The Night of Broken Glass

In 1938,  on the nights of November 9 and 10, the Nazis whipped up anti-Jewish riots in a pogrom now known  as Kristallnacht.


During these two nights,    synagogues were set on fire and  thousands of Jewish shop windows were broken.



Ninety one Jews were killed.  30,000 were arrested and taken to camps, a harbinger of the Holocaust.

reprinted from previous years

The Blame Game

Much as already been written about the Muller/Ott race. Although I don't profess more insight than my fellow bloggers, I don't have their hate of Ott/Woodman, and therefore perhaps a more objective viewpoint. First of all, at less than 48/52, it was a close race. Although I keep reading about the money wasted by Woodman, in reality, Muller/Fleck spent an extraordinary sum. In addition to endless oversize flyers, they canvassed Allentown with hundreds of workers for two days. Those couple thousand votes probably cost $25 each. Some pundits feel that Woodman erred in not fielding Allentown candidates, to help bring out the Republican base in the city. I spent three minutes and interviewed that entire base, they did vote. The Allentown Republicans fielded excellent candidates in recent elections, to no avail. Due to the white flight out of Allentown, the closest suburbs, such as South Whitehall, now have a more Democratic composition than in years prior. Finally, lets not underestimate the power of negative advertising in politics. While Muller sent out one negative flyer after another, Ott did not respond in kind. Scott Ott took pride in running a positive campaign. He's a much nicer guy than me.

The Inside Out Of Pawlowski's Victory

I suppose with a 61/39 win, Mike Fleck, Pawlowski's campaign manager, can still claim an overwhelming win. We here in A-Town know better. Michael Donovan, who didn't decide to run until the beginning of summer, was a restrained candidate. He was away for the summer, and didn't begin to campaign until September. In two months, with a little more than $10,000, he took a 40% bite out of Pawlowski. Both The Morning Call and Muhlenberg College did what they could to defend Pawlowski, by not sponsoring their traditional televised debate. Bill Heydt, former two term mayor, told me that he expected Donovan to get no more than 15% of the vote. What's the real message for an incumbent who used a $600 million dollar construction project for his photo backdrop? The message is that Allentown realizes that the arena will be no panacea for the city's real problem, crime, with no real solution in sight. It also says that the Transformation of Allentown is more in Pawlowski's head, than in the perception of it's citizens.

Knock and Drag in Allentown

The Democrats started it years ago in large urban centers. They hire workers, or solicit union volunteers, to go door to door, dragging voters to the booth. Yesterday, center city doors in Allentown were hung with reminders to vote. Here's yesterday's email blast from the local Democratic machine.

.November 4,2013 NEWS ADVISORY PA AUDITOR GENERAL EUGENE DePASQUALE TO JOIN GET OUT THE VOTE RALLY AT MAIN GATE TONIGHT Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale will join local Lehigh County Democrats tonight at their “Get Out The Vote” Rally which starts at 6 p.m. at the Main Gate in Allentown. Local Democratic elected officials, candidates, and community organizers will be on hand to energize and encourage democrats to get as many voters to the polls tomorrow as possible.

With the excuse of voter suppression, we now have the absurdity of no voter ID required.  Combine no ID with knock and drag,  the potential for voter manipulation, if not outright fraud, is overwhelming, with no method of verification in place.

The Morning Yawn

The Morning Call is always sparse on Monday. They compose Saturday, Sunday and Monday on Friday, so besides the Allentown police blotter, there's no local news. The limited space is filled with stories with no time line, like today, on Martin Guitar. Half of this limited local space today is filled with the voter checklist for tomorrow's election. If Monday's papers aren't worth the price, today's deserves a total refund. The voter checklist, all two and half pages, or half the local section, is from last May's primary. Wonder if it will matter?

The Marketplace Speaks

Allentown's experiment in fine dining is over. Sangria is becoming Billy's Diner, and the eloquent rooftop bar at Cosmopolitan was converted into a dance club. Although the club will have different hours and a separate entrance, the restaurant cannot escape it's downward transition. Allentown simply does not have the ambience to support upscale dining. I'm pictured above, in my younger days, at a club in Brooklyn.