If he fails, we all fail

Markie is ill. Very freaking ill. Flu-like symptoms. I guess it’s too late to get me one of those Swine Flu shots. As if I would.

Before we get into any of this unneeded nonsense, I feel the need to respond to a comment that was posted here.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "It's official...O'Brien vs. Kanjozilla":

What part of EMBARGOED UNTIL FRIDAY EVENING don't you understand?

Secondly, I could really care less what Corey O’Brien or any of his campaign consultants think about me, my site or anything else of note. And follow me here, I will not cry myself a river if I am now predictably excluded from the campaign e-mail list.

Thirdly, how am I supposed to get all excited about a candidate who used one elected office as a temporary springboard for yet another? It’s not as if he scores major electoral points for his forthrightness. As far as I’m concerned, his threadbare resume is rivaled as a disqualifier only by his blind ambition. Remind you of anyone?

But in the grand scheme of things, mine counts for only one vote. T’ain’t no big thang.
I’m quite certain we’ve all seen this gem of a story (or heard it discussed on WILK), so I’ll dispense with the recap.

Ex-bakery sale draws criticism

Callahan’s town home idea is of particular interest because county commissioners forgave $42,349 in county back taxes on the property in February 2005, with the understanding that the city would acquire the property and sell it to a developer for town homes, said minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban.

Leighton said town homes were never intended for that parcel because the site is zoned for commercial manufacturing.

However, Urban’s statement is backed up by county commissioner meeting minutes that say the city indicated the parcel would house “townhomes within character of the neighborhood.”
In all, the parcel has accrued $521,734 in past-due school, county and city taxes from 1995 through 2007. Urban believes the city should have stayed out of the matter and let the property go to back-tax sale years ago. If nobody was willing to pay the back taxes, the property would have been sold to the highest bidder free of taxes and liens, he said.

Yeah, that’d work. This guy is as clueless as he is vertically-challenged.

It goes up for tax sale, and some property squatter buys the thing, hoping against hope to sell it for a tidy profit, and then it sits there unused, not refurbished and deteriorates even more. That is, until some other land squatter buys it hoping to pull the same stunt.

And speaking of staying out of the matter, doesn’t Steve Urban have a few taxing problems of his own to concern himself with? Oh, I don’t know. What’s the latest from the corruption dome? What was it, a $30 million budgetary shortfall?

Oh, that’s right. He’s not big on offering ideas or workable solutions, only on criticizing his fellow commissioners and Wilkes-Barre‘s mayor. They did it! They did it, not me! Yeah. Thanks for that, Dr. No.

And then we have the fact that, at that corruption dome, handcuffs seem to be the accessory of (non) choice. Gee, Steve, name for me a high-ranking county official, or a close in-the-loop friend of a county employee who hasn’t been implicated in something completely nefarious, and I’ll give you some multi-colored pipe cleaners to amuse yourself with when you’re not busy trying to besmirch the reputation of your favorite target--Wilkes-Barre’s mayor.

Make checks payable to: My Wife for Mayor.

Since I count as a neighbor one of the two men mentioned in the “Feds visit City Hall” story published some days ago by the Citizens’ Voice, I have been practically inundated with requests for a comment. Here it comes…

I have known the guy--my neighbor--since 1993. And I wholeheartedly believe him to be good people, above repute and not one to succumb to doing tawdry things. And I will add the following as a way of demonstrating that above all else, he cherishes his integrity.

When first he was approached about bringing his expertise to City Hall, he turned the position down so as to not appear as being a political hire. He was a logical fit for that position, and he has been an unarguably big asset to this rebuilding city. But for appearances sake, he was poised to turn his back on the position.

And with all of that said, I would be more than willing to publicly state that I seriously, seriously doubt that any investigation into his actions by any law enforcement agency whatsoever would bare any fruit at all.

That‘s all I got on that.

When Barack Obama announced that he would fly to Copenhagen and make a personal pitch for the 2016 Olympics on Chicago’s behalf, I’ll admit to being somewhat appalled.

Frankly, I’m appalled that the 535-plus two jackasses in Washington D.C. seem to think that the distressing economic numbers that make the Great Depression look like an alcohol-fueled orgy aren’t frightening.

And this is a bipartisan problem, the attitude that, Oh, this is America. The economy will rebound. It always rebounds. This is America.

Really?

Not when we keep printing and spending money we can’t pay down. And not when the rampant spending will likely kill by way of runaway inflation any hoped-for economic rebound in it’s infancy.

Anyway, I want these elected people to focus almost all of their attention and energies on fixing the economy, and not attracting the frickin’ Olympics.

But I what I found even more appalling than Obama’s impromptu road trip was the overwhelmingly gleeful reaction from the right-leaning folks at the news that Obama’s personal bid for the games had fallen on it’s face with a noticeable thud. And to be painfully honest, it does smack of racism. It really does.

And if all that the folks on the right side of the political aisle have in their current political arsenal is openly rooting against the black guy, they might just disappear as a viable option for the foreseeable future.

Personally, I think Obama is as clueless and dangerous as he is naïve. But that belief is based solely on his political ideology and his blank slate of a resume, and not on the fact that he has a permanent tan.

The thing is, if I’m happy and healthy and doing very well economically, I could really care less what color my fearless leader is. At this troubling and vexing time in our short history as a country, if he fails, we all fail.

Who was it again that said, “It’s the economy, stupid?”

Later