PA Voter ID law upheld

Despite the Secretary of State stating that she didn't even know what is in the law and the Commonwealth couldn't cite just one example of in person voter fraud and hearing countless testimony of people who would be denied the right to vote a Republican judge denied a preliminary injunction to prevent it from being enforced in the upcoming election. It will be appealed to the PA Supreme Court which is now split 3-3 because Republican Joan Orie Melvin is awaiting trial.

So we are stuck with this law and the Democrats better get on the stick. I got an email from the PA Democratic Party Today's decision by Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson clears the way for the Voter ID bill to take effect. This is not good news for Pennsylvania voters. The Voter ID bill passed by Harrisburg Republicans is an expensive and unnecessary piece of legislation. t's a solution without a problem....We already started an aggressive field plan to make sure PennsylIvanians have the IDs they need to vote in November. Then they asked for money.

Our local Democratic legislator's are quoted in Bill O'Boyle's story in the TL saying they are reaching out to constituents to educate them about the new requirements. Estimates are between 500,000 and 1 million people in Pennsylvania on the voter rolls don't have the proper identification. Getting an acceptable ID is not the easiest thing to do as PBPC documents. PennDOT is just not ready to do this!

The logical thing to do is to phase in the  implementation of the law like many other states, like Georgia,  did but that is not going to happen. 

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has put up a Website, Facebook and Twitter account to help comply with the new law which will sure help the people who can't afford the intertubes or are old enough not to care about it..

The new website has been designed by a  Romney fundraiser.

votesPA  

The only way to stop this madness is to elect Democrats to the State House and Senate so they can repeal this law. 

Now that that this non-existent  problem has been dealt with the Republicans in the legislature can deal with

Leash Laws for Unicorns

 

PA Supreme Court throws out reapportionment

Pa. high court rejects remapping plan

Wow. This is a surprise given that there are 4 Republicans and 3 Democrats on the court. Chief Justice Ronald Castille sided with the Democrats that the plan for the state legislature chopped up too many towns just to advantage the Republicans.


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Justice Joan Orie Melvin predictably thought that was OK. In a 2009 appearance in Wilkes-Barre she gave a speech that was inappropriately long for a warm up act, Melvin basically said "elect me so Republicans make of the majority of the PA Supreme Court, and we can rig the 2010 reapportionment for the Republicans." She later had a campiagn ad with a Soviet-era hammer-and-sickle inside the "O" in Obama's last name. Now she is the target of a criminal investigation.


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Calls grow for Supreme Court Justice Melvin to resign

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Right now it looks like the old maps wil be used in the upcoming election but that could change once the Supreme Court opinion is released.

Pennsylvania Judicial elections

As usual the elections for the PA Superior and Commonwealth courts are flying under the radar along with the retention question for 6 members of the 3 state appellate courts. It's one of those things that I've seen a tidbit about here and there that didn't register until I took a look at the Luzerne County sample ballot tonight, thanks Lenny. PMC has a rundown of all the candidates.

One seat is up for the Superior Court and the candidates are Republican Vic Stabile and Democrat David Wecht. Commonwealth Court nominees are Ann Covey (R) and Kathryn Boockvar (D) competing for the open spot.


I don't pay much attention to the statewide Judge races because the candidates run on their bio's and promise to be tough on crime with an emphasis on locking up all the drug dealers. But then every politician promises to lock up all the druggies and we all know that policy has worked out well over the past 40 years. More drugs, more crime and a record number of people in prison. Drug addiction should not be treated as a law enforcement issue but a public health problem but that will require a change in federal law. Their campaigns are financed by the lawyers that will appear before them but they assure us that that will not influence their rulings. What a bunch of hooey.



Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts make a good case for scrapping the present system and going with merit selection of Judges. Their blog JudgesOnMerit.org documents the problems with electing appellate Judges and suggests improvements to the process.

In the 2009 contest for PA Supreme Court Justice we elected Joan Orie Melvin who is now in a lot of hot water along with her sister.

I'm willing to go further and go with merit selection for county judges. Do you think Michael Conahan could have survived a background check?

Vote no on retention.

I have never voted to retain a Judge as I think that elections for the offices are pointless in the first place. Very few people have lost the question but in recent years Russell Nigro and
Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. have been tossed by the voters.


This coming November we will be asked to decide if 6 people should continue in their positions.
There is not a big controversy this time such as the midnight pay raise or the kids for cash scandal so they will probably be retained.


•Justice J. Michael Eakin, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania –
•Judge John T. Bender, Superior Court of Pennsylvania -
•Judge Mary Jane Bowes, Superior Court of Pennsylvania
•Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer, Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania –
•Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt, Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania –
•Judge Robert E. Simpson Jr., Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania –

They have all been recomended by the PA Bar Association.

I'm still voting NO.

The other court races

With all the attention on the six seats open for the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas and the new county council the spots up for grabs on the state appellate courts have been overlooked.

The candidates are:

JUDGE OF THE COMMONWEALTH COURT

Vote for 1 for a 10 year term

Paul P. Panepinto (R)

Anne Covey (R)

Kathryn Boockvar (D)

Barbara Behrend Ernsberger (D)


JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT

Vote for 1 for a 10 year term

Vic Stabile (R)

Paula A. Patrick (R)

David N. Wecht (D)


To save my time I'm not providing links to their websites, Facebook, etc. You can google them if you are interested but I will bet that you are not that interested.


I don't pay much attention to the statewide Judge races because the candidates run on their bio's and promise to be tough on crime with an emphasis on locking up all the drug dealers. But then every politician promises to lock up all the druggies and we all know that policy has worked out well over the past 50 years. Their campaigns are financed by the lawyers that will appear before them but they assure us that that will not influence their rulings. What a bunch of hooey.



Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts make a good case for scrapping the present system and going with merit selection of Judges. Their blog JudgesOnMerit.org documents the problems with electing appellate Judges.

I'm willing to go further and go with merit selection for county judges. Do you think Michael Conahan could have survived a background check?

In the 2009 contest for PA Supreme Court Justice we elected Joan Orie Melvin who is now in a lot of hot water along with her sister despite the assurance from a local high ranking GOP operative that said "she is an honarable person."

There has to be a better way.

PA State Supreme Court race

I don't pay much attention to the statewide Judge races because the candidates run on their bio's and promise to be tough on crime with an emphasis on locking up all the drug dealers. But then every politician promises to lock up all the druggies and we all know that policy has worked out well over the past 50 years. Their campaigns are financed by the lawyers that will appear before them but they assure us that that will not influence their rulings. What a bunch of hooey.



Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts make a good case for scrapping the present system and going with merit selection of Judges. Their blog JudgesOnMerit.org documents the problems with electing appellate Judges.



The Democratic nominee for the one open seat is Jack Panella
from Northampton County who presently serves on the Superior Court and was on the Court of Judicial Discipline that dropped the ball over the allegations about Luzerne County criminals Conahan and Ciavarella . They were busy with the Lokuta witchhunt orchestrated by Conahan.




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His opponent is Joan Orie Melvin from Pittsburgh who also serves on the Superior Court. Her website tells us that she has been a lifelong Republican. Her faith is the cornerstone of her life. She comes from a family of nine children raised with the principles of God and Country. Her sister is State Senator Jane Orie who helped her get the endorsement of the Pennsylvania Teamsters that didn't turn out so well. The Pennsylvania Progressive has the details.
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Melvin was in town last month and said of the Juvie Brothers scandal "This is surreal. It is right out of a Charles Dickens’ novel."
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In her previous visit to Wilkes-Barre in May she gave a long rambling speech to the local GOP faithful. In that speech she listed as one of her selling points was the upcoming redistricting after the 2010 Census telling the partisan crowd that they needed a Republican on the court to rule in favor of Republicans in any challenges to whatever plan emerges.

So much for Judges being above politics.
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Now Capitol Ideas points out that the state GOP is running a banner ad on GrassrootsPA on her behalf.

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"Tired of Barack Obama, Ed Rendell, Arlen Specter and big government Democrats ruining our nation?" the advertisement asks in yellow block capitals set against a bright-red background. And in case the message wasn't subtle enough, there's a Soviet-era hammer-and-sickle inside the "O" in Obama's last name. That oughta rally the base, eh?

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My friend Danny gave me the heads up and says


She's using a hammer and sickle for the "O" in Obama in her new web ad. Disgusting. And the best part is that it's paid for by the PA GOP.

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Comparisons to Communists or Nazi's used to be out of bounds in American politics but the Tea Bagger crowd does it all the time and now it is somehow Okay. It's one thing for a bunch of people who are ignorant of history and political philosophy to engage in this kind of nonsense but a State Supreme Court candidate should know better.
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The thing that we want in our Judges is to be impartial and not take political sides no matter what party they belong to. She flunks that test.
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I will vote for Panella.