Picnic Was a Great Success

Three cheers go out to Sheri Morgan for the generous use of her home for the Franklin County Democrats picnic, and to daughter Rosie for organizing everything, and to Karin Johnson for her hard work. Good attendance but not as many as we could have hoped for. The food was fabulous, the speakers excellent, and the band and fireworks great fun. If you didn't come, you missed a good one and we urge you to support our efforts as we move into the election season. We have a governor, lt. governor, and senator to elect along with a Democratic challenger to Rep. Shuster -- Tom Conners. Follow County Chair Paul Politis' EMails for information on campaign events.

Franklin County Democratic Picnic August 6

It's that time of year again..... time for the annual picnic! It will be held on Friday, August 6, 5 pm to 10 pm, at 431 Leitersburg Street in Greencastle. The picnic's location gives us front row seating for the firework display. In addition to the fireworks there will be a musical performance by a great local string band: The Knuckle Dusters. As always, we will be hearing messages from our Democratic candidates, which this year include candidates for the senatorial, congressional, and gubernatorial races.

This year's menu will be a bar-b-que dinner complete with 2 sides and a cup for the beverage of your choice. Tickets are $15 for adults and $7 for kids 12 and under. Hope to see you there, because August 6th simply won't be the same without you! Our organizer is Rosie Morgan and you can get tickets and additional information by calling: 717-593-9950, or email franklincountydempicnic@gmail.com and Rosie will send you the form to return with your payments. We need your early commitment so we can order the proper amount of food and drink. Join your fellow Democrats and have an evening of fun and good food!

In Memorium

The Greencastle Antrim Democratic Club has lost a good Democrat and true friend: Joshua "Joe" Lewis. Brother Lewis died suddenly on Sunday, May 23. His widow, Sara Flythe-Lewis would love to hear from fellow Democrats. Their address is: 118 South Jefferson Street, Greencastle.

Our Next Meeting

PLEASE NOTE: THE REGULAR JULY MEETNG OF THE GREENCASTLE ANTRIM DEMOCRATS HAS BEEN POSTPONED AND WILL BE RESCHEDULED. WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

AND....
The Franklin County Democrats Picnic will be held in Greencastle on Friday, August 6 Watch our blog for further information and ways you can participate.

Sestak, Onorato Win Primary Contests

Rep. Joe Sestak has won the primary race for United States Senator from Pennsylvania, defeating long time Senator Arlen Specter. There was strong support for Sestak in Franklin County so that means Franklin County Democrats must work like mad to win in November.
Dan Onorato was the Democratic choice for Governor. Rep. Scott Conklin is the lieutenant governor candidate.

Democrats are still awaiting a final certification of Tom Conners as the write in candidate for the 9th Congressional District on the Democratic ticket in November.

Write In Tom Conners for Congress on May 18

We have a potential candidate to oppose Shuster in November. The candidate is Tom Conners former broadcaster from Altoona. He announced his run for Congress in a speech that scorched the 38-year Shuster Dynasty record on the Blair Courthouse Plaza last Tuesday. We can get him on the ballot by writing in his name on May 18th.

We plan to develop palm cards that can be handed out and we need volunteers to cover every single polling place. Fulton County Democrats are already working on the project. Check out Tom Conners youtube videos talking about his biography and his positions on the issues.

http://www.youtube.com/user/conners4congress#g/u

The 2010 Campaign Begins Now

President Obama has issued a call to action to all those who supported his campaign to get ready for 2010 and begin organizing now. You can watch his message by going to David Plouffe's message on:
http://www.barackobama.com/

Earth Day Warriors

Greencastle Antrim Democrats and friend join to work Marie's Garden to beautify Greencastle and give meaning to our motto: "Keep Greencastle Green".

Democratic Victory on Health Care Reform Needed Lots of Work

It's estimated that a million voters peppered Congress with letters, emails and phone calls. That helped President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi get the job done along with some hand holding and assurances on Federal funding of abortion (already clearly forbidden by previous measures). It's too bad that health care reform has been held hostage to anyone with a particular issue. This is big (as the Vice President said in so many words) and we need to continue to act boldly to assure that everyone gets good health care just because they are a citizen of the world's most advanced democracy with the biggest economy. There's something crazy about a society that provides gigantic payouts and great health care coverage to executives, movie stars and athletes, but denies the most basic human dignity to the working poor. And there's something crazy about denying coverage to immigrants who work in restaurants and other places with direct contact with the public. Don't we want them to be healthy?

Democrats need to prepare to work hard this November if we want to keep our majority and answer the dishonest characterizations of the legislation that the right keeps feeding our citizens. Interestingly capitalism was not destroyed by this law. The very next day after the vote the stock market rose on the good news for health care businesses.

Health Care by The Numbers

Here's the latest bulletin from The White House:

32,000,000 -- that's the number of Americans who will get health insurance under the President's plan.

That's also a little more than the entire populations of Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky and Arizona -- COMBINED.

For the past couple weeks, we've been using key numbers to help raise awareness about how we just can't wait any longer for health insurance reform. We used $1,115 to tell the story of how skyrocketing premiums are crippling America's workers. We used 8 to convey how widespread and severe discrimination for pre-existing conditions is across the health insurance industry. And we used numbers like 625 and 50/50 to clearly show that any one of us is at risk of losing insurance in our broken health care system.

Today -- in our last number of the series -- we're using 32,000,000 to represent not only all those who will get health care, but also all the numerous benefits America's families and small businesses will see from health insurance reform. From eliminating discrimination based on pre-existing conditions to controlling costs and lowering the national deficit to providing tax credits for middle class families and small businesses, health insurance reform will finally put America's families and small businesses in control over their own health care.

Watch our new 'Health Reform by the Numbers' wrap-up video and learn more about what you have to gain from reform: (go to White House.gov)

32,000,000 is the last number in ‘Health Reform by the Numbers,' our online campaign to raise awareness about why the time is now for health insurance reform. Help spread the word by sharing this message with your family, friends and online networks. Call Rep. Shuster and our Senators Casey and Specter.

Global Warming is No Joke

Despite the nay sayers on the right wing radio shows, global warming is no joke. Former Vice President Al Gore has a wonderful oped piece in the NY Times (3/9/10). Here's an excerpt and you can click on the link below to read the entire clearly stated argument.

"Because ... (the) effects of global warming are distributed globally, they are difficult to identify and interpret in any particular location. For example, January was seen as unusually cold in much of the United States. Yet from a global perspective, it was the second-hottest January since surface temperatures were first measured 130 years ago.

Similarly, even though climate deniers have speciously argued for several years that there has been no warming in the last decade, scientists confirmed last month that the last 10 years were the hottest decade since modern records have been kept.

The heavy snowfalls this month have been used as fodder for ridicule by those who argue that global warming is a myth, yet scientists have long pointed out that warmer global temperatures have been increasing the rate of evaporation from the oceans, putting significantly more moisture into the atmosphere — thus causing heavier downfalls of both rain and snow in particular regions, including the Northeastern United States. Just as it’s important not to miss the forest for the trees, neither should we miss the climate for the snowstorm.
Here is what scientists have found is happening to our climate: man-made global-warming pollution traps heat from the sun and increases atmospheric temperatures. These pollutants — especially carbon dioxide — have been increasing rapidly with the growth in the burning of coal, oil, natural gas and forests, and temperatures have increased over the same period. Almost all of the ice-covered regions of the Earth are melting — and seas are rising. Hurricanes are predicted to grow stronger and more destructive, though their number is expected to decrease. Droughts are getting longer and deeper in many mid-continent regions, even as the severity of flooding increases. The seasonal predictability of rainfall and temperatures is being disrupted, posing serious threats to agriculture. The rate of species extinction is accelerating to dangerous levels.
Though there have been impressive efforts by many business leaders, hundreds of millions of individuals and families throughout the world and many national, regional and local governments, our civilization is still failing miserably to slow the rate at which these emissions are increasing — much less reduce them."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/opinion/28gore.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&en=55fe31f6c9836d96&ex=1283317200

President Obama Needs Our Help

Check out this video to hear the President's call to arms on behalf of health care reform

http://my.barackobama.com/PresidentsMessage2?email=ruthjcommunications@comcast.net