Karma is A Supreme Bitch

Though it gives me no satisfaction really, I am going to be all smug today and ramble on about local political stuff.  Even those of you not from around here probably have heard about some of this stuff.
Heck, so many in public office(as well as private,  prominent leaders)around here have been indicted and convicted I have lost count on the tally board of them all!



(And by the way, I LOVE this photo taken by Mark Moran, staff photographer for the Citizens Voice.)

And then there is this photo taken by a NBC News photographer outside the courthouse in 2011.  It takes justice to a whole other level.....

Let's talk about our notoriously infamous(that's kind of redundant, huh?)Teeny Tiny Town homeboy, EX-Judge Mark Ciavarella, who got whacked with a prison sentence.
I haven't posted about him since 2009 when his trial was pending.

He finally was convicted and got a 28 year prison sentence in 2011.  With good behavior he'll be out in 24 years at age 85.
sniff....sniff.....
Karma is a bitch Mark, ain't it?

All I can say is-It took those particular wheels of justice waaaaaaaaaaaaay too long to move forward and that they can't keep this clown in jail long enough for the kids who's lives he ruined!
Four THOUSAND juvenile convicts had to be overturned in the wake of his evil doings.
And he still to this day denies he did anything wrong....
I hope they give him a river front cell on da Nile because denial is where he lives in his head.

Video of the scumbag after the verdict HERE.
(The mother of a young man who committed suicide after being sent away by Ciavarella makes an appearance in this video and you can hear other parents of wronged kids off camera in the background.)

(And the guy who asked off camera if the ex-judge will still get his state pension....oh yes, the state of PA-home of the corrupt-was still going to let Ciavarella have the FULL state pension, which was estimated to top $4.3 million over the course of his life, way more than the $231K he paid into it.
Ciavarella did eventually get back his $231K in contributions but after legal fees and paying lawyers I would bet he doesn't have enough money left from that for a cup of coffee.

HERE are some reactions from when he was sentenced in 2011 from local residents who did not have loved ones involved in his verdicts.

If there is a hell I like to picture it as a dunk tank at a carnival.....the water is on fire like it was purported that Lake Erie was when it was so polluted.....and the tank is filled with sharks who haven't eaten in a week.  I  hope whoever attempts to dunk Ciavarella when he finally arrives at the Carnival from Hell has really good aim and only has to use one ball. ;-)

Here's some background on all this that I wrote about a few years ago HERE and HERE.

(Something worth mentioning....a follow-up to the story about the ex-NFL player, turned local coach, turned local politician I wrote about in the second post linked above....after the date of that post, he was arrested for taking kickbacks, tried and convicted,  fined and did 2 years in a state prison.)

This corruption circle just got wider and wider after those two posts I made in 2009.  In the end(not that the FBI isn't still here finding "things")the local dirty politics brought down an additional few school superintendents, some state congressmen (in first a money scheme and then a sex scandal) and then a highly placed State Senator who's surname rhymes with YELLOW(who received 16 months for conspiracy and tax fraud).
I could also mention a now ex-US Congressman who secured $9 Million in federal grants for his nephew in 2002 for a water-jet technology business he owned with his siblings.  The company never produced anything and filed for bankruptcy in 2006.  Then in 2010 same ex-US Congressman arranged a $400 MILLION federal loan from Obama's administration  for a solar panel manufacturing scheme for same nephew. (This same solar outfit received a $3 Million grant in 2008.)
We are still waiting for the other shoe to drop on this particular cesspool of corruption......

And don't get me started on the whole Jerry Sandusky/Penn State affair down the road from us.

And I could also mention a local US Congressman who was tried and acquitted of bribery and racketeering charges in 1996(acquitted because it was before the FBI got involved around here).  In 2007, after he retired from politics, he was charged with indecency.
Check it out HERE.  (He plead incompetent to stand trial on that charge.)

The earliest political scumbag from this area that I can recall is a former US Attorney General.  I only remember this one because his name was plastered on the business park where my Hub's office is located.  This bastion of ethics and morality was tried and convicted of bribery and racketeering charges......do we sense a theme here?

And the voters and taxpayers around here?
Clueless.
Or worse they just don't care.
Why is no one outraged?!
Why is no one boycotting and picketing and raising hell??

Heck, the voters here even keep electing these public figures to office even after they are arrested and indicted of crimes.  It's happened on more than one occasion.
A local School Superintendent recently indicted and then re-elected by the school board to his position comes to mind. (He was finally terminated but it took way too long.)

Now I know that there is corruption at all levels of government in every town, but really!.....does this place have MORE than it's share??
The local activity among the populous in this area is to watch them put up and within a few years take down local politicos names on public buildings, when their disgraceful actions are found out.  These megalomaniacs are all the same.....

This area seems to do one thing well--grow a bumper crop of convicted felons!

Sluggy