PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE / AP: Donors to the campaigns of Republican Gov. Tom Corbett and his Democratic challenger, Tom Wolf, have given at least $31 million. The vast majority of those donations came from individuals, families, businesses and groups that gave $10,000 or more in cash, services or goods. Of the $13 million that Corbett reported […]
Henry Kissinger: Iran ‘A Bigger Problem Than ISIS’
HUFFINGTON POST: …In an interview with NPR that was released on Saturday, [former Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger explained that because Iran has a stronger footing in the Middle East, it has a greater opportunity to create an empire. “The borders of the settlement of 1919-’20 are essentially collapsing,” he said. “That gives Iran a […]
Success of Lawrence Downs no trip to the beach
By Dick Miller WE CONNECT DOTS: Over the past decade the status of a proposed combination casino and harness racing track northwest of New Castle in Lawrence County has always been in doubt. When government approval was eminent, financing was an issue. When the money seemed in place, state government dumped more barriers to granting […]
LETTER: NY Times is always hawkish in its reporting on war
Ukraine: This is much of the US making. Ambassador Nuland admitted the US has spent $5 billion to build NGOs to challenge the previous democratically elected government.
Growing pressure on Obama to do something stupid
“Instead of reacting to these events with the haste and recklessness they deserve, the President has chosen to waste valuable time thinking,” McCain said. “This goes against the most fundamental principles of American foreign policy.”
Corbett admin needs to stop its stonewalling on Tomalis affair
PENN LIVE Column: …Was former Corbett administration adviser Ron Tomalis a ghost who never appeared? Or was he a ghost who came and went, leaving behind no evidence that he was ever there? The auditor general, inspector general and attorney general have already been asked to review if former Pennsylvania Education Secretary Ron Tomalis was […]
How political strategy changed over four decades
“There were three types of voters, he theorized: Committeds, Undecideds, and Indifferents. The first step to victory was identifying the Indifferents – ‘those who don’t vote all, or vote only in response to an emotional appeal, or as a result of some carefully planned campaign technique which makes it easy for them to reach a decision.’ Indifferents were the kind of suckers another master of persuasion said were born every minute.”
The Unsung Heroism of Jesse Jackson
DAILY BEAST: ….“We democratized democracy,” Jackson said when explaining that in his 1984 campaign, he got 21 percent of the popular vote, but only eight percent of the delegates. The Democratic nomination process had a “winner take all” rule system of awarding every state delegate to the winner of that state, no matter how small […]
Democrats push to gain state Senate majority
Republicans have the Senate majority with 27 senators to the Democrats 23. They’ve had the majority since 1980 for all but 16 months — November 1992 to March 1994 — when former local Sen. Robert J. Mellow, a Democrat, was Senate president pro tempore. Democrats hope to reach at least a 25-25 tie.
Air Force spurns atheist airman for refusing religious oath, group says
ALJAZEERA: An airman stationed at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada, was prohibited from reenlisting in the U.S. military last month for omitting the words “so help me God” from a service oath he was required to recite, and for refusing to sign the oath containing the same words on his enlistment form, […]
Obama Enlists 9 Allies to Help in the Battle Against ISIS
He said that “we are going to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL, the same way that we have gone after Al Qaeda,” using an alternate acronym for ISIS. He drew the analogy to Pakistan as an example of how the United States can go to war against militants while limiting the number of American ground combat troops.…
Penn State administrators, faculty call for civility in wake of Sandusky scandal
“There are honest disagreements on fundamental issues related to whether our institution acted appropriately, how our institution handled a crisis, and whether the sanctions that resulted are appropriate,” it said. “Reasonable people can be found on all sides of these issues. The reasons for this disagreement are clear. Much is still left to interpretation and the issues have considerable emotional significance to us all. We are likely never to have the full story. We are equally likely never to reach consensus.”…
The Importance of Adult Classifieds
DAILY BEAST / HAZLITT: …My favourite examples of sex worker advertising are from Pompeii, which was destroyed by a volcano in 79 AD and then recovered over a series of digs in the 18th and 19th centuries. Pompeii was a tourist town, its economy fed by the actors and soldiers who charged in on their […]
NATO’s new ‘spearhead’ force aims to reassure allies
USA TODAY: NATO’s new quick reaction force approved Friday is designed to deter the kind of Russian aggression that the military alliance says has occurred in Ukraine. Yet it is not intended to defend Ukraine from a new assault by Russian-backed separatists in the east. The NATO force is being created in response to the […]