Wednesday, January 28, 2009

SNOW DAY


The HUDDLER like many out there in the Burghosphere is enjoying a snow day at home! The HUDDLER will be saying a special mid-week rosary for all of the workers that have to work in this mess or travel on days like today. Not that it is the end of the world. But hopefully everyone will slow down and take it easy. The Huddler just realized that it's been a week since last posting. The Huddler never realized how much effort it takes to scribble down a few ramblings, along with a sarcastic remark or two. The Huddler sends out the deserved props to all of those bloggers that manage to post on a regular basis.

With the snow brings a Pittsburgh tradition of saving your street side parking space with a chair. The HUDDLER thought for sure this was only a Pittsburgh tradition. A quick google search showed that it is also a tradition in Detroit! (The HUDDLER needs to get out of the Burgh more often apparently). Along with the chairs come the army of "shovelers" willing and able knocking on doors, willing to shovel your walk or driveway for a nominal fee. The Huddler actually saw one with a car brush in hand too, willing to clean off your car as part of the deal. This kid is thinking out of the box. The Huddler told his he should apply at the Mayor's office? Because we needed more youth with his ambition in government! What was disturbing is the number of shovelers out there after recent storms and the age of the shovelers. These are adults going door to door looking for work. It is rather depressing - as it is an indicator of the economy and lack of QUALITY jobs out there. THANK GOD for President OBAMA - hopefully he comes through and does the right thing regarding an economic stimulus that will CREATE JOBS!!! It is INSPIRING to see that Americans are willing to roll up thier sleeves and go out and look for work to make money. Even if it is only a few bucks shoveling snow. In these hard times every penny helps. With the bad weather - WE should ALL be looking to help those in need and the less fortunate. Check on your elderly or disabled neighbors. Shovel the walk for them... Make sure they have heat... Take over a hot meal....(alot of the elderly depend on meals on wheels, the huddler noticed alot were closed today) The Huddler's mom always said whatever you give comes back ten fold. And mom wasn't talking about money.

Speaking of parking issues, apparently there will be some major street closures surrounding the Steelers Pep Rally downtown tomorrow during the lunch hour. The Huddler couldn’t find anything in the MSM regarding this. But learned from sources within the Pittsburgh Police Bureau there are going to some road closures surrounding the pep rally due to expectations of large crowds. So if you aren’t a Steelers fan and don’t need to be in town tomorrow- STAY HOME !

Pittsburgh City Council races are on fire right now. There is apparently a formidable challenger running against Councilwomen Tonya Payne. Ms. Payne is being challenged by Daniel Lavelle. The Huddler must say that there is still a lot to learn about Mr. Lavelle. However historically these two separate clans get along as well as the Hatfields and McCoys – I mean Wagners and Onoratos. Progress Pittsburgh has a good article regarding this. They seemed to break the story in the burgosphere. The Huddler is disappointed in the Lavelle picture posted over at the comet that is done in the style of the poplular President Obama art out there. The Huddler may not know everything to know about Lavelle. But the Huddler can say that Lavelle is NO OBAMA !!!!

The race to replace Motznick on City Council just got another contender. Anthony Coghill has tossed his hat into the race. This leaves us with at least (4) candidates for the May primary. The Huddler may have to eat his hat on this one. The Huddler named Patrick Reilly as an early favorite. However perhaps there is something MORE sinister going on in this race. Word on the street is that the Ward Chair - Pete Wagner was supporting Reilly. (This has not been confirmed to the Huddlers knowledge) However with three of the four candidates being from the Beechview side of the district- theses candidates are essentially splitting the committee votes among the three of them. Which could lead to a surprising endorsement of Rudiak if she carries the Carrick side of the district and syphons some other votes as well) In addition word is that Chelsa Wagner supports Rudiak. It just so happens that Patrick Reilly works for Chelsa Wagner. The Huddler is wondering to himself if Patrick Reilly is in this race to win it OR just take committe votes from Coghill ?

Still no word on challengers for either Shields or Peduto? The Huddler understands that Squirrel Hill is overflowing with progressive dems who are qualified, organized, and ready to make change. The Huddler is surprised no challengers have come forward as of yet.

Someone out in the Burghosphere asked who is running for school board this year? To date, very little activity in these regards. The Huddler actually thinks we should do away with the school board and expand city council and thier responsibilites to cover this vital agency. The Huddler is not saying we should DOUBLE the size of council or anything like that. But we could certainly save some money IF we reduced the duplicative departments between the "city" and the "board".

The HUDDLER constantly hears that our senior citizens can not afford to pay thier school taxes.

19 comments:

Mark Rauterkus said...

Oh gosh. No way should city council have anything to do with our schools. Think again about that.

We need more democracy, not less. And, city council already worked its way under the domain of two sets of OVERLORD boards.

Anonymous said...

some people say the Pittsburgh Hoagie is running for school director

Bram Reichbaum said...

I actually swiped that picture of Danny LaVelle from his Facebook page. Someone had designed it and sent it to him -- I'm not sure if it was a friend, volunteer, someone on the campaign or what. But if it goes up on the Internet and I like it enough, it's liable to wind up on the Comet.

Shields isn't up for reelection this time around. He got re-up'd in 2007, the same time his bid for Controller fell a bit short.

Boy the weather today was lousy. If it's like this tomorrow ... well, I'll have to be Downtown anyway, so more BBQ wings and smiley cookies for me!

Anonymous said...

I have not ruled out a possible run for it. It is something I will discuss after Feb 3rd.

Anyone can get one of those OBAMA pics made of themselves at

http://www.obama-me.com/

THE HUDDLER said...

Thanks for the web address Hoagie. NICE. But the HUDDLER is disappointed that ANYONE is comparing Lavelle to Obama.

No offense comet.

The HUDDLER just thinks that converting pictures to resemble President Obama's posters should be reserved for special deserving individuals. (Therefore my post today)

Bram Reichbaum said...

Hey, if you can present a case against Danny LaVelle that doesn't overly involve Jake Wheatley or Sala Udin (Zzzzzzzzzzz...) I'd love to hear it. I don't know everything there is to know about this kid!

Anonymous said...

I blogged about this previously, but Peduto will be facing a challenge from Christine Stone, who is the sister-in-law of the attorney who ran against him last time.

-- Chris Potter

Anonymous said...

And she will have no chance of winning.

Lady Elaine said...

http://Obamiconme.com is another one


I think this year's title should be "All In The Family."

My sources say Pete Wagner's backing Reilly and Chelsa's backing Natalia, although there's some strain there, maybe because of Chelsa's feud with her pappy.

Coghill just likes running for the seat.

If enough people remember Coghill's name and he squeaks by with the endorsement, people just could easily vote for him--he's on the ballot like every time!

Natalia is kicking ass with fundraising, but she has some funny dudes working on her campaign that can easily screw everything up.

Anonymous said...

What kinds of funny dudes are we talking about? MacYapper funny or Zober funny?

Lady Elaine said...

Zober at least knows politics.

I got the huge impression that there is going to be a lot of conflict. I know one person's background is not politics and that person seems to not play well with others.

Another has done campaigns, but seems to be very obtuse with speaking and how this person behaves around others.

With that said, these are my first impressions and I still think Natalia's strategy is a good one provided they don't screw it up for her and she remains the boss of them.

Anonymous said...

Lady Elaine, you're speaking very obtusely!

So far Natalia has 4 people on her team, and i can't tell to which of them you might be referring, tho it sounds like you might have some insight.

What you may not know are the number of unpaid members of her team, aka her committee, who are people from her district who've already been doing work for her.

And to be clear about just how much Natalia is kicking ass with fundraising-- she's got like 20k already.

Bram Reichbaum said...

Team of Rivals! Team of Rivals!

Anonymous said...

Who are the funny people? Name some names.

Lady Elaine said...

She does have a small staff, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out.

Anonymous said...

Hey, if you can present a case against Danny LaVelle that doesn't overly involve Jake Wheatley or Sala Udin (Zzzzzzzzzzz...) I'd love to hear it. I don't know everything there is to know about this kid!

well that's the million dollar question isn't it b.r.? d. lavelle's entire career has been working for jake and/or sala.

just cause you're bored with it (or maybe don't understand some of the history) it doesn't mean it's irrelevant. it's the candidates job to start getting those distinctions out there-- if there are any.

Lady Elaine said...

I posted this on SlagHeap--

John Fournier, the campaign manager, when as a student at MSU, ran for East Lansing City Council in '05.

Apparently the media fell in love with him. Two seats were open--he finished third, a respectable third bc it was against a mayor pro tem, a former council member and an incumbant.

I guess he did a few campaigns there before Rudiak . . . don't know how he did with them.

My first impression was he wasn't too good, but I'm reconsidering.

Being young and energetic isn't necessarily a bad thing. But at the same time, having a little sense, manners and a some wisdom can go a long way--meaning having an entire staff full of young inexperienced people may be to their detriment.

Still working on the other "funny" person . . .

Bram Reichbaum said...

Anon 1-31: That's true. It's not like it's totally unimportant -- it's just not all that's important. People have a tendency to see the outlines of a history and think, "Bah! It's those knuckleheads at it again!" Eager to see them trade viewpoints.

Anonymous said...

likewise, i'm eager to hear some viewpoints from the candidates.

anonymous in district 6.