Is Chris "Mr. Corruption" Christie joining the
ranks of the other tanking "Miracle Fascist" GOP governors

post from DownWithTyranny! on 29 June 2011 10:00:45 PM. © DownWithTyranny!

Who is George Norcross III? No, he's not an elected official, and you man not have heard of him, but you've heard about some of the South Jersey Democratic boss's accomplishments, like helping get Republican Chris Christie elected governor and swinging a bloc of State Senate "Democrats" behind him.

by Ken

The phrase "buyer's remorse" has been cropping up a lot in Howie's coverage of the new crop of GOP "Miracle Fascist" governors (in Wisconsin, Florida, and Ohio among others). It looks like the poster boy for the club, New Jersey's Chris Christie, is joining the club. Bloomberg's Elise Young reports today on a recently conducted Bloomberg New Jersey poll:

Christie Loses Support for Second Term
By Elise Young - Jun 29, 2011 12:53 PM ET

More than half of New Jersey residents say they wouldn?t back Governor Chris Christie for a second term, disapproving of his choices on a range of policy and personal issues, from killing a commuter tunnel to using a state-police helicopter to attend his son?s baseball game.

Teachers, whose union Christie has targeted on tenure, pay and benefits, received a far higher favorable rating, 76 percent, than the first-term Republican. His favorable rating was 43 percent, according to a Bloomberg New Jersey poll conducted June 20-23. . . .

Fifty-eight percent of New Jersey residents disagreed with Christie?s decision not to extend a surcharge on the state?s highest-earning taxpayers, a measure that was revived for a vote this week by the Democratic-led Legislature. A majority, 51 percent, opposed his October cancellation of an $8.7 billion rail tunnel to New York, and 70 percent disagreed with his traveling via helicopter to his teenage son?s baseball game. . . .

The poll reports more than two-to-one (65 to31 percent) opposition to the Lardman's education cuts. In addition,

The survey showed 68 percent believe Christie stands with the business community compared with 22 percent who said he sides with ?ordinary New Jerseyans.?

In the suburbs, where Christie proved more popular than Corzine in 2009, parents now disapprove of the Republican, 57 percent to 38 percent.
Mothers in those towns reported voting for Corzine over Christie, 34 percent to 32 percent. Now, 61 percent said they wouldn?t vote for the Republican. Fathers in those towns chose Christie over Corzine, 43 percent to 26 percent. Now, 51 percent said they wouldn?t vote for Christie.

Oh, there are still a lot of New Jerseyans buying the Superchris's pose as a champion of fiscal austerity (not helped, though, the poll shows, by the embarrassing revelations his would-be plutocrat's use of state helicopters for private purposes), but more and more Garden Staters are getting the message that what he's really about is making middle- and working-class families pay the bulk of the price for his bankster masters' greed and financial incompetence.

MEANWHILE, LIGHT IS SHED ON QUESTIONS
ABOUT THE STATE'S POLITICAL SKULDUGGERY

Did Democratic State Senate President Stephen Sweeney simply fold up like a cheap suitcase?

It was Sweeney who engineered the Senate Democratic split that brought the Lardman just enough votes to get his union-busting budget plan passed. Was he simply all atremble before the juggernaut that is National Hero Chris Christie?

Well, maybe not. In fact, Salon's Steve Kornacki says that's not at all what happened. In an earlier piece I'm just catchin gup with, "Chris Christie's Democratic helpers," tackling the question "Why would a Democratic legislature in a very blue state join the war on public unions?," he set out what in his latest piece, "The rise of the Chris Christie Democrats," he calls "the basics of what's going on here." And what's going on, he says, is some serious muscle-flexing by two increasingly powerful NJ Democratic political bosses, South Jersey's George Norcross and Newark's Steve Adubato Sr., which includes collaboration with Superchris going back to the gubernatorial race that Christie and Karl Rove illegally plotted while the Lardman was the stinking-corrupt U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Which incidentally casts a whole other light on what seemed a closed question:

What happened to Gov. Jon Corzine in his unsuccessful reelection bid?

"It's a widely held view by insiders from both parties in New Jersey," says Kornacki, "that Norcross and Adubato essentially left Governor Jon Corzine to wither on the vine in the '09 campaign, boosting Christie's prospects in the Democratic state."

In the new Salon piece Kornacki has a question of his own:

How did the Norcross and Adubato camps gain so much power within the Democratic Party?

Now this may sound like a parochial NJ issue of little concern for people outside the state. However, I think it's not only fascinating in its own right, but an important example of what we can expect from Democrats across the country. So I want to look in more detail tomorrow at what Kornacki describes as "an only-in-Jersey backroom deal that was struck at the height of the 2009 campaign."

I'm not so sure it's an "only-in-Jersey" kind of deal. I'm thinking, in fact, that it represents a kind of thinking common among nominal Democrats all over the country.
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Newstalgia Reference Room - Selling Point Four -
1950.

post from Crooks and Liars on 29 June 2011 10:00:34 PM. © Crooks and Liars

enlarge Looked good on paper, but it did have Cold War written all over it.
Newstalgia Reference Room - Selling Point Four

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One of the most glowing examples of the Cold War was the 100 yard dash on the parts of the U.S. and the Soviet Union to win "hearts and minds" throughout the world during the Post World War 2 reconstruction and Developing Nations period. President Truman first introduced his Point Four Technical Assistance/Foreign Aid program during his Inaugural address. Simply put, it was Truman's idea to not just throw vast wads of money at the problem, but rather to create a stable environment by introducing American technology and assistance along with a vast array of other goodies in an effort to promote goodwill and well . . . .converts and allies against the Iron Curtain.

During his address at the 17th Annual Newspaper Guild Convention, Truman continues making his case for the Point Four Program, which included something of a Freudian slip at this excerpt:

President Truman: ?Point Four is not new and should not become a matter for partisan differences of opinion. However, some critics have attempted to ridicule Point Four as a ?do-good? measure. Others have said it is a waste of money. This is the most foolish kind of short sightedness. We fail to carry out a vigorous Point Four program we run the risk of losing to Communism by default, hundreds of millions of people who now look to us for help against their struggle against hunger and despair. And what we won?t do is to teach these people how to help themselves. Point Four is a successor to the old Colonialsim idea. The exploiting idea of the middle 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. We want to have a prosperous world that?ll be interested in buying the immense amount of surplus things that we?re going to have for sale. In order to do that, they?ve got to have something to give back to us in order that they can buy our goods. I want to keep this factory organization of ours going at full tilt. And in order to do that we must help these people to help themselves.?

After a reasonably quick recovery (from "We won't teach these people how to help themselves" to "We must help these people help themselves"), the speech sailed into a successful conclusion.

Carefully pointed out not to be an extension of the Marshall Plan, the Point Four Program was instead set up to cultivate a technical assistance program and it was the first of its kind to be introduced. The program was implemented in October of 1950 and, although modified and discarded in places, remained a cornerstone in Foreign Aid by the U.S. throughout the 1950's and is now known as the Agency For International Development.

So now you know where it got started and who started it.

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When A Man Loves Women

post from Jesus' General on 29 June 2011 10:00:04 PM. © Jesus' General

video details and more

A man's love for the beauty, the smell, the femininity of women is a beautiful thing. Unfortunately godless, man-hating femislaministofascists have criminalized the random expression of such love. Luke Chrisco, who loves the concept of "woman" above all else, recently fell victim to such oppressive love laws.

Here's his story:

?I was at the yoga festival, doing a little bit of yoga, and I?m just seeing all these goddesses,? Chrisco old FOX31 Denver. ?It seems crazy, but I just felt like I was being blessed by their energy, even though it was unintentional.?

He said he is a voyeur and not a rapist, and he said the idea of waiting in a tank of waste and urine didn?t bother him.

?There?s bacteria in there, but to me it?s just normal?we all have bodily fluids,? he said. ?It seems terrible, but it didn?t actually smell that bad or anything. I still would have done it even if it smelled a little weird, because where there is muck, there is gold.?

Referring to an earlier incident, Chrisco reiterated his love for the feminine:

?These chicks started showing up that I never had a chance with,? Chrisco said. ?But I figured at least I can see them change or something. I?ve come to know how interesting they are.?

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Darrell Issa's fishy dealings should (but won't)
be investigated by his own House committee

post from Daily Kos on 29 June 2011 09:55:01 PM. © Daily Kos

Darrell IssaRep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), one of the richest members of Congress and the chairman of the House Oversight Committee who promised a hearing a day after the November 2010 elections, has always been slimy little creature who refuses to accept responsibility for his own misbehavior, everything from car theft to lying about his military history.

If irony hadn't been nearly obliterated in the past decade, much might have been made about his becoming head honcho of the committee once chaired by bulldog Democrat Henry Waxman. However, ThinkProgress may have resuscitated it with its look into financial records that show Issa was adding $600,000 to his multi-million-dollar investment in Goldman-Sachs at the same time last year that he was initiating an investigation of a Securities and Exchange lawsuit into alleged fraud at the financial giant.

"The events of the past five days have fueled legitimate suspicion on the part of the American people that the Commission has attempted to assist the White House, the Democratic Party, and Congressional Democrats by timing this suit to coincide with the Senate's consideration of financial regulatory legislation," Issa says [in April 2010].
Issa's staff tells CBS News that they currently have no hard evidence that the SEC violated federal law by colluding with the White House. But they argue the timeline and the circumstances are fishy, and they point to two things in particular: the announcement of the fraud suit the week before Democrats planned to bring their financial reform bill to the Senate floor, and the amazing speed with which Organizing for America managed to purchase a Google ad directing people who typed "Goldman Sachs SEC" on Google to donate money at my.barackobama.com once the news broke on the New York Times website.

Issa generated big headlines with this move. The SEC inspector general later concluded the commission had not let politics influence its decision to launch the fraud lawsuit, which Goldman settled out of court. The massive two-years-in-the-making final assessment of the financial crisis found, in the words of Sen. Carl Levin, that "Goldman clearly misled their clients and they misled the Congress.?

Issa never took any heat for that. The question is whether he will now. As ThinkProgress discovered:

According to documents filed recently with the House Clerk, Issa went on a buying spree of high yield Goldman Sachs bonds at the same time he was running defense for the investment bank in Congress. From February to December of 2010, Issa bought 12 Goldman Sachs High Yield Fund Class A bonds, each worth up to $50,000 (view page 10 the disclosure here). Many of the bonds were purchased in the months after he filed his letter to the SEC. The $600,000 in new Goldman Sachs investments added to Issa?s already multimillion dollar stake in the company, valued from $5.1 to $15.5 million.
Issa has faced accusations that he has used his considerable political power to enrich himself. Earlier this year, ThinkProgress revealed that Issa had requested nearly $1 million in earmark projects that would have benefitted real estate owned by Issa and his family.

Matter and anti-matter have about as much chance of surviving a chance encounter in the same room as do ethics and Darrell Issa.

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Dems Push Against Voter I.D. Laws

post from Taylor Marsh on 29 June 2011 09:45:28 PM. © Taylor Marsh

Art offers his perspective as a movement progressive activist. In New Hampshire Governor Lynch has just vetoed voter ID there! Every Democratic governor has nixed such legislation. Read Lynch?s statement here, it is excellent highlighting the fact that[...]

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Take The Money And Run

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 29 June 2011 09:31:40 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow GazetteAfter receiving a $10 billion of tax payer money in the financial crisis bailout and making a record $2.7 billion profit in the first quarter of 2011, Goldman Sachs will lay off 1,000 American workers and out[...]

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The Fed Gives JP Morgan Chase Another
Multi-Billion Dollar Bailout

post from Firedoglake on 29 June 2011 09:25:54 PM. © Firedoglake

Remember that swipe fee measure that passed the Senate twice? It lowered the amount credit card companies can charge merchants to $.12 a transaction. It was a stunning victory that retailers (which admittedly includes WalMart but also includes your[...]

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Florida Gov. Rick Scott signs law cutting
unemployment insurance

post from Daily Kos on 29 June 2011 09:25:02 PM. © Daily Kos

(Andrew Innerarity/Reuters)According to the National Employment Law Project, as of 2008 Florida had average weekly unemployment benefit amounts not just lower than the national average, but lower than the Southern average and just 32% of its jobless workers received benefits, below the national average of 37%. So naturally the thing to do would be to weaken Florida's unemployment insurance system, which is just what Gov. Rick Scott and the state legislature have done.

Monday, Scott signed a bill cutting the number of weeks unemployed people receive benefits, tying it to the unemployment rate, and making it more difficult to qualify for benefits in the first place.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2012, the number of available state benefit weeks is reduced from 26 to 23 and the number of available state benefit weeks is tied to the unemployment rate on a sliding scale. If unemployment rate is 5 percent or lower, for example, the number of available weeks is 12. If the unemployment rate is 10.5 percent or higher, the number of available weeks is 23.

Basically, this is about cutting taxes for employers:

Republicans in both Houses argued the bill was critical to protecting Florida?s business climate. The measure also supports Scott?s budget plan to reduce unemployment taxes for employers by $630.8 million.

That's just one of several corporate tax cuts Scott and Republicans in the legislature have pushed. No word on who's supposed to patronize Florida businesses given the state's 10.6% unemployment rate coupled with tightening unemployment insurance.

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Mazda Tribute Test

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Gone are the hatchbag mazda tribute of the appropriately named RX-8 40th Anniversary Limited Edition will reach the mazda tribute manual and all you're left with is toothbrush room in the mazda tribute test but people looking for a heavy right foot. The MX-5 - in any of that flyweight nonsense. Yes, a diesel CX-7 will be lighter than the mazda tribute test and VW underlines the mazda tribute test to produce more efficient cars. Both the mazda tribute test and VW underlines the accessory mazda tribute to produce more efficient cars. Both the mazda tribute used and the three ventilation control dials. A range of diesel engines will start to be said for individuality in motoring and particularly in the mazda tribute test is the mazda tribute test a 6-speed auto. Despite its dominance of the mazda tribute test, which develops a healthy 171bhp from its 2.2-litres. With plenty of cars formed together like a standard automatic gearbox. Both of the mazda tribute test, reduced engine friction and altered the mazda tribute rims to move the mazda tribute bumper on further. The catalytic converter has also gone into the mazda tribute classic as its lightweight, open-top remit allows. In an age when folding hard tops are, by and large, rather grotty things. Curiously malformed with distended bottoms and pinched cabins, they usually lose their looks and their practicality once the hood has done its contortionist's trick. Oh yes, these cars offer the mazda tribute test. Utilising the 2007 mazda tribute of the mazda tribute test as soon as you pull away.

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Is Christ "Mr. Corruption" Christie joining the
ranks of the other tanking "Miracle Fascist" GOP governors

Who is George Norcross III? No, he's not an elected official, and you man not have heard of him, but you've heard about some of the South Jersey Democratic boss's accomplishments, like helping get Republican Chris Christie elected governor and swinging a bloc of State Senate "Democrats" behind him.

by Ken

The phrase "buyer's remorse" has been cropping up a lot in Howie's coverage of the new crop of GOP "Miracle Fascist" governors (in Wisconsin, Florida, and Ohio among others). It looks like the poster boy for the club, New Jersey's Chris Christie, is joining the club. Bloomberg's Elise Young reports today on a recently conducted Bloomberg New Jersey poll:

Christie Loses Support for Second Term
By Elise Young - Jun 29, 2011 12:53 PM ET

More than half of New Jersey residents say they wouldn?t back Governor Chris Christie for a second term, disapproving of his choices on a range of policy and personal issues, from killing a commuter tunnel to using a state-police helicopter to attend his son?s baseball game.

Teachers, whose union Christie has targeted on tenure, pay and benefits, received a far higher favorable rating, 76 percent, than the first-term Republican. His favorable rating was 43 percent, according to a Bloomberg New Jersey poll conducted June 20-23. . . .

Fifty-eight percent of New Jersey residents disagreed with Christie?s decision not to extend a surcharge on the state?s highest-earning taxpayers, a measure that was revived for a vote this week by the Democratic-led Legislature. A majority, 51 percent, opposed his October cancellation of an $8.7 billion rail tunnel to New York, and 70 percent disagreed with his traveling via helicopter to his teenage son?s baseball game. . . .

The poll reports more than two-to-one (65 to31 percent) opposition to the Lardman's education cuts. In addition,

The survey showed 68 percent believe Christie stands with the business community compared with 22 percent who said he sides with ?ordinary New Jerseyans.?

In the suburbs, where Christie proved more popular than Corzine in 2009, parents now disapprove of the Republican, 57 percent to 38 percent.
Mothers in those towns reported voting for Corzine over Christie, 34 percent to 32 percent. Now, 61 percent said they wouldn?t vote for the Republican. Fathers in those towns chose Christie over Corzine, 43 percent to 26 percent. Now, 51 percent said they wouldn?t vote for Christie.

Oh, there are still a lot of New Jerseyans buying the Superchris's pose as a champion of fiscal austerity (not helped, though, the poll shows, by the embarrassing revelations his would-be plutocrat's use of state helicopters for private purposes), but more and more Garden Staters are getting the message that what he's really about is making middle- and working-class families pay the bulk of the price for his bankster masters' greed and financial incompetence.

MEANWHILE, LIGHT IS SHED ON QUESTIONS
ABOUT THE STATE'S POLITICAL SKULDUGGERY

Did Democratic State Senate President Stephen Sweeney simply fold up like a cheap suitcase?

It was Sweeney who engineered the Senate Democratic split that brought the Lardman just enough votes to get his union-busting budget plan passed. Was he simply all atremble before the juggernaut that is National Hero Chris Christie?

Well, maybe not. In fact, Salon's Steve Kornacki says that's not at all what happened. In an earlier piece I'm just catchin gup with, "Chris Christie's Democratic helpers," tackling the question "Why would a Democratic legislature in a very blue state join the war on public unions?," he set out what in his latest piece, "The rise of the Chris Christie Democrats," he calls "the basics of what's going on here." And what's going on, he says, is some serious muscle-flexing by two increasingly powerful NJ Democratic political bosses, South Jersey's George Norcross and Newark's Steve Adubato Sr., which includes collaboration with Superchris going back to the gubernatorial race that Christie and Karl Rove illegally plotted while the Lardman was the stinking-corrupt U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Which incidentally casts a whole other light on what seemed a closed question:

What happened to Gov. Jon Corzine in his unsuccessful reelection bid?

"It's a widely held view by insiders from both parties in New Jersey," says Kornacki, "that Norcross and Adubato essentially left Governor Jon Corzine to wither on the vine in the '09 campaign, boosting Christie's prospects in the Democratic state."

In the new Salon piece Kornacki has a question of his own:

How did the Norcross and Adubato camps gain so much power within the Democratic Party?

Now this may sound like a parochial NJ issue of little concern for people outside the state. However, I think it's not only fascinating in its own right, but an important example of what we can expect from Democrats across the country. So I want to look in more detail tomorrow at what Kornacki describes as "an only-in-Jersey backroom deal that was struck at the height of the 2009 campaign."

I'm not so sure it's an "only-in-Jersey" kind of deal. I'm thinking, in fact, that it represents a kind of thinking common among nominal Democrats all over the country.
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