Tea Party Wins In Lehigh County

Scott Ott, the Tea Party supporter  who is crusading for   fiscal sanity and against cronyism and corruption, beat the Republican establishment in Lehigh County to run as the party’s nominee for county executive.

The rank and file in Tuesday’s primary chose him over party-supported Dean Browning, a former county commissioner, 6,837 to 5,429 (unofficial results).

He faces Democrat Tom Muller in November.

Ott is the author of the satirical website Scrappleface and is a commentator on Tea Party-friendly  PJTV

Tea Party Wins In Lehigh County

Merger Of Fish, Game Commissions To Be Studied

Merger Of Fish, Game Commissions To Be Studied — The House voted unanimously, last week, in support of a measure to launch a detailed study of the potential impacts of merging the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).

House Resolution 129 calls on the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to study the financial feasibility, impact, costs and savings that may be realized by combining the agencies. It also calls on the committee to explore a range of options with regard to how to structure the state’s wildlife agency to best manage the wildlife and aquatic resources of the Commonwealth.

A similar study was conducted 10 years ago, and it showed a merger was feasible and would save money. No legislative action resulted from that study’s findings, however.

The study is expected to take about six months. Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation where management and oversight of fishing, boating and wildlife activities are managed by two separate, independent agencies.

 

Merger Of Fish, Game Commissions To Be Studied

Gaddafi Would Have Prevented Benghazi

Gaddafi Would Have Prevented Benghazi

Nine months ago most people would have guessed “Ben Ghazi” was the name of a professional basketball player. Now, of course, we know it as the Libyan city where four Americans, including our ambassador, lost their lives when terrorists stormed the U.S. consulate on Sept. 11, 2012.

Predictably, both sides have been spinning their version of what “really” happened (while conveniently omitting key facts), what went wrong, and who is to blame.

Since our political climate is now ultra-partisan, we probably will never know the real story of Benghazi. But cutting through the hype, here’s a reasonable analysis:

1. Violent attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions are not rare. There were 13 during the George W. Bush presidency, including a brazen assault on the consulate in Saudi Arabia that left nine dead, and major attacks in Tanzania and Kenya under Bill Clinton. Given that history, then, why is Benghazi still in the headlines? To highlight Obama administration incompetence? To score political points against Barack Obama, and, possibly, preempt a Hillary Clinton run in 2016? To show that American interests need to be better secured? All of the above.

2. Was the budget for diplomatic security cut, in part by the Republican Congress? Yes. Does that make some GOP critics of Benghazi’s security appear inconsistent? Yes. Does that make them responsible for the attack? No, though this is what happens when both parties spend like drunken sailors — not enough money is available for the truly important things because so many trillions are utterly wasted. The piper has been calling but Congress isn’t listening.

3. Was the attack precipitated by an anti-Islam movie made in America? Uh, no. That film may have added to the problem, of course, but while it was used as an excuse to riot and loot throughout the Arab world, it certainly was not the primary reason for the attack. To suggest otherwise, as some administration officials did, belies a gross naiveté, since many Muslim protestors had never heard of YouTube, let along owned a computer or smartphone capable of viewing the “offensive” movie. Being naïve isn’t a crime, but it doesn’t help matters.

4. Is there credence to the view that Obama wouldn’t label Benghazi a “terrorist” act and didn’t respond with more force because it would shatter his narrative that terrorism had been contained under his watch — and that such an attack would help Mitt Romney? That’s laughable. Romney wasn’t going to win, period. Benghazi (along with Hurricane Sandy and Chris Christie) had absolutely nothing to do with Romney’s loss — he took care of that feat all by himself. And quite frankly, the opposite would have occurred. Had U.S. forces beaten back the attack, saving lives in the process, Americans would have overwhelmingly approved of their commander in chief’s actions, totally ending what little chance Romney had of eeking out a victory.

So why wasn’t there a quicker response? Why didn’t the intelligence agencies see the attack coming? And who is ultimately to blame?

For all the blabbering from the talking heads, they still don’t get it.

Obama is solely to blame, because he, and he alone, willfully eliminated the best security system America had in Libya. One that, had it not been changed, would have almost certainly prevented the attack and saved lives.

Muammar Gaddafi.

The minute Barack Obama made the Bush-esque decision to engage in nation-building/regime change in Libya, there was no going back.

You reap what you sow, and the seeds of that ill-fated decision grew into Benghazi. There’s no sinister conspiracy behind why we didn’t act upon intelligence on the ground in Libya — for the simple reason that we didn’t have intelligence in Libya. That went out the window when Obama took out Gaddafi.

The rebels Obama armed in 2011, who gleefully executed Gaddafi in front of the world, are now running the country. Unfathomably, these very same folks were the largest foreign fighting force to engage the U.S. military in Iraq. A naïve question, to be sure, but did anyone in the Obama administration bother to think about that before participating in regime change of a sovereign nation?

Apparently not. And we just paid for that mistake in blood.

Did we really expect the new Libyan government to provide adequate defenses and intelligence to protect our diplomatic missions? For all we know, the attack could well have been coordinated by the thugs whom we put in power, using the very weapons we supplied — not to mention the 20,000 surface-to-air missiles missing since Gaddafi bit the dust.

Let’s be very clear here. Muammar Gaddafi was never an angel. But he became a leader with whom the West could work, even if his transformation was born of self-preservation. He was told to shape up or face the consequences, and he played ball. He admitted complicity in the Pan Am 103 bombing, paid reparations, dismantled his WMD/nuclear program, stopped harboring terrorists, and kept the oil spigots flowing. As a result, Libya was removed from the Terrorism List by the Bush administration, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praising it for its “renunciation of terrorism and the excellent cooperation Libya has provided to the U.S.”

But that “excellent cooperation” wasn’t enough. America broke its word when President Obama eliminated a leader who had done everything the United States had asked. Worst of all, there was no benefit to America in doing so, as the U.S. fought Europe’s oil war (85 percent of Libyan oil flows there).

In March 2011, Freindly Fire wrote: “The United States’ involvement in Libya, a nation that did not harm America, sets a dangerous precedent. Ironically, this effort, executed with no foresight and with no endgame, further endangers our security. Playing into the mentality of Muslims that the U.S. seeks to dominate their countries will only inflame anti-American feelings … the result will be chaos and armed factions roaming the country.”

If a not-too-bright commentator saw what was coming, why didn’t the president?

Obama may weather the IRS and AP scandals, but he will have Benghazi blood on his hands forever. And that’s an unimpeachable prognostication.

110 Million STDs In USA

The Centers for Disease Control reports that there are 110 million sexually transmitted infections in the United States with with 20 million new ones annually, which translates to a medical cost of $16 billion.

 

110 Million STDs In USA

110 Million STDs In USA

Corbett Puts Brake On Common Core

Corbett Puts Brake On Common Core — Penn Delco School Director Lisa Esler reports that Gov. Tom Corbett has put the brake on the implementation of Common Core — a corporation-conceived national educational curriculum being pushed by Washington.

Good for the Governor.

Mrs. Esler also says that the below resolution will be proposed at the next Penn Delco School Board meeting:

The Penn-Delco School District
Aston, PA 19014

Resolution Opposing Common Core State Standards Initiative

May 2013

Whereas, a solid education of children is the responsibility of the parents, supported by the locally elected Penn Delco School Board based on a strong foundation of accountability and transparency, that is built by open communication about the policies, programs, curriculum and the funding of these education processes; and,

Whereas, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Initiative is not a state-led initiative, as it is being presented, but is instead a subpar and unproven experimental set of national standards lacking empirical data to support them, that are still in the early stages of development, and local school board members, school leaders, teachers and most importantly parents were not included in the discussion, evaluation and preparation of the Common Core; and,

Whereas, through a collaboration between three non-governmental organizations, National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, both of which are Washington D C based trade associations with zero grant of legislative authority from states to draft national standards. The primary drafters, Achieve, Inc., is a non-profit progressive education group with a political bias based in Washington DC; and,

Whereas, Common Core State Standards Initiative was financed by private groups that stand to profit from the sales of textbooks and testing equipment to support these new experimental standards which by-passed our state legislature and impose these controls over the Pennsylvania Content Standards and Testing; and,

Whereas, Common Core State Standard Initiative binds us to an established copyright over standards, from which we cannot delete, replace or add beyond an additional 15% even if parents, teachers, and the local school board all agree, ignoring academic freedom, teacher autonomy, stifling creativity, innovation, eliminating  a laboratory environment & best practices; and,

Whereas,  General Educational Provisions Act prohibits federal authority over curriculum and testing; however, the U.S. Department of Education’s Cooperative Agreement confirms Common Core’s test-building and data collection is federally managed, thereby violating Federal Law; and,

Whereas, Common Core State Standards Initiative violates Constitutional and statutory prohibitions, pressuring states to adopt the standards, even before they were written, and tied financial incentives to “Race to the Top”. If States did not adopt the Common Core Standards they faced penalties, and loss of funds; and,
Whereas, the federal government is imposing an unfunded mandate on our state for unproven Common Core instruction, training, and testing platforms without any pledge of financial support from federal, state or local government; and,

Whereas, neither the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education nor the Governor of Pennsylvania are authorized by the Pennsylvania State Constitution to change public education standards and curricula without prior passage of legislation in the Pennsylvania General Assembly whose mandated responsibility in Article III, Section 14 is “to provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.”; and,

Whereas, the CCSS requires collection and sharing of massive amounts of personal student and teacher data creating substantial risk of privacy breach; Now Therefore be it

RESOLVED, That The Penn Delco School District does not subscribe to a one size fits all top down approach to education and recognizes that CCSS as an inappropriate overreach of untested, experimental education standards that are not developed from the results based evidence of their efficacy nor on demonstrated best practices;

RESOLVED, that the Penn Delco School District rejects the collection of personal student data for any non-educational purpose without the prior written consent of a parent;

RESOLVED, That the Board of School Directors of Penn Delco School District hereby officially advises the State Board of Education, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, the Governor of Pennsylvania, the Senate and House of Representatives’ Education Committees and the Independent Regulatory Review Commission that it opposes the Common Core Standard Initiative.



Corbett Puts Brake On Common Core

Gas Lines Win-Win For All

Gas Lines Win-Win For All — With the Marcellus Shale gas boom occurring some have been moaning about the cost of building mains which has prompted stories in Philadelphia’s “only the government can do good” propaganda sheet, and causing saliva to start dripping from the jaws of the wolves who rule us as they see another chance to spend our money and increase their power.

For instance State Sen. Dominic Pileggi (R-9) is co-sponsoring a bill to require utilities to create plans to extend their gas-distribution
systems. A companion bill would provide $15 million our money to defray the costs of this.

How about the state just stay out of it?

In Tredyffrin Township in Chesco it has been calculated that a neighborhood at a cost of $6,400 per home could bring in a gas main causing a $3,500 annual savings per home to the  heating bills.

Reader Tom C notes that   a smart local bank confident of undue government interference would be more than willing to solicit  loans to each household with an assignment of 75 percent of the savings. The loan would pay off in less than four years with a 8 percent interest rate. Everybody wins and the rest of us don’t have to have our money forcibly taken from us.

Gas Lines Win-Win For All

Tea Partiers Picket IRS In Upper Prov.

Tea Partiers Picket IRSTea Partiers Picket IRS —  IRS offices nationwide were picketed today by tea party groups in protest of the Obama Administration use of nation’s powerful tax enforcement agency to punish its political opponents. Here is some of the contingent outside the Delaware County, Pa. office in the Rose Tree Corporate Center at 1400 N. Providence Road, Media, in Upper Providence Township.

 

Tea Partiers Picket IRS

Gifted Education Hearings Loom In Pa.

Gifted Education Hearings Loom In Pa.— Members of the House voted unanimously, last week, in support of a resolution that calls for a study of gifted education in school districts throughout Pennsylvania, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129)

House Resolution 139 tasks the nonpartisan Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to conduct a comprehensive study of the process for identifying children as gifted; the process for developing and implementing gifted individualized education plans; the programs and services provided to gifted students; the cost of providing such programs and services; and a demographic breakdown of the children who benefit from such programs and services. The resolution directs the committee to report its findings to the House Education Committee this fall.

In addition to House action on gifted education, the speaker of the House this week appointed four House members to the new Special Education Funding Commission, formed as a result of Act 3 of 2013. The speaker appointed Representative Bernie O’Neill (R-Bucks County), Representative Michael Peifer (R-Monroe/Pike/Wayne counties), Representative Mike Sturla (D-Lancaster), and Representative Mark Longietti (D-Mercer County). Additional members of the commission include the majority and minority chairmen of the House and Senate Education committees, four members of the Senate, the secretaries of Education and Budget, and the deputy secretary for elementary and special education.

The commission will hold public hearings this summer to work to develop a new special education funding formula. It has until this fall to recommend a new funding formula to more effectively pay for special education throughout the state.

 

Gifted Education Hearings Loom In Pa.