Well it seems Pennsylvania Democrats are Paying for Bill De Wesse's Behavior

It now seem that Jon Prezel will continue to be the Speaker of the Pennsylvania house because of the Shameful behavior of who know what his title will be Bill Dewesse and Veon and the rest of the Democratic leadership. Rep Thomas Caltagirone said today that he would support Jon Prezel for speaker instead of De wesse because "The leaders of our caucus have shown little regard for many members of the caucus, the constituents they represent, and the legislative initiatives we should be supporting," the letter said. "Instead, they have operated the caucus as a personal fiefdom, promoting their own personal and political ambitions behind a wall of secrecy and petty personal vindictiveness." In my post on Nov 28th I said that if continued down the path you were the Democrats were going to be Punished for it. It seem that some elected Democrats decided that you didn't even deserve the chance to hurt the party more with your behavior. So in the end the way you, the Democratic leaderships and Hdcc acted in the election and in the your dealings with other Democratic Rep's have now served to punish the whole party and the people of Pennsylvania with 2 more years of Speaker Prezel. I could say that Rep Caltagirone had betrayed the party or that this was violating the will of Pennsylvania's voters but in the end the only person there is to blame is you (and fmr rep Veon). You could have expanded the field but you spent enormous amounts of money in sure thing races. Threw candidates that might have won to the wolves. Punished candidates that wouldn't get down on their knees and kiss your ring. So Mr. De Wesse when you look for someone to blame look in the Mirror buddy you did this to yourself.

Count down to Filing 2007 (80 days and counting)

As you may have noticed I put up a countdown clock to 1600(4pm) on March 6th 2007. This is the date and time all petition have to be filed by in the Lehigh valley for running in the 2007 Primary. The first date that Petitions can be circulated and filed is Tuesday, February 13th 2007. This is a link to the Filing requirements to run in Lehigh county. Filing requirements Lehigh county As my continuing effort to get people to run I'm posting this information. As today is 80 days out from this date i felt it was important to put this up.

Well

I've decided to bring some other contributors into my blog one is another Green dog democrat from my litter and our founding fathers who is just some guy I know who likes to quote the founding fathers. As you may have noticed some of the posts were not in the same tone as all the others and they posted one or two of them. I mean I can't spend all my time typing with my nose. I mean there are a lot of people to bite and sticks to chase and kibble to eat.

Why Does the Lehigh Valley not have major public transit-- SEE SEPTA

There was a discussion of this on on true Democrats http://thetruedemocratsoflehighcounty.blogspot.com/2006/11/another-rail-option.html Well very simply the reason we don't have public transit of very much substance is a 5 letter acronym SEPTA or Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation authority. or as I like to call it the Southeastern Pennsylvania money pit. Beyond sucking up most of the state's Public Transit fundings. It also has a $1 tire tax, 1% extra tax on Leased vehicles,rented Vehicles,and 1.22% of the state sales tax, plus 400 million dollars in federal highway funding. Beyond that now they want to add additional .89% onto the property transfer tax in Pennsylvania,11.5 cent increase in the gas tax, to make up for it's 55 to 70 million dollar shortfall. So if you wonder why we can't get mass transit in the Lehigh valley such as rail service just look south

Huh? they were negligent? Congressional Pages at risk children !?

It is disturbing that Republican leaders were found no more than "negligent" in relation to Mr. Foley's, chasing of under aged boys (Aides and Pages). The leaders of the house have temporary guardianships of these minors while they are in these programs . If this type of Negligence was committed by any other American Adult in charge of a child they would be serving a Jail term. It would be called Criminal negligence and Child endangerment.



So why is this being shoved under the rug maybe as an attempt to shut this down before someone demands that they start looking for inappropriate relationships between underage female Pages and aids in this program. This honestly only seems to be an issue because of it being about homosexuality. The question is what else is going on there and how many Congressmen and Senators might be having inappropriate heterosexual relationships with under aged pages. I think the American people and all the parents of young people working on Capital hill in the page and aid program have the right to know and people need to be held accountable if so more so than in the brush off way it was handled with Mark Foley.

I hope this is not the start of a Pr campaign

This morning I was highly distressed to see this letter to the Editor
I hope this is not what it looks like but this looks like which is the first salvo in a Pr
defense of Ms. Depaul for what happened on election day. Especially since this person claims to be a member of the League of Women voters. But this letter to the editor looks more like the
a letter written in defense of an embattled political office holder than a county workers. I've also noticed that this just came out and this issue has started to heat up. I hope this is not as bad as it looks and simply is just the isolated letter to the Editor instead of the start of a pr campaign.

There are 25 municipalities in Lehigh county

The problem is if you talk to most of the democratic leadership there are 9 municipalities in Lehigh county and a big blob that is not Lehigh county. This has been the view towards Lehigh county that is held by both state and good portion of the county Democratic leadership.
That we can't win in the big blob and well we simply aren't going to try.


This is part of the reason that the republicans control 70 to 80% of the municipal seats and most of the State representative seats in the county. Most of the time there is no one on the ballot and If there is a D on the ballot out side of the area that's considered Lehigh county for a municipal race. In a general election a lot of times it's a either a republican who decided to make sure he won by getting himself written in on
both sides of the ballot or a republican who didn't win their republican primary, and got themselves written in on the Democratic side. If by chance there is actually a registered Democrat on one of these ballots. They are one of 4 types they have been in that office for decades, they are simply got themselves on the ballot for ego, or they are someone who is has good intentions but then get little or no help and get murdered(or once in a while sneak in because no one else wants the seat) or the smallest group the person that can buy the seat themselves, but have little or no party loyalty.


If in the rare case the county committee bothers to recruit someone they do little to support them.


The simply fact is if we are going to take back some of the big blob we are going to have to get out of the mind set of we can't win and we aren't going to try, and if we ever hope to gain back some of the state house seats. The simple fact is most people are State Representatives from Lehigh county were at one time were on their local council, or Board. At this point since we hold so few of these seats we have a very small farm team to pull from. The simple fact to people experience does matter. When it comes to legislative positions and local officials already start with a base of support. That someone coming off the street in these races don't have, and simply we hold the least seats in the districts we do the worst. Not because we can't win them but simply because we don't even try to win them most of the time.


What the Democrats in Lehigh county need is a 25 municipality strategy. I know the party right now is rebuilding but there are still local seats we can win all over the county if we just make the effort to do so and don't simply only focus on the county commissioners race and what goes on in the area of least resistance. I know they aren't going to be the easiest places to win and I know they aren't the flashiest things to win but they are important for now and into the future and as sooner we figure this out the better off we as Democrats in Lehigh county will be.

Northampton county paper verifiable election

I had a hard time imaging since the last election that anyone in Northampton county would argue that having a paper verifiable back up to elections was a bad Idea. But Ms. Deborah Depaul Chief register of Northampton county. Whose statement on the issue in the morning call was "'''I think it would be redundant [to add a paper backup],'' DePaul said. ''And an extra burden and cost to the general public.''".


That's the point of a paper back up Ms. Depaul redundancy, I thought you would have learned the value of that from the mid-term elections in Northampton county. http://greendogdem.blogspot.com/2006/11/more-evidence-of-northampton-county.html

http://greendogdem.blogspot.com/2006/11/northampton-county-board-of-election.html

I find it almost laughable that you don't seem to understand that voters now question if their vote really counted in Northampton county. That you don't seem to understand that had there been a any close elections in Northampton county it would have cost Northampton county much more than 600k in legal, and administrative fees (the figure she quotes as a cost to upgrade the machines in Northampton county), simply to sort it out. That the county may still be sued because of this election. I'm not making accusations of partisanship because the mistakes ran both ways, Against Dent, Browne,Wisley and Shade.


It is shameful that Ms. Depaul fails to realize the damage this could cause in a contested election, that the paper backup would have lessened these question of accuracy. I personally think this type of statement off hand and the showing that happened on Nov 7th brings into question whether ms. Depaul is up to this job. That serious consideration should be made to her removal from her position this is not my decision but the facts speak for themselves and when people in charge don't do their jobs they should be removed.

Iraq the one the only time I'm going to dicuss it

I have made it my policy to stay out of national politics and stay on the topic of local and state politics. I simply can not keep quiet on this subject anymore. We have reached the point where no rational unbiased observer can say Iraq is in some way leading to anywhere but to this countries determent. It is getting worse not better. It's a situation that is worse than Vietnam and we are having non-fatal causalities that are 3 times that of the first 4 years of the Vietnam war and Fatal causalities that are 157% of the first 4 years in Vietnam.


Regardless of what the Bush adm and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (who at this point is nothing more than a puppet of the bush adm and knows he will be killed as soon as the us leaves therefore will never ask us to go.) continue to imply things in Iraq are not improve and there is already a festering civil war in iraq, based on vengeance and hatred of the Sunnis by the Shites and Kurds and equal retaliation by the sunnis in tit for tat ethnic cleansing. Which our troops are now sitting in the middle of, which looks like it will not let up for years or generations.


This leads to the question why does Bush Refuse to leave Iraq this is not about the betterment of the Us but about a Neo-con ideology that has lead us down this path of disaster. This ideology is neither conservative nor New smacking more of the idea of extremist Liberalism (one of the uses of the word not the same meaning as the current usage) of the "White man's Burden" ideology a rather twisted self justification of theft, and murder. More or less the Bush adm was trying to Missionize democracy on the middle east in return for access to oil for the Iraqis own good at the point of a gun. As, with the "civilizing of the "savages" of America this is never at the locals benefit. This ideology couple with deranged absolutism of a dry drunk who refuses to admit he has ever made a mistake. Very simply more American troops are going to die and we are going to blow more treasure in iraq because we have a deranged president that simply is more interested in his place in history than the country itself coupled with an ideology of absolutism that mirrors that of the most fundamentalists of religious ideology.


Resulting in what we have now an Administration that refuses to admit it made a mistake and a situation that there is no good way out of . If we leave now Iraq will plunge into a 20 year blood bath, dragging in the rest of the middle east. If we stay we continue to stand in the center of a very hot civil war laced with Ethnic overtones. In this case which is worse than Vietnam because there is no one to trust and anyone could stab us in the back. We are also entering the proverbial year of chaos that sent Vietnam into the death spiral, that it became. We maybe simply prolonging the inevitable chaos that our action have caused. Even if we stay another 10 years or 20 yrs. I don't' think it will change anything other than point the Iraqis frustration more at us and increasing the likely hood we will be attacked at home. The only truthful thing Bush has said is there will be not be a Graceful exit from Iraq. I agree that option has long passed when we leave it will be messy and horrible.

continued Election reform what has been done

To this point very little of this has been acted on, by the state legislature.
under number one of the Ballot access &Election date section there has been 1 bill in the state senate and 2 in the state house relating to changing the date of the presidential primary all have languished in committee since their introduction.


As far as I can tell nothing have been done in relation to the Absentee ballot Question or it has been intentionally shelfed by the state legislature for lack of interest


What is a Ballot and a Vote?
Based on what i've seen and heard the only answer to this was the purchase of Massive numbers of electronic voting machines by the counties so they could use the money they were given from the federal government and no law requiring verifiable voter paper trails.


Second


What seems to have happened is that the state legislature actually made the provisional ballot laws worse, and left the training of how to use them to the local boards of elections. Which in Northampton county was a complete disaster.


SO more or less this turned into another throw away report and a waste of tax payer dollars, why i'm not sure maybe it's ego maybe the state legislatures don't care who know but there were some good Ideas in the report that to this day have not been acted on and probably never will be.

Pennsylvania Election reform update

On May 12th 2005, the Election reform Task force consisted of 13 members.,created On December 13, 2004, by Executive Order 2004-11, you created the Task Force

Filed it's report to Governor Rendell



Ballot access and Election date
Recommendations
1. The Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to set the dates of the primary elections in 2008 and 2012 (presidential elections) as the first Tuesday in March (sunset on November 30, 2014).
2. The specifics of refining the ballot access procedures should be left to the General Assembly.


Recommendations
Absentee ballot
1. The Pennsylvania Constitution, if necessary, and the Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to eliminate all reasons or conditions necessary to qualify for an absentee ballot and permit any qualified elector to vote by absentee ballot without excuse (“no-excuse absentee ballots”).

2. The Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to allow qualified electors to apply for an absentee ballot at any time prior to a primary election or general election, including on the date of a primary election or general election at a time no later to allow for the return of the ballot by the close of the polls, but no sooner than the date of the immediately preceding the primary election or general election.

3. The Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to allow submission of an application for an absentee ballot by facsimile or computerized electronic transmission provided it contains all required information and a facsimile of the elector’s signature or the signature of an adult member of the elector’s immediate family.

4. The Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to require county boards of elections to print absentee ballots immediately upon certification of the official ballot and begin to deliver or mail absentee ballots to qualified electors immediately upon receipt of absentee ballots from the printer but no later than one week following receipt of the certification.

5. The Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to allow absentee ballots to be returned to the county boards of elections by personal hand delivery by the elector, United States mail, an individual representative of an elector specifically authorized to deliver the elector’s absentee ballot pursuant to a statutory declaration, or a commercial delivery or courier service that accepts and delivers as an intermediary between third parties in the ordinary course of its business throughout the year documents and packages deliverable to a specific street address.

6. The Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to provide that all absentee ballots
containing a postmark no later than the day before Election Day (must be received no later than seven days after Election Day) or hand-delivered by the close of polls on Election Day shall be canvassed before the completion of the official count of all votes cast.

7. The Pennsylvania Constitution, if necessary, and the Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to require all absentee ballots to be retained, canvassed, and counted at the county boards of elections with procedures to ensure that no elector votes more than once.

8. The Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to require county boards of elections to make publicly available at the office of the county board of elections and upon request on Election Day and as soon as practicable following the receipt of absentee ballots a list of electors, arranged by election district, who voted by absentee ballot. The county board of election should continue to send precinct lists to the polling places.

9. The Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to require district election officials to make a list of absentee electors available for inspection only upon written request.

10. The Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to authorize the Secretary of the Commonwealth to require county boards of elections to report to the Secretary of the Commonwealth information concerning domestic civilian, overseas civilian, and military absentee ballots, including specifically but not limited to the number of absentee ballot applications received, the number of electors listed on the permanent absentee ballot qualification list, the number of absentee ballots distributed or mailed, and the number of absentee ballots returned by electors.

11. All changes to the absentee voting process and procedures shall be made in a manner that maintains the integrity, security, and secrecy of the process.


(I'm skipping the sections on overseas and Miltary)

Recommendations
What is a ballot and what is a Vote

1. The General Assembly should maintain the use of provisional ballots as currently utilized.

2. The Commonwealth/Department of State should re-visit the format of the provisional ballot envelope (based on its original purpose).

4. The Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to require that the county boards of elections include Voter Registration Mail Applications with election materials distributed to district election officials to provide for use by individuals casting provisional ballots to apply to register to vote for the next succeeding election.

6. The Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to allow the use of “curbside voting.”

7. The Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to incorporate federal law regarding alternative language accessibility.

8. The Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to adopt the Voting Standards Development Board report, “What Constitutes a Vote.”

9. The General Assembly should conduct hearings related to voter verifiable paper ballots and voter verifiable paper audit trails.

10. The Pennsylvania Election Code should be amended to include the purpose, scope, and process for alternative ballots in compliance with federal standards and current Pennsylvania procedure


http://www.dos.state.pa.us/election_reform/lib/election_reform/PERTF_Final_Report_051705_Website.pdf