Somebody Is a Liar...The Question Is Who?

At his press availability President Obama denied any wrong doing in the case of the claim made by Congressman Joe Sestak that he was offered a job by the Obama administration to drop out of his primary race with Senator Arlen Specter. Sestak defeated the long-time incumbent in the May 18 primary and will face off with Republican challenger Pat Toomey this November.

The President told the media that his administration will release a statement in the near future that will clear up the matter and insisted that "nothing improper" happened.

There have been calls for investigation of the claim, including a call for Attorney General Eric Holder to empower a special prosecutor to look into the matter.

What this boils down to is somebody is lying! If the president is lying, then it is a serious, criminal offense. If Sestak is lying, then he certainly can't be trusted to represent Pennsylvania's best interests. The President said the statement would come sooner rather than later, given the tenor of the media outcry over the obvious delay in responding to the Gulf oil disaster, it's probably best if he doesn't drag his feet on the issue.

The interesting play will be how Sestak responds to the statement and if he gets out in front of the issue and stands by his earlier comment. either way it's more bad news for Democrats.

My favorite story of the day has to be the hub bub surrounding a gaffe by Today Show news reader Ann Curry when she delivered the commencement address at Wheaton College.

Apparently Ms. Curry sited a string of illustrious alumni of Wheaton Collge, in Illinois which included the Reverend Billy Graham. The problem was Ms. Curry was speaking at Wheaton College in Massachusetts!

I love the fact that the media is siting the gaffe, while missing the story. Sorry for being cynical, but what inspiring message could a network news reader possibly have to deliver to the newly minted grads of Wheaton College? Really? Ann Curry? Wow hope they didn't overpay for that address.

Laughing At the "Experts"

I can’t help but laugh at the so-called “expert” analysis of defeat of Senator Arlen Specter in Tuesday’s Democrat primary. Erie Times News reporter John Guerriero’s piece recounting the Franklin and Marshall College pollster G. Terry Madonna’s month old column headlined, “Admiral Hits An Iceberg” referencing Congressman Joe Sestak, who defeated Specter, and his prior career as a two-star admiral.


Why anybody still believes Gee, “I Never Get anything Right” Terry Madonna is beyond me! This guy hasn’t called a race correctly in years! But, he’s not alone when it comes to getting it wrong on the Specter loss. Most of the gurus think that Sestak did a great job of drawing a connection to former President George W. Bush, and that was what un-did the senior senator’s re-election bid.

The fact of the matter is that Specter’s defeat had nothing to do with Bush and everything to do with his support for the failed policies of the Obama administration and the seemingly endless self-interest of the Senator!

It was Specter’s own words, where he uttered the line, “changing parties will allow me to be re-elected” sounding more than a tad like WC Field, that was his un-doing. Those words proved that the Senator’s best interests were his own and not the voters here in Pennsylvania.

GAF Raw Deal...For Taxpayers.

For years, the complaint of Erie politicians has been that 40% of the properties within the city limits are un-taxed , non-profit entities, that cuts into the revenue to the city’s coffers. While the administration of Mayor Joe Sinnott has worked diligently to launch payment in-lieu of taxes, of PILOT agreements with some of the non-profits, as with prior city leaders, the results have been less than stellar.


So as I read the details of the agreement that city fathers and the Erie County Convention Center Authority put together regarding the vacant, but on the tax rolls, former GAF Plant on Erie’s bay front, I have little doubt that the location will end up as part of a LERTA or other tax exempt program when an eventual developer is found to take on the property, thereby reducing the tax base yet again.

The “deal” calls for the Convention Center Authority to get $3 million in taxpayer dollars from the State and pay off GAF, who would cover the cost of the demolition of the plant. An un-named developer would be responsible for the environmental cleanup of the site and environmental liability insurance on the property.

I’m more than a little skeptical that some investor would agree to eat the sizable cost to clean up the former shingle factory site and the price tag for future developers to be protected against environmental damage claims without some back end break to cover the costs.

The deal just sounds too good to be true. Keep in mind this whole thing was put together by the Convention Center Authority, Executive Director Casey Wells and authority board member Roger Richards, a pair of masterful salesmen who sold taxpayers the bill of goods about the rosy future of the Bayfront Convention Center and it’s neighboring hotel. As predicted, both facilities, while very nice, have not really done much in the way of new business.

While the Authority leadership may try to claim a level of success, the reality is that the facility has yet to bring in much in the way of new business. Instead the Bayfront Convention Center has plundered it’s business from other, local, often privately owned and operated facilities. For a huge expenditure of over 100 million taxpayer dollars, the results are dismal!

So what do we do now? Why of course we throw more money into the bay front, with no real, concrete plans in place. It’s seems long past due that the taxpayers of the Erie Community stand up and demand accountability from its leadership. Therein is the problem. City, county and state leaders know they can pass the buck on accountability, because the shuffle these deals off to the un-accountable authorities. This way they have the plausible deniability and cover that they need when it comes to the people left footing the bill, you the taxpayer.

RED FLAG ALERT- It's no real surprise that the Erie Times News editorial board thinks this raw deal is a good deal! Keep in mind, they thought the Convention Center was a winning idea too!

Election Day - Na Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Arlen Goodbye!

It is primary election day 2010. Sorry I missed all of the usual stellar political insights about the polling station baked goods selection and guesstimates of turnout based on “what number voter were you” questions.


I literally can’t remember an election day where I was uncertain about who I was voting for just hours before I head to the polls. I’ve always been a pragmatic voter. I know that I will never find the perfect candidate, one who agrees with my stance on every issue, as the communications skills and the finances to win, in November.

In the Third district congressional race the Republican nomination for me boils down to a couple of businessmen Mike Kelly and Paul Huber, and factory worker/Tea Party kind of guy Ed Franz. Based on the number of yard signs, Dr. Martha Moore should be the hands down winner, but as we all know signs don’t vote and if you look closely, while there are a lot of her signs out there, most are on vacant land or street corners, not in supporters front yards.

All of the candidates are playing the bloated government and job creation cards. That will play just fine in the primary voters, but the November, general election will be a real battle. Democrat Representative Kathy Dahlkemper has proven to be a reliable rubber stamp for Obama/Pelosi, look no further than her idiotic justification for voting for Obama-Care based on a meaningless Executive Order banning public funding for abortions. They won’t let that vote go away easily, so look for lots of national money to be thrown at this race.

No Republican has run what I would call a strong campaign, so I’m left undecided at this point.

The one bright spot that may come out of today’s vote is the long overdue, final, demise turncoat Senator Arlen Specter. Specter is EVERYTHING that is bad about politics! He has made a long career based upon “getting the job done in DC” meaning he is a master manipulator at bringing home taxpayer dollars to Pennsylvania. Some may think that is the right thing to do, but if you look at the way this guy has larded pork onto Senate appropriations bills, more often than not the bill had nothing whatsoever to do with Specter’s piggy package.

Challenger, Congressman Joe Sestak has run a pitiful campaign, but scored late with TV spot that points out Specter’s desire to save one job and one job only, his own! The latest Real Clear Politics aggregate poll has Sestak up by 3.2%. If Sestak wins it sets up an interesting fall race with Pat Toomey, the likely Republican challenger, who just missed taking out Specter in the last Republican primary 6 years ago.

While the Obama team has supported the newly minted Democrat, Specter, it will make for high entertainment to see them roll that support to Sestak in the general election and to see if Sestak has the testicular fortitude to be his own man, despite the attempted buy off job offer from team Obama to drop out of the race. I think it highly unlikely that Sestak will turn his back on Obama, no matter how unpopular the President is come November, it’s just not in the Democrat make up, where party is the only thing. Toomey and his team are sharp enough to beat Sestak senseless with his own flip flop.

I used to encourage people to get out and vote, but I’ve seen too many examples of stupid votes, like the one that set Dahlkemper to Congress, to run the risk of enough people going to the polls to keep a clown like Arlen Specter around and give the clueless Philly voters a chance to save him again.

Elena Kagan and the L - Word

It’s been absolutely amazing to watch and listen to the lazy media tap dance around the “L- Word” when it comes to President Obama’s latest Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.


The White House went out of its way to deny Kagan was “the first openly gay” Supreme Court nominee, after a CBS blogger, “with ties to the Bush administration,” surfaced an online entry.

Shortly after the nomination was announced Michael Smerconish, the often painfully, moderate morning host on WPHT (Philadelphia) kept referring to “rumors” about the personal life of Ms. Kagan while interview legal eagle Allen Dershowitz. Claiming not to understand the question or not having heard the “rumors” Dershowitz repeated “I don’t know what you’re getting at,” while Smerconish hemmed and hawed, refusing to utter the "L-Word."

Thankfully, Dershowitz pushed the host to get to the point and Smerconish finally! asked if it should matter if Kagan was a Lesbian, as it’s been reported/rumored in some corners. Dershowitz, whose famed poker games apparently once included Kagan as a regular, said he’d never seen any evidence of it and no it shouldn’t matter.

I couldn’t agree more! Who cares, who Ms. Kagan chooses to bed down with?! The truly frightening "L- Word" when it comes to Kagan it LIBERAL! Despite all of the talking point “concerns” being touted by Liberals in the lazy media about whether or not Kagan is “liberal enough” the fact of the matter is based on the minimal paper trail this first time judge nominee brings to the table indicates some troubling thoughts on Kagan’s take on constitutional issues like the Second Amendment.

Kagan’s writing for the Chicago Law Review; also portray some troubling thoughts on the First Amendment, free speech protections. Kagan wrote that speech that promotes "racial or gender inequality" could be "disappeared." The protection of disagreeable speech is a hallmark of the first Amendment, just because we find something troubling or distasteful does not give us the right to ban it. The troubling part of this thought process is who would be charged with determining what speech gets, to use Kagan’s line, ‘disappeared.”

The striking similarities in their paths to power between Obama and Kagan are striking. It’s almost as if Obama has nominated a female version of himself to the bench, which should frighten us all!

Specter Banner B S

While checking my e-mail the other night I noticed this banner ad pop up. By now you may have seen the television ad for Senator Arlen Specter's ever-tightening primary race with Democrat challenger, Congressman Joe Sestak, where President Obama touts the flip-flopper's vote for the economic Recovery Act.

There's no denying Specter cast a deciding vote, but the claim that his vote created "thousands" of jobs in Erie, I find more than a little hard to believe! I'd be curious to have the Specter camp detail exactly where those "thousands" of job are.

Clicking through the banner ad led to the turncoat Senator's campaign Website, where they detail the multitude of taxpayer dollars and pork that Specter "brought to the Erie community" but I've got to tell you, I can't see the numbers translating to "thousands" of jobs being created here.

One of the bullet points details: "Senator Specter's key vote for the Economic Recovery Act pumped hundreds of millions into the region so teachers could stay in their classrooms - and paid for police and fire fighters to stay on the job and continue to protect our families." Huh?! Did I miss something? Can't seem to remember any reports of big bucks going to school districts or municipalities to keep these folks on the job.

Even if that is the case, which I doubt, how does that equate to creating "thousands" of new jobs? The reality is this is out and out BULLSH*T on the part of Senator Specter and his campaign! Where is the lazy media? Why is this allowed to pass with no one raising a question and demanding an answer?

***UPDATE- The same banner ad is also running on the Erie Times News, Goerie.com Website, so clearly the "reporters" at the Times News should be aware of the Specter claim.

Welcome To Obama's Hooterville

Michael Graham- That’s No Angry Mob, That’s My Mom (Regnery Publishing)


While I realize there will always be the Kool-Aid types that will latch onto Presidents of any stripe like a barnacle and blindly agree with that leader’s policy with a cult-members mindlessness, I have been absolutely amazed by the reactions that Barack Obama has gotten during his first fifteen months in office.

I’ve been at a loss to explain why seemingly intelligent people have bought into the big government, anti-capitalist, class warfare doctrine pushed by the Obama administration and the predictable attacks on talk radio, Tea Party activists and anyone who dares disagree.

In his new book, That’s No Angry Mob, That’s My Mom, talk show host Michael Graham comes up with the most plausible explanation I’ve heard up to this point, when he draws the humorous analogy to the classic television show Green Acres.

For those not familiar with the 60s era classic, the Green Acres storyline has Attorney Oliver Wendell Douglas living behind the rat race of Manhattan for the simple life, down on the farm. Douglas sets up to work the land in Hooterville, a town populated by the goofy, the weird and frankly the downright insane and since the town’s residents are of a like twisted mind, it is Douglas who ends up the weirdo.

Welcome to Obama’s Hooterville! Where perfectly normal, hard-working Americans who are concerned with the growth of government, the growth of the national debt and looming death of American exceptionalism and choose to express that concern in a public way are treated like to a volley of insults ranging from Tea-baggers to being labeled racists by the lazy media and what Graham dubs the O-bots.

Graham does the not-so-heavy lifting that the lazy media won’t do when detailing the ridiculous charge that the Tea Party types are short fuse looking for a light and claims that these ordinary, hard working folks are secretly plotting to overthrow the government or worse. The lazy media claims that Tea Party rallies are a hot bed of violence just doesn’t stand up even the lightest of scrutiny, in fact Graham points out that much of the “violence” has been perpetrated by the loyal O-Bots, most often sporting some form of Union garb.

Graham acknowledges that like any large group there are a few loose cannons in the Tea Party, but unlike liberals who embrace the nutcases, conservatives tend to shun the lunatic fringe and generally denounce their actions and words loudly and clearly.

Graham utilizes a sharp wit and clear-headed point of view to dissect the left’s ridiculous reactions to Tea party dissent.

Odds and Sods

Captain Obvious Rides Again-


The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that the suspected Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad was not only a victim of nefarious Wall Street bankers, having stared foreclosure in the face, but he also disliked former President George W. Bush. Of course he did! Clearly this is another incident that can be laid at the feet of old GW!

The Journal sites no less a source than real estate broker Igor Djuric, who showed Mr. Shahzad the home eventually purchased and lost. Djuric “remembered that Mr. Shahzad was quiet about himself, but was openly critical of President Bush in the aftermath of the Iraq war,” according to the Journal.

"I didn't take it for anything, since a lot of people didn't like Bush," Mr. Djuric said, "but he was a little bit strong about expressing it."

Clearly this will come as welcome news to MSNBC news twit Contessa Brewer, who recently told liberal radio host Stephanie Miller “there was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country.” Apparently she was hoping for some beer-bellied Bubba, militia member and Tea Party protester to be the bomber, so that the liberal template and claims of impending violence were just one Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck monologue away.

Of course it’s no surprise that the Obama administration is passing the buck and the blame onto Emirates Airlines for allowing Shahzad to board the flight at JFK. Funny the last I checked it is the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that is responsible for airline security, not the glorified, flying waitresses who work for the airlines.

The amazing thing was the fact that Shahzad wasn’t placed on the terrorist watch list until Monday! Apparently the fact that this freshly minted U.S. citizen took a five month sojourn to Pakistan didn’t raise any red flags for the TSA folks. Amazing.


Another Democrat Who Would Rather Quit Than Fight

The Congressman who was dubbed the architect of the stimulus bill, David Obey (D-WI) announced that he will not be seeking re-election this November. Faced with sagging poll numbers the 20 term incumbent, who was easily re-elected in a heavily left-leaning district in the last go-round, saw the handwriting on the wall and decide to quit.

So much for the popularity of the policies of the Democrat majority. If the American people truly thought things were going in the right direction, would so many professional politicians, like Obey, be running for the exits? sounds like the definition of gutless!

Senate Donors to Crist Say “Show Me the Money!”

Florida Governor Charlie “Arlen” Crist, who bailed from the Republican party, when faced with an ass whupin’ in the Senate primary has been asked by 20 major donors to his campaign to pay up and return the donations.

In a letter sent to the Crist campaign, the donors said Crist had ‘broke the trust” of his supporters when he bailed from the party. The Crist camp had no immediate response to the request.


Mario Bagnoni Would Be Proud!

Borrowing a page from the Erie City Council playbook, the town council of Concord, MA has passed a ban on the sale of bottle water in the town, commencing in 2011.

Loony, tree-hugging council-person Jean Hill who introduced the ban said, "We only have one planet and I just don't want to see it spoiled." Apparently Ms. Hill isn’t aware of the fact that they sell a variety of soft drinks in plastic bottles, which don’t fall under the ban.

"Water is something we can get from the faucet. You can't turn your faucet on and get soda," said Selectwoman Virginia McIntyre, explaining why other plastic bottles would not be banned. Yes, but does the tap water contain fluoride?

In the grand Erie City Council tradition, the ban on plastic water bottle sales may be largely symbolic. Town officials aren't sure they have the power to enact the ban without approval from the state.

Why Not Just Tattoo A Big L On Your Forehead

Recently while I was waiting in my car for a family member a white SUV parked down the row from me. Normally that's not what I would consider a noticeable event, since I not a global warming wing nut who thinks, "I'm special, I drive a Prius" types, in fact I was sitting in my big honkin SUV. No what made this intriguing was the incongruous placement of a pair of bumper stickers on the vehicles doors.

The first one proclaimed:

The second one proclaimed-

Now, affixed to a Prius I probably would have chuckled and thought how typically misguided the driver was, but the stickers struck me as way out of place on the SUV. So I paid closer attention as the driver slipped from the car and walked into the store. I can't say I was surprised to see a scrubby looking, long-haired, freak emerge. Now before you get your knickers in a knot about me being old-fashioned or stereotype of some guy with long hair, I would not have been shocked to see some dude with a backwards baseball cap and black T-shirt step out of the truck either.

I find it takes a certain level of youth and / or immaturity that is typical of these clueless types. The kicker was, as it usually is with these clowns, the back of the vehicle was covered with other similar stickers. It's almost as if they feel the need to wave their arms and shout out loud exactly how stupid they really are. My favorite on the back was-

I wonder how this bozo paid for the SUV? Did I miss the Obama Big Government program to dole out SUVs to whack-a-moles?    Aside from that, how did he think his vehicle was manufactured? Here's a news flash, It was built by CAPITALISTS.

While I was tempted to offer the guy fifty bucks and directions to a local tattoo shop so he could get a large L inscribed on his forehead, I decided to move on. While I've never been one of those "America, love it or leave it" types, by the same token, I've never understood why people who think things are better elsewhere, don't take their own advice and move to the allegedly greener grass. Maybe we need to enact the Big Government program to fund their departures. Now that's Big Government I could support!