Help wanted

Constituents loves to complain about their elected leaders and government. In fact, it's probably the thing we do best. So a couple local state representatives decided to launch an online "suggestion box" to channel the frustrations of Pennsylvania citizens.

Jesse White and Matt Smith, both Democratic representatives from Western Pennsylvania, uploaded the website, YourPaBudget.com, that asks for budgetary suggestions and posts them on the homepage for viewers to rate. Who knows if any of our ideas will be enacted in this year's budget, but I applaud White and Smith for giving us a platform to express our opinions. Hopefully they are reading them and taking notes on what their constituents want.

The site is easy to use and the suggestions appear online in just a few minutes. It's very interesting to read what others are thinking.

As for the most popular opinion? Reduce the size of the General Assembly.

Gather your armies!

Democracy is a wonderful mechanism to run our government. It allows "We The People" to choose our elected leaders, and challenge them at the ballot box if we disagree. But some of those People are just plain stupid.

Case in point: Rick Barber, a tea party candidate running for Congress in Alabama. His internet ad entitled "Gather Your Armies" is becoming a viral sensation. It is set in a dark tavern as he explains modern-day tax policies to George Washington, Sam Adams and a fellow who appears to be Ben Franklin. It opens with Barber calling for Congress to impeach President Obama (too bad for Republicans that the president has never been caught with an intern in the Oval Office). By the end, Barber is whipped into a frenzy and asks the three ghosts if they are with him in opposing this "tyrannical" government.

"Gather your armies," George Washington responds.

Unfortunately, Barber is skewing his history by railing against what he perceives as unfair taxes. It was during George Washington's presidency that the Congress enacted the Whiskey Act excise tax in 1791 as a way to pay for the Revolutionary War debt. Rural western Pennsylvania farmers, who distilled and sold their own whiskey, felt this tax was unfair and rebelled against the Act three years later. A few months after the Whiskey Rebellion in July 1794, President George Washington led 13,000 federal soldiers into Allegheny County and quickly quashed the revolt.

Barber's commercial shows a fictitious Washington hanging out in some dank basement bar and calling for Americans to turn against the federal government. But history tells us that the real George Washington likely would have encouraged the federal government to gather its armies and put down the revolt Barber is suggesting.

The Golden Mouse

Congratulations to Scott Beveridge in earning The Golden Mouse award for achieving 100,000 unique page views on his blog. Mr. Beveridge, a local newspaper reporter, just recently passed the 100k mark on Travel with a Beveridge after launching it three years ago. His former newspaper colleagues, Michael Jones and Amanda Gillooly, presented Mr. Beveridge with The Golden Mouse over beers and pizza Tuesday night.

Mr. Beveridge, who earlier in the day doubted the existence of the prestigious Golden Mouse, was too shocked by the appearance of the award to offer any semblance of a speech.

"Oh my God," Mr. Beveridge said, slapping his hand against his forehead as the presenters pulled the award from a brown paper bag.

The plaque, the first in a series by Mr. Jones, a local blogger and novice woodsmith, cost less than $8 and prominently features a gold spray painted computer mouse that hadn't been used in a decade. Mr. Beveridge said he plans to display the award on a wall in his home, although it can also be used as an over-sized beer coaster.

Trolls have their say

It took only a few minutes after The Wall Street Journal published an online story about unemployed census workers when the trolls started coming out to play. They immediately began bashing the three of us featured in the story because we were unfortunate enough to get canned from our professions and have to find alternative jobs. But rather than rage against these anonymous idiots, I chuckled. I mean, they're hilarious!

Bill Trask said: "Oh drat... now these out of work ACORN enthusiasts may have to go out and get a REAL JOB... but wait... they don't have too, Obama will give them more money - (they just have to wait until their census counts are tabulated.)"

Now I'm an ACORN enthusiast? Well, that sounds about right considering my mom's maiden name is ALCORN. And what would you consider to be a "real" job?

Shrini Kulkarni said: "The salaries for the Census workers are paid by the Federal Government which goes on the national deficit. How can this be a good thing for the economy? It seems that this census is just another white elephant Obama wants to showcase in his radically left winged vision of the nanny state."

The Census is Obama's white elephant? Haven't they been counting Americans since our founders wrote the Constitution? And I guess the Bush Administration had nothing to do with the planning during the first eight years of the decade.

David Shellenberger said: The headline has it wrong: ending employment of government workers cannot come fast enough. The funds spent on government employment deprive taxpayers of better use of their own money.

Well, thanks for your vote of confidence, Dave. Nothing like kicking an unemployed man when he's down!

Andy Dulina said: I find it ironic that the people chosen to be interviewed for this article all came from "blue" states. Hey folks, how's that change y'all voted for workin' out for ya??

What would you say if I told you that I live in a "red" congressional district. And if he read the story, he would have noticed that the first interviewee lost his job in January 2008.

Quoted in The Wall Street Journal

So after 50 weeks of unemployment, here's my 15 minutes of fame. The Wall Street Journal quoted me for a story today in its online edition about the unemployed working for the Census Bureau. My prose was buried in the bottom of the story, but it certainly seemed like the least worrisome out of the three tales. Click on the headline to read the entire story, or check out my section below.

Census jobs end all too soon

By Joe Light and Justin Lahart
The Wall Street Journal
June 4, 2010

Since losing his job as a newspaper reporter last June, South Fayette, Pa., resident Michael Jones, 26, has landed interviews with only three companies and hasn't yet received an offer. Last November, Mr. Jones read an ad for census jobs and took the qualifying test on the Monday after Thanksgiving, earning a perfect score. In early March of this year, he got the call letting him know that he had been hired as an enumerator, at $15.25 an hour.

"If I hadn't gotten that job and my unemployment benefits ran out, I'd have to take drastic measures," Mr. Jones said. "The first day of work, I couldn't wait to drive to training. It had been so long since I had a 9-to-5 workday."

Mr. Jones's census job is scheduled to end in mid-July, depending on how quickly his team finishes its work. If Congress doesn't extend unemployment benefits again, his benefits will run out in mid-August. If that happens, and Mr. Jones still hasn't found a full-time job, he plans to start looking at jobs driving train crews around for a railroad company or working in retail.

Another journey to Oz

Another Journey to OZ from Dana Kerkentzes on Vimeo.

By Michael Jones
For the Tribune-Review
June 3, 2010

Dana Kerkentzes of Elizabeth Borough wasn't quite sure what would happen when she focused her video camera on a local children's production troupe for her college senior project.

What Kerkentzes found was an inspiring story that landed her 15-minute documentary, "Another Journey to Oz," in a British film festival.

The recent Westminster College graduate spent last summer following the Petite Players as they prepared an offbeat play of "The Wizard of Oz" at the Grand Theater in Elizabeth. The fact that she grew up just a few minutes away from where the group performed made the film a bit more personal.

"I wondered what these kids did and what it was like," said Kerkentzes, a 2006 graduate of East Allegheny High School. "I thought this would be a great opportunity to tell the story about kids doing something they love."

Kerkentzes, 22, immersed herself into the production and slowly introduced the video camera to the 46 school-aged performers and their parents. She spent months with the group that led to goofy moments during rehearsals.

Read more...

Wide reach of the Web

I shouldn't be surprised anymore when a wayward reporter contacts me about something I wrote on my blog. But it still stuns me upon reading an e-mail from a scribe who wants to know more about one of my blog entries.

This time, the e-mail came from a Wall Street Journal reporter ... cue jaw drop.

The newspaper wants to report on the jobless who turned to the U.S. Census Bureau for a temporary paycheck. It appears the WSJ wants anecdotal stories as it reports on how those census jobs might be skewing unemployment figures. Apparently, this blog caught the reporter's attention.

We set up an interview for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday -- just as severe thunderstorms rolled through Western Pennsylvania -- and we spoke for about 40 minutes about my unemployment and subsequent federal job. The interview ranged from the day the Observer-Reporter let me go to what my job duties are as a quality control enumerator.

And it so felt good telling that story.

Whether any of it ends up in the newspaper, it still was worth the time. This is why I began blogging two days after receiving my pink slip. I want people to know what happens to the unemployed after their severance checks and compensation benefits run dry.

Hopefully, the stories of this blog's unwilling participants will reach a national audience.