This past week, we've seen a lot about the impact of congressional redistricting and the positioning of candidates in North Jersey for the upcoming election. Congressman Steve Rothman has declared that he will move and challenge his colleague Bill Pascrell in a primary rather than face incumbent Republican extremist Scott Garrett. Whether or not Rothman's decision is a good one, it hurts me to see two Democrats spending a million dollars to knock each other off when the money could be better spent in an all-out effort to oust Garrett, one of the worst members of Congress.
It also bothers me that the Fourth Estate has virtually ignored the important race in the Third District. Another member of the "worst congressman's club" is former NFL bad boy and current congressman Jon Runyan. Runyan's voting record is as bad as Garrett's, and over time if Runyan builds up seniority in the House, his impact will be just as deleterious.
Supporters of a bill to give scholarships to tens of thousands of students in failing public schools to attend private and parochial schools rallied on the Statehouse steps today, urging legislators to take action.
Most of the 2,500 demonstrators were parochial school students participating in what organizers called a "field trip" and a "lesson in civil rights." The mostly teenaged students wore bright blue scarves emblazoned with an image of a life preserver.
With time running out in the state legislative session, some 500 school-choice advocates - mostly Catholic school children - rallied in front of the Statehouse on Thursday to push for a bill that would begin a test school voucher program.
Uh...
Well, at least they agreed most of the demonstrators were little "drug mules."
When you think of pollsters in New Jersey, one of the first names that comes to mind is Patrick Murray of Monmouth University. Yet, even an iconic figure like Murray has succumbed to the Tea Party propaganda. Check out this video snippet from his interview on NJ Today:
"Republican voters are against any tax hikes. Democratic voters are against any cost cuts."
The first part of Murray's statement is true, as we have seen with the so-called "super committee" and Governor Christie's justifying his double veto of the millionaire's tax based on the false assertion that it would drive wealthy people out of the state. But stating that Democratic voters are against cost cutting is just plain wrong and Murray should know better.
First, many Democrats are in favor of cutting the bloated defense and homeland security budgets, but have been stymied by the Republican minority. But even ignoring this obvious fact, Democrats have long been willing to compromise (some say too willing) on social programs to get the Republican votes they need to unjam the Senate filibusters that have been crippling our economy.
I can only assume that Murray has fallen victim to the biases about the economy that are pervasive within the mainstream corporate media.
As Bill Orr reported on the site yesterday, Occupy Wall Street has crossed the Hudson to Jersey City and Trenton. Watch for more reports on Blue Jersey in the coming days and weeks, including first-hand reporting. And if anyone new to Blue Jersey wants to write on what's happening in Jersey City or Trenton, efforts to form additional protests - this is a democratic site where anyone can post a diary so go for it!
Just a few words on why this movement (which just released its first statement, read by Keith Olbermann below at around the 2:30 mark) is important. Actually, mainly one data point:
Seventy-nine percent (79%) of Americans agree with the statement that the "The big banks got bailed but the middle class got left behind."
For the record, the government has a spending problem and a revenue problem.
Washington spends an amount equal to 23.8 percent of GDP, the highest level in at least 40 years. But it is taxing at only 15 percent of gross domestic product, the lowest level in the same period. (See accompanying chart.)
If you look at only one side of this equation, then your brain has been damaged by ideology.
Here's the chart:
Now, maybe I'm just "brain damaged," but it occurs to me that this chart doesn't account for the decline in GDP because of the recession!
Think about it: if GDP goes down, and government spending stays the same, the percentage of GDP devoted to government spending goes up, right? Even without ANY new spending or programs.
Before the Star-Ledger tut-tuts at liberals, they should take minute to understand what they're talking about. But that would take time away from kicking dirty hippies:
Obama was slow to join this fight, even when his own commission offered a blueprint to address the debt. But by compromising with Republicans, and explicitly supporting cuts to Social Security and Medicare, he has broken with Pelosi and the liberal wing of his party. That's leadership.
Yes, breaking with the people who want to save the greatest anti-poverty programs in the history of the US while the country reels from massive economic inequity is what the S-L terms "leadership."
Just wondering why, with 100,000 people standing inside and outside the state capital in Wisconsin, all I am hearing about on CNN is Charlie Sheen's drug-addled rant, controversy over an actress buying some narcissistic ad time and then wishing the Tea Party a happy birthday.
Increasingly, Chris Christie is talking only to right-wing audiences. They're the most likely to see his nastiness as plain talk, his self-satisfied swagger as bravery, his defunding public education and family planning as welcome, and his hunger for a national audience as more interesting than the crap presidential field the GOP actually has. We saw this way back at the beginning of his sham "Town Hall" meetings carefully stacked with Republican loyalists who cheered on cue, a Greek chorus for his taxpayer-funded, self-serving YouTube moments that give every impression that the New Jersey governor is wildly popular in New Jersey, and should take on the world.
That is, if you're not paying too much attention, don't read polling, don't ask too many questions, and are satisfied doing personality journalism because real analysis is harder. That, sadly, is how the once-better Meet the Press fails to think critically in discussing Christie's speech to right-wing think tank American Enterprise Institute last week. That's how you get people like host David Gregory fluttering around with excitement over Christie without paying too much attention to what Christie actually said and why the well-heeled audience at AEI, and Gregory's panel, have the luxury to laugh right along with Christie.
It is no secret to New Jersey Democrats (and many independents) as well as many national Democrats that Chris Christie is a mere charlatan when it comes to the facade he has erected when compared to his true actions and words.
But lately, things have been happening here - things that may very well be a sign of things to come over the next few years, especially if things continue as they have over the first year of Christie's term as Governor. There have been a lot of articles and editorials as well as political cartoons expressing a side of Christie that shows how his character flaws are hurting the state and exposing his hypocrisy.
It may have been the Race to the Top application - where Christie was exposed by fellow Republicans as a bullying liar. It may have been the extensive travel around the country and the denial of OPRA requests for documentation of his travel expense records. It may have been the denial of the OPRA requests regarding Race to the Top. It may have been the admission that they look for "YouTube moments" - and use taxpayer dollars to capture them. It may have been the foot dragging of the medical marijuana law implementation, the recent lie he was caught in regarding a meeting requested by Assemblywoman Oliver or the "mission accomplished moment" regarding the economy coupled with the empty web site section on economic development.
Either way, Christie has (as he has consistently done in the past) spent more time crafting an image he wants people to have of him than actually governing. And even when he does try to put forth an initiative - like the property tax "toolkit", it is more flash than substance and doesn't take the necessary steps to actually deal with the rising property tax issue.
The big thing for Republicans is that veneer - how things look as opposed to any real substance. But eventually, and even more so in a high information age, it is tougher to conceal the rot that is underneath a fresh coat of paint.
Now that the NJ media has started to point this out as it is having a real impact on New Jerseyans, Christie has to make a decision: is he interested in actually governing, or just playing the part of "Mr. Bigshot"?
Granted, the C.F.T.C., like its bigger cousin, the Securities and Exchange Commission, often reels in relatively small fish. One recent case centers on what it calls the Aloha scam - a $3 million suspected Ponzi scheme in Hawaii that the agency says was overseen by a man in prison. Bernie Madoff, this is not.
When the NYT thinks it's odd that someone would bother to investigate the theft of $3 million you know our media and society are sick.
(I do wonder about those gold ads pitched to conservatives. Interesting to see if those guys end up in jail too.)
History is the only way to learn the future. Mainstream NJ media and the 101.5er's are trying their best to bring weapons of mass destruction to NJ.
The Times of Trenton and The Star Ledger were loaded today with three Governor Christie "puff" stories. He is not even in the state and his bullshit still flies off the shelves.
Story #1 is Christie the bully, bullying a bully in California. Christie yelling at a guy (who is not an NJEA member) who aggressively asked a difficult question towards a GOP canidate at a fixed "town hall" event, where tough guy Christie sticks out his fat finger and yells at the guy is a front page story? Newspapers aren't supposed to be part of fan clubs.
Story #2 is the Facebook guy, Oprah, Booker, and Christie collaberating to fix Newark schools. Somehow Christie got a headline out of this. Newark is in trouble and I think it is awesome a private benefactor has taken interest in assisting a broken machine. Christie really has very little to do with this. Yes he has to sign off on state control of the school system and let Booker have control, but what choice does he have. Christie views urban areas as a drain on society and would support bulldozing them into the nearest river if he thought he could get away with it. He is the low man on this totem pole. Christie should of been a asterisk in the story, instead he headlined. Newspapers aren't supposed to be part of fan clubs.
Story #3 is how Christie is going to lay off 1300 state employees. Conveniently a study comes out on how NJ should really lay off 20000 employees. This story is sickening because all it is an anti-labor tactic to gain the upper hand in contract negotiations. Talk to any state employee and you will find that they already are operating at skeleton crew status. Corzine's hiring freeze has been extremely effective at reducing the ranks through attrition. 20000 is an absurd number. Christie should have had the study print a more realistic, absurd number like 5 or 10 thousand. It would have been enough to threaten, harass, and bully the organized labor he is targeting. Newspapers aren't supposed to be part of fan clubs.
I know the shock and awe analogy has been used already, but it is really true. If Christie wanted to start a bullshit war the bombs would have started dropping in preparation for the land assault and occupation, all under the watchful eye of NJ newspapers. Maybe they do deserve to go out of business.
There's a great forum on NJN, the future of journalism and the future of public media in NJ at Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics on the Douglas Campus tomorrow, 9/16.
Program starts at 5:30pm, Reception is at 5:00pm. If you've never been to an Eagleton event you're missing out. Eagleton is the hub of intellectual activity about NJ politics and a nationally known hub for expertise on Women and Politics.
Woodlawn is an old mansion built in the 1830s and expanded in the 1890s and beyond. Forums are held in the Drawing Room and are always on point.
Tomorrow's speaker is Princeton Professor Paul Starr and panelists include the acting director of NJN Janice Selinger and Ellen Goodman a Professor of Law at RU-Camden and Co-Director of the Rutgers Institute for Information Policy and Law. Eagleton Associate Director John Weingart is moderating.
What will New Jersey do after newspapers? I don't know the answer but I ran across this prediction today:
At a recent conference, The New York Times' publisher and chairman Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., stated that he eventually expects the "Gray Lady" will no longer be a physical newspaper.
"We will stop printing the New York Times sometime in the future, date TBD," he said to attendees of the International Newsroom Summit.
I believe New Jersey is especially dependent on newspapers because TV and radio are dominated by our neighboring cities of New York and Philadelphia. Now, electronic vs. paper doesn't really matter to me as a reader, but it sure matters to the newspaper industry. The Newsosaur blog tells us the situation continues to be disastrous:
Newspaper advertising revenues are on track this year to dive to a 25-year low of approximately $26.5 billion, or 47% of the record $49.4 billon in sales achieved by the industry as recently as 2005...
The only bright spot for publishers in the last five years is that online advertising has climbed 54.3% to $1.5 billion in the first half of 2010 from $955 million in 2005.
Unfortunately, this category represented only 11.8% of total newspaper revenues in the first half of 2010 and its growth has done nothing to offset the prodigious declines in all the other advertising verticals.
I'm not really a reporter and I'm certainly no businessman but obviously $1.5 billion in online revenue is nothing like a replacement for $48 billion in print ads.
Is the future joint TV-newspaper enterprises? The problem is that the experiments so far haven't worked, and it doesn't do us any good in New Jersey anyway since the NY/Philly stations don't care about us. Meanwhile, Newsosaur also points us to how internet groups doom publisher paywalls even for local news.
This is not a use of "new media" to inform the people of this state - it's propaganda, straight up, and it's outrageous if one dime of taxpayer money was used to produce it.
The media shills kissing Christie's keister at the end is particularly galling - this is shameless self-promotion at a level that would make Newt Gingrich blush. But I'm also really annoyed by the factoids, presented in dramatic animated kerning, that are given here with no attribution whatsoever. "Failing schools"? By whose account?
Anything this nakedly political should tell you who exactly funded it. If "Reform NJ Now" or some other slush fund paid for what is a blatant early campaign ad, we should know that, and it should be in the credits. If this was paid for by the state, there should be hearings. Not one penny of tax money should ever go toward an exercise in narcissism like this.
This guy is the biggest media whore in Republican politics today - and that's really saying something. His Twitter page is full of media appearance announcements. He's been on Morning Joe so many times that I'll bet Scarborough made him a custom chair.
Hey, NJ political reporters, here's a thought: compare Christie's media appearances over the last eight months to ANY eight months outside of an election by any other NJ governor. I'll bet he doubles the next closest one.
He sure loves being on TV more than running the state...
Chris Christie won the Governor election with less than 50% of the vote. That means more than half of the voters wanted someone other than him to govern.
He has consistently abused his power. He pulled rank as a US Attorney to get out of a ticket when he went the wrong way down a one way street, and also pulled rank when he got a speeding ticket in an unregistered car to avoid being towed. He failed to disclose his close financial relationship with top assistant Michele Brown, a conflict of interest. He gave huge no bid contracts to his boss (John Ashcroft) and the man who didn't prosecute his brother for securities fraud, while 19 others were prosecuted. He governs with a personal vendetta to the detriment of New Jerseyans.
Cross-posted from Jersey Jazzman. Click through for all links.
The spin was fast and furious yesterday in the aftermath of the Christie Administration's debacle of losing out on $400 million dollars in Race To The Top funds. But, as is all too typical, the real story was lost in the blizzard of accusations and blame.
Chris Christie insisted on changes to the RTTT application - changes that led to the costly error - because of the rantings of a radio personality. By any objective reading, the changes were deliberate and were made to obscure the reality of Christie's cuts to education.
In other words: Christie lost the RTTT funds because he insisted on using the application as a political tool. Contrary to what some opinion brokers may have us believe, this was solely and completely the governor's fault, and it reflects on his twisted priority of putting politics before the children of our state.
On my blog, I've been dissecting a "fact" that "Pitchfork" Bob Ingle put out on his blog the other day, purporting to show teachers make a lot more money than is generally reported. I'm cross posting here at BJ to make a larger point to the NJ liberal community:
"Pitchfork" Bob's "evidence" was a Manhattan Institute brief about teacher pay. It's bad enough that Bob persists in not putting links to his sources on his blog so we can check them out for ourselves; it appears he doesn't even spend the time to look at them carefully and see if they are the products of decent research.
Now, I'm not saying Bob or any other journalist should be picking apart every citation with the precision of a dissertation review panel; I am saying that a professional journalist should have enough basic tools at his disposal to look at a piece of "research" and figure out if it's worth injecting into the discourse - regardless of whether it supports his views or not.
With a budget agreement reached, NJN is still in limbo. The negotiated budget apparently does NOT include any restoration of funds for NJN, but rather keeps the Christie formula of ending at least direct state funding on January 1, 2011.
Now it seems that people are scrambling in Trenton to find a solution to the problem that is about to be created. We're told that during the Senate budget hearings, they will consider SCR-113, which would establish a "Legislative Task Force on Public Broadcasting" to study Governor's proposal to transfer assets of NJ Public Broadcasting Authority to an independent, not-for-profit organization. Similar or identical legislation would then be drafted in the Assembly.
Since this is all being rushed through, there are probably some questions that should be asked including:
Will the task force be legislators only or public members as well?
Will the task force be specifically charged to look at the value of NJN's licenses, studios, towers and other assets?
Will the task force look at the advantages and disadvantages of the state retaining the assets?
Will the formation of a New Jersey Public Media Corporation (allowing the taxpayers to retain the NJN licenses, ensuring New Jersey news and public affairs coverage, but allowing NJN autonomy in the areas of hiring, procurement, labor relations, and leasing of assets such as spectrum and towers) be considered?
Will retention of the current employees of NJN be considered?
You can see the ad that the CWA is running calling for restoration of the funding below:So the future of NJN is still in question. Assemblyman Wisniewski now has Assemblywoman Watson Coleman as a co-sponsor on A2949, which would reorganize the Broadcasting Authority into the New Jersey Public Media Corporation. But the clock is ticking on which path NJN will have to travel down and there still are many more questions than answers. Now is the cruicial time for all those who care about NJN to make their voices heard.
The Bergen Record ran a comprehensive story this past Sunday looking at the Future of NJN and the man who will lead the effort to privatize the station. In the story, he says this about the plans moving forward:
"If there's legislation that passes by the end of June," he said, "presumably a non-profit would start work on July 1 to raise the necessary funds, put together the necessary staff, put together the management team, put some new technology in place to permit at least the early version of the operating plan to take shape, and by Jan. 1 that non-profit will be operating."
If, then and presumably. That doesn't sound very well thought out. Especially since legislation that would need to pass by the end of June to make this happen hasn't even been introduced yet. NJN, the New Jersey Public Broadcast Authority, was established by statute along with the Foundation for NJ Public Broadcasting. The way the statute is written establishing the NJ Public Broadcast Authority, it's unlikely that the Governor could privatize it's operation and certainly could not transfer the licenses to a non-profit without legislation.
Even though there is no legislation yet, the Governor's office still says their budget will assume NJN is privatized and reduce state aid. Unless the Governor just intends to starve the beast by defunding NJN without taking further action, it appears he needs to get the Legislature to go along in order to see it remain. It's not just Democrats who oppose the idea of privatizing NJN. Joe Malone, Tom Kean Jr., John Bramnick and many Republicans verbally support NJN and its NJ news and public affairs programming. Will Republicans stand up to the Governor with Democrats to preserve NJN?
But as the state nudges NJN out of the nest, it should give the network the time and help it needs to get on its feet in a new form and survive. Certainly, NJN, which draws only about 10 percent of its revenue from private donors, won't be able to continue on with 130 employees. It likely won't be able to do as many stories on its nightly newscast. It needs time to figure out a way to grow its donor base and/or sign on more corporate underwriters. Typical public television stations in the United States get about 30 percent to 50 percent of revenue from private donors.
State lawmakers should look to help NJN as much as possible and give it more than half a year to either sink or swim before being completely cut off. As it stands now, NJN looks like it will sink. Lawmakers ought to do something to prevent that from happening.
Even under the best economic conditions, it would be difficult for NJN to survive as a private entity. New Jersey will never have TV coverage and that's why it has been recommended in the past that NJN be run as a state agency with the state holding the licenses. While there is no bill from the Republicans to carry out the privatization effort, Assemblyman Wisniewski has introduced a bill to reorganize the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority as the New Jersey Public Media Corporation. The Public Media Corporation would maintain ties to the state (employees would be considered state employees and the corporation could make use of state facilities, security, parking etc) while allowing autonomy in the areas of hiring (no longer would the approval of the Governor's office be required), procurement of equipment, leasing of facilities and spectrum, and labor relations. This is just another flash point in the budget debate.
I'll start by saying that anyone who uses the sentence that "MSNBC is the only counterpart to FOX and the right wing noise machine" has their head completely up their ass. Two hours per day (Olbermann and Maddow) do not make up for the countless hours of "fair and balanced programming" that Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough or much of the daytime programming comprises - certainly, this is a mixed bag at best and nothing near the ridiculously and blatantly skewed programming on FOX - or even worse, the "supposedly neutral" but SO NOT neutral CNN.
But I digress....
A couple of weeks back, Chris Matthews had two Congressmen on Hardball to discuss health care reform and how the issue could be moved forward in a bipartisan manner. The Republican Congressman appearing was New Jersey's own Scott Garrett. At the end of the segment, Chris heaped effusive praise on Garrett, calling him his type of Northeastern Republican, which I guess means the most radically rightwing kind. He even invoked the word "moderate" to describe Garrett (at which mention Garrett visibly cringed).
To grasp the abject stupidity of Matthews' misplaced admiration, you have to understand who Scott Garrett is and what he stands for. As we have documented here time and time again, Garrett is arguably THE most radical right-wing member of Congress. His illustrious legislative record includes, among many other things:
Voting against aid for victims of Katrina,
Voting against extending unemployment benefits for American families,
Voting against extending the Voting Rights Act,
Voting against providing health care to poor children,
Voting against anti-price gouging legislation holding big oil accountable,
Voting against taxing bonuses for Wall Street execs (he actually argued that they "deserved" them),
Voting for every bloated Bush budget, and
Voting for every dime spent in Iraq.
Oh, and by the way Chris - He's also catering to the birthers - if not necessarily an outward one himself, having said at a public meeting that he wanted to see Obama's birth certificate. Garrett further distinguished himself following the earthquake in Haiti. His message on his Congressional web site said the he was praying for those constituents of his affected by the quake. No mention of the thousands of Haitians who were dead or injured. Garrett also opposed abortion even in the case of rape or incest - allowing a rapist to choose the mother of his child or a molesting father to force his daughter to bear his own grandchild. And he referred dismissively to the push to eliminate DADT as a "side issue" not worthy of his consideration. That's Chris Matthews' kind of Republican.
As Jason notes below, Garrett also recently appeared on MSNBC's The Dylan Ratigan Show with guest host Ed Schultz. Once again he performed his one man show designed to portray himself as the sincere moderate that truly wants to work across party lines for the good of the American people. I can't blame Ed because he was filling in at the last moment. But I can blame the show's staff for not doing even a modicum of homework on their guest. Like Matthews, Schultz - someone who should know better - bought the well rehearsed charade hook, line and sinker.
By giving Garrett this kind of forum without challenging him on his record, MSNBC has aided and abetted an insidious political fraud. It is incumbent upon MSNBC to make sure this journalistic incontinence doesn't happen again. First, try to actually do some research on your guests. You know, like Rachel Maddow does so well. Second, next time you extend an invitation for Congressman Garrett to appear on one of your infotainment shows, ask him why he voted time and time again to deprive Americans of their most basic civil rights. Then ask him how we can buy into his fairy tale of working toward a bipartisan utopia when he questions the very legitimacy of our President to serve in office based on debunked crackpot theories.
Maybe then MSNBC can begin to regain some semblance of journalistic integrity.
