Scott Ott, the Tea Party supporter who is crusading for fiscal sanity and against cronyism and corruption, beat the Republican establishment in Lehigh County to run as the party’s nominee for county executive.
The rank and file in Tuesday’s primary chose him over party-supported Dean Browning, a former county commissioner, 6,837 to 5,429 (unofficial results).
He faces Democrat Tom Muller in November.
Ott is the author of the satirical website Scrappleface and is a commentator on Tea Party-friendly PJTV
Tea Partiers Picket IRS — IRS offices nationwide were picketed today by tea party groups in protest of the Obama Administration use of nation’s powerful tax enforcement agency to punish its political opponents. Here is some of the contingent outside the Delaware County, Pa. office in the Rose Tree Corporate Center at 1400 N. Providence Road, Media, in Upper Providence Township.
The children of Pennsylvania have been assigned unique, irremovable numbers that will track them from pre-k through college and career, activist and educational expert Dr. Peg Luksik told a packed house at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Newtown Square.
The assigning was part of a Common Core plan adopted by the state Board of Education in July 2010. Every teacher has also been assigned a number she said.
“They can track down who’s doing and who’s not. There are repercussions for those that don’t,” she said.
Common Core is the attempt to impose a national education standard, usurping state authority and local control. Mrs. Luksik said that despite insistent claims to the contrary by its proponents it is a federal mandate — she noted the distribution of federal money is tied to its approval — and mandates a curriculum in the fields of English, math, biology, history and civics.
She said the mandates will include teaching population control ethics and unquestioning acceptance of man-made global warming.
“If you could pull your child out of public school, do it now,” she said. “If you are a teacher stay as long as you can in the system and fight it out.”
But she pointedly noted that those in private schools and charter schools and even homeschoolers will be eventually ensnared as well, since the GEDs required by the homeschooled
will be be based on Common Core as will school accreditation and teacher
certification.
She mocked how the new policy was being marketed noting the way its proponents used the word rigorous.
“When you use rigorous over and over again, it’s not accidental.”
She said the program was pushed by corporate titans such as Bill Gates and was designed to create workers rather than thinkers.
She said, however, this rather Orwellian concept can be defeated with a simple resolution passed by the state legislature, and hearings by skeptical committees have already started.
Mrs. Luksik’s talk was sponsored by the Delaware County Patriots. Joanne Yurchak of the group began the night describing how she attended one of those state committee hearings. She said that the Democrats seemed even more hostile to the plan than the conservative Republicans.
A protest against the politically oppressive actions of President Obama’s IRS has been scheduled for noon, tomorrow, outside the local IRS office at 1400 N. Providence Road, Media, Pa. 19063 (Upper Providence Township)
Lehigh County GOP Insurgency — An insurgency is occurring against the Republican establishment in Lehigh County, with candidates demanding changes for the taxpayers’ benefit against those who think the existing paradigm is just peachy, reports activist Bob Guzzardi.
The most visible battle in the May 21 primary is the one for county executive pitting the establishment’s Dean Browning, a former county commissioner, against Scott Ott, who is running on platform of fiscal sanity.
Mike Schware, the incumbent county commissioner representing the 5th District and, who has been supporting reforms is being assailed by three challengers: Norma Cusick, Kevin Ryan and Nathan Brown..
In the 2nd District, fiscal-hawk Scott Aquila is challenging incumbent Percy Dougherty, who has been doing what the bosses tell him.
Today’s journey into the whackier side of the world wide web concerns the internet film “The Theorist” which is an entry in “Operation Paul Revere” a film contest sponsored by Alex Jones’ infowars.com.
This bit of wonder manages to touch on numerous pieces of paranoia including genetically modified foods, artificial sweeteners, fluoride — yes, Mandrake fluoride — and government microphones embedded into compact fluorescent bulbs, which is frankly one we never heard of nor could we even begin to imagine it.
Some nice things to say about it concern the acting of the wife and daughters who actually are quite good.
The movie climaxes with the hero having a nightmare in which his daughters are groped by Nazi-garbed TSA highway-patrol agents after which he goes to his basement studio and lip-synchs a song after which he is shot by a government sniper apparently concerned about the impact the webcasts are having.
Pretty whacky.
So why are we embedding it? We like the song. It starts at 31.25.
In a rather peculiar and ill-timed statement issued this past Friday, a mid-level IRS administrator publicly admitted that the agency has been harassing Tea Party and Patriot groups who filed for 501c tax-exempt status by forcing them to undergo additional burdensome scrutiny above and beyond the standard application process.
As many news outlets reported, IRS intimidation of conservative groups has been ongoing since 2010.
None of this is news to the Independence Hall Tea Party Association.
Due to our concerns over the Obama Administration’s control of the IRS, the Association decided not to file for tax exempt status. In addition, unlike most Tea Party groups across the nation, we formed a federal PAC to handle political endorsements and activities–thereby making it less likely that we would become potential government targets.
However, a left-wing, anarchist group called Anonymous did manage to hack into both of our websites during the 2012 primary–taking over the sites for a 24-hour period and posting pornographic images/racial slurs on our home page.
We believe the Anonymous attacks were directly related to our hosting an event with Governor Mitt Romney at the Franklin Institute in which we refused to admit members of Occupy who were threatening to disrupt the Governor’s speech.
(Because of our limited resources, both the Association and the PAC decided only to report the matter to local authorities and to focus our efforts, instead, on our respective educational and political missions.)
As for the IRS, the Association, like everyone else, is waiting for the Inspector General’s full report–which is expected early this week.
The Inspector General’s report, we insist, should signal the beginning of a more thorough investigation–not the last word on this highly explosive scandal.
With Amity Shlaes are Jerry Klein of Wallingford and Fran Shusman of Rydal.
Amity Shlaes Wows Philly — The Independence Hall Tea Party Association had another hit with this afternoon’s, April 28, 2013 presentation by noted author and journalist Amity Shlaes, who discussed matters political along with her highly regarded new book, Coolidge, which concerns our 30th president.
“I really like him,” said Ms. Shlaes. “The book I wrote before was called The Forgotten Man. He could be called the forgotten president. He’s the hero we never knew we had.”
The event was held at the Independence Visitors Center Ballroom with Independence Hall across Market Street providing a backdrop to Ms. Shales and the other speakers via a full wall of windows.
Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president in 1923 upon Warren Harding’s death and served until 1929 and the inauguration of Herbert Hoover. Coolidge, despite immense popularity, chose not to seek re-election in 1928.
Ms. Shlaes said that modern politicians of either party work from two assumptions: spending is important and political naysayers can’t get elected. Coolidge, she said, prove both to be wrong.
She noted that when Coolidge left office the federal budget was lower than when he came in, that he had cut the tax rate to 25 percent, and that unemployment during his term was very low.
She noted that the Ku Klux Klan — which enjoyed a resurgence with the film Birth of a Nation. which had been praised by Coolidge’s once-removed predecessor Democrat Woodrow Wilson — was in decline.
She said the Coolidge’s tax policy was formulated by Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and was based on the business principle of charging what the market would bear. This means that pricing items lower can bring in much more revenue, which is the strategy behind Wal-Mart’s success. She said when she explains this to business students they quickly get it, while history students sometimes are slow on picking it up.
And this worked for Coolidge as the tax money rolled in with the rich paying an increased percentage of it despite being taxed at a lower rate.
Ms. Shlaes graduated magna cum laude Yale University in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in English. She has worked for several publications and was the op-ed editor of the Wall Street Journal for a time. She now writes a column for Bloomsberg News along with being a senior fellow and director of the Four Percent Project at the George W. Bush Institute, where she works closely with Laura Bush.
She has made numerous television appearances including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Fox News and C-Span.
She is married to journalist Seth Lipinsky and has four children including Helen Ann who was at the event and had been given a tour of Philadelphia’s historic sites by Teri and Don Adams of the Association.
Preceding Ms. Shales at the podium were author Bill Miller and WPHT talk show host Dom Giordano.
Miller spoke of the spiritual significance of the buildings outside the center and described his book, Tea Party Papers, which compared the French and American revolutions. He noted that the British government of 1775 was less intrusive and less arbitrary than the one we have today.
Giordano touched on several issues including the Kermit Gosnell murder case and the Boston Marathon bombing. Giordano said that Catholic priests and other clergy were not allowed to cross the police line in the attack to administer to the dying. He said that this meant that Martin Richard, the eight-year-old boy murdered by the Tsarnevs who had just received his first communion, had died unattended.
Amity Shlaes Headlines 5th Annual T.E.A. Party — Amity Shlaes, author of Coolidge and The Forgotten Man, will deliver the keynote address at the Independence Hall Tea Party Association’s 5th Annual April T.E.A. (Taxed Enough Already) Party, to be held 3-5 p.m., April 28 in the ballroom of the Independence Visitors Center..
Last year’s special guest was Governor Mitt Romney and the event was held at the Franklin Institute.
The theme of Ms. Shlaes talk will be: “The President Who Said ‘No’ to Taxes and Spending.”
James J. Fitzpatrick, the Southeast Pa. regional manager for Sen. Pat Toomey, has sent the following response to Mary Ellen Jones of the Delaware County Patriots regarding proposed firearm background check legislation that Toomey and Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) are supporting.
On the gun issue, first I think we have come a long way. When it started out they were talking about bans, registries, and magazine limits. When the back and forth debate is whether or not to slightly expand background checks I think it is a win either way with this President.
Second, on the background check issue. We were approached by Sen. Machin’s office to potentially broker a deal on certain private sales and transfers. Right now in PA if you wanted to sell me a handgun/pistol, I would need to go to a federally licensed dealer to receive a background check. If, however, you wanted to sell me a rifle, or any other type of long gun, I would not need to do that. We think there is a potential room for a deal in that space given that many gun owners already require individuals to whom they are selling long guns or rifles to go through a background check. I think Pat’s thinking on it is at the very least on these transactions, the check would reduce the likelihood that someone would be selling to a felon, someone with a past of substance abuse, or someone that has a past of mental illness. It would also in turn protect the seller from liability on the back end if anything were to happen with the gun they sold.
With that said, these are simply conversations at this point between Manchin and Pat. No bill has been written and one will not be on the floor until next week at the earliest.
Ed note: The above message was sent April 9. A vote to start debate on the measure passed cloture in the U.S. Senate the afternoon of April 11 by a 68-31 margin preventing a filibuster. The Toomey-Manchin amendment has yet to be added.
