Is an angry, disapproving, rigid and demanding mother. And you wonder why our foreign policy looks like someone with a real inferiority complex is making decisions?
So it's not Dick Cheney, it's not paterphilia, it's not Karl Rove. The mastermind behind George W Bush's presidency is...
Drumroll, please!
Barbara Bush!
This woman produced two presidents! The only one since Abigail Adams (another ass-kicker, btw). Is there any doubt? Plus, you've seen the Manchurian Candidate, right (not that lame remake, the black & white original)? Mrs. Iselin gave new meaning to "mother knows best".
Interestingly, this insight was most recently expressed in a puff piece on the Queen's visit to the White House. The reporter went on and on about how nervous W was, and how totally unimpressed the Queen was (not that he used the word "unimpressed", but read between the lines and you'll see that's the gist) with his behavior.
I've been trying to practice this whole thing called compassion, and this is good exercise. I actually really feel for Bush, having observed the relationships of many men and their powerful, demanding mothers:
Some reject the attempted control and go on to a life of mysoginism and sexual conquest.
Some reject it and go on to a life of doormat-women and emotional abuse.
Others accept it totally and go on to a life of worshipping powerful demanding women, even when they're totally insane.
Still others accept it and continue to seek out women who will control them - either overtly or covertly.
And yet others NEVER free themselves from their mothers!
It is the rare few who, through some miracle of consciousness and self-direction, become confident, successful men who know how to behave as an equal with a powerful woman.
[I'll take votes on which of these categories you think W fits into.]
Everything fits together: On the street today, I walked by a shop window with a slew of embroidered pillows with those little sayings on them. The one that caught my eye said:
"If it's not one thing, it's your mother."
5.09.2007
5.08.2007
A Day That Will Live In...?
We'll see.
As a true believer in the "power to the people" philosophy, I am thoroughly excited by the renewed - and possibly successful - autonomy of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
I am a fan of the whole devolution process.
[In the early aughts, you could distinguish the motives of any politician or UK citizen by the way they pronounced that word. Long "e", to rhyme with Evolution (Brit pronunciation)? Or short "e" to rhyme with REvolution?]
On a related topic: I had a fascinating conversation with a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat recently. This person was questioning my deeply held belief in state's rights (don't be alarmed, that's just for lack of a more rational system of local and regional management/public access), and marveling at the potential for - egads! - conservative or - even worse! - unequal priorities reflected in the various institutions of government if this system was not supervised by the federal government.
HA!
I love when liberals get all nervous about everyone not being equal. Wake up! The last time I saw equal in action was...
That's funny. I don't remember a time when any individual or group, religion or geographic location, Democrat or Republican or Soclialist, race, class, age or gender was ever treated "the same" as any other individual, group, religion, etc.
Just like "democracy" or "freedom", "equality" is a concept, not a reality.
But I digress...
In the case of Northern Ireland (as with Wales and Scotland), the danger is being treated the same as the English, even though the culture, region and politics demand different treatment.
What the United Kingdom is attempting here is actually quite radical. What they're saying is: dare to be different, dare to address the more specific and specialized needs of your people, dare to lobby and aim to influence the huge, archaic and stodgy organization of your national government. And if you can do it on our dime, then good luck to you!
Every organization has its moment of promise, and from that point on it is either a success or a failure. Or, more realistically, it tries to meet the needs of its constituents while retaining access to its resources.
The Northern Ireland Assembly is on that verge. What will it be?
As a true believer in the "power to the people" philosophy, I am thoroughly excited by the renewed - and possibly successful - autonomy of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
I am a fan of the whole devolution process.
[In the early aughts, you could distinguish the motives of any politician or UK citizen by the way they pronounced that word. Long "e", to rhyme with Evolution (Brit pronunciation)? Or short "e" to rhyme with REvolution?]
On a related topic: I had a fascinating conversation with a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat recently. This person was questioning my deeply held belief in state's rights (don't be alarmed, that's just for lack of a more rational system of local and regional management/public access), and marveling at the potential for - egads! - conservative or - even worse! - unequal priorities reflected in the various institutions of government if this system was not supervised by the federal government.
HA!
I love when liberals get all nervous about everyone not being equal. Wake up! The last time I saw equal in action was...
That's funny. I don't remember a time when any individual or group, religion or geographic location, Democrat or Republican or Soclialist, race, class, age or gender was ever treated "the same" as any other individual, group, religion, etc.
Just like "democracy" or "freedom", "equality" is a concept, not a reality.
But I digress...
In the case of Northern Ireland (as with Wales and Scotland), the danger is being treated the same as the English, even though the culture, region and politics demand different treatment.
What the United Kingdom is attempting here is actually quite radical. What they're saying is: dare to be different, dare to address the more specific and specialized needs of your people, dare to lobby and aim to influence the huge, archaic and stodgy organization of your national government. And if you can do it on our dime, then good luck to you!
Every organization has its moment of promise, and from that point on it is either a success or a failure. Or, more realistically, it tries to meet the needs of its constituents while retaining access to its resources.
The Northern Ireland Assembly is on that verge. What will it be?
Now THAT's Ingenuity!
Bougainville is an island in the middle of the South Pacific, part of Papua New Guinea.
Just so you know, they are way smarter than we are!
But you have to wonder: Is using coconut oil - as the replacement for diesel fuel - going to impact the global price of coconuts, harming the delicate candy bar industry, as well as the ever-volatile sunscreen market?
You've been warned.
Just so you know, they are way smarter than we are!
But you have to wonder: Is using coconut oil - as the replacement for diesel fuel - going to impact the global price of coconuts, harming the delicate candy bar industry, as well as the ever-volatile sunscreen market?
You've been warned.
5.07.2007
Near Death Politics
Is this the best thing that ever happened to Governor Corzine?
Or, like all politicians in fully-functioning politicking mode, is he just so good at bullshit that he can translate a near-death experience into a focused executive agenda without meaning it?
I don't know, but I love good rhetoric.
From The New York Times:
(Article 1 of 2)
April 15, 2007
Corzine Crash Comes at Crucial Time for N.J.
By MICHAEL COOPER
Members of the staff of Gov. Jon S. Corzine say it could take a week to 10 days before he is well enough to resume his duties as the governor of New Jersey. His doctor said it could be “days or weeks.” Six months may pass before he can get around by himself.
No matter how long the recuperation period, the incapacitating injuries that Mr. Corzine suffered Thursday evening when his Chevrolet Suburban crashed on the Garden State Parkway not far from Atlantic City come at an important moment in both state government and in the life of his young administration, politicians and analysts said. If his convalescence proves a lengthy one, they said, the crash could define his first term and lead the state into murky political waters.
“From every point of view, this is not a fortuitous time for him or for the state,” Thomas H. Kean, a former governor of New Jersey, said of the accident.
This morning, Mr. Corzine underwent his second surgery since the accident at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J. Today’s surgery was to clean out a leg wound, and he is scheduled to have a similar surgery on Monday. His doctors said he would remain on a ventilator at least until then.
Dr. Steven E. Ross, head of the trauma division, said Mr. Corzine is “on enough medication to assure that he is comfortable and probably to assure that he won’t remember much of what is going on at this point.”
The crash comes as Mr. Corzine, 60, a former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs who has pledged to use his business acumen to shore up New Jersey’s shaky finances, was heading into his second budget battle with the State Legislature.
Last year’s epic budget battle was a test of stamina and brinkmanship. Mr. Corzine slept on a cot in his office for three consecutive nights and shut down state government to win an agreement from lawmakers to raise the state sales tax.
This year, the governor may have to negotiate the budget from a bed or a wheelchair. And while the next budget most likely will not be as contentious as the last — it is an election year for lawmakers, and Mr. Corzine’s proposal contained fewer politically difficult measures — many challenging issues lie ahead.
Among them is the state’s crushing debt load. Many homeowners continue to complain about high property taxes, though they were granted some relief in last year’s budget package. And for years the state has invested too little money in its pension system, casting doubt on whether it can meet its obligation to retirees.
The financial outlook is so bleak that Mr. Corzine has proposed selling off state assets like the New Jersey Turnpike and the parkway on which he was injured.
Mr. Corzine’s injuries could sideline him at a delicate time in his second year in office, when he is still trying to gain favor with voters and make inroads with Trenton’s political establishment. He has also been asked to answer questions about his gifts to a former companion who is also the president of a powerful state employees union.
“It comes at a point where he’s about to make the most critical decisions of his governorship,” said Peter J. Woolley, a political scientist who is executive director of the Public Mind poll of Fairleigh Dickinson University. “Are his injuries going to be so extensive that it’s going to deter him physically and mentally from pushing his own agenda to fix the financial woes, or will he recover enough with enough determination and still enough political latitude that he’ll be able to be effective?”
When the president of the State Senate, Richard J. Codey, became the acting governor this week for the third time —he took over after Gov. James E. McGreevey resigned amid scandal in 2004 — he pledged to work to carry out the Corzine administration’s agenda. “It’s their administration, and not mine,” he said.
Tom Shea, Mr. Corzine’s chief of staff, said on Friday that it was unclear exactly when Mr. Corzine will be able to resume his duties.
“We won’t know that until we know really what the governor’s prognosis for recovery is going to be,” he said. “You know, he certainly needs the ability to concentrate and focus and communicate in order to effectively carry out the duties of his office. And I think only time will tell how long that takes for us for him to be able to do that again.”
But if Mr. Corzine’s convalescence takes longer than expected, or if he should suffer setbacks that keep him from governing as the July 1 start of the fiscal year nears, the state could find itself in a peculiar situation: Mr. Codey, a fellow Democrat who has had political tensions with Mr. Corzine in recent years, would have to represent both the administration and the Senate in budget negotiations.
“It’s an outrageous conflict of interest,” said Mr. Kean, a Republican.
New Jersey voters agreed in 2005 to create the position of a lieutenant governor who would serve if a governor steps down or cannot serve, but the position will not be created until 2009.
The accident comes a little more than a year after Mr. Corzine took office with the résumé of an outsider. As a former business executive and as a United States senator for five years, he has never had to forge the kind of direct, close connection with voters that people like to have with their governors.
As a politician, Mr. Corzine can come across as a bit aloof, analysts said. He never toiled in the vineyards of local politics. He is not a natural glad-hander, or a stirring speaker, and he cuts an unconventional figure on the political scene with his scholarly-looking gray beard and trademark blue sweater vest.
As former Gov. Brendan Byrne said: “Governor Corzine is respected, I think, in virtually all quarters. He’s not the warm and fuzzy type Codey is. But I think he is well respected and listened to.”
A February poll from Quinnipiac University suggested that voters are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but not with a lot of enthusiasm. Voters approved of his performance by 50 to 34 percent, his highest ratings yet, but only 20 percent said that things have gotten better under his watch, while 15 percent have said the opposite.
And while several political analysts said that Mr. Corzine had been working to forge closer connections with voters — by going to town meetings, dinners, and fund-raisers for local officeholders — injuries that limit his mobility could hinder those efforts. And they could also limit his ability to campaign for his allies in the Legislature, who face re-election this year.
But some political analysts said that his accident and injuries would most likely engender sympathy for him as well. And they noted that the next election for governor is more than two years away.
Of more pressing concern, analysts said, are the grave problems facing the state.
The second year is critical in any governor’s four-year term, political scientists said. The first year is often spent assembling an administration and learning how state government works. By the third and fourth years, political capital has a habit of eroding, and a re-election campaign can distract politicians from governing. So the second year is prime time for attempting ambitious, politically risky measures.
“I think this comes at a particularly unfortunate time,” said Ross K. Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University. “The problems with the state pension fund were only just revealed, and he had resolved to see that it was set right. And he was in a unique position to try to find some way out of this problem for a state that was already bogged down in serious debt, and his background in finance made him uniquely suited to do it.”
The pension fund’s problems are staggering in scope. The state failed for years to make the required annual contributions to the pension fund, and used questionable accounting methods to hide the true condition of the funds. And just as a few late credit card payments can cause an individual’s debt to balloon, the missing pension contributions have made the state’s pension shortfall soar.
Mr. Corzine tried to break with the past, ordering up the first significant pension contributions in a decade. But because of the years of neglect, even that has not been able to keep up with the required amounts. That is one of the reasons he has been weighing the sale of state assets.
Joseph R. Marbach, the acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Seton Hall, said a lengthy convalescence could place Mr. Corzine’s proposals to sell assets like the toll roads and the lottery on the back burner. “That may be taken off the table entirely, while the state applies a Band-Aid approach,” he said.
Eric Shuffler, who was a top aide to Governors Codey and McGreevey, and who has written speeches for Mr. Corzine, said he expected Mr. Corzine to be able to resume his duties soon. “I think the biggest thing for the governor is that there is so much he wants to do, and so much he is trying to do, and this is a loss of time for an agenda that is quite ambitious,” he said.
Professor Baker, of Rutgers University, noted how strange it was that Mr. Corzine was critically injured while on his way to broker a meeting between the Rutgers women’s basketball team and Don Imus, the talk-show host who was fired for making racist and sexist comments about them.
“It would be treated as bad fiction if this had appeared between two covers,” he said.
David Chen and Mary Williams Walsh contributed reporting.
(Article 2 of 2)
May 7, 2007
N.J. Governor Ready to Resume Duties
By DAVID W. CHEN
PRINCETON, N.J., May 7 — Saying that his prolonged absence from a job that he loves was driving him “stir crazy,” Jon S. Corzine resumed his official duties as Governor of New Jersey this morning, three and a half weeks after sustaining serious injuries in a car accident.
“I’d go stir crazy if I was not doing this,” Mr. Corzine said at a news conference at the governor’s official mansion here, known as Drumthwacket.
And though he was in excruciating pain at the time of the accident and now faces months of intense physical therapy, Mr. Corzine said, he never for a second considered leaving his office, which he spent $45 million to win in 2005.
“I had not thought about resigning, if that’s what you’re saying,” he said in response to one reporter’s question. “I love what I do. It’s because I love it, I want to get back at it. It gives me strength.”
Mr. Corzine spoke for 30 minutes at the news conference, an unusually long session for him. He cautioned that he would be working on a limited schedule, putting in eight or nine hours a day rather than his former 14 to 16 hours.
Indeed, he said that he would remain at Drumthwacket for the time being, and that cabinet members and other officials would visit him, rather than commuting to his office in the state capital.
And he said that he would perform few of the ceremonial duties normally required of the office, and instead focus on policy issues, like a state budget that must be settled by July 1, the issue of health care and the idea of leasing state assets such as the New Jersey Turnpike to generate tens of billions of dollars in new revenue.
Still, with one of his doctors — Dr. Steven E. Ross, head of the trauma division at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, where Mr. Corzine was hospitalized — standing in the background at the news conference, Mr. Corzine demonstrated just how much he has recovered physically from the accident.
He used forearm crutches to negotiate a total of six steps from the front entrance of the mansion to its circular driveway, where he spoke to reporters. He was helped into a chair by his son, Jeffrey, but he sat unattended for the entire news conference, with a leather stool in front of him to support his broken left leg.
Mr. Corzine was critically injured on April 12 in an accident on the Garden State Parkway near Atlantic City. He was a passenger in a state sport-utility vehicle that was clocked at 91 miles an hour, or 26 miles an hour over the speed limit, when it collided with a pickup truck and hit a guard rail.
At the time of the crash, Mr. Corzine was not wearing a seat belt, in violation of state law. The impact tossed him from the front seat to the back, and broke his left leg, his sternum, a clavicle, a lower vertebra and 11 ribs. Doctors who treated him said he lost about half his blood.
The governor endured three operations at Cooper University Hospital, and relied on a ventilator to help him breathe for more than week.
Against a backdrop of widespread criticism from residents over his failure to wear a seat belt, Mr. Corzine voluntarily paid a $46 fine and costs related to the infraction.
The State Senate president, Richard J. Codey, served as acting governor during Mr. Corzine’s convalescence. But Mr. Corzine took his old job back at 9 a.m. today, starting off with a senior staff meeting at the mansion before the news conference.
Or, like all politicians in fully-functioning politicking mode, is he just so good at bullshit that he can translate a near-death experience into a focused executive agenda without meaning it?
I don't know, but I love good rhetoric.
From The New York Times:
(Article 1 of 2)
April 15, 2007
Corzine Crash Comes at Crucial Time for N.J.
By MICHAEL COOPER
Members of the staff of Gov. Jon S. Corzine say it could take a week to 10 days before he is well enough to resume his duties as the governor of New Jersey. His doctor said it could be “days or weeks.” Six months may pass before he can get around by himself.
No matter how long the recuperation period, the incapacitating injuries that Mr. Corzine suffered Thursday evening when his Chevrolet Suburban crashed on the Garden State Parkway not far from Atlantic City come at an important moment in both state government and in the life of his young administration, politicians and analysts said. If his convalescence proves a lengthy one, they said, the crash could define his first term and lead the state into murky political waters.
“From every point of view, this is not a fortuitous time for him or for the state,” Thomas H. Kean, a former governor of New Jersey, said of the accident.
This morning, Mr. Corzine underwent his second surgery since the accident at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J. Today’s surgery was to clean out a leg wound, and he is scheduled to have a similar surgery on Monday. His doctors said he would remain on a ventilator at least until then.
Dr. Steven E. Ross, head of the trauma division, said Mr. Corzine is “on enough medication to assure that he is comfortable and probably to assure that he won’t remember much of what is going on at this point.”
The crash comes as Mr. Corzine, 60, a former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs who has pledged to use his business acumen to shore up New Jersey’s shaky finances, was heading into his second budget battle with the State Legislature.
Last year’s epic budget battle was a test of stamina and brinkmanship. Mr. Corzine slept on a cot in his office for three consecutive nights and shut down state government to win an agreement from lawmakers to raise the state sales tax.
This year, the governor may have to negotiate the budget from a bed or a wheelchair. And while the next budget most likely will not be as contentious as the last — it is an election year for lawmakers, and Mr. Corzine’s proposal contained fewer politically difficult measures — many challenging issues lie ahead.
Among them is the state’s crushing debt load. Many homeowners continue to complain about high property taxes, though they were granted some relief in last year’s budget package. And for years the state has invested too little money in its pension system, casting doubt on whether it can meet its obligation to retirees.
The financial outlook is so bleak that Mr. Corzine has proposed selling off state assets like the New Jersey Turnpike and the parkway on which he was injured.
Mr. Corzine’s injuries could sideline him at a delicate time in his second year in office, when he is still trying to gain favor with voters and make inroads with Trenton’s political establishment. He has also been asked to answer questions about his gifts to a former companion who is also the president of a powerful state employees union.
“It comes at a point where he’s about to make the most critical decisions of his governorship,” said Peter J. Woolley, a political scientist who is executive director of the Public Mind poll of Fairleigh Dickinson University. “Are his injuries going to be so extensive that it’s going to deter him physically and mentally from pushing his own agenda to fix the financial woes, or will he recover enough with enough determination and still enough political latitude that he’ll be able to be effective?”
When the president of the State Senate, Richard J. Codey, became the acting governor this week for the third time —he took over after Gov. James E. McGreevey resigned amid scandal in 2004 — he pledged to work to carry out the Corzine administration’s agenda. “It’s their administration, and not mine,” he said.
Tom Shea, Mr. Corzine’s chief of staff, said on Friday that it was unclear exactly when Mr. Corzine will be able to resume his duties.
“We won’t know that until we know really what the governor’s prognosis for recovery is going to be,” he said. “You know, he certainly needs the ability to concentrate and focus and communicate in order to effectively carry out the duties of his office. And I think only time will tell how long that takes for us for him to be able to do that again.”
But if Mr. Corzine’s convalescence takes longer than expected, or if he should suffer setbacks that keep him from governing as the July 1 start of the fiscal year nears, the state could find itself in a peculiar situation: Mr. Codey, a fellow Democrat who has had political tensions with Mr. Corzine in recent years, would have to represent both the administration and the Senate in budget negotiations.
“It’s an outrageous conflict of interest,” said Mr. Kean, a Republican.
New Jersey voters agreed in 2005 to create the position of a lieutenant governor who would serve if a governor steps down or cannot serve, but the position will not be created until 2009.
The accident comes a little more than a year after Mr. Corzine took office with the résumé of an outsider. As a former business executive and as a United States senator for five years, he has never had to forge the kind of direct, close connection with voters that people like to have with their governors.
As a politician, Mr. Corzine can come across as a bit aloof, analysts said. He never toiled in the vineyards of local politics. He is not a natural glad-hander, or a stirring speaker, and he cuts an unconventional figure on the political scene with his scholarly-looking gray beard and trademark blue sweater vest.
As former Gov. Brendan Byrne said: “Governor Corzine is respected, I think, in virtually all quarters. He’s not the warm and fuzzy type Codey is. But I think he is well respected and listened to.”
A February poll from Quinnipiac University suggested that voters are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but not with a lot of enthusiasm. Voters approved of his performance by 50 to 34 percent, his highest ratings yet, but only 20 percent said that things have gotten better under his watch, while 15 percent have said the opposite.
And while several political analysts said that Mr. Corzine had been working to forge closer connections with voters — by going to town meetings, dinners, and fund-raisers for local officeholders — injuries that limit his mobility could hinder those efforts. And they could also limit his ability to campaign for his allies in the Legislature, who face re-election this year.
But some political analysts said that his accident and injuries would most likely engender sympathy for him as well. And they noted that the next election for governor is more than two years away.
Of more pressing concern, analysts said, are the grave problems facing the state.
The second year is critical in any governor’s four-year term, political scientists said. The first year is often spent assembling an administration and learning how state government works. By the third and fourth years, political capital has a habit of eroding, and a re-election campaign can distract politicians from governing. So the second year is prime time for attempting ambitious, politically risky measures.
“I think this comes at a particularly unfortunate time,” said Ross K. Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University. “The problems with the state pension fund were only just revealed, and he had resolved to see that it was set right. And he was in a unique position to try to find some way out of this problem for a state that was already bogged down in serious debt, and his background in finance made him uniquely suited to do it.”
The pension fund’s problems are staggering in scope. The state failed for years to make the required annual contributions to the pension fund, and used questionable accounting methods to hide the true condition of the funds. And just as a few late credit card payments can cause an individual’s debt to balloon, the missing pension contributions have made the state’s pension shortfall soar.
Mr. Corzine tried to break with the past, ordering up the first significant pension contributions in a decade. But because of the years of neglect, even that has not been able to keep up with the required amounts. That is one of the reasons he has been weighing the sale of state assets.
Joseph R. Marbach, the acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Seton Hall, said a lengthy convalescence could place Mr. Corzine’s proposals to sell assets like the toll roads and the lottery on the back burner. “That may be taken off the table entirely, while the state applies a Band-Aid approach,” he said.
Eric Shuffler, who was a top aide to Governors Codey and McGreevey, and who has written speeches for Mr. Corzine, said he expected Mr. Corzine to be able to resume his duties soon. “I think the biggest thing for the governor is that there is so much he wants to do, and so much he is trying to do, and this is a loss of time for an agenda that is quite ambitious,” he said.
Professor Baker, of Rutgers University, noted how strange it was that Mr. Corzine was critically injured while on his way to broker a meeting between the Rutgers women’s basketball team and Don Imus, the talk-show host who was fired for making racist and sexist comments about them.
“It would be treated as bad fiction if this had appeared between two covers,” he said.
David Chen and Mary Williams Walsh contributed reporting.
(Article 2 of 2)
May 7, 2007
N.J. Governor Ready to Resume Duties
By DAVID W. CHEN
PRINCETON, N.J., May 7 — Saying that his prolonged absence from a job that he loves was driving him “stir crazy,” Jon S. Corzine resumed his official duties as Governor of New Jersey this morning, three and a half weeks after sustaining serious injuries in a car accident.
“I’d go stir crazy if I was not doing this,” Mr. Corzine said at a news conference at the governor’s official mansion here, known as Drumthwacket.
And though he was in excruciating pain at the time of the accident and now faces months of intense physical therapy, Mr. Corzine said, he never for a second considered leaving his office, which he spent $45 million to win in 2005.
“I had not thought about resigning, if that’s what you’re saying,” he said in response to one reporter’s question. “I love what I do. It’s because I love it, I want to get back at it. It gives me strength.”
Mr. Corzine spoke for 30 minutes at the news conference, an unusually long session for him. He cautioned that he would be working on a limited schedule, putting in eight or nine hours a day rather than his former 14 to 16 hours.
Indeed, he said that he would remain at Drumthwacket for the time being, and that cabinet members and other officials would visit him, rather than commuting to his office in the state capital.
And he said that he would perform few of the ceremonial duties normally required of the office, and instead focus on policy issues, like a state budget that must be settled by July 1, the issue of health care and the idea of leasing state assets such as the New Jersey Turnpike to generate tens of billions of dollars in new revenue.
Still, with one of his doctors — Dr. Steven E. Ross, head of the trauma division at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, where Mr. Corzine was hospitalized — standing in the background at the news conference, Mr. Corzine demonstrated just how much he has recovered physically from the accident.
He used forearm crutches to negotiate a total of six steps from the front entrance of the mansion to its circular driveway, where he spoke to reporters. He was helped into a chair by his son, Jeffrey, but he sat unattended for the entire news conference, with a leather stool in front of him to support his broken left leg.
Mr. Corzine was critically injured on April 12 in an accident on the Garden State Parkway near Atlantic City. He was a passenger in a state sport-utility vehicle that was clocked at 91 miles an hour, or 26 miles an hour over the speed limit, when it collided with a pickup truck and hit a guard rail.
At the time of the crash, Mr. Corzine was not wearing a seat belt, in violation of state law. The impact tossed him from the front seat to the back, and broke his left leg, his sternum, a clavicle, a lower vertebra and 11 ribs. Doctors who treated him said he lost about half his blood.
The governor endured three operations at Cooper University Hospital, and relied on a ventilator to help him breathe for more than week.
Against a backdrop of widespread criticism from residents over his failure to wear a seat belt, Mr. Corzine voluntarily paid a $46 fine and costs related to the infraction.
The State Senate president, Richard J. Codey, served as acting governor during Mr. Corzine’s convalescence. But Mr. Corzine took his old job back at 9 a.m. today, starting off with a senior staff meeting at the mansion before the news conference.
5.02.2007
Your Attention, Please!
I'd like to share a couple of sentiments that I was quite touched by (and, after yesterday's cornucopia of fucked up global politics, I could use a lift):
1. I have been a fan of Aaron McGruder's utterly brilliant Boondocks strip since I saw it some years ago. I never had TV when it became a show, and so never had the pleasure of seeing it until last night.
The Martin Luther King Jr. come-back episode nearly brought me to tears. And it begs the question: What does it take to get us engaged with our lives, our communities and our country? Have we become so entitled that we believe it's someone else's responsibility to lead? Have we forgotten how to revolt?
2. This is what political action looks like. Now get your ass up, get informed, and go tell your elected officials who's in fucking charge here! If the French can do it, so can we.
3. Please don't take my lambasting of our current political leaders and their reprehensible decision making as a commentary on the United States. I am a die-hard patriot. I just can't stand being lied to, misinformed, misdirected, uninspired, underserved and unappreciated by the 'powers that be'.
You know that our political bank account is pretty low when the Brits are debating the value of our existence. We've come a long way since V-E Day.
The Clintonian side-note reminded me of his first Inaugural Address. Just thinking back to that day, and the swelling of possibility and potential in the hearts and minds of this country - even though the fear of Democratic politics and fiscal management was real - makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Let me remind you:
"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America."
1. I have been a fan of Aaron McGruder's utterly brilliant Boondocks strip since I saw it some years ago. I never had TV when it became a show, and so never had the pleasure of seeing it until last night.
The Martin Luther King Jr. come-back episode nearly brought me to tears. And it begs the question: What does it take to get us engaged with our lives, our communities and our country? Have we become so entitled that we believe it's someone else's responsibility to lead? Have we forgotten how to revolt?
2. This is what political action looks like. Now get your ass up, get informed, and go tell your elected officials who's in fucking charge here! If the French can do it, so can we.
3. Please don't take my lambasting of our current political leaders and their reprehensible decision making as a commentary on the United States. I am a die-hard patriot. I just can't stand being lied to, misinformed, misdirected, uninspired, underserved and unappreciated by the 'powers that be'.
You know that our political bank account is pretty low when the Brits are debating the value of our existence. We've come a long way since V-E Day.
The Clintonian side-note reminded me of his first Inaugural Address. Just thinking back to that day, and the swelling of possibility and potential in the hearts and minds of this country - even though the fear of Democratic politics and fiscal management was real - makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Let me remind you:
"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America."
5.01.2007
To Veto Or Not To Veto?
Today's Double-You Dilemma:
Do I use my second veto on the most obviously controversial bill to pass through Congress during both of my terms in office?
...
OR
...
Do I let the "voice of the people" be heard echoing throughout the land as the Democrats ring the death knell for my terror war?
Truth, George? You're fucked either way.
I hope someone in your group of advisors is telling you that, even though you're not listening.
Use the veto and the Democrats look like martyrs. Let that bill pass and your whole end-of-term, Bin Laden-catching, war-winning, blockbuster blowout is blown.
Let's face it. By now you should be sending out resumes, and how is it going to look when you go into your interview with BlackRock and they say...
"So, George. It says here that you were...'the leader of the free world' and the 'defender of liberty and freedom across the globe'. Very impressive. But I noticed that you never used that veto when those pesky Democrats and peace-loving human-huggers got that Iraq Disaster Plan bill passed. That was during your presidency, right?"
"Well, Mr. Giuliani, ya see... It's not my fault! You remember what it was like back then, right? All those people wanting to keep their loved ones alive. And that whole thing about catching Bin Laden, as if he started it..."
"You said he did start it."
"Right. He did. I mean, no. It was Saddam. That's not the point... What I'm saying here is... well..."
"Mr. Bush. Let me stop you here before we waste any more of each other's time. I'm looking for someone confident, forceful. Someone who's going to invent successful investment strategies and stick by them even when the IRS comes around asking questions. Someone who knows how to work the system. And you're just not what we're looking for."
"But, but... Have you seen this autographed photo of me declaring that the war was over on the USS... Well, I can't remember the name of the ship, but... Here. Please, take it! Please!"
"I'm sorry Mr. Bush. We're through here."
This is the man who stood in the face of... well, in YOUR face and told you any number of "factually inaccurate" statements [aka LIES].
Do you actually think he cares about your opinion? By now you should have realized that he's not listening to you. He's listening to God.
And his God says...
(whispering) "Psst. George."
(W looks around confused)
(a little louder) "George."
(More confusion)
(sighs) "GEORGE!!"
(Looks up) "Oh, God! Sorry, I was wondering who was talking to me."
"Why? Have you been speaking with any other disembodied voices recently?"
"No! Of course not! Only You, God. Come on, You know that!"
"Well, listen. I want to talk to you about this whole Iraq thing."
"Not You, too!"
(disapprovingly) "George."
"Sorry, God. It's just... everybody wants me to pull out, but I don't want to. And I keep telling them that You're the One that told me to do it..."
"George, I told you NEVER to use my name in vain. Telling people that God told you to do something is like wrapping yourself in a long-sleeved coat and asking the bus driver if he knows the way to Santa's house! What's wrong with you?"
"No! I didn't use Your name. That's not what I meant. I mean, I made it sound like You wanted me to do it. Anyway, now everybody's upset because... well, I'm not really sure why, but they're upset. And Congress has been trying to get me to bring troops back... I'm just really tense. But I'm always ready to talk to You, God. What did You want to know?"
"Are you gonna use that veto?"
"Sheesh! What would You do?"
"Use it! Tell those soft-hearted, New Testament motherfuckers to get over themselves already and win that war! Fuck the casualty list! I'm saying that you're not even doing enough! Reinstate the draft, round up the homeless people and get this party started! WOO HOO!"
"Jeez, God! ... Sorry. I mean... God, why are You so excited about winning the war? Aren't we all Your people on our way to Heaven anyway?"
"George! Do you have any IDEA what would happen to me if Allah won this season on Divine Idol? I would just die! So he's got the 40 Virgin Dancers as back-up, which is totally cheating to me... But have you seen Jesus dance? And the Holy Ghost? It's a nightmare! Not even a simple jazz-hands! And all they want to use for our music is hip hop, and I can't get a good can-can line going during the chorus, cause somebody that sounds like they're from Gomorrah starts talking about all the sinful stuff he's doing with my mom... I mean, it's a creative HELL!"
"I'm sorry to hear that, God, but what can I do about it?"
"Do I have to decide everything? Catch Bin Laden, win the war, and while you're at it, make sure as many Jews and Christians die as possible."
"But don't you want the Muslims to die? I'm confused."
(under his breath) "As usual." (normal echo) "George, the more Muslims go to THEIR heaven, the more voters Allah gets. The more Judeo-Christians WE kill, the more votes I get. Simple."
"Ummm. OK. So, You're saying I should veto? Even if the rest of my presidency is buried in media slander and a total recreation of my meager successes?"
"Yeah, DUH! Just do it! Don't ask questions. What do you think this is? A DEMOCRACY? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA AH HA HA HA HA AH HA HA HA AH HA HA HA... Whew!"
Do I use my second veto on the most obviously controversial bill to pass through Congress during both of my terms in office?
...
OR
...
Do I let the "voice of the people" be heard echoing throughout the land as the Democrats ring the death knell for my terror war?
Truth, George? You're fucked either way.
I hope someone in your group of advisors is telling you that, even though you're not listening.
Use the veto and the Democrats look like martyrs. Let that bill pass and your whole end-of-term, Bin Laden-catching, war-winning, blockbuster blowout is blown.
Let's face it. By now you should be sending out resumes, and how is it going to look when you go into your interview with BlackRock and they say...
"So, George. It says here that you were...'the leader of the free world' and the 'defender of liberty and freedom across the globe'. Very impressive. But I noticed that you never used that veto when those pesky Democrats and peace-loving human-huggers got that Iraq Disaster Plan bill passed. That was during your presidency, right?"
"Well, Mr. Giuliani, ya see... It's not my fault! You remember what it was like back then, right? All those people wanting to keep their loved ones alive. And that whole thing about catching Bin Laden, as if he started it..."
"You said he did start it."
"Right. He did. I mean, no. It was Saddam. That's not the point... What I'm saying here is... well..."
"Mr. Bush. Let me stop you here before we waste any more of each other's time. I'm looking for someone confident, forceful. Someone who's going to invent successful investment strategies and stick by them even when the IRS comes around asking questions. Someone who knows how to work the system. And you're just not what we're looking for."
"But, but... Have you seen this autographed photo of me declaring that the war was over on the USS... Well, I can't remember the name of the ship, but... Here. Please, take it! Please!"
"I'm sorry Mr. Bush. We're through here."This is the man who stood in the face of... well, in YOUR face and told you any number of "factually inaccurate" statements [aka LIES].
Do you actually think he cares about your opinion? By now you should have realized that he's not listening to you. He's listening to God.
And his God says...
(whispering) "Psst. George."
(W looks around confused)
(a little louder) "George."
(More confusion)
(sighs) "GEORGE!!"
(Looks up) "Oh, God! Sorry, I was wondering who was talking to me."
"Why? Have you been speaking with any other disembodied voices recently?"
"No! Of course not! Only You, God. Come on, You know that!"
"Well, listen. I want to talk to you about this whole Iraq thing."
"Not You, too!"
(disapprovingly) "George."
"Sorry, God. It's just... everybody wants me to pull out, but I don't want to. And I keep telling them that You're the One that told me to do it..."
"George, I told you NEVER to use my name in vain. Telling people that God told you to do something is like wrapping yourself in a long-sleeved coat and asking the bus driver if he knows the way to Santa's house! What's wrong with you?"
"No! I didn't use Your name. That's not what I meant. I mean, I made it sound like You wanted me to do it. Anyway, now everybody's upset because... well, I'm not really sure why, but they're upset. And Congress has been trying to get me to bring troops back... I'm just really tense. But I'm always ready to talk to You, God. What did You want to know?"
"Are you gonna use that veto?"
"Sheesh! What would You do?"
"Use it! Tell those soft-hearted, New Testament motherfuckers to get over themselves already and win that war! Fuck the casualty list! I'm saying that you're not even doing enough! Reinstate the draft, round up the homeless people and get this party started! WOO HOO!"
"Jeez, God! ... Sorry. I mean... God, why are You so excited about winning the war? Aren't we all Your people on our way to Heaven anyway?"
"George! Do you have any IDEA what would happen to me if Allah won this season on Divine Idol? I would just die! So he's got the 40 Virgin Dancers as back-up, which is totally cheating to me... But have you seen Jesus dance? And the Holy Ghost? It's a nightmare! Not even a simple jazz-hands! And all they want to use for our music is hip hop, and I can't get a good can-can line going during the chorus, cause somebody that sounds like they're from Gomorrah starts talking about all the sinful stuff he's doing with my mom... I mean, it's a creative HELL!"
"I'm sorry to hear that, God, but what can I do about it?"
"Do I have to decide everything? Catch Bin Laden, win the war, and while you're at it, make sure as many Jews and Christians die as possible."
"But don't you want the Muslims to die? I'm confused."
(under his breath) "As usual." (normal echo) "George, the more Muslims go to THEIR heaven, the more voters Allah gets. The more Judeo-Christians WE kill, the more votes I get. Simple."
"Ummm. OK. So, You're saying I should veto? Even if the rest of my presidency is buried in media slander and a total recreation of my meager successes?"
"Yeah, DUH! Just do it! Don't ask questions. What do you think this is? A DEMOCRACY? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA AH HA HA HA HA AH HA HA HA AH HA HA HA... Whew!"
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