I suppose it should be no surprise that unions are sending their members to the Port Authority toll hike hearings to make emotional appeals to raise the tolls on non-union commuters.
Nor is it a surprise that the few commuters who can attend the hearings are objecting to having to bear the burden of the cost of infrastructure and cost overruns at the World Trade Center.
InTheLobby reports that fear of a credit downgrade might be what is really behind the push for the toll and fare hikes.
If you’re not attending the online hearing this afternoon between 5 and 6, tune into the LaRossa and Gallagher Radio Show with special guest Bob Ingle, on WIFI 1460 AM or here.
Giving credit where it is do, The Asbury Park Press Editorial Board got one right in their recent editorial lamenting the closure of Fort Monmouth’s commissary. They give a quick summary of the disaster the closure of Fort Monmouth is and how the entire BRAC decision to close the fort was based on faulting economic and home security data.
Fort Monmouth’s closure and the move of its operations to Aberdeen Maryland was a huge waste of money that compromised national security. An investigative series by Asbury Park Press reporters Bill Bowman and Keith Brown (which is no longer linkable) documented the waste and fraudulent numbers that BRAC gave Congress to justify the closure.
In their editorial, The Asbury Park Press accurately lays the blame:
The closing of the base was based on faulty economic and security research in the first place, and yet even with the facts on their side, Reps Frank Pallone and Rush Holt, along with Sens. Lautenberg and Menendez could not carry the day.
That is largely due to the fact that the faulty economic and security data was uncovered by Bowman and Brown after Congress had already voted to close the fort. Pallone, Holt, Lautenberg and Menendez didn’t have the juice to uncover that data before or during the BRAC hearings when it might have made a difference. Worse, the didn’t have the juice needed with their congressional colleagues to keep the fort in New Jersey. Maryland’s delegation had the juice.
This latest insulting failure is just one in a decades, maybe centuries, long example of ineffective congressional representation from New Jersey. Not just Pallone, Holt, Lautenberg and Menendez, but most of the delegation. Every two years during congressional elections challengers complain that New Jersey only gets a fraction of the money we send to Washington sent back, but it never changes. Has there ever been a House Speaker from New Jersey? Name on U.S. Senator from New Jersey who could be considered a historic figure.
As Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray indicated during his interview on the LaRossa and Gallagher Radio Showtwo weeks ago, New Jersey Congressmen have little incentive to represent the interests or philosophies of their constituents. They vote how ever they want and work on, or don’t work on, whatever they want without regard for the good of their constituents because no matter what they do, their jobs are safe. Historically, gerrymandering as assured that an incumbent member of congress will be reelected time after time except in the rarest or circumstances.
A competitive congressional district map could go a long way to improving the quality of representation New Jersey gets from the people we send to Washington. Currently, Congressmen face no consequences for failures like the BRACing of Fort Monmouth. Despite the rants of congressional challengers every two years about the about of money that New Jersey sends to Washington vs the amount of money that comes back, that situation never changes and our representitives have little incentive to work to change it.
If competitive congressional elections were the norm, rather than a rare exception, New Jersey would get better representation and better results.
New Jersey’s Redistricting Commission has a huge opportunity to create an environment that could lead to an major improvement in the quality of our representation in Washington over the next decade. If past is prelude, the Democrats and Republicans on the commission will spend the process jockeying for influence with the “13th tie breaking” member. The commission will predictably produce a winning map for one party which will be a losing map for the other party.
For New Jersey to have a “winning map” would require at least one party to propose a competitive map based upon population and geography only without regard for the residency of incumbents or the historical voting trends of residents, and for the “13th member,” former Attorney General and Acting Governor for ninety minutes, John Farmer Jr, to do the right thing.
Otherwise, it won’t really matter much which party “wins” the redistricting battle. New Jersey’s representation in Washington will not likely improve if the people will send there have little incentive to work for it.
By the way, Lautenberg and Pallone are scheduled to make a “surprise announcement” in Belmar tomorrow.
Pray for rain.
Maybe Lautenberg is announcing his retirement and endorsing Pallone to replace him. Not likely, but one can hope.
More likely they will announce some legislation they are sponsoring that will probably never become law or some appropriation they are proposing or maybe even secured that will not have nearly postive impact on New Jersey that the negative impact that the closure of Fort Monmouth will have.
Bob Ingle, the best selling co-author of The Soprano State, prolific blogger, and Gannett columnist will be our exclusive guest tomorrow afternoon on The LaRossa and Gallagher: Real Jersey Guys On The Radio Show.
In addition to his insightful commentary on New Jersey government and politics, “the 3rd Jersey Guy” as he was know when he appeared in 101.5 with Casey Bartholomew and Ray Rossi’s, weighed in on Presidential governing and politics this week with an Open Letter To President Obama.
I have no doubt we’ll have an informative and entertaining hour.
I hope you join us by listening at WIFI AM 1460, if you get the signal, or in the Internet here. We’ll be taking your calls at 609-447-0236 and 609-447-0237.
The show is sponsored by Repatriot Radio, every Tuesday from 5PM until 6PM.
It’s not the economy. It’s not foreign policy. It’s not the failure of Washington to function. It’s not the loss of respect for America and the strength of America. It’s not the failure to improve the educational system. It’s not unemployment or the downgrading of our debt. Obama’s greatest failure transcends the Presidency. His greatest failure is an affront to the fundament of our society.Lessons often come not from a single event, but from a juxtaposition of events. The riots in London, and the flash mobs in Philadelphia come during a week when Obama has blamed Congress, the system, the Tea Party, the Arab Spring and, in what is surely to become a historical reference for excuses, the Japanese Tsunami, for his inability to get a handle on the economy and unemployment.
The lesson here is not about a President blaming others for his failures. That surely is not unique. The lesson here relates to an historically squandered opportunity. Obama’s rise to the Presidency is a compelling story. Abandoned by his father at an extremely young age, he was raised by his mother and, in his words, white racist grandmother. So many young people and adults have used such a background as an excuse for failure. But Obama did not use it as an excuse. He strengthened himself by this adversity rising to the very top in spite of ample opportunity to blame his others for any inability to succeed. Psychiatrists’ couches are filled with adults bemoaning their fate and blaming their parents for their own failures. So many young people rely on the ability to blame one or both parents or their neighborhoods for justification for their failure. Obama’s rise to the Presidency against overwhelming odds is the quintessential American story. He would have been a beacon to those who have a choice between overcoming obstacles to succeed, and using the obstacles as a convenient excuse for failure. The rioters in London blame others for their financial circumstance. The flash mobs in Philadelphia blame others for their feelings of disenfranchisement. And Obama blames the Tsunami, as if G-d himself wanted not only to assure Obama’s failure, but to do it in a clandestine manner, on the other side of the globe.
By overcoming the harshest of circumstances, Obama earned the opportunity to tell the young people of America, the minorities in America, the urban disenfranchised in America that there is no obstacle that could not be overcome. He didn’t blame his father or his grandmother or anyone else. He rose above his circumstances. He reached the ultimate pinnacle of his journey with a campaign motto that was, after all, “Yes, we can.” That in the three years of his Presidency this motto has evolved into “everyone and everything is conspiring to prevent me from succeeding” is Obama’s greatest failure.
The Star Ledger Editorial Board says the blogger who published the nude photos that former Freeholder Louis Magazzu emailed to a mystery woman he never met is a cyber-bully.
Magazzu was a Cumberland County Freeholder, former Freeholder Director and former Chairman of the Cumberland County Democratic Party. He resigned under pressure from other Democratic party leaders when his Weineresque photos became public.
The blogger who took Magazzu down, Carl Johnson, admits his problem with the power broker was personal. Johnson says Magazzu used the power of his positions to attempt to silence his political criticism and make his life miserable including having him arrested for failing to pay child support.
Yet Magazzu’s demise was not a political assassination, as the SLedger states. It was a political suicide.
Magazzu’s photos weren’t taken by someone else in a setting where he might expect privacy. He took the photos himself, just as former Congressmen Christopher Lee and Anthony Weiner took photos of themselves. Like the congressmen, Magazzu voluntarily transmitted the photos to a stranger. That was stupid.
The SLedger laments the pre-Internet days when the media elite were the gatekeepers of what the public learned about its elected officials:
Photos and racy e-mails that Magazzu sent to a mysterious woman over the internet — a woman who has yet to appear, but who both sides believe exists — were refused by several local newspapers on the grounds they weren’t news. They were evidence of Magazzu’s private relationship. And deserved to be private.
If the photos weren’t news, i.e. of interest to the public, no one would have paid attention to them and Magazzu would still be in office. The photos were not of Magazzu gardening, fishing or playing golf. They were photos he took of himself, nude, in a bedroom and a bathroom. They weren’t evidence of a private relationship. He sent the photos himself to a stranger, a “mystery woman.” If the photos were evidence of a private relationship, Magazzu would have shared them with someone who would have kept them private.
With the possible exception of President Priss, the media elite are no longer the arbiters of what the public knows about it’s public figures. Long gone are the days when the electorate doesn’t know they have a president with polio or one that philanders with movie stars. Long gone are the days that an Assemblyman collecting a police disability pension can be physically fit and the public won’t know about it. Long gone are the days that any public figure can share nude photos of themselves with strangers and expect that the public won’t learn about.
The public rightfully doesn’t trust the media elite to decide what is relevant because the media elite is often driven by its own bias as to what is news and what isn’t news. My bias tells me that the Sledger editorial board would have a very different take on this story if a high ranking member of the Christie administration, a Republican Freeholder from any county or a Republican member of the legislature had been involved, rather than a Democratic power broker.
The Sledger contributes to the demise of its own influence by taking a hyperbolic leap in lamenting the power of the blogosphere:
We’ve created a whole new class of political assassins, and any target is now fair game — not just the biggest-name politicians anymore. Tabloid stalking has trickled down to the next-door neighbor level. Any small town sex scandal can be international news.
The hyperbole continues in the Sledger’s conclusion:
Political figure or not, blogging these photos amounts to cyber-bullying. Attacking your opponent on legitimate political or legal grounds is one thing. But publicizing his private life to destroy his reputation crosses the line into virtual stalking.
I don’t buy it. Magazzu wasn’t stalked, virtually or otherwise. He took the photos himself and pushed the send button himself. Cyber-bullying a Freeholder and former County Chairman? Please!
We’ll have to wait until the next time a Republican does something stupid in his/her “private” life to see if the Sledger really means what it says and lives up to its own standards.
In the meantime, public figures of both parties and from all walks of life should refrain from sending nude photos of themselves to anyone and should be careful about everything they do when cameras are present, which is pretty much anytime they are anywhere in public.
The Associated Press is reporting that former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty will announce his withdrawl from the race for the GOP nomination for President on ABC’s “This Week.”
Pawlenty finished a distant third place in the Ames, Iowa straw poll yesterday.
By Barbara Gonzalez, published in The Press (formerly The Asbury Park Press) on August 12, 2012
As the founder of The Bayshore Tea Party, I must take exception to the Press’ Aug. 7 editorial, “The deadly sins of the Tea Party.” It showed a lack of understanding about the Tea Party, our motives and objectives. But it did reveal a lot about the mindset of the editors.
The editorial states that refusal to raise the debt ceiling would constitute the “first default in American history.” In 1933, President Roosevelt confiscated privately held gold. In 1971, President Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard.
We are upset, not “angry” as the editorial stated, that the actions of the federal government have put each and every American over $46,000 in debt to creditors.
We are upset Congress has “borrowed” $2.6 trillion of the assets in the Social Security Trust Fund, which they have no way to pay back. Borrowing of this nature in private enterprise is called embezzlement, but in the world of politics it is called an “investment.”
We believe the president and Congress engaged in “intellectual sloth” by passing the health care bill without reading it.
The editorial asserted that federal, state and local income taxes are at historical lows. It only mentioned federal, state and local income taxes. It failed to take into account payroll, sales and embedded taxes. When all taxes are factored in, the real total of taxes paid is more than 45 percent.
Many Press editorials and special investigative reports have highlighted government waste. Now, we are being taken to task for calling on the government to fix the very things the Press exposed.
The Press implies that the Tea Party shows too much “courage.” Did the Founding Fathers show too much courage by refusing to prostrate themselves to King George?
Courage is precisely what is needed today. The courage to speak out and tell self-serving politicians that they work for the people and not the other way around.
As for raising taxes on the “wealthiest Americans,” how about defining “wealthiest Americans?” The federal government could tax every person who earns $250,000 or more per year the entire amount and it wouldn’t raise nearly the amount needed to cover the increase in spending. The “wealthy” would simply park their money in the tax shelters their friends in Washington have created.
The editorial called the raising of the debt ceiling by $2.1 trillion “routine,” leading one to conclude the Press has lost touch with reality. What is “prudent” about borrowing $2.1 trillion that you have no way to pay back, a fact that was evident to Standard & Poor’s and our nation’s creditors? Prudence is only borrowing what you can afford to pay back. Stupidity and greed is borrowing more than that amount.
In the week since Congress and the president raised the debt ceiling, the “prudent” course according to the Press, the Dow Jones Industrials have dropped more than 1,000 points. Do you still believe it was prudent to increase our debt?
In short, the markets do not believe the United States will be able to pay back the debt without government gimmicks such as inflating the money supply. In the minds of investors and foreign nations, we have defaulted, whether the government admits it or not.
Finally, the Press seems to be lacking the virtue of truth. The truth is the president and Congress keep increasing our debt to the point that future Americans will be living in financial servitude if something is not done to break this cycle. This is being borne out by China’s comments over the weekend that the United States has to get its financial house in order.
China became our biggest creditor thanks to the economic illiteracy that emanates in the White House and the halls of Congress, regardless of whether it is the Republicans or Democrats in charge.
Bob Ingle, the best selling co-author of 
In the meantime, public figures of both parties and from all walks of life should refrain from sending nude photos of themselves to anyone and should be careful about everything they do when cameras are present, which is pretty much anytime they are anywhere in public.