Beware the Ides of March... Did anyone whisper this phrase into Mitt's ear recently? The Ides crept up upon Caesar and, lo and behold, he lost two key states in his quest to become the most powerful person in the world. Instead his world came crashing down as a Senator stabbed him in the heart. Et tu Rick?
Last evening state dinner for the British Prime Minister was attended by several Pennsylvanians. Mr. and Mrs. Mark Alderman, John Block (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) and his wife, Bradford Collins of Langhorne, Benjamin and Amy Deardorf of Lancaster, Dr. Amy Gutmann (University of Pennsylvania) and Dr. Michael Gutmann. Also invited were George Clooney, Warren Buffet, Teresa Heinz Kerry, Gwen Ifill and Irish golfer Rory McIlroy accompanied by Mr. Conor Ridge.
Pennsylvania landowners who have leased land for shale drilling are discovering they aren't being informed of violations and safety issues on their own land. This is the sort of thing which can be expected when one makes a deal with the devil.
Drilling, is, of course, a 24/7 operation and shale extraction in North Dakota is lighting up the night sky there. Imagine what Pennsylvania will look like in ten years?
The Turnpike Commission is planning on dunning non EZ Pass users a 76% surcharge for choosing to maintain their privacy rights. Just because the state wants to get rid of toll collectors doesn't mean we must relinquish our rights. The right to privacy is the entire purpose of our constitution. We should be able to travel freely without the state following our every move. This establishes two, separate classes of motorists on the Turnpike, something which I believe is unconstitutional. Tolls are, essentially, a tax and having separate rates violates the state document.
Matt Cartwright has his first ad up in his primary race for Tim Holden's seat.
Mayor Nutter wants to ban outdoor feeding of the homeless. I suppose he wants to "let them eat cake."
Keystone Progress has organized an effort to get Rush off of 24 Pennsylvania radio stations. Join the effort here.
The ultrasound bill has now lost 32 sponsors. The rats are fleeing this ship. Patrick Murphy wants Gov. Gasbag to retract his offensive statements about the bill:
"It's bad enough that Governor Corbett wants to force women to get an unnecessary and invasive procedure as a means of getting a government permission slip to undergo legal medical care. It's worse yet that he wants to shame them by shoving an ultrasound screen in their face. But it's unthinkable that he would so casually dismiss this by advising women to just close their eyes. Governor Corbett's comments are disturbingly offensive, insensitive, and out of touch. He should apologize immediately." Murphy said. "As I have said before, this legislation is an outrageous assault on women's rights in Pennsylvania and an unprecedented intrusion into decisions that should be made exclusively between a woman and her doctor. The proposal is demeaning, mean spirited and wrong. There is no legal justification for forcing a woman to undergo an invasive ultrasound, and after careful analysis, I believe that no reasonable arguments can be made to support the Constitutionality of this bill. As Attorney General, I could not defend it against a Constitutional challenge."
New White House interns include Kathryn Baxter of Glenside, Karen Blyton of Malvern, Evan Cohen from Penn State, Kathleen Dorian of Johnstown, Blake Harden from Penn, Stefan Johnson of Philadelphia, Anne Kauth from Bryn Mawr College, Lindsay Matthews of Birdsboro, Queen Muse of Philadelphia, Nickolas Reck of Douglassville, Dana Rosenzweig of Wyomissing, Brendan Saller from Penn State and Stephanie Yoon of Philadelphia. Congratulations!
Greg Smith's Goldman Sachs resignation letter is all the rage. As if it says anything we didn't already know, its shocking coming from an insider. Firms which stop being responsive and responsible to their clients soon cease being businesses.
To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money...It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as "muppets," sometimes over internal e-mail....These days, the most common question I get from junior analysts about derivatives is, "How much money did we make off the client?"
The State Government Committee pulled Daryl Metcalfe's hate filled "marriage protection" amendment Tuesday. Perhaps the extreme lunatics in charge in Harrisburg are feeling some heat?
