Yet another article in Pravda on the Potomac makes an unintentional funny.
It was in an article hyping a grudge match between the Governor of New Jersey and the Governor of Maryland (caution Politico link):
The two also have matching black marks on their records: O’Malley has a history of raising taxes, while New Jersey saw its bond rating downgraded under Christie’s watch.
Only in Pravda DC would balancing your budget using both cuts and taxes be considered a “black mark”. The article fails to mention that Maryland under O’Malley has the highest bond rating possible and that it has been done without attacking the middle class and workers. O’Malley has a record of real success and has twice been overwhelmingly elected, including last November. His job approval numbers are at 58% while the overly hyped windbag from Jersey rarely bounces above the 50% mark and his favorables have never crossed the half-way point.
The article notes that O’Malley has called Christie out on the wingnutter’s “all-talk-no-results-and-yet-overly-hyped” record:
“His style of leadership — the bombast and blaming public employees for our economic challenges as a country — are not the qualities of leadership that move a state or move a country forward,” O’Malley said in an interview with POLITICO. “He tries to make believe that he’s the only guy in America that balances a budget. Every governor in America balances a budget.”
But then most of the article is an over the top effort to defend their latest Galtian “it” boy. Pravda avoids any review of facts, the results of Christie’s actions and his failings. It is enough that he is loud, rude and also, too yells about working people being greedy little bastards.
In New Jersey there is a lot of smoke, mirrors and trash talk–but the results are more debt, a lower bond rating, a shrinking middle class, pain for the poor and passing larger problems to the next generation. This is a model that never solves any problems but it is preferred by our Galtian overlords and so Pravda DC is compelled to promote it.
I’m fortunate to live in Maryland where the budget crisis is being faced without attacking the middle class and without sacrificing the future. That Pravda DC considers balancing a budget through shared sacrifice–and without gratuitous attacks on workers, the middle class and the poor–a black mark is funny in a tragic sort of way.
Cheers
Mike Kay (Peacemaker)
Politico = welfare queens
piratedan
but but but he raised taxes!!! How in the HELL will that generate any revenue?
Dennis G.
@piratedan:
We even have a “Millionaire’s Tax” in Maryland and it turns out that the rich do not mind paying it. The much feared departure of the rich to Galtian states didn’t happen. Turns out they like better schools, roads, environmental protection and stuff like that.
It looks like the General Assembly will renew it this year because it works.
But don’t tell anybody.
Cheers
horse dave
In Maryland we also have the #1 rated public school system (2010) with collective bargaining for public employees.
Here are the SAT rankings for state without collective bargaining for their teachers:
South Carolina – 50th
North Carolina – 49th
Georgia – 48th
Texas – 47th
Virginia – 44th
jwb
@Dennis G.: Yes, you better keep that very secret. If word gets out that Maryland isn’t being run into the ground by raising taxes, Koch, Inc. will have a sad, and you know what that means.
Arclite
If you’re concerned about this, don’t be. The Koch brothers are already looking into it…
geg6
I hope Corey Booker runs against this pig and beats him down so hard that there’s nothing left than a grease stain.
Lee
Since I live in Texas I REALLY don’t want to talk about this :(
geg6
Okay, I have no idea what triggered moderation, but I still hope Corey Booker runs against him and beats the hell out of him. Wonder what all his simpering fans in the media will do then?
geg6
Okay, moderation hell. Must be something about the mayor of Newark’s name.
Arclite
oh, and another thing about Maryland? It has the highest ratio of women to men. They don’t call it “Mary” land for nuthin’ dontcha know.
Just Some Fuckhead
@horse dave: Do you have a link?
Zach
O’Malley’s office was also on top of the subprime crisis and mapping foreclosures super early in the crisis. Some folks say that Maryland’s only doing (relatively) well because of the DC-suburb tax base. This is partially true, but you only have to look at the budget mess in Virginia to see that there’s more to it.
Trinity
I love living in MD except for the fact that my husband bought a house in Frederick County before we met. *sigh* Frederick County is a bass-ackward red spot in an otherwise blue land. The Teabaggers took over in November and the county is going downhill fast. They even elected our local right-wing radio Glen-Beck wannabe as head of the City Council!
freelancer
Three Cheers for Governor Carcetti.
Maude
In NJ, in my zip code, there are over 350 houses for sale. Main Street has a lot of closed businesses.
There are stats that people are moving out of NJ.
Chrisite has lost a lot of money for the state.
horse dave
@Lee: I formerly lived in Texas. My ancestors arrived from Europe into Galveston and Indianola (why?). I moved due to work.
It’s refreshing to live in Maryland where the government serves the people (mostly) as opposed to serving only the rich/polluters/corporations (aka galtian overlords).
I will say the average people in Texas are very nice and outgoing but …
gene108
@Maude: And Christie hasn’t repealed the biggest tax increase, in the last 10 years. Gov. Corzine’s 1% increase on the sales tax.
Not even a peep from Christie about touching the sales tax.
Only if the rich really felt the pain of a sales tax, like people lower down on the economic scale, the tax would be gone in a heart beat.
piratedan
and yet O’Malley is an anathema and Christie is lauded, and it’s all happening right there in the heart of the Village itself. I guess it’s a case of not being able to see the urinals because of the commode stalls or sumthin’.
I was raised in Montogomery County, MD and while I was there, they taught you how to learn, so that you could think for yourself. Hard pressed to find any place like that these days.
guachi
I was forced to move to Maryland by the military. My former duty station was in Georgia. Georgia was terrible. I love Maryland – lots upper-middle income people due to government jobs and government contracting. The state government seems to be handling economic things well and we are about to make gay marriage legal, to boot.
themann1086
@gene108: Yup, you never hear conservative politicos complain about sales taxes or local property taxes. I’m sure the fact that they’re largely regressive taxes has nothing to do with that…
MattR
@Just Some Fuckhead: Those numbers are useless. They are created by simply adding the average SAT score to the average ACT score and then ranking them without taking into account what % of the students in each state take each exam.
@Arclite: And yet somehow my college had nearly a 2 to 1 ratio the other way :)
Poopyman
@Trinity: Cheer up. At least it’s not Carroll County. OTOH, life is good down along the Western Shore.@Just Some Fuckhead: Here ya go.
Kryptik
It feels slightly bitter to have moved from Baltimore the year before O’Malley was elected to Jersey proper, seeing things as they’ve turned out.
And yeah, it’s amazing how much of a giant fucking mancrush they have on Christie, especially since he embodies every single fucking thing that’s wrong about the people the media chooses to deify: All talk, counterintuitive results, and yet continue to fail further and further upward, both the persons and the policies they promote and represent. I mean…fuck all, trickle-down theory has been shown to be the biggest fucking failure of all time, and yet it’s never been more ascendant as it is now.
HyperIon
There’s that line in Henry VI: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
I fear the modern version of it will focus on Village journalists.
Litlebritdifrnt
Kevin K. from Rumproast made me literally LOL with this tweet last week “Joe Scarborough must find it really hard to talk with Chris Christie’s d**k in his mouth all the time”
liberal
@themann1086:
There’s nothing regressive about property taxes, at least the component falling on the land value.
Yukoner
This is exactly what happened in Canada during the 1990s when both the federal and provincial governments began to get a handle on government deficits and debts.
Saskatchewan was the first province to eliminate its deficit. But it was done by the pinko NDP government through a combination of spending cuts and tax hikes.
The next year Alberta balanced its books and the Alberta Tories were lauded far and wide (including in the Wall Street Journal) as the first provincial government in Canada to eliminate its deficit. They did it entirely through spending cuts and that, it seems, is the only way that counts.
Fuck U III: The Duck Fucks Back
OTOH, housing costs in MoCo are pretty intense and UofM is falling in the shitter, but that’s hardly MOM’s fault.
Fuck U III: The Duck Fucks Back
Oh, and all of the local and state governments in the DC Metro area continue to dick Metro when it comes to a dedicated source of revenue.
Arclite
@MattR: Er, I think we’re talking the same thing? there are 92 men for every 100 women in MD, on average.
Bulworth
For about one day after the November election there was an article or two about how O’Malley did so well this year relative to other Democrats in other states. Since then, nothing.
Also, too, raising taxes (MD) = reduced bond rating (NJ). My guess is that the Politico staff probably believes raising taxes is a bigger “black mark” than a reduced bond rating.
catclub
@horse dave: SAT versus ACT:
North Carolina # 50??
I would still be willing to bet that there is a big selection process going on that makes Mississippi NOT be #50
on SAT scores. Only MISS students who are planning on going out of state to real universities take the SAT.
The ACT is much more representative here. (And even it is only those students who are planning on GOING to college.)
Wile E. Quixote
I’m waiting for Christie to drop dead of a heart attack. Jesus he’s a fat bastard and I say this as someone who could be considered a fat bastard himself, but at least I’m trying to shed some lard.
What the fuck is it with the villagers and their mancrushes on fat bastards anyways? They were all hot and bothered by Haley Barbour and now they’re all hot and bothered by Chris Christie. Are they a bunch of chubby chasers? Which fat Republican bastard will they be falling all over themselves for next?
R-Jud
Mike Huckabee (again)? Did you know he also plays the bass? ZOMG!
MattR
@Arclite:
My college had (very) roughly 2000 men and 1000 women in the undergraduate program
horse dave
@catclub: I went back to the link where I got those numbers. I agree with Just Some Fuckhead that they are not a valid measure.
Another site* shows the average ACT scores and averaged SAT scores and there are wide variances even for the same state. Also the are widely varying participation rates with lower participation have higher scores.
* I’m not posting the links because I’ve tried to reply about 7 times but the post get flushed.
Mike in NC
@Wile E. Quixote:
There’s always someone in the Village ready to swoon over the likes of Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, or Fred Thompson as well. The upside to being old, fat, and stupid.
Davis X. Machina
@MattR: Most big state schools have the reverse of that now, or nearly so. Guys know that studying makes you gay.
And no one in the NE takes the ACT, except people who’ve swallowed the myth that they’re “easier than the SAT’s” and are gaming the system — lots of athletes, for example — or who are applying exclusively in the mid-west. I’ve never seen an ACT, and I’m a 30-year high school teacher.
Pangloss
“Coming up next on Fox News, another possible contender for the 2012 GOP nomination is removed from his bedroom by a forklift, and you’ll want to hear what he has to say about Obama’s soshilust agenda!”
Lee
@horse dave:
It is getting pretty bad here in Texas. My wife and I have seriously considered moving (not just out of Texas). We have 2 kids (girls) and they are the biggest reason we have considered moving.
The problem is other than the government/politics we have a pretty good life going and upsetting it would be tough for everyone.
Bob L
I do wonder if the writer of that quote wasn’t laughing self silly telling himself his corporate tool of an editor is going to love that dumb line.
On noz, budgets was balanced.
khead
Preach it.
HyperIon
@R-Jud wrote:
Remember when he used to tell folks about all that weight he lost? I guess he found it eventually.
jefft452
“The leaders of the union who represent these teachers, however, have used their political muscle to set up two classes of citizens in New Jersey: those who enjoy rich public benefits and those who pay for them”
yeah….
um, which of those 2 classes best describes Chrisie himself?
Bill Murray
@Davis X. Machina: But not in engineering.
I don’t think I’ve seen an SAT since I too the test 32 years ago. But then, I’m a mid-western based engineering professor.
Also, you can use the 4th and 8th grade NEAP tests to better examine the issue that the SAT/ACT score post was trying to get at. And I think you get relatively similar rankings
bob h
The Governor of NJ is a truculent slob. In a year or so, people will have tired of looking at him and listening to him.
Jado
As a resident of NJ, all i can say about Christie is, he’s doing what we elected him to do
Crush the middle class and poor
Give a giant tax cut to the millionaires to “prevent them from moving out of state”
Gut regulations so the corporations can make even more profit that they will hoard instead of using for hiring
Ruin the environment, the education system, and rest of the government oversight functions to the benefit of the ruling class.
He’s a Republican – why are we surprised?
WHO RUN’S JERSEY TOWN??
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089530/quotes?qt0357261