9th District of Pennsylvania (COUNTIES OF Bedford, Blair, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon & PORTIONS OF Cambria, Clearfield, Cumberland, Fayette, Indiana, Juniata, Mifflin, Perry, Somerset & Westmoreland)
GREETINGS FROM OUR HUMBLE WEBSITE:
While I'D LIKE TO MEET EVERYONE in the district by Nov. 2, the area covers 6 entire counties and parts of 9 others, from Liverpool on the Susquehanna River in Perry County to the East, all the way to Smithfield, southwest of Uniontown, Fayette County, in the West! So I NEED YOUR HELP to keep up with everything that's going on. PLEASE CONTACT ME to speak on ISSUES, march in PARADES, attend FAIRS & FESTIVALS or just MEET AND GREET your club, community or political organization, school group, senior citizens group, or any assembly of citizens interested in GOOD GOVERNMENT! I'll try my best to be there, but some requests will invariably be turned down due to scheduling conflicts. HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU!
PAUL I. POLITIS, Democratic Candidate for Congress, 9th District of PA
(717) 597-4332 PHONE or FAX
politpaul@yahoo.com E MAIL
56 Homestead Dr., Greencastle, PA 17225
**** While Bill Shuster spends his time and efforts raising nearly a million dollars in "campaign contributions" from outside lobbyists and special interest groups, my only special interest group is THE PEOPLE OF THE NINTH DISTRICT. I've nothing to gain except a chance to give a little back on the investment God's made in me.
**** As one person, I can't solve all the world's problems, but I pledge not only to support GOOD WORKS OF OTHER PUBLIC-SPIRITED LEGISLATORS, but also to help CRAFT LEGISLATION on important issues.
CONSIDER for a moment . . .
"WHEN POOR PEOPLE VOTE TO ABOLISH 'THE DEATH TAX' (the Estate Tax, which affects only the wealthiest 3 percent of Americans) AND HALF OF AMERICANS BELIEVE SADAAM HUSSEIN BOMBED NEW YORK, DEMOCRACY IS SITTING ON AN EMBARASSING FOUNDATION OF IGNORANCE." Columnist & travel writer Rick Steves.
"YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME, AND THOSE ARE THE ONES YOU WANT TO CONCENTRATE ON." President George W. Bush, 2001
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RESULTS OF THE APRIL 27 REPUBLICAN PRIMARY:
Incumbent Bill Shuster defeated his young challenger, Mike DelGrosso, by a margin of approximately 51-49. But perhaps more telling than the election's closeness, is the fact that in general, Shuster did best in counties new to the 9th District since 2000, where he's not as well known, while the election was generally closer in counties where Shuster's best known, including LOSING his home county, Blair, by more than 4,000 votes -- and even his HOME PRECINCT! This sets up some interesting dynamics and I pledge to give voters a better alternative for November.
RESULTS BY COUNTY:
BEDFORD: Shuster (S), 4,907; DelGrosso (D), 3,290.
BLAIR: S, 8,518; D, 12,573
CAMBRIA: S, 561; D, 754
CLEARFIELD: S, 366; D, 544
CUMBERLAND: S, 2,840; D, 1,580
FAYETTE: S, 1,134; D, 430
FRANKLIN: S, 8,760; D, 7,607
FULTON: S, 847; D, 761
HUNTINGDON: S, 2,129; D, 4,553
INDIANA: S, 4,083; D, 2,420
JUNIATA: S, 1,833; D, 990
MIFFLIIN: S, 784; D, 909
PERRY: S, 2,037; D, 1,381
SOMERSET: S, 4,154; D, 3,009
WESTMORELAND: S, 14; D, 3
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INDEX TO ISSUES, ETC. (HINT: Don't try "clicking" on these . . . we're not THAT advanced! This is just to help you with the order as you SCROLL DOWN!)
1. HEALTHCARE
2. PRESCRIPTION DRUGS
3. EDUCATION
4. ENVIRONMENT
5. TAXES
6. CRIME & PUNISHMENT
7. JOBS
8. WAR & PEACE
9. "WEDGE" ISSUES
10. ABORTION
11. GUN CONTROL
(More wedge issue statements coming)
12. A PERSONAL NOTE ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
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1.*****HEALTHCARE*****
ALL AMERICANS SHOULD HAVE BASIC HEALTHCARE, including drug prevention and treatment. We have 6% of the world's population and 50% of its wealth, yet we're the only industrialized country that doesn't provide AT LEAST basic healthcare for all its citizens. The overall health of Americans is rated 37th in the world, and 43 million of us have no healthcare!
2.*****The PRESCRIPTION DRUG FIASCO*****
Perhaps the clearest outrageous example of this Administration wasting tax dollars to enrich multinational corporations. First, Bush lied his "Medicare Modernization" prescription drug plan through Congress, claiming a cost of $395 billion over 10 years; within weeks it jumped to $534 billion.
Under the program, a person spending $5,000/year in inflated American drug prices would save $1,400. By simply buying the SAME DRUGS in Canada, one could save AT LEAST that much, while profiting Canadian pharmacies. But WHY PROFIT CANADIAN PHARMACIES? If our government simply negotiated lower prices with the drug manufacturers, as Canada and every other industrialized nation does, Americans could SAVE EVEN MORE! In other words, most of the $534 billion is a taxpayer subsidy to big drug and insurance companies!
Meanwhile, the Bush administration has spent another $80 million in tax dollars to advertise and promote this pathetic excuse for a prescription drug program.
"SHOW ME THE DEAD CANADIANS" Minnesota's Republican Governor, Tom Pawlenty, in defying the government's claim that drugs from Canada may not be safe.
3.*****EDUCATION*****
Giving public schools the tools they need to provide MEANINGFUL ACADEMIC, VOCATIONAL and CHARACTER EDUCATION. Federal funding for "No Child Left Behind" was $65 billion short nationally last year, requiring local tax increases to make up the difference. But worse, the program's A SHAM, substituting standardized tests that pit poor schools against rich and take time, effort and money from more meaningful education. Meanwhile, Bush's "TEXAS MIRACLE" in education, on which the program is based, has been exposed as a TOTAL FRAUD. Example: Houston schools claimed a reduction in their dropout rate to under 2 percent, while the actual rate was near 40 percent. And because standardized tests were given only in 10th grade, low performing students were kept in 9th grade two or more years. Those who didn't drop out were then "promoted" directly to 11th grade! Houston Schools Superintendent Rod Page is now Bush's Secretary of Education.
4.*****ENVIRONMENT*****
We must promote good STEWARDSHIP OF THE EARTH and its resources, while developing RENEWABLE ENERGY supplies, not only because it's the RIGHT thing to do, but because it PAYS IN THE LONG RUN. The Bush Administration has weakened or eliminated more than 200 health and environmental regulations, often by putting pretty names on ugly laws . . . "Clear Skies Initiative," "Healthy Forests Initiative," and Dick Cheney's infamous "Energy Bill," that actually increase pollution and damage to the environment. Fortunately, even Republicans in Congress have thus far refused to pass this anti-people measure!
Yet every person knows, almost instinctively, that the most important components of life are clean AIR, clean WATER and good, fertile SOIL, and that it costs much more to clean up environmental damage than to prevent it.
5.*****TAXES*****
To support a fair and equitable GRADUATED TAX STRUCTURE that BALANCES THE BUDGET while efficiently providing for REAL NEEDS.
While Republicans accuse of Democrats of being the party of TAX and SPEND, they promote SPEND and OWE as sound economics!
Due largely to his tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans, Bush in 3 years turned a $127 Billion SURPLUS into a $550 Billion DEFICIT. According to U.S. Comptroller David Walker, if the tax cuts are made permanent they will add another TRILLION DOLLARS to the deficit. "The idea that this is manageable, or that we can somehow grow our way out of it," said Walker, "is just flat false."
Equally disastrous, our NATIONAL DEBT -- the amount we owe to other nations -- took over 200 years to reach $1 trillion. But under Bush, from 2001 to 2003, it went from $1 trillion to $2.2 trillion.
At the same time, under the "conservatives," pork barrel spending has risen 48% since 2001.
Meanwhile, most economic gains are in corporate profits, which have risen 40% by paying Chinese wages while selling at American prices.
RECALL in 1960 the federal income tax rate on the richest Americans was 91%; today it's 38%, and corporate taxes account for just 7% of federal revenue. Indeed, more than 60% of U.S. corporations PAY NO TAX, and of the those who did pay, 94% pay at a rate averaging 5% of profits! 40 years ago CEO's pay averaged 26 times the average worker's salary; today it's 250 times! MEANWHILE, of all industrialized nations, the U.S. has the MOST UNEQUAL distribution of wealth and income, the richest 1% controlling as much wealth as the lowest 40%.
I'm PROUD to identify with the party of TAX FAIRLY and SPEND WISELY!
6.*****CRIME & PUNISHMENT*****
We have a larger percentage of our population behind bars than any industrialized society, and four times more persons in federal prisons than in 1987. The number of WOMEN imprisoned right here in PENNSYLVANIA has nearly TRIPLED in the past 5 YEARS!
The financial cost alone of running all these jails is over $40 billion a year. Meanwhile, drug abuse, which is at the root of most crime in America, has risen from 12 million persons to 19 million since 1987.
Yet from 1995-2000, Bush as Texas governor ordered 152 executions, FAR MORE than any governor in modern history. At the same time, Amnesty International found that "the Texas legal system, for those who can't afford their own lawyer, fails even the minimum international standards for protection of human rights."
It's so much better for society . . . and cheaper . . . to invest in drug abuse prevention and treatment than in prisons and executions.
7.*****JOBS*****
I LOST MY JOB TO A LOW PAID WORKER IN ANOTHER COUNTRY. NOW NEITHER OF US CAN AFFORD THE COMPANY'S PRODUCTS (famous bumper sticker)
To establish and enforce FAIR TRADE AGREEMENTS, with wage and environmental standards for our trading partners, thus SUPPORTING GOOD AMERICAN JOBS. Over 2.3 MILLION jobs have been lost since Bush became President, making him the first President since Herbert Hoover in the Depression to preside over a net job loss . . . even worse, jobs created during Bush's term have averaged 25% lower pay than those lost.
8.*****WAR & PEACE*****
From memoirs of FORMER PRESIDENT GEORGE H. W. BUSH, 1999: "Trying to eliminate Sadaam would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. We'd have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. There was no viable exit strategy, violating another of our principles. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the UN mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."
To help restore our nation's STANDING AND CREDIBILITY as LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD. Our invasion of Iraq, where it now appears we've lost both political and military control, has resulted in the death and maiming of thousands of Americans, Iraqis and others, and a cost to U.S. taxpayers of hundreds of billions of dollars . . . while the root cause of all this mayhem, the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, is largely ignored.
Remember that to SUPPORT OUR TROOPS is to VOTE BUSH OUT! All the world now knows that Iraq had no role in 9-11, no ties to Al Queda, and no weapons of mass destruction. Our unilateral invasion was thus based on a combination of ARROGANCE, STUPIDITY and LIES unprecedented in American history. Only a new President, a new administration, can restore our credibility in the world and begin to negotiate a reasonable solution to the disaster that DICK CHENEY and his anti-people, "neo-conservatives" created. Otherwise, the U.S. and the Arab/Muslim world are fated to become a huge version of the never-ending Israeli-Palestinian mess.
"Our children," said Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, "deserve a world without end, not war without end."
9. ****And finally, today's Republicans obscure the REAL ISSUES OF DECENCY AND RELIGION -- poverty, peace, equality, and our stewardship of the earth -- by TRYING TO DIVIDE US with "wedge" issues such as abortion, school prayer and gay rights, and by lying about Democrats on gun control.
10.*****The controversial issue of ABORTION:
About 2 years ago I wrote an editorial entitled "NO ONE'S EVER BEEN INVITED TO AN ABORTION SHOWER." As the only TRUE pro-life candidate, I repeat it for you here:
Abortion is not a political issue.
This may be a revelation to those who've spent years promoting candidates based on their abortion stand, because it means that whether a politician claims to be "pro-life" or "pro-choice" ultimately will make no difference.
Here's why.
Imagine politically, a perfect "pro-life" America. The President, all 50 governors, both houses of Congress and the legislatures of all 50 states are under right-wing Republican control. Laws are passed making all abortion illegal.
Then what?
Does the country that has a larger percentage of its population behind bars than any other industrialized nation begin locking up lost 16-year-old girls? In the midst of a health care shortage, do we jail doctors?
How does our already clogged court system deal with these complex and emotional cases?
If the signs and bumper stickers are right, and abortion is murder, is it first degree murder? And if so would the death penalty be reasonable punishment for women and doctors who violate abortion laws? Or is it second or third degree murder?
Would "community service" be adequate punishment.
And what, if any punishment should be given the fathers, who most often hold at least some responsibility for the situation?
What becomes of the procedure known as "selective reduction," in which, for example, four fetuses are killed in a woman carrying sextuplets because her doctors conclude that she would otherwise simply deliver six dead babies.
We can probably agree that there are no answers we can agree on.
While suicide . . . or even attempted suicide . . . is both tragic and morally wrong, there's no law against it . . . because no rational punishment is available.
So it must be with the tragedy of killing part of one's self.
This is not to say that the "pro-life" movement is entirely wrong. Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, agree that abstinence, birth control and adoption are all preferable to abortion.
Isn't it unfortunate then, that in the society we've created, temptation so often wins out over abstinence, stupidity over birth control, and reality, so to speak, over adoption.
Which is to say that while there are plenty of couples waiting in theory to adopt, the lines are shorter for black, handicapped, crack babies with AIDS.
And it's not to say that the "pro-choice" movement is right. Abortion isn't a choice, as in "I think I'll take this one," or a right, like the right to vote! It's an agonizing, sometimes wrong decision, chosen between a woman, her doctor and her God, that she privately sees as the lesser of two tragedies.
No one's ever been invited to an abortion shower!
And yet right wing politicians have been pretending for years that outlawing abortion is the answer, pulling your chain to get you to pull their lever in the voting booth.
Because abortion isn't a political issue. It's part of a complex mix of social issues . . . temptation, fear, stupidity, drugs, prejudice, irresponsibility, and on and on . . . that sometimes lead to that so-called "choice."
Politicians and one-issue special interest groups like to throw laws and other simplistic solutions at problems, but in reality, what solution there is must come from churches, social service agencies, schools, families and the caring hearts of each of us.
Listen.
I know a 16-year-old unemployed homeless high school dropout with a history of drug abuse and at least two confirmed venereal diseases who's about four months pregnant with a mixed-race baby. Indeed, given about 24 hours you and I could undoubtedly find a whole bunch more in similar circumstances.
Interested?
Or we could identify and work with a whole raft of kids not yet there, but headed down the same path.
Now if a politician wants to talk about any of those things, that's what I call "pro-life."
. . . and one final thought.
In the not too distant future, in a world of overpopulation, will a government that's been given the power to outlaw abortions, therefore have the power to REQUIRE abortions?
11.*********GUN CONTROL***********("Nobody's Going To Take Anyone's Guns Away!")
Another issue that's far more polarizing than it should be. I lived in Fulton County 23 years, where EVERYBODY HUNTS! One of my best friends is an avid SKEET SHOOTER! And I certainly support the right of law-abiding citizens to DEFEND OURSELVES!
SO I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH ANY REASONABLY LAW-ABIDING CITIZEN OWNING OR USING ANY LEGITIMATE USE WEAPON!
That said, it's dishonest to hide this issue behind our Constitution! Because the Constitution merely gives us "the right to bear ARMS . . . in order to maintain a MILITIA!"
Remember, these guys were writing in 1776, when we'd just gained a precarious independence from England and "arms" consisted of MUSKETS and CANNONS!
So that, even ignoring the "militia" argument, we can interpret "THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS" literally, just 2 ways:
1776 LITERALLY, in which case we have the right to bear all the muskets and cannons we want.
Or 2004 LITERALLY, in which case anyone with the money and access has the right to stockpile nuclear arms, missles, or whatever.
ANYTHING BETWEEN THOSE TWO RIDICULOUS INTERPRETATIONS constitutes "Gun Control!" Because our Constitution just says a "right to bear ARMS," with no definitions!
Indeed, as far back as 1939, long before crazies and criminals had access to today's powerful weapons, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment does NOT prohibit gun control.
So what's the answer for the NRA and all gun enthusiasts?
To ignore the lies and misrepresentations right wing extremists have been spreading about Democrats, and elect representatives regardless of party, who exhibit common sense in making and supporting reasonable laws.
There I think I qualify.
12.*****A PERSONAL NOTE ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION:
My friends, I've been following politics ever since 1960, when as a 12-YEAR-OLD boy in my hometown of Wilkes-Barre I walked downtown alone to see candidates JOHN F. KENNEDY and RICHARD NIXON rallly their crowds from an old wooden stage on the public square. Over the years, we've had many disagreements, Republicans and Democrats.
But until now, there was always a sense that both parties, all candidates, wanted what was best for America, for its people. They just sometimes had different ideas of how to go about it. Indeed, I was 21 before I decided whether I was a DEMOCRAT or REPUBLICAN, and was never terribly partisan.
THIS YEAR, UNFORTUNATELY, IT'S DIFFERENT. We're used to dealing with two sides, not with major political leaders BRAZENLY AND CONSTANTLY LYING about crucial issues: TAXES, ENVIRONMENT, HEALTHCARE, EDUCATION, SECURITY, WAR, and then attacking, bullying and mocking anyone, in or out of their administration, who tries to tell the truth!
This is without question, the WORST ADMINISTRATION IN U.S. HISTORY, and so this is THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION IN OUR HISTORY! Because it isn't Republican vs. Democrat.
This election pits THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA vs. DICK CHENEY and the BUSH ADMINISTRATION. It's that simple . . . and that serious.
The world, I'm sure, is watching. If we resoundingly vote this administration out after one disputed term, it will be remembered and dismissed as an aberation from what the United States had always stood for, and we can begin the task of rebuilding from the damage that's been done.
But if America re-elects the Bush administration, the world will conclude that U.S. policy and values have fundamentally changed -- that our word can no longer be relied on, that it's now our policy to invade and destroy other nations without provocation, that it's now U.S. policy to promote a society in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, while we pile up national debts and deficits to where they dangerously effect the stability of the entire world economy.
If we re-elect this administration, we will validate the concerns of my European friends -- good, hard working, family men, who've always loved America and its culture -- but who now ask me, "Why has America gone insane?"
Indeed, I'm not sure America can even SURVIVE four more years of the Bush administration!
THIS YEAR, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE OF OUR NATION DEPENDS ON IT . . . because it does!
(This website is practically a public service announcment, compliments of "Thrifty Committee to Elect Politis")
