Friday: In the Hands of Hobbits...

It's going to be a great day for the good people of Pittsburgh.

Campaign fliers being distributed by city Councilwoman Theresa Smith in her bid to be renominated in Tuesday's primary have left a bad taste in our mouths here on the Post-Gazette Editorial Board. (P-G, Edit Board)

Major kudos, gang. Although your industry faces all manner of adversity, your righteous hearts and Pittsburgh's ardent efforts will surely carry the day in every contest. Now if someone can just expose the even more patently ridiculous claims of "securing funding" on the opposite side of that flier, we'll all be truly ecstatic. :-)

These guys aren't so bad, either:

The largest last-minute contribution to Ravenstahl is $15,000 from three executives of The Forza Group, a real estate company that arranged to meet with city planning officials to discuss building at least one hotel in Pittsburgh. (Trib, Jeremy Boren)

Looks like Our Mayor didn't exactly take his reform conversion to heart. His challengers ought to point out this hypocrisy in a forthright and compelling manner, but they probably don't want to be accused of trading in "sleaze" or being "rude".

Heads up, Broughton: pointing out sleazy government activities in plain English is absolutely necessary, and not done nearly enough. Furthermore, conveying a justified sense of outrage is sometimes every bit as necessary just to wake people up and cut through the static and malaise -- or indeed, to stay sane oneself. We humans share information through emotionality.

As to your question of Mr. Dowd, "What would he have done about the advertising sign?", I think his answer very clearly could only have been to FOLLOW THE RULES AS WRITTEN FOR ALL TO SEE and to NOT ISSUE ILLEGAL PERMITS TO PERSONAL FRIENDS AND MAJOR DONORS.

Yes, I used caps lock for a while there. Good luck with your calm, polite little website, I'm sure it will be of service to fives and fives of people. Now as Rocky the Flying Squirrel says, "Here's something you'll really enjoy":

The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat thinks Dan Onorato could be doing better.

Pittsburgh's Lesbian Correspondent is in celebratory mode.

Peaks and Gutters rather appreciated Dowd's lapse into realism.

Mark Ratuerkus takes a stand once again for the resurrection and upkeep of our City's recreational facilities.

And that's just in the wee hours of this morning. Take a stroll through our blogroll as the day progresses, fellow babies, and become passionate about your city.

Oh, one more thing: Mary Griffin produces and posts online a 20 minute infomercial for Mayor Ravenstahl in which he preemptively defends his guest from tough but fair questioners. Then he blithely reduces issues of pay-to-play, corruption, extortion, or whatever else a regular person might call it to "inside baseball" and inso doing dismisses it wholesale. Way to be an "investigative reporter" who is "on our side", my friend. If I didn't hear you stand up for medical marijuana the other day I'd really give you the business. ;-)