The Revolution will start at Woolworths

A Lunch Counter,A Gay Bar,The Potemkin uprising, An Ancient French Prison,A Boston Commons.

What do the places above have in common?

They were all places where a Revolution began.

A Revolution begins on the streets, not in Congress or Parliament. Unless controlled and guided by sane men and women they can become messy and bloody, violence can sap and fritter away the valid reasons for revolution. The difference between the American and French revolutions is forever the best example of divergent paths, one into Liberty, the other Mob Dictatorship.

Yet both were born from righteous indignation and revolt against Tyranny!

The Greensboro sit ins were the beginning of a Social Revolution, they forced Americans to change their minds, always a fearful anxiety ridden process for a Conservative,Puritanical America which worships at the alter of the Status Quo.

Its almost like Americans born of revolt have an instinctual fear of Revolution.
Which is why we will collectively perpetuate injustice, to just the point of armed or violent insurrection before reluctantly and defiantly giving a little ground.

Don't believe the Greensboro lunch counter sit ins qualify as true revolution?

In 1960 A Black citizen was banned from most public accommodation, service in restaurants,not allowed to vote in most of the south, not allowed to marry freely a person of his or her choice.

In almost every measure men and women who were classified as partially human at the birth of the nation were still not Full Citizens, yet they paid the same taxes,served in the armed forces to defend our nation, to preserve Liberty denied them at home.

In 2009 A Black man was sworn in as President of The United States, pledging to preserve,protect and defend the Constitution that once denied his people their basic humanity, on the Bible that the Great Emancipator Abraham Lincoln used in the darkest hours of our Republic pledging to preserve an idea, a hope that all men are in fact created equal.

The little lunch counter at Woolworths was the spark one of many that made Barrack Obama possible.

And you know what?

George Wallace, Jesse Helms,Strom Thurmond all the old fearful segregationists knew this instinctively! Which is why Dogs,batons and fire hoses met singing chanting protesters on the Selma Bridge.

Thank God they weren't mowed down with Tank Fire, massacred at the point of a rifle.

Then our revolution may have taken on a French character la liberté ou la mort!

DeWayne Helms

From Wikipedia:
The Greensboro sit-ins were an instrumental action in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, leading to increased national sentiment at a crucial period in American history.

On February 1, 1960, four African American students – Ezell A. Blair Jr. (now known as Jibreel Khazan), David Richmond, Joseph McNeil, and Franklin McCain – from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a historically black college/university, sat at a segregated lunch counter in the Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth's store.

This lunch counter only had chairs/stools for whites, while blacks had to stand and eat. Although they were refused service, they were allowed to stay at the counter. The next day there was a total of 28 students at the Woolworth lunch counter for the sit in. On the third day, there were 300 activists, and later, around 1000.

This protest sparked sit-ins and economic boycotts that became a hallmark of the American civil rights movement.
According to Franklin McCain, one of the four black teenagers who sat at the "whites only" stools:


Some way through, an old white lady, who must have been 75 or 85, came over and put her hands on my shoulders and said, 'Boys, I am so proud of you. You should have done this 10 years ago.'



In just two months the sit-in movement spread to 15 cities in 9 states. Other stores, such as the one in Atlanta, moved to desegregate.

The media picked up this issue and covered it nationwide, beginning with lunch counters and spreading to other forms of public accommodation, including transport facilities, art galleries, beaches, parks, swimming pools, libraries, and even museums around the South. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 mandated desegregation in public accommodations.

In 1993, a portion of the lunch counter was donated to the Smithsonian Institution. The Greensboro Historical Museum contains four chairs from the Woolworth counter along with photos of the original four protesters, a timeline of the events, and headlines from the media.

Several documentaries have been produced about these men who sparked the sit in movement, including PBS' "February One."

The sit-in movement used the strategy of nonviolent resistance, which originated in Gandhi's Indian independence movement and was later brought to the Civil Rights movement by Martin Luther King.

This was not the first sit-in to challenge racial segregation. As far back as 1942, the Congress of Racial Equality sponsored sit-ins in Chicago, St. Louis in 1949 and Baltimore in 1952.

In a pre-cursor to the Woolworth sit-ins, on June 23, 1957, seven students organized by a local pastor were arrested in Durham, North Carolina at the Royal Ice Shop for staging a sit-in in the "whites only" section. After being convicted in North Carolina courts, the seven appealed their case all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which refused to hear their case.

On August 19, 1958, the Oklahoma City NAACP Youth Council began a six-year long campaign of sit-ins at segregated lunch counters, restaurants, and cafes in Oklahoma City. The Greensboro sit-in, however, was the most influential and received a great deal of attention in the press.
Off Campus - Into Movement

Greensboro Sit Ins

Anatomy of Corruption

The two articles below give some much needed analysis and a timeline of political corruption and malfeasance all centered on a private for profit Juvenile Detention Center in Eastern Pennsylvania. Interesting to note that some people smelled a rat very early, almost from the begining. The arrogance of Judges Conahan and Ciavarella was ultimately their undoing,and their greed. They did very little to cover the tracks of fraud and payments made to the bank accounts.

DeWayne H

JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER TIMELINE

JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER TIMELINE

The following timeline was compiled through records, interviews and court documents:

July 2001: A group of private developers called “Pennsylvania Child Care” sends Luzerne County an unsolicited proposal to build a 48-bed juvenile detention facility in Pittston Township and lease it to the county for $37 million over 30 years. Commissioner Stephen A. Urban calls it a “sweetheart deal.” The principal investors were identified as Greg Zappala and attorney Robert Powell. Court documents filed Monday allege that Judge Mark Ciavarella met with a Luzerne County attorney in June 2002 about building the center.

September 2001: PA Child Care proceeds with development plans, though county commissioners say they will continue using the existing county-owned juvenile detention center on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.

January 2002: County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Michael Conahan allegedly signs a secret “placement guarantee agreement” between the court and PA Child Care to house juvenile offenders at the Pittston Township facility. This agreement says the court would pay PA Child Care $1.3 million in annual rent and says the court’s obligation to make these payments is “absolute and unconditional.”

October 2002: Conahan publicly announces that judges will stop sending youth to the River Street center at the end of the year because the building is too rundown.

November 2002: State Department of Public Welfare representatives say the county’s River Street center is “safe and satisfactory to house juveniles,” which raised questions about the court’s refusal to send youth there. Ciavarella criticizes the state’s plan to renew the facility’s license, saying the center has a multitude of problems.

December 2002: Conahan takes official action to remove funding from the county budget for the county’s River Street center. County majority commissioners approve the court’s budget request. The court returns the River Street center license to the state, essentially closing the place.

In or before January 2003: Conahan and Ciavarella allegedly arrange to receive a $997,600 payment in connection with the roles they played as judges in accomplishing construction of the PA Child Care facility. Investigators say the payment was made through a series of financial transactions that were designed to be concealed.

February 2003: The PA Child Care facility opens. Commissioners agree to allow county juvenile offenders to be lodged there, but only for up to two years while the county builds its own new detention center. Commissioners agree to seek zoning approval to build a new detention center on county-owned land near Valley Crest Nursing Home in Plains Township.

March 2003: Urban and then-Commissioner Tom Makowski vote to design a new detention center using roughly $9 million borrowed for that purpose. They say building is the most prudent option because PA Child Care investors want to charge too much, and there are no guarantees that state and federal subsidies will continue.

PA Child Care is willing to sell its center to the county without furnishings for $12 million to $14 million, but county studies peg the value of the unfurnished structure at $7.39 million.

February 2004: County court denies the county’s request for a zoning variance to build a detention center on land near Valley Crest. Newly elected majority commissioners Greg Skrepenak and Todd Vonderheid put construction plans on hold. Urban unsuccessfully urges majority commissioners to look for another detention center building site.

September 2004: L. Robert Kimball & Associates, the county consultant, estimates the PA Child Care facility cost about $8 million to build and would be worth about $8 million or $9 million if the county wanted to buy it.

October 18, 2004: Skrepenak and Vonderheid announce at a work session that they plan to vote on a lease of the PA Child Care facility.

Oct. 19, 2004: After seeing the lease plan in media reports, a DPW auditor contacts the county to warn that the state is auditing the PA Child Care facility.

Oct. 20, 2004: Skrepenak and Vonderheid vote to lease the Pittston Township detention center for 20 years at a cost of $58 million, pending a review by the county solicitor. Several taxpayers attend a meeting urging commissioners to hold off and do more research and analysis on the lease.

Oct. 21, 2004: The DPW auditor sends a letter to commissioners informing them of plans to speed up the state audit in light of the county’s plan to lease the facility.

Nov. 16, 2004: The state auditor faxes a more urgent letter about the audit to commissioners, but majority commissioners say they didn’t receive it.

Nov. 17, 2004: Vonderheid and Skrepenak give final approval to the lease. Urban urges them to table a vote, citing the pending state audit. Vonderheid and Skrepenak said they think the state audit is routine.

December 2004: PA Child Care files a “sealed” court action against then-county Controller Steve Flood and two DPW officials over center audit records that had been released to Flood.

PA Child Care alleges that the documents contained “trade secrets.” The Times Leader had obtained the documents from Flood. The documents say the county should have backed away from the lease agreement and that it was a “bad deal.” The auditors say the county’s projections wrongly assume the state will reimburse a county-operated facility more money than it costs to operate.

January 2005: DPW says release of its audit has been stalled indefinitely due to the trade secrets suit.

July 2005: Due to the success of the county detention center, a Western PA Child Care facility is built, and Conahan and Ciavarella allegedly receive a $1 million payment from the owner, concealed through various transactions.

November 2005: The state Superior Court overturns Conahan’s sealing of the trade secrets suit, saying the sealing appears to be “nothing more than a ruse to prevent public exposure.”

February 2006: The Pittston Township detention center is expanded, and a $150,000 payment is allegedly made to Ciavarella and Conahan. This payment is also concealed.

October 2007: The public learns that DPW has issued a draft audit recommending the state withhold $2 million in annual funding from the county because the agency believes the lease provides an excessive profit.

December 2007: County commissioners vote to terminate the lease.

January 2008: Commissioners begin negotiating with PA Child Care over the terms of getting out of the lease.

A final state audit of PA Child is publicly released. It reveals the county could have built three juvenile detention centers for the cost of what it paid to lease the PA Child Care facility. The report again paints officials as inept negotiators who blindly entered into the agreement that allowed PA Child Care to reap unreasonable profits.

April 29, 2008: The Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, a juvenile rights group, files a petition with the state Supreme Court seeking to overturn rulings made by Ciavarella in hundreds of juvenile cases.

The petition alleges that 50 percent of youths who appeared before the judge were not represented by an attorney – 10 times the state average.

May 6, 2008: DPW advises county officials it will not pay the full amount being sought by PA Child Care to detain and treat delinquent youth because the rates being charged by PA Child Care are too high.

May 8, 2008: DPW announces it plans to file a brief in support of the Juvenile Law Center’s petition, citing what is says is an unusually high placement rate in Luzerne County. Statistics show the county’s placement rate from 2004 to 2006 was 2 � times the state average for all counties.

May 9, 2008: Ciavarella says DPW actions are based on a desire to save money rather than ensure kids get care they need. “I have never placed a kid for an improper reason,” Ciavarella said.

May 16, 2008: State Attorney General Tom Corbett files legal brief in support of JLC petition. The petition raises questions regarding whether juvenile proceedings were fair and resulted in “trustworthy determination of guilt and innocence.”

May 23, 2008: Ciavarella steps down from Juvenile Court and appoints Judge David Lupas to preside.

May 29, 2008: Financial ties between Conahan, Ciavarella, Powell and Jill Moran are made public through the revelation of statements of financial interests the judges and Moran filed for 2007.

The documents show the judges and Moran are part owners of W-Cat, a real estate development firm building a townhouse project in Wright Township. Powell was also once a part-owner in the firm, but later sold his interest to Moran, a spokesman for Powell says.

June 10, 2008: Powell announces he has sold his interest in PA Child Care to his partner, Gregory Zappala.

June 19, 2008: The FBI serves a search warrant on the county’s juvenile probation department, seizing records related to the placement of juveniles at PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care centers.

June 25, 2008: After months of negotiations, county commissioners announce they have reached an agreement with PA Child Care to terminate the lease. They continue to negotiate with the center regarding the temporary placement of youths there until a permanent alternative is in place.

July 2, 2008: Commissioners reach an agreement to utilize the center as a detention facility that will house youths pending their transfer to an outside treatment facility. The county agrees to pay $48.42 per day more than the state will reimburse, but says that is cheaper than transporting youths to out-of-county facilities.

Center critic praises probers

Public advocate who railed against juvie center reflects on the controversy.

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter

Luzerne County taxpayer and public advocate Tom Dombroski said he always suspected a county judge was somehow profiting from the Pittston Township juvenile detention center, and that is why he tried so hard to convince county officials not to lease the facility.

He told commissioners in an October 2004 meeting the county should reject a proposal to lease the building for $58 million, saying the public is in the dark about who is profiting.

“It doesn’t pass the smell test,” Dombroski told commissioners at the time.

After nearly four hours of debate and public complaints, the majority commissioners at the time – Todd Vonderheid and Greg Skrepenak – voted to lease the Pittston Township facility from Pennsylvania Child Care.

Dombroski praised U.S. Attorney Martin C. Carlson and other investigators on Monday for uncovering a scheme showing county Court of Common Pleas Judges Mike Conahan and Mark Ciavarella received $2.6 million in payments in connection with the Pittston Township center and a Western Pennsylvania center also owned by PA Child Care.

According to Dombroski, the public should also credit former county Controller Steve Flood, who pushed for answers about the detention center ownership and cost to taxpayers. Flood’s efforts to get a controversial state audit about the center into the hands of the media prompted PA Child Care to file a “trade secrets” lawsuit against him. Conahan sealed the suit, but the state Superior Court overturned Conahan’s decision.

“He saw the corruption right at the beginning,” Dombroski said of Flood. “He was really the first person that brought it out. I think he should be the one congratulated.”

Flood has been incapacitated and unable to communicate since he suffered a stroke on March 14. He was at a commissioners’ meeting complaining about the detention center lease hours before his stroke.

Flood’s close friend and guardian, Heather Paulhamus, declined to comment on the federal charges against Conahan and Ciavarella.

Pittston Township Supervisor Tony Attardo, another detention center critic, recently died.

Township residents were upset that the facility got zoning approval without any input or advance notice to the public. Jeff Pisanchyn, the part-time township zoning officer at the time, has said he approved the permit thinking it was a publicly owned youth recreation facility.

Attardo had said supervisors rezoned the detention center site from conservation to industrial to attract new business, and nobody presented juvenile detention center plans to the supervisors.

“We certainly never rezoned the property to allow a detention center there,” Attardo said in 2003.

Republican minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban has been railing against the detention center lease since the original proposal landed on his desk in 2001, saying the county should build its own center. Urban said he still has questions about the $58 million lease.

“I wonder if investigators are looking at the commissioners’ office because that lease was brought to the commissioners’ office by (then chief clerk/manager) Sam Guesto, Greg Skrepenak and Todd Vonderheid without any public advertisement or disclosure or due diligence,” Urban said.

Skrepenak said Monday that he never would have voted for the lease if he had known judges were profiting from the center. He said commissioners were looking for a way to reduce juvenile placement costs, and that he and Vonderheid believed the county could rent out unused beds to generate revenue.

“I had no knowledge of any involvement by judges. I felt at the time that the county could make money,” Skrepenak said.

Skrepenak noted that juvenile placement expenses have gone from $15 million in 2004 to $6.5 million this year.

Urban said costs are down because the court is sending fewer youth to placement and sending more juveniles to facilities that cost less than the Pittston Township one.

Skrepenak said he’s “disheartened by the whole turn of events.”

“I think I’m still in shock,” he said. “This is going to make national news. It’s a black eye on Luzerne County.”

Vonderheid, who resigned as commissioner in 2007, said Monday that he is still reviewing details of the federal charges.

“I’m saddened for the people and the families of everybody involved and for the negative cloud that is going to sit over our community for some time. I can’t give any other comment until I learn more.”

Michael T. Conahan

original story
BY MICHAEL R. SISAK
STAFF WRITER Times Leader
Published: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 4:07 AM EST
Speculation swirled the first time former Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Conahan resigned from the bench.

Conahan relinquished his position on the Court of Common Pleas in January 2008, four years into his second 10-year-term.

He disclosed the decision seven months earlier, saying he had made a personal choice to move on after 30 years of combined service, first as a district magisterial judge and, since 1994, as a member of the Court of Common Pleas.

Conahan officially retired on Jan. 14, 2008.

He returned the next day as a senior judge, appointed by the state to handle cases in Luzerne County on a part-time basis — no more than 13 days per month.

Courthouse observers questioned Conahan’s sudden surrender and reappearance and centered on a potential motive for the move. One theory suggested he had been attempting to preserve his pension, exiting one job and entering the other to circumvent the potential judicial and legal ramifications of a federal investigation into court operations.

The fallout from the investigation hit Monday.

Federal prosecutors filed a 22-page complaint against Conahan and President Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., charging them with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit tax fraud.

Federal prosecutors accused Ciavarella and Conahan of collecting $2.6 million in payoffs to facilitate the development and operation of the Pennsylvania Child Care juvenile detention center in Pittston Township and a similar facility in Butler County.

“They sold their oaths of office to the highest bidders,” Deron Roberts, an agent in the FBI office in Scranton, said.

Ciavarella and Conahan reached written plea agreements with prosecutors. Under the terms of the deal, they will plead guilty and serve 87 months in federal prison. They will resign their positions as judges within 10 days of their plea and will consent to automatic disbarment.

Conahan’s judicial career began in 1977, the same year he received his law degree from the Temple University School of Law in Philadelphia.

Gov. Milton Shapp appointed Conahan to fill a vacant magisterial district judge position in Hazleton, where he had been born and reared and where his father, Joseph B. Conahan Sr., had been mayor.

Hundreds of Hazleton residents — Hazletonians, as Conahan affectionately called them — had placed telephone calls or written letters to Shapp, urging him to pick their native son for the open seat.

Conahan received similar widespread support when he ran for election to a full term in 1979 and again when he ran for re-election in 1985 and 1991.

Conahan was born in Hazleton on April 21, 1952, and remained in the city until his graduation from Hazleton High School in 1970. Four years later, he received his bachelor’s degree from Villanova University in Radnor Township, Delaware County.

Back in Hazleton after law school, Conahan balanced magisterial duties and a fledgling career in private practice.

In 1979, he became a partner in the Hazleton firm of Kennedy, Carlyon and Conahan. In 1988, he joined the firm of Bigelow, Carlyon, Lucadamo, Siadri and McNeilis. In 1992, he established his own practice.

By the end of the year, Conahan was considering a run at the Court of Common Pleas — first as a candidate for the gubernatorial appointment to replace retiring Judge Bernard C. Brominski, then as a challenger in the 1993 election.

He hired political consultant Ed Mitchell to “test the waters” in the northern part of Luzerne County and portrayed himself as crime fighter and the first line of judicial defense between a criminal complaint and a verdict.

“The new judge should be selected on the basis of crime-fighting experience,” Conahan told The Citizens’ Voice in November 1992, before the vacancy was filled. “We need someone who has been on the frontline, cleaning up the streets of criminals and those who prey on our young and our old. If that’s the standard used — if they’re looking for a tough professional on the court — I expect to be appointed.”

Conahan’s expectation went unfulfilled.

The governor at the time, Robert P. Casey, named Pittston attorney Joseph Musto, the brother of state Sen. Raphael Musto, D-Pittston Township.

The appointment sparked a heated rivalry between Musto and Conahan and led to a brutal primary campaign, which included mutual charges of nepotism and campaign finance violations.

Conahan accused Democratic Party leaders of attempting to “strong arm” him out of the race, suggested he acquiesce to Musto and wait until 1995 to run for the seat that was being vacated by the retiring Judge Gifford S. Cappellini — a position that eventually went to Ciavarella.

Conahan charged “back-room politics” and “collusion” led to Casey’s appointment of Musto and requested attorney Joseph A. Quinn resign from the Trial Court Nominating Commission, the panel that had recommended candidates for the Luzerne County vacancy. Quinn could not be impartial, Conahan said, because he hosted a party for Musto and solicited campaign contributions on his behalf.

Conahan announced his candidacy at the Ramada Hotel in Wilkes-Barre on Feb. 27, 1993, pledging to refuse contributions from attorneys or their spouses, so he could be a judge “with no strings attached.”

“This will guarantee that there will not even be the remote possibility that when I am hearing a case my mind could in any way be clouded between the arguments of a lawyer who contributed to my campaign and perhaps one who didn’t,” Conahan said, underscoring the message of “integrity” and “independence” he and Mitchell reinforced in a blitz of television and radio advertisements.

Conahan outspent Musto on primary advertising $172,167 to $113,534.

Conahan’s campaign ran television commercials portraying the magisterial district judge as a crimefighter, juxtaposed against the image of a prison door shown slamming shut. Another painted Musto as the beneficiary of his brother’s political connections.

The ads violated state law, Musto claimed.

“For Mike Conahan, there are no rules in a judicial campaign,” Musto said, days before the primary. “Mike Conahan has never, ever appeared in court and tried a case.”

Conahan had the final word.

“Following what many political observers described as one of the most bitter and hard fought campaigns in Luzerne County history,” as The Citizens’ Voice described the race, Conahan won the Democratic and Republican nominations.

Conahan received 52,334 votes in a landslide general election victory and was sworn in as a Common Pleas judge in January 1994.

In 2002, he became the first Hazleton resident elected president judge, a position he held until Ciavarella’s ascent in 2007.

As president judge, Conahan established Central Court in Wilkes-Barre as a unified venue for preliminary hearings and began the practice of using video conferencing for criminal cases to save transportation costs.

As a senior judge, Conahan oversaw the Luzerne County treatment court, a special program for residents charged with non-violent criminal offenses related to or motivated by their addiction to drugs or alcohol.

In both roles, he continued to hear cases ranging from the opening of Gentlemen’s Club 10 in Wilkes-Barre Township in 2005, to the beating death of a man in Hazleton and the life-and-death struggle of convicted mass murder George Banks.

In a June 2001 bench trial, Conahan convicted Wilson Hernandez Jr., 24, of robbery, criminal conspiracy and second-degree murder in the 1994 beating death of Andrew Danko in Hazleton, and sentenced him to a state-mandated term of life in prison.

Last September, after three days of hearings at the State Correctional Institution at Graterford, Conahan ruled Banks incompetent to be executed — the same decision he rendered in February 2006.

Banks went on a shooting rampage in September 1982 that left 13 people dead, including four girlfriends, who ranged in age from 23 to 29, five of his seven children, ages 1 to 5, and four others.

“Banks is out of touch with reality,” Conahan said. “He views his circumstances and the events around him through the prism of his delusions. His delusional beliefs are at the core of his understanding of his current legal situation, including the reasons for his continued incarceration and his possible execution.”

Justice to Be served in Luzerne County PA?

The Times Leader is reporting the "imminent arrest" and charges against two Luzerne County judges who have been under investigation for political corruption for nearly 3 years by U.S. Attorney Martin Carlson.

President Judge Mark A. Ciavarella and former President Judge Michael T. Conahan are rumored by court watchers to be the two judges facing arrest. An unnamed Court Official possibly the Court Executive officer is to be charged as well.

The investigations into the county have been public knowledge for several months as federal agents have served search warrants and subpoenas on several court offices.

Federal agents in June served a search warrant on the county’s Juvenile Probation Department seeking financial records related to the placement of juveniles at the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care centers. Those centers were formerly owned by attorney Robert Powell of Butler Township.

Paul McGarry, administrative director for the court system, said previously that the FBI sought administrative records, including billing statements and records for the number of children who were placed at the centers.

In August, FBI agents served subpoenas on the county treasurer’s office seeking records related to the court system. Sources previously said that investigation focused on whether money confiscated from gambling raids was turned over to the treasurer’s office.

The Times leader articles are here.

Judges to Be Charged

Ciavarella and Conahan are not alone.

Elmysterio


Commentary by DeWayne

Unfortunately the federal charges against Conahan and Ciavarella are unlikely to have anything to do with the late Bryan Kocis(left) a pedophile who was allowed to plead guilty to the lowest possible charge "Corruption of a minor" in 2002 although he faced trial for rape and child molestation and filming child pornography.

Judge Conahan also reviewed hundreds of hours of video featuring underage teen boys and then famously declared none of the boys looked underage to him.

There has been rampant speculation in the 6 years since Bryan Kocis was allowed to plead guilty to a single charge and avoid prison that a "special deal" was arranged with a suspected corrupt judge.

Bryan Kocis certainly alluded to and threatened an 18 yo Sean Lockhart with arrest,incarceration and death or physical assault at the hands of the corrupt Luzerne County Judiciary and Jail System in 2005.

One of the central charges in this case will involve a private Juvenile detention center run by a friend of the two judges.

Next week if Judge Michael T Conahan is charged under Federal Corruption statutes
he will no longer be a "Suspected dirty judge"

But just another in a long line of Corrupt power hungry judges whoses past has finaly caught up with them.

About time.

Don't let the cell door hit you in the ass Conahan and remember
Never Drop the Soap!

UPDATE; July Corruption Story's The Judge and the Drug Dealer

Just call me Judge Dirty!

FBI Investigation of Pennsylvania Child Care Corporation

Original Story Times Leader with comments



Sources: Judges to be charged
County court system has been under investigation

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker tmorgan@timesleader.com
Law & Order Reporter

Posted: January 22
Updated: Today at 6:26 AM
WILKES-BARRE – Two sources familiar with federal investigations involving the Luzerne County judiciary said authorities have concluded their probes and are expected to file charges soon, possibly as early as next week.
Read more Luzerne County Judges articles

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said two county judges and a county court official are expected to face charges. The sources could not say what those charges will be. They also declined to publicly identify the suspects because the charges have not been filed.

Speculation that the filing of charges was imminent has run rampant throughout the county courthouse during the past few weeks.

U.S. Attorney Martin Carlson declined to comment when reached late Wednesday afternoon. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has a standard policy of not confirming or denying the existence of an investigation.

The investigations into the county have been public knowledge for several months as federal agents have served search warrants and subpoenas on several court offices.

Federal agents in June served a search warrant on the county’s Juvenile Probation Department seeking financial records related to the placement of juveniles at the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care centers. Those centers were formerly owned by attorney Robert Powell of Butler Township.

Paul McGarry, administrative director for the court system, said previously that the FBI sought administrative records, including billing statements and records for the number of children who were placed at the centers.

In August, FBI agents served subpoenas on the county treasurer’s office seeking records related to the court system. Sources previously said that investigation focused on whether money confiscated from gambling raids was turned over to the treasurer’s office.

The sources said the investigation began after it was learned that some court orders directing the forfeiture of gambling proceeds did not go through the District Attorney’s office, but instead were presented directly to the court administrator’s office – a departure from standard procedure.

It could not be determined Wednesday whether the pending charges are related to those investigations, or whether other persons may also face charges.
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ed said...

when your done there maybe you can find time to come to the WVSA and see the nut DeSanto and take him away. I can't beleve that no one has cought up with this nut

January 22, 2009 at 5:48 AM

Yvonne said...

About time. The charges will be pay to play under the unfair honest public offical act/statute, I bet. Bye Bye Birdy and the tax payers will not have to pay these corrupt Judges Pensions and Retirements. Keep looking you will find more, plus this Judges will sing and sing. Honorable Men always tell the truth once they are caught.

January 22, 2009 at 5:54 AM

J.Wallace said...

3 Down and dozens to go ...... VOTE DEMOCRAT

January 22, 2009 at 6:06 AM

taxpayer tooo !! said...

Its about TIME. I Hope they HANG THEM ALL. I also hope each 1 of them sit their A---- IN JAIL. NOT JUST A SLAP ON THE WRIST. WE NEED TO EXTERMINATE THAT CASTLE SOON. NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF TERMITES. GO GET THEM & HANG THEM.. BRING BACK HONEST JUDGE LAKUTA. SHE MAY HAVE HAD A COUPLE FAULTS, BUT NOT LIKE THESE OTHER LIAR'S & THEIF'S. KARMA..

January 22, 2009 at 6:37 AM

Jeff said...

Just knowing that at least three of the corrupted jerks at the dome will finally face their crimes, will be like a breath of fresh air to most. It's a start in the right direction. I'm sure once these three are exposed, they'll sing like rats and their fellow cronies too will fall. Nothing is going to change in Luzerne County until the last of the garbage is removed. "the investigation began after it was learned that some court orders directing the forfeiture of gambling proceeds did not go through the District Attorney’s office, but instead were presented directly to the court administrator’s office." Wonder how long that was going on, and just HOW much money is involved.

January 22, 2009 at 6:50 AM

Cityrefugee said...

Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it.

January 22, 2009 at 7:09 AM

Skeptical said...

I'm trying to put it in perspective, there are accused murderers that go through this entire process and sentenced faster than this investigation. Don't get me wrong, for the sake of expediency I do not want the investigation to be incomplete, but let the hammer drop already. I want to see this investigation produced and aired on A&E's FBI Files or as a Law & Order Episode!! Talk about good TV ratings.

January 22, 2009 at 7:46 AM

RWilliams said...

Robert Powell, isn't he Skreps friend?

January 22, 2009 at 7:52 AM

Carlton said...

Voting DemocRAT is what got us into this mess!

January 22, 2009 at 8:36 AM

HEY! said...

Well it's about time. The entire county needs a good cleaning out!

January 22, 2009 at 8:42 AM

scott said...

Bye, bye chitarella and conehan. You're as wrong as my spelling of your names! I just hope they put you both in with Bubba! Who's next? Gusty, Hydie, Skreppy, Fishy. Should charges not be brought against Hun, Rodant, and Harnishfinger also?

January 22, 2009 at 9:04 AM

jan said...

Long, long overdue.

January 22, 2009 at 9:14 AM

Clown Oliphip said...

Clean the courthouse out and start anew

January 22, 2009 at 9:18 AM

Only three? said...

We waiting all this time and only three get charged?!?! You got to be kidding me?

January 22, 2009 at 9:32 AM

B said...

J. Wallace, while I don't disagree there may be dozens to go in order to clean up the courthouse, the second half of your comment is laughable! If you look at present times and as far back as 15 to 20 years Democrats have been at the helm. Presently, the majority of the row offices are held by democrats. Democrats have also controlled 2 of the 3 Commissioners’ seats for years. I believe it hasn’t been since the middle to late eighties that the commissioner’s office was controlled by republicans (Trinisewski / Phillips). That being said, everyone’s disgust and disdain for the way the county has been run has been on the democrats watch!! Make no mistake; this is not my plug for the Republican Party or their rule. Unfortunately, I’m not sure what or who the answer is! Maybe its time to revisit the idea of home rule for the county in order to take power out of the hands of the few and place it in the hands of many. It seems that may create a better system of checks and balance.

January 22, 2009 at 9:33 AM

fed said...

About time. Next should be the debit card crew. Let's get rid of all the bums.

January 22, 2009 at 9:36 AM

lee said...

Here is an expression we may not have to use much longer.....President Judge Mark Ciavarella.

January 22, 2009 at 9:45 AM

abc said...

The FBI needs to start investigating the Family court system and Children and youth next. Lets clean up all the corruption.

January 22, 2009 at 9:46 AM

mark said...

please, please! let it be so!

January 22, 2009 at 9:59 AM

DS said...

Purge, baby, PURGE!!

January 22, 2009 at 10:38 AM

Mr Fsalt said...

Could it be? A judge acting like this? Well Marky mark can you slip out of this one? I hope not!

January 22, 2009 at 11:01 AM

Bob said...

I hope city hall is next

January 22, 2009 at 11:33 AM

I'm John Senchak, and I approve of this message/john@antihotmail.com said...

I would do anything to see President Judge Mark Ciavarella in handcuffs.

January 22, 2009 at 11:40 AM

Charmaine H. Maynard said...

You have no idea how hard it was to get the proper authorities to listen and take action. And......you have no idea how long it takes for a proper investigation to transpire. Please try to have faith in the system for just a little while longer.

January 22, 2009 at 11:55 AM

Now it's OUR turn said...

The feds can set up branch offices in several locations in NEPA keep busy for years. Thank God this is coming to pass.

January 22, 2009 at 11:58 AM

Martha Hyde said...

Interesting that this involves the juvenile justice. Next stop--FAMILY COURT--the most distructive and corrupted system of government. It is time for the people to take back government. "OF THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE."

January 22, 2009 at 3:04 PM

Next Story on the ongoing investigation.



Ciavarella, Conahan not alone
They’re the only 2 of the 11 Luzerne jurists with for-profit ties, but practice not uncommon, expert says.
November 5, 2008
ANDREW M. SEDER aseder@timesleader.com

A review of financial interest statements filed by all 11 Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas judges shows that two – Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan – listed financial interests in for-profit businesses.

Read more Luzerne County Judges articles

Conahan


The practice is not uncommon, according to one expert on state courts.

All judicial officers have been required to file the annual statements since a 1984 state Supreme Court order. Judges at all levels operating in state courts are mandated to follow the order.

The statements must be filed by May 1 each year and list financial information for the prior year including real estate interests, creditors, gifts, direct and indirect sources of income and office, directorship or employment in any other business. Judges are required to list financial interests in any for-profit business in which they have at least a 5 percent stake.

Ciavarella, 58, and Conahan, 56, have come under fire for listing an interest in W-Cat Inc. in their 2007 filings, their latest statements. That company, owned by county Prothonotary Jill Moran, was previously co-owned by attorney Robert J. Powell. Powell and Moran are partners in the Powell Law Firm. Powell, until last week, was also a partner in PA Child Care, the company operating the juvenile detention center in Pittston Township.

That facility, which has a long-term contract with Luzerne County, houses many youth sentenced by Ciavarella. The county started sending youth to the center in 2003 after Conahan shut down the county-run juvenile detention center on North River Street in 2002, saying it was unsafe for habitation. The state Department of Public Welfare had reissued a license to the facility.

A year later, former Commissioner Todd Vonderheid joined Commissioner Greg Skrepenak in approving the 20-year-, $58 million-lease of the facility.

Conahan and Ciavarella have repeatedly failed to return calls seeking comment on the matter.

William “Skip” Arbuckle, a lawyer who previously served as counsel for the state Judicial Conduct Board, said it’s not uncommon for judges across the state, especially those who entered the bench with a business background, to have business interests.

A review of the financial statements of Lackawanna County’s nine judges shows one-third of them have reported financial interests in for-profit businesses.

Conahan, who retired last year and became a senior judge in Luzerne County, is president of a soft-drink manufacturing company in Sheppton. Speaking in generalities, not specifically about Luzerne County, Arbuckle said the fact a judge has financial stakes in for-profit businesses doesn’t raise a red flag for him. If that judge presided over a case with a clear conflict of interest related to one of his holdings, he said, that would.

Though not against judicial canon, financial interest in businesses could prove tricky if judges have ties to attorneys, parties or issues that come before them. The judicial canons listed on the state Judicial Board of Conduct Web site do not specifically prohibit those kinds of relationships. Canon 5 makes it clear it’s OK to have financial interests in businesses, but Canon 2 warns judges to avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all their activities.

Most Luzerne County’s judges checked “none” on the portion of the statement that asks about financial interests in for-profit businesses.

That’s the case on statements filed by Luzerne County judges Joseph Augello, Thomas Burke Jr., Ann Lokuta, David Lupas, Hugh Mundy, Chester Muroski, Peter Paul Olszewski Jr., Michael T. Toole, and Patrick J. Toole Jr.

The same goes for Lackawanna County judges Carlon O’Malley, Terrence Nealon, Robert Mazzoni, Chester Harhut, Vito Geroulo and Patricia Corbett.

In Lackawanna County, Judge Michael J. Barrasse lists an interest in Interstate Gas Marketing, a natural-gas drilling company in western Pennsylvania; Judge Thomas Munley lists himself as a director in Software Engineering Associates, a computer programming business in Archbald; and Judge Carmen Minora listed an interest in Brymin Partnership in Scranton. Information on that company could not be found, though its address is the same as the Minora Law Firm.

A review of financial interest statements of judges from nearby counties shows that those in Carbon, Wayne, Wyoming and Sullivan counties do not list any financial interests in for-profit businesses.

Andrew M. Seder, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 570-829-7269.
11 Reader Comments
COMMENT HERE
junglejim said...

Do they know how to hide their interests? Do they do favors for relatives, businessmen, lawyers, etc.? Are they totally honest even in sealing cases? I,ve got to wonder how long before the house of cards they have comes down. I guess we have no corruption from top to bottom.

June 18, 2008 at 5:00 AM

SB said...

Will Luzerne county residents ever learn or will they continue electing the same corrupt officials. Conahan, Civarella and Moran clearly have a conflict of interest regarding the juvenile detention center. Maybe this is why many of the juveniles were not represented in court; much easier to send business to the juvenile center. Civarella and Moran should do the honorable thing and RESIGN! Then the FBI should investigate to determine if prosecution is warranted.

June 18, 2008 at 6:25 AM

Pringle Hill said...

So what have Conahan and Ciavarella done wrong? So what if the county threw away over 58 million dollars for a lease that these two benefitted from. What is the TL trying to say?

June 18, 2008 at 6:28 AM

Scott said...

They are not alone! Not one other judge closed a juvenile facility and had a financial stake in the facility recently opened to house them, now did they. That folks, is a direct appearance of impropriety and a clear conflict of interest. They both should be removed from office and thrown in the can.

June 18, 2008 at 8:04 AM

jason said...

The TL is ignoring another part of the equation-judges that do not have independent sources of income have to increasingly reply on contributions to finance their campaigns-primarily from attorneys that will subsequently be appearing in front of the judges in court. An interesting investigative study would be on whether this practice results in favoritism. For instance, I am curious how many of the attorneys who brought complaints against Judge Lokuta actually contributed to her campaign. Not many, I suspect. I further suspect the judge was kinder to those that did contribute.

June 18, 2008 at 8:29 AM

Shalamar said...

With regard to Canon 2 one can imagine Judge Smails in the movie Caddie Shack... "How about a Fresca Danny?"

June 18, 2008 at 10:17 AM

mark said...

These guys will be forever remembered as "no good judges". I'll admit, they will be rich but that's all they will be. They won't leave a good legacy at all. I prefer to be respected because of my good actions.

June 18, 2008 at 11:39 AM

Alex said...

The Times Leader has really missed the boat as far as this scandal is concerned. Bravo to the Citizens Voice for having the guts to publish the misdeeds of these crooked judges and politicians.

June 18, 2008 at 12:04 PM

watcher said...

TL....where's my post?

June 18, 2008 at 2:14 PM

tom sedeski said...

Watcher, they pick and choose what to post. I thought the media is supposed to be impartial? I’ve had 6 not posted and 2 of those I have resubmitted 3 times. I don’t believe they were comments not worthy or out of line so I am baffled. What’s even more confusing is that this comment (if your reading it) is the 3rd from me they HAVE posted that points out the TL censoring comments. What’s with that TL? Feel free to explain if you ever have the editors return my emails.

June 18, 2008 at 8:07 PM

Sleepless in Scranton said...

Hmmm...didn't Ciavarella run the most expensive campaign in Luzerne County history at $250,000.00? What contributed? Also noticed that, back in his early days, nearly every case involving The Arena (which had been voted "Arena NO" by the people) came before him. He seemed to rule in favor of the Arena in most instances.

January 22, 2009 at 2:03 AM

Obama's Vindication of Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine is the unsung hero of the American Revolution, the man who first inspired the total break with the Untied Kingdom in his pamphlet Common Sense. He gave voice to what heretofore had been unmentionable, a clean and irrevocable independence from England.

Yet Paine would be ostracized and shunned later in life for his strong advocacy of real liberty and freedom for all Citizens of the New Republic. Soon as in most Revolutions one group, Southern Men of Property, the Dixie Aristocracy co-opted and hijacked the American Revolution.

No surprise then that today in 2009 Barrack Obama would borrow so heavily from Americas most famous Radical of the Revolution, the man who so horrified those who would declare a black man sub human fit only to be counted as three-fifths of a human being, and only for the purpose of granting the Southern Counter revolutionaries a greater share of the seats in Congress.

Thomas Paines ideas have a definite place in President Obamas poltitics.

I wonder if he shares Paines Deist view of Religion. I sure hope that would be REAL CHANGE!

DeWayne H


"I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure, that it will prevail, that the dream of our founders will live on in our time."

Barack Obama, 18 January 2009

by John Nichols on 01/20/2009

President Barack Obama swore on Tuesday to protect and defend a Constitution that was not written in anticipation of his presidency--that was not, in fact, written in anticipation of his citizenship.

And that is where we should begin to measure the historic turning that has taken place this day.

The American experiment began with its promise constricted by the narrow vision of Virginia plantation owners who saw an African-American as three-fifths of a human being--and that scant measure only for the purpose of granting the South a greater share of the seats in a Congress that would for the better part of a century be all white, all male and all of the propertied class.

America was founded on the original sins of human bondage and violent discrimination.

Barack Obama's inauguration does not erase that history. As W.E.B. Du Bois told us, "One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over...We must forget that George Washington was a slave owner... and simply remember the things we regard as creditable and inspiring. The difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that history loses its value as an incentive and example; it paints perfect man and noble nations, but it does not tell the truth."

Obama's inauguration turns the tables on the founders.

Those who proposed and accepted the Constitution's initial compromises, have been put in their place--not dismissed, but confirmed, finally and unequivocally, as having possessed a vision insufficient for the America that would be.

That goes for Jefferson, Madison, even for Washington (Obama's "man who led a small band of farmers and shopkeepers in revolution against the army of an Empire")--all the "good guys" who were not good enough to reject the crude calculus that in the words of Du Bois "classed the black man and the ox together."

Yet Obama speaks, often and favorably, of the founders, describing them in Philadelphia just days before his inauguration as "that first band of patriots... who somehow believed that they had the power to make the world anew."

The reference to making the world anew was borrowed--imprecisely-- from one of founders. Thomas Paine called his comrades to the revolutionary cause with the cry: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the event of a few months."

Obama quoted frequently from Paine, and particularly from Common Sense, during his campaign for the presidency. And he did so, again, on Tuesday, referencing Paine in a speech that spoke of a "return to these truths" of the American experiment.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: "Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

That line is from Paine's The Crisis, which George Washington did, in fact, have read to the troops in the most difficult days of the revolutionary struggle.

From that reference, on Tuesday, Obama continued:

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

It was right that Obama turned to Paine.

When the Pennsylvania Assembly considered the formal abolition of slavery in 1779, it was Paine who authored the preamble to the proposal.

Paine's fervent objections to slavery led to his exclusion from the inner circles of American power in the first years of the republic. He died a pauper. Only history restored the man--and his vision.

And on this day, this remarkable day, Thomas Paine is fully redeemed.

Paine, to a greater extent than any of his peers, was the founder who imagined a truly United States that might offer a son of Africa and of America not merely citizenship but its presidency.

Barack Obama is wise to associate himself with the better angels of our history, including the architects of our republic who, for all their imperfections, issued--as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. noted on another crowded day in Washington--"wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence" and in so doing "(signed) a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the 'unalienable Rights' of 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.' It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'"

"But," concluded King, "we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt."

The bank of justice, unlike those of Wall Street, has proven to be solvent.

Our new president--and we the people--do well to recognize those who signed the promissory note.

But that does not mean that we should presume that the founders were all equally wise, or equally good.

It was Paine, the most revolutionary of their number, who proved to be the wisest, and the best, of that band of patriots--for his time, and for this time.

Today belongs to Barack Obama.

But it also belongs to Thomas Paine.

When our new president says that his election proves "the dream of our founders is alive in our time," it is Paine's dream of which he speaks.

That dream may not be fully realized. But it is alive--more, indeed, today than at any time in the history of a land that might yet begin our world over again.

Presidential Inauguration

The Inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America.

In this Internet Age change comes to whitehouse.gov while he gives his inaugural address.

And yes the White House now has an Official Blog! If John Kennedy was the first Television President, Barack Obama is our first Web President!

A lot of commentary and analysis on the web I will post some of the most insightful and the best photos from this Historic Day.

The White House Blog

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 12:01 pm

Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov

Welcome to the new WhiteHouse.gov. I'm Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House and one of the people who will be contributing to the blog.

A short time ago, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States and his new administration officially came to life. One of the first changes is the White House's new website, which will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world.

Millions of Americans have powered President Obama's journey to the White House, many taking advantage of the internet to play a role in shaping our country's future. WhiteHouse.gov is just the beginning of the new administration's efforts to expand and deepen this online engagement.

Just like your new government, WhiteHouse.gov and the rest of the Administration's online programs will put citizens first. Our initial new media efforts will center around three priorities:

Communication -- Americans are eager for information about the state of the economy, national security and a host of other issues. This site will feature timely and in-depth content meant to keep everyone up-to-date and educated. Check out the briefing room, keep tabs on the blog (RSS feed) and take a moment to sign up for e-mail updates from the President and his administration so you can be sure to know about major announcements and decisions.

Transparency -- President Obama has committed to making his administration the most open and transparent in history, and WhiteHouse.gov will play a major role in delivering on that promise. The President's executive orders and proclamations will be published for everyone to review, and that’s just the beginning of our efforts to provide a window for all Americans into the business of the government. You can also learn about some of the senior leadership in the new administration and about the President’s policy priorities.

Participation -- President Obama started his career as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, where he saw firsthand what people can do when they come together for a common cause. Citizen participation will be a priority for the Administration, and the internet will play an important role in that. One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it.

We'd also like to hear from you -- what sort of things would you find valuable from WhiteHouse.gov? If you have an idea, use this form to let us know. Like the transition website and the campaign's before that, this online community will continue to be a work in progress as we develop new features and content for you. So thanks in advance for your patience and for your feedback.

Later today, we’ll put up the video and the full text of President Obama’s Inaugural Address. There will also be slideshows of the Inaugural events, the Obamas’ move into the White House, and President Obama’s first days in office.



WASHINGTON (CNN) – Could an African-American President be the one who finally ends the cultural civil war that has been roiling American politics since the 1960s: liberal versus conservative, red versus blue, Democrat versus Republican? Both Bill Clinton and George Bush set out to end it. Clinton was "new Democrat." Bush was the compassionate conservative and the uniter. Both got trapped in the culture wars and ended up leaving the country more divided than ever. Clinton and Bush were the bookend Presidents of the Baby Boom generation.

Obama is technically a Baby Boomer – he was born near the tail end of the Baby Boom. But his approach and philosophy look beyond the Baby Boomers’ experience. He wrote in "The Audacity of Hope" about his desire to move beyond "the psychodrama of the Baby Boom generation –- a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago."



Big goals, and a clear departure from the past

Posted: 12:27 PM ET

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The call to unity is very much Obama’s trademark –- reaching across barriers, ending "the recriminations and worn-out dogmas." That’s what he means by changing politics in Washington. And right away, he addresses some clear departures from the Bush approach.

The choice between safety and ideals is false, he says. Without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control. There's a clear acknowledgment of the global warming crisis ("the way we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.")

He's one of the few modern Presidents who has reached out to "non-believers" as well as Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus.

"The world has changed, and we must change with it." His theme of "change" carried him through the campaign. Voters saw it as change from Bush. Now he is using it to call for big policy changes, calling this "a moment that will define a generation" — very much like Kennedy in 1961.

"Remaking America" — no small ambition, starting with the literal reconstruction of our infrastructure. He has "big plans" –- and a big crisis that can help him carry them through.

But still, there's an overriding realism. His answer to the old partisan debate: "The question is not whether our government is too big or small, but whether it works." It’s the pragmatist’s answer. Does it work?

Dr King said it might take 40 years. It's been 45 years, I can wait another hour

Ronald Brisbon
Washington resident

Obama: Challenges will be met
From The Daily Scotsman;


President Barack Obama warned of "gathering clouds and raging storms" today.

But he also delivered a message of hope as he was inaugurated as the first black President of the United States.

He said: "Every so often the oath (of office) is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms".

At such times America had to remand true to our founding document", he said.

And he added: "Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real.
"They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America – they will be met."

Describing the challenges ahead, he said: "That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood.

"Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred.

"Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.

"Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet."

But he said people had chosen "hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord".

President Obama said: "On this day we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics."

Evoking the pioneering spirit of America, Mr Obama said that it was the "risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things" that had carried America "up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom".
He said: "Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might have a better life."

He went on: "Starting today we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of America."

The economy, he said, needed "bold and swift" action to create jobs and stimulate growth.

He also called for a need to restore "the vital trust between a people and their government".

In a bid to rebuild America's standing oversees, Mr Obama said: "To all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born, know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more."

He added that earlier generations of Americans had faced down fascism and communism "not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions".

He said: "Power alone cannot protect us."

The US would "begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan".

President Obama said his country would work to lessen the nuclear threat and "roll back the spectre of a warming planet".

As a country "shaped by every language and culture" the President vowed to "play its role in ushering a new era of peace".

Mr Obama continued: "Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history."

As such, he called for a "return to these truths".

Obama sworn in as 44th U.S. president

The Los Angeles Times

The capital is crowded with color and celebration as the nation's first black president takes office. Despite the challenges of wars and a foundering economy, he rides a wave of optimism.

By Cathleen Decker
9:06 AM PST, January 20, 2009

Reporting from Los Angeles -- Barack Hussein Obama was sworn into office as the nation's 44th president today, assuming leadership of a nation riven by war and economic despair but embracing the improbable ascension of a first-term Illinois senator as the nation's first black chief executive.

With his hand on a Bible used by Abraham Lincoln more than a century ago, Obama repeated the 35-word oath before a rapturous and massive crowd, supplemented across the country with separate, if just as boisterous, celebrations. Minutes before Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. ushered Obama into office, former Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden became the nation's new vice president with the assistance of Associate Justice John Paul Stevens.

The day unfolded with the nation invoking the familiar rituals of a peaceful change in power, although history hung in the air. On the stand as Obama took the oath were members of the Supreme Court, Congress and family and friends of the incoming leaders.

After formally becoming president, Obama was due to deliver an inaugural address that will warn Americans of difficult days ahead and call for a new spirit of bipartisan sacrifice to solve the varied problems facing the country -- themes familiar from Obama's long trek to the White House.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, and Biden and his wife, Jill, began their day by attending services at St. John's Episcopal Church, the traditional destination for an incoming president, located across Lafayette Park from the White House.

Then they traveled to the president's residence for coffee with outgoing President Bush and Vice President Cheney, along with House and Senate leaders. Bush and his wife, Laura, met the Obamas at the north portico, where they embraced and exchanged greetings. The group later caravaned to the Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony, charting a reversal of the path that Obama's inaugural parade will take as it kicks off later today.

Obama woke this morning to a city overwhelmed with revelers. Suburban parking lots for the city's subway system were filled before dawn, and masses of people thronged on foot toward entrances to the National Mall. With hours to go before the ceremony, the Mall was packed from the Capitol west to the Washington Monument, and overflow crowds spilled onto the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial as well.

Yet concerns that the crush of people would prompt security crises, massive traffic tie-ups and cellphone network implosions were largely unrealized in the early hours. The crowds were docile, if cold, and temperatures were expected to top out in the 30s.

The day ushered out the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush, who came into office vowing to unite the country and led the nation through the tumult of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, only to founder over an ill-managed war in Iraq, lengthening battles in Afghanistan and a downward-spiraling economy.

But the bracing turnover was cultural as much as political, as the nation grasped the import of November's election again: After 220 years, for the first time it was not a white man taking the oath of office. The facts of Obama's parentage -- he is the son of a Kenyan father and a white Kansas-born mother -- rippled across the inauguration platform and the assembled crowd, both more diverse than at past inaugurations.

From black Americans who had lived through the civil-rights era and who had never presumed they would see such a day as this, to Americans whose experience of discrimination is limited to history books, Obama's journey has evoked strong emotions and echoes. He took the oath of office with a view westward toward the Lincoln Memorial and its great marble likeness of the president who freed America's slaves. The steps of the very same memorial welcomed, in 1939, black contralto Marian Anderson after she was refused entrance to Constitution Hall, and in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. for his "I Have a Dream" speech. On Sunday, at the first of the inaugural festivities, a concert at the Lincoln Memorial, Obama sat there as president-elect, his dream realized.

Before the swearing-in, Nelson and Tina Daniel stood in the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd at the foot of the Washington Monument, halfway between the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol. The Los Angeles residents had staked out their position at 5 a.m.

"This is big history," said Nelson Daniel, a 63-year-old African American. "Once-in-a-lifetime experience. My mother and grandparents dreamed of it. I have a chance to witness it for them."

Also in the crowd was Gloria Washington-Lewis Randall, an African American from Alabama who spent 2 1/2 weeks in jail for participating in a civil-rights demonstration in 1963. Now, at 62, she watched the ceremonies via one of the giant viewing screens set up on the Mall.

"I'm totally ecstatic," she said. "You don't really notice the cold out here. It's a warmness that's coming up. Because no more will we be called black or white. We'll be called Americans."

A counterpoint to the enthusiasm greeting Obama was the grim reality facing the new administration. Obama inherits the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, anti-American sentiment around the globe and, at home, the harshest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Much of his transition was spent trying to infuse optimism that his proposals will work, while simultaneously warning Americans that recovery will take years, not months.

Obama's improbable journey began less than two years ago when, with what even he acknowledged was "a certain presumptuousness," he announced his candidacy for president in a speech in Springfield, Ill., Lincoln's adopted hometown. At the time, Obama had served only two years in the United States Senate.

Few gave him strong odds at the beginning of his quest. Hillary Rodham Clinton was the front-runner and all-but-certain nominee, but as the pre-primary polling gave way to the sentiments of actual voters, her veneer of inevitability cracked. Obama's campaign was built on soaring rhetoric and substance -- his early opposition to the Iraq war contrasted sharply with Clinton's vote for it.

Less measurable early on -- but ultimately more potent -- was his emotional reach among voters who wanted to turn a page on the divisive politics that many felt Clinton personified. On their backs, and on the backs of young voters whose eventual turnout was suspect until election day, Obama built a stunning, tech-savvy organization. His campaign appearances in the general election regularly drew numbers unseen in past campaigns -- 100,000 in St. Louis, 90,000 in Manassas, Va., 75,000 in Kansas City, Mo.

Obama upended the race with a smashing victory in the first contest, the Iowa caucuses, but Clinton came back days later to win in New Hampshire, setting up a grinding primary contest that would last until she relented in June. Like Biden, himself a candidate in 2008, Clinton would find a place in the Obama Administration hierarchy, as the designated secretary of State.

The general election saw Obama trounce Arizona Sen. John McCain, who fought against a sweeping Democratic voter registration effort but ultimately fell under the weight of the economic downturn. McCain also suffered from the election's anti-Republican cast; the party lost seats in the House and Senate, and Bush leaves office for his Texas retirement with a positive approval rating at less than three in 10 Americans.

Obama, by contrast, has strengthened his hand since election day. Several polls have placed the percentage of Americans who say they feel optimistic about his tenure at more than seven in 10, well above his 53%-46% margin over McCain.

The inaugural festivities opened Sunday with the star-studded concert at the Lincoln Memorial, where Obama invoked an optimistic yet sober approach.

"There is no doubt that our road will be long," Obama said. "That our climb will be steep. But never forget that the true character of our nation is revealed not during times of comfort and ease, but by the right we do when the moment is hard. I ask you to help me reveal that character once more."

On Monday, Obama, Biden and their families took part in several community-service events to commemorate the King holiday. Obama toured a shelter for homeless teenagers, demonstrating his technique as he took up a roller to coat a wall with "Laguna blue" paint. At his next stop, where local service groups were working on projects to benefit American troops, Obama returned to the notion that all Americans will have to pitch in to restore the nation's momentum.

"I am making a commitment to you as the next president that we are going to make government work," he said. "But . . . government can only do so much. If we're waiting for someone else to do something, it never gets done."

Obama's last night before assuming the presidency was spent at three dinners meant to reinforce his message of bipartisanship. They honored McCain; former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican who had endorsed Obama before the election; and Biden.

"We'll see you tomorrow," Obama said to huge applause.

Today dawned, and the Mall swarmed not only with security forces -- seen and unseen -- but also those who seized on the inauguration as their personal ticket out of economic malaise. T-shirts, knit caps, key chains, pencils, coffee mugs, American flags, all decorated with Obama's face, were being vigorously hawked across the district. The chaotic display competed with the formal red-white-and-blue bunting that draped the graceful old Capitol, the stately backdrop for the drama.

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

Richard Simon in Washington contributed to this article.

New President, New Limousine

Joe the Dumber and Dumberer

Yes I know that is ungramtaical but trust me Joe wonted mind!

I have a suggestion for the GOP in 2012

Sarah Palin for President and

Joe the Plumber for VP!

A winning anti-intel, intal,&%#$@ , non-egg head ticket you bettcha!

Joe the Plumber: ‘I think media should be abolished’ from reporting on war!

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka “Joe the Plumber,” is currently in Israel covering the war for the conservative site PJTV.com. When asked what he has learned from his new experiences as a journalist, Wurzelbacher said that he believes the media shouldn’t be allowed to do “reporting” on wars:

I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think journalists should be anywhere allowed war. I mean, you guys report where our troops are at. You report what’s happening day to day. You make a big deal out of it. I think it’s asinine. You know, I liked back in World War I and World War II when you’d go to the theater and you’d see your troops on, you know, the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for’em. Now everyone’s got an opinion and wants to downer–and down soldiers. You know, American soldiers or Israeli soldiers.

I think media should be abolished from, uh, you know, reporting. You know, war is hell. And if you’re gonna sit there and say, “Well look at this atrocity,” well you don’t know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it.