StopLouBarletta.com

Mayor Lou Barletta has unveiled his “position” on American Foreign Policy.  In six short paragraphs, Lou Barletta explains his vision of American’s role in the world.  Sadly, however, this “foreign policy” statement is nothing more than a rambling mess.  In attempting to explain his Foreign Policy position, Barletta has demonstrated that he doesn’t understand the first thing about it.

Mayor Barletta sums up his “Foreign Policy” statement with this two sentence paragraph…

“The United States - both on its own and through our global alliances - is be a beacon of hope for the entire world. That is the promise and pledge of this nation, and it’s a responsibility I take seriously.”

That’s it?  The rest of the statement is just as pointless.  I mean, “a beacon of hope?”  How is a beacon of hope a foreign policy?  What does that even mean?  I don’t know and I’m willing to bet that Lou Barletta doesn’t know, either.

In the second to last paragraph, Barletta sums up his outlook on the world…

“The world is not a uniformly safe and secure place. Each day, millions of people live in fear of physical attack. They live in poverty and hunger. They are under constant threat of disease and disaster.”

Again, this statement reveals nothing about Lou Barletta’s “foreign policy.”  Saying that the world is a scary, mean, and unfair place is all fine and good.  However, that is NOT a foreign policy.  A foreign policy would, by definition, explain, at least in some detail, how the United States should interact with this scary, mean, and unfair world.  At no point in Barletta’s entire statement does he even attempt to offer such an explanation.

I realize that as a first-term Congressman serving in the House of Representatives, Lou Barletta would have almost zero impact on American Foreign Policy.  That said, however, I do think it is important for someone looking to take up a leadership role in the United States Government to have a basic understanding of foreign affairs and have intelligent opinions on what America’s role in the world should be.  Lou Barletta has neither and his “Foreign Policy” statement is proof of that.

Lou Barletta would like you to believe that he is an intelligent candidate with solid positions on meaningful issues facing the constituents he is seeking to represent.  He doesn’t.  Lou Barletta is a troubled candidate who is not fit to represent the people of the 11th Congressional District.  Mayor Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

Click HERE to learn about Lou Barletta’s Organized Crime Connections

What do you do if you’re a Congressional candidate and honest, law abiding citizens won’t give you any money to help fund your campaign?  Take it from dirty, sleazy criminals and former criminals!  That’s exactly what Lou Barletta is doing.  In addition to accepting $2,000 from two men who were involved in a cocaine distribution ring, Mayor Barletta has also accepted campaign donations from Senator Ted Stevens (R - Alaska).

Senator Stevens, for those that don’t know, was recently indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for accepting gifts and kickbacks from lobbyists.  Stevens is the first US Senator to be indicted, for anything, since 1993.  Senator Stevens is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from oil lobbyists.  He is also under investigation for sponsoring fishing legislation that may have been used to help his son, who is also a lobbyist.

To quote CBS News…

“From May 1999 to August 2007, prosecutors said, the 84-year-old senator concealed “his continuing receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of things of value from a private corporation.”

The indictment unsealed Tuesday says the items included: home improvements to his vacation home in Alaska, including a new first floor, garage, wraparound deck, plumbing, electrical wiring; as well as a Viking gas grill, furniture and tools. He also was accused of failing to report swapping an old Ford for a new Land Rover to be driven by one of his children.

Prosecutors said Stevens received more than $250,000 in gifts and services from VECO Corp., a powerful oil services contractor, and its executives.”

Mayor Lou Barletta has accepted $1000 from the Northern Lights Political Action Committee (PAC), a PAC that is run by Senator Ted Stevens.  Naturally, Representative Paul Kanjorski, Barletta’s opponent, has called on Barletta to give the money back.  And, predictably, the Barletta camp has so far refused.  Just like they’ve refused to give back the $2,000 that they’ve accepted from the DiAngelo brothers, who were both involved, extensively, with the Empire Drug Ring.

And why won’t Mayor Barletta give this dirty money back?  Well, I think it comes down to two reasons.  First, Lou Barletta is perfectly comfortable with accepting money from criminals.  Otherwise, you know, he would give the money back.  But he hasn’t.  Second, Mayor Barletta can’t afford to give the money back.  His campaign is hurting for money and he needs every single penny he can get his hands on.  Desperate people will do desperate things, I suppose.

All of this leads to one conclusion: Lou Barletta has no business being elected to the United States Congress.  He has shown a total disregard for anything resembling ethical behavior and his campaign is already tainted with dirty money from people who have been indicted, and in some cases, convicted of major criminal offenses.  With all of his ties to criminals, Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

Recently, Mayor Lou Barletta threw a temper tantrum because he claimed a poll being conducted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) was full of “false statements” and was being used to give people the wrong impression about him.  According to Barletta, this poll was a dirty political trick and was based on lies and not fact.  Um….not really.

Barletta claims that the questions being asked in this poll, which was conducted over the telephone and administered to several people, asked questions that implied unflattering things about Barletta.  According to Mayor Barletta’s Campaign…

“The campaign blames the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for a “push poll” that attacks Barletta’s Italian heritage, Hazleton business owners and economic development leaders, and insults the city police department.”

Vince Galko, Mayor Barletta’s campaign manager, went on to explain…

“The poll included questions that implied Barletta has ties to organized crime, half of Hazleton’s storefronts are empty and the city went through a crime wave because the mayor laid off police officers — none of which is true, he said.”

The part of that quote that I’d like to focus on is the part where Mr. Galko says, “..none of which is true.”  Obviously, Vince Galko is in the dark about a few things.  That, or he’s just a bold faced liar.  Allow me to explain.

First, let’s take the “accusation” that Barletta has ties to organized crime.  No, Mayor Barletta has never been convicted of anything and he’s probably not smart enough to be the leader of some secret crime syndicate.  However, some of Barletta’s friends and campaign supporters do have ties to organized crime.

• Paul DeAngelo was, in 1994, sentenced to 18 months in prison for being a part of the Empire Drug Ring, a New York City based drug ring that was distributing cocaine all accross Luzerne County.  Paul DeAngelo, along with his brother, bought Lou Barletta’s line painting business in 2000.  He also just recently donated $1000 to Lou Barletta’s Congressional Campaign.  Barletta is refusing to give the money back and has defended Mr. DeAngelo.
• Neal DeAngelo was also involved in the Empire Drug Ring, however, unlike his brother, he was able to avoid jail time because he snitched on other members of the ring.  He also just recently gave $1000 to Lou Barletta’s Congressional Campaign.
• Francis Scarcella was, for a long time, a close political ally of Lou Barletta.  In 2006, he was indicted, and later convicted, of being involved in a stolen travelers check scheme.  Scarcella served in various positions in Lou Barletta’s administration and also served as a Hazleton School Board member.

So, as you can see, the “accusation” that Mayor Lou Barletta has ties to organized crime has nothing to do with his “Italian heritage”, but rather, the fact that several of his friends were, at one time, directly involved with organized crime.  So the statement that “Lou Barletta has ties to organized crime” is actually spot on and very much accurate.

Next, let’s consider the “accusation” that Mayor Lou Barletta’s cuts in the police force had nothing to do with crime in Hazleton exploding.  Here are the facts: One of Mayor Barletta’s first acts as mayor was to cut the Hazleton police force in half.  Shortly after, crime in Hazleton began to rise.  To say that reducing, by half, the number of Hazleton police officers had nothing to do with the increase in crime is just stupid.  It did.

Finally, let’s look at the “accusation” that businesses in Hazleton are leaving.  Um, they are.  Are all businesses closing?  No, but several businesses, especially smaller family owned businesses, are on the decline.  For proof of this, just drive around Hazleton.  You can see all the empty store fronts.  So, again, this “accusation” is less of an accusation and more of a fact.

Mayor Lou Barletta would like you to believe that the DCCC has no idea what they are talking about and all of the “accusations” they brought up were nothing more than desperate fantasies.  However, as I just pointed out, all of these accusations are at least backed by more than a few facts.  As a candidate for the United States Congress, Lou Barletta needs to come clean on all of these issues and stop hiding from them.  For all of these reasons and more, Lou Barletta does not deserve to be elected to the United States Congress.

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

Mayor Lou Barletta, who is running for Congress against Representative Paul Kanjorski, has accepted $2,000 is campaign donations from two men who were once involved with a Luzerne County cocaine ring.  According to FEC campaign donation records, and as reported by the Citizens Voice, the Barletta campaign has accepted $1,000 each from Paul and Neal DeAngelo.  Worse, Barletta says he has no intention of giving the money back.

As reported by the Citizens Voice…

“The list of contributors to Republican congressional candidate Lou Barletta includes two brothers who were once entangled in a southern Luzerne County cocaine-distribution ring but are now prominent businessmen there.

Paul and Neal DeAngelo, the owners of DBiServices Inc., each gave Barletta $1,000 on March 28.

In 1994, Paul DeAngelo was sentenced to 18 months in jail for his role in the Empire drug ring, which operated in the late 1980s. He was released in 1995.

As a government witness in the trial of another ring member, Neal DeAngelo, who was not charged, testified that Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Conahan called him in 1986 to say Paul DeAngelo was doing business with a cocaine dealer who was being investigated. The judge, according to the testimony, offered to put them in touch with a Florida dealer, Neal DeAngelo testified.”

Despite all of this, Mayor Lou Barletta says he has no plans on giving any of the money back.  In fact, showing flashes of his famous temper, Barletta blasted his opponent, Paul Kanjorski, for “shopping the story around to reporters.”  He then went on to defend these two men, saying…

“These two guys (the DeAngelos) made a mistake,” Barletta said. “They paid their dues and through honest, hard work they built a business that is one of the biggest in Hazleton.

Paul Kanjorski wants to drag these guys through the mud,” Barletta said. “Paul Kanjorski should be trying to get more companies like DBi to our area.”

So, in addition to slashing the Hazleton Police Force in half, resulting in a massive surge in crime, Mayor Lou Barletta is also accepting campaign donations from men who have been involved with cocaine distribution.  And when confronted with this information, he then defends these men and their character and refuses to give any of the money back.  Oh, and how dare Paul Kanjorski even bring this up?

Lou Barletta is a career liar.  He has run Hazleton into the ground.  His police force cuts have resulted in massive crime spikes.  Businesses are closing, on a regular basis, in Hazleton.  Many former storefronts are now sitting empty.  The city is being squeezed by legal bills incurred as a result of Mayor Barletta’s failed attempt to defend his extremist immigration policy in court.  And on top of it all, he is taking money from men who admitted to being involved with a drug trafficking operation.

This is why I am sickened to see Lou Barletta represent the Republican Party in this election.  Barletta is a disgrace of a man, an embarrassment to both Hazleton and the Republican Party, and a joke of a congressional candidate.  Clearly, Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

Lou Barletta, over the past couple of days, has issued a whole bunch of press releases calling his opponent, Representative Paul Kanjorski, “desperate.”  Every time Kanjorski runs a television ad or holds a town hall meeting or has campaign workers make phone calls to voters, Barletta starts screaming and ranting about how “desperate” Kanjorski must be.  All of this leads me to believe that Barletta is, in fact, the desperate one.

Consider the following, if you would:

• Lou Barletta is struggling to raise any money, while Kanjorski is absolutely rolling in it.  Kanjorski has well over $2 million in cash and $0 in debt.  Barletta, on the opposite end of the spectrum, has $321,895 in cash and $321,340 in debt.  Enron had a more solid balance sheet than that.
• Kanjorski has aired at least three separate television commercials already.  Barletta, unable to afford any television time, has put up a bunch of YouTube videos.  Additionally, Barletta, in “desperation”, has sent letters to all of the local television stations, demanding them to stop airing Kanjorski’s commercials.
• Almost all of Lou Barletta’s campaign money has come from residents of the city of Hazleton, the very city that Lou Barletta is mayor of.  Once that city is bled dry of money, one has to wonder where Barletta will get his cash from.  Because it doesn’t appear that very many other people are stepping up to the plate.
• Vince Galko, Lou Barletta’s campaign manager, has managed to loose every single election he’s been a part of.  Bob Dole’s Presidential bid.  Rick Santorum’s last run at the Senate against Bob Casey, Jr.  Rudy Giuliani’s bid at the Republican presidential nomination.

So, as you can see, if anyone is “desperate”, it is Lou Barletta.  He is desperate for money.  He is desperate for a campaign manager that knows what the hell he’s doing.  He is desperate for Paul Kanjorski to stop running television ads.  Lou Barletta is desperate for a miracle.

Clearly, Mayor Lou Barletta is trying to convince everyone that he is playing from a position of strength in this campaign, while the stone cold facts of the matter clearly show that he is the weaker of the two candidates.  This is just one more example of how bad of a candidate Lou Barletta is and how little he knows about running for Congress.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

This cartoon was drawn by artist John Cole and first appeared in the Scranton Times.

Yeah.  In addition to trying, and failing, to enact one of the most extreme immigration policies in America, Lou Barletta also stuck the city of Hazleton with a massive legal bill for the failed court fight.  Full of brilliant ideas, Mayor Barletta then decided he would use the Internet to raise the money to pay the lawyers.  He established SmallTownDefenders.com, asking people to help him “win this fight.”

What Barletta really should have said on the website is,

“Hi.  My name is Lou Barletta and I’m the moron who, without City Council approval, decided to use city funds to defend my Illegal Immigration Relief Act in Federal Court.  After having my ass handed to me, and the law being struck down as unconstitutional, my city now has a mountain of legal bills.  Please send me all of your money so that the city can pay them off.  Or don’t.  I don’t really care, anyway.  I’m running for Congress and soon these bills will be someone else’s problem.  I love America!”

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

Lou Barletta, often referred to as “Sweet Lou” by his groupies for reasons that I am too horrified to imagine, is sounding a bit sour as of late.  He and his campaign have sent letters to every local television station, demanding that they stop airing one of his opponent’s, Paul Kanjorski, campaign commercials.  This is after he and his campaign manager were bragging about how Kanjorski putting up television commercials this early in the campaign was a good thing.  Make up your mind, Lou.

Barletta and his people want the TV stations to stop airing the commercial because they say it is “false”.  In the ad, which was paid for and produced by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), Barletta is portrayed as being in support of privatizing Social Security.  This is because in the 2002 Congressional election, in which Barletta ran against Kanjorski and lost, Barletta was in support of privatizing Social Security.  Barletta says that this isn’t true (it is) and that the commercial must go away.

The problem is, however, that the television stations don’t really care what Barletta wants or doesn’t want.  As reported by the Scranton Times….

“Local television stations are under no obligation to stop airing a television commercial that attacks Republican congressional candidate Lou Barletta’s stance on Social Security, unless he can prove it defames him, an expert said Tuesday.

“To prove defamation is a pretty tall order,” said Kathleen Kirby, counsel for the Radio-Television News Directors Association, which advises stations on political advertising.”

It goes on to say…

“Dan Mecca, WOLF’s national sales director, said the station has aired the second ad for about a week and will continue to do so pending a review by its lawyer.

Ms. Kirby said decisions to stop airing political commercials are rare because federal law requires stations to air candidate-paid commercials and gives them immunity from lawsuits over the ads’ content. Stations will sometimes argue that immunity applies to non-candidate political committees, he said.”

So, simply put, the television stations have told Barletta and his minions to go pound sand.  Perhaps Barletta and his joke-of-a-campaign-manager, Vince Galko, are beginning to understand what everyone else on the planet already knows: If your political opponent can afford to run television ads, and you can’t, that is a BAD thing.  Not a good thing.

And Barletta’s response to these commercials is also very telling.  Asking the television stations to stop airing them?  Very mature, Lou.  Maybe the next thing “Sweet Lou” can try is asking Paul Kanjorski to drop out of the race.  Or ask the election officials to remove Kanjorski’s name from the ballat.  Or something.

This is just another example of how bad of a candidate Lou Barletta really is and why he’s such an embarrassment to the Republican Party.  He has shown a complete inability to raise money, thus killing his ability to compete with Kanjorski in any serious capacity.  His campaign is being run by Vince Galko, who has a whole lot of experience in losing elections, but none at actually winning them.  While Lou Barletta has managed to build up a fair amount of hype surrounding his candadicy, he hasn’t actually figured out how to live up to that hype.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

So Lou Barletta was recently named as “Mayor of the Year”.  I find that amusing, for many reasons.  Besides being a complete idiot, with a long and well documented record of failure, Barletta also has a history of mismanaging finances, both his own and the City of Hazleton’s.  And while I’ve covered, in some detail, the scandal surrounding a questionable personal loan made to Barletta, I’ve yet to talk about how the city of Hazleton, under Lou Barletta’s leadership, severely mismanaged and misused city money.

The following links are to State Auditor General Reports, conducted in 2006.  The reports detail how Barletta and the Hazleton City Council repeatedly acted in violation of State law in terms of how they used the City of Hazleton Aggregate Pension Fund and the Nonuniformed Pension Plan,  funds used for the city’s police, firemen, and other city employees pension plans.  Here are the reports….

city-of-hazleton-aggregate-pension-fund-audit-report
city-of-hazleton-nonuniformed-pension-plan-audit-report

Now, as you can imagine, the reports are long and wordy.  They are not very thrilling reads, although I do suggest you at least skim through the reports.  Now, here are some highlights from the reports, quoted exactly as they appear…

• “During the years 2003, 2004, and 2005, the city improperly used proceeds from this special municipal penison tax, in the total amount of $1,426,656, to fund post-retirement health care benefits for police officers and firefighters who retired after January 1, 1999.” -City of Hazleton Aggregeate Pension Fund Audit Report (page 12).
• “As a result of the improper expenditure of special municipal taxing authority funds for post-retirement health care benefits and unused leave buy-backs, the funds were not available to pay authorized pension plan expenses or for investment purposes in accordance with Act 205.” -City of Hazleton Aggregate Pension Fund Audit Report (page 13)
• “In March of 2003, two police officers with less than 20 years of service were improperly granted pension benefits in violation of the Third Class City Code and a collective bargaining settlement agreement dated March 28, 2000.” -City of Hazleton Aggregate Pension Fund Audit Report (page 14)
• “Benefits in excess of the Third Class City Code are still being provided to certain retired and active nonuniformed employees.” -City of Hazleton Nonuniformed Pension Plan Audit Report (page 11)

Now, is this the type of leadership that Lou Barletta intends to bring to the United States Congress?  And while I understand that the City Council shares in the responsibility for these blunders, Lou Barletta, as Mayor of Hazleton, is also responsible.  And if he can’t properly manage a city’s finances, how in God’s name is he expecting to bring more money to the district than a 12 year incumbent?

Mayor Lou Barletta is a failed, weak leader.  He claims that he will bring change to Washington DC.  However, looking at his track record, I find that claim nothing more than a pipe dream.  Time and again, Barletta has failed as a leader.  Clearly, Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

Another cartoon from artist John Cole.  This cartoon originally appeared in the Scranton Times and can be found HERE online.

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

As I’ve said many times, I am a Republican.  I have been registered as such since 1999 and still carry my registration card proudly.  That said, however, I simply can not support Lou Barletta for Congress.  I would rather see Paul Kanjorski, a Democrat, keep his seat than see Barletta take it.

And that’s not because I think that Paul Kanjorski is such a great guy or an awesome politician.  Clearly, the guy has some issues.  However, name for me any politician who is perfect or who comes with no flaws.  No, I would rather see Kanjorski stay on because Barletta is a much, much worse option, in my opinion.  The Republican Party needs candidates and politicians of quality.  Lou Barletta is a joke of candidate.

For starters, the man has already run this same election against the same opponent in 2002.  He lost that election.  Now, six years later, I see no reason to believe that Barletta can achieve any greater success.  Bareletta still can’t raise any money.  Just look at the latest FEC numbers.  An inability to raise money is a sign of weakness.

I also have a problem with Barletta’s tactics.  He leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  When he first took office as Mayor of Hazleton, one of his first acts was to slash the size of the Hazleton police force in half.  Then, predictably, crime began to rise.  Barletta tried to shift the blame for all of this on an “illegal immigrant crime wave.”  However, crime statistics released by the Hazleton Police, made public during the trial that ended with Barletta’s “Illegal Immigration Relief Act” being deemed unconstitutional, show that of all crime committed in Hazleton since 2002, less than 1% the crime was committed by illegal immigrants.  Simply put, Lou Barletta is a coward who has a record of looking for scapegoats to blame for his own failings, both as a man and as a leader.

Then there’s the fact that Barletta has teamed up with Vince “I Can’t Win an Election to Save My Life” Galko.  Mr. Galko is Barletta’s campaign manager.  A look at Galko’s resume shows a record that is a complete flop.  He worked on Bob Dole’s 1996 Presidential Campaign.  Dole lost that election by a landslide to Bill Clinton.  He then worked on George W. Bush’s campaign as Deputy Executive Director of Pennsylvania operations.  While Bush won the election, he lost Pennsylvania.  Galko then worked as Senator Rick Santorum’s campaign manger.  Guess what happened there?  Yup.  Santorum, an incumbant, lost to Bob Casey Jr.

Most recently, Galko worked on Rudy Giuliani’s Presidential Campaign.  That campaign ended up being the laughing stock of the Republican Party and represented one of the worst run and most disastrous campaigns in modern politics.  And this is the guy that will be leading the Barletta Campaign?  Galko is a complete idiot and has the track record to prove it.

Combine Lou Barletta’s complete inability to raise money, his history of screwing things up and then blaming it on other people, and the fact that his campaign manager couldn’t win a high school student council election, and you are left with a very, very unelectable politician.  Lou Barletta is a loser who surrounds himself with losers.  I, as a Republican, want more from people representing my party.  Maybe some people can lower their standards (if they have any…) to support Lou Barletta, but I won’t.  I want a leader, not a habitual loser.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com