End of Issue #67 |

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Editorial and Rants
"Race doesn't matter!" Wait... What?
Might have to take out some judges in the future...
N.Y. Village Gets New Voting Rules to Aid Hispanics
November 6, 2009 - From: cnsnews.com
By Jim Fitzgerald, Associated Press
White Plains, N.Y. (AP) - A federal judge imposed an unusual election system on a suburban village Friday, nearly two years after finding that the existing system was unfair to Hispanics.
The village, Port Chester, is run by a mayor and six trustees. Under the new system, called cumulative voting, residents will be allowed to cast as many as six votes for one trustee candidate.
No Hispanic had ever been elected trustee or mayor in the village 25 miles northeast of New York City, although the population of 28,000 is about half Hispanic. The ruling is likely to mean that the village will have trustee elections next year for the first time since 2006.
Village officials said they were elated that Judge Stephen Robinson had not ordered that Port Chester be divided into districts.
"We got our preferred remedy of choice," said village attorney Anthony Piscionere.
Under cumulative voting, all six trustee positions would be at stake in each election and voters would have six votes each. A voter could cast six votes for one candidate, one for each of six candidates, or any other combination of six or fewer votes.
Lawyers said last year that cumulative voting was not used for municipal elections anywhere else in New York.
Both sides told the judge Friday they would work together to come up with a plan to implement the new system and educate voters about it. The judge said he hoped elections could be held in June.
"Port Chester is committed to making this a model," Piscionere said.
In January 2008, Robinson ruled in favor of a Justice Department lawsuit that said Port Chester's existing system violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting Hispanics' votes.
Under the outlawed system, two of Port Chester's six trustee seats were up each election year and the entire village chose from the candidates. Most voters were white, and white candidates always won.
After ruling in the federal government's favor, the judge asked both sides to suggest a new system that would solve the problem. Meanwhile, elections were suspended.
The Justice Department's plan would have divided the village into six districts, with each electing one trustee. One district would be drawn to include Hispanic neighborhoods, increasing the chances that a Hispanic-backed candidate would be elected.
Port Chester officials, however, noted that because many Hispanics are not citizens, the special Hispanic district would have fewer eligible voters than other districts. That would violate the one-person, one-vote requirement of the Constitution, village attorneys said.
The village also said cumulative voting would be more likely to elect more than one Hispanic-backed trustee. And it would spare the village the expense of drawing new boundaries, redrawing them every 10 years and maintaining multiple polling places.
Currently, the village Board of Trustees has three holdovers from before 2006, two appointees picked by the other members and one vacancy.

That's how you teach dirty illegal spics to vote!
Note that the census is used to determine congressional voting districts. Who cares if they are fair, I guess.
You're better off spending the next election day reloading...
Senate Blocks Census U.S.-Citizenship Question
November 5, 2009 - From: news.yahoo.com
By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats have blocked a GOP attempt to require next year's census forms to ask people whether they are a U.S. citizen.
The proposal by Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter was aimed at excluding immigrants from the population totals that are used to figure the number of congressional representatives for each state. Critics said Vitter's plan would discourage immigrants from responding to the census and would be hugely expensive. They also said that it's long been settled law that the apportionment of congressional seats is determined by the number of people living in each state, regardless of whether they are citizens. A separate survey already collects the data.
The plan fell after a 60-39 procedural vote made it ineligible for attachment to a bill funding the census.

Millions in "stimulus" tax dollars wasted on projects that Boy Scouts should (and would) be doing for free.
SEIU members are also the purple-shirt thugs being bussed into the health care townhall meetings.
How's that "change" working out?
Union Troubled by Eagle Scout Project in Allentown
November 15, 2009 - From: www.mcall.com
By Jarrett Renshaw
In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park.
Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city's largest municipal union.
Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.
"We'll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails," Balzano told the council.
Balzano said Saturday he isn't targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city's decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said "there's to be no volunteers." No one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.
"We would hope that the well-intentioned efforts of an Eagle Scout candidate would not be challenged by the union," said Mayor Ed Pawlowski in an e-mail Friday. "This young man is performing a great service to the community. His efforts should be recognized as such."
Balzano said Saturday the union is still looking into the matter and might cut the city a break.
"We are probably going to let this one go," Balzano said.
The possible entanglement of a local Boy Scout in a union dispute underscores the frustration and anger SEIU members feel after being the lone city union to suffer layoffs in the ongoing financial crisis. It may also serve as a preview of future labor battles as the city tries to outsource some necessary jobs as a result of the layoffs.
Anderson, a junior and varsity soccer player at Southern Lehigh High School, is a member of Boy Scout Troop 301 of Center Valley.
He got the idea for the trail while taking hikes along the partially complete, 165-mile Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor. He noticed there were a few missing connections to the trail in Kimmets Lock Park, which is on the Lehigh River near Dauphin Street. He already has logged 250 hours trying to carve out a walking and biking trail along the river.
"I decided to do my part in completing this part of the trail. In that way, others could enjoy walking along the river, without having to walk on the busy road," Anderson said in an e-mail Friday.
During last week's budget hearings, where City Council reviewed the Public Works and Park and Recreation departments' funding requests, it was made clear that the layoffs and early retirements -- all of which have led to the lowest city staffing levels in two decades -- are bound to create union disputes in the weeks and months ahead.
For example, the city currently does not have an electrician available because of the layoffs and an employee on an extended sick leave. As a result, the city has been forced to hire an outside union electrician to oversee the installation for the popular Lights on the Parkway holiday display.
"In the spirit of the holiday, we decided to let that go," Balzano said.
Greg Weitzel, head of the Parks and Recreation Department, which lost 17 full-time employees as a result of the layoffs and retirements, said the low staffing levels will require more outsourcing of labor and a greater reliance on volunteers.
"There are some things that we can do in-house and other things we will have to bid out," Weitzel said Tuesday. "We originally had plans to do more with our labor force, but now we have to bid out that work."

www.purplepeoplebeaters.com





"You guys make a pretty good photo op."