THE TURKEY BOWL: EAGLES 48, CARDINALS 20

It’s a formality at this point, but here are the Eagles Cheerleaders. Last night’s Thanksgiving game was just proof the the NFC West is a fraud. The Cardinals were supposed to be good. What does it say when they come east and get sha-lacked by the woeful Eagles - who just a few days before had benched their starting QB? The Eagles also hadn’t scored an offensive touchdown in 19 quarters prior to gametime. Brian Westbrook looked like a hall of famer, scoring four touchdowns. Yet with second and about forty, Andy Reid opts for a running play from deep in the backfield. Ugh! So, it was a win, but at this stage of the game I doubt it means much for the Eagles future.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope everyone has a happy, healthy holiday. Please remember our Troops deployed around the world who are eating Turkey diced with gravy from an M.R.E. pouch this year. (Been there, done that). I’ll be working the weekend, so it will be light blogging for a couple of days. Maybe a good time to browse the archives!

God bless America.

MUSLIM TERRORISTS STRIKE AGAIN

MUMBAI, India – Teams of heavily armed gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular tourist attraction and a crowded train station in at least seven attacks in India’s financial capital, killing at least 78 people and wounding at least 200, officials said Thursday. The gunmen were specifically targeting Britons and Americans and a top police official said the gunmen are holding hostages at two luxury hotels, the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels.

A media report said a little-known group, the Deccan Mujahideen, has claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Press Trust of India news agency said Thursday the group sent emails to several media outlets.

The gunmen also attacked police headquarters in south Mumbai, the area where most of the attacks, which began late Wednesday and continued into Thursday morning, took place. LINK

Religion of peace, my azz. Carpet bombing is too good for them. Early reports are stating a connection between this savagery and the Pakistani Intelligence Service. If this is true, it’s time the world begins to take a good hard look at the role Pakistan and Islamic militants / terrorists are playing in destabilizing many parts of the world. From pirates off the coast of Yemen, to Taliban animals in Afghanistan, to suicide bombers in Iraq, to Iranian support of terrorism in Gaza and the West Bank. It appears the only person in the world who understands how to deal with these psychos is President Bush.

It is still unclear how Barack Obama plans to deal with Islamic terrorism. By all accounts, he’s busy setting up new boards and offices to help him appear Presidential. These attacks come on the heals of renewed threats against New York’s subway system on the eve of the Thanksgiving Holiday. Strange how Muslims never get villified for attacking other people during their Holidays, but holy cow don’t even think of attacking them during one of their “Holy Months.” It’s time to stop the Religion of Peace farce and eradicate terrorists wherever and whenever they are found.

YES WE CAN…

Can you believe the arrogance of this guy? He hasn’t even been sworn in yet and he has already managed to expand the Federal Government. So now we have an “Office of the President-Elect.” Whew. I guess the economic meltdown will vanish any second now.

NUTTER SNUBS N.E. PHILLY

Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter has announced a series of eight Town Hall Meetings throughout Philadelphia to explain the city’s response to the financial crisis and changes to the budget.

The meetings will take place during late-November to mid-December.  At the meetings, city government leadership will explain the difficult decisions that need to be made, share the principles that guided the process, and to listen to any concerns that citizens may have. LINK

Well, there you have it. Mayor Nutter is having a series of town meetings across the city. Unbelievably, not one is being held in the Northeast part of the city. Now for those of you who don’t know Philly, I’ll explain. N.E. Philly is the working class tax base of this city. Its residents are mainly blue collar and city employees. It is one of the largest areas of town, and is geographically very distant from City Hall and the halls of power. It gets the least amount of city services per capita than any other part of town. It’s an insult that not one meeting is being held north of Cottman Avenue. Maybe he can’t find N.E. Philly?

We have fewer Police officers, Firefighters, and Medics than any other comparable part of town. Our streets get paved less often and never get plowed when it snows, for example. Yet it is home to THREE of the city’s prisons. We’re lucky we get our trash picked up. But then again, most residents of the N.E. are self-reliant and work hard to maintain their properties. For many years N.E. Philly has recieved little but lip service from Broad and J.F.K. This snub is nothing new, and is a direct reflection of this Mayor and his administration’s attitude toward the residents of N.E. Philly who supported him during the last election.

JUDAS PRIEST TUESDAY

Always better late than never…

ED SNIDER: CLASS ACT

Three city ice hockey rinks got a last minute reprieve this morning with the help of a well-known media and sports mogul.

Mayor Nutter appeared with Ed Snider, chairman of Comcast-Spectacor, at a press conference at the Rink at Simons Recreation Center in West Oak Lane.

Together they announced the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation will take over operations at three city rinks: the Scanlon Ice Rink in Kensington, the Laura Sims Skatehouse in Cobbs Creek, and the Rink at Simons Recreation. The three rinks previously had been targeted because of an ongoing city budget crisis.

The foundation will also provide free hockey instruction and league equipment along with academic help for after school programs. The rinks will remain open through March 1.

Comcast-Spectacor owns the Philadelphia Flyers, 76ers and the Phantoms.

Well, it appears that at least ONE person on the planet knows how to keep a business profitable while avoiding bankruptcy and begging for a government bailout. In fact, it’s Ed Snider, private businessman and citizen bailing out the City. While the City of Philadelphia ONCE AGAIN can’t pay it’s bills, Ed Snider steps in and provides funding to keep three city ice rinks open – at least in the short term. How about those greedy, evil, rich “sons-of-bitches,” eh? The sheer audacity.

But generosity and citizenship is nothing new for Mr. Snider. After all, he has built his empire one brick at a time and remained loyal to the City of Philadelphia along the way. When he wanted a new stadium in south Philly for his expanding sports enterprise, he didn’t soak the taxpayers like so many sports teams. He arranged for private funding from local banks. The Flyers and 76′ers have long been cornerstones of the Philadelphia sports scene and provide the City with millions of spinoff tax revenue and jobs. Now, if Ed Snider can do it, why can’t City Council?

Let me point out that the Eagles owe the City of Philadelphia somewhere in the area of 8 million dollars, nearly enough to prevent the fire department cut backs slated for January 1st. Now that’s class…

Jeff Laurie are you listening?

A “CUTBACK” DEFINED

This is a picture of Engine 14 and Ladder 15’s station house in the Frankford section of Philadelphia. You can tell by the all-brick construction that this station is “old” by contemporary standards. It probably around 75-80 years old. That’s pretty amazing, considering it has never closed since it was first opened a couple of generations ago. 24-7, 365 firehouses don’t close unless incompetent governments mismanage the books.

I haven’t really blogged about the financial meltdown, because global finance isn’t my area of expertise. But I can offer a few observations from street level. Here they are:

Take a look at this picture. What you are looking at is a typical Philadelphia Fire Department “Double House.” It has an ENGINE and a LADDER company housed together. The Engines carry the hose and pump the water. The Ladders carry the big main ladders and all of the other assorted tools we need to deal with whatever emergency we are called on to respond to.

Now, in our department there are about twice as many Engines as Ladders. We send two Engines and two Ladders to every house fire. If it is serious, we add two additional Engines. Every building gets four Engines and two Ladders automatically. High Rise buildings get THREE Ladders. These responses are dictated by over TWO HUNDRED YEARS of experience in Philadelphia firefighting. Our unique city of row houses has caused us to adopt a style and method of doing things the safest most efficient way possible. And it works well.

Now Engine and Ladder companies work as a team. They each have individual tasks that must be performed sequentially and in a coordinated fashion at the scene of a fire. For example, Engine companies stretch hose line and pump water while Ladder companies put up ladders, ventilate windows, make forcible entry to locked properties and most important of all – use thermal cameras to search for HUMAN LIFE.

Now if the Firefighter is the Infantryman, then the Engine company is the Squad of the Fire Department. It is the unit that every incident response is based upon. Engines handle every call that comes in, with the exception of specialized Ladder Company assignments. They answer 80 to 90 % of all calls. My Engine company will answer more than THREE THOUSAND calls this year. Each Engine is responsible for a GEOGRAPHIC area of the city called a “LOCAL” – or in some cities, a district. In this case, Engine 14’s local includes thousands of residential and commercial properties, schools and hospitals. The Mayor’s plan calls for the closing of Engine 14. But Engine 14’s local won’t shrink or go away. Other Engine companies will have to try and cover their local.

That means while the station will remain open and Ladder 15 will still be there, there will be no Engine there to pump water. There will be four less firemen on duty each shift. When a fire or other incident breaks out, another Engine will have to come from further away. When Ladder 15 arrives at the scene of a house fire in the middle of the night and people stand on the sidewalk screaming that people are trapped… they will have no water to put the fire out with. Now if the next company who is supposed to be coming is out on a call (what are the odds of that in a city of 1.5 million 911 abusers?) the wait for another Engine just got longer and the fire just got bigger.

Now what do you think the odds are that one of the firemen standing on that sidewalk is going to risk his life trying to save that person trapped inside… and get killed or injured in the process? What are the odds that the person who was trapped doesn’t make it, either? I’d say the odds are sky high. It’s a lead pipe cinch.

When a city has a FOUR BILLION DOLLAR budget and can’t finance police and fire protection adequately, keep libraries and swimming pools open, and otherwise fund the essential services we need, why are we paying taxes in the first place? When the Federal Government has unlimited BILLIONS to bail out companies who horrendously mismanaged their assets and made criminally, unethically unsound business practices aided by an inept and complicit Congress, why should they get one red cent of taxpayer dollars?

When we have to stand on a sidewalk watching a house burn, who gets the blame?

THE BOY TURNS 9

Today the boy turns nine. Our family’s resident paleontologist, gemologist, world class adventurer, explorer of unknown parts, fierce fighter of monsters from beyond and all around superhero is almost in double digits.

November is a tough month to have your birthday in as a kid. Thanksgiving week especially, since it’s the unofficial beginning of the holiday season. It’s kind of hard to have a special personal day with so much else going on around. But Nick never complained about that. I’m grateful that he is doing well in school and is happy and healthy in every other respect. He’s my best buddy and a great kid. I hate to see him grow up, but they all do. Happy Birthday Nicky.

Love, Dad

END OF AN ERA: RAVENS 36 – EAGLES 7

BALTIMORE – Andy Reid pushed the button he had never pushed before.

With his franchise quarterback perfectly healthy, the Eagles’ coach decided he still needed to make a move in an attempt to rescue his terminally ill offense yesterday at M&T Bank Stadium.

So at halftime, Reid sent quarterbacks coach Pat Shurmur to tell slumping Donovan McNabb that Kevin Kolb would be under center to open the second half. It was the first time a healthy McNabb had ever been benched.

Like so many other decisions Reid has made this season, this one did not work either as the Baltimore Ravens turned a three-point halftime lead into a 36-7 rout. LINK

The firehouse is a particularly intense place to watch a football game. As work goes, it is usually a slow day. Everyone busts out all of our work starting early in the morning so we can take some down time to watch the game later in the day. Nothing like watching the home team with a kitchen full of firemen. Nothing like it at all.

Of course, we rarely get to see the whole game. The calls always seem to come in at a crucial point in the game. This weekend was no exception. The Philadelphia Marathon was being held, and it made an absolute mess of Center City. I guess the people who organize these events don’t put much thought into the effect that they will have on all of the non-participants. While the runners were coming through the streets, the police had to close them. Even emergency vehicles couldn’t cross, less the times be disrupted. In more than one case emergency care was delayed or re-routed because of the race.

So with the Marathon going on, the calls streamed in all afternoon. I didn’t get to see a whole lot of the game but what I saw was a disaster. It’s safe to say we witnessed (Hopefully) the end of the Andy Reid / Donovan McNabb era in Philadelphia. When they start using words like “ROUT” to describe a game midway through the season you have to know things are in disarray. Andy Reid took the almost unheard of step of benching the franchise, starting quarterback Donovan McNabb (rightfully so) because of his inability to lead this team and put points on the board. Not that it mattered. Backup quarterback Kevin Kolb didn’t fare much better. This team may be too bad for anyone to rescue.

So now we are faced with the two words no NFL fan wants to hear applied to their team: “REBUILDING YEAR.” This is going to be an ugly post / off season.