Judge Upholds Pa. Voter ID Law

Chalk up a win for the good guys.

Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson, this morning, Aug. 15,upheld the Pennsylvania law requiring a photo identification to be produced before voting.

The law — Act 18 signed by Gov. Corbett on March 14 —  had been challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP and other groups that are basically auxiliaries of the Democratic Party, which has traditionally found itself of the wrong side of allegations of vote fraud schemes.
They have vowed to appeal.
Simpson in his 70-page opinion said that he was “convinced that efforts by [the state] and interested groups will fully educate the public,” on the simple steps required to cast one’s ballot this November.

Putting Up The Flag

Putting Up The Flag courtesy of Rick Megaro.

Omnibit Of The Day

The Atlantic Ocean is named for Atlas. No, not the Titan purportedly holding up the world but the son of Poseidon who was king of Atlantis.

HB 1776 Not Dead Yet

House Bill 1776, which would require school districts to replace property taxes with either a sales tax or a personal income tax, is not dead yet.


State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129), who is the bill’s sponsor, says it has been advanced by House Finance Committee to the House Appropriations Committee, which is now doing an in-depth analysis of the bill.

Thank you Rep. Cox. It strikes one as being “socially unjust” to rent one’s house from a government to fund six-figure salary and benefits packages for assistant to assistant school administrations.

Not Crazy Internet Conspiracy Of The Day

This talk by Catherine Austin Fitts, who served as assistant secretary of housing and federal housing during the George H.W. Bush administration, is being circulated around the web. She calls the $12 trillion of unsecured debt issued by the financial sector during the 1990s a “leveraged buyout of a country.” 

She says that we are witnessing the “end of sovereign governments and the rise of corporations. We’re literally changing the governance structure on planet Earth so that we are no longer  governed by countries . . . but we’re literally governed by private corporations.”   
She says “liabilities are being shifted into sovereign governments and assets being shifted into corporations so the corporations are getting the assets and governments getting the liabilities.”

She said that all that’s left in Social Security are worthless promises on worthless paper.

Being paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.
Hat tip to my old friend Tom Flocco.
Ms. Fitts also makes good observations about the benefits of keeping money close to home in community banks rather than large national ones.
The talk is 46 minutes long despite being sped up. Don’t feel obliged to watch the whole thing but you won’t be wasting your time if you do.
Here it is:

Omnibit Of The Day

Women  outnumber men 17.2 million to 14.6 million as users of Twitter in the U.S.

Emarketer.com predicts the portions will be equal  in two years with  American Twitter users reaching 39.6 million.

Why Paul Ryan Is The Right Man For The Job

Hat tip Cathy Craddock

Lunch With Mike Fitzpatrick

A luncheon with Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa8) followed by a wine and cheese reception with guests of honor being Fitzpatrick, U.S. senate candidate Tom Smith and 13th District congressional candidate Joe Rooney will be held Saturday, Aug. 18 at the home of Fran and Gene Shusman of Rydal.

Tickets for the lunch which starts at 2 p.m. and has limited seating are $250.
Tickets for the reception which starts at 3 p.m. and runs until 6 p.m. are $35. Dom Giordano wines will be served with the cheese.
The event is being sponsored by the Independence Hall Tea Party Association.
For information call Don Adams at 215-620-3055.

1,500 Hear Army Field Band & Soldiers Chorus

About 1,500 attended tonight’s (Aug. 12) performance of the U.S. Army Field Band & Chorus at Delaware County’s (Pa.) Rose Tree Park in Upper Providence.  It was part of the annual free summer festival.

The eclectic show featured songs from Grease, a reading of Casey at the Bat, a tribute to Mario Lanza, Sousa music and a rousing rendition of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
It was all excellent.
The summer festival has one more week to run. Click here to see the remaining shows.

Hitler’s Nephew Showed The Spirit Of ’45

Today, Aug. 12, is National Spirit of ’45 Day to honor and remember World War II veterans. The letter below to Franklin Roosevelt begging to be allowed to serve in combat exemplifies the spirit of love, honor and sacrifice from a rather unlikely source, Adolph Hitler’s nephew, William Patrick Hitler, who would be allowed to join the Navy were he served with distinction. He would change his name after the war to William Patrick Stuart-Houston.

March 3rd, 1942.
His Excellency Franklin D. Roosevelt.,
President of the United States of America.
The White House.,
Washington. D.C.

Dear Mr. President:

May I take the liberty of encroaching on your valuable time and that of your staff at the White House? Mindful of the critical days the nation is now passing through, I do so only because the prerogative of your high office alone can decide my difficult and singular situation.

Permit me to outline as briefly as possible the circumstances of my position, the solution of which I feel could so easily be achieved should you feel moved to give your kind intercession and decision.

I am the nephew and only descendant of the ill-famed Chancellor and Leader of Germany who today so despotically seeks to enslave the free and Christian peoples of the globe.

Under your masterful leadership men of all creeds and nationalities are waging desperate war to determine, in the last analysis, whether they shall finally serve and live an ethical society under God or become enslaved by a devilish and pagan regime.

Everybody in the world today must answer to himself which cause they will serve. To free people of deep religious feeling there can be but one answer and one choice, that will sustain them always and to the bitter end.

I am one of many, but I can render service to this great cause and I have a life to give that it may, with the help of all, triumph in the end.

All my relatives and friends soon will be marching for freedom and decency under the Stars and Stripes. For this reason, Mr. President, I am respectfully submitting this petition to you to enquire as to whether I may be allowed to join them in their struggle against tyranny and oppression?

At present this is denied me because when I fled the Reich in 1939 I was a British subject. I came to America with my Irish mother principally to rejoin my relatives here. At the same time I was offered a contract to write and lecture in the United States, the pressure of which did not allow me the time to apply for admission under the quota. I had therefore, to come as a visitor.

I have attempted to join the British forces, but my success as a lecturer made me probably one of the best attended political speakers, with police frequently having to control the crowds clamouring for admission in Boston, Chicago and other cities. This elicited from British officials the rather negative invitation to carry on.

The British are an insular people and while they are kind and courteous, it is my impression, rightly or wrongly, that they could not in the long run feel overly cordial or sympathetic towards an individual bearing the name I do. The great expense the English legal procedure demands in changing my name, is only a possible solution not within my financial means. At the same time I have not been successful in determining whether the Canadian Army would facilitate my entrance into the armed forces. As things are at the present and lacking any official guidance, I find that to attempt to enlist as a nephew of Hitler is something that requires a strange sort of courage that I am unable to muster, bereft as I am of any classification or official support from any quarter.

As to my integrity, Mr. President, I can only say that it is a matter of record and it compares somewhat to the foresighted spirit with which you, by every ingenuity known to statecraft, wrested from the American Congress those weapons which are today the Nation’s great defense in this crisis. I can also reflect that in a time of great complacency and ignorance I tried to do those things which as a Christian I knew to be right. As a fugitive from the Gestapo I warned France through the press that Hitler would invade her that year. The people of England I warned by the same means that the so-called “solution” of Munich was a myth that would bring terrible consequences. On my arrival in America I at once informed the press that Hitler would loose his Frankenstein on civilization that year. Although nobody paid any attention to what I said, I continued to lecture and write in America. Now the time for writing and talking has passed and I am mindful only of the great debt my mother and I owe to the United States. More than anything else I would like to see active combat as soon as possible and thereby be accepted by my friends and comrades as one of them in this great struggle for liberty.

Your favorable decision on my appeal alone would ensure that continued benevolent spirit on the part of the American people, which today I feel so much a part of. I most respectfully assure you, Mr. President, that as in the past I would do my utmost in the future to be worthy of the great honour I am seeking through your kind aid, in the sure knowledge that my endeavors on behalf of the great principles of Democracy will at least bear favourable comparison to the activities of many individuals who for so long have been unworthy of the fine privilege of calling themselves Americans. May I therefore venture to hope, Mr. President, that in the turmoil of this vast conflict you will not be moved to reject my appeal for reasons which I am in no way responsible?

For me today there could be no greater honour, Mr. President, to have lived and to have been allowed to serve you, the deliverer of the American people from want, and no greater privelege then to have striven and had a small part in establishing the title you once will bear in posterity as the greatest Emancipator of suffering mankind in political history.

I would be most happy to give any additional information that might be required and I take the liberty of enclosing a circular containing details about myself.

Permit me, Mr. President, to express my heartfelt good wishes for your future health and happiness, coupled with the hope that you may soon lead all men who believe in decencey everywhere onward and upward to a glorious victory.

I am,
Very respectfully yours,
Patrick Hitler

Hat tip MailOnline.