Category: default || By jt3y

Well, I didn't learn about the "poison pill" until I got home last night. That's the language in the state House's version of the pay raise repeal --- inserted either through incompetence or on purpose --- that could torpedo the entire thing.

Was I angry? No. Bears get angry when you poke them with a stick. Hornets get angry when you knock down their nest. I wasn't angry. I was in a white-hot furious rage.

I felt like Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction: "I'm Superfly T.N.T., I'm The Guns of the Navarone, I'm a mushroom-cloud-layin' mother- ... "

(Ahem.) Well, you get the idea. I was sore.

What in the name of Samuel W. Pennypacker is wrong with these clowns? From the Harrisburg Patriot-News:

Despite the differences, many lawmakers insisted yesterday that this is not a charade intended to let them tell constituents they had voted to repeal the raise, while keeping it on a technicality.

Sure. I believe that! It was an accident. After all, the law is a complicated thing. How can we expect an entire building full of professional politicians, many of them with law degrees, to figure out a teensy-weensy thing like a severance clause? Heck, next they might have to open up Robert's Rules of Order or Charlie Brown's Encyclopedia of State Government. Why, it's hard to expect the largest full-time legislature in the United States of America to focus on every tiny little detail. Cut them some slack!

Or ... could it be ... that this is the political equivalent of passive-aggressive behavior? Should I be suspicious that the only two votes against repealing the pay raise were cast by two people on the House Rules Committee, which apparently was where the "poison pill" was inserted?

"I am not that cynical," said Rep. Kate Harper, R-Montgomery. "I intended to repeal the pay raise, and I believe everybody did."

Oh, really? Everybody?

Rep. H. William DeWeese, who cast one of just two votes against rescinding the raises, said in a news release that he hopes those people who disagree with his vote "will recognize that I was consistent.

"I believe that it was the only honorable thing for me to do." DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, stated in the Thursday release.

Yes, for certain narrow definitions of "honorable." Oh, Mr. DeWeese? We have that truckload of hubris you ordered. Shall we drop it off in the back?

Do you know why they get away with this stuff? Because no matter what happens, no matter how many angry letters-to-the-editor are written, no matter how much pressure that every radio talk-show host and non-profit group applies, nine out of 10 of these guys are going to be re-elected by overwhelming margins.

In the case of someone like DeWeese, who's been in office for 30 years (you can even watch a video of highlights!), he may not even have an opponent. If he does, he can count on the mostly elderly voters of his district to turn out in force and vote for him as a "thank you" for some negligible favor he did 15 or 20 years ago for them --- forwarding their driver's license renewal form to Harrisburg or some such rot.

That makes me want to pound my head on the floor. (Luckily, I'll only hurt the floor.)

It may be time for another Constitutional Convention in this state (the last one ended in 1968). Items for discussion should include an amendment to make it easier for Pennsylvania voters to get referenda onto the ballot, and another that enables us to hold recall elections. I'd be willing to back almost any state political leader who pushed for those.

I don't think we should be voting on every issue, like some western states, because you end up with ballots that have dozens of conflicting and confusing propositions. But if our representatives aren't willing to act on our issues, then we need to go directly to the voters.

And the very first referendum on the ballot should be shrinking the size of the state legislature. Right now, there are 203 state representatives for 12 million Pennsylvanians, or about one legislator for every 60,000 people. They make about $81,000 per year.

By comparison, Allegheny County Council has 15 members for 1.25 million residents, or one representative for every 83,000 people, and those councilors work part-time for $9,000 per year. Westmoreland County has three commissioners for 369,000 residents, or one for every 123,000 people; they make about $60,000 per year.

I don't know if either of those bodies is a model of efficiency, but they haven't ground to a halt, either, like the General Assembly has on several occasions. If the General Assembly worked on the Allegheny County Council model, the state House would have about 150 legislators. By the Westmoreland County standard, we'd have about 100. Those seem like nice, round numbers to me.

But until we get some real reform --- meaning until the voters of Pennsylvania stand up on their hind legs and start tossing some of these people out, tap-shoes over tea-kettles --- they are going to continue to play us like fools and suckers. Because we are.

So let me ask you: Have you called, written or emailed your state legislator or senator yet?

No?

Then we're getting about what we deserve, aren't we?

...

Now, before I collapse on the floor, frothing at the mouth and ripping up pieces of carpeting, perhaps I'll move on. With a reminder, of course, that opinions expressed in the Almanac are mine and mine alone, and are not influenced by any organization, company, group, coffee klatch, sewing circle, church, mosque, synagogue, militia, or acrobatic troupe for which I may do work or of which I may or may not be a member.

...

Good News You May Have Missed: The McKeesport Symphony Orchestra has hired a new music director, according to the Post-Gazette. Bruce Lauffer is a teacher in the Jeannette School District who has conducted the MSO, the Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra and concerts by famed Irish tenor Cahal Dunne.

Residents of the Seventh Ward have erected a new playground with help from volunteers and a donation from Home Depot, also according to the P-G. Funds were raised by White Oak residents Norinne and Roy Jenkins and kids from the LaRosa Boys' and Girls' Club helped design the facility.

The French American Cultural Exchange has provided five French films for viewing during November at Penn State McKeesport. Mary Ellen Higgins, assistant professor of English, was instrumental in securing and selecting the films, according to a PSU news release. The next two films will be shown Tuesday and Thursday. (Or, as they say en français, at least according to Babelfish: "L'échange culturel américain français a fourni cinq films français à voir pendant novembre en le campus de McKeesport de l'université de l'Etat de Penn.")

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To Do This Weekend: North Huntingdon -- St. Agnes Catholic Church, 11400 St. Agnes Lane, North Huntingdon Township, hosts a luncheon, Chinese auction and vendor fair, noon to 3 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $5. Call (724) 864-2347. ... Yough Central Model Railroad Club holds a model train show and sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Versailles Volunteer Fire Co., 4919 Third St. at Walnut Street, Versailles. Admission is $2. Call (412) 849-6755. ... McKeesport Little Theater presents "Come Back, Little Sheba," Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons through Nov. 20. Call (412) 673-1100 ... Residents For a Clean and Healthy Mon Valley hold a workshop and information fair about air pollution from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Jefferson Hills Elementary School, 875 Old Clairton Road, Jefferson Hills Borough.