Thursday, January 29, 2009

Blagojevich Impeached Senate Removes Office

Interesting, especially coming after the Glenn Beck interviews...

He almost had us convinced. Beck shook his hand, too.

transcript

Barnstorming Illinois Governor Goes One-On-One With Glenn Beck

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,484284,00.html

Video

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/01/fox_news_glenn_beck_talks_to_b.html

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

PA Election Ballot Access Bill

Investigations are apparently continuing in relationship to 3rd Party candidates blockage from ballot and 'bonusgate'...

Posted on Wed, Jan. 28, 2009
Heavy costs of a run by a third party in Pa.
But 2 challenges are part of the Bonusgate probe.

Ralph Nader ran for president as an independent in 2008

If you want to run for public office in Pennsylvania, and you're neither a Republican nor a Democrat, you'd better be prepared to bet the farm. Carl Romanelli learned that lesson the hard way after campaigning for U.S. Senate on the Green Party ticket in 2006.

After a successful challenge to his nomination petitions by Democrats, represented by Thorp, Reed & Armstrong, the Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg charged Romanelli with more than $80,000 in litigation costs. Romanelli, a retired family court officer, says that would "destroy" him financially.

Romanelli's is only the second candidacy in U.S. history to be hit with such costs. My 2004 presidential candidacy was the first. Represented by Reed Smith, Democrats successfully challenged my nomination petitions, and the Commonwealth Court ordered us to pick up the legal bill - once again, more than $80,000.

Both petition challenges are now under investigation by state Attorney General Tom Corbett, who is looking into the alleged misuse of taxpayer funds and resources for this kind of political work. The scandal is known as "Bonusgate" because state employees allegedly received taxpayer-funded bonuses for preparing the challenges. Corbett has already filed charges against 10 employees and two members of the Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus, and more arrests are expected.

But while Corbett's criminal prosecution takes a big step toward cleaning up corruption in Harrisburg, it won't restore even a semblance of competitive democracy to Pennsylvania. Fortunately, State Sen. Mike Folmer (R., Lebanon) is expected to introduce a bill, known as the Voter Choice Act, that would provide the needed reforms.

In the 19th century, voters could choose from a wide array of candidates representing a broad spectrum of agendas. That was before Pennsylvania and many other states enacted unnecessarily restrictive ballot-access laws, requiring minor-party and independent candidates to submit nomination petitions with tens of thousands of signatures.

Minor-party candidates were the first to run in support of abolition, women's suffrage, labor rights and farmers' rights. Major-party candidates eventually adopted these "radical" positions, but only after voters expressed support for them through other parties. The right of minor-party candidates to appear on the ballot thus reinforced the voter's right to competitive elections with genuine choices.

Pennsylvania's electoral process, by contrast, has become a members-only club, with Republicans and Democrats guarding the door. In the Bonusgate proceedings, House Democratic Caucus employees testified under oath that they routinely used petition challenges to knock candidates off the ballot without regard for their qualifications.

In 2004, for example, Democrats challenged the Nader-Camejo ticket for the benefit of John Kerry. In 2006, they challenged Romanelli to help Bob Casey win a U.S. Senate seat. Both challenges, a grand jury found, were brought with a goal of "winnowing . . . the Election Day field."

These anti-democratic, exclusionary exercises attained an aura of legitimacy through unfounded allegations of "fraud." For example, pranksters or saboteurs planted a handful of signatures from the likes of Mickey Mouse and Fred Flintstone among thousands of genuine signatures on Nader-Camejo petitions. That led a compliant judge to conclude - contrary to his own factual findings - that entire petitions were fraudulent.

Romanelli suffered a similar fate. The court found he had submitted more than 58,000 valid signatures, but it accused him of "bad faith" because he couldn't afford an army of attorneys to defend his petitions.

Similar abuses of the petition-challenge process occur in other states. Pennsylvania is unique, however, in requiring defending candidates to pay their challengers' court costs.

These judgments, as Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Thomas Saylor noted in a dissenting opinion, are not authorized by Pennsylvania's election code. Moreover, they are "most certainly unconstitutional," according to Capital University Law Professor Mark R. Brown, because they violate U.S. Supreme Court decisions striking down excessive filing fees, poll taxes, and other state-imposed financial burdens on candidates and voters...

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/38520417.html

Monday, January 26, 2009

PA: Abolish Jury Commissioner

If only this were more widespread.

A relic? Verdict's mixed
Post of jury commissioner is targeted, defended.
By Larry King

Inquirer Staff Writer

Pity, for a moment, Pennsylvania's jury commissioners.
Few people know who they are, let alone what they do.

Derided by some, targeted for extinction by others, the obscure county-level row office is again under fire this year from local and state officials who consider it a governmental relic, as vital as an appendix to the body politic.

Jury commissioners "should have gone out with the buggy whip," Bucks County Commissioner James Cawley said, urging state legislators to help wipe out the post.

"They don't do very much," added Bucks County Judge David W. Heckler, who long has favored axing the elected jobs, which date to just after the Civil War.

Jury commissioners are responsible for supplying the courts with a qualified pool of potential jurors. To keep politics out of that task, counties must elect two, each from a different political party.

Once a lotto-like task of manually pulling names from a jury wheel, assembling the lists has become computerized. Names are plucked randomly from voter-registration rolls, driver's-license databases, and other sources, depending on the county.

The additional duties - mailing jury summonses and questionnaires, dealing with excusal requests, and staffing the jury assembly room - are still overseen largely by jury commissioners in some counties, such as Chester and Montgomery.

But in others, county staffers handle most of the work.

"Virtually all of our day-to-day duties are covered by our staff," said Douglas Praul, Bucks County's court administrator.

Which leaves the two elected jury commissioners to do . . . what?

Having pondered that question during a budget crunch, Bucks County commissioners last month cut their part-time jury commissioners' pay from $19,600 to the statutory minimum of $10,500, and eliminated their county benefits package - an annual savings of almost $50,000.

Without a state law granting permission, Bucks could not cut the position entirely. The commissioners asked members of their legislative delegation to start working on that.

They might have to get in line. Lawmakers from at least two other counties - Cumberland and Lebanon - are on the same mission.

Counties that have adopted home-rule charters do not need state permission to eliminate row offices. All but one of them have cut out jury commissioners, leaving their duties to court officials. Delaware County still has two bipartisan jury commissioners, but they are appointed by the county council.

Three other counties - Berks, Dauphin and York - erased the positions after enabling laws were passed in Harrisburg. All are third-class counties (population between 210,000 and 499,999), the only group authorized by law to do so.

State Rep. Frank Farry and Sen. Robert "Tommy" Tomlinson have agreed to sponsor the Bucks initiative, and the two Republicans said they would seek to make the bill as sweeping as possible.

"Our preference is legislation that would allow any county, regardless of class, to take a vote to abolish the office," said Douglas Hill, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.

Not a chance, vowed Mary Jane Dellafiora, a 19-year jury commissioner in Indiana County.

"Every year, we have efforts coming at us right and left to do nasty things to us," said Dellafiora, a past president of the Pennsylvania State Association of Jury Commissioners. "They love to use the word archaic for us. I take it personally."

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20090125_A_relic__Verdict_s_mixed.html

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Helen Thomas: What else should a reporter be but Liberal

Glenn Beck discussed Helen Thomas' quote with Michele Malkin.

Nuff said.

Net the Truth Online

Transcript

Helen Thomas: I'm a liberal, I was born a liberal, I'll be one 'til I die, what else should a reporter be when you see so much and when we have such great privilege and access to the truth?

CBC Interviewer: Well, you know, it's interesting because I'm sure that if somebody from the right was sitting here they would say... if you ask the question what should a reporter be they will say, "Oh, I don't know, How about objective?"

Helen Thomas: You're not asking people not to think not to care are you? But you are asking them to give a fair reporting both sides and so forth and I did it for 57 years I was never, never accused of bias in my copy. But I had a right to be angry and unhappy at the trend that I saw in my country that I was close enough to see.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2009/01/21/what-else-should-report-be-liberal



http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=263153

Resistance is Futile: Bush's Magical Morsels Misundermesstimated

Hey we came up with the Misunder-mess-timated. Just today. Inspire-nation abounds.

Net the Truth Online

Rolling Stone Magazine Presents

President Bush, Thanks for the Memories
1/12/09
...But hey, it wasn’t all bad. Face it, the man could make us laugh (when we weren’t crying). The guffaws were hardly intentional, of course, but these days, we’ll take levity any way we can get it. He choked on a pretzel, fell off a Segway and scared away small children (oh, and he also declared a premature end to a war that still rages on).

So we’re sharing our most memorable moments with George, magical morsels of the misunderestimated one that we’ll fondly recall long after he stumbles off into the sunset:

• President Bush, Thanks for the Memories

• Bush Apologizes: The Farewell Interview We Wish He’d Give

http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/index.php/2009/01/12/president-bush-thanks-for-the-memories/

First Lady Michele Obama: Dress for Change

Everybody is catching the fever?

Will we all 'dress' for change? Whatever change means for each of us individually? Will we put on the style outside, but remain the same inside?

the most inspirational part of the inaugeral? For us? Frigid temperatures around the nation. Shows the global warming hoax for what it is. A hoax.

Washington was cold oh my goodness just like every other January! Possibly a little colder temperature-wise.

Meanwhile, an ice-sculpture of Al Gore will remain in Fairbanks Alaska until March or if and when it - melts from all the unusual spring temps...

Diary of events (still time to change from the drib-drab yellow, First Lady Michele Obama!)

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/world/obama-inaugural/01/20/09/diary-events-obama-inauguration


OK. Update: First Lady Obama's white gown for the evening balls was spectacular! The choice could not have been better than this one. It was reflective of no other First Lady in the history of our nation. Not one other.

Truly unique to FL MO. We were wondering after the yellow bricade coat in the morning. Once the coat was off during the lunch, we could see why FL MO chose that design over any others. It was form-fitting with a light jacket sweater with a tie in the front.

Some commented it was reminiscent of a 'yellow ribbon' tied as a message the troops are coming home.

Could be. Wonderful if that was the case. A walking message. Who'd have thought?

Earlier post includes thoughts about HRC.

Don't miss the post about a Fayette PA family's offer of pet puppy - a Labradoodle - to the Obama family.

Without the coat, during the afternoon luncheon, the yellow dress is a standout, a knowckout really with a subdued jacket/sweater. the brocade coat gone for this event.

Like to say the yellow brocade outfit is classic, but seriously, yellow? Material adds some pounds though Mrs. First Lady Michele Obama can afford with her statuesque shape.

Love the coat combo. Probably very warm lining. But where are the boots?

Was hoping she would have changed from the morning yellow church outfit, well there is still hope she will make a switch between noon and evening events.

And add a pair of stylish, classy boots.

These boots are made for walking... straight into the hearts of the American public. Here you thought we'd say 'guts.'

See the photo we posted at the bottom of our site. Embrace her.

The photo speaks more than words could ever ever say.

OK at the luncheon, the coat is gone, and the form-fitting yellow dress maybe with a light sweater overlay looks as good as a painting displayed behind her First Lady.

Look closely seriously, she is a standout among all the other women in all their other color combos.

Wow.

PS. Hillary in a striking royal blue long coat and egads, pants. Oh geesh.

As for our Hillary Clinton crystal ball. Look for her to languish in limbo for a while until Caroline Kennedy is named as her replacement to the seat Hillary had to resign. Once Caroline takes the oath and is sworn in, we look for a full and complete investigation of Bill Clinton's finances and donations to his library and foundation from foreign interests. In one case made public, Clinton didn't even give a speech for the half a million or so he received.

So what did he do or what was he expected to do?

We look for a pull back on Hillary's confirmation once all the details of the Clinton foundations etc are made known. The devil is in the details.

Enjoy.

Best to Caroline... though we don't agree on those policy issues, her charity work is not to be surpassed.

If only the idea that government need not be a nanny to us or godfather asking for our 'allegiance' in return, no matter what government does unconstitutionally, would really take hold in these people there really would be the kind of lasting change this nation needs.

Ah well. One can hope for the enlightenment...

Net the Truth Online

The outfit "was made for Michelle with extra warm linings sewn into the [innerlinings] that she wouldn't freeze," Toledo's husband told the Daily News.

A spring version of the dress - which will retail for around $1,500 - will hit Barney's in March.

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/fashion/2009/01/20/2009-01-20_michelle_obama_wears_1500_isabel_toledo_-1.html


Evening Gown reviews

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/countdown-to-the-gown-live-blogging-michelle-obamas-inaugural-style-the-gown-is-by-jason-wu-354416/

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Obama Family Look Fayette PA Way for Labradoodle

well, come on President Barack Obama, First Lady Michele Obama at least give the puppy photographs and offer from a Fayette County Pennsylvania child (and family) a good look!

Seriously, you have to think, the puppy, was named Vegas and was born within the Thanksgiving season! And the mom's name couldn't be any more fitting. Hillary!

It's as if it was meant to be.

Net the Truth Online

Fox News

Pennsylvania Boy Offers Puppy to Obama Family

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/20/pennsylvania-boy-offers-puppy-obama-family/


AP and more picked up the story.

Update from Tribune-Review

Will Obamas take chance on Vegas?
By Liz Zemba
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, January 21, 2009

As the Obamas settle into their new home in the White House, a Fayette County fourth-grader is awaiting word on whether they might take him up on his offer of a free puppy.

On Tuesday, 9-year-old Zack Shiley of Farmington had county commissioners Vincent Zapotosky and Vincent Vicites deliver a letter to Obama staffers in which he offers to give Malia Obama his 7-week old puppy, Vegas. The commissioners were in Washington for the presidential inauguration.

President Obama might choose a low-shedding labradoodle -- part Labrador, part poodle -- for his daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. Malia is allergic to pet dander.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_608101.html



During their trip to witness the historic inauguration of Barack Obama, two Fayette County commissioners will deliver a letter that could potentially change the life of the new president and the first family.


The inauguration of Obama as the 44th president will take place today, and commissioners Vincent A. Vicites and Vincent Zapotosky left Monday to head to Washington, D.C.

In their possession will be a letter from Zachary William Shiley to Malia Obama, the oldest daughter of Barack and Michelle Obama.

Shiley, a fourth-grade student at Wharton Elementary School in Farmington, is offering a 6-week-old female labradoodle puppy to the first family.

The puppy, born Nov. 26, was the only offspring that survived the litter of 11-year-old Hillary, a chocolate Labrador and 1-year-old Bullet, a black labradoodle.

When Barack Obama won the presidential election in November, he promised his daughters Malia and Sasha a new puppy when they move into the White House.

Since that time, the Obamas have narrowed their search to the breeds of Portuguese water dog or labradoodle.

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20244277&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=480247&rfi=6

Allegations of Misuse of Zoning Laws Interesting

Our quick take. We may finally find out how much power an autonomous Planning and Zoning Commission has, or does not have.

And we might even find out the constitutionality of local 'zoning' laws which seem to be non-uniform across the same land mass known as the county of Fayette.

Net the Truth Online

Fayette family alleges official vendetta
By Liz Zemba
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
A Fayette County family has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit that accuses the county and one of its commissioners of misusing zoning laws to try to shutter two businesses that sit in front of a national historic site.

James Cellurale, Marilyn Cellurale, Joseph Cellurale Sr. and Joseph Cellurale Jr. filed the civil lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh. They named Fayette County and Commissioner Angela Zimmerlink as defendants.

One of the Cellurales' attorneys, Jon Pushinsky of Pittsburgh, on Monday confirmed the filing.

"The Cellurale family has beared the brunt of frivolous government action after frivolous government action," Pushinsky said. "They got tired of it."

In the lawsuit, the Cellurales contend Terry and Diane Kriss, both of Dunbar Township, had Zimmerlink and the county work on their behalf to manipulate zoning laws in a failed effort to close a garden shop and auto repair business run by the Cellurales.

The businesses, Cellurale Garden Center and Joey's Auto Repair and Body Shop, are located on Route 119 north in Dunbar Township. Both are situated on property that fronts the historic Isaac Meason House. The Krisses own the house, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"Although the Cellurales maintained and operated their properties in a lawful manner and repeatedly prevailed in the legal proceedings brought against them, defendants persisted in their discriminatory and calculated abuse of local land laws," states the lawsuit. "Through her recruitment of numerous Fayette County employees in the campaign against the Cellurales, as well as her own active participation in and direction of that campaign, defendant Zimmerlink, an elected Fayette County Commissioner, placed the imprimatur of approval of Fayette County on the pervasive and systematic violations of the Cellurales' rights."

Zimmerlink yesterday declined to comment on specific allegations contained in the lawsuit, but she said her decisions were based on what she felt was in the best interest of all county residents.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_607915.html


Letter to the editor:

County should stop costly, unneeded legal action
Guest commentaryBy Joseph Cellurale Jr.
01/20/2009
Updated 01/20/2009 01:01:58 AM EST
Email to a friendPost a CommentPrinter-friendly
I read in your paper of Jan. 8 the "guest commentary" by my neighbors, Terry and Diane Kriss. I must set the record straight.


After four days of extensive hearings before the Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board, the ZHB determined that my auto repair business complied with my special exception conditions. In 2001 when the county approved my plans and issued me my occupancy permit, there were no regulations that required me to have a formal storm water detention system. Both Dunbar Township officials and the municipal engineer testified that my business created no storm water problems for me or my neighbors. Meason House sits on the top of the hill. My property is well below it.

As to the Kriss' desire to have the county continue to spend taxpayers' money on pursuing a fruitless appeal, Common Pleas Court Judge Steve Leskinen, in a ruling handed down on Oct. 8, 2008, has already commented on the appeal's awkward posture as follows:

"What may be a little distressing to the taxpayer, of course, is that the county is paying multiple attorneys on both sides of this argument. The Zoning Hearing Board is a quasi-judicial body appointed by the county commissioners to make decisions in zoning matters. The Office of Planning, Zoning and Community Development is a branch of county government under the direct supervision and control of the commissioners, although both do have independent sources of revenue. It is at least odd that these two branches of county government are sitting on opposite sides of the same courtroom.

"That said, it is not unheard of for two agencies of the same government to appear in court in opposing roles, and oddness alone cannot be a reason for dismissing this appeal. In fact, Zoning Hearing Boards are appointed for fixed terms so that they will be relatively immune from political influence during their tenure, and it may be a tribute to the independence of that body that the commissioners that appointed them do not control their decisions."

The two county commissioners that brought and supervised this groundless action against me are no longer in control of the county. One is an ex-commissioner; the other, while still quite vocal, is in the minority.

Why should the two commissioners who were not responsible for initiating this action not examine the case and the facts surrounding it? Why should the commissioners continue to waste taxpayers' money? They establish policy now. They oversee the county staff, including the legal counsel.

The Krisses have their own private agenda. The county has no business continuing an action that was wrongful to begin with, which even its own independent ZHB has acknowledged.

It is time to stop wasting taxpayers' money, especially in this economy. It is time to let me concentrate on running one of the best auto repair businesses in Fayette County, keeping my employees busy and paid with a living wage and benefits. Why should any county commissioner want to destroy my business and keep me tied up in fruitless litigation?

I note that a companion case against Jim and Marilyn Cellurale relating to their garden center, in which the ZHB also decided in their favor, was affirmed by Judge Gerald Solomon on the same record, with the same witnesses. It is time to stop this litigation.

Joseph Cellurale Jr. operates Joey's Auto Repair & Body Shop in Lemont Furnace.

Updated 01/20/2009

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20244116&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=468562&rfi=6

First Daughter to President Father: Good Speech!

You gotta love it!

The poet:... all about us is noise...

OK

Greatness Never a Gift Must be Earned

President Barack Hussein Obama (Jr.)

wherever we look there is work to be done... build, restore science to rightful place... healthcare... harness sun, wind... transform colleges and universities to meet the demands of the new Age...

Watch live on net

http://mashable.com/2009/01/14/watch-obama-inaugural-address/

New Age... hmmm. and double hmmmm.

Walk a fine line... hmmmm.

http://www.mysinchew.com/node/20333

44th President of the United States & First Lady

Best. We really mean it. Maybe all the talk about personal responsibility will really hit home during the White House years. It's up to Obama to make the internal change to go along with the outer-ward changes he intends.

Maybe he'll realize government doesn't work when it is involved in every aspect of the life of citizens. But we don't expect he's ever read Harry Browne, or Ayn Rand.

The seed is there, it's just not being watered properly.

Still, we wish the best based on Obama's expression of support for personal responsibility. The attitude at its base makes Obama a winner. Just some tweaking to realize government has its Constitutional place, the rest is up to us.

Obama's comments about personal responsibility:

Obama promises new age, calls for personal responsibility
By: Calli Turner

http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2009/01/21/News/Obama.Promises.New.Age.Calls.For.Personal.Responsibility-3590897.shtml


Obama Speech Calls for 'Era of Responsibility'

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/President44/story?id=6679480&page=1


Crowd applauds Obama's call for personal responsibility July 15, 2008

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1055855,CST-NWS-obama15.article


"I am making a commitment to you as the next president, that we are going to make government work," he told volunteers at Coolidge High. "But I can't do it by myself. Michelle can't do it by herself. Government can only do so much....If we're waiting for someone else to do something, it never gets done."...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123241110108696081.html


Net the Truth Online

Monday, January 19, 2009

Sentences Commuted by Bush: Border Agents Ramos & Compean

Will wonders never cease.

Via Drudge Report link

In his final acts of clemency, President George W. Bush on Monday commuted the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer ignited fierce debate about illegal immigration.
Bush's decision to commute the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who tried to cover up the shooting, was welcomed by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress. They had long argued that the agents were merely doing their jobs, defending the American border against criminals. They also maintained that the more than 10-year prison sentences the pair was given were too harsh.

Rancor over their convictions, sentencing and firings has simmered ever since the shooting occurred in 2005.

Ramos and Compean became a rallying point among conservatives and on talk shows where their supporters called them heroes. Nearly the entire bipartisan congressional delegation from Texas and other lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle pleaded with Bush to grant them clemency.

Bush didn't pardon the men for their crimes, but decided instead to commute their prison sentences because he believed they were excessive and that they had already suffered the loss of their jobs, freedom and reputations, a senior administration official said.

The action by the president, who believes the border agents received fair trials and that the verdicts were just, does not diminish the seriousness of their crimes, the official said.

Compean and Ramos, who have served about two years of their sentences, are expected to be released from prison within the next two months.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D95QC5OO0&show_article=1

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Defendant in railroad suit ends bid to seal records

A shareholder who is named as a defendant in a civil lawsuit involving a Fayette County tourist train withdrew his motion to have records in the case sealed.

Mark Rowan of Connellsville, however, repeated his assertions that the filing contains false allegations.

Rowan on Monday withdrew the motion at the outset of a hearing that was to be held on the matter before Judge Steve Leskinen. Rowan's attorney, Thomas B. Earhart of Pittsburgh, said the motion was moot because the Tribune-Review on Saturday published a story regarding the lawsuit.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_606877.html


Legal dispute clouds Fayette tourist railroad

A Fayette County judge will be asked on Monday to order that records in a civil lawsuit involving a tourist railroad be placed off limits to the public.

Allan Bluman of North Huntingdon filed the lawsuit in September against Fayette Central Railroad Inc., a tourist train that operates out of Uniontown but lists a Connellsville address. Other defendants named in the civil filing are Joseph Baran of Dunbar, and Mark Rowan and Chester Ward of Connellsville.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_606505.html

PA Troops set Deployment Iraq No Protestation

Unconstitutional deployment. Plain and simple...

More Than 4,000 Pa. Troops Set To Deployposted 01/12/09 8:12 pm

http://www.whtm.com/news/stories/0109/584932.html

More Than 4,000 PA Troops Set To Deploy…

http://grassrootspa.com/?p=18815#respond

PA Senator Elected Constitutionally Banned from Senate? OK

Interesting history?

Pennsylvania senator banned from Senate seat...

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20090107_Decades_before_Burris__a_Phila__showdown.html

http://grassrootspa.com/?p=18798#comments

Federal Taxpayers Foot Bill City Land Near Casino?

Right. The federal government which doesn't have a dime of its own money and must print Treasury bills and borrow from foreign governments is going to be asked to support a land development project supposed to stimulate the local economy?

Carry on peasants, nothing to complain about that theft of our future...

Net the Truth Online

Philly on U.S. pork roll? by Jeff Shields

The city didn't want to miss any federal funding opportunities that the Obama administration might offer.

So with old plans for the redevelopment of Market Street East to be combined with a new plan for Foxwoods Casino at the Gallery, the city listed $100 million in federal aid for redevelopment of Market East on its wish list of funding priorities for President-elect Barack Obama's Main Street stimulus package.

In recent weeks, that request became a national symbol of pork for congressional Republicans. They complained about Philly's request for $100 million for "land to develop a casino," lumping it in with projects like a $1.5 million water slide for Miami and $6 million for snow-making equipment at a Minnesota ski resort.

Did Mayor Nutter and the city get a bum rap?

The $100 million is not being requested to redevelop land so that Foxwoods can build (though there is a $25 million request for new police and fire stations that the Market East development would require).

The proposed relocation of Foxwoods to the Gallery would be an anchor that city leaders hope would make the case for resuscitating a long-standing campaign to revitalize Market East, with public transit and other improvements.

As an irate Nutter said last week, the proposed casino "is not getting one nickel."

Republicans seemed to back off last week.

Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), said the senator's point was that any Main Street stimulus package would have to be vetted to make sure projects are worthy. That could include Philly's proposal, he said, adding: "The broader point here is that we ought to take a deep breath and see where this money is being spent."

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20090112_Heard_in_the_Hall__Nutter_says_he_s_quietly_liked.html

Grassroots PA commentary

http://grassrootspa.com/?p=18798#comments




Bond agency raises Pittsburgh's credit rating
Monday, January 12, 2009
By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A New York agency has given the city of Pittsburgh a fiscal thumb's up, boosting the credit rating on its $720 million debt.

Fitch Ratings gave the city a BBB+ rating, close to the middle of the ranks of investment-worthy debt, and declared its outlook "stable."

"At times of international financial woes, Pittsburgh's economy continues to ride the storm and serve as a model for cities throughout the country," Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said in a statement released today, announcing the change that Fitch made Friday. "Our policies of holding the line on spending, cutting taxes and investing in our neighborhoods [are] working to make Pittsburgh's future brighter."

The city has stopped incurring new debt, has built a savings account that contained $89.5 million at the beginning of the year, and cut the cost of employee health insurance. Its pension fund is still badly underfunded.

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/09012/941321-100.stm

http://grassrootspa.com/?p=18783#respond


whiskey Rebellion

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Whisky+Insurrection

Friday, January 09, 2009

Morning Joe No Real Questions Gang

Richard Haass on Morning Joe again. This time Pat Buchanan is nowhere to be seen. Easy out for Pat. He can't ask the President of the Council on Foreign Relations anything at all because he is not present. Last time Haass guested, Pat Buchanan sat right across from him, silently, not asking one question about the role of the CFR in foreign affairs since its inception in the United States...

What Pat could've asked: how many of your members or associate members have been elected to the highest offices in the land for the past my adult lifetime timeframe years??? How many have served in past Presidents' Cabinets over the same period...

And how much more.

Today on MJ we've got Mika B., Travis Smiley, Scarborough, and what's her name Peggy Noonan, who asks nothing deep of anyone since John McCain became the Republican Party nominee for Prez.

Scarborough defending the name of Reagan.

What's the gang discussing? Israel and Hamas.

Tap dancing... nothing more or less than talking all around the involvement of the United States in ANY foreign affairs.

Net the Truth Online

Haass

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=richard+haass+hamas&btnG=Search

March 29, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Morton A. Klein
Phone: 212-481-1500 Print | Email


NEW YORK - The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is disappointed that Yeshiva University has chosen as the keynote speaker for a Y.U. dinner this week Richard Haass, a veteran State Department official who during his years in office repeatedly criticized and pressured Israel and justified the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, and more recently blamed Israel for “provoking” Palestinian Arab terrorism.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein has sent a letter to Yeshiva University president Richard Joel, expressing the ZOA’s strong disappointment over the choice of Haass, in view of Haass’s record on Israel.

http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=952

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Debate: New Global Order out of Crisis

Sarkozy, Merkel, Blair call for new capitalism
By EMMA VANDORE and GREG KELLER, AP Business Writers Emma Vandore And Greg Keller, Ap Business Writers
PARIS – The head of Europe's biggest economy said Thursday that world leaders should be looking at the massive U.S. deficit and other economic imbalances, not just problems caused by financial markets, as they debate a new global order.

Speaking at a conference in Paris on the future of capitalism, German Chancellor Angela Merkel singled out the American budget deficit and China's current account surplus — the difference between exports and imports — as problems upsetting the global economy.

"We would be making an error if we were content to look solely at financial markets," she said.

She deplored huge debts that governments are accumulating to spend their way out of the present crisis. But she said she recognized, for the moment, that "there is no other possibility."

A Congressional Budget Office report estimates that the U.S. federal budget deficit will hit an unparalleled $1.2 trillion for the 2009 budget year — and that is before President-elect Barack Obama's sweeping stimulus package is calculated. European governments have agreed to be flexible about budget rules that limit deficits to 3 percent of gross domestic product as recession bites.

Merkel said the International Monetary Fund has not managed to regulate global capitalism, and she called for the creation of an economy body at the United Nations, similar to the Security Council, to judge government policy.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, leading the two-day conference with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, blamed financial speculators for encouraging a system fueled on debt. He called financial capitalism based on speculation "an immoral system" that has "perverted the logic of capitalism."

"It's a system where wealth goes to the wealthy, where work is devalued, where production is devalued, where entrepreneurial spirit is devalued," he said.

But no more: "In capitalism of the 21st century, there is room for the state," he said.

Governments around the world have had to step in to rescue credit-starved banks and financial institutions from collapse. They are also pumping billions of euros into their economies to encourage growth.

Measures will be taken by global leaders meeting in London on April 2, Sarkozy promised, urging the U.S. to join the international consensus.

Blair called for a new financial order based on "values other than the maximum short-term profit."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090108/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_france_new_capitalism

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Merger of nations taking place?

New American North American Union Invasion

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3367030/merger-in-the-making


Comprehensive links to material about Security Prosperity Partnership, North American Union, etc.

See this video: CNN- Lou Dobbs Outs Those Involved in the North American Union and Security Prosperity Partnership (SPP)

http://www.theamericanresistance.com/sovereignty/sovereignty.html


October 2007

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/browse_JJ_T389-200710

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-169087478.html


Is NAFTA road through here about trade - or treachery?
Gabriela Rico, Arizona Daily Star, 29 June 2008

http://www.amerocurrency.com/updates.html


JBS freedom campaign meetups

http://www.facebook.com/pages/JBSorg-Freedom-Campaign-Meetups/14095865401


Why is Congress failing to perform one of its essential constitutional duties: securing and maintaining our national borders so as to preserve our nation’s freedom and independence for the benefit of our citizens? John F. McManus, president of The John Birch Society, answered this question succinctly in The New American magazine: “In short, the border remains open and the federal government is doing nothing of substance to close it because it is Bush administration policy to merge with Mexico and Canada and actually abolish both borders.”

In fact, a special issue of The New American (“Merger in the Making,” October 15, 2007) was entirely devoted to the convincing evidence that certain political and academic elites in the United States, Mexico, and Canada are working to merge the three nations into a North American Union (NAU) modeled after the EU in Europe. This NAU would create open borders inside North America, which would eliminate the problem of illegal immigration across our present national borders by legalizing all migration anywhere within North America.

This helps explain why so many in Congress, particularly in the Senate, propose amnesty and temporary-worker legislation as a solution to illegal immigration. They know that the borders are slated to be open as part of the NAU merger process. In 2005, President Bush and his counterparts in Mexico and Canada established a Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), which serves as a transitional regional structure to facilitate the NAU merger. However, even with the SPP already established, Congress still has a role to play in the formation of the NAU by passing the necessary immigration laws to make unimpeded migration throughout North America a reality.

http://www.jbs.org/index.php/issues/immigration/1886-how-to-fix-illegal-immigration



JBS Letter

Many Americans remain unaware of the simple historical fact that our nation was created by the states, not the reverse. The federal system built by our nation’s Founders established a national government with very few duties and limited powers. Each state was to remain independent in most areas. This system ultimately assured that the American people would make our nation the most powerful and productive in modern history.


In more recent years, the federal government has usurped many of the powers of the states, and the federal government has begun taking steps that would merge the United States with Mexico and Canada into an independence-compromising regional government called the North American Union (NAU).


It sounds like a fantasy, or a bad dream, but it is not. The enclosed copy of “Merger in the Making,” the North American Union Edition of The New American magazine for October 15, 2007, describes an ongoing process for merging the United States with Mexico and Canada based on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America. If this merger process is not blocked, the three countries in North America would become, in effect, a single entity. Our borders would essentially be erased, Canadian and Mexican law enforcement personnel would be integrated into our new Homeland Security Department, and a huge NAFTA Superhighway system would be erected among the three countries to facilitate delivery of Mexican and Chinese goods to the U.S. and Canada. Such a highway system (see pages 31-33 of the enclosed magazine), considered to be critical infrastructure for integrating North America, would lead to increased illegal immigration, large-scale eminent domain takings of private property along the planned highways, and increased law enforcement problems along these same highways.


This proposed highway system appears to be designed to bypass U.S. longshoremen and teamsters for our China trade by making it possible to offload Chinese goods at Mexican ports onto Mexican trucks and trains for delivery throughout the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. For more information on this proposed highway system, please read the enclosed copy of “Merger in the Making,” the North American Union Edition of The New American for October 15, 2007, especially the article about the “NAFTA Superhighways” on pages 31-33.


We need your help to prevent the further wage and job losses threatened by the “open borders” vision of the SPP/North American Union and the NAFTA superhighways project. For your family, your freedom, your state, and your country, please help win approval in our state legislature for: (1) an anti-NAU resolution (copy attached) asking Congress “To withdraw the U.S. from the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America and any other bilateral or multilateral activity which seeks to create a North American Union;” and (2) a repeal NAFTA resolution (copy attached) asking Congress “To withdraw the U.S. from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in accordance with Article 2205 of the agreement.” Copies of these model resolutions are also available at www.JBS.org/freedom.


We invite your response and look forward to working with you to preserve the American system as originally intended by the Founding Fathers...

http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:lNdxN5sv-g8J:www.jbs.org/freedomcampaign/naunaftacllt.doc+merger+in+making+new+american+magazine&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us


Free PDF Download (4 MB) of "Merger in the Making: North American Union Edition," October 15, 2007, special issue of The New American magazine, 48 pp.

http://www.meetupalliance.com/JBS/resources/Links


Related a Must Read

Dismissal of NAU plan

The same right-wing populist fears of a collectivist one-world government and new world order that fueled Cold War anticommunism, mobilized opposition to the Civil Rights Movement, and spawned the armed citizens militia movement in the 1990s, have resurfaced as an elaborate conspiracy theory about the alleged impending creation of a North American Union that would merge the United States, Canada, and Mexico.1

No such merger is seriously being contemplated by any of the three governments...

...Right-Wing Populism

Progressives need to recognize the pitfalls of right-wing populist rhetoric, especially when mixed with producerism and apocalypticism, because this constellation of processes generates conspiracy theories that demonize and scapegoat targeted groups rather than focusing on transformative social change to extend human rights.

Across wide segments of the secular and Christian Right you can find conspiracy theorists mobilized through the rhetorical style of right-wing populism.64 Jean Hardisty refers to this process as “mobilizing resentment.”65 Populist antielitism as a rhetorical style often takes the form of attacks on liberals, secularists, intellectuals, the news media, and Hollywood.66 Allegations that these elites are part of a vast conspiracy against the common people are frequently interwoven into the fabric of the stories that are told—sometimes with references to Satanic End Times plots tied to prophecies in the book of Revelation.67

Right-wing populism often is based on racialized, patriarchal, and heterosexist narratives that buttress a sense of privilege and entitlement among a targeted audience of straight white Christian men who see themselves as victims. It tends to frame economic questions in terms of hard working producers pitted against parasites above and below.68 This technique was used to mobilize poor and working class whites against newly freed Black former slaves after the Civil War.69 It was utilized by George Wallace in his first Presidential campaign, and later borrowed by Richard Nixon and the Republican Party to create the “Southern Strategy.”70 It exists in stories of “welfare queens” where race need not be mentioned.71

There is also a natural historic congruence between the Calvinist-based theology of many white evangelicals, and the ideology of Free Markets and less government regulation fostered by the Republican Party.72 Doug Henwood points out that despite accurate criticisms of some of his overly-broad conclusions, the work of historian Richard Hofstadter helps explain this connection:

Hofstadter’s emphasis on the individualism of American white Protestantism is highly relevant now—it illuminates what’s the matter with Kansas, since American white Protestants love “The Market” as an instrument of reward and discipline. That love is not some recent confidence trick perpetrated by Karl Rove, but has deep roots.73...

...We have a natural and appropriate distrust of governments that choose to work in secret. Robert Alan Goldberg observes that conspiracism “thrives when power is exercised at a distance by seemingly selfish groups zealous in their authority.”77 One obvious antidote to widespread conspiracism, then, is to reduce government secrecy and increase the transparency of government operations and reinvigorate public participation in governance.

It is clear that some white racial supremacist and neofascist organizers use conspiracist theories that do not appear to have racist or antisemitic themes as a relatively less-threatening entry point in making contact with potential recruits. Phrases such as “international bankers,” “welfare queens,” and “one world government” are interpreted in different ways by different listeners, and can be viewed as coded appeals with bigoted subtexts.

This means that even when conspiracist theories do not center on Jews, people of color, or other scapegoated groups, conspiracism creates an environment where racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, and other forms of prejudice, bigotry, and oppression are likely to flourish. Decent people of all political stripes need to denounce conspiracy theories as toxic to democracy.

Conspiracy theories about the impending creation of a North American Union are now seeping into discussions within progressive political circles. This not only is a waste of time and energy that is already in short supply on the political Left, but steals attention and resources from important progressive campaigns to challenge unfair trade, development, and economic policies in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Conspiracy theories undermine struggles for human rights.

. . .

A collection of images, charts, and slide shows related to this article are posted online by Political Research Associates at . Unless otherwise noted, all URLs were retrieved February 2, 2008.

Chip Berlet is Senior Analyst at Political Research Associates and a member of The Public Eye editorial board. He is author with Matthew N. Lyons of Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort and a frequent contributor to Talk2Action and Huffington Post.

http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v23n1/NA_Union.html

9/11 Trials Public Accounting Excluded Learning Details?

Judge's Order Could Keep Public From Hearing Details of 9/11 Trials
Tags: 911 COVER-UP/DECEPTIONS
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 7, 2009; Page A02

The military judge overseeing proceedings against five of the men accused of planning the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks signed an order designed to protect classified information that is so broad it could prevent public scrutiny of the most important trial at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to lawyers and human rights groups.

The protective order, which was signed on Dec. 18 by Judge Stephen R. Henley, an Army colonel, not only protects documents and information that have been classified by intelligence agencies, it also presumptively classifies any information "referring" to a host of agencies, including the CIA, the FBI and the State Department. The order also allows the court in certain circumstances to classify information already in the public domain and presumptively classifies "any statements made by the accused."

http://whatreallyhappened.com/?GXHC_gx_session_id_=4fdbe

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/06/AR2009010603374.html?hpid=moreheadlines


Related

World Net Daily Forced To Issue 9/11 Hit Piece Retraction
Paul Joseph Watson - Prison Planet
August 19, 2006

http://www.knowledgedrivenrevolution.com/Articles/200608/20060819_WND_911_Retraction.htm


9/11 Bush bashers
Posted: August 16, 2006
1:00 am Eastern By Jonathon Moseley
© 2009 World Net Daily

Editor's note, Aug. 17, 2006: In paragraph four of this column, the author makes an assertion about professor Steven Jones' remarks at a 9/11 symposium broadcast by C-SPAN. A review of the program online evidenced no such comments by Jones.

On this fifth September 11 anniversary, some who hate Bush will gather in New York to profane the memory of the 3,000 victims. They will try to convince the country that 9/11 was not an attack by Islamic terrorists, but criminal mass murder by the Bush administration. Amazingly, fully one-third of Americans now believe that the government is guilty of some conspiracy concerning 9/11. Everything liberals believe about foreign policy was proven to be disastrously false on 9/11. Therefore, liberals must somehow deny that 9/11 actually happened.

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51540


More

9/11 Resources

http://www.planetwavesweekly.com/resources/pworlds911.html


And our own This is Not a Conspiracy Theory

http://dirtline.tripod.com/talkacrosstown/id11.html

Pennsylvania: State of Deficit

And reformers who promised reform of themselves, but have yet to deliver...

Net the Truth Online

The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue released the December revenue collections showing state General Fund revenues are $815 million short for the fiscal year to date.

http://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/newsreleases/pennsylvania-deficit-watch-january-2009

http://grassrootspa.com/


STILP: Where will change come from?

Commentary on the New Legislative Session

By Gene Stilp, Coordinator, Taxpayers and Ratepayers United, Inc.

The new Pennsylvania legislature will be sworn in on January 6, 2009. That is exactly three and one half years since the 2005 legislative pay raise started the outside effort to reform a rogue legislature. Most of the fifty-five new members who promised reform last session took as much as they could get their hands on as soon as they said “I promise to uphold the Pennsylvania Constitution.” Health care, cost of living increases, wams, cars and per diems were gobbled up like free candy.

Then the legislature reached a new low with the Bonusgate scandal. Millions of taxpayer dollars in bonuses for campaign work and millions of taxpayer dollars spent on outside law firms for legal defenses before the Grand Juries. A dozen were indicted and many more will probably take that walk very soon.

Last session ended with a failing grade. Outside reform groups had to fight for every inch of change and in the end the reforms could be counted on a few fingers.

Even with twenty-eight new members, this new session does not promise much and the legislature still doesn’t realize that hundreds of millions of dollars in slush funds must go. Although the Legislative Accounting Committee presented simple balance sheets, a real audit has never been done for the more than one billion dollars in taxpayer funds that have passed through the legislature during the past three and one half years. The only hope for a true understanding of what happened to all the money will be if the Attorney General pieces together a forensic audit as part of the Bonusgate investigation.

http://grassrootspa.com/?p=18218#more-18218

New World Order Opportunity Out of Crisis

Not that we didn't know this was coming... and the past 8 years Bush has done about all he can do to propel us into the NWO - his father noted such back when too...

Kissinger reflects on the potential for Obama to develop 'an overall strategy for America' and an opportunity to create a new world order...

Henry Kissinger in Net spotlight

Henry Kissinger on CNBC calling for a New World Order 1-5-09

Obama... can give a new impetus to American foreign policy partly because the reception of him is so extraordinary ... his task will be to develop an overall strategy for America in this period when really a new world order can be created... it's a great opportunity in the time of an economic crisis...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aROay5kufxc

http://www.youtube.com/user/romeizburning


Apparently, Kissinger uttered similar sentiments last year, but didn't specify Obama or any Presidential contender as 'the one' to enable or create such a new world order - and 3 years back, Kissinger used the phrasing 'new international order.'

Where has the news coverage been all that time?

There is a need for a new world order," Kissinger told PBS interviewer Charlie Rose last year, "I think that at the end of this administration, with all its turmoil, and at the beginning of the next, we might actually witness the creation of a new order – because people looking in the abyss, even in the Islamic world, have to conclude that at some point, ordered expectations must return under a different system."

Henry Kissinger calls for a New World Order Part 2...

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/henry-kissinger-calls-for-a-new-world-order-part-2-of-3/2078019160/?icid=VIDLRVHOV05


August Review

On Jan.18, 2005 Henry Kissinger spoke on PBS about the need for a "New International Order"...

http://www.augustreview.com/option,com_seyret/task,videodirectlink/Itemid,52/id,61/


War and the "New World Order" by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya Global Research, August 29, 2007

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6577

http://www.european911citizensjury.com/09zi.htm


Basically, it has not mattered and would not have mattered which of the 2008 candidates was selected as Prez...

Kissinger has been among those supporting a 'new _____ order' for some time.

Kissinger Calls For New International System Out Of World Crises

http://www.breakthematrix.com/World/Kissinger-Calls-For-New-International-System-Out-Of-World-Crises


August Review, “Toward a North American Union,”

Excerpt from “Toward a North American Union ”:

Lastly, prominent Trilateral Commission members themselves took to the press to promote NAFTA. For instance, on May 13, 1993, Commissioners Henry Kissinger and Cyrus Vance wrote a joint op-ed that stated:

"[NAFTA] would be the most constructive measure the United States would have undertaken in our hemisphere in this century."7

Two months later, Kissinger went further,

"It will represent the most creative step toward a new world order taken by any group of countries since the end of the Cold War, and the first step toward an even larger vision of a free-trade zone for the entire Western Hemisphere." [NAFTA] is not a conventional trade agreement, but the architecture of a new international system."8

(Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State, "With NAFTA , U.S. Finally Creates a New World Order," Los Angeles Times, July 18, 1993)

It would be a disaster, if U.S. actions encouraged the re- emergence of nationalistic candidature. The trade agreement with Mexico , is the vital first step toward a new kind of community of nations, a first step toward the New World Order so frequently cited, but so rarely implemented. It would be short sighted to ignore the regional groupings emerging in both Europe and Asia ."...

http://www.augustreview.com/issues/regionalization/toward_a_north_american_union_200608181/


Endgame Alex Jones

http://www.endgamethemovie.com/biblio01.html


In fact, our Founding Fathers and crafters of our United States Constitution warned of foreign entanglements... we have yet to heed the warning...

Net the Truth Online

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Obama Change You Can Deceive With?

It's been the oddest occurence of all of the odd occurences.

Barack Obama rails against Hillary Clinton's failure to press her husband Bill Clinton to release all of the details of the Clinton Library and Foundation donations during the campaign, but after all is not disclosed, Obama names Hillary as his Secretary of State?

Maybe there is more to this saga than at first glance? Are the Clintons about to be Obama-tized?

Hillary is confirmed. Caroline Kennedy is formally named to her Senate seat. Shortly afterwards, more and more comes out about the library donations... more comes out about donations to Hillary's Senate and Presidential campaigns...

There's a call for Hillary to resign amid all the controversy, so as not to embarrass Obama and stymie the Obama legacy...

She'll be out, and so will Bill. Out of the 'insider' loop - they thought they could beat the system... but not really...

Marci Kaptor
The latest example of this sickness afflicting American politics is reflected in our political system being bought out from under us through the system of Presidential libraries whose principals seek to find investors from other countries to help to promote their legacy in perpetuity. Don't believe the logic? Just then follow the money. With President Bush desperately trying to salvage his legacy, action is heating up on funding his Presidential library. While donors to George W. Bush's Presidential library represent a Who's Who in Republican politics, some of these donors have significant business with the White House. According to a recent Harpers magazine article, a wealthy Texas oil man, Ray Hunt, reportedly gave $35 million, $35 million to the Bush Presidential Library.

This same businessman was a big campaign contributor to the Bush-Cheney campaign and, coincidentally, has a stake in a nearly billion-dollar proposal to pipe out Peruvian natural gas. All of our friends who participated in the recent debate on Peru free trade ought to think about this one. In addition, Mr. Hunt is closely involved with a "legally questionable" exploration deal with the Iraqi Kurds. Interesting set of friends in this White House.

Estimates now indicate the George W. Bush Presidential Library will cost up to half a billion dollars. A half a billion dollars. Why should a sitting United States President be involved with raising nearly unlimited amounts of money from those seeking influence?

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=110-h20071218-67


House panel opens new hearings into Clinton pardons
March 1, 2001
Web posted at: 12:32 p.m. EST (1732 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A House panel has opened a new round of hearings this afternoon into former President Bill Clinton's controversial late-term pardons, a day after reaching an agreement with Clinton's lawyer on viewing a list of donors to Clinton's library foundation.

The House Government Reform Committee has begun the new round of hearings, with three former top White House aides scheduled to appear before Chairman Dan Burton's panel to testify about the final days of decision-making that led to Clinton's last-minute pardons.

Former White House Counsel Beth Nolan, Chief of Staff John Podesta and adviser Bruce Lindsey will likely tell the committee about the deliberations over the controversial pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, which has sparked two congressional and one federal criminal probe.

Clinton, hoping to put the pardons scandal to rest, has waived any executive privilege claims and given his aides approval to testify freely when they appear before the panel.

http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/02/28/clinton.library/



ABOUT THOSE CLINTON LIBRARY DONORS Posted: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 11:09 AM by Mark Murray Filed Under: 2008 Clinton, 2008 Obama, Obama WH Transition
From NBC's Mark Murray
Politico's Ben Smith reports that the current focus of the Obama-Clinton negotiations over Bill Clinton's foundation and presidential library is looking forward --not necessarily vetting the past.

Still, it's worth remembering that during the primary season, Obama called for the disclosure of presidential library donors. Consider this exchange from the MSNBC debate at Dartmouth in September 2007:

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/11/18/1679059.aspx


so the release of material back in 2001 didn't raise any controversy??? Most of it remained a secret>>>


Clinton Library Donor List Revealed
DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
AP Online
03-01-2001

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional investigators hunting for evidence of a pardons-for-dollars scheme at the Clinton White House got their first look on Wednesday at a list of 150 top donors to his presidential library project.

They looked at the list for about 45 minutes, but lawyers for the House Government Reform Committee would not disclose information about the contributors, or say how many of the names would prompt further investigation. All 150 people and organizations on the list contributed more than $5,000...

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-42423533.html


Related Madoff donations abounding... yet to impact public sentiment...

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.php?name=Madoff&state=NY&zip=&employ=&cand=&c2008=Y&c2006=Y&c2004=Y&old=Y&sort=N&capcode=4p6wq&submit=Submit


http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/search.php?cid=N00009638&name=Madoff&employ=%28any+employer%29&state=NY&zip=%28any+zip%29&submit=OK&amt=a&sort=A

Saturday, January 03, 2009

City coffers to be audited

Investigation of a past administration financial activities? It couldn't come sooner? By the way, don't ignore current administration and council's holding a meeting and not allowing anybody to comment prior to taking action on a new budget and an increase in taxes. That's ok, the council members met on the Wednesday New Year's Eve! And thanks, allowed people to comment. Then, members re-voted on the motion they'd already passed.

Sure, dozens of people attended the former meeting, but not nearly that amount attended New Year's Eve meeting just before dinnertime. Sad to say, the individual who initially complained and filed accordingly said all was ok since a few people were allowed to comment after-the-fact.

Lawsuit against Uniontown council dropped after revote

A Fayette County man who sued the city of Uniontown for an alleged violation of the state's Sunshine Act has dropped the civil action.

City resident Gary Gearing filed the suit in late December after council failed to solicit public comment when it passed a tax increase and took other actions at a Dec. 20 meeting. Through his attorney, John Purcell, Gearing alleged that council erred when it failed to allow for public comment before it voted on the measures.

Gearing filed notice Jan. 2 of his intention to discontinue the civil action.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_605972.html


Suit seeks to nullify Uniontown tax hike

A Fayette County man filed a civil lawsuit Monday seeking to nullify a tax increase in Uniontown because city council failed to take public comment before voting on it, but the action may have been moot before it was even filed.

According to Uniontown Mayor Ed Fike, council gave notice yesterday that it will hold a special meeting at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at city hall to take public comment on matters that were approved at an earlier meeting Dec. 20.

At the Dec. 20 meeting, council passed a 2009 budget that includes a 4.5-mill tax increase.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_604940.html


Uniontown tax hike passed; lawsuit shelved
A Fayette County man said he plans to drop a civil lawsuit filed Monday seeking to nullify a 4.5-mill real estate tax increase in Uniontown because he and other city residents were allowed to comment on the hike at a city council meeting held Wednesday.

City resident Gary Gearing alleged in the suit filed by attorney John M. Purcell that council violated the Sunshine Act by failing to allow public comment prior to passing the city's 2009 budget at a meeting Dec. 20.

Though council, which held yesterday's special meeting to revote on the budget and other matters, adopted the $8.3 million spending plan and accompanying tax increase by a 4-1 vote, Gearing said he was satisfied he and others had a say beforehand.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_605329.html


Disappointing bunch. Sader still, many of the employees laid off and others could be shown as unnecessary to running city government. They're non-essential employees, in other words. (Except for police, fire department, how many secretaries, consultants, etc. are needed?)

How many employees in city government does it take to run city services for around 13,000 city residents?

Net the Truth Online


Uniontown city books may get state audit

By Mary Pickels
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, January 3, 2009

...Vernon said her office has received numerous complaints from various sources regarding previous administration actions that led Fike to declare the city "bankrupt" last fall.

She said rumors included payroll padding, ghost employees, misapplication of state grants and theft...

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_605498.html