New York Times Changes Story About Chris Christie and Lane Closings Without Correction
Changed from this:
To this:
Coming next: “the evidence exists . . . we’re just sure it does!”
Journalism!!!!
UPDATE: It’s worth noting the weaselly language the Times is having so much trouble with:
. . . evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures . . .
“[T]ying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of” the closures? I’m not sure why he didn’t say “evidence exists that Mr. Christie knew” about the closures — but he didn’t. I don’t know what tying someone to having knowledge of something even means — but it sounds less impressive than proving someone knew something.
Is all I’m saying.
Ding.
Patterico (9c670f) — 1/31/2014 @ 6:34 pmNext revision: “Some say evidence may exist….”
Kevin M (536c5d) — 1/31/2014 @ 6:37 pmThen after that it will be “a source familiar with someone who has speculated upon the existence of the evidence. . .”
JVW (709bc7) — 1/31/2014 @ 6:44 pmthere’s a bit of a history with this writer;
https://patterico.com/2006/11/02/new-york-times-lies-to-its-readers-about-the-content-of-kerrys-remarks/
narciso (3fec35) — 1/31/2014 @ 6:45 pmLocal news reports say there is also a history with the lawyer for the Post Authority official and Christie, banging heads when Christie was a fed prosecutor and the lawyer being criminal defense.
FWIW.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 1/31/2014 @ 6:53 pmAsserts facts not in evidence?
Mojo (6db70b) — 1/31/2014 @ 6:56 pmGreg Packer has the evidence.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/31/2014 @ 6:59 pmI have a feeling the Christie claim may have something to do with the report the Port Authority is refusing to pay Wildstein’s legal fees.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/31/2014 @ 6:59 pmunexpectedly!
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 1/31/2014 @ 7:05 pmI for one do not need to see any evidence to accept the assertion that Christie lashed out in a malevolent fashion against his political enemies, showing no regard for the real normal everyday people who would pay the price
happyfeet (8ce051) — 1/31/2014 @ 7:08 pmwhy anyone would be surprised at a liberal politician acting like a liberal politician is beyond me.
he & New Jersey voters deserve each other.
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 1/31/2014 @ 7:15 pmEven as we all know we must be cynical about its reporting on political issues by the highly biased NYT– and know that its reporters regularly stretch the truth and make stuff up with impunity– unfortunately some even on the right still are attracted like a moth to flame when NYT headlines support their own pre-exisiting assumptions or other motives.
As today’s unacknowledged “correction” attests, it is good for readers to be mindful that the NYT, and especially the NYT, will never be an honest broker in the Christie story.
elissa (ed761d) — 1/31/2014 @ 7:16 pmWell the whole ‘hair on fire’ tone of the thing, makes me suspicious, btw,one wonders what the LA Times’s favorite woodsprite thinks about this, I’m sure it will be ‘unexpected;
narciso (3fec35) — 1/31/2014 @ 7:21 pmAfter all this time, does it really matter?
Kevin M (536c5d) — 1/31/2014 @ 7:25 pmIndeed, narciso. The truth is out there. But it’s a sure bet that the path to it is not through the “newsrooms” of the NYT and the Dog Trainer.
elissa (ed761d) — 1/31/2014 @ 7:26 pmAh, she hasn’t commented yet but she knows who the villain in the Wendy Davis matter, take a gander,
On the particulars, the Rockefeller grp deal was a bfd, as the Solon of Scranton would put it, that’s
narciso (3fec35) — 1/31/2014 @ 7:26 pmwhy it was pursued through both administrations,
Somebody probably should ask Dan Rather where the evidence is.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 1/31/2014 @ 7:29 pmJust to scratch him off the list of usual suspects.
“I have a feeling the Christie claim may have something to do with the report the Port Authority is refusing to pay Wildstein’s legal fees.”
DRJ – Employers normally imdemnify employees against actions taken in the ordinary course of their employment, but not illegal activity or intentional fraud or misconduct. The article you linked suggests the Port Authority has already conducted an investigation in order to be able to refuse to reimburse a former employee’s legal fees, but I am unaware of the results of any such investigation being announced.
Perhaps they wanted him represented by Port Authority counsel during the DOJ investigation and merely refused to pay for the independent outside counsel which he felt he required.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/31/2014 @ 7:31 pmThe problem with the Times is every once in awhile they might sneak in the truth.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 1/31/2014 @ 7:31 pmpapertiger – What’s the frequency?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/31/2014 @ 7:31 pmThe day before Arnold was elected in the special.
They did the expose about him boning the help, or some such.
Nobody believed em.
meh That’s the only one I got.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 1/31/2014 @ 7:42 pmThe NYT is defending it’s change-up in their typical arrogance,
UPDATE: : Times metro editor Wendell Jamieson addressed the change in an email to HuffPost’s Michael Calderone: “We’ve made probably dozens of changes to the story to make it more precise. That was one of them. I bet there will be dozens more.”
It’s no big deal so stop overreacting. The NYT is in control…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/31/ny-times-christie-tweak_n_4705383.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003
Dana (9a8f57) — 1/31/2014 @ 7:44 pmI guess we won’t be seeing Christie grandstanding at the Super Bowl.
Walking arm and arm with
AZ Bob (ade845) — 1/31/2014 @ 8:00 pmthe devilObama isn’t going to save him from the media.UPDATE: It’s worth noting the weaselly language the Times is having so much trouble with:
“[T]ying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of” the closures? I’m not sure why he didn’t say “evidence exists that Mr. Christie knew” about the closures — but he didn’t. I don’t know what tying someone to having knowledge of something even means — but it sounds less impressive than proving someone knew something.
Is all I’m saying.
Patterico (9c670f) — 1/31/2014 @ 8:20 pmWalking arm and arm with
the devilObama isn’t going to save him from the media.We should start referring to this as the McCain Effect: when a Republican believes that criticizing his own party and cuddling up to Democrats will purchase from him the everlasting love and respect of the media, but suddenly finds that once he stands in the way of progressive objectives he goes back to being an evil bigoted bully in their eyes.
JVW (709bc7) — 1/31/2014 @ 8:49 pmTimes metro editor Wendell Jamieson addressed the change in an email to HuffPost’s Michael Calderone: “We’ve made probably dozens of changes to the story to make it more precise. That was one of them. I bet there will be dozens more.”
Put in another way: report it first, get it right later.
JVW (709bc7) — 1/31/2014 @ 8:50 pmthe turnpike won’t hold you tonight
the turnpike don’t know when you lie
the turnpike don’t care if you’re polling well
but I do I do
I care *so* much
happyfeet (8ce051) — 1/31/2014 @ 8:57 pmThe best thing, maybe the only good thing, about the NYT was its copy-editing. There’s evidence tying NYT to knowledge that that’s going downhill too.
nk (dbc370) — 1/31/2014 @ 9:02 pmdaleyrocks,
I can’t help but wonder if Wildstein’s attorney is using this claim to encourage Christie or his supporters at the Port Authority to find a way to get his attorney’s fees paid.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/31/2014 @ 9:26 pmpapertiger…
the times also ignored John Edwards’ illegitimate child/mistress/fooled around on sick wife story…just saying…
they get many more wrong than they ever get right these days…
ding
reff (4dcda2) — 1/31/2014 @ 9:27 pmdamn…
fed the troll, didn’t I ??
i condemn me….
reff (4dcda2) — 1/31/2014 @ 9:29 pmYeah. Quit feeding the troll…
Wait. What?
papertiger (c2d6da) — 1/31/2014 @ 9:51 pm“I can’t help but wonder if Wildstein’s attorney is using this claim to encourage Christie or his supporters at the Port Authority to find a way to get his attorney’s fees paid.”
DRJ – Very possible. I know if I were Wildstein I would have privity issues using Port Authority attorney.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/31/2014 @ 10:07 pmWhy is it the ink is flowing to report about what Cristie knew… presumably they will tell us what he actually knew and when he knew it… but my question is about how is it this issue is so much more pressing that what the SecState and POTUS knew about the status of the Benghazi mission, when they knew, and the status of the ability of the US to intervene. Let’s face it, should Christie be shown to be “dirty” on this, so they are both acts by politicians to gain re-election and sandbag their positions.
But Benghazi had the result of 4 dead Americans, and so the two are not equivalent at all. Shame on the NYT.
gramps, the original (64b8ca) — 1/31/2014 @ 10:36 pmThe NYT’s weasel words and shameless partisanship define the product they are expected to produce. I love stories displaying the bias in the media, and that’s when this blog is at its best in my opinion. It’s worth noting that Christie’s Obama praising didn’t get him the breaks from the press he thought he bought, but the taxpayers who relied on the roads to get to their families, hospitals, and jobs didn’t get a break from the Christie administration, either.
Dustin (303dca) — 2/1/2014 @ 4:53 amYup. The apple of my apple is not my orange. Just because I dislike and distrust the New York Times, and just because the New York Times does not like Christie, does not mean I like or trust Christie.
nk (dbc370) — 2/1/2014 @ 5:19 amCrispy had nothing to do with this handout:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/01/islamic-group-tied-to-terror-trial-receiving-thousands-in-farm-subsidies/
Pocket change, you skinflint racists.
gary gulrud (e2cef3) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:17 amNothing to see here:
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/roadside-violation-drivers-passengers-say-police-s/nc7kd/
Move along Atlanta, you sorry bastards.
gary gulrud (e2cef3) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:34 amBest medical care in the nation:
http://downtrend.com/emilyh/boston-has-the-longest-doctor-wait-times-in-the-nation/
Think we’ve found Hawkings’ black hole.
gary gulrud (e2cef3) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:48 am“Employers normally imdemnify employees against actions taken in the ordinary course of their employment, but not illegal activity ”
This is why hospital peer review was always so difficult. Any doctor who was subjected to criticism had two choices. The guys who were honest and had made a small mistake (or a big one) would accept the criticism and try to do better.
The crooks would sue the peer reviewing docs and allege collusion against a competitor. The peer reviewing docs would than have to get their own lawyers because the hospital would bail out if there was any chance of the allegation being true.
That tactic worked pretty well for many years and is why peer review was so weak for so long. Obviously, it’s a problem in other areas but that one was my own experience.
Mike K (cd7278) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:10 amNYT is changing up its story to distract us from Benghazi.
d.wildst (ae20f1) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:31 amHey! Extra! Extra!
Colonel Haiku (03222e) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:33 amhot off Minitrue presses!
read all about it
This has gone so badly they might have to ‘Ogilvy’
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:35 amWildstein, totally delete him from the files,
he is dim-witted
Colonel Haiku (03222e) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:36 amwon’t know when to hold or fold
rambler no gambler
in teh Yew Nork Times
Colonel Haiku (03222e) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:39 amlost all credibility
cachet shot to sh*t
fat Governor Krispy
Colonel Haiku (03222e) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:41 amain’t no Main Boy with Joy Toy
no Master Blaster
They’re doing Stay Puft a favor, teaching him a lesson in peaking too early.
gary gulrud (e2cef3) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:42 amAnd of course, the woodsprite is on top of things;
https://twitter.com/robinabcarian
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:43 amComments on the local news say that it is part of the lawyer trying to get some kind of immunity deal in return for sharing the (supposed) information.
I guess he is trying to get enough public clamor to get a deal for his client, even if the info ends up not being all that worthwhile.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:43 amthey left Bill Keller
Colonel Haiku (03222e) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:44 amchained up down in teh cellar
lying hyena
robin abcarrion on teh Tiger Beat!
Colonel Haiku (03222e) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:46 amthe truth shall make her pee
Colonel Haiku (03222e) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:46 amteh chubby Krispy
Colonel Haiku (03222e) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:48 amfat destroyer of campaigns
no Boss with Hot Sauce
We should start referring to this as the McCain Effect:
Comment by JVW (709bc7) — 1/31/2014 @ 8:49 pm
Good idea, or maybe the McCain Delusion.
Ode to the NYT
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:48 amFool me once, shame on you;
Fool me twice, shame on me.
How much of a fool do you think I am?
48. Woodsprite’s walls not very sticky, lucky to have a naked retweet.
gary gulrud (e2cef3) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:49 amwith all his hot air
Colonel Haiku (03222e) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:50 amBlack Sunday scenario
just fly Kris Krispy
c’mon Governor
Colonel Haiku (03222e) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:53 amtalk to your hero Springsteen
he’ll be your Bruce Dern
Colonel has dream
Colonel Haiku (03222e) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:56 amkill two sh*tbirds one stone
screw Marthe Keller
56, 57. Classic. Good meme accelerant.
gary gulrud (e2cef3) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:56 amI’m sure this was just a coincidence,
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/01/indicted-director-dsouza-speaks-out-the-film-2016-was-a-film-that-does-seem-to-have-gotten-under-obamas-skin-video/
you notice the chill wind could never get Moore, or Robbins to shut up
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:59 amBurma Shave
Colonel Haiku (03222e) — 2/1/2014 @ 8:06 am60. Here’s another irritant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oi35fK2nfI
Mentor, yeah, biological father too, gadflies.
gary gulrud (e2cef3) — 2/1/2014 @ 8:06 am58. This year the Super Bowl has its own government snipers.
Be safe out there, football fans.
gary gulrud (e2cef3) — 2/1/2014 @ 8:09 amI read that too, gary. Is there evidence tying the NFL to having knowledge of snipers tied to the government?
nk (dbc370) — 2/1/2014 @ 8:34 amthey are already moonwalking in this account, without pointing out the previous track,
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-christie–bridge-20140201,0,7304321.story#axzz2s5bTILDe
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 8:42 amWell, narciso, now that evidence exists tying us to having knowledge of evidence of knowledge that evidence exists tying Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures …. Should I get a lawyer?
nk (dbc370) — 2/1/2014 @ 9:01 amI saw that thing about the snipers at the Super Bowl.
Back when Bush I did his visits to inner cities, his visit to Philly was about a block away from where I lived. There were people in tactical gear visible on top of many of the surrounding buildings (mainly 3 story row homes).
I thought it was pretty reasonable, all things being considered. I imagine they are at the Olympics, too.
Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:59 am
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 2/1/2014 @ 9:28 amThere are some interesting comments at the article, too.
Evidence ties Obama to knowledge of lies regarding Obamacare.
Mainly audio and video.
Kevin M (536c5d) — 2/1/2014 @ 9:38 amEvidence ties Obama to knowledge of IRS targeting of Tea Party.
(WH logs showing abnormal level of consultations)
Kevin M (536c5d) — 2/1/2014 @ 9:41 amEvidence exists that ties Obama to knowledge of economic statistics fudging.
(WH logs showing abnormal level of consultations)
Kevin M (536c5d) — 2/1/2014 @ 9:42 amEvidence exists showing Obama lies a lot.
(video of his mouth moving)
Kevin M (536c5d) — 2/1/2014 @ 9:42 amPicking up the meme…
Evidence ties Obama to domestic terrorists
Evidence ties Obama to American Communist hierarchy
We could keep this up awhile.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 2/1/2014 @ 9:43 amI think they had Wash DC in mind when they came up with the name…
http://youtu.be/-B8s3PcfP54
Colonel Haiku (04174c) — 2/1/2014 @ 9:50 amLocal political commentators predicting this will stay alive a loooong time, as legal wrangling will persist for immunity in return for additional info about Christie, whether or not he knew anything or not.
I don’t know if it reached national, but there was a charge from the mayor of Hoboken (home of the “Cake Boss”, been there, did that) that there was some strong-arming that she needed to back the governor if she wanted her share of post-Sandy funds. Upon further investigation, it has been deemed a charge without support and some contrary evidence, and has been dropped by the press.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 2/1/2014 @ 9:52 amI figure if they had something, it would have been released already,
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 9:55 amUPDATE: : Times metro editor Wendell Jamieson addressed the change in an email to HuffPost’s Michael Calderone: “We’ve made probably dozens of changes to the story to make it more precise. That was one of them. I bet there will be dozens more.”
Surreal
Imdw is transparent is its asshattery.
JD (2bd35e) — 2/1/2014 @ 10:00 amMeanwhile, back at the ranch;
http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-443047/
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 10:12 amPolitico notes another NYT rep,
Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoads Ha said in an email that the paper regulary (sic) edits breaking news stories and “only note changes if the edit involved a correction.”
Let’s think about that for a minute…
Dana (9a8f57) — 2/1/2014 @ 10:22 amIt depends on what the definition of “correction” is…
Dana (9a8f57) — 2/1/2014 @ 10:25 amEvidence exists Democrats cheated to get Obama reelected.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/1/2014 @ 10:26 amFunny thing about that;
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/02/eric-holder-bars-lead-investigator-from-testifying-before-congress-in-irs-probe/
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 10:30 am#74
steveg (794291) — 2/1/2014 @ 10:36 amDidn’t that story about the Hoboken Mayor show that she’d been asked uder oath about some other matter earlier if she kept a journal or record and said “no”.
Now she says she kept a diary that shows she thought Christie could be a big fat meanie sometimes?
Leaving her attorney to parse the difference between journal, record and diary?
the Huntress was relatively kind with the link;
http://twitchy.com/2014/02/01/sarah-palin-finally-found-someone-excited-about-obamacare-someone-really-excited-pic/
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 10:38 amwould Kamala investigate this, rhetorical question,
Even the Kos kids won’t buy this story,
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 10:59 amEven a hail mary pass, from this attorney, won’t save you;
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-16/christie-administration-retains-outside-counsel-for-inquiries.html
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:03 am“Now she says she kept a diary that shows she thought Christie could be a big fat meanie sometimes?”
steveg – Plus take a look at a picture of that personalized, secure diary of hers. Not buying it.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:10 am“Funny thing about that”
narciso – We have seen this movie before.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:12 amrun silent run deep
Colonel Haiku (04174c) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:17 amhis slow motion coup bespeaks
his contempt for peeps
Barry Soetero
Colonel Haiku (04174c) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:20 amdog-eating sonuva b*tch
do good turn get lost
meanwhile, the truly important issues of the day are being discussed on Twitter: #WhiteFeministRants
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23whitefeministrants&f=realtime
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:22 americ holder you pimp
Colonel Haiku (04174c) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:23 amselective amnesia
protects terrorists
Shirley they can’t be serious, red, that’s like the debate over Silver Surfers in ‘Crimson Tide’
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:29 am“meanwhile, the truly important issues of the day are being discussed on Twitter”
redc1c4 – Good thread that. Tough to tell serious from parody.
But elsewhere on intertoobs we find out we need laws to keep guns out of hands of gay pedophiles such as Adam Lanza of Sandy Hook shooting fame. Probably last time Sandy Hook will be mentioned by Democrat Media Industrial Complex as a rallying call for gun control since it no longer fits a convenient narrative.
http://theothermccain.com/2014/01/31/mass-murderer-also-gay-pedophile/
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:30 amInterestingly neither the Daily News or the Post focused on that;
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:35 amPanocha Villa rides again!
Colonel Haiku (04174c) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:38 amI forgot to add NTTAWWT because I am not judging.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:44 amUnfortunately, the Post is not as inquisitive about the Zegas claims,
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:45 amAbout the time the NYT was missing the John Edwards situation, NYT reporter Eric Lichtblau faked up a story on McCain and an affair with a lobbyist.
Richard Aubrey (a621c4) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:53 amThey sort of changed roles with the Enquirer.
R.I.P. actor Maximilian Schell
Icy (3be03f) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:55 amMeanwhile Brian Ross and David Neiwert continue to keep their eyes peeled for the crazed racist Obama hating RWNJ killbot spreekilling gun nuts that everybody knows are just waiting to spring into action.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/1/2014 @ 11:59 amIcy… just watched Schell in the Odessa File a few months ago and was amazed he was still on this side of the turf when I looked at the bio details on Direct TV. A fine actor!
Colonel Haiku (04174c) — 2/1/2014 @ 12:02 pmIt always seems death follows for whichever old-timer I watch in a movie, so I’ve been watching a slug of Robert Redford flicks lately.
Colonel Haiku (04174c) — 2/1/2014 @ 12:04 pmJane Fonda’s next on my list.
Colonel Haiku (04174c) — 2/1/2014 @ 12:05 pmIt’s hard to know which role of his was more over the top, the Villain in Black Hole, or the one with the bad Cuban accent in Wiseguy.
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 12:06 pmdaleyrocks-don’t you just love watching their “narratives” assplode? Have you noticed how often that seems to happen? Unfortunately, it’s usually quite a while after the original “narrative” has already become accepted as conventional wisdom by the sheeple public.
elissa (57b997) — 2/1/2014 @ 12:08 pmelissa – It is fun, especially when you knew they were talking out of their smug, superior, intolerant butts the whole time anyway. Reality bites!
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/1/2014 @ 12:25 pmelissa – It’s much like Milhouse clinging to his oxymoron of “negative value”.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/1/2014 @ 12:29 pm104- Col. – May I suggest Ed Assner.
mg (31009b) — 2/1/2014 @ 12:29 pmdaley,
I was thoroughly captivated by that thread with you and Milhouse.
Dana (9a8f57) — 2/1/2014 @ 12:38 pmAs much evidence exists — and is publicly known — tying Obama to the IRS abuses.
Yet the press keeps quiet about that.
Rob Crawford (45d991) — 2/1/2014 @ 12:38 pmEvidence may exist claiming that the NYT distorts stories to favor those they favor. They’re stories, after all, not news that’s fit to print.
htom (412a17) — 2/1/2014 @ 12:39 pmEvidence exists that the Kirby Silver Surfer is the only true Silver Surfer.
Kevin M (536c5d) — 2/1/2014 @ 12:46 pmFor the motherlode of “evidence exists for…” dubious truths, try http://www.prisonplanet.com/
Kevin M (536c5d) — 2/1/2014 @ 12:51 pmYes, there was something about the mayor of Hoboken keeping a diary and what was or wasn’t in it, but as it seemed vague and confusing I ignored it.
There was also a finding that Hoboken received an appropriate amount of funds compared with other municipalities.
When asked why she didn’t say something earlier, she said, “I didn’t think anyone would believe me, but after the bridgegate story I thought they would.”- a paraphrase, something to that effect.
That stuff about Lanza, one would expect that to be buried.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 2/1/2014 @ 1:14 pmNow if he had correspondence with Billy Graham, let’s say, I bet we would hear all about that.
Some also believe the NYT when it says the House is pushing immigration reform this year, don’t they? Even though you know they are liars who love to sow discord among and discredit Republicans with false reports?
People who believe anything they read in NYT since Pinch Sulzberger took over are suckers. When Abe Rosenthal was in charge, they actually checked for accuracy. Now they check for GoodThink.
OF COURSE Christie knew the lanes were closed while they were closed, it was all over the news. The point is rather if he knew his people ordered it for political reasons.
This is the guy who was fired from the Port Authority for ordering it. He’s shopping for a deal to keep his sorry butt out of prison or a huge fine. It must not be going well for his attorney to go public with innuendo.
Estragon (19fa04) — 2/1/2014 @ 1:52 pmLord love a waterfowl, we don’t consider one source, is the Journal suspect, because they have been practically ululating the claims of Latourette’s main street partnership,
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 2:01 pmZegas is doing his best Vince Fuller impression, the one whose representation of Tyson left something to be desired.
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 2:05 pmleaving out facts, makes the narrative run smoother;
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/02/01/Gabrielle-Giffords-Gun-Control-PAC-Raised-Nearly-12-5-Million-In-2013
then again their trackrecord was somewhat spotty.
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 2:16 pmOT:
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 2/1/2014 @ 2:23 pmWhat, if anything, do people think of the Amanda Cox saga? And if you have an opinion, how strong do you think your knowledge of the facts are? (Assuming, of course, you are not depending on the NYT.)
so, you’re saying they fired a lot of blanks? 😎
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 2/1/2014 @ 2:27 pmanother good argument for not traveling abroad.
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 2/1/2014 @ 2:28 pmi do not like her new haircut as much as I liked her previous haircut. But I might just need time to get used to it.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
happyfeet (c60db2) — 2/1/2014 @ 2:30 pmWell, I see I’ve stirred up some relevant commentary…
Here’s something, a debate between Bill Ayers and Dinesh D’Souza at Dartmouth.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 2/1/2014 @ 2:41 pmhttp://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/02/whats-so-great-about-america-ayers-vs-dsouza.php
I’ve never been to a Purim celebration, but it sounds like a rollicking good time. Maybe it would work with watching the debate, booing when Ayers speaks, cheering when D’Souza.
Of course, too much noise and we won’t get to hear it.
Hey, perhaps we should agree on a time and watch it together, and have a live open thread for collective commentary.
for feets to eats, whist waiting to see.
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 2/1/2014 @ 2:52 pmGuilty.
nk (dbc370) — 2/1/2014 @ 3:00 pmThe killer queen is more interesting. Why is he a “gay pedophile”? Why isn’t he a “homosexual child molester”? And there’s a lot of things wrong with that. I liked Maximilian Schell’s solution from “Cross of Iron”: I promise you this. If you are caught, you will be hanged. Slowly.
To avoid complications,
nk (dbc370) — 2/1/2014 @ 3:12 pmHe’d only wear his mom’s dress;
In Freudian confabulation,
He put a bullet in her …
At RCP, the discussion is whether or not this hurts Christie in 2016. They do note most interestingly that the New York Times has devoted several of its top reporters to the story. No word yet if they are going to implore readers to scour all of his emails. There is a direction correlation between Bridgegate focus and 2016.
The outbreak of the “Bridgegate” scandal has led to a near-constant public barrage against the two-term governor from Democrats and around-the-clock scrutiny in the national media. In particular, the New York Times has devoted significant resources to the story, with several of the paper’s top political reporters covering the investigation.
It’s never too soon to pave the way for Hillary.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/02/01/amid_woes_christie_finds_sympathy_on_the_right_121427.html
Dana (0de47d) — 2/1/2014 @ 3:13 pm#119
The guy from Cote d Ivoire should be allowed a chance to flee back to his country
steveg (794291) — 2/1/2014 @ 3:24 pmAnyone see this yet?Christie fights NYT
steveg (794291) — 2/1/2014 @ 3:28 pmPosted link before reading *yawn*
steveg (794291) — 2/1/2014 @ 3:37 pmRudy Guedre vis a vis Amanda Knox answers MD’s question from the thread of The Case of the Dangerous Shoe. Italy’s criminal justice system is non-adversarial, and as citizen-friendly as any you will find, with high standards of proof, and multiple layers of both appellate and de novo review, of both law and facts, of both indictments and convictions. But in the end, the lying, manipulative, American girl with rich parents who could afford high-priced lawyers is free at home, and the homeless African orphan is in prison.
And if the United States does not extradite Knox to Italy if the Italian government requests it, then we should shut up about the Polanskis and the Snowdens.
nk (dbc370) — 2/1/2014 @ 3:48 pmWhat, if anything, do people think of the Amanda Cox saga?
I think that we should send them a note:
Kevin M (536c5d) — 2/1/2014 @ 4:17 pmThe New York Post was also equally bad. I thought at first it was just the New York Post, but it’s all the papers.
The New York Post headline was, in big red letters, over a photograph of the George Washington Bridge, GWB SCANDAL, underlined in red, and the words in even larger white letters, one word per line, with the top of the first word reaching a little bit above the middle of the page:
CHRISTIE
‘KNEW’
And below in smaller type, also white, and underlined:
Gov lied about
snarls: ex-PA big.
and then you have the first paragraph of the artivle also and a picture of Christie.
It’s continued on page 8/
Now if you read it, Wildstein says, or rather his lawyer wrote: “evidence exists” tying him to having knowledge of tghe birdge closures while the bridges were still closed.
This may be a minor careless mistatement by Christie. Christie said he didn’t know about until it was over. The lanes were re-opened at about 8:30 am on Friday, September 13, 2013, which was Erev Yom Kippur, and the fact it was Erev Yom Kippur probably was a factor in the executive director of the Port authority acting so quickly and decisively in overturning what Wildstein had done, because this might have cauysed a few Jews in New Jersey to be late getting home, or with family, before the fast.
Christie also said he learned about this from news reports. But so did the executive Director of the Port Authority, Patrick Foye, and he saw advance news reports late Thursday.
So therefore it is possible Christie heard about it – or at least got the first glimmerings of it -before the lanes were actually re-opened, at 8:30, but I’m sure they were re-opened without his involvement, probably before he really understood what had happened.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 4:36 pmThis is obviously, actually David Wildstein trying to get immunity by hinting that it leads to Christie, but if you read what Wildstein’s lawyer actually wrote, it is clear he is not saying he has any personal knowledge of Christie knowing anything.
David Wildstein’s lawyer also carefully redacted the text messages he sent in response to a subpoena in a way so as to keep secret the identity of a person he was in contact with.
I think he should get immunity, even though I don’t think this leads to Christie, because he won’t tell anything otherwise, and right maybe nobody except members of the Gridlock Gang have any idea, let alone probable cause to suspect any particular individual, as to who was really behind this, and it is important to know who was able get a bi-state government agency to act in such a perverse manner.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 4:46 pmYes, the Post, when it is bad, like it goes on it’s pro gun control rants, is very bad,
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 4:55 pmThe top strip in the Daily News was about the Superbowl, but below this we have, in red letters:
Ex-Christie aide’s new bombshell
And then, in white letters against a grey background with a large picture of Christie on the right side of the page:
YOU’RE
LYING,
GOV.
In small type between the word GOV and the picture, underneath the G, of LYING is:
Former Port Authority
official David Wildstein
said Friday “evidence
exists” that N.J. Gov. Chris
Christie knew about the
“Bridgegate” lane closings
– even as the massive
traffic jams were forming
in Fort Lee last September.
PAGES 4-5 (in bigger letters)
And below in a box. The top part white letters against a red background: THE NEWS SAYS
And below black letters on white:
Wildstein’s lawyer released a letter that paints Christie as one of the most bold-faced liars in modern political history. And Christie’ response did nothing to dispel the notion PAGE 22
And the New York Times has what you have
I think what caused this was that, in addition to what the letter actually says, which is really very little, somebpdy was orally spinning to reporters what it really meant.
Wildstein also claims that Christie lied about him.
Now what Christie said was that he barely knew him in high school, and his acquaintance with him came from the fact they both participated as volunteers in the same political campaign in 1977 (which was when he was in High School – Christie meant he didn’t know him from school – Wildstein was one grade ahead of him) and that after that he lost touch with him and he got reacquainted with him when they both participated in another campaign in the year 2000, and that Wildstein was not his appointee to the Port Authority but he was Bill Baroni’s appointee (Christie had appointed Baroni) and that since he had been appointed he had spoken to Wildstein only a few times.
So I’m not sure what’s supposed to be the big lie here.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 5:00 pmThe question is whether Christie directly order or by inference suggest his aides do this action, there is nothing that indicates this.
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 5:11 pmthank you Mr. red i bookmarked about the tacos if I get back to the store this weekend I’m a pick up some shoulder
happyfeet (8ce051) — 2/1/2014 @ 5:20 pmI think the Post must have seen what the New York Times and the daily News were going to print.
And, as I said, somebody must be spinning the press.
A big problem here is that Christie has probably been told by his lawyers to be silent – partly because he has no ideas what the facts actually are.
And he was told also not to do his own investigation because that could be construed as attempting tampering with testimony. Nixon was sort of accused of this, also Clinton.
Well, Clinton actually did this, trying to steer Monica Lewinsky’s future testimony.
Christie was starting to talk a little bit about it after about a week of silence after his Thursday, January 9, 2014 press conference, and he gave an interview to Yahoo on Friday, January 17, 2014 (published the next Monday)
http://news.yahoo.com/chris-christie-interview-matt-bai-011443223.html
AND
http://news.yahoo.com/chris-christie-on-his-critics-060140270.html
….in which he said:
AND
You could argue maybe somebody shold have better judgement of people. Or that telling people they have one hour to reveal any knowledge before he goes to press and says nobody knew anything is not the best way to find out anything. Of course his deputy chief of staff had more opportunities than that to tell him.
And he said that finding out about those emails from his deputy chief of staff was
He had also said at his press conference he wss “blindsided” on Wednesday morning, January 8, 2014.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 5:22 pm137. Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 5:11 pm
The question is whether Christie directly order or by inference suggest his aides do this action, there is nothing that indicates this.
And it made absolutely no sense for him – or really for anybody – to do this.
That’s part of the mystery here. None of the 3 suggested motives really add up.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/nyregion/broken-at-the-bridge-a-basic-law-of-politics.html
The first two have the defect that nobody seems to have told the targets, and nobody was trying very hard to get the eendorsement of the mayor, and the third has the defect that nobody can figure out how the development, or hurting it, connects to anything.
On the third motive:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/nyregion/traffic-jam-investigator-offers-ulterior-motive.html
With Hoboken there is at least some plauaible tie if you believe Samson is corrupt;y influencing government.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 5:40 pmChristie started to talk about again, and sent a letter at some point to some supporters that ABC News obtained today, but then the Mayor of Hoboken charged on Sunday January 19, 2014 that she had been threatened with not getting some Hurricane Sandy related help she was hoping for if she didn’t help a certain real estate project along.
(The Jersey City mayor also had some complaints, but this was about cancelled meetings, where suddenly all sosts of people were nmo longer interested in helping him, after he had notified them he was not going to endorse Chrstgie for re-election as Governor. This does not create any legal problems for anyone.)
Gov Christie was them faced with a choice of saying:
1) He believed his Lt. Gov when she denied the conversation had gone the way Mayor Dawn Zimmer recorded in her journal.
OR
2) He didn’t believe his Lt. Gov.
OR
3) He didn’t know whether to believe her or not.
The first would be bad for him if it turned out she was not telling the truth.
The second would be unfair to her if it turned out she was telling the truth.
The third would also amount to saying he didn’t believe her and would be unfair if she was telling the truth, and the mayor was not.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:08 pmOr it’s all a giant crock of sheeeittttt.
Colonel Haiku (04174c) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:15 pmIt’s very weak near beer, possibly Odoul’s as compared to the negligence in Benghazi, the affirmative intervention in the IRS case, and
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:18 pmFast and Furious,
the woodsprite does link this;
http://politicker.com/2014/02/chris-christie-booed-at-times-square-super-bowl-rally/
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:22 pmThe New York Times hesdline in the printed paper I received this morning is:
The first paragraph has “evidence exists” (that Christie knew about the closings when they were happening)
The lawyer also called it “the Christie Administration order.”
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:24 pmAgain we have this confusion between “evidence” and “proof”
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:28 pmthe question is why hasn’t this disgraced p.o.s. resigned yet?
I do not know
but I fear this will end in tears
not mine
but somebody’s
big blubbery cholesterol-rich tears
happyfeet (8ce051) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:30 pmChristie issued a statement Friday on the Wildstein allegations. It is quoted in Talking Points Memo:
Tonight a fuller statement on the latest news became public revealed. (well, actually, it was e-mailed only to supporters, but it became more widely known.)
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/chris-christie-email-david-wildstein quotes the whole email which is also here,
http://www.scribd.com/doc/203941534/Christie-Email
but robably easier to read at talkingpointsmemo.com
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:32 pmok yeah the new hair is working for me
http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2014/02/01/knox_wide-5175bffc9980e4f4cdbf6e1bb52a7d0db9fc9dd7-s40-c85.jpg
happyfeet (8ce051) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:33 pmShe’s cute, but compared to the competition in that same town:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=986uoT-jS8o
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:37 pm147. Comment by happyfeet (8ce051) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:30 pm
the question is why hasn’t this disgraced p.o.s. resigned yet?
Chrisie is only a bad judge of character, or perhatps not curious enough. He was also on very friendly terms with Islamists.
http://shoebat.com/2012/07/10/mosque-of-imam-whom-chris-christie-defended-was-under-surveillance/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y83z552NJaw
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2011/01/governor-christies-dirty-islamist-ties.html
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/31739/fan-of-chris-christie-check-out-his-hamas-judge-pick-other-islamo-pandering/
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:41 pmThose are the more systemic policy issues, which few are interested in raising, in part because it renders his support for the NSA panopticon a little suspect,
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:50 pmnarciso @143. Who or what is O’Doul? The only O’Doul I can find anything out about is Lefty O”Doul, the baseball player and manager 1897-1969, who may have started professional baseball in Japan in the mid-1930s.
Theer is also a Lefty Odoul restaurant in San Francisco across the street from the St. Francis Hotel. In 2009, the manager of Lefty O’Doul’s restaurant hung a 30-foot banner welcoming President Obama saying “Lefty O’Doul’s Welcomes Obama, the 8th lefty president of the United States.”
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:53 pmnear beer, sammy
elissa (ce1db2) — 2/1/2014 @ 6:59 pmComment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/31/2014 @ 7:31 pm
The article you [DRJ] linked suggests the Port Authority has already conducted an investigation in order to be able to refuse to reimburse a former employee’s legal fees, but I am unaware of the results of any such investigation being announced.
There’s no need for an investigation. It’s obvious and undeniable that malice, misconduct or intentional wrongdoing were involved in his closing the bridge lanes.
The e-mails Wildstein released prove it.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:00 pm26. Comment by JVW (709bc7) — 1/31/2014 @ 8:50 pm
Put in another way: report it first, get it right later.
When there’s a deadline every minute on the Internet, that kind of thing happens.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:01 pm154. What is near beer?
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:02 pmi’m not a big fan of the palestinian people personally
life is too short for that nonsense
I tend to just file them in the “ruined peoples” file with the American Indians and the fascist sheeples of manhattan
happyfeet (8ce051) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:04 pm“Christie Linked To Knowledge of Shit Lanes”
Well, there you have it, Sammy. Like I said, it’s a crock.
Colonel Haiku (04174c) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:07 pmFast and Furious was clearly an attempt by corrupt people in the BATF, who were able to get some protection from political appointees in DOJ, to help the Sinaloa drug cartel (which has had the best relationship with law enforcement)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinaloa_Cartel
And I don’t think there was any other purpose to it.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:08 pm145. 159. I always make these typos.
* Christie Linked To Knowledge of Shut Lanes
————
Lawyer for Former Ally Says Proof Exists
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think this is actually a little bit serious.
Somebody was able to get government to do avery perverse thing, and there probably a mch more significant back story behind it.
I just don’t think it leads to Christie, though I would highly suspect his 2013 campaign manager, Bill Steppian, who is also about to take the 5th amendment
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/politics/letter-from-attorney-of-longtime-christie-adviser-bill-stepien-invoking-fifth-amendment/790/
….probably had a lot to do with, but I don’t think he did it for ordinary political reasons.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:17 pmForget you got the story wrong the first time;
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/nyregion/christies-office-targets-former-ally-in-a-memo.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:17 pmOh good grief. O’Doul’s is a famous non-alcoholic beer brand. Your google skilz seem to have failed you tonight, Sam.
elissa (ce1db2) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:17 pmI even gave the context clue,
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:22 pmForget this BS Kris Krispy squirrel that the lapdog liberal media is slobbering over, here’s a list of firsts associated with the gimp in the Oval Office:
First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.
First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.
First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States.
First President to violate the War Powers Act.
First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
First President to defy a Federal Judge’s court order to cease implementing the Health Care Reform Law.
First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.
First President to spend a trillion dollars on ‘shovel-ready’ jobs when there was no such thing as ‘shovel-ready’ jobs.
First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.
First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.
First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the US, including former convicts.
First President to demand a company hand over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.
First President to terminate America’s ability to put a man in space.
First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.
First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke out on the reasons for their rate increases.
First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state they are allowed to locate a factory.
First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN).
First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.
First President to fire an inspector general of AmeriCorps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.
First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.
First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half years in office, 90 to date.
First President to hide his medical, educational and travel records.
First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize one month into his first term.
First President to go on multiple global ‘apology tours’.
First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends; paid for by us.
First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.
First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year at taxpayer expense.
http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/5minute_arguments/obamas_impressive_list_of.php
Colonel Haiku (04174c) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:22 pmMy God, this vile, contemptible joke of a “media”. There ain’t enough rope or trees…
Colonel Haiku (04174c) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:26 pmthe Benghazi coverup, reminds of that old Costas Gavras potboiler Z, where the Greek forces tried to cover up the injuries to the lefty deputy,
narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:29 pmthere is PLENTY of rope and no shortage of trees
so chop chop errybody
this pitiful lil country ain’t gittin any fresher
happyfeet (8ce051) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:30 pmPerhaps it should be phrased in terms Sammy F can understand …
O’Doul’s is what beer would be if made by brewers whose skill levels were the skill levels of ThinkProgress ‘journalists’ … you know, along the lines of ‘fake but accurate’ …
Alastor (2e7f9f) — 2/1/2014 @ 8:07 pm“There’s no need for an investigation. It’s obvious and undeniable that malice, misconduct or intentional wrongdoing were involved in his closing the bridge lanes.
The e-mails Wildstein released prove it.”
Sammy – Please let the Port Authority know of your conclusions.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/1/2014 @ 8:09 pm165. I’m holding out hope for-
First President to take a Hellfire missile aboard his limousine, unexpectedly.
gary gulrud (e2cef3) — 2/1/2014 @ 8:43 pmChristie strikes me as a smart enough guy… so why would anyone try to punish the mayor of Ft Lee by inconveniencing a bunch of commuters.
I must be missing a point of connection, because chances are most of the commuters were not even from Ft Lee and wouldn’t connect lane closings with Mayor of FT Lee.
When I used to get stuck at the 100 to 405 interchange in LA on my way to or from LAX (now I go to Burbank) why would I blame then Mayor Villaraigosa? Granted he is a blathering fool who could muck up anything, but really?
Most people outside LA didn’t know who the mayor was, and a good deal of people from LA probably didn’t know eiter.
East coast people must pay a lot more attention to local politics and also must really like to assess blame on where they are geographically when the traffic snarls.
I need to memorize the names of the regions mayors for next time I try to get out of Laguna Beach and on to the I-5 at 4pm on a hot summer afternoon
steveg (794291) — 2/1/2014 @ 9:15 pmDo you think it is too late for Christie to run as Veep on a fusion ticket with Hillary as the “The Republican who can work with Democrats?”
ErisGuy (76f8a7) — 2/2/2014 @ 1:42 amIt either is too late or it’s not too late. But, yeah, Christie could run as the reach-around Republican.
Steve57 (5b9a77) — 2/2/2014 @ 2:07 amMD in Philly,
The other player’s name is Michael Crabtree. After
DRJ (a83b8b) — 2/2/2014 @ 3:26 amSherman’s outburst at the NFC championship game, Sherman’s older brother told the Seattle Times that Crabtree tried to start a fight with Sherman at a charity event last summer, and that was the source of Sherman’s irritation. However, an unrelated party said Sherman was the instigator of the dispute at the charity event.
Sorry. Wrong thread.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 2/2/2014 @ 3:30 am174-laughing.
mg (31009b) — 2/2/2014 @ 4:03 amHow long before the pipeline opponents become the occupiers?
mg (31009b) — 2/2/2014 @ 4:13 amthe Benghazi coverup, reminds of that old Costas Gavras potboiler Z, where the Greek forces tried to cover up the injuries to the lefty deputy,
Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 2/1/2014 @ 7:29 pm
I know that case well. The investigating prosecutor/magistrate, Sartzetakis, was our district’s deputy in Parliament, and he and his family were highly regarded in our mountains. The “lefty deputy” was murdered and it was done by the Palace, not by the constitutional government in Parliament. The Palace was behaving “para-constitutionally”, disregarding the law that the King could only “rule” through Parliament and the elected ministers. Sound familiar? It included agents provocateur to create “crises” and the occasional beating or murder. It led to the junta and the ouster of the King, and finally the abolition of the monarchy.
nk (dbc370) — 2/2/2014 @ 4:20 am172. Comment by steveg (794291) — 2/1/2014 @ 9:15 pm
Christie strikes me as a smart enough guy… so why would anyone try to punish the mayor of Ft Lee by inconveniencing a bunch of commuters.
It makes no sense, especially when nobody even told the maor that’s that what they were doing – they just refused to take his phone calls.
It gets occasionally repeated in the media, like it was an established fact, that this was done to punish for not endorsing Chris Christie for re-election, when…
1) There’s not the slightest bit of evidence that that was the motive – nothing in the e-mails – and Wildstein is hiding the true motive, which is, or at least could be, whatever preceded Bridget Anne Kelly, the Governor’s deputy chief of staff e-mailing him at 7:34 am on the morning of Tuesday, August 13, 2013:
They would exchange multiple very short messages. Something must have preceded that. It also took Wildstein four weeks to get that done, possibly because he tried to make it look legtimate, but he couldn’t.
2) Nobody was trying very hard to get the mayor;s endorsement. You’d think if they wanted that, or thought it wsimportant, they’d try some other methods to induce him first.
It not only doesn’t make sense for Chris Christie, who didn’t need a few extra votes – even with the theory that he wanted to show how he could get Democratic votes in orderr to help him win the Republican nomination. This is not real.
It not only doesn’t make sense for Chris Christie, it doesn’t make sense for a stupid and evil campaign manager to do this. This would be stupidity beyond the limits of credibility.
It’s a stupid theory whose only “virtue” is that it supplies a “motive” to Chris Christie.
The Mayor of Ft. Lee’s first theory was, actually, that it was done by the powers that be who weer running the Port Authority as punishment for having opposed a toll increase.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/2/2014 @ 9:41 amSteveeg at 172:
I must be missing a point of connection, because chances are most of the commuters were not even from Ft Lee
Actually this is wrong.
The traffic was mostly blocked in Fort Lee. The George Washington Bridge is part of I-95. and there’s a highway leading into it. There is also a local entrance.
There were maybe five lanes merging into 3 lanes with 3 different toll booths. Wildstein closed off 2 of the two booths, without notice, without signs, without telling anyone, leaving only the cash only toll booth. The tolls on the Hudson river bridges and tunnels into Manhattan have been only one way for many years, going east.
This blocked traffic on local Fort Lee, New Jersey, streets.
and wouldn’t connect lane closings with Mayor of FT Lee.
I mean, pretty soon people would know it was the Port Authority doing this.
Because absolutely no advance notice was given and nobody was told, and no messages were given to the public, and there is very little local media in New Jersey, it took about four days for this to start seeping into publications, in particular the Bergen Record and the Wall Street Journal.
People began to realize what was happening, and this wasn’t only a one day day or two thing, caused maybe by construction or repairs, on Thursday, four days into this, and before maybe all the newspapers that printed something about this were all delivered in the morning, the whole thing got stopped on the 5th day, over David Wildstein’s and Bill Baroni’s vehement objections.
I didn’t know anything about this till the New York Times published an article about this mystery in early December.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/2/2014 @ 9:45 am“There’s no need for an investigation. It’s obvious and undeniable that malice, misconduct or intentional wrongdoing were involved in his closing the bridge lanes.
The e-mails Wildstein released prove it.”
Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/1/2014 @ 8:09 pm
Sammy – Please let the Port Authority know of your conclusions.
I’m sure the Port Authority concluded this by themselves.
There wasn’t even the color of law about this – Wildstein couldn’t manage that. He couldn’t get any company to develoip or carry out a study to do something like that. And he may have spent a few weeks trying.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/2/2014 @ 9:59 amFormer Mayor Giuliani said today on Fece the Nation that if Christie ordered it, that would mean the Port Authority would pay his legal bills. That’s seems to be a trope. I don’t think that’s true at all. All kinds of things get repeated in the media that don’t really make any sense, just because they are simple explanations.
I think that, while the letter from Wildstein’s lawyer was addressed to the Port Authority, that was maybe the only convenient address to write a letter he could leak last week, and the purpose of tghat letter was not to try to get paid by them (unless they have some kind of discretion)but still not.
The real purpose of that letter was to try to get immmunity for Wildstein, and it wss intended for other audiences – the U.S. Attorney or the legislative investigating committee.
New Jersey Assemblyman John Wisniewski, the former chair of the New Jersey Democratic party, who is
leadingcontrolling the legislative investigation, was on NBC’s Meet The Press this week this morning and he was very fair.He was not biting at what David Gregory was trying to feed him.
It might be because he knows so much, and he knows this very probably does not lead to the Governor.
He said they need to know who told Bridget Anne Kelly to tell Wildstein to create traffic problems in Fort Lee. By the way, I think this was sort of like code language between them. I mean, that’s pretty vague.
Days before at least, there must have been some prior discussion about this, probably by telephone or in person.
Bridget Anne Kelly’s most likely superior in the Gridlock Gang was Christie campaign manager Bill Stepien, who had preceded her in her job and recommended her as his successor, the but I don’t think Stepien was doing this to help Christie in any way!
We have some kind of organized corruption going on here that we don’t have any idea about.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/2/2014 @ 10:15 amPerhaps they are trying to avoid granting immunity, which would call Wildstein’s bluff.
The committee’s counsel met woth the U.S. attorney and they agreed they could proceed on parallel tracks. Right now he’s looking for more documents.
But I think the only thing that will start to solve this mystery is immunity.
And I don’t think Wildstein was the originator of this at all, although he looked like a sociopath to some people on the Port Authority at the time.
Wisniewski said on TV that the purpose of this investigation was not to do anything to Christie, but rather to see what about the way the Port Authority is manahged needs to be changed. This is probably in part a legal justification for a legislative investigation – the standard justification for subpeonas – here we have a “legislative purpose” but it is also real.
He may figure that the truth will eventually come out and doesn’t want to be on the wrong side of this. Whatever, he’s not trying to exploit this.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/2/2014 @ 10:16 amOn Meet the Press John Wisniewski was throwing out names like Bill Baroni, without any attempt to explain who they were, and David Gregory was asking him any clarifying questions. They were treating this, or he was treating this, like a local news interview.
Even though, on one of the shows, somebody stumbled once, Chris Christie is NOT president of the United States.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/2/2014 @ 10:20 am““There’s no need for an investigation. It’s obvious and undeniable that malice, misconduct or intentional wrongdoing were involved in his closing the bridge lanes.
The e-mails Wildstein released prove it.””
Sammy – This story interests me so little I have not followed it closely in any measure, but as usual you have managed to completely miss the point.
If an organization’s normal practice is to cover the expenses of an employee being investigated or a former employee for actions he/she took while an employee and they elect not to do so in a given case, normally they go through a process to document why they are not picking up the expenses of the individual in order to protect themselves from future liability.
Saying the emails look like he did something wrong is not normally enough to paper the files.
So there are two questions, does the Port Authority normally indemnify its executives for actions they take in the course of their jobs? If not, fine.
If they do, but make an election not to, how is the election not to indemnify an employee reached and documented?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/2/2014 @ 10:47 amComment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/2/2014 @ 10:47 am
If they do, but make an election not to, how is the election not to indemnify an employee reached and documented?
They may have done something internally, but these lane closures were done in a completely irregular way, so it’s trivial.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/2/2014 @ 11:05 am“They may have done something internally, but these lane closures were done in a completely irregular way, so it’s trivial.”
Sammy – I think the various investigations will determine the irregularities of the closures, not internet commenters.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/2/2014 @ 11:17 amSome valuable Christie links:
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/timeline_of_the_port_authoritys_george_washington_bridge_lane_closure_controversy.html
http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1003328/wildstein-documents.pdf
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/transcript-chris-christies-news-conference-on-george-washington-bridge-scandal/2014/01/09/d0f4711c-7944-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/nyregion/christie-ally-resigning-from-port-authority.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/nyregion/on-lane-closings-christie-says-hell-turn-the-page.html?_r=0
http://www.state.nj.us/governor/news/news/552013/approved/20131213a.html
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/christie-statement-bridge
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/2/2014 @ 12:09 pm188. Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/2/2014 @ 11:17 am
Sammy – I think the various investigations will determine the irregularities of the closures, not internet commenters.
It’s already a given that the bridge lane closures were illegitimate.
We are ast that stage.
There was no traffic study. There was not even any kind of genuine public purpose behind it.
That became clear on Wednesday, January 8, 2014.
The issue is who was responsible for that happening and why.
Sammy Finkelman (344836) — 2/2/2014 @ 12:12 pm“Sammy – I think the various investigations will determine the irregularities of the closures, not internet commenters. ”
Has Christie yet asked his deputy why she sent the ‘time for traffic problems’ email? Does he already know the answer?
d.wildst (ae20f1) — 2/3/2014 @ 4:38 amComment by d.wildst (ae20f1) — 2/3/2014 @ 4:38 am
Has Christie yet asked his deputy why she sent the ‘time for traffic problems’ email?
No, he didn’t ask her, because he said he knew she had lied to him. He just fired her without giving her any chance to explain herself.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/transcript-chris-christies-news-conference-on-george-washington-bridge-scandal/2014/01/09/d0f4711c-7944-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html
He later on answered about Samson too. <
Sammy Finkelman (4eddd7) — 2/3/2014 @ 11:08 amHe said he talked to Samson the day before (Jan 8) and believed him that he had nothing to do woth it. Previously, in testimony, Bill Baroni had said it was David Wildstein’s idea, and he okayed it.
Does he already know the answer?
I don’t think so.
Here is more from Christie’s press conference Thursday, January 9, 2014:
Sammy Finkelman (4eddd7) — 2/3/2014 @ 11:13 amLatest news:
1) Former Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly is asserting a 5th amendment privilege against producing documents, as well as making a privacy claim.
In fact all members of the gridlock gang seem to be trying to take the 5th amendment over documents.
2. Christie said on an “Ask the Governor” radio show that he had asked his staff to investigate the bridge closing in October, when it first became an issue (this was actually after the second Wall Street Journal story) and they reported back to him it was a traffic study.
I think he’s said – judging from the brief news report – that he was now very interested in how that (report) happened.
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 2/4/2014 @ 1:48 pmWhat could be the 5th amendment interest in preventing a document production? That’s not testimonial is it?
d.wildst (ae20f1) — 2/4/2014 @ 7:17 pmhttp://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303942404579363003392087202
narciso (3fec35) — 2/4/2014 @ 7:20 pm“No, he didn’t ask her, because he said he knew she had lied to him. He just fired her without giving her any chance to explain herself.”
Sammy – Why was there almost a month between Kelly’s email and the lane closures?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/4/2014 @ 7:41 pmthe gut passage;
So, other than that the story was accurate? Not quite. Evidence exists tying reporter Kate Zernike to having erred. We borrowed that awkward language from the letter that led her report, which was written by Wildstein’s lawyer, Alan Zegas, to Darrell Buchbinder, general counsel of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
narciso (3fec35) — 2/4/2014 @ 7:46 pmnarciso–Ya gotta love it when one paper (the WSJ) takes off after the accuracy and ethics of another one–the NYT.
elissa (ad3799) — 2/4/2014 @ 8:04 pmWell about that, they aren’t keen on their own editorialists,
http://observer.com/2014/02/the-tyranny-and-lethargy-of-the-times-editorial-page/
narciso (3fec35) — 2/4/2014 @ 8:08 pmThe Wall Street Journal was the best of the newspapers last Saturday.
Its fronmt page ehadline about the Wildstein lawyer letter went:
Ex-Ally
Questions
Christie’s
Account
On the right side of page 1 beneath the main 5 column headline about the State Department report about the Keystone pipeline.
Obama and Cuomo – both of them are “studying” something they know has no problems, and postponing a decision for years:
In Obama’s case it is the Keystone pipeline, and in New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s case, it’s fracking for natural gas.
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 2/5/2014 @ 1:47 pm“No, he didn’t ask her, because he said he knew she had lied to him. He just fired her without giving her any chance to explain herself.”
Comment by daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/4/2014 @ 7:41 pm
Sammy – Why was there almost a month between Kelly’s email and the lane closures?
A very good question that doesn’t have a clear answer. We know of the e-mail because David Wildstein released it in response to a subpoena.
There were also many Port Authority e-mails also released, but it is impossible to save them and study them at leisure.
I can only guess.
Possibilities:
A) Wildstein attempted to arrange a traffic study to make it look legitimate, but he wasn’t able to arrange one where a company would do something like that.
B) When Bridget Anne Kelly wrote “time for” some traffic problems in Fort Lee, she wss thinking in terms of doing it that season, as opposed to months later or the next year.
C) It got cancelled and then re-started, but we don’t have any of their communications..
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 2/5/2014 @ 1:53 pmThey were in communication again later before it happened.
The GMail essages are unredacted – the other material Wildstein supplied has a lot blacked out.
The e-mails tend to have quoting which is why we know some of what was said before.
On Sat Sept 7 – which was 3 weeks and 4 days after the older message – we have something about the town of Springfield asking for the Master Plan re-examination report to include a Traffic study – whatever was below that in the thread was not supplied. Anyway that was quoted and Wildstein asks that someone call the mayor of Springfield and tell him the Governor has approved $60k for their traffic study.
That was actually sent Friday Sept 6 at 2:50 pm.
Saturday morning at 7:50 Bridget Anne Kelly writes him: Yes, I will let you know.
Then Wildstein adds at 9:43: I will call you Monday AM to let you know how Fort Lee goes.
At 10:00 Bridget Anne Kelly writes: Great, I called you yesterday to talk PATH.
————————
Which has me wondering if they were planning something else for PATH trains across the Hudson River!
Most of their contact was probably verbal. About anything wrong anyway.
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 2/5/2014 @ 2:03 pmOh, for crying out loud, now you object even to the term “negative value”?! What on earth is wrong with it? It’s a perfectly ordinary term that every normal English-speaker knows. Seriously, what is your problem with it?
Milhouse (b95258) — 2/5/2014 @ 3:07 pmYes, exactly. I kept hearing “oooh, evidence exists that he knew about the closed lanes”, and wondered how anyone had ever imagined that he didn’t, or when he had denied knowing about them. I knew about them too. But I didn’t know why they were closed, and I kept hearing this fellow carefully not claiming that Christie knew either, and wondered why nobody seemed to notice that.
Milhouse (b95258) — 2/5/2014 @ 3:11 pm“Oh, for crying out loud, now you object even to the term “negative value”?!”
Milhouse – What is wrong with it? Do you have memory problems?
We have been over this before. In a capitalist or free market system, absent coercion, people exchange goods and services (including labor) at a value mutually acceptable to both. That value is positive, otherwise there would be no exchange. See Patterico’s post regarding consumer surplus on which you commented to refresh your memory. The concept of both consumer surplus and producer surplus are very elementary in Economics. The concept of exchanging goods and services freely for negative value is an oxymoron.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/5/2014 @ 3:24 pmNo, but you certainly have some sort of problem.
s/value/price
Value is what they attach to the goods or services themselves. The price is what the buyer sacrifices to obtain that value. The good or service would normally be of positive value to the buyer; it may be of positive or negative value to the seller, which is why he’s getting rid of it.
What you’re not getting, perhaps because you’re just too stupid to understand it no matter how many times it’s explained, or in how simple language, is that often what is purchased is of zero or negative value to the buyer as well as to the seller. The most common reason someone would buy something that is of negative value is that he hopes that it will eventually result in something else, which will have positive value. That expectation may or may not be fulfilled, but it’s why the person would engage in the transaction in the first place.
Milhouse (b95258) — 2/5/2014 @ 3:38 pmHowever, I renew my question: you just called “negative value” an oxymoron. How can you possibly be so stupid as not to know that things can have negative value? How much is your garbage worth to you?
Milhouse (b95258) — 2/5/2014 @ 3:39 pmThat’s not what you said. You said “negative value” is itself an oxymoron. That is a moronic claim.
Milhouse (b95258) — 2/5/2014 @ 3:44 pm“That’s not what you said. You said “negative value” is itself an oxymoron. That is a moronic claim.”
Milhouse – Why not try to be honest for a change and use all my words as follows:
As I recall, and feel free to dispute me, but then I might just go back and pull your quotes, you claimed businesses did not want to hire labor because labor had a negative value.
That was the way you introduced your theory of negative value to the blog.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/5/2014 @ 3:52 pm“The most common reason someone would buy something that is of negative value is that he hopes that it will eventually result in something else, which will have positive value.”
Milhouse – Can you please provide some examples?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/5/2014 @ 3:53 pmI have no idea what prompted this, but negative value does exist and it’s a commonly accepted shorthand for negative economic value added. Or negative EVA.
In a free market one exchange is between an investor who trades equity capital for a market determined return. The return has to cover the opportunity cost for investing the capital in one company as opposed to investing elsewhere.
If a company isn’t sufficiently profitable to provide that expected return, then it has a negative EVA. Over time investors will avoid companies that generate a negative EVA in favor of putting their money into companies that have a positive EVA.
Steve57 (71fc09) — 2/5/2014 @ 4:14 pmBullshit. I never claimed that, and you know it. Of course businesses want to hire labor; if they didn’t, they wouldn’t do it! Nobody’s making them do it. But that labor is of no value to them. It’s of negative value to the worker, and of zero value to the employer. The worker would rather not work; not working is of value to him, and that is what he’s sacrificing for the sake of the money, which is worth more to him than not working. The employer, though, also doesn’t value the labor itself; the reason he pays for it is because of what it will produce, or because of what his customers will pay him for what the labor will produce. In other words the employer buys something of no value to him, because he expects that doing so will result, two steps down the road, in something that is of value to him.
As I explained before, it’s just like buying seed corn, which you put in the ground to rot. The seed corn is of no value to you at all (and combined with the labor you put in to sowing it it has negative value for you), and yet you paid good money for it, not because you want it, but because you want what you hope and expect will grow as a result of your sowing it in the ground.
Milhouse (b95258) — 2/5/2014 @ 4:15 pmSteve, that is true, but there’s a simpler meaning to “negative value”; something that you would pay not to have. Garbage is one example. But labor is another; you would pay money not to have to work. Working is bad for you, you don’t enjoy it, you’d rather not do it; the only reason you do it anyway is because you hope to get something in return that’s of sufficient positive value to outweigh the negative value of working.
Milhouse (b95258) — 2/5/2014 @ 4:17 pmhttp://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/eva.asp
The EVA can either be positive or negative.
Steve57 (71fc09) — 2/5/2014 @ 4:18 pmSteve, all of this is because daleyrocks believes in the labor theory of value. Which is straight Marxism.
Milhouse (b95258) — 2/5/2014 @ 4:20 pmSeriously. I was astounded that anyone here would defend such a notion. But daleyrocks apparently believes in it.
Milhouse (b95258) — 2/5/2014 @ 4:21 pmI wouldn’t put it that way, Milhouse. Simply because that would presume to know what motivates someone who works at a particular job. I know people who enjoy their jobs.
But instead I’d say the worker is an investor, looking where to invest their sweat equity. They don’t have money to invest in a business, but they do have time and effort. As we are seeing with financial disincentives in Obamacare, beyond a certain point choosing to invest that time and effort into working as opposed to leisure has a negative EVA.
Even people who like their jobs, who don’t believe working is bad for them, won’t work beyond the point where it becomes stupid to do so.
Steve57 (71fc09) — 2/5/2014 @ 4:26 pmIf you really love your job then you would do it for free, or even pay to be allowed to do it. If you demand payment then you can’t love it all that much. Which means its total value is negative to you. I.e. for all the enjoyment you get out of doing it, you would also rather be doing something else, and that negative outweighs the positive, making its total value negative. Hence you demand money, and stop working if you don’t get paid. If, as you say, it becomes stupid. If the work had a net positive value for you then it would never become stupid to do it, at least until the employer was demanding money from you!
Milhouse (b95258) — 2/5/2014 @ 4:30 pmBut my original point, before daleyrocks led me down the garden path of ever-wilder fallacies, was simply that the value of anything comes entirely from how much people like it, and has no connection at all with the labor that may or may not have gone into making it. In other words, Marx was wrong. Something that really should not be at all controversial on this site!
Milhouse (b95258) — 2/5/2014 @ 4:32 pmG2g now, I’m nearly an hour late for something.
Milhouse (b95258) — 2/5/2014 @ 4:32 pm“Steve, all of this is because daleyrocks believes in the labor theory of value. Which is straight Marxism.”
Milhouse – That’s one version. Another is that you claimed businesses don’t want to hire labor because labor has a negative value to them, ignoring that businesses actually compete for qualified job candidates and spend a ton of money recruiting applicants. That is not something businesses would do for something having negative value to them, regardless of your pretzel logic.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/5/2014 @ 4:49 pm“I have no idea what prompted this, but negative value does exist and it’s a commonly accepted shorthand for negative economic value added. Or negative EVA.”
Steve57 – Different concept than Milhouse espoused.
If you were a rational person, why would you spend money on something that had a negative value to you?
You would not.
Milhouse believes differently.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/5/2014 @ 4:53 pmMilhouse is a no goodnik? Say it isn’t so!
Colonel Haiku (68a574) — 2/5/2014 @ 5:16 pmG2g now, I’m nearly an hour late for something.
Comment by Milhouse (b95258) — 2/5/2014 @ 4:32 pm
give that poor chicken a rest, Milhouse!
Colonel Haiku (68a574) — 2/5/2014 @ 5:17 pmColonel – Is Milhouse Boris and Sammy Natasha?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 2/5/2014 @ 5:34 pm195. Comment by d.wildst (ae20f1) — 2/4/2014 @ 7:17 pm
What could be the 5th amendment interest in preventing a document production? That’s not testimonial is it?
The Gridlock Gang is invoking some very unusual legal theories.
David Wildstein tried to quash his subpoena before he took the 5th amendment, on the grounds, that his subpoena wasn’t signed by the proper people – and maybe it wasn’t, but that doesn’t invalidate a legislative subpeona, in New Jersey at least.
Sammy Finkelman (dfe091) — 2/5/2014 @ 6:05 pmBullwinkle and Rocky.
Sammy Finkelman (dfe091) — 2/5/2014 @ 6:20 pm115. 205.
Estragon: OF COURSE Christie knew the lanes were closed while they were closed, it was all over the news.
Comment by Milhouse (b95258) — 2/5/2014 @ 3:11 pm
Yes, exactly. I kept hearing “oooh, evidence exists that he knew about the closed lanes”, and wondered how anyone had ever imagined that he didn’t, or when he had denied knowing about them. I knew about them too.
When, when? When did you know? It was not in the news until Friday morning, Erev Yom Kipur, Septemeber 13, and by 8:30 the lanes were re-opened.
It was kept out of the news. There was no announcement.
The Bergen Record and the wall Street Journal were working on stories that Thursday. Christie said he didn’t know the lanes were closed till it was over, and it is possible that could be a slight misstatement.
Later on, at some point, Christie said he had first heard of it in October (meaning October 1, when the wall street Journal ran a second story about it, and he asked his people to investigate, but in his press conference January 9, 2014, he corrected himself saying he thought there was an earlier story. I think he really didn’t remember.
And there was an earlier story, and that was actually his first knowledge. Now he could have heard about it before it went to print – The Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye did..
Sammy Finkelman (dfe091) — 2/5/2014 @ 6:34 pmMore:
Two people, Bill Stepian, Christie’s campaign manager, and Bridget Anne Kelly, the deputy chief of staff, who replaced him on Gov Christie’s staff when he left to manage the campaign, and who had that exchange with David Wildstein in which she said it was time for traffic problems in Fort Lee – are both attempting to take the 5th Amendment on documents, which it is generally understood, you can’t do.
David Wildstein ran a website under a pen name, and till he was appointed to the Port Authority, nobody knew who “Wally Edge” was.
[The original “Wally Edge” – Walter Evans Edge – a Republican, was Governor of New Jersey from January 16, 1917 to May 16, 1919 when he resigned to take his seat in the United States Senate which he had been elected to in November, 1918.
He had been elected partially with the help of Frank Hague, boss of the Hudson County Democratic machine, who didn’t wanta Democratic reformer elected. His Senate term began on March 4, 1919, the Senate was in recess at that time, and he waited to resign. He was re-elected in 1924, and then apppointed by President Hoover as Ambassador to France, but he didn’t resign until November 21, 1929. He stayed Ambassador until 1933. Then again he was elected Governor in 1943, serving for 4 years. he had fights with frank Hague, whose power was destroyed by his successor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Evans_Edge%5D
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/nyregion/on-blog-an-ex-christie-ally-showed-approach-to-politics.html?hpw&rref=nyregion&_r=0
Most interesting, I guess:
“By this time, Wally Edge had sold PoliticsNJ to Jared Kushner, whose father Mr. Christie had prosecuted. But his identity was revealed only when he took the port job.
Mr. Wildstein was not happy. He took out the domain name for Bob Sommer, who had been among the executives at Mr. Kushner’s company, and whom he believed had been behind the decision to scale back the investment in PoliticsNJ, which resulted in most of the staff being laid off. When visitors logged on to BobSommer.com, they were redirected to the Yankees site; Mr. Sommer is a hard-core Mets fan.”
A 2002 story about the website:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/30/nyregion/on-politics-voting-early-and-often-for-me-myself-and-i.html
A story about how this became known (I think it misses a few things)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/nyregion/clues-but-no-full-account-of-order-that-turned-a-new-jersey-town-into-a-parking-lot.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1392139089-OU0eZce39toX/wIggRBuIQ
There were 4 stages
1) The first publicity, at the end of the week of Sept 9, which caused the lanes to be re-opened.
2) The Oct 1 Wall Street Journal story, which revealed the executive director of the Port Authority (Patrick Foye of New York) had written a blistering memo about this and ordered the lanes to be re-opened especially because it was Erev Yom Kippur. This caused some hearings in New Jersey.
3) Early December, when Wildstein and then Baroni resigned from the Port Authority (denying this was the reason or at least that they’d done anything wrong) which caused this to be written about in the New York Times, where I saw a story about it.
4) January 8, 2014, when the Wildstein e-mails and texts were printed in the Bergen Record.
Again, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/business/media/local-papers-shine-light-in-societys-dark-corners.html?hpw&rref=business
An early story, from December
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/nyregion/clues-but-no-full-account-of-order-that-turned-a-new-jersey-town-into-a-parking-lot.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1392139089-OU0eZce39toX/wIggRBuIQ
Reaction of the losing candidate for Governor today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/nyregion/amid-christie-scandal-buono-says-some-democrats-have-buyers-remorse.html
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 2/11/2014 @ 11:37 amHighly energetic article, I loved that a lot.
Multimedia (8dce0e) — 2/15/2014 @ 7:51 pmWill there be a part 2?
For The Circus series, Cyprus is used in addition to redwood.
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say direct we mean with a stop over in Turkish,
as no flights presently are permitted to fly directly to Ercan
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