Feb 28, 2010

PennSPOT New Director


Governor Spendall has appointed a new Director for PennSPOT Laundry and Highway Department. Satellite imaginary has revealed that snow drifts reported by PennSPOT to be 15 feet high on February 10th, were in fact 15 inches. PennSPOT defended itself with a climate report from Penn State, but Spendall said, "Who can believe them about anything?"

PeeWee will assume leadership of the Department on March 1, 2010. He is known as a innovator who makes do with what is in hand.

17 comments:

  1. So Michael, are you claiming our governor and his transportation secretary are incompetents or are they deliberately trying to make things worse?

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  2. route 78 keeps freezing up on the same section of the road, around the exit for rt. 143 (Lenhartsville). it's not rocket science to give that section more attention.

    i do not believe that there were 15 ft. drifts on Feb. 10th. the wind never materialized as forecast. i believe the road could have been kept open.

    in allentown the other day the streets never even became coated, yet lanta implemented a full snow emergency.

    as far as "saying", i would go with very, very disappointing

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  3. "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out
    how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds
    could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is
    actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and
    sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes
    short again and again...who knows the great enthusiasms, the
    great devotions and spends himself in a worthy course;
    who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
    and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly;
    so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls
    who know neither victory nor defeat."
    --Theodore Roosevelt

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  4. gary, people almost died stranded in the valentine storm of 07; an investigation revealed that penndot under performed. they did so again this past feb. 10th. people again were stranded. it took them over 24 hours to reopen the road.

    i suppose it's WHO you're criticizing. you have no problem identifying faults with the "bankers" on the entitlement post. i would bet it takes more brains to become CEO of a national bank than be appointed to some position in rendell's pennsylvania.

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  5. Outstanding post.

    Outstanding point about bankers.

    An important part of banking revolves around something known as risk management.

    MANAGEMENT being the key word in that sentence.

    It definitely takes more brains to be a big dog in a bank than an appointed hack bureaucrat.

    Banks have to produce or they go out of business.

    If a government does not produce, does it go out of business?

    (Okay lefties, you have been shrieking about Katrina for years - so now is your big chance to bash Bush on me!)

    The State of Pennsylvania could not produce a budget on time this past fall. Did Pennsylvania go out of business?

    Spendall, that's about right.

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  6. Yes Michael it is about who one criticizes. The quote by President Roosevelt was intended to refer to those citizens who work hard in order to make the world a better place. I believe you are one of them. You get up early to speak out -- to improve the Lehigh Valley. You are a Thomas Paine of our day. In case you forgot Teddy Roosevelt had no hesitation in sticking it to the establishment of his day. CitiBank, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, Cigna are the establishment of today. They operate on profit, may I say greed, not on the public interest. I know that both you and our governor care very much about making the world a better place. I am not so sure of Vikram Pandit's or H. Edward Hanway's motivations. Yes they are smart, but do they care about making the world a better place?

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  7. i know on the local level, the CEO's of the biggest institutions are very high energy individuals, who are very involved with the community; numerous boards and charities. i would suspect the same holds true for the giants you mention.

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  8. It is easy to say "hack bureaucrats" and dump on these folks. I find this type of comment unfair and mean. The folks "anonymous" calls "hacks" are your neighbors, former classmates, even relatives. They could be you in another life. They go to work just like everyone else, working at modest wages, trying to do a good job. Some find it easy to dump on these working folks while they give the rich boys who got to go to Harvard Business School and had rich daddies a free pass. I really believe that the oligarchs with their multimillion dollar compensation packages and golden parachutes have got the people who refuse to use their own names in blogs to carry their water. What an indictment of our society.

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  9. Mr. Molovinsky,

    That picture is a hoot! Would you happen to know where I can get a bike/plow like that? If not, do you know who I can contact (with the exception of Gov. Cheese-steak, that might have any information on that bike/plow? We can use that in D.C.

    Peace, ~~Alex

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  10. gary, i read the background of pandit and hanway. pandit was born in india and came here when 16, hardly part of an american oligarchy. there have been too many success stories in this country, including obama, for that word to have meaning here and now.

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  11. alex, back in about 68 i drove one day to george mason in fairfax to hear a lecture. george mason was brand new, with about 2 or 3 small buildings, as an offshoot of u. of virginia. anyway, it snowed that day, less than 1 inch. when i got there, there was nobody there at all, except a custodian. he was amazed that i drove in the snow "storm". in my previous post, fairfax diary, the young man talks about all the snow that year, in 1920. i don't know if 1920 was a bad year for washington, like this year, or if it was just his frame of reference, like the custodian.

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  12. oligarchy |ˈäliˌgärkē; ˈōli-|
    noun ( pl. -chies)
    a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution---------------the CEO of CitiBank making millions and commanding billion dollar government bailouts sounds like an oligarch to me.

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  13. Monday, March 1
    Dear Mr. Molovinsky,
    On today's morning TV shows, it has been revealed that nurses were fired from a Washington, D.C., hospital because they could not get to work during the recent snow storm. Could that have happened here as well?

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  14. gary, the classic definition of oligarchy is people of immense wealth who pass on their influence and power from one generation to the next. although an immigrant from india would not qualify, certainly the kennedy's would; ironic, no?

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  15. Michael: I think you are confusing oligarchy with plutocracy.

    plutocracy |ploōˈtäkrəsē|
    noun ( pl. -cies)
    government by the wealthy.
    • an elite or ruling class of people whose power derives from their wealth.

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  16. An oligarchy (Greek Ὀλιγαρχία, Oligarkhía) (oligocracy) is a form of government in which power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, military might, or religious hegemony. The word oligarchy is from the Greek words for "few/one" (ὀλίγος olígos) and "rule" (ἀρχή arkhē). Such states are often controlled by politically powerful families whose children are heavily conditioned and mentored to be heirs of the power of the oligarchy.

    gary, we have a black president who grew up in a single parent situation. i grew up with someone who became a 7 figure CEO of one of our biggest corporations, his father worked for a supermarket.

    regardless of which definition we pick, i do not find our corporate leaders conspirators in a ruling plot

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