Month: November 2010

An Evening With Newt

New Gingrich is coming to Bucks County courtesy of the Kitchen Table Patriots on Jan. 29 as part of its An Evening To Celebrate Restoring America.

The event runs 7 to 10 p.m. at the Washington Crossing Inn, 1295 General Washington Memorial Blvd., Washington Crossing, Pa. A VIP meet and greet starts at 6 p.m. Many victorious local and statewide candidates will be on hand as well.

Tickets are $150 per person and $250 per couple. For information visit TheKitchenTablePatriots.Org;  email TheKitchenTablePatriots@Gmail.com or call 215-534-1851.

Pa. Impoverishment Act Could Be In Tea Party’s Sights

The Pennsylvania Legislature jumped on the big green bandwagon in 2008 and overwhelmingly passed the Pennsylvania Impoverishment Act otherwise known as Act 129. The law mandates a 3 percent reduction in the retail consumption of  electricity — 4.5 percent for peak demand — by May 31, 2013 and creates an unelected commission that is empowered to make further demands as it sees fit.

The baseline is the electric power consumed between June 1, 2009 and May 31, 2010.

The idea isn’t to cut CO2 emissions by doing things such as replacing coal plants with nuclear plants or ending traffic bottlenecks. Nor is the plan to improve our lifestyles via increased energy efficiency in which less amount of energy will do the same amount of work causing us to have a financial windfall.

What the fools we elected to lead us plan for us is to raise the cost of electricity to such an extent that we have to watch our pennies as we ration the usage. In other words, we are all going to be much poorer. Well, not all. If you are going to get an automatic $1,300 raise you really aren’t going to worry too much about the rationing.

The final wording was passed by both houses on Oct. 8, 2008 at height of Obamamania and before it was revealed that much of the global warming movement was based on a hoax.

The bill was signed into law a week later by Gov. Rendell.

Only four House members — Maher, Reichly, Hutchinson, and Metcalf — voted against it, which was one more than the Senate dissenters who were  Folmer, Eichelberger, and Rhodes.

Bill Adolph who represents Springfield in the House did not participate in the final vote although he was an aye in the House’s initial passage that happened six months earlier. Ted Erickson who represents the township in the Senate was an aye.

Tea Party groups are expected to be making repeal of Act 129 a big part of their agenda. One activist who plans on making this so is Judy Brown who grew up in Havertown but now lives in Allegheny County and who is on the Republican State Committee.

“The nickname for this bill is Pa Cap and Trade,” she said. “While we are fighting this on the federal level our Pa. Legislature already passed it and only seven republicans voted against it.”

Pa Cap and Trade is a fine name, Judy, but I still prefer Pa. Impoverishment Act.

Rendell Vetos Castle Doctrine

As expected, Gov. Ed Rendell today vetoed HB 1926 , a bill which would have greatly expanded the grounds on which one could used deadly force to defend oneself. The bill would have ended significant requirements to retreat from a potential assailant before employing protective force and would  have expanded the “Castle Doctrine”  to matters outside the home and workplace.

The Castle Doctrine, as specifically described in HB 1926, is a “Common Law doctrine of ancient origins which declares that a home is a person’s castle.”

The bill passed the State House 61-35 and the State Senate 45-4 which are easily enough to overturn a veto. The legislative session, however, has ended for the year and so the bill will have to be introduced in the next one. Incoming Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to be willing to sign such a bill.

Rendell also vetoed HB 1231, which
would define cancer as an occupational disease for firefighters making
it easier for them to get workers’ compensation. He also vetoed a bill that would have restricted public access to autopsy reports.

 

FIOS Porn, Thanks Verizon

FIOS Porn, Thanks Verizon — A few months ago we switched from Comcast to Verizon FIOS and finally got around to playing with the “video-on-demand” feature. There are categories for sports and health free movies and network TV shows, and an interesting one that says “adult” that, judging by the titles, consists of some of the raunchiest pornography available.

It appears one can make the feature disappear using parental controls but it is on by default.

There is no mention of the service in Verizon’s advertising.

The cost per movie is $12.95 so one suspects a nice profit is being made.

Maybe Verizon is just taking its cue from Mitt Romney and Marriott.

 

FIOS Porn, Thanks Verizon

FIOS Porn, Thanks Verizon

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Rendell Signs Gen Theft Bill

Gov. Ed Rendell, yesterday, as expected, signed the Gen Theft pension bill which bails out the state’s public pension system at a cost to the average household in Pennsylvania estimated by Commonwealth Foundation to eventually be  $1,360 per year .

Of course the pension plans bailed out by HB 2497 include the very sweet one received by our legislators .

The bailout was one of 22 last-minute bills signed into law by Rendell yesterday.

Rendell also signed HB 1639 , a significant  overhaul of the state’s child custody system and which makes gender-neutrality a requirement in contempt issues for willful violations of custody orders by either parent. Divorced fathers have testified that they have been unable to get action against their former wives for such violations.

Rendell did not, however,  act on HB 1231, which would define cancer as an occupational disease for firefighters making it easier for them to get workers’ compensation. He has until tomorrow to do so.

Nor has he acted on HB 1926 aka the Castle Doctrine which would end the requirement to retreat from a potential assailant before employing protective force. Rendell has until Monday to sign HB 1926. Don’t hold your breath on that one.

Dem Party Guy Cops Plea Gets Break

Dem Party Guy Cops Plea Gets Break — State Rep. Paul Costa is a party leader whether it be in the Democrat caucus in Harrisburg or in the parking lot before a Pittsburgh Steelers game.

Costa, who has represented the 34th District since 1999 and who had chaired the House Subcommittee on Licensing as a member of the House Committee of Liquor Control during the just-ended Democrat majority, pleaded guilty, Nov. 24, to disorderly conduct stemming from his  Oct. 3 arrest for an incident in the parking lot of Clark Bar & Grill before the Steelers-Ravens game.

Costa was caught passing around a doobie.

In return for the guilty plea, misdemeanor drug charges were dismissed, a nice break since disorderly conduct is a no-record summary offense, whereas a record of a misdemeanor would create difficulties if he should want to do something such as, say, get a liquor license .

Costa paid a $50 fine plus $137 in court costs.

In fairness, minor marijuana arrests are more often than not handled this way in the state.

Costa is 50 years old.

Dude!


 Dem Party Guy Cops Plea Gets Break

Musto Indicted For Bribery

Musto Indicted For Bribery — A federal grand jury, this morning,  indicated Pennsylvania State Sen. Raphael “Ray” Musto for taking thousands of dollars in money and services in bribes and kickbacks.

Musto , a Democrat, has represented the 14th District since 1982. He did not seek re-election this year.  Musto is facing six charges including  bribery and making false statements to the FBI.

The bribery occurred between 2005 and 2010.

At a  2 p.m. press conference, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania Peter J. Smith said Musto purposefully concealed money and gifts failing to report them on appropriate statements of financial interest.

Musto served in congress in 1980 replacing the legendary Dan Flood to represent the 11th Congressional District winning a special election caused by Flood’s resignation after being censured for bribery.  Musto, however, later that year narrowly lost  to Republican James Nelligan for an election to a full term.

Musto Indicted For Bribery

Sacrifice, Leadership And Pa COLAs

Sacrifice, Leadership And Pa COLAs — Pennsylvania legislators, judges and other top officials are getting a 1.7 percent cost-of-living-allowance raise. This means that the salary for our state legislators will rise from $78,315 to $79,623, while salaries for the four legislative floor leaders increase from $113,468 to $115,364.

The cost of living allowance (COLA) raise did not require a vote. A1995 law  bestows such raises automatically based on changes in the
federal government’s Consumer Price Index for the mid-Atlantic states.

Do you think that given the economic suffering and the state’s financial difficulties they might have voted to forgo the raise this year? I know, stupid question.

For some irony the extra $1,300 a state legislator will be getting next year is about what the average Pennsylvania household will soon be paying in extra taxes due to the “Gen Theft” legislative pension bailout bill that was just passed.

Basically, we have to make allowances for the cost of their living.

Sacrifice, Leadership And Pa COLAs

Pa. Tea Party Ponders Opposing Expected Speaker

Rep. Sam Smith of the 66th District got the nod to be Speaker of Pennsylvania House at closed door meeting of the soon-to-be-in-control Republican caucus on Nov. 9 but the official vote comes Jan. 4 and it will be done in the open.

Bob Guzzardi of LibertyIndex.Com notes that if all Democrats and 11 Republicans vote against Smith, he will not get the job.

Smith was the man who submitted the infamous 2005 legislative pay-raise bill.

To his credit, though, he voted against the recently passed Gen Theft Pension Bailout Bill.

Tea Party favorite Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of the 12 District has asked that the Nov. 9 vote  be postponed until December so those members of 112-member Republican House Caucus who are new to Harrisburg could get a better feel of the personalities seeking the offices.

The state’s Tea Party movement is pondering a phone-bank crusade aimed at newly elected representatives encouraging them to vote against Smith, and other old guard Republicans tapped for top posts.