Month: October 2011

Pennsylvania Public Schools Doomed, Doomed, Doomed Say Dems

Pennsylvania Public Schools Doomed, Doomed, Doomed Say Dems — A sparse crowd of about 200 heard a panel of Democrat state legislators from Delaware County, Oct. 13, at the Upper Darby Center For Performing Arts describe how public schools in Pennsylvania are doomed unless they get back in charge.

The event was sponsored by PA PASS, a public education advocacy group.

The initials stand for Parent Advocates for Public Education To Achieve Student Success.

On the panel were Sen. Daylin Leach (D-17), Rep. Greg Vitali (D-166), Rep. Margo L. Davidson (D-164), Rep. Maria P. Donatucci (D-185), and Rep. Ronald G. Waters (D-191) along with Michael Stoll, who is communications coordinator for State Rep. Bill Adolph (R-165) and Jeffrey S. Miller who is the Republican budget analyst for the Appropriations Committee for the State House, which Adolph chairs.

Leach started things off by saying that there was a “severe and existential threat to public education”.

He cited state budget cuts, proposed voucher and charter school bills, and Act 25‘s  removal of exemptions  in which school boards can hike budgets without a referendum.

He said the referendums always lose since only 10 or 15 percent of voters have children in public schools.

Ms. Davidson, who had to leave early, said she agreed with Leach’s points.

“Ed Rendell would never have proposed such a thing,” she said.

Vitali echoed the despair.

“I truly believe it is a dire situation,” he said. He said the budget cuts were driven by “ideology not necessity.

“(Gov. Tom) Corbett put the interest of oil drillers over children,” he said referring to the reluctance of the governor to levy additional taxes on drilling in Marcellus Shale.

He also pined for the days of Gov. Rendell.

“Rendell was an aggressive fighter for public education,” he said.

He compared public schools to public libraries and said the 9.1 unemployment rate comes from layoffs in the public sector. Whatever it was he was smoking it would probably have been polite if he offered to share it.

Ms. Donatucci clearly feared for the children.

“It’s raining on our school children,” she said.  “. . .Our children aren’t going to get any money and they need to. . . An educational train wreck is going to happen and our children our tied to the tracks.”

Besides blaming Republicans she also blamed newspaper editors.

Waters was more philosophical.

“Elections have consequences,” he said. He noted Corbett said he was going to do the things he’s doing.

He claimed the state had a budget surplus and that money could have been used to keep education spending at the rates it had been the previous year.

Stoll pointed out, however, that there is no surplus and what Waters thought was a surplus is actually budgeted. He noted that 40 percent of state spending is for education. He explained that the reasons for the budget cuts were because federal stimulus money ran out.

After the comments by the panelists, parent representatives for the Radnor, Wallingford-Swarthmore, Interboro, Ridley, Southeast Delco, Haverford, Chichester, Springfield, Penn Delco, William Penn and Upper Darby school districts made presentations describing how excellent their districts were and how much harm the new changes in state policy are causing them.

A PA PASS moderator said that 173 teaching professionals, 148 para professionals, 11 security guards, 11 office support workers, nine maintenance workers, eight administrators and five social workers lost jobs in school districts in Delaware County due to budget cuts.

After parent presentations, PA PASS read to the panel questions submitted by the audience. The questions chosen by the moderator were generally along the lines of how can the vile Republicans  be stopped.

The unseen presence of the Tea Party was felt in the room most strongly it seems by Leach who made a Freudian slip of referring to legislative behavior as not being a “tea party” instead of a “garden party”.

He corrected himself.

Haverford School Director Larry Feinberg, who was one of the event’s organizers, ended things with some strange comments about the proposals for charter schools and vouchers being part of some conspiracy by “Main Line” millionaires looking to make money at the expense of innocent children.

Stoll several times during the night had to emphasize that 40 percent of the state money goes to public education and that there are no plans to end public schools.

The organizers of the event, the parents, and even the legislators all struck one as being sincere and even caring.

Leach and Ms. Donatucci both spoke out passionately against using the cruel residential property tax to fund schools as we now do.

The problem, however, was none of the Democrats or their supporters were able to face the big, fat grinning gorilla in the room, namely the 3 and 4 percent annual raises — which remember are on top of  automatic step raises — that the teachers always seem to get during contract negotiations because they have the right to strike and/or perform unsatisfactory work during their “work to rule” job actions.

The always growing salaries, of course, get the icing of very sweet pension and health plans.

And this is the reason why services are being cut, not because some greedy Republican hates children, as some implied.

Milk does not flow forever.

Pennsylvania Public Schools Doomed, Doomed, Doomed Say Dems

 

Pennsylvania Public Schools Doomed, Doomed, Doomed Say Dems

A Miracle In Springfield And A New Saint

A Springfield man’s recovery from certain brain damage is being credited to intervention by an Italian priest who died in 1915.

William Glisson Jr., was rollerblading backwards down Baltimore Pike In Springfield, Delaware County, Pa in March 2002 when he hit a hole in the road, banged his head and went into a coma.

Glisson was 21 at the time.

Glisson underwent a serious of operations but little hope was offered.

A family friend organized prayers asking Don Luigi Guanella to make intercession with God for mercy. Joining in were
members of the Servants of Charity as well as residents and students of
the Don Guanella Village for those with developmental disabilities.

The village is in adjacent Marple Township although it has a Springfield address.

Don is Italian for father.

Don Guanella, who was born in 1842, founded several religious institutions dedicated to serving the needy.

He was beatified in 1964.

Glisson recovered soon after the prayers started and was back to work within three months.  He is now 30 and married.

The Catholic Church has accepted the miracle and will canonize Don Guanella on Oct. 23.

Hat tip Phil M.

Inevitability Happens To Harrisburg City

Inevitability can only be delayed. Harrisburg City, the capital of our fair commonwealth, is bankrupt.

City Council, Oct. 11, voted 4-3 to file for Chapter 9 protection.

The city has long been run by Democrats.

Oh, if only Ed Rendell could have had a third term.


Nutter Nuts About Philly Murder Rate

By Chris Freind


If the CEO of a Wall Street firm announced that revenues were up 22
percent, he would be lauded for his leadership and undoubtedly receive a
hefty raise.

By contrast, if it was revealed that the CEO was
playing games with the books and basing his figures not on a
year-to-date comparison from the prior year, but from four years ago, he
would probably be shown the door.

But that’s precisely the
situation with Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, the
city’s highest-paid employee. The argument can be made that
Commissioner Ramsey is deliberately misleading the public on the city’s
murder rate.

A visit to the Philadelphia Police website Crime Stats page (http://phillypolice.com/about/crime-statistics)
verifies what we already know: shootings, violence and murder are out
of control throughout the city. As of this writing, there have been 259
murders since January 1, as one can plainly see from the highlighted
2011 figure on the webpage. Beside that is a number with a down arrow.
Currently, it’s 18 percent, but last week it stood at 22. It purports
to represent the percentage that murders have decreased.

And therein lies the problem. A big one.

Murders
aren’t down 18 or 22 percent. As a matter of fact, they’re up.
Comparing year-to-date statistics, they’ve increased ten from last year,
a whopping 24 from 2009 (a ten percent jump), and eight from 2008.

But
Chief Ramsey has decided to hide these numbers and instead compare
today’s murder rate with that of 2007, the high-water mark for killings.
That’s like the Phillies claiming a playoff victory because they beat
the Cardinals half a decade ago.

It’s interesting to note that
Ramsey was hired at the end of 2007, which perhaps explains why he is
using that blood-soaked year as his benchmark— all the easier to pass
the buck and make himself look better.

Maybe the Chief, and Mayor
Nutter, who hired him and remains his boss, missed their callings. They
seem better suited for Wall Street firms that rely on misleading
investors (in this case, the citizens) for their own personal gain
(re-election, job security and bloated pensions).

So residents
get the screws two ways: they walk away with a false sense of security,
mistakenly believing that murders are down. And when they realize the
truth — that their leaders are deliberately misleading them — they
feel betrayed.

Unlike the Wall Street CEO, Nutter and Ramsey get
away scott-free. And like some robber baron execs, they each make a
pile of money, courtesy of a duped public, with little accountability
and oversight.

In fact, Chief Ramsey is rolling in it, to the tune of $255,000/year.

You
may recall that earlier this year, the Commissioner was actively
courted for the top police job in his hometown of Chicago. Despite
pleas that he stay, it was almost a done deal, but for one small
sticking point: his $400,000 per year total compensation asking price,
according to press reports. You know it’s greedy when even a liberal
Democrat like Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel balks at such an obscene
amount, which, by the way, is the salary of the President of the United
States.

Ramsey’s reason for ultimately staying in Philadelphia?
“…the support I got here at home from the business community — and the
media, even — and, of course, Mayor Nutter, made the difference.”

Well,
that, and the $60,000 pay raise he was promised from the Mayor as a
reward for not leaving the city, courtesy of the taxpayers. That
increase makes the Commissioner the highest — repeat, highest — paid
city employee. Even more than the Mayor himself.

Ramsey was
right about one thing. He did get quite a bit of support, from city
councilmen (“we won the big prize” by retaining Ramsey) to the gushing,
sycophant media. Notably, neither entity bothered asking the right
questions before, or after, the lavish pay hike was doled out to the
Chief.

Questions such as:

1) How can the city afford to
shell out a $60,000/year salary increase to anyone when it can’t even
pay its current bills, has an insolvent pension, and continues to see
its tax base — what’s left of it — flee? In fact, it was just
reported that there is yet another tax revenue shortfall, adding to the
budget deficit. What a surprise.

And for the record, there are
plenty of qualified people who would have gladly accepted the
Commissioner’s previous salary of $195,000 had he chosen to leave.

2)
When will Philadelphia realize that paying exorbitant salaries to
government officials is not just financially foolhardy, but doesn’t
guarantee results? Just look at Arlene Ackerman, the now former School
Superintendent who made $325,000/year (with incentives allowing for a
half-million dollar payday) to preside over an ever-worsening school
district. For the privilege of leaving her post, she banked $905,000,
all footed by the public.

And don’t forget scandal-plagued former
Housing Authority chief Carl Greene, who, with his bonus, was making
$350,000. In addition, residents are still paying sky-high legal bills
related to the mess he left behind.

3) Was any quantitative, or
better yet, common sense analysis done to see if Ramsey merited such a
large salary bump? Murders are increasing, out-of-control flash mobs
have led to curfews, police corruption is rampant, and there is growing
fear on the streets, leading many suburbanites to stay away.

According
to the Chief’s 2008 “Crime Fighting Strategy,” the big goal that year
was to “reduce homicides by twenty-five percent,” yet the Department was
way short, overseeing only a 15 percent drop from 2007 to 2008. And
what of the stated overall plan of reducing homicides by 30 to 50
percent, as outlined in a public letter from Ramsey to Nutter? Not even
in the ballpark. As noted above, homicides have been rising, not
falling.

While certainly not all these things can be attributable
to the Chief, the buck stops with him. He is responsible. Just like a
CEO often receives no bonus when numbers are down, the Chief of Police
should have pay raises tied to performance. But since the Mayor deals
in Other People’s Money, that isn’t the case.

Is the city is
safer? You can play with statistics to bolster any desired conclusion.
Yet ask those in Philadelphia whether they truly feel secure, and most
would simply laugh. And that’s the only statistic that matters.

Is
the Chief doing a good job? In some respects, yes. But so stellar that
he commands a raise three times more than the city’s per capita income?
Not even close. The fact that the city can’t afford the money is just
salt in the wound.

OK, fine. Ramsey got his money. It is what it is, and he isn’t relinquishing it. But that bolsters the point all the more.

The leader of the Police Department should epitomize transparency and honesty.

Instead,
in what can only be assumed to be a deliberate attempt to deceive
Philadelphians, games are being played with the city’s increasing murder
rate. And there is no excuse for that. None.

The culture of any
organization is established by the conduct of its top leaders. In the
Philadelphia Police Department’s case, its culture of honor, values and
integrity has taken a hit. And when the rank and file — the guys on
the street chasing down the murderers — see their top brass skirting
the truth for political gain, perhaps they too cut a corner where they
shouldn’t be. They take on the persona of their leadership.

It’s
time for the Mayor and Chief to do the right thing by telling the
truth, no matter how difficult that may be. Let’s see more honesty in
the most trusted institution in Philadelphia — its police department.

Only when the city’s leaders regain the trust of the people will Philadelphia begin its journey back to respectability.

 

Nutter Nuts About Philly Murder Rate

Religion In Politics Or How Things Change In 4 Years

Religion In Politics Or How Things Change In 4 Years — A supporter of Texas Gov. Rick Perry said something nasty about the religion of Republican presidential primary opponent Mitt Romney, namely that it was a cult.

Romney, along with fellow moderate Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman, are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. The institution is often called the Mormon Church.

The church uses the acronym LDS when required albeit not as its proper name.

The supporter who said the nasty thing was Robert Jeffress, the pastor of  the 10,000-member First Baptist Church of Dallas, while he was introducing Perry at a convention.

The old media has taken an unusual interest in theological matters and began writing about it and grilling other candidates regarding Jeffress claim.

Perry, who does not attend Jeffress’ church, has said he does not think Romney’s church is a cult.

Now, just suppose Perry, or any of the other candidates regularly attended a church at which the pastor said things like:

The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied

And

We have supported state terrorism against the
Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because
the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own
front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.
 
You think they would mention it? I dunno. Four years ago they didn’t think it was a big deal.

On a lighter note, did you hear about the Occupy Philadelphia protestor who became a Mormon? He was dyslexic.

Understanding Fumblitist And Why Some Teams Are Fooled By A Hard Count

Understanding Fumblitist And Why Some Teams Are Fooled By A Hard Count — It has been revealed that those involved in the NFL overwhelmingly tilt towards the GOP in their political donations.

Of the top five franchises in giving, only the Dolphins gave more to the Democrats and even they were pretty even with the Dems getting 52 percent of the contributions and the Republicans getting 45 percent.

Of course, there are some teams that clearly hang out with the jackasses than roam with the elephants.

Of the $37,000 in contributions made since January 2009 by those with Jeff Lurie’s Philadelphia Iggles, 94 percent went to Democrats.

Can that be the explanation as to why an Andy Reid-coached team can never seem to keep a second or two on the clock for a field goal attempt?

 

Understanding Fumblitist And Why Some Teams Are Fooled By A Hard Count

Sen. Hopeful To Speak To West Chester Tea Party

Marc Scaringi, who is seeking to replace Bob Casey Jr. in the U.S. Senate will speak to the West Chester Tea Party and mingling with members, 7 p.m., Oct. 11 at the West Goshen Township Building, 1025 Paoli Pike, West Chester Pa. 19380.

Scaringi is an attorney and was an aide to Sen. Rick Santorum.

Also at the event will be candidates for Chester County commissioner.

Free refreshments will follow the talks.

Hat tip Fran Coppock.

Flea Party Vs Tea Party II

Philadelphia Inquirer carried a large, front page story, Oct. 7, about the “Occupy Philadelphia” protest near City Hall which drew about 700 flea partyers.

Contrast this to the almost non-existent coverage it gave the Independence Hall Tea Party’s 4th of July event which brought about 1,500 to Independence Mall and featured Herman Cain and John Bolton as speakers.

One’s sure they have their reasons for the stories they choose to play up.

Update: Teri Adams of the Independence Hall Tea Party tells us that the turnout on July 4 was actually over 2,000.

Flea Party Vs Tea Party II

Irresponsible Leadership

                                                                                  The Roar

For too long, America has been under the leadership of a President who, for all intent and purposes, consistently opts for the wrong course of action.  This fact alone validates why our fuel prices have almost doubled, our unemployment hovers at or above nine percent and our housing market remains in tatters.  And, it is this consistency which raises eyebrows.

In a curious sidestep, it has recently become the fashion to center our ire against those Wall Street profit seekers.  The original gatherings of protest have since leap-frogged from the Big Apple to any and practically all metropolitan areas.  Again, the President’s choice of action regarding this development becomes highly questionable if the betterment of our Nation remains paramount.

It probably seems slightly redundant to echo the inescapable fact that from Obama’s earliest Presidential campaign overtures, our media has been overly accepting of any and all of Obama’s shortcomings.  This policy continues today as a local headline misleads, “Obama ups heat on GOP to pass jobs bill.”

While this jobs bill gains the reader’s initial attention, a more accurate headline may have read, “Obama once again shows impatience and Presidential irresponsibility.”  His frustrations were evident from the first sentence as he stated his desire for Congress to pass his jobs bill or  be “‘run out of town’ by angry voters.”  Actually, Ben Feller of AP left the key word of “run” out of the quote which once again softened Obama’s threat.

Now I ask you, is this any way to be Presidential?  Vote for what I want or you will be chased “out of town” by essentially a mob, which I condone?  And talking about mobs, we return to Wall Street where there might be career openings for organizing and training the mob mentality.

Once again, Obama’s actions are irresponsible as he not only supports but seems to encourage this mob sentiment against our Nation’s financial center.  While hyping his jobs bill, which is essentially just another stimulus package cut in half, he reflects the anticipated positions of both Republican Congressional leaders by a return to his former organizing skills.  They may be the heart and soul of community organizing but as a National leader, the overall betterment of the country should be first and foremost when being President of “all” the United States.  Not so with his embarrassing comment; “And, you know, all I can do is make the best arguments and mobilize the American people so that they’re responsive.”

Since the House became the purview of Republicans, the Obama Presidency has traveled rocky roads.  The American voter is now witnessing the sudden change from his first two years of grinning to his current  nine month state of perplexity.  And his frustrations are without pretense, as his recent remarks suggests.

One last observance offers credence to his uncertainties.  Supposedly, Obama’s unseen resume contains a reference to his professorship of Constitutional Law.  So, it might just be the heat of the moment for him to misstate, as Commander-in-Chief,” We have a democracy…”  Or, I wonder how many of his students got that question wrong in his tests?  Again, his baffling consistency.

Jim Bowman
Author of
This Roar of Ours

Flea Party Vs Tea Party

As the unwashed Obama supporters continue their protest on Wall Street against the washed Obama supporters, a story regarding the privately owned park in lower Manhattan where they are camping serves as a comparison between their movement and that of the Tea Party.

Brookfield Office Properties, which is the owner of Zuccotti Park, says the park has become a sanitation disaster with the protestors willfully ignoring the posted rules which are designed to guarantee all access to it.

Compare this to the much-larger Tea Party protests which famously left the Washington Mall spotless.