Posts in month: October, 2009

I recommend any interested parties (that is, parties interested in listening to the single worst political interview of all time) to head over to Corbett’s Corner on WILK’s website.  There, you can read Corbett writing about how Miller is unqualified, or, better yet, if you’re so inclined, listen to this recent broadcast of Miller epic failing.

Necessary Background: Doug Miller failed to file campaign finance reports, which is illegal.  Oops.  Doug Miller is also being sued by the Pilchesky’s (who isn’t?) for not being a Scranton resident.  Normally, I’m pretty suspect of such suits, but after hearing Miller’s “defense” I’m not so sure he’s innocent.

This interview is abysmal.  I understand Doherty’s mentality here, he needs Miller to win to offset the Evans & Company Bloc.  But I’d rather a self-absorbed Evans to a totally inept Miller.

If you want to spare yourself the same embarrassment you’d feel watching Michael Scott on the Office doing something ridiculous and stupid, then I’ll give you a synopsis of this disaster:  Miller refuses to explain anything, answer questions, and really refuses to act like a real candidate.  Ninety-percent of Doug Miller’s dialogue is as follows: he goes on about “setting the record straight” and “I’m not going to comment” or “I don’t want to debate” or “I don’t want to get involved with that” or “I want to move on” and so on.  He won’t even talk about where he lives, where he used to live, who he lives with now.

Then, here comes the best part:  HE HANGS UP ON CORBETT!

Allow me a moment to both laugh and cringe.

…

Now that I’ve composed myself, I will continue.

Normally, I would feel bad.  In fact, I’m inclined to anyway.  But Miller is playing a big-boy game and needs to be able to handle big boy issues, like phone calls to political talk radio (or critical blog posts).  Miller is obviously a Republican-in-training.  Deflect criticism, deny, avoid, obfuscate.  But since he’s still got his training wheels on, Corbett dissects him pretty thoroughly.  This interview is evidence of total inanity.  I’m all for young people running for office, but they need to have credibility and sincerity, which Miller obviously does not.

Gov. Ed Rendell is upset with the legislature’s inaction on the implementation of table games.  Why is it “intolerable” as he called it?  Well, the state comes up $200 million if the legislature doesn’t legalize poker, etc. soon.

This might be ironic if it weren’t so frustrating.  Rendell has no right to be angry about budget shortfalls, period.  This man could’ve taxed table games at a decent level, number one.  But the more egregious offense here is Rendell’s refusal to support a severance tax on gas (which he once supported, then stopped… what happened in between, I wonder).

His legacy, which NEPArtisan could’ve respected, has been tarnished and destroyed by nonsensical disregard for common sense government.  Throwing money at education won’t save his reputation (not to mention this time around he just used stimulus money to plug education holes, which was in direct violation of the purpose of those funds).

But what does Rendell have to lose?  Nothing, really.  He’ll retire with high popularity anyway.  Why that is, I couldn’t tell you.

I always thought it would be sophisticated to use the word “quixotic” on NEPArtisan, and low and behold, Judy Gatelli has provided us an opportunity.

While none of the current Scranton City Council candidates shine brightly as beacons of hope in Scranton’s seemingly endless dark (fine, it isn’t that bad, I felt like being dramatic), Judy Gatelli’s addition to the race won’t really even be a blip on the radar.

Had she been on the ballot, then this would be a different story, but she’s running a… here it comes… quixotic write-in campaign for Council.

The effort required to win a write-in will be insurmountable.  Maybe this is a statement.  Maybe she really thinks she’ll win.  NEPArtisan doesn’t know.

On an amusing, if consistent, side note.  Janet Evans wasn’t available for comment, according to the Times article.  Is she available for anything other than grandstanding at Council?

The race between Margie Bisignani Moyle and Frank Castellano for a local judgeship would be a footnote in any other year. The only reason it matters is because it’s really all there is. But it doesn’t mean the race isn’t interesting.

I sat on a committee that interviewed the two (they were the only ones who showed) for an endorsement and Margie pointed out that she was running against the Good Old Boy Network. Of course, she was running for many more reasons than that, and still is, but I thought it was an odd accusation to make.

Then Judge Harhut changed the game by saying the judgeship would be handling juvenile cases, basically, which is Frank Castellano’s area of expertise. Then what Margie said made sense. That assignment was not the original one and it gives Castellano a talking point.

The judgeship would still cover more than family court and juvenile issues and assignments change all the time, so the argument that this qualifies Frank more does not apply. On top of that, Margie’s experience far, far outweighs all of the experience of every single candidate from the primary combined. Seriously. She has a breadth of knowledge that none can compare with.

I hope she wins, despite the best (and weak) efforts of others to downplay her talents by emphasizing Frank’s. Margie should win. Look at the primary totals. I sincerely doubt thousands of Democrats who voted for Margie in the primary will be switching to Frank for the general.

The Scranton Times today reported that their sister papers, the Citizen’s Voice and Standard-Speaker, are doing very, very well in terms of circulation and growth. Their competition, the Times Leader, also grew, but from the tone of the article, you’d think that the Times won some kind of war. The truth is, all of these papers deserve equal recognition and praise, regardless of percentages. Egon from the Ghostbusters famously declared in the early 80s that “print is dead” and he was very prescient. Circulation of newspapers keeps falling and falling, so any growth is commendable.

Most people of my generation (20-somethings) do not buy newspapers when we can read them online for free, hence a decline in circulation. I personally do like to have a paper in my hands, but I also like to not pay when I don’t have to. Money is always tight (hey, I’ve got almost 100k in student loan debt — awesome). In discussing the local survival-rate of papers, many people tell me that it’s because of an elderly population. That may be the case, but we have to admit that local papers are pretty savvy. And, at least in Scranton, there is a monopoly, despite the Times Leader’s feeble attempts at establishing a presence here.

Papers will die one day, methinks. But it’s more than just paying versus not paying. Newspapers cannot tell the whole story due to limited space and Internet editions just copy and paste articles. Blogs (like DailyKos) and online journalistic institutions (like HuffPo these days) offer analysis and insight, as well as reporting. Traditional media offers simple information (usually with a subtle and inherent bias, a la the aforementioned Times article).

People want more than that. Opinion journalism is the new journalism. Look at Fox News and its popularity. Blogs and the Internet have made new journalism easier. Look at NEPArtisan! Although I wouldn’t describe us as full fledged journalists (yet, at least — we need an income to start paying people to investigate for us), analysis would be the only reason people look at this site. And people will agree or disagree, but the purpose of new media isn’t to force a thought process on somebody (unless it’s Fox). We just want people to think.

The CTC strike, as I intimated in the title of this post, is pretty brave. Public school teachers need to get 180 days in no matter what, so when they strike, they still get their full pay. Not CTC teachers. So they are taking huge financial losses to strike. This is all the more reason for a quick resolution, but it makes their actions all the more poignant. They believe in this so much that they are sacrificing their livelihoods. They’ve got my respect.

The 4AM ticketing spree by the Scranton Police Department may have sucked, but Judy Gatelli’s explanation, that officers are trying to hurt Doherty’s re-election, is insulting to the profession and rooted in paranoia. Sure, a lot of officers aren’t fans of Doherty, but to ticket to hurt his election is a little much.

Cops don’t have to issue warnings, though it would be nice if they did. In fact, I think the officer who issued all of those tickets should’ve warned people, especially since that type of parking has been in practice for years and has not elicted any tickets previously.

But Gatelli’s assertion degrades the issue and changes its focus. Instead of “the officer could’ve been courteous” the debate changes to “the officer hates Doherty” which, I’m sure most people realize, makes little to no sense. Negative sense, actually.

I like Gatelli better than the other choices for Council, honestly. But it’s things like this that got her voted out.

File this under “Who would’ve thought?” Lackawanna County saved money by opening up a contract to bidding! This contract, while not CCI, is prison-related! The county, instead of paying over 300K will now only pay 70K for house arrest monitoring bracelets.

AJ Munchak, taking a page from his national Republican colleagues, still decided to be a naysayer. Another “who would’ve thought?” moment. Being minority commissioner is a sweet deal. You get to offer nothing constructive while criticizing the two guys who do all the real work. And you get a huge paycheck! Munchak should either lay back, or think before he speaks. Aside from his “Mike/Corey don’t like CCI because they’re my friends” e-mail, we have logical, sound reasoning as to why this new contract saves money and is the best offer. But the minority commissioner has instituted the Republican platform: Just say no.

At the least, Lackawanna County just saved some money. Yay! Now let’s bid out the CCI contract and save more.

Teaching is a unique profession. Yes, there’s educating the young, ensuring the viablitiy of a generation. But that’s not why. There’s something far more special. Give up? I’ll tell you: Teachers need to pay in order to keep their jobs.

I’m not talking Luzerne County-style bribes to get jobs. Nope. Under PA state law, teachers must get a master’s degree within five years of being hired or they lose their jobs. Then, every five years thereafter, they must get a master’s or master’s equivalency or be fired. The average person has $30,000 worth of debt these days after college. Teachers need to keep going, though, and the debt never ends. Some districts help pay the costs, but none that I know pay 100%. Scranton pays 0%.

Having to pay a fortune for a degree every five years is sickening and should be illegal. I understand needing to keep teachers educated and up to date, but a mandate should not require teachers to pay out of pocket. People love to complain about teachers having summers off. Newsflash: Doesn’t happen. Summer = degree acquiring time!

Teachers do not make enough money for what they are required to do. They have the same level of education as lawyers within a few years of landing a job and make a tenth of what most laywers do. “Why not be a lawyer, then?” you ask. Well, there’s that whole desire to pass on knowledge and appreciation for learning thing that teachers care about. Pff. Idiots.

Striking is seen by some as a recourse.  Sadly, I agree that teaching should be like other public service unions, such as police and fire, which cannot strike. It provides no benefit, inconveniences families, and there is a minimum amount of days required anyway, which means that nothing really changes in terms of education level. I must qualify this statement by saying reforms are needed to the contract process. Last-best offer binding arbitration is a decent solution.

But I’m far afield. To the task at hand!

CTC. Vo-tech. THEIR strike has power and bite. They do not get paid as much as teachers in districts who send students there. That’s not fair (even less fair that what non-CTC teachers get paid), and an 8% increase isn’t as much as you’d think when you’re making next to nothing. But here’s where they have an advantage: This strike doesn’t inconvenience parents at all. This strike is a problem for districts. They have to worry about a bunch of kids sticking around for a whole day now. That gives the union at CTC leverage and bargaining power. Good for them. Most teachers’ unions don’t have that power. I’m glad they get to take advantage and fight for themselves in a way regular teachers can’t.

A recently released Franklin & Marhall poll shows that PA is unhappy with its Harrisburg legislators.

Of course they are, the budget fiasco was uncalled for. This creates what I see pundits referring to as a “toxic environment” for politicians running for office. This is potentially bad news particularly for incumbents and incumbent parties. If Dems get blamed for the budget fiasco (actually, Rs in the Legislature should), then Dems will lose seats. It should also help guys like Corey O’Brien against incumbents like Paul Kanjorski. Yes, that’s the House of Representatives not the PA Assembly, but if people become dissatisfied in a broad sense, the spill-over will affect these kinds of races. The Specter-Sestak primary is another example. Specter, while moving to the left and consequently more in line with PA values, is also plummeting in popularity. He’s still more popular than Sestak when the two are compared, but Sestak is relatively unknown and he has lots of room to improve. Specter has next to none. The message to politicians is to stop dithering when important issues come up, although with Republican party ID at an abysmal low of 19% nationally, that’s really all they can do to stay relevant. I personally hope voters see through this and throw more of them out.

CCI, in their latest bit of inane desperation to hide from the public what they steal do, have decided it’s time to hide behind HIPPA!

HIPPA is a law protecting private patient information. It’s a good law. Privacy is good.

Except that that’s irrellevant here.

Lackawanna County (and its citizens) aren’t asking for private medical information on prisoners customers, we are asking for documentation on what we’re paying for – you know, a receipt. Totally unreasonable, I know. Pshaw.

I’m flagging this for what it is: bullshit. It’s the latest in a line of lame excuses and defenses from an institution with only their pocketbooks in mind. What with all of the corruption from the Cordaro administration (I can’t wait until the grand jury gets wrapped up, can you?), I wouldn’t doubt something is up here, as I’ve been intimating (or just outright saying).

The release of financial records won’t compromise patient privacy. Prior to release, redact the names. Or only include actual services billed. That only has to be done if it’s going to be made public and it’s a viable alternative to the non-disclosure agreement that CCI wants. A non-disclosure agreement would violate the court order that ruled in favor of Pax Christi, which says the records need to be made public. And it only makes sense that the public be allowed to know how its money is spent.

The CCI farce continues.

Get the title? “More on” sounds like “moron”! We here at NEPArtisan strive to be clever. I think we can all agree on the resounding success in this instance.

Mounting pressure on CCI led them to release some of their paperwork. Based on the Times analysis, only one page really offered finance information, or should I say one line. Just a line with a dollar amount. No explanation. Nothing of substance.

And CCI has the guts to sue the county! Frankly, I’m glad they are suing. It’ll be rather easy to expose them in court for the potential frauds they are. How is it possible to issue a bill without any explanation and expect to be paid? I hope the county sues for damages as well.

Initially, I was surprised at the Times endorsement of Doug Miller and Lee Morgan over Pat Rogan and Frank Joyce. Janet Evans is pretty much a given, so they left her out. I wouldn’t mind leaving her out, too. For the sake of her bad back, of course.

I am not necessarily a fan of any of the five candidates.

Janet “Talks to Everyone Like They Are an Infant” Evans is, as the Times editorial reads, self-absorbed and not really interested in reform or positively affecting the city. Nay-saying is not, and should not be a platform. Honestly, I don’t get why people vote for her.

Doug Miller is eager, good for him, but very, very green. This isn’t necessarily bad, but I fear that he doesn’t understand the way city government works. To be fair, lots of pols get on the job training, though.  I definitely can’t forgive his being a Republican.

Lee Morgan’s performances at Council meadins (to speak Lymanese) don’t endear me to him.  And he’s an R.

Frank Joyce might be okay, but seems unremarkable (which might qualify him in this particular race).

Pat Rogan, while educated (in the process, actually), ran 2 years ago on an anti-immigrant platform that I found borderline xenophobic. We need less Lou Dobbsy types in this world. He did, however, assure me that he’s not quite a zealot for that issue this time around. Maybe because Lou Barletta isn’t cool anymore.  With me, as opposed to the Times, he’s very open for questions, so I do have to give him points for that.

Who would NEPArtisan endorse? Not the Republicans, just because the entire Republican philospohy is restrictive and not progressive. Keep in mind, though, that Republican in Scranton usually means failed Democrat.  But an R is an R.

The word on the street is that Doherty’s people are behind Miller. It only makes sense. Evans/Rogan/Joyce cannot stand the Mayor and would certainly be more obstructionist than the slightly-can’t-stand-the-Mayor Miller.

The Times editorial is probably slightly vindictive in that the Joyce/Rogan/Evans team declined the request for an interview. They should have responded, whether or not they perceive the Times as hostile. It only looks like cowardice or aloofness. Yes, “aloofness” is a word.

The Times probably feels an obligation to endorse every major race every time around, but I would’ve stayed out. Nobody really shines.

The Pittsburg Tribune has revealed that Mayor Doherty has filed any campaign finance reports for his gubernatorial race. He is, after all, busy running for mayor. This complicates things for him, because it limits his ability to raise money.

Doherty, it is important to note, will be running from very, very far behind. While he has a lack of statewide name recognition in his favor (because he can fill in the blank with ads touting how great he is), he will lose the money game.

The only way for him to win, as I see it, is to hope his negatives stay very low as he simultaneously tries like hell to get people to recognize his name and associate it with something good. If the top candidates eviscerate each other and consider Doherty beneath their notice, he may get viable late in the game. By that time, then, it would be too late for his opponents to define him.

There are a lot of factors in play here, particularly with so many candidates in the Democratic primary. Things will undoubtedly seesaw in the coming months, but if Doherty wants to be viable, he needs money. Lots and lots of money.

Standardized tests are the bane of many students and educators.  And our future, basically.

SAT Prep courses and PSSA preparation from the moment we pick up a crayon in kindergarten to when we’re practicing for graduation was not, I’m sure, what any educational theorist ever thought would be appropriate for intellectual growth.

The Keystone Exams, proposed by Rendell and due to roll out in a few years, will replace the PSSA and be a semi-exit exam.  Failing won’t stop a student from graduating, but it will murder their grades to the point where it would be relatively impossible.

This is a 50/50 proposition.  Half good and half bad.

What’s bad is that you can’t use a standardized assessment to actually assess a student.  Howard Gardener is STILL finding more and more intelligences out there.  Everybody is different, the way we learn and the way we think are different.  One way is not more valid than another.  So it isn’t fair to treat Child A like Child B.

What’s good is that it will start failing kids.  Gasp!  No!  Failing kids is bad!  Everybody’s a winner!  Well, it’s like they said in The Incredibles, if everybody is special then nobody is special.  A friend of mine from Europe who teaches in America offered a thought-provoking assessment:  Americans are afraid to fail their children.  It isn’t sad to say that not everybody deserves to graduate.  It’s sad to put a diploma in somebody’s hand if they don’t have the knowledge or skill to survive in the real world, and I’m sorry folks, but that happens all the time.  It’s endemic.  Hell, lawsuits and everybody’s legal right to an education in the least restrictive environment guarantees it.

So, the Keystone Exam can be good, because it will force some students who deserve to fail, to fail.

But that’s a poor solution to the problem.  It treats the symptoms without curing the disease.  I’ll be changing that ratio from 50/50 to 100% fail.

In an ideal world, there would be no standardized exams.  Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle got by without them.  So can we.

Of the four candidates who will be winning the general election for Scranton School Board, two are high school dropouts, one may as well be, and one has some college (yay, kinda!).

Whether or not these people are great guys is irrellevant.  I happen to think one of the dropouts is a perfectly nice guy.  But I don’t think somebody who forsook their education at the most basic level deserves to make any decisions about how to run a district.  The administration of tens of millions of dollars and the education of thousands of students are at stake here. 

We have been robbed of an opportunity to vote in some intelligent, well-educated people.  Instead, politics, at the school board level, is a popularity contest.  Most local politics tends to be.  But with such a weighty responsibility vested in directors, voters should stop to consider.  Although, I suppose, it’s too late now.  Too bad NEPArtisan didn’t exist earlier.

What’s fun about freedom and the right to vote is that we have the freedom to be ignorant and the right to vote in high school dropouts. 

That doesn’t mean we have to excercise that freedom and encourage it in those who run our schools.

The Times reports today that CCI is countersuing the county.  Score one for NEPArtisan.  We had the scoop a day earlier. Yay us!  It pays to contact elected officials and ask questions and all that journalistic jazz.

To be fair, we didn’t get details, because, due to the litigation, Commissioner Washo wouldn’t go into detail.  We’re still excited, though.

The contention from CCI is that they provided necessary financial documents.  The County says it has nothing.  Pax Christi (the organization that filed the Right-to-Know claim against CCI and won) hasn’t gotten anything either.  The County rightfully decided not to pay CCI until it gets, you know, information on what exactly it’s paying for.  Such crazy ideas!

CCI is a disgrace.

The lawsuit by two female police officers against city officials over sexual harassment, discrimination, and ignoring complaints of such, has the potential to damage Mayor Doherty’s gubernatorial race.

Chief Elliott’s comments may have been made in passing, or not intended to offend, but most human beings know with whom they can joke and with whom they can’t.  I, for example, wouldn’t call a stranger or acquaintance vulgar or insulting names.  Friends are a different story.  Every social group has its respective jargon.  If the women didn’t like being called whores (and not many women do) then Elliott was in the wrong.  He apologized and was suspended.

But the resolution was evidently unsatisfactory, but not because of the apology or suspension.  Instead, nothing changed allegedly.

Now, is the union using this to attack a city that it routinely disagrees with?  I’m sure of it.  But the issue that they are using is completely legitimate, and I don’t fault them.  While Doherty isn’t at fault for Elliott’s words, he did appoint the man.  That leaves him tangentially culpable.  He suspended the Chief, which cost him $1200 in pay.  That is adequate punishment, as it is both symbolic, since it censures Elliott, and it hurts his pocketbook.

He didn’t learn his lesson.   And any candidate running against Doherty in the gubernatorial now has dirt.  I can hear it now:  ”Doherty refused to dismiss a Police Chief who routinely sexually harassed and discriminated against women.”

I’m sure every NEPArtisan reader has been waiting for us to weigh in on the abortion debate, and with the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation conference Lifing it up at the Hilton, we figured it was time.

Everybody has heard every argument for and against on both sides ad infinitum, so I’ll try not to belabor anything.  What I found amusing in the article the Times wrote on this conference is that Scranton is viewed (by some random authority on the subject) is the pro-life capital of America.

Obviously, pro-choice male that I am, I want abortions for everyone.  I only wish men could get abortions, too, so that we could all dance and sing in the streets about killing fetuses, which is, deep down, what every pro-choice individual wants.

It felt good to get that out.

The PPLF is a wingnut organization.  Gary Cangemi, creator of Umbert the Unborn (most awesome name ever), is the same guy who wanted The Crucible removed from the English curriculum in the Scranton School District because it taught witchcraft.  Thankfully, ignorance didn’t prevail.  The Crucible actually teaches about right wing crazies who persecute people for their own gain.

While I’m on it, Umbert the Unborn is just plain unrealistic.  First, his mother probably would’ve aborted him.  Secondly, fetuses don’t talk.  I just don’t get it.

Maybe Abortionists need a cartoon mascot.  Albert the Abortionist!  Or how about…  Cathy the Girl Who Was Brutally Raped and Didn’t Want to Have Her Rapist’s Baby So She Got an Abortion!  Both endearing answers to Umbert the Unborn.  Which do our readers prefer?

Abortions won’t ever stop.  I remember being struck a few years ago by a poem by Ovid, nearly 2,000 years old, about a girl who lay dying because she had tried to perform an abortion on herself.  And a friend of mine who used to be a Scranton cop before Roe v Wade told me that not a week would go by when they’d get a call about a woman trying to perform one on herself.  Abortion isn’t going away.  Pro-choice people do not love abortions or even encourage them.  It is cruel to rob a rape-victim of choice.  It is cruel to rob anyone of choice, particularly when desperation won’t change that choice – only make the result worse.

But the wingnuts who fear witches and liberals probably don’t worry too much about the desperation of those that don’t ride that moral high horse straight into the arms of Jesus.  Life is too rosy for them.

The fine levied against Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. for poisoning the earth:  $56,000.  That’s it.  That’s how much our land is worth.  Fracking, aka injecting chemicals into the ground to make rich people richer, requires a mile long cement casing along the hole drilled into the earth.  With the cut in DEP personnel, as per Gov. Rendell’s abhorrent budget, there will inevitably be less oversight.  Nice.  So how’re we going to know if those cement casings aren’t fractured, just like the shale?  We won’t.  We only knew about Cabot because they spilled chemicals overtly.  And it’s only worth 56K.  We already don’t tax them.  They are already going to rake in epic profits on our land.  And ruining it even more blatantly than usual is only worth a few pennies.  We are worth more than that.  Pennsylvania is worth more than that.