UPDATE: Hearing is now underway. UPDATE: At Bridgewater "Town Hall" Gov. Christie calls for public referendum on marriage.
Waiting
This is the audience, those lucky enough - who got there early enough - to get seats for the Senate Judiciary hearing on S-1, the marriage equality bill sponsored by senators Loretta Weinberg and Ray Lesniak. The audience, some of whom will be testifying themselves, is in waiting mode - hearing is scheduled for 11am. Blue Jersey has been told by Senate President Steve Sweeney, who infamously abstained when marriage equality came up for a vote two years ago, that today he will lead off the testimony, in support of marriage equality. Sweeney joins Weinberg and Lesniak as a primary sponsor of S-1, along with Dick Codey and Nia Gill as co-sponsors.
At 90 minutes before testimony was scheduled to begin, doors opened to a line that snaked out into the lobby. Within minutes, every seat in the hearing room was full.
Listen LIVE here. Please note: You'll need Windows Media Player, which takes a few moments to download. There's a link for it on the Statehouse media page. Hearings often start late, so keep refreshing the page until it's up.
Loretta Weinberg tells press she hopes new NJ Supreme Court nominee Bruce Harris will gain the right to marry his partner
Opponents of marriage equality gathered in the statehouse cafeteria hours in the early morning. Garden State Equality supporters are wearing deep blue Equality tee-shirts under their coats.
What do you think will happen to this bill after today? Are the votes are there in the Senate? In the Assembly? Are there enough votes to overturn a Christie veto? And will movement on this issue be enough to fire up the Democratic base left disaffected after an awful 2011? This is an Open Thread.
But the homeblog's jazzed to read that the Jersey paper we read and link to every day's taking notice too, particularly since we rag on them plenty (when they deserve it). So, we're proud that Star-Ledger's Inside Jersey Magazine, in a feature by @MeganDeMarco, lists us as a must-follow if you follow politics in Jersey.
Who else is on their list? One Republican (guess which), several Democrats, including 2 looking to rise, a couple political blogs, and Chris Christie's constant Ledger shadow, reporter Ginger Gibson.
Thanks, Twitter followers.
Are you you following @bluejersey?
It has always bothered me how much of my tax dollar is being use to promote Chris Christie's image and his draconian agenda.
I decided to submit an OPRA request to learn how much of my money is going toward his self-aggrandizement. One of my friends has had limited success with OPRA and has told me that the office that handles these requests uses obfuscation as their default position. But after I attended an OPRA seminar, I was emboldened and decided to try out the system.
The response I received (which includes my original request) is here. It doesn't entirely answer my question, but it provides a window into the workings of the Christie communications machine. It shows that we are spending $55,000 of taxpayer money to promote the Christie agenda. Actually, the number is much higher because this figure does not include the costs of the benefits to the individual named, the cost of the IT infrastructure, and any travel expenses for the Governor's Twiterrer. And I inadvertently neglected to include the much larger YouTube expenses in my original request.
Certainly, the governor has the right - and the obligation - to use social media to communicate with his subjects. But a large amount of what his people post is political and should be funded by the State GOP, not the taxpayer.
Somewhat contrary to our initial report on this, while some just stayed through the weekend of the 17th, others have tried to make the "Occupy Wall Street" protests into an actual occupation. The protesters have camped out in what they have calledLiberty Plaza aka Zuccotti Park (which apparently was at one point called Liberty Plaza Park) indefinitely.
So it went. From the Saturday the 17th up until last Saturday the 24th. The protesters camped out, ate their pizza, and spent the day highlighting the issues they cared about - which at one point was the execution of Troy Davis. No property destruction or violence was reported. No harm, no foul right?
(Protester and dog catch a nap, "Stay Clear of the Plants" sign in background)
Well it seems after a week of "occupation" the New York Police Department or rather their superiors, had had enough. Starting Saturday the 24th, a severe crackdown on the protests started.
(Police began a crackdown on protesters starting Saturday)
What was once a rather calm scene turned increasingly chaotic as police used force to breakup protests, including the deployment of non-lethal chemical weapons.
(Peaceful Protesters Sprayed With Irritant By Police)
(Hundreds gathered to protest on and near Wall Street on Saturday)
Today, unknown to many people including myself, was the launch of a three day long protest called "Occupy Wall Street" the event is apparently affiliated with the 99% movement whose core tenant is that the Top 1% of the wealthy in America have essentially rigged the economy for their benefit at the expense of the bottom 99% I want to also stress it is difficult to understand who or what is exactly behind this protest/movement because of the strategy known as "leaderless resistance." The group Anonymous is also believed to be involved.
Julianne Pepitone, of CNN, has been one of the few reporters on the scene. From her story:
Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Manhattan's financial district on Saturday in a largely peaceful protest aimed at drawing attention to the role powerful financial interests played in wreaking havoc on America's economy.
Modeled on the "Arab Spring" uprisings that swept through Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and other countries this year, Occupy Wall Street is a "leaderless resistance movement" orchestrated through Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools. The Twitter hashtag #OccupyWallStreet lit up Saturday with coordination messages and solidarity tweets.
One of the solidarity tweets caught my eye:
(Haledon Mayor Domenick Stampone tweets his support)
The protests have, so far, been peaceful though the police were deployed and closed off Wall Street.
Today's Quote of the Day is a two-fer, coming in at just under 140 characters each from the twitter feed of columnist Jonathan Alter at The Daily Beast:
@JonathanAlter: BREAKING: My sources say NJ Gov. Chris Christie is conducting focus groups in preparation for a possible run for president in 2012.
...followed within an hour by...
@JonathanAlter: Another source, close to Christie and v-reliable, says there are no Christie focus groups and nothing has changed. I trust him.
I'm disappointed with the majority of the Democrats in New Jersey. There I said it.
The RWNJ tweet and facebook everything, even silly stuff like referring to their pizza delivery guy as the brother of a great Patriot fighting for freedom. But on the blue side social media is a once in while deal.
The GOP has learned that social media keeps them in touch with their constituents; each time a NJ soldier dies, all Dems in and running for office should tweet and FB condolences. Positive jobs news, credit the Obama administration, our Congressmen, or State Assembly. Heck, even retweet the traffic reports on Friday and Saturday regarding the Jersey Shore. (And why not RT the good and important posts of others in the party)
We saw how social media can motivate the younger people in London to do harm and do good; from my vantage point it seems that only the GOP has learned how to use it, and when they use it, it is never for good.
Seriously, the GOP is winning because they stay in touch. Our side has to do the same.
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) NJ offices is holding another stewards training to educate a new group of member activists for the fight against the attack on workers rights in New Jersey.
I was invited to present Blue Jersey and discuss the power of progressive blogging and activism through sharing stories and struggles from the offices and homes of working class families under attack by people like Chris Christie, Stephen Sweeney and George Norcross, III.
The last training brought about 80 members out of the dark and into the light of social media and activism. This new training is adding to the ranks and giving more power to the voice of workers in a fight for our very way of life and careers.
The training will focus on the many different avenues of communication available on the internet through Blue Jersey, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and personal blogs.
All of us here at Blue Jersey want to thank all of you for the recognition we got today from The Fix, Chris Cillizza's hot political column at the Washington Post: Blue Jersey is listed in Cillizza's column as the Best State Blog in New Jersey, a distinction we share, oddly enough, with Save Jersey. Big thanks to Chris for generating the best blogs list, which he put together after soliciting recommendations from his own readers at the Washington Post.
So, it's a good day here at the homeblog. And if Blue Jersey's lucky enough to be recognized like this, I assure you a great deal of the credit goes to the entire Blue Jersey community. Our readers - who we strongly encourage to weigh in and state their own opinions - are primo. The very best. All the writers get a lot out of reading you, because you are - for us and if they're smart, for Democrats - the biggest, best barometer of what's really going on in this state.
That goes for you lurkers, too. We know you're on - because when big news drops, we watch our stats go up. If you don't already have an account (they're free), please get one, and drop in a comment on whatever's important to you. Anytime. Thanks to all our followers on Twitter (more than 2,000) and facebook (more than 1,000).
Biggest thanks, from me, to our writers. Seriously? Sometimes I can't believe my luck. I get to hang out with some of the smartest, toughest, most decent people in New Jersey. It's my privilege to be here with Adam L, Bill Orr, Deciminyan, DSWright, Hopeful, Jay Lassiter, Jeff Gardner, Jersey Jazzman, KendalJames, and the_promised_land. Senator Loretta Weinberg used to tell me she'd get home after a long day and log into Blue Jersey just to save her sanity. Grateful she's now a Blue Jerseyan, too.
We also got that nod the last time Cillizza compiled a list - in 2009 - but that time there were 4 blogs listed; this year, only two. We're also on Washington Post's list of the Best Political Tweeters in the country. Are you following @bluejersey?
We at Blue Jersey just want to give a quick shout-out to two fellow smartypants on Twitter. This morning Politco posted their 50 Politicos to Watch list and on that list of hotshots are two that have a connection to New Jersey.
First up is @Lis_Smith. Lis - that's Elizabeth to you, bub - is Communications Director at DGA, the Democratic Governors Association. And given that she earns that distinction from @Politico in large part for her 140-character truth-telling on one Gov. Chris Christie (that's @GovChristie to you, bub), we say Well done!
Also earning Politico's nod is @SenSweeney the parody account of a Senate President you may be familiar with. The graphic on the Twitter page is photog Saed Hindash's iconic snapshot of Sweeney, for Star-Ledger, with his beefy arms crossed, bracing himself in front of the State House, his expression telegraphing, I won't be moved, bub. And the profile is funny as hell:
@SenSweeney West Deptford, NJ Sorry for the typhyos! I got these ironworker sausage fingers. Let's be straight: If the $$$ weren't thiks great being a Semocrat, I'd be the GOP Sen Prez.
A few weeks ago, another great NJ-based parody account, @BronxZoosCodey engaged in a day-long campaign to get @bluejersey to follow (like we've followed @SenSweeney for a while). There was a whole day of @BronxZoosCodey jumping up and down to get us to notice, and @SenSweeney beating up on the fake-Codey account like a snotty little brother. And @SenSweeney'a even jumped in on firstamend07's action, which made me laugh even harder.
I have my theories who is behind both fakester accounts. I'm not telling. But I will say the fact that one of the parodies made Politico's national list (and so did Lis at DGA) tells me some of the barbs coming from their general direction are hitting home.
As we did all day yesterday, Blue Jersey will be LIVE-Tweeting today's NJ Senate session, and observing the Democrats' almost-certainly doomed efforts to overturn some of Gov. Christie's harshest cuts - to his own budget that he submitted. What succeeded in this session is getting Republicans on the record defunding and sometimes dismantling programs New Jerseyans depend on. And go on the record they did, saying some pretty crappy, pretty stupid and pretty inaccurate things. Here's Sweeney, Codey and Greenstein talking about that.
Deciminyan is in the Senate gallery, and we hear he's even found a power outlet. This is in the absence of the gavel-to-gavel coverage of important legislative sessions that NJN used to provide. Ironically, NJN was killed in this very House of the Legislature because of backroom dealmaking. And apparently, thusfar, the disappointing NJTV has no interest in turning their cameras on this kind of legislative session.
The session is just starting. You can also try watching the NJ Legislature website's video feed, but I'm not sure how the quality will be. Yesterday, it was skipping and stopping every few minutes.
UPDATE 1:06 Sen. Diane Allen, who rightly received so much good will during the time she herself was ill, is so far not voting on anything, so engrossed is she with something on her laptop computer. She's dead-silent on bills to assist other sick people, like the AIDS drug distribution program, which just failed a few minutes ago for want of any GOP support. Also GOP Sen. Kevin O'Toole just hurled invective at Sen. Rice. The exchange was well-covered both by politickernj and in our live twitter feed @bluejersey.
UPDATE 12:15: Among the revelations in today's Senate session? GOP's Sen. Cardinale just said Planned Parenthood promotes child prostitution.
Maybe it's fitting that today's much-discussed meeting of the full Senate will be the first time a major session of the NJ legislature won't be getting the gavel-to-gavel coverage we came to depend on from NJN.
We love us some Sesame Street but right now - and I am not kidding - actor Patrick Warburton is teaching a muppet the word stuck on the (so far unimpressive) NJTV. Next up, presumably, the word irony.
Deciminyan is in the Senate chamber and is live-Tweeting the session gavel-to-gavel. Follow @bluejersey. Hashtag #njsenate.
Thirty-nine separate bills will be discussed, each one of them an attempt by Democrats to restore funding for programs that assist New Jerseyans in some way - teachers for blind kids, AIDS treatment, seniors in nursing homes, health screening and treatment for poor women, postpartum education (I'm sorry, does the GOP only care about the "pre-born", not the post-born?). Senator Weinberg wrote about this this morning for Blue Jersey, Senator Buono talked about it here this weekend.
The New Jersey legislature - and in particular, its Senate - has in these last few weeks failed several crucial gut checks. Leadership in both houses seems not to lead, and sometimes not even to agree, with the caucus, or core principles. And harsh sunlight has bleached out some of the backroom deals between the shadow government that appears to make some of the real decisions in Trenton. We see the ugly things under the rock, but we know that both Republicans and Democrats in power have an interest in keeping that rock just where it is.
It's been a bad month. And it's likely to be a bad day. The Republicans, better at lockstep than the Dems are, have signaled in no uncertain terms they don't intend to help Democrats override Gov. Christie's "surprise" cuts to the budget that so "enraged" Sen. Sweeney, or appeared to, before God or Thor sent lightning down from the sky to try and snap the Senate President into reality.
But yes, we want each Senator on the record, as Loretta Weinberg says. Follow us: @bluejersey. NJ Legislature video feed is here but feed is skipping a lot.
At 1:00pm, and that time passed a few minutes ago, session of the full NJ Assembly is scheduled to begin. In this session the Assembly will discuss Assembly Budget Chair Lou Greenwald's companion bill to the Christie-Sweeney public employee pension and health care benefits changes.
Right now, the Assembly chamber is empty except for press. Deciminyan is there, and will be live-Tweeting the discussion as soon as it begins.
Could this be the precursor of the 2016 Presidential contest? Spokespersons for Governor Martin O'Malley (D-Maryland) and Chris Christie (R-Denial) are flaming each other on Twitter.
O'Malley is also the Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, and his communications director, Lis Smith has been pointing out some of Christie's failures and O'Malley's successes. Specifically, she points out that Maryland's unemployment rate is 6.8% while ours is 9.1%. She also mentions that school funding has increased in Maryland while it has decreased in New Jersey, and retweeted O'Malley's disappointment with Christie's pro-pollution withdrawal from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Not to be undone, Christie's GOP has been railing about unspecified broken campaign promises by the Maryland governor and a tax hike there. Of course, they don't mention the myriad of tax hikes under the Christie administration.
Both governors are young, articulate, smart, and ambitious. Christie gets better press because of his bombast and pontifications. But look for O'Malley's presence to be more apparent after the 2012 presidential elections. Meanwhile, following both governors on Twitter is good entertainment.
O'Malley's Press Conference at the NJ State Democratic Dinner - New Brunswick, NJ - April 6, 2011
Since Governor Christie is such a fan of tossing sound research to the side when developing his policies, here's a decidedly unscientific (but interesting) look at who, exactly, loves Chris Christie. Of the last five adulatory tweets sent his way as of this writing, only one came from New Jersey. Starting with the latest and going back in time:
via Twitter account of Courier Post political reporter Jane Roh, we learn that the NJ Supreme Court has upheld the decision by LG Kim Guadagno (acting in her dual capacity of Secretary of State, as appointed by Gov. Christie) that 9-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis is ineligible to run for the NJ Senate. This may mean his name will appear on primary ballots but be off of general election ballots.
I love Blue Jersey, but its not just about NJ since Governor Christie and his policies are being watched by everyone. We, the people who love BlueJersey can make the site stronger by sharing the articles here on Twitter and Facebook everytime we read something we like.
Some of my mates in South Africa have been known to read BlueJersey as the whole "Teachers are cause of every problem in society" issue gets more and more attention. So tweet and share on facebook - keep BlueJersey strong!
This week Chris Christie was in Washington D.C., speaking at a National Republican Congressional Committee fundraiser. If nothing else, a couple of small details surrounding the speech help confirm that many (if not most) of the governor's biggest fans are people from other states, who don't have any grasp of just how unpopular, disingenuous and ineffective he actually is. Much of what they do know comes from YouTube, Twitter, and the GOP marketing machine; a mythology reinforced as Christie struts across America, trumpeting half-truth "accomplishments" and tossing red meat to partisan loyalists. Do his conservative fan-persons go home to fact-check his speeches after they're done swooning? Of course not - that might shatter the illusion.
One reason for the non-Jersey adulation: Chris Christie says he is awesome, and people who don't live here don't know any better! Of course, to most Garden Staters (and probably at least a few of his allies), the governor's self-aggrandizing has long jumped the shark. But for our neighbors across America who only see him in bits and pieces... well, they're taking whatever Christie hands them, not reading the label, and gobbling it up. He's street meat, or mystery pills from a mystery person, acquired in a nightclub bathroom. Truth is irrelevant - you're under the influence of Chris Christie, and things will be getting weird.
For example, take this whopper, courtesy of @dcseth, who live-tweeted the governor's speech to the NRCC:
Hat tip to politickernj, which just alerted us to the Twitter feed from @SenSweeney, the pretty damn clever fake account that went up just today. It's trending nicely over the last few minutes, climbing from 3 followers to 16, including @bluejersey.
In the first few tweets, starting 7:53am this morning, @SenSweeney professes his love for @50cent ("don't tell the guys at the hall"), says he flashes his eyes at @LtGovGuadagno and makes her breathe heavily, makes fun of Star-Ledger and the former Sweeney moustache, Alan Rosenthal ("that guy's like 250 years old"), and wants a map that fucks Codey. Here's my favorite of the morning:
I also want to keeps the conservative,, reactionary white Democrrats in control. I don't even know what 1/2 those words mean. #njpolitics
I decided to submit an OPRA request to learn how much of my money is going toward his self-aggrandizement. One of my friends has had limited success with OPRA and has told me that the office that handles these requests uses obfuscation as their default position. But after I attended an OPRA seminar, I was emboldened and decided to try out the system.
