"WE GOT S***": Obama Refugee camps in New Jersey lack heat, power, basic sanitation facilities

As USA Today observes, "Camp Freedom" more closely "resembles a prison camp".

As he lights up a Marlboro and takes a slow drag before exhaling, Brian Sotelo is a man who finally has reached his breaking point.

Anger drips from every word as he peers at the tops of white tents rising over the trees in the distance. The depth of despair in his eyes is difficult to fathom.

...He stood and talked in the cool morning air a short distance up the road after security at the front gate threatened to have his car removed outside the entrance to what Sotelo's identification tag calls "Camp Freedom," even though it more closely resembles a prison camp.

The Seaside Heights, N.J., resident was at a Toms River, N.J., arena with his wife and three kids a half hour before the shelter opened as superstorm Sandy approached last week. On Wednesday, Sotelo was part of a contingent shifted to this makeshift tent city in a parking lot across the road from a racetrack about 30 miles north...

"Sitting there last night you could see your breath," Sotelo said. Outside temperatures hovered below freezing, in the upper 20s and low 30s. "At (the arena) the Red Cross made an announcement that they were sending us to permanent structures up here that had just been redone, that had washing machines and hot showers and steady electric, and they sent us to tent city. We got (expletive).

...No media is allowed inside the fenced complex, which houses operations for Jersey Central Power & Light's army of workers from out of the area...

..Sotelo scrolls through the photos he took inside the facility as his wife, Renee, huddles for warmth inside a late-model Toyota Corolla stuffed with possessions, having to drive out through the snow and slush to tell their story. Temperatures Thursday finally made it into the upper 40s. Images on the small screen include lines of outdoor portable toilets, of snow and ice breaching the bottom of the tent and an elderly woman sitting up, huddled in blankets.

All the while, a black car with tinted windows crests the hill and cruises by, as if to check on the proceedings.

Somehow, "Camp Freedom" seems an apt name for this sort of facility. And I can't help but think of this entrance to another camp.

This sign reads "Arbeit Macht Frei" or "Work makes one free".


Hat tip: WyBlog and BadBlue News.

Egotistical, bombastic embarrassment claims Newt Gingrich is... an embarrassment

For a guy who has never done anything at the national level; who has a personal cameraman following him around to capture those special "YouTube moments" where he confronts public sector union members; and who has taken troubling positions on gun control, illegal immigration, judges, global warming, and Obamacare (to name but a few), it takes real hubris to pillory Newt Gingrich.

I speak, of course, of Chris "Krispy Kreme" Christie, one of the darlings of the RINO establishment, who is doing his level best to sandbag conservatives.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday dubbed Mitt Romney’s showing in South Carolina “clearly disappointing,” but quickly turned his focus to Newt Gingrich, saying he has been “an embarrassment to the party.”

Christie, a key Romney surrogate in his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, blasted Gingrich on NBC's "Meet the Press" for his ethics violation fine and losing the speakership in the House, saying that “sometimes past is prologue... Newt Gingrich has embarrassed the party over time. Whether he'll do it again in the future I don't know, but Gov. Romney never has,” Christie said on NBC's “Meet the Press.”

"I mean he was run out of the speakership by his own party, he was fined $300,000 for ethics violations. This is a guy that has had a very difficult political career at times, and has been an embarrassment to the party," Christie added.

...While Christie has pointed to Romney’s difficulties in connecting with people before, he said Sunday it’s due to Romney being a “reserved guy.” He then turned to what he deemed Gingrich’s liabilities... “Strategic adviser? That is the oldest Washington dodge in the book. That's because he didn't want to register as a lobbyist,” Christie said.

...Christie also addressed the vice presidency question once again, saying, “If I'm approached I will listen, but my inclination, I want to make it very clear, is that I want to stay governor of New Jersey."

News flash, Krispy: you ain't gonna be the VP. And, by the way, Newt Gingrich has accomplished 20 times more for the conservative movement and the Republican Party than you have.

The results of Gingrich's ethics probe are publicly available; they involve a course that Gingrich taught at Kennesaw State College while serving in Congress. The trouble revolved around the fact that the course was backed by a tax-exempt group. Gingrich taught Constitutional, conservative values, which the IRS found were “consistent with its stated exempt purposes.”

The whole thing was a political setup. And doesn't Newt's "ethics violations" seem quaint given the likes of Maxine Waters, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Diane Feinstein, and the rest of the modern miscreants of Congress who have mysteriously made millions in office?

So, Krispy, I'd advise you to keep your pie-hole shut. You're the embarrassment -- and we're not going to let you try to tear down conservatives in pursuit of a VP slot that you'll never get.

Can you guess what's different about Andrew Cuomo? [R.B.]

R.B. writes:

Andrew Cuomo took on the public employee unions -- and forced concessions from them -- in order to balance the New York State budget with spending cuts and without tax increases. Chris Christie (New Jersey), Scott Walker (Wisconsin), and John Kasich (Ohio) did pretty much the same thing in their states

But only Cuomo emerged from his battles with the unions lauded by media for his actions. Can you guess what made Cuomo different from the others?

Party Affiliation Determined Coverage of State-Union Battles

Jonathan S. Tobin 07.19.2011 - 12:59 PM

During the last several months, the governors of three states have gone toe-to-toe with powerful state unions in order to undo the harm done by their predecessors’ capitulations to state workers on wages and benefits. In Wisconsin and New Jersey, Republicans Scott Walker and Chris Christie were subjected to unprecedented abuse by the unions and their supporters. Yet in New York, Andrew Cuomo not only overcame union resistance, he managed to do so without much negative press, let alone the deluge of insults and demonization his colleagues suffered...

...Lacking the same political leverage their colleagues in Wisconsin and New Jersey possessed, the New York unions were forced to meekly bow to Cuomo’s dictates and accept drastic changes in compensation and benefits. Instead of being branded as a polarizing figure as was the case with Walker and Christie, Cuomo gets to play the state’s fiscal hero.

...as much as he deserves the praise for taking on a tough situation, the main lesson of this story is to show just how biased is the coverage of the not dissimilar confrontations elsewhere. As much as the collective bargaining issue helped generate sympathy for Wisconsin unions which refused to accept responsibility for the state’s parlous financial health, Walker’s goals were very similar to those of Cuomo. It should also be noted that like Cuomo, Christie didn’t touch the collective bargaining issue. Yet, he was branded a “Nazi” by rabble-rousing union thugs just like Walker, a slur never aimed once at the governor of New York.

The moral of the story is that unions and their cheering section in the liberal mainstream media can call a fiscally responsible Republican any name in the book and make it stick. But Democrats with the same intent get to play by different rules of engagement that can allow them to get tough with unions without being smeared...

This theme aligns perfectly with the spectacular new book Left Turn, which quantitatively measures the liberal lens through which Americans are forced to view events.

Chris Christie continues to duck interviews on talk radio while appearing on the likes of Face the Nation, which gets lower ratings than airport radar

Despite his assertion that he won't seek the Republican presidential nomination, Chris Christie's public relations machine is working overtime. Appearing on Face the Nation last Sunday, in front of its traditional twelve viewers, Christie was quick to launch a thinly veiled attack on Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and Rush Limbaugh. He defended Michelle Obama's bloviating on better nutrition, which she expounds upon while eating short ribs and nachos.

"I think it's a really good goal to encourage kids to eat better," he said. "I've struggled with my weight for 30 years and it's a struggle. If a kid can avoid that in his adult years or her adult years, more power to them."

Christie added that "I don't want the government deciding what you can eat and what you can't eat," but said, "I think Mrs. Obama being out there encouraging people in a positive way to eat well and to exercise and to be healthy - I don't have a problem with that."

...Palin and Bachmann have also accused the First Lady of curtailing individual freedoms by trying to dictate lifestyle choices by government fiat.

No, Governor Christie: that's not all the First Lady is up to. She's putting the arm on restaurateurs using the power of the White House to affect policy change through political intimidation.

A team of advisers to the First Lady has been holding private talks over the past year with the National Restaurant Association, a trade group, in a bid to get restaurants to adopt her goals of smaller portions and children's meals that include offerings healthier than French fries and soda, according to White House and industry officials.

The discussions are preliminary, and participants say they are nowhere near an agreement like the one Obama announced recently with Wal-Mart to lower prices on fruits and vegetables and to reduce the amount of fat, sugar and salt in its foods.

Why is FLOTUS interfering with an industry that is already in difficult straits, treading water through an economic tsunami?

Why? Because the hard-left Democrat Party can't stop meddling with private industry, be it the auto industry, oil companies, insurance companies, banks, credit card companies, and every other industry under the sun.

That shouldn't be too hard for Governor Christie to understand, right?

Problem is, Christie has held a plethora of troubling positions and has avoided discussing any of them on conservative talk radio. Mark Levin has reportedly extended numerous offers to Christie to appear, all for naught.

And I think I know why.

A few months ago, Christie spoke at the Republican Governors Conference [RGC] and reportedly brought down the house. He told the audience that sometimes leaders simply have to ignore their advisers and face the tough issues head on. But the New Jersey Star Ledger's Paul Mulshine has followed the career of Chris Christie for several years. And he doesn't quite recognize the current version.

[The RGC] Chris Christie sounds like a heck of guy — not at all like the Chris Christie I have been following closely for almost two years... [For example, after] a number of legislators held a press conference in the Statehouse to announce they were... protesting the new screening policies of the [TSA, Christie] declined an offer to back the resolution because, his spokesman said, it was a federal issue...

...Just for fun, I put up a post on my blog asking readers to predict how long it would take before Christie came out against the TSA. If you bet on last Monday, you would have won. In response to a question from a kid at one of those town-hall meetings he holds, Christie announced the screenings were "too invasive."

That’s just one instance in a pattern obvious to those of us who’ve been covering Christie since he entered state politics. Name an issue — from judicial activism to the Highlands Act — and you will see Christie tiptoeing up to it and finally committing when the consensus is clear.

On issues such as guns and abortion, Christie’s views have moved rightward over the years, in remarkable harmony with the rightward drift of the GOP primary electorate... His position in favor of New Jersey’s participation in the cap-and-trade program, known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, for example, would be a non-starter with Republican primary voters. Sure enough, he recently made an incremental move away from that when he told a participant in another town hall that he is becoming skeptical about man-made global warming.

Some took that as a sign that he’s serious about running for president. If so, he’ll have to start inching away from other positions associated with RINOs, or "Republicans In Name Only," such as his mushy stands on gun rights and immigration amnesty.

Christie's oft-changing positions are the antithesis of the Tea Party's immutable principles.

• Global warming.

• Gun control.

• Amnesty for illegal aliens.

• His bizarre endorsement of the execrable Mike Castle and the pathetic Meg Whitman.

• His odd invitation to the White House for a State Dinner -- the only one extended to a Republican

• And his refusal to join 28 other states in the fight against Obamacare, even though it would cost New Jersey exactly $0.00.

And those are but a few of Christie's anomalous activities.

Some great YouTube sound-bites have immortalized Christie's fight against the public sector unions. And there is much to appreciate in his stand.

But it is clear that the Governor also has much to explain. After all, constitutional conservatives rightfully fear the nomination of another "Maverick", the positions of whom are rooted only in political expediency.

Christie is ducking talk radio, presumably because he'd have to answer for his shape-shifting policy positions.

Nominating another mushy centrist -- and I count the governor of New Jersey as one, based upon his track record -- will simply guarantee Barack Obama a victory in the general. And that we cannot accept if we are to save this Republic.


Update: Ace is a tad non-nonplussed by the latest kerfuffle.

Mark Levin puzzled by Ann Coulter's bizarre endorsement of Chris Christie, who supports gun control, amnesty, Obamacare and climate legislation

Cub Reporter Biff Spackle was kind enough to transcribe the following soliloquy by radio host Mark Levin last Monday night.

I want to politely address my dear friend -- and she is my dear friend -- Ann Coulter. We've had some email exchanges.

What is your great love of Chris Christie based on? The man supports gun control. The man appoints a radical Islamist to a judgeship. The man is for amnesty [for illegal aliens]. The man is, to some extent, part of the "green" movement. He campaigned for Michael Castle.

And it's interesting. [Mitt] Romney is being attacked, correctly by the way, for RomneyCare. Yet here we have Obamacare, we have 28 states challenging it: 26 states in one suit; Virginia in another suit; Oklahoma in another suit -- and New Jersey's sitting on the sidelines.

Why? I cannot believe it's the cost. Because I have offered, as have others, to do it for free. Just sign your name on a brief. That's free. And yet Christie sits on the sidelines.

So he either supports [Obamacare] or I don't know what. Maybe while Romney's explaining RomneyCare, Christie can explain his [tacit support of] Obamacare.

But the idea that if we don't back Christie, who's already said he's not qualified enough to be president, that Romney is the winner and that we were warned about McCain, is a little rewrite of history. Nobody was more against McCain than I. Then at the very end I said we had to vote for him to stop Obama. But I fought him every step of the way. Ask McCain's people. They hate me. Feeling's mutual!

Anyway, it's a little bizarre to me. The way I see Chris Christie is he's Christine Todd Whitman as a male. I do like his fiscal positions. I do like the way he deals with the public sector teachers' unions. That's all to the good.

But when you're the president of the United States, you've got a whole lot of issues that affect a whole lot of people.

And it's not good enough to be good on one out of 20. So this [obsession with Christie] I don't get.

I agree completely. Christie has a number of troubling positions -- some even outright bizarre -- that seriously limit his acceptability as a GOP nominee. At least until he explains himself thoroughly on these issues.

Coulter isn't usually off-key on these sorts of things: but she couldn't be more wrong with her premature statements regarding Christie. Nominating another mushy centrist -- and I count the governor of New Jersey as one, based upon his track record -- will guarantee Barack Obama a victory in the general. And that we cannot accept if this Republic is to survive.


Image adapted from: Politico.