This one had the usual activist suspects foaming at the mouth awhile back.

From The Times Leader:

W-B’s crime grant funds are unfrozen State officials determine city did not violate conditions and releases remaining $17,400. By KEVIN AMERMAN kamerman@leader.net WILKES-BARRE – Satisfied that Wilkes-Barre officials didn’t violate conditions of a crime prevention grant, the state has decided to unfreeze more than $17,000 in funding.

Um…Walter? Care to admit that all your blabbering on WILK was just that…useless, speculative blabbering? And how ‘bout those upstart bloggers who are about as prolific as an illiterate pygmy? Another potential scandal gone up in smoke.

Sucks, huh?

I don‘t know what happened at the Riverside Café the other night, nor do I care. But a couple of my coworkers do and they shed some light on the character of one of the folks involved. As far as I’m concerned, this scandal in the making for some is nothing of the sort. Besides, if it was such a “fracas” with chairs flying and whatnot, how is it that no one ended up in the emergency room? Whatever. Who cares?

But it was the ensuing rumble that made Hennebaul angry. He said several people wrestled the confronted man to the ground and put him “in a chokehold for a good three minutes.” Hannebaul’s reward for attempting to avert the conflict was being shoved by “at least five or six guys,” who tried to wrestle him to the ground, he said. The police, he said, did nothing. In fact, the one who had thrown the punch was among those wrestling with him. “The whole time I was in there, I was screaming, ‘Somebody call the freaking cops,’” he said. “This was before I realized Gerry Dessoye was standing right there. … Just the unprofessionalism of the police officers. That’s what got my blood boiling.”

Well, it turns out that Sue Henry threw this story out there on the radio airwaves for anyone who felt compelled to comment on it. And lo-and-behold, the Energizer Activist, ole Walt, took the bait and provided yet another fascinating insight into how his mind works. Moreover, it gives us one more reason not to vote to put him in charge of anything.

And I quote:

Uh, Chief Dessoye is a salaried employee by the city and he’s sworn to uphold the laws of the city. So, he’s never really off-duty--ever. He’s a salaried employee of the city. So, when he was at the bicentennial celebration was he off-duty then too if there was a ruckus persued in Gennetti’s, would he have stopped that? You know, there’s a lot of questions here as to why he considers himself off-duty. And I think there should be an investigation into that. --Walter Griffith, 8-31-06

There’s Walter’s world, and then there’s that place where most of the rest of us are at. A salaried employee of this city is “never really off-duty--ever???” Never? Never? If they offer me the chief’s position, I’m never, ever off-duty? If that’s truly the case, I’m definitely not interested in that position. Screw that!

Yes, Chief Dessoye is the city’s top cop. And, yes, if he witnesses a crime taking place while not on-duty, yes, he is duty-bound to react. To a point. But as Walter typically does, let’s make a few assumptions here. If he was partaking of a few alcoholic beverages at both the bicentennial ball and at the corner café and then proceeds to engage in a barroom brawl, the headlines would then read something like “Drunk police chief beat me up.” It’s a no-win situation as far as I’m concerned.

So if you’re an off-duty cop and if you’ve had a few, maybe it’s in your own best interest and in the best interest of the city to allow others to diffuse what sounds to be a very minor skirmish. But, no matter what Chief Dessoye does when presented with scenarios such as these, frustrated candidates for elected office like Walter Griffith will be clamoring for investigations upon investigations. Moreover, the only way Walter finally gets himself elected to something or other is to keep portraying to the voting public that every single aspect of Wilkes-Barre and it’s government sucks.

And in this instance, he is ready and willing, even eager to tarnish the reputation of our police chief to ultimately benefit himself. He is invested completely in negativity, and for the purposes of getting himself elected he will continue to tell the electorate of this city that everything is one-hundred and eighty degrees out of phase.

The problem is, people all over this county read and hear his mischaracterizations of our city and it’s leaders, and the dogged perception that Wilkes-Barre is a virtual train wreck lives on. His relentless electioneering has been a reckless and oft-damaging pursuit as it pertains to this city’s image. And I, quite frankly, wish he’d put the good of the city before himself.

Uh, Chief Dessoye is a salaried employee by the city and he’s sworn to uphold the laws of the city. So, he’s never really off-duty--ever.

Boy, that’s a helluva recruitment pitch, ain’t it? Do you want to be the next chief of police in Walter’s myopic world?

Do you really want to put him in charge?

Any which way you slice it, Iran provides both material and vast amounts of money to terrorists the world over. Putting George Bush and his approach to foreign policy aside, would you really feel comfortable with Iran acquiring the capability to both produce and then promote the spread of nuclear weapons to state-less entities? Would that be acceptable to you?

Don’t get me wrong, here. I am not saber-rattling. In fact, I think it would be a colossal mistake to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. Despite the Mullahs and their stone-aged vision of how things should be, Iran has a young, educated populace and a somewhat secular society. And ever since Jimmy Carter let the extremist genie out of the bottle by pulling the rug out from under the Shah of Iran, the United States and Iran have been at odds with each other every step of the way. And we’ve even gotten to shooting at each other now and again.

Still though, if Iran were to start producing nuclear weapons while it’s president seems to think that international brinksmanship and aiding terrorists worldwide will endear his isolated country to the west, I’m thinking we need to start visualizing what we will need to build a fallout shelter in the basement. As far as I’m concerned, Iran cannot be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. The question is, what should we do to prevent such a thing from happening? There are three choices: diplomacy, sanctions, or military action. So, where do we go from here?

Anybody wanna weigh in on that one?

I’d like to see Ahmadinejad attend a summit with all the leaders of the western world. Face-to-face. And without cameras.

You conspiracy theorists might want to take a gander at the following World Trade Center fact sheets:

Yeah, she’s got a television face for sure. I saw a WILK ad on the video advertising box recently and she looked even better with her hair styled differently. Gage Andrew and I were supposed to go along on a bus trip with her last year, but some termites hailing from Nanticoke put the kibosh to all of that. I was looking forward to chatting with her on end as I absolutely love local talk radio. Oh well.

Private Sector Dude once described Sue as being “cute as a button,” and I didn’t disagree with him.

Missed the mark? I hear that! When I read that “gettin’ his goat” gibberish, I too realized how utterly clueless that anonymous blowhard truly is. That sort of anonymous rubbish is akin to a mosquito landing on my forearm only to be swatted flat. The only reason I even linked to it was to get the anonymous author’s phlegm all pumped up so they’d provide us with some more belly laughs. What they fail to realize is, I was being completely honest when I said I could really care less what some coward on the internet has to say about me. But I do find it to be amusing.

You know, with all of the ass-kissing I’m purported to be doing, you’d likely think I did have some sheep and goats out back. And some cows. And wouldn’t some cow-tipping provide a bit of levity to Wilkes-Barre? Why, if I’m supposed to be so intertwined with “Lehighton the Mayor,” I could do whatever the funk I want to, right? If I’m in bed with the mayor, why haven’t I been appointed to a ghost job or something equally less than thrilling but extremely lucrative? Where’s my payoff?

In a city filled with mostly nondescript, apathetic people, I find it immensely troubling that the former mayor who practically destroyed the city received significantly less flack from the shell-shocked citizenry than the mayor who had to put it all back together again. It’s beyond insane, if not, frightening. And it suggests that far too many of us are operating with one chromosome too many. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have to say that Wilkes-Barre is home to the very worst of the mental incontinents.

As far as Nancy at WILK is concerned, I’m sure she’d be interested in interviewing the one dude who sees the Susquehanna River as his watery playground. The one guy who has paddled over 1,000 miles on it from New York State to only you know where. The proposed inflatable dam at Wilkes-Barre is certainly a hot button local issue and you are no doubt taking Congressman Kanjorski to task over it.

Nancy, you wanna interview the one and only Kayak Dude? He is to paddling the entirety of the Susquehanna River what I am to bicycling the entirety of this valley. He knows the boils and rapids like I know the potholes and curb cuts. Although, Kevin undoubtedly knows more about rivers than KD, simply because KD has had the unmitigated audacity to challenge one of Kevin’s heroes--a democrat.

Lemme know.

Hey chipmunk! Get your dick out of my sheep!

Grrr…

I'm spinning some Beach Boys right now.

CYA