Curt Weldon - Below The Belt

I received an email concerning Curt Weldon, and what he said concerning Joe Sestak's choice of hospitals (Like it matters Curt?) A statement from Joe Sestak on Congressman Weldon’s remarks in the Hill newspaper this morning regarding their daughter Alexandra: Congressman Weldon’s remarks to the Hill magazine in a story published this morning regarding my daughter Alex’s treatment are inappropriate. To imply, that I should have sent my daughter to a hospital in Delaware or Pennsylvania for political purposes is beyond the pale. I understand the political arena. I knew that this campaign would thrust my family into the media spotlight and we are prepared for that. But I want to make it very clear to Congressman Weldon, that any remarks regarding my daughter, Alexandria’s, treatment will not be tolerated. Like many families dealing with illness, we have had our challenges in the last year. Through the grace of God, the many prayers of our friends and family, and the wonderful doctors and nurses, we have made it through this experience with our daughter Alex, who continues to inspire us everyday. Though we recognize the important work done by the many hospitals in and around Philadelphia, it was our personal choice to have Alex treated in Washington at the Children’s Hospital because of its outstanding work on pediatric brain tumors. This decision was based on many things – none of which were political. This was our choice as Alex’s parents and as I have said publicly, I believe these medical choices should be left in the hands of parents and family members throughout the country and not in the hands of beauracrats, special interests and especially not in the hands of politicians like Curt Weldon. Now about Joe's daughter. She was dianogsed with a malignant Brain tumor last year and was given three to six months to live. Mr & Mrs Sestak chose to have her Chemo treatments done in Washington D.C. Curt Weldon took it upon himself to chastise his opponent by suggesting treatments could be done in PA or Delaware. My question to Curt: Would it have been okay to have her treatments done in Russia?

5 Worst Intersections in Delco

I don't drive a lot. In fact, I hate to drive. However, I have lived in different parts of the Delaware County throughout my life and have seen my share of bad roadway intersections in our great county. Below is a list of the ones I hate the most, either due to heavy traffic, poor layout, or they are just simply hazardous. Please feel free to list your own since I haven't been to every street in the area and therefore don't know every single one. #5 - 5 points - Aston I never really had a problem with 5 points myself, and I've driven it hundreds of times. I can see how the layout would confuse some people though, and adding a new park right on one of the corners won't help with traffic flow any. #4 - 452 and Route 1 - Middletown, PA This intersection is more of an annoyance rather than a danger. Making a left onto 452 from Route 1 during rush hour will net you a 3-4 light wait. Traffic also backs up a lot on 452 during the evening rush hour. #3 - Route 252 and Route 3 - Newtown Square, Pa I know this intersection very well and it's a total nightmare. There's heavy traffic coming from the Blue Route going to West Chester on one end, and heavy 252 traffic from DCCC/Media going to the Main Line on the other. Factor in people making left hand turns blocking some lanes and this intersection qualifies as one of the worse. #2 - Route 1 and Sproul Road - Springfield, Pa The map image says it all. Heavy traffic combined with people getting off/on Route 1 and then having to merge with Route 1 traffic in of the off-ramp which turns into a race to avoid getting stuck in the outer lane. Getting onto 320 is ok, getting onto Route 1 is horrible. and the #1 worse intersection - Route 252 and Route 1 Media Bypass - Media, Pa Horrible. Not only is this intersection congested beyond belief from an explosion of new housing in the area, but the layout is totally ridiculous. Good luck turning left onto 252 from Route 1 coming from Springfield, because I'm not letting you through. It seems that people can't follow traffic laws on this strip of road, and many accidents happen as a result. This intersection needs some serious review by the traffic engineers at PennDot.

Kenneth Blackwell Forgot

Blackwell accidentally held shares in election-machine maker

ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell revealed Monday he accidentally invested in shares of voting-machine manufacturer Diebold Inc. last year, a period when he was sued by other manufacturers over contracts that Diebold was up for.

In a required ethics filing, Blackwell, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, said his investments are directed by an accountant and financial adviser without his knowledge or help, "similar to a blind trust." He said a manager of his investments account at Credit Suisse First Boston bought 178 shares of Diebold stock at $53.67 per share in January 2005.

These guys must really think we are stupid. We have the Secretary of State for Ohio "accidently" investing in Diebold via an account "similar to a blind trust".

Catholic vs. Public school

In honor of St. Cyril's winning their freedom for at least a year, something my high school (St. James) wasn't allowed to do, here's a blog of one of my favorite arguments. Grade school is probably the single-most important thing in a child's learning development. Most of the things they learn in the first two grades are with them for the rest of their lives. I want my children to not only learn these things that they will need in life, I also want them to learn intangibles as well: discipline, respect, and a love for learning. I think the best place for my child to learn this is in Catholic school. I'm sure there are many great public schools around. I'm sure that you think Catholic schools are over-rated, but standardized testing data says otherwise. I just think that when it comes to teacher-student attention and expectations on a student to succeed, Catholic schools just come out on top. As with anything else, where are you going to get better service, from a private company or a state-run company? There's no question. My wife, on the other hand, doesn't see the same need as I do for it. I think her main point is money. She just does not want to make the sacrifice to send our kid(s) to Catholic school. My parents made the sacrifice. They didn't have a lot of money, but still got a loan to pay for my high school education. They knew how important a Catholic education was in terms of learning and discipline. There are less drugs and fewer teen pregnancies in Catholic schools. Her other point is the whole religion thing. I guess she thinks that the school will turn our kids into mindless drones preaching about God at the dinner table, and telling us how Sister Bethany told them to reject satan. This is just not the case. Everything I learned in life is somehow connected to my time spent in Catholic school. Would I have to same education in public school? I doubt it. I'm not saying they teach different things, but if I didn't have the fear of getting in trouble with the nuns for not doing my homework or for fooling around, I probably would not have paid attention as much and learned a lot less. If I didn't have to memorize 20 vocabulary words a night or have to know every kind of structure for an English sentence, I would probably not have the communication skills I do today. My high school was an all-boys school. I couldn't imagine if I went to a co-ed public school when I was teen - I would get lost in a girl's cleavage every day! I'm sure many disagree with me, and that's fine. I only know from my own experience. Many people who go to Catholic school can't stand it, but I think they have instilled values in me that I have to this day. Some people just hate the uniforms, but you realistically have to look past that. I'm not saying that my kids should go to a Catholic high school, but certainly they should go for grades 1-8, then they can decide which high school to go themselves.

St. Cyril's did it!

EAST LANSDOWNE - The total dollar amount raised by the St. Cyril Save Our School (SOS) Committee will be announced at a special meeting tonight in St. Cyril Parish Social Hall. The initial target was $200,000 to keep the school open beyond the current school year that ends in June. We've raised over $200,000. I expect there shouldn't be any problem," St. Cyril Pastor Father Edward T. Kearns said on Monday. SOS Committee President Jim Gray will announce the grand total. The committee was formed after the results of a self-study of schools in Cluster 63, of which St. Cyril is a part, showed the school had a deficit of $200,000 for the current year. Closing in June was recommended unless the funds could be raised. Fund-raising efforts got a boost from sixth grade student Tommy Geromichalos who wrote a letter to the Make-A-Wish Foundation expressing his heartfelt with that the school be kept open long enough for him to graduate from eighth grade. Since the first committee meting on Jan. 25 parents, teachers and students have worked intensively to raise $200,000. "It's been hectic but it's been great," Father Kearns said. "People are really rallying around this cause. They definitely want to keep this school open as long as they can. It's been great because everybody's been on the same page." If paperwork is completed by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in time for the Wednesday meeting Father Kearns will be able to announce the school will stay open another year. In any event he expects the announcement to come within the week. But the work won't end there. "We're looking forward to next year. We're looking at long term funding to keep the school open," he said. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in the parish social hall, 153 Penn Blvd. in East Lansdowne.

Hello

Hi, My name is Joe Ward. (no relationship to Franny) I simply responded to Franny's request for guest bloggers. I am a lifelong registered Republican who leans left on most social issues. I live in Aston, PA and am absolutely convinced that this country is headed in the wrong direction. I plan to bring you items that will support that position, and hopefully get some of my fellow Delaware County residents as pissed off as I am becoming. Seeya around ~J

Murdered For Mooning

This story both amazes me and makes me furious. To think that two kids could actually do something so devoid of respect for human life makes me take a real hard look at how our children are being conditioned by the media. Too much MTV, gangsta' rap crap, video games, and broken homes are robbing a whole generation of America's youth. Drugs only add additional fuel to their already numb about life minds. According to Upper Darby's Top Cop Michael Chitwood, these scumbags chased the man down like hunting wild boar and both hit him with a shovel and stabbed him in various parts of his body, including his buttocks, because he "Mooned" them! Then they had the audacity to brag about it? Sick son's of Bitches they both are. The one suspect, Christopher McEneaney, has actually been in my home a few years ago, when him and my older son were "hanging out". They became enemies after some sort of dispute at Clifton Field, thank God for that. So what will become of this? The duo are now in "The Meadows", along with the adults. No Lima for them. The family of the victim, Martin Malone, are heartbroken as anyone in their situation would be. Read the article and draw your own conclusions. I already have.

Blog Contributors Needed

To our existing contributors: How about posting something? I cannot stand seeing only my own posts here, as they make this blog look way too one sided. I know that a few of you have never posted here yet. Maybe you do not know how, or don't care to.(In that case please let me know, so I can remove you.) I feel that with a big election coming up here in November bloggers on both sides of the issues at hand should be able to post their thoughts. To our readers: If your serious about being a contributor to this blog, please e-mail me and I'll send you an invitation from Blogger. When you receive it, please follow the instructions. Cheers.

Cheney: Right Again? Sound Off On This!

Quote from today's Daily Times Sound Off by an either some person who listens too much to Fox News, or the Big Talker, or just a person in the 3rd stage of senility. "Dick Cheney says there is no civil war going on in Iraq. What we see now is a last desperate attempt by terrorists to ferment unrest in that area of the world. With Dick Cheney's track record, just let me place full faith in anything he says. I agree 100 percent with Mr.Cheney and I feel anyone who disagrees with him is unpatriotic. If anyone disagrees, I'd be happy to hear from him or her." Oh really? Well, I'm here and I as a TRUE Republican or better yet AN AMERICAN, think your a MORON! Dickhead Cheney? Mr deferred stock options over ten years with Halliburton, who in turn has made zillions of America's working stiff's tax dollars while providing shit for what they were hired for? You heard it from me, right here. P.S. Your probably too stupid to know how to use a computer.

What Has America Become?

One must ask him or herself this, especially with the elections coming up in November. Commonwealth: The original phrase "common wealth" or "the common weal" is a calque translation of the Latin term res publica ("public matters"), from which the word republic comes, which was itself used as a synonym for the greek politeia as well as for the republican (i.e. non-monarchical) Roman constitution (in legal theory still in force during the empire). The English noun Commonwealth dates originally from the fifteenth century and in different contexts indicates: A political unit founded in law by agreement of the people for the common good, A federated union of constituent states, A republic, A co-operative commonwealth is the ideal of a society based on cooperative and socialist principles. Historical Commonwealths Great Britain: The Commonwealth of England was the official name of the political unit (de facto military rule in the name of parliamentary supremacy) that replaced the kingdoms of Scotland and England under the rule of Oliver Cromwell and his successors from 1649 to 1660. It formed the first republic in the English-speaking world, though this quickly devolved into a pseudo-monarchy. Australia: Australia uses the official style: The Commonwealth of Australia. Since the six Australian ex-colonies federated to form one dominion called the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. United States: Four states in the United States officially designate themselves "commonwealths:" Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. These states use the term "commonwealth" to emphasize that they have a "government based on the common consent of the people," instead of a government legitimized through their earlier Royal Colony status that was derived from the King of England. More.... After reading the above pages I thought it pertaint to post. Locally, and across the state, our current government has wasted tax dollars by either overspending or underspending, never getting it right. The other day in the Daily times, I read where Curt Weldon has raised four billion for the firefighters accross America. A worthy cause indeed. But at the same time, American troops are being exposed to poisionous, non treated water from the Tigris River by none other than Halliburton. To me, there is no Dem or Pub, only 100% do the right thing for US, America, WE The People... So what is it? Who are we? Who do we trust to run the country? Body armor not being supplied to American Troops that have just been told that "They are not going home anytime soon"? DU rounds polluting the entire globe, including right here in Delaware County? Deficit reaching nine TRILLION? Gasoline looking at God knows what a gallon this summer? Too many questions that will never be addressed until it's too late. Note to self: I must just start watching fox news and turn off the puter'. You know, duck and cover, or duck and cower. Whatever...