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!

Milton Street is Running For Mayor. Again.

All I have to say is this: No.

Why? WHY IS HE RUNNING AGAIN? 

Didn't he learn anything?

At any rate, I'm not planning anything. I plan on staying home and voting against him. He doesn't have a chance. At all.

The City of Philadelphia Wants $300 For ME To Express Myself

Philadelphia City Council sure tends to get creative and innovative sometimes, right? Especially when it comes to raising money AND suppressing rights!

Today's latest example? Forcing bloggers to pay the $300 Business Privilege License (BPL).

The idea is actually simple; some bloggers are making cash, and the city sees it as a way to make some quick cash! Originally, I blamed two City Council Members, Bill Green and Maria Quiñones-Sánchez, for this idea. I was wrong, and I do apologize.

No, the fault lies in the fact that the city Department of Revenue decided to make this move, which really doesn't make a lot of sense.

Case in point? In one case, the city demanded a fee from someone for making... $11 from his blog. $11?!

Let me get something straight: The city, despite the fact that they KNOW for a fact that they are owed downright millions from a few people in the city allow them amnesty to pay, knowing they've done it for years. Meanwhile, a few bloggers who make a few dollars off their blogs are forced to pay what can amount to 300 times more than they make, plus penalties and fees... ON $11?!

But, wait, no, here comes out heroes with a plan!!!

In June, City Council members Bill Green and Maria Quiñones-Sánchez unveiled a proposal to reform the city's business privilege tax in an effort to make Philly a more attractive place for small businesses. If their bill passes, bloggers will still have to get a privilege license if their sites are designed to make money, but they would no longer have to pay taxes on their first $100,000 in profit. (If bloggers don't want to fork over $300 for a lifetime license, Green suggests they take the city's $50-a-year plan.)

Yeah.... no.

Here's the thing: Yes, without a doubt, there are blogs out there made SPECIFICALLY to make money. In my case, this is not one of those blogs. Not even close. Never made a damn cent off this thing! Ever! In fact, that's the case of 99% of the blogs out there.

So the bill doesn't make any real sense.

OK, let's go on that law, shall we? If you make ANY money, you MUST file for a Business Privilege Tax for $300, pay the City Wage Tax, a business Privilege Tax, AND a Net Profits Tax. Damn. Well, tell that to any kid that opens a lemonade stand. Looks like they need to pay $300 for making $15 off selling lemonade! Oh, what's this! Yes, its a homeless guy on the street and it looks like he just made $10 today to eat! Well, he better have his business license! Can't let the homeless guys get off, can we?

The heart of the bill says that if you make any cash off your blog, you're now stuck paying the BPL. The problem comes in where do you draw the line? What about people who use eBay? Or Etsy? Or Craigslist? It is, really, a slippery-slope because there is no end in sight for where this bullshit can go!

So the other part of this argument is that it limits free speech. Does it?

Let's get this part straight: IT DOES LIMIT FREE EXPRESSION.

What person would want to start a blog who lives in Philly knowing they are now stuck paying a tax if they ever try to make a cent off of it, even if its nothing more than a donate button so they can get food from time to time? You already have outcry from countless bloggers decrying this act!

So you know? To the people who decided it would be a good idea to charge me $300 to EXPRESS MYSELF?

GO FUCK YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!

Photo courtesy of The Penn Group

You Don't Bring a Gun to a Snow Ball Fight

According to an eyewitness, a D.C. Police detective went nuts after kids pelted his Hummer with snowballs at 14th and U Streets NW this afternoon. The veteran detective got out of his car and eventually grabbed for his gun, displaying it to the crowd. He did not immediately identify himself as a police officer. He calmed down once his fellow uniformed cop arrived. Apparently, someone called 911 to report a man with gun. The snowball fight had been well hyped on Twitter. The news of the incident first broke there.

...

"An hour ago, we showed up to see a snowball fight already in progress. Two factions along 14th Street along the intersection. It was pretty friendly, mostly OK. At one point, there was one interaction with the police that I saw. A cop got stuck in the snow. People stopped and helped him out. A couple moments later, at the intersection, heading west along U was this big maroon Hummer. A small faction of people decided to target it with snowballs. They're throwing snowballs at the Hummer. It turns out the driver of the Hummer is a detective. He gets out. He's waving a walkie talkie. It's not going well. Then he starts waving a gun. He hadn't identified himself at this point. There was a point where things cooled off a bit, more police showed up, and he identified himself at that point. The name was Det. Baylor. My guess was B-A-Y-L-O-R."

Read the rest of the story here.

An Open Letter To TWU 234 Leader Willie Brown

Dear Willie Brown,

Hey. How are you?

I don't know if you read blogs or not, or if you consider the opinions of others a waste of time. By your reaction over the past 2 weeks, I'm inclined to think its the later. In case you didn't know, I've been writing a lot about you and your leadership and the way you handled the current SEPTA negotiations.

You have taken out ads saying that you're looking out for the "working man", that what you want is a "civil rights issue". You know what? I actually agree with you. I don't want to pay anything for my health insurance cost, I want my company to give me more money for my pension, and holy hell, a 19% raise GUARANTEED over 4 years?! Throw in a no lay-off clause, and I think its safe to say I'm set for life! That's the type of deal anyone working for a company these days would kill for, the type of deal I know countless people would want.

Sadly, I live in the world where you can't always get what you want. I live in a world where health care costs are rising so much that in order to keep health care services, not only did they need to raise our contribution, but they also raised our co-pays. The pension is the same, which is fine by me, but raises? Well, I can't say much about myself, but I know a lot of people who didn't get one this year because everyone is hurting this year. I even know people who got laid-off and outright fired by sneaky means by their companies.

Willie, you want the best for your members, and that's admirable and understandable. The fact that you are willing to risk not only your wages and money, but those of all your members to get what you want, the fact that you may actually be risking your jobs because they could simply fire you all (or at least quite a few) for not working... wow.

But I can't agree with your methods at all.

You've been working without a contract for 7 months, since March in fact. You talked with management until your contract expired, but I can only assume that you decided not to authorize a call for a strike because there is no way your workers could survive without a paycheck. So you waited and waited. You didn't talk to management at all, you just kept working. Over time, you spent money, union money, on newspaper ads and television ads, where you talked about how SEPTA wasn't willing to give you everything you wanted. You said that because they saw an increase in ridership, they should be able to give you more. Since March, they've been losing ridership and money.

So you waited and waited until the last week of October, conveniently enough, the weekend before the World Series, a Eagles vs Giants game, a sold-out concert, and more. You waited until you had the city by the balls and could squeeze as hard as possible to get what you wanted for your union. Then you threatened to walk out right as the games started. Then you agreed to talk past the deadline and not strike.

Now you, Willie Brown, the man who wants to look out for the "common man", the man who wants to make sure "civil rights" are respected... Now YOU have shown you don't care about any of that.

You went on strike at 12:01 AM without any warning of it, stranding thousands of commuters and leaving us to scramble at the last minute! You left the table when you were offered a 11% raise over 5 years, an 11% pension increase, and NO RISE in your health care benefits! YOU! YOU JERK! YOU GREEDY LITTLE PIG! YOU walked away from a compromise. YOU have decided it would no be in the interest of "the working man" to take the deal and STRIKE.

Willie Brown, you don't care about the working man. You don't care about us. All you care about is getting what you want and you don't care how. If union dues rise in turn, I wouldn't be surprised by that, either.

You've taken any chance, ANY CHANCE, of the common working man supporting your union and your cause away with your dirty tactics and the fact that you STRANDED THOUSANDS OF WORKERS AND PEOPLE!!!! You want our support? You lost it!

Right now, I hope YOU get fired. Not the members, but the ENTIRE TWU Local 234 leadership!

Willie, that's how I feel, and trust me, I'm one of the nicer ones.

You Don't Shout Fire in a Theater, and You Don't Bring Loaded Guns to the President

I love the fact that, in this country, we have the Bill of Rights. We're allowed to say what we want and to carry weapons to protect ourselves from those who would do us harms. To a degree, we have laws and customs regarding these two rights, and to a large degree, I don't have have a problem with them. You don't shout fire in a crowded theater unless there is one, and you don't bring a loaded gun to an event with the President of the United States. Simple, common-sense stuff.

So it's aggravating to see this asshole ruin it for the rest of us:

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The man went to a town hall event where the President was speaking. He held up a sign with a quote from Jefferson paraphrasing the line, "The tree of liberty needs to be watered from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots." He also carried a loaded gun. All in the name of reminding us of our rights.

To some degree, I agree with what his point was. Reminding people of our rights to freedom of speech and to bare arms is a good thing, but the way this was done was foolish, unwise, and fails in explanation. The fact alone that he carried a gun that was loaded makes his argument moot because, while one may have the right to carry a weapon in this country, its not a very responsible thing to have it loaded when you're near the leader of the free world.

Rights are one thing, using them responsibly is another.

No, Newspaper, YOUR Apathy Is Why the Election Failed!

Today's Philadelphia Metro had a headline that was both clever and a show of how little they care:

If turnout's so low, why should we care?

It's simple why this is a misfire on their part: On election day, the only way you would have known there was an election was TWO LITTLE FUCKING ADS ON THE FRONT PAGE FOR JUDGE! No front-page story about an election! No, it was on page 2. To me, that's like saying, "Well, we don't care... but lets PRETEND to care."

The problem is that they are stating that since turnout was low, because nothing "exciting" was happening with the race, they have every right in the world to simply ignore it, to pretend like it was only happening in the slightest of ways. That the election that determined the very makeup of our local government, one where we aren't fighting or arguing about who should be our top leaders... we shouldn't know unless its INTERESTING?!

AM I MISSING SOMETHING HERE?!

God damn it, THE MEDIA'S JOB IS TO MAKE BORING CRAP INTERESTING!

Take the lives of "celebrities", for example! I keep hearing about some reality show star couple arguing about their lives, or how some other start was shown naked. We can devote 30 minutes to trash celebrity gossip shows on CBS, NBC, and FOX, BUT WE CAN'T TAKE THE SAME TIME TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC ON WHO THE FUCK IS GOING TO CONTROL US?!?!

AND NO ONE IS SPARED HERE! Local news blogs, I'm looking at you bastards, too!

Coverage of the election was SCARCE AT BEST. Instead of taking the time to educate voters, devoting more time to this election, we were instead treated to stories about the FUCKING HIPSTER FUCKING GRIFTER! WHO THE FUCK CARES? Oh, wait, sorry, YOU BASTARDS DID! YOU decided the "Hipster Grifter" bullshit story was worthy of the time and effort needed to attract readers. And, my god, it worked! A boring, uninteresting story about a con-artist that, by and large, YOU supported (even if only in passing), became the biggest story possible.

Well, when you weren't posting events the day before or the day of them happening.

But that's me pissed off.


The fact of the matter is that I would be FAR too dismissive I didn't state the fact that, yes, they DID cover it and they DID try to make it matter. I would be lying if I said they didn't. Philebrity even went so far as to write this awesome article about who they were endorsing. If I had been a registered Democrat and not Independent, I would have gladly voted for him. City Paper also tried hard, and I do respect them all for it.

My rantings, my anger, me pissed off? It all comes from a pretty simple, and pretty fair place; that the turnout was abysmal and, on the surface and to the casual observer, this failed due to lack of media saturation. And, really, that's what it was; Lack of saturation. I guess we all were too tired from the last Presidential election to pay attention.

In turn, we've seen a man who let violent criminals plea bargain only to kill again as DA, the same-old controller, and given City Council the power to pull almost any bullshit it wants.

God damn, I fucking hate this place sometimes...

The list of election results are still coming in through my favorite election-night website, 6ABC.com. A full list of winners, losers, and how fucked we are can be seen here.

Photo: Rikard Larma

Anti-Stimulus Cartoon "Offends" People

When Obama was running I told all my friends the same thing; "I'm afraid of him winning if for nothing else than we may not get to make fun of him. Too many people will be afraid that they'll be labeled racists or offensive or whatever!" My friends... well, they tended to look at me with glazed eyes because they didn't care.

So when the Obama Sock-Puppet Monkey came out and I laughed because I thought it was cute, you can imagine why I wasn't shocked that a lot of people found it offensive. "Your comparing him to a monkey! RACIST!" Well... yes and no. In the past, yeah, comparing black people to monkeys was racist. At the same time, we have a tradition of comparing politicans to chimps, orangutans... simians of all shapes and sizes. We've never cared about the race of poltiican, just the fact that they were an inept chimp.

And then this.

Seriously, outrage over this? “OH MY GOD! It’s two WHITE cops shooting a CHIMP! RACISM!” What are you, 5? If it was two black cops, would it be racist, or just a really interesting political statement no one would care about it? What if it wasn't a chimp at all, but a snake. "Oh no, they killed a snake!" No one cares about snakes! Everyone fucking HATES snakes! Chimps? We like them!

The only people offended by this are people who want to see some sort of racism in and of itself. How many cartoons have there been over the last 8 years comparing Bush to a chimp? Seriously, how many? I lost count after the first 1,000,000.

Apes, monkeys, chimps… people compare politicians to primates all the time! I didn’t see it as a racist; I saw it as them saying only a idiotic chimp would write a stimulus bill like that, that the bill was stupid and seemed to be written by a chimp.

I'm 99% sure that the guy who drew this said, "You know, some people might get offended by this, but I'm sure that it's just going to be a few people and that'll be it. No one is going to care about what a few idiots think. I'm certain that the audience of The New Post have enough of a brain to realize it's not racist but basic social commentary using ideology and imagery we've used for years." He vastly underestimated the basic level of intelligence the average New York Post reader has.

How many people “outraged” laughed at the Bush-Monkey comparison? How many people “outraged” love Obama and voted for him and would shout outrage at any bad press about it, screaming “conservative bias”? How many of these “offended” people think black people have had it so hard they need to be protected? How many people “offended” realize that Al Sharpton is a idiotic douche bag who has said and done horribly racist things himself?

At the same time, how many people laughed at this:

You remember this, right? Mohammed with a bomb on his head. People laughed and chuckled at it but we all said, "you know, that might be offensive to some people, but at the same time, the guy is basically saying that religion can be used as a weapon. He isn't saying 'All Muslims are crazy, just some of them.'" We all used our brains and made a rational decision and moved on. We laughed at the crazy bastards over the ocean who protested and thought it was so horribly bad.

Well... your turn. It's your turn to realize that your an adult and you need to be treated as such, to be challenged, to be offended! You don't have a right to not be offended, you have a right and a privileged TO be offended! To question! To be treated as thinking, rational, mature human beings!

This cartoon isn’t racist unless you want to be. If you think it is, please cancel your subscription to the New York Post, boycott it, whatever... meanwhile, I'll be over hear laughing at how silly you look.

...And You Will See the Truth: Rollan Burris Part 2

Back on January 6th,I wrote that Rollan Burris was appointed by a corrupt and soon-to-be-impeached Governor to the US Senate. The outcry from some was that Burris shouldn't be tied to the action of the governor, and some extreme people went out to hint, if not cry out, racism by baring the only non-white Senator, despite his appointment being... well, sketchy.

In particular, I want to point out Keith Olbermann for his hypocrisy on the matter. No, I like Keith, I still watch his show, but I'm calling him out on this because if's irritating watching him flip-flop on this. Back in Januarary before getting appointed, Olbermann hinted at a "only black Senator" move and that he should be judged on his merit.

It just came out that Burris purgered himself by saying during his hearings that he never had contact with the Governor or anyone close to him... despite talking to his brother.

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This is the story from, of all places, Keith Olbermann. No longer trying to paint him as a good man, instead he's admitted that he is now on the way out and may have the shortest term of a Senator ever.

In turn, I want to simply say he should never have been appointed in the first place.

The Story of Roland Burris: Or How To Make People Hate You

When Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich was accused (and, basically, found out) to be selling Obama's Senate Seat, one thing was basically agreed: If he appointed anyone, they would be rejected. When I heard about it, I decided to put myself in the position of someone being asked to do it. "Larry, would you please replace President-Elect Obama as Illinois Senator?" "Sir, thank you very much for the offer, but I'm going to have to decline. I'm going to prepare a statement and release it stating that I am thankful for the seat, it's an honor, but I don't feel it's appropriate at this time to accept it."

So Roland Burris, what's your excuse?

Instead of doing the right and honorable thing, he has, instead, pushed himself into a media circus where he has become... well, I don't know. I guess an idiot. But who can entirely blame him? If you were offered a job as a US Senator, would you simply turn it down, especially if you knew it was yours, 100% legally, free-and-clear? The only catch... is that your appointed by a corrupt politican and may never get to serve because of it, especially if you don't try to distance yourself from it.

Here's a fact you may not know; if he doesn't get the job, there will be no black senators this time around. And, in turn... some people have dragged race into this. Great. Pointless racism. Just what we need with our first black President.

Long story short: He should have publicly turned it down. Said it was an honor to be asked, but he can't do it. Now? Now it's too late. And that's sad.

Jesse Jackson: Hypocrite, Bastard, and Needs To RESIGN! NOW!

Anyone who knows me, anyone who has met me, knows I believe the following: Jesse Jackson is an outdated self-righteous asshole who thinks he is the "king of all black people". He is not. In fact, he is so removed from modern black thinking, he's the same type of racist asshole who he rallied against even up to when he ran for president. He's pushed his own biased, narrow-minded agenda non-stop and down the throats of America for years. He is, in short, why blacks have such a bad name in America.

And now, the man who has rallied and condemned many a white public figure, from Don Imus to my hero Michael Richards, has just used the word Nigger to describe... wait for it... Barack Obama!

CHICAGO - Fox News says the Rev. Jesse Jackson used the N-word during a break in a TV interview where he criticized presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The longtime civil rights leader already came under fire this month for crude off-air comments he made against Obama in what he thought was a private conversation during a taping of a "Fox & Friends" news show.

Now a Fox spokesman says Jackson used the N-word to refer to black people during that taping as he said Obama was talking down to them. Those comments were not aired.

Jackson — who is traveling in Spain — apologized in a statement Wednesday for "hurtful words" but didn't offer specifics.

The N-word comment was first reported by blog TVNewser. Fox declined to release the transcript.

SOURCE: Yahoo! News

Well, well, well... I'm not sure if this is irony or poetic justice, but whatever it is, I want this little nightmare for him to go on and on until he's destroyed. So let's get started, shall we!

Jesse Jackson should now do the following:

• 1. Apologize to Obama again.
• 2. Apologize to the NAACP.
• 3. Resign from the Rainbow/PUSH coalition.
• 4. Admit he has been self-owned and had this coming for being a non-stop asshole.
• 5. Never speak in public again.

IN THAT ORDER.

In fact, Number 3 is the most important. For someone so passionate about helping black people and not tearing them down, for someone who has had countless times gone after public faces, groups, or individuals for whatever small thing he finds offensive and called for them to resign, Jesse Jackson, IT'S YOUR TURN!

I think everyone should contact the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and ask them to either make Jesse Jackson to resign or that he is fired:



Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
930 East 50th Street
Chicago, IL 60615-2702

ph: 773-373-3366
fx: 773-373-3571
info@rainbowpush.org