The big election in Chester County is in Coatesville.

It's between voters who like the Walker Administration and voters who don’t like drug dealers and worry about fire.

Campaign Finiance Reports Coatesville Unity Committee, Patsy Ray and Jarrell Brazzle

Patsy Ray's campaign finance report for October 23, 2009 says "Coatesville Unity Committee" at the top margin. The Coatesville Unity Committee paid for her campaign documents in the Primary Election.

• Jarrell Brazzle's October 23, 2009 campaign finance report has nothing about the Coatesville Unity Committee on it.

• Brazzle's June 18, 2009 campaign finance report also has nothing about the Coatesville Unity Committee on it. The Coatesville Unity Committee paid for his campaign documents in the Primary Election.

Amexicom LLC is also a large contributor to the Coatesville Unity Committee in the General Election.

Look at the Notary seal. All the documents are notarized by Ruth Ann Russell at Coatesville City Hall.

• Patsy and the Coatesville Unity Committee's campaign finance reports are notarized at Coatesville City Hall on October 22, 2009. Jarrell Brazzle's are notarized at Coatesville City Hall on October 11, 2009 and October 23, 2009.

The Documents are from Chester County Voter Services. Blank pages were not included.

We will not know if the Coatesville Unity Committee is supporting Jarrell Brazzle until Election Day or even afterward.

Coatesville Unity Committee Campaign Finance Documents:
http://www.box.net/shared/4ooclmufpp

Patsy Ray Campaign Finance Documents:
http://www.box.net/shared/ke3ib3cycf
Jarrell Brazzle Campaign Finance Documents:
http://www.box.net/shared/axpb3mu97j

A solution to the judicial auction problem

Dr Terry Madonna’s latest post to “Politically Uncorrected” concerns Pennsylvania’s judicial elections. That is the dilemma between electing and appointing judges. Both systems have problems.

I believe that what we have now are not just elections of judges, they can often be auctions to influence the decisions of judges by corporations and groups that may come before the judge’s court.

The solution Dr. Madonna proposed may not entirely solve the “judicial auction” problem but can take some of the sting from it that ordinary citizens feel.

Politically Uncorrected
By G. Terry Madonna & Michael L. Young


PENNSYLVANIA’S CHURCHILLIAN PROBLEM

Let’s be frank. Pennsylvania’s long running dilemma about selecting judges is here for the duration. It’s been around a long time and it’s not going away soon.

It might well be termed the “Churchillian problem,” after Winston Churchill’s famous remark about democracy being the worst system in the world except for all the others. That, in substance, is how Pennsylvanians feel about electing appellate judges. It’s the worst way to select judges except for all the other ways to do it.

Essentially, there are just two ways to get judges on the bench. They can be elected or appointed. Pennsylvanians have problems with either option.

Presently we elect them, but many voters are really not comfortable electing judges because that requires judicial candidates to get into the grimy business of electioneering – a role many find inappropriate for judges.

But others are even less comfortable with adopting some sort of “merit appointment” system – in part because it removes judges from direct voter accountability and in part because merit selection smacks of elitism. We are, in a phrase, stuck between a rock and a hard place. And we are doing what we always do when confronted with a tough policy choice.

Nothing!

And truth be told, Pennsylvania does nothing as well as any state in the union. Leaders in Pennsylvania have been busily doing nothing about appellate judicial selection for decades now – interrupted only intermittently by long, ponderous, and ultimately unfruitful debates about the benefits and liabilities of election versus appointment. No repetition of those interminable arguments is necessary. Suffice it to summarize two take-away points:

1. Both sides of the question have some pretty good arguments; and
2. We are going to do nothing to change anything.

Zero. Zip. Nada.

Repeat: we are not going to change the way we select judges – not now, probably not ever. Whether that’s good or bad is irrelevant. It’s what will happen. It’s what almost always happens when Pennsylvania has a rip-roaring debate about changing anything important. Change comes slowly or not at all in the Keystone State, and on the question of judicial selection, change won’t come. Count on it!

And count on something else too: the “judge problem” is going to get worse. Under the current holding of the U.S. Supreme Court, judges can campaign more aggressively and say more about issues than ever before.

In response, judicial candidates must raise ever larger amounts of campaign money, most of which comes from lawyers and lawyer political action committees. This leaves the ugly impression that the very contributions that help elect a jurist may be coming from lawyers who have cases before him or her.

In short, some appellate judges are now behaving like other politicians – operating tough campaigns, running negative ads, and taking money from special interests.

But that’s only part of the problem. Usually one or two judicial contests may attract big contributions because the political stakes are high. But most races are underfunded and most judicial candidates are virtually unknown – especially in the Commonwealth and Superior Court races where candidates may not be known by two-thirds of the electorate. Even high-profile races can be obscure. The most recent Franklin and Marshall College Poll found that more than 50 percent of registered voters were undecided about this year’s Supreme Court race. Inevitably, most judicial races are well below the radar screen. Ultimate winners in these races are determined not on candidate qualifications, but instead upon such vagaries as party turnout, candidate gender, geography, or ethnicity.

These conflicting electoral trends are now threatening the fundamental integrity of state judicial elections. On the one hand, a single race may attract huge sums of special interest money – thus creating the appearance of bias in any future cases involving those contributors. In the most cynical reading of it, judges are being bought by the special interests funding these elections. But on the other hand, the same system is creating an equally bad, if not worse, outcome by asking voters to vote for judicial candidates about whom they know little or nothing. Indeed, the vast majority of judicial candidates cannot raise enough money to get their name, let alone their message, to the voter.

Most complex policy problems don’t have straightforward solutions. This one, however, does. And it should be informed by two simple principles:

1. If we are going to have elections, the voters ought to know enough about the candidates to cast an intelligent vote; and
2. We cannot continue to compromise the integrity of elections to our highest state courts with the taint of special interest money.

The adoption of public financing for appellate judicial races would accomplish that objective. Public financing is used effectively in a number of states. In Pennsylvania, it could be utilized to accomplish the two broad policy goals of limiting special interest money and providing a sufficient funding floor for judicial candidates to run adequate campaigns. Moreover, the cost of doing so would be relatively small considering the great benefit to democracy in guaranteeing the integrity of the state appellate courts.

A necessary caution: public financing will not be a panacea or a cure all for the state’s judicial problems. Probably none exists outside the textbook answers some offer. Candidates could still opt-out and self-finance their own campaigns, and nagging problems of how to pay for the funding would remain.

But let’s not allow the perfect to be an enemy of the good. Public financing certainly would help to build public trust in the integrity of the courts while giving voters a better chance to make informed decisions. The existing system has ripened into one large policy lemon that is quickly souring public opinion about the judicial system. Public financing could yet make some pretty good lemonade from it all.

**********************

Politically Uncorrected is published twice monthly. Dr. G. Terry Madonna is Professor of Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College, and Dr. Michael Young is Managing Partner of Michael Young Strategic Research. The article can be used in whole or in part with appropriate attribution. The views and opinions found in this article represent the authors’ views and opinions and not those of any institution or organization with which they are affiliated.

Previous columns can be viewed at http://politics.fandm.edu, and Politically Uncorrected columns with a national focus are archived at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/author/g_terry_madonna_and_michael_young/.

Donald McKensie's Resume

Look at the employment dates on McKenzie’s resume. ‬

5 yrs in Cuba at the Naval Base‬
‪2 yrs in NY‬
2yrs at his next job‬

‪2 MONTHS at the next one‬
‪1 yr at the next‬

‪3 MONTHS next‬
2 MONTHS next,….by now he is allegedly attending college at Neumann. ‬

‪His next job is for 4 MONTHS and then he doesn’t work anything for 7 months. ‬

‪The next one is 5 months long, however he has one job overshadowing all the others running from 12-94 thru 12-99 plus he allegedly is still attending college????? ‬

‪In 2000 he starts with Elwyn, Inc and lasts 5 years during which time he graduated college in 2002.‬
‪7 months at this one and he is allegedly getting his MBA from Keller which is an online subsidiary of DeVry‬
2 months at the next one‬
3 months as a consulting financial analyst at Boeing‬
‪6 months at the next one‬

‪Lancaster Regional Medical Center 3-08 until ?‬

‪‬What did he do from 8-07 until 3-08 ??? And that’s his employment history for 21 YEARS?????????? He lasted 5 years only twice in his career and one was on a Naval base.‬

McKensie enabled Coatesville to buy into 4Gov financial software and little else. Although there is a provision for on site storage I believe the City of Coatesville's financial information is stored online. Changing financial systems is labor intensive. I’ll bet the sales people from the financial services company were thrilled to not have anyone to compete against for the sale. Remember that the during almost the entire time that McKensie was employed as a financial consultant the City’s Financial Director, Ricky Dean was paid to sit at home.

See "Completed Task? Coatesville Roundtable Daily Local News:
http://www3.allaroundphilly.com/blogs/dailylocal/coatesville/2009/05/completed-task.html

Just politics or hate group

"As I came out of the bank on a Saturday morning, they noticed my small flag pin which included the name 'Obama' beneath the flag. I was trapped at the intersection and threatened explicitly with being thrown into the street in the path of oncoming traffic. I was truly frightened! That was the scaryest thing that's happened to me in a long time

I do not understand why they are permitted to threaten peaceable citizens on their personal business in our downtown streets.

One of them, Sean Carpenter prominently featured in this video, is a Republican endorsed 2009 candidate for West Chester Area School Board." Kipp Stone-Candidate for Chester County Treasurer

It's sad to say that a once proud Republican Party here in Chester County is morphing into a White Nationalist / Christian Reconstructionist extremist group.

This is not “just Chester County politics” this is a hate group. I think the violence has nowhere is its peak yet. At least some of the Pagan motorcycle gang members can't support the Sheepdogs for a little while.

See the Southern Poverty Law Center Report Return of the Militias:
http://www.splcenter.org/images/dynamic/main/The_Second_Wave.pdf

I think that by now the FBI has more hooks to initiate a RICO investigation in Coatesville than a bass crankbait lure.

Council rejects layoffs after city sent notices
13 employees were told their last day would be Oct. 30
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
By DANIELLE LYNCH, Staff Writer
http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2009/10/27/news/srv0000006702073.txt

Was the work visa for Donald McKensie? Is he back in the Islands waiting for his alleged kickbacks for additional consultant fees?

I think this comment by moondancer may be accurate:

May 15, 2009 7:52 PM
moondancer said...
MacKenzie, acting as stooge for Walker, yolked the city with software that is no better, maybe less than the existing program. The expensive part will be the high cost training and the "commissions" that will "kicked back" to the perps, uh I mean administrators. Walker never misses a chance to feather his nest at the cost of Coatesville.

Also see Resume kept out of public eye - COATESVILLE — City Manager Harry Walker refuses to release the resume of a consultant the city recently hired to work in the finance department.
Friday, October 10, 2008 3:00 AM EDT By DAN KRISTIE, Staff Writer
http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2008/10/10/today%27s%20stories/20159306.prt

Back up to my last post concerning Amrit Lal and the approximately $110,000 owed to the City of Coatesville. The City of Coatesville has clear legal rights to that money. Did any money change hands between Lal and city officials?
http://www.aopc.org/OpPosting/CWealth/out/1416CD06_6-28-07.pdf

In the flats development;
Disbarred Attorney Leslie Smallwood of Mosaic Development Partners, LLC allegedly has long time connections to several people in the Coatesville area and possibly to several politically connected to Coatesville through now deceased attorney Michael T Whitlow. Whitlow was her partner in the court action for “knowingly misappropriating clients’ trust funds in the amount of at least $139,500” for which she was disbarred.
See
http://coatesvilledems.blogspot.com/2009/05/smallwood-disbarred-attorney-smallwood.html

Why was Chetty Builders rejected the first time around? See About the hotel in Coatesville:
http://coatesvilledems.blogspot.com/2009/08/about-hotel-in-coatesville.html

About the power plant in Coatesville:

I was informed that Walker and Lehr had allegedly been meeting for months before the RDA meeting with some power plant representatives at “The Whip Tavern” in Chester County. Al Baxter was alleged to be one other Chester County resident at those meetings. What I am hearing is that the power plant for the flats idea was allegedly years in the making. That it allegedly was proposed by, Walker, Lehr and Al Baxter about 4 years ago. In other words, long before Walker was brought in.
An excerpt from RDA meeting, February 19, 2008

Mr. Discullio, “Mr. Simpson, you are on City Council.”

Mr. Simpson, “Yes”

Mr. Discullio, “As you know, Mr. Walker wears two hats, being City Manager and RDA Director. I will say this, as far as negotiations with the power company; I was stunned to find out that the City Solicitor and Mr. Walker and had been talking to the power company and (RDA solicitor) Mr. O’Donnell was not invited to participate in that. That was eye opening to me”.

Mr. Simpson, “I will take that up with council because as far as I am concerned, I don’t think that the city.” Cut off by Coatesville City Solicitor Andrew Lehr from the audience

Mr. Lehr; “I never said that”

Mr. Discullio, “Excuse me Mr. Lehr; it is factual because you said it. I got it right from you.”

Walker, “I never talked to anybody from any power company, in my office”.

Mr. Discullio, “Mr. Lehr, told me, told me, that you and he had serious discussions with the power company.”

Campos, “What was the, the issue, the act of doing something or just bringing information up to up front and we don’t like the information, That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I know the negative aura about the power company but I don’t, I’m not supporting you know the action of any individuals or bringing stuff up forward, we don’t like it we reject it. It’s hard to say, you know”


You can listen to an excerpt from the RDA of February 19, 2008 here:
http://www.box.net/shared/bf6hzf5r3y


I think that by now the FBI has more hooks to initiate a RICO investigation in Coatesville than a bass crankbait lure. Only one hook needs to stick and the USDoJ using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act can go back 10 years.

It looks like it is Walker and Lehr vs. union time again.

I believe 3 AFSCME union people were given notice a week ago Friday.

2-codes, 1 finance

Also 2 from parks/recreation were notified as well as the PR person.

I was also told that 2 crossing guards and 3 part time police dispatchers are beings eliminated.

New non-union people stay.

Walker’s staff allegedly advised him not to lay off union workers. I think that Walker and Lehr are thinking of immediate cash flow problems and the election and the city can deal with a lawsuit next year.

And what happened to Coatesville Codes Director Damalier Molina? Did Walker ask for his resignation? Does it have something to do with Ronnie Suber of R&S Remodeling and a Coatesville bar? Is Mr. Molina suing the City of Coatesville?

Remember, the Coatesville Codes Department can be financially neutral for the City. That is if the law is prosecuted. Is there $110,000 owed to the City of Coatesville that was NOT collected from Amrit Lal of RST Properties?

http://www.aopc.org/OpPosting/CWealth/out/1416CD06_6-28-07.pdf

There is an odor near First Avenue in Coatesville and it’s not the sewage treatment plant.

I just finished watching Endgame on PBS.

It was very much different but it feels so much like Coatesville. The car chase even reminded me of the one in Coatesville with the green SUV and the white Mercedes; only the AK-47 was not fired in Endgame. It feels different when you know a person that was in the white Mercedes.

One line spoken was “trust no one". But I have learned that if you do that you are alone and in being alone can accomplish nothing. You have to choose someone to trust.

Punishing investment bankers?

There is talk about punishing Wall St Investment Banks; pro and con and if regulation is punishment or just regulation.

I we really want to punish Wall Street Investment bankers do a drug bust on Wall Street; take the cocaine out of their offices.

We may not have regulations for the billions the investment banking cartels do but we do have regulations for the drug trafficking cartels.

I think ripping off investors “goes better with coke”; it takes away the vestigial pangs of conscience.

A lot of people will not go to a Coatesville City Council meeting.

I can understand why. I think it is a truly sordid display every second and fourth Monday of the month. It is hard to look at.

I go there to make sound recordings. Sometimes they are not careful and possible incriminating or at least revealing or good to know information will surface. I almost fell of my chair at the May 15, 2006 RDA meeting when after being asked if he had met privately with a builder involved in the redevelopment at his headquarters, Ernie Campos replied, “How did you (pause) I was not a public official at the time”. He could have just denied it.

Some people wonder aloud why Dick Saha goes to Coatesville City Council meetings. They think people will begin to blame him for Coatesville’s problems.

I don’t think Saha is a cause of Coatesville’s problems I think he is another victim of what could be called Coatesville’s special mix of con-men, extortionists, white nationalists and drug dealers. I believe they just played the Saha family.

Ever wonder why it took so very long to approve a Pennsylvania State Budget?

It’s because Pennsylvania is the second most gerrymandered state in the nation-behind only Georgia. Democrats outnumber Republicans in Pennsylvania by more than 1.2 million voters. But we are held hostage by a small number of ultra-right wing Republican Senators from heavily gerrymandered districts.

The 2009 Elections could be a low turnout election but a lot is at stake Commonwealth wide. Don’t let someone else vote for you.

VOTE FOR:

Pennsylvania Candidates:
Judge JACK PANELLA for Supreme Court

For Superior Court:
Judge ROBERT J COLVILLE
Judge KEVIN FRANCIS MCCARTHY
Judge ANNE E LAZARUS
Judge TERESA SARMINA

For Commonwealth Court:
BARBARA BEHREND ERNSBERGER
LINDA S JUDSON

County Offices:
Treasurer
BARBARA KIPP STONE
Controller
JIM REILLY
Clerk of Courts
MIKE MCGANN
Coroner
MEGAN LYNOT
Jury Commissioner
MARTHA S SMITH

School Director Coatesville Region 1
TONYA TAMES TAYLOR

IN THE CITY OF COATESVILLE VOTE FOR THE ANTI-CRIME CANDIDATES:

In Coatesville’s Second Ward
INGRID W JONES

In Coatesville’s Fourth Ward
KARL MARKING

At large
JOSEPH A HAMRICK
JOSEPH J DISCIULLO

From the Pennsylvania Democratic Party:
http://www.box.net/shared/bbgr2j9snb

Chester County Democratic Party Candidates:
http://chescodems.org/?page_id=9

Lots of Coatesville PD activity at the CYWA in Coatesville at 7:20 pm.

They are serving body warrants in Coatesville today. It’s likely that they served someone at the CYWA and there was a problem.

Judge Hines might be busy.

Give a little?

Paul Jansen's Coatesville government was completely opposed to the drug business here. So much so, that the FBI advised him not to move his family into Coatesville.

Coatesville remains as the drug depot for Chester County. I believe that street crime is at a high level because of that.

The high level of street crime is the primary reason that retail stores do not want to locate here. Some retail stores would probably move out if they could.

In Philadelphia drug trafficking and a vibrant downtown can co-exist; Coatesville is too small for that to happen.

If you want real redevelopment you have to go all the way. You can't have a local government that gives a little to the drug traffickers and expect redevelopment. You need a local government that will really go hard against Chester County organized crime and Chester County drug traffickers.

Give the Chester County drug traffickers a little bit and their money and influence will stop anything that gets in their way; such as, redeveloping Coatesville.

In regard to the West Chester School Board election

All the tactics of the extreme right Christian Reconstructionists are well outlined by various groups that follow extremist activity. The ends justifies the means is a basic precept of Christian Reconstructionism. Lies are common in right wing political propaganda. Mid term elections where there is a low turnout is the primary way that Christian Reconstructionists infiltrate school boards, local government and Republican Committees.

This is excerpted from a Public Eye document:

“Christians must begin to organize politically within the present party structure, and they must begin to infiltrate the existing institutional order." Similar stealth tactics have epitomized the resurgence of the Christian Right, as groups like Citizens for Excellence in Education and the Christian Coalition have quietly backed candidates who generally avoided running as overtly "Christian" candidates. The Christian Coalition actually proposed something similar to Gary North's notion of "infiltration" when its 1992 "County Action Plan" for Pennsylvania advised that "You should never mention the name Christian Coalition in Republican circles." The goal, apparently, is to facilitate becoming "directly involved in the local Republican Central Committee so that you are an insider. This way," continues the manual, "you can get a copy of the local committee rules and a feel for who is in the current Republican Committee." The next step is to recruit conservative Christians to occupy vacant party posts or to run against moderates who "put the Republican Party ahead of principle."

“Central to the Christian Right's strategy is to exploit the national pattern of low voter participation by turning out their constituents in a strategically disciplined fashion and in greater proportion than the rest of the population. An important vehicle for achieving this goal is the ideology of Christian Reconstructionism or its stripped-down root, dominionism, which at once deepens the political motivation of their constituency and widens that constituency by systematically mobilizing a network of churches, many of which were politically uninvolved until the early 1990s.”

“Generally, Reconstructionism seeks to replace democracy with a theocratic elite that would govern by imposing their interpretation of "Biblical Law." Reconstructionism would eliminate not only democracy but many of its manifestations, such as labor unions, civil rights laws, and public schools. Women would be generally relegated to hearth and home. Insufficiently Christian men would be denied citizenship, perhaps executed. So severe is this theocracy that it would extend capital punishment beyond such crimes as kidnapping, rape, and murder to include, among other things, blasphemy, heresy, adultery, and homosexuality.”

The Public Eye document is historical and was published in 1994. Christian Reconstructionists have made great strides and now dominate the Republican Base.

http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v08n1/chrisrec.html

From “Republican Gomorrah by Max Blumenthal:
“Even though Manifesto- and its call for literally attacking the foundations of liberal democracy – went unnoticed by mainstream America, it sold a whopping 250,000 copies in its first year after publication. “What’s amazing about Christian Manifesto, “Frank Schaeffer remarked to me, “was that my father was practically calling for the overthrow of the United States government. If his words had come out of the mouth of anyone other than a white American it would have been called sedition. Instead, we were invited to the White House and I went swimming in Michael Ford’s pool.”

Campaign mailer has West Chester Area officials riled
Published: Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Daily Local News

http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2009/10/21/news/srv0000006660943.txt

Are White Nationalist extremists attempting to take over the Republican Party?

It’s possible but it is hard to prove until well after it happens. This is just one more piece to add to the puzzle:

The Morning Call
Tailgunner Joan (Orie-Melvin)?
by John L. Micek

The Morning Call post is about an ad for Republican state Supreme Court candidate Joan Orie-Melvin on the site GrassrootsPA.

Look for the hammer and sickle on the red banner add in O for Obama. This communist – Jewish – Mexican – or Muslim plot stuff is typical White Nationalist rhetoric.

Although they may use the Republican Party for a conduit White Nationalists are not exactly loyal Republicans or loyal US citizens.
You can find the article here:
http://blogs.mcall.com/capitol_ideas/2009/10/tailgunner-joan-oriemelvin.html

See:
Republican Gomorrah by Max Blumenthal
http://www.republicangomorrah.com/

And:
Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream (Hardcover)
by Leonard Zeskind

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Politics-Nationalist-Movement-Mainstream/dp/0374109036

Bad things happen when you mix extremist ideology with guns.

I don’t know if the FBI’s 10 most wanted list is in any order but EDWARD EUGENE HARPER is at the top. USAMA BIN LADEN is second.

“Harper reportedly subscribed to Sovereign Citizen ideology and claimed to be a member of the Montana Freemen, a group involved in domestic terrorism activities. He has family ties to Arkansas and may have lived and worked in Wyoming and Montana.”

Are there any people in Chester County who read the same stuff? Maybe the question should be how many people here read the same stuff as Ed Harper.

The “Keystone Skinheads” have changed their name to the “Keystone United”. I believe now that extremist ideas are entering mainstream Republican discourse the Skinheads had to be more “family friendly” at political events.

The alleged extremist takeover of the Republican “Base” may signal the end of the traditional Republican Party and Democrats might overrun the GOP in national politics and also most state and local politics because of it. But before anyone begins to celebrate you have to consider that some of the extremists blow up and shoot up people. Some of them are domestic terrorists.



http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/fugitives/fugitives.htm

keep’im barefoot and pregnant doesn't cut it anymore

One of the primary reasons for a shift from the Republican Party right wing to the Democratic Party center is the more powerful position of women in our society, commerce and government.

Stand by your man and keep’im barefoot and pregnant just doesn’t cut it when it is women who bring home the bacon in most American families.

The Shriver Report
A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything
By Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress, edited by Heather Boushey and Ann O'Leary | October 16, 2009

“This report describes how a woman’s nation changes everything about how we live and work today. Now for the first time in our nation’s history, women are half of all U.S. workers and mothers are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of American families. This is a dramatic shift from just a generation ago (in 1967 women made up only one-third of all workers). It changes how women spend their days and has a ripple effect that reverberates throughout our nation. It fundamentally changes how we all work and live, not just women but also their families, their co-workers, their bosses, their faith institutions, and their communities.
Quite simply, women as half of all workers changes everything.”
From, Executive summary By Heather Boushey and Ann O’Leary

"The SHRIVER Report
A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything

• For the first time in our nation’s history, half of all U.S. workers are women.
• Mothers are the primary breadwinner or co-breadwinner in two-thirds of American families.
• The battle of the sexes is over. Now it's negotiations between the sexes—about work, family, household responsibilities, child care, and elder care.
• Compared to their fathers, 70 percent of men today are more comfortable having women work outside the home, and three-quarters of Americans view the rise of women in the workplace as a positive development for society.
• Government, media, and business have failed to adapt to how families live and work today.
• With the shift of women into the workplace, men now agree with women that government and business need to provide flexible work schedules, better child care, family and medical leave, and equal pay.
• Over 80 percent of men and women agree—businesses that fail to adapt to the needs of modern families risk losing good workers.
• Having religious faith is important to most Americans today, yet faith-based institutions have not kept up with the needs of the modern family.
• Women are more likely than men to graduate from college, yet they earn less than men and continue to be less likely to be in leadership positions in corporate America.
• Some researchers report that a wife feels more sexually attracted to a husband who pitches in around the house, and one of the biggest predictors of a husband’s marital satisfaction is how often he has sex."

Download the full report here:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/10/pdf/awn/a_womans_nation.pdf
Summaries and a breakdown of the report here:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/10/womans_nation.html

Judge Hines, Welcome to Coatesville

Greg, good luck in “Little Sicily”, PA; you will need all of your considerable integrity to maintain your dignity here.

At least we will never again see Richard Legree hovering over a Judge. Richard allegedly claimed that he could stand next to a magistrate and offer "advice" because he was the "chief constable"; a non-existent position.. Legree allegedly bought the house that the Judge Bicking rented and had her evicted. I believe that Judge Brenda Bicking was the only Coatesville Magisterial Judge that resisted control by Richard Legree.

Daily Local News
Judge Davis: 'I believe I helped a lot of people'
Published: Sunday, October 18, 2009
By DANIELLE LYNCH, Staff Writer

http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2009/10/18/news/srv0000006637209.txt

"WHAT UP?" With "Mikie" Steele and a biography of Ann Rand on the John Stewart Show.

Jackie Robinson's writing certainly has the ring of truth here in Chester County, PA:

This is an excerpt from Jackie Robinson’s autobiography
I NEVER HAD IT MADE
Jackie Robinson
Chapter XV:
On Being Black Among The Republicans

“By and large Republicans had ignored blacks and sometimes handpicked a few servile leaders in the black community to be their token "niggers". How would I sound trying to go all out to sell Republicans to black people? They're not buying. They know better.”
Read more at:
http://www.framinghamdems.org/JackRob.html

Just a sample of what can happen when the USDoJ investigates local governments:

http://philadelphia.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/ph101509.htm

Downingtown

Lucky for Downingtown that the County did not make it the designated low property value town in order to keep high profits for non-profits who buy buildings.

If Downingtown was the designated low property value town they would get no political support for revitalization. Maybe Downingtown would get above board support but the backroom Machiavellian politics at high levels would mean a net loss for Downingtown.

If they were in that position people in Downingtown would come out in full force to change the Chester County government.

Apologizing for Nazi calling

ADL Welcomes Christian Leader's Apology For Insensitive Remarks On Healthcare Debate

http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ChJew_31/5623_31.htmC

When I read above article from the Anti Defamation League about an apology to the ADL I couldn’t help thinking of Ricky Saha publicly refusing to apologize for calling Bill Chertok a Nazi. Dick Saha did apologize for calling Bill a Nazi in a letter to the ADL.

From the Daily Local News:
“Rick Saha’s name was not included on the apology letter that his father issued to council members and City Manager Paul G. Janssen Jr.

‘I don’t think I was out of control. That’s the way I felt,’ Rick Saha said. ‘If they (the ADL) don’t like it, I’m sorry to them. As far as council members, they’ve treated us rotten for the last five years. I’ve never gotten a ‘sorry’ for anything that happened."

Sahas' remark upsets group
Gina Zotti , Staff Writer 03/12/2004

http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2004/03/12/frontpage/11111994.txt

I can still “see” Dick and Ricky in my mind calling Bill Chertok a Nazi. I can still see the look on Bill’s face.

There were also Miss Patsy Ray’s remarks:

From JWeekly
“In Coatesville, Pa., city Councilman William Chertok was accused by a colleague of voting against an increase in the city's Christmas parade budget because he was Jewish.

‘I understand, Mr. Chertok, that Jews don't celebrate Christmas,’ councilwoman-elect Patsy Ray said in a meeting in November. Her comments prompted a rebuke from the council and the local media.

Chertok said he voted against the increase for budgetary reasons.”

Friday, December 23, 2005
Does the clamor for Christmas drown out Chanukah?
by Matthew e. Berger, jta
http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/28036/does-the-clamor-for-christmas-drown-out-chanukah/

What is not mentioned in any article are the cheers that went up in the room from the “citizens” attending the meetings.

Looking through some old news with the benifit of hindsight

Take a look at some of the articles appearing in the Daily Local News in the run up to the elections that put the Kurt Schenk, Patsy Ray, Robin Scott Johnson and Kareem Johnson into office. The “bloc of four” to this day blames the financial position they have the city in now on the previous city council. But did the blame ever lie with the previous council? Viewed in the vision of hindsight it is clear to me just where the blame lies for the financial position the city inherited and still plagues us today. But you make up your own mind.

This excerpt tells a lot about why the previous city council spent millions defending the City of Coatesville:

“No mention is made in the editorial of the fact that for four years our council had to protect the revitalization progress from relentless attack by Pat Sellers and Bob Saucier. Opponents showed up at every council meeting saying that there really was no revitalization planned. Those who attend the meetings remember how all we heard from them was that there really were no investors lined up or that it would never happen.

Would we have the concrete revitalization that we have today if the council had folded on the golf course back in those days? I doubt it since Sellers is on record stating that he opposed the third avenue project, TIF, the river walk and other vital components of the overall plan. No alternative ideas were ever offered in those years, and the Sahas kept coming back to the negotiating table, only to back out later. The council was led to believe that settlement was close many times over the years.

Next the council had to defend the city charter from the proposed amendments starting two years ago. Legal experts agreed that the amendments had to be fought. The creator of these costly amendments, Sellers, had to have known that these amendments would eventually be ruled illegal, but it didn’t matter to him. The point was to cause further delay (and expense), and to take the issue closer to the elections.

The fact that it took years to get a ruling that should have been open and shut was beyond the city’s control and was very costly. Why the delays in the courts?

Once that issue was resolved in the city’s favor, many of us who support the city began to talk about backing away on the Saha land, recognizing that it had become too divisive. Previously supportive council members were telling Paul Janssen of their concern before his surprise resignation.”

From: Don’t forget Coatesville’s triumphs
With regard to the editorial entitled "Coatesville voters must look back but also forward" (DLN, May 12):
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2005/05/18/opinion/14544522.txt

Another article sheds some light on the character of one of the Saha supporters:

“But the primary elections did rouse some of the controversy that has characterized the epic land dispute.

Longtime Saha supporter Robert Saucier, 48, was arrested Tuesday afternoon on charges of disorderly conduct and harassment after leaving the Coatesville Community Center, which serves as the polling station for the fifth ward.

Coatesville police said they had received four calls involving Saucier’s behavior at a different polling location prior to the incident.

According to police, several witnesses saw Saucier threaten 68-year-old Elwood Dixon, a member of the local NAACP, and create a public annoyance at the polling station.

Saucier was issued two summary, non-traffic citations for disorderly conduct and harassment and was released.

Police warned Saucier that if he returned to the polling place and continued to create a disturbance he would face criminal charges.”

From:
Saha shakes up vote
COATESVILLE -- Aftershocks of the city’s six-year eminent domain battle with the Saha family could be felt at polling places throughout the Coatesville area Tuesday.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
By ADAM CIRUCCI

http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2005/05/18/frontpage/14544543.txt


It was obvious to me that the City of Coatesville was forced to spend “six years and boatloads of money”. The city was forced to defend itself for what in my opinion were more than 30 frivolous lawsuits. Why did some of those lawsuits sit for years on a judge’s desk awaiting his decision? If enacted Pat Sellers referendum decision would in my opinion have made the Coatesville City Council unable to enact legislation affecting land use unless it was presented in the form of a referendum. Why was such an obviously unconstitutional referendum allowed to appear on the ballot in the first place?

Would the Daily Local News write this same editorial now with the benefit of hindsight?

Coatesville voters must look back but also forward
Published: Thursday, May 12, 2005

http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2005/05/12/opinion/14512817.txt

I think the big question is was there a motive besides defending the Sahas behind all of the legal motions and intimidation at Coatesville City Council meetings. I think you need to ask that if there never was a property rights issue in Coatesville; would Sellers, Saucier, Campos and Legree have found some other reason to oppose revitalization?

The Republicans are grasping the tail

By their support of the “tea party” people the health insurance industry has moved extremists to a central position in the Republican Party. I think the leaders of the “tea party” people are driven by a core philosophy that is based in White Nationalism.

I think the Republican leadership will not be able to control the “tea party” people; it only has a grasp on the tail.



The Daily Local (dailylocal.com), Serving Chester County, PA
Big chill hits global warming scare
Monday, August 3, 2009
PAT SELLERS
http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2009/08/03/opinion/srv0000005999014.prt


Lindsey Graham Faces Tea Party Fury: "Traitor," "Democrat In Drag," "Half-A-Sissy" (VIDEO)
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/13/lindsey-graham-faces-tea_n_319225.html


Welcome, Chester County Champions of Liberty!

http://ronpaul.meetup.com/314/

Why not admit that insuring health is inherently evil

Why not admit that insuring health and the health insurance industry is inherently evil and abolish the health insurance industry. Do the right thing; adopt a system like Canada’s.

The New York Times
Congress Is Split on Effort to Tax Costly Health Plans
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and ROBERT PEAR
Published: October 12, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/health/policy/13plans.html?_r=1&hp

At tonight’s Coatesville City Council Meeting

There is a presentation; Cash Flow Projections by Mr. Harry Walker and Ms. Stacy Bjorhus

Regular action item number 3 is:
The Ordinance to authorize the withdraw and use of principal of a City Reserve Trust Fund

A PDF of the Agenda is here:
http://www.box.net/shared/hzl0gcrbx2

4 month old baby denied health nsurance because of "pre existing condition"

When the “death panel” insurance underwriters go to work even babies are not spared:

The Center

You can tell when a large package of drugs has come into the City of Coatesville from NYC or Philly; certain places along Lincoln Highway will be packed with people; some of them from the “white” areas of Chester County. Coatesville is the center for drug trafficking in Chester County.

I believe that there are powerbrokers of a “protected class” in Chester County who want it to stay that way. Although another change of government in Coatesville can make a difference, judging from the past it will be a temporary difference. The profits from selling drugs are just too enormous to give up.

A federal prosecutor told me “Coatesville was ready to turn over and then these new guys came in”. He was talking about the “bloc of four”. I believe the federal prosecutors knew that revitalizing Coatesville and bringing new eyes on the street would eventually end the drug traffickers choke hold on Coatesville and shut down most of the trafficking in central and western Chester County.

The popular view is that the revitalization was shut down by the “bloc of four” and the administration they put in place. I think that it is the administration the alleged powerbrokers behind the scenes put in place that shut down revitalization.

As I see it, the problems with the current efforts at “revitalizing” Coatesville are the people who are setting it up. In Coatesville you don’t have to “follow the money”. The people engaged in alleged shady activity have a history and are fairly well known. You just examine who is involved behind the scenes to predict outcomes. Even though we may soon have a new government and administration the old one may have set up things to go in the powerbroker’s favor.

Those “certain places along Lincoln Highway” that I mentioned in the first sentence are in front of buildings that I believe are owned by members of a “protected class” in Chester County. I find it interesting that they go untouched in raids.

Long lived drug trafficking cannot exist without cooperation from public officials. Without cooperative public officials it is ordinary crime and not organized crime. It can be just looking the other way. I believe that the some people in County Government and even parts of the court system are a part of the problem in Coatesville. I think the real hope for Coatesville lies with Eric Holder and the USDoJ.

Read:
Police, Politics, Corruption by Frank McKetta former PA State Police Commissioner

Read the two reviews at Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Police-Politics-Corruption-Colonel-McKetta/product-reviews/0870126113/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

DNC: "Steele And GOP Have Thrown In Their Lot With The Terrorists By Criticizing Obama’s Nobel"

The GOP’s statements about the President’s Nobel Prize are for its base. Its base does not think; the GOP’s base follows its leaders.

I think the right wing shift away from Democracy is very real.

I believe that is not so much that the Republicans are un-American or traitors. I believe they want to bring down government by the people and for the people and make it government by the wealthy corporations and for the wealthy corporations.

Read “Republican Gomorrah” by Max Blumenthal and “Blood and Politics-The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream” by Leonard Zeskind. Both books give a parallel history of the extremist movement that was on the fringes of the Republican Party in Eisenhower’s day and is now at the center of the Republican Party.

Freedom and Democracy require work from ordinary citizens. The desire for freedom may be in equal opposition to the desire to let someone else make decisions for you.

President Eisenhower saw first hand that the war criminals of Nazi Germany were carpenters, plumbers, bakers; just ordinary people. He fully understood that the same kind of ordinary people lived here. I believe that was the basis of his fear of the fringe element that existed in the Republican Party of his day.

It is not a fringe element anymore.

“The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists — the Taliban and Hamas this morning — in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize. Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize — an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride — unless of course you are the Republican Party. The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It’s no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore – it’s an embarrassing label to claim.”
Brad Woodhouse, Democratic National Committee

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/democratic-national-committee/dnc-by-criticizing-obamas-nobel-steele-and-gop-have-thrown-in-their-lot-with-the-terrorists/

Nobel Prize

While contemplating President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize remember that former President W. Bush risks arrest for war crimes if he travels internationally.


http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/press.html

"This is Cracking Heads Time"

The Senate is now closed to nearly all but the Insurance Industry and Drug Industry. There is a trickle of pressure getting in from ordinary citizens (voters). This could show the Senate for what it is and back them against the wall:

Health Insurance industry's business plan is EXTORTION

You pay us or we won’t pay to let you live. It’s an offer only the very wealthy can refuse.

Op-Ed Columnist
Let Congress Go Without Insurance
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: October 7, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/opinion/08kristof.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1255010477-r8PduiNnTQ/ITQ80pfJK7w

Walker recommends a $1.5 M withdraw from City trust fund to pay its vendors.

My information alleges that the City of Coatesville’s Finance Department’s records are a shambles and that they have been for years. That source alleged that a forensic examination of the cities finances would be very expensive for that reason.

A forensic examination of the city’s finances allegedly would be too expensive for the City itself to undertake and also possibly too expensive a task for the Chester County DA’s office to undertake.

A forensic examination of the cities finances could be undertaken by the US Department of Justice.

Does Stacy Bjorhus our new Director of Finance feel she accepted a nightmare job?

Walker is using the economy as an excuse for not paying monthly bills. He did not have that excuse in April of 2008 when the Coatesville PD Nextel radios went dead.

The “Bloc of Four” took office with a balanced budget. They had a chance to keep it that way when Chetty Builders was ready to start building its 3rd Avenue & Lincoln Hwy. building but the “Bloc” followed Andrew Lehr’s recommendation and shot Chetty down.

But, I guess you need to give all the city administrations of the past few years a break. You could argue that the cities financial problems began when it was forced to defend itself against more than thirty arguably frivolous lawsuits. The city won every lawsuit.

Maybe the USDoJ could look into those things too.

See today’s Daily Local News:
Council to check finances tonight
Coatesville city officials preparing to discuss budget gap at workshop
Monday, October 5, 2009
By DANIELLE LYNCH, Staff Writer

http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2009/10/05/news/srv0000006543041.txt

Also see:
DAILY LOCAL NEWS
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Outage affects Coatesville police phones

http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2008/04/30/past%20stories/19953939.txt


Also see:

Chetty on Hold
Chester County Reporter
March 28, 2006

http://www.box.net/shared/uuukr2f5j5

Voters “simply want to be affiliated with a party which better represents their values”

Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck and a few others represent the views of the Republican “Base”.

A Republican elected official who tries to distance themselves from that “base” is quickly cut off from party support.

The problem is that most Republican voters and most voters of any party do not go along with Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck. It is a quagmire that the Republican Party is not able to free itself from.
There is a post on the Chester County Democratic Committee’s website titled “The New Chester County Democratic Party”.

There is a prescient statement in that document:

“Fueling that early growth were many voters changing their party registrations from Republican or independent. Republicans claim they will get many of these voters back, but we came to know many of these people through door-to-door calls and at the polls. With few exceptions, we found they simply want to be affiliated with a party which better represents their values.”

Chester County is not exceptional; a switch from Republican to Democratic Party because the voters “simply want to be affiliated with a party which better represents their values” is taking place nationwide.
"The New Democratic Party" can be found here:
http://chescodems.org/?p=570#more-570

Is a better name coal baggers?

The tea baggers will soon be warming their pots to protest environmental legislation to limit carbon dioxide production.
A local “coal bag” center in Chester County is Pat Sellers Tea Bag group; “Chester County Champions of Liberty”:
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/314/

Here is Pat Sellers’ guest column in the Daily Local News on why global warming is a hoax:

Daily Local News
Big chill hits global warming scare
Monday, August 3, 2009
By Pat Sellers

URL: http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2009/08/03/opinion/srv0000005999014.prt


Watch Bill Maher:
“On ‘Real Time’ Friday night Bill Maher pilloried climate change skeptics, particularly skeptics in the Republican party, insisting that they must "stop pretending climate change is a future problem."

Read more and video at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/03/bill-maher-slams-gop-clim_n_308501.html

Greg Hines will be sworn in as Coatesville's District Magistrate Judge

Gregory V. Hines will be sworn in as Coatesville’s District Magistrate Judge on Friday, October 16, 2009 at 3:00 pm at Coatesville District Magisterial Court, 256 E. Main Street, Coatesville, PA.

Chester County Common Pleas Court Judge the Honorable Jacqueline Carroll Cody will swear in Mr. Hines.

District Court 15-1-03
256 E. Lincoln Highway
Coatesville, PA 19320-3488
Phone: 610-384-3159
Fax: 610-384-5163
City of Coatesville Wards 2, 4, & 5, and South Coatesville Borough

No waiting for uploads; Macaca moments live.

Journalism is dead? Journalism has just begun. This is waaay cool. Live streaming video backpack. No politician or public official can hide.

More from my hero Rep. Alan Grayson

My father said the Republican Party is the rich man’s Party. He was of course correct but at the time the Republicans more or less left the middle class alone. They blamed the poor for poverty but threw them a bone. Now the Republicans are the party of the wealthy and the wealthy CEO’s Party. And the sworn enemy of the middle class and poor.
The facts are that the Republicans could care less how many people die for lack of health care. They do care very deeply about the profits of insurance companies. The Republicans are one hundred percent behind anything the medical insurance companies want; the public be damned.
Rep. Alan Grayson: