(photo appropriated from www.gabbonesso.com)

It couldn't happen to a better guy.  Pittsburgh's own Marty Levine, late of the City Paper among many other media street credentials, will be live blogging the election from the Pittsburgh perspective for none other than Time. 

Clearly, Pittsburgh is worth paying attention to throughout the election.  There's certainly all the Presidential brouhaha.  There's also the Altmire/Hart race, the takedown of Phil English, voting machine issues and much more.

Best of all ... Marty wants you to help.  Contact him throughout the day, from poll openings to concession speeches, at 412-758-4859 or mll2525@yahoo.com. 

Tell him the lesbians sent you.  And vote.

I chatted briefly with folks from Steel City Stonewall about the pub crawl.  They were hot in the middle of phonebanking, but took a moment to chat with me.  Apparently, it went well and Dan Onorato went to all of the bars where he did receive a cool reception from some of the owners who bear a grudge about the drink tax.  Good for him.  I'm not sure Dan will turn out any queer voters, but his participation does signify a slight shift to the left perhaps as he contemplates statewide office.  In the short term, it may bode well for domestic partner benefits and the proposed county-wide anti-discrimination legislation. 

Sounds like the event met expectations so that's a good thing.  I'm still waiting for the LGBT coffeehouse crawl.

I received my PG in the hate-wrapper.  I almost forgot about it after putting it into the dog poop bag bin.  Poor PG - they have forever lost my sympathy on trying to generate revenue for the print edition.  I want the paper to survive, but I'm just disappointed at this decision.  On a bright note, my post about this very topic was promoted to the main page at Pam's House Blend.  So that's cool.

The chief bishop of the Episcopal Church came to Pittsburgh to preach about forgiveness and love and blah, blah, blah. I am really tired of this story.  They came,  they hated and they ran away with the church property.  Its great that she cares about the foolish parishioners who joined the Union of the Southern Cone or whatever passes for a ridiculous diocesan name these days.   She was quoted as forgiving a lot of people, but nothing concrete on asking homosexual Episcopals for their forgiveness as they have sort of been the "flashpoint" of the whole thing.  Sigh. 

On with the day ...

Courtesy of the Steel City chapter of the Stonewall Democrats. 

I caught this on a blog referrer.  I read this cartoon (I know you read it, too) and the Sarah Palin costume went right over my head.  What do you think?

Monday's Post-Gazette will show up on your doorstep swathed in "Vote for Freedom ... Defeat Obama" ad on the little bag in which the paper is delivered.  I confirmed this over the telephone with the Post-Gazette's customer service department this morning. 

That's pretty shameless. I understand the line between editorial content (they endorsed Obama) and advertising revenue, but the day before the election seems like an opportunity for exploitation of that line.  And the PG has to know that.  Other newspapers turned it down...like the Virginia Pilot.  Here's what they said about that decision, courtesy of 2 Political Junkies:

Similar considerations factored into The Pilot's decision to reject the ad, said company business development manager Alan Levenstein.

Because it takes about six weeks to print the plastic bags, permitting a group with one view to purchase that space could deny a group with an opposing view a chance to buy the same space before the election, Levenstein said.

"We want to make sure that we provide equity for all sides, make sure that there is a level playing field," he said. "We want to make sure that we don't look, as a newspaper, that we're endorsing one viewpoint or another."

As a matter of policy, The Pilot would sell space to candidates and interest groups of all persuasions in its print pages, which unlike the plastic bags can accommodate multiple ads in one edition.

Maria's post is excellent.  She's urging all you who find this offensive and inappropriate to call the PG's Advertising Department to complain.  412-263-1100.  Some are calling for cancellations of subscriptions.  I mean the whole point of this business decision was to get the ad in front of those who get the hard copy delivered at home.  If you cut off that source of income, you send a message. 

The PG's desperation is getting pretty schlocky.  The Pittsburgh Bible was ridiculous.  I feel zero responsibility to support the PG when they are engaging in business practices that violate voter ethics.  It is despicable and beyond belief that someone was stupid enough to accept this ad.