Friday, September 29, 2006

Ed Rendell's Major Contributors

From the latest campaign finance reports (Cycle 4) top contributors to the Rendell campaign:
$265,000 PSEA PACEHarrisburgPAState Teachers Union
$224,000 Democratic Governor's AssociationWashingtonDCDem Governors PAC
$100,000 Reynolds Construction PACHarrisburgPA
$100,000 Philadelphia Area Carpenters UnionPhiladelphiaPA
$100,000 Dennis AlterFort WashingtonPAChairmanADVANTA Corporation
$100,000 James A. ShinerTucsonAZAttorneySelf-Employed
$100,000 Lynn K. ShinerPittsburghPAAttorneySelf-Employed
$100,000 Thomas W. WolfMount WolfPAChief Executive OfficerThe Wolf Organization
$56,000 Jack B. PiattCannonsburgPAChairman of the BoardMillcraft Industries
$50,000 L. Robert Kimball & Assoc. PACEbensburgPA
$55,000 LAWPACHarrisburgPA
$50,000 Daniel BergerPhiladelphiaPAAttorneyBerger & Montague, P.C.
$50,000 David BergerPhiladelphiaPAAttorneyBerger & Montague
$50,000 DeCotiis Fitzpatrick Cole & Wisler, LLPTeaneckNJPartnership
$50,000 William A. Graham, IVGladwynePAChief Executive OfficerThe Graham Company
$50,000 Dorrance H. HamiltonWaynePARetiredTwo Eighteen Enterprises
$50,000 Thomas F. KaramWaverlyPAPresident & COOStonegate Capital Partners
$50,000 H. Laddie Montague, Jr.PhiladelphiaPAAttorneyBerger & Montague, P.C.
$50,000 Jack B. PiattCannonsburgPAChairman of the BoardMillcraft Industries
$50,000 Reed Smith LLPPittsburghPAPartnership
$50,000 Phyllis RizzoMendhamNJOwnerTamiment Resort
$50,000 Lawrence T. SimonShawnee on DelawarePAPresidentLTS Builders

Lynn Swann's Major Contributors

Extracted from this week's campaign finance filing, here is an annotated list of the top givers to the Lynn Swann campaign during the most recent reporting period.

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Jerrold Perenchio 1999 Ave.Of The Stars Los Angeles CA Businessman $125,000
(Perenchio is founder of Univision, the Spanish-language TV network and a big Republican giver.)

Bob and Doylene Perry PO Box 34153 Houston TX Owner $100,000
(A Texas homebuilder with close ties to the Bush White House

Republican State Committee of PA 301 Market St Ste 900 Harrisburg PA Principal $92,000

PA Future Fund PAC PO Box 5028 Harrisburg PA Principal $85,000
(The Political Action Committee controlled by former party chair Bob Asher)

Kim & Terrence Pegula 32 Wexford Club Dr Hilton Head Island SC Pres. & CEO $63,773
(An oil and natural gas co. executive)

James Pallotta 61 Bristol Rd Wellesley Hills MA Executive $50,000
(A hedge fund manager and part owner of the Boston Celtics)

Wayne Huizenga 4200 N Flagler Dr West Palm Beach FL Owner $50,000
(Blockbuster video founder and also owner of the Miami Dolphins)

PA ABC PAC 135 Shellyland Rd Manheim PA Principal $45,000
(Pennsylvania Builders & Contractors PAC)

Dr. John M. Templeton, Jr. 601 Pembroke Rd Bryn Mawr PA Chairman $30,000
(Physician, son of financier Sir John Templeton & head of the Templeton Foundation)

Sunday, September 17, 2006

A Pen Dipped In Bile

Perhaps instead of the Inquirer, the name "Hoplophobe Crier" would be more suitable for your newspaper.
Yesterday's local section really had a lot of "bang for the buck" going for it's usual antigun preachy venue. The "Crier" has the body count at 271 and I'm sure it hopes that will quickly rise, for time is short.
Philadelphia's ghetto sections are only slightly ahead [ by two ] of where they were on this day last year, not much different per capita for the last two or three decades, by your own "statistics" in other articles -- what a tangled web we weave...
Since this is conspicuously, an all-out assault on the Second Amendment rights of the evil "gun people" in an election year, and the inept Democratic party that has been putting the local economy in a death spiral for over a decade now, your party of choice, needs as big a smokescreen as your disgustingly liberal paper can help it muster.
[ Not to mention the childish anti-freedom and Bush bashing graphic concepts by that charlatan snob, artist want-to-be, Tony Auth. ]. I was surprised to see the letter "allowed" printed in Thursday's Local News section by Steve Cain. He was right on target with the whole scenario. Drugs, lack of education, and laissez-faire use of police intelligence are the real culprits in our Badland sections of the city.
That was the token five or so percent pro-gun letter, which of course simply had to be lumped in with that no-thought-process, knee-jerk piece two letters below it: "Guns in the house" where "Brady Nanny" brainwashed Barbara Gold, spouted some of their "statistics catechism" about guns causing normal people to uncontrollably shoot friends, simply by the guns' being there.
Sure, there is always going to be a small percentage of people that will kill themselves in stupid ways with guns; many more comparatively with cars, motorcycles, farm machinery and other potentially lethal devices, especially when mixed with excess quantities of alcohol.
Now to advocate banning cars, bikes etceteras, wouldn't stand a chance in a public forum; yet when it comes to guns, we are all required to agree with the antigunners' "Nanny knows best" philosophy that prattles on, that 'banning them' [ firearms, especially handguns ] is the only way. If you dare disagree, you must be a barbarian that eats live babies and worships the freaking devil. Getting back to yesterday's local section, we have hoity-toity John Grogan doing his best Dr. Phil imitation [ 'What were they thinking?' ] about the parents that left the gun under their mattress which led to their dysfunctional 17 year old "boy" [ many 17 year old men and women hunt and fight wars without shooting their "friends" ] getting drunk, finding the gun, and shooting one of his classmates.
His parents should have had the gun with them, but you know Jersey and it's archaic gun laws -- they were probably afraid to chance crossing the border with it. It should have been kept in their trunk unloaded, with any ammo in another [ as in the passenger compartment ] section of the car, and that would have satisfied the freaky antigun Jersey laws. Personally I find it hard to believe that their son had "no interest" in guns. Perhaps his parents were just "too busy" to do the right thing by at least giving their son some minimal awareness of gun safety, being that they owned and kept a gun in their house.
As a parent myself, I took the responsibility to instill in my children a healthy respect for firearms and taught them how they function; that they are not something you use unsupervised, or casually show off to your friends; and eventually how to safely shoot a gun [ they should be at least eight or so for a low recoil weapon of .22 caliber ]. My children are not avid shooters, however, they are also not likely to [ Youngest is twenty now and both have managed to stay alive without mindlessly shooting anyone else for shits and giggles -- so far, so good! ] use firearms foolishly since we went over the dangers and the defensive advantages they possess many moons ago. Hopefully they will eventually opt to get a carry permit to protect themselves from the violent predators that we all hope will never chose them or anyone's loved ones for that matter, as victims.
I personally feel much safer with a loaded .357 over a frantic 911 call, but that is me, which brings us to another aspect of yesterday's local antigun bash in your misinformation guide to hating gun possession. Beyond know-it-all John Grogan's rant about the drunk 17 year old murderer, there was the letters section in which [ probably some closet case, typically over eighty old fart ] Inquirer "believer," Philip Zebley from Swarthmore, was apparently completely duped by that drivel session by your Tom Ferrick about how the Congress will "insulate" the evil gun people with the help of that demon Curt Weldon.
'Oh, Chicken Little Tom,' the senile geezer gushes, 'lets vote for some better congressman that will give us even more "sensible gun laws" to go with the ones that all the liberals have either chosen to ignore or have refused to enforce, that we already have on the books now.'
Gosh Tom, thanks....you're swell! The streets of Swarthmore must be covered in blood or that guy is clueless, I'd bet on the latter. Then to further insult the intelligence, the next one by Greg Barnes from "da hood" in rough and tumble Haverford reminds us that 'guns in the home kill us,' they morph legs and the ability to shoot the residents all by themselves, I presume he means -- better lay off the coffee and sci-fi channel there Greg. Next page headline: 100 leaders join to fight gun violence in Pa. by your Vernon Clark. "On Sept.26, busloads of activists will urge the state legislature to take steps against the problem."
Let's face it, you can blow smoke up a lot of your readers asses regularly, but anyone that attends these sort of events knows the drill. The "free cheese people," many of them straw purchasers themselves to supplement their welfare checks, will take a free ride to pretend they care about the punks that they let rule their neighborhoods, because they don't work anyway, so what to hell else have they got to do.
The usual welfare whores from act up will be waltzing around selling their "the world owes the ignorant-by-choice a living" bullcrap. Street, Abraham, and some antigun by party affiliation "police spokesperson" from Philadelphia will all be there, armed to the teeth themselves as usual, bodyguards in tow.
At least the Pennsylvania State Police are endorsing Mr. Swan for Governor, a Republican who supports enforcement of current gun laws, unlike Rendell, who basically supports himself. The "Brady Nanny" groups will be hamming it up for the press and the union hacks, Men United for a Better Philadelphia [ Don't Snitch Inc. ], Physicians for Social Responsibility [ Liberal Doctors that don't have to sweat being victimized because they don't live in, or have to work in the ghetto areas or even drive through them in their BMWs ] will all have a little pompous speech to make into the bullhorns.
The usual boring travesty. Dwight Evans will be there to avoid the issue that his inner city black caucus constituents are their own worst enemies, while espousing legislation to disarm decent people that are stuck in Philadelphia and can't depend on the police, most of the time, for protection, so that when his perceived voting block gets tired of shooting each other, they can be safer carjacking, raping, and killing law abiding citizens with less chance of facing a potentially armed victim [ Genocide by Dwight Inc. ].
He knows that the gang-bangers won't care about violating the goal law of the whole charade: namely, making Philadelphia's political prostitutes able to circumvent State gun laws the way they did before the people demanded uniform right to carry, statewide back in 1995 and have had virtually no revocations [ In Philadelphia and Statewide ] by permit holders in the more than a decade since the common sense law was enacted. You will have a microcosm of the aformentioned phonys from Reading, Pittsburgh, and every other little holler with a ghetto area; all there to cover their own failures as politicians and citizens, by lambasting the "demon gun culture."
Don't you people ever tire or feel embarrassed at all, promulgating these sideshows of anti-Constitutional debauchery? What a Joke!

Gregory Niblock
Philadelphia, Pa.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Meet the Press Transcript

MR. RUSSERT: Another issue that’s risen in this campaign, particularly in western Pennsylvania, is the issue of residency.
SEN. SANTORUM: Yeah.
MR. RUSSERT: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had this editorial: “Five Santorum children have been home-schooled at their house in Leesburg, Virginia, through the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, an education paid for by the Penn Hills district to the tune of $38,000 a year, until it became apparent that they don’t live in Penn Hills.” They go on. “The [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette] sent a letter to Rick Santorum at his home address, at least the one that he claims. Back from Penn Hills came the letter with a sticker from the U.S. Postal Service checked as ‘Not Deliverable As Addressed—Unable To Forward.’”And what people point to, and particularly the media in the western part of the state, is in 1990 when you ran for the House, you ran against the incumbent Doug Walgren, and ran this commercial repeatedly. Let’s watch.

(Videotape, 1990 Santorum campaign ad):
AD ANNOUNCER: There’s something strange about this house. It belongs to our congressman, Doug Walgren. What’s so strange? Instead of living in his own congressional district, Congressman Walgren lives in this house, located in the wealthiest area of Virginia.
(End of videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: And now the State Education Department, state taxpayers are going to have to—have agreed to give the Penn Hills school district $55,000 to compensate for your children’s’ tuition while they were in Virginia taking a cyber course. And based on that commercial...
SEN. SANTORUM: Yeah.
MR. RUSSERT: ...isn’t that rather hypocritical of you?
SEN. SANTORUM: No, not at all. Look, look, first off, that commercial, you didn’t play the rest of it, that commercial criticized my opponent. First off, he never owned a home in the district, ever, in 14 years. Let me finish. He never owned a home for 14 years, never had a residence there.
MR. RUSSERT: OK, you own a home, but...
SEN. SANTORUM: Number one, I own a home and always owned a home.
MR. RUSSERT: But since you’ve owned your home at 111 Stevens Lane, how many nights have you personally spent there?
SEN. SANTORUM: I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve spent there. What I say is...
MR. RUSSERT: Roughly, roughly.
SEN. SANTORUM: I don’t know. I—what I, what I spend is...
MR. RUSSERT: I mean, a handful?
SEN. SANTORUM: I, I probably spend maybe a month a year, something like that.
MR. RUSSERT: A month a year...
SEN. SANTORUM: On nights.
MR. RUSSERT: ...in that house?
SEN. SANTORUM: Yeah, probably. I mean, the, the, the bottom line is that I, I have—I, I own a home there, I pay all—I pay my local taxes, I pay my state taxes, income taxes, I pay real estate taxes, and I have, and I can—and my driver’s license there, I vote there, my dentist is there. I mean, the bottom line is, yes, I have a job here in Washington, that’s what the people of Pennsylvania elected me to do. And I pay all my taxes there, and, and I want to be a father who’s with his children. And I own a home, I pay my taxes. My opponent didn’t own a home, and he didn’t pay his taxes. Number one.
Number two, and this is very important, he didn’t spend any time in the district. Not only didn’t he own a home, but, but the rest of that commercial was he only spent 28 days in the entire year in that district. I spend—I get to every single one of 67 counties of Pennsylvania every single year. I spent hundreds of days, thousands of days probably during my term—in Pennsylvania. There’s no one—you heard, you heard the—you heard Governor Rendell, no one works harder, no one spends more time, no one delivers more for Pennsylvania. The issue is not where I put my head. I put my head where my—I want my children with me, and that’s because I care about my six children and my wife, Karen, and I want to be a good husband and a good father.
MR. CASEY: Tim?
SEN. SANTORUM: But I also have a record of being one heck of a hard worker for the people of Pennsylvania.
MR. CASEY: (Unintelligible)

Philadelphia Police on the Payrol


Philadelphia Uniformed Police on the Payroll As Of
June 19996,768
June 20006,947
June 20016,901
June 20026,766
June 20037,044
June 20046,762
June 20056,473
August20066,440

Friday, September 08, 2006

Ed Rendell's Contested Elections


Opponents RendellRendell
YearElectionOfficeOpponentShareShareMargin
1977Primary District AttorneyEmmett Fitzpatrick33%Rendell67%68,900
1977GeneralDistrict AttorneyMalcolm Lazin36%Rendell62%93,266
1981GeneralDistrict AttorneyWilliam Cannon23%Rendell75%174,228
1986Primary GovernorBob Casey Sr.56%Rendell40%-160,000
1987Primary MayorWilson Goode57%Rendell42%-58,828
1991Primary MayorLucien Blackwell27%Rendell49%67,161
1991GeneralMayorJohn Egan30%Rendell30%155,656
1995GeneralMayorJoe Rocks23%Rendell77%169,000
2002Primary GovernorBob Casey44%Rendell56%149,564
2002GeneralGovernorMike Fisher44%Rendell53%323,827
2006GeneralGovernorLynn SwannRendell