The LuLac Edition #65, Sept. 28th, 2006

GAS PRICES HIT ZAGER AND EVANS MARK...

When you are getting nailed at the gas pumps, you have to take the pain away by playing a game with yourself. During the past year, when gas prices were so high, I made a pledge not to get any more gas than $25.25 cents worth. I called it the Zager and Evans line after that 1969 hit, "In the Year 2525". There were some weeks when, not passing the Zager and Evans line, I maybe got myself three quarters of a tank. Never, ever, a full tank. I'm happy to report that as of Tuesday, I got gas and filled my tank, falling just shy of the Zager and Evans line of $25.25. with my total coming in at $25.19. So my Sebring has broken the Zager and Evans line...barely. But I would never have predicted that on the fourth of July.

SHADOE PEEKS INTO THE PAST

My good friend Shadoe Steele, most likely very familiar with Zager and Evans and all things classic is going to be interviewing a golden oldie this weekend on WILK NewsRadio. The show will air Saturday at 12 noon and Mr. Steele will interview former WILK talk show host, friend of the teacher's union, the man who brought you a sold out 8,000 seat arena on Opening Night instead of a 15,000 seat building, you know him, you love him, you never forgot him, Mr. Ted Williams. Uh, Ed Williams? Uh, Ned Williams??? Whatever that has beens name was, Shadoe will be interviewing him. I'm heading over to Peter Paul Olshefski's house to sit down with the Judge and tune in.

LEONARDI INVOKES LINCOLN DOUGLAS TO SMOKE OUT KANJORSKI


Joe Leonardi, candidate for Congress in the 11th Congressional District desperately wants to debate Congressman Paul Kanjorski. Leonardi has enlisted the help of old Honest Abe himself to rekindle the spirit of the Lincoln and Douglas debates. I think Leonardi is at the point right now where he'd settle for a replay of an old Carolee Medico/Jill Moran debate! Anyway, Joe Leonardi is still waiting.
Leonardi is serious about this race. Here's a listing of some of the people who are working on his behalf.

General Campaign Manager David Spencer
Deputy Campaign Manager Paul Stebbins
General Campaign Coordinator Michael McCormick
General Chairman Jeff Yockavitch
Vice Chairman Edward Zabroski
Communications Director Tony Policare
Treasurer Lori Vandermark
Webmaster Frank Vandermark
Co- Luzerne County Coordinator Gina Nevenglosky
Co-Luzerne County Coordinator Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt
Carbon County Coordinator Stephen Redash
Columbia County Coordinator Matt Wagner
Lackawanna County Coordinator Jim Williams
Monroe County Coordinator Dan Pagano
College Coordinator Joel Jukas
Video Media Coordinator Arnold Santos
Research Analyst Carol Chisak
Dr. Joe Leonardi is proud to have the above people join his campaign to bring a new vision and a new voice to government.

AND THIS DOCTOR MAKES HOUSE CALLS!!!!!

Dr. Joseph Leonardi Candidate U.S. House Weekend Schedule
wStroudsburg, East Stroudsburg Saturday, September 30, 2006
8:00AM
Best Western to various restaurants
10:00AM
Monroe Farmers Market to downtown businesses
2:00 PM
East Stroudsburg Town Hall to downtown businesses
5:00PM
Monroe County Historical Society Annual Spaghetti DinnerJ.T. Lambert Intermediate School 2000 Milford Rd. E. Stroudsburg PA

Scranton, Dickson City
Sunday October 1, 2006

12:00PM Buona Pizza, Lackawanna Ave to downtown businesses
3:00PM Viewmont Mall Area
7:00PM Lackawanna and Luzerne County Fall Dinner, Convention Hall

DEBATES 2006

Going to the candidate's debate.
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Every way you look at this you lose.

After once defending it as good legislation, Gov. Ed Rendell on Monday said he erred by signing the controversial pay-raise legislation last year that boosted salaries for lawmakers, judges and other state officials.
“No question I made a mistake in signing it,” the governor said during an appearance before the Pennsylvania Press Club.Mr. Rendell said he had developed a solid working relationship with the Republican-controlled Legislature during his first two years in office and signed the pay-raise bill because he did not want to undermine that rapport.
Republican challenger Lynn Swann, who has been trying to link Mr. Rendell to the pay raise in voters’ minds, used the latest remarks to hammer the Democratic incumbent for putting deal-making ahead of the public’s best interests.The debate heated up later in the day when the two appeared together at a candidates’ forum in Hershey.Sitting on the same stage, Mr. Rendell called Mr. Swann a “hypocrite” for bashing him while supporting two Republican lawmakers — Senate President Pro Tem Robert Jubelirer, R-Blair, and Senate Majority Leader David Brightbill, R-Lebanon — who helped negotiate the pay raise measure. Both lawmakers lost their re-election bids in the May primary.Mr. Rendell also rejected the notion that the pay raise was negotiated without public knowledge, noting the media first began reporting on pay raise talks in late 2004, several months before the bill was approved and signed in July 2005.“So it was in the public domain, people had time to comment,” Mr. Rendell said. “If people didn’t listen, there was nothing we could do about that.”Mr. Swann suggested the governor was trying to sidestep any blame.“He’s taken every position you can on this,” Mr. Swann said. “He called it good legislation, (then) tries to blame the Legislature ... and now is trying to blame the (voters of the) commonwealth because he said they had a chance to voice their opinion and they didn’t."

SWANN SPOTS HIT THE AIRWAVES………..Finally, the quote Ed Rendell made about tax reform relief is coming back to haunt him. In 2002, Rendell campaigned around the state saying he could enact property tax reform standing on his head. The new Swann ad has a chubby fellow carrying around a cardboard cutout of the Governor asking people how that property tax thing is working out for them. It culminates with a little old lady hitting the cutout with her purse. (The GOP strategists seem to have a thing for feisty older ladies, remember the senior citizen gal who shoved Senator Santorum off the polka floor?) This new ad plus Swann’s performance in the first debate and the Governor’s less than stellar effort (he seemed to want to be anywhere else but on that stage) might give the GOP candidate the boost he needs to close the gap with Rendell. The ad is funny, creative and goes after what many consider to be the Achilles heel of the Rendell effort.

RUDY COMING BACK TO WILKES BARRE

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will speak at a lecture sponsored by the Jay S. Sidhu School of Leadership at Wilkes University.
Giuliani will be the featured lecturer at Wilkes University’s Outstanding Leaders Forum at 8 p.m. Nov. 12 at The F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts. Last year’s speaker was former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Tickets can be purchased through The F.M. Kirby Center box office at 826-1100 or at Ticketmaster locations including Boscov’s and Gallery of Sound, online at ticketmaster.com or by calling 693-4100. Tickets are $35.
This year’s forum also includes a New York-style buffet which begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Marts Center on South Franklin Street. Tickets to the buffet are $100 and include preferred seating for Mayor Giuliani’s lecture and a tax-deductible $40 donation to the scholarship fund and dinner. For more information on the buffet ticket purchase, call 570-408-4306.
Speaking of Rudy, he has been showing up in Santorum for Senator ads touting the incumbent Senator’s record on homeland security. This ad is very informative, classy and might make people forget about the ad attacking Robert Casey, Jr. that featured a smoke filled room of politicos looking like a Casey band of supporters who wind up behind bars. The problem with that of course is that two of the contributors featured in the ad gave nothing to Casey but some amounts of money to the Senator. Many feel that ad backfired on the Senator's re-election effort.
The ex Mayor's last visit was to Wilkes Barre stumping for President Bush in the 2004 Presidential campaign.

TUNE IN TONIGHT AT 5:30PM ON SERVICE ELECTRIC CHANNEL 21 WHEN WE APPEAR ON THE L.A. TARONE SHOW ON WLYN TV 35.