Tom Corbett is doing his very best to lose the race for Governor. Once comfortably ahead in the polls his mouth keeps getting in his way. His actions aren't far behind and his own politicization of the AG's office makes one fearful of the kind of Governor he'd be. It wasn't enough he ticked off millions of unemployed Pennsylvanians when he called them fat and lazy. Then he said there were plenty of jobs around according to want ads. Ha she actually looked at those sparse help wanted sections? There's almost nothing to them these days as he'd know if he'd ever had to actually peruse them looking for work. Corbett keeps giving legs to a story he needs to kill.
Then there's the issue of his political lawsuit against hcr. Keystone Progress has used the Open Records Law to demand his communications with Republican Party operatives behind the effort and he refuses to comply with the law. You know this will turn into major attack ads come October don't you? The Attorney General refusing to abide by the law? Now KP is appealing Corbett's stonewalling. What, exactly, is he hiding?
On top of all that, as if that weren't enough, Corbett for Governor campaign materials were openly available at an Attorney General's Office booth at a recent county fair. PA2010 has the photo. It is illegal, of course, to mix politics with your government job as Corbett keeps explaining to Judges as he prosecutes Democrats for doing what he himself does. The proof is in the picture.
If Dan Onorato winds up being our next Governor it will be because Tom Corbett insisted on shooting himself at every opportunity. He's working his darndest to lose this race.
I've had a very busy week and a very bad headache (as a result of the busy week) for two days. There's much to catch up on and comment about along with some news about several state campaigns.
First up was Sunday's release on WikiLeaks of 92,000 Pentagon reports concerning Afghanistan. Though I didn't see anything I hadn't known or knew before they did provide details and examples. I've been questioning these issues for several years and have been asking first, what was the mission and, secondly, is it attainable? I think these leaks illustrate the war and our missions are not attainable. Why are we there?
A judge declared much of the Arizona immigration law unconstitutional yesterday. Isn't it funny how conservatives rally around the constitution when its about the Second Amendment then ignore the rest of the document when it doesn't suit them? All this anguish about immigration is hypocritical because Barack Obama is doing more about the issue than George W. Bush. Deportations are up significantly, border control has been enhanced and a bill for comprehensive immigration reform is on the table. Crime in Arizona is actually down though undocumented people tend to obey the law more than citizens and pay taxes into Social Security and Medicare without receiving any benefits. The outcry is much ado about nothing.
Bankers received $1.6 billion in bonuses which were supposed to be illegal under federal law due to bailout funds going to their institutions. That's a lot of cash going to the very people who helped crash the economy. Any bank getting taxpayer money had to limit the bonuses they paid and this rule was flouted and ignored to the tune of $1,600,000,000. Where's the Tea Party outrage over that?
Pennsylvania is one of 19 states in the finals for the Race to the Top education program. Obama's openness to school vouchers is disturbing and undercuts our traditional program of public education. I am against any use of tax payer funds for private or religious schools. Let them raise their own money. Our schools are having a difficult time as it is, diverting their funds is not the answer. Of course this is yet one more example of Barack Obama being a conservative. There are actually quite a few, the federal bailouts to health insurers via the new law being the best.
Pat Toomey embraced the Tea Party at an event in Doylestown where he accused President Obama of wanting to turn America into France. Of course France is a pretty nice place to live and, after all, they were right about Iraq weren't they? Some folks simply can't wrap their minds around the fact others are smarter and live nicer, better lives. After all in France everyone has access to quality (better than ours according to outcomes) health care. Toomey continues lying to people about Joe Sestak's health care stance when he says the Congressman is for eliminating private health insurance companies. The fact is the Joe Sestak does not support single payer and took considerable heat for that position in the primary.
Pat Toomey spoke to the Kitchen Table Patriots in Doylestown and professed to be one of them. I have no doubt he is. Toomey was the ultimate corporate Republican in Congress and has spent his time since spreading Wall Street money around to other like minded representatives of corporate America. The group he spoke with is interesting and very radical. They profess to uphold the constitution except when it comes to immigration, separation of church and state, regulation of interstate commerce, civil rights or limits on the concept of a unitary executive. They want small government until they need it to clean up the Gulf.
These idiots don't even comprehend the basics of political science, the definitions of fascism, socialism, Marxism, conservatism and liberalism. They lump everything not their own ideology together and accuse their opponents of being all of them which is impossible. The Bucks County Tea baggers to whom Toomey spoke have embraced a radical named Ana Puig who accuses Obama of being a Marxist. The President isn't even a liberal much less a socialist or Marxist. Their level of knowledge and sophistication is scary if it isn't simply purposeful in trying to confuse and scare their supporters out of their money.
Since Pat Toomey has embraced the Kitchen Table Patriots is he in agreement with them that Barack Obama is a Marxist trying to impose Marxism on America? It certainly appears so and that should be scary to every voter in Pennsylvania. Pat Toomey's history shows he's as radical as these Tea baggers and Ana Puig.
Kirk and I enjoyed seeing Beckett's "Endgame" Saturday at the Berkshire Theater Festival. Yesterday I was kayaking with some friends when a storm came on us about five miles short of our destination on the Delaware River. Gale force winds blew us the final mile. Interesting paddling conditions...
Netroots Nation concluded over the weekend and the seminal moment happened when Lt. Dan Choi gave Sen. Harry Reid his West Point ring. Choi was discharged last week under DADT and Reid told him he'd return the ring when the law is repealed. I hope Dan isn't holding hi sbreath because this White House is so buy disenfranchising key Democratic constituencies the votes won't be there soon.
Bill DeWeese was held over for trial today on BonusGate charges. Now, when is Corbett's trial for the Ories? Harrisburg area reporters now spend more time in court covering politics than in the Capitol.
Tom Tancredo announced his candidacy for Governor in Colorado today. This comes on the heels of news the regular GOP nominee got paid for plagiarizing writing he did. Tancredo then got into an argument on the air with the state Republican Chair.
Two things are assured this coming week. One is that Arizona will do its best to put into practice its controversial anti-immigration bill. The other is that a federal district court will rule whether that law is constitutional.
The Arizona law requires all law enforcement officials who stop anyone for any reason to determine if that person may be a legal resident. If the person can't produce documentation, the police are required to detain the individual and to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The Arizona law is mostly based upon the fear by Arizonans that the state is being overrun by Hispanic illegals, and that the federal government isn't curbing the problem. However, the Obama administration has increased both personnel and funding for immigration enforcement. Critics have also complained about President Obama's recommendation for a one-time general amnesty for undocumented workers and their families who have no criminal records. That same proposal by George W. Bush, which included other immigration reform, was never enacted into law because of the opposition by the extreme right wing.
Most law enforcement officers, including most Arizona police don't like this law. It takes away time and resources; it also creates a barrier between police and undocumented workers, who often cooperate with the police in their investigations because they know the police will not notify ICE. There is no doubt that police will have a serious problem locating undocumented workers who could be witnesses. More important, police community relations will deteriorate under the new law.
Contrary to the panic and fear demonstrated by certain citizens, contrary to the politician rants to get media attention, and contrary to the media which have under-reported the good that minority cultures bring to the nation but have exaggerated criminal activity, most undocumented workers are neither lazy nor are criminals. Most don't use the welfare system or hospital ERs because they are afraid of being caught and deported.
The federal lawsuit avoids the Constitutional issues of civil rights and due process violations. It asks the federal district court in Phoenix to rule that the Constitution reserves all immigration issues and enforcement solely to the federal government. No matter what the ruling, it is likely there will be an appeal, which will eventually reach the Supreme Court.
Perhaps it's time to reflect not upon the words not of myriad bloggers, pundits, and politicians, who have flooded the airwaves with their own opinions, mostly unsupported by facts, but upon the words of one American poet from more than a century ago.
At the base of the Statue of Liberty, carved into bronze, is a sonnet written by Emma Lazarus in 1883. It was written in support of a fund-raising drive to get enough money to build the pedestal. The sonnet is titled, "The New Colossus":
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus was a relatively wealthy Portuguese Jew, whose family had emigrated to America and lived in New York City for generations. But in 1882, the year before she wrote her sonnet, she began working with masses of Russian Jews who had come to America to escape poverty and persecution. She helped teach them English and job skills. But in America, the Jews were discriminated against-often by the children of immigrants from other cultures who now worried that America was being overrun by immigrants.
Perhaps Arizonans and the nation, most of whom are the descendants of immigrants, need to again hear the words that the descendant of immigrants once wrote-the words that America was a place of refuge for the tired, the poor, the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
Another Marcellus gas well exploded and this time two workers were killed. DEP responded promptly this time because, apparently, someone notified them in time and I have to wonder how many more wells are going to explode, how many houses will follow as gas seeps up through the ground from fracking and whether the ground water near this explosion is now poisoned.
The EPA is conducting some public hearings on hydro fracturing and 1200 people showed up for one in western Pennsylvania to listen to oil and gas industry spokespeople claim no one has ever proven gas has contaminated ground water. That is correct bit consider why: since Dick Cheney's energy task force exempted them from the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act the EPA has no authority to test the air, water or ground for contaminants, the industry doesn't have to tell us what they're putting into this fracking fluid (it isn't water after you infuse it with hundreds of toxic chemicals and substances), and science isn't exact enough to prove beyond a doubt any direct causal relationship.
Of course it doesn't take a genius to understand that people live for hundreds of years on using water supplies then cannot directly after wells are drilled. It doesn't take a genius to know if there's enough gas in your water you can light it on fire the gas came from somewhere new, perhaps that well across the road...
Some of Mark Critz's brilliant campaign people were on Facebook this week claiming no wells have been contaminated and that its all about "jobs, jobs, jobs!" Yes, theirs. What good are jobs when all the people are being poisoned? The jobs won't help much once we're all dead. If wells aren't being contaminated by this drilling why is DEP providing replacement water to hundreds of people?
Congressman Joe Sestak is now calling on the EPA to investigate and prevent water supply contamination. Though he sees the economic benefits from gas exploration he thinks it must be done safely and responsibly:
"There is extraordinary economic potential associated with the development of Marcellus Shale resources," said Congressman Sestak. "However, as the oil spill in the Gulf reminds us, there is also great risk. It is, therefore, critical that this study is detailed and completed in a transparent manner. I encourage the EPA to create a thorough and scientifically based study, and I suggest that they do so in as expeditious a manner as feasible, given strong economic pressures and rapid development already taking place, especially in Pennsylvania."
In his comments, the Congressman outlined key points which the study must address: the impact of many wells in a small area, as is already the case in Pennsylvania; the effectiveness of municipal wastewater treatment systems in handling the fluid drawn out of the wells; standard engineering controls and safety practices related to the drilling technology; and the risks posed by abandoned wells, acknowledging that more than one-half of the location of Pennsylvania's abandoned oil and gas wells are unknown.
"Communities in Pennsylvania are facing significant amounts of drilling in relatively small areas," said Congressman Sestak in his comments. "They were approved and initiated prior to this study, and created, I believe, in an expeditious manner that is potentially harmful. While we must understand the impact of fracking in individual wells, this study must also consider anticipated high-density drilling in relatively short periods of time to account for the cumulative effects of drilling on a region's drinking water supply."
Along with these comments, Congressman Sestak has joined Senator Casey in support of the FRAC Act, which would restore Safe Drinking Water Act protections for drilling operations using fracture drilling. In addition, after a blowout and explosion at a drilling site in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania last month, Congressman Sestak wrote to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to urge improved safety measures to protect Pennsylvanians from the potentially detrimental effects of hydraulic fracturing noting that oversight was inadequate and putting workers at risk.
Individuals or organizations wishing to contribute written comments to the EPA regarding the proposed hydraulic fracturing research study can do so from now until September 1, 2010 by emailing comments to hydraulic.fracturing@epa.gov or by mailing them to:
Tomorrow Kirk and I are going to Stockbridge Massachusetts for our annual summer stock trek. This year the Berkshire Theater Festival is staging Samuel Beckett's "Endgame."
Congress got some work done this week after West Virginia replaced the late Sen. Byrd. Unemployment for the long term unemployed finally passed saving many people from the streets. Joe Pitts, among Republicans, voted against providing a safety net for working people after voting for the failed policies which threw them out of work. Is that "compassionate conservatism?
Congress also passed Wall Street reform and some are critical because you may not be able to use your debit card to pay for your lattes any longer? Who doesn't carry enough cash to pay for a cup of coffee? How lazy have we gotten? Use cash anyway as a method for screwing the banks and helping your small business people. Every time you swipe a card it costs them money and raises prices for everyone. Only banks profit from this activity.
A friend in Iran is having trouble getting a visa for academic travel. This is a consequence of sanctions because of that regime's pursuit of nuclear weapons. While unfortunate the people there do have a choice: obey their oppressive government or change it.
NPR journalist Daniel Schorr passed away this morning at age 93. He continued broadcasting well into his golden years and his voice and insights will be missed.
Netroots Nation is in Las Vegas this week. I'm not there again, its too expensive.
Some folks are talking about Andrew Breitbart's slander and libel against Blacks and Black organizations possibly being criminal. We already know the people he used to destroy ACORN are criminals: James O'Keefe not only violated Maryland's wiretapping law he perpetrated a fraud.
I shot some videos along my recent trip to Santa Fe and now have them uploaded. I'm currently doing the video from Oklahoma City and the Murrah Federal Building Memorial and should have it finished shortly. These I did from the car once I got into Oklahoma. Traffic got a lot lighter outside of the cities (Tulsa and OK City) allowing some time to shoot the scenery. Terrain changed significantly on the four day journey from flat, boring greenery in southern Indiana and Illinois to rolling hills in the northern Ozarks driving though southwest Missouri. As soon as I crossed into Oklahoma there was a change as the prairie began. New Mexico marked the onset of mesas, sculpted hills and mountains and the desert. Santa Fe is 7,000 feet above sea level and my trip began at 200 feet above so I did a lot of climbing. The gradual rises throughout Oklahoma and Texas were almost barely noticeable unless you were expecting them. Once in New Mexico it was obvious you were going into mountains. Enjoy the clips and the scenery.
Amidst reports the Orie sisters consulted a clairvoyant I have a confession: I can see their future too. Had they desired to save a few bucks they simply could have come to the Oracle of Oley. My crystal ball is becoming clearer and clearer and I see set of triplets...no, they are three sisters who just appear identical. Inside their hearts the seer says they are. Perhaps it is the set of identical, matching orange jumpsuits I see them wearing in the near future that is also clouding the ball.
Papers are swirling around them. Many are newsprint and many seem to be legal in nature. Their friends are deserting them and they do not know who to trust. My advice: trust no one, everyone IS out to get you. The air is filled with retribution, just rewards and smiling people gazing upon the sisters doing a frog march. Yes, the Oracle of Oley sees a definitive future of difficult times ahead for Jane, Janine and Joan. The positive in all this is that calm, serene times of solitude lie ahead for some 5-15 years, less with good behavior. Based on their black auras however good behavior doesn't seem to be in their natures.
There's an old saying: fool me once its your fault, fool me twice its mine. Fox News is full of fools who allowed Andrew Breitbart to fool them yet again. It wasn't bad enough, I suppose, that this purveyor of misinformation pawned a manufactured video about ACORN on them but now he used another doctored video to attempt to prove reverse racism on the part of the Obama Administration. Notice one thing about his videos: they are all racially charged and designed to make Black people appear stupid. Instead the stupid people are at Fox News.
Republicans have announced their agenda for this year's elections and for the next Congress should they regain control. Hint: if you liked George W. Bush you'll love the GOP agenda because it is a return to that era of failed policies, corruption and pork barrel spending. I'm not sure that's a winning formula.
Gov. Rendell says we have to raise gas taxes after the Turnpike Commission announced tolls will rise 10% instead of 3%. This is all because I-80 cannot be tolled. Why is it we southern Pennsylvanians have to pay for the northern roads? Why aren't those drivers able to shoulder their fair share? I say we insert clauses in the transportation budget that all tolls from the Turnpike only be used for roads and bridges in southern and eastern Pennsylvania. If they don't want to pay they don't have to drive.
Is it hot enough for you? I enjoy summer but many are feeling the consistently hot temperatures. Where are all those climate deniers now? Remember the ones who said last winter was proof global warming doesn't exist? According to their ignorant claims this is positive proof of it. June was the hottest month in recorded weather history. Of course temperatures alone aren't what we look at or fear from warming. It is the frequence of extreme weather and storms, something we're now seeing daily.
I've been working on a book lately so time for blogging has been diminished. Now a new book project has come my way and putting y nose to the grindstone cranking it out. Please be patient as my writing time is being consumed by these projects.
President Obama signed financial reform into law today. The new legislation makes it easier for the government to shut down failing financial firms without risking taxpayer money for bailouts. This is the opposite of what you may have heard on Fox News by the way. People, you really need to begin using reputable sources for news and information. Fox and World Net Daily are infamous for their fabricated misinformation. Look it up.
The White House apologized today for jumping to conclusions about Shirley Sherrod, the USDA official blamed for being racist to white people. The NAACP released the full, unedited video of her speech after Fox News aired a doctored version. This morning the farmers whom she helped were on CNN saying how much she did for them and how she saved their farm by getting them good legal representation. Its tough to continue a smear campaign when even the supposed victims claim its a lie.
The Pennsylvania Young Democrats are asking people to sign a petition supporting Bob Casey's FRAC Act of 2009. Save our state by saving our water! What good are jobs if everyone is dead?
Pat Meehan sent an email today (around 1 PM) accusing Joe Biden of something he didn't do. This is interesting because the White House pool report (which I get when they're in PA) clearly said this wasn't accurate.
Meehan is accusing the Vice President of saying Nancy Pelosi was the most powerful person in Washington. The former "loyal Bushie" jumped on it calling it a gaffe because, obviously, Barack Obama has that title. Here's the problem: according to the press pool report that isn't what Biden said:
VP Biden did not leave out the President in his remarks in Philadelphia today-- he said his name during applause.
Biden was referring to a comment Schwartz made that Pelosi was the most powerful woman in politics. Biden's full quote:
"You know Allyson said the most powerful woman in American politics. I would rephrase that: the most powerful person in American politics (applause...unclear comments on audio) with the exception of the President of the United States. And I mean that sincerely."
Biden then talked about how he has worked with a number of House speakers over the years, and said "the single most successful, the single most persuasive the single most strategic leader I have ever worked with is Nancy Pelosi."
The pool reporter was Joelle Farrell of The Philadelphia Inquirer and it is interesting the Meehan campaign embarrassed themselves without checking their information. Or did they and just not care they made a false accusation? These are Republicans after all and we know they never allow facts to get in the way of a bad opinion. It isn't as if their supporters will fact check them is it?
Republican Senators have blocked a vote to extend unemployment benefits three times. Since Democrats aren't forcing them to pay a political price for filibustering every bill they're continuing to block all important legislation. With the passing of Sen. Byrd 60 votes were impossible to come by to rescue millions of Americans from welfare, poverty and foreclosures. It doesn't seem to faze these Senators that its cheaper to pay now than later. With 7,300,000 homeowners currently in default on mortgages throwing several million more under the bus isn't smart. The costs in terms of economic output (no money, no spending), additional foreclosures sinking real estate values and markets, rising welfare rolls and higher crime rates as people try and survive will far surpass the cost of extending these benefits. The jobs simply don't exist. Some might have if the stimulus had been big enough and more of it used for infrastructure instead of tax cuts but the GOP insisted on those. Jobs might be there if Republican economic ideology hadn't failed us, they might be there if two ward weren't draining our treasury and if the Bush tax cuts hadn't created a huge hole in our budget.
Unfortunately we have to deal with the present and what is. Leaving millions of Americans out to dry isn't the answer and these sudden fiscal watchdogs don't realize they created this problem and also don't seem to be aware that the Bush tax cuts set to expire are part of the problem. They don't want to spend $35 billion on unemployment benefits but, at the same time, want to extend those tax cuts which dwarf the cost of this one program. You can't have it both ways: be a fiscal watchdog on one but not the other. Extending unemployment is cheaper in the long run and allowing the tax cuts to expire is good fiscal policy and will help pay for the benefits. How did Republicans suddenly get so tone deaf? Who, exactly, is handing out the stupid pills? Mitch McConnell? John Boehner? The Tea Party? I know, its that pill popper Rush Limberger.
Congressman Pat Toomey: has he ever worked an honest day in his life? I know he co-owned some restaurants with his family but even he testified under oath he was working in international finance in Hong Kong and didn't run or manage the enterprises. Pat Toomey worked on Wall Street and then became a bagman for his former Wall Street crooks. He went to Washington and helped deregulate financial markets and set up the catastrophic global economic and financial meltdown which cost millions of Americans their jobs, homes, retirements and peace of mind. Now after running the Club For Growth he wants to return and do it all over again. Are you going to let him?
The Orie's ship has taken a torpedo and is sinking fast. You can tell by all the rats suddenly turning state's evidence. This is going to be interesting because these sisters have used hardball tactics of threats and intimidation against every one of their political opponents and now, unafraid of reprisals, they are running to DA Stephen Zappalla. Yesterday numerous affadavits were unsealed for the preliminary hearing on charges the State Senator and Supreme Court Justice used state offices and staffers to run political campaigns. If these were Democrats and the Pennsylvania Attorney General were investigating and prosecuting this would be part of BonusGate. Tom Corbett, though claiming he was investigating the Senate Republican Caucus, is not part of this scenario however because the Ories are Republicans.
The news yesterday that Sen. Orie and Justice Orie Melvin met with a man and told him to threaten the DA for them in response to his investigation of them has completely shattered their careers and will surely result in prison sentences. I doubt there is a better way to get a DA to comb through everything you've ever done than to threaten him. The Orie ship is sinking, the rats are leaving and this is about to get very, very interesting.
The other major scenario which will play out will be Orie Melvin's presence on the bench in any case involving a District Attorney. Is she fit now to pass judgment in any criminal case coming before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court? I'd insist on her recusal if I were an attorney. How will the other Justices react to this and will they tolerate her much longer? Justice Orie Melvin must either resign from the bench or be impeached. She obviously isn't fit to sit in judgment on anything in the criminal docket.
Tom Corbett is continuing to violate the Open Records Law because he seems to be afraid of his own safety if he releases documents showing his health care lawsuit is purely political. In a response to Keystone Progress' demand for records among his office and Republican political operatives, including some already public, the Attorney General's Office says complying with the law could create "a risk of physical harm" to Corbett according to Keystone Progress.
If Tom Corbett cannot and will not comply with Pennsylvania law he needs to resign.
