September, the beginning of the fall season has arrived. Earl is only supposed to pay us a courtesy call, I hope.
It is not only the local and state political leaders that can be stupid. Politics is more important than common sense. Last night the President in declaring an end to the combat mission in Iraq also announced a date when the troops will be leaving Afghanistan.
Let us not forget that as a Senator Obama voted against the Surge. If we had left then, that unneeded war would have been a complete disaster for America.
To tell the Taliban when you are going to leave, will just encourage them to back off into the hills and wait. They will increase their capabilities and "surge themselves against the local government. Such remarks undo all the positive gains and sacrifices our troops made.
Afghanistan is a war that could not be won. Other nations ewspecially the USSR have found that out. But the mission to destroy the Taliban and al-Quaida should have been initially pursued stronger than it was by the pompous egocentric Cheney/Rumsford crowd with the aim of destroying the leaderships. Cut off the head and the body dies.. Then some degree of sanity might have been established in that tribal divided country.
Locally; Next Tuesday is the Council agenda session. Will the budget makes its appearance? That is one of the questions that may make that meeting its usual midnight oil burner.
Yesterday, Councilor Mapp posted in his blog correspondence from Dept of Public Works Director Brown about purchasing 4 sets of temporary speed bumps that can be placed on secondary roads. Of hand the concept seems a worthwhile one. If they prove effective then permanent ones would be indicated on those streets. 4 way stops might also work on selected intersections.Of all proposed projects the last few years this is one that makes sense.
The Courier carried two articles about new Historic Districts in Plainfield. The key is what is permitted in alterations to buildings in a Historic District. Are interiors part of the restrictions or just the exterior structure? Would parts of the 4th Ward that were built pre WWI for the blue collar workers at Macks, Woods and Hoes plants and in the twenties boom qualify for historic designation. That they too represent a specific architectural era.
One can not escape from the $400 million error. Shundler has admitted that he had removed the required data and substituted the 2010 data. It turns out that there was also a consultant firm on board and several people had proof read the documents. It is true that Shundler failed to produce the correct report when the committee asked him , nor did he on the tapes request time to get it from Trenton. On the tape segment released there is also no evidence that the committee offered Shundler the opportunity to obtain the data if it was not in their files in the room.
New Jersey's schools once again are not only victims of leadership ineptness and incompetency but also of political opportunism as well as NJEA's vendetta against Christie.
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If our politicians in Washington have the childrens' interests at heart someway will be found to mitigate the damage. But don't hold your breath. Remember this in November.
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Per Hurricane Earl..pray the coast is spared a beating..but would love to get 2"+ of rain over a 24hr period from him.
ReplyDeleteThe $400Million SCREW-UP...No matter the reasons or problems, Governor Christie was man enough to stand up and say, the buck stops at his desk and he is ultimately responsible. Rare in politics, much less NJ Politics. I am still curious about the silence from the NJEA about the 14points the application didn't get because the union refused to consider reforms..We missed it by 3, 14 points missed because of the union..hmmm still silent. Shocking.
The Historic Preservation Commission has no interest in nor jurisdiction over interiors. Nor does it control or comment on exterior colors. In fact, if the exterior change in structure is invisible from the street, the HPC has nothing to say.
ReplyDeleteRob, neither "Regular" or "New" Democrats will comment on the 14 points lost because they can't blame Christie. Of course we would not hear from any member of NJEA or most other unions.
ReplyDeleteThanks Pat we now have a better understanding of the role of the Historic Preservation Commission.
ReplyDeleteSuch a Republican. If Washington cares about our interests..
ReplyDeleteIf our Governor cared about our children's interests then they would have submitted a VALID application!!!
Washington doues care about our children, which is why they implemented the Race to the Top program! CHRISTIE MESSED UP THE APP, WASHINGTON CANT DO ANYTHING ABOUT THAT!!
A.W.
Hi Doc,
ReplyDeleteYou forget that without the George Bush and Dick Cheney lies, we wouldn't have even been in Iraq. If we weren't there we would have not spent billions or is it trillions of dollars, many soldiers wouldn't be dead and we would probably have a better picture in Afganistan. Let's give credit to that last Pres and his Vice when it comes to the death and misery they caused by lieing to the American People.
A.W.,Such a nonthinking Democrat,and I am not a registered Republican. Read the papers. Shundler not Christie with the help of a consultant that Corzine hired for the firs pahse of the Race which Jersey failed to qualify prepared the filing submitted to Washington. Schundler admits that he deleted the 2008-2009 aid reports and substituted the 2010-11 data because he could not conceive that the other is what was required. Christie is guilty because the buck stops there. But why are you focusing on 3.14 points when 14 points were lost through NJEA and school districts inaction.
ReplyDeleteYou will have to prove that the Feds could not offered Schunler tim e to get the reight data from Trenton. All the time he had was at the hearing.
Was just checking back in to see if anyone from the NJEA or the Democrats are criticizing the NJEA for NOT supporting reforms costing the grant application 14points ...Anyone ?? Anyone ??? Oh..mmm..interesting, I guess it's easier to ignore the 14points lost on the application instead of the 5points SCREWED UP ROYALLY by the Governor's administration/staff. But he did take responsibility for it.
ReplyDeleteGuess you were right Doc...We know no one in the Democratic Party in NJ would dare condemn the teachers union for their stupidity. Well..actually you know one...Me.
Bob, I forgot nothing. I wrote it was an unneeded war and that the arrogance of Cheney who was the real President was responsible for the bungling that prolonged it. But once we were committed to have left without giving the Iraq government a chance to survive would have been a defeat like Vietnam for the U.S.
ReplyDeleteAfghanistan was a necessity because of 9/11 but the Cheney (bush) egotist had no understanding about what they were doing.
Good on you Bob for pointing out the Bush/Cheney reality.
ReplyDeleteAnd Doc, registered or not, If it looks like a duck... Walks like a duck... And quacks like a duck...
I'll let you write the next line.
A.W.
Oo.. and yes, Christie, NOT Shundler, pulled the application with the correct 08-09 figures, and NJEA compromises..
ReplyDeleteThat was Christie, NOT Shundler. News flash, this just in Doc (since your age may have your understanding a wee-bit slow), Christie wears more than one hat down here in Trenton.
A.W.
A.W. Were you there? Can you state without any reservations that you saw Christie take out the 2008-9 aid reports?
ReplyDeleteHowever read the latest reports about Schundler's statements.
I am happy that you read my blog even if you accuse me of being a Republican. No I don 't like Tea.
Time for another subject.
3:23 PM: I wish I were 60 years younger. I would hope that I could avoid the same mistakes that I made the past few years, although I regret none.
ReplyDeleteAs to presence at an incident I note my authority for my comments.Schundler's culpability is reported in the Ledger.
If you want to scold me you should identify yourself. You could be Jerry Green although he would be man enough to own up to his comments.
Now that we all have had our fun, the only new comments I will post will b e those with substance.
4:20 PM your comment was accidently deleted when i was going to post it. Sorry, had nothing to do with your opinion.
ReplyDeleteHmmm convenient! You are truly priceless!
ReplyDelete9:20pm; You are a faceless jerk. Why would I apologize to an anonymous person if I did not want to post his diatribe? There is no law requiring me to do so. You hide and have no existence except in comments.Since you are obviously a hard core Democrat you must know that your master JG never posts a negative comment. True. to the best of my knowledge he has only posted one or two positive ones.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to NJEA'a press release concerning the loss of funding: http://www.njea.org/news/2010-08-24/new-jersey-loses-out-on-race-to-the-top-funding. As you can see there are two sides to the story. I don't know the details of what was being required of the NJEA (if someone has it please post it) but I will say you can reform them into nothingness and it still won't make inroads into students academic performance. The problem is far deeper. My opinion is that people are unjustly trying to blame the teachers.
ReplyDeleteNat...I am in no way attempting to blame teachers...you are unfortunately falling for the NJEA propoganda of hate us...hate teachers. I believe most teachers are good..the problem, their union doesn't back that opinion, otherwise certain reforms such as being able to easily get rid of bad teachers should be a no brainer not a $250,000 problem for the school districts. The NJEA is NOT the teachers. The NJEA is a self serving entity not even serving the very teachers they claim to represent and take money from. Why has the NJEA NOT stood up and taken to task all the school boards for NOT firing and EVEN hiring administrators while laying off teachers? Anyone can wrap their mind around funding being cut from anything...very few people, myself included, can say it's ok to layoff teachers in a budget crisis and continue to hire administrators. The NJEA has been silent on this issue. One of the many issues that makes a non-indoctrinated free thinker, such as myself say," WTF ???" Despising the NJEA does not mean you despise teachers.
ReplyDelete