News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
State-Owned Vehicles Almost Tripled Since ’80 — State Sen. David Argall (R-29) is reporting that the number of state vehicles owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has increased from 5,700 in 1980 to 16,186 today.
The state had 161,528 full-time equivalent employees as of December 2009 for a population estimated at 12.6 million.
It had 123,284 full-time equivalent employees in July 1992 for a population estimated at 12 million.
Little Threat Makes Luzerne County Remove Nativity Scene — In a spectacular display of spinelessness, Luzerne County, Wednesday, removed a decades-old nativity scene — along with a menorah — from the county courthouse lawn.
The action occurred immediately after a Pittsburgh lawyer from the ACLU contacted County Solicitor Vito DeLuca “to give the county an opportunity to remove the
items” before the ACLU filed court action, according to the Times Leader of Wilkes Barre.
The county was threatened with a suit over the matter in 1990, which never materialized.
What a display of courage. But then in 1990, Luzerne County wasn’t sending kids to prison to make a buck.
COLA Pay Cut? LOLOLOL — The Commonwealth Foundation’s Nathan Benefield points out that Pennsylvania legislators, judges and executive branch people get an automatic cost-of-living adjustment in their pay using the consumer price index (CPI) for Philadelphia as the measure for inflation.
Will fancy that, the CPI is down 0.15% this year. Does the pay of our solons and mandarins go down?
Did I really need to add a LOLOLOL to headline?
Travesty Added To Kelo Tragedy — The United States Supreme Court said in 2005 that the city of New London, Ct., could use eminent domain power to take the homes and properties of Susette Kelo and others in the Fort Trumbull section of that city and give them to large private corporations like Pfizer Inc. for the purpose of economic development.
The vote was as you might expect with the progressive, self-proclaimed caring types like Ruth Bader Ginsburg voting for the faceless corporations and those bumpkin conservatives siding with the the little guys and gals.
Well ho ho ho it has just been reported that Pfizer is shutting down its massive New London facility. The once productive neighborhood will remain a field of weeds for the foreseeable future.
Former Phillie Jerry Koosman didn’t pay income taxes in 2002, 2003 and 2004 and, despite paying restitution, will serve a six-month jail sentence.
Timothy Geithner failed to pay self-employment taxes in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004, and was named Secretary of the Treasury by Barack Obama.
Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY15) — among other things – failed to report $75,000 on income from a rental property he owns in the Dominican Republic and gets to chair the House Ways and Means Committee.
When one votes for a Democrat, one is a sheep voting for a wolf.
The chief of staff to former congressman Curt Weldon was sentenced, July 30, for the heinous offense of not reporting $19,000 his wife made with a non-profit as required. Russell James Caso Jr., 36, got probation. 
He joins fellow Weldon associate Cece Grimes, 42, who also got probation for the crime of destroying some emails.
These vile deeds came to light during an investigation of Weldon that became public when federal agents raided the homes of his daughter Karen and political ally Charlie Sexton three weeks before the 2006 election. Karen and Sexton owned and operated the consulting firm Solutions North America, which the feds claimed used Weldon’s connections to win lobbying contracts.
So, umm, where are the convictions for Ms. Weldon and Sexton? Heck, what are the charges against Ms. Weldon and Sexton, or the former congressman for that matter? It’s been three years, you would think the feds would have had things pretty much wrapped up since they were willing to perform the rather significant act of staging an election-eve raid. What would have been the problem with waiting until the Wednesday after Election Day considering not much appears to have been found?
The raid iced the race for Joe “Grandpa Really Doesn’t Need That Pacemaker” Sestak, and got rid of Weldon who had written the controversial book Countdown To Terror, alleging gross incompetence in the U.S. intelligence agencies.
The raids did unveil a major amount of corruption. Unfortunately the vast majority of it seems to be in federal law enforcement.
With regard to Weldon’s book here it is at Amazon.