Pray for Obama ... To Die?

Oh, isn't this just adorable: a teddy bear that encourages children to pray for our President. To die. Right-Wing Christian Conservatives are urging people to "Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8" with bumper stickers, t-shirts, mugs, and even teddy bears. Such amazing grace Christian sentiment, and just in time for the Thanksgiving/Holiday Season! But if you read Psalm 109 it says, "Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow." "Let his days be few; Let another take his office." Ruh oh. Is this what "compassionate conservatism" is about? Having their personal God/Jesus smite Obama?

Do these so called "Christians" really want Obama to die, or is this just another one of those "meant to be funny" (wink wink) anti-Obama Teabagger Birther Little Hussein Racist Monkey Doll Nazi Socialist Communist Terrorist End of the World Death Panel Obama's Gonna Kill Grandma so Get Your Gun cuz the President is really a Muslim ... punch lines?

If all this fear-mongering, racist-hateful, and anti-government propaganda led by Fox News and Glenn Beck and the Teabaggers really leads to (God forbid) religious zealot plots to kill our President, we doubt it will be the handiwork of loony Al-Qaeda. We've got plenty of radical and dangerous Christian right-wing racist extremist/terrorists right here in the Good Old U.S. of A(holes).

CafePress has recently taken these dread-laden products off the market. Thank God.

More info at Think Progress

Mr. & Mrs. Dottie collaborated on this post.

My PTA Pitch

Those of you who follow this blog are probably aware of how steamed I am about NCLB (The Federal No Child Left Behind Act) mainly because it mandates how/what a teacher must teach, and has resulted in a stale "teaching to the test" curriculum in our public schools. This method of teaching is detrimental to our children because it stifles creativity and critical thinking, and hinders meaningful learning. As a former teacher, I can tell you that things have really changed in public education, and I don't like what I see. When I taught elementary art 10 years ago in urban Allentown schools, students put on plays in the classroom, made art projects, science and history were important subjects, and there was teaching across the curriculum (i.e. integration of all subjects to help kids make connections and be engaged in learning.) I don't see this happening at my son's school, and I am not happy about it.

Should parents just accept the crummy curriculum? Well, the NCLB Act is law until 2012, so there is not much we can do about what is taught in the classroom. I am not happy about the fact that Obama has not just done away with NCLB altogether. That would be REAL CHANGE I could believe in.

There is a way parents can have a voice, and try to fill the creativity void: get involved with your school's PTA. That's where you can develop enrichment activities and programs for kids. And the kids really need it. I serve on the Board of my son's school PTA, and I chair the Reflections Art Program, Craft Day, and help with most special events. We just had a really cool science program for the kids at our last PTA meeting. Find your niche, and volunteer, even if it's just an hour a week, it does make a big difference. There are many committees and opportunities for parents and community members. It is very rewarding work, and the kids really do appreciate it.

The National PTA has important purposes and goals:

To promote the welfare of the children and youth in home, school, community, and place of worship.
To raise the standards of home life.
To secure adequate laws for the care and protection of children and youth.
To bring into closer relation the home and the school, that parents and teachers may cooperate intelligently in the education of children and youth.
To develop between educators and the general public such united efforts as will secure for all children and youth the highest advantages in physical, mental, social, and spiritual education.

Read more here: http://www.pta.org/1162.asp

Dunce Corner: Paul Carpenter

Readers (don't miss this) ... in today's Morning Call "newspaper," "columnist" Paul Carpenter who we emailed a link to our Most Recent Post on DA Jim Martin on Monday morning does a just Masterful Misdirection job on it, spending nearly his entire article musing about Japanese word usage.  

Oh and then he finally gets around to mentioning his "no nonsense" (wink wink) buddy DA Jim Martin in the last coupla sentences: 

"District Attorney James Martin appealed to Superior Court, which relied on a rare trait (sanity) in the appellate court system and upheld Steinberg. Saturday's story said Martin may further appeal the case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Given my opinion of the Supremes, which is no better than my opinion of pimps and prostitutes of any ethnicity, that appeal could very well be successful." -Paul Carpenter

Very clever, Paul. 

So (in your opinion) the PA Superior Court applied "sanity" in upholding Judge Steinberg's presumably good call (in your opinion) to toss DA Jim Martin's case (on its ear) out of Lehigh County Common Pleas Court ... 

but if the PA Superior Court's (and Judge Steinberg's) ruling gets reversed by the PA Supreme Court, well that'll be because they're all like "pimps and prostitutes" on that bench ... and (you're like freakin' Houdini, Paul) NOT A WORD ON THE SCREAMING ASSHOLE FACTOR HERE, i.e., your pal DA Jim Martin, who is ARROGANTLY AND STUBBORNLY REFUSING TO LET GO OF THIS PAYING FOR SEX ISSUE, WHILE WASTING THE TAXPAYERS' AND THE COURTS' TIME & MONEY, AND ALL B/C JIM'S GIGANTIC but fragile EGO HAS BEEN BRUISED BY JUDGE STEINBERG.

Paul. You may be fooling Jim Martin ... and his trembling fan base of super voters aged 80+ ... but you're not fooling the authors and readers of this blog, and we all vote too. 

Read Paul Carpenter's Moronic/Dunce Article

DA Jim Martin Still Firmly in Favor of Paying for Sex

In vein-throbbing defiance of the Pennsylvania Superior Court and Lehigh County Judge Robert Steinberg and the Pennsylvania State Police, Lehigh County District Attorney (for now) Jim Martin is maintaining his hard-line stance that it's appropriate to pay citizen informants to have sex at massage spas as many times as Martin wants it. Yup. 

Sadly, DA Martin is now caught nakedly all alone w/ his over-sexed issue. 

Let us explain ... 

Back in 2006, some local (and still un-named) guy patronizing the Shiatsu (massage parlor) Spa in suburban Allentown was highly "offended" when sex was allegedly offered to him. He later contacted State Police who proposed that the "offended" man return to the spa and (what the heck) have sex w/ the female masseuse who had "offended" him. Well apparently the guy got over being "offended" pretty quickly as he returned to the spa for "a smorgasbord of sexual activity" four (4) more times. Each "Happy Ending" was paid for by the PA State Police who also paid the increasingly "offended" (wink wink) informant $180.00 for performing such upstanding civic service.

The State Police made recordings of themselves and the "offended" informant laughing and joking about his multiple sexual encounters at the spa. 

"No Nonsense" (wink wink) DA Jim Martin took charge and charged the owner of the spa w/ prostitution, presumably after Martin himself stopped laughing like a high school sophomore at the State Police's hardy har har recordings. 

Lehigh County Judge Robert Steinberg (Martin's far superior predecessor as DA) tossed off Martin's case immediately on the grounds that the government (namely DA Martin and the cops) had "acted outrageously." 

Steinberg's position was that the "offended" man's subsequent, frequent, and state cop-paid-for visits to the spa for sex "did not advance the police investigation."

Steinberg went on to say that we [the people] expect more from law enforcement [and especially from our Chief Law Enforcement Officer DA Jim Martin, eh?] "and demand that they conduct their investigations and utilize their resources without resorting to such embarrassing investigative techniques." 

Steinberg continued: "No adequate supervisory guidance was provided [Jim?], no standards existed for this type of investigation [again, Martin M.I.A], and some of the behavior by the participants [this includes DA Martin] was sophomoric."

In a jaw-dropping display of hard-on arrogance, DA Jim Martin subsequently appealed Judge Steinberg's ruling to the Pennsylvania Superior Court-- as if our PA courts aren't gagging already on total nonsense appeals. 

On Thursday, 11/5/09, the PA Superior Court spanked and bitch-slapped DA Jim Martin by upholding Judge Steinberg's ruling against him. Yup. 

"It is difficult to imagine how this informant could have been so offended, and yet proceed to engage in oral and sexual intercourse with the two women in the case, and laugh about it with the investigating troopers after each occasion," wrote Judge John T. Bender [swear to God] for the 3-judge Superior Court panel. 

So was DA Jim Martin finally spent and ready for a cigarette? Hardly. Like the "offended" Shiatsu Spa John, Jumbo Jim Martin is coming back for more. 

Martin says he "plans to seek review by the State SUPREME Court." [!]

Readers, even PA State Police spokeswoman Lt. Myra Taylor concedes that "the informant's behavior did not conform with state police standards" and that the "troopers' conduct has been addressed internally."

Additionally, the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas and the Pennsylvania Superior Court have both ruled against DA Jim Martin. 

But DA Jim Martin wants to pay for sex (dammit), and as frequently as he sees fit (dammit), because nobody, and we mean NOBODY, tells (unopposed) DA Jim Martin he's WRONG, and so he's taking his "Justice Mission" all the way to the PA Supreme Court. 

What an asshole. 

Philadelphia Inquirer  

Morning Call "Newspaper"  

Teabaggers Saved by Government Healthcare Workers

In a delicious display of poetic irony, Teabaggers rallying against "government takeover of healthcare" (wink wink) in Washington this week were saved by government healthcare workers. Yep. One protester suffered a heart attack, and four other elderly protesters needed emergency treatment. Luckily, medical professionals from the Capitol's physician's office were on the scene immediately to save these NeoCon lives. The rally was organized by wacky right wingnut Michele Bachman (R-MN). The man who suffered the heart attack was being wheeled away on a stretcher just as House Minority Leader John Boehner stepped up to the microphone to talk about the dangers of the Democrat's socialized medicine and communist agenda. Why didn't John Boner intervene and protect the 4 fallen Teabaggers from the dangers of socialized medicine?! See story here

Above photo is of protesters holding a sign with picture of corpses from Dachau. How horrifying to compare the public option to The Holocaust! At this rally, Rep. Steve King(R-IA) actually autographed a teabagger sign that said "Ken-ya Trust Obama?" Nice.

Bernie O'Hare (nearly) the "kiss of death" for Don Cunning-Ham

Once popular Lehigh County Executive Don Cunning-Ham (D) limped, staggered, and crawled his way to an empty and shallow “victory” on Tuesday night, narrowly “beating” previously unknown and positively unqualified Republican/Evangelical challenger Scott Ott by a razor thin margin of 800 votes out of more than 40,000 votes cast.

Most political pundits had been anticipating a Cunning-Ham reelection landslide in the neighborhood of 80%.

Instead, Cunning-Ham got only 51% of the vote, and, just barely. 

We trust that this stunning, near-miss upset was a LONG OVERDUE WAKE UP CALL to Don, and to all local politicos, regarding the toxic and potentially terminal political danger of granting "media" access to evil sadist hate blogger, Bernie O’Hare, even if you’re a seemingly invincible office holder like Don Cunning-Ham and Jim Martin used to be.

Regrettably (in hindsight), Team Cunning-Ham had made disbarred and disgraced ex-lawyer O’Hare their main "go to" "guy" for Don Cunning-Ham press release dissemination. Bad idea. 

Even more foolishly, Oh Donny Boy had done numerous syrupy too cute interviews into O’Hare’s flip-cam for broadcast at O’Hare’s cronyism-on-parade spin blog, Lehigh Valley Ramblings.

Apparently, the voting public was not amused. Oopsie. 

ATTENTION ALL LOCAL POLITICOS: 

LEARN FROM DON CUNNING-HAM’s HUGE MISTAKE, unless you have more political capital to blow than Don used to have. 

Affiliating w/ Bernie O’Hare is a political kiss of death.

Here’s why (and sadly, Don Cunning-Ham ignored these facts) ... 

O'Hare was disbarred in 1986 for sabotaging his own client's civil rights litigation w/ "evil intent." See: Part 2: George Usry

When they finally caught up w/ O'Hare, he had just finished successfully sabotaging the wrongful death litigation of a grieving widow and her three fatherless children. See: Part 3: Lucille White

Recently, O'Hare publicly threatened (twice) to sabotage the wrongful death litigation of Sheena Villa. See: Why is Bernie O'Hare Defiling Sheena Villa?

In 1986, O'Hare's own lawyer told the PA Supreme Court that O'Hare had a "serious emotional problem."

Obviously, O'Hare has never been rehabilitated.

Still duped by O'Hare?

We'll petition Scott Ott to pray for you. 

OUR ADVICE TO ALL LOCAL POLITICOS: 

REMOVE O'HARE FROM YOUR MEDIA LIST.

START AVOIDING O'HARE LIKE THE PLAGUE HE IS. 

START RIGHT NOW.  

Reelect Ed Pawlowski and Give Him a Big Raise

UpDate: Mayor Pawlowski cruised to reelection w/ a whopping 74% popular vote mandate. Congrats, Mr. Mayor! 

The Mayor of Allentown's salary has not been increased since 1996. It's hard to believe that the mayor of the third largest city in Pennsylvania is paid only $61,493.00. Several years ago, there was concern that the salary was too low compared to the salaries of other PA Mayors, so a group was formed to study the issue. The group determined that in 2010 the Mayor of Allentown's salary should increase to $95,000.00 and City Council approved this increase.

Currently, because of economic hard times the Obama Administration is well on its way to reversing (and making it look easy), there are some people who think Mayor Pawlowski should not take his approved salary increase. That's dumb. But consider the source(s). 

Ray O'Connell (D), a former ASD middle school principal who is running for City Council supports a pay increase for Mayor Pawlowski so Ray's got our vote. O'Connell understands that in order to attract highly qualified mayoral candidates to Allentown, the mayor's salary should reflect the importance of the position. Educators like O'Connell understand this concept, likely because they have first-hand experience with being undervalued, see: the unfairly low salary most teacher's make compared to the very valuable job they do. Ditto Ed Pawlowski. 

Here at Lehigh Valley Somebody, the #1 Most Influential Political Blog in Pennsylvania most weeks in Liberal Influence, we believe that Mayor Pawlowski has accomplished a lot for Allentown. No real estate tax increase in 5 yrs, crime is down 12% overall, surveillance cameras have been installed, new businesses are sprouting up like flowers downtown, our parks are being improved despite rabidly racist opposition from a lunatic fringe "3%,", and slumlords are being held accountable. Sure, we have a long way to go, but we think Ed Pawlowski is making a hugely positive difference. Plus, anyone who works so hard for Allentown as Ed Pawlowski does, and for so little pay, has gotta have his heart and soul into it and care very deeply about our, and his, city.

On November 3, VOTE TO REELECT ED PAWLOWSKI MAYOR OF ALLENTOWN.

And then let's start paying Ed $95K annually ASAP so he keeps running Allentown and keeps running for reelection and winning. 

Falling Down Drunk Supervisor Wants Your Vote

UpDate: Frankenfield fell out of office, garnering only 160 votes. We wonder if one (or several) of Tim's votes were from Wind Gap District "Judge" Adrianne L. Masut (?)  

Timothy Frankenfield (D), 43, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Plainfield Township, and the former township Fire Marshall, has scored two citations in the past three years for public drunkenness. 

During the first incident in Dec. of 2006, he was stopped while walking towards a vehicle after leaving a Lower Nazareth area liquor store. He had a blood alcohol content of .30, nearly four times the legal limit. Was Frankenfield heading for his car and intending to drive? The "news report" fails to say. 

Then in June of 2009, Frankenfield was found passed out on the floor of the Municipal building with a bottle of Jack Daniels next to him see story here He was at the Municipal Building because he had arranged for a (non-public) emergency management meeting. He had a .17 BAC at that time, the same time that he would have been making public policy decisions, if he had not passed out first. Frankenfield later publicly apologized, saying it would never happen again, and  that he fell because he has a medical condition. District Judge Adrianne Masut, Wind Gap, (sound familiar?) (see this post) received his guilty plea by mail in the second incident, and Frankenfield was fined $150.00 plus court costs.

Frankenfield is an incumbent up for re-election this year in a race where there are four candidates running for two vacant Plainfield Township Supervisor seats. He wants the voters to focus on his record of public service, not his record of public drunkenness. After all, a little "booze" never hurt anyone (wink wink), right?

“I don’t believe it’s relevant,” said Frankenfield. “I believe my record not only as supervisor but in many years of community service stands for itself. Bar none.”

Why wasn't Frankenfield arrested? He's a danger to society if he drives while intoxicated, and did not learn his lesson. Instead, he gets a slap on the wrist from D.J. Masut for being a repeat offender and is able to continue in his public role as Chairman of Supervisors.

Is this the kind of role model the citizens of Plainfield Township want? Can an intoxicated person make clear decisions on public policy? And doesn't Judge Masut have a responsibility to protect citizens from dangerous drunk drivers? Did Masut give him a pass because he's a "connected" elected official?

What a sham our local "justice system" is around here, protecting and enabling connected criminals, and putting our communities at risk.

2009 World Champion New York Yankees

Last night, Major League Baseball's best team, the New York Yankees (103-59) beat baseball's 2nd best team, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (97-65) to capture their 40th American League pennant.

LVS predicts the Yankees will sweep past the Phillies (93-69) and onto their unprecedented (in all of sports) 27th World Championship in 6 games or less.

Grayson's Got Guts!

Representative Alan Grayson (D-Fla) has become the new star of the Democratic Party because he has the courage to speak out loudly for the people. During a speech on the House floor, he said that the GOP's alternative healthcare plan is simple, "Don't Get Sick. And if you do get sick, die quickly." see this video

Grayson highlighted a Harvard study that found 44,000 Americans die annually due to no health insurance. We wrote about those facts here at LVS. We Must Have A Public Option

It's refreshing to finally watch a Democrat speak in a no-nonsense way, and to call out the RepubliCONS as "the party of no, and soon, the party of nobody." Seems like it is working. The "you get more bees with honey" approach is not gonna work here because people are dying, and because the majority of the American public supports a public option, or as it has been cleverly coined by Liberals, "Medicare Part E," i.e., Medicare for Everybody. Sometimes the truth has gotta sting and wake people up. Democrats have got to stand up to the bullying, lies, and smear campaigns of the right. Grayson says, "I don't remember hearing a lot about bipartisanship when we were talking about tax breaks for the rich."

Democrats are in power now and we gotta start getting things done. Let the tea baggers protest-- who cares. The facts speak for themselves. We the people want a public option.

Grayson has started a website called Names of the Dead as a tribute to people who have died due to lack of health insurance.

Grayson's campaign fundraising website is called A Congressman With Guts.

We're hoping Alan Grayson's gutsiness is contagious.

[Mr. Dottie contributed to this post]

Quit Bashing Our Teachers

It's a rare occasion when our local "news media" reports anything positive about teachers, schools, or education in general. In fact, right now, teacher bashing is in vogue due to recent reaction to the Saucon Valley teachers strike. And when it comes to education issues, our local "newspaper" provides a stage for lunkhead columnist Paul Carpenter to bloviate regularly his misinformed opinions.

Teachers strikes are not good news, but the overwhelmingly negative opinions about teachers expressed in the majority of letters published in the Opinion section of The Morning Call is bad news for our community. If those know-it-all critics who like to opine about education would volunteer and spend just one day in a classroom in the Allentown School District, I believe they would have a new appreciation for teachers and the extremely demanding job they do. And it's a job that benefits everyone in our society. Sadly, teachers have been labeled as liberal elitists who belong to corrupt unions and work less hours than everyone else. Bullshit. And if it's such an easy and cushy job, then why aren't you a teacher?

Because of the Federal No Child Left Behind Act, teachers must now spend much more time doing paperwork and grading tests, so they are putting in many extra hours in addition to the very demanding school day of handling up to 30 or more kids in a classroom. But before NCLB and its mandated curriculum of teaching to the test, dedicated teachers spent extra time conducting after school clubs, preparing creative lessons, attending meetings and conferences, calling parents. What's expected of them now is unrealistic. And because of the unrealistic demands put on teachers due to NCLB, there is less time in the schedule for teachers to be creative. I could go on and on about the detrimental effects of NCLB on students, teachers, and society but that will have to be a topic for a future post.

Striking is a last resort for teachers. In Saucon Valley, one of the issues that the school board and teachers cannot agree on is tuition reimbursement for graduate work. The school board is discouraging teachers from becoming better, more motivated teachers because they believe teachers shouldn't be reimbursed for graduate work. They want to make sure that the already underpaid teachers don't make too much money by moving up on the pay scale! See this article

But in the private sector, it's common practice for companies to pay for employees to take graduate classes and to continue their education for the overall benefit to the company. This decision by the school board shows a disrespect for the valuable job that teachers do. And the commenters at the above article are saying "FIRE 'EM ALL." If this kind of negative attitude towards teachers is the norm in our community we are doomed, and I can understand why teachers may not feel motivated to do their jobs. Hopefully, the closed minded attitudes of some Lehigh Valley residents aren't representative of the rest of our community. If people really cared about children, they would not be bashing teachers, instead they would be supporting teachers.

This post was written by Mrs. Dottie, a former teacher.

Hope For Investigative Journalism

Here's an idea worth supporting: The Freedom Journalism School is a bold new program that will train 50 citizen journalists and bloggers from the South, giving them the tools and skills needed to carry out in-depth investigative journalism. As our corporate news media continues to deteriorate because ratings and profit have become more important than informing the public, there is a void that needs to be filled. Democracy cannot work unless the public is properly informed. According to their website, this is one of the reasons why The Freedom Journalism School was started:

"The media's fading commitment to public interest and investigative journalism to put a spotlight on injustice and hold the powerful accountable."

The project is modeled after the Freedom Schools of the civil rights movement. These schools taught children the value of asking the important questions, not just learning facts and figures, so students could become agents for change. In our local media and blogosphere we could really benefit from more citizens asking excellent questions that deserve to be answered, and holding our elected officials accountable. Don't let big corporate interests stifle debate or block reform on important issues. Speaking truth to power will light the way to a better future for all of us. If you would like to support this program and find out more information, here's a link: Facing South

It's About Time For Gay Rights

After winning the Nobel Peace Prize, our President Obama has started kicking some civil rights buttocks by pledging to end the outdated policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the military, and to move forward on repealing the Defense of Marriage Act. It's way long past the time that gays should have the same civil rights as everyone else in America.
see story

We know that our President has an enormous amount of important stuff on his proverbial plate right now, but we think this issue of gay rights is extremely important. Gay columnist Andrew Sullivan is not happy and says that Obama has done nothing, offered no timeline, no deadline for action. I can understand his POV and frustration, and we think Obama needs to now act, but geez what about the Democrats in Congress? We have a Democratic majority and still nothing has been done. We think our elected leaders and all of us need to scream a little louder about this issue. Gotta give the wacko religious right and the neo-cons credit for screaming the loudest about their crazy beliefs and values. We can understand why gays are tired of waiting, but we don't think complaining is going to help them right now.

Obama is putting the issue front and center by speaking about it and pledging to do something. He's done more than any other President. Gotta give him credit. In our present time of such gross injustices, (ie health insurance company abuses, bailing out Wall St. robber barons, right wing media lies) I guess we should be happy about even the smallest tablescrap of Democratic ballsiness in this country. Maybe it will inspire other Democrats to grow half a set, and speak out LOUDER for human rights.

We Must Have A Public Option

I don't see how we can have real health care reform without the public option. Corporate control of our health care is resulting in people dying for the good of the insurance company. It's immoral. Corporations should not have control over our lives. A government run public option can co-exist with private plans. People can choose what they want, or stay with the plan they have. Obama's plan is NOT a government take over. The public option makes perfect sense and there is now an urgency to lower costs, and hold the greedy companies accountable for their many abuses, which have resulted in the deaths of American people. It is a serious crisis. The wingnut commentators are scaring people with lies. The Republicons want to see Obama fail, no matter how many Americans die. They hate Obama more than they love America. And they hate him because he is Black. We must have a public option, it's a human need.

Here are some facts and stats:

45,000 uninsured Americans die each year, according to research done by the Harvard Medical School. That's one person every 12 minutes.

See this article

46.3 million Americans lacked coverage in 2008. Uninsured adults under age 64 have a 40% higher risk of dying than those who have coverage. These people are dying from complications associated with preventable diseases such as diabetes because they can't afford proper care. The insurance companies run the real "death panels."

The New England Journal of Medicine reports that 73% of doctors favor a public option.

65% of Americans favor a public option.

14,000 people a day are losing their health insurance.

Where is our compassion for fellow human beings? We are all in this together, why not pool the wealth to help each other out? No one should have to die because they can't afford health insurance.

Did you know that young adults ages 19-29 make up 30% of the nation's uninsured? An average health insurance premium for young adults for the school year 2007-2008 was $850.00.

See this document

According to The Kaiser Family Foundation, the average cost of a family's health care policy is now more than $13,000 annually, having more than doubled in a decade. It is unaffordable for middle class people, especially those who (like us) are self-employed and have to pay the entire amount. Our policy is going up to $932.00 a month, and that's just for 2 people, since our child is enrolled in CHIP, which is a great government run program for kids. We would choose the public option.

Commissioner Bill Leiner Leans Our Way

By: Mrs. Dottie

Readers, Bill (Villa) and I had a very enjoyable 1.5 hour breakfast chat w/ Lehigh County Commissioner Bill Leiner Jr. this morning at the fabulously renovated new West Side Diner (formerly Saylor's) in Allentown.

It appears the "two Bills" have a lot in common.

Both Bills are really nice guys and true (and proud) Liberal Democrats. 

Both Bills are former Bethlehem Steel workers, Bill Leiner a longtime veteran of BethSteel machine shops, and Bill Villa a furnace jack-hammerer in the mid-1970s.

Bill Villa believes that blogger Bernie O'Hare has never been rehabilitated from the evil intent activity O'Hare was disbarred for in 1986-- that is, O'Hare's 2-year emotional torturing of his African-American civil rights client, and former Bethlehem Steel worker, George Usry.

See: O'Hare Evil Intent Activity 1986

Bill Villa also believes that when O'Hare publicly threatened, twice, to sabotage the civil litigation of Sheena Villa at the David Najarian & Bernie O'Hare co-created "Troll Parade" blog, that that evil intent activity provides compelling evidence that O'Hare has never been rehabilitated from the evil intent activity O'Hare was disbarred for in 1986-- i.e., sabotaging the civil litigation of his own client, George Usry.

See: O'Hare Evil Intent Activity 2009

Because of Bill Villa's beliefs, Bill Leiner told us he would stop commenting at O'Hare's Lehigh Valley Ramblings blog.

Instead, Bill Leiner will be commenting here, at Lehigh Valley Somebody, the #1 Most Influential Political Blog in Pennsylvania most weeks in Liberal Influence and currently ranked 4th Most Influential Political Blog in PA in all categories.

While we can't speak for the family of George Usry ... or the family of Lucille White ... on behalf of the family of Sheena Villa, we thank Lehigh County Commissioner Bill Leiner Jr. for making what we believe is an excellent decision.

We encourage all local politicos, and everyone, to follow Bill Leiner's lead.

"Gentleman (wink wink) Jim" Martin

Readers, FYI, we're still about 2-3 weeks away from being able to follow-through fully on our pledge from a previous post to detail for you exactly how crooked and incompetent DA Jim Martin fixes DUI homicide cases for cronies and drinking buddies.

Hang in there w/ us, it'll be worth the wait. 

Through this blog, we’ve been exposing the unhealthy, crony-crooked relationship that has existed between DA Jim Martin and The Morning Call "newspaper" ever since Martin was appointed to his office by the Lehigh County Commissioners in 1998. 

LVS's local blogosphere exposé exclusives include ... 

DA Martin Stonewalls on Stinky Garlicki Hiring 

Jury Rejects DA Martin's Vote-Pandering Prosecution

DA Martin, a YEAR to file charges in a DUI Death? You've got some explaining to do

Jury Tosses DA Jim Martin's Murder Case in an Hour

DA Martin Fails, Child Rapist Freed From Prison  

Our Justice Mission Goal is two-fold:

* To de-throne crooked and incompetent DA Jim Martin and replace him with the kind of modern district attorney Lehigh County deserves.

* To spare other grieving families the needless extra agony of having to outmaneuver DA Jim Martin and The Morning Call (like we did) to get justice in Lehigh County.

We fight to get the truth out there, so that hopefully your family won't have to go through what our family continues to battle.

Is Dean Browning a Shameless Publicity Whore?

Readers, in spite of overwhelming evidence published exclusively here at LVS and emailed to every elected official in Lehigh and Northampton counties that details how hate blogger Bernie O'Hare has never been rehabilitated from the Evil Intent activity (in the conclusions of the PA Supreme Court) that he was disbarred for in 1986, and that O'Hare continues to perpetrate sadistic Evil Intent activity against his historically favorite target, i.e., already suffering, grief-stricken families ...  

See: O'Hare Evil Intent Activity 1986

See: O'Hare Evil Intent Activity 2009

... incredibly, and inexplicably, Lehigh County Commissioners Dean Browning and Bill Leiner were spotted on the Lehigh Valley Ramblings Shameless Publicity Whore Stage last Friday comment-pontificating at an O'Hare blog dropping on Charlie Dent. 

As promised, we confronted Commissioner Bill Leiner immediately and Bill has booked a breakfast meeting w/ Angie and me for October 5 to either:

a) Justify his continued affiliation w/ O'Hare to us in person and face-to-face, or ...  

b) Pledge to avoid O'Hare like the plague he is and to tell all his local politico pals to do the same. 

We'll of course have an exclusive report on the outcome of our "Breakfast Banter w/ Bill Leiner" here at LVS. 

In the meantime ... 

Dean Browning: please send us your statement regarding how you justify your continued affiliation w/ O'Hare after having digested LVS's exclusive exposé on him. 

THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT BERNIE O'HARE

Part 1: Overview

Part 2: George Usry

Part 3: Lucille White

Part 4: Still Duped By O'Hare?

Bernie O'Hare: What's it to you?

Anonymous said...

"What's it to O'Hare & Company [e.g., David Najarian] that Bill Villa has legitimate complaints re: DA Jim Martin and The Morning Call "newspaper?" Why are they so compulsively interested in Bill's efforts in exposing some things around here? Obviously, Bill has the FACTS and he can communicate them w/ frightening precision and the same goes for Mrs. Villa. Are their fellow bloggers simply JEALOUS of this blog's obvious journalistic and literary superiority? Is there some quid pro quo (pay to play) happening between Martin's office, the "newspaper" and these saboteur bloggers? Is Martin really steamed that Bill out-foxed him so embarrassingly w/ the LeBarre prosecution? Is it ALL of the above? SOMETHING'S got to explain why all these hate bloggers (e.g., Chris Casey) spend more time HERE than at their own blogs." 

Excellent Questions. 

And here's a sobering FACT. Frequently trolling here for over an hour per visit, these are Bernie O'Hare's most recent surveillance visits to this blog,  as documented by our SiteMeter(R) over just the past few days ... and these visits are from a confirmed internet "fingerprint" we have on O'Hare ... O'Hare no doubt uses multiple IP identities and likely trolls our blog much more frequently than this ... 

Time of Visit > Sep 24 2009 10:27:10 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 25 2009 12:44:30 am

Time of Visit > Sep 25 2009 9:24:52 am

Time of Visit > Sep 25 2009 10:36:17 am 

Time of Visit > Sep 25 2009 11:31:12 am

Time of Visit > Sep 25 2009 7:35:11 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 25 2009 9:05:14 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 25 2009 10:51:21 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 26 2009 12:12:56 am

Time of Visit > Sep 26 2009 9:29:58 am

Time of Visit > Sep 26 2009 11:25:36 am

Time of Visit > Sep 26 2009 1:10:03 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 26 2009 2:11:51 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 26 2009 4:30:31pm

Time of Visit > Sep 26 2009 5:40:10 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 26 2009 6:45:07 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 26 2009 10:41:03 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 27 2009 10:19:37 am

Time of Visit > Sep 27 2009 3:06:29 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 27 2009 4:11:17 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 27 2009 5:32:35 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 27 2009 6:49:21 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 27 2009 7:59:06 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 27 2009 11:34:59 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 28 2009 1:30:25 am 

UPDATE: O'Hare's creepy stalking visits to this blog continue ... 

Time of Visit > Sep 28 2009 10:51:46 am 

Time of Visit > Sep 28 2009 12:21:24 pm 

Time of Visit > Sep 29 2009 10:58:10 am

Time of Visit > Sep 29 2009 11:44:18 am

Time of Visit > Sep 29 2009 1:28:23 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 29 2009 2:02:19 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 29 2009 9:25:15 pm

Time of Visit > Sep 30 2009 2:51:52 am

Time of Visit > Sep 30 2009 10:58:01 am

Time of Visit > Sep 30 2009 12:21:45 pm

Time of Visit > Oct 1 2009 1:34:35 am

Time of Visit > Oct 1 2009 12:23:00 pm

Time of Visit > Oct 2 2009 9:46:25 am

Time of Visit > Oct 3 2009 2:21:36 am

Time of Visit > Oct 3 2009 10:08:03 am

Time of Visit > Oct 3 2009 1:01:14 pm

Time of Visit > Oct 3 2009 2:31:00 pm

Time of Visit > Oct 4 2009 9:47:47 am

Time of Visit > Oct 4 2009 10:44:23 am

Time of Visit > Oct 4 2009 10:59:24 am

Time of Visit > Oct 4 2009 9:35:06 pm 

Time of Visit > Oct 5 2009 9:24:41 am

Time of Visit > Oct 5 2009 7:37:24 pm

Time of Visit > Oct 5 2009 8:48:34 pm

Time of Visit > Oct 5 2009 10:30:52 pm

Time of Visit > Oct 5 2009 11:45:30 pm

Time of Visit > Oct 6 2009 8:17:37 am

Time of Visit > Oct 6 2009 9:36:58 am

Time of Visit > Oct 6 2009 11:06:38 am

Time of Visit > Oct 6 2009 12:24:38 pm 

Time of Visit > Oct 6 2009 1:04:05 pm

Time of Visit > Oct 6 2009 5:09:05 pm

Time of Visit > Oct 7 2009 1:52:07 am

Time of Visit > Oct 7 2009 9:29:49 am

Time of Visit > Oct 8 2009 10:37:18 am

Time of Visit > Oct 8 2009 12:02:47 pm

Time of Visit > Oct 9 2009 11:07:46 am

Time of Visit > Oct 9 2009 12:25:19 pm

Time of Visit > Oct 9 2009 9:56:44 pm

Time of Visit > Oct 10 2009 10:40:11 am

Time of Visit > Oct 10 2009 2:55:35 pm

Time of Visit > Oct 10 2009 4:51:22 pm

Time of Visit > Oct 11 2009 11:01:27 am

Time of Visit > Oct 11 2009 8:25:10 pm

We've lost count, and interest.

O'Hare & Company [e.g., David Najarian, Chris Casey] ... what's it to you?

Pusillanimous Personified

[LVS exclusive exposé on David Najarian] 

Readers, "attorney" (for now) David Najarian, Lynn Township Supervisor (pictured), the originator (w/ Bernie O'Hare) of the "Troll" blog, and the initiator of a Troll Blog comment dialogue w/ O'Hare to sabotage the wrongful death litigation of my daughter Sheena, has filed a private criminal complaint (which any whining crybaby can do), Summary Harassment (same octane as a parking ticket) against Angie and me. 

Sadly, David Najarian can dish it out ... but he can't take it. He's pusillanimous. And pathetically so. 

Not surprisingly, there's also a not so hidden agenda at play here, as NeoCon Republican David Najarian's harassment complaint against us revolves around this, as noted in his complaint:

"Villa wrote: "I don't care how many people are in the way of what I'm trying to accomplish, which is exposing and bringing down two genuinely bad guys, Jim Martin, and Glenn Kranzley. I can't be stopped. Nothing will stop me from achieving my goals." 

In his "harassment" (against whom?) complaint, David Najarian helpfully brays, "By way of background, Jim Martin is District Attorney of Lehigh County! Glenn Kranzley is the Editor of The Morning Call newspaper!"

Najarian then digresses briefly to boast that his blog was one of the original members of the Valley Blogosphere "community" of bloggers at The Morning Call "newspaper." What a coincidence.

Readers (and voters), David Najarian's "harassment" complaint was approved by the Office of James B. (for Burp) Martin, who by way of background is (and what are the odds?) District Attorney of Lehigh County. 

BTW, Glenn Kranzley got fired in June, 2009. And we're still cheering. 

In this unfolding legal passion/power-play and mockery of justice, it will be interesting to see if the role of Adrianne L. Masut, Wind Gap, will be played by District Magistrate Rod Beck of Slatington?

I know I'll be on the edge of my seat (wink wink).  

We do know that the role of O'Hare-duped NorCo DA John Morganelli is being played by crooked and incompetent and O'Hare-duped DA Jim Martin.

Turns out Jim Martin has what baseball bench jockeys call "rabbit ears," i.e., riding Jimbo really gets to him (good to know) and apparently he's also really (hiccup) petty, too. 

Grossly abusing the authority of his office we already knew about. 

Tell ya what, "guys," I'll plead guilty to this: 

Nothing will stop me from achieving my goals.

Why is Bernie O'Hare Defiling Sheena Villa?

[And why do so many local politicians, and the local media, continue to affiliate w/ O'Hare?] 

Readers, it's been three and a half years since my daughter Sheena (pictured with me circa 1995) was killed ... and people who were touched by Sheena, after all this time, are still posting inspired comments in Sheena's memory, and in her honor, at the Sheena Villa Guest Book.

Along with Sheena's equally loving mother, I'm very proud to have co-parented Sheena into the remarkable and memorable young woman Sheena turned out to be, and always will be, in our memories of her.

But hate blogger Bernie O'Hare has an altogether different take on Sheena Villa and her parents, even though O'Hare never knew Sheena or her parents. 

At O'Hare's Morning Call-approved "Troll Parade" blog that O'Hare co-created w/ attorney David C. Najarian, Lynn Township Supervisor, O'Hare has adamantly refused (for nearly a year now) to delete a wildly inaccurate and sadistically cruel "anonymous" comment that O'Hare and Najarian have published up there-- so steadfastly confident, they presumably both are, in the accuracy, integrity, and truthfulness of their statement which goes like this:

"villa daughter was a mess and he can't come to grips with his awful parenting. his bitterness is a reflection of his disgust with the mess of a daughter he created and now wishes to blame on the rest of the world because he and his wife failed to properly do their jobs. they are two of legions of irresponsible parents who are, sadly, forced to live with their own incompetence. i've had enough of their blaming everybody but themselves. no guts. lots of blame. they are poster nuts for why society is going down the toilet: parents who unleash disaterous consequences on the society. in this case, karma bit them hard and they must look in the mirror someday and properly assess blame on themselves. until then, the pathetic charade continues. i don't particularly like or agree with bernie o'hare. i rip him regularly for his views (and sometimes the tone with which they're expressed). at least bernie has the guts to own his shortcomings, the villas will never and will die bitter failures who were made to pay for their mistakes while living. it's a shitty life, but it's the one they so richly deserve."

I see. 

Another nugget of truth and wisdom you will find at the Troll Parade blog is a back-and-forth comment dialogue between ex-attorney O'Hare and attorney David C. Najarian. They are discussing ways to successfully sabotage Sheena Villa's (then upcoming) wrongful death litigation. O'Hare proceeds to threaten us, twice, that he will indeed follow-through on attorney Najarian's "idea starters" and sabotage Sheena's civil litigation    

Readers, as was demonstrated through facts in our recent exposé on him [scroll down], Bernie O'Hare has a history of deeming a civil litigation is "without merit" and taking it upon himself to sabotage it. 

O'Hare successfully sabotaged the civil rights litigation of his own client, George Usry.  

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court disbarred O'Hare  for this, citing "moral turpitude," i.e., evil intent activity. 

But before the PA Supreme Court could catch up w/ O'Hare he had successfully sabotaged the wrongful death litigation of a Luzerne County widow, Lucille White, and her three fatherless children. 

Readers, hate blogger O'Hare has displayed a now well-documented zeal for emotionally torturing already suffering, grief-stricken families-- specifically, by screwing them out of civil settlements. $85,000.00 in George Usry's case. $19 million in Lucille White's case. 

In 2009, 23 years after being disbarred for screwing George Usry out of an $85,000.00 civil settlement, Bernie O'Hare publicly threatened to do the exact same thing to the family of Sheena Villa. 

And if you don't believe O'Hare has a zeal for emotionally torturing Sheena's family, please re-read the "anonymous" comment O'Hare refuses to delete from his Troll Parade blog. Its only purpose is to distort and defile the memory of Sheena Villa, to provoke, and to emotionally torture her grief-stricken family. Ditto every post at The Troll Parade blog. 

Readers, we refer to The Troll Parade blog as being "Morning Call-approved," because the "newspaper," incredibly, and inexplicably, continues to affiliate with and link to O'Hare at its website. 

I suppose we should start calling The Troll Parade blog and O'Hare, "Don Cunningham-approved," and "Michael Donovan-approved," and "Sal Panto-approved," and certainly "John Stoffa-approved and Ron Angle-approved," because of all the local politicos who, incredibly, continue to affiliate w/ evil sadist Bernie O'Hare. 

Q. Do John Stoffa and Ron Angle know that Sheena Villa taught dance in Nazareth for 6 seasons? And that the comments still being posted at Sheena's guest book 3.5 years after her death are coming mostly from grieving dance students of Sheena's and their Northampton County registered voter parents? Are O'Hare NorCo cronies like John Stoffa and Ron Angle and Adrianne L. Masut and John Capobianco and John Morganelli concerned, at all, about thousands of NorCo voters being informed about exactly which NorCo politicos are allied w/ the hate blogger who is defiling their beloved dance teacher Sheena Villa? 

They should be concerned. 

Q. Other than this blog, does anyone have the guts to denounce Bernie O'Hare and disassociate from him?

ATTENTION ALL LOCAL POLITICOS: we'll be watching for your answer to this question. And if your "answer" is to continue affiliating w/ O'Hare, by commenting at his blog, or granting him information and/or interview access, we will come to your office ... and demanding the same "blogger/media" access you grant O'Hare ... we will want your statement regarding how you justify your continued affiliation w/ O'Hare. 

Which we will then publish, and dissect, here. 

We also may run paid POLITICAL CAMPAIGN ADS AGAINST YOU, using the war chest we've accumulated the result of O'Hare's and Najarian's highly unsuccessful sabotage of Sheena's wrongful death litigation.

OUR ADVICE TO ALL LOCAL POLITICOS: 

REMOVE O'HARE FROM YOUR MEDIA LIST.

START AVOIDING O'HARE LIKE THE PLAGUE HE IS. 

START RIGHT NOW.  

THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT BERNIE O'HARE 

 

Part 1: Overview  

 

Part 2: George Usry  

 

Part 3: Lucille White  

 

Part 4: Still Duped By O'Hare?   

LVS Interview w/ Don Cunningham

"Mrs. Dottie" and I first met popular Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham, Jr. (pictured) when Don and Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan were in the audience for a Villas gig in October 2004 at the Illick's Mill Fall Gala in Bethlehem. We have some piks from that gig at our website's "Gig Piks" page and that's Bethlehem City Council person (and our booking host for that very fun Illick's Mill gig) Karen Dolan pictured about half-way down the page. Cunningham and Callahan cornered us after our set to rave about The Villas original music which we thought was very gracious of them. Then in September 2006, The Villas shared the stage with Don and his cover band at Downtown Allentown's "Dancing in the Streets" celebration and opening of the new Butz Corporate Center. We like Don (and his cover band) and we believe the feeling is mutual. We also figure Don knows we're not "nutz" as has been perpetrated against us in certain circles 'round our local blogosphere in the aftermath of our daughter Sheena having been killed by a drunk driver. 

LVS initiated our email interview w/ Don Cunningham three weeks ago on August 28th with an email we published here as a blog post entitled, "Just Say No" to Bernie O'Hare.

When we didn't hear anything back from Don, we popped him this email on September 16:

Hi Don, hope all's well. Q. Have you had a chance to read our blog exposé on Bernie O'Hare? [Follow Link Below] And, do you have a response or a reaction for us, either off, or on, the record? Thanks again for your consideration, Don. Best Regards, Bill Villa

Don emailed us back later that same day and now our interview was rolling:

Bill, Things are going fairly well for me; thanks. Certainly have a little more time on my hands since pulling back from trying to build a race for Governor next year. Anyway, in regard to blogs -- right, wrong or indifferent -- I don't read any of them. People often let me know who is writing what, etc. but I don't read blogs or read newspapers on-line. In regard to bloggers, since they dispense information regarding county government to people who do read them, we treat them as "media." Therefore, we send them our news releases, invite them to news conferences and review and often grant requests for interviews. In this electronic age, I realize I am a bit of a dinosaur in not getting my news and information electronically but I do understand that many others do get their information that way. I didn't realize you have a blog. If you write about county goverment, we certainly will put you on our distribution list. Toward that end, I'm copying Kathleen Parrish, the county's public information director, on this email. I hope you are well -- and the band is playing often. -Don

[LVS Note: Readers, we inserted the link on Kathleen Parrish's name to our post entitled, "DA Martin Stonewalls on Stinky Garlicki Hiring." Although Don Cunningham "didn't realize you have a blog" (wink wink), we're pretty sure Kathleen Parrish knows.]

We responded to Don right away: 

Thanks, Don. I can't speak for the family of George Usry ... or Lucille White ... but on behalf of the family of Sheena Villa, we're asking that you remove Bernie O'Hare and Lehigh Valley Ramblings from your "media" list and avoid him like the plague he is. Don, what can we tell our blog readers, re: your answer to our request? Thanks as always for your consideration. Best Regards, Bill Villa P.S. Hi Kathleen ... 

Don responded to us later the same day: 

Oh, if you need a response, I would just use what is our county policy that was pretty much imbedded in my previous email. We treat all bloggers that dispense information regarding county government as "media." Therefore, we send them our news releases, invite them to news conferences and review and often grant requests for interviews. I have no intention to offer any comment that goes beyond our non-discrimination policy to inform equally all media outlets and reporters that are interested in and cover Lehigh County government. Thanks, Don [cc: Kathleen Parrish]

We responded to Don yesterday: 

Don, we're not asking you to "discriminate" but we are asking that you be more discriminating regarding who you consider "credible media."

O'Hare was disbarred by the PA Supreme Court for "dishonesty, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, unauthorized activity, forgery, cover-up, conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice, illegal conduct, and moral turpitude."

And O'Hare's "moral turpitude," by definition, and in the application of the PA Supreme Court, was the "evil intent" activity of emotionally torturing his already-suffering client George Usry for two years. George Usry was a Bethlehem Steel worker; your father (who also worked there if I recall correctly) may have known George Usry.

If you read our blog's exposé on O'Hare, we can't imagine you not coming to the same conclusion that we and many others have-- i.e., that O'Hare, 23 years later, is still engaging in the same evil intent activity he was disbarred for 23 years ago. He's still getting his kicks through emotionally torturing already suffering, grief-stricken families, and my grieving family has been a favorite target of O'Hare's for over a year now.

Don, we ask that you (at least) apply some due diligence and have your media liaison people examine our exposé on O'Hare. And until you come to an informed decision on this matter, we ask that you initiate a moratorium on O'Hare, regarding Don Cunningham press release information and crony interview access that gives credibility to a "news" source who, clearly, does not merit it.

Q. Will you commit to doing at least this? i.e., informing yourself, re: our facts on O'Hare.

Thank you for your consideration.

Best Regards,

Bill Villa

P.S. Our blog, "Lehigh Valley Somebody," is located here > http://bloggingdottie.blogspot.com.

Start w/ our post dated, August 28, 2009, and work backwards. Thanks.

Readers, this is where we're at, so far, re: the LVS Interview w/ Don Cunningham. 

Hopefully, we'll get more responses back from Don and be able to conclude our interview ... and resolve the disturbing issue of local politicians lending undue credibility to Bernie O'Hare by giving him their unwarranted, and undeserved access. 

If you'd like to read the LVS exposé on Bernie O'Hare that is, hopefully, being examined very carefully by Team Cunningham right now, and by all area politicians eventually, even if we have to camp out in their offices and read it to them, follow these links.

THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT BERNIE O'HARE 

 

Part 1: Overview  

 

Part 2: George Usry  

 

Part 3: Lucille White  

 

Part 4: Still Duped By O'Hare?   

WHY WE FIGHT

* Our talented, beautiful, and kind daughter Sheena was killed, suddenly and violently, by a drunk driver on her 25th birthday in March, 2006. Apparently no big deal to some, but for us this life-shattering event continues to darken our lives with an aching sadness, and until you experience it yourself, you have no clue how surrealistically awful it is to lose a child. 

* A demonstrably crooked, incompetent, and not very bright DA, Jim Martin, "tipped his hand" and gave us good reasons to believe he’d be going easy on Sheena’s killer— and our instincts proved to be dead-on target, as Mr. Martin’s devious attempts to fix Sheena’s case in favor of her killer would reveal.  

* We had to work way too hard to get a measure of “justice” in Lehigh County. Basically, we had to outmaneuver DA Jim Martin, and we resent this greatly. We should have been able to use that time to grieve the loss of our daughter, instead of having to monitor an arrogant and unopposed DA and deter him from fixing Sheena’s case in favor of her killer, and his family.

* We did okay versus DA Jim Martin, all things considered. Sheena’s killer was sentenced to nearly double the PA state mandatory minimum sentence of 3 years. But it took hundreds of letters to DA Jim Martin and Judge Robert Steinberg (in election years for both of them) to flood-light-up DA Martin’s shamelessly lackluster "prosecution" of Sheena’s killer so brightly that it tied Jim Martin’s hands, and prevented a plea deal fix. Thank you again to the hundreds of you who wrote letters. Without them, we are positive Sheena’s killer would have gotten the "weekend jail" he was telling friends he’d be getting in the days immediately following Sheena’s death.

* All through our nightmarish ordeal, The Morning Call "newspaper" protected DA Jim Martin at every turn and refused to report on an array of jaw-dropping irregularities in DA Martin’s "handling" of Sheena’s case.

* In September 2007, our civic-minded vigilance caught DA Jim Martin successfully fixing a DUI homicide case, the night before trial, in favor of the criminal defendant and his family. DA Martin succeeded by using tactics identical to those he had tried to use on us, unsuccessfully.

* The Morning Call “newspaper” helped DA Martin fix this September 2007 DUI homicide case through "reporting" that strayed far beyond "incorrect" and "erroneous" and into the realm of blatant deception. That "reporting" remains uncorrected and un-clarified to this day. The "reporter" was Debbie Garlicki who now works for DA Jim Martin. 

* Through this blog, we’ve been exposing the unhealthy, crony-cozy relationship that has existed between DA Jim Martin and The Morning Call “newspaper” ever since Martin was appointed to his office in 1998. 

* Our Justice Mission Goal is two-fold:

To de-throne crooked and incompetent DA Jim Martin and replace him with the kind of modern district attorney Lehigh County deserves.

To spare other grieving families the needless extra agony of having to outmaneuver DA Jim Martin and The Morning Call to get justice in Lehigh County.

In a post coming soon (as was promised in a previous post), we’ll be reporting on exactly how DA Jim Martin fixes DUI homicide cases for cronies and how The Morning Call “newspaper” helps him. 

We fight to get the truth out there, so that hopefully your family won't have to go through what our family did. 

And what are the motives of those who so strenuously oppose us in our local blogosphere?

Draw your own conclusions ... but keep in mind that our most virulent opponent, Bernie O’Hare, much like DA Jim Martin, has a shameful history of emotionally torturing already suffering, grief-stricken families. O'Hare was in fact disbarred for emotionally torturing a client, George Usry, through "evil intent" activity over a 2-year period.

We fight to de-throne those who operate w/ evil intent.

See our right sidebar content for links to everything we're referencing in this post. 

Then, either help us or stay out of our way.

Meet The New Boss

Many are saying that Obama's powerful speech last night was the greatest speech ever by a US President in front of a joint session of Congress, and we here at LVS agree. He kicked ass. He took CHARGE.

One high point of the speech was when Obama said that his "door is open" to GOP ideas, but he will "call out liars." He spoke directly to senior citizens who have been the target of the ridiculous lies about "death panels." He said his plan is "not a government takeover." A low point of the speech was when Representative Joe Wilson from South Carolina yelled out "you lie" (or some sources report that he said "it's a lie") when Obama stated that his plan does not cover illegal immigrants. Wilson showed complete disrespect for The President, and proved just how low the hateful wingnuts will go to make sure our President fails.

Another high point of Obama's speech was when he spoke about the late Ted Kennedy, and the letter Kennedy wrote in defense of liberalism. Kennedy strongly believed that health care is a moral issue and that it speaks to the character of Americans. To deny sick people health care coverage due to a pre-existing condition, or loss of job, is a social injustice. We are all in this together and should help each other. No one in America should die because they can't afford medical treatment. Quality health care is a human need, not a privilege just for people who can afford it. Evoking Kennedy at the end was LIBERALISM at it's best. Obama spoke directly to the American people , referencing real life stories of people dying and going bankrupt because of the current abuses of the health care industry.

The root of Obama's speech was that comprehensive regulation of the healthcare industry is long overdue. Obama stressed that he does not want to put HIC's out of business, he "just wants to hold them accountable." He wants to make it illegal for HIC's to deny coverage for a pre-existing condition, or when you lose your job. Obama's brilliant plan has pluses for everybody: the American people, the Republicans (Obama has much GOP input including McCain's ideas, and GOP goals of reforming malpractice litigation) and even insurance companies will gain millions of new customers via Obama making minimal coverage mandatory for everyone, similar to car insurance.

Get on board Republicans, the train is leaving the station with or without you. It's time to stop playing partisan politics with the lives of American citizens.

Let The President Inspire Our Son

Update: see "Comments" section to find out which member(s) of the Allentown School District Board of Education are regularly contributing "fellow commentator members" of the rabidly racist blog, The Allentown Commentator.] 

Readers, this is an email we've sent to our son Gianni's principal and teacher at Muhlenberg Elementary School in Allentown. 

Dear Mr. Turton and Miss Dex: 

We understand that the Allentown School District, caving to 

NeoCon right wingnut racist lunacy along with the mainstream media,  will be leaving it up to individual ASD classroom teachers to decide whether or not their students, our children, can watch an address from the President of The United States, Barack Obama, scheduled for the first day of school on Tuesday. 

Please be advised: we insist that our son Gianni have access to President Obama's address to school children on Tuesday, at school. As such, we strongly advise you to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that Gianni has access to the President's address, including moving him to a classroom where the address is being shown, or moving him to another school where President Obama's speech is being "allowed." 

Thank you for your consideration, wishing you a productive and enriching new school year. 

Best Regards, 

Angie Villa & Bill Villa

Update: Readers, we got this nice email response the day after posting this post ... 

Dear Mrs. Villa, 

Muhlenberg Elementary will be taking the necessary steps in order to show President Obama's scheduled speech to our students. If you have any other concerns, please let me know. 

I look forward to meeting you and Gianni on Tuesday!

Thank you, Miss Dex :) 

Update: Got this email from Muhlenberg's cool principal coupla minutes ago (10:34am, 9/8/09)

Mr. & Mrs. Villa, 

It is our intention to show the President's address today. Barring any technical problems the students will see and hear the speech. 

Phil Turton

Update: 12:27pm, 9/8/09, we just watched President Obama's awe-inspiring speech to U.S. students. How anybody can be against this man totally escapes us. On a personal note, we especially liked Obama's words on "standing up to bullies."

DA Martin Stonewalls on Stinky Garlicki Hiring

Readers, for essential background info, please review the following two LVS exclusive blog posts, before reading this post, thanks ... 

1. DA Martin: We Have a Right To Know

2. Kathleen Parrish Responds  

Alrighty then, I trust we're all caught up and on the same page? Great. 

So far, we've established the following: 

1. Longtime Morning Call "newspaper" courthouse beat "reporter" and laugh-out-loud obvious DA Jim Martin bootlicker Debbie Garlicki got fired on July 25, 2008.

2. That same month, July 2008, DA Martin asked the Lehigh County Commissioners to okay him adding a brand spankin' new salaried position in his DA's office, "Executive Aide" (hmm, wonder if Jim had anyone specific (wink wink) in mind for the job?) 

3. In Feb. '09, Debbie Garlicki (what are the odds?) became DA Jim Martin's new "Executive Aide" and re-commenced her duties of turd polishing and promoting DA Jim Martin in Press Releases ... pretty much exactly as she had done at The Morning Call "newspaper" ever since DA Martin's first wobbly (hiccup) day on the job back in 1998. 

Which brought us to our next exclusively excellent questions for Kathleen Parrish, Lehigh County's Right-To-Know/Open Records Officer:  

In an email dated Aug. 7, 2009, the always polite Bill Villa queried...

Hi Kathleen, please send me all records (document copies are fine) that depict the advertisements used to announce the open position of Executive Aide in DA Jim Martin's office that was filled by Debbie Garlicki in February 2009. This would include any/all newspaper classified or display ads, postings on the Lehigh County web site, email announcements of the job opening, flyers that may have been hung in-house at the DA's office or Courthouse, etc. Also, please send me all records that indicate how many people applied for the position that was ultimately awarded to Debbie Garlicki in Feb. '09. 

Kathleen Parrish Responds Again 

and Likely (Our Guess) For The Last Time 

Aug. 13, 2009

Dear Mr. Villa, 

I am unable to fulfill your request because no such records for the position of Executive Aide in the District Attorney's office exist. 65 P.S. sections 67.102 (definition of "Record") and 67.705.

As an independently elected official, the District Attorney has discretion in filling budgeted positions. 

[Redacted: 286 "boilerplate" words on how to file an appeal in Harrisburg on this matter which basically outlines an exercise in total futility] 

Thank you, 

Kathleen Parrish 

Open Records Officer 

Lehigh County   

Well, there you have it, Lehigh County Voters. Crooked and incompetent DA Jim Martin (left) (who runs unopposed every election because Lehigh County Democrats curiously never put a candidate up against him) has "discretion" to fast-track whoever the hell he wants into a county job and have us taxpayers pay that person's salary. Got a problem w/ that? Try calling Harrisburg (wink wink). 

Readers, in a post COMING SOON, LVS will demonstrate, and, exclusively, natch ...  

1. How DA Jim Martin utilizes his "discretion" to fix DUI homicide cases for cronies. 

2. How Debbie Garlicki and The Morning Call "newspaper" have helped DA Jim Martin pull this shit off. 

We guarantee you it will floodlight up the excellent question of whether Debbie Garlicki was "awarded" the job in DA Jim Martin's office (and remember, Garlicki was the only candidate) ... or rewarded w/ a job in DA Jim Martin's office. 

Included in this COMING SOON post will be my "excellent questions that deserve to be answered" regarding DA Jim Martin's highly suspect dispatching of a Sept. 2007 DUI homicide case the night before trial. BTW, my questions were deemed "excellent" and "deserving of being answered" by then Morning Call "newspaper" Investigations Editor (now "reporter") Tim Darragh. These are the same excellent questions the  (now defunct) Morning Call Editorial Board refused (229 times) to meet w/ me on. 

Stay tuned to Lehigh Valley Somebody, the #1 Most Influential Political Blog in The Lehigh Valley, #3 statewide.

"Just Say No" to Bernie O'Hare

Readers, FYI, here's an email we just sent to Lehigh County Executive, Don Cunningham (left). 

"Don [Cunningham] was gracious enough to sit down with me after his speech [yesterday at Coca-Cola Park], and I'll have more about that tomorrow." -Bernie O'Hare, at his Blog Droppings, today

Don, why do you continue to legitimize O'Hare by giving him the time of day?

This is a "man" who was disbarred by the PA Supreme Court for evil intent activity, and 23 years later, unrepentant and un-rehabilitated, O'Hare is still emotionally torturing grief-stricken families. 

If you haven't already, please read our blog's exposé on O'Hare (follow the link below) which is based on documents obtained from the PA Supreme Court. 

Thank you for your consideration, Don. 

Best Regards, 

Bill Villa 

Readers, we'll be confronting every local politico who co-mingles w/ O'Hare, and especially those who, like Cunningham, were emailed our exposé on O'Hare [see next 4 posts down] weeks ago. While we do understand that being a "publicity opportunist" (note: we didn't say publicity "whore") is part of being in politics, we also believe strongly that area politicians should draw the line when it comes to legitimizing O'Hare w/ their access. Just Say No. 

STILL DUPED BY O'HARE?

Readers, thank you, for the email we've received from you thanking us for our 3-part exposé on (left) Bernie O'Hare [see next 3 posts down]. 

Truly, the pleasure was all ours, but it's a nice bonus knowing you enjoyed it too. 

Inexplicably (like those who believe Obama came here from Kenya to create healthcare death panels), there are people in our local blogosphere who continue to believe and steadfastly defend O'Hare (?) no matter how ugly the truths being revealed about him get (and more are coming, stay tuned). 

The Morning Call "newspaper," for example, continues to link their online "news" stories to O'Hare's Lehigh Valley Ramblings blog (?) as another "news" source. BTW, The Morning Call's front page, above-the-fold, lead story today [Saturday 8/22/09] is about a 15 year-old boy shooting photos and videos up the skirts of his female classmates and teachers. Yep. Front page. Lead story. Morning Call "newspaper." And disgraced ex-lawyer/blogger Bernie O'Hare. Perfect together. 

PUBLIC SERVICE, CIVIC DUTY DEPARTMENT 

For the dwindling few of you who are still "on the fence" w/ this "Ugly O'Hare Truth" issue, please consider the following: 

* O'Hare's slithering response to our devastating 3-part exposé on him has been to continue blaming "booze" (and not "Evil Intent") for his having been kicked out of the law profession.

* The PA Supreme Court saw it quite differently of course, they cited these reasons: 

dishonesty, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, unauthorized activity, forgery, cover-up, conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice, illegal conduct, and moral turpitude (more on this one in a moment). 

* Don't forget: "booze" is not mentioned anywhere in the 22 pages Lehigh Valley Somebody obtained from the Pittsburgh office of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania [No. 512 Disciplinary Docket No. 2 Disciplinary Board No. 25 DB 84 Attorney Registration 28024, dated January 9, 1986], upon which our 3-part exposé was based. 

* As an astute commenter to our "Part 3" post noted, it's standard practice during the sentencing of a defendant on a "booze" related offense for the defendant to produce some documentation that demonstrates to the court the steps he or she has been taking to remedy their problem w/ "booze." This documentation might include detox and/or hospitalization records, verifications of attendance at A.A. meetings, testimonials from fellow A.A. members or an A.A. sponsor, alcohol-free urine and/or blood tests, etc. Duped O'Hare Supporters Take Note: O'Hare presented nothing to the PA Supreme Court regarding any steps he was taking to remedy an alleged problem w/ "booze." 

* When Mrs. Dottie and I correctly conclude that O'Hare is an Evil Sadist, we're basing this not just on first-hand knowledge and personal experience but also on the conclusions of the PA Supreme Court. 

* Look up Moral Turpitude. It defines a range of EVIL INTENT activity. 

* The PA Supreme Court concluded that O'Hare acted w/ EVIL INTENT in his 2-year emotional torturing of George Usry.  

* We conclude that O'Hare acted w/ EVIL INTENT in his even longer emotional torturing of Lucille White.  

* Both cases involved O'Hare purposefully sabotaging civil litigation w/ EVIL INTENT: George Usry's Civil Rights litigation, and Lucille White's Wrongful Death litigation.

* 23 years later ... and "former booze hound" (wink wink) O'Hare is emotionally torturing the family of Sheena Villa and publicly threatening, twice, to sabotage Sheena Villa's Wrongful Death litigation at his "Troll Parade" blog w/ co-creator and duped attorney (for now) David C. Najarian, Lynn Township Supervisor. "Booze?" Nah. Some things never change. Be it 1986 or 2009, Bernie O'Hare takes pleasure in hurting people who are already hurting, and he likes to take his time doing it. 

The ugly truth about Bernie O'Hare is that he's an evil sadist. 

Civilly agree to disagree if you like but you'll be wrong.  

What's our point w/ all this? We want you to know the ugly truth about Bernie O'Hare, because O'Hare has never been rehabilitated; O'Hare has never changed his ways; and O'Hare's "ways" still involve a course of evil intent activity that is characterized by, in the conclusions of the PA Supreme Court: 

dishonesty, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, unauthorized activity, forgery, cover-up, conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice, illegal conduct, and moral turpitude. 

The other O'Hare ...  the one w/ the "serious emotional problem" as described by his own lawyer in the Supreme Court's report ... the disgraced former prosecutor who delights in persecuting good guys ... w/ evil intent ... is still out there ... duping people. 

Are you still duped by O'Hare?

THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT BERNARD V. O'HARE III, PART 3

[Readers, please read "Part 1" and "Part 2," below, before reading "Part 3," thanks.] 

How much is a lost life worth? I don't know the answer to that. 

But I do know that all the money in the world isn't enough to buy back my only daughter, Sheena Villa. Sheena's dead, and gone forever, because of the outrageous negligence of the drunk driver who killed her, and the negligence of those who ignored the obvious warning signs of a catastrophic crash that was all too predictable, and preventable, in retrospect. 

On May 21, 1982, Gerald White was operating a crane in downtown Scranton, filling in the abandoned Pinebrook coal mine. White's employer was working on contract with the U.S. Department of the Interior. While demolishing a concrete wall above the mine, suddenly, the 35-ton crane Gerald White was operating crashed through the roof of the mine shaft and plummeted 45 feet into the nearly 300-foot deep pit. Other crew members were able to escape falling into the gaping mine shaft, but 33-year-old Gerald White was trapped in a massive slide of dirt and sand that sucked him and his crane increasingly farther down and down under the earth. 

All Gerald White's wife Lucille and their 3 children, ages 12, 9, and 3 at the time could do over the next several days was wait ... as surveillance devices failed to detect any sign of Gerald White's life. 

On May 27, part of the concrete wall collapsed on rescuers as they searched for White; the next day, rescuers couldn't find the mine's entrance; three days later, the cable of a rescue crane got tangled up with a piece of concrete stuck in the mine shaft; the following day, the rescue crane burst into flames. 

A month and a day after catastrophe had struck, Lucille White decided she wanted to have funeral ceremonies for her husband Gerald at what she probably assumed would be his "grave," alongside the open mine shaft. On July 3, fifty-eight days after the tragedy, Gerald White's body was recovered, 165 feet down in the mine shaft. 

Four years later, in February 1986, Lucille White learned that a multi-million dollar settlement resulting from her wrongful death litigation against the U.S. Government had been denied. 

Bernard V. O'Hare III, a then disbarred former Bethlehem attorney who had been an assistant U.S. attorney in Scranton at the time of Lucille White's litigation had "failed to clear the settlement with officials in Washington," according to U.S. District Judge William J. Nealon.  

According to Lucille White's attorney, Joseph A. Quinn, all through negotiations between the plaintiff Lucille White, and the U.S. Government (represented, sadly, by Bernard V. O'Hare III ) ... 

"O'Hare feigned contact with supervisors and approval of the settlement from his superiors in Washington. There were assurances made to me and to the court and calls were made to Washington." -The Morning Call "newspaper," Feb. 3, 1986

Readers ... 

did Bernie O'Hare III unilaterally decide that Lucille White's case "had no merit," like he had "concluded" in the George Usry Civil Rights case?

Sure looks that way, doesn't it? 

Especially since O'Hare III "handled" Lucille White's case in chillingly familiar fashion to how he had "handled" George Usry's case ... and that is ... 

O'Hare ("feigned") LIED to the court, and to the grieving widow plaintiff, Lucille White, as he also MISREPRESENTED his client, the United States Government. 

Just like O'Hare was never really "negotiating" w/ Bethlehem Steel (for two years) on behalf of his client George Usry as O'Hare had misled Usry to believe ... 

O'Hare was never really "negotiating" (for four years?) w/ Lucille White's attorney on behalf of his client the U.S. Government-- as O'Hare misled U.S. District Court Judge William J. Nealon, plaintiff's attorney Joseph A. Quinn, Lucille White, and her three fatherless children to believe. 

Readers: doesn't this feel eerily and creepily similar to how O'Hare III was (wink wink) pondering a series of increasing offers from Bethlehem Steel for George Usry? 

Only this time, O'Hare was pondering how much money the U.S. Government (i.e., him, hot-shot U.S. Attorney/Negotiator O'Hare) was willing to bestow upon Lucille White ... but not really ... because, you see, the U.S. government, figuratively, "stopped payment on the check" ... 

because O'Hare never got the U.S. Government's approval on what he was (wink wink) "negotiating." Oopsie. 

The common thread in both cases is that prosecutor O'Hare III took it upon himself to persecute good guys-- already wronged, suffering families ... w/ evil intent. 

From The Morning Call "newspaper," February 3, 1986: 

"From January (1985) to June we were waiting day to day" for a check, said Mrs. White, who has been supporting her family on Social Security and retirement payments. "O'Hare kept saying he was going to Washington and we would have the checks." But in June, Mrs. White was told payments would be delayed while questions surrounding O'Hare's conduct were investigated. "Now we have to go back and try our original case," said Mrs. White, sadness in her voice.

From The Morning Call "newspaper," July 25, 1987: 

WIDOW GETS NOTHING IN MINE CASE HANDLED BY EX-AREA ATTORNEY

The mine subsidence case in Scranton that former Bethlehem attorney Bernard V. O'Hare III "settled" two years ago for "$19 million" is finally over.

The plaintiff, the widow of a man buried in the subsidence five years ago, got nothing.

Gerald J. White, 33, a laborer, dropped into a hidden mine shaft in Scranton in 1982 during a mine-flushing job for the U.S. Office of Surface Mining.

At one time, widow Lucille White was led to believe by then-Assistant U.S. Attorney O'Hare that the federal government had accepted blame and would pay a structured settlement totaling the $19 million to her and her two children.

But U.S. District Judge R. Dixon Herman for the Middle District of Pennsylvania threw out the settlement on the ground O'Hare never got it cleared with his superiors in Washington.

Shortly after that, O'Hare lost his job with the U.S. attorney's office in Scranton.

White appealed to the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, which turned her down this spring.

Now, the 90-day appeal time has lapsed for any appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in January 1986 suspended O'Hare for two years for resorting to forgery and lies in the handling of a 1980 civil-rights case for a black Bethlehem Steel worker. O'Hare told client George Usry of Allentown he was working to get the man an $85,000 settlement. But O'Hare had already settled the case with Bethlehem Steel for $60 and forged his client's name to the settlement document, according to the findings of the Disciplinary Board.

At that time, O'Hare was a member of the Bethlehem law firm of O'Hare and Heitczman - the O'Hare being his father, a former Northampton County district attorney.

Tied to the suspension was the recommendation that any reinstatement "be conditioned on a medical report indicating he is emotionally and physically capable of resuming the responsibilities of his profession."

What's our point w/ all this? 

We want you to know the ugly truth about Bernard V. O'Hare III ... 

the Bernie O'Hare who twice publicly threatened to sabotage Sheena Villa's wrongful death litigation ... which O'Hare discussed publicly in signed comments at his "Troll Parade" blog w/ his Troll blog co-creator, attorney David C. Najarian, Lynn Township Supervisor ... 

because, as you can see, O'Hare has never been rehabilitated; O'Hare has never changed his ways; and O'Hare's "ways" still involve a course of evil intent activity that is characterized by, in the conclusions of the PA Supreme Court: 

dishonesty, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, unauthorized activity, forgery, cover-up, conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice, illegal conduct, and moral turpitude. 

The other O'Hare ...  the one w/ the "serious emotional problem" ... the disgraced former prosecutor who delights in persecuting good guys ... w/ evil intent ... is still out there. 

And very much so. In fact, O'Hare's popular blog, Lehigh Valley Ramblings, currently entertains an average of over 600 loyal visitors every day, according to O'Hare's "open" Sitemeter(R) that is located at the very bottom of his blog droppings. 

Some of O'Hare's most loyal "regulars" include well-known elected officials in Northampton and Lehigh counties ... Judges even, who, we hear through the grapevine, are actually encouraging Bernard III to become a lawyer again. 

I guess nobody cares. Hey. It's Miller time. 

UpDate: Readers, The Morning Call "newspaper" has a new look at its website and some new functions. For example, at the bottom of their online "newspaper" droppings, you can now click on "Other News Sources," including some select local blogs. And guess what? So far, the local blog The Morning Call is linking to the most, by far, is ... Lehigh Valley Ramblings, by Bernard V. O'Hare, III.  The Morning Call just gave O'Hare a promotion.

THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT BERNARD V. O'HARE III, PART DEUX (2)

[Readers, for maximum enjoyment, please read "Part #1," the next post down on Bernie O'Hare (left), before reading this post, thanks.]

Here's the case that compelled the PA Supreme Court to stop Bernie O'Hare from practicing law in Pennsylvania. It was a good call.   

George Usry, of Allentown, a black man, was "let go" by Bethlehem Steel in July 1976. Usry believed he was fired for being black. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission looked into it and agreed with Usry. In September 1979, the EEOC issued a "Notice of Right to Sue," finding reasonable cause to believe that Usry's race was indeed a factor in Usry's firing at Bethlehem Steel. 

Sadly, George Usry hired Bernard V. O'Hare III to represent him. At the time, O'Hare was a rookie lawyer working at his father's esteemed law firm in Bethlehem, O'Hare & Heitczman. In August 1980, O'Hare III filed a Civil Rights suit on George Usry's behalf in federal court in Philadelphia. 

Shortly thereafter, as O'Hare would later glibly enlighten the Disciplinary Board of the PA Supreme Court, O'Hare came to the conclusion that his client George Usry's Civil Rights case "had no merit." Yup. O'Hare never mentioned his revelation to his client George Usry. 

O'Hare also didn't inform Mr. Usry of a rather significant "turning point" in Usry's case: 

On July 11, 1981, O'Hare settled George Usry's Civil Rights case against Bethlehem Steel for $60.00 (Usry's out-of-pocket costs for filing his lawsuit). 

Apparently, defendant Bethlehem Steel agreed whole-heartedly w/ young plaintiff attorney O'Hare's legal opinion that O'Hare's negro client, "Mister" George Usry, had brought a completely meritless case against them, by God, and now someone get our young friend Bernard a cigar please.   

Completely "out of the loop" on this back-door raw deal was George Usry. 

O'Hare never told Usry that his case (the one w/ "no merit") was over as of July 11, 1981, by decree of Bernard V. O'Hare III.  

And "over" really meant over, as O'Hare had entered into a "Settlement Agreement and General Release" with Bethlehem Steel (on Usry's behalf) that contained a stipulation of dismissal "with prejudice" (nice touch), meaning that the ("uppity?" or "well-spoken?") George Usry could never file his EEOC-endorsed case against Bethlehem Steel ever again, boy. 

So how did O'Hare do this dirty deal with Bethlehem Steel w/ OUT the knowledge and approval of his client George Usry? 

Simple. As concluded by the PA Supreme Court: 

"O'Hare forged or caused to be forged the signature of George Usry on the agreement." 

Shocked? Wait. For "hot-shot" attorney O'Hare III, the sadistic fun was just getting started. 

Was "booze" to blame? You decide ... 

Over the next two years, O'Hare shamelessly jerked George Usry around, while covering-up his unauthorized termination and settlement of Usry's lawsuit. 

Client Usry phoned his lawyer O'Hare frequently throughout 1982 and 1983 requesting "updates" on his case, and O'Hare never told Usry that he had unilaterally arranged for Usry's case to be "dismissed w/ prejudice" and in favor of their legal opponent, the defendant, Bethlehem Steel.   

Instead, in numerous phone calls, O'Hare told Usry that he (O'Hare) was pondering "a series of increasing offers" from Bethlehem Steel for the settlement of Usry's case. 

George Usry testified before the Disciplinary Board that he ultimately "accepted" an "offer" from Bethlehem Steel (via O'Hare) of $85,000.00 ... 

and on May 12, 1983, O'Hare told Usry that he had received Bethlehem Steel's $85,000.00 check and that he (O'Hare) would hold it for Usry for seven days until it cleared the bank. 

O'Hare's next phase strategy was to engage in a "series of misrepresentations about said settlement check" (it's "in the mail?" "my dog ate it?") while jacking up the anxiety level in an increasingly concerned and frustrated George Usry. 

O'Hare eventually told Usry that, "Bethlehem Steel had stopped payment on the check," (oopsie). 

This of course was a lie too, there never was any check for $85K, and O'Hare had been purposefully lying to George Usry (and seemingly for the "sport" of it) all along. 

Booze? Yeah. Right. 

Readers, I'm gonna end "Part 2" right here, because the slithery machinations O'Hare attempted in trying to dupe the PA Supreme Court into believing him will likely end up being a separate post of its own down the road. 

What's our point w/ all this? We want you to know the ugly truth about Bernard V. O'Hare III too, because O'Hare has never been rehabilitated; O'Hare has never changed his ways; and O'Hare's "ways" still involve a course of evil intent activity that is characterized by, in the conclusions of the PA Supreme Court: 

dishonesty, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, unauthorized activity, forgery, cover-up, conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice, illegal conduct, and moral turpitude. 

The other O'Hare ...  the one w/ the "serious emotional problem" ... the disgraced former prosecutor who delights in persecuting good guys ... w/ evil intent ... is still out there. 

COMING NEXT: "Part III," O'Hare III screws a Luzerne County widow and her three children out of $19 Million Dollars.  

P.S. O'Hare pocketed George Usry's $60.00 "settlement." Maybe he spent it on "booze" (wink wink). 

THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT BERNARD V. O'HARE III, PART #1

At his popular blog, Lehigh Valley Ramblings, Bernie O'Hare (left) usually makes light of his unchangeable status as a disgraced ex-lawyer who is barred from practicing law. 

He was a "booze hound," O'Hare claims, and he "made some mistakes," but "that was a long time ago." And O'Hare's dismissive and cute self-deprecations always seem to satisfy and amuse the "regulars" at his blog. If not, O'Hare deletes his interrogator's comments and questions until he or she goes away. And if they persist, O'Hare will then publicly attribute offensive comments to the "high-jacking troll," to discredit and marginalize the person, while not providing any proof that the offensive comments were in fact posted by the accused. Frequently, the wordings of the offensive "anonymous" comments have a distinctly O'Hare-ish familiarity to them. But they work. The questioning "troll" usually gives up and goes away. And Ramblings "regulars" always seem to be okay w/ these O'Hare tactics too. 

Some of O'Hare's most loyal "regulars" include well-known elected officials in Northampton and Lehigh counties who dish insider political (and personal) information (and dirt) w/ O'Hare, which O'Hare then cooperatively spins and twists in their favor (and against their political opponents) at his blog in return for their access. 

A once-proud local news institution, The Morning Call "newspaper," launched its "Valley Blogosphere" venture only after soliciting recommendations and blessings from O'Hare who refers to himself as the "Pope" of our local blogosphere. The Express-Times courted O'Hare too with a "blogging alliance" offer of their own, but the ET was rebuffed by O'Hare in favor of the higher circulation Morning Call. Quite the popular and in-demand guy, this Bernard V. O'Hare, III. 

Curiously, "booze" isn't mentioned anywhere in the 22 pages Lehigh Valley Somebody obtained recently from the Pittsburgh office of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania [No. 512 Disciplinary Docket No. 2 Disciplinary Board No. 25 DB 84 Attorney Registration 28024], dated January 9, 1986. 

The 22 pages Mrs. Dottie and I have examined carefully w/ our legal counsel spell out exactly what O'Hare did and why O'Hare is barred from practicing law. 

What's contained in these 22 pages is shocking. But even more shocking is that at the time of his PA Supreme Court Disciplinary Board investigation, O'Hare was involved in another evil intent activity that was arguably far worse than the shocking episode the PA Supreme Court suspended O'Hare's law license for. 

Not surprisingly, O'Hare has never applied for reinstatement as a lawyer because he knows they'll never reinstate him. For openers, he'd have to address the arguably far worse 2nd offense. Also, there's a condition on his reinstatement that O'Hare would likely have great difficulty fulfilling: 

Reinstatement to be conditioned on the submission of a medical report indicating that Respondent [O'Hare] is emotionally and physically capable of resuming the responsibilities of his profession-- i.e., O'Hare would have to prove he isn't still nutz and extremely dangerous to clients. 

Readers, we want you to know the ugly truth about Bernard V. O'Hare III too, because as you will see, O'Hare has never been rehabilitated; O'Hare has never changed his ways; and O'Hare's "ways" still involve a course of evil intent activity that is characterized by, in the conclusions of the PA Supreme Court: 

dishonesty, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, unauthorized activity, forgery, cover-up, conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice, illegal conduct, and moral turpitude. 

HAPPIER TIMES 

Bernard V. O'Hare III was a 3rd generation "hot-shot" lawyer blessed with the silver spoon advantage of starting his career working at his father's law firm, as his father had done before him. 

O'Hare's college classmates at Moravian '74 chose him to give the student address and he graduated in the top 10% of his class at Dickinson Law School where his successful and distinguished late father also graduated. Bernard O'Hare Jr.  was a 1-term District Attorney of Northampton County and WWII buddies with Kurt Vonnegut. 

Shortly before his disgrace and suspension in 1986, and while working as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Scranton, O'Hare III was prosecuting Columbian drug dealers in the Poconos and busting child pornographers. For real. So if O'Hare was a "booze hound" back then as he claims (and which we doubt), the booze certainly wasn't affecting his ability to prosecute bad guys. 

But there was "another O'Hare" back then, as there is today also-- an O'Hare who was persecuting good guys w/ evil intent. 

This other O'Hare, the one w/ the "serious emotional problem," as described by O'Hare's own lawyer in the PA Supreme Court's Report, was purposefully sabotaging civil litigation involving grieving, tragedy-stricken families. For real. 

And while it appears that O'Hare wasn't sabotaging these families for the money (no proof of financial gain on O'Hare's part was ever established), the evil intent activity O'Hare was engaging in was the purposeful screwing of grieving families out of civil settlement monies they were entitled to, and highly deserving of:

nineteen million, eighty-five thousand dollars ($19,085,000.00) to be exact. 

In a nutshell, Bernard V. O'Hare III was purposefully further devastating already traumatized and suffering families, by kicking them, real hard, when they were down. 

If this doesn't put O'Hare's sadistic Troll Parade blog and his two public threats to sabotage Sheena Villa's civil litigation into an eye-opening sharper focus for you, well, we're sure nothing will, and you might as well stop reading right now. 

But if you'd like to learn more about the real Bernie O'Hare, the one we've had figured out for over a year now, do keep reading. 

Read "Part II," POSTING TOMORROW ...

Kathleen Parrish Responds

Lehigh County's "Right To Know" Officer Kathleen Parrish got back to me recently on our excellent question regarding Debbie Garlicki's new job in DA Jim Martin's office.  

Here's what Kathleen had to say ... 

Aug. 3, 2009 

Dear Mr. Villa: 

Receipt is acknowledged of your letter dated July 20, 2009 and received on July 29, 2009. This is not a request for a record - it is a question. 

The Right-To-Know Law requires that requests be for existing records and does not require a public agency to provide just information. 65 P.S. sec. 67.705. Also, a request "should identify or describe the records sought with sufficient specificity to enable the agency to ascertain which records are being requested." 65 P.S. sec. 67.703. 

Bill Villa interjects: Readers, Kathleen Parrish could have stopped right there and sent me on my way and she would have been in total compliance w/ Right-To-Know. But Kathleen went farther and volunteered this additional information and I sincerely appreciate that, thank you Kathleen, please continue ...

That having been said, the District Attorney requested another Executive Aide position during the budget process in July 2008. It was approved by the administration and included in the budget submitted to the Commissioners in August 2008. The budget was passed in October 2008. The Executive Aide position was funded as of Jan. 1, 2009 and filled in February 2009.

In accordance with the state's Right-To-Know Law, you have the right to appeal this determination to the state Office of Open Records. The appeal must be made within 15 days of receiving this letter. You can submit an appeal using the appeals form found on http://openrecords.state.pa.us. 

Thank you, 

Kathleen Parrish

Right-To-Know Officer

Lehigh County 

Readers, surely there's no need to appeal Kathleen Parrish's gracious response. Thank you again, Kathleen. 

However, we do have another excellent question. 

But first, let's re-cap what we now know ... 

* Debbie Garlicki lost her longtime job as a Morning Call "newspaper" courthouse beat reporter in the first wave of layoffs there on July 25, 2008, "Black Friday." 

* "the District Attorney requested another Executive Aide position during the budget process in July 2008" (i.e., the exact same month, July 2008, when Debbie Garlicki knew that her possible job termination was looming, coincidentally)

* In the additional information she volunteered, Kathleen Parrish did indeed answer our first excellent question regarding whether Debbie Garlicki's position in DA Jim Martin's office existed prior to Garlicki's permanent layoff from The Morning Call "newspaper." It didn't, although at least one other similar position may have existed-- Parrish said that Martin requested "another" Executive Aide position in July 2008. Another position specifically for Debbie Garlicki, possibly? 

And this brings us to our next excellent question that I have emailed Kathleen Parrish today and it goes like this: 

Hi Kathleen, please send me all records (document copies are fine) that depict the advertisements used to announce the open position of Executive Aide in DA Jim Martin's office that was filled by Debbie Garlicki in February 2009. This would include any/all newspaper classified or display ads, postings on the Lehigh County web site, email announcements of the job opening, flyers that may have been hung in-house at the DA's office or Courthouse, etc. Also, please send me all records that indicate how many people applied for the position that was ultimately awarded to Debbie Garlicki in Feb. '09. 

Thank you again for your consideration, Kathleen.  

Have a nice weekend. 

Best Regards, 

Bill Villa 

Racist Opposition To Allentown Playground

Mike Molovinsky is a resident of the tony Allentown PA suburb of South Whitehall Township. 

He doesn't live, or vote, in Allentown. 

But Mike Molovinsky is accustomed to getting his own way, dammit!

And Mikey DOES NOT WANT a proposed new Destination Playground at Allentown's Cedar Beach Park.

It's okay to put it "in their 'hood, but not ours," is basically the gist of all the tightly Moderated discussion on this hot topic at Molovinsky's Morning Call "newspaper" affiliated blog, Molovinsky on Allentown.  

Mike Molovinsky ran very unsuccessfully for Mayor of Allentown in 2005 when he suffered a humiliating (and life-changing, some say) 59% to 3% pummeling by popular Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski. Adding belly-laugh (3% :) insult to injury, out-of-office and discredited former Mayor Bill Heydt got 38% of the vote. 

Back in 2005, hardly anybody (3% :) was paying any attention to Mike Molovinsky and so the coded racism that dominated Molovinsky's Campaign Platform went mostly unnoticed. 

Readers, we encourage you to pay close attention to Molovinsky's Campaign Platform now-- because it reveals Molovinsky's elitist and racist disdain for the poor while providing some context for Molovinsky's konstantly kvetching "sore loser" vendetta against compassionate and humanitarian Allentown Mayor, Ed Pawlowski.  

Molovinsky's platform starts w/ a misspelled, fear-mongering acronym, "Save Our Sity," and then 10 of its 18 sentences are blatantly elitist and racist. Allow us to "translate" its main points for you and put Mike's already telegraph-obvious agenda in the spotlight ...  

"We must recover from being the victim of Political Correctness." Translation: "My political inspiration, the late Allentown City Council woman Emma Tropiano had it right: WE MUST QUIT BEING SHY ABOUT BLAMING ALLENTOWN'S PROBLEMS ON THE HISPANICS."

"We can no longer tolerate being a poverty magnet ... We will no longer strive to win the national HUD award for making low-income homeowners. We will no longer strive to be the third largest city in Pa., necessitating a high rise prison." Translation: "Poor people are criminals; most hispanics are poor; do the math." 

"Our current social programs are morally commendable, but unfair to the taxpayer. Social agencies should receive our gratitude, not our taxes." Translation: "Poor people don't pay any of the taxes "we" pay, so screw 'em." 

"Public safety will mean police patrolmen, not multiple assistant chiefs attending national conferences." Translation: "We already know who and where the trouble-makers are (Emma told us), so let's stop "studying solutions" and start crackin' heads."  

Readers, the Mike Molovinsky-led opposition to Allentown's proposed Destination Playground is obstructionist and racist mob-rule mentality nonsense. 

It's akin to the loony racist "Birthers" who recently forged a Kenyan birth certificate for President Obama and the RepubliCON opposition to anything Obama wants to accomplish for the American people, like healthcare reform, and having a wise Latina  on the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Isn't it curious how quickly some white men in Congress and the Lehigh Valley can see "reverse racism" against white people, but fail to notice or call out explicit racism and hatred against Latinos, African-Americans, Muslims, and other minorities-- which you can step in daily at local online "Klan Rallies" like The Morning Call Forum, Scott Armstrong's white-hooded Allentown Commentator chat room, and Molovinsky on Allentown.   

On a related subject, we are saddened that Allentown's Vice President of City Council Mike Donovan (allegedly an educator? and a Liberal?) would give such unwarranted attention to loony racist foot-draggers who are against Equal Opportunity for all the children of Allentown, while deleting and muzzling a dozen legitimate comments of dissent at his ironically titled blog, "Inclusion."  

Allentown, let's build that Destination Playground ASAP and Move Forward Together (well, most of us anyway). 

 

[Post composed by Mr. & Mrs. Dottie]

ASD Faces Big Challenges

Four years ago a group of business and community leaders in Allentown formed "Education 2010!" The group hired and paid a consulting firm in Denver to prepare a local "costing out study" for the Allentown School District. The reason for the study was to ensure equitable funding and a better education for ASD students, which in turn could result in a stronger regional economy, and a better quality of life for all residents.

The results of the study are quite surprising. Here's a link ...  

According to the study, these are some of the challenges that the ASD faces:

- ASD has almost 3 times as many poor students as the next highest district (Northern Lehigh)

- ASD has more than 5 times as many English learners as the next highest district (Whitehall)

-Compared to half of the other districts in the county, ASD has seven times as many poor students and fifteen times as many English language learners.

The study reports that Allentown has the lowest property value per student, less than half of what most other districts in Lehigh County have, but Allentown's tax rate is higher than both county and state averages. And the huge revenue gap between the ASD and other districts will keep increasing as more families move to Parkland and East Penn. Hopefully that trend will change, and in the future more families will choose to live in the city.

I have seen the gross inequity between the ASD and other local districts. This is unfair and unjust because the ASD child who is born into poverty deserves the same quality education as the suburban child who lives in the McMansion in the Macungies.

Why should the quality of a child's education be hinged upon local property values? It's wrong to deny a child born into poverty the necessary resources for a quality education. 

In the 2008-2009 budget, Governor Rendell introduced a new school funding formula to distribute funds based on the actual number of students in a district, factoring in the number of students living in poverty, English learners, and special needs. So Allentown would be getting more state funding this coming school year. But now because of the current budget crisis, those funds are at risk of being cut. This is really bad news for the ASD because if programs are cut, the needs of students will not be met.

What would help to improve this dire situation? Allentown's taxes are already too high.

The ASD would certainly benefit from more community involvement and help from business leaders, but that's not enough.

We believe that school district consolidation into a county district is worth looking into. Of course, there would be people who would complain that their hard earned tax money shoudn't be used to help some poor inner city kid who can't speak English. Not everyone wants to "share the wealth." And considering today's current divisive political atmosphere, overt racism in the media, and the classism and racism in our society, it doesn't look like people are willing to come together on important issues like education and health care. The Republicans are more concerned about stopping President Obama than listening to the American people.

But why not share the wealth, since a child who has a quality education is more likely to go on to college, help improve the economy, and benefit society as a whole. It's a good return on your investment. And what could be more important than our children?

DA Martin: We Have a Right To Know

[After you read this post, read the follow-up post, Kathleen Parrish Responds ] 

Readers, this went out in today's mail:

July 20, 2009

To: Kathleen Parrish, “Right To Know” Officer, Lehigh County     

From: Bill Villa 

Ms. Parrish, recently, former longtime Morning Call newspaper "courthouse beat" reporter Debbie Garlicki became an Executive Aide in the office of Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin. 

As my attachments indicate, Ms. Garlicki’s new duties as an Executive Aide to DA Jim Martin include writing and disseminating Press Releases promoting Mr. Martin— a function not all that different from Ms. Garlicki’s previous position at The Morning Call newspaper, but I digress.

Q. Did this Executive Aide/Public Relations position in DA Jim Martin’s office exist prior to Debbie Garlicki's permanent layoff from The Morning Call newspaper? 

Or was this position created especially for Debbie Garlicki?

I look forward to an initial response from you within 5 business days as is pledged at the Lehigh County web site’s "Right To Know" page.

Thank you.

-------------------

UpDate: In a message dated 7/31/09 9:05:51 AM, Kathleen Parrish writes: 

Hi Bill, I received your request in the mail yesterday. I have the information you requested and will put it in the mail today. Thanks, Kathleen

------------------

Readers, please note: a mailing glitch (an error on my part) resulted in the "late" (i.e., received just yesterday) arrival of my Open Records Act, "Right To Know" inquiry onto Kathleen Parrish's desk. She is responding to my inquiry 4 business days faster than is promised at the County's web site, and I appreciate that. Look for a follow-up post on this matter, after we have a chance to examine the County's answer to our question.  

Allentown Named "Playful City"

According to an article at the City of Allentown website,  Allentown is one of only two communities in PA to be named a "Playful City USA Community" by KaBOOM  a non-profit organization that promotes unstructured play. 

According to KaBOOM CEO Darell Hammond: 

“Allentown took a stand and determined that the future of their community—their children—deserve a commitment to the cause of play. This is an investment in the future, not an expenditure, and cities and towns across the country can replicate initiatives from these Playful City USA Communities so that they too can bring play back into the lives of their children.”

In the article, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski  cites these two programs for city youth: SPP, a free Summer Playground Program available at most Allentown school playgrounds, and ACHIEVE, a program that partners with the Allentown School District, City Health Bureau, Wildlands Conservancy, Public Library, Fire Department, and Recycling Bureau.

My family and I are greatly looking forward to the new, handicapped-accessible, interactive, and free Destination Playground that will be built at Cedar Beach Park. This will be a great place for families from all over Allentown to meet for a common cause: our children. It's time for all the citizens of Allentown, young and old, natives and transplants, to start focusing on what brings us together, rather than on what separates us. Equal Opportunity for all. Our parks are for everyone to enjoy, even the "outsiders" who have relocated here-- as they are branded by the handful of Konstant Krankypants Kvetchers known kollectively as the "Defenders of the Parks" (wink wink) and "led" by embittered, vendetta-driven, 2005 Allentown Mayoral election loser Mike Molovinsky and his coded racist agenda.  

Oh and speaking of Cedar Beach Park, don't miss SportsFest there this weekend! 

Hooray for Allentown for being forward-thinking, for Moving Forward Together (well, most of us anyway), and for caring about our kids.

Post written by Mr. & Mrs. Dottie.

The New Yankee Stadium

We loved the old Yankee Stadium.

Bill’s dad took him to his first game there in 1966, an Opening Day  2-1 loss to the Tigers. Bill shot 8mm home movies of Mickey Mantle Day at “The Stadium,” June 8, 1969. 

The New York Yankees won 39 American League Pennants and an all sports-leading 26 World Series Championships at Yankee Stadium. History- and aura-wise, the old Yankee Stadium was the Vatican and the Mecca of ballparks. Even the Pope played there (it is common knowledge that God was a lifelong Yankee fan prior to the 2004 playoffs), although The Pontiff was greatly outshined by truly supreme talents including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, and Derek Jeter.

In 1995, beloved Yankee Paul O’Neill flipped Sheena Villa a batting practice ball in right field before a game. Actually, O’Neill pulled himself up on the right field wall and handed the ball to Sheena after Sheena had dropped O’Neill’s first two soft tosses. Sheena was a terrific dancer. Patrick Villa has some 1990’s Yankee infield dirt that was graciously scooped up for him by a groundskeeper and Patrick also has Yankee Hall of Famer Phil “Scooter” Rizzuto’s autograph on a baseball hat. On August 10, 2005, about a month shy of his 5th birthday, Gianni Villa became the youngest Villa to ever attend a game at Yankee Stadium, a tough 2-1 loss to the White Sox, and a pitcher's duel, much like his dad's first game at The Stadium. Holy Cow.  

For the last 10 years at the “old” Yankee Stadium, we had the same GREAT 3 seats for every game we attended, $45 season ticket seats via our pal Joe M. Situated a couple of rows beyond the pricier field level seats and between first base and right field, they were the perfect seats to watch home run balls sail (or rocket) into Yankee Stadium’s legendary “short porch” in right field that was designed circa 1922 with The Bambino’s Sultan of Swat swing in mind. Long-time Yankee season ticket holders like our pal Joe M were promised season ticket seats in the new Yankee Stadium with a “similar vantage point” as their old seats. But it didn’t work out that way. Joe’s now $85 seats at the new Yankee Stadium suck … real bad. They’re in the last row of the lower level, behind the foul pole, and with a roof over-head so deep and claustrophobic, you can’t see a fly ball higher than 10 feet or the fabulous gigantic HD Jumbotron in Center Field. Apparently, our pal Joe M hadn’t been spending enough money on his season tickets to merit much respect in this new Yankee Stadium. And spending is what this new Yankee Stadium is all about, it seems to us, which is why, after having attended two games there so far (both wins), we sorta hate it there.

Yeah Yeah, the new GREAT HALL  is really great and the huge Yankee player pik blow-up banners are breathtaking but geez. The House That Ruth Built was a ballpark. This new Yankee Stadium feels like a Corporate Exhibition Center. The simple joy of going to the ballpark to watch a game gets lost at this new and "improved" and overly lavish Yankee $tadium. We thought baseball was supposed to bring people together for a common interest, not separate them according to social status and elite luxury club membership. We can’t believe how many areas in the new Yankee Stadium are “off-limits” to non-high-rollers like us. Also, the dominant visual at the new Yankee Stadium is “fans” standing in MERCHANDISE and/or FOOD lines … 50-people deep … the whole freakin’ game … and paying just ludicrous prices for things-- 3 hot dogs + 1 soda = $21.50. These aren’t the Yankee fans we knew from the old ballpark. These are people with eating (and spending) disorders. And it’s sickening to see so much gluttony.

We miss the  old Yankee Stadium, the sticky floors, the easy access to the Dippin’ Dots, and the pigeons. Now, those simple pleasures have been replaced with food delivery service to your cushy-padded and wider rump-accommodating seat, flat-screen TVs everywhere, gourmet restaurants, elitist private clubs, and menacing 10” spike-spears on every overhead flat surface that prevent birds from perching. This new Yankee $tadium is too perfect, it has too many offerings, it’s too comfortable, and it tries way too hard.

TIP: Sit in the upper deck. There’s way less food and merchandise hoopla up there, no (or fewer) luxury box snobs, and the fans up there are actually watching the game. Last game there we went upstairs in the 5th inning and told an usher we wanted to use our crappy $85 tickets to sit in 3 of his vacant $25 seats and he said okay. And as soon as our normal-size rumps hit our normal-priced $25 seats, A-Rod crushed one into the left field seats! The Yanks went on to win! Mariano Rivera got the save! In the upper deck, it looks and feels like you’re at Yankee Stadium!

Photo by Gianni Villa taken from the upper deck in the new Yankee Stadium. Click on it to enlarge it. 

Post by Mr. & Mrs. Dottie.

Good Luck to Yankees Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Mark Teixeira, and all the American League players, including the Boston Red Sox "players" (wink wink), in tonite's MLB All-Star Game.

Racism at Philly Pool

Reading this unbelievable news has made me feel like I am living in America circa 1869 rather than 2009. Valley Swim Club in Philadelphia was paid $1,900.00 by Creative Steps Day Camp to use its pool, but when the creative campers arrived at the pool, all the white kids who were swimming there immediately exited the pool, and the black campers who had just arrived were told they had to leave. One camper overheard a parent at the pool say, "What are all these black kids doing here? I am scared they might do something to my child." John Duesler, the president of the Club said, "There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion of the club."

Read Article Here.

Here is Melissa Harris-Lacewell's response ...

What a bummer to read about this, after hearing the exciting news about PA Representative Patrick Murphy (D) standing up and taking the lead on getting rid of the absurd "don't ask don't tell" policy in the military to move us toward real equality for gays.

This Philly pool incident just reminds me of how far we still have to go for true equality for all Americans in America.

Solving Autism

Several of our relatives and friends have children who have been diagnosed with some form of autism. 1 in every 150 kids has autism. There is mounting research suggesting that exposure to EDCs (Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals) could be a cause of autism. Please check out this interesting article at the Huffington Post by Harvey Karp, Cracking The Autism Riddle.

Toxic EDCs are found in everyday products such as food cans, plastic water bottles, cosmetics, fire retardants found in sofas, and computers. These items are found in most American homes.

EDCs have been found to be linked to human disease, hormone related disorders, low sperm count, cancer, and many other illnesses. There is evidence that even miniscule amounts of these chemicals can disturb fetal brain development.

In 2000, a CDC (Center for Disease Control) study found that 99.9% of people tested had detectable levels of these chemicals in their bodies.

In 1996, during the Clinton administration, there was a push by pediatricians for the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to test these chemicals. The testing process had begun under Clinton, but then during the Bush administration (The Dark Ages of Science), the research was halted and its funding was cut.

To counter President Bush's efforts to ignore the health of our children, a group of dedicated pediatricians started the National Children's Study (NCS). Even though Bush refused to fund this important research, the NCS was able to continue for 8 years.

The Obama administration has committed over $3 billion to NCS research. Thankfully, scientists may soon be able to detect which chemicals could be linked to autism, and its heart-breaking mystery will start to get solved.

The Al Franken Decade Begins

I first became aware of Al Franken as a political figure after reading his book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" Gotta love the way he puts Bill O'Lielly in his place. If Franken should call someone a liar on the Senate floor it will make for some interesting C-Span programming. Franken also penned a best selling book called "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot: And Other Observations" Gotta love that title. Franken is my kinda guy. Smart, funny, outspoken and honest. I never did get to hear him on Air America radio, since the radio stations in the Lehigh Valley are dominated by right wingnut talk shows. Some facts you may not know about Al Franken:

He graduated from Harvard in 1973: Political Science

He scored a perfect 800 on the SAT Math section

He won 3 Emmy Awards for his writing on Saturday Night Live

He holds strongly progressive liberal beliefs

More at this site: http://usliberals.about.com/od/senatecandidatesin2008/p/AlFranken.htm

Now that Al Franken has won and will finally take his place in the Senate, the Democrats will have a filibuster proof 60 vote-majority in the US Senate. But will that really make a difference?

Senators Kennedy and Byrd are ill, and possibly not in attendance, so that could be only 58. There are two Independents, Lieberman and Sanders, but Sanders is from Vermont and is very liberal, and has spoken out in favor of a public health care option. Lieberman leans right. So it could be only 57.

What will be the Democrats' excuse for not getting things done now? Lack of bipartisan support? Been bought off by the insurance companies and drug companies? It's time for Senators to stop being pusillanimous and pass a public universal health care option, really fight for equal rights for gays, ban assault weapons, and represent THE PEOPLE for a change, not just the campaign donors and lobbyists.

DA Jim Martin Fails, Child Rapist Freed From Prison

Related Morning Call "newspaper" Story  

Let's cut to the chase ... 

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday denied Lehigh County DA Jim Martin's request for a stay, so child rapist William H. Evans has been freed from prison.  

Free Happy Hour @ Our New Sidebar

Relax. Get comfortable. 

And spend a free happy hour, on us, reading our blog's new right sidebar content. 

Start with the lovely and talented Sheena Villa ... 

and then work your way through The Morning Call "newspaper," DA Jim Martin, Glenn Kranzley, Bernie O'Hare, attorney (for now) David C. Najarian (Lynn Township Supervisor), DA John Morganelli, Allentown City Council VP Mike Donovan, and hilarious comic relief buffoon characters Mike "3%" Molovinsky and "Father" Alex Joseph. 

Possibly you've consumed some version of these shock-tails before? 

Perhaps w/ a twist or a huge dollop of  deception?

But now, exclusively at our right sidebar, these spirited stories have been distilled straight-up for a truer, smoother, and quicker absorption rate (we know how busy you are) that really packs a wallop. 

Warning: You might find our new right sidebar content sobering. 

Let us know what you think. And please, take your time. We're nowhere near last call. 

We The People Want Public Health Care

The very sad news of the death of actress Farrah Fawcett today made me think about the many Americans without health insurance who suffer and die from cancer due to not being able to afford treatment for the deadly disease. Farrah was brave for documenting and calling attention to her battle with cancer. I think what the media needs to call attention to right now is the close to 50 million uninsured Americans. And many of those people are middle-class. We have a health care crisis in this country. The majority of Americans (72% according to a NY Times/CBS News Poll)

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/06/21/health/policy/21poll_graphic_ready.html

favor a government administered health insurance plan. According to EBRI (Employee Benefit Research Institute) http://www.ebri.org/ a conservative organization, 83% of Americans favor "creating a new public health insurance plan that anyone can purchase."

Ironically, the demographic with the biggest opposition to a public plan are the over age 65 group, the same people who are currently in a government run health insurance plan called Medicare. Older Americans seem fearful of any change.

Obama promised us the same quality health care coverage that Congress receives. Everyone deserves health care, it is not a privilege. A public option is the only way to bring about universal affordable health care. In Obama's words, the public plan would "keep insurance companies honest." He is willing to compromise for Republican support, but most R's seem to just want to obstruct everything Obama wants to do. There are some Democrats against it too. And I think the Democrats need to grow a set and challenge the obstructionist Republicans. Let the R's filibuster. Obviously bipartisanship is not going to happen with this issue, so Congress needs to fight for the people's interests. They need to be in touch with the people. I like Howard Dean, he seems to be aware of the seriousness of this crisis . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Dean

Meanwhile, the national media is focusing on the infidelity and shenanigans of some governor, while Americans are dying due to lack of health care coverage. And in our local "newspaper", The Morning Call, headline news is constant updates on puppies in need and some hot dog vendor crisis. They need to get their priorities straight.

Photo: Protesters in Maine

Boycott Advertisers of Right Wing Hate

Where is the moral compass of the advertisers who are supporting Fox News and its hate speech? The unfair and unbalanced right wing media has created a dangerous climate in this country which has fueled an increase in violent racist hate crimes, hatred towards our President, and fear of a liberal government.

Voices on the right, like loudmouths Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Beck constantly cross the line, spewing hate and anger without taking into consideration how this kind of vitriol might impact public thought. It is disturbing how many people will believe the Fox "News" propaganda as truth, because they really think Fox News is a reliable and trustworthy source for news. 

Here in the Lehigh Valley, our local news media leans very heavily toward the right wingnut variety, with right-wing talk shows on WAEB all day. We have heard professional people we know casually and hopefully discussing the possibility of our President being assassinated by southeners, as if that would be not such a bad thing. It is unsettling when I walk into my bank and I am bombarded with Fox News on all their TV screens. Get me outta here!

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that tracks hate crimes, reports that participation in hate groups in America has risen over 50% since 2000. According to the report:

"It attributed that growth mainly to fears about non-white immigration, but pointed out that the rise of a black man to the White House also appears to have contributed. And it said the ongoing economic meltdown, which some have already blamed on racial minorities and undocumented Latino immigrants, could well add to a worsening situation."

See the entire article: http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=1052

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

After enduring eight years in the Dark Ages led by a President who had trouble putting a sentence together and couldn't care less about equal rights, we finally have an intelligent, diplomatic, charismatic, capable, and respectable leader in the White House who has to clean up the disastrous mess left by the previous failed administration and move us forward. And the leader of the Republican Party, radio host Rush Limbaugh, hopes that our President fails. Nice.

Our local "newspaper" endorses hate by allowing racist and homophobic comments at its website online Forum, and this creates a dangerous climate that is bad for our community. And then there's our overwhelmingly NeoCon local blahgassmear that our "newspaper" links to. 

Shame on The Morning Call and Fox News advertisers for endorsing hatred and violence toward liberals, our President, and our government. Boycott the advertisers at Fox News, and at our local "newspaper." Here's a list of Fox advertisers: http://www.debone.com/boycottFoxNewsSponsors.html

And here's a blog that makes it easy for you to send e-mails to companies:

http://foxnewssucks.blogspot.com/2009/04/boycott-fox-news-advertisers.html

Allentown City Council VP Mike Donovan Should Resign or Be Fired

Related Morning Call "newspaper" story  

Readers, in case you missed it in The Morning Call "newspaper" recently, oh so "civil" (wink wink) Allentown City Council vice president Mike Donovan has been "accused" (a.k.a. charged) w/ Criminal Harassment and is also facing a property destruction lawsuit stemming from a surprisingly uncivil rage incident w/ a neighbor. 

According to the neighbor's Criminal Complaint, Cedar Crest College professor Donovan said that "me and Diana" (i.e., Morning Call freelance writer Diana Morse, Donovan's wife) were tired of the neighbor's dog. The neighbor claims that Councilor Donovan rang her doorbell several times last month in a "brutal disturbing way," smashed her front glass door, and repeatedly harassed her and her two children about the family dog-- including storming to her 17 year-old son's place of employment and harassing him there while he was trying to do his job. 

The neighbor's Criminal Complaint also implies that, like a robotic "Stepford Wife" w/ an implant in her brain, Diana Morse enabled her husband's harassing behavior and verbally harassed the neighbor's two children herself as well. 

This is the second time in recent months that seemingly "mellow" (on the outside anyway) Councilor Donovan has been involved with the law. In April, Donovan commanded some teenagers in Bucky Boyle park to stop riding go-carts there or face police wrath so one of the boys punched him in the face. 

Although these two rage incidents are troubling and indicative of an emerging "dark side" to Mike Donovan and his wife, they are merely the last straws that should break the camel's back re: Councilor Donovan, in the always humble opinion of Lehigh Valley Somebody. 

We believe these transgressions are much more troubling ...

Morning Call-Affiliated Hate Bloggers Manipulating Allentown Politics

Readers, for the past year or so, embittered, vendetta-driven 2005 Allentown Mayoral Election loser and South Whitehall Township resident and rabid NeoCon, Mike "3%" (and that's how few votes he got in '05) Molovinsky, has become, incredibly, one of councilor Donovan's "advisors" on matters affecting Allentown. 

Even worse, another of Donovan's insider-access "advisors" is Mayor Pawlowski-Bashing Nazareth PA resident and fellow hate blogger, Bernie O'Hare, co-creator of the shamelessly dishonest, sadistically cruel, and Morning Call-Approved "Troll Parade" blog. 

All three "men" are hand-picked members of Valley Blogosphere, The Morning Call's "newspaper" dissent-quashing and political agenda-framing group assembled by Glenn Kranzley.  

Councilor Donovan: we are judged by the company we keep and you are cavorting w/ and soliciting the counsel of corrosive and divisive out-of-town cretins. And in your spare time, it appears you are smashing the glass front doors of neighbors whose behavior you disagree w/ . 

How uncivil for a City Council VP (for now) to behave. 

Vicious Attack Dogs

My family and I enjoy walking in Allentown's many beautiful parks, and we are greatly looking forward to the new and fabulous "destination playground" at Cedar Beach, and the many other improvements that are planned for our parks.

Recently we've experienced a few scary incidents involving vicious dogs of the pit bull variety at the parks that were very frightening for our young son, and for us. Two dogs lunged at us for no apparent reason. We weren't injured but both incidents were too close for comfort. Both dogs that went after us were on leashes, but the leash was either held by a child who couldn't handle the dog, or by someone not really concerned about the length of the leash or the safety of other people visiting the park. We see dogs running leash-free at Trexler Park all the time where it is posted as a violation. So now we've been forced into carrying a nasty-looking stick when we walk in the parks, and not surprisingly, when dog owners see you coming w/ a big stick, oh my, they pay much closer attention to their lovable pooch's proximity to you, try it. 

Now don't get me wrong, we LOVE DOGS, especially Golden and Laborador Retrievers and Greyhounds. We think there should be a dog park in Allentown where dogs and their owners can play in a protected area, so dogless families can feel safe from lunging attack dogs and irresponsible pet owners who can quickly ruin a family's otherwise pleasant stroll in the park. A dog park would also cut back on some of the dog poop in our parks, which, let's be honest, not all dog owners give a crap about scooping up.

Allentown's bountiful park system has plenty of open space for an enclosed dog run, and a destination playground. I remember reading a post at the Allentown Good News blog about possible plans and citizen input regarding a dog park in Allentown, but I haven't heard anything about the progress of those plans. Anybody know? Judging by how many dogs we see in the parks, some people wielding 3-4 pups at a time, I would say there is a definite demand for a dog park. Dog parks help build social capital because they bring people together for a common cause.

But sorry, dog owners, we shouldn't have to trust you when you say your dog doesn't bite. Pit bulls were created and bred in England to kill. They have an in-bred propensity to attack, without warning. Pit bulls have been outlawed in Great Britain and banned from breeding in Ontario since 2005 where owners must muzzle them in public. See this informative website about laws, statistics, and info regarding dangerous and vicious dogs ...

> http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/danger.htm

Pit bulls and Rottweilers together commit 2/3 (65%) of the "serial" attacks on humans and more than 3/4 (79%) of the "rampage" attacks. (Source, Animal People)

Sorry Fido, but there are irresponsible dog owners, and we believe there should be stricter laws and regulations requiring the muzzling of certain dangerous breeds of dogs.

Public safety is more important than the rights of pet owners.

Liberal Media Bias ... Locally?

Where is this local "liberal media bias" that the minority local NeoCon lunatics (respectfully) are always kvetching about? Let's review, shall we ... 

Local "news radio" station WAEB-AM runs far, far right wing-nut hate talk radio shows all day and its local "celebrity" (wink wink) host Bobby Gunther Walsh is a rabid, foaming at the mouth NeoCon Tea Bagger.

WFMZ-TV carries conservative religious programming and provides Neo-Conservative-only commentary by that really spooky and sarcastic know-it-all (and station owner) Dick Dean. 

Then there's our stranglehold local monopoly "newspaper," The In-Mourning Call. It links to Neo-Conservative-only or apolitical blogs in its "Valley Blogosphere" lapdog club and the majority of its regular commenters at The Morning Call's online "Forum" sections are Obama-Hating and Pawlowski-Bashing misogynist-anti-semite-homophobic-latino-hating-bigots who are allowed to spew freely because hate sells-- it "attracts advertisers," according to Bill White.

The Allentown Commentator "blog" (really a "chat room" ick) is a far right-wing extremist gathering storm where we've read rile-'em-up racist comments aimed at our President and Allentown's Latino population. 

One would think there'd be some variety and divergence of thought in a local blogosphere. Not around here. Take a look at the Lehigh Valley blogs currently ranked by BlogNet News as being among the Top 20 Most Influential Political Blogs in Pennsylvania. 

Only the #1 Blog in The Lehigh Valley for 22 of the last 27 weeks (this blog, Lehigh Valley Somebody, #5 statewide) is openly and proudly liberal. 

All the other Lehigh Valley also-ran blogs at BNN are either NeoConservative (#6, #7, #16, #20) or politically neutral ("mellow"), #17. 

Thankfully, we liberals do have a GREAT community public radio station in WDIY-FM and an almost as good PBS TV station but that's about it.

In 2008, President Barack Obama won 57% of the vote in Lehigh County. 

In 2005, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski won with a 59% popular vote mandate over Republican Bill Heydt (38%) and nosey South Whitehall Township buttinsky neighbor Mike Molovinsky (3%).  

Allentown is a mostly deep dark blue city that has not voted for a Republican President since 1988 (and we regret that one). 

Our local NeoCon Biased Media & Blogosphere is not serving the majority of our population who are moderate and liberal Democrats.

Thankfully, this blog is. 

For a "liberal media bias" you won't find anywhere else in the Lehigh Valley, thanks for reading (#1) LVS regularly.   

Cheering Glenn Kranzley's Firing

If you submitted a "Letter to the Editor" of The Morning Call "newspaper" any time in the last 20 years and ended up just spittin' mad seeing your letter either totally ignored, or published, but anally over-edited, politically corrected, and robbed of all your intended meaning, it was now ex-Morning Call VP of Editorial & Opinions Glenn Kranzley who did that to you-- with a smug and satisfied smirk on his face (see photo). 

If you approached The Morning Call Editorial Board (where Glenno ruled the roost) and politely requested a "Welcome Mat" meeting that the "newspaper" claims at its website is graciously extended to "anyone who wants to be heard," and you were denied, or ignored, as I've been,  229 times to date, it was Glenn Kranzley who did that to you-- with a smug and satisfied smirk on his face.  

If stumble bum Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin  bungled your perpetrator's prosecution or intentionally screwed you out of justice, while The Morning Call "newspaper" purposefully looked the other way as you begged them in vain for help, it was Glenn Kranzley who did that to you-- with a smug and satisfied smirk on his face. 

For 20 years, Glenn Kranzley was the Editorial & Opinions gatekeeper and political agenda framer and influencer at Allentown's stranglehold monopoly "newspaper." It was a powerful position that lent itself to arrogance, hubris, cronyism, favoritism, collusion, and corruption-- every bit as much as that of a crooked and incompetent district attorney who retains his "elected" (wink wink) office by conveniently running unopposed every four years-- thanks in large part to Glenn Kranzley. 

When our local blogosphere was indignantly dissenting against The Morning Call's racist and hate-filled "Forum" comment sections at its website, Glenn Kranzley created "Valley Blogosphere at The Morning Call."

Diabolically, membership immediately converted some outspoken Morning Call critics and local blogger "Watch Dogs" (and Villas justice mission supporters) into "celebrity" aquiver Lap Dogs and sabotaging Attack Dogs.

Almost all local blogosphere dissent against The Morning Call was effectively quashed. 

And anyone who dared to keep dissenting against the "newspaper" got muzzled by "Valley Blogosphere" bloggers.  

Glenn Kranzley rewarded the same local bloggers who created the despicable Troll Parade blog, w/ weekly appearances in his Morning Call "newspaper" as honored "Blogger Tuesday" bloggers. 

On Friday June 5, The Tribune Company finally wiped that satisfied smug smirk off of Glenn Kranzley's kisser by firing his ass. 

Here at Lehigh Valley Somebody, we're grinning from ear to ear. 

And cheering. 

And still dissenting against the "newspaper." 

Good riddance, Glenno. 

One down. One to go.  

Recess Left Behind

Recently there was an article in "the newspaper" regarding a decision made by a BASD principal to allegedly "ban" recess from all students because "lower income" students scored low on PSSA tests. The principal required all students to stay in and read, instead of going outside for recess after lunch. The article is very misleading, and not well researched. http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_5recess.6898545may29,0,1815465.story

First of all, the classroom teacher can take the kids out for recess when he/she wants. And most teachers realize that recess is important to a child's physical, social and intellectual development. Secondly, recess helps improve a child's behavior in the classroom.

According to a recent New York Times article: A study published this month in the journal Pediatrics studied the links between recess and classroom behavior among about 11,000 children age 8 and 9. Those who had more than 15 minutes of recess a day showed better behavior in class than those who had little or none. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/health/24well.html?_r=1&em

The NY Times article goes on to say: And many children are not getting that break. In the Pediatrics study, 30 percent were found to have little or no daily recess. Another report, from a children’s advocacy group, found that 40 percent of schools surveyed had cut back at least one daily recess period. I am surprised that the percentage of students not getting recess is so high. If you suspect that your child is not getting recess, say something. My son's school takes away recess as punishment for a child's misbehavior. This policy is wrong and actually increases bad behavior in active children.

In my experience as a teacher, I have never met an elementary teacher who did not take students outside. In fact, when the weather was nice, some teachers would teach lessons outside. I remember taking my students out for drawing lessons. And if they behaved, I even let them kick a ball around for a while. But that was 8 years ago. Things are different now due to curriculum changes and new requirements to meet standards set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act(NCLB). Everything is geared around testing. (Uggggh)

Children should be able to go outside twice a day during the school day because research shows that more recess helps improve brain functioning and concentration, which improves test scores. Unstructured play and socialization are so important to a child's development. In today's "teaching to the test" environment (thanks to NCLB) the value of recess has been left behind. And reading should never be used as a punishment if we want kids to enjoy reading and become life long readers.

I encourage parents to speak out for more recess, because recess is not just fun and games, it's as essential as reading and math.

White Male Rage Over Sotomayor

Here's the entire comment, in context, that Sonia Sotomayor made during a lecture at UC Berkeley that has White Male NeoCon Right Wingnuts rolling around on the floor and foaming at the mouth over:

Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, a possibility I abhor less or discount less than my colleague Judge Cedarbaum, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am not so sure Justice O'Connor is the author of that line since Professor Resnik attributes that line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life

Let us not forget that wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society. Until 1972, no Supreme Court case ever upheld the claim of a woman in a gender discrimination case. I, like Professor Carter, believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable. As Judge Cedarbaum pointed out to me, nine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues including Brown. -Sonia Sotomayor

When read in context, it is clear that Sotomayor's comment is about the reality that different people have different life experiences. Diversity of opinion is good for the court. A judge's background can make a difference. In fact, her comment is the opposite of racism. She is saying that she hopes a Latina would make wise decisions, just like the previous white males did.

Drug addicted gas bag Rush Limbaugh has labeled her a "reverse racist." He says "He(Obama) just wants one of his own on the court to do his dirty work, from the highest court in the land, and she fits the bill." "Obama is the greatest example of a reverse racist, and now he has appointed one."

Newt Gingrich, Pat Buchanan, Glenn Beck, Michael Steele, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, have all expressed their outrage over the Sotomayor comment. And at this blog in my previous post, I received numerous vile comments, some that we published, most that we rejected, from foaming at the mouth hysterical anonymous commenters gone bonkers. G. Gordon Liddy has said "let's hope the key conferences aren't when she is menstruating or something, or just before she is going to menstruate." Ex Congressman Tom Tancredo has referred to Sotomayor as the ring leader of the Latino's version of the KKK.

FACT: All but four of the 110 Supreme Court justices in our nation’s history have been white men.

Twist and shout all you want, connected white guys, your privileged days of exclusive and unchallenged power are over.

Thoughts on Equality

Recently, the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8's ban on same sex marriage. Some people believe that since the majority of California citizens voted for Prop 8, then that makes it right. I don't see it that way, because the constitution protects an individual's basic rights under the equal protection and due process clauses, and that cannot be taken away by a vote.
If the Civil Rights Act of 1965 had been "put to a vote," instead of put into law, it too would have been voted down like Prop 8. The majority isn't always right and they shouldn't always rule.

Ted Olson, a conservative, and former Solicitor General for the Bush administration has filed a suit in California federal court seeking to overturn Prop 8. Read about it here: http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/bush-solicitor-general-ted-olson.html

How ironic that Prop 8's affirmation occurred on the same day President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. His decision is viewed as progressive. I'm glad he chose a woman, and someone who has an inspiring life story, growing up in a housing project in the Bronx, going on to Princeton University (graduating 2nd in her class) and then on to Yale Law School. Sotomayor graduated Summa Cum Lauda, and has more experience (almost 17 years) than any U.S. Supreme Court Justice nominated in the past 75 years. And yet many Republicans are kvetching (what else is new?) and questioning her intelligence and qualifications. She has said that as a Latina she brings a different perspective to the court. Some R's are calling her a racist over that remark. Glenn Beck refers to her as "that Hispanic chick lady" but that's not racist. I don't recall anyone questioning Samuel Alito's intelligence because he's a white male. I think the people calling her racist and questioning her intelligence are the racists. And the dimwits. Here's a great source for information about the Supreme Court http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/

So we have our first African-American President and our first Latina heading to the U.S. Supreme Court and this moves us light years towards equality. Finally. But we are taking a step backward regarding gay rights and individual rights as humans (Prop 8, "Don't Ask Don't Tell" in our military). Separate is not equal. And the racist reaction from the Right to Sotomayor's nomination tells me that women and Hispanics are still not viewed as equal to the white males who are accustomed to running America.