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  #301  
Old 12-29-2016, 12:26 AM
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NJ.com: At the core of Gov. Chris Christie's campaign to kill newspaper jobs is the claim that his bill will save money. He puts the number at $80 million...It's another lie...a...whopper with a dark purpose behind it...

The last time this came up, the Legislature's own researchers found that locals might not save a dime, and that it could even cost them more to handle the job themselves online...(L)ocal governments (that) don't use newspapers...will have to establish secure web sites and hire someone to process...and track...these ads...

So where did Christie get the $80 million figure?..."Multiple state agencies sampled public notices in all daily newspapers in New Jersey over a consecutive 30-day period extrapolating the data over 12 months..." the press office said...(The) League of Municipalities...say this number did not come from them...A survey answered by 147...smaller towns showed the average cost to be just over $7,000...

This is not about saving money. This is the governor's attempt to exact revenge on newspapers, and the reason (why) is that we...point it out when he lies. What's depressing...is that the Legislative leaders are joining hands with him. It's part of a deal, all struck in the back rooms, as usual...
But like that scene in The Wizard of Oz, the N.J. Dems finally realized that Christie no longer had all power over them and dropped a house (of representatives) on him!


Quote:
NJ.com: Finally, Democrats in Trenton are revolting against a craven backroom deal struck by their leaders, a sign of life in a party that seems to have lost its moral compass.

"I am so disgusted with my colleagues," says Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Union). "There is no Democratic Party," says Sen. Loretta Weinberg. (D-Bergen). "Where are our core values?" asks Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex).

...(T)hey are (also) grumbling about the sweetheart book deal, too. Why waive an ethics law to allow the governor to profit from a book while he is in office? Hasn't he ignored his job enough? And the big question: What is the motive? What did Democratic leaders get in return for these big concessions to the most unpopular governor in the country? They got a raise for their staffs and judges, but is that all it takes? Is their price that low?
What is there to ask? Christie has lost his political leverage, that's all. He hasn't got the support of either the Democrat majority in the state legislature, President Trump, OR the voters. It is now "safe" to just say no to him -- especially when the public interest is hanging in the balance.

Quote:
NJ.com: In a stunning defeat for Gov. Chris Christie, state lawmakers...blocked a pair of controversial bills (he) was pushing for, stalling a measure that would end a requirement for legal ads to be published in New Jersey's newspapers and killing legislation that would have allowed Christie to profit from a book deal while in office...

Democratic leaders of the Senate said they would not even discuss the bills until it was clear how the Assembly would vote...Christie, who has often cut deals with Democratic leaders and party bosses to usher through legislation over the last seven years...
Negotiating is not legislating, and "my way or I'll close your highway" is not bipartisanship. Welcome to your political power vacuum, Governor Soprano -- lame duck much?
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  #302  
Old 07-05-2017, 01:44 AM
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Default The Trial: Kelly and Baroni sentenced (Wildstein next week)

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NJ.com: The sentencing next week of David Wildstein, a key figure in the Bridgegate scandal, has been postponed until...July 12...

Wildstein testified last year against Baroni and Kelly...(and who) pleaded guilty for his role in the case and served as a major witness in the trial of two former members of the Christie administration, could get up to 27 months in prison for his role in the scheme. He is hoping his cooperation with prosecutors will keep him out of prison...

Wildstein admitted that he was the one who first came up with the plan to use the toll lanes at the George Washington Bridge to deliberately cause traffic in Fort Lee in September 2013. He claimed the plan, coordinated with Bill Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Bridget Anne Kelly, a one-time deputy chief of staff to Gov. Chris Christie was aimed at punishing Mayor Mark Sokolich for his refusal to support Gov. Chris Christie for re-election...Wildstein has been free on bail and living in Sarasota, Florida...
Quote:
NJ.com: Bridget Anne Kelly, 44, a former top aide to the governor whose "time for some traffic problems" email became a focal point of the federal investigation, was given 18 months.

Bill Baroni, 45, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, received a 24 month sentence earlier in the day in a separate proceeding in the same courtroom before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark...

Both Baroni and Kelly testified that they believed there actually was a traffic study. But the most damaging evidence against them might have been the now-infamous "time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" email sent by Kelly to Wildstein less than a month before several local access toll lanes at the world's busiest bridge were inexplicably closed for nearly a week in September 2013. Prosecutors said the email represented a directive to implement the plan.

During his testimony, Baroni also was confronted over his failure to respond to a series of emails, texts and increasingly frantic phone calls from Sokolich, as the mayor tried to find someone in charge at the Port Authority to explain why the toll lanes had been shut down, blocking emergency vehicles, leaving school buses stranded and forcing thousands to be late for work...

Both were also sentenced to 500 hours community service. They will remain free on bail while they appeal their convictions.
Appeal their convictions? If their convictions ever had any appeal, they never would have broken the law!
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  #303  
Old 07-05-2017, 05:53 AM
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Default The beginning of the end of this thread?


Quote:
The Real Story: Both Assembly and Senate were and are ready to pass the Budget. However, the Governor has INSISTED that the Legislature ALSO AND SIMULTANEOUSLY pass a measure...(that) would raid a surplus garnered by NJ Horizon Blue Shield and Blue Cross...allowing the Governor to apply that entity's money...to the NJ deficit, caused by the Governor not demanding higher income residents pay higher taxes...

Christie knows that the measure by itself would not pass...Not only that, the Governor would "allow" an extra $350 million for schools, legal aid for the poor, and other programs to be included in the Budget if the Legislature agreed to vote...Unfortunately, that split democrats (who are in the majority in both houses)...(I)t's on the Governor, not the Legislature.
Those ninety-three cents on the dollars Christie left on the table in the Exxon settlement would sure come in handy right now -- wouldn't they have been a smarter company to raid?

Quote:
TheGuardian.com: Even for a US state governor with six months left in office and an approval rating of just 15%, it was an unusually bold move.

First, you order a government shutdown that closes all state parks and beaches on the eve of the 4 July holiday weekend. Then you...spend a good chunk of Sunday soaking up the rays with your family on a pristine stretch of sand that – thanks to your order – you have entirely to yourselves. Asked about reports that his family was staying at the state residence at Island Beach state park while it was closed to the public, Christie...(said) “I didn’t get any sun.”

Told of the existence of aerial pictures of the governor sitting on the beach with...family members, his spokesman, Brian Murray, conceded Christie was “on the beach briefly.” But Murray insisted: “He did not get any sun. He was wearing a baseball cap.”





Quote:
NJ.com: Howard and Betty Height are not the governor, but they have a house on Island Beach State Park. So do five other families.

But while Gov. Chris Christie and his family tanned, the other families burned -- with anger. The other Island Beach residents were ordered out of the homes Friday night under the threat of arrest. They packed up and drove off, right past the governor's summer retreat, its lights ablaze with activity...
Quote:
CNN: "That's just the way it goes," Christie said Saturday in response to a reporter's questions during a news conference. "Run for governor and you can have a residence."
Meanwhile, Christie got special "Greetings from Asbury Park"...
Quote:
Rawstory: (At a) 2011 press conference...during Hurricane Irene...(Christie) told people "sitting on the beach at Asbury Park” to “get the hell off the beach”...On Monday (7/3/17)...(a) crowd of beachgoers in Asbury Park...cheered...after a plane flew over the beach pulling a banner with... “Tell Chris Christie: get the hell off Island Beach State Park...”

...and a meme was born...













Quote:
NJ.com: Gov. Chris Christie announced he is ending the three-day state government shutdown...State-run recreation sites will reopen on the Fourth of July...

He'd offered to blunt his veto pen in exchange for two bills the Legislature also delivered: one pledging the state lottery as an asset to the public pension fund and another giving the state more control over the state's largest health insurer, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. That proposal deeply divided Democratic lawmakers...

Christie blamed the state Assembly leader Vincent Prieto for the budget impasse...Prieto, who had refused to allow it to be put to a vote in the lower chamber...and the state Senate health committee chairman tasked with tinkering with the bill...with state Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Horizon CEO Bob Marino...Within hours they had a new bill and a deal...which Christie promptly signed after making what he called "minor changes" to budget language...

...(T)he full restoration of government operations (on 7/5/17) will return about 30,000 furloughed state employees to work...
Did I call Christie a lame duck? Make that a quadriplegic duck! But seriously, folks, with six months left to his regime -- oops, I mean governorship, we can only hope that he'll allow us to "close the books" on this thread quietly. As for life after politics, I'm pretty sure that Exxon won't hesitate to hire him!
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  #304  
Old 07-13-2017, 07:47 AM
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Reuters: ...David Wildstein, 55, a former executive at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey...a high school classmate of Christie's...(and) (t)he mastermind of the Bridgegate lane closure scandal...avoided a prison sentence...

(He) provided the key evidence that led to the conviction of two Christie allies...The judge sentenced Wildstein to three years of probation, noting that he was the only figure in the scandal to accept responsibility for his actions...
So Wildstein got his wish -- avoiding hard time. But then again, he can credit that to his willingness to read the writing on the wall. So there's not much left to do but give Bruce Springsteen a big thumbs up for being so right about Chris Christie, gratefully thank you JoviTalkers for three and half years of your views and support, and hope that the remainder of the Christie regime is the embodiment of respectability and dignity.

Quote:
N.Y. Daily News: Former Yankee pitcher Fritz Peterson wrote a letter of support for the Bridgegate maestro...The 75-year-old retired hurler is writing a book with David Wildstein, according to a letter to (the) U.S. District judge...

Peterson grabbed headlines during spring training in 1973 when he announced that he was exchanging wives and kids with fellow Yankee pitcher Mike Kekich.
Well, it was respectable and dignified while it lasted.

The Kekiches broke up soon thereafter, the Petersons are still together. With character references like him, who needs friends?
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Remember how we used to talk about busting out? We'd break their hearts together...forever...



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Last edited by rocknation; 07-25-2017 at 07:04 PM..
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  #305  
Old 07-24-2017, 02:27 AM
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Default Excerpts from Wildstein's Statement To The Judge

Cue the violins:

Quote:
There should be no doubt that I deeply regret my actions at the George Washington Bridge...It served no sensible purpose other than a plan to punish one mayor...It was a callous decision...It was stupid, and it was wrong. I violated the law, and I profoundly regret it...

I have spent the past three and a half years trying to make amends...Before any cooperation agreement was in place, I met with Assistant United States Attorneys and the FBI...(although) admitting my guilt and accepting responsibility for my actions...does not lessen the seriousness of what I have done...
What he "did" was come up with idea and suggest it to Christie -- Wildstein only "callous decision" was implementing Bridge(t)-Gate once he knew he had Christie's approval. It isn't as though he's the one who gave the order to carry it out -- right?

Quote:
I take full responsibility for what I did, and hope that someday, others will too...I admit to being a willing participant in a culture that was, upon reflection, disgusting...I was supervised by a group of former federal prosecutors and experienced public servants who encouraged a behavior that I deeply regret -- and fully understand was illegal...
NOW we're getting somewhere!

Quote:
Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly were my friends, and my testimony at their trial was an agonizing moment in my life...Each of us put our faith and trust in a man who neither earned nor deserved it...
But each of them saw Governor Soprano as their shortcut to the big time. And maybe it wouldn't have been as agonizing if it had been clear which of them reported to who.

Quote:
I willingly drank the Kool-Aid of a man I had known since I was fifteen...I thoughtlessly followed his hubris, and must now accept the consequences...I don’t expect everyone to forgive me...It will define the remainder of my life...
Which brings us to the bottom line -- Wildstein seems to be a 55-year-old fifteen-year-old whose entire being was absorbed by playing cool kid wannabe Richie Cunningham to Christie's Fonzie. But just as Richie only got to subsist on just whiffs of coolness -- of being OF Fonzie's world but never IN it -- Wildstein never figured out that it would never be in Christie's best interests to give him a ticket out of Nerd-istan...oh, and Fonize was eventually reduced to jumping over a shark.



(link to entire statement)
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Last edited by rocknation; 07-31-2017 at 04:19 AM..
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  #306  
Old 07-24-2017, 02:48 AM
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Yeah Wildstein avoided hard time by giving testimony, but the real crook is still getting off scott free.
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  #307  
Old 07-29-2017, 05:35 AM
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The corruption trial of Democratic New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez starts in September, and there's been some talk about what Christie will do if it comes down to having to replace him before his time before January:

Quote:
RawStory (April 2015): Like...Dick Cheney, who revived his political career by selecting himself as the running mate for eventual President George W. Bush, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) could...choos(e) himself to replace embattled Sen. Bob Menendez, should he step down. Menendez, a Democrat...(who) assumed his seat in the Senate in 2006...is currently facing one count of conspiracy, one count of violating the travel act, seven counts of bribery and three counts of honest services fraud...
Quote:
Politico: Gov. Chris Christie's last days in office he may get to exercise enormous influence nationally: Choosing a successor to embattled U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez...if (he) is convicted and the Senate acts quickly to expel him, or if he cuts a plea deal and leaves office even earlier...

As the battle over replacing the Affordable Care Act has made abundantly clear(,) Republicans' slim two-vote majority in the Senate — and the fact some GOP incumbents up for reelection in 2018 reside in swing states — means every vote is crucial for passing parts of the Trump agenda...

Well, if it's technically and legally possible to nominate himself, why not?

Quote:
NJ.com: Gov. Chris Christie...was Waterford crystal-clear...on...one thing...

"Believe me: When I say I am never running for public office in New Jersey again? I mean I am never running for public office in New Jersey again. The only job left for me to run for is United States Senate, and let me just say this: I would rather die than be in the United States Senate. Okay? I would be bored to death. Can you imagine me bangin' around that chamber with 99 other people? Asking for a motion on the amendment in the subcommittee? Forget it. It would be over, everybody. You'd watch me just walk out and walk right into the Potomac River and drown. That'd be it."
Not even temporarily enough to get President Trump back by voting against him? Think of all the fun he could have undermining the Republican two-vote majority!
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  #308  
Old 07-31-2017, 03:53 AM
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Quote:
NJ.com: ...Appearing on his monthly call-in radio program "Ask the Governor" on NJ 101.5 FM, Christie said the blowback hurt his kids more than anything else that's happened in his time as governor.

"They were more hurt by this latest episode than they've been hurt by anything else that has happened in the eight years and they don't understand people's unfairness and, quite frankly, their ignorance."

...After NJ Advance Media published pictures of Christie and his family alone on 10 miles of Island Beach State Park shore, the internet erupted with photo-shopped pictures of the governor and his folding chair in a variety of ever more improbable scenarios...
Well, seeing as how I was a full-fledged contributor to the deliquency of Christie's four children (only one of whom is under age 18) with such traumatizing "unfairness," I will step forward and take accountability: Since I couldn't afford to spend Independence Day weekend on a even a state beach, I didn't have anything BETTER to do!

Quote:
Philly.com: ...Christie took his family and a group of his children’s friends to the governor’s beach house at Island Beach State Park...even though the park had been closed as part of the government shutdown that resulted from the Legislature’s failure to adopt a budget by July 1...Christie has said the trip had been planned for months.
Quote:
NJ.com: ...Christie disclosed he has avoided looking at the memes of the infamous beach snaps and said his kids haven't discussed them with him..."They came to me and said, 'It's our fault, we should have just told you that we would have just told all of our friends to go away.' And I said to them, no, this was my decision. You're not the adult. I am."
Well, maybe the reason why Christie's kids were extra upset was because even THEY saw how unfair and ignorant their father was being. It sounds like they would have been willing to postpone or cancel the beach party -- that would have been "fair." More important, it also sounds like they had the capacity to have anticipated how bad it would make them all look, which tells us who the real "adults" in the Christie family are!

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  #309  
Old 08-04-2017, 05:45 AM
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UPDATE: The Beach-Gate is about to swing shut.
The New Jersey...Legislature voted 63-2 with two abstentions to prevent Christie — or any future New Jersey governor — from using the Island Beach State Park beach mansion during a government shutdown, officials said.
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Remember how we used to talk about busting out? We'd break their hearts together...forever...



You and me and our old friends / hoping it would never end / holding on to never say goodbye...

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  #310  
Old 08-04-2017, 07:27 AM
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Default A Sure Sign That the Press No Longer Has Christie's Back(Side)*

*A metaphor, not a weight joke.

Quote:
Asbury Park Press (8/2017): (A)ccording to...Black Keys...drummer...Patrick Carney...Jon Bon Jovi used (him) to avoid Gov. Chris Christie at a party...The revelation came during Carney’s High Standards Music Corner segment for Vice News Tonight in December (2016).

“I’ve met Bon Jovi once, and it was actually at Howard Stern’s birthday party,” Carney said. “Chris Christie was in the room, and Jon Bon Jovi came over and started talking to me, like really intensely. I was like, ‘Wow, why does Jon Bon Jovi want to talk to me?’ Then I realized it was just because he didn’t want to talk to Chris Christie.”

Christie and Bon Jovi did attend Stern’s birthday party in (January) 2014 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City...as details of the Bridgegate scandal were unfolding...The two did talk at the Stern party — on stage. Christie, who’s famously a fan of Bruce Springsteen, introduced Bon Jovi to the Ballroom crowd...

A Bon Jovi rep had no comment on the supposed incident. A rep for Christie said the story is false to the New York Post...
At the risk of overstating the obvious: The party took place in 2014, and Carney's Vice show took place seven months ago. So why does the Asbury Park Press and New York Post consider this news in August 2017? Has Christie been so successful at bullying the press that they're only beginning to feel it's safe to print negative stuff about him? If so, that means there's ought to be lot more to come!
Quote:
The subject of Bon Jovi came up on Carney's segment as he was reviewing the Bon Jovi song "This House is Not for Sale." He said he liked the guitars...
...and that he could tell that it was Bon Jovi by the drums...which I'll consider a compliment...
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Remember how we used to talk about busting out? We'd break their hearts together...forever...



You and me and our old friends / hoping it would never end / holding on to never say goodbye...

Last edited by rocknation; 08-06-2017 at 07:50 PM..
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