The LuLac Edition #2091, June 14th, 2012

From "OkayPolitechs", Obama as Urkel.

OBAMA’S ECONOMIC MESSAGE 

President Obama has to retool his message on the economy. If he doesn’t, he will lose. He will not lose like Gerald Ford did to Jimmy Carter in 1976. He will lose like George H.W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton in 1992. Everyone knows that elections are won by the swing voters. The bedrock constituencies of both parties are going to stay put. They aren’t going away. You are not going to have a pro life Republican vote for Obama. Conversely, you aren’t going to have a public sector employee vote for Mitt Romney. That said, the President’s message that in order for the economy to grow, we need more teachers, policemen, firefighters and public sector employees is downright mystifying. Here’s why: 
1. With family income and individual wages plummeting to a 1995 level, there are people in this economy who are struggling. They are paying 2012 bills on a 1995 salary. Because they want a better life, more are applying for some of those public sector jobs. Because of the budget cuts and the poor outlook on these jobs, these ambitious job seekers are getting turned down. That is making them frustrated and angry. People want to do better…but can’t. Don’t remind them of hope and change. 
2. Most people in and out of the workforce make less than the people in public sector jobs. That’s all the people who are making less see. They don’t see the cutbacks, the belt tightening, the larger workload. All they see is that someone else has a public sector job and they are making more than they are. 
3. Firemen and policemen are extremely important in the concrete. When we are robbed or mugged, the immediate action by the police is comforting, expected. When there is a fire, we see the public service workers risking their lives to save our homes. But in the abstract, when the need is selective and not immediate, when the fire is across town and not on your street, all you see are the benefits, the retirement at 55 and the big wages.
4. Teachers are important. A teacher is like a Congressman in the sense that you don’t care if another district fires your cousin’s kid favorite school teacher, but God forbid if they come after your kid’s favorite educator. Teachers fall into that line of attack starting with the old axiom of getting the summers off. 
5. By referencing public sector jobs, Obama is reminding people of his much maligned stimulus program. Again, the President went too small on the stimulus. All people see is a higher debt not the good results of the bill. (And thee were some very good aspects of that omnibus bill. ) But when he keeps talking about police, firemen, teachers and public employees, the swing voters don’t see what government does for them, they see what it costs. 
Here’s what the President needs to do to get his campaign out of its rut. 
He has to stop talking about government jobs. The President has to formulate a plan to have private business create jobs. He can do this by formulating a plan that will hire new people in the private sector but have a part of their salary paid for by the government. Former Senator Bill Bradley outlined a similar plan in a new book. The President has to involve government and business as a team. Forget about Martha’s Vineyard this summer. President Obama should call a joint session of Congress and propose this plan. If the GOP House says no, he should run against Congress like Harry Truman did in 1948. And he should shut up about policeman, firemen, teachers and public sector workers. If he doesn’t do this, he’ll lose. 

THE GUTLESS PA. LEGISLATORS 

Once again the Pennsylvania Legislators showed how timid and ineffectual they are by not even getting a property tax reform ill out of committee. The lazy bastards (and I never ever thought in my lifetime I’d be referring to State elected officials like that) tabled it. Property owners in Pennsylvania are getting raked over the coals. It is an unfair burden on home owners. Homeowners have to pay for the schools that educate the children of renters, welfare recipients, drug dealers and people without means to buy a home. It is time to end property tax in the state forever. If it were me, I’d raise the state income tax to 9%. I would also tax every good sold in Pennsylvania with an education tax. That way, the drug dealers and the whores pay taxes on their 30 packs of Coors Lite, and whatever else they buy with their illegal proceeds. And the guy watching a football game on the weekends can buy his 30 pack and get taxed the same way. And please do not tell me that this is a regressive tax on the poor. The poor have money from welfare. The poor who have kids education paid for by property owners have to start paying something. A tax on all goods is a place to start. The poor can always buy less, just like the property owners who have scrimped and saved to stay in their homes. It’s time for the tax burden to be lifted from the home owners. It’s just too damn bad that everyone in the state of Pennsylvania realizes it, except the over paid under worked State Legislators.

This blog editor and Ed in 2008. 

RENDELL AT ARENA HUB 

Former Governor Ed Rendell will be I n town Friday night signing copies of his book “A Nation Of Wusses” at Barnes & Noble at the Arena Hub Plaza. His book signing starts at 7PM.

A PRO CHOICE NAZI??????

Catholic League President Bill Donohue compared pro-choice groups to neo-Nazis last week and suggested that Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius’s visit to Georgetown University is similar to the visit of a racist or an anti-semite. In an appearance on Fox News, Donohue, a long-time anti-choice advocate, expressed outrage at Georgetown’s choice of Sebelius for commencement speaker, saying that the administration official is no better than a hatemonger: Remember, Georgetown has no neo-Nazi clubs or skinhead clubs on campus, nor should they. But they have two – two!! – pro-abortion clubs at Georgetown University. Now they’re bringing in Kathleen Sebelius. They wouldn’t bring in an anti-semite, nor should they. They wouldn’t bring in a racist, nor should they. But they’re bringing in a pro-abortion champion, and they shouldn’t. Man, this is really something. To compare people who are pro choice to Nazis is really low and does nothing for people of any faith to take the pro life crazies seriously.  

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

 

 

MEDIA MATTERS 

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE 

This week Shadoe Steele returns with Saturday Night Live At the Oldies on WILK. His guest this week is Henry Gross of Sha Na na. Gross also had a big hit with the morbid 1976 song “Shannon”. Saturday Night Live can be heard on WILK AM and FM from 7pm to midnight with ABC News on the top of the hour. Look for our special Father's Day edition featuring Shadoe Steele. 

SUNDAY MAGAZINE 

This Week on Sunday Magazine...An encore of Brian Hughes’ February interview with Liz Hersh from the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania about the impact of HEMAP, the Homeowners emergency Mortgage Assistance Program, and it’s impact on Pennsylvania homeowners dealing with foreclosures. And an encore of Brian’s July 2011 interview with Walter Barasch, author of the novel “Before The First Snow” which examines the American counterculture through the eyes of one person. Sunday Magazine, Sunday morning at 5am on Great Country 93.7, 5:30am on 97BHT, 6am on 97.9X, 6:30am on Magic 93, and 7am on True Oldies 590, WARM. 

ECTV

ECTV LIVE Host Tom Munley will welcome a representative of the Wyoming Valley Flyers on the program the week of June 18th. The club consists of a group of individuals who fly model airplanes and helicopters by remote control. They'll be hosting a "Learn To Fly Day" at Moon Lake Park in just a week. David DeCosmo, who usually co-hosts the program, will be away on the 18th so the plan is to have Paula Deignan of WILK Radio fill the Co-host position! ECTV Live airs at Noon and Midnight each week day on Comcast Ch19 with selected rebroadcasts at 6pm several days during the week.

Our 1967 logo.  

1967 

Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall is nominated as the first African American justice of the United States Supreme Court......Mariner program: Mariner 5 is launched toward Venus. The People's Republic of China tests its first hydrogen bomb. Glenn Gould records Prokofiev's Seventh Piano Sonata, Op. 83, in New York City (his only recording of a Prokofiev composition). The Monterey Pop Festival begins and is held for 3 days. In Pennsylvania, Governor Ray Shafer and his GOP controlled Legislature come to an agreement on a fiscal spending plan that holds the line on new taxes. Critics say that bubble may burst and the Shafer administration is being too optimistic with its forecasts……..locally in Lulac land, a staple of local Catholic churches are Father and Son Communion breakfasts. These events provide an opportunity for politicians on the county level to press the flesh and 45 years ago this week the number 1 song in America and LuLac land was “Sunday Will Never Be The Same” by Spanky and Our Gang.