The 2011 Mayors Race: More At Stake then you Think!

John Street: Not MY Mayor!

The 2011 election season in Philadelphia is a hot one, and it promises to do something we haven't seen in Philadelphia since the Renell Administration: A Chance at some real change and good times. Now, keep in mind, I'm not saying Ed Rendell's administration was without problem, but his leadership did a lot of good for Philadelphia. This time around, we can see something even more: Real and Dynamic Change!

For starters, a bunch of establishment City Council members are no longer running for re-election. Frank Dicicco (1st District), and Anna Verna (2nd), Donna Reed Miller (8th District), Jack Kelly (At-Large), and Frank Rizzo (City Council-at-large) are out, each of which have served no lest than 14 years on City Council. With them go a lot of the establishment politicians and politics of the past, and the chance for change on the 17-member City Council.

Not only that, but the level of discontent with Mayor Nutter has been growing steadily over the past 3 years, and with nearly 20 years in Philadelphia Politics, he seems to have become subject to the same culture and establishment he fought against on City Council. His only opponet in the Democratic primary is Milton Street, who has racked up endorsements with the Firefighters Union and Local 33 (the sanitation workers union), both of whom are disgruntled at Nutter.

So when we see a Nutter Primary win, what do we have to look forward to?

Tom Knox, who came in a close second in the 2007 Democratic Primary, has stated he wanted to run against Nutter as an Independent in the fall. To me, this is the best thing possible to happen to Philadelphia. We've been under one-party rule in Philadelphia for the last 30 years, and no non-Democrat has won the office of Mayor in over 50 years. Something like this would shake up the political landscape and, along with a lot of new blood and faces in City Council (hopefully progressive!), a lot of good can be done NOW to start shaping Philadelphia in the years to come!

Then there's THIS asshole: John Street has changed his voter registration to "Independent". All arrows point to him wanting to run for a 3rd term as mayor.

Here's the bare-bones problem: Right now, there's a large portion of the city who is against Nutter and, if given a clear alternative to him, will gladly vote against party lines for them. In this case, that's Tom Knox. John Street running would do nothing more than split the anti-Nutter block and cause Nutter to win!

For starters, NO ONE thinks Philadelphia was better off under the reign of the idiotic, corrupt, and immoral Street Brothers. NO ONE. Well, except everyone they wound up helping when they were in office. It took 4 years to clean up their mess, and neither one of them think they can win. Milton ran in the hopes of getting the Street's their power back, and John is positioning himself to run as a back-up. In the end, their only goal is to try to get back into office and start up the old Democratic Machine.

Here's what I think is going to happen: If John Street runs, he's going to assure a Nutter victory. That is, unless Tom Knox can do a LOT to kick up the dirt and fight back!

As for the Republican nominees... well, I wish them well. I sincerely do. I'll have more on them in the upcoming days.

Philly Polticis: The Good, The Bad, and the STUPID!

The Good:

1. Ballot Battles! 

Milton Street, despite most likely forging his petitions as well as not even living in Philly, was somehow approved to be on the ballot. The upside? The Nutter Campaign is battling his petition and residency! I was recently harassed by one of his petitioners before the deadline (I'll leave it there, maybe tell the story one day soon), and on top of the fact that I don't think he should be elgible to run at all... Well, it's a red-letter day for me!


Czar, pardon me, City Councilman Darrell Clake has just had his petition challenged as well! You may know Darrell Clarke as the City Councilperson from the 5th District who's chief accomplishment's are trying to track when you buy cigarettes, alcohol, and Sharpie Markers, wanted to ban Satellite Dishes, passed a hate crime bill that was simply redundant and pointless, as well tried to pass a promoters bill that would have harmed Philly only because he didn't like the fact he couldn't park closer to his house. 


His petition is being challenged by his only challenger, Suzanne Carn, who's husband is former state Rep. Andrew Carn. I hope it works and we see Clarke have to pack his bags and go!


2. The Corrupt Establishment Is LEAVING!


Councilpersons Joan L. Krajewski , Donna Reed Miller, Frank DiCicco, and Anna Verna are GONE! Their done! Retired! Adios! For the record, I met Anna once when I was running, and she was very nice, same with Frank DiCicco who tried to help me lower the age requirement. That aside, politically, I am glad to see all four of these people go. We need some fresh blood in City Council, and a more progressive governing body to challenge Nutter!

The Bad: 

1. The Philadelphia Republican's can't seem to get their stuff together!


WHAT THE HELL?! Come on, it's wide open! You're up against someone who promised hope and change, and instead all we got were new tax ideas that were terrible and stupid and treated us like kids! He lied to the city about stopping casinos! The guy is as popular as a wet sock, but no one is really challenging him because, frankly, who wants this mess?! The Democrats in Philly are about as progressive as a donkey stuck in mud, and the best the Republican's can do is somebody no one's heard of?!
 
 Plus, they never even bothered to give me a call or send me an e-mail! I'm on Facebook! Call me!


2. Charles Ramsey might be leaving. 

Even though I was tough as hell on the guy before he got here, I have to admit, he's done a good job, and he's tried his damnedest to try and clean up the local police department. If he goes, hopefully we'll get someone who's just as good, if not better.


The STUPID: 

Simply put: The fact that Milton Street was allowed to get on the ballot without the Election Office VERIFYING everything first! WHAT THE HELL!

Oh: And ANYONE who thinks Milton running is "entertaining"! What the hell is wrong with the people in media thinking it's a GOOD thing? The guy's a criminal, a jerk, and an incompetent politician!

In Defense of Pitbulls

I have never for the life of me understood why people seem to hate Pit Bulls.

Growing up, I didn't like dogs at all. I lived next door to a guy who had one for protection that was incredibly mean. All the other dogs on the block seemed to have this thing about wanting to get close to me for a bite, and basically I didn't have anything close to a good experience with one. Up until 4 years ago, I had to deal with one on my block that was never on a leash when it was outside and would chase me. Not fun.

Since then, I've warmed up to dogs. I've always been allergic, so that hasn't helped the situation much. Working downtown and with a lot of people who own and downright love them... well, it's forced me to open up more. I can't do much, though, and I'm still nervous around them.

So when I hear people decry the American Pit Bull Terrier, or the Pit Bull... I'm left scratching my head.

The main argument I've heard are that they're "more aggressive". In my experience, and even statistically... it's basically baloney. Just like most dogs, they're loyal to their masters and family, and friendly to strangers. It's more of a reputation than anything else.

The problem, though, is that a lot of people who get Pit Bulls tend to get them for the wrong reason. Look at Micheal Vick, for example. He used them in dog fighting, making them more aggressive needlessly and forcing them to fight. Sadly, a lot of people do the same thing. You also have people buying them just because they want to look like they have a "tough dog", so they actually try to make them mean as well.

Then you have the people who get them because they simply love dogs.

A co-worker of mine rescued a pit bull from the street out of the rain that wasn't doing too good. A few days later, he found out why the dog was acting so sick; she was pregnant. He now has a bunch of cute little puppies to give away, and he's making sure they go to good homes. The dog is a sweetheart.

Pit Bulls, by and large, are no more aggressive than most other breeds of animals. In fact, there was one that lived down the block from me. Remember how I said most of the dogs on my block tended to have a need to get a little too close to me? This one didn't. She was very nice, sat at her house whenever tied up, and when she was walked, was very nice towards me and respectful. It was a mix of both a boxer and a pit bull. In my life, the dogs that have been aggressive have been the ones that seem like they should be nice... but aren't.

Philadelphia City Council has been trying to ban Pit Pulls for years, and it is simply impossible. The law forbids banning specific breeds of dogs, and for that, I am actually thankful. In fact, a ban would simply make it worse in this city! Can you imagine them being banned? You already have jerks owning them, and they're in the minority. What happens when they're the majority?!

Pit Bulls are, by and large, kind, caring animals, nor worse or more violent than most of the dogs out there. Just treat them with the same love and respect you would any dog and you'll be fine.

Photo Courtesy of Manly's Republic

City of Philadelphia Propsing Taxes on Trash and Soda

In yet another desperate grab for cash, the City of Philadelphia is reportedly floating around 2 ideas: Taxing you to have your trash collected and taxing sugary drinks. Both are stupid, idiotic, horrible ideas. Lets find out why:

1. The Trash Tax Will Fail

It's actually pretty simple: Philadelphia has been, over the years, become a city of haves and have-nots. The haves are able to get by day-to-day and not worry about losing everything without missing a paycheck. The have-nots are barely getting by, and one missed paycheck means the end of their world.

Now throw in a fee for a basic city service.

The idea of a fee for garbage collection city-wide has been tossed around before and shot down for the same reason, especially since it was based on the idea of paying BY THE BAG. The idea never made it pass the drawing board.

2. The Soda Tax = Tax on Fun

As you may now, over the past few months, there's been a massive movement towards comparing soda to cigarettes and tobacco products. Now, other than the fact that its a bad argument, the reasoning tends to be that people drink too much of it and that its bad for you. Here's the problem with that argument: It basically states that people don't have any common sense, thus the government needs to swoop in and stop you.

Lets get something straight: The idea of taxing soda is not to help with you health, its to raise cash, and nothing more.

Not only that, but when it has been discussed in the past, it was always agreed a portion of the money would go towards health care costs. In this case, the only public health talk has been towards using propaganda to make it seem like the tax is for the public health when, in reality, its just to raise more money for the city.

Also, this is yet another tax on the poor.

Many argue that those in poor areas need to stop drinking soda the most and, in turn, need to drink more water. These people are basically saying there needs to be a tax on soda because they don't really deserve soda.

In my case, I don't have any real vices. I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke, I don't do drugs, and save caffeine, I'm almost "straight edge". My vice, my lone pleasure in life? Soda.

More than anything, this tax says that adults shouldn't be treated like adults. We have a perfectly legal thing, something we all enjoy, but because a few of us have taken it and gone too far, it must be taxed?! It starts with soda, but what next? Candy? Snacks?

Does the fact that fast food is already taxed stop people from eating it so much?

These ideas and taxes must, and hopefully will, fail. Instead of fixing the way real estate taxes are done in the city, going after the biggest tax cheats in the city, or cracking down on people who owe the city thousands, if not MILLIONS, of dollars, we instead get stupid ideas for taxing people down to the bone!

If this is given serious motives, I wouldn't doubt seeing a few Soda Parties in this city.

Councilman Wilson Goode, Keep Your Money!

This is relatively new and I just heard about it:

Philadelphia city coffers are $836 richer thanks to a check from Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr.

The personal check, hand delivered Friday to City Controller Alan Butkovitz, comes ten days after Goode promised to reimburse the city for what he calls "mistakes" his controversial aide, Latrice Bryant, made on her timesheets this summer.

Source: Fox 29 News

Councilman Goode, do us a favor: Keep your money.

Your money means nothing to the hundreds of thousands of citizens who have witnessed the devastating toll you've taken upon our city government. You and your aid have made a mockery, dear sir, of what our city government is about. It is nothing short of terrible that you have not done the one deed, the one single action that would redeem you. The one thing that anyone looking at this situation, anyone who has the facts they have concerning you, your employee, and your relationship with said employee, that would redeem you and her actions.

Fire Latrice Bryant.

The fine you paid, this fine of $836, was supposed to be paid by YOUR STAFFER. Because she didn't, you did. The City Controller said, "This is a clear signal to all government workers that bad behavior won't be tolerated."It is, dear sir, anything BUT! Instead, you've given an example of what happens if you don't follow the rules and the laws. You've shown that if you don't follow the rules and do as your supposed to, your boss will pay to bail you out, especially if your sleeping with them.

You've shown the citizens of Philadelphia that the laws do not apply to the members of City Council or it's staff. You've shown that lying about when you work is fine unless your caught, you've shown that racism and slander and liable is fine and should not be fought against, you've shown that sleeping with your boss and having relations with them, even when your supposedly working, is fine. Wilson Goode, Jr, you've just shown that you believe City Council and it's staff is, in fact, ABOVE the law.

Keep your filthy, dirty, stinking, no-good money!

If you want to do some idiotic P.R. stunt to save yourself, if you want to try and make some idiotic and EMPTY gesture as to why the citizens of this city shouldn't storm your office and demand you leave... well, don't bother. The sooner you fire Latrice Bryant, the better. The sooner you simply admit that she was wrong for having those racist signs, the sooner you simply admit that, yes, THIS IS AN ISSUE.... the sooner you finally dismiss her, the better off the City of Philadelphia will be.

City Council and Mayor Nutter: SAY SOMETHING, YOU BASTARDS!

Mayor Nutter, you should be ashamed of yourself! For not saying ANYTHING, for not speaking out against this... this OBVIOUS corruption, you have instead simply resided yourself to letting this happen! By not doing anything you've become as much of a problem with this as if you had witnessed this yourself! Yes, I understand the need of keeping peace with the Council Members. Yes, I understand that speaking out of this may, in the future, make working with the City Council harder. And, yes, I understand that the current City Budget are a slightly bigger deal.

At the same time, Mayor Nutter, this scandal is just going to get worst by the day without you squashing this in the bud! The longer this goes on, the worst it looks upon yourself and your promise, dear sir, your PROMISE to end corruption in City Hall.

Councilman Goode, keep your god-damn money. We sure as hell don't want it.

How Philadelphia Can Save $90,000 a Year

With Philadelphia facing budget cuts that even Mayor Nutter says will be "tough", Philadelphians are wondering where, just where are we going to find the money? 

Stop looking, Philadelphia, I found a solution: Fire Latrice Bryant.

Do... do I need to explain this? On Septemeber 19th, Philadelphia found out that Councilman Goode's aide, Latrice Bryant, was accusing Fox 29 of racism. Then, on Septemeber 24th, we found out that Latrice Bryant and Councilman Goode had little sex-romps on Tax Payer time. 

On October 1st, Fox News revealed photos of Councilman Goode and Latrice Bryant is Jamica. 

Today, the City Controller agreed with Fox 29 and stated that she owed the city $836.35 for 19.45 hours of missed work. In the eyes of myself and, most likely most Philadelphians... that's not enough!

She needs to FIRED AND ARRESTED AND FORCED TO REPAY HER SALARY FOR 2008!

On what grounds? Easy:

1. Recieving raises based on a sexual relationship with her boss.

2. Breaking the Philadelphia City Charter for having signs promoting racial intimidation.

3. Failure to appropriately log in hours.

On those three alone anyone would be fired. Fucking our boss? Lying about when you work? Using racial intimidation? I doubt anyone would get to keep their job if corporate found out about any of them.

If your mad as hell about this, WRITE CITY COUNCIL:

1st FRANK DiCICCO Dicicco-1st-District@phila.gov
2nd ANNA C. VERNA verna-2nd-district@phila.gov
3rd JANNIE L. BLACKWELL blackwell-3rd-District@phila.gov
4th CAROL ANN CAMPBELL cambell-4th-district@phila.gov
5th DARRELL L. CLARKE Clarke-5th-district@phila.gov
6th JOAN L. KRAJEWSKI krajewski-6th-district@phila.gov
7th DANIEL J. SAVAGE savage-7th-district@phila.gov
8th DONNA REED MILLER miller-8th-district@phila.gov
9th MARIAN B. TASCO tasco-9th-district@phila.gov
10th BRIAN J. O'NEILL oneil-10th-district@phila.gov

Councilmembers-At-Large 
W. WILSON GOODE, JR. goode-at-large@phila.gov
WILLIAM K. GREENLEE greenlee-at-large@phila.gov
JACK KELLY Kelly-at-large@phila.gov
JAMES F. KENNEY Kenney-At-Large@phila.gov
JUAN RAMOS Ramos-at-large@phila.gov
BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN brown-at-large@phila.gov
FRANK RIZZO rizzo-at-large@phila.gov 

With Councilman Goode, Let's Tackle the REAL Issue Here!

Has anyone out there realize that the problem with Corrupt Councilman Goode ISN'T racism?

It's irritating seeing everyone who paid a little attention to this focus on the race factor. It's great that the entire "reverse racism" argument is being thrown out the window, awesome even, but it's only a SMALL part of the larger problem.

As was reported days ago, the guy fucked a staffer while having beer with her on City Time! COME ON! HE FUCKED HIS STAFFER! Isn't that more interesting than the stupid hand-scrawled signs? Isn't that the BIGGER issue? Or the fact that he's basically used $13,000 in raises for Latrice Bryant to keep his, ahem, "policies in line"? The guy is drinking on tax payer time, has a corrupt office, and instead of cries to fire him, what do we get?

"Well, he shouldn't use the race card and should fire her."

No. Not quite. Fire HIM at the same time. He needs to go! 

Councilman Goode, Lock Your Doors! The Citizens are PISSED!

Beer.

I've seen a lot of crap come from City Council members, I've seen them do a lot of shady crap. But this... wow, this takes the case.

As shown by Fox29 Investigators, Councilman Goode, on tax payer time, went home with his legislative aide, took her out to lunch and... brought back beer. It's obvious that Latrice Bryant, the aide in question, got more raises than one now last year. In fact, she got $13,000 in raises this year. Apparently... well, you get the idea.

I'm calling for Goode to be Impeached. Quickly. He needs to be tried and hung out to dry for this! This isn't lying about a blowjob, this isn't licking cream off the breast of a wife... this is freaking flat-out illegal! You have proof that Latrice Bryant only recieved raises, or at least in part, because of a relation she had with her boss. In 99% of America, that's illegal!

Goode, lock your doors. The citizens of Philly aren't fucking happy!

VIDEO OF THE REPORT

Sex, Race, and Politics: How Councilman Goode Just Woke Up Philadelphia

"Don't you ever disrespect a black woman that way!"

With those 8 words, Philadelphia City Councilman Wilson Goode, Jr, woke up the citizens of Philadelphia to everything that's wrong with their local government, myself included. With those 8 words, Councilman Goode alerted the public that City Council was back in session after taking their summer vacation. With those 8 words, Goode did something that needed to be done; He woke up the media.

Why did I pick those 8 words to start the story? Because they were given a much more harsh light because of what the aide held in her hands at the City Council meeting and, in turn, ignited the firestorm to begin with.

On a piece of paper, she scrawled the words "Jeff Cole: KKK".

There was so much intriguie as to why this happened that the reporter, Jeff Cole, became part of the story and a discussion, not about race, but about corruption in the halls of our government. In fact, the only people in this entire debate who have the aide and the Councilman himself.

For the past few weeks, Jeff Cole of Fox 29 has been following an aide of Philadelphia Councilman Wilson Goode. According to sources, the reporter found out that the aide, Latrice Bryant, was going to the gym on taxpayer time. The story would have been a standard story was it not for where it goes... She was found buying bear and going to the Councilman's house... and spending the night there. It's worth noting that we were, as you may have guessed, foot the bill for this as it was all done on taxpayer time.

When Councilman Goode was confronted with this information, he refused to answer his question. The local media, in a show of either unity or, even better, force against a corrupt
Councilman, than began to ask the same questions Cole had tried and he answered them. You can watch the video here and, frankly, it tells the story better than I can.

This entire mess stems from one thing: Time sheets.

According to the records attained by Jeff Cole, time sheets show that Latrice Bryant was clocked in for hours before she was spotted going to the office. It is worth noting, because it ties into the overall story, that Latrice Bryant dresses in rather, ahem, REVEALING clothing on a daily basis. A visit to her MySpace, which she made private after a local blog found it and posted images and photos from it, show's racy photos and reveals that her dream was to become a state represenative. Because of her actions, it is very likely those dreams will never come true. And, admittedly, these photos will come back to haunt her.

But this woman aside, Councilman Goode also highlighted his horrible new bit of legislation: By having one-party rule.

Councilman Wilson Goode Jr. wants to eliminate one at-large Council seat for the minority party, amending his original proposal that would have reduced Council from 17 members to 15 members with two less at-large seats. Philadelphia Metro

In part of this story breaking, he's alerted us of this. He's reminded us that, despite a mayor who is trying harder than any I've seen before to clean up this government and make sure Philadelphia shines again, that out our City Council still have members hellbent on destroying it and making Philadelphia the same culture of corruption it was before.

It also showed that the local media, as a whole, have been far to warm to City Council and, in part because Nutter has done so much good on a whole, has become latheargic and lazy about covering the events of the city and, in turn, have not done their job. Which is why I think the citizens of this city should be so thankful for Jeff Cole.

I would like to thank the following people for all the research:

Fox 29 Philadelphia for reporting on this. Philebrity.com for posting the MySpace Page.
And, most importantly, thank you, Daniel McQuade of Philadelphia Weekly! He alerted me first to the story and inspired me to write this. Dan, thanks a million and please, keep up the awesome work!

Czar Clarke Target of Hate Crime: Irony In Play!

I've written a few posts about 5th District Councilman Darrell Clarke a few times. He's written bills that would have tracked everything from beer, to cigarettes, to spray paint and even Sharpie markers. He's even tried to pass zoning laws that would classify restaurants the same way as STRIP CLUBS!

And people wonder why I don't trust City Council. YEESH!

But all of this hate started when I found out last fall that he wanted to basically do away with the First Amendment and ban displaying swastika's, nooses, and burning crosses in public. If you don't agree with the symbols, fine, but just wearing these images on a shirt, putting it on an album cover, etc, isn't exactly wrong. I went into detail on this before, and you can read that blog post here.

So when I found out Czar Clarke was the target of a hate crime, the irony... well, poetic justice, of the situation wasn't lost on me.

City Councilman Darrell L. Clarke was the victim of an apparent hate crime, police and Clarke just told Philly Confidential.

Clarke said he walked outside his house this morning and found Nazi symbols and the letters "KKK" spray-painted on his car, a vehicle belonging to a relative of one of his staffers and another local resident's car. Crime Scene Unit investigators are currently dusting his car for prints while detectives try to determine what motivated the incident.

"Some idiot decided for whatever reason they needed to paint a swastika and 'KKK' all over my car," Clarke said. "I couldn't believe it."

Police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore said investigators "are treating this as a hate crime. It's disgusting and we're trying to get to the bottom of who is behind it."

SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer

Oh the sweet poetic justice of it all!

Well, it may be a hate crime, Czar Clarke, but was it because of your race or because of your idiotic bills? ....OK, it's most likely is race. Eh. You still suck.

IT'S MILLER TIME!

As in, Donna Reed Miller is still a horrible City Council Person.

It's the holidays, and if you've thought, "WOW! That Larry has been really kinda mellow lately!"... your right, I have been. In terms of politics, it's getting insanely quiet and anything making the news is just... well, it's not aggravating for once. Nutter did something good and scored a good $3 million for the City's Schools. He still hasn't even begun to explain his idiotic Crime Emergency Plan, though.

But let's go back to Miller. Instead of posting a long diatribe about how she shouldn't have been re-elected or just what is wrong, I'll just post the damn article:

A Philadelphia woman was charged Monday with extorting more than $5,000 in cash and a cell phone while working for the city of Philadelphia and City Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller.

Theresa Pinkett, 53, of Philadelphia is alleged to have extorted the cash and cell phone in exchange for providing assistance on real estate issues for properties located in the city, which was part of her duties, according to the charges.

Pinkett is alleged to have accepted about $5,000 in cash and a cell phone from 2001 to 2003 -- while serving as a constituent services representative for Reed -- and $1,200 in cash from September to December of last year while serving as a community specialist in the Community Affairs Division for the City Controller's Office. No wrongdoing is alleged by others in Reed's office or the Controller's Office.

An Open Letter to City Council

Dear City Council Member:

I am writing to you today in regards to three bills that will be presented tomorrow at the City Council Meeting by Councilman Darrell Clarke of the 'Licenses and Inspections' Committee. These bills are:

Bill No.: 070875 - The bill that would track sales of cigarettes and beer.
Bill No.: 070876 - The bill that would track sales of spray paint, indelible markers, and etching acid.
Bill No.: 070914 - The bill that would ban showing the image of a burning cross, noose, or swastika in public.

I am asking you to NOT pass these bills!

These three bills would limit the civil rights of the citizens of Philadelphia and impose unnecessary barriers in order to fight crime and racism, respectively.

These bills would allow the Government of the City of Philadelphia to violate the right of privacy to buy beer and cigarettes without having the government know. At the same time, tracking the sale of indelible markers would also include tracking when you bought even a Sharpie marker. What, exactly, is the point of that? Considering the large number of Sharpies sold in the City of Philadelphia, along with Spray Paint, it seems that tracking each and every sale will not lead to a crackdown on crime and being able to catch the criminals, but instead a backlog of useless information that seems more intent on harming the public rather than protecting it!

For those reasons alone, I am asking you not to pass Bill's 070875 and 070876.

As for Bill No. 070914, this bill has one intent and one harmful side-effect; in an effort to defeat racism and protect everyone, the First Amendment Right to freedom of expression is hampered! While the bill specifically state that it would be forbidden to show them with "intent... to incite violence", what that covers is a very large area. In essence, some forms of these symbols are meant to incite anger and hatred, but sometimes also to think. Would a teacher discussing racism being arrested for showing these symbols to provoke a reaction from their class to show them racism is wrong? Would someone wearing a shirt showing a Swastika to show their disapproval of something they see as fascist be banned as well?

The First Amendment is called into question with Bill No. 070914. While I understand and agree with the intent, we already have Hate Crime laws in effect doing the same thing. For a municipal government to create laws such as this is a step in the wrong direction and, in my opinion, a step toward limiting freedom and rights.

I urge you to NOT pass these three bills! They do not seek to help Philadelphia and Philadelphian's, they only exist to impose more useless legislation and barriers in a society built on freedom that slowly seems to be loosing them.

I thank you all for your time and consideration into this matter, and wish you a wonderful fay, the bet of luck in your meeting, and a happy holiday season!

Sincerely,
Larry West

Darrell Clarke STILL Hates Your Civil Rights!

Saw this in the Metro Blog today, Thanks! More on it tomorrow!

It's been, in no short terms, a weird day. I woke up to protest against Darrell Clarke's bill. The idea for the protest was very simple: Clarke wants to ban being able to display nooses, burning crosses, and swastikas in public. Being a fan of the First Amendment, as well as belonging to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a First Amendment group, I oppose it with every American bone in my body. It doesn't mean I entirely agree with these symbols, but at the same time, let's consider that the Swastika alone has a VERY long history of non-violence before the freakin' Nazi's bastardized it.

Here is the proposed Bill No. 070914.

So to protest, the plan was to draw these three symbols. Not just "draw" them, but make them interesting and put them into some cool contexts. I won't lie, it wasn't a well thought-out plan since I had no clue what to draw and no signs to tell people why I was out there. Plus, I didn't know the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony was tonight, so they were getting that done while I was out there as well.

The best part? On the subway ride to City Hall I came up with an idea based on the Anthrax song "Startin' Up A Posse". In it, Scott Ian sings about how Censorship is a cancer, and goes against what America stands for. The entire song is just a cartoony rip and tear of Tipper Gore, and I decided that that was the best way to go with this protest.

Now, my plan was to not only show the picture, but also make flyers to hand out at City Hall WITH the drawing on it, and explain why it was done and what you could do if you felt the same way about censorship as me.

Now, I learned that two other measures he wants (Both which would create electronic tracking of beer, alcohol, spray paint containers, indelible markers and etching acid) are on the docket FOR THE SAME MEETING!

Bill No.: 070875 - The bill that would track cigarettes and beer:
http://www.hallwatch.org/councilnotices/bills/1192803462538

Bill No.: 070876 - The bill that would track spray paint:
http://www.hallwatch.org/councilnotices/bills/1192803462937

The meeting is scheduled for Dec 5, 2007 10:00 am at Room 400, City Hall from the Licenses and Inspections Committee.

Now, I'm sure that a LOT more people agree that all of these measures are, well... INSANE! Czar Clarke, this isn't Oceania and we are not the Proles from Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four! This is the USA in 2008, Councilman, and before you decide to take more rights away from us and start tracking up like cattle, realize a few things!

1. WE ALREADY HAVE HATE CRIME LAWS! Your entire proposal to "ban" these images violates the First Amendment! Not only that, but anyone with some basic legal knowledge knows that it is incredibly difficult to prove intent, and in a case like this, where you can not always tell the intent of an artist who uses any of these symbols, your are going to cost the city millions in lawsuits!

Councilman, why create a new law that can hurt the city to create this awareness that this is already a crime to do in order to commit hate? There is hate crime legislation already that covers this!

2. WE ALREADY CHECK IDS! Clarke's legislation to "electronically scan ID's" come down to tracking these legal purchases. There are already laws in effect to make sure that this doesn't happen, so why the extra move? Why track law-abiding citizens?

In essence, everything Czar Clarke wants is MORE government in your life! Is that what you and I need?

What we NEED, Councilman, is more ENFORCEMENT OF EXISTING LAWS! We need to make sure that the citizens of Philadelphia are aware that we do have these laws. Your selective laws and enforcement (I can only suspect your behind the recent run of shut downs of First Friday) have hurt Philadelphia and continue to do so!

If YOU oppose these ideas just as much as me, feel free to contact him:

5th DARRELL L. CLARKE
Clarke-5th-district@phila.gov

Councilwoman Joan Krajewski to Retire for 1 Day to Collect $300,000!

There's a lot of news going on right now in this city, namely the new murder rankings are in. I'll have to get to that later, because right now, I'm incredibly angry about this!

This is Joan L. Krajewski. She was recently re-elected to an eighth-term as Councilperson for the 6th District. For all her time in office, at age 73, she has decided to retire.

For one day.

At a cost of $297,466.

Yes, that's right; After all her time in office, she has decided to retire simply to cash in before she starts her 8th term in City Council! This is because of a Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP), which freezes their eventual retirement benefits — meaning they will receive less of an annual pension at retirement. One can only assume that she is doing that in order to save you, the tax payer, money.

Why I do I say that? Because, thus far, no reason at all has been given for this move. The only explanation given has been this:

Krajewski pointed out that she could easily leave office now with her $297,466 payment and begin drawing her $74,366 annual pension — which she can’t get until she leaves office for good — and the taxpayers would have to pay that plus a new councilperson’s salary.

Which we will have to do once she finally retires, anyway, so that's a rather moot point to make.

Let's consider this; According to a 2003 report, the DROP program costs the City of Philadelphia $7 million a year, although some say the program does pay for itself. At the same time, this still comes out of the pocket of you, the taxpayer.

The City of Philadelphia must enter into negotiations with City workers to discuss this very pension plan. Right now, the union wants more money for their pension funds. The question now is if not only should the city do this, but how can a raise now not be justified after this?

We have a Councilperson who has just shown just how blatant some crooks are in this city. Publicly announcing she is ready to rob the City Treasury for a day, telling us just how much loot she's going to get away with? And telling us we should be HAPPY about it?

When I said I didn't want criminals in City Hall, I wasn't kidding! We need to make sure this robbery never happens!

Feel free to contact her office by writing to her personally:

http://www.hallwatch.org/profiles/council/krajewski/faxbank/writeletter