News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
Proverbs 16-19:
There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
You think Barack Obama ever heard Jeremiah Wright preach this?
The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting that the total cost of employment to Penn State University for President Graham Spanier is $800,592. The figure comes from adding salary– which in Spanier’s case is $620,000 — to things like housing, bonuses, deferred compensation, retirement set aside, car allowances, tuition assistance and related spousal pay.
On the basis of salary, Spanier does not rank in the top 10 of public college compensation. When everything is included he jumps to number five.
Number one in both categories is Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee who has a $1.322 million salary and $1.818 million total cost of employment.
Penn State, like Temple, Pitt and Lincoln, is a “state-related” school in that while it gets public money, its governance is independent of the state.
The budget passed May 24 by the State House would give PSU $252 million in tax dollars this year, which is $81 million less than last year. Spanier is upset about this but he is not as upset about this as he was about Gov. Corbett’s proposed budget which sought to cut $168.76 million in tax funds from the institution.
It should be noted the state contribution has traditionally made up about 10 percent of Penn State’s budget.
There is nothing wrong with someone earning $800 thousand in compensation despite what some, such as Philadelphia Inquirer cartoonist Tony Auth, might think. There is a lot wrong, however, with someone getting that money when some of it is obtained through the threat of force which is how taxes are obviously obtained.
If Spanier wants to be among the filthy rich his school should not get a penny in state subsides.
And yes, that applies to Joe Paterno, about whom you can actually make a case that he objectively earns his paycheck, too.
For the record, the House budget provides subsidizes of
Hat tip to Tea Party activist Bob Guzzardi.
Will GOP Sup Court Candidate Unite –Pennsylvania’s big-government Green Party and the no-government Libertarian Party have a candidate to unite them namely Victor Stabile, the Republican nominee for state Superior Court judge.
Unfortunately for Stabile, the unity is to keep him off the bench.
Stabile easily beat Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick, who had sought Tea Party support, in the May 17 primary election to win the nomination for a seat on the 15-member Superior Court which is the intermediate appellate court for civil and criminal cases from county Common Pleas Courts.
He faces Democrat David Wecht in November.
Stabile, who has been a managing partner with the law firm Dilworth Paxon LLP since 1992, was the hired gun who led a failed attempt to keep the Libertarians off the ballot in the 2008 presidential race and has boasted about being successful in keeping the Greens and Libertarians off the ballot in the 2010 state races.
Meanwhile in the Commonwealth Court race, the Department of State awaits the official county tallies to determine if the margin of victory by activist attorney Kathryn Boockvar over Barbara Ernsberger is enough to avoid an automatic recount to determine the Democrat candidate. Unofficial totals have Ms. Boockvar beating Ms. Ernsberger by 3,258 votes out of 615,308 cast which would put her above the half of one percent threshold for the automatic recount.
The winning Democrat will face Republican Anne Covey, who was strongly endorsed by conservative groups and easily beat Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge Paul P. Panepinto.
Commonwealth Court is a nine-member body
that is the intermediate appellate court for issues involving taxation,
banking, insurance, utility regulation, eminent domain, election, labor
practices, elections, Department of Transportation matters, and liquor
licenses.
Harold Camping, the president of Family Radio who predicted the world would end Sept. 6, 1994, has doubled down and picked another specific date for this event, namely tomorrow, May 21, and this prediction has found traction in the public psyche. 
Expect rock stations to add a particular 1987 hit from R.E.M to their playlists — that’s great, it starts with an earthquake as Camping and Michael Stipe seem to agree — and expect Family Radio stations — 106.9 FM is the one for the Philadelphia area — to have record listenership as multitudes tune in for a front row seat to the Apocalypse.
And to take pleasure in the dashing of the hopes of basically decent people.
Maybe Camping will decide to mess with their heads and only broadcast white noise.
Family Radio is a Christian radio network of 52 full-power stations along with a few dozen translators. Much of its programming is gentle and uplifting with the only downside being the goofy theological advice Camping gives on his call-in show. During the malicious and aggressive secularism of the 1980s and 1990s it was about the only place one could find Christmas music that made sense.
One suspects that May 21 will be the end for it albeit not the world.
Anyway, keep Camping, who is 89, in your prayers. May 22 is going to be a real bummer for him.
The man accused of bottling up a bill that would make much of Obamacare hard to enforce in Pennsylvania told the Delaware County Patriots, Thursday, May 19, that it will likely come up for a vote this year.
State Rep. Bill Adolph (R-165), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee has been accused of sitting on HB 42 by Tea Party activists. The bill has been tied up in Adolph’s committee since Feb. 8.
HB 42, introduced by Matthew Baker (R-68) on Jan. 19, says A law
or rule shall not compel, through penalties and fines, directly or
indirectly, any individual, employer or health care provider to
participate in any health care system.
It also specifically
says that an individual or employer may pay directly for lawful health
care services and shall not be required to pay penalties or fines for
doing so; and specifically allows health care providers to accept
direct payments without penalties. It also prohibits state law enforcement and regulatory agencies from
participating “in compliance with any Federal law, regulation or policy”
that would compromise the “freedom of choice in health care” of any
resident of the state.
Adolph told the group, which met at Knights of Columbus hall in Newtown Square, that the biggest budget problem facing the state was the expiration of federal stimulus money. He said last year’s $28 billion budget contained $3.1 billion of the fed dollars.
The $27.3 billion budget proposed by Gov. Corbett places a heavier burden on the state taxpayers despite it being smaller. House Republicans have tweaked the budget by easing some of the cuts the Governor had made to education while adding cuts to welfare. Adolph said the House budget gives state higher education 75 percent of what it had gotten last year, while Corbett would have cut the outlay in half.
Adolph said that the House budget actually ends up being few hundred thousand dollars less than the Governors.
Concerning the questions fielded by Adolph — and HB 42 was one — he said:
— He supported in principle privatizing the state-owned liquor stores but would not commit to any specific legislation as the “devil was in the details”.
— He supported giving school boards the power to furlough teachers for economic reasons. He, however, ducked the other half regarding his position on ending the requirement that school districts and municipalities pay prevailing wage for renovation and construction projects.
–He is not familiar with the First Suburbs issue which is starting to be discussed in Tea Party groups and appears to be an attempt to use government programs such as Section 8 housing to economically “diversify” Philadelphia’s older suburbs in accordance with the preferences of academics and activists.
–He supported abolishing the inheritance tax.
–He voted for and supports HB 1330, which expands the state’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit, and that he was only aware of the highlights of SB 1, the school choice bill bottled up in the Senate. He said he supports school choice in principle.
–That teachers should not be allowed to strike.
— He supports voter ID.
— He believes in state sovereignty.
— He supports cutting the size of the state legislature.
The only matter on which he incurred the crowd’s wrath concerned state pensions, and his unwillingness to condemn former State Sen. Bob Mellow’s $300,000 pension in significantly vociferous terms. He said Mellow’s pension plan had been grandfathered from before 1974, and that he should get it. He did not seem to get that it may fairer and more just to change the terms of an old poorly conceived contract rather than make a widow who was not party to it lose her home trying to fulfill it.
Rio Bravo was on one of the stations last week and that naturally leads one to think of El Dorado.
And that leads us to think of the poem by former Philadelphia resident Edgar Allen Poe that was recited throughout that film by James Caan
So here it is:
Eldorado
Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.
But he grew old-
This knight so bold-
And o’er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.
And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow-
“Shadow,” said he,
“Where can it be-
This land of Eldorado?”
“Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,”
The shade replied-
“If you seek for Eldorado!”
State Rep. Bill Adolph (R-165) of Springfield will be speaking to the Delaware County Patriots, 7 p.m., May 19 at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 327 N. Newtown Street Road, Newtown Square, Pa. 19073.
Adolph chairs the House Appropriations Committee.
The Patriots is the county’s Tea Party group.
Insurgents Fall In GOP State Races; Dem Battle Close — The Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judges who actively sought Tea Party support fell handily to the endorsed candidates in the Republican Primary state judicial races.
With 97 percent of the returns tallied, Paula Patrick was trailing Harrisburg attorney Vic Stabile 361,772 votes to 190,231 in the Superior Court race, while Paul Panepinto had 167,455 votes to Anne Covey’s 386,751 in the Commonwealth Court race.
The 15-member Superior Court is the intermediate appellate court for civil and criminal cases from county Common Pleas Courts. The nine-member Commonwealth Court is the
intermediate appellate court for issues involving taxation, banking,
insurance, utility regulation, eminent domain, election, labor
practices, elections, Department of Transportation matters, and liquor
licenses.
On the Democrat side, party-endorsed Kathryn Boockvar, a private attorney known for her work with activist groups, was leading Barbara Behrend Ernsberger 300,389 votes to 297,635 to be the Commonwealth Court candidate.
On some local notes, incumbent Springfield (Delco) 6th Ward Commissioner Bob Layden appears to have held off a challenge from former commissioner Jim Devenney, who resigned after a minor scandal involving family memberships to the township swim club. The unofficial tally is 437 to 396.
And Tea Party activists Lisa Esler and John Dougherty 3rd will be on both party ballots in this November’s Penn Delco School Board race. Elections are being held for five seats. Cross filing is allowed in Pennsylvania school board races which means that in this fall’s race ticket totals will be combined to determine the winners.
Mrs. Esler had the most votes of six candidates on the Democrat side with 424, and had the third highest tally out of seven candidates on the GOP side with 1,239.
Dougherty had the most votes on the GOP side with 1,534 and the second highest total on the Democrat side with 377.
The candidates who won on both tickets — additionally Kevin Tinsley and Kimberly Robinson — while having a significant advantage do not have a guaranteed victory. Lewis Boughner appears to have failed to win on the Democrat ticket while James S. Porter 2nd appears to have failed to win on the Republican one, so there will be six people seeking five seats. It is in the realm of possibility that a person appearing on just one ballot will be among the top five votegetters.
In Newtown, embattled supervisor Linda Houldin was crushed 1,732 votes to 480 votes in her GOP primary by former Marple Newtown School Director Edward C. Partridge. Partridge had sought Tea Party support.
Reader TomC has sent me a link to this Pittsburgh Tribune-Review story noting that two dozen state employees in education-related agencies earn $200,000 or more, and that they are among nearly 3,600 state employees paid at least $100,000 annually.
And, that doesn’t even count those in superintendents, and assistant superintendents and assistant to assistant superintendents in local education who rake in $100,000-plus.
And that doesn’t even count their health packages and taxpayer-bailed out pension plans that will allow them to earn near that much after they become officially unproductive.
Pennsylvania voters will cast ballots tomorrow, May 17, to determine the candidates in November for municipal, school board and judicial elections.
The state defines municipalities as counties, cities, boroughs and townships.
Turnout in these election is usually low with the turnout in the primary usually being even lower. The only state-wide races involve the Supreme Court, Commonwealth Court and Superior Court.
Seeking the Republican nomination to Superior Court — a 15-member body that is the intermediate appellate court for civil and criminal cases from county Common Pleas Courts — are Vic Stabile and Paula Patrick.
Stabile, who has been with the law firm Dilworth Paxon LLP since 1987 and has been a managing partner since 1992, is the endorsed candidate. He has never served on the bench.
Ms. Patrick, an African-American, is a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge who is fearlessly taking on the establishment by seeking out the support of Tea Party groups.
She unabashedly told the Delaware County Patriots on March 24 that she is pro life, pro Second Amendment, pro traditional marriage and a Born Again Christian.
Democrat David Wecht is uncontested in the Democrat Superior Court race.
Seeking the Republican nomination to Commonwealth Court — a nine-member body that is the intermediate appellate court for issues involving taxation, banking, insurance, utility regulation, eminent domain, election, labor practices, elections, Department of Transportation matters, and liquor licenses — are Paul P. Panepinto and Anne Covey.
Ms. Covey is the endorsed candidate and, like Stabile, is a private attorney who never served on the bench.
Panepinto, like Ms. Patrick, is a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge who is seeking Tea Party support and touting his pro-life, pro-Second Amendment views.
Ms. Covey is also touting her pro life beliefs and has endorsements from the major pro-life groups.
Facing off on the Democrat ticket are Kathryn Boockvar and Barbara Ernsberger. Both are private attorneys. Ms. Boockvar is the endorsed candidate and has a history of working with legal activist groups.
Up for retention elections this November are:
Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin, who won election to the court in 2001 as a Republican and is known for writing decisions in rhyming verse. To his credit, his biggest critics of this practice have been former Supreme Court colleagues Stephen A. Zappala and the late Ralph Cappy, neither of whom was known as shining examples of jurisprudence.
Superior Court Judge John T. Bender, who won as a Republican in 2001
Superior Court Judge Mary Jane Bowes, who won as a Republican in 2001.
Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer, who won as a Republican in 2001. She is the wife of former State Sen. Majority Leader Robert Jubelirer, who was turned out of office in his party’s primary in 2006 due to the pay raise scandal.
Commonwealth Court Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt, who won as a Republican in 2001
Robert “Robin” Simpson, who won as a Republican in 2001.
On a local note, Lisa Esler of the Delaware County Patriots is seeking a seat on the Penn-Delco School Board.