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Michael Jackson Legislation PASSED
March 21, 2011, 09:33:27 AM
While Corbett takes ax to budget, legislators tackle big issues of Michael Jackson's honor
Published: March 20, 2011
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"If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change." - from "Man in the Mirror," by Michael Jackson, 1958-2009

By all accounts, the carnage was historic.

Like a blood-crazed maniac carving up clueless co-eds with a chainsaw, Gov. Tom Corbett slashed billions in education, social services and Medicaid funding while refusing to even consider enacting a severance tax on natural gas drillers or closing a loophole that allows 70 percent of corporations operating in Pennsylvania to avoid paying billions in taxes.

Cutbacks were expected, but the depth and breadth of the Corbett cuts were staggering.

Word of Mr. Corbett's rampage spread like red wine on white linen, inspiring visceral fear and loathing among attentive taxpayers and other minority groups. The targeted cried out for a muscular response from the opposition, a stinging rebuke from someone, anyone in the Legislature that would knock the governor and his corporate masters back on their heels.

So what did our representatives do? Less than two hours after Mr. Corbett presented his budget, our esteemed Legislature stepped up to the plate and passed the following resolution, which I swear I am not making up:

"WHEREAS, Singer, songwriter Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana, to an African-American working class family; and WHEREAS, His father, Joseph Jackson, was an aspiring musician who put aside his ambitions to provide for his family as a crane operator, but who saw musical talent in his children; and WHEREAS, Michael Jackson first performed at the famed Apollo Theater with his brothers before he was 10 years of age, and blah, blah, blah..."

That's right. They passed a resolution to "celebrate the contributions of Michael Jackson to music, performance, culture and charity." It passed 108-89, and every member of the Northeast Pennsylvania delegation to the House except two voted for it. Karen Boback, R-117, and Gerald Mullery, D-119, were the holdouts, and should be re-elected in perpetuity, at least for now.

Reps. Ed Staback, D-115, Sid Michaels Kavulich, D-114, Kevin Murphy, D-113, and Ken Smith, D-112, voted for the resolution. When your head stops spinning, this raises at least three obvious questions:

n Is Kelly making this up?

n Why would the Legislature waste our time and money honoring a dead pop singer with no obvious connection to Pennsylvania?

n What the bleeping bleep is going on in bleeping Harrisburg? I mean, what the bleep?

Seeking answers to the third bleeping question, I called a few of our local legislators. Mr. Staback was unavailable. Mr. Murphy didn't call me back. Mr. Kavulich did.

"Believe it or not, I struggled with that one," he said of the Michael Jackson resolution. I should say here that I have known Sid since he was a local sportscaster, and I like him. Whether he deserves to be paid to make our laws remains to be seen, but the Michael Jackson resolution is an inauspicious start, to say the least.

I didn't even have to bring up the pedophilia charges against the "King of Pop." Sid compared his situation to that of Pete Rose, one of baseball's greatest players but barred from the Hall of Fame because he broke its cardinal rule - never bet on the game.

"You can't take away what Pete Rose accomplished in the game, and you can't take away what Michael Jackson accomplished in the music business," Sid said.

I am still not making any of this up.

Now that the all-important business of honoring Michael Jackson was taken care of, I asked Sid what he intended to do for the taxpayers of Pennsylvania.

He pointed out that he doesn't take per diems, but instead submits itemized expense reports with receipts. He doesn't accept a car allowance, sends his cost-of-living adjustment raises back to the Treasury and is pushing a bill that would require lawmakers to pay 6 percent of their health insurance premiums. House members now pay nothing for health care, but are scheduled to pay 1 percent of their salaries in premiums - about $800 annually, beginning next year. Sid also said he and some other Democrats were organizing to fight Mr. Corbett's budget cuts.

I told him Mr. Corbett was scheduled to visit Scranton on Thursday, with stops at the Chamber of Commerce and the annual Friendly Sons of St. Patrick dinner.

"That will be my first opportunity to shake his hand," Sid said. I advised him to remove his wristwatch and wedding band before doing so.

Like Sid, Mr. Smith said he also forgoes per diems for actual expenses passes on a car allowance and donates his COLA increase to charity. He said he "didn't think the timing was right" on the Michael Jackson resolution, but voted on it because "if the leadership puts it up for a vote, you have to vote, either way."

I strongly disagree, but I'm just a lowly taxpayer, and as such I am at a distinct disadvantage in any argument with a legislator. In the faint hope of reaching our representatives at this critical time in Pennsylvania history, I have drafted the following resolution:

WHEREAS, Pennsylvania has the nation's second-most expensive and least effective legislature and Michael Jackson remains, even in death, the undisputed King of Pop; and WHEREAS, the governor has declared war on the middle class, poor, children and elderly and "Thriller" is the best-selling album of all time; and WHEREAS, we were elected largely on so-far broken promises to protect the interests of the people, it is time we followed the example of the great Michael Jackson and started with the man (or woman) in the mirror. Michael asked him to change his ways. How can we, as responsible representatives of the people and loyal subjects of the King of Pop, ask any less of ourselves?

CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, never learned to moonwalk. Contact the writer: kellysworld@ timesshamrock.com


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Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Guest
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"Don't stop this child, He's the father of man
Don't cross his way, He's part of the plan
I am that child, but so are you
You've just forgotten, Just lost the clue.”

MJ "Magical Child"
Still Rocking my World…
   and leaving me Speechless!

“True goodbyes are the ones never said

Re: Michael Jackson Legislation PASSED
March 21, 2011, 11:52:36 AM
It's a start
Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Guest
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Re: Michael Jackson Legislation PASSED
March 21, 2011, 04:11:59 PM
Wow - very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I agree - timing may not be the best but it's a start none-the-less. Now the rest of the country needs to follow suit. Blessings.
Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Guest
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I'm proud to be a child of God and a member of MJ's Army of L.O.V.E.
 
"Press coverage of my life is like [watching] a fictitious movie...like watching science fiction. It's not true." ~Michael Jackson (2005)

"You should not believe everything you read. You are missing the most important revelations". Craig Harvey 3-15-2012

 

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