Results tagged “senatorricksantorum”

Update: A few more sites have been added, and a few other fixes have been made.

Sunday night a New Jersey state trooper spotted an SUV moving at a high rate of speed and swerving between lanes. The trooper finally got the guy to stop as he was crossing the Walt Whitman. The driver hopped out of the car - and flung himself off the bridge. A search has been conducted for the man, but as of this writing, it has been unsuccessful. Very strange stuff. Since when is facing a possible traffic ticket more frightening than jumping off a bridge??

An off-duty Southwest Philadelphia police officer allegedly tried to do some shop-lifting at a Northeast Philly Wal-Mart Tuesday night - and he wasn't kidding around either. Supposedly he tried to sneak out with $258 worth of unpaid for products. He was caught and arrested inside the store. We, of course, are desperately curious about what exactly he (allegedly, of course) tried to steal...

Does somebody or something hate the Wissahickon Creek? Not long after a still mysterious contaminant killed more than 1,000 fish in the creek, sparking a short-lived health advisory warning everyone to stay away, the creek has now had 55,000 gallons of raw sewage dumped into it due to "electrical problems" Monday night at an Ambler sewage treatment plant. How an electrical problem can cause huge amounts of raw sewage to end up in the Wissahickon Creek is not exactly clear to us, but that's neither here nor there. The point is, although the water is rather toxic for fish, no more fish appear to be dying, and there isn't enough contaminant in the water for it to be toxic to people. In other words, it's just the right amount of raw sewage! Mmm mm!

Speaking of controversy, have you heard about the whole dust-up over the fact that an Arab company just bought another company which happens to run some operations at six American ports, including one here at Philadelphia? The company is Dubai Ports World, a state-owned business of the United Arab Emirates, which, critics point out, "was an operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks of Sept. 11." (Although, of course, Phillyist could point out that America was technically the operational and financial base for Timothy McVeigh, the guy who carried out the Oklahoma Bombings...) Some local politicians are pretty angry about the whole thing, including Pennsylvania Representative Curt Wheldon, and Senator Rick Santorum (it's a regular Santorum-fest around here today!), who has written a strongly-worded letter to the President about it. That'll show 'em!

• Pat Robertson calling for his death notwithstanding, Hugo Chavez is showing generosity to Philadelphians by shipping five million gallons of heating oil for distribution to area low-income families, and it will be available at a 40% discount. Mayoral hopeful and current U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah brokered the deal. Chavez, President of Venezuela, recently called President George W. Bush a "genocidal madman".
• In a really stupid move, Pennsylvania lawmakers are mulling over the idea of taxing gym memberships. Granted, Men's Fitness magazine says we've improved since last year - we're the 25th fattest city in America instead of the second fattest city in the U.S. - but we're fairly certain it's not the best idea ever had to penalize people for trying to be healthy. The legislation being considered would also levy a tax on advertising services, campground fees, laundry services, candy, tanning, management consulting, and concert tickets. Yeah, because the Ticketmaster fees don't already make going to a concert annoyingly expensive.
• In sort of related news, people all over town are abuzz with the gossip that 12th Street Gym owner Robert Guzzardi is a big contributor to Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. 12th Street Gym is smack dab in the middle of the Gayborhood and heavily utilized by the Philadelphia gay community. Santorum is not exactly a friend to the LGBT community.
Continue reading "Yo, Philly In the News"

Pennsylvania politics are just downright entertaining. If politicians aren't voting themselves gigantic pay raises in the middle of the night, then Philly city council members and various political wonks are being indicted. If state reps aren't calling each other 'crackers', then gubernatorial hopefuls are firing their campaign managers for referring to the African-American candidate as ''the rich white guy in the campaign.'

Justice Sunday III came and went in Philly yesterday, and Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum had the chance to rub elbows with darlings of the religious right like Jerry Falwell. After Senator Santorum's shimmy to the left on issues like Intelligent Design and the death penalty, Phillyist wondered if he would continue to reach out to those not in his conservative base.

Justice Sunday strives to convince us all that judicial activists - such as the Bush-appointed conservative Republican judge who recently ruled against Intelligent Design in Dover, PA - are ruining this country and have declared a de facto war on Christians. Justice Sunday III: Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land follows Justice Sunday II: God Save the United States and this Honorable Court, Justice Sunday I: Stop the Filibuster Against People of Faith, and Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol. OK, maybe not that last one.

Ronnie Polaneczky has read our minds. The Daily News columnist read Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum's book and found - surprise, surprise - a massive amount of stinking hypocrisy.

But here's what he wrote regarding his demand that government increase the child credit and tax deduction for parents with kids: "The government actually provides less help the more children you have. The opposite should be true, and I am working on some amendments to fix this inequity for large families. (OK, I admit that with six kids of my own at home, I'm biased; but the tax code really has it in for big families.)"What I suspect he's really saying: An out-of-work mom with more kids than she can afford doesn't deserve the government's help. But a middle-class senator with more kids than he can afford sure does!Where he sometimes gets help instead: Santorum told the New York Times that his parents help him out financially. "They're by no means wealthy - they're two retired VA (Veterans Administration) employees - but they'll send a check every now and then. They realize things are a little tighter for us."Except that he makes $162,000 a year. I'll bet a welfare mom of six kids could live very well on that, so why is a 47-year-old man hitting up his elderly parents for cash? Or asking for tax breaks?But at least his folks have the money to lend him. That's because both his parents receive pensions. Why? Santorum grew up in a two-career family - a kind of family he deplores in his book as being obsessed with giving their kids "things" instead of time!

That's just...icky. We're now imagining Senator Santorum taking his passle of kids and the wife to the 'rents house with all of the laundry, and then emptying out his parents' refrigerator on the way out. Oh Rick! What's next - letting your kids panhandle for change in front of the local Wawa?

Junior Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is looking at quite a fight in next year's mid-term election. He's currently trailing likely Democratic opponent Bob Casey, Jr. (son of much-beloved, longtime PA governor, Bob Casey) by nearly 14 points in a Quinnipiac University poll. Possibly defrauding the Penn Hills school district, Santorum's incredibly unpopular opinions about the right to privacy and the right of government to make our medical decisions for us, his public declaration of support for full Amtrak funding which he promptly voted against, and that time Santorum blamed the liberals for causing Catholic priests to diddle little kids...well, none of that helps him. However, pollsters indicate that Santorum's flagging support is "because Santorum is too aligned with some of the White House's flailing policies." Enter the new, softer side of Rick Santorum. It began in March with a poll that showed Catholics were increasingly becoming anti-death penalty. Santorum immediately backtracked on his own hardcore support of the death penalty. And now Santorum has begun a campaign in earnest to prove to Pennsylvanians -- indeed, the whole country -- that he really isn't a hypocritical liar bent on allowing government to butt into every aspect of our lives. Instead, he's a lover of animals and children and veterans, concerned about the fiscal well-being of all Pennsylvanians, even at the risk of alienating his bosom buddy, President George W. Bush.
• Despite voting against every single attempt to add money to the Veterans Administration fund to pay for healthcare (Democrats had been fighting for more funding since Spring), Santorum all of a sudden became the chief backer of additional funding for the VA. See, he really does support the troops! Now maybe he can get them some body armor.
• On Tuesday Santorum introduced a bill to eliminate the telephone excise tax, that 3% tax added onto your phone bill. 3%! Why, that's a whole $1 or $2 per month! That savings would have been severely offset, however, if Santorum's minimum wage bill had been approved.
• Santorum has now decided to appeal to our love of animals by taking on the puppy mills. We guess this goes hand in hand with his new found respect for life for those in prison.