Last Post For a While

Things haven't been too good lately for you humble blogger.

I've been spotty in posting here on my beloved blog for the past 2 years, but there's underlying issues that have been keeping me from doing so, none of which are important enough to share.

Understand that I am loathe to do so, but I must concentrate my energies and talents elsewhere for the time being.

Therefore, your humble blogger is taking a hiatus...a sabbatical so to speak, to pursue more important things without the distractions of trying to keep up with my blog.

I'm sure I'll see you later. Maybe on the 'cooler, maybe back here, but not for a while.

Anyway, I'll be around.

Peace, out.

B.

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An Open Letter To Michael Nutter

Dear Your Honor, Mr. Mayor Michael Nutter,

I write a blog.

I live in Montgomery County.

People in Philadelphia read my blog.

Am I subject to the "blogger tax" also? If so, would you be so kind as to come collect it yourself? I could use the laugh while I explain the first amendment to you. I could also explain to you that you can't tax thoughts, just because someone writes them down. Otherwise, you could tax my 10 year old daughter's diary, couldn't you? Or, tax Stu Bykofsky's column, because that's not news, that's an opinion column, just like blogs.

See, Mr. Mayor Nutter, the possibilities are endless. If you really need the money, maybe you should change the Philadelphia 911 service to a 1-900 number. There's money in that and it would cut down on false alarms and nuisance calls to your emergency services. Or, change the number for the city hall switchboard to a toll call. Then all the kooks who call on a regular basis will be charged for bothering your receptionists while they are chatting and texting and filing their nails. Can you imagine the $$$ you would generate while your staff kept some poor slob on hold for 40 minutes?

Oh, and another thing you can do...copywrite the word "Philly Cheesesteak". Then, you could collect a fee from every crappy stand across the country who thinks they can make our hometown sandwich actually taste like the real deal.

Or, you could just leave everybody alone and realize that you can't tax free speech. It's guaranteed in our constitution, so important, our founders thought, that they made it the First Amendment. If you want to charge a blogger (who may not have the means to pay) to speak his mind, then you violate his constitutional right to free speech.

By the way, drop the $300.00 business fee to bloggers who earn a measly pittance for running ads on their blogs...you're going to lose that one, too and you've already embarrassed yourself enough by the mere mention of it.

That is all.

Sincerely,

Bill Shaw


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Ethics (?) Czar J-Huff Seeks State Supreme Court Ruling

More taxpayer money is to be wasted, folks, if Joe Hoeffel gets his way.

It seems that the Commonwealth Court is no place for J-Huff, he expects his and Jimbo's flawed ethics policy to be ruled on by the State Supreme Court.

Republican Commissioner Bruce L. Castor, Jr., thinks it probably should go to the Supreme court, just to have it done and over with. Commissioner Castor's response? From this mornings Inquirer (on Philly.com):

Castor said Wednesday he believed the Supreme Court would uphold his belief that the ethics rules Hoeffel and Commissioners Chairman James R. Matthews passed were inherently flawed. He objects to their creating rules for employees of other elected officials.

"They've become the laughingstock of Pennsylvania for thinking that they can do this," Castor said. "So that the county taxpayers don't suffer, I'll argue the case myself."

Jimbo could not be reached for comment...he's probably in his Taurus, headed down the shore to spend some campaign mon...er to relax for the weekend.

I'm sure this isn't the last we'll hear of this kids...read the Philly.com article here.
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Jimbo/J-Huff Lose in Commonwealth Court

Like we didn't know this would happen.

Our clueless leaders, Jim Matthews and Joe Hoeffel, took their "Ethics Clause" case to the Commonwealth court to once again, try to block any and everybody employed by Montgomery County from "being political"

The so-called "Ethics Clause" was struck down in Montgomery County Municipal Court as being unenforceable, as the Commissioners can't tell the individually elected row officers who can or can't work for them...or what they can or can't do during their free time. According to Judge Nicholas, the commissioners “do not have statutory authority to regulate the hiring, firing or supervision of employees of row officers.”

Well...just to waste taxpayer money a bit more, Jimbo and J-Huff decided to argue the case a bit further, and got their asses handed to them. According to the Times Herald:

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania dealt a fatal blow to Montgomery County’s ethics ordinance by affirming a prior decision that invalidated a law barring row officers and their employees from participating in political activities.

The opinion Tuesday by a seven-judge panel was unanimous. And although the opinion by President Judge Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter affirmed Section 1 of the ordinance applying specifically to lawsuits brought by two row officers, Montgomery County DA Risa Vetri Ferman and the late Sheriff John P. Durante, and remanded the rest of the law for further consideration, a concurring opinion by Mary Hannah Judge Leavitt characterized any further legal challenge as “an exercise in futility.”

With this ruling coming from the Commonwealth court, it is now binding statewide. By tipping at windmills, both Jimbo (Don Quixote) and J-Huff (his faithful servant, Sancho), both incomprehensible egomaniacs, have actually created policy statewide that they never intended.

According to Republican Commissioner, Bruce L. Castor, Jr., “...what Matthews and Hoeffel had done was meant to hurt me and my friends (in DA’s Office), but they effectively made a law binding the entire state (opposite of what was intended).”

Matthews has redefined "The Peter Principle" in a whole new way. It should be renamed "The Jimbo Principle".

You can read the Times Herald report here.
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