Check this out:

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Former President Carter says President Bush's administration is "the worst in history" in international relations, taking aim at the White House's policy of pre-emptive war and its Middle East diplomacy.

Hah! That’s akin to Pee Wee Herman calling Gregory Peck the worst actor in history. Either Jimmy Carter has a very selective memory, or he’s suffering from Alzheimer’s.

When was radical Islam as we now know it launched in earnest? Um, that would be when Carter unceremoniously pulled the rug out from under the Shah of Iran, right? One of the worst strategic foreign policy blunders of all time, if not the worst. A blunder we have been paying for every single day since.

Remember, 444 days, Jimmy. ABC’s Nightline was born, Jimmy. Terror became Iran’s chief export, Jimmy.

Stick a fu>king sock in it, Jimmy boy.

Look here. Yet another sizeable investment in this city:

This is sooooo typical of the people around here. That negative mindset pervades every thing they see, say and do. What of the upcoming WI-FI service in the city, you ask? Silly question, my son. As with practically every other thing that’s been proposed in this city…it just won’t work.

Yup. Much like the theater project before it, it just won’t work. In fact, in Wilkes-Barre, nothing will work. Ask the residents, they know.

As for myself, I can’t wait until it gets off the ground, ‘cause I’m going to buy a PDA. And with a PDA in hand in a wireless city, I’ll be able to sit on the square and update this site.

Funny, though. I don’t think the predictably negative residents have considered what the WI-FI capabilities could add to the overall public safety. The proposed surveillance cameras have been argued to the point of absurdity, you know, the Big Brother gibberish. Then we’ve heard of how the firemen rushing to a fire ground could call up building blueprints on a computer before their arrival. I’m thinking of those COPS episodes where the police officers have computers in their patrol cars and information is at their fingertips at all times.

Anyway, as I said, I can’t wait.

No sooner were the votes counted did Linda Stets-Urban get on the phone to WILK’s Sue Henry spreading mistruths about her opponent in the general election, Mayor Tom Leighton.

She claimed that Tom Leighton showed up at the polling place at Hollenback with some “subservient” kid following his every move carrying folding chairs. The insinuation was that Leighton has servants, and she asked “When did they made him king?”

As I always do when she speaks, I rolled my eyes in disgust.

Turns out, Leighton called in to the program and explained that the chairs were being offered to some of the older poll workers standing outside. He told me he was trying to be “courteous.” Face it, election day can be a very long day for the folks armed with the piles of candidate cards.

What we have here is a preview of ugly things yet to come. Tom Leighton’s record of achievement’s as mayor is unparalleled, so I guess we should expect these sorts of unfair cheap shots from here on out. In my mind, this needless episode was ruthless, vicious and portends that the trustworthiness of our Republican candidate for mayor has definitely come into question. Oh, and expect the same lowbrow tactics from her husband. He’s taken his sniveling, unfair shots at Tom Leighton from day one.

Remember the election year crack about Leighton not caring about the handicapped? Can you say jackass?

Lame, very lame.

I keep telling this guy to cool it with the semantics, the investigations and the nonstop rancor, but he’s like the Energizer Bunny in too many respects.

From the Citizens’ Voice:

It’s not over yet. In November, Cronauer will face Republican Walter Griffith. Griffith has filed a complaint with the Luzerne County Bureau of Elections stating that Cronauer did not report all his expenses, including a commercial on Service Electric’s cable network and a fundraiser at St. Patrick’s Church. Cronauer reported a total cost of $689 for political signs, yet Griffith said he counted at least 500 yard signs that must have cost more than reported. Griffith said he confronted Cronauer on Tuesday at St. Aloysius Church about the finance report and was told Cronauer used his own funds to purchase some signs and some others were donated. “We’re going to take a close look at Walter’s complaints and will address any concern or any issue that is addressable,” Cronauer said Wednesday.

Yaaaawn.

As we trudge on towards that November general election, Walter should be concerned about one thing and one thing only: his concession speech.

Predictably, he was also on the blower to WILK’s Sue Henry complaining about “running the gauntlet” between all of the poll workers with the cards in hand. He went on to say that they are intimidating voters. Yeah, that’s what he said. You can’t make this sort of sh*t up!

Yeah, according to him they intimidate voters, suppress voter turnout, and…and, get this, the state legislature should look into stopping this time-honored election day practice. That is utter poppycock.

Yet, he has aligned himself of late with a person who did, in fact, intimidate voters by holding a voting machine hostage for over 30 minutes in 2005. Politics makes for strange bedfellows on occasion, but if we’re so worried about voter intimidation, how can we then politically triangulate with a person who put his own stamp on it? Very, very inconsistent, don’t you think?

The part of this that makes me wonder is the triviality of the nature of his concern? Is this the sort of acrimonious minutia Walter would concern himself with if he ever actually went and got himself elected? Our city, county and state have a dearth of serious problems that need to be addressed, but he would have the state legislature mucking about with the likes of that?

I put it to you? Were you ever at the polls and ready to vote, only to be frightened away by the senior citizens brandishing the laminated cards? If so, you ought not leave the house anymore. Get yourself a plastic bubble, or something.

As for myself, I enjoy mixing it up with those people. They hand me a card and ask for my support, and I usually look at the card and go “Who?” One guy asked me to support Tom Leighton, and I purposely asked “Lehighton?” You should have seen the look on his face.

I told one guy who gave me two cards that I was really happy to have them being that I was fresh out of 3X5 index cards. Judging by the look on his face, I was left to assume that he thought I was an oddball. Turns out, he was correct.

One time one of those poll workers knew of this site, knew that I had belittled his chosen candidate and gave me a look that would kill entire species’ in an instant. I smiled at him and said something stupid and certainly not publishable. What was he going to do, hit me? It’s been tried many times, and never delivered the desired results.

Anyway, the card-carrying folks are not suppressing voter turnout. The card-carrying folks are the absolute least of anyone’s worries. Since when are senior citizens scary?

Consider the source.

Yawn.

It‘s been a trying couple of weeks, so don’t take it as a personal affront if I failed to return your call, or respond to your e-mail. Thing is, I haven’t responded to anything of late.

Since we gave my little brother his untimely sendoff, I’ve been stuck in the disbelief mode, with a touch of grief sprinkled in there. I still can’t believe he’s gone. Sure, we all knew about his laundry list of health issues, but he kind of hoodwinked us into believing that the progress he had made was going to prolong his life.

My mind keeps drifting back to wifey waking me up at 2:13 am, handing me the cell phone and mouthing the words “Ray died.” It might sound stupid, but it still comes as a shock to me.

And despite being absolutely pounded at work right now, his face keeps hovering between my eyes and the tasks at hand. A song on the radio reminds me of him. Driving by a particular locale reminds me of something we did together. Better put, something I did to him. Every time my eye catches the Giants helmet sitting nearby, there he is again. “The Terrace” reminds me of him. And on and on it goes.

Unbelievably, I accidentally ran across a memorial guest book at the Times Leader Web site, where friends of his from across the country had left their thoughts on his life and his passing. The more I try to pretend things are getting back to normal, the more I am reminded that they are not.

There has been a common theme running through all of the condolences that have come my way of late. Many times over, people have said that this was a wakeup call for them, in that they feel compelled to spend more time with their own siblings.

By all means, make good on those promises you have made to yourselves. You never know.

Anyway, I’m not bummin’ out. I’m just kind of off my game to some degree. But being that my job, plus the bicycling provides me with so much solitude, I’ll be okay. I’ll get it all sorted out.

Later