Halloween Edition

1) I know it must be Halloween because I received something in my mailbox designed to curl my hair (too late -- already done) and cover me in goosebumps. Yes, I got the most recent Ravenstahl mailer -- the one that has the big picture of GW on it beside a photo of Mark DeSantis. On the back it reads: "Say no to George W. Bush, Say no to Republican Mark DeSantis." OHMYGOD, Karl Rove will appear under my bed at midnight on election day if I vote for DeSantis! SAVE US ALL!!!!

2) FEMA is looking into Lil Mayor Luke's joyriding in a Homeland Security SUV. Very scary . . . for Lukey!

AND, TRULY FRIGHTENING:

3) Looks like Interim Mayor Luke Ravenstahl may get his wish and have a vote on City Council Bill No. 2007-1797 (Police and Domestic violence) postponed until after the election.

It's no secret that Ravenstahl does not support this bill or that the FOP opposes it and has LIED about what passage of it will do. They are claiming that Council does not have the authority to pass it (BULL!) and that that commanders who accidentally violated an ordinance could be subject to criminal charges (MORE BULL).

What I find more frightening is that only Doug Shields and Bill Peduto (the two cosponsors) have so far come out in favor of the bill (though Twanda Carlisle may be leaning in its favor).

If you haven't yet, email your councilor RIGHT NOW and ask them to support Bill No. 2007-1797 and the four amendments.

The police cannot and should not police themselves as they want.

(Also, check out Behind the Blue Wall a blog that tracks domestic violence issues with police nationally.)

UPDATE: Click here for something m,ore fun than scary.
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Yet Another Ravenstahl Investigation

While U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan is busy looking into Tailgate, according to WPXI News (no link available) the Army Corps of Engineers are looking into the budding Dockgate.

Seems like the Redd Up Crew was busy this summer building a dock. The problem is that there were apparently no permits to build the dock; nor was any necessary feasibility study done; nor was the Pittsburgh City Council, according to Councilman Bill Peduto, notified that the Redder Uppers, who are supposed to help clean up the city, were going to be used to build what looks to be a completely unauthorized and who-knows-how-safe structure on the banks of our town.

The news report at 5:30 PM today showed WPXI asking Mayor Ravenstahl about the unauthorized dock. True to pattern, at first he disclaimed any knowledge of it but then moments later according to PXI (someone must be coaching the kid to stop lying as a first response to any question) Luke suddenly remembered and said "I don't know that there's a problem with the dock."

Yeah, you wouldn't know if there was a problem with a dock if you had bothered to try to build one legally -- like any other Pittsburgher who wants to build a new structure has to do.

[sigh]

Can we really wait to see if Luke will ever grow up?
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UPDATE: WPXI now has a link to the story online here (no video link though).

The Burgh Report notes:

If you look at where more than one of the Redd Up Crew members live, you see they live about a 3-minute drive from the dock they built: Link.

Of all the places to build a dock, they decided to build one behind a jail, without any of the necessary permits, and less than a 3-minute drive from their homes.

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Just a thought

Just a thought...

...but, the Republicans have been pushing the idea that Democrats are weak on terror for some time now and the Ravenstahl Administration just handed them a big fat gift with Luke's "Tailgate."

...even if Mary Beth Buchanan ever makes a case against one or more folks in the Ravenstahl Administration over Tailgate, the DOJ's past selective prosecution of Dems may make the whole thing look "political."

...but, doesn't the DOJ have anything better to do than to troll local blogs for posts on Luke's tailgate?

VISITOR ANALYSIS
Referring Link No referring link
Host Name wdcsun24.usdoj.gov
IP Address 149.101.1.124 [Label IP Address]
Country United States
Region District Of Columbia
City Washington
ISP Us Dept Of Justice
Returning Visits 12
Visit Length 6 mins 42 secs
VISITOR SYSTEM SPECS
Browser MSIE 6.0
Operating System Windows XP
Resolution 1024x768
Javascript Enabled

Navigation Path

Date Time WebPage
3rd October 2007 12:44:50 No referring link
2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com/
3rd October 2007 12:46:36 2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com/
2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com/2007/10/why-does-luke-ravenstahl-hate-america.html#comments
3rd October 2007 12:51:32 No referring link
2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com/

Of course, it could have just been a bored intern surfing the web or they may have a bot that searches for phrases like "Hate America" and "Love Al Qaeda." (Yikes!)

...local bloggers who think it's fine and dandy for a police officer to punch a handcuffed suspect might want to consider that this is the same kind of officer who might act like a dick to someone who jaywalked or had a moving violation or kicked a pigeon -- or if he just thought someone had jaywalked or had a moving violation or kicked a pigeon -- or he thought you had looked at him funny. (Man, I hope neither of you ever serve jury duty because what you've written would tend to make me think that you'd be all "If the cops arrested the defendant than the dude must be guilty" if you ever get on a jury.)

...but, please STFU you local newscasters and weather folk who keep saying we're having "beautiful" weather when it's 90 degrees in October. WTF is wrong with a nice cool, crisp, clear autumn day?

...if the Repugs want to torture folks, you'd think that they'd want to start with whoever designed and approved the following logo for them:
As the Great Orange Satan himself noted:

And yes, this is real, not an extremely clever photoshop job, and truly encapsulates what the Republican Party is all about.

Wide stance? Check.

In Minneapolis? Check.

Prison stripe-wearing? Check.

As for the elephant humping the "2008"...Are they going for a "Still screwing the country in 2008" theme, or is it a reference to hypocritical adulterers like David Vitter and just about the entire Republican presidential field?

All of the above? Check!

Apparently they ran out of space for a collapsing bridge.

Update: Can't you just picture the Daily Show and Colbert Report writers salivating at the possibilities?

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What did he know and when did he know it?

I'm trying to get this all straight here.

According to an article in today's Post-Gazette, the agreement which the City signed to get the funds to purchase the Yukon SUV that Lil Mayor Luke used as his personal party mobile stated that:

...all equipment bought with the $59,942 grant "shall be used for only the purposes set forth" in two documents called the Buffer Zone Plans and the Vulnerability Reduction Purchase Plan.

However, we the public cannot know what those exact purposes were because Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is citing national security as an excuse not to release requested portions of the document or even say what was in them (thanks for asking P-G, now sue him for the info!).

Well, how very Bush Administration of him!

Anyone want to guess the likelihood that the agreement stated that one of the "purposes" of the equipment purchased (SUV) was to be a "conveyance for BBQ sauce and charcoal for the purposes of tailgating activities"?

I think not.

But it gets worse.

According to the P-G:

The agreement was signed in March 2006 by then-director for intergovernmental affairs Dennis Regan, who is no longer with the city, and witnessed by Yarone Zober, who is now chief of staff.

So, wait. You're telling me that Lukey's BFF Yarone and his former BFF Denny knew that the grant put a limited use on all equipment but they not only forgot to tell Lukey, they let him drive around in the anti-terrorist equipment?

Moreover, we know from Jon Delano's excellent report on KDKA that Police Chief Nate Harper apparently couldn't wait to get Lukey into the sweet, sweet ride even though he knew that it could not be used for personal recreational activities?

Looks like Sergeant Mona Wallace did use the chain of command to warn everyone from the very start that Lukey was not allowed to take the SUV for a his joyrides, but not only was she repeatedly ignored, she was reprimanded (later rescinded as they probably realized that another payout to a female whistleblower a la Commander Catherine McNeilly wouldn't fly).

Harper is certainly being used as the fall guy on this one, just as he was in the promotions of the police officers with a history of domestic violence, but:

Regan knew
Zober knew
Huss knew

...what are the chances that Lil Mayor Luke didn't know?

And, if Lil Mayor Luke somehow didn't know, what is it about our corrupt city government that no one can say no to anything that our Boy King wants?
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UPDATE: So now we see from The Burgh Report (who's been on this story like white on rice) that Yarone Zober who knew about the federal restrictions on the Yukon SUV actually rode around in it himself with Mayor Ravenstahl. Yarone Zober should be fired.
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LUKE! The Musical

Regarding Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's recent comments about his joyriding in an SUV that was federally funded with Homeland Security monies:

"But at the end of the day, I'm still going to continue to be who I'm going to be, and go to concerts like I always have, and go to have a drink with my wife in bars. That's what 27-year-olds do and I shouldn't be any different."

I'll see Ms. Mon's Beastie Boys and raise her a Sid Vicious:

Why does Luke Ravenstahl Hate America and Love Al Qaeda?

Pittsburgh Mayor takes multiple joyrides with Homeland Security federally funded SUV


You know, I didn't want to write about Lil Mayor Luke this morning. I really didn't.

There's so much going on today -- Bush's SCHIP veto, the Emergency Contraceptives for Rape Survivors Bill in the PA House, Seymour Hersh's New Yorker article on the push for war with Iran -- things that I deeply care about and wanted to spend some real time here on.

But, no. Once again I feel compelled to write yet another post about our KID IN A CANDY STORE of a mayor.

I used to think Ravenstahl was merely incompetent and ethically challenged.

Now I think he's outright dangerous.

You cannot have someone as mayor who has no self control.

The Post-Gazette article quotes Ravenstahl and Public Safety Director Michael Huss as saying that Lil Lukey had no idea that the Police Bureau GMC Yukon that he loaded up with friends to go to a Toby Keith concert was assigned to the Intelligence Squad. But, how can that be when it was an open secret that Lukey was using the vehicle? Open enough to be discussed in the comments section of The Burgh Report prior to the Keith concert.

How is it possible that the Mayor, his staff, the Police Bureau and the Public Safety Department did not know what was going on? Not, they'd all have you believe, until a police officer blew the whistle. And once again, while the Police Bureau in this town has no problems promoting wife/child beating cops, they also have no problem trying to punish another female police whistleblower.

There's something really rotten here.

Look, I'm a Democrat. I'm a Democrat who has spent countless hours volunteering for Democratic candidates. I'm a Democrat who has donated hundreds of dollars to Democratic candidates and raised even more by hosting numerous fundraisers in my own home.

But, Luke Ravenstahl, you are forcing me to vote against a Democrat in November.

I will be casting my vote for Mark DeSantis for Mayor.

No Republican running could be as bad as you are.

It simply is not possible.
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