On Aug. 11, when Rick Santorum took U.S. Treasury Secretary John W. Snow on a tour of the Sony Technology Center in Mount Pleasant, he gave us a glimpse of just how seriously deluded he is regarding the state of Pennsylvania's manufacturing sector.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Pennsylvania lost 155,967 manufacturing jobs from the first six months of 2001 through the first half of 2005 (a loss of 18.6 percent in the state's biggest industry sector).
What's Santorum got to say about this? "It's just leaner." Seriously, watch the video below.
"Leaner" probably isn't the word the 155,967 former manufacturing workers who lost their jobs would use. Frankly, it's probably not the word the manufacturing companies would use, either. Video:
And look at his face. He's completely sincere about these comments. Amazing.
Rick says "I will continue to work with my colleagues in the Senate to ensure that this devastating tax imposed on small business owners is permanently repealed during the 109th Congress."
Who are you kidding? Even the National Federation of Independent Business admits the compromise already protects family farms.
Don't get me wrong, I am all for protecting the family farm and I am all for free enterprise and making money. And I have nothing against rich people But, what I don’t want is to give another big tax break to individuals who have not paid taxes on (ALL OF) their earnings.
How can we justify a bigger budget deficit that the permanently repealing the estate tax will create? How can we cut an estimated $70 billion in income from the federal budget from the richest 2 percent of our country when our troops go without armor, when we are cutting back on education and we are not prepared to deal with health care crisis on the horizon?
Changing the name of the estate tax to death tax just to fool people doesn't work.
Do these billionaires really need a tax break more than our troops need body armor or our kids need education?
Rick, how are you going to vote? To protect the wealthy few? Or our troops?
Will Rick support giving tax breaks to the following people? The list is longer, but you get the point!!
Personal(or family)Estimated Net Worth (Forbes Magazine)
Bill Gates, $48 Billion,Microsoft
Warren Buffet, $41 Billion Berkshire Hathaway
Paul Allen, $20 Billion Microsoft
Walton Family, $90 Billion, Walmart
Michael Dell, $14.2 Billion, Dell
Larry Ellison, $13.7 Billion, Oracle
Steve Balmer, $12.6, Microsoft
Abigail Johnson, $12 Billion,Fidelity
Barbara and Anne Cox, $ 11.3, Cox Enterprises
Mars Family,$30 Billion, Mars Candy
Sumner Redstone, $8.1 Billion, Viacom
Carl Icahn, $7.6 Billion, Leverage Buyouts
Phil Knight, $7.4 Billion, Nike
Charles Ergen, $7.3 Billion, EchoStar
George Soros, $7.2 Billion, Hedge Funds
Daniel and Sam Newhouse, $14 Billion, Publishing
Rupert Murdoch,$ 6.9 Billion, News Corp.
The following incident happened last week in Wilmington, Delaware. It hasn't gotten much press. We need to change that.
Link to column in the Wilmington News-Journal:
http://tinyurl.com/agjra
Del. state trooper helps enforce Rick Santorum's 'family' values
08/14/2005
U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, the Republican from Pennsylvania, espouses many controversial views -- that women shouldn't work outside the home, that legalizing gay marriage would lead to legalizing polygamy and bestiality, that government should discourage birth control.
He's even written a book, "It Takes a Family," to spread his viewpoint.
Understandably, people who disagree would like to tell him so. But, as several teenagers and some of their parents found out last week, trying to do that in Delaware could land you in jail. Santorum appeared at the Barnes & Noble bookstore adjacent to Concord Mall on U.S. 202 Wednesday night for what was billed as a book signing and discussion. College students Stacey Galperin and Miriam Rocek of Newark decided to attend to hear what he had to say.
"I knew about him from his promotion of the federal marriage amendment," said Rocek, 19. "I thought I would go and just talk to him during the book signing, tell him I disagreed with a lot of his policies, just engage him in dialogue."
Hannah Shaffer, an 18-year-old from Glen Mills, Pa., who graduated in June from Garnet Valley High School, and several friends had the same idea.
"When I got there about 6 o'clock, a group of young people had congregated," Shaffer said. The handful of Garnet Valley students and the girls from Newark started talking about the event, and someone joked about having Santorum sign a book by a gay author.
That drew the attention of someone on Santorum's advance team.
According to Shaffer, the woman "called them shameful and said she was disgusted by the reasons they were there, that they should be there to support [Santorum]."
"Rick Santorum's security team felt they were going to be a security threat and asked them to leave," said Amanda Winnington, the community relations manager for the Barnes & Noble store.
The security, however, wasn't provided by a private guard, but by off-duty Delaware State Police Sgt. Michael DiJiacomo, who was hired for the occasion through a private security service. No official report of the incident was filed because no arrests were made, but state police spokesman Lt. Joe Aviola said, "As I understand it, they actually were being disorderly within the store. Someone overheard them saying they were going to cause a disruption."
That's not quite the version the teens related. "I heard [DiJiacomo] ask the woman, 'Do you want me to get rid of them,?' " Galperin said. "I went to tell the kids the cop was going to kick them out, and he was very pushy. He came up to us and said, 'If you don't leave you'll be arrested, and if you can't post bail you'll be put in prison.' He said it was private property and we would be arrested for trespassing."
When the girls protested that they hadn't done anything, DiJiacomo told them they were under arrest. After taking them from the store, Galperin said, "He told Miriam to put her hands on the car and kept telling us, 'You're going to embarrass your family, you won't get into college with this on your record.' "
After checking their identification, though, DiJiacomo let the two college students leave.
The younger teens, meanwhile, had gone to Concord Mall to call their parents to pick them up. When Hannah's mother, Heidi Shaffer, arrived, DiJiacomo had told the teens they were banned indefinitely not only from the bookstore but the entire mall next door.
"He told me this wasn't the time or place for these kids to protest," Heidi Shaffer said. "He [also] told me if any of the children was arrested I would have to appear in court, and that I could not take any of the kids into the store unless I wanted to be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. I said I wanted to talk to the Barnes & Noble management, and he said it's not up to the management, that Barnes & Noble had no authority.
"What he told me was, 'They don't want you there,' that it was all under the direction of Santorum. Maybe he was making it up, because I called Santorum's people and they've denied it to me, but I got the impression they didn't want anyone there who didn't agree with him."
Barnes & Noble's Winnington confirmed that only customers who had a receipt for Santorum's book were allowed near him.
Officials of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in Greenville, which published Santorum's book, did not return calls for comment.
"These are all honor students," Heidi Shaffer said. "It was unconscionable. I don't know when they passed a law in Delaware that said you can't have a cup of coffee and discuss your opposition to a book."
They haven't yet, but give them time.
Al Mascitti's weblog, First Statements, appears at www.delawareonline.com. Contact him at 324-2866 or amascitti@delawareonline.com.