Papa's Got a Brand New bag Blog.

Since there is nothing interesting going on in the PA 7th race (yet), and we have a lot of local elections... I'm branching off to start a NEW BLOG!

My blog is PA Delco Watch (at PADelcoWatch.com)

My new blog will focus on the races and politics of Delaware County. As far as Joe goes, I'll be free to hold his feet to the fire, if the situation warrants.

Also, NO anonymous blogging:
If you want to post comments, strap on a pair, get a free blogger account, and quit hiding.

Joey the Crank

Haverford Township's resident crank, Joseph R. Breslin, wrote a letter to the Delco Times. For those that haven't hear Mr. Breslin speak, picture Archie Bunker, without the class. His letter is little different.

His Delco Times letter is supposedly a copy of one he sent to Sestak's office. In the letter, Breslin starts with:

As I stated in an announcement on Nov. 15, 2006, which was never carried by the local press, I will oppose the newly elected Democratic Congressman as a Republican for the 7th Congressional District, and will present issues and a platform each month to strengthen America and return government back to the people.

Gee, not stated in the press, or even during his failed County Council campaign. Only 3 months ago, Breslin was running for County Council, with his stated purpose of preventing Andy Lewis from getting elected. Seeing as how 6 were running for 3 open seats, even if Breslin got more votes than Lewis, he couldn't guarantee that Lewis wouldn't have been in the top 2 of the other 5 candidates. I've never hear anyone say that Breslin was good at math (or any other intellectual skill).

But, here are my questions... If Breslin had actually made it to the November ballot, and even less likely got elected, how was he planning on running against Sestak? And if abandoning a County Council position to run for Congress was his plan all along (since November 15, 2006 as he claims), why did he bother to run for County Council if he never had any intention of serving out his term? (Does this constitute a fraud on the contributors to his failed primary campaign or is Breslin protected by the adage "A fool and his money are soon parted."?)

I guess I should comment on the rest of Breslin's letter. It concerns itself with the fictional proposals for a NAFTA Superhighway. For literate Internet users, it doesn't take much searching to discover that there is no such plan/proposal. It was a political rumor created to fan the anti-immigration crowd and have a phony issue for politicians to oppose.

Breslin is such a lightweight, that I can't even add him to the list of Bat Villians. He wouldn't even make a decent henchman, though if any Bat Villians need a court jester, they needn't look far.

Better Late Than Never...

On Saturday, Aug 4th, Joe Sestak and 4 other Democratic Congressmen joined the other 126 co-sponsors of a bill to end the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. The new bill, H.R. 1246, The Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2007 now has 131 co-sponsors.

The purpose of this Act is to institute in the Armed Forces a policy of nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation.

In other words, to stop kicking out valuable soldiers from the military just because they may happen to be gay. Prior to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", the policy was open discrimination and bigotry where soldiers could be interogated about their sexual preferences and removed. The current policy prohibits a direct investigation, but still requires gay soldiers to hide who they are, and is quite simply: "Un-American". Unfortunately, in the 1990's, it was the best policy that progressives could get past the bigots.

Even today, the military classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Maybe they should classify bigotry as a mental disorder.

Not long ago, 55 Arabic translators were discharged from the military once their orientation was uncovered. One in particular had his emails read during a routine fishing expedition looking for fraud in some department. This translator hadn't been asked and hadn't told, but was discharged just the same (and he WANTS to serve). These translators are crucial to the safety of soldiers in Iraq because they translate insurgent communications about ambushes and road-side bombs. There was information about 9/11 that didn't get translated until 9/12 because we were short-handed.

As John Stewart put it on the Daily Show: "Some people rather would rather be killed by a terrorist than saved by a gay hero."

The vast majority of the current generation of soldiers, most under 25, don't have a problem with gays serving openly (and many of them have shown integrity by not ratting out their fellow soldiers). There are still some old homophobic bigots running the show that are preventing progress, but, hey, they can't live forever (just like the slave owners).

It is long past time that the current institutionalized discrimination was abolished.


Back to Joe....
While I had hoped Joe would have been one of the original co-sponsors, I have even greater hopes that his involvment and military credentials will provide some movement on this issue in Congress. For some, it may raise their awareness, for others they may be inspired by Joe example, and a craven few may simple use Joe as political cover to justify support to their less-progressive constituents.
Whatever gets the job done.


Though I still feel very strongly against Joe's Iraq vote last May, I am pleased that Joe is getting it right with his support of a bill that truly honors the soldiers and improves their security.

Spencer speculates on potential GOP candidates for 2008

In DelcoTimes' Gil Spencer's latest rant about Joe Sestak, he peeks into the minds of the Delco Republican power mongers who are not pre-determining for the voters of the PA-7 region who they will put up against Joe Sestak in the 2008 election.

Spencer talks to John McNichol, recently retired from his Delaware County patronage job, now spending time trying to figure out how Sestak defeated their top elected official Curt Weldon last year, and plotting Sestak's demise. McNichol talks about two potential candidates: real estate developer Tim Pulte and attorney Steve Elliott. Spencer speculates that McNichol prefers Pulte. Spencer quotes McNichol: “The family has a ton of money,” McNichol says, and the candidate would have his own “personal fortune” from which to draw.

It's nice to know that McNichol is holding with long-standing Republican traditions. It would be disturbing to see the local GOP machine appoint their candidate based on something like positions on the issues or track record for service. Anything but complete self-interest and power-mongering would be a complete break with the local GOP ideals!

As far as Spencer's attacks on Sestak in his latest diatribe, he says, "Unfortunately, Democratic congressmen like Sestak have a vested interest in seeing America fail in Iraq." You have to wonder why editor-in-chief Phil Heron allows Spencer to continue to shoot himself in the foot with junk like that.

Sestak's volunteer party, July 27, 2007

Joe Sestak held a reception for volunteers on Friday, July 27, 2007 at the Media Borough Hall. Joe had just returned from Washington that evening after his week of work in the Capitol.

At the gathering, Joe gave an update on what was going on in Washington, and then took questions. It was an interesting Q&A session. There were many supporters who were angry about impeachment, or should I say, the lack of any impeachment actions to oust Bush and Cheney. And there were lots of people who wanted immediate action on exiting Iraq. There weren't too many easy questions. In fact, I can't remember one. For a group of supporters, they were pretty tough on the freshman Congressman.

Sestak handled all questions diplomatically and described what was going on. On impeachment, Joe described that there are just not enough votes to make impeachment stick, so there is little point in pushing that issue. He would rather work on more constructive actions instead.

On Iraq, Sestak described that the actions on extricating the US from Iraq will define the Democratic Party effectiveness as leaders. And it will have a huge effect on our country and the world. There is not much room for error on this issue. Even though Bush and the GOP started this war, it's up to the Dems to get us out...and the manner is which that is done is critical.

I heard later that Joe stayed until after 11 PM to answer all questions.

Next time, will someone lob him a beach ball question? Just one!