Luzerne County: No more gypsies, tramps and thieves

I feel the need to respond to the following…

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "PA GOP to Petrilla: F-U!":

Hard to argue with?

Here's a laughable claim: "... Tina Gartley, a candidate who has been hand-picked by the entrenched Luzerne County Democrat machine to help them maintain the culture of corruption in Luzerne County." Hand picked? Perhaps someone should inform Mr. "Barley-knows-what-he's- talking-about" in Harrisburg just how little support Tina Polachek Gartley has received from the "machine." She'll win on November 3 in spite of the Dem establishment, not because of it...

Posted by Anonymous to Circumlocution for Dummies at October 17, 2009 8:20 PM

Actually, I kind of goofed on that one. My point was that it was hard to argue with the very pointed comments sent Maryanne Petrilla’s way. I have no beef with Gartley, nor do I think she’s a part of any establishment, any political machine or what have you.

Although, now that’s it’s been proven that corruption and greed is apparently a way of life for the long-entrenched Luzerne County democrats, I think that party needs to be unequivocally rebuked on November 3rd, newcomers and all.

From the e-mail inbox:

Really like your blog and the events you post on it to meet the canidates. With all the corruption going on in luz county you just dont know where to turn anymore. Im just sick of seeing all these corrupt people getting arrested in our town and you know other ones know what was going on but just dont want to say so.

Looking at newspapers and reading blogs u tend to read the names of the people in politics around here which is not a very good thing. One name that I kept seeing was ed mitchell but i never knew who he was until i saw his name in the paper as a spokesmen for the corrupt kanjorski. i then saw his name as a spokesman for the questionable mellow as well. How could someone work for both guys at the same time. I checked his internet site and saw the list of his clients jack murtha who has questions surrounding him and kanjorski. then looked further down and saw names that just shocked me on campaigns he worked for conahan and civarella judge campaigns and another very photogenic judge olwzeski. the only other person with questions marks surrounding him that he did not represent was chuck rangel but i did see something that braught questions marks to it. its funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe0iDqPiGiw

Mitchell is NEPA’s preeminent electoral kingmaker, but it’s become obvious of late that it’s getting harder and harder for him to deliver the landslides he was once known for. I think it’s a bit of candidate fatigue, as in, the same old guys are always running for reelection, many of which are carrying political baggage of their own.

Mitchell’s usual tactics are far from being issue oriented. Rather, he’s good at focusing the attention of the voters on some misrepresented bullspit via the 30-second sound byte. He knows how to make mud stick.

Personally, I think he’s overrated when you consider that he always has access to some overstuffed campaign war chests when he gets to working his, ahem, magic. If you pay me a million dollars to get an entrenched incumbent reelected over some relatively little-known challenger, I’m confident I could get the job done.

Stay in touch.

Yes, Nancy, I caught Kevin Lynn’s comment on Thursday, some sophomoric crack about Wilkes-Barre being or resembling a “hooker parade.” Yuk, yuk, yuk.

And, no, it didn’t bother me in the least. You know, when you consider the source and all. This is the guy who openly admits to befriending two admitted criminals, one of which will likely go down as one of the most corrupt judges in the history of the country.

And this is the guy who still clings to ridiculously niggling minutiae as some sort of demented proof that his disgraced judge buddy is not nearly as bad as he seems to those of us who are still completely horrified by the repeated miscarriages of justice at his hands.

As for myself, I’d prefer the hookers to Kevin’s friends and acquaintances.

Kids for cash, Kevin.

Yuk it up.

Way back when, we voted no to a referendum question asking whether or not the county should construct and manage an arena. And as a result of that vote, a consortium of folks then financed and built an arena without the county’s involvement.

Many have said since that vote that WILK’s Fred Williams, who lobbied long and hard against that proposed project, is personally responsible for the downsizing of the original plan, which resulted in a loss of 4,000 seats at the arena on the hill. I’ve heard it repeated many times that if it weren’t for mean old Fred Williams, we’d have a 12,000 seat arena, not an 8,000 seat arena.

Whether all of that could be blamed on one man on the radio is not what I wish to explore today. Instead, I’m wondering what would have come about if the original plan was not voted down by the voters.

What if…what if the county actually financed, built and managed the 12,000 seat arena? What if the county commissioners appointed an arena authority to oversee the day-to-day operations of said arena? What if?

How high might the cost overruns of the construction of the project have gone? And how many undeserving political appointees would be in charge of the thing? And how many of their hapless relatives would be working there? How deep in the red would the arena be? And how many arrests of those arena authority board members might have already taken place this year?

I hate to say it, but that original vote, that “no” vote was the correct vote.

And soon enough we’ll be faced with another referendum question concerning whether or not to go the way of home rule in Luzerne County.

And based on the fact that our elected and appointed officials cannot be trusted to do the right thing, being that the county code offers us no real possibility of accountability or transparency, the correct vote this time will be the “yes” vote. Vote yes to the home rule question.

The final draft of the proposed home rule charter in Luzerne County that should be forthcoming from our Government Study Commission may contain a few warts, but it’s got to be significantly better than being recognized as the relaxed sphincter of the entire country.

Face it, the time for home rule in Luzerne County has arrived. It’s time to do away with the rampant nepotism, the rampant cronyism, the rampant thievery and the gross mismanagement of our tax dollars. No more gypsies, tramps and thieves posing as government.

You have the power at your fingertips. So do it.

And with that, I’m off to fantasy football land. How's this for a paradox?

I love my New York Football Giants. And today they are facing the undefeated New Orleans Saints. But in fantasy land, my quarterback is none other than Drew Brees, the Saints' starting robo-quarterback. So I'm reduced to praying that my beloved Jints cough up 40 or more points, 500 yards or so of offense, while still managing to win the game.

Wierdness.

Later