The LuLac Edition #1568, April 28th, 2011

PHOTO INDEX: ROTH NOVELTY PRESIDENT HERBIE GURBST AND MURIAL HUMPHREY DAYS BEFORE THE CRUCIAL PENNSYLVANIA PRIMARY OF 1972, LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATE FOR LUZERNE COUNTY COUNCIL TIM MULLEN AND OUT 1972 LOGO.

OBAMA’S "TRUMP" CARD

In 1971 when his Presidency was on the rocks and the Democrats thinking they could beat him in ’72 Richard Nixon’s trump card was foreign policy. In 1983 when there were rumors of a single term for Ronald Reagan because of his shooting at the hands of an assassin and a very weak economy, the Democrats thought Reagan was gettable. Reagan’s trump card was his belief that the economy was at last turning around. In 1995 when Bill Clinton had to hold a press conference to say he was still relevant after the House take over in 1994, the GOP thought surely Clinton could be beat. His trump card was the hubris of one Mr. Newt Gingrich. It turns out that in 2011, a year before Mr. Obama has to face the voters after disappointing his liberal base and getting us into another war, there are members of the GOP thinking he might be this century’s Jimmy Carter. But President Obama has his own trump card. A real Trump, one Mr. Donald Trump. Trump may be the best thing that ever happened to a President on the ropes. Trump has been using the President’s birth certificate as a way to get recognition and a boost in the polls. He has questioned the existence of the birth certificate even after CNN sent their own team to find it. Trump was interviewed on CNN by that blond haired guy that every woman seems to adore and made a total ass out of himself. Or at least I thought that. My reaction was that Trump needed some type of validation and even more publicity than he seems to have right now. I realized how wrong I was.
Yesterday morning, President Obama released the version of his birth certificate that could only be presented by a special request from the birthee themselves. Trump took credit for having Obama putting the document forward to the American people. Cool move I thought. You had to hand it to him, he was taking credit for forcing the President’s hand. Kind of like an orphan telling the court that his situation happened because said orphan killed his own parents. I thought Trump has nothing if not a gigantic set of stones. But then Trump started in on how he couldn’t understand how Obama got into Harvard. Then I started to see and hear things that I grew up with here in LuLac land and in Washington, D.C. where I lived after high school. I heard Trump using “code language”. “You don’t want to live too deep onto Wisconsin Avenue because there’s a lot of transients there”. “You don’t want to hang out with that Jewish kid because those people have their own ways”. It is character assassination by inference. Donald Trump should say what he was thinking, “Did Obama get into Harvard because he was black?” “Did Obama get there because of that damn affirmative action?” That’s what Trump is saying. Donald Trump ladies and gentlemen is the Babbit of the 21st century. Donald Trump is a malevolent, conniving bigot. He just wears a better suit than Bull Connor and Lester Maddox ever did. But the danger about Trump is you knew where those guys were coming from. Trump has to cowardly sneak in his innuendos. In the move “Citizen Kane” the main character tried to buy talent for his mistress ensuring that she would be a big star. In this campaign, Trump has told us that he has the money to take his case to the people. But like Kane, Trump has a problem. Kane for all of his money could never convince the critics that his babe had talent. Trump for all of his money will never convince America that he doesn’t harbor hatred and bigotry in his heart. He proved that today by going to the next divisive argument that is its own silliness, college grades. Who the hell cares? Evidently only bigots who are still pissed America elected a person of color.

AN OPEN LETTER

This is an OPEN LETTER to Star Jones, La Toya Jackson, NeNe Leakes, Lil John and Dionne Warwick:
Dear Celebrities:
How can each of you in good conscience believe that Donald Trump is a man of honor. Trump has been using code language to impugn the reputation of an American President. As a member of the black community, you surely must have some thoughts on these absurd allegations Mr. Trump is making. Even though I’m just a little nobody blogger from nowhere, I urge you to renounce your association with Mr. Trump because of his bigoted, coded statements toward an African American who just happens to be our President. If you have any questions, contact me through this site or better yet, talk to Whoopee Goldberg who was having none of his nonsense on “The View”.
David Yonki
The LuLac Political Letter

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT


MULLEN’S RESPONSE

This week there was a mini controversy in the County Council race. Candidate Bruce Simpson was taken to task on the downlow, in effect a whispering campaign that said he wanted to thwart the free speech of third party candidates attending Democratic rallies. Simpson said that he just felt that in a crowded primary, it tended to muddy the message. Libertarian candidate Tim Mullen responded and here’s what he had to say: Response from Tim Mullen Libertarian for Luzerne County Council
Mr. Yonki,
After having read your April 26th column, I would have to assume that Mr. Simpson's comments were directed in a large part at me. I too, have heard of the original rumor that was circulated and personally I feel Mr. Simpson is entitled to his opinion regardless of what it is. Since you have brought up the issue of campaign etiquette on your blog, I feel a response from me is now warranted.
Being a third party candidate puts one at a distinct disadvantage especially here in Pennsylvania. It all starts with the taxpayer funded media blitzes known as the "primaries" of which we cannot participate in. Also the local newspapers will not allow us to participate in their editorial review boards or publish candidate profiles until after the primaries when we turn in our nomination petitions to become "official" candidates. I feel I have to do everything in my power to level this playing field and it includes attending as many political functions as possible. In addition, as a taxpayer and concerned citizen I feel it is my responsibility to find out who the candidates are, and what they stand for, especially the judge candidates that are up for election this year. Many of my friends, family, co-workers, and supporters, most of whom are either registered Republicans or Democrats, rely on my advice to sort the wheat from the chaff for them in these local races. I work the second shift so I am very limited to the number of events I can attend in the first place. Work constraints also limit the amount of time I can devote to signature gathering. I have been well-received by all the candidates and would personally like to thank Casey Evans, Vito DeLuca, Mark Buffalino, and Dick Hughes for making me feel welcome at their events. I would also like to thank Linda Urban for inviting me to her event this weekend.
I would like to address your comment that as Libertarians we cannot sway Democratic votes. I do not know if you mean Democrat votes in Democrat primaries, in which case I tend to agree with you. If you are talking about swaying Democrat votes to our side in the general election, I would have to disagree. In the 120th District State Representative race last year the well-liked Phyllis Mundy pulled in only a little over half the votes in a 3-way race, instead of her usual landslide plus. In addition I received more votes than the Republican challenger in Democrat strongholds as Luzerne and Pringle Boros. I have already made adjustments to my work schedule in order to attend this Friday's blogger's event. I will be there with clipboard in hand and look forward to seeing you and all the candidates there.
Tim Mullen/Candidate, Luz. County Council

JUSTICES DELAYED

Terrence Nealon and Carmen Minora’s nominations to the Federal Court are being held up. That word from Washington. It seems the Obama Justice Department is putting a new review process in place which will delay if not outright derail these plans. The political terrain is littered with Judicial hopefuls who aspired to the federal bench only to be stopped because of political calculations, non cooperation from a minority or majority party power broker in the Senate or like this, a change in the way things are implemented. Patrick J. Toole Seniors nomination died on the vine during the Clinton years because of GOP opposition in the Legislature.

MEDIA MATTERS

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

This week Shadoe Steele interviews members of the band Berlin. Saturday Night Live at the Oldies is heard from 7 to midnight on WILK AM & FM with ABC News on the top of the hour.

ECTV

ECTV Live (Comcast Ch 19) will be looking to the stars the week of May 2nd. The guest will be Jo-Ann Kamichitis representing the Lackawanna Astronomical Society. Saturday, May 7th., is Astronomy Day and society members are inviting the public to get a close up look at the night sky through the telescope at the Thomas G. Cupillari on the campus of Keystone College in Fleetville.

1972

The fourth anniversary of the Broadway musical Hair is celebrated with a free concert at a Central Park bandshell, followed by dinner at the Four Seasons. There, 13 Black Panther protesters and the show's co-author, Jim Rado, are arrested for disturbing the peace and for using marijuana……………………in Pennsylvania Hubert Humphrey wins his first Presidential primary ever outpolling Senators Muskie and McGovern in the Commonwealth……Robert Casey and Grace Sloan win renomination for the offices of Auditor General and Treasurer respectively….in Luzerne County, Senator Edmund Muskie wins the day even though Humphrey took the state. Muskie beat Humphrey in the county by about 10,000 votes. In Lackawanna County the story was about the same. The GOP had no primary ballot per se but there were write in votes for President Nixon that totaled about 400 per county. Humphrey garnered 51 delegates, Musakie 36 and McGovern 32. In Luzerne County, Lucille Maziarz, Frank Faye and Frank Podsladik won the top spots pledged to Muskie. Joe Benish, a young newscaster from WILK Radio was elected as a Muskie alternate while 18 year old Michael Libenson of Academy Street in Wilkes Barre ran as an uncommitted delegate. LIbenson was one of the youngest candidates in the state. From my journal of the campaign in 1972: “The campaign for the young Democrats they had me in charge of started out badly. We had to wait a week and a half for a plane load of materials to get shipped to us from Wisconsin. But when we got them, we hit every parking lot we could think of. Our goal was to have Humphrey finish second in the county and first in the state. With the help of dedicated Humphrey people like Roth Novelty’s Herbie Gurbst, this became a campaign of the possible". David Yonki, April 28th, 1972….and while all of this was going on, I was also getting ready to graduate high school. This week the number 1 song in Lulac land and America was “I Gotcha” (yeah really, I’m not kidding) by Joe Tex.