The LuLac Edition #1257, Aug. 6th, 2010

PHOTO INDEX: THE PARTY OF NO, OUR 1966 LOGO, AND GREG SKREPENAK IN HIS GLORY DAYS IN THE NFL.

WHAT FATE SKREP?

There’s a lot of buzz about Greg Skrepenak’s sentence later today. Some say that his lobbying for a shorter jail stay because of football injuries and his single parenthood is offensive. Others who are fans of the big guy say he deserves a break. No matter what happens, here’s what I hope. That Greg Skrepenak doesn’t get any better or worse deal than the previous people who heard their fate. The temptation is to hope Skrep gets a bigger comeuppance than the rest. That’s not fair. Give him what the others got, no more, no less and move on.

AM I LEGAL?

The knuckle head national Republicans now want to change the 14th Amendment. You know the one, the amendment that grants automatic citizenship to nearly any child born in the U.S. Critics say it's an irresistible lure to illegal immigrants and needs to be revised. The 14th Amendment was ratified 140 years ago. Now the GOP wants to change it. So in effect these people who say the government should stay out of everything want to watch over the sex lives of Immigrants. “Can I see your papers before you copulate young man and young lady?” Maybe they’ll want to make it retroactive so that my relatives from Slovakia will have their birth rights revoked. Send me back to Slovakia. What a bunch of punitive awful fools.

THE HAWAIIAN PRESIDENT

There was a study that said one out of 4 Americans, or 25% think President Obama was born on foreign soil. The President was born in our 50th state, Hawaii. His family was so proud they even put an announcement in the paper. But I can understand how some citizens can make the mistake. When I worked for the pagan on line travel company a few years ago, one of the people in my training class, a graduate of Bloomsburg University, was perplexed to learn that Hawaii was indeed a state. So if she made the mistake, others did too. By the way, I think they made her a manager.

CALL MURPHY BROWN

Dan Quayle’s son is running for Congress. In an ad, he is shown with two pretty little girls touting leadership for a new generation. The kids are his nieces which is okay but it gives the impression that these are his kids. Quayle and his wife Tiffany currently have no offspring. In the grand scheme of things, this is not a big deal. But it points out the microscope every candidate is under in this 24/7 media culture.

WILKES BARRE COUNCIL

Rick Cronauer, Tony Thomas, Kathy Kane, Bill Barrett and Mike Merritt. There, I saved myself from the firing squad Steve Corbett was facing for not being able to name all these public servants. Now for bonus points, Kathy Kane, Tony Thomas, Bill Barrett, Mike McGinley, Jim McCarthy, Shirley Vitonic and Phil Latinski. Those were the people on City Council before they moved into districts. McCarthy retired, McGinley was edged out in his district by Barrett, Letinski bailed and Vitonic lost in her bid to Cronaurer. So now the Luzerne County Board of Elections has denied the city’s petition to place the question of returning to at-large voting for council on the November ballot. Leonard Piazza, the county’s director of elections, wrote to Attorney William Vinsko, the city’s assistant attorney, denying the petition because he determined that the recently passed ordinance is premature under applicable Pennsylvania law. Piazza said according to the law, the issue has not matured to the point where it can be voted on again in November. In July, city council approved an ordinance to amend the Home Rule Charter to have the question posed to voters of whether to return to the at-large system of electing council members or to remain with the system of one council member elected from one of 5 districts. The bottom line is that under this new system there are two less salaries paid as well as savings on health. But the big rush is that the Council is jockeying for position for the 2011 Mayor’s race. Plus they had something taken away from them as politicians and want it back. Now. Piazza told them to wait. I think he’s right. Plus the argument that Wilkes Barre voters did not understand the new voting procedure in ’07 is garbage. The problem is the political flunkies of the incumbent Council members didn’t understand the ordinance and allowed a change to happen. The organization let this one slip by them. That's why they want to fix it. Fast. Too fast for some resident's tastes.

**Times Leader and LuLac

UNION SIGN

So there’s a sign in the Luzerne County Courthouse put out by AFMSCME saying, “Show some guts, Stop the cuts”. Apparently the county’s largest union is concerned because the Commissioners are cutting jobs to balance the books as per the advice of their financial recovery team. How about we post a sign like this under their prose, “Work a full day, then get your pay”. I’m not into union busting but maybe that might not be a bad idea. There are a lot of unemployed people that would be grateful for those jobs and hours provided by those big bad sign painters. Uh, did anyone check and see whether there was a union bug on the sign?

DUMB CROOKS

So the strip bar on Market Street in Kingston was robbed the other night. Apparently two of the dancers and their "friends" took booze and bucks from the till. Except they left a movie ticket in the course of the robbery that was tracked to the theatre. The jive five showed up on Candid Camera. When you hang with strippers, (and it’s been years for me folks) you should realize you aren’t getting Einsteins. Just a word to the wise.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT


1966

Martin Luther King Jr. leads a civil rights march in Chicago, during which he is struck by a rock thrown from an angry white mob...... Caesars Palace hotel and casino opens in Las Vegas...... The Beatles release the legendary Revolver album in the United Kingdom........

In Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo continues to make noises that he might run for the Mayor’s seat against incumbent James Tate…in Wilkes Barre, Mayor Frank Slattery says he might be interested in running for either County Commissioner or Court of Common Pleas Judge in the 1967 primary..........and 44 years ago this week the number 1 song in America and LuLac land was a song that sky rocketed from the mid 30s to the top ten and then number 1 in a matter of three weeks. That song was sung by Bobby Hebb who died this week. Hebb’s song was supposedly dedicated to a younger sibling who had disability issues. That song was “Sunny”.