Chris Christie's double standard never ceases to amaze! But it's more than past time that we all take on his "double speak" each time he does it! For instance and I paraphrase slightly: "Why would I put more money into a broke pension system?" Of course, why ask the obvious: "Why is it broke?" Has he contributed to the severe pension problems by skipping state pension payments in this year's budget? Even Governor Jon Corzine, whom he trashes at every opportunity, managed to pony up a portion of the state's contribution. By the way, public employees have continued to pay their own share each and every year.
Now to the budget.
Need $7.5 million for family planning centers? Oh, not a priority, according to the Gov. We can't possibly find that.
Need $65 million to close a gaping budget hole when it was realized that doing away with the Sunday closing laws in Bergen County would make a very serious political problem for Republicans in Bergen? Oh, that was easy. Just say "We'll improve tax collections".....and poof, we found $65 million in anticipated revenue.
Need $5 million to buy Senator Doherty's vote for the budget? Just change another line item.
Gee, a political problem when the Christie budget increased the co-pay for the prescription program for low income seniors. Oh that was easy too, let's get dollars from the national democratic health care reform money coming to our state. You know, the same program his party has been bad mouthing.The one Republicans worked hard to defeat.
Maybe removing more than 900 folks from receiving life saving drugs is not such a great idea. Got caught short on that one when Senator Joe Vitale and the Governor's Advisory Commission on Aids brought it to light. Find the dollars by just saying we'll get better discounts from the pharmaceutical industry and then criticize the Senator "for playing politics" when he wrote to restore these much needed funds. That was really a smooth one Governor! Well maybe those same pharmaceutical companies can increase the discount in the employee prescription program for the family planning centers.
Tax credits (or even bail outs .... Xanadu?) for private business are good ideas if we can keep jobs in New Jersey. No big argument here. So let's do it to keep Honeywell in Morris County. Oh the TV and movie industry? Gee who cares if Law & Order moved from North Bergen to New York to film their series. Who cares if that part of North Jersey lost jobs and all the small business around who serviced such endeavors? Governor, tell us the difference between the two.
Ok. You all have the idea. We should headline these in Blue Jersey each and every time he does it. Did I miss any? Send them in.
Now back to Family Planning Centers. Every major newspaper in the state has endorsed the restoration of these funds. Organizations like Catholics for Choice, Women's Political Caucus, Women Advocating for Good Government (WAGG) and The League of Women Voters have already supported this effort and are lining up their membership. I expect to hear soon from the National Council of Jewish Women. The Legislative Black Caucus has also joined the chorus. We cannot let folks get away with claiming this is a budget problem! It is not. The Governor knows it, the Treasurer probably knows it which is why he was afraid to be questioned in public and certainly the Commissioner of Health & Senior Services knows it. And don't keep repeating that the Federally Qualified Health Centers can take the new patients. They can't. They've said so themselves and their financial reports back them up. And again, don't repeat that the CEED program can take all comers for mammograms and pap smears. Maybe they can, but where do these women go to get the doctor prescriptions they need to access these services. Stop the myth spinning. Women's health is too important to continue this cynical endeavor to placate the right wing of the Governor's party!
The women (and many of the good men) in our state will not let any legislator stand up with a straight face and try to claim this is all about the budget, or that poor women will have access to health care without this funding.
Assemblywoman Stender and I have not yet talked to our legislative leadership to work out the timing of a legislative override. It has to originate in the Senate, since that's where the bill originated. We'll let you know as soon as we have an agreed upon schedule. In the meantime, keep letters and emails coming to the legislature. We absolutely need your help on this one. Get your family, neighbors, and friends to join the growing chorus. This is the time for all blue (and even red) New Jerseyans to join together and start with the Senate - your own Senator or any other you know.
Today is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, holiest day on the Jewish calendar.
And in a stupid move that ends up revealing more than they want you to know about who they really are, NJ's most virulent anti-gay leaders chose today to stage a press event 11:30am at the State House opposing marriage equality. Yeah. This narrow little bunch, who claim broad religious support, obviously doesn't have it or someone might have suggested that Yom Kippur isn't a great day to attract attention to yourself. So much for their diversity.
My own (shoot me now) Sen. Mike Doherty leads today's anti-equality squad, which also includes Alison Litell McHose, Steve Lonegan, Richard Merkt, Gerald Cardinale, Steve Oroho, Gary Chiusano, and Carolee Adams of the Eagle Forum of NJ. They must be feeling the tide turning on them.
Goldstein said yesterday: It is appropriate for me, in these hours before Yom Kippur, to wish everyone well. But that's too generous for me. I say New Jersey's anti-equality gang has more than enough sins to atone for, and they ought to head home, STFU, and give that some thought.
If New Jersey allows drilling for oil and natural gas off its coast, it may dredge up an ugly and dangerous past.
The U.S. Army has admitted to dumping 64 million pounds of chemical weapons into U.S. waters from World War I until the early 1970s.
[...]
Chemical agents such as mustard gas, sarin gas, arsenic, cyanide and VX nerve gas were all dumped off the Atlantic Coast, raising questions about safety and the volatility of weapons in those dump sites.
Maybe we could make the dump sites a tourist attraction. Follow me below the fold to find out what other surprises drilling might bring and who has been leading the push in NJ.
After losing election after election, the New Jersey GOP might be excused for finding alternative candidates for statewide elections, but the positions of their latest candidate du jour, Mike Doherty (R-Warren County), may completely surprise you. First, let's be clear about what's been happening with the less-than-impressive state Republican Party, which has been in disarray and lacking competitive funding for the November assembly and senate elections. The state GOP is now in a push-and-pull between the radical conservative branches of its electorate and that of the moderate side. After Forrester and Kean Jr. lost elections as moderates, the radical branch, with the same ideological thrust of fundamentalist conservatives who have taken over the national party, are now foaming at the mouth for a radical right-wing Republican to go against Sen. Frank Lautenberg in the 2008 senate election. They found their willing participant in far right conservative Assemblyman Mike Doherty, who has received 100% ratings from anti-abortion group New Jersey Right to Life and from the NRA.
Friends, as a Southerner, I have encountered some radical rightwingers in my life, but Doherty is on the level of Rick Santorum and Jim Inhofe in terms of his anti-minority and destructive policy agendas. To give you a sense of how Ass. Doherty is out-of-touch with our tolerant state, consider that he was recently protesting the Roe v. Wade abortion decision at the statehouse and attended a recent state talk. by pro-Bush, anti-science presidential candidate Sam Brownback. Like Brownback, Doherty is also vehemently anti-science, preferring a fundamentalist ideology that emphasizes anti-regulation: Doherty is against the Kyoto Treaty in combating global warming, and with life-saving research, states that
The stem cell legislation signed into law today by the governor is yet another assault on the unborn in New Jersey at stem cell funding is immoral
. Regarding the Supreme Court ruling that gave gays and lesbians further civil rights in the state, Doherty immediately went into reactionary, discriminatory mode, stating
"I believe in the sanctity of the institution of marriage and I believe today's ruling undermines that institution.
And just this past week, Doherty proudly produced a press release from the anti-gay, anti-women, pro-abstinence-only sex ed organization New Jersey Family Policy Council for his "award" of legislator of the year from them. Further, Doherty, as did all Assembly Republicans, refused to hold the president accountable for his failures in Iraq and had a no-vote on the anti-surge amendment, too.
Of course, should Doherty get the nomination, and he seems to be the Republican frontrunner at this point, we already know what the 2008 party line will be: Doherty will champion himself as being committed to smaller government (of course, as a Corzine obstructionist, he hasn't passed substantial legislation to limit spending and only opposed plans) and as a moderate on hot-button issues. This will backfire, especially with such a principled, respected politician as Lautenberg running against him, and I imagine that the GOP will find themselves further in the wilderness in statewide politics if they nominate this radical fundamentalist.
The first debate for the Democratic Presidential primaries is tonight on MSNBC at 7pm. It will be streamed live at msnbc.com, if have internet but not cable TV. Each candidate gets 11 minutes, so you can look forward to seeing as much of Mike Gravel as John Edwards.
New Jersey Congressmen voted on party lines on the Iraq War: The Democrats to fund the war with a withdrawal deadline, the Republicans with Dennis Kucinich to cut off funding. In fairness, Republicans do expect to later borrow the money to stay indefinitely.
Conservative Michael Doherty is the most likely challenger to Frank Lautenberg, according to politicsnj.com. The article says he hopes to run on fiscal conservatism and is "described as "hard-edged" by colleagues and prone to displays of anger." I'd like to hear fiscal conservatives discuss the fact that every four months we waste more money in Iraq than New Jersey owes. The article also discussees Republican perceptions of Tom Kean Jr. and the alternative of Bill Baroni.
Adult high schools have been closing across the state. Some community colleges have been offering GED classes to make up for the loss of opportunity.
Gloucester, Salem and Cumberland counties are starting a joint program to prevent child abuse. The idea is to help financially stressed families before there is abuse. The funding comes from the state.
It's my understanding the speculation is coming from the various blogs related to Monmouth County politics, and quite frankly in my opinion the blogs are nothing more than a compilation of rumors, lies and innuendo."
New Jersey has filed an appeal asking for the possibility of a terrorist attack to be considered in the relicensing review of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, the Press of Atlantic City reports that a spokesman for Unplug Salem says that if PSEG would just build cooling towers to save the fish, Unplug Salem might stop. Vineland officials, by the way, are considering a new power plant (not nuclear!).
Governor Codey has changed his original flooding disaster assistance request include the entire state. Representatives Andrews and LoBiondo had asked for the inclusion of South Jersey, and got quick results. Thanks!
This is an open thread, let us know what you are thinking!
Rep. Michael Ferguson has ruled out a bid for U.S. Senate against Frank Lautenberg. Chris Jones, Ferguson's Chief of Staff, says that the 36-year-old Ferguson will positively not run for statewide office in 2008, and will seek re-election to a fifth term in the House. State Sen. Thomas Kean, Jr., Assemblyman Bill Baroni and Assemblyman Michael Doherty are viewed as the most likely contenders for the nomination to challenge Lautenberg, who will be 84 when he seeks his fifth term.
Had Ferguson lost to Stender, or had he run for the U.S. Senate, there was a good chance that State Senator Thomas Kean, Jr. would have run for the House instead. (He finished second in the 2000 primary, behind Ferguson.) Now the 38-year-old Kean must decide whether he is willing to chance a second statewide loss (something that usually signals the end of a political career) by running against Lautenberg -- or even against the more conservative rivals in a contested Republican primary.
So, it's down to Baroni and Doherty. Any other strong contenders?
The neverending chorus of GOP demands for more and more budget cuts came to a very brief halt yesterday. As part of the many proposed cuts to the state budget, Corzine wants to save $734,000 by shifting the burden of deer carcass removal on local and county roads to local municipalities.
As Fred Snowflack notes, the complaints came from Republicans representing areas that would be affected by the proposal:
Predictably, there were howls of protests from the mostly Republican lawmakers who represent areas, northwest New Jersey comes to mind, where dead deer are likely to be found on local roads.
Queue the whining:
"This is just a redistribution of costs," said Assemblyman Guy Gregg, R-Morris.
He correctly defined the effects of budget cuts. Someone give this man an economics degree. Interestingly, he only seems to object when the costs are redistributed towards his constituents.
