Is it time for a fish taco throwdown?

I want to take a couple of minutes to talk about this fairly new, at least to me, phenomenon, the fish taco. Now I’m a big fan of the taco, but I always thought of them as good when they were shoved full of meat. Not so fast, amigo. There are a lot of places offering up fish tacos these days, but I think I might have found the best. A new restaurant called Casa Bonita has opened up in Norristown. I tried their fish tacos, and not only was it a meal fit for a king, but they were absolutely excellent. A lot of places you go to serve up fairly dry fish tacos, but Casa Bonita adds a sauce across the top of theirs that not only takes the dryness away, but adds a kick that makes the dish. So, I’m throwing down a challenge to anyone out there reading this who thinks they know where the best fish taco can be found. My phone number, email address and Twitter handle are all below. Let me hear from you. And I wouldn’t be too surprised if I hear from some new place in East Norriton. You know, the new restaurant capital of Montgomery County. Stan Huskey is the editor of The Times Herald. He can be reached at 610-272-2500 ext. 215 or at shuskey@timesherald.com. Follow @StanHuskey on Twitter.

It's time for Pennsylvania to get out of the liquor business

The year is 1994. The place is somewhere in Chester County, Pa. I was in Pennsylvania for the first time, looking for a place to live. Moving all the way from Texas to the Keystone State was going to be an experience I’d never forget, and one that would shape my life in ways only now imaginable, but I’ll save that for another column. I had spent a busy day looking for an apartment in and around West Chester. There are a lot of options, and I like to be thorough, so I had probably been to about 10 different complexes that day. One place in particular caught my fancy and I decided to sign on the dotted line. Sharples Works was converted from an old dairy. There are giant wooden beams running through the apartments that give them character well beyond what you find in most of your cookie-cutter complexes. Feeling rather good about finally making my decision I decided to celebrate with a cold beer. I was traveling along 202 South headed back to my hotel when I spotted a beer store and pulled into the lot. My flight didn’t leave until the next day so a six pack of Amstel Light would do just fine, I was thinking as I walked in the door and said hello to the gentleman behind the counter. I didn’t see a cooler anywhere, other than the restaurant style walk-ins, so I told the fine fellow what I wanted, and asked where I could find it, looking around at the stacks of cases of beer. “I can’t sell you a six-pack,” he said. “What?” I said, completely taken off guard. “We don’t sell six-packs here,” he said. Thinking he was pulling my leg because of what was then a still lingering southern accent, I said something along the lines of what’s the matter, you about to run out? “No, no,” he said. “We don’t sell six packs here.” “You don’t sell six-packs in Pennsylvania?” “Not in beer stores,” he said. I kind of pride myself on having just a tad bit more common sense than your average Joe, but I was more than stumped at his reply. “Well, what do you sell?” I asked as politely as possible. “Cases only,” he responded. “Seriously,” I said. “But I only want a six-pack to take back to my hotel and relax by the pool.” Now I was really parched. “Why would I have to buy more than I want to drink?” I asked, still not getting the reasoning of the cases-only policy. Finally, after what seemed like a convoluted “Who’s on First?” routine, he informed me that I could go to the bar down the street and they would sell me a six-pack of Amstel Light. I half-heartedly thanked him for the education and headed to the bar to purchase my six-pack. When I walked up to the counter I remember mumbling something along the lines of, what are you doing here in Pennsylvania, promoting alcoholism? “What?” the young lady behind the bar asked. “Nothing, nothing,” I back-pedaled. “I just can’t believe I was just at a beer store and couldn’t buy the beer I wanted. Can I get a six-pack of Amstel Light, please?” When she rang me up, I was starting to see the light, and I’m not talking about the Amstel she was putting into a plastic bag. The price was about twice what it should have been. When I said as much she informed me that I could get it a lot cheaper at the beer store down the road if I bought it by the case. Thus began my education on the antiquated liquor laws here in the great state of Pennsylvania. While nothing has changed in the 20 years since, I have grown accustomed to making a stop at the beer store if I’m in the mood for a cold one, and the wine and spirits store if I’m in the mood for a glass of merlot. I also was careful to go during the week knowing at the time neither were open on Sundays. Thankfully, the good sense to allow them both to open up on Sundays finally prevailed. So I’ve been following the possible privatization of Pennsylvania’s liquor stores with some interest during the past few months. The state House passed a bill to do just that and it’s headed for the Senate, where hopefully, common sense will prevail once again. Convenience for a guy trying to buy a six-pack after a long day of apartment hunting is one thing, competition is another. Plain and simple, the state shouldn’t be in the liquor-selling business, and that was never more clear than when they started bottling their own wine and placing it on the shelves right next to the bottles produced by the hard-working folks at our local wineries and wineries across the country. A little common sense, and a brief lesson in capitalism, should make that point crystal clear. The year is 2013. The place is Montgomery County, Pa. I’ve been living here for nearly 20 years. I think it’s about time my now home state comes up to speed with every other state I’ve lived in. Stan Huskey is the editor of The Times Herald. He can be reached at 610-272-2500 ext. 215 or at shuskey@timesherald.com. Follow @StanHuskey on Twitter.

Getting great reception

I wrote about my foray into the rabbit ear industry for my column a couple of Mondays ago. The response has been incredible. It's amazing how many people called me to say they were tired of their cable bill as well. So, I've been doing my best to help people find rabbit ears of their own. I do have one confession to make here, though. We ended up not going completely cable free. We have scaled back tremendously though. We've been able to cut more than $60 off our monthly bill, and we do have one television in our house that is completely cable free. The reception is terrific and we're more than happy with the move. If you're not getting great reception, and I'm not just talking about the picture on the screen, I'm talking about the interaction you receive from your cable/Internet provider, then take a closer look at rabbit ears. Go ahead, they won't bite.

Accuracy trumps urgency every time

My latest rant points a finger at my own industry

The state pension 'calf' is costing us

My latest rant is getting a lot of response so I thought I'd post it here, too. Enjoy! A man was driving down the road out in Lancaster County when he hit and killed a calf that had walked right out in front of his car. Devastated, the man pulled over to the side of the road and realized the calf had wandered off from a nearby farm, so he trekked up the long driveway and knocked on the door. When the farmer came to the door the man told him what had happened and offered to pay for the calf. “How much was the calf worth?” the man asked. “Oh, I’d say about $200,” the farmer said. “But, in about six years he’d be worth about $800. So $800 is what I’m out, I’d say.” Feeling like he was being taken advantage of just a bit, the man reluctantly wrote out a check for $800. He handed it to the farmer and said, “Here you go, a check for $800. You can cash it in six years.” Now that’s probably not a true story, but when I heard that joke I couldn’t help but think of our state budget and what we could have done six years ago to keep from writing the massive checks we’re writing today to get us out of multiple jams. Most notably is the state pension jam. I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago after a visit to the governor’s mansion where a group of local editors were presented with what seemed eerily similar to a doomsday scenario by budget secretary Charles Zogby, who presented a chart filled with red numbers. For you non-accountant types out there, red numbers are not good. Every year since 2004 the state has been swimming deeper and deeper in red numbers related to the state’s two pension plans. And while I will quickly point out that our state budget should be a non-partisan issue, those red numbers just keep spiraling out of control while a Democrat sat in the governor’s seat. Now a Republican is doing something about it, and of course, the rancor is just getting underway. Gov. Corbett presented his budget last week before a joint session of the General Assembly. Thankfully, the $28.4 billion spending plan doesn’t include a raise in taxes. And it does so while funneling more money into education, health and welfare services as well as transportation. It has to be tough to be a Democrat and see these reforms taking place, especially when all of these problems were lingering throughout the Rendell administration. And please, please don’t come back at me with Corbett is just making up for the cuts he made to education two years ago. Corbett didn’t cut education spending when he came into office. He was simply presenting a budget that didn’t include Obama’s stimulus money, which everyone knew was going to go away. Now, the irony of this increase in education spending is that it is tied to reforms in the pension system. Corbett is calling for $90 million extra for education, including $6 million for Pre-K and Head Start programs. However, that’s not going to happen if current employees are not moved over to a 401K type of retirement plan. It needs to be made clear, though, that this can all be done without cutting any pension benefits already earned by teachers and administrators. In fact, the change in the way the state funds retirement benefits for school district employees will provide an additional $140 million in pension savings across the commonwealth. The pension debacle has been called a crisis, which it certainly has evolved into during the past decade, now sitting in a $41 billion hole. It’s been referred to by the governor as a tapeworm. Fixing it is equivalent to “building a plane while flying it,” Zogby said during our editorial meeting with the governor. The pension calf was worth a few hundred million about 10 years ago. It’s now worth $41 billion. If nothing is done, it could be worth $80 billion in six years. I don’t think anyone wants to write that check.

Journalists getting a bad rap?

Journalists rank 6th on the list of jobs with the most psychopaths. Are we getting a bad rap? I mean, I know I can be a little off from time to time, but a psychopath. I don't think so. Of course, you may have a different interpretation.

The bad apples are spoiling the whole bunch

I was talking with one of our reporters, Tony Fioriglio, this morning about the Christmas day murder in Norristown when he said if they would arrest about 40 people all of the recent violence would probably just go away. He's written about several of the recent shootings and it is becoming clear that they're connected. Revenge is a dirty business. I agreed with him and went on to say if they would round up about 80 or so bad apples they could probably clean the whole town up. What would it take to actually get this done? I'm thinking a little targeted enforcement along Green Street would be a great place to start. What do you think?

Newtown massacre

I haven't been on for a while, but the events in Newtown prompted me to invite a couple of local legislators in to talk about what can be done, if anything, to possibly prevent suce a tragedy from ever occuring again. Here is a link to my interview with state Sen. Daylin Leach, who would like to see our gun laws tightened.

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are interviewing for the same job; who do you hire?

Have you ever been in a position to hire someone?

Over the years I’ve hired a lot of people, some I look back on with a smile, and some I look back on with a cringe, and a what the heck was I thinking.

We’ve recently had a few positions to fill, mostly due to promotions, so it’s a good thing.

A lot of you know John Berry, he was my online editor with the massive beard that seemed to be taking over his entire upper body. He was promoted to editor of a couple of papers in Connecticut. Ashley Campbell, recently named community engagement editor, was promoted to take John’s place.

So the newsroom shuffle resulted in an open entry level position.

Always a great opportunity. Every chance to hire someone should be taken seriously and entered into with eyes wide open.

There’s always that hire that turns out to be nothing like the person you interviewed.

Think about it. Someone trying to get their foot in the door of a company is going to put on their Sunday best and come prepared to dazzle.

When you’re the one doing the hiring, though, it’s your job to make sure you see through the spit and polish.

I’ve told people for years, if I have two candidates for the same position and one went to Harvard and the other went to Kutztown and the one from Harvard was completely arrogant and the one from Kutztown was down to earth and seemed like someone everyone in the newsroom would get along with, everything else being equal, I’d hire the kid from Kutztown.

Well, what would you do if one of the candidates already worked for you and was going up against someone from the outside?

Seems to me that kind of puts the person doing the hiring in the catbird seat now doesn’t it?

And that’s where we are today as we head into the final weeks before the presidential election.

One candidate has the job and wants to be rehired, and the other is coming in fresh, trying his best to make a good first impression.

While both candidates did indeed go to Harvard, I still have to hold true to my thought process on determining who would be the best candidate for the job.

We’ve had more than four years, counting the campaign leading to the last election, of President Obama telling us what we need, and the best way for us to get what we need.

I don’t know about you, but I just don’t think we’ve gotten anywhere near where he said he was going to get us, and I don’t think giving him four more years will get us any closer. I know he has that one month of unemployment dipping below eight percent to hang his hat on, but I don’t think anyone believes for a minute that the dip was a bellwether of great things to come.

And on top of it all, Obama seems to carry a little bit of arrogance with him as he tells us how and why and when we should be doing things to get ourselves back on the road to prosperity.

But at this point, I’m not even sure his own party is buying it.

While he does seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time hobnobbing with celebrities, he has at least attempted to accomplish some of his assigned duties, one of which is putting a budget up before Congress.

The problem is ... he couldn’t get anyone to vote for it. And I mean anyone. Not a single member of his own party would even give his proposal a vote of confidence, much less a vote on the floor, of either arm of our legislative body.

How is it possible that not one member of Congress saw fit to vote for his spending plan?

Perhaps it’s because he spends like a drunken sailor on leave? No offense to any drunken sailor anywhere by the way, because even drunken sailors only spend the money they have on them at the time. Obama is spending all the money he has on him, and all the money we have on us, too, and not just now, but all the money we might have on us in the future.

And I don’t know about you, but I haven’t heard much remorse in his voice during the past couple of debates about the fix he’s gotten us into. All I hear is about how much more we need to keep spending, and all of this coming on the heels of yet another company Obama gave millions to only to have them file for bankruptcy a short time after. First there was Solyndra, the solar panel company that received $535 million in loan guarantees, and then A123, a battery manufacturer that received $249.1 million. Since when did we authorize the federal government to go into the venture capital business?

So, we’re bringing the two candidates back in for their final interviews. Pay close attention. Both went to Harvard, but everything else here just doesn’t seem equal.

Which one do you hire?

Channeling David Byrne to explain Obama's poor performance in first debate

Have you ever had a moment when things just seem to come together? That moment when everything just crystallizes into one clear moment of realization?

I’m thinking that moment happened for about 61 million people on Oct. 3 after listening to our president ramble on about his health care plan, clearly trying with all his might not to use the term ‘death squad’.

At some point in the waning moments of the first presidential debate tens of millions of people had to have sat up razor straight and thought, “My God, what have we done?” And just to continue channeling David Byrne, the crystallizing moment most likely continued with, “How did we get here? This is not my country. This is not my Constitution.”

Mitt Romney stood tall at the debate. He was ready for his opponent, and clearly, without a Teleprompter close at hand, Obama wasn’t ready for Romney.

Certainly we can all understand how this country was swayed by Obama four years ago. He is a tall, good looking man with a gift for gathering an audience up in his hands.

But that was four years ago. All he had to do then was convince us that he was the better choice over George W. Bush.

Even the most polished pol among us would have to admit that really wasn’t a tall task.

Now, Obama is in the position of having to defend his record of the past four years, and without someone feeding him his lines, it is now crystal clear, he just doesn’t have the answers.

Four years ago we, and I mean we in the collective sense because I did not cast my lot with him, elected a man to the White House on a campaign of Hope and Change.

Since when did Hope become a campaign platform?

And where’s the change? Our economy is stuck in a rut, and four years later it really doesn’t matter how we got here. The fact is Obama launched a stimulus effort that did not work, and we’re billions of dollars in debt for the effort.

You know the left is desperate. They’re crowing about unemployment dipping below 8 percent. They don’t mention it’s for the first time since Obama took office. They also don’t mention that the number most likely dipped because people simply stopped looking for work and were dropped off the unemployment rolls.

It should now be abundantly clear to everyone that we need a president who knows how to steer clear of red ink. We need a business man at the helm, not a community organizer who convinced the majority of voters into casting a ballot for him on a promise of Hope and Change.

Obama didn’t deliver, it’s that simple, and yes, the blame lies solely on him. He surrounded himself with some of the dullest crystal he possibly could have; a treasury secretary who didn’t even bother to pay his own taxes? Timothy Geithner failed to pay some $35,000 in taxes, and while I admit that I wouldn’t have known I was responsible for paying them, I also was not the head of the New York Federal Reserve. Geithner blew off the whole issue as an oversight. Wow. Could you even imagine having a $35,000 oversight? We should also note here that Geithner was instrumental in the rescue of Bear Sterns, working alongside Bush’s Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Some experts also considered Geithner’s decision to not bail out Lehman a direct contributor to the worsening of the global economic crisis. And this just months before Obama decided he was the right many for the treasure secretary cabinet post.

Really?

Rahm Emanuel. Now here’s a guy that knows how to be a public servant. In fact, he’s made a career out of it. To take it a step further, he made a killing during his short term at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. Yes, that would be Freddie Mac. The very same Freddie Mac that was half the housing crisis. Emanuel, who earned more than $300,000 while doing what some describe as ‘nothing,’ was named to the board of in 2000 by then President Bill Clinton. This was after he left the Clinton administration as an adviser and took a position with an investment banking firm, where, despite any prior banking experience, made more than $16 million with the firm in his less than three-year stint there. Emanuel, apparently not one to stick with much of anything for long, left Obama’s cabinet after just two years and ran for mayor of Chicago, where he is firmly entrenched today.

Eric Holder, well, at least he was an attorney, and even an attorney general, before being appointed Attorney General.

I could spend an entire column, in fact I have, addressing the botched Fast and Furious ‘anti-gun smuggling operation that resulted in the death of a border patrol agent. Holder still needs to be held accountable to the American public for his actions during the operation and subsequent investigation. Unfortunately, Obama stepped in and declared executive privilege to protect him.

This is just a small handful of the people Obama appointed to be his trusted advisors when he took office.

Isn’t there a saying about surrounding yourself with the right people?

How could he have come to the conclusions necessary to choose these folks?

Of course, this is also the same president that pushed through a health care bill that forces Americans for the first time in the history of our great nation, to purchase a product.

“This is not my Constitution. My God, how did we get here?"

It’s all becoming very clear to me now.

Stan Huskey is the editor of The Times Herald. He can be reached at 610-272-2500 ext. 215 or at shuskey@timesherald.com. Follow @StanHuskey on Twitter.

Voter ID law shelved

We'll have a live feed of slain Plymouth police Officer Brad Fox's funeral beginning at 11 a.m. Wed.

Check back here at 11 a.m. Wednesday for a live feed of the funeral proceedings. http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/livenow?id=8815514

Reaction swift to killing of Plymouth police Officer Brad Fox

<script src="http://storify.com/mbrooks/reaction-swift-to-killing-of-plymouth-

Are you better off now than you were four years ago?

It’s been nearly four years and this country is in the same shape it was when Obama took office, if not worse. And please remember, before Obama and Biden took office, the Democratic Party already had control over the House and Senate. Which evokes another duo, Pelosi and Reid. Then House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi took the gavel as Speaker of the House and said, “After years of historic deficits, this 110th Congress will commit itself to a higher standard: pay as you go,no new deficit spending. Our new America will provide unlimited opportunities for new generations, not burden them with mountains of debt.” That was in 2007 when the national debt was a little over $8 trillion. Absolutely much higher than it should have been, but please remember, since the mantra has always been to blame Bush for everything, that in 2001 when George Bush took office, the deficit was at $6 trillion. When Republicans finally were able to get the spend-crazy Democrats out of office and regained control of the House and Senate in 2011, the federal deficit had soared to nearly $14 trillion. You can attempt to blame it on anyone you want, but the numbers just don’t add up. I hope you’re starting to notice a trend here, folks. Unfortunately, President Obama has been saddled with Joe Biden. Fortunately, though, President Romney will have Paul Ryan at his side. And I’m betting you won’t hear a single ‘fbomb’ the whole time. Stan Huskey is the editor of The Times Herald. He can be reached at 610-272-2500 ext. 215 or at shuskey@timesherald.com. Follow @StanHuskey on Twitter.

Fireworks fireworks fireworks!

Check out the local fireworks displays in and around Montgomery County. Where will you be watching the shows from? Are you going to try to catch more than one?

Daylin Leach live from The Times Herald

At 2 PM we'll be talking to PA State Senator Daylin Leach live from the Times Herald newsroom. Check back here to watch the interview.
Live Video streaming by Ustream

Property tax hot potato

Here's a sample from this week's rant on property taxes. State Sen. Daylin Leach will be in next week to give his thoughts on how we should reform the current funding mechanism for public education. Where do you stand? I’ve been writing about House Bill 1776 for some time now, and for the most part, the majority of readers have been all in favor. One reader, though, made it perfectly clear that she was not in favor of the bill, which, for you newcomers, redistributes the tax burden for funding public education from the property tax to the earned income tax and the sales tax. “This bill would give all the money for education to Harrisburg to distribute and I don’t want that to happen. I don’t trust Harrisburg to distribute the money,” Sharon wrote last week. “Property tax has been in effect as a means to pay for education since shortly after the civil war. I don’t state this as a reason for not making a change, just as a reminder of howlong previous generations have been paying for future generations. When I do hear people in this area who are opposed to property tax, it usually seems that they are mad because they feel like renters are getting a free ride. I would love it if your paper took the time to explain that all properties are assessed and that taxes are paid on ALL properties, even rentals.” I think you explained it for them just fine. Thank you very much for the email, and mostly for a different perspective. To prove how much of a hot potato this issue is, I hadn’t so much as finished my interview with the sponsor of HB 1776, Rep. Jim Cox, R-129th Dist., when I received a note from state Sen. Daylin Leach, who is in favor of eliminating the school property tax “if we could replace it with an increase in the income tax.” Leach believes it is a bad idea to replace it with an expanded sales tax. Not being afraid of the heat, Leach also stepped forward with an example to clarify his stance. I pointed out in my last column that I didn’t think the expanded sales tax was regressive because it will not apply to government subsidized food programs and to a list of foods approved as healthy choices. I’m not sure if jalapenos were on that list, but it was apparently spicy enough for Leach to take offense. “Second (the ‘first’ in the email was an explanation of what a regressive tax is), as a general proposition, any sales tax is regressive. This is because as you make more money, the necessity and your ability to spend what you make goes down. To give you an example, a person who makes $15,000 per year must spend every cent they earn to survive. Marc Zuckerberg can’t possibly spend the $100 million plus he will earn this year. So if the sales tax rate is 7%, the person making $15,000 is paying 7% of his entire income, whereas Zuckerberg is spending 7% of a tiny fraction of his income. So the poor guy has an effective rate of 7%, Zuckerberg has an effective rate of something like .000002%.” Reasoned argument, Daylin. And that’s why I’m on board with this bill. That 7% sales tax will not apply to that guy's food bill.

Replay of Jim Cox interview

Here is out video with Representative Jim Cox talking about his property tax reform bill.

Join us for a live interview with PA State Rep. Jim Cox at 12:30 today.
Streaming Live by Ustream

Take the Property Tax Challenge

OK, folks, step right up. It's time to take the Property Tax Challenge. Please answer the following questions. Do you think your property taxes are too high? Do you think students across the state are getting equal access to education? Do you think there is a better way to fund public education? Congratulations, you've taken the Property Tax Challenge. Now there is only one more step. Send an email to shuskey@timesherald.com (That's me) and join the Property Tax Challenge. I'll make sure your state legislator hears from you. Remember, there's power in numbers, so let's tell our elected officials exactly where we stand.