Welcome to the Coatesville Dems Blog

Public Corruption in Chester County, PA

I believe an unlikely mix of alleged drug trafficking related politicos and alleged white nationalist related politicos united to elect the infamous “Bloc of Four” in the abysmal voter turnout election of 2005. During their four year term the drug business was good again and white nationalists used Coatesville as an example on white supremacist websites like “Stormfront”. Strong community organization and support from law enforcement, in particular Chester County District Attorney Joseph W. Carroll has begun to turn our community around. The Chester County drug trafficking that I believe centers on Coatesville continues and I believe we still have public officials in place that profit from the drug sales. But the people here are amazing and continue to work against the odds to make Coatesville a good place to live.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Guardian Angels

This Saturday January 31, 2008
Members of the International Alliance of Guardian Angels will be having an informal meeting at the:

Episcopal Church of the Trinity
323 E. Lincoln Highway
Coatesville, PA

From 6pm
To 8pm


Anyone interested in learning more about the organization and its programs please attend.

“Coatesville Women United”

It is true in every society that women are pushed into a subordinate position by men. Most religions nearly always relegate women to the lowest rung on the ladder of their churches, mosques, synagogues and temples.

One half of our people are pushed down. And it is the half that mourns the deepest when our sons and daughters come to an early end.

I believe that women can be a powerful force for peace on earth.

Here in Coatesville how about a “Coatesville Women United”.

January 31, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
A Crazy Dream
By BOB HERBERT
In the documentary film “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” a woman whose family had endured the agony of civil war in Liberia talks about a dream she had in 2003 in which someone urged her to organize the women of her church to pray for peace.
“It was a crazy dream,” she said.
Prayer seemed like a flimsy counterweight to the forces of Charles Taylor, the tyrannical president at the time, and the brutally predatory rebels who were trying to oust him from power.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/opinion/31herbert.html

Another fire

Nancy and Lew Coates live with their cute little dog on the 200 Block of Fleetwood Street. A house two doors down burned, the house behind them burned along with the family inside. And most of the block in the 300 block burned. Nancy and Lew know all the people whose homes were destroyed. It’s heartbreaking.

If they leave home for a while they might come back to a burning house. If they stay they could wake up to a burning house.

The home just down the street from us burned and if not for fast and courageous work by Caln Police two lives could have been lost.

Betsy and I don’t stay away from home very long and when we are here we are on edge; constantly looking and listening.

I guess that’s why I am up at 3 am.

The Daily Local (dailylocal.com), Serving Chester County, PA

Another city porch fire
Saturday, January 31, 2009 1:50 AM EST
By: JENNIFER MILLER, Staff Writer
COATESVILLE -- About 12:40 a.m. Saturday fire crews received a report of a house fire in the 200 block of Church Street.

The fire was reportedly contained to a residential porch and the side of a neighboring home.
http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2009/01/31/news/doc4983f1ab59a3c496829079.txt

Outside my house

Coatesville Police and I think State Troopers are regularly patrolling my neighborhood. It seems like several times per hour.

My son just came home just a few minutes ago. As soon as he passed the Coatesville border; a car followed. He went around the block to park on the right side. When he stopped in front of my house police asked for ID. They said they stopped him because he circled around the block.

I think they are stopping everyone. They are all in plain clothes and plain cars.

My son said the town is locked down.

I don’t mind any inconvenience. My son doesn't either. It is a lot better than waking up to a burning home.

Wither the Republicans?

There was once a Republican guy with the kind of tough talk that Steele has in local politics here in Coatesville. But he had a reputation as a drug dealer.

If the Republicans really want to come back they have to shed their reputation as a WASP white collar version of the Bulgarian Mafiya.

They need to go back to the country club Republicans who actually contributed to their community and their country instead of stealing from it. Stealing at an incredibly high level; stealing literally in the Trillions of dollars. So much that we are on the verge of a terrible economic depression.

“New York Times
Charles Blow
January 31, 2009, 12:01 am
Wither the Republicans?
By Charles M. Blow
Election Day exit polls and the American mosaic that turned out for Obama’s inauguration have sent shivers down the backs of many a Republican…

In his opening salvo, Mr. Steele boasted:

“We’re going to bring this party to every corner, to every boardroom, to every neighborhood, to every community. And we’re going to say to friend and foe alike: ‘We want you to be a part of us. We want you to be with us, and for those of you who are going to obstruct, get ready to be knocked over.’ ”

Well bring it on tough guy.”

More at:
http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Cut GOP Loose

I don’t pal around with some local Republicans. Nothing personal, or even political; I just don’t like criminals. I don’t see why Democrats feel the need to get palsy walsy with Democrats in the House or Senate. I think that Eric Holder should just let his police dogs go at them.

Ryan Grim
ryan@huffingtonpost.com | HuffPost Reporting From DC
Dems To Leadership: Cut GOP Loose
January 29, 2009 01:49 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/29/dems-to-leadership-cut-go_n_162266.html

I am a little re-assured after last nights meeting

I am a little re-assured after last nights meeting, but not because of anything that I heard at the meeting. You see, except for Joe Carroll the meeting was mostly the usual self praise and talk about coming together. This time the coming together talk is genuine. I can do without the narcissistic self praise. It’s one of the most repulsive things about our city council and Harry Walker.

State and Federal Government cannot except for a Declaration of Marshal Law force themselves on to a municipal government. Let me make something as clear as I can:

The Coatesville City Administration did not call or go to the Commonwealth or Federal Government or Chester County DA Joe Carroll and ask for help. It was more like: You will ask for help. We will help you. Do not try to stop us.

The City Administration’s role in giving aid to its citizens is now just a formality. The Governor, the Federal Government and through District Attorney Joe Carroll, the County is helping us. That is why I feel a little better about our city.

When Nicky Scarfo got into investment banking it should have been a red flag

The content of the New York Times article below outlines one of the reasons that I feel Eric Holder is by several lengths the most important horse in Obama’s stable.

When Nicky Scarfo (the son of Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo) got into the investment banking / mortgage derivative business it should have been a red flag. The Bush Administration Department of Justice pulled the FBI away from that investigation. They are back on it now.

Some of Scarfo’s companies:
FirstPlus Financial Group Inc, Globalnet Enterprises, Learned Associates of North America and Rutgers Investment, a FirstPlus subsidiary with offices in Wayne, PA.

January 29, 2009
What Red Ink? Wall Street Paid Hefty Bonuses
By BEN WHITE

By almost any measure, 2008 was a complete disaster for Wall Street — except, that is, when the bonuses arrived.

Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year.

That was the sixth-largest haul on record, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York State comptroller.

While the payouts paled next to the riches of recent years, Wall Street workers still took home about as much as they did in 2004, when the Dow Jones industrial average was flying above 10,000, on its way to a record high.

Some bankers took home millions last year even as their employers lost billions.
More at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/business/29bonus.html?_r=1&hp

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

It is not that difficult for me to explain what I think happened to Coatesville.

Just 5 years ago we were a town full of promise. We were on the cusp of a $700 M redevelopment.

Coatesville has one operating passenger and freight track coast to coast railroad line and one short line freight that could be expanded to the passenger service from Wilmington, DE to Reading, PA that it once had.

We have an airport that will soon have direct international flight capacity.

We have a population of about 12,000 with the infrastructure in place for 20,000 people.

We have quick road connections to Interstate North and South roads.

We are centrally located within one of the ten wealthiest Counties in the USA.

Through its Redevelopment Authority Coatesville owns many acres of former industrial land near very high road traffic intersections.

We are in the path of development from Philadelphia, PA from the East and Lancaster, PA from the west.

The Miami School of Architecture’s Knight Foundation for Community Building selected Coatesville for its 2004 Charrette. Only one community is selected per year:

http://www.coatesville.org/forms/charrettereport.pdf

Upper middle class drug users are within an easy drive to Coatesville. We are a mixed race community long trampled on by its wealthy White Anglo-Saxon neighbors. We have quick transportation to New York, NY, Philly and Baltimore. “Packages” can come by air to Scranton Airport down the NE Turnpike to Coatesville. All ways for “packages” have a quick 15 minutes in and out in Coatesville. Combine all that with the generations long tension between fear of murder and income from drug money and you have Coatesville as the multi-million dollar drug distribution center of Chester County. Nothing else comes close in Chester County.

The planned revitalization would have eventually lain to rest the county drug depot here.

I think that some people couldn’t let that happen.

The ATF and State Police didn't shut them down in Coatesville

It's partly indoors. The cash is indoors. The bag is under a car. Just drive down Lincoln Highway.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Coatesville is crawling with police and investigators of all types

The ideas about a curfew or the National Guard in the streets of Coatesville would definitely stop the arsons here.

But Coatesville is not a town in Iowa. The next town is not 100 miles away. The arsonist or arsonists could just start fires in say, West Chester. Or he/they could just shut down for a year.

The ATF is here and Coatesville is crawling with police, local, State, Federal and private investigators. I have to drive around and check but I would bet that the drug dealers are all but shut down completely. At the very least they would have to take it indoors.

Am I being too cynical in saying that there is such a big turnout to get the arsonists because the multi-million dollar drug distribution business in Chester County is all but shut down and it’s killing the “off the books” economy here? Even the booster stores might have had to shut down.

The only good thing is that the roaches in City Hall are now in the national spotlight.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

A letter to the bloc

The money is good in Coatesville again. The city police force is dysfunctional and drug dealers that were chased out of Coatesville are back from Philly. Leaders of the Cripps, Bloods, SUR-13 and KOD have moved in to make a beachhead in our city to fight for a piece of the action. The streets of Coatesville are flooded with firearms passed into the hands of our children.

We wonder who will be the next one to bleed.

We hear sirens in the night. We dream of fire and hope that it is only a dream.

How did it happen? Why did our police force break up? Did Richard Legree and Harry Walker put their heads together and come up with a plan to lay off one half of the Coatesville Police Force? If so, for what purpose?

We watched our city burn as Kareem Johnson, Robin Scott, Patsy Ray and Kurt Schenk giggled and rocked furiously in their chairs and screamed their shrill pompous prayers. Most of the responsible people of Coatesville have given up trying to persuade the closed minds and hearts of the “bloc”. And they cannot take any more of the childish, repulsive, narcissistic show put on at city council meetings.

I believe that a young man would still be able to speak with his mother; that the chain-sawed dogs would be alive if not for the bloc of four. Instead a cadaver dog is sniffing the landfill for their remains.

I believe that we would have the safe place to live that we now long for if the ”Bloc of Four" had never existed.

I believe that Kareem Johnson, Robin Scott, Patsy Ray and Kurt Schenk have blood on their hands.

Arsonist strikes again; 15 homes destroyed; scores left homeless
by Allen Davis
Staff Writer
Posted: Sunday, 25 Jan. 4:30 a.m.
http://chestercountyreporter.com/109fleetwoodfire.html

What Happened to Aaron Turner
Friends and family hold Coatesville vigil to raise awareness of teen's mysterious disappearance

Sunday, January 25, 2009 9:15 AM EST
By DAN KRISTIE Staff Writer
http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2009/01/25/news/srv0000004565561.txt

Jim Pitcherella

Friday, January 23, 2009

“The home of the free and the torturers?”

Right now the most dangerous man on earth for the Republican Party is Eric Holder.

But if the Republican’s get their way and Holder is restrained from Defending the Constitution against all enemies domestic and foreign; the United States itself could fail. “The home of the free and the torturers?” I don't think so.

It kind of all comes down to the old saying “If you don’t want to do the time, don’t do the crime. Bush and Cheney are and were very well aware that torturing prisoners of war is an internationally recognized crime against humanity. When Bush and Cheney casually admitted to ordering torture they screamed out that we are just too important, powerful and wealthy to bring to trial.

“Republicans plan to stall the nomination of attorney general nominee Eric Holder until they get an iron-clad guarantee that the Justice Department will not pursue criminal prosecution of members of the Bush Administration for its role in torture and other abuses of law and the Constitution.” -
From Capitol Hill Blue
There really is a new sheriff in town
January 22, 2009 - 7:15am.

by Doug Thompson




http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/14062

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

“Pinochet’s disease”-“temporary light dementia"

Surprise, surprise who would have thought the Republicans would hold up Eric Holder’s nomination; “indefinitely”.

Holder calls torture, torture and is sending cold shivers down some Republican spines.

Do you think that some Republican's need time to grow a beard, buy a Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses, a wig, maybe a little plastic surgery, a new passport with someone else's name on it and a one way ticket to Chili?

Or:
It could be that decades of alcohol and cocaine abuse can cause “temporary light dementia" or “Pinochet’s disease”. Maybe that could be a legal defense.

War crimes trials

World War II was not a slam dunk win for the United States military. Hitler could have won and acquired nuclear weapons (he already had a ballistic missile). Those were extraordinary times and we did not waterboard anyone. Our interrogators "made friends" with German officers for information.

The former President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney have admitted to recommending “extraordinary rendition” measures which every country in the world has for centuries called torture.

If we let both of them use their excuse that extraordinary times made torture necessary; it makes the Constitution, the Geneva Convention and the U.S. Army Field Manual obsolete and as Cheney says “quaint”.

If we do not put Cheney and Bush on trial for war crimes it implicates the government of the United States and the people of the United States as being on record as supporting the torture of prisoners.

All the people of the world outside of the United States and every other foreign government understand that Bush and Cheney ordered the torture of prisoners. Only the American news media tries to obscure that fact.

Bush and Cheney are in the same league as Augusto Pinochet, certain Japanese World War II officers, the Kumar Rouge and Stalin.

If we do not prosecute Bush and Cheney for war crimes including torture. Two basic things will happen:

• Torture will be perceived as a United States policy.

• If they travel internationally Bush, Cheney and a number of high level Bush Administration officials will be subject to arrest and trial as war criminals in more than 100 countries.


From the U.S. Army Field Manual:

"The psychological techniques and principles in this manual should neither be confused with, nor construed to be synonymous with, unauthorized techniques such as brainwashing, physical or mental torture, or any other form of mental coercion to include drugs that may induce lasting and permanent mental alteration and damage." Under "Interrogator Capabilities and Limitations," it states that the Geneva Convention sets "definite limits on measures which can be taken to induce an EPW [Enemy Prisoner of War] to cooperate."

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Cute kid gives Obama a fist bump in Philly-Victor Cozzone and Victor Jr. on CNN.



Cute kid gives Obama a fist bump in Philly


Victor Cozzone and Victor Jr. on CNN.


The Daily Local (dailylocal.com), Serving Chester County, PA
Local boy has fist bump for the ages
En route to D.C., president-elect reaches out to greet county official's son

Sunday, January 18, 2009 7:46 AM EST
By DAN KRISTIE Staff Writer

PHILADELPHIA — County Commissioner Kathi Cozzone's 6-year-old son, Victor, fist-bumped President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday morning at 30th Street Station.

Seconds later, the cable news network CNN, which had gotten footage of the bump, whisked Victor away and sat him down for an interview.

"It was awesome!" Victor said, extending the word "awesome" for several seconds. "It was the best day of my life."

More at:
http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2009/01/18/news/srv0000004517858.txt

Jim Pitcherella

Every politician and law enforcement officer in Pennsylvania should read:
“POLICE, POLITICS. CORRUPTION ‘The mixture dangerous to freedom and justice” By Colonel Frank McKetta, Retired Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Chester County KKK “New Member’s Kit”

Just a thought:
We have a black President whose closest adviser is Jewish and Eric Holder, the new face of the USDoJ, which includes the FBI and ATF, is black. The Chester County KKK, Skinhead and Nazi groups must be running out of swastikas, bomb making instructions and other stuff in their “new member’s kit”.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Forgive and Forget?

Paul Krugman's column in today's New York Times touched a nerve in me.

People here tell me that it is useless to fight against some politically connected people here that I think may have broken the law. This is Chester County; no matter what happens, if someone is indicted, even found guilty, in the long run the losers will be the people who “snitched” and the bad guys will ultimately win.

I am hoping for a different outcome.

The “free market economy” is completely out of control and in aircraft language a “flat spin” or “death spiral”. Only the President and government can pull it out of the “death spiral”. It may be a decade or more but the economy will come back.

I agree with Mr. Krugman that if the crimes of the Bush Administration go unpunished the United States will suffer. If the new president ignores the crimes of the Bush Administration the United States will be permanently damaged.

But it is not the President’s duty to prosecute former Bush officials; that will be the duty of Eric Holder.

It could be that the future of the United States of America is in Eric Holder’s hands.
Jim Pitcherella
________________________________________
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/opinion/16krugman.html?_r=1

January 16, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Forgive and Forget?
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Last Sunday President-elect Barack Obama was asked whether he would seek an investigation of possible crimes by the Bush administration. “I don’t believe that anybody is above the law,” he responded, but “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”
I’m sorry, but if we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power.
Let’s be clear what we’re talking about here. It’s not just torture and illegal wiretapping, whose perpetrators claim, however implausibly, that they were patriots acting to defend the nation’s security. The fact is that the Bush administration’s abuses extended from environmental policy to voting rights. And most of the abuses involved using the power of government to reward political friends and punish political enemies.


Jim Pitcherella

Every politician and law enforcement officer in Pennsylvania should read:
“POLICE, POLITICS. CORRUPTION ‘The mixture dangerous to freedom and justice” By Colonel Frank McKetta, Retired Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner

Saturday, January 10, 2009

“Cocaine and White Teens”

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Charles Blow wrote a column in today’s New York Times about “Cocaine and White Teens”.
In his article he writes about a government-sponsored study by the University of Michigan. It reported a decline in drug use by young people. Mr. Blow writes:

"But, one important metric that wasn’t mentioned, and that stubbornly resisted the downturn, was the use of cocaine.
According to data from the group that produced the report, the percentage of both black and white 12th graders who confessed to using cocaine in the past 30 days has essentially stayed flat since 2001. The major difference is that white usage outweighs black usage 4 to 1. (If you take a longer view back to 1991, when cocaine usage bottomed out following the outrageous ’80s, usage among white 12th graders since then has nearly doubled, while usage among black 12th graders has fallen a bit.)"


Curtis Self Sr. of East Fallowfield was sentenced to 17 to 34 years in prison for five counts of possession with intent to deliver cocaine. He was selling what we call “white drugs”. He lived in East Fallowfield and sold in Coatesville and Caln. I think the people in suburban Chester County need to wake up and understand that the drug dealers in Coatesville can be selling poison to their children.

More policing does help.
“One Coatesville resident put it this way “They don’t like to see police. It’s that simple. It makes it difficult to buy. It makes it difficult to sell … And that’s discouraging.” Daily Local News Coatesville residents Help DA rid the city of crime-Thursday, January 8, 2009 6:56 AM EST


I have seen how drugs can ruin the lives of young white men and women in a white suburban area who had everything going for them; top high school athletes, an affluent lifestyle, good academics, plenty of money for the best collages, new cars… One of them is now doing a 20 year sentence.

Policing the streets is a part of it; policing home life is another part.

Mr. Blow brings up something else at the end of his column.
“But, in a phone interview, David Murray, chief scientist in the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, insisted that there was good news: a sharp rise in the price of cocaine and a drop in its purity since 2006, among other things, have cut into overall usage.
So, I thought, until policy makers put more of a focus on this issue and figure out how to reach these students, should we just hope that teens are too broke for this weak coke? I don’t think so. We need a real strategy, right now.”


We are treating the drug dealers and users as criminals. Much of the time they are both. But some of the top drug entrepreneurs never tried their “product”.

Before Prohibition, gangs in the United States were local. Prohibition was the opportunity for some of those local gangs to grow into what we now know as organized crime, or the Mafia. When Prohibition ended the infrastructure was in place and drugs replaced alcohol as the profit maker. Illegal drugs are now an incredibly profitable international business.

They used aircraft, we put AWACS aircraft in the Caribbean to track them, they used cigarette boats in bunches of three that look like one on radar. The Colombians drug dealers even bought their very own Russian submarine. The profit margin is just too great in illegal drugs. If a big shipment is stopped, the price and the profit margin go up. Since the “war on drugs” began the illegal drugs industry has had exponential growth.

It ain’t working. We need to try something different.

In whatever country in whatever part of the world where the crop is grown that drugs are derived from, the finial destination is nearly always right here in the USA. The USA is by far the biggest market for illegal drugs in the world. If we stopped using them here the economies of many countries would completely collapse.

The real problem is not the drug sellers; the real problem is that we love how drugs make us feel here in the USA. The answer to the world wide illegal murderous drug business and the terror and suffering that goes with it is right here among us United States citizens.

Someone on TV said that the mortgage derivative traders, by just making money triggered a chemical response in their brains much like cocaine. But they were not getting high on just money. We know that some of those same traders were using the real thing too. Maybe the pressures of our free enterprise system need some kind of relief.

Maybe it’s that we are far removed from nature. Most of us rarely feel the soothing effect of just watching a creek or river flow by. But even some societies that we call “stone age” and live in completely natural surroundings use some sort of drugs.

Humans and all living things are chemical factories. Drugs or chemicals that our own bodies manufacture or that we eat or breathe regulate every part of our bodies. Maybe it is a medical answer; maybe it is a societal answer or something completely new. Maybe the medical and social things we tried were just not enough.

Until we can solve our own almost uniquely American love of drugs; I think that good police work in Coatesville may be the best thing we have going for us right now in Chester County.


Charles M. blow’s column is at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/10/opinion/10blow.html?_r=1

blackberry jim



January 9, 2009
For BlackBerry, Obama’s Devotion Is Priceless
By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

This week, Michael Phelps signed a deal worth more than $1 million to advertise Mazda in China. Jerry Seinfeld earned a reported $10 million to appear in Microsoft’s recent television campaign.

But the person who may be the biggest celebrity pitchman in the world is not earning a penny for his work.

President-elect Barack Obama has repeatedly said how much his BlackBerry means to him and how he is dreading the prospect of being forced to give it up, because of legal and security concerns, once he takes office.

“I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday in an interview with CNBC and The New York Times. “They’re going to pry it out of my hands.”

What could the “BlackBerry president” charge for his plugs of the device if he were not a public servant? More than $25 million, marketing experts say, and maybe as much as $50 million.

“This would be almost the biggest endorsement deal in the history of endorsements,” said Doug Shabelman, the president of Burns Entertainment, which arranges deals between celebrities and companies. “He’s consistently seen using it and consistently in the news arguing — and arguing with issues of national security and global welfare — how he absolutely needs this to function on a daily basis.”
More at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/business/media/09blackberry.html?_r=1&ref=technology

No punishment planned for CIA over torture

I wonder if Attorney General Holder will show mercy to Addington, Gonzales, Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld and others by prosecuting them all to the fullest extent of US Law. Or whether he shows no mercy and will do nothing but present evidence to be used at The Hague.

Ignoring direct orders to torture people by officials of the US Government in defiance of the Constitution and the Geneva Convention is not an option.

Japanese officials were hanged for the very same offense.
Jim

No punishment planned for CIA over torture
Created 01/10/2009 - 7:21am

"As President-elect Barack Obama assures intelligence officials that his complaints are with the Bush administration, not them, there are growing hints from Democratic Senate allies that spy agency veterans will not be prosecuted for past harsh interrogation and detainee policies.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein told The Associated Press in an interview this week that there is a clear distinction between those who made the policies and those who carried them out.
"They (the CIA) carry out orders and the orders come from the (National Security Council) and the White House, so there's not a lot of policy debate that goes on there," she said. "We're going to continue our looking into the situation and I think that is up to the administration and the director."

More at:
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/13753

Friday, January 9, 2009

Coatesville is the drug distribution center for Chester County.

At the present staff level of the Coatesville Pennsylvania Police Department there are three police officers on patrol at one time. At high crime times the Coatesville PD is augmented by surrounding police departments and PA State Troopers. High crime time in Coatesville is after dark.

Chester County Pennsylvania is among the ten wealthiest counties in the USA; a fox hunting playground for billionaires.

Coatesville is the drug distribution center for Chester County.

The drug business in Chester County is a multi-million dollar business. I believe that without Coatesville as the drug distribution hub in Chester County, the entire structure of drug distribution here could collapse.

Coatesville is a transportation hub in the center of Chester County. There is easy access to rail, air, and interstate roadways. A major drug dealer from New York City can deliver packages directly to dealers in Coatesville for distribution in Chester County via several routes. They are in and out in less than 20 minutes.

There is an entire sub-economy built on drug money here. Convicted crack dealer Edwin “Jack” Flamer was said to have done “charitable acts” with the money he made selling poison to our youth in Chester County. A combination of cash from drug dealers and death threats keeps people from talking to police. There is also a perception that you can’t trust all the police; that a policeman could “give you up” to the person threatening you. Some people say that Coatesville residents like the city the way it is. I don’t think so. It is a terrifying way to live.

Coatesville is a friendly community; a community rich in oral history, where families go back many generations. But, the money in drugs turns that very friendliness on its head. We live in a terrorized community, where not just an adult can be threatened; but that adult’s children, nephews, and grandchildren.

The threats are real. I believe that most of the recent shootings and murders involved people that were about to testify in trials.

I am still hearing calls for police to be recruited from Coatesville, that they be long time Coatesville residents. I believe that this call for Coatesville officers was initiated by drug dealers. If police officers and their families are required to not only live here but be long time Coatesville residents; that police officer’s extended family could also be threatened. I believe that this is part of an effort by the drug entrepreneurs in the city to gain a strong foothold in the Coatesville Police department.

Coatesville is a small city of 11,000 with the infrastructure for 20,000 residents.

There are many Coatesville residents and former residents who live nearby that have spent years of their lives working with youth, civic groups and politicians; trying to bring the city around. There was an attempt to revitalize Coatesville and move away from a drug economy to a normal thriving city. Then County Commissioner Andy Dinniman worked with dedicated community members, PA Career Link and the Laborers District Council Training facility in Exton, PA to develop skilled, trained Coatesville residents to help build the city’s redevelopment that was then in the works. By 2005 drug dealers could not live in the city, a plan for redevelopment was in place and the developers were lined up. After 8 years of very hard work Coatesville was about to “flip over”. Then a new city council moved in and in my opinion trashed the redevelopment. And at the same time I believe that the new administration trashed the Coatesville Police Department.

When the Coatesville Police Force collapsed and “the money was good again in Coatesville”, the drug dealers came back. And they came back in a terrifying way.

We are really hurting here in Coatesville; and we have gotten fleeting aid from County Commissioner Andy Dinniman and Governor Rendell. But, so far the only elected public official from the County, State or Federal Government to put himself on the line and really come to our aid is Chester County District Attorney Joe Carroll.

The USDoJ, ATF, FBI and DEA are awakening from a long Bush Administration imposed sleep. Hopefully some of that awakening can come here to Coatesville, PA.

I believe the scale of the drug business in Chester County cannot exist without the cooperation of corrupt public officials.

I think every politician and law enforcement officer in Pennsylvania should read:
“POLICE, POLITICS. CORRUPTION ‘The mixture dangerous to freedom and justice” By Colonel Frank McKetta, Retired Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Consider contacting the Obama Music Arts and Entertainment



Consider contacting the Obama Music Arts and Entertainment Obama Music Arts and Entertainment with you own request. It's never too late. What can we lose?


Obama Music Arts and Entertainment; http://obamamae.ning.com

Dear Marla,

Many of us here in Chester County, Pennsylvania, are aware of what you and your committee are doing for the Obama cause and for the arts, and we are grateful.

We are friends, fans and admirers of Stephanie Phillips Markstein who were overjoyed at how well she did in your national song competition. Yet we had mixed feelings because she missed out on being first by only a narrow margin. We understand the concept that "them's the rules." We well appreciate the serious and professional undertaking that your organization preformed to determine the winner. Moreover, we recognize that Lady D's entry was also outstanding. Nevertheless, it seems that it shouldn't all end at his point for Stephanie.

To be sure, some of our zeal for Stephanie and her effort stems from the fact that her "Yes We Can" became our local anthem at campaign events and gatherings. And, we know her for her tireless work on behalf of Democrats here while keeping up with her other time consuming duties including those of being a wife and a mother of two young girls. She is well thought of in this community.

Is there not some way that Stephanie can be included, as a runner-up, at appearances and in publicity and the like that will follow from the song competition? This is not to suggest that Lady D's achievement be diminished in any way but that the worthy recognition that will stem from the competition be broadened and enhanced by recognizing Stephanie's work as well - especially at the Inauguration.

Many people say that Stephanie's song, especially the rousing chorus, can be appreciated much more fully by viewing the youtube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9wp4VOHOuQ (That video was produced by a very talented young man, Kevin Fitzpatrick, who is in charge of the video lab and courses at a local high school.) I'm not a music professional, but it seems to me that Stephanie's song would likewise benefit greatly from some reworking/rearranging that would come along if you gave it a little more exposure. I think the song has legs.

So that you know who we are, Chester County, Pennsylvania, is just north of Wilmington, Delaware. It's where the Mason -Dixon line begins and it's part of the Philadelphia market. Most important is that this County was the foremost battleground county in this battleground state. We received national attention during the campaign. Ours has been the most Republican of Republican strongholds. But Barack and Stephanie said, "Yes, we can", and we did. Obama won big here and we are all very much enthused.

Please do what you can to keep the momentum for Stephanie's song going. A good Obama song is a terrible thing to waste.

Thanks and Happy New Year,

Bill Scott
William J. Scott, Jr., Member,
Democratic State and County Committees,
Chester County Executive Committee
405 North Franklin Street
West Chester, Pennsylvania 19380-2418
610-436-4644