The LuLac Edition #603, Oct. 16th, 2008

PHOTO INDEX: MAYOR OF WILKES BARRE TOM LEIGHTON, TAXPAYER ADVOCATE WALTER GRIFFITH AND JUDGE ANN LOKUTA.

LOKUTA RULES

Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Ann Lokuta has only granted approval for commissioners to borrow up to $5.3 million to fund the deficit, not the $15.9 million requested by the county. This was in effect a shot across the bow to the county that they better get their financial act together. Lokuta took days to decide this, whereas Michael Conahan, the last Judge to approve a loan did so in thirty minutes. Here’s who will be hurt, those non profit agencies waiting for allocations to meet their budget and the lower tier employees who will be layed off while those higher salaried people keep their $50,000 a year plus jobs. Again, the delicious irony here is that the accused Judge who had to soldier silly allegations against her by the legal elite gets to call the shots. And some of those legal elite are worried about more than the county budget these days.

WILKES BARRE TAX HIKE

As taxpayer advocate Walter Griffith predicted, Mayor Leighton asked for a tax increase that will have the average property owner in the city paying $70.00 more. The Mayor said the high costs come because of an arbitration hearing for the Firefighters which cost the city 1 million dollars and health care costs. I don’t mind paying money for firefighters but how about those health care costs? Isn’t it time for city council members to pay their own health care, maybe drop a few family members from the plan. And how about the city of Wilkes Barre having their employees kick in a few bucks for their plans. Too bad Griffith can’t file a lawsuit in Wilkes Barre City to drop taxes. Or sue to have the council pay their own way!!!!!

THE FINAL DEBATE

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

ANALYSIS

John McCain won it on points but it might be too late. McCain engaged Obama very well, took a few shots, didn’t back down. Obama passed the threshold of whether he could be President and in these debates he surpassed that. Obama defended his associations with William Ayers while McCain kept on hammering that Obama wanted to raise taxes. The best line in the debate came when McCain told Obama, “I am not George Bush, if you wanted to run against him, you should’ve done it four years ago”. In a CBS News Poll fifty-three percent of the uncommitted voters surveyed identified Democratic nominee Barack Obama as the winner of tonight's debate. Twenty-two percent said Republican rival John McCain won. Twenty-five percent saw the debate as a draw. More uncommitted voters trusted Obama than McCain to make the right decisions about health care. Before the debate, sixty-one percent of uncommitted voters said that they trust Obama on the issue; after, sixty-eight percent said so. Twenty-seven percent trusted McCain to manage health care before the debate; thirty percent said so afterwards. Sixty-four percent think Obama will raise their taxes, while fifty percent think McCain will.
In an unofficial sounding, we here at LuLac talked to committed McCain supporters and those leaning toward him. We found that many of the McCain supporters were tired of the attacks on Obama via William Ayers and ACORN. Many felt that McCain was tarnishing his reputation and that he was doing no good to get his message out to the American people. Obama was correct according to FACT CHECK when he said McCain was running negative ads at a 100% ratio.
STAR OF THE DEBATE: Joe the Plumber from Toledo who McCain mentioned 20 times. He will be on Fox’s Mike Huckabee program this weekend. Only in America.
FINAL WRAP: No game changer but it gave McCain some fire to get his troops, the base riled up before the election in 20 days.
FASHION REPORT: Obama wore a burnt orange tie with white shirt, dark suit. McCain had a striped multi colored tie, white shirt with dark suit.