State Senator Daylin Leach kicked off his campaign today with an open event for supporters in King of Prussia. He's a genuine hero for progressives leading the fight in Harrisburg for every cause we hold dear. He has the courage to stand up for women, for minorities, for kids, for the LGBT community. In an age when we hunger for true leaders Sen. Leach is always there for the people, unafraid to take the point and fight. If I say any more he'll just get a huge head and wind up posting something on facebook so I'll leave it at that...
Pictures from today's event:
With Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz:
With Rep. Tim Briggs, Sen. Vince Hughes and Congressman Chaka Fattah:
I began my freshman year at Penn State in September, 1970 and the head football coach was a young man named Joe Paterno. In the ensuing decades he became much more than a football coach: the face of the University, a prodigious fundraiser for the university library, a major donor himself, the winningest football coach of all time in major college football but, most importantly, a molder of men. It was that final quality for which he was proudest. He didn't see his role as simply winning games and national championships, he saw his duty as upholding the integrity of college athletics, making his players go to class, keep their grades up and graduating them so they could have careers after football.
As a maker of men he had few peers. As the symbol of a major university he had none. I was in State College about a year ago covering President Obama's speech at Rec Hall and JoePa walked into the hall directly behind our press area to thunderous applause. Though Obama got a huge round of support it paled in comparison.
I never encountered the man personally. I spent most of my time in the HUB at the student government offices, in my fraternity house or in class. He lived north of campus, I was on the south side. Many students did see him as he routinely walked to his offices and the word was he was always approachable. Where other major college coaches had State Troopers surround them at games Joe never felt so pretentious. He prowled the sidelines in his rolled up khakis, blue jacket and black rimmed glasses. He wasn't just a man or a football coach, he was an institution.
Joe Paterno passed away this morning, finally losing a battle he couldn't outwit: lung cancer. It is a very sad day for all Penn Staters and anyone who admired and respected someone for whom doing things the right way was his life's mission. He was the personification of the term "class act." Though his legacy will forever be linked to the Sandusky affair and how his coaching tenure ended we should put those memories behind us and remember the great years, the great teams, the great young men who he molded at Penn State.
Not many football players go to the pros and Joe understood that part of his job was to prepare them for a regular life and for life after their professional careers. For this he truly was a molder of men. In that regard he was an example and role model for every Penn Stater. Even after being fired he refused to be bitter, to hold a grudge.
I'll always remember those thrilling days as an undergraduate sitting in Beaver Stadium rooting on his great teams. I'll always remember the man who was a molder of men, not as the man whose final moral lapse made national news. His glasses should be enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.
A president will be inaugurate done year from today. Will it be Barack Obama, Mitt Romney or someone else?
Last night's GOP debate (yes, still another one) Rick Santorum went off when asked about SOPA (which is now on the back burner) and criticized those who think they can do anything on the internet. All I could think of was what happens when you Google his name. That couldn't be what set him off could it?
My bank has a drive up ATM which has a sticker addressing the sight impaired. Why would a blind person be using the drive through ATM? Is it just me or do you find this odd?
Nominating petitions begin being circulated and many candidates are hosting kickoff announcements, launching campaigns and/or events. Since I don't belong to a political party I can neither sign nor circulate petitions.
Are you confused about what the Federal Reserve is doing and don't have a clue what Quantitative Easing is: Here's a cute explanation:
Jane Orie's trial has been postponed until Feb. 27th due to schedule conflicts of her attorney. Meanwhile the trial of Bill DeWeese is under way and he took a moment to skewer Governor Gasbag, noting how the former AG assigned 14 people to BonusGate while the Sandusky case got but one. Bill needs to understand that BonusGate was Corbett's road to the Governor's mansion while indicting Sandusky would have cost him thousands of votes. Surely he doesn't think Tom Corbett would have run his OAG differently does he? After all, this is Harrisburg we're talking about.
The EPA is delivering water to Dimock, something the DEP is supposed to do. Of course the DEP doesn't do much at all to protect our environment so what's new?
Tea Party and anti-teacher zealot Julian Stolz was hit with a $500 fine for failing to file campaign finance reports. In the past his have been riddled with errors and filled with questionable expenses. Maybe he was so late this time trying to come up with clever new ways of falsifying them.
Pennsylvania's revenue picture remains mixed as Governor Tom Corbett prepares to roll out his 2012-13 state budget proposal in a few weeks.
Pennsylvania continues to see an increase in collections over last year, but revenues trail Corbett administration estimates so far this year. That has prompted the administration to announce midyear budget freezes this month and could impact the budget plan the Governor will present in early February.
Weak corporate collections are taking a toll, and it appears likely that Pennsylvania will end the year with a revenue shortfall, despite solid growth from 2010-11. Still, the revenue picture, in the short term, may not be as dire as that painted by the Corbett administration. The state is carrying a half a billion dollars in reserve that more than covers the current shortfall.
The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has a full analysis of the revenue numbers at the midpoint of the 2011-12 Fiscal Year.
Year-to-date tax collections as of December are up $398 million, or 3.6%, over this point last year, but are falling short of Corbett administration estimates by $466 million, or 3.9%. Total revenue collections are $487 million, or 4%, below estimates.
Year-over-year growth slowed in December with monthly tax collections outpacing those a year earlier by only $6.5 million, or 0.3%. Some of this slowdown has to do with a shift in the timing of sales tax payments, but weak corporate collections are also having an impact.
Changes to the revenue estimate itself may be playing a role in the shortfall, as well. The administration projected a larger share of revenue collections in the first half of the year and a smaller share in the second half than has been the case in recent fiscal years. That may have contributed to the midyear shortfall and could set the stage for a stronger revenue showing between now and June.
Actions taken by the Corbett administration and the General Assembly have also contributed to the current revenue shortfall. The decision last year to allow corporations to accelerate depreciation costs may be costing more than originally estimated, while doing little to improve the economic outlook. That, combined with the continued phase-out of the capital stock and franchise tax in 2012, will cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue.
Everyone was surprised when Jennifer Mann announced she was retiring as a State Representative. Her distinguished career representing Allentown led to some statewide runs, the last being four years ago for State Treasurer. Allentown City Councilman Mike Schlossberg immediately began gearing up for the race and kicked off his campaign yesterday at the West End Youth Center. Mike is a good guy, we had him on Democratic Talk Radio and he always struck me as a young man with a bright future. His speech was the best I've heard at a kickoff event and he hit the right issues with humor and obviously enjoyed every minute of his evening in the spotlight. I predict there will be more spotlights ahead for Mike.
A blog post by Mark Price, originally published at Third and State.
On Thursday, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry released data on employment and unemployment in December. Compared to the summer months, the top line numbers were good, with unemployment falling three-tenths of one percent to 7.6% (U.S. rate is 8.5%).
Nonfarm jobs were up 6,500, which is a pretty good number (we need to average 8,000 new jobs a month to get back to full employment in three years). Service-sector job growth in December was atrocious; the sector added just 300 jobs. Most of the month's job growth was in durable goods, with manufacturing adding 2,600 jobs, construction adding 3,000 and mining adding another 600.
Those 3,000 construction jobs don't represent a sudden resurgence of the construction industry. As most of you are happily aware, December was quite warm; this meant construction activity in the month was above historical averages which shows up as job growth in the final numbers. The actual trend in construction employment is at best no or very slow growth.
The bottom line is that in the last 12 months, Pennsylvania added 59,200 jobs. That's fewer jobs than were added from December 2009 to December 2010 (63,900). The primary reason Pennsylvania added fewer jobs in 2011 than it did in 2010 is the loss of 19,800 jobs in the public sector.
"Ola, Amigo! Pack your bags, we're going to Mexico!" bubbled Dr. Franklin Peterson Comstock III, faux physician and money-maker.
"Yeah, I could use a decent vacation," I replied, figuring he'd pay for both of us since he had just set the world record for the most nose jobs in a 24-hour period.
"What vacation?" he said. "I'm setting up practice."
"And give up catering to rich people with inflated bank accounts and deflated ethics?"
"Don't have a choice. I'm getting laid off."
Comstock had been a rainmaker for the Megabucks Happy Health Care Medical Center for the past decade. There was only one reason I could think of why he'd be laid off.
"Megabucks tired of paying your malpractice insurance?" I asked.
"Not just me," he said. "Hospital's laying off most of the staff, making the rest work overtime, and hiring outside contractors. They said it was hard to survive when the profit was down to only 20 or so million a year."
"I didn't realize it was that serious," I said. "You planning to set up private practice to help the poor in Mexico?" I asked admiringly.
"Not a chance! Gonna get rich working for Megabucks!"
"You just said you were laid off."
"Been laid off in the U.S.," said Comstock while putting a frozen burrito into the microwave.
"Megabucks/Mexico just hired me. There's cheaper labor down there."
"You crazy?" I asked. "You're the cheaper labor."
"Obviously you don't know American business," said Comstock haughtily.
"Megabucks/U.S. closes its auxiliary operations, and then contracts with Mexican companies for a fifth of the cost in the U.S. They do the work, ship it back to the U.S., and Megabucks bills Blue Cross the full rate as if it was done locally."
"So where do you fit in?" I asked.
"Just as before. Nose jobs. Breast augmentations. Tummy tucks. All the important medical procedures. But this time, I do it in Cancun."
"To rich Mexicans," I said disgusted.
"To rich Americans!" said Comstock. "If they want the best care, they'll take their private jets to Mexico and then deduct the trip as a necessary business expense."
"And what about the impoverished and middle-class Americans?"
"If they can sneak across the border, they can also get medical care."
"What about prescriptions?"
"Megabucks contracted with some of the best drug dealers-I mean pharmacists and chemists-in Mexico. Quality is just as good and it'll only be four or five times production costs. Unlike the U.S. there's no TV advertising and six-figure MBAs and lawyers that require drugs to be 30 or 40 times production costs."
"With prices that low, how do you know there won't be mass rushes by Americans to grab everything they can?"
"Because there's security! Every hospital and pharmacy has armed guards with the best automatic weapons smuggled through the God-fearing 2nd Amendment patriotic Southern states."
"Is Megabucks outsourcing all its operations?"
"Keeping the ER. After tummy tucks and butt lifts, that's the hospital's 'cash cow.'"
"So, then, it'll have to keep some services like X-Ray and the lab," I said. "Maybe even a doctor or two."
"Too expensive," said Comstock. "Megabucks will hire more residents and foreign-educated doctors, and work them 18 hours a day. More work, less time to complain. Residents will do anything to get experience to pass their boards. May even hire a couple of hospitalists. You know, the ones who graduated at the bottom of their class and can't even get work in a Free Clinic."
"I suppose they'll also do the lab work?" I asked.
"Do you know some of those lab techs are making as much as $30,000 a year! Made sense to lay them off, too."
"So how will the ER know a victim's blood chemistry, or if there's internal injuries?"
"Technology," said Comstock. "They scan the blood here, and send digital X-Rays to Mexico. Mexican lab technicians-you know, the ones that don't know about unions and will work for only a few bucks a day-will analyze everything, then text the results back to the U.S."
"This sounds like it's not only a way to maximize profits, but also a way to avoid dealing with the President's health care reform program."
"Obamacare!" spit out Comstock. "Nothing but socialized medicine."
"Most countries have forms of socialized medicine," I countered, "and they not only have good health care but affordable prices to their citizens."
Comstock put his hands to his ears and began chanting, "We're Number 1, We're Number 1."
"Number 37," I corrected him. "The World Health Organization ranked the U.S. just below Costa Rica."
"They're all Commies," replied Comstock. "Besides, that study is a decade old."
"Last year, the independent Commonwealth Fund compared the nations of the United Kingdom against the U.S., and the U.S. ranked seventh of the seven."
"Yeah, like Americans will go to Canada? It's covered by snow and run by a queen who can't even speak English."
"You and Megabucks are crazy!"
"Possibly," said Comstock, "but outsourcing is the American way. By the way, do you put ketchup or mustard on a burrito?"
[Dr. Walter Brasch isn't licensed to practice medicine, but he goes to some excellent physicians who are-and they're just as frustrated with the costs, insurance companies and myriad forms as anyone else. His current book is the critically-acclaimed mystery novel, Before the First Snow]
Congressman Tim Holden withdrew his support for SOPA yesterday following a blackout day by major internet sites. I've never known this corporate Democrat, my former Congressman, to back away from an issue.
My PA Progressive Summit workshop is scheduled for Sunday February 12th at 9 AM. Titled Video 101 we'll be teaching people how to setup, shoot, edit and upload videos. Remember all those great interviews we did at McCain/Palin events in 2008? We'll teach you how to do them, how to edit them and where to upload them and post them on blogs.
The Penn State Board of Trustees meets again tomorrow amidst great controversy. Alumni need to wake up to the reality of how this is seen by everyone not affiliated with the University. Frankly I'm tired of seeing PSU being the subject of jokes. It's time to put this behind us and work on restoring our image.
The final vote totals in Iowa made Rick Santorum the winner by 34 tallies. This means Mitt Romney has only won New Hampshire. Rick Perry dropped out this morning. I enjoyed his "vulture capitalism" attacks on Mitt and Bain Capital. Maybe now Perry can go back to Texas and begin facing the reality of how climate change is destroying his state.
Former State House Speaker Bill DeWeese's trial began this week. This is the continuation of BonusGate. It took the AG's office forever to finally go after DeWeese. Interestingly "One Term Tom" Corbett prosecuted all these politicos for mixing government with politics then turned around and did the same thing this week. His Department of State hand delivered nominating petitions throughout the Capital in violation of the law. No legislator will touch them for fear of it being a set-up. Doing so would violate the very laws Corbett used to send former legislators to jail. So was this a set-up or just sheer stupidity by Corbett? I know the man isn't the brightest star in the cosmos but apparently he doesn't even shine in a mini-constellation.
President Obama rejected the costly and environmentally disastrous Keystone XL pipeline yesterday. Reports it would create 20,000 jobs are bogus, it's more like 6,000 temporary ones. The risk of turning the Midwest into a BP oil disaster zone aren't worth the risk.
Wisconsinites filed recall petitions against Gov. Scott Walker with more than 1,000,000 signatures, almost as many as the votes which put him into office. Here they are filing them:
Several of the presentations noted that Pennsylvania's job growth weakened over the summer primarily due to substantial layoffs of teachers and other state and local workers. The director of the IFO, Matthew Knittel, very cautiously predicted that state and local layoffs are at an end.
For Matthew Knittel, the IFO's director, the question is: has the state moved past that end-of-year period of weakness?
He said it appears so - the third-quarter poor showing was due to state and local government layoffs, which appear to have stopped.
"The most recent data that we see now going through December suggests that the layoffs at the state and local level have abated," said Knittel. "So we think they've stopped hemorrhaging jobs."
The keyword in Knittel's statement is "hemorrhaging." Job losses in local governments are most certainly going to continue over the next 12 months, and that's before we even consider the potential impact of another round of state budget cuts. The 10,000 dollar question is whether the local job losses will approach the roughly 20,000 job losses experienced in the 12 months ending in November. Later today, we will get a full tally of the local job losses in 2011 as the Commonwealth releases the December 2011 job numbers for Pennsylvania.
Large financial institutions, including many that received financial bailouts in the wake of the financial crisis, are making hundreds of millions of dollars off interest rate swaps negotiated with the City and School District of Philadelphia.
That's the key finding in a new report from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center. We found that swap deals negotiated with banks such as Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have cost the city and school district $331 million in net interest payments and cancellation fees. If interest rates continue to remain low, still-active swaps could cost the city another $240 million in future net interest payments.
WHYY's NewsWorks was there and posted this brief video clip.
Our report recommends that banks refund a portion of the cancellation fees they received for terminating bad deals and renegotiate those deals which are currently active.
Financial institutions have returned to profitability after the financial crisis, yet some Philadelphia schools cannot afford to keep nurses on staff. Now the banks have an opportunity to step up and help prevent more damaging cuts to schools and public safety, just as taxpayers helped the banks avoid total collapse just a few years ago.
Some other news outlets covered our release of the report yesterday. Check out the coverage.
AmericanLP released its first TV ad, "French Romney" back in December. This ad showed footage of Mitt Romney speaking French during the 2002 Olympics. In text, the ad scrolled verbatim quotes from Romney stating all of his past liberal positions on controversial issues in a way that is similar to movie translations. Talking Points Memo called it "the funniest ad of the primaries" and "reminiscent of Woody Allen's 'What's Up, Tiger Lily?'" The ad was showcased in most major media outlets and was aired on CBS News. The video also quickly went viral with more than 100,000 views on YouTube.
The purpose of the ad was twofold: 1. we wished to spotlight the anti-intellectualism of the GOP and mock its disdain for internationalism and 2. we were mocking Romney for all of his flip-flops over the years from liberal positions to conservative positions.
To the average listener, the fact that the ad was, in part, a joke, became abundantly obvious after watching it for 2 seconds, where one could clearly understand Mitt Romney saying "Salt Lake City" repeatedly" even if one didn't understand French. However, the knee-jerk response of many Republicans and conservatives was outrage and condemnation of our ad. They were "shocked!" and "outraged" that someone could suggest that Republicans don't love foreign language speaking candidates. Further, they were horrified that someone could suggest something about a GOP candidate that wasn't literally consistent with their current positions.
We take great pride in the recent events of this past week, with the Newt Gingrich Campaign airing a similar TV ad (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyFaWhygzjQ). In this ad, Newt makes the case that people should vote against Romney, in part, because Sen. John Kerry spoke French and Romney speaks French (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) so it must really, really, be a bad thing to do. (And don't even think of pointing out that New Gingrich is fluent in French or that proves you are a part of the liberal media establishment bent on destroying civilization).
The GOP, a once great national political party, has sadly become a hostage of the know-nothings. As Bill Maher calls them, they are the "Stupid Party." Candidates who appear smart are quickly punished at the polls. Every time Jon Huntsman speaks Mandarin he losses another 5000 voters.
Secretly smart candidates have to pretend they don't believe in things like science, evolution or math in order to pander to the "know-nothings" who have taken over the Republican Party. We at AmericanLP are trying to be helpful to the American voters by highlighting this problem.
As such, we have produced a new TV ad specific to the South Carolina primary "French Romney Part Deux."
In this ad we again show Romney speaking French and we highlight two issues near and dear to South Carolina voters, abortion and homosexuality. We have helpfully provided verbatim quotes of Mitt Romney on the issues to help educate voters.
This new ad launches in South Carolina this week on WLTX (CBS) and WACH (FOX).
As you attempt to peruse the internet today you'll find some of the 10,000 websites striking to protest SOPA. the Stop Online Piracy Act is being pushed by giant corporations like NBC/Comcast and others to destroy the internet as we know it. It would allow these huge content organizations to sue any website owner if anyone uploaded their copyrighted material. In other words if someone put a picture or video in a comment thread here, or in a diary, even without my knowledge, Comcast could sue me personally.
Internet sites like Google, Wikipedia, Craigslist and others are going black today in protest. Imagine YouTube not being there anymore or any of the websites where you upload pictures or video. No blogs could allow any interaction because of the danger someone might upload a copyrighted picture.
We already have laws protecting copyrights. If someone uses any of my pictures or video without permission (other than what I post on YouTube which have creative commons licensing) I have legal recourse against them. I don't need SOPA to protect my work and neither do they. If this law passes however I and other web owners will severely restrict what you can do on our websites.
Congressmen Tim Holden and Tom Marino are co-sponsors of this horrendous legislation.
I drove to Harrisburg yesterday to cover the fracking rally but got in the building too late (long, long line) to be able to obtain any usable photos or video. People were protesting a proposed bill which would prevent local and municipal governments from enacting ordinances limiting gas drilling. This is similar to the ACRE law which prohibits them from any limitations on factory farms. The state is acting on behalf of corporations providing them taxpayer funded lawyers (the Attorney General's office) to sue any town, city or township which seeks to hold corporations accountable. This is a classic example of the 1% versus the 99%. And they wonder why we hate them...
Meanwhile Governor Gasbag has fired the citizen's council head responsible for oversight over how our state forests and parks are used. Kurt Leitholf was the head of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Citizens Advisory Council was terminated so gas companies will able to drill on those public lands without objection. This is why "One Term Tom" is called Governor Gasbag. He's in the bag for the gas companies.
On my way into Harrisburg, on I-83 as I was getting ready to exit onto 2nd Street in a driving rainstorm State Senator Christine Tartaglione cut right in front of me to also exit. No lane change signal, she simply cut me off while talking on a cell phone. She cast the vote which allowed the awful GOP Congressional redistricting plan to get to the floor of the Senate for a vote. Had it not been for her it wouldn't have passed. Stupid is as stupid does.
Speaking of redistricting the state Supreme Court will allow Monday's legal challenges to the plan to be aired by PCN.
The Chester-Upland School District, where teachers are working for free because the money has run out, is suing the Commonwealth for slashing its budget, forcing it into an emergency situation.
Our democracy ended with the Citizens United Supreme Court decision last year. Now billionaires and corporations are pouring tons of money into politics. Here's an example:
Congressman Todd Platts (PA-04) announced his retirement yesterday. the district, covering south central Pennsylvania, is extremely Republican (the base of the "T") and likely to remain so.
Former Municipal Court Judge Jimmie Moore is challenging Bob Brady to represent Pennsylvania's First District in Congress. The area runs along the east side of Philadelphia, out into West Philadelphia and parts of Delaware County, including the City of Chester. It is 42% African-American and the recent redistricting added white voters to the demographics. For this reason Brady, also Chair of the machine controlled Philadelphia City Committee, ordered State House Representatives to cross the aisle and vote for the GOP plan. This put a lot of them in a bad position because the rest of the Commonwealth's Democrats nosw see them as traitors.
Judge Moore had to step down from the bench to run for this office, a legal requirement in Pennsylvania. He was on the bench for over 11 years and has a law degree. Originally from the projects of Hartford, Connecticut he went to law school at Rutgers-Camden and remained in the area.
In a District plagued with crime and poverty Congressman Brady has done little to alleviate the burdens on these people. Judge Moore intends to address those issues by focusing first on the issue of hunger. When Gov. Gasbag restricted access to food stamps last week Moore slammed him with this statement:
Each year the federal government allocates money for
food stamps to aid Americans who need help feeding their families.
The families who benefit from this money are people who face enormous
hurdles every day, searching for jobs, coordinating child-care, and
making tough decisions about where their hard earned money should be
spent. Governor Corbett is fortunate enough not to have to make
those hard decisions; if his car breaks down, the state provides
another. If he ends up in the ER, he gets first class treatment and
the bill is taken care of. Apparently he cannot even comprehend what
it might mean for a family to have to choose between preparing for an
emergency, and preventing one's children from going hungry. This week
he announced that beginning in May people under the age of 60 who have
over $2,000 in savings and other assets, and people over 60 with more
than $3,250, would no longer be eligible for food stamps.
This deplorable action not only punishes Pennsylvanians for being
poor, it also punishes them for being responsible. Truly, it is a
blessed person who can put away money in the bank, whether to help pay
for their kid's college, prepare for unforeseen medical or auto repair
bills, or the distant hope of someday retiring. These families on the
edge of poverty are exactly people that federal programs like food
stamps are intended to help. But Governor Corbett's imposition of
this asset test is counterproductive to the federal government's goal
of lifting families out of poverty and into the middle class. That is
why I call on all the elected officials in Pennsylvania, particularly
those elected to federal office, and especially those whose districts
encompass the hungriest residents of our state, to urge Governor
Corbett to reconsider his decision.
When I am elected to serve Pennsylvania's First District in Congress,
I will not hesitate to stand up for my constituents, even when that
means confronting the most powerful man in the state. I refuse to
stand idly by certain officials abuse their power to use federal
dollars to help those in need. I am committed to helping every
eligible resident obtain the help they deserve. That is why my
staff and I will be available, now in our campaign office, and later
in my Congressional District office, to personally help anyone who is
eligible to apply for food stamps. With these steps we can help
transform the First District from the second hungriest in the nation
to a healthy, safe community free from want.
His reaction to the redistricting which screwed the people in the five counties now encompassing the meandering 7th CD and the now divided Lehigh Valley is evident in this statement:
Evidence of an increasingly disenchanted electorate is abundant, as evidenced by Congress' all-time low approval rating of 9%. One obvious explanation for this phenomenon is Americans' frustration over politicians putting their own interests above those of their constituents. Your recent intervention to ensure passage of the Republican-dominated Pennsylvania redistricting plan is precisely the sort of self-serving backroom maneuver that is destroying confidence in our political process.
Pennsylvania recently adopted new congressional districts that reflect the loss of one congressional seat as a consequence of the 2010 census. Given Republican control of Pennsylvania's General Assembly, Senate, and governorship, it is not surprising that the Republicans came out ahead in this process; rather, the surprise lies in the magnitude of the Republican Party's victory. The Republican Party's effort here in Pennsylvania has been called by state political observer G. Terry Madonna of Franklin & Marshall College "the worst gerrymander in modern Pennsylvania history."
Despite the new map's overwhelming favorability to the GOP, it seemed that Republicans in the General Assembly would not have enough votes to pass the redistricting plan- that was, until you stepped up and started rounding votes in support of the GOP plan. It has been widely reported that Republican leaders in the General Assembly turned to you to secure the necessary votes for passage. Some speculate that you agreed to do this in exchange for a favorable re-drawing of your own congressional district. While the Democratic party as a whole was the big loser in the redistricting process, you were among the biggest winners.
For your part, you have acknowledged that you secured Democratic votes for the plan, despite it being so brazenly skewed in favor of the GOP. As you have personally recognized, "Republicans were in charge of this." Having no control over the redistricting process Democrats had no role here other than to not help the Republicans pass their first-choice map. But you were only too happy to bail out the Republicans by throwing your own party and constituents under the bus, all to protect yourself, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Watching you sell out your party for your own benefit, I felt as I imagine Eagles fans would feel if Michael Vick, in his Eagles uniform, was caught in the back of a bar sharing game plans with Eli Manning. The people who rely on you expect you to be in the game not for your own self-interest but rather for the interest of the Democratic Party and the constituents that back you. Your actions are those of a free agent who changes teams according to what serves you best.
The Democrats of this city, state and country deserve better and more. Accordingly, I challenge you to four (4) debates throughout the First Congressional District: Temple University, in North Philadelphia, Widener University in Chester, Swarthmore College in Swarthmore and the Constitution Center in Center City, to debate your decision to spearhead the new redistricting plan as well as the challenges which face the First Congressional District.
I sat down with Judge Moore Saturday at a hotel in King of Prussia and we talked about his background, the issues and the primary this April. You can find out more about him and support his candidacy at his website.
Ron Paul has become something of a phenomenon on the campaign trail as a GOP candidate for president. What everyone needs to realize however, is his deep involvement in the patriot/militia movement and his publication of radical racial epithets over the years. Congressman Paul is a white supremacist. Orcinus has the goods on this guy collected from a newsletter he used to distribute and pictures of him in the recent company of extremists.
Some liberals have taken to Paul's opposition of the war while not realizing his true agenda. There's far more to this man than the issue of Iraq and it's quite ugly. The patriot movement of the 1980's-90's saw a surge in survivalist, white supremacist militia groups threatening the stability of the nation in order to impose their white male leadership on the entire society. The current Minuteman organization is a successor to this mentality.
Ron Paul has been part and parcel of this and he is "one of theirs." Past issues of "The Ron Paul Survivor Report" survive in archives at the University of Wisconsin and elsewhere and bloggers are digging them out and re-publishing them so voters understand the true nature and political philosophy of this candidate.
A few excerpts:
"...our country is being destroyed by a group of actual and potential terrorists -- and they can be identified by the color of their skin."
"Opinion polls consistently show that only about 5% of blacks have sensible political opinions, i.e. support the free market, individual liberty, and the end of welfare and affirmative action.... Given the inefficiencies of what D.C. laughingly calls the "criminal justice system," I think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal."
"We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, but it is hardly irrational. Black men commit murders, rapes, robberies, muggings, and burglaries all out of proportion to their numbers."
I think you begin to get the idea of who this man is and what he REALLY believes. Such toxic, racist diatribes have no place with civilized men and civilized culture. Please don't support Ron Paul.
Update: This article has received many links and much traffic. I have a question for all the Paul apologists and deniers leaving comments: if he isn't a white supremacist why are all the white supremacists endorsing him? I have to credit Orcinus for digging out the facts and the truth about Ron Paul. It was their coverage which was the basis for this article. They found this picture of Paul with white supremacist Dr. Robert Clarkson:
The photo's caption says it all:
AS many of you know, Congressman Ron Paul from Texas is one of the most conservative members of Congress and very sympathetic to the patriot's cause. Here we find Dr Robert Clarkson with Congressman Ron Paul in Columbia, SC at Libertarian-Patriot Banquet on April 2, 2004.
White supremacists support Ron Paul because he's one of them.
