Give to the Red Cross

Our local Red Cross is always there. It's my choice when I have to pick a "charity". It's not a charity but an investment. If your house burns down or is wiped out by a flood the Red Cross is there. After everything we went through this past week we appreciate them more. A long time ago when I was in the Air Force my father became ill and later died. My Mom called the Red Cross and they had me on a plane the next day. If I couldn't get government transportation they would have loaned me the money to fly commercial if need be. What a great outfit. They are still helping our people be it a disaster on on large scale or a small one.

Back from the hills

Things are getting back to normal for most of us. My house is empty of friends and relatives who took refuge and are back in their homes. The biggest problem we ran into was basement flooding. We have been working on cleaning up the mess but it's nothing like 1972 when I went into my grandmother's house and found a large carp on top of the TV and couple of inches of mud. I will never forget the smell and Mrs. G says she can smell the flood everytime they demolish a building in Wilkes-Barre.

As much as I beat up on our county commissioners it's only fair to tell them when they do a good job. The Luzerne County Emergency Management Services did what they are supposed to do. The decision to order an evacuation was prudent and every government agency was called into action. As I was running all over the place yesterday I saw our local police and fire departments on the scene dealing with the latest crises within a crises and the public works depts. of several towns on the scene and helping everyone they could. The Army Corps of Engineers managed the Levee system and PennDOT, the state police and agencies that escape me where all on the same page. I think most of the country can learn from us on how to manage a crises. Thank god FEMA didn't poke their noses in and try to take over. The sad part is we have had a lot of practice with floods and many people who are not protected by the dikes lost their homes.

Memories of 1972

I have been posting from every computer that is near me. To hell with politics. I have been running my tail off all day. This storm is like what we went through when Hurricane Agnes wiped out our valley. I was only 12 but I remember that it rained for a week and then it got hot. Today it is hot. Everybody is watching the river today but most of the time we ignore it. It is supposed to crest at a level below the dikes but we will see. Even if the level is below the dikes it still does much damage and the small streams wiped out a lot of houses. So we got everyone to higher ground and I have a house full of relatives and friends who didn't want to go to a shelter. A few wouldn't leave. A friend of mine in Brookside said he will sit on his porch with a cooler and a shotgun to protect his property. I hope either he changes his mind or this isn't as bad as advertised. My own choice is to get out. You can replace possessions but not lives. I will be back to politics shortly.

Casey Blog

My friends at Keystone Politics have a honcho that is going to update Bob Casey Blog on a regular basis. So in the interest of fairness I will add it to my blogroll. Guys, you have some catching up to do. Alex and the true believers at Santorum Blog have been at it for months and are the go to site for news on the Senate race. Good or bad for their guy they post it. I like that.

LVDem even gave me some credit for this turn of events. " A while ago a disgruntled Gort 42 shot me an email saying that he was unhappy about the lack of activity at BobCaseyBlog.com. Well have no fear good KP readers. The problem has been solved. "

Sorry for sounding rude my friend. Sometimes when you write something that you speak out loud it doesn't come across right.

The latest in the race is Casey still has a big lead in the polls and both campaigns have TV ads up. Ricky has an unfocused ad that wanders from coal mines to his his grandparents and ends up about sinister illegal immigrants. Casey's attacks tax cuts for millionaires and companies that outsource jobs. Here is good review from my favorite Slob:

Well, Bob Casey has unveiled what he's calling his first TV ad -- he wants a balanced budget, thinks giving tax cuts to multimillionaire is bad, thinks "giving corporations tax breaks for sending jobs overseas" doesn't make sense, and wants to lower interest rates. Unlike Santorum's first ad (pretentiously named, "Candles") Casey doesn't attack his opponent. It's a typical (yawn) Casey ad -- he talks, doesn't say a whole lot, but stays on substantive issues without taking Rick's bait. It has very nice production values.

Flood

When I lived in other places I joked that the best redevelopment project in Wilkes-Barre was the 1972 Agnes flood. It was like living in Noah's Ark when you date things by before the flood and after the flood. I was 12 when that happened and it was an adventure. I was a little boy and helicopters landing at Guthrie Field and people living in tents was neat. Today I know better. The Mayor of Wilkes-Barre has just ordered an evacuation of people living near Solomens Creek in south W-B because of of this rain. We don't have many natural disaters hit this area, toronados and hurricanes are rare and eathquakes are unheard of. But when you are going to lose your house to the forces of nature it doesn't matter what causes it.

Lou Barletta, media star

I expect him to make some appearances with Rick Santorum soon.

TL: Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta has been booked solid with national media interviews since he unveiled a local plan that cracks down on illegal immigrants and designates English as the city's official language.
He estimates he's done nearly 100 interviews with print, television and radio outlets all over the country and has received more than 7,000 e-mails.

He now has a website: Small Town Defenders

It doesn't tell you much about the controversy he invented but you are encouraged to sign his petition. As with most web petitions I suspect it's just a way of getting email addresses so they can can hit you up for a contribution later. Call me cynical. Maybe he is looking at another run at Paul Kanjorski. He lost to Kanjo in 2002 by about 22,000 votes. Not bad for a first time challenger and Paul will not be there forever.

Now everybody wants in on the act. The fathers and mothers of that progressive community of W-B Twp have proposed an illegal immigrant ordinance because they don't want "those people" to move from Hazleton to their corner of the world. Remember these are the same people that gave the Arena grief and it turned out it was the best thing that ever happened to the place. At least the Township solicitor has some common sense:

The municipality would have to prove the illegality of the resident, not the resident himself. With the easy availability of false documentation, shown several times through the years on various news programs, proving the illegality of a resident is not easy, Bruce Phillips noted, especially with the federal law taking the assumption that any foreigner in the country is here legally.
Individuals cannot challenge a foreigner to show proof of legal residency, he said, nor can a Social Security card be challenged unless it comes up demonstrably false.

Complete enforcement of these local ordinances may end up a federal issue, Phillips agreed.

That's right, it's up to the federal government to enforce the immigration laws, and they won't do it.

The Times-Leader is saved!

The new guy that bought the TL is a local. Instead of some faceless company we have some local people owning the paper. Wilkes-Barre will continue to be a 2 newspaper town. Thank you. The new guy has a background in the local news industry.

The Times Leader has a new owner.

For the first time since 1978, the newspaper will be a privately owned, independent company in the hands of Wilkes-Barre area owners.

The paper has been sold to former Times Leader Publisher Richard L. Connor and a group of local investors, according to sources close to the transaction.


After all the shit that the Times-leader has been through over the last 28 years it's good to see it land in the lap of some local people. The long and short of it is we still have 2 local papers.

Cut and run

Why say it yourself when someone says what you think. From The All Spin Zone:

Republicans Attack General Casey

Several Senate leaders appeared on the Sunday talking head shows yesterday denouncing General George W. Casey, who had revealed a plan to draw down troops from Iraq by two thirds by late 2007. Similar to Democratic Senate proposals which were attacked by Administration and Republican Senators, Casey's plan was immediately labeled "cut and run" and he was denounced as a traitor. Anonymous Administration sources are saying Karl Rove is promoting a constitutional Amendment protecting marriage from anyone named Casey. Focus on the Family is claiming that General Casey is promoting the gay lifestyle, just like the NEA, though they haven't bothered to find proof in either case. Peter King has called for hearings accusing Casey of treason. I think Crooks and Liars has it, but I might be wrong, that Rush Limbaugh was calling General Casey a "feminazi crack whore," just days after interviewing Casey and telling him how lucky it was for Casey's career was that the Iraq War came along when it did.

The week after the Senate debates an Iraq withdraw the Commanding General of the operation unviels a plan to do just that. This is not a war anymore it's an occupation. It's time to find a way out of this mess.

Adding the Spin Dentist and the rest from All Spin zone to the blogroll.

Smoking bans

The Philadelphia City Council recently passed a smoking ban in bars and restaurants with some exceptions. That's what is great about laws like this there are always exceptions. I think it's bullshit. Many restaurants and bars have already instituted a smoke free policy and that is their choice. If you smoke and can't take an hour off from your habit go somewhere else. We go to Delaware every year and they have a smoking ban but if you sit outside and you can smoke. An exception. I traveled to Manhattan recently and a place we ate at had a room you could light up for a membership fee. An exception. Leave it up to business owners to decide what is right for their establishment. There is a bill in the state legislature to outlaw smoking in what they call public places. They can't pass a budget, gave us a sham of property tax reform and are busy outlawing gay marriage-like that's a problem. But they are worried about this.

The best analysis of this so called problem I've read comes from Russ Diamond:

Like nearly every other question or issue government faces, whether to ban smoking or not is actually a question of property rights. At any given time, ask yourself one simple question: Whose property am I on? If you're at the Capitol building in Harrisburg, your county courthouse or the local elementary school, you are clearly on public property. That property is owned by the public at large and administered by some governmental body for the common good. As a member of the public at large, you can claim some right to be on that property. If you're in a bar, restaurant, tavern or any other business establishment, you are on private property. You are there at the invitation of the owner. Patronizing any given business is not a right, but a privilege - the owner can un-invite you just as easily as he or she invited you. The ability of smoking ban proponents to blur the distinction between public and private property baffles me......

In light of these realities, is banning smoking inside public places a good idea? Yes. Given the litigious nature of society today and the potential liabilities associated with second-hand smoke, banning smoking in public (government) buildings makes sense. In addition to the duty of government to provide for the use of that property in some way benefiting the public good, it also has a duty to protect the public from any negative effects of that property's use. But banning smoking on private property makes about as much sense as passing a law preventing businesses from going smoke-free. The best solution - as always - is to let the free market decide. In my hometown, there are three different taverns/eateries. Two allow smoking; one doesn't. All three do their fair share of business. Those who prefer a smoke-free atmosphere patronize the smoke-free establishment. Those who don't, don't. And of course, there are those who do not make their decision based on this particular issue and patronize all three. If at some point, the respective owners of the two smoking establishments perceive they are losing business to the smoke-free establishment, they will consider changing their policy. Conversely, if the smoke-free establishment loses business to the smoking-allowed establishments up the street, they will consider changing their policy as well. Either way, it will be a matter of business survival. The decision rightfully belongs to those business owners.

h/t to The Centrist for pointing this out.

Carl Romanelli

Wilkes-Barre native Carl Romanelli was nominated by the Green Party of Pennsylvania to run for US Senator in April. He finally got a website up and running. From his bio:

Carl Romanelli is a Green Party fireball that hails from Northeastern Pennsylvania. A retired family court officer; currently working as a consultant in the rail industry, Carl has been a lifelong public and community servant, with a reputation for speaking truth to power and defending those most oppressed in life. He brings this energy to the Pennsylvania general election in 2006 with the hope of offering a viable, competent alternative to the old, corporate parties. Carl is committed to an agenda, which includes ending the occupation in Iraq, providing universal, single-payer health care for all Americans, defense of women's reproductive rights, ending of the drug war along with establishing a more enlightened foreign policy, in compliance with international law. Stand with Carl as he takes a REAL people's agenda to the debate in this year's election. Together we can make history and challenge those who refuse to articulate the important issues of our time.

He has to get over 67,000 signatures to make the ballot which is a ridiculous hurdle for any candidate. They claim to have over 36,000 so far but will probably need 100,000 to survive any challenges which are sure to some. He is also making some news:

Romanelli campaign invites Casey campaign to join debate talks. Green calls for Casey pledge in favor of ballot access and honest debate.
Green Party US Senate candidate, Carl Romanelli, today issued a statement inviting Bob Casey, or his campaign, to join the Romanelli and Santorum officials in meaningful debate discussions.

Casey at the blog

Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader columnist Casey Jones usually has something amusing to say about the events of the day. On Wednesday it was bloggers:

Wednesday I pretended that I was a blogger, one of those guys who writes opinion columns for the Internet in their pajamas.
I got up early. Read the papers. Sat down at my computer with a cup of coffee and a Klondike Bar and started typing.
This is good work, if you can find it. Bloggers get to set the world straight without leaving the house. Here's my first try.

It was a pretty good post as we call it in our world. Actually I don't see much difference between what he does and what bloggers do. Just like him bloggers check out the news of the day, maybe talk to a few people then throw their two cents in. But unlike him most of us don't get paid for it.

Kanjo gets lucky

CV:
On a Christmas visit last year to his daughter’s New Mexico home, U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski popped by the Cities of Gold casino in Pojoaque north of Santa Fe, hit a hot streak and won $19,500 playing blackjack.


“I’m usually not a good gambler,” Kanjorski said. “This was a real run … I got so far ahead, it got real ridiculous. It was exhaustion that took me out of the game.”The Nanticoke Democrat said he’s played blackjack for fun for 40 years and plays at casinos where he travels a couple of times a year. He jokes that it’s “his only major vice that I’m going to discuss at this time” and said it’s a good way to get to know the area he’s visiting.

“I’m not a winner, I’m a loser,” he said. Ironically, he’s not a big believer in having casinos everywhere.“Because I don’t see it as creating wealth. It only transfers wealth from winners to losers, losers to winners,” he said. And some times to a congressman.

I agree with him about casinos. I'm not looking forward to the one coming in Plains. It's going to create more problems than it will solve. He is against casinos but goes into one when he has the opprotunity. Hmm.

If they won't enforce the law why pass new ones?

From the Daily Item:

Unemployed mason Todd Harter heard there was a strip mall under construction not far from his central Pennsylvania house, drove the 30 miles to check it out and asked the man in charge for a job.Harter noticed all the workers spoke Spanish. The owner of the masonry company “looked at the Mexicans, looked at me, and said, ’I don’t think you’d fit in,’” said Harter, 38, of Nescopeck. “It made me mad.”

What made him even angrier is that federal immigration agents neglected to take immediate action after his father and others told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement they suspected illegal immigrants were working on the job site.

If the federal government won't enforce the immigation laws what can Hazleton do about it?

Fumble and recovery

Lupas pursues Hugo escape charges

Luzerne County District Attorney Dave Lupas continued his efforts to bring escape charges against double homicide suspect Hugo Selenski after a judge threw out the charges on a technicality in February.
Selenski, who is currently awaiting trial in connection with the slayings of pharmacist Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett, escaped from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility in October 2003 by climbing out of a window with a rope made from bedsheets.
But Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. threw out the escape charges, saying prosecutors did not bring Selenski to trial within 365 days, as prescribed by law.

There are rules and the DA didn't follow them. It seems like it's a waist of time to pursue this when the guy is on trial for murder. Unless Lupas doesn't think he will get a conviction in this case either.

First it was land sharks, now this

BLUFFTON, S.C. -- A knock on a South Carolina front door was no joke -- it was a 6-foot alligator trying to ring the doorbell.

We are used to seeing pictures of gators showing up on golf courses in Florida but it's not just a problem in the south.

POTTSTOWN-An American alligator was captured by Pottstown police Monday after a Mercury carrier discovered it while delivering papers along Rice Street, and was in the care of G. Bauer Pest Control in Douglass (Berks), a company licensed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission to trap and pick up wild animals.

Gary Bauer, along with his daughter Wendy Bauer-Griffith, has been responding to calls on pests for nearly 20 years, and said they have rarely gotten calls on alligators, certainly none this size before.

In other animal news.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - On a typical day at Tellme Networks Inc., Jackson snores, Penny spends time learning Chinese and the bosses and workers are delighted.
Penny, a Labrador Retriever, and Jackson, a bulldog, are part of an effort at many U.S. companies to allow pets in the workplace. One survey shows nearly one in five U.S. companies allow pets at work.
Millions of Americans believe pets on the job lower absenteeism and encourage workers to get along, according to the survey by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.

Tip of the hoagie to Susie for the last item.

Reassessment in Luzerne County

What a dry subject. Some people will have higher taxes and some people will have lower ones. Most of the home owners in the middle won't even notice. We are so conditioned to having property taxes going up every year. A little bit here and a little bit there, it stinks.

The majority commissioners put it off until next year:

Commissioners vote to delay reassessment

Skrepenak asked Urban if it was fair that people on fixed incomes will see their property taxes go up.

I'm so sick of this seniors on a fixed income agruement. We are all on a fixed income. I get a 2 or 3 percent raise a year as do seniors. Most people don't get that.

The Pennsylvania American Water Company sucks

A few weeks ago we came we came home to our street and sidewalk being torn up by the the water company and we had no water in our house. We called the 800 number and someone came out and gave us our water back. I asked for a telephone number for a local manager and the technician said there weren't any and you had to call the 800 number. Bullshit. She had no record of our house being a target for repairs and we would have to call the 800 number the next day. A few weeks later the sub-contractors did a nice job of fixing the road but did a less than good job fixing our sidewalk. After various contacts with this company the answer I get is that is that we're a monopoly and we will will do what we want. Live with it. This may end up in court if we can beat the Republicans restricting our rights to sue big business when they fuck us over.

Coming to a TV near you

The Rick Santorum campaign has decided to spend the millions and billions they have collected from every special interest that wants a favor on Capitol Hill on TV ads starting Friday. I'm sure the first ones will tell you what a great guy he is. Remember he cut taxes (blew up the budget), is strong on national security (never ending war) and wants to give you more choices (screw you out of your Social Security). The ads on the second day will tell you what a bum Bob Casey is. Remember he has run statewide a few times (Ricky has been in Washington since 1990), has missed some time from work (Congress has been in session the least amount of days since 1948) and won't take a position (while he has been solving the pressing problems of gay marriage, inventing an immigration "crises" and punishing flag burners).

It's going to be a long negative summer from Ricky. His poll numbers are heading south as the latest Q poll and others show. So his only choice is to try to make Casey the issue and go negative early. It may work. I hope not. He would be an ideal Senator for Utah or Alabama but not Pennsylvania.

Tip of the the hoagie to A Big Fat Slob and my friends at Santorum Blog for pointing out the poll numbers and the ad campaign.

Hazelton, Mayor Lou Barletta and Illegal immigrants

He got his 15 minutes.

The national media have come calling in Hazleton.

A local ordinance proposed to crack down on illegal immigrants in the city is attracting the attention of national media outlets and residents from California to Maryland, said Mayor Lou Barletta.“I am getting calls from all over the country,” said Barletta, the mayor of a city that has seen the Hispanic population surge from about 4 percent in 2000 to about 30 percent today.

If you don't punish the employers it won't stop.

Illegal Hiring Is Rarely Penalized

The Bush administration, which is vowing to crack down on U.S. companies that hire illegal workers, virtually abandoned such employer sanctions before it began pushing to overhaul U.S. immigration laws last year, government statistics show.
Between 1999 and 2003, work-site enforcement operations were scaled back 95 percent by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which subsequently was merged into the Homeland Security Department. The number of employers prosecuted for unlawfully employing immigrants dropped from 182 in 1999 to four in 2003, and fines collected declined from $3.6 million to $2,000 according to federal statistics.

Ben Salazar, a longtime activist, says that "immigrants know they're needed" in jobs many Americans wi not fill, "so they will take their chances.

The Bush administration, which is vowing to crack down on U.S. companies that hire illegal workers, virtually abandoned such employer sanctions before it began pushing to overhaul U.S. immigration laws last year, government statistics show.

Hugo Selinski

The only news that came out of the Nancy Grace story on Headline News is that the DA's office will seek the death penalty. So if he is convicted we will be reminded of this every time his appeal is heard. And the way our legal system works it may take 20 years to work through it.

Sometimes I think our legal system is so stupid. Sure, many people deserve the death penalty. But by the time you get to it you have put everyone involved through countless appeals and reliving the horrible events. Lock them up and throw away the key.

And every once in a while you find out that someone was wrongly convicted. The state should not execute people.

Last night Nancy Grace didn't have a clue about this case. She inflated the body count and obsessed out the twist ties that the prosecution said was used to commit the crime.