‘Generational Theft’ Pension Bill Back From Dead

The ‘Generational Theft ‘ pension bill that is expected to allow the sextupling of the annual pension burden on the Pennsylvania taxpayer to  $5.8 billion  has crawled back from the dead like a zombie stalking a Pittsburgh shopping mall.

Lame duck Speaker Keith McCall announced, today, that he is calling the State House back in session on Nov. 15 when it is expected to approve the changes made by the state Senate to HB 2497, the official name for the theft bill. The House passed the bill 192-6 on June 16.

McCall had announced on Friday that the House would not be returning to the anger and fear of The Pennsylvania State Education Association and Gov. Ed Rendell both of which implored the Democrat-controlled House to change its mind.

Which the walking dead Democrats did to nobody’s surprise.

The House passes to GOP control in January.

Pennsylvanians don’t get your hopes too high.

Fed Street Sign Mandate To Affect Springfield

Springfield (Delaware County, Pa) Township Manager Michael LeFevre describes the new federal street sign mandate as “a doozy”

The Federal Highway Administration, last year, mandated that  street name signs throughout the nation be upper/lower case. The white letter on black background signs in Springfield are in all capital letters.

The township has until 2018 to replace them.

“The cost to buy a sign face is $50,” he said. “We install them with our own staff. If you look around town there are quite a few street signs.”

The feds feel that older people can read upper and lower case easier.

LeFevre says the township is still awaiting some final directions from the feds.

“We have no plans on beginning major changes at this time,” he said.

If the over-burdened Springfield taxpayer wants to try and find a bright sign to this bit of Washington whimsy he can consider that the mandate is expected to cost New York City $27 million.

Poll Shows Pa. Warming To School Choice

A poll released by Commonwealth Foundation , Nov. 9, shows that 50 percent of Pennsylvanians support using “education vouchers which help parents pay the cost of the school of their choice” with only 30 percent opposed.

If the wording is changed from “education vouchers” to “tax-credit scholarship funds”  the support drops to 46 percent with the opposing remaining the same and those saying “not sure” rising to 24 percent.

The poll of 500 likely voters was conducted Nov. 1 by Public Opinion Research.

Republicans supported the voucher question 63 to 21 percent while independents supported it 38 to 32 percent. Blacks, who overwhelmingly vote Democrat, supported it 69 to 7 percent.

Democrats, in total, supported it 45 to 31 percent.

Men supported vouchers 54 to 27 percent while woman supported it 46 to 32 percent.

Those with children at home supported it 48 to 31 percent percent while those without supported it 51 to 29 percent.

Significantly different results garnered by the “tax-credit” worried included independents expressing opposing to the idea 37 to 34 percent, with support from those with children at home growing to 56 with just 27 percent in opposition.

Hat tip to GrassrootsPa.com

It’s Always Groundhog Day In Pa.

Punxsutawney Samuel H. Smith of the 66th District  was elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania House by his fellow Republicans this morning. He assumes the role when the new legislative session starts Jan. 4 in which the Republicans will hold a 21-seat majority in the 203-member House.

Smith’s name is the first among the submitters of the infamous 2005 pay raise.

Smith had been  House Minority Leader.

Also as expected Mike Turzai of the 28th District was voted majority leader; Stan Saylor of the 94th District was voted majority whip.

 

Expected Pa Speaker Submitted The 2005 Pay Raise

The  leadership vote scheduled for tomorrow  to pick the Republican leaders of the Pennsylvania House has resulted in expressions of anger from the increasingly powerful Tea Party groups in the state.

Expected to be elected as Speaker of the House is  Samuel H. Smith of the 66th District and a resident of Punxsutawney, who is the now the House Minority Leader.

And that’s kind of ironic with regard to Smith’s hometown since what the Tea Partyers fear is a Groundhog Day with a daily wake-up to I Got You Babe for the next two years.

Smith’s name is the first among the submitters of the infamous 2005 pay raise .

Tea Party favorite Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of the 12 District has asked the vote to be postponed until December so those members of 112-member Republican House Caucus who are new to Harrisburg could get a better feel of the personalities seeking the offices.

Last week’s election gives the GOP a 21-vote majority in the body when it convenes in January.

Metcalfe and the Tea Party groups are also asking that the vote be held in the open rather than in the closed meeting as is traditionally done by both parties for the House and Senate.

The Tea Party group Delaware County Patriots has called the early, closed vote “business as usual”.

Besides Smith, Mike Turzai of the 28th District is expected to be voted majority leader; Stan Saylor of the 94th District , party whip; and Rep. Dave Reed of the 62nd District as GOP policy chairman.

Hat tip to Bob Guzzardi of LibertyIndex.Com.

God’s Pharmacy

A sliced tomato resembles a heart. Is it good for the heart? Do kidney beans really help your kidneys? Is it true about the sweet potato?

Check out the latest Off The Internet feature: God’s Pharmacy .

Phone Book Ends

Phone Book Ends == Verizon Pennsylvania’ s white pages —  the traditional phone book — will now only be delivered upon request.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, Nov. 4, gave unanimous approval to a request by the company to change its tradition of including the listing with the distribution of its 12-million revenue producing yellow pages.

Verizon says they are doing it for the environment and that the move will save 200 tons of paper per year.

Verizon says the listings can be found on its website. It also says it is willing to provide them via a DVD.

The blue pages containing the numbers for government agencies and social services will remain.

Yellowbook, Verizon’s competitor, will continue to distribute white pages along with the paid advertising in its yellow pages.

Those still wanting a Verizon Pa. white pages should call its directory distribution center  at 800-888-8448.

The white page listing can  be found at http://www.verizon.com/whitepages.

 Phone Book Ends

Phone Book Ends

Quotes Of The Day From T.J.

Courtesy of Fran Coppock

When we  get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
–Thomas Jefferson

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
–Thomas Jefferson

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
–Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
–Thomas Jefferson

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
–Thomas Jefferson

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
–Thomas Jefferson

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
–Thomas Jefferson

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
–Thomas Jefferson

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
–Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:’I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then  by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property – until  their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.’

Lincoln Professor Kaukab Siddique And Antisemitism

Comments made at a Sept. 3 rally in Washington D.C. that were recorded then aired by the Christian Broadcasting Network are coming back to haunt Lincoln University professor Kaukab Siddique along with old emails dug by CBN investigative journalists.

At the rally, Siddique, who teaches English, literature and journalism, said “We must stand united to defeat, to destroy, to dismantle Israel, if possible by peaceful means. Perhaps, like Saladin, we will give them enough food and water to travel back to the lands from where they came to occupy other people.”

In the email exchanges Siddique was found to have said “The Holocaust is a hoax. Get over it.” and that there is “not one document to prove it happened.”

CBN says the record of Siddique’s hatred for Jews goes back at least a dozen years.

Lincoln in Oxford, Chester County, is the nation’s first degree-granting black college. Alumni include Thurgood Marshall, Langston Hughes and Cab Calloway. It is  part of Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth System of Higher Education along with Penn State, Temple and the University of Pittsburgh. These schools are independent of state management but still receive public money, which in Lincoln’s case is about $14 million per year.

Two state senators who represent parts of Delaware County, Daylin Leach of the 17th District and Anthony H. Williams of the 8th District , both Democrats, have written a letter to Lincoln University President Ivory V. Nelson expressing concern about the bizarre, hate-filled statements and noting that while “you are entitled to your own opinions, but you are not entitled to your own facts.”

They pointed out that the state has a no-tolerance policy regarding hate speech for state-supported institutions and  demanded to know the level of awareness held by Lincoln’s administration regarding Siddique’s comments and what steps the school was taking to keep Siddique from teaching false claims to his students.

Lincoln answered that Siddique has not made such claims to his students and that tenure keeps him from being fired.

The strange and sad thing is that one suspects that most Jews in Siddique’s home state of Maryland on Tuesday voted for the same candidates as Siddique did.

Lincoln Professor Kaukab Siddique And Antisemitism

Lincoln Professor Kaukab Siddique And Antisemitism

Big GOP Day In Pa

Republican Tom Corbett handily won the governorship last night beating Democrat Dan Onorato. The unofficial tally with 53 districts — 40  in Philadelphia and 13 in Delaware County —  to go was 2,136,683 votes to 1,783,581. With Republicans retaining control of the state Senate and winning the state House, Pennsylvania can make the elephant its official mascot for at least the next two years.

The senate race was much closer than expected and not called until after midnight when Democrat Joe Sestak conceded to Republican Pat Toomey. The unofficial tally as of 7 a.m. was 1,993,704 votes for Toomey to 1,916,284 votes for Sestak. Exit polls showed Toomey winning by 4 percent rather than the 2 that he did, but silly people should know that dead Philadelphians can’t answer exit polls.

Toomey lost Philadelphia by more than 283,000 votes with Corbett doing only slightly better. With the GOP running things now Corbett should put stopping vote fraud pretty high on his things-to-do list.

Sestak won on his home turf in Delaware County, 108,307 votes to 84,630.

Five of the state’s 19 congressional seats switched to the GOP including Sestak’s 7th District Seat won by Pat Meehan over Bryan Lentz. None switched to the Democrats so with the dust cleared, Republicans are sitting in 12 of the seats.

According to incomplete and unofficial figures from the Department of State, Meehan won 133,146 to 106,214 with James D. Schneller getting 2,635 votes.

Regarding the other switched seats, Republican Mike Kelly beat incumbent Democrat Kathy Dahlkemper, 102,601 to 82,125 in the 3rd District; Republican Michael G. Fitzpatrick beat incumbent Dem Patrick J. Murphy 125,081 to 108,452 in the 8th District; Republican Thomas Marino beat incumbent Democrat Christopher Carney 109,603 to 89,170 in the 10th District; and Republican Lou Barletta beat incumbent Democrat Paul Kanjorksi 100,108.

Two incumbent Democrats who opposed ObamaCare — Jason Altmire of the 4th District, and Mark Critz of the 12th District, who was not in office at the time of the vote — won squeekers over Keth Rothfus and Tim Burns respectively.

With regard to the state House, Republicans are expected to control at least 110 of the 203 seats including the seat held by retiring House Speaker Keith McCall in the 122nd District which is in Carbon County and was won by Republican Doyle Heffley over Democrat Justin Yaich; and in what might be the surprise of the night, the 116th District seat in Luzerne County held by House Majority Leader Todd A. Eachus which went to newcomer Republican Tarah Toohil  9,693 to 7,957.

Complete details can be found at the Department of State website .

 

Big GOP Day In Pa