I've been following the fate of Senate Bill S.3706 Americans Want to Work Act. The bill attempts to add a fifth tier of unemployment insurance benefits to states with unemployment rates over 7.5 percent. Sen. Debbie Ann Stabenow [D, MI] called for the Senate to pass the bill under unanimous consent on Thursday. The bill would provide an additional 20 weeks to the estimated two million unemployed who have exhausted their benefits. Senator George LeMieux (R-FL), who said he had just been handed the bill despite the fact that it's been available for review since August 4, objected to unanimous passage of the bill. The unemployment rate in LeMieux's home state of Florida is 11.4 percent. Here are his comments from the Senate floor via C-Span:

LeMieux: "Without knowing how much it's going to cost and how we're going to pay for it, while we are all certainly sympathetic and want to work to make people go back to work, we need to know what it's going to cost...so we don't put this debt on our children and grandchildren."

Stabenow: "The reality for us in America is that we will never get out of debt with more than 15 million people out of work. I deeply regret that it's one more time 'object' and it's 'no' with this false argument that we somehow can't afford to stimulate the economy." Here is the video link.

Interestingly enough, the GOP also blocked S.3816 Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act, the bill to discourage U.S. businesses from outsourcing jobs overseas. According to the AP, "Republicans complained that the vote used a serious subject — economic recovery — to score points with voters five weeks before the balloting in which all 435 House seats, 37 Senate seats and the Democratic majority are on the line. The bill in question, Republicans said, would make U.S. companies less competitive."

Here's a list of U.S. companies compiled by CNN who are "either sending American jobs overseas, or choosing to employ cheap overseas labor, instead of American workers." It's a very long list.

And, on a lighter note, one of the sixteen bills adopted by unanimous consent in the Senate Monday night is S.Res.618, designating October 2010 as “National Work and Family Month.” Funny, huh? 

Pay attention folks. November will be here before you know it. 

For those of you who have asked, here is the final summation of Judge Shenkin from the Pennhurst Asylum injunction hearing on September 24: 

Judge Shenkin: To have this summation for why the township issued a certificate of occupancy...based on the evidence before me, the township did issue a use of occupancy permit, correct?

Attorney Andrew Bellwoar: Correct.

Judge Shenkin: And there's been no testimony from any township official to say that now they believe that was in error, that they intend to change their position that they believe that they should have done something differently. One of the problems is the likelihood, not the possibility, but the likelihood that you’re going to proceed on the merits which requires me to find that Mr. Naugle's interpretation of the township ordinances is superior to that of the township in question. It may be but that's a hard presumption to accept. If in fact these are zoning matters then your right to relief is under Section 617 of [indiscernible] planning code, which it's unquestionable, some of it is governed by that section.

Then as Mr. Costello pointed out, you lack standing until you have first given the township advance notice. The other, probably the most important deficit in the presentation today is that when you talk about harm it's a balancing test and I'm not at all persuaded that the harm that will be suffered, which is, there's no question that you're going to have, or are highly likely to have anyway,...exactly the kind of impact that your witness Mr. Rivkin testified to. Whether they are actionable is a much more difficult question or whether they should be acted upon in such emergency fashion is questionable.

This issue didn't just arise three days ago and to be required to shut down the operation which, based on the evidence before me, was authorized by all of the municipalities and other entities that had jurisdiction, based on even a very substantial increase in noise and traffic, is simply not warranted.

It doesn't mean that you're not entitled to injunctive relief, that's not the issue before me. And it may be that a fuller development of the record may lead to that conclusion but not on the emergency basis that brings us here today. It may be that you're not at all entitled to proceed in court; you may have to go to the zoning hearing board. You may have to go back to the township.

But even if I were to find that there was action that could be enjoined after a full hearing, I can't find that the evidence today would support  overturning the actions of those agencies that granted the necessary permits. A lot of your argument is that they were granted in error, that they required other permits, they required other plans and that may be so, but this is not the forum to hear that, number one, and then secondly the result of not granting the injunction on a preliminary emergency basis, is, as best as I can tell, that this facility will operate for at least the next three days.

How long it's going to take council to prepare this case for a final hearing, I don't know, but I'm certainly willing to expedite that, particularly if evidence of actual operation demonstrates a level of harm well beyond that which was testified to as being feared. Since this is such a  limited operation, I'm certainly not saying that it's at all possible that it will be heard prior to the expiration of the existing permit. That may be  faster than the court system is prepared to act. But if there is a tangible demonstration of the adverse effect of the operation of the facility, you're not precluded from requesting a further hearing on the issuance of an emergency injunction.

I'm not suggesting that just because there's an increase in traffic or noise but rather there's some much more substantial adverse effect on the plaintiffs and/or on the community in general than it can reasonably be anticipated based on what's before me, nothing prevents you from coming back on a further emergency basis. I'm not suggesting that that necessarily would be something that you should entertain. It's something that is possible. On the evidence before me, I see no basis for any issuance of a special and preliminary injunction and accordingly [your request is denied].

The following is a review of Saturday night's Pennhurst Asylum show with some interesting observations.

The event starts with a one mile drive through dark woods to the parking area then a half-mile walk to the back of the Admin building where you join the people waiting to enter.

First stop is the Ticket booth to purchase your “patient pass.”  I asked the ticket lady how many people had come tonight.  She said they had 600 by 8 pm!  Next is the long walk to the admin building, past two huge heaps of manure, a rusting children’s play set with a soundtrack of little children’s voices talking and screaming as they play.  Then waiting in line.  I waited 90 minutes to get to the front door of the admin building.  While we were waiting a man in bloody overalls with a cloth bag over his head and large “hunchback” shuffled along carrying a large bloody club with nails protruding from the end.  His job was to scare (entertain) people in line as they waited.  The vast majority of the people in line were white, able-bodied teenagers.

At the entrance to the admin building was a man spitting and swallowing fire (circus theme?) and a radio station Xtu host playing county music and handing our signed Twilight prints (Vampire theme?)  One person in the line up commented that he thought it did not make sense to have country music at a Halloween event because he did not find country music to be scary.

Once inside we were greeted by a nurse who entreated us to come along and get prepared for surgery.

The first room was the room filled with B&W professional PR photos of Pennhurst (e.g., administrators, psychology department, nursing, grounds etc..).  The music was from the 1920s.  As we filed past these photos a woman in the center of the room announced that she had worked at Pennhurst  from the 70’s to its closure in 1987.  I asked her what she thought of the criticism of the event and she said that she was against the criticism.   That “we should let what happened in the past go."  She said she had taken a vacation day the day before (Friday) in order to speak at the court hearing in favor of the event.

The next room was filled with color photos of the ruins of Pennhurst.  A specially made video played.  The video began with Bill Baldini’s expose of Pennhurst and ended with two “executions?” one by electricity of a male and another by a blow to the back of the head of a woman tied to a chair.  In between were images of a person in a wheel chair being wheeled around the grounds, a woman eating a red bleeding round object I took to be a human heart, and the aforementioned “hunchback” escaping from a cage along with very unclear images of what I took to be ECT treatments and lobotomies.  It was standard asylum horror movie imagery.

First room after the so-called “museum” is the Rorschach room.  The man tells us to look at the inkblots projected on the wall because “your responses will determine which unit you will be placed in.”  Subsequent rooms included the cafeteria where body parts were served on plates, the dental suite where a man with a bloody mouth held wide open with a metal jaw clamp lay in the chair, the surgical suite with a woman on the table (I must have missed the point here),  a nursery with a “mad” nurse holding a grey skinned “monster" baby crying out “why won't he stop crying?”, the morgue where there was “always room for one more,” an ECT/Frankenstein room in which a man was electrocuted and then jumps off the table into the crowd.  All the while patients wondered around making bizarre noises, one caressing a large rats in her blouse, and nurses walked like zombies with their knees together and feet wide apart.  The exit was via a long, tiled tunnel with hobo/homeless figures and more mad/zombie nurses.

There was much slamming of doors, people jumping out of the shadows and from around dark corners, half bodies, bodies hanging from the ceiling, blinking lights, and the crackling of electricity.

This was the most bizarre and incoherent event I have ever attended! The room with the color photos was next to the museum and is presented as a continuation of the museum theme, as was the Bill Baldini videos, but the intention (I think) was to devolve the museum into the horror event of the night with the "facts" (e.g., Bill Baldini) giving legitimacy to the Bates' interpretation, viz. this is a "real" asylum, really bad things really did take place here.....  The cannibalism (etc.). are all related to the themes of insanity (criminal and due to inbreeding).

Please take the time to watch "A Call of Conscience." Released yesterday, this video culminates the historic significance of the Pennhurst campus with the need for appropriate preservation and remembrance.

Simulated room at the "asylum" Halloween attraction.  Photo/ABC News

Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Shenkin denied the injunction by East Vincent Township residents Saul and Linda Rivkin to shut down the Pennhurst Asylum. Read the story in the Daily Local News. Here are two of the comments to the article showing the diverse chasm between those for and against the haunted attraction:

westchesterresident wrote on Sep 24, 2010 1:21 PM:
" This is a blemish to the whole county. You should be ashamed of yourselves, Shenkin and Bates. Exploiting the mentally disabled is no more acceptable than exploiting the physcially disabled, but we all agreed that would be wrong. I can't imagine why this seems like a good idea to anyone. $25 for admission? Save your money people, do something positive, don't feed this monster. "

DinoInSouthernChesCo wrote on Sep 24, 2010 1:37 PM:
" westchesterresident - You must be retarded to think and publicly state this sentiment. How in the world you can say it is EXPLOITING your brethren is beyond my wildest comprehension) I honestly think you are a blemish on my back-side.. Buttocks if you will....... (_!_) "

Sure makes you think. Channel 6 Action News posted this update on their Web site and will have the story on tonight's news.

I'll post video from the hearing tomorrow.

from Pennhurst Asylum Web site

Just found out an injunction was filed this afternoon in Chester County court to ban the Pennhurst Asylum from opening by a member of the East Vincent Historical Commission. Read the story in the Philly Inquirer. This just gets deeper and deeper, doesn't it?

The hearing is set for Friday, September 24, to determine whether the haunt will open or not. 

Vertigo riders are silhouetted against the setting sun

I've been so wrapped up with Halloween Hell that I never got around to posting pictures from the fabulous Allentown Fair. The weather was fabulous the entire week.

I entered four antique items and won one first place and three second place ribbons--woohoo!! Enjoy the photos.

And it's Lindsay LoHam on the outside by a length at the Robinson's Racing Pigs track

Two of the winning decorated cakes in Ag Hall

My inherited antique quilt takes first place honors

Lena the Liger jumps through a hoop

The beautiful felines of the Big Cat Encounter

Pennhurst Dietary Hall by moonlight/Betty E. Cauler

In following all the news, forums and Facebook postings about the Pennhurst Asylum I'm starting to see a disturbing trend. There are more and more confrontational comments and online verbal conflicts coming out between the Asylum's supporters and those who oppose it. This can't go on.

This is the letter my friend Nicole wrote to the editor of the Pottstown Mercury that I mentioned in my last posting. See if you can find anything life-threatening in it.

The lesson of Pennhurst, if there is one, is that when open disrespect for the handicapped and mentally disabled begins to be tolerated and treated as acceptable, it can lead to cold-hearted, ignorant thinking and from there to unspeakable cruelty. The idea of having actors who would imitate Pennhurst patients while depicting them as monsters would tragically continue the same misguided thinking that ultimately forced the state to close Pennhurst. If the errors of Pennhurst can live on as a supposed form of entertainment, then how can we as a community claim to have learned from our past?

Because of this letter, Nicole has received some hate mail including one guy who found her personal email and threatened to meet her at her PO Box and beat her to death "with a baseball bat." The responses were so disturbing she had to have the editor pull the letter offline. She said she couldn't continue "trying to talk to an angry and ignorant Pottstown public." But she informs me that she is still an active advocate for the opposition to the haunt, which is certainly good news.

So it is time to hold out the olive branch. I want it to be known that I hold no ill will toward Mr. Chakejian or Mr. Bates, nor their families, friends and supporters. I am not trying to ruin anyone's fun or taint the name of Halloween. And although I do not agree with the decision to follow through with the attraction as named the "Pennhurst Asylum," I will no longer join in confrontational forums about it. Enough is enough.

Last night, two friends and I had the pleasure of talking with one of the Bates Motel workers, a young man named Sean, at the Pennhurst site. He was genuinely concerned by all the negative publicity the haunt is getting and asked us if there was anything that we could suggest to make things better and to try to ward off some of the "bad juju." We each shared our misgivings and he was very receptive and respectful of our opinions. At that point I knew it was time to start realizing that there are bad and good people on both sides of this issue and that the best thing we can do is to just listen to each other without accusation. It's simple, really. (*And if anyone knows Sean and can put me in touch with him, I would very much like to interview him for my documentary).

My view is that I don't believe Pennhurst was an evil place where evil people did evil things. But it certainly had more than its share of problems. It became known over the years as a dumping ground for all those whom society or the court system deemed a problem—a run-down warehousing facility that was overcrowded, underfunded and understaffed. Even so, many, many loving and caring individuals worked there who truly tried to do their best with the limited resources they were given. Aides volunteered to return on their days off to take "the kids," as they called them, for an outing to the Elm Park Zoo or shopping in Pottstown. The term "kids" was never meant in a derogatory manner—quite the opposite, in fact, as many workers took clients into their own homes and made them part of the family. There was abuse as well, unfortunately, and a lot of it client-to-client, but the real sadness of Pennhurst was abuse by neglect. When the patient rolls swelled to over 3,500 in the mid-1950s there were only 600 paid employees with only a fraction of those delegated to direct care. That equals out to about one worker for every 40-50 clients. The bottom line was that there just were not enough trained professionals to give the kind of individual attention that these clients so desperately needed.

So my thinking is that we need to meet somewhere in the middle. It's too late to change anything; the show will go on. I will not be attending because I, like Nicole, cannot go against my conscience. On this issue I prefer to be on the side of the angels. But I do hope that Mr. Chakejian makes a great deal of money and recoups some of his losses with the property. Maybe then he will be willing to sit down and hear proposals for more respectful uses for Pennhurst in the future. At least, I hope so.

"What makes the difference between a Nation that is truly great and one that is merely rich and powerful? It is the simple things that make the difference. Honesty, knowing right from wrong, openness, self-respect, and the courage of conviction."
                                                                                                                        --  David L(yle) Boren

There are a lot of accusations being bandied around by the Pennhurst Asylum supporters. Today, we who oppose the attraction have been called "idiots" (see illustration). But yesterday a friend received an emailed death threat for voicing her opposition to the attraction in a letter to the editor of the Pottstown Mercury (letter and comments have since been removed by the online editor). Another negative commenter to her letter admitted that someone else had written his comment for him. C'mon, guys. This goes beyond bad taste. This is mean.

Everyone has the right to their own opinion and no one has the right to threaten someone because of that opinion. If you don't agree with someone's stance on the Pennhurst Asylum then please be respectful and decent about it. Agree to disagree. Stay on the side of the angels. Because anything less is unacceptable.

Congress returned to session on Monday and we can only wonder what their first order to business will be. Let's see, should it be the Republicans blocking a bill to extend the Bush tax cuts for those making under $250,000 because they want to insure that the cuts will be extended to the rich as well? Or maybe the Democrats will take a look at the 9.6 percent unemployment rate and grant us 99ers an extension? Read about it at Open Congress.

From the Huffington Post: "To fight the worst recession since the Great Depression, Congress in 2008 and 2009 passed several measures to provide up to 53 additional weeks of federally-funded benefits, broken into four "tiers." The Labor Department estimates that 1.4 million people have exhausted all available tiers (support S.3706 - Americans Want to Work Act)."

November will be here before you know it. Get out and vote!