Philly ADA

During the summer of 2008, there was much talk about how the Pennsylvania General Assembly had to immediately act to insure that the next round of redistricting does not create gerrymandered districts. However, our elected officials presented a false dilemma. There is no reason why the General Assembly cannot consider the same legislation in its upcoming legislative session. More importantly, there is no reason why our elected officials cannot work within the existing system to draw less gerrymandered districts.

According to the procedure outlined below, the General Assembly must pass the legislation no later than June 2008 in order to complete the process of amending the Constitution prior to 2011. 2011 only matters because it is when the next Legislative Reapportionment Commission must be appointed. However, the General Assembly could still pass legislation defining the process the Legislative Reapportionment Commission must follow to insure new districts are fairly drawn.

For example, the last round of legislative redistricting was not completed until 2004. If the General Assembly was to follow its own precedent, the General Assembly could pass the legislation amending the Constitution during its 2010 legislative session and still perform the redistricting process faster than it did during the last go round.

On January 29, 2009, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of Americans for Democratic Action will host a community forum to address the subject of legislative redistricting in Pennsylvania. The forum will consist of a panel of Rep. Babbette Josephs, Rep. Josh Shapiro, Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez and WHYY's Chris Satullo. The forum will take place at the First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut Street from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

In preparation for this forum, we plan to publish over the next several week a series of posts that will provide attendees background on the issue and ultimately will be part of a packet of materials that we plan to distribute at the forum. The following is the first in this series of posts.

After an ill-thought out upgrade that wiped out our entire site, we're back.

We've reposted most of our old pages. We'lll likely continue to repost old pages over the next couple of days (if not weeks). That said, we'll likely never get around to reposting all of the 64 Days of McCain stuff.

If there is something missing, let us know and we'll try to find it.

Unfortunately, the "upgrade" also wiped out all user information. So, if you had an account with this website, you'll need to sign up again. As always, you need to be a dues paying member to have your account activated.

Thanks for your patience.

Save the Date!

Philly ADA Winter Forum

January 29, 2009
7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia

The Philly ADA invites you to attend a discussion of legislative redistricting in Pennsylvania. Our panel includes Philadelphia City Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez, State Representative Babette Josephs, State Representative Josh Shapiro and Journalist Chris Satullo. More information to follow.

Philly ADA Annual Membership Meeting

January 29, 2009
6:45 to 7:30 p.m.
First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia

Prior to our Winter Forum, the Philly ADA will be hosting its annual membership meeting. At the meeting, the membership will vote on our Board of Directors and amendment to our By-Laws. More information to follow.

Beginning with this post, the Philly ADA will begin a regular feature where we publish items of interest from the history of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapater of Americans for Democratic Action. The following was provided by Hal Rosenthal and is an excerpt from an oral history of Richardson Dilworth for the John F. Kennedy Library. The interview was conducted by Henry W. Sawyer on August 13, 1964.

This section deals with the attendance of John F. Kennedy, then candidate for President, at the SEPA ADA annual dinner.

Yesterday, we discussed McCain's plan to tax employer-sponsored healthcare plans and the effect that policy would have on millions of Americans.

Today, we turn to McCain's plan to slash Medicare by $1,300,000,000.

McCain wants to cut Medicare funding to pay for his plan to provide Americans a $2,500 tax credit to be used to buy personal health insurance.

I suppose I should have added "... if you're lucky enough to have them" to the title.

If you are one of the millions of Americans lucky enough to have healthcare coverage, you likely receive it through an employer-sponsored plan Presently, money contributed to such plans by an employer on the behalf of its employees are not taxed by the federal government.

By not taxing such benefits, the federal government provides a massive subsidy allowing many more employers to offer healthcare to their employees.

If elected, McCain plans to tax healthcare benefits.

"If we're going to have a successful democratic society, we have to have a well educated and healthy citizenry."

As illustrated by this quote, Thomas Jefferson believed that an educated populace was necessary for the proper functioning of democracy.

In addition to preventing our democracy from devolving into tyranny, education also helps lift children from poverty and generally improve the human condition. We it's fair to say both are a good thing.

Too bad John McCain will have none of it.

On three separate occasions, John McCain has voted against funding for Headstart, the early childhood education program.

As reported by the AFL-CIO,

In 2003, McCain voted against increasing spending on Head Start programs by $24 billion and on after-school programs by $18 billion over 10 years. That year, he also voted against a Democratic effort to add $350 million to Head Start, the federal program for poor preschool children. In 2001, McCain voted against fully funding Head Start to ensure that all eligible children have access. (S.Amdt. 2254 to H.R. 3010, Vote 272, 10/26/05; S.C.R. 23, Vote 86, 3/25/03; H.R. 2660, Vote 333, 9/9/03; H.R. 1836, Vote 154, 5/22/01)

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And so we beging week 4 with a look at one of McCain's few economic policies - his support of offshore drilling.

The Republican party loves the idea of offshore drilling. During the convention, the GOP crowd routinely broke into chants of "Drill, Baby, Drill."

McCain was once against offshore drilling. He's explained his flip flop as a recognition of changed circumstances. Problem is earlier this year McCain himself acknowledged that drilling hat it will have no effect on oil prices.

Last Wednesday, we promised to take a look at the role of John McCain, aka the "Where's Waldo of Financial Ruin," in each of the most in each of the most significant financial crisis of that occurred over the last 35 years.

On Day 16, we started with an in-depth look at the central role he played in the deregulation of financial institutions that enabled our present financial crisis.

On Day 17, we looked McCain's role in the S&L crisis.

Today, we look at Waldo's role in the Enron collapse.