Month: May 2012

Is Adolph In Tea Party’s Sights?

Tea Party activist Bob Guzzardi who helped give state Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi the grief he got this primary season has now turned his sights on Springfield’s own Bill Adolph  who represents the 165th District in the State House and chairs the House Appropriations Committee.
“Routinely, Appropriations Committee Chair Republican Bill Adolph and the Republican Controlled General Assembly forces the Pennsylvania taxpayer to subsidize Penn State, a $4 billion tax exempt nonprofit big business billionaire corporation each year,” Guzzardi says. “. . .As the subsidies increase, tuition has increased, salaries have increased the number of non-teaching administrators and staff have increased, student learning performance has not increased. What has government oversight accomplished? Students leave Penn State with loan burdens that stay with them for years.”
Guzzardi’s criticisms are detailed here.

Heroes And Zeroes And Football Spikes

This video submitted by Cathy Craddock explains that heroes don’t spike footballs. Thank you Cathy

Springfield School Board Mum On 5-Year SEA Pact

This report comes from citizen activist Regina Scheerer

As you have heard by now, the Springfield (Pa) School District and the Springfield Education Association have reached a tentative agreement on a 5-year contract.

No information will be given until the teachers ratify the agreement, and then it will be presented to the School Board.

I encourage you to attend or watch the School Board meetings this month.

The final proposed budget for school year 2012-2013 will also be presented to the School Board.

Public comment is welcome at the beginning of the meetings.

 The School Board meetings this month are on Thursday, May 10, and Thursday, May 24, at 7 p.m. at the McLaughlin Center on Leamy Avenue

There will be a public meeting on the 2012-2013 school budget on Thursday, May 17, at 7 p.m.

The proposed final budget is not yet posted online.

Watch for it on www.ssdcougars.org under the District heading, Financial Information, then Budget, after the May 10 meeting.

You may watch the School Board meetings on Ch 11 Comcast or Ch 29 Fios.

The Springfield School Board Finance Committee will meet on Monday, May 21, at 6 p.m. at the McLaughlin Center to finalize the 2012-2013 school budget.

The public is welcome and may comment.

The Springfield Board of Commissioners will meet on Tuesday, May 8, at 8 PM at the Township Building.

Public comment is welcome at the end of the meeting.

You may watch the proceedings on Ch 10 Comcast or Ch 30 Verizon.

Springfield School Board Mum On 5-Year SEA Pact

An Afternoon At The Italian Village

William Lawrence celebrated his 83rd birthday yesterday, May 3, at the Italian Village in Milmont Park soon to be featured on an episode of the Food Network’s Restaurant Impossible.

Nancy, our waitress/bartender — she makes a great Manhattan cocktail, told us they expect it to air in late June or early July.
The dining room still had a smell of fresh paint. Nancy said that Robert Irvine was as big a jerk as he appears although he knows his stuff, and the entire makeover was really done in two days at cost of $10,000. She had praise for the young man who did the design and said it was his first show.
She pointed out some art above the reception desk that was basically made from a pizza box. It looked expensive. The rug was ripped up and discarded, the chairs were repainted — as is almost always done on the show — and the ends of old barrels were used to decorate a wall. 
The menu, of course, was dramatically shortened. Nancy noted the old menu on the website cannot be changed until the show airs.
We met accordionist Al Dee although we did not get a chance to hear him play.
Almost all entrees were under $20.  I had the chicken saltimbocca which was said to be one of Irvine’s additions. I enjoyed it.
The escarole soup, a tradition at the restaurant which opened in 1981, survived the makeover and was delicious. It comes with the entree.
Italian Village is a fun and affordable place  and one will almost certainly be back.

Is Obama SMERSH?

The best political ads have a foundation of truth and that’s what makes this one so effective.

Hat tip Cathy Craddock

Obama’s DEA Tortures College Student

Daniel Chong, a senior at the University of California at San Diego, was nabbed in a federal drug raid near campus and taken to a detention facility where the Drug Enforcement Administration reportedly put him in a cell and forgot about him. He went four days without food or water surviving on his own urine.

Imagine a Gitmo terrorist was treated that way.
Is Chong making it up or exaggerating? Well, the DEA has basically fessed up.
From the ATF’s Fast and Furious, to the blackly humorous exploits of the TSA, to the party guys of the Secret Service, America’s once respected federal agencies have become an international joke under Barack Obama.
I hope gets Chong rich off his lawsuit. I only wish it was coming out of the pensions of the morons who locked him away and forgot about him rather than my pocket.

Happy Birthday Dad

A happy birthday to William W. Lawrence who turns 83 today.

So Why The Fuss About Photo Voter ID?

Well the ACLU and NAACP are now suing to get Pennsylvania’s popular voter ID law overturned by the courts. They are claiming that  law violates the state constitution’s ”free and equal” elections clause and may cause people to lose their right to vote.

Why don’t they work to get everybody eligible to vote a a photo ID? It really isn’t that hard to do. It’s as easy to get a photo ID as it is to go to a polling place.
Why are the partisan Democrat groups like the ACLU and NAACP — and have no doubt that they are partisan — so against photo voter ID?
I think we know the answer.

Rally Against Home Tax Tyranny Is Monday

Rep. Jim Cox (R-129) is asking those planning on attending his rally on  Monday, May 7, in support of House Bill 1776 to RSVP at his website.

HB 1776 would stop property taxes from being used to fund public schools hence making it easier for those on fixed incomes or out of work to save their homes, and be of great benefit to family famers

The school funding mechanism would be replaced with other taxes.

Why Does Everything Good Have to be Communist?

By John Gilmore

At 17th and Market Occupy Philly met to have a pep rally to
celebrate May Day as a day to support workers. 
Movements all over the world are “reclaiming May Day and taking it
back to its origins.”

Occupy Philly us calling for a general strike for the day,
specifically targeting Philadelphia banks saying that their bad investments for
the city, along with slick contracts, drove the Philadelphia public education
system into bankruptcy.  During their
“mic check,” for which the Occupy Movement is so well known where one
person speaks and the crowd repeats the statement back, they spoke of the rise
in student debt, the privatization of prisons and the creation on an industrial
prison complex, and perpetual wars that have driven almost fifty percent of the
United States into out close to poverty.

Despite some clown dressed in a military uniform and posing
for the camera with a red book and what was supposed to be a communist flag,
they made quite a bit of sense.  The nut
with the flag, obviously a plant or idiot, probably wasn’t a real
communist.  They are not stupid enough to
wear such peraphernalia and turn people off.

I, myself, was insulted that this person would refer to the
good old US democracy this nation was founded on, and the responsible spending
the conservative party used to be founded on, as communism.  The lack of coverage and the refusal to
discuss these issues of which many US citizens are aware, that is Soviet and
Chinese style communism.