Free Republic

Joe McGinniss, who was a sportswriter for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and was a one-time, long-time resident of Swarthmore, has written a book that is causing much pain in a family and might very well destroy a decent person who has much to bring to the political discourse. The book is, well, there's not really a good reason to name it. But SayAnythingBlog.Com has an article by Rob Port with a first hand description of the style of "journalism" for which McGinniss has become known.

A bizarre, Maoist attempt to squelch dissent by President Barack Obama has earned him the sobriquet The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers which is being tweeted around the world. Ayers is the bizarre, Maoist 1960s radical and wealthy Chicagoan who was instrumental in Obama's rise to power. Ayers once said 25 million Americans would have to be eliminated in order to bring about his utopian dream. Ayers is married to Bernardine Dohrn who famously expressed approval of murder of Sharon Tate and others by the Manson family.

A U.S. district judge, today, Sept. 13, declared that Congress exceeded its authority under the Constitution when it required all Americans to buy health insurance under Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act i.e. ObamaCare. Christopher C. Conner who sits in Harrisburg and on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said “The federal government is one of limited enumerated powers, and Congress’s efforts to remedy the ailing health care and health insurance markets must fit squarely within the boundaries of those powers.” Conner made the ruling on behalf of Barbara and Gregory Bachman of Etters, York...

Federal funding to boost Alaska’s vaccine program Health officials to make HPV and meningococcal vaccines available to more Alaska children ( Juneau, Alaska) ─ The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services announced today that an increase in federal funding will make it possible for all Alaska girls ages 9 through 18 to receive Gardasil ®, the vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, at no cost.

Sam Rohrer has confirmed that he is considering a challenge to incumbent and not-as-pro-life-as-he-likes-to-claim Democrat Senator Bob Casey Jr. Rohrer told PoliticsPa.Com on Sept. 9 that “family circumstances have already been taken care of" and that the ground support is there. He said the major issue preventing him from making the declaration official is fundraising. A senate run would be expected to cost $20 million.

John Kerry can trace his roots to John Winthrop and has a net worth of $239 million. His wife, Teresa, is worth a cool billion which she inherited from her first husband, H. John Heinz 3rd. Pajamas Media notes that they did not pay a penny in taxes on the $4.8 million they earned last year. Kerry, of course, is the progressive-leftist Democrat senator from Massachusetts who was the Democrat candidate for president in 2004 and was the darling of progressive leftists everywhere.

Unheralded Tropical Storm Lee has brought the worst flooding to Northeast Pennsylvania since Hurricane Agnes of 1972. There have been four reported deaths as of this morning, Sept. 9. Father James Hayer of St. Mary's Byzantine Catholic Church in Wilkes Barre reported this at 6:09 a.m. The Susquehanna River has flooded, cresting at almost 39 feet a few hours ago. It was expected to crest at 40.7 feet, which was a deep concern because the levee system maximum height is 41 feet. We are only 2 blocks from the river, but everything here by the church (695 N. Main St.)...

Sunoco announced, Sept. 6, that it will be closing its refineries in Philadelphia and Marcus Hook next July if it can't find a buyer for them. Sunoco CEO and Chairman Lynn Elsenhans said the refineries have lost $772 million since 2009, which not coincidentally is the first year of the Zerobama Administration. It will be unfair to pin all the blame on President Zero, however. First year Congressman Pat Meehan, a Republican, has been practically screaming that this was going to happen since he took office, Jan. 3, while his Democrat predecessor Joe Sestak; and Democrat Chaka Fattah, whose 2nd...

Pennsylvania's Republican establishment has a Tea Party problem. As indicated in an earlier post, establishment fav Steve Welch is not warming the hearts of those whose votes he needs. Now, Paula Stiles of the Chester County Patriots is sounding the call for the common folk to attend the General Republican Meeting of the State Committee, which is 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Sept. 17, at Harrisburg Hilton, 1 N. 2nd St., Harrisburg. "We are asking constituents from every county in Pennsylvania to attend. . . and personally experience the disdain that PA GOP leadership has for their fellow Republicans," she...

The federal government has rescinded it's bizarre deadline to change all the street signs in the country and credit goes to Sen. Pat Toomey. The Federal Highway Administration in 2009 mandated that street name signs throughout the nation be upper/lower case with a deadline of 2018. For the historically challenged, 2009 is the first year of the Obama era. It would have been a costly and wasteful endeavor with the burden falling on municipal governments. The cost to replace a street sign is about $50. It adds up. The expense to New York City was estimated to be $28 million....

Heroic federal agents, Wednesday, Aug. 24, swooped down on the offices and factories of Gibson Guitar, an infamous maker of musical instruments based in Tennessee. They were looking for wood, the substance that is the cadavers of innocent trees and used by drug-addled "rock and roll" musicians to corrupt innocent minds. Apparently, Gibson had imported some of this dead tree substance from India and failed to properly fill out the necessary paperwork. The use of innocent dead trees to create paper for the federal government is acceptable.

An astrobiologist affiliated with Penn State and NASA has co-written a paper suggesting signals to space be curtailed since they might inspire aliens to attack us due to our slowness in dealing with global warming. Shawn Domagal-Goldman, along with fellow scientist Seth D. Baum, Jacob D. Haqq-Misra, issue this dire warning in their paper Would contact with extraterrestrials benefit or harm humanity? A scenario analysis which is now making international news. Granted these smart people posit possible positive contacts with ETs such as advancement in knowledge and such. And they note that in the event of a hostile encounter we...

The webzine edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. has published an article suggesting that blacks not be so emotionally invested in President Obama. It's written by Michael Arceneaux and entitled "Breaking Up With Boyfriend Barack". It appears in today's (Aug. 16) edition of The Root. Arceneaux notes that (official) unemployment for African-Americans is double that of whites at 15.9 percent. He points out that Obama's approval rate among blacks is down to 85 percent. Gates was the famous participant at the "beer summit" held in July 24, 2009 which came after Obama made uninformed comments in defense of Gates who...

A keystone in the claim that gases produced in the production of energy are causing global warming has been shown to be laughably overblown. Despite millions of public school children being taught it as an unquestionable truth. The polar bears are not drowning as famously described in Al Gore's Nobel-Prize-winning, Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth. Human Events is reporting that Charles Monnett, the author of the study widely cited as establishing this as fact, has been placed on administrative leave from the U.S. Department of the Interior after serious problems were found with the earthshaking claims he made in his...

The shrinking of the Pennsylvania legislature pushed by Gov. Tom Corbett now has the support of legislative Republican leaders. Several bills are pending that would cut the size of the legislature now at 50 senators and 203 House members to 40 or 30 senators and to either 153, 151 or 120 House members. The claim is that it will save money. Of course, that larger constituencies insulate career politicians from angry voters is a simple, happy by-product. House members now represent about 63,000 people apiece, while a senator represents about 254,000 people. During the outrage over the 2005 legislative pay...

Old friend Tom Flocco of Upper Providence sent several links taking shots at Congressman Pat Meehan (R-Pa7) including this one to a YouTube video making the rounds on left-leaning sites accusing him of voting to "abolish" Medicare. Meehan had supported a Paul Ryan plan which made the tax-funded safety net for seniors more like the health care offered federal workers. Ryan had tried to add an option giving seniors tax money to buy their own insurance programs rather than be entirely dependent on the government bureaucracies that some health care providers are now taking pains with which to avoid being...

The debt ceiling agreement could jeopardize millions of dollars, and perhaps billions, in initiatives from President Barack Obama’s health care reform law if the super committee can’t come up with required spending cuts. Many of the pots of money in the law — one of the Democrats’ most prized pieces of legislation — could get trimmed by the debt deal’s sequestration, or triggered cuts. The funds for prevention programs and community health centers, grants to help states set up insurance exchanges and co-ops, and money to help states review insurance rates could be slashed across the board if the panel...

If you haven't heard yet, Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls will rise 10 percent for cash customers in 2012. The decision was made July 19 by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and announced two days later. Those using E-ZPass will not see an increase. Except for commercial haulers. They will see a 15 percent increase as they will lose their 15 percent volume discount. Exempted from the hike will be I-576 in the Pittsburgh area. The money will be used to pay off bonds that were used for improvements to highways and mass transit systems.

Bats, as scary as they are to some, are one of the more useful mammals in creation. The diets of those species common in Pennsylvania consist of mosquitoes and other insect pests including the ones that damage crops. A colony of 100 brown bats can consume of a quarter-million insects in a single night. Science magazine has estimated the pest control service provided by bats can save farmers about $74 per acre. Well, the unattractive wind turbines built at the hectoring of the nature worshipers who've managed to convince most that they are the arbiters of all dogma scientific are...

After decades of trying to figure out what to do with the building, Delaware County, Pa. is almost ready to move its tourist department into the 18th Century Rose Tree Tavern in the county-owned Rose Tree Park in Upper Providence Township. The county, in a typical display of its insecurity, calls the department the Brandywine Conference and Visitors Bureau. It should be noted that the Brandywine River will now be 12 miles away from the new HQ and the Brandywine Valley is an exceedingly small portion of the historically influential county. Regardless, the historic building is now about to be...