Thursday Mashup (1/19/12)

You could cut the stoo-pid with a knife in this editorial in the Bucks County Courier Times today. But before I comment on that, I have to provide some background.

As this Philadelphia Inquirer article tells us, Pennsbury (Bucks County) High School student Ashley Zauflik suffered a devastating injury when she was run over by a bus in 2007, requiring the amputation of her left leg below the knee (the bus driver was found to be negligent). A jury awarded her $14 million last December; she deserves all of that and more.

Here’s the problem, though; a 1978 state law caps the amount that governments, including school districts, can pay out – the liability limit is $500,000.

Now, back to the Courier Times editorial...

That’s not right and everybody knows it, including state Reps. John Galloway, D-140, and Steve Santarsiero, D-31, whose legislative districts include the Pennsbury School District. Together, the pair want to replace the law with what they’re calling Ashley’s Law. It’s not exactly clear what the new law would mandate; they’re still doing the research. But the goal is clear.

“We want to determine whether the current cap is antiquated and whether insurance that is affordable to school districts and municipalities could allow innocent victims with catastrophic injuries, like Ashley, to recover without significantly burdening taxpayers,” Santarsiero said of the pending legislation.

To that end, the lawmakers have asked the Pennsbury School Board to support their effort and not hide behind the state law they believe should be reformed. Said Galloway, “Pennsbury should ... call for the insurance company to do the right thing.”

So far, board members are unwilling to do that, saying instead that the matter is out of their hands.

Well people, seriously now, what else did you expect with Simple Simon Campbell and his minions now in charge?

Oh, and speak of the devil…

School board member (Campbell) also speaks his mind and has a suggestion for the “two fearless johnny-come-lately crusaders”…

Take a slow boat back to the UK, if they’ll have you, you maniac – continuing…

…Encourage the outsourcing of busing as a way for school districts to “offload liability risk.”

Campbell makes a good point. The district would not be in the position it is in and neither would Ashley if a private company, which would not be protected by a liability cap, were running the bus service. But just looking into the issue has raised a ruckus in Pennsbury — such is the power of unions.

Oh sure, Bucks County Courier Times Op-Ed board; just kick the Pennsbury school bus drivers to the curb, if you will, and replace them with “scabs.” Why, it’s not as if we’re entrusting them with anything that’s actually important – only the safety of our kids!

And as far as whether or not privatizing bus service actually saves money, read this post, particularly the first bullet, to see that it has everything to do with bleeding taxpayers in Pennsbury dry and trying to break another public employee union, a stated goal of a gambler like futures trader Campbell (and nothing to do with helping Ashley Zauflik either, unfortunately).

Next, it looks like Baby Newton Leroy had a hissy fit here over the following from the 1,252,324th Republican candidates’ debate…

Hours before the debate, ABC News and The Washington Post released interviews with Marianne Gingrich in which she alleged Gingrich asked for an "open marriage" before their divorce.

Marianne Gingrich told The Washington Post that a day after he husband told her about his affair with Callista Bisek in May 1999, the former House speaker delivered a speech titled "The Demise of American Culture" to a group of Republican women in Pennsylvania.

"How could he ask me for a divorce on Monday and within 48 hours give a speech on family values and talk about how people treat people?" Marianne Gingrich said in her interview with the Post.

Gingrich said the story was false.

Yeah, well, he would wouldn’t he (here is more fun with Baby Newton Leroy).

Also, I don’t think there’s been a lot of attention paid to the fact that conservative casino mogul (and former “Freedom’s Watch” sugar daddy) Sheldon Adelson has been bankrolling Gingrich’s anti-Romney movie; here is more on that, and here is a prior post on Adelson.

Seems like every time the Repug candidates emerge from the GOP “clown car” for these spectacles, they’re one short. Wonder if it will be only three next time, with Gingrich the odd man out?

Finally, I give you true hilarity here (on Obama and his supposedly “job-killing” decision on the Keystone XL pipeline)…

…today is the day that Obama increased the amount of energy we need to import from places like the Middle East and Venezuela; today is the day that he crushed hundreds of thousands of US jobs. He did it because he can't be bothered to do ANYTHING, except campaign.

Today is the day he morphed from President Do-Nothing to President Hypocrite.

He did it by killing the XL Keystone pipeline which would bring a million barrels per day of North American oil to US refineries, create at a minimum 200,000 jobs and open up the US heartland for domestic development of oil- and the millions in jobs and domestic GDP it would create.

I think the video from here puts that “200,000” claim in its place.



It would actually be funny if it weren’t so utterly pathetic.