Gee, you'll never guess who got a photo op at James Gandolfini's funeral

Don't get caught between Chris Christie and a camera, because you could get pancaked into something resembling flesh-colored aluminum foil.

James Gandolfini's friends, loved ones and collaborators celebrated him Thursday as a teddy bear of a man who hugged a little too hard, an actor who committed so intensely to scenes that he once broke a refrigerator, and a man's man whose boyishness made him great.

New York's stately Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine was filled with a who's who of New York and New Jersey luminaries including Gov. Chris Christie, "Sopranos" creator David Chase and Gandolfini's co-stars on the HBO mob drama. Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Steve Buscemi were among them. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes also attended.

Chase, as well as Gandolfini's wife and friends, spoke in remembrance of the actor, who died of a heart attack last week at 51. He recalled shooting a scene in which Gandolfini slammed a fridge so hard it broke -- and then complained about the dark places he had to go for the role of mob boss Tony Soprano...

Chase says he remembered telling Gandolfini: "Did it say anywhere in the script, 'Tony destroys a refrigerator? You destroyed the refigerator."

Later he addressed Gandolfini, as if reading him a letter: "Sometimes you tried too hard. That refrigerator was one example."

Rest In Peace, Tony Soprano.


Hat tip: BadBlue Fame - Celebrity News.

TRULY PATHETIC: MADD Silent on Amnesty Law That Rewards Illegal Alien Drunk Drivers

Guest post by JudicialWatch

As preposterous as it may seem, illegal immigrants with drunk-driving, domestic violence, aggravated assault and child abuse convictions will qualify for amnesty under the immigration bill pending in the U.S. Senate unless an amendment introduced by a Texas lawmaker is adopted.

Incredibly, groups that would normally be vocal on these sorts of issues have remained silent. For instance, the nation’s largest organization working to stop drunk driving and support victims of the violent crime—Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)—refuses to criticize the proposed law even though it will essentially reward those convicted of driving dunk. Through a spokeswoman, MADD said it “doesn’t get involved in immigration matters.”

Under the current legislation, crafted by the bipartisan Gang of Eight in the senate, illegal aliens convicted of the crimes mentioned above are eligible for probationary legal status, officially known as Registered Provisional Immigrant (RPI). This means they can qualify for a Social Security number and state driver’s license as they embark on a 10-year path to permanent residency. Three years later, candidates become eligible for American citizenship.

Here is a gut-wrenching example of who could benefit from this; an illegal immigrant who killed a 28-year-old father and seriously injured his two young children over the weekend while driving drunk on a New Jersey highway. The illegal alien, Manuel Gutierrez Vazquez, did not have a valid driver’s license yet had been arrested a few weeks earlier for driving drunk in another state, according to a local news report.

Though the outcome of the first DUI arrest is not clear, it’s not unreasonable to assume it wasn’t a felony because the illegal alien was released and he kept driving. Even if he was charged with misdemeanor DUI after the arrest weeks earlier, Vazquez would have been eligible for amnesty under the measure pending before Congress because it allows up to two misdemeanor convictions. Drunk-driving statutes vary by state and are often handled as misdemeanors settled with fines and community service when there are no serious injuries.

In many cases, as in this one, drunk drivers become repeat offenders. This week prosecutors in New Jersey’s Mercer County charged Vazquez with multiple felonies, including death by auto and causing serious injury while unlicensed. Convictions for those DUI felonies would forbid the illegal alien from receiving amnesty but it shouldn’t take the atrocious murder of an innocent person and serious injuries of his kids to exclude a candidate.

An amendment recently introduced by Texas Senator John Cornyn would change this. It aims to prohibit illegal aliens convicted of “serious misdemeanors,” such as domestic violence, aggravated assault, child abuse, violation of a protection order, and drunk driving from receiving RPI status under the immigration reform bill, which is being heavily promoted by Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio, the Gang of Eight’s self-appointed captain.

Via the all-new BadBlue Report.

BY POPULAR DEMAND: Obama and Christie: Jersey Shore Memories 2013 BFF Scrapbook

Frickin' awesomeness from Mad.

[Last last month] President Obama met with Governor Chris Christie to tour parts of the Jersey Shore that were ravaged by Hurricane Sandy. It was a rare display of both bipartisanship and unbridled bromance. We’re happy to report that not only was a splendid time had by all — it was also captured on film!

THE PERFECT "MODERATE REPUBLICAN" CANDIDATE: Christie Raising Money From Soros, Emanuel, Other Far Left Backers

The far-left-disguised-as-moderate blog known as Outside the Beltway is usually good only for comic relief. I've found no more entertaining collection of Statist kooks commenting on the site this side of Taegan Goddard's collectivist, lockstep loons. That said, once in a great while -- just like a lunar eclipse or a thigh rash -- a nugget of news will unexpectedly pop up on OTB. Please consider:

Chris Christie Pulling In Money From Top Democratic Donors

Gov. Chris Christie is cashing in donations from top Democratic fundraisers and other traditionally liberal donors across the country, even nabbing the support of a handful of rainmakers aligned with President Obama and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Star-Ledger review of state and federal records shows.

The checks are flying into the Republican governor’s war chest from all sorts of unlikely places — the hedge fund run by liberal billionaire George Soros, for example, and the politically progressive halls of the University of California, Berkeley.

The nascent support from Democratic donors is an early sign of Christie’s fundraising prowess in a potential run for the White House in 2016, experts and Democratic donors said, and dovetails with recent polls showing him gaining popularity nationally among Democrats and independents.

Christie’s partnership with New Jersey Democratic leaders and his warm relationship with Obama after Hurricane Sandy could be enticing donors who don’t often give to GOP candidates, even if they are closer ideologically to Democrat Barbara Buono, Christie’s lesser-known challenger, political scientists and Democratic fundraisers say.

Here’s just a sample of what Christie is pulling in:

• Five executives at Soros Fund Management have chipped in a combined $19,000 to the governor’s re-election campaign, state records show. The donor roll includes Soros’ protégé and chief investment officer, Scott Bessent, who tends to fund liberal Democrats, and Sender Cohen, a partner at the hedge fund who more often favors Republicans.

•John Doerr, a top Democratic fundraiser and venture capitalist in California, sent Christie the maximum $3,800 donation for the Republican primary this year. So did his wife. Federal records show the couple has given more than $1.2 million to national Democrats since 1997.

•Tim Mullen, a Chicago investor who gave more than $100,000 to Emanuel’s campaign for mayor in 2011 and bundled from $200,000 to $500,000 for Obama in 2008, has also sent Christie a maximum donation, as has his wife Alice. Mullen was already a Christie donor in 2009, state records show.

This ought to pose an interesting dilemma for the old, doddering, decrepit Republican establishment. Because choosing to align themselves with a Soros-backed, Obama-hugging, anti-Second Amendment, pro-illegal immigration, pro-Islamist "moderate" like Christie might be a bridge too far, even for these neo-Statist, cowardly, ruling elites.


Hat tip: BadBlue News Service

WONDERFUL: New Jersey Prepares to Ban Shotguns, Ammo Sales, Normal Capacity Magazines... and More!

And given Governor Crispy Creme Cristie's long history of antipathy to the Second Amendment, don't expect him to veto any of these bills. After all, it's for the children, don'tcha know?

This is the worst threat to NJ gun rights in history Your efforts matter most right now!

Buses to Trenton on Wednesday are being planned, But you must register immediately so Arrangements can be finalized... As reported in our last alert, the New Jersey Assembly Law & Public Safety Committee is scheduled to hold hearings on a package of 24 gun bills on Wednesday, February 13 beginning at 10 a.m. in the State House Annex, Committee Room 11, 4th Floor, Trenton, NJ (directions here).

The worst of these bills have the effect of banning all rifle-barreled shotguns, numerous rifles and handguns, most rifle ammunition, and magazines that hold over 10 rounds. Ammunition sales would be severely restricted, logged and reported to the State Police, and internet and catalog sales would be banned.

Unaccountable health practitioners (including nurses, social workers, and marriage counselors!) would be turned into spies with the power to effectively suspend Second Amendment rights and have firearms seized. And the exercise of the Constitutional right to own firearms would be conditioned on proof of having firearms safety training. And that’s just the beginning (see detailed bill analysis here).

It is imperative that gun owners and sportsmen flood the Committee Members with phone calls, faxes, and emails between now and Wednesday morning voicing their opposition to these bills (see legislator contact information below). If you’ve already sent an email, please go the distance and make the extra effort to also send in faxes and make phone calls to each member of the Committee, and please do so on both Monday and Tuesday of this week. The extraordinary challenge we are facing needs an extraordinary response from gun owners and sportsmen.

Then, we need to pack the committee room on Wednesday with a show of unity and strength to make sure that legislators who won’t see the light will definitely feel the heat.Everyone will not get to testify, and this will not be a rally, but we need to all be there in a courteous and respectful show of strength. Bus transportation is being planned and coordinated in a joint effort between ANJRPC and NJ2AS. Click here for information and to register – we need to know if you’re coming ASAP so we can finalize arrangements.

On Monday and Tuesday, please call, fax, and email every member of the Assembly Law & Public Safety Committee (listed below). Tell them to vote no on these extreme gun and ammunition bans and other new anti-gun measures, and urge them to instead support meaningful measures to address school safety and the mental health system. Tell them that their proposals will not prevent another tragedy, because criminals and madmen who already ignore New Jersey’s thousands of gun laws will not follow another new law.

AmmoLand has the list of legislators to call and email. I don't care if you don't live in New Jersey. Help out, please. Your state may be next if these would-be tyrants have their way.


Hat tip: BadBlue Gun News.

"WE GOT S***": Obama Refugee camps in New Jersey lack heat, power, basic sanitation facilities

As USA Today observes, "Camp Freedom" more closely "resembles a prison camp".

As he lights up a Marlboro and takes a slow drag before exhaling, Brian Sotelo is a man who finally has reached his breaking point.

Anger drips from every word as he peers at the tops of white tents rising over the trees in the distance. The depth of despair in his eyes is difficult to fathom.

...He stood and talked in the cool morning air a short distance up the road after security at the front gate threatened to have his car removed outside the entrance to what Sotelo's identification tag calls "Camp Freedom," even though it more closely resembles a prison camp.

The Seaside Heights, N.J., resident was at a Toms River, N.J., arena with his wife and three kids a half hour before the shelter opened as superstorm Sandy approached last week. On Wednesday, Sotelo was part of a contingent shifted to this makeshift tent city in a parking lot across the road from a racetrack about 30 miles north...

"Sitting there last night you could see your breath," Sotelo said. Outside temperatures hovered below freezing, in the upper 20s and low 30s. "At (the arena) the Red Cross made an announcement that they were sending us to permanent structures up here that had just been redone, that had washing machines and hot showers and steady electric, and they sent us to tent city. We got (expletive).

...No media is allowed inside the fenced complex, which houses operations for Jersey Central Power & Light's army of workers from out of the area...

..Sotelo scrolls through the photos he took inside the facility as his wife, Renee, huddles for warmth inside a late-model Toyota Corolla stuffed with possessions, having to drive out through the snow and slush to tell their story. Temperatures Thursday finally made it into the upper 40s. Images on the small screen include lines of outdoor portable toilets, of snow and ice breaching the bottom of the tent and an elderly woman sitting up, huddled in blankets.

All the while, a black car with tinted windows crests the hill and cruises by, as if to check on the proceedings.

Somehow, "Camp Freedom" seems an apt name for this sort of facility. And I can't help but think of this entrance to another camp.

This sign reads "Arbeit Macht Frei" or "Work makes one free".


Hat tip: WyBlog and BadBlue News.

Egotistical, bombastic embarrassment claims Newt Gingrich is... an embarrassment

For a guy who has never done anything at the national level; who has a personal cameraman following him around to capture those special "YouTube moments" where he confronts public sector union members; and who has taken troubling positions on gun control, illegal immigration, judges, global warming, and Obamacare (to name but a few), it takes real hubris to pillory Newt Gingrich.

I speak, of course, of Chris "Krispy Kreme" Christie, one of the darlings of the RINO establishment, who is doing his level best to sandbag conservatives.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday dubbed Mitt Romney’s showing in South Carolina “clearly disappointing,” but quickly turned his focus to Newt Gingrich, saying he has been “an embarrassment to the party.”

Christie, a key Romney surrogate in his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, blasted Gingrich on NBC's "Meet the Press" for his ethics violation fine and losing the speakership in the House, saying that “sometimes past is prologue... Newt Gingrich has embarrassed the party over time. Whether he'll do it again in the future I don't know, but Gov. Romney never has,” Christie said on NBC's “Meet the Press.”

"I mean he was run out of the speakership by his own party, he was fined $300,000 for ethics violations. This is a guy that has had a very difficult political career at times, and has been an embarrassment to the party," Christie added.

...While Christie has pointed to Romney’s difficulties in connecting with people before, he said Sunday it’s due to Romney being a “reserved guy.” He then turned to what he deemed Gingrich’s liabilities... “Strategic adviser? That is the oldest Washington dodge in the book. That's because he didn't want to register as a lobbyist,” Christie said.

...Christie also addressed the vice presidency question once again, saying, “If I'm approached I will listen, but my inclination, I want to make it very clear, is that I want to stay governor of New Jersey."

News flash, Krispy: you ain't gonna be the VP. And, by the way, Newt Gingrich has accomplished 20 times more for the conservative movement and the Republican Party than you have.

The results of Gingrich's ethics probe are publicly available; they involve a course that Gingrich taught at Kennesaw State College while serving in Congress. The trouble revolved around the fact that the course was backed by a tax-exempt group. Gingrich taught Constitutional, conservative values, which the IRS found were “consistent with its stated exempt purposes.”

The whole thing was a political setup. And doesn't Newt's "ethics violations" seem quaint given the likes of Maxine Waters, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Diane Feinstein, and the rest of the modern miscreants of Congress who have mysteriously made millions in office?

So, Krispy, I'd advise you to keep your pie-hole shut. You're the embarrassment -- and we're not going to let you try to tear down conservatives in pursuit of a VP slot that you'll never get.

Can you guess what's different about Andrew Cuomo? [R.B.]

R.B. writes:

Andrew Cuomo took on the public employee unions -- and forced concessions from them -- in order to balance the New York State budget with spending cuts and without tax increases. Chris Christie (New Jersey), Scott Walker (Wisconsin), and John Kasich (Ohio) did pretty much the same thing in their states

But only Cuomo emerged from his battles with the unions lauded by media for his actions. Can you guess what made Cuomo different from the others?

Party Affiliation Determined Coverage of State-Union Battles

Jonathan S. Tobin 07.19.2011 - 12:59 PM

During the last several months, the governors of three states have gone toe-to-toe with powerful state unions in order to undo the harm done by their predecessors’ capitulations to state workers on wages and benefits. In Wisconsin and New Jersey, Republicans Scott Walker and Chris Christie were subjected to unprecedented abuse by the unions and their supporters. Yet in New York, Andrew Cuomo not only overcame union resistance, he managed to do so without much negative press, let alone the deluge of insults and demonization his colleagues suffered...

...Lacking the same political leverage their colleagues in Wisconsin and New Jersey possessed, the New York unions were forced to meekly bow to Cuomo’s dictates and accept drastic changes in compensation and benefits. Instead of being branded as a polarizing figure as was the case with Walker and Christie, Cuomo gets to play the state’s fiscal hero.

...as much as he deserves the praise for taking on a tough situation, the main lesson of this story is to show just how biased is the coverage of the not dissimilar confrontations elsewhere. As much as the collective bargaining issue helped generate sympathy for Wisconsin unions which refused to accept responsibility for the state’s parlous financial health, Walker’s goals were very similar to those of Cuomo. It should also be noted that like Cuomo, Christie didn’t touch the collective bargaining issue. Yet, he was branded a “Nazi” by rabble-rousing union thugs just like Walker, a slur never aimed once at the governor of New York.

The moral of the story is that unions and their cheering section in the liberal mainstream media can call a fiscally responsible Republican any name in the book and make it stick. But Democrats with the same intent get to play by different rules of engagement that can allow them to get tough with unions without being smeared...

This theme aligns perfectly with the spectacular new book Left Turn, which quantitatively measures the liberal lens through which Americans are forced to view events.

Chris Christie continues to duck interviews on talk radio while appearing on the likes of Face the Nation, which gets lower ratings than airport radar

Despite his assertion that he won't seek the Republican presidential nomination, Chris Christie's public relations machine is working overtime. Appearing on Face the Nation last Sunday, in front of its traditional twelve viewers, Christie was quick to launch a thinly veiled attack on Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and Rush Limbaugh. He defended Michelle Obama's bloviating on better nutrition, which she expounds upon while eating short ribs and nachos.

"I think it's a really good goal to encourage kids to eat better," he said. "I've struggled with my weight for 30 years and it's a struggle. If a kid can avoid that in his adult years or her adult years, more power to them."

Christie added that "I don't want the government deciding what you can eat and what you can't eat," but said, "I think Mrs. Obama being out there encouraging people in a positive way to eat well and to exercise and to be healthy - I don't have a problem with that."

...Palin and Bachmann have also accused the First Lady of curtailing individual freedoms by trying to dictate lifestyle choices by government fiat.

No, Governor Christie: that's not all the First Lady is up to. She's putting the arm on restaurateurs using the power of the White House to affect policy change through political intimidation.

A team of advisers to the First Lady has been holding private talks over the past year with the National Restaurant Association, a trade group, in a bid to get restaurants to adopt her goals of smaller portions and children's meals that include offerings healthier than French fries and soda, according to White House and industry officials.

The discussions are preliminary, and participants say they are nowhere near an agreement like the one Obama announced recently with Wal-Mart to lower prices on fruits and vegetables and to reduce the amount of fat, sugar and salt in its foods.

Why is FLOTUS interfering with an industry that is already in difficult straits, treading water through an economic tsunami?

Why? Because the hard-left Democrat Party can't stop meddling with private industry, be it the auto industry, oil companies, insurance companies, banks, credit card companies, and every other industry under the sun.

That shouldn't be too hard for Governor Christie to understand, right?

Problem is, Christie has held a plethora of troubling positions and has avoided discussing any of them on conservative talk radio. Mark Levin has reportedly extended numerous offers to Christie to appear, all for naught.

And I think I know why.

A few months ago, Christie spoke at the Republican Governors Conference [RGC] and reportedly brought down the house. He told the audience that sometimes leaders simply have to ignore their advisers and face the tough issues head on. But the New Jersey Star Ledger's Paul Mulshine has followed the career of Chris Christie for several years. And he doesn't quite recognize the current version.

[The RGC] Chris Christie sounds like a heck of guy — not at all like the Chris Christie I have been following closely for almost two years... [For example, after] a number of legislators held a press conference in the Statehouse to announce they were... protesting the new screening policies of the [TSA, Christie] declined an offer to back the resolution because, his spokesman said, it was a federal issue...

...Just for fun, I put up a post on my blog asking readers to predict how long it would take before Christie came out against the TSA. If you bet on last Monday, you would have won. In response to a question from a kid at one of those town-hall meetings he holds, Christie announced the screenings were "too invasive."

That’s just one instance in a pattern obvious to those of us who’ve been covering Christie since he entered state politics. Name an issue — from judicial activism to the Highlands Act — and you will see Christie tiptoeing up to it and finally committing when the consensus is clear.

On issues such as guns and abortion, Christie’s views have moved rightward over the years, in remarkable harmony with the rightward drift of the GOP primary electorate... His position in favor of New Jersey’s participation in the cap-and-trade program, known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, for example, would be a non-starter with Republican primary voters. Sure enough, he recently made an incremental move away from that when he told a participant in another town hall that he is becoming skeptical about man-made global warming.

Some took that as a sign that he’s serious about running for president. If so, he’ll have to start inching away from other positions associated with RINOs, or "Republicans In Name Only," such as his mushy stands on gun rights and immigration amnesty.

Christie's oft-changing positions are the antithesis of the Tea Party's immutable principles.

• Global warming.

• Gun control.

• Amnesty for illegal aliens.

• His bizarre endorsement of the execrable Mike Castle and the pathetic Meg Whitman.

• His odd invitation to the White House for a State Dinner -- the only one extended to a Republican

• And his refusal to join 28 other states in the fight against Obamacare, even though it would cost New Jersey exactly $0.00.

And those are but a few of Christie's anomalous activities.

Some great YouTube sound-bites have immortalized Christie's fight against the public sector unions. And there is much to appreciate in his stand.

But it is clear that the Governor also has much to explain. After all, constitutional conservatives rightfully fear the nomination of another "Maverick", the positions of whom are rooted only in political expediency.

Christie is ducking talk radio, presumably because he'd have to answer for his shape-shifting policy positions.

Nominating another mushy centrist -- and I count the governor of New Jersey as one, based upon his track record -- will simply guarantee Barack Obama a victory in the general. And that we cannot accept if we are to save this Republic.


Update: Ace is a tad non-nonplussed by the latest kerfuffle.

Mark Levin puzzled by Ann Coulter's bizarre endorsement of Chris Christie, who supports gun control, amnesty, Obamacare and climate legislation

Cub Reporter Biff Spackle was kind enough to transcribe the following soliloquy by radio host Mark Levin last Monday night.

I want to politely address my dear friend -- and she is my dear friend -- Ann Coulter. We've had some email exchanges.

What is your great love of Chris Christie based on? The man supports gun control. The man appoints a radical Islamist to a judgeship. The man is for amnesty [for illegal aliens]. The man is, to some extent, part of the "green" movement. He campaigned for Michael Castle.

And it's interesting. [Mitt] Romney is being attacked, correctly by the way, for RomneyCare. Yet here we have Obamacare, we have 28 states challenging it: 26 states in one suit; Virginia in another suit; Oklahoma in another suit -- and New Jersey's sitting on the sidelines.

Why? I cannot believe it's the cost. Because I have offered, as have others, to do it for free. Just sign your name on a brief. That's free. And yet Christie sits on the sidelines.

So he either supports [Obamacare] or I don't know what. Maybe while Romney's explaining RomneyCare, Christie can explain his [tacit support of] Obamacare.

But the idea that if we don't back Christie, who's already said he's not qualified enough to be president, that Romney is the winner and that we were warned about McCain, is a little rewrite of history. Nobody was more against McCain than I. Then at the very end I said we had to vote for him to stop Obama. But I fought him every step of the way. Ask McCain's people. They hate me. Feeling's mutual!

Anyway, it's a little bizarre to me. The way I see Chris Christie is he's Christine Todd Whitman as a male. I do like his fiscal positions. I do like the way he deals with the public sector teachers' unions. That's all to the good.

But when you're the president of the United States, you've got a whole lot of issues that affect a whole lot of people.

And it's not good enough to be good on one out of 20. So this [obsession with Christie] I don't get.

I agree completely. Christie has a number of troubling positions -- some even outright bizarre -- that seriously limit his acceptability as a GOP nominee. At least until he explains himself thoroughly on these issues.

Coulter isn't usually off-key on these sorts of things: but she couldn't be more wrong with her premature statements regarding Christie. Nominating another mushy centrist -- and I count the governor of New Jersey as one, based upon his track record -- will guarantee Barack Obama a victory in the general. And that we cannot accept if this Republic is to survive.


Image adapted from: Politico.