YouTube weekend

Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton

The small "d" democratic in me reels at the thought. It's like we've become some sort of banana republic and Mrs. Clinton is our Evita Peron.


Madonna don't cry for me Argentina!

YouTube weekend

I got a letter yesterday excusing me from Jury Duty. This was a great disappointment as I had my 3 days off from work planned out. Lunch at the Chill Grill or Carol's Deli followed by a visit to the Hardware Bar at the end of the day. I even wanted to check out happy hour at Big Ugly's with the hope of running into our favorite county commissioner, Greg Skrepenak. We have a lot to talk about.

With a little luck I might have been picked for a complicated malpractice case that would last for weeks and got to spend some quality time in downtown Wilkes-Barre. But No. Many people do everything they can to get out of it and I wanted to be part of the process. How do you volunteer to serve?

The trial of the century is coming up soon so maybe I might still get summoned. Somehow I think that the Hugo Selenski trial may end something like this:


Monty Python - Mass Murder Case

Not for Hackett

Or Operation Chaos in reverse.

This a guest post from our friend KAR:

I attended a fundraiser last night at Gennetti's for Lou Barletta, I don't live in the 11th but Lou was very supportive of Dan so a few of us from Pride attended.

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Many of the folks who were involved with Dan's campaign were in attendance, and several of the prominent business leaders who Hackett described as being less than honest were there. I realize we have a ways to go before November, but the prevailing sentiment was very anti-Hackett.

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These are honest long standing republicans and they may sit out the 10th election, or write Dan's name in, the best I heard for Hackett was a general attitude of benign neglect.

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I will have a letter in the Times Leader shortly describing my plans. I intend to write as many letters as possible,to as many papers as possible between now & November asking those who supported Dan, and those who care for the future of the republican party to either skip this contest or write in Dan's name.

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I also plan on blogging as much as possible, and occasionally calling in on the local talk radio shows.Believe it or not there isn't much bitterness in all of this, just a sense of righting a wrong, if that makes sense, honestly if Hackett had run a different type of campaign and won, I would have supported him.

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BTW Lou gave a good speech, and I believe he will give Kanjo a run for his money in November.

Phillies in phirst

You don't win the the pennant in April but can can darn well lose it. The last 2 years the Philadelphia Phillies finished the first month of the season with a record of 11-14 and if the Mets hadn't collapsed (sorry Carl) in September last year they would have finished out of the playoffs again. With the win tonight they are 16-13 and in 1st place by a half game.

The biggest surprise to me is the bullpen posting a 2.65 ERA so far holding the Padres hitless for the last 3 innings tonight but the story is the bats. Ryan Howard came to life tonight with a RBI double and a solo HR (6). Pat Burrell has stopped chasing the low and outside pitch and has been a clutch hitter with 26 RBI's. Stop taking him out in the late innings Charley. Then there is Chase Utley batting .357 with a league leading 11 HR's that has had him mentioned as a possible MVP.

And they have done this with last year's MVP Jimmy Rollins and the other spark plug Shane Victorino out of action.

There are a few holes in the lineup like 3rd base that Chris points out.

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That could be fixed by doing something that most fans would bust a blood vessel over, trade Ryan Howard. A great post at Phillies Nation makes some good arguments on why to do it. He is coming upon free agency and will probably demand an A-Rod type 7 to 10 year deal at 25+ million a year that the Phillies will never agree to and the payback could be good. So what could you get in return? A starting pitcher and a 3rd baseman that can hit would be a minimum with some top rated prospects as a bonus.

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Jennifer has her fingers crossed

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Jury Duty

I have Jury Duty next week at the the Penn Plaza building in Wilkes-Barre which houses the chambers of some of our more newsworthy Luzerne County jurists.

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I hope I get a trial like this one:

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Lawyers should never ask a Mississippi grandma a question if they aren't prepared for the answer.

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In a trial, a Southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grand motherly, elderly woman to the stand.

He approached her and asked, "Mrs. Jones, do you know me?"

She responded, "Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I've known you since you were a young boy, and frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie; you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a big shot when you haven't the brains to realize you never will amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you."

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] The lawyer was stunned!

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Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, "Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?"

She again replied, "Why, yes, I do. I've known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster, too. He's lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. He can't build a normal relationship with anyone and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes, I know him."

The defense attorney almost died.

The judge asked both counselors to approach the bench and, in a very quiet voice, said,
"If either of you f***ng idiots asks her if she knows me, I'll send you to the electric chair"

The brother-in-law effect

We all know what that is. Sometimes it's good for a million dollars in business.

Vita bill totals $1.1 million
County psychologist made “twice as much as what he’d make in private practice,” another local practitioner says...

Frank Vita was paid $233,005 to provide juvenile psychological evaluations for Luzerne County’s court system from July 2001 through 2003, bringing his total receipts to more than $1.1 million, county records show...Vita is the brother-in-law of Court of Common Pleas senior Judge Mike Conahan.

Conahan was the President Judge before his retirement and decided who to hire for professional services. Our new Common Pleas President Judge Mark Ciavarella says Vita is doing a great job. Ciavarella is contending that the courts can't be directed what to do by the county commissioners citing a separation of powers argument.


David doesn't buy that and suggest: So if the Judges are a separate branch of government, maybe Petrilla and Urban can get a couple of double wides and move the Judge’s offices to the Forty Fort Airport for starters.

The Lu Lac Political Letter also points out that over half the kids that go through the juvenile court system don't have lawyers but they get to sit down with a shrink that is billing the county $90 an hour. I don't know what a public defender makes but it is probably less.

Kentucky Derby

The 11th annual get together of the Saturday OT Committee and Operatic Society to watch the Kentucky Derby is scheduled for Saturday, May 3rd 4PM at Marks Pub 1287 N Washington St, Wilkes-Barre (map it).

Carney on the fence

Congressman Chris Carney said he would cast his vote at the Democratic national convention according to the will of the district. The 10th went overwhelmingly for Hillary but Carney still hasn't committed. The NRCC is saying that Carney is a closet Obama supporter. But the convention isn't until August so he has some time to make up his mind or maybe not because DNC Chairman Howard Dean wants this thing decided before then and I agree with him.

His ace press secretary said "He will base his decision on who will be the best leader to move our country forward and do what is best for the district and Pennsylvania,” Rebecca Gale said. “In the meantime, Congressman Carney feels it’s best to let people vote and the conversation continue.”


In 2006 Carney got 26,300 votes in the primary while the Republican candidates garnered about 59,000. This time around he got 70,824 votes in an uncontested primary while the bitter and expensive Republican primary between Chris Hackett and Dan Meuser produced under 65,000. I'm sure much of the increase can attributed to the Presidential race and the general election turnout will be much higher. In 2006 it was about 210,000.

Barletta offers solution to high gas prices

Or maybe not.

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta said the windfall profit tax bill proposed by Congressman Paul Kanjorski is a “desperate attempt to gain favor in an election year.” Kanjo admits that the bill doesn't have much chance of becoming law saying even if it did pass the Congress it faces a certain veto and America's Mayor pounced on that statement.

A check of Barletta's website doesn't have any info about energy or anything else other than immigration.

I'm surprised that he hasn't pointed out that we get a great deal of our oil from Venezuela and Mexico or maybe he isn't aware of it.

Violate the law, get a week off

WILKES-BARRE — Luzerne County Correctional Facility Board unanimously voted Monday to suspend prison Warden Gene Fischi for one week without pay because the warden failed to inform board members about decisions to avoid bidding purchases.
The board also put Fischi and prison kitchen supervisor Jack Rentko on probation for a year.

And Sam Guesto still has a job after telling Rentko to ignore bidding requirements saying “do it or it’s your ass.”

Some sort of secret police organization is supposed to be investigating this mess according to DA Jackie MO but she hasn't named the agency. Why can't she tell us which one? And why are our great local reporters giving her a pass?

More Presidential candidates coming to the area

Just not the ones you've ever heard of . Mario Fiorucci's annual State of the World forum in Sugar Notch has a new twist this year. A group of third party and independent Presidential candidates will state their case this weekend at 893 Main Street, Sugar Notch.

Saturday, May 3rd
3:00 PM Presidential Candidate Debates.

Sunday, May 4th
1:00 PM Presidential Candidate Speeches.


Participating Presidential Candidates:

Joseph A. Oliva JoeOlivaForPresident.org Reclaiming Our Inheritance.

Bill Ingram Ingram2008.com Put a Working Man in the White House!

Donald K. Allen donaldkallenforpresident.com “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” - Edmund Burke

Daniel Kingery portablepublishing.com Put up, or Shut Up!

Steve Adams presidentadams.com Common Sense for Uncommon Times

Jack Grimes joanne21921.tripod.com United Fascist Union

Lanakila Washington myspace.com/lanakila1024 Humanistic Party

Steve White forRuth Bryant White rbwforpres2008.com More Than a Woman

Michael Thompson forFrank McEnulty FrankForPresident.org New American Independent Party

Deshon Porter deshon@myway.com Let’s Take Our Country Back!

John Bootie johnbootie08.com America’s Candidate


Daniel Kingery had a profile in the CV yesterday.

Other participants in the festivities include Kurt Shotko, Independent candidate for the 11th CD, Joseph Pilchesky, creator of dohertydeceit.com and Mort Malkin will also speak about health care reform and how to plan for your personal wellness.



Ed note: I have nothing to do with organizing this event. But I think it's important to hear all voices.

Hillary, Barack or someone else?

In wide ranging and sometimes contentious debate at yesterday's impromptu sub-committee meeting at our favorite watering hole an unlikely but possible scenario was discussed. After the Obama supporter was shouted down by a room full of Clinton backers someone suggested that the best outcome for the Dems would be to nominate Al Gore. The reasoning is if this goes to the convention the losing side will have a hard time backing the winner so a unity candidate should be found. I don't see it happening but anything is possible. This is not a new idea as I've seen it kicked around the lefty blogs and even by a few talking heads on TV. A month ago our local political historian, the Yonk, even outlined a possible turn of events in Denver.

So what do you think? I put up a poll on the sidebar.

Below we see the winner of the 2000 election showing off his green thumb.

YouTube weekend

Baracky Obama - The movie

A few links

My friends at the Susquehanna University College Republicans have revamped their website. They did a great job of organizing the first 10th CD debate.

Check out SU College Republicans Infinity

I added Coal Region Voice to the blogroll. He is asking for some help on colon cancer legislation:

As a colon cancer survivor, I am looking for support for HB 972 and or SB246. The House version is a whole new law, while the Senate Bill ammends existing law. Both are colon cancer screening bills. Senator Don White is sitting on these in committee and letting them die along with 3000 Pennsylvanians every year. http://coalregionvoice.blogspot.com/2007/02/pennsylvania-and-colon-cancer-screening.html

PolitickerPA is a new site covering Pennsylvania politics. I spotted this cartoon there.

10th CD postmortem

What a wild ride it has been in the Pennsylvania 10th Congressional District over the last few years. Democrat Chris Carney won the seat in 2006 because Don Sherwood kept talking about "family values" and then it was revealed that he had been playing house for over 5 years with a girl half his age who actually called the police because she said he became violent. There were other factors in the race but that helped clinch it.

Ever since then I've been hearing things like "that's one of our seats that we can win back" from my Republican friends. It's not your seat or the Dems seat, it's the peoples seat. The founders designed the House of Representatives as the pulse of the people and expected it to change hands often. But gerrymandering has slowed the turnover rate.

Early in the Republican primary I expected Dan Meuser to win the nod just because he had the most money. He's a Republican, you buy things. But he ran a awful campaign. His selling point was the he was the head of very successful company, Pride Mobility, that grew over the years and created some good jobs with the implication he would be able to replicate that throughout the district. That opened him up to answering for everything that Pride had ever done wrong by design or circumstance whether or not he had anything to do with the situation. Pride Mobility for Congress had it's limits and some his ads came across as a plug for the Scooter Store.

Chris Hackett ran a classic outsider vs. insider campaign. He railed against pork barrel spending and the way business is done in Washington. Just about every elected official in the 10th backed Meuser but it didn't bring him much. Most endorsements are good for a press release and not much more. The one's that matter bring boots on the ground and money, none of his did.


For all the negative stuff that happened at the end I thought (and I'm told) Hackett's ads pointing out that Pride had outsourced jobs to China resonated with people. The illegal immigrant thing showed showed how such a complicated issue is hard to discuss in a political campaign. I think the last minute abortion (he said/she said) accusations probably backfired as many thought it was a dirty trick.


A consolation point for Dan Meuser is that he will have the opportunity to challenge Chris Carney for the seat in 2010.

Looking to the fall-State Rep races

Or lack of contests. Barring some write-in efforts that I'm not aware of it looks like our 5 Luzerne County Democratic state representatives will be unopposed in November. I read that Todd Eachus has secured both nominations in the 116th District getting 800+ write-ins on the GOP side. In the 120th Phyllis Mundy has no opposition and the same goes for Eddie Day Pashinski in the 121st as well as John Yudichak in the 119th. Mike Carroll cruised to victory in the 118th primary with no announced Republican taking him on in the general.

That leaves the 117th District Republican Freshman Karen Boback as the only one being challenged in November. 2006 Republican 20th Senatorial candidate Russ Bigus recently switched to the Democrats and is on the ballot. Boback beat a little known Dem last time by 2 to 1 after winning a crowded primary. This time she won the primary by about 1100 votes out of 7300 cast while Bigus was unopposed for the Democratic nomination and garnered 5665. The question now is will Bigus be able to use his past GOP ties and tap into the resentment I'm hearing from some back mountain Republicans about the slash and burn tactics of the Boback camp.

Other results

It looks like Chris Hackett won the Republican nomination in the 10th CD.


PA Dept of State:


HACKETT, CHRIS (REP)
33,091 52.3%



MEUSER, DAN (REP)
30,177 47.7%


What is interesting is that Carney got more votes in the Democratic primary than both of them put together in the GOP contest.



CARNEY, CHRISTOPHER P. (DEM)
69,067 100.0%


In the 117th and 118th state rep districts it looks like the challengers came up short;

117th Republiccan primary

MAY, JAMES (REP)
3,126 42.5%


BOBACK, KAREN (REP)
4,233 57.5%


118th Democractic primary

CARROLL, MIKE (DEM)
9,378 81.1%


BEST, P. J. (DEM)
2,192 18.9%

Hillary wins PA

All the networks are calling it for Clinton. The question now is what the margin is.

Pennsylvania Exit Polls

Inspired by another local internet hooligan I wrote in Kayak Dude for state rep in the 121st district. Eddie Day Pashinski is unopposed in the primary and the general election which annoys me to no end and five of the six state reps up for reelection don't have an opponent in the fall. Put another feather in the cap of our Luzerne County GOP. I was going to do a few other write-ins but digressed.


In the Prez race it was an easy choice for me, Barrack Obama is the future and Hillary Clinton is the past. Yes we can.


In the only other contested race I could vote I picked John Cordisco for Treasurer because he is the only one of the candidates that I have met and a friend is part of his campaign team.

Turnout in my polling place was good. I was voter number 422 of about 1000 at 5PM.

Blogger is not letting me post pictures right now but you can see my ballot on Facebook.

Victory Party

If you want to celebrate with your candidate tonight here is where to find them.

Dan Meuser

Ramada Inn- Clarks Summit
820 Northern Blvd.
Clarks Summit , PA. 18411

The party will begin at 8 PM


Chris Hackett

Grotto's Pizza (Rte 415, Harveys Lake) 8PM-Midnight


Karen Boback

Harveys Lake American Legion located along RT 415 1/8 mile ahead of the entrance shortly after 9:00 PM.

James May


James May Election Headquarters 130 North Memorial Highway
Dallas, Pa 18612