So, this is what happened as best as I understand it. There is this big bridge - for the sake of argument, let's call it the George Washington Bridge or "The Bridge" for short. It is one of three modes of crossing the Hudson River to and from New Jersey and the only crossing to the center of the universe which is as we all know...Fort Lee, New Jersey, population who cares...it's New Jersey! Okay, if it weren't for New Jersey, we wouldn't have Snookie and the Sopranos. Okay, now that I think about it, maybe we should just cut to the chase and blow The Bridge up. Okay, maybe not. [NSA, if you are reading this, I am just kidding]
Anyway what happened next is so horrifying you may want to sit down. In a series of politically motivated events (which actually may be true), an alleged conspiracy was formed between highly place staff of Chris Christie and the NY/NJ Port Authority who runs the bridges, to punish the Mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Chris Christie in his now successful bid for re-election. They allegedly conspired to cut the road access on The Bridge down to one lane which caused a massive, four-hour traffic jam. The smoking gun is a series of emails between Christie's Deputy chief of staff and Port Authority officials intimating that it was time to shut the bridge down. It is unclear at this point what Chris Christie may have known and when he may have known it, but he denies knowledge and jumped on the controversy quickly. He did not hesitate to fire the appropriate people immediately and has been pretty forthcoming with the press. However, it is not good for Christie if it turns there is a smoking gun that implicates that Christie was in on the conspiracy.
From the massive national news coverage of Bridge-gate, one would be led to believe this was worse (or at least on par) than a nuclear bomb in Iran, a dead Ambassador in Benghazi, or even using the IRS to harass one's political enemies. It may end up side-lining Christie's Presidential aspirations, but it is too soon to tell. But what is absolutely clear is that the feeding frenzy has officially begun for 2016.
Anyone have anything to add? Feel free to change the subject...PLEASE!
38 comments:
If they really did this to punish the mayor of Fort Lee then it would be one of the most appalling acts of political stupidity in American history.
Did they not THINK that this might blow back on them?
But Bev, think of the children! Those children stuck in the buses! WILL SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!?!
Bev, This is the most horrific thing I've ever heard. There should be hearings held and heads should roll. Seriously, this is just simply unacceptable. This is worse than anything Hitler ever did. Yes... we must get to the bottom of this and find out why someone built a bridge to New Jersey.
Koshcat, Every minute spent away from New Jersey is like a lifeline to those kids.
By the way, Bev, my comment was meant as a compliment. I had no intention to cause offense to you and I apologize if you were offended by words attributed to me.
Man that does feel better.
I would like to know who recommended watching the show Sherlock? Now I can't stop watching.
Someone should get Bruce Springsteen to write a song about this.
Oh, wait...
LOL! I believe that was Tennessee Jed.
Why would anyone want to go from New York to New Jersey? Granted, if shutting down the bridge caused a jam for people trying to flee from Jersey, then yes, that really is an outrage. But otherwise, meh. Anyone who's spent much time around state government knows that crap worse than this goes on every day.
This Christie scandal strike me as insanely stupid (not just the act, the leaving of the evidence of the act).
While the coverage of the scandal is overblown, political coverage is usually overblown. How much coverage and what sort of coverage a scandal gets depends on how the media feels about a subject/person.
On a related note, scandals usually need to be pretty damning to get political movements to turn on their own. Christie isn't a conservative, so he has gotten unusually bipartisan criticism despite the fact that this is a relatively small scandal.
It strikes me that stating it is "unclear whether Chrisite knew" is liberalese for saying "there is absolutely no evidence that Chrisitie knew anything about this." The media will choose the version to be used depending on which party is involved.
I guess that everyone has an enemies list. Hillary's enemies list doesn't matter to the media. Neither does Obama's apparently as the IRS assault on political enemies is now ok? (go figure). Christie's list is IMPORTANT to the media, but not to anyone else - with the exception of NJ commuters.
I hate putting the ending "-gate" at the end of words to name a scandal,,,it's irritating and poor English.Which is how that silliness got started, some Japanese or Chinese newspaper back in the 70s would hang the "-gate" on everhting not understanding that "Watergate" was a place name.. Now as to Chris Christie, he's not my cup of tea. An East coast liberal Republican who couild give a rat's ass about the rest of the country until he gets to Hollywood....However, I do remind the liberal Dims that thier heroes, Bill and Hillary held up airport traffic for hours while they got haircuts..
Critch - As the child of Watergate that I am, I understand what you mean. However, it is the equivalent of saying "faux [fill in the blank]. And both are the written equivalent to "eye-roll".
And Christie isn't my cup of tea either. He plays well in NJ because he's loud and overbearing, but, like Rudy Guiliani, really doesn't play well outside his own natural habitat.
Oh, yes, the famous Clinton haircut incident. And yeah, want to talk traffic jams? Obama causes more traffic jams in NYC than any in recent history. He's always hear for a fundraiser and let's not forget the "Date Night" fiasco when he and Michelle popped over on AF1 for the evening for a romantic dinner for two and shutdown most of the theatre district in the process.
Bush caused the least since he rarely came to NYC unless it was 9/11 related.
LL - You are right. No one really cares except for partisan hacks and Fort Lee residents who got caught. However there is a federal investigation pending...for a traffic jam. Btw, I was stuck on a subway car underground for an hour last night because of "a signal problem"...yeah, right. I know what "signal problem" is code for - de Blasio shutting down the trains to get more money from the feds and for the unions...;-)
TennJ - It is clear that they haven't been able to pin the wrap on him directly because he is not on any of the emails that have miraculously appeared in the press who could find one shred of evidence against an army of IRS agents.
I don't think that Christie is so stupid to perpetrate such coverup without knowing he was not a part of it. But speculation is hard overcome. There was even an article on HuffPo about the various "theories" from journalists about how Christie must be involved. Yeah, I remember the day when journalists work primarily with facts and stuff.
Anthony, like I have said, Christie plays well in NJ and has wide bipartisan support...in NJ. But then there is just a subatomic size difference between Democrats and Republicans in the Northeast anyway at least in urban areas.
T-Rav - Actually, I believe that the bridge entrances leaving NJ were blocked which "begs the question" how do we know that Andrew Cuomo wasn't involved somehow? Hmmmm?
Koshcat - Touche! And it is one of the best non-apologies out there and satisfying. You appear to apologize, but you don't really. What could be better?
And Koshcat and Andrew - "Sherlock" is possibly the best show of decade that does not involve the Crawley family. Benedict Cumberbatch is the definitive modern Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman is a great "Watson". The stories are wonderfully adapted to the 21st Century too. Though "Elementary" comes in at a very close second.
I heard or read something about how the copyright protections have finally been released from the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle estate. Apparently the trustees and family were very protective of the Sherlock Holmes character and stories. That's why the rise of Sherlock Holmes shows.
Kit - Yeah, it's pretty appalling kinda', but it then it's tame for what could have happened in NJ. It could have involved a horse's head...know what I mean?
Koshcat - Yes SAVE THE CHILDREN FROM THE SCOURGE OF CHRIS CHRISTIE. HE WILL DO STUFF AND MORE STUFF! IMPEACH HIM FOR TRAFFIC JAMS!!!!
The media did try to blame the death of a 91 year old woman on the shutdown because her ambulance got stuck in the traffic. However the family has since made it know that the woman was already deceased and was being transported to the morgue...
Andrew - There WILL be hearings. The US Attorney who got former Illinois Gov. Blagojevich convicted will be leading the investigation. And this dirty trick is certainly worse that...nope, I am at a loss. I can't think of anything that this is worse than.
Bev, Koshcat, Sherlock is awesome. I just think it's amazing the way they've updated the stories in a realistic way, and the casting is excellent all around. Now Elementary is definitely sub-par, partly because I think they want to make a "kinder, gentler" Holmes, which....no. Also, I don't mind that they made Watson's character a woman, but if it leads to--well--that plot line, I will throw up in my mouth a little.
Indeed, Sherlock is almost entirely to blame for my lack of sleep the last couple nights. I've not read enough of the original stories to do an all-around comparison, but the treatment of "Study in Scarlet/Pink" was excellent.
This is... disturbing. Air Force has revealed that 34* officers were have been fired due to being involved in allegations of cheating on their recertification test.
LINK
*Last night I think it was 32.
Oh, and 10 officers working at a missile silo are suspected of illegal drug use...
"This is a really big deal and it needs investigating"
Jeb Bush was heard to say at lunch yesterday.
As an aside, in terms of Christie, I find this scandal to be pretty weak. This stuff goes on in every single political environment on the planet. This means nothing and I don't intend to make a big deal of it... you know the Democrats wouldn't if it was one of them.
On the lighter side of the news, a rapist/murderer took 15 minutes to die when lethally injected using a new set of chemicals. I don't see a problem, but I suspect the chemists who devised the poison are going back to the drawing board :).
Be kind of hilarious if we have a series of execution bloopers because Europe doesn't want to sell America the chemicals needed to put criminals out of our misery quickly.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/16/justice/ohio-dennis-mcguire-execution/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
Andrew - I think it is pretty weak too. The scandal mongers didn't anticipate that Christie would take any immediate action like he did with firings and full access with the press corps to ask any questions for 4 hours. So, even with the national press deluge they aren't getting the traction they had hoped. So, now there is another Christie-related scandal brewing.
Scandal #2 - Christie is being accused of suing some of the federal funds for Hurricane Sandy relief to make a short Tourism PSA starring his family declaring "New Jersey Is Open For Business". He is accused of using federal funds for a campaign ad. Well, it's murky, but the makers of the PSA and Christie say they had approval to appropriate the fund directly from the WH. But these are also common ads to promote tourism too. Arnold Scharzablabla did a series with Maria and the kids to hawk California. Cuomo did one about the low taxes/business friendliness of NY, the Gov. of Connecticut has done the same kinds of ads etc.
I spent many years building nukes for the USAF, waaaay back in the early 70s during the Cold War...which I miss. Anyway, back then we were appreciated, valued and listened to. Ever since 1992 the Pentagon, the WH, the USAF and everyone else has been essentially telling the nuclear weapons folks that they aren't needed, no big deal etc...there's no excuse for those officers being involved in cheating or drugs, however, the USAF really needs to look at the what they say and what they do. The budgets have been cut year after year for the nuclear side of the house, personnel cuts have been common and now more force reduction...the USAF really needs someone in charge who knows how to handle people with a mantra other than: "The floggins will continue until the morale improves."
Critch - First of all, thank you for your service to this country. I don't think we can say that enough to those who have served in our Armed Forces especially those who served during the conscription years.
Secondly, there seems to be a war on our military these days. Sexual assault, drug use, cheating, lying, insubordination from the officers seems rampant. I get that these things are happening (and always have), however it also seems blown up to appear as ALL military personnel are not to be trusted either. Lack of leadership especially from the top (with Obama's lack of commitment to anything military) must make it hard to keep focused while waiting to get blown up by an IED.
***News Flash***
Russell Johnson passed away today. For those of you who don't recognize the name, he played "The Professor" on Gilligan's Island as well as other shows and movies. RIP
Bev, So did Reuben from "The Partridge Family."
Oh no! I didn't hear about Reuben. I liked him. Another great character actor from the '70's..RIP too.
Colonel David Hackworth in his book About Face" The Odyssey of an American Warrior used a phrase "perfumed princes". These were officers who never got in the field, never got their hands dirty, tended to be the best educated, good at passing tests and being political. They made rank while the good officers were fighting. He noted that the Air Force had already succumbed to these people and the Navy and Army were following fast...I can tell you that I only met a handful of officers I would even follow into a tavern. I met a lot of them that I was convinced would get people killed. I saw people promoted because they were female or black or ass-kissers or Hispanic....only few got promoted to the command positions because they could do it. Most of them are just managers anymore..they aren't leaders. God help your career if you are even accused of being racist, homophobic, or anti-feminist. I've seen careers wrecked because men were accused of sexual harassment but never had a chance to defend themselves...the accusation was enough. I went to the desert with a number of ladies who did their jobs and did them well, I also served with a number of women who got conveniently pregnant as Desert Storm blew up and right after the attacks on September 11th.
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