The first item-of-business is to provide two urgent legislative-lobbying announcements, both topics having already been scrutinized in prior

blasts; regarding the initial one, intense lobbying is occurring [which will be detailed orally, upon request] but, suffice it to say, its crunch-time. [Sen. Rafferty reports it will cost $7000 to be implemented [a pittance] and Rep. Vereb is interfacing with members of the House.] Anyone who wishes to contact any member of the General Assembly can expeditiously find your legislator, and know that this blast was remitted by The President of the Museum, Chuck Feldman

HB 1424, the Clymer version of the bill, which passed the State House without a mandate HAS BEEN AMENDED in the State Senate. The amendment mandates Holocaust Education in Pennsylvania schools. We at the Holocaust Awareness Museum support this version and urge all of you to contact your and other State Senators to vote for it as amended. **************** There could be a committee vote on SB999, the Liberty Preservation Act, this week; it makes it illegal for Pennsylvania law enforcement to assist the federal government in using the egregious sections 1021 and 1022 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to detain citizens indefinitely, without a warrant or any of our Constitutionally-protected due process rights. [Lois Kaneshiki, lois@nb.net] As even the most superficial reader would have concluded from reading the 1051-pages of hyperlinks focused on lambasting BHO, I am focused on enhancing the impact of the TEA Party Movement. Thus, intensely debated has been the degree to which The Precinct Project [How YOU can help take back your government!, championed by Lois Kaneshiki, who gave three speeches on this topic last week in the Philly-area] should extend; specifically, if Pat Poprick is now targeted, can Mike Fitzpatrick get a pass? My view is that it is necessary to primary him because he violated his #1 campaign-promise by voting to fund ObamaDontCare and, as a result, I continue to troll for potential candidates; for example, it is quite plausible that he would abandon conservative positions [on amnesty, the budget, and the farm bill]. It is recognized that Boehner is delaying consideration of illegal immigration until after deadlines for filing incumbent challenges [presumably, to protect incumbents from primaries], although he cant delay taking a position on budgetary concerns [announced a few hours ago]. As a result, this philosophical posture has been debated intensely [again, as detailed previously] among TPM-entities [in his PA-8 district], carrying broader implications regarding what has been exploding nationally, namely, the GOP s Civil War. In my view, attacks on the Republican Crony Class will yield 2014 Elections that will yield a throwdown, for Washington must shed the trappings of royalty. Specifically, although we forcefully claim Republican leaders care more about loss of power than loss of liberty, the GOP-Establishment warns the GOP isn't learning from its mistakes [presumably, shirking the necessity to destroy the TPM] and that A GOP Civil War Benefits the Dems. Apparently, it has taken the TPMs rock-star, sarah-palin, to elucidate why-the-tea-partyisnt-radical and, satisfying a long-term urge that the TPM not only function nationally is word that the Tea Party is Battling Business over Braves Stadium. Anyone who wishes to learn of the allure of Banishing the IRS will be hearing the national weekly tea party address; not to be upstaged is chris-matthews, who is in a panic about-2014, for he fears that the-tea-party-is-still-growing [and is rapidly maturing, as per my serial observations]. Into this environment, today, has been announced a primary-challenge to PA-Gov Tom Corbett by a Conservative Activist, Robert R. Guzzardi, Esquire; his specific views were channeled in a prior blast

e-mail, and he asserts The Path to Victory is A Campaign Centered on the Constitution of Pennsylvania. Many feel the gas-tax-constitutes corbetts-path to single-digit-approval, and I have commented on his viability as a candidate (and his personality) while swatting-aside trivialities posted by typical-trolls.

Reform Republican Movement Republicans Deserve a Choice Tom Corbett, Promises Broken.

Meanwhile, although some claim Gov. Corbett has stood tall and made tough decisions, others disagree: Generally speaking, gubernatorial approval ratings are important and somewhat predictive of their general election success if the incumbent is running for reelection. An approval rating of 46% or higher is a good sign while anything under 40% is a bad sign. Anything in between is dependent upon the party in power and the leaning of that state. For example, a Democratic governor in a blue state with an approval rating of 42% is in trouble and vice versa for Republican governors and red states. In Pennsylvania, the situation is decidedly different for an embattled Republican incumbent in Tom Corbett. To state that he faces a huge uphill battle would be an understatement and he has dug himself in a huge hole and it is hard to see him getting himself out of it less than a year from Election Day 2014. One w ould have to ask: How low can he go? Six months ago, Corbetts approval rating stood at a dismal 34%. Unfortunately, six months later he is trending the wrong way and stands at 24% making him less popular than the aforementioned Lincoln Chafee as the current sitting governor with the lowest approval rating in the country. This all does not bode well for Corbett. [as in apocalypse - ed] Perhaps the only positive thing we can say about this race from the GOP standpoint is that the Democratic field is VERY crowded with eight declared candidates. The most notable is Alyson Schwartz, a US Congressperson who represents Northeast Philadelphia and its suburbs. Talking to some Republicans in that district, she is popular even with them. She has consistently led in hypothetical polling against fellow Democrats in a primary scenario so she has emerged as the front runner. In general election polling, depending on the source, Schwartz leads Corbett from anywhere between 3-15 points. In polls of Pennsylvania Republicans, someone else has led Corbett on several occasions. The problem is that when someone else has a name, Corbett consistently wins. Its quite schizophrenic. And it is not as if there is a weak stable of Republicans behind Corbett. Regardless, at this point this writer just does not see Corbett crawling out of his hole. Thus, prediction: Democratic pick up I guess the party leadership thinks it's better to lose the governor election so long as they can keep those conservatives from winning seats and upsetting their sinecures. But the rot runs deeper into the party structure, it seems.

This is the kind of corruption that ends up in revolutionary upheaval that brings down those same leaders - who I guess are betting their lives that they'll not outlive Louis XV... As the Pa. poverty rate inches up, corbett-wont-push-to-hike-minimum-wage and lowman-henry claims pa-legislators are afraid-of-reforms; there is one bright spot, however [State Corrections Secretary John Wetzel deserves credit for his efforts to cut the $34,700 that each of his department's more than 50,000 inmates costs taxpayers annually.]. Meanwhile, senator eichelberger is promoting a program on PCN that is part-of-the-series regarding problems-facing-pas-municipalities but, ultimately, it seems the key-issue is that the pension-crisis is about-to-explode-for-pa-school-districts, for the snooze-button is inoperative. When a federal judge allowed Detroit to proceed with its bankruptcy filing, a warning emerged, namely, Reform is Needed to Save Pensions. {Detroits-bankruptcy-ruling is good-news-for-muni-bonds-insurers.}