Reporter Bob Mayor to Pittsburgh City Councilor Darlene Harris, upon learning she was securing an unauthorized $2,000 plaque labeled "Ravenstahl" after the last mayor in her office, "You're not the Keeper of Public Plaques, right?"
What is it with Lil Former Mayor Lukey's administration? Taking home his city-owned desktop computer before leaving office because he was afraid the Peduto administration would move in and hide it?! Hiding plaques named after him because there was fear that it would be taken away and destroyed?!
It's like they were preparing for an invasion by a herd of thundering barbarians instead of a normal change in administration. The paranoia runs deep with this one. Or perhaps just projection...
Anyone want to guess what the next bizarre revelation regarding Lukey's departure will be?
That would be Pittsburgh City Council Chambers this morning where Councilman Bill Peduto presented a proclamation to Cameron Jibril Thomaz -- better known as Wiz Khalifa.
From the press release:
Wiz Khalifa is a graduate of Taylor Alderdice and an avid Pittsburgh promoter. His song "Black and Yellow" has become an anthem of Pittsburgh pride. He has been nominated for numerous awards, including at the American Music Awards and Grammy Awards.
"Wiz Khalifa is proud of his Pittsburgh background and takes every opportunity to sing the praises of Pittsburgh around the world," said Councilman William Peduto.
PodCamp 5 continues today (schedule here -- live streaming at that link). Unfortunately prior commitments will prevent me from attending today's sessions, but here's some photos from yesterday.
The Keynote Address: PodCamp Pittsburgh Co-organizer Norman Huelsman.
Pittsburgh City Councilor Bill Peduto. (Links from his opening session here)
Other Sessions: PodCamp Pittsburgh co-founder Justin Kownacki
UPDATE 6:BRESMA orphans arrive in Pittsburgh. Story here.
UPDATE 5: Overnight BRESMA update here (1/19/10, 3:00 AM ET)
UPDATE 4: Report from Bob Mayo's blog here. (For those coming to this blog from outside Pittsburgh, Mayo is an excellent and reliable reporter from WTAE.)
UPDATE 3: Best advice from Chris Potter (Slag Heap at Pittsburgh City Paper) here
UPDATE 2:Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story here. [Completely new article, same URL]
UPDATE:KDKA is reporting on a "secret mission" (well, not so secret if they broadcast it on their noon news). They report that 60 more children will be flown to the US from the BRESMA orphanage. A plane left Pittsburgh today with Rep. Jason Altmire, and ten doctors from UPMC and McMutrie family members. See the video here.
WPXI story here. __________________________________________________________________
First, let's state from the start that the media has been mistaken in some of their reports; most notably when they claimed that all 150 children from the Brebis de Saint Michel de L'Attalaye (BRESMA) orphanage in Port-au-Prince -- run by Pittsburgh (Ben Avon) sisters Jamie and Ali McMutrie -- had received clearance to leave Haiti and come to Pittsburgh.
The children are in various states in the adoption process and many were never slated to be adopted in the US to begin with (for example, we've received numerous hits from France and the Netherlands in the last couple of days).
What's most important to know now is that the situation at BRESMA is still dire. Getting water and food into the walled-off orphanage is dangerous because there are Haitians understandably desperate for supplies surrounding it. At this point, the BRESMA orphanage probably needs security as much as supplies.
Those following the situation on Twitter at #BRESMA know that rumors abound and that people are "retweeting" old information. Virginia Montanez at her That's Church blog took the extraordinary step of removing several older blog posts so that people would not stumble upon outdated information, post rumors, or give out too much information in their comments which could possibly lead to breaches of security that could endanger the orphans. (I'm seeing GPS coordinates being tweeted publicly which I'm sure is a bad idea!)
What we all need to understand in this era of texting, IMing and tweeting is that the old saying, "A lie can be halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on" is more true now than ever before.
That said, three sources -- CNN, WPXI and the KAS in Haiti blog -- are all reporting that five children from BRESMA have been evacuated to the US. These children were apparently all well along in the adoption process and had the most documentation available. Note that there is one main source for all these stories: Diana Boni. She has worked with BRESMA Orphanage directly for five years and is the Haiti Coordinator for Kentucky Adoption Services. However, CNN has actual video of children leaving Haiti on a military plane.
You can see WPXI's interview with Boni here (they've been repeating parts of it this morning). Her blog is here. She is quoted in Time Magazinehere.
You can view the CNN update on BRESMA here (original CNN story here):
I would still highly recommend going to That's Church, @JanePitt on Twitter, and Ali Pace's Facebook page for McMutrie Family-verified information. It may be slower in coming, but that is because their top priority is the safety of all those concerned and because they are busy working to get all the kids out. .
Bob Mayo looks at The Sunshine Law vs. City Council's New Year's Eve veto override attempt at The Busman's Holiday.
The Infinonymous blog traces Patrick Dowd's strange arc on City Council.
A Post-Gazette article quotes Lil Mayor Luke on his 14-month-old son Cooper, "I'm going to make sure in the coming year that there are times when I am scheduled to be with him." (Maybe this is just another example of Lukey's bizarre syntax getting in the way of what he wants to say or maybe he actually is as callous and shallow as he sounds.)
Finally, just for fun: Rumproastposts the Palin Family New Year Newsletter.
A few more thoughts about the New Year's Eve Massacre ... and an attempt to clarify some of the more overheated rhetoric. Including my own.
I see that -- just as I predicted yesterday morning -- city councilor Patrick Dowd is trying to say that council got what it deserves when Luke Ravenstahl vetoed a bill too late in the year for council to override. Bob Mayo quotes Dowd sayingthat the mayor's 11th-hour veto is "poetic justice" for how council treated him.Dowd also repeated his charge that council acted in a "fascist" manner. Bending the rules "is what fascists do," Dowd says.
Potter isn't a big fan of such juvenile name calling, by the way. He then sums things up a bit:
There's a broader picture here, one that council needs to think about on Monday when it chooses a president.
And completes the picture:
Make no mistake about it: Council got played. Ravenstahl won, and he did so by following the rules of the game. But that isn't the question. The question is, what's council's next move? Does it go with Ricky Burgess, who is offering a more conciliatory approach to the mayor? Or does it go with Bill Peduto, who would continue a more independent path for the legislative branch?
If I felt like Ravenstahl were the victim here -- if I felt like he hadn't had any chance to influence this legislation -- I'd be all in favor of Burgess' approach. But Ravenstahl had every chance to lead, and chose not to. He ceded that role to council, and then -- when he didn't get the results he wanted -- decided to thwart the legislation at the last possible moment. To me, that isn't someone who deserves the benefit of the doubt going forward.
Longtime readers know that I normally refer to Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl as "Lil Mayor Luke," but tonight he's Lil Lord Luke. From the Post-Gazette:
In a New Year's Eve surprise, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl this afternoon vetoed prevailing wage legislation passed unanimously by city council 10 days ago. Council President Doug Shields called a special 6:30 p.m. council meeting in an effort to override the veto, but fell one vote short of the needed six.
Coming at the end of council's two-year session, the timing of the veto was apparently meant to leave council no chance to vote to override. The complex legislation to guarantee hotel, cafeteria and building maintenance workers at future city-subsidized development sites wages equal to the average of their peers citywide would have to be reintroduced next year, under a new council.
From The Busman's Holiday, Bob Mayo gets an unambiguous statement from Congressman Tim Murphy regarding President Obama's citizenship. Here it is:
Here is Congressman Murphy's position: President Obama is a natural-born citizen of the United States, period."
Bob explains:
That unambiguous statement comes from Congressman Tim Murphy's Chief of Staff for Media Relations in Washington DC, Susan Mosychuk. She was returning my call, in which I asked whether Murphy had sent out any messages to constituents on this topic.
There you have it. Congressman Tim Murphy IS NOT A BIRTHER.
I am happy he cleared that up. Happy to be corrected.
Bob's next two paragraphs, since they involve this blog, require a response:
Both MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show and the Pittsburgh area blog 2 Political Junkies reported that Congressman Murphy sent a lengthy message to some constituents acknowledging the concerns of those who question President Obama's citizenship, but not taking a stand himself on the matter. Chief of Staff Mosychuk told me that Murphy's office has done no mailing on this topic; she says that the congressman is focused on the issue of health care.
When I pressed and asked whether Congressman Murphy had sent out any e-mails on the subject, Mosychuk said she would not respond to blogs or videos that have appeared on the Internet. When I asked the chief of staff whether she was saying the alleged message from Congressman Murphy was bogus or a fabrication, she chose not to answer directly. She instead repeated her statement: "Congressman Murphy's position is that President Obama is a natural-born U.S. Citizen".
We've got the e-mail headers - and we've sent them to Bob.
UPDATE: Ok, I have to be somewhere soon and can't watch anymore, but from what I saw:
1) Ravenstahl supports the Amended Act 47 Recovery Plan and implores Council to vote for it. 2) Ravenstahl presents his recommendations on how to meet the additional $15 million (revenue/savings) called for in the plan (but his recommendations aren't in writing in the plan Council is voting on). 3) Ravenstahl says he is not in favor of raising taxes that would only impact on Pittsburgh residents as a failsafe. 4) Council (well, most of it) says that too much of Act 47 and Ravenstahl's plans count on getting Harrisburg or non-profits to cough up $ that they won't and that they can't be compelled to do. 5) It's a given that council will not pass the plan as is. 6) More work needs to be done between Council, the Mayor and Act 47 Overlords.
So back to square one?
At approximately 11:00 AM this morning the clouds opened and Lil Mayor Luke descended and deigned to appear before Pittsburgh City Council to answer their questions about the Amended Act 47 Recovery Plan.
I'm watching it live on the City cable channel. If you can't, you can follow Bob Mayo's tweets on the meeting @ http://twitter.com/bobmayo .
The Grant Street Embarrassment gets caught up in Super Bob's questions. Odd thing is, I don't think Luke even realizes he gets caught.
Looks like Bob (and Bob, can I call you "Bob"?) is probing the limits of Ravenstahl's position, vis a vis his by now debunked TV ad, that he took credit for lowering some city taxes when in fact he was legally mandated to do so.
The opener:
Q (Bob Mayo) : "What exactly is it -- that you apologized about something? What was the apology for?"
A (Mayor Ravenstahl) : "Well, what we'll do -- it was basically around, it was basically around the question of reducing taxes. The parking tax and the gross receipts tax. And the question was that we were suggesting that we were taking the entire credit for that. I said last night that the state clearly did help. And we'll actually adjust our ad today to say that we helped reduce the tax, rather than taking credit for it ourself. So, it was just a small, minor nuance, and something that we've taken care of in our campaign advertisement."
Apart from the content, I think the thing that most grates on my brain is Luke's use of pluralis maiestatis - (aka the Royal, Victorian or Editorial "We"). The use of the term "ourself" only solidifies the pluralis maiestatis.
Mark Twain once reportedly said:
Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial "we."
Luke must think rather highly of himself, uh, themself.
And someone should let them know that "small minor nuance" is a double redundancy (a redundant redundancy, if you will). Ever heard of any big nuances? Any major nuances? A "minor nuance" is redundant enough, but calling it "small" in addition is just, redundant again.
Go read Super Bob. You'll see the Grant Street Embarrassment say that in theory he's required to follow the law, he probably wouldn't have changed the ad and that they only changed it "in the interest of clarity."
If we were back a year ago during the Democratic primary presidential debates, my inbox would have been full already with emails from the candidates' campaigns spinning the debate. Luke, what are you spending that million+ on?
Someone: Please tell Ms. Robinson to look into the camera (she did get much better as the debate went on).
Dowd: You had my grandmother at hello (actually, she mentioned something about "children are our future," "teacher," "school board," etc.) .
- From 2004 through November 2007, Arpaio was the target of 2,150 lawsuits in U.S. District Court and hundreds more in Maricopa County courts; 50 times as many prison-conditions lawsuits as the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston jail systems combined.
- Family members of inmates who have died or been injured in jail custody have filed lawsuits against the sheriff’s office. Maricopa County has paid more than $43 million in settlement claims during Arpaio's tenure.
- In 2004, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office SWAT team led a raid on an Ahwatukee home in a gated subdivision, looking for illegal weapons. No illegal weapons were found, but during the raid, the house burned down, SWAT officers forced a dog back into the building where it subsequently died, and an armored vehicle rolled into a neighbor's parked car as a result of brake failure.
Wendy if that doesn't grab you, you might want to click on this link and read the part where Arpaio's deputies arrested Village Voice Media executives and Phoenix New Times editors and where a reporter for the Phoenix New Times, was surrounded and intimidated by Arpaio's deputies while trying to examine public records at the City of Phoenix public records counter. But then again, you seem really hopped up on the whole chain gang idea. Bob, please have a talk with Wendy.
Mayo: Nice question about the mayor making his schedule public -- too bad he never answered it.
7:56 Luke just mentioned O'Connor. God, give me strength.
7:57 Isn't it comforting to know what Luke now admits--that he wasn't ready to be mayor when O'Connor died. So in 3 more years, is he going to admit that he wasn't ready in 2009, either?
UPDATE: Other Burghosphere reactions to the debate:
A reminder that the first Pittsburgh Democratic Candidate Mayoral Debate will be broadcast tonight:
Monday, April 20, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on WTAE-TV Channel 4.
All three Democratic primary candidates -- Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Councilman Patrick Dowd and Carmen Robinson -- will be participating.
WTAE's Andrew Stockey is the moderator and panelists will include WTAE's Wendy Bell, Bob Mayo and Sheldon Ingram and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review police reporter Jill King Greenwood.
Next Monday night from 7 to 8 PM, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Councilman Patrick Dowd, and attorney Carmen Robinson meet in their first debate. I'll be on the panel of reporters asking questions of the three candidates in Pittsburgh's Democratic primary for mayor.
I want to hear what issues you think the candidates should address. You can e-mail me directly at bobmayo4 at gmail.com. I know many readers and bloggers here in the Burghosphere -- Pittsburgh's blogosphere -- follow Pittsburgh politics and government with a passion. Now's your chance to help shape the debate -- tell me what topics we should take on. You can even send along links or background, if you'd like.
WTAE-TV's also inviting viewers to submit your own questions via video or e-mail.
"The liberal blog post that the councilman cites has no basis in fact, the McCain campaign had no role in this incident. We hope the young woman involved in the incident gets the help that she needs, it's disappointing that Pittsburgh law enforcement time and resources were wasted by her false allegations."
To continue Maria's recent posting on Senator McCain's obvious and shameful pandering, here's the story from Countdown:
While it was Jon Delano who did the interview (see it here), Bob Mayo has some much needed fact-checking. Up until now, McCain had identified the defensive line of the Green Bay Packers to his torturers. Mayo even writes that in the made-for-TV bio, it shows up as a Green Bay Packers story. Then the busman started googling:
McCain became a POW in 1967. The legendary Steelers defensive line that McCain appears to be referring to -- The Steel Curtain -- wasn't in place until 1971. Mean Joe Greene --the first of the front four to arrive -- didn't join the Steelers until 1969, two years after the time McCain refers to as when he was first interrogated.
In 1967, John McCain was 31 years old and the Steelers were anything but super. They'd had only eight seasons since McCain was born in which team wins outnumbered losses. In the two years before McCain was shot down, the Steelers were 2-and-12 and 5-8-and-1. Discouraged fans back then called them SOS -- the "Same Old Steelers".
Mayo has an e-mail from Paul Lindsay of the McCain camp in PA:
Hey Bob,
On background as a McCain official - It was an honest mistake. If bloggers want to make fun of him because he forgot which team he used under torture, let them.
Hope that is helpful to you,
Paul
I can't imagine it was a mistake. If you watch Delano's interview, it's all very carefully planned out. The pander enters the discussion immediately after Delano asks McCain what's the first thing he thinks of when he thinks of Pittsburgh.
On the one hand, it's a teeny-tiny story. On the other, it shows Senator John McCain as willing to say anything even lie about his POW experience in order to garner votes in Pennsylvania.
Digital Democracy is a special event happening here in Pittsburgh next month. This is a project I've been working on for months and I'm excited to let you know about it now.
It's a conference that will explore how the digital revolution -- including blogs, online video, websites and social media -- is changing traditional news media coverage and citizens' access to the political process.
The event includes national-caliber speakers who are coming to town on Saturday, March 15.
• New York Times Online Politics Editor Kate Phillips, who writes for and edits The Caucus, The New York Times politics news blog.
• Newsbusters.org Executive Editor Matthew Sheffield
• MediaMatters.org Senior Fellow & Director of Special Projects Paul Waldman
• Hearst-Argyle Director of Digital Media Content Jacques Natz
• J-Lab Executive Director Jan Schaffer
• Media Bloggers Association President Robert Cox
Other speakers include former USA Today reporter Toni Locy, who's topic is "Subpoenaed For Her Sources". She's the subject of a contempt-of-court request for her refusal to identify sources who provided her information about the 2001 anthrax attacks and the subsequent investigation. There will also be sessions on "Bloggers as Journalists and Journalists as Bloggers", on new media skills and digital literacy for reporters, and on Open Records laws.
Digital Democracy is a Society of Professional Journalists regional conference, hosted by the Pittsburgh chapter. Region 4 covers Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Michigan, but the event can draw from beyond. Its something for all journalists -- and you don't have to be a member of SPJ. In fact, given the theme, bloggers, students, and others with an interest and involvement in the conference theme are welcome to attend. The Digital Democracy website has links for online registration and there's a special rate for students and SPJ members.
If you've been wondering why I haven't been blogging as much here on the Busman's Holiday for a while, it's because I've been working on this event. I'm program chair and have been lining up the speakers. I also created the website for the event. I know some fellow journalists check out the blog here, and I want to encourage you to join us and to spread the word. This is a professional enrichment event intended everyone in news organizations across the region. Links to more specifics are on the website. I hope to see you there.
