Month: October 2011

Prologue

By ‘hook or by crook’ and against the stated wishes of almost 80% of the public, a $176 million plus convention center and a hotel were built in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania largely at the cost and risk of tax payers. It has necessitated large annual subsidies and resulted in serious collateral damages.  This is a series describing […]

Thinking outside the box can save our nation

Policy discussions and governmental actions have a way of tip toeing around the edges of problems. We miss the obvious answers as we drown in timid proposals.

Three examples:

1) In “Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress–and a Plan to Stop It”, Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig explains how Supreme Court rulings based upon its interpretation of First Amendment rights of free speech and enabled the richest 0.05% of the population to unduly determine the nations agenda to the detriment of the general population. His remedy: A Constitutional Convention to address campaign financing. Either Congress or the States can initiate the process. Other than a highly unlikely reversal of prior opinions by the Supreme Court, there is no other practical remedy. We will write more on this when we have read the book.

Global Warming Skeptic Now Agrees Climate Change Is Real

HUFF POST: A prominent physicist and skeptic of global warming spent two years trying to find out if mainstream climate scientists were wrong. In the end, he determined they were right: Temperatures really are rising rapidly. The study of the world’s surface temperatures by Richard Muller was partially bankrolled by a foundation connected to global […]

‘Lost Decades’ explains what damaged the U.S. economy

USA TODAY:  ….Just how did we get into this mess and what’s our best path out of it? In prose that is intelligent yet accessible to non-experts, authors Menzie Chinn, professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin, and Jeffry Frieden, professor of government at Harvard University, tackle these questions in their […]

Arab League hands Syria plan to end unrest

ALJAZEERA:  The Arab League has handed Syrian officials a plan for ending seven months of increasingly violent unrest against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule. The Arab League committee put its plan, involving talks in Cairo between the Syrian authorities and their opponents, to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moualem and Bouthaina Shaaban, a political adviser to Assad, […]

FBI file reveals Congressman Murtha’s darker side

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER:  He was Pennsylvania’s powerhouse of pork. U.S. Rep. John Murtha, the Democratic titan from Johnstown who represented the 12th district for four decades before his death last year, was legendary for securing oodles of federal cash for his district. Now it seems Murtha’s pork may well have been more tainted than anyone knew. The D.C. -based newspaper Roll Call has a fascinating […]

Protests Awaken a Goliath in India

NEW YORK TIMES:   … It may seem unlikely that middle-class Indians would crave change. They mostly live in rapidly growing cities and can afford cars, appliances and other conveniences that remain beyond the reach of most Indians. Theirs is the fastest growing demographic group in the country, and their buying power is expected to triple […]

Sunday News unfairly favoring Smithgall

Interesting that the Sunday News would run a front-page above-the-fold fluff piece in support of Charlie Smithgall ON THE SAME DAY as the deadline for running political letters. It seems a bit too convenient that NO ONE will have a chance to respond. Perhaps the publisher still owes Smithgall a few favors?

Newspapers, officials and community leaders at sleep at RR switch

According to the Lancaster Sunday News in an article entitled “How interior work at train station was derailed” huffs on “Amtrak station renovation work shockingly didn’t cover the inside public areas. Full steam ahead to come up with a plan … and money.”

The article continues “Why that work was not included in the original contract remains a mystery, particularly since the station, used by more than 500,000 passengers a year, is the second-busiest station (behind Philadelphia) on the Keystone Line.”

SUNDAY NEWS

In “Time for a debt jubilee?”, Associate Editor Gil Smart writes: “…Some suggest an end run around this mess. Kain quotes Stephen Roach, economist and senior executive with Morgan Stanley, who in August said a debt jubilee — essentially, the cancellation of consumer debt — would help Americans get through “the pain of deleveraging sooner rather than later.”

Penn State 8-1, whatever the details

SUNDAY NEWS:  If the Illinois kicker Derek Dimke, who had made 46 of 51 in his career, 10 in a row this year, including a career long of 52 and a season long of 49, doesn’t bonk a 42 yarder off the right upright … . If Illinois holder Tim Russell doesn’t bobble a snap […]

Gilad Sharon: ‘Arab Spring’ Brings More Danger to Israel

NEWSMAX: Gilad Sharon, son of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, tells Newsmax that President George W. Bush personally assured him that no American president would ever permit Iran to have nuclear weapons. The younger Sharon also expressed fear that the so-called Arab Spring will result in more extremist regimes surrounding Israel, and said President […]