May 3
...serving up your daily dish.
Want to mouth off in the nice spring weather, instead of online? We hear there's a TV crew from NJN on Church Street in Montclair right now, asking the locals about race relations.
Where the heck is everybody today?
Montclair was like a ghost town, relatively; there was no traffic, you could find empty parking meters all over Bloomfield Ave.
Even out on Rt. 3 an hour ago, the traffic was unusually light in both directions. (I drive it every day, same time, so I'm pretty well attuned to traffic density.)
What's the deal?
Posted by: crank | May 3, 2006 4:15:17 PM
Does that mean that all of the mental defectives stayed home today? It would explain a lot.
Posted by: crank | May 3, 2006 4:31:42 PM
I went shopping at Target today, plenty of parking. I bought some towels and little rugs.
Posted by: psycho axe murderer | May 3, 2006 5:53:44 PM
Since we are off topic. I would like to encourage any members of the Republican Party to "stiff" them in the latest GOP fund raiser.
(yes you heard right).
If you get a GOP fund raising letter return it with this inside.
Hopefully this will "encourage" our wayward party to get a grip on immigration policy.
Posted by: Right of Center™ | May 3, 2006 5:59:12 PM
Okay, psycho axe murderer, I will play straight man for you based on your posting name.
Were the towels to wrap the heads of your victims in, the rugs to roll up round the separated body parts? (You wanted someone to ask, yes?)
Posted by: cathar | May 3, 2006 6:15:57 PM
Perhaps psycho axe person cleared the town?
Seriously, where was everybody today? Did all of north Jersey go into Manhattan in an attempt to have a Cruise sighting?
Posted by: crank | May 3, 2006 8:21:33 PM
Anybody know what happened on Watchung Avenue between Broad Street and Broughton Ave yesterday? I presume a fatal accident as there seems to be a cande memorial set up today on the side of the road with alot of young men milling about looking sad.
Posted by: Bloomfieldcommuter | May 3, 2006 10:07:14 PM
Let's see -- Monday all of the immigrants skipped work to protest the immigration laws. Wednesday, things were real quiet in Montclair -- no one was abroad. Later Wednesday ROC tells his followers to "stiff" the Republican Party. There are connections there, if I could but find them.
Posted by: Conan the Grammarian | May 4, 2006 6:31:00 AM
BlfdCommuter - apparently there was a motorcycle fatality - a young man (BHS graduate in 2003) died. There are details on the Bloomfield forum on NJ.Com
Posted by: Anne Prince | May 4, 2006 6:50:47 AM
Crank here is an interesting bit of news.
Wouldn't it be great if New Jersey were similarly situated?
We should learn from this mistake, though:
"The state constitution limits the year-over-year growth of state spending to the rate of economic growth in the state, and has done so since voters approved an amendment in 1978 authored by then-state Rep. David Copeland. But the Copeland Cap, as it is called, has a giant loophole: The legislature can simply pass a law designating the dollar amount and percentage by which they can exceed the cap, rendering the cap toothless."
Posted by: Right of Center™ | May 4, 2006 8:38:58 AM
remember when we had a federal surplus?
remember back before the feds cut aid to the states and (many of) the states were obliged to go into deficit mode to pay for the kinds of programs that mean life or death (or education) for its citizens?
that's starvin' the beast.
Posted by: Veronica | May 4, 2006 9:00:33 AM
Friend of mine moved to Tennessee last year, guess he knew what he was doing.
He says the BBQ is real good too.
Posted by: crank | May 4, 2006 9:03:43 AM
"remember back before the feds cut aid to the states and (many of) the states were obliged to go into deficit mode to pay for the kinds of programs that mean life or death (or education) for its citizens?"
The odd thing is, Veronica, that some states (like Tennessee) seem to be doing fine without the federal welfare. Why do you suppose that is?
Posted by: Right of Center™ | May 4, 2006 10:04:30 AM
even more amazingly, Tennessee doesn't have an income tax!
Here's even a democrat I'd consider voting for!
Posted by: Right of Center™ | May 4, 2006 10:30:15 AM
Hmm, let us look at some apples and oranges then.
In Morganquitno.com/edrank.htm, Tennessee ranks 41st in education.
In 32 of 87 measures, Tennessee has below average performance on the National Healthcare Quality Report.
On most measures, Tennessee ranks "dirtiest/worst state" for chemical releases into the environment.
Tennessee receives $1.30 for every buck sent out in federal taxes (unlike Jersey, a net exporter, which receives 55 cents). So perhaps it could still be said, despite cuts in federally funded services, we (NJ) are helping to pay for Tennessee's surplus.
Now, who'd want to live in a state that's sicker, less educated and more toxic than average, I cannot say.
Posted by: Veronica | May 4, 2006 10:33:13 AM
"The odd thing is, Veronica, that some states (like Tennessee) seem to be doing fine without the federal welfare. Why do you suppose that is?"
Not so ROC
Go to:
http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/fas-04.pdf
In 2004 (the latest data posted):
Tennessee recieved over $1500 per capita and ranks 15th,
NJ received only ~$1250 per capita and ranks 36th.
U.S. average per capita: $1,366
If you go to
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/347.html
you would see that Tennesee gets back more than they put into Washington, receiving $1.30 back for every $1.00 paid in fedral taxes. They rank 18th.
NJ, on the other hand only got $0.55 back for each $1.00 sent to Washington. We rank 50th.
Perhaps if Tennesse wasn't freeloading off the people of NJ, they would have higher taxes, too.
Perhaps you should try to check your FACTS before you comment.
Posted by: Bitpusher | May 4, 2006 10:45:29 AM
Veronica,
I'll conceede that their educational system doesn't perform as well as ours.
"In 32 of 87 measures, Tennessee has below average performance on the National Healthcare Quality Report."
New Jersey has below average performance in 31. So I am not sure what you are touting here.
http://www.qualitytools.ahrq.gov/qualityreport/2005/state/download/NHQRAllState2005summary.xls
"On most measures, Tennessee ranks "dirtiest/worst state" for chemical releases into the environment."
You don't list a source, so it's hard to say, isn't it?
"Tennessee receives $1.30 for every buck sent out in federal taxes (unlike Jersey, a net exporter, which receives 55 cents). "
So would you agree that their congressional delegation is doing better than ours?
Here's the point about this "return" figure. It will *always* be a higher rate of return for more rural and less populated states. The kinds of things federal money is spent on (infrastructure) is spread out over more space and less population. Look and North Dakota's rate! So it is sort of a red herring.
Bitpusher, what I meant by "welfare" was related to Veronica's statement:
"remember back before the feds cut aid to the states and (many of) the states were obliged to go into deficit mode to pay for the kinds of programs that mean life or death (or education) for its citizens?"
Posted by: Right of Center™ | May 4, 2006 11:06:13 AM
p.s.
It may (or may not) be of interest that in Newsweek's rankings 2 highschools in Tennessee appear in the top 50 and no New Jersey highschools do.
Posted by: Right of Center™ | May 4, 2006 11:08:42 AM
Veronica,
I am especially interested in this:
"On most measures, Tennessee ranks "dirtiest/worst state" for chemical releases into the environment."
There are 113 superfund sites in NJ.
And (count 'em) 13 in Tennessee.
Since Tennessee is nearly six times the size of New Jersey I am curious how you can say New Jersey is "more toxic"?
Posted by: Right of Center™ | May 4, 2006 11:20:20 AM
But of course, that was written by dolts, and therefore means nothing.
Posted by: walleroo | May 4, 2006 11:21:40 AM
True, walleroo, true. I withdraw the Newsweek ranking.
Posted by: Right of Center™ | May 4, 2006 11:23:52 AM
oops.
"Since Tennessee is nearly six times the size of New Jersey I am curious how you can say Tennessee is "more toxic"?
Posted by: Right of Center™ | May 4, 2006 11:24:44 AM
Touting NJ as "average" and Tennessee as "weak" on healthcare.
and pollution releases: http://scorecard.org/ranking/rank-states.tcl?type=mass&category=total_env&modifier=na&how_many=100
Tennessee at #8 and toxic Jersey at #38
OK, how about per capita federal tax burden and return? TN: $1.29; NJ: $0.63
http://www.nemw.org/taxburd.htm
Your red herring argument does not work.
Posted by: Veronica | May 4, 2006 11:25:11 AM
