News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
AmericasMart Vs Pennsylvania Convention Center — A friend of mine had a booth at a trade show at AmericasMart in Atlanta last month. She told me she had her own people set it up. She said the convention center people would have transported her display from the loading dock to her space at $25 per pallet but she had a couple of dollies in the van so she didn’t need them.
It saved her $150.
For your laugh for the day imagine that happening in Philly.
Goodby Manny, Moe and Jack.
Long-time Philadelphia institution Pep Boys has been sold to Gores Group, a private equity firm, it was announced today, Jan. 30.
The price for the auto parts giant was $15 per share, a 24 percent premium over Friday’s closing price. The enterprise value of the transaction is $1 billion.
Hat tip, Tom C.
The brutal murder of 23-year-old Kevin Kless, Jan. 14, near the Liberty Bell has gotten world wide headlines.
Philadelphia City Council, June 23, approved 17-0 a resolution to make Philadelphia a Sanctuary City.
Granted, the resolution was non-binding but it unambiguously declared a desire by the city’s leaders to end a three-year-old agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement which gave that agency access to city arrest data.
Penn and Temple are headquartered in Philadelphia, and I am sure every one of the administrators and faculty at the schools — including millionairess presidents Amy Gutmann and Ann Weaver Hart — think this is a good idea.
How many people does it take to change a light bulb at Penn and Temple? Just one is required if one has an iota of a speck of common sense. One suspects however, that light bulbs are not getting changed at those schools as they are entirely populated by Obama Democrats.
Of course, being a Republican is not a guarantee of having common sense. Those who led the GOP in Pennsylvania are dim enough to vote millions to these people who despise them.
There is no reason to force The Forgotten Taxpayer to fund people at Penn and Temple who contemptuously and condescendingly dismiss and disdain common sense conservative and all Republicans, except Jon Huntsman, as stupid, racist, homophobic, misogynist bigots.
One has to wonder why the GOP leaders are stupid enough to fund those who despise them.
Some might think it unfair that I call all at Penn “Obama Democrats”. They point out how the Daily Pennsylvanian recently ran a gushing front page press release praising former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman who is among those seeking the Republican Party nomination for the president.
Huntsman was, until April 30, Obama’s ambassador to China.
So, I concede the point. There are Obama Republicans at the school as well.
This article by Chris Freind is republished with his permission.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Teacher doesn’t like a possible school district decision. Teacher gives students SEPTA tokens, ostensibly allowing them to attend a protest rally at District headquarters — during the school day. Teacher doesn’t notify principal or parents that students were leaving school. Teacher was allegedly insubordinate by disclosing a document the District wanted kept confidential. Union boss fights efforts to fire teacher on First Amendment grounds.
Teacher wins.
That’s right. Despite an initial effort by the Philadelphia School District to terminate Hope Moffett, a teacher at Audenried High School, she is back at work, smug as ever. And why not?
The District completely caved. Instead of pursuing the right course of action, it settled for Moffett to read a non-descript one sentence letter to her class — a statement the District claims is an admission of wrongdoing, but which Moffett bluntly denies. “There’s no apology,” she said. “I think it’s very clear that they wanted an apology, but what they wanted an apology for was something that wasn’t true.”
The statement: “I acknowledge that I didn’t notify the principal on 2/14/2011 that students planned to leave the school building during the school day on 2/15/2011, even though no parental permission had been submitted to the school.”
Seems Moffett is right — no apology there.
The District’s take? They were pleased she was admitting wrongdoing.
“I think her acknowledging that she did something wrong was part of what we were looking for all along,” a District spokeswoman was quoted as saying. “Just that she had some sense of remorse that she put the students in harm’s way.”
Remorse? Where is the remorse when Moffett refused to apologize for placing students in possible danger without any parental or school notification? “It’s ridiculous, but it gets me back into the classroom,” she said, according to the Inquirer. “It is a statement that I’m fine with making because to them it will always be an apology, thereby justifying that I can return to the school.”
“Ridiculous” and “no apology.” Wow. What incredible remorse.
Most interesting was that even Moffett herself “didn’t anticipate being returned to the classroom.” So let’s get this straight. Moffett’s actions led the District to start the firing process, and despite Moffett believing she did nothing wrong, she thought she would lose.
So what happened?
The unions got involved. And since everyone in Philadelphia kowtows to the unions, the ballgame ended. Incomprehensible? Yes. Expected? Absolutely.
Moffett’s union, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT), sued the District on free speech grounds, since Moffett opposed plans to convert Audenried to a charter school. That argument is so hollow that it would be laughed out of court anywhere but Philadelphia.
So a U.S. magistrate judge got involved, and helped broker a deal. (Moffett was also given a five-day suspension, but don’t count on that standing up, since the union is appealing that, too).
The biggest joke in this whole debacle is the notion that both sides can claim a semblance of victory.
Moffett won, and District made fools out of themselves. If that’s “victory” for the District, I’d hate to see what losing is.
The First Amendment has no role whatsoever in this case. Moffett is certainly free to disagree with the District’s charter school plans, and it’s well within her rights to advocate for her cause.
What is unacceptable is to knowingly allow students to leave the safe confines of school and venture unsupervised into the city (facilitated, the District claimed, by giving out the SEPTA tokens), with parents having absolutely no knowledge of their children’s whereabouts. What if a student was involved in an accident while on this unsanctioned field trip? Or mugged? Or raped?
(And let’s be honest — how many students, completely of their own volition, were really motivated to take up this cause as their own? It’s a fact that some teachers use students as pawns in political fights. Was this one of those cases? It certainly raises questions.)
To say the District — and in fact, taxpayers — would be liable for a massive lawsuit is a gross understatement.
And, if as the District contends, Moffett was insubordinate for disclosing a document that it had ordered kept private, they had even more grounds for firing.
Given the facts, Moffett should have been terminated. It’s a case the District should have pursued, because it would have sent the right message. Instead, the clear message is that the District can be bullied into submission, settling for nothing despite holding all the cards.
This is one of those rare cases when the union should have backed away. Loyalty above all, except honor. And there is no honor in what Moffett did.
But why should the union back away when it knows it won’t be challenged? These victories only add to the union’s mystique.
Of course, it’s a good bet this wouldn’t have played out the same way about ten miles east, across the Delaware River. Odds are that Governor Chris Christie would have come swooping in with his trademark thunder, pointing out how cowardly the District was being, aggressively taking on the union, and fighting for justice to be done.
And he would have won.
Too bad we don’t have the same kind of barnstorming leaders in Pennsylvania. If we did, this would have been the perfect opportunity to show that quality.
And little Miss “Moffett” would be eating her curds and whey somewhere other than Audenried High.
Gov. Tom Corbett has cleaned the rodent-droppings from Pennsylvania’s vermin-infested contribution to Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) appointing himself as chairman and replacing five board members.
But will it be the case of “meet the new rat, same as the old rat”?
Corbett’s appointments — William Sasso, Joanna Cruz, Joann Bell, Walter D’Alessio and David Simon — are all heavy political contributors to the governor each donating at least $1,500, personally or institutionally, to his attorney general and gubernatorial campaigns with Simon and Sasso kicking in $29,500 and $22,000 respectively as individuals.
DRPA is a Congressionally-approved arrangement between Pennsylvania and New Jersey charged with overseeing the maintenance and development of the Philadelphia-Camden port district and much of the Delaware River crossings including the four big toll bridges. The 16-member board is split evenly between the states. All New Jersey members are appointed to set terms by its governor. In Pennsylvania, six members are at-will gubernatorial appointments with the state’s treasurer and auditor general being automatically given seats.
Are Corbett’s picks going to be exterminators or just more bald-tailed looters looking for their cheese? One sign will be if crossing the Delaware gets cheaper and more convenient. Look to see what happens with the 20 percent toll hike schedule for July.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has repented like The Grinch and returned Christmas to the Christmas Village sign at the traditional seasonal outdoor market outside City Hall.
But why did he even consider taking it down in the first place? Should Christmas be a dirty word? Those who want to make it so should remember whose footsteps they are trying to follow.
The Nazis hated Christianity and Christmas posed a problem to them since it was Germany’s most popular holiday. Rather than ban it, they tried to replace it as described in this story at the TimesOnline, the website for the paper most of us in the U.S. know as The Times of London albeit in the U.K. it is simply the Times.
The Nazis replaced carols praising Jesus with secular songs about the season — winter wonderlands so to speak. They insisted Christmas trees be called fir trees, light trees or Jultrees.
They insisted the event, Julfest or Wintersonnenwende (Winter Solstice), be one to remember Germanic ancestors and soldiers. Here is an example of how it was supposed to be done according to a popular women’s magazine at the time:
Something like that could never happen in Pennsylvania or the United States, right?
A standing-room-only crowd of 50 attended this morning’s post-election meeting of Philadelphia-area tea party groups for a panel discussion moderated by journalist Chris Freind at a conference room at The Union League of Philadelphia.
The panel was Diana Reimer of the Philadelphia Tea Party Patriots, Jennifer Turner Stefano of the Conservative Leadership Coalition, Lisa Esler of Delaware County Patriots, Diane Canney of Valley Forge Patriots, Teri Adams of the Independence Hall Tea Party Association PAC, and Kevin Kelly of The Loyal Opposition, which hosted the event.
Before the discussion started the group was given a bit of good news from the Washington D.C.-based Americans for Tax Reform which reported that it was expecting the Bush tax cuts to be extended, in their entirety, for two years.
Much of the panel discussion involved the problem of Philadelphia which gave the Democrats 280,000 more votes than the GOP on Nov. 2. It was noted that if Philadelphia margin had been the same as it was during recent presidential elections — Democrat votes in the city exceeded Republicans by 478,000 in 2008 and 412,000 in 2004 — Democrats Joe Sestak and Dan Onorato would have won the senate and governor races respectively.
The last time the Democrat margin of victory in the city was less than 300,000 during a presidential year was in 1988 which was the last time the Republicans won the state.
Kelly, who has been battling the city’s Republican establishment, again expressed his belief that Philadelphia Republicans are not interested in winning due to a corrupt and cozy patronage relationship with the Democrats in power.
Members of the audience involved in city politics expressed agreement.
The generally collegial event ended in fireworks when Dr. Robert Sklaroff blasted Kelly and Freind for refusing to condemn military re-enactor Rich Iott who was the unsuccessful GOP candidate in the Ohio 9th District congressional race and who was photographed wearing a Nazi SS uniform for one of his re-enactments.
Mrs. Stefano pointed out to Dr. Sklaroff that military re-enactments require the enemy to be depicted as well. This, however, did not appear to appease the good doctor.
Update: There is a report that Iott socialized dressed in his SS uniform. Depending on the context of the socialization — how long it occurred after the re-enactments and such — perhaps Dr. Sklaroff might have a point.
“Numerous irregularities” in the elections conducted by the Philadelphia County Republican Committee have led the state Republican Credentials Committee, in an unanimous vote, to declare the seat of Philadelphia County party chairman vacant until a new election is held.
The action was taken in response to a challenged filed by Kevin Kelly after the Philly Republicans picked Vito J. Canuso as party head in a bizarre June 9 proceeding in which the party establishment declared him the winner in a 42-12 vote. Kelly said the actual vote was 21-18 for Al Schmidt.
On June 17, he told the Delaware County Patriots , an area Tea Party organization, that the irregularities included the old guard’s refusal to seat several newly recruited GOP leaders from black and Hispanic wards.
The Credentials Committee held a hearing Sept. 9 and largely accepted the case Kelly made albeit they did not seat Schmidt as chairman as per Kelly’s request.
While Canuso held the title of party chairman he was basically a figurehead for Michael Meehan.
Philadelphia County is coterminous with the city.
Hat tip to GrassrootsPa.com
Philly Volunteer Fire Companies, Where Are They? — Philadelphia, Monday, began closing fire companies to save money. The closings are daily, temporary and done in a rotation. They stem from the $47 million in spending cuts Mayor Nutter demanded last month to balance the city’s budget.
Local 22 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which represents Philadelphia’s fire fighters, is upset as are residents faced with the obvious loss of an accustomed service.
But stones don’t have blood so new taxes weren’t an option and so there they are.
Which leads to the question, why doesn’t Philadelphia have any volunteer fire companies? Neighboring Delaware County, for instance, has 81 public-service fire companies of which 77 are primarily volunteer with the Chester City companies being the only ones that use mostly personnel paid via taxes.
Philadelphia, which has three times the populations, has just 56 fire companies which, btw, is seven less than two years ago. It should be noted that Delaware County has its share of tank farms, probably a larger industrial base and plenty of narrow streets with row homes.
So why doesn’t Philly have any volunteer fire companies? It’s because Local 22 would be joined by its fellow politically connected unions in going gonzo if the topic should be broached as even a joke.
This is a shame because the benefits would be far more than saving the large amount of money that would result. The suburban volunteer fire companies are breeding ground for community leaders who are quite often independent of the party machines. Further, they give young men a chance to channel their natural aggression into something rather constructive.
But don’t expect the subject to be broached in Philly.
Even as a joke.