Last month, it was O’Connors Beef ‘N Ale in Watchung. Today I pick up the Star-Ledger and read that Fort Lee landmark Callahan’s is closing after 55 years of serving up hot dogs and fries.

I’m old enough to remember Palisades Amusement Park and I remember the ride home when we would stop at either Callahans or Hirams for a bite to eat rather than sit in traffic on Palisade Avenue. I think Callahans deep fried their hot dogs, and I remember the fries coming right out of the fryer onto your plate. My little brother used to think if you put salt on the fries it would cool them off, so that’s what started him on his lifelong salt addiction.

Callahans is being replaced by a bank office. Well, at least they’re not putting up more age restricted housing.

Not that banks are that much better. I’ve got even got my kids in the anti-sprawl mood. “Dad, why are they building another bank?” as we drive through Piscataway and Bound Brook. I tell them that there must have been a bank shortage, that people were stuffing dollar bills into matresses because New Jersey didn’t have enough banks.

And if it’s not a bank, it’s a new drug store. I guess that’s the future of New Jersey. Banks, drug stores and age restricted housing.

A frightening headline: Sen. Clinton Says Rove Obsesses About Her. Actually I read Karl Rove is obsessed with Arianna Huffington, but maybe he’s got a soft spot in his heart for Hillary.

Hillary was responding to Karl Rove’s prediction that Hillary would be the democrat nominee for president and 2008, and for good measure he also predicted Hillary would come in second.

Don Knotts died last night. He was 81 years old. [link]. In addition to Andy Griffith, I remember Don Knotts was in a movie, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, which was one of my favorite movies as a kid. He played a talking fish in the US Navy. R.I.P.

On Friday, NJ governor Jon Corzine announced the first major fiscal decision of his term by unveiling his plan on how to replenish the bankrupt NJ Transportation Trust Fund. The solution: more borrowing. The TTF has no money, just a bunch of outstanding loans. Corzine’s plan will lower the loan payments by stretching out the repayments, refinancing the outstanding debt to lower annual payments but adding anywhere between $5 and $10 billion in debt to a state that is already one of the top three debt ridden states in the country.

Kaitlin Gourney quotes Corzine in the Philly Enquirer defending the plan like this: “They can say this is passing the buck, but we are getting something for that buck-passing”. More Corzine speak, buck-passing as a virtue.

Corzine says this isn’t a short term gimmick, that it will keep the TTF afloat for 5 additional years. Corzine must be defining “long term” as “after the next election”. He also used more Corzine speak in the Star-Ledger article, saying “You have to look at this in a holistic basis”. What the hell is he talking about?? HOLISTIC?!?! A new age governor!!! I guess you have to be listening to Yanni music in order to fully comprehend the karma enhancing aspects of the governor’s plan.

Trentonian writer Charles Webster gives a more biblical response to the governor’s handling of the issue in Corzine is not the financial Messiah everyone hoped for . “..if you were waiting for a miracle from JC, “The Messiah at the State House,” you can stop holding your breath” says Webster.

Response so far to the borrowing plan has been lukewarm, with republican senators Leonard Lance and Alex DeCroce coming out against more of the same old, same old. Union Leader Ray Pocino still calls it a “short-term fix”.

One of the criticisms of the blogosphere is that reaction is instant and usually emotional as compared to the MSM where stories are reviewed by editors and many times rewritten befor publishing. Rather than representing a thoughful evaluation, bloggers represent instant emotional response. Now that the blogosphere was gotten a higher profile, the MSM is starting to act in the same way.

The Dubai-Port story appears to be a good example. The initial response, from bloggers who were aghast that we were “outsourcing port security” to the politicians who raced each other to the nearest microphone and TV camera to the MSM who fed the frenzy.

As more news has come out during the week, the Dubai-port story appears to be not a big deal, yet too many politicians have already staked out extreme positions that it will be hard to move the deal forward. NJ politicians, Jon Corzine and Bob Menendez, are already too far out on the limb to reverse course while still saving face. And democrats are cynically taping into gut reaction bigotry to bash the president.

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit was against it at first, but
now supports the deal. John Miller and other posters at National Review credit the blogosphere for pointing out that Dubai is no Iran. Christopher Dickey, no Bush supporter, has actually been to Dubai and the UAE and says the opoposition is xenophobia and will hurt US outreach efforts in the Arab world.

Rush Limbaugh has been a voice of cuation and analysis in this entire “Arabs running the ports” debate. On the first day the story broke, he came out in favor of the deal. He also noted that the story has actually been out there for awhile and only recently got elevated in the media, leading him to believe this is just another story in a long running MSM effort to attack the administration (last week, Cheney hunting, this week Dubai, next week something else).

Star-Ledger columnist Tom Moran gives a thoughtful defense of the deal in Minus facts, foes of deal miss boat on vital ally. John Farmer, who can find a Bush bashing opportunity in every story says in Bush gets port deal right, politics wrong that a closer look at the deal says that Bush is right.

Tom Kean Sr. has argued that while the deal makes sense on paper, politically it won’t fly because the the demagogues are against it. He blames all the problems on Bush even though he thinks the deal is probably not a security threat [link]. Next thing you know, Kean will say it’s OK for women to wear short skirts but it’s a bad idea because someone will rape them. Kean also notes that we should be wary of the UAE because two of the 9-11 hijackers were from the country. Some of the hi-jackers had NJ drivers licenses, so perhaps Kean wants to ostracize the Garden State??

The biggest problem is the timing. I do believe that Americans are getting a bit tired of seeing cartoon riots, suicide bombings and beheadings while being lectured to by Iranian lunatics and Palestinian terrorists. It may take some time and some concessions by Dubai and the US, but the deal will go forward in some form in the next few months.

So far, the Jon Corzine plan to replenish the NJ Transportation Trust Fund by refinancing the debt has been getting really bad reviews. If it was a movie, it would be “Howard the Duck” or “Gigli”. There may be someone in favor of it outside of the governor’s inner circle, but if so they’re keeping the praise to themselves.

If you read this article in the Star-Ledger “Labor boss rips Corzine proposal” orgainized labor is really ticked off about the plan, since the construction unions view the fund as a source of jobs.

In the middle of the article, Mr. Corzine is defending the refinancing plan during an NJ101.5 radio show and he comes up with this sentence: “..I don’t think we are gimmicking.” Huh?? Gimmicking?? Since when is that a word?? It must be the opposite of “scrubbing” another Corzine favorite verb.

If Corzine is going to create new verbs, here’s a few suggestions. How about “Florio-ed” as in “Taxes, taxes and more taxes, New Jersey residents are being Florio-ed”. And “McGreevied”. “These politicians are more than corrupt, they’ve been McGreevied.”

It was last June when the US Supreme Court handed down the Kelo decision allowing towns to use eminent domain to seize property from a private owner to turn over to another private owner. Lots of uproar around the country and several states have passed laws to limit the use of eminent domain to condemn private property. But nothing so far in New Jersey, though hearings will start next week. While our lawmakers in Trenton hesitate, the developers and their paid for politicians continue to trample on private property.

In Little Ferry developers have their eyes on 30 acres of property near the Hackensack River. The first thing a town needs to do before starting eminent domain proceedings is to have a study done by an outside firm that determines an area is “blighted” adn “in need of redevelopment” which is the standard in New Jersey for condemnation. Little Ferry commisioned a planner to do a study, and the firm concluded that the area was not blighted. So the mayor then hires another firm that, Surpise!! concludes that the area is blighted. The developers who are eyeing the Little Ferry land are all politically connected.

Then there is Amboy Aggregates, a sand dredging company in South Amboy that employs 60 people on 64 acres of property along the Raritan River. The company has been there for over 20 years, says it is profitable and that the site is well maintained. Condeming the site and seizing the property would put the company out of business, though real estate developers would do well, and I’m sure the local politicians would get their cut. The town says the land isn’t being used “to its fullest potential”. In New Jersey, if waterfront property is not jammed with high priced condos or retail shops, then I guess it’s not being used to its fullest potential.

Finally, there is the case of Soberg Airport in Readington Township. The private airport, seated on 750 prime acres of Hunderton County real estate is the host of a huge annual Ballooning Festival. Neighbors have been complaining about the noise for years (Is there anything more annoying than people buying a house near an airport and then complaining about noise??) Well the town is proposing a bond ordinance to borrow $22 million to buy the airport [link]. The owners of the airport say it’s not for sale though there have been negotiations on and off for the past few years. The town says they want to preserve “most” of the property. Hmm….

And of course, the Long Branch case, where the local land owners have been overwhelmed by the politicians and developers. The Weekly Standard neatly summarized the situation in an article “Razing New Jersey” saying “..Long Branch is a case study in what the use–and the abuse–of eminent domain means to middle-class America”.

Watching the democrats react to this story about Dubai and the ports, I seem to remember them acting the same way when Bush nominated Harriet Myers for Supreme Court. Conservatives were in an uproar back then as now. Democrats were neither in favor nor against, but they wanted so bad to hang a defeat around the president’s neck. Well, Bush caved on the Myers nomination, and instead nominated Sam Alito. Score: Bush and the conservatives 1 democrats 0.

NJ Senator Bob Menendez wants to introduce a law that would “..prohibit companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from purchasing port operations” [link]. Nevermind that the ports are currently owned by a British company who I’m pretty sure are foreign. I wonder if Venezuela and Hugo Chavez tried to buy the port, would Menendez want to stop that, too?? Only English speaking white countries can buy ports it sounds like.

Jon Corzine is going to try to block the sale in court, arguing that the deal “..violates the state’s sovereignty by infringing on its ability to assess the risks and costs of the government’s action.” I’m not a lawyer, but that argument seems pretty weak to me.

I don’t know enough about this deal to take a stand, but the democrats run the risk of appearing to be supporting a type of racial profiling. If we can deny a sale of a company to an Arab country, why not deny visas or make every olive skin airline passenger go through extra searches. I think once again the democrats are miscalculating if they think they can get political advantage on this.

Two things about the plan to refinance New Jersey’s Transportation Trust Fund by refinancing the existing debt.

(#1)They left the mother of all gimmicks, selling or leasing the Turnpike and/or Parkway on the table.
(#2)If you judge the success of a political solution by the fact that nobody is 100 percent happy, then this solution is a roaring success. Nobody will be holding celebration parties for this one.

Actually, the financial firms that will sell the new debt will make a couple of hundred million in fees and services. Yes, the bankers and lawyers always win.

According to today’s Star-Ledger (”Corzine’s transit fund rescue to sidestep gas tax increase“) NJ governor Jon Corzine will formally submit a plan to get a cash infusion into the NJ transportation trust fund by refinancing the funds outstanding debt. The plan will lower annual debt payments but add almost $11 billion in new debt to our states ledgers. They will also take about $100 million in auto and truck taxes that currently go into the general treasury and dedicate the money to the fund.

Corzine and the democrats in Trenton have given up on the idea of trying to convince the public that an increase in the gasoline tax would be the best way to replenish the transportation fund. So much for “making tough choices”. This isn’t exactly a profile in courage for NJ democrats.

I read somewhere that the governor doesn’t need legislative approval to do this. Luckily for him. Republicans need to come out strong against this, if only to make a statement. State senator Leonard Lance has been a strong opponent of the borrowing gimmicks that republicans and democrats have been using to avoid cutting spending.

Bubbling under the surface is the fact that the 2006-2007 budget will have a raft of new taxes and Corzine and the democrats don’t want to use up all their political capital fighting for a gas tax now. So my guess is that it’s a done deal.

We are less than two months into 2006 but it’s never too early to start noting who is really having a rotten year. Some might say the MSM, but they’ve really had a couple of rotten years. My pick is Google.

Not only has Google stock taken a beating this year, losing 25% from its January high and wiping out literally billions in paper wealth, but the company has taken a serious media beating. Google is the only major search company that has refused to turn over data on search terms to the federal government while at the same time agreeing to cooperate with the Chinese government as it censors internet content. Even Reuters, not normally one to bash business, notes “Google’s resistance contrasts with a deal the company has struck with the Chinese government to censor some searches on a new site in China …”. [link]. Democrat liberal representative Tom Lantos contrasted the China business to IBM’s dealings with Hitler during the run-up to WWII.

The company has admitted that it has records of most Google searches stored on its computers, data containing search terms and IP addresses. I’d imagine hackers who are able to break into financial institution servers and steal credit card numbers would be able to do the same to Google given the time.

Time magazine also didn’t do Google any favors by running a cover story on the company featuring a photo of the three guys who run Google with two of them in black t-shirts and all with big annoying grins on their faces [link]. This brought back bad memories of the start of the Internet boom, when teenagers with greasy hair and dirty t-shirts were cashing in millions on IPO’s and venture capital for businesses that in some cases never even made a profit before folding.

Google is also pitching a new desktop operating environment that is supposed to be a rival for Microsoft Windows. A feature of Google desktop is it allows a user to share his hard drive with other Google users but in order to do this Google actually copies data from your PC to a central server. For all this talk about the Bush administration and privacy, it appears Google is more of a threat.

The kids are by the big bay window in the living room at the DynamoBuzz mansion here in beautiful central New Jersey checking out one of the biggest blizzards I’ve seen in awhile, well at least since last year. That groundhog was right. The weather reports say the temperature will be near 50 deg F by Wednesday, so get ready for some serious slush by mid-week.

Looks like we have at least a foot of snow and it’s still coming down. Hard to tell exactly how much is on the ground with all the drifts. My street hasn’t been plowed yet so there won’t be any church today.

Early last evening it looked like we wouldn’t get much snow at all. I thought it was one of those all hype no accumulation weather events. We actually went out to the movies and caught a 5PM showing of “Curious George”. Very good kids flick, I liked the way the animition was done. They did a good job capturing the flavor of the books illustrations, with 2-dimensional artwork and heavily saturated primary colors. It’s a bresh of fresh air given all the computer generated animation that we get nowadays.

Bob at eCache is the host of the weekly Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers.

Unlike Jon Corzine’s most recent transportation fund solution, the COTNJ is gimmick free.

There’s a little bit of something for everyone. NJ politics, the Middle East, soup, snow, you name it. Almost a year after the COTNJ debuted it’s still going strong.

Less than a month ago, Jon Corzine said this during his inauguration speech: “New Jersey must put its fiscal house in order. The time of one shot budget fixes is past”.

His first budgetary problem is the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund. The TTF is broke due to out of control borrowing, and all the money collected this year will go to towards financing the debt. His solution?? He wants to refinance the debt [link]. In other words, a one shot fix.

According to the article, this isn’t a long term solution, but instead will only extend the TTF for about 4 more years. Just after the next election. Not exactly an act of courage or bold leadership from the new governor.

The transportation fund gets most of its money from the gasoline tax, and the governor and his democrat cohorts in the legislature are afraid to raise taxes. As the article notes, Corzine wants to save his political capital for his first budget which will most likely be loaded with new taxes. No sense in taking heat for a few cents per gallon gas tax increase when you’ll be pushing massive sales and income tax hikes in a few months.

As regular DynamoBuzz readers know, I am not a fan of the age-restricted housing developments that are popping up all over New Jersey. Well, the industry is trying to soothe me by calling it age-qualified housing. No good. I still don’t like it.

Three cheers to Stanhope NJ Councilman Brian Murphy. The town wants to turn a 19 acre parcel into an age-restricted development, and he was against it, saying “I want a lively community, … I don’t want an age-restricted ghetto.” [link]. Good job, Brain. Unfortunately, there is almost no affordable housing under $400,000 being built in this state for a young family just starting out. Your choice is either older homes or to move to Pennsylvania.

And one of my favorite restaurants, O’Connors Beef ‘N Ale in Watchung has shut down. O’Connors has been in Watchung for over 30 years, had a great Sunday brunch, big wooden tables and a nice homey country atmosphere. They’re being evicted from the 2.3 acre site they’ve been at since 1971. To be replaced by 26 age restricted condos [link]. Oh, joy.

One of the reasons the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund is going broke is because money that was supposed to be used for repairs and construction was instead diverted to the general fund to pay the state’s operating expenses. The state borrowed to pay for transportation projects, and now the bond payments are consuming all the trust fund money for the upcoming year.

Well, it’s not just the Transportation Trust Fund that was raided. Enlighten-NewJersey has the details on the NJ State unemployment fund, which was almost $5 billion in surplus about a decade ago but is now nearly bankrupt. If the economy goes in the tank and NJ unemployment shoots up, the fund will not be able to pay benefits.

The truly obscene fact is that even with all the raiding of dedicated funds and the billions in new taxes from the McGreevey years, New Jersey was still borrowing money to balance budgets. Where did the money go????

Tom Hester has more in the Star-Ledger. The most likely solution is to raise taxes on NJ employers. As Hester explains, if the fund drops below $1 billion in reserves, a tax hike is automatically triggered. So much for Jon Corzine and his promise to make New Jersey more business friendly. Yeah, I know, he inherited the problem. Any sympathy he may get will be drowned out by screaming when he unveils his other tax hike proposals next month.

Lawhawk notes that New Jersey is the only state where it is legal to take unemployment fund money to other projects. In this case, NJ used the money to reimburse hospitals for charity care.

By day John Feder was a police sergeant, a 22 year veteran of the West Orange force. By night, John Feder was stand up comedian “Club Soda Kenny”. Feder was able to keep the two separate until someone annonymously sent a recording of one of his performances to his superior officers [link] and Feder was suspended. Seems like his comedy act was NSFW, sex and racial jokes, and West Orange says the conduct is unsuitable for a police officer, though Feder never mentioned on stage that he was a cop. They say that Feder never got permission to work a second job, and department rules are that officers must get approval for any moonlighting.

I used to listen to Howard Stern back in the 1980’s, and “Club Soda Kenny” was part of Andrew “Dice” Clay’s entourage. His job was mostly to get drinks for the Diceman and to yell “Oh, Yeah!” in the background.

I’d be willing to cut Feder a little slack if I was one of his superiors. Can’t say the same for New Jersey state trooper James Harney who is alleged to be part of a multi-state sports gambling ring that was taking in millions a year [link]. The case against Harvey also involves former NHL hockey stars Rick Tocchet and Wayne Gretzky and possibly Philadelphia organized crime figures. Supposedly the feds have recordings of wiretaps with all the principals. Harney’s NJ state police supervisors weren’t suspicious when they saw him with at least two very fancy expensive sport cars, a quarter million dollars worth of Rolex watches and two homes, all on a state policeman’s salary. Maybe they thought he was working alot of overtime.

Hard to feel sorry for Harney and his gambling ring. The case against Feder, aka “Club Soda Kenny” is a bit more complicated since he’s basically being disciplined for legitimate, legal off the job behavior. This is a bit like a blogger being fired for posting something in a blog that has nothing to do with work but is still controversial. But I do seem to remember a few years back some NYC firemen getting fired for appearing on a parade float in black face and fake Afro wigs, so there may be some precedent here.

Six Flags/Great Adventure has been using old dancing guy with thick black glasses in its TV advertising. The guy is named “Mr. Six”, and his identity has been secret and subject to widespread rumors and urban myths. I heard he was a child molester.

Six Flags/Great Advewnture has always refused requests to name the actor or to give out any personal information. His identity was secret. Until now.

Blogger Paul Davidson has “outed” Mr. Six. Mr. Six is actually not a senior citizen but a 30-something actor wearing make-up an prosthetics. His name is Danny Teeson and he is on “Queer Eye for the Straight Girl” which I have never seen. It’s on the Bravo channel. Davidson has picutres and more [here] and [here].

I always found Mr. Six to be a bit creepy, but he was memorable and anytime you saw a picture of him you automatically thought “Great Adventure”. According to Davidson, Great Flags is dropping the “Mr. Six” character so they aren’t too upset that the secret is out.

New Jersey Lawyer, Inc, the news service for the NJ Bar, has an on-line poll up on its website that asks the question

Should He Shave?

And “He” is New Jersey governor Jon Corzine. They even put up a touched up picture of the governor without a beard. He sort of looks like actor Jay Sanders, a character actor who usually plays law enforcement types in movies (”Kiss the Girls” and the Oliver Stone flick “JFK”).

I would have preferred more than one choice, perhaps showing the governor with a goatee, or maybe one of those big handlebar-type mousetaches like baseball player Rollie Fingers used to wear.

As of 12 Noon, “Keep the Beard” was leading with 54% of the vote. Given the choices, I voted to keep the beard.

Just saw this over at Yahoo:

‘Grandpa Munster’ Al Lewis Dies at 95

Hey, the guy was still going strong in his 90’s. Hope I can say the same.

The New York Rangers beat the Philadelphia Flyers this afternoon, in Philadelphia, 4-3 in overtime.

Oh, did I say New York Rangers?? I meant to say the first place New York Rangers. With todays win they are now a point ahead of the hated Flyers.

Ex-NJ Devil Petr Sykora tied the game with 40 seconds left in regulation after the Rangers pulled their goalie for an extra skater. Jaromir Jagr then scored the game winner in overtime.

Jagr breaks a long Ranger streak. For decades, the Rangers brought in high priced all-Star players who then proceeded to have awful miserable seasons. Esposito, Dionne, Robitaille, etc. Jagr is actually earning his money this year. He’s leading the league in scoring, may break team records for goals and points and is front runner for league MVP. Let’s start the playoffs next week.