Extremist Republicans are At it Again!

Extremist Republicans have sided with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and President Obama once again. To be exact, 18 Republicans joined with the liberals and abandoned 158 of their colleagues. Ironically, none of their votes were required for passage of the bill and 17 Democrats adopted a common sense position on this bill.

What is the big deal? If someone kills or beats up a heterosexual, white, Christian they get a "normal" conviction. If someone kills a non-white, non-Christian, non-heterosexual they get a much longer prison sentence. So much for "equal protection" under the law.

In fact, this law makes it clear that if it is "perceived" that the crime was motivated by hate, the extra penalties would apply. How does the government "perceive" if that is the case? How do they prove it?

Forgive me, but if someone kills or beats up someone, isn't that "hate" in and of itself? Why is it worse to kill or beat up someone as compared to someone else? Doesn't equality mean equality? Not for liberals and these extremist Republicans.

As usual, the language is so vague that there are worries that charges like "conspiracy" or "incitement to violence" could apply.

So if a religious person preaches or states that homosexuality is "wrong" or "sinful" and someone kills or beats up a gay person, the person who UTTERED the words could also be found guilty of a "hate crime". Paranoid? Hardly. In Canada this is becoming routine. In fact, just like Canada, internet communications, and presumably even emails, could be designated as hate crimes even if no other crime was committed!

Here is an interesting opinion piece in the uberconservative magazine TIME:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1849412,00.html


How did our Pennsylvania Congressional delegation vote?: http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2009&rollnumber=223


Yes:

Dent (R-15th)
Gerlach (R-6th)
Todd Platts (R-19th)
Chaka Fattah (D-2nd)
Mike Doyle (D-14th)
Joe Sestak (D-7th)
Allyson Schwartz (D-13th)
Kathleen Dahlkemper (D-3rd)
Paul Kanjorski (D-11th)
Tim Holden (D-17th)
Robert Brady (D-1st)
Patrick Murphy (D-8th)
Jason Altmire (D-4th)

No:

Glenn Thompson (R-5th)
Bill Shuster (R-9th)
Chris Carney (D-10th)
Joe Pitts (R-16th)
Tim Murphy (R-18th)

No Vote:
John Murtha (D-12th)

Where We Are At

Well, we have change. That is for sure.

Is it only due to President Obama? No. In fact, the "change" is the continuation of the last 70 years. And along that way we have had many Presidents, Pennsylvania Governors and many Democrats and Republicans who have had a say.

Where are we?

Here is the latest assessment:

The bailouts have failed. We had to provide tens of billions of dollars to Chrysler and GM to prevent their bankruptcy. They are bankrupt, the government is "buying" them and we have to provide tens of billions more.

Hundreds of billions have been provided to bail out mortgage holders. Mortgage defaults have skyrocketed and more politicians are advocating many, many billions more.

Here are some other things to look forward to with the "change" we are undergoing:

1) The PA General Assembly is talking about a 35% increase in the personal income tax.
2) There is talk about a MAJOR assessment on school districts, with a huge increase in property taxes, to make the state pension fund solvent.
3) There is talk of a 10-20% Value Added Tax (VAT) - a sales tax - on everything we purchase. Next time you go out or buy groceries add 20% to see what the cost would be to you.
4) Tax revenues to all levels of government are down. 40% down for the Feds while spending is exploding and deficits are exploding. But spending is not the problem. It is a "revenue problem".
5) Many school districts will raise taxes anyway, on top of the state "assessment".
6) The "Cap and Trade" legislation will increase energy costs at least 50%. Take your next PP&L bill and multiply by 1.5 for the cost to you.
7) Medical benefits might be taxed to pay for socialized health care.
8) A "sugar tax" might be implemented.
9) Another huge tax on tobacco and alcohol is probably on the way. So if you enjoy a cigarette and drink a beer, beware.
10) There is talk of establishing a 1% sales tax for counties and municipalities. This is after the OPT/EMS/LST tax was supposed to solve local muncipal revenue problems. Of course, this is to provide "property tax relief" just like the casinos were supposed to.

Yep, great change. And the middle class would not be affected at all!

The insanity continues. What is the insanity? Government grows at a far faster rate than society can sustain.

Lou Hershman makes City Council ballot as a Republican

I'm not sure of the total number of Write in Votes Lou received, but I hear he got far more than the 100 that were needed to get on the ballot.

I'm not going to debate whether he is qualified, or get down into the mud about the direction the City of Allentown is headed in.

I'm just going to applaud the man for making the effort. Sure I disagree with him on many issues, but he is sticking up for what he believes in. Isn't that the beauty of Democracy?

The guy will bring some healthy debate to the fall campaign, and bring up some important issues. I say more power to him. I admit he looks a lot like Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn, but if he is going to go down, at least he is giving it a good fight.

P.S. Thanks to Amy C for the early morning email with info!

Email of the week: Allentown has a placenta of candidates to choose from.

Yep, you read that right.

Someone who I will humiliate no further sent me an email asking that I give an opinion on the "placenta" of candidates running for Allentown City Council.

I'm going to take a guess here, and opine that maybe they intended to use the word "plethora."

I Contacted the author of above mentioned missive, and we had a good laugh, and they were okay with me making light of their malaprop.

I don't know what makes me laugh more, the idea that someone trying to make an informed decision at the ballot would consider the candidates a bunch of "Placentas" or the idea that it might be a pretty good way to describe a candidate or two.

Regardless, I don't want to hear you complaining if you don't vote tomorrow, and I've put the over/under of total votes for Dick Nepon at 423.

Bloggers Note:
Unfortunately I can't prove undeniably who the troll is, but I think after being defeated by a magistrate, someone is looking for another fight. I don't want to play, so I am enabling comment moderation on my posts to stop the "Villbilla" Troll. I have sympathy for the losses some people endure, but not their bad actions.

East Penn - "It's a typo!"

One of the many issues being scrutinized by citizens is the rushed approval for a new teacher contract, what I called the "Ghost Contract".

The first position taken by East Penn School District was that the summary sheet that was used to approve the changes to the contract were sufficient. Some questions were raised that a final written copy should have been supplied for a sufficient review before an approval vote was held.

Nope, too much common sense for government types.

At a later meeting, School Board Director Mark Prinzinger challenged fellow Director Julian Stolz to provide any differences in the contracts that were not part of the summary sheet. At the next school board meeting, a citizen provided the information. There were indeed some additional positions and salaries that were not part of the summary sheet. Board President Alan Earnshaw declined any comment later in the meeting and mentioned that it would be addressed at the next meeting.

It was not, but the issue was raised again.

This last Monday, the district dealt with the question. The explanation was that the changes were the result of a "typo". Actually, a lot of typos had to have happened.

But the real interesting part was that the typos didn't happen on the new contract. They were supposed to be part of the prior contract, so they just decided to add these positions.

But, if the old contract was signed by the Union and the District, isn't that binding? Only in government is such sloppy incompetence accepted as a reasonable explanation and excuse.

Some Media...

I have had the opportunity for some media appearances.

See myself and Scott Armstrong discuss President Obama's fiscal policies on Business Matters:

Is Obama’s new economy robbing the rich?

My appearance as a panelist during the PA Leadership Conference:

http://www.paleadershipconference.org/videos-2009/
(scroll down the list to Panel 4 "Putting the Taxpayer First")

Drink some caffeine!

FBI investigating PA Bloggers? For real?

I like to read, almost as much as I like to write. My buddy Gort 42 up in Wilkes Barre and I share a love of dogs. In reading Gort's blog, I got turned onto a nifty little blog called "Circumlocution For Dummies." It's a pretty smart take on politics up there, and has followed the corrupt judge scandal very closely. Gorts had some computer problems lately, so I've been reading CFD more in its wake.

Yesterday CFD dropped this bombshell. For anyone who thinks that people who write blogs are harmless, after reading this post about what's going on up north it will have them thinking again. Sometimes I wonder about the motives of some of the bloggers I read. It looks like the FBI has wondered too.

Allentown City Council Candidate Lou Hershman is a True Class Act (NO, he's not running for Mayor)

Bloggers Note: For whatever Brain Dead reason, I wrote Lou Hershman was a MAYORAL Candidate in my title. He is a CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE. That's what I get for taking the Dick Nepon course in college accreditation!

I may not agree with Lou Hershman. I don't think he is the best of the candidates running for Allentown City Council this year. But I want to tell you that he is a Gentlemen.

Friday Morning Lou showed up at a wake for the wife of one of his oldest friends and supporters. He reminisced of the old times, and was there to console his good friend.

Now a lot of lesser candidates would have used the opportunity to press the flesh for votes this close to the primary, especially on Allentown's East Side. But Not Lou. He quietly arranged to have a Mass said for the departed, and stayed near the rear of the room, out of the spotlight. I engaged him in casual conversation, about the memories, and stories of the old neighborhood.

Lou was gracious, to say the least. If the election for councilperson were about character, and not just the ability to get things done, Lou Hershman would deserve to win hands down.
The people off Allentown should count themselves lucky to have at least one candidate of this caliber.

Tony Philips short clips

Tony Phillips is running for mayor of Allentown. This weekend some footage was taken and
put into some short clips which are worth a look. Sunday Tony had a fundraiser at Zandy's in Allentown, with a good turnout. Most of his fundraisers are only $15 a person, you get food, and a chance to chat with Tony. Quite a difference from the cost to chat with the current occupant of the mayor's office.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKxOUSi3Rj0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLbtL0lrbVI

Specter

I don't like to engage in the breaking news game that permeates the blog world. Not that there is anything wrong with that - it is a valuable service provided by many bloggers - but I like to let things settle a bit.

Like many principled Republicans, I was ready to pop a champagne cork when I heard the news of Senator Specter's defection. I have debated many influential local Republicans about Arlen and always ended with the claim - he might as well be a Democrat because he basically votes like one anyway.

Arlen has proven me right. He is a Democrat.

However, he will not win a Democrat primary. The left of the Democrat Party will not accept an ex-Republican. And they will run ads like "He voted 80% of the time with President Bush", etc. They will dig up his "extreme right-wing votes". I will laugh when those ads happen. He will be tarred with the same brush that he - and other moderate Republicans are using - to tar rank and file principled Republicans. I will remind you of this when it first happens!

Why? Because the Democrat Party leadership has been coopted by those who believe in Big Government, even socialism. Yes, I know Bush & Comp. started this process, but I will get to that in a minute. Even self-proclaimed "moderate" Arlen will be too much of a right wing extremist for George Soros, Moveon.org, etc. Remember, so was Senator Joe Lieberman.

So Arlen will go the way of Senator Jim Jeffords. Remember him? Few do.

And why is it that "moderate" Republicans are disloyal? Specter jumps ship. Wayne Gilchrest lost to a conservative and endorsed a Democrat. Others in the House who have lost to conservative primary challengers have done the same. Senator Lincoln Chafee lost, became an Independent and endorsed Obama for President. (I guess John McCain wasn't moderate enough for him.) Moderate Republican officials in LA endorsed Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu shortly before the election. (I guess State Treasurer John Kennedy was too "extremist" for them because he is a conservative.)

Locally, taxhiker and big spending, former Lehigh County Executive Jane Ervin endorsed taxhiker, big spender, big borrower Pawlowski for Mayor of Allentown. Maybe someone should send her a registration form to change to a Democrat.

The reality is that the Republican Party has also been co-opted by believers in Big Government. They just want it slightly smaller and they want to control the pie.

Senator Specter complained about "purists" in the Party. Maybe we need a bit more focus on principles and a bit less on "pragmatism". The 'move to the left' strategy has been working quite brilliantly, hasn't it?

I don't think it is purity to say the following - if you believe in Big Government, be a Democrat. If you believe in Limited Government welcome to the Republican Party. This would avoid a lot of confusion and useless in-fighting in the GOP. And, frankly, it would lead to electoral victories for the GOP in the long run. The problem? Too many have selfish self interest in their own careers, benefits, power and influence to advocate less power and influence with smaller government. Such politicians must be exposed to the Republican base and let the chips fall where they may.

But Arlen's defection will have the opposite effect about this "purity" argument. Many political handlers and consultants have to retool their political calculating machines. As the Left advances their socialist agenda, any Republican who considers voting with Democrats now has a new factor to consider. Could this be the one vote that might "Specterize" me with the base? Such votes may have already been cast, if they are publicized to the base.

That can only be a good thing as the fight for Limited Government gains momentum. And it should lead to a bit more purity. After all, if we are dealing with a socialist agenda, isn't voting 80% of the time with fellow Republicans a bit short of the mark? Especially on MAJOR legislation?

Defense of the Constitution and our Founding Principles of Limited Government are not "extremist" or "puritanical". It is a practical necessity anymore with our HUGE amount of public debt and such principles are a necessity based on common sense.

Another Limited Government Meeting

Another 55 - 60 people showed up on a Friday night in Hellertown to figure out what to do to advance the principles of limited government. Of course, the media will label them as "extremists". Liberal Senator Arlen Specter will claim that they are "purists" or "fringe elements" or "right wing extremists". No matter, they are organizing.

Limited Government activists are organizing while the GOP is too busy fighting a strategic withdrawal instead of going on the offense against Big Government. GOP "leaders" are too busy looking at phony polls and figuring out how to be "pragmatic" instead of how to fight for basic Republican principles and WIN public support. And, consequently, elections.

Time will quickly reveal the ultimate result of this dynamic. Much like the Whigs in the late 1850's (who adopted a "pragmatic" and "moderate" approach to politics) the Republican Party has some serious choices to make. Being Big Government Lite will be the disastrous path to follow.

This group spans both Lehigh and Northampton Counties. They formed sub-committees to deal with the following issues:

Taxes and Spending
10th Amendment
2nd Amendment
Candidate Recruitment & Support (ONLY for advocates of limited government!)
Membership Committee
Illegal Immigration

There also was discussion about a focused, grass roots education campaign to oppose the ludicrous idea of a government run, taxpayer subsidized railroad company in the Lehigh Valley. Any politician who even claims to be slightly fiscally responsible better wake up.

Sure, even I support the idea of rail service to Philly or NYC. But NOT one that is paid for by taxpayers. These politicians better brush up on their principles and stop looking at phony polls or they might find their base of voters evaporating by the end of the summer.

More to come on that, because a number of organizations are gearing up to oppose this non-sensical idea.

Local Paper cutting 70 more jobs?

The biggest print media presence in the Lehigh Valley is the Allentown Morning Call. I keep its url in my favorites so I can read the news whenever I want. Last week there was a story about how their readership had actually risen about 9 % because of visits to their online content by people like me. That was the good news. The bad news is that actual paid circulation has dropped around 8 to 10 percent.

That was half the double whammy. The other half is that ad revenues are declining as well.

That means people are going to lose their jobs.

No reason to celebrate, no reason to goad, if you happen to be someone who disagrees with the Morning Call's Editorial practices.

Those employees who will lose their jobs are just like you and me, good people in a bad situation who are going to be in a tough spot. There is no joy in Trexlerton, only sorrow at the thought of so many facing possible unemployment.

I'm the not so mighty Casey, and I hate seeing others strike out.