Happy New Year

Voorspoedige nuwe jaar

Kul 'am wa antum bikhair

Urte Berri on

Shuvo noboborsho

Sun nien fai lok

Stastny Novy Rok

Godt NytÅr

Gelukkig nieuwjaar

Bonan Novjaron

Onnellista uutta vuotta

Bonne année

Ein glückliches neues Jahr

Eutychismenos o kainourgios chronos

Hauoli Makahiki hou

Shana Tova

Boldog uj evet

Felice Anno Nuovo or Buon anno

Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu

Sehe Bokmanee Bateuseyo

Nyob Zoo Xyoo Tshiab

Godt Nytt År

Manigong Bagong Taon

Szczesliwego Nowego Roku

La Multi Ani si Un An Nou Fericit

Ia manuia le Tausaga Fou

Feliz año nuevo

Heri za Mwaka Mpya

Gott Nytt År

Sawatdee Pi Mai

Chuc mung nam moi

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

Home Rule petitions

In 2003 the Luzerne County Home Rule charter was defeated 54%-46% with the help of both political parties. Democratic Commissioner candidates Greg Skrepnak and Todd Vonderheid argued the structure of the county government wasn't the problem but the people in charge had let us down. Trust us they said, we are a breath of fresh air. Well, we all know how that has turned out. Fictitious county budgets full of lies about imaginary revenues. Sweetheart deals to the well connected. State and Federal investigations into the business practices of the county and the people charged with keeping the public trust. Debit Cards used at strip clubs, no-bid contracts, falsifying tax liens, a fantasy airport, cronies hired for important jobs and when their incompetence was exposed they were shuffled off to other less visible county jobs. The list is almost endless. And bonds, bonds and more bonds just to meet payroll and keep the county operating.

We have a chance to fix this reign of incompetence.

Luzerne Home Rule

Luzerne Home Rule is proud to announce that it is now time to start circulating petitions to place Home Rule on the ballot in May. Click here to download yours today!


4,790 valid signatures are needed to get it on the May primary ballot that would elect another study commission that would draft a new home rule charter. If they use the 2003 Charter proposal with some tinkering it could be on the ballot in November.

YouTube weekend

This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by a third party.

Such bullshit. I don't know how many times I bought a CD or DVD after getting a preview on YouTube. The record indusrty /Hollywood companies have it wrong.

YouTube weekend

Dana is horrified that Barry ordered a spam musubi for lunch the other day. I have a rule for new food. I'll try anything once, twice if I like it and 3 times if I can't decide but this even gives me pause...spam musubi, a local luncheon specialty, consists of spam and a fried egg on a bed of rice, all held together with a dried seaweed wrap. It sounds disgusting but the next time I'm in Hawaii I will try one. Dana has included a video of how to make the thing but I'm surprised he didn't include this classic. I don't like spam.


Monty Python - Spam

YouTube weekend

The shoplifting dog in Utah is all the rage.


Dog Shoplifts [Caught on Camera]






Some of our canine friends are too worn out from the holidays to engage in a crime spree.

New pics at Facebook.

Happy Christmas

miilaad majiid

Vasel Koleda

gojan Kristnaskon

hyvää joulua

fröhliche Weihnachten

felix dies Nativitatis

eydet mobârak

feliz Navidad

Chuc Mung Giang Sinh

joyeux Noël

Pretenders 2000 Miles

Skrep is outraged

“They are trying to hide stuff from me” -Luzerne County Democratic Commissioner Greg Skrepnak



Skrep objects to Philly law firm

Skrepenak said he received no contact whatsoever about this hiring in advance. Commissioners should have followed county policy by declaring a state of emergency to avoid the public request-for-proposals search process, he said. He also questioned why no executive session was called to brief all three commissioners on the hiring plan.
He believes the failure to notify him violates the state County Code.

Commissioner Chair Maryanne Petrilla's response was to suggest that he show up for work once in a while if he wants to be part of the decision making.

This pissing contest between the Commissioners and President Judge Mark Ciavarella is going to end up costing Luzerne County a pretty penny if the State Supreme Court doesn't take original jurisdiction. Zen left a comment on an earlier post advocating the throw away the key approach and Mark points out that our demand that every criminal be prosecuted to "full extent of the law" is expensive and maybe the Judge has a pretty good case.

So the Commissioners are being sued by top Judge in the county and the case will be heard by a bunch of other Judges. Who do you think will win?

Job cuts are scheduled in all offices of the Luzerne County Government except the Judiciary at this time.


County approves 27 job cuts to begin Jan. 1

Season Greetings

via Blondesense

Update: From Judi

Idiot watch

The girl that spraypainted swastikas and other hateful stuff on a Wilkes-Barre synagogue has been sentenced to jail.

WILKES-BARRE – Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. on Monday sentenced 19-year-old Nora Rynkiewicz to nine to 18 months in county prison followed by three years of probation.

The shrinks offered the usual psychobabble explaining her behavior which may be valid because I have a hard time understanding how such a young girl could be so full of hate. I think the sentence is excessive for an act of vandalism. She should probably spend a short time in jail and make restitution and be on probation as ordered by the Judge. He could have have been creative by putting her in a community service requirement such as working at the Jewish Community Center as a condition of probation.

Meet Quincy

Between snow shoveling and puppy training I haven't had much time for blogging this weekend. Sometimes you have to say screw politics because what is going on in your life is more important. This little guy is learning faster than any dog I've ever had. He already knows his name, fetch, sit and is getting an idea of what NO means. I'll explain the name later.

You are all suckers for Puppy pics so go see some more at my Facebook page.

YouTube weekend

The first round of shovelling and snow blowing all day and the weather doomsayers that all I accomplished was to make room for the next snowfall on Sunday. The way to have some fun after the storm is to fire up the grill and cook some T-Bones from our favorite butcher shop, Plains Meat. Then settle into my recliner and kick off my boots subjecting Mrs. G to a bad case of

Stinkfoot

Luzerne County Judge sues himself

The Luzerne County budget battle has taken a weird turn.

CV: Luzerne County President Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. escalated his fight against county commissioners, filing a lawsuit Wednesday to block judicial branch layoffs outlined in the 2009 county budget....Ciavarella named himself as a defendant for his role as a member of the Luzerne County Salary Board, and as the plaintiff, as president judge.


Clerk of Courts Bob Reilly is also threatening to sue over staff reductions.

For the longest time the county payroll has been looked at as some sort of jobs program for the relatives and friends of the well connected and now the gravy train has come to end of the line. Luzerne County has been so mismanaged that they can't even get a normal tax anticipation loan so the axe has to fall somewhere.

I have to give credit to Commissioners Maryanne Petrilla and Steve Urban for trying to clean up the mess that they have inherited although I think that they are partially responsible for it. The past budgets proposed by Greg Skrepnak, Todd Vonderheid, Tom Makowski, Tom Pizano, Rose Tucker, Frank Crossin, and an almost endless list of past commissioners, were works of fiction.


Apologies to McGruff for stealing his headline and the Yonk suggests some possible solutions to the impasse.

Deep Throat is deep sixed

The hero of Watergate has passed away.

.

'Deep Throat' Mark Felt Dies at 95

He secretly guided Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward as he and his colleague Carl Bernstein pursued the story of the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee's headquarters at the Watergate office building, and subsequent revelations of the Nixon administration's campaign of spying and sabotage against its perceived political enemies.

.

Watergate happened just as I was just old enough to understand that the government could do bad things. I think that the crimes of the past 8 years make Watergate look pale by comparison. There have been plenty of whistleblowers that have revealed the crimes of the Bush Administration but the press and Congress have ignored them.

Blogroll

We have a differnt look on the sidebar because Blogrolling has had brain damage for months so I went to the Google alternative that I think will be an improvement. I deleted some sites that haven't updated in a while, which is normal after an election, and added a few.

I have spent all of my Blogging Energy Units for today.

Don't use Internet Explorer until after 1PM

I prefer IE7 but I'm glad I also use Firefox to surf the web.

Cnet News

Microsoft issued a critical security warning Tuesday that a malicious exploit is making the rounds and attacking vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 7.

The risk is believed to be widespread, given that IE 7 is the latest version of Microsoft's browser and is bundled with XP service pack 3 and also Vista, said Dave Marcus, director of security research and communications for McAfee's Avert Labs.

The AZN Trojan, which has been making the rounds since the first week of December, has the potential of infecting users' system with a Trojan horse, or "downloaders" that can download other forms of malware onto a user's system.

Microsoft announced it will release a security patch Wednesday via its automatic update system to patch users computers.

The patch will be available after 1PM. You can still probably use IE7 as long as you don't do anything stupid like click on a link in a spam email. But I'm not taking the chance.

Things are tough all over

The news is full of local and state governments trying to make ends meet. Luzerne County is raising taxes, borrowing yet more money and laying off workers to deal with years of mismanagement and the economic downturn. Mayor Tom Leighton has proposed a budget for Wilkes-Barre that increases fees and jacks up every tax that can be raised. And my little burgh of Plains Township will be increasing the property tax despite all the millions that Mohegan Sun Casino has pumped into our coffers. I have some questions about that and it will be the subject of a future post.

Mayor Lou Barletta is taking an axe to the City of Hazleton's budget trying to avoid a tax increase. He is about $900,000 short of balancing the city's $9 million budget and is proposing to close the gap by canceling a 3% pay raise for employees and requiring them to contribute toward their health care plan. He is also proposing going after people who have not paid the garbage fee and businesses that have not paid the mercantile tax.

With all these hundreds of billions of dollars being thrown around by the Feds to bail out banks, Wall Street investment firms and Auto companies a few dollars to help out our local governments is not an unreasonable request.

Note: I had a chat with Mayor Lou yesterday and he agreed to an interview in the first week of the new year. Send me your questions for his Honor in the comments or email. I'll put up a reminder before we meet. Please keep it clean people.

Here come da Judge

Luzerne County will be electing at at least one new Judge of the Court of Common Pleas next year and a bunch of lawyers are lining up for a run. The one sure spot that will be contested is Senior Judge (past President Judge) Michael Conahan's seat and it looks likely that Ann Lokuta will be replaced depending what happens with her appeal. Depending on the outcome of the myriad of investigations going on we may have to pick one or two more jurists. That may be 4 seats all together.

PittstonPolitics.com has been keeping the scorecard of who might be running. Some of the names he has tossed out are:

Joe Terrana, Tom O’Connor, Jackie Carroll Musto, Lisa Gelb, Fred Pierantoni, CJ Bufalino, Mark Bufalino, Rose Randazzo, Eugene Sperazza, Joe Cosgrove, Ray Hassey and Mike Vough.


And these are only Pittston area attorneys! I'm sure there are Barristers from Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton and the Back Mountain that are considering a run.

What the hell is a Prothonotary?

One of my most popular posts is What the hell is a Prothonotary?



Incumbent Luzerne County Prothonotary Jill Moran should not seek reelection. I have an archive of her missteps and will repeat them if she decides to run again.



I've heard a few names that are willing to take on the challenge. We really need Home Rule.

Economic Human Rights Speaker Series

NEPA Organizing Center to Host Presentation on the Economic Crisis

The Center will be hosting Chris Caruso, PhD candidate in Cultural Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center, on Wednesday, December 17th at 6:00 p.m. as part of our Economic Human Rights Speaker Series.

Mr. Caruso will be clearly outlining the roots and manifestations of the present housing market collapse and economic crisis, and we invite the public to attend this presentation and discussion.
Any local residents, organizations, or community leaders interested in participating are encouraged to join us on Dec. 17th or to contact us at www.nepaorganizingcenter.org.

YouTube weekend

McGruff has joined in on this YouTube Weekend thing with Robin Williams On Obama's Election
.

President-elect Barack Obama's struggles with the evil tobacco weed is in the news again.

I know what Barry is going through because it's easy to quit smoking, I've done it about 6 times. For all the gimmicks and crutches out there that will make your wallet lighter the only way to do it is.....

Cold turkey..........John Lennon

In other news

Supreme Court Overturns Bush v. Gore