Froth Slosh B'Gosh

IOKIYAR

Because it always is.

"And you have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options," Shannon Edwards, a forensic psychologist in Pittsburgh with whom the congressman admitted last month to having a relationship, wrote to Mr. Murphy on Jan. 25, in the midst of an unfounded pregnancy scare.
A text from Mr. Murphy’s cell phone number that same day in response says, "I get what you say about my March for life messages. I've never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don't write any more. I will."
The congressman has been lauded by the Family Research Council, for his stance on abortion, as well as for family values, generally. He also has been endorsed by LifePAC, which opposes abortion rights, and is a member of the House Pro-Life Caucus, an affiliation that is often cited by his office.

And he will pay no price politically, because he's a Republican.

I've Often Said...

If you don't want to be called an ignorant,  racist bigot, stop acting like an ignorant, racist bigot. 

Frankly, The Shame of Butler County deserves more than having papers thrown in his pig-ignorant face.  He really thinks he can insult, question the patriotism of,  and belittle people he doesn't like with impunity.

How Much Did We Pay For This??

Pennsylvania spent 2 years redesigning our driver's licenses and photo ID's and they're STILL not compliant with Federal regulations???

Despite enhanced security features, the new cards will not be compliant with the Real ID federal standards implemented after 9/11 and will be available in Pennsylvania in 2019.

How much did we pay for this waste of time and effort?

Froth Goes To TJ Buffet Sushi and Grill

This place is foul. 

Before I get to the incredible nastiness of this place, some background: This place sits where the old Tokyo Sushi Buffet used to be, next to Best Buy on McKnight Road, and the Tokyo was great for sushi.  There was a massive u-shaped buffet, with sushi around 2/3rds of it, the sushi chefs in the middle cranking out many different varieties of sushi and sashimi.  There was a grill, and a pretty extensive buffet of your standard Asian buffet staples, but most everyone went there for the sushi.  Unfortunately, the Tokyo had recurring problems with its steam tables, and was cited several times by the Health Department for holding food at unsafe temperatures.  The problem would be corrected, but then several months later, the same thing, until the place abruptly closed over a year ago.  TJ's recently opened in its place.

When walking into TJ's, I was struck by an overpowering stench of fish.  Now I like fish, but this was not a "good" fish smell.  The sushi selection is miniscule, nothing like the old Tokyo buffet, and was dominated by imitation crab and cream cheese.  The spring rolls stank of old cabbage.  The squid was actually pretty good, not rubbery, but was coated with a raw-flour tasting batter.  The shell on shrimp was breaded before being fried, who the heck breads shell-on shrimp?  You just wind up peeling the breading off with the shell!  Ribs were fatty and tough.  Crawfish were mushy.  There were oysters and mussels on the raw bar, but given the off-putting fishy smell, I wasn't about to try them.  If you wanted beef, there was one choice, roast, and you have to carve it yourself.  There were two things I had here that were good.  The seaweed salad was fantastic, and the baby clams pretty good.  The rest of the buffet is your bog-standard Asian buffet stuff, poorly prepared and in tasteless sauces.  Oddly, the entire staff was Asian, except for the cook at the grille, who was Hispanic.  Now there's nothing wrong with a Hispanic chef/cook, even in an Asian restaurant, I just found it odd.  Verdict:  Not worth the trip.    

Three hours later, colon blow.  Avoid this place!

Light-Up Night!

Fantastic photograph of the Allegheny County Police Mounted Unit at Pittsburgh's Light-Up Night Friday.  I'm planning on contacting the studio to see if I can get a professionally framed and printed and framed copy.

I Wish I Had A Camera

So much to blog about!  There was the FBI's announcement that the e-mail search turned up nothing, the non-assassination attempt on Trump, or the Post-Gazette's cowardly non-endorsement, but something on my way home from work really struck me.

I work in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, primarily in Bethel Park and South Park townships.  Now these areas, especially Bethel Park, are pretty affluent.  So what do I see  at the main intersection?  A Trump supporter with a brown cardboard box sign on a pole reading Vote Trump.  Now this part of Allegheny County has a fairly large population of Republican or Republican-leaning voters, so seeing a Trumpkin there wasn't unusual.  What was unusual was his garb.  He was dressed in a manner that someone who knew nothing of steel working might imagine how a steel worker dresses.  He was wearing some sort of overall, and had what looked like a grey-plastic civil defense helmet from a costume shop atop his head, I guess to emulate a hardhat.  Like I typed earlier, I wish I had a camera! 

I suspect he might have been an out-of-town operative attempting to garner working class votes by pretending to be a steel worker?  Of course, most of the mills are long gone from this area, and as noted, Bethel Park is pretty affluent, it is unlikely to harbor a large number of blue collar workers.

But I guess that's what you get when you have no GOTV operation.  A show, instead of an effort.

Pennsylvania Has Early Voting???

So everyone is talking about Newt Gingrich accusing Megyn Kelly of "being obsessed with sex" but what caught my ear was something early in the exchange:

GINGRICH: Well, look. The next two weeks are a contest of two parallel universes. I just listened to that report. First of all, I used to hang out with Charlie Cook when he would explain that Donald Trump was hopeless and would not get the nomination. I like Charlie. That doesn't mean he's infallible. But let's take the report we just got. Republicans are actually outvoting Democrats in Florida, they're outvoting Democrats in Pennsylvania, that's unprecedented. They've cut the Democratic leads --  

KELLY: You predict a win in Pennsylvania.  

GINGRICH: I think they might.

KELLY: Really? You think Trump is going to win Pennsylvania?

GINGRICH: Look, all I can report you right now is they're outvoting the Democrats in early voting which is also true in Florida which is unprecedented.

OK, so Newt says Republicans are outvoting Democrats in early voting in Pennsylvania?  That's rather interesting, as Pennsylvania doesn't even HAVE early voting. While you can cast an absentee ballot, Pennsylvania's rules are rather draconian on who is allowed to cast one.  You essentially have to prove that you will not be in the state on election day, and they won't give you a ballot if you're out of your precinct voluntarily, such as on a vacation.   So if Newt thinks Republicans are out polling Democrats in early voting in Pennsylvania, well, then he really is living in a parallel universe, or perhaps a bizarro one.

 

Trump Went To Gettysburg

From the content of his speech, he should have delivered it at Waterloo.

The speech was a laundry list of familiar promises on the economy, national security, immigration and other issues, though the candidate’s message was muddled by his assertions of coming lawsuits against the women accusing him of sexual misconduct and his pledges to break up media companies that he said are trying to deny him the presidency.

So, win or lose, he's going to throw a temper tantrum and lash out at perceived enemies.

The Other Shoe(s) Drop

Women coming forward accusing Trump of groping them.

“He was like an octopus,” she said. “His hands were everywhere.”

She fled to the back of the plane. “It was an assault,” she said.

And...

Aware that her company did business with Mr. Trump, she turned and introduced herself. They shook hands, but Mr. Trump would not let go, she said. Instead, he began kissing her cheeks. Then, she said, he “kissed me directly on the mouth.”

It didn’t feel like an accident, she said. It felt like a violation.

For those of us here in the Commonwealth, we wonder if its enough to get Looney Toomey to dump Trump.

Tell Me About Running Government Like A Business Again?

Once again, the profit motive does a disservice to the public.

The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority filed a lawsuit today against a company that used to manage the utility.

PWSA alleges that Veolia North America-Northeast LLC “grossly mismanaged [the authority’s] operations, abused its positions of special trust and confidence, and misled and deceived PWSA as part of its efforts to maximize profits for itself to the unfair detriment of PWSA and its customers,” the authority said in a statement.