So now Caribou Barbie wants to involve herself in New Jersey politics

Oh Johnny's been waiting for Caribou Barbie to do something in New Jersey for a while now.

Yes Sarah Palin, the former quitter of a governor in Alaska, endorsed conservative party member Steve Lonegan for Senate over Democrat Cory Booker. We're not really interested in what she had to say about Lonegan, in fact we're really not that interested in listening to her bleating at all. She's a disgraceful individual who actually thinks not knowing things is more cool than getting an education and having facts at the ready. She makes fun of educated people, dismissing the eggheads or bookworms. She denies science fact. She talks about others families while really not holding her own white trash crew to these same high standards.

Go ahead and get behind Lonegan Sarah. Quick question, did you actually come to New Jersey for this big announcement or did you hide behind Twitter or your Facebook page again? We think if you're really behind Lonegan, you should come to New Jersey and tell us. Maybe you could give us another history refresher while you're here. The last one you gave was sheer gold:

"...she described Paul Revere's midnight ride as a warning to "the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms, by ringing those bells and by making sure that as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free … and we were going to be armed.""

So Steve Lonegan, you really want her endorsement? Tell us about it.

Sounds like Governor Christie's teevee gets Comedy Central just fine

Sources now say "The Governor" may name an interim senator to Frank Lautenberg's seat. Jon Stewart is even moar powerful than Johnny had imagined. If you haven't seen last night's Daily Show where Stewart uses Christie's own words on what kind of person would hold an expensive election one month before the general election was fabulous. Note the questions as far back as 2009 were exactly in reference to what he'd do if Frank Lautenberg passed away while in office:

A bit of follow-up on the whole Devils vs Newark story below

Yesterday Cory Booker came out, dropped the gloves, and proceeded to hammer Devils' owner Jeff Vanderbeek over the financial issues going on between the city of Newark and the Devils. We give you Mayor Booker:

“What Jeff Vanderbeek has proven after five years of trying of trying to work with him [is] that he is a highfalutin, high-class huckster and hustler,” Booker said. “He came into the city with a mouthful of promises, but a pocket full of lies.”

“I am outraged,” Booker added, and said he is not sure of what legal avenues the city has. He also accused Vanderbeek of reneging on a promise to build a community recreation center.

There you go. We'd say the city of Newark and their homestanding Devils are officially at war.

If at some point in the next five years there are rumbling about the Devils packing up and leaving...

...remember when you read this story. This is how these deals with city governments go all cattywumpus and feelings get hurt and cities can't pony up so owners look for greener pastures.

Yesterday the City of Newark took one on the chin over an arbitration case that had been festering for over a decade. Now it seems (and read the article it's far too involved to bring in all the pertinent points without just reprinting it) the City of Newark will owe the Devils and owner Jeff Vanderbeek $2.7 million a year in parking monies all while the Devils pay $3 million a year in lease costs at the Prudential Center. Newark sees less money, they're already horribly strapped, Mayor Cory Booker tries to reopen negotiations and gets rebuffed. Over the next few years the city's cost will increase to actually more than they take in from the Devils.

That's when rumors about moving to Portland Oregon or Seattle Washington begin. And before you say "no way everyone has too much invested in Devils hockey" ask yourself where the Colorado Rockies, the ORIGINAL Colorado Rockies, are today.

The failure of Mayor Healy's starry-eyed Snooki-mania

Mayor Healy, Jersey City here. Well of course not all of Jersey City, but we're guessing a pretty solid majority of Jersey City.

What were you thinking? When you decided to allow this Snooki and J-WOWW spin-off in Jersey City what information did you have that Dawn Zimmer in Hoboken and Cory Booker in Newark didn't have? Why would they turn this mess down (and Cory Booker out and out said it was over public safety and police distribution as to why the show was not welcome to film in Newark) and you allow it?

Saturday at LEAST 5 uniformed police stood around Mercer and Grove acting like total jerks to residents while the production crew shut down the intersection to film Snooki and J-WOWW walking from their pink-tinged Escalade to their new front door. All those police were needed somehow Mayor? Johnny was there, he was one of your taxpaying residents who was treated poorly by the JCPD. Johnny and five friends were waiting to get into Marco and Pepe's for brunch. The tables were full as was the lobby. We were waiting outside. A JCPD officer strolled over from doing nothing and told us we had to move along. Johnny and his party told the officer "NO, we're good waiting right here." He was more adamant "Move along, KEEP moving." Again we told him NO. "We have business with THIS restaurant we're standing in front of, we're causing no trouble." He walked away only to come back AGAIN after a couple minutes to again tell us we couldn't stand there.

Mayor Healy, is this what you wanted? People being harassed outside a Jersey City restaurant by your police? Do you want people to leave the downtown area and maybe go eat in Hoboken until we can not be bothered in OUR city in which WE pay taxes?

Once more, we told the officer we were, in no uncertain terms, NOT MOVING. We don't NEED to move. Finally officer friendly walked away to hassle people even FURTHER from where they were filming. Amazing.

Whom does the JCPD work for, MTV or Jersey City residents? Wait, don't answer that...

Yesterday the Jersey Journal reported that THREE JCPD officers stood outside the new Snooki residence on Mercer while NOTHING happened. THREE. No doubt the JCPD has no trouble with this arrangement. Maybe some free overtime being handed out on that duty.

Mayor (and Tom Comey) why does it take THREE police officers to watch Snooki's doorbell? That's just giving away free city resources. Why aren't two of these officers patrolling The Heights or Greenville (NOT free overtime)? On construction projects around town there is only one officer standing by yet Snooki has three. Mayor Healy, WHY is that?

We don't care if the show's producers are helping out with costs, they should be so don't say "The cost of three officers is taken care of." NOT The point. Why aren't the taxpayers in Greenville being given more police protection when police are clearly available? That IS the point.

Recently Mayor Healy sounded put off when asked if the Downtown was getting all the attention while other areas of the city suffer. Here is case and point. Case and point Mayor, your critics were right again.

And you made it so easy for them.

Newark turned into a shooting gallery yesterday

No, more than usual. Mayor Cory Booker (whom we believe is the best choice for the job there, he just lacks police and inherited a culture of crime) has a real mess on his hands this morning. THIRTEEN people were shot in Newark yesterday, one fatally. Sadly we have to report a 15 year old boy was killed. The 15 year old was hanging out with friends in the 100 block of Scheerer Avenue when a car pulled up and opened fire. Seven other people were shot in the driveway ranging in age from 12 to 32 years of age.

Elsewhere in Newark, earlier yesterday 3 men and a woman were shot downtown in broad daylight a couple blocks from the Prudential Center. Yet another woman was shot in the rear end near the corners of Gareis and Blum.

Now we all know the stereotype and jokes about crime in Newark. We'd like to point out while crime is bad there nothing will change until the residents in these neighborhoods MAKE THE CHANGE by cooperating with the Newark police force. They can still arrest people and Essex County can charge them if the citizens there are willing to see it through.

Sounds like Cory Booker has his eyes on something bigger than Newark

A federal political action committee known as CoryPAC has been formed in Newark, named after Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Those in the know say the funds raised now through the 2012 election will be used to help Democratic candidates for office. After 2012 however the stakes get raised. Senator Frank Lautenberg will be over 90 by the time his next term expires in 2014. Guess who's mayoral incumbency ends around then? Cory Booker.

The Jersey City Desk genuinely likes Mr. Booker. He's a hard worker who really lacks only the finds for a Newark turnaround. He's open, he's honest and he's very accessible. You can tell Booker really means what he says and cares quite a bit about his city. Are things in Newark great? No, far from it BUT it doesn't mean Booker hasn't done a lot of good things for the city.

We'd like to see Booker run for Senate. He'd be a strong candidate that's for sure...

When is Gotham Gotham but not really Gotham unless it's playing Gotham?

When Gotham might be played by the city of Newark in the next Batman movie. Now we all know New York City is sometimes known as Gotham. We know from the DC Comics that Batman lives in Gotham City. So when Newark Mayor Cory Booker this week tweeted that the people behind the Batman film franchise were scouting Newark for places to film the next movie in the series it raised a few eyebrows.

Is the Batcave under the Harrison PATH stop near Red Bulls Stadium? Does the Penguin live under the Newark Bears field in a super secret lab? Does the Riddler run the Ironbound with an iron-bound fist?

Tune in to this website next week, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel...

A nice write-up in the NYT on the Newark documentary 'Brick City'

Airing on the Sundance Channel, noted documentarians Marc Levin and Mark Benjamin have put together a five part show on the troubles facing Newark as seen through the eyes of several residents and Mayor Cory Booker. Booker is quoted in the article as saying: “The power of this film is that it deals with real people.” Benjamin said the project is an outgrowth of the incredibly high murder rate in Newark, something very much discussed in the show.

Newark faces many issues to be certain and it's very interesting to see a microcosm of them playing out before the cameras.

Pack Attacks outside The Rock in Newark pinpoint a gay couple

A group of 15-20 teenage boys and girls attacked a gay couple, shouting anti-gay slurs outside The Prudential Center after Saturday's Britney Spears concert. Bobby Daniel Caldwell, and his partner Joshua Kehoe, 25, both from Kearny said they were on their way back to their car when they were set upon. The gang stole Kehoe's cell phone and kicked and punched them severely. Caldwell suffered a broken jaw. A group of four female college students were the next to be assaulted by the splinter group (more on that in a minute), one of them had their purse stolen.

Caldwell and Kehoe tried, desperately tried to get police to assist them, as did the group of college students but no police assistance was forthcoming for 45 minutes even though they tried flagging several police officers and police cars down. What was Genius Mayor Cory Booker's excuse for the lack of police response time for these victims?

Police were busy at that time breaking up a crowd of 400 to 500 teenagers fighting in front of the Sugar Rays nightclub.

Mr. Booker, you have a problem, a BIG problem. You have wild gangs numbering in the hundreds, some of whom take time out from attacking each other to violently assault and rob your out of town guests. You cannot in any way shape or form claim your city is safe, nor can you guarantee the safety of those buying tickets to see events in Newark. Your recovery plan for Newark isn't worth a hill of beans if sites like the Jersey City Desk tell people to stay out of your city because it's not safe.

Newark is NOT safe for visitors, it's simply not. This is not the first time recently people attending events in Newark have been attacked, no, this is simply the most spectacular attack. We'd expect a complete and full accounting over the lack of safety in your city for visitors before we endorse any more events there.