Democracy Has Prevailed.

December 7, 2006

What I learned from today's City Council Budget Hearings

When Mayor Luke is absent the job of yelling "Politics!" whenever Bill Peduto asks a question apparently falls to Yarone Zober.

Zober made enough snarky asides today to start his own blog.

tags:

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

So if Zober is the latest sock puppet master and Regan's live in lover is still on the payroll while Mrs. McNeilly gets demoted for 'as Mayor Lukie puts it- not whistle blowing' that Regan was trying to save his live in lover's brother from a job related reprimand....one might think that the Mayor is really just a party hack of the worst kind.

Laura said...

It'd be cool if these were broadcast on the net cuz I don't have a tv and it'd be easy to post segments on youtube and then pass interesting ones around the net. Just a thought.

Anonymous said...

Yarone is many things, but he isn't a sock puppet. He's probably the most talented political/policy person in Western Pennsylvania. He's incredibly smart, and he's a good guy.

That said, I don't particularly agree with his choices of late. It seems that he's become a bigger part of the system than he really needs to be to be effective.

I'm sure he'd tell you that no, he's more effective in fighting for the progressive inside the system. To a certain point, I can see the truth in that. But when it turns into what it has turned into, it's just more of the same. And simply put, unless things are changed soon, the city faces extinction from financial insolvency. Yarone probably knows this too, if he's yelling "politics," whenever anybody points out that fact, he's mistaken.

Anonymous said...

I forgot: Yarone also needs to get over his hatred of blogs. They're merely a tool for people to say what they think.

And if it weren't for the blogs, somebody would probably be on the street corner with a "God hates gays," sign and Yarone's picture on it. (AND THIS WOULD BE UNTRUE: YARONE IS STAIGHT).

Actually, if he keeps making a big stink about the blogs calling him gay, he may attract the demented Reverend Fred Phelps of Kansas. (The guy who stands in front of government buildings and military funerals with "God hats f---" signs.

Yarone's a good guy. I just totally disagree with him on this. There's nothing wrong with letting the people--no matter how uninformed they are--have their say. And there's nothing wrong with honest debate over a budget. It's democracy and--gasp--the political process at work.

Anonymous said...

I agree w/anonymous-1

Mike: Yarone is "probably the most talented plitical/policy person in Western Pa"??? Yarone does what J. Ferlo and D. Regan tell him to do. He's a lapdog of the worst kind. Also, remember, he's the new chief of staff - he's responsible for advising Luke on what to do about the Regan/McNeilly thing - "incredibly smart"? "good guy"? He's the classic party hack, nothing more. He's rude, chauvenistic and immature. The fact that he may be smarter than the rest of the chauvenistic hacks on Opie's team shouldn't give anyone hope. There are no visionaries among them, not a one, (their vision is of a certain Station Square casino...)one of the reasons I agree with your warning that the city faces extinction. Anybody can get it right some of the time, especially when you're still living off the hard work of those who are no longer with us, but the city is simply in no condition to gamble on the hope that these boys will grow up AND someday become the leaders we need.
Maria: When will you be running?

Maria said...

Maria: When will you be running?

Hahaha!

I actually ran for ACDC last year and lost.

I have no aspirations to run for any other office.

Believe me, I'm much better as a background kind of person.

Mark Rauterkus said...

Y.Z. worked hard to get Nader off the ballot. That puts pride in his heart too.

That's being an un-democratic democrat.

I'm still upset at all undemocratic Ds.

Anonymous said...

And that was good work. The country wouldn't be in the mess it was in if people had worked hard to keep Nader--who openly wanted Bush to win--from getting on the ballot in Florida in 2000.

But that's a tangential point.