Coup d'état tentée en Forty Fort

Forty Fort official hurls accusations at council president

 Chacke remains Forty Fort head

People who live there tell me that Forty Fort is a nice place to live but like most small towns it has financial pressures. It is still waiting for Wilkinson to forward the half million dollars it collected in the borough's name that has resulted in curtailing overtime and the council will forgo their paychecks until they get the money. Former councilman  Andy Tuzinski raised a stink over $50 and Mayor Boyd Hoats broke a tie to keep Chacke as council president then again cast the tie breaking vote to eliminate the short sighted idea of cancelling the agreement with Kingston to provide joint fire and ambulance services. Then Tuzinski attacked what Chacke does for a living. 

Joe has impressed me over the years as a common sense Republican. A rare commodity these days. He ran for State Rep in 2006 in 2006 but came up short. When the  Barletta immigrant fervor was sweeping the area he was a cooler head when some idiot proposed a similar law and an English only ordinance.

A solution in search of a problem

I make the argument all the time, what are we here for? We're not elected to Council to debate illegal immigration, we're here to address the real local issues like police & fire protection, road paving, snow plowing, zoning, etc

A solution in search of a problem

Forty Fort considering an English-only ordinance


A Forty Fort councilman wants to take what he sees as a pre-emptive step and make English the official language of the borough.

"With us being an extremely small borough with an extremely small budget, we can't afford to hire interpreters, we can't afford to make copies of our ordinances in other languages," Dave Williams said Monday.

This is the same guy that proposed a copy cat illegal immigration ordinance that is Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta's claim to fame. That proposal was voted down. Now he wants Forty Fort, with almost no minority polulation let alone an immigrant problem, to pass a law that addresses a problem that doesn't exist.


To his knowledge, the borough has not had issues with requests for translators or for documents to be produced in languages other than English, Williams said.

I have some advice for Mr. Williams, if you want to translate a document go to Babel Fish.

You can read the Forty Fort ordinance here.

I asked Council President Joe Chacke about this:

Gort,

I didn't get a chance to contact the reporter yesterday after she had called, but I am opposed to it. Getting beyond the illegal immigration argument that is the genesis for this ordinance, I have some serious concerns with it.

First and foremost, I feel this may be a discriminatory ordinance that could and probably would lead to lawsuits. How could we tell a legitimate U.S. Citizen that we refuse to aid them in any manner if they don't communicate in English? Essentially this ordinance states that if you can't speak or write English, Forty Fort doesn't do business with you. That's just wrong. Could you imagine our Founding Fathers taking this stance?

Secondly, we already only print in English and we all only speak English in meetings. Why do we need a law to tell us to do this? In the event someone didn't speak English and had some concerns or questions, as a Representative of Forty Fort, I would go out of my way personally to help them. That's why I'm there.

I make the argument all the time, what are we here for? We're not elected to Council to debate illegal immigration, we're here to address the real local issues like police & fire protection, road paving, snow plowing, zoning, etc.

I will be voting no on this ordinance.

Thanks,

Joe

Immigration again

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta continues his one trick pony campaign as he tries to unseat Congressman Paul Kanjorski. This web ad takes issue with the standing ovation that members of Congress gave the President of Mexico when he addressed a joint session. I can't actually spot Kanjo in this clip but you get the idea.





I hope that Barletta is not advocating a repeat of that disgusting display that happened outside the Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre when the former President of Mexico Vincente Fox came to town in 2008 when the crowd was chanting "Deport Vincente Fox " and other ugly things.





I'm sure that if Barletta somehow gets to be a member of Congress he will be polite to a foreign Head of State. The woman yelling into the megaphone reminded me of this for some reason.


El alcalde Lou Barletta quiere ver sus papeles and he agrees with the Obama Administration that the US military should be used in law enforcement but wants more troops. For more than a hundred years it has been illegal to use the US military to do law enforcement and that's the way it should be.

Locally the Forty Fort council has decided that they don't want any of "those people" to move into their town voting 5-1 to support the Arizona Immigration law. Last I checked Forty Fort doesn't have an illegal immigration problem. The only sane person on the council on this issue is Joe Chacke who voted against the resolution.



"It's always been my belief, my philosophical, political belief, that immigration is a federal issue," he said. "Local governments and state governments don't belong in illegal immigration. The country is divided and it's going to come to a head at some point, but I just don't think it's Arizona's or Forty Fort's position to address it.

Update: From Ed Mitchell
"Congressman Kanjorski didn't even attend the joint session. Don't let facts get in the way of your propaganda, Lou"