Tube City Almanac
This cartoon comes courtesy of a post on the McKeesport-based blog, The Tube City Almanc. The full post is well worth a good read. Among my favorite passages:
I understand Ravenstahl's desire to invoke stability and continuity of leadership, but it's as if LBJ had run for election in 1964 by riding around Dealey Plaza in a Lincoln convertible. (I suppose it could be worse. We're lucky Ravenstahl never saw "Weekend at Bernie's.")Hat-tip to neophyte blogger Ol'Skip, who recently launched his fish-story themed political blog over at the Three Rivers Fishing Report.
19 comments:
I thought progressives were anti-war. Whats the deal posting stuff under the name of a dead war hero? Have a little respect and use a character that more closely resembles the views on the blog.
I suggest Richard Simmons or Richard Santorum
Whoever suggested that I am a "progressive"? I've never described myself using any sort of political classification whatsoever, other than noting that I am reasonably conservative (with a little "c", as my British friends would say) in some of my views. I'm no fan of political labels. I'm no fan of political parties. And I won't thank for trying to slap a label or a party affiliation of any kind on my views.
Maybe your brain isn't capable of dealing with the fact that my political views can't be neatly pigeon-holed into cute little labeled boxes. But that's just the way I am. I defy anyone to find any sort of neat political classification which reasonably encompasses all of my views on political matters. Maybe you find it inconvenient to deal with someone who doesn't declare themselves to be firmly in a particular political camp. But I have yet to find a political camp that even comes close to representing all of my views. So I remain blissfully independent of them all.
I have zero respect for Luke Ravenstahl. I have close to zero respect for George W. Bush. In other words, I detest incompetence regardless of where it is found along the political spectrum.
You also don't know jack shit about me, or my past, or my military record. My military accomplishments may not be anywhere as distinguished as Admiral Turner's, but -- in a strange way that I won't get into -- the real Admiral Turner and I share something in our military careers that I happen to be enormously proud of.
So unless you served with me and have stood your fair share of midwatches running north-south ASW sweeps across traffic at the mouth of the Straights of Gibraltar, keep your damn mouth shut about my relationship to Richmond K. Turner. I have no doubt whatsoever that, if the man were still here to speak his mind, he would be 100% behind me and what I'm doing on this blog.
No, the Admiral would be running this website under his own name. He was a real man. As for running ASW sweeps in the straights, how many subs did you come upon?
I'm not sure what to say about a person who leaves a comment anonymously while questioning the manhood of someone who writes under a pseudonym.
JP...touche
"the real Admiral Turner and I share something in our military careers that I happen to be enormously proud of."
Let me guess ... both of you command DUKW boats? That would narrow down your secret identity a great deal!
I have a question for Anonymous 7:47 ... how would you classify Luke, politically? To hear you describe it, he's opposed to progressivism at the very least.
I cant speak for Mayor Ravenstahl but sometimes what your looking for is already in front of your face. I see many people on this site that are fed up with the machine, who do you think is one of the longest tenured councilman, Peduto.
Dowd is out in my neighborhood spreading flat out lies about Bodacks record while trying not to answer why he voted the way he did on the School Board. By the way during his 4 years on the Board tests scores have gone lower and Roosevelts paycheck gets larger because they give him targets an idiot could hit.
It seems to me that views expressed on this site are not necessarily that your candidates have better ideas but rather you just hate everyone. Peduto did some of the most underhanded shit that a politician can do (Woods, Endorsement mailings,website propaganda. Just like Dowd blaming a City Clerk for his inability to follow instructions. Heather Arnet and her Marxist views, would she bring that to the School Board, I thought those in the non-profit community were supposed to be A-Political, why is she even in the race.
Your candidates are no better and in most cases worse for at least the struggling parts of this city. Peduto wants to make sure that Downtown housing becomes a reality while ignoring the fact that if his plan for tax abatement went forward that several east end neighborhoods would suffer unimaginable disinvestment.
We have a guy in Bodack that shuns the spotlight but gets stuff done, hes not out there telling everyone that Ferlo is in his camp just to the vote. I hear people on this site saying Ferlo is for bodack becasue of some deal made with Bodacks dad, how ridiculous to think a father would have made a deal to deny his son a chance at a State office. But at Dowds house Party tonight hes telling everyone that Len, the Chair of Public Safety votes against having more Police in our community. Well Bodack injected over 40k to get more Police in our communities,not on piddly projects to gain votes but spent the largest amount of any Council member to get more Police on the street.
I cant even look at this stuff anymore, I ask myself how can people given the greatest opportunity life can give, a wonderful education, be so stupid some times. Quit hating and start trying to work within the system, all you do is alienate those that want to hear and work with you when you are so filled with hate.
One last thought
If I were the City Clerk, responsible for doing my job in a professional manner, I would be offended by Patrick Dowds campaign managers alligations that I "lost" a legal document of importance.
If found to be untrue, this claim would show a total lack of integrity and ability to accept responsibility.
It would also show that the careers and feelings of others are so meaningless to him that he would make false alligations to reach his objectives.
I hope he is tosses from the ballot and learns a valuable life lesson about hurting others and their hard earned reputations.
Not every body wants to establish a google-able presence on the web. I can understand that.
I kinda wish all these anonymous commenter’s would at least sign their comments with a nickname. Makes me want to tie a bell on ‘em to keep track of ‘em.
Um, maybe a different color bell for each …
Er… (metaphor gone bad)
(more fake Irish whiskey … Happy Saint P’s day …)
Should I take any hints from your profile, Ad?
"Quit hating and start trying to work within the system, all you do is alienate those that want to hear and work with you when you are so filled with hate."
That's the money quote, folks. You'd think we were talking actual Barbarians at the gate instead of a primary election.
God forbid anyone should not want to vote for an ACDC endorsed candidate.
How dare you!
Why do you hate Pittsburgh?...and America?
Ed
i agree..at least get a blogger id with an email so we can keep a mental roster..thatway we can also keep a dialogue with the same individual.
"Woods, Endorsement mailings,website propaganda"
Anon, I appreciate your attempt to make arguments but, to do that persuasively, you must bolster your case.
1. Ben Woods, if you followed discussion on this matter, did the same for Bob O'Connor in '05 as he is doing for Peduto, and likely much less. Though I agree that he ain't no girlscout, neither is Dennis "Legbreaker" Regan, Luke's assistant field director who worked the hall at the IBEW on endorsement day.
2. Endorsement mailings. Assuming you are referring to the formatting issue (again, because you didn't substantiate your criticism) please look at both Lukey-dukey's mailing and Peduto's mailing. Their formats are identical, however, only one candidate was criticized by the committee.
3. Website propaganda? To what, exactly, are you referring? If I were you, I'd take another look at the cartoon on this post. Then get back to me.
Don't lump in Ben Woods with Bob O'Connors last campaign. He was only with him because he knew he was with a clear cut winner.
No one should ever offend the legacy of Bob O'Connor by even suggesting that Woods was ever an insider or anything like that.
Let's clear something else up. Dennis Regan did not "work the halls" for Mayor Ravenstahl on endorsement day. He was there only because he is a committeeman who had a vote.
Great post on Len Bodack too. You really hit the nail on the head.
Why, Matt! You couldn't possibly be suggesting that there isn't a "clear cut winner" this time around, could you?
"The legacy of Bob O'Connor" - you've got to be kidding me? With all due respect for the deceased, Bob left the City with Denny Regan, Dick Skrinjar, Marlene Cassidy and Yarone Zober in charge - hardly a thing to be revered. Whatever good he did in his few short months in office will forever be tainted by this in the minds of many.
I seen Patrick Dowds name in this thread and wanted to add that at the meeting last night he told his crowd of 14, 6 of whom lived outside of the district, that Bodack has voted against the Police every chance he could. If this is true I guess Bodack getting the endorsement of the Pittsburgh Police Officers must be wrong.
Also Dowd said that Bodack has so much control over Lawrenceville that he could not find a place to rent along Butler Street yet he has his campaign headquaters along Butler as does Tom Fallon.
Dowd also said Bodack has no issues to argue with him so he attacks him for being "too smart" That is laughable, Dowd may hold degrees and while that may make him more qualified for a profession as a school teacher it may have little to do with how good of a politician he would be. If he is "too smart" why have test scores gone down since he joined the School Board. If he was too smart he would have surely fixed the mess that is the Pittsburgh Public School system.
He touts his management of a 100 million dollar budget with only a 1% increase in costs. but fails to say that this included closing half of the schools in Pittsburgh. I cant wait until his kids come home from High School with a SAT score of less than 800 like the majority of children that graduated from City High Schools last year. He will not allow that to happen, write this down, as soon as his kids are old enough to enter middle school he will take them out of the City schools.
And while the number of City residents have declined steadily over the past 10 years Dowd wants to figure out how we bring people back to the City. How about a EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM THAT WORKS, I guess he's "too smart" to figure that one out.
Dowd also said he wants to make our neighborhoods safer by utilizing incident data. Duh, no one has thought of that idea before Mr. Dowd, he really is "too smart". If the Police force could find just one person intelligent enough to form a public safety stratedgy that comprises of over 900 personnel working to decrease crime in a major metropolitian city we would have it made. Crime has been decreasing in District 7 over the past five years. This is not by accident, this is a collaberative effort between the US Attorneys office, The Mayors office, Pittsburgh Police, SRU units, Narcotics Division, Strong resident input through active Block Watch groups, and Zone 2 personnel. All of which falls under the Bureau of Public Safety that Len Bodack happens to be the Chair. Closing JK's Bar, the Horoscope, arresting drug dealers from in from of the Union Project, addressing the problems at Sandy's Deli, Prostitution stings, bringing the Federal Weed & Seed program to Lawrenceville,reducing drug traffic, and coordinating efforts with the Pittsburgh Narcotics division to reduce drug trafficking with advocating for the people traveling from outside of Pittsburgh to buy their drugs here to lose their vehicles are all accomplishments Bodack can be proud of.
Pat Dowd wants improved Public Transit but offers no solution, Bodack has in the past, and continues to meet with Port Authority representatives regarding transit as it effects our district. We will have a regional hospital in our area that requires of our transit system to service those patients and employees traveling to and from the facility. Issues regarding route changes and drastic cuts are being addresses by Councilman Bodack and representatives of Childrens Hospital. Those conversations and others regarding the Penn Avenue reconstruction project include a collaberative effort between PennDot, Aggie Brose and the BGC, Tony Ceoffe and Lawrenceville United, Kate Trimble and the Lawrenceville Corporation, Penn Avenue business owners, and Jeff Dorsey and the FDA, and Childrens Hospital
Its not that Mr. Dowd is "too smart" its that Len Bodack is doing a fine job and is addressing the concerns that Mr. Dowd thinks are not being addresses. If he was smart he would know this.
Not to point out the obvious, but Mr. Dowd's name has never appeared in a single post anywhere here at The People's Republic. I've never discussed him or his opponent even once. I know very little about either man, but I am quite weary of seeing Mr. Dowd's name brought up in response to posts that have absolutely nothing to do with him.
For crying out loud, if you have such a boner in your pants and detest the man so much, go ahead and create your own www.dowdisanasshole.blogspot.com blog and be done with it. You obviously have an enormous amount to say about the man. Why not post it someplace where it would be easy for other voters to find? Posting it here, under topics that have nothing to do with him, only serves to hide your opinions from those who may honestly care about them.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to censor the discussion here in any way. I'm just pointing out that, in posting your comments within posts that have nothing to do with the man, you make it somewhat hard for anyone else to find and read them. If I lived in the district and was looking for things about the candidate, I probably wouldn't look in a post about some cartoon relating to the mayoral election. If you created your own blog solely devoted to trashing the guy, it would be much more effective.
Barring that, I will be happy to start a largely blank post here on my own blog, requesting everyone's opinions about Pat Dowd. Then, at least, you will finally be responding to something that at least has something to do with his candidacy. Let me know if you would find that kind of thing helpful.
Thanks for the plug and the kind words, Admiral --- I don't have a blog roll right now, but I'll make sure to mention you.
Keep up the good work. I understand you once commanded the U.S.S. Jason, which if you don't mind me saying, sir, is a fine name for a ship.
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