[rocknation]

Good news -- the New York Times editorial about Christie's 2.7-cents-on-the-dollar ExxonMobil settlement delivers considerably more substance than its title promises:

Chris Christie’s Exxon Settlement Is Bad for New Jersey

The story began in 2004, when...as commissioner of environmental protection...I (Bradley M. Campbell) authorized the complaint against Exxon for decades of damage done to the natural resources surrounding the company’s Bayway and Bayonne operations on Arthur Kill and Newark Bay, which are at the heart of the New York Harbor estuary...

Having conferred with Mr. Christie on past spill cases while he was the United States attorney for New Jersey, I felt he would take seriously the Department of Environmental Protection’s role as a trustee and steward of the state’s natural resources...

Exxon('s)...challenge to its liability was rejected in 2007...(but) Exxon kept on fighting for nearly eight more years... I was encouraged when (the Christie) administration continued to pursue the case, and...(it went) to trial last year...I (was)...one of the witnesses called by Exxon to testify...(They) swung away at the state’s case...but never landed a punch...

The result is a disgrace...Former colleagues of mine in state government...have told me that Mr. Christie’s chief counsel inserted himself into the case, elbowed aside the attorney general and career employees who had developed and prosecuted the litigation, and cut the deal favorable to Exxon...

Christie's general counsel is Chris Porrino, who replaced Charles McKenna, who was on his way to becoming New Jersey's attorney general until his career path was blocked by Bridge(t)-Gate. The current attorney general is Jon Jay Hoffman -- and between his not having been in the running for the job; the ExxonMobil settlement being such an important deal; and Christie having a reputation of not knowing what is staff is up to, he should have Porrino looking over Hoffman's shoulder.

NJ.com: ...An examination of Porrino's most recent financial disclosure filing detailing his net worth revealed his stake in ExxonMobil through one of his mutual funds...(H)e owned (a) share of more than 20 stock and bond funds, including the Schwab Fundamental U.S. Company Index Fund. The Schwab portfolio lists its biggest holding as ExxonMobil Corp., representing 4.6 percent of its assets...

Kevin Roberts...(a) spokesman for the governor's office...said there was no conflict. "Any suggestion that Mr. Porrino's publicly disclosed ownership of a mutual fund that holds a small amount of ExxonMobil stock within its diverse portfolio of investments is somehow a conflict of interest is flatly wrong...Mr. Porrino has no direct stake in ExxonMobil and his interest in the mutual fund is an entirely passive, indirect investment over which he has no control."

The state's Uniform Ethics Code says only that no state officer or employee "should have any interest, financial or otherwise, direct or indirect, or engage in any business or transaction or professional activity, which is in substantial conflict with the proper discharge of his/her duties in the public interest."

ExxonMobil netted nearly $79 billion last year (unless corporate liability policies are that large). So they stood to lose a more than a tenth of it to the settlement -- even to them, that's not chump change. Nonetheless, the the difference between $225 million and $9 billion is VERY substantial, and if it stood to put a dent in MY mutual fund earnings, I would certainly feel more than a little conflicted!

News of the settlement wasn't supposed to break until April 6. But when Christie realized that he wasn't going to get applauded like, well, Bruce Springsteen over this, he outsourced the blame:

Gov. Chris Christie says the controversial settlement agreement with Exxon Mobil is "actually...really nice..." and blasted The New York Times for not getting its facts straight...

(S)peaking...at a town hall event in Somerville, (he) stressed the $225 million the oil giant agreed to pay is on top of the billions Exxon will dole out to pay for cleanup at contaminated sites in New Jersey. "They have to fix everything that they polluted to state standards, and there is no cap on what they have to pay...They're going to have to clean up everything no matter what it costs, and we're going to get the $225 million on top of it," Christie said. "If you read The New York Times, you'd never know this..."

"This is a good deal...for Exxon," (says) Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club... "Under the original order, Exxon would have had to restore the site, which is more than a clean-up or remediation. Exxon would have to remove all the oil and chemicals then restore the wetlands to the state they were in before the spill. Now Exxon can just cap the site, which is not really a clean-up. This would leave tons of oil and chemicals in the ground, saving Exxon millions of dollars."

So the choices were between restoring the polluted areas to pre-pollution condition and ensuring that they simply can't pollute any further; and between putting a financial cap on the bill versus putting a physical cap on the pollution. And somewhere in between, nearly nine billion dollars slips away from New Jersey's coffers.

ExxonMobil must be proud that they're being given the responsibility of the cleanup rather than the state hiring someone else. But they must be feeling pretty damned guilty, too. Now, here's how it's supposed to work in America:

The plaintiff tells the court what they think they should be paid by the defendant, and why. The defendant tries to talk the plaintiff into taking less out of fear that the court will make them pay more. If the court decides the plaintiff is asking for too much money, the court will award the plaintiff get less money. If the plaintiff allows the defendant to decide that the plaintiff is asking for too much money, the plaintiff will most likely get even less money than the court would award: The actual legal term for that is "getting screwed." The thing is, Christie himself started out as a lawyer -- doesn't he understand any of that?

[rocknation]

Originally Posted by NJ.com

(S)peaking...at a town hall event (on March 9)...(Christie) stressed the $225 million the oil giant agreed to pay is on top of the billions Exxon will dole out to pay for cleanup at contaminated sites in New Jersey: "They have to fix everything that they polluted to state standards...(T)here is no cap on what they have to pay...and we're going to get the $225 million on top of it," Christie said. "If you read The New York Times, you'd never know this..."

Originally Posted by rocknation

So (one of) the choices (was) between...putting a financial cap on the bill versus putting a physical cap on the pollution...

I have to admit that Christie's holding the right end of the stick on this one: The Times DIDN'T mention that in the February 27 article or the March 4 editorial they published. But they DID mention it on March 10:

Mr. Christie...in citing Exxon’s obligation to “fix what they created” without a limit on cost, was referring to the provisions of a 1991 consent order that Exxon reached with the state to clean up the contaminated refinery sites. In announcing the settlement last week, state officials cited that agreement....

Rachel Maddow and even Jon Stewart noticed -- he pointed out that as an already settled 21-year-old done deal, the cleanup costs never should have been a factor in the lawsuit:
http://www.rocktivity.com/video/christieExxon.webm

Which makes his settling for 2.7 cents on the dollar makes Christie look either more corrupt, more incompetent, or more insane than ever -- take your pick!

[rocknation]

Hey, babe, let's take a walk on Wild(stein) side:

...(D)ocuments corroborated by current and former Port Authority and Trenton staffers who requested anonymity...indicate that during his tenure at the Port Authority, Wildstein met at least twice with Christie and others in the governor's office, joined Christie at seven public events and had regular meetings with Christie's closest confidantes. On the day after a news report revealed that Wildstein was involved in the mysterious lane closures, his calendar had one 14-hour entry: Trenton.

Wildstein’s schedules – in entries verified by interviews — show almost monthly meetings with Bill Stepien, Christie’s top political aide at the statehouse and the manager of Christie’s two campaigns...Stepien and Wildstein had been friends since working together...in 2000. The calendars also show lunches and dinners with Christie’s top outside strategist, Mike DuHaime of Mercury Public Affairs...

“I don’t even remember in the last four years even having a meeting in my office with David Wildstein...I may have, but I don’t remember it,” Christie said at his...two-hour press conference...after the legislature released Bridgegate records including the now infamous email to Wildstein declaring “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” (And)...during a news conference at the statehouse...the governor said, “I could probably count on one hand the number of conversations I had with David Wildstein since he worked at the Port Authority.”

However, Christie allowed him to be hired at the Port Authority minus a resume or a job description (“He is there in that job because he is well suited to the task of playing a role in reforming the Port Authority in accordance with the governor’s goals,” said Christie’s (then) spokesman, Michael Drewniak) -- even though, according to an email that went out to Christie's family and friends (and subsequently described as having been sent without Christie's final approval):

• As a 16-year-old kid, he sued over a local school board election.
• He was publicly accused by his high school social studies teacher of deceptive behavior.
• He had a controversial tenure as Mayor of Livingston
• He was an anonymous blogger known as Wally Edge
• He had a strange habit of registering web addresses for other people's names without telling them

NJ.com:...WNYC pieced together Wildstein's schedule and discovered monthly meetings with Bill Stepien, Christie's campaign manager; "repeated" meetings with Michele Brown, the governor's consigliere; and numerous lunches and dinners with Michael DuHaime, the governor's political strategist.

With little doubt, Wildstein was always at the cool kids' table - not to mention involved with pet Christie projects such as raising the Bayonne Bridge, the PATH station in Harrison, and, yes, soliciting an endorsement from Fort Lee mayor Mark Sokolich that never came...

What? I can't agree with that -- it sounds more like Wildstein was merely Christie's plaything. Wildstein may have thought he meant more to Christie than that, but Christie was actually just passing him around among the members of his real inner circle. And what thanks does he get? He's reportedly talking to the Feds, but with or without immunity from prosecution? That depends on whether the Feds have decided they have enough on Christie that he and Bridget Kelly can take the fall for Bridgegate alone if they won't talk without immunity -- in which case David Wildstein would be spurned twice over.

And you thought Jon and Richie had New Jersey's most dysfunctional relationship.

[rocknation]

There's a danger that we both understand
We run like thieves through the temple of sin
Till we fall on our knees...
I'll be your dirty little secret
and you'll be mine...
We made a promise and we keep it
Our dirty little secret

Chris Christie Officials Sent Pension Money To Subsidiary of Donor’s Foreign Firm

...(A)s New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pursued re-election, his administration found itself mulling investment options for the state’s $80 billion pension fund. In... May 2013, officials settled on a subsidiary of U.K.-based foreign financial conglomerate Prudential PLC. With little fanfare, state pension overseers quickly endorsed the deal.

Weeks later, a Hong Kong-based executive director and board member of Prudential PLC delivered a maximum $3,800 contribution to Christie’s gubernatorial campaign, followed by a maximum $32,400 donation to the Republican National Committee, which was about to launch a get-out-the-vote effort for Christie. Two months after that, New Jersey began moving public employees’ retirement savings into two funds managed by the Prudential subsidiary as part of the state’s new $300 million investment commitment to the company.

State and federal rules are designed to prevent firms that manage public pension money from contributing to the campaigns of public officials who have the authority to influence pension investments...Prudential PLC said the donations from Barry Stowe, one of the firm's executive directors, were in no way improper..."(Executive director Barry) Stowe, who is a U.S. citizen, has donated to Chris Christie and several other candidates in a personal capacity...(He) was unaware of the New Jersey pension fund’s investments with (Prudential PLC subsidiary) M&G (Investments)." The company declined to make Stowe available for an interview, and Stowe did not respond to requests for comment...

The British insurer and financial services company (which is not related to Newark’s Prudential Financial) joins an extensive list of companies that received New Jersey pension money around the time firm executives made donations to Christie’s political apparatus and other Republican groups...

A dirty little secret? Of course not -- you can't expect an executive director of a financial firm to know what his own subsidiaries are doing!

Christie Administration Won’t Give Lawmaker Details On Exxon Settlement

...Gov. Chris Christie’s administration blocked a Democratic lawmaker’s effort to learn hidden details of the Republicans' controversial Exxon Mobil settlement. Separately, the administration also withheld other government documents related to a top Christie aide who went to work for Exxon's New Jersey lobbying firm a few months before the settlement was disclosed.

...Christie’s appointed attorney general...said the agreement with Exxon would also cover “relatively minor” natural resource damages at 16 undisclosed “company service stations and other facilities located throughout New Jersey.” According to state Sen. Ray Lesniak, the Democrat who is leading an effort to block the settlement, Christie officials plan to keep those details secret. Lesniak announced Thursday that the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had rejected his open records request...

A dirty little secret? Of course not -- if the judge who's supposed to make the ruling on the settlement doesn't know about this, why should anyone else?

After news of Christie’s Exxon settlement first leaked, IBTimes reported that Exxon’s New Jersey lobbying firm had hired Christie’s departing deputy chief of staff, Lou Goetting, in October. IBTimes filed an open records request seeking all emails to or from Goetting that mentioned Exxon. On Tuesday, the governor’s office released a letter saying it is withholding an undisclosed number of communications referencing Exxon, citing an exemption for "inter-agency or intra-agency advisory, consultative, or deliberative material."

A dirty little secret? Of course not -- obviously it was to Crew Christie's advantage to have a spy in the enemy camp during the settlement negotiations!

[rocknation]

April 15 is federal tax day in America -- and this year, Chris Christie celebrated it in a way that can only be described as Chris Christie-ish:

Watchdog.org: Gov. Chris Christie failed to report as income or pay taxes on $380,000 in expense allowances he received from the state, according to a New Jersey Watchdog examination of Treasury data and the governor’s tax returns. By not declaring the allowances on their joint returns, Christie and his wife, Mary Pat, avoided roughly $152,000 in federal income taxes over four years.

In addition to his $175,000 a year salary, Christie gets a $95,000 a year expense account. In the state budget, it’s described as an “allowance to the governor of funds not otherwise appropriated, for official reception on behalf of the state, operations of an official residence, and other expenses.”

From 2010 to 2013, Christie declared his state salary minus his pre-tax contribution to a retirement account, but not the $95,000 annual allowances. Most of the family’s other income came from his wife’s financial service jobs at Cantor Fitzgerald, LP and Angelo, Gordon & Co. in Manhattan...

• For 2013, the Christies paid $182,058 in federal income tax on $593,309 of reported taxable income. If the allowance had been declared, their tax bill would have been $220,216, an increase of $38,158.

• In 2012, they paid the IRS $90,377 on $350,438 of reported income. Counting the allowance, the bill would have been $125,403.

• The Christies’ 2011 reported income of $436,405 resulted in a $109,130 tax. The allowance would have raised their tax by $46,733.

• For 2010, the Christies reported taxable income of $327,170. If they had declared the allowance, their tax would have been $118,067, instead of $85,481...

Since Mrs. Christie technically owes half that unpaid tax money, she could turn out to be the weak link in her husband's chain. If the Feds were to start taking a closer look at HER financial life, which has crossed paths with the state coffers at times, she could end up getting indicted!

[Kathleen]

Originally Posted by rocknation

April 15 is federal tax day in America -- and this year, Chris Christie celebrated it in a way that can only be described as Chris Christie-ish:



Since Mrs. Christie technically owes half that unpaid tax money, she could turn out to be the weak link in her husband's chain. If the Feds were to start taking a closer look at HER financial life, which has crossed paths with the state coffers at times, she could end up getting indicted!

I am just waiting and hoping that they nail that lying, cheating bastard.

[rocknation]

Originally Posted by Kathleen

I am just waiting and hoping that they nail that lying, cheating bastard.

And what's HIS excuse for being an obese, lazy gluttonous pig?

[Old Joysey]

In case you'd have missed it...

That's a funny one! And so was KA's reaction.
https://gma.yahoo.com/christie-ally-...opstories.html


re:gluttony
Jon Bon Jovi and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at Lure Fishbar…
http://pagesix.com/2015/04/27/sightings-1999/

[rocknation]

New Jersey Watchdog.Org:...During a town hall meeting in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey...(a) 7-year-old Cub Scout...asked the Governor, “How many bodyguards do you have?”

“There are 30 men and women who work for me, who are in the state police, and they’re members of what’s called the Executive Protection Unit,” answered Christie...

EPU travel costs reached $492,420 in 2014...The total for EPU travel in Christie’s first five years as governor exceeds $1.15 million. How most of that money was spent remains a mystery...

(A) public records lawsuit is scheduled to be heard May 28...The governor’s office argues (that it)..would jeopardize the governor’s safety by disclosing how many troopers are assigned to EPU. Yet that’s exactly what Christie detailed at the town hall meeting...and again by posting a clip of the episode on YouTube.

And here's the best part -- two weeks later, the video is STILL there! Whoever replaced Mike Drewinak as spokesman really dropped the ball on this one -- or is Christie planning to testify that he lied to the kid?

And speaking of kids, guess who's suddenly noticed that she's left hers home alone too much?

NJ.com: First Lady Mary Pat Christie said Monday her recent decision to resign from her lucrative job at a Wall Street investment firm is “absolutely not” an indication that her husband has already made a decision on a 2016 presidential campaign. She has had “lots of conversations about” with the governor about a potential White House run and the couple has yet to decide.

“I’m spending a lot of time with my children and my husband, and really enjoying the opportunity..." Mary Pat said...Stepping down from her job will allow her to...spend time with the couple’s two youngest children, who are 14 and 11 years old...

The household earned just under $700,000 in 2013, according to the Christie’s tax returns. The bulk of that money, some half a million dollars, came from the first lady's salary and other compensation from a partnership payout at Cantor-Fitzgerald that year...

In a recent interview...with Matt Lauer, Mary Pat Christie had said she was "not sure" whether she would take a leave of absence from her job if her husband sought the presidency...

The interview was aired April 16. Mary Pat's last day was Friday April 24, and it was announced the following Monday? That's not how senior-level executives resign of their own free will, especially if they want to keep future job prospects on the table: four weeks' notice (with a formal public announcement) is a minimum. And even if her children were not well past the age of baby tending, surely running for America's first lady will be just as much a full time job.

On the other hand, if Christie gets indicted, too, you'd think they'd need all the income they can get their hands on. But on the OTHER other hand, neither of Mary Pat's hands are that clean -- the firm she's leaving continued to collect fees for a state pension fund that was no longer theirs. Are the Feds starting to breathe down HER neck, too? Did she jump from her job because she knew she'd get pushed? Or WAS she pushed?

Originally Posted by Old Joysey

re:gluttony
Jon Bon Jovi and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at Lure Fishbar…
http://pagesix.com/2015/04/27/sightings-1999/

Now that the first round of indictments have come down, it's entirely possible that he's practicing for having his last meal on the outside! Stay tuned...

[Kathleen]

Here are some of Christie's (old) comments about the Bridge scandal. [From the NYTimes]

December 2013: “At the end of this, you know you and your paper will owe an apology to Senator Baroni and Mr. Wildstein,” Mr. Christie told the Wall Street Journal. (David Wildstein pleaded guilty today; Bill Baroni was indicted.)

December 2013: “A mistake got made,” Mr. Christie said, explaining that reports about retribution to punish the mayor of Fort Lee had been “sensationalized.” (Mr. Wildstein said in court today that punishing the mayor was the exact goal of the lane closings.)