Category: default || By jt3y

I was voter number 10 at North Bittyburg Borough, Ward 3, Precinct 1, at 7:50 a.m. this morning. There was no one behind me. "People are just too complacent," said one of the poll watchers as I left. Indeed; I'd like to see a law passed that would require every person driving around with an American flag or a "Remember 9-11" magnetic ribbon on their car to vote in every election. I got your patriotism right here, fella.

Yeah, yeah, I know. It's only a primary, and you don't know anything about the candidates. Well, that's not much of an excuse. The Daily News has been running profiles of practically every single candidate in every single race in the Mon-Yough area. I haven't seen the Gateway papers recently, but I'd bet money that they've covered the races in the Woodland Hills and Norwin school districts. The Trib and P-G have had stories as well.

Most people pay the largest percentage of their local taxes to the school district where they live; to torture a metaphor, not being interested in your local school board is like being a chicken who's not interested in Colonel Sanders.

I'll admit that the county judge candidates baffle me. Out of the entire field, I had strong positive opinions about four people running, and a negative opinion of one. Unfortunately, I was supposed to choose seven, but I didn't --- I just voted for the four people I knew something about.

If you don't want to vote for any candidates, vote for an issue! There are two important referenda on the ballot today. The first would amend the Allegheny County charter to eliminate several row offices and replace the elected county coroner with a qualified medical examiner. (With apologies to Tim Menees, the offices being eliminated do not include "profanitary," "clerk of quartz," or "lamplighter.") The second would allow the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to borrow $625 million to create an environmental cleanup fund.

For goodness sakes, I can think of strong reasons to vote either for or against either of those issues. (How did I vote? I ain't sayin'.)

People in Tube City Almanac territory, of course, can't vote in the Democratic primary for mayor of Picksberg --- their choices, as I recall, are either Bob O'Connor or Mumbly Joe. I'm predicting a big upset victory for Hop Kendrick --- if it happens, you read about it here first!

They also can't vote in the 42nd Senatorial District special election, where voters have the thrilling choice of either Wayne Fontana, Michael Diven or Mark Rauterkus. That district encompasses most of the South Hills and several Ohio Valley boroughs. (I thought Fontana's recording of "Game of Love" was terrific, but I don't know if one hit single is enough to send him to the state Senate.)

Anyway, according to Fontana's commercials, Diven sneaks into the bedrooms of sleeping infants and smothers them, while according to Diven's commercials, Fontana pushes old ladies in wheelchairs down long flights of stairs. It's kind of a battle between who you loathe least. I haven't seen any commercials for Rauterkus, and that alone should provide some incentive to vote for him.

...

In other business: David Craig Simpson teed off on the President's comments about Yalta, and in my opinion, scored a hole-in-one:

According to Bush, with seven million Soviet troops in Eastern Europe, with the country, the continent and the world exhausted already from half a decade of brutal war, FDR was a big pansy for not getting into a war with Stalin. Apparently we still had too many young men who hadn't been killed off.

Seriously, does anyone think we should've turned right around and gotten into World War III before World War II had even ended? We hadn't defeated Japan yet, at the time. The very idea is stupid.

Especially considering the source. It's interesting that George W. Bush, who we're always being told is this era's Churchill, is now dissing Churchill for the Yalta agreement. But obviously Churchill is just collateral damage. FDR is the real target. This way, they can have WWII without venerating FDR.

What's more appalling is that the so-called "liberal" mainstream American media reported the President's comments without much (if any) critical commentary, despite the fact that it was considered an incredible insult by our allies. Can you imagine the reaction if Clinton had said something this idiotic?