The Ref's Suck!

As many of you know, I am a big college football fan. I will watch a college game over the NFL any day. During one week of college football, I usually watch all or part of 4 to 5 games. In my opinion, the college game is more exciting by far than a business as usual NFL bore fest. The college players play harder, the coaches have more imagination and the fans are more into the game. The only similarity that I can find between the college game and the NFL is the referee's all suck! They stink like a garbage scow going down the Hudson River in 95 degree heat. They wreak to the point of making you want to vomit all over the TV as they blow call after call.

Case in point. Yesterday, Toledo took the hose when Syracuse blatantly missed an extra point which was called good by the idiot ref standing right under the left upright. It was obvious that the kick went in front of the left upright and wide for no good. The moron ref was right there and still could not get it right. Of course, the kick was so bad the play went under review up in the booth to the replay ref. After about a two to three minute wait, the verdict came down and we heard those dreaded words, "After further review, the play stands as called on the field". WHAT! WHAT! ARE YOU FREAKIN KIDDING ME! On the replay you could actually see the ball go in front of the upright and wide left. It was not even close! How can they not get it right?

Here is a link to the video of the replay so you can make the call: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Botched-PAT-call-gives-Toledo-yet-another-close-?urn=ncaaf-wp6846&active_dimension=carousel_ept_sports_ncaaf_experts&ysp_frm_woah=1

BIG EAST Conference coordinator of football officiating Terry McAulay issued the following statement regarding the extra point in the fourth quarter of Saturday's football game between Syracuse and Toledo.

"After studying the videos of the Syracuse extra point attempt at 2:07 of the fourth quarter, we have concluded that the ruling on the field that the kick passed between the uprights was incorrect, and that the replay official made an error in failing to reverse that ruling. In reviewing the video, we have determined that the angle from behind the kicking team shows conclusively that the ball passes outside the right upright.

Our review of the process determined that the replay official mistakenly focused his attention on the sideline angle, which proved to be distorted. We are confident that our officiating staff will learn from this situation in order to prevent a re occurrence. "

In other words, they blew the call and too bad for Toledo! It was sorry but nothing we can do about our pin head ref blowing one of the easiest calls of the game. If the refs made the correct call, Toledo's game strategy would have been different. Because of the blown call, they now have to drive the field and score a touchdown to win. If the bimbo refs got the call correct, Toledo may have chosen to get within field goal range to tie the game and send it into overtime. We will never know. What it comes down to in every single sport that we all watch is a bad call or blown call that changes the entire game. It happens at all levels from youth sports to high-school sports to college and the pros. The officials can change a game at the drop of a dime and they do it all the time. I for one am sick and tired of it! Maybe it's time for teams to start putting the accountability heat on these morons. It's time leagues start fining officials for making horrendous calls. It's time for this crap to stop! Hold them accountable and get rid of them if they can't do the job!

The Hotel Sterling - How Convenient Was The Flood

The headline of today's (September 21st) Times Leader reads, "Sterling gets death sentence". It appears that the waters from the raging Susquehanna seeped through the flood walls and inundated the basement of the old hotel with up to 6 feet of water. The city of Wilkes-Barre took in two engineering firms to assess the damages and the conclusion was rip this thing down before it collapses. The engineers estimated that 50 million gallons of water flowed through the structure damaging the already weak foundation and structural steel. They also stated that the building is in immediate danger to the public and it should be torn down immediately. For the supporters of the old grand hotel, this is a blow right to the nuts. They were hoping that the owners, CityVest were going to remodel the hotel to make it a show place for the downtown. This is not going to happen!

I have a few questions concerning the Sterling. If the structure is in danger of collapse and the public is in danger, why did the city of Wilkes-Barre give CityVest 30 days to haul it to the ground. The city is putting up barriers to close off the lanes of traffic closest to the hotel. Drew McLaughlin, spokesman for the city said the city believes the detour being placed around the structure will ensure public safety and at this point is not demanding that CityVest meet the 30 day deadline for the demolition which will cost between $800,000 and $1,000,000. WHAT! WHAT! If the building is going to collapse at any second, those freakin barriers are not going to do squat! Either the building is not ready to collapse or the city is taking the easy way out and putting people in harms way.

My second question is why 30 days? I'll tell you why, it's 30 days so CityVest can secure a government grant to wreck the place. That's why! CityVest is a shrewd group and they realize that they got the shitty end of the stick with the Sterling. The flood waters were just a great excuse to find the structure in danger of collapse so they can get a government grant to rip it down. There will be government dollars flowing into the area because of the flood and I bet they will get exactly what they need. One million bucks to rip down the grand old lady.

Question 3, did the city purposely let some flood water through those walls knowing that it would flow right into the basement of the Sterling? I don't know, but I wouldn't put it past the powers involved with this no win project. There is nothing like a good conspiracy theory and this could be the case here. The bottom line is the city of Wilkes-Barre along with CityVest let the Sterling deteriorate to the point of no return. Of course the place is going to hell with all the windows busted out, the roof leaking and the back torn off. What in the ever livin' hell did they expect. What did these morons think, everything inside would stay in pristine condition? I think this was a carefully orchestrated plan which will end up costing the taxpayers a bundle. The flood of 2011 was the perfect opportunity to raise the dagger and plunge it right into the back of the Hotel Sterling. In 30 days or so, we will be burying history here in Wilkes-Barre. That's one thing the city does very well.

Did They Tell Us Everything?

Now that the dust has settled or should I say the water has gone down, I have one nagging question that I can't get out of my mind. That question is, "Did our government officials tell us what was really going on?" In my mind the answer keeps coming up NO! On the Thursday of the flood, I went to bed with the river at 38.2 feet and a scheduled crest of 40.5 feet at 2am. Originally the crest was at 2am, then at 8pm and then back to 2 am. I'm sure this is not an exact science so I will give them a mulligan on this one. However, when I woke up on Friday morning, the river had crested at 2am as predicted but the level was 42.66 feet. WHAT! WHAT! That is over the 41 foot levee system! My family and I thought the worst. Now wait a minute, then we were told that the levee's structural integrity is good to 41 feet but the actual walls are 44 feet high. As I stated in an earlier Gripe, "When the hell were they going to tell us that one?" It seems that the mighty Susquehanna forced them to let that cat out of the bag. So why did the public not know this? My guess would be that if they told us 44 feet, people would not evacuate as quickly or at all when the crest is predicted at 40 feet. For some, a 4 foot cushion is no big concern.

Speaking of holding back information, I am not convinced that the problems in Forty Fort were simply boiling spots on the dry side of the levee. One of our Gripers, Bob W. and I walked the levee this past Monday and let me tell you, to me it does not look like boiling spots. The problem spot (pictured at the left) at the Forty Fort Cemetery looks like a possible structural problem with the levee itself. The engineers have at least 3 to 5 feet of rock, dirt and sand piled up right against the levee wall. If you walk on top of it you can easily see over the white retaining wall. To me this wreaks of the wall weakening under the stress of the water. Also in this spot you can see several bright orange paint lines that mark cracks in the levee walls. Are they surface cracks or structural cracks? My guess is we will never know. These highlights can be seen on both the Wilkes-Barre and West Side walls. This concerns me very much. If these are structural cracks, then we all better pray for a drought. Another long bout of rain could send the river up and the walls down.

Also on the Forty Fort side, we were informed that there was another boiling spot near the Luzerne County Soccer fields. During the flood, my contact in the nations capital called me and wanted to know what was going on with the police escorted Euclid dump trucks filled with rock and dirt? CNN had live footage of this convoy coming up Route 81 at a very rapid pace. Of course, we were told it was just some boiling and there was no need for concern. I beg to differ. If you look at the picture on the left, you will see the water gushing into the soccer fields from about a 30 foot wide area. I enlarged this picture so this gusher is very visible. To me, this does not look like some boiling of the river. It looks like the river cut through the ground under the dyke and surfaced there as it did in 1972. I will be interested to see what the river side looks like after the water goes down. I have a feeling we may be shocked at what we find. Again, lets hope they can get this repaired before another deluge of rain comes our way.

My sources tell me that there were spots in Wilkes-Barre and Kingston that also encountered some of this boiling. These reports cannot be confirmed. I will say this, our officials did do a great job to plug these problem areas up. A big two thumbs up go to their quick actions. If they didn't act quickly, the entire West Side would have been underwater. However, I do believe that they held back information from the public and that is not right. We have a right to know exactly what is going on and then react accordingly. I am sick and tired of our various levels of government allegedly knowing what is right for the people. They need to be honest no matter how grave the situation is.

Coming up on the R2G, shocking information concerning workman's comp, disability and illegal immigrants. Hold onto your hats because you will blow your stack!

A Flood Of Looters

It was announced today that a total of 12 looters were arrested during the great Flood of 2011 evacuation. 12, yes 12! This topic is a hot one everywhere especially on Facebook. Karen H. writes:

THIS INFURIATES ME! Apparently in the "Valley with a Heart", the cream doesn't rise to the top - the SCUM does. They should have been dropped right over the Market Street bridge. But now we (the taxpayers) have to fund 3 hots and a cot for these derelicts. I wonder how many of them are on welfare? Apparently what the government gives them isn't enough - they need to steal on top of it.

Karen, you nailed it clean here. As I Griped a few days ago, I hope these scum bag S.O.B.'s have their hands lopped off with a dull ax. After reading the responses in FB, most people agree. It is underhanded and as low as you can get to break into homes when people have been evacuated. Cudo's go to the Nanticoke, Kingston and Wilkes-Barre police for nabbing these idiots.

However, there was one bleeding heart and there always is who took offense to Karen's welfare connection to the looting. It would be interesting to know if they actually are on welfare and do the take or sell drugs. An evacuation is like a kings feast for low life scum buckets like these. Once they heard mandatory evacuation, their appetite for thievery bacame ravenous. I can see them know huddled in their low income housing units counting down the minutes until the sun set. Once this happened, they bolted like roaches from the floor boards. I have to tell you, this kind of shit really sends me over the edge. It makes you loose a little bit of faith in humanity.

Speaking of loosing faith, The Citizens' Voice reported: Around 12:20 p.m. on Saturday, Kingston police responded to a report of neighbors arguing and uncovered the burglary of 73 Eley St. Police said they learned Wilson, Wolfe and Zuccarro 9shown at the left), neighbors of the victim, conspired to steal a 42-inch plasma television, a desktop computer, $1,000 worth of DVDs, children's toys, a video game system, $450 in video games, and a DVD player. The items were located inside 83 Eley St., police said. They are charged with burglary, conspiracy, theft and reviving stolen property. All three were jailed in lieu of $30,000 bail.

Just so you know, that is a quote from the CV web site. I did not misspell receiving as they did. Figures, doesn't it! Anyway, you can't get much lower than that. Stealing from your neighbors. The only thing lower would be stealing from your relatives. I would guess that these low life, scum sucking, dirt ball bastards do that as well.

Flood Thoughts 2011

Major catastrophic events such as hurricanes, earthquakes and floods seem to bring the best and the worst out of people. By the way, NEPA had all of these events over the past few weeks. During times of tension and possible peril, people automatically lump themselves into three categories. They are the giving, the neutrals and the idiots. During the record Flood of 2011, we all probably encountered all three types. I know I did, especially the category of idiot. You see, I am a customer service manager for the local newspaper and unfortunately spoke with several unreasonable idiots over the past few days. Don't get me wrong here, I also spoke with many caring and understandable folks, however all you need is one or two idiots to ruin the feeling of many good calls. Being in the customer service business, you encounter these morons every single day and handle them accordingly. However, when these pinheads become abusive and unreasonable, that is when you want to blow you stack and ream them a new one. Anyway, during the Flood of 2011, I encountered all three of these groups of people so here is s rundown.

Group 1: The Caring and Understanding: Not much flusters these people. They understand the situation fully and respond accordingly. These are the people that usually work the shelters, run with the ambulance or help in any way that they can. These people evacuated and then came back in to help where ever they could. I met some of these folks up at the evacuation shelter at West Side Tech School. I give them a two thumbs up for what they do. They only call when the absolutely need to. They are level headed and easy going. I will tell you, this type of person is a pleasure to deal with. Anyone who works in customer service would give a right arm to take calls from these people all day. They are just plain good folks.



Group 2: The Neutrals: Basically, these people just keep to themselves. They really just don't give a rats ass. These people evacuated when told, stayed out and returned when the authorities gave the OK. This group makes up about 80% of the people out there. These are the people who will call when something goes wrong, you take care of them and they are happy. These people know right from wrong and respond accordingly. Again, in most cases these people are a pleasure to deal with because they have level heads on their shoulders. However, if you don't take care of them that's when they get a little worked up. I think most of us fall into this group. We do what is right and balk at the morons that always seem to cause problems.






Group 3: The Idiots: This group makes up about 10% of the populace and they just plain suck! I hate these morons with every fiber of my being. These are the pin heads that refused to evacuate in the face of immanent danger. These are the idiots that put their lives in danger as well as the lives of the rescue personnel who may have had to save them. You all saw the zipper head who tried to ride his bike through flood water and ended up hugging a tree because the water was chest deep. You FREAKIN' idiot! What the hell were you thinking? These are the people that live in the evacuation area and called our office wondering where their paper was. ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME YOU IDIOTS! These are the people who should be pistol whipped to within an inch of their worthless lives. These jokers are demanding, unreasonable and full of empty threats. These are the people who call and threaten with lawyers when the fact is they don't have a pot to piss in. To these assholes I say, "Drop dead you scum bag son's of bitches". You are useless sacks of shit. Go crawl back into your hole where you belong.

During these times of disaster, 90% of the people do the right things. However, that other 10% of idiots are the ones that demand the most and cause the most problems. These are the people who need to be neutralized. In my opinion if you didn't have enough common sense to evacuate when told, no rescue for you. Sit on your roof until the water goes done. If you are dumb enough to stand on a bridge when a house is plowing into it, so be it if the bridge collapses. If you are stupid enough to be on the levee taking pictures when the water was 3 feet from the top, then don't come crying to me when you slip off and get swept down stream. If you are insane enough to take a sight seeing tour with your boat, a case of beer and your dog then you are on your own. To sum it up, if you fall into the group of idiots, shut the hell up and suffer the consequences.

The Flood Of 2011

Mother nature threw us a hard slider on the inside corner this past week when a stalled front in the Ohio Valley and a slow moving hurricane off the east coast caused a funnel effect of precipitation which inundated NEPA for several days with 6 to 10 inches of rain. With the ground already saturated from Hurricane Irene, the Susquehanna River swelled to a record 42.66 feet sending 70,000 plus people running for cover. The mighty Susquehanna roared to heights which may have surpassed the epic Agnes Flood of 1972. The Right To Gripe along with family members abandoned our home and headed to the Red Roof Inn in Wilkes-Barre Township. I want to thank the Red Roof Inn from the bottom of my heart because they were the only hotel who would take our three boxers in this time of tragedy. I would also like to send our thanks to all of the workers, volunteers, police, fire and National Guard who have worked for countless hours keeping the people and their properties of NEPA safe. Enough of the pats on the backs because this is The Right To Gripe.

To the Quality Inn Suites and EconoLodge I say, "Go to hell you filthy sons of bitches", for not taking my family and our pets in because of your policies. They had available rooms but would not book one for us. In this time of need, you dropped the ball on the goal line as far as I'm concerned. I will never, ever stay in one of your hotels ever again and I recommend that readers of the Gripe follow!

To the scum bag bastards that were arrested in Wilkes-Barre for looting evacuated homes I say, "I hope they lop your hands off you dirty bastards. Only scum buckets like these would loot homes during an evacuation. Mayor Leighton reported that these low handed looters were arrested by Wilkes-Barre Police and members of the PA. National Guard. In my opinion they should have shot and asked questions later.

To the morons who didn't evacuate I say, "You are a bunch of stupid idiots!" If the river breached the levies which were untested at these historic levels you would have put the lives of rescue personnel in danger. It's one thing about putting YOUR useless lives in danger, but when you put someone else's in peril because of your total stupidity is uncalled for. At one point I sat watching reports about the levee in Forty Fort which had bubbling problems which caused water to leak into the dry side by the cemetery and soccer fields. As I watched, vehicle after vehicle passed by the reporter like it was a normal day. WHAT! WHAT! ARE YOU PEOPLE FREAKING IDIOTS! Of course you are. Get the hell out when you are told to.



To the National Weather Service I say, "What the hell are you doing?" They used faulty water level gauges to measure the river. Before I went to sleep on Thursday night, the river was at 38.6 feet and expected to crest at 40.8 feet. When I woke up at 7:00am on Friday morning, the river had just crested at 42.6 feet. HOLY SHIT BATMAN! This was 1.6 feet above the 41 foot protection limit set by the Army Corp of Engineers. You can imagine the terror on our faces when we heard that. We live 2 blocks from the river and could only think that our home is under water. However, WBRE Reporter Any Mehalshick reported that the levies actually have a 3 foot cushion. WHAT! WHAT! WHEN WERE THEY GOING TO TELL US THAT ONE! So in reality, the levee is 44 feet high but is guaranteed to protect us to 41 feet. This is good information for all of us to know.

Even during an evacuation, the R2G is on the beat. I will keep you all posted on the idiots, morons and atrocities that I encounter during the Flood of 2011.

A Tribute On Labor Day

On Labor Day we are supposed to celebrate the results of our hard work throughout the year. Many towns celebrate with parades while families gather for a cookout in the backyard or at the nearest park. However, Labor Day is not what it used to be. Labor Day has fallen by the waste side like Easter and Thanksgiving. If we didn't give gifts at Christmas, that would be in the shitter too. Now we celebrate the workforce here in the U.S.A. who toil their asses off for $8.00 per hour while management sits in their ivory towers trying to convince themselves that all their employees are thankful to have a job. The fact is, we the workers are sick and tired of getting dumped on! No raises, increased healthcare costs with less coverage, no 401K match and no god damn Christmas Parties or Clam Bakes. Its do more work for no more money. Pretty soon we will be doing everything with no one. It won't be long before unemployement reaches critical levels.

This Labor Day, think about all of the greedy corporations who have moved their operations to India, China and Indonesia. Think about all of the people who are out of work and cannot find a job. Think about all of the deadbeats who are milking the 302 million teats of the system while some of us work our rear ends off just to pay the freakin' utility bills. Think about the welfare sucking parasites who have no desire to find a job. Think about your paycheck and the 33% taken out for taxes that help to pay for these leaches. Think about your old job which was given to Peggy Patel who is working for $1.25 per hour in a shack in New Delhi. Peggy doesn't pay $3.85 for a gallon of milk. She just milks the cow in the backyard. Think about Ching Ling trouble shooting your computer when it crashes for $2.00 per hour. Ching has a chicken coop in his yard while we pay $2.00 for a dozen eggs. Hell, I would love to have a few chickens in my yard, but the town won't let me. It is against the borough ordinance.

On this Labor Day, sit down and thank the good lord that the company you work for has not outsourced your job. Pray to him to give our leaders the common sense to find a way to bring industry back home where it belongs. Most of all, pray to the big man upstairs to give us all the courage to rise up and scream, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore"! It's time to make things right again in America. It's time to reopen the mills and the factories so we can put Americans to work. It's time to bring the blue laws back closing stores on Sunday's so we can have one day of rest. It's time we stop buying the foreign junk made in third world countries before we become one ourselves. It's time to vote out politicians who just don't give a rats ass and put some in that do! It's time we take back what is ours so we can put America back to work. Don't ever forget that the most powerful group in the world is the American consumer. Let's make sure we use our power wisely.

Gripe Shots

Once again, I have a few Gripes that I have to get off my chest and you know what that means. YES, its time to slam down a few Gripe Shots. Get out the bottle, set down the glasses and strike the match. It's time to pull up a stool, belly up to the bar and let's throw down some Gripe







1. I am sick and tired of drivers here in NEPA. If you have ever turned right off of Third Ave in Kingston to get onto the Cross Valley, you must have encountered people who are turning left out of Church Street just cutting you off. For some god forsaken reason these idiots think that they have the right of way at this intersection. NO YOU DON'T YOU FREAKIN MORONS! No where in this country does a driver making a left turn across oncoming traffic have the right of way. I just don't get it! Of course when I am turning I cut them off before they make the turn which usually gets me a flurry of hand motions and an occasional F#*K You! To all of those jerks I say, "Kiss My Irish Ass"!



2. Is anyone other than me sick of hearing about Hugo Selinski? Yea, he allegedly murdered multiple people, yea he tried to make a daring escape out of the county prison using bed sheets and now he wants to represent himself in his trial which begins on September 19th. Selinski is charged with two murders back in 2002 and is just now coming to trial. WHAT! WHAT! That was 9 FREAKIN' years ago! This yo yo is going to turn the courtroom into a 3 ring circus. Hell, the Shriners may use him in the center ring for next years circus at the armory. All I know is I expect his ugly puss to be plastered all over the news in the coming weeks. There are many women who find Hugo very attractive. I simply find him to be a murdering idiot. I just threw up in my mouth.





3. The NCAA college preseason football polls are all out and what a joke they are. Every year the so called experts put out these bogus polls to start the season with the usual suspects right where they belong. Oklahoma, Alabama, Oregon, LSU are in order as listed by the AP and USA Today polls. Florida St. and Boise St. flip flop for 5th and 6th depending on what poll you are looking at. Let me tell you that these preseason polls just plain suck! I have done research over the past three years that proves these polls are worthless pieces of garbage. Only 49% to 53% of the teams ranked in the preseason polls are actually ranked at the end of the year. On multiple occasions preseason top 5 picks are out of the polls at the end. It's time we do away with these preseason rankings all together. The polls should not come out until at least 5 weeks into the season. PERIOD!

4. Over the past few years, the city of Wilkes-Barre has spent a boat load of money to do repairs to help alleviate flooding concerns at Solomons Creek. The city took out loans of up to $90,000 to repair the walls which was supposed to help with the flooding in the South Wilkes-Barre Area. Back in November Mayor Leighton proclaimed that this was only a "stop gap measure" and more funding is in the works. The city is looking for $50 million to $60 million to add flood walls and to do other structural repairs to the water system. Last weekend residence of the area were evacuated due to rising waters from Hurricane Irene. All I have to say is, "Where is the dough, rey, me Tom"? The people along this cess pool of a water way are sick and tired of running for cover every time it rains. There was tons of money to redo the sidewalks on the square but nothing to protect the citizens of Wilkes-Barre.

5. For the businesses who have cut back their staffing to critical levels I say, "Go into the bathroom and slice your own throats you scum sucking leaches". You would be doing us all a favor. Many businesses across the nation are cutting staffing levels to below functionality thus creating an overload on the poor bastards that remain in employment which results in poor service to their customers. While the big wigs up top continue to collect massive paychecks, the people in the trenches are getting bulldozed with work and lousy pay. Wake up you idiotic sons of bitches! You are just digging yourself a deeper hole due to the production of a poor product and a lack of customer service. Once the death spiral begins there is no turning back. Your business becomes that poor gazelle in the jaws of the 300 pound crocodile.

Now that I slammed down several shots of Gripe, I feel much better. If you have some Gripe that you want to get out, just let me know and I will throw it up. Believe me, you will feel much better when you see it in print. Remember, when in doubt just GRIPE IT!