The LuLac Edition #684, Jan. 2nd, 2009

PHOTO INDEX: OUR 1964 LOGO, BOBBY VINTON WITH THE LATE GEORGE GILBERT, THE LATE SENATOR CLAIBORNE PELL, HOME RULE ADVOCATE P.J. BEST AND POPE BENEDICT XVITH.

HOME RULE IN MAY

The movement to make Luzerne a Home Rule County has been revived - more than seven years after the initial campaign. The last campaign, started in 2001, was defeated in 2003 by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent. Home Rule allows the basic authority to act in municipal affairs to be transferred from state law to a local charter, adopted and amended by the voters. A county choosing Home Rule can tailor its governmental organization and powers to suit its special needs.
“We need this change now more than ever,” explains PJ Best, chairman of Luzerne Home Rule, the organization behind the movement. “Luzerne County has reached a point which citizens can no longer endure.” Best allows contends that if Home Rule was approved during in 2003, many of the problems in Luzerne County could have been avoided.
The committee is now circulating petitions across the county in an effort to reach the required 4,790 by the February 17th deadline. The voters would then vote in May to approve a government study commission of eleven elected members to consider the advisability of the adoption of Home Rule and if advisable, to draft a Home Rule charter with public input. The final charter would then require voter approval.
Home Rule in other counties has achieved a variety of objectives including separation of executive and legislative powers or functions, increased citizen access to government, accountability and responsiveness to the public, professional administration, and improved fiscal procedures or controls. Most importantly, elements setting ethical standards for elected officials may be included. Additional information about the Home Rule movement can be found on the committee’s website, www.luzernehomerule.org.

THE POPE COMMENTS

Pope Benedict XVI challenged world leaders on Thursday to make major changes to the global financial system, saying short-term answers to the financial crisis weren’t sufficient. “It’s not enough, as Jesus said, to put patches on an old suit,” Benedict said in his New Year’s Day blessing to thousands of people huddled under umbrellas in a rain-soaked St. Peter’s Square. Echoing a similar theme in his New Year’s Day homily, Benedict said the crisis should be seen as a test-case about the future of globalization. “Are we ready to read it in its complexity as a way for the future and not just an emergency to respond to with short-term answers?” he asked. “Are we ready to make a profound revision in the dominant development model, to correct it in a farsighted and concerted way?”
During his homily, Benedict also said he was praying for an end to the violence in Gaza and said he hoped the international community would come forward with concrete proposals so the Israelis and Palestinians could live in peace, security and dignity.

GRIFFIN’S GAFFE

For anyone who stuck around to watch Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin on CNN after the ball dropped on New Year's Eve, they were rewarded (or punished) by being privy to the first live on-air curse of 2009. Responding to a heckler who had been taunting her, comedienne Griffin lashed out at the onlooker as her and Cooper's show was going to commercial, saying "Screw you!" and telling him to "get a job." She then went on to taunt him further, crudely saying: "I don't go to your job and knock the d---- out of your mouth." Kathy Griffin is a no talent celebrity with no class. Her career is an illusion of talent and intelligence. Her comments were not beneath her, they were right at her level: bottom feeder. Many have said that Dick Clark’s attempts at halting speech was a sad spectacle for America to watch as the New Year came in. I disagree. He was heroic. Kathy Griffin, now that’s a sad case all around.

NEW YEAR’S 2010

Mayor Tom Leighton, Mayor Carl Leighton to WILK Radio’s Phil Cummings said he is exploring opportunities with the Downtown Business Community to reignite a “First Night” celebration for New Year’s Eve 2010. Great idea and I hope it flies. It gives the city an identity and some nice news coverage for its strengths. That’s the optimist in me talking, the cynic in me is saying that 2011 is an election year and that will benefit the Mayor on the eve of what will be another run for office. The other part is telling me that one of the “committee volunteers” will parlay this effort into an upper 5 figure city job that heretofore never existed or was needed. Still, we wish the Mayor and the committee luck in this endeavor.

LET ‘EM EAT GUNS!!!

The Presidency of George W. Bush has been the hotbed for dumb ideas. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, the so called President decides that it is okay for anyone to carry a concealed weapon in a National Park. Why? To ward off the bears? To shoot dead those pesky urban panhandlers or drug dealers? Locally, the President has made it possible for someone to carry a concealed weapon onto the grounds of Steamtown. President Bush is not only a first class idiot, in the history of the Presidency, he is the most unthinking and callous person that ever held office. He signs acts of power without thinking through the consequences. Just like any idiot would. A few more days folks. If he doesn’t kill us all with his stupidity.

CLAIBORNE PELL

While American college students are struggling to afford a college education under this administration, one man in history stands as the champion of student higher education. He died the other day. His name was Claiborne Pell and he was the originator of the Pell grants which sent millions of deserving (and some not so deserving) students to college. Pell, 90, a six-term Rhode Island Democrat who rose to be chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, died Jan. 1 at his Newport, R.I., home. He had had Parkinson's disease since 1994.
A Yankee Brahmin and former Foreign Service officer who was virtually unbeatable at the polls in a largely Catholic, blue-collar state, he was best known for his sponsorship of the 1972 program that has helped 54 million low- and moderate-income students attend college. He also sponsored the legislation that founded the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities. He was committed to maritime and foreign affairs issues, strongly in favor of abortion rights, a consistent vote for labor and an ardent advocate of arms control and the rule of law in international affairs. First elected to the Senate in 1960, Sen. Pell was aloof, diffident, courteous and self-effacing. Unfailingly polite, he also had quirks, such as jogging in a tweed coat. One of his favorite sayings was "I always let the other fellow have my way”.

1964

We finished reviewing the historic year 1968. Our crack blog/site team thought we were through but we received requests for a review of another year. After considering 1969, 1972 and others, we decided on 1964. 1964 was a benchmark year in politics, entertainment, sports and media. All came of age one way or another in 1964. The seeds of growth and discontent were sown in ’64. We’ll tell you all about it, week by week every Friday in LuLac. Now, on to ’64.
The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasalands dissolved....U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater announces that he will seek the Republican nomination for President....In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the 15th century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I meet in Jerusalem……Statewide, Governor William Warren Scranton enters the second part of his 4 year term with an ambitious legislative agenda that includes reforming the Commonwealth’s Civil Service system…..in Luzerne County Majority Commissioner James Post and Bill Goss take office as the standard bearers of the GOP while a former member of the Republicans, Edmund C. Wideman takes his seat as Democratic Minority Commissioner….in Lackawanna County incumbents Patrick Mellody and Edward Zipay take over the reigns for another term of Democratic rule and in LuLac land and in America, the number one song this week was Bobby Vinton’s “There I’ve Said It Again”, an old Vaughn Monroe tune. From You Tube: