PAWaterCooler.com

In a game that almost wasn’t due to the worst snowstorm to hit the east coast in over 15 years, NBC definitely got their money’s worth. The Penguins dominated the Capitals, taking a 4-1 lead, until the Caps came back with FOUR UNANSWERED GOALS to win in OT. The home crowd loved it, and I guess they deserved something for going out in this weather.

The good news: The Caps owned the Pens in the regular season last year, too, but the Pens still beat them in the playoffs. I would not be surprised if the Caps won the Stanley Cup this year, though. They’re really, really good right now.

Email John Lewandowski, Start the discussion or Share This...

Power and phones finally came back on after being off for 25 hours in my neck of the woods south of Pittsburgh. Thank goodness for cell phones.

We stuck a yard stick in a non-drifted area of the snow and came up with a measurement of 25″ of cold white death. The south hills are a wasteland right now; I doubt many if any businesses opened today due to the mountains of snow and power and phone outages all around Allegheny County. What a day.

Plus I found out that the Penguins lost. Suckage.

Email John Lewandowski, Start the discussion or Share This...

Just short of the record…

Returning champion Super Squibb, real name Jonathan Squibb, dominated yet again. The accountant from Berlin, New Jersey finished first after eating an unbelievable 238 wings. Three more chicken wings would have been a wing bowl record.

“I was just focused on the wings, not worried about anything else going on,” Squibb said. He added that while it was a “bummer” that he fell short of the record, his mood was lifted by his prize: A new truck!

PJ Welihans in South Jersey cooked up 9,000 wings for this year’s Wing Bowl.

It’s really a shame Scrapplefest never caught on. I think WWDB had three of them.

Email AlexC, Start the discussion or Share This...

I had some teachers who protested their contracts once. But they didn’t protest during school hours. They did it in the morning before school started, and when the bell rang, they were in their rooms doing their jobs.

Not so in the case of the Penn Hills School District:

Talks are due to resume between the school board and the teacher’s union in the Penn Hills school district on Friday night.

But students remain out of class for a second day, after more than 400 teachers headed out to the picket lines Thursday morning.

…

The school district released a written statement saying that schools will be closed Thursday and Friday, and parents will be notified of any future closures once administrators know how long the strike will continue.

I’m glad they’re looking out for “the children” that teachers claim to care so much about. One of them is holding a sign which reads, “If you can read this thank a teacher not an attorney.” I would tell that person that it wasn’t a teacher who taught me how to read – it was my mother. And she never went on strike, either.

The Trib quotes a parent who supports the strike despite the fact that it is causing him a lot of trouble:

James Craig knows it will be tough arranging child care while Penn Hills teachers walk the picket lines.

But the father of six — five of whom are school-age — believes the personal difficulties a strike places on his family are less important than the need for the district’s 415 teachers to exercise their right to fight for a fair labor contract.

“We’re two working parents who will have to ask relatives to help watch our children, or take vacation days to stay home with them,” said Craig, 40, a 1988 Penn Hills graduate. “But I completely support the teachers in this strike. They have a very difficult and stressful job.”

Right, as if they are the only ones with difficult and stressful jobs. I know a lot of people who have difficult and stressful jobs who would be fired immediately if they decided to just stop working. I have always found it ridiculous that we are willing to give teachers, the little Mussolinis in the classroom, more leeway than people in other fields of employment.

Email John Lewandowski, Start the discussion or Share This...

Even Flyers fans have to admit that he’s ridiculously cute:

Young Fan Jack Rosensteel Wins USA Hockey and Reebok’s “Why Hockey Rocks!” Competition

Email John Lewandowski, Start the discussion or Share This...

Headline at Drudge Report: Pennsylvania State Capital Mulls Bankruptcy as a Budget Option…

Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, will consider Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection along with tax increases and asset sales as options to address $68 million in debt service payments due this year, the chairwoman of a City Council committee said last night.

Every option, including tax and fee increases, bankruptcy and a state takeover through Pennsylvania’s Act 47 municipal oversight program will be considered, said Susan Brown-Wilson, chairwoman of the Budget and Finance Committee, which began a week of hearings last night to consider a 2010 spending plan.

The $68 million in debt service payments that Harrisburg faces in connection with the construction of a waste incinerator this year is four times what the city of 47,000 expects to raise through property taxes, and $4 million more than the city’s entire proposed operating budget.

Which political party runs the city of Harrisburg?

If you guessed Libertarians, you’d be wrong.

Email AlexC, Join the discussion or Share This...

Alex, it appears I misread the original Times Herald article, thinking that it was CBIZ that was charging the copying fee and not the County Solicitors Office. (Which just goes to show that I should not post anything the morning after I stay up till one am blogging the season premiere of LOST). That being said, can you blame me? The COUNTY is actually charging a fee to the COUNTY COMMISSIONER to look at the RFP? What is that about?

I can’t for the life of me think why anyone at the County would have an interest in keeping this report from the only County Commissioner who did not receive campaign donations from CBIZ.

Email LisaMossie, Start the discussion or Share This...

A Republican challenger to Congressman Bob Brady…

Pia Varma is not your typical candidate. A political outsider, Varma is a 27 year-old first generation Indian American woman and entrepreneur whose parents moved here before she was born.

Varma became intimately acquainted with big government policies in Philadelphia two years ago when the Commerce Department shut down her and a business partner’s green-building proposal to revitalize vacant land in the Kensington. Varma witnessed the mismanagement of taxpayer money first-hand, stating, “I thought the city would welcome a green project, but a taxpayer funded program –The Industrial Empowerment Zone –stood in our way. It has failed to bring industry back, and succeeded only in blocking a project which could have helped the community and supported private business.” For Varma, The Industrial Empowerment Zone program is just another example of how big government impedes progress and hurts ordinary Americans.

Varma cites her experiences working with the local government and with the district’s homeowners as her motivation for seeking office. She says, “I saw a very dark side to this city. I saw things that were blatantly unjust happen to residents of that neighborhood. Its time for Brady and all that he represents to go.”

Brady has literally the entire Philadelphia Democrat machine behind him.

But then again I would have never imagined a Republican winning a Senate seat in Massachusetts.

Her website is at http://votepia.com/.

Email AlexC, Join the other 2 commenters or Share This...

Back in October, I applauded the decision that allowed Temple University Purpose to bring Geert Wilders to Temple to speak to students as a victory for the first amendment.  Today, a rather ugly new development has surfaced. Mike Adams:

Geert Wilders came to Temple University on October 20, 2009. Wilders was invited in the wake of a controversy surrounding his film “Fitna” which was released in 2008. The film was controversial because it features passages of the Koran interspersed with scenes of violence on the part of Muslims. The movie was shown during the presentation at Temple. Extra security was provided and there was no disturbance.

On December 3, Temple University Purpose (TUP) – the group that hosted Wilders -was surprised with a bill from Temple for $800 for a “Security Officer.” This came with the explanation that the charge was for the costs “to secure the room and building.”

TUP Interim President Brittany Walsh pointed out that Temple had said – prior to the event – the university would pay any extra security costs. But, after repeated emails, she has received no substantive reply.

I had really hoped to find that this was a simple billing mistake on the part of the University administration, so I spoke to friend of the ‘Cooler, Jack Posobiec, who has contacts down at Temple and has been working with Brittany Walsh on this issue. He put me in touch with her. Brittany confirmed that the University has indeed billed Temple University Purpose for the “extra security” which, as organizer of the event, Brittany says she never authorized. TUP had already paid a $576 fee to the University as part of their contract with the University back in September of last year. Therefore, the balance the University says is now owed is $244–for the “extra security” neede for the Geert Wilders event in October. It is a balance that the University says they will waive if the TUP claims financial hardship, but a balance that TUP will not pay because it is an infringement of their first amendment rights. Mike Adams speculates that:

[T]his group is being punished financially because it hosted a speaker likely to offend a particularly volatile segment of the population. As a consequence, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has written to the president of Temple. In that letter, FIRE cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement (1992), which says, “Speech cannot be financially burdened, any more than it can be punished or banned, simply because it might offend a hostile mob.”

Temple is a public university and is bound by the Supreme Court’s decisions. If they are smart, they will go the way of four other public universities—the University of Colorado at Boulder; University of Massachusetts Amherst; University of California, Berkeley; and University of Arizona—and abandon such security fees before they get sued.

Two years ago, Temple’s speech code was struck down by the Third Circuit. That lawsuit was handled by my friends at the Alliance Defense Fund. If the university does not begin to respect the First Amendment, additional humiliation and litigation are certain to follow.

Brittany says that Temple President Ann Weaver Hart has been supportive of TUP and Brittany has contacted her in hopes that President Hart’s involvement in this matter will clear up the dispute between TUP and Student Activities before litigation proceeds.

Email LisaMossie, Start the discussion or Share This...

Sen. Anthony Williams’ Racist Remarks Are Disgraceful

By CHRIS FREIND

If you’re wondering why race relations in America haven’t improved at all, look no farther than the recent comments of state Senator Anthony Williams’ concerning the current field of Democratic gubernatorial candidates.

Fueling speculation that Williams, who is black, might throw his hat into the race, the senator ranted that none of the four Democrats was giving any attention to the black community and the issues faced by that constituency.

In other words, since they are all white, they were just catering to Whitey and ignoring everyone else.

Gee, and I thought campaigns were supposed to be color-blind.
Williams is correct that none of the Democrats has workable solutions to the monumental problems we face —black or otherwise. Ironically, it is the Republican platform that holds the key to success for Williams’ people.

But here’s the bigger irony: so-called black leaders like Sen. Williams’ do more to harm their “own people” than any white politician ever could. Despite the majority of black Americans holding Republican, and in many cases conservative, values, their black “leadership” sells them out time and time again by perpetuating policies destined to fail.

A look at Williams’ hometown of Philadelphia gives a startling example.

The city has been under Democratic leadership for sixty years — one-Party rule with no competition. And how has that bastion of leadership fared?

Philadelphia has the nation’s highest rates of murder, violence and poverty. Its educational system is abysmal, with many of the public schools being deathtraps, totally devoid of all learning and where survival is the first—and only— order of the day.

But that’s just the beginning.

The city’s pensions are insolvent. The business climate continues to decline due to the brain drain of our best and brightest. The tax system is so onerous that it ranks as worst in the nation. Its court system has completely imploded. People and businesses continue to flee to more fertile areas.

And the city’s reputation for corruption and pay-to-play is legendary.
So what do people like Sen. Williams do to address these problems? And, by the way, since the city’s population is majority black, these would be the problems facing “his” people.

Here’s the cruel joke. Williams’ actions, not those of The White Man, keep his constituents down and out, ripping hope away from the very people who most need help.

Williams’ solution to the terrible business climate? Raise the city portion of the sales tax by 100 percent and make no payments to the pension plan for two years. Brilliant Anthony! Penalize those who can least afford it (it is undisputed that a sales tax is the most regressive tax) and renege on the promises made to retired workers.

And what about education? Throw huge money at the schools, appease the powerful teachers’ unions, look the other way, and pretend that the results will somehow change. It hasn’t worked in decades, and it never will.

Until we get serious about providing a quality education in a safe learning environment, our students —our future— will continue to be thrown into the world as functional illiterates. And after the last flame of hope is extinguished for these children, they resort to violent crime because they have nothing left to lose.

The cycle simply perpetuates itself. Over and over again.

It is clear that the Democratic Party doesn’t have the answers, because nothing it has tried has worked. The GOP, on the other hand, has the solutions. It just needs a powerful and courageous leader to articulate the message. But leaders in the Republican Party are in short supply.

Up until the 1930’s, the vast majority of blacks were Republican, members of the Party of Lincoln. Why the Party and one of its natural constituencies parted ways is for another column, but there’s no reason that separation has to continue.

Consider:

Who wants and needs school choice more than the black community — people who, more than anyone else, have no choice in their children’s education?

Who advocates tough-on-crime legislation and gun ownership so that neighborhoods can start to thrive again, where children don’t have to sleep on the floor to avoid bullets?

Who is hurt the most by ever-increasing taxes, fees and regulations, and who needs a healthy business climate to attract and keep the good jobs necessary to provide opportunities and sustain families?

What ethnic group more than any other opposes gay marriage?

The answer to these questions is that all Pennsylvanians benefit from these common-sense, free-market answers to our toughest problems. But for those among us who are suffering the most, these Republican-oriented ideas are more than just workable and proven solutions. They are the difference between hope and despair— life and death.

So let me shout it to those in the cheap seats one more time (that’s you, Sen. Williams): quit the race-baiting game and stop being part of the problem. If you truly want to do something for your “people,” then embrace the solutions that will get the job done.

Anything less is just….racism.

Chris Freind is an independent columnist and investigative reporter whose news site, The Artorius News Bureau, is slated to launch in mid-February. Readers of “Freindly Fire” hail from six continents, thirty countries and all fifty states. Freind also serves as a weekly guest commentator on a Philadelphia-area talk radio show, and makes numerous other television and radio appearances. He can be reached at CF@FreindlyFireZone.com

Email Chris Freind, Join the other 2 commenters or Share This...

Reg Henry, one of the many sardonic, conceited liberals at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is not happy about Scott Brown’s victory:

And as we were recalling old times, the people of Massachusetts who recently thronged the streets for Ted Kennedy’s funeral were busy repudiating his life’s work by electing a Republican senator and making health-care reform well nigh impossible.

Henry goes on:

I returned to find a story in the Post-Gazette that said that Republicans think this is just the beginning of health-care reform and that their proposals will soon take flight.

Pull my other leg, it’s got a bell on it. If the Republican Party cared one whit for health-care reform, it would have done something about the growing crisis in the years when Bush had complete control of Congress. This “health care reform is just beginning” talk is merely a fig leaf of political cover. Clever as always, the Party of Family Values is vaguely aware that its vindication has come about by screwing countless families.

Do you see the gaping flaw in logic here? I have to wonder if Reggie does, and he’s just pretending that he doesn’t, being a dishonest liberal. But, I’ll just assume that he doesn’t see it, and perhaps he’ll read this and be informed.

First he tells us that Scott Brown’s victory has made “health-care reform well nigh impossible”. Why is that? Because the Democrats are left with 59 votes in the Senate, which is not enough to end a filibuster. In other words, in order to accomplish something that the other party opposes, Henry is telling us that you need a 60 vote majority in the United States Senate.

Now, class, who can tell me how many Republican Senators President George W. Bush had in office while he was president? If you answered “Fewer than 60″, you remember more about the last 8 years than Reg Henry does.

President Bush was in office from January 2001 until January 2009. Here is the breakdown of the US Senate during those years:

2001-2003: 50 Republican Senators
2003-2005: 51 Republican Senators
2005-2007: 55 Republican Senators
2007-2009: 49 Republican Senators

During the Bush years, the Republican-controlled Congress did indeed attempt some rational health care reforms, such as tort reform and making it possible to purchase interstate insurance coverage. Oddly enough, Reggie seems to have forgotten that all of those attempted reforms were blocked by the Democrats… just as the Democrats blocked Republican attempts to fix Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Democrats blocked Republican attempts to pass pro-life legislation. Now Republicans are blamed for preventing health care reform, for destroying the economy, and for not doing enough for the pro-life cause. Isn’t that interesting?

Email John Lewandowski, Start the discussion or Share This...

The Penguins played the Flyers again today in their first game since the Flyers crushed the Pens 7-4 at Mellon Arena. Today’s game played at Wachovia Center in Philly was marred by some of the worst officiating ever. Crosby gets called for slashing someone BEHIND him? Refs wait ’til AFTER the Flyers score to call a penalty that was committed several seconds ago, thus negating the goal? What the heck?

Though both sides had plenty reason to be upset about ridiculous calls, the Flyers can’t complain too much since they had 9 power plays vs. 6 for the Penguins. The player of the game was definitely Sergei Gonchar, who made one of the most amazing shots on goal I’ve ever seen:

Email John Lewandowski, Join the other 2 commenters or Share This...

Wow.

Mary Beth Buchanan, the former U.S. attorney for Western Pennsylvania, opened a bid to extract the children and the sisters from Ben Avon who ran the BRESMA orphanage in Port-au-Prince.

Ms. Buchanan, who has been openly mulling a run for the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, spent four days obtaining clearance for the children to enter the United States, medical supplies for the trip down and back, physicians to escort the children and -- in the final link that did not fall into place in time -- an airplane cleared to land in Haiti.

She said the organizer of the other rescue attempt, Leslie Merrill McCombs, a senior consultant for UPMC, phoned and grilled her for information, obtained a list of the children and ended up shipping medical supplies gathered as part of the Buchanan effort on the plane that carried Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Mr. Altmire.

However the successful rescue was organized, it had the effect of short-circuiting Ms. Buchanan's effort and shifting attention to Mr. Altmire, a former UPMC lobbyist.

Read it all

… and here I thought it was classy of the Governor to put it all together.

Tip to Chris.

Email AlexC, Join the discussion or Share This...

Not entirely unexpected, but still takes some chutzpah.

The plaintiff is Katherine Conway-Russell, a Philadelphia resident who has worked for ACORN since March 2008 as an office director. It was Conway-Russell who met with Giles and O’Keefe, posing as a prostitute and pimp as they had in ACORN offices nationwide during other installments of the undercover video series, for a private interview in her office at ACORN’s facility in Philadelphia on July 24, 2009. This is the first such suit filed against the filmmakers by an individual ACORN employee.

The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, claims that the Giles and O’Keefe “purportedly sought information regarding housing and mortgage opportunities in Philadelphia, but were in reality imposters who deliberately and surreptitiously created video and audio recordings in an attempt to discredit plaintiff Conway-Russell and ACORN Housing Corporation,” and that they subsequently “disseminated the illegally obtained recordings in a manner calculated to harm and injure” Katherine Conway-Russell.

Email AlexC, Start the discussion or Share This...

This is certainly interesting.

UNHAPPY WITH THE performance of Philadelphia’s Republican organization, state GOP leaders are funding an effort to rebuild the local party, possibly threatening the longtime leadership of the Meehan family.

The state party has hired Al Schmidt, the Republican candidate for city controller last year, as a “senior adviser” in Philadelphia with a broad charge to recruit new committee members, develop candidates and weigh in on local issues as a party spokesman.

The move could lead to some rare intraparty skirmishing this year, as Republicans elect new committee members in the May 18 primary. Subsequently, the committee members elect ward leaders and the ward leaders choose the party’s leadership.

“The state party is very unhappy with how poorly the Republican Party has done in Philadelphia,” Schmidt said. ” . . . There is a deep frustration with the direction of the party in Philadelphia, with its performance and its will to fight.”

Email AlexC, Join the discussion or Share This...

Not cool at all, you union protected idiot.

What happened to her lasted only 20 seconds, but she says they were the longest 20 seconds of her life.

After pulling her laptop out of her carry-on bag, sliding the items through the scanning machines, and walking through a detector, she went to collect her things.

A TSA worker was staring at her. He motioned her toward him.

Then he pulled a small, clear plastic bag from her carry-on – the sort of baggie that a pair of earrings might come in. Inside the bag was fine, white powder.

She remembers his words: “Where did you get it?”

Two thoughts came to her in a jumble: A terrorist was using her to sneak bomb-detonating materials on the plane. Or a drug dealer had made her an unwitting mule, planting coke or some other trouble in her bag while she wasn’t looking.

She’d left her carry-on by her feet as she handed her license and boarding pass to a security agent at the beginning of the line.

Answer truthfully, the TSA worker informed her, and everything will be OK.

Solomon, 5-foot-3 and traveling alone, looked up at the man in the black shirt and fought back tears.

Put yourself in her place and count out 20 seconds. Her heart pounded. She started to sweat. She panicked at having to explain something she couldn’t.

Now picture her expression as the TSA employee started to smile.

Just kidding, he said. He waved the baggie. It was his.

The TSA white-shirt is no longer employed by the TSA. Citing privacy laws, the TSA cannot reveal a) his name or b) why he’s no longer employed.

Nice.

Email AlexC, Start the discussion or Share This...

Dale, I thought it was a day to be aware of the Pittsburgh Penguins. So be aware that last night, Evgeni Malkin scored his first ever NHL bag trick:

It IS a bag trick, Steigy!

Sidney Crosby had a six point night (2G + 4A) as well.

Email John Lewandowski, Start the discussion or Share This...

Montgomery County commissioner & far-left progressive candidate for Governor Joe Hoeffel has injected himself into the story over Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s veto of a prevailing wage bill.

Mr. Hoeffel’s intervention in the city of Pittsburgh dispute reverberated in the competition for the Democratic nomination in that its target, Mr. Ravenstahl, is a close ally of Mr. Onorato, who is one of Mr. Hoeffel’s chief competitors. The North Side native is expected to report a fundraising total later this month that will dwarf Mr. Hoeffel’s war chest.

Speaking after Mr. Ravenstahl’s inauguration earlier this week, Mr. Onorato professed to be unconcerned by Mr. Hoeffel’s foray into his political backyard, or by his overall strategy of more liberal elements of the party’s base.

“I think Mr. Hoeffel may be surprised by the support I have with progressives, including progressives in [southeastern Pennsylvania],” Mr. Onorato said.

Asked for his reaction to the veto, Mr. Onorato declined to criticize his North Side neighbor. Without offering details, however, Mr. Onorato did say that he favored the general concept of a prevailing wage for projects supported by local government economic development funds.

Despite Mr. Hoeffel’s embrace of the Pittsburgh proposal, his own county has no similar measure on its books.

However, his co-campaign manager Lauren Townsend said he likes the idea and added that he had directed his staff to explore the idea of a similar requirement for Montgomery County.

The prevailing wage is an average of wages for a particular job (trade, position) in a certain area (in this case Pittsburgh), and it would affect projects with at least $100K in city money or 100,000 square feet in size. Which means that any city project or any office development. Mandating pay like this tends to discourage development. Ravenstahl was right to veto it.

The news that Hoeffel plans to “bring it home” to Montco is troubling. The Philly suburbs have long the beneficiaries of the City of Philadelphia’s fiscal messes and business unfriendly revenue schemes. Indeed, we can point to the King of Prussia and Fort Washington and Pharm belt developments as evidence of the migration.

Chester and Lehigh counties (especially) will be thanking you in a few years for their new jobs, Joe.

Email AlexC, Start the discussion or Share This...

The Penguins have not yet broken out of their slump, despite a win against Atlanta on Tuesday. Numerous defensive errors and other sloppy plays resulted in a 7 – 4 win for the Flyers. Lately the Pens seem to be giving up huge numbers of golden scoring chances to any and every team they play against.

The Flyers, on the other hand, seem to have overcome the problems they were experiencing earlier in the year. Every team goes through slumps, but that doesn’t make you feel any better when it’s your team.

Philadelphia Flyers James van Riemsdyk scores his second goal of the game, on one of the numerous defensive collapses of the Penguins

Email John Lewandowski, Join the discussion or Share This...

The state’s Attorney General, of course.

Lynne Abraham, who steps down today after nearly two decades as Philadelphia’s top prosecutor, told Larry Kane in an interview for Comcast Network that she intends to run for office again.

“I want to thank the people of Philadelphia for giving me this great gift,” Abraham said in the Dec. 9 interview. “It’s like a star, came right out of the meteoric heavens and landed right in my hand and that gift, that star was the trust of the people of the city of Philadelphia.

“I’ve always tried to maitain that trust, never saying what they wanted to hear because it would make them feel better, but they gave me the license and the leeway to tell the truth, to serve them well and to give me the opportunity to serve over and over again…And in the future, I believe they’ll give a chance to serve again.”

She doesn’t say, of course, but c’mon.

Email AlexC, Start the discussion or Share This...