Recently in PA Politics Category

If you are in the United States and are registered, you have one mission and one mission alone.... See you at the polls!

Only the village idiot could vote for the village idiot... before you mark a ballot for US Senator in Pennsylvania this election day, you need to consider the 51 Things Rick Santorum does not want you to know: 1. Rick was the only member of the entire U.S. Congress to go to Florida and intrude at Terri Schiavo's deathbed. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/30/05) 2. Rick voted against a minimum wage increase 13 times. (Vote 344, 7/31/95; Vote 519, 10/27/95; Vote 54, 3/27/96; Vote 183, 7/9/96; Vote 184, 7/9/96; Vote 278, 9/22/98; Vote 77, 3/25/99; Vote 94, 4/28/99; Vote 239, 7/30/99; Vote 356, 11/9/99; Vote 76, 4/7/00; Vote 26, 3/7/05; Vote 179, 6/21/06) 3. Rick has voted with President Bush 98% of the time.(Congressional Quarterly, Pres. Vote Support Analysis) 4. "Making people struggle a little bit is not necessarily the worst thing" was Rick's defense of his careless vote against increased child care funding. (Congressional Quarterly, 9/12/03) 5. Rick wants to allow states to outlaw all forms of birth control, even for married couples. (Newsweek, 12/27/04) 6. Rick on birth control: "I'm not a believer in birth control. . . I don't think it works. I think it's harmful to women." (Newsweek, 12/27/04; CN8, 7/28/05) 7. Santorum has repeatedly voted against increasing funding for Pell Grants that provide needed financial aid to lower-income students. (Vote 220, 5/25/95; Vote 68, 3/17/05; Vote 51, 3/11/04; Vote 331, 9/9/03; Vote 339, 9/10/03) 8. "Yes, I am something of a salesman for homeschooling and cyber-schooling" is Rick's description of his public education plan. (It Takes a Family; Patriot News, 7/31/05) 9. Pennsylvanians have paid $55,000 in local tax money to cyber-school Rick's children at their estate in Virginia. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/14/04) 10. Rick's thoughts on college education for women: "The notion that college education is a cost-effective way to help poor, low-skill, unmarried mothers with high school diplomas or GEDs move up the economic ladder is just wrong." (It Takes A Family, p.138) 11. Rick's disrespect for two-paycheck families: "In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they really take an honest look at the budget, they might confess that both of them really don't need to." (It Takes a Family, p.94) 12. Rick has repeatedly voted against the Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows Americans to take time off from their jobs and take care of their sick children or other family members. (Vote 393, 11/13/91; Vote 22, 2/3/93; Vote 443, 9/30/92) 13. Rick opposes the right to privacy: "The right to privacy doesn't exist, in my opinion, in the U.S. Constitution." (Associated Press, 4/22/03) 14. Fly Rod & Reel magazine has named Rick one of their "dirty dozen" senators for his votes against clean water, and he has supported Bush's lowering of standards for arsenic in water. (CNN, 4/25/01) 15. "Yes, there will be species that go extinct, but other species will come along and take their place" was Rick's response to his vote to end all enforcement of the Endangered Species Act. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 5/1/95; Vote 106, 3/16/95) 16. Rick founded a small "charity" organization, which is subsidizing his campaign staff and campaign activity with tax-exempt dollars. (Philadelphia Daily News, 2/21/06) 17. His reelection campaign is staffed in large part by his taxpayer-funded Senate and conference office employees. (Roll Call, 7/25/06) 18. Rick has accepted 15 corporate flights, allowing companies like Wal-Mart to funnel support to him since they can't legally make cash donations. (Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/3/06; Santorum FEC Reports, 04-06) 19. Since Rick has been in leadership, our national debt has ballooned to $8 trillion. (US Department of the Treasury, 7/14/06) 20. Big oil companies, due to Rick's support, will receive billions in tax breaks over the next five years, while the price of gas has doubled since he entered the Senate. Remember that when you fill up your tank. (Vote 213, 7/29/05; Vote 332, 11/17/05) 21. Santorum also raised more drug company money than any member of Congress - $298,327 this cycle alone. It's enough to give you a headache. (Campaign Finance Reports) 22. Rick voted against an amendment to negotiate better prescription drug prices under Medicare. (Vote 60, 3/17/05) 23. Rick has been dubbed the "King of the K Street Project" due to his intimate connections with special interest lobbyists. (Washington Post, 8/2/02) 24. Rick has pocketed more lobbyist, special-interest money than any other politician in the country. (Center for Responsive Politics) 25. Another piece of Rick's shady financial history: this year, he bought two apartments at $1 a piece and then sold one a few months later for over $100,000. (Centre County Property Records; The Times-Tribune, 6/15/06) 26. Rick helped pass CAFTA, a bill that will ship hundreds of thousands of American jobs overseas. Since 2001, Pennsylvania has lost 181,000 manufacturing jobs. (Vote 170, 6/30/05) 27. Santorum talks tough on immigration but has opposed tougher penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants. (Vote #96, 4/30/96; Vote #40, 5/23/06) 28. Rick Santorum has voted against increased funding for first responders, port security, and other vital measures. The 9/11 Commission gave Bush and Congress five Fs and 12 Ds for their slow progress. (S Con Res 95, 3/11/04; HR 3338, 12/6/01; HR 4567, 9/9/04; HJ Res 2, 1/16/03) 29. Rick voted seven times against hiring more border patrol agents. (Vote #3, 1/16/03; Vote #119, 4/3/03; Vote #291, 7/22/03; Vote #169, 9/9/04; Vote #182, 9/14/04; Vote #64, 3/17/05; Vote #95, 4/26/06) 30. Rick doesn't think seniors should be allowed to buy cheaper medicine from Canada. He even voted to have border patrol agents confiscate prescription medicine bought in Canada for individual use. (The Hill, 7/12/06) 31. Rick has voted 14 times to cut Medicare. (Vote 69, 4/17/91; Vote 39, 3/4/92; Vote 609, 11/22/93; Vote 232, 5/25/95; Vote 296, 6/29/95; Vote 556, 10/28/95; Vote 156, 5/23/96; Vote 159, 6/13/96; Vote 92, 5/23/97; Vote 96, 6/5/97; Vote 130, 6/25/97; Vote 209, 7/31/97; Vote 303, 11/3/05; Vote 10, 2/2/06) 32. In 1990, Rick won his first election by attacking his opponent for living in Virginia. Today, Rick and his family live in a home valued at almost $1,000,000 in Leesburg, Virginia, even while he insists a two-bedroom home in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, is his primary residence. (American Prospect, 3/1/06) 33. Santorum has opposed billions in federal funding for Veterans Affairs and has voted down mandatory funding for veterans' health care. (Vote #90, 4/12/05; Vote #89, 4/12/05; Vote #145, 6/23/04) 34. Despite talking big on health care, 714,000 Pennsylvanians have lost their health insurance since Rick became a Senate leader. (Bureau of Labor Statistics) 35. Arguing about his $37,000 pay raise, Santorum said, "if the people of Pennsylvania saw my record on the pay raise, they would stand up and applaud, not complain that I voted for three pay increases...." (Pennsylvania Press Club, 8/28/06) 36, 37, and 38. Three times Rick has voted to raise his own pay, after he said in 1990, "Whatever the salary is when I walk into office. . . that's what I'll take. . . I won't take one additional penny. . . ." (Vote 360, 12/7/01; Vote 242, 11/13/02; Vote 406, 10/23/03; AP, 11/7/90) 39. Rick Santorum led efforts last spring to eliminate overtime pay protections. (Vote 27, 3/7/05) 40. Rick talks tough on lawsuit reform and supports a $250,000 cap on malpractice suits, yet he testified on behalf of his wife when she sued her chiropractor for $500,000. (AP, 12/15/99; ABC Primetime Live, 11/11/05) 41. After Hurricane Katrina, Rick called for penalties on many of the suffering victims who could not afford to evacuate. (WTAE-TV, 9/4/05) 42. Rick Santorum authored a bill to dismantle the National Weather Service. (Palm Beach Post, 4/21/05) 43. Rick is considered the #1 proponent of Bush's Social Security privatization scheme. "It's a very small amount of money skimmed off the top" was how Rick explained the plan to privatize your Social Security tax money. (National Journal Congress Daily, 2/22/05; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/20/05) 44. Rick's plan for Social Security would also raise the retirement age to at least 70, and he even said, "I'd go even farther if I could." (La Salle University, 10/18/94) 45. Rick has raised over $1,000,000 in donations from oil, gas, chemical, and mining industries. In fact, Rick has raised more money from gas companies than anyone in Washington other than Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. (Center for Responsive Politics; www.opensecrets.org/industries) 46. Rick appears to subsidize his lifestyle with campaign contributions. He pays for fancy hardware, ice cream, and groceries, plus has 66 charges to a Starbucks four miles from his Virginia estate. (Philadelphia Daily News, 2/21/06) 47. Rick on our local schools: "It's amazing that so many kids turn out to be fairly normal, considering the weird socialization they get in public schools." He has gone on to consistently oppose funding important initiatives like reducing class size. (It Takes a Family, p.386; Vote #148, 6/27/00; Vote #103, 5/15/01; Vote #379, 10/14/03) 48. Rick Santorum once told a group of young people to "not be afraid to be intolerant." (The Culture of Life World Youth Day, 7/22/02) 49. Rick was once an advocate for teaching "intelligent design" theory as an alternative to teaching evolution in schools. He has flip-flopped on the issue for this election. Maybe his position "evolved." (Scranton Times-Tribune, 12/23/05) 50. Rick Santorum is still fixated on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He ran to the media over chemicals no more toxic than "household pesticides" while the military, CIA, and White House acknowledged they were no longer useable. (Washington Post, 6/22/06; CNN, 6/29/2006) 51. Despite the world making North Korea a top priority, Rick discounted the threat and said Kim Jong Il "doesn't want to die. He wants to watch NBA basketball." Are you serious? This is how Rick makes threat assessments? (The Patriot-News, 7/11/06)

Since we are now past the half-way point in 2005, it is time to start gearing up for the senatorial races in '06. I don't know how I happened on this article, but it is a good one regarding the incumbent idiot junior senator from PA. The Inclusive Santorum points out some very scary facts about Santorum and his disgust with gay marriage and how he is really out to remove all civil liberties that he and his neo-con bretheren do not agree with by making sweeping, unrelated pronouncements. Just another reason to oust the bum in '06.

In response to Sen. Rick Santorum's denial of gays' right to privacy, President Bush called him "inclusive." The president is right if "inclusive" means including bad arguments, ridiculous analogies and a reactionary stance on privacy rights among one's political views.

And, by the way, kudos to our senior senator, Arlen Specter, who, despite being a republican, stood up for American jobs by voting against the party line by voting no of CAFTA!

We have been working over the past week on what I think is a mission that Democrats in Pennsylvania need to pursue with great vigor. Over the past week, the governor of Pennsylvania endorsed Bob Casey, Jr as his choice to run against Santorum for the US Senate seat in 2006. In my personal opinion, Casey is not the best choice. Some have told me that since Rendell has given his nod to Casey that it is time to get behind him. Did someone forget that the primaries are still over a year away? Did all of a sudden Pennsylvania become a place where we can't choose who we as voters think is best? Since we still do live in a democracy, I want you to consider another option. Take a moment and go over to the web page that we have set up that tells a little more about why we think Chris Matthews is an excellent choice as the Democratic candidate to defeat Santorum in 2006. Already think it is a great idea? Please sign the petition now and spread the word! Also, please add a note on your blog or web site with a link to the web page to help us publicize this effort.

After becoming more actively involved in politics during the 2004 election cycle, I feel like my old seventies voice has been revitalized. If we don't speak out for what is right, no one else is to blame but ourseleves. If we don't do everything that we can to change our world, we can't complain when it goes down the toilet. I have been looking towards the next major statewide election cycle in 2006, one that all of us in Pennsylvania must take very seriously not only in the congressional races but in the senatorial race. We must be successful in sending Santorum back to Virginia where he appears to want to be. After looking at Politics PA's short list last night, I cranked up Macromedia Fireworks and did a little paste and doodle. I know my graphics talents are lacking, but I think this gets my feelings across as to who's hat I think must be thrown into the ring. I think it is time for Philly boy Chris Matthews to kick some neo-con butt! Let the games begin!

Yes, we must start planning for the battle against the incumbent stooge of the Bush Crime Family, the senator from Virginia who thinks he is representing Pennsylania, Rick Santorum. Web sites are already popping up to help in the cause. To start your homework, go over to the short list on Politics PA of democratic possibilities for 2006. My vote right now: Chris Matthews of MSNBC Hardball fame.