"Some in GOP signal openness" blares the unexpected Washington Post headline. It seems forty Republicans have joined sixty Democrats to sign a letter advising that "all options for mandatory and discretionary spending and revenues must be on the table," a strong hint in support of tax increases. So, a list of the 40 most open-minded, bipartisan Republicans, with moderates and conservatives, must surely include New Jerseyans? No, not one. Frank LoBiondo and all the rest are missing in action again. Honestly, the last year shows LoBiondo wakes up every morning afraid of following Mike Castle into involuntary retirement. It's pretty pathetic after he spent four years in the minority complaining that Republican leaders didn't value moderates enough.
On the other hand, maybe I shouldn't complain. Whatever the Deficit Super Committee recommends would only harm America in the short and long term.
Imagine that you are invited to a wedding reception at a snooty Five-Star restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. You know the chef is one of the best in the world, internationally famous, and you are looking forward to sharing a top-notch meal with your friends.
Imagine, also, that you are a vegetarian on a low-carb diet. You arrive at the reception and find that your dinner choices are filet mignon or pasta. What do you do?
Clearly, you can't order the meat. You're hungry, so you can't choose to skip the dinner. You reluctantly get the pasta, which tastes so good that you overindulge on carbs that evening. You opted for the lesser of two evils and had a satisfactory but not satisfying dinner.
Found this 1-minute floor statement by Rep. Rush Holt at the website RH Reality Check (that's RH as in prescription, not for Holt's initials).
Holt reminds us the GOP-majority House is still short on jobs creation and once again indulging themselves in yet another version of their legislative assault on women's health rights, with the Orwellian-titled "Protect Life Act" (H.R. 358).
CREDO Action's pointed out the hypocrisy of the DCCC using H.R. 358 as a fundraising tool (calling it the "Let Women Die" Act, then giving money to 15 Dem candidates, 3 of whom in fact voted to "Let Women Die" - voting for H.R. 358.
“People, Not Politics.” That’s the tag line on the yard signs for the GOP candidates in the 7th Legislative District. And it’s about as misleading as Fox’s tag line, “Fair and Balanced.”
I’ve written before about how the head of the ticket, Senator Diane Allen, puts politics before people. Her silence during the Senate debate on women’s health care and her failure to vote to override the governor’s veto were clearly political and not in the best interests of the people of Burlington County. This course of action flies in the face of her past record of independence from the party hacks, but it seems that she has transformed into just another Republican who votes lock step with their Tea Party leaders. Putting politics ahead of people was also her choice in supporting the governor’s paean to the Koch brothers by promoting increases in respiratory diseases with the withdrawal from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
As bad as that is, her running mates are even more anti-people and pro-politics. Mount Laurel Mayor Jim Keenan, who flip-flopped on his position on the 2% property tax cap (perhaps under the influence of Trenton politicians?) is not in favor of allowing two people who are in love to marry. He and his running mate, businessman Chris Halgas, are strongly committed to marriage discrimination. Both subscribe to the failed premise that tax cuts promote jobs, thus putting corporations in front of people on their priority list. And I suppose their slogan is accurate if you consider the subset of people who are millionaires. All three support tax breaks for the wealthy while cutting services to the other 99%.
Allen, Keenan, and Halgas are certainly entitled to campaign on whatever platform their political masters gin up for them. But don’t give the voters Orwellian Doublespeak when you frame this pro-wealthy anti-middle class agenda as “People, Not Politics.”
What did you see, my brown-eyed Son?
What did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a Red Knight, all covered in Armor,
Charge through a Blue Family, Broken Asunder!
I saw Family moaning, and say What a Headache
With heads all pushed, down in the sand
I saw union clans, counciling caution,
As their ranks were pushed so close to the edge...
And its a hard, Its a Hard
Its a Hard Rain Gonna Fall
Hamilton Township is the Birthplace of the Modern Day Tactics of Union Busting
Well, to start, there is no Labor Day Parade in Hamilton Township, but that is merely a by-product of Labor unfriendly leadership within the Township.
Long before Chris Christie became Governor of New Jersey. Long before Wisconsin's actions against Collective Bargaining. Long before John Boehner became Speaker of the House. Long before Republican Mitch McConnell became Senate Minority Leader...Hamilton Township has had John Bencivengo, Kevin Meara and Kelly Yaede hard at work busting up the Public Workers' unions of the CWA, AFSCME and the PBA.
As we analyze what has happened in Hamilton Township it is as though Christie, Wisconsin and the Congressional Republicans ripped a page out of the Hamilton Republican's playbook.
Claim a fiscal crisis and blame the public workers.
Bencivengo and team came into office by accident. On Election Day 2007, the Times of Trenton headlines screamed deficit and these three rode into office. http://nl.newsbank.com/nojavas... .
Since then, they have seized upon this deficit claim to justify a host of actions against the Township's Public Workers, which they state were needed to save the money of Hamilton Township taxpayers.
With the backdrop set of "fiscal crisis" and historical deficit levels these three, along with the sitting Republicans on Township Council, began to work to bust up the CWA,
AFSCME and PBA workers.
What is remarkable is that they moved forward with tax hikes and public worker lay-offs and furloughs without ever having actually naming what this deficit amount was. They have said it was $10 million. Then they said it was $8.8 million and $14 million. Next they said it was $16 million. Finally, they said it was $5 million.
Below, in chronological order, are the links to the various deficit amount claims by the Republican incumbents.
So, in 2008, the first thing that they set about doing was lay-off 54 public employees and reorganizing the Police Division.
In March 2010 they forced 8 furlough days on the remaining public workers in the Township. But in June 2010 they found the money to propose giving John Bencivengo a raise and to actually give significant raises to the non-Union Department Directors.
In 2010 they privatized the Engineering and Planning Department as well as the Ecological Center - further displacing public workers.
A further indication of their disregard for Public Workers and Collective Bargaining is that the Township's Personnel Director is not an actual Personnel Director - lacking all Civil Service level requirements to hold such a position.
Bencivengo and the all Republican Council continually discuss how rising benefit costs are wrecking the Township's budgets and that these costs need to be brought under control.
All of this is poor politics and pure political spin. The largest single increased cost to Township residents is the enormous increased spedning and probable waste i.e. HAMStat, the reckless and very "un-Republican" 2008 $13.3 million permanent Tax Hike that these elected officials gave to residents. A tax increase that they instituted without knowing what the true financial picture of the Township was.
The next largest burden on the Township has been decreased State aide followed by the State's hijacking of the utility Gross Receipts tax then followed by the diminishing property tax receipts.
Yet, despite their cries about labor costs and benefits increasing so dramatically over the past four years they have still found themselves able to increase Township spending a cumulative $20 million.
Yes, there is a global recession. However, due in no small part of the $13.3 million annual tax hike, Hamilton Township has lost more revenue due to lost tax receipts from exodusing businesses and residents than what the increasing labor and benefit costs have been.
The Public Workers in Hamilton Township are hardworking and have sacrificed much for the betterment of the Township. Unfortunately, their sacrifices appear to be borne out of Bencivengo's, Meara's and Yasede's generalizations as well as their insincere and unsubstantiated claims of fiscal crisis.
Last week, I wrote a post about how House Republicans like Scott Garrett and Eric Cantor were using this past week's disasters (earthquake, Hurricane Irene) and used them as a sick opportunity to take cheap shots at those who were the most in need and vulnerable.
Of course, I'm referring to the self righteous calls for more cuts to desperately needed programs to help those who aren't super rich in order to pay for cleanup of the massive and widespread damage.
As most of you know just by looking around, New Jersey was damaged during Hurricane Irene this weekend. Some communities were hit harder than others. In my neck of the woods, no municipality was hit harder than Spring Lake-- a wealthy resort community. When Mother Nature strikes, she does not know the difference between rich and poor. The boardwalk was destroyed during Irene and unlike many shore towns, Spring Lake cannot rebuild in time for the influx of tourists this weekend.
Hopefully, everyone is safe, with power back on if it was lost or all water bailed out (as I spent most of yesterday doing) or all tree branches picked up (as I still have to finish myself).
House Republicans demanded earlier this year that new disaster relief be funded by cuts elsewhere, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's office said Thursday the Virginia Republican continues to believe that.
Rep. Scott Garrett agreed. Garrett, R-N.J., said through a spokesman it was the "responsible thing to do."
"With $16 trillion in debt and budget deficits as far as the eye can see, the last thing we should be doing is spending money we don't have," Garrett spokesman Ben Veghte said.
Unless you're living in a cave and are cut off from the outside world, you probably are aware that a hurricane is coming to New Jersey. The press coverage is relentless, and credit should be given to those reporters who are providing helpful hints on how to deal with the pending disaster.
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.
Judging by they way that New Jersey is portrayed on popular TV shows The Sopranos, Jersey Shore and The Real Housewives of New Jersey, you would think that the state is filled with stereotypical arrogant, obnoxious, thick headed loudmouths with entitlement issues. Even more so given that our current Governor fits that very description himself - all while being hailed as the latest savior of the Republican Party - and it wouldn't be a stretch to think that this is a match made in heaven (or hell, depending on your view of Christie, New Jerseyans at large and the stereotypes on the above shows).
As out-of-state Republicans urge Gov. Chris Christie to seek the party's presidential nomination next year, a majority of New Jerseyans questioned in a Rutgers-Eagleton Poll made public on Friday say they would not vote to re-elect him as governor in 2013.
Forty-nine percent said they would support another candidate while 42 percent said they would vote for Christie.
This isn't strictly New Jersey, but it's germane as hell when you consider that Gov. Christie is building a national future for himself on the backs of public employees in New Jersey. And Democrats and independents will want to know where the president stands - in clear opposition? Christie's making NJ the forefront - along with states like Wisconsin and Ohio - of a national GOP attempt to shift public thinking away from its historical support of union workers as the bedrock of the middle class to a belief that union workers are the people greedily stealing from and ruining the middle class. But unlike the leaders of those states, our governor has skillfully maneuvered that message - here, but especially nationally to movement conservatives hungry for his 2012 candidacy - into big-league GOP stardom. Is it presidential? He keeps demurring, but he does it like wallflower who can't stop lifting her skirts for all the boys to see. Especially the boys in Iowa.
But Barack Obama is the president. Blue Jersey, is the president's message strong enough, consistent enough, and clear enough to oppose the well-funded anti-union propaganda campaign of Gov. Christie and his disciples?
You tell me.
Here's a portion of Pres. Obama's remarks, yesterday at an outdoor Town Hall-style gathering at the Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, northern Iowa. The questioner is Bev Kromgezmi, a high school social studies teachers who taught some of the people in yesterday's crowd. His answer, after the jump.
THE PRESIDENT: How was she? Was she a good teacher? (Applause.) You got thumbs up.
Q What can I say?
THE PRESIDENT: What did you teach?
Q High school social studies.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's important stuff.
Q Many unions, especially public sector unions, helped you get elected in 2008. Those public sector unions and their members gained their salaries and benefits through collective bargaining. Recently, those benefits have been under attack. And I realize that this is a state issue mostly, but what can you do to help support collective bargaining in the states and, most of all, support the public sector unions, the middle class, many of whom are union members? Thank you. (Applause.)
This isn't strictly New Jersey, but it's germane as hell when you consider that Gov. Christie is building a national future for himself on the backs of public employees in New Jersey. And Democrats and independents will want to know where the president stands - in clear opposition? Christie's making NJ the forefront - along with states like Wisconsin and Ohio - of a national GOP attempt to shift public thinking away from its historical support of union workers as the bedrock of the middle class to a belief that union workers are the people greedily stealing from and ruining the middle class. But unlike the leaders of those states, our governor has skillfully maneuvered that message - here, but especially nationally to movement conservatives hungry for his 2012 candidacy - into big-league GOP stardom. Is it presidential? He keeps demurring, but he does it like wallflower who can't stop lifting her skirts for all the boys to see. Especially the boys in Iowa.
But Barack Obama is the president. Blue Jersey, is the president's message strong enough, consistent enough, and clear enough to oppose the well-funded anti-union propaganda campaign of Gov. Christie and his disciples?
You tell me.
Here's a portion of Pres. Obama's remarks, yesterday at an outdoor Town Hall-style gathering at the Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, northern Iowa. The questioner is Bev Kromgezmi, a high school social studies teachers who taught some of the people in yesterday's crowd. His answer, after the jump.
THE PRESIDENT: How was she? Was she a good teacher? (Applause.) You got thumbs up.
Q What can I say?
THE PRESIDENT: What did you teach?
Q High school social studies.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's important stuff.
Q Many unions, especially public sector unions, helped you get elected in 2008. Those public sector unions and their members gained their salaries and benefits through collective bargaining. Recently, those benefits have been under attack. And I realize that this is a state issue mostly, but what can you do to help support collective bargaining in the states and, most of all, support the public sector unions, the middle class, many of whom are union members? Thank you. (Applause.)
A few weeks ago, I sat through some long and grueling sessions of the New Jersey Senate as the Democrats tried unsuccessfully to override Governor Christie's draconian vetoes. While millionaires enjoy an exemption from the Shared Sacrifice mantra, Christie cut essential services like support for blind children, legal help to the indigent, and seniors' assistance.
During the two days of Senate deliberations, most of the senators spoke up and stated their positions. The Democrats presented heart wrenching stories about constituents who would be harmed by the Governor's cuts while the Republicans tried to justify not using the small surplus in the 2012 budget to fund these programs, many of which had relatively small dollar costs.
As a blogger, I've joined many of my colleagues in speculating about Chris Christie's presidential ambitions. Unlike many in the Republican field, Christie is smart enough to know that you don't just declare yourself as a candidate and go out and give stump speeches. That may work for elections to town council, but becoming the Leader of the Free (?) World requires a little more finesse and planning.
I've speculated that there are three signs that would indicate Christie's readiness to throw his hat into the presidential ring. Not this time around, but in 2016 when the nation is ready to switch parties after eight years of Barack Obama.
The first is weight loss. Like it or not, this is an issue that should not be. But reality says that some voters value appearance more than positions. Dieting to lose weight is difficult, but so is being president. Christie is working on his weight, has a personal trainer, and if his determination is as big as his ego, he will succeed in slimming down over the next four years.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of catching up with one of the best public servants New Jersey has ever produced.
He is not well-known even in Democratic circles, let alone the state of New Jersey, and he last served in public office when Leonid Brezhnev was Premier of the USSR.
Frank Herbert, however is definitely not someone to forget, particularly if you're a New Jersey Democrat or - even more so - a progressive.
You see, Frank Herbert did 2 things that New Jerseyans and progressives should forever be grateful for:
1) He pushed for and got the Legislature to pass the law that created New Jersey Transit, a system that provides business and social lifelines for hundreds of thousands of our residents.
2) He is the only candidate in New Jersey history to win a Federal election as a write-in candidate. In doing so, he saved the Democratic Party from nominating a Holocaust-denying, KKK-loving extremist.
The title of this piece is contradictory. After all, it in and of itself, is a generalization.
But I'll still go out on a limb and make a generalization - In any of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts it is better to elect a Democrat than to elect a Republican in the upcoming election.
The Tea Party GOP is fond of citing the concept of American Exceptionalism as justification for everything from prioritizing war over diplomacy to cutting taxes for the wealthy. Arguably, the twentieth century was, indeed, the century of American Exceptionalism.
In that century, we fought and won the War to End All Wars, and followed it up with the development and deployment of weapons of mass destruction to end the next war.
In the twentieth century, America exploited the fruits of the Industrial Revolution, developing a manufacturing economy that paid decent wages thanks to regulation and strong unions. We eradicated the scourges of yellow fever and polio and put a man on the moon. Not only did we win the space race, but we also won the Cold War, thanks in part to the Soviet Union's draining their resources on an ill-advised war in Afghanistan. We developed an educational system with institutions from pre-school to post-graduate that attracted people from all over the world. We invented the transistor and the Internet and made Silicon Valley an engine of growth, opportunity, and prosperity.
The common thread that ties this success story together is government. Government grants for education boosted innovation. Government regulation on fuel economy, the environment, and workplace safety were catalysts for economic growth. Government research and development grants to spur innovation helped a few large corporations and spawned thousands of small ones. Millions of Americans were able to realize the dream of home ownership.
What would happen if a left leaning group forced all Democrats to sign a pledge to push for marriage equality, single payer healthcare like "Medicare for all", a tax rate of 60% on all income over $2,000,000 or free pre-school education for anyone anywhere? And what would happen if that group ran primaries against every single Democrat whose agenda wasn't precisely in line with that pledge - regardless of what the political climate was, what their constituents wanted or more important, ran against the United States (or State) Constitution that they swore to support and defend?
Well, this is precisely what the Republican Party is doing with Grover Norquist and his "tax pledge". Here in New Jersey, every single Republican member of Congress (and one Democrat) has signed this pledge - regardless of the fact that tax cuts for the wealthy don't create jobs and kill the economy. At a time when faux "patriotism™" has taken over the right wing, it is simply amazing that all but seven Republican Representatives and all but seven Republican Senators have publically pledged allegiance and sworn their loyalty to a special interest group whose purpose has been proven time and time again to hurt America and stifle the economy.
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