June 7, 2010

  • Free Speech Advocates ? Imagine that.

    helen

    For all the ink spilled over Obama and the FCC taking away our right to free speech with Fairness Doctrines, people were tripping all over themselves this past weekend calling for Helen Thomas to be fired.

    Maybe we can burn a book while we are at it. Or refire Imas.

    Do I agree with Helen? NO. NO. and NO.

    But she is an opinion columnist. She said what she thought. She was honest. Is this 2112? ("By 2112, the world is controlled by the "Priests of the Temples of Syrinx", who determine the content of all reading matter, songs, pictures - every facet of life. A man discovers a guitar and learns to play different music. When he goes to present this to the priests of the Temples, they destroy the guitar." )

    On the other hand, is anyone compelled to buy her work or read her column? NO!

    When I read the call for Helen's head by some of the very people who are crying government censorship, I shook my head at the obvious contradiction.

    Helen has a right to be wrong. I have a right to ignore her. That is my censorship.

     

June 6, 2010

June 4, 2010

  • Pennsylvania Independent Newspaper Interview

    Mixed Wins for Tea Parties in Election Primaries

    Win more on state, county level than nationally

    MAY 21, 2010 | by DARWYYN DEYO

    After Tuesday’s primary elections, the word on the street was the Tea Party candidates hadn’t done too well, between the successes of the state legislative incumbents and endorsed party candidates. According to the tea partiers, that’s not the case.

    The Independence Hall Tea Party Association endorsed 10 candidates, one of whom was a Democrat, and eight of them won, said Joe Stahl, a founding member and a local Berks Tea party organizer.

    Tea party flag 052110

    The organization’s endorsed candidates who won in Tuesday’s primaries included: former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey, running for the U.S. Senate; U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach for the 6th Congressional district; former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan for the 7th Congressional district; former U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick for the 8th Congressional district; former Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta for the 11th Congressional district; U.S. Rep Charlie Dent for the 15th Congressional district; U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts in the 16th Congressional district; and state Sen. Dave Argall for the 17th. The two candidates who lost were Brian Kelly, a Democrat contesting U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski for the Congressional 11th district seat, and Josh Quinter for the 13th.

    The group did not endorse any candidates for governor or lieutenant governor but did send fundraising to Tim Burns, the Republican candidate challenging Democrat Mark Critz in a special election to fill John Murtha’s 12th Congressional district seat. Mr. Critz won the special election but Mr. Stahl said Mr. Burns may do better in November’s general election.

    “We won’t have the distraction of other tea party people who were backing [Bill] Russell in the primary,” said Mr. Stahl. “We don’t know if that may have had an effect on his ability to win the special election, but it very well may help him in the general election because he’s got support from some tea parties but not others. He can show himself to be an independent candidate.”

    Other tea party groups said as a rule they do not endorse candidates but rather question them and provide analysis for their members.

    “As a policy, the Tea Party Patriots don’t actually endorse specific candidates…because then our success is tied to the success of candidates. Rather, for us to do something along the lines of a report card, the way the League of Women Voters does, after we question them on a variety of issues,” said Ed Boyd, tea party organizer for the Eastern Montco Tea Party Patriots out of Montgomery County.

    Deborah Hughes, organizer for the Delaware County Patriots, said “We put some information out for Sam Rohrer and if people wanted to support him, they could take that. We had a couple of [lieutenant governor candidates] talk but we didn’t support anybody in particular. We printed up information on the candidate and had that out for our members so they would know where these people stood.”

    Ms. Hughes said her organization ran 11 people for state committee in Delaware County, with limited success, though other tea party groups reported similar efforts with wins at the state and county level committees, or winning their local counties for Mr. Metcalfe and Mr. Rohrer.

    George Connor, a 70-year old organizer for the McKean County Tea Party, said his group backed state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe for lieutenant governor and Sam Rohrer for governor, both of whom lost their races. However, they also supported Mr. Toomey, U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson for the 5th district and state Rep. Martin Causer (R – McKean). Other candidates his group supported included Bill Dunn, Lyle Stewart, and Kelly Dart, all elected to local Republican committees.

    And Katy Abram, who works with the Lebanon 9-12 project, said “We had a bunch of people from our 9/12 group in Lebanon that won county committee seats in the Republican Party. We had one member bump off a state committee person who’s been on the committee since dirt was made. We had one gentleman running for Congress and he was just a couple hundred votes behind the endorsed candidate by the GOP. In all retrospect it seems like the big thing, the state was getting rid of [U.S. Sen. Arlen] Specter. But for our local 9/12 group it was at the local committee level.”

    And John Balliet, an organizer with Taxpayers United for Representation NOW, said “We brought in as many non-endorsed candidates as we could to expose the local voters to them.  We brought in Daryl Metcalfe, and he took both Clearfield and Jefferson counties. We had a large rise in Clearfield County in the number of county committee seats. We made more difference on the effect of our county elections and our county committees than we did statewide…but it’s a county at a time.”

    Darwyyn Deyo can be contacted by email at darwyyn@paindependent.com

June 3, 2010

May 22, 2010

April 30, 2010

  • Second television interview

    The TV station called this afternoon to ask if they could do a follow-up interview.

    http://wearecentralpa.com/wtaj-news-fulltext/?nxd_id=170255 (includes video)

    Candidates Show Lack of Commitment to Central PA

    Reported by: Barb Consiglio
    Thursday, April 29 2010
     

    DUBOIS, CLEARFIELD COUNTY---With only two candidates for Governor showing up for a public forum in DuBois Wednesday night, voters were left wondering how much politicians care about Central Pennsylvania.

    Taxpayers United for Representation Now, or T.U.R.N., is a local organization whose goal is to inform people about political issues and candidates in Pennsylvania, but they say they can’t relay candidates’ positions on the issues if they don’t show up to our area to express them.

    Members say the candidates who skipped the forum in DuBois Wednesday sent a clear message to voters.

    “I would rather vote for a person that I knew cared enough to actually be here,” said T.U.R.N. member, Scott Boyer.

    They say the candidates might be more interested in visiting the big voting blocks in metropolitan areas, but that low voter turnout in our area isn’t helping.

    “They may feel that there’s not enough votes in the area to warrant their trip to the area,” said T.U.R.N. member, John Balliet, “But that goes back to their philosophy of how they feel about the area in general.”

    T.U.R.N. is hoping to get people to the polls on May 18 for the primary election to show politicians that our region deserves to be represented.

    “I’d love to see everybody just show up and they don’t know what to do next,” Boyer said.

    But whatever the reason is that candidates are neglecting the area, T.U.R.N. members said their absence says a lot.

    “You run into a lot of people that truly feel that when they won’t even bother to come, that they’ve either taken their votes for granted, or they don’t care about the rural vote,” Balliet said, “Or on the other side of the issue, like with the Republican Party who endorses their candidates, they feel that their endorsement means that they don’t need to communicate with the people properly.”

    T.U.R.N. members say the only way to change candidates’ minds about how important Central Pennsylvania is to their campaigns is to get involved in the political process and, of course, show up to the polls on Election Day.

    ::::::::::::::::

    I felt this was reported fairly. The station was upfront about what aspect they wanted to cover and used the parts relevant to their storyline.

     

     

April 29, 2010

  • Television Interview

     

    http://wearecentralpa.com/wtaj-news-fulltext/?nxd_id=169975 (for video)

    Several Gubernatorial Candidates Fail to Come to Public Forum

     
     
     
    Reported by: Barb Consiglio
    Wednesday, April 28 2010
     
     

    DUBOIS, CLEARFIELD COUNTY - DuBois Area Chamber of Commerce hosted a gubernatorial candidate forum Wednesday night at Penn State DuBois, but only two of the seven candidates actually showed up.

    Sam Rohrer and Jack Wagner definitely scored some points with voters just by being in DuBois Wednesday evening. Tom Corbett sent a representative to speak on his behalf, and the rest of the candidates were no-shows.

    John Balliet is a member of Taxpayers United for Representation Now, and went to the forum to hear the candidates’ positions on the issues. He said he’d like to relay that information to a taxpayers’ forum that he represents, but that it’s hard to get the full story with only two of seven candidates and a surrogate speaker.

    “There’s always been a question of whether they care about the rural vote at all, and to me it speaks greatly of Mr. Rohrer and Mr. Wagner,” he said.

    And he’s not alone. Mart Ferrari said she came to the forum to be a more informed voter, and she thinks the candidates who didn’t come tonight are taking Central Pennsylvania’s votes for granted.

    “I think it’s a shame. As a rural area I think we’re already underrepresented, and they might be sorry,” she said.

    Rohrer and Wagner said the other candidates aren’t just picking on DuBois.

    “He and I have, on several occasions, been the only two candidates. The rest of them all dropped out,” Rohrer said, “So, unfortunately it’s a bit more common than it ought to be.”

    By missing tonight’s event, the absent candidates may have missed their only opportunity to communicate directly with voters in the area.

    “There’s many forums in Philadelphia. There’s many forums in Pittsburgh. There’s very few forums at Penn State DuBois, said Balliet, “And for them to opt out, I think speaks very poorly of their campaigns.”

    DuBois Area Chamber of Commerce President, Nancy Micks, said all of the candidates received their invitations to this event back in January, and some of them just confirmed that they wouldn’t be attending in the last couple of days, something she said shows a serious lack of commitment to this part of the state.

April 27, 2010

  • Obama's healthcare reform army



  • Remember

    one of the better ads I have seen.

    I don't listen to FOX News* so don't tell me about fair and balanced, the idea is to provoke thought-even if it provokes you!

    * To all the "assumers", if you followed my blog anytime you would know I don't watch television and the aforementioned was a reference thereto. I also do not have the time to play juvenile games of trading insults.

  • No such thing

    .....as coincidences