Todd Eachus In His Own Words About The Cargo Airport Taxpayer Support

During a debate aired on Channel 13 of Hazleton with Tarah Toohil, House Majority Leader Todd Eachus declared that "not a penny of tax dollars went to that project" in reference to the proposed cargo airport outside of Hazleton by now admitted felon/airport partner Robert Powell. Listen.



Here is scan of the DVD paid for by taxpayer dollars to promote the project.

Here is a screen capture of his House website paid for by the taxpayers of Pennsylvania.

Here is a slide from a PowerPoint presentation Eachus presented on behalf of the proposed cargo airport using a taxpayer funded email address.

In baseball isn't it three strikes and you're out?

Corbett's Bonusgate Investigation Didn't Help

The Pennsylvania Treasury site contains a link to e-Contracts where taxpayers/the public can search to see what contracts were let out by state agencies.

SOP performed a search of the House Democratic Caucus to determine what types of contracts it makes on behalf of the Democratic legislators belonging to this LEGISLATIVE body. Please don't confuse the House Democratic Caucus with the House Democratic Campaign Committee. The later is the political body used for election purposes.

The first interesting contract was made with StrongMail. From their website one can ascertain its type of business.

StrongMail enables businesses to reach, engage and influence their target audience. We can help you improve your email marketing campaign performance, boost deliverability and lower costs, while extending your reach to new audiences using social media.

Contract Number HDC02060809 is for an "Email Marketing Server" plus software and support. It goes from Friday, May 22, 2009 to Friday, May 21, 2010.

The next contract is with Listrak, Ltd to furnish email services to the House Democratic Caucus. What makes this contract interesting is that it was signed by Christine Zarek who's name appears multiple times during Grand Jury testimony in the Bonusgate investigation.

Contract Number HDC01052510 states "Whereas the Client desires to communicate on legislative issues with the residents of the Commonwealth". The amount of the contract is for $20,000.00. It's term is from Saturday, May 1, 2010 to Friday, December 31, 2010. Now anyone with half a brain knows that the term coincides with the election season. There is no good reason to terminate legislative issue notification to Commonwealth residents on December 31st except that election season is over.

Lables and Lists obtained a VOTER FILE AGREEMENT in 2008 for the purpose of providing an enhanced voter regsitration file to the PADITO. The contract amount was $9,600.00. NOTE: PADITO= Pennsylvania Democratic Informtaion Technologies Office.
This agreement is very clear it is for voter names, not constituent names.

Lables and Lists, Inc. goes on to receive a contract to provide statewide constituent data files to the House Democratic Caucus from Thurday, January 08, 2009 to Thursday, December 31 2009 in the amount of $49,500.00.

This contract seems to contradict the Code of Conduct posted by the House Democratic Caucus on its website about the prohibition of political activity by its members and staff. Keep in mind that many constituents are not registered voters.

According to the contract terms with Labels and ListsItem 4. Provision of Constituent Files it states a. Creation of Constituent Files Labels and Lists hereby agrees to create and supply to the PADITO two specially formatted and electronically processed copies of the Pennsylvania constituent file. The base data for these files will be obtained from publicly available lists of all Pennsylvania voters in each county of the state. These data will then be processed to create statewide data files of uniform format and will be enhanced to matches of national telephone databases and the U.S. Post Office's National Change of Address(NCOA) and Locatable Address Corrections System(LACS). The copies of the file will then be processed into a format specified by the PADITO. The final enhanced files shall be referred to as the "PADTIO Constituent Files".

It gets better. b. Delivery Dates Labels and Lists shall provide the PADITO with two PADITO Constituent Files during the year 2009. The date of delivery of the files will be the sole determination of the PADITO but no earlier than 30 days following notification of Labels and Lists of the requested dates. Item c covers Use and Ownership of PADITO Constituent File Data. Two elections per year, furnishing two files per year, really not that hard to figure out.

But then it gets to item d. Transfer of Raw County Data Files. Labels and Lists agrees to provide to the PADITO, at the latter's request and at no additional charge, copies of all the raw county or state voter files acquired and used by Labels and Lists as the basis for the creation of the PADITO Constituent Files.

Let's roll back to a previous post by SOP from December 30, 2009. It refers to emails at a different time about the "incumbent protection program" put together by Eachus et al found on CasablancaPA.com.

THE VEON PAPERS
EXHIBIT F
Attachment 11
Document and mails shoping John Paul Jones performing House Democratic Campaign Committee campaign work on state time using state resources in 2007 under Todd Eachus' supervision.

From: Jones, John Paul
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 11:28 AM

To: Manzo, Michael; Cott, Brett
Cc: Manzo, Rachel

Subject: Incumbent Protection Meetings.

GOALS;
1. TO FOCUS, COORDINATE, AND DIRECT CAUCUS RESOURCES FOR THE PURPOSE OF INCUMBENT PROTECTION.

2. TO AVOID DUPLICATION OF INCUMBENT PROTECTION FUNCTIONS BETWEEN CAUCUS STAFF/offices.

3. To notify key caucus staff and leadership of progress (or lack thereof) by individual incumbents with regards to incumbent protection.

4. To share information across offices in order to constantly improve incumbent protection activities.

Meeting Composition:
Chairs- Rep. Eachus,
Mike Manzo,
Brett Cott

Leader's office- Paul Parsells
LCO- Chris Zarek
LRO- Jen Brubaker
OMS- Eric Webb

Approp.- Miriam Fox

ODA- Scott Casper

Policy Com-Rachel Manzo

Secretary-Mike Risch

Comm.-Barb Grill & Bill Patton

HDCC- Dan W. & Jess W.

F/R- Erin Madison

Misc. Staff- Jon Price, Bob Caton

Seems like things haven't really changed in the House Democratic Caucus political activity using taxpayer funds. If they were truly interested in Constituent Data files all they had to do was purchase public mailing addresses. This contract includes the identification of cell phone numbers, county and state voter files.

It should be noted that Lables and Lists received a new contract, Number 100129002, for $48,750.00 which ends January, 2011 by the entire House of Representatives, Democrats and Republicans, for email addresses in file format.

Disclaimer: This post implies no misconduct on the part of Strongmail, Listrak, Ltd. nor Labels and Lists, Inc.

Kanjorski Flip Flops On Town Hall Meetings

Back on July 2, 2010 Paul Kanjorski appeared on the Webster and Nancy show featured on WILK news radio. According to "Hot Air" he made these comments when asked about town hall meetings with Lou Barletta's response.

Last week the 13-term Democrat from Nanticoke was criticized and attacked for his statements about minorities and “defective” people. On Thursday, while appearing as a guest on WILK Radio’s “Webster and Nancy Show,” Kanjorski was asked if he was going to hold any public town hall meetings with his constituents.

“We will do everything we can to meet with people, but I’m not going to set myself up for, you know, nuts to hit me with a camera.”

He said often times “people can’t resist changing what you said or taking things out of context.” He said these “snippets” lead to “distortions.”

“I’m not going to arm my opponent with a baseball bat,” Kanjorski said later in the interview.

Kanjorski’s Republican opponent, Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, leveled criticism against the congressman.

“Paul Kanjorski has been in Congress for 26 years and his response to our region’s 10 percent unemployment rate is to call his constituents ‘nuts’ and to attack the city of Hazleton,” Barletta said. “Do these so-called ‘nuts’ who attend town meetings fall into Kanjorski’s ‘defective people’ category?”

The voters have every right to expect Kanjorski to meet with them in their district to hold him accountable for his job performance. Whether that means “nuts” who want to take down his responses or just voters who are sick of the big-spending agenda Kanjorski supports, those constituents deserve Kanjorski’s time. If he feels above accountability, then he should find another line of work, preferably with those who share his unique perspective on “defectives” and “minorities.”

Kanjorski had no problem attending a town hall meeting sponsored by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority held at the Woodlands on July 8, 2010, just six days after the exchange on Webster and Nancy. I guess the prospect of a free meal was too enticing for Kanjorski to pass it up.

Rockin Traddy chided Kanjorski for his "Telephone Town Hall Meetings" back in August, 2009.

It seems that Paul Kanjorski is afraid of having a real town hall meeting with his constituents.

They are planning a "telephone town hall meeting" tomorrow evening at 7pm. You have to call his office to get on the list and they will call you prior to the meeting. You will then be connected in a conference call with him. Call his office and and plan to holler at Kanjorski with the Traddy.

What a wuss.

Barletta attacked Kanjorski in August over these taxpayer funded tele-town hall meetings and the carefully veiled mailers from his Congressional office.

In today's Times Leader Ed Mitchell, Kanjorski's media spokesman, tries to spin this issue claiming Kanjorski has held several town hall meetings during the current election cycle and all were open to the public.

The Times Leader e-mail archives indicate the paper received five of the six “media advisories” sent from Kanjorski’s Washington, D.C., office. Only one of the five advisories mentioned the term “town hall meeting” – the one held at the Downtown Scranton Senior Center.

None of the advisories mentions that the general public was invited. Each has a specific topic to be discussed by Kanjorski. The topics for the Sept. 1, 2 and 8 appearances were Social Security and health care reform law. On Sept. 7 and a second Sept. 8 appearance, the topic was the Wall Street reform law.

Shawn Kelly, spokesman for Barletta, said the meetings held by Kanjorski are not actual town hall meetings.

“It’s bogus,” Kelly said. “Kanjorski cannot go back in time and say that he held town hall meetings when he clearly did not. No matter what Kanjorski claims they are, these were not town hall meetings.”

In June, Kanjorski, 73, D-Nanticoke, announced he would forego the face-to-face town hall meetings for telephone town halls. Other congressmen across the state, mainly Democrats, also announced they wouldn’t be holding the traditional town hall gatherings in their districts or hadn’t decided if they would.

Kanjorski explained his decision by saying he has found that telephone town meetings can be especially effective because he can interact with as many as 8,000 Northeastern Pennsylvanians on a single phone call. On Wednesday of this week, however, Mitchell said Kanjorski had held six town hall meetings since Sept. 1.

“He changed his mind,” Mitchell said.

That came after Barletta’s announcement on Tuesday that he would hold five town hall meetings – one in each of the five counties that comprise the 11th District.

Commenting on the debate, Chris Borick, Ph.D., political science professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, said the term town hall meeting is not clearly defined. He said there is no set rule in Congress that defines what a town hall meeting is.

“It’s basically a matter of semantics. You can call a meeting with anybody a town hall meeting, but if the argument is that (Kanjorski) is not meeting with citizens in a well-advertised, open forum, then these don’t appear to qualify.”

Borick said Kanjorski has had meetings with certain elements of his constituency regarding predetermined, specific topics.

“As we’ve come to know town hall meetings in the last two election cycles, these don’t seem to fit the standard definition of what constitutes a town hall meeting,” he said.

Kanjorski's incumbency gives him the power to waste taxpayer money so he can reach his constituents voters surreptitiously.

At this link in the Times Leader article you can read Kanjorski's invitations. Read them. "Congressman Kanjorski...will discuss his efforts... For the past two years Kanjorski has been working on this legislation..." It appears to be the definition of soft campaigning at taxpayer expense.

This article from Queens Crap spells it out correctly.

“This is a persistent problem that the incumbent newsletters that go out ... are all about promoting the individual [and] much less about constituent service,” the literature is more about self-aggrandizement and evoking “warm and fuzzy feelings” than providing constituent service.

Whether it is mailers or carefully orchestrated meetings it is really about getting re-elected, not the taxpayer. In the old days if an elected official wanted to talk to the taxpayer the solon went to meet with Joe, not the other way around.

Pennsylvania Wants To Be First To Use Taxpayer Money To Fund Abortions

Obama Administration Approves First Direct Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Through New High-Risk Insurance Pools
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
By Susan Jones, Senior Editor

(CNSNews.com) - If you want proof that President Obama's Executive Order on taxpayer-funded abortion was a sham, look no further than Pennsylvania, says House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio).

Boehner and other Republicans point to reports that the Health and Human Services Department is giving Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new high-risk insurance pool that will cover any abortion that is legal in the state.

"The fact that the high-risk pool insurance program in Pennsylvania will use federal taxpayer dollars to fund abortions is unconscionable," Boehner said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Just last month at the White House, I asked President Obama to provide the American people with a progress report on the implementation of his Executive Order, which purports to ban taxpayer-funding of abortions. Unfortunately, the President provided no information, and the American people are still waiting for answers."

Ask your legislator where they stand on this issue? More importantly ask them why they didn't tell you they were seeking this permission?

Kanjorski's Economy And His Unsupportable Assessments

On the heels of self-absorbed comments made by Kanjo strummin his banjo about the economy being the best of all mankind the Wall Street Journal writes today that consumers tightened their spending habits indicating that the economy is not on the road to recovery as potrayed by those in the Obama administration and its supporters.

Americans unexpectedly ratcheted back spending on everything from cars to clothing in May, adding to concerns that a volatile stock market and high unemployment are weighing down the economic recovery.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that sales at retail establishments—including department stores, gas stations and restaurants—fell 1.2% in May from April. The decline, driven by sharp drops in autos and building materials, was the first since September 2009, when sales fell 2.2%.

We all know that Kanjorski is the type to stretch the facts so the people can eat it up. "We are helluva alot better off as a country and as an economy than we have ever been in the history of mankind." He has the balls to say this in the face of double digit unemployment reaching Pennsylvania.