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From the Editor, Lois Herr
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previous Quotes of the Week...
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Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Future Liar-in-Chief
McCain and his BS Express
by Stephen Crockett, co-host of
Democratic Talk Radio
 The fear that
Republican Presidential candidate will be soundly defeated by Obama in
November has generated a massive barrage of outright lies and some
very smelly BS. Some of the lies and BS come from the usual
disreputable sources like Right Wing talk radio hosts, Republican
bloggers, Ann Coulter clones and certain Fox News commentators. These
are to be expected.
Right Wing
Republican Congressional candidates have been using slash and burn
campaigns and outright lies routinely since at least the 1994
election. The recent negative comments by Congresswoman Heather Wilson
falsely smearing Obama are a prime example of this low road campaign
style. Republican Congressman Charlie Dent has been trying to defend
his close ties to the oil industry and the huge amount of money they
have donated to his campaign by blaming his Democratic challenger Sam
Bennett for high fuel prices. Wilson and Dent sound just like McCain.
They are just frightened of the voters and trying to hide their roles
in creating the current economic mess.
However, the
Republican Presidential candidates usually have not been nearly as
vicious or desperate as John McCain. McCain seems to have become as
divorced from the truth or civil political discourse as Dick Cheney.
Smears and attack lines cannot conceal the truth forever.
Read more...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
A Most Callous Vote
by Greg Paulson
 I can no
longer contain myself. The general rule of political campaigning is
that the staff of a candidate should not be involved in writing
letters to the editor and similar writings which criticize the
candidate’s opponent. I need to disregard that rule. The opinions
below represent my observations while representing homeowners and
borrowers over a span of 36 years as an attorney. My clients are
people, not corporate entities or lending institutions.
Congressman Joe
Pitts’ vote against the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure
Prevention Act, HR 3221, legislation aimed at helping homeowners
facing mortgage foreclosure, is as callous an action as any
congressional representative can possibly make.
Who does Joe Pitts
represent anyway? Read more...
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Attorney General’s
un-American Proposal
by Charles M.
Melchior,
Chester County, Pennsylvania
The American people
have now suffered through 3 right wing extremists as Attorneys General
during this Administration. Michael Mukasey, the current holder of
this office, , who should be a role model for strict adherence to the
rule of law, and who, during his Senate confirmation hearings,
promised to clean up the partisan politics which had permeated the
Department of Justice, has instead called on Congress to rush through
legislation he knows would be unconstitutional. This is a shameful,
politically motivated effort to undermine the Supreme Court’s recent
decision affirming that the Constitution’s Article I, Section 9
provision, “the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended” except
“in cases of rebellion or invasion” to be part of the supreme law of
the land, which Mukasey is therefore sworn to uphold, but which he
instead proposes to ignore by this end run.
Read more...
Thursday, July 24, 2008
The Spoiler is at it
Again
by Lois Herr
Even the Lancaster newspapers think John Murphy is a candidate for the
16th Congressional District.
Who is he and why does it matter?
Murphy is
disrespectful of the law. He flouts election campaign laws. In 2006,
he dropped out of the race and quit filing financial reports required
under the federal election laws. Yet he failed to remove himself from
the ballot. This year, he has failed to follow FEC-required
regulations with his written materials. And worse, even though he has
not been certified as a candidate under Pennsylvania state law, he
attempts to mislead the public into thinking he is, nor has he
registered as a candidate with the Federal Election Commission. If he
ignores clearly defined election laws, what other laws would he
ignore?
Murphy generalizes,
misrepresents the views of others, and chants platitudes. His impact
is negative in tenor and in result. He irresponsibly bad-mouths
others and thus aids the incumbent right-wing Republican, achieving a
result opposite to what he claims to be supporting.
Read more...
Thursday, July 17, 2008
It’s Still the
Economy, Stupid
by
Walter Brasch
 George W. Bush
looked into the TV camera, Tuesday morning [July 15] and tried to
assuage the fears of about 300 million Americans who believed they
were in the middle of a Recession.
“The economy is
growing,” said the President. “Productivity is high,” he told us.
“Trade’s up. People are working,” he said. In the Bush White House,
the “R Word” is just a myth. Of course, the man who once wanted to be
known as the Compassionate Conservative did say he knew “It’s been a
difficult time for many American families.”
“Difficult” doesn’t
even begin to describe what has happened to Americans the past seven
years.
Within hours of the
President’s speech, a less optimistic Ben Bernanke, chair of the
Federal Reserve, told the Senate Banking Committee that inflation is
high and “seems likely to move temporarily higher in the near term.”
In sworn testimony, he told the senators that “Many financial markets
and institutions remain under considerable stress, in part because of
the outlook for the economy and thus for credit quality, remains
uncertain.” Read more...
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Saber
Rattling over Iran’
by Charles M.
Melchior,
Chester County, Pennsylvania
The saber rattling over
Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program is reaching alarm- ing
proportions, and US mainstream media is contributing dangerously by
its one- sided reporting. While Secretary of State Rice threatens
Iran because of its recent missile tests, she ignores previous Israeli
military exercises warning that it could destroy Iran’s nuclear
research facilities. Furthermore, information has been leaking out in
the past two years through internet sources that the President and/or
vice President have ordered the Defense Department secretly to prepare
plans for a US aerial military attack on Iran or alternative-ly to be
complicit in a preemptive strike by Israeli forces. Iran has
repeatedly asserted its nuclear activities are exclusively for
development of peaceful civilian uses, specifically permitted under
the nuclear non-proliferation agreement,
Meanwhile, the US and
other nuclear weapons powers ignore their obligation under Article 6
of the agreement to negotiate and implement a nuclear disarmament
program leading to eventual abolition of all weapons. The nations
which did not possess nuclear weapons in 1995 refused to sign the
permanent extension of the agreement until the nations with nuclear
weapons agreed to that clause. Just as the US invaded Iraq on the
basis of “intelligence” about weapons of mass destruction later proven
to be false, it would be the height of irresponsibility and hypocrisy
for the United States or Israel which is known to have nuclear weapons
to risk an escalation which could turn into a world- wide nuclear
confrontation.
comment on this news item...
Monday, July 7, 2008
CHOC- Full-Of
-Talent
The Social Justice
Advocates of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Lancaster will
sponsor an evening of music to benefit Lancaster's Community Homeless
Outreach Center (CHOC) on Saturday, July 12, at 7:30 p.m.
CHOC, open since
November, the Center on South Prince Street in Lancaster connects
chronically homeless individuals with programs and services that help
them start along the path to permanent housing. It also provides
showers and soon will offer use of a laundry facility.
In its first six
months of operation, CHOC served more than 650 individuals, many of
whom have found employment, received medical attention, gotten
counseling and moved into improved housing situations.
The Center is a
collaborative project of the Interagency Council for the Homeless,
Tabor Community Services and the Water Street Rescue Mission.
Some talented musicians
will present a wide variety of acoustical music - something for every
taste. It is expected that each performer will include one song that
relates to the plight of the homeless. The performers include Jim
Folker, a popular area singer/guitarist who specializes in classic
country and 70's era acoustic rock tunes;
 Jackie Benn
Seigworth, formerly a professional opera singer, who will do an aria
as well as lighter fare; Lancaster's Pat McCaskey, folk musician and
recording artist, who will include the great 1930's tune, "Brother,
Can You Spare Me A Dime"; Phil Raezer, jazz and pop pianist;
singer/songwriter Bethany Rommel, who will perform a selection of
original tunes; and blues guitarist Tim Truman, playing "Walking
Blues" and accompanying Jim Folker (right) on lead guitar.
The church is located at
538 W. Chestnut Street and is wheelchair accessible. Admission is
free, with donations being accepted during the performance.
Read press
release...
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
A Cautionary Tale:
It's Personal
author's name withheld by the Editor
If you’re connected
to the web, they’ve probably been on your computer. And if they liked
what they saw there, they may also have “hacked” your home.
But that would be
felony breaking and entering, you say?
Felony, schmelony.
Welcome to the world
of groupstalkers, where “1984” isn’t fiction, it’s just a beginner’s
manual. Like the web and the Wild West, anything and everything’s
legal here.
Groupstalkers are
people from diverse backgrounds who misuse their talents in a group
effort to heap harassment and misery on individual targets whom they
have judged, found guilty and sentenced in an un-elected,
vigilante-style court. Some stalkers are computer experts, some are
skilled at tracking and surveillance, and still others may recruit
people with money to fund them and their activities, or may have
lawyerly expertise to help with the occasional legal entanglement.
Many seem to relish their high-tech toys, devices such as GPS trackers
that can be used to follow the target’s vehicle; and cell phone
cameras, which they use to photograph the target and then post the
target’s picture on the web, or to send it from one cell phone to
another, so that everyone knows what the target looks like.
Read more...
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