HOT DEBATE HAPPENING TONIGHT EDITION

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Yo, yo, yo, MacYippers! What up?
So there's another mayoral debate tonight. I'll be there. It's at the A.J. Palumbo center at 6:30. Tonya Caruso moderates. Questions determined by sponsors, including The City Paper. And if you're in the audience you can submit questions too.
Does it matter? Probably not.

So I guess I lied about the debate being "hot." Why should Opie get to be the only one who lies?

I'd like to think DeSantis has a chance. But I live on the planet earth.
How cocky is Opie's campaign? If you click on the link below you'll see Jon Delano's KDKA report on the new DeSantis campaign ads.
And at the end of the report you'll note that the Opie campaign DOES NOT PLAN TO SPEND ANY MONEY AT ALL ON RADIO OR TV SPOTS.
Jesus. Not a freaking penney. This one's already history, and it's depressing.
Although it shouldn't be because we've all known for months.
I like DeSantis. He's got a good mind. He's got experience. He can talk. He realizes the city's financial woes should be the focus.

But he's not exactly charismatic. When he tries to hit the home run line in a speech, it falls flat. Of course, Opie carries no particular charisma either, unless you fall for that cute frat boy kid thing. But he doesn't have to, as we've outlined until we're blue in the face and you're ready to vomit, countless times in this blog.

Check out the Delano story:
http://kdka.com/video/?id=32817@kdka.dayport.com

Apparently at tonight's debate the lesser candidates will shut the F up.
I like that idea. I'm always torn, because ideally all candidates would be able to yap. But of course the only real way to draw a specific contrast between the two candidates who have a chance of winning (and as we've said, there's only one here) you have to see them up against one another with no extraneous nonsense.

The Post-Gazette editorial board seems to be living in a fantasy world of some sort.

POST-GAZETTE.COM:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07284/824495-192.stm
Maybe it's time to forget conventional wisdom, because it also says this race is a ho-hummer.

MacYapper - The last ho-hummer Opie got was with the Hooters girls aboard Ron Burkle's private jet to New York. Ba dum bum.

POST-GAZETTE.COM:
Maybe it's time to forget conventional wisdom, because it also says this race is a ho-hummer. Tell that to the more than 400 people who packed an auditorium at the Senator John Heinz History Center on Tuesday night. In a public forum sponsored by the Post-Gazette, Mr. Ravenstahl and Mr. DeSantis were joined by Libertarian Tony Oliva and Socialist Workers Party candidate Ryan Scott. The standing-room-only crowd, some of them enthusiastic partisans, got a good tutorial in the candidates' differences.

MacYapper - I like to live in a fantasy world too sometimes. I used to believe that in a national election, the person who got the most votes wins.
But I have come back to Realityville. I don't mind a little Op-Ed page boosterism. But the fact that there are 400 political junkies in Pittsburgh has nothing to do with DeSantis having a snowball's chance in H-E-Double-Toothpicks of winning the election. God how I'd love to be proven wrong.

POST-GAZETTE.COM:
More forums and debates will follow, including one organized by PUMP at Duquesne University's A.J. Palumbo Center tonight at 6:30. Whoever is the next mayor of Pittsburgh won't be there without having defended his positions -- and that is what was important all along.

Who won on Tuesday night? Why, the people of Pittsburgh. The turnout and enthusiasm established this as a real race, where perhaps anything can happen.

MacYapper - I realize my cynicism is contributing to the overwhelming sense of inevitablity. But if I Rah-Rah'd your ass from now 'till election day it wouldn't matter.
I'm glad the PG thinks the people of the 'Burgh won because there was a mildly robust debate. Golly gosh, it's America. Ain't that somethin'? Let's have some apple pie.

But this city is continuing it's journey to Mediocreville.
And it's kind of a bummer.
See yinz tonight.
Go Stillers.


WPXI MELTDOWN
POST-GAZETTE.COM:
http://post-gazette.com/pg/07284/824537-237.stm
As top executives from WPXI parent company Cox Broadcasting were in town yesterday for a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the company's new Channel 11 facility, the television station had a major meltdown that forced it to broadcast its noon news from the parking lot.

A technical problem discovered about a half-hour before the newscast led the station to shut down and attempt to restart its newsroom system.

MacYapper - Now that's embarrassing. Somewhere workers who have been displaced by machines are chuckling.

POLICE OVERKILL... IT'S JUST A FREAKING DOG FOR CHRISSAKES
MacYapper - Did you know it was a freaking FELONY to taunt a police dog? I did not.

POST-GAZETTE.COM:
A North Side man discovered the hard way that taunting and threatening a police officer's K-9 dog is a felony offense in Pennsylvania.

Kenneth King, 23, of 106 Sherman Ave., has been in the Allegheny County Jail since Sunday because he has been unable to come up with the $100,000 bond set by District Judge Eugene Ricciardi.

According to police, in the early morning hours Sunday, Mr. King walked past a Pittsburgh police car parked at the Sunoco gas station at 310 Cedar Ave.. In the backseat was a K-9 dog named Benny, who barked loudly at Mr. King.

The man screamed "shut the (expletive) up or I will shank you," according to the report filed by Benny's handler and partner, officer Ron Absten, who indicated the threat was directed at the dog. Mr. King also said "I hate dogs" and pulled a silver knife out of his pocket.

No one was injured in the incident, as neither man nor dog ever came in direct contact with each other.

MacYapper - OK, the guy's an idiot. It's ridiculous to be pulling a knife. But if they never came in direct contact with one another, why the hell is this guy in jail?
If you actually harmed a police dog, I could understand. Reacting harshly and only verbally because the dog started barking at you, in an incident which lasted a couple of minutes, and it's all over, no harm, no foul? AND YOU GO TO FREAKING JAIL?
Something's wrong here.

POST-GAZETTE.COM:
However, under Pennsylvania law, it is a felony to "willfully or maliciously taunt, torment, tease, beat, kick or strike a police animal," which applies to dogs and horses, according to Mike Manko, spokesman for the Allegheny County district attorney's office.

K-9 dogs that work with police officers have higher status, in a legal sense, than regular pet dogs, partly because they are so valuable, said Jim Watson, national secretary of the North American Police Work Dog Association, based in Perry, Ohio. Costs to buy and train a K-9 dog range from $5,000 to $15,000, Mr. Watson said.

"We heard about this incident because we get e-mail alerts," Mr. Watson said. "In this kind of situation, the dog would feel like he had to protect the police vehicle."

Because the dog could not get out of the car, it might feel frustrated and might bite on the wire mesh that separated the back seat from the front of the police car.

"They could break a tooth and would need a root canal which would cost $1,000 and lost time" off work, Mr. Watson said.

MacYapper - WTF? Yeah, and a meteor might fall out of the sky and kill the dog and a dozen innocent bystanders.
Could we reserve the cops and the courts for things that actually matter please?

POST-GAZETTE.COM:
Mr. King's parents, Keith and Annette Cash of the North Side, told KDKA-TV that their son was returning home from his job as a cook, has no criminal history and poses no threat to anyone.

MacYapper - I rest my case. This one's just plain stupid.

MAC-YIPPER JOE ON DANNY O'S BULL IN A CHINA SHOP DRINK TAX

Johnny Mac, Great line, the dude is a motherfucker........ couldn't
have said it better myself.
I hope this drink tax costs him the governor's mansion. Let the
motherfucker rot in Carrick, or
wherever it is the prick lives.
JOE, Dormont

MacYapper - He's a North Sider like me Joe. I think Danny the Goosekiller will win the fight and the Governor's mansion. But that's just me.
My plan is to drink heavily now before the tax kicks in.

THE JOHN MCINTIRE SHOW IS STILL DEAD

MacYapper - www.Askalesbian.blogspot.com offers up a conspiracy theory on the demise of the John McIntire show. Not to be confused with www.pghlesbian.com official Lesbian Correspondent Sue Kerr. I don't believe I've met Ms. Askalesbian personally.

http://askalesbian.blogspot.com/2007/10/john-mcintire-victim-of-conspiracy.html

ASKALESBIAN.BLOGSPOT.COM:
I'm a big fan of John McIntire and Gab Bonesso. I'm disappointed, pissed off, inconsolable. I've written about MacYapper a couple of times. Love both of them. Gab was an adorable waiter at The Square Cafe in Edgewood. They are both dynamite comedians.

This whole deal smacks of a behind the scenes vendetta. I am definitely thinking conspiracy. John has been a little bit critical of Pittsburgh's boy mayor, Luke Ravenstahl, even to the point of calling him, "Mayor Poopy Pants". Luke alone, wouldn't have the, er, the intelligence to take McIntire out, but he does have friends in very high places, or at least friends that are very high. Perhaps UPMC wants John to stop talking about Luke. UPMC and Luke were in bed together, up in New York, right before the big UPMC sign got the ok to stay atop the Mellon tower.(To Luke, the details are a little sketchy. He can't exactly remember where he spent the night.)

Or, speaking of Mellons. Maybe John poked fun at Richard Mellon Scaife one too many times? (He refers to him as, "Dickie Cougar MellonScaife") Yeah, I want the conspiracy theorists to check this one out. Something is not right here. Sounds like a good History Channel late night classic.

On the bright side, I an so certain that McIntire and Bonesso will end up somewhere better. I just don't want them lost to Pittsburgh. Maybe we can have our MacYapper and eat him too. How about satellite radio?

MacYapper - Alas, Askalesbian, although I am a major conspiracy theorist, especially when it comes to my own self, I tend to believe this was just a simple case of big brass with big brass ones at CBS deciding they don't like talk, and that they like music. I don't think Opie or Cougar MellonScaife were involved.
I do believe there was a second gunman on the grassy knoll. And how did those other buildings fall in Manhattan on 9/11? And what about, Rhode Island... it's not a road or an island... what's the deal with that?

DEPRESSED MAC-YIPPER IN RADIO LAND

Johnny Mac,

What's up man? I'm still pissed your show was cancelled. I was really feelin 93.7...it was different and exactly what I wanted to hear while I drove around the burgh all day. I must admit I didn't agree with you a lot on certain political issues, but I respected your opinion. Plus, your radio show was pretty damn funny a lot of the time.. Anyway, what I really want to know is could you send me the audio files for "chip sunshine"? That was my favorite skit from your show (along with the kinkersons). I can't find them on your myspace, so if you could do that for me that be just dandy. Thanks man...good luck in your next project..whatever it is. Have a good one.

dave

MacYapper - Yes we got lots of good feedback on the overly optimistic Pirates announcer Chip Sunshine Everybody! I'll see what I can do everybody.

SPEAKING OF PRETTY DAMN FUNNY
The next MacYapper comedy show is Saturday October 20th at the BackStage Bar on Penn Avenue dahntahn. I'll be there, as will Gab and comics to be named later.
http://www.pgharts.org/venues/backstagebar.aspx

MORE MAC-YAPPER COMEDY DATES AND COMEDY AUDIO AT:
www.myspace.com/MacYapper

ROCK ON MAC-YIPPERS!

Email me at johnmcintire@comcast.net