Transit service cutbacks canceled The state has granted County Chief Executive Dan Onorato the authority to introduce a tax on alcoholic drinks of up to 10 percent and up to a $2-a-day tax on car rentals. Mr. Onorato would like to shift the burden of subsidizing Port Authority away from property taxes.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Transit service cutbacks canceled
Pennsylvania is famous for this. Pennsylvania does not create new jobs. Rather, Pennsylvania creates new taxes.
The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat may have just been fired
The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat The Mayor has 60 days to fill the positions before the City goes straight to hell.Interesting post.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Republicans shy away from proposed YouTube debate
These other Rs are chicken to face off in a modern format because they know that the older gentleman, Ron Paul, will crush them. Ron Paul rocks on the internet. Ron Paul has rocked at the last debates too.
Rudy has to play defense now and he is slipping. And, he'll slip farther and farther down in the view of the public.
Rudy has to play defense now and he is slipping. And, he'll slip farther and farther down in the view of the public.
Republicans shy away from proposed YouTube debate It looks like the Republican candidates for President won't have to answer questions from snowmen anytime soon, as their Democratic counterparts recently did.
Plans for a CNN/YouTube debate for the GOP seemed to be melting Thursday after front-runner Rudy Giuliani said scheduling conflicts would keep him away from the Sept. 17 faceoff. Formal invitations went out Thursday.
University Of Pittsburgh at Bradford - Maps & Directions
University Of Pittsburgh at Bradford - Maps & Directions Maps and Directions
Coach Ed, formerly of the Jewish Community Center of the South Hills swim team, TWIST, Tidal Waves, is about to begin a new coaching job. He is moving to coach Pitt Bradford.
Pitt Bradford is a Division III swim program, men and women. The pool is just 5 years old. The team is small and needs to grow.
Way to go Ed. We'll miss you.
NY Times article -- worthy of full reading. Many quotes of note.
Ron Paul - Presidential Election of 2008 - Elections - Candidates - Republicans - New York Times
The Antiwar, Anti-Abortion, Anti-Drug-Enforcement-Administration, Anti-Medicare Candidacy of Dr. Ron Paul
NY Times article on Ron Paul includes: Alone among Republican candidates for the presidency, Paul has always opposed the Iraq war. He blames “a dozen or two neocons who got control of our foreign policy,” chief among them Vice President Dick Cheney and the former Bush advisers Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, for the debacle.
Other interesting quotes from the article (slight edits). Do read the article.
- Ron Paul is the candidate of many people, on both the right and the left, who hope that something more consequential than a mere change of party will come out of the 2008 elections.
- Ron Paul is particularly popular among the young and the wired.
- Spreading a message has always been just as important as seizing office. Politicians don’t amount to much. But ideas do.
- Power asserted by modern presidents has been usurped from Congress, and that much of the power asserted by Congress has been usurped from the states.
- Ron Paul's vision has won most favor from those convinced the country is going to hell in a handbasket. His message draws on the noblest traditions of American decency and patriotism; it also draws on what the historian Richard Hofstadter called the paranoid style in American politics.
Quote with a minor factual blunder: Paul grew up in the western Pennsylvania town of Green Tree. His father, the son of a German immigrant, ran a small dairy company. Sports were big around there — one of the customers on the milk route Paul worked as a teenager was the retired baseball Hall of Famer Honus Wagner — and Paul was a terrific athlete, winning a state track meet in the 220 and excelling at football and baseball. But knee injuries had ended his sports career by the time he went off to Gettysburg College in 1953.
The fact is, Ron Paul became a swimmer after that knee injury. Swimmers are athletes too, even at Gettysburg College! Later in life, Ron Paul would be a 'swim parent' to his kids. His son become a nationally ranked butterfly swimmer while growing up in Texas.
- Ron Paul was annoyed by the evangelicals’ being so supportive of pre-emptive war, which seems to contradict everything that he was taught as a Christian.” The religion is based on somebody who’s referred to as the Prince of Peace.
- You cannot fake out markets, no matter how surreptitiously you expand the money supply. Spend more than you earn, and you are on the road to inflation and tyranny.
The quote above is a good one to remember when thinking about local politics and the operations of the URA and Grant Street politicians.
- For Ron Paul, everything comes back to money, including Iraq. “No matter how much you love the empire,” he says, “it’s unaffordable.” Wars are expensive, and there has been a tendency throughout history to pay for them by borrowing.
- Ron Paul (in the US House) warned against the rewriting of banking rules that laid the groundwork for the savings-and-loan collapse of the 1980s.
- Ron Paul tended his own Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE) and kept up his contacts with other market-oriented organizations.
- A heavily funded effort by the National Republican Congressional Committee tried to defeat Ron Paul. The National Rifle Association made an independent expenditure against Ron Paul. Former President George H.W. Bush, Gov. George W. Bush and both Republican senators endorsed Paul's opponent. Paul had only two prominent backers: the tax activist Steve Forbes and the pitcher Nolan Ryan. Ron Paul won.
- Republican opposition may not have made Paul distrust the party, but beating its network with his own homemade one revealed that he didn’t necessarily need the party either. Paul looks back on that race and sees something in common with his quixotic bid for the presidency.
- Ron Paul has been elected to the US Congress three times as a nonincumbent.
- Ron Paul is a politician of prodigious gifts.
- Ron Paul votes against pork-barrel spending even for his own district. In a rice-growing, cattle-ranching district, Paul consistently votes against farm subsidies. Ron Paul votes against FEMA and flood aid, and the district is along the Gulf. In a district that is home to many employees of the Johnson Space Center, Ron Paul votes against financing NASA.
- A newspaper in Ron Paul's district generally opposed him for re-election on the grounds that a “lone wolf” cannot get the highway and homeland-security financing the district needs.
- Ron Paul is a very charismatic person. He has charm. He does not alter his position ever. His ideals are high.
- “So many times, people say to us, ‘We don’t like his vote.’ But they trust his heart.”
- Admired for his fidelity to principle and lack of ego. “He is one of the easiest people in Congress to work with, because he bases his positions on the merits of issues.
Just last night on a local blog I ranted a bit about how the folks on city council rely upon back slapping and back stabbing. They don't have much else to go on. The working together of the council members was part of a discussion because of the cat license folly.
If I was on city council, I'd hope to be easy to work with because I'd be one who, like Ron Paul, bases positions on merits -- not political personalities.
- Ron Paul is independent but not ornery. Paul has made a habit of objecting to things that no one else objects to.
Right on! (I know, ... I'm quixotic and ornery.)
- In October 2001, Ron Paul was one of three House Republicans to vote against the USA Patriot Act.
-- In today’s Washington, Ron Paul’s combination of radical libertarianism and conservatism is unusual.
- Ron Paul’s ideological easygoingness is like a black hole that attracts the whole universe of individuals and groups who don’t recognize themselves in the politics they see on TV.
- To hang around with Ron Paul's impressively large crowd of supporters in Manchester, N.H., in June, was to be showered with privately printed newsletters full of exclamation points and capital letters, scribbled-down U.R.L.’s for Web sites about the Free State Project, which aims to turn New Hampshire into a libertarian enclave, and copies of the cult DVD “America: Freedom to Fascism.
Humm.... Are all newsletters 'privately printed?' Are there public printed newsletters? Is the NY Times a private or public newspaper?
Humm.... I've passed out the DVD, "America: Freedom to Fascism." It went to those at Pittsburgh's BootCamp (PodCamp). It isn't a 'cult' flick. It is a documentary.
Humm.... I use exclamation points and capital letters.... !!!! and even HUMMs too!!!!
Only the NY Times would us "U.R.L." with periods between the letters. OMG, tt is a web address. Big deal.
Humm.... the Free State Project is what it is. It is New Hampshire, as is Free Talk Live.
Ron Paul is not a conspiracy theorist. But the elitists at the NY Times is sure to interview a bunch of them to get quotes about Ron Paul for a feature on Ron Paul.
- Ron Paul's campaign is a clearinghouse for voters who feel unrepresented by mainstream Republicans and Democrats.
Great ending. But, the article did not end there. The NY Times article went on to editorialize with smugness. Ron Paul can be the next president of the United States because more people are upset with American politics than not.
The Antiwar, Anti-Abortion, Anti-Drug-Enforcement-Administration, Anti-Medicare Candidacy of Dr. Ron Paul
NY Times article on Ron Paul includes: Alone among Republican candidates for the presidency, Paul has always opposed the Iraq war. He blames “a dozen or two neocons who got control of our foreign policy,” chief among them Vice President Dick Cheney and the former Bush advisers Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, for the debacle.
Other interesting quotes from the article (slight edits). Do read the article.
- Ron Paul is the candidate of many people, on both the right and the left, who hope that something more consequential than a mere change of party will come out of the 2008 elections.
- Ron Paul is particularly popular among the young and the wired.
- Spreading a message has always been just as important as seizing office. Politicians don’t amount to much. But ideas do.
- Power asserted by modern presidents has been usurped from Congress, and that much of the power asserted by Congress has been usurped from the states.
- Ron Paul's vision has won most favor from those convinced the country is going to hell in a handbasket. His message draws on the noblest traditions of American decency and patriotism; it also draws on what the historian Richard Hofstadter called the paranoid style in American politics.
Quote with a minor factual blunder: Paul grew up in the western Pennsylvania town of Green Tree. His father, the son of a German immigrant, ran a small dairy company. Sports were big around there — one of the customers on the milk route Paul worked as a teenager was the retired baseball Hall of Famer Honus Wagner — and Paul was a terrific athlete, winning a state track meet in the 220 and excelling at football and baseball. But knee injuries had ended his sports career by the time he went off to Gettysburg College in 1953.
The fact is, Ron Paul became a swimmer after that knee injury. Swimmers are athletes too, even at Gettysburg College! Later in life, Ron Paul would be a 'swim parent' to his kids. His son become a nationally ranked butterfly swimmer while growing up in Texas.
- Ron Paul was annoyed by the evangelicals’ being so supportive of pre-emptive war, which seems to contradict everything that he was taught as a Christian.” The religion is based on somebody who’s referred to as the Prince of Peace.
- You cannot fake out markets, no matter how surreptitiously you expand the money supply. Spend more than you earn, and you are on the road to inflation and tyranny.
The quote above is a good one to remember when thinking about local politics and the operations of the URA and Grant Street politicians.
- For Ron Paul, everything comes back to money, including Iraq. “No matter how much you love the empire,” he says, “it’s unaffordable.” Wars are expensive, and there has been a tendency throughout history to pay for them by borrowing.
- Ron Paul (in the US House) warned against the rewriting of banking rules that laid the groundwork for the savings-and-loan collapse of the 1980s.
- Ron Paul tended his own Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE) and kept up his contacts with other market-oriented organizations.
- A heavily funded effort by the National Republican Congressional Committee tried to defeat Ron Paul. The National Rifle Association made an independent expenditure against Ron Paul. Former President George H.W. Bush, Gov. George W. Bush and both Republican senators endorsed Paul's opponent. Paul had only two prominent backers: the tax activist Steve Forbes and the pitcher Nolan Ryan. Ron Paul won.
- Republican opposition may not have made Paul distrust the party, but beating its network with his own homemade one revealed that he didn’t necessarily need the party either. Paul looks back on that race and sees something in common with his quixotic bid for the presidency.
- Ron Paul has been elected to the US Congress three times as a nonincumbent.
- Ron Paul is a politician of prodigious gifts.
- Ron Paul votes against pork-barrel spending even for his own district. In a rice-growing, cattle-ranching district, Paul consistently votes against farm subsidies. Ron Paul votes against FEMA and flood aid, and the district is along the Gulf. In a district that is home to many employees of the Johnson Space Center, Ron Paul votes against financing NASA.
- A newspaper in Ron Paul's district generally opposed him for re-election on the grounds that a “lone wolf” cannot get the highway and homeland-security financing the district needs.
- Ron Paul is a very charismatic person. He has charm. He does not alter his position ever. His ideals are high.
- “So many times, people say to us, ‘We don’t like his vote.’ But they trust his heart.”
- Admired for his fidelity to principle and lack of ego. “He is one of the easiest people in Congress to work with, because he bases his positions on the merits of issues.
Just last night on a local blog I ranted a bit about how the folks on city council rely upon back slapping and back stabbing. They don't have much else to go on. The working together of the council members was part of a discussion because of the cat license folly.
If I was on city council, I'd hope to be easy to work with because I'd be one who, like Ron Paul, bases positions on merits -- not political personalities.
- Ron Paul is independent but not ornery. Paul has made a habit of objecting to things that no one else objects to.
Right on! (I know, ... I'm quixotic and ornery.)
- In October 2001, Ron Paul was one of three House Republicans to vote against the USA Patriot Act.
-- In today’s Washington, Ron Paul’s combination of radical libertarianism and conservatism is unusual.
- Ron Paul’s ideological easygoingness is like a black hole that attracts the whole universe of individuals and groups who don’t recognize themselves in the politics they see on TV.
- To hang around with Ron Paul's impressively large crowd of supporters in Manchester, N.H., in June, was to be showered with privately printed newsletters full of exclamation points and capital letters, scribbled-down U.R.L.’s for Web sites about the Free State Project, which aims to turn New Hampshire into a libertarian enclave, and copies of the cult DVD “America: Freedom to Fascism.
Humm.... Are all newsletters 'privately printed?' Are there public printed newsletters? Is the NY Times a private or public newspaper?
Humm.... I've passed out the DVD, "America: Freedom to Fascism." It went to those at Pittsburgh's BootCamp (PodCamp). It isn't a 'cult' flick. It is a documentary.
Humm.... I use exclamation points and capital letters.... !!!! and even HUMMs too!!!!
Only the NY Times would us "U.R.L." with periods between the letters. OMG, tt is a web address. Big deal.
Humm.... the Free State Project is what it is. It is New Hampshire, as is Free Talk Live.
Ron Paul is not a conspiracy theorist. But the elitists at the NY Times is sure to interview a bunch of them to get quotes about Ron Paul for a feature on Ron Paul.
- Ron Paul's campaign is a clearinghouse for voters who feel unrepresented by mainstream Republicans and Democrats.
Great ending. But, the article did not end there. The NY Times article went on to editorialize with smugness. Ron Paul can be the next president of the United States because more people are upset with American politics than not.
Doyle hires O'Connor's son
Doyle hires O'Connor's son They replace Sabrina Saunders and Jason Tagano, both of whom were hired into Mr. Ravenstahl's administration in recent weeks.This is a very little "if." Hire O'Connor as his loyalty isn't with Ravenstahl. Hire Patterson as his loyalty isn't with Ravenstahl. Then the staff won't jump as quickly.
Asked whether he was upset that Mr. Ravenstahl hired away two of his staff members, he said that's 'not anything that serves any productive purpose to talk about, anyway. ... If we fight, we fight in private.'
Lots of Pittsburgh's politics is about jobs -- and even a mentality of 'taking food off of my plate.'
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Teeing Off - Rough questions about the mayor's golfing excursion - Views - Revelations - Pittsburgh City Paper
Pittsburgh - Teeing Off - Rough questions about the mayor's golfing excursion - Views - Revelations - Pittsburgh City Paper: "I just want to know the odds here."The odds are 100% certain that Luke is clueless about liberty, freedom and salvation for our city. Luke is cut from the same cloth as Onorato and crew. He won't fix the ills of the city. Those are the odds as I see them.
The Darn News: Open Up Your Heart And Let This Fool Rush In
Insightful quote:
The Darn News: Open Up Your Heart And Let This Fool Rush In It sounds like DeSantis will make the city's fiscal ruin his clarion call. Unfortunately, the only thing Pittsburghers find scarier than math is the Republican Party.Yes, DeSantis is going to make the city's folly in finances his 'clarion call.' Folks can move to Clarion County too. That gives new meaning to 'Clarion Call.'
Pittsburgh mayoral hopeful urges frank talk - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Pittsburgh mayoral hopeful urges frank talk - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review A 'citizen-police council' in which residents of high-crime neighborhoods would work with police officials to decide how to deploy police and other public safety resources.Sure. This is fine.
How about a policy move to end the war on drugs.
How about efforts to re-build the citizens police academy. We need to get some grass-roots leadership after the grass-roots people are in the know. I don't want dumb decision making because its all we know among the citizens.
Points from DeSantis might include -- more silly benchmarks -- oh no!
Pittsburgh mayoral hopeful urges frank talk - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Performance benchmarks from other U.S. cities would be pitted against specific accomplishments of Pittsburgh's public safety, public works and other departments and released to the public to encourage city managers to improve."This isn't what is needed.
The same type of thinking was used in the benchmarks of the Pittsburgh Public Schools as well, but at the other end of the silly spectrum.
People in Pittsburgh Public Schools don't often need to compare the performance between one city school and another. Rather, the comparison and contrast needs to be drawn among city schools and suburban schools.
If a family is going to one set of schools, they are not going to move, say from Lawrenceville to Greenfield. No way. They might move from the city to North Hills, West Allegheny, Woodland Hills, etc.
I want benchmarks that mean something.
Likewise, I don't need to see a suite of benchmarks about public safety from Pittsburgh to St. Louis and Kansas City. Families in Pittsburgh don't worry about the time of arrival of EMS vs. the time it would take if they lived in another city in another state.
Will quality of life be better in Butler, in Westmorland County, in Brentwood -- or in Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh mayoral hopeful urges frank talk - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Frank talk. Humm. Let's figure that frank talk falls flat when DeSantis predicts that he'll raise $500K. That's smack down talk when you want to burn a half-million and be proud.
Warts and all speak says the race can be won on spending $2 or $3.25 per voter.
Photo tag: Republican mayoral candidate Mark DeSantis contends he can raise $500,000 or more for his campaign. Incumbent Luke Ravenstahl has raised at least $713,582.
To raise that money is one thing. To spend it in meaningful ways is another. To burn it is even more of a shame.
The Pittsburgh Promise has $10,000, from one source. How about a pledge to the promise and then the $500,000 could go to better uses.
Creative ways exist. Burning money is status quo stupid. That's what Luke is going to do. I don't want a mayor that acts like Luke and those who have gone before him that have been pushing Pittsburgh to its ruin.
Warts and all speak says the race can be won on spending $2 or $3.25 per voter.
Pittsburgh mayoral hopeful urges frank talk - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review I want people to see everything, warts and all."
Photo tag: Republican mayoral candidate Mark DeSantis contends he can raise $500,000 or more for his campaign. Incumbent Luke Ravenstahl has raised at least $713,582.
To raise that money is one thing. To spend it in meaningful ways is another. To burn it is even more of a shame.
The Pittsburgh Promise has $10,000, from one source. How about a pledge to the promise and then the $500,000 could go to better uses.
Creative ways exist. Burning money is status quo stupid. That's what Luke is going to do. I don't want a mayor that acts like Luke and those who have gone before him that have been pushing Pittsburgh to its ruin.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Top Pitt defensive end arrested
Top Pitt defensive end arrested Pitt senior standout defensive end Joe Clermond was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana Saturday night.Darn it. Here comes more injury due to the senseless war on drugs.
A small amount of marijuana can lead to big troubles. That sucks. Pittsburgh's finest have important jobs to do. Sticking marijuana charges on a car load of young people after a hip-hop concert isn't a high priority.
[412] final call for cheap car, signatures for ballot, meeting Ron Paul and water polo
An email blast message was delivered:
[412] final call for cheap car, signatures for ballot, meeting Ron Paul and water polo [412] final call for cheap car, signatures for ballot, meeting Ron Paul and water polo
[412] final call for cheap car, signatures for ballot, meeting Ron Paul and water polo [412] final call for cheap car, signatures for ballot, meeting Ron Paul and water polo
Calling our Senior Senator with the message: SaveNetRadio and outfits like Pandora
Get this, Congress is doing too little and it is taking too long.
The pressure created by the amazing outpouring from listeners has forced Congress to sit down with all sides and ask them to negotiate a solution to ensure the long term viability of the Internet radio industry. However, these negotiations are proceeding at a much slower pace than anyone had hoped for, and, therefore, we need your continued help to keep the pressure on.
Senator, Arlen Specter heads an important committee with the power to move this issue forward. We are asking that you contact him immediately to ask for his sponsorship of the Internet Radio Equality Act, S. 1353.
Senator Arlen Specter: (202) 224-4254
Even if you have already called these offices once, please take the time and call again to ensure your voice is heard. If you have friends or family in your state who support Internet radio please ask them to call as well.
Without your support this bill would never have been introduced; your continued support will enable it to get passed into law.
Lake Jackson and Grand kids of Ron Paul -- Making Waves in Cyberspace
MyFox Houston | Ron Paul Making Waves in Cyberspace HOUSTON -- FOX in FOCUS: In this sometimes wacky new world in which everybody seems to be wired, the race for the white house has moved full-force onto the world wide web. Greg Groogan tells us how a dark-horse presidential candidate from Texas is carving out an unexpected degree of success in cyberspace.Nice video story.
Cat says -- just dodged a bullet. No license headaches today.
 |
| From people & vips |
Fred Thompson Shakes Up Campaign Staff -- GOPUSA
Fred Thompson Shakes Up Campaign Staff -- GOPUSA Details of Thompson's fundraising remain unclear, however. As an undeclared candidate, Thompson can raise money to ''test the waters'' without having to file public financial reports until he actually enters the race.The joke goes, rather than holding the next debate on YouTube.com, it should be held among the candidates on eBay. That way the politicians can more easily be purchased. (Not my joke.)
Words define mayoral actions
Words define mayoral actions - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "(verb) -- To argue or vigorously discuss matters of pressing importance. (Example: 'Dan, you want to go to The Carlton or the Paradiso for lunch today?')"
Follow up question at a debate: "What's for lunch?"
Probing question: "Are there free refills?"
2nd phase of condo project begins on S. Side Slopes
2nd phase of condo project begins on S. Side Slopes The developer, Coldwell Banker New Homes Division, will make tours of the model unit available after the 10:30 a.m. ceremony.Won't you be my neighbor!
With overlords in town, this is all the mayor is good for -- wearing a sandwich board and hucksterism.
When is the third, fourth and fifth ribbon cutting?
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Lane 9 News Archive: Braxton Bilbrey Swims Around Alcatraz
Lane 9 News Archive: Braxton Bilbrey Swims Around Alcatraz A year ago, 8-year-old Braxton Bilbrey became the youngest individual to swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco. Monday morning, Bilbrey swam around Alcatraz Island, covering the route in just under two hours. Bilbrey handled the route in one hour, 58 minutes, according to a report in the Arizona Republic.
Bilbrey negotiated 61-degree water and handled a distance of 3.5 miles, more than twice what he covered last year going from the former prison to San Francisco. Bilbrey was accompanied by his coach, Joe Zemaitis, and two other adult swimmers. They were followed by a support boat.
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