By Shaun Pierce

Things aren't very good for Democrats in this area these days. With the history of union power and Democrats (both dwindling), it's often assumed that the GOP has a real disadvantage in Pennsylvania. However, history does not dictate the future.

With 'Bonusgate' in the news and national and local campaigns generating excitement with voters, Democrats are facing a strong challenge and may pay the price by losing their slim 102-101 margin in Harrisburg.

Republicans have run the Senate for almost all of the past 25 years. While it's true there are now more than 1 million more registered Democrats than Republicans in Pennsylvania, what Democrats have done with their power leaves many looking for alternatives.

The corruption charges and allegations attached to long time officials and once promising new comers give the GOP and tremendous opportunity to expand their influence and take Pennsylvanians out of culture of corruption.

As "Bonusgate" plays out, how much affect it will have on state House races remains to be seen. The allegations are that some House Democratic staffers, in 2006, spent days and even weeks working on political campaigns and later were illegally rewarded with at least $1.2 million in state-funded bonuses.

To date, all 12 arrests have been of House Democratic lawmakers or staff members, including the former No. 2 Democrat, ex-Rep. Mike Veon, and Rep. Sean Ramaley, both of Beaver County. As the pay raise outrage of the last election still smolders in some voters minds, the political tide may be turning.

Attorney General Tom Corbett has said additional arrests are likely, and some state officials expect them to hit before Sept. 30. The next round could deeper ensnare Democratic leader Bill DeWeese as he presided over this corruption. Some are already calling on Mr. DeWeese to step down as House leader.

Former Senator Phil Gramm took some heat for saying the United States was only in a “mental recession” and that it had become a “nation of whiners.”

How dare he? We are not a nation of whiners. We are a nation of wimps AND whiners who want the government to ride in and fix everything. I have news for you, they can't fix the problem they created.

I don't like paying more for groceries. I don't like $4.00 a gallon gas. It makes me mad, but I have to eat and there are places that I must drive, so I pay the bill and watch my money in other areas.

The old saying "what goes up must come down" is true and it applies to the economy. I'm no expert, but I do understand that there are "market corrections" and every bubble at some point will pop. What that means is, if times are good enjoy them, but do so knowing that the winds of changes will be blow and you better be ready.

There was a time when every office had a typewriter. The typewriter guy was on top of the world. How many of those things do you think they sell today? Was the government expected to bailout the typewriter industry?

The majority of people losing their homes are people that bought beyond their means. They dove in to dangerous loans and got bit. The banks gave money to people that are not able to pay it back. They bet and lost. Boo hoo Uncle Sam save me.

That fact is, despite all the doom and gloom, we have it pretty darn good here. I may not have prime rib every night, but I do have food to eat and I bet you do as well. Yes, some of my wants have been pushed aside for needs, but I do have a roof over my head. I bet you do as well. Politicians always want to "feel your pain". My pain is a minor cramp and not an axe in the head like some would have you believe.

President Bush just lifted the ban on oil drilling. Great, but why was there a ban to lift and why did it take so long? We had a gas shortage in this country in the 1970's. We should have been pumping oil for the past 30 years. There never should have been a ban in a free market economy. They handcuffed American companies. The blame for high oil prices goes back to every congress and presidential administration since Jimmy Carter.

Years ago we decided it was easier to write a check for oil then to get our own. The middle east gang pumped oil to us and we pumped zillions of dollars out of our country. Now that OPEC has by the gonads and threatening to raise prices to unthinkable levels if we drop a bomb on the head of wacko Iranian president Yaba-Daba-Do, people gasp. Well good morning Rip Van Winkle!

Put the American poor next to the poor in any third world county and we look like royalty. You have food stamps, shelters, subsidized housing, disability, welfare, job training & education, medicare, the list goes on. Working people pay for all this and it's stifling. Some really need help, others curl up to the federal mammary gland and never leave. That's destructive and wrong.

It's time we stopped moaning and groaning. If you want things to change stop bowing before the tree-huggers who would like to eradicate human kind so our flatulence doesn't upset the spotted owl. Stick a pipe in the ground in Alaska and let the polar bears fend for themselves. Plunge a drill into the sea bed and wave goodbye to OPEC. Don't vote for any person who won't get of their buttocks and get out of the way of American ingenuity and enterprise. The government is almost always the problem, not the solution.

The American people are the solution. We invented the car, the computer, space travel, the light bulb, telecommunications. We need to realize that government represents us, but they do not control us. When we forget that, we cease being productive and our dependence becomes lethal to the American Way. So let's get back to work and stop being a nation of wimps and a whiners. Thank you Sen. Gramm for the reminder.

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Something stinks in Pittsburgh and it's coming from a half built casino. It's also coming out of Harrisburg.

I don't get this at all. Obama as expected is attempting to court the "evangelical voters". At the same time he is campaigning on the other side of the fence.

Obama had a recent meeting that included Franklin Graham, T.D. Jakes and about 30 other religious leaders. Late in 2006, Obama had stood on the stage of Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, declaring his faith in the context of fighting HIV/AIDS, gladly taking on the mantle of implied endorsement.

Now watch as he jumps the fence. In a letter to Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club read Sunday at the group's annual Pride Breakfast in San Francisco, the Illinois senator said he supports extending "fully equal rights and benefits to same-sex couples under both state and federal law."

Soon the Obama campaign will begin appearing on Christian radio and Internet outlets, and they’ll be hosting thousands of “American Values House Parties,” where attendees will discuss Obama and religion.

Not all leaders are falling for this production. Dr. James Dobson said “I think he’s (Obama) deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology” Amen to that Dr D!

When it comes to the issue of abortion Obama has said he want to "discourage the practice of abortion.” Yet he has a 100 percent voting record supporting it.

I realize that Obama is not a pastor. For that matter neither is Dr. Dobson. However, a Christian should have a basic knowledge of Scripture and what God does/does not allow.

In a recent speech, Obama claimed his support the homosexual agenda was based on the Sermon on the Mount, not on some passage in the “obscure” book of Romans. By "obscure" did he mean the part that most homosexuals ignore? You know the one that warns: “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another…. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion” (Romans 1: 18, 24, 26-27). Heck let's just rip those pages out. They can only be considered obscure if they are ignored and forgotten.

My concern here is not so much with Obama. It's more with the evangelical lemmings that drool over the glow of limelight that is cast on them when Obama enters the room.

So who lined to meet Obama? Rev. Stephen Thurston, head of the National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., the Rev. T. Dewitt Smith, president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., and Bishop Phillip Robert Cousin Sr., an A.M.E. clergyman and former NAACP board member. Catholic constitutional lawyer Doug Kmiec; evangelical author Max Lucado of San Antonio; Cameron Strang, founder of Relevant Media, which is aimed at young Christians; the Rev. Luis Cortes of Esperanza USA; and Paul Corts, president of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities. Yet the campaign only released three names.

Let me address the "catholic" representative Doug Kmiec. Kmiec was denied Communion in April at a Mass for Catholic business people because he had endorsed Obama. While Kmiec is himself pro-life, his mere endorsement of Obama is damaging to the Catholic message. Just as Obama's support of abortion and homosexual rights is damaging to the Christian message. Are faith leaders already too blind to see this?

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Back on May 6th I wrote a piece for Townhall on John McCain and his pastor problems.

Now comes word the John McCain has finally rejected the endorsement of televangelist John Hagee. The decision came after an audio recording surfaced in which the Hagee said God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land. He also has linked Hitler to the Catholic church, suggesting it helped shape his anti-Semitism.

This is crazy talk that has no basis in Scripture. Most disturbing is it comes from a man who claims to be a pastor and has a large number of people following him and financially supporting his efforts.

Hagee in response to McCain jettison of his endorsement said he was withdrawing the endorsement. It's a kind of " you can't fire me, I quit" response.

Here is what I just can't comprehend..... Hagee (and others like him) spew this stuff under the label of Christan preaching. Yet no one objects when he slips his own opinion in as gospel. That is what makes Hagee not only wrong, but dangerous. People must know clearly what is the word of God and the opinion of man.

The other part that makes me scratch my head is how a Presidential candidate doesn't know this stuff. The preacher has controversial views that were well-known before McCain accepted his endorsement. Does McCain not have a TV to watch Hagee? Does he not have a staff to research this beforehand?

It's not like Hagee came out of the blue and just independently announced his endorsement of McCain. McCain actively courted Hagee! He wanted those megachurch votes where people worship and vote like lemmings. That congregation in the tens of thousands and a huge television audience was very attractive, truth be damned.

But the problems don't end there. Rod Parsley is a man I refused to let on the airwaves of our radio show. McCain should have followed, but instead McCain sought the support of Pastor Parsley and the World Harvest Church in Columbus, Ohio. Another mega-church prize to win. Now McCain announces he is rejecting Pastor Rod Parsley's endorsement.

At a campaign appearance in Cincinnati, McCain introduced Parsley as "one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide." McCain's staff should all be fired for letting this happen. They were apparently unconcerned about Parsley's well-established denunciations of the Islamic faith. Parsley didn't hide it. Walk into any book store and pick up "Silent No More". If you can't read there are DVDs of his sermons about Islam.

"America was founded with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed," Parsley says, "and I believe Sept. 11, 2001 was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore."

America was FOUNDED to destroy Islam? Did Thomas Jefferson know this? I don't remember "All men are created equal.... except the Muslims who we founded this nation to destroy". At least they don't only interject opinion in Scripture. I guess the Declaration if Independence is fair game as well.

Lord help our leaders if they don't know who they follow....

Posted by Shaun Pierce

If you really want a pristine planet then we must get rid of all the humans messing it up. That's the opinion of a new organization called the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.

I can't make this stuff up! They are recruiting people to remain childless for "the benefit of the Earth." I'm really thankful these folks have at least opted out of reproducing but I'm not signing up for their group.

It sounds crazy to most people, but we do have birth rates falling well below replacement levels in some countries. While this can be blamed on several factors ranging from the sexual revolution to delayed childbearing, we can't overlook the impact that the global warming debate has had on society's opinion of the family.

The green crowd continues to twist the so-called "climate crisis" into an excuse to push their agenda of population control. As a result, children are being viewed by some not as blessings but burdens who consume precious natural resources.

I don't understand how we have arrived at this way of thinking. We don't value human life. Abortions are fine. Yet when it comes to polar bears and spotted owls it's a different story. Will humans join the endagered list next?

We have lived far too long pretending that human life does not matter. If we don't change our thinking now, we do in fact volunteer for our own extinction.

Most people are keeping a look out for that tax rebate money. If nothing else it will give you some gas money.