Carol Wentz Violates My First Amendment Rights

I have reverted to this, the original home of The Pennsylvania Progressive, because Typepad is prohibiting me from using the names of legitimate sources and public officials. As such I am not able to reveal Carol Wentz's name there or publish her incriminating emails. I will do so here because Blogspot's terms of service narrowly define what invasion of privacy is and makes it impossible for Mrs. Lou Wentz to wreak her havoc here.

This woman has violated my right to free speech by declaring, after the fact, that her conversation with me at a public event on January 26, 2008 disclosing her blogging identity, is off the record. This is insane because she made no attempt to blog privately, anonymously, or confidentially until AFTER I wrote this article. I then discovered, via my site traffic reporting, that she was claiming I had "outed" her blogging identity as Cats R Flyfishn. She even notified her own blog readers I did this and linked to the article. She then incited them to come after me, specifically someone she called "Bear."

Carol Wentz is an elected public official. She is the Democratic Committeewoman for Pike Township, Berks County and the Democrats in that township are her constituents. She also serves as Regional Chair of the Berks County (PA) Democratic Committee. Her husband Lou Wentz is the elected Committee man and immediate past Regional Chair. He stepped down from the position after accepting employment for a non profit organization in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

I hav ebeen informed by legal counsel I have virtually no rights to sue her under law because I am also an elected public official. Same posiiton as she though she actually is MY regional Chair. Typepad however deems she is not an elected public official under the law which prescibes no expectation of privacy for public officials. As such no blogger should rely on Typepad to protect their First Amendment rights. It means Typepad does not allow you to use the names of elected public officials or legitimate, open sources. I recommend no one use Typepad's blog hosting services.

Typepad then took a fallback position claiming I had "outed" Carol Wentz's confidential blogging indentity. This presumes she ever had one which she did not. She has since "cleansed" both Pennsylvania For Change and TP Zoo of all the open biographical information which clearly indicated her identity to anyone with even a passing familiarity with either her or her husband.

The Wentz's are heavy into fishing. Lou's email address even ends in PAtrout.org. After Carol volunteered the information to me and two others on January 26th that she was blogging at TP Zoo I went to the blog and immediately discovered her under the name Cats R Flyfishn. I bet it took me five seconds. She revealed a considerable amount of personal information about herself in her articles (since deleted) and made no effort to conceal her identity.

Carol Wentz was no more a confidential blogger than I. Her attempts to lie about this and cleanse these two blogs of incriminating evidence is unethical. Her accusations against me have been false and defamatory, done with malice aforethought. When Carol created Pennsylvania For Change she sent the following email to 200 other Obama volunteers in the group Berks For Obama: (I have deleted personal information)

From: Carol Wentz

Date: March 11, 2008 6:24:13 AM EDT

To: Berks for Obama <BerksforObama@groups.barackobama.com>

Subject: [BerksforObama] Re: 1-page Obama flyers

Reply-To:

Hi Everyone,

I was just informed that the Clinton Campaign is paying an owner of a

local blog to post threads supporting her. As a means to counter-act

this "paid" blog, I would like to create a Wordpress blog that supports

Obama. Wordpress offers a free blog. I was thinking of calling the

blog "Pennsylvaniaforchange" or Democratsforchange. Let me know your

thoughts about the name and I would welcome any other name suggestions,

something that will get hits when people search on Google. Also, let

me know if you are interested in being an editor to the blog so that I

can add your name to the account. Anyone will be allowed to post

comments. Discussion threads will need to be managed. Let's show PA

and Berks County that Clinton has to pay for a blog and Obama gets his

for "free".

Carol Wentz

On Mar 10, 2008, at 7:50 PM, Barath Raghavan wrote:

Hi all,

I'm out of state, but I've put together several 1-page flyers (some

meant to be double-sided) that have been used in many other states and

wanted to pass them on to you all.

The goal here is to show people hard facts that Obama has the record

to back up his rhetoric, something his opponents and the media want to

trick the voters about.

The first flyer is on Obama's government reform work and his unique

bipartisan work. These aren't bread and butter issues, but you can't

bake bread with a broken oven. On the back is a summary of Obama's

state senate work. (Open these PDFs in the latest Adobe Acrobat

Reader, especially on a Mac - otherwise they may appear garbled.)

http://manchester.ucsd.edu/misc/obama-reform-and-record.pdf

Next is a nicely formatted version of Obama's 2002 speech on the Iraq

war, which lets Obama's own words make clear his judgment on Iraq and

his deep understanding of foreign policy. (On the back of the sheet

is the (much longer) plan to leave Iraq, which of course reminds us

that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.)

http://manchester.ucsd.edu/misc/iraq/obama-iraq-2002-and-plan.pdf

Next is a flyer I made for the Iowa caucuses, to get 2nd choice

supporters (from Biden, Dodd, Richardson, and Kucinich):

http://manchester.ucsd.edu/misc/obama-caucus-handout-version-3.pdf

Hope these are useful to you when you're knocking on doors or tabling.

Finally, I have a few links I've put together. The first is about

Obama's legislation that created www.USAspending.gov - the site that

lets us see every dime of federal spending - more than $17 trillion

dollars of it. Obama has been a leader in holding our government

accountable, and this is just one of many examples:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/14/115223/079/908/454726

And an archive of miscellaneous links about Obama:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/barath/CBh9

Feel free to pass this on to anyone you think would find it useful.

-Barath

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

--

This email was sent to 157 members of Berks for Obama

Listserv email address: BerksforObama@groups.barackobama.com

This email was also sent out promoting Carol's new blog:

From:

Date: March 11, 2008 9:27:22 PM EDT

To: Berks for Obama <BerksforObama@groups.barackobama.com>

Subject: [BerksforObama] Updates; Pottstown Events; New Blog

Reply-To:

Hello Berks for Obama--

WE WILL SOON HAVE AN OFFICE IN READING. Stay tuned for an update on our Reading Office. Our Berks/Schuylkill County Staffer, Max Blachman arrives this week. More on the office soon!

PLEASE JOIN YOUR TEAM. We now have 5 regional teams operating in Berks County and Pottstown, and working hard to register voters by the March 24 deadline. If you don't know your team or region, please contact Cynthia or Eileen at Eileen@berksforobama.com, or baughman.cynthia@gmail.com.

Please give us your full address, and your precinct if you know it, and we will send you contact info for your team.

TEAMS--PLEASE LIST YOUR EVENTS ON www.my.barackobama.com. New volunteers are eager to help, and with public events listings they can find us.

VOLUNTEERS--Please feel free to sign up for any events across Berks and Pennsylvania! Try doing a search within 50 miles of your zipcode, and see what shows up.

POTTSTOWN EVENTS

We have two voter registration events at Montgomery County Community College this Wed. and Thurs. Volunteers are welcome:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/47sb

http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/47sp

We will also have a voter registration table at the Hill School this Sunday for the Gospel Jubilee fundraiser sponsored by the Bethel AME Church. This promises to be a wonderful community event. Bethel AME and Pastor Vernon Ross have welcomed us warmly. Please consider joining us at this event, either as a volunteer, or just for a good time, enjoying the food and the music:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/4xqm

LISTSERVE & BLOG

We reluctantly had to change the listserve settings to limit traffic on the listserve to action-oriented event announcements. We were losing too many members and event participants because of an overload of e-mail from the listserve. We don't want to lose the valuable discussion, though. Berks for Obama member Carol Wentz has established a new blog, and all are invited to contribute:

http://pennsylvaniaforchange.wordpress.com/

Thanks for all of your hard work and enthusiasm! Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions or suggestions.

Cynthia

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This email was sent to 159 members of Berks for Obama
Listserv email address: BerksforObama@groups.barackobama.com

Now for a reality check. I was never hired as a blogger for Hillary For President. No one has ever hired me to blog for them. I was hired as a consultant by Tom Caltagirone, Chair of Berks County For Hillary, a fact I disclosed on my blog five days before I was actually hired or paid. Carol Wentz accused me of not disclosing this fact when, in fact, I had.

Carol also sent me this incriminating email. Ironically she titled it "Facts:"

From: Carol Wentz
Date: Fri, Apr 4, 2008 at 5:58 PM
Subject: Facts
To: John Morgan


Hi John,

I just read your through your thread several times and you have made non-factual public statements about me and you exposed my name which you found through my email address that is linked to your blog which has now placed me in a potentially dangerous situation. I consider your public remarks to be slanderous and unless you retract your untruths, I will be contacting my attorney. I will also submit any names of bloggers that have provided support to your slander of my name. You have admitted in the beginning of March that the Clinton campaign hired you as a "consultant" and now you are denying this.

And by the way, it was a very dear friend of yours that told me that the Clinton campaign hired you.

All further correspondence will be through my attorney.

Carol Wentz

For the record I didn't obtain her blogging name and identity through any email or comment she left at my blog. I got it directly from her, on the record, on January 26, 2008 when she told it to three of us. Everything I wrote about her is provable and her own writers confirmed what I wrote in their own comments posted in the article.

She agian, accuses me of being hired as a consultant by Hillary For President which is untrue. Federal Elections Reports due this week will confirm this easily verifiable fact. This email confirms she used hearsay gossip to slander me. I never told anyone I was hired bu Hillary because I had not.

Now here's the worst part. After Carol left a comment on my blog falsely accusing me of these things, defaming me on my own website, I emailed her with the actual facts. The next morning she distributed an email again making these false accusations. That proves malice.

Typepad has upheld her ridiculous complaint and has proven it cannot be trusted as a host company for serious bloggers. It even goes against this policy as secured by my fellow writer Kirk Wentzel:

Hi:

I was thinking about starting a blog that would cater to local politics but I had a question about your terms of service. Is it permitted to publish the names, public office addresses and office phone numbers for elected or appointed local (city, couty and state) public political officials.

For example, can I write an opinion article about our Mayor and say "Call Mayor X at his office xxx-xxx-xxxx and express your opinion). Keep in mind please that this is a publically avaialbe phone number published in the phone book and on the City's website.

Your privacy terms are somewhat less specific that other blog hosting companies terms are and so we though it might be good to check before we start this venture.

Thanks in advance!

K Ashton Wentzel
Temple PA

Their reply to this:

Hi there,

You can read our Terms of Service online. Because of the size of our user base, we are not able to police or pre-approve content before it goes up. Instead, we only remove content if we receive information that the content is illegal. This would include if it is in violation of copyright or if a court has found it to be illegal for any of the reasons listed in our Terms of Service.

Please note, however, that we are very strict regarding any type of child pornography and we fully investigate all reports of this.

Thanks,
Zalary
TypePad Technical Services
Six Apart, Ltd.

Then Kirk responds:

I have read your terms of service and your privacy section is not very clear which is why I asked the question. Do you have objection to bloggers publishing the names of public officials (elected and appointed) along with theiir official office addresses and phone numbers...NOT their home numbers or addresses.

If you cannot answer that specific question, please just say the you refuse to answer the questions. Your terms of service does not address that question. If it did, I wouldn't be asking.

I am glad that you investigate child pronography...it's disgusting, why you chose to address that specific item in regard to my question is, however, somewhat of a mystery.

And Typepad answers:

Hi Kirk,

Thanks for the note. It should be fine to post their official addresses and phone numbers on your TypePad weblog.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you.

Thanks,
Kymberlie

Kirk, again:

That’s helpful. We already assume there is never a problem publishing a public official’s name even if the official would file a complaint, public official’s names are, by definition are ‘public’. If Typepad holds a different view then please let me know otherwise we will assume the federal court ruling on that subject is the standard you adhere to.

Sorry for all the questions but we want to be sure we don’t do anything wrong by accident and create a problem. I’m sure you understand.

Kirk

And Typepad:

Hi Kirk,

Thanks for the note. As I mentioned, you should be fine with mentioning only official information, but please let us know if you need anything else.

Thanks,
Kymberlie

Gone to Typepad.com

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http://pennsylvaniaprogressive.typepad.com/

or use http://thepennsylvaniaprogressive.com

Thanks

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Manipulating Gas Prices For Votes

Notice how gas prices are coming down as we get closer to election day? Isn't that a coincidence? We have an oilman in the Oval Office and another as VP, gas prices still remain much higher than when Bush took office but you're gleeful at finding a station with regular unleaded at $2.35. That's still 80 cents a gallon higher than in 2001. Oil companies are making profits per quarter that rival some third world countries annual GNP's.

If ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Hess and the others can sell gas at these prices in an attempt to rescue their beloved leader they can do so year round. One side effect, go lock in these prices for your home heating oil NOW. I guarantee things will change quickly November 8th.

The Law of Intended Consequences

Spy agencies are saying the war in Iraq is hurting the war on terror. This is because it's creating terrorists faster than we can kill them. Funny but didn't many of us predict just this scenario before the invasion? Lots of people tried arguing this as a logical consequence to no avail. The White House wasn't listening to anyone outside its insular echo chamber. They heard what they wanted to hear and dismissed anyone who dared dissent.

Now we have the President and other Republican leaders saying we can't leave Iraq because it's a terrorist training ground. Yes, you made it so amid all kinds of advice predicting just that consequence. This was a very logical outcome of your policy and now you have to live with the consequence. Don't go around blaming us, as you love doing, for your failed policy.

How long are we going to stay there attracting more extremists and training them in the arts of terror? This wasn't even a matter of the law of unintended consequences. It was widely predicted as a likely outcome of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld policies. Don't go blaming Democrats for your own failures.

Bush Gets His Revenge on Chavez

Did Bush's White House get payback against Hugo Chavez? The Venezuelan's Foreign Minister was detained at the airport for a "secondary screening," something done to those put on the terrorist watch list, on his way back to Caracas. This, after Chavez called Bush a "devil" all week. Gee, and we wonder why Hugo doesn't like George W. Bush? Unfortunately this is how the Oval Office has worked for the past five years: they punish anyone who dares to cross them.

Will someone please send a book to Georgie to read on his next vacation: How to Win Friends and Influence People. Maybe the White House can put a Wish List on its website for gift ideas and someone can simply click on this one and have it sent. They could use a good reference for how to treat people because they don't understand that beating them over the heads isn't always the best tactic.

Senate Race GOTV

Here's a well written analysis of the Senate race and the GOTV. For those of you who don't eat, sleep, and drink politics GOTV means Get Out The Vote. It's your election day strategy to make sure your voters get to the polls. For Republicans it also means making sure Democrats don't. They use some clever tactics to do so, and have some recent criminal convictions as a result.

At any rate this analysis concludes, as I did in the Labor Day Sunday article by Carrie Budoff, that the race will likely come down to the GOTV efforts. Here are the numbers that concern me:

Look at the difference between the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004
in Pennsylvania. George W. Bush received about 693,000 more ballots in 2004 than
he did in 2000 - but still lost the state. The reason: John F. Kerry received
452,000 more ballots than Al Gore had received in 2000.

In other words the GOP developed a GOTV effort that brought them almost 700,000 new voters in 2004. That's huge folks. We Democrats were ecstatic about those 452,000 new voters but were outworked by the Republicans. They have a very good strategy for election day and they're prepared, though probably not at the 2004 level, for a very strong turnout. We have to assume so at any rate. We cannot bet the Santorum people didn't learn from Bush's success.

So what is Casey's team doing to get as many of those 452,000 new Dems out to vote November 7th? According to Ms. Budoff's article they're relying on local Party committees, unions, and the Rendell campaign. Wow, so much for do it yourself.... The bottom line is the Casey camp has NO GOTV effort. Zilch. They decided to run the standard DSCC media campaign rather than a grassroots field operation.

A field campaign is what Kerry/Edwards ran in 2004 that got those extra 452,000 Democrats to the polls. They had campaign offices set up around the state and targeted thousands of precincts for canvassing and phone banks. They identified who their voters were then had an election day strategy to make sure those voters got to the polls. I know because I helped organize their GOTV effort in Berks County.

The bottom line is, if you don't know who your voters are you cannot get your voters to the polls. You can't simply assume if someone is a "D" they're your vote and an "R" is for Santorum. You have to determine that by voter contact. Casey isn't doing any voter contact. They won't know if your Aunt Sadie is a Casey supporter or for Carl Romanelli. If she calls her local Democratic office for a ride to the polls it's even possible a committee person might be giving a ride to the polling place for a Santorum voter. No offense to Aunt Sadie but that's just stupid. There's too much at stake for stupidity to reign on election day.

I don't have a good feeling about this folks.

Santorum says one thing and does the opposite

Tricky Ricky's massive hypocrisy exposed once again.

Santorum Exposed Ad - Overtime

More fun with Rick's voting record.

More Pay Raise Coverage

As if we need it here's some more coverage of the pay raise issue. John Grogan of the Philly Inquirer has an excellent column comparing the Judges and lawmakers conduct to what a crooked handyman might do. Except our Judges and legislators get to keep their ill gotten loot. Of course they'll only keep it as long as they remain in office and we, as voters, know how long that will be, don't we?

Remember Supreme Court justices all must face the voters at some point. Every ten years they are on the ballot and we get to decide if they remain on the bench. Let's be sure to remember, especially Mr. Cappy. Meanwhile Grogan has some excellent advice:

It's time to shake them from their smug complacency. All House seats and half of the Senate seats are up for grabs Nov. 7.

Here's what you can do:

1. Find out who your elected representatives are by typing in your zip code at www.legis.state.pa.us.

2. Visit http://go.philly.com/payraise for an up-to-date list of how area lawmakers voted on the pay increase, who took the money, and who still has not repaid it.

3. Come Election Day, as you enter the voting booth, remember that your representatives work for you. Their hands have no place in the cookie jar.

PA Gun Dealer Agrees to Monitoring

As part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought by the City of New York a Stroudsburg area gun dealer agreed to sales monitoring. Dunkelberger's Sports Outfitters was sued because many of the guns it sold wound up being used in crimes in NYC and confiscated by police. Criminals take advantage of Pennsylvania's lax gun laws to "straw purchase" guns for criminals. Other people buy numerous guns at once then sell them on the streets in New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere.

Limiting sales to one gun per month per person could go a long way toward making our streets safer. This Tuesday there will be a large demonstration in Harrisburg by advocates of gun safety. Twenty five buses of people are going to descend on the capitol to demand action.

Spinach Crisis Continues Taking Toll

The great spinach crisis of 2006 is now affecting more Pennsylvanians as 79 workers were laid off at a plant in Dauphin County. The rash of e coli infections is having a tremendous impact on some people's lives, especially those dependent on Popeye to save them from bullies. The famous sailor has had his stash of spinach confiscated by the Department of Health. Without the power supply he's been relegated to lying on the beach and getting sand kicked in his face. School children all over the state are now at the mercy of playground toughs.

This is a serious situation and I'd like to know where our candidates stand on the issue. Who are they willing to draft to replace Popeye until the sailor man again gets a healthy supply of spinach?

Another Pennsylvanian Soldier Killed in Iraq

Sgt. Jennifer Marie Hartman of Tamaqua was killed by a suicide bomber on September 14th. The Schuylkill County resident was afraid of "getting blown up in Iraq." When she enlisted four years ago her Army recruiter promised she wouldn't be deployed to Iraq. That's one more story about how these recruiters say anything to meet their quotas.

Pennsylvania is second in states with the most fatalities in Iraq. Our people are paying the ultimate price. Why? Ms. Hartman died, according to President Bush, to honor those who died before her. Who will have to die to honor Jennifer Hartman?

Godspeed to Ms. Hartman and our thoughts and prayers go to her family and friends.

Santorum Exposed Ad - Loans

One of The Lantern Projects well done ads about Tricky Ricky's skewed priorities in the Senate.

Santorum: pursuit of happiness harms America

Whatever happened to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Rick Santorum doesn't think you deserve the latter. His warped thinking here is completely backwards and is a mirror into how his mind works. Very disturbing...