Our So-Called Lame Duck Session

by: Bill Orr

Thu Nov 24, 2011 at 11:00:00 AM EST

Our prior lame duck session, as Jon Corzine's governorship came to an end, was filled with accomplishment (prison reform and medical marijuana) a missed opportunity (millionaire's tax) and  a heartbreaker (marriage equality.) To get through the current one, we might need maximum strength NoDoz pills. The governor is heavily promoting at least three education bills, and may achieve some minor success, but this time the heartbreak will be his. Senate President Sweeney will soon repromote a millionaire's tax bill and Senate Majority Leader Weinberg may re-promote (now or later) marriage equality and funding for women's health clinics. However the Grinch is sure to disapprove.

For the moment the following bills are making their way through the labyrinthian legislature:

Thanksgiving Day Thanks & Open Thread

by: Rosi Efthim

Thu Nov 24, 2011 at 06:37:40 AM EST

I'm thankful for Adam, Bill, Deciminyan, Hopeful, Jay, Jeff, Jersey Jazzman, KendalJames, Loretta, and the_promised_land. I get to hang out with smartypantses. Love that. Thanks to every reader, we feed off hearing from you.

My family rocks. Thankful I won't need 'ammunition' to face down right-wing family at the dinner table. I get to dine with the left wing of the family today, including my godson, freshly 18, Eagle Scout & early admission at a hotshot college.

What are you thankful for? Let us know in Comments.

Finally, I'm glad this video reminded me to buy black sunflowers for the birds. And this is where I'll leave you. Watch. Life is good.

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

Curfew Lifted at Military Park: Occupy Newark Goes 24/7 on Friday

by: Rosi Efthim

Wed Nov 23, 2011 at 04:32:24 PM EST

Occupy Newark will go 24/7 there on Friday, say organizers.

An ordinance banning camping gear is still in place. But it's difficult to see how police can enforce that. For one thing, the occupation has the general support of at least two members of Newark's council. Ras Baraka has said he plans to stay overnight in solidarity with occupiers; that may happen as early as Friday. Mildred Crump has also visited and expressed support. I can't picture Newark police cracking down on occupiers with a Newark city councilman in attendance.

The park, across the street from the brightly-lit NJPAC often has homeless or mentally ill people staying in the park overnight, presumably without much to shield them from the elements.

Occupy Newark has a General Asssembly (GA) meeting scheduled tonight 7pm in Military Park for anyone who wants to attend, find out more, and help direct the occupation in its newest NJ city. Some progressives who organize differently have complained the Occupy movement is still leaderless, without specific demands and not electorally-focused (and there's a great convo going on in the comments of my last post on all that). For me, I've got more of a wait-and-see attitude. Many of the people I've met in Occupy are young adults much younger than me. Right now, they lead the news every night. That's impressive.

Meanwhile, Occupy Trenton - in its 49th day now - is now in two locations, its original spot at the WWII Memorial across the street from the State House, on W. State Street, and in the area they call Tent City on the Battle Monument lawn a mile away.

James O'Keefe Brings the Sleaze Back To NJ!

by: Jersey Jazzman

Wed Nov 23, 2011 at 10:00:00 AM EST

Who's his new target? A Rutgers professor of education, who just happens to be a a bit of a thorn in the side of Christie's Acting Education Commissioner, Chris Cerf. Dr. Bruce Baker tells the story on his blog:

News Roundup & Open Thread for Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011

by: Rosi Efthim

Wed Nov 23, 2011 at 06:55:00 AM EST

Rob Andrews repays his campaign account $9,000 spent on a luxury trip to Scotland

Congress is failing to get the job done; The Supercommittee is Not so Super.

by: Ed Potosnak

Mon Nov 21, 2011 at 06:03:57 PM EST

In Article One of the Constitution, the Founding Fathers required Congress to control debt and spending.  Our current Congress is failing.  In fact, 535 Members of Congress could not agree on how to get spending under control and failed to meet their Constitutional responsibility, shirking this obligation and delegating it to a small supercommittee of six to do what they couldn't do.  This supercommittee came up on its deadline, and also failed.  Meanwhile, our families and businesses are suffering at their hand.

How did we get here?

The Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, a.k.a. the "supercommittee," was formed as a result of a congressional battle over whether or not to pay our current obligations.  The compromise to raise the debt ceiling included the creation of the supercommittee to identify ways to reduce the deficit.   It was signed by President Obama on August 2nd.  Failure to raise the debt ceiling would have had dire consequences to the American economy, including default on our treasury obligations.

In an effort to get something passed and avoid default, the legislation punted spending reductions to the supercommittee composed of twelve legislators whose goal was to find specific cuts to make up $1.2 trillion of the $2.1 trillion in deficit reductions by November 23. If Congress did not approve the agreement, the $1.2 trillion in spending cuts will automatically be divided equally against defense and non-defense spending, excluding Social Security, Medicaid and some low-income programs.  

On September 8, the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction had its first official meeting.  I remained hopeful that this select group could have moved beyond partisan politics and come to an agreement, but unfortunately they failed again.

It's important to put the current debt crisis into historical perspective.  When George W. Bush took over the responsibility of the budget from Bill Clinton, the budget was running a surplus.  The deficit crisis we face now is the result of the failed policies of the Bush Administration, and I am afraid this new Congress is trying to take us back to those broken policies.

In 2008, Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimated the total cost of the Iraq war at $3 trillion, including both direct expenses and the war's detrimental effect on the economy.  It's worth noting that, at the beginning of the war, George Bush estimated the cost at between $50 billion and $60 billion.  In 2010 Stiglitz called his own estimate too low.  Some of his additions included ongoing medical care for our troops, the war-generated increase in oil prices, and the neglect and lengthening of our commitment in Afghanistan.  Let's not quibble about the details and call it an even $3 trillion.  That's still a lot of money to have spent in order to deal with imaginary weapons of mass destruction, as compared to the $2.1 trillion that the supercommittee needs to cut.

When President Obama signed the agreement forming the supercommittee, the Republicans immediately declared victory.  And as is all too often in Washington, politics as usual began, and the political rhetoric from both sides was hurling across the Capitol.                                                

An important factor in understanding our economic crisis is to know just how much financial damage the current recession has done.  According to the Pew Economic Policy Group, real estate wealth decreased $3.4 trillion in the United States during the period from July 2008 through March 2009.  During this time, stock wealth decreased by $7.4 trillion, wages lost amounted to $360 billion, and the Gross Domestic Product was reduced by $650 billion.  Add to it the cost of the stimulus packages, the cost to the FDIC to bail out failed banks, the cost of bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and so on. In human terms, 5.5 million workers lost their jobs early in the crisis, and the vast majority of those jobs have not come back.  Lost jobs result in lost wages, which means the loss of tax revenues for the government.

The bottom line is that we need to get people back to work.  The best way to address the debt is through a strong economy with full employment.  I will create jobs.  As a small business owner, and teacher, I understand the challenges our families and businesses face, and I will work everyday I am in Congress to implement solutions to our problems and get people back to work.

If it weren't for Bush's war in Iraq and the Republican generated financial meltdown, the current deficit and unemployment problems would not exist. The Republicans who caused these problems are less

extreme than the Tea Party that has a stranglehold on our country, and are standing in the way of sensible policies to spur job creation and improve the economy.  Hopefully, the election in November of 20
12 will reverse this trend and usher in a Congress that can get the job done.

Occupy Education Reform

by: Jersey Jazzman

Tue Nov 22, 2011 at 09:00:00 AM EST

In America today, students who peacefully question the status quo can expect this:

Obviously, these kids never learned to conform, which demonstrates a failure of our public education system. Because schools are not supposed to produce critical thinkers capable of independent thought who can see past the corporate propaganda our media grinds out every second. No, schools are there to produce "21st Century workers" - people who are smart enough to do the work but not smart enough to challenge the system. Even our "liberal" president thinks so.

We need an education system that indoctrinates students to produce uniformity of thought. The best way to do this is to put all of our teaching emphasis on secretly designed and implemented standardized tests, whose sole function is to determine whether students' thoughts have been "standardized."

Just like the picture above, we should mete out punishments to students and teachers who do not adhere to a strict schedule of learning development; the Common Core will keep us on track. To accelerate the the process, we should narrow the curriculum and take away workplace protections for teachers who dare not to go along.

We should also have more charter schools and private schools, with their "Success For All"-style group chanting and uniforms. It's especially important to promote these in poor, urban areas, as these are the people who stand to gain the most by developing the critical thinking skills that would lead them to analyze their current situation and realize how badly they're getting screwed.

Of course, one thing we've learned since No Child Left Behind is that there will always be kids who fall through the cracks. Despite our best efforts, some children will not get with the program, and will actually believe the TV less than their own lying eyes.

Don't worry: we'll just make sure we put an emphasis on "lifelong" learning:

Let's all take a moment to thank the incredibly wealthy people who are funding the corporate education reform movement to get our kids to conform. Obviously, these billionaires know what's best; and if you don't understand that, we have ways of making you understand.

News Roundup & Open Thread for Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011

by: Rosi Efthim

Tue Nov 22, 2011 at 08:17:55 AM EST

Fairleigh Dickenson/Public Mind Poll finds: Fox News leads New Jerseyans to be less informed than those who don't even watch the news

MF Global: Worse Than We Knew, But - Hey - Ripe for Parody

by: Rosi Efthim

Mon Nov 21, 2011 at 08:58:37 PM EST

No telling when the customers (read: big playas) will get their money found and returned to them. Mysteriously (yeah, maybe not), the Koch Brothers got out before the shit hit the fan. Customer funds are supposed to be strictly segregated. At MF Global, not so much. A clusterfuck of epic proportions, looks like MF Global will be 8th largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Amazingly, the Careers page at MF Global's website is still up, looks to still be recruiting, and is just begging for somebody to slap up a parody site. MF Global is still promising a "culture of ownership where highly driven and motivated employees can thrive". Because, after all, at MF Global " it is the caliber of our employees that differentiates us".

It feels insane to write in one day both a post on Newarkers ready to sleep outside to protest the concentration of wealth in the deep pockets of fancy people. And then, these dastardly shenanigans.

Anybody need a job? Looks like MF (what's that stand for?) Global's hiring.

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

by: Adam Gordon at Fair Share Housing Center

Mon Nov 21, 2011 at 07:14:42 PM EST

Today, DCA Commissioner Lori Grifa announced she is headed back to her law firm job after two years as the frontperson for the Christie Administration's anti-family, pro-exclusion agenda. While New Jersey's economy continued to tank, wealthy towns placed excluding the riff-raff above creating jobs and homes, with Grifa and the Administration's enthusiastic cheerleading. Despite the rather unusual coalition of business leaders, housing advocates, special needs groups, and environmentalists pushing against them, Grifa - and the boss in the front office - refused to budge.

Grifa's successor, Richard Constable, doesn't seem to have much background in housing, community development, or municipal governance, most recently having served as Deputy Commissioner in the Department of Labor. Like many other Christie Administration leaders, he worked for Gov. Christie in the U.S. Attorney's office for many years, which Gov. Christie joked about in his press conference today. He's personally close to the Governor, according to an article in his graduate school alumni magazine.

We hope that we're pleasantly surprised by Commissioner-designee Constable as he takes on this new job. But more likely we'll see more of the same direction - more miserable failures in dealing with exclusionary communities that put blocking new homes near transit and jobs above the economy and more inaction in response to New Jersey's growing foreclosure crisis.

Because it isn't DCA that's the problem. It's the Governor's pandering to the wealthy few who are making out like bandits in this economy - and who don't feel the sting of the jobs they kill when they say no to working families, lower-income seniors, and people with special needs who want to be their neighbors.