Mulshine’s cat must have pissed in his Cheerios
Fortunately, The Star Ledger also has a real journalist in addition to the mad ranting blogger
By Art Gallagher
When we last visited Paul Mulshine he was preparing to blame Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno if his cat pooped on his rug. Mulshine’s cat must have peed in Paul’s Cheerios and drank his last beer. The dipsomaniac expositer has been on a bender since.
First Mulshine said Guadagno should stay in Mexico because the roads were bad in Ocean and Monmouth Counties as he successfully made his way to the Edison studios of News12. He said the roads were bad in the Republican counties because Guadagno and Governor Christie left the Governor’s office in the hands of Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney.
After Mulshine found out why Guadagno is in Mexico, she and her brothers are spending probably their last Christmas holiday with their father who is suffering from advanced cancer, that was OK with him. Then it wasn’t OK with him. Kim’s clan should have spent the holiday in Iowa, where they are from, instead of going to Mexico. Mulshine better hope he keeps his Star Ledger gig, he won’t qualify for America’s next emerging profession, end of life counseling.
In his latest rant, Mulshine demonstrated that he doesn’t qualify as a storm cleanup expert either. He writes as if he’s an expert. His seven hours of shoveling and failure to get to the store to get kitty litter are his qualifications. Paul said:
The effort in the coastal counties was nothing short of pathetic. Though this snow was deep, it was very light – as I can affirm after seven or so hours of shoveling it.
Just a few good passes with a plow would have cleared key state highways at the Shore.
Instead, many of those highways still had just one lane open the day after the storm.
Worse was the lack of coordination. State, county, and municipal roads were all plowed by separate crews. One road would be just fine, till you turned onto another that was barely touched.
Paul is right. The snow was deep, and fortunately light. The reason the snow was so deep is that we got too much of it too fast. Just a few good passes did clear it, on Sunday, and then it snowed some more covering up the area that had just been plowed. I know, while Paul was shoveling and cleaning up cat poo, I was plowing. Then my plow broke, as did many many others that I witnessed at the repair shop today. This storm was historic. 30 inches and wind-blown drifts in less than 24 hours. New Jersey is not equipped to clean up this type of a storm quickly. Nor should we be because they are so rare. Syracuse and Buffalo are equipped for these types of storms which occur in those cities every year.
One would expect a guy who covers New Jersey government and purports to be an expert to know why there are different jurisdictions clearing different roads in the same communities. Coordination is a great idea and might even work in the private sector if unions weren’t involved. But in New Jersey government their would be fights over which entity would pay the overtime and which union would get the overtime.
Mulshine related his personal snowstorm. Just like hundreds of others did in the comments on the app and nj.com websites and who called into News12 while Paul was in the studio that he managed to get to in the horrendous conditions. One would expect better from a professional journalist and opinion maker.
And better we got from the Star Ledger’s Mike Frasinelli. Reading Mike’s article I learned that despite Mayor Cory Booker’s ability to simultaneously handle a snow shovel and an IPhone Newark is more messed up over the storm than Monmouth and Ocean. The reporter witnessed two men threaten each other with gunfire over a parking spot and then start shoveling together. There’s the making of a reality TV show that I would watch.
In addition to getting into the streets, Frasinelli talked to men who worked overnight clearing the snow. He spoke to James Simpson, the State Transportation Commissioner who explained the Route 18 and other State Highway problems. Rather than neglect as Mulshine would have you believe, Route 18 was impassable because plow trucks were breaking down. 9 or 10 trucks broke down clearing the highway.
I guess I knew that Neptune has five state highways running through it. I just never thought about it until I read Frasinelli’s fine article. 175 abandoned vehicles would certainly complicate a clean up. Those vehicles wouldn’t have been abandoned if it hadn’t snowed so hard so fast.
Read Frasinelli’s article if you want a good perspective on the storm.
Or just take it from me. What happened was we got too much snow too fast. Christie and Guadagno being here would not have resulted in a faster clean up. Even if they were here, their political opponents in the media and a few idiot legislators would have tried to rile you up and score political points.
More from my site
Christie’s Approval Ratings Repudiate Media’s Snow Job
The Blizzard Wasn’t Katrina
Anatomy of a Media Fabricated News Story – Gannett Style
Hysterical Hyberbole: Comparing the Blizzard of 2010 to Hurricane Katrinia
Additional Confirmation: No Warrant For DiSomma
Gallagher Named To Top 100 NJ Media List
Christie and Oliver at odds over leaked tape of secret speech
Governor Chris Christie’s Press Conference On The Strom
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I think you hit the nail on the head in your last paragraph. The legislators from the other side cannot criticize the Gov or Lt Gov for the slow clean up because they weren’t here and a member of their own party is running the show right now. They are trying to find ways to spin it.
Also, an interesting point…..if the leaders in the Democrat legislation didn’t play around all of Sept, Oct, Nov, and most of Dec, and not wait to pass the tool kit (in the 11th hour) for municipalities to assist them in things like sharing services, clean up could have gone faster. The sooner the tool kit was passed, the sooner it could of gotten into the hands of the mayors and town councils all over NJ. But pinheads like Mulshine aren’t talking about that are they?
I’m sorry Art, but I don’t buy it – yet. The County did an excellent job, but the NJ DOT seemed missing in action. I have never seen vehicles stranded between Eatontown and the Asbury Circle on Rt. 35, and I remember when 35 it was three lanes affectionately called “Suicide Highway.” Ocean Twp., Neptune (I have heard a rumor they had to hire an outside service to get the ploughs onto their trucks long after the accumulation began) and probably Middletown were sucked in to make up for the missing in action NJ DOT.
Accross the river there is talk that the unions slowed snow removal down to protest budget cuts. Occam’s Razor and a belief that there are no coincidences leads me to suspect the same thinking that may have existed in New York characterized the work of the NJDOT here in Monmouth County.
“Across the river there is talk that the unions slowed snow removal down to protest budget cuts. Occam’s Razor and a belief that there are no coincidences leads me to suspect the same thinking that may have existed in New York characterized the work of the NJDOT here in Monmouth County.”
Nice to see an Occam’s Razor reference here.
I second the notion.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/sanit_filthy_snow_slow_mo_qH57MZwC53QKOJlekSSDJK
I’m tired of this “too much snow too fast” excuse.
Today, 3 days after the storm, I went skiing at Hunter Mtn. It got 20″ of snowfall (compared to Middletown which go 22″). All those small mountain roads were perfectly cleared to the blacktop. If a road was supposed to have 2 lanes +2 shoulders, it was cleared to have 2 lanes + 1 shoulder.
Back to Middletown, 3 days after the storm. Most local roads have one driveable lane. They’re covered with ice and slushy snow. My truck was drifting all over the (luckily) narrow street. Earlier in the day, my wife with the non-SUV needed 20 minutes for the 2 mile trip to the post office.
Were those 2 extra inches of snow the reason for all this??? Households in Hunter, NY pay around $1,500-2,000/year in taxes, Middletown households pay $7-8,000. The extra $5k should’ve paid for removing the extra 2″.
Chris…..you make a valid point, however I believe you are mistaken. Here is where I believe the problem is. State and union workers wanted to stick it to the Gov because of his budget cuts and pension reform. What does that have to do with Middletown? Everyone knows that our current mayor and the Governor have a good working relationship; another way for the unions to stick it not only to the Gov, but to the Mayor as well.
Secondly, the problem here is that we are simply not prepared to deal with a massive snow fall like this. Ski resorts like you referred to are. They need to be if thy want to stay in business and towns want nothing more. I have relatives from Canada who came on Monday and they were even saying that this was a lot of snow to accumulate at one time.
You can’t compare places that are used to big snow falls to places that aren’t. With some 45 plows in Middletown and for the size of it, they did a pretty good job. Could they may have done a few things different? I’m sure they could have. But it’s always easier to say “coulda, woulda, shoulda” after the fact
Couldn’t agree with the above poster Lincroft more. How could you compare a small mountain town to a town the size of Middletown? Middletown certainly could have done a few things better IMO. But as for my area in the bayshore, it wasn’t all that terrible given the magnitude of the storm.
I also read some comments in the Neptune Nudnik paper who want to compare everything to the job Rumson did. Kudos to Rumson but the trend I see here is that the smaller towns definitely have the advantage in the bigger snow events. Less streets mean more ability to get there more often.
>>>the trend I see here is that the smaller towns definitely have the advantage in the bigger snow events<<<
The towns generally performed well. However, when NJDOT put the ball on the ground, town equipment was pulled away to work on state roads. So the “small twons” you are talking about are the ones with fewer state roads. Rumson has no state roads save for the bridge and perhaps Rumson Rd., which is a cinch to plow. Middletown, Ocean Twp and Neptune have alot of state highway milage.
NJDOT is the bad actor here.