Nobody sums it up like Mulshine

Chris Daggett the decisive winner, Chris Christie the indecisive loser in first debate

By Paul Mulshine/The Star Ledger
October 01, 2009, 10:50PM

The best line of tonight’s debate came when, in a response to a question about just how the heck an independent could win the race for governor, Chris Daggett listened to both his opponents’ responses and then quipped: “It sounds like both of these guys might be voting for me.They won’t be, but a lot of other people will. Daggett was the winner of this debate by a large margin.

And that’s not good news for the other challenger named Chris, former federal prosecutor Chris Christie.

If Christie ends up losing this race, the defeat may be traced to an exchange that occurred as the candidates answered questions from residents that had been recorded earlier by New Jersey Network reporters. A man asked all three to give specific answers about what they would do to address the $8 billion deficit that awaits the next governor.

First up was Christie. Tough break. Till that point Christie had been pummeled by both Daggett and Gov. Jon Corzine over his refusal to say what he would do about the biggest issue in the race, property taxes. Now he faced another tough question.He ducked this one as well. First he said he would cut $185 million for people who had received retiree health benefits to which they weren’t entitled. Then he talked about the $250 million in overtime state employees collected. Then he mentioned past spending. And then he mentioned the recently terminated “food in space” program. This was a Rutgers program to teach kids to grow food on spaceships. Sure it was nuts. But it was budgeted at a mere $130,000 a year.And that was it.

Christie was proposing to eliminate an $8 billion deficit by making cuts of a few hundred million.Daggett proceeded to point out that Christie was again dodging the issue. He pointed out that Christie’s proposed cuts were insignificant and went on to note that you could fire every state employee twice over and barely close that $8 billion gap.

NJN’s Jim Hooker also seemed aghast, especially after Christie again dodged the question in his rebuttal to Daggett. Hooker broke from the format to ask a follow-up to Christie: “Mr. Daggett and others have said reducing overtime and those types of endeavors are ‘small-bore’ and won’t get to a structural deficit of eight or ten billion dollars. What do you say to that?”“First of all I say they’re wrong,” Christie replied.

He then proceeded to prove them right once by again evading the question.This was an embarrassment. But was it any more embarrassing than his response to a previous man-in-the-street question? Asked for the Nth time what he was going to do about property taxes, Christie recited what amounts to his sole proposal to this point: voluntary municipal consolidation.

Meanwhile Corzine was coming at him from the other side, pointing out as often as Daggett did that Christie had offered not the slightest hint of how he intended to handle property taxes or any other aspect of the budget.Not that Corzine offered much in the way of a plan. He just recited by rote the numbers that make up his stock speech about how he handled the economy in a recession.

It wasn’t very convincing, but he doesn’t need to be very convincing if enough voters defect to Daggett. A good showing for the third-party candidate could permit Corzine to win back his seat simply by getting out the 40 percent or so of voters who make up the Democratic base.

Christie’s strategy for avoiding that consisted of accusing Daggett of planning to raise taxes. Daggett did indeed say he intended to do so. When asked how he intended to replenish the Transportation Trust Fund, which goes broke next year, Daggett said it looked like the only possible means would be raising the gas tax, which he said is the lowest in the country.

Christie promptly attacked Daggett for proposing the tax hike but offered no plan of his own for refilling the fund. Daggett replied, “It’s easy to criticize when you have no plan of your own. I would like the tooth fairy to come as well but the tooth fairy is not going to come.”

No, the tooth fairy won’t be coming, at least not for Chris Christie if he keeps this up. The man who keeps yammering on about the need to make “tough choices” spent the evening attacking every tough choice that Daggett proposed, while dodging every question that came his way.He got away with this in the Republican primary and he might have gotten away with it in the general election if Daggett had not been in the running.

But Daggett is. And Christie better get real serious real fast if he wants to win this thing.

Greg Bean Hits the nail on the head

I have long admired Greg Bean and the way he cuts through the BS and gets to the heart of an issue. He has done it once again with this article from the independent where he focuses on people who post their comments but not their names. I have long considered these people total cowards who refuse to own up to something they say they believe in.

Now that law is on the side of the honest hard working people who get slimed by people who hide behind anonymity. Beware to cowards everywhere!!!


Anonymous cretins, beware: George is coming after you

Coda • GREG BEAN

T he righteous jihad against the anonymous cockroaches who hide in the darkness — slavering and mumbling to themselves like Gollum in a Tolkien pageturner — to post libelous and defamatory comments about their fellow human beings on the Internet is moving more rapidly than I could have predicted.

Last week, if you'll remember, I wrote about Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Joan Madden, who ordered Google to turn over the IP address of a person who had posted disgusting things about a model on a blog site.

When I wrote that column, I thought the order would certainly be appealed and might be in litigation for a long time. The fact is, Google got the judge's order, turned over the name, and now the model knows the identity of her tormenter. Google says it will turn over the addresses of anonymous posters in the future, as long as there's a subpoena or judge's order.

That, folks, is what we call a precedent.

And in the last week, the issue has gotten a lot of national press. Maureen Dowd, writing for her column in The New York Times, asked the question I've been asking for years: "Who are these people prepared to tell you what they think, but not who they are? What is the mentality that lets them get in your face while wearing a mask? Shredding somebody's character before the entire world and not being held accountable seems like the perfect sting." She printed the name of the formerly anonymous poster, by the way.

When they read stuff like that in the national press, the disgusting phantoms who post on local sites like da Truth Squad ought to start barring their doors and putting tinfoil on the windows, because it's one more clear sign that their victims are coming for them.

Take a story in the New York Post last week that the paper printed as a follow-up to the model story and featured one of the many Manalapan victims of the Squad and postings on NJ.com. I read the posts about former Manalapan Mayor George Spodak and they were disgusting. As he told the Post, he'd been called a pedophile, an alcoholic, a wife beater and a criminal by anonymous posters on the sites.He sued and has subpoenaed NJ.com for the identities of the people who defamed him. NJ.com gave him some e-mail addresses, so Spodak is trying to force Google, AOL and Yahoo to provide the IP addresses. If he subpoenas Google, it looks like they'll give them up. And because of the precedent, AOL and Yahoo won't be far behind. And once he gets those identifications, he'll start gettin' it on.

Here's my prediction of how that's gonna shake down: None of these slime-puppies is going to have insurance against this kind of thing. And once Spodak files a suit, the meter starts ticking. The posters have no idea how financially draining litigation like this can be. It can go on for years, and the attorney fees could run $100,000 or more before it ever gets to court.

And once it gets to court, since Spodak will be suing them personally, he'll be going after every cent they have. He'll be looking at their bank accounts, their retirement accounts, their cars, their furniture and the equity in their houses.

And I hope he won't be the only one going after them, either. Their victims are legion. Just ask Michelle Roth.

Take Fred Stone, for example. A Manalapan resident who served on the Zoning Board, ran for Township Committee, and works as a managing director for a Wall Street hedge fund, Stone has often been a target of these vicious anonymous bullies.

"I began posting on NJ.com in reaction to horrid statements I saw there by anonymous posters accusing my former Zoning Board Colleague (and former Manalapan mayor) Michelle Roth of 'hating Italians' and otherwise being a 'bigot' and 'racist,' " he told me.

"As a result of my speaking out in my own name, one or more anonymous posters who were political opponents of Michelle turned on me and began a stream of sickening, totally fabricated lies, both on NJ.com and over at da Truth Squad about a kid who I supposedly molested in 1984, about my wife — whose career as a teacher in Manalapan was distinguished and exemplary — and about how someone who signed himself The Grim Reaper would see to my death on Aug. 10."

I wrote about the disgusting attacks on Roth and her husband a few years back and wound up on the Squad's list as a result, where I was called everything from a "former food critic" (untrue, but wow, what a stinger!) to a "Palestinian sympathizer."

But they never accused me of being a child molester, and none of their anonymous Gollums ever threatened to end my life.

I've never met Fred Stone in person although I'd like to, and suggested he should come over to my house if things got too weird, where we could let the bodyguards Smith & Wesson watch over us while we enjoyed cigars (he demurred).

But we communicate by email on a fairly regular basis — and I have been constant in my advice that he take the fight to his attackers and clean their miserable clocks in a court of law. So far, he hasn't done that and shows no inclination at present to do so, although I wish he would.

George Spodak, however, is spoiling for a fight, and the anonymous cockroaches have got to be quaking in their pointy little booties.

In a short while, I predict they'll no longer be able to hide behind the First Amendment, which was guaranteed with blood by more patriotic men and women than they. And they won't be able to spout the disingenuous argument that some of the founding fathers wrote anonymously, so it's OK for them, too. There's a big difference there, you idiots. The founding fathers faced death by hanging if their identities were discovered. The dung beetles at the Squad, who make a mockery of that patriotism, thought they had no risk.

But now it looks like everything they own may be at risk.

We'll see how brave and mouthy they are when they're living in tents, cooking with Sterno and pushing the belongings they have left around in a stolen shopping cart.


Gregory Bean is the former executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers. You can reach him at gbean@gmnews.com.

When it smells like this...

These three points made by Blue Jersey capture the problem with Chris Christie's run for governor after being U.S. Attorney.

A little law called the Hatch Act

If Christie did talk to Karl Rove about running for Governor, was he breaking the law? According to one Department of Justice official, "Any kind of preliminary activity that leads to formally becoming a candidate" is considered a violation of the Hatch Act (the law prohibiting federal employees from political involvement).

Christie was "loyal," according to Bush officials

Beginning in 2005, Bush Administration officials began a list ranking the loyalty of U.S. Attorneys. This may come as a shocker, but recently released documents reveal they considered Chris Christie to be one of the "most loyal" among them.

The price of loyalty

Steve Kornacki examines Christie's "baseless, rotten-smelling investigation" of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and wonders whether it helped get Christie's name removed from the list of U.S. Attorneys slated for removal.

Autism Spectrum disorders covered by Corzine legislation

Corzine signs Autism Insurance Mandate

by: Senator Loretta Weinberg
Fri Aug 14, 2009 at 09:38:27 AM EDT


Promoted by Jason Springer: Here is a photo from the bill signing yesterday taken by Assembly photographer Edgardo Cardinale as the Governor reads the legislation aloud, along with a first hand account from Senator Weinberg:


It was an emotional and fulfilling moment watching parents of beautiful kids celebrating the lives that will be changed because of the leadership of Governor Jon Corzine and Speaker Joe Roberts. At the Special Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson, Governor Corzine signed the bill requiring insurance companies to pay for applied behavior treatments for kids on the autistic spectrum.


These treatments, when started early enough, have been proven to help kids become mainstreamed in school and later in life. It is the right and moral thing to do and guess what - it will save money in the long run. It costs about $13,000 per year to educate a child in public school and about $50,000 a year to educate a special needs child.


But we know that our opposition in this campaign doesn't believe in insurance mandates. Mr. Christie would authorize insurance policies in New Jersey that would NOT cover 48 hours of after care for new moms and their babies, nor mammograms for women under 40, nor appropriate prostate screening, nor pap tests. And I could go on, having fought for many of these "mandates" during my time in the legislature.


Now we know even more. Chris Christie's pick for the face of the Republican Party in New Jersey, State Chair and Assemblyman Jay Weber, voted AGAINST the autism bill. Now we know the kind of people Christie has chosen to have around him. And those are the kind of people he will want in his executive offices. Imagine Health Commissioner Jay Weber? That's not an option that we progressives can afford for our families in New Jersey.

I'm thrilled and energized to be by Jon Corzine's side as we fight for our common values for all our kids, moms, dads, sisters and brothers and yes, even our grandparents!

Setting the record straight

Bipartisan blame for N.J. bond rating
Posted by The Star-Ledger Editorial Board August 09, 2009 5:02AM
Categories: Economy, Policy Watch, Politics, Taxes

It's refreshing to see a bipartisan spirit emerge in Trenton, even during a hotly contested election campaign.

That spirit was evident after the bond-rating agency Moody's recently lowered the outlook for New Jersey's credit rating from "stable" to "negative."

Representatives of both the Democratic and Republican parties agreed on one point: It was the other party's fault.

In fact, there's plenty of blame to go around.

The problem, according to Moody's, is that "Through several administrations, the state has utilized non-recurring solutions to resolve budgetary gaps, leaving the state with a sizeable structural imbalance, one of the highest debt burdens, one of the lowest-funded pension ratios, and one of the highest post-retirement health insurance liabilities in the country."

Among those "several" administrations is the last one controlled by the Republicans, theWhitman/DiFrancesco administration. The Republicans in that era created most of the "structural imbalance" cited by the investors' service. Standard & Poor's will also cite the state's "above average" debt burden and pension problems as a credit weaknesses in a report due this week.

Christine Todd Whitman greatly expanded the debt burden, borrowing more than $11 billion in so-called "contract" debt, bonds that were sold without voter approval. Part of that went into the pension fund and part for school construction, but all of it should have gone before the voters. That would have set a precedent that might have precluded later Democratic governors from trying the same trick, which they did with glee.

And it would have saved hundreds of millions in interest payments. Moody rates the state's "general obligation debt" -- the type approved by the voters -- at Aa3, which is a high-quality rating. But because it is not secured by the state's assets, contract debt is rated a notch lower, at A1. The lower the rating, the higher the interest rate. This is a good reason for borrowing only with voter approval. That's what the state Constitution seems to require, but both parties have been adept at exploiting loopholes.

As for that big pension deficit, again the Republicans laid the groundwork back in 2001 when they raised pensions 9 percent even after the internet bubble was beginning to rapidly deflate and the value of the pension fund was dropping. Again, the Democrats supported this move and have since moved to add more unfunded liabilities to the system.

As for that question of unfunded post-retirement health benefits, the blame falls entirely on the GOP. Back in 1995, Whitman ended the practice of setting aside money for future retiree health-care commitments and switched to a pay-as-you-go basis. The problem with that approach is, the further you go, the more you pay. The cost of retiree health benefits rise by hundreds of millions every year. With no fund, that all has to come out of current expenses.

Neither party offers a solution for any of the above problems. So voters might be a bit skeptical when the GOP issues a press release quoting Senate minority leader Tom Kean Jr. blasting the majority Democrats.

"Gov. (Jon) Corzine is deluding himself and the taxpayers if he refuses to acknowledge an $8 billion structural deficit, much less do anything about it," Kean said.

That's certainly true. But the standard-bearer for Kean's party, gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie, also refuses to come up with any ideas for addressing the deficit.

Well, he's come up with one: He's going to cut the income tax. That's a nice idea, but that just makes the so-called "structural" deficit worse unless he has a plan for reversing the Republican moves that created that structure. If Christie has such a plan, he's not sharing it with the voters.
His opponent is also keeping his plans close to his vest, or sweater-vest as the case may be. It's nice to see bipartisan agreement on this strategy. But we'd be better off with a debate.

How not to fund a township budget unless you want a HUGH tax increase next year!!!

There are many basics in building a municipal budget, county budget school budget, even state budget.

The biggest mistake you can make is by using non recurring revenue otherwise known as unused bond reserves, surplus, one-time sale proceeds, previously undisclosed revenue (always raises eye brows) and the "found money"( my favorite since it indicates that money was lost prior to it being found.)

Middletown Republican Committee people have long used this spectacularly poor choice of funding the budget as their runaway spending has gone unchecked. You simply cannot spend more than you take in, or you must raise taxes to bring in more money. Raising taxes is a BIG NO-NO as a politician, so you try to blame anybody else that you can, hence the recurring Scharfenburger letters.

The reason the county faced a tax increase this year is because of Lillian Burry and her use of non-recurring revenue to bring the county budget down to a zero increase. Sure it looks fine when you are running but the next year there is no new revenue to fill the hole she made in the budget by using on-time funds.and so you have the unenviable tax increase.

In Middletown they are now facing the same problem. the Republican Township committee members, in a move that can only be called"irresponsible" sold the cell tower leases and used the money to fund the budget. While we could have had a solid stream of revenue for twenty years, the sold it off at a loss and we now have a revenue hole in the township budget.

So the township is looking at an increase in taxes of 9.2%

They have exceeded the state's 4% cap on the budget put in place to keep our tax increases low.

They have deferred this year's pension payments for twenty years.

They have borrowed $53 million from the schools in deferred taxes.

Their CFO, Richard Wright disappears after it finally becomes clear that the budget mess created by the Republicans will increase our taxes beyond those of our neighboring communities.

This in a year when the re-eval hits our pocketbooks too.

Now comes word that Robert Roth, our temporary CFO has uncovered reserves from unused bond proceeds. So we are going to take the money that we are basically paying interest on and use it to fund the budget in fact creating another revenue hole in the town's budget.

Is this anyway to properly manage a township budget?

I think not.

So, next year when we are all still struggling with the recession, unemployment and foreclosures, there will be an even bigger tax increase staring Middletown in the face.

Christie should get his story straight

Adviser to GOP candidate Chris Christie quits government job amid pension criticism
by The Associated Press
Monday June 01, 2009, 2:52 PM

TRENTON -- An adviser to GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie said he's quitting his part-time government job to end allegations of pension padding.

John Inglesino resigned from Republican Sen. Joe Pennacchio's staff effective today. Inglesino and Christie had faced mounting criticism that the corporate lawyer's $3,000-a-year political consultant job amounted to pension padding.

Inglesino announced Friday that he would quit the pension plan -- but not the job. He said he reconsidered after learning that it's illegal for pension-eligible employees not to participate in the plan.

"The state makes it impossible to be a legislative aide and not be in the pension system," Inglesino said. "This is the only way I can fulfill my promise."

New Jersey's top pension official, Fred Beaver, said the law was enacted to keep government employees from mistakenly opting out of the pension plan then regretting their decision years later.

As a candidate for New Jersey governor, Christie has railed against pension abuse, vowing to pluck part-time politicians from the system if elected.

The government job allowed Inglesino, Christie's longtime friend and campaign adviser, to earn pension credits. Lifetime medical benefits kick in after 25 years of service, and the former Morris County freeholder is more than halfway there.

"This has absolutely nothing to do with me or my campaign," Christie said today, referring to Inglesino's legislative job.

During an interview on Friday on New Jersey 101.5, Christie repeatedly refused to call on Inglesino to give up the pension or quit the job. He referred to Inglesino as a phone bank volunteer during that call-in interview. He did not mention that Inglesino co-hosted a $500 per plate private fundraiser for the candidate that brought in about $100,000.

Today, the Christie campaign noted that Inglesino is not a paid staff member.

As U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Christie awarded a $3 million no-bid contract to Herb Stern to monitor the state's medical school. Stern picked Inglesino, his law partner, as chief counsel on the job.