The LuLac Edition #710, Jan. 31st, 2009

PHOTO INDEX: POPE BENEDICT XVITH, ATTORNEY THOMAS O'CONNOR, WILK TALK SHOW HOST STEVE CORBETT AND NEWLY MINTED LUZERNE COUNTY PRESIDENT JUDGE CHESTER MUROSKI.

CHET THE VET

When a team is floundering, the sensible thing is to bring in a veteran manager to handle things. Preferably one who is honest and has the best interests of said entity in mind. The Luzerne County Judges did this Friday afternoon when they named Chester Muroski as President Judge. As I said on WYOU TV the other night, it was time for the grownups to be in charge again. Muroski brings three things to this Presidency:
1. He brings years of experience to the position. He has seen it all. He has been a workhorse Judge, not a show horse. When Muroski was the DA in the early 80s, the janitorial staff at the Courthouse used to leave a single light on near the east side of the building. People traveling over the Pierce Street Bridge after midnight would ask, “what’s that one light doing on in the Courthouse?” And a local in the know would say, “That’s Chet Muroski the DA catching up on a little paperwork. As he approaches the mandatory retirement age, he has nothing to prove to anyone or anybody.
2. Muroski comes from humble beginnings. He did not practice corporate law for a big pay day, he has always been involved in public service. I knew and grew up on the same street with a few of his relatives and they knew, as well as he what it was like to struggle for a buck as a youngster. That doesn’t seem important, but to me the people in this county have to know they have a Judge who remembers where he came from.
3. Muroski has handled many cases in all aspects of the law. He has been the County DA. His interest is in the law, not sailing yachts and lounging at condos in Florida.
We wish him well in this endeavor.

O'CONNOR IN

Attorney Tom O’Connor is in for another try at the County bench. O’Connor is the son of the late fabled Recorder of Deeds Helen O’Connor. He has been an active volunteer for the United Way (where he met his lovely wife Roseanne, I was there then and I saw the sparks flying right off the bat) and an advocate and volunteer for causes of veterans. His popular political name may be a two sided coin. Many revere the O’Connor name while others feel this is not the right time to have a Judge from a politically (albeit decades ago) connected family. Judge Patrick Toole’s son is on the bench, same with Peter Paul Olsweski. My belief is in a case like this you don’t look at the name, you look at the guy and his record of public service to the area. O’Connor was active in the community when his hair was jet black. And when I had hair! That’s a long time. Plus, he picks up his own dry cleaning every Saturday not sending the wife or kids. Or a maid! That’s a regular guy who deserves a shot at the bench.

BONUSES

In my entire working career, I never, ever got a bonus. For Christmas, for good performance. Nothing. Now I'm not complaining, failing radio stations and social services agencies don't pay a bonus. I understood that going in. I won a few trips to the Caribbean working for a pagan on line travel company but that was about it. The Wall Street Executives from the investment companies got their bonuses after the bailout. President Obama called it shameful. He needs to do more than say that. He needs to freeze the asset amounts of the billions of dollars they got from the government, seize it and get it back. Any company can put a stop payment on a check or seize accounts wrongfully used. These high priced do nothing blood suckers need to be taught a lesson. They need to be policed much like a mob boss watches over his bookies who in turn watch over their bettors. A lesson needs to be sent besides saying it was “shameful”. These bloodsuckers have no shame. And they should be punished.

FREEDOM

A lot has been made of the fact that Americans love their freedom. But what if the freedom of the few impinge on the survival of the many? President Obama needs to increase the freedom of the general working class and decrease the freedom of big business in America. He needs to set up a Czar Business Controller, a dictator if you will, a Howard Denenberg/Steve Flood type that will ensure American big business with their freedom to make excessive profits will not do so at the economic expense of the general public. The banks got a bailout to lend money to the financially distressed population. They lent nothing. They sat on their fat asses. Dictator time folks. Their fundamental financial freedoms to run their business should be reviewed. As individuals, I’ll defend their right to express themselves freely and openly in our society, let them run naked through Central Park and do what any person in this country has the freedom and rights to do. But once inside those corporate walls, given their past and present behavior, they have forfeited the right to act freely in the marketplace. These are desperate times calling for desperate measures. If need be, their companies need to be restructured to comply with the government funds given to them. Big business has proven they cannot be trusted to do the right thing or serve the American people. Lincoln imposed constrictions on freedoms for the South, our enemy at the time. FDR wrongly or rightly did the same with immigrant groups during WWII who he had perceived as enemies. We need to do the same thing with the investment bankers. They have proven they have no regard for their government, its generosity from the bailout or the American people. Put them in such a box where they must comply. And if they don’t, give it to local banks. Their freedom to conduct business as it was and is, should be rescinded. If it isn’t, the majority of the American population will be in dire peril.

BEN!!! BEN!!!!

My man Pope Benedict has seemed to have a had a regression by rehabilitating a few Bishops who were Nazi sympathizers and one who denied the Holocaust ever existed. C’mon your Holiness. Are you trying to undo the good work you did on your visits to America and Australia? This was a bad move that reinforces the stereotype that you want to take the church backward. I have no problem with his defense of Pope Pius XIIth during WWII. The man was boxed in and needed to survive the takeover in Europe for the sake of the church. And it is documented that he did save some Jews, but not nearly enough. The addition of the YOU TUBE channel is a good way to reach young people and the internet savvy. He’s done good things BUT this rehabilitation of the Bishops is a mistake and a slap in the face to all Jews and thinking Catholics.

344-2404

Steve Corbett was shouting out that number on his WILK Radio program yesterday. That number is the FBI field office in Scranton. Corbett is urging anyone with information on corruption in Luzerne County Courts or elsewhere in the system to call and chat with the FBI staff. It might make cleaning up corruption in NEPA a bigger priority than it is now. Although I don’t know how much bigger or worse it can get than this week. I’ve always wondered about those civil bench trials where the connected get $850,000 for falling off a bike or $600,000 for a land dispute. Maybe something other than the Juvenile system cases should be looked at too. That number is 344-2404. Be polite, state your facts clearly, be precise but most importantly, don’t be shy.

RUDY AND JUDY

Rudy Giuliani and his wife Judy sold the family homestead in Hazleton dashing any hopes that the New York Mayor might take a run for the Mayor’s job in Hazleton. Judy’s maiden name was Stish and she graduated from high school in the city in 1972. Jeez, Cindy McCain was a ’72 grad, the current Mrs. G was a ’72 grad. I graduated in 1972, how come I never ran into women like these back then!

THE OPEN

The Australian Open was on TV this week and you all know how much I love women’s tennis. The long legs, the grunts, the heat and sweat while we freeze out butts off and nearly kill ourselves on ice three inches deep here. My girl Sharipova was not in the tourney this year but there was an abundance of substitutes to make me warm all over.