The watcher won't watch?

I knew better. I really, really did.

We have this election year phenomenon wherein new political blogs appear in the months before we vote. And at first, the great majority of these blogs purport, er, pretend be all objective and what not. And then the long-planned October surprise is delivered in hopes of helping their preferred candidate.

And we also have the blogs that have a declared mission from the very get-go of smearing one candidate in particular from day one. That anti Barletta blog comes to mind, Stop Barletta dot com, or some equally lamed-assed address. It's like watching the movie The Dead Zone play out on the Internet sans the climactic ending. You know, moon battery.

Anyway, battle-tested blogging veterans such as myself as well as a few other locals can sniff out these short-lived blogs at 1,000 yards. And that's why, for the most part, they almost never make it to any blog rolls.

So, when the WILK Watcher blog first appeared out of the Internet ether back in January, my not-long-for-the-Internet-underworld alarm went off. Which means I figured this blog would not be around long enough to graduate up to any blog rolls.

Still though, I couldn't resist a permanent link in hopes of driving traffic to what I hoped would be a daily rant on all things WILK, i.e., the two grumpy, bitter old men and the two blond chicks from the sticks. But instead, all that we received were periodic bursts of "writing" and at a 6th grade level.

On it's face, this is not news, nor is it a surprise. But I do think a precedent has been set here locally with this short-lived sad sack of a blog. In less than two months, the heretofore unknown author of the blog supposedly dedicated to following the travails of WILK's on-air staff upped and announced..."But I have officially stopped listening as of today."

The self-appointed watcher refuses to watch? The watcher won't watch? This was his/her/it's idea in the first place. What the (insert favorite variation on your basic F word)???

I swear to Allah, on average, new blogs have the life expectancy of an adult male Hershey Kiss. Un-freaking-believable.

From today forward, any new blogger interested in being permanently linked to should have to submit at least 3 non-blogger references, current and past employment records, a certified mental health evaluation and a nominal processing fee.

Wait.

Scratch that mental health exam requirement. That'd likely get me dumped from every known blog roll. Never mind.

Speaking of new blogs, last night the Marcellus Shale drilling issue dominated the discussion on Steve Corbett's 3-7 pm show, when a lady calling from Dallas told Corbett that he could get himself up to speed on frickin' frackin' by visiting Frack Mountain.

Corbett seemed real interested and had the lady repeat the address. So I imagine that plenty of people spent last night camped out on Frack Mountain.

Good for him.

The following came via the email inbox from the Luzerne County GOP...

Issues & Eggs
Friday, April 9
Gus Genetti Hotel & Conference Center
77 E. Market St., Wilkes-Barre

Buffet Breakfast 7:45 a.m....Program 8:15 to 10:30 a.m.

· Forum for all Republican state & federal candidates
· Come on out to meet our candidates & learn more about how they stand on important federal and state issues.
· Moderators from local media will conduct the forum.
· Guests will have a chance to submit questions.

That's really cool and all, but it got my glow plug-armed insanity pump to immediately kick in.

If this was a Democrat-sponsored event, it'd be called Egg Whites, Wheat Germ & Issues.

If it was a Libertarian Party get-together, it's be Less eggs & Issues.

If it was a Tea Party LLC. protest breakfast, it's be Eggs, Green Tea & Issues.

And if it was a Green Party deal, it'd be Egg Bong, Issues & Munchies.

I said it was insanity going in, didn't I?

Later

Bring your own eggs

I will be driving a company vehicle in the St. Patty's Day Parade on Sunday. This will be my 3rd year in a row, it's grown by leaps and bounds, and I enjoy it. Wifey accompanied me the last two years, but she says it's boring and wants out this year. So a couple of the grandsons are going to ride with me, a first for them.

Plus, The City of Wilkes-Barre's Annual Cherry Blossom Festival is slated for Saturday, April 24th & Sunday, April 25th, 2010 from 11am-7pm. That's always a good time provided that the weather cooperates.

If you want to take a shot at egging me during the parade, here's my divisional lineup...

Division #7, sponsored by Luzerne Optical Laboratories, LTD, RM Recovery

Walker/Float/Vehicle Line-Up Location: right side of South Main Street, adjacent to the Volunteers of America parking lot

1. Luzerne Optical Laboratories, LTD. Sponsor banner
2. Wilkes-Barre Hardware Bar, Giant Balloon – Pot of Gold
3. Northeast PA Miners – 1-2 vehicles, 10-20 people
4. Uptown String Band
5. First Baptist Church Wilkes-Barre – fire truck, motorcycles, cars
6. US Census 2010 – 1 vehicle, 6-10 people
7. NEPAMoney.com – 1 vehicle, 4 people
8. Nationwide Car Sales – 1 float
9. RM Recovery Sponsor banner
10. Tom Bretz & Son – 2 antique fire engines
11. Kraft Foods – 1 float, 15 people
12. Rolling Angels 4 Armed Forces – 20 motorcycles
13. Hall’s Auto Service – 8 vehicles
14. J.C. Ehrlich – 1 vehicle
15. T. R. Customs Car & Truck Club, Avoca – 1 vehicle, 5 people
16. NEPA Paranormal – 1vehicle, 10 people
17. 109th Artillery Heritage Association – Carey Giadosh – 2 floats, 3 vehicles, 10 people

Good luck with that. But remember, I could drive that truck right through the crowd in pursuit of you iffin' you happen to get lucky and hit me. Chicken arm.

By the way, NEPA Paranormal? What in tarnation is that? Man, I never figured Art Bell would have a big following in this area. But come to think of it, there ain't much normalcy going on in NEPA. Well, that is, unless you consider rampant corruption normal. Ghosts in the parade? we shall see. Well, not really.

I talked to two local bloggers on the much ballyhooed cell phone today. Two in one day. That's a first for me. It seems we're going to have one of these blogger soirees and soon. Or as I had mistakenly referred to them, we're planning another Beer Storm.

If you've got a weak stomach, leave the police scanner off when that night arrives.

This one was forwarded to me...

From: "NEPA Tea Party, LLC." dan@nepateaparty.com

Subject: Reminder: Kanjorski Healthcare Picket

Hello Everyone,Don't forget about the Rep Kanjorski Picket taking place today (March 9) from 4pm - 5:30pm outside the Stegmaier Bldg in Wilkes-Barre.

For further information, visit our webpage and click on the events tab located in the top toolbar. Bring home made signs!
Bring friends!

Thanks, NEPA Tea Party, LLC.
Dan McGrogan
Luke Shook
Norm Wahner

I didn't know we had a local branch of those boisterous Tea folks. Although, that name, NEPA Tea Party, LLC., that sounds like a business, like an importer of fine, exotic teas or something.

Got me, man. I'm pretty much limited to Turkey Hill's orange tea myself.

You know, I figure if you could smoke tea so as to make yourself hallucinate and all, this Tea Party uprising would be a strictly democrat phenomenon. I mean, didn't all of those no-good, lazy-assed hippies turned congressmen once experiment like all hell with dried banana peels? I dunno. It just seems as if republicans are more apt to drink fermented weeds while bemoaning the loss of St. Dale from NASCAR. That sort of thing.

Ah, tradition.

Later

GOP Youtube channel

Wow!

The Luzerne County GOP now has it's own Youtube channel.

The link: Luzerne County GOP

Yup, just name one of those dastardly, evil republicans, and there they are on video. I swear, it's enough to put you off of your wheat germ and tofu omelet.

I hear the Luzerne County democrats are working on podcasting, but in their sorry-assed case, it'll be done from within the walls of a few state correctional facilities.

Later

The loss of tradition in America: perception or reality?

I really don’t have time for this today, but since I’ve been challenged, here’s a few morsels coming right off of the top of my pointy little head. Oh, if you're wondering where this is all coming from, read the comments attached to my "Preparation H principle" post.

“…the perception of a loss of tradition vs. its reality?”

Perception? Wrong, dude.

My problem…How do you demonstrate a loss of tradition to someone who's probably never experienced those traditions in the first place?

Where should we start?

First of all, families survived on one income meaning moms could stay home and nurture their children. These days, the kids are stashed in warehouses all day while mom earns enough money to cover the profligate levels of taxation.

Interestingly enough, the best day care providers, the grandparents, are also warehoused in nursing homes, so a huge part of the old ways, the old days, the old country and what have you are lost because the grandparents cannot spin those yarns for the kids.

Speaking of the kids, in my day, the kids were respectful and knew how to keep their yaps shut. And they also understood that cursing was forbidden. And they said silly little nothings such as, “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am.”

Kids back then had school clothes and play clothes. Today, too many of the kids have one set of clothes--the gang banger garb. Prison garb, if you will. They used to bitch at us about tucking our shirts in. Today, you can’t get them to tuck their Fruit of The Looms in.

To settle a disagreement during the Brady Bunch days, you needed only to form a fist. These days, you need to empty a full clip into somebody of a differing perspective, before they empty a clip into you.

Their used to be a social stigma attached to being 19-years-old, single and having 4 kids. These days, that’s increasingly the ‘norm, and welfare has become a way of life for too many. The ultimate safety net became a way of life.

Civility and courtesy are no longer taught to the young, and are no longer expected from the adults.

Young folks are taught to despise the church. While I am not a church-goer (far from it), I can’t help but to wonder what our society would be like if our kids were still having the Ten Commandments drilled into them.

And speaking of Sundays, because of the now repealed Blue Laws, society no longer has that slow, quiet day every week by which to slow down and cool off.

Unions used to protect the blue collar worker. But now, thanks to JFK‘s lack of foresight, all that unions do today is make the cost of governing and educating prohibitively expensive.

Nudity and cursing were not a part of the pop culture. Now, I cannot avoid that sort of unneeded stuff while hanging out with my grandkids. These days, it’s all over the television, in the movies and in our devolved music.

Neighbors not only knew one another, they looked out for each other. These days, they’re too busy making love to their PDA to even notice they just backed over the neighbors dog.

People didn’t trade spouses like kids used to trade baseball cards. Back then, a family consisted of two parents of the opposite sex and their children. These days, all bets are off.

Strangers were kinder to each other. Today, it openly pains people to even acknowledge the people they pass on a sidewalk.

Unborn children weren’t destroyed on a whim.

A gentlemen would relinquish his seat for a woman. Gentlemen would open a door for a woman. When did you last hear that word “gentlemen” uttered? It’s a lost art, being a gentlemen.

The last time I opened and held a door for a woman, the tattooed, pierced circus side show act bit my head off by yelling, “I’m not a f**king cripple.” Maybe not, but she looked like a mental cripple.

Self esteem was not awarded to children, it was earned by children.

Young men proved their manhood by way of pumping iron, joining the Marines and that sort of thing, not piercing their ears, dying their hair purple, jelling their hair and tattooing razor wire on their arms.

Older men proved their manhood by earning a living, keeping their noses clean and staying with the same woman for decades, warts and all.

When the “old man” raised his voice, his kids stopped dead in their tracks and took notice. These days, that same raised voice could get Children & Youth knocking on your door. For that matter, half of America’s children have never met their fathers.

Kids did chores. Then and only then did those kids earn their allowance.

Kids were taught to respect the police, not the other way around as it is now.

And in my day, if a cop delivered some kid to his parents, you knew after the cop left the strap was coming out. These days, the parents will defend the actions of their perfect little angels.

Once upon a time, people did not arrive at job interviews looking like refugees from a war zone.

You ate the freshly cooked food that grandma put on the table. There was no debate. There was no democracy available to children. Today, they eat prefabricated, microwaveable garbage.

Television networks did not openly suggest to impressionable children that being heterosexual is an old-fashioned concept.

Everyone ate meat, potatoes, a vegetable and bread. And we were all skinny! Well, except for that fat kid in gym class. Today, everyone is all obsessed with their caloric counts, their good cholesterol counts...and everyone is borderline obese! Figure that out.

Enough!

Dude, please do not force me to post a Part II. Just listen to someone who was where you were not, growing up in America 45 years ago or so. There is no perception going on here, there is a clear loss of tradition in this country.

Whether you want to admit it or not, and whether you can believe it or not, America used to be a kinder, gentler, safer, slower, more respectful place.

If we’ve progressed at all as a society, I fail to see it.

Anyway, thanks for getting the blood pumping again.

Later

The "blogfather" revisited

It always, always strikes me as equal parts sad and hilarious that people are so reluctant to do some necessary research before forming their opinions, or, in this case, before lashing out.

From the email inbox:

uve got some nerve calling yourself the blogfather. there are lots of good bloggers on the net in this area and nobody other than you decided to call you the king. wise up and try blogging something worth reading. f**king jerk

Obviously, the "eff" part was edited by me.

First of all, that "blogfather" moniker was not self-affixed. In all honesty, the first time I read that in electronic print, I cracked up big time. Thanks for that. You know who you are. That seldom-used title was attached to me by one of those "good bloggers" you so fervently referred to.

I am not infatuated with myself in the least, nor do I have some uber inflated sense of where my many scribblings would land on some literary pecking order, real or imagined. I have been told on many occasions that I have a way with words, but I have always chalked that up to heredity, despite the fact that I'm an blithering idiot.

And, truth be told, I'm not upset by your email, or by your demonstrated lack of attention to local, recent history.

The thing is, somebody had to come first. Somebody had to do it first, localized poliblogging, that is. Somebody had to blaze a trail for others to follow. And as upsetting to you as it may be, that somebody was me.

These days, with poliblogging becoming almost mainstream to some degree, candidates for political office seek out the love and affection of local political bloggers. So do the elected, but to a much lesser and much more closely guarded and controlled degree. It's free publicity, provided that the recipient--the blogger--doesn't go all negative on them.

But in my day, all that I received from the aforementioned scoundrels-in-the-making was grief, implied threats, not-so-veiled intimidation, promised retribution and middle fingers, as well as a few chest bumps while the vulgarities flowed forth. I was the first. Big whoop! Somebody had to do it. With the advent of the internet, it was inevitable that somebody would get to questioning public policy on a very localized scale.

But I will say this for myself. What I brought to the then-nascent blogging movement in NEPA was testicular fortitude. The more blowback I received, the more I remained defiantly in-the-face of those who would make sophistry of my city, and my county as well. If I had backed down in those heady days, they would have sought to back down the next fool who dared to poliblog.

I offer no apologies for anything I may have done, nor for anything I may have typed. I sought out no celebrity, rather, what I sought was a much-improved city in which to live. And whether anyone likes it, or whether anyone likes me matters not to me. In the end, I got exactly what I wanted, I got exactly what I blogged for: a much-improved city in which to live. Back then, in my swirling mind, somebody had to do it. And I did it. And then some.

These days, I think of myself more as a writer of ersatz musings than a man on any particular political crusade. But be forewarned, you just never know when one of these do-nothing, know-nothing types might set me off all over again.

The "blogfather?"

Um, yeah. For what it's worth, that would be me. And all that I got for all of that tireless effort was this moth-eaten campaign T-shirt.

Now move on.

Buh-bye



P.S.-- I just asked my 2-year-old grandson, Avery, what his name is.

He said, "Me."

The Preparation H principle

"Today is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good."--Harry Reid, from the Senate floor.

Don't they have rules about that? About being drunk on the Senate floor?

Just as soon as this political neophyte--Brian Kelly for Congress--announced his political intentions, he got hammered by the local bloggers and their readers. Without diving too deeply into all of that, let's just say he's too much of a traditionalist for the folks who think being "progressive" means having to turn the country upside down.

Anyway, I immediately took notice of his resume, but not for the same reasons as my electronic colleagues.

This is from his campaign site...

Brian Kelly, a former IBM Senior Systems Engineer and currently Assistant Professor of Business and Information Technology (BIT) at Marywood University in Scranton, author, consultant, and IBM computer industry expert, announces his candidacy for Congress in Pennsylvania's Eleventh Congressional District.

Now follow this, from an IBM Oswego newsletter published in 1962...

Gene J. Cour...senior design engineer, guided missile project.

So, I had to ask. I just had to. I sent Mr. Kelly an email asking if he knew, or if he had worked with my father. And he did respond that he had not worked with him, but promised to email his "IBM friends."

Small world, ain't it?

I forget which company it was, but one of these companies looking to turn the Marcellus Shale beneath us into Swiss cheese has designs on drilling a property on Zosh Road, Lake Township. The property owners have leased the land for the purposes of natural gas extraction, but last I read, the township had yet to issue the permit.

In case you're wondering, Zosh Road is a dirt road that runs off of Meeker Road. To intersect with Meeker, you need to hook up with 118 at Dallas and drive until you arrive at the 5 or 6-way intersection that delivers you to the sprawling Lake Lehman school campus off to the left. At that goofy intersection, Meeker is on your right.

There are not many homes on Zosh Road to speak of. There is a farm with a large pond that could be used for fracking water. Every inch of the surrounding forest is clearly posted as private property, so we need to be mindful of that if and when we go scouting for pictures of the devastation that hydrofracking typically delivers to the landscape. Although, I suspect those signs are posted for those looking to shoot Bambi's descendants.

As of today, there's no drilling going on. No overweight trucks. No explosions. No polluted well waters. No half-drained ponds. No waste water pools. There's nothing going on yet.

Yet.

I'm curious. (No! Not about that!) If you were a recently disbarred attorney as well as a local political blogger, would you have the gargantuan reproductive sacks required to continue on with the blogging routine? The way I figure it, if you're a disbarred attorney, isn't your credibility kind of vaporized?

Whatever.

Don't matter none to me. But it'll be interesting to watch.

This one caught my eye, the perfect segue...

A death in the blogosphere

If you were to blog using a pseudonym, and if you were to go tits up for whatever reason, how would your readers know?

Then again, if you were to blog using a pseudonym, and if you were to be disbarred, arrested or imprisoned, how would your readers know?

I think Blogger should have this fail safe, an electronic will if you will. Here's how it would work.

You write your "will," in effect, your last ever post in the event of your untimely demise arriving, well, rather untimely. After your grossly overpriced funeral, and after all of your relatives are done with fighting over all of your imported worldly possessions despite what your paper will says, your spouse could notify Blogger of your undoing, which would trigger the posting of your electronic "will," your posthumous post.

Here's my rough draft:

If you're reading this, know that I have passed over into that mysterious place that no one not stuffed full of synergist-charged opiates wants to visit anytime soon. I am gone, therefore the world is far less imperfect.

P.S.--Facebook is gay.

What else?

Oh, yeah. The local news. You know, rampant corruption and the like. Dirtballs, liars, scums and thieves, i.e., your local government.

One of Gort's many readers posted an anonymous comment about how, in their opinion, Luzerne County Controller Walter Griffith is "grandstanding." Here's my take on that.

For the purposes of this exercise, for the sake of the argument, let us assume that for Walter Griffith, a day without grandstanding is like a day without sunshine. Let us go there.

So what???

Is it not beyond obvious that practically every office, every department and every branch of our county governement has played host to some sort of scam, embezzlement or outright theft? The reason your taxes keep going up is to pay for all of the crime that passes as government in these parts.

And since our elected "leaders" have shown a prospensity for, a clear liking of getting things done by way of the golf course, the local sports bar, the smoke-filled back room and out of the sight of the public despite what the Sunshine Laws command them to do, I hope Walter calls for a press conference every single time he discovers that a box of paper clips has gone missing. I hope to see Walter's ugly mug in the local newspapers day-in and day-out.

Because every time that ugly mug of his accompanies a news story, we learn more and more about the depth of the corruption that has been hidden just under the surface for generations. I hope he's in the newspapers so completely much, that the readers of our two local newspapers might at some point mistake him for a regular columnist.

I hope he keeps on "grandstanding" to the point that Preparation H becomes the fastest-selling over-the-counter remedy in this county for years on end. I hope that product flies off of the shelves. I hope that stuff becomes as hard to find as are honest politicians in Luzerne County.

Grandstanding? When compared to the secretive ways that have bankrupted this county, I'll take the self-aggrandizement bit every time.

Go, Walter. Go!

Forget what Joe Snedeker, Rusty Fender or Josh Hodell have to say about it, here's your proof that we're in for an early Spring.

Ready?

I encountered termite workers within an inch of the surface of the soil this past Tuesday, March 2nd. Never throughout the entirety of my career have I run across workers at that shallow a depth that early in the season. Never. And since insects are like animals, in that they can detect an impending seasonal change long before we can, I think a change is afoot.

And I have concluded two things as a result of that not-so-chance encounter.

1. We're in for an early Spring.

And,

2. Subterrean termites are currently searching for your home, your church, your school or your place of business.

Good luck with that last certifiable conclusion of mine. As in, pray that you never need to meet me. Or at least, pray that you never need to tap into my vast expertise.

Later

The "idle" vote

Below is a tiny snippet of an email that came to me yesterday...

Attached, please find a press release announcing endorsements of Corey O'Brien for Congress from the Northeast Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council and the Scranton Building & Construction Trades Council. Together, the two councils represent over 10,000 union members in 15 building and construction trades unions.

These are the sorts of union endorsements that our incumbent, Paul Kanjorski, could always count on receiving with absolute certainty in past election cycles. What's changed? I'm not entirely sure, but I'll share this much.

Very recently, I met a big, big union honcho from the local building trades. Gort, you wanna talk "union label?" Dude, this guy's basement looked like a union label museum. And predictably, in an unfinished corner of the basement were Gore, Kerry and Obama campaign yard signs.

I asked the guy if the deplorable state of the economy had much of an impact on his union boys, and man oh freaking man did he react. He went off big time. And on and on and on he went. He said, among other things, that he's never seen it this bad. And he mentioned that he's never had so many union brothers out of work at once. And all during this rant of his, he kept on using the same word over and over--"idle."

Again, what's changed? Well, I'm not in a position to say why Kanjo's obligatory union support might be shifting to the upstart kid from up north, but it seems that union members and non union workers have at least this one trait in common, unbeknownst to most of Washington...they don't enjoy being unemployed or underemployed for prolonged lengths of time.

And since I'm the only blogger in these parts not all smitten with the far left commie manifesto, note that this union honcho's ire approaching apogee and well beyond was not directed at democrats or republicans in particular. Nope. By and large, it was being directed at Washington as a whole, as a single dysfunctional unit.

And the thing that struck me was, he sounded no different than your garden variety member of the fledgling Tea Party. Or as you commie youth would likely say, Tea (insert not-so-clever insult).

So, obviously the unions are voting for jobs. Like the other 17% of Americans that are out of work, they are ready to vote against being idled. Meanwhile, the Democrats are promising all involved the 1,0001st incarnation of a health care reform bill that will kick in some years from now.

And the Republicans? Well, they're prepared to keep their heads down so as to not get tarnished by the record amounts of tar and feathers that are sure to fly at Washington and relatively soon.

Obama is promising a health care debacle. Kanjorski is promising tougher regulations for and more oversight of his biggest campaign contributors. And O'Brien? Well, it seems that the relative neophyte has been talking about creating jobs, now don't it? Sure does. Yep, it seems to me as if O'Brien is winning the "idle" vote.

Don't much matter to me. All of a sudden, I've got more work than I can handle. Oh, and a great health care package, too. And great benefits. And profit sharing. Just got a raise and a...

Later

No (W-B) School Board Member Left Behind

This was waiting on me when I got home...

The Northeast Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council and the Scranton Building & Construction Trades Council will be holding a joint press conference with Corey O’Brien, Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District, tomorrow March 3, 2010 at noon. The press conference will be held at the Operating Engineers Local 542 union hall, located at 501 East Main Street, Wilkes-Barre PA (across from the Mohegan Sun casino). The event is open to all press.

WHAT: Press Conference
WHEN: Tomorrow – Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at Noon
WHERE: Operating Engineers Local 542, 501 E Main Street, Wilkes-Barre
CONTACT: Justin Carroll, Campaign Manager, 570-343-1111

This one shouldn't have surprised me, but it sure as hell did.

The link: W-B schools replace Pizzella with Polakoski

The excerpt: WILKES-BARRE– The Wilkes-Barre Area School Board picked longtime Wilkes-Barre Township Councilman Gary Polakoski to fill the remainder of former board president Frank Pizzella’s term at a special meeting Monday.

Wilkes-Barre Area School Board member Joe Moran, left; Superintendent Jeff Namey and board President Teresa McGuire listen to the votes, which ended with Gary Polakoski joining the board.

Polakoski, a Republican, has been on the township council for 16 years but never attempted to gain a school board seat before. He works as a foreman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

In choosing Polakoski, the board rejected Harry Haas, a Republican who was one of five candidates who won enough votes in the 2009 primary to land on the November ballot. Three primary candidates -- Christine Katsock, Robert Corcoran and incumbent Lynn Evans -- had won both party nominations in the primary, virtually assuring victory. That left Haas, a teacher at Dallas Middle School, on the Republican ticket fighting for the fourth seat with Democrat Phillip Latinski. Haas fell short by 115 votes.

As far as I'm concerned, this board just told the taxpayers that they'll do as they see fit, when they see fit, the public be damned. And they seem to have this aversion to allowing young, vibrant and caring up-and-comers a place at the decision-making table.

And what has happened to the former leader of the Wyoming Valley activist pack, Christine Katsock. First, she voted to reinstall as president a then indicted board member, recently gone admitted criminal. When asked to explain that vote, she treated us to "no comment."

And now, when pressed on the obvious snubbing of Harry Haas, well that's a "personnel matter" according to her, meaning she does not have to explain herself to the hardscrabble, unknowing hoi polloi such as us. Yeah, the perpetual candidate, the champion's champion of demanding transparency from the elected and the appointed has gone all translucent on us.

What balls!

Remember both the perplexing Pizzella fiasco as well as the infuriating Haas snub when we vote these connivers, prevaricators, hangers-on and dinosaurs out of office. Remember this bunk, this utter foolishness on election day.

When next we vote, we commence with the "No (W-B) School Board Member Left Behind" program.

Sez me.

Bye

PS--What's the going rate on a teacher's position? Can we find these jobs listed on eBay?

Breaking news at Times Leader.com

Make sure to grab a copy of the Times Leader in the morning.

Breaking news...

6:37 PM
Conahan alleges prosecutorial misconduct, seeks dismissal of indictmentSCRANTON - Former Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan is seeking to have a 48-count indictment against him dismissed, alleging federal prosecutors engaged in misconduct in using attorney Robert Powell as an informant to secretly record conversations.

5:52 PM
Conahan/Ciavarella seek judge's recusal, change of venueSCRANTON - Attorneys for former Luzerne County judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan filed numerous pre-trial motions today that seek, among other things, the dismissal of several of the charges, the recusal of U.S. District Judge Edwin Kosik and a change of venue.
Posted: 5:22 PMUpdated: 5:46 PM

Conahan attorney expects “uncharged” conduct to be used against clientAn attorney for former Luzerne County judge Michael Conahan says in court papers that he expects prosecutors to present evidence of uncharged crimes and other misconduct against Conahan if he opts to testify in his racketeering case.

Chutzpah, baby. Chutzpah.

G'nite

PPCM

I received this via the email inbox. Not sure why, but it's here. It's uninteresting to me. But if you're a candidate for elected office, you might want to take a look.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: March 1, 2010
Contact: David Lynn, President, DAL Services, Inc.
Phone: (215) 821-1156
Email: David@DAL-Services.comWebsite:
http://DAL-Services.com

A new version of the free Pennsylvania Political Campaign Management Database (PPCM) was released this morning, it was announced today.

The PPCM, a free, Commonwealth-approved application for managing political campaigns and filing campaign finance reports with the Department of State has been uploaded to http://DAL-Services.com.

"Running for office in Pennsylvania just got easier," said David Lynn,President of DAL Services, Inc., the producer of the software. "With this new version of the PPCM software, a political campaign can import voter data files from the Commonwealth Department of State, print street lists, solicit contributors, acknowledge gifts, and run voter statistics, in addition to filing campaign finance reports electronically or on paper."

"Typically, a newcomer to the political arena will not have the money to purchase campaign management software to run their campaign," Lynn continued. "My goal is to level the playing field by providing campaign management software for free.

"One of the most important feature's of Lynn's software is the ability to file Campaign Finance Reports directly from the software. "It saves a good deal of time," said Lynn, "and the campaign can sleep well at night knowing that they are completed correctly.""Now, there's no excuse for not getting your campaign expense reports in on time," said Lynn.

Lynn provides free support to all candidates who use the software. "I publish my home phone number on my website, so if someone has a question,they can call me," said Lynn.

The PPCM has been free since it's creation in 2006. "I make it available for public use, so that underfunded candidates can have decent software to run their campaigns," said Lynn.

"It's my contribution to good government in Pennsylvania."The PPCM can be used by any political committee or candidate in Pennsylvania for any local or Commonwealth elected office. For more information, call(215) 821-1156 or visit http://DAL-services.com.-###-

It looks to be legit. And if you follow this link--http://dal-services.com/ppcm.html--you can follow a link to the state's list of approved vendors, as well as download the entire shebang free of charge.

As for myself, I ain't running for anything except, perhaps, New York Giants fan of the year. And of the decade. Maybe even the lifetime award.

And I have one thing to say to the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board, who are scheduled to meet tonight to elect a new member from a pool of ten candidates.

Forget the party politics and pick the right person. Your credibility (whatever scant trace that is left of it) as a transparent, professional and capable school board is on the line, so you need to do the right thing.

And that thing is...Harry Haas.

Later