The state budget that appears to be close to passing includes a tax on tickets for theater, performing arts events and concerts.
Here's the text of a press release from the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance arguing against it.
Personally, my concern is that cultural institutions such as the Strand Capitol will be so hard up that they'll have to start booking acts like this:
Well, it's my birthday today. 43 years old and not one iota of maturity. I'm living the dream, baby!
I know my parents read this blog. So Mom and Dad -- Hi! I love you! Can't wait to see you next week!
And I would recommend that you two not read the rest of this blog entry. It's nothing scandalous. It just might be kinda ... icky.
Heavens to Betsy! I was halfway out the door before I remembered that I still have to post this week's video. Here it is!
Check it out!
http://www.rollcall.com/features/Guide-to-Congress_2009/guide/38405-1.html?page=4
"Roll Call", the newspaper that covers Capitol Hill, recently listed U.S. Rep. Todd Platts, R-York County, as a member of the "obscure caucus." Roll Call uses that designation for congress members, Republican or Democrat, who aren't well-known to the general public.
I suspect that's just fine with Platts. As Roll Call notes, the designation is more about soptlight-shunners than nobodies -- "workhorses, not showhorses." And whether they like him or not, few people would describe Platts' style as flashy or self-aggrandizing.
Of course, you could argue that Platts does seek the spotlight in one respect. He always makes a point of grabbing an aisle seat that gets him on TV during presidential addresses.
He was eminently visible shaking hands with Barack Obama before the presidential inauguration. He did the same thing at Obama's address on health care. When I watched the speech with my Dad, I got to point at the screen and say "Hey! I know that guy!"
Personally, I don't see any contradiction there. I'm under the impression that Platts just gets a charge out of actually being there in the room during presidential addresses, and shaking hands with the president.
I certainly can't criticize him for that. I think half the reason I'm still in the field of journalism after two decades is because I still get a kick out of walking into a store or passing a box on the street, and seeing my name there on the front page.
I was kind of slow catching up on this one. Barack Obama did a bunch of news shows Sunday to push his health care proposals. Last night, I got around to listening to a podcast of his appearance on "Meet the Press."
Health care aside, he spent a good part of the time dismissing Jimmy Carter's assertion that a lot of opposition to his presidency is based on racism. I think that was a smart tactical move on his part.
So last week, the state House of Representatives was going to pass a resolution designating October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. No big deal, right? It's not like anybody's going to argue that domestic violence is a good thing.
But apparently state Rep. Darryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, had a problem with it because it promoted a "homosexual agenda." He found this purported agenda in the phrase: "One in six women and one in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape."
Of course, I don't advocate domestic violence in any form. Yet somehow, I can't help hoping that some variation of this scene plays out when Metcalfe goes home to his wife.
Word out of Harrisburg is that Gov. Rendell and the legislative leaders may have finally ... FINALLY ... reached a compromise that will end Pennsylvania's status as the only state not yet to have ratified its budget for the current fiscal year (which began July 1, by the way).
Man, this has just been ... You know what? Rather than trying to describe how torturous this whole process has been, maybe I can find something roughly equivalent to illustrate it.
So Joe Wilson yelled "You lie!" and Barack Obama glared at him.
Yeah, it was a dramatic moment as far as American presidential speeches go. And frankly, I think it was pretty undignified on Wilson's part.
But I've seen a lot of analysis pieces since then on the death of civility in American politics, implying that Wilson's outburst heralds our imminent descent into anarchy. I think that's a bit overblown.
This might be a good time to post a few reminders that in some countries, politicians express their displeasure with each other in ways that go far beyond sniping on cable news shows.
The folks on the news desk forwarded me an e-mail today from a local resident. He raises a pretty interesting point.
I recently interviewed local Congressman Todd Platts, who told me he disapproves of the people shouting about proposed health care changes at public meetings, and he believes differences of opinion on the issue should be voiced in a "mannerly, respectful way."
Yet Platts, like his fellow Republicans, voted against a House resolution rebuking U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson for his now famous (infamous?) shout of "You lie!" during President Obama's address on health care.
Yeah, you could argue that it's contradictory. But I'm willing to cut Platts some slack on this one.
To use an analogy, I could honestly say that I disapprove of a colleague's snide comment to another co-worker during an office meeting. Yet I could still believe the colleague who made the comment doesn't deserve an official letter of reprimand from the boss -- particularly if he already apologized, as Wilson has done repeatedly.
So what do you think? Am I being too lenient? Feel free to weigh in with comments.
I just got this press release from the Republican Party of Pennsylvania. It's kinda weird.
I'm not exactly sure what the nature of President Obama's offense is. The implication seems to be that he grossly insulted the hard-working men and women of our great Commonwealth by failing to stop by a monster truck show or something while he was in town for a Specter fundraiser.
And is it me, or is it a bit early to be talking about "last ditch" efforts in Specter's attempts to get re-elected NEXT FREAKIN YEAR?
Missed a day yesterday. Sorry. I'm still working my way through a post-vacation funk.
So we're still waiting on a state budget. It looks like York County commissioners are putting off the decision whether to borrow money or not for a little while, in light of the recent developments.
Personally, I think that's a good call. I was under the impression that the Sept. 15 deadline they originally cited was more of the self-imposed than the do-or-die variety.
Vacation's over. Crap.
Anyway, last week saw some promising developments with the state budget. Three of the four caucuses in the legislature have agreed on a tentative $28 billion spending plan.
I hope this isn't Glenn's standard pickup line.
Yup. Still on vacation. Still posting videos in lieu of doing any real work. Here ya go:
I'm actually working today. The vacation days I've been taking are of the "use them or lose them" variety. It's hard to get replacements to work Sunday, so I offered to come in today, then take the rest of the week off.
That's just a lengthy way of explaining that you might see my byline in tomorrow's paper, but I still don't feel like doing any extra work. So the video bonanza continues. (Hey, I'm having fun with it, too.)
I sometimes feel bad for my counterparts in broadcast media. Unlike us print journalists, they have to maintain some degree of composure while doing their jobs. I shudder to think what would happen if every testy exchange or outburst of profanity that occurred in this newsroom made it onto video, then to eventual immortality on the Internet.
Of course, none of that prevents me from snickering with gleeful schadenfreude when I see something like this:
You know the drill. I'm on vacation, so I'm just posting videos because it's less work.
In that spirit, I should say that I somehow feel as if I'm cheating when I post videos from The Onion on here, because finding them requires no real searching on my part. But I can't help it. They're too damn funny.
I had to take some vacation time. Since I don't feel like doing a lot of work over my vacation, I'm just slapping a bunch of videos up here.
Remember in "The Family Circus," when Bill Keane would go away on vacation and "Little Billy" would draw the cartoons for him? It's kind of like that.
Only this video isn't as cute. Then again, I guess we all have our own definitions of "cute."
I had to take some vacation days in the next couple of weeks, or lose them.
I don't want to neglect the blog, or any of you wonderful folks who read it regularly. At the same time, I don't want to spend a lot of time writing, researching or doing anything else that will detract from the the important vacation-related activity of doing nothing in particular.
Fortunately, I spend a lot of time scouring the Internet for funny videos, anyway. And now this blog gives me an excuse to do that as a work-related activity. Is that a sweet deal or what?
So for the next couple of weeks, think of this blog as one-stop shopping for all of your awesome political video needs.
You know, I'll bet more people would take an interest in government if every federal program offered an opportunity for something like this:
I had to take some vacation days in the next couple of weeks, or lose them.
I don't want to neglect the blog, or any of you wonderful folks who read it regularly. At the same time, I don't want to spend a lot of time writing, researching or doing anything else that will detract from the the important vacation-related activity of doing nothing in particular.
Fortunately, I spend a lot of time scouring the Internet for funny videos, anyway. And now this blog gives me an excuse to do that as a work-related activity. Is that a sweet deal or what?
So for the next couple of weeks, think of this blog as one-stop shopping for all of your funny political video needs.
To start things off ...
