How Big Paul gave his family 10 million dollars

TidbitsThursday, June 21, 2007 By: Leslie K. PaigeWastewatcher, June 2007
Congressman Kanjorski (D-Pa.) joins a mushrooming list of members of Congress whose earmarking habits are getting a lot of media attention.
Over an eight-year period, Rep. Kanjorski steered $10 million in earmarked federal funding (from the Energy and Defense Departments, as well as the Economic Development Administration) to Cornerstone Technologies, LLC, which employed his four nephews and his daughter as either owners or board members.
The ostensible purpose of the grants was to do research on using high-pressure jets of water to pulverize anthracite into microscopic particles for subsequent use in vehicle parts.
Cornerstone has now declared bankruptcy, but while contracts were flowing, the company was paying hefty salaries to at least two of Kanjorski’s nephews.
Not only was Cornerstone funded with federal contracts, one of its affiliates, Pennsylvania Micronics, run by other Kanjorski relatives, also benefited from subcontracts.
A former head of Penn State’s Energy Institute is quoted in a June 3, 2007 Scranton Times-Tribune as saying “It was like the Three Stooges meet anthracite.”
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FOX NEWS EXPOSES KANJORSKI!

Fox News recently ran a show entitled Porked, showcasing three members of Congress who used taxpayer money via earmarks to benefit themselves or their families.
And our own Paul Kanjorski was the star of the show.

If you've gotten this far, you have already read the saga of Cornerstone.
What you possibly didn't know was that the gentleman who was the main focus of the interview, Joe Yudichak, had been friends with Kanjorski for over thirty years!

And of course Kanjorski refused to face the truth once again,
stating in an e-mail response to Fox News ,(he refused numerous requests for an interview) that the whole thing was a Republican smear job.
He made this claim in spite of the fact that the other 2 members of Congress exposed on the show were Republicans.

The interview also showed how he will step over anyone who gets in his way.
Mr Yudichak surely had nothing to gain by coming forward, in fact some people will hold a lesser opinion of him for having done so.

I,and anyone who is sick of Kanjorski playing us for fools, will not be one of them.

I applaud Mr. Yudichak for his courage, and I trust he will show the same resolve when Congress starts the inevitable ethics violations against Mr. Kanjorski.

To view the segment regarding Cornerstone,watch the video:





END OF POST

I'm Not The Only One.

I'm glad to find that other people see Paul Kanjorski for the
posturing politician that he is. I just wish that I had thought
of calling him "Paulie the K".

The following story appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:
Click on the READ MORE to see the entire story, then click on Home
to return here.

By Colin McNickle
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, May 4, 2008
The New Deal never dies; it merely comes back as a new shade of pig lipstick.
Witness a proposal by U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., who's represented the 11th Congressional District over in Northeastern Pennsylvania since what seems like the 18th century but actually since 1985.
Talk about beating a dead gasoline pump: Mad as hell at Big Oil and urging the public to "shout out, dammit, we've had enough," he's back with the latest incarnation of his Consumer Reasonable Energy Price Protection Act.
Not only does Paulie the K want a "windfall profits tax" on oil and gasoline, he proposes the establishment of a "Reasonable Profits Board" to determine when those earnings exceed a "rational" threshold.
Can you imagine empowering the government to determine when your profits no longer are "reasonable" and "rational"? This is Orwellian nuttiness incarnate, the stuff not only of misguided New Dealism but of communistic five-year planning.
First, the more you tax something, the less you get of it. In this case, that means less domestically discovered and procured oil and refined gasoline and more foreign oil. Right-wing theory? Hardly. Review the data from the 1980s, the last time "windfall" oil profits were taxed:
Domestic production dropped between 3 percent and 6 percent and dependence on foreign oil increased between 8 percent and 16 percent, reported the Congressional Research Service.
How Kanjorski concludes his proposal would force oil companies trying avoid a tax on their "windfall profits" to reduce prices suggests a very nasty case of brain flatulence. What's more likely to happen? Unable to maximize the return on their investment, oil companies would start withholding product, diverting it where they can. It's like handing the Chinese an endless supply of succulent Cantonese roast duck.
Second, an analysis by the Tax Foundation (in 2005) found that, since 1977, governments collected tax revenues "more than twice the amount of domestic profits earned by major U.S. oil companies." Of course, Congressman Kanjorski's "windfall profits" levy would not apply to the only true "gouger" in this equation -- state and federal governments.
Third, there are many other industries whose profits per dollar of sales equal or exceed those of Big Oil; they're not targeted by Kanjorksi. Apparently, "windfall" is in the blind eye of the tax 'em beholder, usually holding a lifetime membership in The Club for the Economic Ignorami.
Fourth, this concept of a "Reasonable Profits Board" is an incredibly slippery slope that, when applied by slippery politicos, could leave no business standing. Today, Big Oil; tomorrow, Big Software. Why risk any investment when the extent of your rewards is either predetermined by government or trampled by government when your enterprise is "too successful"?
Indeed, gasoline prices are high. The demand curve has exploded; the supply curve would be wise to ingest a cocktail of Viagra and Cialis. Greater domestic drilling and refining capacity would go a long way to start fixing the problem. It also would send a strong message abroad and bolster the weak dollar, said to account for about $40 of each barrel of crude.
As for Paul Kanjorski, let's try a windbag politicians tax.
Colin McNickle is the Trib's director of editorial pages. Ring him at 412-320-7836. E-mail him at: cmcnickle@tribweb.com