Day: January 22, 2010

Navy Grad To Challenge Murtha As A Dem

A former Naval officer is seeking the Democratic nomination to to run for Congress to represent Pennsylvania’s 12th District, a seat long-held by fellow Democrat John Murtha, who has become a bit of a controversial figure in the last few years.

Seeking the seat is Ryan Bucchianeri, 34,   who was graduated from  the U.S. Naval Academy in 1997 and  who has a master’s degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he focused on international security, political economy, and human rights.

Most recently he has worked as a manager at Lockheed Martin.

Murtha has represented the district since 1974. Among the acts that has garnered him national attention were his involvement with Abscam in 1980 in which he was videotaped telling FBI agents posing as Arabs “I’m not interested… at this point. [If] we do business for a while, maybe I’ll be interested, maybe I won’t” before which he had provided the names of banks and businesses in which the money could be invested; his claim that Marines were guilty of war crimes in Haditha, Iraq before their trial ; and his observation during the 2008 presidential race that in his district “There’s still folks that have a problem voting for someone because they are black. This whole area, years ago, was really redneck,” which gave us this rather enjoyable Saturday Night Live skit.

Pa Unemployment Fund $2 Billion In Red

Pa Unemployment Fund $2 Billion In Red — Pennsylvania’s Unemployment Fund has a balance of $125 million and a debt of $2.05 billion, which was borrowed from the federal government.

To try and pay it off the state’s employers will pay $48 more per employee in unemployment taxes in 2010 which will be $432 per worker. Which of course means the employers will be less likely to hire. Which of course means continued high unemployment.

Pennsylvania’s debt puts it behind California at $6.4 billion; Michigan, $3.29 billion; and New York, $2.3 billion.

Here’s how Pa. ranks regarding unemployment tax per worker.

Kudos to Nate Benefield for the tip.

Pa Unemployment Fund $2 Billion In Red

Pa Unemployment Fund $2 Billion In Red

Inky Uphappy Over Free Speech Ruling

The Philadelphia Inquirer  — in its news stories and opinion columns — seems unhappy with yesterday’s 5-4 ruling in which the Supreme Court said that well a privately funded documentary regarding a political figure is just as protected by the First Amendment as, well,  a 60 Minutes documentary regarding a political figure.

The decision in Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission  overturns laws prohibiting corporations and unions from contributing to political campaigns.

Sounds bad? Maybe until you realize that what it does is level the field a little between, say, the owner of a chain of pizza shops and George Soros, and would allow that pizza shop owner to attempt to influence an election to the same degree as Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC.

Here’s what the court says:

Although the First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech,” §441b’s prohibition on corporate independent expenditures is an outright ban on speech, backed by criminal sanctions. It is a ban not withstanding the fact that a PAC created by a corporation can still speak, for a PAC is a separate association from the corporation. Because speech is an essential mechanism of democracy—it is the means to hold officials accountable to the people—political speech must prevail against laws that would suppress it by design or inadvertence.

Why would the Inky take issue?

And while on the topic of the Inky, today’s editorial concerns the Luzerne County judge scandal. Still no mention of the party that starts with the letter D.

Philly ACORN Sues Journalists

The office director for ACORN Housing Corporation in Philadelphia sued a pair of investigative journalist, Jan. 21, in U.S. District Court For The Eastern District Of Pennsylvania on the grounds they violated Pennsylvania’s wiretap law when they sought counseling from the office regarding how best to set up a prostitution business using minor girls illegally in this country.

The plaintiff is Katherine Conway-Russell. The journalists are James E. O’Keefe III and Hannah Giles.

The PDF of the complaint can be found here.