October 29th, 2008
On October 29, U.S. District Court Judge Harvey Bartle, a Bush Sr. appointee, issued an injunction, requiring Pennsylvania to furnish emergency paper ballots to any precinct at which at least half the electronic vote-counting machines have broken down. NAACP v Cortes, 08-cv-5048.
The state’s position had been that it would only provide such paper ballots to precincts in which all the machines had ceased to work. The decision says, “Some waiting in line, of course, is inevitable and must be expected. One must always choose between and among a number of candidates for different offices listed on the ballot and often, as in this election, there are questions to be read and considered. All of this takes time. Nonetheless, there can come a point when the burden of standing in a queue ceases to be an inconvenience or annoyance and becomes a constitutional violation because it, in effect, denies a person the right to exercise his or her franchise.” Thanks to Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog for this news.
http://www.ballot-access.org/
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Hart-Altmire debate canceled
Monday, October 27, 2008
By Dennis B. Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire will not debate Republican challenger Melissa Hart as a range of polls show him with a double-digit lead in the contest.
Mr. Altmire, a first-term Democrat from McCandless, unseated Ms. Hart in 2006.
The initial debate was scheduled for last Tuesday at the Penn State Beaver campus but was pushed back a week because of a visit to the region by Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
At that time, both sides indicated they were aware of the new date.
"Unfortunately, Congressman Altmire could not attend (tomorrow night's) debate because they rescheduled it without conferring with us and we had a conflict," said Tess Mullen, the Altmire campaign spokeswoman.
The Hart campaign issued an angry press release over the weekend accusing Mr. Altmire of ducking debates.
"It seems as though there is a concerted effort to hide Altmire from the voters and keep him from openly discussing issues with voters," said Alicia Collins, the Hart campaign manager.
http://www.postgazette.com/pg/08301/923255-100.stm
By Dennis B. Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire will not debate Republican challenger Melissa Hart as a range of polls show him with a double-digit lead in the contest.
Mr. Altmire, a first-term Democrat from McCandless, unseated Ms. Hart in 2006.
The initial debate was scheduled for last Tuesday at the Penn State Beaver campus but was pushed back a week because of a visit to the region by Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
At that time, both sides indicated they were aware of the new date.
"Unfortunately, Congressman Altmire could not attend (tomorrow night's) debate because they rescheduled it without conferring with us and we had a conflict," said Tess Mullen, the Altmire campaign spokeswoman.
The Hart campaign issued an angry press release over the weekend accusing Mr. Altmire of ducking debates.
"It seems as though there is a concerted effort to hide Altmire from the voters and keep him from openly discussing issues with voters," said Alicia Collins, the Hart campaign manager.
http://www.postgazette.com/pg/08301/923255-100.stm
Monday, October 27, 2008
Ralph Nader wants Scalia to address the corporate personhood issue
Following is a statement by Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader:
The word "corporation" or "company," or the words "political party," do not appear anywhere in the U.S. Constitution. How then can these two excluded corporate institutions have such power over Americans who, as "real people," are the only "persons" protected and given rights under our Constitution?
Corporations are artificial legal entities. They are not human beings. They do not vote. They do not breathe. They do not have children. They do not die in Iraq. Why have they been given all the rights under our Constitution, except for the right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment, and why did they obtain these rights from judges, not from the legislature?
I put these and other questions in writing to Justice Antonin Scalia -- deemed an extremely conservative judge who believes in "originalism," or strict interpretation of the Constitution.
Recently, Justice Scalia and I caught up together on the phone: I asked him how the application of the Bill of Rights and related constitutional protections to the artificial creations known as corporations can be squared with a constitutional interpretation theory of "originalism?"
Justice Scalia said he had not put much thought into unconstitutional corporate personhood, but if a case was brought before him on the topic, he would be happy to delve into it.
Unconstitutional corporate personhood is the central issue that prevents equal justice under the law and provides privileges and immunities to corporations completely outside of the framers' frame of reference in that large hot room in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787.
The $700 billion blank check bailout of Wall Street is the latest manifestation of private corporate domination of our national government, a situation that Franklin Delano Roosevelt foresaw as "fascism" in a message to Congress in 1938. The relentless decline in the livelihood of America's working families and growing unemployed reflects the radical concentration of power and wealth in a few hands.
To turn back this tide, the first step is for someone among the legal community -- the sooner the better -- to bring a case centering on unconstitutional corporate personhood to the fore on the floor of the Supreme Court.
And then, perhaps, Justice Scalia's originalism can be brought to bare on restoring justice and allowing the Constitution’s words "we the people," to once again ring true.
*Please see link to Mr. Nader's letter to Justice Scalia: http://www.nader.org/index.php?/archives/271-Letter-from-Ralph-Nader-and-Rob-Weissman-to-Justice-Scalia.html
Reported by Nader for President 2008
http://www.huliq.com/1/71474/ralph-nader-urges-courts-challenge-constitutionality-corporate-personhood
The word "corporation" or "company," or the words "political party," do not appear anywhere in the U.S. Constitution. How then can these two excluded corporate institutions have such power over Americans who, as "real people," are the only "persons" protected and given rights under our Constitution?
Corporations are artificial legal entities. They are not human beings. They do not vote. They do not breathe. They do not have children. They do not die in Iraq. Why have they been given all the rights under our Constitution, except for the right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment, and why did they obtain these rights from judges, not from the legislature?
I put these and other questions in writing to Justice Antonin Scalia -- deemed an extremely conservative judge who believes in "originalism," or strict interpretation of the Constitution.
Recently, Justice Scalia and I caught up together on the phone: I asked him how the application of the Bill of Rights and related constitutional protections to the artificial creations known as corporations can be squared with a constitutional interpretation theory of "originalism?"
Justice Scalia said he had not put much thought into unconstitutional corporate personhood, but if a case was brought before him on the topic, he would be happy to delve into it.
Unconstitutional corporate personhood is the central issue that prevents equal justice under the law and provides privileges and immunities to corporations completely outside of the framers' frame of reference in that large hot room in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787.
The $700 billion blank check bailout of Wall Street is the latest manifestation of private corporate domination of our national government, a situation that Franklin Delano Roosevelt foresaw as "fascism" in a message to Congress in 1938. The relentless decline in the livelihood of America's working families and growing unemployed reflects the radical concentration of power and wealth in a few hands.
To turn back this tide, the first step is for someone among the legal community -- the sooner the better -- to bring a case centering on unconstitutional corporate personhood to the fore on the floor of the Supreme Court.
And then, perhaps, Justice Scalia's originalism can be brought to bare on restoring justice and allowing the Constitution’s words "we the people," to once again ring true.
*Please see link to Mr. Nader's letter to Justice Scalia: http://www.nader.org/index.php?/archives/271-Letter-from-Ralph-Nader-and-Rob-Weissman-to-Justice-Scalia.html
Reported by Nader for President 2008
http://www.huliq.com/1/71474/ralph-nader-urges-courts-challenge-constitutionality-corporate-personhood
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Pa. considers adding natural gas to the tax rolls
By MARC LEVY Associated Press Writer
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The land agents, geologists and drilling crews rushing after the Marcellus Shale are raising something besides the natural gas they're seeking: Talk of a natural gas tax.
Thanks to a state Supreme Court decision six years ago, Pennsylvania is now one of the biggest natural-gas producing states — if not the biggest — that does not tax the methane sucked from beneath its ground.
But momentum is gathering to impose such a tax. The Marcellus Shale — a layer of black rock that holds a vast reservoir of gas — is luring some of the country's largest gas producers to Pennsylvania, and state government revenues are being waylaid by a worldwide economic malaise.
A spokesman for Gov. Ed Rendell says the administration is looking at the idea of a tax on natural gas, but a decision has not been made. Typically, Rendell does not reveal any tax or revenue proposals until his official budget plan is introduced each February.
Senate Republicans are planning a November hearing at Misericordia University in northeastern Pennsylvania to look at what effect can be expected on local governments if Marcellus Shale production lives up to its potential.
Local officials worry about damage to local roads ill-suited for heavy truck traffic and equipment. School districts could be strained by families of gas company employees moving into town. And some residents are concerned about gas wells disrupting or polluting the water tables from which they draw drinking water.
Legislators must find the fairest way for companies to share those costs, whether by levying a tax or through some other means, said Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre, the GOP's policy chairman.
"I do think there is an understanding that some sort of compensation for municipalities is warranted," Corman said. "We just have to figure out the best way to do that."
So far, drilling activity is under way on the Marcellus Shale in at least 18 counties, primarily in the northern tier and southwest where the shale is thickest, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Land agents are trooping in and out of county courthouses to research the below-ground mineral rights. At least several million acres above the Marcellus Shale have been leased by companies in West Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania.
Just this week, Range Resources Corp. and a Denver-based gas processor said they have started up Pennsylvania's first large-scale gas processing plant, about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh.
And CNX Gas Corp. announced that a $6 million horizontal well it drilled in southwest Pennsylvania is producing a respectable 1.2 million cubic feet a day — a rate it expects to improve in coming weeks.
In the opposite corner of Pennsylvania, drilling pads are now visible on Susquehanna County's farmland, and hotel rooms are booked with land agents and drilling crews.
"It is the talk at the coffee shops, at the local grocery store, the gas station — everybody," said state Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne.
Activity is still in the early stages, as exploration companies work to confirm their basic assumptions about the potential of the Marcellus Shale reservoir, and probe for the spots with the greatest promise, analysts say.
Industry representatives say they oppose a tax, and Stephen W. Rhoads, the president of the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association, questioned the wisdom of imposing a tax on gas production that is still speculative.
In some natural-gas states, a tax is collected based on a company's gas production by volume.
But in Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that state law did not allow counties, schools and municipalities to impose a real estate tax based on the value of the subsurface oil and gas rights held by exploration companies.
An appraiser's study presented last year during a House Finance Committee hearing estimated that the court's decision had cost Greene, Fayette and Washington counties up to $30 million in county, school and municipal tax revenue.
The state's county commissioners and school boards support the resumption of some type of taxing authority — although that could mean landowners would get smaller royalty checks.
Regardless, Doug Hill, the executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, said the matter is one of basic fairness since coal, gravel and limestone are assessed.
"The bottom line is it isn't a windfall issue," Hill said. "It's a tax equity issue."
Marc Levy covers state government for The Associated Press in Harrisburg. He can be reached at mlevy(at)ap.org.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Pa_considers_adding_natural_gas_to_the_tax_rolls.html
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The land agents, geologists and drilling crews rushing after the Marcellus Shale are raising something besides the natural gas they're seeking: Talk of a natural gas tax.
Thanks to a state Supreme Court decision six years ago, Pennsylvania is now one of the biggest natural-gas producing states — if not the biggest — that does not tax the methane sucked from beneath its ground.
But momentum is gathering to impose such a tax. The Marcellus Shale — a layer of black rock that holds a vast reservoir of gas — is luring some of the country's largest gas producers to Pennsylvania, and state government revenues are being waylaid by a worldwide economic malaise.
A spokesman for Gov. Ed Rendell says the administration is looking at the idea of a tax on natural gas, but a decision has not been made. Typically, Rendell does not reveal any tax or revenue proposals until his official budget plan is introduced each February.
Senate Republicans are planning a November hearing at Misericordia University in northeastern Pennsylvania to look at what effect can be expected on local governments if Marcellus Shale production lives up to its potential.
Local officials worry about damage to local roads ill-suited for heavy truck traffic and equipment. School districts could be strained by families of gas company employees moving into town. And some residents are concerned about gas wells disrupting or polluting the water tables from which they draw drinking water.
Legislators must find the fairest way for companies to share those costs, whether by levying a tax or through some other means, said Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre, the GOP's policy chairman.
"I do think there is an understanding that some sort of compensation for municipalities is warranted," Corman said. "We just have to figure out the best way to do that."
So far, drilling activity is under way on the Marcellus Shale in at least 18 counties, primarily in the northern tier and southwest where the shale is thickest, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Land agents are trooping in and out of county courthouses to research the below-ground mineral rights. At least several million acres above the Marcellus Shale have been leased by companies in West Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania.
Just this week, Range Resources Corp. and a Denver-based gas processor said they have started up Pennsylvania's first large-scale gas processing plant, about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh.
And CNX Gas Corp. announced that a $6 million horizontal well it drilled in southwest Pennsylvania is producing a respectable 1.2 million cubic feet a day — a rate it expects to improve in coming weeks.
In the opposite corner of Pennsylvania, drilling pads are now visible on Susquehanna County's farmland, and hotel rooms are booked with land agents and drilling crews.
"It is the talk at the coffee shops, at the local grocery store, the gas station — everybody," said state Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne.
Activity is still in the early stages, as exploration companies work to confirm their basic assumptions about the potential of the Marcellus Shale reservoir, and probe for the spots with the greatest promise, analysts say.
Industry representatives say they oppose a tax, and Stephen W. Rhoads, the president of the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association, questioned the wisdom of imposing a tax on gas production that is still speculative.
In some natural-gas states, a tax is collected based on a company's gas production by volume.
But in Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that state law did not allow counties, schools and municipalities to impose a real estate tax based on the value of the subsurface oil and gas rights held by exploration companies.
An appraiser's study presented last year during a House Finance Committee hearing estimated that the court's decision had cost Greene, Fayette and Washington counties up to $30 million in county, school and municipal tax revenue.
The state's county commissioners and school boards support the resumption of some type of taxing authority — although that could mean landowners would get smaller royalty checks.
Regardless, Doug Hill, the executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, said the matter is one of basic fairness since coal, gravel and limestone are assessed.
"The bottom line is it isn't a windfall issue," Hill said. "It's a tax equity issue."
Marc Levy covers state government for The Associated Press in Harrisburg. He can be reached at mlevy(at)ap.org.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Pa_considers_adding_natural_gas_to_the_tax_rolls.html
Groups want paper ballots as backup in PA
Lawsuit claims machine breakdowns in spring make fallback essential in state.
By Maryclaire Dale | Of The Associated Press
October 24, 2008
Several voter rights groups filed suit Thursday seeking emergency paper ballots for Pennsylvania voters if electronic machines break down.
The groups want paper ballots to be available on Election Day if more than half of the voting machines at a given polling place malfunction. Otherwise, voters will be left to endure long lines, they said.
''People should be able to exercise their right to vote without waiting in line for hours or being told to go home and come back later,'' said John Bonifaz, legal director of Voter Action, a national advocacy group that is one of the plaintiffs.
The groups focused on Pennsylvania because of problems reported in the spring primary and a recent state directive that, according to the groups, says paper ballots should only be used if all machines in a polling place fail.
''We're quite concerned, in light of the confluence of high voter turnout and these voting machine breakdowns, that there will be even longer lines and more voter disenfranchisement,'' Bonifaz said Thursday.
The suit was filed in federal court in Philadelphia against Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortes.
''The plaintiffs continue to seek solutions that are already in place,'' Cortes said. ''The Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors is already working properly, and county election officials remain committed to processing every valid application in a timely and efficient manner.''
Cortes said counties have been informed about identification requirements for first-time voters and have been advised to have sufficient provisional ballots on Election Day.
Other plaintiffs include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia. The groups are seeking a preliminary injunction to address the situation before the election.
''Thousands of members have faced serious delays in voting when machines have broken down in the past, and this problem will be much more severe this year when unprecedented numbers of voters will be coming to the polls,'' said J. Whyatt Mondesire, the president of the
NAACP State Conference of Pennsylvania.
http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/state/all-a3_voting.6643554oct24,0,5867348.story
By Maryclaire Dale | Of The Associated Press
October 24, 2008
Several voter rights groups filed suit Thursday seeking emergency paper ballots for Pennsylvania voters if electronic machines break down.
The groups want paper ballots to be available on Election Day if more than half of the voting machines at a given polling place malfunction. Otherwise, voters will be left to endure long lines, they said.
''People should be able to exercise their right to vote without waiting in line for hours or being told to go home and come back later,'' said John Bonifaz, legal director of Voter Action, a national advocacy group that is one of the plaintiffs.
The groups focused on Pennsylvania because of problems reported in the spring primary and a recent state directive that, according to the groups, says paper ballots should only be used if all machines in a polling place fail.
''We're quite concerned, in light of the confluence of high voter turnout and these voting machine breakdowns, that there will be even longer lines and more voter disenfranchisement,'' Bonifaz said Thursday.
The suit was filed in federal court in Philadelphia against Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortes.
''The plaintiffs continue to seek solutions that are already in place,'' Cortes said. ''The Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors is already working properly, and county election officials remain committed to processing every valid application in a timely and efficient manner.''
Cortes said counties have been informed about identification requirements for first-time voters and have been advised to have sufficient provisional ballots on Election Day.
Other plaintiffs include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia. The groups are seeking a preliminary injunction to address the situation before the election.
''Thousands of members have faced serious delays in voting when machines have broken down in the past, and this problem will be much more severe this year when unprecedented numbers of voters will be coming to the polls,'' said J. Whyatt Mondesire, the president of the
NAACP State Conference of Pennsylvania.
http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/state/all-a3_voting.6643554oct24,0,5867348.story
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
A thought on the Fed. from a former supporter
Woodrow Wilson signed the 1913 Federal Reserve Act. A few years later he wrote:
I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men. -Woodrow Wilson
I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men. -Woodrow Wilson
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