The City of Newark, a long-time Jersey political toilet, never ceases to amaze.

In an effort to improve its justifiably lousy unfortunate, negative image, the City Council of Newark recently approved a $100,000 no bid deal with a “newspaper,” entitled The Newark Weekly News to print “only good news” about the City Council and the City itself. Apparently, City officials will provide information to the “newspaper,” which will then use the information to create a “news” story.

I suppose that using tax dollars to fund a local or state public relations campaign (e.g. to promote tourism) is not unusual, but using tax dollars to pay for what a Rutgers Journalism Professor called “fake news” is quite another.

Perhaps most telling about the state of affairs in Newark is that the City Council made a deal with a “newspaper” with an editor who is apparently is confused by homophones. The headline story of two days ago dealt with the death of long-time Councilman Donald Tucker. The headline read:

NEWARK’S LOSS LEAVES GAPING POLITICAL WHOLE

I presume that a GAPING POLITICAL WHOLE is something different than a GAPING POLITICAL HALF.

Note: In the event that the “newspaper” has since corrected its headline, you can see a screenshot of the original, courtesy of John Shabel at The Jersey Side.

Just shy of a week ago, I found myself asking, “Would Codey be Doing Better?”

In that post, I questioned whether voting democrats regret their party’s leaders and bosses having nominated Jon Corzine as opposed to Dick Codey (the Acting Governor) for governor. I wondered whether Mr. Codey’s image of a real person would attract more independents and even Republicans than would Jon Corzine.

My then-rhetorical questions were the product of a morning walk, a time when there is no accounting for what may pop into my cruller. It can be anything from a raging river of thoughts to a sweat-soaked silence, punctuated only by the inner voice of my muse who taunts me from time to time about working conditions.

It turns out that, according to the New York Times, I was exactly right. The New York Times stated:

Numerous surveys indicate that Mr. Codey, a Democrat, is the most popular politician in the state. A New York Times Poll, conducted from Oct. 14 to Oct. 19, found that 61 percent of likely voters said they approved of Mr. Codey’s performance, and only 12 percent said that their opinion was “not favorable.” Among Republicans, 48 percent approved of the job he is doing.
The Times poll showed Mr. Corzine leading Mr. Forrester by 9 points, with some signs of the gap closing on the horizon. The poll had Mr. Codey leading Mr. Forrester by 19 points in a fantasy matchup that many voters said they wish were not a fantasy.

I suggested that New Jersey voters might consider Dick Codey to be a “real person.” The Times put it this way:

[Codey is] a man widely viewed as an antipolitician of sorts, a bona fide Jersey guy, complete with rumpled suits, comb-over and a spaghetti-and-meatballs belly.

Quoting a politico from Hudson County (where hardball politics is an art form), the Times noted:

”Codey has more knowledge, more vision and more charisma than either candidate,” said a former public official in Hudson County, who said he was worried about repercussions from Mr. Corzine if his name was used. “Would he have been a better governor than Corzine? Yes. Would he have made a stronger candidate? Yes.”

So, what does all this mean?

1. Corzine’s money talks when it comes to who gets the nod.

2. A few months ago, Codey was seen as a caretaker governor with no political oomph, while Corzine seemed like a sure shot. In politics, a few months can be a lifetime.

3. If, on election eve, it looks like it might be a toss-up, maybe the democrats will have Corzine bail and parachute in Codey. After all, they’ve done it before. Indeed they did it to Doug Forrester. UPDATE: Uh-oh!
4. You can’t make this shit up.

Boudicca of Boudicca’s Voice has posted a map that shows the location of many Florida bloggers as they brace for the arrival of hurricane Wilma. Ken, my friend and bodyguard has the better part of his family at or near what is expected to be the bullseye. I have my fingers crossed for all the folks in Florida this evening, as the storm makes its way to the state.

h/t The Laughing Wolf

The Nicest Guy in the Blogoshpere has upgraded this place to Movable Type v. 3.2. I have to spend a bit of time trying to figure out some of the new stuff, such as managing comment spam. So, if you see any glitches around here, that will most likely be the reason. And, if you find yourself unable to comment, please drop me an e-mail, and I’ll fix it, once I’m sure I know how to do that.

A huge thank you to my friend Craig.

I just hope I don’t smoke the entire farookin’ blog.

Two years ago I posted a hypothetical conversation in which a blogger tries to explain blogging to a non-blogger and, essentially, gets nowhere. Since that time, we have had the Dan Rather debacle, which acquainted news watchers with the terms blog and blogging.

While it is easy to find estimates of the number of blogs in the world, which run into the millions, we must occasionally remind ourselves that bloggers make up a miniscule portion of the population and that probably more that 99.9999% of the people in the world are not bloggers or even blog readers.

Nevertheless, the phenomenon continues to grow and, and has even developed its own jargon, which can fairly be called “Blogspeak.” Imagine, if you will, that you are a non-blogger, non-blog reading person listening in to the following live conversation between two bloggers (a blargument?), which could easily take place at a Blogmeet.

Blogger 1: “Hey, what the hell is going on with your blog?”

Blogger 2: “What do you mean?”

Blogger 1: “You de-linked me!”

Blogger 2: “Yeah, I did, and you deserved it.”

Blogger 1: “What are you talking about?”

Blogger 2: “Well, for openers, you leave trackbacks on my posts and you don’t link to the post where you left the trackback. And, how about the time you flamed me and didn’t link to me? Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

Blogger 1: “All I said in that post you’re talking about was that your posts have become little more than link-dumps, and, despite that, you remain a Large Mammal, while us Crawly Amphibians are trying to build traffic by posting content.”

Blogger 2: “Traffic? I’m surprised you even raise the subject, because you have Site Meter set to keep your stats secret. And, speaking of traffic, you seem to try to attract traffic to your blog by bloviating in off-topic comments on my blog and sucking up my bandwidth.”

Blogger 1: “Are you saying that I’m a troll?”

Blogger 2: “Damned straight I am. And furthermore, speaking of bandwidth, how about all those times you hot-linked my images?”

Blogger 1: “Well, if I’m that bad, why did you link to me in the first place?”

Blogger 2: “I saw that you blogrolled me, and I gave you a reciprolink. However, I’ve learned my lesson. You’re nothing but a link whore and a disgrace to the Sphere.”

Blogger 1: “Well, I’m going to return the favor and de-link you.”

Blogger 2: “Like I give a damn. You got no traffic to send. In fact, I’m going to Blacklist your shitty little BlogSnot site.”

Blogger 1: “Go ahead, because I’m going to ban you too.”

Blogger 2: “Friggin’ link whore! Troll!”

Blogger 1: “Goddamn blogsnob!”

Onlooker: ”Are these guys assholes, or what?”

Want one?

Check out The Presurfer for instructions.

Once in a while, you run across a quote that sings in unison with Life 101 at that very moment. I came across this one at Shamrocketship in a post wherein Lynne quotes an unnamed author:

“Writing is as easy as sitting at a typewriter and opening a vein.”

Farookin’ true, that.

Your Career Type: Artistic

You are expressive, original, and independent. Your talents lie in your artistic abilities: creative writing, drama, crafts, music, or art. You would make an excellent: Actor – Art Teacher – Book Editor Clothes Designer – Comedian – Composer Dancer – DJ – Graphic Designer Illustrator – Musician – Sculptor The worst career options for your are conventional careers, like bank teller or secretary.

Via Tammi

As I was walking this morning, I considered the New Jersey Governor’s race, marked now by polls, which, I assume, are not what many democrats expected. I got to wondering how many Jersey democrats are quietly wishing that their party leaders would have nominated Acting Governor Dick Codey for governor rather than Jon Corzine. Might they privately feel that their party leaders were brought along by Corzine money and the then-conventional wisdom that Corzine would steamroll Doug Forrester?

Might they think, as do I, that Dick Codey would have come off as a real person, who, if he were to promise to deal with Jersey corruption, might actually be believed by virtually all democrats, many independents and even some republicans who might not be completely sold on Doug Forrester?

Instead, their party leaders delivered unto them an empty suit, gazillionaire bachelor, who appears to be running because he is bored with all his old toys and whose prior relationships with Torricelli, McGreevey and a host of democrat bosses and at least one convicted felon make his corruption fighting promises downright laughable.

Just thinking out loud here.

Our Mostly Cajun friend was amused at my freaking out over someone spotting a three-foot alligator wandering around in New Jersey. He tells us Northern Ladies and Gentlemen how such a thing would be handled in Cajun country.

I wonder if he has a recipe for clown sauce piquant.