Quit saying that U.S. troops died for a noble cause in Iraq, unless you say, 'well, except for Casey Sheehan.' Don't you dare spill any more blood in Casey's name. You do not have permission to use my son's name.

And the other thing I want him to tell me is 'just what was the noble cause Casey died for?' Was it freedom and democracy? Bullsh--! He died for oil. He died to make your friends richer. He died to expand American imperialism in the Middle East. We're not freer here, thanks to your Patriot Act. Iraq is not free. You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you'll stop the terrorism.

There, I used the 'I' word – imperialism. And now I'm going to use another 'I' word – impeachment – because we cannot have these people pardoned. They need to be tried on war crimes and go to jail.--Cindy Sheehan

As if.

You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you'll stop the terrorism???

That is delusional beyond all known friggin' delusions.

If a vocal minority, however fervent its cause, prevails over reason and the will of the majority, this nation has no future as a free society.--Richard Nixon

I snagged these reader's comments from the Save My City site.

Anonymous said... No!, Plain and simple, the mayor has put pinching pennies before public safety. Skrep hit it on the head when he said "If people are going to believe, they have to feel safe."

Pinching pennies? Are we drunk?

$10.8 million in unpaid debts from '01-'03 paid for in '04. The $8 million albatross--the former call center--disposed of. A pension bond in dire need of refinancing. And all of this, while the folks from AMBAC watch every financial move we make. Pinching pennies?

Geez! And they're telling me to take the blinders off?

Anonymous said... What happened at council last night, i didn't read anything in the paper about the 911 reports.

That is correct. You didn't read anything about the 911 reports. That's because the Rabble Rouser-in-Chief didn't even bring it up at the council meeting. Why? Because there was nothing to it. Despite the noise made on the internet and on WILK, the much-vaunted 911 tapes makin' the rounds in the Heights did nothing to prove that the fire department did not respond quickly to the Empire Street fire. And that also includes the arson fire at the same address that triggered a second response from the fire department. Despite all of the huffin' and puffin' on the hill, the response times to that fire ground were far better than the national averages.

Haven't you heard? Practically everybody in the city is clamoring for the hiring of more cops now.

Get with the program.

I stopped by a local eatery today. I had lunch. A modest lunch, but a lunch just the same. This doesn't happen to me very often. Anyway, the thirty-something lady that waited on me had more garish-looking tattoos than your average freak, earrings through her nostrils, eight pounds of jewelry dangling from every possible place and a gruesome hair cut that would make even Cindi Lauper jealous. While she struggled to figure out how to deliver the correct amount of change to me, I couldn't help but to think to myself, "What the f**k is wrong with you, lady?" Because if you cut through all of the sideshow freak nonsense she had intentionally done to herself, she was actually quite pretty underneath it all.

I really don't get it, but I'm encountering these freaky-looking ladies on a regular basis. Whatever.

I can tell you this, if I was still managing restaurants, you can take it to the bank that I'd be discriminating against certain applicants if they came in for an interview looking like Axel Rose's latest crew slut. Yeah, doing the hiring and firing these days must be a real trip and a half. With society in general, and standards of decency and normalcy slipping the way they have been, I'm glad I made the decision to escape the hospitality industry when I did.

Like I said, I really don't get it.

You couldn't be more right. I can't fathom how a mayor could make so many sound decisions and then catch so much consistent, nonsensical flak because of them. I just can't believe what's gone on since he took the reigns. It's beyond belief at times.

Where were all of these seat-of-the-pants activists, insta-pundit know-it-alls, vocal policy wonks and clueless rabble rousers when the previous mayor was destroying this city? Where were they then? I didn't hear anyone taking McGroarty to task. And when I pointed out that he was way off the rails, I was attacked via the e-mail inbox on a daily basis. I was called fat, bald, stupid and unemployed for claiming that the former mayor sucked. Now, I'm called much the same thing for claiming that this mayor doesn't suck.

I haven't lost any faith in the guy I backed. But I am quickly losing faith in the folks that call Wilkes-Barre their home. Where were they then? Where were they when the bulk of the damage was being done? I'll tell you where they were, they were nowhere to be found. But now that all of our problems are on the table rather than being covered up, activist loons are popping up like weeds on a lawn. Now that the problems are being addressed, the folks that had no voice not so long ago have found them. Basically, they're freaking out on the wrong mayor. They're a few days late and we're a few million dollars short.

They deserve to have the bird flipped their way, and I'm more than happy to do it.

Mystery Dude?

Face it, Terrell Owens was an asshole in college, an asshole in San Francisco, and he's remained true to form in Philthydumpia. There is no shortage of Eagle bashers in this family. When the Eagles first signed that baby, my son's comment was, "Good. That'll screw that team up." And when my brother heard about the little kid going to Philly, he called me and could barely contain his obvious glee.

I knew signing that asshole was a mistake. My son knew it. And my brother knew it. The management of the Eagles didn't know it? They say you get what you pay for, and the Eagles promptly went out and bought themselves a spoiled man-child. And being the Jints diehards that we are here, we're loving every minute of being right.

Andy Reid is a great coach? Not based on this move he isn't.

As far as Rick Santorum is concerned, with the ethically-challenged largesse these pricks in DC treat themselves to, I imagine that Santorum's perceived sins against humanity are way, way down there on the list.

And the only reason Nancy and Kevin bash him every time he breathes is because he wears his religion on his sleeve. From their perch in the left field bleachers, Americans of obvious faith are a big no-no. But with that said, be mindful of the fact that according to the socialist secularists such as themselves, we must be tolerant of all other religions at all times. They rehash tired rhetoric rather than offer coherent thought. And they absolutely despise the born-and-raised American bible thumpers.

On most days, they make about as much sense as the Eagle's signing of the goofball with the good hands.

At least twice a week Kevin Lynn tells the folks listening to WILK that the Iraqi's have no electricity. I check a Middle Eastern war correspondent site every day and find myself treated to pictures of Iraqis reading newspapers, Iraqis hanging out at internet cafes, and Iraqis listening to AM radios, among other things. If what Kevin says is true, I'd like to know how they print those newspapers without electricity. And how do they power those computers? Are they using alternative fuels? I also read at the Baghdad embassy site that satellite dishes have become the absolute rage in Iraq. Kevin, care to explain some of this me to me?

How is any of that possible without electricity?

Chicago Sun Times.com Good news out of Iraq must not go unnoticed August 15, 2005 BY DEROY MURDOCK Amid roadside bombs, constitutional squabbles and even a blinding sandstorm last week, one wonders if anything is going right in Iraq. Plenty is, actually. The journalists' maxim, ''If it bleeds, it leads,'' prevails. Major news outlets correctly focus on the depressing consequences of the Improvised Explosive Devices and car bombs responsible for 70 percent of U.S. military fatalities in Iraq last month. Terrorist assassinations of civil servants and police officers obviously deserve coverage. But it honors neither America's soldiers nor Iraq's selfless patriots to overlook the achievements they share in this new republic. The growth of locals in uniform is a positive military development. According to the Brookings Institution's indispensable Iraq Index, brookings.edu/iraqindex, the number of on-duty Iraqi security personnel has risen from 125,373 in January to 175,700 today. They fight beside coalition forces against terrorists and Baathist holdouts. One joint raid nabbed 22 alleged insurgents in Yusufiyah on July 25, while another 10 suspected terrorists were caught in Ramadi on Aug. 3. In both cases, the Pentagon reports, citizens offered intelligence that helped Iraqis and their coalition partners nail these killers. Civic-affairs work by uniformed personnel may have persuaded average Iraqis to furnish useful information. On Aug. 5, GIs and medics from the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Division, plus Iraqi police, performed health screenings on 200 Mosul children. They also gave these kids soccer balls. During five such missions since mid-July, some 1,000 kids in Mosul received basic medical attention. Infrastructure improvements also are encouraging. A new Kirkuk treatment plant began providing clean water to 5,000 people on June 27, the State Department says. Another 84 U.S.-led waterworks projects are under way in Iraq, while 114 have been completed. Some 18,000 pupils will study in rehabilitated classrooms when they go back to school in mid-September. According to U.S. and Iraqi officials, 43 more schools were slated for renovation Aug. 6. So far, 3,211 schools have been refurbished, and another 773 are being repaired. Iraq's monthly oil exports have grown from $200 million in June 2003 to $2.5 billion last month. This is due both to higher prices and to the fact that fuel supplies have swelled from 23 percent to 97 percent of official production goals in that period. These key improvements also help explain why Iraq's gross domestic product increased from a World Bank estimate of $12.1 billion in 2003 to a projected $21.1 billion in 2004. Iraqis who endured Baathist censorship now enjoy a vibrant, free press. Commercial TV channels, radio stations and independent newspapers and magazines have zoomed from zero before Operation Iraqi Freedom to -- respectively -- 29, 80 and 170 today. Internet subscribers have boomed from 4,500 before Iraq's liberation to 147,076 last March, not counting the additional Iraqis who use Internet cafes. When Saddam Hussein fell, Iraq had 833,000 telephone subscribers. In July that figure had soared 356.4 percent to 3,801,822. In the political arena, women hold seven of Baghdad's top 40 ministerial positions. While Iraq is more than 17.5 percent female, this is impressive political involvement for women in the world's most sexist region. Among others, women run Iraq's ministries of communications, environment, public works and human rights. America's National Democratic Institute (a global outreach organization) last month trained 208 members of 70 political parties and 10 NGOs from across Iraq. They studied U.S.-style campaign skills including knocking on doors, canvassing petitions and organizing rallies. In another workshop, activists learned how to promote their parties' agendas on TV during two-minute and even 30-second sound bites. The White House communications team -- hobbled by institutional bashfulness and a nearly terminal incapacity for self-expression -- must educate Americans and our allies more effectively on what works in Iraq. While journalists should not whitewash Iraq's mayhem, they should cover the accomplishments of U.S. personnel, soldiers from the 27 other nations with boots on the sand, and the Iraqis who are rebuilding their country -- never mind the evildoers' blasts and billowing smoke. Deroy Murdock is a columnist with Scripps Howard News Service and a senior fellow with the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in Fairfax, Va. E-mail: deroy.murdock@gmail.com

Kev?

Oh, yeah. Kevin also claims that Iraq has become a civil war and we need to pull our troops out of there. He also spouts off about how much Iraq parallels our Vietnam experience. Really? And what did Richard Nixon have to say about a proposed abrupt pull-out from Vietnam?

It would not bring peace. It would bring more war.

Now ask Kev how many millions of South Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian civilians were slaughtered after we pulled out of Vietnam? Or, after we listened to the likes of Kevin. What's your tired line, Kev?

Something about being doomed to repeat history?

I'm still kinda tuckered out from that damn block party. Who's idea was that again?

Gotta jet.

CYA

PS--Hey, Heff. I saw ya on WNEP raiding that hardware store. Really cool. You earned it. Way to go.