PennDOT Seeks Temp Help

PennDOT is seeking temporary employees for its 2014  winter maintenance program, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).

The majority of available positions are transportation equipment operators, a position which requires a commercial driver’s license.

Additional temporary positions include mechanics, trades helpers, welders, clerks, typists, semi-skilled laborers, stock clerks and custodial workers. The program runs from September through April.

For  information on eligibility requirements and to apply online, visit RepJimCox.com and click on “PennDOT Winter Maintenance Program.” The deadline to apply is the close of business on Tuesday, Aug. 8.
PennDOT Seeks Temp Help

PennDOT Seeks Temp Help

Chinese Christians Defy Government

Chinese Christians Defy Government

Chinese Christians Defy Government

 

Tom Coniglia submitted this article regarding how the ever growing Chinese Christian population is defying their government which is starting to see them as a threat to the official atheism.

The government hired a crew to rip off the metal cross from atop a one-room church in Wuxi. The next day a church member used his own welding torch to put it back.

He was detained and questioned for 10 hours on the charge of operating a welding business without a license.

A week later the crew again removed the cross. Again church members put it back.

Officials have now cut off water and electricity to the church and asked questions about the congregations work and education.

Whether it be Beijing or Washington, progressives seem to fear and hate Christianity and its symbols.

 

 

Independence Hall Tea Party Changes Name

Amity Shlaes Independence Hall Tea Party Changes Name

With bestselling author Amity Shlaes are Jerry Klein of Wallingford and Fran Shusman of Rydal at an Independence Hall Tea Party event in April 2013.

The Independence Hall Tea Party has changed its name to The Independence Hall Foundation and ended its affiliated political action committee (PAC), according to the organizations founders Teri and Don Adams.

“Over the last five years, our Association, like the broader Tea Party movement in regions across the country, has made a difference.  We woke up many Americans to an ever-expansive and intrusive federal government,” Ms. Adams said. “While we obviously agree with the core principles of the Tea Party as clearly enunciated during those early 2009 Tax Day Tea Parties–a free enterprise economy based on lower taxes, smaller government, and less regulation–we would like to expand our efforts to include non-traditional tea party issues such as Religious Liberty, Sanctity of Life, Culture and the Arts, Educational Savings Accounts, Foreign Affairs, and Defense.

“In short, we wish to pursue a larger, more mainstream conservative agenda-while respecting the mission of the broader Tea Party movement.

“We wish to reach out, in the coming years, to those individuals and groups who do not automatically share our beliefs and ideals, under the banner of a non-profit group we began last September-the Independence Hall Foundation.”

Below is the statement they made yesterday, July25, at a press event announcing the change:

In early February, 2009, Rick Santelli delivered a passionate speech on CNN which led to the founding of the modern day Tea Party.

Out of those inspirational words sprang The Independence Hall Tea Party Association-the oldest and largest Tea Party group in the tri-state region and one whose primary focus was the Philadelphia media market-the fourth largest in the United States.

The Association has been meeting on historic Independence Mall ever since our first Tea Party in late February, 2009.  After a modest showing of one hundred participants at that Tea Party, we were able to attract nearly 2000 participants to our April 18thTax Week Tea Party a few months later.

Since that time, the Association has had many successes-including the sending of 14 buses to the 912 DC Rally in 2009 and 28 buses to the Glenn Beck’s Restoring America Rally in DC a year later.  No other group in the nation sent as many folks to either event.

Over the years, we have put on countless rallies, press conferences, and educational events touching on so many relevant issues.   Our speakers have included Governor Mitt Romney, Ambassador John Bolton, Bill Kristol, Herman Cain, Amity Shlaes, John Fund, Andrew Breitbart, and local favorites Dom Giordano, Herb Denenberg, and Joey Vento, to name a few.

We also hosted a much noted event called UNITEA, which was an expression of our desire to reach out to the minority community.

In addition, for all five years, we have held annual tax month events, July 4th
Celebrations, and Christmas Tea Parties which re-enacted the original Philadelphia Tea Party of December 27, 1773.

Immediately following the 2010 elections, the Association began lobbying for a Voter ID bill sponsored by Pennsylvania State Representatives Daryl Metcalfe and Steven Barrar.  The bill was eventually signed into law by Governor Tom Corbett.

In 2011, we responded to Occupy Philadelphia/Occupy Wall Street by organizing, on Face Book, an informal group known as Liberate Philadelphia/Liberate America.   That group initiated a Black Friday Buycott in response to Occupy’s call for a Black Friday Boycott.  Black Friday sales were up that year.

In 2012, we began releasing an annual Congressional Scorecard-and last year, we were the first in the nation to call for a Special Prosecutor to investigate the IRS Scandal.

During our tenure, we have received an abundance of international, national, and regional press as members of our Association have appeared on Television programs broadcast in China, Europe, and the Middle East as well as appearing in interviews on CNN, FOX, NBC and, of course, our terrific local stations.

Association members and/or events have been featured in countless newspapers and blogs from the LA Times to the Philadelphia Inquirer/ Daily News.

There have also been numerous national and local radio interviews with personalities such as Lou Doubs, Steve Marlzberg and, of course, our own favorite, WPHT’s Dom Giordano.

For five-plus years, our Association has labored on behalf of conservative Tea Party causes, especially the repeal of ObamaCare.

While we have usually agreed with most Tea Party objectives, we have not always agreed on Tea Party tactics-especially those espoused by national groups-proving, despite its portrayal as such in the media, that the Tea Party was not monolithic.

And just like the original Tea Party of the 18th Century, our organization envisioned the modern Tea Party as a protest movement-not necessarily a permanent social/political movement or party-but one which could lead to peaceful revolutionary changes in government.

We the current movement for what it was at its core-a grass roots movement dedicated to waking up average Americans to an out-of-control federal government that is fast becoming far too centralized-and far too intrusive in our everyday lives.

There was a certain purity of heart as we organized as volunteers-not looking for personal financial gain or celebrity-but looking to make America a freer and better place to live.

Our mission was daunting-to stop the Obama Administration from “remaking America” into a government dependency that more closely resembled a European socialist state than a successful US meritocracy.

As we stand here today, we can honestly say that our Association, like the broader Tea Party movement in regions across the country, has made a difference.  We did wake up many Americans to an ever-expansive and intrusive federal government.

More Americans seem to be aware of our nation’s alarming $(17.6) trillion national debt and the scandals involving renegade bureaucracies, within the federal government, such as the Internal Revenue Service, the National Security Agency, and the Veterans Administration.  We have successfully challenged a congressional spending habit simply known as “pork.”

Because of these successes, the Independence Hall Tea Party Board of Directors feels that we should take matters to the next level.

While we obviously agree with the core principles of the Tea Party as clearly enunciated during those early 2009 Tax Day Tea Parties-a free enterprise economy based on lower taxes, smaller government, and less regulation-we would like to expand our efforts to include non-traditional tea party issues such as Religious Liberty, Sanctity of Life, Culture and the Arts, Educational Savings Accounts, Foreign Affairs, and Defense.

In short, we wish to pursue a larger, more mainstream conservative agenda-while respecting the mission of the broader Tea Party movement.

We wish to reach out, in the coming years, to those individuals and groups who do not automatically share our beliefs and ideals, under the banner of a non-profit group we began last September-the Independence Hall Foundation.

In the future, we wish to be referred to as The Independence Hall Foundation-a conservative educational organization dedicated to promoting the principles enshrined in our founding documents-the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

As for the Independence Hall Tea Party PAC, we also have an important announcement.  Here to discuss the success of the PAC is PAC Vice President Bill Green.

The Independence Hall Tea Party PAC, a federal PAC established in February 2010 for the purpose of electing Congressional candidates in the tri-state region, has had a very good run over the last 4+ years.

Since our inception, we have won over 80% of our contested primary races. We have raised a modest $40,000-giving more than half of that money to candidates and spending most of the remaining funds on independent expenditures advocating on behalf of various campaigns.  None of that money was used for salaries or perks.

In 2010, our banner year, we helped defeat Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House by endorsing, during primary season, the following Republicans whose November victories flipped seats from D to R-Mike Fitzpatrick, Lou Barletta, Pat Meehan, and Jon Runyan.  As well, we supported Pat Toomey who is currently the only Republican Senator from the tri-state region.

Two of our proudest endorsements came in 2012 when we announced our support of Mitt Romney for President before the Iowa Caucus and Tom Smith of Pennsylvania for US Senate– also during primary season.

In the case of Romney, we were the first and only Tea Party PAC in the nation to endorse him.

In the case of Tom Smith, we helped to defeat the Republican establishment choice of Steve Welch-the first time that has been accomplished in a modern statewide PA Republican race.

While Mitt Romney did not win the Presidency, he did cut into President Obama’s margin of victory versus John McCain.   As well, Tom Smith performed 10% points better than Senator Rick Santorum did against Bob Casey in 2006.

This year, our PAC endorsed the Republican primary winner, Tom MacArthur, over Steve Lonegan in the New Jersey 3rd Congressional District race.  We also supported Dave Larsen over incumbent Congressman Leonard Lance in a much closer than expected Republican primary in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District.

On the national level, the Independence Hall Tea Party PAC endorsed Mitch McConnell over Matt Bevin in the May Kentucky Primary.  We did so because our 2014 goal was to “Keep the House/Win the Senate” and winning the McConnell/Grimes race is key to winning the Senate.

We strongly believe that regional Center/Right congressional candidates are now well-positioned to win competitive General Election races this November.

As a result, the PAC Board of Delegates feels that we have accomplished as much as we could possibly have hoped to accomplish as a regional federal Tea Party PAC, and, for that reason, we have decided to cease with PAC activities in order to focus all of our energies on the Independence Hall Foundation.

 

Independence Hall Tea Party Changes Name 
 

Sinister Truth Regarding Common Core

By Ryan M. Bannister

In response to a recent op-ed (York Dispatch)  by William Bartle, education policy director for Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, I would like to point out some conveniently ignored truths regarding Common Core.

Mr. Bartle, with either willful ignorance or contempt for the “regular class,” has lacked the integrity to offer full disclosure in his April 18 piece titled “Nothing sinister about Common Core.” The title itself screams “nothing to see here.”

I offer a public response to Mr. Bartle in order to enlighten him with the facts and further educate him on honesty in communication.

Fact: William Bartles’ organization, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, has received three separate grants from the Gates Foundation to sponsor Common Core. These three grants total $935,859.

I wonder why he failed to mention this.

Fact: The president and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children is Joan Benso. Why is she important? Well, another fact that must have slipped the mind of Mr. Bartle is that Joan Benso has a husband named Thomas Gluck. Are you ready for this? Mr. Thomas Gluck is executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Intermediate Units. His organization also received grants from the Gates Foundation to support and promote Common Core. His grants totaled nearly $2 million.

The conflict is glaring, but I’m sure the elitist few have their reasons. After all, it’s for the children. It must be a difficult job as education director for Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children to sacrifice facts and honest disclosure for corporate interests in a federal takeover of education. The documentation from the commonwealth stating that Pennsylvania Core Standards and Common Core are the same thing is vast and abundant. It’s a wonder the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children can’t afford a fact-checker or staff researcher with all that Gates Foundation money. Somehow a “regular class” proletariat such as myself was able to locate these documents, and at no cost. I’ll be happy to share them with you if you want to get caught up on the facts.

Mr. William Bartle stated with such confidence that there is no federal control of education due to Common Core. That is a lie. In order to even apply for the federal grant money (wow, more money?) we had to have agreed to the federal Common Core standards and Common Core-aligned resources (technology, text books, etc. …).

Additionally, to apply for the SLDS (Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems) grant, we had to have first implemented a “womb-to-workplace” data collection system. Sounds sinister, huh? What’s even scarier is that those aren’t my words. The term “womb-to-workplace” was used multiple times by the commonwealth on the actual grant application. I’m sure these details slipped his mind as well.

Now that we’ve identified the conveniently ignored facts that William Bartle, fancy shmancy policy director of the bought-and-paid-for Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, left out of his op-ed, let’s discuss what Common Core in Pennsylvania means to the taxpayer.

In Pennsylvania, Common Core is a regulation, not a law. This is because our state Constitution (remember this document, Mr. Bartle?) requires any cost to the commonwealth associated with changes in education be put through the legislative process. That means it would be subject to amendments, alterations and a host of other political shenanigans in which the resulting bill could be something that is not aligned with the federal requirements for the Race To The Top federal grant money. Also, any actual law that involves federal control to our local education system would violate the 10th amendment as well as the General Education Provisions Act. Regulations seem convenient. This way no elected or publicly accountable official can tinker with Common Core.

The ridiculous description offered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education in describing the cost of Common Core is that it will be … are you ready for this? … cost-neutral. This is efficiency at its finest, considering the Boston-based Pioneer Institute placed the cost to just implement Common Core in Pennsylvania to be at least $650 million. Luckily, the commonwealth doesn’t have to pay for this because it is cost-neutral (pause for laughter). That’s right folks. The cost will fall squarely to the local level. What’s that you say? Your local school district doesn’t have that kind of money to implement Common Core? Thankfully, the hard-working property owners of Pennsylvania will be there to foot the bill. Taxpayers, say hello to the unfunded mandate.

What have we learned today? The president and CEO, Joan Benso, of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children received nearly $1 million from the Gates Foundation to promote Common Core. Thomas Gluck (husband of Joan Benso) is the executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Intermediate Units and has received nearly $2 million to support and promote Common Core.

William Bartle, education policy director for Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, writes an op-ed from behind the curtain on April 18 to assure us that there is nothing sinister about Common Core.

It takes some decent money to support Common Core. It only takes common sense to oppose it.

We the taxpayers, the parents, the citizens of the regular class know better than this. We know that our children and the educational decisions to be made regarding our children should be managed at the local level, not through federal standardized tests and curriculum.

We can do better than the money takers. There are far more of us than there are of them. Let us be heard.

Ryan M. Bannister is a member of Pennsylvanians Against Common Core.

Sinister Truth Regarding Common Core

Sinister Truth Regarding Common Core

Hat tip Joanne Yurchak

Shaneen Allen Must Be Freed

Shaneen Allen

Shaneen Allen Must Be Freed

 

Courtesy of National Review

In October of 2013, a Pennsylvania resident named Shaneen Allen drove into New Jersey’s Atlantic County and was pulled over by police for an “unsafe lane change.” When the detaining officer arrived at her car window, Allen informed him that she was carrying a concealed firearm, and presented her Pennsylvania carry license as proof of eligibility. Unbeknownst to her at the time, however, was that New Jersey is among the 20 states that do not recognize Pennsylvania’s permit. In consequence, she was arrested. If convicted of the charges that the state has elected to bring, she will be locked in prison for up to a decade.

A single mother of two young children, Ms. Allen works more than one job and as a result leaves her home at odd times of the day. After two robberies made her aware of her vulnerability, she became convinced that she should be prepared to defend herself and her family, and resolved to do something about it. Which is to say that Ms. Allen bought her firearm, and obtained her concealed-carry permit, not to commit crimes but to prevent them. This has failed to move the prosecutor, Jim McClain, an overzealous man who has routinely declined to use the considerable latitude with which he has been entrusted by the state.

Under New Jersey’s rules, McClain could have declined to press any charges against Ms. Allen, recognizing that she was guilty of little more than an innocent mistake. He could have treated it as merely a misdemeanor and sent her to municipal court. He could have permitted her to enroll in one of the diversionary programs that New Jersey has established for peaceful first-time offenders, thereby sparing her both the prison time that will take her away from her children and the felony conviction that will almost certainly destroy her career in medical work. Instead, he has sought punishment to the fullest extent of the law: in this instance, a three-year mandatory minimum jail sentence for illegal possession of a firearm, and an extra year or more for possession of illegal ammunition. This is a travesty of justice.

The travesty can be reversed. First, McClain could drop the charges and let Ms. Allen off with a warning. If he refuses, his superiors could step in. Governor Chris Christie has a mixed record on the question of the right to bear arms, but he has at times demonstrated a commonsense streak. As he famously did for Brian Aitken — another peaceful American who fell afoul of New Jersey’s draconian rules — we hope the governor will grant Allen clemency as early in the process as is legally possible.

More generally, we would like to see the question of concealed-carry reciprocity cleared up at the national level. Allen may have been incorrect in assuming that concealed-carry permits issued by one state are, like driver’s licenses, valid in every other. But this was not an unreasonable assumption for her to make. The Second Amendment to the Constitution has been held to protect an individual right, and that right has been incorporated to the states. Under the Full Faith and Credit clause, Congress has the power to “prescribe the manner in which such Acts, Records, and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof,” and thus to mandate that all state-issued permits are valid nationwide. To prevent further miscarriages of justice, it should use it.

In the meantime, we urge friends of the Second Amendment — and of prosecutorial prudence — to contribute to Allen’s legal-defense fund, which can be found here.

Civilization Almost Ended In 2012

Civilization Almost Ended In 2012What a solar storm looks like

 

Civilization almost ended in 2012 just as those crazy Mayans had predicted.

A massive solar eruption happened on July 23 of  that year that would have fried just about all circuit boards on Planet Earth if it hit us.

If it happened two weeks earlier it would have.

Without circuit boards water would not be pumped, electricity would not be transmitted and automobiles made after the 1980s would not have started.

Food would spoil in refrigerators and freezers. Hospitals would be paralyzed.

The death told would likely be in the billions.

And it almost happened.

A solar storm of that magnitude did strike Earth but that was in September 1859 and it was no big deal.

But that was well before computer chips and power was produced by muscle and steam, and food for storage was either salted or dried or kept in ice houses.

Things are different now.

A solar strike is inevitable. NASA is giving one a 12 percent chance of happening in  the next decade.

It strikes us as being far wiser to invest in shielding our infrastructure to resist it than following the Chicken Little proponents of global warming. This would mean investing in upgrades for power facilities and water pumping stations. It would mean making sure that all emergency vehicles can withstand an EMP blast — basically the same thing. It would mean encouraging world automobile makers to design consumer vehicles with the appropriate shielding. It would mean factoring in EMP shielding in home design and educating the average person on how best to shield his home.

One wonders about the lack of discussion about such matters.

 

Civilization Almost Ended In 2012

Blame GOP Along With Democrats

By  William Evans

The claim recently made that Southeast Pennsylvania’s GOP backed Corbett’s pension revamp rings hollow.  What the GOP fears is that Corbett is likely to be replaced by Tom Wolfe in the next election and some of them will go down with Corbett.

Frankly, it will serve them right.  If the GOP had truly supported revising the pension system for the teachers union and state employees they could have done it.  But instead they frittered away the days with no solution in sight and none on the horizon.

I think this indicates that these unions hold the GOP by the short hairs just as surely as they hold the Democrats.  The victim from the legislators recalcitrance is of course the public and most notably senior citizens living on fixed incomes.

To illustrate, Rose Tree Media school district in 2007 contributed $2.5 million to the teachers’ pension fund; this year 2014, the district is contributing $9.6 million, or an increase of $8.2 million – all taken from the pockets of already strapped taxpayers.  In 2024 the contribution increases to $11.5 million.  Please note that the amounts will be greater than these numbers because of the automatic increases in annual wages that teachers will receive over this time that increase the base on which the contributions are calculated.

The typical pension paid to RTM’s retiring teachers approaches $100,000 a year.  Many have pensions that far exceed that amount.  The school district’s administrators receive even more with the average exceeding $150,000 a year and the superintendent is already scheduled to get $180,000 per year.

Nobody in the private sector receives anything close to what the teachers’ union members get and yet the rest of us are forced to subsidize this scheme out of meager salaries and paltry retirement savings.

Frankly, I think there is no hope Pennsylvania will ever resolve this problem simply because the legislators in Harrisburg are feasting on the same system.  They can’t handle change.

Mr. Evans  is a member of Rose Tree Media Taxpayers United.
Hat tip Cathy Craddock

 

Blame GOP Along With Democrats

Blame GOP Along With Democrats

Pa Bond Rating Cut By Moody’s

Pennsylvania’s rating has been cut from Aa2 to Aa3 by Moody’s Investors Service reports PaIndpendent.com.

Moody’s cited as among its reasons Pennsylvania’s “growing structural imbalance, exacerbated by the fiscal 2014 enacted budget that depends on non-recurring resources.”

Moody’s also cited Pennsylvania”s “large and growing pension liabilities”.

The unfunded pension liabilities are expected to grow from $41 billion to $65 billion.

The reasons can be summed up in two simple words: bad government

The Pennsylvania legislature has shown a marked unwillingness to address the issue even in the most simplest terms.

Pa Bond Rating Cut By Moody's

Pa Bond Rating Cut By Moody’s