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WyBlog, the best thing about New Jersey since the invention of the 24 hour diner.

Chris Wysocki
Caldwell, NJ

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Monday, 30 June 2014

Chris Christie vetoes NJ Dems massive tax hikes, media crestfallen

Steve Sweeney huffed and he puffed and in the end Chris Christie blew his house down. Because Christie said raising taxes was a non-starter, which apparently is a newsflash to Sweeney, and our liberal media.

It's The End Of The World according to the class warriors at the Star-Ledger

Gov. Chris Christie signed a $32.5 billion state budget today that all but abandons a first-term plan to repair New Jersey's derelict pension system, slicing $1.57 billion from a payment required by law for public workers' retirement funds.

With his new budget — which makes modest funding increases to schools and hospitals and is 1.2 percent smaller than the one he signed last year — Christie held firm on a promise to block major tax increases in New Jersey. He vetoed a pair of Democratic bills that would have hiked rates on millionaires and businesses and reaped an extra $1.1 billion for the pension funds.

Christie's move to short the pension system — a reversal for a governor who once pledged to rescue it from collapse — could spark downgrades of New Jersey's credit rating and a difficult court battle against public-sector unions. With unfunded liabilities of nearly $50 billion for state and local workers. plans, the growing pension mess could hurt Christie's chances if he decides to run for president.

This is what passes for "objective" reporting in the Garden State. Christie "abandons" the pension system! It's a "reversal" of his "pledge!" Except, the money simply isn't there. Sweeney's millionaire's tax is a chimera; a ploy that's already been tried, and failed. Maybe the Ledger should read their own op-eds.

The big spenders at the Bergen Record are no better.

Governor Christie signed a $32.5 billion budget into law Monday evening, using his line-item veto to slash more than $1 billion in spending from the appropriations bill that lawmakers had approved knowing he would cut that funding and reject their tax increases.

Christie cut funding for women's health care, a tax credit for low-wage workers and legal services for the poor, all from the budget bill approved by Democrats on Thursday. The governor also delayed property tax relief to next year, overriding Democratic attempts to provide it next month.

The spin, it makes me dizzy. All those "cuts" are in actuality additional spending tacked onto the budget by the Democrats and nixed by Christie. Presumably because spending more money on extra stuff is how they "save" the pension system. The amounts Christie left appropriated to "women's health care," "low-wage workers," and "legal services for the poor" remain unchanged from last year. And the property tax relief game is one played by every governor since William Paterson, which makes it hardly newsworthy, unless you're out to paint Chris Christie as evil incarnate.

Chris Christie hasn't stood up for much. I'll be the first guy to say he's been a tremendous disappointment to us Conservatives. But once a year at budget time he's our guy. The taxpayers of New Jersey will take whatever victories we can get, whenever we can get them. Until Christie came along the public employee unions held all the cards around here. It's about time they felt some of our pain.

Posted at 23:27 by Chris Wysocki [/nj_politics] Comments | Perm Link |
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SCOTUS affirms that private employers like Hobby Lobby have religious freedom too

Well whaddaya know, the First Amendment's "Establishment Clause" cuts both ways. For those of you who are unfamiliar with its heretofore deprecated second half, allow me to refresh your memory:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…

Which means that closely held corporations can freely exercise their owners' religion.

The Supreme Court ruled today that the Christian-run Hobby Lobby doesn't have to obey the HHS mandate that is a part of Obamacare that requires businesses to pay for abortion causing drugs in their employee health care plans.

The Obama administration was attempting to make Hobby Lobby and thousands of pro-life businesses and organizations comply with the HHS mandate that compels religious companies to pay for birth control and abortion-causing drugs for their employees. However, the U.S. Supreme Court today issued a favorable ruling in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., a landmark case addressing the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of business owners to operate their family companies without violating their deeply held religious convictions.

Writing for the 5-4 majority, Justice Samuel Alito handed down the decision for the high court, saying, "The Supreme Court holds government can't require closely held corporations with religious owners to provide contraception coverage."

HHS's contraception mandate substantially burdens the exercise of religion," the decision reads, adding that "the decision concerns only the contraceptive mandate and should not be understood to mean that all insurance mandates." The opinion said the "plain terms of Religious Freedom Restoration Act" are "perfectly clear."

Poor Sandra Fluke. Now she has to pay for her own contraceptives. Someone ought to take up a collection before she accidentally reproduces.

Posted at 11:04 by Chris Wysocki [/religion] Comments | Perm Link |
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Friday, 27 June 2014

NJ Democrats pass fantasy budget with massive tax hikes and wealth transfers

They huffed and they puffed and Chris Christie will line-item-veto them into irrelevance anyway.

The Democratic-controlled New Jersey Legislature followed the script as expected Thursday, sending Gov. Chris Christie a new $34.1 billion state budget that would make a full payment to the public-worker pension fund and increase taxes on businesses and millionaires to plug a major revenue shortfall.

They did so even though Christie, a Republican, is expected to veto the tax hikes and reduce the pension payment to cover the shortfall before signing the spending plan.

But in the midst of a day of prepared speeches and pre-determined votes, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) could not contain his anger. He thundered at Republicans that pension reforms he and Christie enacted three years ago "came with an obligation, damn it! ... What about damn fairness?"

Fairness? What is this "fairness" of which He Would Be Governor speaks? We've had a succession of Democrat governors and legislatures, all espousing "fairness," and all failing miserably to honor their obligation to the pension fund. Because buying votes always trumps "fairness." Now Sweeney is peeved because Chris Christie plans to do the same thing every Democrat governor before him has done?

I think the word for that is "chutzpah," not fairness.

Besides, when do the taxpayers get our chance at this "fairness" thing? We're pretty damn tired of paying through the nose for bloated, inefficient, duplicative government. Revenue shortfall my ass! The budget Christie originally proposed is bigger than last year's. Sweeney's plan outspends him by another 3.3%. We have plenty of revenue, what we don't have is anyone willing to rein in spending.

Oh, and looky here, geriatric loon Loretta Weinberg (D-Abortion, Inc.) snuck in her state subsidy for the charnel houses of Planned Parenthood, again. Christie's vetoed that nonsense at least 5 times already, but hey, why not showboat for the merchants of death in one more blast of futility?

Under the guise of "fairness" the Democrats are up to their same old tricks — tax and spend, wealth redistribution, and pandering for votes. They haven't had a new idea in more than 50 years. Meanwhile the rest of us have figured out that yes, you eventually do run out of other people's money.

Posted at 14:02 by Chris Wysocki [/nj_politics] Comments | Perm Link |
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Thursday, 26 June 2014

SCOTUS nixes His Imperial Majesty's recess appointments

Dear Leader is going to be very, very angry. And I suspect that the IRS just moved 9 names to the top of their Audit Now list.

Unanimous Decision: SCOTUS Finds President Obama's Recess Appointments Were Unconstitutional

Barack Obama used his recess powers to appoint a head for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and three radical far left members to the NLRB despite the fact that the senate was in session in January 2012.

The Supreme Court today found Barack Obama's NLRB recess appointments were unconstitutional.

You'd think that a guy who pretended to teach Constitutional Law would be better informed on what the Constitution actually says. Nope. Not even the ultra-liberals on the Court bought his bogus arguments. That's gotta hurt. And it probably won't be very much fun to come anywhere near Royal Consort Valerie Jarrett today.

In a unanimous decision, the high court ruled in favor of Senate Republicans and limited the president's power to fill high-level vacancies with temporary appointments.

The court upheld the general authority of the president to make recess appointments, but said Obama lacked the power to fill slots at the NLRB during a brief, three-day Senate recess in 2012.

Obama had argued that the Senate was on an extended holiday break and that the brief sessions it held every three days were a sham that was intended to prevent him from filling seats on the NLRB.

The justices rejected that argument.

Alas, this ruling is a lot like closing the barn door after the horses have left. Since Dingy Harry nuked the Senate they've become little more than a rubber-stamp for the regime. All that could change, of course, if the GOP gets out of their own way in November. Then the last two years of Barry's Caliphate could very well be the worst 2 years of his life.

Posted at 11:02 by Chris Wysocki [/obama_watch] Comments | Perm Link |
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Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Why won't the IRS identify, and fire, the person who leaked NOM's tax returns?

Not a smidgen of corruption, eh? So who leaked confidential tax information to a bunch of far-left homofascists?

The IRS admitted this week to leaking the National Organization for Marriage's confidential information to far left groups.

The IRS will pay the National Organization for Marriage $50,000.

But what they won't do is identify who leaked the information.

Instead, they're circling the wagons.

The IRS agreed this week to pay only $50,000 in damages to the National Organization for Marriage after leaking confidential information to a leading gay marriage group.

Two years after activists for same-sex marriage obtained the confidential tax return and donor list of a national group opposed to redefining marriage, the Internal Revenue Service has admitted wrongdoing and agreed to settle the resulting lawsuit.

The Daily Signal has learned that, under a consent judgment today, the IRS agreed to pay $50,000 in damages to the National Organization for Marriage as a result of the unlawful release of the confidential information to a gay rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, that is NOM's chief political rival.

"Congress made the disclosure of confidential tax return information a serious matter for a reason," NOM Chairman John D. Eastman told The Daily Signal. "We're delighted that the IRS has now been held accountable for the illegal disclosure of our list of major donors from our tax return."

If only the IRS would take the matter seriously. Tapping the taxpayers for a measly $50,000 fine isn't serious. Firing the person responsible, prosecuting that person, and making him personally responsible for paying the fine? That's serious. Alas, the IRS has no plans to do that.

NOM said that an investigation revealed that its 2008 tax return and list of major donors was released to Matthew Meisel, a gay activist in Boston, MA. Email correspondence from Meisel revealed that he told a colleague that he had "a conduit" to obtain NOM's confidential information. While testifying under oath in a deposition in the litigation, Meisel invoked the 5th Amendment against self-incrimination and refused to disclose the identity of his conduit. Documents obtained during the litigation prove that Meisel then provided NOM's tax data to the Human Rights Campaign (whose president was a national Co-Chair of the Obama Reelection Campaign). The information was also published by the Huffington Post.

So someone in the IRS colluded with the Obama presidential campaign to illegally disclose confidential tax information. And that person still works at the IRS. Where he or she presumably continues to flout the law with impunity.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Eric Holder's Justice Department to open an investigation. Because Mr. Meisel's "conduit" serves Holder's (and Barack Obama's) interests. And that my friends is way more than a smidgen of corruption.

Posted at 11:03 by Chris Wysocki [/democrats] Comments | Perm Link |
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Tuesday, 24 June 2014

Sudanese Islamic supremacists re-arrest Meriam Ibrahim and her family

I knew reports of her freedom were too good to be true.

There's no way these seventh-century savages would really let a Christian woman escape the clutches of their pedophile prophet.

Because Islam means "submission." And if you don't submit, you die.

A Sudanese woman freed from death row on Monday has been detained with her family at Khartoum airport, sources have told the BBC.

Meriam Ibrahim was sentenced to hang in May for renouncing Islam, sparking widespread outrage at home and abroad.

About 40 security agents detained Mrs Ibrahim - along with her husband, Daniel Wani and two children - at the airport, the sources said.

On Monday, Mr Wani said the family intended to leave for the US.

Mrs Ibrahim was released from prison after an appeal court annulled the death sentence imposed on her.

She was arrested in February, and gave birth to a daughter in prison not long after being sentenced.

The family has been taken to the headquarters of one of Sudan's security agencies, the sources said.

This time, they're not letting her go.

Other reports indicate that she was arrested by "national security officials" because of "national security concerns," and she is beyond the reach of any civilian court.

The Religion Of Peace™.

Pray for Miriam Ibrahim. Pray for her husband Daniel. Pray for her two children. Pray that your faith is as strong as hers.

Posted at 11:50 by Chris Wysocki [/islam] Comments | Perm Link |
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Joe Biden is the quintessential Democrat; No savings, and proud to retire on the taxpayers' dime

Congratulations America. You get to make sure Joe Biden continues to live in style for the rest of his life. Because he never bothered to plan for his retirement.

Vice President Joe Biden plans on relying solely on taxpayers to fund his retirement.

Biden declared on Monday that he had neither a savings account, nor any stocks to pay off his golden years.

"I have no savings account, but I have a great pension and a great salary," Biden told the crowd at the White House Summit on Working Families.

Biden's poor financial planning means that taxpayers will have to foot the bill for his retirement.

When Biden and Obama vacate the White House, they will have to make due with a $5 million "transition budget" that will cover their move out expenses, as well as Secret Service protection, according to the Congressional Research Service. Biden, however, will benefit from more than just the presidential transition budget.

Biden, 71, will be eligible for a substantial pension come 2017. While former presidents earn about $200,000 per year from their executive pension, vice presidents, who serve as the President of the Senate, draw their pension from congressional pension pools. Former members of congress are paid "no more than 80 percent" of their highest three years salary.

Despite Biden's failure to save or invest money, his role as vice president will enable him to draw a six-figure pension paid for by taxpayers.

Joe Biden is the perfect role model for the moocher class. Live large, spend freely, and let somebody else worry about tomorrow. He's a parasite, and proud of it. And why not? For him, and about 47% of America, it's a strategy that's worked out pretty well, so far.

I wonder what'll happen if the rest of us decide to join him?

Posted at 09:50 by Chris Wysocki [/democrats] Comments | Perm Link |
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Sunday, 22 June 2014

Presbyterian Church votes to stop doing business with Jews

While all the right-thinking people are giddy over the Presbyterians' embrace of unnatural, same-sex "marriage," a far more sinister policy was also approved at the church's General Assembly.

Sadly, it's something our intelligensia also emphatically endorses — the "divestment" pogrom against Israel.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Friday became the most prominent religious group in the United States to endorse divestment as a protest against Israeli policies toward Palestinians, voting to sell church stock in three companies whose products Israel uses in the occupied territories.

The General Assembly voted by a razor-thin margin -- 310-303 -- to sell stock in Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions. Two years ago, the General Assembly rejected a similar divestment proposal by two votes.

The American Jewish Committee, a policy and advocacy group based in New York, said the vote was "driven by hatred of Israel." But Heath Rada, moderator for the church meeting, said immediately after the vote that "in no way is this a reflection of our lack of love for our Jewish brothers and sisters."

The decision is expected to reverberate well beyond the church. It comes amid discouragement over failed peace talks that have left activists desperate for some way to affect change and as the broader movement known as BDS -- or boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel -- has gained some momentum in the U.S., Israel's closest and most important ally.

Oh those pesky Jews. If they'd only roll over and die! Then the peaceful Palestinians could live forever in harmony with nature and their equally peaceful Arab brothers.

In a separate vote, the assembly also voted to re-examine its historic support for a two-state solution.

And there you have it. It is now the official policy of a purportedly Christian sect that Israel should cease to exist. And with it, presumably, Yad Vashem as well. Because in the Presbyterian church, the promise of "never again" has expired after a mere 69 years.

Posted at 10:55 by Chris Wysocki [/religion] Comments | Perm Link |
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Friday, 20 June 2014

Congressman Steve Stockman introduces "The Dog Ate My Tax Receipts Act"

The IRS blew off Congress with lame excuses. Repeatedly, and shamelessly.

So Congressman Steve Stockman believes that American citizens should have the right to blow off the IRS with lame excuses too.

Taxpayers who do not produce documents for the Internal Revenue Service will be able to offer a variety of dubious excuses under legislation introduced by Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX 36) a week after the IRS offered an incredibly dubious excuse for its failure to turn documents over to House investigators.

"The United States was founded on the belief government is subservient and accountable to the people. Taxpayers shouldn't be expected to follow laws the Obama administration refuses to follow themselves," said Stockman. "Taxpayers should be allowed to offer the same flimsy, obviously made-up excuses the Obama administration uses."

Under Stockman's bill, "The Dog Ate My Tax Receipts Act," taxpayers who do not provide documents requested by the IRS can claim one of the following reasons:

1.     The dog ate my tax receipts
2.     Convenient, unexplained, miscellaneous computer malfunction
3.     Traded documents for five terrorists
4.     Burned for warmth while lost in the Yukon
5.     Left on table in Hillary's Book Room
6.     Received water damage in the trunk of Ted Kennedy's car
7.     Forgot in gun case sold to Mexican drug lords
8.     Forced to recycle by municipal Green Czar
9.     Was short on toilet paper while camping
10.    At this point, what difference does it make?

Because what's good for the goose is good for the gander, right?

Posted at 16:04 by Chris Wysocki [/gop] Comments | Perm Link |
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Thursday, 19 June 2014

NJ Democrats declare war on Producers, vow massive tax hikes to benefit public employee unions

Steve Sweeney, NJ State Senate President and The Man Who Would Be Governor, wants to tax New Jersey into prosperity. That is, if you define prosperity as gold-plated public employee pensions and benefits.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney said today that Democrats in the upper house will not go along with Gov. Chris Christie's plan to cut funding meant for public-workers' pensions, rolling out a competing budget proposal that raises a series of taxes on wealthy earners and businesses to raise an extra $1.57 billion in the coming fiscal year.

At a Statehouse news conference, Sweeney (D-Gloucester) had tough words for Christie and drew a line in the sand: If the governor vetoes the tax increases, Democrats would consider putting them before voters in a referendum, he said.

Sweeney said shorting the pension fund next year — Christie is proposing to scale back a $2.25 billion pension payment to $681 million — was no way to solve New Jersey's "budget crisis." He and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) said Christie's policies have failed to spur enough job creation and state revenue, requiring at least temporary tax hikes to get the state's finances in order.

The Takers are declaring war on the Makers.

And really, the idea that imposing more costs on businesses will spur "job creation" is laughable on its face. Unless Sweeney means government job creation, because putting more money into the state budget always results in the hiring of more public employees.

Hey, public employees overwhelmningly vote Democrat! I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

Let me ask, would you stay in New Jersey and create jobs when faced with these new taxes?

· The tax rate on income above $1 million would rise from 8.97 percent to 10.75 percent, netting $565 million.

· The tax rate on income between $500,000 and $1 million would rise from 8.97 percent to 10.25 percent, netting $155 milion.

· A new, 15 percent surcharge on the corporate business tax would bring in $375 million.

· Suspending grants from the Business Employment Incentive Program (BEIP) for a year would free up $175 million.

That's a 20% tax increase on "millionaires," and a 14% increase on incomes above $500,000. Plus a 15% corporate penalty. So the owner of a typical S Corp (small business) would see a thirty-five percent increase in his taxes.

All so guys like Lodi Police Chief Vincent Caruso can retire at age 55 with a $342,000 lump sum on top of a $125,000 annual pension. (Notice how Sweeney's tax increases kick in at $500k, just above Chief Caruso's total payout for this year. Hmmm.)

Please, tell me how any of this idiocy makes sense.

Because it doesn't.

You want to know how screwed-up the Democrats are? Take Loretta Weinberg. (Please!) She's "retired" and collecting a state pension, but she's also earning a government salary as a state senator. We call that Double Dipping and it's rampant among the politicians and unionistas who regularly complain the public pension system is under-funded.

Hypocrisy, on steroids. They're all takers, and they have no shame.

Posted at 09:31 by Chris Wysocki [/nj_politics] Comments | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: NJ-Politics pensions public-employees budget Chris-Christie Steve-Sweeney | Tweet

Wednesday, 18 June 2014

The Affordable Care Act isn't so affordable in New Jersey

It's a dubious honor, but New Jersey now has the highest Obamacare premiums in the nation.

New Jersey residents who qualified for federal subsidies to buy health insurance have the highest monthly premiums of any state using the federal marketplace, a new report shows.

The average monthly premium offered by the three companies selling Affordable Care Act policies in New Jersey was $465.

The reason for the high numbers in New Jersey is simple, said Joel Cantor, director of the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University: Health care in New Jersey is very expensive.

"The big question is, 'How do we solve the affordability problem?' We've come a long way, but most would argue we haven't solved it. There's still a huge problem of underlying costs," he said.

Remember when Obamacare was going to save everybody $2500 per year?

Yeah, me neither.

Posted at 11:27 by Chris Wysocki [/obamacare] Comments | Perm Link |
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Tuesday, 17 June 2014

Obey peasants! Michelle Obama says, no school lunch choices for you!

Michelle Obama doesn't like it when your kids don't eat what she tells them to eat. No sirree, she does not like it one bit.

First lady Michelle Obama on Monday blasted back at critics of her school lunch program, arguing parents should ensure their children eat healthy meals.

"Our job as adults to make sure that our kids eat what they need, not what they want," she added.

Correction, Your Majesty. It's my job. It's not your job.

Federal edicts don't empower parents. And curtailing lunch choices only leads to wasted food. Lots and lots and lots of wasted food.

"What we need to do is lend a hand to the schools that are struggling, not roll back the standards and say, 'Oh, well. The kids don't like it so let them eat cake.' We can't afford to do that," she said.

Why yes, take something that's not working, and do more of it! Isn't that what Einstein called the definition of insanity?

The first lady said that rather than rolling back standards, officials should "help the schools that are struggling do a better job at making the meals more enjoyable for the kids."

Also, the beatings will continue until morale improves.

"It's so important for our schools to make the hard calls for our kids, because parents are struggling enough at home."

Spoken like a true dictator. The school knows best! And she controls the schools. So by extension, she controls your children. It takes a village, dontcha know. A village of bureaucrats.

Parents? We're optional. So long as we keep quiet.

It never seems to dawn on these smug, holier-than-thou intellectuals that their autocratic munificence is not grounded in reality. They're smart, and they believe it's the duty of smart people to tell us unwashed masses how to live our lives. We can't possibly be trusted to make our own decisions!

Besides, if your kids won't eat what Queen Michelle tells them to eat, you're probably a racist.

Posted at 11:00 by Chris Wysocki [/education] Comments | Perm Link |
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Monday, 16 June 2014

NJ medical marijuana reality can't match the hype

Sometimes, if you build it, they don't come.

A small but vocal group of advocates pressured NJ into legalizing "medical" marijuana. But so far, the program has been a total bust. The promised flocks of patients clammoring for this miracle drug haven't materialized, and the state-sanctioned dope dealers are hopelessly in the red.

After predictions that New Jersey's medical marijuana program could serve tens of thousands of patients with severe and painful illnesses, only 2,342 have signed up — a participation rate so small some worry the very future of the program could be at stake.

"We are hearing more and more anecdotal evidence that dispensaries are not sustaining themselves, the quality (of the marijuana) is not always there, and it's difficult for doctors and patients to get into the program," [Assemblyman Reed] Gusciora (D-Mercer) said.

Enrollment in the program has more than doubled in the last year as two of the state's three medical marijuana dispensaries opened their doors. But it's nowhere near the 5,000 to 30,000 medical marijuana patients advocates anticipated when the law was passed. Dispensary owners looked at disease statistics in New Jersey and expected at least 50,000 patients. The state's first dispensary opened in December 2012.

"We thought we would have 10,000 patients by now," said Yale Galanter, attorney and spokesman for Garden State Dispensary in Woodbridge, which has served 1,700 since opening six months ago.

The Compassionate Care Foundation center in Egg Harbor Township, which opened with great fanfare in October after securing a state-backed loan, says it needs 2,000 patients to break even and has served 600. The owners report bagfuls of cannabis are going to waste, and expansion plans are on hold.

Chief operating officer Bill Thomas quit last week, saying he could no longer work without getting paid.

"It's failing," Thomas said in an interview days before he resigned Monday. "From a business standpoint and from a patient standpoint, it's not successful. The governor says why change anything if (patients) haven't shown up. Is there really no demand, or is it so hard to get access that it is easier to buy it from the high school kid down the street? It's not like the people don't get it another way."

As it turns out, doctors are reluctant to prescribe marijuana, perhaps for the same reasons they no longer recommend medicinal alcohol. (A therapy which, by the way, I personally have found to be quite effective!)

Patients must be referred by a doctor in order to participate. Just 296 of New Jersey's 21,000 licensed physicians have signed up.

Many doctors don't want their name on the state's website, according to Gusciora, and dispensary officials from Woodbridge and Egg Harbor Township. They said doctors who are in the program report that they get calls from people diagnosed with illnesses they don't treat, as well as others who don't qualify for the program. As that word spreads, other doctors are wary about joining the program, the officials say.

And given the stigma surrounding marijuana, which is still illegal under federal law, some doctors fear they will lose patients or alienate their practice partners.

Because what New Jersey's doctors need is more liability, right?

Larry Downs, executive director for the Medical Society of New Jersey, said he found the lack of doctor involvement a "convenient excuse" for the program's struggles.

"If dispensary owners have overestimated the market, then that is not the concern of the medical field," Downs said.

"If doctors believe it is a legitimate therapy, being published on a website is not going to stop them," he added. "A lot of doctors do not believe it is a good therapy and that it does not meet standards of efficacy and safety."

Medical marijuana has always been a fig leaf, merely a pretense for aging stoners with "back trouble" to keep getting high without the hassle of driving to Irvington or Camden to score weed. The number of folks who might legitimately benefit from the drug's dubious effects is, and always will be, vanishingly small.

Posted at 09:58 by Chris Wysocki [/nj_politics] Comments | Perm Link |
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Friday, 13 June 2014

Now it makes sense: Chaos in Iraq raises oil prices, helping to fight climate change

When you remember that Obama believes our Number One geopolitical foe is climate change, the chaos currently enveloping Iraq makes perfect sense.

How?

Because it's leading to rapidly rising oil prices.

Which then causes the price of gasoline to go up, hopefully to somewhere near $8 per gallon.

Hence, Americans will be forced to drive less.

And so we'll emit lower amounts of evil CO₂.

Thereby making Mother Gaia, and all of Dear Leader's ecotwit buddies, very happy.

See? Obama does have a Plan. It's just not a plan that's actually good for America.

Posted at 10:17 by Chris Wysocki [/obama_watch] Comments | Perm Link |
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Thursday, 12 June 2014

As Obama abandons Iraq to Al Qaeda will we see Saigon Redux, or Benghazi 2.0?

History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.

The Iraqi army is in full retreat.

Al Qaeda now controls Mosul, and Tikrit.

Presumably Baghdad is next to fall.

And if the barbarism displayed so far is any indication of the outcome, the fate of any US personnel left behind can only be called dire, at best.

So the question is, will Valerie Jarrett let our military rescue our people this time?

Because right now the best case scenario is an ignominious retreat a la Saigon Redux.

Alas, given this Administration's track record, the more likely outcome is Benghazi V2.0.

My guess is that help won't be coming. Because there's golf to be played, funds to be raised, and Republicans to be demonized. Besides, Al Qaeda is on the run dontcha know. Back in 2011 Obama committed to a full withdrawal from Iraq, and damned if he'll admit that was a mistake.

So, all he needs now is for Hillary to find a YouTube video to blame this on and his sycophantic media will take it from there.

Mission Accomplished!

UPDATE 12 Jun 2014 15:32:
My worst fears, confirmed.

Has the Obama administration refused to give permission for Americans to leave Iraq as militant al-Qaeda forces approach Baghdad? Word is coming from friends in D.C. this afternoon that Americans are in danger and the two Generals have asked the State Department for permission to evacuate.

They have been refused. That is the word from someone with a family member over there.

So much for that "profound obligation" to bring our people home.

Posted at 11:24 by Chris Wysocki [/obama_watch] Comments | Perm Link |
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Wednesday, 11 June 2014

The most trusted name in news? Fox News!

And the least trusted name in news? MSNBC.

Rachel Maddow's viewer was unavailable for comment. But Toure Neblett was overheard muttering about racism and reparations for having to suffer exposure to actual facts. Ed Schultz remains blubbering incoherently in the corner, awaiting further instructions from Valerie Jarrett.

Even Jon Stewart's comedy gig beat out the Al Sharpton Network. That's gotta hurt.

And with all the tax dollars we throw at public television you'd think it would rank higher in trust than with a mere 12% of the population. Nope. Maybe we should rethink our "investment," before somebody starts taking them seriously.

Meanwhile, Fox News is also the most profitable news network. Purely coincidentally, I'm sure!

Posted at 11:56 by Chris Wysocki [/media] Comments | Perm Link |
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Tuesday, 10 June 2014

Future Democrats: Illegal aliens Obama dumped in AZ complain about their free food

The entitlement mentality is ingrained from birth.

Who said beggars can't be choosers?

Why, the "Consul" to Arizona from Honduras Tony Banegas, that's who. He says the free food American taxpayers are giving these illegals isn't tasty enough.

"This morning they switched to burritos, but they complained the eggs were cold. They couldn't eat them and even made them sick. They complained they had a burrito but had to throw it in the trash," Banegas said.

Here's a thought. Go back to whatever shithole village in Honduras you crawled out of, get a job, and feed yourselves. The American taxpayer doesn't owe you louts a thing. And we certainly didn't ask you to come here, no matter what the TV says back home.

You're the Honduran government's problem. Not mine.

What is the Honduran Consul doing here anyway? Why doesn't HE buy food for HIS citizens? Better yet why doesn't he TAKE THEM HOME.

Good question. I'm sure that asking it makes me a racist, or something.

We hear the food in the White House kitchen is fantastic. Perhaps Jan Brewer should load these ungrateful illegals in buses and drop them off at the White House gate. What a wonderful statement that would make.

Yes! Please! Now! Because birds of a feather should flock together.

Posted at 10:05 by Chris Wysocki [/immigration] Comments | Perm Link |
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Monday, 09 June 2014

Today's shocker: people plan to flee New Jersey's high taxes when they retire

As if we needed another opinion poll to discover the obvious!

New Jersey's high cost of living — including its high taxes — could drive seniors out of the state, according to a poll released today.

The Fairleigh Dickinson PublicMind poll found that 52 percent of the state's non-retirees said they plan to spend their golden years in another state, while just 32 percent said they want to stay in New Jersey.

"People are living longer and need their retirement savings to last beyond what previous generations expected," said poll director Krista Jenkins. "Future retirees are obviously looking for places where they can stretch their dollars, and New Jersey isn't looking too affordable these days."

Of those who want to leave, 57 percent said it's the state's high cost of living, including taxes.

In other news, water is wet.

And sooner or later you run out of other people's money.

"Economies thrive with a diversity of taxpayers, all of whose contributions and needs provide some degree of equilibrium," said Jenkins. "If broad swaths of retirees leave the state, things like school districts will suffer as the demand begins to exceed tax revenue."

No one's gonna accuse New Jersey's economy of "thriving." Not lately, anyway. And yet the Democrats who control our state legislature are hell-bent on raising taxes. Why? To transfer even more of our wealth to the public employee unions, of course.

It's the Blue State death spiral. Because liberals never learn from their failures.

Posted at 09:40 by Chris Wysocki [/nj_politics] Comments | Perm Link |
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Friday, 06 June 2014

A whopping 63% of Americans now believe our children will be worse off than we are

Pessimism, and poverty. It's the New Normal.

For the first time in a very long time, Americans aren't so sure their kids will have better lives than they do.

That's according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll that shows just one in three people believe "most children in this country will grow up to be better off" than their parents. (A whopping 63 percent said their kids will be worse off.) Not only are those numbers stunning but they are also a stunning reversal from CNN data at the end of the last century (1999 to be exact) -- when two thirds of Americans predicted that children would grow up to have it better than their parents.

Gee, I wonder what's happened between 1999 and now?

Oh, right, Hope and Change!

Barack Obama has put America onto the wrong track. He's derailed the America dream. His policies sow poverty and discord. And his legacy will leave our children worse off than us.

It's time to dust off this Robert Heinlein quote again.

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as "bad luck."

Mister we could use a man like Ronald Reagan again.

Posted at 12:05 by Chris Wysocki [/economy] Comments | Perm Link |
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Wednesday, 04 June 2014

NJ GOP voters pick gold bug Jeff Bell to challenge Cory Booker for US Senate

Because it isn't enough for the GOP candidate to be an underdog, he has to be a nut too. There is zero chance the US, or any nation, will return to the gold standard, ever. So what is Jeff Bell's paramount campaign issue?

Returning the US dollar to the gold standard.

Bell said he ran to make sure the public hears about two issues: returning the dollar to the gold standard and do away with the Federal Reserve's policy of charging no interest on federal government debt.

And the delusion runs deep.

"I think a lot of people who predicted I wouldn't win, which was virtually everybody, underestimated the difference between party activists — the type of people who are on the county committees — and the typical voters," Bell said. "The typical voters were very open to the message I had in this race. I got a lot of resonance on it."

Uh, OK, sure. Whatever you say Jeff.

Maybe it "resonates" with the typical septuagenarian country clubber in his tweed jacket and Cadillac land yacht. Maybe. More likely they humored you while looking around for the guys from Candid Camera.

The original gold standard worked because everybody was on it. And as soon as one country jumped ship, it was doomed.

Pegging the US dollar to gold without cooperation from all the other central bankers is no more sane than pegging it to the price of coffee. Commodity prices vary, sometimes wildly. Which would then make the value of your dollars vary, daily. Today bread is $1.75. Tomorrow it's $2.50. Next week, 89 cents.

Uncertainty, it's what everybody wants!

Now, am I a fan of the Fed? No.

Am I a fan of Keynesian quantitative easing? Hell no!

But sadly, the average voter in New Jersey is. Well, that and free stuff. Which is why Cory Booker is gonna clean Jeff Bell's clock. By a margin that'll make Chris Christie's 22 point "landslide" look like a horse race.

Oh, did I mention that Bell has already been trounced in one US Senate race? By Bill Bradley, 55 - 43.

We nominated a kooky retreaded loser who looks just like the crotchety old guy from Up. Does the NJ GOP put the "fun" in dysfunctional, or what?

Posted at 09:46 by Chris Wysocki [/gop] Comments | Perm Link |
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Monday, 02 June 2014

Obama: If you like your electricity rates, you can keep your electricity rates

Dear Leader's new CO₂ cap-and-trade plan will reduce your electricity rates. Honest!

In a sweeping initiative to curb pollutants blamed for global warming, the Obama administration unveiled a plan Monday aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by nearly a third by 2030. But it delays the deadline for some states to begin complying until long after President Barack Obama leaves office.

Obama, in a conference call hosted by the American Lung Association, said the plan would both shrink electricity prices and protect the health of vulnerable Americans. He scolded critics who he predicted would contend anew that the limits would crush jobs and damage the economy.

"What we've seen every time is that these claims are debunked when you actually give workers and businesses the tools and the incentives they need to innovate," Obama said.

In other words, if you like your electricity rates, you can keep your electricity rates.

Until… Oh, I don't know, until you can't. Maybe, right after you couldn't keep your doctor. Or your health insurance plan. Because, you know every one of Obama's promises comes with an expiration date.

There is no universe where green-energy boondoggles like windmills and solar and biomass are cheaper to operate than coal-fired power plants. None. It's physics. The energy density of coal (and oil and natural gas) exceeds that of anything other than perhaps uranium or thorium.

He's not gonna build any new nuclear plants.

So yeah, your electricity bill is going to necessarily skyrocket. And the poor folks in West Virginia and Kentucky who depend on coal for their livelihood? They're screwed. But the tree-hugger Hollyweird elites are happy, and really, who else does Obama care about?

Posted at 16:47 by Chris Wysocki [/agw] Comments | Perm Link |
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