Pennsylvania Politics News

November 19, 2009 - 10:16 pm

A Follow Up On The God-Crazie

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You can find the transcript here.

Here's how things began:
MADDOW: “Let his days be few; and let another take his office,” “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.” This is such strong language in secular terms about President Obama. Can you tell me if this means something less threatening to people hearing this in a biblical context?

SCHAEFFER: No, actually, it means something more threatening. I think the situation that I find genuinely frightening right now is that you have a ramping up of biblical language—language from the antiabortion movement, for instance, death panels and this sort of thing.

November 19, 2009 - 06:44 am

Fox "News" Does It Again

And what, pray tell, did they do again?

They faked some crowd video. First it was a Michele ("She got teh crazie") Bachman rally:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
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Sean Hannity Uses Glenn Beck's Protest Footage

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Which Sean Hannity has already "apologized" for.

Now it's this from Thinkprogress:

From Thinkprogress:
This afternoon, Fox News host Gregg Jarrett proudly announced that Sarah Palin is “continuing to draw huge crowds while she’s promoting her brand new book. Take a look at — these are some of the pictures just coming into us.” But the pictures that the network chose to display on-air appeared to be old file footage of Palin rallies from the 2008 presidential campaign.

November 18, 2009 - 08:48 pm

Religious Wingnuts Strike Again

From The Christian Science Monitor:

There’s a new slogan making its way onto car bumpers and across the Internet. It reads simply: “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8”

A nice sentiment?

Maybe not.

The psalm reads, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”

Presidential criticism through witty slogans is nothing new. Bumper stickers, t-shirts, and hats with “1/20/09” commemorated President Bush’s last day in office.

But the verse immediately following the psalm referenced is a bit more ominous: “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”

This part I don't understand at all:

Still, that doesn’t push the Psalms citation into the realm of hate speech, says Chris Hansen, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

November 18, 2009 - 03:26 pm

In case you were wondering...

Yes, it was sexist of Newsweek to use this out-of-context photo and headline (there's worse inside) for their Sarah Palin cover:


And yes, this is a totally awesome photo of Hillary Clinton by Annie Leibovitz for Vogue:


.

November 18, 2009 - 01:39 pm

Hill District Will Have To Start All Over Again Looking For A Grocery Store

Pittsburgh's predominately African American Hill District neighborhood has been without a grocery store for 30 plus years. A year ago, it looked like they'd finally found an operator in Kuhn's Market but the deal has fallen through.

Kuhn's Market says that it's due to one of the owners of the chain of nine stores having cancer.

KDKA radio personality Fred Honsberger (via a FaceBook message) -- surprise, surprise -- is trying to blame it on recent talk of a prevailing wage law in City Council even though the Post-Gazette reports that "the plan began to stall over the summer."

Having lived in neighborhoods in NYC which were predominately minority and low income (Alphabet City, Harlem, etc.

November 18, 2009 - 06:57 am

Announcement

From The Macyapper:The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Presents:

The John McIntire Dangerously Live Comedy/Talk Show – Thanksgiving Edition!

THANKS BUT NO THANKS – THE PEOPLE WHO RUIN IT FOR THE REST OF US

We all can’t stand the rest of us. So let’s focus like a laser beam on the most annoying among us.

Panelists – Post-Gazette Columnist Sam Bennett – She hates everybody.

Alternative Comedian Gab Bonesso – She hates everybody Sam doesn’t hate.

WDVE Movie Guy Sean Collier - What A Snotty Snotster!

2politicaljunkies blogger Maria Lupinacci - A true hater's hater.

Comedy by John and Gab.

Saturday November 21st
Cabaret Theater – 7th St. and Penn Avenue
NEW EARLIER START TIME! 10 PM
Food, Alcohol, Parking Available
$5.00
Be there and be Theater Square! Go Maria!

November 17, 2009 - 06:37 am

The Brain Trust Errs With NOAA Climate Data

But then again, how surprising is that?

Here's what Richard Mellon Scaife's Editorial Board had to say today about October's weather:
Another month, another set of data that counters global-warming orthodoxy -- and another reason why the climate debate must stop generating more heat than light if it's to arrive at scientifically valid conclusions.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center has released its "State of the Climate National Overview October 2009." The report finds that the month just past was America's third-coolest October on record. All but six states and all but one of nine "climate regions" had below-normal temperatures.

Though it covers just the U.

November 16, 2009 - 02:20 pm

Rarely is the question asked, is our children mayor learning?

Well now, that didn't take long.

The good press garnered by the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh -- especially the "Eds and Meds" meme -- is being countered with this headline in today's USA Today:

The article notes that the Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education plans to challenge Lil Mayor Luke's 1% college tuition "privilege" tax in court.

Moreover, our Overlords will likely reject Ravenstahl's budget partially based on the probable unenforceability of this tax (seems that they've been getting some letters about this issue).

And, what does City Council think about the proposed tax? Here's one vote it won't get (from an email from City Councilor Bill Peduto):
Thank you for taking the time to email me regarding the proposed student tax.

November 16, 2009 - 06:56 am

This Weekend

This weekend was Aaron Copland's birthday. He's one of my favorite composers. He's the guy who wrote "Appalachian Spring" and "Fanfare for The Common Man."

He also wrote this:

Which continues here:

The amazing thing about his story, of course, is that Copland was questioned by Roy Cohn regarding his Communist sympathies. Afterwards, he was investigated by the FBI and had trouble getting a passport.

There's more irony in the story of his being questioned by Roy Cohn, but I'll leave that up to you to discover for yourselves.

November 16, 2009 - 06:40 am

Jack Kelly Sunday

I never thought Jack Kelly would be so anti-US Military. But check out this week's column.

After a gratuitous slap at "America's self-anointed elite" Jack heads straight towards the US Army (Note: Jack thinks that The Army is "America's self-anointed elite"??)

The column starts out about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged Ft Hood shooter and winds up indicting the Army as "PC." His argument is that because there were so many "red flags" in Hasan's record, there was a "willful blindness" and a "gross negligence by his superiors permitted him to be in the position to do so much harm."

Perhaps. But let's look at the evidence that Jack presents to see if all his dots connect.