We can now say with some degree of certainty that foreclosure mitigation plans, as conceived for the crisis years, didn’t work. All we have to do is look at the money allocated for the programs relative to the money paid out.

Let’s just be very clear right up front, Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco may have both collected their share of mainstream awards, like Pulitzers, American Book Awards, and the like, but with this book, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, they remove any doubt about whether they are “celebrity couriers,” as they derisively term a lot of what is left of the mainstream, main street journalists out there today slapping whitewash on poverty and helping spin the machinery that manufactures rose-colored glasses. They have traveled through some of the hellholes on the dark side of the American economic reality and they are angry about the whole damn thing, fired up, fed up, and desperately looking hard for a fight. This book needs to be read, and it needs to sell very well because these guys are pretty much unemployable now. Trust me, I know this!

New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie recently admitted that the war on drugs has been a “failure” in a speech at The Brooking Institution.

A bill to reduce the penalties for minor marijuana possession in New Jersey won unanimous bipartisan approval in the Assembly Judiciary Committee yesterday. The vote on A1465 was 7-0, with five Democrats and two Republican on the committee voting to move the bill forward. Having cleared the committee, the bill could get a vote before the whole Assembly as early as Thursday.

Mayor Cory Booker said on Meet the Press yesterday he was “nauseated” by the Obama campaign’s attacks on Mitt Romney’s record with private equity firm Bain Capital. In a follow-up YouTube that looked like the kind of video hostage-takers make their victims record, Booker walked back the comments, saying that Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital is fair game for scrutiny. But cities have reasons to defend equity firms that help fund their projects.

New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie cancelled a tunnel project across the Hudson River in 2010, a decision which made him very popular in conservative circles, claiming that the costs has dramatically increased while the state would be forced to bear most of the risks . It turns out that he had to twist facts to justify this decision.

Earlier this week New Jersey’s Senate Judiciary Committee approved the marriage equality bill (S1) with an 8 to 4 vote. Shortly thereafter Governor Chris Christie (R) reiterated his earlier promise that he will veto the bill. At a press conference a reporter asked Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester), one of the bill’s champions, “why bother?” Here’s why.

New Jersey’s marriage equality bill is being reintroduced with the strong support of the leaders of the state Senate and Assembly. A news conference with legislative leaders is planned for 1 PM today in Committee Room 1 at the State House in Trenton.

Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) declared his support today for the Respect for Marriage Act (RMA, S.598), a bill that would repeal the so-called federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Senator Menendez is the 32nd U.S. Senator so far to co-sponsor the RMA and joins a growing list of senators — currently totaling 13 — who originally voted for DOMA in 1996 as a Senator or Representative.

A majority — 55 percent — of registered voters in New Jersey agree that all the penalties related to possessing a small amount of marijuana should be eliminated, according to a new Rutgers-Eagleton Poll. Republicans and conservatives disagree, and a majority still oppose complete legalization of use and sales.