The LuLac Edition #3139, February 6th, 2016

MAYBE I’M AMAZED

Our “Maybe I’m Amazed” logo.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…….that according to our own Congressman Matt Cartwright, that this Flint, Michigan Water crisis just keeps getting stranger and stranger. 

Congressman Matt Cartwright. (Photo: Cartwright's office). 

Cartwright who is a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee questioned various Michigan officials about how this could have happened. Now you’d think that the Governor of the state would be there. NOPE! Governor Rick Snyder was a big no show. Cartwright’s office released a link to a very good article from The Nation about the hearings. Here it is. http://www.thenation.com/article/flint-hearing/  
Meanwhile while Bernie Sanders is on Saturday Night Live tonight, Hillary Clinton will be in Flint, Michigan tomorrow seeing what she can do.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that once again a person with multiple DUI’s in this area was finally arrested for killing another person. The Citizen’s Voice reported that Joseph A. Kaminski, 38, had “significant amounts” of morphine, methadone and anti-anxiety medications in his system leading up to the wreck on River Road, which occurred around 3:40 p.m. on Dec. 8, 2014. On that day he killed Joan Baiera, 71, who was leaving a full time job to go to a part time job. Finally this loser is charged BUT there’s a lot more blame to go around on this one. Just look at the priors this guy had. Again from the Citizen’s Voice:

Joseph A. Kaminski: A record of DUI, driving without a license:

March 2003: DUI, fleeing scene (Guilty plea)

June 2004: DUI, fleeing scene (Guilty plea)

SENTENCE: 90 days to six months in jail

November 2008: Driving with a suspended license, DUI related (Case withdrawn)

June 2009: Driving with a suspended license, DUI related (Guilty plea)

SENTENCE: 60 days in jail

February 2009: DUI (third offense), Driving with a suspended license, DUI related (Guilty plea)

SENTENCE: 15 months in jail, 36 months probation

April 2009: Possession of drug paraphernalia (Guilty plea)

SENTENCE: 60 days in prison

February 2010: Driving with a suspended license, DUI related (Guilty plea)

SENTENCE 60 days in prison

So here’s how it is in this area. If you are a sober, hard working person you better pray you get through the day. If you are a loser who has “problems”, you get a lot of chances. Yeah let’s keep on funding those D&A agencies or maybe we should have a Strike Three policy on crimes like this. Third strike, life. To protect themselves from  themselves as well as others!
MAYBE I’M AMAZED……that Marco Rubio comes in third place in Iowa and people think he’s the reincarnation of JFK. While I think President Obama did good things, he could have done more had he been more experienced. Mrs. LuLac always referred to Mr. Obama as an “empty suit”. By comparison, Rubio is an “empty tee shirt”. Poor Rick Santorum got cornered on Morning Joe the other day when he couldn’t come up with one thing Rubio did in the Senate. He did work with New York Senator Chuck Schumer on an Immigration Bill but the right wing of the part won’t let him forget that.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..NOT….that Luzerne County is ranked third in the state with Protection from Abuse orders. I think a few things are at play here. Alcohol, baby daddies and mommies and the breakdown of a traditional family unit. People in my age bracket who are grandparents have taken the role of parents because their kids can’t handle the roles of adults. Technically we were 12th but when you average it out, we come in third behind Philly and Pittsburgh. Now this is not everybody here but this news also says something about the demographic profile of some men and women in this area. The men can’t win a fight with another guy and the women just want a fella. Any fella will do.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED….that the two people in the GOP Presidential race who can both entertain and make you uncomfortable at the same time are Governor Chris Christie and Donald Trump. You laugh at their antics but are relieved you are not the target of their remarks. We all remember people like this from grade school. They are still called bullies.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED……that today is Ronald Reagan’s birthday. 

Ronald Reagan at Genetti's in 1980. (LuLac archives.)

The 40th President was born 105 years ago in Tampico, Illinois. Reagan was an inspirational President. I was fifty fifty on some of the things he did but you couldn’t beat him for authenticity. Plus he knew the right time to rise to the occasion for a Presidential moment. This year as the Presidential race starts in earnest, I chuckle when the GOP contenders invoke his name. If Reagan ran among this pack of wolves, he’s be Scott Walker or Rick Perry, quickly dispatched from the race. From a campaign standpoint, what I loved about Reagan in ’80 was his reaction to Iowa. When everyone stayed in the state to get the results (Reagan lost) he was home in California watching a screening of “Kramer Vs. Kramer”. Reagan knew that Iowa, was just Iowa. Nothing more, nothing less.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…...that I just found out I have a something in common with Presidential candidate Ben Carson. Carson told NBC that he has had 11 jobs in his lifetime since he was a kid. Hey me too! He also called himself a “Citizen Statesman” but that needs to be checked out because everyone knows that title only belongs to Lackawanna County Commissioner Patrick “Cheese” O’Malley.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that FX TV’s series on O.J. Simpson is pretty good so far. I was struck at the performances of John Travolta as Robert Shapiro, David Schwimmer as Robert Kardashian (yeah in addition to the crimes he was accused of The Juice’s troubles gave us the big K’s including Brice/Caitlin Jenner) and Cuba Gooding Junior as O.J. This thing was top of the mind for my age group and for that reason I thought I wouldn’t watch it. But there seems to be more interest in it once we started to see the first episode.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED….again we’re going with Ronald Reagan because it’s his birthday here, that when Reagan ran at the age of 69 everyone was worried about his age. Now there’s Bernie Sanders at 74 running and you hear nary a word.
MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that I have been alive for every Super Bowl since it started in 1967. Very thankful and grateful. Go Denver, let that defense win one for the old man! Manning, not me!