Campaign contributions from developers to Democratic Party leaders and demands from environmental groups have placed Jon Corzine in an awkward position over the fate of Petty’s Island, New Jersey.

Environmental groups may abandon their endorsement of Jon Corzine for Governor of New Jersey, according to the Press Atlantic City. Jon Corzine's unwillingness to take a position on Petty's Island and his recent hiring of Susan Bass Levin as his chief of campaign operations are causing them to question his candidacy.

The groups wondered whether Corzine's alleged connections with county Democratic political bosses affected his decisions.

Southern New Jersey Democratic Party boss, George Norcross III, is heard boasting on the so-called Palmyra tapes that he controls New Jersey politicians, including former Gov. James E. McGreevey and Corzine. He has also called Corzine a "good friend."

"Are we going to have the same situation as Jim McGreevey when he tried to please everybody and then the county party bosses held sway?" said Jeff Tittel, executive director of the Sierra Club, which endorsed Corzine.

David Pringle, campaign manager of the New Jersey Environmental Federation, criticized Levin for pushing fast-track development around the state and for signing off on the Petty's Island redevelopment and the Xanadu project at the Meadowlands."She's willing to sell out her core beliefs at any second. Why would you want somebody like that working on your campaign?" Pringle asked.

Tittel said the Sierra Club would consider rescinding its endorsement of Corzine and possibly stay neutral. Pringle said the federation would meet over the next two months to discuss whom it will endorse.

Corzine did not take a postion for or against the redevelopment of Petty's Island citing federal and state obstacles to the plan.

But he did question the motivation of the land's current owners, Citgo Petroleum Corp.

"I also believe that the people of New Jersey should look very skeptically upon a foreign oil company that has chosen to cloak itself in the principles of environmentalism in exchange for huge tax breaks from the state, while avoiding substantial expense in cleaning up their own mess," Corzine said.

An underground storage-tank farm and a paved, industrial marine facility encompass more than half the island - once an oil refinery run by Citgo - which has made it difficult for the state to argue conservation merits over the objections of Pennsauken Township officials.

Here’s where eminent domain pop’s up again:

Citgo offered the property as a gift to New Jersey along with $2 million so the land could be converted into a wildlife preservation area after learning at least two American bald eagles lived on the site.

But:

Pennsauken Township officials want to use eminent domain laws to take control of and redevelop the island, which sits on the Delaware River between Camden County and Philadelphia.

Critics say the deal reeks of pay-to-play; the exchange of governmental contracts for political donations.

The redeveloper expected to do the work, Cherokee Investment Partners, has given millions of dollars in campaign contributions to Democratic Party leaders throughout the state. Cherokee plans a $2 billion redevelopment project, including construction of golf courses, low-density housing and a hotel/conference center.

Where are the human shields when you need them? If ever there was a need to throw yourself in front of a bulldozer to protest government action, this is the time and New London, CT is the place.

You would think liberal groups would be out in force protesting now that the Supreme Court has ruled the City of New London can bulldoze privately owned homes to build a privately owned hotel and office. Nope, the usual suspects are not in solidarity with the “little guys” in Fort Trumbull. Why? In a word – taxes! As long as the government will be getting more taxes, who cares?

Now on the other hand:

If the Fort Trumbull families had been members of an endangered animal species, their homes might have been spared. Had New London tried to bulldoze bog-turtle habitat, liberal judges likely would have blocked it.

Liberal groups would have been on the warpath and liberal judges would have stopped the bulldozers had animals been involved. Kelo vs. City of New London only involved a few Americans and therefore, it’s not a worthy cause for liberal protestors. So what if people lose their homes, it's all for the greater good.

Conservatives really have their priorities backwards, don’t they? Just read Michael Kinsley’s article Activism, Ripe for The Takings. Among other absurdities, Kinsley explains how the Supreme Court’s liberal judges in the Kelo case thwarted a conservative brand of judicial activism.

But it would be fair to say that the takings clause is the conservatives' recipe for judicial activism -- imposing their agenda through the courts rather than bothering with democracy.

The Supreme Court has clung pretty tightly to literalism and declined repeated invitations to use the takings clause like a scythe to cut the government down to size.

Here are the words from the 5th Amendment Kinsley believes the Supreme Court has interpreted literally.

"No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

Tell that to 87 year-old Gertrude Campbell, forced out of her home of 47 years via eminent domain by the city of Trenton. Her just compensation - $20,000 for a home that the city had assessed at $33,000 for property tax purposes. Campbell’s property was turned over to a private developer.

Explain the democratic principle upheld by the court to 84 year-old Alberta Thompson who was forced out of the Trenton home where she raised nine children and lived for 49 years. Her just compensation, less than she and her husband paid for the house in 1957.

"I thought it was my house," Gertrude Campbell said while standing in her former doorway just a few days before her move. "I thought that when you keep it up, it's yours. But I guess not - when they want it."

The term “public use” now means “private use” and just compensation is meaningless. Eminent domain and just compensation were at the heart of one of the many McGreevey scandals. Democrat fund- raiser David D'Amiano admitted extorting $40,000 in cash and political donations from a Piscataway farmer in exchange for “just compensation” for his property in a government taking case. McGreevey used the code word “Machiavelli" as part of the political payoff scheme, how appropriate.

Based upon the Kelo decision, the government now has the “right” to take your home or business and turn it over to someone else. That’s what we would call judicial activism and that’s what’s at stake with the appointment of judges. Keep the Kelo case in mind when you hear liberals scream a conservative judge is “out of the mainstream”. Remember these families when you vote:

The Ciavaglia family moved from Italy to New London's Fort Trumbull neighborhood in the 1880s. In 1901, they purchased the house, where, in 1918, Wilhelmina Ciavaglia was born. In 1945, Wilhelmina married Charles Dery, and for 60 years the couple has lived in that home.

Their son Matthew lives next-door with his wife, Sue, and son, Andrew. Their home was given to Matthew as a wedding present by his grandmother. "Before they were married, the younger Dery couple gutted the building and rebuilt it, hand-routing and sanding every piece of woodwork themselves.”

Susette Kelo lives nearby, in an old Victorian she bought in 1997 and renovated. Her porch overlooks the Thames River -- a vista she loves and shares with her husband, Tim, who was disabled in a 2002 car accident."

Conservatives believe individuals have rights and that those rights must be protected from the tyranny of the majority and the government. Liberals believe in their vision of the greater good at any cost, even at the expense of an individual's rights.

Book us some rooms at the Lost Liberty Hotel, we just might need a place to stay.

From yesterday’s Baristanet:

The good news: Essex County got the largest grant of any county in New Jersey in a special federal disbursement for homeland security.

The bad news: New Jersey's getting about a third less homeland security money from the feds than we got last year.

Could it be punishment for voting blue in the last election?

Since the question was asked, we’ll answer, but first some facts. We did a number of posts on this subject back in December when congress was voting on the allocation of homeland security funds, so we don’t have to look too far for information.

1, President Bush had requested Homeland Security funding be allocated to the states based upon risk assessment

2. Senate Democrats held out for a funding formula written by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) that ensured funding would be spread around to all states, regardless of risk.

3. Senator’s Corzine and Lautenberg voted in favor of the bill based upon the Leahy homeland security funding formula that produced a cut in New Jersey’s allocation.

4. New York, a very blue state, voted for Kerry by a wider margin than New Jersey in 2004, just happens to have two Democrat senators, Clinton and Schumer and somehow they managed to secure a 344 percent increase in homeland security funding.

5. Washington and Los Angeles received double the amounts of their previous grants. Chicago and Boston will receive about a third more in homeland security funding. All “blue” cities in "blue" states, all represented by Democrats in the Senate.

So yes, you could say New Jersey was punished for voting blue - not for the last election, but as a result of the previous two – the ones in which Corzine and Lautenberg won their senate seats.

New Jersey is being punished by our poor representation in the senate. Corzine and Lautenberg are automatically against anything the President proposes, so they sided with the Democrat Leahy, even though the end result hurt New Jersey.

Clinton and Schumer did their homework and brought additional homeland security funds back to New York. After the vote, Corzine and Lautenberg held press conferences to lament New Jersey’s loss.

Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ), who is running for Governor, said that if elected, he would work with the congressional delegation to fix the funding formula "to make sure that people in Homeland Security all the way to the top understand the exposure [to an attack] we have here."

Corzine wants us to beleive he'll fix the senate funding formula once he's no longer a senator. Does anyone who follows the news actually beleive any of Corzine's lines?

Our previous posts on homeland security funding with links:

Action Required - Corzine Releases Statement To The Press
State Spending – It’s A Matter Of Choice
New Jersey Deserves Better
Corzine – Lautenberg To Blame For Funding Cuts To NJ
The Democrats Financial Mismanagement

Jon Corzine has gone Hollywood according to the Star-Ledger

"We've seen this movie in Washington. Does New Jersey really want this film playing at a theater near you?" Corzine asked. "What George Bush has done in Washington is what Doug Forrester would do in Trenton."

What movie would that be Senator Corzine?

Is it the tax cutting movie? Is it the documentary in which President Bush reduced tax rates and federal tax revenues actually increased? Yes, we’d like to see that show on an extended run in New Jersey.

We’ve seen the scripts of the tax horror show you have in mind Senator Corzine and we’re not interested in financing your film’s production.

We’ve seen the previews of Doug Forrester’s film and he’s the leader that cuts spending and produces a happy ending for New Jersey residents, property tax cuts.

Is it the education accountability movie? Is it the one in which President Bush established education standards and incentives to ensure students become proficient or better in reading and mathematics? Is it the one that requires focusing taxpayer money on proven educational methods to make sure children learn? Yes, we’d like to see that movie in New Jersey.

We’ve seen your teacher's union and special interest financed movie a hundred times, Senator Corzine. No matter how many times you rerun that show, it’s always the same - more taxpayer money spent, not on the children in a manner that produces results, but wasted on union members, administrators, school construction contractors and the other vultures of the education industry.

We prefer a Doug Forrester movie where children and taxpayers come first. We’re looking forward to the premier.

Jim at Parkway Rest Stop’s post on flag burning and the push for a constitutional amendment banning the desecration of the American flag, got us to thinking about what drives lawmakers to enact laws and the Supreme Court to rule as it does.

We elect people to federal, state and local offices and as soon as they’re sworn in, they think their job is to spend more money and pass new laws. Just think, when was the last time you heard about laws being taken off the books or total spending being cut?

Projecting into the future, at some point everything will be illegal and every dime earned will be taxed away and spent by government. We figure we are now at about the half-way mark towards that ultimate goal.

Let’s face it, all the basic laws necessary to protect life and property and to ensure a functioning society have long since been in place. Sure, as new technologies, businesses, etc. are introduced new laws may be required. When people began driving automobiles for example, motor vehicle laws became essential. But, how many new laws are enacted to regulate something new under the sun? Not many.

So lawmakers are now left with passing laws against things people find offensive or annoying. How else to explain why the city of Trenton has a law against throwing a pickle in the street? Generic littering or garbage dumping laws apparently couldn’t get this prickle throwing problem under control. Doesn’t it make you wonder what was going on in Trenton to move officials to enact such a law?

This brings us to a few suggestions for officials to take into consideration before passing any laws.

1. Is the proposed law essential to protecting life, property or the effective functioning of society? If the answer is no, do not enact the law. If the law will actually protect life or property, consider passing the law. If the answer is yes and the vague “effective functioning of society” reason is the basis, consider the next question before passing a new law.

2. Does the action happen often and when the action does occur, is it significantly disruptive to warrant passing a law to regulate the action or ban it entirely? If the answer is no, do not enact the law. If the answer is yes, consider this next question before passing a new law.

3. Is the action really disruptive and does it pose a real threat to a functioning society or is it merely found to be annoying, offensive or perhaps intimidating? If the answer is no, do not enact the law. If the answer is yes, consider this next question before passing a new law.

4. Is the proposed law consistent with the banning or regulation of similar actions? A few examples may be necessary to give a better understanding of this question.

A. The Supreme Court allows states to ban cross burning

B. The Supreme Court does not allow states to ban flag desecration

C. Trenton has banned pickle throwing – no Supreme Court ruling to date

All three actions may be seen as annoying, offensive and depending upon the circumstances, intimidating and leading to violence. All three may be considered “politically expressive conduct”. (Imagine pickles being thrown in the street as a form of protest had Heinz-Kerry been elected President.)

We find cross burning and flag desecration equally annoying, offensive and potentially intimidating. Thankfully, pickle throwing protests never became necessary, but if people can burn or otherwise desecrate flags in protest, shouldn’t we have the right to throw pickles? See what we mean, no consistency in the law with respect to banning and allowing actions?

Maybe we don’t need an amendment to the constitution to ban flag desecration. Maybe we just need officials to make laws and the Supreme Court to rule on annoying, offensive and intimidating things and actions in a consistent manner. They don’t, and as far as we are concerned that is the problem.

The Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers #6 is up at Riehl World View. Thank you Dan for hosting!

About The Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers

Each Sunday a New Jersey blogger hosts a Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers, offering just a sample of the topics Garden Staters have been writing about during the week. We hope your curiosity will be piqued to read more of the selected posts and you will take the opportunity to explore each blogger's site.

How To Participate In The Carnival

All New Jersey bloggers and blog readers are welcome to submit links for a Sunday Carnival. Just send an email containing a link to the post you would like included to: njcarnival@gmail.com

If you are a New Jersey blogger and would like to host a Carnival one Sunday, please send us an email to enlightennj@gmail with the dates you are available to participate.

The Carnival Schedule

2006

June 4 – Carnival # 55 - Enlighten-NewJersey
June 11- Carnival # 56 - Enlighten-NewJersey
June 18 – Carnival # 57 - Lassiter Space (Cancelled)
June 25 – Carnival # 57 - Stock Market Beat
July 2- Carnival #58 - Jersey Beat
July 9 - Carnival # 59 - Citizen Mom
July 16 - Carnival # 60 - Bob the Corgi
July 23 - Carnival # 61 - Enlighten-NewJersey
July 30 - Carnival # 62 - Enlighten-NewJersey
August 6 - Carnival # 63 - Enlighten-NewJersey
August 13 - Carnival # 64 - Enlighten-NewJersey
August 20 - Carnival # 65 - Enlighten-NewJersey
August 27 - Carnival # 66 - Open

Carnival Graphics

The following graphics have been created by fellow New Jersey blogger Mister Snitch to promote the project and to point readers to this post. The author of Cripes, Suzette! is the creative person behind the Carnival icon - Tillie from Palace Amusements in Asbury Park. We hope you will consider adding one of these “buttons” to your blog.

300 x 61

Code for 300 x 61:
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Carnival Tags

Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers
The TTLB ÜberCarnival

Previous Carnival Posts

Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 1
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 2
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 3
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 4
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 5
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 6
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 7
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 8
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 9
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 10
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 11
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 12
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 13
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 14
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 15
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 16
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 17
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 18
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 19
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 20
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 21
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 22
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 23
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 24
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 25
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers #26 Part 1 & Part 2
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 27
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 28
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 29
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 30
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 31
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 32
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 33
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 34
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 35
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 36
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 37
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 38
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 39
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 40
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 41
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 42
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 43
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 44
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 45
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 46
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 47
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 48
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 49
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 50
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 51
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 52
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 53
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 54
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 55
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 56
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 57
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 58
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 59
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 60
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 61
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 62
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 63
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 64
Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers # 65

MSM articles about the Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers

New York Times - In New Jersey, Blog Carnival Is WWWeird
Washington Post - The New Jersey Odd Blogger's Local #4
Herald News - Paging all of Jersey's blogs
Courier Post - Web blogs offer Jerseyans a place to express themselves and make a difference

Blogger has just launched Blogger Images, a new feature that enables you to upload graphics and pictures from your computer or the web for use in your posts.

We've being using Flickr as our graphic host for Enlighten-NewJersey and hadn't noticed the picture icon on the Blogger compose screen is operational until just now. So if you use Blogger you might want to give this new feature a try.

We have a few Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers graphics we want to post and will give Blogger Images a try later today.

People complain about Blogger, but it's free and the Blogger team seems to be working on additional features and improving reliability of the platform all the time. If you have a problem with the Blogger system, you're pretty much on your own - but what the heck, our blog hasn't cost us a single dime.

The right to own private property is considered the single most important condition for a free and prosperous society. John Locke wrote “Government has no other end but the preservation of property.” There are no human rights without property rights. It is your right to own property, not just your ownership of property that makes you free.

Picking up on Locke’s theme, Thomas Jefferson wrote: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

It was the right to retain the fruits of one’s labor and to purchase, own, and control property Jefferson was referring to with the phrase - “pursuit of happiness”. This concept was enshrined in the Bill of Rights with these words: "No person [shall be] deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation."

Fast forward to the present and we find the constant erosion of property rights in the United States. People and their property are seen as little more than tax targets to be exploited for the “greater good”.

Look no further than income tax laws imposed; more for the purpose of wealth redistribution than to provide for the common protection of life and property of citizens. You don’t decide how to use the fruits of your labor; the “government” decides and demands to be paid first, to hell with your needs or wishes. All for the “greater good.”

The IRS has the power to investigate your personal activities and finances; without a search warrant the IRS has the right to search your property and financial records; and without a trial, the IRS has the right to seize your property. All for the “greater good.”

Now we have the latest Supreme Court ruling that fails to protect property rights and instead gives the green light for government to seize people's homes and businesses for the sole purpose of giving it to others with the ability to generate greater tax revenue. All for the “greater good.”

When conservatives call for the appointment of judges that support an originalist interpretation of the U.S. constitution, liberals launch a full scale war and scream such judges are out of the “mainstream”. In the liberal world perhaps, where their concept of the “greater good” trumps all rights.

The number of Americans that have come to see the liberal agenda clearly grows every day. It has become evident to many, liberals seek to gain power, though any means necessary, to tax and seize personal property in order to create a society of their choosing.

A recent article in the Courier-Post provides us with an excellent example of just one of a multitude of outrages: “Sen. Wayne Bryant's ( D-Lawnside) has a $270,000 contract to represent Camden City in eminent domain matters against residents. Under the agreement, Camden taxpayers are footing the bill for one of their representatives in Trenton to aid their city in removing them from their homes.” Do you need to hear any more to realize what's happening?

The Bad Hair Blog has a terrific roundup of blogger reaction to the latest Supreme Court ruling. New Jersey bloggers are well represented, of course. These folks can’t be fooled with the mantra - All for the “greater good.”

TigerHawk made some science. Enlighten participated in the MIT weblog survey and:

Heap invective and smear the President of the United States, high ranking administration officials, presidential appointees, members of the military, Christians, Jews and Republicans – you express no outrage.

Call fellow Americans liars, losers, war criminals, racists, brain-dead, evil, extreme, and stupid – you utter not a peep.

Attribute every conceivable sinister motive to each action taken, policy proposed and position expressed by Republicans – you offer no rebuke.

Paint a picture of the United States as the greatest force of evil in the world, Photoshop Bush into Hitler and portray the country’s prosecution of the war on terror as blood for oil – you turn a blind eye.

Seek to turn the 9/11 Memorial into a guilt complex that diminishes the memory of Americans lost in the terrorist attacks with exhibits and multimedia presentations of Abu Ghraib – you’re silence is deafening.

Liken the Vice President to Saddam Hussein and publish your first blog post on a site whose author ran a picture of the burnt bodies of American contractors ambushed in Fallujah along with this quip: "I feel nothing over the death of the mercenaries. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them." – you are energizing your voter base.

When you learned Senator Durbin had the following to say about Americans, including more than 600 New Jersey National Guard members stationed at Guantanamo Bay – you were no longer available for a photo-op and the need to call for an apology never entered your mind.

If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others - that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners.

But when you read the following in the New York Times, you couldn’t get your press release out fast enough, demanding an apology of Karl Rove and attacking President Bush.

"Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." Citing calls by progressive groups to respond carefully to the attacks, Mr. Rove said to the applause of several hundred audience members, "I don't know about you, but moderation and restraint is not what I felt when I watched the twin towers crumble to the ground, a side of the Pentagon destroyed, and almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens perish in flames and rubble."

Mr. Rove also said American armed forces overseas were in more jeopardy as a result of remarks last week by Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, who compared American mistreatment of detainees to the acts of "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others.

"Has there ever been a more revealing moment this year? Let me just put this in fairly simple terms: Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals."

Your actions are telling Senator Corzine. Besmirch the United States, the American military, New Jersey National Guardsman and provide propaganda for the enemy and you do not rise to defend, demand apologies or resignations. Why is that Mr. Corzine? Is it because you place your party above your country, above the citizens of New Jersey you are supposed to represent? Or maybe it’s because you are in complete agreement with Senator Durbin’s statement. Maybe it’s because your reasons are all of the above.

Now when Rove pointed out the over-the-top behavior and rhetoric of a large contingent of liberals in the aftermath of 9/11, you sprang to action. Did you think Rove was attacking you? Why? Do you see yourself as a liberal who saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers? If you didn’t see yourself in Rove’s words, why do you believe you are owed an apology? Why the need to lash out?

US Senator Jon S. Corzine today called on White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove to immediately retract and apologize for his remarks regarding the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks against the United States.

“It is now nearly four years later. Osama Bin Laden remains at large. The President is floundering, his policies are failing, and the American people are fed up. And now his senior advisor – standing blocks from Ground Zero – has injected petty, partisan politics into one of the most tragic but unifying moments of American history. It’s shameful.

The American people are fed up alright. We are sick of liberals using the realities of war, Koran touching and a few jerks at Abu Ghraib to attack the President, smear the country and raise campaign contributions for the sole purpose of liberals gaining political power.

Republicans believe the country’s enemies are terrorists; you Senator act as if the Republicans are the enemy. Doubt me, read this Senator and tell us Rove didn’t speak for the majority of the country. If you don’t think so, you are totally out of touch with the mainstream.

The Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers begins its road trip starting this Sunday. This week the Carnival will be hosted by Dan at Riehl World View with Mister Snitch! doing the writing to free up Dan for his reporting on the Natalee Holloway case.

All New Jersey bloggers and readers are welcome to submit links for this Sunday’s Carnival. Just send Mr. Snitch an email with a link to the post you’d like him to include. We will forward links we have already received, so it’s not necessary to resubmit for this week’s Carnival #6.

The Road Trip Schedule

June 26 – Carnival #6 - Riehl World View
July 3 – Carnival #7 - Enlighten-NewJersey
July 10 – Carnival #8 - Cripes, Suzette!
July 17 – Carnival #9 - Sluggo Needs a Nap
July 24 – Carnival #10 - The Bad Hair Blog
July 31 – Carnival #11 - SmadaNek
August 7 – Carnival #12 - The Center of NJ Life
August 14 – Carnival #13 - Mister Snitch!
August 21 – Carnival #14 - Shamrocketship
August 28 – Carnival #15 - If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawn-mower

The Democrats in Trenton are squabbling amongst themselves over New Jersey’s budget for 2006 and property tax rebates are causing the Democrats in the Assembly a real headache. It is hard to believe the lawmakers can’t come up with the money for the popular program.

The income tax in New Jersey was enacted to provide property tax relief in two ways; direct aid to local school districts and through property tax rebates to homeowners. By law, the revenue the state receives from income taxes may not be spent for any other purpose.

The Acting Governor put the local school districts on notice that they would not be receiving any increases in state aid for 2006 and to homeowners he announced the property tax rebates would be eliminated or considerably reduced. Based upon the governor’s statements one would assume income tax revenue had fallen or at best, remained flat. If that’s what you thought, you would have assumed wrong.

Let’s take a look at the income tax revenue the state received in 2004 and the state’s projections for 2005 and 2006.

New Jersey Income tax Revenue
2004……….$7,400,733,000
2005……….$9,055,000,000
2006……….$9,650,000,000

Notice New Jersey’s income tax revenue is up $1.7 billion for 2005 and up $600 million for 2006, for a total of $2.3 billion. So where did the additional money go? Did your local school district receive more in state aid? More than likely not, and that’s why your property taxes continue to increase. It’s certainly not coming to you in the form of a property tax rebate; after all they can’t find the money to fully fund the program. Your tax dollars obviously went to the usual special interests.

So the Democrats have been casting about looking for ways to save the rebate. In usual fashion, the Democrats hatched a plan to increase sales taxes to fund the property tax rebates. Rebates may come and go, but the new taxes are forever.

Other Democrats, hoping to keep their seats in this year’s election for state assembly, have taken the unusual step of looking for ways to cut spending. The Star-Ledger reports today the hunt for cuts isn’t going too well:

The Codey administration has rejected about 80 percent of the budget cuts proposed by Assembly Democrats, forcing a scramble to find nearly $400 million in other savings to fully restore taxpayer rebates.

Treasurer John McCormac said yesterday he can endorse only about $85 million of the $467 million in spending cuts and funding ideas proposed by the Assembly leadership because the rest were not realistic.

It looks like the “funding ideas”, commonly known as tax increases, have been given the green light. Spending cuts are just not realistic. True enough, when the Democrats are in charge. When you buy votes, it’s pretty hard not to pay up and still expect support on election day. What a dilemma.

How bad is the problem? Consider this statement from the Assembly Budget Committee Chairman:

"I find it laughable that out of a $27.4 billion budget we can't find half a billion dollars in greater efficiencies and cuts," said Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Louis Greenwald (D-Camden).

It’s not laughable Assemblyman Greenwald, it’s pathetic.

Over the past several weeks Enlighten-NewJersey was been mentioned twice in the Jersey Side blog, written by John Shabe the editor of NJ.com. Yesterday, we were reviewing our site meter logs and noticed a few visitor referrals from Jersey Side. Curious, we decided to see what Shabe had written that prompted the visits. Here’s the first post we found:

Oopsie Doodle

I like to see somebody go out on a limb and make a bold prediction the way Republican blogger EnlightenNJ did today. But somehow for me at least some of the oomph gets sucked out of it when you can't spell ...

UPDATE: Enlighten had corrected the spelling of Corzine by 4 p.m. today. Fortunately I captured it for posterity ... nyuk nyuk nyuk.

Now here is where the difference between a professional journalist/editor and amateur bloggers becomes apparent. You see as amateurs, we would have characterized the misspelling of Corzine as a typo, especially because the Senator’s name was spelled correctly in the second sentence of the same post. As a professional, Shabe knows the difference between a misspelling and a typo and has provided us with a valuable lesson in journalism.

As amateurs, we would have mistakenly highlighted the prediction aspect of the post, assuming the content would have the most potential to interest readers. For example, we might have titled the post - Bold Election Prediction or Dream on Enlighten. See here again, we would have been wrong. A professional knows from experience and with his finger on the pulse of his readers, you draw them in with the title Oopsie Doodle and highlight the fact the Republican bloggers at Enlighten can’t spell.

As far as we know this was the first Enlighten-NewJersey post John Shabe has ever linked to on his Jersey Side blog. We read Jersey Side periodically and have never noticed a mention before of any of our more than 400 posts. Clearly, Shabe hadn’t found anything in our efforts, prior to this one, of potential interest or value to his readers.

Fair enough, he used his expertise as a professional journalist and editor to choose just the right post to introduce his readers to our blog. Lucky for his readers, Shabe doesn’t post on all of our misspellings and grammatical errors, his blog would be packed with them, no doubt.

Don’t get us wrong, we now know Shabe’s post was to be taken all in good fun. Just look at how he updated his post after we corrected our error. He provides his readers with a screen shot containing the error for “posterity” and adds ... nyuk nyuk nyuk. You see once again, the professional knows how to convey the spirit in which the post was written. As amateurs we would have missed this opportunity.

Our second link from the Jersey side came this past Monday:

Pass The Cotton Candy

I have to say I'm kinda miffed that local bloggers are all a-twitter of Enlighten NJ's weekly Carnival of The Jersey Bloggers, which basically links to a laundry list of Jersey blog posts each week. I'm miffed because ... well ... that's what I do like every day. But nobody gets all excited when I link to their posts ... sigh

and this has nothing to do with the fact that none of my posts have made it onto Enlighten's Sunday list ... OK, maybe it has a little to do with it.

All we can say is - gee John, all you had to do was send us an email with a post you wanted linked and we would have included you. Consider yourself personally invited. You are also welcome to host the Carnival. We have an opening for this Sunday if you’re interested and if this Sunday’s not good for you, pick a date that’s not already taken and it’s yours. It seems to take forever for us to write up the laundry list, but as a professional you could probably dash it off in a few minutes. You’d do a better job of writing too.

Before we were able to finish and publish this post, it seems more is being written on this subject in the Jersey blogosphere that should be added. See Mister Snitch’s post here and John Shabe’s post here.

John in his latest post writes:

I'm a sensitive fellow, likely too sensitive to be a blogger, so yes it does bother me to be criticized like this, but it's OK.

Just a few observations from an amateur blogger to a professional: When you criticize others, you’re likely to be criticized in return. When you elevate blog dialogue to the level of interesting ideas, facts, analysis, events and stories, it takes away the personal sting when a debate ensues. The content of the post is criticized, not the person and hard feelings are less likely to develop.

Of course when the attacks become petty and personal, every blogger should take the opportunity to point out the attacker has chosen the low road. After that, let it go, your readers will decide if you have been treated fairly and have treated others likewise.

Ah oh, we just received a few slaps on the wrist. Did we mention we’re just amateurs. Okay, no excuses – we promise to try harder in the future, especially with misspellings.

P.S. We’ve heard all publicity is good publicity – just as long as the name’s spelled right. Any chance you could spell our blog’s name correctly, John?

This is the season of political promises, spending programs and tax plans. The New Jersey legislature is talking about levying new taxes, to pay for tax rebates, which were previously promised to gain acceptance of an income tax, which was enacted as property tax relief. Has anyone noticed creating new or raising existing taxes to reduce other taxes hasn’t worked?

Once the raise taxes to lower taxes strategy has been taken about as far as any politician dares to go, it’s on to plan B. This is the ever popular we’ll raise the other guy’s taxes to provide government services which you and yours just can’t live without. Has anyone noticed the other guy that winds up being taxed is you?

How many people believe they don’t pay enough in taxes? Anyone that believes their taxes are too low is welcome to submit a H.O.T. Tax return along with payment to your local government and/or the state’s treasury department. Now that we’ve raised taxes in a democratic fashion, let’s talk about the services the government really must provide.

Let’s have everyone name five (5) state or local government services each considers to be essential. Those services the individual, the individual’s family or community just could not possibly live comfortably without. Once we have democratically decided the government services we need, we can figure out how much we are willing to pay for those services and who is going to pay for them.

Jon Corzine has apparently decided to run his campaign for Governor of New Jersey as a political outsider. This requires pretending he is not a U.S. Senator and that he has not played a major role in New Jersey state politics.

The Corzine strategy also requires pretending that Doug Forrester is not a private citizen and that from time to time Mr. Forrester votes in Washington and Trenton.

Roberto points us to this article in Newsday:

Seeking to gain traction among senior citizens, Democratic Sen. Jon S. Corzine's gubernatorial campaign on Monday linked his GOP opponent to a Bush administration plan for prescription medicine that has critics predicting disaster for the elderly.

The new program, sponsored by Republicans, pushed by President Bush, and supported by candidate Doug Forrester, is designed to help low-income seniors meet spiraling drug costs. It goes into effect Jan. 1.

Just a couple of points the Newsday article failed to mention:

1. The Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit is voluntary - no one is forced to participate in the plan.

2. Senator Jon Corzine voted in favor of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit bill.

3. Senator Frank Lautenberg voted in favor of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit bill.

4. Doug Forrester is not a member of the U.S. Senate. He lives and works in New Jersey as a private citizen.

We assume both Senators Corzine and Lautenberg voted in favor of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit because the national and state AARP organizations supported the plan. The Newsday article provides the following quote:

"We supported it because it really does help people with catastrophic drug costs," said Marilyn Askin, president of the state AARP.

To sum up, Senator Corzine is trying to scare senior citizens into believing, a voluntary prescription drug benefit that he personally supported with his vote in the U.S. Senate, which is supported by AARP, will be a disaster and it’s all Doug Forrester’s fault.

Why does Newsday peddle this nonsense?

Yesterday, Fausta at the Bad Hair Blog wrote about The New York Times article - For Illegal Immigrants, a Harsh Lesson. She does not support in-state college tuition status for illegal immigrants as proposed by Democrats in New Jersey’s assembly and neither do we.

The New York Times reporter clearly sides with the state assembly Democrats and attempts to drum up support for the legislature with a human interest story. The Times article revolves around Esteban Navarro, whose “dream of becoming a mathematician [was] dashed in a tangle of immigration laws.”

The “tangle” the Times refers to is the illegal immigration status of Navarro, his parents and at least one brother, Julio. The situation seems to pretty straight forward to us, Esteban Navarro and his family have been living illegally in the United States for at least the past 15 years and should have been deported long ago. Well, let’s not let a little thing like the law get in the way of a good yarn.

As a matter of fact, the “tangle of immigration laws” didn’t stop the Navarro boys from going to taxpayer financed public schools in New Jersey. Unfortunately, several hundred thousand taxpayer dollars later, we have let one of the two Navarro brother’s down. According to the Times, Esteban Navarro was denied the financial assistance necessary for him to attend Princeton or other leading American universities.

What does Navarro’s story have to do with in-state tuition status at New Jersey state colleges? Nothing, but he is an illegal alien who attended New Jersey public schools and wanted the taxpayers to subsidize his college education at Princeton. Apparently, the Times thought this was close enough to make their point.

Afraid to risk flouting federal law, Princeton and other leading universities could not process Mr. Navarro's applications, according to several people with knowledge of his situation.

Would these knowledgeable people familiar with Navarro's situation happen to be at Princeton or other leading universities or is the Time’s reporter just repeating rumor and speculation? Why is the reporter protecting sources familiar with the circumstances? Would they lack credibility to the reader? Does the reporter know for a fact that Navarro actually applied to any colleges? Has the reporter been shown Navarro’s returned or rejected college applications? Okay, pesky facts might get in the way of the point the reporter was trying to make.

The Times explains why Navarro had his sights set on Princeton and other unnamed leading universities:

Two years ago, Mr. Navarro, a quiet and gifted student, was headed for top honors. His teachers said he was a star soccer player who received a perfect score on the advanced-placement calculus exam and was named class valedictorian.

Here’s where the Time’s story gets confusing:

By spring 2003, when he was a senior, Mr. Navarro's plans to attend college unraveled. And at graduation, as the principal called on him to deliver the valedictory speech, Mr. Navarro had already dropped out.

Had Esteban Navarro dropped out of high school before graduation? Doesn’t a student actually have to graduate to be named class valedictorian? Does anyone believe the principal actually called on Navarro at the graduation ceremony, only to discover he had dropped out of school? We can only assume he dropped out of school before graduating based upon the facts presented and the article’s first line:

Esteban Navarro disappearance broke a lot of hearts at Trenton Central High School; where the dropout rate among Hispanic students is triple the state average.

So what happened to Navarro? Did the immigration “tangle” catch up with him and deport him? No.

"He just gave up," his 19-year-old brother, Julio, recalled. "He didn't even put up a fight."

Mr. Navarro refused to talk about his situation for this article. Now 21, Mr. Navarro, who had attended school in the United States since the first grade, works in a pizza shop outside Philadelphia.

Does this story hang together for you? Navarro dropped out of high school because he wasn’t eligible for financial assistance to attend Princeton University and he now works in a pizza joint instead of studying to become a mathematician. Would in-state tuition for illegal aliens have made any difference in the outcome of this story, assuming any of this tale is true? Apparently not, it was Princeton or nothing and community college was not an option.

Now that you’ve been softened up with Navarro’s story, on to the purpose of the Time's article:

Opponents believe that the bill, if approved, would strain classrooms and budgets at public universities and provoke tension between legal immigrants who might not qualify for lower tuition and illegal immigrants who would.

Of course state budgets and immigrant tensions are merely excuses for the real reason citizens aren’t clamoring for college benefits for illegal aliens:

In New Jersey, many advocates of the measure blame racial politics for stalling its passage.

Yes, if the 100,000 or so illegal immigrant students in New Jersey were Irish we’d be begging for more state spending, higher taxes and subsidized college tuition for illegal aliens.

Immigration laws? Who needs immigration laws and after all the Irish even speak a funny kind of English. Okay, you caught us, it’s a race thing. Riiight!.

The article goes on with more anecdotal stories and cheerleading for changes to state and federal laws, but the conclusion can’t be missed:

Immigration papers arrived in April for the Navarro family. But they were too late for Esteban, who gave up his dream to go to college two years ago and cut off all contact with high school friends and teachers.

"It hurts me a lot," said his brother, Julio, who recently graduated from high school and plans to attend Middlebury College, where he was awarded a scholarship. "When you are growing up, you hear of family members, really smart, who ultimately end up in roofing or as janitors. I see a lot of kids get the door shut in their face. You don't hear many success stories. It keeps me up a lot of nights, wondering why."

It’s called the law, Julio. And by the way, you’re welcome.

In the last day or so, we’ve had a number of questions raised by readers in our comments section. We promise to answer them in a post or in a series of posts as soon as time permits. We won’t forget and we’re sure our readers won’t let us.

According to the New York Daily News:

The national Republican Party is looking to pump some money into New Jersey for a change, citing the prospect of winning this year's race for governor in the Garden State.

In the past two presidential elections, the GOP has looked to New Jersey as a place to gather money, not spend it in search of votes.

But this year, the national Republicans see New Jersey as an attainable prize, and plan to work hard for Doug Forrester, the GOP gubernatorial candidate.

Corzine Care seeks to provide health care insurance for the estimated 1.2 million New Jersey residents currently uninsured. Corzine’s aide Curtis Fisher has reiterated the Senator’s claim that the various schemes within Corzine Care will cost taxpayers a total of $15 million.

Neither Senator Corzine nor Mr. Fisher has been able to provide the specifics of the various proposals that would logically explain the unbelievable $15 million Corzine cost estimate. Waivers and State of New Jersey “bulk rates” referred to by Fisher don’t square with reality.

Take for example the costs taxpayers currently pay for people we already insure – state employees and employees in our local schools districts. As we struggle to reduce state expenses and property taxes, we wonder why Trenton hasn’t been able to purchase insurance at the fabulous state “bulk rates” Senator Corzine has used in his Corzine Care cost calculations.

Source: NJ Department of the Treasury-Division of Pensions and Benefits

Beyond the initial shock that New Jersey taxpayers insure so many employees that contribute nothing toward their health and prescription drug insurance, these rates don’t seem particularly discount, special or “bulk” to us. $3,095 a year for a drug plan for an employee and spouse seems beyond reason.

Using these state published insurance rates, the Corzine budget of $15 million would cover 2,750 mothers with one child for medical insurance only and 2,066, if prescription drug coverage is part of the Corzine Care plan. That still leaves 1,197,250 people uninsured. Perhaps Mr. Fisher or Corzine could tell us how much it would coast to insure the remaining million or so people.

Now in terms of ideas to reduce the state’s budget and our property taxes, we have a few suggestions:

1.) State and school district employees should contribute toward their health and prescription drug insurance costs at the same average rate as private sector employees in the state. The average state employee earns more than the average private sector employee, so please don’t write us about the lower pay for better benefits meme, it isn’t accurate.

2.) Contact Doug Forrester, he has figured out how employers can provide a quality prescription drug benefit, while at the same time managing and containing costs. As a matter of fact, Forrester’s Benecard company has been so successful at helping employers contain their prescription drug benefit costs, he’s become a multi-millionaire with his expertise . Too bad the State of New Jersey isn’t one of Forrester’s clients; he could have saved taxpayers a ton of money.

Sluggo Needs a Nap has the story of Detective Gullace, a cop and a very brave man.

Parkway Rest Stop asks “What five things do you miss from your childhood?” Jim’s reminiscing in response to his question takes you back to the days that really couldn’t have been all that long ago, could they?

While we’re reminiscing, Suzette takes us through some of those wonder years with her post Hello Dorkness My Old Friend and she has the pictures to prove it.

The author of Shamrocketship shares her story of healing.

KateSpot posts one scary looking photo and “sings” a little ditty if you click the correct link.

Lizzie at This Full House has put up some great pictures and turns her blog over to “a most adorable, loving, funny and little muffin of a blogger.”

Mary’s Lame Attempt at Fame has an artist rendering of Michael Jackson as he may have looked today sans plastic surgery. The picture was generated through the application of aging trends to one of Michael Jackson's childhood pictures.

GiggleChick will be performing on July 20th (Wednesday) at 7pm at the New York Improv Comedy Club.

Mr. Snitch hosted the Carnival of the Vanities this past week and managed to interject a number of interesting New Jersey issue inspired graphics throughout his post.

The Barista blogs about the Purple Wave and generates a tsunami of comments. The Proprietor at Coffeegrounds quips: They Eat Their Own Young.

Sharon from the Center of NJ Life writes: Screwed Up. Priorities - "Looking for money to restore property tax rebates, Assembly Democrats have targeted a fund used to help the poor pay heating bills.”

NJ Conservative has great news: “Managers of the State's Pension Fund have found a way to save us from the $30 billion shortfall in the fund.” Makes you wonder how the private managers were chosen to handle the state’s investments and the huge fees these lucky guys will receive. Follow the money.

Roberto at DynamoBuzz has the latest on the fallout over the Corzine Connection to the various New Jersey political corruption scandals over the past several years.

From Tami, The One True: “I think that New Jersey Government is too big. I think that 12 people are doing jobs that could be done by 4. I think that we have too many different levels of people doing the same things over and over, and that it's wasting our (NJ residents) money.”

The New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers has taken exception to PDCRyan’s post about a certain light rail and it wasn’t this one.

The Political Dogs blog: The Truth About PETA is Revealing.

Poetic Leanings offers a post with the title: Letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

TigerHawk provides a non-partisan review of how we got to where we are with North Korea.

Weinish at BeLow Me thinks; “Things have to get worse before they get better, and things are certainly not good. Things still need to get even worse. Much worse for people to realize their leaders aren't good for them, or the country.”

Fausta reports on the “Aubenas kidnapping, the Romanian connection, and a whiff of Oil-For-Food", over on the Bad Hair Blog.

The blog Blanton's and Ashton's has changed their subtitle from “Reality-Based and Loving It” to “Article. II. Section. 4” Author Frogsdong writes: “Some very smart people have had some very interesting things to say about impeachment and public misconduct, including lying.”

New Jersey USMC Vet, blogging on Blue State Conservatives believes there can be only one comment to come from Senator Corzine and Representatives Holt and Menendez about the remarks Senator Durbin made on the Senate floor during a debate on the Energy Bill.

Please let us know your thoughts on a traveling Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers. Sluggo and Ken Adams have already given their thumbs up on the idea.

Last, but certainly not least, Happy Father’s Day!

Five weeks ago we began the Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers with a few basic goals. We wanted to generate additional interest in New Jersey blogs, bring attention to Jersey blogs that others might not have discovered and offer a sampling of topics about which Garden Staters had written over the past week. Our hope was to peak reader curiosity in the posts submitted or selected in a manner that encouraged people to click on over to read more and explore each blogger’s site.

The first suggestion we received about the Carnival came from the author of Cripes, Suzette. She suggested the use of an identifying graphic in keeping with the carnival theme and unique to New Jersey – specifically the Food Circus Clown of Middletown and Tillie from Palace Amusements in Asbury Park.

We decided Tillie fit the bill and reader consensus formed around the “weathered Tillie” over the “refurbished Tillie” icon. Mr. Snitch has created two Tillie graphics, shown below and suggests New Jersey bloggers participating in the Carnival place one of the two on their site to support the project.

This leads to our suggestion. A real carnival is nomadic and applying this concept to the blogosphere, this Carnival ought to travel from blog to blog. We believe the Carnival should reflect a variety of editorial points of view, expand the number of New Jersey blogs included and allow the unique creativity of each Carnival host to shine.

Please let us know your thoughts on a traveling Carnival of New Jersey Bloggers. We are willing to keep track of the hosting schedule and other administrative matters, if others are willing to act as hosts.

Just a reminder for this week. All Garden State bloggers and blog readers are welcome to submit links for this Sunday’s Carnival . Just send us an email with a link to the post you’d like us to include.

Tuesday on the Senate floor during a debate on the Energy Bill, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill) said:

If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others - that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners.

As we posted back on December 23 and 26, Democratic Sen. Jon Corzine and Reps. Robert Menendez and Rush Holt went to Guantanamo Bay to ask detainees directly about accusations of mistreatment by U.S. interrogators.

After returning home from the trip, the congressmen stated that they found the detainees to be treated in a humane fashion and the interrogation process to be absolutely professional.

The men called the trip "a very positive experience" and said they were thankful for the opportunity to meet with the guard members and express the state's appreciation for their efforts.

More than 600 New Jersey National Guard members are stationed at the base."They are in rather good morale, even though they obviously want to be home for Christmas. They are making serious sacrifices for all of us, and I let them know how much the people of New Jersey appreciate their efforts," Corzine said. More here.

Will Senator Corzine, Reps. Robert Menendez and Rush Holt demand an apology from Senator Durbin for besmirching the reputation of the United States, the American Armed Forces and the service men and women from New Jersey who have served at Guantanamo Bay?

The Jon Corzine and Charles Kushner partnership is in the news again, so we thought we’d provide a summary of our post from April 19 on the subject.

Corzine expressed interest in buying the New Jersey Nets basketball team and explained why he believed he was qualified for the job:

Millionaire Senator Jon Corzine says that he might be interested in buying the New Jersey Nets. When asked why, Corzine explained that after several years in the Senate, he feels qualified to manage a bunch of spoiled, overpaid prima donnas.

Jon Corzine hooks up with wealthy New Jersey businessman and major contributor to the Democrat Party, Charles Kushner to buy the Nets. The duo looked to the State of New Jersey for a bit of help with financing:

We start with last week's news that U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., and real estate developer Charles Kushner were considering making a bid to buy the New Jersey Nets. That sounded pretty good. The men, it seems, have the money to buy the Nets and keep the team in New Jersey. But now it surfaces that the senator and developer want the state to contribute $125 million to help them purchase the team.

The Corzine-Kushner partnership wanted New Jersey's taxpayers to kick in because investment in the Nets basketball team was risky and a potential money loser.

The Star-Ledger, the Asbury Park Press of Neptune and The Record of Bergen County all reported Monday that the partners sought the help because they are wary of the financial problems facing the team. The Nets, who played in the NBA finals the past two seasons, have not made money and are expected to operate at a loss this year because of a rising payroll.

The Corzine-Kushner partnership ultimately would have to go without help from the state and their final bid for the Nets was placed in January of 2004. Corzine’s former employer, Goldman Sachs was handling the sale.

In a dramatic attempt to keep the team in New Jersey, Kushner, the well-connected developer, and his partner, U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, submitted an all-cash offer of $300 million just before 3 p.m. yesterday. It was spelled out in a one-paragraph fax sent to Stier and one of the bankers handling the sale, Joe Ravitch of Goldman Sachs.

The Corzine-Kushner bid came too late to be taken seriously and a Brooklyn investor won the right to buy the Nets:

Bruce C. Ratner, the New York real estate developer who wants to move the New Jersey Nets to an arena in downtown Brooklyn, reached a tentative agreement to acquire the team for $300 million, defeating a similar offer by Charles Kushner and Senator Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey, the Nets' ownership group confirmed tonight.

The next thing you know one half of the Corzine-Kushner partnership is pleading guilty to a slew of federal charges:

Real estate mogul Charles Kushner pleaded guilty in federal court to 18 charges, including retaliating against a federal witness and violating campaign finance laws. He also pleaded guilty to 16 counts of filing false tax returns through various real estate partnerships.

Charles Kushner is now serving a two-year prison sentence in Alabama and has paid some pretty stiff fines for his various criminal acts:

A federal judge sentenced multimillionaire developer and Democratic Party political donor Charles B. Kushner to two years in prison Friday, declaring Kushner's wealth, power and widespread charity don't trump criminal acts that included tax fraud, campaign-finance violations and witness retaliation.

Kushner was charged with hiring a hooker to have videotaped sex in a scheme to silence potential witnesses. The guy caught on tape was Kushner's brother-in-law and the tape was sent to Kushner's sister.

Kushner, who has given more than $5 million to Democratic campaign committees in New Jersey during the past decade, was ordered this month to pay at least $12.5 million in fines for violating federal banking laws. He also paid $508,900 in 2004 — the fourth largest fine of its kind — to federal regulators for campaign-finance violations.

Is Jon Corzine the man to clean up political corruption in New Jersey? If not the instigators of corruption, New Jersey Democrats have certainly managed to attract the worst elements in the state and Corzine seems to be the lodestone. Is there any reason for us to assume a Governor Corzine would lose his unrivaled attraction?

Day in, day out the right-leaning New Jersey blogs provide an aggregation of news, analysis and opinion sorely lacking in the major media that serves New Jersey. The Republican Party, a natural ally of our point of view, one would assume, ignores us. No links on the NJ GOP website to right-leaning New Jersey blogs - so content rich is the New Jersey Republican site, the party apparently is in no need of grass roots support.

The New Jersey Republican Party might be surprised to learn that the majority of this blog’s readers find us searching for information about the issues that matter to the people of the state. While we haven’t asked our fellow bloggers, we’ll bet their blogs are a helpful resource for voters starved for information too. Imagine the impact if more people in New Jersey were aware of our existence.

Joe Katzman comments on Patrick Ruffini's blog about the difference between the left- and right-blogosphere and notes the GOP is tone-deaf in its relationship with bloggers.

Meanwhile, connections of any sort among right-leaning blogs to the GOP or to conservative alternative media and think-tanks are still iffy at best.

Heritage made some half-hearted efforts, but they came to nothing near as I can tell. Townhall.com has never made their blog work or integrated it with the larger community. Think tanks are largely AWOL. And don't even get me started re the tone-deaf way the GOP is trying to handle blogs right now.

Meanwhile, there's no Media Matters or (a far better idea) campaign-enabling infrastructure to give the righty blogosphere the kind of organizing/outreach power that would make a difference.

Now, our human infrastructure of blogs is more robust. I'd say we're more prepared to receive attention, success, et. al.

Having said that, it's also clear to me that the right and centrist blogosphere is not being "all that we can be," and isn't being integrated very well with existing institutions, even in informal ways.

The Opinion Journal writes today that a centrist group of Democrats called Third Way recently issued a report explaining the Democrats' 2004 election debacle. It concluded that voters with incomes between $30,000 and $75,000 a year, or almost half the electorate, delivered "healthy victories" for President Bush and Republicans in Congress. The report concludes the Democrat Party is no longer the party of the middle class.

Why is that? One reason is that the party of FDR and JFK no longer seems to have a moderate wing; they have become doughnut Democrats with no middle. This point is best exemplified by the utter collapse of Democrats in the South. In 1980 there were 20 mostly conservative Democrats in the Senate; now there are four, and even they are endangered.

• With the notable exception of Joe Lieberman, there are virtually no Scoop Jackson defense hawks remaining in a party that has made Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo its main policy touchstones for the war on terror.

• The party that voted en masse for income and capital gains tax cuts under JFK now has but one message on taxes: Raise them.

• On trade, the Democrats who delivered 102 House votes for Nafta and Bill Clinton in 1994 will, at last count, provide all of five House votes for the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

• The Clinton Democrats helped enact the most momentous social policy legislation of the past generation: welfare reform. Now Democrats conspire every day to gut work-for-welfare requirements and prevent the renewal of welfare reform by Congress.

• Above all, there's the know-nothing-ism on Social Security. The Democrats in unison proclaim that Mr. Bush is advancing a risky right-wing scheme to destroy Social Security by creating private investment accounts for workers.

But wait. How dangerous can this idea really be? After all, only a few years ago there was a long and esteemed list of elected Democratic leaders who endorsed personal accounts. John Breaux. Chuck Robb. Bob Kerrey. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Charles Stenholm. Tim Penny. Today in the entire United States Congress there is exactly one Democrat, Allen Boyd of Florida, who has endorsed personal accounts, and he has been shunned for his apostasy.

Yesterday we looked at the inequitable state funding for New Jersey’s public schools, comparing Newark, Camden, Millburn and Cherry Hill in terms of cost per student and funding sources.

Today we will take a look at the high school/student performance for the same four school districts – Newark (poor school district) and Millburn (rich school district) both located in Essex Country; and Camden (poor school district) and Cherry Hill (middle class school district) both located in Camden County.

After 30 years of ever increasing state funding and spending per student in the “poor” school districts, here are the results:

Source: New Jersey Department of Education – School Report Cards

Voters in North Brunswick's 12th district ousted a Democrat committeeman Ralph Andrews in last Tuesday election. Andrews had been found guilty of leaving the scene of an accident last year after he smashed into a neighbor's car.

The Democrats replaced him with Yomare Polanco who has been banned from teaching after he was found in a motel room with a 15-year-old girl, a former student at the school where he taught.

Polanco was a rising star in the New Brunswick school district -- having just been promoted to vice principal at New Brunswick High School -- in August 2001 when an anonymous tip led police to an Edison motel where Polanco was found with a 15-year-old girl.

The girl had been a student at the Roosevelt Elementary School, where Polanco taught science, but was transferred to the Woodrow Wilson School earlier in the school year.

Police said at the time of Polanco's arrest on child endangerment charges that his relationship with the girl was ongoing, not a one-time event.

In February 2002, Polanco entered into a plea bargain with the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office in which he agreed to surrender his teaching certificate in return for the prosecutor's office supporting his entry into a pretrial probation program that, if completed successfully, would lead to dismissal of the charges against him. His two-year period of probation in the program ended early last year.

Polanco said he decided to enter the pre-trial intervention program to save himself thousands of dollars in legal fees, but he was adamant that his relationship with the girl was purely professional, not sexual.

"We should be looking at how to straighten out North Brunswick's political situation, not gossip like this," he said. "The councilmen and political situation in North Brunswick have to be changed. That's why I decided to run (for committee)."

New Jersey school district A spends an average of $15,795 per student and school district B spends an average of $11,820 per student. Both school districts are in the same New Jersey county. One school district is considered affluent and the other poor. School district A spends 33% more per pupil than school district B.

Q 1) Which school district is considered affluent, school district A or B?

New Jersey school district C spends an average of $15,091 per student and school district D spends $10,717 per student. Both school districts are in the same New Jersey county. One school district is considered middle class and the other poor. School district C spends 40% more per pupil than school district D.

Q 2) Which school district is considered middle class, school district C or D?

School district A's schools are funded: 9% from local property taxes, 84% from state funds (NJ income taxes), 6% from federal funds (federal taxes) and 1% from other sources.

School district B's schools are funded: 93% from local property taxes, 5% from state funds (NJ income taxes), 1% from federal funds (federal taxes), 1% from fund balances.

School district C's schools are funded: 3% from local property taxes, 84% from state funds (NJ income taxes), 8% from federal funds (federal taxes) and 5% from fund balances.

School district D's schools are funded: 86% from local property taxes, 12% from state funds (NJ income taxes), 1% from federal funds (federal taxes), 1% from other sources.

Q 3) Is it fair that school district A, located in the same country as school district B, spends 33% more per student?

Q 4) Is it fair that school district C, located in the same country as school district D, spends 40% more per student?

Q 5) What effect does the disparity in spending per pupil and the inequity in state and federal funding to the local school districts have on property taxes in school districts B and D?

Q 6) What percent of New Jersey’s income tax revenue is returned to municipalities in the form of school aid and what percent is used to fund other state programs and services?

A 1) School district A is Newark and school district B is Millburn Township, both are located in Essex County. Newark spending $15,795 per student is considered poor and Millburn Township spending $11,820 per student is considered rich.

A 2) School district C is Camden and school district D is Cherry Hill Township, both are located in Camden County. Camden spending $15,091 per student is considered poor and Cherry Hill Township spending $10,717 per student is considered middle class.

A 3 & 4) If the purpose behind the allocation of state funds to local school districts is to achieve funding parity, then clearly the state funding is out of whack and obviously unfair.

A 5) The inequity in spending per pupil, as well as, inequity in state and federal school funding causes crushing property tax burdens in every school district that is short changed under New Jersey’s allocation formula. Millburn and Cherry Hill are just two examples of the state-wide problem.

A 6) One-hundred percent (100%) of New Jersey’s state income tax revenue is used for school funding. No other programs or services are funded with the state’s income tax.

Source: State of New Jersey Comparative Spending Guide 2005

The Democrats in Trenton are looking to add insult to injury with their attempt to grant in-state tuition status for illegal alien children living in New Jersey.

Why do we allow illegal aliens to live in New Jersey in the first place and why do we seek to reward illegal behavior with goods and services, at taxpayer expense, to those that have no rightful claim? Whether New Jersey was rolling in dough or facing bankruptcy, as it is now, why should illegal aliens be given anything besides a one-way ticket back to their home country?

Demographers estimate New Jersey has between 300,000 and 500,000 illegal immigrants who burden communities and siphon away jobs from legal immigrants and citizens alike. A Harvard University economist told Time magazine last fall that immigration from 1980 to 2000 reduced the average salary of native-born men by $1,700 a year.

New Jersey currently spends $1.5 billion annually educating the children of illegal immigrants. The number of illegal aliens reduces the stock of affordable housing for legal residents and drives up the cost of rents. The law of supply and demand remains in effect even while the enforcement of immigration law is abandoned.

The New Jersey state hospital association has reported New Jersey’s hospitals lose $200 million annually to charity care for uninsured immigrants. The Star-Ledger recently highlighted the example of an uninsured illegal immigrant treated at Trinitas Hospital in Elizabeth at cost of more than $4 million.

The people of New Jersey do not have infinite resources and should not have to fork over their hard earned dollars for the benefit of people here illegally. Our representatives in Trenton, who can’t find the money for property tax reductions, are more than willing to spend billions on people with no right to be in the state.

Politicians are rewarding the unlawful behavior of illegal immigrants, at the expense of law abiding legal residents of New Jersey. They are stealing from taxpayers and aiding and abetting crime.

As Jon Corzine touts his plans to “co-invest” taxpayer dollars in risky start-up businesses, consider New Jersey’s Schools Construction Corp. This state corporation is the poster child for incompetence, waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars.

The State has proven incapable of efficiently and effectively managing the basic functions of government, why should anyone entrust the State with more tax dollars to start state “co-owned” businesses?

We’d like to invest in and grow our own businesses. We don’t need the government as a mafia style partner. We want the people to prosper, not the politicians and their buddies. The state currently runs a number of businesses and not a one breaks even. For examples see The River Line and Giants Stadium.

Any potentially viable venture, with a good business plan, can receive financing in the private sector. Why should taxpayers be forced to invest in businesses the capital markets turn down? The government is the lender of last resort for a reason – high risk, low probability for gain.

Now think about the Corzine planned businesses run like this:

John F. Spencer, CEO of the New Jersey Schools Construction Corp., testified before a state Assembly Budget Committee that his troubled agency began without the proper expertise to manage the $8.6 billion program and with unrealistic construction cost estimates. Only half of the school construction work set for the state's poorest districts [Abbott] will be completed with the $6 billion set aside for them.

The school construction program has been plagued by excessive spending. One analysis showed that the corporation spent an average of 45 percent more to build schools than local boards of education. Architects also were paid double the average rate, and project managers received up to four times the rate other districts were paying for schools built in the past two years.

State Inspector General Mary Jane Cooper issued a stinging report in April criticizing the corporation for hiring temporary workers at premium pay rates to supplement its 270-person staff, for paying local governments for school building sites that were already publicly owned and for not seeking reimbursement from architects for construction costs overruns resulting from their design errors. The report also said the agency paid thousands of dollars in inappropriate bonuses to top executives during 2003 and 2004.

New Jersey Taxpayers are just supposed to shrug this off and pony up another $18 to $25 billion because:

"There is a (state) Supreme Court mandate that says we must provide this," William Payne, D-Essex said. "We don't have the luxury of either doing it or not doing it."

Is that so Mr. Payne? Well, we have the luxury of the vote. The politicians along with the cronies they placed on the state’s payroll should be swept out of Trenton. The people also have the power to amend the state’s constitution to return the power of the purse to elected representatives who are accountable to the taxpayers.

The New Jersey Schools Corp has all the elements of Senator Corzine’s plan: Invest (billions of tax dollars wasted), grow (the debt grows ever larger) and prosper (the politically connected get richer). Would any other state business be different? Would Senator Corzine like to make a bet?

The first Star-Ledger/Eagleton Rutgers Poll conducted after the New Jersey gubernatorial primary on June 7 has Corzine leading Forrester – 43 to 33 percent with 17 percent undecided. The poll also shows Forrester leading Corzine among independents, 35 percent to 29 percent.

Here’s what we don’t understand. The poll supposedly surveyed 600 registered voters and included this question:

“If the election for governor were held today, for whom would you vote Jon Corzine, the Democrat, Doug Forrester, the Republican or some other candidate for governor?”

The number of males surveyed was 282 and the number of females was 318 for a total of 600. Yet the total surveyed by party, including independent (unaffiliated) for this question, according to the poll was 540. What happened to the other 60 people?

We also don’t understand the sample weight by party affiliation used in the survey. The chart below shows the breakout of registered New Jersey voters by party declaration. How do the numbers by party surveyed by the Star-Ledger/Eagleton Rutgers Poll relate to the actual population?

Thirty-nine percent surveyed by the poll were Democrats, 28 percent were Republicans and 32 percent were independent. Is this a properly weighted poll sample? Are these poll results really meaningful? President Bush received 48% of the vote in New Jersey in the 2004 election, is this fact relevant?

Perhaps someone can enlighten us.

Registered New Jersey Voters By Party and Number Surveyed

Unaffiliated - 2,611,586 (56.48%)...Surveyed by poll - 176 (32.6%)
Democrats - 1,130,812 (24.46%).....Surveyed by poll - 211 (39.1%)
Republicans - 865,237 (18.71%)......Surveyed by poll - 153 (28.3%)
Other – 16,459 (0.35%)...................Surveyed by poll - 0 (0%)
Total Registered - 4,624,004...........Surveyed by poll - 540

Did you have a chance to see the Jon Corzine interview with Michael Aron yesterday morning on NJN TV.? If not, you can listen to the interview here. You have to laugh at the time slot the show will air again today - 6:30 am.

Anyway, it was not a powder puff interview and Corzine had to work to keep his temper under control. Corzine is not used to being challenged and it showed. Unfortunately, the archive on NJN only provides audio, so you won't be able to catch the Senator’s facial expressions and body language.

Most of Corzine’s spin was predicable, but we were surprised to hear the Senator say: “I have built a great business.” We thought it was Doug Forrester that built a successful business. When did Corzine build a business – he can’t be referring to Goldman Sachs. Goldman was founded in 1869. Corzine doesn’t mention the great business he built in his bio on his Senate website – what was he talking about?

Senator Corzine was fired from his job at Goldman Sachs and then almost immediately began his run for the Senate. We hope he’s not trying to take credit for his daughter’s tea shop, that just wouldn’t be right. We look forward to learning about this great business he built.

You know when you think about it, Corzine has never worked in New Jersey, he doesn’t own a home in the Garden State now and of course he doesn’t pay property taxes, at least not in our state. Why should Corzine’s first job in the state be as Governor?

Note to real estate agents, a man with big bucks will be looking to buy a house, because Drumthwacket isn’t for sale.

Gigglechick is advertising her blog down undah – how cool is that.

It’s official: Liz at My New Jersey was accepted at Rutgers and is going to be a librarian when she grows up.

Sharon from the Center of NJ Life says: “There are so many good things about living here in the center of NJ, I could go on and on about them. And I've decided to do just that. This installment features the Trenton Thunder baseball team.

Speaking of baseball, check out Mr. Snitch’s post on the forgotten Hoboken – the birthplace of our national pastime.

Sluggo blogs on the zen of skee-ball and gives us pointers based upon his time as a pro at his favorite boardwalk. Point Pleasant.

Snitch and Sluggo give us a heads up: Tris McCall goes to court Next Friday (June 17, at the Hudson County Courthouse. Performing his songs about Hudson County politicians and institutions.

Lizzie at This Full House provides a dose of humor...Follow the instructions to find your new name.

Welcome home Fausta, we missed your Bad Hair blogging.

It’s not all fun and games in the Garden State: ”And the commute? Hairy-er than usual. Half of it spent going so slow I wouldn't kill a flea if I collided head-on with it. The other half spent dodging weavers, drifters, people trying to suck on my back bumper, and just general mayhem at 70 mph. I don't know how the hell I made the 35 miles alive and am here to write about it.” They don’t call her Shamrocketship for nothing.

PDC Ryan pleads with “NJ Transit: Do it right, finish what you started and make good on your promise.”

Kate doing fifty things at once is slowly getting sucked into the PTA.

Jim at Parkway Rest Stop suggests: slow down ... you move too fast.

Sarah at Tomato Nation writes: “If you have reached the age of 25 you must stop viewing carelessness, tardiness, helplessness, or any other quality better suited to a child as either charming or somehow beyond your control. A certain grace period for the development of basic consideration and self-sufficiency is assumed, but once you have turned 25, the grace period is over.”

Jim Testa gives his take on the Michael Jackson trial. Please let it be over soon.

Pre-recorded phone pitches from political candidates did not go over well with The Proprietor and Scott at Poetic Leanings posts: If I don't have your name and number, lose mine!

Mr. Snitch has uncovered someone’s brilliant idea for solving New Jersey’s problems with Hoboken and Jersey City.

Roberto at DynamoBuzz has the latest Rasmussen poll results on the NJ governor's race showing Jon Corzine leading Doug Forrester by 7%, 47% to 40. He observes the folks over on the blog MyDD are concerned that a Corzine win might not be the "lay-up" people assume, but he might win by a shave.

Sharon from the Center of NJ Life notes more Democrats voted for James Kelly, Jr., residing in a group home for the mentally ill, than the combined support Republicans gave Schoeder, DiGaetano and Caliguire in last Tuesday primary for Governor of New Jersey. This is a very interesting observation. Who knew so many Democrats would prefer someone mentally ill over Jon Corzine as their party’s nominee? As Sharon writes, “that's gotta hurt even more than the Pete Vincelli thing.” Ouch!

NJ Conservative is sounding the alarm - the cracks are starting to show. “Governor Codey is mulling over whether to sell or lease the Turnpike and/or Parkway in order to fund the shortfall in the State's Transportation Fund. Selling assets is just a precursor to the explosion that is coming. It could be bond debt, public pensions or any of a hundred items, but this State is running headlong into bankruptcy.”

Tami, The One True says: “Life in NJ is getting so expensive that it's insane. I know that I'm going to have to do some crazy lucky investing in order to be able to afford a house of my own. I may not ever be able to do it. The price of running New Jersey in its current mode is bleeding the residents dry. There are 2 main people running for the office this year, Forrester and Corzine. I like Corzine's Senatorial voting record. I like his plans, and his staff. I'm throwing my support behind him.”

TigerHawk author writes about a ”little guy” named Theodore Sihpol that was acquitted of wrongdoing by a jury, but not before he was personally and financially ruined by Eliot Spitzer, the Attorney General of New York. “Perhaps this begins to expose Spitzer for what he is - a politically motivated PR hound and legal hack, who uses his prosecutorial power indiscriminately, and occasionally without much regard for the law, to procure attention (and shake people and companies down) and advance toward his goal of becoming the Governor of New York.”

BeLow Me reports the Canadian Supreme court found that the waiting lists for “free” national health care had become so long that they violated patients' "liberty, safety and security" under the Quebec charter. Weinish would like to see the United States employ a tiered health care system similar to the government plans in Switzerland and Germany.

Ken Adams keeps us informed of the goings on over at the Corzine Connection. It seems as though someone asking tough questions on the Corzine campaign site got the boot last week and can no longer participate in the discussion. As far as we can tell no one called Corzine or his crew brain dead, a liar or evil so it must have been the exclusion rule the blog editor invoked to ban the pesky questioner. And Ken better watch himself or he’ll be next – throwing a “hissy fit” is so unlike Ken.

Debbie Galant over at Barista of Bloomfield Avenue writes about new voting machines: “State and federal law require all manual lever machines to be replaced by next January, according to the Ledger, but new legislation is being considered that could require voting machines to have paper printouts.” Not to start any conspiracy theories but, couldn’t a hacker program a machine to print a receipt showing the accurate vote cast and then record the hackers preferences on the voting machine?

PDC Ryan had a few voting problems of his own this past Tuesday. Let’s hope he gets this mess straightened out before November.

All New Jersey bloggers and readers are welcome to submit links for next Sunday’s Carnival. Just send us an email with a link to the post you’d like us to include.

Just a reminder that all bloggers and blog readers are welcome to submit links for this Sunday’s Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers. Just send us an email with a link to the post you’d like us to include.

We are now using the “weathered Tillie” by popular request for our Carnival graphic. We did remove the electric and telephone lines that were so prominent and distracting in the original picture.

Watching the Yankee game and St.Louis is killing them 7- nothing in the third. Okay, that's bad enough, but will someone please tell David Jutice to shut up. Does that man ever get tired of repeating himself - over, over and over. It's time to listen to the radio.

Does anyone else feel worn out just from listening to Justice yammer?

Roberto at DynamoBuzz points out that Acting Governor Codey is trying to revive state senate interest in legislation proposing a constitutional convention on property taxes.

Codey has proposed two key changes in an attempt to jump-start the measure that cleared the General Assembly last month but became bogged down in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where some lawmakers believe the issue would best be resolved through a special session of the Legislature.

The Assembly version calls for the convention to target how property taxes are raised and would block lawmakers from serving as elected delegates to the convention. But, according to Codey's office, the acting governor, who also serves as Senate president, wants the convention's focus to include how property taxes are spent and to allow lawmakers to serve as delegates.

There remains another aspect to property taxes that appears to be ignored by the state assembly bill and Codey’s proposed changes for a constitutional convention – the property tax relief side of the equation.

New Jersey’s income tax is collected for the sole purpose of property tax relief. In addition to state and local governments spending without restraint, the inequitable distribution of state income taxes back to municipalities is a major cause of the crushing property tax burden in New Jersey. Why ignore a major aspect of the property tax system? The entire property tax structure needs to be examined and revamped. A piecemeal approach to the problem has brought us to the crisis we face today.

We believe amendments to the state’s constitution will be required to ensure equal treatment of all New Jersey citizens under the law, to bring about real property tax relief and to protect taxpayers going forward. However, we do not believe a constitutional convention is necessary to bring about these necessary changes. The legislature has the power and responsibility to pass laws and propose constitutional amendments for the consideration of the people that will solve our problems.

The call for a constitutional convention is an abrogation of responsibility on the part of the Governor and the state legislature. If those currently holding the reins of power in Trenton can’t get solve the state’s taxing and spending problems, then we have the wrong people in power.

The majority in the assembly have made it clear, with their vote for a constitutional convention, that they lack the ideas or political will to solve the state’s most pressing problems. Why reelect these people?

There’s nothing magical about a constitutional convention. Just as the legislature is supposed to identify problems and recommend solutions, convention delegates would do the same. Why waste more time and money to hold a convention? A convention is strictly political cover for career politicians.

New Jersey will hold an election for Governor and state assembly this November. Let office seekers present solutions to the state’s tax and spending problems and then let the voters decide the winners in the ideas race. That’s why we hold elections.

Keep this in mind when you read or hear Senator Corzine hype his “universal “health care program. From the New York Times:

The Canadian Supreme Court struck down a Quebec law banning private medical insurance today, dealing an acute blow to the publicly financed national health care system.

The court stopped short of striking down the constitutionality of the country's vaunted nationwide coverage, but legal experts said the ruling would open the door to a wave of lawsuits challenging the health care system in other provinces.

The system, providing Canadians with free doctor's services that are paid for by taxes, has generally been supported by the public, and is broadly identified with the Canadian national character.

But in recent years, patients have been forced to wait longer for diagnostic tests and elective surgery, while the wealthy and well connected either seek care in the United States or use influence to jump ahead on waiting lists.

The court ruled that the waiting lists had become so long that they violated patients' "liberty, safety and security" under the Quebec charter, which covers about one-quarter of Canada's population.

"The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public health care system are widespread and that in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public health care," the Supreme Court ruled. "In sum, the prohibition on obtaining private health insurance is not constitutional where the public system fails to deliver reasonable services."

Now that Albany has vetoed a stadium for the Jets in Manhattan, it’s time for Acting Governor Codey to scrap the tentative deal he reached with the Giants for a new $700 million stadium in the Meadowlands. Neither the Giants nor the Jets have any place to go, as much as we wish the two New York teams would leave New Jersey. The football team’s dilemma should place New Jersey in strong negotiating position with the owners.

The deal that is currently on the table with the Giant’s owners is a losing one that should have been rejected months ago. There is a perfectly good football stadium in the Meadowlands and there is no reason for the taxpayers to swallow a deal that only benefits wealthy team owners. It’s not too late to make your thoughts known to your representatives in Trenton.

George Zoffinger, the chief executive of New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, claimed the Codey negotiated deal will cost taxpayers at least $150 million and will force his agency to operate at a deficit.

In addition, the deal calls for the NY Giants to receive control of 75 acres in the Meadowlands complex for 98 years and all revenue generated from the facilities built by the Giants on the property. New Jersey will receive $5 million a year in rent for the land and East Rutherford will receive $1.3 million a year in lieu of taxes.

New Jersey will be responsible for $124 million of debt on the existing stadium that will be demolished to make way for the new stadium. The state will also be responsible for $30 million in utility improvements to the site. The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority will lose $19 million a year in revenue from the existing stadium.

The property in the Meadowlands, some of the most valuable in New Jersey, could certainly be leased or sold for far more than a paltry $6.5 million a year. Any private sector business would include the opportunity cost when calculating the total cost of a deal. Not only does the deal cost the taxpayers money, we lose a valuable asset that could be put to more productive use generating income for the state.

The other point missing from all recent accounts of the Giants deal concerns the financing for the $700 million dollar stadium. The last reference we can find was back in December. At that time, the Star-ledger had reported that the $700 million to build the new stadium would be provided through tax-exempt bonds issued by New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.

Is there anything good about this deal for New Jersey? The team doesn’t even bare the name of our state – we’re even cheated out of this bit of psychic income. Kill the deal with the New York Giants.

Previous posts below:

The Opportunity Cost Of The Giant’s Stadium Deal
Giant Rip Off
We Want Our Bread, Not Circuses
The Fine Print Of The Giants Deal
Giants Stadium Was Always A Bad Deal For Taxpayers
Deal For New Giants Stadium Stalled
Democrat’s Priorities Inconsistent With Rhetoric.
NJ Taxpayers Still Owe $117 Million On Giants.Stadium
NJ Sweetens Stadium Offer To NY Giants
NY Jets - The Other NJ Football Team
Codey Eliminates “Pay To Play” For New York Giants.
NY Giants Seek New $700M Stadium In NJ

The primary is over and Jon Corzine has a new theme and website for his Corzine for Governor of New Jersey campaign. Gone are Join Us New Jersey, Who Jon Is, New Paradigm for New Jersey and Economic Blueprint. Now Senator Corzine offers us:

A More Affordable New Jersey

Not a good start. Here Mr. Corzine offers absolutely no plans or ideas for making New Jersey more affordable. (See actual picture from Corzine’s website below). Notice there's nothing but white space. Well, it does make a catchy campaign promise. And it is a nice picture of Corzine in a “do-it-yourself” store. Hmm, wonder if that’s a hint?

We’ll give the Senator a few ideas so that he can fill in this blank page. Vote to make President Bush’s federal income tax cuts permanent so that New Jersey residents have more of their own money to better afford life in our high cost–of-living state; reduce state spending and cap increases to the state’s budget to reduce the burden of state taxes on New Jersey’s citizens; propose an amendment to the state’s constitution that would require equal distribution of state funds to municipalities to bring about real property tax reductions.

Update: The Senator has now added text to this section. When we have time to review it, we'll let you know if there's really any change or if empty space has been replaced by empty rhetoric.

A Smarter New Jersey

Corzine begins his “smarter section” with these words; “Our state has all the assets it needs to put New Jersey on top.” What a relief, the state doesn’t need to spend any additional money, right? Wrong.

The Senator informs us we need to make smart investments through the “Edison Innovation Fund”. The new fund will “get its dollars from a public bond offering.” A former bond trader with Goldman Sachs, Corzine knows a thing a two about financing debt. Just what New Jersey needs - more debt!

Next we learn we also need to invest in institutions of learning. Here Corzine provides his staff with some direction, in essence he says – insert some BS here. (See actual picture from Corzine’s website below)

Anyway, the Senator would like us to spend more money on state universities for research that can then be “transferred to in-state firms.” How Corzine can keep research from escaping to out-of-state firms, we can’t imagine. How about we let companies pay for their own research?

Update: Someone's being reading our blog. The insert some BS here line has been removed. Apparently he couldn’t think of any more BS because nothing has been added.

A Prouder New Jersey

In this section Corzine gives us ending the ‘Corruption Tax’: ”In addition to being a source of embarrassment for the state, the fact is that the residents of New Jersey pay for the misdeeds of government decision-makers by paying in effect, a “corruption tax.””

Has anyone else noticed:

Acting Governor Codey, a loyal Democrat, has been in the state Legislature since 1973 and yet, as far as we know, he hasn’t been tarnished by scandal or been closely associated with the big names in New Jersey’s corruption and financial mismanagement scandals?

Senator Corzine on the other hand, in politics for five years, has hired, partnered with and lavishly financed the major “sources of embracement for the state” - Secretary of State, Regena Thomas, former Sen. Bob Torricelli, former Gov. Jim McGreevey, the felon Charles Kushner and South Jersey boss George Norcross, just to name a few.

A Safer New Jersey

“The most basic charge of any Governor is to secure and protect the people.” Corzine’s is taking this responsibility very seriously; he has his uniform all ready to go for his new job. (See actual picture from Corzine’s website below)

A Greener New Jersey

We prefer Forrester's green to Corzine’s, how about you? (See actual picture from Corzine’s website below) For readers living outside the Garden State, Corzine’s picture may give you the wrong impression. Our woods and forests are not barren and we are not in the middle of a nuclear winter or a global warming catastrophe.

A Healthier New Jersey

Corzine tells us: “But despite New Jersey’s reputation as the “Cure Corridor,” a place where medical and pharmaceutical breakthroughs begin, literally hundreds of thousands of our residents don’t have even adequate medical care, because health care is unaffordable and unavailable.”

We’ve posted about Corzine Care before and questioned the Senator’s claim that $15 million dollars in state money can take care of the medical insurance needs of “literally hundreds of thousands of our residents.” Corzine has not been able to provide any details to back up his rhetoric.

Corzine does add a new claim in this section –“health care is unavailable”. The Senator will need to provide some evidence for this claim. Unavailable to whom? Is Corzine suggesting, sick people are turned away from health care facilities? We were under the impression that it was against the law to deny people necessary medical care.

Also note the “Cure Corridor,” a place where medical and pharmaceutical breakthroughs begin", has been doing quite well without the taxpayers paying for, er, investing in research.

There are sharks in New Jersey’s waters and they’re biting.

Did you ever read an article or see something on television and think, this can’t possibly be right? That was our reaction to recent articles about the World Trade Center Memorial at Ground Zero, beginning with a post yesterday on Michelle Malkin’s blog - The Soros-ization of Ground Zero.

It’s been our experience that Michelle Malkin does not jump to conclusions and that she does her homework. So, when Malkin wrote yesterday, “George Soros and other human rights zealots who are trying to turn Ground Zero into a blame-America monument”, we took notice.

Malkin provided these quotes from an article by Debra Burlingame, sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame III, pilot of American Airlines fight 77, which terrorists crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

The World Trade Center Memorial Cultural Complex will be an imposing edifice wedged in the place where the Twin Towers once stood. It will serve as the primary "gateway" to the underground area where the names of the lost are chiseled into concrete. The organizers of its principal tenant, the International Freedom Center (IFC), have stated that they intend to take us on "a journey through the history of freedom..."

...While the IFC is getting 300,000 square feet of space to teach us how to think about liberty, the actual Memorial Center on the opposite corner of the site will get a meager 50,000 square feet to exhibit its 9/11 artifacts, all out of sight and underground.

Today the Burlingame piece, originally published in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, is available for reading on Opinion Journal. Just reading the title, The Great Ground Zero Heist: Will the 9/11 "memorial" have more about Abu Ghraib than New York's heroic firemen?, is enough to make your blood boil. Brace yourself before reading the rest.

Burlingame is well positioned to give us an honest account of the proposed project; she’s on the board of directors of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. Consider this:

Rather than a respectful tribute to our individual and collective loss, they will get a slanted history lesson, a didactic lecture on the meaning of liberty in a post-9/11 world. They will be served up a heaping foreign policy discussion over the greater meaning of Abu Ghraib and what it portends for the country and the rest of the world.

To the IFC's organizers, it is not only history's triumphs that illuminate, but also its failures. The public will have come to see 9/11 but will be given a high-tech, multimedia tutorial about man's inhumanity to man, from Native American genocide to the lynchings and cross-burnings of the Jim Crow South, from the Third Reich's Final Solution to the Soviet gulags and beyond.

Most of the cherished objects which were salvaged from Ground Zero in those first traumatic months will never return to the site. There is simply no room. But the International Freedom Center will have ample space to present us with exhibits about Chinese dissidents and Chilean refugees. These are important subjects, but for somewhere--anywhere--else, not the site of the worst attack on American soil in the history of the republic.

The World Trade Center is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, in others words the people of the Empire and Garden states. A large portion of the World Trade Center Memorial Complex is being subsidized by the American taxpayers. How in the world have the Anti-American activists been given control over our land, our money and our memorial complex?

Act now to stop the desecration of Ground Zero. We suggest you contact the board members and trustees of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and make your thoughts about the proposed project known before it's too late.

Update: Here is an interview with Debra Burlingame conducted yesterday by Bill Bennett about the memorial scandal.

Forrester Wins
Republican Primary

"We're going to make sure that we turn New Jersey around beginning tonight."

Vs.

Corzine Wins
Democrat Primary

“One of the largest challenges facing our state right now is that while the
benefits of living in New Jersey are great, the cost is simply too high.”

David Rebovich, a political science professor at Rider University, may be the most widely-quoted observer of New Jersey politics ever, according to Steve Kornacki on PoliticsNJ.com.

We think a better description for Rebovich would be a widely-quoted partisan hack. Get a load of this quote he gave Kornacki about the Republican primary:

"The question," said Rebovich, who was reached by phone as he prepared for his role as a television commentator tonight, "is have Forrester supporters come off the golf course, and if they have, will they head to the polls and vote?"

What Rebovich should have said, will the Republicans get home from work in time to vote by 8 pm. when the polls close.

Today Jon Corzine will win his party’s nomination for Governor of New Jersey. This is the last election Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ) will ever win. Remember you read it here first.

Don’t forget to vote today. Polling places are open from 6 am until 8 pm.

Click here for voting information.

Where’s Howard Dean when you need him? More Democrat charges of "extensive and massive voter fraud", this time in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

In the latest twist in a rancorous Democratic primary campaign, Superior Court Judge Valerie Armstrong rejected the appeal by Langford attorneys who accused Levy's camp of irregularities — including promising turkey dinners and Mother's Day flowers to voters — in obtaining applications and then delivering ballots by messenger on behalf of the voters.

"This was just a tactic by the Langford campaign to try to cut down on the voter turnout," said Levy, who denied any shenanigans. "He wouldn't be sitting where he is if it wasn't for the same type of ballots."

Langford, 48, a former casino dealer, narrowly defeated incumbent Mayor James Whelan in 2001 on the strength of absentee ballot votes. Whelan was ahead by 57 votes when the polls closed, but by the time the 1,532 absentee ballots were counted three days later, Langford came out on top.

Thank goodness New Jersey’s legislature is tackling is the major issues facing the state. Starting with the 2007-2008 school year New Jersey public schools will stop selling and serving junk food.

The new rules will halt selling or serving foods during the school day that are high in fat and sugar. Even portions of whole milk will be rationed.

The rules will ban all drinks except low-fat milk, water and 100 percent fruit or vegetable juices from elementary schools. The policy is more relaxed for middle and high school students, allowing some sales of flavored iced teas and sports drinks.

Now everyone is getting into “Jib-Jabing”. Check out this latest offering.

The race for the GOP nomination for Governor is too close to call, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released this morning showing Doug Forrester at 35% and Bret Schundler at 33%.

Good news, the two leading Republican nominees for Governor recognize the true cause of our out of control property taxes in New Jersey – the inequitable distribution of state income tax revenue to municipalities used to fund public schools.

Schundler faulted the Abbott vs. Burke state Supreme Court decision as having led to too much state being poured into some districts and not enough in others.

Forrester offered sharp criticism for the Abbott decision, calling the ruling flawed.

Now let’s begin the necessary steps to change the way Trenton works. Let’s send politicians an unambiguous message; we expect every town and every child to be treated equally. Return the power to tax and spend to the people.

New Jersey spends more per student on average than any other state in the nation. It’s not a lack of funds for education that causes crushing property taxes; it’s the manner in which the state distributes those funds that creates the problem.

If the state’s income tax revenue were distrusted in a more equitable fashion, a major step toward property tax reform would be realized. Controlling future government spending is the second step needed for real reform. Equitable distribution of state funds will bring immediate property tax relief and a constitutional amendment would control tax increases going forward.

Corzine continues to favor unequal per student funding and a tax shifting plan that reduces property taxes for some in the short term by increasing income and other taxes.

"We've seen too many politicians make a 'no taxes' pledge and then turn around and saddle our children with crushing debt," Corzine said. "I think the people of New Jersey want and deserve honest solutions, not empty rhetoric."

Corzine still doesn’t seem to understand, it’s politicians spending ever increasing amounts of money on new and ever grander government programs that creates crushing debt. The Senator isn’t willing to take a “no taxes pledge” because he’s already planning how he will spend more money on new government programs.

Corzine’s senate record and his proposed agenda as New Jersey's Governor makes it clear that he plans to delver both – more debt and higher taxes.

Refurbished Tillie

Which do you prefer?

Weathered Tillie

This week’s Carnival of New Jersey Bloggers has been broken down into, two sections - Politics and Issues and Life In New Jersey.

All New Jersey bloggers and readers are welcome to submit links for next Sunday’s Carnival. Just send us an email with a link to the post you’d like us to include.

Politics and Issues

DynamoBuzz observes: “One thing liberals and conservatives both agree about is that rebates are the worst solution to the property tax crisis in New Jersey. But rebates are the cornerstone of Mr. Corzine's plan.”

Ken Adams continues the discussion about Corzine Care begun on the Corzine Connection.

The Proprietor at Coffee Grounds handicaps the GOP Primary. Election Day is this Tuesday.

NJ Conservative is writing about bait and switch and tells us how the bureaucrats in Trenton are making living in New Jersey more expensive.

Tiger Hawk says McGovern misses the point in his call for a new “Deep Throat”.

Sluggo comments on the NYT Class Matters series and says reading the articles “is as painful as watching Paris Hilton show up to volunteer at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving with her PR staff.”

BeLow Me writes that it is lucky for President Bush his core constituency doesn't care about blacks.

Sharon at The Center of New Jersey Life is blogging on the Downing Street Memo. Tami, the One True, is too with winners write history.

Karl's Corner (Sumpin' to Ponder) has more good news for NJ: “voters favor 55%-40% allowing gay marriages.”

Our friend at Poetic Leanings gives us 14 reasons Tom Delay is human garbage.

Life In New Jersey

This past Monday we celebrated Memorial Day and the holiday seems to have set the tone on a number of blogs this past week. Shamrocket has a beautifully written and touching post about a collie and her Pop-Pop. Cripes Suzette reminisces on a rhapsody and Mary's Lame Attempt at Fame says if you wanna feel old and sad, check out the show Hit Me Baby One More Time.

Liz at My New Jersey writes about being an eternal bridesmaid, Kate from Kate Spot Will be celebrating her 35th birthday and Lizzie at This Full House reminds us that being a Mommy is a very complicated labor of love.

Barista of Bloomfield Avenue is posting about festival season, providing dates and locations for the rides, games, food, and fun. Gigglechick is one lucky chick – every other week she will get out of work early, that’s 1pm - provided she’s cranked out all her layouts.

Jim at Parkway Rest Stop has links to interactive cyberprecussion, sound things. Our favorite is Ze Frank's Craymachine. The author of My Life as a Rabid Blog thinks Russell Crowe is an idiot.

Mr. Snitch has begun supplementing the Carnival with a roundup of Hoboken blogs.

Thanks to Suzette for recommending Tillie for our Carnival graphic.

How male or female is your brain?

Take the interactive empathy quotient quiz.

Take the interactive systemizing quotient quiz

Just a reminder that all bloggers and blog readers are welcome to submit links for this Sunday’s Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers. Just send us an email with a link to the post you’d like us to include.

Tillie, our old friend from Palace Amusements in Asbury Park will serve as our reminder each week.

The campaign for Governor begins. We thought the Jib-Jab videos were original, clever and funny. Now the New Jersey Democrat State Committee has decided to do a me too, with It’s My Party.

Calling people liars seems to the Democrat’s answer to everything. Here's a few lines from a Rolling Stone interview with the Democrat Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader:

Rolling Stone: You've called [President] Bush a loser.
Reid: And a liar.
Rolling Stone: You apologized for the loser comment.
Reid: But never for the liar, have I?

Here we have Erica Jong giving a commencement speech about lying yesterday at the College of Staten Island:

“Whoever controls the words is framing the debate," Ms. Jong said. "You will be able to be framers of the debate rather than the people sitting there and listening to the conversation. Listen to what is said and question authority. I want you graduates to get mad when you're deliberately lied to."

"I'm a writer," said the author of eight novels. "I spend days and nights playing with words, trying to make sense of them. Telling the truth has never been easy. It's gotten harder."

Ms. Jong's remarks were met with some vehement disapproval:

"She gave a political speech when she was supposed to be doing a pep talk," said the father of a CSI graduate who declined to give his name. "Some graduates wanted to throw stuff at her. Whoever heard of a commencement speaker talking about body bags?"

Dorothy, a 48-year-old mother of a CSI graduate, categorized Ms. Jong's speech as "all-around bashing. "It was disgusting, despicable," said the Fort Wadsworth woman, who would not give her surname. "She called politicians liars, called us all liars. She trashed America. Mostly, she just wanted to talk. It was personal spewing. There was nothing about graduation."

And the students, just framing the debate, told Jong to "Shut up!" and "Go Home!"

Enlighten-NewJersey asked each of the seven hopefuls for the Republican nomination for Governor of New Jersey, why we should vote for them in the primary. The following is the response we received from Bret Schundler.

All over New Jersey, seniors are being forced to sell their homes. Young newlyweds are being denied the opportunity to move into a home of their own. Businesses are shutting down and leaving the state. And everywhere, families are struggling to make ends meet – all because the politicians in Trenton haven’t had the courage to stand up to the special interests that demand more and more of our taxpayer dollars.
I’m determined to put a stop to it, and that’s why I’m running for Governor.

I’ve introduced the Permanent Property Tax Reduction Amendments to address New Jersey’s biggest problem – the ever-increasing property taxes that make it more and more difficult to stay here – by FORCING Trenton politicians to return a fair share of your tax dollars to your local school district and municipal government, so you can get the local government services you deserve and see lower property taxes at the same time.

I’m proud that several of my rivals for the Republican nomination for Governor have followed my lead, and have included in their plans strict limits on Trenton spending. But the similarities between the plans end there – because mine is the ONLY plan that includes strict spending limits on what your LOCAL government and school district can spend, too.

Without reasonable spending limits on what your LOCAL governments and school districts can spend, any money sent their way by Trenton is likely to be spent immediately – and that means property taxes will continue to go up and up and up, as Trenton’s funding for local government programs dries up in future years.

Some say we won’t be able to get amendments past the Democrats in Trenton. But my amendments already have both Republicans AND Democrats sponsoring them – and, with the help of citizens all over the state who DEMAND action NOW, we CAN get these amendments on the ballot THIS FALL.

Tell the politicians you won’t take NO for an answer anymore. Join New Jersey’s Property Tax Revolution. Log onto our web site at http://www.bret2005.com/ and sign the Notice to Politicians. And vote for Bret Schundler on June 7!

Enlighten-NewJersey asked each of the seven hopefuls for the Republican nomination for Governor of New Jersey, why we should vote for them in the primary. The following is the response we received from Doug Forrester’s campaign. Additional information may be found at Doug Forrester's website.

A successful businessman, loving husband and caring father of three, Doug Forrester is an exemplary leader and fighter for the Republican values of lower taxes, reduced debt and increased public accountability. He is the one candidate who will finally lower our outrageous property tax burden with his 30%-in-3 property tax relief plan.

Doug served as Mayor of his hometown of West Windsor and then joined the Kean Administration. As assistant State Treasurer and Director of the Division of Pensions, Doug helped New Jersey maintain the highest bond rating and held New Jersey to the strictest level of accountability with its pension budget. As Pension Director, he created an innovative new records system that other states still visit New Jersey to use as a model for their own systems. In addition to his public service, Doug built a successful business that employs hundreds of New Jerseyans and provides benefits for thousands of working families throughout the state and the nation.

Doug’s property tax relief plan is exactly what we need to reduce the property tax burden on New Jersey’s working families and seniors. Doug’s plan – the 30%-in-3 Guarantee – will lower property taxes in New Jersey by 30% over three years, guaranteed by the state constitution. But Doug’s plan does more than just cut property taxes – he is finally bringing fiscal responsibility to this state.

The 30%-in-3 Guarantee includes an independently elected State Auditor to root out waste throughout the state, as well as a ban on pay-to-play at all levels of government. Doug’s plan caps state spending and gives tools to local governments to keep property taxes low in the future. Finally, he will require a supermajority vote in the legislature to raise taxes or increase spending – a move that will finally end the spending addiction in Trenton.

The Asbury Park Press and New York Post have both endorsed Doug. The Press said Doug’s 30%-in-3 plan “makes the most sense” and that Doug “is best qualified for the job. He's bright, he communicates well and he has a thorough understanding of how Trenton works, including where the bodies are buried and where the dollars are hidden.”

There’s no more of qualified candidate than Doug Forrester to beat Jon Corzine in November and independent polls already show Doug beating Corzine amongst unaffiliated voters. The Post stressed that Doug has “the best chance in November to rescue Trenton from the sleaze and corruption in which it is mired” and “Forrester would be the strongest Republican against Corzine.”

Doug has the character, courage and conviction to restore fiscal sanity to state finances and root out the culture of corruption that has overrun Trenton. We need a strong Republican party – and most importantly, a strong Republican candidate – this November. That candidate is Doug Forrester.

“Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jon Corzine unveiled his long-awaited property tax proposal yesterday, promising to beef up homeowner rebates by 10 percent a year for at least four years if he wins election.”

Isn’t using the phrase “beef up” rather a bit much considering the average New Jersey homeowner would see $68 more in their rebate check next year? How much will the average taxpayer see their property taxes go up next year? How long did it take Senator Corzine to come up with this masterstroke of a plan? Thank God, he didn’t rush something out before thinking it through.

"I think my program is real, it's responsible, it's not excessive, but it's something that has real impact," Corzine said.

That’s one way to put it. Property tax rebates were a bad idea and a gimmick when introduced in 1976 as a companion to the then, newly enacted state income tax; and the program remains a gimmick that wastes taxpayer dollars in administration costs today. If the program had such a “real impact” would people be demanding real property tax relief now? Does Senator Corzine think $68 fills that demand?

The rebate program doesn’t provide real property tax reform or relief and as we know all too well, it provides no guarantees. The program can be reduced or eliminated at the whims of politicians in Trenton. As a matter of fact Corzine was advocating doing just that only a few months back:

In a shift from an earlier position, Corzine said he now flatly opposes a plan by acting Gov. Richard Codey to reduce rebates for senior citizens and the disabled, and eliminate them for other homeowners.

If this was a trial balloon, we think it just went – pop!

Rock The Hypocrisy is a project of Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Americans For Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) is a nationwide organization of citizen leaders committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFPF believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best safeguard to ensuring individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFPF educates and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government growth, and returning government to its constitutional limits.

American liberals or progressives, as they like to refer themselves now, advocate for polices and programs that have long since been implemented in Western Europe. Jon Corzine’s agenda in the U.S. Senate and the platform he’s adopted in his run for Governor of New Jersey reads as though it has been lifted from any of the failing European states.

The mystery is why anyone would propose ideas that have been proven to be counterproductive, unsustainable and thoroughly discredited. From today’s New York Times:

Forgive me for making a blunt and obvious point, but events in Western Europe are slowly discrediting large swaths of American liberalism.

Most of the policy ideas advocated by American liberals have already been enacted in Europe: generous welfare measures, ample labor protections, highly progressive tax rates, single-payer health care systems, zoning restrictions to limit big retailers, and cradle-to-grave middle-class subsidies supporting everything from child care to pension security. And yet far from thriving, continental Europe has endured a lost decade of relative decline.

Right now, Europeans seem to look to the future with more fear than hope. As Anatole Kaletsky noted in The Times of London, in continental Europe "unemployment has been stuck between 8 and 11 percent since 1991 and growth has reached 3 percent only once in those 14 years."

The Western European standard of living is about a third lower than the American standard of living, and it's sliding. European output per capita is less than that of 46 of the 50 American states and about on par with Arkansas. There is little prospect of robust growth returning any time soon.

The core fact is that the European model is foundering under the fact that billions of people are willing to work harder than the Europeans are. Europeans clearly love their way of life, but don't know how to sustain it.

Over the last few decades, American liberals have lauded the German model or the Swedish model or the European model. But these models are not flexible enough for the modern world. They encourage people to cling fiercely to entitlements their nation cannot afford. And far from breeding a confident, progressive outlook, they breed a reactionary fear of the future --a defensiveness, a tendency to lash out ferociously at anybody who proposes fundamental reform ..

This is the chief problem with the welfare state, which has nothing to do with the success or efficiency of any individual program. The liberal project of the postwar era has bred a stultifying conservatism, a fear of dynamic flexibility, a greater concern for guarding what exists than for creating what doesn't.

That's a truth that applies just as much on this side of the pond.

Via INCITE - Beck

The California Assembly is betting that kids learn more with small books.

Lawmakers voted Thursday to ban school districts from purchasing textbooks longer than 200 pages.

The bill, believed to be the first of its kind nationwide, was hailed by supporters as a way to revolutionize education.

AB 756 was approved by a vote of 42-28, with most Republicans opposing the measure.


From The Tin Tin Man:

I take the number of comments I get on a particular post as a value judgment of that post. Some people write posts on cheese sandwiches and get 15 comments in response.

We read on someone's blog yesterday that New Jersey Republicans were running against former Democrat Governors, such as Jim Florio. We haven’t noticed ads or campaign material in this election cycle referring to Florio or his record, but we thought it might be fun to reprint a transcript from a TV ad used against Florio from an earlier campaign:

Jim Florio's Record:

* The highest tax increase in New Jersey history
* Falling schools
* Increased prescription drug costs
* The highest auto insurance rates
* Raids on pension funds and unemployment trust funds
* 200,000 people added to the health uninsured
* 280,000 people lost jobs
* 80,000 people went bankrupt
* Hundreds of Democrats thrown out of office - Republicans gain power

Why would we go back?

Yes, that’s right; the ad was bought and paid for by none other the candidate Jon Corzine. He was merely reminiscing about the good old days under Jim Florio. Those were the days!

If you can’t escape the truth, embrace it. Trenton will host Hellfest 2005 from August 19 through 21st. Funny, we thought Hellfest was an on-going event in Trenton, at least every day the legislature was in session.

Corzine Care: The Numbers Just Don’t Add Up

Curtis Fisher has posted a response to the many questions that have been raised about what we have dubbed Corzine Care. We believe Fisher has raised more questions than he answers in his post on the Corzine Connection blog. He has also failed to link to any information that would allow independent verification of information he cites in his response.

Fisher states we are paying for the 1.2 million NJ citizens who are uninsured and that these folks often have chronic illnesses and end up seeking treatment in costly emergency room visits.

According to a State of New Jersey report, one-half of the uninsured (600,000) are in good or excellent health. (All uninsured statistics cited are from a New Jersey State report prepared under the direction of Jim McGreevey in 2003 and may be read here)

How much do New Jersey taxpayers currently pay for New Jersey’s uninsured health care? Fisher says “this year the state provided hospitals with $582 million for "charity care". How much of the $582 million tab for "charity care" would the state save under Corzine Care? Fisher doesn’t provide us with an estimate. Perhaps he can tell us the number he used to develop the Corzine Care plan. Until then, the “savings” for charity care are unknown.

Did you know that sixty percent (720,000) of New Jersey’s uninsured are adults between the ages of 19 and 45 and that some may have chosen to forego purchasing insurance because they don’t perceive the need for insurance? Foolish perhaps, but certainly a sizable number of people that can well afford to pay for their own medical insurance.

How many of the uninsured are uninsured by choice – those eligible for insurance through their employer, but that choose not to pay for coverage? We don’t know the number, the state report acknowledges the category exists, but the actual number was unknown and Mr. Fisher has no way to calculate the number. So the number in this category remains a big question.

Would Corzine force these people to purchase insurance from their employer or would they be eligible for coverage under the “free”, “bulk rate” or parent’s employer plan? Fisher doesn’t tell us.

Would it surprise you to learn that one-half (600,000) of New Jersey’s uninsured have annual incomes between $20,000 and $50,000; and that twenty-five percent (300,000 ) earn more than $50,000 per year? What are the income guidelines for Corzine Care? We don’t know and Fisher doesn’t provide us with this information.

So who are the 770,000 uninsured in need of more accessible and more affordable health care according to Senator Corzine?

According to Fisher, Corzine Care would add about 200,000 children and pregnant women to the traditional FamilyCare system. There are currently 229,743 children and adults in the Family Care program at a cost of $330,778,000.

How is it possible to nearly double the number of people covered at no additional cost to the taxpayers? Are there no additional administrative and premium costs involved with this increase? If the taxpayers aren’t paying for the coverage, who is?

How would the state’s eligibility requirements be changed to include these people? Did you know that households that earn as much as $101,995 per year are currently eligible for New Jersey’s FamilyCare and that only monthly income, not assets, are considered when determining eligibility for the program? Did you know that U.S. citizenship is not required for coverage under FamilyCare?

We would be interested in learning the changes in eligibility Corzine would implement to add 200,000 people. Perhpas Fisher can let us know.

According to Fisher, Corzine Care would also require companies to offer coverage to about 370,000 uninsured 19-30 years olds, through their parents' health insurance plans.

How many 19 – 30 year olds are currently eligible for health insurance through their employer, but choose not to purchase coverage? Why should these people be eligible for coverage under their parents’ plans?

How many 19 – 30 year olds, looking to save money, would drop their own coverage in favor of Corzine Care through their parents’ plans? Why should businesses be burdened with these additional costs? How many businesses will be forced to drop health insurance for all employees as a result of these costly Corzine Care mandates? How will this new mandate effect employment in New Jersey? Fisher doesn’t address these issues. Costs, unknown.

How many New Jersey state and local school district employees, currently paying nothing toward their medical insurance coverage, have children in the 19-30 year-old category? How much will it cost the taxpayers of New Jersey to pay for insurance for these older “children”?

It’s obvious someone’s going to be picking up the insurance tab for 370,000 “children” and that includes New Jersey’s taxpayers, workers and consumers. And trust us; this number will grow if this coverage becomes a state mandated benefit. Costs unknown.

The third component of Corzine Care would allow all children and pregnant women, plus adults with kids in FamilyCare program, to "buy-in" and purchase FamilyCare coverage at the “bulk rate” the state pays. Fisher estimates about 400,000 additional people would be eligible for this insurance (with some overlap in the above categories).

We assume this group would include the chronically ill that end up seeking treatment in costly emergency rooms. What will happen to the “bulk rate” premium paid by the state when a high percentage of these newly insured and chronically ill are added. Clearly the cost of the insurance coverage will have to go up for those in good, as well as, poor health. Costs unknown.

Corzine Care would also introduce a pilot program for small businesses with less than 25 employees. This program would provide coverage to 400,000 individuals that currently do not have insurance through their employers. Fisher places the price tag at $9.7 million per year.

Fisher doesn’t explain how businesses will be chosen for the pilot or the impact the program would have on small businesses that currently offer coverage to their employees. Why should the state subsidize a business expense for one small business and not another. Is this fair or is it just another form of "pay-to-play"?

Wouldn’t this pilot program provide an incentive for all small businesses to drop coverage for their employees in favor of Corzine Care? How much will that cost the taxpayers? Fisher doesn’t provide any insight into these obvious problems. Cost unknown.

So to sum up, Corzine Care would provide health insurance coverage to an additional:

200,000 children and pregnant women under traditional FamilyCare

370,000 19-30 years olds, through their parents’ employer’s plans

400,000 children, pregnant women and adults with kids in the FamilyCare program eligible to purchase FamilyCare at the state’s “bulk rate”

400,000 individuals working for small businesses without employer insurance plans covered under a new pilot plan

This brings us to a total of 1,370,000 individuals eligible for some form of Corzine Care – we will assume the 170,00 above the 1,200,000 people Fisher cites as New Jersey's uninsured are eligible under more than one category.

Fisher is asking us to believe that 1,200,000 people can be covered for only $9.7 million a year. The remainder of the $15 million Corzine has earmarked, $5 million will go for increasing the hours of operation of community health centers to reduce expensive emergency room care.

Meanwhile, 740,000 people are covered under Medicaid for a total cost of over $2 billion. Mr. Fisher your numbers for Corzine Care just don’t add up, you'd better tell Senator Corzine and stop pulling our leg.