Editor's Rest Area

Nice timing on this photo!

2008-02-12T17:02:00.000-08:00

Toll hikes

2008-02-08T00:43:00.000-08:00

Corzine's answer to anyone objecting to his toll-explosion scheme seems to be that the state is in trouble, and it's time for hard choices.

The problem is, Corzine is taking the easy way out.

Corzine is foisting the burden of correcting the state's debt burden onto a fraction of the people in the state -- the drivers who regularly use the toll roads. This way, he can still hope to keep the support of the portion of New Jerseyans who DON'T drive the toll roads, and who DON'T want a tax increase.

He tries to sound like "Ask not what your state can do for you, but what you can do for your state." He's the wise, fiscally sound governor whose going to fix the problem. And that's partially true, in that he's attempting more than Kean, Florio, Whitman and McGreevey did before him. But he's gambling only half the political capital he would be if he suggested raising the income tax.

Think about that huge voting block of senior citizens. They don't commute, so they won't object. Same goes for anyone who uses non-toll roads. Or doesn't commute at all.

Meanwhile, those of us who do commute get stuck carrying the bag for the whole state.

Haiku

2008-02-08T00:24:00.001-08:00

I promised a haiku. Here goes. (As seen on a T-shirt at Shea Stadium.)

Haiku is pretty.

But sometimes it's hard to do.

Refrigerator.

Senor Steve

2008-02-07T20:39:00.000-08:00

Isn't if funny that Steve Lonegan (the former Bogota mayor) started getting respect AFTER he was voted out of office and got arrested?

Stadium and sexism

2008-02-07T20:00:00.000-08:00

In Fran Wood's column in The Star-Ledger on Sunday, Feb. 3, she compares the plans for the Rutgers Stadium expansion to "boys and their toys."

No matter what you think about the expansion plans for Rutgers Stadium, why would she bring gender into the argument?

If we're looking at bad sports deals for New Jersey, I'll remind you that it was Christie Whitman (a girl, I guess she'd call her) who restructured the Devils' lease to keep them from moving. She stuck us with a deal in which the state actually lost money every time the Devils had a home game.