According to Philly.com, “A Commonwealth Court judge denied a bid by civil rights groups to block the new voter identification law from taking effect,” and said the plaintiffs hadn’t proven the law would impose “irreparable” harm on citizens. The ACLU is expected to appeal the ruling. But between this, Republicans attempting to kick the Libertarian and Constitution parties off the presidential ballot, and Paul Ryan’s massive, MASSIVE sex appeal, is Pennsylvania in play in 2012? We’ll try to figure it out for you. In the meantime, Pennsylvania residents (and government officials) have less than three months to educate themselves on the law and get ID if they need one.

Regarding Rep. Mike Turzai’s ridiculous WE GONNA WIN Voter ID statement, the judge noted he “declined to infer that other members of the General Assembly shared the boastful views of Representative Turzai without proof that other members were present at the time the statements were made. Also, the statements were made away from the Chamber floor.”

[That seems a bit cheap, no?]

Here is a link to the entire decision.

The AFL-CIO recently provided numbers showing that 450,982 Pennsylvania seniors, aged 65 and older, may not have a PennDOT ID, or, if they do, have one which will be expired for over a year come Election Day.

Pennsylvania Republican Senatorial challenger Tom Smith has a new ad out calling Senator Bob Casey a “failed career politician,” which isn’t wrong, according to legislative standards. Though it is wrong if you define a successful career politician as someone who’s been able to live most of their life as a politician. That, Bob Casey has done pretty well.

A new poll commissioned by a bullshit website called FramingPaterno.com has found that 45 percent of Americans mistakenly believe Joe Paterno may have been a child molester, too. The site, partly headed by John Ziegler, who once made a documentary about how awesome Sarah Palin is (and how the media “failed” to give us the right picture of her in 2008), blames the—you guessed right!– media for this statistical phenomenon.

The site also noted ESPN did the “worst” job covering the Sandusky scandal, though considers Philly writer Buzz Bissinger pretty bad, too.

[One opinion: Poor, poor Joe Paterno['s legacy].]

[Another opinion: That’s what happens when you go out of your way to cover up for a child molester.]

Hey look: More ideas for “bullet trains” through Philly which will be ready to make trips by the time half of us are dead and the other half are eating through tubes in underground hospitals in part to avoid super-volcano radiation. This time, the dreamers are dreaming of a tunnel that goes directly from 30th Street Station to the airport. Man, between this and the train that goes from Philly to New York in a half-hour, 2040 is turning out to be quite a year. QUITE A YEAR.

Meanwhile, the Broad Street Line has resumed service after someone either fell or jumped in front of a train this morning, and died.

Defense lawyers had been trying to suppress Antonio Rodriguez’s (a.k.a. The Kensington Strangler) confessions, because that’s what defense lawyers do, but a judge has rejected that motion.

PAIndependent has found something sort of interesting. There’s a provision in a 2002 Pennsylvania state law which defines “stalking” (“repeated activity which causes fear of bodily injury or emotional distress in another”), that exempts union members from the law in order to allow them to better organize. The exemption is currently being highlighted by the Workforce Freedom Initiative, an anti-union sector of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Stalking: There’s a loophole for that.