Road Apples, #56

I Got A Shiver In My Bones Just Thinking About The Weather...I love that song by the way. Anyway, the weather has been the story today, with the Governor closing several highways and just generally crappy road conditions. As for me, I worked this morning and then took the afternoon off, as I have a ton of days that I need to use by March 31st anyway. No sense complaining though, as this winter has been relatively mild. What's more, it's almost March...well, kind of.

Senator Mellow Follies...I gritted my teeth to listen to Sue Henry today, and heard more than a few comments about how Senator Mellow's resignation came on the heels of the check-backside release. Something is a-foot, mark my words.

Senator Mellow Replacements...Lots of great blogs out there dealing with the resignation and potential candidates; personally I like the notion of Chris Phillips running, as he seems to be a "look you in the eye & shoot straight" kind of guy. For example, while I don't completely buy his "non-profits are ripping Scranton off by not paying taxes" rap, I admire his zest at researching the issue. He also seems to be his own man, not being aligned with any of the assorted nut-bag factions that comprise the Scranton political scene. On the other end of the spectrum you have Representative Jim Wansacz, who appears to be channeling Senator Mellow, circa 1970 (in other words, a "lifer in the wings"), which coupled with his apparently close relationship with the $188K man seems to paint a less than desirable picture in my book.

The best comment I read about potential candidates came from NEPArtisan, who wrote the following about a Gary DiBileo candidacy:

Gary DiBileo considers running for pretty much everything, so it only makes sense that he’s considering this.

Great stuff, and no disrespect to Mr DiBileo, who by the way is a great insurance agent.

Speaking of NEPArtisan...I had a great exchange with Tom about sales taxes on Facebook. That's a blog in and of itself, but just by way of brief commentary, I am a fan of consumption based taxation, but that doesn't seem to be what Governor Rendell is proposing. Rather, the Governor seems to be simply moving the shells around, dropping the overall rate but adding other items to be taxed. I'm more in favor of a sweeping overhaul of the tax structure, creating a consumption based tax that would apply to virtually everything (except non-prepared food & medicine). More bloviation (is that a real word????) to come on this topic.

Supertramp...is the most under-rated band of 1970's, bar none. Just wanted to add that for the record.

Sloth...In the sloth department, I am glad to report that I actually took the opportunity this afternoon to get a few things accomplished, including the continued large-scale cleaning of my home office.