"School Daze."

You gotta love these thin skinned republican governors. If you think the big guy across the bridge is having some problems, you ought to get a load of the guy we have here in Pistolvania.


Our governor was so afraid of lawful protesters that he actually canceled an event at one of our public schools here in Philly. Keep in mind that this is one of the best public schools in America, and my man was in zero danger. (Although, believe it or not, there was a shooting at a high school today in our fair city.)


The governor says that he was "saddened and disappointed" that he didn't get to go, but we all know better.

"Gov. Corbett originally planned to spend the morning presenting educational achievement awards at Central High School - his first visit to a traditional Philadelphia public school since taking office.

But a large protest over education cuts during his administration caused him to divert his plans.

Corbett, speaking to reporters at the Bellevue in Center City, said he was "saddened and disappointed" he couldn't go to Central. 

"Today wasn't supposed to be about politics, it wasn't supposed to be about contracts, it wasn't supposed to be about negotiations. It was supposed to be about the students," Corbett said. "I decided not to engage in the theatrics that have been designed by adults."

The column reported that Darrin Manning said he was walking to a basketball game with about a dozen Mathematics, Civics & Sciences Charter School teammates Jan. 7 when they were stopped by police at Broad Street and Girard Avenue.
Police said the students were wearing ski masks and ran off. Manning and other players said they were wearing hoodies, hats and scarves that the school had given them to keep warm on a record cold day.
During the arrest, Manning said, a male cop roughed him up, and while he was handcuffed, a female cop pulled on his genitals so hard while frisking him that a testicle ruptured. Doctors who performed emergency surgery told his mother they didn't know if he'd be able to father children.
Manning has been charged with resisting arrest and assault on a police officer, which he denies.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20140117_Boy_s_damaged_goods_raise_ire_on_both_sides.html#HZlTUQlt95zIWv9l.99

Finally, the po po here in Philly have taken this "stop and frisk" thing to a whole different level.


One poor straight A student was profiled and arrested and the female officer helping to make the arrest grabbed his...ahem ahem, manhood so hard that he ruptured his testicles and it required surgery. 


The poor kid more than likely will never be able to have children.


Although honestly, given the kind of world that we live in and the dangers that young black men face on a daily basis, I am not sure why he would want to.

Gov. Corbett originally planned to spend the morning presenting educational achievement awards at Central High School - his first visit to a traditional Philadelphia public school since taking office.
But a large protest over education cuts during his administration caused him to divert his plans.
Corbett, speaking to reporters at the Bellevue in Center City, said he was "saddened and disappointed" he couldn't go to Central.
"Today wasn't supposed to be about politics, it wasn't supposed to be about contracts, it wasn't supposed to be about negotiations. It was supposed to be about the students," Corbett said. "I decided not to engage in the theatrics that have been designed by adults."

More coverage

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/cityhall/Corbett-blames-protesters-for-politicizing-Central-High-School-event.html#mie5LJo1GrfSKf34.99

Gov. Corbett originally planned to spend the morning presenting educational achievement awards at Central High School - his first visit to a traditional Philadelphia public school since taking office.
But a large protest over education cuts during his administration caused him to divert his plans.
Corbett, speaking to reporters at the Bellevue in Center City, said he was "saddened and disappointed" he couldn't go to Central.
"Today wasn't supposed to be about politics, it wasn't supposed to be about contracts, it wasn't supposed to be about negotiations. It was supposed to be about the students," Corbett said. "I decided not to engage in the theatrics that have been designed by adults."

More coverage

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/cityhall/Corbett-blames-protesters-for-politicizing-Central-High-School-event.html#mie5LJo1GrfSKf34.99

Gov. Corbett originally planned to spend the morning presenting educational achievement awards at Central High School - his first visit to a traditional Philadelphia public school since taking office.
But a large protest over education cuts during his administration caused him to divert his plans.
Corbett, speaking to reporters at the Bellevue in Center City, said he was "saddened and disappointed" he couldn't go to Central.
"Today wasn't supposed to be about politics, it wasn't supposed to be about contracts, it wasn't supposed to be about negotiations. It was supposed to be about the students," Corbett said. "I decided not to engage in the theatrics that have been designed by adults."

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/cityhall/Corbett-blames-protesters-for-politicizing-Central-High-School-event.html#mie5LJo1GrfSKf34.99

When minoritty outreach goes wrong.

Those poor folks in the GOP just can't seem to get this minority outreach thing right.

"Oh, Republican governors! When they’re not losing track of the one Latina they hired, they’re digging up a Latino white supremacist to serve on their reelection committees. Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC) has come under fire this week after the Southern Poverty Law Center noticed that one member of her “Grassroots Steering Committee,” Roan Garcia-Quintana, is a board member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, which SPLC calls a “white nationalist hate group.”
MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton reported on Gov. Hayley’s pal on last night’s PoliticsNation, citing the SPLC, which, when convenient, conservatives like to label as partisan. However, even the Anti-Defamation League calls the CofCC a “white suprema­cist” organization, and reported on Garcia-Quintana’s membership last month:

Roan Garcia-Quintana, a direc­tor of the white suprema­cist Coun­cil of Con­ser­v­a­tive Cit­i­zens (CofCC), is closely tied to anti-immigrant orga­ni­za­tions in the United States. Garcia-Quintana is a well-known leader in the CofCC, a group descended from the White Cit­i­zens Coun­cils, which opposed deseg­re­ga­tion of schools dur­ing the Civil Rights era.

He is a fre­quent speaker at CofCC regional events and national con­fer­ences. The CofCC has called mixed-race mar­riage “the mon­gre­liza­tion of the races” and is openly hos­tile to immi­gra­tion. The CofCC state­ment of prin­ci­ples says, “We there­fore oppose the mas­sive immi­gra­tion of non-European and non-Western peo­ples into the United States that threat­ens to trans­form our nation into a non-European major­ity in our lifetime.”

I know I know, the guy was Hispanic, but you republicans better start doing your homework before you go grabbing the first so- called minority you see. Just think of my man E. W. Jackson in Virginia.

But wait, it gets better.

In my homestate of Pistolvania, the GOP governor says that he can't find one Hispanic in the entire state to put on his staff. Well as it turns out.....

"The liberal media can be so very, very unfair to Republicans. In remarks being widely publicized this week, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett ......responded to a question about whether he had any Latinos on his staff by replying “No, we do not have any staff members in there. If you can find us one, please let me know.”

Predictably, the likes of MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton tried to use this to malign GOP minority outreach, but it turns out Corbett does have one Latina staffer. So there.
Gov. Corbett, who last month said that part of Pennsylvania’s unemployment problem is that area employers “can’t find anybody that has passed a drug test,” made his remark at a Philadelphia Union League roundtable last Friday. Moderator Sabrina Vouroulias, Managing Editor of Philadelphia’s Al Dia, asked Corbett “Do you have staff members that are Latino?”

“No, we do not have any staff members in there,” Corbett replied. “If you can find us one, please let me know.”

“I am sure that there are Latinos that…” Vouroulias began.
Corbett turned to the crowd, and asked “Do any of you want to come to Harrisburg?” and, to laughter from the crowd, exclaimed “See?”

So, what’s worse than being asked if you have any Latino staff members and replying that you can’t find any Latinos to hire? Maybe being asked if you have any Latino staff members, and forgetting that you do. Philly Magazine‘s Simon van Zuylen-Wood reported this yesterday:

Calm down lefty media hyperventilators! After you all jumped down Tom Corbett’s throat for his comment about having no Latino staff members, the Governor’s people put out a press release smack-down, pointing out that in fact they’ve actually got ONE Latino staffer, Maria Montero, the Director of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs.

I would have published this sooner, but I was waiting from a response from Corbett’s people confirming that there’s really no one else. In fairness, the administration also used to employ preternaturally grumpy Eli Aliva as Secretary of Health and nominated Ken Trujillo for Commissioner of the PLCB.

See, liberal left loons? Governor Corbett’s Director of Latino Affairs is Latina, which his office totally remembered days later, so SHUT UP!"

Yes, that Corbett dude is no rocket scientist, but I am not sure if that makes him racially insensitive like the rest of his GOP pals.

I mean the man did have a black son in law (no "Jungle Fever" jokes, please) for crying out loud. 

N-words in celebrity land, and a Pennsylvania Shell game.

I swear you Negroes are so sensitive. White folks just don't know how to act around you. Pretty soon you won't have any friends at all. Poor Gwyneth Paltrow. She tried to be down with you all and all she got for her troubles was a twitter firestorm. Come on now, what's a little "N-word" between friends?

Anyway, some of you celebrity Negroes who are used to white folks (unlike those Negroes in the hood who never see white folks) are jigging coming to Gwyneth's defense.

"...a couple of nights ago, a similar milestone occurred in Paris with Jay and Kanye's Watch The Throne Tour. It was at this show that my friend Gwyneth Paltrow tweeted something that got me a little twisted. I follow Gwyneth on Twitter and when I saw her tweet about the “N*ggas in Paris” show in PARIS, I said ‘Damn everybody is there but me.’ I’m a bit older and I don’t get to jet-set to concerts like I used to, but when I saw Gwyneth was there, I must admit, I got a little jealous. The tweet she sent has since angered some in the black community, since she used the n-word. But when I saw it, it didn’t faze me - not even one bit.

I have to throw my hand up and stand up for Gwyneth. I know her intentions were not to be offensive ... she was just proud of her friend, Jay-Z. My words are in defense of her.

I don’t have a permanent answer to the n-word controversy that appeases everyone. I remember when I tried to fix it and said we should maybe beep that word and a few others on the radio, Oprah quoted me as if I said not to use the n-word. However, for the record, I have NEVER told any artist not to use that word or any word in my life and I never will; a poet can choose their own words to describe whatever they want in their art."

Ahhhm....Russell, I have a news flash for you: Gwyneth is not a poet. But I get your point. Still, if I was Gwyneth, I would just stop hanging around you Negroes.  

Finally, as another governor fights for his political life tonight, my governor is busy selling out Pistolvania to Shell Oil. $1.7 Billion??!! That can buy a lot of school books.

My friend Will Bunch wrote an excellent article exposing Governor Big Oil:

"They are the world's second largest corporation by revenue, and last year Royal Dutch Shell made an astronomical $31 billion in profits - more than triple what the global oil giant was earning just two years earlier.

But Gov. Corbett apparently doesn't think the hard-earned cash you fork over every time you pull into a Shell station is enough.

He wants to give them your tax dollars, too - perhaps as much as about $1.7 billion over the next 25 years.

It would actually be too kind to call Corbett's corporate-welfare scheme involving Shell's planned ethane-cracking plant on Pennsylvania's far western border a tax break - because the deal has already won state approval to avoid taxes, in a specially created Keystone Opportunity Zone. So this proposed new deal - which was being negotiated in secret until long-time Harrisburg journalist Pete DeCoursey broke the news Monday - is essentially just a straight-up cash giveaway to Big Oil.   

For a facility it is already planning to build here.

In the state where it arguably would have been built anyway without a single dollar of tax incentives, since this is where ethane wells are already being drilled.

Did I mention that this is the same Tom Corbett who wants struggling unemployed folks getting food stamps to prove they don't have money stashed away, whose steep 2011 cuts to school funding deeply exacerbated an education crisis that's risking everything from school plays in Upper Darby to the janitor who cleans your son's classroom here in Philadelphia? I guess janitors didn't realize the threshold to get Corbett's attention is $31 billion.

"It's essentially a big giveaway of money we didn't have, to attract a company we were already getting," said Sharon Ward, the director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, a progressive think tank, who called the proposal "unprecedented." [Article]

This is not "unprecedented" this is the new normal here in America: Corporations first, people second. Oh wait...corporations are people. Never mind. 

Winning back the White House by any means necessary.

My governor here in Pistolvania has been on a roll lately. He told women to just close their eyes and enjoy a foreign object poking around in their vagina, and his new budget proposal cuts college funding by over 600 million dollars. Then, to top it off, he is aligning himself with the rest of the charlatans and politricksters in his party by signing off on a nefarious plot to win back the White House and disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters here in Pistolvania.

By signing the voter ID bill, HB 934 into law here in Pistolvania, he has cemented his legacy as nothing more than a political hack who cares more about his party than the people of his state.

So why was House Bill-934 even necessary in the first place? Republicans claim that it will reduce voter fraud, but is that really necessary? Let's see now, between 2002 and 2007 the Justice Department found only 86 cases of voter fraud out of 300 million votes cast.  In Pistolvania we have had 20 million votes cast since 2004, and there has been exactly four (yes, FOUR) convictions for voter fraud. This little scheme to crack down on imaginary voter fraud is going to cost our state between five to eleven million dollars.

But we all know what this is all about. Pistolvania is a crucial swing state in the presidential elections, and the votes here are always close. Keeping those poor people, the elderly, and Negroes away from the voting booth could make a huge difference in the next presidential election. 

"They purveyors of voter fraud fear also have decades of practice. The modern crusade against voter fraud started in the civil rights era of the 1960s, with growing anxieties among white politicians and voters over the growing power of black and urban voters.

As historian Rick Perlstein documents, Republicans tapped into -- and inflamed -- these fears with outrageous claims of black voter fraud, which not only riled up the conservative base, but also laid the groundwork for "anti-fraud" campaigns that could depress Democratic turnout."

Ok, so it's all about politics. Well, two can play that game. Waiting for the Obama Justice Department to step in here and stop Pistolvania in 10-9-8-7-.......

Finally, I want to do something unpopular and what no other blogger will have the guts to do. I want to defend the hard core porn industry in this country.
Unfortunately, they are coming under attack from one of the republican presidential candidates.

"Rick Santorum has made a campaign promise to bar "hardcore pornography" from American websites, magazines and television, but industry giants who produce much of the nation's porn aren't worried that the crusading candidate will stop the multibillion dollar industry from churning out the next "Deep Throat."

"I don't see a danger," Michael Lucas, New York's largest producer of gay adult films, told Yahoo News. "There's no danger that he will be the Republican Party nominee."

Santorum's campaign posted a position paper on its website in February that vowed to "vigorously" enforce obscenity laws and restrict the distribution of hardcore pornography, which it says has reached "pandemic" levels. The former Pennsylvania senator said he will "prohibit distribution of hardcore (obscene) pornography on the Internet, on cable/satellite TV, on hotel/motel TV, in retail shops and through the mail or by common carrier." [Source]

WTF? I think I speak for every red blooded A-merry-can when I say that this is bull s*&^! So if Ricky is elected there will be no more porn available on our computers. This means that most of his supporters will not be able to secretly get their freak on with their Internet girl when they go home from bible studies.

This is why this guy is dangerous. Sorry Rick, we don't need Taliban style laws here in the land of the free legislating our morality.

"Pandemic levels"? I will tell you what has reached "pandemic levels": stupid "closed- minded" people. It has gotten so bad that some of them are actually running for president.

A Governor comes clean, and wingnuts are considering execution parties.

I would like to thank Governor Tom Corbett of Pistolvania for confirming what I believed all along about the state's move to change how Pistolvania awards electoral votes.

I blogged about it a couple of days a ago, and some of you declared that it was crazy to think that the motives behind the political move was to keep black  "urban" voters from having any influence over the national election process.

Well.....

"HARRISBURG - Philadelphia's big Democratic turnouts tend to drown out the voices of voters elsewhere in Pennsylvania when America elects presidents.
That was the gist of Gov. Corbett's argument Thursday as he detailed for the first time his support of a Republican-led charge to change the way Pennsylvania awards its electoral votes.

If he gets his chance, Corbett told a radio audience, he will sign a bill championed by top Republican legislators to do away with the winner-take-all apportioning of the state's electoral votes. Instead, most of those votes would be parceled out based on the popular-vote winner in each of the state's congressional districts.

"It will allow the people across the state to be better represented when it comes to the vote for president," the governor said on his new monthly radio show on WPHT-AM (1210) in Philadelphia. "There are huge portions of Pennsylvania that voted for the other candidate in many of the elections, and their vote really didn't count."

The state, he told WPHT host Dom Giordano, consists of five or six distinct political regions, and he suggested they have "not been represented because of the huge turnout in Philadelphia."

The governor, a Republican, insisted the proposed change was "not a Republican-Democrat issue." But he noted that Pennsylvania has given Democrats its electoral votes in every presidential election since 1988.

In 2008, for example, a strong turnout in Democrat-rich Philadelphia helped Barack Obama win 54.7 percent of the statewide popular vote to Republican nominee John McCain's 44.3 percent. That gave Obama the state's 21 electoral votes. If the proposal backed by Corbett and GOP legislators had been the law, Obama would have split those electoral votes with McCain, 11-10.

The only other states that allocate their electoral votes by congressional district are Maine and Nebraska.

If the law is changed here, Corbett said, next year's Republican nominee might be encouraged not to "write off Pennsylvania too soon..." [Source]

How dare you Negroes come out to vote in Philadelphia and cancel white"rural" votes in other parts of the state?

Just remember folks, you heard it here first.

Some of those republicans cheering on Governor Big Hair for all his kills must be a little down today after hearing that the Supremes put a stay on the execution of Duane Buck.

Bummer.  

But, take heart folks, you still might get a chance to cheer on the death of yet another person who might be innocent in just a few days.

I wonder why they don't just televise these executions and sell commercial time? I bet they would make a killing. (Pun intended) All those wingnuts in front of the television cheering wildly as the executioner pulls the switch or applies the lethal injection. "Look honey, look how his toes are twitching. See how his eyes pop out?" That is soooo cool!"

Hey, come to think of it; there is precedent for this stuff. I am just sayin.

"Brian Williams: Governor Perry a question about Texas. Your state has executed 234 death row inmates more than any other governor in modern times. Have you struggled to sleep at night?

Governor Rick Perry: No sir. I’ve never struggled with that at all… If you kill one of our children or police officers or another citizen in a crime you will face the ultimate justice in Texas.

Then the crowd cheered again… Even louder."

Governor, what happens if you kill the wrong person for killing one of "our children" or "police officers"? Do you get to face the "ultimate justice"? I, for one, certainly hope so.    

*Pic courtesy of Steve Brodner

They should be kicking down the doors to this house.

*

WTF is going on in A-merry-ca? Please tell me that the Department of Education isn't kicking down doors to get their student loan money. (h/t to Steve S for this story) Okay, maybe it wasn't for unpaid student loans, but this is a very curious case.

Seriously, what did Kenneth Wright do to piss off the folks over at DOE so much? I will tell you whose door they need to be kicking in; folks like the governor of Pistolvania [*see pic] who just slashed 1.5 billion dollars from the funding for basic education in this state. Now that's criminal.

“The state budget proposed today will reverse eight years of academic progress in Philadelphia by slashing funding to vital programs created to put our students on equal footing with well-funded, high-achieving school districts.

“Budget cuts of this magnitude will mean increasing class sizes; will force reductions in employees hired to keep students safe and help students and families in crisis; and eliminate programs like honors and advanced placement classes, music, art, school libraries, counselors, vocational and career training and after-school programs that already are in short supply in urban schools.

“The only way to maintain vital services to children, this budget suggests, is for dedicated, hard-working teachers and staff to pay for these programs out of their own pockets through pay freezes, work furloughs and pension cuts and benefit reductions.

“Instead of investing in students by fully funding public education using the Costing-Out study’s recommendations, this budget slashes funding to the poorest students and, in the long run, will undermine our efforts to raise the educational achievement of Philadelphia residents.”

Who cares? They are just poor inner city kids. They will all be in prison soon. Those poor white folks in rural Pistolvania need jobs. That's where we build our prisons and hire the local help. Thank god for crime and prisons. Without them many of these rural towns would go broke.

Finally, am I the only person in A-merry-ca who doesn't care about the Casey Anthony trial? I sure hope not. It's sad what happened to that little girl, but.....sorry, I am starting to have Caylee overload.