Jersey corruption scandals
never seem to stop. Roberto at DynamoByzz lists a few:

• the Norcross tapes
• NJ Secretary of State Regena Thomas's mismanagement, and her involvement in a political consulting firm that received almost a million dollars last fall from the Democratic National Committee

and several more down the list, which includes the Giants Stadium. I've been hearing about the deals on the stadium since I first moved to NJ a couple of Popes ago.

Roberto also posts on the New Jersey Colleges Under Investigation, first of which is UMDNJ (of which I wrote about yesterday), and summarizes the situation very aptly:

You and I look at colleges and universities and see institutions of higher learning. The state democrat party sees patronage mills and an extension of the government spoils system. If you remember, Codey and McGreevey were pushing really hard for Ramapo College to hire Bayonne mayor and state senator Joe Doria as university president. The selection committee showed a lot of backbone to deny the job to the politically connected democrat. And Democrat senator Wayne Bryant receives $35,000 a year from UMDNJ as a part-time employee, plus Rutgers pays him another $30,000 as a guest lecturer.

One thing about living in NJ is how much it reminds me of France (I'm Puerto Rican, not French, but have been to France and follow the French news). Just look at the story DynamoBuzz links to on the school construction scandal:

The out-of-power Republicans received only a fraction of the largesse from 2002 to 2004, getting $59,000 total - one-ninth what Democrats were given.

The Epic Management Group of Piscataway, which oversees projects in New Brunswick, Perth Amboy and Plainfield, gave half of the $519,000 donated to political causes.

It made more than 50 donations totaling $254,000 to Democrats, including a $15,000 donation to Middlesex County Democrats on Oct. 15 - the day before McGreevey's pay-to-play ban went into effect.

Compare that with The Telegraph article I linked to last month:

The trial centres on a system alleged to have been initiated by the RPR - the party founded by Mr Chirac - in which firms were promised generous contracts in a vast project to revamp school canteens, but only in exchange for hefty kickbacks.

Of course, when you look at the numbers involved in the French kickbacks you start to think the Jerseyans are mere beginners.

Which they are. France has had thousands of years to perfect its system.