I’m reading all these articles about disgraced former NJ governor Jim McGreevey and his house hunting trips to New York City and his book deals, and sometimes I forget that he’s still legally married to Dina. I’m not an expert on New Jersey divorce law, but doesn’t she have rights to … oh, let’s say half, of his $500,000 advance from Regan Books for his memoirs??

I’d also think she has some rights to any investments and real estate holdings of her husband, even when the real estate is a NYC condo he’s buying with his boy toy, Mark O’Donnell.

If Judith Regan is looking for another book deal, she should pluck down a few grand for a novel on the behind the scenes legal maneuvering with the Dina McGreevey-Jim McGreevey divorce proceedings. I see a USA Network special, too.

And if you’re in the mood for some good old McGreevey bashing, check out this editorial at the Home News, McGreevey’s judgment led to eventual demise. It’s so nasty and vicious that you’d think I wrote it. They make a similiar observation as I did a few days ago, that when someone admits they are a pathological liar, how can you believe anything he writes?? And as far as his term in office as governor, the Home News notes: “McGreevey took office proclaiming he would change the way Trenton did business … Instead, he simply became the most obvious and skilled practitioner of the deceitful system he pretended to hate.”

This is the third year that Daniel has marched in the Memorial Day parade in our town. Condidering the heat, the turnout was pretty good. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, baseball players, the Drum and Bugle Corps and every fire truck and emergency vehicle in town made the trek. Afterward, the local VFW hosted a lunch with free hot dogs, soda and beer.

Before the parade, the participants meet in a field and the vets lay a wreath and they give speeches, play “Taps” and “The Star Spangled Banner”. The pastor from our church said a prayer. The president of the local VFW is a WWII vet in his 80’s. It’s always amazing meeting a WWII vet. You see a graying senior citizen, walking slowly while wearing a blazer and hat covered with pins and you forget about the sacrifices made by that generation, about the horrors of WWII and of all wars. The media today gets all upset about US soldiers mishandling Korans, or protesting that terrorists don’t have access to lawyers. Then compare that to American prisoners in WWII who were forced into 60 mile death marches, shot and bayonetted by Japanese soldiers and locked up in death camps. God bless the American soldier, all those from the American Revolution up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We left the house at around 11 AM, gathered in the park and then got seats for the parade. The top picture is the kids in front of the DynamoBuzz mansion, with Daniel in his baseball uniform and Allison and Liliana in their red, white and blue. The bottom picture is Daniel in the parade. And, yes, the guy on top of the picture is marching in the parade while talking on his cell phone. Grrr…..

Carl Golden, a former member of the Tom Kean and Christie Whitman administrations, has a sobering, almost depressing take on the 2006 NJ budget deliberations and the chances for property tax reform in a piece in today’s Asbury Park Press.

In Day of fiscal reckoning: Don’t bet on it this year, Golden notes that come July 1st, NJ residents will have higher taxes, higher tuition costs at state colleges and universities, higher property taxes and zero, NO property tax relief or reform. Rather than step up to the plate, Governor Corzine and the legistlature are doing what they do best and what has been done for decades in Trenton: Kick the can down the road and postpone the difficult decisions.

He notes that with a property tax convention, “..even its most ardent supporters concede it’s at least two years away and likely longer.” Even if a convention is held, there is no guarantee they will agree to anything or that what they approve will get a majority from the NJ voters who must then vote for it. The special session on property taxes that we are supposed to get this summer will most likely accomplish what previous legislative sessions have accomplished, which is nothing. Many have criticized senate president Richard Codey for dragging his feet on the special summer session, but perhaps Codey realizes it is due to fail and that with slow news months in July and August, hightened attention and an angry electorate in combination with a senate and assembly that won’t tackle the property tax crisis, this special sessions spells doom for the democrats.

Golden mentions the special interests without naming them. Of course he’s talking about government workers unions, the state workers unions and teachers unions. Thanks to an ever expanding government and generous politicians who reward the unions with incredible benefits in exchange for election day help, NJ taxpayers are now saddled with a powerful state workers union filled with workers who intimidate even the strongest politicians.

Let’s face it, to cut property taxes we have to cut state employees and school spending. Supposed savings by consoliditing services is achieved by fewer government workers. Upwards of 70% of school budgets go to payroll and benefits. You won’t save any tax money unless you deal with headcount and benefits, and the Trenton politicians, from Jon Corzine and down, do not want to deal with it.

Golden closes the article noting New Jersey in 2006 has a “…government being supported by a tax structure in which 1 percent of wage earners pay more than 40 percent of the total income taxes, and in which 5 percent of the school districts receive more than 50 percent of state aid to education”. Some might say Golden is being too pesimistic in this article, but maybe he’s not pesimistic enough.

Bob at eCache is hosting this weeks Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers. Check it out, he did a great job!!

There’s an interesting political piece over at Stateline.Org with a review of the accomplishments of the state legislatures in all 50 states, a “Legislative Wrap-up”.

What I found most interesting is that in most states, the work of the state legislature is already complete for 2006. Those states have part-time legislators who often meet for only a few months a year. For instance, in Arizona, Virginia, Washington and Indiana the state legislature is in session for three months or less. In Georgia, it’s only 40 days. All told, the state legislators in 24 states are done with their work for 2006.

And in six states, Arkansas, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon and Texas, the state legislature does not even meet during 2006. In those states, they only get together once every every two years. Wow, what a concept.

Only six states elect full time state legislators who meet throught out the year. Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, New York and ….. New Jersey.

And what benefit do we get here in New Jersey for a year round legislature?? One could argue that New Jersey would be better off if the senate and assembly only meet part-time. The longer they are in Trenton, the more taxpayer money they spend and the more ways they find to get in our everyday lives.

The article notes that in many states, the biggest issue this year was what to do with surpluses. Florida, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Washington all had budget surpluses of nearly $1 billion each. In New Jersey, one of the wealthiest states in the country, our full time legislators have found a way to make us the financial basket case of the nation.

The National Taxpayers Union has put up a nifty little Flash animation featuring NJ governor Jon Corzine rapping about his plans to tax us to death. The clip features Corzine with shades and diamond studded bling rapping out “I’m the Taxman baby!!”

See the clip here at the NTU site, “Stopthetaxman.org“. The APP has more in Animated assault on Corzine, taxes.

Sample lyrics:
“If you feel ill, I’ll tax your hospital bill. Even if you’re broke I’m gonna tax your smokes … I’m the Taxman Baby!!”

With New Jersey governor Jon Corzine on a tour of Asia, NJ senate president Richard Codey becomes the acting governor. The NJ constitution specifies that whenever the governor is out of the state, the senate president assumes the role of acting governor.

But what happens when the governor and senate president are out of state?? Then the assembly speaker becomes acting governor. Yesterday, Richard Codey was out of state for an award ceromony, so Assembly speaker Joe Roberts was acting governor as of 4PM until sometime later this afternoon (Corzine, Codey out, so Roberts becomes one-day governor). That gives him 24 hours to solve the property tax crisis.

I don’t know what happens if the governor, senate president and assembly speaker are out of the state. I think Bruce Springsteen then becomes acting governor.

New Jersey Senate president Richard Codey said plans to borrow $325 million to fund stem cell research in New Jersey are dead for this year (Codey says budget concerns to delay stem cell bond issue). Maybe next year, says Codey.

As should be obvious to anyone who can read a newspaper, this state is in serious financial problems and is already in the top three states for debt. Now is not the time to be talking about even more borrowing. Besides, if the vote last month of school budgets is an indicator, voters may reject the borrowing this November.

Codey will earn no points with the liberal/progressive faithful who view stem cell research as a sacred right. Perhaps they will run some ads against Codey, maybe using handicapped teenagers like Corzine did in the last election.

Lots of media attention this week to a report from the New Jersey Work Environment Council about the safety of chemical manufacturing plants in New Jersey.

Please note that I am an engineer for a large chemical manufacturer. I don’t want to get into too many details, you know, that whole blogging about work thing, but I am familiar with NJ regulations and the efforts since 9-11 to regulate the industry.

The NJWEC report is not as bad as it could be. Al Gore would have put out an apocolyptic, end of the world style report. For all the rhetoric about millions of deaths, the NJWEC does note that the figures are based on worst case scenarios and “danger zones”, and they do note “..Danger zone figures are not forecasts of casualties. Not everyone in the danger zone could likely be harmed in the event of a worst-case release.” Worst case is just that, worst case. The worst case scenario for a train accident would be hundreds of dead commuters, but we still use trains.

The report also notes that since 9-11, NJ manufacturers and the state government were working together to design best practices for chemical plant safety. I’m no fan of Jim McGreevey, but he was very good in this aspect, and Richard Codey continued the McGreevey efforts until near the end of his term when he basically threw out four years of work and decided to take the NJWEC approach.

Some of the criticism of the report is that it is basically a terrorist “to do” list, neatly ranking New Jersey chemical companies in a top to bottom ranking. The NJWEC is correct in that all this information is already publicly accessible and all they’re doing is summarizing the information, but it looks bad. Like putting out a list of NJ Public Schools most likely to attacked.

The NJWEC is a coalition of environuts and unions. Not sure why unions are signed onto this. NJ chemical manufacturers employ thousands of union workers, many making big money. This effort to drive chemical manufacturers out of the state will only hurt union workers, who will have trouble finding $20 an hour plus benefits working at Wal-Mart.

Let’s face it, the state of New Jersey does not have the best record for regulating or managing anything. If private industry managed capital funds the way the state of New Jersey managed the $8.6 billion in school construction money, people would be in jail. And children under the care of DYFS have a higher fatality rate than workers or neighbors of chemical plants. I’m not sure the state would do a better job of regulating the chemical industry, particularly since the NJ chemical industry already has an excellent safety record.

New Jersey has a justly earned reputation as being hostile to industry, and the Corzine approach seems to be more of the same. Hundreds of chemical manufacturers have already left the state, and many of the remaining ones are here only because the cost of shutting down a plant and relocating it are higher than the cost of remaining in the state. But every company has a tipping point, that time when the additional regulation and costs are just not worth the effort of staying here.

Considering I have another 20 years or so to retirement, let’s hope we can keep at least a few chemical manufacturers in this state until 2025.

After the last NJ governor’s election, an election where voter turnout was an all-time low, I opined about the myth of the angry New Jersey voters. Truly angry voters, like those in California who recalled their governor, show up on election day and vote. Here in New Jersey, less than half of the registered voters participated in the November 2005 election, even after misguided efforts to make voting even easier. I thought at the time democrats would take voter apathy as a sign that they could pretty much get away with anything and still count on winning re-election.

Now, we come to the issue of taxes, and democrats have seen voter indifference to the proposed tax increases in NJ governor Jon Corzine’s 2006 state budget (A brewing tax revolt, minus the masses). New Jersey residents are amongst the highest taxed in the nation, yet plans to jack up the sales tax from 6% to 7% and add the tax to many items that are currently exempted are being met by a yawn.

Jon Corzine, supposedly a business genius, must be hitting himself in the forehead, thinking he should aimed higher. “Damn, I should have raised it to 8%”

Trenton democrats see the apathy and are hemming and hawwing about property tax reform. Senate President Dick Codey is the number one foot dragger. Why shouldn’t he?? He’s been in Trenton for almost three decades, the legislature hasn’t done a thing to solve the property tax crisis, yet he gets re-elected every time with landslide margins. What does he have to lose now by taking his sweet old time??

Corzine sees the apathy and lack of voter outrage and announces “Property Tax Reform Years Away“. Corzine is supposed to be planning a special session of the legislature, but so far he can’t even decide on the scope of the session. As noted in this article about the previous times the NJ legislators have been called into special session, History a poor example of tax reform.

As is always the case come budget times, the loudest cries are from those who depend on continuous stream of ever increasing taxpayer money. In a budget with 9 to 10% higher spending than last year, Corzine made some minor spending reductions and the affected groups know the formula to get the money back. Lots of press conferences, emotional appearances in front of senate and assembly budget committees, and use the word “painful” a lot.

It would be great if New Jersey was a two-party state, but the NJ republican party is on life support. In a state awash in political corruption and drowning in highest in the nation property taxes, the state republican party lost seats in the last election. Dan Riehl at Riehl World View wonders about this too in his piece A Conservative Revolution?.

Until the voters take matters into their own hands and start throwing the bums from office, we can expect more of the “same old, same old” when it comes to tax reform.

But, fret not, NJ residents. Our elected officials have not forgotten us. The New Jersey assembly voted last Monday to name Downer soil the official New Jersey state dirt (Downer soil to get tagged as a New Jersey state symbol).

“I knew I would have to lie for the rest of my life, and I knew I was capable of it.”

I’m not an expert on the publishing business, but for a guy who is supposed to be writing a tell-all biography, calling your self a life long, pathological liar is not a good way to draw attention to your book. Like, how much of the book is going to be true, and how much is self serving bull??

I’m talking about disgraced former NJ governor Jim McGreevey, who was given a half million bucks by ReganBooks to write the memoir. The book is due in September, and the governor plans a book tour. So far, the only anounced stop on the McGreevey train is the Oprah Winfrey show.

ReganBooks has released some excerpts of the book, and to help the publicity efforts, McGreevey showed his face at the Book Expo America in Washington, D.C. (
McGreevey book passages suggest story of personal torment.

It was less than two years ago that the crooked govenror resigned from office. Sorry, two years in exile is not enough. Nixon stayed out of the limelight for almost a decade before trying to rehabilitate his image. McGreevey has not suffered enough.

Tradition in New Jersey is that every governor, even short term or interim governors, can have a portrait on display at the New Jersey Statehouse in Trenton. That tradition applies to disgraced ex-governors who are forced to resign in the wake of political and personal scandals, which means Jim McGreevey will travel to Trenton later this summer to deliver his portrait (McGreevey portrait coming this summer).

They haven’t picked a date yet, only saying it will be in July or August. Of course, it will be “private” meaning no photographers since the last thing a NJ politician wants is to be seen in a photo with McGreevey and his friend, investment adviser Mark O’Donnell, who also will be in attendance.

Jon Corzine’s office hasn’t said much about the ceremony, other than there being “. . .a brief conversation” between the governor’s office and McGreevey..”

My guess is the conversation went like this.

“Hello, Governor Corzine’s office”.

“Hi, this is Jim McGreevey, and I’d like to speak to the governor”.

( - - - - Long silence - - - )

“Hello?? Hello?? Is there anyone there??”

The Financial Times is reporting that ex-NJ senator Robert Torricelli has been identified as a potential player in the massive multi-billion dollar Iraqi Oil for Food scandal (Ex-senator linked to oil-for-food claims). The Torch was trying to line up business for his “partner”, the convicted felon David Chang.

Torricelli’s name was found in documents uncovered by US forces during the liberation of Iraq. The documents are being examined by US Senate committees. The documents state that Torricelli met with the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations, Mr. Nizar Hamdoun, during the late 1990’s and tried to line up a deal between Iraq and David Chang. Chang was the source of many of Torricelli’s problems that eventually forced him to quit the race for re-election in 2002. Chang was a former Torricelli fundraiser who got tossed into the slammer for campaign finance violations, including reimbursing donors who had donated thousands to the Torch. According to the documents, Torricelli met several times with the Iraqis in 1996 concerning contracts for discounted oil to be funneled to Chang and his trading company, Bright and Bright. Despite the negotiations, there is no indication that the Iraq government cut a deal with Chang.

Also implicated in the documents is former NJ representative Jim Courter, so it appears to be a bi-partisan scandal.

The Financial Times contacted Torricelli, and he admitted:

Hmm… He then said copies of Iraqi cables and documents have “no credibility”. Compared to whom?? Torricelli?? Minnesota Republican senator Norm Coleman is said to be investigating the Torricelli-Oil for Food link. Let’s hope he leaves no stone unturned.

Star-Ledger political columnist Tom Moran did an interview with former NJ Senator and party boss John Lynch in today’s paper, A king of politics is full of sound and fury, signifying his decline. Lynch is in some serious legal trouble, and in the interview Lynch strikes out at all his enemies and opponents.

The best line from Lynch: “He’s probably the most evil person who ever set foot in New Jersey, politically or otherwise.” He was talking about ex-NJ senator Bob Torricelli.

I hate to defend the Torch, but there have been so many evil characters in New Jersey politics that it’s really hard to pick an all-time, Numero Uno, Evil of the Evilest NJ political figure. He’d make my top five list, along with Jim McGreevey, Frank Lautenberg, Sharpe James and you can pick from Paterson mayor Martin “Bad News” Barnes, Charles Kushner, former Camden mayor Milton Milan and most of the mayors of my hometown, North Bergen. But he must have truly ticked off Lynch for the former Middlesex County party boss to bestow the title of “Most Evil”.

Lynch is in trouble because of the toxic mix of crooked local politicians, real estate developers with tons of money and undeveloped land. His offices have been raided by the feds which has forced Lynch to temporarily suspend all his political dealings.

Lynch accuses Torricelli of being a snitch, implying that US Attorney Chris Christie has the goods on the Torch and rather than cop a plea, he’s cooperating with Christie and spilling the beans on Lynch and various real estate dealings in Middlesex County.

As with most NJ politicians, Lynch has dirty hands. His number one protege was disgraced former NJ governor Jim McGreevey. When asked by Moran about McGreevey’s problems, Lynch claimed that he had no influence on the digraced ex-governor: “They didn’t want me around because they knew I wanted straight government and didn’t want all their shenanigans.”

The NJ Blog pointed me to this story featuring the Torch complaining about Congress and the president. And let’s not forget that Lynch and Torricelli were both linked to McGreevey. And Torricelli and Charles Kushner are linked through Kushner’s Touro College and it’s plans to open a new medical college in New Jersey. And read about Torricelli and Corzine in The Deal He Made: Senator Jon Corzine’s Quest for Redemption. My, what a tangled web.

ABC News says FBI investigators are digging in a Michigan for the remains of Jimmy Hoffa “Feds Digging for Jimmy Hoffa’s Remains“. Apparently they received an annonymous tip that his body is buried somewhere on an 85 acre lot about 35 miles north of Detroit.

Hasn’t anyone told the feds that Hoffa is in the endzone of Giants Stadium, near the tunnel where the players come and go??

A Washington DC based services firm, Knowlegis, has done an analysis of US Senators and Representatives and ranked them in terms of “clout” and power, defined as “..committee and leadership positions, political influence and legislative activity”. Using 2005 activity, the firm ranked the senators and representatives from first to last.

No surprise that republicans dominated the list. The democrats are the minority party in Washington, and as such don’t get that many opportunities to wield power. But some democrats, like Robert Byrd and Hillary Clinton, are still effective at getting federal dollars for their states and influencing legislation.

Not so NJ senator Frank Lautenberg. The firm ranked him #97 in terms of power and clout. That’s #97 out of 100 [link]. I’m surprised he was ranked that high. NJ’s other senator, Bob Menendez, was unranked since he has only been recently appointed.

Liberal/progressives always complain about how New Jersey gets the short end of the stick when it comes to handing out the goodies in Washington. Perhaps the problem is our representatives?? Lautenberg is nasty and unlikeable and my guess is he is totally ineffective in building any kind of working relationships with other senators. From what I have seen of Bob Menendez, he’s not much better. He seems to spend most of his free time grandstanding at press conferences.

New Jersey would be much better served in Washington with some new blood, but unfortunately Mr. Lautenberg is already saying that he will run for re-election, and Menendez is leading in polls for the other seat.

They haven’t even figured out yet how they’re going to have a balanced budget in place by June 30th, but our elected officials in Trenton are already looking ahead to July and August and plans to solve New Jersey’s property tax crisis.

Governor Jon Corzine has told the NJ Senate and Assembly that he plans to order them into a special summer session to address property taxes. If the session isn’t successful, he then wants them to approve a constitutional convention proposal in time for the November 2006 ballot. If approved, it will lay the ground work for a convention sometime in 2007. [see Property tax dilemma has panel urging a summer session].

Senate president Richard Codey is against a summer session, and in the past he has generally opposed a constitutional convention. He hinted that he will find time for a special session … in the fall. I guess he wants to go down the shore in July and August. Many democrats want a convention that will only address taxation while the NJ GOP will only support a convention if it can address spending in addition to taxation.

I haven’t blogged much about the immigration debate, but tonight’s speech by the president gave me some motivation. I noticed when I hosted the Carnival of the NJ Bloggers a few weeks back that immigration was a popular topic.

I’m generally a hawk on immigration, but I don’t know what to do with all illegals already here, estimated at about 12 million. I think they would all get hearings if the government tried to deport them, and that would tie up the court system for years. I don’t know the solution, but giving them preference for residency and citizenship is wrong.

I don’t know how many of you know immigrants who are legally trying to gain residency and citizenship. I’ve known many over the years, and there’s three that I’m most familiar with. Two were co-workers, one a woman who was a business manager from England and another woman, an engineer from Columbia, who went to college here in the US. The third is a member of my church, a man from Senegal, who has been trying for five years to get his son into this country. All three have been following the rules, spending thousands of dollars on attorneys, taking time off from work for interviews and meetings, meticulously making sure their visas were always current. Immigration law is a confusing mess, and it seems like these people I know are constantly being given the runaround. Yet they persist, not by waving signs and making demands but by trying twice as hard to make sure they have dotted the i’s and crossed all the t’s.

I am embarrased as an American to see these people I know, people following the rules, being given the runaround while our government is talking about giving amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. They entered the country illegally, they are working illegally, many being paid in cash to avoid taxes, many are driving illegally. How many laws do you have to break before we can conclude that perhaps they don’t have respect for our system?? And those demonstrations, with thousands of uninvited illegals making demands on us most likely turned off many Americans who were undecided.

Are we a nation of immigrants?? Of course we are, but legal immigrants. My father came here from Puerto Rico in the 1950’s. My mother was born here, but her parents came from Austria right after WWI. And even with all the immigration runaround, hundreds of thousands come here every year to legally work and many become residents and eventually citizens.

And our economy will do just fine without all the illegals. The “jobs Americans won’t do” line is a joke. In most cases, employers use illegals because they’re cheap. In Cincinnati they have ben cracking down on illegals and found that contractors are shipping then into the area and housing them and paying them half the average wage for legal workers. Imagine the uproar if Jon Corzine said, “We can’t find enough school teachers at $20,000 a year, so we’re going to import them from India and the Phillipines”.

Tightening the borders and cracking down on employers should be the strategy, not amnesty for millions of lawbreakers. Andy McCarthy at National Review summarized it best: “We should make it harder for illegals to get in, and be clear to those already here that staying is going to be more unpleasant – because employers are going to be prosecuted, immigrants who commit state and federal crimes are going to be jailed then deported, and all our sparse processing resources are going to be dedicated to those who are following the existing rules for legal immigration.”

Happy Mother’s Day to all the blogging moms out there. My wife thought she had to work today, so we didn’t have any big plans. Then she finds out at 12:30 that she doesn’t have to go in, so we then had the problem of trying to find an opening for brunch at a local restaurant. Luckily, The Office Bar and Grill was able to squeeze us in without a reservation, though they were really busy. They ran out of cloth napkins, so we were got those little paper napkins that they use at the bar to put under drinks. Liliana, Daniel and Allison were good (see below).

I’ll be calling my mom later tonight. She’s a nurse on the weekends and works the night shift at the hospital, and on Sundays she sleeps late.

Happy Mother’s day to all!!

If you look at the headlines this week about NJ governor Jon Corzine and the NJ Supreme Court freezing the aid to the state’s Abbott school districts, you’ll see there’s nothing but universal approval. The Passaic County Herald News says ‘Abbott freeze’ is painful but necessary. Ruling offers opportunity for school-funding reform says the Home News-Tribune. Saving urban schools says the Star-Ledger.

If Doug Forrester had won the gubernatorial election and gone to court to do the same thing, my guess is the headlines would be “Forrester to Inner City Schools: Drop Dead”, “NJ Balances the Budget on the Backs of the Poor” and “What About the Children??”.

Perhaps this was a Nixon-China thing. Observers felt that only a conservative like Richard Nixon could reach out to China because liberals would be lambasted for cutting a deal with “Red China”. Here in New Jersey, perhaps only liberals like Corzine and attorney general Zulima Farber could go to the NJ Supreme Court and ask for relief that really penalizes inner city schools. The Herald-News editorial basically said the same thing. I support all efforts to ditch the Abbott School system, but it just seems to me that Corzine is getting a favor that NJ republicans would never receive.