• Top Christie aide to Port Authority: 'Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee'
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[img]http://media.northjersey.com/images/Wildstein_documents-highllight.jpg[/img] [url]http://www.northjersey.com/news/christie_kelly_bridge_lane_closures_emails.html[/url] [quote]Private messages between Governor’s Christie’s deputy chief of staff and two of his top executives at the Port Authority reveal a vindictive effort to create “traffic problems in Fort Lee” by shutting lanes to the George Washington Bridge and apparent pleasure at the resulting gridlock. The messages are replete with references and insults to Fort Lee’s mayor — who had failed to endorse Christie for re-election — and they chronicle how he tried to reach Port Authority officials in a vain effort to eliminate the paralyzing gridlock that overwhelmed his town of 35,000, which sits in the shadow of the world’s busiest bridge. The documents obtained by The Record raise serious doubts about months of claims by the Christie administration that the September closures of local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge were part of a traffic study initiated solely by the Port Authority. Instead, they show that one of the governor’s top aides was deeply involved in the decision to choke off the borough’s access to the bridge, and they provide the strongest indication yet that it was part of a politically-motivated vendetta—a notion that Christie has publicly denied. “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Bridget Anne Kelly, one of three deputies on Christie’s senior staff, wrote to David Wildstein, a top Christie executive at the Port Authority, on Aug. 13, about three weeks before the closures. Wildstein, the official who ordered the closures and who resigned last month amid the escalating scandal, wrote back: “Got it.” Other top Christie associates mentioned in or copied on the email chain — all after the top New York appointee at the authority ordered the lanes reopened — include David Samson, the chairman of the agency; Bill Stepien, Christie’s re-election campaign manager and the newly appointed state GOP chairman; and Michael Drewniak, Christie’s spokesman. Christie has previously said that no one in his staff or campaign was involved in the lane closings and he has dismissed questions about political retribution by joking that he moved the traffic cones himself. But the messages, mostly sent through personal e-mails accounts, indicate that Kelly, a senior staff member in the governor’s office, was involved in the planning and received updates during the week of the traffic jams. She was also informed that week that Christie’s executives at the Port Authority were ignoring the Fort Lee mayor’s desperate attempts to get a reason for the sudden unannounced closures, as the borough’s first responders struggled to respond to emergencies and buses arrived late on the first day of school. On Sept. 9, the first morning of the lane closures, Kelly asked in an e-mail if Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich’s numerous calls to Port Authority officials had been returned. “Radio silence,” Wildstein replied. “His name comes right after mayor Fulop,” an apparent reference to Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, who also said this week that the Christie administration had retaliated against him last year because he didn’t endorse the governor for re-election. When reached early Wednesday morning, Kelly said: “I’m literally in the middle of a conference call. “I’m going to have to call you right back.” Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the governor, declined to comment Wednesday morning. Neither Wildstein nor his attorney, Alan Zegas, responded to requests for comment Wednesday. Christie’s office cancelled a previously scheduled event in Ocean County. The explosive documents, supplied by Wildstein in response to a subpoena issued by a panel of state lawmakers, don’t spell out the precise reason for the apparent retribution. But they lay bare a disdain for the mayor and an apparent indifference to the hardships suffered by North Jersey residents who sat in four-hour backups. Wildstein has been called to testify about the documents under oath before the panel tomorrow.[/quote] For anyone who wants to read the emails themselves, they are hilariously damming: [url]http://www.northjersey.com/news/Documents_GWB_emails_between_Port_Authority_and_Christie_administration.html[/url]
These people are horrible at spelling.
What a bunch of assholes.
Haha politics
We once had a situation in New Delhi (IIRC) where the traffic was so fucked up that we ended in total gridlock for nearly 3 days. They literally had to airdrop food parcels to people to help them survive. Don't ask if they found places to take a shit in during said incident, though. Of course, if these asshats ended in that sort of situation, it would pretty much be poetic justice.
It's getting all house of cards up in here.
And then they all got fired [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25671970[/url]
Welcome to New Jersey, everyone.
[QUOTE=smurfy;43474309]And then they all got fired [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25671970[/url][/QUOTE] Ha, somebody just took a bullet for Christie's presidential dreams.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;43474945]Welcome to New Jersey, everyone.[/QUOTE] Proud of our glorious leader the cookie monster. I mean Christie.
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;43475062]Ha, somebody just took a bullet for Christie's presidential dreams.[/QUOTE] I bet it won't work entirely. I fucking hope it won't work entirely.
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