Pennsylvania Primary 2008

The Pennsylvania State Senate is now starting to finally take action on a report release in may of 2005 moving forward. I talked about this in a post from Dec 06 on this subject. It's seems that the state legislature is now talking about moving the primary up to Feb 5th 2008.

Unfortunately, they seem to be talking about have the primary on Feb 5th for the President then having another one at the normal time for everything else. I'm all for having an earlier primary but I personally think it's a waste of money to have two primaries in one Year. I realize people are complaining about how early the signature collection will be but we shouldn't be wasting money on two primaries. The state have better thing it can waste the money on (j/K).

Opps got distracted

I forgot to mention that there are only 7 days left to file your petitions,Yesterday. The 300-500 point drop on the DJIA sort of distracted me yesterday. Well now you have 6 day left tick tick tick

Do Transit solutions in Pennsylvania take too long? continued

Continuing from my prior post another reason, that appropriate solutions to traffic and transit problem are not done in a time manor or at all is the interference of Business and the local Municipality.


There have been several examples, of this in the Valley, the most resent one being the "222/100 Bypass". It is quite clear that the 222/100 bypass was intended to a true bypass in the vein of the Kutztown and Reading 222 bypasses, that had a 55 mph speed limit and limited access entrances.


What seems to have happened is both Business interests in the twps and the Municipalities themselves had a hissy fit. They were afraid this would take business away from them so they set up all types of road blocks. Until, we ended up with this blvd model road that will do nothing to relieve traffic and in 5 years will probably be just as congests at 222.


Businesses will build along this "bypass" will draw even more traffic to the area that weren't simply trying to use it as a way to bypass 222 or 100, and the road will end up looking like Rt 30 in York county, which was intended to be a bypass of the old rt 30 (PA 462) but became just as congested, because they allowed all types of malls to build up along it if we aren't careful it could end up being a second Whitehall type shopping area. Speaking of Whitehall further back the reason Rt 22 isn't any bigger is because of the Business interest. That more or less have made it impossible to widen the Highway. That unwisely built right along it and have been fighting screaming and yelling to keep the state from claiming eminent domain on their land to expand the highway for the past 20 years. Now we have a slow moving parking lot several hour of the day instead of a highway.


Then we have the special interest groups the pro-mass transit groups, the pro-existing mass transit groups and the pro-highway groups. You get the project approved then the existing mass transit starts whining for money. Such as several times, mass transit has been stalled, in the Lehigh Valley, and in most of the rest of the state because Septa keeps reaching the edge of insolvency. They start whining and the state ends up shifting all the funds from everywhere else in the state to save it. If a doesn't happen then what happens is the Mass-Transit group and the Pro-Highway expansion group fights with each other and nothing happens. Which is more or less what is happening now, in the valley, and by the time it's all sorted out we will have an even worse problem then was attempting to be solved, originally.

Do Transit solutions in Pennsylvania take too long?

The Valentine's day storm, that shut down I-78 may have shown poor planing, on Penn dot's part, but also shows another Failing in Pennsylvania. The amount of time it takes, to get both road, and other Transit projects, from the drawing board, to initial construction to final completion.


It took 30 years + to finish, the Pa portion of I-78 and, by the time, it was opened in 1989, I-78 was not the relief originally intended. In the 1950's, 1960's and even 1970's the finished product would have fit the intention of the planers, but by 1989 although not a complete failure at relieving some of the traffic from 222 and 22 it gave much less relief, than envisioned by the planners in the 1950's. Within the first 10 year of I-78 opening it had became clear, that the 4 lanes were too small for the usage. The roadway also lacks any sort of emergency exit gates between long stretches between exits, something that may have helped eliveate some the problems on Valentines day.


These problem are not simply limited to I-78 these type of problems are also happen on I-83 and I-81 in York and Cumberland counties. Where one minor accident can trap people on these road ways, in between exits for hours, at a time. An example of, this is an accident near Baltimore can tie traffic up going south all the way up to the northern Part of York county. As, well an accident in Cumberland county can tie traffic up all the way down to the southern part of York county.


The problem is essentially that these 4-lane Highways are being asked to handle the traffic of a 8 lane highway. This is understandable in the case of I-83 which was built in the 1960's . It was quite clear by the time, that the building, on the final length of I-78 was started in the 1980's. That the roadway needed to be larger ,than the 4 lanes that were plan, on most of it but by that time the old plans seem to have been set in stone, and the future was simply ignored. Therefore we have the mess today and I-78 is simply heading towards being another rte-22 and I-83.


I will continue this thought in another post later on this subject related to special interests and transit projects

VA System complete mess

The Veterans Administration, under the Republicans has been destroyed. In order to save money the Bush adm has been taking it out of the Va system. The Hospitals are understaffed, poorly keep up and simply given the illusion of being up to date. They redo the frontage of the hospital and let everything else go to pot. In a number of the hospitals the OR's are dated in some places they haven't been updated since the Vietnam war. Updates that were ordered under the Bush I and Clinton adms were pushed back or eliminated by the Bush adm.


Physicians and other staff at the hospitals are promised pay raises over and over again, but when the new pay package comes out. Their pay hasn't gone up because even thought it's on the books they should get more the Hospital's area isn't given the money for the raises, and their part of the insurance cost goes up at the same time. They are already paid at something close to 1/3 to 1/2 what the avg Physican makes on the open market depending on the area. Physicians that are in the system came into the system when it wasn't like that, and whatever difference was made up in benefits that were much better than they are today, a good number of the people are getting close to retirement. It is so bad a good number of the Hospitals are staffed with people on foreign worker Visas.


The Physician's don't speak out because they have almost drill Sargent supervisors, who more or less punish anyone who questions the situation in the system. They are there to shut up anyone that questions or blow whistles and most of the Physicians are just trying to make it to retirement and vestiture of their retirement benefits.

Will the Surge Simply Just move the Violence

It seems we have been here before, we move in quiet an area. The insurgence move to another area of the country. For a surge to work we have to have enough troops not simply to suppress the area a or b but all the areas or it's kinda pointless. It's sort of like crime you increase the police in area A the crime goes up in area B. It's simple and understandable the Iraqis and us are going to move into Baghdad so the insurgence are going to move into Dyjlah province or al anbar or some other area in Iraq. We are playing a game of wack-a-mole in Iraq. As, soon as we calm one area the next area acts up to bring in enough troops into Baghdad the Iraq government had to remove them from the"stabilized" areas. So more or less we are simply speeding the violence not ending it.

Dent Throws lot in with Bush

Dent has Decided today decided that Party loyalty, is more important, than the continued viability of the Us military and the troops in the field, and winning the war against Terrorism (or whatever it's called now). That the will of the voters of the 15th congressional district is less important than his loyalty to George W Bush. Let's just remember this in 2008 when he comes up for election again who he stood with.

Why I don't Fly anymore

It's been about quite a while since, I've flown about 7 years to be exact. Yesterdays events have not made me anxious to resume doing so anytime soon. About the time I stopped flying things had starting bad with the industry the last straw was a flight I was on between Newark and Lisbon Portugal. We were delayed 3 hours, then halfway over the Atlantic the toilets started to overflow then the last hour there were no toilets. Then we landed and sat on the runway for 3 hrs waiting to taxi to a gate. The plan stank of waste and then we found out they had lost some of our luggage which ended up in Australia and we didn't get till the end end of our trip.


This have now seems to have gotten worse in the past 7 years in at least 4 of these last 7 years there have been passengers stuck on planes for hours events. Yesterday, Jet Blue and several other airlines left passengers stuck on planes for as much as 9 hrs, because of an Ice and snow storm. Some of the planes actually froze to the runway and had to be pulled free.


Why are the airlines doing this profits, every time they have to bring a plane back to the runway is money out of their pocket. This have happened over and over again the airlines promise to fix the problem, promise not to let it happen again, under the threat of legislation. They agree to xyz self-policing matter the matter drops til' the next time it happens and then the dump a bunch of money into xyz congressmen and Senators pockets and it goes away.


It's become Quite obvious they are incapable of policing themselves. That they have no interest in policing themselves, and unless they are specific regulations in place the airlines will continue to hold passengers against their will on the run way for hours on end to keep their schedules.


It's time to tell the senate and congress no more. The Airlines have run out of changes an organization called
"Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights" has a petition to Congress we want the end of this nonsense. http://www.petitiononline.com/airline/petition.html

Is Al-Qaeda trying to keep the US in Iraq intentionally?

It is starting to seem that Al Quaeda's intention is to bog the US down in Iraq. While putting out little or no effort on their part in doing so. That by simply egging us on with personal attacks almost school yard childish taunts, on Bush and other us leaders and by dropping what seem to be phony notes and letters to convince us how important Iraq is to them and playing on Bush's ego. So, that we will stay and continue to degrade our fighting ability, do damage to our economy and creditability around the world. They seem to be intent to make US seem irrational and unhinged,damage our image around the world.

I honestly believe Al Quaeda's intention is simply to continue to bog the us down in Iraq while building itself up all around the world. Al-Quaeda doesn't need to attack us if we keep taking their bait and hurting ourselves. It's time for us to get out of Iraq and stop taking Al-Quaeda's bait so we can actually win the war against the people who are trying to destroy America.

Iran,IEDS and What we really Know

The Bush adm again seems to be putting the cart before the horse, and the media is following close behind. They have sent Def Sec Gates and a number of "experts" out saying, that the Bush adm and Us intel "Know" that top levels of Iran's government are sending IED's into Iraq. That we know they were smuggled in by the government with their approval and that is the only place that they can be manufactured. They are also trying to make it this sound like these were the major cause of us deaths in Iraq.

1. According to Senator Jack Reed -RI and a number of other people in the Congress. The intel that has come out does not really point at anyone. It could be the top leadership,but there is really no proof. It also could be a radical lower element inside the government that is doing this without the leadership's approval. Finally, we could be,being yanked around by Iran dissident groups. That could themselves being supplying these weapon to try and incite the to invade Iran. The same way the Iraqis dissidents more or less coned America into Iraq, with phony claims about wmds.The could also being sold to insurgence on the black market.


2. Though, the weapons are probably coming out of Iran there is no exact proof they were created in Iran. They could have come from another place through the black market.


3. Less than one-half-of one percent of troop deaths and wia were caused by these devices. They are simply a minor element in a larger problem and seem to be trumped up as a major issue. I'm not sure why or if this is just a strategy to distract from the fact we are losing to insurgent elements in iraq.


Finally, this seems to be another rush, by this Administration to find yet another reason to continue the war in Iraq. The flagging support for this war is the biggest threat to the Bush adm, to their legacy. They need to try and keep the public scared and seem, to be willing, to float out any justification, or threat to keep this going. This quote well vetted, proof is no better than the Aluminum tubes they came out with in 2003 prior to invading Iraq. Saying something is well researched and checked and dbl and triple checked doesn't make it so, and in this case it seems to be being check and check again with the same unreliable sources that got us into Iraq in the First place. I'm not saying that this can't be true,I'm saying the adm doesn't really seem to have the proof they claim they have.

LET GET READY TO RUMBLE

VS.






State Senator

Lisa Boscola
cccxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sam Bennett


It seems that the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary isn't the only thing that is heating up. We already seem to have two candidates for the 2008 Democratic primary for the Pa 15th congressional district. Two very colorful women State Senator Lisa Boscola from the 18th State Senatorial district and Siobahn(Sam Bennett) Vice-chair of the Lehigh County Democrat party. Both candidates seem to be actively lining up support for this race as we speak. This should be a knock down drag-out 18 round fight to take on the current Republican Congressman Charlie Dent.

Now here are the rules: No Hits below the belt, No mud Sling, and No Video recordings (hehe) now shake hands and come out fighting. LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!

Correction to prior post

In my prior post I had mistakenly listed Lois Herr. When I Meant to list Lois Murphy. It has been corrected, but I felt I needed to point this out for Clarification.I think that I was paying too much attention to that Cocker spaniel on animal planet when I was writing the original post.

The Party that Learned Nothing From 2006 Clearing the Field in Pa 15th district

It seems that the Democratic party has learned nothing from the 2006 election either Nationally, or locally. The message from the Voters in 2006 was we want, to choose who we want to vote for in Democratic primaries. Not be coned by the party into choosing whom they want us to. In the places in Pa and nationally were the SDCC, Dccc or local parties interfered in the primaries and their candidate won they generally lost in the Generally election. Where the Candidate was Chosen inspite of massive interference in the primary that candidate generally won. Examples of these are Patrick Murphy,Jason Altmire and Mt-Tester compared to Duckworth- IL + Lois Murphy.

What I'm starting to hear now is that Northampton county Chair Joe Long, has decided that he knows what the voters want better, than they do. It sounds as if there is an attempt to pressuring Candidates out the Race, to clear the way for Lehigh County Vice-Chair Sam (Siobhan) Bennett, to the Nomination of the Democratic party for the Pa 15th congressional district. I'm not sure if this is true and whether it's some sort of political payback to VC Bennett or act of retaliation by the party against one or more of the other potential candidates by the state party, such as Very popular State Senator Lisa Boscola, whom leadership in Harrisburg don't like because she tends, to stand, by her convictions,and the best interests of her district, even when it goes against what the party wants.


Beyond, the fact that members of the Democratic party in Lehigh,Northampon,Berks and Montco county should have the right to choose whom their candidate will be without party interference and strong arming. V.C. Bennett is a candidate that is even Less viable than Charles Dertinger was. She has never won a party primary of any kind other than a committee seat, and was beaten in a mayoral primary in the City of Allentown in 2005 by a large enough margin to give pause of giving her a pass. If she can't even win a primary in the city of Allentown how can she beat Congressman Dent in the General Election.

I believe that the party should stay out of primaries and let the candidates speak for themselves. Which has been the party's policy til' recently, and it has availed us not. If Mrs. Bennett wants the nomination she needs to win it on the Field of battle not thru back room deals and party pressure.

IS the Latest NIE another CON

I'm starting to wonder, if the Latest NIE is really another attempt, to Con the American public into supporting Bush's policies in Iraq. It seems kinda odd, that it insists, that we are the only thing keeping Iraq from falling apart, and that any plan that doesn't lead to what Bush wants, will only lead to more chaos. Partitioning is characterize, as simply pointing, to civil war. It says if, we pull out and leave them to it the place will become a hide out for Al queda, and haven for Iran. That the only way things will be ok is if we stand up this government we created. Hum, I wonder is this true, or simply another Con-game, to give Bush more cover, to keep this nonsense going? What do you think.

If anyone wondered where I stood Politically

I saw this on The PA Progressive's Website and he Challenged people to take and it and shock of all Shocks I'm a Centrist. I guess that's why I piss off activists in both parties. But, I am a Green Dog so this should Shock no one.

You are a Social Moderate (56% permissive) and an... Economic Moderate (50% permissive) You are best described as a: Centrist

Damn the Fact no actually Just change them

Well it seems the Bush adm is at it again. In what is the Bush adm latest attempt to simply wipe away an ugly number they have decide to ex sponged 16,164 wounded in Iraq
that weren't flown out in an attempt to pretty up the numbers. This is a complete change in practice that is an complete change from other conflicts the us has been in the past. This is simply another attempt to try and convince the American public things are better than they actually are in Iraq. But what do you expect from an Administration that does this as common practice.


In 2001 the when unemployment was high the Bush adm simply cut back the number of weeks that unemployment was counted from from 6 months to 3 months then later to 6 weeks and simply more quickly shifted people from unemployment to the catagory of marginally attached to the work force then right off the books. Then in 2004 because the numbers weren't looking good enough they simply changed the survey they were using because it didn't make the numbers look pretty enough. (i.e. if the Clinton numbers were looked at thru this lens unemployment would have been close to 1%).

But what do you expect from an an administration that will do anything to get it way lie to the American public twist the facts. Say one thing one day then do the exact opposite.

Here we go again

It seems here we go again is the best phrase I can think of. The Media is again trying to convince the American public, that Iran is such a great threat that we must invade. That somehow invading Iran is going to fix our problems in Iraq buying into the same false permious that attacking another country will fix things. The media is again bring on these "experts" that insist that we must invade Iran to stop the violence in Iraq. That we must invade Iran because they might get a Nuke. That we must invade Iran because they might be a future threat. One failed policy is not justification to create another one. That somehow Bush knows best even thought we have seen his action wrong over and over again.

Why is the Media giving the Bush adm the equal time (and an equal air of creditability) that they refused to give everyone else. When the Bush adm were pounding away for the last war. Hum, maybe it's because, they need access to the White house. If they don't do some of what the Bush adm wants, they won't get access to the president.


When in the past I've scoffed at claims by news outlets like the Morning Call calling blogger not credible or not held accountable, who was holding them accountable then?

If the media was impartial or had some sort of Supervision, the other side would have been given a hearing. The media no longer seems interested in the investigative jornalism or truth but getting the story. Not, if the story is true just getting the story. Not informing the public but selling commercials, and getting access to the powerful. Bloggers are just as creditable and help as or more accountable then they are. If we lie or get something wrong people stop reading us. If the Media gets something wrong they do a Mea Culpa fire a few people and give some half hearted apology and everyone forgives them after a while because there are no other options.

America I think we have a problem with the Enviroment

Well it's become quite clear global warming is real and based, on our little friend's get up we are at war with global warming. It seems to have been come quite clear that in the past 30 years; we have done so much damage, to the environment that won't see improvement in our lifetimes. That Bush's and other president's short sited policies, that the idea is a 4th quarter problem was short sighted.


Bush continues to refuse to do anything because he claims it will hurt the economy is even more short sighted. Yes in the short time we will have to give up a little bit of earning for long term gain but that's what any investment requires. The simply fact is if we don't make the hard choices now there will be a much greater economic penalty for America.

We are quickly losing our place in the world other countries are going, to be reaping the benefits of early change over, to other fuels and other distribution formats. While, we are just making the change of because we will be forced to catch up by the rest of the world. So we can continue to compete in the world, while we destroy our economy trying to do so. But that's the mindset of the Bush adm living in the moment something we are going to pay for for a long time