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Turnpike Chief Reportedly Charged By Feds

2010-03-10T15:34:00Z

It's being tweeted that former Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission Chairman Mitchell Rubin has just been charged by feds with obstruction of justice stemming from the Vince Fumo investigation.

The Commission was ordered by federal investigators to retain documents last November.

1 In 6 Americans Have Genital Herpes

2010-03-10T14:57:00Z

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported, yesterday, March 9, that about 16 percent of Americans between the ages of 14 and 49 have genital herpes which is incurable.

The CDC said about 21 percent of women were infected with genital herpes or herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) compared to about 11.5 percent of men.

It said about 39 percent of blacks were infected -- including 48 percent of black women -- and about 12 percent of whites.

Genital herpes can cause recurrent and painful genital sores and greatly increases the likelihood of acquiring and transmitting the AIDS virus.

Specter, Sestak Now Face A Conservative Dem

2010-03-10T04:29:00Z

Democrats will have a third choice for senator in the Pennsylvania primary, May 18.

Joseph Vodvarka of Allegheny County appears to have acquired the necessary 2,000 signatures to get on the ballot to battle incumbent Arlen Specter and 7th District Congressman Joe Sestak.

Vodarka describes himself as a manufacturer and small business owner. He describes himself as a conservative Democrat. He is against ObamaCare and has been an NRA member for 36 years.

Vodarka will have nowhere near the resources as the other candidates and Specter, the party's endorsed candidate, is already the heavy favorite. Still he's the lone candidate not from the Philadelphia area and western Pennsylvanians are known for their reluctance to vote for Philadelphians.

Welcome Skyler Jane Lawrence

2010-03-09T21:40:00Z

The newest addition to the Lawrence family is Skyler Jane who came via c-section a few hours ago at an Orlando, Fla. hospital. She weighed in at 7 pounds 10 ounces.

Congratulations Robert and Jennifer.

Kyley will make an excellent baby-sitter.

Turn The Light Off For ObamaCare, Inky Covers Tea-partyers

2010-03-09T17:05:00Z

Turn the lights off for ObamaCare. If you don't you may as well turn them off for the Democratic Party.

Today's Philadelphia Inquirer reported that "Tea-party activists who oppose the legislation outnumbered supporters, with about 200 sign-wielding, slogan-shouting tea partyers attending a morning news conference before Obama arrived" regarding President Obama's socialism sales pitch at Arcadia (nee Beaver College) University, yesterday. The story, which ran on page B-1, included a large color photo of the tea-party protesters.

When the Inky stops covering for the left, the game is over.

Granted, they ran a puff-piece beneath it about how Obama's supporters came out in force, but the treatment in totality was far from the Pavlovian salivating that the paper gave us in its coverage of the Young Man from Wherever in the Summer of '08.

Arcadia, btw, did not allow protesters on campus.

Arlen Specter Is Writing A Book

2010-03-09T16:55:00Z

Sen. Arlen Specter (S for Specterite -Pa) is reportedly writing a book regarding his experiences in switching from the Republican Party to the Democrat Party.

Dems Pick Critz In Murtha Replacement Race

2010-03-08T23:56:00Z

The state Democratic Party’s Executive Committee, today, picked Mark Critz as the party's candidate to replace the late John Murtha to represent Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District.

Critz had been Murtha's district director. Also, seeking the nomination were former state Treasurer Barbara Hafer, Cambria County Controller Ed Cemic Jr. and former Naval Officer Ryan Bucchianeri.

The election will be May 18, the day of the state primary. The Republican nominee will be selected Thursday and be either Tim Burns or Bill Russell who opposed Murtha in 2008.

The winner will serve out the rest of Murtha's term. An election will be held in November for a new term and there will also be a primary election May 18 to pick the candidates for the November race.

Bucchianeri and Ms. Hafer say they will be primary candidates.

PoliticsPA.Com says the finally tally of the Executive Committee was Critz, 30; Hafer, 18; and Bucchianeri, 1.

Altmire May Switch To Yes On ObamaCare

2010-03-08T21:46:00Z

Congressman Jason Altmire (D-Pa4) said in an interview on Fox News Sunday that he may vote in favor of the Obama Health-Care socialization bill.

Altmire was one of 39 Democrats to vote against the House version of the bill in November.

Sen John Cornyn (R-Texas) notes that once the House Dems vote for the Senate bill there is neither a guarantee nor a need for the reconciliation process should the President sign it into law.

Are Liberals And Atheists As Dumb As Bricks?

2010-03-08T13:38:00Z

An attempt is being made to inculcate into our society the notion -- create a meme if you will -- that liberals and atheists are smarter than conservatives who believe in God.

Cited as evidence by evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa are conclusions gleaned from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health which began with a survey of high school students in 1994 and part of which included a picture-based vocabulary test used to estimate their IQs. Interviews of participants 14 years later showed higher-IQ scorers to be disproportionately liberals and atheists.

There is surprisingly simple test that you can perform at home that conclusively shows the IQ testing to be misinterpreted.

Print out the list below. At the end of every line write a Y for yes or an N for no.

Liberals and atheists are more likely to accept the claim:

That man's activities are causing the earth to warm catastrophically ___
That society should assume that there are no significant differences between boys and girls, and men and women ___
That criminals are society's victims ___
That the Soviet Union was a noble experiment ___
That Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez are wise and able leaders ___
That women rarely make false rape allegations ___
That wind and solar power can provide our energy needs ___
That government bureaucrats and trial lawyers are the most important parts of a health-care system ___
That increasing the minimum wage will not increase unemployment ___
That consensual homosexual acts are not a choice ___
That we don't need a strong military because if we don't present a threat, other nations won't attempt to harm us ___
That guns, not their users, kill ___
That discriminating based on race is being against racial discrimination ___
That the National Socialist Party was not socialist ___
That being unable to replace a poor performing teacher is good for education ___
That a child in the womb is not a human being ___

Now, count the Ys and Ns. Put the letter that appeared the most at the end of this sentence: Are liberals and atheists dumb as bricks?

Simple, yet conclusive.

Something else to consider -- the greatest minds of the 20th century were not atheists. Think of astrophysicist Georges Lemaître or quantum physics founder Max Planck or mathematician Kurt Godel. Even Einstein, who was a bit of a liberal, was not an atheist.

As Francis Bacon, who is usually considered the founder of modern science, wrote: It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.

A Step Forward For Laura Nachman

2010-03-07T19:48:00Z

The lovely Laura Nachman of Havertown has expanded her profile by having the Delaware County Daily Times carry her excellent TV and radio blog. Laura's column is the best source of news and gossip concerning the broadcast community of the Philadelphia area.

Congratulations Laura.

Rappers Photographed In White House Situation Room

2010-03-07T05:27:00Z

Here are the rapper Jay-Z, the singer Beyonce, his wife, and some crew in the Situation Room at the White House, which was one of the stops on a special tour for the big Obama contributors. The photos surfaced this week on this site.

Among the songs for which Jay-Z is known are "Dead Presidents" "Jigga My Nigga" "Run This Town" and "Empire State Of Mind".

25% Of Fed Highway Money Not Used For Highways

2010-03-06T15:51:00Z

As we ponder how to fight global warming (ho ho ho), become less dependent on foreign oil and get our economy back in gear consider that highway congestion costs us about $76 billion annually in wasted time and fuel, and the remember that our interstates are a bit behind in maintenance, according to Robert W. Poole, Jr., an M.I.T-trained engineer who directs transportation studies at Reason Foundation.

Washington taxes us 18.3 cents per gallon and there are those who would lead you to conclude that that is not enough since the maintenance shortfall is between $60 and $90 billion per year and the federal Highway Trust Fund tasked to pay for the work is in the red, $8 billion so in 2008.

The Fund set up in 1956 was originally limited to caring for the interstates. It was eventually expanded to all roadways and, in 1982, began being used for urban transit. It now pays for things like sidewalks, bike trails and scenic routes. Basically, 25 percent of the highway money is used for things other than highways.

It may be that sidewalks, bike trails and urban transit are good things but they certainly should not be funded on a national level. While it is appropriate to ask a person in Florida to chip in for a road between New York and Erie (or a person in New York to ante up for one between Melbourne and Jacksonville), it is very wrong to force someone to buy sidewalks for somebody a thousand miles away.

If Americans were told that was what the Highway Trust Fund was going to do they would never have approved trusting their money with it.

Karl Marx Has Answer For Looming Pa. Pension Pain

2010-03-05T16:26:00Z

An unlikely source provides the solution to the looming fiscal crisis concerning the funding for pensions for retired Pennsylvania state workers and public school teachers which is expected to cause the tax burden to rise by $1,360 by 2012 for the average resident of the state.

Obviously, the money has been contracted and must be paid. So what to do?

Well the answer is ironically in the Communist Manifesto, the second plank of which calls for a heavy progressive income tax.

It's simple. It's beautiful.

Pensions, of course, are not taxed in Pennsylvania so here is how it would work:

--the first $50,000 of a public pension would remain untaxed.

--the next $50,000 would be taxed at 50 percent.

--anything above that would be taxed at 90 percent.

Let's use the looming $313,000 pension of state Sen. Robert Mellow (D-22) as an example. There would be no tax on the first $50,000 so that means that Sen. Mellow would get $50,000 upon which to survive. He would then pay 50 percent of the next $50,000 back to the state adding $25,000 to yearly income for a total of $75,000. Of the remaining $213,000 he would pay back 90 percent leaving him with an additional $21,300 and an annual income of $96,300.

He could probably survive on that.

Who could object? Certainly not the bulk of pensioners who are retired teachers and consider themselves progressive and fully subscribe to the concept of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

Granted most of our legislators are simply greedy and not full-blown Marxists and would certainly provide an obstacle to reform but certainly not an insurmountable one.

And yes the average taxpayer would still see somewhat of an increase in his burden but a ray of hope has been found.

Pennsylvanians, Prepare For Serious Pension Pain

2010-03-04T20:30:00Z

Pennsylvanians should prepare for some serious suffering regarding disposable income come 2012-2013 and the cause is going to be their additional contributions to pay for the pensions of retired public school employees,state workers, legislators, judges and others.

The Commonwealth Foundation estimates that the annual hit will be $1,360 for the average taxpayer.

State EmployeeRetirement System (SERS) which handles non-school retirees is funded entirely by state taxes and the looming annual bite to handle the coming crunch for Mr. Average is expected to be $390.

The School Employee Retirement System (PSERS) is 54 percent covered by state taxes with the rest coming from school district taxes. The Commonwealth Foundation estimates the average bite to come to about $970.

And what is going to be the result of the suffering? Well it means that Senator Robert Mellow (D-22) will be able to survive on a $313,000 annual pension. It kind of makes you feel warm and fuzzy.

Of course we can expect our public servants to be reasonable in helping resolve the crisis. Oh, ho ho ho. I just wrote that to make you smile and take your mind off the coming pain. Of course, we can't expect that.

People, it's time to start getting angry.

If you need help, check out the salaries of those who work for the SERS and PSERS

Tenacious Rohrer Marches On

2010-03-04T14:13:00Z

Most observers figure the GOP nomination for this year's governor's race has been wrapped up with a pretty bow on top for party-endorsed Attorney General Tom Corbett but by the slew of stops he has slated for March, last-challenger-left Sam Rohrer seems determined to see them surprised.

Rohrer, the state representative for the 128th District, has 10 stops scheduled for the rest of this month including two today starting with the Greater Philadelphia Candidates Forum where he is expected to face off against Corbett and Democrats Joe Hoeffel, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, state Auditor General Jack Wagner, and State Senator Anthony Williams, who represents the 191th District which consists of parts of Philadelphia and Yeadon in Delaware County.

He will then go to the Pizza Como Club in Pennsburg for an 8:30 p.m. event sponsored by the Upper Montgomery County Republican Club.

The Chamber forum is scheduled to be broadcast on PCN at 9 p.m.

Rohrer has a meeting scheduled in Delaware County, 7 p.m., March 26 at the Delaware County Christian School, 462 Malin Road, Newtown Square.

African-American Republican To Seek Gov. As Independent

2010-03-03T15:03:00Z

Robert Allen Mansfield, a sergeant in the National Guard with service in Iraq, has announced he is dropping out of the May 18 Republican primary election to run for governor as an independent.

The state Republican committee voted overwhelmingly, last month, to endorse Attorney General Tom Corbett for the spot.

Still in the primary race is state Rep. Sam Rohrer (R-128)

Mansfield is an African-American from Philadelphia, born in 1971, whose heroine addicted mother put him up for adoption. He spent two years in foster care before being adopted by the Mansfield family.

He had a stormy youth in which he ran away from home several times. Things began to turn around in 1991, he says, when he accepted Jesus Christ into his life. He earned his GED and joined the Guard in 1996.

While in the Guard he did odd jobs and began his own financial firm, R. Allen Associates.

He now lives in York.

For the independent run he will require 19,000 signatures rather than the 2,000 he got for the primary.

Here is a link to a biography and his positions.

They include a belief in smaller government, school choice, free markets, and that every child is a gift from God.

"I know that life begins at conception," he says. "I don’t need to defer to a higher pay grade to come to that conclusion"

Pa. Treasures Rot While Pols Get Fat

2010-03-02T21:42:00Z

An historic miner's house at Eckley Miners Village circa August 2009

The USS Olympia, a national treasure berthed in Philadelphia, is in need of up to $30 million to keep her afloat and its owner, Independence Seaport Museum, has gone on record as being unable to do that.

The ship, docked at Penn's Landing across the Delaware River from the USS New Jersey, was Commodore George Dewey's flagship at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War and from whose bridge he uttered the words "You may fire when ready, Gridley". It is one of the very few vessels from that era still in existence.

A few miles south opposite an IKEA store on Columbus Boulevard, the faded hull of the SS United States, once the fastest and among the most famous ships in the world, rusts away at Pier 82.

In Northeast Pennsylvania, the historic homes of Eckley Miners Village collapse under the not-so-watchful eye of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Reportedly, the Commission has refused volunteer help in maintaining the homes.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration and his fellow Democrats sit on billions of dollars allocated to provide stimulus to the economy. What could be a better way of providing jobs than spending some of that on restoring some of these bits of history using local labor? Heritage maintenance is actually an legitimate role of government. FDR practiced it in our last depression.

Of course, Obama doesn't seem all that concerned about our heritage and this kind of spending doesn't provide that much opportunity for bonuses for connected Democratic fat cats at Goldman Sachs and GMAC.

Meanwhile, retiring state legislators such as Senator Robert Mellow (D-22) are finding that their pensions are going to be almost three times that of the $110,000 salaries they collect while working.

Meanwhile, gym teachers are making $87,000 for 195 days of work.

People, it's time to start getting mad.

A Beautiful Curve From Jim Bunning

2010-03-02T20:05:00Z

Jim Bunning, whose Father's Day perfect game gives many Phillies fans smiles even after 46 years, has thrown the Democrats and their enablers a curve that should bring smiles to all who care about this country.

The major-leaguer turned Kentucky senator has by his lonesome blocked a bill that would extend unemployment benefits and health insurance for the millions of Americas who have been out of work for months in the Obama economy.

Pretty mean, huh? Well Bunning points out that the bill he is blocking adds $10 billion to the deficit which is spiraling out of control under our president, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi -- it's projected to hit $1.6 trillion this year -- and is violating a sworn oath made by our legislators to pay for new costs rather than use deficit spending.

Bunning points out that money to extend benefits can easily be found in unspent portions of last year's stimulus package, and that he supports extending those benefits with that money.

Sen. Reid and his fellow Democrats strangely don't. People should really start asking why.

Update: Bunning, under pressure from the media and his own party relented allowing the Senate to vote, 78-19 , last night, March 2, to extend federal unemployment benefits for 30 days.

Bunning voted against it.

Both Pennsylvania senators -- Democrats Robert Casey and Arlen Specter -- voted for it.

Their children and grandchildren will thank them.

Global Warming Explains Everything

2010-03-01T13:39:00Z

The Bay Area just had its foggiest May in 50 years. And thanks to global warming, it's about to get even foggier.
--San Francisco Chronicle, July 6, 2009

Fog Over San Francisco Thins by a Third Due to Climate Change
The sight of Golden Gate Bridge towering above the fog will become increasing rare as climate change warms San Francisco bay, scientists have found.
London's Daily Telegraph, Feb. 15, 2010

Thanks to blogger Jim Hoft for the find and to James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal for spreading the word.

Singel Backs Critz For Murtha Seat

2010-02-28T04:05:00Z

Former Lt. Gov. Mark Singel, who ended his bid Thursday to replace fellow Democrat John Murtha as Pennsylvania 12th District's representative in Congress, has endorsed Mark Critz for the seat. Critz is Murtha's former district director.

A special election will be held May 18, the day of the state's primary election, to fill the remaining months of the term of Murtha who died Feb. 8.

A election for a full-term will be held in November.

Other Democrats seeking the seat are Cambria County Controller Ed Cernic Jr., former Navy officer Ryan Bucchianeri, and former state Treasurer Barbara Hafer and writer Ron Mackell Jr

Theleading contender for the GOP nomination is Bill Russell, who wasMurtha's opposition in 2008. GOP activist Dave Battaglia andbusinessman Tim Burns were also GOP primary candidates.

Thanks to PoliticsPa.Com