Glenn Geissinger for Congress

Northampton County Councilman Glenn Geissinger launched his congressional campaign Tuesday for the PA-17th CD against  U.S. Rep. Matthew Cartwright. He is the first Republican to announce and we can expect more.

His announcement via the Morning Call: "I want Matt Cartwright to understand that solutions come out of the private sector. They come out of people like you and me going to work every day to make America a better place. They don't come out of adding more regulations. They don't come by scaling back on our ability to produce jobs,"....I am going to do what it takes to win in order to bring what these people think government should be to Washington,"....

Sounds good until this;

 The people of northeast Pennsylvania need someone in the nation's capital who would go up against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and protect blue-collar jobs and the coal industry that dominates the northern part of the district. 

The coal industry in PA is just about dead in Pennsylvania and employs less than 9000 people statewide. It seems that it is a tenet of faith for Republicans that the EPA is some sort of  evil organization that people hate. The last time I checked people like clean air and water. 

He also took a shot at the Democratic House Leader  Geissinger painted himself as a better fit for the district than Cartwright, whom he labeled a "Nancy Pelosi Democrat."

This is so 2008. Trying to tie a local candidate to the soft spoken grandmother from Sodom on the San Andreas hasn't worked beyond the people who would never vote for a Democrat anyway. 

I would argue that Pelosi was a more effective Speaker than John Boehner  who can't even keep the government working because he can't  deal with a bunch of anti-government anarchists.

 

11th CD news: Barletta and Vinsko

Congressman Lou Barletta has been in the news lately. He got House Speaker John Boehner to view flood damage in Bloomsburg and blasted President Obama's visit to Scranton saying "The people of Scranton would rather have a job than a visit, especially a visit at taxpayers’ expense.” He thinks that the President should stay in Washington trying to make a deal with the Republicans who reflexifely oppose anything he proposes even if it was their idea in the first place like the indvidual mandate .

I think the President is right using the bully pulpit and Barletta just may be listening. While saying he doesn't want to raise taxes on anybody Barletta won't rule it out. TT:
Mr. Barletta told The Times-Tribune by telephone he still favors a payroll tax extension and is open to considering an expansion and even the proposed surcharge.
"I think we should keep all ideas on the table if we can pay for it," he said. "I wouldn't rule anything out at this point. I'm open to leaving everything on the table and let's get the best idea."
But his preference is to not raise any taxes, he said. I guess that is progress in his thinking.

This week he sent out some press releases supporting a bill to make road signs easier to read.

Rep. Barletta is the lead Republican sponsor on bipartisan road safety bill

And getting into the holiday spirit

Rep. Barletta's district offices to be collection sites for Toys for Tots program. That's cool.

New, unwrapped toys will be collected at Rep. Barletta’s Wilkes-Barre and Taylor offices between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
The addresses of those offices are:
Taylor, Lackawanna County: 802 South Main Street, Taylor, PA 18517. Phone: (570) 562-6240. The office is in the same center in which state Rep. Sid Michaels Kavulich has his office.
Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County: 1112 State Route 315, Plaza 315, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702. Phone: (570) 235-1420.

Democratic challenger Bill Vinsko has been defending the civil rights of a Bloomsburg University
student and posted a new soppy video:

Republican budget cutters

If my tea Party friends think this bunch will cut spending I have a bridge in Alaska to sell you.

Via Think Progress:


Republicans have been remarkably vague on what they would actually cut.

In interview after interview, journalists have pushed, and even begged, GOP leaders for specifics, always to no avail. When pressed, they hem and haw, often appearing uncomfortable — and in the case of Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), visibly angry — but can offer nothing more than cop-out answers like repealing unsent stimulus money or an “across the board” cut on all spending. ThinkProgress has compiled some of the more embarrassing of these moments:





The video features, respectively, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ), California GOP Senate nominee Carly Fiorina, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Rep. John Boozman (R-AR), Gregg, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-AZ). This represents a large portion of the GOP leadership, but there are countless other examples as well.


NRO: Empty Promise


Beltway Beast: Pledge to America Sparks Tea Party Backlash


REDSTATE: Perhaps the Most Ridiculous Thing to Come Out of Washington Since George McClellan

Poll results

Who will be the next Speaker of the House?

Nancy Pelosi(D) 40 (61%)

John Boehner (R) 25 (39%)

After I made a wager with Joe Valenti of PittstonPolitics.com. I asked you my dear readers of Gort42 to give us your opinion of what would happen in the fall. And you have predicted the soft spoken grandmother from Sodom on the San Andreas will be wielding the gavel for at least 2 more years and the chain smoking guy with the orange skin will still be saying no. That tanning bed tax is a bitch, heyna.



Forbes: Tea partiers confused, taxes ‘lower by every measure’ under Obama

Prez signs Wall Street reform bill

The last time speculation on Wall Street created a crises that crashed the US economy FDR and a Democratic Congress put some rules in place to prevent another great depression. Over the last 20 years many of the safeguards that were put in place in the 1930's were repealed including the Glass-Steagal Act when Bill Clinton was President. Add in lax enforcement of the laws on the books after 2001 then in 2008 all hell broke loose again causing a deep recession that we are just recovering from so it's time to rein in the big banks to prevent a three-peat.

Congressman Paul Kanjorski has been working on a fix for a long time and it got past the finish line despite universal opposition from the the Republicans in Congress. Boner already wants to repeal it. The Republicans want to repeal everything but have no solutions to the country's problems and after fiasco of the last decade it's clear they don't know how to govern.

Kanjo was on stage for the signing.


Kanjorski Joins President for Signing of Wall Street Reform Bill into Law

Ezra Klein takes on the liberal argument that it doesn't do enough.


I had a brief conversation on the telephone with Kanjo yesterday about Wall Street reform and a few other things. I don't report telephone interviews very well since I don't know shorthand and I'm a not a trained reporter/journalist and have never claimed to be. He promised I can sit down with him in person when I can use my recorder in the near future. So this is paraphrased but certainly not taken out of context.

On Wall Street Reform

I don't think we will appreciate for decades how much good this law will do... My amendment could be described as surgical Glass-Steagal. I look forward to discussing this with you in the future... I had a good conversation with the President today.

Gas Drilling

I support the smart development of gas extraction which includes development of a plan for best practices and oversight. We should have an energy institute to develope that plan...PA is one of only 2 states that doesn't have an extraction tax. That money could be used to fund the oversight/inspections that are required.

...on a lighter note I asked him what was his favorite baseball team. He likes the Philiies and the Yankees. I pointed out that he had that Yankee thing in common with Lou Barletta. I invited him to our next meet the candidates/blogger event September 17th and he said he would make it if Abbie would let him.

Kanjo said the CIA lied to him

Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently said about the CIA "They mislead us all the time'' in regards to being briefed on the torture techniques like waterboarding that were being used on prisoners in US custody. The usual Republican suspects were shocked and appalled that that she would accuse an intelligence agency that uses disinformation and has a long track record of lying to Congress and the American people of being less than truthful. Does anyone remember the Church Commission? John Boehner and Newt Gingrich are leading the charge demanding an investigation. Bring it on.

Senator Arlen Specter pointed out that "The CIA has a very bad record when it comes to honesty."
... Specter spoke of the CIA's role in the Iran-Contra affair, "Director Casey appeared and gave perjurious testimony to the Committee." He added that the CIA's deputy director had prepared Casey's testimony and that he, "Came within a hair's breadth of being prosecuted by an independent counsel."


And there is this Walter Brasch article from September 2007 via FDL's Emptywheel


"a god-damned lie"

In a town hall meeting in Bloomsburg, Pa. this week [leading up to September 3, 2007], Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a 12-term congressman, said that shortly before Congress was scheduled to vote on authorizing military force against Iraq, top officials of the CIA showed select members of Congress three photographs it alleged were Iraqi Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), better known as drones. Kanjorski said he was told that the drones were capable of carrying nuclear, biological, or chemical agents, and could strike 1,000 miles inland of east coast or west coast cities.

Kanjorski said he and four or five other congressmen in the room were told UAVs could be on freighters headed to the U.S. Both secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and President Bush wandered into and out of the briefing room, Kanjorski said.

Kanjorski said it was the second time he was called to the White House for a briefing. He had opposed giving the President the powers to go to war, and said that he hadn't changed his mind after a first meeting. Until he saw the pictures, Kanjorski said, "I hadn't thought that Iraq was a threat." That second meeting changed everything. After he left that meeting, said Kanjorski, he was willing to give the President the authorization he wanted since the drones "represented an imminent danger."

[snip]

Several years later, Kanjorski said he learned that the pictures were "a god-damned lie," apparently taken by CIA photographers in the desert in the southwest of the U.S.


Down With Tyranny has more about the CIA