FSM (Salena Zito) | PA Pundits International

Browsing All posts tagged under »FSM (Salena Zito)«

Magnanimity In Victory Marked Civil War’s End

April 29, 2015 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ APPAMATOX COURTHOUSE, Va – The meeting began rather pleasantly, with talk about the weather and the time both men spent serving in the U.S. Army in Mexico. Ninety minutes later, Gen. Robert E. Lee had surrendered his sword and the Army of Northern Virginia to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and America […]

Honoring The Heroism Of The Greatest Generation

June 10, 2014 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ The last thing his commanders said before he dropped from a plane somewhere near Bastogne was “good luck.” It was the Battle of the Bulge, and Allied troops were running out of ammunition, food and medicine; they desperately needed radar capabilities because supplies being dropped sporadically were falling into German hands […]

The Liberals’ Latest False Wedge Issue

April 17, 2014 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ She gave a dramatic eye-roll in reaction to all of the fuss that Democrats and the president attempted to create over equal pay for women last week. A Democrat herself, she said she has carved out a decent, comfortable life for her family over the years as a waitress at a […]

Elites Don’t Grasp Communities’ Strengths

March 30, 2014 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ The moment you enter the Elks Club in Pittsburgh’s old Allegheny section, you get a sense that all is right with the world, at least on “Banjo Night.” Maybe the dark wood-paneled walls put you in mind of someone’s game room. Maybe it’s the giant American flag draped behind the stage […]

Completing A World War II Vet’s Mission Of Honor

March 19, 2014 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ CARLISLE – Sometimes prayers are answered by the most peculiar of angels. Perry E. Ball works in a nondescript office in a maze of rooms at the U.S. Army War College. A professor of international relations, he keeps his desk neat and orderly; the artifacts in his office reflect two things – […]

Giving Up On Washington

February 25, 2014 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ MINGO JUNCTION, Ohio – The roar is gone. Five years after Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel’s once-thunderous mill went idle, the only sound here is that of the oldest parts of the plant being dismantled. The demolition began about a day or so before a red carpet rolled out at the White House for a […]

Little Change In Small-Town Life

December 10, 2013 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ When the family of seven sitting near the front of Connie’s Corner restaurant discreetly held hands and bowed their heads in prayer before their meal, no one in the bustling diner seemed surprised. At the same moment, 400 miles east at Sotheby’s auction house in New York City, “Saying Grace” sold […]

Obamacare’s Widening Disconnect

November 9, 2013 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ Unlike many government buildings in our nation’s capital, nothing is aesthetically pleasing about the Health and Human Services complex. Its “Brutalist” architecture projects a chilly totalitarianism. Perhaps apropos of Obamacare, the jumbled law it is implementing, HHS is the only executive department whose legal foundation rests on a confusing combination of […]

Obamacare Could Go Way Of Prohibition

October 22, 2013 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ A blow to the gut tends to be mightier when delivered by the fist of unintended consequences. In 1923, five years after the implementation of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that effectively banned alcohol, Americans felt disillusioned with Prohibition. None of the grand promises of what would follow its […]

No Evidence Dems Can Take Back House

October 16, 2013 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ The 2010 midterm election that swept Republicans into power in the U.S. House of Representatives was a mandate to put the brakes on President Obama and his agenda. Aside from voters also hoping that Republicans would do something – anything – to boost the economy, restraining Obama was pretty much the […]

Why City Governments Fail

October 2, 2013 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ HARRISBURG – PA A cheery but worn yellow sign announces that “Paxton Commons Retail Complex” is in the works along North Cameron Street in the state capital. The sign, trumpeting “Another Enterprise Community Project,” leads a casual observer to conclude that big plans are in the near future for the 100-year-old […]

Main Street Wants Actions On Jobs, Not Blunders On Syria

September 17, 2013 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ CHAMPION, Pa. – Tracey loaded three large cardboard boxes with tomatoes, peaches, green beans, cucumbers and fleshy beets for a young couple about to embark on their first adventure in the art of canning. Rows of perfectly presented vegetables lined the shelves of her family’s farmers market, where State Route 31 […]

Scandal Staining Hillary’s Record

July 13, 2013 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ In September 1995, then-first lady Hillary Clinton spoke on human rights for women and girls, detailing in a speech in China a shocking list of abuses around the world. “It is time for us to say here in Beijing … that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as […]

Gettysburg: Where America Got Its Chance To Start Over

July 3, 2013 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ GETTYSBURG – When General Robert E. Lee formed his battle lines on Seminary Ridge, he assembled the largest Confederate army to appear on any battlefield of the Civil War. Never before had Lee commanded so many men. And never again would he come within reach of such numbers to follow his […]

Scandals Erode Politically Fatigued Public’s Trust

June 13, 2013 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ Everyone on the outdoor patio of a Dupont Circle restaurant could overhear the young, smartly dressed couple struggling to decide what Capitol City destination to visit next. One place they adamantly agreed on not wishing to see was the White House – an interesting decision, considering that two of the five […]

Perhaps We Are Still in Oz

January 2, 2013 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ What if Dorothy’s skip down the yellow brick road was not just about getting back home to Kansas? L. Frank Baum‘s classic “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” published amid the economic and political chaos of the 1893 financial panic, has “eerie parallels to today,” according to Loyola University political science professor […]

Young George’s Fourth

July 4, 2012 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ~ JUMONVILLE GLEN, Pa. Between this heavily wooded ravine along an Allegheny Mountains summit and the “great meadow” down the road, a young George Washington offered his only surrender in battle. The date was July 4, 1754. “It is pretty amazing standing here, knowing at this very spot the seeds of democracy […]

Pollster: Support for Obama in N.H. is Slipping

January 9, 2012 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito MANCHESTER, N.H. The Granite State shares more than the early-voting spotlight with caucus-cousin Iowa. Its love affair with Barack Obama is in the same funk as is the Hawkeye State’s. And it all has to do with how New Hampshire voters feel about Obama’s handling of the economy, according to David Paleologos, […]

Obama Writing off Pennsylvania?

December 6, 2011 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito NEW BRIGHTON The Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe on Third Avenue is one of those places where politicians who want to be president stop to look decidedly un-presidential. Al Gore visited; so did John Kerry. President Barack Obama opted instead for ice cream at the Windmill, 8 miles up the road. “It is […]

Today’s Climate Mimics the 1890s

September 23, 2011 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito Americans are fed up. Sound familiar? Another wave is coming, Washington — and “the ‘ins’ may be thrown out, and the ‘outs’ may be thrown in,” according to Michael Genovese, Loyola University political science professor. Genovese thinks the economic and political turbulence of the past 12 years are “eerily similar” to the […]

Designed for Compromise

August 8, 2011 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito The recent debt debate was not politics at its worst or most dysfunctional. It worked exactly as American politics was designed to work. “Our system is about posturing, fighting, dealing and eventually compromising,” said Villanova University political scientist Lara Brown. “Overall, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell did […]

Floods of Discontent

July 27, 2011 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito ST. MICHAEL, Pa. Remarkably, the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club still stands on what once was the shore of Cambria County’s Lake Conemaugh. Built in 1881, the Victorian-style white building trimmed in cheerful red was a social center for many “robber barons” of this nation’s greatest industrial era. Club members stayed […]

Young George’s Fourth

July 4, 2011 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito JUMONVILLE GLEN, Pa. Between this heavily wooded ravine along an Allegheny Mountains summit and the “great meadow” down the road, a young George Washington offered his only surrender in battle. The date was July 4, 1754. “It is pretty amazing standing here, knowing at this very spot the seeds of democracy were […]

Our Forgotten Founder

January 24, 2011 by PA Pundits - International

By Salena Zito Harrisburg, Pa. A statesman, Harry Truman once remarked, “is a dead politician.” True, perhaps, for some — but not for one of Pennsylvania’s political figures. “William Penn, isn’t he the Quaker Oats guy?” asked Chris Sulpizio, 32, a native of suburban Philadelphia. Sulpizio also not-so-fondly remembered that “the curse of Billy Penn” […]