Using Tax Money To Kill Democracy!

If you consider yourself knowledgeable about politics and you believe there is a special place in Hell for those who sabotage our elections, you just may want to read up on these lesser known culprits doing that evil work right next door in Pennsylvania. Not all "theft of democracy" occurs in Florida and Ohio and not all of it is sponsored by the Republicans. Interesting stuff!

Pa. Statehouse scandal cited in Sen. ballot case

PETER JACKSON
The Associated Press
The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 16, 2008
http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/20080716_ap_pastatehousescandalcitedinsenballotcase.html

HARRISBURG, Pa. - A former Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate on Wednesday asked the state's highest court to reopen his two-year-old ballot-access case because state legislative officials arrested last week on corruption charges were allegedly involved in the challenge that knocked him out of the race.

Carl Romanelli, once regarded as a threat to Democrat Bob Casey in the 2006 Senate race, and his lawyer, Lawrence Otter, want the case sent back to Commonwealth Court. There, they plan to ask a judge to dismiss a ruling requiring them to pay more than $80,000 in legal costs.

Romanelli and Otter cite grand jury allegations that state House Democratic caucus operatives directed as many as 30 taxpayer-paid employees to review signatures on Romanelli's petition in the ballot challenge that killed his candidacy.

"A democratic society can no longer function if the government is going to support candidates and suppress other candidates using its funds and resources," Samuel Stretton, the attorney for Romanelli and Otter, wrote in Wednesday's filing in the state Supreme Court.

Casey, a son of the late governor, won the election over Rick Santorum, then the third-ranking Republican in the Senate.

A Casey spokesman said the senator was not aware of any illegal activity surrounding the Romanelli ballot challenge.

"There was never any indication ... about anything like this going on," said the spokesman, Larry Smar.

In a similar challenge that prevented Ralph Nader from running in Pennsylvania as an independent presidential candidate in 2004, the grand jury alleged that as many as 50 House Democratic staffers invested "a staggering number of man-hours" in efforts to block his candidacy.

The state Supreme Court ordered Nader and running mate Peter Miguel Camejo to pay $81,000 in legal costs of the voters who challenged his signatures , a judgment that Nader is contesting in the District of Columbia courts.

Nader's lawyer, Oliver Hall, said he is weighing whether to raise the Pennsylvania corruption case in that litigation.

"We are going to aggressively pursue every avenue to oppose this judgment," Hall said. "It now appears to be clear that (the judgment) is the result of a criminal conspiracy."

State Attorney General Tom Corbett's office last week charged each of the 12 defendants with theft, conspiracy and conflicts of interest counts in an alleged wide-ranging scheme to use taxpayer-funded employees, equipment and other resources to advance their political interests.

The defendants include former Rep. Michael Veon of Beaver County, the No. 2 Democratic leader until he was ousted in the 2006 election; Mike Manzo, the former chief of staff to House Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese, who has not been charged; and one sitting legislator, Rep. Sean Ramaley, D-Beaver. All the defendants are free on bail. Veon, Manzo and Ramaley have said they are innocent.

The ballot challenges left Nader and Romanelli, a railroad consultant who had been making his first bid for statewide political office, thousands of signatures shy of the number needed to qualify for their respective ballots.
Eleven Commonwealth Court judges were involved in examining Nader's petitions. Nearly two-thirds of his signatures were declared invalid, and the presiding judge cited widespread evidence of fraud that "shocks the conscience."

Democratic strategists regarded both Romanelli and Nader as spoilers who would siphon votes from the Democrats in those races.

Smar noted that Santorum's supporters provided most of the financing for Romanelli's signature-gathering effort.

"Nothing changes the fact that his signatures were invalid," said Smar.
Part of the reason for the monetary judgment against Romanelli and his lawyer was that they lacked the resources to defend themselves against the ballot challenge, Stretton said.

For example, some days they failed to muster the nine representatives that the judge wanted from each side. The Democratic State Committee, which mounted the challenge, consistently had the requisite number, he said.

"If there are going to be any fines and costs, they should be reserved for those who misused government offices and taxpayer funds in mounting this challenge," he wrote in the latest filing.

Bumped off ballot, Green Party candidate goes to court

By Tracie Mauriello
Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh), July 17, 2008
http://www.post-gazette.com

HARRISBURG -- A third-party congressional candidate filed a court petition yesterday saying he had been bumped from the ballot based on illegal work done by Harrisburg Democratic staffers who were arrested last week on corruption charges.

Carl Romanelli, a Green Party candidate in the 2006 U.S. Senate race, is asking the state Supreme Court to dismiss a ruling requiring him to pay $80,408 in legal costs incurred during his fight to stay on the ballot. He was bumped from the ballot after numerous signatures on his nominating petitions were challenged as invalid.

A grand jury presentment last week included evidence that those signature challenges were based on work by dozens of Democratic House employees while they were on the clock and being paid with tax dollars.

The grand jury found that staffers were similarly involved in an effort to remove former presidential candidate Ralph Nader from the 2004 ballot.

"The use of government monies to sponsor or support a candidate and/or challenge another candidate is absolutely dreadful and impermissible and a total violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution," attorney Samuel C. Stretton wrote in the petition filed yesterday on behalf of Mr. Romanelli and Larry Otter, an attorney who had represented Mr. Romanelli during the petition challenges. "A Democratic society can no longer function if the government is going to support candidates and suppress other candidates using its funds and resources."

Mr. Romanelli had been viewed as a potential spoiler who could draw votes away from Democrat Bob Casey Jr. during his 2006 race against longtime Republican Sen. Rick Santorum.

Mr. Casey's spokesman Larry Smar said he was "absolutely unaware" that legislative staffers had been put to work challenging petition signatures on the senator's behalf.

"We absolutely had no idea any of this was going on," he said. "But, as far as the ballot challenge, the names on the Romanelli petitions were still invalid, no matter what took place."

Mr. Nader and running mate Peter Camejo were seen as potential spoilers in the 2004 presidential race. House Democratic staffers were involved in petition challenges that got them removed from the ballot and assessed $81,000 in court costs in Pennsylvania.

"It seems clear that the judgment [against Mr. Nader and Mr. Camejo] was related to conduct set forth in the presentment and, for that reason, we think it is the ill-gotten fruit of a criminal conspiracy and cannot be enforced," said Nader attorney Oliver Hall. The presentment "clearly shows you have 50 state employees who are marshaled into service by a political party for the purpose of suppressing voter choice in a federal election by forcing a candidate off the ballot."

Mr. Nader and Mr. Camejo have not yet paid the $81,000 and have not decided whether to ask the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to remand the case, as Mr. Romanelli has.

Among those charged in the grand jury investigation were former House Minority Whip Mike Veon, D-Beaver Falls; Rep. Sean Ramaley, D-Economy, and Michael Manzo, former chief of staff to Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese of Waynesburg.

Tracie Mauriello can be reached at tmauriello@post-gazette.com or 717-787-2141.

Letters: One Reader's View

Investigate sabotage of Nader efforts

Philadelphia Inquirer, July 17, 2008
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20080717_Letters__One_Reader_s_View.html

It is unfortunate that Pennsylvania Democratic Party spokesman Abe Amoros used the criminal indictment of 12 prominent Pennsylvania Democrats as an occasion, once again, to defame 2004 independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader and 2006 Green Party senatorial candidate Carl Romanelli ("National tie to Pa. bonus scandal," July 15).

As Amoros should know, only a tiny number of signatures on the Nader petitions - 687 or 1.3 percent of the total - were counted as "forgeries" by their signers, and in the words of Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Thomas Saylor, there is "no evidence" to support Democrats' claims that the Nader campaign was even aware of such signatures. Furthermore, no allegation of fraud was ever raised against Romanelli's petitions.

There is, however, evidence that the Nader petitions were the target of widespread and deliberate sabotage: specifically, petition circulators discovered and removed about 7,000 obviously fake signatures prior to submitting the petitions.

Attorney General Tom Corbett should make it a priority to discover who was behind this unlawful conduct, and to clarify the role of the law firm mentioned in the indictment, which helped perpetrate the miscarriage of justice that denied Pennsylvanians their free choice of candidates in the 2004 presidential election.

Oliver Hall
Counsel to Ralph Nader
Washington

Locavore Recipes

Whether you go to farmer's markets, eat at local restaurants that care or belong to a CSA (or all three), I thought you may find this of interest.

The Natural Resources Defense Council just put out this guide with recipes for seasonal food. Its very well done and provides great ideas for what

to do with your farmer's market or CSA goodies.

http://www.nrdc.org/health/foodmiles/default.asp

I hope it is of use to you!

Rush Limbaugh's On Welfare!

You just gotta love this! Ralph Nader just wrote Rush Limbaugh asking why he doesn't offer to pay for his use of the public airwaves with which he generates millions in profits for himself every year giving nothing back to the people who make it possible. He asks, is this not "welfare", which "conservatives" purport to despise?

http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2008/07/ralph-nader-clashes-with-rush.html

Death Row Journalist On Ralph Nader and Obama

Mumia Abu-Jamal talks about Nader and Obama and the "talk white" remarks from his journalistic pulpit on Death Row.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PN0JDCIVQnY

Obama Says He'll Debate Nader!

I was just driving to work and listening to WAMC. Senator Harry Reid was on talking about how healthy he felt the Democratic Party "debates" were for the country. He was also making all the usual excuses for why the Democrats weren't fighting for the agenda of those who elected them in 2006. I couldn't help but be disgusted. The "debates" have simply been he said/she said battles between the two Democratic Senators whose views are fairly similar. I want debates but I certainly don't want 21 photo-ops between two people who basically agree on everything and thats what I've seen thus far.

Am I wrong to want substantive criticism and discussion of each candidate's "health care" plan? Is it really weird that I want a moderator to ask these empty corporate heads why, in the name of God, they and their party don't support Single Payer Health Care? I want discussion of why universal health care that is half the price we currently pay isn't even on the table. Is it really so strange that I would like to hear an actual discussion of the subtle differences between staying in Iraq for "a few more years" or "until 2011" or "until the job is done". Whatever happened to the whole "I am against this war", "Lets get the Hell out right now!" position? Which one of these pro-war candidates has a plan for peace and which one will bomb Iran as soon as they can? I want to know why nuclear power and big coal support both candidates even though each one claims to support "alternative, sustainable" energy? ets have some details about their individual policies to resolve America's energy crisis and self-created carbon emission troubles. Lets have a debate where they each discuss the mechanics of HOW their plans (for anything) will work!

Obama settled my mind somewhat recently when he said that he would debate Ralph Nader. The Nader Campaign sent this (tongue in cheek) email out (I've posted it below and you can also check it out online at "votenader.org"). If Obama really would debate Ralph, I would send him a check and a letter supporting his democratic principle. I really would. I wonder, though, should Obama become the candidate in the general election and then refuse to make good on his promise (or even mention it) .... How many Obama supporters will see the light and send Ralph a check and a letter? ;-)

Nader and Gonzalez on WAMC

Here is the wonderful hour given to democracy by our friends at WAMC. A big thanks to Ray Graff, Joe Donahue, Brian Shields (and, of course, Ralph) for making this Vox Pop happen.

WAMC's Vox Pop Podcast (Brian Shields with Ralph Nader) April 24, 2008

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1272639

My Speech at Single-Payer Health Care Rally in Albany

My name is Matt Funiciello. I am a small business owner here in the state of NY. I own a wholesale bread bakery in Moreau, N.Y. and we employ about 40 people. As wheat prices have tripled, we have had to struggle to find new ways to make ends meet. We had been purchasing terrible overpriced HMO insurance for those of our workers who chose to participate and we had been paying approximately 50% of the premiums.

Several months ago, we were forced to cancel our participation in said plan leaving our workers to find coverage elsewhere or do without. Some are lucky enough to have a spouse whose employer is better able to cover these expenses. Some are simply going without and some are trying to buy insurance on their own and now paying more because they are buying insurance as individuals and are not able to benefit from group purchasing.

I would just think of this as a hard time, a time we'll all eventually pass through but I find it very hard to do that. You see, I grew up in Canada and have lived under the care of a real health care system so I find it very hard to watch my children, my friends and my workers struggle on without something so vital as adequate and affordable access to doctors and health care. Being fully aware that greed and waste are what make their suffering possible is a terrible cross to bear.

Senator Charles Schumer said the other day, "Healthcare, I feel strongly about, but I am not sure that we're ready for a major national healthcare plan."

Schumer is not the first elected official to question our readiness for national health care. He and many others seem unable to comprehend the simple math that allows those of in small business to understand what they cannot.

Lets play the Single-Payer/Small Business Math Game for just a second ...

We are currently spending $7,129 dollars per person to cover 257,000,000 Americans badly.
This costs about $1.832 trillion dollars a year.

Now, over 30 other industrialized nations have universal health care and it costs them all about half of that amount per capita with universal coverage.

Lets take off our politician's hats for a moment and put on our Small Business Owner's hats instead.

$1.832 trillion dollars divided by 304,000,000 Americans equals $6027 dollars per person.

So, for all of you non-politicians out there who are able to do simple math, we just took the current amount actually being spent on health care in this country and divided it by the number of people who actually live here and ... the result? We see that everyone in this country could be covered for the exact same amount being spent today if we were just able to lower our per capita
costs from $7129 to $6027 per person, a difference of just over $1,100 dollars.

Well, is that possible? Could we do it? Lets keep our small business owner's hats on for just another minute and speak plainly about this dilemma. Where can we find and save this $1100 dollars per person that would allow us to cover everyone?

I bet many of you non-politicians already know the answer. We currently suffer under a system that allows for profit and administrative costs that run as high as 35%! If we could bring those costs down, that would be great, because together they amount to almost $2500 dollars per year per person! I remind you ... we only needed to save $1100 to achieve the desired result, full coverage for all!

Now, if Canadians and 35 other industrialized countries can all have health care for half of what we spend and live a year longer, why can't we? Its sure as heck not because of a lack of money being thrown at this problem.

And, if Medicare can run effectively with only a 2-3% administrative costs, why can't the private sector? I thought it was more efficient to privatize things? Apparently, its not and we need to do that other thing business does well, centralize and negotiate pricing.

Its time for our elected officials to stop telling us lies. We already spend far more than any other country does for universal care. It is time for single payer health care now! It is also time to withhold your votes from any politician who refuses to step up to the plate and hit this ball out of the park. We're virtually lobbing it to you. If you can't hit it, then lets have someone else step up to the plate who can!

The ComPost-Star Defends Its Two-Party Bias

Our "local" corporate paper is the Glens Falls Post-Star. Its owned by the publishing empire known as Lee Enterprises who currently own 51 dailies across the country. As with many small corporate papers, the Post-Star doesn't do a terrible job with local news and many good people (including some friends) work there. However, they have a monopoly in our little town and are widely hated for their bias and lack of integrity by most people I come across (regardless of their individual politics).

The P-S buried their recent advance story on Ralph Nader's April 26th visit to our little town. It was carefully placed on page B7 in Saturday's paper (which few people read). When I got them an actual interview with Ralph, hoping they would do something front page or at least, more substantive, they did do a tiny bit better, giving him a small right hand sidebar story on page B1 with a tiny photo. As for coverage of the actual event, they only came to the fundraising dinner and not to the public Wood Theater event. We had about 225 people come out to see him. There was a lengthy standing ovation and there were four TV stations there (the local Time Warner and NBC affiliates covered it). There were three other videographers and six print journalists there from different papers (indie and otherwise). The Post-Star printed a little story on the visit on Sunday and had their anonymous an cowardly sniper, Don Coyote ("Dumb Coyote"), tell us all on the front page, "No wonder way more people went to see Rachael Ray than Ralph Nader. He didn't even have an ice sculpture." (Rachael Ray was in Lake George, her hometown, that same night, at a annual fundraiser she holds at at her alma mater, Lake George High School.)

What would it be like if Ralph made a living hawking Dunkin Donuts on TV instead of working tirelessly on our behalf? Would he then warrant some substantive coverage in the Post-Star's

precious little pages? Is that what it really takes to get on their "radar" and to earn their respect? You've got to be on TV selling crap? I can easily imagine that Miley Cyrus is the editorial staff's favorite singer (they've likely never heard of KD Lang or Lyle Lovett or Blue Rodeo, those people aren't on TV often enough to be "relevant" singers). I bet McDonald's is their favorite restaurant ("Aw shucks, them burgers is on the tube all the time, dude!). These are not people one could accuse of being too bright and they control the mainstream's access to information!

Apparently, they have never heard of journalism or substance or truth. They are so caught up in their bullshit TV world, they have lost the ability to focus on things that actually matter.

Since then, their lack of coverage has caused the story on the dinner to be the "Most Commented" on their website. Check it out.

http://www.poststar.com/articles/2008/04/27/news/local/13551380.txt

The editorial staff have also regularly responded to online criticisms of their biased coverage (or non-coverage in many cases) by attacking me or the others who make note of their criminal behavior. John Thomas had a great letter to the editor published about the Post Star's pathetic behavior (I've copied it below). They responded (as always, using anonymity) with an "Editor's Note" saying that they had given "ample" coverage to Ralph. They also said this to me in an anonymous editor's note ... "Just declaring yourself a presidential candidate doesn't automatically make you equal to the others. If McCain, Clinton or Obama came to Glens Falls, our readers would be expecting, and we would be giving them, much more coverage than Nader. That has nothing to do with the "corporate media" junk you keep throwing out. It's common sense. Any other paper, big or small, corporate or privately owned, would do the exact same thing."

Amazing! All I can think of is that old adage we have all heard many times over the millennia, "If little Mikey jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you do it, too?"

Apparently the Post Star management will follow their corporate media "leaders" right off the bridge. Their God, the mighty Boob Tube, can do no wrong. Sad little people ... all of them. If the many other media mechanisms we often think of as more "credible" didn't also cheer lead the war, water down the issues, ignore and marginalize candidates, promote big business and parrot wire stories, I would think the Post-Star was a truly evil mechanism. Knowing that they are just following the lead of NBC and PBS and Disney and the NY Times and the Washington Post makes me feel better. If they are just stupid and easily-led ... that means there is hope for them yet! ;-)

John Thomas Writes A Letter

This is a great letter published in the Post-Star concerning their terribly sparse coverage of Ralph Nader as he visited their "hometown". Thought you might get a kick out of it. You've got to love the editor's inane comment arguing that they gave him "ample" coverage. ;-)

Nader did not get the coverage he deserves

Editor:

Attendee's at the Wood Theatre were provoked by Mr. Nader to think about the situations in our nation. Mr. Nader is a seasoned Capitol Hill activist, the American people are his constituency.

Mr. Nader offers solutions to help us out of mire we've gotten into, solutions that cost only commitment and participation in the upcoming election.

Many people will not vote, some vote the party line, some will watch exit polls, vote for projected winners; projected winners have enough votes, we have to vote our conscience.

We do not have to vote for either of the two parties, and we do not have to vote to elect the lesser of two evils. It's time to take back our streets, schools, children, censor TV shows and hobble the Internet. We are distracted from government by mindless drivel; TV, movies, Internet, trash radio and biased news reporting.

Consider -- the economy is suffering, schools are suffering, huge energy issues, and Rachael Ray gets more press in the Sunday, April 27 paper than a viable, cogent, honest and altruistic presidential candidate; none of the current three popular presidential hopefuls on their best day can make any of those claims.

What have any of them done for the American people except spend tax dollars like they were on a game show. If any of the three popular hopefuls were coming to Glens Falls, I'm sure there would have been larger coverage in the paper.

I would like to see deeper and less opinionated coverage in media than we experience. The choice to run or not run a story is critical to the integrity of the paper. The editor has license. I believe the editor also has a greater and public responsibility to go with the power of that license.

JOHN THOMAS

Hartford

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. Nader's visit got ample play in our publication, including a preview story last week on his upcoming visit that included a phone interview with the candidate.

I know that some of you have been waiting for me to write something up about Ralph Nader's visit this past weekend. I'm too tired to do it any real justice but it was great. We sold out our fund raising dinner and we had about 225 people come out to the Wood Theater to hear him speak. Media coverage was, as always, a mixed bag. One of the things Ralph said that stuck with me as both amusing and inspirational ... he was asked how he manages to be so persistent in fighting the good fight and he remarked that "My closet does not contain a white flag. I have looked for one before and there just isn't one in there!"

I think its safe to say that a good time was had by all and that we were all greatly energized by his visit and his speaking truth to power. Many thanks are due to this tireless champion for democracy and regular folk! If you are one of those crazy people who might actually want more information, check out the links that I've posted below.

The Glens Falls Post-Star covered it. Check out the comments! His visit made the "Most Commented Story" on their online forum. Not bad for an "irrelevant old guy", huh!?
http://www.poststar.com/articles/2008/04/27/news/local/13551380.txt

WNYT (Albany's NBC): http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S425804.shtml

Time Warner News 9: http://capitalnews9.com/Default.aspx?ArID=114971

Mountain Lake PBS from Plattsburgh is doing a half hour show. I'll send it out when it's up on their site. Glens Falls TV 8 covered the event as well.

This is a podcast of Ralph and Matt Gonzalez on WAMC's Roundtable:

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1247783

This is a wonderful Vox Pop that Brian Shields did with Ralph for WAMC. http://www.wamc.org/prog-voxpop-archive.html

Me on the Libertarian Show "Capitol Outsider" talking about Ralph, the Greens and activism.

http://capitaloutsider.org/2008/04/show-26-matt-funiciello.html

For information directly from the man himself, check out:

www.votenader.org and www.essential.org

Hudson-Mohawk Independent Media Center filmed the whole thing. Expect a DVD of the event in the near future, I'm sure. The Glens Falls Chronicle did a great advance piece but are not available on line. The Hill Country Observer will also cover it in May's edition. Watch for it.

If you're in the mood for a good laugh, check these articles out about Hillary running as an independent ("Hillary Is the New Ralph Nader").
http://uspolitics.einnews.com/article.php?nid=461158

http://www.allvoices.com/userevents/365329-ralph-nader?gclid=CL-BstvUg5MCFRGYggodjnSkFw