Tag: Chris Christie

Rubio and Bush move to extend NSA snooping of Americans

10:22 am

While Jeb Bush said this week that he strongly supports NSA snooping, Marco Rubio introduced legislation in Congress to permanently extend the program.

I consider the Patriot Act and this particular issue a good “canary-in-the-mine” blood test for determining which candidates for President are really conservative. Bush, Rubio, and also Christie have come out in support of warrantless searches by the NSA of your private electronic communications. All three reveal to me that they are not really conservative by this position. However,

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has called for the end of the NSA’s domestic dragnet surveillance program and has indicated he will try to block reauthorization of those core provisions of the Patriot Act later this year. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, meanwhile, was one of just four Republicans to join with Democrats last year in backing the USA Freedom Act, a bill that would have essentially ended the bulk metadata program. The measure fell two votes short of advancing, failing to overcome a Republican-led filibuster.

This is very good information about these candidates.

2 comments

Speaking of contrasts, compare the reaction when evidence revealed the Obama administration intentional made life difficult for citizens during the government shutdown.

12:35 pm

Speaking of contrasts, compare the reaction when evidence revealed the Obama administration intentionally made life difficult for citizens during the government shutdown.

The point here is not to excuse Christie or his administration, only to point out the disgusting hypocrisy of the press and the Democrats. It is bad when a Republican does it, but when a Democrat does it who cares?

Update: And then there’s this: “In less than 24 hours, the three networks have devoted 17 times more coverage to a traffic scandal involving Chris Christie than they’ve allowed in the last six months to Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service controversy.”

4 comments

Heads roll in New Jersey over traffic scandal.

9:26 am

Heads roll in New Jersey over traffic scandal.

The speed in which Christie is firing people strongly suggests to me that he did have nothing to do with the scandal, was out of the loop as he claims. Otherwise, these fired individuals would have some leverage that they could use against Christie to protect their jobs.

Also, compare the speed of Christie’s actions with the stonewalling we have seen by Obama in connection with the IRS scandal. I think the difference is illustrative.

15 comments

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has now expressed outrage over the revelation today that his aides created traffic jams to hurt a political opponent.

4:34 pm

Hm. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has now expressed outrage over the revelation today that his aides created traffic jams to hurt a political opponent.

Has he fired anyone? We shall see. If he is sincere about this happening without his knowledge, he will be able to fire people quickly. If not, he will have to make some backroom deals, which will take time.

3 comments

Eight reasons why Chris Christie’s traffic scandal could cause big trouble in 2016.

11:52 am

Eight reasons why Chris Christie’s traffic scandal could cause big trouble in 2016.

Most people understand that politics ain’t beanbag. There’s a certain amount of rough-and-tumble, back-and-forth backbiting that’s expected from the kind of people who choose to spend their lives trying to accumulate as much power as possible. As a result, backroom maneuvering to remove some political privileges enjoyed by one’s opponent probably wouldn’t draw a second glance. But that’s not what Christie’s top aides did. They deliberately chose to target innocent civilians: moms and dads trying to get to work on time, school bus drivers trying to get children to school, first responders trying to take ill people to the hospital.

It doesn’t matter who you are: that type of behavior is inexcusable. Nobody likes the guy who intentionally abuses his power in order to indiscriminately punish people just trying to get through the day.

And this:

In the wake of the current presidential administration’s use of the IRS to terrorize its political enemies, a lot of conservatives and Republicans are just a wee bit sensitive about a politician’s willingness to abuse his power to reward his friends or punish his foes.

I don’t care what party the politician belongs to. I don’t care how good he or she is in balancing the budget (something Christie has shown himself to be very good at). If they abuse their power they are dead to me.

What frightens me now is the possibility that the choice in 2016 might be Christie and any number of corrupt Democrats.

18 comments

In a story that concerns the upcoming presidential campaign, emails show that top aides to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie purposely closed lanes to the George Washington Bridge in an effort to hurt the mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie.

9:29 am

In a story that concerns the 2016 presidential campaign, emails show that top aides to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie purposely closed lanes to the George Washington Bridge in an effort to hurt the mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie.

Private messages between Governor’s Christie’s deputy chief of staff and two of his top executives at the Port Authority reveal a vindictive effort to create “traffic problems in Fort Lee” by shutting lanes to the George Washington Bridge and apparent pleasure at the resulting gridlock. The messages are replete with references and insults to Fort Lee’s mayor, who had failed to endorse Christie for re-election and they chronicle how local officials tried to reach the Port Authority in a vain effort to eliminate the paralyzing gridlock that overwhelmed his town of 35,000, which sits in the shadow of the bridge, the world’s busiest.

Read it all. The emails are ugly, and exhibit a gleeful nonchalance towards the problems the lane closures were causing.

Politics can be a dirty game, but for a politician or his aides to do such a thing is despicable. The actions did more harm to the citizens trapped in unnecessary traffic jams than it did to the mayor of Fort Lee. Based on this evidence I am far more reluctant to support Christie for President.

4 comments