The Centre Daily Times of State College, Pennsylvania recently published an Associated Press article comparing the views of Rick Santorum and Bob Casey Junior on the issue of the War in Iraq.  Being one of the hotbeds of support for Pennacchio they received requests to also publish Chuck's views.

     As a result Chuck wrote an updated article about this issue and explaining his analysis and reasons for a U.S. withdrawal from the conflict.  The Centre Daily Times published it yesterday.  Here, with the permission of the candidate, is his article.

     You can read Chuck's statement below the fold.

     Let the debates begin.  Bob Casey Junior, after arrogantly refusing to engage in primary election debates, claiming he would wait and see if his opponents qualified for the ballot, must now face the fact they have and live up to his agreement to debate once this transpired.

     Chuck Pennacchio and Alan Sandals both filed nominating petitions in Harrisburg on Monday.  Pennacchio amassed over 4200 signatures and Sandals 4600.  The minimum to qualify was 2000.

     Now that all three candidates are officially filed it's time to engage in full debates.  Bob Casey can no longer duck out on the issues in this election.

More below the fold....

     The Philadelphia Daily News article exposing Senator Rick Santorum's seemingly sweetheart mortgage deal with Philadelphia Trust, along with serious questions about his use of PAC funds for everyday personal expenses has also brought attention to Treasurer Bob Casey Junior's close ties to Joseph O. Haggerty.

     The interwoven threads between the Casey's and the Haggerty's is quite interesting.  The fact Bob Casey refinanced his mortgage through a bank where family friend Joseph Haggerty sits on the Board has raised a few eyebrows.

More after the fold....

     

     Democracy for America announced endorsements for four women in four major Congressional races.  Lois Murphy, an attorney from suburban Philadelphia was honored with this distinction.  Pennsylvania's Sixth Congressional District flows from just outside the city limits and into Reading, Coatesville, and Kutztown.  Major parts of Montgomery, Chester and Berks Counties comprise this swing district.

      PA-06 was the closest contested Congressional race in the country in 2004.  Since then the incumbent Jim Gerlach has relied upon Karl Rove and Tom DeLay to fatten his campaign coffers.  He has shown an amazingly flexible spinal column in his voting patterns.  Whenever he has been called upon to cast a decisive vote he goes in the direction Republican leadership dictates.

More below the fold....

     For quite a while it seemed that each week brought a new bad news story for the Bush Administration.  Cindy Sheehan, the 2,000th Iraq fatality, Katrina, Duke Cunningham, a seemingly endless stream of bad news began hitting the fan.

     As things actually turned worse, with Plamegate, Abramoff, then the domestic spying scandal bad news began hitting almost every day.  The Bush Administration hasn't had a good news day in so long I doubt they'd know how to handle it.  They are such a bunker mentality, bungling every situation, each new development gets spun out of control as the result of their insistence on spinning everything.  No fact goes unspun, covered up, or simply obfuscated.

     Has the Bush White House passed the tipping point?  Have events gone so out of control they're unable to handle any situation anymore?

More on the flip.....

Cross posted from Street Prophets:

 I met God this morning.  In fact I shared an elevator with him.  

     Paul Sewell, a bail bondsman from Reading, Pennsylvania signs his name as "God" on all his official documents.  He claims to have signed his name thusly on his driver's license, mortgage, Social Security card, and various search and arrest warrants over a ten year period.

      But God lost today.  The Berks County Board of Elections rejected his voter registration change of address request because he signed it "God."

      By the way, God is an African-American Republican.

More after the fold....

     Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Robert P. Casey Jr. announced on Tuesday he supports the nomination of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.  The news is consistent with Casey's previous support for Chief Justice John Roberts' nomination.  The Allentown Morning Call reports this development here:  http://www.mcall.com/....

    Casey announced in December that he supports overturning Roe v. Wade so these positions are at least consistent with his beliefs.  That announcement came at the annual Pennsylvania Dinner in New York.

More after the fold.

     We've now been bombarded with Bill O'Reilly and Fox News' attacks about the War on Christmas for way too long.  While I've seen many people angry about the crass commercialism of this as an effort to boost their ratings and inflame their small brained supporters, it's time we really came out and called it for what it is.

     This is basic anti-semitism.  It's a war on Jews.  It's a bigoted attack on everyone who isn't a Christian.  The central target of this being anyone who is Jewish.  You can wrap it up any way you want, but this is what it comes down to.

More after the fold....

     In the aftermath of the 2004 election something I read in the exit polls really stuck with me.  Over 30% of the people polled in Ohio said they voted for Bush/Cheney because they knew what they stood for, but had no idea what Kerry/Edwards stood for.  These people decided to vote for the devil they knew-even if they didn't approve of it-rather than the devil they didn't know.

     This exit poll was reflected nationwide in others.  John Kerry failed miserably in getting his message to voters.  A campaign message is the mission of any campaign.  It's the guiding principle of all campaign efforts.  The Message is what you want to plant in each voter's mind when she/he enters the voting booth.

     This was an area where John Kerry failed miserably.

More on the flip folks...

     This is a discussion concerning President Bush's Pearl Harbor Day speech this morning.  He began mentioning September 11th in the opening paragraph, as usual.  

     After comparing Pearl harbor and September 11th, he again linked that tragedy with the War in Iraq then said, "like generations before us, we will prevail."

     It did not take long for Bush to segue from speaking about September 11th and Iraq.  He does this constantly, creating, fostering, and extending the FALSE belief that Iraq was responsible for 9/11.  No wonder there are Americans who still believe this fallacy.

     How long are we going to allow this liar to lie about something so monstrous?  When are we going to slam this man with his own words, show how he is using 9/11 to justify his  war against Iraq?  When will the DNC begin running a commercial exposing this re-writing of history?

     More.....

  Now that I've grabbed your attention with that headline I bet you think this is one of those Lewinsky style scandals.  Get your mind out of the gutter and pay attention.  This is better than that....

     This is Part Three of a series detailing serious and careless errors in Congressman Jim Gerlach's FEC reports.  Lois Murphy and her intrepid staff have discovered ten significant problems with the Congressman's filings.  You can read the FEC Complaint here.

     In this segment we'll look at Gerlach's failure to record small contributions and his failure to accurately report small contributions to his campaign.

     Incidentally, Gerlach has responded publicly to the Complaint, citing failures by his staff and replacing his campaign Treasurer.  I take this as an admission that these accusations are all factual.  To date I haven't seen him contest any of the allegations cited by Murphy.

More after the fold.....

      This is Part Two of a series about the FEC Complaint filed by Democratic Congressional Candidate Lois Murphy against Congressman Jim Gerlach. Please go here for the original diary posted yesterday.  

     To recap here's a quote from the press release by Lois Murphy:

"Jim Gerlach is either incapable of balancing his
checkbook, or just not sufficiently committed to providing the honest and
open disclosure that is required by law and that the public deserves."

"The flagrant violations in Jim Gerlach's FEC report show a continued
pattern of mismanagement and poor decision making.  It is deeply
disappointing that a member of Congress would be so irresponsible when it
comes to the public's right to know.  The bottom line is that Jim Gerlach is
more concerned with the culture of money and power exemplified by his close
colleague former Majority Leader Tom DeLay than with meeting his obligations
to the public.  I have always and will always conduct an open campaign and
promise to bring a change to the current political culture in Washington."

Read more....

     Yesterday afternoon Pennsylvania 06 Candidate Lois Murphy filed a formal Complaint to the Federal Elections Commission against Congressman Jim Gerlach for repeated, flagrant violations of Federal Campaign Finance Law, citing numerous violations and potential violations.

     The PA-06 was the closest contested Congressional race in the country in 2004 and promises to be very competitive, again, in 2006.  Lois Murphy is well poised to deny this District to the GOP.

     You can read the entire Complaint here.

     FEC reports exist so we, the public, can see who has contributed to the campaigns of our elected officials.  They serve to shine the light on conflicts of interests, special interest influence, and prevent overt quid pro quos from being concealed.

More below the fold....

     Representative Joseph Pitts, PA-16 may have a primary challenge in 2006 from a fellow Republican.  Pitts was elected in 1995 with a pledge of obeying the term limits included in the Contract With America.  He agreed he would serve only ten years.  He announced four years ago that he would break that Contract with the voters and people of the Sixteenth Congressional District.

     According to the Lancaster Sunday News, this was partly the result of an agreement between Chester County resident Pitts and the Lancaster County Republican Party.  The vast bulk of this District lies in Lancaster County, and the agreement was that Pitts' successor after ten years would be a Lancasterian.

Read more....

     

     One of my activities is with our local Kutztown (PA) Area Democratic Club.  This group formed in August 2004 after an appearnace here by our Dear Lieder George W. Bush.  It's a very activist group with an amazing collection of members who are very committed to change.

     Several members of the Club

, especially Dennis and Sylvia Baylor, have developed a special 2006 calendar featuring our favorite U.S. Senator, Rick Santorum.  This calendar is available at the KADC website.  You can access the KADC online store here.

Sample pictures below the fold....

     

Congressman Jim Gerlach, Republican representing Pennsylvania's Sixth District, last week illustrated how a man without a spine behaves.  Mr. Gerlach sold his spine to Congressman Tom DeLay's PAC Americans for a Republican Majority in return for $30,000 in campaign contributions.

More after the fold....

 

     The Kos community has been justifiably consumed by the Plame affair and everything it means.  Treason, espionage, cover-ups, the whole thing.  It's a true buffet of scandals and reaches to the highest levels of the Administration.

     There's an even bigger story in here though.  The reason they tried to trash Joe Wilson:  the attempt to silence the leaks coming from the CIA.  These leaks were undermining the Bush Administrations line of lies about why there were no weapons of mass destruction.  It is proof that they lied us into war.

     More after the fold....

Kyra Phillips, the White House toady who berated Nancy Pelosi online and inserted her own personal opinion during the interview, was just on reviewing the controversy.  

After running a clip of the controversy she began reading some of the emails.  One, from a Marina, (I believe from New Paltz, N.Y.) said CNN should get rid of Kyra or lose her as a viewer.

Kyra's terse response:  Goodbye Marina.