January 21, 2014 Omnibit Trivia by William W. Lawrence Sr.
The last words of Douglas Fairbanks were: “I never felt better.”
Bill Ends Pennsylvanian 911 Penalty
The Pennsylvania House, Jan. 14, voted 197-0 to approve a bill that would end penalties for calling for emergency assistance.
While the bill would preserve a municipality’s ability to combat nuisance properties and false alarms, the Pennsylvania Coalition of Domestic Violence reports that at least 23 municipalities in Pennsylvania have ordinances that would penalize a victim for simply calling for help, reports state Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).
HB 1796 moves to the Senate for consideration.
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Rapist Middle School Teacher Confronted
This dramatic video in which a 28-year-old woman calls and confronts the female teacher who sexually molested while in middle school was placed on YouTube Jan. 17 and has gone viral.
The teacher had been promoted to an assistant principal at Alhambra High School in California. She resigned after being confronted about the allegations made in the video.
The abuse started when the caller was 12. The caller tells the woman she ruined her life.
One kinds of wonders what garbage the teacher was feeding the children she wasn’t molesting about love and sex and boys and religion and politics.
Institutions are necessary but if anything has been learned over the last three decades is that the moment they become beyond reproach is the moment they become magnets for predators.
People must insist on transparency with regard to all institutions and parents must demand in the loudest terms the power to terminate relations with schools and teachers with whom they feel the least bit uncomfortable without incurring cost or hardship.
Vouchers are the perfect solution to the latter.
Rapist Middle School Teacher Confronted
Corbett Voter ID Stance Will Hurt Him
Independence Hall Tea Party PAC President, Don Adams, called on Governor Tom Corbett to immediately appeal Commonwealth Judge Bernard McGinley’s latest ruling on Voter ID to the full Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court or the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
“Governor Corbett should not appear to be sitting on the fence. The Governor signed this Voter ID law and should be vigorously defending it. His relative silence tells us a great deal about his leadership or, should I say, lack thereof,” said Mr. Adams, a resident of Cheltenham township.
“To boot, the Corbett Administration was charged with implementing the 2012 law and the court’s most recent ruling indicts the record of that implementation.
“At the very least, Governor Corbett should have already responded to the court’s criticisms.
“The fact that the Governor has yet to announce an appeal–and has not yet issued a strong rebuttal of the ruling–is extremely troubling.
“The Independence Hall Tea Party fought hard to get the Voter ID bill enacted into law–taking it on as a major legislative initiative in late 2009. If the Governor refuses to fight for it, why should we fight for his re-election?
“Friday’s ruling by Judge McGinley, a lifelong Democrat, struck down the recent law on its merits, but not its constitutionality under PA law.
“Bottom line, we are concerned that the Judge’s decision will allow voter fraud to continue in the commonwealth–particularly in Philadelphia and Allegheny Counties,” said Mr. Adams.
The false notion advanced by the Judge’s ruling, that there is no evidence of voter fraud in Pennsylvania, is completely incorrect.
“Even partisan Democrat pols like Ed Rendell and Chris Matthews have admitted that voter fraud runs rampant in the state’s largest county–Philadelphia.
As noted National Review columnist John Fund pointed out in his recent article:
In 2012, Philadelphia city commissioner Al Schmidt, a Republican, issued a 27-page report on irregularities he found in a sample of city precincts during that year’s primary. The report, which looked at only 1 percent of the city’s districts, found cases of double voting, voter impersonation, and voting by non-citizens, as well as 23 people who were not registered to vote but nonetheless voted. Schmidt also found reports of people who were counted as voting in the wrong party’s primary. “We identified hundreds of cases of voting irregularities [in select precincts] that warrant further investigation,” he concluded.
“A Philadelphia Inquirer poll, among others, has found that nearly 70% of PA residents favor Voter ID–but Judge McGinley has ruled against the common sense of the overwhelming majority of Pennsylvanians and their state legislators.
“That is the definition of legislating from the bench,” said Mr. Adams.
“If this decision is left intact, it will lead to further feelings of disenfranchisement among a majority of voters who believe their ballots are being undermined by the unchecked cheaters among us.
“If Judge McGinley’s decision is not immediately appealed by Governor Corbett, we will seriously consider withholding our support from the Governor,” said Mr. Adams.
“The Governor’s re-elect numbers are currently in the tank. He’ll need us in November. We need him to do the right thing now.”
Corbett Voter ID Stance Will Hurt Him
Inky Mystery Bid
The New York Post is reporting on the mystery behind the money that is sponsoring a bid by the Newspaper Guild to buy The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philly.com website and end the battle between the principles of its current owner, Interstate Media General.
The battling factions are led by one-percenter Democrat big wheel and New Jersey insurance executive George Norcross III, and one-percenter Democrat donor Lewis Katz, the former owner of the New Jersey Nets.
Norcross has acquired 58 percent of Interstate Media General.
The Inquirer and Daily News were purchased by Philadelphia Media Holdings headed by Brian Tierney for $515 million in 2006.
In September 2010, they were sold at a bankruptcy auction to Philadelphia Media Network for $139 million. This group of socially correct businesspersons sold the Inquirer Building on North Broad Street to developer Bart Blatsein of Tower Investments in 2011 and then the husk of the company on April 2 to Interstate Media for $55 million.
The Inquirer circulation as of May 2013 was 184,827 on the print side, and this includes the Daily News, which once upon a time had a circulation by itself of the much.
In Philadelphia, nearly nobody reads this garbage.
So, where exactly did the Guild find a sucker?
Hat tip Bob Guzzardi
Inky Mystery Bid
Omnibit Trivia 1-20-14
Paycheck Protection Benefits Teachers
By Matthew J. Brouillette
Pennsylvania’s AFL-CIO union boss Rick Bloomingdale is absolutely right that there is a “war on workers” here in Pennsylvania—he should know, because he is waging it. His recent opinion piece on PennLive tries, and fails, to defend the indefensible, getting the facts wrong in the process.
What has Bloomingdale so upset?
It’s a proposal that would simply stop using public resources to collect union campaign contributions and political money for government unions.
Far from an attack on workers, this reform would actually give union members a stronger voice in how their dues and campaign dollars are spent. It is not anti-union. It is pro-worker.
If Rick Bloomingdale were interested in protecting the middle class, he’d be standing alongside teachers like Rob Brough rather than against them.
Just ask Rob Brough, a teacher in Pennsylvania who must pay fees to a government union, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, in order to keep his job.
“Their agenda and political ideals are counter to what I believe, and it is a kick in the teeth every time my dues are withdrawn from my hard-earned paycheck and handed off to some organization that I would never contribute to of my own free will,” Brough said.
Shouldn’t the PSEA have to look Rob in the face, ask him for his $680 in dues, and then explain how the union plans to spend it? Since Rob is forced to pay this money to keep his teaching job, isn’t it fair that he should be empowered to have a stronger voice in how his money is spent on politics?
Right now, the leaders of the PSEA and other government unions don’t have to do that. They can use taxpayer resources to collect campaign contributions and political money directly out of employees’ paychecks.
Not only is this unfair to taxpayers; it hurts the very workers government unions claim to represent. Union members are harmed because union bosses don’t have to explain the unions’ political expenditures to members.
That’s what the legislation Bloomingdale references would fix. And he’s wrong that it would affect “all unions”—it only affects government unions, the ones that represent people whose salaries we taxpayers pay.
Bloomingdale argues that ending this special legal privilege for government unions and requiring them to play by the same rules as everyone else “singles out unions only for unnecessary and burdensome rules and restrictions.”
In reality, it is teachers like Rob who are singled out for onerous and unfair restrictions on their hard-earned money—not union bosses.
Imagine if the National Rifle Association or Planned Parenthood demanded taxpayers pay for the collection of their lobbying funds and campaign contributions. They would be ridiculed and rejected – and rightfully so.
Government unions enjoy this same benefit of using your township, borough, city, and state tax dollars to collect their political money and deny union members the ability to hold their union bosses more accountable. No other private or political organization enjoys this financial and political privilege.
Unions can – and should – play by the same rules as everyone else. One questions how viable and relevant government unions are today if, as Bloomingdale implies, they are so dependent on taxpayer subsidies that they would have to close up shop should they lose this exclusive legal privilege.
Paycheck protection would do one thing: Stop the use of taxpayer resources for politics. That, in turn, would set teachers free, allowing them to make their own choices with their own money. It won’t end collective bargaining or keep unions from collecting dues. They would simply have to do it themselves.
Protecting the paychecks of union members and taxpayers is supported statewide. No less than three separate polls of Pennsylvanians reveal overwhelming support for ending Bloomingdale’s exclusive legal privilege.
One survey of likely voters revealed that 79 percent of voters (and 75 percent of union members) agree that unions should not be permitted to use taxpayer-funded resources to collect government union dues.
The public gets it because no other political group enjoys such privileges on the taxpayers’ dime. There is no greater pro-worker and pro-taxpayer proposal than ending the taxpayer-funded collection of dues and campaign contributions for government unions.
If Bloomingdale were truly interested in protecting the middle class, he’d be standing alongside teachers like Rob Brough rather than against them.
Matthew Brouillette is president and CEO of Commonwealth Foundation
Paycheck Protection Benefits Teachers
Education Bills Jan 2014 Before Pa Senate
The Pennsylvania House, last week, sent several education bills to the Senate according to State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129)
House Bill 1411, also known as SchoolWATCH, would direct the Pennsylvania Department of Education to create a searchable online database detailing the revenues and expenditures of traditional, charter and cyber school districts across the Commonwealth. The bill follows the model of PennWATCH, which was created to allow Pennsylvania residents to see how tax dollars are being used by state agencies.
House Bill 1741 would require school boards to provide at least 48 hours of public notice prior to voting upon any proposed collective bargaining agreement or employment contract.
House Bill 1738 would create a commission to study basic education funding and develop a formula that takes into account each school district’s market value/personal income aid ratio, equalized millage rate, geographic price differences, enrollment levels, local support and other factors.
House Bill 1816 would allow Pennsylvania’s teachers, guidance counselors and other school administrators to receive necessary continuing education credits if they visit certain manufacturing facilities. These visits would take educators to manufacturers for in-person tours and orientation programs in manufacturing facilities with the goal of ensuring students are more familiar with available opportunities in the modern high-tech manufacturing industry.
House Bill 1878 would create the Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Strategy (Pa WInS) program, which would offer tax credits to businesses to organize and collaborate with each other to address common personnel needs and training shortfalls and then develop employee training programs and implement them with readily-available pre-existing infrastructure.
Education Bills Jan 2014 Before Pa Senate
We Won’t Kill Anybody: Overcoming Civil Rights Disconnect
We Won’t Kill Anybody: Overcoming Civil Rights Disconnect
By Father Frank Pavone
Our nation again approaches the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday, and I will again be with Dr. King’s family on that day.
Many people understand the connection between the civil rights movement and the pro-life movement thanks to the work of Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King, Jr. Her father, Rev. A.D. Williams King, was Martin’s brother. She began working with me full time at Priests for Life as our Director of African-American Outreach in 2004.
She and I have been together with her family at many events both happy and sad, including the annual observances of the national Martin Luther King Jr. holiday at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and the 50th anniversary celebration of the “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. On these occasions, we have been privileged to enjoy some of the most soaring oratory of our day, and some of the most articulate speeches about civil rights, justice, equality and freedom that one can ever hear. Time and time again, I have been energized and inspired by these speeches, and moved to recommit myself to the pursuit of justice and equality for every human being.
But therein also comes the pain and a glaring disconnect. The deepest human emotion and commitment to justice is evoked as speaker after speaker decries violence in the streets, senseless shootings, vast numbers of young people in prison, social inequities and economic injustices, and the horrors of war — to mention a few. But what is never mentioned is the violence of abortion, and the need to secure justice and equality for the child in the womb. Alveda and I have both felt the disconnect so intensely at these gatherings that, amidst the loud applause, we sometimes say out loud, “And the children too! Don’t forget the children in the womb!” We were indeed gratified when, on a single occasion (the MLK Holiday observance at Ebenezer in January of 2013), the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, in his keynote address, mentioned the need to protect all life, including the womb.
That is the kind of consistency that then gives credibility to the cry for justice and equality in all the other contexts that are mentioned.
At that recent 50th Anniversary celebration, we heard the assertions, “There are still too many lives taken by violence… I dream of a world that does not hold anyone back…We can’t move ahead while some people are falling behind…We must protect the most fundamental rights we have…” No reference was made to the right to life of the youngest children.
And hence the pro-life movement declares today, “There are indeed too many lives taken by the violence of abortion… We dream of the world that does not hold the unborn back…We can’t move ahead while children in the womb are falling behind…We must protect the most fundamental right we have, the right to life.”
On Christmas of 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. preached the following words: “The next thing we must be concerned about if we are to have peace on earth and good will toward men is the nonviolent affirmation of the sacredness of all human life. Every man is somebody because he is a child of God…Man is more than …whirling electrons or a wisp of smoke …. Man is a child of God, made in His image, and therefore must be respected as such….And when we truly believe in the sacredness of human personality, we won’t exploit people, we won’t trample over people with the iron feet of oppression, we won’t kill anybody.”
Indeed, we won’t kill anybody, including the children in the womb.
Father Pavone’s website can be found here.
A Novena in Reparation for Roe vs. Wade is being held through Jan. 22. The prayer is:
God and Father of Life,
You have created every human person,
And have opened the way for each to have eternal
life.
We live in the shadow of death.
Tens of millions of your children have been
killed
because of the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing
abortion.
Father, have mercy on us.
Heal our land
And accept our offering of prayer and penance.
In your love for us,
Turn back the scourge of abortion.
May each of us exult in hearts full of hope
And hands full of mercy
And work together to build a culture of life.
We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.
PCMH Bill Passes Pa House
The Pennsylvania House, this week, unanimously sent to the Senate a measure to improve patient care and reduce health care costs through the development of a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Advisory Council for the state’s Medicaid program, says State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).
House Bill 1655 promotes the PCMH model that allows a primary care physician or nurse practitioner to act as the primary contact for medical care. This model is especially effective for those with chronic diseases that require one or more specialists. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists and others would communicate to ensure the patient is receiving coordinated care, which includes making sure the patient does not undergo duplicative testing, receive important routine exams, and is alerted when immunizations are needed.
Twenty-six other states have launched PCMH initiatives within their Medicaid programs on a state or regional level. Private insurers also are already using PCMH models.