Who is Pittsburgh's Rachel Rothenberg?

Just a note here to Western Pennsylvania politicians - Rachel is giving her own money away, something very foreign to our Democrats in Pittsburgh. You go girl. And congratulations on your win.

Old Cynic wrote:

Just a note here to Western Pennsylvania politicians - Rachel is giving her own money away, something very foreign to our Democrats in Pittsburgh. You go girl. And congratulations on your win.

Very dissappointing, Old Man. Trying to take the selfless act of charity, by an innocent, and turn it into a crass and partisan political rant. You take cynicism to new lows, sir!

Krakus wrote:

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Very dissappointing, Old Man. Trying to take the selfless act of charity, by an innocent, and turn it into a crass and partisan political rant. You take cynicism to new lows, sir!

Ok, I'll buy the political rant, just show me where a Pittsburgh area Democrat is donating "his own" money to anything other than the forced political contributions. raffles, rubber chicken dinners, etc., etc. They only spend other peoples money!

This young girl is a breath of fresh air. Pretty damn smart too.

Old Cynic wrote:

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Ok, I'll buy the political rant, just show me where a Pittsburgh area Democrat is donating "his own" money to anything other than the forced political contributions. raffles, rubber chicken dinners, etc., etc. They only spend other peoples money!
This young girl is a breath of fresh air. Pretty damn smart too.

I'm sure they're a few who do practice charity, but few have the scope of personal wealth to make a big splash doing it, save the late John Heinz... but the whole issue is irrelevant to the more substantive question you've raised, and that's politicians using public money for personal or political gain. Finally, Mr. Corbet has dropped the other shoe on the legislative bonusgate(and others)scandal, but his timing is suspiciously convenient for a man running for the governorship of Pennsylnania. Corruption in the legislature will be a central aspect of both the legislative and governor's races next year; both parties are dirty, and have been so for decades. But studies still show the PA public believes they're all bums... save their guy, who's the lone honest man. And for over sixty years the voters have alternated eight years of Democrats with eight years of Republicans. But perhaps they fear either party becoming too entrenched in controlling the graft. The money's in politics now, unfortunately, and so the reform candidate has little chance to rise in either party, and the third party candidate is more a part of American mythos than political reality.

John Heinz was a Republican.

Old Cynic wrote:

John Heinz was a Republican.

Senator Heinz would have been ashamed of what the GOP has become, and the party would not have a place for a moderate such as he obviously was. The GOP's relentless purge of any elements save those that freely service the prejudices of the party base make Joe Stalin look like an amatuer. And before you claim he was far worse due to his prodigious body count, I refer to political repression, but we shouldn't forget the thousands of American dead (and tens of thousands of seriously wounded and disabled), and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilian dead with whose blood the Republican administration of Da'Dubya-Cheney stained the hands of the world's greatest democracy. And Stalin had the far easier situation of working within a brutal dictatorship.

Krakus wrote:

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Senator Heinz would have been ashamed of what the GOP has become, and the party would not have a place for a moderate such as he obviously was. The GOP's relentless purge of any elements save those that freely service the prejudices of the party base make Joe Stalin look like an amatuer. And before you claim he was far worse due to his prodigious body count, I refer to political repression, but we shouldn't forget the thousands of American dead (and tens of thousands of seriously wounded and disabled), and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilian dead with whose blood the Republican administration of Da'Dubya-Cheney stained the hands of the world's greatest democracy. And Stalin had the far easier situation of working within a brutal dictatorship.

Actually your boy, FDR, did more to kill the dream of democracy than all the GOPer's put together. His CCC camps were bastions of make work groups. His TVA ruined half of the south eastern water sources and screwed up the "grid" big time. His war time antics killed thousands and thousands. His tripling of the income taxes, his many excise taxes and the removal of wealth from the "black" south devastated millions during the extra 10 years that he added to the depression. Being the student of history that you are I thougt you would have remembered that. And he did it all under the guise of the "New Deal" , you know, "hope and change's" cousin.

Old Cynic wrote:

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Actually your boy, FDR, did more to kill the dream of democracy than all the GOPer's put together. His CCC camps were bastions of make work groups. His TVA ruined half of the south eastern water sources and screwed up the "grid" big time. His war time antics killed thousands and thousands. His tripling of the income taxes, his many excise taxes and the removal of wealth from the "black" south devastated millions during the extra 10 years that he added to the depression. Being the student of history that you are I thougt you would have remembered that. And he did it all under the guise of the "New Deal" , you know, "hope and change's" cousin.

You would characterize FDR's tenure as commander-in-chief, leading America's greatest generation in the defeat of world facism as as "wartime antics?" You've got to be kidding us, old man! Seriously! Again, I side with the vast majority of historians that over and over again, rate FDR amoung the very best of our presidents.