Pay Hike In PA

A few years back there was quite a controversy in PA about Legislators voting themselves pay increases. To prevent such bad press in the future the House and Senate conjured and passed a way for them to receive pay increases automatically.

They called it a Cost-of-Living Allowance, but the pay increase tends to be more than any actual increase in the cost of living. Now on Dec 1 of every legislative election year their pay is increased. Voila! More money, and more taxation with very poor and limited representation, without the bad press such a pay hike would normally create.

They're quite adept at helping themselves and their friends. Too bad they don't also have the ability or inclination to help PA citizens.

Is There Intelligent Life On Planet GOP?

Tom Smith, Republican candidate against Bob Casey for U.S. Senate, once again opened his mouth and proved both his insensitivity and stupidity. Get the whole story by clicking on this link to PennLive.

Smith says out of wedlock pregnancy and rape are 'similar' | PennLive.com

Corbett's Sham Investigation

Attorney General Tom Corbett is investigating bonuses paid political staffers by Legislators and Senators in Harrisburg. Paying bonuses to employees who have worked for the good of the people above and beyond their normal responsibilities is neither illegal nor unethical. However, it is illegal to pay a bonus from the people's tax dollars if the work a person performed was not for the people's business, such as for political campaigning.

Apparently some staffers were paid bonuses for their campaign efforts. Furthermore, those bonuses are being counted as income toward their future retirement benefits. Bonusgate, as the scandal has been called, plays right into Corbett's plans to run for Governor in 2010. It affords him the appearance of being an effective servant of the people. Is he? In reality, the way in which he is conducting the investigation exposes him as more of a party "hack" than an objective civil servant.

What makes Mr. Corbett's "investigation" such a sham is that he is only focusing on Democratic staffers. Bonuses have also been paid for similar reasons to Republican staffers. Mr. Corbett, though, has conveniently overlooked those instances. But, then, he is a Republican in need of Republican support for his 2010 Republican gubernatorial candidacy. Hardly a viable and objective servant of the people's business.

Get them all, Mr. Corbett, if you want us to take you seriously in 2010, or at any other time. Stop playing the role of a party hack.

Santorum & More Dirty Tricks

Here we go again - just like the Swift Boat Vets against John Kerry in 2004. A rather unsavory political group known as the Americans for Job Security (AJS) are supporting Santorum's reelection bid. They've begun a smear campaign around PA against Bob Casey's record. Their ads are filled with falsehoods and misleading information.

Just like the SB Vets, AJS is skirting around federal and state election laws. They have refused to disclose who is actually financing their dirty tricks on Santorum's behalf. The national press, though, has learned and reported that AJS is backed by the insurance and drug industries. They started with the help of a $1,000,000 check from the American Insurance Association.

Why is Santorum so important to them? Santorum's record proves him to be a perfect robot for doing the corporate will in the Senate. Specifically he has supported all legislation that would benefit large corporations, especially the insurance and drug industries, even if the results were detrimental to American citizens.

• Supports legislation that would make it easier for insurance companies to deny victims' claims and get away with it.
• Supported Bush's "no import" drug policy, which resulted in exorbitant drug prices in the U.S.
• Supported Bush's $350 billion MediCare program that will actually cost U.S. taxpayers at least $700 billion, and has already cost individual elderly Americans thousands more each year in higher health and service costs.
• Continues to propose and support reduced Social Security and VA benefits and services, including to those soldiers recently injured on active duty in Irag and Afghanistan.
  
• Supports increased corporate tax write-offs, and lower taxes on remaining income that corporations can't negate through write-offs.
• Supported "friendly" legislation that allows corporations to rape their employees' health and retirement accounts.
• Supported Billions of tax dollars to oil and gas corporations, even though their executives in Senate hearings openly admitted they don't need the money for exploration or production.
  
• Supports corporate tax loopholes, such as establishing phoney corporations in Caiman islands. Businesses charge expenses to their U.S. branch, but profits are charged to the phoney branch in a country where there is no business income tax to pay.
  
• Supported drastic reduction of environmental standards, thereby allowing corporations to pollute more so they can reduce costs and raise profits.
• Though it hasn't passed yet, Santorum has consistently supported legislation to put very low caps on amounts victims can receive from law suits of faulty drugs and other products. Only about 11% of law suits can be considered "frivolous", and better than 80% of those are seen as such and thrown out of the courts.
• Supported Bush's no-bid multi-Billion dollar contracts to companies like Haliburton and Bechtel.
  

If AJS was actually an organization established to promote American Job Security they would not be supporting Santorum, but Bob Casey. Casey's record "for the people" has been loud, clear and positive. In reality AJS is a sinister group established to maintain a Republican majority in both the House and Senate, so their members can continue raping the U.S. economy.

Swann's Facts Aren't Factual

Governor Rendell has proposed a new stadium for the Pittsburgh Penguins in his "Pittsburgh Arena Now" plan. Lynn Swann, Rendell's opposition candidate has recently been making statements that Rendell will use taxpayers' money for the project.

In truth, Mr. Swann, the plan is written specifically NOT to use taxpayers' money. Instead funds for the new arena will come from the State's portion of casino revenues.

Swann Steps Out Of Bounds - Again

The PA Legislature has emphatically stated that politicians should leave gaming decision to the Gaming Control Board. Instead gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann has openly endorsed one of three projects seeking a gambling license in Pittsburgh.

You would think as a Republican that he would know what the Republican controlled House and Senate have stated.

Let The Dead Vote Too

Is Ed Rendell hoping for more votes from the Philadelphia "dead man" voting machine? Yesterday he vetoed House Bill 1318, which would have required voters to show a valid ID before voting. Without such requirement many of the dead rise again each election day to cast their votes.

Even when illegal aliens and laggards too lazy to register for voting try to vote they must show current identification. Regardless of whether it's fake or real, if their ID shows they are residents they may vote using a Provisional ballot. Yep, even illegal aliens can vote in PA and affect the outcome of OUR elections. And the dead who haven't been purged from the voter rolls may continue to vote - by proxy, of course. Thats why political machines in some areas are reluctant to periodically clean up their voter rolls.

Even if you are of my party I would rather you lose than win by shenanagans. Otherwise, Ed, how can we trust anything you say or do?