the bias flows like the delaware river through an piece written by brian scheid in today’s courier entitled Clooney, Aniston, Murphy?

the disjointed article jumps from a subtle slam on murphy for being featured along with other iraq war vets in an upcoming article in vanity fair magazine. scheid proceeds to throw jim greenwood under the bus about his frequent privately funded travel while extolling fitzpatrick for staying at home. and finally, scheid is used by the fitzpatrick campaign to attempt to make a big deal of murphy hiring a new campaign manager.

this type of right-leaning pro-fitzpatrick fluff and anti-murphy dross is nothing new to the courier. just do a search on mr.sheid’s recent offerings and you will find praise on fitzpatrick’s attendance at an eagle scout ceremony, details of the “fitz and w” big airforce one adventure and a slams on murphy.

too bad the courier focuses on the fluff and doesn't address the issues and concerns of the people of the 8th district and the new direction our country should (and will be) be heading.
next direction

did you happen to catch the article "can bloggers get real" in the ny times magazine today by matt bai? he writes about the big blog meet-up in las vegas next week called yearlykos for the folks at the dailykos. and seems to conclude that the net, afterall, cannot replace the flesh-and-blood of meeting people and being active outside of the dim-glow of the computer screen. i agree. and upon reflection i think that here in philly we see the netizens also reaching out and making a commitment beyond the words posted on a blog. locally, we have seen chris bowers of MYDD fame get elected as a state committee person and albert yee make a strong run for committeeperson while spending many hours pressing the flesh for chuck pennacchio. i work the polls, make calls, attend events, and go door-to-door as well. bloggers do go outside to get air and talk to people!

the newtown democrats are hosting a celebration for the 2005 victory and a meet the 2006 candidates night.

congratulate Phil and Jerry, the recently elected democratic newtown township supervisors

informal meet and greet with the candidates

congress 8th district: Patrick Murphy, Andy Warren
state senate: Robin Rosenthal, Chris Serpico
state representative: Michael Diamond, Doug Platz

when: monday may 8th @ 7 pm

where: Newtown Friends Meeting
219 court st
newtown borough

suggested donation: $25
parking at the stocking works

rove indeed came to lancaster on thursday and apparently talked tough on the war and thanked the lancaster gop for voting for w in '04. [link]

“To retreat before victory is won would be a reckless act, and it will not happen on the watch of this president,” thundered Rove

“(The votes) were quite a sweet number that night. I thank you,” the president’s top adviser told nearly 500 members of the Lancaster County Republican Party Thursday night on the occasion of their 150th anniversary celebration at the Lancaster Host Resort. Rove was grateful for the support, even though it wasn’t enough to help Bush carry the state.

but the soon-to-be-former-junior-senator santorum was no where to be seen nor was he praised too much by the "presidents brain"

like the the fourth seal, plagues and pestilence, rove and santorum reportedly will be speakers together in lancaster at a gop fundraiser for the soon-to-be-ex-junior-senator from pennsylvania.

the lancaster coalition for peace and justice will hold an "un-welcoming" party for the "boy genius" on thursday, may 4th, 6:00-7:30 pm.

Along Route 30, on sidewalk, in front of The Host Resort 2300 Lincoln Highway East (Route 30) Lancaster, PAcarpooling encouraged, parking discretion encouraged (lots of nearby lots - Don't park at Host Resort)

in case you are wondering what the other six signs are...what are the seven signs of the apocalypse?

the bucks county gop are beginning to fear the momentum of the democrats. in recent municipal elections, the bucks county democrats came on strong in republican strongholds like newtown township and lower makefield. for example in 2005, phil calabro and jerry schenkman had an historic victory in newtown township thanks to a vigorous grassroots campaign. the bucks county courier reports that at a recent gop gathering there was much hand ringing over gop turn out and the state of the nation in 2006.

It's very important for us to continue to encourage people to get out and vote," she [Mary-Ellen Dobson, gop club chairwoman] said. "We have to gain momentum or else voters tend to get a little lackadaisical." The national attitudes toward the Republican Party may be a threat to the outcome of state level elections, said Lower Makefield supervisor Pete Stainthorpe. "This is not a good moment in time for Republicans," he said. "We're getting lambasted in the news everyday, but this party is not just about Tom DeLay, the Iraq war, immigration issues, gas prices.

also mentioned is the fact that the republicans actually have a majority in the county. although it is shrinking.

Since there are far more registered Republican voters in Bucks County than Democrats, all local Republicans have to do is show up to the polls this September, said McIlhinney, an eight-year state representative and a candidate for the state Senate.

show up this september? yeah that might explain the losses in '05. next direction

two polls were released this week on the u.s. senate race in pennsylvania...anticipate the usual spin from the campaigns and blogs.

the morningcall/muhlenberg college institute of public opinion poll released on april 26th shows casey up by 9% which is a slight dip from their march 2nd poll. check out the pdf on the mcall site.

the rasmussen institute poll has casey up by 13 percentage points, 51% to 38%. as the release on the poll states: Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (R) retains his title as the nation's most vulnerable incumbent for Election 2006.

Santorum is struggling with his base, consistently earning less than 70% of the vote from Pennsylvania Republicans. He's at 65% support from the GOP in the current poll. Casey, on the other hand, is supported by 77% of Democrats.

about 75 people came out to the George School on a rainy saturday afternoon to attend the candidates' forum on foreign and military policy issues hosted by the coalition for peace action in partnership with the religion department of the george school. Candidates in attendance were patrick murphy and andy warren running for the 8th congressional seat and chuck pennacchio and alan sandals running for the u.s. senate seat. bob casey had a previously accepted commitment and apparently both mike fitzpatrick and rick santorum didn’t respond to the invitation. The organizers stated that they also gave each candidate a series of written questions; the answers from those present plus bob casey’s will be available in early may.

just back home from a trip and viewed the podcast at pcn. debate number two was very much like debate number one with chuck pennacchio on the attack against the democratic party, alan sandals stepping up his attacks on casey and calling pennacchio naive, and casey painting the big picture for change and looking very much like the next senator from the commonwealth of pa.

next direction will be away on business tonight and unfortunately will not be able to do the almost-real-time analysis of the second debate. the first one was fun to blog [here is a recap]. after returning next direction will take a look at the podcast over at pcn.

some less-than-serious questions on debate number two:

• will bob casey continue the casual look even on a weekday?
• what is the over/under on how many times chuck pennacchio will say the words "living wage"?
• will alan sandals actually bring his NOW endorsement letter with him on the stage? or perhaps he can bring someone from NOW to stand behind him?
• will chuck again go after the applause of the crowd with bush impeachment or other rallying cry? a picture of rummy or rove with an X through it would work.
• how uncomfortable can alan and chuck make bob about their desire for a third debate while he wants to utilize the frontfunner perogative?

i can hardly wait to get back! in the meantime, check out pcn for the live feed and pcnblog for potential post debate reviews.

once again good luck to all the candidates, it takes a certain amount of guts to be in the political arena and we need good people like these three to do it.

the bucks county chapter of the coalition for peace action is sponsoring a candidates forum on april 22nd.

candidates forum on foreign and military policy in iraq
saturday, april 22, 3-5 pm

the george school meeting house
newtown pa, bucks county

candidates:

u.s. house 8th district: patrick murphy and andy warren. representative fitzpatrick is not confirmed.
u.s. senate: chuck pennacchio, and alan sandals. bob casey and rick santorum have previously scheduled commitments.

the bucks county courier had a promising article this week on the gains democrats are making in new voter registrations in both bucks and montgomery counties. still the republicans have the majority of voter registrations by some 30,000 in bucks and 44,000 in montgomery county.

since november the new stats are:
bucks: 1,447 new democrats vs 1,291 new republicans.
montco: 1,857 new dems to 1,436 new gop'ers

the number of new democrats is indeed exciting and the momentum is building. last november the democrats had great victories in bucks municipalities such as lower makefield and newtown township.

reminder: monday is the last day to register with party affiliation to qualify for voting in the may primary.

posts on next direction as the debate was ongoing. didn't catch everything...videostream was at times interupted (wonder if that means traffic was high?)

check out:

opening remarks

pro-life/pro-choice question

other and closing remarks

wrap-up post with analysis to follow (later or on sunday morning)

don't forget the democratic senate debate this saturday will be broadcast on the pcn at 7:00 pm. the daily news had a piece earlier in the week on the debate and challengers.

so the question posed is how will sandals and pennacchio (=sandacchio) approach the debate? will it be:

• all attack on santorum?
• all attack on casey?
• all attack on each other?
• or what is best for all pennsylvanians?

they each want to differentiate themselves from casey but making a distinction from each other on their stands on issues and experience may be a much more challenging proposition. it will be interesting to see how casey responds and performs in this forum.

good luck to all three candidates.

by the way, sandals had a very good interview on on whyy 91fm's radio times this week. he seems like a very smart, responsible and sincere guy.

next direction

the bucks county courier reported this week that the citizens roundtable moved a compromise forward for the upper makefield township supervisors to consider next week [link]

Under the plan, Toll would build 90 houses on the 111-acre White parcel off Old Dolington and Washington Crossing roads, adjacent to the veterans cemetery, and 120 homes on the 94-acre Melsky tract, which is currently owned by Council Rock School District and situated in Upper Makefield and Newtown Township. Toll planned initially to build 130 homes on White and 105 on Melsky for a total of 235.

the good thing is that the veterans cemetery comes to bucks county near washington crossing. it is surprising that toll will forego 25 units in order to get the deal done.