Home is Where the Star Is

Yesterday in Penn Station, I met Jonathan, whose one tattoo caught my eye when I passed him in the Amtrak waiting area.

Except, sometimes, a fragment of a tattoo doesn't necessarily reveal the whole piece. As in Jonathan's case, I saw the back of his arm, and this segment, which resembled (to me, at the time), a crude figure with the beginning of a speech bubble emanating from its mouth:

I felt rather silly, however, when Jonathan agreed to participate and showed me the full tattoo:

The figure I imagined, of course, is really Long Island, and the balloon was the southern tip of the state of New York.

Jonathan explained that he is from Rochester, marked on the tattoo with a star, and that he lived in the same house growing up there for eighteen years. It's a New York state of mind, indeed.

The tattoo was done at Big Joe & Sons Tattooing in White Plains, New York.

Thanks to Jonathan for sharing his stately tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.


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NYC transit union chief seeks to unmask blogger | Technology Headlines | Comcast.net

Hey guys...

I had a pretty busy day and found myself at a loss as far as writing something original. Also, I just felt the need to back off from the political for a day or two....well almost.

I did find an interesting article from Jennifer Peltz of the Associated Press that should be of interest to all bloggers that I'd like to share. Suppose you decided to take on a public figure in your blog, and the subject decided what you were saying wasn't accurate or fair. And suppose the person you're writing about tried to get a court order to get Google or Wordpress, or any other host you could be using to disclose your identity.

Something like that is going on the BLOGSPOT right now. The head of New York City's transit union, John Samuelsen, went to court to find out the identity of the blogger who's been blasting him, inaccurately and unfairly he claims, in an attempt to sully his reputation among union members.

Click the link below for more.....

NYC transit union chief seeks to unmask blogger | Technology Headlines | Comcast.net

Christie To Kill ARC Project- Tunnel Vision For The Future; His Own

Commentary

There was once a time when New Jersey made things. We had auto assembly plants, breweries, factories that made electronic components, and New Jersey built some of America's first super highways, like US 1, the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike. We had "cloverleaves" and bridge projects, and Trenton used to make, and the world did take.

We used to have a film industry here as well. Actually, the first films were produced by Thomas Edison, and there were studios in Fort Lee, before sunny California beckoned the fledgling movie moguls. In more recent years TV became an important industry in New Jersey with The Sopranos and most recently Law and Order; SVU.

Terence Winter and Martin Scorsese wanted to film HBO's Boardwalk Empire in Asbury Park. However, the tax credit given for film production was discontinued by the new administration of Governor Chris Christie, the tough talking guy who's the nation's Republicans have fallen in love with- probably because they don't have to deal with him on a daily basis. Anyway, Boardwalk Empire moved it's operation to Brooklyn, and SVU crossed the Hudson into New York after spending it's first 11 seasons being filmed in New Jersey. New York offers a tax credit for film production; NJ doesn't. Say goodbye to New Jersey's film industry.

On May 3, 2009 the largest public works project in the United States was begun in North Bergen, a new railroad tunnel, the first in nearly a century to connect New Jersey and New York. The project was known as Access to the Region's Core, or ARC. The tunnel would burrow 100 feet below the Hudson River and end at a new 34th Street train station in Manhattan. At the station there would be access to 14 subway lines, PATH trains, and the Long Island Railroad. The full story behind the tunnel and the history of previous construction can be found here.

The tunnel project would provide thousands of construction jobs in Northern New Jersey, as many as 40,000 permanent job after the completion of the tunnel project, would cut the commute time for some riders in half, and add increased property value to tens of thousands of New Jersey homes. Candidate Chris Christie supported the tunnel project and reaffirmed his commitment to it after his election.

But today, Governor Chris Christie, citing cost over runs of $1.1 billion to $5.3 billion has decided to cancel the ARC project for good. He initially canceled the project on October 7, but then conferred with US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, and went on to further review the funding over the next two weeks, in between his stops across America campaigning for Republican candidates in this year's mid term elections.

Some will call Chris Christie a man of vision. But I for one see him a man of only one vision- of himself as the Republican challenger for the presidency of the United States in 2012.

Christie appears to be adamant in obtaining federal money to cover any cost overruns; in using this approach he puts the onus on the Feds for the collapse of the ARC project while enhancing his status as a tax cutting, spending slashing, fire breathing star of the GOP. He can flip flop on his commitment to the tunnel project because it died because the Obama administration won't give New Jersey anymore money....so he'll say.

And while federal authorities have offered to find alternate financing or even scale back the project, Chris Christie appears to be entrenched and inflexible in his position, despite the benefits the completion of the ARC project would have. The commuter, already saddled with higher fees and less service since Christie took office, is getting socked yet again.

Here's what I find most disturbing. When the state of New Jersey said it would not fund the $1.5 billion New Meadowlands Stadium, the ownership of the Giants and Jets found ways to get it financed and built. I find it it impossible to believe that New Jersey, with the resources available from both the public and private sector, couldn't find a way to cover any potential overruns. If the overrun was low at $1.1 billion, you mean to say the state, the Feds, and the Port Authority couldn't find a way to get the cash and get it done now? Because the bottomline is new tunnels will be needed, and needed soon. At what point do the existing one hundred year old tunnels become so unsafe that they have to be closed, leaving New Jersey, New York, and AMTRAK in an impossible situation managing the masses that commute or use the train for travel along the Eastern Seaboard.

In this two week window of review since the first closure of the ARC project, it appears that Governor Christie spent little time in seeking alternate financing to get the job done. It's pretty hard to do your job properly when the chief executive of New Jersey is at a GOP dinner in Indiana..... or in in Connecticut campaigning for Linda McMahon.... or in Florida, stumping for Marco Rubio. In the past six weeks or so when this crisis was bubbling to a surface, we could find Christie in Pennsylvania speaking for numerous candidates, or in California campaigning for Meg Whitman (and ripping into a protester in the audience....there's nothing like being confrontational to someone YOU think is confrontational to calm things down).

The Chris Christie Ego Tour 2010 seems to be winding down with the midterms on Tuesday. And much like his fiasco regarding the loss of $400 million in federal RACE TO THE TOP funding because of a clerical error- and Christie's unwillingness to compromise (or even APPEAR to compromise) with the NJEA, his decision to sink the ARC project seems to be driven by political ambition over the real needs of the state of New Jersey. This is a mistake that will impact not only New Jersey, but the whole region as well.

We....all of us....deserve so much better than this.

New Jersey To Host Super Bowl XLVIII In 2014!

The Super Bowl is coming to a cold weather city in 2014.

And that cold weather city is.....East Rutherford, New Jersey!

That's right. It's not "The City That Never Sleeps". But it is the city that will host Super Bowl XLVIII (when will it be OK to can the stupid Roman numerals? Didn't they go out of fashion in 476AD, or is the NFL waiting for the Empire to strike back?).

Officially the bid went to New York/New Jersey (doesn't "J" come before "N") over Tampa Bay and the announcement was made today by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. And almost immediately the New York electronic media went gonzo...wasn't it great that the game was coming to New Yawwwwk!

Mmmm...am I missing something? Was part of the deal that the game should be played in Buffalo, because that's the only professional football franchise within the sovereign state of New York. There are two NFL teams that have "New York" in their name and on their uniforms, and they've been in violation of truth in advertising for decades....both teams play their home games in East Rutherford, New Jersey. When you go to the New Meadowlands Stadium and and park your car, New Jersey gets a piece of that. You buy a hot dog and a Bud, NJ gets the sales tax on that as well. Apparel sold in the stadium, New Jersey gets some of that in sales tax.

Got the picture?

You can see Manhattan in the distance from the stadium; the Empire State Building is 8 miles away (according to GOOGLE MAPS)....or a "15 minute drive"- yeah, what the hell are they smokin'? The only way to cover that in 15 minutes is if your name is Obama and the cops leading your motorcade are clearing the way.

The weather in February? I've seen it 60 degrees in that month....but this past year February was the snowiest month in recorded history for the region....EVER!

But what the heck....we'll watch the participating teams play on the Frozen Tundra as the Ghost of John Facenda looks down and smiles on them...and starts to cheer if one team is the Philadelphia Eagles.

I wonder who will play the halftime show, The Boss or Bon Jovi? Can Richie Sambora still play lead guitar while wearing mittens?

And how are all of the stars of the TV shows being hawked by the network broadcasting the game going to be recognized when they are bundled up like Dr. Zhivago escaping from Siberia?

But most importantly....will the geographically challenged talking heads covering the game actually be able to tell you what state they are actually in without consulting their GPS?

On that note....check out the ESPN video below.






Wait!

I just thought of something.....according to the Mayan calendar the world will end in 2012.

Too bad, East Rutherford.

So this is much ado about nothing. Kindly disregard everything I said in this entry, and enjoy yourself while you still have time.

The Morning After- What Chris Christie's Win In NJ REALLY Means

The breakdown at 8:00am on Wednesday, November 4th, the morning after Chris Christie was elected the 55th governor of New Jersey (with 99% of the vote counted);

Chris Christie (R) received 1,140,134 votes (49%)
Jon Corzine (D)received 1,040,404 votes (45%)
Chris Daggett(I) received 132,919 votes (6%)

(Source- NJ.com )

Going into election day most polls had Christie slightly ahead by 2 percent or less. In some polls Chris Daggett was in double digits, while Jon Corzine remained static. Every indication was that the next governor of New Jersey would be elected with less than 45% of the vote.

Daggett's support was softer than most polls indicated. At last moment it appears that many voters shifted their votes to Christie to give him a larger margin of victory than anticipated.

Christie's win, with less than 50% of the vote, indicates less an endorsement of him than a repudiation of Jon Corzine. This election showed an electorate that was less than enthusiastic about the candidates.

The one major issue that won this election for Chris Christie was property taxes, followed closely the economy, then corruption, then health care (according to exit polls compiled for the print edition of the Star-Ledger).

WHAT THIS WAS NOT ABOUT (using the same exit polls from the Star-Ledger)- this WAS NOT a referendum about Barack Obama.

When asked Was one reason for your vote for governor today: to express support for Barack Obama 19% responded in the affirmative.

When asked Was one reason for your vote for governor today to express opposition to Barack Obama 19% said yes.

A whopping 60% said that Barack Obama was not a factor.

(Source- Star-Ledger print edition, page 15, left hand column, 11/4/09).

One thing President Obama's appearances did do in New Jersey was to galvanize the hard core conservative base, as admitted last night on News 12 New Jersey by ultra conservative former candidate for governor Steve Lonegan.The bottom line was they were backing Christie anyway so "The Obama Factor" was awash in New Jersey.

The usual suspects on the right will make this about Obama, but it wasn't. It was about a sagging economy that has yet to recover substantially, high property taxes, and a governor who was not very popular with his electorate, or to some degree within his own Democratic Party.

Consider this; New Jersey is a bell weather state- and the bell weather of that bell weather is Middlesex County, the crossroads of the state. The northern half, above the Raritan River, is semi-urban- on clear crisp days you can practically reach out and touch the skyline of Manhattan. The Southern half of the county gives way to farms and open spaces. It is traditionally blue- mainly working class Democrats descended from the immigrants from the early 20th century, mixed in with African Americans who came North from the rural South in the Industrial Age, and more recent arrivals from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia.

Middlesex is a Democratic stronghold; and incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine lost to Chris Christie by about 5,000 votes. But there's more; when you factor in the 12,000 votes Chris Daggett received in Middlesex County, 183,000 votes cast in total, Jon Corzine only got 48.6% of the vote. An election result like that happens in Middlesex maybe once every 20 years.

If anything, this was a bad year to be an incumbent or a member of an incumbent party. Corzine found that out, as was in the case in Virginia. Even more telling about the fragility of the incumbency is what happened across the Hudson in New York. Incumbent Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I) was supposed to clobber Democratic challenger Bill Thompson by double digits- few outside of New York even had a clue who Bloomberg was running against. Yet when the dust settled Bloomberg won by only 5%, 51 to 46%. If there had been a Republican incumbent running in New Jersey or in Virginia, there might have been the same result; the challenger wins. People are scared- and its still about the economy, stupid....and not about anything else.

So let the spinners spin away....that's what they get paid to do. Even if most of them don't have a clue about what really won or lost in New Jersey.

In closing- As stated before, I'm not going to root for Governor elect Christie to fail. I don't suck my thumb, I don't stamp my feet, and I left the third grade a whole lot of years ago.

And by the way- I don't even really like to drink tea...putting ground up leaves in little bags is so silly. Wearing them as a fashion accessory is even sillier.

The stakes in New Jersey are too high. We need a successful four years from our next governor.

Good luck, Mr. Christie.