Item 1 - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie hints at defunding NJ rail project. In fairness to Gov. Christie, right now he's suspended all road and rail projects in the planning stages in order to review costs (and presumably benefits). Under any scenario, the Hudson rail tunnel project offers benefits that will far and away return much more than any potential cost overruns. Right now, NJ Transit trains are running under what amounts to a bottleneck to get tens of thousands of commuters into New York City. Trains are often delayed, and too often cancelled outright, because of a lack of easy access to New York City. An additional commuter rail tunnel from New Jersey to New York would alleviate enormous overcrowding on not only the current rail scheme but the road tunnels and bridges heading into the city.
Delays of up to an hour or more are almost daily at the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, and the George Washington Bridge. Many of those commuters would gladly take the train in if the trains themselves ran more reliably on time. Think about it: rail service in Jersey is so bad that people are willing to sacrifice two hours out of their days to travel less than ten miles, in and out!
Chris Christie believes that enslaving his populace to the Arab oil sheiks, hiking their blood pressure causing strokes and heart attacks and is better than allowing them easy access to New York City. This might make sense if Chris Christie also had an economic development plan for the state that would create jobs that pay as well in places that offer as many amenities...amenities these commuters are exempt from paying taxes for...as the city.
But he does not. His ideas are rusty Republican rules: lower taxes on the rich and hope for the best. Another Republican, praying the problem goes away.
Chris Christie: fat moron number 1.
Item 2 - In his column in the LA Times today, Jonah "Fudgie the Whale" Goldberg is alarmed, ALARMED, that President Obama and the people currently engaged in actually battling terrorism might have a secret assassination list.
Yet, according to the torture prohibitionists, there must be a complete ban on anything that even looks like torture, regardless of context, even though we’d never dream of a blanket ban on killing.
One reason for this disconnect is that we’ve thought a lot about killing and barely at all about torture. Almost no one opposes killing in all circumstances; wars sometimes need to be fought — the hopelessly suffering may require relief; we reserve the right to self-defense. Indeed, the law recognizes a host of nuances when it comes to homicide, and the place where everybody draws an unambiguous line on killing is at something we call “murder.”
In other words, Fudgie was FOR assassination before he was AGAINST it!
The juice quote from Fudgie's column today?
[T]he very idea of a presidential secret assassination list is creepy in a country committed to democracy and the rule of law.
Why funny? Well, because I don't recall Jonah throwing a temper tantrum when the Bush administration was targeting US citizens. But now that the scary black Muslim is President, well, Katie bar the door! All hell is going to break loose and the Constitution be damned!
Those of us who oppose torture AND assassination did so from the beginning and didn't suddenly develop a case of situational ethics dependent upon the party in power.
Jonah Goldberg: fat moron number 2
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