06 July 2007

Garden State / Staten Island insider.com

It's Friday! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooo!!!

  • Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!! New Jersey is pissed. New Jersey senator Paul Sarlo says he's sick and tired of NYC getting all the credit for NJ's hosting skills. I guess when Saturday's Live Earth concerts bring focus to global warming yawning, millions around the world will hear about Live Earth New York even though it will be beaming from East Rutherford at the Meadowlands. Hahaha! I guess NJ peoples are tired of seeing the Empire State steal the Garden State's thunder. New Jersey is home to the NY Giants and the NY Jets and Major League Soccer's The New York Red Bulls. "American Idol'' taped an episode at the Meadowlands that was billed as being from New York. So now Sarlo is researching legislation to require Meadowlands events be billed as being from New Jersey. I'm glad to see we're focusing on the important things.

  • Man Opens Fire in Las Vegas Casino, Wounding 4... A man on a walkway over the New York-New York casino floor opened fire on the gamblers below early this morning, wounding 4 people before he was tackled by officers and patrons. Ya think this might have something to do with the historic heatwave Vegas is having right now? Vegas clocked in at 116°F yesterday. Hey, I might start shootin' too if it got that hot.

  • The FBI is investigating anonymous threats against Goldman Sachs contained in handwritten letters warning that "hundreds will die.'' Sent to newspapers across the country, the letters threaten the investment titan, warning, "We are inside. You cannot stop us.'' The Star Ledger of Newark reported the letters were all mailed from Queens, and signed "A.Q., U.S.A.'' (Yeah, OK) One of the letters, postmarked June 27, was received recently by the newspaper. Goldman Sachs is based in New York, and has offices in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and other cities. About 3,000 people work in its 44-story Jersey City tower.

  • What are we the f*ckin' Garden State Insider today?! Amy Polumbo a.k.a. Miss New Jersey says someone is threatening to make some personal photographs of her public if she does not give up her crown. Polumbo, a 22-year-old Howell resident and a senior at Wagner College on Staten Island, won the Miss New Jersey competition last month, giving her the right to compete in the next Miss America competition -- wherever and whenever it may be held. I guess someone has pics from her stupid Facebook account and is threatening to make them public. It's probably her drinking or making out with the football team or somesh&t. If Polumbo did step down for some reason, first runner-up Ronica Licciardello would become Miss New Jersey. Reached by phone at her Mount Laurel home Thursday, Licciardello said she had not heard of the scandal. "I hope this situation is resolved in the best way possible,'' she said. Surrrrrrrrrrrre. Like she isn't behind this. Catty little bitch. So I caught a clip of Miss New Jersey's "press conference" about this "scandal" this morning and somehow she managed to mispronounce "ironically". It was great; she made it 5 syllables like she'd never, ever read or said the word before. Perfect. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, Miss New Jersey 2008.

  • Rumour has it Rupert Murdoch has succeeded with his $5 billion bid for Dow Jones, owners of the Wall Street Journal. Negotiations have been completed and the board is confident the terms of the deal will be accepted by the Bancroft family, which controls a majority of voting shares in Dow Jones, over the next few days. A formal announcement is expected next week.


  • Marine biologists are puzzled by an unidentified sea creature, termed an "octosquid," that was found last week off Keahole Point on Hawaii. Octosquids! On A Plane?!


  • USA: So thorough, we'll kill you twice! The U.S. command in Baghdad ballyhooed the killing of a key al Qaeda leader this week but later admitted that the military had declared him dead a year ago. A military spokesman acknowledged the mistake after it was called to his attention by The Examiner. He said public affairs officers will be more careful in announcing significant kills. The incident shows the eagerness of the command to show progress in dismantling al Qaeda at a time when many are pressing President Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq. What do they have dead people stored and they thaw them out when moral is low? That's awesome!

  • What's with Spitzers psychotic witch hunt on State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno?! He must be bored. The feud has gotten so bad that while Bruno says he will meet with Spitzer any time, he will only do it in public. Personally, I think Bruno would take Spitzer down. Why are we investigating and spying on each other and trying to pass legislations on mandatory mentions of New Jersey at a time like this? Where are our priorities?!

  • Harry Potter has his first kiss and will die in the final book/movie/
    calendar/lunchbox

  • Bush is hemorrhaging Republic war supporters... In Albuquerque today, Senator Pete Domenici a six-term incumbent who faces reelection next year, said he was "unwilling to continue our current strategy" in Iraq. His announcement follows the split of two other high-profile Republicans with the president over his handling of the war. Last week, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana and Senator George Voinovich of Ohio called on Bush to start withdrawing troops. Cue Glen Frey's "The Heat Is On".

  • Can someone change the station in my head? I've had 2 of the worst songs stuck up in there all morning. Earlier I had the chorus to White Lion's "Wait" and now I'm trying to shake Smash Mouth's "Allstar". Whoever is programming my brain needs to be fired.

  • What is up with those new Smashing Pumpkins jams?! Yeah, exactly.

  • So starting this weekend, drivers who get onto the West Side Highway will lose an option to get off the road. The northbound exit at 72nd Street will close permanently on Sunday. I've always wanted to have 9 lives and in one of the lives I'd drive off a road that said "road closed" and the highway would just end and my car would careen and fly off the road. Look, if you've got the dough to live on 72nd and the West Side, you can afford to drive the extra exit and double back so shut the F up and go to donate some money to a French museum.

  • Staten Island Brouhaha... Police say officers saw a man lighting off fireworks shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday on Fillmore Place, in the Arrochar neighborhood. Police went to arrest him and found themselves in a confrontation with several other people. 17 men -- including homeowner Gabriel Scianna, 50 and one woman were charged with assault, inciting a riot, unlawful assembly, obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. More than a dozen officers were treated for injuries, including bruised hands and feet, swollen faces and cuts to the arms. Naturally, residents are now complaining that the police were too aggressive. And naturally the cops, many of whom were injured, say they were doing their job. The police do admit "an all-out brawl" occurred after 50-some people tried to block them from going in and started to assault them. From the Staten Island Advance:
    Inspector Richard Bruno, the commanding officer of the North Shore's 120th Precinct, tried to approach the alleged ringleader of the fracas, 50-year-old Gabriel Scianna, who lives at 23 Fillmore, cops said.

    But Scianna slammed his front door on Bruno's leg, cutting his knee, and a few seconds later, according to police, several partygoers held up their fists and assumed fighting stances.

    "Mr. Scianna had turned his block into a circa-1980s Howard Beach-type of environment. (HOLLA!) And our message is that, on the Fourth of July, that type of conduct will not be tolerated," Bruno said. He also suffered glass cuts of his elbow.

    "Howard Beach" was a pointed reference to the fireworks spectaculars that Godfather John Gotti staged most years in Queens.


    In 1991, Das Feds arrested Scianna, who lived in Brooklyn at the time, accusing him of being a member of a Colombo crime family death squad, ("Death Squad"?!) Advance records show. Scianna pleaded guilty to a gun charge in 1992.
    One woman with Down Syndome who admitted to Newsday that she jumped a cop, said she was maced, handcuffed, and bruised by a cop, "They threw me on the floor and handcuffed me from behind -- and I was really upset." A police officer, though, said, "It was a donnybrook. They were all drunk." Who uses the term donnybrook? What is this Slapshot 2?!

  • Are we the only blog who hasn't picked up on this stupid pickle story? Curbed, Gothamist, Gawker... Well I guess now we have. Allllll abooooaaard! Bandwagoneers!
  • 2 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    She pronounced Ironically like that because she knows Ronica had something to do with it.

    DDDUUUHHH!

    Anonymous said...

    It's always easy to think that the runner-up would be the perpetrator but I would say there could have been a diehard fan of Ms. Ronica out there. I have her as my communications professor at my school and she's actually a pretty down-to-earth person. I cannot see her being that desperate to blackmail someone. Like she said, she wouldn't wanted to win in that way - as a substitute. It's just ridiculous for all these people to make all these nasty judgments about her when there is absolutely no PROOF, only accusations. They just need someone to blame to fill in the intelligence void.