Bruce Springsteen Mocks New Jersey Governor

Kathleen · #71 04-26-2014, 06:18 PM

Umm....don't want to say too much here but THIS project was one of the downfalls of my husband with the Port. As an engineer he didn't believe the contract that was signed was advantageous to the Port - it wasn't. It eventually got renegotiated but he lost his job in the process. Baroni called him a troublemaker. He is back there as a consultant and working with PATH now but Lincoln Tunnel Access left a very bad taste in his mouth. Many people (Including some very high up people) knew about the conflict of interest and the complete illegality but they just kept their mouths shut and conducted business as usual. My husband spoke up and lost his job because of it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rocknation

Because not everyone here is an English-speaking American, I'll explain what the Securities and Exchange Commission does: they act as a police force over America's public and private financial dealings, and they've decided to join the state and federal authorities in investigating Chris Christie:

And because not everyone here is either an American, a New Yorker, or a New Jerseyite:

It's possible that Christie wasn't "aware" or didn't "recall" that the Pulaski Skyway couldn't feed the Lincoln Tunnel it its life depended on it. But trying to re-brand the Pulaski Skyway as feeding the Champs Elysees would be easier to believe!

rocknation · #72 04-26-2014, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kathleen

...THIS project was one of the downfalls of my husband with the Port. As an engineer he didn't believe the contract that was signed was advantageous to the Port - it wasn't. It eventually got renegotiated but he lost his job in the process. Baroni called him a troublemaker...

Many people (Including some very high up people) knew about the conflict of interest and the complete illegality but they just kept their mouths shut and conducted business as usual. My husband spoke up and lost his job because of it.

Quote:

Chris Christie not only killed the tunnel project, but lied about doing so to save the state from paying for imaginary cost overruns, even after the U.S Department of Transportation, trying to save the tunnel, said it would cover New Jersey's share of any such costs. That was late 2010; Christie's men -- including David Wildstein and Bill Baroni, both of whom resigned in the wake of the Great Ft. Lee Clusterfk -- were beginning to take over the PA. That process accelerated when David Samson, another Christie crony, became Chairman of the Port Authority Board of Commissioners early in 2011. (link)

Do you mean that your husband was against tunnel being built, or HOW the project had been set up? And were there Christie cronies lined up ready to cash in on the project's "disadvantages?"

Even if Christie did the right thing by killing the tunnel project, it was illegal of him to manipulate the federal funding involved in order to avoid raising state taxes.

Well, nobody's speaking up for Baroni now. Revenge is a dish best served cold, LOL!

Kathleen · #73 04-26-2014, 09:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rocknation

Do you mean that your husband was against tunnel being built, or HOW the project had been set up? And were there Christie cronies lined up ready to cash in on the project's "disadvantages?"

Even if Christie did the right thing by killing the tunnel project, it was illegal of him to manipulate the federal funding involved in order to avoid raising state taxes.

Well, nobody's speaking up for Baroni now. Revenge is a dish best served cold, LOL!

No, my husband was in favor of the tunnel. Once Christie killed it, he and his cronies came up with this ridiculous Lincoln Tunnel Access project to repair New Jersey roads with Port Authority toll money. And because Christie had placed so many people at the Port there was no pushback from the top people. The everyday engineers that saw what was going on pretty much kept their mouths shut - my husband did not. What they did was illegal and they didn't appreciate him pointing it out to the legal department.

And personally (since I'm an engineer also) I think Christie did a huge disservice to the ordinary citizens of New Jersey by killing that tunnel. There was a lot of construction that had already been started down on 1 and 9 near Jersey City. Killing the tunnel meant a loss of jobs and also a loss of 10 years of planning. There was a of of money available for the project (backed by Port Authority tolls) and Christie saw a way to bail out his own transportation budget and still get the necessary road repairs done. The Pulaski Skyway has been in horrible condition for quite a while now and basically has been a disaster waiting to happen. I have no quarrel with fixing it, it should have been fixed years ago but it shouldn't be paid for with Port Authority tolls. It provides no access to the Lincoln Tunnel and never has. It has nothing to do with the Port. It was a swindle - pure and simple.

rocknation · #74 04-27-2014, 03:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kathleen

No, my husband was in favor of the tunnel. Once Christie killed it, he and his cronies came up with this ridiculous Lincoln Tunnel Access project to repair New Jersey roads with Port Authority toll money...The everyday engineers that saw what was going on pretty much kept their mouths shut - my husband did not...

The Pulaski Skyway has been in horrible condition for quite a while...it should have been fixed years ago but it shouldn't be paid for with Port Authority tolls. It provides no access to the Lincoln Tunnel and never has...It was a swindle - pure and simple.

Oh, dear, this is starting to hit way too close to home. Maybe you'd better change your screen name to "Deep Throat The Second!"

Kathleen · #75 04-27-2014, 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rocknation

Oh, dear, this is starting to hit way too close to home. Maybe you'd better change your screen name to "Deep Throat The Second!"

It IS hitting close to home but so far no subpenas yet. All the names mentioned in the press are people my husband worked with directly. He figures it is only a matter of time before they get around to him. He feels that he is on the side of the angels so he is not too concerned. He did what he thought was right. After losing your job over taking a stand, worrying about the subpena process comes in a distant second.

And frankly, he wouldn't have done anything different. (Neither would I for that matter). You gotta look yourself in the mirror in the morning.

rocknation · #76 05-13-2014, 06:07 AM

If you've read everything so far, you should understand Chris Christie well enough to pass a pop quiz:

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In March 2013, New Jersey officials forecast that online gambling would yield somewhere in the neighborhood of $180 million in tax revenues for the state during the first fiscal year Internet gaming was legal. But the estimates have been falling ever since—to $160 million when Chris Christie signed the state budget last summer, and down to just $34 million earlier this year, after a few months of legalized online gambling had passed.

More recently, the state treasurer said that no more estimates on online gambling revenues would be made public...

Quote:

...(Christie) said...he was blindsided by April tax collections...(coming) in at least $600 million below his estimates.

...The April surprise widened the overall shortfall in the governor's budget to at least $807 million — a whopping sum that Christie says will force difficult cuts to the budget in the next 60 days and could even threaten a couple of important payments into the pension fund for public workers.

"What we're being told initially is that this is the effect of the change in the law at the end of 2012 by the Obama administration and the Congress to increase tax rates on upper-level individuals," Christie said...

Quote:

...When Christie issued his budget estimates in 2012, they looked odd to most observers. He predicted that revenue would have a huge yearly increase of 7.4 percent — which the Star-Ledger found was the most optimistic in the nation — due to economic growth. This also allowed him to avoid raising taxes, or making any more particularly painful spending cuts, as his reelection the following year loomed...

So it was very inconvenient when David Rosen...(of the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services) said Christie's projections would come up $145 million short that year, and $392 million short the following year. Christie criticized Rosen immediately, calling his office partisan and saying "they shouldn't be given any credibility." He added..."Why would anybody with a functioning brain believe this guy?...How often do you have to be wrong to finally be dismissed?"

And now for the quiz:

When the going gets tough, Chris Christie gets...

secretive
bratty
intimidating
reality-denying
rule-breaking
blame-diverting
WAY too predictable!!!

Kathleen · #77 05-13-2014, 11:50 PM

I would go with G by utilizing A through F

rocknation · #78 05-14-2014, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kathleen

I would go with G by utilizing A through F

And Kathleen goes to the head of the class!

Kathleen · #79 05-14-2014, 02:41 AM

Unfortunately Christie is still the Head of State (the governor) so I lose either way

rocknation · #80 05-16-2014, 02:12 AM

Quote:

"Knock, Knock."
"Who's there?"
"O.J."
"O.J. who?"
"You're on the jury."

Is there some kind of secret organization that's in charge of putting out jokes like that when a big scandal happens? Chris Christie certainly hasn't been spared:

"What's Chris Christie's favorite song?"
"Bridget Over Troubled Water."

Why bring this up? Because the dedication to New York City's 9/11 Memorial Museum was conducted today, with a full roster of politicians and other VIPs taking turns at the podium. I never doubted that Christie would be invited, but not being from New York, I wasn't sure if he'd get a chance to speak.

Well, he did speak, but not before a sudden change of plan:

Quote:

A last-minute change prevented what could have been an uncomfortable moment...

The original program for Thursday's ceremony had Christie's remarks followed by Idina Menzel's performance of...the song Bridge Over Troubled Water.

But just before the ceremony, museum spokesman Anthony Guido announced that Menzel, star of the Broadway show If/Then, was sick and would not perform. In her place, another member of the show's cast...herself a 9/11 widow, performed Amazing Grace.

If only HE had had enough class to "not perform!" But rather than let the song go unheard because it might make someone "uncomfortable", here's Bon Jovi's version!

Bruce Springsteen Mocks New Jersey Governor

NBJ - Everything Else