Kind of a shame we have such greedy teachers in this district. Teachers who don't care about the community or even their peers...WAIT!

Oh, that's right. nearly half of them live in other districts and pay lower taxes, so they're keeping even more of Highland Taxpayer's Money!


Greedy bastards!


School superintendent gives up $800k in pay

Source: Yahoo/AP

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Some people give back to their community. Then there's Fresno County
School Superintendent Larry Powell, who's really giving back. As in $800,000 — what would
have been his compensation for the next three years.

Until his term expires in 2015, Powell will run 325 schools and 35 school districts with
195,000 students, all for less than a starting California teacher earns.

"How much do we need to keep accumulating?" asks Powell, 63. "There's no reason for me to
keep stockpiling money."

Powell's generosity is more than just a gesture in a region with some of the nation's
highest rates of unemployment. As he prepares for retirement, he wants to ensure that his
pet projects survive California budget cuts. And the man who started his career as a high
school civics teacher, who has made anti-bullying his mission, hopes his act of generosity
will help restore faith in the government he once taught students to respect.

While newspapers seem to be going the way of the Iron Horse, many remaining are owned by extreme right wingers. Such is the case with the epidemic of Graduate Readers and Viewers of Fox News writing letters to the editor of the Pittsburgh Based Tribune- Review. The “Trib” as it’s unaffectionately known is the extreme right wing rag owned by the Scaifes. (Tribune - definition from dictionary.com is:a person who upholds or defends the rights of the people.) Try not to laugh, you may be reported!

They own a number of newspapers in the Southwestern portion of Pennsylvania having bought out most of the Gannett Papers in the early 90s. Gannett, at least around here was reasonably neutral to left leaning, publishing editorial content from both sides of the aisle. That changed during the great purge of the 90s when Republicans decided to buy everything they could to try their hand at brainwashing the public.

This area used to be quite heavily Democratic but thanks to the propaganda the Scaife’s papers have spewed over the last 20 years, that is changing, and not for the good.

When only one view is offered in whatever media is available, truth suffers. (Case in point: Right Wing Talk Radio, primarily AM, over the last 20 years by the likes of Limbaugh and Company aimed primarily at the poorly informed elderly and not too concerned, no too bright youth.)

Here are some recent letters to the editor that the mindless automaton editor of one local paper makes sure gets VERY slanted Right Wing coverage.

These writers, for the most part, are currently enrolled or recent grads of the Fox News College of Propaganda.

However, not all letters are from right wingers. One or two are published every couple of months to try to make the rest of the radical right believe just how fair and balanced they are.

I don’t know how many of you have to read this kind of tripe in your papers. I’m especially fond of the recurring “liberal media” theme these less than grade school educated Fox Viewers continually exhibit.

Enjoy…if you can. This is the future of America.

Reliving history

Monday, August 22, 2011
Both sides of the political aisle have rewritten history. The Democrats turned FDR from the flawed power-hungry man he was into a god that pulled our country out of the Great Depression. What a pile of rubbish! Obama will probably use a few of FDR's tricks next year.
The Great Depression started in 1929 under Republican Herbert Hoover. During the election of 1932. FDR stated he would end the Depression. He won. The Depression hung on. In the beginning of 1936, a presidential election year, the economy seemed to improve. There were more jobs and money around. Things were looking better. FDR was re-elected.
All FDR had done was greatly increase government-created jobs in 1936. In 1937, he slashed government spending to pre-1936 levels and the economy collapsed into an even deeper depression.
Also, he directed most of the increased spending toward not solidly Democrat-controlled states. He was attempting to buy votes. It worked.
He did the same thing in the 1940 presidential election. It worked again. Some voters never learn.
In 2009, President Obama needed the stimulus package immediately to save our country from ruin. He had "shovel ready" jobs lined up. Most people do not realize that not all of that money has been spent yet.
2012 is a presidential election year. I predict that the held-back stimulus funds will be used to temporarily bolster the economy next year. Of course, the funds will truly be spent then and the economy will slump again in 2013. But if Obama gets re-elected, Democrats will consider it money well spent.

Kathleen Bollinger
Fawn Township

Can't wait for 2012

President Obama is using a taxpayer-funded, million-dollar bus to campaign for his 2012 re-election.
The audience may change but his message remains the same: higher taxes for all who pay taxes.
In the 2 1/2 years that Obama has been in office, our unemployment rate has remained above 9 percent, the housing market has tanked, the stock market is at new lows and our nation's credit rating has just been downgraded. Obama's excuse for his lack of leadership: former President Bush, the House of Representatives and, recently, the Tea Party. This president takes responsibility for nothing. It's always someone else's fault. Thank God, we only have another year and a half to put up with his nonsense.
When President Obama's party had complete control of Congress for the first two years of his term, what did he accomplished except passing an unpopular health care bill that may be unconstitutional? Where are all the jobs that his stimulus spending was suppose to create? The only beneficiaries have been teacher pension plans and public service unions.
Since President Obama took office, we have seen gasoline prices rise to $4 a gallon. We have seen him bypass Congress and appoint "czars" to fill critical positions. The president does this while the liberal news media looks the other way and pretends that this is normal operating procedure. Where are the cries of "It's the economy, stupid" that the elder President Bush endured? President Obama has taught Americans a valuable lesson: don't elect a community organizer to do a president's job.
Rudy Gagliardi

Tea party folks

Wednesday, August 17, 2011
The tea party came about in response to the out-of-control, bloated, oversized government. But according to recent comments from Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and former Democrat presidential adviser David Axelrod, the tea party people are fundamentalist, gun-totin' red-neck bigots — just a bunch of NASCAR-lovin' retards.
Actually, the tea party folks are people like you and me who are actually appalled at the size of our debt and appalled that our government is growing faster than our economy.
People like Kerry and Axelrod would have you believe the tea party folks are truly radical people with radical ideas. You know, radicals who believe in less government, less spending, fewer taxes and less regulation -- less everything from our supersized government. These are not progressive ideas. FDR was one of our first presidents to pass off big government and big spending as progressive -- code language for a more-caring, more-enlightened government.
But thanks to these tea party types, we are in the beginning stages at dismantling progressive thought and big government.
Many think we do not have much time to do this and they're right. We have exactly 16 months.

George Wesolosky
Freeport

If anyone can make sense of this next one, I'd really appreciate your perspective. A number of people have read this and are totally flummoxed by the less than obvious perception and depth of the author. However, this letter typifies the education of the Right Winger and Fox Viewer.

Are you a liberal?

Regarding the recent letters trying to define "liberal" and "conservative," and borrowing from comedian Jeff Foxworthy, here are a few of my observations:
• If you think it's OK to pick and choose which clauses in our Constitution are actually binding, you might be a liberal.
• If you think there actually is a "separation of church and state" clause in the Constitution and that religious people are our greatest threat, you might be a liberal.
• If you think pregnancy is a disease and should be controlled by government funding of birth control and abortion, or if you think parents should be notified if their teenage daughter wants her ears pierced but not if she wants an abortion, you might be a liberal.
• If you think people should go to work and submit to random drug testing so money can be taken away from them and given to people who don't go to work and don't have to submit to any drug testing, you might be a liberal.
• If you think the government has its own stash of money and it doesn't have to take it away from someone else to give it to you, you might be a liberal.
• If you are among those who want to change the traditional Judeo-Christian face and values of this country, but think it's the rest of the country that is radical, you might be a liberal.

Bob McBride
West Deer

And here is the token left wing letter of the last couple of months.

Tea party moms

Sunday, August 21, 2011
If you've ever had a child play a team sport, then you know this soccer mom: the "pitbull with lipstick."
She's the one screaming at the coach because her kid can't just play, but has to be the star -- the kid who has to take center stage despite not knowing the game's fundamentals or rules of sportsmanship.
This soccer mom has to get her way and doesn't care if she's the cause and effect of the loss. She walks away swearing that if everyone had just listened to her, the team would have won.
Come to think of it, terrible soccer moms are just like the tea party. Both have the same lack of honor — just self-interest — and the "How do I win?" mentality.
Our representatives take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution and do what is right for the country and the people, not just themselves and a few cronies.
Take a moment and think. Then get out and vote. It counts.

Everett Ream
Tarentum

The same stupid people who put Wantland, Heasley and Wisner on the Highlands School Board are the very same ones who can't think for themselves to get rid of the POS Altmire and his master, Barry as they give everything you have and will have to the Corporations of America.

If you can't see that, you deserve the suffering that WILL come thanks to The Republicans, Democrats, President and Corporations.

Listen to this piece. I know it's 22 minutes long but you may learn something. And if any of you disagrees with this piece or me, leave a comment but tell me why you disagree...not just because Fox says something or the lame-ass media you so believe in tells you something.

Do yourself a favor and look for the facts elsewhere. If you don't, you're no better than the millions who followed the Germans in the 30s.

Very interesting at around the 8:25 portion!
But I'm sure it will fall on deaf-e-cate full ears.

"la-la-la-la...I can't hear you!", said the O-pologist!