The plan to make small municipalities pay for utilizing State Police coverage may encourage null. Many towns employ part-time police officers, and many don’t have any at all. They rightfully should pay for the drain on State Police resources, since cities like Scranton, for example, pay for their own police.

Pooling and combining resources with neighboring towns will increase collective purchasing power and make it far easier to create regional, full time police forces. It would help them to avoid paying a fee to maintain PSP coverage and it would increase police presence and security and also the ability for citizens to have crime issues resolved. There are usually two State Police officers on in Lackawanna County, so if there is a big problem up Greenfield, then down in Covington, then in Benton one right after the other, the response time, which is already long, will get much, much longer.

Having a regional police force may be on par with the fees for maintaining PSP coverage, but the benefits far outweigh cost. More cops is a good thing.

Continuing with my aggravation at social hatred directed at gays, the Super Bowl ad extravaganza deserves criticism. An organization wanted to air an ad for a gay dating site. CBS said no. An organization that wanted to air an anti-choice ad, though, got the green light.

Conservatives who are against women’s rights, sure! Gay people, though, no way.

Add CBS to the list of ignorant companies that engage in open discrimination.

The Scranton Times today published a letter-to-the-editor that contains blatant homophobic rhetoric. Anthony DePaolo says that homosexuality doesn’t provide happiness, it’s unnatural, and it harms children.

If somebody sent a blatantly racist letter-to-the-editor, somehow I doubt that it would be printed. Why, then, did the Times allow this trash in there?
Bigotry is pervasive in our society when it comes to homosexuals. They can’t get married (but straight people can) and they can’t fight and die for our freedoms in the armed forces (only straight people can). Now, DePaolo gets in there and joins the “I hate gays” chorus. As you may have noticed, I’ve been pretty critical of the Republican Party, calling their anit-gay stances “hatred.” Denying equal rights based on sexuality, whatever false logic they want to use to back it up, qualifies as hatred in my book. Remember when Bush said terrorists “hate our freedom”? Yeah, that made no sense to me. The issues were probably a little more broad than that. How can you hate freedom? But then, I see all of this homophobic, anti-gay rhetoric, and I think to myself, these people must hate the freedom of gays. They restrict it, and limit it.

I hope the Times doesn’t print this kind of trash any longer. Even if their intent was to showcase an ignorant opinion, it’s still bigotry in print.

I’m going to deviate from local coverage for a moment to vent about a national figure.

Sarah Palin embodies everything that’s wrong with American politics. She plays well to populist people who are dissatisfied with pretty much everything. Good for her, but she’s barely qualified to breathe, let alone be a viable politician. She quit being Governor to go on a book tour, for God’s sake! Selfish, money-hungry, egoist. Palin.

Anyway, when it came out that Rahm Emmanuel said the word “retard” in a meeting, Palin, who has an infant with disabilities (that she regularly leaves to speak at Tea Party Conventions for $100,000 grand or to sell books), called for his resignation.

Then, Rush Limbaugh went on his radio-show and, pompous ass that he is, went on and on about “retards” for whatever reason.

Palin, who if she were consistent and honorable and not an opportunistic political Hack should’ve called for him to lose his show, instead came out and said it’s okay when Rush Limbaugh does it, because it’s satire.

Hypocrite.

Rush Limbaugh may be an idiot, but he can say what he wants. Rahm Emmanuel may not have tact, but he can also say what he wants. They deserve equal treatment. But Palin has one set of morals for Democrats and one set of morals for Republicans and she doesn’t have the decency to admit that it’s all political. It’s one thing to disagree on matters of policy, but this is a matter of language and what I guess she would call vulgarity.
Well, it’s time for me to write some satire about how Palin is retarded. That’s okay with her, right? I won’t have to resign my position as owner/administrator of NEPArtisan, right?

In an absolutely stunning move, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party voted to support Single Payer Health Care for the state.  This is beyond amazing, and it’s one of those moments where I’m proud to be a Democrat.

From the Pennsylvania Progressive, who got this from HealthCare4AllPA:

The Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee today unanimously endorsed a resolution calling for passage of single payer healthcare, Senate Bill 400 and House Bill 1660, also known as the “Family and Business Healthcare Security Act.”

Given the healthcare reform deadlock in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania’s nation-leading status in the battle for state-based “Medicare for All,” is all the more significant.

“Not only does Pennsylvania now have the Democratic Party on board with the Single Payer healthcare for all,” said Healthcare for All PA executive director Chuck Pennacchio, “we also have the promised signature of our governor and the active support of Republican and Democratic leaders in both the State Senate and State House.”

Added Pennacchio, “Pennsylvania is clearly ‘ground zero’ for cost-saving, life-enhancing, job-creating, quality, comprehensive, publicly-funded, privately-delivered, healthcare for all. Once PA adopts the proven single payer solution, our neighboring states will move rapidly to adopt the same answer, and congress will quickly follow suit.”

I don’t know if the Republicans in the General Assembly will go for it, but this is still a step in the right direction.  Imagine PA residents not having to worry about money if they get sick.  I know so many people that this would help.  Not only that, reducing health care costs for businesses in PA would spur growth and investment on an unprecedented scale.  There’s a lot to say on this topic, and I’ll be investigating the actual bill to give a more detailed report.

If you want real health care reform, though, and you are tired of a Federal Government that can’t get anything done, vote for a PA Democrat.  That’s the bottom line.

Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee was not able to rally behind a single candidate for Governor.

The Democratic establishment went overwhelmingly in favor of establishment man Jack Wagner, despite his lackluster fundraising.  Dan Onorato, who is the clear front runner with his millions in campaign funds, came in second.

Joe Hoeffel, the only true liberal, progressive in the race, was knocked out after the first round of voting.

The second round of voting looked like this:

Jack Wagner:  153 Votes
Dan Onorato: 76
Anthony Williams:  48

And 27 people abstained as a way of showing their support for Joe Hoeffel.

State Senator Anthony Williams should raise some eyebrows, because he hasn’t even officially declared for Governor.  He’s a very strong Philadelphia candidate.  Joe Hoeffel is from the Philly area, but not Philadelphia itself.  Williams rose eyebrows when he announced fundraising half a million dollars without even declaring.  He even raised more than Doherty and Hoeffel.  If he were to make it official, expect those numbers to jump.

Now, you may notice that even though Jack Wagner got 153 votes and yet didn’t get the endorsement.  That’s because an official endorsement requires a 2/3 majority.

This rule, proposed by Governor Ed Rendell a few years back, is valuable because if somebody were to get that 2/3 that demonstrates overwhelming party unity.  Democrats are very good at infighting, and this helps stave that off.

Jack Wagner and Dan Onorato currently don’t impress me, particularly after the PA Progressive Summit.  Hoeffel and Doherty were pretty progressive, but Doherty may as well be out of the race.  Hoeffel will have to pull off something big to close the gap.  Williams I know next to nothing about, except that unions rate him pretty highly, which is always good.

Chris Doherty, who keeps saying he’s running for Governor even though nobody believes him, did not have his name in the running for the Governor’s nomination, which certainly didn’t end speculation about his candidacy.

Likely, he did it because he wouldn’t have gotten very many votes, which would be very embarrassing.

His campaign is basically dead in the water.  He’s traveling around the state less, he has next to no money, his campaign manager bailed, and the e-mail his wife sent about an Onorato/Doherty ticket doesn’t really portray strength.

Not only this, but Doherty bailed on the State Committee Meeting rather than be there for the votes.  It almost looks as though he’s hiding his head in shame.  Not good politics.  Not a good message.

Senator Arlen Specter, who a year ago was a Republican, got an endorsement from the Democratic State Committee.   Specter beat Sestak 227-72 to surpass the 2/3 threshold needed.

Frankly, I am amazed at the plurality of support he received, given his history.  There could be a number of reasons for this, and I have no idea which it would be.  Maybe Sestak’s poor campaign organization turned people off.  Maybe Specter’s move leftward appeased the Committee people.  Maybe Specter seems more viable than Sestak in the general election against right-wing extremist Pat Toomey and the Teabaggers.

I agree with all three possibilities.  Sestak is poorly organized, Specter has been pushed to the left by this primary, and Specter, polls show, does better against Toomey (still below Toomey, but that can change).

This measure of unity will benefit him, because it allows for open institutional support.  Anything we can do to be united sooner against the forces of the GOP is a positive.

Chris Paige took the race for the Republican nod in PA-11 right to Lou Barletta’s doorstep.

Barletta wants to sell Hazleton’s public assets in order to plug a budget gap and so Paige looked into it, crunched numbers, and came up with a few reasons why it’s a bad idea.  So, he went to Hazleton with a Powerpoint and showed them who’s boss.

Now, here is why Chris Paige can never win elected office:  The man is belligerent, and responds to those who disagree with ridicule and derision.  Voters don’t like that, last I checked.

Case in point, Paige was criticized in Hazleton for being snobbish, acting better than everybody else, and basically being arrogant.  Well, first off, he is.  He’s totally entitled to be, but he responded on his blog to being called out for being who he is.  Paige likes to throw around his education, for all the good it did him.  He went to the Ivy Leagues, hooray, and came out with two important qualities: the ability to ignore logic and the ability to twist it.  Just look at his global warming ability.  Look at anything he says, really.

Most people don’t really know the ins and outs of actual rhetoric, but when people read Paige’s words, something should start tickling the back of the brain.  Something shouldn’t feel right.  But it’s hard to articulate just what it is.  Well, that’s because Paige loves to use intellectual fallacies, particularly misdirection.  What that means is that he sets up arguments that sounds pretty logical but either are not logical at all, or are not relevant.

Let’s look at his response to people calling him out for being a snob.

His entire post (which I’d rather not dignify by linking to it) works under the assumption that people perceive educated people as snobs.  Problem #1:  Being highly educated does not make one a snob.  Letting it get to your head does.  Most people don’t go looking deeply into the structure of an argument, and I don’t blame them.  Having to deal with people who are like this can be pretty damn tedious.

Next up, he points out that people wouldn’t hire doctors or lawyers if they didn’t have degrees.  Sure they wouldn’t.  Problem #2: Equating being a Congressperson with a highly skilled profession.  Doctors or lawyers MUST have education to even call themselves doctors or lawyers.  Congressmen do not.  In fact, the Founders could’ve patted themselves on the back, since many were educated, and required a degree or a citizenship test in the Constitution.  But they didn’t, sorry Mr. Paige.  Instead, they understood that a plurality is important.  Give me the farmer’s perspective.  Give me the blue blood’s perspective.  As for his qualification, being a hedge fund manager, well, I’m really not interested in that perspective.  We had ten years of that and the economy went to shit.  Please stay home.  No more financiers.

Then, Paige calls the arguments against him fallacious.  Problem #3: The arguments can’t possibly be fallacious unless one accepts the invalid arguments presented in Problems #1 and #2.  And this is a very, very clever tactic that Republicans often use: I called you fallacious (a fancy way of saying “full of shit”) first, so you can’t accuse me of it.  In reality, their arguments aren’t fallacious, they are responding to an argument that is weak, and outright incorrect.

To end it all, Paige gets dramatic and says we may as well close our colleges and universities if we don’t think a Congressman should have an education.  Problem #4: A false choice.  This isn’t only full of high-drama, it’s not really what we “may as well” do.  We should evaluate candidates according to their merits, is what we should do.  A college degree isn’t the be all and end all of intellect and wisdom.  Not only that, he says Barletta should be disqualified for not completing college.  Not only is this snobbish, it is elitist.  And it’s wrong.

Believing that every Congressperson should be highly educated, while sounding nice, is actually dangerous.  Americans deserve representation from all aspects of our society and culture.  Education is irrelevant without wisdom and wisdom is by far a more important quality.  Farmers can have wisdom, but not an education.  Ivy League Hedge Fund managers can have education, but not wisdom.  I know what I would rather by a long shot, how about you?  On top of that, Hedge Fund managers have no idea what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck and the John Edwards “Son of a Millworker” argument isn’t enough, sorry.  Being wealthy and living in an exclusive, private gated community doesn’t really resonate with the common man, you know, the ones struggling to send their kids to college, or to pay their utilities, student loans, mortgage, car payment, and on and on.

So those of you who like to read Chris Paige’s daily diatribes on his blog, take them for what they are:  The rants of a man who sucks at the teat of Wall Street, derides the uneducated, and uses his education to manipulate and obfuscate.  You know, a typical Republican.

The US Census is important for many reasons, the biggest of which is apportionment of Congressional seats.  One of the other important reasons would be federal and state funding for cities, which is relative to size.

As such, when the Census came out and said Latinos need to be counted, Lou Barletta (R-Racistland), agreed.

He didn’t want anybody looking brown in his city (unless it was him after a tanning session), but now that he can get something out of it, he’s all for illegals in Hazleton.

At least Latinos have a temporary reprieve while the Census is on.

For those of you who have been reading, you’ve noticed I’m not too fond of the Library Authority. The biggest reason isn’t that it will inevitably flex some muscle to build a new library in South Side, or even that it will incur debt doing so. The biggest problem I have is that half of the Authority members are not from Scranton.

No non-city resident should have the power to incur debt for a city authority that we, Scrantonians, are ultimately responsible for. It is not right, nor is it fair.

As for the debt issue, the only way I could possibly get behind this authority, after they dump all of the appointed outsiders, is if they have a revenue stream capable of paying any debt acquired for the building of a new library.

A library is South Side is a great idea. The area is very depressed and has a large immigrant and lower income population, both groups would benefit greatly from a library and would be very likely to use it. Computer access for kids, learning tools for non-English speakers, and, of course, books are all going to be beneficial to the area, not to mention the creation of a destination in South Side.

I do not like the idea of it being the main city library, however, as that is poor city planning. The downtown needs a library.

Janet Evans has opposed the Library Authority mostly for financial reasons, and maybe just because it’s something the Mayor wants and she can flex her muscle, who knows. In the Times today, she was quoted as saying she’s open but she won’t be changing her mind on this. Hmm… Contradiction much?

Here is what I think could be acceptable:

The Albright gets leased by Lackawanna College, under the condition that the Library remains open to the public. This would provide a guaranteed revenue stream for the Authority.

The Library Authority holds fundraisers and solicits donations for the new library, so that wealthy people can get their name on a big plaque near the entrance. Hey, universities do that stuff all the time and it works for them.

The new library leases space for a café in the library itself, which would also generate revenue. I do not like the idea of a bank going there, but that would also provide a revenue stream.

All of this would be conditional upon the removal of the non-residents of the Authority, since they have no right to determine the governance of anything Scranton-related.

Those are my personal conditions for support. A library would be beneficial and would spur development in an area that badly needs it.

State Rep. Kevin Murphy is proposing a change to the way we pay our property taxes, something that we wrote about back in the infancy of this site. The bills would be split city and school district taxes. The reason that this is good for taxpayers is because it allows people who are having financial trouble to pay the much smaller city bill and not face city late fees.

The major problem in Scranton is NCC, which handles collection of delinquent taxes. They are able, under their contract with the city, to charge fees for collection, which then pile onto the taxpayer, who is already behind. It makes little sense to punish somebody who can’t pay with more fees, it only makes their situation worse. If residents pay the smaller city bill, they will avoid being raped and pillaged thousands of dollars for being impoverished.

Not only that, but the city can place liens on property who don’t pay tax bills. The school district cannot. The chance of, say, losing one’s house for not paying goes down exponentially if these bills are split.

In regard to the prohibitive cost cited by the district, I have to ask where that $24,000 figure came from. See, when I spoke to Murphy, he pointed out that all it will take will be a separate piece of paper in an envelope. That doesn’t sound like a big expense to me. A few reams of paper and ink doesn’t cost that much.

This is a great plan, and should be supported by both the people and the legislature.

Steven Solieri has made it official, he’s running to be the Republican to take on Chris Carney. He graced NEPArtisan with his presence a few months ago to argue that Carney is out of touch, or some such buzzword (or phrase in this case), because he voted for the House health care plan, which would help poor people and middle class families afford health care. Obviously, that’s out of touch.

Solieri is an accountant. That’s all we need in Congress, another white collar Republican who worships the financial industry and feeds on the lifeblood of the working man. Sorry, anybody who likes finance enough make a career out of it is going to vote for anything that Wall Street wants.

Not only this, but he is a Teabagger. Remember that poll that indicated how ignorant Republicans tend to be? Yeah, Teabaggers, I’m sure, make up the majority of those people. So, nothing like pandering to the right-wing fringe. I wonder of Solieri thinks Obama is a foreign-born socialist gay-loving baby-killer.

He should, at the least, disavow the more radical elements of the Teabagging crew. I’m not sure who the favorite is in the Republican primary. Solieri fits the profile, but Derk has the advantage of having been in the race longer.

Gasp! Inflammatory title! Indignation!
But seriously, Research 2000 recently did a poll of self-identified Republicans, asking them their beliefs on a whole host of issues. There are articles all over the place about this, and it has been in the news, so forgive the repetition if you’ve heard this, but I thought it worth commenting on.

I often rail against the Republican Party, since their ideas are socially destructive. Republican politicians use xenophobia (damn those illegals) and religion (praise Jesus, who hates pro-choicers) to convince people that they are the best candidates, and then don’t actually deliver any legislation on those issues (Republicans had both chambers of Congress and a Republican president for most of the last decade) so that they can continue using said issues to deceive. Then, what they do is pass legislation that punishes the poor and middle class while rewarding corporations and the wealthy.

Well, their campaign to reinforce stupidity has paid off! Take a look at these results (apologies to Kos, whose question order I cribbed) and feel free to either laugh or cry. Sure, it’s funny people are so stupid and ignorant, but it’s also sad, since these people vote, despite the lack of a viable frontal lobe. Pay particular attention to the “Not Sure” crowd. I’ve posted some of my favorite questions, along with some comments.

Should Barack Obama be impeached, or not?

Yes 39
No 32
Not Sure 29

Seriously? Why? This frankly makes no sense. But then again, Republicans tend not to.

Do you think Barack Obama is a socialist?

Yes 63
No 21
Not Sure 16

And what if he were? First off, he’s not. If he were, we would have single payer health care, we wouldn’t have a Congress owned by corporations, etc. Republicans often lump Socialist and Fascist all together when they hurl insults. Socialism and fascism are not compatible, dolts. Most people don’t even know what socialism is.

Do you believe Barack Obama was born in the United States, or not?

Yes 42
No 36
Not Sure 22

Really? 58% of you? There’s a birth announcement in not one, but two Hawaiian newspapers!

Do you believe Barack Obama wants the terrorists to win?

Yes 24
No 43
Not Sure 33

Yes, his election was a plot to give Osama bin Laden free reign to destroy our country. 57% either believe Obama is pro-terrorist or believe its up in the air. I’m having trouble even commenting on this. I may not be the brightest man, but I can’t lower my IQ enough to communicate on this level. What did Hunter S. Thompson call it? The New Dumb. Sounds about right.

Do you believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be President than Barack Obama?

Yes 53
No 14
Not Sure 33

Ha! Well, that’s a legitimate belief. Come on, she couldn’t name newspapers she read (unfair question!) and she could see Russia from her house (great foreign policy experience).

Do you believe Barack Obama is a racist who hates White people?

Yes 31
No 36
Not Sure 33

Obviously Obama hates white people. Nevermind the fact that his mother was white. He hated her, too! Duh!

Do you believe your state should secede from the United States?

Yes 23
No 58
Not Sure 19

LET THE SOUTH GO! I’m all of the United States of New England. It would be a liberal progressive utopia.
Should Congress make it easier for workers to form and join labor unions?

Yes 7
No 68
Not Sure 25

Of course Republicans don’t want unions. Then corporations couldn’t exploit people and force wage slavery on us.

Should openly gay men and women be allowed to serve in the military?

Yes 26
No 55
Not Sure 19

Should same sex couples be allowed to marry?

Yes 7
No 77
Not Sure 16

Should gay couples receive any state or federal benefits?

Yes 11
No 68
Not Sure 21

Should openly gay men and women be allowed to teach in public schools?

Yes 8
No 73
Not Sure 19

Okay, okay. We get it. REPUBLICANS HATE GAY PEOPLE. I’m glad they admitted it. The funny thing is, this people answering this survey weren’t afraid to say these things. How many of them were embarrassed enough to lie? Well, 73% of Republicans want to deny gay people a job for being gay. That’s awesome. Obviously gay people can’t be allowed to teach, because, what, they’ll turn your kids gay? Is there some sort of airborne virus they carry? Discrimination. Bigotry. Republican.

Should public school students be taught that the book of Genesis in the Bible explains how God created the world?

Yes 77
No 15
Not Sure 8

Hahahahahaha! To hell with Science. Bring in the Bible! Why not dump Astronomy for Astrology while we’re at it? Substitute Alchemy for Chemistry?

Should contraceptive use be outlawed?

Yes 31
No 56
Not Sure 13

Do you believe the birth control pill is abortion?

Yes 34
No 48
Not Sure 18

These last three show that Republicans believe that reproductive rights are wrong, that women’s bodies are not their own.

Do you believe that the only way for an individual to go to heaven is though Jesus Christ, or can one make it to heaven through another faith?

Christ 67
Other 15
Not Sure 18

Obviously, if you’re a Republican Christian, you’re right and everybody else is wrong. It’s like Steve Colbert said at the Correspondent’s dinner a few years back, Republicans believe that every religion is valid, Buddhism, Islam, etc., because Republicans believe that all of them can accept Jesus Christ as their saviors.

With that kind of world view, no wonder they are so malleable when it comes to Republican politicians, and it’s why Republican politicians are so brilliant. Republicans believe their religion is better than everybody elses, so all the politicians have to do is use that to get elected.

R-Politician: I love Jesus!

Average Republican: Yay, I’m voting for that guy.

R-Politician: Jesus would want me to give tax breaks to the wealthy.

Average Republican: Yay, trickle-down economics will help me one day when things eventually possibly maybe trickle down to me!

All in all, this whole series of insights is pretty eye-opening, and depressing. So yes, my title is a little on the rough, inflammatory side. But it’s accurate. Reread the above evidence if you still disagree.

Corey O’Brien, who, I think, has been waging a pretty effective campaign against corporately funded Congressman Paul Kanjorski, told Politico yesterday that Kanjorski has “zero chance” of winning.

While I’ve gotten pretty disgusted with Kanjo, hubris isn’t something I’m really fond of. Sorry. The Kanjo campaign has a lot of money in the bank, he’s been dropping stimulus money all over the district, he’s been all over television, he has a long record of delivering for the area, and he has seniority which he can leverage for the 11th. Corey has none of those things. Instead, Corey has that he’s not Paul Kanjorski, which is a valid point, but not a game-changer and definitely not reason to say that Kanjo has no chance to win at all.

Corey follows up by saying he’s not 100% sure that Kanjo has zero chance. Then why say zero chance?

A lot of the local complaints about Corey involve his arrogance and ambition and comments like this only reinforce it. Hubris is not becoming in a candidate.

Wilkes-Barre, long in an even deeper depression than Scranton, has recently decided the best way to deal with unsavories is to become a police state straight out of a null, Orwellian nightmare. That’s right, CCTV!

Closed Circuit Television cameras will be all over Wilkes-Barre’s downtown, which means that everything you do down there will be on camera. Scratch your ass? Pick your nose? On camera. These cameras, and those watching, are part of a disturbing American trend that removes personal freedom and privacy in the name of public safety (remember those scanners at airports that show people naked, even kids?).

“Big Brother” entered our lexicon when Orwell wrote about a messed up futuristic society where the government watched everything you did. That’s right, he was writing about Wilkes-Barre.

America does not need to become a surveillance society. The freedom of privacy and of the individual are essential to democratic society, and slowly but surely we’re moving away from that. Allow me to make an extreme comparison, but a valid one: Orwell was writing about Stalinism, which is a filthy blend of totalitarianism and communism. If Stalin had been able to use CCTV, and other Big Brotheresque technology, then his job of eliminating dissent and opposition would’ve been made much easier.

The counter argument usually sounds like this, “Well, if you have nothing to hide, what are you afraid of?” That argument assumes guilt and that CCTV exists to ferret it out. Sorry, we aren’t all suspects.

I’m not one of those people that hates the government or thinks there should be less of it. I think it needs to expand to provide more essential social services, actually. But in the realm of privacy, it needs to back off and stop watching every time we sneeze.

Newly appointed Councilman John Loscombe has, quite nobly, decided to take a large pay cut and stay on Council. The Pension Board froze Loscombe’s pension because one cannot collect a paycheck and pension from the city. NEPArtisan reported this freeze the other day and, frankly, I’m surprised he stayed, but good for him. Most people can’t afford that kind of a pay cut.

The issue remains about effectiveness, however. Since Loscombe can’t vote on any issues related to pensions due to conflict of interest (which means he can’t vote on contract issues), the Supermajority, as we’ve written, isn’t quite as solid as many Evans supporters think.

At least he will merely serve out his term, as he stated in the Times today. This will allow somebody with more broad-based power to vote on all things city-related.

Lackawanna County should most certainly purchase, or even build, property in the downtown. The amount of rentals going on is absurd. The county sinks money into a bottomless pit with nothing to show for it at the end, as Commissioner Washo pointed out.

When this occurs, people will inevitably complain that the County is spending money it doesn’t have and that they shouldn’t do it. Understood. But that’s no reason not to do it. Housing county government is expensive and it should have assets in return for its money. Not only that, but owning property will reduce cost in the long term.

The only problem is size. The County should build something that is large enough to hold all county offices, so that people don’t have to travel halfway across the downtown to get business done. It’s inefficient and wastes time, not only for taxpayers, but also for County offices that needs to work in tandem.

Gene Stilp, activist and rabble-rouser, may be well intentioned in his criticism of corruption, and, as of yesterday, Senator Mellow, but the man needs to consider his methods.

Standing outside Senator Mellow’s office, protesting corruption, with a giant groundhog named “Bobby the Hog Mellow” is so stupid, that there isn’t even a word in the language to describe just how dull, childish, and ineffective this dramatic display really was. Really? Bobby the Hog Mellow? Are people really going to look at that and say, “Wow, how innovative! Let’s join the revolution!”

No. They are going to laugh. And they would be right.

Not only this, but writing out checks to cash, which is what Stilp has a problem with, isn’t illegal. Criticize the policy, not Mellow. The Senator hasn’t bothered responding to the Scranton Times any longer, which I’m sure grinds their gears, but why would he? While this may look shady, and Mellow has done some shady things (like rent an office to himself), this cash deal is not the herald of a criminal overlord. Stilp and the Times have been overblown.

Next time Stilp protests, I’m sure he’s going to have a paper null null called “Mellow the Big Fat Stupidhead” with signs that say “Nyah-nyah” all over the place. Innovation!

Ugh.

Next time, write essays, hand out fliers, get the word out on the web. Don’t make your cause look farcical, please.

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is a shameful policy, and inherently discriminatory. America, land of the free, home of the brave (except if you’re gay, then you can’t marry people you love, visit them in the hospital, or serve your country in foreign wars if you’re a male who goes tanning).

People who want to fight for this country, to die for its ideals and its people, can’t do it if they’re openly gay. Absurd. We’ve lost dozens of military personnel who are fluent in Arabic because they either admitted they were gay, or were outed. Why is this even an issue?

Aside from a recent Research 2000 Poll that said twenty-some percent of Republicans said that gay people shouldn’t be allowed to teach children, most people aren’t that inherently hateful.

If an openly gay serviceman would harm morale, as some argue, then there is a problem with bigotry in the army. That problem is not a gay problem, it is the problem of straights who are intolerant. That would be like punishing black people when whites are racist.

Predictably, Republican Senators have spoken up and said they will fight any change to DADT. They really should say it, instead of hiding behind fluffy “reasoning”: Republican Senators hate gay people, are discriminatory bigots, and only follow law and Constitution (Equal Protection anybody?) when it suits them. And their worst of crime of all: deluding themselves into thinking that they don’t do any of those things.

Gays who want to serve in the military are far braver than Americans that don’t, especially since they want to fight to defend people who don’t respect or outright discriminate against who they are.