Miscellaneous Items

I've got a lot of random items to comment on this morning....

Senate race in PA.  I am from PA so I hold this near and dear to my heart.  Though it was great to see Arlen Specter defeated, it would've been nice for him to win so Toomey would be a shoo-in to office.  As it stands the idiots in this state (mostly the people who live in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh- who are pretty much the only democrats in the entire state) have the race pretty close right now.  The latest Rasmussen poll shows 45% Toomey and 39% Sestak.  While that is higher than recent weeks, it is still uncomforting to know 4 out of 10 PA residents think this guy has their best interests at heart.  8 years of Rendell with Bob 'no backbone' Casey and old man party switching Specter representing us?  Something has to change.  Pittsburgh has been going downhill for DECADES because it has been run by democrats for SIXTY years.   Property taxes are high, we can't sustain public transit (talking point two... why is public transit supposed to be provided by the government?  Why can't it be privatized?), the Pittsburgh public schools are absolutely horrific, there are 3 or 4 neighborhoods that are just horribly crime and poverty ridden where nobody will travel unless they are from there or are really brave- or they get lost.  Sestak voted with Pelosi's agenda 100% of the time, and is now trying to distance himself.  HA.  He supports Cap & Trade, to me that is reason enough not to vote for him.
http://www.toomeyforsenate.com/july/

Failing public transit systems.  There's been a lot of talk in Pittsburgh about our failing public transit system.  Most Pittsburghers drive where they need to go, since the town isn't all that big anymore (300K people or so... down tremendously from 15 years ago) everyone driving isn't a huge issue.  Just two years ago Dan Onorato, the CEO of Allegheny County, imposed a 10% drink tax on poured alcoholic beverages two years ago.  This was to pay for public transit primarily.  They had a higher than predicted revenue the first year, so they lowered it to 7% in 2010.  Now it comes out that over 50 bars/pubs/etc have closed down because they couldn't raise their prices and thus can't afford the basic daily expenses anymore.  One of my favorite dance places was shut down because they failed to pay their taxes.  So now the transit is cutting 35% of their routes this fall because they're underfunded.  THEN WHAT WAS THE DRINK TAX FOR, DAN?  Pittsburgh should allow bidding for a private company to take over mass transit.  I guarantee better service, better rates.  Oh but the democrats won't give up something they can tax us for and use as leverage for increasing spending.  Dan Onorato is running for governor.... oh please Pennsylvanians, do something smart for once.  Don't elect him.
 
Education System changes.  Obama is pushing to change public education without congressional approval or public knowledge.  I got a notice from The Heritage Foundation about this.  I had NO IDEA all the slimy, skeezy, closed door deals that were going on to fundamentally change the way kids learn.  It's bad enough the history books are edited to show a liberal point of view rather than a truthful point of view.  When it affects millions of children, shouldn't congress and the senate be voting on these things?  Nope, instead they were given bailout money to spend however they want.  Setting national standards and pulling grant money when schools don't hit their standards won't do jack squat.  The 90-percentile from the elite schools will only try to hit the 75 percentile government standard.  The horrendous schools drag down that average. What will help schools improve?  School choice and vouchers.  Let the parents choose where to send their kids.  Letting the market decide will surely weed out bad schools and bad teachers.  Letting bureaucrats decide is a horrible idea.  I am all for abolishing the public education system and letting schools privatize.  Let them charge enrollment fees and have parents buy the books the kids use, etc etc.  Eliminate property taxes that are a burden to many- especially those who don't have children and don't need to subsidize failing schools.  I have a very modest 3 bedroom 1 bath house on about a 1/4 acre lot.  My school taxes are $3,500 a year.  I do not yet have kids, but plan to.  I am completely fine paying this amount as tuition or enrollment so I can send my kids to a good district.

Sherrod v. Breitbart.  Apparently Shirley is saying she plans to sue Breitbart.  I sure hope she plans to sue the NAACP and the White House too, since the NAACP is the source for the video (as far as we know), and the President forced her to resign.  Oh wait, that's right, she's a democrat... why would she bother to throw her own under the bus?  What a hypocrite.

Okay my window replacement guy is here, so this was more abbreviated than I anticipated. :)