Number Seven Jerseys Are Still In Style -- And, No Doubt, Still Being Sold By (And To) Dicks!

A 20-person group marched to and assembled near Heinz Field today to mark Ben Roethlisberg's return to professional footballing by protesting his conduct, drawing insults and jeers from a number of Steelers fans who not only like the Steelers' quarterback but indeed to continue to wear his jersey.

This prompted some initial bewilderment -- what type of adult would wear a number seven jersey yesterday these days? -- but wonder soon gave way to way to recognition as the reasons to stick with Big Ben apparel emerged. There are at least seven:

1) Who wouldn't like to walk on tabs and get away with it?

2) Somebody needs to teach college girls not to get so drunk!

3) Big Ben -- spokesman for Dicks everywhere!

4) A guy with a private police force is cool.

5) Big Ben played for Jesus --ostentatiously -- as a rookie.

6) Where is it written you must tip a waitress?

7) Big Ben -- back on Jesus' team!

So . . . wear 'em proudly, Roethlisberger fans!

Sunday Reading: Mission Accomplished Edition

Iraq: Mission Accomplished, Episode 43(a).

Afghanistan: Mission Accomplished, Episode 43(b).

Homeland Security: Mission Accomplished, Episode 43(c).


The Kevin Quigley Public-Private Partnership Driveway: Mission Accomplished -- 'What, you got a problem with that?'


Mathematical Economics: The missing middle class.

The Upper Crust: The "income defense industry."

Infinonytune: Shady Lane, Pavement

DeMarco, Orie Step Up Mailing It In For Senate

Despite Democrat Dan DeMarco's less-than-energetic campaign, the contest for the Senate seat currently occupied by Jane Orie has become one of the few interesting local races. Democrats had not planned to chase Sen. Orie, but a politically charged indictment of the incumbent Republican may have generated a competitive contest between two flawed candidates.

Neither seems to be running against the other; DeMarco appears to be walking rather than running, and Sen. Orie is running against the Zappalas.

Some of Sen. Orie's mailers (and some from the DeMarco campaign) are available at North Pittsburgh Politics.

Orie Campaign Takes Voters To The Movies

Jane Orie's most recent campaign flyer, delivered to voters this week, is by far her best yet, resembling a great movie poster.

The title: Jane Orie For State Senate

The producer: Senate Republican Campaign Committee

The taglines: "Jane Orie Wants Answers: The Political Insiders Want Her Out" and "Jane Orie Is Taking On The 'Good Old Boys' Network: Now They Want Her Out"

The heroine: Jane Orie, "fighting to end 'cozy' deals given to political insiders"

The villains: Steve Zappala, the Connected D.A.; Charles Zappala, the List-Maker; Greg Zappala, the Money-Maker; and other "members of a . . . network"

Guest star: Cyril Wecht, M.D., J.D., Dem.: "Steve Zappala . . . said that anybody who screws with me or my family is going to be indicted"

Story by: Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Memorable scenes:

• "If you paid taxes in Allegheny County in the last 20 years, a sliver of the bill went to members of an informal network . . .


• "$32 million in payments were documented to network-related businesses from 2005-2009"


• "Greg Zappala, the District Attorney's brother, financially benefitted from county bond deals in 1996 and 1999"


• "J.P. Morgan made a large sum of money in a bond deal in the Onorato Administration. Greg Zappala worked at J.P. Morgan at the time"

Quote from star: It's always the Zappalas!

Infinonytune: Janey Don't You Lose Heart, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Parking Privateers Expand Pitch While Claiming Surprise (And, No Doubt, Erecting A Gangplank)

Today's developments with respect to the Suddenly-Not-So-Great InsolvenCity Parking Garage Sale:

With hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars at stake, the privateers have reacted to council's lopsided rejection by launching a never-say-die, full-court press. They have apparently switched strategic gears, approaching council members directly (after ignoring most council members for months) to request (1) an opportunity for communication and (2) an open mind. Privateers are claiming that the Ravenstahl administration misled them with respect to council members' votes, sentiments and desire for direct participation in the process.

Lobbying has become frenzied, with some formerly behind-the-scenes players emerging for direct pitches.

Privateers also are attempting to expand outreach among neighborhood groups, in some cases involving events and meetings scheduled to occur after Tuesday (the day on which a council supermajority seems destined to bury the proposed lease).

Local fallout includes anxiety among professional firms that invested substantial effort in devising, documenting and promoting the proposed transaction, ostensibly for a contingent fee; one firm's partners have been told that millions of dollars are at risk.

State Official Reveals One Aspect Of The Horror

James B. Allen, secretary of the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System, inadvertently revealed today why some InsolvenCity officials have been hysterical in warning against the consequences of state oversight of pension funds. A Post-Gazette report indicates that while discussing with council members the contours of prospective state oversight, Mr. Allen actually mentioned "nonpartisan bidding requirements for bond work."

Yinzer Admission Test: Parking Section

2. A Council supermajority voted to reject The Great InsolvenCity Parking Garage Sale because

(1) Constituent messages were running 95-98 percent against the privateers (in a town in which 2-5 percent of the population was personally involved in angling for a cut of the privateering proceeds)
(2) The proponents of the proposed lease engaged in remarkably little effort to persuade council members of the proposal's merits
(3) The sole council member to vote for the mayor's plan forfeited his colleagues' benefit of the doubt long ago
(4) The overwhelming sentiment among independent financial and legal professionals consulted by council members ranged from "no" to "hell, no"
(5) Council members determined that a state takeover had been misleadingly demonized by privateers
(6) All of the above

Extra credit for discussion of your answer.

Infinonytune: Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, Elton John

Those Who Watched Pension Fund Burn To Ground Are Poor Candidates To Conduct Rescue

It appears city firefighter union leader Joe King was no more successful in pleading for the Great InsolvenCity Parking Garage Sale at council chambers today than have been the other union leaders sent to scare council members -- Council President Darlene Harris, in particular -- during recent months.

Before anyone listens to a word from Mr. King (left) on this subject, he should be compelled to answer this question: Where were the union leaders when the pension fund on which their unions' members rely was being dissipated by politicians (and their cronies) year after year after year? (Other than sucking down the free Ahrns at fundraisers for those politicians and at parties thrown by those cronies, of course.) The evidence indicates Mr. King and his colleagues have failed to protect pension funds for many years; is there any reason to believe they have changed course?

Infinonymous: Talking To The King, Joe Grushecky

The Vividly Unprincipled Life Of Diana Irey

Washington County Commissioner (and Tea Party leader) Diana Irey has loudly talked the conservative line -- free-market economics, small government, fiscal discipline -- when promoting Republican candidates, including herself.

At the most recent meeting of commissioners, the Tribute-Review reports, Commissioner Irey "said she is philosophically opposed to government subsidizing businesses" . . . moments before she provided the deciding vote to pledge millions of local taxpayer dollars to arrange a $20 million federal loan to a privately held business whose founder and CEO is her former colleague as a Republican commissioner, ostentatiously wealthy social climber Joe Hardy.

It appears government assistance isn't socialism, in the world of newly minted socialists Diana Irey and Joe Hardy, if the recipients are centimillionaires. But it is vivid hypocrisy.

The Momentarily Astute Life Of Joanna Doven

Mayor Ravenstahl's spokesperson, Joanna Doven, issued incontrovertible insight today:

"Residents deserve a lot more from their government."

Well stated, Ms. Doven.

Infinonytune: For Once In My Life, Tony Bennett/Stevie Wonder

The Conveniently Forgetful Life Of Joanna Doven

With Luke Ravenstahl on a longshot Chinese takeout run, the task of braying dutifully as the Great InsolvenCity Parking Garage Sale is declared "dead" (and beyond "crazy math" resuscitation) has been entrusted to mayoral mouthpiece Joanna Doven, who warned today that "the clock is ticking."

Deadlines are tight, but the schedule was controlled by the Ravenstahl administration, which (1) spent the better part of a year hatching its privateering plan in secrecy and (2) secured an arrangement that prevented competing plans from being considered until the late-in-the-game unveiling of the mayor's proposal.

It's tough to take seriously complaints about a bad deal from people who stacked the deck.

Infinonytune: Already Gone, The Eagles

Why Settle For Faux Hicks When The Genuine Article Winks In Your Direction?

John Raese no longer must settle for out-of-state actors to portray "hicks" promoting his candidacy for governor of West Virginia: He now has the formal endorsement of a genuine out-of-state hick, former half-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Raese's inherited fortune originated in West Virginia, but his pink marble driveway (right), limousines, homestead exemption and family are located in Florida. The craving for a "hicky" veneer consequently reflects self-awareness (the carpetbagger candidate probably does not own a "John Deer" hat, for example).

Infinonytune: Green Acres, Eddie Albert/Eva Gabor

Ravenstahl Administration Does The Right Thing On Pension Subpoena, South Side Lawlessness

The Ravenstahl administration has announced a mature, productive response to city council's subpoena concerning provision of fresh(er) pension data to state officials: The relevant information is to be provided, without acknowledgment of the subpoena's validity (or establishment of precedent in that regard). A good result from several perspectives.

City officials also deserve credit for a fine first step toward enforcing laws, regulations and civilized norms along South Side's Carson Street corridor throughout the weekend. According to the Post-Gazette, police encountered spontaneous applause from residents of the alcohol-saturated (and, on Fridays and Saturdays, urine-stained) neighborhood as they issued parking citations, arrested public urinators and investigated the weekly shooting.

Rich Lords Over List Of Democrats' Officers

The Post-Gazette's Rich Lord probably does not have a vote with respect to leadership positions of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee . . . but he appears to exercise veto power, at least concerning who is to be publicly listed as an officer.

First, Mr. Lord removed Ed Grattan (far left, smaller star), whom the ACDC website had long identified as the county committee's finance chair -- until Mr. Lord published an apparently inconvenient summary of Mr. Grattan's conduct, after which publicity Mr. Grattan's name departed that website.

Mr. Lord struck again recently. Mr. Lord referred to local attorney (and longtime ACDC solicitor) Jack Cambest not only in an analysis of Pat Risha's career at the busy intersection of business and education but also in a multi-part examination of the List-Makers (whom Mr. Lord, unnecessarily deferential to Inficopyright, labeled "The Network"). As of yesterday, and as predicted, the ACDC website has pruned Mr. Cambest's name and title from its list of officers.

The ACDC website lists four officers -- chair, vice chair, secretary, treasurer -- with no indication of whether the local Democratic Party has a finance chair or solicitor. Can anyone illuminate this situation?

UPDATE: The website changes do not prove that any change in status among the Democratic Party's officers has occurred (hence the request for illumination, and the qualification of Mr. Lord's apparent veto power as being limited to public listings).

UPPERDATE: A program for the ACDC's October 7th Kennedy-Lawrence dinner lists Mr. Gratton as finance chair and Mr. Cambest as solicitor on the cover but does not include biographies or photographs of them inside (where other officers' biographies and photographs are printed).

Sunday Reading: Traveling Edition

Mojave, CA: Why drive when one could travel like this?

Mountain View, CA: Why drive when one could travel like this?

Western Pennsylvania: Time to schedule some desirable one-way trips?

Higher Education: Opportunity should follow merit, not inheritance.

New York-to-Providence: A short but instructive trip on Amtrack.