You may’ve missed this the other day, Save Jerseyans, but some WNYC reporter asked Chris Christie at his Lavallette presser whether NJ Transit had been under-prepared for climate change ahead of Superstorm Sandy. Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently the reporter had never ridden NJ Transit before or she’d know that its problems predate the global warming fad!
Well, first of all, I don’t agree with the premise of your question because I don’t think there’s been any proof thus far that Sandy was caused by climate change,” Christie said, as residents and officials from Lavallette clapped. “But I would absolutely expect that that’s exactly what WNYC would say, because you know liberal public radio always has an agenda. And so since I disagree with the premise of your question I don’t feel like I have to answer the rest of it.” (You can hear the full audio at the bottom of this post.)”
Back in 2004, Save Jerseyans, your Blogger-in-Chief was an undergraduate at Washington, D.C.’s Catholic University of America when a couple other friends and I interned at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
It was an amazing experience for a wide-eyed young conservative nerd to interact with so many distinguished politicians, media personalities and career activists in one place.
It was also a very different time in the Republican Party, and I discovered a healthy level of intellectual diversity on display from the right-of-center CPAC attendees. Libertarians, neocons, paleocons, fiscal conservatives and social conservatives from across the country mixed, drank, shared cabs, and downed hot dogs while discussing equally hot races in long book signing queques.
The common thread among the CPAC patrons? A healthy disdain for large, active, expensive and intrusive federal governance.
Our Governor and other like-minded pols are opposed to turning schools into ”armed camps,” but I wholeheartedly disagree with their premise. It’s an logical leap, particularly when so many of our high schools already have a regular police presence. The fact also remains that there seems to be little or no political will on either side of the aisle to address the real problem: an over-medicated, under-parented generation whose less stable members are shielded from meaningful psychiatric action by asinine post-deinstitutionalization laws and administrative regulations.
I love politics. Always have. But after living through the 2012 GOP Primary, Save Jerseyans, I’m psyched to be three years away from another borish Republican debate.
I’m sure you agree!
Three years out, Chris Christie finds himself in a strong position relative to the rest of the hypothetical field according to a new national registered voter poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Naturally a lot can still change. And as predicted by your Blogger-in-Chief, the same Obama-related interactions that have elevated Christie’s brand in the minds of Indies and Dems have also potentially damaged his standing among Republican primary voters outside of the Garden State.
The numbers:
Right now, the FDU poll found Christie’s name recognition to be superior to FL Senator Marco Rubio’s by 12-points, 68% to 56%, among all voters. Christie is also viewed more favorably than Rubio by 9-points, 55% to 46%, though their unfavorable rating is about the same (20% and 21% respectively).
The mainstream media is gleefully parroting the results of a new Quinnipiac/CBS/NYT poll released yesterday afternoon showing Mitt Romney trailing Barack Obama in three key swing states (PA, OH and FL).
Trailing badly, Save Jerseyans.
But stop the presses! Unfortunately for Romney haters, this poll’s sample was absurdly unrealistic. In fact, an absolutely ideal, hugely historic Democrat turnout model could only exist in David Axelrod’s or Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s filthiest dreams. And we don’t need to go there, nor would we want to.
Do NOT believe the polls, Save Jerseyans! It’s a sick joke. I don’t know if it’s indicative of bias, stupidity, or a base desire to “create” big news and attract an audience. My suspicion is that they’re using 2008 or better-than 2008 turnout models to zap your enthusiasm.
Save Jersey is reporting that they have confirmed that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will be the keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention.
SJ says that a formal announcement will be made on Monday, August 13.
Governor Chris Christie took his tax fight to a standing-room-only town hall crowd in Brick Township (Ocean County) yesterday afternoon.
And at that Brick gathering, my dear Save Jerseyans, we caught a welcome glimpse of the no-nonsense style of politics that quickly transformed Chris Christie into a national figure; you’ll likely remember his viral warning to beachgoers in the run-up to Hurricane Irene:
Surely, the contrast between Christie and Corzine in Election ’09 couldn’t have been clearer. I was proud to have been one of his earliest and most vocal grassroots supporters. I still am.
But what is our state party’s winning contrast with the liberal legislature right now in this ongoing budget fight?
Governor Chris Christie held a press conference yesterday to announce a fix that he doesn’t expect to work to the state’s misguided anti-bullying bill of rights. The anti-bullying law was overturned as an unfunded mandate in January. The “fix” announced yesterday is designed to keep the law, and its new nanny state bureaucracy in place.
From his comments above, it is clear that Christie understands that a “one size fits all” mandate, funded or not, which creates a new level of bureaucracy that will never die, will not work.
Our friend Matt Rooney at Save Jersey points out that the anti-bully law addresses a problem created by court decisions which have deprived teachers of in loco parentis powers that have resulted the loss of control of classrooms.
The courts stripped teachers of in loco parentis (in the place of a parent) powers, so the government responds by creating a nanny state bureaucracy. That’s loco.
Rooney’s old fashion solution is to empower the teachers.
Call me old fashioned, but the answer to our “bullying” problem isn’t the passage of new burdensome, expensive, hard-to-follow legislation that places additional burdens on overburdened teachers. Rather, we need to EMPOWER teachers by letting them control their classrooms again without interference from administrators who are terrified of “my kid is never wrong” parents (and their attorneys). A superior solution to burdensome “anti-bullying” laws: return control of classroom discipline to teachers!
I agree, but would go further. We need to empower teachers not only to discipline their students, we need to empower our teachers to empower children to deal effectively with bullies as a critical part of their education.
Instead of spending money we don’t have on bureaucrats that won’t solve the problem, teach kids to stand up for themselves and to get help standing up for themselves.
There is only one way to disempower a bully. Defeat him or her. Teach kids to do that and you’ll have healthier, happier and stronger kids who grow into healthier, happier stronger adults.
Create a bureaucracy and you’ll get reports and statistics that will “prove” how bad the problem is so that more money will be spent on it so that the bureaucracy can survive.
Last month Governor Chris Christie announce a complex restructuring of New Jersey’s medical schools.
Under the proposal, Newark’s UMDNJ would be replaced by New Jersey Health Sciences University, University Hospital would be placed under non-profit management and Rutgers-Camden and its law school would become part of Rowan University. Cooper Medical School in Camden would become part of Rowan.
Mark Magyar has an excellent piece on the proposed restructuring at NJSpotlight.
Alarmed by the prospect of losing the prestige that comes with the Rutgers name, many at Rutgers Camden, including our friend Brian McGovern of Save Jersey are fighting the move to Rowan. Save Jersey has become Save Rutgers Camden today with a lengthy post about how to legally block the merger.
Magyar in his NJSpotlight piece noted that the name of the South Jersey institution is important to advocates of the merger as well:
The absorption of Rutgers-Camden, with its 6,000-plus students, into Rowan, with more than 11,000 students, was not so much a matter of numbers as of name. Sources said that the family of Henry Rowan, who donated $100 million to expand his alma mater, Glassboro State College, into Rowan University, balked at the idea of the Rutgers name displacing Rowan.
Furthermore, Norcross, as head of Cooper University Medical Center, had been heavily involved in the creation of the new Cooper Medical School at Rowan University, and both he and Sweeney have talked about the importance of a South Jersey university that would not be a stepchild to the much larger Rutgers University in New Brunswick, as the Camden campus was sometimes perceived to be.
The South Jersey merger with Rowan has also gotten some push back from Rutgers-Camden faculty, Rutgers retiring president Richard McCormick. Colleen O’Dea outlines reports both sides of the controversy in a NJSpotlight piece today.
In the New Jersey’s 11th legislative district, which comprises much of Monmouth County, 6 of the 7 candidates vying for 3 seats, one in the Senate and two in the Assembly, have come out in favor of same sex marriage. Two of the candidates, Republicans Senator Jennifer Beck and Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini said they would break with their party and vote to override Governor Christie’s veto of a same sex marriage if given the opportunity.
Republican Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande has corrected the widely held perception that she would vote against gay marriage by saying only that she hasn’t publicly taken a position on the issue. She said her focus has been on fiscal issues and that she would need to study the civil union law before taking a stand on gay marriage.
Casagrande’s refusal to take a position on the politically expedient schedule of Garden State Equality has drawn criticism from her opponent Dan Jacobson and others. Jacobson said the issue has already been hotly debated and the issue should be simple.
Casagrande says it’s not so simple, “I haven’t seen a bill,” said Casagrande, “What about protections for religious institutions? If the issue is so simple, why did Steve Sweeney vote no and then change his mind later?”
The issue is not simple to me. I believe that all people should have equal rights under the law. I don’t believe that homosexuals are deviant or immoral. I believe homosexuals are the way God made them. I created an exercise to demonstrate that sexual orientation is not a choice almost three years ago. Check it outonly if you’re willing to be disturbed.
Yet, I understand those who are morally opposed to gay marriage. I understand the argument that marriage is an institution that was defined milleniums ago, before any government that currently exists on our planet was conceived. I understand the desire of those who live their lives dedicated to or in aspiration of those traditions not to have their marriages redefined by a legislative body with an approval rating below 30%.
I suspect those who think the issue is simple, pro or con, think their opposites are just wrong. I suspect many who think the issue is simple, pro or con, have little respect for and even have distain for those who disagree with them. I think that is wrong.
Listen to the show, it you care about the issue. It is an interesting and civil conversation between three smart people with differing views who found enough common ground that Lassiter suggested the three of us run for the legislature together.
The first 18 minutes of the show is Matt and I talking politics and a three minute break to fix some technical difficulties. Jay joins us at the 18:20 mark. In the last ten minutes of the show there is some good natured political sparring.
I hope that you are entertained and informed by the show, which was sponsored by Repatriot Radio.
You may’ve missed this the other day, Save Jerseyans, but some WNYC reporter asked Chris Christie at his Lavallette presser whether NJ Transit had been under-prepared for climate change ahead of Superstorm Sandy. Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently the reporter had never ridden NJ Transit before or she’d know that its problems predate the global warming fad!