Congressman Murtha Has Died

Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa12) died today at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington. He was 77 and had represented his district since 1974.


Murtha’s  gallbladder was removed  Jan. 28 in what was considered a routine laparoscopic procedure at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. An infection developed, however, and on Feb. 1 he was moved to the intensive care unit at the Virginia Hospital Center.


Murtha, the first Vietnam veteran to be elected to congress, was Pennsylvania longest serving congressman and was seeking to win a 20th term this November. He chaired the House Subcommittee on Defense.

His district is the only one in the nation that voted for Republican presidential candidate  Sen. John McCain and for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Gov. Rendell is expected to call a special election to fill the seat. Murtha had challengers —Ron Mackell Jr. and  34-year-old Ryan Bucchianeri — in the May 18 Democratic Primary.

The leading contender for the GOP nomination is Bill Russell, who was Murtha’s opposition in 2008. He faces GOP activist Dave Battaglia  and businessman Tim Burns.

Hello, Amber Murphy

Brian and Holly Murphy are the proud parents of a new baby girl with the lovely name of Amber. If I understood Brian correctly she was born Saturday on the day of the snowstorm.

Congratulations Brian and Holly.
Brian is one of the good guys who helped clear out the neighborhood with his snowblower, along with Andrew and a fellow I couldn’t identify. Granted, Brian did his service on Sunday but he did appear to have a commitment on the day of the blizzard.

February Blizzard 2010

February Blizzard 2010

The community Souper Bowl Of Caring Food Drive being held in Springfield Pa. is going to have to wait for a day other than Super Bowl Saturday. The blizzard that is still rocking the Philadelphia region and much of the East Coast is expected to continue until early this evening.

It may wind up being compared to the Blizzard of ’93.
February Blizzard 2010

Snarlin’ Arlen’s Low Blow Against Admiral Joe

I think I might change my bet and put it on Admiral Joe “I Believe The World Is Burning To The Ground” Sestak as to who is going to be the Democratic nominee in this year’s Pennsylvania senate race. 

During last night’s Democratic candidate’s forum in Lancaster, incumbent Arlen “I Believe The World Is Burning To The Ground Too” Specter compared missed votes by the 7th District’s congressman to going AWOL in the Navy. It turned out that a lot of the votes Sestak missed were due to his spending time with his dying father who passed away in September. 
And Sestak, of course, had been hammering away throughout the night on the votes that Specter didn’t miss as a Republican in support of the Bush agenda which was not making Arlen a darlin’ with the Dems paying attention to the face-off.
Specter’s statement is akin to the bone-headed claim made by GOP incumbent Curt Weldon in the 2006 congressional race that Sestak should have been sending his four-year-old daughter to a Philadelphia-area hospital to treat her brain tumor. It was about then I thought Weldon might actually lose the race.
Still, to seal the deal Sestak did require a very strange last minute raid by federal agents on the homes and businesses of friends and relatives of Weldon — a raid which, btw, has yet to lead to any charges against the principals or serious charges against anybody. 
Maybe, I won’t change my bet.
If Sestak should wind up being the Dems’ pick, however, almost sure-bet GOP-nominee Pat Toomey  must keep in mind that Sestak is basically a nice guy. He doesn’t seem to hate anybody. He’s not sneaky. He’s not a liar. He’s not a thief. He’s not lazy. He’s not irresponsible, well perhaps intellectually but not in terms of keeping commitments and such.
What Sestak is, however, is an outspoken, staunch, true-blue believer in things that will make our lives much, much harder if they should ever be instituted. He is actually much worse than Arlen Specter whose constituency is first and perhaps only Arlen Specter.
If Toomey sticks to the issues, he’s going to win easily against either candidate.


Murtha Condition Is Stable

Matthew Mazonkey, a spokesman for Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa12), told the Washington Post yesterday that the congressman’s condition remains stable.

Murtha was placed in the intensive care unit at the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., Feb. 1, after complications from gall bladder surgery.

PSU’s Findings ‘Untrue On Variety Of Levels’ Says ClimateAudit

Steve McIntyre’s ClimateAudit.Org, the website that has been leading the way in exposing the global warming travesty, has chimed in on Penn State’s attempt to make go away the controversy of its involvement with the distortions in data that politicians throughout the world — well, OK, not China, Russia or India — are using to make lives harder.

He says PSU’s conclusions are “untrue on a variety of levels”.
Dr. Michael Mann, who heads PSU’s Earth System Science Center, is creator of the notorious “hockey stick” graph shown to tens of millions of school children — and the thousands of Al Gore movie fans — that shows the earth to be catastrophically warming.
It has been made clear in the last few months that Mann purposely left out information in making that graph that showed, well, the Earth isn’t warming so much.
The board Penn State created to investigate the matter in response to a public outcry declared that wasn’t such a big deal.
Mann’s name was prominent in the emails leaked last November from the University of East Anglia’s Hadley Climatic Research Centre in the United Kingdom that blew the lid off the scandal.
Below is Mann’s infamous hockey stick graph that has scared children and convinced many that we must destroy our economy to appease angry earth spirits.

Did Obama Leave Before Tebow’s Closing Prayer?

Tim Tebow, the Florida Gator’s Heisman-trophy winning quarterback, gave the closing prayer at yesterday’s National Prayer Breakfast.

The event began in 1953 and is traditionally attended by national leaders including the president.
President Obama was no exception yesterday although he apparently left before Tebow’s prayer.
Tebow has become a controversial figure due to his slated appearance in a pro-life ad during the Super Bowl, Sunday.

Justice Department Seeks Retarded, Mentally Ill Lawyers

Justice Department Seeks Retarded, Mentally Ill Lawyers — The U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division is seeking up to 10 experienced attorneys for the position of Trial Attorney in the Voting Section in Washington, D.C. The Civil Rights Division is primarily responsible for enforcing federal statutes and executive orders that prohibit, among other things, unlawful discrimination in voting, education, employment, housing, police services, public accommodations and facilities, and federally funded and conducted programs. 


(snip)

The Civil Rights Division encourages qualified applicants with targeted disabilities to apply. Targeted disabilities are deafness, blindness, missing extremities, partial or complete paralysis, convulsive disorder, mental retardation, mental illness, severe distortion of limbs and/or spine. 

 

Sarah Palin speaks and Obama jumps.
Justice Department Seeks Retarded, Mentally Ill Lawyers

 

Harrisburg City Mulls Bankruptcy

Harrisburg City Mulls Bankruptcy — The City of Harrisburg is consider filing for bankruptcy, Bloomsburg.Com is reporting.

 
Pennsylvania’s capital, population 47,000, is facing $68.7 million in debt service payments in connection with the construction of a waste incinerator, according to a report by the consulting firm Management Partners. That’s $4 million more than its entire proposed operating budget.
 
The city guaranteed the $288 million debt for incinerator which is owned by the Harrisburg Authority.
 
The city is also considering tax and fee increases, and selling downtown assets.
 
This would be the first such default in Pennsylvania.
 

 

The city missed $3.5 million in debt obligations last year.
 

 

The city is controlled by Democrats. 
 
 
Harrisburg City Mulls Bankruptcy

Mann Gets Cover From PSU In Global Warming Scandal

Penn State has released a report regarding the claims that Dr. Michael Mann, who heads the university’s Penn State’s Earth System Science Center, did very dishonest things to convince the world that man-made activities were causing a catastrophic warming to Planet Earth.


PSU addressed the claims that Mann:
  1. Participated in fabrication, falsification, plagiarism or other practices that seriously deviate from accepted practices within the academic community for proposing, conducting, or reporting research or other scholarly activities
  2. Showed callous disregard for requirements that ensure the protection of researchers, human participants, or the public; or for ensuring the welfare of laboratory animals
  3. Failed to disclose significant financial and business interest as defined by Penn State Policy RA20, Individual Conflict of Interest
  4. Engaged in, directly or indirectly, any actions that seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for conducting research or other scholarly activities? 
The committee exonerated Mann on all allegations but the fourth about which it said further investigation was needed.
Mann came under fire after emails were leaked — the PSU board uses the word “purloined” — from the University of East Anglia’s Hadley Climatic Research Centre in the United Kingdom that showed leading climate researchers playing tricks with data and conspiring to stifle dissenters regarding the global warming catastrophe story.
Mann’s emails were among those released.
The most significant allegation was Number 1. That the Penn State review board couldn’t come to see that leaving out data points that would change the entire meaning of a graph goes way beyond “trying to construct an understandable graph for those who were not experts in the field” as per the PSU report indicates a serious decline in academic standards.