For those following the saga of my contact with the Allegheny County Democratic Committee ...

I spoke directly with Tiffany at the ACDC yesterday morning.  She clarified the names and contact information for my committefolks. I asked her what their duties are and explained that I've never had any political contact with them (no contact at all with one). She told me she would mail the handbook out and asked me to read it over then call her back if I find that my committefolks have not been living up to their responsibilities.

Whew.  Sooo, I'm waiting for the handbook.  Unfortunately, it is not online.  The ACDC website could use some work  - it is very boring and staid.  Surely, there's some loyal Democrat they could contract with to redesign it (perhaps a political junkie)? 

I'm not really intending to diss my committeefolks b/c I bet they are no better or worse than others.  But how do we bring about change if we don't take a close look at what isn't working for the best interests of the party AND the residents of the county? 

Vince Avedon of Ellwood City knows bigotry when he reads about it. So he took a moment to call out President Bush's intent to veto the extension of hate crimes legislation to include homosexuals. 

President Bush said he will veto any bill that would include gays and lesbians in this existing hate crime law. His position is that there are already protections in place.
If that were the case, then why is there special legislation protecting race, color, religion, or national origin? Aren't there already laws on the books protecting people of race, religion, or national origin? The answer is pure bigotry from this administration against gay and lesbian Americans.

You nailed it, Vince.  Bush is in hot water and needs something to shore up his eroding popularity with the base. So, of course, he's going to clamber back up on the backs of the gays. 

Thanks for writing Vince. 

Sometimes, people do pay attention.  I just now received a call from a legislative staffer with State Representative Chelsa Wagner's office.  My post to the Run, Baby, Run email list about Democratic Committee reps caught his eye, particularly the part where I stated that Pgh City Councilwoman Tonya Payne is the only elected official I've seen at a community meeting since I moved to Manchester.

Pat wanted me to know that Representative Wagner is very interested in meeting with Manchester residents, but there have been some scheduling snafus with the meeting organizers, Manchester Citizens Corporation.  He was very tactful about it, of course. 

I'm not so tactful, of course.  MCC does a lousy job of organizing meetings and informing community residents with enough advance notice to get it on our calendars.  That's not Representative Wagner's fault.  But the end result is that MCC's organizational challenges are directly squashing the community's access to our elected officials.  And that's not okay. 

Pat asked me if there are other groups he could contact to keep abreast of community meetings.  I gave him a few thoughts, but it is really slim pickings around here.  So then I offered to hold a meeting myself.  I figured I should put my money where my mouth is. 

I'm impressed that 1) they read the email list, 2) they responded to the challenge and 3) they are proactive and positive rather than defensive.   I'm impressed.

I invited Rep Wager to PrideFest which is just a hop, skip and jump out of her district but definitely draws a lot of Manchester residents.