Blue Jersey - Recommended Diaries

March 18 - Make Wall Street Pay! Good Jobs Now Rally in Jersey City

Hudson County AFL-CIO — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:12:19 GMT

On Thursday, March 18, 2010, union members and community allies will join together at Owen Grundy Park in Jersey City to demand good jobs now. America needs 11 million jobs and big Wall Street banks should pay to rebuild jobs and the economy they helped destroy.

The rally will be held from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm at Owen Grundy Park at Exchange Place in the heart of Jersey City's financial district, right across the Hudson River from Wall Street.

Let us know you'll be there to fight for good jobs. Register here.
Help spread the word. Download a flyer for the rally.

This rally is only one of hundreds being held across the country from March 15 to 26 to hold Wall Street accountable in our fight for good jobs.

Big Wall Street banks helped cause the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, homes and retirement savings. But in 2009, the biggest Wall Street banks gave their execs $145 billion in pay and bonuses.

We are calling on Wall Street to

Stop refusing to pay their fair share to restore jobs
Stop fighting financial reform
Start lending to our communities, small businesses and others starved for credit

Join the Hudson County Central Labor Council on March 18 in our fight for good jobs. The time has come for Wall Street to pay for repairing the economy they helped destroy.

Read more at laborcouncil.org.

Would you like cream and sugar with your civil discourse?

rachael'sdad — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:36:45 GMT

Seven years ago this month, a dozen or so people and I attended one of the earliest Meetups for a virtually unknown (at the time) Presidential candidate named Howard Dean at Cafe Eclectic in Montclair. Ours was one of about a dozen in the state and one of hundreds taking place throughout the country. The Dean for America campaign and Howard Dean's four years as DNC Chairman established the foundation and set the standard for the kind of progressive grassroots organizing that made it possible for President Barack Obama to defeat both Hillary Clinton and John McCain in the 2008 Presidential election.

However, since President Obama's November 2008 victory, the Tea Party movement, angry, anti-government regressives, have appeared to become the most prominent grassroots organizing force in the country, although it is debatable how truly grassroots they are since much of its vision and voice seems to be coming from right-wing, Republican lobbyists like former Congressman, Dick Armey.

To provide a more rational, reasonable, and thoughtful alternative to the Tea Partiers, a new, progressive grassroots effort, The Coffee Party Movement, will be returning to Cafe Eclectic and hundreds of other locations (see list of NJ locations below the fold) nationwide on Saturday, March 13 to start a conversation about the role that government can and must play in American society and how liberals, moderates, and conservatives can work together to create a consensus and advocate for it with their elected officials.

I would like to personally invite the leaders and members of the existing progressive grassroots organizations in New Jersey and the Blue Jersey community as a whole to join us on this day to share your experience, insight, and wisdom with many people who, like some of us seven years ago, are becoming politically active for the first time in their lives. I also believe that many of the participants would be very interested to learn more about Blue Jersey and what the progressive community of New Jersey in general is doing.
There are currently 16 Coffee Party locations in 16 (Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington/Camden, Cape May, Essex, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, and Union) counties. We still need coordinators and locations in 5 more (Cumberland, Hudson, Salem, Sussex, and Warren) counties.

If you are interested in coordinating a Coffee Party location in one of these counties or at a different location in one of the other counties, please contact me directly through my Facebook page or through the Coffee Party Movement in New Jersey's Facebook page.

Your time, consideration, and participation are greatly appreciated and I look forward to seeing you at the Coffee Party that I will be coordinating on Saturday, March 13 at 3:00pm at the Panera Bread near the Menlo Park Mall in Edison or at some other Coffee Party-related event in the future.

Atlantic County
12:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Borders Books
Wrangleboro Rd.
Mays Landing, NJ

Bergen County
12:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Panera Bread
165 E State Route 4
Paramus, NJ

Burlington/Camden Counties
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Panera Bread
48 Centerton Road
Mount Laurel, NJ

Cape May County
3:00pm - 5:00pm
Starbucks
Route 9 South
Rio Grande, NJ

Essex County - Montclair
12:00pm - 2:00pm
Cafe Eclectic
444 Bloomfield Avenue
Montclair, NJ

Essex County - Newark
12:00pm - 2:00pm
Java's Brewing
155 University Avenue
Newark, NJ

Gloucester County
12:00pm - 2:00pm
Barnes & Noble
1553 Almonesson Road
Deptford, NJ

Hunterdon County
1:00pm - 3:00pm
Marias
12 Race Street
Frenchtown, NJ

Mercer County
10:00am - 12:00pm
Princeton Public Library
65 Witherspoon St.
Princeton, NJ

Middlesex County
3:00pm - 5:00pm
Panera Bread
1551 US Highway 1 South
Edison, NJ

Monmouth County
12:00pm - 2:00pm
Neptune Public Library
25 Neptune Blvd.
Neptune, NJ

Morris County
3:00pm - 5:00pm
Atlanta Bread Company
1711 Route 10 East
Morris Plains, NJ

Ocean County (Southern Monmouth)
12:00pm - 2:00pm
Southard Grange Hall
4860 Route 9 South
Howell, NJ

Passaic County
4:00pm - 7:00pm
Cafe Latte
1241 Main Avenue
Clifton, NJ

Somerset County
1:00pm - 3:00pm
Panera Bread
300 Route 202 South
Raritan, NJ

Union County
10:00am - 12:00pm
Panera Bread
295 Route 22 East
Springfield, NJ

NJSAEA: Doing the Same Thing And Expecting a Different Outcome

BillOrr — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:42:00 GMT

Promoted from the diaries by Rosi

Our government should start getting rid of the NJ Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSAEA) albatross.

Someone said, "Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome." For years the NJSAEA has expanded its investments into the Meadowlands complex, Monmouth Park Racetrack, and the AC and Wildwoods Convention Centers. The result: NJSAEA currently holds $830 million in debt, faces a deficit this year of $38 million, and is requesting from the state $30 million to meet its shortfall. NJSAEA is now pleading for slots machines at its racetracks and hopes for gambling at Xanadu.

During Senate hearings the NJS&EA President Dennis Robinson said that its "debt load reflects poor choices by past governors and lawmakers." Actually our current governor recently appointed his former colleague Ralph Marra as Senior Vice President for Legal and Governmental Affairs with a 25% salary increase to $190,000. Marra has been criticized on several counts for improperly having used the federal prosecutor's office to further Christie's campaign.

Indeed past governors and lawmakers have treated the authority as their toy box. Political interference has including a bloated staff of political appointees, free tickets and catered meals to favored politicians, poorly negotiated contracts with football, basketball, and hockey franchises, bad decisions regarding Xanadu, and insistence on perpetuating the money-losing race track business.

Robinson also says there is a long-term future for the agency. Really? With accounting statements "in such disarray they could not be trusted," their race tracks bleeding huge sums, their infusion of capital from Xanadu nearing an end, ongoing debt on the former Giants stadium and Izod Arena, the NJ Devils long gone to Newark, the NJ Nets soon to follow, and questions raised about their contract with concert promoter Live Nation - where is the long-term future we can believe in?

Sports economists "have shown time and time again that the rosy estimates of economic benefits put forward by sports boosters are at odds with actual economic data." We like our professional sports and we want to keep them, but other states have their own teams and have not pandered as much to team owners nor allowed their government to so mismanage the business.

As with companies that have a failed business model, the government should begin to find other operators, sell off its assets, close down facilities where necessary, and disengage from the sports, exposition and entertainment business. Other non-governmental operators could run these facilities and be more successful. If some were to lose money it would not be a drain on our state's treasury. There are other far more pressing needs in NJ. It's time to stop. "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."