AND THE HITS JUST KEEP COMING!!!!!
Times Leader reporter Steve Mocarsky tweeted this a few minutes ago....Wilkes-Barre Area School Board hired W-B Mayor Tom Leighton's brother Brian as a home/school visitor by 5-4 vote. Check the TL online soon. (8:20PM, Thursday Aug. 1, 2013).
If this doesn't cry out for a new School Director like Kathy Grinaway to stop this logjam of nepotism, cronyism and family ties, then nothing will. You mean to tell me that there are no other qualified graduates looking for jobs in education out there except the Mayor's brother??? Really?
BATTLE LINES DRAWN
When Congress comes back from vacation, the Democrats and the President are going to dig in against the Republican controlled constipation of the U.S. House. GOP leaders have already said they will battle the President on the debt ceiling next year. But the Democrats in Congress, hopefully with a few reasonable Republicans will be spoiling for a fight.
The Congress needs to do something on the order of what it did yesterday by voting 392 to 31 to lower interest rates on Student Loans. This was a bipartisan bill that took forever to pass. The legislation replaces a system in which Congress fixed interest rates every year and substitutes it with a market-based mechanism tied to the government's cost of borrowing and capped to protect borrowers in the event of a severe spike in rates. Here's what the President and Congress need to do:
1. Democrats need to become the vocal majority in calling out every GOP obstructionist that is screaming about how Obama screwed everything up since 2009.
2. The Democratic House has to make the case that the GOP can’t be trusted to lead in this Legislative branch. They need to highlight the Farm Bill defeat because GOP reactionaries like our own Tom Marino want to look in everybody’s shopping carts. The Food Stamp program is just as more important to farmers as it is to those people, those working poor trying to get by in LuLac land for nine bucks an hour working two jobs.
3. The House Democrats need to message louder and longer than their GOP counterparts. And they need to shut up characters like Freshman Representative Mike Kelly who never met a fact he couldn’t distort about this administration. The House Democrats have to start defining the message now for 2014.
If they don’t, the last two years of the Obama Presidency will not be productive for the middle class.
PEEKABOO!!!!
Your email and online chats can be monitored without authorization by any National Security Agency analyst using a computer program known as "XKeyscore," according to NSA leaker Edward Snowden, who shared the information with the Guardian in a story published Wednesday. According to NBC News XKeyscore is described by the NSA in training materials as its "widest reaching" means of gathering information from the Internet, according to the Guardian. Using the program, "analysts can also search by name, telephone number, IP address, keywords, the language in which the Internet activity was conducted or the type of browser used." NSA analysts "can also use XKeyscore and other NSA systems to obtain ongoing 'real-time' interception of an individual's Internet activity," the Guardian said. The NSA documents contend that by the year 2008, 300 terrorists had been captured using information gathered with XKeyscore, the newspaper said.Here’s my take on this. Bin Laden won. Even though he is dead and shark bait by now, his actions on 911 turned us into a different country. If people say we lost our innocence as a nation when JFK died 50 years ago, we were all out raped on 911. The world is a different place and if some geeky NSA analyst can access what I say with a keystroke, so be it. If he has the intelligence and institutional knowledge of Edward Snowden, people with a brain have nothing to worry about because they won’t “get” what we mean.
May they view thousands and thousands of Honey Boo Boo e mails.
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
WHY ARE YOU FOR ME????
Another quick story about the late Bill Scranton. When President Gerald Ford named Scranton as UN Ambassador in 1976, according to the New York Times here was part of their conversation which was a private transcript obtained by the Times:
Ford: Bill you were opposed to the Nixon pardon.
Scranton: That’s right.
Ford: You weren’t very enthusiastic about my economic program.
Scranton: That’s right.
Ford: My food stamp decision drove you up the wall.
Scranton: It sure did.
Ford: You didn’t favor aid to South Vietnam.
Scranton: No, I didn’t.
Ford: Then why are you for me?
Scranton: Because you’re honest and decent and the first President I ever knew, and I’ve known several, who could talk to me like that.
And that conversation is illustrative of what is wrong with politics today! .
A Coal Miner’s stamp. Finally. Here’s the proposed version of it. (Photo: Representative Pashinski’s office).
FINALLY
State Representative Eddie Day Pashinski announced this week that finally, a tribute to coal miners has gone through the laborious bureaucracy of the U.S. Postal Service. It took a lot of work and effort but a stamp honoring miners finally will come to fruition. We’ve had Elvis, Marilyn, Mickeys Mantle and Mouse, about time we honor the miner who helped fuel the industry of the 20th century. Here’s Pashinski’s release:After decades of hard work by thousands of people affiliated with the life of a coal miner, the Citizens Stamp Advisory Council of the United States Postal Service has approved issuing a coal miner postage stamp as part of its Made in America: Building a Nation series.
I invite those of you who contributed to this great cause to join me on Friday, Aug. 9 at 9 a.m. at the Wilkes-Barre post office, 300 S. Main St., Wilkes-Barre, to commemorate this occasion. The stamp will be available for purchase and light refreshments will be served. This celebration is for all those who dedicated their time and efforts to honor our coal miners. Come and join us! Please contact my office at 570-825-5934 by no later than 2 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 8 to RSVP for the event.
Cartwright Announces Start of FY 2013 SAFER Grant Application Period
The Fiscal Year 2013 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant application period opens Monday, July 29, 2013; the deadline for all grant applications is Friday, August 30, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. The grant application process requires a significant amount of time to properly complete. Therefore, Rep. Cartwright asks that any affiliates who seek help with their grant application contact his appropriate district office.
To reach Rep. Cartwright’s Economic Development Specialist inCarbon and Schuylkill Counties contact Bill Hanley at 570-624-0140. To reach Rep. Cartwright’s Economic Development Specialist inLackawanna and Luzerne Counties contact Bob Morgan at 570-341-1050.
To reach Rep. Cartwright’s Economic Development Specialist in Northampton and Monroe Counties contact April Niver at 484-546-0776.
“Adequate staffing always has and always will be a key to keeping firefighters and communities safe from fires and the multitude of other emergencies agencies are called to answer,” said Rep. Cartwright. “No matter how large or small a department is, having the correct amount of staff on scene is one of the best ways to mitigate risks.”
Congress has approved $337.5 million in SAFER funding to rehire and retain fire fighters. Of that $337.5 million, $20 million is set aside to hire military veterans with an extra year of funding for each veteran hired. “I urge municipalities with fire departments facing reduced emergency response capabilities in particular should apply for SAFER funding. Additionally, I ask that affiliates to work with their fire chiefs, and state and local lawmakers to file for the grants,” said Rep. Cartwright. The SAFER program has put thousands of fire fighters back to work, giving a much-needed boost to public safety in countless struggling communities.
MEDIA MATTERS
ECTV
ECTV Live will feature information of all of the events scheduled for the annual Christy Mathewson Days celebration in Factoryville this month. Host Tom Munley continues his vacation leave with David DeCosmo taking his spot and broadcast veteran Rusty Fender manning the co-host seat. ECTV Live can be seen on Comcast Ch 19 each day at Noon, Midnight and 6PM on select days.
SUNDAY MAGAZINE
TOPIC A
Tune in Friday at 5PM for the "Friday On My Mind Edition" of Topic A with me and L.A. Tarone Friday night at 5PM. There will be no repeat at 7 because of Iron Pigs baseball.
