The LuLac Edition #1109, Mar. 1st, 2010

PHOTO INDEX: STATE SENATOR ROBERT MELLOW AND FORMER BASEBALL PLAYER JIM BUNNING.

MELLOW’S MOOLAH

A lot has been made of the pension State Senator Robert Mellow will be making after he has retired from his seat in Harrisburg. A few years ago there was a widely acclaimed book called “The Millionaire Next Door”. The book highlighted the smart decisions some people made in their formative years as opposed to some decisions others made (I want to make $95.00 a week being in radio for instance) in their own lives. Look, I have been railing against per Diems and the obscenely high salaries of the state Legislature. I think the Legislature is over staffed and needs to be trimmed. All that said, Robert Mellow and Ray Musto served their time in the Senate. They benefited from the rules that were put in place in the State Senate at the time they were serving. It is money they earned because of the time they accrued. Don’t demonize them for their retirement pay. Most people are saying they should give the money back or that they aren’t entitled to it all. Wrong. They are entitled to it because it was the pension system that was in process when they were employed. It’s almost like saying that a teacher that benefited from a new contract was not entitled to the change in it. Voters in Luzerne and Lackawanna county should have know that after a combined 70 years, Musto and Mellow were going to be due a big check. Change the system if you like, enact term limits if you will but don’t deny or begrudge these men their pensions, however onerous you find them.

FOUL BALL

Many readers here know of my deep admiration and childhood idolization of former Phillies pitcher Jim Bunning for his exploits on the baseball field. Even though Bunning has turned into an incompetent, nasty representative in the Senate, his ability as a baseball player does not diminish in my eyes. However his behavior as a Senator has been nothing short of horrific. Sad to say Bunning is a joke. His latest stunt and the lack of repudiation by the GOP leadership has to be a clear sign to America that the Republican party is heartless and has no regard for unemployed Americans. Bunning’s maneuver has stopped unemployment benefits for millions of Americans. My recent unemployment is an open scabbed wound that is very raw. It took me 11 months to find a job and going against the grain, it was a better higher paying one than the one I lost. But there are millions of Americans that have to settle for less money, less hours or nothing at all. Bunning has been joined in this nonsense by Senator Jon Kyl who said “unemployment encourages people not to work, all they want to do is have a good time with it”. How moronic. Even the best unemployment compensation never makes up for the salary you lost. Jim Bunning is a senile bitter old man that makes Mr. Potter from “A Wonderful Life” look like Mr. Chuckles. Please take a look at the actions of a man who was a giant on the baseball field but a pitiful dwarf in the hallowed Senate.