Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride
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PostPosted: Thu, Jun 2 2011, 11:21 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

FYI- Cory Booker takes a helicopter ride almost every day, for no apparent reason. A little perspective, please.

BTW- didn't Corzine say something about pigs flying over the statehouse? How prophetic!
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PostPosted: Fri, Jun 3 2011, 7:12 am EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/opinion/03fri4.html?ref=opinion
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PostPosted: Fri, Jun 3 2011, 7:39 am EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

Guest wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/opinion/03fri4.html?ref=opinion


Surprise, surprise, surprise... the Times jumped on a negative story about Christie. First time for everything.
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Guest






PostPosted: Fri, Jun 3 2011, 8:12 am EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

Guest wrote:
FYI- Cory Booker takes a helicopter ride almost every day, for no apparent reason. A little perspective, please.

BTW- didn't Corzine say something about pigs flying over the statehouse? How prophetic!


What perspective? What's the point about Cory? It never makes sense when someone tries to counter some political gaffe by pointing to someone from an opposing party as if that makes it okay. No one suggested Christie was the first to abuse the helicopters. In fact, almost every Governor for decades has. Whitman even campaigned on the pledge to get rid of them then turned around and used them frequently. Two Governors back the guy used them hundreds of times. The only Governor who didn't was Corzine. And when he ended up crashing on the Parkway people criticized that he should have used a helicopter.

The point is using it for non-essential state business is hypocritical of Christie, not that its some unique sin to him.
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PostPosted: Fri, Jun 3 2011, 8:21 am EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

Guest wrote:
Guest wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/opinion/03fri4.html?ref=opinion


Surprise, surprise, surprise... the Times jumped on a negative story about Christie. First time for everything.



..... actually no surprise - but they're right on target most of the time
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Guest






PostPosted: Fri, Jun 3 2011, 8:21 am EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

Guest wrote:
Guest wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/opinion/03fri4.html?ref=opinion


Surprise, surprise, surprise... the Times jumped on a negative story about Christie. First time for everything.


Sorry, but every outlet in the country jumped on this story, the evil NYT isn't the problem here.

This is a case where I think this forum generally got it correct. This was a stupid political move. But it is not a big deal. Christie has paid for the personal use of the helicopter, which was the right move. He then whined about it and was snarky, which may be such a part of his personality he can't help it. As long as it does not look like a pattern of behavior, he is fine.
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Guest






PostPosted: Fri, Jun 3 2011, 8:52 am EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

Moving on from the dumb political mistake, the real issue is has cost-conscious Christie really closely vetted whether every dime spent on these helicopters is “essential” since that is supposedly the standard he’s operating on in other areas. This particular helicopter was brand new, which means the State just spent $12.5 million in fresh taxes to acquire it as one of many in a fleet of them. Before that $12.5M check was signed, did he or his officials do the due diligence to prove that we couldn’t have lived a year or more with one fewer helicopters or left the old one in service longer? Private industry does this all the time. When Netjets got slammed by the economy, they extended the planned life of their existing planes and put all their new orders on hold. Now a couple years later they have started making new orders again. Every year an expense is deferred, when the result does not linearly increase maintenance or later acquisition expense, saves money. I personally am skeptical that the state couldn’t live with deferring this expense. And I am more disappointed that Christie seems to have inconsistent standards about belt tightening than I am that he used the equipment.

BTW, the amount he is being charged is a joke. I see the same thing all the time with corporate plane use. The execs are supposedly charged the cost of the flights for personal use, but they are only charged a specific subset of the variable costs, probably just fuel in this case. The reality is planes and helicopters have an approximately set number of hours of use between very expensive maintenance. So real majority of the costs of the flight, not even including fixed costs like the hangers and crew, are in the use of hours between maintenance. If they had done an honest calculation of the true cost of flying the helicopter he would have had to pay a large multiple of what he was charged. If you don’t believe this, try chartering an equivalent helicopter for an equivalent flight. Because the charter company has to really factor all those over true costs into their fees before profit.
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PostPosted: Fri, Jun 3 2011, 9:24 am EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

It was a dumb political move. The real costs are a pittance compared to the damage to his image. Let's not overthink this (oh yeah, too late).
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PostPosted: Fri, Jun 3 2011, 9:38 am EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

Guest wrote:
Guest wrote:
Guest wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/opinion/03fri4.html?ref=opinion


Surprise, surprise, surprise... the Times jumped on a negative story about Christie. First time for everything.


Sorry, but every outlet in the country jumped on this story, the evil NYT isn't the problem here.

The point is the Times never misses an opportunity to pounce on Christie. It is sad to see to gray lady resort to this type of pedestrian bandwagon "journalism".
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Guest






PostPosted: Fri, Jun 3 2011, 10:03 am EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

Guest wrote:
It was a dumb political move. The real costs are a pittance compared to the damage to his image. Let's not overthink this (oh yeah, too late).


The real cost to Christie may be a "pittance" compared to his image damage, but I don't care about his image or expense. I care about my taxes. I care that I'm screwed for decades on my commute because we supposedly can't spend money. I care that good teachers are retiring early or moving (our school will lose 10 this month) because they are supposedly public enemy number one on our state budget. If we're going into spending "crisis" mode and undermining things that truly benefit the state, I care about whether we needed to spend another $12.5M on a new helicopter or hundreds-of-millions to bail out a stupid mall and other projects we are spending electively on.
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Guest






PostPosted: Fri, Jun 3 2011, 10:08 am EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

Guest wrote:
Guest wrote:
Guest wrote:
Guest wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/opinion/03fri4.html?ref=opinion


Surprise, surprise, surprise... the Times jumped on a negative story about Christie. First time for everything.


Sorry, but every outlet in the country jumped on this story, the evil NYT isn't the problem here.

The point is the Times never misses an opportunity to pounce on Christie. It is sad to see to gray lady resort to this type of pedestrian bandwagon "journalism".


Ideologues like you always go after the messenger. Christie right wing policies need to be exposed. Even Newt Gingrich correctly exposed Christie's conservative policies as radical. The New Jersey Supreme Court agrees. Go continue to get your news the fair and balanced Roger Ailes way - but forget about objectivity
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Guest






PostPosted: Fri, Jun 3 2011, 10:45 am EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

Guest wrote:
Guest wrote:
Guest wrote:
Guest wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/opinion/03fri4.html?ref=opinion


Surprise, surprise, surprise... the Times jumped on a negative story about Christie. First time for everything.


Sorry, but every outlet in the country jumped on this story, the evil NYT isn't the problem here.

The point is the Times never misses an opportunity to pounce on Christie. It is sad to see to gray lady resort to this type of pedestrian bandwagon "journalism".


Dude it is a national story. It was a national story before the Times ran with it. Here is a more interesting question, what national media outlet did NOT run this story.
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PostPosted: Fri, Jun 3 2011, 11:03 am EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

You guys are wasting your time arguing with the Times-hater. The person is obsessed with their thesis that the Times is some secret tool of some unnamed left-wing conspiracy. They've gone off-topic of at least a couple topics here to advance this fantasy and absolutely nothing you can say will change that perception. In fact, everything we write just reinforces it because we are part of the conspiracy.
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Guest






PostPosted: Sun, Jun 5 2011, 10:09 am EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

Guest wrote:
You guys are wasting your time arguing with the Times-hater. The person is obsessed with their thesis that the Times is some secret tool of some unnamed left-wing conspiracy. They've gone off-topic of at least a couple topics here to advance this fantasy and absolutely nothing you can say will change that perception. In fact, everything we write just reinforces it because we are part of the conspiracy.


Your post is a bit much. My post was in response to the person who feels the need to continually post links to the Times anti-Christie campaign. If you have a problem with the Times' being inserted into so many different threads, take it up with them (or you as the case may be).

To conclude from my posts that I "hate" the Times is ridiculous. I simply find it sad that they seem to have chosen to disregard objectivity in favor of pandering to their dwindling core readership. I also find their attacks on Christie to be hypocritical in light of their support for Cuomo's efforts to advance the same reforms.
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PostPosted: Sun, Jun 5 2011, 10:30 am EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

LOL. It's always interesting to see someone so wrapped up in their own biases that they honestly don't realize they have them and think they are being reasonable.

It was an "editorial." You seem to have a hard time understanding the difference between that and news, and you seem to only selectively have problems with their editorials when they happen to criticize Christie, forgetting those that have been crtitical of Obama or Corzine before Christie, or whatever.

Someone posting a link without commentary is common on all forums. It's like an FYI related to the topic. People post links from the Cranbury Press, the Star Ledger, USA Today and all kinds of sources here. But you only come out with your anti-Times tirade every time its the Times criticizing Christie or snything not to the "right."

It's free country and free forum so go ahead with your ongoing campaign of one here. Just don't expect that anyone takes you seriously. Have a nice day.
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PostPosted: Sun, Jun 5 2011, 3:26 pm EDT    Post subject: Re: Gov. Christie's Helicopter Ride Reply with quote

Guest wrote:
LOL. It's always interesting to see someone so wrapped up in their own biases that they honestly don't realize they have them and think they are being reasonable.


Exactly the point. We have our biases; except you and I are simply anonymous bloggers expressing our opinions. We don't also claim to be an objective source of news with the highest levels of journalistic integrity. Just as Fox News is not really "fair and balanced", the NYT editorial board is biased as well. The difference I have seen lately is their bias appears to be political, rather than idealogical. And that's a shame.
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