RIP PA Republican Gov. Bill Scranton, Radical Progressive by Today's Standard [VIDEO]

[Counterpoint PA]

This is a video from my show Counterpoint PA, the only grassroots progressive newscast exclusively about Pennsylvania politics.

In this video, I give a memorial to former PA Governor Bill Scranton, a Republican with progressive accomplishments from an era when that was a thing. He voted for civil rights and other liberal government expansions in his single term in the US Congress, expanded Pennsylvania's education system as Governor, and ran against Barry Goldwater in 1964 for the Republican presidential nomination because he didn't want the party to be anti-civil rights.

For a transcript, links to the sources in this story, or to browse the show's categorized video archive, go to http://counterpointpa.org (Go here if you want to go right to the post for this video.)

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Check out the rest of last week's show on the official site above or the show's YouTube channel, it featured:

PA Headlines

PA Sues Montgomery County for Continuing to Issue Marriage Licenses to LGBT Couples Despite State Marriage Equality Ban; Some Mayors Across State Perform Ceremonies for LGBT Couples with Licenses

A new report shows that a cut to federal food assistance scheduled to take effect this November will increase hunger for nearly two million Pennsylvanians

Keystone Progress has issued a bombshell report revealing PA Independent - often taken as a legitimate news source by establishment press but criticized by yours truly for defending conservatives and attacking liberals - to be connected to a national conservative media plan involving ALEC and the Koch brothers

The first controversy over a new law that just passed allowing the pooling of all natural gas leases for fracking unless a contract specifically prohibits fracking is arising as a corporation seeks to take advantage of PA families

Activism in Action - protests call for legalization of marijuana in Pennsylvania, for US Rep. Charlie Dent (R) to vote for the comprehensive immigration package passed by the US Senate, and Philadelphia Teachers Protest Education Cuts

The Breakdown

Robbing From the Poor to Give to the Rich: the Reverse Robin Hood Republicans (a detailed look at the new state budget for the next fiscal year signed into law just last month)

All that plus Counterpoint PA's special homage to Keith Olbermann, the Worst Pennsylvanians of the Week!

This week I take on:

- a school that banned "I Heart Boobies" breast cancer awareness bracelets, had their ban struck down by a court for violating free speech rights, appealed the ruling and had their defeat upheld

- Keegan Gibson of the allegedly unbiased Politics PA for publishing a gross attack on the Greene County Democratic Party about handing out targets with Governor Corbett's face in the bull's-eye that he cut-and-pasted from a PA GOP email as if it were fact and refusing to issue a retraction

- and a group of over 20 Democratic members of the PA House and PA Senate who signed letters sent to the Democratic State Committee opposing the resolution it passed this summer calling for a moratorium on the controversial natural gas drilling process called hydraulic fracturing or fracking, making that the official position of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party

Stay tuned, the next edition of Counterpoint PA is starting next week!

[MuseRider]

1. I do not know too much about

Governor Scranton but I do know that he produced one of my favorite people in the world. One of his sons, Joe, lived next door to me for many years. A good Democrat in Kansas, works for many running for office. He is usually found behind the scenes. Much more mainstream than I am we have argued over many things but remain friends and it is always nothing but fun and kindness when one is with he and his wife. I never had the pleasure of meeting Joe's parents.

We remain good friends although we moved each to different parts of the county we still get together for dinners and fun from time to time.