Nevin Mindlin Endorses Dan Miller for Mayor of Harrisburg
Yesterday, one-time Independent candidate for Harrisburg City mayor, Nevin Mindlin, endorsed one-time Democratic candidate Dan Miller.
Miller is now running as the Republican-endorsed candidate, because he collected over 300 Republican signatures for that position on the ballot. Just in case.
Miller is a strong threat to the Papenfuse campaign that was literally measuring the draperies and assigning executive positions a day after winning the four-way Democratic primary, assuming they had de facto won the general election.
This race is a rare toss-up. What role the elected mayor has vis-a-vis the state-appointed Harrisburg Receiver (Gen. Lynch) is unclear, but at least it is a bully pulpit. The mayor can call for criminal investigations into the Harrisburg Debt Debacle, or he can not do so. Dan is likely to call for investigations, Papenfuse is disinclined.
With just weeks to go until Election Day, it is hard to know how this will end. One thing for sure I do know, and that is how politics makes for strange bedfellows….
Patriot News Editorial on Mindlin’s Toss from Ballot
“Infrequently” best describes how often an editorial by the local newspaper, The Patriot News, would appeal to me on logic, principle, or understanding of the facts. However, independent candidate Nevin Mindlin’s political assassination by both Democrats and Republicans is so notoriously egregious that the Patriot News stated the case pretty well, so here it is:
Commonwealth Court sides with mystery challengers to Mindlin’s candidacy: Editorial
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Patriot-News Editorial Board By Patriot-News Editorial Board
on October 07, 2013 at 10:59 AM, updated October 07, 2013 at 12:09 PM
Nevin Mindlin, the one-time independent candidate for Harrisburg mayor, is a candidate no more. He has been knocked off the November ballot by court rulings based on the mindlessly literal application of a nonsensical state law. With little time for an appeal to the state Supreme Court, he has decided against waging a write-in campaign.
Nevin Mindlin went to Commonwealth Court in September, seeking to get back on November’s mayoral ballot. Friday, the court turned him down.
Though Mindlin was an independent candidate, not affiliated with any party or organization, state law requires him to name a committee that would replace him should he leave the race. That requirement makes sense for a political party, but it makes no sense for an independent candidate. By definition, an independent candidate is independent of organizational structures that would be entitled to claim an independent’s slot on the ballot.
Knowing all that, Mindlin did not name that committee. The Dauphin County elections office accepted his petition, without any warning that his petition had any fatal defect.
None of that mattered to the lower court that knocked him off the ballot earlier this summer. And it didn’t matter to Commonwealth Court, which last Friday upheld the dubious ruling.
Commonwealth Court used a legal technicality to dodge the heart of Mindlin’s case. He said that the state law in question violates a right enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — freedom of association. In this case, the law forces Mindlin to associate with a “committee” empowered to choose some undetermined future candidate who could replace him, when the whole point of his candidacy is that he is independent of backroom-type arrangements like that.
Mindlin’s case is an example of the sleazy, insider political game-playing that fuels public disillusionment with elected officials and government.
The court’s hostility to Mindlin’s arguments also contradicts a well-established principle set by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in election cases. Courts in the commonwealth, when applying the election code, are supposed to construe the requirements liberally, “so as not to deprive an individual of his right to run for office, or voters of their right to elect a candidate of their choice.”
Again, the Commonwealth Court used a technicality to completely ignore those claims under the state Constitution.
Mindlin’s campaign is the latest casualty of ballot bounty hunters, ordinary citizens who mysteriously come forward, armed with expensive lawyers, to press a legal challenge to a candidate’s filing papers.
Hired guns parse signatures for the slimmest possible rationale to disqualify them: using a first initial instead of full name, women whose maiden name and married name are different, imperfect handwriting, stray marks in the signature block.
Even if the candidate survives the challenge, (as third-party Allegheny County council candidate Jim Barr did earlier this summer), he or she has to expend precious time and money fighting in court.
These often-shadowy court challenges to candidates’ paperwork have a corrosive effect on public confidence in the integrity of the election system.
In a comment on PennLive, one reader said Mindlin “must have stepped on the wrong toes.” Another announced, “I won’t be voting for anybody; the best candidate just got bounced.”
Many have wondered who paid the legal bills for challenging Mindlin. But without any public disclosure requirements, the mystery money can remain secret.
All in all, Mindlin’s case is an example of the sleazy, insider political game-playing that fuels public disillusionment with elected officials and government.
Pennsylvania’s legislature could rewrite election law to strike the nonsensical provision that kept Mindlin off the ballot. The legislature could require those filing challenges against candidates to identify how they are paying for all that expensive legal work. The Legislature could lower the unreasonably high barriers now imposed on third parties seeking to get on the state’s ballot.
But as with so many dysfunctional aspects of Pennsylvania’s laws affecting politicians, those who get to make the rules are content with the status quo. After all, they got there by playing by the rules as they are – why would legislators want to change them?
From their selfish perspective, it makes political sense. But from the perspective of the citizen whom elected officials are supposed to serve, allowing ballot bounty hunters so much room to squelch candidates is nonsense.
(from http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/10/mindlin_off_ballot_commonwealth_court_bad_ruling.html#comments)
Sad day for Harrisburg City
Nevin Mindlin will NOT be appearing on the Harrisburg mayor ballot. He issued a press release that took to task the establishments of both parties. Nevin is a threat to the system that fed off of Harrisburg City and the surrounding area. So he was artificially squeezed out in an unprecedented legal move that contradicted established law. Very sad day for democracy and the forgotten taxpayer…
Government shutdown? Not really. Country shutdown? Not a chance.
Both political parties are standing by their own interests and or philosophies. This is what American checks-and-balances government is about. It is not the first time people have disagreed strongly enough to achieve gridlock, and it will not be the last.
Government does not equal America. America is much bigger and much more important than its national government.
Is the government shut down? Not at all. Sad to hear from US park rangers who say they have been directed to make park visitors as unhappy as possible, to punish citizens, more or less. The White House has spent tremendous resources over the past few days to actually shut down an open-air World War II memorial on the Washington Mall, using far more resources now than have ever been used to maintain it in the past. The reason is that a bunch of Veterans are trying to visit it on their annual pilgrimage, and again, this administration is trying to punish Americans as evidence that the “shutdown” really is bad.
Obama, meanwhile, is sitting for his portrait while this is happening. Kind of like a European monarch in the 19-teens, as the old ways and power structure disintegrate under the nobility’s feet.
Is the country “shut down”? Not at all. Businesses go on making their business. Some businesses that are dependent on government contracts may have challenges, but government business is not the definition of American business. My gutters got cleaned, I paid a sawmill to cut my lumber, and we bought groceries to feed our weekend company gracing us with their presence. Life is actually going on.
Compromise is the magic word, used often in these moments.
But who shall compromise, and on what terms? In my opinion, one party has “compromised” far too many times over the past 70 years. Always being brow beaten into accepting one bad government policy after another, that party has developed a reflexive need to “compromise.” Fear of being blamed by a partisan media structure that hates that political party, the party leaders have developed a culture of constantly giving in.
I am one of those Americans who says No, do not give in. Government has grown too large, too overbearing, too much our master and not our servant. It is time to stop ObamaCare and other policies and programs that turn free citizens into serfs suffering the whims of their overlords. Government “leaders” have become nobility, due all kinds of expensive vacations on the taxpayer’s dime, voting themselves waivers and subsidies for programs that everyone else must abide by and pay for. This is not government, it is a ruling class feeding off the citizenry, pushing it around, demanding that it kowtow, or be punished.
IRS mis-deeds against political enemies of this administration continue, despite public disbelief. America is at a point like it was in 1859, when abolitionists and slave-holders could not reconcile their views. Neither side would compromise, because it meant giving up everything they stood for. Thank God the Abolitionists did not compromise, right?
Big government is enslavement. It is not the American way. Too many Americans died at home and abroad fighting for a free America. This is a good time to stand firm and say No, because all of our freedoms are just a compromise away from being gone.
Calls to US Senator Bob Casey’s offices…anyone home?
As one of millions of pissed off Americans making calls to elected officials last week about 0bamaCare, I shared the surprise that millions had: Not only did no one answer the calls, but the various offices’ voice mail boxes were full.
It appears that Senator Bob Casey does not want to hear from citizens that they are unhappy with the disastrous new program. However, acting on the hunch that his home office in the Scranton area would be open, I called and spoke with a nice young lady.
She took my call, listened to my brief opposition to 0bamaCare, and said Thank You. She never took my name. That says it all…it’s just lip service.
Even the national unions are openly opposing 0bamaCare. Casey doesn’t want to know. Is this the kind of person we want in elected office? I say No.
A brief, simple reminder
With the obvious flaws in the new religion of human-caused global warming/ global cooling/ climate change, way too many conservatives lump together all of the environmental issues and then dismiss them with equal carelessness.
Just a reminder: Clean air comes from nature’s natural processes, mostly from trees and other large plants that convert carbon dioxide to oxygen.
Another reminder: Clean fresh water comes from underground filtration through rock layers and sand, in undisturbed or otherwise healthy watersheds.
Both clean air and clean water are necessary for human life to continue as we know it. Both air and water are produced by free ecosystem services that nature perfected for a long time. Humans can kind of reproduce these processes mechanically, but they are energy-dependent and hard to maintain.
Yes, the whole global climate change religion thing is a political effort to shut down western civilization and transfer its wealth to authoritarian countries. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t real environmental quality problems. Fact is, humans pollute, and pollution needs to be resolved. Fouling our own nest is a sloppy, stupid thing to do. We don’t need to do it.
So quit lumping all environmental issues in with human – caused global climate change politics. Focus on the real, measurable problems and solve them. Ignoring them is foolish, and humans are not fools. Basic land and water conservation are necessary to keep people healthy.
0bamaCare, on the rocks…keep pushing
0bamaCare is on the rocks, with strong efforts to defund it or eliminate it altogether gathering steam in both the US Senate and US House.
The nascent program is a disaster. It’s causing healthcare costs to rise dramatically, everyone who is someone has received a temporary compliance waiver from the White House. Unions are demanding that it end. And the icing on the cake is that federal bureaucrats, including congressmen and their staffers, are not required to abide by it.
The politicians actually voted themselves a waiver from 0bamaCare. But you and me, the serfs, the peons, the masses…we must obey.
Lend your voice to knocking this horrendous law over the cliff, call your elected officials and ask them to vote against 0bamaCare.
Westgate Mall, Kenya….a “gun free zone”
Islamic activists attacked the Westgate Mall this week, challenging the oddly dressed and poorly equipped Kenyan police and military to take time off from beating civilians and assert armed force against armed forces.
By all accounts the attack and counter attack were a horrible mess. The Muslims racked up a dandy accounting, murdering about 65 women, children, and old men in cold blood, often challenging their victims to recite parts of the Koran to prove that they were Muslims, and thereby deserving of life.
One thing is for sure, those “gun free zones” and all the disarmed gentle people in them seem to attract a lot of crazies with guns. Westgate is the most recent, but malls, movie theatres, and schools are all similar in their distaste for legally armed civilians. Their taste for illegally armed lunatics is proving to be quite high.
Hopefully at some point, this “If I can’t see it, it doesn’t exist” attitude driving the gun-free zone policy will evolve into some expression of self-preservation, which means having the ability to meet force with force.
Certain people have hero complexes. Among them are police officers who want to disarm civilians and maintain militarily armed “rapid response” teams. Problem is, when seconds count, these rapid response guys are at best minutes away. Consider also that countries where only the police have effective guns are called police states.
Want to see my rapid response team? It’s right here. I’m looking at it. It’s my trigger finger, and I would stake my life on it, and yours, long before I’d expect the cops to show up after the shooting started.
You’ve got your own rapid response team, too. Start exercising it, it might come in handy. And if it does, you can enjoy being a hero while the hero-wannabes are just starting to show up.
Facts be damned, gun control full speed ahead
Aaron Alexis shot about twenty people at the Navy Ship Yards in Washington, DC, not with an AR-15, but with an off-the-shelf shotgun and handguns he captured from security staff.
He was recently being treated with psychiatric drugs, and may have been on them during the shooting.
He was deeply unhappy with America, according to his friend, and was feeling politicized enough to move away. He was often angry.
He had been arrested for illegally shooting guns in Washington State and in Texas, both times out of anger.
Alexis was heavily into violent video games, playing them non-stop for years. Col. Dave Grossman of West Point Academy says that his studies demonstrate a direct link between violent video games and violent behavior.
Alexis was hearing voices.
All of these facts demonstrate that Alexis was crazy when he went on his shooting spree. His Secret clearance to a supposedly secure facility allowed him to get into the building, where he used his plain vanilla shotgun to capture two handguns, which he then used on his victims.
None of these facts have stopped anti-freedom activists like US Senator Dianne Feinstein, leftist political commentator David Frum, and others from immediately leaping on a band wagon for more gun control (not crime control).
A US media that refuses to report these facts, but instead lets stand erroneous reports and opinion columns promoting gun control based on incorrect reporting has bolstered these efforts to disarm Americans.
And it is this disregard for facts that makes me and so many others like me absolutely unbending in our refusal to submit to illegal gun control schemes. All the red flags were available to get Alexis incarcerated and receiving the help he needed. But so many different filters and systems failed. That has zero to do with the lawful ownership of guns.
Leave our Constitutional rights alone. Solve the actual problems.
Condolences to the victims of the Navy Yard rampage
While it is presently unknown who is behind the deadly rampage at the US Navy Yard, it is a fact that innocent people have been killed and wounded in the attack.
Whether this is another act of domestic terrorism by Islamic crazies, like the Fort Hood Massacre and the Boston Marathon bombing, or if it is some workplace politics vendetta, remains to be determined.
The fact is also that most US military installations are disarmed, surprisingly. The lesson from Fort Hood has not been learned, namely, that properly armed workers are safer. Workers who have concealed carry permits should be able to carry at a federal work site, and especially a military one, so that they are better able to defend themselves in situations like this. Gun control proponents will use this to try to promote their gun confiscation plan, when in fact the opposite policies are needed.
My heart goes out to the innocent and brave people who died or who were injured in this tragic event.