Uniontown Pennsylvania Message Forums - WWW.UNIONTOWN.COM

Folks

just a quick thought. It is HIghly unlikely that CHANGE will occur if you vote the SAME people back into their local offices . As you drive around the county and look at THE SAME NAMES for the most part you have seen for years..and if you vote for the SAME NAMES you will get the SAME results.

OK?

Vote for different people or better yet WRITE SOMEONE IN....one thing about the new machines is that you can write in ANYONES NAME..and to make sure the votes are not "miscounted"...write your own name in if you don't want the same people in office.

All I am trying to say is if you watch Channel 19 on the Uniontown Cable channel, are you tired of seeing the same faces year in year out? Vote all of them out.

It really is not hard and it won't take much time. Also learn to ignore the "poll rats" on election day that distribute their "vote for my meal ticket candidate because you are too misinformed to do your own research."

Their really are serious issues out there. And their are issues of misuse of power by "boss hog" types. The system YOU VOTE FOR..feeds off your Ignorance (not knowing) of your rights.

The misuse of power for bills to be paid to private corporations especially. How many stories I have heard about people being behind of their trash or sewage bills by less than 50 dollars and constables "cherry picking" good hard working citizens that had a car repair bill fall behind and ooh lets make some money of these people. It happens alot. FIRE(VOTE OUT), magistrates, constables, township supervisors, school board members, etc.

The terminology has changed over the past years from Public SERVANTS ...to Public OFFICIALS!..
Just think aboout the change in just that one word and how it is perceived.

Finally , most of you are good decent hard working people that just want to be happy, raise your families , live or just enjoy your retirement IN PEACE. However the abuses of power, that have occured on the National "STAGE" for the past 10 years are now working their way down to the localities and this is no coincidence. It is by design and I implore you all that still care about living in a free country and care about LIFE LIBERTY AND THE PERSUIT OF HAPPINESS,

VOTE FOR NEW PEOPLE, or better yet RUN YOURSELF. I will vote for you.


You get the government that you vote for.

I agree with all that you said, but I will go even one further, everyone just GO AND VOTE. PERIOD.

The politicians can win over a small percentage of the population and get them motivated and loyal to them, and with the small voter turnout, that's enough to turn the tide their way.

I would be very surprised to see the incumbents remain after a huge turnout, but at least I'd feel more like the majority of the population has spoken.

Instead there are small groups of motivated loyalists who are just large enough to swing a lower-turnout election their way, and this just keeps happening over and over and over...

Hey Mark

I found this while reading tonight. And I can tell you from experience that this is becoming true right here in our corner of the world.

7.25 cents owed to a school cafeteria and threatened with magisterial action (there is no misprint...7.25) after a date less than 2 weeks later was promised.

Anyway I know of other stupid minor non violent infractions that are costing those hard working members of Fayette county..just trying to survive, there last few dollars, and giving them a Criminal record. Good people , being harassed over nickel and dimes. Literally.

I say we DO VOTE EVERYONE OUT IN A FEW WEEKS.....over this issue alone. They are protecting their salaries at our expense. And when I read this and know for a fact that it is happening en mass here I think we must get the word out ..WE ARE MAD AS HELL AND WILL NOT TAKE THIS ANYMORE.

But as we become even more squeezed, I would hope that the few citizens that are "awake" and left will fight back for what is right and not give in to the fiefdoms of our local corrupt government.

A few billboards, a newpaper ad(though here that is a controlled media), and a few internet sites could turn around these deplorable practices.

URLs rewritten, remove parenthesis (http:)//www.oftwominds.com/blogoct09/cri ... 10-09.html

Here is an excerpt and it is happening...right here and right now...POVERTY IS NOW A CRIME!
_____________________________________________________________________________

Criminalizing Poverty For Profit: Local Government's New Debtors Prisons (October 20, 2009)
Local government is desperate for new funding but doesn't dare tap the wealthy. So they're busily criminalizing poverty and filling new Debtor's prisons.
Correspondent Jeff Ray sent in this story Milking the Poor: One Family's Fall Into Homelessness (The Atlantic) which is representative of the trend in local government to criminalize poverty for its own enrichment.

Here's the deal. Local government has grown fat in a decade of gargantuan capital gains and real rising real estate taxes. Employees pulling down over $100,000 each are legion, as are public retirees pulling down over $100,000 a year in pension payments. Local government has added 15% more employees even as population grew by a meager 3%. (The numbers may vary in your area but the percentages won't.)

Now the seven fat years are over and local government is not liking the seven lean years. Now that housing has plummeted, so have the tax rolls; capital gains have dried up and even sales tax revenues are crashing. Despite the usual bleatings of hope, the chances of tax revenues recovering are slightly lower than the proverbial snowball's chance of remaining frozen in Heck.

Foreclosures: 'Worst three months of all time' Despite signs of broader economic recovery, number of foreclosure filings hit a record high in the third quarter - a sign the plague is still spreading.

Meanwhile, a perfect storm is gutting public pension funds. More Pain for State's Taxpayers, Cities: CALPERS losses $50B. In order for the State amd local governments of California to meet their future pension obligations (paid by CALPERS, the massive public pension fund), they need to kick in hundreds of millions of dollars more in coming years, even as their revenues are falling.

The conclusion that the medical and pension benefits which were promised in the fat years are no longer payable is anathema to public unions and managerial staff alike, and so the machinery of local government has geared up to stripmine the citizens like a giant trawler stripmines the sea: parking tickets have been jacked up to $60 or more, traffic violations are in the hundreds of dollars, speed traps abound, and as noted in the top story, fees for "crimes" like driving without auto insurance now cost more than the insurance itself.

And gosh forbid if you don't pay on time--the penalties double the original fine and then go up from there.

Is there anything more pernicious, malicious and immoral that this criminalization of poverty to engorge the coffers of local government? If John Q. Citizen defaults on his credit card, he might have to endure harrassing phone calls from bill collectors. But worst case, he can unplug his phone or cancel that number and get another phone number. Fortunately, the bank cannot have him imprisoned (yet).

But local government isn't quite as kind and gentle as the bankers. Mess with their revenues (i.e. don't pay the hefty fines they levy) and they'll haul your carcass into court and then into jail (can't make bail? Too bad. You're a full-blown criminal now.)

Exactly what is the difference between racking up $1,000 in fines off an innocuous violation and being imprisoned for lack of payment and a 19th century-era Debtors prison?

Isn't this part of the reason why the Parisian mobs tore down the Bastille?

Does this make any sense at all, arresting people who can't pay their nonsensically stupendous fines and penalties just so government employees don't have to take a cut in pay and benefits? When did a ticket go from $50 to $300 and up? And why? Does anyone think the cost leaped up "for the public good"?

Is getting nailed for a ticket you can't pay really a deterrent to being too poor to keep your auto insurance current?

Let's follow this all the way to the end. Now that John Q. Citizen is in jail because he was nabbed driving without insurance and a big fat fine is outstanding, aren't the taxpayers throwing away $50,000 to $100,000 a year to process his tortured journey through the Kafkaesque court and jail system with those other "dangerous criminals"?

Hey, the war-on-drugs/prison/gulag pays very well, thank you, and filling cells with Mr. Citizen is just grist for the mill.

Now when Mr. Citizen is released (darn it, we can't get blood from a turnip!), his car has been impounded and he owes the towing yard $1,000 which he doesn't have. So he no longer has a car to get to work, or even drive to an interview.

OK, so maybe he was irresponsible in not setting aside enough money for the car insurance. Is that now a criminal offense? Is this the best use of police officers, judges, jails and the "justice" system? Is anyone being deterred by the ruthless criminalization of poverty? Please make the case for that, local politicos and bureaucrats.

Great work, local government. You've not only stolen the citizen's last few dollars, you've also deprived him of his employment opportunities and livelihood.

Here's a thought: you need more tax revenue? Then make the case to the citizens at the ballot box to pay more. Prove you're not squandering the tax money you're already getting by the boatload. Show us how you're going to spend our money as carefully as we do.

If you really want to stripmine somebody's cash assets, why not start with your local Wal-Mart? I can guarantee you they won't leave town when you enact a new ordinance taxing all retail establishments of 50,000 square feet or more.

Or impose a tax on all homes worth more than triple the median price in your zip code. You want to nail somebody with higher taxes? Then go after the top 5% who still have assets. Don't trawl the streets for the folks who can least afford your rapacious imposition of authority.

Bankers aren't the only rapacious greedheads in this nation. Look no farther than city hall, the county building and the State capitol. Just hope it isn't you who runs low on cash and gets nailed with that $395 ticket which soon morphs into $695 and an arrest warrant.

You can't blame local government avarice on Washington or the bankers. All this greed is homegrown, local and entirely unnecessary. As it stands now, 10% or maybe even 20% of the citizenry will soon have outstanding arrest warrants for what amounts to local government Debtors Prison.

Come November 2010, we can only pray that the citizenry "takes care of business" at the ballot box, and all the incumbent politicos who approved this evil criminalization of poverty get tossed out en masse, regardless of party affiliation.