When Mickey Met Christie

Yesterday ABC News (and, specifically, Candy Crowley) insinuated that Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer was fabricating claims when she said yesterday on MSNBC that Christie's administration tried to strong-arm her in order for Hoboken to receive Sandy aid. OK, just so everyone understands the Christie administration's lies (and those of its enablers at ABC News):

The $70 million Christie's team and ABC now variously claim that Hoboken received or was approved for consists almost entirely of payments from the FEMA federal flood insurance program directly to residents and business owners whose properties were damaged by the flooding from Hurricane Sandy and for which those residents had previously paid insurance premiums.. These are monies over which Christie's team has NO, repeat ZERO, control.

In addition, the U.S. Congress appropriated some $100 million in one-time disaster relief funds for communities damaged by Sandy to fund flood abatement and flood control projects. These are funds whose disbursement Christie's team does control (but which ABC conveniently neglected to mention).

The city of Hoboken (which was 80% under water after Sandy) made a $127 million claim against that special Congressional program (whose disbursements Christie's team controls). To date, Hoboken has only received $327,000. Not $70 million (the Christie lie) and not its $127 million claim.

To recap: Two programs, the first a FEMA insurance program from the federal government directly to Hoboken homeowners that has paid substantial sums to Hoboken home- and business owners, BUT over which Christie has NO CONTROL. The second a special program approved and funded by Congress which Christie's team does control and used to try to extort the Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer into approving a development project favored by Christie. IOW, the Christie administration was playing politics with disaster relief funds from the U.S. taxpayers and probably committing various felonies along the way.

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer has offered to take a lie detector test and to testify under oath. Why won't that shitstain Christie and his goons do the same? Probably because they are all too busy lawyering up and "taking the Fifth." Why doesn't ABC mention that salient fact in its character assassination of Zimmer and propping up of the Outlaw Jersey Whale?

My suggestion: boycott Disney and ABC News until and unless ABC issues a  retraction and makes a public apology to Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer. ABC News cannot be allowed to propagate right-wing lies as truth and get away with it. This is absolutely outrageous.