I came across an interesting Web site, Stop Him Now.The Fairness Doctrine is evil disguised as goodness. It's fair in the same way the communist Chinese government is fair about airing various points of view at Tiananmen Square. No one gets to speak his mind. The government's doctrine ensures that no one voice dominates that public forum.Read the rest of the column -- Nanny state 'fairness' -- at The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Web site.
In the wake of a recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling, state Sen. John Rafferty, R-44th Dist., wants Gov. Ed Rendell and State Police to re-open the Skippack barracks on a full time basis. 
This is better than any soap opera on Channel 3. "Don't talk to me about defense," Everett, who is retiring at the end of this term, said during a radio interview this week. "Cut-and-run John Murtha is in charge of the appropriations committee for defense and he is certainly no friend of the military.
"And don't talk to me about him being an ex-Marine. Lord, that was 40 years ago. A lot of stuff can happen in 40 years. Thank you for your service as being an ex-Marine but that doesn't mean you're (not) an idiot, and he is," Everett said of Murtha.
Asked on Friday about his comments, Everett did not apologize but issued a statement saying he wished he had chosen his words more carefully.
A week after opening its downtown Pottstown office and placing a large sign in the window encouraging felons to register to vote, the Obama campaign abruptly removed the sign from its storefront window.
Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, a lifelong Democrat, and the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee in 2000, has been invited and has agreed to speak at the Republican National Convention.Joseph Lieberman will be called a Judas for speaking to the Republican Convention, but he was betrayed by his own party for refusing to support losing a war for political gain.Read the full editorial at the newspaper's Web site.
To Lieberman's eternal credit, he was the only prominent Democrat willing to fight hard against the party line of surrender.
It won't be the first time a mob of cowards has ganged up on a hero, but at least they don't have the power to throw him out of the Senate, where he serves at the pleasure of the people of Connecticut. His home state and the country can continue to be proud of a rare politician who has proved his patriotism while under fire.
Gov. Ed Rendell is one of the few people in Pennsylvania who thinks the economy is doing well. Auditor General Jack Wagner examined PHEAA's spending and management practices from July 1, 2004, to June 30, 2007 and found that the agency spent $121 million on management salaries; $62.5 million in fees related to contracts with technology and advertising consultants, law firms and lobbyists; and $30 million on advertising and promotional expenses.Read the full editorial at the newspaper's Web site.
That is all money that could have — and should have — gone to help Pennsylvania students pay for higher education.
Wagner's report makes it clear there is more work to be done. The pattern of salaries and perks is one problem, but another is seeing that the agency is directed by financial and educational experts instead of legislators who have been collecting perks from serving.
PHEAA exists to assist the young people of Pennsylvania — taxpayers and future taxpayers — with acquiring a college education.
Wagner's scrutiny is aimed at insuring that focus becomes the primary focus of PHEAA — anything short is simply unacceptable.
Democratic Party has a sorry record on Social Security, taxes
Here are some thoughts to ponder. Did you know that Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social Security program? He promised that participation would be completely voluntary and participants would only have to pay 1 percent of the first $1,400 of their annual incomes.
The money put into Social Security would be deductibles for tax purposes each year. The money would not be put into general operation funds, but into an independent "trust fund" that could be used by no other government program, and Social Security payments would never be taxed as income. Many of us have been paying into the fund for years and now find we are being taxed on 85 percent of this money that we paid to the government to be "put away."
Do you know which political party took Social Security out of the "trust fund" and put it into a general fund, so Congress could spend it? Lyndon Johnson and a Democratic controlled House and Senate.
Do you know which political party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security withholding? The Democratic Party.
Do you know which political party started taxing Social Security payments? The Democratic Party (Al Gore as president of the Senate while being vice president cast the "tie breaking" vote).
Which political party decided to start giving payments to immigrants? Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party.
The Democrats tell us the Republicans want to take your Social Security away, when they are the ones who violated the original contract.
Congress gives themselves 100 percent retirement for only serving one term.
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have." Thomas Jefferson
Contrary to what you might think, I am registered as an Independent. Facts are facts.
NANCY L. BELL
Pottstown
"Midge and I are deeply saddened to learn that Catherine is facing this health challenge, but we are not surprised that she is fighting back and continuing to serve the citizens of our commonwealth.
"To know Catherine is to understand that she is a person of incredible strength and determination. These qualities will help her through this difficult time.
"I join all Pennsylvanians in wishing Catherine and her family all the best as they confront this challenge."
Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll today announced that she has been diagnosed with neuroendocrine illness.Knoll, 77, was sworn in as Pennsylvania's first female Lieutenant Governor in 2003.
She was diagnosed during a routine medical examination earlier in the summer. A follow-up examination confirmed the initial findings.
Knoll had felt no symptoms of the neuroendocrine illness.
"I fully expect to conduct my duties as Lieutenant Governor. As it turned out, the scheduling of my treatments has come at a time when the Senate was adjourned. The next two years in Pennsylvania are going to be exciting as the Governor follows through with his agenda on education, the environment, and the economy. I intend to be right there to help him.
"I was surprised by the diagnosis because I feel so good. I'm going after it aggressively. So far, the results are encouraging. Although the treatments will continue, the outlook is good. I'm optimistic. Most of all, I feel fine and I anticipate continuing a full work schedule," Knoll said.
KING OF PRUSSIA – PennDOT will partner with more than 300 municipal police departments and Pennsylvania State Police to crack down on impaired drivers this Labor Day holiday. An impaired driving arrest can cost motorists as much as $10,000.
The costs associated with an impaired driving arrest can vary greatly depending on several factors, including blood-alcohol content, location of arrest, and number of offenses. The effect on a driver's wallet starts the moment they are stopped by police.
- Traffic fine: $300 - $10,000 depending on blood alcohol content and number of offenses
- Towing vehicle: $50 flat fee plus mileage
- Impound: $75 - $175 per day
- Legal fees: $2,000 - $8,000 or more
- Alcohol evaluation: $35 - $100
- Accelerated rehabilitative disposition (ARD): $100 - $1,800
- Education and treatment: $100 - $1,000 or more
- License restoration: $25 non-commercial, $75 commercial
- Insurance premium: increase of about $1,000 a year or cancellation of policy
Apart from the financial aspects of a DUI arrest, there may also be social ramifications. Court appearances, community service requirements or jail time lead to lost time and lost wages – possibly job loss. A DUI conviction may also hurt job applicants who have to check the box indicating a criminal record. Finally, a driver’s family could be embarrassed by the arrest.
The 2007 Labor Day period was the deadliest holiday of the year for alcohol-related crashes on Pennsylvania highways with 175 crashes and 11 fatalities. An additional 287 alcohol-related crashes and 16 fatalities occurred during the weekends before and after the holiday.
Alas, when it comes to abortion, it's probably silly to expect anything but rote fealty to ideological pieties from a Democrat, just as it's naive to expect anything but the appropriate pro-life talking points from a Republican. But for a self-styled champion of nuance, political Obama's rigidity is spectacular to behold.Read the full column, "Good and evil Obama," at the Allentown Morning Call's Web site.
In 2003, as chairman of the Illinois Senate Health and Human Services Committee, Obama received a statement from Jill Stanek, a registered nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill. She testified that at her Chicago-area hospital, she'd seen a baby accidentally delivered alive during an abortion and then "taken to the soiled-utility room and left alone to die."
I'm no expert on the Christian Gospel, but something tells me that Jesus might consider these wailing creatures the least of our brothers.
Alas, the abandonment of babies to suffer and die on the modern equivalent of a Spartan cliff did not require confronting evil when Obama saw it. Indeed, Obama turned a blind eye, leading the battle to defeat Illinois' version of the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which would have treated babies living, albeit briefly, outside the womb as, well, babies. He opposed the bill in 2003 (as he had a similar one in 2001), saying it would undermine Roe v. Wade. But even after Roe-neutral language was included -- wording good enough that it won support for the federal version of the bill from abortion-rights stalwart Sen. Barbara Boxer -- Obama remained unmoved.
Until this week, Obama denied that he ever took such a position. His campaign now admits that he was, in effect, lying when he said pro-lifers were lying about his record. But simultaneously, Obama defends a position that comes dismayingly close to the layman's understanding of infanticide while claiming any other position would require him to play God.
"A lot of evil has been perpetrated based on the claim that we were trying to confront evil," intellectual-theologian Obama said at Saddleback. And "just because we think our intentions are good doesn't always mean that we're going to be doing good."
Perhaps that theological Obama should wrestle a bit more with political Obama.
If Congress doesn't renew this backward bequest to the environmental lobby, an estimated 19 billion barrels of additional domestic oil will be open to exploration and drilling on Oct. 1 -- which some are calling Energy Freedom Day.So let's hear it for Congress. By doing nothing -- which is what it does best -- Congress may actually get us out of the current energy crisis.
That amounts to about 30 years of current imports from Saudi Arabia, says Ben Lieberman of The Heritage Foundation. And that will allow the U.S. time to aggressively pursue and develop realistic energy alternatives -- not the corn syrup that is ethanol.
Pennsylvania Delegates/Alternate Delegates to the Democratic National Convention rate the economy as the most pressing issue facing America, closely followed by energy prices and the war in Iraq.Complete numeric results can be obtained on-line at www.lincolninstitute.org
A survey of the Keystone state's delegation by the Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research Inc. found social issues, such as abortion, gay marriage and crime are taking a back seat to economic issues as Democrats prepare to officially nominate U.S. Senator Barack Obama for President for the United States.
When it comes to energy-related issues Pennsylvania's Delegates/Alternate Delegates are in lock step with the positions taken by their soon-to-be nominee. One hundred percent of those responding to the survey said they favor the development of alternate fuels as a key solution to America's energy dependence problem.
Seventy-one percent cited conservation as a key solution. Only 14% of the delegation supports more domestic drilling, and just 5% want to import more foreign oil.
Eighty-two percent of the Democratic Delegates/Alternate Delegates say they are opposed to drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR), with 18% supporting the development of those resources. Senator John McCain’s proposal for a gas tax "holiday" also garnered little support among the Democrats, with just 16% in favor of the idea.
Pennsylvania's delegation to the Democratic National Convention does not see it as America's duty to spread democracy throughout the world. Eighty-three percent said the spread of democracy should not be a goal of American foreign policy. In line with that 87% said the United States has shouldered too much of the load in its role as "world policeman."
In critiquing the Bush Administration's foreign policies, 77% said those policies have made the world "much less secure" and another 18% said the world is "somewhat less secure."
Not a single Delegate or Alternate credited President Bush with having made the world more secure. Driving that response is the war in Iraq, which 100% of the Delegates/Alternate Delegates said was a foreign policy mistake.
On the economy the Bush Administration's policies are again blamed for the nation's ills. Ninety-three percent of the Pennsylvania delegation said the President is to blame for problems with the nation's economy, while another 73% blames corporate America. Forty-seven percent of the Democratic Delegates/Alternates placed the blame on Congress, which is controlled by their own party.
When it comes to tax policy, 91% oppose making the Bush tax cuts permanent, 57% support a hike in the Capital Gains Tax Rate from 15% to 28%, 67% favor lowering the personal income tax rate and another 67% say they oppose free trade agreements such as NAFTA and CFTA.
In a rare area of agreement with their counterparts in the Republican Party, 60% of the Democratic Delegates/Alternate Delegates said federal "earmarks," specific spending directed by a Member of Congress, are wasteful spending. A slight majority of the delegation, 52% oppose term limits on Members of Congress.
State Level Issues
Delegates/Alternate Delegates to the Democratic National Convention do not support one of the Rendell Administration’s key policy initiatives – the leasing of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Sixty-two percent oppose leading the turnpike, 52% of them say they strongly oppose the plan. Sixty percent of the delegation also says they oppose higher gas taxes to pay for road and bridge repair. What the delegation does support is the tolling of Interstate 80; sixty-six percent agree with that concept.
When told the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is currently in debt in the amount of $110 billion, or about $9,000 for every citizen of the state, 67% of the Democratic Delegates/Alternate Delegates surveyed say that debt level is too much; another 31% said the debt level was about right; and 2% said it was not enough.
Although organized labor and Democratic Party are often viewed as synonymous, 67% of Pennsylvania’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention say they favor a Right to Work law. Such a law would make it illegal for a worker to be fired or kept from having a job for either joining or not joining a labor union. However, 61% believe that public employees – such as teachers, firemen, and state workers – should be required to pay dues and belong to a union as a condition of employment.
Demographics
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is sending a very liberal delegation to the Democratic National Convention. Sixty-two percent of the Delegates/Alternates responding to the Lincoln Institute survey say they are liberal; 46% say they are "somewhat" liberal while 15% say they are "very" liberal. Thirty-five percent say they are political moderates while just 4% admitted to being conservative.
Perhaps owing to the influence of Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign women outnumber men in the Pennsylvania delegation by a three-to one margin. Barack Obama's desire to bring young people into the system was less successful as just 12% of the Democratic delegation is under the age of 30. The bulk of the delegates responding are between the ages of 50 and 65.
Methodology
The Lincoln Institute's fourth quadrennial survey of Delegates and Alternate Delegates to the Democratic National Convention was conducted electronically between July 15 and August 15, 2008. A total of 60 Delegates and Alternates participated in the poll.
Voters must do a better job of educating themselves on issues
Mr. Fitzgerald's reasoning is quite simplistic in his letter in Readers' Views on Aug. 11. His listing of Democratic presidents who worked for laws and programs in America's interests without question made our country stronger and knit us closer together — no one can rationally argue against that. However, Carter was a disgrace in terms of foreign policy and Clinton had the chance to remove Osama bin Laden but did not; he also seriously weakened our military strength. Terrorism is and will continue to be an issue that must be dealt with. The point is that there are good and bad on both sides of the political equation.
It is simplistic to be either a die-hard liberal or a die-hard Republican in this day and age. America has a problem; I refer you to a book titled, "The Dumbing of America." In essence, the author says America is lazy and uninformed. Americans do not do their homework to become knowledgeable to fully understand issues and their affects of programs and objectives of the politicians who want to lead us.
Americans need to educate themselves on the details and whether what is being proposed will really foster economic, social, and national strength and growth and not a quick fix or as is usually the case a devious and deceptive distortion of fact and reality. We too readily respond to superficial statements, rhetoric, without getting specifics on who, how, and when will they be paid for. "The Devil Is in the Details," regardless if pushed by liberals, conservatives or powerful interest groups behind the scenes.
Let's educate ourselves first on costs/affects, who benefits and who does not, and is this good for all of America; then be proud of our understanding and preferred voting position. To do otherwise is counterproductive to electing the best for the greatest nation on earth.
DR. GEORGE FERENSICK
Douglassville
In the past six weeks leading up to the two major U.S. political parties' national conventions, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was the subject of 38 percent more media coverage in the United States than Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), but the tone of each presidential candidate's coverage was remarkably similar during that same time frame, according to the LexisNexis(R) Analytics Media Coverage Sentiment Index.LexisNexis evaluated 17,455 stories that discussed Obama during the period of July 7 to August 17 in U.S. print, broadcast and online media outlets found that 34% of the coverage was positive, 35% was neutral and 31% was negative, the company says.
The findings support the assumption made by many U.S. political observers that Sen. Obama's campaign is attracting an unprecedented amount of media attention this year.I can't vouch for the company's conclusion that the "tone" of coverage of Obama and McCain is basically evenhanded, but the fact that Obama is getting nearly 40 percent more coverage says a lot about who the media is pushing to be the next president.
From the start, it was difficult to figure out who really benefits from the proposed merger of Pennsylvania's two largest Blue Cross health-insurance plans.Read the full editorial at the newspaper's Web site.
But not anymore.
The two big winners recently emerged - Joseph Frick, CEO of Independence Blue Cross in Philadelphia, and Kenneth Melani, his counterpart at Highmark Inc., based in Pittsburgh.
According to a filing made public last week, if the state approves the merger, Melani stands to get a whopping 31-percent pay hike to $3.9 million annually. Frick's pay of $2.94 million would stay the same - for now - but maybe that's because it's been jacked up 84 percent since 2006.
Not too shabby for a couple of guys running benevolent nonprofits.
I'm sure everyone has heard by now that electricity rates in Pennsylvania will skyrocket after state-imposed caps expired in 2010. "In less than 18 months, rate caps that date back to 1996 will finally expire for the five largest energy companies that serve you and I and 85 percent of Pennsylvania's electric customers. Electric deregulation was a bold attempt to turn an old statewide monopoly of public utility companies into a brand new, competitive marketplace. Congress and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) paved the way for 20 states, including Pennsylvania, to deregulate their energy industries. Trucking and airline companies had already taken off the chains of government control.Boscola says the state must step in to prevent "the economic train wreck that lies ahead."
But deregulation didn't live up to its promises of real competition, more choices, and cheaper electricity. Not in Maryland, Connecticut, Kansas, Texas, Ohio, Virginia, Illinois or in any other deregulated state in the country. Once rate caps expired, electric customers in each of those states saw their monthly bills increase by as much as 85 percent. That's not just "my opinion," that's what actually happened. The facts.
There's a big difference between "need and greed."
Any company that made a 51 percent profit last year is not being "forced" to either raise the price of its product by 50 percent or else go bankrupt.
Power companies are making record profits, higher than at any other time in company history for some of them — even while they kept their rates capped. They also ran to the bank with $12 billion from Pennsylvania ratepayers to erase their public debt (stranded costs) and become more profitable. So far, consumers have received nothing in return except empty promises and endless excuses. In 1996, deregulation promised consumers more choices, more competition and lower monthly electric bills. But in 2010 all we will see are record rate increases and record corporate profits.
How will your family budget cover your electric bill when it goes up from $250 a month to $400 a month?
How will small businesses afford to stay in business when the cost of just "turning on the lights" becomes twice as expensive?
And how many industrial plants will close and good jobs disappear when higher energy costs put them in the red?
As if that's not bad enough, don't forget about the "ripple effect." The same reason higher gasoline prices led to higher grocery bills. Your local school district will have to raise property taxes to be able to keep copiers working, computers running and the lights on in every classroom. Hospitals will be forced to raise the price of providing medical care. Even closer to home, your local borough or municipality will be forced to raise taxes just to keep the streetlights on and to provide the daily services you rely on.
First, the Pennsylvania Legislature must act before rate caps begin coming off in 2010. That's an important lesson we can learn from observing what happened when Legislatures in our neighboring states failed to see a crisis coming until it was "too late." Lawmakers in Maryland and Texas are still trying to deal with the consequences of deregulation years later. Trying to clean up the mess after power companies are allowed to double their rates and triple their profits is like waiting until after a hurricane rips through your house to put plywood over your windows. If we cannot enact meaningful legislation by the end of next year, we must extend the current rate caps to prevent homeowners (especially those on fixed incomes), small businesses and industrial customers from being thrown to the wolves and at the mercy of so-called "market" pricing.Keep up with news about the pending crisis at Boscola's Web site.
Second, provide real incentives for out-of-state "merchant generators" to compete for electric customers on the basis of price and innovative services. Today there is no "competitive market," in Pennsylvania. Just sitting back and waiting for "real" competition to magically appear is a foolproof recipe for making sure that it will never materialize. There are basic, fundamental conditions that must exist first. As long as incumbent power companies can continue to manipulate energy "auctions" and take advantage of PJM's arbitrary pricing scheme, they will continue to inflate wholesale electric prices and "legally" steal billions of dollars from their customers.
Third, return excess company profits to customers as a "deregulation dividend." Lawmakers in Illinois required power companies to return $1 billion to their customers when rate caps expired there — which the companies did. When power companies can afford to do that (without going bankrupt), it makes you wonder whether they really "needed" to increase rates so much in the first place.
Finally, soften the blow of higher electric rates by gradually phasing them in over five years. At a time when our economy is suffering through a recession and working families are struggling to pay higher gasoline and grocery bills (and still make their monthly mortgage payment), no one can honestly expect consumers to simply "tighten their belts" and be able to pay an extra $200 on top of their monthly electric bill. This also applies to commercial and industrial customers that are trying to stay afloat during this economic downturn.
To be sure, there is much more we can — and should — do to fundamentally address the long-term problems posed by electric deregulation. But our first priority should be to protect ratepayers from the "real" energy crisis that faces us in 2010.
Writing in The Washington Post, Amity Shlaes says economic policies supported by the Democratic Party and Sen. Barack Obama could lead to another depression.Perverse monetary policy was the greatest cause of the Great Depression. But five non-monetary missteps were important in making the Depression great, and the same missteps damaged the global economy as well. While many are thinking about the Depression, few seem concerned about replicating these Foolish Five today: 1) Giving in to protectionism; 2) Blaming the messenger (the stock market); 3) Increasing taxes in a downturn; 4) Assuming bigger government will bring back growth; 5)Ignoring the cost of inconsistency (FDR spoke of "bold persistent experimentation." Obama speaks of "change." Both can do damage.)That sure sounds like the Barack Obama economic policy in a nutshell.
Investor's Business Daily has an interesting editorial about the Obama Campaign's attacks on Jerome Corsi, author of the No. 1 Best Seller, "The Obama Nation."Obama wants to run from this radical past, but his first memoir — written long before he had serious White House aspirations — is a peek into his soul. "Dreams" has become more of a nightmare, and he may just come to regret ever writing it.Read the full editorial, "Obama's Rapid Response Backfires," at the newspaper's Web site.
None of this poll data is to suggest that Mr. McCain is likely to win Pennsylvania, a state that went for Ronald Reagan but has been won by Democrats in the last four elections. But Republicans do believe they have a chance here. Mr. McCain has visited Pennsylvania 10 times since the contentious Democratic primary.Read the full story at the newspaper's Web site.
"I think McCain still has a chance," the chairman of the Allegheny County Republican Committee, James Roddey, said. "We're hearing from more and more Democrats that they're just not going to vote for Obama."
Part of the quandary for Mr. Obama is that Hillary Clinton defeated him by 9.2% in the April primary. Many of her most devoted backers, such as Governor Rendell, have moved their organizational muscle firmly behind Mr. Obama. But others have not. Prominent election signs for Senator Clinton still dot the heavily Democratic Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel Hill.
The Craig Williams for Congress campaign today expressed disappointment in Congressman Joe Sestak for his refusal to confirm a date set by the League of Women Voters for an issues debate with Republican candidate Craig Williams. The League of Women Voters informed the Williams campaign that they were forced to cancel the tentative date for the debate after Sestak refused to even discuss a possible date with their League's leadership.For more on Williams, visit his campaign Web site.
"The League of Women Voters is an all-volunteer organization who has only one interest: good government and civic discourse," said Jim Knapp, campaign manager for the Williams for Congress campaign. "But Joe Sestak refuses to even grant them the courtesy of providing potential dates for a debate with Craig Williams. Ironically, Joe Sestak ran for Congress in 2006 under the guise of open and responsive government. Two years later and Joe Sestak has already forgotten who sent him to Congress."
Joe Sestak has similarly avoided any type of planning discussions with the Williams campaign, which since June has sought a meeting to discuss the potential for six town hall style policy discussions and three formal debates on the issues. Repeated efforts to enter into exploratory discussions with the Sestak campaign have been continuously rebuffed.
"Joe Sestak refuses to address the energy crisis and he just voted for the largest federal budget and tax increase in our nation's history," said Knapp."No matter how many times he tries to dodge the debates, Sestak cannot hide from his voting record."
Sestak has repeatedly attempted to claim that he will not begin his re-election campaign until later in the fall, even as he raises millions of dollars from contributors around the country and makes the talk show circuit on behalf of other Democratic candidates.
"This type of lame excuse is what you would expect to hear from a politician who has lost touch with voters. I think voters are smart enough to see through his sham."
Serves them right, if Democratic leaders in Harrisburg are worried now that independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader has landed on the November ballot.I wonder how happy the editorial board will be if Nader takes enough votes away from Barack Obama to give John McCain an victory in Pennsylvania.
It was due to the Democrats' successful challenge of Nader's petition signatures in 2004 that the long-time consumer watchdog and political gadfly was tossed off the ballot when John Kerry ran against President Bush.
That alone would be enough to fire up Nader supporters to do the job right this time. That they have done. The campaign this month filed more than twice the number of signatures required to get on the ballot, with Nader officials pledging they were far more careful to avoid bogus signatures.
Any Obama fan who believes that the presumptive Democratic nominee is well positioned to woo anti-abortion voters - indeed, any Obama fan who is giddily anticipating an easy November victory - would be well advised to check the transcript, or view the video, of the faith forum hosted on Saturday night by pastor/author Rick Warren.Read the full post, "Visceral trumps cerebral," at the newspaper's Web site.
It amounts to a declaration of war on two-income families, a marriage penalty of punitive proportions. If those two single persons with income just under $200,000 get married, Mr. Obama is going to hammer them with a huge tax increase. If the second earner, who in many cases is the woman, is going to have to give 54% of what she earns to the government, she might as well stay home with the children. Mr. Obama may be able to get away with symbolic slights to women, such as not picking Senator Clinton as vice president. But punishing them with confiscatory taxes for participating in the workforce at a high income level moves the slight into the realm of substance.From the followup editorial:
Most of the women who are going to be paying Mr. Obama's 54% nominal marginal income tax rate are not minimum wage earners. They are doctors and lawyers and writers and bankers and accountants and teachers and small businesswomen. It used to be the Republicans who were stereotyped as wanting women to stay home with the children. Not that there is anything wrong with such a decision, which may be the best decision for some families. But it is a decision a lot of women would prefer to make on the merits, rather than in the face of a government threatening to seize more than half of their earnings.No wonder 18 million Democratic voters supported Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama in the primary and caucus contests this year.
Why Haven't They Signed?
It's been almost a month since Senator Jeffrey Piccola launched his petition drive within the legislature to call for a special session on ethics and reform, yet only 34 legislators have signed on. This, despite 76 percent of Pennsylvanians agreeing that such a special session is needed, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll.
Are they deaf? Is it too much trouble for them to make a trip to Harrisburg to sign? Or do they simply not believe that reform is a priority? Perhaps though, they understand what PACleanSweep already believes: that the General Assembly is just not capable of reforming government. If so, they should just come out and say it.
Those legislators who have not yet signed the petition are listed on the PACleanSweep Hall of Shame with their Harrisburg and district phone numbers. We urge all Pennsylvanians to reach out and touch these lawmakers to find out exactly why they haven't signed. The time for reform is now. If they won't commit to it, then we'll have to do it for them.
We also invite you report their reactions to us via email; we'd love to help make their excuses public.
Visit the PACleanSweep Hall of Shame
PACleanSweep on WHP 580 AM All Week
Join PACleanSweep chair Russ Diamond as he and fellow activist Eric Epstein fill in for talk radio legend Bob Durgin all this week from 3-6 pm on WHP 580 AM, Harrisburg.
If you can't get WHP 580 AM from Harrisburg on your radio, you can listen live online by clicking the link below. All Pennsylvanians are encouraged to call in live and voice their opinion!
The Bob Durgin Show's toll-free talk line is 1.800.724.5801. Call in, pipe up & lock down your radio dial! Listen to WHP 580 Online by clicking here.
Bike Pottstown, the Borough of Pottstown’s free community bike share program which began this past June, has already checked out its one-hundredth bike. Bike Pottstown is the Philadelphia region’s first free community bike share program. Program participants, mostly from the Pottstown area, have made great use of this free asset.
In response to the initial success of the program, Bike Pottstown is pleased to announce that it will continue to offer bikes to the public through the entire fall season. We anticipate that with cooler temperatures, more people will come out to ride.
Checking out a bike is very easy: the bikes are located at Tri-County Bicycles, 248 E. High St., in the heart of Pottstown’s downtown district. There is no charge to check out a bike, all you need is a valid form of photo I.D. Tri-County Bicycles is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The bikes must be returned by the end of the day they are checked out. Each bike comes equipped with a lock and a basket on the front. Helmets are offered at no cost, and are strongly recommended.
Bike Pottstown was made possible through a grant by the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation and with contributions from Blast From the Past Street Rods, Exelon Limerick Generating Plant and the Pottstown Police Officer’s Association.
Be sure to come out this fall and take a bike for a ride. Pottstown has great biking amenities, including bike lanes on High Street right through the heart of the downtown, and the Schuylkill River Trail, which is accessed via Riverfront Park off College Drive.
For more information about the program, visit www.bikepottstown.org
