UPMC Sportsworks, Fastbreak for Families

On November 14, 2004, from 5 to 8 pm, join us at the North Side's Science Center / UPMC Sportsworks for Fastbreak for Families. Gratis entry, complimentary parking, but you have to pre-register, 412-308-6043 or eHines - at - Fatherhood dot org.

Election Day, 2004

Jon Delano rambled that I'll let you see his words in the comments and pass myself. Otherwise, I'm working and walking polls to meet and greet and generate awareness for 2005 when I'll be a candidate.

Election Night Parties

Got a party, let me know. Or, list them here yourself.

Want to roam to various parties, let's go together. Send an email to Mark.Rauterkus@gmail.com. Or, list your mentions here yourself.

I don't expect that we'll know the winner of the Presidential race by 11 pm or Thanksgiving. But, we'll know if Jack Wagner, Tom Corbitt, Melissa Heart and Tim Murphy won.

Has Many Faces

A Pittsburgh friend, Judith Rubin, Ph.D., has made a new film, Art Therapy Has Many Faces. She did the 51-minute production on her desktop. Wonderful outcome.

I've uploaded fresh cover artwork in PDFs, one for the VHS and another for the DVD. Cover Artwork Directory I don't have a color printer.

Next, efforts on a new web site and blog.

Turnout

PG reported on October 21, 2004: According to nearly final figures, Democrats registered 30,354 new voters after the April 27 primary to 15,792 for the Republicans, a ratio of 1.92 to 1. The total number of new registration, including those from third-party members and independents, came to 60,447, a figure that reflects the high level of interest in this year's presidential race.

So let's review the math:

Total new voters = 60,447.

New Dems = 30,354.

New GOPers = 15,792.

New Third party = 14,301 = (60,447 - 30,354 - 15,792)

The PG fails to say that the sum of the Indies, Libertarians, Greens, Constitutional, Socialist, and whatever else is nearly equal to the Republicans. When you put together the third party block and the GOPers, you exceed the Dems.

The Indie and third party numbers are charging, I dare say.

Trib & AP story on Track Star, Congressal Stars from Kansas

Nice story in the Sunday paper about track star, KS, Jim Ryun. This is an AP story and I couldn't find it in the archives of the Trib. Ryun was a brief part of a book I published, Time Out! I Didn't Hear You. And, he and his wife have been active in the hearing health world. Ryun took part in an online chat at the offices of the News Center. (searching Google) When will Pittsburgh candidates and politicians be invited to online chats?

Wilburn's concert invite for folk

I invite you to our opening of the Calliope Legends Concert 2004-2005 Season.

Kate Long & Robin Kissinger performs, Friday, November 5, at 8 pm at the First Unitarian Church in Shadyside, the intersection of Morewood and Ellsworth. They lead workshops in Story Telling and Flat Pick guitar on Saturday, November 6 from 2-5 pm at the church. http://www.southernohiostoryfest.com; http://www.fiddletunes.com/pages/robin.htm; http://www.fiddletunes.com/pages/katel.htm; www.katelong.com

Future dates:

Mindy Simmons, January 29, 2005 http://www.MindySimmons.com

Kreg Viesselman, February 19, 2005

Mojo Collins, March 19, 2005 with Workshop: Folk and Blues Roots

Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen, April 23. 2005

Rachael Allen, May 14, 2005

Calliope Legends Concert is our small venue concerts. Wilburn, a true running mate, chairs the committee and takes complete responsibility if you are not pleased with each performance. So mark your calendars. Don't forget that Calliope main concert series is bring Doc Watson, a fellow North Carolinian, to Pittsburgh, November 19 at the Carnegie Lecture Hall in Oakland. There are a few single tickets left: Proartstickets.oro or 412-394-3353.

Answer sought on parks

How would it feel if you went on a trick-or-treat voyage and knocked on 25 doors and nobody was home. I can live with 1 in 5 being home. But, to have a complete shut out sorta stinks.

Trib story: "They also complain that they get only vague answers or no answers at all from Onorato on what progress has been made. "

Folks, the parks budget for 2006, according to one oversight board, is set to $0. Zippo. We need to jump start this parks and recreation discussion ASAP. How about November third?

The non-profit is a bad idea. Moving parks to a new, public entity is a fine idea. Chatter is welcomed.

Wishing for Gov and PCTV 21 coverage

Rob Owens, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - A & E - TV/Radio, I really wish you'd look into the story unfolding about the RFP for the city cable television breau.

I had called Penn State University and tried to coax them into putting a proposal together for the RFP. They considered it at many levels. However, when they got their techie invovled, as they should, a tour request was made and denied by the city. The PSU folks asked to see the TV facilities and equipment. They missed the one tour date as the RFP was hardly visible.

The worse part, the city said it would be showing "favortism" if they gave a tour to a possible RFP participant. Get out!

When you are going down the tubes -- anyone who comes to save you is welcomed.

Dale, Rodney, Tom.... Thanks for proving again just how well you don't play with others.

Bogged down for Bloggers Touchdown

Sorry I could not make the recent bloggers function.

I asked for a copy of the "minutes" and got this reply... via email ... if you peek at the comments.

Net movie with political impacts

Some trusted friends aquired the rights to freely distribute Stolen Honor on the internet, www.unitedtruth.com.

There are no ads, no banners, no sign-ups. It's a 100% gratis download. Bandwidth should not be an issue. Back-up site

Any techies out there willing to be "mapmaster?"

We've got blogs, a Wiki, web server (just upgrading), mailing list, fax on demand, OpenOffice.org, a parks position paper, campaign song, and an ambition of a book or two. But, what I really want, besides the database management part (right Bob), is a concpet mapping tool such as Cmap Tools, http://cmap.ihmc.us/

See the comments to learn more and see their latest news release.

Interested, email me. We've got the server space.

Do hit all the blogs

Transportation

eVote

Sunnyhill

This is my main blog, but there are others, listed above and along the blog roll to the left side.

A weakness of Blogspot and Blogger (same company) is the lack of a feature that tags each article with different topic areas. When you have a lot going on, it doesn't all fit into one blog.

I think that the eVote effort could explode with election day. We knew this wasn't going to be resolved. The fix was in and it wasn't what we wanted to see. Marilyn Davis, Ph.D., a net friend and from Northern California was there at ground zero. She saw the people from the US Senator's office. See could see what was what.

I won't tell you what you are missing if you don't go there too -- just do it.

Mom's rally and Saturday's walk in the park

I've done a good job at staying OUT of the national race. For myself, I've been putting a focus on local issues and staying neutral otherwise. However, my oldest boy is gung-ho for Kerry. Perhaps I'll satisfy his political fix by taking him to this event this week end.

MOMS FOR KERRY RALLY THIS SATURDAY

Mothers across the country will gather in a demonstration of unity and support for John Kerry and our children. Special guest: Geraldine Ferraro. It is slated for Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004, at 3:00 pm at Frick Park, Braddock & Forbes.

By the way, Erik's mom, my wife, is in DC working and will be home late Saturday. Perhaps my wife has more in common with Geraldine. I might connect better with the moms and kids.

I do like the park setting too. I bet not many of the moms or dads there will be aware that the Citiparks budget for 2006 is slated to be $0.

Come to think of it, if we have great weather, perhaps we could go early and set up some badminton. We could "ruffle feathers" and collect email contacts.

Liquidation Signals Lord & Taylor's Final Days

ThePittsburghChannel.com - News: "PITTSBURGH -- Four years ago, hopes were high when Lord & Taylor announced it was moving into the old Mellon Bank building on Smithfield Street.

Today, the shelves are being cleared and a liquidation sale has begun at the latest major department store to leave Downtown and take taxpayer dollars with it.

Indeed, the times have changed in terms of hopes and perceptions being put forward by the media. The mayor was on a high in 2000 and 2001, in some circles. The new stores, the big roof at the convention center, and all the other corporate welfare deals. The city was flush with building jobs too, earning support from the construction trade unions too. Jobs were being filled by out of state workers.

But to the ones who were watching with more attention to detail and better senses of forcasting, things were not so good. Some knew that these projects were going to flounder and fail.

The African-American Workers Union picked for the first weeks of construction at PNC Park. PNC Park would open just weeks before the 2001 primary.

Heinz Field was to be home to the Pitt Panthers, but the lease to use the pro stadium was not signed until after Pitt's home stadium was demolished. Some knew it wasn't smart to take college football off of the campus every day of the year. Pitt would turn into a J.V. program to the Steelers. Heinz Field's first season was the same fall season of Mayor Murphy's re-election.

The Convention Center would open too, but someone forgot to build the darn hotel. So, we've got an expensive white elephant that can't ever be put to use at capacity as we can't accomidate the convention goers. Then came the pass-throughs.

Shop to you drop has new meaning in downtown these days. Four years ago, the media got drunk on the Mayor's costly bricks and mortar efforts. But for those of us who cared to stay involved, we knew big-time trouble was at our doorstep.

City's credit rating dips below a rock, at bottom of river

PG: S&P rates city's credit as 'watch' While supporting the nonbinding plan, Councilman Sala Udin still voiced worry about it, saying defaulting on the pension payment could have 'very serious consequences.

Duhh!

The curse of one party rule is next

Boston had its woes vanquished with the 2004 World Series. Poof.
Thanks to Dave's dad. See his blog post from Oct. 27.
Pittsburgh has its woes too, from nearly the same era. Our problem is one-party rule. The trend is starting. Pittsburgh, too, can vanquish its prime hang-up.
Who else among us are here to make history, and not be a slave of it.
Artwork above occurs on a t-shirt, for sale with the link that follows.

As the Sun, Earth and Moon align

City Council Overrides Mayor's Tax Discount Veto

ThePittsburghChannel.com - News - City Council Overrides Mayor's Tax Discount Veto October 27, 2004 -- Pittsburgh City Council voted to override Mayor Tom Murphy's veto of a plan to offer an additional one percent discount to those who pay property taxes during the first week of January...
Council President Gene Ricciardi's early tax payment plan is designed to increase the city's income in the first part of the year, which would reduce the amount of money the city would need to borrow to pay bills.

Craig Kwiecinski, the mayor's spokesman, isn't saying if Murphy will implement Ricciardi's plan.

Ricciardi and Councilman William Peduto said they're willing to withdraw the discount plan if Murphy offers better strategies for funding the city budget next year.

Flip-flopping at City Council had another highlight. First, the early bird plan gets passed. (Votes were 8-1.) Second, the mayor gives the plan a veto. Third, the veto is overcome (6-3). But, the mayor says he won't actually do the plan. Or, I should point out, the mayor says he won't follow the law.

City council sets the laws. City council is the legislative branch. Meanwhile, the mayor is the administrator and he chooses to NOT follow the law.

Furthermore, City Council President won't insist that the Mayor follow the plan. The early-bird plan won the hour, came into being, but it won't happen. It's official. But, it's to be ignored.

The plan's prime sponsor, City Council President, Gene Ricciardi, won't hold the mayor's feet to the fire on this. Rather, Gene said he won't be an obstructionalist and press for its enactment.

There is some question if this new bit of legislation is something that would be trumphed by the oversight bodies, such as the Act 47 Coordinators. However, much can be said that a discount period is not really another form of lowering taxes.

So, the Mayor gets off the hook as none are going to hold his feet to the fire. And, should there be a real plan from the administration, those that passed the law would issue a flip-flop.

Impacts on home owners

City home owners are still facing a real threat of a 34% increase in property taxes. Even if the budget gets a final hour switch (another flip flop) the expected tax increase on property is set for 5%. Other taxes are going up too, of course.
If you have your mortgage with a holding company, by law, so I understand, the company needs to take advantage of any discounts. Taxes are often a portion of the payments home-owners to be make as part of their home payment, interest, and such. If the bank holds the note to the house, and if the bank pays the taxes as well, the banks are forced to take advantage of the savings for the extra discounts.

Blame game

From time to time, I think it is fine to fix blame on certain problems and people. As an outsider, I should play the blame game more often and with greater intensity.

See the comments to find out who is being blamed for the national debt.