Friday, February 25, 2011
The Times on Christie's moment
I'm driving to and from Vermont in the next couple of days to visit the TigerHawk Teenager (who will be a teenager no longer in just a few days) for "family weekend" at his college. While I'm doing that, take a look at this surprisingly (although imperfectly) balanced article from the New York Times Magazine about the political imagery of Governor Awesome's confrontation with the New Jersey public employee unions.
5 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Feb 25, 10:54:00 AM:
It is a good article. While I don't think that one can or should expect balance from the NYT or Fox, they (NYT) do a pretty good job here. I worry that with 566 municipalities and 600+ school districts in our Garden State, despite being given tools, many municipalities and districts will not know what to do with them or may not even open the toolbox.
The focus on the large teacher's Union is interesting. One sentence that really stuck is the following, "With 200,000 members and more than $100 million in dues, the New Jersey Education Association is easily the most powerful union in New Jersey and one of the more powerful local unions in the country." That means that union dues are more than $500 per teacher and apparently the state collects the dues for them!
From my own experience, the Union PR machine is working really well in Princeton as there are frequent meetings, emails from parents, etc, calling on residents to stand up and fight the drastic cuts proposed by "the Governor" while no mention is made of the fact that the Princeton teachers took no cuts, let alone a freeze, and offered no contributions to their health or retirement plans, while watching a decent number of excellent younger teachers get laid off. I also have not heard a single proposal from the Union about how they would address some of the State's huge financial challenges.
Hopefully Gov. Christie and other leaders with courage (not limited to Republicans) will succeed in achieving the many structural reforms needed to reverse more than 20 years of madness.
By 
SummerRain, at
Fri Feb 25, 11:21:00 AM:
Good Lord!! ..."Like a stand-up comedian..." so much for objective & professional news. Yet, they only cater to those who buy their paper.
Need to read a book out that's about Americans taking a stand against govt. tyranny. With Wisconsin in turmoil, with the help of the Chicago communit party, we are going to see more.
I recommend it cause it's a thriller but so real for today's events.
www.booksbyoliver.com
Thanks for showing everyone what the liberal media is spewing out. I usually don't go to them but will read your blog to see what they are up to. Thanks
By Cardinalpark, at
Fri Feb 25, 02:02:00 PM:
The most enlightening bit actually is when they interview the 2 people from the NJEA. Everybody now knows Christie and he is very popular. He is bright, articulate, tough. Sensitive too. People like him. Being fat only humanizes him. And he's effective. Holding the line on the budget and taxes.
Meanwhile, the NJEA leadership basically says "we don't get it." He's gotta get on some meds or something."
Arrogance. Cluelessness. Entitlement. Their comments reek of all of that.
In a nutshell, there it is. And the it gets reinforced by events in Wisconsin, Indiana and even Greece. Unions, public employees and left-wing politicians in bed together. Enough. No more insane budgets out of my tax dollars to pay for their high pay, rich benefits and job security. F them.
The article gets it all.
By , at
Fri Feb 25, 04:26:00 PM:
Reading The New York Times is like reading the old Soviet Pravda.
Did you know that Christie was fat? Rotund? Fleshy? That he's all Fat Man schtick? That this Dancing Bear should be doing Borscht Belt in the Catskills?
The author had to put this in so he could get it past his NYT editors.
But there's a serious article in there somewhere. Between the lines, the author even says Christie is "winning" and hints that he even respects him and likes him.
By Kurt, at
Fri Feb 25, 11:44:00 PM:
I must confess to being baffled by the reference to Vermont in a post about a family weekend at the college of TigerHawk Teenager. Shouldn't you be heading down to Blacksburg? Maybe I just haven't been reading this blog closely or frequently enough.
