Tuesday, September 09, 2008

PA 11th CD update

The Hazleton immigration ordinance will go through it's 2nd round in Federal Court on October 31st. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to have the appeal heard by a three-judge panel. The publicity from the oral arguments will be a boon to Lou Barletta right before the election but in the end it will probably be shot down again. A small town in Pennsylvania cannot make immigration policy. Judge Munley cited the Supremacy clause of the Constitution (page 92 of the decision) to strike down the Illegal Immigration Relief Act. Hazleton is on the hook for $2 million for legal fees so far and they are talking about floating a bond over 20 years to pay it off.


In ther news Mayor Lou opened an office in Wilkes-Barre.

Congressman Paul Kanjorski has been busy doing what he does best.

He gets all wonky about the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac crises. I'm still trying to figure it out and would be interested in hearing Barletta's views.

He keeps bringing home the bacon for the W-B/Scranton Airport, the National Heritage Corridor, Helping to Open a New Business and so much more.

Kanjo introduced the Democratic nominee to the audience at Schott Glass in Duryea and was spotted at the Plymouth Kielbossa Festival.

7 comments:

Zen said...

Kanjo doing what he does best? What's that? Oh, I remember, giving millions of tax payer dollars to his family.

Anonymous said...

And Lou doing what he does best...
Pushing this unwinnable lawsuit further and further and sticking his city with the bill...

Anonymous said...

pj prove what you are saying. show me one shred of evidence that the City of Hazleton has paid for any part of this lawsuit. surely you know it is donated money paying the bills to date.

G, why didn't Kanjo do something before it became a crisis. Oh,,, that's right. He authored the Ney Kanjorski bill that would have gutted state consumer protections.

He may have attended Schott Glass and the Plymouth Kielbossa but he avoide La Fiesta when Biden arrived, the Pittston Tomato Festival and Hazleton's Funfest

Anonymous said...

Donated money is only paying Hazelton's legal fees, when they lose again the city will have to pay the plantiff's fees. Currently that figure is at 2 million dollars. 1/4 of Hazelton's annual budget. The small town defenders fund does not have close to that amount of money

Anonymous said...

Anon, if they lose, not when they lose and the only reason it is $2.4 million is due to the fact that the other side stacked their case with 37 attorneys to try to silence Hazleton and scare other municipalities. Their goal is to bankrupt Hazleton. Where would this country be today if we sat silent?

http://www.smalltowndefenders.com/public/node?page=1
A total of 37 lawyers and paralegals from seven different law firms and organizations submitted bills showing 5,409 hours of work. If you divide the amount sought by the number of hours, you get an average fee of $444 per hour.

I have yet to see where that money WAS awarded. So let's talk about facts not potentials. Facts are Kanjorski's family lost $10 million of our money. Could have paid this lawsuit 3 times over with that money.

Let's get onto another aspect of G's post. He states of Paul Kanjorski "He gets all wonky about the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac crises." He should. He is among the top 5 donors of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae receiving $65,500.00 since 1989.

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/07/top-senate-recipients-of-fanni.html

You people keep stating that it has been horendous under Republican rule for the last 8 years. Can anyone tell me why the top 5 donors on this list are Democrats? If they don't have the power how did they get the top donations? In the top ten it is 7
Dems vs. 3 Republicans.

Anonymous said...

And lets talk more about Democratic control. Read this article http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/20/beck.cities/

What do the top ten cities with the highest poverty rate all have in common?

Detroit, MI (1st on the poverty rate list) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1961;


Buffalo, NY (2nd) hasn't elected one since 1954;

Cincinnati, OH (3rd)...since 1984;

Cleveland, OH (4th)...since 1989;

Miami, FL (5th) has never had a Republican mayor;

St. Louis, MO (6th)....since 1949;

El Paso, TX (7th) has never had a Republican mayor;

Milwaukee, WI (8th)...since 1908;

Philadelphia, PA (9th)...since 1952;

Newark, NJ(10th)...since 1907.

How's Doherty doing in Scranton after putting the city into Act 47 6 years ago? Imagine a private company in Chapter 11 for 6 years?

How's the Democrat controlled Luzerne County Courthouse fairing out? FBI, IRS.

Pleassseee...Now don't get me wrong. I know there are bad Republicans out there and soon we will hear from Tom Corbett on that one. But to proffer that the sky is falling solely due to the Repbulicans is purely fictional.

Anonymous said...

Please tell me how this law will actually fight the crime in Hazleton (if that's the overall goal of it). Or someone tell me what the goal of this law is....