New Jersey's Misery, Part One...

...of what will become more than an occasional series. Parkway Rest Stop channels Enlighten New Jersey nicely:

The state of the State is horrible.
Free-spending, tax raising democrats, their loyal tax-taking democrat-voting minions, and government corruption at all levels that has made our state a national joke have resulted in what I fear to be an economic doomsday for this state.

Enlighten New Jersey points out:
Since Democrats took control of Trenton in 2002, state spending and taxes have increased by 35 percent and debt has ballooned by a whopping 214 percent. New Jersey's population has grown by less two percent, while the number of state government workers has increased by more than 20 percent. The increase in all public-sector jobs in New Jersey has been increasing at the rate of 9 percent .

I have lost count of how many young, educated people I know who have left Jersey because they simply cannot afford to live here.
As I have said before, the only hope I see is to vote every single state, county and local incumbent politician out of office...

The corruption "at all levels" is the worst problem; some of the run-ins I have had with some of the township police (and their court systems) are reminiscent of the nastiest tales told out of third-world banana republics. Currently, incumbent Senator Robert Menendez, appointed by Governer Jon Corzine to his seat, is the latest New Jersey pol to find himself in hot ethical water - via Fausta:

Federal investigators have subpoenaed records of a rental deal between U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez and a non-profit agency in Union City, launching a criminal investigation that is sure to rock New Jersey's hotly contested Senate race...
...The action comes two weeks after The Star-Ledger reported that Menendez collected over $300,000 from the organization over a nine-year period while he represented Hudson County in the U.S. House of Representatives. During that period, he also helped the agency win millions of dollars in federal funding.

How bad is it? Menendez, running as an anti-war Democrat in an anti-war blue state with a $7.5 million dollar war chest, is running behind challenger Tom Kean Jr. But he's just another Dem in Denial:

"It's a competitive race only because of my opponent's surname," Menendez said last week over coffee and eggs at one of his state's trademark diners.

Uh, OK Bob, if that makes you feel better...meanwhile, the party must feel pretty desperate to play the race card in early September:

Others think Menendez's surname -- and the state's growing ethnic mix -- may be factors, too. "I'll be blunt. It's not a nice thing to say about New Jersey, but being a Latino may be costing him in some parts of the state," says David Rebovich, a political scientist at Rider University. That view is shared in this diverse community, part of a congressional district Menendez represented for 13 years before joining the Senate in January.

You want to vote Kean because you thing Menendez is just another corrupt Jersey Dem? NO, it is because you are a filthy racist, that's why! So cleanse your guilt, and get your ass in the voting booth and pull the lever with the "D" next to it, or else we'll tell everybody what darkness lies within your soul!

I don't believe this type of psychological bullying is gonna fly in Jersey this year....

Enlighten has more Menendez lies here...

And you thought I was kidding when I used the phrase "third world" to describe this state? The Washington Post tells how New Jersey Democrats are trying to use thugs to silence Kean's message:

When Kean tried to make an anti-Menendez speech on June 1, inmates from the Democratic-controlled county jail suddenly fired up noisy lawn mowers and weed-whackers to cut grass that had been trimmed a few days earlier...

Pathetic.