THEY CALL THIS BIPARTISANSHIP IN PA

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Posted on 17th March 2013 by Administrator in Economy |Politics |Social Issues

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Don’t you love when Republicans and Democrats can work together to screw the taxpayer over? The latest of hundreds of bribery scandals in my fine State of Pennsylvania has revealed the bipartisanship that kept the taxpayer money flowing into the grubby hands of slimy politicians, corrupt government drones, and the corporations who paid tthem off for bloated construction contracts. Whoever was in control of the PA state government got 60% of the bribes and the other party got 40% of the bribes. See. This is proof that Republicans and Democrats can work together. The fine upstanding politicians in Washington DC should study how it is done in PA so they can implement it nationally.

If you buy into the party politics that run this country, you are a fool. Both parties are fucking you.

 

Many steering clear of Pa. turnpike’s 60/40 scandal

Published:March 16. 2013 12:01AM

HARRISBURG — Supposedly, it was an open secret.
Of the allegations emerging from a sweeping grand jury investigation into corruption at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, one of the most damning was witness testimony that lucrative contracts were guided by politics: 60 percent were awarded to supporters of the governor’s political party and 40 percent to those of the other.
The perversion of the turnpike commission’s process of hiring environmental, design and engineering consultants to reward political contributors was a familiar subject in Harrisburg’s circles of power, said Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan.
Still, only one elected official — former Senate Democratic floor leader Bob Mellow from Lackawanna County — is facing charges, while some top lawmakers and commission members, past and present, say they knew nothing of such allegedly pervasive corruption.
“I think that this type of activity has been well-known and well-discussed throughout political circles for a number of years,” Noonan told reporters as he and Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced the charges. “But … you have to have evidence. The people who were charged are the people we have evidence against.”
It was not enough to charge an elected official simply because they knew about the 60/40 rule: Evidence was necessary that someone had worked to rig the process, Kane said.
On Wednesday, Mellow, three former top Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission officials and two businessmen were charged in what prosecutors say was a long-running scheme in which contract-hungry vendors gave lavish gifts and political campaign contributions to improve their chances of landing a contract.
Contracting decisions at the Turnpike typically followed the 60/40 rule, according to the 85-page grand jury presentment.
“According to several witnesses testifying before the grand jury, whichever political party (is) in power gets 60 percent of the contracts or jobs, and the minority party receives 40 percent.”
The turnpike commission might be unavoidably political: The governor nominates turnpike commissioners to four-year terms and each must be confirmed by a two-thirds majority of the state Senate, giving senators influence there. Traditionally, three of the five turnpike commissioners are from the governor’s political party, and one must be the state transportation secretary.
According to the grand jury, an unnamed former chief operating officer of the turnpike commission said “typically, there was always a 60/40 rule” that was dictated by either the Senate leadership or the governor’s office.
Allen Biehler, Rendell’s transportation secretary for eight years, said he had heard about the 60/40 split, perhaps even before he became transportation secretary in 2003. But he said he did not know if it was true.
As a commissioner, he voted on contracts, relying on commission staff to recommend a firm. He would quiz the staff about their conclusions, but he did not have time to review all the competing proposals for each job, he said.
Still, the culture at the agency worried him.
“I always had an uncomfortable feeling about the place,” said Biehler, who said he was not contacted by law enforcement.
Rendell, a Democrat who served from 2003 to 2011, as well as House Speaker Sam Smith, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati and Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, all of whom were in positions of power during the period scrutinized by the grand jury, said through spokespeople that they knew nothing of the 60/40 split.
Former Senate Majority Leader David Brightbill did not want to discuss it. One former commissioner, Timothy Carson, and current Commissioner Pasquale Deon, who joined it in 2002, did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
Former Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer, who served until 2006, said rigging contracts is “completely foreign” to anything he or his fellow Republicans did while running the Senate. If a formula to guide hiring was developed, he did not know about it, he said.
“We recommended people who were very competent,” said Jubelirer, who also said he was not contacted by law enforcement. “Sometimes they got hired, sometimes they didn’t.”

PA TURNPIKE – “ALL THE ANIMALS (POLITICIANS) COME & DRINK THERE”

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Posted on 15th March 2013 by Administrator in Economy |Politics |Social Issues

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 The Pennsylvania Turnpike just jacked up tolls by 10% on January 1. They claimed it was needed to repair the crumbling roads in our state. This is happening across the land. You hear liberals and Keynesian idiots wailing about the crumbling infrastructure and the need for a national program to rebuild it. What a crock of shit. Every State and municipality in this country has an annual capital budget to maintain and restore infrastructure. They chose not to allocate the billions under their care to doing what was needed. The story below reveals the truth of how it really works. Criminal dirtbag politicians and criminal government bureuacrats collude with big business to fuck over the taxpayer and enrich themselves.

Every infrastructure project done in this country costs 40% more than it should due to payoffs, bribes, and government union no-bid contracts. In PA it seems that all of these criminals are Democrats and the political contributions went to Fast Eddie Rendell and his cronies in Philly. I hope this doesn’t interfere with the day to day activities of the former Democratic Senate leader who is already in prison for other corruption charges. Politicians are nothing but lowlife swine. They don’t give a fuck about you. Their only purpose is to enrich themselves, their cronies and the companies that bribe them. Remember why your tolls went up 10%  next time you hit a pothole on the PA Turnpike.  

Ex-Sen. leader, 7 others charged in Turnpike probe

By By Marc Levy And Mark Scolforo on March 14, 2013
 

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A witness told grand jurors investigating an alleged “pay-to-play” culture at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission that the agency, awash in toll-payers’ money, is like the Mesopotamia River.

“All of the animals come and drink there,” the grand jury report quoted the unnamed witness as saying. “If you were an engineering firm or a law firm or a consulting firm or whatever, you go to the turnpike because that is where the money is.”

On Wednesday, a former state senator, three former top Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission officials and two businessmen were charged in a sweeping investigation that prosecutors said involved a long-running scheme in which contract-hungry vendors gave lavish gifts and political campaign contributions to improve their chances of landing lucrative contracts.

The group of former state officials used their extraordinary power over multimillion-dollar turnpike commission contracts both to enrich themselves, rig bids for favored businessmen and help sway political campaigns, Attorney General Kathleen Kane said. The largely-secret investigation that came to light Wednesday dates back to 2009 and involved hundreds of witnesses to crack a political and corrupt culture, she said.

“Evidence of secret gifts of cash, travel and entertainment and the payment of substantial political contributions to public officials and political organizations by private turnpike vendors and their consultants demonstrates that the turnpike operates under a pay-to-play system that is illegal and corrupt,” Kane said.

The public, she said, “has lost untold millions of dollars” in inflated contracts, and she added that the “greatest improper influence” involved the turnpike’s procurement process.

Charges were filed against retired state Senate Democratic floor leader Bob Mellow, currently jailed in a federal prison in South Carolina on unrelated corruption charges. Mellow, 70, was accused of helping supporters and contributors get business from the turnpike and pressuring turnpike staff to support him politically and raise campaign funds.

Also charged were former turnpike chief executive Joseph Brimmeier, 64, and former turnpike chairman Mitchell Rubin, 61.

The investigation is continuing, but is restricted by an eight-year statute of limitations, Kane said.

Turnpike vendors named by the grand jury gave hundreds of thousands of dollars collectively in political campaign donations, while winning tens of millions of dollars in contracts over the past decade. Recipients of the campaign donations included former Philadelphia state Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, who is in federal prison on unrelated corruption charges, and former Gov. Ed Rendell.

The vendors also paid for gifts and entertainment worth tens of thousands of dollars, including trips to Paris and Vienna, tickets to professional baseball games, golf outings and expensive meals, some of which was not reported as required by the law, Kane said.

Business executives, including the two businessmen charged in the case, who participated in the pay-to-play system were rewarded with multimillion-dollar contracts, authorities said.

“The reason they made these contributions and provided these gifts (is) because they knew that was the way they would get these contracts,” said state police Commissioner Frank Noonan.

Companies identified by the grand jury, but whose executives were not charged with wrongdoing, included engineering firms, transportation planning and design firms and a major bond underwriter.

Kane said the selection and recommendation of turnpike vendors followed what witnesses identified as a 60-40 rule that split up contracts among firms favored by Republicans and Democrats: 60 percent of the turnpike contracts went to the “majority party” and 40 percent went to the “minority party.”

The governor appoints turnpike commissioners. Traditionally, three of the five turnpike commissioners are from the governor’s political party, while the other two are from the other political party. Each must be confirmed by a two-thirds majority of the state Senate, helping give senators influence there.

A key witness who testified under grant of immunity was Tony Lepore, chief of staff to Mellow and to the current Democratic floor leader, Sen. Jay Costa of Allegheny County.

“Lepore explained that Senate officials would learn of work becoming available at the turnpike and would call … Brimmeier and tell him which firm, vendor or consultant they wanted to steer turnpike work to,” the grand jury wrote in an 88-page presentment released with the charges. “Generally, their requests were honored.”

The other defendants were the turnpike’s former chief operating officer George Hatalowich, 47; Dennis Miller, 51, a former vice president of information technology firm Ciber; and vendor consultant and registered lobbyist Jeffrey Suzenski, 63.

Miller, Rubin, Hatalowich and Suzenski were arraigned Wednesday and released on $100,000 unsecured bail. Brimmeier was due in court Thursday. Arrangement was pending for Mellow.

The men either declined comment or could not be reached Wednesday. Miller’s lawyer said his client has cooperated fully with the grand jury investigation and will fight the charges.

The grand jury issued a separate report for two former turnpike commission employees.

Raymond Zajicek, 67, described as a close associate of Brimmeier and now retired from his $110,000-a-year job as fare collection operations manager, allegedly performed personal errands regularly on state time and occasionally made political fundraising calls during the work day or requested turnpike employees to perform political activities.

Melvin Shelton, 81, “held himself out to be a ‘labor relations specialist’” but acted more like a Democratic party functionary, the grand jury said. He allegedly pressured officials to rehire fired employees who were registered Democrats by emphasizing his contacts with an unnamed Philadelphia congressman and with Rubin.

The turnpike figured tangentially in the federal criminal case against Fumo, who was convicted in 2009. Fumo is not identified by name in the jury report, but as Senator No. 6 he is described as having a powerful influence over the turnpike.

Political donations from turnpike vendors were directed to him and other senators of both parties who had sway over the turnpike commission, the report said.

Rendell ousted Rubin in March 2009, citing what he called “overwhelming” evidence in Fumo’s trial testimony that Rubin had been paid $150,000 for a no-work job for the Appropriations Committee under Fumo.

Rendell also was not named, but it is clear he is referred to in the grand jury report as Gubernatorial Candidate No. 1, for whom Brimmeier and Hatalowich were allegedly collecting political donations from vendors. Rendell said Wednesday that he had not read the indictment and was unaware of any inappropriate activity.

CITY OF PHILA. PAYS SEXUAL PREDATOR $625,000

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Posted on 23rd February 2013 by Administrator in Economy |Politics |Social Issues

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This is a classic example of slimy government drones paying off even slimier government drones with taxpayer money. These scumbags don’t give a crap, because it is your money. Carl Greene is about the biggest lowlife you can imagine. He is a walking sexual harrassment suit. All that is required to get a top job in Phila is that you be black. Fast Eddie Rendell stole this prize away from the Detroit Housing Authority even though he already had a sexual harrassment lawsuit pending in Detroit. Didn’t Eddie ever hear about checking references? This is the guy responsible for housing the free shit army in taxpayer subsidized low income housing estates like Mantua Square.

They paid this dirtbag $350,000 per year, which was more than the PA governor and Phila mayor made combined. Even though he made this kind of money, he defaulted on his mortgage. On July 27, 2010, Wells Fargo filed a foreclosure action in the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, Court of Common Pleas, seeking to cure a default of $386,685 on a $400,000 mortgage for Mr. Greene’s condominium and primary residence which was valued at $615,035. Such residence located in Naval Square, a Toll Brothers condominium development on the site of the former Philadelphia Naval Asylum. The Philadelphia Inquirer further revealed that Greene also repaid over $52,000 in back taxes owed in 2010 to settle a lien placed against him by the Internal Revenue Service.

On August 19, 2010, The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: “Charges of sexual misconduct have shadowed Greene since his arrival in Philadelphia in 1998 from the Detroit Housing Commission. In his former job, a housing-agency auditor accused Greene of kissing, touching, and fondling her, and promising her a promotion if she “submitted to his demands.” Rendell, who as mayor at the time headed PHA, hired Greene and gave him a contract that ensured his job even if he lost the Michigan case. The case brought by Gertrude Faye Johnson was settled out of court on the eve of a trial”.

At PHA, at least two other cases of sexual harassment have been made against Greene. Melissa Shingles, a former senior management specialist at PHA, filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in 2004. The case was closed in 2006 after a settlement was reached between the sides.

John M. Elliott, an attorney for Elizabeth Helm, a 29-year-old employee of the authority (PHA), has charged Greene of “serial predatory sexual misconduct.” Elliott alleges that Greene promised her a promotion in her capacity as an interior designer and planner at PHA, if she submitted to his sexual advances. In a letter outlining Helm’s sexual-harassment complaint, Elliott wrote that Greene “insisted” that Helm meet him after work April 12, 2010 at the bar of the Prime Rib Restaurant at 1701 Locust St. to discuss PHA-related matters. Elliot calls her the “most recent victim” of Greene’s pattern of sexual harassment. Helm had worked at PHA for about a year. The night of the incident, Greene praised her work and said he was processing her promotion paperwork. He then made advances including “touching, grabbing, and groping her,”. Despite her insistence that he stop, Greene “continued to forcibly and physically pursue inappropriate and unwanted contact of an intimate nature.” Elliot states that Greene admitted to Helm that his contact was unwelcome, stating as he grabbed her, “I know that you don’t want to kiss me.” Helm filed a complaint April 30, and an investigation opened May 13. An out of court settlement of $250,000 was offered on August 24, 2010.

On August 25, 2010 the PHA board suspended Mr. Greene for 30 days, after receiving a subpoena for documents from the U.S. Attorney’s Office working with the FBI. The PHA said it would proceed with its own investigation into the latest sexual harassment claim (and the first three, claiming it had never been notified of their existence -due to technicalities in the settlements- which to its surprise exceeded $650000). HUD launched its own probe as well.

This guy is a slimy lowlife and Phila taxpayers just paid him $625,000, on top of the $4 million he was paid in salary and the hundreds of thousands paid out in sexual harrassment settlements.

 

Phila. Housing Authority, ex-director Greene settle for $625,000

Carl R. Greene, former director of the city Housing Authority, entering the Philadelphia federal courthouse last month.
Jennifer Lin and Mark Fazlollah, Inquirer Staff Writers
Posted: Saturday, February 23, 2013, 11:59 AM
After more than two years and $1 million in legal defense fees, the Philadelphia Housing Authority has agreed to pay $625,000 to end a contract dispute with its ousted executive director, Carl R. Greene. 

The deal was first announced as a tentative agreement by the agency’s interim executive director, Kelvin Jeremiah, at PHA’s monthly board meeting Friday. The sides then signed the agreement at 5 p.m.

Clifford Haines, an attorney for Greene, called the settlement “reasonable and fair.”

Jeremiah said the agreement was “the right decision” and noted that Greene originally sought $4 million.

“Mr. Greene was asking for $4 million, then $2.5 million, then $1.5 million,” Jeremiah said. “This was a hard-fought case.”

Greene sued PHA in federal court on the grounds that the agency had no cause to fire him and that it owed him $743,000 in lost income plus damages. The trial began Jan. 29 and included testimony from former Mayor John F. Street, PHA’s chairman from 2004 until 2011, as well as former Gov. Ed Rendell.

The trial was to resume Monday, but Haines said U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter would be notified of the settlement. He said he did not expect that the parties would need to appear in court.


Haines said testimony and the settlement went “a long way to restoring the integrity of Mr. Greene’s name.”

Greene was fired Sept. 23, 2010, on a 4-1 vote by PHA’s board after commissioners discovered that he had settled multiple sexual harassment complaints without telling them.

Three of the women who filed complaints against Greene and were paid settlements were set to testify.

John Elliott, an attorney for one, Elizabeth Helm, said Greene had engaged in “egregious misconduct and now apparently is being rewarded.”

“It’s a sad day for the taxpayers to have public funds spent in that manner,” he said.

In a statement, PHA said the settlement “closes a tenuous chapter in PHA’s history.”

PHA noted that the agreement ensures that Greene will be unable to pursue any further lawsuits against the agency or its former board.

However, the settlement does not protect Greene from “any claims, known or unknown . . . involving fraud, misappropriation of funds, or any criminal acts.”

Federal officials continue to investigate PHA’s activities during Greene’s tenure.

Originally, Greene’s lawsuit included claims that his civil rights were denied and that PHA’s board had defamed him. Buckwalter eliminated those claims, leaving only the question of whether PHA breached its contract agreement with Greene.

Under that pact, the agency could only fire Greene for cause if it could prove that his behavior caused material financial damage to the agency.

Street said he did not support the settlement.

“I stand by the action of the board in dismissing Mr. Greene for cause,” Street said in an e-mail. “The irony of Mr. Greene getting more money than any of the victims in this case is stunning.”

Street noted that Greene, who took the stand for one day, was not cross-examined and the women were not able to testify.

“This settlement sends the wrong message to every potential victim of sexual harassment as well as every potential perpetrator,” Street said.

PHA had spent more than $1 million on its defense and had exhausted the coverage provided by its insurer. That meant that with the start of the trial, the agency was paying for its lawyers out of its own budget.

Street, in an investigative report presented to the board, called Greene a “serial sexual harasser.”

The board dismissed Greene not only for the sexual harassment complaints and the way they were handled, but also said that he created a hostile work environment and abandoned his duties, and that his personal financial problems set a bad example for tenants. His behavior, it asserted, damaged PHA.

For the first time at the trial, Greene testified about the events leading up to his termination. Haines, his lawyer, said the current PHA leadership had done the right thing by reaching the agreement, but criticized Street and said his report to the board “was not an investigation at all.”

“It was the sole opinion of chair,” he said. “It was a mean-spirited, uncalled-for, personal attack that should not have happened.”

GOVERNMENT PENSION TAPEWORM WILL KILL US ALL

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Posted on 6th June 2012 by Administrator in Economy |Politics |Social Issues

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It sure is easy for politicians to make promises. It just ain’t easy to fullfill them. The story below is about the Pennsylvnia  state budget. It is the same story across all states. Politicians sign legislation giving out goodies to get re-elected. The time bomb doesn’t explode for a decade or more, after the slimy politician is running the Department of Homeland Security or being paid as an Obama shill on MSNBC. The lack of courage, fortitude, honesty and intelligence extends across both parties. Tom Ridge signed legislation in 2001 that provided gold plated pension benefits to government workers and the slimy politicians that voted for the legislation. Ed Rendell further extended and increased these benefit promises. You can see from this chart that PA is not even the worst offender.

A recent study estimated that the unfunded pension liabilities for state government workers exceeds $4 trillion. In classic government fashion, Governor Corbett of PA is being branded a scrooge for drastically cutting spending and impoverishing school districts across the state. That is humorous since this year’s budget is $27.3 billion and next year’s budget will be $27.7. Only in this land of delusions could a $400 million increase be described as horrific cutbacks in government spending. There is never a mention about the fact that every school district in the state went on a spending spree in the mid-2000s because the real estate taxes from the housing boom were rolling in like waves on the ocean. Well the waves have receded from the shore and a Tsunami of unfunded promises are about to wash over the delusional morons who spent all the money and made all the promises to government employees.

The wailing and grinding of teeth over this year’s budget is laughable when you consider what is coming. The taxpayers must foot a $1.2 pension expense for the government drones this year, or 4.3% of the state spending. These pension payments are on automatic pilot. In 2016, the taxpayers of PA will be on the hook for $6 billion of pension expense, or approximately 20% of the state spending. This is called math. Either the taxpayers of PA will have to pay a whole lot more in taxes or drastic spending cuts will need to occur in other parts of the budget. There are 5.2 million households in PA. Each would have to pay over $900 more per year in taxes to pay for the pension promises made to government union drones. We all know that the FSA in Philly and Pittsburgh don’t pay taxes, so the average hard working middle class schmuck would have to ante up over $1,200 more per year to satisfy the insatiable appetite of government union workers.

This tapeworm was introduced into the digestive system of Pennsylvania by a Republican governor in 2001. He’s rich. He earns money for speaking engagements. He started our beloved DHS. This brilliant guy even invented our color coded terrorist warning system. We are now at Shit Your Pants Yellow alert. By 2016 we’ll be at Commit Suicide Red.

Will any politicians have the guts to confront the government unions and kill this pension parasite before it kills us all? I doubt it. There are elections to be won and promises to be made. That tapeworm looks harmless.

Funding Pa. pensions is ‘tapeworm’ in budget talks

Wednesday, June 6,2012

It’s crunch time in Harrisburg. In other words, it’s budget time.

As school districts across the state reel from the effects of an austere spending plan put forth by Gov. Tom Corbett, Republicans in the state Senate have created their own budget and restored many of the cuts proposed by their fellow Republican governor. The state House is expected to vote on that version this week, possibly as early as today. Then both sides likely will hammer out a final version with the governor.

Here’s the good news: Some education funding is likely to be restored, in particular when it comes to higher education.

Here’s the bad news: It won’t necessarily solve the fiscal woes afflicting school districts.

Now here’s the really grim news: None of this even addresses the elephant in the room, the biggest budget crisis in the state.

That, of course, would be the ocean of red ink inundating the state’s two large public employee pensions, those covering the bulk of state government workers and public school teachers.

This year the state’s on the hook for $1.2 billion in pension payments. That increases to $1.6 billion next year and an astronomical $6 billion by fiscal year 2016-17.

Kaboom!
Perhaps that is why Corbett is reluctant to start restoring money to the budget. He refers to the pension crisis as “the tapeworm” in state budget talks.

The pension crisis has been exacerbated by several factors. First, while enjoying a bullish ride on Wall Street for years, the state and districts looked at more rosy predictions and cut their contributions to the fund. Then the market tanked.

Also crucial was a deal cut by former Gov. Tom Ridge back in 2001 that boosted the payouts for pols and teachers while cutting taxpayer contributions.

Now the bill is coming due, and it’s a whopper. It won’t solve the current dilemma, but some denizens of Harrisburg with an eye on the future are offering an important change.

State Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-9 of Chester, is proposing legislation that would derail this gravy train for all future public employees. Instead of the defined benefit plan those workers now enjoy, they would instead join the rest of us in a defined-contribution plan, similar to a 401(k).

It’s a common-sense move that is long overdue. Sure, it would be easy to harpoon Pileggi and several other Republicans for cutting someone else’s retirement benefits while theirs remains intact. It won’t change the fact that the current system is unsustainable.

More importantly, it does not address how the state is going to fund its current pension woes.

What almost no one in Harrisburg is willing to say is the very real possibility of someone actually proclaiming what many are thinking – that as currently constructed the system, will not be able to pay out what was promised.

One possible solution would be to reconfigure pensions to their pre-2001 levels. That no doubt would be met with catcalls from those approaching retirement.

The move to get public employees out of defined-benefit plans is a start. But it must be accompanied by a solution to the more immediate problem — that $6 billion tab lurking in the distance.

One thing we’re sure of. This tapeworm is hungry. And it’s not going away.

— Journal Register News Service

OBAMA, GOV’T UNIONS & THE SHRILL LIBERAL MSM LOSE AGAIN

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Posted on 2nd June 2012 by Administrator in Economy |Politics |Social Issues

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They’ve used every liberal fear mongering tactic in the book. Obama has bashed Governor Walker. The weasel Democratic legislators fled the state to avoid doing their jobs. MSNBC and their flock of screeching talking heads have called Walker a tyrant who is killing babies with his heartless policy of balancing the state budget without increasing taxes or firing thousands of government drones. Even the old Democratic cigar lover, Bill Clinton, has been rolled out.

And guess what? The people of Wisconsin are going to keep Governor Walker. This proves there are millions of people who can see through the Democratic bullshit and realize that government unions are the problem, not the solution. The free shit needs to come to an end.

It’s the same old shit from the same old liberals. Walker was left with a $3.6 billion budget deficit by the Democrat that had been in office for 8 years. He has taken the actions he needed to take without increasing tax on the citizens. The exact same thing happened in Pennsylvania. Governor Corbett was left with a huge budget deficit by the Democrat standard bearer – Fast Eddie Rendell, who destroyed the finances of the state in 8 short years. He has taken the same corrective action of reducing spending and not increasing taxes on the citizens. The liberal rag – Phila Inquirer – is accusing him of throwing the poor children under the bus. They never address how the state got into this situation – Democratic nanny state spending.

Play it again Sam. Governor Christie inherited one of the largest state deficits in the country. Guess who destroyed the finances of the state of New Jersey before he destroyed MF Global and the lives of thousands of farmers? That’s right – Democratic torchbearer and top fund raiser for Barack Obama – Jon Corzine. Christie comes in and kicks the shit out of government unions and every Democratic legislator in the state in order to fix the budget and the shrill liberal press brands him a bully and thug.

Do you recognize a theme? Democratic governors fuck up the state and the new Republican guy has to fix it. The liberal MSM calls him a tyrant and heartless. Yawn.

The gig is up for the liberal nanny state. The money is gone. The people are tired of getting taxed into oblivion to pay for the gold plated pension and health benefits of government drones.

The libs are losing. Krugman is so sad. 

Wisconsin recall: Did Tom Barrett close gap with Scott Walker in debate?

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) took an aggressive tone toward Gov. Scott Walker (R) in the last debate before Tuesday’s recall election. Polls give Walker a seven-point lead over Barrett.

By         Mark Guarino
posted June 1, 2012 at 11:38 am EDT

Milwaukee, Wis.Tom Barrett, the Democratic challenger to Gov. Scott Walker (R) of Wisconsin, took a chance in Thursday night’s televised debate, and came out swinging. It was without doubt his last big opportunity to persuade Wisconsin voters that kicking the incumbent governor out of office halfway through his term represents the best end to a bitter partisan battle that has engulfed the state for the past two years.

Down in the latest polls, Mr. Barrett, whose groomed image some political observers describe as “bland nice guy,” adopted a confrontational posture toward Governor Walker, accusing him of divide-and-conquer governance and repeatedly reminding voters of an investigation stemming from Walker’s tenure while Milwaukee County executive.

Whether it was effective won’t be known until Tuesday, when voters go to the polls in the denouement of Wisconsin’s long-running political saga. But Barrett’s strategy was not without peril.

Barrett, who is mayor of Milwaukee, took a risk in adopting the more antagonistic tone because it runs counter to his image as a unifier, says John McAdams, a political scientist at Marquette University here. “When he starts looking harsh or aggressive, that could hurt him,” Mr. McAdams says. “An aggressive tone works for someone like [New Jersey Gov.] Chris Christie, but it’s a risky thing for Barrett.”

The debate’s fiery tone is likely to light up the respective political bases for both candidates, even if both men’s performances were ultimately “a reiteration of well-known talking points,” McAdams says.

The recall election has drawn national – and even international – attention. Minutes before the debate began Thursday, the producer stepped in to inform the audience gathered at Marquette Law School that television affiliates throughout the state would broadcast the next hour live, national cable networks would periodically check in, and that the feed would be carried in real time from as far away as Japan.

Some of the far-flung interest is explained by the fact that only three sitting governors have been unseated through recalls in all of US history. And there’s no denying that the stakes are high for both sides in the national arena. Republican interest groups across the US have rallied to Walker’s defense, seeing his anti-union, government-shrinking policies as a bold blueprint that other governors and Congress should heed, even as labor groups have dedicated their resources behind ousting him. Wisconsin is also a battleground state in for the presidential election in the fall.

The latest poll, released Wednesday, showed Walker moving ahead – and raised the debate stakes for Barrett. The poll from Marquette Law School showed Walker at 52 percent to Barrett’s 45 percent among likely voters.

One problem for Barrett is that some voters may cast their vote for Walker simply to show their distaste for the recall process itself and to signal that, despite any problems they may have with Walker’s policies, Democrats overreached.

Jim Kramers of Kenosha, Wis., says he is voting for Walker not because he is “against Barrett” but because the recall has had “a very negative impact on the state locally and nationally.” “We’ve become a laughingstock,” Mr. Kramers says of his state.

For Jeff Krien, a customer service representative in the suburb of South Milwaukee, “the recall should never have happened to begin with.” Mr. Krien says the protests that began in February 2011 “started out about [preserving] collective bargaining [rights for public-sector unions], but that hasn’t been talked about for months.”

During Thursday’s debate, Barrett did not dwell on the perceived damage of eliminating collective bargaining rights, but instead framed the issue as an example of Walker’s “divide and conquer strategy” in trying to transform Wisconsin into the “capital” of the tea party movement.

“You wanted to pit people against each other because that’s the way you operate, and you wanted to use a crisis [involving collective bargaining] to do that,” he told Walker.

Walker insisted, as he has in the past, that reforms were needed to address the state’s $3.6 billion budget deficit he inherited, and that he did it without raising taxes or wholesale job cuts.

“The mayor has a moral obligation to tell people what exactly he would have done differently … the mayor doesn’t have a plan and all he has is attacking me,” Walker said.

Barrett often addressed Walker directly, and he returned frequently to an ongoing investigation into Walker’s previous tenure as the Milwaukee County executive, involving allegations that workers campaigned on county time and embezzled money from veterans groups. The so-called “John Doe” ethics investigation has not targeted Walker for wrongdoing, but he has transferred about $160,000 from his campaign to a legal defense fund, which, according to state law, is lawful only if the campaign gets prior approval from donors.

Walker has so far declined to say which contributors gave their blessing.

“This is all about trust,” Barrett said before turning to Walker: “Tell us who is paying your legal defense fund … you owe it to the people of this state.”

Later, Barrett hammered Walker for a television commercial that shows a blurred image of a 2-year-old who spent almost a week in intensive care after being severely beaten. The aim of the ad was to criticize Milwaukee’s track record on preventing violent crime.

“He is running a commercial showing a picture of a dead baby. This is Willie Horton stuff,” Barrett said to Walker, referring to a crime-related ad in the 1988 presidential campaign, widely seen as inflammatory, that proved devastating to Democrat Michael Dukakis. “The person who killed that baby was arrested by Milwaukee police.… You should be ashamed,” he said.

Walker defended the ad, saying Barrett campaigned in the primary on his work to reduce the violent crime rate. “I think if it was worth to say that people should vote for you in the primary because it had gone down, the same question is completely legitimate in reverse. Violent crime has gone up, sadly,” Walker said.

The Marquette poll that shows Walker up by seven percentage points was conducted May 23-26, before the first gubernatorial debate. However, “if the Marquette poll is accurate, it’s going to be tough for Barrett,” McAdams says.

“There’s a very small number of undecided voters, so there’s not a lot of people out there to be moved,” he says.

One such resolute voter is Karen Stardy, a farmer from Union Grove. Earlier in the day, while manning her booth at a farmer’s market in South Milwaukee, Ms. Stardy said her disgust was not necessarily with Barrett but with how the recall election is dividing her community but not offering real solutions to turning the economy around.

“There’s arguments all over the place. It’s like, nobody’s really right and nobody’s really wrong,” she said. “I’d rather not see people arguing over politics. We have to tough it out. There’s no instant solution to the problems that we’ve got.”

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