Friday, November 30, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Cyber Monday Sales Set New Record at $1.46B
Cyber Monday Spending Soars to $1.46 Billion, Ranking as Heaviest U.S. Online Spending Day in History (via PR Newswire)
RESTON, Va., Nov. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season U.S. retail e-commerce spending for the first 26 days of the November-December 2012 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $16.4 billion has been spent…
Sandy-damaged Vehicles Hits 230,000 Mark
Sandy-Damaged Vehicles Hit 230,000 Mark (via PR Newswire)
New York and New Jersey Account for 190,000 DES PLAINES, Ill., Nov. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) today announced revised estimates for the number of vehicles damaged as a result of Sandy as provided by the Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO), a…
New York and New Jersey Account for 190,000 DES PLAINES, Ill., Nov. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) today announced revised estimates for the number of vehicles damaged as a result of Sandy as provided by the Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO), a…
'Poverty' pays better than middle-class employment
Welcome to Barack Obama's America.
John Hayward: "Poverty" pays better than middle-class employment | Human Events
John Hayward: "Poverty" pays better than middle-class employment | Human Events
First Christmas Card of the Season
I love Christmas lights. They remind me of the people who voted for Obama. They all hang together; half of them don't work, and the ones that do, aren't all that bright.
(I got this email from a friend today. Thought I'd share.)
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Conservative Groups' Letter to Lame Duck Congress: Keep Your Promises
Some Republicans in Congress are considering abandoning their "no tax hike" pledge so they can get along with Obama. If they make a deal with the Devil, there will be consequences, according to a conservative women's group.
Conservative Groups' Letter to Lame Duck Congress: Keep Your Promises: Independent Women's Voice
Conservative Groups' Letter to Lame Duck Congress: Keep Your Promises: Independent Women's Voice
400,000 Visitors
My site counter has recorded 592,000 Page Views from 400,000 Unique Visitors. Thanks for checking out TONY PHYRILLAS ON POLITICS ... and come back again.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Pennsylvania Faces $41B in Pension Deficits
Watch Pennsylvania taxpayers get screwed again. It doesn't help that voters continue to return the same members of the permanent political class to Harrisburg every election.
From a report in Bloomberg by Romy Varghese:
Pennsylvania's two public pensions face a combined shortfall of $41 billion, and their costs will consume 62 percent of fiscal 2014 revenue growth, according to a report from the state budget office.
The State Employees’ Retirement System has 65 percent of assets needed to cover projected liabilities, and the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System is 69 percent funded, the report said. The plans cover 817,000 people.Read more about the pension time bomb in Bloomberg.
Brandie Kessler says farewell to Mercury readers
Her byline has been a staple on the front page of The Mercury for more than six years, but reporter Brandie Kessler is leaving Pottstown for a bigger newspaper. Check out her farewell column at the link below.
Reporter prepares for change as she says farewell to Pottstown
Reporter prepares for change as she says farewell to Pottstown
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Deer hunting season opens Monday in Pennsylvania
Most Pennsylvania schools are closed on Monday. The start of deer-hunting season is almost as big a holiday as Thanksgiving.
Central Pennsylvania deer hunters divided on blue law
Central Pennsylvania deer hunters divided on blue law
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Friday, November 23, 2012
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
More Pa. State Forest Roads Open For Deer Hunting Season
Additional Pennsylvania State Forest Roads Opened for Deer Hunting Season (via PR Newswire)
HARRISBURG, Pa., Nov. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- More accessible areas and expanded hunting opportunities await hunters when they head into state forestlands for Monday's start of the traditional two-week white-tailed deer season. "Our bureau is opening more than 400 miles of roads normally…
Unionized federal workers want no part of this 'austerity' stuff
Welcome to Obama's second term. Next exit: Greece.
Unionized federal workers want no part of this 'austerity' stuff - Human Events
Unionized federal workers want no part of this 'austerity' stuff - Human Events
Pa. politicians, judges line up for another pay raise
Christmas is coming early for Pennsylvania politicians and judges. They're giving themselves another pay raise.
Top Pa. officials eligible for 2.2% pay raises
Top Pa. officials eligible for 2.2% pay raises
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Pa. Hunters Encouraged To Donate Venison To Help Feed Hungry
Pennsylvania Hunters Encouraged to Donate Venison to Help Feed Hungry (via PR Newswire)
HARRISBURG, Pa., Nov. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Agriculture Secretary George Greig today asked hunters to donate deer meat to the "Hunters Sharing the Harvest'' program, which distributes to Pennsylvania food banks, soup kitchens and pantries. "Hunger affects more than 1.5 million Pennsylvanians…
Monday, November 19, 2012
PA National Guard To Host Job Fair For Service Members, Veterans
PA National Guard to Host Hiring Expo for Service Members, Veterans (via PR Newswire)
HARRISBURG, Pa., Nov. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Service members and veterans of all military branches and components are invited to a Military Hiring Expo from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 6, in building 8-80 located at the corner of Service Road and Bearty Avenue, Fort Indiantown…
Survey: 38M Shopped Online While On Toilet
More than 38 Million* Online Americans Shopped While on the Toilet (via PR Newswire)
PORTLAND, Maine, Nov. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The holiday shopping season is nearly in full swing and survey results announced by CashStar, the world's leading digital gifting and incentives company, show that online Americans are shopping from their mobile devices in mass numbers, sometimes from…
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Handicapping Pennsylvania's 2014 Gubernatorial Field
Two of Pennsylvania's leading political pundits, G. Terry Madonna and Michael L. Young, take a look at the potential field for the 2014 race for Pennsylvania governor.
Politically Uncorrected: Handicapping Pennsylvania's 2014 Gubernatorial Field - delcotimes.com
Politically Uncorrected: Handicapping Pennsylvania's 2014 Gubernatorial Field - delcotimes.com
Saturday, November 17, 2012
1-cent increase to stamp price gets regulatory OK
After the Postal Service finished with a $15.9 billion deficit, what did you expect. The price of stamps is going up again.
1-cent increase to stamp price gets regulatory OK
1-cent increase to stamp price gets regulatory OK
Friday, November 16, 2012
Democrats Perfect the Art of Voter Fraud
Jack Cashill, writing at American Thinker:
Worse than fraud is the process that turned nearly 20,000 black Philadelphians -- and millions of inner-city dwellers throughout the country -- into automatons. Hope does not produce this kind of regimentation. Fear does. In looking at these numbers, in fact, one can begin to see how, 34 years ago this Sunday, in the jungles of Guyana, Jim Jones was able to persuade 918 of his followers, most of them poor and black, to drink their lethal Kool-Aid. Fear can do that.Jack Cashill: Obama's Jonestowns
Why Isn't Sandy Obama's Katrina?
Two natural disasters under two different presidents. The corrupt liberal media blamed President Bush for inept federal response to Katrina, but covers up for Obama's failed response to Sandy. Liberal media bias at its finest.
Why Isn't Sandy Obama's Katrina?
Why Isn't Sandy Obama's Katrina?
Guest Column: GOP Message Has to Be for Every American
By Congressman Joe Pitts
Pennsylvania - 16th District
Whenever a
political party loses a major election there is a certain amount of soul
searching that goes on. This is a healthy process. If Republicans don’t ask
what went wrong and what can be done better next time, we will never move
forward.
I am
certainly glad that Republicans will continue to lead the House of Representatives.
However it is also clear that the American people did not sign on to the vision
put forward by our party in the 2012 election. I believe strongly in
conservative principles, but we need to think hard about how we turn those
principles into concrete proposals and how we show that our ideas will lead to
a stronger, more prosperous nation.
Polls before
and after the election showed that the American people thought that the
Republican nominee would do a better job of running the economy. The economy
was the number one issue for most Americans, but it wasn’t the only thing
people thought about when they were entering the polling booth.
Caring is
critical. The job of president is about far more than budgets and spreadsheets.
The decisions that have to be made cannot always be reduced to numbers and
data. The American people want a president who is thinking about them on a
personal level. Exit polls showed that President Obama had an 11 point lead on
the question of which candidate was more in touch with the American people.
This reminds
me of the famous, “Who would you rather have a beer with?” question from the
2000 election. George W. Bush won that tongue-in-cheek poll, and also won the
election. Despite a privileged upbringing, Bush was able to convince the
American people that he would be a caring president.
By contrast,
Mitt Romney’s statement about the “47 percent” portrayed himself as a person
who thought in figures and numbers and who wrote off voters based on
demographics and economics. I don’t know if any politician who writes off
nearly half of the electorate could be voted dog catcher, let alone president.
If
Republicans want to lead, our message of opportunity and prosperity has to be
for every American. We have to make it clear that our policies will benefit citizens
from all across the economic spectrum.
Rich, poor
and middle class Americans want a fairer nation. I believe that Republican
principles of standing up for job creation, opportunity and personal liberty
are the best way to raise the standard of living for everyone.
I believe
that every American dreams of having more than food stamps, public housing and
Medicaid. I know that people who are on these programs dream of a better life
for their children. We have to demonstrate that Republican policies are better
at providing opportunities for poor Americans to move into the middle class.
Government
may be able to provide a safety net, but it will never be able to create the
good private sector jobs that build a more prosperous society. Four years ago,
we saw the stimulus bill spend nearly a trillion dollars with little effect on
employment and no effect on median household income.
The typical
American family made 7 percent less in 2011 than they did in 2007. Despite
government spending at a record level compared with our GDP, we are in the
midst of the weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression. The wealthy
continue to do fine, while poor and middle class Americans struggle.
Republicans
need to be fighting poverty just as hard as Democrats, but we shouldn’t do it
the old, tired way of throwing money into the bureaucracy. An ever expanding
federal government hasn’t reduced the poverty rate and hasn’t fixed our broken
inner city schools.
Since I came
to Congress, I’ve looked for free market solutions to help low income
individuals save for college and for their retirement. Over the past year, I’ve
been working with other members to promote free market
solutions to the problems that keep families in poverty. We can have a powerful
message of hope for Americans who are struggling economically, and we don’t
need to consider any citizen a lost cause.
Labor unions kill off Twinkies
It's been said that Twinkies could survive a nuclear blast, but apparently the maker cannot survive the greed of organized labor.
John Hayward: Death of a Hostess | Human Events
John Hayward: Death of a Hostess | Human Events
Only 57% of voters went to polls on Nov. 6
Interesting editorial in the Reading Eagle about how few voters actually decided the presidential race:
Award electoral votes proportionally to popular vote (11/16/12)
Counting all the provisional and absentee ballots cast during the presidential election, more than 126 million Americans went to the polls, a dismal 57.5 percent, according to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate.
That means that by a wide margin more voting-eligible Americans, 93 million, opted not to vote than voted for either of the two major-party candidates.
President Barack Obama, by the time all votes are counted, is expected to have collected about 64 million popular votes, or slightly more than half of those cast. Mitt Romney's total is expected to be about 60.5 million votes, or about 48.1 percent.
However if you factor all who remained home on Election Day, the percentage of those eligible to vote who voted for the president was only 29.2 percent. Romney received votes from 27.6 percent of the electorate. A whopping 42.5 percent of those who could have voted didn't bother to do so.
Award electoral votes proportionally to popular vote (11/16/12)
Dead Israelis Don't Count At The Washington Post
A classic example of anti-Israel bias in one of the nation's most liberal newspapers.
How WaPo Covered Operation Pillar of Defense
How WaPo Covered Operation Pillar of Defense
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Eurozone slides back into recession
Another recession in Europe, so why is Obama following the same path?
Eurozone slides back into recession
Eurozone slides back into recession
Post office reports record loss of nearly $16 billion
Let's turn the health care system over to the government. They've done such a great job with mail delivery. What could possible go wrong?
Post office reports record loss of $15.9B for year
Post office reports record loss of $15.9B for year
Chutzpah! Pa. Dems call for investigation into possible voter fraud
What's this? The Democratic Party, which has mastered the art of voter fraud, wants to investigate potential voter fraud in Pennsylvania. Isn't that like asking the fox to watch the hen house?
Pa. Dems call for investigation into possible voter fraud - abc27 WHTM
Pa. Dems call for investigation into possible voter fraud - abc27 WHTM
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
'Buzz' off the air: Pottstown-area AM station WBZH 'goes silent'
Things have gone downhill for this radio station (formerly WPAZ) ever since "Talking Politics with Tony Phyrillas & Mike Pincus" went off the air. Coincidence?
'Buzz' off the air: Local AM station WBZH 'goes silent'
'Buzz' off the air: Local AM station WBZH 'goes silent'
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
PA State Rep. Tom Quigley concedes 146th Dist. race to Democrat
Quigley, a popular and highly-regarded state lawmaker, was upset by Democrat Mark Painter on Nov. 6. Since the margin was about 200 votes and absentee ballots were not counted, Quigley refused to concede the race.
But after absentee ballots were counted by Montgomery County officials on Friday, the gap remained about 200 votes.
Quigley said he spoke to Painter earlier in the day in Harrisburg, where Painter was attending an orientation session for newly-elected legislators.
Quigley also issued the following statement:
Although he hasn't decided what he will do next, Quigley has not rule out a run for the state Legislature in 2014 to reclaim the 146th District seat.In light of the completed count of all absentee ballots, it is clear that the people of the 146th District have spoken and they have elected Mark Painter as their next Representative. I saw Mark in Harrisburg today, shook hands, congratulated him and wished him well.I would like to take this opportunity to say what a great privilege and pleasure it has been to represent the people of the 146th District. In the past eight years my staff and I have had the chance to meet and serve numerous people in our community. My district office staff; Karen, Joan and Veronika and my Harrisburg staff; Lauren, have provided outstanding service to the many people who have sought our help on numerous issues. I know I speak for them in saying that we will miss that daily interaction and the opportunity to truly make a difference in people's lives.
My district office will be closing at the end of November when my term officially ends. My staff will be contacting those with outstanding issues to direct them to the appropriate person.
Again, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the people of the 146th District for allowing me to serve as your representative.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Liberal columnist to Obama: Don't fall victim to the mandate delusion
Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus, a longtime supporter of Barack Obama, isn't thrilled with Obama's demeanor since the Nov. 6 election:
The biggest mistake President Obama could make now is to arrogantly overinterpret the election results.
One of the dumbest things politicians do in the aftermath of elections is to claim a mandate.
Mr. Obama ... don’t fall victim to the mandate delusionEven dumber is when they actually believe it. And re-elected presidents are especially susceptible to the mandate delusion.
580,000 Page Views
My site counter has recorded 580,000 page views from 395,000 unique visitors. Thanks for checking out TONY PHYRILLAS ON POLITICS ... and come back again.
'A Family Reunion To Die For' Coming to Mount Penn Nov. 16-17
The Antietam School District Footlights
Drama Club is proud to present a murder-mystery in dinner theater at
the Mt. Penn Elementary Center cafeteria on Friday, November 16 and
Saturday, November 17 with dinner at 6 PM.
The cast of 24 Middle-Senior High School students will delight you with 'A Family Reunion To Die For'. Dinner includes being served by students and dessert at intermission. See if you can figure out who the murderer is.
Reserve your tickets soon as we only have space for 100 each night. Tickets are only $10. Where else can you get dinner and a show that inexpensively?
The cast of 24 Middle-Senior High School students will delight you with 'A Family Reunion To Die For'. Dinner includes being served by students and dessert at intermission. See if you can figure out who the murderer is.
Reserve your tickets soon as we only have space for 100 each night. Tickets are only $10. Where else can you get dinner and a show that inexpensively?
For reservations or for more information, contact Mr. Schnitter at tschnitter@antietamsd.org
Robert Samuelson: It's the Welfare State, Stupid
Now that the election is over, it's OK for liberals to admit that the welfare state promoted by Barack Obama has created to control mindless Democrats will lead to the destruction of the United States.
It's the Welfare State, Stupid
It's the Welfare State, Stupid
No prayer for Pa. school board after threat from atheists
A Lancaster County, Pa., school board has ended a longtime tradition of beginning its meetings with a prayer because an atheist group has threatened to sue it.
No prayer for board at Elanco
No prayer for board at Elanco
James Bond soars with record $87.8M 'Skyfall' debut
The critics love it, calling it the best James Bond movie ever, and now audiences agree, making "Skyfall" the top-grossing film at this weekend's box office.
Bond soars with record $87.8M 'Skyfall' debut
Bond soars with record $87.8M 'Skyfall' debut
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Friday, November 09, 2012
Obama to end oil shale development on federal lands in West
Get ready to pay more at the pump and to heat your home. Now that he doesn't have to worry about running for re-election, Obama can be himself. He plans to close close 1.6 million acres of federal land in the West originally slated for oil shale development.
This is where the idiots who re-elected Obama should line up to issue apologies to their fellow countrymen.
Interior proposal would limit commercial oil shale development on federal lands in West - The Hill's E2-Wire
This is where the idiots who re-elected Obama should line up to issue apologies to their fellow countrymen.
Interior proposal would limit commercial oil shale development on federal lands in West - The Hill's E2-Wire
Thursday, November 08, 2012
Obama Lost Every State With Voter ID
No wonder Democrats fought so hard to overturn or delay voter ID laws in various states, including Pennsylvania. Can Democrats ever win an election without resorting to voter fraud?
Check out this post at Pat Dollard.
Also check out the original post at The American Third Position
Check out this post at Pat Dollard.
Also check out the original post at The American Third Position
Newsweek cover enough to make you hurl
On the bright side, Newsweek will cease publication at the end of the year after nearly 80 years because nobody reads it any more. And this cover is a perfect example of why the magazine lost most of its readers as it lurched to the far left. Somebody who won 50% of the vote through deceptive means didn't exactly "conquer" the nation.