Month: May 2010

Rendell I-80 Toll Plan Wasted $24 Million

Ed Rendell’s failed plan to increase traffic snarls cost Pennsylvania taxpayers more than $24 million, according to Pennsylvania Independent.

The spending was done by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission between the passage of Act 44 in 2007 and April 6, 2010 when the plan to toll
Interstate 80 finally killed by the federal Department of Transportation.

Most of the money went to McCormick
Taylor, an engineering  firm based in Harrisburg, which billed $22 million for engineering work, traffic studies, and environmental impact assessments.

Swarthmore Celeb Author Likes His Quiet In Wasilla

Swarthmore Celeb Author Likes His Quiet In Wasilla — Expose author Joe McGinniss, whose HQ was once for many years Swarthmore, Pa. has moved his base to Wasilla, Alaska right next door to Sarah Palin.

McGinniss was a sportswriter for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin (the original one), then a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer before hitting the big time in 1969 with the Selling Of The President, which described the marketing techniques used in the successful Nixon campaign the year before. He is best known for his true crime books Fatal Vision, Blind Faith and Cruel Doubt, all of which became TV miniseries.

McGinniss generally portrays his subjects rather unflatteringly.

McGinniss, who has written a critical magazine piece on Mrs. Palin, is allegedly writing a book about the former Alaska governor, but perhaps his move to Alaska is really motivated by a desire for peace and privacy. McGinniss has placed “no trespassing” signs all over the rented property and has threatened at least one news crew with arrest after they showed up at his door. The Palins have compassionately erected a 14-foot-high fence between the homes on his behalf.

McGinniss does appear to have a fixation on Mrs. Palin, almost  like something of out a Robert Mitchum movie — think Cape Fear or Night of the Hunter. He bid $60,100 at a Ride 2 Recovery eBay charity auction in order to win a dinner with Mrs. Palin. His bid came in second.

Still, maybe the best way for the Palins to handle this tense situation would be to invite this strange person over for coffee and cookies. The kids don’t have to be there, just Todd, Sarah and the firearms. They could set up videocameras to record the conversation, ask McGinniss a lot of personal questions and make sure he doesn’t get a copy of the tape.

OTOH, the fence works pretty well too.

Here is what Mrs. Palin has to say about it.

Swarthmore Celeb Author Likes His Quiet In Wasilla

DNA Tests For Obama, Sestak Neckties?

So.

When Congressman and Springfield, Pa. native Joe Sestak told newsman Larry Kane last February that the Obama administration offered him a high ranking job if he would drop out of the Democrat senate primary here’s what really happened.

See, it was former President Bill Clinton who made the offer. Yeah, President Clinton, that’s the ticket.

And it was for a unpaid advisory job on an intelligence board, see. Nothing impeachable, get it? And an unpaid advisory job would tempt anyone to drop out of the race, right?

A tip to President Obama and Congressman Sestak, wash your neckties. You know President Clinton didn’t take the stage in this farce for nothing.

See Thank You, Joe Sestak.

Thank You, Joe Sestak

President Obama, at a rare press conference yesterday, took full credit for stopping the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

“The American people should know that from the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort,” Obama said.

So now we know why the spill lasted over a month.

Obama then slammed shut new off-shore drilling in U.S. waters saying:

First, we will suspend the planned exploration of two locations off the coast of Alaska
Second,we will cancel the pending lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico and the proposed lease sale off the coast of Virginia.
Third, we will continue the existing moratorium and suspend the issuance of new permits to drill new deep water wells for six months.
And four, we will suspend action on 33 deep water exploratory wells currently being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico.

In other words, he will continue to do what it takes to send our money to our oil-rich adversaries so they can pay to build mosques on the hollowed grounds of the 9/11 attacks.

He also said “what’s also been made clear from this disaster is that for years, the oil and gas industry has leveraged such power that they have effectively been allowed to regulate themselves” which is something that should make you go hmmmm.

With regard to Springfield Pa.’s own contribution to the failure of this incredibly incompetent administration, Obama said:

 

The — there will be an official response shortly on the Sestak issue which I hope will answer your questions. You will get it from my administration, so — and it will — it will be coming out — when I say shortly, I mean shortly. I don’t mean weeks or months. With respect to the first –I can assure the public that nothing improper took place. But as I said, there will be a response shortly on that issue.

 

(For President Obama’s explanation see DNA Tests For Obama, Sestak Neckties? )

Dick Morris, who was President Clinton’s go-toe guy during the most successful parts of that administration, said  Congressman Sestak’s allegation of a job offer from Obama, if true, would be  an impeachable offense, and if Washington is unwilling to investigate the matter Pennsylvan Attorney General Tom Corbett, from whence Sestak is from, should empanel a grand jury to do so.

The sooner Obama is impeached and removed from office, the better for America and the world.

Thank you, Joe Sestak.

 

A Looming War But Blue Devils’ Work Won’t Be Ignored

Today’s front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer carried stories on the latest attempt to plug the Deepwater Horizon leak, the squelching of a no-bid development deal for Family Court building in Philadelphia, girls lacrosse, puffing repeal of “don’t ask don’t tell”, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and Harrisburg corruption.

On page 2, they carries an update piece from Obama sources about how China is “likely to join rebuke of N. Korea” — which does not seem to be available on their website and has a markedly different slant than  this piece this morning from Bloomberg.Com: China May Shield North Korea As Lee, U.S. Seek Action.

On March 26, the South Korean frigate Cheonan was sunk by a North Korean submarine. Today, South Korea held a major naval exercise featuring anti-submarine drills, and U.S. Gen. Walter Sharp — who heads the U.S.-South Korean combined forces command which includes the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed there — raised the watch level from 3 to 2 one notch below the highest level.

North Korea responded by ending an agreement designed to prevent armed clashes at  maritime border with South Korea and warned of “immediate physical strikes” if any South Korean ships enter its waters.

North Korea is an impoverished dying nations but armed with nuclear weapons developed during the Clinton years. It’s military also has an enormous artillery component and South Korea’s capital of Seoul is within range of those guns.

Meanwhile, President Obama is meeting with the Duke Blue Devils basketball team to honor their sacrifice and effort  in winning the NCAA championship. He leaves for Chicago tonight to chill out over the Memorial Day weekend, which unfortunately will mean he is unavailable for the traditional presidential Memorial Day visit to Arlington Cemetery to honor the sacrifice and effort that involved keeping America free.

I hope he doesn’t chill out so much he can’t handle any 3 a.m. phone calls.

Pennsylvanians Are Right Wing Fanatics

A Rasmussen poll this month shows that by the definitions of some most Pennsylvanians are right-wing extremists.

In a poll of 500 likely voters, Rasmussen found that 53 percent supported an immigration law like the one recently passed in Arizona, 71 percent believed a police officer should check driver’s for immigration status during traffic stops and 61 percent supported the repeal of Obamacare.

Description Of The Springfield Conman

The man who conned a widow out of $50 in the Rolling Road/Windsor Circle area of Springfield, Pa. has been described as stocky, not-tall, with fair hair and a ruddy face.

Super Secret Space Plane Mission

Super Secret Space Plane Mission — The super secret X-37B robot space plane is being used to develop spy satellites a group of amateur skywatchers have deduced. The space plane had its historic inaugural launch without fanfare on April 22, 2010 from Cape Canaveral and there was much speculation that it was designed to herald a new reign of space weapons.

Super Secret Space Plane Mission
Watching the inaugural April 22 launch of the X-37B robot space plane from Indian Harbor Beach, Fla. are Margaret Jane Lawrence and granddaughter Skyler Jane Lawrence.

The skywatchers, however, have been tracking the plane and have determined that it is following the pattern of a spy satellite. It is orbiting the planet every 90 minutes at an altitude of 225 miles.

Of course science fiction fans might wonder why some might not think it useful to put weapons on spy satellites.

Super Secret Space Plane Mission

Conman Stalks Springfield

A widow living in the Rolling Road/Windsor Circle area of Springfield, Pa. was the victim of a conman who confronted her in her backyard and asked to borrow $50 to pay the tow fee for his car, last week. He identified himself as her new neighbor who had just moved in to a recently sold house a few doors down, apparently showing some knowledge of the neighborhood.

Springfield Police have been notified.

Be From Pa. And Scoff At Fed Law

Probably the best place to escape  the consequences of violating federal law is Arizona , or maybe the Gulf of Mexico , but Pennsylvania is certainly making a fine run for the title in these Obama years.

A year ago, Attorney General Eric Holder dismissed complaints against members of the New Black Panther Party for actions taken on
Election Day 2008 at a polling place at 1221 Fairmount St., Philadelphia.

Samir
Shabazz,  and Jerry Jackson dressed in paramilitary style uniforms and
made racially disparaging comments and threats at voters while
brandishing night sticks.

Holder never said why he dropped the charges.

On Friday , Obama’s Justice Department rejected a Republican request to appoint a special counsel to investigate
allegations that the White House offered a job to Congressman Joe Sestak (D-7) if he
would drop out of the Pennsylvania Senate Democratic primary and leave a clear road for incumbent Arlen Specter who was Obama’s pick.

Sestak, who won the primary and is now the party’s nominee, said in February the offer was made which would be a significant violation of federal election laws. He repeated the claim after his victory a week ago.

So why is not the Chief Executive of the United States not interested in executing the laws, the job for which he is charged? Would he have the same response if the allegations were against his political opponents? Does anyone else see a problem with arbitrary enforcement of the laws?