Posts in month: March, 2010

Janet Evans, in her defense of the choice of Giovanni Piccolino to head the Scranton Parking Authority, cited his ownership of a small business and the parking issues that he has to deal with downtown.

In other news, I have to park on my street and I own a garage. Does that make me qualified?

Next up, Evans defended the selection of Andy Sbaraglia as the head of the Redevelopment Authority because he’s attended a lot of meetings.

In other news, Ray Lyman, who has attended many Council Meetings, will be applying for the next vacant seat, should any vacancies arise.

Both bits of logic here are flawed and neither is really qualified. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are bad choices, but I seem to recall Evans wanting resumes for anybody applying for these positions. The current heads of both authorities, by virtue of their experience on those authorities, have more experience, and therefore a better resume, than the Supermajority’s choice.

So it goes, I suppose.

And on a semi-related issue, Janet Evans, as many know, is a teacher, but has been out for some time due to illness/injury/something-or-other. I ask this in total seriousness: How is it that she can attend Council Meetings, sit at Court for a full day testifying, and go campaigning, but not work?

The other day, I criticized the Times for giving Doherty a whole story on his rejection of per diems while totally ignoring that pretty much every other State Senate candidate will not be taking them either. Today, Chuck Volpe gets a whole story on the issue. Right under it, a story about Doherty touring Marcellus Shale. Doherty 2, Volpe 1, Wansacz -5. I hope the Times covers every candidate’s views on per diems and lets them talk about whether or not they’re taking them. That’s only fair in terms of space and time and free publicity. Now, with the Doherty-visits-Marcellus Shale-write-up, every candidate deserves yet another article, in the interest of fairness.

That’s a lot of space they’ll need to devote to this race. Something tells me it won’t happen. A few weeks ago, they didn’t even include Chris Phillips in their list of candidates running for the office!

Just as an example of why Charter Schools are a total disaster, a Philidelphia Charter school doubles up as a nightclub. Why is that allowed to happen? Well, Harambee Institute of Science and Technology is private, but run with public funds. They are housed in a building with a liquor license. How nice. And since these charters are private, and have little local, state, or federal oversight, they can do whatever they want. In the case of Harambee, at night, people go to the school, get drunk, and, according to a YouTube video, some weed at the school. Party time, baby! Then kids come to the school to learn. Best of both worlds!
In our own region, the Pocono Mountain Charter School doubles up as a church and is run by the church’s ministry. Awesome!

This is why charters are a disaster. Obama is wrong on charters. PA Gov candidates Rohrer and Williams are wrong on charters.

Their existence is a problem.

Arlen Specter got a huge endorsement yesterday: the AFL-CIO is getting behind him. Sometimes I miss some news and Jake Digel, Specter’s guy in the region (who I saw at the NEPA Blogger Extravaganza and deserves a shout-out), clued me in on this.

The AFL-CIO is a huge and influential union, and for union guys like me, this lends a lot of credibility to Specter, particularly since one of the issues I have with him – card check – is an issue dear to the AFL-CIO’s heart. If they can get behind Specter despite this, it’s a big boost!

In today’s Times coverage of 22nd candidate Chuck Volpe, we see that he won’t take per diems, a pension, a salary, etc. This has been pretty public knowledge for a little, but it’s out there. I mentioned the other day, after getting Volpe’s press release on the matter, that we know what he won’t do, but we don’t yet know what he will do. This is pretty important for a candidate.

The fascinating information that came out of the article comes in the form of what Volpe had to say of himself and his candidacy. Basically, we find out that he won’t lie. He’ll tell the truth. And people want real action.

This information is about as generic as it gets, because I’m sure every candidate will claim those things and every voter will want those things. We need to see some substance out of Volpe soon. Money isn’t everything.

Well… it’s a lot. Just not everything.

The Pennsylvania Progressive pointed out something quite interesting about this whole Tom Corbett vs. Health Care issue: he threatened to challenge the Constitutionality of it before it ever passed.

How can somebody threaten to challenge legislation that isn’t a law, especially since that legislation, by virtue of the process, evolves and changes over time?

I think we all know the answer, of course: It’s all about his gubernatorial bid.

Challenging health care and spending taxpayer dollars to make people’s lives worse was probably not the best campaign move Corbett made, and I expect people to continue hammering him over this issue.

Maybe it’ll break his campaign and pave the way for a Democratic victory in the fall!

In one of the most brilliant e-mails I’ve seen yet this campaign, Corey O’Brien’s campaign points out how totally irrelevant Kanjorksi’s best argument for re-election is.  Kanjo says he’s got seniority and can bring home the bacon.  What did that seniority get us?  Well, he screwed Congressman Carney quite recently.  Not a point in his favor, as that will deny our region of what would’ve been an excellent resource.

If this e-mail hits home with voters, it could definitely tilt some people over to O’Brien.

This e-mail from O’Brien will lay it all out for you:

Paul Kanjorski has still failed to provide a reason for why he voted against his neighboring Congressman, Chris Carney, who was seeking a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee. That important vote wasn’t just against Chris Carney, it was against our entire region and the millions of federal dollars that could have been used here to create jobs, build infrastructure, and secure our region’s future for decades to come. So much for Kanjorski’s “seniority” as dean of the Pennsylvania delegation.

To all candidates running for office, I have had experience with media and know that most press releases are either excerpted or put in a storage bin.  This limits a campaign’s ability to get the word out.  That being the case, I’ve decided that I will print most press releases that I receive from candidates in NEPA.  Now, I tend not to cover Luzerne in depth, so if a Crestwood school director contacts me, I may not put it up unless it’s pretty explosive or radically progressive (i.e. interesting and out of the ordinary).  I also know that some campaigns blast out releases 10 times a day, so if I get overloaded or I feel they aren’t relevant, I probably won’t publish.

A lot of other local bloggers will post these things, and it only makes sense.  Blogs are a place to something different, and more than you might in a Newspaper or the radio or on TV.

To forewarn campaigns, I will be commenting on any releases I get, for good or ill.  If you feel I’m treating you unfairly, you can always respond, and I’m sure I’ll post your replies if the issue is worth exploring (most are, in my mind).

Just an FYI!  So keep em coming!

Below is the text of Chuck Volpe’s official announcement in the 22nd.  He spends a lot of time talking about what he won’t do, and hasn’t really yet outlined what he will do.  At the least, though, he won’t be costing us.  To be fair, though, despite Scranton Times and their Doherty-Only Press Coverage, most candidates running have said they won’t take per diems.

The word is that his money advantage will be brought to bear soon and he has supposedly been buying up a lot of ad space on TV and the radio.  It may be his strategy to buy up all the slots before the other campaigns can, effectively muting them and shutting them out.

Isn’t it amazing how nothing has really changed in the last 16 years?  I’m Chuck Volpe.  And while I’ve gotten a little grayer, Harrisburg politicians have accepted higher and higher salaries and more lavish and expensive perks – all while families in Northeastern Pennsylvania have struggled to find decent jobs.

I’ve had enough – and so have you.

I’m running for the State Senate because we need to elect someone accountable to the people of Northeast Pennsylvania – not to the special interests or the party bosses. I know what you’re saying – we’ve heard all this before.

Well here’s what I pledge to you if you elect me to the State Senate:

1) I will not accept any salary.

2) I will not accept any perks, like a free car, pension or free health care from the commonwealth.

3) I will not solicit or accept any contributions from any lobbyists or special interests.

4) I will only listen and be accountable to you.  I will fight for quality jobs, lower property taxes and schools we can all be proud of.

That’s why I’m running for State Senate.  I’m not a politician; I’m a local businessman who’s fed up with the take everything, do nothing culture of Harrisburg.

If you feel the way I do, then join this campaign at www.volpeforsenate.com. I’d be honored to have your support and your vote.

In the interest of hilarity and irony, the Republican National Committee has spent nearly $2,000 on a lesbian bondage club in Los Angeles.

Family values, baby.

Contrary to some comments and nasty e-mails, I don’t actually hate Frank Scavo, and despite my problems with his views and outlook on life, I had a great time talking with him. I like learning how other people think. So, Frank sent out a press release, which I will print in the interest of analysis:

“On Sunday, March 21, 2010 Congress ignored the will of the American people by passing the now-
infamous healthcare reform bill which contained:

• Federal funding of Abortion
• Job-killing employer penalties per employee for failure to provide government-approved insurance
• Vast Medicare Cuts
• Unfunded, mandated Medicare increases to the states
• New taxes on individuals that purchase insurance, individuals who chose not to purchase insurance, and both small and large businesses
• Unconstitutional mandate requiring every American to purchase a private-industry product or face
punitive taxes by the government

Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett rightly filed suit to prevent the enforcement of this bill against Pennsylvanians. Wednesday, House and Senate Democrats issued a release calling on Corbett to rescind his suit. Included in the signers were both Pennsylvania Senator and Democratic Minority Leader Bob Mellow as well as Representative Jim Wansacz.

‘I have stated my opposition to this bill since it was first considered. The only bipartisanship shown in the passage of this bill was in the opposition raised against it. 34 Democrats joined every single Republican in the House to stand with the American people and vote no,” Scavo said. “Some of my opponents have been silent on the issue. Particularly since Senator Mellow and Representative Wansacz have decided to enter the fray to both voice their opposition to Corbett’s suit and their support for this terrible legislation, I believe it is time for the remaining candidates seeking this seat to show exactly what kind of leadership they will provide to the people of the 22ND Senatorial District. They should immediately voice their support or opposition to both this healthcare reform bill in general and Attorney
General Tom Corbett’s suit to protect Pennsylvanians from its unconstitutional mandates in particular. How will our state come up with an estimated Ten Billion dollars to cover this unfunded mandate. That is a question that the Health Care bill supporters need to answer.’”

Okay, there you have it. I e-mailed him back, because the bill does not contain federal funding for abortion. I asked him to point out where that actually occurs, but since it doesn’t, I’m sure he won’t. I’m awaiting a reply. In 1979, the Hyde Amendment banned the use of federal funds for abortion, and Obama, to placate Stupak, issued an executive order reiterating this. Not only that, but this bill makes it harder to get abortion covered on PRIVATE insurance, which is wrong. How’s that for government intrusion, conservatives?

Employer penalties are only for businesses that should be large enough to afford coverage, and they get subsidies to provide it.

The Medicare cuts are to fraud and waste. Doctors are still getting nice payouts and seniors will have better coverage, not worse.

I do disagree with any unfunded mandates, so score one for Frank!

The mandate to purchase health care isn’t actually a mandate, because you can choose not to do it. Sure, you have to pay a tax (1% of income, I believe), but there are subsidies to purchase insurance if you’re poor. And if you’re not, theoretically, you should be able to afford it.

Now, I’ve talked about the Corbett issue ad nauseum, so I won’t reply to that. Honestly, I’m anxious to hear what Frank has to say. I enjoy going toe-to-toe with people who disagree. Dialogue is good. It’s too bad most of my conversation with Frank the other day wasn’t a dialogue, but that’s okay. He sent me a press release to respond to. Yay!

If/When Frank proves the abortion funding issue, I’ll glady post his reply. Since it’s not there, I’m sure most of you will be waiting for something that’ll never come.

The local United Way had a forum for the Gubernatorial candidates and only two showed: Democrat Anthony Williams and Republican Sam Rohrer.

The forum was unremarkable in that candidates merely repeated what we’ve known about them, but I’ll go over it.
Both are in favor of “school choice” which sounds great, but isn’t. Ask employees at Pocono Mountain Charter School. Charters, as I’ve pointed out in the past, are selective. They don’t have to take special ed kids, which boosts their scores and makes them look more productive than they are. They don’t have to be unionized (Massachussetts is totally unionized and also the #1 state in education). They don’t have to follow the same rules that regular schools do. There is less scrutiny and more abuse. And there is no evidence that they actually help performance. Some are better than public schools, some worse. Just like some public schools are better than others.

So Williams and Rohrer back something that sounds cool (hey, everybody, loves choice!) but really just siphons money away from public schools.

The other gem that came out: Rohrer is against Pre-Kindergarten and says that kids would be better off with their families. Well, that might be the case if everybody lived in a picture-perfect 1950s neighborhood where everybody knew their milkman’s life story, but in reality, pre-k moves kids into a positive environment and that, along with Head Start, has shown to make at-risk kids less likely to engage in criminal behavior later in life.

Thanks, Sam! You’re for making our lives worse.

Millennium, which bought Lackawanna County’s nursing home, was upset that employees went to the County Commissioners with contract issues, since the County no longer owns the facility. Well, now it makes perfect sense: Millennium exacted $900,000 from the County, off the purchasing price, to ensure that employee benefits would be paid for.

This makes no sense, and it makes less sense that it wasn’t disclosed until today. If the Commissioners said that whichever company bought the home had to maintain the contract, then that should’ve been understood in the agreed upon purchase price. Why would they give in?

Employees may not have known that, but now they have a legitimate question to ask at the next Commissioner’s meeting. Millennium will just have to deal with it.

I’m now at the point where all I want to do is plead to City government to just get along. I probably should’ve reached this point earlier, but I’m starting to lose what little faith I had in city progress.

Both Janet Evans and Mayor Doherty look like mutual obstructionists, subservient not to the people, but to their own public personas and agendas. That’s my take. Doherty has never been inclusive or cooperative. Neither has Evans, and now that Evans has Supermajority power, she’s using it.

The issue is whether or not Evans can amend a lawfully passed budget. It appears that she cannot.

The Times coverage of this is fascinating, because, as user Canoe pointed out, whether or not Council talked to Doherty before making budgetary changes is irrelevant. That issue is routinely mentioned in the Times, and while it may make Evans & Co. look bad, it isn’t really an argument for Doherty. Doherty’s actual argument would be whether or not Evans had authority.

But, as per Scranton politics, this issue has degenerated and degenerated. It isn’t fun anymore.

Is it so much to ask both sides to sit down and talk this over and maybe just fix it?

Below is the text of a Press Release from the Hoeffel campaign on the issue of Corbett.  It sums up a lot of how I feel, and I think a lot of Pennsylvanians feel, about Corbett’s crusade to help insurance companies at the

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joe Hoeffel today castigated Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett for “acting against the best interests of Pennsylvanians” by joining fellow right-wing attorneys general in a lawsuit against the new federal health care law.

At a press conference in the rotunda of the State Capitol, Hoeffel said that Corbett “is acting in collusion with a bloc of right-wing state attorneys general to advance an extremist agenda.”

Hoeffel went on to say that this is the fourth time Corbett has joined with his fellow conservative attorneys general to oppose legislation that would protect Pennsylvanians.  Passing out a fact sheet detailing his charges, Hoeffel pointed out that on at least three other occasions Corbett has joined with the same 10 AGs to twice oppose protecting the safety of their citizens, protecting consumer rights, and, now, opposing critically needed health care reforms.

Calling the eleven AGs, including Corbett, “Motions Eleven”, Hoeffel said the AG cabal, instead of victimizing bad guys like the George Clooney-led troupe does, is jeopardizing important legislation that would protect Pennsylvania residents.

“Unfortunately, Tom Corbett has gotten swept up in partisan madness and lost sight of what’s best for Pennsylvanians,” Hoeffel said.  “His actions demonstrate he is acting in collusion with a bloc of right-wing state Attorneys General to advance an extremist agenda.”

Hoeffel said there have been multiple issues where Corbett opted to take actions against the best interests of Pennsylvania.

“In November, I called upon Tom Corbett to aggressively advocate for laws that protect all of Pennsylvania’s citizens. I urged him to support two bills that would create equal protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Pennsylvanians. (He) has been silent on his views regarding civil rights for all Pennsylvanians — and he is still unsupportive of these critical bills to support equality.

“In December, I called upon Tom Corbett to join me in calling for responsible drilling in the Marcellus Shale, enacting regulations to protect our environment, keep our drinking water safe from toxic chemicals, and require the industry to cover the tremendous costs it creates for the state through a severance tax.”  He continues to fail to advocate for these regulations and “has taken strong pro-industry and anti-Pennsylvania” stances, according to Hoeffel.

“Now that the health care legislation is LAW,” said Hoeffel, “Tom Corbett still believes is it right to oppose it by joining in this frivolous lawsuit.  Acting in concert with these same right-wing attorneys general is nothing new for Corbett.  Since the beginning of the new era of right-wing partisan, Tom Corbett has taken action on a national level in collusion with others, taking actions which oppose protecting Pennsylvanians.”

The fact sheet distributed by the Hoeffel campaign showed that:

• In 2008, Corbett joined attorneys general in supporting another lawsuit, supporting the effort to overturn the rights of citizens of Washington, DC, to protect themselves through enacting sensible gun safety legislation. Of the thirteen Attorneys General who filed the frivolous lawsuit against health care reform, eleven — including Corbett — opposed protecting the safety of citizens in their states.

• In 2009, twenty-four attorneys general urged Senate and Congressional leaders to create a federal Consumer Financial Protection Agency — an agency directly supporting the core role of state attorneys general. Again, of the thirteen Attorneys General who filed the frivolous lawsuit against health care reform, those same eleven — including Corbett — declined to sign this letter to protect the rights of consumers in their states.

• And later in 2009, thirty-eight Attorneys General again supported the effort to overturn the rights of citizens to protect themselves through enacting sensible gun safety legislation, this time in Chicago. The bloc of eleven — including Corbett — united in opposition to protecting the safety of their citizens yet again.

“This week, on the heels of filing the lawsuit against our health care reform law in his role as attorney general, Tom Corbett has revealed what this lawsuit is really about — he is using his office as attorney general to advance this right-wing agenda to appeal to his right-wing base in his campaign for governor,” Hoeffel said.  “In a fundraising appeal to his supporters titled “Tom is Protecting Pennsylvania Taxpayers”, Tom Corbett’s campaign is spinning this lawsuit as a states’ rights issue, calling our health care bill “an unconstitutional power grab by the federal government”.

Hoeffel said the “states rights” arguments have been used before – unsuccessfully.

“’States rights’ advocates argued against the federal civil rights legislation of the 1950s and 1960s,” Hoeffel said.  They also argued against the creation of Medicare in the 1960s.  We won a civil war and the civil rights movement to defeat this thinking in the past.  We cannot make these same mistakes again.  And we cannot permit partisan political campaigning to affect public policy.

Without Chris Paige in the race in the 11^th, Lou Barletta needs to fill up the Teabagger void.

Barletta takes issue with a Temple University class that deals with the history of the immigration conflict in Hazleton.   In Barletta’s mind, brown people destroyed his town and so he needed to do something about it.  And now he’s roarin’ mad that they didn’t contact him for his perspective.  It’s not right, he said.  Inappropriate, he said!

Newsflash: You’ve been on record over and over again about how much you think brown people are ruining this country.   They don’t need to contact you, you’re pretty openly racist, buddy.

But hey, to placate him, they are going to invite him to talk.  Win-win!

I often hear a rumor that the Times really won’t bother covering candidates or races unless that candidate takes out an ad in their paper.  This has been underground conventional wisdom for a while, and some candidates I know have been wondering why the Times doesn’t really do anything with their press releases and doesn’t cover their races.

That’s probably one reason that blogs have been gaining popularity.  We talk about what the Times doesn’t.  We analyze what the Times will not.

I saw Saturday’s paper, and low and behold, Doherty gets a huge headline about how he would work to outlaw per diems.  Okay, why didn’t all the other candidates get that kind of press for their positions and beliefs?  It’s pretty obvious.  Aside from constant rumors that the Times is slanted toward Doherty, he took out a huge, expensive ad promoting a birthday party.  It was on Page A3 earlier in the week.  Of course, quid-pro-quo can’t be proven here, but circumstantial evidence pops up often enough that it seems pretty obvious.

Seriously?  Who read that article?  And with Chris Phillips, Joe Corcoran, Chuck Volpe, John Blake, Jim Wansacz, and Frank Scavo in the race, where are their headlines?  It’s not just odd, it’s just another in a long line of shameful bias hid behind what they call “objective journalism”.  It’s sad, and as a blogger with some sense of integrity and standards about myself (hey, I’m biased, but I’ll tell you), I can understand why people read blogs and move further away from traditional media.

Here’s an offer for you: Send me stuff that I think is relevant, and I’ll post it, even if I disagree with you or don’t like your positions.  Open dialogue and dissemination of information is important.  Oh, and while I welcome people who want to advertise (as you see on the right), it isn’t necessary for me to write about your campaign.  Just an FYI.

While I may not agree with AJ Munchak’s lawyer about Munchak’s supposed innocence, I do agree that the names of the companies who allegedly bribed him should be made public.

It’s a show, of course.  I’m sure Munchak knows who they are and pretending not to know makes it look like he’s innocent.  Companies don’t just make bribes up for fun, sadly for him.

But make the names public, so that we can know what companies are willing to engage in illegal activities in order to get contracts.  So current elected officials can avoid those companies (and their bids for contracts) in the future.

Also on the corruption front, we find that in order to avoid getting caught, Munchak and Cordaro broke the law by taking their bid records out of the Controller’s office and put it into a campaign supporter.  Nice.  I’m sure more gems will be coming out in the future.  Stay tuned, the show’s just getting started!

So, I had it in my head that this would be some kind of crazy event that would require a pen and notepad and a lot of Hunter S. Thompson channelling.  I prepared to go Gonzo.

But the March 2010 Blogger Meetup at Rooney’s Irish Pub in Pittston (there are Irish there, evidently) ended up being pretty tame, so no crazy journalistic writing — sorry, readers!   Oh, I did, however, meet a Teabagger!

I figured I would wear a button down, but no tie, since I had to impress people but didn’t want to come off stodgy.  Before I hopped in the car to make my way, I called Gort, who informed me that Teabaggers would be there, in particular Chris Paige, Dave Madeira, and Frank Scavo.  This required a change in battle plan.  I called a friend and soon-to-be-fellow NEPArtisan Blogger, Doug, who is rather large and imposing, and asked him to join me just in case.  In case of what, you ask?  Well, Teabaggers are insane, and I have an extraordinarily low tolerance for illogical people.  The potential for sparks meant caution and prudence were in order.

So, upon arrival, the place was jammed, which, according to Gort and Lu Lac, is new.  I worked the crowd and said introduced myself to strangers.  I assumed I would know most of these people, even if they didn’t know me.  Justin Carroll, Corey O’Brien’s campaign manager, was in attendance, along with Paul Kanjorski’s.  I don’t remember the man’s name, but as soon as he identified himself, I asked him why his guy screwed Chris Carney and NEPA in general.  He didn’t know, because he hadn’t spoken to Kanjo.  Easy out.  Kanjo’s campaign still hasn’t responded.

There were far more Luzerne politicians than Lackawanna.  I’m sure I’m going to forget people.  I met the very elegant and well-spoken Phyllis Mundy, John Yudichak, and Bob Morgan.  My brain sucks, so I’ll stop there.

From Lackawanna way, John Moran, candidate in the 114th (Wansacz’s soon-to-be-former seat) showed up, shook hands, and introduced himself.  Tony Coppola, Wansacz’s campaign manager, also made the rounds.  Former Scranton Mayor Jimmy McNulty was in attendance.

I briefly met Chris Paige, who recently dropped out of his race in Pennsylvania’s 11th.  I said “hello” and asked him what brought him here.  He said, “I was invited” then turned around and literally ran away.  Fine, not literally, but still.  I hoped to have a conversation with the man (I wanted to ask him if he would continue blogging), but I guess he only has guts when he’s writing an angry post about our rights being taken away in our pursuit to help the less fortunate.  Whatevskies.

Dave Madeira sadly never showed, which brings us to the Teabagger King of the Party:  Frank Scavo.  I’ve never met a Teabagger in person, just read about them.  He takes exception to the moniker, as, in his words, it’s disgusting, but Teabaggers were the first to call themselves Teabaggers, we raunchy liberals thought it was hilarious, and we ran with it.  While Scavo wasn’t violently throwing bricks at my face like some of his compatriots, but, wow, I’ve never had a conversation like the one I had with Frank.

I had two conversations, to be clear, and the second one I brought a witness with me (my bodyguard, Doug) to confirm that Scavo, indeed, made no sense.

In our first bit of repartee, Frank started talking about how we need to return to God, which he asserted we can neither agree upon or define.  I tried to ask him what the hell that meant, but he barely let me get a word in edgewise.  Then he made some kind of point about “In God We Trust” being on our money, then he, no joke, HIGH-FIVED the guy next to him, who look like he fell off of the Megadeath Roadie Bus.  Then he brought out his wallet to show me that “In God We Trust” is written on our money.  I kept trying to bring up the Treaty of Tripoli in which one of our Founders explicitly states that we are not a Christian nation, but he didn’t hear me over the sound of his own high-fives.  I thought being more simple, not including complex words like “treaty” might get a response, and so I asked if the Founders thought this was a Christian nation.  He said no!  Hello, everybody, let me introduce you to my friend, Makes Less Sense Than Before.

I exited to the bathroom.

Then after a nice dinner with Stephen Albert from Not Cease From Exploration, I got my backup, Doug, and went in for round 2 with Frank.  He informed me that he is a black and white kind of guy, that he refuses to view the world in abstracts.  He kept asking me yes or no questions, I kept responding “It’s more complicated than that” and he kept trying to tell me it wasn’t.  As an example, he tried to tell me that the pension crisis that the teachers are facing is because of the market.  This man was a School Director.  I told him he was dead wrong, and we can trace it to the pension holiday (which was 2 years of districts and the state contributing ZERO to the the pension).  He said no.  I, again, pointed out that he was dead wrong and he started talking about how he gave the teachers in Old Forge the best contract they’ve ever had.  GAH!  Non-sequitur anybody?

That’s a tactic of these people.  Talk like you know what you’re saying, and when confronted with proof that you’re wrong, bring something else up.  It’s a rhetorical tactic that works on people with IQs lower than 80.  Sorry, I read up on policy on a daily basis and at least attempt to grasp these issues before I opine.

Anyway, then he tried to make some kind of argument that experienced teachers are better than inexperienced ones.  I, again, pointed out it’s not so simple.  I’ve had artists-in-residence come to my classroom — they aren’t experience with teaching — and yet, they’ve inspired and taught kids in ways I never could.  But Scavo kept pushing the point.  So I agreed and said that, yes, experienced teachers are better.   Then I said, by that argument, that Wansacz would be more qualified for State Senate than him.  Scavo is Mr. Black-and-White, so if we are going to use his black and white standards in one instance, they, logically, must be applicable in all cases.

But, of course, logic didn’t enter into this equation all night long, why would it now?  Scavo asked how many strikes Wansacz deserved, and then kept calling him my boy.  I don’t have a “boy” in the State Senate race, actually.  And was trying to make a point, using Wansacz as an example.  He put up his fingers and kept yelling strikes and asking Doug how many fingers he had up.  What?  Then he pulled out the wallet again to somehow backup his point that Wansacz isn’t good for wallets.

I’m getting tired of even recounting this.  Forgive the stilted nature of this post, as I’m not in a creative writing mood.  Illogic and frustration do that to me.  Honestly, this man has no chance of winning, since he’s a Republican.  And even if he weren’t, high-fiving, yelling about strikes, whipping out wallets, refusing to listen or use reason, and claiming the world is not complex… well, that’s a political death sentence.

Last I checked, understanding is essential to governing.  Although, this guy is part of the Sarah Palin school of politics.  The one where you drop out and somehow feel like you’re qualified anyway.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Here is a link to the article in the Citizen’s Voice about the Meetup, picture of me included!

In an extraordinarily odd move, Paul Kanjorski didn’t choose Chris Carney to take John Murtha’s seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, instead choosing Rep. Patrick Murphy. Now, I have nothing against Murphy, he’s a decent Rep. and an Iraq War vet, but Kanjo missed out on a big opportunity. The Appropriations Committee is powerful because it directs money and would’ve inevitably benefited not only Carney’s district, but also Kanjorski’s. Both represent Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties. John Murtha himself wanted Carney to take the spot.

I’m not sure of his logic here, but Carney could use that kind of power as leverage to keep his seat.

Oh well.