The LuLac Edition #519, July 11th, 2008

PHOTO INDEX: OUR 1968 LOGO, FORMER PA. RURAL BEAUTY QUEEN ANGELA BERTUGLI, MAIN SQUEEZE OR STATEWIDE EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR, JUST ASK MIKE MANZO, LACKAWANNA COUNTY CONTROLLER KEN McDOWELL AND THE PROVERBIAL DIM BULB.

DIM BULBS!

It isn't very often that we come across two dim bulbs on the same day but we have two of them. The first has to be former beauty queen and aspiring lawyer Angela Bertugli who followed the Chief of Staff to Representative William DeWeeese into a car for sex and parlayed that into a huge no show job with the Commonwealth. She later testified against the aide, Mike Manzo saying to the committee , "She concluded with certainty, that Manzo hired her because she was having sex with him!" The fling began in 2004 and she testified in 2007. Well some people get to conclusions faster than others!

And in the "With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?" department, Lackawanna County Controller Ken McDowell got some good news and bad news today. The good news was that he and his staff was exonerated of any wrong doing by the FBI into an investigation of the Single Tax Office. The bad news was the feds interviewed his friend, tavern owner Peter Cosgrove who told the Scranton Times of his encounter and what he said about his buddy McDowell. A few classic quotes: Mr. Cosgrove said he didn’t believe his friend would do anything criminal. “He may not show up for work, he may not always do what he’s supposed to do, but he’s no criminal,” he said. And on his encounter with the FBI Cosgrove added with certainty, "“They told me, ‘You can’t arrest incompetence,’ ” he said. So McDowell gets cleared by an FBI probe but his friends, his friends, not enemies, say he might not be the best guy to have at the helm, might screw up and not show for days, but at least he's not involved in any scandal. Nope. Unless we've set the bar so low, we're happy with a guy like McDowell at the helm. Dim Bulbs, apparently are okay with some people.

NOT DIM AT ALL!!!!

Had the chance to be on WYOU TV's Interactive News Tonight with former Senatorial Green Party candidate Carl Romanelli. Romanelli was a guest commenting about "bonus gate". As you may recall he was victimized by the Democratic powers that tried to keep him off the ballot in the 2006 race between now Senator Bob Casey and former Senator Rick Santorum. In effect, the money used to shut down his candidacy was funneled by some of the same Democratic operatives currently doing perp walks. Even though Romanelli and I disagree on the concept of The Green Party and its leaders (I thought it was inexcusable for them to abandon him when he was in his court fight) Romanelli is an honorable, interesting guy. It was great raising hell with him tonight on WYOU TV!

1968

The soap opera One Life to Live premieres on ABC........Saddam Hussein becomes Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in Iraq after a coup d'état……..New York Mayor John Lindsay denies interest in the GOP nomination for Vice President as the Richard Nixon for President campaign gets closer to the magic number for nomination in Miami on August 5th…..Statewide Governor Shafer signed a new school district reorganization law……Regional legislators probe into the low morale among the prison guards at Chase Prison in Dallas……this blog editor and his friends took a trip to Cooperstown, New York to see the baseball Hall of Fame and the number 1 song in LuLac land was “Stone Soul Picnic” by the Fifth Dimension. From YOU TUBE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5z9LYWywns.