Biden, Clinton, Car 54 Where Are You!!!

August, 2008 Now Vice President Joe Biden told us how his childhood left a lasting impression.

Joe Biden left blue-collar, bare-knuckles Scranton for the greener pastures of Delaware when he was only 10 years old. But Scranton, it turns out, left an indelible impression on him. Barack Obama's running mate has returned again and again to the city of his youth, where he attended grammar school at St. Paul's, learned politics at his Irish-Catholic grandfather's knee, and made friendships that have lasted 60 years. He's such a familiar presence here and in the Philadelphia media market -- which includes Delaware, his political base for more than 35 years -- that he's known as Pennsylvania's third senator.

That may be one reason Biden's on the Democratic ticket. In choosing a lunch-bucket Democrat, Obama hopes to capitalize on Biden's appeal to the socially conservative, working-class voters who populate Scranton and many other regions of Pennsylvania. Named for the late governor from Scranton, so-called "Casey Democrats" are a critical voting bloc -- and they largely spurned Obama in the primary, handing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton a 10-point victory.

March, 2008 Hilary Clinton returns to her roots in Scranton.

Hillary Clinton begins her six-week siege of Pennsylvania today with an afternoon rally in Scranton, where her rough-hewn father, Hugh Rodham, was born to Welsh immigrants almost 97 years ago. Once a major mining community, the city now is best known as the setting television types picked for NBC's sitcom "The Office." Scranton, nestled in state's northeast corner, has embraced this reflected glory; as noted in a New York Times article last year, the publicity is a welcome change for a city "whose name never seemed to appear in print without the words 'hardscrabble former coal-mining town.' "

Paul Kanjorski thumps his chest over what he did for Wilkes Barre and the levee system. He failed to acknowledge the devastation and destruction the citizens are presently suffering at the fate of Tropical Storm Lee downstream because of that same system. Instead this tragedy was all about him.

Wilkes Barre gives thanks to God, Levees and Paul Kanjorski.

And Todd Eachus protege Edddie Day Pashinski had this to say.

But everyone should be thankful that it never failed, said state Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, who represents the city. "I hope that people take a moment tonight and say a prayer and thank the Lord that that dike held," Mr. Pashinski said. "Those of you that experienced 1972 know what kind of devastation we experienced in Wilkes-Barre and throughout the entire valley. Ladies and gentlemen, we dodged a major bullet."

Oh yeah?  Ask the residents in West Pittston and Duryea if they feel like they "dodged the bullet".  How about West Nanticoke??  Downtown Shickshinny look below:

Flood ravages Shickshinny.
Doesn't look like the representative knows what dodging the bullet means.  The bullet wasn't dodged Mr. Pashinski; it was fired at other communities.

And pandering Tom Leighton had this to say about Paul Kanjorski.

Mayor Tom Leighton ordered an evacuation of homes in flood zones near the river and the unpredictable creeks that run through the city. About 20,000 people fled as Wilkes-Barre prepared for a worst-case scenario similar to the wrath of Agnes, which flooded the city from River Street to Wilkes-Barre Boulevard almost 40 years ago. Had the city sustained a similar flood, the waters would not only have devastated homes, but also would have closed businesses that employ the 15,000 people who comprise the state's fourth-largest downtown workforce, Mr. Leighton said. But that never happened, thanks in part to former U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski's work to raise the levee system in the Wyoming Valley, Mr. Leighton said. "Without his hard work in Washington over the years, this valley would have been ruined," Mr. Leighton said.

Let's get back to the beginning of this post.

Where is Joe Biden and Hilary Clinton in this crisis? I know where Lou Barletta and Tom Marino are. Nough Said.

FEMA Disaster Aid The Real Story Electric Cars

As the flood waters start to recede in the Wyoming Valley the political pundits will start their typical barrage of misinformation against Congressman Lou Barletta about his position on disaster aid and budget cuts. Nancy Kman already took a shot when she interviewed Barletta yesterday. Here is the real story about federal disaster aid. So Gort, why don't you ask your fellow Democrats including Senator Robert Casey why THEY are the ones playing politics with federal disaster aid.

From the Wall Street Journal

Democrats Hold Disaster Relief Hostage Until Republicans Approve Electric Cars

Rahm Emanuel may have decamped to Chicago, but Democrats in Washington still won’t let a good crisis go to waste. Their current gambit is to use Hurricane Irene as a pretext to prevent spending cuts to one of Washington’s most notorious boondoggles.

This week the left-wing press has been attacking House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for holding disaster relief funding “hostage.” A more accurate way to put this is that Senate Democrats won’t approve new funding for disasters unless they get the funding they want for corporations that make electric cars.

Here’s the story: In June, House Republicans passed the 2012 Homeland Security appropriations bill, which included an amendment adding $1 billion to the Disaster Relief Fund of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In a sensible move for taxpayers, the amendment offsets this new disaster funding by cutting spending on the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. This may ring a bell with readers as the funding conduit for one of Washington’s adventures in crony capitalism.

In 2009, the Department of Energy announced that it would loan more than half a billion dollars through this program to a California-based company, Fisker Automotive, to make luxury electric cars. About a month after the loan package was conditionally approved, CEO Henrik Fisker and Joseph Biden appeared in the Vice President’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware to announce that Fisker would now be making some of its cars at the city’s old General Motors factory.

At the event, Mr. Biden described many “long talks” he’d had with Mr. Fisker. The Vice President’s office later said that Mr. Biden didn’t make any direct appeals to Energy before the loan was approved, but Delaware’s chief of economic development told the Journal that Mr. Biden was the state’s “secret weapon, except there is nothing secret about Joe Biden.”

All of this is background to say that the GOP has found the federal program that is arguably the most deserving of a cut to free up funds for disaster victims. But Senate Democrats refuse to pass the House bill and Mr. Cantor has earned their ire this week by continuing to press for cuts in corporate welfare.

Perhaps unwilling to defend the indefensible, some have taken to claiming that the Republican bill cuts cherished liberal entitlements. In an email seeking donations for an anti-Cantor advertising campaign, the group Democracy for America exalted, “We’re hitting Eric Cantor hard—exposing his call to hold Hurricane Irene disaster relief hostage to more cuts in vital programs, like Medicare and Social Security—with in-district ads all next week.”

In the Senate, Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin seems unwilling to accept even the idea that the government might set priorities and choose to fund disaster aid instead of other claims on the federal fisc. “If [Mr. Cantor] believes that we can nip and tuck at the rest of the federal budget and somehow take care of disasters, he’s totally out of touch with reality,” said Mr. Durbin.

One reason the House bill has less funding for Democratic priorities is because, even before the hurricane, Republicans had decided that the President’s budget didn’t have enough money for the Disaster Relief Fund. So they funded it at $850 million above the President’s request. Then as they realized that the damage in places like Joplin, Missouri would put additional strain on the fund, the GOP added the amendment that provided still more disaster assistance and cut funding for Mr. Biden’s beloved electric cars.

The White House hasn’t asked for more funding, though White House budget director Jacob Lew wrote to lawmakers Thursday suggesting it could be well north of $5 billion. But so far Mr. Cantor is being blamed for opposing disaster relief because he has been trying to spend more than the President, and to place that above other spending priorities.

By the way, this political theater is having no impact on victims in need of help. The MSNBC gang may like to pretend that Mr. Cantor is stealing blankets from homeless flood victims, but the Washington debate is largely about funding for construction projects that may be years in the future.

Yes, FEMA has warned that its disaster fund is running low, a warning it issues almost annually. And the agency has said it won’t approve new municipal construction projects until it gets more funding. But rebuilding, for example, a bridge in Vermont likely couldn’t happen for months or years anyway as the locals debate designs, approve plans and conduct environmental reviews. The agency’s emergency assistance—water and generators, or money for new windows or clothing—continues without interruption.

To have any hope of controlling spending, Congress has to make choices. That means having the fortitude to give up more corporate welfare to finance more urgent disaster relief.

Rapid Fire Reading Around The State

Toohil appointed to leadership post in state House- State Representative Tarah Toohil who trounced then House Majority Leader Todd Eachus evicting him from his 116th Legislative District seat earns the deputy House Majority Whip post announced by House Majority Whip Stan Saylor, R-94, York. ( Read More............) What's that naysayers about losing seniority? If he had won he would have been in the minority anyway, same for Kanjorski, so don't buy into the typical election rhetoric about seniority. It's really about chutzpah..

Towns’ secession won’t be easy, commissioner says- Municipalities are looking to secede from Luzerne County and join Columbia County, one selling point, lower taxes (Read More...........)

Congressional race loser wins Corbett’s nomination- Pride Mobility Owner Dan Meuser's $60,000 campaing contributions to Governor-Elect Tom Corbett parlays into a $135,000 position. Last month, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported that members of Corbett’s transition team and their employers gave almost $5 million to Corbett’s campaign, or 19 percent of his total contributions. ( Read More.........)

Grants OK'd by Rendell rapped- During his last three months in office, Gov. Ed Rendell approved almost $488 million worth of projects financed through state borrowing, about a third of them in Philadelphia, where Rendell was mayor.

The largest grant was $20 million to refurbish Lackawanna County Baseball Stadium, where a New York Yankees farm team will play. Three Philadelphia projects each received $10 million, including a corporate headquarters for brokerage firm Janney Montgomery Scott LLC. Smaller projects included $3 million for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender senior housing center in Philadelphia and $500,000 for a Kohl's store in Lycoming County. ( Read More............)

Gov. Ed Rendell signs execution warrants, including Middletown man's(Read More..........)
Rendell: Streamline executions or scrap them
Gov. Ed Rendell says the state's death penalty needs to be reviewed by the Legislature and either be fixed so that more murderers are executed or replaced with life sentences without the possibility of pardons.
(Read More..........)

Gov. Ed Rendell Has Meltdown On 60 Minutes, Suggests Lesley Stahl Is A “Simpleton” In case you missed it, Governor Ed Rendell was interviewed by Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes and he demonstrated his apparently “infamous temper” over a harmless question about casino gambling (Read More.........)

Did anyone notice Sallie Mae is lowering interest rates on student loans? Isn't this the agency that Paul Kanjorski touted about becoming one of the top ten employers in our region? From May, 2010- Sallie Mae, the USA's largest private student lender, will announce today that starting May 10, rates on its Smart Option Student Loan will be 2.88% to 10.25%, based on the current London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), the benchmark for the variable-rate loan. That's down from a range of 4.38% to 12.88%. And they picked on the mob???!!! Oh and....The rates for borrowers attending non-degree granting institutions will range from LIBOR + 7.75% to LIBOR + 12.50% (8.13% APR to 13.88% APR

Here is a link on how to refinance a Sallie Mae loan for those in need. By the way you can save money by paying back Sallie Mae while you are still in school...duhhh..Sallie...who can afford to pay back while still in school??? Would they be borrowing the money in the first place??

Legislative Clout

Earmarks continue to be a never ending dual edged sword. In Northeastern Pennsylvania we've come to expect our fair share of state and federal tax dollars for projects that are vital. However, when it is not our municipality named as beneficiary we tend to say earmarks should be stopped "for the other guy". In this article by BORYS KRAWCZENIUK of the Times-Tribune he examines the possible loss to our region of the legislative clout traditionally attributed to the money flow in their districts.

In the legislative halls of Harrisburg and Washington, seniority matters.

Seniority means clout, and come January, Northeast Pennsylvania will lose a lot of both.

Six long-serving legislators, people who have served in the state General Assembly and Congress for decades, will leave office for good, defeated in re-election bids or simply retiring

State Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-120, Kingston, one of the re-elected veteran legislators who will begin her third decade in office, said "bringing home the bacon" will be a lot harder.

"Seniority matters in Harrisburg as it does in Washington. It just does," Ms. Mundy said.

Seniority is more than being able to get things done more quickly because of your stature, she said.

"It's institutional knowledge. It's knowing who to call and where to go," she said.

Mundy is somewhat right and wrong in her assessment. Going forward Pennsylvania is looking at a $5 billion budget deficit. Where is the money going to come from to pay for the "pet projects"? She might argue that her seniority means she will be able to wield a little clout but does that really?

Freshman representatives and congressmen are going to be at the same trough as Phyllis Mundy. First and foremost they are already looking at re-election. Parties who want to hold onto specific seats will make sure these freshmen get their "share" to protect the seat although the total amount of money available to each agency will be reduced.

To counter KRAWCZENIUK's point let's examine the amount of money brought in by Chris Carney in the last three years vs. Paul Kanjorski. As you know Carney was elected three years ago to the 10th district seat. Kanjorski was elected in 1984. He ended his career in a loss to Lou Barletta on November 2nd.

If you go here and check the earmarks for all 19 Pennsylvania Congressmen some interesting statistics emerge.

For 2008, 2009, and 2010 Carney brought in $32,096,000 worth of solo earmarks to $10,174,000 for Kanjorski. If you look at solo earmarks with others for the three years combined Carney beat Kanjorski $69,421,000 to $53,682,000. Some seniority edge.

If you take the entire Pennsylvania delegation(including changes in who occupies the seat) and rank them according to money brought in on solo earmarks Kanjorski is almost at the bottom of the barrel 2008- 16 out of 19 bringing in $2,955,000, 2009- 16 out of 19 but two Congressmen, Altmire and Platts took none so really 16 out of 17 bringing in $3,119,00, and 2010 14 out of 19 with Pitts credited with nothing so 14 out of 18 bringing in $4,100,000.

Krawzceniuk's writing
26 years in the House, the second-ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee and chairman of its Capital Markets Subcommittee

So what were we really getting? Think about it. Cornerstone Technologies secured $10 million just slightly less than three years worth of district credit. When you add the $400 million loan guarantee for Abound Solar tell me his tenure wasn't more about his family and himself than his district.

How Did Lou Spend The Day Campaigning

Friends and his spokesman, Vince Galko, accompanied Lou Barletta to polling locations throughout the day. In this picture Lou Barletta visited Paul Kanjorski's home polling location in Nanticoke during one of those election day stops. Voter turnout was very low at that point.

Lou Barletta had lunch at Eddie's Place (Diner) located at Fox Hill Road (off Route 315) in Plains Township. He had a homemade hot turkey dinner that was all the rave. Their grilled ham and turkey on rye with swiss cheese sandwich was awesome. Warning..a bowl of soup is a BOWL of soup. Wow, and the chicken noodle was nothing short of pure delicious. The waitresses were very cordial and the service was outstanding. Someone was overheard saying how much Paul Kanjorski frequented the diner although he didn't show up yesterday.

Barletta relaxed at THE CIGAR CLUB in Scranton located next door to Congressman Paul Kanjorki's Scranton legislative office. Lights were on in Kanjorski's office but no one was seen until our group left the club.

Supporters and volunteers in the field called regularly to give updates on voter turnout at the polls. At one point Galko commented that voter turnout at Barletta's own polling place, the East End Fire Company building in Hazleton, was the highest in the state at 40% early on. The group, while savoring their cigars, watched Fox News.

Barletta finished the campaign day outside of the Greenwood Firehouse located in Moosic. He greeted voters entering the polling place. He talked and listened to their concerns as well. When he got back in the car to return to Hazleton he said "You know I think I am going to win this."

Saying Goodbye

Last night after enough votes were tallied Congressman Paul Kanjorski called Congressman-elect Lou Barletta to offer his congratulations. Barletta was standing in a campaign office room directly across Broad Street in Hazleton from the location of Kanjorski's downtown headquarters.

I watched through the window of that room where Barletta sought quite refuge as he listened intently to the conversation from Paul Kanjorski. As he emerged from the room he was asked what Paul Kanjorski had to say by his brother.

Lou Barletta stated that the Congressman was "very cordial" and offered his assistance in transitioning the office to Barletta. Barletta had nothing but praise for the Congressman about the consversation.

I watched Congressman Kanjorski's concession speech. He spoke his words with serene sincerity. It was the most professional delivery that I ever witnessed from the Congressman.

It would take too much space to highlight Congressman Kanjorski's career. With his depth of knowledge and contacts I am sure Northeastern Pennsylvania has not heard the last of Paul Kanjorski.

SOP wants to offer thanks to Congressman Kanjorski for his work and dedication to his district. SOP wishes the Congressman well as he embarks on the next phase of life's work.

(My next posts will offer something no news media will be able to write about. You will get a glimpse of election day, a candidate's schedule, the thoughts of the candidate as the day goes on, and what happened during the tally of the results.)

Kanjorski Voted Against Medicare Part D

On June 27, 2003 at 2:33A.M. Congressman Paul Kanjorski casted a NO vote for the Medicare Part D benefit to SENIORS. In fact 195 Democrats voted against the Medicare Prescription Drug Modernization Act on that day. The bill passed by a 216-215 vote. If one more Democrat thought like Paul Kanjorski that day seniors would not have a Medicare Part D benefit paying for their prescriptions.

I heard Kanjorski on Steve Corbett's show this afternoon and couldn't believe he called Lou Barletta a liar on the facts about Social Security.

Kanjorski said the Republicans voted against Social Security. Here a link to the facts from the Social Security Administration that Paul Kanjorski lied. Out of 100 Republicans in the House only 15 voted against Social Security Act of 1935. In fact the Democrats had the same amount vote against it. Twenty Democrats and only four Repbulicans did not vote.

Paul Kanjorski has made a concerted effort to mischaracterize Barletta's position with respect to Social Security. His scare tactics are not holding water or passing the smell test.

Earth Conservancy's Scam On Property Taxes The Kanjorski Way

If you go to the Times Leader Property Reassessment website you can look up property values. Type in "earth" and see all the results that are returned. Click on the VIEW button and you are able to see what the property is worth and the taxes associated with that property. One problem. Look at the Property Type box. It states "Vacant-Exempt". All of the property owned by Earth Conservancy is tax exempt. Earth Conservancy lays claim to 574 parcels.

Here is how Congressman Paul Kanjorski screwed the taxpayers of Luzerne County out of taxable property.

The Earth Conservancy is a non-profit organization Congressman Kanjorski helped to found in 1992 for the purpose of restoring and reusing mine-scarred land for recreational, industrial and residential purposes. Congressman Kanjorski successfully secured more than $20 million in federal money for the Earth Conservancy to purchase more than 16,000 acres of land throughout Luzerne County from a bankrupt coal company in 1994. The organization is dedicated to land reclamation, conservation, and economic revitalization in the Wyoming Valley.

Basically he took our federal tax dollars to purchase for-profit assets and turned them into not-for-profit tax exempt properties. At the same time Earth Conservancy is selling that property at a significant profit and avoiding taxes legally.

This report from the New York Times in 1994 details the funding of Earth Conservancy.

In 1991, Mr. Kanjorski inserted two paragraphs into an obscure section of the Pentagon's budget with the help of his fellow Pennsylvanian, the powerful chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on the military, Representative John P. Murtha. One passage earmarked $20 million to create "an advanced technology demonstration facility for environmental technology." The other said that "these funds are to be provided only to the organization known as 'Earth Conservancy' in Hanover Township, Pennsylvania."

Mr. Kanjorski "encouraged the incorporation," as he put it, of Earth Conservancy. "An entity had to come about and I encouraged people to create it," he said in an interview. The directors of the nonprofit corporation included his brother, his former campaign manager, a "Republicans for Kanjorski" chairman and other political allies.

With no assets save the promised Federal dollars, the company set about trying to acquire some 16,000 acres in the Congressman's district. Mr. Kanjorski said the land would bring forth a high-tech research center to create coal-derived fuels, artificial wetlands and other environmental exotica in the hardscrabble hills of Luzerne County. He called it "an experiment in solving national problems" and "a form of reinventing government" with the potential to clean up some of the world's biggest environmental problems.

But back in Washington, the Senate added language to the spending bill requiring that the $20 million go to an institution with some expertise in environmental technology. Defense Department bureaucrats decided that Earth Conservancy had little or none. They awarded the $20 million to a group led by Rice University.

To Mr. Kanjorski, this was proof that bureaucrats can "prostitute the language" of the national legislature and that "the normal process doesn't work." Undaunted, he earmarked another $20 million into the military spending package approved in 1992, and added another $10 million last year. This time the legislative language, set forth in the tiniest type in the Government Printing Office's shop, made sure that the money could go only to Earth Conservancy. It was, as the Congressman said, "a straight earmark." One Bid for Land

Mr. Kanjorski and his allies redoubled their efforts to buy great swaths of undeveloped land in his district. The land belonged to the bankrupt Blue Coal Company, and was the subject of a struggle as long and bitter as a Russian novel. The coal company collapsed in 1976, its coffers drained by a consortium of criminals. Its remains are stacks of files that are part of the longest-running bankruptcy case in the nation.

The Federal bankruptcy court in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., was required to sell off the land at the highest price possible to satisfy Blue Coal's creditors. The court-appointed assessor in the case testified the land was worth roughly $20 million. Earth Conservancy offered far less, about $12.5 million, and no other bidders appeared.

The court-appointed assessor, Jeff R. Kern, testified in a sworn deposition in July 1993 that the process of competitive bidding was "subverted by the efforts of the Earth Conservancy to get the property as the exclusive buyer."

"The only buyer in town right now wants to make sure there's no competition," he said. He testified that Mr. Kanjorski personally warned him in January 1993 that unless the land was sold in its entirety to Earth Conservancy, the Congressman would see to it that no sale took place.

"I recall standing back going, 'Whoa,' to myself, 'there is some significant pressure here,' " the assessor testified. "It struck me that Mr. Kanjorski's threat was very heartfelt." Judge Approves Sale."

While this testimony appears to have attracted some attention at the criminal division of the Justice Department, the Congressman said it was the result of a misunderstanding over his desire to insure the land would be environmentally protected. He said he had discussed the sale with Attorney General Janet Reno and her predecessor in the Bush Administration, William P. Barr, and had successfully argued that the sale should go forward.

The judge in the bankruptcy case agreed. On Monday, he approved the sale. No money has changed hands yet, and some of the Congressman's constituents remain curious as to the nature of the transaction.

"They will not account for where the money is or what's to become of the land," said Lew Jones, a constituent of Mr. Kanjorski's with a keen interest in the case. He said he has been unable to learn any specifics of the conservancy's immediate plans. "Nobody seems to know what's going on," he said. "What is the Defense Department doing giving this man $20 million?"

Mr. Jones had a bitter experience trying to buy a parcel of the Blue Coal land. Last year, he and a partner offered the Federal bankruptcy court $200,000 for 206 acres of Blue Coal land -- roughly $1,000 an acre, more than Earth Conservancy was offering -- that they have leased and planted with corn for decades. No deal, the court said: Earth Conservancy wanted all the Blue Coal land and would have it all.

"Politics is terrible," Mr. Jones said. A Grand Vision

In what should be a proud hour, with the sale of the land all but final, Mr. Kanjorski seems equally embittered by the whole Earth Conservancy experience.

In past years politicians from the stripped and straitened coal towns of Pennsylvania were beloved for bringing bacon home; a predecessor of Mr. Kankorski's in Pennsylvania's 11th Congressional District, the late Daniel Flood, was for decades a legendary provider. But the Earth Conservancy story is not about pork, the Congressman said, or even about pleasing people back home. To him, it has become a tale about the ways in which Washington, and particularly the press and the bureaucracy, can delay and damage grand visions.

"I don't understand what's happening to America," he said. "Everyone's averse to risk and change. I and my friends get hurt because we tried to accomplish something."

The Earth Conservancy is tied into the 11th Congressional District Equipment Center and Cornerstone Technologies in this way.

Cornerstone’s origins lie in Mr. Kanjorski’s 1987 visit to the University of Missouri-Rolla, where Dr. Mazurkiewicz and other scientists were researching the use of water jets for underwater mining. Hoping to harness that technology to find new uses for the region’s anthracite coal, Mr. Kanjorski secured a $2.1 million Defense Department grant to research the use of water jets to clean large-caliber artillery shells. The money was funneled through Earth Conservancy, a nonprofit land-reclamation project Mr. Kanjorski formed to acquire 16,000 acres of former mine land in Luzerne County. Research funds went to Missouri-Rolla and King’s College and Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre.

The King’s and Wilkes involvements and how much they were paid were not clear in documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

When water jets proved unsuitable for mining or shell-cleaning, Mr. Kanjorski turned to the U.S. Economic Development Administration for a $1.1 million grant to research using water jets to pulverize old tires. The recipient of that grant was the 11th Congressional District Regional Equipment Center, another nonprofit formed by Mr. Kanjorski to lease surplus federal heavy equipment to local municipalities.

But in 1997 the center forfeited the grant because officials objected to hiring a firm co-owned by Mr. Kanjorski’s relatives, Impact Technologies, to conduct the research.

About a year later, in September 1998, Mr. Kanjorski managed to get $4 million in federal funding for “materials micronization technology” research included in the defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 1999. A footnote in the bill restricted that research to work on the “micronization” of coal and other particles for use in “composite materials, fuel cell membranes, filtration technology, diesel fuel and other materials and processes important to national defense.”

While any company could have submitted a proposal to perform that research, apparently only one did, according to Luis Leme, an attorney for the U.S. Office of Naval Research — Cornerstone Technologies LLC. The company was established by Peter A. Kanjorski and Bruce Conrad, a former Carbon County planning director, in December 1998.

According to Mr. Conrad, Peter Kanjorski, who was CEO of the firm, made no decision without consulting his uncle. In August 2000, the congressman personally presided over a meeting between Peter Kanjorski, two other Kanjorski nephews and Mr. Conrad to resolve a dispute over offering shares in Cornerstone to several key employees, Mr. Conrad maintains.

Thomas Unger, a former senior vice president at Cornerstone, said in published interviews in 2002 that Mr. Kanjorski took an active role at Cornerstone and acted “like a CEO.”

The majority of Cornerstone’s federal research was funded by the Office of Naval Research through earmarks Mr. Kanjorski had inserted in the agency’s budget for 1999, 2001 and 2002.

Cornerstone Technologies key players

- Paul E. Kanjorski: Twelve-term congressman who used his influence to earmark $10 million in federal contracts that were awarded to companies controlled by his relatives, including Cornerstone Technologies LLC, which recently filed for bankruptcy.

- Peter A. Kanjorski: The congressman’s nephew owns 20 percent of Cornerstone and is part-owner of KOR Holdings, which owns another 60 percent of Cornerstone. He is Cornerstone’s president and CEO.

- Marian Mazurkiewicz: Cornerstone’s former chief scientist and a leading researcher in water-jet technology. He is owed $600,000 in unpaid salary, according to Cornerstone’s bankruptcy filing.

- Bruce Conrad: Former president of Cornerstone and owner of 20 percent of the company. Conrad was fired and removed from Cornerstone’s board in May 2001, leaving Peter A. Kanjorski and his three brothers in control of the company’s operations. Mr. Conrad claims he was ousted at the instigation of the congressman because he supported a move to share company stock with key employees. In a lawsuit against Mr. Conrad, Cornerstone alleged he tried to leak company secrets to another firm.

- Paul Eric Kanjorski: Congressman’s nephew; Cornerstone employee and board member; part-owner of KOR Holdings.

- Russell Kanjorski: Congressman’s nephew; Cornerstone board member; part-owner of KOR Holdings.

- Mark Kanjorski: Congressman’s nephew; Cornerstone board member; part-owner of KOR Holdings.

- Nancy Kanjorski: Congressman’s daughter; part-owner of KOR Holdings.

Here is a picture of a recent ad for Earth Conservancy land.

Here is a picture of the Earth Conservancy Tax Card proving there are 574 parcels owned by Kanjorski's friends according to his statement.

Barletta Speaks To NAACP

As the election fast approaches Lou Barletta made his pitch at a meeting of the NAACP yesterday held at Mount Zion Church in Wilkes Barre. Matt Hughes of the Times Leader wrote this observation.

Both Kanjorski and Barletta spoke at the NAACP’s Meet the Candidates Forum, held Saturday at the Mount Zion Baptist Church. Barletta arrived on time for the event and left before it ended; Kanjorski arrived after Barletta had already spoken and left.

Barletta outlined his economic policy of creating jobs by providing incentives for businesses to hire employees.

“The government doesn’t create jobs; businesses do,” Barletta said. “We have to get businesses going again so they can create jobs.”

Barletta slammed Kanjorski for not attending the meeting, as he believed Kanjorski would not attend, for refusing to hold in-person town hall meetings and for not participating in debates in each of the five counties in the 11th District as Barletta invited him to do. Kanjorski and Barletta debated once Thursday in Jenkins Township.

“One of the most important issues in this election … is that many people in our district feel that their voices aren’t being heard,” Barletta said. “He didn’t hold any town hall meetings and only did one debate. That’s not reaching out.”

Readers may recall in 2008 Kanjorski skipped out on the NAACP meeting held at East Stroudsburg University.

The reason why depends on who you ask. A campaign spokesman said Kanjorski had a scheduling conflict. But an event organizer said she was told Kanjorski objected to a Barletta press release earlier Wednesday charging Kanjorski is "afraid" to debate Barletta.

The result was that Barletta, the mayor of Hazleton, was the lone candidate to discuss his views and take questions from about 90 people — including elected officials and local activists of both parties — at Beers Lecture Hall. The forum, sponsored by the Monroe County NAACP and the ESU chapter of the American Democracy Project, also was broadcast on Blue Ridge Cable Channel 13.

Kanjorski instead went to a regional event for presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign workers in Scranton.

What wasn't in that report was the fact that Kanjorski had actually pulled up to the East Stroudsburg University event and left. Participants relayed they saw Kanjorski to event organizers.

Another little known fact centers on how Kanjorski won his office in the first place. In the primary of 1984 Kanjorski defeated then Congressman Frank Harrison. Harrison died last year. Here is a link to a story about Harrision.

Former Rep. Frank Harrison (D-Pa.) died this week at the age of 69. He was found dead in his Galveston, Texas, apartment, according to media reports in Pennsylvania. He reportedly died of natural causes.

A lawyer and college lecturer in northeastern Pennsylvania before being elected to Congress, Harrison served in the House from 1983 to 1985, seeing his political career cut short when now-Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D) defeated him in the 1984 Democratic primary.

Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, provided an e-mailed statement on Harrison’s unexpected passing.

“As we mourn the loss of Congressman Frank Harrison, I pass along my thoughts and prayers to his family and friends,” Kanjorski said.

“Frank and I knew each other as college debaters.

During his time at King’s, Harrison helped run the debate team. He was an avid debater at St. Mary’s and King’s and enjoyed working with young people and piquing their interest in debate, said friend Gene Brady, who is executive director of the Commission on Economic Opportunity.

“I think he believed in the public discussion of issues and everyone’s right to their opinion,” Brady said. “He was a very intelligent person … He just had a great intellectual curiosity.”

Guess it must be Republicans Kanjorski doesn't like to debate. At least Harrison saw the importance of public discussion.

In that article comments from The LuLac Political Letter were chronicled.

As the 1984 Democratic primary approached, Harrison found himself in the middle of a few obstacles. The first was the division of the Democratic Party. Eugene Hudak, the Luzerne County Clerk of Courts was angry at the local Democratic leadership of former Senator Martin l. Murray. Hudak was a long time antagonist of the Democratic power structure. Efforts to defeat him were useless since he always came out of Nanticoke with a lion’s share of votes. Hudak got behind his fellow hometown boy Paul Kanjorski who was now making his third run for the seat of Dan Flood. In the meantime, in the fall of 1983, local residents were plagued with a water crisis. Apparently some type of bug got into the water supply and residents fell prone to the disease dubbed giardiasis. As the locals were boiling their water in big pots and pans, Harrison was on a Congressional trip with the Democratic delegation to the Costa Rica to study international relations in Latin America. Even though it was an honor to be selected by the leadership for the trip, the perception of the Congressman jetting off to a sunny land while his voters back home dealt with a harsh winter and bum water was not a good omen for Harrison.

In that 1984 primary were Harrison, Kanjorski, Gene Knox and Steve Flood. Kanjorski picked as his political consultant Ed Mitchell who earlier ran for a seat in the 10th Congressional District against Joe McDade and competed for Flood’s seat in the 11th against a crowded field in the early rounds of Harrison vs. Kanjorski. Harrison had as his consultant Bob Kutler, a Washington D.C. operative known for not wearing socks and not suffering fools gladly. Kutler bragged about not knowing the local political power brokers while Mitchell massaged them onm a regular basis. Mitchell also put together a series of fast paced ads featuring Caribbean music in the background asking the question “Where Was Frank?” referring to the Congressman’s foreign affairs trip.

The ads resonated and put Harrison on the defensive. He never recovered. Kanjorski was portrayed as the local, hometown earnest young lawyer from the ultimate coal town, Nanticoke while Harrison was tagged as a Harvard educated elitist who had lost touch with his district. At the time, Ed Mitchell was quoted as saying, “We fundamentally controlled the dialogue throughout the campaign, framed the debate and kept Harrison on the defensive.” On election day, Kanjorski won his hometown by 3,000 votes (Nanticoke) while Harrison carried Wilkes Barre by only 700 votes. District wide, Kanjorski won by 2,000 votes and never looked back serving in Congress since 1984. “We ran a poor campaign for a lot of reasons” said Ungvarsky. “What we couldn’t translate to the voters was the importance future assignments Harrison would be in line for by his relationships with the House leaders. The problem was it did not transfer over to the voters. Harrison always felt that while Dan Flood built a tremendous base for the district in terms of roads and hospitals, the role of Congressman should be looking at a larger economic picture and not putting band aids on problems already in place. His vision was a bit different and perhaps he was too cerebral for the taste of local politicos. Harrison wanted to look beyond the coal fields heritage and truly expand the area to big Fortune 500 companies but he never got the chance to play out his vision” said Ungvarsky. David DeCosmo, former radio and TV journalist, who ironically broke the Giardiasis story remembers Harrison “As a straight forward guy”. He said, “Harrison recognized the political climate at the time. Whoever was going to succeed Flood could expect to be there a long time. He always answered every question put to him, was very opinionated even if that was often at odds with the general consensus of the time, was very available to all of the media and at the heart of it all was a very, very kind man”. DeCosmo agreed that it was Giardiasis, with its wide ranging implications, brought down the career of Frank Harrison. (Not to mention launching the career of Ed Mitchell as a political consultant).

The three time political battles between Kanjorski and Harrison are often compared to a local version of the Ali-Frazier heavyweight match ups.

It cracks me up everytime I hear someone say Barletta would be finished politically if he loses to Kanjorski this time. Kanjorski lost two times before defeating Frank Harrison. Three times may be a charm but four may mean more.

Speaking of Chutzpah

Barletta Vs. Kanjorski Part 2

In the next part of the debate between incumbent Paul Kanjorski and challenger Lou Barletta healthcare became the topic of discussion. Moderator Bill Kelly went to Andree Phillips for the question. She stated she went to a meeting yesterday comprised of senior citizens. She "voir dired" Kanjorski about their concerns over insurance, Social Security and their coverage over provisions found in Obamacare. "I can tell you there were 30 people in that room and they were all afraid, they were afraid because they see their Medicare premiums going up and their coverage going down." "What are you going to do to improve that situation for our senior citizens?"

Kanjorski's response "First of all I want to tell 'em and I am sorry you couldn't tell 'em that the present law passed has no effect PRESENTLY on their premiums going up or their services going down. The law hasn't been put into effect and won't go into effect for 4 years. So any impact on healthcare costs in the United States have nothing to do with the healthcare bill passed by the law recently." His platitudes went on to bring in pre-existing conditions. He also made the claim "In this country 1 in 5 employees are imprisoned to their job and are in economic serivitude as a result of the failure of healthcare and coverage in the United States. That is horrendous.  I've been in Congress long enough to see the Clinton's try to get healthcare 15 years ago and a failure. Now President Obama brought it through, we carried it through but always with the understanding just as we did with Social Security and Medicare, that adjustments and changes will have to be made in Amendments to make sure this very complicated Act actually works. In affects 17% of our Gross Domestic Product." He rambled on about touting some benefits of the act including "making it more efficient for companies to operate in this country" and "closing the hole on drugs in this country".

Then he said "And quite frankly the Health Act has no ramifications or application to Medicare that senior citizens are under....I just want to leave with one thing. Anyone watching this debate tonight. Be sure of one thing. If you are a senior citizen, if you are under the protection of Medicare you will not be impacted in any way negatively by what the Congress has done". Moderator Kelly called the time on his response at this point.

Barletta countered "Who believes that thirty million more people will be included in the healtcare plan and we are actually going to save money because the federal government is going to run it. Nobody believes that, nobody believes that will happen at all. As a matter of fact Congressman we already saw the effects of your vote on the healthcare bill when Mercy Hospital announced, uh, is talking about selling their three Catholic hospitals, uh, as part of the decision is based on the effect that Obamacare will have on the hospitals. This healthcare bill will chase doctors out of business."

From the Heritage Foundation Side Effects: Massachusetts Seniors Will Lose Medicare Advantage Plans in 2011.

From The Weekly Standard Obamacare Forces 22,000 Seniors to Lose Medicare Advantage

From the Palm Beach Post Seniors set to lose Medicare Advantage perk

From the PRN Newswire Local Seniors Could Lose Their Medicare Advantage Coverage Under House Bill; Approximately 3 Million Seniors in 22 States, Including New Hampshire, Could Lose Their Medicare Advantage Coverage

Read this article that appears on the National Review Online.

Seniors who retain Medicare Advantage plans in 2011 should not be fooled into thinking that they have dodged Obamacare’s cuts to Medicare. Unless Obamacare is repealed, their time will come.

What did Paul Kanjorski tell seniors?

"And quite frankly the Health Act has no ramifications or application to Medicare that senior citizens are under....I just want to leave with one thing. Anyone watching this debate tonight. Be sure of one thing. If you are a senior citizen, if you are under the protection of Medicare you will not be impacted in any way negatively by what the Congress has done".

Was that Kanjorski's second damnable lie? He is listening to his mentor, Nancy Pelosi. Of course she was the one who said "But we have to pass this bill so you can find out what is in it".

Protecting Medicare??? Actually not, just hurting seniors.

WVIA Congressional Debate Between Lou Barletta And Paul Kanjorski

WVIA-TV sponsored a debate between 11th Congressional opponents Lou Barletta and Paul Kanjorski. In viewing the tape of the program it begs some fact checks on statements made by Congressman Kanjorski against Mayor Lou Barletta.

Kanjorski stated that the "FBI was in Hazleton at this very moment" investigating the site of the mine reclammation project remediating the toxic waste of the former Hazleton Landfill of the 70's. In fact there is NO FBI investigation of that site, period. While the FBI seized files from operators at that site, their investigation has nothing to do with the actual site as proffered by Kanjorski. Further more, there has been no new developments in that seizure. Speculation abounded at the time that they were sent there by supporters of Kanjorski but have yet to be confirmed.

Lou Barletta attacked Paul Kanjorski over his vote for amnesty in 1986. Kanjorski stated there is "Congressional record that states I voted against amnesty and thats a damnable lie".   Kanjorski said "that's a matter of checking the Congressional Record."  Let's do that.

Here is an article from CBS by The New American titled "How they voted: key votes on border security and guest-worker/amnesty". The link is this article is broke but I wanted to relate what they stated to lead into the links about the vote.

This index shows how every current member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate voted on the 1986 amnesty law, and on the border security and guest-worker/amnesty legislation now before Congress. A "Y" indicates that a congressman voted "Yea"; an "N" indicates that he voted "Nay", and a "?" indicates that he did not vote. A blank space indicates that he was not in Congress during 1986.


Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986. This legislation (S. 1200) granted amnesty to roughly three million illegal immigrants for the stated purpose of solving the immigration problem and securing our border. The enactment of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) dramatically eroded border control not only by granting citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants but by encouraging millions more to enter into the United States illegally in the hope that they too would eventually receive legal status. Twenty years later, there are now an estimated 12 million illegal aliens in this country, and many congressmen--including some who voted for the 1986 amnesty--are again arguing that the means to relieve the pressure on the border is to legalize the illegal aliens. The House passed the final version of IRCA on October 15, 1986 by a vote of 238-173 (Roll Call 433).

Here is a link to the House Vote 860 on that bill held October 9, 1986. Kanjorski voted YES. Here is a link to the vote on October 15, 1986 known as House Vote 873. Kanjorski voted YES. He voted not once but twice in the affirmative for amnesty. Guess who is stating the damnable lie?

As I review the debate I will point out more of the fallacies spread by Paul Kanjorski.

Clinton Can't Remember Where His Wife Was Born

Yesterday former President Bill Clinton came to Nanticoke, Pa. to stump for his long time friend Paul Kanjorski. Although Elvis was sighted in the crowd no one saw Monica Lewinsky. It might be a good thing.

Andrew Seder of the Times Leader reported that Clinton forgot where his wife was born.

Clinton, as he always does when appearing in the region, reminded people that his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was born in Scranton and still has relatives in the area.

From Wikipedia:

Hillary Diane Rodham was born at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. She was raised in a United Methodist family, first in Chicago and then, from the age of three, in suburban Park Ridge, Illinois. As a child, Hillary Rodham was a teacher's favorite at her public schools in Park Ridge. She participated in swimming, baseball, and other sports. She also earned numerous awards as a Brownie and Girl Scout. She attended Maine East High School, where she participated in student council, the school newspaper, and was selected for National Honor Society. For her senior year, she was redistricted to Maine South High School, where she was a National Merit Finalist and graduated in the top five percent of her class of 1965. In 1965, Rodham enrolled at Wellesley College, where she majored in political science. Rodham then entered Yale Law School, where she served on the editorial board of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action. In the late spring of 1971, she began dating Bill Clinton, also a law student at Yale. That summer, she interned at the Oakland, California, law firm of Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein. The firm was well-known for its support of constitutional rights, civil liberties, and radical causes (two of its four partners were current or former Communist Party members); Rodham worked on child custody and other cases. Clinton canceled his original summer plans, in order to live with her in California; the couple continued living together in New Haven when they returned to law school. The following summer, Rodham and Clinton campaigned in Texas for unsuccessful 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern. She received a Juris Doctor degree from Yale in 1973, having stayed on an extra year to be with Clinton. Clinton first proposed marriage to her following graduation, but she declined. She began a year of postgraduate study on children and medicine at the Yale Child Study Center.During her postgraduate study, Rodham served as staff attorney for Edelman's newly founded Children's Defense Fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and as a consultant to the Carnegie Council on Children. During 1974, she was a member of the impeachment inquiry staff in Washington, D.C., advising the House Committee on the Judiciary during the Watergate scandal. Under the guidance of Chief Counsel John Doar and senior member Bernard Nussbaum, Rodham helped research procedures of impeachment and the historical grounds and standards for impeachment. The committee's work culminated in the resignation of President Richard Nixon in August 1974. In August 1974, she moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, and became one of only two female faculty members in the School of Law at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville,[58][59] where Bill Clinton also was. She gave classes in criminal law, where she was considered a rigorous teacher and tough grader, and was the first director of the school's legal aid clinic. She still harbored doubts about marriage, concerned that her separate identity would be lost and that her accomplishments would be viewed in the light of someone else's.

Early Arkansas years

Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton lived in this 980 square feet (91 m2) house in the Hillcrest neighborhood of Little Rock from 1977 to 1979 while he was Arkansas Attorney General. Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton bought a house in Fayetteville in the summer of 1975, and Hillary finally agreed to marry.She was born on October 26, 1947.

(Note: One reader questioned using Wikipedia as a source which I believe to be a fair one. You will find the same information at the National First Ladies Library site.)

Can someone please tell me when Hillary Diane Rodham lived in Scranton??? WTF?? There isn't one mention of Scranton on Wikipedia.

I forgot. We are back to Kanjorski's statement where we stretch the facts to win an election. Next thing you know she was related to Jim Thorpe.

Talk about lying to the public. No wonder Todd Eachus was Master of Ceremonies.

New Faith And Freedom Commercial

The Faith And Freedom Coalition created the following radio commercial supporting the campaign of Lou Barletta. Here is information from their website.

Speaking of Ralph Reed: His Faith and Freedom Coalition is focused on getting out the vote. They’re spending $500,000 on a radio ad campaign in eighteen House and Senate races. They’re some added help for Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, and Dino Rossi. And they’re targeting Ciro Rodriguez in Texas, Paul Kanjorski in Pennsylvania, Jerry McNerney and Loretta Sanchez in California, Tom Perriello in Virginia, Sanford Bishop and Jim Marshall in Georgia, John Spratt in South Carolina, John Boccieri in Ohio, Allen Boyd and Ron Klein in Florida, John Salazar in Colorado, Leonard Boswell in Iowa, and Lincoln Davis in Tennessee. FFC is also distributing 16 million voter guides, eight million voter-education mailings, and making over ten million phone calls.

Clinton Stumping For Kanjorski

It's old news that Bill Clinton came into Nanticoke yesterday to stump for Paul Kanjorski.

A little observation about Clinton by John Baer today. The article is discussing voting trends in Pennsylvania over the years.

In 1994, Clinton was seen as more liberal as president than as a candidate and got hammered over deficits and health-care reform (sound familiar?). Democrats lost 54 House seats, eight Senate seats and control of Congress.

Will history repeat itself?

Democrat Vs. Republican Control Of Congress- Who Really Created The Deficits

A discussion on politics invariably hits the topic of deficits and who was in power during those deficits. Obama and Kanjorski talk about Bush's spiraling deficits. It is time to set the record straight. Look at this chart which can be found at this link. It didn't come as clear as I wanted it to in PowerPoint conversion but the frst column is YEAR, the second Congress Number, next the President, the next column is Senate, and the final column is the House.

As you can see during those Clinton years where everyone feels the country was much better off than during the Bush years the Republicans were in control most of the time in the House and Senate.

Conversely when you look at the Bush years the picture isn't so clear until you look at this chart.

As you can see the deficits under Bush weren't as drastic until his last two years when the Democrats took control of Congress. One could never legitmately make the claim they "spiraled" out of control while he was in office.

Everyone blames Bush when in fact it was the Democrats who caused the deficits. The deficits greatly increase under Obama, Pelosi, and Harry Reid. The rest of that chart are projections. Under the present economic conditions they won't be born out.

It was the Democrats through the guise of wanting "affordable housing" that created the housing crisis and contributed to the economic crash of the present. The Community Reinvestment Act was passed in 1977. Instead of affordable housing it created "unaffordable mortgages".

Kanjorski's rank partisanship fails to recognize that there were more Democratically controlled Congresses during his time in office than Republican. Yet he wants to blame everything on the Republicans.

Is Kanjorski Shooting A Commercial At the Clinton Rally?

Press release from the Lou Barletta For Congress campaign office:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Shawn Kelly, Communications
Monday, October 25, 2010 HQ: (570) 501-8683

Is Kanjorski hurting children’s education for a television commercial shoot?

HAZLETON – In light of published stories that 26-year incumbent Congressman Paul Kanjorski will hold a re-election rally at a public school in Nanticoke on Tuesday, Lou Barletta asked the following question:

“Is Congressman Kanjorski closing school early so he can film a campaign commercial inside a public school? Is Mr. Kanjorski making the parents, grandparents, and guardians of Greater Nanticoke Area alter their daily schedule so he can be filmed with former President Clinton?

"If he is, that’s a shameful waste of a school day and a tremendous inconvenience for the parents, grandparents, and guardians of Greater Nanticoke Area. I would hope Mr. Kanjorski would strongly consider moving his commercial shoot to a location that does not cost students a day of education and does not cost the taxpayers of Greater Nanticoke Area.”:

The question I have in this particular federal race is whether there is an in-kind contribution is a consideration for the use of the school in this event. Federal races have many different rules than state races. I guess it is okay to keep God out of our schools but Bill Clinton is more than welcome.

GOP Outrage Over School Closing for Clinton-Kanjorski Political Rally

The Pennsylvania Republican Party has issued the following press release over the early closing of the Nanticoke Jr./Sr. High School for the Clinton-Kanjorski Political Rally to be held at that facility.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Contact: Michael Barley
Press Release


HARRISBURG – Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Rob Gleason released the following statement regarding the Nanticoke Area School District’s decision to dismiss school early and use taxpayer funds to make a robo-call in support of Congressman Kanjorski’s political rally:

“Taxpayers should be outraged at the use of public funds to advertise a political rally that will close local schools to in order to accommodate Bill Clinton and Paul Kanjorksi,” Gleason said. “Not only were public funds used to make the announcement but local children will be deprived of their education for a last minute attempt to save Congressman Kanjorski’s job.”

“The Kanjorski campaign should immediately reimburse the school district and move their event to a site that will not cause parents to rearrange their schedules while depriving children of their education. Parents across the Commonwealth are already facing greater stresses from an uncertain job climate and limited resources due to the policies that Congressman Kanjorski has allowed Speaker Nancy Pelosi to advance. Because of Congressman Kanjorski’s rally, countless families have been forced to arrange child care arrangements for their children that day and have been inconvenienced because of this event. The taxpayers deserve to know why the school district felt it necessary to spend funds helping Paul Kanjorski get reelected.”

On Friday, the Nanticoke Area School District sent a paid robo-call (click here to listen) from their Superintendent to the homes of parents with children in the district. The call warned them that a political rally for Congressman Kanjorski would be taking place at the Greater Nanticoke Area High School on Tuesday afternoon and would require the school to be closed early to accommodate the event.

Kanjorski Cuts Children Education In Nanticoke To Campaign

A developing story coming out of the Barletta campaign.

On Friday afternoon the Nanticoke Area School District sent a paid robo-call
from their Superintendent into the homes of parents with children in the district.

The call alerted them of a political rally for Paul Kanjorski that is to be held at the Nanticoke Jr. Sr. High School on Tuesday afternoon. It also said that the children's education day would be cut short due to Kanjorski's political rally and they would need to make accommodations to get their children.

Here is information that can be found on the Allentown Morning Call website.


I would like very much too attend this rally and see President Clinton. At what time does this event start, and do I nee tickets? Thank you,George Mizzer
Posted By: George Mizzer | Oct 22, 2010 3:48:59 PM

George, here are the details:

The public is invited to attend the rally in Nanticoke. More details are available below and at www.paulkanjorski.com.

• Address: Greater Nanticoke Area High School gymnasium
427 Kosciuszko Street
Nanticoke, PA 18634
• Doors open at 4:00 p.m., line to attend starts at 1:00 p.m.
• No tickets needed for the free event.


Posted By: Colby | Oct 22, 2010 11:21:38 PM



Questions:

1. Why were taxpayer resources used to make this call?

2. Why did the call (paid for by the taxpayers) alert the recipients of a
political rally and not just an early dismissal?

3. Does Paul Kanjorski think it is right to cut a student's education day
short for his own political ambitions?

4. Did Kanjorski think about the inconvenience and hardship his rally would
cause to parents who have to leave work early or pay for extra child care so
he can have his campaign rally?

Guess this proves one point. Bill Clinton never campaigned on family values.  You can't have prayer at a school but you can campaign.  Go figure.

Someone should remind Anthony Perrone, the Superintendent, about the Hatch Act. The Act forbids employees of the federal government, as well as employees of state and municipal governmental bodies and agencies that receive federal funds, from running for office in partisan elections or participating in political campaigning while working.

From the Missouri Attorney General website:

In Fort v. Civil Service Commission of the County of Alameda, 392 P.2d 385 (Cal. 1964) the California Supreme Court ruled invalid a county charter provision that prohibited civil servants taking any part in the political management or affairs of any political campaign or election. The court said at page 389:


"No one can reasonably deny the need to limit some political activities such as the use of official influence to coerce political action, the solicitation of political contributions from fellow employees, and the pursuit of political purposes during those hours that the employee should be discharging the duties of his position.



It is unfair in this case for the Nanticoke School District to force opponents of Paul Kanjorski to lend financial support to the his campaign by use of their Jr./Sr. High School building. I believe it is also illegal for school personnel to release public employees from ordinary duties during the paid working day in order to allow a campaign to be conducted on school property.

The following information was provided to school personnel in California.

District staff and Board members should always bear in mind the potentially serious civil and criminal liability that may result from seemingly harmless actions. There is no “de minimus” level of public spending on a partisan campaign that would be acceptable under the applicable laws and rules. School districts should take steps to make clear to employees that they are not permitted to use any publicly funded, District-owned equipment for any political purposes in connection with the election, including District-issued cell phones, the District e-mail system, District-owned computers (including laptops issued to staff and used outside the office), phones, fax machines, etc. There are rare instances where the line is less than bright. However, a good guide may be that if the District prohibits or even discourages use of such resources for private purposes or conversations, it should definitely forbid any use for partisan campaigning.


The Commonwealth Procurement Code Contains Some General Ethics Guidelines in Commonwealth Agency Procurements.
Section 1103(a) of the Ethics Act similarly generally prohibits the use of government staff, time, equipment, facilities or property for non-governmental purposes -- including business, personal or political purposes. Confidential Opinion, 05-001. See, e.g. Neff, Order 1498; Maduka, Order 1273, Heck, Order 1251, Holt, Order 1153 (business purposes); Moore, Order 1317, Meduka, Order 1277, Sullivan, Order 1245, Dividio, Order 1202 (personal purposes); Habay, Order 1313,Version: August 2010 Pt I Ch 60 – Pg 3 of 17, Order 1030, Rockefeller, Order 1004, Freind, Order 800 (political purposes).

Isn't that what Bonusgate was all about? Look at this Order by the Pennsylvania Ethics Commission against Stephen Freind relative to conducting campaign activity using his state office.

Kanjorski's Desperation

Evidently his campaign isn't going too well.