Spinning Biden-Ryan

Last night handed the pundits whatever material their preordained point of view wanted. Victory was declared by both sides. Style and Substance is the new lexicon of debate. Was Biden's prolonged smile a positive sign of engagement, or a distracting overcompensation for his boss's previous performance? Did Biden sell the administration as skillfully navigating world events, or did Ryan's contention of dropping the ball ring true? Equally defensible counterpoints were presented regarding the economy and Medicare. The spin doctors were certainly given a full bag of ingredients to make their case. I would think that last night's performance didn't move the needle, but heightens the anticipation for next week's debate.

UPDATE: Scientific Poll: The gentlemen at the diner counter every morning are an economically diverse bunch. Ryan won the debate 8 to 0 because of Biden's smirking.  Scientific enough for me.

AEDC Junior Achievement

The Morning Call today is featuring a story and video about a young man opening a scrap wire business in east Allentown. I wish him all the success in the world, but have an issue with Pawlowski and Scott Unger loaning him our tax dollars. Unger, director of AEDC should do some research, I suggest a trip to Sumner Ave. Allentown has a half dozen existing scrap yards which buy scrap copper wire. I can assure him none of them were ever granted six figure loans by a city agency. As a matter of fact, many years ago Mr. Aronsky, from Valley Iron and Steel, donated the land which today comprises most of Trout Creek Park. If Unger's Junior Achievement mentality isn't absurd enough, the paper allows this young man to use the video as an virtual advertisement to buy scrap wire.

Junkyard Train

Today, once again we ride a freight train of Allentown's great industrial past. In the early 1970's, the Redevelopment Authority tore down the neighborhood on either side of the Lehigh Street hill. At that time they had persuaded Conrail to move the the Barber's Quarry Branch line exclusively to the southern side of the Little Lehigh. The branch had crossed over and back to service the great Wire Mill. After crossing Lehigh Street, the train would proceed along the creek passing under the 8th Street Bridge. At the 10th Street crossing it would service another great industrial giant, Traylor Engineering.
In 2009 President Obama visited a successor, Allentown Manufacturing, which has since closed. The line would continue along the creek until it turned north along Cedar Creek to Union Terrace. After crossing Hamilton Street by the current Hamilton Family Diner, it would end at the current park department building. Nothing remains of the line, the tracks were removed. The Allentown Economic Development Corporation recently received a grant to rebuild the line to 10th Street, even though the plant Obama visited has closed. The neighboring former Mack Plant now houses a go cart track. How the money will be squandered remains to be seen. The top photograph was taken by local train historian Mark Rabenold in 1989. It shows the later relocated section of the track that was just east of the Lehigh Street crossing.
reprinted from March 2011

UPDATE: The County Commissioners recently denied a request by AEDC to grant KOZ status to the closed Metal Manufacturing building. Although the company never cited lack of rail service or property taxes as the reason for closing, the rail grant is still on the table. $Millions of $Dollars would be needed to lay bed and track from 3th and Union to S. 10th Street, to service an empty building; Truly, The Track To Nothing.

Obama's Ohio Desperation

As it was being revealed that the State Department refused to provide additional security for our diplomatic personnel in Libya, Obama was in Ohio begging college kids to vote early for him.

“I still believe in you. And I’m asking you to keep believing in me,” Obama said to 15,000 people on the Oval at Ohio State University yesterday — his largest Ohio crowd of the cycle.

What does it mean that he still believes in them? He believes that they can help him win. He believes that his speaking skills can mesmerize them to care more about his future, than their own. Their upper class-men, who graduated last year, are delivering pizza's. Fortunately, for Obama, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, If you're not a liberal when you're young, you don't have a heart. If you're not a conservative when you're older, you don't have a brain. Unfortunately for Obama, there's also  a lot of older people.

Democrats Default To Distortion

Although the Obama camp Big Bird campaign backfired somewhat, distortion seems to be their play for the remainder of the campaign. Leading the charge with misleading headlines is the Huffington Post. A resort owner's letter stating that if Obama wins, his tax policies will result in cutbacks and layoffs becomes Your Fired If Obama Wins. It pains me* to report that even a local college professor buys the distortion on his blog. College campuses have been the historical bastion of left wing politics, nothing new there. Yesterday, it was revealed that Obama workers were registering high school students in Florida, pretending to be from the county voter registration office. Actually, there was a tremendous lesson for the professors to use in last week's debate. When Obama, the first rate orator, was confronted by a well informed opponent, eloquent speaking and acting alone were not enough to carry the night.

* I consider him a sincere person and a friend.

UPDATE: As the Huffington Post article on the resort owner slipped further down their homepage, they changed their original provocative title. The college professor has made his blog private, at least for the moment. He had linked to a different version of the story on the resort owner.

Roast Big Bird

The Obama Campaign, realizing that the public is no longer mesmerized just by his empty oratory performances, today insulted the voter's intelligence. In a new commercial featuring Big Bird, Romney is depicted as supporting notorious Wall Street embezzlers, while being against the beloved Sesame Street Character. I believe as the polls narrow, the Obama Campaign will sink to historical lows in negative advertising.