Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Drunk Driving Checkpoints Are A Racket

(Posted by Dannytheman)

Many of you already know I hate checkpoints in the United States for DUI inspections. But now it has become a big revenue business. The Police Chiefs get money from the State, or Fed.

The towns get revenue from the fines and fees. It is much easier work to get fines and money from basic law abiding folks, then it is to pay out revenue to chase a financially broke thief/criminal.
I don't drink, so I have no chips in this game, but I know a scam when I see one!
Read the story and see if it can persuade you.

My buddy Donald Gately writes:

Local governments are clearly shifting from chasing criminals to chasing revenue. Which, from the point of view of their own self-interest, makes a lot of sense.

Let's say that you are a local government, and you think of your budget as YOUR resources and not those of your constituents. You have a choice of two broad strategies (or a mix thereof): either pursue actual criminals for CRIMINAL OFFENSES, a process which requires the expenditure of resources and can be hard/dangerous work. Or you can pick on generally law-abiding citizens for civil offenses via revenue light cameras, roadside BAC screenings, "driving while talking" laws, seatbelt enforcement, aggressive parking enforcement, laws limiting grass/weed height, etc. While those non-criminals may sometimes show up in court to fight the charge, they typically don't run or put up much of a fight (physical or otherwise). They pay their fines and get on with working, raising their families, paying their taxes, etc.

Given the quality of our political class, and given how many bureaucrats and government employees see their job as a birthright rather than a solemn responsibility, it should come as no surprise that taxpayers are getting it from both ends, and are seen as prey for both criminals and bureaucrats.




Is Bob Smythe Getting a Sweetheart Pension Deal?

In Darby Borough, a little hell is being raised by council's decision to finally pay Chief Bob Smythe compensation and overtime money he's been owed for years.

Mostly, it's being raised by former Mayor and Smythe-hater Paula Brown, who is objecting to Smythe getting any back pay for services to the borough rendered.

Years ago, the matter of Darby's borough police comp and overtime was investigated by a Delaware County grand jury. The grand jury found that nothing illegal had occurred and the borough has formally acknowledged it owes Smythe and other officers hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay.

What's most interesting about this case is that by paying Smythe over the course of the next three years it will goose his pension payments substantially.

"Absolutely," is what Smythe told me this morning when I asked him if his pension would be increased. How much, he didn't know, but he feels well justified in getting it.

"This is money they owe me that I've been trying to get for the last nine years and I'm finally getting it," he said.

Yes, he is. And at a very opportune time. Smythe is 63 and close to retirement. He claims to be owed somewhere in the neighborhood of $160,000.

Because police pensions are calculated at 50 percent of the average of their last three years' wages, Smythe stands to make a much nicer chunk of change, thanks to how Darby officials plan to pay him.

According to my calculations, if his base salary stays the same and the borough pays him an extra $53,000 a year over the next three years, instead of retiring with a pension of $46,000 a year, his pension will jump to $72,500. Pretty neat, huh.

Smythe said that he deserves to be treated just like every other borough police officer who was owed back money. He said Mark Delvecchio recently retired on disability and was paid his comp and overtime over three years. But it didn't figure into his pension. He did, however, retire getting 70 percent of his last year's salary for the rest of his life.

Smythe is not about to apologize for playing within the rules of the system.

"It's absolutely good for me," he said. "It was good for everybody... I think I'm taking what every other person in this place has been given under this (pension) formula. Why should I retire under anything less than what they got? It's not fair... You think I want to be retired and not be able to live, not be able to do what I want to do in my life. I don't want to retire and be poor."

There are people who could life quite comfortably on a $46,000 a year pension, plus social security. But I've gotta admit, $72,500 plus is better.

Smythe said he didn't care for being singled out, that there are a lot of people who work in other police departments in this county and for the county itself who have taken similar advantage of how public employee pension benefits are figured. He is no doubt right about that. The money he's owed came from overtime he spent policing the mean streets of Darby when he could have been with his family.

"This was when my kids I were growing up. I think of the missed vacations and missed ball games." So don't tell Bob Smythe he shouldn't get paid for his time.

When I asked Darby Borough Finance director, Joe Possenti, if the payments to Smythe would figure into his pension he said, "I don't know. As far as I know they will be."

He said a lot of towns are facing tough pension situations. Officers are going out on disability and having to be paid for 40 years. But he said his feeling was we "can't pay those guys (cops) enough." I appreciate what cops do but I feel pretty comfortable saying "Yes, we can pay them enough." And in cases of their pensions it comes down to what taxpayers can afford.

He suggested I call the borough's pension guy, Thomas Anderson, who told me that under the FOP contract, any money earned by Smythe as wages or salary, has to be calculated into his pension.

I asked him what if the borough wanted to put off paying Smythe until after he retired, like they did with Delvecchio. That way, the borough could save $26,000 a year on his pension.

"That's a legal question," he replied.

It's also a fiscal/good government question. If Smythe lives to 85 (and I'm hoping he does) the borough would save more than a $500,000, money it could spend on salaries of working police officers, not a retired one.

Win-Win, Lose!

In other news out of Philly:
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Surrounded by members of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter today signed at executive order that will once again make project labor agreements (“PLAs”) a part of the bidding process for public works projects of $5 million or more.

Both city and organized labor officials believe this is a win-win for everyone.

Mayor Nutter says PLAs are a contract between the city and the trades that establishes benchmarks for the hiring of city residents and minorities.
Win-win? But not win-win-win. Not when Philly taxpayers will have to pay inflated prices for construction work.

When you read the word "diversity" or hiring "benchmarks" in relation to city, state or federal government spending, you can be sure the price of doing business just went up.

De-Occupied Philly

As predicted in Tuesday's Daily Times editorial, the Nutter Administration cleared Dilworth Plaza of tents and squatters early this morning. The eviction began at just after 1 a.m. No less than three police warnings were given for people to clear out and take their stuff with them. There were a few skirmishes and a few dozen arrests but no serious injuries.

In all, city officials and the police seemed to have handled the eviction smartly and professionally.

Philly.com has a good account of the action here.

UPDATE: Nick Shultz explains the origins of the growing income disparity in the U.S.

One is our open borders that allow millions of undocumented workers to flood the labor market, which creates downward pressure on low-skilled labor wages. Also globalization and free trade, which while lifting tens of millions of people out of poverty world-wide, also contributes to American job loss and stagnate middle-class incomes. Add in the fact, that our federal government has borrowed and promised itself to the point of virtual bankruptcy and it becomes evident there are no easy solutions to our problems.

Railing against the wealthy and taxing them more may feel good but it will do nothing to help American's middle-class and the problem of too few jobs being created by our economy.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

What I Don't Want For Christmas

(Posted by Dannytheman)


Just When I Was Really Happy

(Posted by Dannytheman )

So I was tip toeing through the day singing light ditties after I had heard the fabulous news that Barney Frank was not running for reelection, when out of left field comes this news.
Maxine Waters wants to take his place. What a way to make a mans belly turn over!  That is a major kick in the, uhhhh, you know wheres. 

Waters is wrestling with a long-running ethics investigation over whether she helped secure federal funding for a bank in which her husband owned stock and previously served as a board member. Waters has maintained her innocence, and two attorneys on the House ethics committee were placed on leave for mishandling the case. An outside attorney is now investigating the matter.

"They're going to go with people who are universally respected," said the financial executive. But a trade group president and former Hill staffer believed the top spot is Waters's to lose. This source pointed out that Waters brings geographical and racial diversity to the committee.

Jumping over Waters to another Democrat would also be a headache for Democratic leaders because it would risk angering the Congressional Black Caucus.



An Entitlement Mentality

Philly Schools' Superintendent Arlene Ackerman takes a $905,000 buy out and still files for unemployment. You know, for the kids.

Where Were These Items Found?



a. Upper Darby High School
b. In a trunk during a traffic stop in Chester
c. In the evidence room of U.D. police headquarters next to $8,000 in cash
d. Mrs. Spencerblog's Christmas Stocking

Bye, Bye Barney

The WSJ bids Barney Frank, who announced he will not seek re-election, adieu.
Few House Members have made a bigger legislative mark, and arguably no one so expensively. Mr. Frank deserves to be forever remembered—and we'll help everyone remember him—as the nation's leading protector of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before their fall. For years Barney helped block meaningful reform of the mortgage giants while pushing an "affordable housing" agenda that helped to enlarge the subprime mortgage industry.

"I do think I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness that we have in OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] and OTS [Office of Thrift Supervision]," Mr. Frank said on September 25, 2003, in one of his many legendary rhetorical hits. "I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing." The dice came up snake-eyes for the housing market and U.S. economy.
Here's his famous reaction to being asked if he thought he bore any responsibility for the housing bubble.



How dare anyone question the wisdom of Barney Frank and his desire to play craps with the U.S. housing market.

How the 1 Percent Got There

John Tamny writes in defense and praise of the 1 percent; including Steve Jobs, Keith Richards, Aaron Rodgers and...
Grant Achatz is the chef/owner of Alinea which is widely considered America’s best restaurant, and surely by now among the demonized 1 percent. But what many don’t know is that he got his start flipping eggs at his parents’ diner in Michigan.

Importantly, it’s not where we start in life that dictates where we end it, and having learned the basics as a child and teenager, Achatz eventually matriculated to the Culinary Institute of America. Once there, not content to rest on the achievement of having gotten in, Achatz skipped the “bars and partying” that animated the experiences of his classmates and instead “hit the gym every day and then spent each night reading cookbooks.” Early sacrifices that others wouldn’t make now have Achatz at the top of the culinary world.
Luck plays a part in most of these success stories but the harder people work and the more natural talent they have, the less luck they need. And let's not forgot, drive, focus, and the ability to work hard are talents too.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Here's Mike's Beef

Mike Chitwood is uncharacteristically subdued in his comments about two the 15-year-olds who allegedly bought guns to Upper Darby High School to sell.

"My beef is guns and kids and schools do not go together," Chitwood said.

Let's see outraged parents and students make him apologize for that!

The President's Analyst

At The New Republic, Justin Frank stares at Obama's navel and comes up with this...
On a psychoanalytic level, Obama is someone who tries to disconnect himself from fury through intellectual exertion and by strenuously trying to keep matters in clear focus. He doesn’t simply contain his rage or hold it inside his mind; he dissociates–a psychoanalytic term for disconnecting thought from feeling. This allows him to operate in a purely intellectual state, protected from the disruptive influences of excessive passions.
Fascinating. But it sounds a little like Justin is generously describing a sociopath. Traits include:
Glibness/Superficial Charm

Language can be used without effort by them to confuse and convince their audience. Captivating storytellers that exude self-confidence, they can spin a web that intrigues others. Since they are persuasive, they have the capacity to destroy their critics verbally or emotionally.

Manipulative and Conning

They never recognize the rights of others and see their self-serving behaviors permissible. They appear to be charming, yet are covertly hostile and domineering, seeing their victim as merely an instrument to be used. They dominate and humiliate their victims.

Grandiose Sense of Self

Feels entitled to certain things as "their right." Craves adulation and attendance. Must be the center of attention with their own fantasies as the "spokesman for God," "enlightened," "leader of humankind," etc. Creates an us-versus-them mentality

Pathological Lying

Has no problem lying coolly and easily and it is almost impossible for them to be truthful on a consistent basis. Can create, and get caught up in, a complex belief about their own powers and abilities. Extremely convincing and able to pass lie detector tests.
Etc.

These traits, to one degree or another, can be found in most politicians, especially successful ones. Which makes them good at campaigning (conning voters) but lousy at governing (building coalitions and making tough choices for the good of the country.)

'Blacks Boycott Moonbat Hootenanny'

Walter Russell Mead on the relative absence of black people from the Occupy movement protests.

The media took great notice of the dearth of black faces at Tea Party events. But for some reason, black apathy to a left-wing populist movement is no cause for media concern.
An observer from Mars would find this confusing. Noting that the overwhelming majority of American Blacks vote for liberal and left wing candidates, the Man from Mars would expect exiguous Black turnout at right wing demonstrations and on the other hand predict substantial Black support for left wing events. More, the Martian would note that while many Tea Party protests took place in suburbs far from the homes of inner city Blacks, OWS protests are more conveniently located in urban areas with large Black populations. To a Martian, “Blacks Skip Remote Wingnut Shoutfest” is not news, while “Blacks Boycott Nearby Moonbat Hootenanny” is.
Heh.

Apparently while blacks make up 12.6 percent of the population they don't make up part of the 99 percent, as defined by a bunch of white, middle and upper middle-class hippies.

De-Occupy Philly Deadline Comes, Goes

Turns out when Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter set a deadline for evicting squatters from Dilworth Plaza he didn't actually mean it.

According to Philly.com:
Police had no plans to evict anyone, Chief Inspector Joseph Sullivan said about 6:30 p.m. (last night.)

"We look forward to working with Occupy Philadelphia and a resolution of the problem. Confrontation is never good. Anyone who is being fair would have to say that there is a big difference between the police reaction to Occupy Philadelphia than in other cities," he said.

"I definitely, definitely want to really stress that the vast majority of people participating in this movement have been cooperative, nonviolent, and very respectful," he said.
It's certainly been good for police officers interested in collecting overtime.

As for the mayor, it will be hard to know the next time he declares something whether he means it. In the meantime, the $50 million renovation project of the site remains on hold until... well, apparently until it gets a little colder out and the squatters decide to leave on their own.

UPDATE: I met this guy, Michael Pierce (pictured in the Inky) Saturday. He was manning the information booth. Nice guy. Very friendly. He said he was from Mt. Holly, N.J. He didn't mention he was a Philosophy professor. But he did say he was the Pastor of the East Baptist Church in Fishtown.

He told me he wasn't sure what was going to happen Sunday but said he was interested in a solution that would allow the renovation of the plaza to get started while still "maintaining an effective occupation." He said the occupation has been a success in creating an "Internet Revolution" and "driving people to that conversation." To get people to "change their habits" to "grow your own food" and create more "sustainable lifestyles... not based on buying crap all the time."

Maybe Mayor Nutter can offer the occupiers some unused land in the city to farm so that they can grow their own food. But something about their lifestyles doesn't strike me as very sustainable without the help of people who buy crap all the time.

UPDATE: According to the Philly.com Pierce is a professor of Philosophy at Burlington County College. However, a perusal of BCC's online staff directory showed no Michael Pierce listed.

From the website of the BCC Philosophy Department:
The philosophy department has two full-time faculty and several adjunct instructors. The full-time professors are Francis (Rusty) Conroy and Anne Miller.

Dr. Conroy holds a BA in philosophy from Haverford College, an MA in philosophy from Yale University, and a PhD in philosophy and sociology (with an emphasis on East Asia) from the Union Institute. He has been a post-doctoral fellow at Princeton University and at the East-West Center (Honolulu). He also teaches in the sociology department. Dr. Conroy’s special interests are Eastern philosophy and religion, existentialism, Marxism, philosophy in literature, and ecological thought.

Prof. Miller holds a BA in philosophy from Rosemont College and an MA in philosophy from Boston University. Her special interests are ethics, philosophy of the person, history of Western philosophy, philosophy of religion, and literature. She has also taught English and literature.
UDATE II: Philly.com has demoted Pierce from professor to "instructor" here.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Aimless, Homeless, Clueless II

Paul Klemmer will be leaving Occupy Philly sometime today. Yesterday, he shared his thoughts and the Cliff's Notes of his life's story. My print column is up.

Meanwhile, "Camp Panic" was no where to be found. Must've run out of weed.

The Day DSK Went Down


Cool piece in the New York Times Review of Books about the Dominique Strauss Kahn case. Was it a set up by his political enemies? A hacked Blackberry? High fives and a celebration dance? And just who was it in Room 2820?

It's got it all.

And why does he still remind me of this guy...

Better Fred Than Dead

Fred Siegel describes the New Tamany Hall in NYC: Public employee unions, how they gained and hold power and how they've killed the private sector middle-class.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Raises for the Our Political Class

Our lawmakers get a 3 percent raise because they've done such a wonderful job governing this state. Any chance the folks evicted from Occupy Philly can go Occupy Harrisburg?

Friday, November 25, 2011

Bad Voucher

Back in April, Ken Milano impressed libertarian smarty-pants Charles Murray with why he thinks the Pennsylvania school voucher program is going to suck.

I just happened across Murray's post. Read it and weep, voucher fans.

Dumb Friday

This Black Friday stuff is for the birds. Waiting in line at 5 a.m. to buy a bunch of crap you could purchase online for the same price, is simply looney.

But then I feel the same way about going to Eagles games.

And Occupy Wall Street protests. I'm too old for such parties. At least with Black Friday it only lasts a few hours, once a year.

Welcoming Home the Troops

Pat Solomon is good people. But then so are all the folks who volunteer for the USO.
Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Charles Crouchman nearly teared up as he arrived to their cheers and applause. It was a warm welcome after seven months in Afghanistan. After clearing customs, he headed for the USO, where he was grateful to be able to call his wife and daughter in Schenectady, N.Y., for free.

"You always know with the USO, you've got a phone to use, Internet to use, a place to sit down and relax or watch a movie," Sgt. Crouchman said. "That's a blessing."
From a grateful nation.

The Luck of the Irish

WEST GOSHEN — Police arrested Sean O’Neill Jr., 22, early Thursday morning on suspicion of drunken driving after he allegedly drove a car into a house.

At 12:55 a.m., township police found O’Neill driving a black Cadillac that had run off the road and into a side of a house in the 800 block of Westtown Road. When police arrived, O’Neill was attempting to drive the car away, a police report says.

O’Neill was arrested and later released pending a summons.
That sounds like a pretty quick turnaround. Let's hope he got home in time for Thanksgiving dinner.

They Asked for It and They Got It

At the University of California at Pepperspray, a student protester admits they provoked police into pepperspraying them by encircling the cops while they were trying to leave the the protest site.

Judge to Harrisburg: No Bankruptcy for You!

Harrisburg's attempt to screw its creditors by declaring bankruptcy is foiled by a federal judge.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

South Park Goes to Happy Valley

It didn't happen unless Trey and Matt make fun of it.



Actually, they make more fun of social workers than Penn State. You be the judge.

Looking for Fulfillment in Mental Masturbation

In a long piece in The New York Times Book Review, aging hippie Michael Greenberg attempts to find the good in the Zucchotti Park occupation:
The day after the snowstorm, I had coffee with Alec, the young medical doctor I mentioned earlier. At various points during our conversation, he quoted Virginia Woolf, the Brazilian poet Vinicius de Moraes, the futurist Filippo Marinetti, and the scientist John Holland, developer of “genetic algorithms.” Talking with him, as with Katie, I was reminded of the so-called Tercer Mundista priests I met in Mexico in the early 1970s, who broke with the Vatican and actively supported revolutionary movements in Central America. Both Alec and Katie possessed that calm sense of devotion to a higher calling—not a certainty of belief so much as a certainty of purpose. They both spoke of the movement in unabashedly spiritual terms. And while neither talked explicitly of religion, they seemed to have faith that they were progressing toward the kind of social system that would provide participants a measure of peace and “mental fulfillment.”

Part of their optimism seemed to derive from the fact that anarchism, as they loosely conceived it, had hardly been tried.
Hardly been tried? It's been tried across centuries and failed miserably as Matthew Continetti recently pointed out.

Greenberg makes Continetti's point very well; that revolutionary anarchy is a tactic in the pursuit of anarchic socialism. What you end up with a big, violent, Lord-of-the-Flies-type mess.

Greenberg continues:
I had to remind myself that the movement was only a few months old. Most of the core organizers had been strangers before September. They were still trying to figure things out, improvising as they went along. When I spoke with Katie again, she had a nasty case of bronchitis from living in Zuccotti Park. “I want us to be the country’s moral touchstone,” she said. “Its unofficial conscience. Its model for what is good.”
A nasty case of bronchitis is about the best that can be hoped for from this dreamy and idiotic movement.

That Other Penn State Scandal

New anonymously released emails suggest Penn State Climate Change Professor Michael Mann is part of the conspiracy to withhold scientific data and disparage and marginalize scientists who don't buy into the "cause."
“I have been talking w/ folks in the states about finding an investigative journalist to investigate and expose” skeptical scientist Steve McIntyre, Mann writes in another newly released email.
Mann sounds more like a scientician than a scientist. He must be thanking Gaia for Jerry Sandusky right now.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Anarchists Occupy OWS

Occupy Wall Street is not about middleclass expressions of economic anxiety and justice, it's the same anarchist, anti-globalization movement that's been around for decades.

The Weekly Standard's Matthew Continetti explains...
When the police officers and sanitation workers reclaimed Zuccotti Park, Occupy Wall Street’s supporters cried, “You can’t evict an idea whose time has come.” Whether the sympathizers or the critics really understand the idea and the method of the movement is a good question. The idea is utopian socialism. The method is revolutionary anarchism.
Read it all.

"No Friggin' Way"

Former Godfather's Pizza receptionist Eva Vachel sticks up for her old boss, Herman Cain. After talking about what a great mentor and guy Cain was to her, she cuts to the chase.
And about Sharon Bialek, the Chicago woman who has accused Cain of groping her? Those are serious charges. “Putting his hand up her dress and forcing her head down? No friggin’ way,” Vachal says. “There is no way. No way. I bet my bottom dollar it’s false.”

“Nobody ever came to me and complained about him,” she says. “And trust me, they would have. We talked. There was nothing like what you see on Sex and the City, or those other shows. We were pretty boring in Omaha, Nebraska.”

“Women, especially then, had a lot to deal with in corporate America,” she says. “I knew of other things that went on, but there was never anything with him.”

“He was a true gentleman, always.”

Follow That Bird!


(Another guiltless steal from Secret Squirrel. It's not like he drew it.)

He's Such a Diva!


"Take that, Fashionista scum!"

Occupy Black Friday

Nitwits are planning to occupy certain disfavored retail stores apparently to disrupt shopping on Black Friday. What are they going to do, pitch tents? Break things? Chant?

I've been to stores on Black Friday and I wouldn't recommend any of these protesters coming between shoppers and a super deal on electronic equipment. They could end up looking like this guy...

UPDATE: Told ya.

Obama Is Losing Pennsylvania

According to Public Policy Polling:
If the Republicans nominated Mitt Romney and the election was today Barack Obama would probably lose Pennsylvania, fundamentally reshaping the 2012 electoral map.

Obama has dreadful poll numbers in the state, with only 42% of voters approving of him to 53% who disapprove. With white voters he's at only a 36/59 spread, numbers we're more used to seeing in the South than the Northeast. He's also at a much lower than normal 69% approval rating with Democrats while independents split against him 45/53 and only 9% of GOP voters give him good marks.

Obama and Romney are tied at 45% each but if you dig in on the undecided voters only 24% of them approve of Obama's job performance to 70% who disapprove.
And PPP is a Democrat-owned and operated firm. Apparently, Keystone staters would rather cling to their guns, bigotry and religion, than this particular president.

Racists.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, he's not getting rave reviews from the Russian media either.



Time for another drone attack?

Penn State in Black and White and Blue

Interesting story in the Wall Street Journal about conflicting visions for disciplining football players at Penn State.

In 2003, Penn State hired a woman named Vicky Triponey to be its dean of student affairs, which included disciplining students for violating campus codes of behavior.

She butted heads often with Paterno and other administrators over how to handle infractions committed by members of the football team.

It's fair to say that when it came to his players, Paterno was old school, preferring to handle all discipline matters himself and mete out punishments as he saw fit. Triponey, who took her job seriously, saw a double standard between how football players were treated versus the rest of the student body. The two were destined to butt heads. And they did.
The confrontations came to a head in 2007, according to one former school official, when six football players were charged by police for forcing their way into a campus apartment that April and beating up several students, one of them severely. That September, following a tense meeting with Mr. Paterno over the case, she resigned her post, saying at the time she left because of "philosophical differences."

In a statement Monday, Dr. Triponey said: "There were numerous meetings and discussions about specific and pending student discipline cases that involved football players," which she said included "demands" to adjust the judicial process for football players. The end result, she said, was that football players were treated "more favorably than other students accused of violating the community standards as defined by the student code of conduct."
One case involved Wallingford's very own Dan Connor, the All-American linebacker.
In an email to Mr. Spanier on Sept. 1, Dr. Triponey wrote of Mr. Paterno: "I do not support the way this man is running our football program. We certainly would not tolerate this behavior in our students so I struggle with how we tolerate it in our coach."

That same fall, Dr. Triponey's office suspended Dan Connor, a Penn State linebacker, who had been accused of making harassing calls to a retired assistant coach. Shortly after the suspension was handed down, Mr. Paterno ordered the player to suit up, according to a person familiar with the matter. Dr. Triponey informed the player that if he suited up for practice, he would be in violation of his suspension and could face expulsion. Mr. Connor says he recalled being suspended only for games, not practice.

The incident prompted Mr. Spanier to visit Dr. Triponey at her home. Dr. Triponey confirms he told her that Mr. Paterno had given him an ultimatum: Fire her, or Mr. Paterno would stop fund-raising for the school. She says Mr. Spanier told her that if forced to choose, he would choose her over the coach—but that he did not want to have to make that choice.

Later, Mr. Connor's suspension was reduced to 10 days, allowing him to return to football.
The assistant coach was Joe Sarra, not Jerry Sandusky, who was also recently retired.

More here from USA Today.

If not for the Sandusky scandal, nobody would have given Triponey's complaints a second look. Now, every decision Paterno and Penn State ever made will be put under a microscope and interpreted in the most negative possible light.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Obama: Making Carter Look Good

Holman Jenkins on the failure of this president to see what America needs right now.
Even at this late date, he could tell his aides: "I see the bill coming due for a generation of excesses and the last thing we need is more excesses. I want growth. I want only proposals that encourage growth."

Our economy has great internal resiliency, even with Europe imploding, even with households weighed down by underwater mortgages. Population continues to grow. Families form and need homes. Cars wear out and need replacing. Domestic energy development is booming. Manufacturing is enjoying a renaissance. Boeing just announced its biggest plane sale ever. McDonald's is doing great.

Yet his greatest miscalculation is still to come. His aides are sizing up a re-election campaign that gives up on growth, that resorts to score-settling and resentment.

Sen. Harry Reid: Hypocrite Extraordinaire!

Sen. Harry Reid blames Republicans for the failure of the supercommittee claiming the GOP lacked "courage." This from a Senate majority leader who hasn't mustered the courage to propose a budget in three years.

Unbelievable.

Meet Brandon Watts: The Face of OWS


But he's not exactly the innocent victim of police brutality the protesters hoped for:
On Thursday, the Daily News reported, Watts was seated atop a wall on the border of the park, hurling AAA batteries at cops standing along the street. He then jumped off the barricade, charged the mass of cops, grabbed a hat off the head of one of them, and dashed back into the park, with cops in pursuit. They were eventually able to wrestle him to the ground as he fought back; his bloody wound came from striking his face against the ground, and required four staples when the police brought him to the hospital.

Watts has now been arraigned and charged with assault and grand larceny, and held on $1,500 bond (it’s expected that the protesters’ financial committee will provide his bail).

This is Watts’s fifth arrest since the protests began — previously, he had been detained for escaping from a prison van, resisting arrest, stealing temporary police fencing, and loitering in disguise. In an October interview with the New York Times, Watts claimed he had actually been arrested eight times already.
And he's from Philly no less.

Moose Hunters


h/t Johnny Drew

Super Committee Fail

(Posted by Dannytheman)

H/T to Dan Mitchell




Soup Nazis

A N.J. soup kitchen may be regulated out of existence. Just what the founders had in mind.
This the men and women of the Community Soup Kitchen have provided for 26 years, not once missing a day. Now comes a challenge greater than any snowstorm or power outage. Earlier this year, the Morristown Division of Health ruled that henceforth the soup kitchen would be considered a "retail" food establishment under New Jersey law.

From that single word far-reaching consequences have flowed. In a column for a local blog, Ray Friant, a volunteer from the Morristown United Methodist Church, called the rule "crazy." Over Sunday breakfast at a local diner, Mr. Friant, his wife, Emmy Lu, and another church couple who also volunteer at the kitchen, Barbara and Jim Morris, spell out what they mean by crazy.

Most obvious is the higher cost: at least $150,000 more a year. To meet this increase, the kitchen is asking each participating church to up its own contribution. Some congregations don't have the money. For those that do, it will mean less for some other need.
No soup for you.

Gridlock Most Excellent

John Podhoretz: The Supercommittee didn't fail, they succeeded in doing nothing.
The supercommittee triumphed in accomplishing what it was truly intended to accomplish.

It was created to kick the can down the road. The only thing that mattered was that it come into existence, and it did. Its invention made increases in the debt ceiling possible through the end of President Obama’s term.

More Pepperiffic Cop

Move along God, move along.

Monday, November 21, 2011

More Stuff Stolen...

... from the nuthouse:

1500 Miles Per Gallon

(Posted by Dannytheman)


In the Nuthouse

I don't know what Secret Squirrel's beef is with Louis Freeh (see Spencerblog comments Set Penn Staters' Freeh) but he's got a funny blog thing going. Check it out here. And be nice to him, he's stuck in Houston.

UPDATE: Stuff like this:



And this:

He's Pepperific

Meet Casually Pepper Spray Everthing Cop...












Stolen from Knowyourmeme.com: H/t Secret Squirrel. See more photo-shopped beauties here

Set Penn Staters Freeh

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh has been named to head up a panel to investigate Penn State's handling of sex abuse charges there.

The story contains this nugget:
Sandusky has denied sexual contact with children but acknowledged showering with boys and embracing them.
It is not illegal for men to take showers with boys or to hug them. It is, however, probably illegal for them to do both at the same time.

More Than Zero?

General Electric sez it wants to pay more taxes. Why, it doesn't say. PR ploy or good corporate citizen. You decide.
Rebecca Wilkins, senior counsel with the nonprofit Citizens for Tax Justice, regarded GE's statement with suspicion.

"You've got to wonder why GE would want the system to be changed. I mean how much more negative would they like their rate to go? They are hugely benefitting from the current system," she says.

More Lunacy from the Left

Frank Rich goes all creepy, imagining the assassination of Barack Obama, in comparing him to JFK.

No president is completely safe from a determined lone gunman. There was plenty of hate for George W. Bush and probably any number of crackpots who would've taken a shot at him if they'd had the chance.

Besides, it wasn't hate that killed JFK. It was Lee Harvey Oswald, a determined pro-Castro socialist. If Rich is right, we should be keeping a watchful eye on Michael Moore.

Lunacy.

UPDATE: From a piece by the Manhattan Institute's James Piereson:
In the latest effort to recycle the Camelot myths, Frank Rich has published a delusional article in New York Magazine under the title, "What Killed JFK: The Hate That Ended His Presidency is Eerily Familiar" in which he draws a straight line from Kennedy's assassination to imagined threats against President Obama arising from conservatives and the tea party movement. The occasion for Mr. Rich's ruminations is a review of several recently published books about President Kennedy and the assassination, including one by Stephen King in which the novelest dispatches a time traveller on a mission to intercept Oswald before he can commit his deed so that history might be redirected on a more hopeful path. Mr. King, however is a writer of fiction and thus entitled to invent his facts. Mr. Rich, as a journalist, does not have the same license.
Like I said, lunacy and dishonest lunacy to boot.

Bye, Bye Obama?

Two Democratic pollsters, Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen, are urging Barack Obama not to seek re-election, in favor of letting Hillary Clinton run instead.

Their arguments are compelling.

1. That he can no longer govern effectively.
2. That his campaign will necessarily have to be negative and divisive.
3. That he has utterly failed in his promise to bring the country together.

But one of their talking points, at least from a Democratic perspective, should raise concerns. They sight two cases of Democratic presidents declining to run full second terms: Lyndon Johnson and Harry Truman. They don't mention that in both cases a Republican won the White House (Nixon, Eisenhower.)

Also they don't consider what forcing Obama to drop out of the race would do to the Democratic coalition, especially black voters. They would not doubt resent that the first African American president was forced from seeking a second term.

Still, there is no denying the problem for Democrats. Today's OWS protests are becoming reminiscent of the draft protests of 1968 that forced LBJ from seeking another term and paved the way for Nixon's comeback. To the extent that the protests continue and civil unrest grows, this will be a huge problem for Democrats and Obama.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Deja Jewell

[Posted By Jake]

On July 27, 1996, a pipe bomb in a backpack was placed in Centennial Olympic Park, which was the "town square" for the Atlanta Summer Olympic Games. Security guard, Richard Jewell, discovered the bomb, alerted authorities, and began clearing the area. Thirteen minutes later the bomb went off, killing Alice Hawthorne and injuring over a hundred others.

This was five years before 9/11, and America didn't yet understand terrorism and how to react to its perpetrators. The FBI leaked a lone bomber criminal profile and the investigation shifted to Jewell. Rather than being honored for his lifesaving actions, he was portrayed as a failed law enforcement officer and "badge-wearing zealot". It was presumed that he planted the bomb so he could find it and be the hero.

The media lynch mob was merciless.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution led the parade, comparing Jewell to serial killer Wayne Williams, and highlighting his supposed "bizarre employment history and aberrant personality".
Jay Leno labeled him the "Una-doofus", while others called him "Una-bubba".
The New York Post offered these profound insights, "He was a fat, failed former sheriff's deputy who spent most of his working days as a school crossing guard and yearned to go further." and "Everybody here should be glad they finally got this guy..."
The worst was Tom Brokaw of NBC News. He used his network bully pulpit (emphasis on bully) to authoritatively state, "The speculation is that the FBI is close to making its case. They probably have enough to arrest him now, probably enough to prosecute him, but you always want to have enough to convict him as well..."

There was no presumption of innocence, no journalistic integrity, just a rush to judgment by a bunch of sanctimonious blowhards trying to one-up each other with their moral outrage. Sound familiar?

Well, of course, they got it wrong. Eric Robert Rudolph, who later bombed a gay nightclub and two abortion clinics, was convicted of the bombing. Jewell was completely exonerated. Attorney General Janet Reno apologized for the FBI leak. Monetary settlements for libel were reached with CNN, The New York Post, and NBC. Richard Jewell died at the age of 44, a broken man, before his case against the Atlanta Journal Constitution could be resolved.

"While the government can tell you that I am an innocent man, the government's letter cannot give me back my good name or my reputation."
Richard Jewell

Obama: Look What I Did!

Obama Loses Matthews

The tingle is gone.

Hell Hath No Fury...

... like a grand jury. My print column is up.

Fire the Parents

Tom Friedman sez when it comes to education we don't need better teachers we need better parents. No doubt. Maybe parents should unionize for better benefits and pay.

But he has a point. How about giving vouchers to kids who live in failing househoulds so that they could find better parents to raise them?

Saturday, November 19, 2011

EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration

(Posted by Dannytheman)

Just when you thought you have heard it all......
EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration
Some juicy tidbits? Now do what I do it and read and pretend you have an accent.

Conservative MEP Roger Helmer said: "This is stupidity writ large.

"The euro is burning, the EU is falling apart and yet here they are: highly-paid, highly-pensioned officials worrying about the obvious qualities of water and trying to deny us the right to say what is patently true.

"If ever there were an episode which demonstrates the folly of the great European project then this is it."


Ukip MEP Paul Nuttall said the ruling made the "bendy banana law" look "positively sane".

He said: "I had to read this four or five times before I believed it. It is a perfect example of what Brussels does best. Spend three years, with 20 separate pieces of correspondence before summoning 21 professors to Parma where they decide with great solemnity that drinking water cannot be sold as a way to combat dehydration.

"Then they make this judgment law and make it clear that if anybody dares sell water claiming that it is effective against dehydration they could get into serious legal bother.

Boss of the Year



I'm with Nick.

Steyn On McQueary

Mark Steyn weighs in on Penn State's "wickedness." He is especially hard on Mike McQueary. After quoting directly from the grand jury report about how McQueary witnessed an assault in the shower and then "left immediately, distraught." Steyn writes:
Hold it right there.

Here surely is an almost too perfect snapshot of a culture that simultaneously destroys childhood and infantilizes adulthood. The "child" in this vignette ought to be the 10-year-old boy, "hands up against the wall," but, instead, the "man" appropriates the child role for himself: Why, the graduate assistant is so "distraught" that he has to leave and telephone his father. He is pushing 30, an age when previous generations would have had little boys of their own. But today, confronted by a grade-schooler being sodomized before his eyes, the poor distraught child-man approaching early middle-age seeks out some fatherly advice, like one of Fred MacMurray's "My Three Sons" might have done had he seen the boy next door swiping a can of soda pop from the lunch counter.

The graduate assistant, Mike McQueary, is now pushing 40, and is sufficiently grown-up to realize that the portrait of him that emerges from the indictment is not to his credit and to attempt, privately, to modify it. "No one can imagine my thoughts or wants to be in my shoes for those 30-45 seconds," he emailed a friend a few days ago. "Trust me."

"Trust me"? Maybe the 10-year-old boy did. And then watched Mr. McQueary leave the building. Perhaps the child-man should try "imagining" the 10-year-old's thoughts or being in his shoes. Oh, wait. He wasn't wearing any.
Steyn has no time for those who attempt to psychologize, rationalize, or otherwise, excuse McQueary's failure to act.

He is quite right, not to. No doubt, there are others who, like McQueary, in the same situation would have failed to act. But that would be to their complete and utter shame. There is no escaping that. And Mike McQueary never will.

Why Sandusky Should Have An Ankle Monitor

(Posted by Dannytheman)

A man is breaking into homes groping other men.  I want to know where Sandusky was on the attached stories dates.

"Charlottesville police said the first incident occurred on Sept. 29 on University Circle, followed by subsequent incidents on 17th Street Northwest on Oct. 15 and 22, and an incident on Virginia Avenue on Oct. 21. The last incident occurred on Nov. 13, according to city police, but many were not reported to police until the university sent out the email."

Emphasis is mine, which is why I wondered.
Lock your Dorm Room doors and windows kiddies.

No Pepper Spray Here, Hmmmmmm....

(Posted by Dannytheman)

Can someone explain the difference between blocking the street by Occupy and blocking the street by praying Muslims?
Missing is the pepper spray when you are now the protected religious class.

"Hundreds of Muslims prayed in a lower Manhattan park and marched to New York Police headquarters Friday to protest a decade of police infiltrating mosques and spying on Muslim neighborhoods."

Emphasis is mine, they were in the middle of an intersection. Poor reporting or biased news report?



Tough Love?

(Posted by Dannytheman)

Tough love???? Or basic Police brutality?  You make the call. 



UPDATE: (by Spencerblog) Here's a video of the scene.



It happened at UC Davis. From what I read, the protesters were warned numerous times to move and they refused. They locked arms and actually wanted to be arrested. Pepper spray is often used in riot and crowd control. It allows police to more easily restrain subjects and make arrests. It isn't pretty, but neither are obnoxious protesters when the disobey lawful orders to disperse. In this case, it appears, the protesters were requiring police to use force against them. Going the pepper spray route, is certainly better, less violent, more effective than billyclubs.

And The Winner of the Longest Tongue Contest Is...

... Chanel Tapper


Congratulations Chanel.
Now would you put that thing away, it's freaking us all out.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Nice Try, Alex

Alex Epstein gamely tries to educate a couple of greenies at OWS.... and fails.

Pants on Fire

A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about a young man Antonio Ferrara falsely accused and charged with kidnapping and assaulting his ex-girlfriend. It turned out he was 400 miles away at the time his ex claimed to have been assaulted.

Her name is Bernadette Reilly and I understand she has now been officially charged by the DAs office with filing a false police report.

Also recently charged is a Rosemont woman named Gabrielle Drexler who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a local cop. (That's her over there.) A grand jury found that she was lying and charged her instead.

If convicted, jail time seems appropriate for both these gals.

From the comment section, "Serpico" sez: "This woman sounds nuts. Crazy. Unstable. Hey, Ms. Drexler... call me!" Heh!

Michael and T

Einstein Was Wrong

Faster than the speed of light - again.

A Payneful Descent Incredibly Uplifting

Joe Morgenstern says Alexander Payne's "The Descendents" is the best movie of the year. Here's his review. And here's the trailer, though Morgenstern says it doesn't begin to do the film justice.


Going Gamboling

Drexel Hill's Gambol's Cafe was recently the scene of a drug bust. The owners, Mike and Carol Gambol, were mortified when Upper Darby Police Superintendent Mike Chitwood was quoted as saying he was going try to get their liquor license pulled.

Almost as mortified as when I showed up to demand a cup of their crab soup.

My print column is up.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Only One Thing To Do

(Posted by Dannytheman)


Occupy Occupy Occupy

Here's a good idea from Time magazine no less:
Forget Wall Street. Go Occupy Your Local School District
Our nation's schools are a larger cause of economic inequality than investment banks and CEOs

And let's face it, some of the occupiers belong in a kindergarten.

Write Your Own Caption Contest



Winner gets... high praise.

He Ain't Heavy, He's Our President

McQueary Keeps Digging

A State Police spokesman says Penn State's Mike McQueary reported nothing to them concerning his witnessing the rape of a boy by Jerry Sandusky in 2002.

This may sound like they are contradicting McQueary's recent email claiming that he had "discussions with police" about the incident. But obviously, he didn't mean the REAL police. He meant the campus police. The real police would have arrested Sandusky based on such information.

And "discussions"? What was there to discuss? He supposedly witnessed a vile crime in the act. A actual sworn-to complaint was in order, was it not?

As he attempts to defend his own actions, McQueary is digging himself (not to mention the state's case) into a deeper and deeper hole. Fortunately, he isn't the state's only witness. There are plenty of alleged victims who have told more credible stories than McQueary.

UPDATE: Penn State is also denying that McQueary made any report to campus police.

Big PA GOP Win

(Posted by Dannytheman)

I came upon this GOP strategy memo and it was quite eye opening, so I thought I would share some of it with everyone.
What really caught my attention was the maps. But the details in the story are incredible! 2007 versus today.
Failed Obama Agenda Continues To Set Up Big Republican Wins

Maybe it was just me, but all I heard about locally was the city of Chester going Demoncrat and Montgomery County going Demoncrat, but look at the rest of the State

"Nine of these wins occurred in "blue" counties where Democrats have a registration advantage – Cambria, Carbon, Centre, Clinton, Elk, Lawrence, Mercer, Monroe and Westmoreland. Only four of the counties we picked up – Bradford, Forest, Schuylkill and Susquehanna – have a Republican registration advantage.  In all of these counties we witnessed Republicans, Independents and even Democrats rejecting Democratic candidates, their big government agenda and President Obama, proving that great Republican candidates can compete and win even in the Democratic counties in the Commonwealth."


Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Occupy Fancy Pants

From the wit and wisdom of Frank J.:
They finally broke up the Occupy Wall Street Obamaville in Zuccotti Park. They can still stay, but no more setting up tents and camping. So now they’ll have to live like regular homeless people instead of the fanciest 1% of homeless.

The Piper vs. The Gipper

Piper Laurie insults the Gipper's love-making skills. That's not very nice. Somebody should teach her a lesson. How about you, Sissy?



Good girl.

Make Money, Not War

Hey check out the new UnHate ad campaign from some company called Benneton. I think they sell clothes. This will definitely sell a lot of apparel... you know, to idiots.

Killing the Family Doctor

... an unintended consequence of Obamacare, or an intended one. Sir Walter Russell Mead has the story.

And yes, Mead has been knighted by Spencerblog for his clear thinking and thoughtful analysis on this and many other contemporary issues.

Heartbroken

An ex-boyfriend is charged with several crimes after posting a sex tape of him and his ex-girlfriend on the Internet.

Why did he do it? He claims heart-brokeness. If she'd been my grand daughter he'd have nose-brokeness. But then I would hope my grand daughter, if I had one, would know better than to hook up with such a creep and agree to making such a tape.

Right?

McQueary Query

New questions in the Penn State child abuse case. My print column is up.

Mostly, I've been focused on the behavior of Mike McQueary whose conduct, as described in the grand jury report, was terrible.

According to fresh news reports, he is claiming in an email that not only did he "stop" the assault on the kid, but he also talked to the police about the matter.

Questions:

Just what did he do to stop the assault other than witness it and get seen by Sandusky witnessing it? Did he say something? Did he shout, "What are you doing?" or "Hey, cut that out!" before leaving the scene to call his father? Is that his idea of "doing the right thing"?

When did he talk to the police about what he witnessed? Within five minutes, five hours, five days, five months or five years?

Why would the grand jury and the attorney general leave details out of their report about McQueary's behavior that would have put their star witness in a better light?

As for Jerry Sandusky and his now famous interview with Bob Costas, the man denied being a pedophile, denied ever touching a kid for sexual gratification or in sexual intent. He will be denying things for the rest of his life. If he expects to be found not guilty in a court of law, however, he will have to be more convincing than he was with Costas.

UPDATE: Sandusky's lawyer is claiming that the boy in the shower with Sandusky that night, is now grown up and will deny that any sexual activity took place, let alone, a rape.

Sandusky, the lawyer said, recalled providing the name of the boy Penn State officials who confronted Sandusky with the allegation of something inappropriate happening in the shower. If, as I have suspected all along, that McQueary didn't provide them with the graphic details of an alleged rape, maybe the reason was that he didn't actually see what he says he saw.

Certainly that would better explain why nobody, including McQueary, immediately called the police. There are three other possibilities.

1. The alleged victim is ashamed of having been victimized and doesn't want to admit it, even today.

2. McQueary saw a rape in progress but having failed to rescue the kid, sugarcoated what he saw when reporting it to Paterno and others.

3. There was a rape and McQueary reported the full details of what he saw to Paterno and the others, who covered it up. But of all the sexual activity and fondling alleged by the accusers in the grand jury report, only one rape is alleged, and that is the one allegedly seen by McQueary. So far, I don't think any other accuser has alleged being abused in such a forceful and painful way.

It seems to me that the reason the grand jury found McQueary so credible on this point is because saying what he saw and what he did and didn't do afterward, put him in such an unfavorable light. Why would he tell a lie that made him look so bad himself?

The more these guys talk, the more questions they raise.

Hope and Loose Change?

(Posted by Dannytheman)

CBO Director Doug Elmendorf admitted to Senator Sessions that in the long run the stimulus will shrink the economy.
That money could have been used to permanently transform our entitlement programs to free-market personal ownership accounts.  It could have been used for massive pro-growth tax cuts.  Instead,it was used to grow perennial dependency and for special interest handouts.(Emphasis is mine)

Special interest handouts like big Obama Administration donors? I am feeling my Hope and loose Change being flushed down the toilet.
Come on folks, repeat after me. "Would you like fries with that?" "How about a nice Apple pie?"  I am afraid, you should be to.




Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Occupy Philly and 1st Amendment

(Posted by Dannytheman)

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

 

I am not a lawyer, and you may not agree with me, but I believe the Occupy groups have the God given right to peaceably assemble as mentioned above. No where in the Constitution that I love and support does it say "Peaceably assemble but not more that 60 days"! Lately, people I know have been bad mouthing the occupy groups, and I get it. But they are following an established path that we better be careful not to lose. This First Amendment RIGHT can never, and should not be easily taken away. 


Why am I bringing this up now? I always tell people that Freedom isn't free, that there is always a sacrifice. But, and not coincidentally by the way, the Mayors, who all happen to be Demoncrats, are evicting the Occupy groups. Oakland, Ca., Seattle, Portand and New York are getting the dismantlement treatment. I suspect Philly will be soon. It so happens that it was immediately after the Election cycle is over. Last Tuesday, remember? New Polls out show a majority of folks, most of whom have never been to an occupy site, are now against the cause. Demoncrats love their polls.  Also, an occupy success occupy leaders held off the Unions and outside band wagon jumpers(Marxist, Nazis, communist, etc., etc., that the Demoncrats were hoping to bring their message to light. So, once the Demoncrats saw that the Occupy group could not be bought or thoroughly infiltarted, they used their close connections with the press, immediately after the election, and started hammering the group with lies and embellished statements.


Press news? Knives were found. Do you have a knife when YOU are camping? I sure do.

Unsafe conditions? Candles in a tent. OK, wow you got them now Mayor Squidward. (A.K.A. Mayor Nutter)

My personal favorite ? Hypodermic needles, later found to belong to a diabetic. Really?

But what about the kid pooping in the street in Portland? How disgusting?  He was not associated with the group, but if the poop stinks, right?

So now you have lies about police safety, hazardous conditions and drugs!! But the press, long known by most to be owned by the Demoncrats, is busy buying right in. Asshats!!!

 

The tide has turned, and I fear the end is near for the Occupy Philly group, but I hope they learn and maneuver to continue to educate themselves on the bigger picture. Baptism by fire is sometimes a good teacher.

 

They have 2 main beliefs.

1)  Our government must be accountable to us, and corporations must be accountable to the government. We are saying definitively: We no longer live in a democracy, and we refuse to accept that. We seek an end to the collusion between corrupt politicians and corporate criminals, as democratic and capitalist institutions have become conflated. As such we must see major advances in the arena of the relationship between corporations, and people, on par with the amendments which outlawed slavery and assured civil rights to all people regardless of race, sex, or class.

 

I have explained to them about us being a Republic Democracy, but they won't change. But I can get how they could hate some of these corporate big wigs making millions a year, and they feeling like slaves. They are shut out from the elite ruling class of rich. I think all of us would like to do away with high paid lobbyist, wouldn't we? (Unless you are one, of course)

 

2) We must be accountable to ourselves. First and foremost, we are calling upon ourselves, and upon one another, to wake up and employ our power as citizens: to participate rather than observe, to raise our strong voices together, rather than complaining feebly in isolation. We cannot 'whine' about the injustices wreaked upon us if we have been complacent and silent in the face of these injustices. We must take responsibility for our own futures – and here at Liberty Plaza, that is exactly what we are doing, by modeling the kind of society in which everyone has a right to live. Here in Liberty Plaza, having lost our sense that we live in a democracy, we are reclaiming its practice.

They want their freedom back, they want true equality, and not in a communist way, not in a progressive way, it's in an entirely new way. I don't agree they will succeed in this, but I respect their freedom to go after their dreams. Some of what the occupy folks support, I can easily get behind, some is way out there IMHO, but I fully respect their God given right to protest and to petition the government for change! I may not agree with them on much, but I fully support their right to do it!


I wouldn't want my freedoms taken away, would you?


God bless Freedom and God bless the Constitution!  



President Punts on Pipeline

When Obama decided it was wise to punt on the jobs-creating Keystone Pipeline for political reasons, it was third and two. Brilliant!
Obama’s delaying consideration of the Keystone XL pipeline is what is called a spherically perfect decision, because no matter from which angle you look at it, it looks perfectly the same: wrong.
The decision pushes the Canada into the position of selling more oil to the Chinese.

Hollywood and green critics say the pipeline will increase climate change and global warming. Whether the oil is used in China or here the result will be the same. Which is to say, the president's decision will do nothing to "save the planet." What it will do is prevent millions of good American jobs from being created.

Under the Confluence?

Like father, like son. I didn't even know there was a Pennsylvania town with such a name.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Our One True Moral Responsibility

[Posted By Jake]

This past week, it has been presumed as an article of faith, first stated by PA State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan and then regurgitated throughout the press and blogosphere, that Penn State football coach Joe Paterno is somehow deficient as a human being because he failed in his "moral responsibility to call us (the State Police)."

Putting aside for the moment the propriety of the Commonwealth's chief investigating officer publicly impugning a witness in an ongoing criminal case, let's review an alternative opinion from an attorney, former special prosecutor, and Adjunct Professor of Trial Advocacy.This viewpoint would seem to vindicate JoePa's actions and raise serious questions about the rush to judgment by the media lynch mob.


"I think Paterno did what was both morally and legally correct. After contacting his chain of command superiors, he let them do their jobs. He knew there was a police force that investigates (and prosecutes) crimes on campus. He took it to the person who is the police commissioner of the town."

"Suggesting Paterno should have done more is both ridiculous and dangerous. Paterno should not have approached Sandusky, for fear he tip him off to the investigation; he should not have called University police after nothing happened because a police department has a right to set its own policing priorities."

"Once he reported the incident, Paterno had no other action he could reasonably take. If he pressed further or went public, he risked opening himself and the University up to a lawsuit from Sandusky for libel. And that is assuming Paterno thought the grad assistant was both reliable and accurate. By that person's own admission, he was distraught...Paterno is not a witness, but merely sharing hearsay from McQueary."

"If Paterno did go to the Chief of Police, the person under Gary Schultz, that would be an act of insubordination. What if he were wrong? He would lose a longtime friend. He would hurt alums, recruits and his teams. His fellow coaches could not trust him...all of this without being an actual witness to anything."


This prosecution has a long way to go and undoubtedly it will test our discipline and sense of justice. Right now, we have only gotten the first half of the story. Think about how different the second half of the Duke lacrosse story was from what we thought we knew. It is not dishonoring any victims when we demand strict adherence to due process. In fact, it is our one true moral responsibility.