IT ONLY TOOK A DAY….
Sarah Palin and her son Track in 2008. (Photo: People.com)
Sarah Palin went on the trail and immediately made news. Palin referred to her son’s recent arrest for domestic violence and blamed the boy’s plight on Barack Obama. I think it is sooooooooooo rich that these “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” Republicans immediately blame someone else for their troubles. The White House pushed back saying the issues she raised on the campaign trail are some the Obama administration takes "quite seriously."
Palin's son was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a woman and carrying a gun while intoxicated, according to a police report filed in Palin’s Alaska hometown.
In a speech she made Wednesday to support leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Palin linked her son's charges to his experience in the U.S. military and blamed the Obama administration for not doing enough to support its veterans.
Okay, I’ve been accused of stretching things but this has me beat by miles. If anything this administration has pulled the band aid off of the V.A.’s and made it more transparent. There are many veterans who suffer from depression and anxiety but you don’t see their mommies blaming the freaking President of the United States.
Furthermore there are many young men and women suffering from the traumas of war. But a minority are arrested. Most just suffer in silence and then either die by their own hand or try to sort it all out. But unlike the aftermath of the Vietnam War or even The Gulf War, there is plenty of word out there on how to get help. Palen’s little homily on veterans is typical of a no nothing angry woman who blames others for what she can’t contain in her own wretched family.
But there is a silver lining for me here anyway. If Hillary loses the nomination I can blame Palin for the rejection of any candidate who happens to be a woman. Sounds stupid right? Just as dumb as blaming Obama for her son’s actions. But I suppose that “take responsibility” only applies to the rest of us.
GLENN BECK COMES OUT FOR CRUZ
Cruz counters with Beck. (Photo: Theblaze.com)
To blunt the impact of the Sarah Palin endorsement of Donald Trump, Senator Ted Cruz has brought on Conservative Talk Show host and Icon Glenn Beck. Predictably Trump fired a salvo on Twitter writing Wacko @glennbeck is a sad answer to the @SarahPalinUSA endorsement that Cruz so desperately wanted. Glenn is a failing, crying, lost soul! Well at least Beck claims to have a soul when he urged his supporters to “fast and pray like you have never fasted and prayed ever before” for Cruz after he declared his candidacy, according to Politico. On Tuesday, Beck took to Facebook to attack Trump for changing his views on conservative issues and Palin for supporting him.
I think Beck is crazy but he has as much of a bedrock constituency among Christian Conservatives as Palin does.
The Iowa caucuses are on February 1 but if I were the other candidates I’d be strong arming Ben Carson for his nod. That would really neutralize things. Or blow them up.
MEANWHILE BOB DOLE WEIGHS IN
Bob Dole still worrying about the future! (Dole for President).
For GOP nominee and Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole said Wednesday that if Ted Cruz got the nomination GOP would suffer 'cataclysmic' losses if Cruz is the nominee. Dole e told The New York Times, "Nobody likes him," referring to members of Congress. The former presidential candidate issued a warning that the party would suffer "cataclysmic" and "wholesale losses" if Ted Cruz is nominee.FEDERAL WAGE PANEL VOTES TO RECOMMEND INCREASING WAGE GRADE PAY IN MONROE COUNTY, TOBYHANNA ARMY DEPOT
Congressman Matt Cartwright. (Photo: LuLac archives).
U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright announced that the Federal Prevailing Rate Advisory Committee (FPRAC) has voted to recommend moving federal facilities in Monroe County, Pennsylvania into the New York City wage area for the computation of pay for wage grade, hourly federal workers. If adopted by the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the recommendation would increase pay for approximately 1,500 wage grade federal workers at Tobyhanna Army Depot.FPRAC, a labor-management committee which advises the Director of OPM on policy matters pertaining to the Federal Wage System (FWS), voted 5-4 in favor of the motion on Monroe County during a hearing today. Sheldon Friedman, Chairman of FPRAC, broke a tie and voted “yes” on the grounds that the disparity in treatment between hourly and salaried workers at Tobyhanna Army Depot was inequitable.
Under the current policies, general schedule, or salaried employees, at Tobyhanna are treated as working within the New York City regional boundary. As a result, they receive a roughly 20-25% locality addition to their pay. However, hourly employees at Tobyhanna Army Depot are currently included in the Scranton wage area, which is part of a pay area known as the Rest of the US, meaning no locality increase.
Cartwright’s District Director, Robert Morgan, testified in front of the Committee today highlighting the need to replace the current outdated and unfair system, arguing that hourly and salaried workers live in the same places, travel the same highways, and buy lunch in the same places.
After the vote, Rep. Cartwright said, “The workers at Tobyhanna Depot deserve the same pay regardless of whether they are hourly or salaried. It’s time to fix this problem, and today’s recommendation is an important step. Now we need action by OPM.”
Cartwright indicated he would formally urge the OPM Director to adopt today’s FPRAC’s recommendation on Monroe County. The regional economic impact of raising wages for 1,500 Tobyhanna workers would be measured in the millions of dollars. One estimate placed the range at $5-10 million per year.
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1971
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The landmark television sitcom All in the Family, starring Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker, debuts on CBS….but before there was the first episode on CBS, there was this pilot on for ABC.....Seventy Brazilian political prisoners are released in Santiago, Chile; Giovanni Enrico Bucher is released January 16……The Aswan High Dam officially opens in Egypt……news from the Commonwealth comes out of Philadelphia where Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo says he will run and win election as the city’s Mayor in Lackawanna County Commissioners Melody and Zipay say they will go for another term…and 46 years ago the number one song in LuLac land and America was “One Less Bell to Answer” by The 5th Dimension.