Filed Under: default || By jt3y
Category: default || By jt3y
The day that former Allegheny County Commissioner Tom Foerster died, I happened to be talking to a local TV personality --- and I'm not going to say who, for reasons that will soon be obvious.
Foerster, then serving on county council, had left the commissioner's office several years earlier under something of a cloud. There was a scandal involving the public works department and there were many complaints about the new jail in Pittsburgh. Some people blamed Foerster (or credited him, depending on your point of view) for ending 60 years of Democratic control of county government.
Upon Foerster's passing, though, the newspapers and airwaves will filled with praise for his long career of public service, and some of the same commentators and political rivals who had been ripping him were now offering lavish tributes.
So I asked the TV personality what he thought of the accolades Foerster was receiving. He sighed. "If you never did anything good in your life, but you want people to say something nice about you, just die," he said.
Uh, ouch. That was an unfair thing to say --- Foerster wasn't that bad, and actually did quite a bit of good --- but I got the point.
. . .
I thought about it over the weekend as I read all of the solemn tributes being paid to former President Ford. Pundits are praising his "controversial" decision to pardon Richard Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while in office --- and in case you're playing along at home, those crimes likely included illegal wiretapping, campaign finance violations, conspiracy to commit theft and burglary, official oppression and obstruction of justice. (Hey --- nobody's perfect.)
I have heard Gerald Ford compared numerous times to Abraham Lincoln, with his champions claiming that the man from Michigan, like the Great Emancipator, "held the country together" during a crisis.
If Gerald Ford is "Lincolnesque," it's only by comparison to the presidents who came before and after him. By the way, there's an inspiring trio of leaders for you: Ford, Carter and Nixon. Or as Bob Dole called them, "see no evil, hear no evil, and evil." But I digress.
Many editorialists are praising Ford's "courage" in issuing the pardon. True, it was courageous, since it probably cost him the 1976 presidential election. But you can do something that's courageous and wrong, too.
. . .
There are plenty of good reasons that Ford could have pardoned Nixon. After two years of investigations and months of hearings that had stalled the federal government, the Vietnam war was still dragging on, inflation was out of control and OPEC was threatening to shut off the flow of oil to the U.S. The country had to move forward.
And no one (except for the far left) really had any stomach for seeing a president of the United States put on trial.
But on the other hand, pardoning Nixon allowed him to collect his substantial government pension and benefits. It also effectively ended any attempts to figure out who had committed the various alleged offenses during his administration --- and what steps, if any, should be taken to prevent those offenses from happening again.
Make no mistake --- Nixon was completely unrepentant. In September 1974, before the pardon, the former president was subpeonaed to testify before Congress. His lawyers said he couldn't comply because he was suffering an attack of phlebitis. At the time, Nixon was playing golf in San Clemente. You could, as they say, look it up.
. . .
And people seem to forget that President Ford had denied over and over again that he would pardon Nixon ... almost right until the day that the pardon was announced. His press secretary quit in protest.
As for courage, Ford had been one of Nixon's most fervent supporters, going all the way back to the 1952 presidential election. According to Tom Wicker, when Nixon was accused of taking campaign contributions under the table (his denial was the notorious "Checkers" speech), U.S. Rep. Gerald Ford sent him one of the first telegrams of encouragement.
Throughout his career in Congress, Ford staunchly defended Nixon against all of his critics, even as the Spiro Agnew scandals and Watergate were pulling the White House down around Tricky Dick's ears. This unswerving devotion to Nixon no doubt helped Ford get the vice-presidential appointment in the first place, leapfrogging him over such contenders as John Connally, Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater.
The most conservative elements of the Republican Party didn't think Nixon had done anything wrong in the first place, or refused to admit that he was a scoundrel, and pardoning Nixon was exactly what they wanted. How did it take "courage" for Ford to issue the pardon under those conditions? And where was this "courage" a year later, when the right-wing demanded that Ford dump Nelson Rockefeller from the ticket?
. . .
I truly don't mean to speak ill of the dead, and I hate to beat up Gerald Ford, who by many measures was a great American, and a decent and honest human being. But I can't tolerate this reckless revisionism. There are perfectly valid reasons that Ford's pardon of Nixon was "controversial," and why it should remain "controversial" today.
Should Nixon have been frog-marched into a jail cell? No. But pardoning him before he even had a trial or a formal hearing certainly gave creedence to Nixon's boast to David Frost in 1977 that "when the president does it, that means it is not illegal."
Some people may argue that a trial was a mere formality --- that we already knew what Nixon had done. True --- but we knew that Saddam Hussein was guilty as sin, and he got a trial. (The merits of that trial are best debated elsewhere.)
I also heard several people say on talk shows that by accepting the pardon, Nixon did admit his guilt. Maybe. But to what? Ford pardoned Nixon "for all offenses against the United States which he ... has committed or may have committed."
What were those offenses? Until the day he died, Nixon never admitted a thing. He described the myriad of scandals that tainted his administration as "a complex and confusing maze of events, decisions, pressures and personalities," and accepted responsibility only for "not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Watergate."
That's not an admission of guilt --- that's deflecting blame.
I understand that we occasionally have to look back and re-evaluate historic figures and their legacies, but let's try to place them in their proper contexts, please. Willful ignorance of the facts helps no one.
. . .
Ford was probably an average president --- better than many of our leaders, not as good as others.
But being the leader of the free world is not like participating in the Cub Scout potato sack race. You don't get a ribbon just for competing.
So let's try to keep Gerald Ford's legacy in its proper perspective, and please, don't start breaking ground for his monument just yet.
Category: default || By jt3y
Just a brief note this evening to acknowledge the passing within one day of each other of former President Gerald Ford and the Godfather of Soul, James Brown.
Believe it or not, they had a lot in common:
Category: default || By jt3y
Category: default || By jt3y
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| Oh, for the days of local stores like David Israel and Cox's, where they actually gave a damn if you shopped with them. | |
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Category: default || By jt3y
Category: default || By jt3y
We're tripping the light fantastic on the sidewalks of The 'Port:
. . .
Nothing for Christmas: Has anyone else noticed the conspicuous absence of two local Christmas displays?
The animated neon displays depicting angels and candles that have traditionally shown from the windows of The Daily News Building didn't appear this year. Neither did the big Christmas tree made of green and white lights that has decorated the side of the Mansfield Building at UPMC McKeesport hospital for at least a decade.
Messages left for UPMC McKeesport's spokeswoman by the Almanac have not been returned. I haven't asked anyone at the newspaper why the neon wasn't put up this year, though maybe someone there wants to email your humble correspondent with the answer.
I have a hunch that the neon from the Daily News may just be in need of repair (those signs have to be 40 years old), while perhaps construction work at the hospital precluded the return of the Christmas tree this year.
Though neither the News nor the hospital are obligated to provide Christmas displays for our amusement, both were very nice holiday traditions that brightened a glum Downtown business district. Let's hope they return next year.
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| Regrettably, Harpo Marx did not submit a bid for the animal control contract. | |
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"This is an approved method that's used by people who commit suicide," Mr. Ferree said, noting that some people kill themselves by shutting themselves in a garage with a running automobile engine until the fumes overtake them.
Category: default || By jt3y
Alert Reader Glenn passed along the following list, which saved me from having to write something (half) witty for the Almanac. I think some of these were inspired by a similar list going around called "You know you're from Pittsburgh." Anyway, see if any of these apply to you, and enjoy:
You Know You're From McKeeesport If:
Category: default || By jt3y
Some carols for our time, performed by Boy Scout Troop 147 of the Port Perry United Reformed Presbylutheran Church:
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Category: default || By jt3y
Regular readers of the Almanac (those who eat a lot of bran and get daily exercise) and friends of Your Ob'd't Servant know that for the past two years and change, I've been writing a history of the G.C. Murphy Co.
Murphy's was a McKeesport-based retailer that grew from a handful of five-and-10s to a billion-dollar discount store chain with locations in 24 states before becoming a target of corporate raiders and being taken over in 1985.
Many of my friends have said, "I can't wait until your book is done," mostly so I'll shut up about it, and also because I've used it as an excuse over and over again. "Oh, sorry, I can't come over this weekend --- I'm working on the book." "Oh, I can't take on that project --- I'm working on the book." "Oh, I'm sorry I stole your car and crashed it into a swimming pool --- I'm working on the book."
But a few others have said, "I can't wait to read your book," to which I've replied, "Neither can I." The research largely wrapped up over the spring and summer, and then the writing process began --- I'm about one-third of the way done.
Until recently, though, I had no firm deadline to finish, because we didn't have a publisher. Unlike a few of my former cow-orkers who have written boffo manuscripts and thus scored great book deals, I don't have a particularly sexy subject.
I tried to work in some mob connections, but alas, Murphy's founders were teetotalling Methodists whose most gruesome secret might have been their sale of "Murphy Mix" candy in the 1920s. (It was stale and out-of-date bulk candy mixed together, with the rancid pieces plucked out. And it sold like nickel ice cream cones in July.)
A few people on the G.C. Murphy Company Foundation (which has underwritten the research) and some Murphy Company retirees even wondered whether we would find a publisher.
"Look," I said, "people have published hardcover books on American Motors and the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport. I know, because I bought those books. Someone will publish this thing, and if not, I'll have H.B. South print it and sell the damned thing myself."
Well, it looks like I won't be writing any large checks to South (which does a bang-up job, by the way).
I am pleased and a little bit humbled to announce that Penn State University Press has tentatively agreed to publish For The Love of Murphy's: The Behind-The-Counter Story of a Great American Five-and-Dime, with a projected release date of fall 2008. I've just returned from State College, and things seem very promising.
A great deal of credit goes to Dr. Curtiss Porter, chancellor of Penn State McKeesport Campus, who took a personal interest in the project and (before we knew it) pitched it to the university press. Bless his heart, he got us in the door.
An enormous amount of credit goes to the many, many former G.C. Murphy employees and their relatives who have provided information, photos, hours and hours of their time, and several swift kicks-in-the-pants to keep the project moving forward.
And thank you to all of my friends and family who have provided encouragement, advice and (yes) several swift kicks-in-the-pants.
The bad news is that now I have to finish writing this dad-blasted thing, so be prepared for a lot more whining.
The manuscript is still in rough shape, but a number of chapters are shaping up. In celebration of this week's good fortune, I've decided to tease you with a sidebar from one of the chapters --- it's the story of Murphy's largely forgotten sponsorship of a racing team in the Indianapolis 500 from 1965 until 1971. (Download PDF.) Please be gentle.
Category: default || By jt3y
Remember when you could turn on your faucet and get water? Boy, those were the days.
Proving that no silver lining comes without a cloud, the recent warming trend caused the earth to move under our feet (cue Carole King), snapping water mains and leaving the taps dry.
I guess they're just not making 100-year-old cast iron pipes like they used to. On Saturday, parts of Evans Street and Versailles Avenue looked like the streets of Venice after a 12-inch main between the Centennial and Haler Heights storage tanks broke.
But that was a mere --- if you'll pardon the expression --- drop in the bucket compared to the ongoing adventures in creative toilet use that people on the other side of the river are now going through. Depending on where you live in West Mifflin, Homestead, Munhall or Whitaker, your water pressure has ranged from "pathetic" to "abysmal" to "non-existent" since Sunday.
It's not exactly a secret that the water and sewer infrastructure around most of the Mon-Yough area dates to the early part of the 20th century. While the gas, electric and telephone companies (even the fershlugginer cable TV companies!) have been systematically replacing their lines, our most important utilities are rusting away beneath our feet.
I don't know about you, but I can live without cable TV. Not being able to flush is another story.
I don't blame the local governments, either. In both McKeesport and the Steel Valley, the water systems were privatized years ago; the city's water system was sold to the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County 20 years ago, while lines in the West Mifflin area have long been owned by Pennsylvania-American Water Company.
MAWC is an independent non-profit body while PAWC is a division of a giant German conglomerate called RWE.
Perhaps the state Public Utility Commission should be insisting that water mains be systematically replaced when they reach a certain age. And if money's an issue, perhaps all of this slot machine revenue that the Governor and the state Legislature say is coming could be diverted into low-interest loans and grants for water line replacement. A carrot-and-stick approach, in other words.
Oh, wait! The slot machine revenue is spoken for. It's going to float millions of dollars in bonds for a new hockey arena for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In a couple of years, then, a bunch of Canadian and Russian millionaires will have a nice new building to ice-skate in, while people in Homeville and Munhall Gardens will still be hauling water home in buckets to flush their potties the next time a 100-year-old pipe breaks.
I hope that thought comforts those of you who have been running around in the shower for the past couple of days, trying to get wet as the water dribbles out.
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Meanwhile, over in Picksberg, construction is underway on that $435 million transit tunnel under the Allegheny River. (And you thought Port Authority didn't know its you-know-what from a hole in the ground.)
The taxpayer-funded tunnel is designed to allow people to ride Pittsburgh's three-hole, three-stop miniature subway (hat tip: Peter Leo) to the baseball and football stadiums that you're also paying for.
At the same time, PAT is holding workshops to decide what routes it's going to cut next year to stave off a $19.5 million deficit.
How much do you want to bet that the Mon Valley takes it in the shorts again? You had better believe that light-rail service to Upper St. Clair and Mt. Lebanon is not going to be slashed.
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Finally, from the Tube City Almanac's National Affairs Desk, the music goes 'round and 'round, oh-ho, oh-ho, oh-ho, and it comes out here. On the heels of the report issued by the Iraq Study Group, a blue-ribbon panel headed by former Secretary of State James Baker, the White House is writing its own study:
When the White House review began, the interagency group debated whether to try to beat the Iraqi Study Group's report or let it play out and then look "bigger and better" by doing a report later, said an official familiar with the discussions. It was agreed to wait. But the emphasis throughout the month-long process has been to produce a strategy that would be deliberately distinct, the official added.
The White House review does not have the depth or scope of the Iraq Study Group's, according to officials familiar with the deliberations. "There's a lack of thinking on other big issues -- oil, the economy, infrastructure and jobs," said one source who was briefed on the interagency discussions and requested anonymity because talks are ongoing. (The Washington Post)
Category: default || By jt3y
Alert Reader Jeff sends along the following message:
McKeesport is the bottom of the kettle in Salvation Army collections. Yet another note of shame against Your Fair City. Here is the latest Divisional Red Kettle Report that just went out over the wire:
In many communities across The Salvation Army's 28-county Western Pennsylvania Division, the cold snap has had a warming affect on its Red Kettles. Although 16 of its Worship and Service Centers are behind last year's levels, the overall total income has increased. Currently the Divisional goal of more than 2.3 million dollars is $38,000 ahead and the $800,000 Allegheny County goal is $18,000 more than this time last year.
"We are cautiously optimistic," said Major Robert Reel, the Western Pennsylvania Salvation Army's Divisional Commander. "While the total goals are good news, I am still very concerned about our 16 locations that are behind." Salvation Army Red Kettle income stays within the communities in which it raised. "These locations that are in a deficit do not have the option of fundraising in other towns," said Reel. "That is why it is critical that the local residents get behind the kettles in their own neighborhoods."
Kettles that are behind include the following communities: Altoona; Braddock; Bradford; Butler; Clearfield; Corry; Ellwood City; Jeannette; Johnstown; Kittanning; McKeesport; New Castle; Pittsburgh's Northside, Downtown, and East Liberty; and Rochester.
Deficits range from a low of $298.26 in Clearfield to a high of $17,454.66 in McKeesport. Salvation Army Red Kettles account for roughly 10 percent to 20 percent of each local Worship and Service Center's budget.
Category: default || By jt3y
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Category: default || By jt3y
Does anyone really believe that Luke Ravenstahl is qualified to be mayor of Pittsburgh?
I don't have a dog in this fight, of course, and I know next to nothing about Ravenstahl --- or as Will Rogers said, all I know is what I read in the newspapers. For all I know, he's nice to animals, a snappy dresser and as Homer Simpson said after meeting God, "perfect teeth, nice smell --- a class act all the way."
I just don't think that two years as a city councilman, and no other business or governmental experience, qualifies him to be mayor.
What should the qualifications be for that office? I don't know, but like Potter Stewart, I know it when I see it, and Ravenstahl doesn't have them.
And no, I'm not jealous, just because he's mayor of Pittsburgh and I, a few years older, couldn't get elected president of a Lincoln Borough bowling league.
I'm also puzzled by the rush by various elected officials, like Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato and U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, to endorse Ravenstahl's campaign for election.
I'm not sure what they hope to accomplish --- is this merely an attempt to keep the peace between the city, county and federal governments? Do they want to forestall any potential Democratic primary fight? Do they think that Ravenstahl is pliable and that he'll go along with them?
I like and respect Onorato and Doyle, and I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt --- that they see some quality in Ravenstahl that isn't obvious to an outsider.
I'd sure like to see some of those qualities for myself.
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The O'Connor ‘Legacy’: Ravenstahl has been very careful, of course, to associate himself with Bob O'Connor's family and colleagues. No doubt that may help his campaign.
But it always puzzles me to hear people talk about Bob O'Connor's "legacy." There is no O'Connor legacy as mayor --- that's why his untimely death was such a tragedy.
A death alone, even from the disease that claimed O'Connor's life, is not necessarily tragic --- people die from terrible diseases all the time --- but he had spent at least a decade preparing to be the mayor of Pittsburgh, and never got a chance to do much of anything. Fate has rarely been so cruel.
As for O'Connor's few months in office, they were a mixed bag. His public statements struck all of the right positive notes, and I think he brought a real sense of optimism to the city at a time it desperately needs it.
But O'Connor's few public actions while in office were mostly confined to appointing people to offices, and some of those appointments were highly questionable. They seemed motivated more by a desire to find people who were politically suitable or well-connected than by any sort of "reform" impulse.
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Another Brick in The Wal: I notice that the Foodland in Great Valley Shopping Center in North Versailles has closed. From the piled-up old newspapers in the front entrance, it must have happened in late October.
The main culprit, I suspect, is the massive Wal-Mart on the other side of the parking lot. Also vacant is the former Hills store opposite the Wal-Mart on Route 30. It's been empty since the Ames chain went toes-up, of course --- but no one has moved to occupy it. One of the two fast-food restaurants in the parking lot of the former Hills plaza just closed as well, a victim of the lack of traffic, I suppose.
Meanwhile, with the loss of the Foodland, Great Valley --- once a fairly decent little shopping center --- is now "anchored" by two thrift stores.
There's also a good, old-fashioned hardware store there. I'm a regular at the hardware store (I just bought my water heater there) and I'd hate to see them close, but I have to assume that with Wal-Mart across the street, they're hanging on by their toenails.
Wal-Mart's pros and cons have been well debated, and I suppose a Wal-Mart partisan would argue that the Foodland might have been a marginal business, or that Great Valley and Hills shopping plazas have outlived their useful lives, or whatever.
But can anyone deny the obvious --- that where Wal-Mart goes, it tends to suck the oxygen out of all of the surrounding retail stores?
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This Would Be Fun: I was really hoping to call a moratorium on mockery of our outgoing junior senator in the spirit of not kicking someone when they're hurting. (After all, I'm not Rush Limbaugh.)
But it's hard when conservative pundits keep floating trial balloons like this one on the National Review's blog:
AMBASSADOR SANTORUM: How about Rick Santorum for the UN job? Yeah, there'd probably be a confirmation fight. And he may want to take a breather after 16 years in elected office. But it's worth thinking over.
I have a better idea. Rick will no doubt be returning to his lovely home in Penn Hills, and there will be a municipal election for school director next year. The senator has been a very vocal critic of public education, calling it an "aberration," saying that students get a "weird socialization," and criticizing the "clear liberal agenda" of teachers.
Category: default || By jt3y
The McKeesport Symphony Orchestra Christmas concert is tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of McKeesport Area High School, 1960 Eden Park Blvd. There will also be a performance by the Mon Valley Children's Choir and a sing-along. The Joe Negri Trio is also scheduled to appear. For more information, visit the MSO website or call (412) 664-2854.
Meanwhile, just across the street at the Jacob Woll Pavilion in Renziehausen Park, the 21st Annual Festival of Trees is underway, today, tomorrow and Sunday. Dozens of themed, decorated Christmas trees from groups and individuals are on display from 12 noon to 9 p.m. each daily, and the Viking Lounge trolley bus will be shuttling visitors around Renzie Park.
Admission is $2 for adults, while children 12 and under are admitted with a canned good for donation to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Visit the McKeesport Recreation Committee's website for details.
Finally, McKeesport Model Railroad Club, 2209 Walnut St. in Christy Park, is hosting its holiday train show weekends through Dec. 17. Hours are 6 to 9 p.m. Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, and a donation of $4 for adults and $1 for children is requested.
The club's 40-by-80 foot layout will be fully operational, and free parking is available behind the club building on Kountz Alley or across Walnut Street at CP Industries. Call (412) 664-LOCO or visit the website.
Category: default || By jt3y
Chances are your neighborhood has one of those "Bermuda Triangle" pizza shops. Usually they spring up in old storefronts, though I've seen old gas stations used, too. One week it opens as "Mama Gina's Pizza." Two months later, it's "Rocky's." Two months later it's "Tony's."
And so on, an endless cascade of faded ambitions and squandered money --- no one ever seems to question putting another pizza shop where the last seven have failed. "My frozen dough and canned tomato sauce, along with surly help and high prices, will conquer this neighborhood's pizza-related needs!" the entreprenuers tell themselves.
I've always wanted to meet the bankers who loan money for these ventures. Have they ever heard of "due diligence"? "Gross malfeasance"? "Criminal incompetence"?
A large object lesson is playing out right now in Pittsburgh and Latrobe, where lawyers are trying to untangle the mess that is Gregory Podlucky's failed LeNature's Inc. According to my former cow-orker Rich Gazarik, who's been covering this story like the dew for the Tribune-Review, LeNature's ran up $700 million in debt while generating about $20 million in revenue last year.
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If I went out and borrowed 35 times my income, at some point even Visa or MasterCard would say, "Gee whiz, it may be a bad idea to keep extending credit to this jagoff." But in the world of high finance, we are pikers who don't know how to play the game.
Incidentally, this explains why your bank is giving you 2 percent interest on your savings account while charging 10 percent on your home equity line-of-credit. The 8 percent spread allows the commercial loan department to keep shoveling out piles of cash with no apparent idea where it's going.
So, how does one tank (no pun intended) a bottling company like LeNature's? Let us count the ways. Court-appointed accountants and lawyers claim that LeNature's was:
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