Asshole of the Week

Photo by Flickr user

Back from last week's detour on the sunshine train is your regularly scheduled hot jerk injection.

As you've already heard, the city avoided it's own personal Doomsday. Much like killing Superman, this Doomsday was going to strip us of 3,000 city employees (including the librarians who educate us, the cops who protect us, the firefighters who save us, and the sanitation folks who keep us clean and pretty), and close all of our rec centers and libraries. Nevermind Smallville, our town would have been a Frank Miller apocalypse wasteland. Instead, we were rescued at the last minute! Aren't we lucky?! Isn't that fantastic?!

No.

Well, yes and no. Of course we don't want to live in a pillaged city. We're ecstatic that we're safe. But, come on Harrisburg. What was that crap? You left us to panic for months because of a 1% sales tax increase—which affects only Philadelphia—and some re-jiggering of city employees' pension payments? That we looked like crazy yahoos to everyone? That this was drawing international attention? And even though you've finally gotten Philadelphia's budget issue out of the way, we still don't have a state budget. You do know we're the only state in the whole country with that distinction, right?

We're tired of the political drama. You have vital, important jobs (and paychecks and health insurance). Some of us aren't so lucky and we need you to look out for us. So get to it.