Category: Politics

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New Jersey Politics

Chris Christie Wins – Lectures Republican Establishment in Speech

Chris Christie of New Jersey won re-election by a crushing margin on Tuesday, a victory that vaulted him to the front ranks of Republican presidential contenders and made him his party’s foremost proponent of pragmatism over ideology the New York Times reports.

Mr. Christie declared that his decisive win should be a lesson for the nation’s broken political system and his feuding party: In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by over 700,000, Mr. Christie won a majority of the votes of women and Hispanics and made impressive inroads among younger voters and blacks — groups that Republicans nationally have struggled to attract.

The governor prevailed despite holding positions contrary to those of many New Jersey voters on several key issues, including same-sex marriage, abortion rights and the minimum wage, and despite an economic recovery that has trailed the rest of the country.

He attracted a broad coalition by campaigning as a straight-talking, even swaggering, leader who could reach across the aisle to solve problems.

“I know that if we can do this in Trenton, N.J., then maybe the folks in Washington, D.C., should tune in their TVs right now and see how it’s done,” Mr. Christie told a packed crowd at Convention Hall in Asbury Park, where his musical idol, Bruce Springsteen, holds holiday concerts, and where red and blue lighting gave the gathering a presidential campaign-like glow.

The governor all but lectured Republicans about how to appeal to groups beyond their base. “We don’t just show up in the places where we’re comfortable, we show up in the places we’re uncomfortable,” he said, adding, “You don’t just show up 6 months before an election.”

Around the country, Republicans alarmed by the surging grass roots support for the Tea Party wing were cheered by Mr. Christie’s success, saying they hope their party will learn not only from the size of Mr. Christie’s margin over Barbara Buono, a Democratic state senator, but also from the makeup of his support.

“We’ll be led back by our governors, and Chris Christie is now at the forefront of that resurgence,” said Ed Gillespie, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

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Healthcare Politics

President Obama Defends “You Can Keep Your Insurance” Claim – Video

They’re attacking from all angles. Republicans are circling the president like sharks tasting blood in the water. They think they have the upper hand this time and they’re going all out to convince you that having affordable health insurance is not a good thing for you.

They’re now attacking the claim the President made during the campaign when he said, “if you like your insurance you can keep it.” Republicans are now using this claim to say the President lied to you, because Insurance companies are now forced to cancel the garbage plans some people had, and upgrading those plans to acceptable plans.

Some people just don’t get it, so now the President has to explain his phrase, if you like your insurance you can keep it. “What we said was you could keep [your plan] if it hasn’t changed since the law was passed,” Obama said, as quoted by CBS News. “If the insurance company changes it … they’ve got to change it to a higher standard.”

But these people don’t care about getting a better plan or having their garbage plans upgraded to a higher standard. This is not about health, it is about winning a political argument. So the garbage collectors will happily give up their healthcare – some wouldn’t even look at the upgrades available – if it means winning the argument.

Dumb, yea, I know…

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Politics shooting

New Jersey Mall Shooter Found Dead

The crazed gunman who brought terror to a New Jersey mall on Monday night by casually strolling through the building firing bullets into the air, has shot himself dead, authorities claim.

The body of 20-year-old Richard Shoop was discovered at 3:20 a.m. this morning in an area of the Westfield Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus N.J., which was still under construction.

Shoop, who was wearing body armour and a motorcycle helmet, walked into the Garden State Plaza mall shortly before 9.30pm on Monday night and opened fire.

Bergen County prosecutors said Snoop, of Teanick, NJ, was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an area deep withing the mall described as ‘a literal Byzantine area of new construction’, NBC reports.

Authorities say he had a history of hard drug abuse and was a frequent user of MDMA. But they said they do not believe he had intended to harm anyone but himself.

He reportedly left a note to his family at his home, before stealing his brother’s gun and setting off to the Westfield mall.

No one is understood to have been injured in the attack although up to 1,000 shoppers were left barricaded inside the building.

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ObamaCare Politics

Republicans: Defending the Garbage Collectors of the Insurance Industry

Why would anyone want to keep an insurance policy that give them absolutely nothing in the unfortunate event of them getting sick, is beyond my level of understanding. But for the 5 percent of Americans who have received cancellation letters from their insurance companies, these Americans are apparently angry. And the Republicans are using this anger as their launching pad for yet another Obamacare is the worst thing to ever happen to the United States of America campaign.

You all have heard the president made this claim time and time again while campaigning fo the Affordable Health Care Act, akso known as Obamacare. The president said, “nothing is going to change for those people with insurance. If you like your insurance you can keep it.”

The president’s only mistake when  he made that statement was not anticipating that there are people out there who loves garbage. And given the opportunity to get rid of the garbage for some quality insurance, these people would prefer the garbage instead.

What Mr. Obama should have done was made an exception for these garbage collectors. He should have said something like, if you like your insurance you can keep it, especially the garbage collectors. You wouldn’t know what to do with quality insurance anyway.

Yes, Mr . Obama should have let these people know that they are special. That they belong in a special class all by themselves, and that the rest of the country knows how special they really are.

Health insurance is not a political game. For many, it is literally the difference between life and death. And given the opportunity to choose life, sensibility should overcome partisan gamesmanship. Instead, it’s the other way around with Republicans and the garbage collectors of the insurance industry complaining that they cannot choose death instead.

Yea, you folks are special alright!

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Politics voter suppression

Texas’ Voter Suppression Law Denied Former House Speaker the Right to Vote

Former U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright (D) was denied a Photo ID for voting purposes in Texas over the weekend by the state’s Department of Public Safety (DPS).

The 90-year old Wright, who is lucky enough to have an assistant to drive him to and from the DPS office, says that while he believes he’ll be able to get an ID in time to vote in this Tuesday’s election, he’s concerned the state’s “unduly stringent requirements on voters” will reduce turnout.

According to the Star-Telegram, Wright’s driver’s license expired in 2010 and — because he no longer drives — he didn’t bother to renew it. That expired license, he learned Saturday, is not good enough to obtain a Photo ID to vote under the law TX Republicans passed in 2011. That law will be in effect, for the first time, on Tuesday. The state statute had previously been nixed just last year by the U.S. Dept. of Justice and by a 3-judge federal court panel after being found discriminatory, in violation of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), as based on statistics supplied by the state itself.

Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court gutting a key provision of the VRA over the summer, however, Texas announced the law would finally be enforced for the upcoming election.

Wright is hardly the only well known figure to be stung so far by the Lone Star State Republicans’ purposely disenfranchising law. And the hoops that many voters — even ones like Wright, who says he’s voted in every single election since 1944 — must now jump through in order to have a chance at their vote even being counted at all, is remarkable…

Last month in Corpus Christi, for example, 117th District Court Judge Sandra Watts was forced to sign an affidavit when trying to vote early, after the name on her driver’s license didn’t match the one she was registered under. Her driver’s license included her maiden name as her middle name, as once required by Texas law, but her voter registration didn’t. “What I have used for voter registration and for identification for the last 52 years was not sufficient yesterday when I went to vote,” she explained to local media. The name on her license had been the same for 52 years, and she’s voted in every election for the last 49. “This is the first time I’ve ever had a problem voting,” she said.

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Politics shooting

LAX Shooter Carried Propaganda From “Patriot” Movement

The Associated Press, quoting a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation, reported that suspect Paul Anthony Ciancia, 23, said in the note found in the duffel bag he carried into the airport on Friday that he wasn’t targeting a specific TSA employee.
“Black, white, yellow, brown, I don’t discriminate,” the note read, according to a paraphrase by the law enforcement official, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Ciancia was charged Saturday with murder of a federal officer and commission of violence at an international airport. A federal criminal complaint said that Ciancia also shot at least two other uniformed TSA employees and a civilian passenger.

It was not immediately clear why Ciancia wanted to lash out at the agency, but a leading organization that tracks U.S. hate groups and extremist organizations reported Saturday that the suspect  may have been influenced by propaganda of the antigovernment “patriot” movement and fringe conspiracy theories.

As reported Friday by NBC News, the suspect was carrying anti-government literature outlining an alleged conspiracy to create a single global government, possibly prepared by a group known as the “New World Order,” when he opened fire on workers with the Transportation Safety Administration, killing one and injuring several others.

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Education New Jersey News Politics teachers

Uh Oh: Christie Shows His True Color

If you haven’t seen the picture, here it is:

This is Governor Christie scolding a teacher on Saturday for questioning his education policies. A full accounting of the event can be found on Jersey Jazzman’s site. But as always with this governor, the picture really tells the story.

Here is a man who wants to be president, who wants to be a role model, and who wants to brook no opposition. He’s only succeeded at the latter. This is what we get when we elect former prosecutors to public office. Prosecutors, remember, are true believers who are always, always, always right. Even when they’re wrong. But they never are wrong, so the point is proven. Challenging them is a challenge to the natural order of things.

Remember when New Jersey missed out on some wonderful federal Race to the Top dollars because Christie nixed the application that included some concessions to the New Jersey Education Association? That couldn’t be Christie’s fault, even though it was, so he fired Education Commissioner Brett Schundler.

And when Christie’s budget numbers didn’t add up and the state economist, David Rosen, called him on it? And it turned out that Rosen was right? The governor never admitted he was wrong on the numbers because, well… Christie is never wrong.

So now we have an example of a teacher asking the governor why he’s against teachers, and his response is clearly venomous. Does he really think that teachers are supposed to like what he’s said and done over the past four years? Has he convinced himself that trying to tear down the NJEA, overtly accusing teachers of bringing pro-union sentiment into their classrooms, and saying that the public schools in New Jersey are failing would be popular among the education set? If this is his response to a teacher when his reelection is looking promising, just imagine his response in a national race when the press won’t let a story go just because the governor wants it to.

As for being a role model, Christie said in the first debate that he didn’t think his style was anything but telling people the truth and that New Jerseyans appreciated his candor. Now we know what that really means: I’m right, you’re wrong and I’m going to bully you into believing me. This man is no role model, and he never will be.

But there is a remedy to all of this. On Tuesday, vote for Barbara Buono. She knows how to speak to people, but more importantly, she knows how to listen to people. She will make us proud as our governor. And she will do right by families, workers, the environment and our long-term future.

Remember this on November 5.

For more please go to:
www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and Twitter @rigrundfest  

Categories
Politics

Florida’s New Democrat Charlie Crist Running Against Old Teaparty Govenor Rick Scott

Former Republican Florida Governor and present Democrat Charlie Crist has announced that he will run for governor of Florida again, this time as a Democrat, against his old party and against the contamination brought on Floridians by Teabagger Rick Scott.

Proud Teabagger Rick Scott has been a national embarrassment almost since the day he took office, and Florida has never been worse off for it. Mere hours ago, Charlie Crist addressed a crowd at an event near his home in St. Petersberg, unofficially kicking off the start of his upcoming campaign. The transcript isn’t available yet, but we do know this — Rick Scott is already running scared, and is expected to spend more than $25 million on attack ads against Crist.

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Barack Obama Politics

Bill Clinton on Obama: “He’s Luckier Than a Dog with Two Dicks”

And no,  I’m not talking about Dick Cheney. The revelation came courtesy a new book calked Double Down, with exerts published by Politico.

The book details behind the scenes comments and statements made by those closest to the president’s re election campaign 2012. For example, unnamed sources in the book claim that President Obama, when asked about a Golf outing with former President Bill Clinton, replied “I like him… in doses.”

Clinton, on the other hand, thought Obama was one of the luckiest people in the world, and expressed this as only Bill Clinton can.

Romney’s ineptness staggered Clinton. After the release of the 47 percent video, he remarked to a friend that, while Mitt was a decent man, he was in the wrong line of work. (‘He really shouldn’t be speaking to people in public.’) As for Obama, Clinton trotted out for his pals the same line again and again: ‘He’s luckier than a dog with two dicks.’”

“He’s luckier than a dog with two dicks.”

If that doesn’t become a t-shirt slogan by tomorrow, I will be very disappointed in the internet.

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Politics shooting

LAX Shooter Spoke of the New World Order

The New Jersey native who killed a TSA agent and wounded five people in a wild Los Angeles airport shootup left a note describing himself online as a “pissed off patriot” angry that airport searches violate his rights.

Paul Ciancia, 23, walked into a packed Los Angeles International Airport terminal Friday morning wearing fatigues and carrying an AR-15 assault rifle and about 150 rounds of ammunition.

He started picking off Transportation Security Administration agents — sending hundreds of terrified air travelers fleeing for safety.

Ciancia wrote in his note that he “wanted to kill TSA and pigs,” and was disappointed with the government, but did not want to hurt civilians, according to reports.

He signed it with the letters “NWO,” an apparent reference to an anti-government group called “New World Order,” according to the Daily Mail.

Ciancia sprayed gunfire as he marched through the terminal, apparently ignoring civilians while targeting TSA agents, according to reports.

TSA Officer Gerardo I. Hernandez, 39, was killed in the rampage. Hernandez was the first agent to die in the line of duty in the TSA’s 12-year history

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Politics The Budget weekly address

President’s Weekly Address: A Budget that Works for Us

In this week’s address, President Obama says that in order to keep growing the economy and creating good jobs, Washington must end its cycle of manufactured crises and self-inflicted wounds. It’s time for both parties to work together to pass a budget that reflects our priorities – making smart cuts in things we don’t need and closing wasteful tax loopholes, while investing in areas that create opportunities for the middle class and our future generations.

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Politics shooting

Tweets from Eyewitnesses to LAX Airport Shooting

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