“Every problem in New Jersey is driven by property taxes . . . ”
So says democrat NJ Assemblyman Lou Greenwald in Pension Funds and Property Taxes Plague NJ. Greenwald also points to the pension anchor tied around the ankles of NJ taxpayers as they try to swim to the [...]
No snow yet for this month, and the weather last weekend was really nice. Perfect for procrastinators like myself who have not done much leaf raking. I raked up about 8 bags worth around Halloween, but that was it until last weekend. I gathered up another 15 bags worth, and [...]
TV chef Bobby Flay does a taste tour of New Jersey burger joints in Let’s Give a Hand to Sliders. The Food Network star visited The White Rose in Linden and The White Manna in Hackensack and of course gives White Castle some credit for the mini-burgers.
Of course, the [...]
With 97% of the precincts reporting, it looks like a solid 5% victory, almost 110,000 vote margin.
Christie, Chris GOP 1,105,236 49%
Corzine, Jon (i) Dem 999,532 44%
Daggett, Christopher Ind 124,069 6%
Christie will get less votes than Corzine got in 2005. Looks like the vote total will be about the [...]
NJN is showing democrat lieutenant governor candidate Loretta Weinberg giving an introduction . . Yes, it’s Corzine, about to conceed. The clock shows 10:55PM. It’s officially over.
Corzine’s speech was classy, no partisan bomb throwing. Actually gracious. Considering this is first election loss ever, he’s handling it well.
(I have NJ101.5 on [...]
At 10:31PM with 87% of the precincts reporting:
Christie, Chris GOP 986,937 49%
Corzine, Jon (i) Dem 894,376 45%
Daggett, Christopher Ind 109,093 5%
Big news out of New York City. Mike Bloomberg is in a dogfight, up only by 3% against democrat Bill Thompson. Only leading by 24,000 votes out of [...]
Christie is winning Middlesex county with about half the vote in.
Oh, and NJ101.5 just announced that AP is calling the race for Chris Christie.
[...]At 9:48PM, with 64% of the precincts reporting:
Christie, Chris GOP 795,932 50%
Corzine, Jon (i) Dem 698,476 44%
Daggett, Christopher Ind 85,069 5%
By county, Christie is up 49% to 48% in Bergen County with almost 80% of the vote counted. I guess the Loretta Weinberg factor didn’t carry [...]
With over half the vote counted, independent Chris Daggett is pulling about 5%, so he’s conceeding. I guess that Star-Ledger endorsement didn’t sway to many voters.
[...]So far, it looks like the votes coming in are pretty spread out from all over the state. One thing to remember is that New Jersey is perhaps the most segregated state in the nation, and there are lots of towns which will vote 80%+ for a candidate. But so [...]
At 9:03PM, and 28% of the vote in:
Christie, Chris GOP 319,549 50%
Corzine, Jon (i) Dem 283,501 44%
Daggett, Christopher Ind 35,477 6%
Eric Scott on NJN reporting that Christie is winning Union County and pulling in 43% in Camden county.
In Passaic County, Corzine is up 51% to 43%. [...]
On NJ101.5FM radio, Bob Ingle and Eric Scott reporting that with about 20% of the vote in from Bergen County, Christie is at almost 50% with Corzine and Daggett getting the rest. And Christie is pulling 30% of the vote in Hudson county. Sounds good for Christie!
[...]As of 8:48PM with 12% of the vote in:
Christie, Chris GOP 151,394 51%
Corzine, Jon (i) Dem 124,952 42%
Daggett, Christopher Ind 16,273 6%
The 0bama administration has claimed over 600,000 jobs have been saved or created thanks to the breathtakingly amazing plan hatched by the brightest and the best that 0bama has amassed in his administration. The plan in a nutshell: save the ecomony by borrowing trillions of dollars and throwing the cash [...]
Cruise on over to Pajamasmedia and read the latest from Jersey blogger Fausta Wertz about the New Jersey governor’s race. Fausta says the Governor’s Race Neck and Neck in High Tax New Jersey.
Fausta is not as optimistic as me. She thinks all the favors given to the state [...]
Liliana and I had our annual pumpkin Jack-o-lantern carving night today. Daniel and Allison were too busy. Well, it’s their loss.
Liliana wanted a round mouth on her pumpkin with a big tooth. Mission accomplished, I think it came out pretty good. We decided to call it Jack-O-Lili.
[...]
Fascinating look at the Christie and Corzine campaigns and their plans to address the sNew Jersey tate financial ruin that Mr. Corzine has left for the next governor.
In Sputtering Economy Confronts N.J. Campaigns the reporters ask Corzine and Christie about their plans on the budget, taxing and spending for [...]
Jim Geraghty at National Review has a story up about NJ democrats and absentee balloting. In Democrats Ask New Jersey Secretary of State to Ignore Mismatched Signatures on Absentee-Ballot Requests, Jim notes that the Corzine camp has asked that provisional ballots be sent to any voters whose request for [...]
Supporters of governor Jon Corzine got all giddy with excitement when that poll came out that had the bearded one ahead of republican challenger Chris Christie in the race for NJ governor.
What they overlooked was that Corzine’s poll numbers really haven’t budged. He has been consistently in the 40-42% [...]
CNN.com has an article up today, the Top 10 Least Stressful Jobs. I guess they polled a bunch of people in different jobs and based the list on the percent of people who said the job is low stress.
Education/Training Consultant Physical Therapist College Professor Software Developer Technical Writer Telecommunications Network Engineer Speech-Language Pathologist Software Architect Occupational Therapist Civil [...]Not quite the same as 0bama winning the Nobel peace prize, but this Star-Ledger endorsement in the NJ governor’s race is almost as laughable.
I almost fell off my chair when I read this at NJ.com:
Star-Ledger endorses independent Chris Daggett for N.J. governor
Let’s talk facts here. Look at the typical [...]
I don’t watch Saturday Night Live, haven’t since the days of Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. But last weekend they did a skit that actually made fun of 0bama.
Yes, SNL did a skit mocking the president!! And the theme of the skit was that 0bama had accomplished nothing at [...]
The Mercatus Center at George Washington University bills itself as a think tank that “. . . applies scholarly research to the problems facing policy makers.”
They must have several scholars who have an interest in New Jersey, in particular National Review contributor Veronique de Rugy, who frequently comments on [...]
*The fifth question is from some old burned-out hippie who asks about medical marijuana. Corzine says he will sign the bill being debated in the NJ senate, but no explanation. Daggett is in favor of it, but Christie fort of comes out against it. He’s only in favor of it [...]
*Daggett puts on the table his demand that government employees pay more for their benefits, take pay cuts or pay freezes, and puts new employees into 401(k). Corzine dodges the question, instead emphasizing his increase payment into the pension fund. And he gets in a dig that it was the [...]
*Bob Ingle’s question to Christie basically quoted Corzine’s ads about “two sets of rules”. This question seemed designed to give Corzine and Daggett a chance to attack Christie. How about a question about the e-mails?? Millions to the Katz family?? The corruption in Trenton?? At least Christie brings up the [...]
My first thoughts:
*The time limit appears to be too short. Each candidate is getting cut off.
*NJN is zooming in on the candidates, and Christie is filling up the entire screen.
*Corzine appears to be spinning every question into an attack on Christie.
*There’s a question about the NJ [...]
I’m looking forward to the upcoming series in the Gannett newspapers about the crisis in New Jersey with out of control spending tied to taxes that are strangling the life out of the middle class in this state. This is the legacy of four years of Jon Corzine as governor, [...]
A startling article in today’s NY Times about 0bama’s heavy hand at work in the New Jersey governor’s race. If you ask me, this makes both Jon Corzine and 0bama look a bit desparate. But given the tone, my guess is the source of the article is from the 0bama [...]
Yes, New Jersey is Number One . . . in property taxes.
New Jersey residents pay about 7% of their income to property taxes. That’s the highest of any state. The median tax bill in Hunterdon County is almost $8500. I pay a bit less than $8000 on the [...]
Rasmussen published the latest poll results for the NJ governor’s race. Republican Chris Christie is leading incumbent Jon Corzine 48%-41%. The seven point lead is in line with other polls. And Corzine still has not polled above 42% in anybody’s poll. Independent candidate Chris Daggett gets 6%, and only [...]
I’m surfing through the Washington Post website, and what do I see but another self serving column from New Jersey’s disgraced ex-governor, Jim McGreevey. This guy is like a bad rash, he will not go away!!
The column is in the “On Faith” section, the part of the site dedicated to [...]
Jonathan Tamari in the Philly Inquirer writes a sobering column that should give Chris Christie a reason to pause and think about the mess he is about to inherit in New Jersey. The column Next New Jersey governor faces massive financial woes shows just how awful a job incumbent [...]
John Podhoretz has a good article over at the Weekly Standard, Box Office Poison which makes the case that, basically, Hollywood has given up on movies featuring big stars and instead is looking towards pre-packaged, “pre-sold” type flicks.
Year to date in 2009, the top movies at the box office [...]
India is complaining that Chinese companies opening up shop in India are not hiring Indian programmers but instead are importing Chinese labor (see India Has Its Own ‘H-1B’ Problem). Can you say “Poetic Justice” ??
[...]Found this in an AP story about how democrats are running scared heading into the 2010 mid-term elections.
The story is Election trouble brewing for House Dems in 2010 and there’s this line:
“. . . a highly motivated GOP base confused by the president’s proposed health care plan “
Oh, that’s [...]
I’ve linked to this article before, and it’s great. I just read it again, and I still get chills.
Pulitzer Prize winning writer Dave Barry wrote a great column about Flight 93, the only hijacked plane on September 11, 2001 that did not hit a target. The passengers took out the [...]
Yes, I’ve fallen out of the blogging habit again. (I’ve fallen and I can’t get up). But I’ll give it another shot.
Anyway, this is actually a recycled post from five years ago but it’s appropriate for today.
Keep checking in.
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In a few hours, we will be marking the eighth anniversary [...]
Who has said the following in the past few weeks:
About the 0bama multi-billion dolllar stimulus scheme:
“We know some of this money is going to be wasted,” and “Some people are being scammed already.”
and while introducing NJ governor Jon Corzine at his re-election campaign kick-off:
“Ladies and gentlemen, the next president of [...]
With 56% of the vote in, it’s:
Christie 109,492 55%
Lonegan 83,796 42%
Merkt 5,384 3%
AP has called it for Christie. They must figure given the remaining precincts that Lonegan has no shot to make up the 26,000 votes. Good try, Steve. Now let’s come together to defeat enemy #1, Jon [...]
With 34% of the vote in, it’s a bit tighter. Christie at 56% and Lonegan at 41%.
Oh, and if you care, Corzine has 80% of the primary vote.
Interesting that 121,000 votes cast so far in the GOP primary compared to about 75,000 in the democrat primary. Democrats made a big [...]
PolitickerNJ.com is pushing the idea that NJ governor Jon Corzine will run for re-election with a republican Lt. Governor, in particular Joan Verplanck. Ms. Verplanck is the President of the NJ Chamber of Commerce (see Corzine considering Chamber leader for LG and Sebelius and Schweitzer picked GOP running [...]
The conventional wisdom is that New Jersey taxes are so high because this state has 566 cities, towns, townships, municipalities, boros, villages, etc. If only we could get the smaller towns to merge with other towns and cities, why then, our property taxes would magically drop.
Lots of discussion about this [...]
CNN has an article about the coming crisis to confront state budgets, and that’s the cost of pensions to retired state workers. The page with The public pension bomb actually is titled “New Jersey’s public pension bomb”. Yes, the Garden State is Exhibit A in how to bankrupt a [...]
I thought this was a good list, You might be a chemical engineer if:.
(Well, I think it’s funny, since I am a chemical engineer).
I’ve actually done some of these things. I think I gave my son a scientific explanation for why the sky is blue, I have Dilbert comics [...]
“Throwing good money after bad”
My mother used to say that a lot when I was growing up. Well that and, “Yeah, if (fill in the blank) jumps off the George Washington Bridge, are you?”
But throwing good money after bad is a dead-on description for the multi-billion dollar project known as [...]
You know it’s bad when you’re a governor and you’re profiled in the same article as New York state governor David Paterson. New Jersey governor Jon Corzine gets the honors in Tale of two governors. At least Paterson can point to the fact that he’s the accidental governor, only [...]
Even if you’ve never seen the sign, I’m sure most Jersey residents know about the slogan “Trenton Makes, The World Takes” that is displayed on one of the bridges near Trenton. At one time, Trenton was a manufacturing hub, supplying goods to the entire world.
No more. Trenton’s manufacturing base is [...]
Why is it that the New Jersey state government, led by alleged Wall Street wizard Jon Corzine, can’t figure out basic budgeting stuff, like costs and revenue?
I distinctly remember being told that the planned two day furloughs of state workers would save the state $35 million, $17.5 million per day. [...]
What’s the matter with New Jersey voters? It’s not that we’re overtaxed, and our government is run by lobbyists, government contractors and labor unions.
No, the problem is that we’re cranky. So says the NY Times in Voter Crankiness Still Bedevils Candidates.
And this inconvenient truth also seems to [...]
The Sunday Star-Ledger has a pretty even handed piece up today about Republican candidate for governor Steve Lonegan. Lonegan forces fellow Republican gubernatorial candidates to take notice.
Lonegan has a nice life story. And he’s rock-ribbed conservative who I think can make a case for conservatism in even a [...]
Headlines from last night and this morning:
Obama Set to Revive Military Commissions
White House aide resigns over N.Y. flyover
This appears to be a common White House tactic, release uncomfortable news on Friday night. The weekend is typically a slow news period, and by Monday there will be new stories [...]
There’s a scene at the beginning of the classic 1995 movie “Casino” that I think we can use to explain the current economic meltdown. The casino workers are in a locked room with a security guard posted outside, counting up the daily receipts from the gaming tables and slot machines. [...]
Who said the following during a recent interview with Bloomberg:
“New Jersey will go bankrupt in 10 to 20 years because we cannot afford our employees as a state . . .I’m talking about every worker from the cities and counties to the state government. Eventually, we’re going to price ourselves [...]
I’m not a big fan of the Jersey Guys radio show on 101.5. I can only handle Casey Bartholemew in small doses. And then they announced that Carla Katz would be on the station, starting tonight at 6PM.
I don’t know why I listened to it. My gut feeling beforehand was [...]
NY Times Headline: Revenue Loss Putting Cities in Fiscal Vise. The article highlights some of the financial problems New Jersey towns are experiencing as tax receipts plunge.
Retroactive pay increases for union workers is a large contributing factor. Weehawken has to pay out over $800,000 this year after negotiating a [...]
A common talking point when debating the generous benefits packages given to New Jersey government workers compared to private sector workers is: “Yeah, but they are working for less salary than private sector workers”.
A great analysis at the Montclair Times ( Top municipal salaries outpace private-sector pay ) takes [...]
I was coming home from work a few weeks back, and as I’m opening up my front door I heard a pretty loud sound coming from a tree on my front lawn. I thought it was a couple of squirels, but when I looked I saw an outline of some [...]
The first news reports concerning the Carla Katz to 101.5 FM radio story said she was going to host a radio show. I was going to suggest a perfect title for the show.
The Katz Meow.
However, now it turns out Ms. Katz will just be a contributor to the station, similar [...]
Xanadu, the billion dollar shopping mall/entertainment mecca/fiasco continue to make the news. Opening delayed for Pepsi Globe Ferris wheel at Meadowlands Xanadu. One of the main attractions for Xanadu is (was?) supposed to a 300 foot tall ferris wheel sponsored by Pepsi. Well, Pepsi has decided to wait until the [...]
The headline:
State officials look out of state to find investors on highway projects
So far NJ officials have been to San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and New York City, with a trip down the turnpike to Philadelphia next Thursday.
Have they thought about offering a free toaster?? How about a Mr. Coffee??
[...]I haven’t watched prime time TV since the 1980’s, and with my schedule I barely get time to watch the news. But once the kids are in bed, I’ll park myself in front of the TV, and with remote in hand I’ll find a classic movie and watch it. Even [...]
Of course, I hope bloggers everywhere will be checking DynamoBuzz frequently over the next 7 months for news, updates and biting satire and commentary as we approach (my hope) the end of the Jon Corzine Reign of Error here in New Jersey.
But there are many sites you can also check [...]
The NY Times discusses funding for New Jersey Preschools in the 2009-2010 budget in Corzine Still Focused on Preschools. Corzine is cutting property tax rebates and threatening layoffs, but he’s still increasing state supplied pre-school funding partly using federal stimulus money. But the superintendent of the Rahway school system [...]
I give democrats credit for one thing, and that’s the ability to corrupt the english language to further their political agenda. A few days back I mentioned the “millionaire’s tax” which can actually increase taxes on residents making as little as $300,000.
“Shovel Ready” is only the latest. The American public [...]
There are only two governor’s elections this year, and the Virginia race doesn’t feature an incumbent. So most of the attention this November will be on the New Jersey governor’s race. Lots of news coverage already, and the election is still 7 months away. The latest FDU / Public Mind poll [...]
The Wall Street Journal has an article up today How Democrats Make Millionaires with details of a tactic democrats have been abusing the past few years, and that is championing the “millionaire’s tax” as a means of balancing bloated state budgets.
As the WSJ notes, many democrat governors and legislatures [...]
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Kevin Ferris has a good snapshot of the state of the race for NJ governor. Ferris is assuming it will be Chris Christie up against Jon Corzine, and he gives his thoughts in Back Channels: Giving the governor a run for his money.
Christie notes that the [...]
Which former NJ elected official is quoted in today’s Star-Ledger as saying the following:
“Candidates sooner or later learn the political price of taking inappropriate contributions exceeds the value of the money.”
If you answered “Bob Torricelli”, then you win an antique grandfather clock and bunch of Italian suits. Yes, [...]
The NY Times puts its spin on the battle between New Jersey and the government workers unions in an article In a Reversal, Corzine Faces Labor’s Wrath.
The article plays up the supposed tension between NJ governor Jon Corzine and the state workers unions. This is really just for [...]
I saw this list at Yahoo, 10 Cars That Sank Detroit. How bad is it that I have owned 2 of these cars?
First on the list is the Ford Pinto, and that was actually my first car. I had a 1974 powder blue one. It was a hand me [...]
I voted on the way into work this morning. No lines at my polling station. I walked right up to the desk, signed my name and went into the booth.
My voting place divides the sign-in books between A-K names and L-Z names, and I was number 56 on the “A-K” [...]
It’s one of those news events that sticks with you, an event that you always remember where you were when you heard it. The day was October 3, 1995, and I was at work that afternoon when the jury announced their verdict in the OJ trial. The woman in the [...]
My first thought during the Palin-Biden VP debate was (seriously), did Joe Biden have plastic surgery? He had those slanted-upwards eyes that you see on someone who had a facelift, like Joan Rivers for example. Plus Biden is a Washington DC legend for his hair transplants, so it wouldn’t be [...]
While the headline says “Lautenberg agrees to debate Zimmer on NJN“, it really should say “Lautenberg Continues to Show Contempt for Voters”.
Yeah, Lautenberg agreed to debate republican challenger Dick Zimmer.
Once . . .
On NJN, the state public TV network . . .
On a Saturday Night at 8PM . . [...]
Today is the last regular season baseball game at Shea Stadium. I probably went there a dozen times or so in my life. My memories of the place:
New Jersey is still the #1 state in one of the most important categories, and that is the cheapest gasoline.
CNN.com reports in “Gas prices: Down 10 cents in 4 days” that the average price for a gallon of gas in NJ is $3.468. The nationwide average is $3.757. [...]
I promise this time I am back.
I had a lot of things going on, but the worst was the fact that somehow WordPress forced me to upgrade the DynamoBuzz blogging software. And I didn’t have time until today to actually do the upgrade. Lo and behold, it worked.
[...]I’m not too optimistic about the chances of the State of New Jersey being able to cancel the contract with outgoing Keansburg school superintendent Barbara Trzeszkowski. At stake is three quarters of million dollars in severance pay and cash for unused sick leave and vacation. I’m not a lawyer, but [...]
The Star-Ledger decided to endorse challenger Rob Andrews over incumbent Senator Frank Lautenberg in next weeks primary for the democrat nomination for senate. Andrews for U.S. Senaten says the headline.
The editorial notes that there isn’t a dimes worth of difference between the two on any major issue. They’re [...]
I’m about a week late here, but kudos to Jersey blogger Jane from the Armies of Liberation blog for a nice write up in (of all places) The New York Times.
The piece, A Living-Room Crusade via Blogging highlights Jane’s work on the behalf of Yemeni journalist Abdul Karim [...]
This blogging vacation lasted two months, but I think I’m ready to get back into the swing of things.
While I was away, comment spammers took over DynamoBuzz. I was getting over 100 spam comments per day. So I closed all the old posts for comments, and I’ll see if I [...]
Hi, kiddies!! Time for the DynamoBuzz word of the day.
Today’s word is schadenfreude.
Wikipedia defines schadenfreude as: a German word meaning ‘pleasure taken from someone else’s misfortune’.
I bring this up today because of the news that New York governor Eliot “The Punk” Spitzer has been caught up in a federal investigation [...]
The headline:
McGreevey era e-mails routinely destroyed
AG: Computers were set to purge staff messages
Is this the scandal that finally gets disgraced ex-NJ governor Jim McGreevey up on the witness stand under oath?? It seems that almost every e-mail from the McGreevey era is missing, “purged” from the system. And [...]
City Journal columnist Steve Malanga comments on a study by Governing magazine that looked at how all 50 state governments in the US are managed. The results?? New Jersey has the third worst-managed state.
Malanga’s column New Jersey’s Bad Government Blues notes that considering our tax burden being so high, [...]
What do US senator Frank Lautenberg, NJ state senator John Adler and NJ state representative Linda Stender have in common??
(a) high spending liberal democrats
(b) running for state office in November 2008
(c) against NJ governor Jon Corzine’s toll road monetization scheme
(d) all of the above
Yes, [...]
This NY Times headline announces to the nation what I knew all along:
Hey, Massachusetts, New Jersey Is Passing on the Left
New Jersey is now more liberal than Massachusetts. The article mentions the repeal of the death penalty, the vote to apologize for slavery, the scheme to give our presidential [...]
While reading this article about the plan to borrow $2.5 billion to do school construction projects in New Jersey, I noticed that this is only a short term solution “…seen as a stop-gap for two more years worth of school construction projects.”
Let’s see …. What year is right now?? [...]
Yesterday was the day the NJ Supreme Court took up the question of school construction, and the numbers being thrown about are scary.
The Gannett headline is Corzine: Borrow $2.5B for schools. That’s an untruthful headline. The actual amount to be borrowed is much higher. The AP story Deadline [...]
NJ governor Jon Corzine rushed through a modified school funding plan during the lame duck session of the past legislature. That plan will be going before the NJ Supreme Court for review, and given the past Abbott decisions, the odds are that the court will strike down the plan.
Even worse [...]
New Jersey democrats got all excited last week when the NY Times wrote that the US Department of Justice was investigating US Attorney Chris Christie for appointing John Ashcroft’s consulting firm as monitor in a pharmaceutical price fixing case, a job worth many millions to Ashcroft.
One problem with [...]
Every presidential candidate is talking “change”. Change can be a noun (”Only I can bring change”). A verb (”We need to change things in Washington”) . Even an adjective (”I’m the change candidate”).
If you believe the polls, even here in New Jersey the voters want change. In Poll: Voters [...]
I always get a tremendous thrill when I take my car to get inspected and I pass on the first try. It happened again yesterday.
In my youth, I drove a lot of old junkers that almost never passed. Even as I got older and was able to buy newer cars, [...]
