Joe Owens isn't going to like this. He has praised Northampton County jurist Steve Baratta as "a veteran judge, an accomplished former prosecutor and longtime contributing member of the community. He deserves retention."I'm not sure that any judge ever deserves retention. And I'm very unhappy with Baratta, primarily because he is part of a judicial branch that has become far too arrogant in Northampton County.
PACleanSweep, a reform movement that rose from the ashes of an illegal legislative payraise, is urging "every Pennsylvanian to go to the polls on November 6 and cast a resounding NO vote in every one of these retention races."
Locally, that includes Northampton County's Steve Baratta and Lehigh County's Bob Steinberg.
Do you have an issue with Judge Steinberg in LC other than retention as an imcumbant? Presiding over criminal cases, he has been fair, balanced, and sees through the riff-raff from either side, and has great control over his courtroom, and is prompt, on-time and does not blow the afternoon for golf. His opinions are extremely wel-reasoned. With you as a former prosecutor and him as former DA, I'm surprised. Lets not throw out the soap with the bathwater. Specifics for debate would be good. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteNLVLogic,
ReplyDeleteI have no problem w/ Steinberg. Philosophically, I have a problem with a retention vote for anyone, no matter how good he or she may be. Having said that, I've voted to retain many judges.
The point of my post was to report that PACleansweep believes no one should be retained. That includes Justice Saylor, who wrote the dissenting opinion that opposed the judicial payhike.
I haven't decided whether I agree. Right now, I think each judge should be looked at on his or her own merits. I'm not convinced we need to rid Pa of every judge.
What Steinberg and Platt did to Dennis Counterman was as bad as it gets.
ReplyDeleteWhy stop at just judges? LOL!
ReplyDeleteLets continue with Northampton county council !
ReplyDeleteIt's a good idea to clean
ReplyDeleteout all elected government
officials; it will make the
Country strong.
Having the same old faces in
government has caused a lot
of problems for a lot of people.
I remember a local politition, it may have been Lisa B but im not sure saying she can't get anything done in Harrisburg because she has only been there for 8 years! If this is the case.. I think they should all go to level the playing field. Just tune in to the PCN channel when they have Harrisburg politics on and you can see a real sideshow sometimes. Did you know Ed rendell took 880 million dollars from the so-called property tax reform to rebuild the Philadelphia convention center?? plus another 5% of all gambling procedes to support it...forever?.Cheesesteak Ed is spending out money before we even get it. He loves having that cheesesteak grease drip on the palm of his hand. Then he will raise our taxes to take our money after we get it too, like 75 million dollars for Hollywood producers who make millions and billions to begin with. Huey Long had a name for these kinds of taxes. Hipoppaluam, and lopoppaharam. Any which way you spell it, it still means the same thing....WE LOSE !!!
ReplyDeleteThe legislator who made that inane remark was Jenn Mann.
ReplyDeleteAgeed BO, I also tire of the I need more time to be effective talk. The system may be skewed but push it.
ReplyDeleteThis PA Cleansweep is crap, and just allows non-informed (or ie. sheep) voters to vote without any guilt from knowing nothing about the candidates or the issues. Why do people think kicking everyone out will insure higher quality people going in without any regard to informed decisions?
ReplyDelete