The Larry Kane Report

Watch out. Pennsylvania’s infamous reputation for political corruption is taking a hit.

Since colonial days, elected officials in Pa. have taken the lead in jail time and horrid publicity for trying to get  rich off the public dole. Just take a look at the current bonusgate investigations. But wait a minute! New York is on the brink of taking  the crown away from Pa.

Congressman Charles Rangel was forced to take a leave of absence from his chairmanship of the tax committee because of numerous investigations of his own finances and dealings. Now, NY Governor David Paterson is on the brink for alleged problems, including a possible charge of obstruction of justice.

The scary thing is that the New York problems are larger and more serious than  some of the crimes facing Pa. lawmakers.  Frankly, it is refreshing to see Illinois (Guv Blago) and New York get all the attention . Someday it would be nice to consider Pennsylvania the bush league of political corruption. Don’t hold your breath.

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Yes, there is money in one of the health care bills to help train new doctors, but hardly enough. So the problem remains and also dismissed by architects of health care legislation.

The nation is facing a severe shortage of primary care doctors. Right now, scared away by malpractice insurance, there are simply not enough doctors around in Pennsylvania to to treat the current load of patients. What the heck is going to happen when 39 million new Americans are added to the health care rolls? I’ll tell you what’s going to happen – chaos.

This extraordinary lack of judgment on the part of lawmakers means that we are heading on a collision course for a medical crisis bigger than the one we are facing. Until Congress understands the nature of our doctor shortage and figures out a way to fix it, any health care reform will be dangerous at best. Is there anyone out there with an answer?

TIGER TALK-

The Golf Digest magazine reports that after word of his sexual affairs surfaced, Tiger Woods received words of encouragement from President Obama and former President Clinton. In a journalistic understatement, the magazine said that Mr. Clinton’s ” experience might be particularly instructive.”

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Jim Bunning is a Philadelphia sports legend,  the owner of a perfect game on Father’s Day 1964. The hurler left baseball and eventually became a U.S. Senator from Kentucky. In the Senate, he has been known as a loose cannon, a big mouth without any clout to back it up.

Until now.

Bunning is the lone Senator blocking  jobless benefits to over a million and a half Americans. They expire today, along with Cobra health benefits.. Bunning wants to know how the Democrats are going to pay for it. It is a reasonable question, but when millions of Americans are out of work, it’s a question usually answered by a budget appropriation. In this case, Bunning may be stopping such simple things as food on the table, and clothing for the kids, along with health care. His filibuster has even embarrassed members of his own party.

Congressional sources tell us that Congress will pass an extension on Tuesday with some Republican help. But Bunning, in the meantime, has caused needless anxiety to so many Americans.

Bunning has decided not to seek re-election. He’ll leave the Senate at the end of the year.

He will always be remembered as being perfect, in baseball. He will also be remembered by some unemployed Americans as the man who played with their lives at a very difficult time.

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I was feeling sorry for Lynn Matsko, Assistant Vice Principal At Harriton High, who called a news conference to express her distress at claims she was spying on a student through a web cam. Then, I was feeling badly for the Robbins family, whose home was allegedly spied-on. Then, I was feeling badly for the family again when they were demonized for all their past-due bills and other alleged problems, which has nothing to do with this case.  Then, I felt sorry for all the kids at Harriton whose school was embarrassed by this whole mess. Then. I got a little chuckle when students were spotted with shirts emblazoned with the words, “Lower Merion Spied On Me.”

Then, I got angry , not at Ms. Matsko, or the Robbins or the people who tried to demonize them. I got angry because suddenly a crisis in common sense turned into a circus. Suddenly, school boards all across the country were investigating whether their loaner laptops could be used as spy-cams. That means that those districts were concerned that they too had the potential to spy on their students at home.

You see, most people are missing the point.

And this is it: The fact is that someone in the Lower Merion school district allowed a CONNECTION  between the computer cams and the school. That CONNECTION, whether innocent or not, provided the potential for someone to look at someone’s private moments in their own homes! Did the school district understand that there was a POTENTIAL for harm by allowing that connection in the first place?

That is the real story, not the charges and counter-charges, but the awareness that someone in that school district wasn’t smart enough to see that a connection like that was a green light for possible abuse.

The person in that school district who may have knowingly approved that connection must be found,  and at the very least,  given a copy of the United States Constitution.

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