Marty, Her Name's NATALIA, Not NATASHA

I guess I've been listening to too much Marty Griffin at work.  For those not in the area or otherwise wouldn't know, Marty's the morning voice of KDKA radio in Pittsburgh.

I've written about him before.

I don't want you to get the wrong impression.  Marty does do some completely cool things.  During this (and the last) period of intensely cold arctic weather, he's done an awful lot to get help to people who need but can't afford it (getting broken furnaces fixed and so on) and that's nothing but good.

On the other hand, that doesn't (or at least shouldn't) excuse his many embarrassing faults.  For example, when he repeatedly mis-characterized this NYTimes editorial and said that the Times was looking for a pardon for Edward Snowden when the editorial clearly called for "a plea bargain or some form of clemency".

Or when he repeatedly referred to Chelsea Manning on the same day as "Mr. Bradley."

This time, he's gone local with his particular brand of...I don't even know what to call it.  Griffinism?  Mid-morn KD-crazie? Marty-Malarkey?

I'll have to think on which one.

You see, he's up in arms over City Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak.

You might ask why I put her first name in bold italics.  I did that because Marty doesn't seem to be able to get her first name right - even when being corrected by callers on the air.  He insists on calling her "Natasha" while undermining her position in city government by using terms like "so called city leader."

Perhaps Marty should read the news sometime.  Perhaps if he did, he'd see that Natalia Rudiak won her seat in 2013 with just under 75% of the vote.

But let's get to what's really irking Marty.  It's this hearing:

Responding to concerns about dirt bikes recklessly racing through City neighborhoods and illegally cutting across both public and private property, Councilwoman Rudiak has called for a public hearing and a post agenda meeting in City Council, to take place on Wednesday, January 22, 2014, to bring together residents and City and State officials to discuss the current road-legal status of these vehicles and police enforcement of noise and speeding laws.

Marty didn't see the reason for the hearing.  He'd never heard of any problem with dirt bikes so it mustn't be a real issue.

Perhaps if he'd been watching his own TV station in June he'd have known that there's an issue.  This is from well known issue fabricator (and I mean that ironically) Ralph Iannotti:

Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak says for whatever reason, perhaps the warm weather, the city is seeing “a lot more complaints about dirt biking on streets and sidewalks.”

Two city neighborhoods where complaints are on the rise: Carrick and Knoxville.

Zone 3 Police Officer Christine Luffey told KDKA’s Ralph Iannotti that she believes most bikers don’t have licenses, are driving unregistered vehicles and have no insurance.

A Kirk Avenue block watch captain, Donna Williams, last Sunday was on her front porch and shot home video of dirt bikers zooming though the neighborhood, weaving on the streets and sidewalks.

The dirt bikes bothered Ms Williams so much she circulated a petition, gathered about 125 names on it, and submitted it to the City Clerk's office in early November.  I am told that it was the petition itself triggered the hearing - not any decision by Councilwoman Natalia (see how easy that is, Marty?) Rudiak.

He's also ranting about the councilwoman's support of the Thanksgiving day protest at the Capital Grille downtown, though he gets the facts wrong on that one as well.  He repeatedly said the workers were protesting because they didn't want to work on Thanksgiving.

But the Will of the Council sees things a little differently:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh stands with workers to protect our collective rights from corporate encroachment, especially since other large corporations like Costco, Nordstrom, Burlington Coat Factory, and more have publicly confirmed their commitment to respecting workers, families, and our society by remaining closed on Thanksgiving; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby oppose the Darden Corporation's choice to force Capital Grille's employees to work on Thanksgiving and to do so without holiday pay; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh supports the employees of Capital Grille and the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Pittsburgh as they speak up together to advocate for fair standards in the restaurant industry.

Wait - Darden wanted all those people to work Thanksgiving without holiday pay??  That's what the protest was about?  But Marty said all those people didn't want to work on Thanksgiving.  Turns out they were protesting (among other things) Darden's choice to withhold holiday pay on that most American of holidays. 

Marty, you do some very good things with the 50,000 watts KDKA gives you every weekday morning. 

Getting all the facts straight isn't one of them.

It just isn't.

More On Marty Griffin

I know Marty Griffin knows how to read.  But can he understand what he reads?  I have my doubts based on what he said on the air on KDKA today.

Before I get to what he said, let's look at what the President said about pot:

When I asked Obama about another area of shifting public opinion—the legalization of marijuana—he seemed even less eager to evolve with any dispatch and get in front of the issue. “As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.”

And:

Less dangerous, he said, “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer. It’s not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy.” What clearly does trouble him is the radically disproportionate arrests and incarcerations for marijuana among minorities. “Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do,” he said. “And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties.” But, he said, “we should not be locking up kids or individual users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing.” Accordingly, he said of the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington that “it’s important for it to go forward because it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished.”

As is his habit, he nimbly argued the other side. “Having said all that, those who argue that legalizing marijuana is a panacea and it solves all these social problems I think are probably overstating the case. There is a lot of hair on that policy. And the experiment that’s going to be taking place in Colorado and Washington is going to be, I think, a challenge.” He noted the slippery-slope arguments that might arise. “I also think that, when it comes to harder drugs, the harm done to the user is profound and the social costs are profound. And you do start getting into some difficult line-drawing issues. If marijuana is fully legalized and at some point folks say, Well, we can come up with a negotiated dose of cocaine that we can show is not any more harmful than vodka, are we open to that? If somebody says, We’ve got a finely calibrated dose of meth, it isn’t going to kill you or rot your teeth, are we O.K. with that?”

That's it.  That's what he said about pot.

So of course Marty characterized it as Obama's "tacit endorsement of getting high" and that Obama "decided to tell us all that it's OK to get stoned" and  that what he said was "flat out ignorant."

Marty?  I know you read this blog (heck you even read some of it over the air a week or so ago) so I gotta ask you: How do you get from the president saying that pot smoking:

• is a bad habit and a vice
• is a bad idea
• that those who believe that legalizing marijuana is a panacea...are probably overstating the case

to it's his "tacit endorsement of getting high"??

Marty, what you did wasn't even spin.  You merely juxtaposed two completely different things (what the president said and what you said he said) and then simply asserted that they were the same thing.

They're not.  They're just not.

And you got it wrong.

The Incredibly Enlightened Marty Griffin

It's been a while since I wrote about KDKA's Marty Griffin.

Back then it was about the unconstitutional Ten Commandments monuments at some local public schools.

This time it's about something else.

In an hour long rant began with Marty vehemently opposing this editorial in the NYTimes about NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden.  The fun thing is that even though he read the thing on the air, he kept making the same mistake about what the editorial said.

Marty kept saying the Times wanted a pardon for Snowden.  Marty kept saying Snowden was a traitor.

And this is what they actually wrote:

Considering the enormous value of the information he has revealed, and the abuses he has exposed, Mr. Snowden deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear and flight. He may have committed a crime to do so, but he has done his country a great service. It is time for the United States to offer Mr. Snowden a plea bargain or some form of clemency that would allow him to return home, face at least substantially reduced punishment in light of his role as a whistle-blower, and have the hope of a life advocating for greater privacy and far stronger oversight of the runaway intelligence community. [Emphasis added.]

A plea bargain or clemency is not a pardon, Marty.  You should know that.  A "substantially reduced punishment" also not a pardon, Marty.  You should know that, too.

In addition, Marty said a number of times that the NSA surveillance stopped 50 terror attacks - so they're justified.

Only there's a problem with that number.  From the Huffingtonpost:

"Would you agree that the 54 cases that keep getting cited by the administration were not all plots, and of the 54, only 13 had some nexus to the U.S.?" [Senator Patrick] Leahy said at the hearing. "Would you agree with that, yes or no?"

"Yes," [NSA chief Gen. Keith] Alexander replied, without elaborating.

It's impossible to assess the role NSA surveillance played in the 54 cases because, while the agency has provided a full list to Congress, it remains classified. [Emphasis added.]

That would be the same Keith Alexander that lied to Congress about the NSA surveillance.

Marty, you should know this, too.

But the real take-away from Marty's rant is his collateral damage.  In insisting that the Times wants a pardon for Edward Snowden (something we already know is untrue), Marty repeatedly asked why not a pardon for "Mr. Bradley?"

Who, you might ask, might this "Mr Bradley" be?

That would be Marty Griffin's snarky name for Chelsea Manning.  Throughout the hour, Marty Griffin insisted on calling Manning a "he" throughout his rant.  He (Marty) added that "Mr Manning" had some sort of  "bizarre sex-change thing" going on.  He then returned to using the masculine third person pronoun and "Mr Bradley."

Can't even use her last name, I guess.

How enlightened of you, Marty Griffin!