Corzine won't tolerate corruption...except when he does.

The Washngton Post today had an article discussing this week's corruption arrests of mostly Democrat politicians and reached into Corzine's cabinet. From the article:

Corzine has not been implicated in the investigation, but the scandal did reach his Cabinet; Joseph Doria, commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, resigned after FBI agents raided his home and office Thursday. Doria has not been charged.

Corzine was close to Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III, 32, one of the three mayors arrested. The governor lives in Hoboken and attended Cammarano's inauguration ceremony on July 1. Cammarano, a former Hoboken council member, is accused of taking $25,000 in bribes from an FBI informant posing as a building developer who needed expedited zoning approvals and permits.

All of this has been business as usual with politics in New Jersey. But the real howler is this Corzine comment:

Corzine said he was "sickened" by the arrests and called on all those public officials to follow Doria's lead and resign, even though none has been convicted. "I will not tolerate even the hint of corruption," Corzine said.

Ah, come on Governor...you have tolerated massive corruption in your ranks since you entered into politics. Your Senate colleague from New Jersey was the center of a major corruption investigation that precipitated Lautenberg's return. Your girlfriend was considered so honest that the union she worked for while dating you (only a major public employee union with a direct conflict of interest for you) dumped her after you negoiated significant contract. And how about those emails you won't share Governor? And why did your opponent the Federal attorner convict 128 of your Democrat friends for corruption versus 0 for your state Attorney General.

I know Governor Corzine. You don't tolerate corruption. Except when you do. Which is always.

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Christie. Corzine and Democrat Corruption

Reviewing the new Corzine add that shows Chris Christie leaving a congressional committee convened to attack him for alleged no bid contracts. The humorus past of this add is that it almost seems to have been prepared and filmed BEFORE Christie was "invited" to the House committee hearings. Does it not bother anyone that this heharing was convened to assist Corzine in attacking Christie.

Let's review:

1. The House has no interest in investigating Charlie Rangel accused of several tax violations and abusing housing rules intended for poor families.
2. The House has no interest in investigatiing Jack Murtha's bribe steering to his son, trashing and pre-judging our troops in Iraq and continual person of interest in a major corruption scandal.
3. The House has no interest in investigating Nancy Pelosi's accusation that the CIA lied to congress desppite evidence that it is Pelosi who lied.

But they do have time to bring in a New Jersey Federal Prosecutor who is running for Governor and also put away 128 of their friends. Curious.

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Another day, another 30 corruption arrests in NJ

The story speaks for itself at this point(from the Wall Street Journal):

Federal agents swept into northern New Jersey towns Thursday morning, arresting about 30 people including several mayors, in a federal investigation into alleged public corruption and a high-volume, international money-laundering conspiracy.

Even by New Jersey standards, this one seems like a weird one. I am sure we will get a lot more after the news conference later, but I have a question that always arises when these things happen. Why is it never a member of New Jersey law enforcement or the Attorney General's office who make these busts? New Jersey has the second highest cops per capital (USDOJ Expenditure and Employment) behind New York and yet the police can never seem to identify or arrest any corrupt politicians. Why?

According to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney's office in Newark, the arrests related to the public-corruption probe included Peter Cammarano III, the newly elected Democratic mayor of Hoboken; Dennis Elwell, mayor of Secaucus, also a Democrat; state Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, a Republican; and Democrat Leona Beldini, the deputy mayor of Jersey City, the state's second-largest city after Newark.

Arrests that are part of the money-laundering portion of the investigation include several rabbis in New York and New Jersey, the statement said.

We will be following this as it unfolds. Read the entire Wall Street Journal article here.

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Arguments, Liberals and the Health Care Debate

This afternoon I stumbled across an excellent article entitled "Argument Writing for Liberals 101" written by Garrett Baldwin. The article discusses blogs, free speech and a recent attack the writer received from a reader:

On Monday, I received my first piece of ‘hate mail’. It was a riveting diatribe exploring the unprogressive complexities of my posting on George Bush and Barack Obama. The writer’s argument exemplified my problem with anonymous writing. The critic failed to grasp any core part of the argument, and instead just attacked my individual personality. You might call that form of argument Rule 12 for Radicals.

The note reads (sic:)

“Your a [complete] idiot. What did you do, steal a bunch of quotes from Rush Limbaugh and tie them together? Your just another racist repug and your pissed that Barrack Obama’s in the White house. Your side had 8 years and Bush destroyed the economy. Just leave the (sic:) distict of Columbia. No one wants you here. CONSERVATISM IS DEAD GET OVER IT!!!”

Mr Baldwin then proceeds to assist the writer with recommendations on how they might improve their attack on his position. He begins with Grammar:

Part One: Megan’s Basics

1) Spelling: Barack Obama only has one ‘R’ in his name, and you have probably written, read and screamed his name in adulation at least 30 times a day since mid-2007. The fact that you are unable to remember this spelling is troubling. Maybe it was because you took the ‘R’ out of District (sic: distict of Columbia) and gave it to your president’s name. No worries, you’re just maintaining the Joe the Plumber spirit, right? Spread the letters around.

2) You’re and Your: I cannot even remember how far back I would have to go to remember when I learned this basic rule of grammar. Probably at a time when I was unaware there was a President outside of George Washington, and my principal dressed up as Christopher Columbus on Columbus Day. That was in the mid- to late-1980s. Even if you forget this rule, Megan, you own a machine that has a grammar checking device. You typed that attack, yet you seemed incapable of hitting F7.

3) Spelling Numbers: In long form writing, spell numbers zero to nine. After 10, you may use numerals.

4) Commas: Commas are needed before every use of the word ‘and’ in your statement. Each of your clauses has a noun and a verb, which means that each can stand on its own.

He then goes on to discuss how to present ones thesis and how to support it thoroughly. In addition, he uses the health care debate to demonstrate how to do it well. All while attempting to assist his critic while maintaining a self deprecating tone.

Rebut the central argument of the opposition

This is my favorite paragraph, because you get to attack the other person’s argument… not the person, which is what the liberal would prefer. All you need is some logic, and their arguments fall apart.

In this paragraph, I would take a swing at Obama and Pelosi’s reasons for trying to railroad through this bill. Right away, I might say, “Pelosi argues that this reform is essential because she claims that she has the support of the American people, and there is an immediate need to insure 46 million people without proper care options.”
So I attack, with a great big, “HOWEVER”, Pelosi’s argument is flawed because…

She does not have support of Americans as the polling data continues to plummet and Americans are opposed to Congress’ actions since January.’ Americans who favor this plan trail 46 to 49 percent, according to polls released today. I would cite this data.

Furthermore, I could attack her almost arbitrary figure of ‘46 million uninsured’ who do not have access to healthcare, a fact which the Heritage Foundation has systematically proven to include 12 million illegal immigrants who do not pay taxes, nearly 10 million people who can afford healthcare, but refuse to purchase it, and millions more who have enrollment options but utilize Medicare and Medicaid.

And then there’s the people who are dead but are still being counted.

Just like that, I have seriously damaged Pelosi’s reasons and evidence for passing healthcare so swiftly.

In the Garrett Baldwin is a complete idiot, argument, Megan does not rebut anything I wrote in my article about Bush and Obama’s deficit spending. But, she could try to make some sort of logical argument that Garrett claims to not be a complete idiot, however... Then she would attack my claim with further evidence that might damage my argument, thus making me look foolish.

She fails to do any of these things. Instead she demands that I should leave the (sic: ) ‘distict of Columbia’, which I am assuming is a band.

This is a must read article. Read the entire article here.

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Point Pleasant Tax Revolt

I recently received a heads up from the folks at George Mason regarding this blog post by Eileen Norcross. The problem and the story are pretty clear:

Residents in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey have resorted to a seldom-used method to protest their mayor’s proposal to raise taxes: they want him recalled from office. The recall petition containing 1,250 signatures was approved this week, giving Mayor Vincent Barella until July 22 to mount a challenge to the motion being placed on the ballot in November.

The movement to recall Mayor Barella began in the fall, after he asked the state government permission to levy local special options taxes on beach badges, paid parking lots, and alcohol — and more controversially, proposed parking fees on all neighborhood streets — to meet the $11.5 $1.5 million gap in the borough’s budget.

I caught wind of this story when I was travelling the other day. The article is a pretty good description of what can happen when a state and municipality maintain a dysfunctional financial relationship. It is well worth the read.

More interesting inherent in the discussion is the problem between cutting spending and raising taxes. No one wants to pay more taxes. That is why Barack Obama has been so effective at neutralizing this issue by saying that the "RICH GUY" will pay the bill. But folks are finding out that even when the rich guy pays the bill, he often just passes it along to you. For example, if the pizza parlor owner on the boardwalk is asked to pay more on his taxes, he and every other pizza parlor owner is going to raise the price of pizza a dollar or two. You can feel good that you "Socked it to the rich guy" but all he did was stick it right back at you. So whether the government collects it, or business passes it on, or the rich guy moves away, someone has to pay the bill.

In addition, Point Pleasant's situation is also comical on the spending side. When the proposal to cut back on the number of the city's police, residents balk. Well, again, you can't have it both ways. Cuts mean cuts. So you either cut the force or find another way to pay for it. Norcross made an excellent point here:

An excellent solution comes from Stanley Fischer, one of the petition’s authors. The beaches and boardwalks belong to the bars, amusement parks and pavilions. To deal with the summer partygoer crowd, let the boardwalk businesses hire additional police. Good idea, and it can be taken further. Point Pleasant need only look to neighboring Seaside Heights’ Business Improvement District. There are already about 80 Special Improvement Districts in the state.

Maybe Point Pleasant is a good example of individual citizens coming together and trying to come up with some good ideas to solve real (not imagined) problems. It's a shame the congress cannot seem to do the same.

We will follow this story as it develops. Hat tip to the Public Affairs team at George Mason!

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Off-Topic: A Rant About "Statesmen"

This isn't related to taxes. I wrote it to a friend when he said to me

The art of politics got lost when party lines became more important than the will of the people. We need to insist on the process being changed by people brave enough to do so. Those people are called statesman. And I can't think of a single one (Ted Kennedy comes the closest) currently serving in Congress...

Here is my response.

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You say that people are blinded by party, that party matters more than the will of the American people. But if the "Lion of the Senate" is as close as you can get to a statesman, then I think you yourself have been blinded by ideology. There are pathetic unintelligent bumbling uncharismatic undiplomatic losers in the Senate (Joe Biden was among them until recently) who are closer to being statesmen than Ted Kennedy.

This is the man whose connections enabled him to maintain a thriving political career despite the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

The is the non-partisan statesman who looked at an eminently qualified Supreme Court nominee and said (text or YouTube),

Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is often the only protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy.... President Reagan is still our President. But he should not be able to reach out from the muck of Irangate, reach into the muck of Watergate, and impose his reactionary vision of the Constitution on the Supreme Court and on the next generation of Americans. No justice would be better than this injustice.

Of course, after vitiating the judicial confirmation process during the Bork hearings -- corrupting it so badly that it became impossible for a conservative judge to be confirmed if he said what he thought about actual issues that face the court and the country -- he then attacked the similarly qualified Miguel Estrada on his nomination to the 2nd Circuit Court because he ostensibly wouldn't answer enough questions. Kennedy may not be a statesman, but he is an effective politician: He ensured that Estrada was in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation. And it worked.

I wonder if this lion, this almost-statesman, would repeat today what he said on February 10, 2003, about Estrada:

I congratulate [this nominee. She] comes to this position on the basis of very humble roots and a life of personal achievement. Does that guarantee one will hold a position on the district court because one has had that experience? Should that entitle someone? Should one think of serving on the courts as an entitlement or as a reward? Clearly not. There are too many issues involving the everyday life experience of American citizens that are being decided by that court and that will affect the lives of individuals in this country. Therefore, this is too important a position for anyone, as talented as they are and as unique as their past experience, to expect they are just going to be in a privileged position and not have to be responsive to the inquiries of the members of the committee.

Perhaps he didn't personally attack Clarence Thomas because even he could see how ironic it would look: a blustering, overwhelmingly privileged white man who had drunkenly abandoned a gal-pal to drown, passing judgment on a erudite black legal scholar of humble roots, because a woman accused him of sexual misconduct. But Kennedy didn't have to act personally: His hatchet men were all around.

We are losing America because we have forgotten how to recognize things as truly American -- and as truly un-American. Yes, we need more statesmen; but we fail to get them because We The People look at men like Ted Kennedy and think they "come close" to that level.

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Want universal healthcare? Everyone shoulld pay.

The debate around universal healthcare has been too slanted for too long. The current debate purports to position a new benefit to every American (FREE HEALTHCARE) allegedly paid for by "THE RICH GUY". Despite the fact that it would be impossible to tax the rich guy enough to pull that whopper off, the Democrats are pushing that line because they think they can bring along all of those voters who believe that there is such a thing as a free ride.

The real debate around this topic should be as follows:

1. Do we all want universal healthcare?
2. Should it or can it be managed by the government?
3. What track record does the government or ANY government have in effectively and efficiently managing healthcare for its citizens?
4. Would this healthcare plan be so appealing that the congressman who are sponsoring it will drop their current gold plated system and move to this new one?
5. ARE YOU PERSONALLY WILLING TO PAY OUT OF YOUR POCKET TO ACHIEVE THIS GOAL?

I guarantee you, if the average person following this debate answered those questions honestly to themselves, the current approach being pushed by the Democrats would go nowhere. You see, this entire debate is about using a group of people who see a "FREEBIE" and want to take advantage. Some of these people are consumers. And some are business owners that believe that they may be able to drop the coverage the currently pay for and dump their employees into a government plan. Either way, each one want something for nothing. And as my father told me a long time ago, there is no such thing as a free ride.

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A Leadership idea for Obama - Fix the Current Stimulus!

Scott Rasmussen released numbers today that showed for the first time people who strongly disapprove of Obama over strongly approve at an 8 percent (negative) advantage. For some time Obama has been happy to take advantage of bad times to ram legislation through in the hope that the economy would improve on its own and his "revolutionary" changes would transform American into his brave new ideal. But the facts on the ground are working against him and his stimulus (while never read by a single congressman) has proven to be completely un-stimulating.

So, instead of a second stimulus, he would be far better off rebuilding the current stimulus. Here is how he could pull it off:

1. Rescind every spending item outside the next 12 months.
2. Re-evaluate all of the stimulus proposals ignore in round one and convene a bipartisan "executive panel" to do it-not party hacks on either side. Folks like Warren Buffet could really add value here.
3. Submit a set of proposals that could be discussed and evaluated with proper review in the congress.
4. Engage in constructive debate (not "I won" but "I want to fix it")
5. Create a bill that the country has confidence in and both parties could rally around.

While this would not be popular with either the hard left of the hard right, it would be VERY popular with an electorate that it turning strongly against the President. And it would also allow him to actually have the confidence of the people when presenting his ideas for health care and other programs which will not only have bipartisan support but likely no support outside of hard core liberals and toadies. And it would seperate him from his Democratic party approval boat anchors Pelosi and Reid (about 70 percent of the country would agree that these two deserve a place under the front wheel of the bus).

Just an idea. He won't do it. But if he was really the transformational LEADER he claims to be, he would.

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Corzine's Palin Problem - and each NJ Citizen's $60,656 bill

A spokesman for Jon Corzine was quoted in the Associated Press attempting to use the typical New Jersey bogeyman argument against Christie by invoking Sarah Palin:

For their part, Democrats in both New Jersey and Virginia were eager to link their rival GOP contenders to Palin.

"Her positions are certainly consistent with where Christie's been," Corzine spokesman Sean Darcy said. "They would both deny a woman the right to choose and they oppose new gun control legislation. And like Palin, Christie's staked out Conservative right-wing positions on rejecting the federal stimulus money, which would create thousands of jobs."

The first thing about this quote is that it is so trite that it boggles the mind that any intelligent human being could believe it. However, that clearly doesn't represent a lot of people in New Jersey because they routinely fall for this drivel. Let's get something straight. Two of three topics referred to in this quote (gun control and abortion) are federal issues. The governor of this state really has little say in the matter and therefore their position amounts to mere window dressing for partisans.

As for "rejecting federal stimulus" money, I think that a large number of New Jersey residents would like to hear in detail what stimulus money is coming to our state. Along with that, we would love to hear what the corresponding debt load assigned to our residents would be especially since the citizens of this state receive roughly 61 cents for every dollar we send to Washington (from the Tax Foundation). So, following that reasoning, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the average citizen now owes $37,000 dollars because of the stimulus that didn't stimulate. Given New Jersey's productivity in government contribution, that equals a debt load of $60,656. Sure, let's talk about that Mr Corzine.

But all of this is really silly. Talk of abortion and gun control is just changing the subject and may be fine during the good times. But these aren't good times. And frankly, we have plenty to talk about. Namely, Jon Corzine's record. He can trash Christie all he wants but he now has a real record and interestingly enough, that is the last thing he wants to run on.

He doesn't want to run on his ethically challenged relationships while negotiating multi-million dollars contracts with unions. He lies to the people about saving money this year in the budget which is far more than the last budget Gov Codey submitted. He doesn't want to run on the massive debt he has added to our state and its choking debt service. And he doesn't even want you to see him in person because he only looks and sounds halfway decent after an ad agency touches up his photo, voice and adds music. This man inspires no one. He has not led this state and has been and utter and complete failure. His claim to fame of being a successful businessman has been thoroughly debunked by his complete lack of business sense. That is the record we should be discussing.

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House Democrats want higher taxes for healthcare. Big shocker.

The word is that House Democrats will be proposing higher taxes on "high" wage earners to pay for their healthcare proposals. From Bloomberg:

Two people familiar with closed-door talks by committee Democrats said a House bill probably will include a surtax on incomes exceeding $250,000, as Congress seeks ways to pay for changes to a health-care system that accounts for almost 18 percent of the U.S. economy. By targeting wealthier Americans, a surtax may hold more appeal for House Democrats than a Senate proposal to tax some employer-provided health benefits.

“The surtax is obviously more attractive to Democrats in the House because it’s more progressive, which they find attractive in and of itself,” said Paul Van de Water, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research group focused on policies affecting low- and moderate-income families.

The real joke here is that Democrats and President Obama keep proposing taxes on the "rich guy". And for every one of these proposals, the "righ guy" keeps changing. I am willing to guarantee that this will eventually translate into a tax across the board for all productive members of society.

But the bigger problem is that Democrats said they were going to pay for the stimulus by taxing "rich people". Then they were going to pay for their irresponsible budget by taxing "rich people". Then they were targeting "rich people" for the carbon tax. It seems to me that they have used this tactic to "pay for" every spending increase they have proposed.

Time to wake up America. We cannot afford another House spending proposal.

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Health Care Reform - Mass vs Ga

I saw this today at The Corner on National Review Online. It's a must see.

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Palin resigns. What a shame.

Sarah Palin resigned today which is not news to many who follow this blog. What is sad in a way here is that she has become a target of a pathetic political class that includes both Democrats and Republicans. Whether or not you like her (and in the sense of full disclosure I do respect this woman for what she has done), she has handled herself quite well despite some of the most vicious attacks any politician has faced.

I don't blame her for bowing out as she has become a lightning rod for every liberal wacko who has a grudge and standing with a court in Alaska. I am sure Geoge Soros is laughing tonight thinking that he has eliminated another potential candidate against Obama next time around. Maybe if George Soros moves back to the United States, our citizens should take him more seriously but we are stuck with his influence whether we like it or not.

I often wonder if Barack Obama faced a similar level of scrutiny, we would not be referring to President Hillary Clinton. Just wondering.

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Corzine gets EPA for premission to turn NJ in California

From Nj.com:

The Environmental Protection Agency today gave the go-ahead for 14 states, including New Jersey, to adopt stricter auto emission standards to curb green house gases.

Our Governor wants to continue to make his mark in destroying the state New Jersey. You probably remember his insistence on government funded stem cell research after taxpayers rejected his proposal. His new agenda is to make New Jersey just like California:

Gov. Jon Corzine in his tenure has pushed several environmental initiatives, including passing the Global Warming Response Act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and setting the goal of having New Jersey produce 1,000 megawatts of power by wind by 2013 and 3,000 megawatts by 2020.

I wish I was a rich guy like Jon Corzine. As politicians go, he is completely dull but in this state he doesn't have to do anything but buy commercials that make him look if not statesmanlike, marginal. The last time he excited an NJ resident she was under his payroll clearly in opposition to state ethics laws. But someone needs to make this guy stop. I can't take any more Corzine prescriptions. They always cost me money and do nothing for the state. Corzine wants NJ to be just like California on this issue. And we now know how that turns out.

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Cap n Trade Jobs Bill - 2,600 up 467,000 down

After Republicans went on the record calling the Pelosi/Waxman Cap and Trade Bill an energy tax, the Democrats went on every television show they could declaring the energy bill a "JOBS BILL". And they, including President Obama touted the big job gains in this bill(from Whitehouse.gov):

Make no mistake: this is a jobs bill. We’re already seeing why this is true in the clean energy investments we’re making through the Recovery Act. In California, 3000 people will be employed to build a new solar plant that will create 1000 permanent jobs. In Michigan, investment in wind turbines and wind technology is expected to create over 2,600 jobs. In Florida, three new solar projects are expected to employ 1400 people.

Today, unemployment numbers were announced and another 467,000 Americans lost their jobs this month. Maybe the President should stop trying to re-invent our country and concentrate on helping hard working Americans who want to work. Every move this White House makes seems to want to support those who "through no fault of their own" find themselve hurting instead of helping those hard working people who want to work and want to earn be successful.

I guarantee you that I have never worked as hard as the average PA coal miner. And I never will. And neither will you Mr President.

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Presidential Shame

What does it say about a United States President who stands idly by while Persian woman and children are beaten by government thugs in the streets of Tehran...fearful that he may be seen as meddling in the messy business of oppression?

And that same President racing to the support of a dictator in waiting who actively attempted to circumvent his country's constitution, got caught and through properly authorized legal channels, was removed from Honduras.

I am not a conspiracy theorist. Yet I see too much emphathy between our President and dictators. And not enough emphathy for freedom and democracy. Just saying.

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