James O’Keefe, the citizen journalist well known for his undercover videos exposing inappropriate and criminal activity at ACORN and the NJEA has struck again. This time National Public Radio was his target.
In the video released today NPR Senior Executive Ron Schiller and fundraiser Besty Liley meet with two O’Keefe associates posing as members of a Muslim Brotherhood front group who are considering a $5 million donation to NPR.
Throughout the video, Schiller bashes Republicans and the Tea Party, calling them racist and xenophobic. He says that liberals are more intelligent and informed than conservatives.
Schiller says that NPR would be better off without federal funding. I say let’s be informed by his intelligence and cut the funding off.
O’Keefe will be the guest speaker at the Bayshore Tea Party’s St. Patrick’s Day Celebration on Thursday March 17th from 7PM -9PM at Ye Cottage Inn in Keyport. No word on whether green tea and/or green tea will be served.
Middlesex County Democratic Chairman and former Sheriff Joseph Spicuzzo turned himself into the State Police this morning to face charges of bribery and official misconduct, according to multiple news reports.
The controversy over Brookdale Community College President Peter Burnham’s compensation and spending habits has given Democratic Freeholder Amy Mallet an issue to run on in her reelection bid. Mallet has picked up the ball and run with it.
The Brookdale issue should be a positive for Republicans. Republican Freeholder John Curley first identified and raised the issue which led to Burnham’s suspension last week. But while Mallet has gotten out front with the issue by calling for college chairman Howard Birdsall’s resignation and calling for term limits for Brookdale trustees, Republican Freeholder Lillian Burry, who is also up for reelection this year, has been far less aggressive.
Mallet has made headlines, here, here and here calling for Birdsall’s resignation and greater oversight of the Brookdale board, while Burry has been supportive of the board.
Burry told the Asbury Park Press, “At this point they (the Brookdale trustees) need our support,” Burry said, adding that the board of trustees moved swiftly to address the situation.
Seriously Lillian? They should have moved swiftly. But how long has this been going on? Where else in county government is excessive spending going on? The Library? The Park System? Nursing homes? The vocational school system?
The Brookdale trustees should be supported in this difficult time….by their friends and families….not by a Freeholder who is charged by the taxpayers with overseeing government operations and making sure our dollars are spent prudently.
Burry needs to decide who she is; friend or Freeholder. If she’s a friend, she needs to get out of the way and let someone else take her spot on the GOP ticket this year. If she is a Freeholder, she needs to step up her game. Over the last couple of weeks Burry gave Mallet’s career new life and Mallet is making the most of it.
Prior to the Brookdale scandal, few political observers gave Mallet much of a chance at reelection. Now she is in the game. This could lead to stronger Democrats stepping up to run for county and legislative office. It could make it easier for the Democrats to raise money. It could make what was looking to be a boring Republican rout this year become a competive election season.
Anna Little told NJ.com’s The Auditorthat she is thinking of challenging U.S. Senator Robert Menendez rather than Congressman Frank Pallone in 2012:
Tea party darling Anna Little has made no secret that she wants to challenge U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.) again in 2012. But Little told The Auditor she is thinking about setting her sights even higher by going after Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez next year.
“There are a lot of people pushing me to do it,” said Little, who upset a millionaire Republican in last year’s 6th District congressional primary, but lost the general election to Pallone. “It’s has been suggested I consider a statewide Senate race. I have not ruled that out, but right now I’m just focused on Pallone,” she said.
It is telling that there are no 6th district Tea Party activists quoted by either The Auditor or Hurlbut. Those who know Little best in the Tea Party movement don’t consider her a darling. Disappointment, distraction and destructive is how Little is considered by many local Tea Party leaders and activists now. What is left of “Anna’s Army” is little more than a platoon.
It doesn’t matter what office Little seeks in 2012. The only way she gets nominated next year for any office higher than Councilwoman in Highlands is if no one else wants the nomination. The Monmouth and Union County GOP leadership are not happy with her. The local Tea Parties say she will have no leg up over any other candidate in 2012 as they will consider all candidates before granting the Tea Party seal of approval.
The news out of Brookdale yesterday is encouraging, especially if it results in our elected officials looking for wasteful and abusive spending in other areas of government like the light that Governor Christie is shining on the Independent Authorities throughout the state. However there is one tidbit of information coming from the shake up in Lincroft that really sticks in my craw.
Dr. William Toms, the retired State Police Major who is taking over as Acting President of Brookdale on Monday, is collecting a state pension of $84, 293.40 per year. Toms is 47 years old, according to the Asbury Park Press.
47 years old and the tax payers of the State of New Jersey are paying him $84,293.40 per year for the rest of his life and he doesn’t have to show up for work.
Insanity.
I don’t mean to single out Toms. He’s just the current glaring example of an out of control pension and benefits we are paying our retirees. There are thousands of examples. Most of my readers can probably think of two or three people who either are or will benefit from this system right of the top of their heads.
Senators Jennifer Beck and Steve Oroho have proposed legislation that if enacted would stop retirees from collecting a pension and a government pay check. Even if their bill, S-2716 is enacted, which is highly doubtful given all the legislators and their friends and family who are in the system, the bill doesn’t go far enough. Not nearly far enough.
Pensions should not be like a lottery payoff. Pension should be deferred compensation for a job well done over a lifetime. They should sustain a retired employee and his/her spouse during their “golden years” when they are too old to work.
The average 47 year old is in his/her prime earning years. Such a person doesn’t need be sustained for another 10, 15, 20 or 30 years. This system is insane. It is unsustainable.
In the private sector, if an employee and their employer have saved and invested for their retirement years in a 401K type program and IRAs, the employee can’t make withdrawals from those retirement accounts before age 59 1/2 without paying tax penalties. There ought to be similar age restrictions for collecting on government pensions.
Collecting on government pensions ought to be age restricted. 59 1/2 is probably to young, but a political argument could be made for it given the federal restrictions on private retirement account withdrawals. And pension payments should be offset by any employment income, not just government employment income as the Beck/Oroho bill proposes.
Brookdale College President Peter Burnham has been suspended without pay due to a review of expenses that “revealed significant expenses and reimbursements associated with the President’s Office budget that may not be directly connected to Brookdale or are contrary to Brookdale’s adopted policies governing travel, mileage, and other reimbursable expenses,” according to a news release posted on the college’s website.
Dr. William Toms, PhD, a retired State Police investigator, has been appointed Acting President of the community college.
Additionally, the Board of Trustees hire an independent auditor to investigate all expenditures made from the President’s Office budget, including all expenses and reimbursements. The audit is due by the end of March and will cost no more than $12,500.
“We are conducting a comprehensive audit of the President’s Office and will release to the public thefindings as soon as we can.This is a public institution and everyone from our Freeholders to our faculty to our taxpayers deserve answers,” said Howard Birdsall, Chairman of Brookdale’s Board of Trustees.
“Our highest obligation is to the truth and Dr. Toms is going to lead a very open and transparent process that gets us the answers we need.If something happened that shouldn’t have happened, we want to know what it was, how it happened, and how to prevent it from happening again.Dr. Toms has built an outstanding record of achievement during his career and has the perfect skill set to lead Brookdale through the challenges we face,” said Birdsall.
Freeholder John Curley first raised the issue of Burnham’s compensation and spending in a statement to MoreMonmouthMusings on February 16th.
”While I am appalled at the contract Dr. Burnham was given, I can’t help but wonder what other extravagances are in that budget,” said Curley, liaison to Brookdale. “It’s time we go through Brookdale’s budget line by line to see not just what the president is spending, but the other departments as well. A good hard look at waste in all public colleges and universities is long overdue.”
Posted: March 2nd, 2011 | Author:Art Gallagher | Filed under:Chris Christie | Tags:Chris Christie | Comments Off on Correction? Did Christie say he “will not” or “may not” be governor in 2014?
The National Review’sRick Lowry met with Governor Chris Christie last week. Here’s what the governor told Lowry about his non-candidacy for president:
Yes. Believe me, I’ve been interested in politics my whole life. I see the opportunity. But I just don’t believe that’s why you run. Like I said at AEI, I have people calling me and saying to me, “Let me explain to you how you could win.” And I’m like, “You’re barking up the wrong tree. I already know I could win.” That’s not the issue. The issue is not me sitting here and saying, “Geez, it might be too hard. I don’t think I can win.” I see the opportunity both at the primary level and at the general election level. I see the opportunity.
But I’ve got to believe I’m ready to be president, and I don’t. And I think that that’s the basis you have to make that decision. I think when you have people who make the decision just based upon seeing the opportunity you have a much greater likelihood that you’re going to have a president who is not ready. And then we all suffer from that. Even if you’re a conservative, if your conservative president is not ready, you’re not going to be good anyway because you’re going to get rolled all over the place in that town.
I just see how much better I get at this job every day, and I do, and I learn things. If not every day, at least every week. And my wife and I were actually talking about this last night. We had dinner together with the family after the [New Jersey budget] speech and she was saying how much better she thought I was yesterday than I had been before in my speech. She said, “You are getting better.”
That’s just the nature of life. So, I see the opportunity, I recognize and understand it and I’m really flattered that people think of me that way. But, if I don’t believe it in here [pointing to his heart], I’m not going to be a good candidate on top of everything else.
And remember in the context of sitting there on election night 2009, and my wife and I were convinced we were going to lose. It is a bit to get your arms around, too. You’re a successful United States attorney and then within a year of that time you have people talking about you and I was running around campaigning for folks. All of these handmade “Christie for President” signs in the crowds when I was in Michigan and Iowa and all the other places that I went, Ohio and Pennsylvania and Florida. It’s also been overwhelming, too.
Like I said before, I am who I am and people have to trust, they don’t have to but they should trust, my instincts on this. I know me better than anyone else knows me. If I felt like I was ready, I’d go, but I’m not. But I’m also not going to go if I don’t think I’m ready.
When I walked into the Governor’s office last January there have been some difficult days in the job. There has never been a day where I’ve felt like I’m over my head, I don’t know what to do, I’m lost. I don’t know whether I’d feel the same way if I walked into the Oval Office a year and a half from now. So, unless you get yourself to the point where you really believe you have a shot to be successful, then I don’t think you have any business running for it.
Lowry noted that Christie is better prepared than Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama were when they took office. I would add Truman, Kennedy and Carter to the not as prepared as Christie list of modern day presidents. Since FDR, the only prepared chief executives America has had were Eisenhower,Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and George H. W. Bush.
Unless a Republican leader emerges in the coming months, the “readiness” argument will become weaker and weaker to a country hungry for leadership. Unless that Republican leader emerges the pressure of Christie to fill the leadership vacuum will increase.
I don’t know Christie that well, but I don’t think the question of seeking the presidency is truly a matter of readiness for him. I think it is a matter of calling. A truly great president is called to the office, as Reagan was.
Christie is conducting his governorship as a mission he is called to. He is in the process of becoming a transformational governor. His leadership is having national consequences. He appears to be called to the work that he has started in reducing the size and cost of government on the state and local level.
If Christie is called to a higher office, like the presidency, such calling will probably not happen until there is significant progress in New Jersey and elsewhere throughout the country where his example is making a difference.
For Christie to seek the presidency because of the opportunity when the level of accomplishment in his current calling is far from complete would diminish his current work and the future opportunity. Christie frequently says “I know who I am.” Who he is is someone who doesn’t leave a job undone to take a “better” opportunity.
If Christie stays on his current course as governor and a national leader in bringing fiscal sanity to state and local government he has the potential of making a bigger difference, domestically, in the quality of life and freedom for Americans than any modern day president.
