Hines Ward on Dancing

"I want the hardest choreography, so I can come out strong and scare all the other competitors."

Sunday Politics: Jump Ball

Joe Mistick is in this for as long as you, buddy.

Harris is being punished by Ravenstahl because she showed true political leadership and opposed "The Great Bamboozle of 2011" -- Ravenstahl's harebrained scheme to sell the city's parking facilities to some Chicago investors. (Trib, Joseph Sabino Mistick)

In my educated opinion, Pittsburgh eventually (kind of soon) is going to have to at least partially privatize at least most of those parking assets, to meet the pension obligations. That's not ideology and politics -- that's math and law. Harris does need to be judged for example for refusing to explore the second proposition from Mr. Lazowsky when it was floated.

(As a side bar, as fast as practicable this year we're going to have to jack up the parking rates anyway, just to get by but WHOA okay everybody, okay, everybody just put their guns down, there's no reason for anybody on a ballot to push for that to occur until after the election...)

Anyway. As an East Allegheny dweller myself, I happen to be set up to enjoy the fruits of the CBA with the Majestic Shooting Star casino that Councilor Harris helped to pick / prune along with the NSLC and others. That, and a love for all creatures great and small and a willingness to work with anybody, will be something a Pallus message needs to overcome.

BIGGER POLITICS:

Raja, the Mt. Lebanon commissioner, said he's building a network from Republican Party chair people and at least two elected state legislators. The 45-year-old brings his experience as a successful entrepreneur and a commitment to spend some of his personal fortune on the race. (Trib, Wereschagin and Boren)

Okay, I'll be the first to publish it. I watch Outsourced. We had the G-20, and talked enough about how important that was. Maybe there is an advantage, BIZNASS-WISE, to having someone a little more worldly in the top job -- not to mention someone whose background lies in a crackerjack global networking nation-state like India? Allegheny County could be parlaying with a chip-maker from Singapore, and that chip-maker would be like, "Ooh, they're being led by a Raja, these people must be players after all!"

"The reality of the political assessment of this race is: God forbid if you get elected because it's going to be hard to get re-elected," said Keith Schmidt, a Downtown-based public affairs consultant. "There's a lot of hard choices before the next county executive." (ibid)

I mean, if it's going to be so awful.

In the meanwhile, let's all start asking all of these the county-wide candidates, what kinds of services they'll look to slash, and what if any revenues streams they would create or adjust. That's all there is to it, cutting services and/or fiddling upward with taxes. We know all five candidates have all sorts of ideas for supercharged growth and brilliant efficiency, but really (I mean really). You've got to see that kind of thing first to believe in it.