Free Republic

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Gov. Ed Rendell outlined a $29 billion budget Wednesday that would expand spending on education, prisons and health coverage while drawing from federal aid and state surpluses, increasing some taxes and cutting other programs. The plan, a 2.5 percent increase from what was originally approved for the 2008-09 budget, also would withdraw hundreds of millions of dollars from the state's "rainy day" contingency fund without draining it completely. It does not call for increasing any broad-based tax. "The budget I propose requires considerable sacrifice and pain, so that we can close the deficit and put our fiscal...

Five hundred one people have been added to the state payroll at a cost of $12.35 million since Gov. Ed Rendell imposed a hiring freeze, according to a report prepared for Republican lawmakers and obtained by The Morning Call. Asked about the report, the Democratic Rendell administration said four of every five of those employees hold public safety positions that were exempted from the statewide freeze. About 100 state workers outside of public safety positions have been hired since Rendell's Sept. 16 announcement, spokesman Chuck Ardo said Friday. There are 78,000 state employees. ''Remember that the public safety agencies were...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The Rendell administration told employee unions that state workers could be furloughed in a month and demanded they relinquish pay raises as the government scrambles to close a multibillion-dollar gap in state finances. Negotiators for Gov. Ed Rendell also told representatives of the three major state workers' unions during a meeting Tuesday in Harrisburg that the administration wants to draw nearly $200 million from a reserve in their health insurance fund. The governor's office also said it may institute "rolling furloughs" in which large parts of state government would be shuttered on certain days, while the...

This coming Sunday, Gov. Edward G. Rendell will be all out for both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers in their NFL conference championship games. But if both teams happen to win, well, then it is all Eagles. Rendell told the New York Times that he has to be loyal. “If it costs me some political points, that’s life.” Rendell is a rabid Eagles fan, and is pretty sure that rabid Steelers fans would understand his Eagle loyalty. “The casual fans might be upset, but I don’t care,” he said. During World War II, the Steelers and the Eagles...

Ballard's $773,000 'No-Contract' Work Rendell’s Former Firm Went Beyond ‘No-Bid’ Contracts By Chris Freind, The Bulletin Published: Friday, January 09, 2009 Gov. Ed Rendell,D-Pa., has recently come under fire as more information emerges regarding the frequency and high-dollar amounts of no-bid state contracts that have been distributed to his political donors and friends. The details of such contracts have been previously revealed by The Bulletin. Many eyebrows have been raised on these lucrative no-bid contracts, especially since the records from past administrations were “lost” under Mr. Rendell’s tenure — ostensibly the only way to compare the frequency, amounts and recipients...

Janet Napolitano wasn't the only female governor Ed Rendell was heard sizing up over an open mike at Tuesday's National Governors Conference. He also opined about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, praising her "very good political instincts" in a conversation picked up near the podium.

Now the daggers come out. The paleocons and Obamacons and many others will plunge them into the back of John McCain. This is shameful. The American people have issued a referendum on the 2008 mutation of the Republican Party, whose ticket John McCain had the misfortune to lead. Let's recount briefly: enough bribe taking, page preying, foot tapping felons and filchers to fill the local jail; a record deficit; a financial crisis; a badly managed war; an incompetent response to a hurricane; an incumbent in the White House with record-low levels of approval. Against all this and into a headwind...

Rendell: Forget the polls, it's gonna be close in state Governor stops at ESU while on bus tour for Obama By Dan Berrett Pocono Record Writer November 01, 2008 6:00 AM EAST STROUDSBURG — Gov. Ed Rendell urged supporters of Sen. Barack Obama on Friday to get out the vote in the last 100 hours of the presidential campaign because the race for Pennsylvania is closer than polls suggest. "This is not a 10-, 12- or 14-point election for Barack Obama," the Democratic governor said Friday afternoon in the lobby of East Stroudsburg University's new Science and Technology Center. "A...

Pennsylvania's Gov. Ed Rendell told PolitikerPA, a political Web site, that "Early on, I said I would cast my ballot for Sen. Clinton, I'm going to cast my ballot for her, and then the moment I cast my vote, I'm going to continue to enthusiastically support Sen. Obama. It's going to be a good release for all of us." Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo confirmed to the Tribune-Review via email Rendell's statement with this response: "He (Rendell) will vote for Senator Clinton on the first ballot as part of his commitment as a pledged delegate. He will then support Sen. Obama...

Just when you thought the anti-war, anti-American left couldn't sink any lower, they plummet to Marianas Trench level. Below is a photo I snapped today of three absolute tools displaying their ignorance on Independence Mall in Philadelphia: These morons have no idea how much harm they do their cause with stunts like this. A woman colleague of mine who is generally a liberal commented after seeing this display that these cretins ought to meet the business end of a blunt object. For the record, I have no problem with legitimate expressions of dissent from President Bush's Iraq policy. Heaven knows,...

Jane Fonda’s reputation as a reprehensible traitor and left wing thug has been well chronicled for nearly 40 years. The behavior of this wretched vermin during the Vietnam War should have led to her arrest and deportation to North Vietnam for permanent enslavement by the communist murderers with whom she conspired against brave American men and women in harm’s way. Unfortunately, Hanoi Jane survived her war on America and is still a poster child for the communist party in America. Albeit, she now comes with multiple lays of wrinkles and sans the beauty marks of 40 years ago, but to...

NBC apologises for Jane Fonda's offensive word Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:38am GMT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Television network NBC apologized for itself and actress Jane Fonda on Thursday after she used an offensive word on the "Today Show." NBC called it "a slip" and said they did not mean to offend audiences. Fonda was on the program on Thursday with playwright Eve Ensler to discuss Ensler's award-winning work, "The Vagina Monologues," in which women talk about their sexuality using frank language about their bodies and references to genitalia. "Vagina Monologues" has spawned a movement called V-Day that aims to...

Jane Fonda said what on national morning TV? Rhymes with runt.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Gov. Ed Rendell, one of Hillary Rodham Clinton's most visible supporters, said some white Pennsylvanians are likely to vote against her rival Barack Obama because he is black.

Hanoi Jane Fonda looking through anti-aircraft gunsights used to shoot down US pilots Jane Fonda, the darling of the looney left, turned 70 today. Rad-libs are offering their tributes. For example, Rosie O'Donnell wrote the following wonderful poem: oh what a night truly it was somehow what i thought show biz would b and look in the end it turns out it is my loud off key voice is too close to the flip when bonnie sings who knew jane fonda 70 and fantastic i love her so As loyal Americans and creative conservatives, we can do better than that....

It might help the drought that so few flowers are left to water in Atlanta, so many having been thrown at Jane Fonda to celebrate her 70th birthday.The AJC predictably gave her glowing coverage, with only the mention that Fonda has to deal with criticism by Vietnam veterans. Here is one Vietnam veteran who is bothered far more by how the media portray her than by Fonda herself.Now that the threat of communism is gone, the Cold War stand against it is sometimes ridiculed, likened to looking for boogeymen under the bed. Fonda's own affinity for communism is brushed aside...

Thirty-five years after she straddled an enemy cannon in defiance of the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, Jane Fonda has vets in a frenzy about a visit to Palm Beach for a fund-raiser next week. Some of the 7,000-plus members of the American Legion in Palm Beach, Martin and Okeechobee counties were expecting to be called to picket Tuesday's luncheon of the YWCA at The Breakers. The silver-screen legend is scheduled to speak before 300-plus, who plunked down 300 bucks each for the Y's shelter for battered women, Harmony House. Cops and hotel honchos were preparing. But just...

Rendell can't spin away Hsu By Brad Bumsted STATE CAPITOL REPORTER Sunday, September 23, 2007 HARRISBURG Capitol observers were astounded when Gov. Ed Rendell called Democrat fundraiser Norman Hsu, a felon and then-fugitive, "one of the best 10 people I've met." They're likely more astounded now. Rendell made the comment to The Philadelphia Inquirer; it became instant fodder for Capitol insiders. If Mr. Hsu is on the governor's Top 10 list, who else is on the list? Incredibly, Rendell last week backed off the statement at his first Capitol news conference since the Hsu scandal surfaced. The governor threw in...

Dan Rather said Thursday that the undue influence of the government and large corporations over newsrooms spurred his decision to file a $70 million lawsuit against CBS and its former parent company. "Somebody, sometime has got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive, much less thrive with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news," he said on CNN's "Larry King Live." In the suit, filed a day earlier in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, Rather claimed CBS and Viacom Inc. used him as a "scapegoat" and intentionally botched the aftermath of a...

PA GOP: Fast Eddie Robs Peter Paul to Pay Hillary Friday, September 14, 2007 Contact: Michael Barley HARRISBURG —Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Robert A. Gleason, Jr. was not surprised to see that Gov. Ed Rendell and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton are involved in more fundraising scandals with another convicted felon, named Peter Paul. Paul alleges that Ed Rendell, then Chairman of the Democrat National Committee, told him to lie about his involvement with a 2000 Clinton for Senate fundraiser. “Apparently, when Sen. Clinton and Gov. Rendell need campaign donations, they dial up the list of America’s most wanted as...