Month: May 2010

Dems Against Local Government

Dems Against Local Government — In their holy quest to make all Pennsylvania like Philadelphia, a group of Democrats in the State House, happily assisted by a pair of tamed Republicans have introduced a bill to amend the state constitution and make the county the basic unit of government in the state.

The bill, HB 2431, would give counties jurisdiction over personnel, law enforcement, land use, sanitation, and health and safety.

The bill would also prohibit any county, municipality or incorporated district to become a stockholder in any company, association or corporation, or to obtain or appropriate money for, or to loan its credit to, any corporation, association, institution or individual.

The bill was introduced April 20 by Thomas Caltagirone, with fellow Democrat co-sponsors Peter Daley, Jaret Gibbons, Ted Harhai, Patrick Harkins, Tim Mahoney, Barbara McIlvaine Smith, Joseph Preston Jr. , and Rosita Youngblood .

The Republican sponsors are Jim Marshall of the 14th District  and RoseMarie Swanger of the 102nd District.

 

Dems Against Local Government

Why The GOP Attacks On Rohrer?

Conventional wisdom holds that party-endorsed Tom Corbett , who is Pennsylvania’s attorney general, is a sure bet as the GOP’s gubernatorial candidate but with a handful of days left till the May 18 primary the establishment has launched a massive strike on lone opponent state Rep Sam Rohrer who represents the 128th District and is GOP chairman of the House Finance Committee.

The attack came in a mass mailer highlighting Rohrer’s vote for the controversial 2005 pay raise which caused numerous legislators to deservedly lose their jobs, and is likely the most embarrassing thing on Rohrer’s record.

Given time and resources — which he lacks — Rohrer would likely dodge this bullet as he has in his House races since he is may be the least greedy politician in the Commonwealth.

He and his wife, Ruth Ann, declared $83,650 in 2008, most of which was his $71,112 legislative salary, which showed him to be by far the poorest of those seeking the governor’s office. They also showed he gave $16,187 to charity that year, which was by far the most of the candidates.

In his unflagging underdog campaign, Rohrer’s constant theme has been the financial crisis facing the state and how it was possible to fix it.

Non-Diet Soda Pop From Food Stamps

Non-Diet Soda Pop From Food Stamps — Congressman Collin Peterson, a moderate Democrat who represents the 7th District of Minnesota, wants to prohibit the 39 million monthly users of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)– which the federal Food Stamp Program has been called since Oct. 1, 2008 — from using their electronic benefits transfer card from buying soft drinks with sugar .

The average American who reads that will say “Food Stamp recipients can buy Pepsi with my money?”

And the answer is of course, you silly person. Not only Pepsi and Coke and Gatorade but cocktail mixes, artificial sweetener, warm bread from the bakery, hoagies from the deli and stuffed olives from the salad bar.

Peterson suggestion is motivated more by concern about America’s poor being too fat — what a country as Yakov Smirnoff might say — than a desire to encourage them to find jobs, but I’ll walk this path with him.

And if he really wants to help the poor stay healthy I’ll  prod him to quicken his pace. How about we restrict purchases via SNAP to milk, butter, eggs, cooking oils, fresh fruit and veggies, bulk grains and beans, and locally produced honey. Note, I’m saying fresh fruit and veggies not canned or frozen. This will help keep them from getting into a rut.

I’m including honey because deep down inside I’m a bit of a bleeding heart and I feel that this will give the SNAP participants a chance to play-pretend they are on the Food Network’s Chopped show.

And why do I have this strange feeling that most SNAP participants have access to cable television?

I’m leaving off meat because I’m hoping to get PETA to sign on.

SNAP cost taxpayers about $58 billion per year.

Non-Diet Soda Pop From Food Stamps

Female Circumcision In USA

Female Circumcision In USA — The American Academy of Pediatrics has endorsed a form of female circumcision to appease our new Islamic population.

I see their point since what they are advocating accepting is a symbolic nick rather than full removal as done in their motherlands, and if it alleviates suffering that would otherwise inevitably happen, it’s probably the right thing to do.

The righter thing to do though is just keep those who think this act is somehow a good thing from coming here.

Female Circumcision In USA

Do More Now Listen To Limbaugh Than Watch Network News?

Viewership for the week of May 3 was a combined 19,410,000 for the ABC, CBS and NBC network newscasts according to the trade site MediaBistro.Com

This puts them behind radio talk show giant Rush Limbaugh who has 20 million plus weekly listeners according to Wikipedia citing the trade publication Talkers Magazine.

The breakdown is: 7,430,000 viewers for Brian Williams at NBC Nightly News; 7 million for ABC World News With Diane Sawyer; and 4,980,000 for Katie Couric at CBS Evening News.

Newsbusters.org did a little research and found that that is a combined loss of 1.67 million viewers from the week of May 4, 2009.

And 70 percent of the viewers of network news is over the age of 54.

The good news for the nets is they still beat Sean Hannity who has 16 million radio listeners and 1.9 million viewers of his Fox News Channel show.

OTOH, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin and Dave Ramsey, who are tied for 6th place among radio talk show hosts with about 6.25 million weekly listeners, handily spank Katie Couric.

Now, there is a bit of apples vs. oranges in making these comparisons since radio audience is determined by Arbitron and is based on unduplicated listeners, while the TV networks use Nielsen Media Research which reports an average of nightly viewership over the week with obviously most of the same people watching  each night.

A year ago, however, the answer as to who touches more would not be debated.

 

Do More Now Listen To Limbaugh Than Watch Network News?

Do More Now Listen To Limbaugh Than Watch Network News?

Do Philly Police ID Those They Detain?

Philadelphia City Council, May 6, passed a non-binding resolution asking Mayor Michael Nutter to divest any business from Arizona and  to encourage area business to reconsider conventions there.

The resolution is non-binding and the vote was 14-3. It was introduced  by Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez and was in response to Arizona SB 1070 which neither Ms. Sanchez nor the 13 other council members who voted for the resolution apparently bothered to read

As pointed out by Philadelphia Daily News columnist extraordinaire Stu Bykofsky, the Philly resolution claims that the Arizona law “gives local police broad, unprecedented power to detain individuals
based on the vague grounds of suspicion that they are undocumented.”

Well, it doesn’t. It says that that police must check on a person’s immigration status — a driver’s license would suffice, btw, — during a “lawful contact”, which, btw, is being changed in HB 2162 to the even more restrictive “stop,
detain or arrest” standard. Aren’t Philadelphia Police expected to ascertain the identify of people they “stop, detain or arrest?”

As a service to Philadelphia City Council the text to SB 1070 can be found here and the text to HB 2162 can be found here.

And it appears State Rep. Daryl
Metcalfe (R-12) was very wise in binding the law enforcement authorities to check immigration status in the bill modeled on the Arizona law that he just introduced in Harrisburg.

 

Do Philly Police ID Those They Detain?

 

Do Philly Police ID Those They Detain?

Victory Cleaners To Reopen

The Victory Cleaners at Brookside and Springfield roads, Springfield, should reopen in a couple of weeks according to a woman at the sister store on nearby Saxer Avenue.

The landmark store near the Springfield Road trolley station was damaged in a fire Sunday afternoon.

Customer clothes will be taken from the fire damaged store for cleaning at Saxer Avenue and will be able to be claimed when the Springfield Road store opens, according to the woman.

Fire At Victory Cleaners

Springfield volunteer firefighters try to save landmark Victory Cleaners on Springfield Road at Brookside Road, 3:30 p.m., today, May 9. Traffic was stopped on Springfield Road between Powell and Rolling roads while the blaze was battled. 

William Thrasher Back On Job After Typical L_beral Sh_t

Philadelphia Police Officer William Thrasher has been reinstated with 13-months back pay after an arbitrator determined he probably didn’t utter the phrase “TNS” in the company of a Temple University journalism student on a ride-along as Thrasher patrolled a filthy, crime-ridden, no-snitch North Philadelphia neighborhood.

Thrasher is white and TNS apparently stands for “typical n_gger sh_t”

The arbitrator, Charles D. Long Jr., made the determination after the journalist, Shannon McDonald, refused to turn over her notes and in, his opinion, was “defensive, deflective and difficult” as a witness.

Thrasher was 24 at the time of the January 2009 ride-along and had two years on the force. Miss McDonald also quoted Trasher as describing the area as “disgusting” and saying “it’s like they’re animals”.

Thrasher was fired by Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey in April 2009

Now, Thrasher has denied saying TNS and said that the animal reference concerned the perpetrators of a particular homicide and not the neighborhood but just suppose he was actually guilty. Should a young man have his dreams dashed for words said in frustration?

What would Martin Luther King Jr. say?

It seems that Mayor Michael Nutter, who is black, and Ramsey, who is at least part black, missed a huge opportunity to improve race relations in a city known for racial polarization by failing to come to Thrasher’s defense.

Black leaders are going to have to come understand that racial tolerance, compassion and mercy is a two-way street.

Again, what would Martin Luther King Jr. say?

William Thrasher Back On Job After Typical L_beral Sh_t

William Thrasher Back On Job After Typical L_beral Sh_t

 

A Titanic Pa. Budget Problem And Iceberg Looms

With the April take in hand, Pennsylvania’s General Fund revenues are $1.1 billion below estimate for the 2009-10 fiscal year, according to the state’s Department of Revenue.

The fiscal year ends June 30.

Secretary of Revenue C. Daniel Hassell said the state collected $2.9 billion in General Fund revenue in April, which was $390 million,or 11.8 percent, less than anticipated.

April, of course, is a major tax collection month.

Gov. Ed Rendell, in February, forecast a $525 million shortfall come FY end. Looks like some serious wishful thinking.

For those who think the problem is low taxes — LOL — Pennsylvania tax take in 2002, which was the year before Rendell took office, was $22 billion compared to $30 billion last year.

With two months remaining this year’s revenue is $22.8 billion.

Hat tips to CommonwealthFoundation.org and PaIndependent.Com