Reason Magazine - Scenes from the Ron Paul Revolution

Reason Magazine - Scenes from the Ron Paul Revolution The Paulistas delight in their independence and fervor. At a press conference after the Ames talk, a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter asks the candidate about all the Paul signs he sees around Pittsburgh. “You guys must have a big operation there,” he says.

“If we do,” Paul says with a small smile, “we don’t know about it.”

Did you notice the HATCHED pie showing up at CNN

Iowa is talking numbers.

But, at CNN there is no slice of pie for my guy -- Ron Paul. But, there is the hatched, MacPaint-like, slice. And, it isn't tiny.

His Turn -- to everything there is a season - turn, turn turn

MY TURN With instant gratification.

Is that a sentence?

Poof!

A 'real blog' is rEally nonsensical.

The thing that bothers me the most within his rant was the fact that Mike W got a (free?) lunch date (I hope he didn't have to pay) with Pittsburgh-Post-Gazette-hosted bloggers. Did he have a good sandwich? I give Mackenzie Carpenter and John Allison credit for making one obvious mistake, and not two, by inviting me as well.

I posted similar thoughts in a tread below moments before this was discovered.

Free Audiobook called: The Market for Liberty

Free Keene � Free Audiobook a free audiobook, “The Market for Liberty”. This brilliant book explains why government is an unnecessary evil and how the Free Market is superior in every possible way. You may download it in two ways.

Secrecy News covers changes to FOIA and the OPEN Gov act siged by GWB

Secrecy News On December 31 President Bush signed into law the 'Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National (OPEN) Government Act of 2007,' which amends the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The new FOIA law is a very mediocre law that will do little...

Favorite?

FOX sucks

*URGENT* National protest aganist Fox News Jan 3rd

Ron Paul Grassroots Campaign News Release
For Immediate Release
Contact Andrew Panken for more information
410/360-1700

On the evening of, January 3, 2007, Ron Paul supporters will be protesting the exclusion of our candidate from the Fox News candidate forum debate. We will be protesting at local Fox TV Stations across the country and at the Fox Forum Debate location in New Hampshire.

According to numerous recent professional pollsters, such as American Research Group, Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll, Rasmussen Reports, USA Today/Gallup Poll and Boston Globe/University of New Hampsire Survey Center, Ron Paul clearly polls higher than some other candidates, who are invited to the Fox debate forum. These polling results may easily be checked at http://www.usaelectionpol... . The exclusion of Ron Paul is not based on polling results or funds raised, which may in fact surpass all other GOP candidates. Final fundraising totals for Ron Paul have reached 20 million dollars for the fourth quarter.

The Fox Broadcast network has systematically excluded Ron Paul from their coverage. Numerous post debate polls conducted by Fox, have shown Ron Paul to be favored by most conservatives, over the pro-war candidates. The Fox network is showing their obvious bias against a candidate that disagrees with their commentators pro-war stance. We are protesting, to inform Americans, that Fox is unfair and unbalanced. Let all GOP primary voters decide, not the Fox network. The Fox network is attempting to manipulate this process, by excluding a now top tier candidate, Dr Ron Paul.

End Of News Release

Note to Local Meetups:

All local Meetup groups should setup protests at your local Fox Station on the evening of 1/3. Then, fax this news release with local contact information to all media in your area, including your local Fox station.

Fox Affiliate Stations:

http://www.fox.com/links/...

Fox Owned and Operated Stations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...

On a side note – please use the phrase “Not broadcasting in the public interest” in chants, on signs, etc. That's FCC speak for “your broadcasting license is in jeopardy”. Follow through and file a complaint with the FCC against the stations if Dr. Paul is excluded from the forum on the 6th.

Mayor agrees to development around new arena - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Mayor agrees to development around new arena - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Ravenstahl agrees to development around new arena

Would love to see the details of the entire deal. Anyone got a URL?

South Side Neighborhood Plan is on the web in a PDF

Welcome to the South Side - Pittsburgh: "Neighborhood Plan Update

Draft Now Available

South Side Planning Forum has made available for review a draft version of the South Side Neighborhood Plan Update. Click here to access a pdf version: 2007 NP Update Draft Final

China to track food safety at Olympic Games

SI.com - More Sports - China to track food safety at Games China to track food safety at Games

So will we.

Missed Boxing Day? Let us help. I've got a bunch of boxes 4 U

Moving?

Do you need some boxes?

We've got a bunch of boxes that I'd love to get to a new home. Some are gently used. Some are nearly new. Many are from Budget Truck Rental.

Our need for boxes is much less. We've been moving about within our house. Next up -- move these boxes to you. Partial orders welcomed.

Giggle at the PG: Invisible Men feature on the home page

Check out the P-G home page today. There is a link about 'Invisible men.' If you click on it, it goes to a page with an invisible article.

The link is on the right, down past half way. Look near the Steelers 75 link.

Screen shot art:

Home page:

Points to this invisible page:

Should Ron Paul lose weght?

The following comes from an advocate group, Downsize DC. It concerns the looming moronic decisions of FOX to hold a debate among Republican candidates for US President and exclude the one candidate who RAISED the MOST MONEY from the MOST PEOPLE who has been in Congress for ten terms and has run for PRESIDENT in the past!

Subject: Should Ron Paul Lose Weight?

Tonight's the night. The Iowa Caucuses happen this evening. We're about to get a real-world market test of the popularity of the downsizing message. Meanwhile . . .

We are seeing the power of the Downsize DC strategic approach: pressure works! The Ron Paul Army is proving the concept.

As of this hour Fox News is still planning to exclude Ron Paul from their pre-primary New Hampshire candidate forum. They don't like the small government message. They're afraid of it, and they don't want it to be heard. But their justification for it has had to change, because of . . .

THE PRESSURE

First Fox News claimed it was a decision of the New Hampshire Republican Party, but the NH GOP asserted otherwise, and called for Ron Paul to be included. The Republican Party felt . . .

THE PRESSURE

And so, Fox News now claims that the forum will be held on a bus, and there isn't enough room to hold all the candidates.

Should Ron Paul lose weight so there will be room for him? They could save even more space if they exchanged small Paul for fat Fred (sorry Senator Thompson, I couldn't resist the alliteration). It's a silly excuse, and for daring to be so lame Fox News needs to continue to feel . . .

THE PRESSURE

Hit Fox News with more messages. Here are some talking points you can use to turn up THE PRESSURE . . .

* Fred Thompson is expected to drop out of the race tomorrow. Now there's room for Ron!

* Zogby reports that Ron Paul is now in double digits in Iowa. He's at 10%, and tied with the media's favorite candidate, John McCain. Poll numbers will no longer work as an excuse to exclude the small government message.

* NewsCorp, the parent company of Fox News, is taking a major financial hit because of the exclusion. Ron Paul supporters are dumping the stock, causing the price to plummet, and the Ron Paul Army is putting pressure on Fox News advertisers to drop their ads on the network. You can see what people are saying about the NewsCorp stock here.

Send your message now. Keep up THE PRESSURE. Send your message here.

And thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army.

Perry Willis
Communications Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

By the way, Dr. Ron Paul is fit. Meanwhile, Mike H, once was a blip. Meanwhile, Paul supporters have launched a blimp. If you want to talk wellness for the nation -- included Dr. Paul in the debates.

Lamb eager to take over as city's new controller

Culture shock.

Lamb eager to take over as city's new controller: "'Our first issue is changing the culture of that office,' Mr. Lamb said Monday. 'We will change even the day-to-day things, such as what the hours are going to be and what the dress code is.'

Great news. Matching uniforms. Just what Pittsburgh needs. The dress code in the controller's office is sure to make a huge difference.

With the new dress code, we (citizens) might be able to tell who are the paid employees and who are the consultants. Consultants are ones we pay too, but they have checks from some other person. And, those checks are paid back to campaign accounts.

The PG says: Police continue to investigate at least nine stolen city checks. The probe has been slowed by the difficulty of getting banks to turn over records. No arrest has been made.

So, the banks are not helpful. Imagine that.

I've called for 'transparent accounts' such as 'open trust funds' for all banking of public money. If those measured had been implemented, there would be NO PROBLEM with the bank slowing the records. The records should be OPEN SOURCED RECORDS for anyone to witness.

And, if my solution had been in place, the act of 'stealing checks' would be able to have been seen by anyone as it happened. There would be little need to call in the police -- as the investigation could be done online by everyone.

Open records and transparent trust accounts would work wonders. This is our money. We should be able to tell what's what at any given moment.

And, most of all, we need TRANSPARENT PAC ACCOUNTS for campaign accounts.

Of course Lamb wants to get present employees prosecuted -- as he only has a staff of three new hires. To the victor go the spoils -- in the D-mindset.

I'm glad to know that there are "controls" in the "controller's" office -- so says Tony Pokora. What has become of the bid to be named city treasurer, by the way?

Lamb has high standards. Do an audit once every four years. Shiver my timbers.

Lamb is very insightful with his expression that "city council has its issues." No Shit Sherlock! But he does NOT say, or the article does not report, that there will be an audit of city council. Perhaps we'll have to wait three and a half years for the audit. Got to get the uniforms first.

Might as well just size them all up for 'jump suits' -- if you know what I mean.

Lamb wants to increase the role of the controller at the Schools. Well, Mr. Lamb, have you resigned from the position as a board member of A+ Schools yet? A+ Schools is a nonprofit that aims to monitor Pgh Public Schools. A controller should NOT be on the board with that booster group and be an independent official.

Lamb's school thrust is to look at contracting. That has little to nothing to do with teaching our children. How many families are pulling their kids out of the schools because the competitive bidding done by the school district is just no up to par with expectations? I know that when I take my kid to school that there is a great demand on the playground for oversight in the change orders among contracts. We don't even talk about the minority contracting these days -- as it just gets too emotional for too many to even go there. Lamb to the rescue.

Then comes the grand daddy of them all -- the big naval gaze. Lamb wants to audit the auditors. And, he can't do it himself. So, he goes and beggs the overlords for the power and the money to go out and hire outside auditors to do the job that he was elected to do himself. Don't hire an accounting firm with our money to worry about what has gone 'down da river' and 'over the dam' already. Fix what needs to be fixed for the future.

Lamb should go into the new job and manage that office -- with what he's got.

PeopleSoft! Yes. Of course PeopleSoft is antiquated. All closed source code software is antiquated. Lamb should move urgently to all open source software solutions. Lamb could even hire an computer programmer with open source experiences to help manage the migration.

Lamb can get grants, write grants, go to Sourceforge, go to CMU, go to Pitt, go to Ice Land. Go to where the open code is being used now. And, it is free. It is gratis too!

Of course the state is paying two firms to review the city's needs. Firms have employees that make kick-backs and campaign donations. I would rather hire a few open-source programmers to coordinate the migration to open-source ways.

---

Update: Tony won't be hired by Luke as Treasurer.
Trib article.

Historical understandings of a one party town -- and the carpet

Dan Sullivan uploaded an article by Frank Chodorov in the July 1940 *Freeman*, based on his interview with William McNair, who had been mayor of Pittsburgh from 1933 - 1935.

http://savingcommunities.org/docs/chodorov.frank/mcnairpurpose.html


People will probably need some background to fully appreciate this article, so here goes:

Pittsburgh was a one-party town. Every mayor but one had been Republican from 1856 through 1932. Serious Democrats didn't want to even try a race there, so McNair became a "perennial candidate" in order to have a soap-box for his Georgist and libertarian doctrines.

The previous non-Republican mayor, elected in 1906, abolished a corrupt assessment system and ushered in a change in property taxes, so that land values paid a tax rate twice as high as the rate on improvements (buildings). McNair wanted to abolish the building tax altogether and put it all on land. There were no other city taxes at that time.

In a strange alignment of forces beyond McNair's influence, he was swept into office. Part of it was that the coat-tail effect of FDR's tremendous popularity carried down to McNair, even though McNair was denouncing FDR's proposals as socialist and totalitarian.

Another was that the Mayor Kline, the Republican incumbent, had just been indicted on an issue that would be considered trivial by today's standards (or lack thereof) but was scandalous at the time. It seems that Kline had the city pay his brother-in-law to recarpet the mayor's office with a very expensive oriental carpet. (That carpet was still looking good in the 1980s, and Democrats would stand on it and say, "Buying this carpet was the best thing old Kline ever did.")

Anyhow, Kline resigned under pressure and was replaced, as both the mayor and the Republican candidate for mayor, by a politically weak councilman named Herron. McNair beat Herron to become mayor, and not one non-Democrat was ever elected to a Pittsburgh office again.

Chodorov, who had taken over the editorship of *The Freeman* from Albert Jay Nock, was, as Nock had been, a proponent of Henry George's land value tax as the foundation of a free-market libertarian system. He was also the director of the Henry George School of New York at the time of this article, but shortly thereafter was fired from the school because he was opposing our involvement in World War II, and opposing related policies like the draft.

Anyhow, that's the main cast of characters, and all the background information one would need to appreciate the article. However, I do want to call attention to the last eight paragraphs, which contain McNair's advice that reformers should educate the public rather than seek office. That advice comes near the bottom of the article. The following URL will link to it directly:

http://savingcommunities.org/docs/chodorov.frank/mcnairpurpose.html#folly

On Foreign Entanglements: The Ties that Strangle

On Foreign Entanglements: The Ties that Strangle: "This is the problem with our government involvement in the internal affairs of other nations. Our friend one day is our enemy the next. And all our friends' enemies become our enemies. How many times have we armed BOTH sides of a conflict because of this? There is little for us to gain from this policy, and simultaneously a lot of trouble we get ourselves into. It is not a rational or intelligent way to interact with the world.

Then there is the "underdog" status.



They say that Iowa is going to have 60% of the people going to the caucus meetings who have NEVER been to one before. And, they are saying that 45% of the participants are non Dems. Humm...

Parks, small businesses top Onorato's agenda - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Parks, small businesses top Onorato's agenda - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Efforts to bolster local businesses and renovate and privatize some Allegheny County park facilities will top the second-term agenda of county Chief Executive Dan Onorato, the Democratic leader said during his inauguration today.

The only time Onorato talks and leads a discussion about parks is around a geese killing.

The way to fix parks is to merge Citiparks and County Parks and Rec into a new Pittsburgh Park District. And, leave the foundations to private efforts -- not parks.

THE HYDRAULIC STINK BOMB

THE HYDRAULIC STINK BOMB THE HYDRAULIC STINK BOMB

The worst satire on the web -- or your money back!

New blog with comments enabled and a blog roll that links to my blog as well!

polishlinux.org -- Free software in Polish schools

polishlinux.org - Free software in Polish schools Thousands of Polish high school students now have a chance to learn about GNU/Linux and the benefits of using free software as Polish FLOSS foundation together with school headmasters, supported by local authorities organize a series of lectures on free software in education. PolishLinux.org has a report — summary of the first 3 months of the campaign.

We are going to get pounded by the rest of the world. Our schools are not using open source software as they should.

The proposed Science and Technology school slated for Pittsburgh, in the future, perhaps, should have everything centered upon open source software. Everything. All the majors would have to have to have understandings into this type of technology.

Pa. official explains plan for high school graduation exam

Pa. official explains plan for high school graduation exam: Pa. official explains plan for high school graduation exam
Wednesday, January 02, 2008

By Joe Smydo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pennsylvania high school students would take a graduation exam in stages under a proposal state Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak discussed this morning with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial board.

So, what do you think of this? Reactions welcomed.

The exam would come into play when the present 6th grade class gets to graduation. That's a long time away. I would think, and hope, that the timeline for a district wide exam could be put into place much sooner.

Who gets to speak at the 'hearing?' Is there any public comment? Or, do the experts get to do all the thinking and grading?

Would the need for an exam be something that the PA Board of Ed can do without any legislative action on the part of those that are elected?

To pilot a program sounds a bit like being 'lab rats.' I'm not sure I want our kids being 'test testers.'

Again, the 'officials' have proposed a graduation exam. That's a local aim from 'officials.' But, the officials are not the customers, the parents, the taxpayers nor the ones who need to be 'consulted.'

If the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship depends upon the performance on a test -- why is it important to have the kids in school for a certain amount of days to qualify for the scholarship. If this is a test for performance sake -- then set that as the priority. If this is a scholarship for good behavior and attendance -- then performance and test taking should not matter.

The real 'test' for the kids comes in both getting into the college or university of their choice. And, next, they need to not flunk out once they are there.