to think it's all a misunderstanding due to not following the right process:
"It's inaccurate," Webber, a Morris County assemblyman, told The Auditor. "We've got two new members of the state committee, who are obviously enthusiastic but misguided. The committee would have no problems supporting the positions but they didn't follow the process."
Possibly while Michael Steele is in town with Chris Christie today pitching the virtues of Sarah Palin coming for a visit, he may also check and see whether Christie and the state party support the platform he helped the National Party put in place. If Christie does, maybe he can include that on the values page when they finally are able to resolve those "technical difficulties."
On NJN Reporters Roundtable this week, the panel discussed the recently gone missing Christie's values page on his website:Meanwhile, the State Committee issued their release highlighting another day with still no values:
"Christie has made no bones about his intentions to take away a woman's right to make the personal, private reproductive-health decisions in her own life,"said Cryan. "Christie can't whitewash the facts about his right wing conservative values simply by removing them from his website. The "Christie's Values Clock" is now into its ninth day and will stay up until Christie's campaign re-discovers his values for him."
Christie has made his staunch anti-choice agenda a centerpiece of his campaign. He has vowed to push for restrictions on a woman's right to choose if elected governor and has even declared his support for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion.
Reporters Michael Aron of NJN and Michael Symons of Gannett New Jersey agree that Christie should restore his right wing conservative values to his website. In a discussion of Christie's right wing conservative values on Reporters' Roundtable on NJN, which aired Friday, June 26, Symons said the Christie's Values Clock -reminds people that [Christie] holds some social opinions that aren't, you know, overwhelmingly the viewpoint of the New Jersey public and that he's sorta trying to hide that from you." Host Michael Aron replied, "So maybe he should put them back up and get rid of one of those two.? "Sure. Exactly," said Symons.
Christie's website has remained intact except for the deletion of the "Shared Values" page and the removal of the link to the "Shared Values" page which detailed his right wing conservative positions from the issues section. All of the other issues remain on that page.
We have a clock on the right side of the page to keep track of how long since his values have gone missing. If you've seen Christie's values, contact the state committee, they're hot on the case.
"I also believe marriage should be exclusively between one man and one woman [....]I believe that marriage should remain the exclusive domain of one man and one woman. If a bill legalizing same sex marriage came to my desk as Governor, I would veto it. If the law were changed by judicial fiat, I would be in favor of a constitutional amendment on the ballot so that voters, not judges, would decide this important social question."
I am honored to have been endorsed by many key pro-life leaders from around New Jersey including Congressman Chris Smith, former Mayor Bret Schundler, State Senator Gerald Cardinale and State Assemblyman Jay Webber. I am devoted to giving a voice to and taking action for those that are unable to protect themselves.
Christie's campaign said that the page was taken down "for technical reasons". Now, I wonder if it is because he "technically" didn't really mean that during the primaries when he ran hard to the right - causing many of Lonegan's supporters to question whether he was pandering then. Or, it could be because he wants to run and hide from his "true values" - ones that are far outside of the mainstream and pander to the far right.
So, this is even worse than saying these things in the first place - the true conservatives have to wonder if Christie was trying to play them in the primaries. And independents, moderates and the roughly 50% of NJ voters who don't know enough about Christie should wonder if he is trying to cover up his true positions - just as he is covering up for all of his other conflicts of interest and corrupt ties.
I wonder if this will go back up on his site when it is "revamped". If not, Christie should explain why something that he was so proud of proclaiming a few weeks and months ago is suddenly something that he doesn't want New Jerseyans to know about.
A recipe of one part NIMBY-ism, two parts "tough sounding words that say so little", five parts hypocrisy (since there are only five of them left) and three parts of head smacking "WTF???", this latest gruel is not for those who have had their fair share from this crew already. The full text of the letter is below:
Dear President Obama:
We are writing in regard to your recent Executive Order closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base within one year and its lack of any provision for a definite disposition of those detainees who are not releasable to their own or other countries. We are concerned this could result in the detainment of the terrorists at facilities within the United States. As such, we request you not send any of the Guantanamo Bay detainees to the State of New Jersey.
In addition to the enormous legal problem issues which will arise from bringing the Guantanamo detainees into New Jersey, we are very concerned about potential security issues related to the detainees. The federal prison system in New Jersey is already severely understaffed and underfunded. Adding several hundred special prisoners of any kind would be a severe risk to the safety and security of the staff and other federal prisoners. Further, our constituents who live near the prisons could be placed in danger to the presence of the detainees.
We are also strongly opposed to any Guantanamo detainees being transferred or housed on any military base in New Jersey. Housing the detainees on military bases would create an unnecessary and egregious threat to the men and women of the Armed Services who serve the United States on New Jersey military bases. Fort Dix has already been the target of a terrorist plot; the presence of detainees at any military base would certainly increase the probably of a future attack on the base or the surrounding population.
Thank you for your consideration of this request.
Let's start with a question. The republican party is historically notorious for the emphasis on punishment as opposed to rehabilitation - when it comes to drug offenses as well as violent offenses. And while I agree that there are many situations where rehabilitation is not a fitting remedy for a crime, especially with certain violent crimes, I want to know why the NJ republican House delegation is not more concerned with the relative lack of funding and staffing at our Federal prisons?
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?
The discussion led by Ray Suarez came around to a mini debate with Barney Frank on one side and "our own" Scott Garrett on the other.
Putting aside, for the moment, any of the substance of the topic it was quite amusing to see Garrett get rhetorically/intellectually gutted by Frank.
I just loved seeing Scotty squirm and grimace and actually be reduced to nervously twiddling his thumbs as Barney's blarney blasted him away!!! I wish I could embed it on site but you'll have to click here and then hit "streaming video" to see for yourself.
There has been a lot of ink spilled about how Dawn Zimmer was forced to vacate the Hoboken 4th Ward Council seat she stole through voter fraud - like mishandling absentee ballots, having "voters" who don't even live in Hoboken cast ballots and handing out lottery tickets along with campaign literature in an attempt to buy votes.
But, right now, I want to focus on some of Dawn Zimmer's major-league hypocrisy. There's nothing that gets my blood boiling more than a "holier-than thou" attitude - especially when its coupled with a "do as I say, not as I do" mantra. Below is a video that really hammers home this point.
For some context, I want to show how this isn't just an isolated incident of Dawn's hypocrisy. For example:
Dawn Zimmer promised to never, ever take any HCDO money... but she then went right ahead and took thousands of dollars from that very group. I'm not saying their money is dirty, just that Zimmer went against her word and broke a crystal clear pledge. Check out her original comment in the 4th Ward forum on Hoboken411.
And speaking of Hoboken 411... Dawn Zimmer claims to be a reformer who believes in transparency. But last week it came to light that she gave thousands of dollars to the moderator/creator of Hoboken411 - who hid the transaction from his readers and then went on to make the website's 4th Ward forum a free-for-all to bash Chris mercilessly - while censoring comments and banning those who support Campos or point out Dawn's deficiencies. And might I add that, along with its racist and classist undertones, Hoboken411 has recently shown its right-wing colors by lobbing attacks at Bob Menendez, Neil Cohen, Cory Booker and even that nasty, dirty organization People for the American Way. RealHoboken.com did a fantastic job of running down the story.
Dawn Zimmer talks about the evils of politics and how nasty machines are... but then her campaign's brain trust goes ahead and breaks bread at an HCDO fundraiser with recently-indicted Guttenberg Mayor David Della Donna, just days after Della Donna was indicted.
And now, to cap it all off, Dawn Zimmer - who has railed against developers and blamed them for every problem in Hoboken - is taking money and support from uber-developer Frank "Pupie" Raia... a man who said "I can buy anything." Well, apparently his money has now bought Dawn Zimmer. (In case you were curious, the woman in the back of the elevator in the above video? You guessed it. Dawn Zimmer.)
Throughout this campaign - aside from talking about fecal fruit - the only two things Dawn Zimmer has been saying on the campaign trail are: a). Developers are bad and b). Flooding is bad.
Well, then I just have to ask why on earth has Dawn Zimmer decided to take money and support from Pupie - a developer who has exacerbated Hoboken's flooding over the last few years. This makes her hypocrisy even worse.
For 16 years, uber-developer Frank "Pupie" Raia sat on the North Hudson Sewage Authority while the floods came time and time again. And Pupie did nothing. Moreover, Raia's ShopRite development project was so poorly executed, it turned 9th and Madison into one of the worst flooding corners in Hoboken. Yet, Dawn seems perfectly content to take his "dirty" money and walk arm-in-arm, door-to-door talking with voters.
You're judged by the company you keep and held to the standards you set. When all is said and done, Dawn Zimmer has said far more than she's actually done to make Hoboken a better place. And what little action we've seen is simply riddled with hypocrisy.
Dawn Zimmer has been shown to be quite a hypocrite in many ways these past few months... but taking money and support from disgraced developer and flood-enabler Frank "Pupie" Raia really takes the cake.
All of the evidence so far indicates that the "No Civilians At Earle" campaign was the coordinated effort of Jennifer Beck's legislative and campaign offices. The letter from the legislative office directs constituents to a campaign website. The Beck, O'Scanlon and Casagrande campaign registered the domain on July 13, 2007; the letter from the legislative office was likewise dated July. Furthermore, the text of the letter is essentially identical to the text on the website. Beck asks constituents either to sign an online petition at the campaign website, or to sign a paper petition and send it to the legislative office.
There is already enough evidence against Beck to sustain a serious ethics complaint. At this point, she can't get away with dismissing Karcher's complaint as "frivolous". She needs to address the evidence and the substance of Karcher's complaint. She owes the voters of the 12th district answers to a long list questions, some of which Karcher raised in her pressreleases.
But the most important question this incident raises is this: Does Assemblywoman Beck understand why it is unethical to use official resources for campaign purposes? Either Jennifer Beck doesn't understand why political and legislative activities must remain separate, or she is a hypocrite who will campaign on ethics while campaigning unethically.
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