William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-22-14
GOP Discontent Seen
The Republican Party powers in Montgomery and Bucks counties prevailed on May 20 regarding State Committee races but that insurgents Steve Piotrowski could get 10,060 votes in Montco while Jay Russell and Jimmy Clendennen could get, respectively, 7,207 and 6,202 in Bucks sans party support shows that things are not all copacetic.
State GOP Chairman Rob Gleason clearly does not have his ear to the ground so to speak.
More GOP Discontent Seen
Hollywood Treason, Literally
James O’Keefe
James O’Keefe, who may be the nation’s gutsiest journalist, has Hollywood actor Ed Begley Jr., actress Mariel Hemingway and director John Tickell on tape willing to sell this country to Islamic oil interests for $9 million.
A Project Veritas operative posing as a “Muhammad” from a Mideast oil family offered the money to fund an anti-fracking movie because “if Washington D.C. continues fracking, America will be energy-efficient and then won’t need my oil anymore.”
“Sounds good” the Hollywooders said.
Please understand that those so smugly asserted as heroes in our entertainment are so asserted by people who have no understanding of right and wrong, and no concern about what’s in your best interest.
The same applies for those they claim are villains.
The video:
Hollywood Treason, Literally
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-21-14
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-21-14
Phil Bancroft points out that time can do a lot of things. Time will tell, flies, marches on, heals all wounds and runs out.
Corbett Wins LOL
Corbett Wins LOL
Incumbent Gov. Tom Corbet in yesterday’s Republican primary handily beat a guy who was not officially on the ballot and had rejected fundraising.
Where retiree Bob Guzzardi’s name appeared on the ballot due to the lateness of the Supreme Court decision ruling him ineligible, Guzzardi tallied, unofficially, well over 10 percent of the vote getting 14.46 percent (3,501 votes) in Allegheny County and 17.45 percent (4,051 votes) in York County.
York County also had 1,410 actual write-ins while Allegheny had 842. Many if not most likely went to Guzzardi.
Where Guzzardi’s name did not appear on the ballot — which included the ring suburbs of Philadelphia — there were, unofficially, 1,199 write-ins in Chester County or 6.91 percent; and 218 in Delaware County (1 percent).
Montgomery County and Bucks County did not release write-in tallies although the “name removed from ballot” button was hit 38 times in Montco and 135 times in Bucks. The under vote for Corbett in Montco was 6,054.
Corbett got 368,995 votes statewide. His running mate, Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley got 395,845.
We should note that Democrat winner Thomas Wolf got 484,495 votes in the D’s highly contested primary.
Guzzardi deserves only praise. He ran on principle and to give the many Republicans displeased with Tom Corbett a choice. That the governor feared his candidacy is obvious in the steps he took to disqualify him.
Will the Guzzardi people, many of whom are activists, get behind Corbett this November?
If Corbett changes his position and stops the Common-Core based Pa Core Standards, yes, at least for this one.
If he doesn’t, this vote goes to Libertarian Ken Krawchuk.
A word of advice, Governor, get Peg Luksik’s endorsement.
May 20 2014 Omnibit by William Lawrence Sr
May 20 2014 Omnibit by William Lawrence Sr.
Come on Robert James, join us in singing “Happy Birthday” to Honore de Balzac, the French novelist. He was born May 20, 1799.
Visit BillLawrenceTrivia.com for more Omnibit Trivia
Pennsylvania Voting Tutorial Write In
We have gotten requests to provide write-in how-tos for other Pennsylvania counties in light of the GOP primary gubernatorial campaign of Bob Guzzardi.
Guzzardi is actually on the ballot in several counties due to the delay in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling on his campaign so if one is fortunate to live in one of those simply hit the button by his name.
If, however, you have to write in his name some machines such as the Danaher 1242 which is in use in Bucks, Delaware and Philadelphia counties require you to use a pen so make sure you bring one.
Others, including Montgomery County and parts of Chester County, use machines made by Election Systems & Software (ES&S) that allow the write-in name to be typed in via a keypad. In Montco’s case it is the Sequoia Advantage DRE that provides this feature while in Chesco it is the ES&S iVotronic.
Chester County’s website also list the use of the ES&S M100 Paper-Ballot Scanner System in which case a pen will be needed.
A tutorial on Montgomery County’s system — including the write-in process can be found here with the write-in description starting at 1:20.
A tutorial on the write-in procedure of the ES&S iVotronic can be found here.
A tutorial on the the ES&S M100 can be found here.
A tutorial on the Danaher 1242 can be found here.
If in doubt bring a pen on May 20.
Pennsylvania Voting Tutorial Write In for Bob Guzzardi
And here is a reprise of the explanation for Delaware County
The Pennsylvanian Supreme Court, May 1, threw Bob Guzzardi off the Republican gubernatorial primary ballot in a bizarre decision based on a picayune reading of the letter of the law that ignored the spirit of it.
It was hypocritical — dare we say corrupt? — in that if his opponent had made the same error it is unimaginable that he would have been thrown off.
Still Guzzardi has not ended his campaign. He remains on the ballot in several counties due to the delay in the court’s decision and votes for him on those ballots will count for him.
In the counties where he is not on the ballot — and this apparently includes Delaware County –he is asking for write in votes.
The write in votes are easy. In some counties the machines have keypads that allow you to type in the name.
In Delaware County, which uses the Danaher Shouptronic machine, you have to write in the name with a pen. Make sure you bring one. We plan to bring two, a ballpoint and a Sharpie just to make sure.
The name to write in is Bob Guzzardi.
The video below includes a demonstration as to how to do a write-in vote in Delaware County.
Lazy Infantile New York Times
Lazy Infantile New York Times. Why should anybody treat the old media with respect?
The New York Times had for many years held a position of respect if not reverence among America’s ruling class.
With the advent of the World Wide Web things have gotten a bit more transparent and the idol is starting to crumble disconcerting the self-proclaimed smart set that have long worshiped it.
Not that the paper ever deserved the honor that had been bestowed upon it.
It fell hard for the Piltdown Man hoax .
It covered up shamelessly for the progressive mass murderer Joseph Stalin.
But still it sailed on, its favor coveted by those who lusted for power.
Well, now we are finding out more about who runs the place, namely that they are greedy, petty, extremely childish and rather stupid.
Taiwanese satirists TomoNews has done a brutal recreation (see below) of the May 14 firing of first female editor Jill Abramson, who accused the powers-that-be at the company of sexism because her salary of $525,000 was $34,000 less than the guy she replaced.
The company bosses in response said she was a crap administrator who caused disruption and was unable to stop the circulation decline or increase the paper’s web presence.
We think they are both right.
The stuffed moose in the video, by the way, was something Publisher Pinch Sulzberger brought to board meetings as some kind of pop-psychology-based motivation tool.
Regarding the once-vaunted editorial page, even the liberal reporters at the paper say it has become boring, innaccurate and inane. The New York Observer has a rather long expose about it.
It quotes one former Times writer as saying “(Columnist Thomas) Friedman is the worst. He hasn’t had an original thought in 20 years; he’s an embarrassment. He’s perceived as an idiot who has been wrong about every major issue for 20 years” and that Maureen Dowd “who has been writing the same column since George H. W. Bush was president.”
That’s a liberal that’s being quoted by the way.
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-19-14
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-19-14
Of the 271 words in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, 203 of them were just one syllable.
Prosperous Pennsylvania Blueprint
Commonwealth Foundation has created a well-thought plan to save the state. Call it a Prosperous Pennsylvania Blueprint. Below is the executive summary. The complete report in the form of a pdf can be found here. For the record, BillLawrenceOnline most vehemently opposes leasing the Turnpike, which is a public resource. Our suggestion is to make it a freeway eliminating traffic snarls and allowing for far more entrances and, especially, egresses to be built . This would increase its utility and improve traffic flow in Pennsylvania far less expensively than building new roads.
It should further be noted that expensive I-76 makes the Port of Philadelphia less competitive with New York/New Jersey — no tolls on I-80 after all — and tolls are a rather inefficient way of collecting revenue due to the cost of infrastructure and personnel.
And E-ZPass, frankly has too much of a hint of Big Brother for us.
Freedom is good.
By Elizabeth Stelle, Bob Dick, Jessica Barnett
Over the past six fiscal years, the commonwealth has spent more than it has taken in. This fiscal gap is projected to widen as expenditures are on pace to grow faster than future revenue. Such a structural deficit poses a threat to the very foundations of economic growth and job creation that lead to prosperity for Pennsylvania’s taxpayers.
From 1970 to 2014, state government spending rose from $4 billion to nearly $67 billion—the highest in state history. Adjusting for inflation, that’s an increase of $3,163 per resident.
This decades-long pattern has placed an undue burden on the backs of state taxpayers. Pennsylvania has the 10th highest state and local tax burden in the nation. Meanwhile, state and local government debt has grown to a combined $125 billion—nearly $10,000 per resident.
High spending, taxes, and debt hinders Pennsylvania families’ opportunities for prosperity. The commonwealth is near the bottom in most state rankings of economic climate and has lagged the rest of the nation in job and income growth for decades.
Unfortunately, the prospects for improvement are overshadowed by the challenges lawmakers face in balancing our state budget.
Recent budgets relied heavily on temporary federal stimulus dollars and one-time revenue sources, creating an imbalance between spending and revenue that has not yet been resolved. Spending on Public Welfare—the largest department in the commonwealth’s budget—continues to grow faster than taxpayers’ income. Debt payments and prison costs continue to eat a large share of the state budget.
The most pressing threat to our fiscal house is a looming public pension crisis. With $47 billion (and growing) in unfunded pension liabilities between the two statewide plans for public employees, state pension contributions will skyrocket by 143% in the next five years.
This report outlines reforms to help build a foundation for lasting prosperity. Our analysis focuses on three categories of reform.
First we address short-term fiscal reforms to deal with challenges facing our state budget. We also identify long-term reforms to bring spending in line with inflation while reducing the size of government and the burden on taxpayers. Finally, we discuss policy reforms aimed at economic growth.
These recommendations include:
–Cut corporate welfare spending—including Redevelopment Assistance Capital Spending, the Commonwealth Financing Authority, and the Horse Race Development Fund—and targeted tax incentives in favor of tax relief for all.
–Utilize part of the legislative reserve fund.
–Reduce reliance on driver charges and general tax revenue to fund mass transit, and shift to greater user fees.
–Allow school districts to use fund reserves to invest in pension funds and receive a credit for their future pension costs.
–Privatize and utilize competitively-bid management contracts for “yellow-pages” government, including state liquor stores, the Pennsylvania Lottery and the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
–Enact comprehensive welfare reform to slow the rate of spending growth while also reducing poverty.
–Enact long-term care reform to encourage private long-term care insurance and reduce reliance on government programs.
–Increase school choice programs to provide families with greater educational opportunities at a lower cost per student.
–Limit future increases in government spending to inflation plus population growth.
–Lower the overall tax burden, rather than relying on economic development programs, to encourage economic growth.
–Enact a Right-to-Work law to make Pennsylvania more competitive with other states in attracting business investment.
Combined, these reforms detail a blueprint for a stable fiscal house that will provide opportunities for prosperity for all Pennsylvania families.
