I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him, though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America.--Bill Clinton in 1996, commenting on why Osama bin Laden was not a viable target to an ex-lawyer

I know we were supposed to hit the streets armed with brooms and whatnot yesterday, but we had a birthday party to attend to. Taylor Kate is now officially one year-old. I'll tell ya', if you give wifey enough monetary support, she can throw one heck of a good party. She pulled out all of the stops here yesterday. We had enough food on hand to feed all of the Ivory Coast and then some. Check this: 10 pounds of meatballs in sauce. 5 pounds of popcorn chicken. Her award winning baked beans. Enough macaroni/tuna salad and potato salad to choke off a storm sewer that hasn't already been covered with sludge. An over-sized cold cut platter. A huge veggie plate. You're catching my drift, right? Candy, munchies, dip and of course, copious amounts of Genesee Light, Yuengling, and Bartles & Jaymes coolers.

This was Taylor's very first foray into being the center of attention and she handled it very well. I remember Gage's first birthday party and he cried when the massive assembled crowd sang Happy Birthday to him. Yesterday was a good day and I enjoyed myself immensely. It's sad that family and good friends can't manage to do this more often than they do. I guess we're all too busy chasing money most of the time. We can thank our wasteful tax-and-spend politicos for that increasingly untenable situation. Let's see here. Where's my pay stub. Gross: $1,987.38. Net: $1,257.11. Would any of our gender-less council thingies care to take a stab at explaining to me how that should be acceptable to anyone? Anyone? Any city, county, state, or federal politicos wanna take a stab at that one? We're committed to working more and more to pay for all of their glaring mistakes, while they yammer on and on about the newest program they need to fund. Meanwhile, my hair grays while rotting at the tail end of the line of the young, healthy-looking folks buying soda, chips, and cigarettes with their Access cards. We party less, we kick back less, because the politicos need our money to buy votes from the growing ranks of the slackers. Anybody want to lock horns with me right about now? I wouldn't advise it. The massive blister I have in the middle of my right palm just popped and it hurts like hell. Why the blister? Because my city, the city with the most confiscatory taxation policies this side of Pittsburgh can't afford to keep it's streets clean. I'm not affixing blame to any particular politico, I'm simply pointing out the fact that the folks at the top of the food chain are lowering the quality of life for the folks in the middle.

Hell! Every weekend could be a party if we didn't have to work six days a week to support the slackers and if we didn't have to volunteer our time to clean sh*t we already paid serious bucks to have cleaned in the first place. And I'm not raggin' on Tom Leighton. I know he's got a monumental task ahead of him and in my estimation, he seems to be pushing all of the right buttons so far. And as long as he keeps pushing them, he has my undying support provided that Cheap Trick one day plays on Public Square and allows me to join them on stage for a bit of "Surrender." I don't ask for much, do I?

What I do have a serious problem with is what I percieve to be completely useless sniping from one of our council folks. We all know the city's recent history. We all know that the city can't afford to replace a traffic signal bulb right now. Despite the city's financial situation and despite the city's crumbling infrastructure, some of us have decided to remain here and fight the good fight. Whatever. So the new mayor of the struggling city asks the residents of said city to clean the 20 linear feet in front of their homes and deposit the debris at the nearest corner for the DPW boys. Not a problem. Take a little pride in your community, your street, or your own curb line. What's not to like? Sure, our more elderly neighbors may not have what it takes to make that happen, but some of us younger folks are always willing to help them out when it snows, etc., etc..

I almost bit my lip on this one, but I cannot. Mayor Tom II asked the residents of the city to pitch in and help a bit for one day, and what does our council leader have to say about it?

I think there are too many directives with the program.

I think it is an absolutely wonderful idea. We want to get the community involved, and the city cannot do it on it's own. I just think some of the ways it is being done should be changed.

To be completely frank, I don't care what the clean-up rules are as long as the city is working to change it's seriously erroded image. If the residents are willing to get out there and sweep away two years worth of ignored debris, so be it. If the program is just too demanding for them to get involved, in all honesty, they probably would not have gotten involved if the mayor promised them a free recycling calendar for their efforts.

If we're to sweep it up and deposit whatever it is at the nearest corner, then that's what we'll do if we still care at all. Despite having consumed enough sudsy to intoxicate all of Maine last night, my skinny ass was out in the streets this morning. I swept most of Thompson street. I swept Penn avenue from Thompson to the corner of Butler. And I spent a half hour trying to clear the catch basins at that intersection. And then I realized that my neighbor had scaled the guard rails at the top of the street and he was working to remove the household trash that has been deposited there for far too long. Over the guard rails I went. I just had to help him. We hauled about 10 garbage bags over the rails and parked them at the corner. And then I noticed that Mikey down on Penn avenue was trying to sweep away built-up sludge with a horribly worn household broom. I immediately grabbed Larry's stiff push broom and joined him. And up the street we trudged. At last count, we had filled four of those green recycling cans to the top. No bags. No dragging them to the corner. They are too heavy for any of that. We cleaned a microscopic section of our city and we flaunted the published rules during the process. And we felt good about it afterwords.

We were asked to step up and make a difference and we did. And we skirted the stringent regulations. And now the city can come and collect the debris we were recruited to remove from our sometimes frightening landscape. Sure, those green cans are freakin' heavy, but if a couple of skinny nobodies can haul them around, our DPW boys are going to have to do likewise. Bummer. What other option does the city have available to it? If we clean the streets, but package the debris incorrectly, will the city simply side-step the illegally staged debris only to become a permanent monument that further highlights what an abject failure this city has become? I think not.

I openly challenge all seven of our council folks to step forward and claim that they personally removed more garbage from our streets than George did, Mike did, or I myself did today. The Mayor of Wilkes-Barre asked us to get involved and we responded in kind. He asked the residents to take some pride in their immediate environment and some of us answered his call. If a sitting member of our city council has a problem with that program, I'm forced to wonder what the true motivation is behind that criticism. Is the honeymoon over at city hall? Is "cooperation" doable only until the next election is concerned?

I mean, it's not as if council should collectively bite their lip if the mayor proposes something that is obviously off the wall, but how could any of them have a problem with a call to arms from the mayor to his constituents? Clean the streets? Take some pride in your city? We did. Now pick up the sum of our efforts.

And put the "name recognition" game on the back burner until the next mayoral election actually comes due. Let's just stick to saving Wilkes-Barre from itself and it's horrible recent past before we start angling for that next far-off election cycle.

You want us to sweep? Some of us will sweep. Enough said.

No more flooding at this busy intersection. No more calls for Engine 5 to deal with flooded streets in these parts.

George's assault on Colleen and Brianna's piled garbage. Yepper, I sifted through it looking for names that would identify the source of this illegally dumped trash. Try Colleen Flynn.

This is scary beyond belief. This is what could easily become of America if we continue to allow the limp-wristed and cloaked frustrated commies to dictate the future course of our floundering country.

"Thanks, man. It feels great to finally win at Bristol. I wanna thank my entire team. WHOOOOOOOOOOO! What a great job they did all day. The "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" Chevrolet was just awesome all day long."

You absolutely must wander through this site. This is amazing. Some Russian motorcycle chickie took it upon herself to explore what little that remains of Chernobyl.

Remember Chernobyl? The Russian city that suffered the world's only nuclear meltdown. You know, the nuclear reactor that was supposed to be contained by drywall in the event of a serious malfunction. Give this site a long look. The further you explore it, the better the pics get.

Geez. They eat worms on television these days, don't they? What the hay? Let's do a few worms of our own right here on this internet thingamabob.

I want to start by saying something nice about President Bush. Of all the presidents we've had with the last name of Bush, his economic plan ranks in the top two.--John "F-Bomb" Kerry

Remember though, Bush is being accused of waging a negative campaign. Heyna?

Gotta go. Harvick is near the front late in the race.

This concludes todays meandering tirade.

Later