Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, May 6, 1937 -- April 20, 2014

The first trial was a pig circus and so was the re-trial in 1976 that took place after Bob Dylan's hit song. I attended a couple of sessions of the second trial in Paterson and it's the young railroaded John Artis I remember most clearly. The fact that John Artis was still his "longtime friend and caregiver" when Rubin Carter passed away in Toronto today is a piece of information that I find simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking. R.I.P. Hurricane.

The Fine White Whine You Hear Today Is Coming from The Garden State.

"Over the past few weeks, the liberal media and Trenton Democrats have relentlessly attacked the Governor despite his strong, decisive leadership. It's time to stand up to MSNBC, the liberal media and their attacks."

This quote from the NJ GOP looking for money is going straight to the crooked New Jersey Governor's only possible defense, whining about the big bad liberal meanies of the so-called liberal media picking on America's Favorite Fat Fuck, Christopher "Christ" Christie. It seems clear now that if he manages to stay out of court, he will run for the GOP Presidential nod in 2016. His main campaign strategy to appeal to the rabid right-wing base? It's obvious. More whining about how attacks on Christ Christie by the bullying elitist atheistic eastern liberal press (and liberal blogs that label him America's Favorite Fat Fuck) mean that he must be doing something right.

"The people of New Jersey deserve better than the partisan witch hunt they’re currently witnessing on television every night. Thank you for standing with Governor Christie..." Wah Wah Wah

Preview of 2016 GOP Clown Circus Debate #2: The Elephant in the Room

 In December 2015, the 2016 GOP Traveling Clown Circus was scheduled to make its second stop under the gigantic red, white, and blue big top set up on the campus of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The crowd had been fortified with large quantities of red meat and Red Bull and fluffed into a pre-game frenzy by two of the greatest second-string Saturday Night Live alumni, Dennis Miller and Victoria Jackson, telling jokes about Libtards and Dumbocrats. The star moderator Glenn Beck was in position on his throne, but when the cameras were turned on and it came time to fill the ten podia at the front of the tent meeting, only Governor Christopher James "Chris" Christie strode onto the stage. "Let's go, Glenn."

"We'll have to wait for your opponents, Governor," Mr. Beck announced.

"Yeah? I don't think they're coming," Christie said, laughing.

"I'm sure they'll be here.", Beck said. "We have to wait a minute."

"Actually, I heard from my staff they all went to the Tulsa Hospital Emergency Room unexpectedly with injuries to their lower legs."

"What?"

"Something to do with a steel pipe. Something about which I obviously have no further personal knowledge."

"That's awful. We may have to delay this whole evening then."

"I'll be happy to fill the whole hour and a half. Ask me anything."

"OK, let's start with your sports loyalties. We know that you bravely support the Dallas Cowboys even though the Giants and the Jets both play in the state you were born in and currently govern."

"America's Team! Yeah."

"And you've been known to root for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish when they played your state's university, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, in a 2013 bowl game."

"Every North Jersey bully worth his salt likes the Irish."

"Both brave and independent stands, but is it also true that your favorite figure skater was Tonya Harding?"

"That little blonde firecracker? America's sweetheart? Who wasn't in love with her?"

"And it's only a coincidence in light of tonight's events?"

"Obviously. Now let's talk about my impeccable bipartisan record and ability to bring people together. You know that I was supported in 2013 by a lot of Democratic New Jersey Mayors who were certainly not threatened or bribed or beaten into supporting me."
...
(The rest of the hour you know by heart from the inspiring biographical Christie campaign commercials that have been running every night on every network since mid-2015.)
...
[and, in case you missed it, here's the partial transcript of the first imaginary 2016 GOP Clown Circus Debate I posted back in November]

How'd youse guys do on this test?

There's an interesting dialect quiz (for True Blue Americans only -- no furriners) over on the New York Times website that's fun to take if you have a few spare minutes on this Christmas Eve morning.
I answered the questions yesterday and got no results.  I had thought this meant my dialect was simply unique from having lived on both coasts growing up, but the system must have just been busy. I took it again this morning (with a slightly different set of questions) and it triangulated my exact location from my answers.

2016 GOP Clown Circus Update: The New Fat Clown Throws His Hat Into the Ring

VOTE FOR ME!!

It has seemed clear all along that the role of the fat egotistical clown played so well by Newt Gingrich in 2012's GOP Clown Circus would be filled by Chris "Krispy Kreme" Christie in 2016, and the Governor of New Jersey made his ambitions obvious at the end of last week when he vetoed a ban on .50 caliber sniper rifles, a ban which he had proposed just last April.  He announced his veto on a Friday evening when the local news outlets might miss it, but the gun rights groups keeping score on such matters definitely would not.

It's official. He's running for the GOP Presidential nomination and a place at one of the 8 or 9 podiums (podia?) on the traveling 2016 GOP Clown Circus stages.

While having the role of the fat egotistical clown filled is good news for Clown Circus aficionados, there was bad news on Friday as well. The Republican National Committee and its chairman who goes by the improbable name "Reince Priebus" announced that CNN and NBC would not be allowed to host episodes of the highly-anticipated 2016 Clown Circus because those networks are considering the broadcast of a documentary and a miniseries featuring presumed Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.  The RNC's real goal, of course, is simply to deny us the pleasure of seeing their clowns showing their true colors on two more networks.  If "Reince" could, he'd simply anoint Jeb Bush or Paul Ryan or Chris Christie with the title of nominee without any of the party's dirty laundry being aired for the entertainment and edification of America's voters.

"... this boardwalk life for me is through ..."

Could the namers of hurricanes have picked a more appropriate name for a hurricane aimed directly at the boardwalks of New Jersey?

The Marketing Slogan of the Day

"When in Doubt Drink" was seen on the blackboard in front of Louise and Jerry's Tavern on Washington Street in Hoboken, 25 October 2012.

It's not just a joke.
Imagine how much more peaceful the world would be if the Middle East had more doubt. And more drinking.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Update 11/16:  I took and posted this picture only four days before Hurricane Sandy, simply because the blackboard message struck me as funny.  None of us had any sense that New York harbor would see the storm surge it did and that no basement businesses or apartments in Hoboken would be dry when the Hudson River came to town and stayed for a few days..

September 11, 2012: Closing A Circle?

New albums are generally released on Tuesdays, so maybe it's not that significant or coincidental that Bob Dylan's "Love and Theft" was released on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 and his "Tempest" was released today, Tuesday, September 11, 2012.  

World Trade Center from Jersey City, September 11, 2012

It seems significant to me though, because on the morning of September 11, 2001, I was looking forward to walking around the corner to the Sam Goody store on the corner of 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue at lunchtime to buy "Love and Theft".  At noon we were still being told to stay in our building and by late afternoon when I left the office, the album was not on my mind, and all the stores were closed. I can't remember when I finally picked it up. It couldn't have been more than a week or two later, but the excitement about a great recording will be forever overshadowed by events.

Today I hit my local record store as soon as it opened at 11 and picked up "Tempest" (this isn't a review, but I'm loving what I've listened to so far) and for the first time since 2001, there is a visible highlight to the lower Manhattan skyline. I don't believe that "closure" is even a proper word, and that's not what I'm talking about here, but it feels to me, personally, as if we're beginning to close a circle.

World Trade Center construction update (with bonus MZ-3A airship)

Here's a picture of the new World Trade Center site taken from my phone a little before 1 this afternoon.  The airship above it was -- amazingly -- not covered with advertisements, so I took a closer look.

It seems that there is only one manned US Navy airship, so it was the MZ-3A that flew up over the Hudson River this afternoon.

Rick Santorum Now in Favor of Universal Government-Financed Birth Control

Frothy suddenly saw the light on the need for more widespread government support for contraception as soon as he was handed the following headline about the rumor regarding the most recognizable cast member of MTV's Jersey Shore and the fact that she might be ready to reproduce:

Progress Report

Here's your photographic update on the status of the construction of the new World Trade Center.

Won't someone in the Garden State offer Chris Christie a wafer-thin mint?

This was the dream candidate the GOP was looking for? Make him an honorary member of the GOP Clown Circus.

Watch Chris Christie at a Romney event in New Hampshire tell a heckler in the audience chanting "Christie kills jobs" that "Something may go down tonight, but it ain't gonna be jobs sweetheart." The "sweetheart" is condescending enough from this fat chauvinist pig, but is there any other way to understand his "going down" remark than in the obvious sexual way, especially from someone who likes to picture himself as a Joisey tough guy?

I'm so glad that he's no longer my Governor. What a fucking embarassment.
And look at Mitt in the background of this video wondering, "Do they make Magic Underwear in a size that would fit that ass?"

The new World Trade Center's cool and tall and all, but it doesn't hold a candle to this seagull.

I'm just saying.

Where was the fire?

Governor Jon Corzine's piece-of-shit full-size SUV was traveling at 91 mph on a 65-mph highway before his crash last Thursday according to the Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police today. It also seems to have been scaring other hard-to-control trucks out of their lanes with its hectic approach. At least this "accident" didn't claim any innocent victims.

Is anyone else pissed about this? I voted for Jon Corzine and I probably will again, but I also drive on the Garden State Parkway in a Volkswagen, and I have a son with a fresh driver's license. What am I supposed to say to him about speeding when the New Jersey State Police not only do NOTHING to stop an average speed of 75-85 mph on a crowded 65-mph highway, but they treat this busy highway as their own personal racetrack. It's bad enough when they do it in their cruisers, but these top-heavy oversized trucks are potential murder weapons when driven at that speed.

I have this naive belief that nobody is important enough to speed unless they're responding to an emergency. The Governor of New Jersey is not a fireman, and he was not on his way to the scene of a crime. I know that most people in his position probably do it routinely, but I think they need to explain why (though the obvious answer, I'm afraid, is "because I can").

New drivers are also told that they are responsible for making sure that their passengers are belted. Why didn't this State Trooper/Chauffeur insist that his front seat passenger wear his seatbelt?

Jon Corzine needs to answer a lot of questions about this "accident" when he heals enough to resume his duties.
---------------------------------------------
UPDATE on 4/18/07: This morning's New York Times article on this news says:

"...the trooper driving the vehicle, Robert J. Rasinski, had told investigators that he did not know how fast he was traveling as he led Mr. Corzine’s two-car caravan, emergency lights flashing, from an Atlantic City speech to a meeting at the governor’s mansion in Princeton."

Funny, but "I don't know how fast I was driving" is never an acceptable answer for a civilian to give a trooper.

The article is also very good on describing how the official SUV caused the crash, and also how it was breaking the rules of engagement for non-emergency government vehicles.