Matt Heckman's Blog
Exposing Political Corruption and Expressing Opinions
Dante “Ace Ventura” Santoni Decides Not To Seek Another Term…. THANK GOD!
2 weeks ago
Well it seems our favorite elected Pet Detective will go back to his day job of not doing humans. Growing up in the 126th district, I became used to the fact that we were under taxation without representation, because Dante Santoni did nothing but collect a government paycheck without ever introducing any bills for the almost 20 years he was in office. Let’s hope that who ever decides to run has the best interests of this Commonwealth at heart unlike Dante Santoni.
Long Time No See
2 weeks ago
by Matt Heckman
in Misc.
I must say it has been a few months since I posted on this site. Needless to say I have been extremely busy as of late. I’m going to begin posting here at least once a week discussing the usual politics in the nation and in Pennsylvania.
Stay tuned!
Dicking Around With Berks County Commissioner Christian Leinbach
3 months ago
I had to share this with everybody, as it shows how stupid the campaign staff of Christian Leinbach is. This photo was visible on Leinbach’s official Facebook campaign site for almost 48 hours the other day.
It just comes to show you what a political whore Christian Leinbach is, and these pictures are a prime example of it.
Enjoy 
Berks GOP & Leinbach Campaign Bully Reading Eagle Into Censoring Comments Exposing Taxpayer Corruption by Berks County Commissioner Christian Leinbach
5 months ago
It has been a month since I have posted anything new on my site as I have been very busy lately, however this latest incident is completely deplorable, and I would like to see The Berks GOP attempt to censor me.
Yesterday on The Reading Eagle website, Mary Young wrote an article titled “Berks trying to get others radio active”. The article mentions how Christian Leinbach plans to bully other counties who won’t purchase a specific emergency radio system that he claims is the only way to be compliant with newer FCC guidelines that are to take effect in 2013 in regards to narrowing bandwidth to prevent signals from overflowing into other counties. There were several comments that appeared on this article mentioning how Berks County Commissioner Christian Leinbach is a liar and that the reason he is attempting to force a new 60 million dollar system on Berks taxpayers and on other counties to purchase the same system is to reward kickbacks to his friends at Berks DES, and that it was part of a deal that got Commissioner Leinbach recently elected as Vice President of The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.
The man who brought up the technical information about this was Dave Hardy who mentioned that all that needed to be done to be complaint was simply rebanding the radios on the existing VHF system and mentioned Schuylkill County just recently did this for 1 million dollars and that Christian Leinbach and Mark Scott were pushing for a 60 million dollar system. I had a discussion with Mr. Hardy about this on that topic and he provided links and information to back up his claims and provided hard evidence that Christian Leinbach is trying sell a scam on the taxpayers of Berks County and making threats to force other counties to comply to his wishes using his position as Vice President of The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania simply to cater to his friends at Berks DES.
By the end of the day Saturday all of the comments disappeared from that article. The author of The Reading Eagle article Mary Young has not responded, however after calls to other Reading Eagle staff, I was informed that an unnamed Berks GOP official, and Christian Leinbach’s campaign manager Andrew Kemmerer made threats of a lawsuit if the comments were not taken down. Sadly all comments on the eagle article were lost, and if Mr. Hardy sees this article I would like for him to repost what he mentioned, however I do have my comments from that article which I will post. The following were posts I made on this article. The fonts and caps may look different as they were copied and pasted from my facebook.
“If The County is lending money, I think people have the right to know who this money is being given to. Christian Leinbach is a two faced scumbag in my opinion and should not be trusted with anything, especially since this County is going out of their way to protect a drunk driver constantly violating her probation simply because her daddy is a football coach with Schuylkill Valley High School and is well connected with Northern Berks Officials. If Christian Leinbach and Mark Scott were doing their jobs they would stop covering up for The Probation Office and nail this girl now rather than waiting until November as they want to. http://www.ripoffreport.com/government-services/berks-county-probati/berks-county-probation-office-96910.htm”
“Dave Hardy,
Everywhere I have read, and out of the commissioner’s mouths they have said that they were mandated to replace the VHF system. As I’m not an expert in that field like most people they will just take them at their word, but after reading your link it just comes to show that The County Commissioners once again needed a reason to waste money. I just wonder which friends at DES that Christian Leinbach is trying to please? I wonder if it had anything to do with his recent election to Vice President to The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania?
As that saying goes if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Thanks Dave for posting that link as It was very educational.”
“Dave,
You mentioned it was software driven. Based on your description/costs it sounds like they are running on a Windows Server model. I find this interesting, because if that is the case than a lot of those extra costs would be based on Microsoft Licensing which can be very expensive. When I Google this, it is all vague without specifics. I’ve done IT Services for Point of Sale, ERP, Manufacturing, Distribution, and insurance industries, but I never got into the radio side as most people are happy with the analog systems, and most of the upgrades are not cost effective.
One thing I can say from professional experience, you do not want to put all of your eggs into once basket by locking yourself into one specific brand.”
“Dave you are correct. Berks County’s IT infrastructure is also a mess. When I got a tour of their server room about a year and a half ago involving a misc. project, it was one of the most unprofessional, disorganized server rooms I have ever seen to the point of it being a fire hazard. They were still running Windows 2000 servers, old Windows 95 PCs rigged to be servers, they had CAT5e cable all over the place to the point of worrying about tripping over things, and they wonder why their backup server has not worked since 2003. Another thing to share is that Commissioner Leinbach and Commissioner Scott don’t use the existing IT environment for that reason. They actually setup their own internal servers in their offices, because they even called the server room in the services center “an unreliable piece of crap”. Why does Christian Leinbach hate me again? What gets me is that we hear from people like Leinbach, Scott, Bernhardt, or Federal Government, etc. telling the private sector that they need to upgrade this and that, but they are the last ones to do it. Typical do as I say, not as I do.
That’s why they tried to inflate the IT damage in the services center when the pipes busted, because they have no money to invest into their infrastructure and God knows what it looks like now. Christian Leinbach and Mark Scott if that infrastructure is good enough for the entire building, than it should be enough for you guys.
It is things like this, and things like Dave Hardy mentioned that put high taxes onto Berks County, and sadly these lessons are always taught the hard way.”
“If that is how that system works the audio problems maybe related to heavy server load for whatever the software is loaded on, bandwidth issues, existing infrastructure, or all of the above. It sounds like it runs along the lines similar to that of a VOIP system. In my opinion based on The County’s infrastructure, you would be better off being on analog. This is not about trying to sell software, it is about the lives of people in an emergency. Something you don’t want to play games with. Did they even bother doing dry runs or testing before implementing such a system? I think I know the answer to that one.”
“Wow Dave simply Wow. What a mess. The only other county you did not mention was Leheigh, however I’m sure they are on something similar. Interoperability without a doubt should be addressed with The State. I remember discussing this issue with a police officer I know and he mentioned to me a few years back they relied on Nextel Phones at the time to communicate to a different county dispatcher as their response times were much faster than having a Berks Dispatcher attempting to communicate with another county dispatcher.
The only way that issue would be addressed is through actual mandate for a uniform system and in that case that money would come out of state funds rather than county. The way things are in The General (dis)Assembly, I would not hold my breath.”
In a bad economy Christian Leinbach should be ashamed of himself for wasting millions of dollars in taxpayer money, and it is indeed a shame that The Reading Eagle will help him do that.
I Knew There Was Something About Casey Anthony Juror #14
6 months ago
NO WONDER CASEY ANTHONY GOT OFF! SHE GOT SUPPORT FROM THE GUY WHO KILLED ROBOCOP!!!
The Anger of DUI Victims
7 months ago
I recently gave my opinion about Ryan Dunn’s death on my Facebook profile and some people got so offended with it. In a nutshell I called Ryan Dunn a piece of garbage and I don’t feel sorry one bit for somebody that gets behind the wheel of a car drunk endangering others.
What I find amazing is how so many people worship drunk drivers because of their social status and popularity in the bar scene. Because of Ryan Dunn’s popularity, so many people want to give him a pass for DUI simply because he was on TV, or popular in the bar scene.
As a victim of a drunk driver myself, I can relate to other DUI victims as to the anger and rage that they go through because the police, district attorney, long time friends, and even the media are so eager to take the side of the drunk driver simply to enhance their social status. In all honesty this is an anger and a rage that never goes away. It is a scar left as a result of being denied equal justice under the law. People like me battle post concussion migraines possibly for the rest of our lives, others are confined in wheelchairs, others suffer brain damage, and that’s just getting started. We end up dependent on medication, some are denied the pleasure of performing their professions that they are passionate about, some lose their homes because they are unable to make a living to pay the mortgage, and simply denied the enjoyment of life. Yet people get upset when these victims speak out simply because they don’t like to hear the truth or they are worried about what their friends or bar scene buddies may think of them.
I know the feeling all too well. I had close friends that I knew since childhood, some of them were even in my wedding that don’t want to hang out with me anymore, because I could taint their social status in the bar scene if they are seen around me, as the girl that rear ended me is a popular icon at these bars. It gets even worse because of the support of this girl, I was shot at once, booed when I would appear in public, have trash thrown at me and my kids, people spitting at me, harassing phone calls, death threats, and police telling my insurance company not to pay my bills because they accused me of faking my injuries despite the medical evidence. In my case the girl’s soon to be step mother is the director for Berks County Pre-Trial services, and The DA and the police basically gave this girl a pass and then support everything her supporters did to me.
As children, we all grow up believing in justice, and believing in heros. As we get older this concept becomes a natural part of our mindset. As children we would go to school every morning put our right hand on our hearts, and pledge allignance to a country under God promising liberty and justice for all. We naturally believe that these individuals that wanted to serve their community by running for public office, becoming a police officer, a fireman, or a doctor really wants to do good. That is until you need to access the justice that you were always promised would be there when you were a young child only to find out that politics and popularity in bar scenes come first before your justice.
My car accident and the experience I went though did change me both with my personality in part resulting from my injuries, and my views on society. I no longer have respect for police officers, as I know they are simply self serving slime balls that put the interests of the politician’s reelection before the laws they are hired to enforce.
Yet why are we angry again?
Berks County Commissioner Christian Leinbach Debuts on Ripoff Report!
8 months ago
I have just read this and have to agree with every word. Christian Leinbach had this coming. The connections with Al Boscov prove that Christian is not for free market capitalism. Enough said.
Source: http://www.ripoffreport.com/politicians/christian-leinbach/christian-leinbach-berks-count-ab7e2.htm
Marcellus Shale Taxes Are Not About Generating Revenue, But Preserving Welfare Entitlements
8 months ago
by Matt Heckman
in State Politics
Judy Schwank, Christian Leinbach, Dante Santoni, Tony Phyrillas, Tom Caltagirone, Joe Scarnati, Tom McMahon, Al Walentis, Democrats, and Republicans in various forms of state government and media alike are obsessed with taxing or levying an “impact fee” on Marcellus Shale drilling. These people will claim that we need the revenue due to tough economic times, and state funds being depleted, but that is far from the truth. The agenda of these people is simply to retard economic growth in that region and avoid the ever shrinking tax base in Eastern Pennsylvania from shrinking faster by moving to better economic pastures in the process putting the money into their own pockets. Allow me to put it into a different perspective.
Since the 70′s when the steel industry began to decline in Western Pennsylvania, areas like Johnstown, Greensburg, and Altoona slowly began to become more dependent on food stamps and other welfare entitlements over the course of 40 years. House values in the area have been on a rapid decline ever since to where you could purchase a decent home for $15,000.00 compared to $150,000.00 here in Berks County, and few economic options were available. What The Marcellus Shale boom has done is revive depressed areas of this Commonwealth for the first time in 40 years, as well as provide a great energy source for all of us for generations to come. When housing prices have been dropping in most of the country, Western Pennsylvania has began to see increases for the first time in decades, welfare roles have began to shrink, unemployment began to go down to the point where it affected the state level average to the point of Phase 4 unemployment being phased out.
Now these people want to implement “impact fees” and taxes to take this all away and discourage this wonderful economic growth on purpose simply because they want to put the money into their pockets rather than grow the economy in their own communities, and besides the fact that they thrive on welfare dependency. The Republicans want to call the tax an “impact fee” which in reality is the same tax Democrats want. RuPaul may look like a girl but at the end of the day it’s a guy, and using different terms like “impact fee” is not going to change the circumstances that will occur upon implementation of such job killing ideas.
I would encourage everybody to call these people out for what they are, because if they have their way, Pennsylvania will only continue to decline in population, and economic activity for years to come, and in the process be denied access to a great energy source providing energy for everybody to afford.
John Dickinson Would Be So Proud Of Boehner And The Republicans As They Are As Spineless As He Was
9 months ago
Ok a brief history lesson for all of those who have no clue who John Dickinson is since the lazy teachers and their unions that populate the public school system refuse to teach it. John Dickinson was the man who outright refused to sign The Declaration of Independence. John Dickinson believed that we could use words to fight The British and learn to get along with them and in time they would accept our independence. Despite British tyranny from The Boston Massacre on, John Dickinson was steadfast in his belief that we could appease The British and was ignorant to the events that were unfolding right before his eyes. Basically, John Dickinson was more worried about what The British thought of him, than the freedom of man.
Fast forward to 2011, we have our modern day John Dickinson with John Boehner and The Republican Party. Despite Obama and company doing everything in their power to destroy this country, The Republicans are so worried about wanting to get along with the same group of people that were voted out in large numbers in November. They were elected to cut trillions from the budget, not billions. They were elected to return The Federal Government to the principles of its Constitutional founding. As a result of these Dickinson Republicans like Boehner, we will not recover form this recession as fast as we could.
The fact of the matter is, we are only going to get out of these problems by being blunt and facing reality. These Dickinson Republicans have proven to us that they are not the people that will get the job done for The American People.
Senator Daylin Leach Wants To Pinch Every Penny From Us… Again!
9 months ago
Well it seems Senator Daylin Leach just can’t get used to the fact that he can no longer get wealthy by spending other people’s money. Daylin Leach wants to impose a 2 cent tax per plastic shopping bag to battle The State’s debt. Senator Leach even goes as far as calling us selfish for wanting to make choices of our own in a free country. Hey Senator Leach, how about cutting your own pay and perks you selfish asshole? How about you Judy Schwank instead of walking around looking like somebody donkey punched you?
Remember these Donkey Punched Democrats like Daylin Leach and Judy Schwank are they same people who claim to be working for the small business owner, the ones that claim to support farmer Joe, but in reality their agenda puts them out of business.