I'm trying a different method for processing video so let me know if these are OK.
Another reporter swept directly in front of me mid-speech so I missed part of the President's remarks. I also apologize for the people standing directly in front of the media section. For some strange and unbeknownst reason the White House allows people, even those with big hair, to stand in front of us and block our view of the President.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is sitting/standing to the right of Gov. Rendell. In th elater videos Congressman Joe Sestak is directly in front and to the side of me. He began the event right behind the Governor then moved. I wonder why....
One statement made by the President yesterday jumped out at me and signaled yet another compromise on health insurance reform: pre-existing conditions. Obama said only children with pre-existing conditions would be guaranteed coverage. This is a major weakening of the bill. Adults with pre-exisitng conditions will continue to be discriminated against by insurance companies. Many times it is what isn't said which is important and the President's qualification that only children will be protested caught my attention.
How much weaker can this bill get? It's already gone from being a significant improvement to a political death trap for Democrats. They keep weakening the bill without receiving any concessions in return. What's the definition of insanity?
This bill began as health care reform then became health insurance reform. It began with a robust public option and coverage for women's reproductive health services. Those important provisions were stripped out and it became a giant corporate welfare program for insurance companies already controlling markets and defrauding clients. Originally it was going to be paid for by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for the rich and became one where working people's health plans would be taxed at 40%.
Now average people are facing a significant tax burden to pay for those less fortunate. The middle class is again being squeezed while the rich and poor gain the benefits. No one is going to pay a 40% tax on their benefits. This will have several disastrous consequences: the funds to pay for the subsidies won't materialize, those plans will be gutted to keep them under the tax threshold and those middle class people now getting less health coverage will go bankrupt an dlose their homes. This bill will do nothing to ameliorate the current crisis. Indeed it may make it worse.
Guess who will get the blame for this? You're correct, Democrats.
In the wake of another contemptible and reprehensible selection of a chosen person by a major political party for a congressional office in this Commonwealth that was so rigged and so staged that even professional wrestling comes off as being more "real", I have to take a moment to once again raise up the banner of why political parties need to become as extinct as the dinosaurs, because they have become the new dinosaurs.
I will take my opportunities, as they come, to continue to harp on the notion that political parties, especially the major ones, are far out of touch with what quality representation should be about and don't want any competition from anybody at all that they don't personally endorse and who doesn't have the inside track with their top selecting people.
This being said, people of Pennsylvania, and for that matter, America, wake the heck up and realize what idiotic kinds of horse manure you are being fed by the two major parties and for that matter even smaller political movements. You may think you are part of something wonderful and great and that you are "proud to be a (insert party affiliation here) and all that schtick, and you know what, so was I for a damn long time. Until I realized just what kind of hacked together, conspiring and contemptible framework that most every party out there, especially the Dems & G-NO-P, have in place to make sure that not only does no other party stand a chance in hell in any race beyond maybe tax collector, but that your part in their party process is just to be a voting cog and a voice of support for their chosen leaders. Why should you settle for this, why should anyone settle for this, time and again. What is more, it might not be so bad to swallow, having these chosen candidates, but when they keep getting uglier and more corrupt and more incredulous and more ridiculous of those who are selected. Then you should be really asking yourself why the hell you are member of that party, but even more why even have a political party. What are they good for, besides wasting a lot of money, a lot of time, and a lot of opportunities to make this country great. Politics should be about negotiation, but these days politics has become about NO-GO-tiation.
Pennsylvania Gubernatorial candidate Joe Hoeffel spoke before this morning's speech by President Barack Obama. He didn't pull any punches when it comes to Republican fear mongering on health care.
Mark Critz has secured the 26 votes necessary from the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party to be their candidate on May 18th to fill the unexpired term of the late John P. Murtha. This pretty much insures the Republican nominee will win the special election and swing this seat tot he GOP. Critz is a fatally flawed candidate and what we'll be seeing the next two and a half months will be ugly. The vote went 30 for Critz, 18 for Hafer and 1 for Bucchianeri.
There will also be a simultaneous primary for the nomination for November for a full term.
There's lots of news other than the 12th CD and we need to do some catching up. I attended the President's speech on health insurance reform (their term) this morning at Arcadia University in Glenside. The crowd was electric, more energized and enthusiastic than any I've seen and this is my seventh Obama event. I'll have more on that event separately (I need to edit and upload the video). How many of you were there? I saw Kevin Shaw of Montco DFA. Here are a few pictures:
Jonathon Saidel filed his nominating petitions today for Lt. Governor: "I am excited to make the campaign official today and, in a case of perfect timing, I am equally excited to thank the Allegheny County Labor Council for becoming the first local labor council in Pennsylvania to make an official recommendation to the Pennsylvania State AFL-CIO for an endorsement in the Lieutenant Governor election,"
I had a minute to say hello to Congressman Joe Sestak today. We both ducked out quickly Sestak was endorsed by the UFCW today in a big endorsement. The United Food and Commercial Workers is a major union and they represent thousands of workers in SE Pennsylvania alone.
Citing Joe's consistent support for labor issues and tireless advocacy for working families, Local 1776 President Wendell W. Young, IV and Local 23 Director of Public Affairs Kevin Kilroy, representing Local 23 President Tony Helfer, delivered the endorsement on behalf of their combined 37,000 members and the 1.3 million workers represented by UFCW. Pictured from left to right are: Kevin Kilroy, Congressman Sestak, Wendell W. Young, IV, Al Vincent (Director of Region 2 for UFCW International) and John Myerson (Director of Legislative and Political Action, UFCW 1776)
"The UFCW is proud to endorse a true Democrat for the United States Senate, a candidate who will work as hard for Pennsylvania as the men and women we represent," said Young, who spoke at Joe's field office in Philadelphia.
"Our members know we can count on Joe Sestak to stand and fight for the issues that matter to working men and women, issues such as the Employee Free Choice Act, ensuring fair wages and benefits, and passing real health care reform. Over the last 30 years, Arlen Specter has repeatedly let us down when it matters most, waffling on the public option, delivering a crippling blow to card check, casting the deciding vote for the Bush tax cuts, and letting Wall Street gamble away our savings and pensions."
Sixth District Congressional candidate Doug Pike issued an interesting statement today. In it he pledges to run a "clean campaign" and makes the following promises:
1) Focus my campaign on policy differences with Gerlach and the Republicans.
2) Discuss policy differences between myself and Manan in a respectful manner.
3) Never question Manan's motivation or qualification to serve.
4) Never attack Manan's character or family.
5) Never use Manan's name or likeness in paid campaign communications.
6) Make clear to my staff, volunteers and supporters that they must abide by these same guidelines.
7) Call Manan personally if I hear of an attack before responding."
Pike's Democratic opponent is Manan Trivedi, a physician from Berks County who served in Iraq.
Ryan Bucchianeri also filed his petitions today for the 12th Congressional District. "It is official. Our campaign to bring about change to southwestern Pennsylvania and more importantly, change to Washington is now a choice that voters will have in this primary election," said Bucchianeri. "We filed with 1640 signatures today. While I may not have the most, we accomplished this goal through an all grassroots effort. I am very grateful to everyone for all their hard work and am honored that they have joined our campaign to bring about new ideas and new leadership,"
I couldn't watch all of the Oscar's due to this morning's early alarm clock. I did love Neil Patrick Harris however. When he sang that line about the soap I almost died. As usual I didn't see any of the movies so for me it's simply a matter of enjoying the spectacle. Kirk and I did go see "Alice in Wonderland" this afternoon in Imax 3D. Wow, what an experience! It was a quick trip from Glenside back to Reading. I swear I didn't speed! (Much....) I thought I could exit before the President but lost the race. I think he got a better parking space...
Bob Cesca, Berks County's most famous blogger, hit the nail on the head about the Tea Partiers in this HuffPost article. They were out in force today. I was sorry I couldn't get more fascinating video interviews of them.. Considering these people were invisible during thirty years of massive budget deficits, the shredding of our rights and the choice of the last President to lie us into war their motivation boils down to one issue: race.
Lois Herr, running in the 16th CD against Joe "He's The" Pitts, attacked the Congressman for voting against last week's jobs bill. Pitts has become the poster boy for The Party of NO: "On both his official website and his campaign website, Joe Pitts says that lowering taxes on small business is the best way to create new jobs. But today he voted against a bill that directly cuts taxes for small businesses that create jobs," Herr said. "We already knew that Pitts doesn't make sense for the 16th District, but now he's stopped making sense to himself."
The Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party votes today for a candidate to run for the May 18 special election in the 12th Congressional District. This person will compete with the Republican selected to fill the remaining term of the late John P. Murtha. The 12th CD is a heavily gerrymandered area which stretches from Indiana County down to Fayette and Greene Counties in the far southwestern part of the state. Of the four candidates we have concentrated upon vetting Mark Critz who served for over twelve years (according to a legal deposition given by Critz) on Congressman Murtha's staff. Barbara Hafer, former Pennsylvania State Treasurer and Auditor General is also running with Cambria County Controller Ed Cernik Jr. and Ryan Bucchianeri.
I haven't had a horse in this race. What I have done is focus on the critical and serious shortcomings of Mark Critz as a successor. With an amazing number of Pennsylvania Congressional seats in play this year adding the 12th to that mix provides reactionary Republicans the opportunity to give us more Joe Pitts', Melissa Harts and Phil Englishes. As corrupt as Murtha was he brought jobs to an area in desperate need of them and he wasn't a war profiteer like Irey. We exposed his 2006 opponent for her reasons for supporting the War in Iraq and we also exposed Critz' failings.
Cernik is largely an unknown outside Johnstown but PA2010 reports (great reporting over there!) he is anti-choice and pro gun. I was in Philadelphia two evenings last week and gun safety is costing people, including cops and kids, their lives. It's tough enough battling Republican gun nuts who don't believe in safety, law and order or law enforcement without electing Democrats who believe the same nonsense.
Dan Hirschhorn has a series of articles at PA2010 on today's vote. My feeling is that Critz' candidacy is dead and Bucchianeri isn't a viable threat. That leaves it between Hafer and Cernik. Many Democrats, according to Dan, are miffed at Hafer for reacting to reports we published last week. Barbara Hafer had nothing to do with our reporting (thanks to the many sources who did) and merely reacted to the news Mark Critz was heavily involved with a company which cheated taxpayers. She also had issues with the rigging of the local selection process. I have trouble arguing with what she did. These are serious issues and Ed Cernik remained silent about them all week. That concerns me because it didn't seem to concern him.
Today's vote is important because this seat is in play. Democrats must choose the best candidate period.
I'll be off to Philadelphia shortly for the President's visit. Obama is coming to discuss health insurance reform and will speak at Arcadia University at 11 AM.
The fifty members of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party's Executive Committee vote today to select the candidate for the May 18th special election in the 12th Congressional District. There will be two elections that day for this seat. First voters will determine who fills John Murtha's seat until January when the winner in November is determined. Meanwhile candidates will campaign this spring for both seats and they may well be different people. The Party determines candidates in special elections, all voters registered in a Party vote for their candidates in primaries.
Tomorrow is the last filing date for petitions. All candidates for office in Pennsylvania must file nominating petitions by 5 PM. Local candidates do so at their county level (very, very few local elections are this year) and state and federal candidates in Harrisburg. The North Building of the Capitol Complex will again be very hectic tomorrow.
I'll be in Harrisburg tomorrow for Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Board of Directors meetings. I'll pop on over to the Department of State chaos to see who is there filing.
Last week we exposed a litany of some 75 lawsuits which were filed against Parkins Inc, Parkins Concrete and other corporate incarnations of a company in Johnstown in which Mark Critz was Corporate Secretary, business manager and bookkeeper. Critz also worked for the late John Murtha, eventually as his District Office Chief of Staff and now wants to succeed the Congressman. Parkins was a concrete company and it apparently stiffed many entities including the state and federal tax authorities. Considering the fact Mark Critz worked at Parkins for several years and concurrently, for a time, also worked for the Congressman, his duties at Parkins are very relevant. I don't understand how Democrats can appoint someone who worked at a company which defrauded Pennsylvanians as a candidate for Congress.
Mrs. Parkins, who is the superintendent of schools in the Johnstown School District, said that she and her husband divorced in 2005 and that she had no idea she was listed on any corporate papers with her ex-spouse's now-defunct concrete business.
For some reason most of the principles at Parkins seem woefully ignorant of the massive financial problems which eventually collapsed the company. Barbara Parkins was, indeed, mentioned in at least one lawsuit against the company. The Pennsylvania Progressive has obtained documents proving otherwise:
The final page of this lawsuit filed by New Enterprise Stone and Lime Co. Inc. claims it extended credit to Parkins for their business supplies. They sued for $25,171.67 in unpaid bills plus $11,895.93 in accrued interest on the debt. On the final page here Barbara Parkins is mentioned:
On April 10, 1997, the Defendants, Lynn D. Parkins and Barbara L Parkins, made and delivered to the Plaintiff Guaranty Agreements. True and correct copies of said Guarantee Agreements are attached hereto, made a part hereof and collectively marked Exhibit "B."
So there exists at least one lawsuit against Parkins, Inc. which names Barbara L. Parkins in the action. I'm sure Mrs. Parkins will volunteer to correct her statement tomorrow in light of this revelation. Considering her current position as Superintendent of Schools in Johnstown she should set a good example for the young people there.
This time it isn't "disingenuous." Would someone please send clean underwear and toilet tissues to the Critz campaign headquarters? It's obvious they are having abdominal disorders over all these revelations so we can, at least, assist them with their hygiene.
Critz testified that he worked part-time as both the company's bookkeeper and business manager from at least late 1997 until early 2000. During that time, the company racked up more than $13,000 worth of state tax violations, and at least one federal tax lien of more than $127,000, according to public records.
That means Mark Critz lied about his two employments overlapping. They did.
Update: Critz changed this page too after we exposed the lie. Unfortunately for him I have the screen shot and his new information changes nothing. Saying he didn't work for Murtha until a year later changes nothing. He still worked at both jobs simultaneously. For someone who wants to be a Member of Congress he sure makes a lot of mistakes.
Mark Critz has had his time in the spotlight but it is time to go. He has shown an appalling lack of preparation for the limelight of a major Congressional campaign. Leave aside for a moment the fact he was involved in rigging the election yesterday or that as a corporate officer the firm he was at engaged in massive tax fraud. His campaign's reactions to our series of revelations this past week has been pathetic. Their obsession with the screwup on their Facebook page is actually quite minor compared with vote rigging and tax fraud. These, however, are the issues for which they keep contacting me.
I admit I trapped them. I trapped Nancy Critz into correcting me on the date of Joyce Murtha's announcement. I did it to keep her commenting here so when I threw her the hard questions she would have no excuse to avoid them. She avoided them. I admitted I trapped her but other campaign people keep falling into my trap. Every time they walk into my trap I get to spring it again: tell us why he rigged the election and tell us why he defrauded Pennsylvania taxpayers? Each time they contact me about the Facebook article I get, again, to bring up his potential criminal activities. I think this man should be in prison, not Congress. Of course it IS the 12th Congressional District...
What this tells me is that Mark Critz isn't ready for prime time. He is unable to explain his past actions without being caught in lies. He has no central person assigned to deal with me much less everyone else. Thus far I have been contacted by three people including his wife. Why on earth was the candidate's wife here responding to my blog articles???? He is a bad candidate with a bad team around him making mistake after mistake. I have to wonder about their intelligence after I admit I set a trap for them and they continue walking into it...again and again. I do have to say though, this is fun, I'm enjoying dealing with the fools.
Update: While writing this a new email arrived from Critz's website manager:
Mr. Morgan,
"Web site" is two words. Furthermore, the word "Web," when referring to the World Wide Web, is a proper noun and should be capitalized.
I hope that helps.
Regards,
Shawn Piatek, MBA
Vice President
1st Team
227 Franklin Street
Suite 302
Johnstown, PA 15901
Now they've sunk to criticizing my writing while ignoring the substance of my articles. Perhaps Mr. Piatek's time would be better served finding someone at the Critz campaign to deal with the media so he can finish the website.
Mark Critz's people seem obsessed with my article about his Facebook page (which they since changed) which said (by them, not us) that he announced his candidacy on February 15th, before the funeral for Jack Murtha. Each time they contact me about this I get another chance to mention their Facebook screw up, it's quite amazingly stupid. What they refuse to address are the allegations of tax fraud exposed in this article.
Tax fraud against the state and federal governments amidst a flurry of lawsuits by other business partners is a serious issue. Mark Critz was an officer of the corporation (Parkins INC) for a time when the taxpayers were defrauded. He refuses to say for how long but sources are telling me it was several years. This isn't a matter where he became an officer of the company, discovered what was going on and left. He was part of the fraud legally for a considerable period of time. If Mark Critz or his people have anything to say about THAT I'd love to hear from you.
Instead I get emails from his wife, supporters and now his website designers (it's a very lousy web site by the way). The website is so bad it shouldn't be up. This is nothing more than a bare bones operation and no on knows what they're doing. Non eof them are prepared to be prime time players on thislevel and it shows. There is no one handling media affairs and this makes it appear Critz is hiding behind his wife's skirts. He is. He's also hiding behind this guy who also fails to address the real issues:
In your blog you raised the following questions:
It takes time to buy domain names, create a web site, find a campaign office (I've spent weeks doing that part for candidates)) and even organize enough to get a Facebook page put together.
I will happily fill you in on these details and I hope you republish my message word for word because it would be an excellent endorsement for my firm. Mr. Critz first contacted me at 10:51 p.m. on Feb. 22 (I know because I have the email) asking about ways in which my firm could assist his campaign. Specifically he asked about a Web site and how quickly we could have one designed and launched. The next day, I put my team into action on a quest to design, develop and launch what our IT partners would refer to as a starter site. It's a simple informational site. While it was a challenge to design and launch a site in such a short time frame, I am proud to say that from concept to launch we did it in six business days. I'm very proud of my staff, the staff at Precision Business Solutions in Ebensburg, our IT partner, and that of another partnering agency on this endeavor, Digital Razor of Indiana, as well as John Allen Photography, for their dedication and hard work on the Critz Web site project.
We're thrilled to be working for the Mark Critz for Congress Committee. He's a man of great integrity, as witnessed by the respect he showed to Mrs. Murtha. We believe in Mr. Critz. It was his energy and passion that inspired us to work so diligently to fulfill his request.
PS - Purchasing domain names can be accomplished in a matter of minutes. Launching a Facebook group requires only a few minutes, as well.
Regards,
Shawn Piatek, MBA
Vice President
1st Team
227 Franklin Street
Suite 302
Johnstown, PA 15901
No one really cares about the website or the office It appears he moved into the Murtha one as it's in the same building as Murtha's old Congressional office. As I recall from my 2006 visit there they were in the same building. The issues surrounding Mr. Critz are his involvement in Parkins and why he told Alex Roarty of PoliticsPA he had 50 votes secured for yesterday's meeting before the delegates were chosen. Mark Critz has refused to answer these questions. His people have refused to answer these questions. These are the questions we want answered. If you're going to come here and argue about trivial questions be prepared to answer the serious ones or go away.
Of course we know the answers. Mark Critz was part of an operation to rig yesterday's vote and the actual vote proved it.
As the Corporate Secretary for Parkins Inc. he was legally liable for their fraudulent activities. The dozens of lawsuits against various Parkins corporate entities may make it appear the company was dodging its tax liabilities or attempting to stay one step ahead of the tax man. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was a victim of this action. Here's a short overview of the law.
Answer this for me (maybe you can put it on that sorry excuse for a website): what exact time period did Mark Critz serve as a corporate officer for Parkins Inc? I'll find out anyway because these are public records. When I do I'll make this a national story.
Update: Numerous press reports and a statement by Mark Singel say Mark Critz worked for Congressman Murtha for twelve years. This overlaps his work also at Parkins Concrete. In other words he was working for the Congressman while ripping off the taxpayers at Parkins. This doesn't jive with this statement:
Mr. Critz has responded by calling for the OCE to release all documents connected to him and by stating that he worked at Parkins at the request of his sister-in-law, who was married at the time to the firm's president. He said he quit in a disagreement over the company's business practices long before he joined Mr. Murtha's congressional staff.
Someone is lying. Either Mark Critz didn't work for Murtha for twelve years or he did both at the same time at some point.
