They call it "clearing the field." As the Lehigh Valley's farms are brushed aside for fancy new developments like Saucon Valley Meadows, farmers John and Joe don their overalls and grab their sickles.Farmer Joe, aka Norco Dem boss Joe Long, is planting Sam Bennett seeds out in the congressional field, making sure no Boscola weeds spring up. Farmer John, aka DA John Morganelli, is out in the county council pasture, stepping carefully over council plops to cut down a virulent Will Power ivy. Farmer John has plenty of seed money for his Lamont McClure crop, but first he's got to yank Power by the roots.
These Dems are "clearing the field" for their inside picks, making calls here and there. For them, the selection of a Democratic nominee is too important a decision to be left to voters.
As chair of the Northampton County Dems, Farmer Joe should be promoting all Dems interested in office. And Farmer John, who is supposed to be a full-time DA, should really stop making so many political calls from his law enforcement office just to promote his little pawn. Gee, wasn't it Morganelli who insisted his office be full-time? Taxpayers aren't paying him to play politics in the DA's office. They're paying him to write the "D-Day Bank Massacre," to be followed soon by "Illegal Aliens Abducted Me."
What are these guys afraid of, a little democracy? Let the voters decide and stop playing kingmaker behind closed doors. Backroom tactics like these lead to public officials who thumb their noses at the Sunshine Act.
Many thanks to LVDem, for putting his finger on this problem.
Bernie,
ReplyDeletePlease go to my www.billybytes.com website article, "Down with Tyrants - Rob Leiser."
Just as Forks Township confiscated Rob's small-business garden and farming equipment shop, the City of Easton at this moment is in the process of confiscating properties in the Bushkill Creek Corridor between N. 13th St. and Larry Holmes Drive.
One of these properties is Integrated Automotive services, located at the intersection of Bushill Drive and Dietric Road.
This is the area in which major Lafayette College development is occurring, subsidized by Northampton County
s General Purpose Authority and the 2004 Keystone Innovation Zone (KIZ) of PA's Governor Ed Rendell and legislature.
Billy, You're not even trying to be on topic. You have your own blog, which you haven't posted to in 8 days. Yet you monopolize this one. Please have a little more respect. People are going to ignore you.
ReplyDeleteBernie,
ReplyDeleteI wanted this comment to the first to your today's lead post.
I wanted to use it like a blow-torch, like the acetylene torch that destroyed Downtown Easton's Sweet Shop and karmelcorn.
These are the torches that also started the blaze in Lou "Hannibal Lecter" Pektor's luxury condo project in the old Pomeroy Building, a blaze I never even heard about on the street, but learned of from a recent article in The Morning Call.
I'm cutting the comment short now to look for that Morning Call reference.
Bernie,
ReplyDeleteYou and I go way back - all the way back to the 2001 $111 million megabond.
Believe me, I have my reasons for commenting on your blog, reasons I believe you would accept as good ones, which I'll explain as soon as we can get together face-to-face.
As far as I'm concerned, you and I have known each other too long, and shared too much, to stand now on ceremony - especially now that Northampton County is burning while County Executive John Stoffa fiddles.
As far as your concern that World Wide Web surfers, bloggers, and others will stop reading my contributions on the Internet, I don't think you have to worry.
Dozens are posted on the www.billybytes.com website and hundreds on the http://www.billybytes.com/blog/.
I will use every tool or weapon available to me to reform the governments of Northampton County and its seat Easton through revision of the city's Optional-City Charter, the county's Home Rule Charter through voter referendum, and reform of Pennsylvania's 1873 Constitution through the Jefferson Reform Initiative.
It is too bad I can't get the DA out here to prosecute all the illegal immigrants who are doing work for Toll and their sub-contractors. They had a bust in Hellertown at a housing construction site. I have talked with teh police and they say that it is a losing battle everytime they pick up an illegal. They told me he only wants to do big busts, the attention getting kind. Morganelli promised to do more to get these people but I am still waiting.
ReplyDeleteGo away Billy Givens!
ReplyDeleteI'd rather not have to scrool down to read relavant posts.
Blog's are not ruled by any 1 constitutional right (except for Bernies').
Ban him Bernie, Ban Him!
I can't agree with banning Billy, he is off topic sometimes, but he is very informative
ReplyDeleteBernie,
ReplyDeleteRe my 8:53 AM comment:
I've located the reference to the Pomeroy Building fire:
It's in the article, "Panel advances one of two plans" by reporter William J. Ford in the February 13, 2007, edition of The Morning Call.
A week or two ago, as I stood with Lou "Mr. Easton" Ferrone in Downtown Easton's Center Square, in front of his office in Granny's (Julie Andrew's Antique Emporium, surveying the fire-damaged Sweet Shop and Karmelcorn, I remarked to hime that the city of Easton should ban the use of blowtorches, especially in the downtown's historic district where the buildings tend to be older and more vulnerable to fires.
Instead, the city and its fire department have settled for another permit, which, with taxes and fees and federal and state give-aways from Harrisburg and Inside-the-Beltway is the only way it manages to remain afloat - and certainly not from "economic development" through more give-away grants of its own to Lafayette College and other developers through KOZ and TIF tax exemptions and below-prime interest-rate loans doled out for political-patronages purposes by Northampton County's Gneral Purpose and Industrial Development authorities.
I have risen from my death bed at LVH to speak!
ReplyDeleteAlas poor Bernie, there is a brush fire burning across the field of Democratic contenders, and I believe those wishing to clear the field themselves may be incinerated by their own flame!
Re Istresidentpia's 10:36 comment, Northampton County District Attorney John M. Morganelli conspired with other county and state officials in covering up the illegal 2001 $111 million megabond - an illegality that you yourself and County Councilman Nicholas R. Sabatine III, Esq., rep;orted to Morganelli via telephone on December 18, 2001 (the day of my mother Mae's birth in 1915)- tje veru dau I warned you that the county's General Purpose Authority had issued the bond in vio;ation of Pennsylvania's Municipality Authorities Act of 1945.
ReplyDeleteNick followed his up his telephone warning with a memo dated 23 December 2001, and Morganelli purposely stalled his reply until January 3, 2002, when he knew he could politicize the issue.
That's when his Democratic cohorts and fellow conspirators on council would be replaced by the Republican majority.
But Morganelli knew he had enough Republican memberss in his pocket like J. Michael Dowd and Tim Merwarth and, as it turned out, even Sabatine, to join with Democratic members Ann McHale, wayne Grube, and Michael Corrier to bury in a conspiracy to bury Quo Warranto instead of the bond(s) and the GPA.
Except that the Billy Bytes publications distributed by hand and on the Internet and in altercations, many of them physical, in county council chambers, persisted in foiling their plot.
I use "bonds" in the plural because the illegal $111 million megabond was preceded by the fraudulent $30 million bond of 1998 for contruction of the county's prison for children on the site of Easton's razed art deco City Hall Building at 650 Ferry Street, directly opposite the residence at 647 Ferry Street owned by Easton Mayor Phil Mitman.
Phil later converted this building to the headquarters of Historic Easton, whose spouse at the time, Toni Mitman, was executive director.
Much that the public now knows about this building may never have been known except for its own fire.
Based on what I know of Lisa Boscola no one will tell her not to do something once she's decided to do it. If Lisa has decided to run and Long gets in her way I wouldn't want to be Joe Long
ReplyDeleteThat is fight that could get interesting. Joe Long v. Lisa Boscola. On the physical confrontation side, I would go with Joe. Lisa is kinda small and I am sure she is a fighter but Joe is big guy.
ReplyDeleteIf this was an ideaological argument, I would go with Boscola due to her populartiy. Joe Long would get support from his union buddies, but I think many people like Lisa, for some unknown reason.
and she has unending access to non-union money and help
ReplyDeleteChris Casy, re your 1:00 PM comment:
ReplyDeleteI'm delighted to see you and I have at least one topic in common: "fire" - not only the metamorphic fire of your comment re the current crop of democratic candidate; or even my comment about the literal fires in the Sweet Shop and karmelcorn -
But also the conflagrarion ignited by the torch of the arsenist who destroyed the historic building on Downtown Easton's South Sicth Street, home of the Second Baptist church.
This building originally was the oldest Jewish synagogue in Easton, and reputedly the most venerable in the entire United States.
The fire's remains were quickly hauled away to a New Jersey disposal site by a New Jersey contractor before the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Fire Arms Agency (ATF) could conduct an investiation.
So fierce was the blaze from the arsonist's excellerant that the building could not be saved even though Easton's central firehouse was only a half-block away.
Soike, I've got one word for you, dude. Decaf.
ReplyDeleteDude... EAston finally drove spike overboard. Check the Delaware for a man who decided skinny dipping this time a year was a good idea. I'd put money on it being spike (or Billy, which ever).
ReplyDeleteKudos Bernie for continuing to bring out the problems with teh Democratic Party in Northampton County - a party boss who is only interested in keeping his power base. Sam Bennett is about the worst choice for the 15th District. She has zero chance of unseating Dent. Hell, she couldn't even win an election within the Lehigh County Dem Party, let alone one against a legit opponent.
ReplyDeleteI have stopped giving money to the local party and have refused to give to any of the national groups who call looking for cash. I do not give because I believe that when they "clear the field" they usually give us the worse case scenario.
Bob Casey is essentially a right of center R who publicly stated he would have voted Justice Alito onto the Supreme Court and is against abortion rights and stem cell research. We still have Charlie Dent because the political leadership dropped the ball and then received zero support from teh national party. And now they are going to F it up again.
Why hold primaries when they mean nothing? Why should one be involved when they are trying to rig the system?
Well, well, well...
ReplyDeleteI leave to drive to Erie for a funeral and come back to find that The Fuck-Up Fairy and all her psycho friends have been really busy while I was gone!
1) Congrats to Green Dog Dem for understanding the 1st Law of Political Physics: Lisa Boscola is a force unto herself, unlike any other force in the universe. If Joe Long is waiting for Lisa Boscola to "ask for permission" to run in the '08 primary, he should seek immediate therapy and ask for whale-sized psychotropic drugs to make those silly hallucinations go away;
2) A gold-plated Mike Solomon statuette to Anonymous for Best Supporting Post On The Politically Obvious: Sam Bennet couldn't beat Charlie Dent if he was dead;
3) Billy Fucking Givens IS the biggest, dumbest asshole in the universe. Long may he reign as Surrogate Super Idiot for all those villages around the world that lack one; and
4) A Loe Long v. Lisa Boscola Death Match? Hmmmmmm... I can envision it as the most successful political fundraiser of all time! Ticket prices higher than the Super Bowl, Pay-Per-View broadcast rights, TV syndication, and a super-profitable line of action figures and outrageous royalties. Joe wouldn't last the 1st round.
Bernie Takes No Prisoners