'Summer's here and the time is right....'

Today must be the official start of summer. We opened the grill. Tasty.

And we opened the pool. Maybe we'll get in it eventually.

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Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie Playing dentist to the comb

I guess I won't be using this comb anymore. The dogs found it in my gym bag and thought it a bit toothy, so they played dentist and pulled some of its teeth. They also chewed on the handle to a brush and stole my weight-lifting gloves. They had a busy morning.

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New park makes the grade

I was not sorry when they announced that Shea Stadium was going to be replaced. Yes, I have some great memories of the place, both sitting in its uncomfortable seats and watching on television as the team experienced its roller coaster history.

Two World Series championships, a couple of other appearances and some excruciating collapses. Shea was home to all of them.

But Shea also was a hole whose time had passed and the new Citi Field gives Mets fans what they should have had from the beginning -- a fan-friendly ballpark with great sight lines, roomy seats and some of the best ballpark food I've ever tasted.

From the first approach, you can see you'll be having a different experience, the metal frame monstrosity -- a relic of the early 1960s -- has been replaced with bricks and mortar, somehow a warmer feel, more current but harkening back. This has been the trend in new parks since Camden Yards was built in Baltimore and it's good to see it's finally arrived in New York.

The visibility is fantastic, even when you're not seated, when you're wandering the concourse or getting a beer. We were seated in the upper deck but it didn't feel that far at all -- you could get a sense of what was being thrown and pick up the slight upper cut that's developed in David Wright's swing.

And, everyone working the game was so incredibly nice -- it was almost like I wasn't at a Mets game.

Some recommendations:

• Get there early so you can explore and get a sense of the new stadium.
• Try the chicken tacos and the chicken nachos. They were quite good, better than what you would get at a chain restaurant like On the Border or at many Tex-Mex places.

The only quibbles:

• The name -- Citi Field not only ties the Mets to a troubled financial institution (a better name, as my friend Bill says, is Debits Field), it's beyond boring. My friends and I think a petition is in order and that the field should be renamed Gil Hodges Field.
• The shut the concessions too early. Bill and Vince -- got up to get ice cream late in the game (I think during the eighth or ninth inning) and they were out of luck.
• The scoreboard seems a bit too big.

I'm going to give the new park a A.

Blogging Citi Field

Fernando Tatis gives this pitch a ride, but it stayed up too long. And now Santos gets robbed on a ball down the line.

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Blogging Citi Field

Nice seats.

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Blogging Citi Field

We're here and the park is wonderful, everything Shea was not -- good sight lines, open and airy. Let's just hope the weather holds.

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Time to meet the Mets

Getting ready to head to Citifield for the first time. I'll be tweeting and mobile blogging from teh stadium because, yes, I'm a blog geek. Alas.

Pelfey's on the mound and he's been pitching well. So:

Let's Go Mets!

Inflated fears

Paul Krugman explains why all the talk of inflation is just a load of hoakum.

Consensus? What consensus?

NJ Transit announced earlier this week that representatives from Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties had reached consensus on a commuter line, routing it from Lakehurst to Red Bank.

That was Wednesday. On Thursday, that consensus appeared to be crumbling, according to The
Asbury Park Press:

Monmouth County's support for a new rail line to Red Bank appeared completely gone on Thursday, a day after NJ Transit officials claimed to have won Freeholder John D'Amico Jr.'s backing for the proposal.

Instead, D'Amico backpedaled, saying his support for the Red Bank route was only conditional because the transit agency "has made its mind up" against rail options relying on routes through Middlesex County.

Republican Freeholders Lillian G. Burry and Robert D. Clifton said they would not support the Red Bank route and D'Amico failed to gain backup from his two Democratic colleagues at the board meeting at the Hall of Records.

I guess this should have been expected, though it does make you wonder about D'Amico and how this process played out. It seems odd to me that NJ Transit could have so badly misunderstood the Monmouth County freeholder, moving ahead with an announcement of a compromise that he claims was never agreed to.

In any case, the Monmouth folks continue their campaign of misinformation -- claiming, for instance, that Red Bank had never been on the table when it clearly is part of the environmental impact study being conducted and all of the earlier studies on the project, or that this is about Western Monmouth County and not the Route 9 corridor.

Admittedly, ridership projections for the Middlesex route are higher, but so is the cost to build and to operate by significant margins. Part of the reason is that the project will require significant track upgrades and other improved infrastructure and a host of permits and environmental approvals. Plus, the ridership figures are predicated on new rail stations that are not included in the cost estimates.

It seems to me that the Monmouth folk are doing what they have long accused Middlesex officials of doing -- pandering to the NIMBYs.

Another reason to be aggressive on climate change

This story in The New York Times is scary and offers just another reason to stop playing around and curb our emissions:

There could be 200 million of these climate refugees by 2050, according to a new policy paper by the International Organization for Migration, depending on the degree of climate disturbances. Aside from the South Pacific, low-lying areas likely to be battered first include Bangladesh and nations in the Indian Ocean, where the leader of the Maldives has begun seeking a safe haven for his 300,000 people. Landlocked areas may also be affected; some experts call the Darfur region of Sudan, where nomads battle villagers in a war over shrinking natural resources, the first significant conflict linked to climate change.

Wilco drops in a month

Wilco's newest -- and seventh -- album, a self-titled disc, hits the stores June 30 and it promises to be a different experience than its previous six. This review in the Chicago Sun-Times, which says the disc offers a summation of a career, is a good one. (A stream of the disc will be available on a sporadic basis until the disc comes out on Wilcoworld.net.)

Track listing:

1. Wilco (the song); 2. Deeper Down; 3. One Wing; 4. Bull Black Nova; 5. You And I; 6. You Never Know; 7. Country Disappeared; 8. Solitaire; 9. I'll Fight; 10. Sonny Feeling; 11. Everlasting Everything

Stake through the heart of MOM

Finally, after more years than any of us can count, NJ Transit has done what the agency should have done long ago -- it has ended debate over the MOM line and will run the rail link to Red Bank.

It is a compromise plan, one that recognizes several realities:

• The Monmouth Junction line was the most expensive to build, by far.
• The greatest need for the line was in Monmouth and Ocean counties.
• Middlesex County was not going to back down and NJ Transit had expressed an unwillingness in the past to move forward without consensus.

Hence, the compromise:

"Each of the three counties have different needs; it's what could everyone live with," said Ocean County Freeholder James F. Lacey. "The bottom line is Ocean County needed a rail line. Middlesex County had concerns about it going through their county. We needed something good for the region and the state that we could afford."

This is, to put it mildly, a victory for the folks in Jamesburg, Monroe and South Brunswick, who refused to give up and continued fighting even as the Monmouth and Ocean County pols continued their own push.

With the compromise in place, NJ Transit can get to work on a much needed rail line and Middlesex County homeowners can rest a bit easier.

No surprise: Flat tax is a bad tax

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan is just being honest. And that's the problem. Lonegan, a hardened conservative who is running well behind front-runner Chris Christie, is pushing a 2.9 percent flat tax as a replacement for what he calls "the state's destructive and progressive income tax."

He contends that the current system drives high-earners from the state and that

his plan will keep those top income earners in New Jersey, while creating jobs and better salaries for everyone else.

That is debatable, of course. What is not debatable, however, is this:

it's the lower-income earners, many of whom are counted as strong Democratic voters, who would do worse immediately under Lonegan's plan, according to state tax data.

A couple earning the state's median income of $67,000 would pay $1,943 in income taxes under Lonegan's plan, nearly 60 percent more than the $1,221.50 charged under the state's current income tax system.

At $23,000, Lonegan's income tax bill of $667 doubles the current $332.50 bill for both singles and married couples.

These lower-income tax brackets made up the majority of the income taxpayers in 2006, with more than 2.3 million tax filers making under the median income of $67,000.

Upper-income folks, on the other hand, would make out like bandits.

A review of tax data compiled by the New Jersey Department of Treasury indicates the state's highest income earners -- in many cases traditionally strong Republican supporters -- would fare best under Lonegan's flat tax.

Right now, married couples earning more than $150,000 pay at least $5,512 in income taxes and a rate of 6.37 percent on every dollar they make from $150,000 to $500,000, where the next tax bracket begins.

Under Lonegan's plan, the couple earning $150,000 would pay just $4,350. That would be the same for a single tax filer, who now pays $7,428.

And the tax cuts that could come under Lonegan's plan are even more dramatic as incomes increase. A family earning $1 million would have a $73,657 income tax bill drop to $29,000 under Lonegan's plan.

The margins are even wider when compared with Corzine's recent proposal to hike the tax on incomes of $1 million or more to 10.75 percent, which would be among the highest in the nation.

In 2006, the last year for which the state has complete tax data, taxpayers in New Jersey's two highest-income tax brackets provided more than $5 billion of the total $9 billion collected by the income tax.

Lonegan doesn't dispute this. In fact, he told The Star-Ledger that "lower-income residents can afford to pay a few hundred dollars more to foster an economic climate that would improve their chances of landing a high-paying job."

"There will be consequences," he said, but "in this current economy, there's no opportunity."

Christie, the former federal prosecutor, is promising his own across-the-board tax cut, but is offering no details -- a strategy he hopes will allow him to take advantage of dissatisfaction with Gov. Jon Corzine's fiscal policies. Promising a tax cut without offering even the vaguest details on how he plans to pay for the tax cut is irresponsible and dangerous to the state's long-term fiscal health.

Christie may be offering a plan that can address the state's faltering economy and heal its failing fiscal health (my sense is that it is not). We just don't know -- and we can't judge it fairly until he puts the hard numbers on the table, something he has been unwilling to do so far.

The state's fiscal situation must be treated as the No. 1 issue in this gubernatorial campaign. We know what Corzine would do because we've watched him do it for going on four years with mix results. But he has been honest about what we face and the kinds of sacrifices that we all will need to make to put our house back in order.

The state's budget remains a mess and he deserves as much blame as anyone, though we also should acknowledge that he much of the mess was inherited, created by a bipartisan group of governors and legislators who opted to avoid confrontation.

It remains to be seen, at this point, whether any of Corzine's potential opponents are willing to address the budget question honestly, whether they understand that cutting revenue -- which is what happens when you cut taxes -- can only be accomplished by slashing programs that are popular to some piece of the electorate. It is not enough to talk about waste -- cutting waste and corruption should always be a goal, but does anyone really believe that it will yield enough savings to keep from inflicting pain elsewhere?

Their public statements to date indicate -- to me, at least -- that they are offering more of the same pie-in-the-sky promises that got us into this mess in the first place.

Court backs Corzine on school funding

Abbott v. Burke is officially history. The long-running battle over how to best fund the 30 so-called Abbott districts -- low-income communities dubbed "special needs" districts by the court -- has been resolved, with the state Supreme Court backing Gov. Jon Corzine's school funding revisions.

The new formula, which went into effect last year, ties aid to students, rather than school districts, meaning that state school funding is being more broadly distributed than in the past.

The court, in its 5-0 ruling, found that the Corzine funding formula met the court's long-time goal "to ensure that the constitutional guarantee of a thorough and efficient system of public education becomes a reality for those students who live in municipalities where there are concentrations of poverty and crime" and that the state provide all students "the opportunity for san unhindered start in life -- to become a productive and contributing citizen to our society."

In the syllabus accompanying the decision, the court said

The political branches are entitled to take reasoned steps to address the pressing social, economic, and educational challenges confronting the state, without being locked in a constitutional straightjacket. A costing-out study such as that engaged in by the State is rife with policy choices that are legitimately in the legislature’s domain. In the record below, each value judgment attacked was demonstrated to have been made in good faith, and on the basis of available factual data informed by advice from experts whose testimony revealed that they had the interests of the pupils in mind. The Court sees no reason or basis for it to second-guess the extraordinarily complex education funding determinations that went into the formulation of the many moving parts to this funding formula. The Court recognizes, however, that it does not have the ability to see ahead and to know with certainty that SFRA will work as well as it is designed to work. Although there is no absolute guarantee that SFRA will achieve the intended results of its design, the Court concludes that SFRA deserves the chance to demonstrate in practice that, as designed, it satisfies the requirements of the State Constitution.

The decision appears a sound one, though I still believe that the state is underfunding schools and that, rather than shifting money from the Abbott districts to other districts, the state should have significantly increased the amount it provides, leaving the urban districts whole while adding money for the rest of the state's schools.

This, of course, would not be an easy thing to accomplish in a state as fiscally broken as New Jersey, especially during an economic meltdown. But it would have been in the longterm best interests of the state's schools and could have helped ease some of the local property tax burdens being carried by the state's residents.

Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie The big dig (or dirty deeds)

Apparently, puppies, a patio and planters do not mix very well. What a mess!

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Prop 8 heads to federal court

Earlier today, a pair of high-powered attorneys -- one a prominent Democrat, the other a former Bush administration official -- announced that they will be challenging Prop 8 in federal court now that the state Supreme Court failed "to protect gay couples' fundamental right to marry."

So the battle continues.

Dispatches: Undocumented immigrants living in the shadows

Dispatches is up -- another in my five-part series on immigration in Central Jersey.

Grassroots: No magic number

My Progressive Populist column can be found here. It is a discussion of the Democrats proximity to the magic 60 -- creating the false-promise of a veto-proof majority.

Tyranny of the majority

Generally, I'm loath to question the constitutionality of a public referendum, but the California Prop 8 vote and yesterday's state court ruling should not be viewed through the lens of populist democracy.

Rather, the vote only uses the trappings of democracy to restrict the rights of a minority group, while the court seemed to seek some politically pallatable compromise that ultimately pleased only the most vociferous of the anti-gay marriage contingent.

Consider what The New York Times had to say in its editorial, "A Setback for Equality":

The California Supreme Court got it terribly wrong Tuesday. It upheld Proposition 8, a state constitutional change on last fall’s ballot intended to prohibit marriage by couples of the same sex. In addition to denying basic fairness to gay people, the court’s 6-to-1 ruling sets an unfortunate legal precedent that could allow the existing rights of any targeted minority to be diminished using the Election Day initiative process.

Gays and lesbians are the primary victims in all of this, but the ruling has the potential to reach beyond the marriage-equality debate into other areas of civil-rights law, creating the possibility that equal protection under the law is subject to a majority vote.

Perhaps I'm being overly sensitive. But as a member of an ethnic group -- Jews -- that has been subject to enslavement, pograms and the Holocaust, a group that faced a level of discrimination and religious hatred that only a few ethnic and religious groups can comprehend, I don't think so.

Prop 8 is an example of tyranny of the majority and further proof that the rights we believe derive some a higher power are really just manmade constructs -- as George Carlin pointed out in "You Have No Rights" on It's Bad for Ya -- that we must fight to preserve. We cannot rely on the courts or the benificence of lawmakers, we must do what the civil rights movement did and create a moral imperative that makes it impossible for politicians not to do the right thing.

Big L gets a big W

A complete game from Livan Hernandez, another in a long stretch of good starts by the Mets (well, aside from Sunday). Mets win 6-1 to move to 25-20.

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Contrasting views on Obama court pick

There appears to be some differing opinions on the left as to whether Sonia Sotomayor is an appropriate pick for the U.S. Supreme Court. Jonathan Turley, the George Washington University law professor who is a frequent guest on Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow's shows, says she shown a "lack of intellectual depth in her past opinions" and that she is not likely to have "a lasting intellectual influence on the Court." That, he told David Gregory on MSNBC, should be a chief criteria for liberals, because of the need for a counterweight to Justice Antonin Scalia:



John Nichols of The Nation, however, was much more impressed:

While much will be made of the fact that Obama has chosen a woman of Puerto Rican background to serve on a court that until the 1960s was made up entirely of white man, the president has, as well, chosen a jurist whose specific experience will make her a key player on a court that, in coming years, will be taking on more and more cases involving financial and economic issues.

Judge Sotomayor's 11 years of service on the federal appeals bench (as an appointee of Bill Clinton) have been served just a few blocks from Wall Street in Manhattan, as were her six years as a federal judge (as an appointee of George H.W. Bush as the recommendation of former New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan).

"As the top federal appeals court in the nation's commercial center," the New York Times notes, "the court is known in particular for its expertise in corporate and securities law."

Cristina Lopez of the National Hispana Leadership Institute (www.nhli.org) offers a more general rationale for choosing a Latina, though not necessarily Sotomayor, saying it would bring "new and valuable perspectives to the high court," especially on issues that have divided the court and that "are important to Latinas, including reproductive rights, affirmative action, employment discrimination, health care access, voting rights and education."

The appointment of a Latina justice would signal a movement toward full membership for Hispanics and women in American society.

OpenLeft's Chris Bower, however, may have hit the nail on the head:

The negative reaction from conservatives on Sotomayor is the best indication that her nomination is a good thing for progressives.

Costs of living

The difference in gas prices between New Jersey and other East Coast states is shocking. While we assume that New Jerseyans pay more for just about everything, we continue to get a bargain on fuel prices.

During our trip south to North Carolina and back over the last week, I was shocked by the prices for a gallon of regular -- no price lower than $2.23, with most exceeding $2.30 and the highest price coming in at $2.49.

By way of contrast, I just filled up at the BP station on Route 27 at Allston Road in Kendall Park and paid $2.19.

The absence of gas prices in the N.J. cost-of-living discussion shows how distorted the conversation has become. Consider that, for every dime less we spend per gallon, the average driver is saving $50 a year. That may not offset the higher property taxes we pay, but when combined with other savings -- unlike some states, we pay no taxes on food or clothing -- and the rather expansive services we receive, can we really say we have it all that bad?

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Vacation: The end is near

We're eating at the Sun Dog sports bar for our last night -- a typical sports-themed bar with college banners hanging down, mostly regional teams, but also other ACC schools and the Ivy. A touch of home with Princeton in the corner, but no Rutgers.

A jazz-funk band is playing (pretty good four-piece, electric guitar and bass, acoustic guitar and percussion).

It's pretty loud and the games are on the dozen TV screens -- hockey, basketball, baseball (MLB and college) and a college football show.

What makes this place stand out, however, is that it is the only place I've been that has Arrogant Bastard on tap. Nice way to close things out.

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Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie Drinkin' water spodee odee

I'm sharing this because it made me laugh. No other reason.

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The waning hours of vacation

This is what we have, weather-wise, for our last day on the Outer Banks. It's hot, sunny and there are a lot more people here.

Tomorrow, we're back on the road. I could use another week -- or month or year or lifetime on the ocean.

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Center-right? Right

New Jersey has a center-right electorate? That's what Alan Steinberg thinks -- despite electoral evidence going back almost two decades. Consider: Democrats have won three of the last five gubernatorial races, the last five presidential races in New Jersey by decent margins, the last 10 Senate races, own majorities in both houses of the state Legislature and eight of 13 seats in Congress.

The state is far from conservative, showing a decide tilt to blue candidates as its default position, except when special circumstances present themselves. The Florio backlash is the primary example of this, his tax hike resulting in the Democrats losing the Legislature and Christie Whitman nearly toppling U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley before she won the Statehouse.

The Menendez win in 2006 is instructive. He was losing in the polls throughout much of the year to state Sen. Tom Kean Jr., the son of the state's most popular governor. The polls, however, showed a decent-size number of undecided voters, most of whom broke for Menendez despite the ethical cloud that had formed above his head. Part of the reason was the ugly campaign waged by Kean, which undercut what made him an attractive candidate in the first place -- his likeability. That, combined with the electoral default, resulted in a near double-digit win for Mendendez.

Jon Corzine is in a similar position to Menendez, but also shares some of the huge obstacles that Florio faced in 1993. There is no doubt that taxes are a major concern for New Jersey voters -- with most saying they are not prepared to back tax-hikers.

But it is early and it remains to be seen whether Christie can capitalize, whether he can convince voters that he can fix the state's deep-rooted budgetary mess without asking voters for more money or cutting programs they've come to rely on.

But center-right? You've got to be kidding.

A constitutional disconnect

Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm missing something, but am I the only one who sees a massive contradiction between what President Barack Obama said today at the Naval Academy and what he said I just don't see how this statement -- his commitment to the "enduring truth": "The values and ideals in (the Constitution) are not simply words written into aging parchment, they are the bedrock of our liberty and our security."

We uphold our fundamental principles and values not just because we choose to, but because we swear to; not because they feel good, but because they help keep us safe and keep us true to who we are.

And yet, he is planning to create a class "detainees at Guantanamo who cannot be prosecuted yet who pose a clear danger to the American people." This group of detainees, he said yesterday at the National Archives, "are people who, in effect, remain at war with the United States."

I am not going to release individuals who endanger the American people. Al Qaeda terrorists and their affiliates are at war with the United States, and those that we capture -- like other prisoners of war -- must be prevented from attacking us again. Having said that, we must recognize that these detention policies cannot be unbounded.

Essentially, the president has bought into the underlying argument that has underpinned every bad decision we have made as a nation for the last eight years -- that we are in a state of war, that terrorism, rather than being a law-enforcement or intelligence issue, is a military problem that demands military solutions. That has put us in the position of using our howitzers to kill a scorpion.

Yes, the Obama plan is better than the Bush plan. But just about anything would have been an improvement. It doesn't mean that Obama has found a way of mixing pragmatism and principle.

As I said, same as the old boss.

Change, what change

More on this later, but President Obama appears intent on narrowing the range of debate on Gitmo and terror suspects by promising to create a detention system only moderately better than what Bush had put in place.

To paraphrase The Who: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

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Let's get small

We're in Manteo, a lovely little town on Roanoke Island eating at the Magnolia Grille. Outside the restaurant, between the picnic tables is an Adirondac chair that, to echo Steve Martin, makes you feel small.

So, it's broke: How would you fix it?

If my household budget was in as bad a shape as the state's, I'd probably be filing for bankruptcy.

But the state can't do that, so it has to find a way to balance it's budget at a time when state revenues have cratered and few consituencies are willing to sacrifice their perks. The standard whipping boys in this debate, of course, are the state worker unions, who get generous benefits, but the reality is that all of us are beneficiaries of some piece of the state budgetary pie.

There are numerous small towns who use the state police as their police force without paying anything -- basically, allowing them to not provide their own police while getting a subsidy from taxpayers in towns that have their own departments.

There are the open-space and farmland-preservation subsidies that go to primarily suburban towns to keep development in check.

There is money for the arts, for education, for recreation. A load of money is spent to help businesses, seniors, the working poor.

Basically, there are few people in the state who are not touched in some positive way by the state budget.

And there are few people in the state willing to give up even the smallest piece of their pie. At the same time, no one wants to pay more in taxes, meaning that we are asking the state to spend more money without paying into the kitty to ensure it has the money we want it to spend.

So, I can't complain too loudly about the cuts to the tax rebate program, even though I am going to get hit by them. There are other options that could be considered, but most could not survive the political maelstrom that would inevitably follow.

My challenge to those who want to cut first and ask questions later is this: Make specific suggestions on cuts, explain why they are fairer or more logical and sell those specifics to the people of the state. Go ahead. I dare you.

Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie Surf sand saltwater and sunsh

The dogs are resting after some fun -- and too much salt water -- at the beach today. They were body surfing -- at least it looked that way -- running into the water and getting carried back to land.

It was all fun and games until the saltwater did its black magic on Sophie (you try and prevent a 7-month-old pup from drinking the ocean waves) and things got a little messy.

So now, I'm sitting and reading Nixonland with a beer on the deck with twosleeping pups, listening to the hum of a hot tub and some bird trilling in the distance.

It's beautiful here, finally, and I canLt believe we're past the halfway point of this vacation.

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Runner's diary, Wednesday

I ran 4.74 miles today -- approximately. If I'd have known -- for instance, had I owned a working GPS -- I would have continued another couple of minutes. In any case, not bad for the first time out this week.

iPod: Bill Moyers' Journal

Time to be aggressive with second stimulus

Another day and more bad news on the economic front. President Barack Obama has take the right tack in seeking solutions, but I am afraid he is being too timid -- especially with unemployment continuing to rise, bankruptcies hitting pensions funds hard and foreclosures continuing to be a plague on the nation.

I'm not sure we can wait much longer for stimulus part two.

Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie The new puppies become beach bums

We made the short trek to the beach this morning with the dogs, bringing along a pair of 20-foot leads and some water toys. Both took to the water like fish, or at least like the parts of them that are retrievers.

They splashed a lot and liked to chase the incoming waves, and I was successful at keeping them from drinking the salt water. (You don't want to know what happens when dogs ingest too much of that. We learned the hard way with Honey a couple of weeks after 9/11 at Sandy Hook. We enjoyed it immensely -- until the salt-water kicked in and Honey into a fountain. But I've said too much.)

A woman was jogging past and the dogs ran over to her -- it is difficult to control dogs on 20-foot leads -- and Sophie promptly did her stop, drop and roll, seeking a belly-rub from a total stranger. She did it again a bit later to this woman who was down here from Massachusetts -- Sophia is a fiend for the belly rubs.

My niece Kim was in charge of Rosie (right), but Rosie is incredibly strong and Kim and my sister-in-law Susan had all they could do to handle her. And then, as if Annie's vacation hasn't gone badly enough (she is sick), Sophie pulled hard on her sand-coated leash and scraped Annie's leg up pretty badly.

So now, we're back at the house resting and I think I'll go for a run. It seems like a nice time for one, after all.

Dispatches: A driven debate -- on immigration

This week's Dispatches is the second of my five-part series on immigration in Central Jersey -- the driver's license debate.

Heading to the beach

Rosie's asleep on the floor -- I hate to wake her so we can go to the beach. It's not swimming weather, but the sun is up, I have a good book (Nixonland by Rick Perlstein) and two 20-foot leashes so the dogs can head into the ocean without us joining them in the chilly water.

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A conspiracy of neglect and self-deception

Today's tax-revenue report is just another example of how New Jersey is being hammered by the perfect budgetary storm -- years of neglect and/or deception, selfishness on the part of Trenton politicians, contractors and taxpayers, a lack of leadership in the Statehouse from governors of both parties and a national economic meltdown -- leaving in an ever-expanding hole.

It would be easy to blame the current governor, but this goes well beyond anything Jon Corzine has done or not done in his nearly four years in office. And it is something that will require some difficult choices as we go forward, regardless of who may win the gubernatorial race in November.

State of mind

I play a little game with myself when I go on lomg car rides to keep my mind occupied and on the road, a sort-of bingo with car license plates. I don't know when I started doing this, but it's been a long while.

On the way down, I played again, finding the following: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, North and South Carolina, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, DC and Washington.

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Puppies on vacation

Finally, the sun is out and we're out and about with the puppies. I think they were getting a bit stir crazy.

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End of days?

This is scary -- seven omens predicting the end of the world! What are we to do? I'm glad we decided to take this vacation.

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End of the day

Rosie rests after her long ride. Ah, to be a dog....

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Define change for me again

I just want to make sure I understand this: GM gets American tax dollars to keep it afloat by shifting jobs overseas. And the president is going along with this? Does anyone else see a problem here?

On the Road final take We've made it to NC

After 10 and a half hours in the car, with my leg cramping and my neck hurting, and the rain falling like an incessant, yammering fool, we half docked in our port for the week, this lovely, three-story, eight-bedroom house in the Buck Island development in Corolla, NC.

The dogs are a bit confused, spending so much time in the car -- more than they've ever spent in the car -- just to find themselves in a strange house.

The first day of any vacation is always lost to travel and provision-shopping. After a short rest, we'll unpack the car and head to Food Lion for food and beer.

I'll be blogging this week, but I'm can't say at this point how frequently.

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On the Road take 5

Morris Farms appears worth the stop, even if some of what's for sale is a bit pricey. The quality is good -- and they let you sample stuff. Try the homemade peanut butter and the various jams ans preserves. To die for, as they say.

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On the Road take 4

We're making a quick stop at a roadside farm market on 168 -- the Morris Farm Market - for rest rooms, dog walking, leg stretching (my right shin, calf and knee are cramping) and maybe some fruit for the week. We're about an hour or so from our destination: Corolla, NC.

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On the Road take 3

Fill up $22 for less than 10 gallons. Ugh.

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On the Road take 2

Sophie is watching for Annie, who is in a Tiger Mart on Route 13 in Maryland during our pit stop. The pups have been pretty good, though Rosie doesn't look all that happy.

We're 180 miles into the trip.

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On the Road take 1

Day 1 of vacation starts late and wet. Weld set the alarm for 5, but didn't hear it -- and, for the first time this week, the dogs decided to sleep late.

Once on the road -- at 6:51 -- we found that the roof storage was unbearable (the wind rushing under it, making it sound as if we were on an airport runway.

Plus, it's been raining the entire ride.

We're about 100 miles and two hours into a 425-mile (or so), nine-plus-hour trip and I already need some ibruprofen.

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The first cut -- and all the cuts -- are the deepest

I don't envy Jon Corzine. He inherited a disastrous budget situation created by a decade and a half of neglect and self-deception (on the parts of lawmakers, governors of both parties and taxpayers), began the process of reform and then gets smacked in the face by the worst recession in years.

So balancing the budget has been nearly impossible.

That's not to say that he hasn't made things worse by seeking to avoid confrontation. He has. Armed with a set of powerful tools -- the governor of New Jersey is among the most powerful executives in the country -- and faced with a Trenton culture that has allowed entrenched politicians to amass far more power than they are entitled to have, he too often has folded his hand, giving in to the legislative power-brokers.

That said, we need to be honest. He has done more budget cutting than any governor in years, slashing programs that cut across a host of constituencies that should be Democratic power centers. The cuts are problematic -- aid to the state's colleges and municipal governments, to its arts programs, to the DEP -- and some may have been avoided with a) earlier and more aggressive budget and government reform during his first two years in office and b) targeted increases in taxes.

But the alternatives being put on the table right now -- and this could change -- by his chief rivals (Chris Christie and Steve Lonegan) are unlikely to address the deep-rooted budgetary problems we face.

The Saturday Shuffle

Welcome to the first of what I hope will be a recurring feature, The Saturday Shuffle, whereby I turn my iPod onto shuffle and list the first 10 songs that play:

1. Son Volt, "Automic Society"
2. Eric Clapton, "I Found Love"
3. The Band, "Ferdinance the Imposter (Outtake/Demo)"
4. Pixies, "Vamos"
5. Lou Reed, "Heroin (live)"
6. Elvis Costello with Burt Bacharach, "In the Darkest Place"
7. Bruce Springsteen, "Froggie Went A-Courtin'"
8. Luiciana Souza/Romero Lubambo, "Muita Bobeira"
9. The Ramones, "Have a Nice Day"
10. Bob Dylan, "Mississippi"

I think the Souza track came with my laptop as a demo song, because I don't remember ever buying it.

What was that he said about change?

This is getting old. At every turn, it seems, the Obama administration has chosen to keep in place some noxious policy from his predecessor. The latest -- following his decision earlier this week not to release photos of detainee abuse -- is his decision to keep in place a version of President Bush's military commissions.

Administration officials said they were making changes in the system to grant detainees expanded legal rights, but critics said the move was a sharp departure from the direction President Obama had suggested during the campaign, when he characterized the commissions as an unnecessary compromise of American values.

In a statement, Mr. Obama noted that the country had a long tradition of using military commissions, and said the changes would make the tribunals, to be used along with federal courts, a fairer avenue for prosecution. “This is the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values,” Mr. Obama said.

The commissions are run by the Pentagon under a 2006 law passed specifically for terrorism suspects, in part to make it easier to win convictions than in federal courts. The Obama administration suspended the military commission system in its first week in office.

The commissions, however, do not uphold our values so much as create a system that allows us to pretend we remain committed to a system of justice that puts the burden on the prosecution to prove its case while, all the while, ignoring that basic tenet.

Obama should have realized that he was driving down the wrong street on this one when he was praised by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky,

who has issued daily criticisms of the president’s plan to close Guantánamo, called the move to revive the tribunals “an encouraging development.”

Then there is this even more troubling reaction from David B. Rivkin Jr., a former Reagan official, who

said the decision suggested that the Obama administration was coming to accept the Bush administration’s thesis that terror suspects should be viewed as enemy fighters, not as criminal defendants with all the rights accorded by American courts.

“I give them great credit for coming to their senses after looking at the dossiers” of the detainees, Mr. Rivkin said.

Accepting the Bush thesis? Is this the change for which Americans voted?

The Friday Five: Songs of Springsteen

I am starting today what I hope will be a regular feature of this blog. The Friday Five will be a listing of five related items, possibly five news items or something else that may be on my mind. This week I offer my five favorite covers of Bruce Springsteen songs:

1. Dave Edmunds, "From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)"
2. Johnny Cash, "Highway Patrolman"
3. Robert Gordon, "Fire"
4. Rage Against the Machine, "The Ghost of Tom Joad"
5. Steve Earle, "State Trooper"

(I'd recommend Badlands: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, as well, which is a great collection of artists doing songs from the album.)

Check back Saturday for the Saturday shuffle.

Chrysler's raw deal

We are about to feel the real effects of the debate over the future of the American auto industry. Chrysler announced yesterday that it is closing about a quarter of its dealerships including 30 in New Jersey (which includes the Belle Mead Garage on Route 206 in Montgomery and Coleman Chrysler-Jeep on Route 130 in East Windsor). General Motors is expected to begin closing dealerships, as well.

Chrysler said it will eliminate 789 dealers -- or one-fourth of its 3,200 franchises nationwide -- early next month so it can focus more on high-volume stores. The cuts are likely to be devastating in communities where car dealers are the biggest small business in town, with thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue on the line.

"Businesses will close, and in many cases, given the state of the real estate market, you will have boarded-up commercial structures," said Jim Appleton, president of the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers. "New Jersey's members of Congress did not vote for the auto bailout because they have a soft spot for Detroit. It's because they have a soft spot for the 36,000 people who are employed at New Jersey dealerships."

Dealers were told yesterday morning whether they would remain in the Chrysler fold or be terminated June 9. Chrysler vice chairman Jim Press called the cuts "difficult" and said the terminated dealers have no right of appeal. Car dealers are normally protected by state franchise laws, although such protections are usually superseded by federal bankruptcy law.

"This is a difficult day for us and not a day anybody can be prepared for," Press told reporters during a conference call. "There are no winners and losers today."

I haven't seen any job-loss estimates tied to the 30 dealership, but you have to assume that several thousand will be looking for work -- salesmen, business-office personnel, mechanics, etc.

And there will be ancillary impacts: vacant buildings, lost revenue for neighboring businesses (restaurants, etc.), lost tax revenue for communities.

Expanding the Immigration debate

I've received about a half dozen comments on this week's Dispatches column, "Immigration misperceptions stymie reform," mostly from people who think I am a) crazy or b) a pie-eyed, or who make less-than-veiled attacks on the ethnicity of the undocumented.

I share some of it here, just to give you a taste:

From "BajaRat": "Illegal aliens are criminals and parasites, one and all. Their very presence here and practically everything they do on U. S. soil is illegal. They need to be ferreted out, rounded up like cattle, punished for their numerous crimes, then booted back to whence they snuck in from with such extreme prejudice that they will never, ever think of violating our sovereignty again. Enough is enough."

Hmmm. Check the language -- parasites, cattle, criminals who've committed numerous crimes, sneaky. Pretty harsh.

From "From Gay Marriage to Illegal Immigration": "Hank Kalet, there you go again. Lets start from the basic premise that illegal immigrants are not legal immigrants. It is not fair to those legal immigrants that may have waited their turn to enter this country legally.

Kalet is a liberal in every sense of the word.

We seem to have excused Turbo Tax Cheat Tim Geithner from paying his taxes even after he signed a form notifying him that he needed to pay his taxes that the IMF gave him a separate check specifically for this tax. So what do we do - we put this guy in charge of among other things the IRS. Now that is pretty blatant.

So now Hank Kalet wants us to lump in illegal immigrants with the legal ones. Hey, no need to follow the law. furthermore, lets be sensitive and give these folks a drivers license. I would say they might as well drive illegally as well. In-state tuition should be given as well. Lets not forget the free health care at the emergency room.

Please don't give us this c r a p about the TV guys and Republicans. Either it is the law or it isn't. That is the part that infuriates us.

Now if you want to call Hank directly at the Packet to discuss this be sure to press #1 for English, or is that #2?"

Yes, I am a liberal. And yes, I do believe gays and lesbians should be able to marry. What this has to do with the plight of the undocumented is beyond me, as is the odd Tim Geithner tangent. Best I can tell is this may be an Obama reference -- you know, "the devil."

This "it's the law trope," by the way, is a logical non-sequiter, failing to address the underlying ethics of the immigration debate. Yes, the undocumented have broken the law -- as have all of those people who drive above the speed limit, lie on their tax forms, do home remodeling without a permit, smoke the occasional joint or authorize torture in interrogations. All of these things are illegal; their morality, however, has nothing to do with their legality.

The issue is not necessarily the law, but the ethical underpinning of the law. Laws change -- slavery was legal and endorsed by the U.S. Constitution and interracial marriage was against the law until the 1960s. The question, in the end, is what purpose a law serves and I see no public purpose to taking a hardline approach with some poor manual laborer, but letting a presidential administration off the hook for violating national anti-torture statutes (yes, this is my own non-sequiter, but I think it's a relevant one).

Taxes, taxes, taxes

I just want to be clear about this. The two top Republican candidates, Chris Christie and Steve Lonegan, want to cut state income taxes at a moment in state history when we don't have enough revenue to cover what we now spend.

Lonegan's plan -- a flat tax -- would shift the tax burden downward, cutting taxes for most New Jerseyans making more than $70,000. As for the folks at the bottom of the income ladder, they would see an increase in their state income taxes. Seems a tad unfair, if you ask me.

Christie, on the other hand, wants to cut taxes in some unspecified manner that will depend on revenue projections while eliminating state jobs (which ones, he won't say). This seems to be pure pandering.

Neither plan addresses the real issues that face the state -- too many overlapping layers of government, excessive property tax bills, the high cost of living and its impact on lower- and middle-income folks.

Runner's diary, Thursday

This morning's run -- a four-miler on the treadmill while listening to the new Bob Dylan disc -- was my fourth this week, two outside. My 16-mile total is my best in a while and the five-miler I did yesterday makes two weeks in a row that I did the five.

I'm not sure about tomorrow, yet. If I do run, I'll probably shoot for three miles. I'm away next week, but plan to run and I'm shooting for 17-20 total miles.

Lousy tickets

This is ridiculous -- Ticketmaster does it again.

Runner's diary, Wednesday

Today was a much better day -- still a chore, but an easier chore than Tuesday. I managed five miles and plan to do another four tomorrow.

Dispatches: Immigration misperceptions stymie reform

Dispatches, which is the first of a multi-part series of columns on immigration in Central Jersey, is up here.

Runner's diary, Tuesday

It was one of those mornings. The dogs had me up at the normal hour of 6, which is getting old. I never feel completely rested these days -- I probably need more sleep than I'm getting -- but today was worse than usual. I felt like someone drugged me and just wanted to crawl back to bed after the dogs ate. I did lie down on the couch, but only for a couple of minutes before getting ready and heading out to the gym.

I opted to head outside, to run under the big open sky, and figured I'd let my legs decide the distance. Initially, I didn't think I'd managed a half mile -- sore right calf, sore right shin, tight left hamstring, exhaustion, etc. But I soldiered on and managed a slow four, finishing up with some much-needed stretching. My legs were fine after about a mile and tired by the end, but the pain actually receded.

That was 10:30. it is now 1:30 -- three hours later -- and I desperately need a nap. The coffee isn't cutting it and ay the distance Given t

Not a Dinky decision

Princeton University wants to move the Dinky station about 460 feet to south -- farther from Nassau Street, a move that appears to be opposed by the Princeton Borough Council.


View Larger Map

The proposal is part of a larger reconfiguration of the University Place/Alexander Road area that calls for it to become an "arts and transit neighborhood" surrounding the McCarter Theatre. The notion is a good one, taking advantage of the theater and the rail link to create a destination on campus but close to downtown Princeton.

The issue, as many pointed out when a revised plan was unveiled last week, is moving the station. The 460-foot shift is not a lot -- less than a 10th of a mile or about two city blocks -- but there were concerns raised.

Borough resident Roberto Wineman said he walked to the Dinky and “those 500 feet coming and going may be very pleasant in June but are worth 5,000 feet in January,” for commuters like himself.

Sheldon Sturges, managing director of Princeton Future, said “the single sustainable truth of this development is the Dinky ought to move closer to the town.” If the university wanted to do something for the community as part of the arts and transit neighborhood, it would move the Dinky closer not farther from downtown Princeton, Mr. Sturges said.

That said, the response was mostly positive for a plan that could create another spur off the downtown and offer another reason to come to Princeton.

Closed party on health care

There will be changes in the way health care is provided, but we are not likely to ge the kind of comprehensive reform we need. Single-payer was taken off President Obama's table a long time ago and, as if to emphasize his centrist bona fides, the president brought together the so-called stakeholders in the reform debate today -- insurance companies, drug makers and "providers."

Consumers, you say? Single-payer advocates? Nope. Forget it. They weren't invited.

The president is calling it a consensus approach, but as with many policies Obama has pursued, consensus means capitulation, a willingness to bend and leave much of the status quo in place.

Don't get me wrong. Obama has been a godsend after eight years of disaster. And he's done quite a lot of good, so far. But on the big tickets, he has been too willing to give in -- assuming big change was ever really on his agenda.

David Sirota thinks it was, but that

he's afraid of being attacked by moneyed interests that enjoy the status quo, and he's surrounded himself by Clintonites who, after the health care debacle of the early 1990s, aren't interested in antagonizing the insurance industry.

It is up to us to change his mind.

Runner's diary, Monday

I managed a run this morning, though I was without any motivation or energy. While it was beautiful outside, it also was a bit chilly and I ended up wimping out and staying in. I did get in three miles listening to a podcast of "The State of Belief" from Air America Radio.

Baseball like it's supposed to be

Joey legged out an infield hit and then scored ahead of a two-base blast by Justin. Good hustle all around.

It's not exactly the Mets (well, it is very Daniel Murphy-esque in the field), but it is baseball.

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Doggie diary: The story of Rosie and Sophie Pastime poochies

South Brunswick's newest baseball fans are rooting on the Orioles, starring Joseph Kalet!

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Money makes the world radioactive

I shouldn't be surprised by stories like this -- Nuclear Power Gets Boost From Top Campaign Cash Recipients -- and yet surprised I am. Money is poison to good policy.

Runner's diary, Friday

It was a beautiful morning for a run, so I took my weery and sore legs onto the pavement and busted out three miles while listening to Real Animal by Alejandro Escovedo.

Court nixes local sex-offender zones

Not everyone is going to agree, but the court is right on this. If the state wants to create sex-offender-free zones, the state can do so. Leaving it to the municipalities results in a hodge-podge of regulation that does little more than chase registered offenders from town to town.

Runner's diary, Thursday

Another day, another four miles (34:32) and the shin seems to be getting worse. I know I should rest it, but I feel like I've not been running enough recently to rest anything.

iPod: R.E.M., Document

The taint of steroids

It appears that we can add Manny Ramirez's name to the list of tainted sluggers, based on today's report that he is about to be suspended 50 games for a positive steroid test. The interesting question, of course, is what this means not only for his Hall of Fame chances, but for the Hall of Fame chances of all players from the present era -- players who played the bulk of their careers over the last 20 years.

Consider this list of players from the era who slugged at least 500 home runs (from Baseball Reference):

1. Barry Bonds 762
2. Ken Griffey 613
3. Sammy Sosa 609
4. Mark McGwire 583
5. Rafael Palmeiro 569
6. Alex Rodriguez 553
7. Jim Thome 545
8. Manny Ramirez 533
9. Frank Thomas 521
10. Gary Sheffield 500

That's 10 players -- of the 25 all-time -- who played the majority of their careers after the mid-1980s. Of these 10, only three -- Griffey, Thome and Thomas -- have not been linked to steroids. McGwire, the only one on the list eligible to enter the Hall, has been snubbed for two years now, which seemed to make sense -- until you consider that the steroid era has tainted so many players of all abilities that we can't be sure that the players we think are clean really have been.

A-Rod is the case in point. He was the one guy -- along with Griffey -- who everyone viewed as squeeky clean on the issue and who nearly everyone was rooting for to pass Bonds and remove the taint on the record. Now, however, he is mired in steroid controversy, his accomplishments called into question.

I don't think steroid users should be rewarded, but we have to acknowledge that the homerun barrage that has left the record book a shambles was not a product of steroids alone. A host of factors -- smaller parks, more sophisticated workout regimens, awful pitching, a tendency to swing for the fences -- contributed.

But the one thing that I think has become clear -- at least to me -- is that guys like McGwire, A-Rod and Manny have been playing by the rules as established by the culture of baseball and are likely not exceptions.

Doggie diary: The story of Rosie and Sophie Do they think I'm a scratch-off ticket

Rosie, in a bout of exuberance, scratched me pretty badly, leaving a long mark across the side of my face like a G.I. Joe doll from childhood.

I'm at a loss as to how to stop them from nipping, jumping and scratching.

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Runner's diary, Wednesday

I need to get a new pair of sneakers. The Brooks Adrenalines I'm using are old and showing their wear badly. I pulled them back out of the closet, out of retirement, a few weeks ago after I decided to ditch the Sauconys in which I'd been running for several months.

I like the Brooks shoes -- I don't mean to offer an endorsement; there area lot of great shoes out there. But the Brooks seem to fit my feet best, minimizing the joint problems that can accompany long-distance running.

That said, I ran today with a sore shin, raising concerns about shin splints. Otherwise, my three miles on the treadmill were uneventful -- I watched the Mets on SNY Mets Rewind and listened to R.E.M.'s Accelerate disc on my Nano.

That makes eight miles for the week, so far, with at least one more running day coming up. I'd like to do four tomorrow and then see if I can sneak in another day before Sunday.

Earning his way onto the team

Apparently, if Arlen Specter wants to be a Democrat -- and I think the jury is still out on whether that is what he really wants -- he is going to have to earn his perks. That's the message that Senate Democrats sent their new colleague today, voting to deny the 29-year veteran seniority on five committees. Given his recent votes and statements -- he is opposing the Employee Free Choice Act, voted against the president's budget and his almost aggressive nose-thumbing at his new colleagues -- it probably was important to send the new Democrat a message.

Specter’s initial warm welcome from his new party has given way to a more tepid greeting, as liberal groups chafe at Specter’s continued opposition to key elements of the party agenda — like the $3.4 trillion budget, which he voted against last week, and the Employee Free Choice Act.

Specter did little to ingratiate himself with his new party colleagues over the weekend, when he disputed a Wall Street Journal report that said he promised President Barack Obama he would loyally support his agenda.

“I did not say I would be a loyal Democrat. I did not say that,” Specter insisted Sunday on “Meet the Press.”

So, what exactly does he bring to the table for the Dems?

If Specter was being principled, rather than just seeking to save his political life, he would have done what Joe Lieberman did (did I actually just write that?) and run as an independent, rather than switching party affiliation but acting like his old Republican self.

And the Democrats, reviewing Specter's not-as-moderate-as-he-says record, would have extracted a lot more promises from him -- like support for EFCA.

But we're talking about Washington, a city where party affiliation is more important than almost everything else.

Dispatches: The future of newspapers and news

This week's Dispatches focuses on the uncertain future of newspapers.

Rest in peace, Capt. Chaos

Dom DeLuise, one of the funniest men to ever grace the silver screen, died Monday. Rest in peace.

Runner's diary Tuesday

After several days outside, the rain has chased me back to the treadmill. That said, I pushed out five miles for the first time in ages, managing a moderate 8:59 pace (44:55).

iPod: Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It

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Connecting the dots

David Sirota connects the Panama free-trade pact to the president's announced crack down on tax havens, pointing out that Panama is one of the bigger violators of tax-haven transparency rules around.

Sorry, but pretending to be for cracking down on tax havens while pushing a trade deal that rewards one of the biggest tax havens - and codifies that tax haven's laws into our international trade system - insults the public's intelligence.

Maybe we should call it the Zombie Line

Zombies are the undead -- and so, apparently, is the MOM Line.

The rail proposal -- which is supported by Monmouth and Ocean counties, but opposed in Middlesex -- just won't go away, no matter how illogical or expensive it will be to built or operate.

According to NJ.com, the folks in Monmouth think they can revive the plan by eliminating an expensive tunnel and replacing it with a transfer station. Considering that the line already offered the longest commute, adding a changeover is just plain dopey.

I'm going to have to agree with Mayor Frank Gambatese:

"The state is in dire need of money and this man refuses to acknowledge that this project is dead. If he is not willing to accept having trains go through Monmouth County, then he should just drop it. The whole MOM line should be put to bed."

Gambatese also said D'Amico's alternatives require traversing the Monmouth Battlefield State Park in Manalapan, a plan that has drawn significant opposition from Gov. Jon Corzine and state Department of Environmental Protection officials who oppose putting any commuter rail line through the national and state historic landmark.

"If it goes through the park, it's dead," Gambatese said. "I suggest Mr. D'Amico start looking at what the people in his county need and meet it without impacting the people in Middlesex."

Clutch and not clutch

The difference between the Mets and Phillies is in how they react to pressure. With the game on the line and two on in the 10th, the Phillies' Jack Taschner get Carlos Beltran to hit into a double play. For the Mets in the bottom half of the inning, Sean Green gives up a hit, hits a batter and issues two walks -- four baserunners, three bases, do the math. Phillies score. Game over.

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Long shot and a long game

Taking a quick break from the Mets to catch a 50-1 longshot, Mine that Bird win the Kentucky Derby. I'm not a race fan and I had no idea how shocking this result was until after the race when they said the horse was 50-1.

Then I turn back to the Mets to see Omir Santos get pegged at the plate to lkeep this thing tied at 5.

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Wasted opportunities

When you leave the bases loaded -- especially against the Phillies, you're leaving yourself in a dangerous place. Raul Ibanez proved my point last inning.

You have to make the most of every opportunity when you're playing a team with this kind of lumber.

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Watching the Mets

Home run. Home run. Triple. Walk. Bad Ollie shows up again, but some timely hitting so far in the sixth gets him off the hook. Let's hope the bats and the bullpen can get them a win.

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Panic is bad policy

This is a modified version of the script I planned to use for this week's podcast -- which will be recorded over the weekend when I find some time. I missed Thursday's regular recording because other things came up, but I managed to get the script done. This has been updated to reflect the latest:

Seven cases of the H1N1 influenza – more commonly known as swine flu – have been confirmed in New Jersey, with two others being suspected.

Swine flu is a respiratory ailment that affects pigs, often causing high levels of illness but few deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control. Human outbreaks are unusual, the CDC says, with just 12 reported cases of human infection occurring between December 2005 and February 2009.

That’s why national and state officials are mobilizing to stem what they fear could be a human pandemic in the United States. Federal health authorities have declared a public health emergency in an effort to raise awareness at the same time that the World Health Organization has elevated its alert level to indicate that an emergency may be imminent.

Already, there have been 141 cases reported in the United States, including one death in Texas, and more than 600 cases worldwide.

Mexico is considered ground-zero for the current outbreak, with 97 confirmed human cases and seven deaths.

The governor and health officials confirmed the New Jersey cases over the last two days, which including four in Burlington County and cases in Monmouth, Bergen and Somerset counties. Four of the five people infected recently traveled to Mexico, which is believed to be the source of the sickness, while a fifth person traveled to California, where there have been 14 confirmed cases.

None of the patients were hospitalized, according to officials, and all have recovered.

The infections are in a 47-year-old man, a 14-year-old boy, and a 10-year-old girl, all members of the same family, according to the state Department of Health and Senior Services. The children did not attend school before becoming infected, and have not returned since, the press release said.

A Burlington County representative said Thursday the cases are in the southern part of the county, outside of the local area.

The symptoms are similar to those of regular human seasonal influenza and include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people with swine flu also have reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, according to state health officials. It spreads through human contact -- via coughing or sneezing or by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching the mouth or nose.

State officials said they were not surprised by the outbreak, but made it clear that residents should not panic.

“Of the five confirmed cases,” state Health Commissioner Heather Howard said, “it should be noted they were in three different regions of the state, so we are not seeing non-family clustered cases. New Jersey will continue its surveillance activities and continue its coordinated response with our federal, state and local health care partners.”

In addition to common hygiene practices such as washing one’s hands and avoiding touching one’s nose and mouth, the county has asked groups to cancel non-essential community events that may draw large groups in which the disease could spread.

The best advice, however, comes from Burlington County Health Officer Robert Gogats:

“Residents should be concerned but there is no need to panic,” he said in a press release. “Simple steps will help protect you and your family.”

The future's so bright: the future of newspapers

Yesterday's conference on the future of newspapers was interesting -- if depressing -- to sit through, though not very enlightening. The thing that struck me is that we, meaning people who work in or study the business, know that it is in crisis and have some sense of the changes and bad decisions that led us to where we are. The problem is that we have little sense of where to take it as we attempt to move forward.

It is not enough to say we need to embrace the new technology. We do, but that doesn't offer us a sustainable model that maintains the ability of news organizations to do what we do best -- i.e., investigative work.

And it's not enough to bemoan the citizen journalist -- that's just foolish, by the way, alienating a public that has ceased to trust us by dismissing their efforts. (There are some good projects out there that would fall under the citizen journalism banner, like Red Bank Green and The Alternative Press).

What troubled me yesterday was the utter paucity of ideas -- my colleague Fred Tuccillo, managing editor of The Princeton Packet and a longtime online editor/director, said much of what was put on the table yesterday had been tried with little success at various points over the last 10-15 years. The problem is that the news folks want to replicate what we've been doing, but on a different platform, when what we need to find is a new way to do what the public needs.

The reality is, as many who spoke yesterday pointed out, that professional print journalists still do the lion's share of original reporting that serves as the basis for TV and cable news and commentary and much of what gets chewed over in the blogosphere. The handful of blog/online publications -- Slate and Salon, the Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, among them -- remain the exception. Others, like ProPublica, are good resources for information but seem to have little concept of general audience -- it is a useful site for journalists but I'm not sure what the average reader gets from it.

Newspapers will survive in some form -- in print (fewer and smaller), online, in SMS, etc. They are too important not to. But we will need to go through a period of extreme and wrenching change that will leave many of us by the wayside. In the meantime, those of us privileged -- or is it cursed? -- to be a part of the growing pains should embrace the uncertainty and engage with it.

To read my tweets from yesterday's conference, go to www.twitter.com/newspoet41.