Today I spoke with a woman who had just lost her husband, two different families about to lose their homes because of shady mortgage companies, another family about to get their water shut off because the Cecil Twp. Municipal Authority won’t work with them over a $331 bill, did interviews with reporters from three newspapers in two states about the horrific stealth Marcellus Shale bill coming out next week, spoke to a group of 7th and 8th grade students at Holy Child School in Bridgeville, did a conference call with some colleagues, met with a man fighting to reform the child support and custody system after a horrific experience, dealt with 832 form emails about bills in next week’s Judiciary Committee meeting, attended a fundraiser dinner for a local woman with incredible medical bills after breaking her back in 17 places, scheduled a Big/Little outing with my Little Brother and tended to a cat recovering from surgery. In not one of those interactions did anyone care about the legislative redistricting mess.

Gave me some needed perspective and reinforced that I truly enjoy helping people, no matter what my district may look like when it’s all over.

One of the fringe issues of 2011 came roaring to the forefront as the calendar flipped to 2012.

When Allegheny County was forced by a judge to release its first set of property tax reassessment numbers last week, people went indiscriminately crazy as their property values skyrocketed with no rhyme or reason. Even if you weren’t among the first set of new values, the message was clear: This reassessment stuff is a disaster, and no one will be spared by the time it’s all over.

As the public outrage and media frenzy raged, the main question being asked was ‘how come these damn politicians didn’t know this was coming?’

Well, to be perfectly honest, some of us damn politicians have seen this coming for a couple of years now, but unfortunately a large segment of the public ignored the warnings because it wasn’t real to them yet. As more people get insanely inflated assessment figures in Allegheny County, and with another court-ordered reassessment in Washington County looming, more and more people will be paying attention and demanding action. The key is to make sure people understand what they should be demanding to fix the problem.

We have to look past the temptation to worry about the symptoms and focus on treating the disease. The basic reason the reassessment figures are so screwy is because the whole system is fundamentally flawed.

Using the current reassessment system is like building a functioning car out of gummy bears—no matter how hard you try, it’s just never going to work. So how do we treat the disease? We need to adopt a two-part approach to address both the short-term emergency and the long-term systemic problems.

Three years ago, the state House ordered a comprehensive review of the reassessment system in Pennsylvania. The exhaustive report, completed by the non-partisan Legislative Budget and Finance Committee in 2010, was jaw-dropping for anyone who managed to get through all 220 pages.

There were so many different issues to deal with that we needed to take a time-out and determine a comprehensive course of action. Standing in our way were lawyers for local school boards who were pushing in court to complete a reassessment, even though they knew the current system was totally inaccurate.

Although they were unwilling to admit it publicly, these school boards and their lawyers realized they could use a reassessment as a loophole to force a massive (and I do mean massive) tax increase onto people without getting any of the blame. I’ve asked the school boards and their lawyers on many occasions and before they stopped talking to me altogether, they were unable to come up with any other plausible answer to explain their overly aggressive actions.

The lawyers were especially cagey, because they were making big legal fees consisting solely of taxpayer dollars authorized by the school boards and then hiring expensive public relations firms to try and get famous for fighting for the taxpayers while actually doing the exact opposite.

It was sickening to watch.

Last June, I got a resolution passed in the state House that created a comprehensive task force to implement the recommendations of the 2009 report. I also got a bill passed in the state House that would have imposed a moratorium on all court-ordered reassessments until the end of 2012, with the idea being it would be insane to spend money on a reassessment while we’re actively trying to fix the system. The state Senate amended the bill in a way that made it clearly unconstitutional, and Gov. Tom Corbett issued a veto of the bill in July (his first and only veto).

But that was then, when no one was really paying much attention.

Now that everyone is looking for answers, here’s what we can do: First, the Legislature can pass my moratorium bill, HB 166, without amending it; this will stop all court-ordered reassessments for a year so the problem doesn’t get any worse. The bill has been sitting in a committee for a year and could be signed into law in a week if everyone got on board. HB 166 is the bandage to stop the bleeding.

The long-term solution comes in the form of the recommendations of the Reassessment Task Force that has been meeting regularly for months now. The report, which is being written now and will be released within weeks, will spell out numerous regulatory and statutory changes we need to make in order to get the reassessment system under control.

Some of it will seem boring and unsexy, but we didn’t just pull these ideas out of a hat—this is the result of putting the people who really understand this stuff in a room and working together to find solutions to very complex problems.

I’ll have much more to say when the report is released, but until then realize that some of us saw this coming and have been working for years to fix it the best way possible.

We just need the public to support us in finally getting the problems solved, and with everyone suddenly paying attention, we may be able to actually get something done to benefit the people of Pennsylvania.

The green area is the old 46th; the light blue outline shows the new 46th. This means I'm about to lose a whole lot of territory I have represented for over five years.

I sat alone in my tiny office in the East Wing of the State Capitol, focused intently on the 13-inch television tuned to PCN. I have watched or participated in dozens, if not hundreds of hearings in Harrisburg since taking office in 2007, but none quite like this. Most hearings provide useful but not critical information, and there is rarely a sense of urgency. After all, there’s nothing the government does better than hold meetings, right? But this hearing was different. The outcome would fundamentally change my life and the lives of many others, potentially for the next decade. This hearing was the final vote on the Legislative Redistricting Commission.

For those unfamiliar with the process, every ten years we count everyone in the country through the Census. The following year, each state redefines the boundaries of their state legislative and Congressionaldistricts to reflect the shifts in population. In Pennsylvania, it’s not that simple. The process is unbelievably political, and anyone who says otherwise should be secured in a straightjacket and locked up in an asylum.

Federal Congressional boundaries are voted on by the Legislature; since the Republican Party controls both chambers and the Governor’s mansion, the resulting map is drawn in a way to help Republicans win elections (not trying to be partisan, just stating a well-known fact). State legislative districts are somewhat different. As per the Pennsylvania constitution, a five-member panel handles the whole process. The panel is composed of the Democrat and Republican leaders from the State House and Senate, plus a Chairman appointed by the State Supreme Court who is supposed to be impartial.

When the preliminary plan came out last month, it was as though a tsunami had swept through the main rotunda of the Capitol. The plan many of my colleagues and myself were led to believe was agreed to was tossed aside thirty minutes before the vote and replaced with a “stealth map” drawn totally by the Republicans with no input whatsoever from Democrats. The plan was quickly approved on a 3-2 party line vote with the court-appointed Chairman, a Republican judge from Delaware County, casting the swing vote.

In this Preliminary Plan, the lines of my 46th District shifted from primarily Washington County with parts of Allegheny and Beaver Counties to a district composed of a smaller part of Washington County, lots of new territory in Allegheny County and none in Beaver County. Areas I had come to know well and really care about like Avella and Hanover and Burgettstown were gone in the blink of an eye, shifting to the 15th District based out of Beaver County. Even worse, the 45th District had been moved to the other side of the state, leaving the current representative in my district. This potentially sets up a primary challenge between two incumbent legislators in the spring of 2012, something that hasn’t happened in decades.

The worst part about this entire process was the almost total lack of input I had from the very beginning. From the time the preliminary plan was released until the final plan was voted on earlier this week, I tried like a madman to get some of my current territory back. A good example is Burgettstown Borough and some of the surrounding areas; I have a district office there and really did not want to leave under any circumstances, so I sat down and found a way to potentially minimize the changes. My request was flatly refused and no explanation was given.

We opened our first office in Burgettstown five years ago. It's a shame we'll have to leave.

First day of helping constituents in Burgettstown. I had hair back then and everything.

I got my beloved dog Abigail at a park opening in Cross Creek in 2008

And who can forget being crushed by a 93 year old woman at Wii Bowling (it happened).

Our staff intimated to me that the area’s “new” representative from Beaver County, who is a Republican and therefore had a much greater say in the matter, wasn’t interested in my request. As a result, I will likely be forced to close the doors to my Burgettstown district office in the very near future, and the real victims in this process will be the constituents who are losing a local legislator for the sake of politically-motivated mathematics.

Even as I watched the final vote unfold on PCN, I was genuinely terrified my district would end up in a suburban county around Philadelphia, or somewhere in Allentown. Nothing short of moving me to Delaware would have surprised me. When the meeting was over, we received word that our new lists and maps were ready in the Democratic Leader’s office. Hoping for the best but fearing the very worst, I briskly walked up the four flights of steps to find out my fate. My jaw was clenched tighter than I thought possible, and I was more than a little nauseous, but I held it together under the assumption that throwing up on the Leader’s secretary probably wouldn’t help my cause.

Stumbling past my colleagues, I was finally handed a simple manila folder. The contents were not ideal as I had hoped for, nor were they as catastrophic as I had feared. I managed to hang on to some of my Washington County area, but Burgettstown, Avella, Mt. Pleasant, Hanover, Canton, Chartiers and other familiar names were gone, replaced by places like Bridgeville, South Fayette, Carnegie, Crafton, Heidelberg, Scott and Ingram. I could potentially have to face off against the incumbent from the old 45th District, who now lives in my new territory. In an instant, I thought about all the wonderful friends and unfinished business being replaced by new people to meet and new challenges to attack. It was a mix of uncertainty and excitement I hadn’t felt since I was first elected in 2006. Rest assured, I will still be involved in my familiar areas, and I’ll never turn my back on people in need just because of some lines on a map.

Of the many aspects of government I can’t control, this may be one of the most frustrating. It was politics at its very worst, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. I’m approaching 2012 with a renewed focus and commitment to work harder than ever for the people of the 46th District… wherever it may ultimately be.

This commercial creeps me out in ways I can't even begin to describe.

I just don’t get Black Friday. I’ve tried to understand but it’s just not happening.

Somehow the wonderful holiday of Thanksgiving, designed for us to spend time with family and friends and simply relax, has been unceremoniously cut short because people have to go stand in line outside big-box retail stores in the middle of the night in the hopes of saving money on their Christmas shopping.

I’m all for good deals, and I have no problem with people trying to get the most bang for their buck in tough economic times, even if it means camping out in a parking lot all night to do so.

My problem is with the retailers themselves.

They have created, promoted and celebrated a dangerous feeding frenzy as some sort of essential component of the American holiday shopping experience.

We are bombarded by television commercials featuring catchy jingles celebrating Black Friday, which include singing women happily stealing items from other people’s shopping carts. Somewhere along the way, these conglomerate stores have turned what is traditionally known as the season of giving and turned it into the season of taking—with no holds barred.

Don’t believe me? Here are just a few incidents of reported violence from Black Friday 2011:

At a Wal-Mart near Little Rock, Ark., a screaming mob of shoppers tussled over $2 waffle makers. The riot was caught on video and went viral. At a Wal-Mart in New York, two women were taken to the hospital for injuries they suffered while trying to get a $35 smartphone deal. One woman was shoved down and kicked in the face, suffering bruises and cuts on her face, arms and hand. She described the scene as a “stampede.”

At a Los Angeles Wal-Mart, a grown woman determined to buy a discounted video game system allegedly pepper-sprayed about 20 people trying to get the same merchandise. According to a police report, the pepper sprayer managed to get her merchandise, pay for it and leave the store. Here’s the video:

A 54-year-old man was left lying unconscious in a pool of his own blood for about 10 minutes at a Wal-Mart in Arizona before being arrested. According to his grandson, he had grabbed a video game and tucked it under his arm to guard it from the swarming masses when police pulled him out of the crowd.

Eyewitnesses said he appeared to be cooperating when an officer suddenly slammed his face first into the floor, knocking him out. The impact was described as “like a bowling ball hitting the ground” by his grandson. Police have charged the man, who is still recovering from incident, with shoplifting and resisting arrest.

Black Friday shoppers were held up at gunpoint in Wal-Mart parking lots from coast to coast. In California, a man and his family were crossing a store parking lot between 1 and 2 a.m. when a group approached and demanded they hand over their purchases. When the family refused, one of the suspects pulled out a gun and shot the man, critically injuring him. A woman was also shot outside a Wal-Mart in an apparent robbery attempt in Myrtle Beach.

Of course, this is nothing compared to the horrific events of 2008, when a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death in a rush of thousands of early-morning shoppers as he and other employees attempted to unlock the doors of a Long Island, New York, store at 5 a.m. In an unrelated incident, two men were shot dead in a Toys R Us in Palm Desert, Calif., after they argued in the store.

Those are the kinds of incidents you expect when there are massive food shortages, not because there’s a new Nintendo game coming out.

For the record, this is the only Nintendo game-inspired violence that should ever be permissible.

Here’s an idea. Maybe retailers should take some of the millions and millions they spend on advertising and promoting this whorish feeding frenzy known as Black Friday and use the money to cut prices.

Or if they want to get really crazy, pay their workers a decent wage or give them adequate health insurance. Despite what the annoying lady in the Kohl’s commercial sings about it, the spectacle of Black Friday is American materialistic sensationalism at its very worst—a celebration of greed tinged with a tacit endorsement of lawlessness.

Ironically, many of the people who own, run and profit from these large companies have decried the Occupy Wall Street movement—which features large crowds of people assembling peacefully to protest American corporate welfare and greed.

Maybe they would be more tolerant of the movement if the name were changed from “Occupy Wall Street” to “Occupy Wal-Mart,” complete with nightly unveilings of cheap consumer merchandise for protestors to fight over.

What does it say about our society when peaceful protestors are arrested (whether you agree with their politics or not) but acts of violence are practically encouraged with jingles and snappy commercials?

Kind of makes every day seem like Black Friday, doesn’t it?

Debating HB 1950 in the State Legislature. Not a happy camper.

Last week, two bills advanced through their respective chambers in the Legislature. Don’t let anyone tell you these bills, Senate Bill 1100 and House Bill 1950, were “the best we could do” on the issue of Marcellus Shale.

When you consider all the time spent on the studies, hearings and commissions—coupled with the immense importance of natural gas development on the future of our region—these proposals are woefully inadequate in more ways than I can count.

I’ll focus on House Bill 1950, the bill our chamber passed. This bill is simply a horrific plan for anyone in southwestern Pennsylvania who cares about the effects of the natural gas industry on their local communities, which is why I voted ‘no’ on the bill.

This bill would effectively eliminate the right of local municipalities to pass reasonable ordinances dealing with natural gas operations, which also includes pipelines and compressor stations. It would eliminate any possibility of open and transparent decisions based on the individual needs of the community and its residents.

Although proponents claim the bill would make our communities safer, those claims do not stand up to reality. Making drilling a permitted use anywhere, allowing compressor stations to be built within 750 feet of homes, and no protection for school zones cannot be considered adequate by anybody with common sense. See my initial comments during the House floor debate here:

We all recognize the economic growth that is being created by the natural gas boom, and local governments don’t want to overly restrict the industry. But nothing in House Bill 1950 would create new jobs for Pennsylvania residents or provide an economic benefit for anyone who wasn’t benefitting already. Despite the claims of a ‘balanced approach,’ House Bill 1950 is as unbalanced as it gets.

The impact fee, considered to be a tax by many, is only 1 percent, which is lower than the 2.5 percent the gas industry itself recommended, and far below every other state in the nation. Furthermore, the fee will have to be enacted by the individual counties, which creates a totally unnecessary level of government bureaucracy.

This approach was widely believed to be taken in order to avoid the wrath of the no-tax pledge signed by many Republican lawmakers at the behest of lobbyist Grover Norquist and his Americans for Tax Reform group. For the record, Norquist still considers HB 1950 to be a tax—he sent a letter to all of us via email while we were debating the bill in the House chamber.

We also missed the opportunity to make some simple common-sense revisions to the law. For example, an amendment that would have increased road bonding requirements for drillers from $6,000 to a more realistic $250,000 per mile was defeated. The excuse was that the requirement would have been a “nail in the coffin” of the gas industry, which doesn’t pass the laugh test.

The bond would only have to be paid if a driller did not repair the roads on their own, so now any damage of more than $6,000 will have to be paid by the taxpayers. To put things into perspective, you couldn’t repave your driveway for $6,000, much less a mile of road. To actually rebuild a mile of road costs more than $1.25 million, which again will be passed directly on to local taxpayers.

Utter insanity.

Local officials were only asking for a common-sense level of accountability from an industry that is literally drilling in their own backyards. Unfortunately, common sense is considerably lacking in House Bill 1950, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either knowingly spewing propaganda or dangerously ignorant of reality.

Under this bill, the state effectively would be saying all of local rules related to gas drilling should be tossed out the window and replaced with incredibly weak standards put forth in the name of “uniformity and consistency.” Such an approach is beyond ridiculous.

Although I had two amendments to House Bill 1950 that would have strengthened local control, the Republican majority used a parliamentary tactic of ‘moving theprevious question’ to cut off debate and block my—and other similar— amendments from being debated or voted on. That is not open and transparent government. That is not governing responsibly. And unfortunately, neither is House Bill 1950. See my comments from the House floor debate here:

This bill is now headed to the state Senate where I would urge my colleagues to do the right thing and ensure that our local communities can retain some reasonable controls that will allow the economic benefits of natural gas drilling while preserving the health and safety of the people in towns across Pennsylvania.

Everyone says they want to promote natural gas development in “the right way”. The definition of “the right way” is broad and subject to debate and discussion, but cannot possibly include the short-sighted, unbalanced and anti-taxpayer provisions in House Bill 1950.

Earlier this evening, I spoke on the House floor in opposition to an amendment to HB 1950, which would strip local communities of their right to enact reasonable ordinances on natural gas operations. Here is my speech:

Although the work of governing is rarely a game, the comparisons between politics and sports are difficult to avoid. Elections and the political process lend themselves well to sports metaphors—sometimes the comparisons are forced, but often they are spot-on accurate.

Earlier this week, I was subjected to my first taste of the legislative redistricting process, and the only way to accurately describe the experience is to compare it to stepping into the batter’s box and having a 101 mile-per-hour fastball thrown right at my head.

Allow me to explain.

Every 10 years, in the election following the census, Pennsylvania’s 203 legislative districts and 50 Senate districts are reapportioned throughout the state. The process, known as redistricting, has been the subject of intense but hushed discussion in the State Capitol for months, mainly because the vast majority of lawmakers have little say in the process.

The Redistricting Commission consists of the Republican and Democratic leaders in the State House and Senate, with the fifth member chosen by the party in control of the State Supreme Court—in this case, the Republicans.

The current chairman is a retired Republican Superior Court judge from Delaware County. This commission votes on the redistricting plan; there is no formal action by the rest of the Legislature or the Governor.

House districts need to have the same basic population of about 62,000 people, so district lines tend to shift based on population gains and losses. Sometimes districts will need to shift to other parts of the state; typically a retiring lawmaker’s seat is phased out to avoid pitting incumbents against one another.

This is the fifth redistricting under the current law. In 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001, the process was relatively bipartisan, with Democrats and Republicans trying to agree on as many lines as possible.

I had met with the representatives from the House Democratic caucus on several occasions and came away with what I considered to be a reasonable understanding of what my district would look like when the preliminary maps were unveiled.

So you can imagine my shock when I learned that the Republicans decided to introduce and vote on a map no one even saw until 30 minutes before they voted on it. The map passed by a party-line vote, with the three Republicans voting for it and the two Democrats voting against it. It is worth noting that this plan is preliminary and could change following a 30-day public-comment period and another brief period before the Redistricting Commission votes on the final plan.

Under this plan, the boundaries of the 46^th Legislative District will shift considerably, with areas I have represented such as Hanover (Washington and Beaver), Jefferson, Mt. Pleasant, South Franklin, Canton, Chartiers, Independence, Cross Creek, Buffalo and Hopewell Townships, plus Burgettstown, Frankfort Springs, Green Hills and parts of Smith Township going to a new representative (mostly to Jim Christiana, a Republican from Beaver County).

The 46^th District will move more into Allegheny County and will now include the representative who currently represents the 45^th District—which has been eliminated and moved to Chester County.

This move is a partisan political power grab, pure and simple, abandoning the tradition of reasonable bipartisan cooperation in a way which could easily give the Republican party a stranglehold on Pennsylvania for the next decade.

I am hopeful there will be some bipartisan movement over the next several weeks and we will emerge with a more reasonable map, but I have been in this job just long enough not to sit around and wait for the Bipartisanship Fairy to leave a dollar under my pillow.

The Bipartisanship Fairy is looking a bit rough these days.

I’m not going to whine and complain about the inequities of the redistricting process. Instead, I’m going to do what I’ve done for the past five years, which is work like a dog to represent the 46^thLegislative District to the very best of my ability. If I lose a large portion of my current district, I will certainly be disappointed but I will embrace the changes like a grown-up and do my job.

So to return to the sports metaphors, even though I’ve had a pitch thrown at my head, I’m not going to give up. I’ll simply dust myself off, stand tall in the batter’s box and focus in on the next pitch, firm in the knowledge that the game isn’t anywhere near over yet.

For more information on the redistricting process and upcoming public comments, go to www.redistricting.state.pa.us.

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a ground-breaking on the Montour Trail for two new bridges. Check out the article by Amy McConnell Schaarsmith in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for more details.

One of the great aspects of the projects we’ve done with the Montour Trail is the great cooperation we’ve enjoyed with both the public and private sectors. Groundbreaking events like the one last week are the culmination of cooperation from the federal, state, county and local governments, plus non-profit groups like the Montour Trail Council and all of their tireless volunteers, plus significant investment from private sector businesses like the Daily brothers who own Burgh’s Pizza and Wings in Bridgeville, who contributed a $25,000 check to help pay for the projects.

It’s amazing what can happen when people work together. I just wish it would happen more often.

Here are some pictures from the groundbreaking. I felt obligated to bring my dogs, Abigail and Delano, since the phrase “walk on the trail” always gets their tails wagging.

Cecil Township Supervisor Frank Ludwin spends more time volunteering on the Montour Trail than you could imagine.

Breaking ground with Senator Solobay, Commissioners Maggi and Burns and Congressman Murphy

Abigail and Delano enjoying the festivities on the trail, one of their favorite places.

Last week, I joined with my colleague Rep. Brandon Neuman to host a Marcellus Shale Youth Jobs Forum at the Western Area Career and Technology Center in Chartiers Township. The purpose of the forum was to let local guidance counselors learn about skills and requirements kids coming out of high school may need to be qualified for both skilled and non-skilled positions in the energy industry.

You can read the write-ups from various media outlets by clicking on the links below:

• TheMarcellusShale.com
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• Washington Observer-Reporter

Below is a short compilation of the presentation, courtesy of our friends at TheMarcellusShale.com:

Informed public debate is a three-legged stool; in order to stay level, you need all three legs to be stable, equal and somewhat independent of one another. In this equation, the three legs consist of the elected officials, the public and the media— otherwise known as the people who make laws, the people who report on the laws and the people affected by those laws.

Public opinion of government at all levels, regardless of party affiliation, is disgustingly low. We’ve hit a point in our history where the American system of self-governance itself, held up as a model for the rest of the world for centuries, is suddenly cause for apology.

To put it in simpler terms, it has never been cooler to hate government in America. One of the most sure-fire ways to get elected these days is to show open disdain for the position you are running for, which amazingly translates into some sort of bizarre reverse street credibility.

While I am hardly going to defend the personal and professional actions of everyone elected to office, I would suggest there is a heightened level of accountability and transparency for today’s elected officials. In a world where anyone can snap a cell phone photo and send it around the world in seconds, questionable behavior becomes more difficult to hide.

But what about the other two legs of the stool? In order for the system to work, there is an obligation for elected officials, the media and the public to conduct themselves in a way designed to further honest and legitimate public debate. But at the same time the Internet has made politicians more accountable in many ways, some in the media and the public have gone in the opposite direction.

The result is a debate geared for enraging the public rather than engaging them, which serves no positive purpose whatsoever.

I’m referring to the “Internet tough guys”—people who sit behind a computer and spew outrageous amounts of misinformation, innuendo and outright hatred onto the Internet. These are people who would never have the guts to say such nonsense at a public meeting, but flourish in a coward’s paradise provided by an Internet connection in an otherwise empty room.

I see it on a more basic level all the time. A constituent will call my office and berate a member of my staff about an issue, yelling and screaming and swearing for no good reason. But when I get on the phone, the attitude tends to change very quickly, almost always in a more cooperative direction. It wasn’t that I did anything special, it’s that many people have no problem telling an anonymous staffer to go get bent but do not want the accountability of saying it to someone they actually know.

I do believe these people represent only a vocal minority. Some people are just hard-wired to complain no matter what; as we say on the Internet, “haters gonna hate.”

The real problem is when the media provides a breeding ground for such irrational negativity, and there is no place where this is more prevalent than the online comment sections of news sites. For example, the newspaper of record in Washington County allows anonymous comments to be posted on its website. It is a horrible practice that needs to stop.

Despite “terms of service” demanding discussions be civil, on topic and free of personal attacks, the comments are often anything but. I regularly observe hateful, spiteful, untrue personal attacks that have nothing whatsoever to do with the topic. People tell me their comments never make it online, even though they are non-offensive and on topic. Allowing anonymous, non-factual and malicious comments to be posted is irresponsible, lacking in journalistic integrity and indefensible for any organization claiming to be a legitimate news source in the twenty-first century.

You can’t have it both ways. You cannot leave the door open and fill your house with cheese and then act shocked when you get infested with rats. Many good people refuse to run for office because they do not want to expose their families to such hateful attacks by anonymous cowards whose care nothing for informed debate and factual accuracy, opting instead for asinine accusations and misinformation which is somehow supposed to be patriotic because they end by saying they “want their country back.”

Well guess what? I want my three-legged stool back.