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Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 02:30:44 PM EDT
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Promoted from the diaries by Rosi
Are American political leaders so insecure that they need bombs bursting in air to give proof that our flag is still there? With two large wars in progress, and many more small to huge ones in our history, apparently the answer is "Yes." How little they learned from Vietnam and other past wars. The flag remains in place, their judgment not so much.
Americans have trod heavily through the Middle East with ever-changing goals, creating new enemies with each step. In Finkel: The Good Soldiers, about the war in Iraq in 2007-8, President Bush says our actions will permit "this country to survive and thrive as a democracy." A Colonel keeps saying, "It's all good." The soldiers say [extremely foul words.] The locals say, "If we talk to you, our neighbors will kill us." So much for victory.
Al-Qaeda and their partners are terrorist hoodlums who should be treated as criminals. Fighting them in Afghanistan is like Wackamole; they run across the border to Pakistan, and they already have sites in at least three other countries to which they can move. We have drones and Special Forces which, with local permission and local help, should be used to end these criminal activities - not a big, occupying army which is prey to hidden IED's and which depletes our treasury.
Achieving victory through war is illusory when we "nation build" and meddle in other countries. In Afghanistan in the '80's we supported the Taliban against Russia, then we pushed them back and installed a corrupt, inept government, then we lost interest and turned to Iraq, and now we are back with renewed effort battling the forces of evil. We likewise fought two wars against Iraq and played a role in their earlier war with Iran. So much for our victory efforts. Ultimately, it is the Afghan and Iraqi people who on their own initiative and in their own way will determine their future.
New Jersey recently buried Sgt. Marcos Gorra, 22, of North Bergen. He was on his first tour in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division. 95 NJ soldiers have died in the two current wars. Many, many more are returning to our state with PTSD, severe brain injury, and amputated limbs, facing an overcrowded and inadequate VA medical system and a life of despair. We honor their efforts but we lament that their losses and suffering were so unnecessary.
These two wars undermine our domestic needs and further increase our Federal budget deficit. With certainty we can say they have created over 5,000 US soldier deaths and over 450,000 returning veterans to be treated by the VA. We have bequeathed a great deal of suffering to the Iraqi and Afghan people, perhaps as many as 800,000 deaths. It is with NO certainty that we can trumpet any victory now nor in the future.
The press pays little attention to these wars. Republicans, some Democrats and our President are complicit in prolonging them. President Obama "surged" our troop level in Afghanistan and created a troop reduction date which later turned out to be ephemeral. If in Iraq there is extended wrangling over forming a new government or violence increases, our president might well be under pressure from Iraqi or US military leaders to extend the stay or not reduce troop levels. That is not what he campaigned on, and it is not what he should do. Forget Victory. NJ citizens and our Senators and Representatives should be adamant: "BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW."
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Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 03:00:00 PM EDT
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Jon Runyan will announce his campaign for Congress today and he has already outed himself as an opportunist. On why he is running for Congress:"It was the opportunity that presented itself," he said. "It was available." If thats not inspiring to get behind a candidate, I don't know what is. You wonder how committed he will be when other opportunities become available. At some point hopefully, they'll get around to asking him about where he stands on the issues.
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Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 01:27:34 PM EDT
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We get this photo of Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman and Paul Sarlo during the Governors budget address: 
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Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 11:30:00 AM EDT
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I just don't understand the logic in this one at all. His latest idea is to use funds from CO2 permit auctions to help close the structural deficit facing the state. He wants you to forget about the fact that he decried one shot gimmicks during the campaign attacking Corzine and the Democrats repeatedly, but now is raiding funds one at a time because he's just making "hard choices." From his 88 ways to fix NJ during the campaign, lets look at number 5:I will rely only on recurring revenue to balance our state budget, not one-shot gimmicks like federal stimulus aid or other revenue unlikely to recur in future years. Unless he plans to raid the fund every year to make sure it's recurring revenue, this is the latest broken promise. And why is he raiding a fund that is supposed to go toward helping fund projects that create jobs in alternative energy? They talk about how you can't do anything to hurt business, expect when they are doing things to hurt business. This follows on the raid of the clean energy fund. We have crumbling roads and a broke transportation trust fund, so the Governor cuts funding to NJ transit forcing fare hikes, service cutbacks and more people on the road. We have a problem with unemployment, so the Governor raids a fund that goes to creating jobs in an emerging industry that will benefit us in the future. Christie logic makes no sense to me.
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Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 09:30:00 AM EDT
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 Five Senate and four Assembly committees will meet today to hear testimony and consider legislation in Trenton. These are the first committee meetings and action since the Governor's budget address the other day.
Senate Labor and Assembly Labor Committees will hold a joint meeting to hear testimony from the public about fiscal condition of the State Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund and related UI tax issues, the effectiveness of the UI program in mitigating hardships from layoffs. The scope and future prospects of federal programs for the unemployed, including UI benefit extensions and supplements and health insurance premium assistance.
The Assembly appropriations committee will take up the pension reform legislation package that has been moving through the Legislature. The Senate and Governor want the bills passed as is, so they can just be signed into law. The Assembly has raised questions about possible changes. The Regulatory Oversight and Gaming committee will take up A-2486, a bill that prohibits the adoption of new rules exceeding federal standards unless specifically authorized by state law.
Along with the testimony, there is a full list of legislation up for consideration and discussion. I'll put the full agenda below the fold. If you're not in Trenton, you can listen along to the hearings here.
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Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 07:39:00 AM EDT
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School officials: Cuts will force program and staff cuts
The doomsday scenario was choked down with Christie's usual demonizing rhetoric about teachers' unions. Use the tool in the link to calculate cuts to your school district.
Christie goes on the road to sell his budget
Defends breaking his promise not to cut property tax rebates (which he excoriated Corzine for). Curiously, he did not mention that schools & towns will probably have zooming property tax hikes to make up for the lost state aid. He did talk about "tools" to help them control costs, but too bad those don't exist yet.
Christie on CNBC's Squawk Box.
Bergen County school districts to see 41% drop in state aid
$102 million less.
Life is like football. Politics is like football. This sandwich is like football.
This is just a weird interview. Is Jon Runyan expecting to be knocked over in some way? Is he expecting an unfortunate phone call?
Halfacre 'n Sipprelle duke it out in NJ-12
Winner gets to run against Rush Holt, who looks particularly smart and mud-free right now, particularly compared to these two.
What's next for Marriage Equality?
Lambda Legal and Garden State Equality will announce details an effort to take the marriage equality issue back to the NJ Supreme Court, at a press conference this morning. Six same-sex couples today will ask the New Jersey Supreme Court to allow gays to marry.
Bears
State officials are likely to okay a bear hunt to thin their numbers, in December.
"Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now."
Security tapes at a Washington Twp (Gloucester) Wal-Mart are being reviewed by law enforcement to determine who ordered "all black people" to leave the store Sunday evening via the big box store's public address system.
State Workers Protest
At events scheduled all over New Jersey today, thousands of member of CWA will take to the streets at noon to protest Gov. Christie'sbudget cuts, and his refusal to ask NJ's wealthy to share in the pain.
At 4:00pm in a separate union action led by Hudson County Central Labor Council AFL-CIO, the comfortable rich will also be targeted in a Jersey City rally holding the 6 largest Wall Street banks accountable for the sour economy, for taking $165 billion in taxpayer bailout then spending $24B lobbying to kill financial reform and spending too much taxpayer bailout money on exec bonuses, while refusing to pay their "fair share" to restore good jobs.
Haitian quake survivors in New Jersey
Survivors of the massive January earthquake in Haiti, which killed more than 200,000 of their countrymen, have begun to arrive in NJ on temporary visas as their country is rebuilding. Many survivors have little when they get here, and still need help. Here's what it looks like when they get some (VIDEO).
Weird New Jersey
The knitted warmies ringing the trees and the colorful lamp cozies that appeared mysteriously in West Cape May have now disappeared with exactly as much mystery.
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Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 08:06:49 PM EDT
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The Governor delivered his budget address yesterday and we get this photo while he was delivering his message: 
Photo courtesy of Tanya Breen/Asbury Park Press staff
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Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 11:24:44 AM EDT
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Here's what you've got to know about the 5th Congressional District: Up there, you've got your Sussex Tea Party people, the creationist-led, baby-dinosaurs-in-Noah's-Ark-believing captains of the effort to recall a seated US Senator, 'cuz they don't like how he votes. Tough, they are. But also up there, you've got you some progressives, and they're just as tough, and maybe more firmly affixed in the real world. And if you Tea Party folks get to have your legally-disputable recall of a United States Senator, maybe they go after your poster boy, Rep. Scott Garrett. Game on. - - Promoted by Rosi
This morning I read something that got my blood to boiling. As I frantically was working this morning to pay off my many medical bills at my very tiny small business, something I read before work kept me distracted - so I had to blog.
It was simply this: crazy nonsense about Tea Party activists who want to recall Senator Menedez, for VOTING. Not criminal wrongdoing, not Republican style adultery, not even ethical misconduct. Just for VOTING in a way that the little girls throwing their Tea Party tantrums didn't like. Aw.
I got news for those Tea Party guys. This cuts both ways you know. I have had to endure the heartless voting record of Mr Scott Garrett for way too long. Silly me, I assumed, when your guy loses the election, the other guy gets to vote for what HE wants. The loser LOSES. See, that's how it was supposed to work.
Well, the Tea Party activists stirred up by the hate groups here decided to go after the Senator with an ethnic sounding name. Lautenberg votes with Menedez and they vote so consistently Democratic that I trust they will vote for Democratic values 99% of the time - which they do. Why the little Tea Party girls chose to ONLY go after Menendez is shocklingly, astoundingly, absurdly blatant bigotry. In addition, The Tea Party activists, instead of actually winning an election, want to circumvent the democratic process and only invite their friends in for tea.
Here is where it can cut two ways. Who would Progressive NJ Dems who actually believe in evolution and helping their fellow man DEARLY love to remove from the Senate? Scott Garrett of course. You go after our guys, we will recall yours. We actually respected the outcome of the past elections where the 5th district was so gerrymandered as to ensure Scott Garrett's win for the foreseeable century. Lou Dobbs, king of anti-immigrants lives with other old angry white men in the rural parts of the 5th, and THEY have had their say for WAY too long here. I have been resigned to NOT having ANY representation in the House for the past 8 years. Because my guys lost the election. Now that the Tea Party folks have shown that ANY angry idiot with an ax to grind and too much time on their lazy hands can destroy democracy as we know it, I hope they realize they will have to reap the consequences of their actions.
You take away the Senators that speak for ME and the progressive community in NJ and I will see to it that your boy Garrett and his friends are recalled too. Just cause I don't like the way they vote and I think their mother dresses them funny. Wars have been fought over less. This recall effort by the Tea Party bigots is more than a silly prank. It is literally a shot across the bow. One that CANNOT go unanswered.
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Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 03:00:00 PM EDT
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When Governor Christie announced his budget proposal, he called for "an era of sacrifice". However, it is clear that he means it for those who earn less than $400,000 per year, public employees, non-corporations and isn't a big business.
For starters, Christie talked about a "smaller government", yet his $29.3 billion budget has more spending than former Governor Corzine's last budget, and also kicks the middle class squarely in the teeth. And then, ironically, he defends giving a huge tax cut to those who need it least (go to the 3:15 mark) with a comment on how it would be "putting his foot on the neck of small businesses".
Never mind that he has stuck his foot on the neck, down the throats and up the asses of the entire middle and lower income families in the state with this budget. Cuts to education funding, cuts to public transportation that will lead to a 25%+ fare increases, scaling back the earned income credit for poor families, eliminate the property tax rebates - despite saying it would be "the last thing he ever would do" - and those are just a few of the many.
Of course, this "shared sacrifice" in an era where just about everything else is cut doesn't apply when close to $1 billion per year can be had from reinstating a very popular tax on those who (1) have seen the least pain and (2) can afford it the most.
But what about the other lies? Well, outside of the "never eliminating the property tax rebates" (regardless of whether they should or should not be eliminated), there is the history of Christie making up numbers out of thin air just in these past couple of months - and he has done it again. Christie's supposed $11 billion deficit includes close to $3 billion in pension obligations that he is not funding, and another $1.1 billion in property tax rebates which are being eliminated.
So we are talking about $7 billion - which is still a large number, but not $11 billion - just another Christie lie. Add back the tax on the super rich and that goes down to $6 billion.
Lastly, Christie seems to have replaced the word "taxes" with "fees" - and while our tax dollars go to pay for services like, well, repairs and removal of trees after a devastating storm for example, Christie was very adamant during the campaign about equating "taxes and fees" when hitting Corzine. Yet, here he is proposing "fees" on businesses - but don't call them taxes, of course....
New Jerseyans voted for a change in Governors. However, they will now be waking up with a horrible hangover as to the effects of their vote.
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Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 02:00:09 PM EDT
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Just before the budget address yesterday, the Democrats put out a release with statements made by Republicans in the past few years when Governor Corzine proposed cuts in some of the same areas:"The lack of state aid will translate into school property tax increases across most of New Jersey." - Sen. Tom Kean
Tom Kean, press release, October 9, 2009
"This budget will increase the property tax burden on the middle class at a time when they have borne bad decisions of the past several years. We've seen the flat funding or the cuts in municipal aid over the past several years increase the property tax burden...This is an extension of that." - Sen. Tom Kean
Tom Kean, press release, March 11, 2009
Cutting municipal aid, Check. But still the Governor swears he's not raising taxes. Next please:"The governor claimed that he recognized that property taxes in New Jersey were high and needed reform. No one interpreted that as eliminating or curtailing the only program that provides some relief to taxpayers. The ultimate effect of doing what the governor is suggesting is actually a tax increase."-Alex DeCroce
Alex DeCroce, press release, 2/26/09
Cutting rebates, check. Still not gonna raise taxes though, right? Still more on the rebates:"[This] budget proposal would remove property tax relief for middle-class New Jerseyans who are already struggling to survive in this tough economy. Now is the time when the people of New Jersey are most in need tax relief, but [the Governor] is offering little more than higher taxes." - Sen. Andrew Ciesla
Sen. Andrew Ciesla, press release, March 10, 2009 What a difference a change in Governors makes. Now they're all praising Christie's bold action and attacking the opposition by Democrats. This time the Republicans will have to stand up and vote for these changes rather than taking pot shots in press releases, which is clear from their difference in tone and response.
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