Just doing his job--Is that illegal?

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta -- who decided to tackle an illegal alien problem and became a national figure because of it -- was a guest on my show on last Friday.

Here is a guy who was hired to enforce the laws of his city of Hazleton. When he saw an apartment with 9 mattresses on the floor and roaches in the frig, plus other housing areas like it, when gang graffiti started appearing all over town, and when two people were killed in one year in a town that hadn’t seen a murder for 7 years, this man decided to act.

Did he act by having jack-booted police kick in doors and hunt down illegals? No. He made the effort by doing three things: 1. If a landlord knowingly allowed an illegal to live there, that landlord would face prosecution. 2. If an employer knowingly hired an illegal alien, that employer would lose license to do business. Finally, 3. English would be the official language of business in Hazleton.

For this, he became a national figure? There is nothing extraordinary here except that a man who was hired through an election to do his job decided to do it. What is that job? Enforce the laws of the community, and keep that community safe.

The fact that he became a national figure as a result is sad because it speaks to the gutlessness of so many other officials on the city, state, and especially federal levels in this land. The fact that we don’t have 100% of support by citizens for this man also tells us a great deal about how far we have strayed in respecting the laws of this country. Why, you ask? Follow the money and the votes, and you’ll see how the respect for and enforcement of the law was left in the dust. I’m Gary Sutton.

Meet our fitness coach: Joe DeCree

Meet Joe DeCree, the Drop-A-Ton Challenge's fitness coach. (Wait, what's the Drop-A-Ton Challenge? Stay tuned -- more on the Challenge in the days to come!). Joe is a retired US Army officer and lifetime physical fitness aficionado.

A two-sport high school athlete in baseball and swimming, Joe focused on athletic technique rather than brute strength to excel in sports. He pursued baseball into his college years and joined the Army in 1985.

Joe really began to study and practice of physical fitness in uniform. As a Special Forces (Green Beret) officer he trained those elite soldiers to be fit on deployments to Kosovo and Afghanistan. During his military years he successfully competed in Kodokan Judo and Olympic-style weightlifting. He still holds the 2 minute push-up record for the 2nd Brigade Pa. National Guard in Washington, Pa (120 in 2 minutes set in 1992).

He also trained as a power lifter and was the assistant coach/trainer for the Ephrata Recreational Powerlifting team. Joe enjoys many fitness-based hobbies liked rock climbing, biking, and hiking. Here's a picture of Joe saving gas:

















Whatever works, right?

Joe trained successful college athletes both male and female, amateur runners, competitive weightlifters, elite soldiers, coached youngsters in swimming and baseball, and trained lots of regular people in the art and science of physical fitness over the last thirty-five years.

Right now, Joe is working on a fitness book geared towards fitness without weights -- the focus is on bodyweight exercises and functional strength. Joe's a regular here at WOW Cafe & Wingery and I can tell you that he's middle-aged and lean. That's key, because I don't like taking fitness advice from twenty year-olds with naturally high metabolisms.

We're gonna lean on that thirty-five years of experience to help us out with the Drop-A-Ton Challenge. More details on the challenge are coming!

Tuesday's Tech Tip: Firefox 3!

Woot! The new version of Firefox -- Firefox 3 -- is available for download today!

It's packed with all kinds of great stuff, including a new Smart Location Bar that has already been dubbed the "AwesomeBar."

Affectionately nicknamed the “AwesomeBar”, the new Smart Location Bar lets you use the URL field of your browser to do a keyword search of your history and bookmarks. You no longer have to remember the domain of the page you’re looking for — the Smart Location Bar will match what you’re typing (even multiple words!) against the URLs, page titles, and tags in your bookmarks and history, returning results sorted according to an algorithm that combines frequency and recency.

The Smart Location Bar results also show pages’ favicons, full titles, URLs, and whether you have bookmarked or tagged the site previously. While the change from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3 can be a little jarring for some, once you’ve used the Smart Location Bar for a while, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

Learn more about the Awesome Bar and other new features here.

DISCLAIMER: This is new software. Many people recommend holding off on new software until the developer has had time to address bugs/exploits/problems. Me, I'm going to install it as soon as it's available. Others -- especially neophytes -- might want want to wait. Scaredy cats.

WARNING: Firefox 3 is a bit of a big deal, so keep in mind that their servers are getting slammed today. It might be a while until you can actually connect to a server and download Firefox 3.

Get Firefox 3

Opportunity to see what Sen. Obama is all about

Barack Obama has asked the general public if they would like to sponsor a house meeting in their community to directly address Sen. Obama about the issues and challenges facing your daily lives.

We ask that you sign up for one of these meetings, to take place on June 28th. This is for everyone. Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Libertarians, you name it. The idea is to bring to the table, the items that need changed or rethought in our society, and devise solutions to make those changes happen effectively and in a timely manner.

We suggest you sign up as a matter of honestly getting to see what Barack Obama is all about. This NOT some scheme like "Operation Chaos" or anything along those lines, nor do we want it to be taken that way. It cannot be stressed enough the importance of this election, so why not take the challenge and become involved.

It truly is a golden opportunity" to have your voice ring out among the masses and be heard!

Sign up HERE

A sense of urgency -- what's yours?

With all that seems to face us every day, it seems important to get a grip on prioritizing what it is we should do about them, and -- more importantly -- in what order.

Any order would be better than the paralyzing lack of order or effort we see in our present-day representatives in government. Rate the following issues with (1) being the MOST IMPORTANT and (8) being the LEAST IMPORTANT. Tell us why you rated them the way you did.

A. High Gas Prices
B. Energy alternatives
C. War on Terror
D. War in Iraq
E. High Food Prices
F. Illegal Immigration
G. Global warming
H. Health care availability and costs
I. Other not mentioned here

New poll: Who's the greatest superhero?

Who's the greatest superhero? Vote for your choice in the new poll!

Poll results: Are you happy with your fitness level?

Here are the results from the question "Are you happy with your fitness level?":

Yep - 26%
Nope - 73%

Not a huge surprise. For those of us who answered "Nope," keep an eye out on this blog for our upcoming Drop-A-Ton Challenge!

Just Your Super Opinion--Who is the greatest Super Hero?

This is one that everyone can latch on to today. Who is your choice for best superf hero? Use your own criteria for determining it. Wit and wisdom are always welcome here! Have fun, and also feel free to drop remarks here on today's show.

Oh yeah, I know there may be some favorite "super hero" missing, so don't be afraid to add your choice. We'll tally the responses at the end and share them on the air.

The New York Post asked, "Who's the greatest big-screen superhero of all time?" Of course, Superman was by far the favorite pick, but here are the rest of the answers:

* Superman
* Batman
* Iron Man
* Spider-Man
* Flash Gordon
* James Bond
* Robin Hood
* Lara Croft
* Catwoman
* Wonder Woman

What's on your mind today?

It's "What's on your mind Friday" on the show. What's bugging the heck out of you? Get it off your mind, and lighten your burden for the weekend.

It's also Friday the 13th. "Feel lucky, punk, well do ya." Great Clint Eastwood line from "Dirty Harry." Do you struggle with superstitions or worries because of the date? You just don't seem to hear as much about this anymore. Are superstitions dying out in the country as the baby-boomers grow older?

What were your thoughts on the Supreme Court decision yesterday on giving the "enemy combatants" at Gitmo the right to challenge for their freedom in U.S. Federal court?

Wherever You are in PA , Join in on the Gary Sutton Show Today!

We have an array of topics today that beg your attention:

What does the stepping down of Jim Johnson from the Democratic Vice-Presidential Vetting team say about Senator Obama's judgement in who he chooses?

The PA State Assembly is coming up on the budget deadline AGAIN, and again, it's not the irresponsible members of the State Assembly who get drilled, but rather "non-essential" workers on the public payroll who get furloughed. What should happen to the representatives and senators when they can't do a budget on time????

Should transgendered people be able to use restrooms not of their actual physical sexual orientation? Colorado has passed a bill that says, "Yes." What say you?

There is a new method of searching your person when getting ready to board an airplane. It's a glass cube into which you step, and it provides a three-dimensional look at your whole body. Problem is that there are screeners watching, and even though your face is blurred, they can see EVERYTHING! Privacy or protection? Which is more important??

The End is Near!

Better make your travel plans to Ocean City, MD quickly!

Tuesday's Tech Tip: Customize your start page

What's your browser's start page? When you fire it up, is your "home" screen plain-old www.google.com? Or is it some crappy product page from your PC's manufacturer?

As you know, you can set that start page to anything you want, so let's set it to something you want to see. Wait, you do know that you can set your start page to anything you want, right?

Sigh. Okay, in Firefox you click on Tools --> Options on the menu bar. See where it says "When Firefox starts ..."? There's a drop-down list. The "Show a blank page" option is nice for people who want to see nothing when they fire up Firefox. The "Show my windows and tabs from last time" is a pretty cool option for absent-minded people. Anyway, we want the "Show my homepage" option.

Now just type whatever you want into that field below for your homepage. You can type in "http://www.espn.com", "http://www.msnbc.com" or whatever you want.

How about doing the same thing Internet Explorer? I dunno. I don't use IE. Should be pretty similar, though. You Safari users are on your own, too, because it should "just work," right?

You know what I like? Google's customized homepage. Check out mine (click to enlarge):















You'll need to sign in to Google (your homepage will be "http://www.google.com/ig") and then customize the start page so it has what you want -- and how you want it -- on the page.

See, mine has local weather, my gmail account, general news, sports news, tech news, and, of course, the feed for Voices from Main Street. That's what I want. You might a link to your calendar, local gas price updates, local movie time or gardening tips. Do whatever you want. I'm okay with it. Really.

Just click on the "Add stuff" link and customize to your hearts content. You can even rearrange stuff by clicking on it and dragging it to its new spot. You can customize the stuff (called widgets) itself. You can even add themes to your whole start page. Knock yourself out.

New poll: Are you happy with your fitness level?

New poll: Are you happy with your fitness level?

This poll will tie into a fun "contest" we have coming soon.

The General Election finally starts

So now we have the two presumptive candidates and two parties squaring off for the heart of America. The third party called "The Clintons" seems to be fading in the west while Obama's star of "Change you can believe in" is rising in the east, and McCain is hoping that a new day is rising in Iraq as he hitches his presidential hopes to the star of the Surge.

The question this morning are numerous:

Will these candidates be able to really debate the issues, or will we continue to deal in some of the same ridiculousness that we have experienced during the primaries? Senator Obama's words were correct on Tuesday night when he said, "America deserves a debate on where the country is going in the next four years." Those words must be followed by a concerted effort to have a REAL conversation, not a political dodge with the American people. Both candidates need to pay attention to this admonition with a sense of urgency in solving real problems in this moment in time.

How much will race and age matter in the upcoming election?

How much will associations with the Jeremiah Wrights of the world matter?

What role will the experience factor play for people?

How much does soaring rhetoric lift people and can McCain possibly hope to match Obama if it does?

Where will Hillary's people go?

Who will be the VP candidates, and must Obama take Hillary to unify the party? If so, what does he do with Bill Clinton?

These are just a few of the thoughts on my mind as the dust clears today. What are yours?

Time for change in the way candidates are selected-- at least for the Dems

So what is the biggest change that is needed in this election cycle?

It's obviously the way the Democrats choose their candidate. This has been one of the biggest mistakes in process that they have ever made, all in the name of trying to please everyone.

In addition to the fact that weighted and proportional elections always keep the numbers at about 50-50 when there are two strong candidates, the so-called superdelegates add to this mess.

Let me get this right; the party that bills itself as the one that represents the people doesn't really trust the people, (the elected delegates) at the end. Instead, they build in their own little electoral college of 793 unelected officials -- the superdelegates -- which has the potential of negating the voice of the voters and elected delegates. Is this really fair?

The Republicans can hardly walk and chew gum at the same time politically, but one has to be impressed with the conciseness of their process. "Just the votes" is all that counts. No one seems to be complaining except that their candidate may be lame, and too old. And the process seems to have worked for them.

The Democrats have too many people at the table and they try to satisfy the particular interests of every group. In doing so, they out-think themselves consistently and get bogged down in rules that hang around their necks like the proverbial albatross. This year it has put them in a position where their party leaders have been weakened, their party is for the moment split, and one candidate will win the nomination without the popular vote (immaterial in playing by the rules, but bad perception for a party that still is steaming about the Election of 2000 being stolen in the same kind of situation).

Much like the Election of 2000, the will of the voter is being trumped by the will of an unelected group, the super delegates. Senator Obama could not get the nomination without them.

So, "CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN" for the Democrats will be a revamping of the whole process for next time, while they hope that this time it doesn't cost them another general election that seemed to be "in the bag" not long ago. GS