Well THIS is Certainly Embarrassing (UPDATED and Rewritten for Clarity)

From today's Tribune-Review.  It's the "Watch list" section of this week's "Pittsburgh Laurels & Lances."  Take a look:

Mike Doyle. Politico speculates that the 10-term 14th District congressman, a Democrat who represents Pittsburgh, could “ditch” his seat “in the near future” and lists a number of possible successors. Considering that about all Mr. Doyle has done in Washington is captain the Democratic Congressional Baseball Team, a change-up would be refreshing.

Here's the visual confirmation (as of 5:15 Friday morning) that it says that:

Why did I bother with the jpg file?

Because the speculation about Congressman Doyle was in Roll Call and NOT Politico.  It's tucked into a corner of this piece about what might happen if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decides to run for President in 2016.  The byline on the piece reads:

By Emily Cahn
Roll Call Staff
Jan. 29, 2014, 7:43 p.m.

It's just so embarrassing for Scaife's braintrust, doncha think?  Sitting on such a huge news gathering organization and yet they can't get a simple citation correct.

Obviously, I am expecting this to be corrected sometime during the day.  And if it is, remember you read it here first!!

UPDATE: In an email, Congressman Mike Doyle said, "The only thing people will "watch" is my running an energetic campaign for reelection this year. I look forward to continuing to serve the people of the 14th district."

Let me interject some info I should have included in the first place. Cahn listed 5 individuals who make up "a long line of potential successors are waiting to hear [Doyle's] plans." They are:

• Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner 
• Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto
• State Sen. Matt Smith
• Pittsburgh City Council Member Dan Gilman 
• Lawyer Kevin Acklin, Peduto’s chief of staff 

I contacted them all for a comment on Cahn's piece.  The responses:

ANOTHER UPDATE: This time from Sonya Toler, Communications Manager for the Office of Mayor William Peduto, who  wrote,

"Mayor Peduto has repeatedly stated that serving the voters of Pittsburgh as Mayor is his highest aspiration. He's is not looking to climb the political ladder. Chief of Staff Kevin Acklin is equally as committed."

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Council member Dan Gilman, in an email to the blog, wrote:

I remain 100% focused on doing the work of City Council that the people of District 8 elected me to do. I am committed to making the changes on which I campaigned-- excellent education for the children of Pittsburgh, 21st century city government, and support for small businesses, innovation, and start-up companies.

That's three of the five.  Still waiting on Wagner and Smith

In Case You Missed It

The State of The Union address starts at about 18:53.

You can read it here.

Vile? Who's Being Vile?

It's vile to repeatedly lie to your readers.  But that's what Scaife's braintrust at the Tribune-Review continues to do.  Take a look at this:

What would the reaction have been among Democrats if, during the administration of George W. Bush, the Senate's No. 3 Republican leader had spoken before The Heritage Foundation and publicly sicced the Internal Revenue Service on Democrats, urging it to harass them for raising campaign money according to the law?

Make no mistake, Democrats would have called for that senator's resignation, urged the appointment of a special prosecutor and begun beating the drums for Mr. Bush's impeachment.

Yet, Sen. Chuck Schumer behaved in just that greasy manner last week. Speaking before the “progressive” Center for American Progress, the New York Democrat called on the IRS to promulgate new rules to effectively silence the tea party.

The law of the land be damned and all too willing to engage in an act of official oppression, Schumer now wants the IRS — already exposed for harassing conservative groups and openly being protected from criminal prosecution by the Justice Department — to ramp up its illegal behavior.

Ah, that again.  The IRS was "already exposed for harassing conservative groups" wasn't it?

Not entirely.  Remember this?  Here's the important stuff Scaife's braintrust isn't telling it's readers:

Despite an admission by the I.R.S. that it inappropriately targeted conservative groups, by searching for groups with the words “Tea Party” or “Patriots” in their names, many legal experts and law enforcement officials say they do not believe that the scrutiny broke the law. Some members of Congress had called for the Justice Department to investigate the tax-collecting agency. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report Monday that criminal charges were unlikely.

I.R.S. documents show the agency gave the same scrutiny to some liberal groups, using the key words “Progressive” and “Occupy.”

And what did Senator Schumer actually say about the IRS in his speech to the Center for American Progress?  Take a look.  There are exactly two mentions of the IRS and here they are:

Beyond issues, the third way we can constructively channel frustrations is to address the damage done by the Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision. One of the great advantages the Tea Party has is the huge holes in our campaign finance laws created this ill-advised decision. Obviously, the Tea Party elites gained extraordinary influence by being able to funnel millions of dollars into campaigns with ads that distort the truth and attack government.

This is not the place for a broad discussion of this issue, and it is clear that we will not pass anything legislatively as long as the House of Representatives is in Republican control, but there are many things that can be done administratively by the IRS and other government agencies – we must redouble those efforts immediately.

Tea Party members realize importance of this issue. In the recent budget negotiations House Republicans nearly blew up the entire agreement because we would not put in the bill a provision that would prevent the IRS from moving forward and administratively closing some of the Citizens United loopholes. [Emphasis added.]

That's it.  Somehow that last part became, to my friends on the braintrust, this:

[Schumer] called on the IRS to promulgate new rules to effectively silence the tea party.

If closing those loopholes can be done "administratively" doesn't that mean those rules are already in place?  And doesn't that mean that it was the House Republicans who wanted to "promulgate new rules" regarding the IRS?

To continue to say the IRS targeted conservative groups without also saying that it targeted liberal groups is a lie.  To build any argument on that lie is to continue that lie.

To not inform your readers of the whole truth is a lie.

And that's vile.

Oh, The Stuff They Leave Out

Check this out from this Sunday's Sunday Pops:

The Los Angeles Times reported that the 85 richest people on Earth own nearly half of all global wealth. Sorry but no. As it was forced to later concede, the globe's 85 richest people own about 0.7 percent of the world's wealth. Whoopsieday. [Bolding in original}

Aren't they missing something?

Let's go to the LATimes to see the actual correction:

Updated 7:55 a.m. PST, Jan. 20: A previous version of this post said the 85 richest people owned nearly half of global wealth and the same amount as the bottom half of the population. The 85 richest people are a small part of the wealthiest 1%, which owns 46% of the world's wealth. The 85 richest people own about 0.7% of the world's wealth, which is the same as the bottom half of the population. [Bolding in original.]

Ok so what they're missing are the bullet points from the Oxfam report that the LATimes was referencing:

• Almost half of the world’s wealth is now owned by just one percent of the population.
• The wealth of the one percent richest peopl e in the world amounts to $110 trillion. That’s 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half of the world’s population.
• The bottom half of the world’s population owns the same as the richest 85 people in the world.
• Seven out of ten people live in countries where economic inequality has increased in the last 30 years.
• The richest one percent increased their share of income in 24 out of 26 countries for which we have data between 1980 and 2012.
• In the US, the wealthiest one percent captured 95 percent of post - financial crisis growth since 2009, while the bottom 90 percent became poorer.

Whoopsie.

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.

Uncle Sugar!

 

("Uncle Sugar" link)

Great Buncha Folks Over There On The Right

The Racists:

Rock legend and gun-rights activist Ted Nugent has launched a brand-new, blistering attack on Barack Obama and politicians of both major parties, flaying the president as a “subhuman mongrel” who is “the enemy of the U.S. military” and who should be jailed for “treasonous acts.”

“I have obviously failed to galvanize and prod, if not shame enough Americans to be ever vigilant not to let a Chicago communist raised communist educated communist nurtured subhuman mongrel like the ACORN community organizer gangster Barack Hussein Obama to weasel his way into the top office of authority in the United States of America,” Nugent said in a Jan. 17 interview with Guns.com at the 2014 Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show, or SHOT Show, in Las Vegas.

The Sexists:

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) said that the government shouldn't help women who can't control their "libido or their reproductive system" by providing co-pay-free birth control and that Democrats are encouraging women to be "victims of their gender."

Huckabee made the comments during a speech at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting on Thursday.

"If the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of government then so be it! Let us take that discussion all across America because women are far more than the Democrats have played them to be," Huckabee said.

Note that I am not saying that everyone over there on the right's a racist and/or a sexist, or even that the majority of folks over there infected with teh crazie.  But here's two very prominent conservatives on that side of the ideological aisle making some profoundly stupid statements.  And they're not alone.

It's your choice, my conservative friends, whether you want to hang out with them.