The LuLac Edition #2535, October 10th, 2013

TED NUGENT, REALLY?

Rocker Ted Nugent said the country is going to hell and that we have an impostor in the White House. Sorry, I can’t take this guy seriously even if he had Moses and the Blessed Mother on his arms.
See Nugent was the guy who was a real coward during the Vietnam War. He didn’t have the balls to go to Canada but he did do this: to avoid the draft and get a characterized as incompetent, he did not use a bathroom for thirty days. He then went to the Draft Board with the proverbial load in his pants and the Draft Board certified him as insane if not sanitary.
So seems to me that Nugent still is slinging the same thing he kept in his pants to stay out of the Armed Forces. And his music was overrated too.

President Obama. (Photo: ABC News.com).

THE PRESIDENT EXPLAINS THE SHUTDOWN

The other day, eight days into the Republican government shutdown, President Obama spoke from the White House about the need for Republicans in Congress to stop threatening another recession just to sabotage Obamacare, stop demanding ransom just for doing their jobs, and just vote to reopen the government. He talked about the toll this shutdown is already taking on our country and the economy, and warned against the dire consequences of a default if Congress doesn’t act to prevent an economic shutdown.
Keeping the government running and paying the nation’s bills aren’t bargaining chips or a matter of negotiation – they’re a fundamental part of Congress’s job. Here’s how the President put it yesterday:
"If you're in negotiations around buying somebody's house, you don't get to say, 'Well, let's talk about the price I'm going to pay, and if you don't give the price then I'm going to burn down your house.' That's not how negotiations work.... In the same way, members of Congress -- and the House Republicans in particular -- don't get to demand ransom in exchange for doing their jobs. And two of their very basic jobs are passing a budget and making sure that America is paying its bills."
As the President has made clear -- and the press has reported -- the government could be reopened, today, with the votes of reasonable Republicans and Democrats if Tea Party Republicans would allow a simple yes-or-no vote on a Senate-passed compromise bill to fund the United States government. It’s time for Congress to just vote and end this government shutdown now."

U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright. (Photo: LuLac archives).

CARTWRIGHT: NO GOVERNMENT, NO PAY

U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright released the following statement after co-sponsoring the No Government No Pay Act of 2013:
"There is no doubt in my mind that the current government shutdown is a result of the efforts of a small, irresponsible and reckless subset of the majority in the House. But whoever is at fault for this, I intend to be sensitive to the financial suffering that is occurring for hundreds of thousands of innocent Americans during the current government shutdown.
"In addition to deferring my own current pay until the end of the shutdown, I have co-sponsored the No Government No Pay Act of 2013. We cannot legally reduce our current pay under the Constitution. So this bill will take that pay out in the next session of Congress, the 114th Congress.
"I think that is a sensible approach that will discourage members of Congress from throwing temper tantrums of this nature in the future."

WHERE’S TOM AND LENNY???

The Times Leader reported the other day that Luzerne County government often ends the year with a cash shortfall, and this year will be no different.The county faces about $29 million in payroll and debt repayments through the end of the year in addition to bills from vendors who supply goods and services to the county, Interim Budget and Financial Services Division Head Donna Magni told county council Tuesday. Tom Pribula had the ship nearly on track until the new Manager decided to listen to a consultant and not the guy who had the facts at his fingertips. And by the way, did the County ever get reimbursed for the thousands of dollars the consultant told them was going to come in the dorm of a grant?

And if you went on the Bureau of Elections website, you'll see it hasn't been updated since the summer. That would never happen under Len Piazza. Where art thou Tom and Lenny? Lenny or Tom?

Congressman Lou Barletta on Topic A with this blog editor and L.A. Tarone. (Photo: Ann Gownley). 

BARLETTA FEELS PICKED ON

First off, I like Lou Barletta. I respect him immensely the way he set his cap on Congress instead of settling for another office he could have won easily. When Barletta was on Topic A with me and Tarone a few weeks ago he was impressive and said that trying to defund Obama care was just for show. Yet Barletta was pressured into not voting for the clean continuing resolution. An ad produced by
Citizens United for Change took him to task. Here’s what he sent to supporters:
Patriot –
I’m under attack.
Citizens United for Change has put out another poorly prepared and woefully uninformed ad. This time, they’re attacking House Republicans to force us into rubber-stamping Obamacare.
I will not be a rubber stamp for President Obama.
We’ve already started to see the toxic effects of his signature law. Pennsylvanians have lost their jobs, doctors, and health care coverage because of Obamacare. That’s why I’m fighting to chip away at the major pieces of the law – a strategy that can and has worked.
With my colleagues – on both sides of the aisle – we’ve voted for four different Continuing Resolutions to keep the government running and address the major problems in Obamacare.
I’ve spent countless hours working to find the compromise. And every time we pass a bill that funds the government, we run into a Senate and president that refused to have meaningful negotiations.
If Citizens United for Change is really committed to ending this government shutdown, they should target the Senate and White House instead of the people working to get the government running.

County Council candidate Renee Ciaruffoli-Taffera. (Photo: LuLac archives).

MEET AND GREET RENEE & FRIENDS

Renee Ciaruffoli-Taffera will host an event in the Larkville area. It will be a "meet and greet” event scheduled on October 16 from 5:30 to 7:30 at “Fiddlers Green Irish Pub,” State Street, Larksville. Jim Fender, Joe Mazur, and Thomas Pieczyncki will be hosting this event. You can be sure her other Democratic counterparts, Mike Giamber, Rich Hefron, Eileen Sorokas and Linda Mcloskey Hauck will be there. The event is free.

Michelle Bednar, candidate for Luzerne County Controller. (Photo: Bednar campaign.)

BEDNAR EVENT COMING UP

Democratic candidate for Controller Michelle Bednar has an event coming up later this month. Here are the details.
West Side Social Club
711 McAlpine St., Avoca
Friday, October 25th, 2013
7 p.m to 9 p.m.
Donation $8
Includes Music, Food and Refreshments

MEDIA MATTERS

TOPIC A FINALE 

For those of you who didn’t catch this, here was the finale of the Friday On My Mind edition of Topic A on WYLN TV 35.

SUNDAY MAGAZINE

This Week on Sunday Magazine
Brian Hughes speaks with Dr. Mark Citron and cancer patient Sharon Bozenka about Metastatic Breast Cancer.Sunday October 13th marks Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day.
Magic 93's Frankie in the Morning speaks with Jill Jimboney from the American Cancer Society about their "Cancer Prevention Study 3" set to be released in November at Keystone College.
Brian speaks with Dr. Michael Cooney about the connection between Diabetes and Blindness.
And Brian speaks with Kathy Bromage from The Hartford about the future outlook for small businesses.
Sunday Magazine, Sunday morning at 5am on NASH-FM, 93.7, 5:30am on 97BHT, 6am on 97.9X, 6:25am on Magic 93, and 7am on True Oldies 590, WARM.

SUE HENRY’S SPECIAL EDITION

Tune in Saturday afternoon at 2pm and Sunday night at 7 when Sue Henry interviews top news makers from the recent week. The show can be heard on WILK AM and FM.

ECTV

ECTV Live hosts Tom Munley and David DeCosmo will welcome Jen Moran to the program during the week of October 14th. Jen represents the West Pittston Library which has several unique and free public projects on tap for October and November. ECTV Live can be seen daily on Comcast Ch 19.

Our 1976 logo.

1976

In the very first nationally televised Vice President debate, Senators Robert Dole of Kansas and Walter Mondale of Minnesota squared off in Houston. . Toward the end of the debate, both men were even until Dole started to talk about his World War II experiences and how he added up casualties of various wars. He said, “If we added up the killed and wounded in the Democrat wars in this century, it would be about 1.6 million Americans, enough to fill the city of Detroit”. Mondale was ready for that little nugget and said Dole’s reputation as a hatchet man was richly deserved.

The People's Republic of China announces that Hua Guofeng is the successor to Mao Zedong, as Chairman of the Communist Party of China........The United States Commission on Civil Rights releases the report, Puerto Ricans in the Continental United States: An Uncertain Future, that documents that Puerto Ricans in the United States have a poverty rate of 33 percent in 1974 (up from 29 percent in 1970), the highest of all major racial-ethnic groups in the country (not including Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory).....Pennsylvania continues to be a pivotal state in the ’76 race. Governor Shapp and the Democratic machines of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia gear up their organization getting squarely behind
Carter/Mondale. In the central part of the State, GOP leaders begin to utilize the traction of the Heinz for Senator effort to organize in that heavily Republican area……..in Lackawanna County, the Democrats of Scranton are casting their eyes on the ’77 election for Mayor. And in Luzerne County, District Chairmen host events designed to get the vote out for the Carter/Mondale team. Even though both counties have registration advantages, the GOP has headquarters in both Wilkes Barre and Scranton……and thirty seven years ago the number one song in LuLac land and America was “Still the One” by Orleans. The tune was also used by WNEP TV proclaiming that it was “Still the One” even though at this point in time, no ratings were ever taken of the new newscasts to certify that accurately. But you had to love the promotion of it all. By the way, as we pointed in earlier out 16 is still number one in ratings 37 years later.