Crew Christie Personnel Department update:
 

Remember the O'Dowds? Husband Kevin went from Christie's chief of staff to Cooper University Health Care, which caused a conflict of interest because wife Mary is the state health commissioner. Well, as of the end of the month wife Mary will be joining Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance. I don't know enough about her new position to determine if it solves their conflict of interest problem, but here's a conflict of interest problem Mary created all by herself:
If it can be shown that Mrs. O'Dowd has been tailoring her regulatory oversight in favor of for-profit medical systems like the Meadowlands Hospital with Christie's blessing, it could explain her sudden departure.

From a 2013 New York Times story (mostly from the photo captions):

Rachel Maddow also explains it all for you (if you find that you're geoblocked, drop me a line):

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-s...y-131725379572
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-s...s-131725379590

Well, at least one open records request has finally been resolved:
One open records request down, 22 to go...but this loss for Christie could turn out to be the biggest one.

What a relief for Bruce: he hasn't lost his #1 fan! :D

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/0...-his-favorite/

Not the nicest way to put it though. I'd be Jon, I'd feel insulted.

And on top of that, Christie hasn't got enough sense to be insulted that Jon AND his music are also backing Hillary!


Meanwhile, as the August 6 Fox News Republican presidential debate approaches, it looks like Christie will make the cut in being among the top ten polling candidates:
As Rachel Maddow points out, the problem with getting only three per cent of the vote is that it falls within

so any distance Christie can put between himself and Mr. Kasich would help him enormously.

Attention-grabbing and hopefully poll-boosting headlines? Well, that would explain this:
He also complained that the teacher's union endorsed Hillary Clinton before she officially announced she was running. If Jon endorsed her before the fact, too, I guess he'd better work on his bob and weave!

Doesn't Christie realize that he sounds more like he's auditioning for the next Godfather movie? Is he that desperate to out-Trump Donald Trump for attention-grabbing headlines, or was CNN so desperate to get some of his advertising dollars, they gave him such an ass-kissing interview?


At least Christie spent this weekend in New Jersey. He joined 60,000 others at the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park. It's a horse race, not a golf tournament, won by Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh. But I thought once you won the Triple Crown, your next career move was, to put it diplomatically, creating FUTURE Triple Crown winners!
Maybe Christie SHOULD have hung around Bill Murray. He hung around Richie Sambora, who didn't even rate a mention in the photo caption -- now, THAT'S insulting, LOL!

Someone had the same themed thought and posted this photo beneath the article with the photo of Christie chatting with some unidentified guy in an old hat:

http://media.fyre.co/8ikQ7CwtRg6yXUoLs1dd_angry%202.jpg

He could be Big Pussy's twin bro, bro! :lol:



I can hear some similarities here too! :lol:

Here's some video from the racetrack:
https://youtu.be/UuyDqLGwWTw
https://youtu.be/hq_k90U7djY

Identification accomplished:


Holy crap, you're right!!! Christie DOES have "friends" AND "friends of his," doesn't he?

The first Republican presidential debate will be starting in a few hours,
 

so I'm posting this now in anticipation of being too incapacitated from either alcohol or laughter to do it later. Speaking of anticipation, the Surgeon General (the U.S. government's top-ranking doctor) reportedly suggested at a press conference this morning that people play a safer variation of the traditional debate drinking game by only consuming alcohol when one of the candidates says something reasonable.

So here's the latest on Tunnel-Gate:
But why you couldn't do that as governor, governor?
And now that you're telling your "stories" on a national level, governor, it's that much more important that you keep them straight!

Exxon Settlement Ruling Updates
 

Incorporating what was posted yesterday.

There has been one ruling on Christie's settlement with Exxon -- the settlement he reduced by some ninety-seven percent. The judge has rejected the inclusion of New Jersey State Senator Ray Lesniak and environmental groups as parties to the settlement:


And here are some things to chew on while awaiting the actual settlement ruling:

You can't tell the corruption without a scorecard!

Now that I've sufficiently sobered up from the political midget mud wrestling marathon -- I mean, Republican presidential debate -- to evaluate Christie's performance, I'm happy to report that the way his true colors shined through rivaled Donald Trump's. But I also have to say that Christie was set up a little.

For hosts Fox News, pretty much the media arm of the Republican party, their marching orders were clear -- make Jeb Bush look better and frontrunner Donald Trump look worse. Bush got softball questions that allowed him to appear passionate yet lucid; Trump was prodded into his trademark ranting and raving; and Christie was pitted against a candidate who opposes him on a security issue, sending him into bully attack mode:


If the background check had not begun, never mind been completed, prior to September 2001, then Christie had been neither nominated nor appointed -- he'd only been "put under consideration" for the position. Also, deflecting from his hugging that evil President Obama by saying he can only remember hugging those affected by the 9/11 attack is downright shabby. Doesn't Christie remember that a candidate was pretty much knocked out of the 2008 presidential race by being described as "a noun, a verb, and 9/11"?

As I have said many times - and this proves my point - he is a lying sack of shit. I can only hope that he a "the Donald" took themselves out.

With Friends Like These, Who Needs (Political) Enemies?
 

We saw this coming from light years away, and now it's here -- Jon's apolitical friend and Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie has publicly fired a salvo at Jon's apolitical friend and Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton:
Christie is not holding fellow Republican hopeful Jeb Bush to the same standard, however -- because Jeb's father gave Christie the U.S. Attorney job, perhaps?

And here's another Republican presidential hopeful whose emailing habits may not meet Chris Christie's ethical standards:
Is there an oxygen tank in the house? I'm feeling a little short of breath...

And what is Jon going to do -- support his apolitical friend Christie's allegations against Hillary, or defend his apolitical friend Hillary, (and, by extension, her husband) against Christie? At least ONE of them has stepped out of line. He's going to have to pick a side now --

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf...t_christi.html

Can you open the link to APP? I can't , access denied 'cause I'm not a subscriber I guess.

Here is the text - there are also a couple of videos.

TRENTON — Here is a look at what's being said across the nation about Gov. Chris Christie's run for president:

• The Des Moines (Iowa) Register ran an opinion piece from Kraig Paulsen, speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives, about why he is endorsing Christie for president.

• Talking Points Memo explored how Christie appears to be backtracking on birthright citizenship.

• The Asbury Park Press examined how a visit to the Iowa State Fair may have been key for Christie.

• The Asbury Park Press reported that Christie was at a fundraiser in the Hamptons this weekend with Jon Bon Jovi.

• Fox News Radio reported that Christie called President Obama "the worst negotiator in the history of the presidency" during an interview.

And here is the story about Christie and Jon "partying"

If it's August, chances are Jon Bon Jovi and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are at a party in the Hamptons.

This year, it was a return to the Wainscott estate of Ronald O. Perelman to take part in the fundraiser for the Apollo Theater on Saturday, Aug. 15. Jamie Foxx, Jimmy Fallon, Pitball, Christina Aguilera, Smokey Robinson and Bon Jovi were the performers, backed by the Roots, and Jack Nicholson, Penny Marshall, Harvey Weinstein, Mary-Kate Olsen, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Robert Kraft, Perelman and plenty more power players were in the audience, according to multiple reports.


Bon Jovi joined Robinson on stage for “The Tracks of My Tears,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

“This is what rock-and-roll history looks like,” Bon Jovi said of Robinson. “This is what rock 'n' roll history sounds like.”

Christie, who is a Republican presidential candidate, kept a low profile at the party as compared to last year when he jumped on stage to dance with Foxx. Instead, he ate fried chicken and salmon with Bon Jovi and convened with billionaire private equity boss Steve Schwarzman, according to a Bloomberg report. He sat with Matt Lauer to watch the show, according to the New York Times.

Bon Jovi, who has a home in East Hampton, has popped up at several events in the area this summer. Most recently he joined President Bill Clinton Tuesday, Aug. 18 at the the Blue Parrot restaurant in East Hampton for the Clinton's 68th birthday dinner, according to the Daily Mail.

Both Hillary and Chelsea Clinton didn't make the dinner. Jon Bon Jovi and wife Dorothea Bongiovi hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate, in June at the Molly Pitcher Inn in Red Bank.


Bon Jovi is scheduled to release “Burning Bridges” on Friday, Aug. 21, the band’s first album without long-time guitarist and co-writer of the Bon Jovi hits, Richie Sambora.

TY, Kathleen! :D

Oh yeah, I saw photos a few days ago: "Apollo in the Hamptons" and wondered what it was exactly. Now I know!

I thank Kathleen, too -- death to geoblocking!

It would have looked better to actually hold fundraiser AT the Apollo -- the band wasn't too scared to shoot the Keep The Faith video in Harlem:
https://youtu.be/eZQyVUTcpM4

http://rocktivity.com/Graphics/fro.gif

Wasn't that the original reason for the internet - so that anyone could see the same content anywhere?

They have already screwed that up haven't they. I manage to get around most of it with proxy servers but honestly it has become somewhat of a game for me.

You mean I can't see that - hmmm...... I bet I can find a way :D

Was it geoblocking? I was only asked to subscribe. There's a different message when a site is geoblocked.

Proxy servers work fine but you end up spending your time changing the settings which is a bore. Yeah, we're far from the global village that they tried to sell us when it all started!

This just in -- the state court has approved the three-cents-on the dollar Exxon Mobil settlement.

I just saw that in the Times. Ugh.....that guy has sold New New Jersey down the river more than once. Disgusting :(

While his three-cents-on-the-dollar settlement is being appealed, let's check in on Christie's presidential campaign.

Christie has undisputed possession of eleventh place in the national polls, once again putting himself in danger of missing the cut for the next nationally televised Republican debate on Sept. 16:
That really is too bad, especially since Christie appointed one of his own aides to help run the New Hampshire Republican party!

But what's the cure -- what strategy should Christie employ to overcome the formidable polling and media domination of frontrunner Trump? Well, it makes sense to take a look at what Trump has been saying to earn such domination:

Quote:

"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best...They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." Trump publicly gave out Senator Lindsey Graham's phone number during a speech in South Carolina as a response to Graham calling him a "jackass". Trump said that (Fox News Reporter Megyn) Kelly is a "lightweight" and had "blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever." Trump said of (Senator John) McCain: "He’s not a war hero...because he was captured."

Did you see the pattern there? Do you see the answer? It's right under your nose -- the way to duplicate the success of The Donald (what his first wife called him) is to duplicate Duh Donald!

Okay, slogan duplicating accomplished. All he has to do now is say something "ever controversial" that the Republican voters would love and that the national media simply could not ignore:
First of all, it's not FedEx who Christie be talking to about implementing his plan...


Secondly, where would the tracking mechanism be? If it's on the visa itself, that raises the problem of the visa not always being where the visa holder is. That leaves embedding it in the visa holder, like that movie Logan's Run:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...46e4aec6c3.jpg

Or something could be tattooed on, like what was done to Holocaust prisoners.

So far, FedEx has declined comment...for some reason...

SHOCKING NEWS!
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf...onger_a_f.html

:lol: :popcorn:

BooHoo - anything to "distance" himself and get more votes. It won't matter in the end. He has no chance and he shouldn't be selling a lifetime of love so cheaply. But hey - that's him to the bone.

Christie has flip-flopped on Bruce? Hopefully, only Bruce's feelings were hurt... :mrgreen:

I don't know why Christie is even still in the race. He's got no shot.

Christie was supposed to be the loudmouth who "tells it like it is". That has turned out to be Donald Trump. So there really isn't a place for him - I think he should come home and clean up some of the messes he has left New Jersey in.

Yeah, he's got a lot of messes to clean up...


And, of course, neither Trump nor Christie "tell it like it is," but like they need you to believe it is with no questions or backtalk -- which is precisely WHY they "tell it" so loudly.

Christie is in a flat-footed tie for tenth place
 

in the Republican presidential polling race. How can he push Ron Paul into undisputed possession of eleventh place, which would give Christie the bottom rung on national debate ladder? Shift the "Duplicate Duh Donald" strategy into overdrive!


Fine. However, saying extremist-endearing, national media-generating things is only half of what Duplicating Duh Donald is all about. Here, note how Trump avoids apology, accountability, remorse and regret like the plague:
Now let's see how well Christie does it:
He's not in Trump's class, of course, but not bad at all -- stealth bullying, moral indignation, obfuscation, missed direction plays, and a BIG big lies! He just might be able to Duplicate Duh Donald and push past Rand Paul into tenth place after all...say what?

https://youtu.be/gWn2k_SX7tc

No, no no -- you BLEW it! You don't deny what's been filmed -- you blame it on the film makers being UNIONIZED!!!

Crew Christie Airlines: Mayday! Mayday!
 

http://rocktivity.com/Graphics/pilot2.gif Remember Crew Christie Airlines -- "You're the Graft Beneath Our Wings"? It just took a nosedive!

A self-financed internal investigation concluded that the CEO was guilty, so he resigned? What are the odds? And note how none of those guys are insisting that they had no idea what was going on, or that they shouldn't be held accountable for what their underlings were doing. They just left quietly (though with nice severance packages) and promised to cooperate with the authorities. Hint, hint!

But it's NOT the tens of thousands working under you who have been "causing" your problems, Governor Soprano: It's the handful who report to you directly. And too bad nobody dared asked why Christie let Samson run the PA while he was also running a law firm that did business with the PA. At least Samson was "ethical" enough not to take a salary from the PA!

P.S. Tapper, you fcking wimp -- I hope that CNN got at least a Christie campaign commercial ad buy out of your butt-kissing!

Remembering 9/11, Christie style
 

For shame, and two days before 9/11, when New York and New Jersey should be united by grief. Way to set a good example for your constituents, guys, and to look presidential, Chris. But why?

The NYC cop didn't recognize either Christie or a uniformed New Jersey state trooper, blew off a Port Authority official and refused to double-check with his chain of command? And to think that the very reason why Christie was there was to remember a day that forced the entire nation to be more diligent about coordinating its security measures.

I hope that cop got the boot, the sack, AND the bum's rush. And I would say that Christie and his party still have every right to be angry at New York City's police commissioner and mayor, except...except that in 2011, New York City's police commissioner and mayor were Ray Kelly and Mike Bloomberg, NOT Bill Bratton and Bill DiBlasio...

He can't even hold a grudge right.

http://rocktivity.com/Graphics/christieMissing.jpg

Well, Christie was certainly in New York City this past September 11 -- in fact, he overstayed his welcome a little:

Well, what's a fifteen-minute discrepency between friends, especially when you're in a security-sensitive area on a day memorializing those who died due to a failure of security sensitivity?

Well, what's an $136 million discrepency between friends, especially if it doesn't include administration fees to Northstar that could have stayed in the state coffers? There are more important matters to attend to -- like trying to convince people that you should be president of the United States because you're security-sensitive and fiscally responsible!

I guess it takes a big blowhard to know one
 

Fortunately, it's looking like New Jersey will not be celebrating the third anniversary of Superstorm Sandy with a direct hit from Hurricane Joaquin. Good thing Governor Soprano was on the job:

I guess he learned his lesson from back in June when he didn't declare a state of emergency about a storm that overturned cars, uprooted trees, and shut down the railroad:

Since he fell back to declaring a state of emergency the old-fashioned way, I guess his June strategy didn't work -- or did it?

Does that mean that if you're running for president and are tied for ninth in the polls, the FIRST thing you need is a federal state of emergency declaration because it would "enhance your ability" to get the national headlines you want? Or am I just being too cynical and suspicious again? In the interest of journalistic fairness, I must concede it's also possible that Hurricane Joaquin decided to turn tail and not make landfall BECAUSE he heard about Christie's declaration. Now THAT'S the kind of leadership that's needed from a United States president!

Commander In Chump
 

Among this volume of ridicule of Chris Christie, you won't find many weight-oriented jokes. That's because Christie's political and ethical failings far outdistance his dietary ones -- and besides, if losing weight really was simply a matter of eating less and exercising more, everyone would be skinny.

Similarly, you'll find few suggestions that Christie, of Irish and Sicilian parentage, should be associated with the Mafia -- for instance, I refer to his administration as "Crew Christie" instead of "the Christie crew." Yes, I refer to him as "Governor Soprano," but the Sopranos were fictional characters -- and a mobster who seeks out psychiatric counseling is about as fictional as a character can get!

Which brings us to this report from the Christie presidential campaign -- relevant because a U.S. presidential job duty is commander-in-chief of the military. Cue the F-Troop theme: https://youtu.be/vhpOSirfdGk

https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/im...EeW4yZRHJfzTuQ

Oh, really? Well, as much as I'd like to believe that Christie was more interested in not hurting Cunniff's feelings, his oblivion probably had more to do with not wanting to draw attention to his own weight -- especially with a presidential run in the works.

As for Christie not being aware of the reprimand, that's pretty much impossible. Cunniff not mentioning it to Christie is one thing. But there is no way that Cunniff's superiors at The Pentagon (U.S. military headquarters) would NOT have informed Christie directly that they might have to supply him with a new military subordinate in chief. That's Chain Of Command 101 stuff: as fundamental to the military as -- well, having to meet minimal physical fitness standards!

He said it...I didn't... :roll:

Gosh darn it -- it looks like those well-intentioned but loyal-to-a-fault subordinates of Chris Christie have undermined him yet again! On the heels of not informing Christie that his military point man had been formally reprimanded and was in danger of being dismissed, they may have defied a New Jersey Supreme Court order:

Now, whose idea was that -- Christie's? His communications director? His chief of staff? More to the point, what would BE the point of altering the list? How different would Christie's media contact list look from that of any of the other presidential candidates? Let's not overreact here -- maybe there were two packages of documents, and one got lost. But on the other hand, when you're paying sixteen people an average of $85K US of New Jersey taxpayer money per year, maybe it's time to do a little employee RE-evaluation...

It's been pretty quiet on the Christie campaign trail -- or has it actually been the calm before the storm?

The third national Republican party presidential debate took place the day before yesterday, and you'll be pleased to know that though his average poll rating has skyrocketed to 2.4 percent since the previous debate, Governor Soprano hasn't been resting on his laurels. He spent the weekend before the third debate manufacturing fresh "duplicating duh Donald" quotes in hopes of scoring headlines:

Not quite -- "frying like bacon" is slang for being executed via the electric chair, which is what happened to Americans convicted of premeditated murder before lethal injections were deemed more humane. So technically, the environment the movement is striving to create is one where the American justice system works properly, not the opposite.

The Face The Nation political talk show is usually filmed in Washington D.C., which would explain why Christie was on a train from DC to New York that same day:

Amtrak's quiet cars are notoriously quiet -- not only are cellphones banned, coughing fits can result in a warning, and earphone use or even typing on laptops that can be heard by others are grounds for ejection. Christie's spokesperson said he'd boarded the quiet car "accidentally." However, the passenger is probably wrong about Christie's security detail being Secret Service agents -- he doesn't qualify for them yet, and he certainly wouldn't be yelling at them. And about that smoothie -- 210 calories and a day's worth of sugar? Why did he bother having his stomach stapled?

The past week had all the makings for a big comeback for Christie -- nationally as well as locally. What better way to show off his presidential credentials than by celebrating the third anniversary of his victory over Hurricane Sandy?

And what about the interest that has been accruing on the funds he's been so slothful about disbursing in the interim? However, Christie does have a point -- should a thousand homeless people and a dozen protestors be considered the "voice of the people" of New Jersey? Forget those ingrates -- let's turn to some New Jerseyans who DO understand the meanings of appreciation and respect!

Well, forget New Jersey law enforcement, too, if they're going to drag Christie's pension looting into it. Besides, the only New Jersey poll that really counts is the one that's held on November 3 -- Election Day! http://rocktivity.com/Graphics/patriot.gif

The 2015 United States Election Day has come and gone. Let's see what Governor Soprano has to show for it:


But just as a handful of people don't reflect an entire state, a single state doesn't reflect an entire nation. With the help of two Republican candidates dropping out of the race, Christie has undisputed possession of tenth place in the national poll rankings, and an opportunity to make up ground at next week's national Republican debate:

What a trouper! And only with only three other debaters to shout down, there's definitely the potential to make lemonade out of this lemon of a week!

Back in July, the web site AshleyMadison.com was hacked, revealing the private information of tens of millions of its account holders. Now for the bad news: Ashley Madison specializes in setting up extra-marital affairs between its supposedly anonymous members.

Not surprisingly, legal actions against Ashley have been sprouting like weeds. Some employees have claimed they were ordered to invent thousands of false profiles of female members to attract more men. The hackers claim they can prove that while Ashley charges extra to delete your account, they hold on to your info anyway. And of course, lawsuits have been filed by cheating spouses who feel they've been also cheated on by Ashley.

And now for the good news: Chris Christie's brother Todd was one of those cheating spouse Ashley Madison account holders!
Well, shame on Todd for being so surly -- doesn't he realize that the Ashley Madison hackers have done him an enormous favor? If I were him, I'd be grateful, and here's why:
If Todd Christie were not in the employ of either Chris Christie's presidential campaign team or his administration, this would be a private matter for him and his wife to resolve. But as a member of Chris' campaign team who holds its purse strings, the last thing in the world Todd Christie should be is blackmailable, because the further up the ladder Chris Christie rises, the more blackmailable his administration could become. A former U.S. congressman is now facing jail time because he didn't tell anyone he was being blackmailed, and he made it up the ladder to Speaker Of The House of Representatives, who is second in line to the U.S. presidency.

Todd Christie may end up without a marriage or a job with his brother over this. But at least he can't be used as leverage to force Governor (or President!) Chris Christie into acting against his constituents' best interests -- that's grounds for rejoicing!

The trials of Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni were to start this month, but they've been pushed back to April. Which is just as well, since it appears that their lawyers very likely would have had to ask for it to be delayed anyhow:

And speaking of missing emails, remember this from about two months ago?
Well, maybe it's time to hold Mr. Christie to that standard!
No, no -- the words you're supposed to use are "confidentiality" and "proprietary." Calling them "strategies" give the impression you're trying to come up with a way to conceal something -- they're next door to the words "potentially self-incriminating!"

Now, hold on, let's get the facts straight: You can't fire him, he quit! Wildstein therefore had every right to enter the office of the person he reported to (but was not hired by) and remove what was government property (federal government, since the PA is a bi-state agency)!

According to Rachel Maddow and the court filing:
It's not news that Wildstein has claimed to have evidence that Christie not only knew about Bridge(t)-Gate, but had helped mastermind it. But he blinked despite being able to tell the prosecutors, "I get immunity, you get the hard drive, the hard drive gets you Christie"? Well, maybe the drive doesn't contain anything worth an immunity deal. Maybe it's not admissible as evidence because it had been stolen. But my guess is that Wildstein blinked because Paul Fishman And His Fabulous Feds made an counteroffer he couldn't refuse: "We get the hard drive, all you get is less jail time...because we don't NEED the hard drive!

"Sure, anything that you, Bridget or Baroni can give us on Christie would help us do a better job of nailing him on Bridge(t)-Gate. But we've got him dead bang on his attempts to cover it up, plus on his relationship with David Samson. THAT is why we have no immunity deals in stock. It's no skin off our backs if you, Kelly, and Baroni take the entire fall for Bridge(t)-Gate -- as far as we're concerned, it's only a matter of how much jail time each of you ends up with.

"So...do you give us the hard drive, or do you try your luck with a jury? Ask yourself how lucky you feel about getting acquitted -- punk!"

"He's not a friend of yours, Gov'nor!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIT0...outu.be&t=2m7s

Christie: I'm seeing Bruce Springsteen in Boston
http://www.app.com/story/entertainme...ston/77255452/