All snowflakes have six sides.
Month: December 2017
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-8-17
Military children whose fathers hold high rank seem inclined to successful musical careers. Kris Kristofferson’s father was an Air Force major general and Jim Morrison’s dad was a rear admiral. Musician John Denver’s father was a lieutenant colonel who is in the U.S. Air Force Hall of Fame for setting speed records.
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-8-17
William Lawrence Sr. Omnibit 12-7-17
Honolulu, HI’s original name was Fair Haven.
William Lawrence Sr. Omnibit 12-7-17
Pennsylvania Gift Ban Never Happened
Pennsylvania Gift Ban Never Happened
By Leo Knepper
In late 2014 and early 2015, five current and former members of the General Assembly were charged with bribery and other charges related to their acceptance of cash “gifts” from a lobbyist. Despite a flurry of legislation at the time to ban cash gifts, it never happened. The House and Senate changed their chambers’ rules to prohibit the acceptance of cash gifts from lobbyists, but the law hasn’t changed. The law hasn’t changed because banning only cash gifts would raise some very uncomfortable questions for lawmakers about the kinds of gifts they can still accept.
What kinds of gifts can they accept? Virtually anything as long as they follow the disclosure rules. In order to comply with Pennsylvania’s lax ethics laws, lawmakers are simply required to disclose gifts of more than $250 per year from any source and transportation, lodging, and hospitality worth more than $650. Over the years those gifts have included everything from Super Bowl tickets to Turkish rugs.
At CAP, we generally aren’t a fan of banning things and unnecessary regulations. However, given the sheer number of public officials from Pennsylvania who end up in prison we think that enacting a commonsense “gift ban” makes a lot of sense.
CAP member Representative Rick Saccone introduced HB 39 in early 2017 to accomplish that goal. Many attempts at banning gifts to lawmakers are impossible to enforce because they are written in a way that is overly broad and includes activities that could be genuinely related to lawmaking. Rep. Saccone’s legislation does not fall into that trap.
Despite being introduced and assigned to the House State Government Committee in January of this year, there has never been a hearing on this or any other gift ban related legislation. Citizens of the Commonwealth have been victimized by corrupt politicians of both parties for years and rightly have a low opinion of their government. We believe that passage of this legislation would certainly show that lawmakers are getting the message and are willing to take concrete actions to get their house in order.
Please take a moment to email your Representative. Ask them to become a cosponsor of HB 39. Encourage them to speak to the Chairman of the State Government Committee, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe about scheduling a hearing and a vote on the measure. It is going to take a lot to restore people’s faith in Pennsylvania state government, but this is a step in the right direction.
Mr. Knepper is executive director of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Gift Ban Never Happened
William Lawrence Sr. Omnibit 12-6-17
The, the U.S.S. Langley, first U.S. aircraft carrier had a compartment for carrier pigeons.
William Lawrence Sr. Omnibit 12-6-17
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-5-17
Shanghai, China is the world’s busiest container port with 36,516 twenty-foot equivalent units containers per year as of 2015.
Take that Paulsboro, N.J.
Busiest container port William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-5-17
Happy Double Nickels Old Man
For those who happen to be celebrating their 55th Birthday
John Bayard Anderson R.I.P.
John Bayard Anderson, the Republican who ran as a third-party candidate in 1980 against Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, died Dec. 3. He was 95.
Anderson was a congressman who represented the 16th District of Illinois from 1961 to 1981. He received 7 percent of the vote during his presidential run including mine which was the first time I cast a presidential vote.
In hindsight I’m glad he lost, but he was a decent and honorable man.
R.I.P. Congressman.
John Bayard Anderson R.I.P.
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-4-17
Michael Richard’s character was Kessler not Kramer in the first episode of Seinfeld.
Comedian Kenny Kramer, upon whom the character is based, had not yet given consent to use Kramer.
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-4-17
Ed Rendell Child Sex Ring ????
Ed Rendell Child Sex Ring ???? — Influential ZeroHedge.com has linked to a story claiming that former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell is connected to child sex trafficking.
Rendell has also served as Philadelphia district attorney, Philadelphia mayor, and chairman of Democrat National Committee. He is a noted backer of Hillary Clinton.
The story by Elizabeth Vos and William Craddick of Disobedient Media is based on an interview with Philadelphia native Greg Bucceroni.
Bucceroni was a child prostitute in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. He worked for a ring led by notorious pedophile Ed Savitz.
Bucceroni says that as D.A., Rendell knew what Savitz was doing and ignored it. Further, he says that Rendell’s removal of children from Haiti after the 2010 earthquake was part of a human trafficking scheme.
We questioned the governor’s action at the time but came up with an entirely different motive.
Bucceroni also accuses David L Cohen, who was Rendell’s chief of staff as mayor, of being a pedophile.
“Another Savitz connected pedophile was Ed Rendell’s good pal Comcast CEO David Cohen,” Bucceroni said in a Jan. 2, 2014 tweet.
Actually, Cohen, is a senior executive vice president of Comcast and the company’s chief diversity officer
Bucceroni says that among those with whom he had contact were Lawrence King of the Franklin Credit Union scandal , Jerry Sandusky and Congressman Dennis Hastert.
Bucceroni says King would “take kids from the South Philly Boys Club to Washington D.C.” for sexual abuse.
Hastert, a Republican who represented the Illinois 14th Congressional District from 1987 to 2007 was Speaker of the House from 1999 through 2007 making him third in line to the presidency. He says Hastert once paid him $40 for sex.
Hastert pleaded guilty in April 2016 to violating federal laws governing the withdrawal of money from banks. It was revealed then that he was a child molester albeit couldn’t be tried on those charges as the statute of limitations had passed. Hastert was released from prison on July 18 after serving 13 months. He remains on two-years supervised release.
While we have trouble believing the allegations against Fast Eddie, we certainly accept that there is something seriously wrong in this state.
And whatever did happen to Ray Gricar and his hard drive?
Ed Rendell Child Sex Ring ????