It’s Friday and I Have to Work, But That’s Okay

Bangla-cola has become whole again. We are at peace.

(Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)

Pension Robbery

As I’ve said before, one of the biggest challenges facing Governor Christie is the legal corruption that the Democrats and Republicans have set up in Trenton. Just a day or two into his term it looks like he is setting his sights on this disgusting practice

Governor Christie on Thursday promised to eliminate a number of New Jersey boards and commissions where political appointees are then able to pad their public pensions, in some cases mostly for attending monthly meetings.

“These were pension plays — gifts to the people who lost the election, to keep them in a pension system that you and I and our children are going to pay for. I think the time for that is over,” Christie said at a news conference in Trenton.

Christie was referring to the outgoing administration’s final days, when Gov. Jon Corzine appointed dozens of Democratic aides and department heads to government boards overseeing such professions as marriage therapists, contact-lens dispensers and veterinarians. Some of those boards pay members at least $100 a month to attend a meeting, and another $50 to review agendas.

All of these little jobs add up to qualify these political appointees for lifetime pensions…pensions that we, the taxpayers, are on the hook for. And these pensions add up to real money

The pension fund is $30 billion short of its obligation.

Repeat that number. $30 billion. Much like how the Federal Government has us all on the hook for the trillions in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae obligations which they now conveniently place “off the budget” so no one sees the number too often, so we too here in NJ have this lovely amount on top of our other obligations that Trenton has signed us up for. Remember how Corzine proposed balancing the budget by allowing municipalities to “defer” pension obligations? And now he leaves office and sticks us with more for his cronies.

As Christie correctly says

“This is stuff that’s been done by previous governors and previous administrations to keep their friends in the pension system in order to accumulate the number of years they need to get the maximum amount of payoff they can get from the taxpayers,” Christie said. “It’s wrong. It’s wrong when Republicans do it. It’s wrong when Democrats do it. In the end we are fleecing our own state.”

Damn straight.

Let’s hope Christie keeps this up and eliminates as many of these positions and scams as possible.

There Is A Specter Hanging Over Pennsylvania

The Specter of being…well, himself.

Did y’all happen to notice the shirt Arlen was wearing?

Flight of a Different Sort

Crash and burn.

Not Even Close to Getting the Message

The Senate just rejected an amendment to the debt-limit bill, offered by Sen. John Thune, that would have sewn up the TARP fund and committed all TARP repayments to deficit reduction. Democrats such as Sen. Chris Dodd argued against the Thune amendment on the grounds that they want to use the money to fund new stimulus programs, such as the “Son of Stimulus” bill the House passed late last year. The administration has also voiced desires to funnel TARP money to small businesses through the Small Business Administration, an agency with a Fannie-and-Freddie-like blindness to risk and fraud.

If we’re smart and can survive ’til November, they’re handing the country back to us.

Why ~ When I Hear Bawney Fwank Has Recanted

…his surprisingly well-considered, common sense, decent comments yesterday ~ do I also hear music?

Gives New Meaning To The Term “Woody”

I wonder if he said “I love yew”

A MAN has been banned for life from a public city park after he allegedly dropped his pants and tried to have sex with a tree.

William Shaw, 21, has been ordered by a court not to enter Central Park in Airdrie, Scotland after claims he attempted to have intercourse with the plant.

I blame Bush.

Quote Of The Day (So Far, At Least)

I was just talking to a friend in Massachusetts, congratulating him on the display of Common Sense that the Commonwealth displayed, and he said “maybe now Ted Nugent will play a concert here again.”

Hehehe.

What Christie Was Elected To Do

Cut the deficit, cut spending. And cut taxes. It’s not easy or fun, because we’ve allowed the previous administrations to saddle us with lots of debt; we’ve to some extent enjoyed the results of letting Our Betters in Trenton splurge on the credit card…but the bills are coming due. At least voters appear to support the hard choices

By a 58%-35% margin, New Jerseyans support layoffs or furloughs of state workers. In union households, the total is 50%-44%. Freezing wages for state works also gets statewide support, 71%-23%, including 62%-38% among union households and 64%-30% among Democrats.

“Government workers are in the cross hairs. Most New Jerseyans, including union households, would okay layoffs. Almost three fourths would okay a wage freeze,” Carroll said. “New Jersey voters, 65 percent of them, expect Christie to get tough with state workers.”

It ain’t gonna be pretty or fun, but it needs to be done. We need to cut the government payroll, cut government regulation (which will mean we can get rid of even more bureaucrats) and pare back and eliminate programs.

Let’s hope he will strike while the iron is hot.

6.1 Quake Hits Haiti

They can’t catch a break.

A Great Day In America

My goodness, it is simply wonderful how the people of the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts stood up and said “NO! last night.

If I owned a Red Sox shirt I’d be wearing it right now.

and good for Sen. Jim Webb

In many ways the campaign in Massachusetts became a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process. It is vital that we restore the respect of the American people in our system of government and in our leaders. To that end, I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated.

We’re moving in the right direction, friends.

Lamaze/Zen Breathing Exercises

…will be coming in handy all day.

Don’t blow it, Massachusetts. My heart couldn’t take it.

UPDATE:

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOT diggety DAWG!!!

Another UPDATE: Just for shits and giggles, we checked in with MSNBC. The lovely Rachel was holding court in a downtown Boston watering hole, ARGUING with a crestfallen, HUMBLE Chris Matthews that this has nothing to do with Obama and that Brown’s regular guy approach was…wait for it…blatantly dishonest.

Oh, yeah, baby. You guys hang on to THAT thought…and we’ll see ya in November.

A New Era For New Jersey?

We’ll see. At noon today Chris Christie becomes Governor

Christopher J. Christie, a 47-year-old former federal prosecutor, will take the oath at noon today as the 55th governor of New Jersey. He succeeds Democrat Jon S. Corzine, who lost his bid for re-election to Christie by a 49%-45% margin. Christie, a former Morris County Freeholder who made a name as a corruption-busting U.S. Attorney from 2002 to 2008, becomes the first Republican governor since Donald DiFrancesco left office eight years ago.

As has been said before, the biggest challenge Christie is going to face is not from what NJ politicians do illegally; it’s what they do legally through the system they’ve set up for themselves.

Hopefully he will have the courage and conviction to take that on.

The Vote In Massachusetts

It’s been frankly amazing how this race for the Senate seat has gone. It’s been very gratifying to see the patrician arrogance of our Ruling Betters get their comeuppance, to see the bewilderment and fear set in as they realize that the voters might not just robotically rubber-stamp whatever candidate we are graced to have foisted upon us.

Of course the only poll that matters is the one that is being conducted in the booths today. Let’s hope that a motivated electorate sends a shock wave through the Establishment and elects Scott Brown. Even if he loses this process has exposed certain Democrats as corrupt, power-hungry statists, like this fellow who talks of a “slow count” on the vote so that they can still ram their agenda through in time. Disgusting.

And you know, if Brown does happen to win, they will not see this a chance for a moment of self-reflection, perhaps a moment for humility and re-evaluating their positions on the off chance that, maybe, just perhaps, they could be, dare I say, wrong on an issue. Oh no, goodness no. That’s not even the faintest of possibilities. No, if Brown should win they will…blame Bush and all those racists clinging to their guns and Bibles…in Massachusetts.

We can but hope, my friends.

This may well be one of our first steps in taking back our government, making it OF the People and FOR the People, instead of for the Parties, once again.

Everyone Must Be Sleeping Off Bingley’s Birthday Binging

…Meanwhile, across the street at the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the holiday and a bitter winter storm have kept the crowds away from a phone bank for Democratic candidate Martha Coakley. As of 10:20 this morning,

not a single volunteer had yet arrived

for the 10am phone bank.

All part of Brow Bingley’s day-before-the-election straTEEgery.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BINGLEY!!!!!

Argh.

Well, That Was A Hoot

I love having people over. Especially great fun people. Especially great fun funny people.

I made stew, which was excellent on a rainy wintery night. Folks brought yummy appetizers.

And these were good people.

People who drink

And drink

And drink

And drink

yep, I’m blessed and hard pressed to think of a better way to spend my birthday.

The 92 Kenwood Cab held up phenomenally well. We were shocked. It still had great tannins and a nice ruby color that only started fading into that brick-red after about 45 minutes or so.

Thanks everyone.

Jack London, 1992

I’ve had this jeroboam of the 1992 Jack London Cabernet for a long time.

Since we’ve got a group coming over for dinner tonight I figured I might as well open her up tonight and see how she’s held up.

I hope I’ve got a big enough corkscrew…

The Guy Who Scrubbed In Because an American Soldier’s Life Depended on a Neurosurgeon and He Happened to Be One?

He held the fort last night when the U.N. doctors buggered out.

Earthquake victims, writhing in pain and grasping at life, watched doctors and nurses walk away from a field hospital Friday night after a Belgian medical team evacuated the area, saying it was concerned about security.

The decision left CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta as the only doctor at the hospital to get the patients through the night.

…Sandra Pierre, a Haitian who has been helping at the makeshift hospital, said the medical staff took most of the supplies with them.

“All the doctors, all the nurses are gone,” she said. “They are expected to be back tomorrow. They had no plan on leaving tonight. It was an order that came suddenly.”

She told Gupta,

“It’s just you.“

And YOU are an amazing human being, Dr. Gupta.

Bless you.

Motivate Me!! (As We Women Marines Would Say Repeatedly)

And in a Gladiator sort of way.

Haiti Descends Into Chaos

Sadly, itwill only get worse before it gets better.

The infrastructure is shattered, what little and antiquated there was before this happened, the airport is jammed and low on jet fuel, the port is devastated and the piers are damaged. And once the relief supplies get ashore the roads are clogged with debris…and people who have no place else to sleep.

Thank god it’s not July and 100 degrees, at least.

Why Does The Government Suck?

Because Bush didn’t by new computers!

A big reason why the government is inefficient and ineffective is because Washington has outdated technology, with federal workers having better computers at home than in the office.

This startling admission came Thursday from Peter Orszag, who manages the federal bureaucracy for President Barack Obama.

The public is getting a bad return on its tax dollars because government workers are operating with outdated technologies, Orszag said in a statement that kicked off a summit between Obama and dozens of corporate CEOs.

I’m sure that pouring billions of dollars into buying new “technologies” would greatly improve the efficiency of government workers at some of the tasks they assign to themselves, that’s for sure.

The problem with our government isn’t the tools they have.

How’s That “Created Or Saved” Business Going?

The White House says “swimmingly.”

The numbers say “drowningly”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Retail sales fell in December as demand for autos, clothing and appliances all slipped, a disappointing finish to a year in which sales had the largest drop on record.

The weakness in consumer demand highlighted the formidable hurdles facing the economy as it struggles to recover from the deepest recession in seven decades.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that retail sales declined 0.3 percent in December compared with November, much weaker than the 0.5 percent rise that economists had been expecting. Excluding autos, sales dropped by 0.2 percent, also weaker than the 0.3 percent rise analyst had forecast.

For the year, sales fell 6.2 percent, the biggest decline on records that go back to 1992. The only other year that annual sales fell was in 2008, when they slipped by 0.5 percent.

No one is spending.

No one is hiring.

Everyone is afraid of all the new taxes, regulations and government mandates that are coming.

On top of the insane debt explosion.

But each month the “experts” are shocked, SHOCKED by the “unexpected” declines in the economy.

I need another box of wine.

Oh Sure, He Looks Innocent Enough

But trust me, those Cub Scouts can be shifty little bastards

The Transportation Security Administration, under scrutiny after last month’s bombing attempt, has on its Web site a “mythbuster” that tries to reassure the public.

Myth: The No-Fly list includes an 8-year-old boy.

Buster: No 8-year-old is on a T.S.A. watch list.

“Meet Mikey Hicks,” said Najlah Feanny Hicks, introducing her 8-year-old son, a New Jersey Cub Scout and frequent traveler who has seldom boarded a plane without a hassle because he shares the name of a suspicious person. “It’s not a myth.”

Simple solution, really: change his name to Abdullah Hicks and have his father report him to the FBI. He’ll never be delayed or searched again.

After years of long delays and waits for supervisors at every airport ticket counter, this year’s vacation to the Bahamas badly shook up the family. Mikey was frisked on the way there, then more aggressively on the way home.

“Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch — someone is patting your 8-year-old down like he’s a criminal,” Mrs. Hicks recounted. “A terrorist can blow his underwear up and they don’t catch him. But my 8-year-old can’t walk through security without being frisked.”

But really, folks: the Government will run Health Care perfectly.

No Cheating!!!

1. Is it true that if you sleep on your stomach the devil will sodomize you.
2. Is Harry Potter permissable and if it isn’t will everyonw who reads them go to hell.

Think.

Think thinkthink thinkTHINK. (Two part questions should be outlawed.)

1. I’m asleep. How would I know?

2. Harry Potter’s permissable (GAH-rrrowwwlllllll)(I know ~ I’m going to hell)…
…but I’m not sure Hermoine’s fair game.
(Ask Creepy Uncle Scott.)

DAMMIT!!!!

1. It is Makrooh (disliked) to sleep on one’s stomach. It is not true that the Shaytaan will sodomise a person who is sleeping on his stomach.

2. Harry Potter is not a good read for Muslims.

[ths sends: I guess not!, “A number of Muslim schools are promoting Islamic extremism and encouraging pupils to grow up despising Britain, a think tank report claims today.

Youngsters are discouraged from playing cricket and board games, listening to western music and even reading Shakespeare plays or Harry Potter books by fanatics targeting classrooms, the research says.

Some children are even being told to shun “the evil system of western culture” and encouraged to live in “ghettos”.“

and Allah Ta’ala Knows Best

Mufti Ebrahim Desai

I’m a lousy test taker. Too much of an independent, “outside-the-box” type.