“He got out of bed, had a mid-life crisis, died his hair and decided to run for Congress!”--WILK’s Kevin Lynn disparaging congressional hopeful Joe Leonardi

You‘d think Kevin Lynn would know better than to do talk radio all hung over, wouldn’t you? Check his sorry act on Monday mornings when he typically gets to shouting almost uncontrollably. You can just picture the spray of spittle flying out of his pie hole.

Republican? Did somebody say a Republican is on the line? They’re all one-eyed freaks, fat bastards, droolers, knuckle draggers and dumber than moss on a stump! They listen to Rush so as to know what they think!! Or, they are political operatives!!! Either that, or they are certainly not anywhere near the absolute apex of critical thought, the Mount Everest of enlightenment, you know, the undeniable truth as it has been entrusted to me!!!!

Sober up, boy.

Fact is, what he said about Dr. Leonardi was completely undeserved and well below low brow. I guess he’d prefer it if his hero, Paul Kanjorski, went unchallenged at the polls for life. As far as I’m concerned, he must be beholding to Kanjorski in some way that has not been made public. If you call his putrid talk show and criticize Kanjorski in any way, you can expect to be savagely attacked after being interrupted. I’m not sure what his personal stake is, but he’s exactly what he accuses Rush Limbaugh of being: an apologist for a political party.

He owes Joe Leonardi a very, very public apology.

And Nancy Kman owes us an explanation as to why we have to suffer the indignity of being insulted ad nauseum by an indomitable, infuriating, and condescending drunkard day-in-and day-out. And if she can’t bring herself to rethink the questionable hiring practices at WILK, maybe she’ll consider whether Chia Kev’s attack on Dr. Leonardi was either libelous, slanderous or both. Control your monkey, girlie.

And, no, I don’t tune the morning drive show out. There’s no need for a boycott. I look forward to local talk radio. Or, at least, I used to. I listen in every morning, but I boycott the show’s sponsors. If Kevin Lynn says TGIF is the best damned restaurant this side of Bethel, New York, you’ll never see me spend a single dime in that joint. If Kevin actually eats there, the place is anathema and then some.

If WILK needs to offer an alternative to it’s mostly conservative format, it can aptly do so without unleashing a vile and pernicious lifelong curmudgeon upon the lot of us.

You can't hang up on me here, boy.

Sez me.

Necessary reading is as follows:

This one didn’t get much press. Hmmm.

Oh, and nary a mention from that old suck-up apologist Kevin.

Here’s proof! Commies all!

Excuse mon Francais, but…close the fu>king borders right now!!!

Since we’ve now got a Starbucks in our downtown, why not this link?

Yeah, the king of the clueless dipdh*ts. He has a special talent for accusing our elected people of wrongdoing each and every day. Problem is, none of it is even remotely true. Oh, yeah. That reminds me. Hey, Walter? How’s that forensic audit of the mayor’s inaugural ball coming? Should we expect federal indictments any day now? Is the mayor going to be led off in handcuffs real soon like? Are you buying the tar and feathers?

As if.

Anyway, a person worthy of membership in Walter’s clueless and overzealous cabal has created an internet vehicle by which he can accuse elected and connected people of all sorts of nefarious activities that will never, ever be substantiated. In other words, another guy with some serious issues.

Let’s refresh our collective memories:

Council also heard from Carey Avenue resident Tim Grier. He questioned the city’s ability to collect on a $303,000 lien attached to a West Market Street property by city officials. The lien is supposed to ensure taxpayers are reimbursed for the emergency demolition conducted by the city after portions of the building’s roof collapsed in 2005. The vacant lot has been sold by Greg and Stephanie Lull of Maine to CityVest, the non-profit organization ready to renovate the Hotel Sterling. Grier wants to know what legal action, if any, the city took to ensure it received its $303,000 before the Lulls were paid for the property. Grier removed a 6-inch folder from a book bag and slammed it down on a table at one point when he addressed council. It was full of documents on the 37-45 W. Market St. property. “Could the city have gotten the money?” Grier asked. Leighton offered to explain, but Grier said he would not listen and stormed out.

Excerpted from this Voice story:

Then there’s this:

Luzerne County election officials agreed Wednesday to ask the district attorney to file a misdemeanor charge against a Wilkes-Barre man who stayed in an election voting booth for 30 minutes as a protest on Nov. 8. The county Election Board, which consists of the three county commissioners, voted unanimously Wednesday to pursue Election Code violation charges against Tim Grier for allegedly willfully disobeying orders of election officials.

And with no further delays, I give you UnAmerican Luzerne County. As always, if it’s about Wilkes-Barre, I will link to it. Well, at least once. But that in no way means that I in any way agree with or condone any of it’s sophomoric, uproarious and mostly dubious content. If unsubstantiated rumors and half thought-out conspiracies sprinkled with in-your-face accusations of wrongdoing somehow floats your listing boat, this one ought to lead you to the Sargasso Sea.

Hey, it’s all fun and games until the guy gets himself sued.

Speak when you are angry--and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret. --Laurence J. Peter

Taking votes for granted? Right! He’s a well-entrenched incumbent. And if we remember correctly, the incumbents have been tweaking the rules of engagement and gerrymandering voting districts as a means of keeping themselves well-entrenched. Sorry, but the system is obviously broken when “serving” is grossly perverted into being a very long and lucrative career. Paul Kanjorski is a shoo-in, he knows it and he would probably faint away dead if wasn’t reelected by a landslide.

Security issues? Sure, he’s got the talking points down whereas he drones on about our port security not being up to snuff. Then, in the next breath, he says illegal immigration wouldn’t be a concern if Bush would simply enforce the laws already on the books. And that’s an overly simplistic answer to a long-vexing and complicated question. Security? He’s got the answers. It’s either ‘“Bush didn’t do it,” “Bush did it,” or “Bush didn’t do enough.”’ He’s a Democrat, what else has he got except for demonizing Bush?

Speaking of fainting away dead, it ought to be amusing come election night when Chris Carney unexpectedly goes down in flames. We’re talking farm-belt country here, folks. And right now, the farm-belt is a veritable sea of Don Sherwood yard signs. That’s what my four eyes have seen of late.

Oh, and Rick Santorum is toast.

In what will ultimately prove to be a major shot in the arm for our suddenly resurgent downtown, the riverfront remodeling project is finally poised to begin. As an avid bicyclist and part-time kayaking trainee, these new amenities can’t get here fast enough for me. Some may get to guttersniping about the overall cost of the project or the associated maintenance costs, but remember, there are expenses and then there are investments in our future as a community. And as far as I’m concerned, once we draw significant numbers of people to the river, then they’ll clamor long and hard for the long overdue cleanup of the river itself.

From the Times Leader:

U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski used the riverfront groundbreaking to clear up what he said has become a misconception about the proposed inflatable dam’s 440-acre lake. “A lot of people are worried about having a lake, and they think about it as raising the level up to the top of the levee and having a dangerous condition,” he said. The dam would “stabilize the water to the existing shoreline as it does in natural, normal flow.” He used a recent collegiate rowing competition on the river as an example, saying one of the participants said the event would have been impossible without the preceding three days of rain. Kanjorski said federal funding is in place to build the $14 million dam, and he is lobbying state and federal governments to proceed with the necessary approval. “It will give us four, five, six months of the year of a recreational asset in the Wyoming Valley second to practically none that I can think of in this entire region.”

A recreational asset? Smelly, polluted waters with brown foam constantly drifting on by, or clinging to your oars? Polluted waters that will be even more polluted after the three days of rain arrive? Sewage outflows totally submerged by his proposed lake? Outflows that will discharge throughout our city’s streets when the heaviest of the heavy rain events arrive? That’s an asset?

The public comment period came and went for Uncle Paul’s dubious deflatable dam receiving a massive thumbs-down from the general public, environmentalists and the folks that actually recreate on the river as it currently is. Undaunted, the public’s will apparently means absolutely nothing to our congressman as he presses on with his foolhardy plan to dam the Susquehanna at it’s most environmentally-challenged point. If there was one section of this river that you wouldn’t want to dam…this is it.

But, one local mayor wants it, one local council guy wants it, a county commissioner wants it, a handful of college kids want it, and now that eminent domain abuse is legal, one congressman wants it even more than ever.

A recreational asset?

Mr. Kanjorski, did you play in the toilet a lot when you were a kid?

Sounds like it.

I have a better idea.

Guess what. I done got me a whole ten days off from work. In common parlance, I’m on vacation. Whoopee! And as always, I prefer rest and relaxation to traveling all over the place in search of destinations that prove to be boring by the second day. Needless to say, rest for me amounts to wandering around aimlessly on a bicycle, so keep that stupid cell phone in your pants and try not to run over any bicycles for a week or so. Your cooperation in this matter will be greatly appreciated.

As part of an extended aside, I love Mick Ronson, I always have and I always will. And, apparently I am not alone in this respect. Stick with me, here. I’m on vacation and I’ve got nothing better to do. Thank goodness (secularized exclaim).

Mick Ronson was a great guitarist, adequate keyboard player, decent vocalist, but a great arranger of tunes. And whoever he chose to tour or record with was instantly better as a result. David Bowie was a nobody until a producer by the name of Tony Visconti brought Ronson on board. Within a couple of short years later, Bowie’s name was practically a household word.

Some of Ronson’s best work was with Bowie, but he recorded with many other artists over the years, and they were immediately better for having brought him on board. As evidenced by the following short video clip, he was also a showman while working his customary Les Paul:

Ronson ‘72

Twenty-some years later, he was still belting it out, albeit, somewhat more modestly:

Ronson ‘93

So, let’s get to the point of all of this, shall we? I was making my usual rounds through YouTube only to find numerous musical videos attributed to a Mick Ronson tribute band, and posted in 2006, no less. And I dove in head first.

Now, it’s obvious that the guitarist in the following video has his sh*t together. But as Sue Henry has been known to say on occasion, this is comedy gold. This is the same song Ronson was jamming in the first video.

Whatever, man.

You numba ten!

The stereo is beckoning me to join it. Hope my ears don’t get to bleeding.

Later