Pennsylvania: Virginia

Not much fact-checking in this week's column by Jack Kelly.

There IS this:
But if you're one of the 84 Democrats who represent districts carried either by George W. Bush in 2004 or John McCain last year, the time to ponder this is before casting a potential career-terminating vote on health-care "reform." [emphasis added.]
That's a bit of a cheat, isn't it? I mean why include the districts of House Democrats carried by Bush in 2004 if only to beef up the number of "Dems at risk"?

Especially since there were only 49 Democratic House Districts voting for McCain in 2008.

I guess Jack really doesn't think anyone will check his work.

I'm sorry Maria. I'm sorry Bram. I'm sorry Sue. I'm sorry John. I'm sorry Ed. I'm sorry Chad. I'm sorry Virginia. I'm sorry Chris. I'm sorry everyone at the Women's Blogging Society.

But I am sad this evening because my favorite blogger (of all time!) is going away.

Do I need to say who my favorite blogger is? Oh, Bitchpleeze!

This is the bad news (from Huffingtonpost):
According to the king of comedy news, Sean McCarthy (and confirmed by Michaela Watkins), Michaela Watkins and Casey Wilson have been fired from the cast of "Saturday Night Live" after just one season.

According to Politico, Santorum is dipping his toes in the 2010 Iowa waters (see here).

My first question, of course, is will he be running as a Pennsylvanian or a Virginian?

I know that that elections officials ruled last year that he was eligible to vote in PA. I know that he claims that Penn Hills PA is his residence. I know that he says that he lives with his family. And, I know that his eldest daughter graduated from a high school in Virginia this spring. I know that because my nephew was one of her classmates. So, I guess we all know that she commuted about 250 miles each way -- 500 miles each day -- five days a week to attend school.

As we celebrate Earth Day today, it's good to remember our own canaries in the coal mine: The victims of the Donora Smog of 1948.

From Wikipedia:

The Donora Smog of 1948 was an historic air inversion pall of smog that killed 20 and sickened 7,000 people in Donora, Pennsylvania, United States, a mill town on the Monongahela River 24 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

The smog first rolled into Donora on October 27, 1948. By the following day it was causing coughing and other signs of respiratory distress for many residents of the community in the Monongahela River valley. Many of the illnesses and deaths were initially attributed to asthma.