Have youse seen the new Patrick Murphy ad? He’s shown leaving his home (in Bristol!) to meet with voters at a diner (in Bristol!). “Patrick Murphy’s always remembered where he comes from,” says a woman. (He’s not from Bristol! He grew up in Parkwood.) He’s also pro-change, the first time a candidate for office has ever promised either “hope” or “change.”
Anyway, Murphy then heads to such diverse locales as Doylestown, Washington’s Crossing and Fairless Hills, before returning to his home in Bloomsdale-Fleetwing to ask his wife how her day was.
On Wednesday, the House passed a resolution congratulating the New York Giants on winning this year’s Super Bowl “and completing one of the most remarkable postseason runs in professional sports history.” The resolution passed by a vote of 412 to 1.
Murphy, a diehard Eagles fan who worked at Veterans Stadium as a security guard when he was 16, was the only House member to vote against it. “As a former 700-level security guard and lifelong Eagles fan, I couldn’t, in good conscience, vote for the New York Giants,” Murphy said Thursday. “The only thing worse would have been a resolution honoring the Dallas Cowboys.”
Patrick Murphy is not only a great Philadelphian, he is the greatest U.S. representative of all time.
Oh, just when you thought the news was all Don Imus and Jon Corzine comes the news about two new important bills pending on Capitol Hill. Our Congresspeople have gotten together to propose two Barbaro-related bills.
Well, the first bill doesn’t mention Barbaro at all, but it is a ban on eating horses. (Well, it’s the actual clever workaround of banning eating horses by banning the transportation of horses for slaughter. Same thing.) And, of course, we would never know about this bill at all if not for Barbaro.
Now, I have absolutely no interest ever in eating a horse. First off, I bet they taste like shit. And anybody who wants to eat a non-Barbaro horse is a little off in my book. But I believe every American should have the God-given right to eat whatever animal they want, even bald eagles. (Especially bald eagles! What better way to celebrate freedom than by eating it!)
With several local officials standing at his side, Congressman Patrick Murphy revealed Thursday the beginning of Bucks County’s “war against flooding.”
Judging from how well our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and on drugs are going, I expect Bucks County to be fully under water by 2009.
As the U.S. Congress’ only newcomer who served in the current Iraq war, Patrick Murphy’s opinions on the current conflict — as well as the troop escalation plan — carry extra weight. (I guess. I ‘unno.)
But, as you can see, the Iraq vet is fitting in right well with the politicians, as he recently did a nice job of making an out-of-date reference, a politician’s best friend:
“They are getting frustrated. They feel like it’s (the Bill Murray movie) ‘Groundhog Day’ now, four years later, that the Iraqis continue not to stand up, no matter what we do.”
If only the Iraqi army had seen Groundhog Day. Then they’d slap their foreheads and would know what the soldiers were talking about. “Oh! ‘Groundhog Day!’ They’re getting tired, we gotta stand up for ourselves!”
• Be sure to check out the Inquirer’s Eagles photo gallery, which includes some nice shots — including this photo of Donté Stallworth auditioning for the position of Minister of the Silly Walks after he scored yesterday. [Inky]
• Hot damn! Fourteen casino protesters showed they were worth their salt by going up and being arrested today in Harrisburg. Making it even better, they were attempting to execute “a citizen’s search warrant” on the Gaming Commission, asking for casino planning documents. Hurrah, hurrah, protesters, without you life wouldn’t be quite as fun. [Inquirer]
• Strikes, the bowling alley in West Philly, was robbed this morning of over $12,000 at around 10 a.m., after a man tied up three employees and took four overnight deposit bags. Police are happy, though, because had he picked up a few spares he would have gotten away with a lot more. [AP/CBS 3]
• Patrick Murphy in new documentary: “So listen up, don’t take no sedative, my name’s Murph and I’m running for representative.” I love him even more now, I think. [Bucks County Courier Times]
Now that Patrick Murphy is the Congressman-elect in the 8th District, he’s busy getting ready to face all the local issues in notoriously finicky Buxco. (I guess it’s notoriously finicky. If it wasn’t before, it is now.)
One of those issues is a veterans cemetary in Upper Makefield, which the Bucks County Courier Times reported cost Fitzpatrick some votes in the township. the story is way too complex and annoying for me to follow, but I do agree that Murphy will have to face this issue head on. But he should hold it near and dear to his heart, the Courier reports:
On Thursday, Murphy said he’s “looking forward to moving the ball even further [on the cemetery issue]” once he takes office in January. The matter is, after all, close to the Iraq war veteran’s heart, since he and his wife Jenni, could be buried in the cemetery.
Just think about it, Pat! Your dead body could decompose and rot in the ground right in Upper Makefield! Enjoy this issue during the first few months of your time in office!
Let’s take you back to April 2000. Yes, that’s a ways back, but remember: People threw money at Internet businesses without even asking how they would make money, Arlen Specter was a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and John Street was bumbling around as mayor of Philadelphia. Okay, maybe things weren’t all that different, but April 1, 2000 was when the census was taken.
Said census reduced Pennsylvania’s representatives to 19 (down two) and the Republican legislature went around to re-drawing districts. And, naturally, the districts were drawn so the Republicans could pick up some seats. Democratic voters filed a lawsuit; the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the legislature.
The biggest strangely-drawn district is District 6, which the plaintiffs said “looms like a dragon descending on Philadelphia from the west, splitting up towns and communities throughout Montgomery and Berks Counties.” But District 8 was interesting, too: It encompassed all of Bucks County, but also snaked over into two wards in Philadelphia and a few sections of Montgomery County.
Fast forward to yesterday, when Mike Fitzpatrick is running for re-election in the 8th District. Of course, this is how the results ended up (please note: mathematical errors committed by me):
Bucks County:
Fitzpatrick +1,036
Montgomery County:
Murphy +1,564
Philadelphia:
Murphy +993
Total:
Murphy +1,521
Had the district just been Bucks County, it appears Fitzpatrick would have made his mom even prouder and won the race. But in part due to the state GOP’s redistricting plan… it appears he’ll be headed home after just one term. (PA-08 did have to add population from somewhere — see comments — to keep the districts equal, so whoever was added to Buxco’s district could have swung the election anyway.)
Some would say this is just desserts for the GOP. (Although, really, it’s not Fitzpatrick’s fault; he was a Chair of the Buxco Board of Commissioners — a good one! — at the time.) It is good to see that the state legislature does as good of a job at gerrymandering than it does at passing non-pay raise laws. Thanks, guys.
