Global Warming

Got my PECO bill this week. For the 2nd month in a row, average temperatures were significantly lower than the same period last year. Here are the stats:

Average Temp this year per my billing period was 37.
Average temp last year per my billing period was 43!

We have had colder than normal temps since November IMHO.
This is what I posted last month after I got my PECO bill:

http://theringleader.blogspot.com/2007/12/global-warming-is-problem.html

Pennsylvania State Police Getting Whiter (or more like the Inquirer)

The story is about the racial composition of the State Police force - jeez do they have the same illness as Michael Jackson? No seriously - "State Police Getting Whiter" was the actual headline to the article in the paper's print edition.

I bet they could write this same story about the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial staff. In fact, how about I count the mumber of white columnists in the same paper?

They make it easy for me because on the Front Page, the paper is heralding it has "12 Must-Read Columnists" to read in this edition.

Here are their names : Dave Boyer, Monica Yant Kinney, Jonathan Last, Craig Laban, Jonathan Storm, Mark Bowden, a twofer of Satullo/Auth, Carlin Romano, Lisa Scottoline, Michael Smerconish, Bob Ford and Dick Polman.

I am not familiar with the first, Dave Boyer, but I know for a fact the other 11 are all white!! Could the Inquirer get whiter? Doesn't seem to be possible.

Exhibit A : Why The City of Philadelphia Never Gets Big Improvements Done

SEE BELOW STORY FROM THE DAILY NEWS- SINCE 2003, THE MAYOR HAS NOT PAID THE REAL ESTATE TAXES FOR TWO PROPERTIES HE OWNS. THIS IS EXHIBIT "A" IN EVIDENCE FOR WHY THE CITY CAN NEVER GET BIG STUFF DONE. THE FOLKS WHO ARE IN CHARGE ARE SAD, UNTALENTED, DUMB, AND ETHICALLY-CHALLENGED AND I INCLUDE THOSE 100 MOVERS AND SHAKERS THAT RUN EVERYTHING ACCORDING TO THE INQUIRER.

Posted on Mon, Sep. 24, 2007
Urban Warrior Oops! Mayor's tax crackdown nets . . . the mayor
By Chris Brennan
PHILADELPHIA NEEDS every dime it can get to pay for services like policing our streets and teaching our students.
Mayor Street knows that.
That's why the city recently cracked down on delinquent taxpayers. What Street didn't know was that he hadn't paid the property taxes on two of the four properties he owns in North Philadelphia.
That is, until the Daily News delivered the bill last week.
I'm happy to say Street moved swiftly after a three-year delay, delivering a check last Thursday to the city for $4,798.99.
Street held a news conference three weeks ago to announce the crackdown on overdue property and business taxes owed to the city.
The city then started sending out notices to 23,000 property owners, demanding payment for $394 million in back taxes. Another $294 million is owed to the city in back business taxes.
The city, Street estimated, should be able to collect about 34 percent of those back taxes - about $234 million.
The mayor invited Thomas Brady, the interim chief executive of the school district, to that news conference to emphasize how money collected in the effort will help the city pay for education costs. That adds up to about $126 million for the district over the next five years, the city estimates, with $109 million flowing into the city's coffers.
City Solicitor Romulo Diaz warned that the city will foreclose on the properties of some tax deadbeats by November, with the potential for sheriff's sales starting by next May.
Sounds like a solid idea to me.
So I was surprised to learn that the mayor last paid taxes on two of his properties in 2003.
That was the year he was running for re-election. Must be some kind of coincidence.
A rowhouse the mayor owns in trust for one of his sons at 15th and Master streets had a balance last week of $2,625.68, including taxes delinquent for 2004, 2005 and 2006, past due-taxes for 2007, interest and penalties.
Another rowhouse owned by the mayor and his nephew at 25th and Nicholas streets had a balance of $2,173.31.
To his credit - literally and figuratively - the mayor has overpaid the property taxes this year on his home at 13th and Master streets by $1,290 and by $550 for another property he owns at 12th and Diamond streets.
Joe Grace, the mayor's spokesman, last week said Street didn't know he owed the city almost $4,800 until the Daily News called up to point it out for him.
Grace said the mayor found out that the notices on his delinquent property taxes were being sent to the wrong address. The mayor never saw them, he said.
"But that's not an excuse in any way," Grace added. "We do mean what we say: Everyone must pay their taxes."
So the mayor called the city's Revenue Department, found out that the Daily News' math was correct, and had a check delivered the same day to get up to date.
The whole process, from discovery to confirmation to payment, took about two hours.
The challenge now is to get the 22,999 other property owners with past-due tax bills to cough up the cash that fast.
Grace said the trouble with the mayor's tax bills got the administration thinking about how many other property owners might not be getting notices about delinquent taxes because of mail going to the wrong address.
The city is now requesting that people who own more than one property contact the Revenue Department to make sure the correct mailing address is on file. The department can be reached at 215-686-6442 or at Box 53190, Philadelphia, PA 19105. *
E-mail urbanwarrior@phillynews.com or call the Urban Warrior tip line at 215-854-4810. For past columns:
http://go.philly.com/columnists.

And He Was A Democrat

The AP has a story today about a horrible, racially-motivated multiple murder rom 60 years ago. The story claims the FBI investigation included leads suggesting the three-time governor of Georgia, named Ernest Talmadge, could have been invloved in the crime.

I read the whole long story but did not see where the AP mentioned the governor's political party........perhaps that is because he was a Democrat.

Weathervanes aka City Council

Read this story from today's Inquirer. Last week, city council approved a resolution declaring Philadelphia was pro-abortion. Yesterday, they rescinded that resolution. Five nitwits switched their votes. FYI, the original sponsor is a council member who probably has an IQ of about 85 or so IMHO. Here is the story:

"Philadelphia is no longer officially a "pro-choice city." By a vote of 13-4 today, City Council rescinded last week's symbolic declaration making Philadelphia a "pro-choice" city that supported "women's reproductive rights and freedom" and defended "the right to choose a legal and safe abortion as a final but critical option for women." "The original resolution passed by a 9-8 vote, surprising sponsor Blondell Reynolds Brown who had not expected the declaration to be controversial. Cardinal Justin Rigali swiftly condemned the resolution, and complaints flooded into some council members' offices." "The resolution rescinding last week's proclamation was sponsored by Councilman Frank Rizzo, who said the entire episode had been an embarrassment." "I think that we should stay away from issues like this that cause division in our city," Rizzo said. Switching sides from last week were council members aka weathervanes:

• Jim Kenney,
• Frank DiCicco,
• Donna Reed Miller,
• Daniel Savage
• Wilson Goode Jr. (whose father bombed the city when he was mayor).

In a speech from the floor today, Kenney stressed that he personally was pro-choice, but had decided upon reflection that it was an inappropriate issue for council to wade into.

This Just In: Rendell Cabinet Member Supports Rendell Plan

The Inquirer can't go one day without running a story promoting one of Fat Eddie's tax & spend ideas to increase the state budget and funnel guvmint money to his friends in construction and in law firms. So yesterday, the Inquirer's chief stenographer of Rendell press releases ran this story that said essentially:

...Allen Biehler, Penndot Chief and Cabinet Member in Rendell Administration, Supports His Bosses Plan To Sell The Turnpike!!

Holy Crap- Stop The Presses- This Is Big News!

Letter To Congress (Re Immigration Bill)

Senator Arlen Specter 711 Hart
Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Specter:

You have served in the US Senate for more than twenty years. One of a legislator's primary responsibilities is to enforce the rule of law, is it not?

During your twenty plus years in the Senate, the borders have been porous and illegal immigrants pored across into our country (estimates range from 12 million to 20 million). If a nuclear device were detonated by terrorists in one of our cities, would you expect voters to continue to re-elect long-serving, incumbent politicians like you?

If the terrorist’s nuclear attack had victims, would you expect the surviving family of a victim to look at you or your family without blaming you for abdicating your sworn duties by choosing inaction versus advocating security for our borders (especially since 911!). Even when you and many others have looked the other way for so long with regard to securing our insecure borders? Even when you have served in the Senate without voicing concern or alarm?

I am writing to you to ask you to do your job and enforce our existing laws. This immigration bill rewards those who immigrated here illegally with a path to citizenship. That is wrong and I ask you to withhold your support for any bill that does that. If you decide to support such a bill, I will never support you again and I will do everything I can to see that you are never elected again.

Feel free to call me to discuss. You can reach me at 555-555-5555. Sincerely,

Me

SEPTA

Today, the SEPTA board has a meeting to discuss fare hikes and of course, its lack of taxpayer funds (Editor's note: Boo Friggity Hoo). Fat Eddie, our money obsessed governor, will make an appearance and bloviate about how SEPTA needs "dedicated funding source" (Editor's note: Fat Eddie wants to raise taxes for the wasteful SEPTA).

Let me make this clear- SEPTA gets a ton of taxpayer money already. It claims it provides 300,000,000 annual unconnected rides. Its annual budget is $990 Million or thereabouts. For you public school graduates, that equates to an average cost per ride of about $3.30. And I have read their financial report. They already get about 60% of their "revenue" from taxpayers!

Here is how SEPTA pays its bills today. Pretend you are the "Average Josephine" and when you step onto your bus, you see two fare boxes. One box is marked "rider" and one box is marked "taxpayer". The rider (that's you Josephine) drops $1.10 into the rider farebox and the guvmint, on behalf of each rider, drops $2.20 into the taxpayer fare box. So, in effect, for every one of those 300 million rides, the rider on average pays only one-third of the cost and the taxpayer pays the two-thirds of the cost.

Do you feel increasing fares from an average of $1.10 per ride is such a horrible burden to the riding public? I don't and I think this crisis is just another alarmist game foisted on the public by Fat Eddie, SEPTA and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Perhaps SEPTA should just charge a flat one buck for every bus or subway ride and two bucks for every train ride, get rid of the toll takers and ticket takers, eliminate all ads (they spend probably $24 Million to get maybe $25 Million in ad revenue) and all the other craptastic programs that make SEPTA a huge fat bloated bureaucracy.

Mayor's Brother

Go to the link and see what the Philly mayor's brother sounds like as he tries to kick off his own campaign for mayor. There were about ten people in attendance not counting the MSM sheep and even the MSM sheep mocked the nitwit named Milton Street. And he is the smart one in the family.

We'd Have A Better Chance If We Asked Shaq To Reject It

I read this story and burst out laughing. Apparently, an asteroid may pass near to earth in 2036 and so a group of scientists, etc are recommending the United Nations be given responsibility to plan to (I guess) blast it out of space before it could hit. I think we'd have way way more luck if we asked Shaquille O'Neal to reject it before it hits the rim (earth) and he will be about 65 or 70 years old in 2036.

Could We Do This Today?

Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7th. My father was drafted the next month and inducted into the Army on Feb 12th. That's a space of only 67 days.

Today marks about the 35th day since Congress convened for its current term. And its esteemed members are still yakking away about a non-binding resolution on Iraq. So to answer my own question, I don't think the country could do anything important in 67 days but somehow it did it way back in 1941-1942.

Prince Of Darkness Indicted - Perhaps There is Justice Afterall

Boy it has been a while since a major domo got indicted in Philly. What's it been perhaps six months when the last Philly political bigwig was indicted? I thought maybe the feds ran out of handcuffs. Below is the link to the story. You are welcome. FYI- he is the poster child for the entrenched Philly hack political operative - heck he was on the board of the corrupted Independence Maritime Museum and the flush with our cash (& why does it exist?) Delaware River Port Authority.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/16634964.htm

Dems Have Already Started Raking In Lobbyist's Moolah

Here is a quote from the WAPO tomorrow about how the DC lobbying crowd is simply switching teams from the republicans to the democrats. Read this quote from the story and see what I mean:

"Democratic lobbyists prospected for new clients on the very night last week that House Democrats elected their leaders on an anti-lobbyist platform. Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (Md.) and Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (S.C.) were feted on the 10th and ninth floors, respectively, at 101 Constitution Ave. NW, a premier lobbying venue at the foot of Capitol Hill. Some of the city's top firms are in that building, including the lobbying arm of Goldman Sachs, the American Council of Life Insurers, Clark Consulting Federal Policy Group and Van Scoyoc Associates. Hoyer's political action committee financed his reception in a room routinely used for lobbying and other events, but Clyburn's was paid for by Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, a South Carolina-based law firm that lobbies extensively in Washington on health care and other issues and has offices in that building."

Just remember I told you "locks were made to keep out honest people".

I Don't Think I Trust Bonnie Grant To Be An Expert On Structural Safety Issues

An exit ramp at the new Philadelphia Eagles stadium was swaying enough after Sunday's game that a bunch of attendees called the Eagles to report it. The Eagles spokesbot is named Bonnie Grant and is quoted in this story as saying, in effect, don't worry about it. http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/15719453.htm

Well, FYI, Ms. Grant used to be Mayor Street's spokesbot. And that fact alone leads me to question her ability, accuracy, expertiness (I just made up this word and the word, spokesbot, so you are getting a twofer) and qualifications to answer the questions even if she was given the questions in advance and used a teleprompter.

House Approves A 700 Mile Border Fence _Don't Kid Yourself These Things Bear No Resemblance To A Fence

The house approved this border fence. It makes sense to me to reduce the threat of terrorists using the currenly wide-open border to get into the US.

I read the vote was 283 votes for and 138 against. That is about 2-1 in favor and Philly's are reps (there are 14 according to the Inky) voted 11-3 in favor. That's about 78% and makes me wonder where there were a lot of votes against the fence? I would guess in the border states like FL, TX, NM, AZ, etc. I'll have to see where I can find that info.

And the news I saw including some hand-wringing about where we would find the $2-$7 Billion to build the fence. That is small potatoes IMHO.

HE THAT DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH

The Liberal bologsophere is going nuts about the ABC''s docudrama "Path To 911".

Below is a link to the far-left blog Atrios where the blogger/ college prof reports on the outrage of the convicted document-stealer Sandy Berger (or as El Rushbo calls him Sandy Burglar) and Madeline Albright. Now with regards to Albrigt, she should sue the inventor of the camera. And if you have seen her, you would agree I am being kind.

Atrios got 1400 comment to his post hence the title to my post. Here is the link.
http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2006/sep/08/albright_and_berger_slam_tom_kean_in_new_letter

Saying You Will Do Something Ain't The Same As Actually Doing It

Philly's lame ass mayor, John Street, got tons of publicity when he announced everyone (especially the low income folks) would get wireless internet access. Well, I stumbled across this Forbes ranking and Philly is only ranked 27th out of 30 cities when it comes to being "wired".

But poor results and little follow-up are just what Street and many Democratic mayors are known for........promising the world and delivering little.

And yeah , I know it's still early with regards to Street's WIFI plan but I can't stand him- he is a visionless phony (in other words, just another party hack). Here is the link to the Forbes story.

http://www.forbes.com/home/intelligentinfrastructure/2006/08/29/06wiredcities_lander.html

We Have To Start Electing People Who Will Fix This

In the Washington Post on Sunday, there was a Cato Institute OPED that claimed federal workers make 100% more than the average civilian worker when you include benefits and 75% more when you consider wages wihout benefits. Below is the key quote from the story.

"The Bureau of Economic Analysis released data this month showing that the average compensation for the 1.8 million federal civilian workers in 2005 was $106,579 -- exactly twice the average compensation paid in the U.S. private sector: $53,289. If you consider wages without benefits, the average federal civilian worker earned $71,114, 62 percent more than the average private-sector worker, who made $43,917."

This Editorial Sums All You Need To Know About Arlen Specter

Read it and know this to be a fact- Senator Arlen Specter has been a phony, fence-straddling faker all his life. I guess in this case , I should say Arlen has never seen a fence, an issue or a BORDER he did not want to straddle.

I have asked for years, how does he continue to get elected? He has not achieved a single big thing in his entire career. Unless, you count his ridiculous Single Bullet Theory.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/archive/s_464776.html

And Another Thing

Philly's (the city's) highest-paid employee, Dianah Neff, traveled far and wide to almost sixty confererences and her expenses (in some cases) were paid by businesses who could make money off the city. But that is not the reason for my post- heck that is business as usual for the usual suspects who run this city. No, my point is twofold.

One- the internet can be harmful to your health. Neff is the "Information Czarina" for the city and is responsible for its efforts to make wifi internets accessible to everyone. [This is sorta admirable but will definitely be an enormous taxpayer's money sucking boondogle.] But I digress, Neff is 57 years old and looks like she is about 260 lbs and maybe 5'2". So I say.." Dianah- get off your fat ass, get off the internet and walk around the block or to one of those old-fashioned forerunners to the internets (they are called libraries).

Two, stop going to all those conferences- walking thru 60 airports in two years could be taking a toll on Neff- she just got both knees replaced. Why not use the internets to "digitally attend" the conferences and if your knees allow it, log in from a treadmill in your office?