And lastly I accuse us. All of us - executives, players, fans, reporters - of failing to draw a line in the sand when one was needed most. Any games played by Baltimore without its executives, and the commissioner having been dismissed and without Ray Rice being permanently banned by the National Football League must be fully boycotted by all of us. If not, we become accessories after the fact.And Ginny - who may not be boycotting only tonight's game.
For the record…For those few, those happy few, unacquainted with the story, I'll try to sum it up in a nutshell.
I have nothing to say about Ginny’s party affiliation or self-identification as a conservative.
My blog post only questioned the quotation marks that Ginny used around the phrase “war criminal”. In itself that’s neither a left/right, Democratic Party/Republican Party issue. Torture’s a human rights issue and the fact that it happened in this country should forever disgrace the president who allowed it and the political party that supported that him.
For the record.
Sorry I missed all the drama. Because my quotation marks around "war criminal" seem to be what has irked so many, let me explain.I'll take her at her word that she didn't intend any irony. I am not sure that gets her off the hook, though. Here's what she wrote:
I wrote that post in under ten minutes, didn't proof it, posted it. I had no motive behind any of my punctuation. I put quotes around war criminal not to be ironic, but because, and I mean this honestly, I was quoting the reader who said that. Honestly.
Do I think that those that view George Bush as a war criminal have a valid opinion. Of course I do. That day that I came out was honestly one of the hardest days of my life and to have people suddenly jump on me for voting for Bush, write about how I voted for a war criminal, etc. on top of all the other shit that happened that day, honestly was unexpected.
This resulted in some uproar from readers who were shocked I ever voted for a “war criminal.” Yes. WAR CRIMINAL. I voted for him because as you already know ME LOVE KILLING! GRRRRR.Not sure I'd want to make a joke minimizing either torture or the deaths of 4500+ American servicemen and women (not to mention the countless Iraqis who died). Deaths, let's all remember, that were a direct result of the actions and decisions of the man who won the 2004 election.
The very day I outed myself as Virginia Montanez instead of PittGirl, Chad Hermann at the Radical Middle latched on to this letter to the editor I wrote when George Bush was re-elected, wondering how my readers were going to like me knowing I was a Republican. This resulted in some uproar from readers who were shocked I ever voted for a “war criminal.” Yes. WAR CRIMINAL. I voted for him because as you already know ME LOVE KILLING! GRRRRR.But Ginny, why the use of the ironic quotation marks? Bush IS a war criminal and he was when you voted for him in 2004. He approved the waterboarding of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and KSM (as he's known in intelligence circles) was waterboarded in 2003 - well before the 2004 election.
After considerable confusion as to his whereabouts today, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl emerged at a late-afternoon press conference. He'd gone incommunicado the rest of the day, he told reporters, "just to kind of prove a point: that you all need to be more responsible."
Ravenstahl railed about rumors that he had traipsed off to Mardi Gras, and confirmed what his press spokesperson had said previously: He'd been in the city all day.But then he peeks behind the curtain:
I find this behavior so utterly baffling that I can't decide what's worse: the possibility that this is a weird excuse to cover for his absence, or the possibility that Ravenstahl is telling the truth.
But I will say this: If I were Luke Ravenstahl -- and thank God I'm not -- I too would suspect some members of the press of reckless behavior. One reason is Virginia Montanez's post about the mayor's disappearance.Here's Pittgirl's post. Potter again:
I mean, there's a weird phenomenon going on here, especially where Montanez is considered. More than a year ago, I noted that local media outlets were willing to bend all kinds of rules for her. Back then, of course, Montanez was anonymous, blogging under the name "PittGirl." And reporters indulged that to a surprising extent:As always, Potter's insight is keen.
I can't think of too many cases in which the Post-Gazette has done a 600-word Q&A -- plus prominent mention in multiple follow-up pieces -- with someone whose identity it refused to disclose. And it's not because nobody over there knows who she is. I know of at least one reasonably high-ranking Post-Gazette editor who has met PittGirl for lunch.
In fact, this may be PittGirl's most impressive accomplishment: Her popularity was such that she got some of the city's most prominent media outlets to play by the blogosphere's rules.
And so it seems to be. Now it's reporters who are being accorded anonymity by the blogger.
The city is facing the possibility of civil suits stemming from arrests and other police activity during the G-20. Criminal hearings involving accused protesters -- many of whom are students at Oakland universities -- are still pending.And what does Mayor Luke do at "Off The Record"? Levine, again:
Pittgirl reacts:And according to several witnesses who contacted us after the fact, Ravenstahl used his moment on stage to send a message to ACLU state legal director Vic Walczak, who has sharply criticized the city's handling of G-20 protesters. According to multiple sources, Ravenstahl said something like this: "I heard we're going to face a free-speech lawsuit. Well, I have some free speech for you -- fuck you, Vic Walczak."
My view is this, Lukey went too far. Actually, he didn’t just go too far, he saw the line, laughed at the line, erased the line, then got in his spaceship and zoomed to the planet Visuviusium six galaxies away and then kept the hell on going like a fleet of starfighters was on his ass. THAT’S how far he went.The Mayor is SUCH A CLASSY GUY! How many weeks have passed since the tear gas? Since the rubber bullets and bean bags? And THIS is how the mayor jokes?
Virginia Montanez, also known as PittGirl, was the marketing director for the Pittsburgh-based scholarship program NEED.You can read her take on it at her blog.
Montanez revealed her identity in an interview with KDKA's Jim Lokay on Wednesday.
She said she was fired this morning.
1. My name is Virginia Montanez. My friends and family call me Ginny, but you can continue to call me Your Majesty, because I’ve grown accustomed.Now that her name's out of the way, I'll paraphrase the other stuff. She's married, two kids ("HOLY SHIT, PITTGIRL IS A MOM!"), four sisters and she still hates pigeons.
