Frequently Asked Questions

I'm often accused in real life of asking too many questions. Here are some of them:

- Why do the Montco Repub commissioner candidates and the Montco Republican Party in general get a free ride from the press in the face of their overwhelming financial support from Vahan Gureghian and the three stooges from Susquehanna International Group? These guys are one-issue contributors, all looking to funnel taxpayer dollars away from public schools and into charters and voucher programs. To paraphrase Grover Norquist, these deep-pocket wingnuts want to shrink public education until it's small enough to drown in a bathtub -- last year, they bought Tom Corbett and half the PA legislature, this year, they're aiming for the Montco Courthouse.

- Why is Joe Hoeffel taking the lead on 422 tolling? I respect the hell out of Joe and think he doesn't get nearly the acclaim that he deserves from his own party but man...this makes no sense at all. I'm starting to think that maybe he likes being called out by all those people who write in the Comments sections.

- How can a newspaper that's as bad as the Times Herald continue to reap armloads of awards in various newspaper & journalism contests? (And I'll try to answer my own question on this one: A)it's a real small field competing these days, so you don't really have to be good to win a prize, just show up; B)the contests they're winning are sort of the newspaper equivalent of the Golden Globes - if your corporate parent buys an ad in the program book, you're bound to take home some hardware; C) and here's a scary thought: all the daily newspapers of the same size as the TH are even more inchoherent, more poorly written, less intelligent and have less talented staffs. Hard to imagine, but possibly true...)


- How do I reconcile the fact that I love the things that the Democratic Party stands for and the ideals that it represents, but for the most part can't relate to any of the people who actually run the Democratic Party or most of its candidates and elected officials? And that applies as much locally as it does nationally. I could never be anything other than a Democrat, but there are only a very small handful of Democratic officials I'd ever want to spend my free time with.