The second annual event was from noon to 4 pm.
A group of local artists and artisans give the opportunity to browse their collections. Perfect chance to get to know local artists, sip cider, listen to good music, or hike along the beautiful Tohickon Creek. Bring the whole family.
212 536 8749
The facility resides in a state park and is operated by Bucks County Dept. of Parks & Recreation.
My sister and brother-in-law, Geri Ann and John, live there and have house responsibilities.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Amusement Parks, Octoberfest, Casinos
Some have suggested that the new Pittsburgh Gambling Parlor be put at the Parkway Center Mall -- very near to Green Tree, yet within the borders of the City of Pittsburgh.
Octoberfest in Green Tree is this weekend. While at the Octoberfest, around the booth of the Green Tree Great White Sharks, I'll ask what the locals think of that idea.
The photo is of a defunct amusement park outside of Beijing. We passed this site on the way to The Great Wall. It looks like Disney. But, we'll be going to Hong Kong Disney on Tuesday. I'll take a few snapshots. Disney is getting some bad karma as it said it intends to open another Disney in a few years in mainland China. That won't be near Beijing, but near the other mega city, Shanghai.
The Parkway Center Mall idea for gambling has a few merits as it is already built, near a highway, near some hotels and the mall is hurting presently. But, it isn't as good as putting the new gambling casino within the existing Convention Center.
Voters Choice Act -- Rally
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2005
For more information contact:
- Ken Krawchuk at 267-496-3332
- David Jahn at 610-461-7755
"VOTERS CHOICE ACT" RALLY HELD IN HARRISBURG
The Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition held a kickoff rally to introduce their Voters Choice Act last Saturday, September 24th, in the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg. A crowd of 40 supporters gathered to hear representatives from Pennsylvania's largest third parties and independent campaigns. Among the speakers were the 1998 and 2002 Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Ken Krawchuk, Libertarian Party state chair David Jahn, former Green Party state chair Jennaro Pullano, Constitution Party national chairman Jim Clymer, Reform Party state treasurer Tom McLaughlin, John Murphy of the Ralph Nader campaign, and the 2004 Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik. High-resolution photos of the rally can be found at http://tinyurl.com/cht8k.
"We are heading for a political train wreck in 2006," Libertarian Ken Krawchuk told the crowd. "Over one million voting-age Pennsylvanians risk being denied their right to vote for the candidate of their choice." Because of a fluke in the existing ballot access laws, third party and independent candidates will need to collect approximately 100,000 signatures in order to appear on the statewide ballot in 2006, as compared to less than 3,000 for the two old parties.
Green Party's Jennaro Pullano focused on the impossibility of organizing so mammoth a petition drive. "Last year we had to work around the clock for four days to get our petitions ready for submission. I don't know how we'll be able to do it when the number is 100,000. That's the equivalent of getting everyone here in Harrisburg to sign our petition."
Jim Clymer of the Constitution Party noted that if Utah had Pennsylvania's ballot access laws, the Democrats would not be a political party, and if Massachusetts had them, the Republicans would not be a political party. "The major parties have conspired to make Pennsylvania one of the most difficult states in the nation to acquire permanent ballot access so they can maintain a monopoly stranglehold on the electoral process", Clymer concluded.
Reform Party's Tom McLaughlin focused on the statistics that result from Pennsylvania's draconian laws, specifically, that if not for third party candidates, 27% of the Congressional races would have no opposition, 28% of state senate races, and a whopping 56% of state rep races. "Republicans and Democrats try to muddy the waters or write us off as third parties", McLaughlin said. "We are not third parties, we are the only functional SECOND Party!"
John Murphy of the Ralph Nader campaign described in detail the extreme lengths that Pennsylvania Democrats went in order to keep Ralph Nader off the ballot, concluding that, "The very magnitude of that effort itself indicates that, under any conception of a democratic system, it is that very person who should be on the ballot!"
Libertarian David Jahn pointed out how third parties hold their own primaries at their own expense, then collect tens of thousands of signatures to get on the November ballot, while the two old parties benefit from taxpayer-funded primaries, then require no signatures to get on the November ballot. "This is a process that is not healthy, as it permits the major parties to run and elect sub par candidates with ease while our candidates are overwhelmed with ballot access hurdles."
At a reception immediately after the rally, the 2004 Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik addressed the crowd, comparing Pennsylvania's bad ballot access laws to the Jim Crow laws of old, since they create a second class citizenship supported by law.
The complete text of the remarks of the presenters can be found on the Coalition's website at www.PaBallotAccess.org.
The Voters Choice Act reforms Pennsylvania's draconian ballot access laws by leveling the playing field for third parties and independent candidates. Under the current law, Democrats and Republicans must collect 2,000 signatures to have their names placed on the statewide primary ballot, and none at all for the November ballot. However, to have their names placed on the November ballot in 2006, third party and independent candidates will be required to collect a minimum of 67,070 signatures, more than 33 times as many, despite a Constitutional provision that "Elections shall be free and equal".
The Voters Choice Act would change the definition of a minor political party from the current district-by-district electoral formula (2% of a recent winner's vote total) to one based upon statewide voter registrations (0.05%), and allow minor political parties to nominate candidates for all offices directly according to their party rules, and at their own expense, rather than by the existing, taxpayer-funded nomination papers process. Independent candidates would continue to nominate candidates for all offices via the current nomination papers process, but using the same signature requirements required of the two old parties rather than the current district-by-district electoral formula (2% of a recent winner's vote total).
A copy of the Voters Choice Act and its accompanying white paper can be found on the Coalition's website at www.PaBallotAccess.org.
The Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition is an association of representatives from Pennsylvania's largest political third parties and independent campaigns, including the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, the Constitution Party, the America First Party, the Reform Party, the Prohibition Party, the Socialist Party, the Unified Independent Party, the New American Independent Party, and the Ralph Nader campaign, among others.
The Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition
PO Box 309
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081
www.PaBallotAccess.org
PBAC@PaBallotAccess.org
Voice: (610) 543-8427
Fax: (215) 572-9248
Friday, September 30, 2005
Possible tone for the pending city council race: Matching seriousness of Old Faithful
Old Faithful. It's a technical place that happens in rare instances with the right conditions. It's more than just "hot air." It's something to marvel upon and respect. A treasure.
Going to the Opera -- In Italian -- with two intermissions!
The opera goers gathered outside of the school and the center on South Side. They headed to the cultural district after getting the insights into the opera at a class a few days prior. This is a wonderful program that my kids and wife enjoy. I got to take the photo.
Headed to the opera.
The show has two intermissions -- much like a hockey game with three periods. I expected that my youngest would be sleeping throughout the show, prior to departure. Wrong. He was on the edge of his seat all night. They arrived home after midnight. The sleep part came on Saturday morning.
Jennifer Madge, our violin instructor, played first chair too.
Headed to the opera.
The show has two intermissions -- much like a hockey game with three periods. I expected that my youngest would be sleeping throughout the show, prior to departure. Wrong. He was on the edge of his seat all night. They arrived home after midnight. The sleep part came on Saturday morning.
Jennifer Madge, our violin instructor, played first chair too.
Big games -- or not
Pitt is behind, 27 to 0 in the second quarter at RUTGERS.
Big weekend of Red Sox baseball, hosting the Yankees.
Big weekend of Red Sox baseball, hosting the Yankees.
My call-in to Pippy on KDKA-radio about the 5% windfall shrink to 0%
The South Hills' John Pippy, R, was on KDKA radio talking about the plan in Harrisburg that NUKES the provision that allows for a 5-percent windfall for taxing bodies as a result of new property assessments. Presently, a community with a new assessment can get up to a five-percent bump in gross tax incomes. So, for exmaple, the Penn Hills School District, which is part of Allgheny County, would have all of its properties with new assessment figures because the county did a re-assessment. The old values of the properties would up up to X. Then the new values of the properties would up up to Y. The law has said that Y can be up to 5% greater than X.
In essence, the present law kept the total municipal property gross close to zero, with a little wiggle room, i.e., the 5% fudge factor.
Some argue that the municipality can "raise taxes" by five percent without voting on a tax hike. Rather, the taxes were raised under the cover of the reassesement's new figures.
The controller's office, once held by Dan Onorato, needed to crunch the numbers and then could have taken a case to the courts fighting local school districts or boroughs who set the taxing levels too high so that the 5% limit was over-stepped.
The tax rates and the math that is matched with the new property values isn't "rocket science." However, the numbers are not simple and transparent for citizens nor elected officials as the benchmark is found within the sum of all municipality's properties.
Furthermore, the new assessment numbers are often in a state of flux. High percentage of people apply for appeals. So, the sum of the assessments is a moving target. Estimates are necessary within the process. Additionally, the county executive often makes blankt-changes to the forumlas and jacks around with the outcomes.
In a perfect, ideal world, no tax increases should occur without a vote for the tax increases. So, a zero windfall makes sense. But, we don't live in an ideal world.
Plus, this won't be enforced. It is a joke. It is a ploy. The legisilation is lame and feel good from Harrisburg represenatives --as usual. The new law doesn't get to the roots of the problem.
There have been many municipalities that have broken the existing five-percent windfall rule and NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE. If the law gets broken and nothing happens with its enforcement -- then the law isn't worthy.
Another serious issue that was downplayed on the radio by Pippy, as a result of my on-air question, goes to 'new development.' Pippy said that this is not a big deal and he's wrong. Statewide, he is very wrong.
For example, there are many rural communities that are turning farmlands into new suburban housing. A township can see a new development with 600 or 6,000 new homes and need to take that into account when making the tax incomes match the citizen services. A community might need new police, new road crews, new garbage pick-up crews and streetlights -- because of new developments. So, the new law puts the township supervisors in a pickle.
What if Homestead, the site of the Waterfront Mall, had to keep its total tax incomes at zero -- the year that the Mall opened. Do police not cruise the mall and just go to those who paid the same from last year?
The new law needs to make some allowances for new growth and new tax incomes that were not there the past year -- and not have that included to the zero windfall benchmark.
Duhh!
The PA zero windfall proposal is a lot like zero tolerance in schools as well. A first grade kid that wears a Pirate costume to school for Halloween shouldn't be suspended for two weeks because of his sword and the zero weapon rule that ties the hands of administrators and teachers.
If Pippy wanted to do a better job -- put out the numbers from past tax increases from past assessments on a district by district basis. Then, go after the entities that took more than a 5-percent windfall. Pippy and others should enforce the existing law before they go ahead and create a new law.
If Pippy wanted to do a better job -- talk about and study, as well as enact, a different type of law that applies to an individuals tax situation that hits with new assessment figures. We need each household to add the numbers together and fight the good fight with tools that impact families -- NOT GROSS MUNICIPAL INCOMES.
Assessment buffering is needed. If we had assessment buffering -- we'd not need any ZERO WINDFALL LAW. And, assessment buffering, a point that I campaigned upon in my race for State Senate in 2005, makes a perfect solution for every tax payer throughout the state.
In essence, the present law kept the total municipal property gross close to zero, with a little wiggle room, i.e., the 5% fudge factor.
Some argue that the municipality can "raise taxes" by five percent without voting on a tax hike. Rather, the taxes were raised under the cover of the reassesement's new figures.
The controller's office, once held by Dan Onorato, needed to crunch the numbers and then could have taken a case to the courts fighting local school districts or boroughs who set the taxing levels too high so that the 5% limit was over-stepped.
The tax rates and the math that is matched with the new property values isn't "rocket science." However, the numbers are not simple and transparent for citizens nor elected officials as the benchmark is found within the sum of all municipality's properties.
Furthermore, the new assessment numbers are often in a state of flux. High percentage of people apply for appeals. So, the sum of the assessments is a moving target. Estimates are necessary within the process. Additionally, the county executive often makes blankt-changes to the forumlas and jacks around with the outcomes.
In a perfect, ideal world, no tax increases should occur without a vote for the tax increases. So, a zero windfall makes sense. But, we don't live in an ideal world.
Plus, this won't be enforced. It is a joke. It is a ploy. The legisilation is lame and feel good from Harrisburg represenatives --as usual. The new law doesn't get to the roots of the problem.
There have been many municipalities that have broken the existing five-percent windfall rule and NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE. If the law gets broken and nothing happens with its enforcement -- then the law isn't worthy.
Another serious issue that was downplayed on the radio by Pippy, as a result of my on-air question, goes to 'new development.' Pippy said that this is not a big deal and he's wrong. Statewide, he is very wrong.
For example, there are many rural communities that are turning farmlands into new suburban housing. A township can see a new development with 600 or 6,000 new homes and need to take that into account when making the tax incomes match the citizen services. A community might need new police, new road crews, new garbage pick-up crews and streetlights -- because of new developments. So, the new law puts the township supervisors in a pickle.
What if Homestead, the site of the Waterfront Mall, had to keep its total tax incomes at zero -- the year that the Mall opened. Do police not cruise the mall and just go to those who paid the same from last year?
The new law needs to make some allowances for new growth and new tax incomes that were not there the past year -- and not have that included to the zero windfall benchmark.
Duhh!
The PA zero windfall proposal is a lot like zero tolerance in schools as well. A first grade kid that wears a Pirate costume to school for Halloween shouldn't be suspended for two weeks because of his sword and the zero weapon rule that ties the hands of administrators and teachers.
If Pippy wanted to do a better job -- put out the numbers from past tax increases from past assessments on a district by district basis. Then, go after the entities that took more than a 5-percent windfall. Pippy and others should enforce the existing law before they go ahead and create a new law.
If Pippy wanted to do a better job -- talk about and study, as well as enact, a different type of law that applies to an individuals tax situation that hits with new assessment figures. We need each household to add the numbers together and fight the good fight with tools that impact families -- NOT GROSS MUNICIPAL INCOMES.
Assessment buffering is needed. If we had assessment buffering -- we'd not need any ZERO WINDFALL LAW. And, assessment buffering, a point that I campaigned upon in my race for State Senate in 2005, makes a perfect solution for every tax payer throughout the state.
TCS: Tech Central Station - The Technorati Candidate
By all accounts, I'm a wired citizen and from time to time, a wired candidate. However, I've not yet gone overboard to predict a victory and only earn 5% of the vote.
TCS: Tech Central Station - The Technorati Candidate In the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore found out that it was possible to win the popular vote, and still lose the electoral vote. In last week's Democratic primary for New York City Public Advocate, Andrew Rasiej found out that it was possible to win the blogger vote, and still lose the popular vote.
For the two months leading up to the primary election on September 13, Rasiej captured the hearts and minds of bloggers like no other candidate since Howard Dean with a technology-centric campaign that included a plan for citywide wireless Internet access, a video blog (in addition to a regular blog), and a plan for making 911 calls from the NYC subway. On the day preceding the election, in fact, 'Rasiej' ranked as one of the ten most popular search terms on the blog search engine Technorati. Anyone convinced of the power of the blogosphere to determine the fate of political careers (Trent Lott, anyone?) would surely have guessed that Mr. Rasiej was on the cusp of sweeping into office with a broad new mandate to revolutionize politics.
Massachusetts moves ahead sans Microsoft | CNET News.com
Five years ago I had a platform plank that called for actions like this. The movement is now, finally, taking root in the US in other states with better awareness of technology policy.
At times, it can be hard to show what isn't there. No Microsoft to oil the palm.
Thanks for the tip, Amos_thePokerCat.
At times, it can be hard to show what isn't there. No Microsoft to oil the palm.
Massachusetts moves ahead sans Microsoft | CNET News.com Massachusetts has finalized its decision to standardize desktop applications on OpenDocument, a format not supported by Microsoft Office.
The state on Wednesday posted the final version of its Enterprise Technical Reference Model, which mandates new document formats for office productivity applications.
As it proposed late last month before a comment period, Massachusetts has decided to use only products that conform to the Open Document Format for Office Applications, or OpenDocument, which is developed by the standards body OASIS.
Thanks for the tip, Amos_thePokerCat.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
My camera died today while on the field trip to the Pgh Zoo and Aquarium. I had some nice photos of a nice field trip -- but the best I can share with the blog readers is this photo of some fish -- for sale on the street -- literally on the street. We got to feed the fish at four different tanks. Cool.
October 6 -- WQED Community Reception
Go there and demand community meetings on issues that impact the community! Go there and demand that candidate debates occur.
Economic TV -- or -- DoWop?
Meet WQED personalities, hear about upcoming programming on WQED tv 13, WQED fm 89.3 and Pittsburgh Magazine. This is also a great time for input on issues affecting your community, and how WQED can better serve you. This Community Reception will be held at Robert Morris University.
For more information and to RSVP, call 412-622- 1313.
Economic TV -- or -- DoWop?
What would YOU do if you had two weeks in Hong Kong, starting early next week??
We are headed to Hong Kong. This is your chance to give us last minute pointers or tasks.
My wife is a visiting scholar / teacher at HK University.
We are staying in an apartment in Discovery Bay. We'll take a ferry to Hong Kong Island.
Our group includes our sons (Erik is turning 11 there, Grant, 7), two Pitt Graduate students in their own apartment about a 10-minute walk from ours, and a HS senior from CT (step-nephew).
We'll touch down there on Monday and spend Tuesday at the new Hong Kong Disney. There is a serious Disney connection with the step-nephew.
My note of introduction to the faculty of the HK Univ. Human Performance (Physical Education) follows in the comments. I've already got word on when they hold swim practices.
I'm thinking that we'll shop for plenty of 'tea' -- and host a few 'Pittsburgh tea parties' so as to warm up the mood for a revolution of sorts. The same worked in Boston some time ago when they held the Boston Tea Party. But, we'll drink ours and take the revolution to the voting booths on election day.
So, note if you have a favorite tea from China, please.
My wife is a visiting scholar / teacher at HK University.
We are staying in an apartment in Discovery Bay. We'll take a ferry to Hong Kong Island.
Our group includes our sons (Erik is turning 11 there, Grant, 7), two Pitt Graduate students in their own apartment about a 10-minute walk from ours, and a HS senior from CT (step-nephew).
We'll touch down there on Monday and spend Tuesday at the new Hong Kong Disney. There is a serious Disney connection with the step-nephew.
My note of introduction to the faculty of the HK Univ. Human Performance (Physical Education) follows in the comments. I've already got word on when they hold swim practices.
I'm thinking that we'll shop for plenty of 'tea' -- and host a few 'Pittsburgh tea parties' so as to warm up the mood for a revolution of sorts. The same worked in Boston some time ago when they held the Boston Tea Party. But, we'll drink ours and take the revolution to the voting booths on election day.
So, note if you have a favorite tea from China, please.
OpenOffice.org 2.0 has gone from being a Beta to a Release Candidate
As an RC, OpenOffice.org 2.0 RC still -- even more so -- needs to be downloaded and tested by the community. You are urged to download and start the application. The sooner we clean up the bugs, the sooner we can come out with OpenOffice.org 2.0.
OpenOffice.org 2.0 is the world's best and easiest to use free productivity suite. Read the product page and features pages for more information.
* Product
* Features
*** NOTE: Windows user with OpenOffice.org's older, beta and past developer builds should remove them prior to the installation of the RC because of an incorrect interpretation of their version information by the Windows Installer. As a matter of course the stable version OpenOffice.org 1.1.x (most recent: 1.1.5) can be used concurrently.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Free Pennsylvania = highly moderated. Yuck.
Good luck Jason. First order of business, get rid of the moderation. Just nuke it.
Free Pennsylvania, http://www.freepa.org. It is a highly moderated discussion site for political discussion among those that consider themselves conservatives: whether fiscal, social, or both. There are forums for general discussion, news, and a Campaigns section to discuss the various political campaigns currently being waged. Over the last few days I have had a few friends register and make a few posts in order to make sure that everything is functional. Now that thebugs are worked out (I hope), it’s time to let the masses know that Pennsylvania conservatives finally have a home on the Internet. Please take a moment to register and help to get this community started.
Ticket given to woman sitting on park bench -- without a kid
In Pittsburgh, we are about to get finger-printed and ticketed for being in the cultural district without a home or without lunch money.
Laws and rules are sure to be enforced in stupid ways. Laws need to be smarter. Often, the smartest law is no law at all. Otherwise, things like this happen.
Parents, don't leave your kid alone in the park. Plus, if there is a problem with a person in the park -- call the police. Police, meanwhile, need to arrive on the park scene and deal with the issues.
Playground area in a park we visited.
Pittsburgh's City council is trying to fight, "aggressive panhandling." Yeah, right.
Councilman Peduto wants to take the fight to all solicitations.
Meanwhile, County Executive Dan Onorato has a 10-year plan to help the homeless. That might start in a few years.
7Online.com, WABC-TV A woman was given a ticket for sitting on a park bench because she doesn't have children.
The Rivington Playground on Manhattan's East Side has a small sign at the entrance that says adults are prohibited unless they are accompanied by a child.
Forty-seven-year-old Sandra Catena says she didn't see the sign when she sat down to wait for an arts festival to start. Two New York City police officers asked her if she was with a child. When she said no, they gave her a ticket that could bring a one thousand dollar fine and 90 days in jail.
The city parks department says the rule is designed to keep pedophiles out of city parks, but a parks spokesman told the Daily News that the department hoped police would use some common sense when enforcing the rule.
The spokesman told the paper that ticketing a woman in the park in the middle of the day is not the way you want to enforce the rule.
Laws and rules are sure to be enforced in stupid ways. Laws need to be smarter. Often, the smartest law is no law at all. Otherwise, things like this happen.
Parents, don't leave your kid alone in the park. Plus, if there is a problem with a person in the park -- call the police. Police, meanwhile, need to arrive on the park scene and deal with the issues.
Playground area in a park we visited.
Pittsburgh's City council is trying to fight, "aggressive panhandling." Yeah, right.
Councilman Peduto wants to take the fight to all solicitations.
Meanwhile, County Executive Dan Onorato has a 10-year plan to help the homeless. That might start in a few years.
Transcript: Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt
Transcript: Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt duck Q: Mr. Roosevelt, do you feel that the current system is able to survive financially with out cutting programs?
Mark_Roosevelt A: We do have serious financial issues. We are spending about 40 million dollars more than we have in revenues. And we have spent down the surplus that we had so that it will be entirely gone at the end of 2006. There will have to be cuts. And we will have to work with the state and the foundation community to gain as much new revenue as possible. But there is no way that this problem can be solved without making some very difficult decisions.
So, what do you do about tax give-a-ways? The URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) is now calling upon the city, county and THE PGH PUBLIC SCHOOL District to build parking garages with tax incomes. Please say "NO." We can't give anything away.
Family Flashback (Aug 7, 2004)
Flashback! Top row: Phil, Bill, Leo (my dad), John, Kevin and me (Mark). Bottom row: Mary Lee, Margie, Audrey (my mom), Geri Ann, Michele and Catherine (my wife). Those are my four sisters and their husbands. We are with the giggles because we always have a great time together -- even when the camera's automatic shutter is the focus.
Our kids. To be exact, my two sons are in the photo along with their cousins. Since the photo, one year ago, the family has grown by one.
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