As fit citizens, neighbors and running mates, we are tyranny fighters, water-game professionals, WPIAL and PIAA bound, wiki instigators, sports fans, liberty lovers, world travelers, non-credentialed Olympic photographers, UU netizens, church goers, open source boosters, school advocates, South Siders, retired and not, swim coaches, water polo players, ex-publishers and polar bear swimmers, N@.
Running Mate Rick Hays is supporting Mark DeSantis. He has sent a letter to the P-G giving props. As I get the 'green light' to publish it -- it will appear here.
kdka.com - Reviews Mixed For Ravenstahl's Year In Office Reviews Mixed For Ravenstahl's Year In Office (KDKA) PITTSBURGH He never expected to be mayor so soon, but from his first hours in office, Luke Ravenstahl was determined to demonstrate he was up to the job.
Luke has stepped to the plate.
That must be the only highlight, other than time with stars and celebs.
Determination. Keep on plugging.
Humm...
Budget and safer streets are the only props even Luke can claim for himself.
If Luke is going to get rewarded for determination and keeping on keeping on -- then this is good news for me. There are few that 'plug along' as I do. I've been running for office since 2001. I've been calling for public hearing in city council chambers, fighting the growth of UPMC, since 1999.
David Tessitor, Reform Party candidate for Allegheny County Council's at-large seat had an article printed in this week's P-G. He has started a new website for the campaign as well at www.tessitor.com.
Fund bridge repairs, not sprawl and speculation Fund bridge repairs, not sprawl and speculation To prevent calamities like the Minneapolis bridge collapse, we need to spend our money more wisely Wednesday, August 29, 2007 By David Tessitor
Pittsburgh’s New Arena: Back to the Future? | News | Architectural Record “The Penguins have never been a friend of the Hill District, as far as I’m concerned,” Lois M. Cain, a long-time Hill resident and activist, said at a public meeting in June. As to any agreements about community benefits and accommodations from a new stadium, she warned, “You better make sure it’s legal and it’s in writing.”
The "Real ID Act" Rebellion is hitting full stride in Pennsylvania -- now. Your help is needed.
In 2005, Congress passed the "Real ID Act" in attempt to make a SINGLE form of identification linked to all sorts of personal information. Across America, states are in OPEN REBELLION against this infringement of both personal and state's rights!
Now the Bush Administration has unveiled plans to tie the United States, Mexico and Canada into an information-sharing "North American Union." Hey folks – let's share all our personal information with Mexico!
Pennsylvania is not amused. Our state is NOW CONSIDERING H.B. 1351 by Rep. Sam Rohrer that would REJECT the implementation of Real ID in the Keystone State. If passed, we would be the 5th State to outlaw the outrage, while another 16 have passed some form of resolution against it.
WE MUST WORK TOGETHER TO GET HB 1351 PASSED IMMEDIATELY!
Call your state legislator and ask him/her to CO-SPONSOR HB 1351. (The numbers below get you into the clerk's offices of the House and Senate.) Ask for your representative/senator, or go to www.legis.state.pa.us to look up your member by name, district, or zip code.
The message is simple: VOTE YES ON H.B. 1351!
House Clerk #: 717-787-2372 Senate Clerk #: 717-787-7163
Web Helps to Amplify Presidential Campaign Of Iconoclastic Texan By JACKIE CALMES
Computer engineer Jonathan Morey says, "I have never voted for a Republican, ever." Nathan Hansen, a lawyer, says, "I've been a Republican all my life." Yet a political meeting in St. Paul, Minn., brought the 31-year-old friends together for the first time -- in support of presidential candidate Ron Paul. QUESTION OF THE DAY
Officially, Mr. Paul is a Republican, elected to Congress 10 times and now running for the party's presidential nomination. But the party label hardly describes the obstetrician from south of Houston. And it certainly doesn't explain his appeal to a growing, if still small, number of voters across the political spectrum, many of them much younger than their spry 72-year-old idol.
The iconoclastic "Dr. Paul" is a libertarian advocate of minimalist government, a foe of the Federal Reserve and anything else not explicitly allowed by the Constitution, and perhaps the most antiwar candidate in the race. Thanks to the unprecedented number of early debates, he has been able to share the stage with his better-funded Republican establishment rivals.
But it is the Internet that has amplified his message and introduced Mr. Paul to voters alienated from both parties. His rise, though modest, is testament as well to the power of his noninterventionist message, even in a party led by President Bush. [Jonathan Morey]
As polls track the public's disaffection, political strategists are on alert for a third-party movement. Paulites insist their man can win the Republican nomination, though he has gone from zero to just 2% in polls. If he can't, their fervor suggests they would push him to run independently. But having run as a Libertarian in 1988, when he took just 0.47% of the vote, Mr. Paul has discouraged such speculation.
The Web "is redefining what a grass-roots campaign looks like," says Mr. Morey, the computer engineer. More than other candidates' fans, Paul supporters take matters into their own hands, planning events and raising money in a decentralized process that parallels Mr. Paul's vision of what government should be. Aside from his own Web site, there are free-lancers' DailyPaul.com and RonPaulLibrary.org ("the world's largest collection of writings by Ron Paul"), among others, MySpace "friends" groups and YouTube video-sharing.
It has meant $3 million to Mr. Paul, making him fourth among eight Republicans in fund raising and first among the five dark horses in cash on hand. But the netroots' bottom-up energy poses challenges, too, for a campaign trying to channel if not control it. "We're running a campaign, and we'd like to think we know what we're doing," says deputy campaign manager Joe Seehusen. "And then there's this thing called the Internet, and that has a life of its own."
Messrs. Morey and Hansen met late last spring at a local Paul gathering they had learned of through Meetup.com. Such social-networking Web sites have become an organizing and fund-raising tool for other campaigns, but they are particularly valuable for shoe-string operations such as Mr. Paul's.
RIDE A DARK HORSE
• The Man: Rep. Ron Paul barely registers in presidential polls, but the Republican's libertarian, iconoclastic positions draw growing support from across the political spectrum.
• The Plan: Through the Internet, fervent 'Paulites' have built the candidate's modest warchest and helped raise his profile in straw polls.
• The Upshot: Paul remains among the longest of longshots in his party, but supporters insist the Internet has empowered grass-roots efforts such as theirs.
The men recall about 30 people at that meeting, a number that grew at subsequent gatherings to more than 200 before members began breaking into subchapters. The pair still occasionally attend Minneapolis-area gatherings, but mostly they have taken to acting independently. Though from different parties, they got behind Mr. Paul for similar reasons: They share his stands against what they see as an illegal war, erosion of individual rights and a government that is too big, secretive and corrupt.
Mr. Morey, who bikes to work in T-shirts he emblazoned "Who is Ron Paul?," drove alone to Iowa in June, after learning online that Mr. Paul was being excluded from a Republican debate co-sponsored by the Iowa Christian Alliance and Iowans for Tax Relief. Organizers said Mr. Paul didn't have enough support. In Des Moines, Mr. Morey joined about 1,000 others responding to online alerts. Outnumbering the debate audience, they marched past shouting "Ron Paul! Freedom!" and drew sympathetic media attention statewide. [Nathan Hansen]
In early August, on a lark, Messrs. Morey and Hansen drove south to Iowa State University for state Republicans' straw poll, a traditional barometer of candidate strength in the state with the first nominating contest. The decisions of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson not to actively campaign for the poll raised the stakes for underdogs like Mr. Paul.
Rivals, especially wealthy former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, bought thousands of the $35 tickets that supporters need to vote. Paulites launched "Adopt an Iowan" online and raised more than $19,000 for tickets. While Mr. Romney had buses, hotel rooms and meals for his supporters, Messrs. Hansen and Morey came at their own expense, as did hundreds of others from as far as New York, Nashville, Tenn., and Seattle, even though only Iowans could vote.
Arriving on the Friday before the straw poll, the two headed to a live-music club on the campus for "Ronstock" -- Paulites' Woodstock of local bands, though the men were too late to catch Mr. Paul's brief appearance. Mr. Paul punctuated his stump speech -- "Regardless of what happens, the fight continues" for "national sovereignty and to defend our Constitution" -- by urging supporters to have fun.
On Saturday, Messrs. Morey and Hansen pulled into a parking lot alongside Romney buses. As mostly older passengers marched off in line behind Romney aides holding "Follow Me" signs, the two men chuckled at the contrast with the free-thinking, free-lancing Paulites.
The Iowa Republican Party rented space to candidates. Mr. Paul had one of the smaller, most isolated locations, but his tent was among the most crowded despite scorching heat.
Unsure how to help, the friends drove to a Sam's Club and spent $100 on bottled water. They walked around with a cooler in their "Who is Ron Paul?" T-shirts, doling out bottles to parched Republicans. That night, long after most people left, scores of Paulites stayed for the straw-poll results: Mr. Paul was fifth of 11 candidates, with 9.1% -- nearly twice the tally of absentees McCain, Giuliani and Thompson combined.
On Aug. 23, the men learned from a Meetup group of a Minnesota straw poll, sponsored by Republican state legislators for $100 a ticket, to be held that night. "I was a little hesitant to go and spend a hundred bucks," Mr. Morey said, "but I'd driven all the way to Iowa for a straw poll, so..."
They joined roughly 150 voters, he said, and Mr. Paul came in third with 16%, behind Mr. Thompson's 21% and Mr. Romney's 20%. Mr. Paul has placed high at a series of local party straw polls this summer, given such self-motivated fans, and has high hopes for tomorrow's Republican straw poll in his home state.
Messrs. Morey and Hansen insist Mr. Paul "absolutely" has a shot at election. Mr. Morey says he used to lose sleep thinking of the country's problems. "Now I sleep fine at night," he says, "because I'm taking action."
I hate secrets. Everyone in Pittsburgh hates them too. We are nebby.
Luke, it isn't going to work. It looks bad. It is bad policy. It is not what public officials are to do.
Here are the four cornerstones of my ideal and what I want to be and project:
I care. I think it is important to have care and concern for others and our shared spaces. And, I want to be able so say I offered care too. I care for my kids as a stay-at-home-dad.
I want to be loving. Love is what makes the world go around -- beyond the science of it all. I love the city. The love I have for family and friends should not be questioned. I offer tough love advice -- but they come from a love of coaching and a love for the hope of improvements. I'd love to make this world better. I love to talk about and advance solutions, mine and from elsewhere.
I am open. There is nothing to hide when you do you best and give your all. When things are open, things can improve. Issues can be talked about, in the open. The best solutions can be found -- when things are open. Be open for business, remarks, attacks and contributions.
I want to be honest. Facts, data, research and objective observations are necessary. We can't fool ourselves and others. We can't ignore issues, problems and people for any reason. Lies stink. So do half-truths.
Update: The letter was released by the Ethics Hearing Board today.
Pittsburgh Laurels & Lances - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review On the 'Watch List': The Mark DeSantis campaign. Pittsburgh's Republican mayoral nominee has named a seven-member policy team. And with it, a bunch of catch slogans. But two months before the Nov. 6 election, there remain no specific policy proposals. The time for those proposals to be unveiled was weeks ago. Time is running short. Specifics, Mr. DeSantis, specifics.
Watch, watch, watch how much coverage the Trib gives to specifics I've put forth for the city controller's race.
He was due for his execution in Texas. The Governor said he can live.
Kenneth Foster, Jr. (born October 22, 1976) is a prisoner formerly on death row in Texas. He was convicted of murdering Michael LaHood in August 1996. His conviction and execution were contested because he was convicted under a law of parties, not for physically committing the crime. He got a reprieve from the Governor of Texas only a couple hours before the execution, which was supposed to take place on August 30, 2007.
Republic Magazine - Home On September 10th, the Patriot community will get it's second installment of the REPUBLIC MAGAZINE. This special issue features the cover story on Ron Paul. While Dr. Paul is continually being downplayed and ignored by the mainstream media, patriotic Americans and even Canadians are rallying behind this Texas Congressman.
Learn why you should also listen to what this presidential hopeful has to say and why we feel that he is the only candidate worth voting for in this election. Could he be the savior of this great nation? Find out in the coming issue.
Also featuring: 60 Second Activism, Activist Profile- “Ron Paul MeetUp Austin”, Learn how to live 'Off the Grid' with this feature on Organic Gardening, 9/11 Six Years Later, Constitutional RE-Education and The End of the IRS Pt 2.
Find patriot owned businesses with products and services that could help you live out the dream of our forefathers in our patriot pages.
PRE-ORDER YOUR BULK ACTIVIST COPIES NOW. We have opened the doors for you to pre-order 25, 50, 100 copes or more of this special issue. Republic Magazine is the perfect tool to wake up the American people to the evil acts that are methodically eroding our freedoms. Order now before we sell out!
Wellstone Action is a non-partisan non-profit based out of St. Paul, Minnesota. Based on the late Senator Paul Wellstone's model, we integrate grassroots organizing, electoral organizing, progressive public policy and ethical leadership.
Video and hype:
Camp Wellstone runs from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, September 14-16 in Pittsburgh.
Many people in power today - regardless of political party or ideology - could do a better job of improving our communities. We need new leaders who understand what it means to send a loved one off to war, teach in a classroom without textbooks, or have to choose between paying for healthcare or buying diapers.
We can't sit around and wait for those leaders. It's up to us to make a change. Join Wellstone Action for a training in Pittsburgh!
Camp Wellstone is a weekend-long training that develops grassroots organizing skills for people interested in making change on issues, electing progressive candidates, or running for office themselves.
Get the skills you need, to make the change you want to see in your communities.
There are skills for everyone’s needs. Check out the different tracks:
* Candidate track. This is for people who have made the decision to run for office. * Campaign track. This track focuses on how to be an effective staff or volunteer member of a winning progressive campaign. * Citizen activist track. For people interested in citizen lobbying, issue advocacy, and community organizing, this track provides skills in how to win on issues.
The cost is $100 or just $50 for students, low-income, or unemployed participants. Camp participants are responsible for their own accommodations. The training location will be announced to registered participants.
If you have questions about Camp Wellstone training, contact Jen Haut at or call 651-645-3939 or www.wellstone.org.
Hope that the Steelers were not taking a shower at the time and the water pressure for the team went low.
Perhaps we could train Steely McBeam to fix water main breaks -- like a modern John Henry or Joe Magarac.
The "infrastructure" of the city looks bad -- and is bad -- next to what UPMC is doing with its finances and investments. UPMC's CFO (Chief Financial Officer) was on Grant Street today, in city council chambers, talking to PA Senators, about investments in capital that the "health empire" (so says Jim Ferlo) is and has made in recent years.
Meanwhile, the city of Pittsburgh has had recent years with $0 in its capital budget. ZERO.
Orange is the new pink, just as Libertarians are the new reformers!
Make last splash best of the season - CNN.com Tutera, host of 'Party Planner with David Tutera' on the Discovery Home Channel, has created Gatsby-esque pool parties in white and patriotic tributes in red, but he says, orange is the shade of the moment.
The full statement will be sent to the committee via email.
Welcome to Pittsburgh.
I protest the fact that I was NOT able to speak at a PUBLIC HEARING.
Advance notice was given.
Only 4 minutes was requested.
I have experience in professional life with nonprofits:
Work settings include: Gov, nonprofit sports/athletics, public schools, private schools, private clubs, public universities, private universities, religious universities
As an advocate, I worked to fight against UPMC's expansion on the South Side, 1999
Our Libertarian Party, the party of principle, has different perspectives and they need to be told as the solutions of Geo-Libertarians provide common sense.
I've called for the Pgh Service Fund (nonprofit co-op) to issue a self-imposed moratorium on land expansion.
Problem is not the tax free status, rather the swelling of the nonprofit footprint. The expansion of un-taxed land needs to be reversed. The way to 'tighten the belt' or 'get a grip' is to have the nonprofits inventory of land be understood, documented with strong, clear inventory.
That is the work of the City Controller.
That is an open source process and solution.
The nonprofits need to reduce total land holdings by 1% each year for 15 years.
Messing with Act 55, without getting to the root of the problem would cause more serious problems.
Politicians in Pennsylvania are great at the creation of new taxes, not new wealth nor opportunities.
Tax anything that moves
Tax most things that are not moving that are valued – like parking
As taxes increase and conditions change, people vote with their feet and depart the region and state.
Many institutions have departed the city:
Shady Side Academy, a prep school, is not in Shadyside. (see comments)
North Catholic, Luke's old school, is moving out of Allegheny County.
Alcoa moved its corporate headquarters to NYC.
MN's Mayo Clinic, like UPMC, has branches in Florida, East Coast, etc. OUTSIDE home state.
UPMC can open other non PA sites. UPMC can move. UPMC moved it admin to USX Tower, downtown. Moved Children's Hospital out of Oakland. Purchased hospitals in Braddock, and elsewhere.
Nonprofits should build UP – not out. Curtail land expansion. Make urban density.
News coverage from the event, as per the Post-Gazette.
State Senate reviews nonprofit law State Senate reviews nonprofit law Thursday, August 30, 2007 By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette State senators faced off with hospitals today in an early round of what could be a lengthy debate on how much nonprofit organizations pay to local governments. The occasion was a senate fact-finding hearing in Pittsburgh Council Chambers on Act 55, the 1997 law defining nonprofit groups and their payments to governments. 'The act has worked very well,' said Thomas Boyle, a lawyer for Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney who represents hospitals including the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
The news of the Libertarian was on the front page of The Pitt News today. The article gives some nice insights to Tony Oliva. He has plenty of good connections with Pitt.
The article includes a photo of Tony and a mention of myself.
Who among us have heard of ultimate frisbee?
The rest of the story:
Oliva, a 27-year-old Pitt student, is running on the Libertarian ballot on Nov. 6 against current Democratic mayor, Luke Ravenstahl, Republican candidate Mark DeSantis and Ryan Scott of the Socialist Worker's party. He replaced Libertarian Mark Rauterkus on the ticket.
In 1997, Oliva came to Pitt as a freshman football player. After a devastating car accident during his sophomore year, his injuries forced him to quit football and take time to heal. Now, he is back. He has replaced football with Ultimate Frisbee and is working on his second degree at Pitt.
"[The accident] really taught me the lesson that you can't just go through life thinking everything's going to be great," Oliva said. "You have to be ready to deal with and overcome adversity in any form."
In the wake of his injury, another tragedy struck. Sept. 11 inspired Oliva to join the army and become an airborne paratrooper.
But in 2003, Oliva made his way back to Pitt.
"I'm originally from New York, but something about Pittsburgh latched onto me, and I had no other desire to go anywhere else," he said.
This loyalty to Pittsburgh, coupled with Oliva's fatigue with the current status of the city, made him decide to run for mayor.
"We need some new ideas and new thinking because things are broken," Oliva said.
His Libertarian viewpoint gives tax cuts a significant position in his agenda - but Oliva is very specific about where he thinks Pittsburgh's money should be saved and where it should be spent.
"It's a party that wants to stay out of your pocketbook and out of your social life," said Oliva, who cites his inability to understand why the government keeps "needing money, but not changing anything."
"I like low taxes," he said. "I think that people can use their money in more productive ways than government can oftentimes."
Though an advocate for people controlling their own money, Oliva says he is opposed to cutting social programs - to an extent.
"A person may stumble or trip, and it's always good to have someone there," he said. "I just don't think we should carry someone for their whole life."
If elected mayor, Oliva pledges to make his priorities known. For example, he said that one of the ideas that had been run through Pittsburgh legislatures involved cutting funding for police and firefighting forces.
"Yes, the city could gain money," he said. "But it could also burn to the ground."
As a Pitt student, Oliva says he understands the post-graduation predicament that many face: stay or leave?
"Pittsburgh has become an old town," he said. "A large number of kids are forced to leave because it's not financially viable to stay in Pittsburgh."
His plan? To draw businesses back to Pittsburgh and jumpstart the flow of both jobs and money, thereby appealing to a younger generation. And again, this leads back to lowering taxes.
"We have driven small businesses out with high taxes," he said. "I want to draw them back so people can have opportunities to work in good, well-paying jobs."
And on the other end of the spectrum, Oliva also wants to appeal to the younger demographic by proposing an ordinance to keep bars open until 4 a.m. on weekend nights.
Oliva sees his age and his student status as a way of relating to the voters.
"I want people to see in me what they would always hope to see in their political leaders - not what they do see, what they hope to see," he said.
And if students see something they like in Oliva, he hopes they won't conform to the apathetic stereotype of a college student that "the old parties," as he calls the Democrats and Republicans brand them with.
"This isn't a national election," Oliva said. "Students have the power to change the face of the city, the face of politics. Hope comes with change."
To sustain the conversation I helped to guide at a Pittsburgh PodCamp session on the contrasts of the free and open source movement to the closed world, perhaps we should pack our bags for Japan!
iCommons.org: The iSummits Once a year, about 300 people from over 50 countries come together at the iCommons Summit, to celebrate and strategise around a free Internet for all.Here, leaders of the Creative Commons, free software, open education and access to knowledge communities talk about their vision for the future and discuss strategies for building a free global culture that is rich - both in terms of economic viability and geographic diversity.
In other podcast buzz, seems that some are turning negative to iJustine.
I would never stand up and tell another to 'get a life.' So, I'll just hit the 'publish' button on this blog and send its counter to 6,707 postings here.
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