Color me stunned. I knew he was good, I knew he would probably go a little harder. But... wow.

(Photo from This Week with Barack Obama, which has a ton of great pics from the night.)

Consider this an open thread on the speech.

And, if you want to help make a difference, need a non-campaign outlet, and want one that will last longer than 4 or 8 or even 20 years, MoveOn is launching an effort to register a half a million young voters for November. I think that is something YPP can get behind. I just chipped in 25 bucks.

The Avenue of the Arts on South Broad St is always bustling, but today it had an extra burst of energy. The students at the University of the Arts were moving back into the dorms, and the first-year students were on campus to pick up their IDs and do the usual first-day orientation go-round.

It's marvelous to watch a room full of college students and their parents. A mother came forward to introduce her daughter; a father helped his son move a TV, a bookshelf, and a box fan inside; a group of older students, awash in piercings and hair dye, smiled and hugged each other at the corner coffee shop. Policemen were directing traffic on Pine St, helping people park, making sure no 18-year-old gets crushed by a garbage truck while lugging a futon mattress. Staff young and old were bustling around, making themselves helpful, answering questions and directing people to where they needed to be.

From this weeks Philadelphia City Paper

Donald Lindsey can't afford to get sick. His pay as a security guard at the Philadelphia Museum of Art — a little over $10 an hour — is hardly enough for him to provide for his four kids. And he gets no sick leave.

A Special Message from Bishop Dwayne Royster, Chairman of the Interfaith Committee of Jobs with Justice

Dear Friend in Faith,

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/PMALaborDay

20 CONGREGATIONS PRAY FOR SICK-PAY AT PMA- Labor Faithful Press Museum From The Pews

Philadelphia, PA, August 31, 2008- 130 security guards have the important job of taking care of the visitors and collections at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Activists and thousands of supporters this weekend will pray that these guards will soon be treated as well as other city subcontracted workers under the Living Wage Ordinance.

The Living Wage Ordinance which was signed by Mayor Michael Nutter in April 2008 states that city-supported businesses and sub-contractors must pay employees $10.67 per hour and benefits. The security officers at the Philadelphia Museum are paid $10.16 per hour. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, though it receives $2.5 million from the City of Philadelphia, roughly two-thirds of what the museum spends on security, the resources are considered a general contribution.

"Although there are currently efforts under way to amend the zoning code, the role of the board is to enforce the current zoning code." -Susan Jaffe, Chair, Zoning Board of Adjustments (Link)

Yesterday, with a commonsense quote that was for too long absent in our City, the Zoning Board followed the law, and rejected Unisys' application for their stupid sign on Two Liberty Place. I don't particularly care about their sign, but I don't like being bullied by a company that thinks they have the City over a barrel, and think it will only make other businesses a)angry and b)think about what they can extract from a City. And, I like that we have laws that are actually followed.

First, on the bullying: I disagree with Brett Mandel about our priorities as we try to create good jobs and a better life in our City, but he and Inga Saffron are exactly right with this:

The real trouble with the Unisys sign is the ambiguous message it sends about Philadelphia. The company has cleverly played into local insecurities by suggesting that a refusal is evidence the city isn't a business-friendly place, and has vowed to break its lease unless the sign is approved. But others will read different meanings into that sign.

Like Philadelphia sells itself cheap. Or bullies get their way.

Tax reformer Brett Mandel, of Philadelphia Forward, argues that special deals "create resentment and anger among those firms we have to retain." Imagine what went through the minds of Cigna execs when they learned they would be occupying the Unisys building. The best way to prove the city is a good home for corporations, he says, is to make sure the rules are transparent, equitable and affordable for all.

Second, not only was Unisys going to get something that would piss other people off and make us look like we are afraid to stand up for ourselves, but, the only way they were going to get it was if the Zoning Board ignored the law, as it has done so many times before. The Zoning Board's job is to enforce the zoning code. Changes to that law are coming, but should stem from our elected officials, not a group of five people no one knows about, who do what they please.

Remember, the Zoning Board ignoring the law has consequences. For example:

• Philadelphia passed a law that banned new billboards in the City, and the Board appointed by Billboard-Industry-backed Rendell and Street simply granted variances, every single time. Who cares if a law was passed? We needed our billboards.
• Or, for the longest time, even if you had a legitimate hardship to be approved by the Zoning Board, the only way you got anything don't was if you agreed to put in central air conditioning, because of the power of the sheet metal workers. Want to build affordable housing in Philly? Well, set aside a little cash, because folks need their AC! Who cared if that made no sense.
• Or, think certain neighborhoods should be designated historic, with restrictions on what can be built in them? Not in the old days of the Zoning Board, where then Zoning chair David Auspitz decided that, besides knowing how to make a pretty good Turkey club sandwich, he also had the expertise and power to decide what went where, the laws of our City be damned.

Say what you want about City Council- and I say plenty- but, they are still are a fairly responsive group of people, who can be swayed by public action (see: Casinos). I would much rather them making the law than an unknown, unaccountable group of people on the Zoning Board.

This ruling is a step in the right direction.

I.O.U.S.A. – The Horror, The Horror of Our Mounting Debt.

The former General behind I.O.U.S.A. wants you to know that China could soon have us by the, uh, bank account. The General, David Walker – Comptroller General, that is – and director of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), is on a mission. His message: current fiscal policies are out of control and unsustainable over the long-term (e.g. baby boomers + increasing longevity + rising healthcare costs = Medicare insolvency sooner than you think).

The 85 minute documentary (and watching it definitely beats reading about this stuff) is a crash course in what Walkers calls the “four deficits” that are responsible for our debt - budget, savings, trade and leadership.

It’s narrated by Walker, whose monotone voice is first dry and boring, but soon grows on you, as he travels the country on the "Fiscal Wake-Up Tour," speaking to rotary clubs, town halls and the media (included is a priceless critique of local news). On tour, Walker is accompanied by Robert Bixby, Executive Director of the Concord Coalition an organization dedicated to educating the public about our national debt. Throughout the film, Bixby provides humor that highlights enormity of their mission.

Intermixed with scenes from the tour are sobering interviews with an array of former economic leaders like Alan Greenspan and Treasury Secretaries Richard E. Rubin and Paul O'Neil, the latter providing a blunt picture of White House (read: Office of the Vice President) workings. Because no documentary about fiscal solvency would be complete without pie charts and bar graphs, I.O.U.S.A. has them too, here in an understandable fashion that also provides a rich historical overview. And it's the history of economic policy such as the specific threat that ended the British Empire and Bush's "voodoo economics" critique of Reagan that I most enjoyed in this film.

The movie opens with the Jaws theme song, really getting viewers on edge and awaiting their pending doom (ok, I'm making this up). It opens with the 60 Minutes interview of Walker and for those of us who have already seen this segment, fear not, it doesn't stay here too long. Interviews with random kids in America's heartland and young professionals in New York City provide a lighthearted assessment of what the average citizen knows about our debt, not enough.

I.O.U.S.A., loosely based on the book Empire of Debt by William Bonner and Addison Wiggin, documents the struggle for fiscal solvency to burrow into America's consciousness. One particularly poignant scene occurs when the University of Pennsylvania student group, Concerned Youth of America, posts a flyer for their next meeting on a large bulletin board. The board is soon covered with the colored flyers of other student groups, drowning the flyer and the issue in sea of other student events and activities.

As I.O.U.S.A. winds down, I keep hoping for some good news, a resolution, or just Roy Schneider with a rifle. I want to walk out feeling good. But I don't.

Walker and others seem determined to march forward as the Paul Reveres for ours and future generations. Their next stop on the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour is the University of Pennsylvania on the evening of October 14th. See the film, or don't, but join me as we start to write its resolution (and be sure to invite your Congressperson, their district office staff and legislative director).

Rep. Schwartz (215) 517-6572
Rep. Murphy (215) 348-1194, who deserves some kudos for having the "Debt clock" on his website.
Rep. Fattah (215) 387-6404
Rep. Brady (215) 389-4627
Rep. Sestak (610) 892-8623

Philadelphian's have expressed their moral values for the way that we expect workers to be treated when City Council passed the Living Wage Ordinance. The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) has taken more than $10 million in tax payer money and many millions more in donated facilities. Despite the museums reliance on the support of Philadelphians, the PMA leaders scoff at the moral values expressed by the Living Wage Ordinance. The PMA is using your tax money to harm workers. This Labor Day, stand up to the PMA with the POWR campaign.

How to stop the police from fatally shooting the mentally ill? The plan seems to be to switch to tasers.

The Philadelphia Police Department has begun issuing Tasers to some officers. Up to a dozen officers who completed a training program are carrying the electrical stun guns. ....

Healy calls the Tasers "just an additional tool." Police also carry pepper spray and batons. Officials hope to have about 160 officers trained in the program by the end of 2008.

There's a history of the Philadelphia police shooting and killing people in the throes of mental breakdown or crisis. While the shootings may be legally justified, they are tragic and potentially avoidable. In 2004, the Christian Science Monitor reported on the issue, highlighting Philadelphia. And in 2007, after the police shot and killed Charles Kelley ("the deranged 26-year-old man lunged at them with a knife, yelling, 'Kill me! Kill me!' - an apparent case, say advocates for the mentally ill, of suicide by cop"), Jill Porter wrote about seven such shootings from the past seven years.

She also reported that Philadelphia was finally responding to requests for a specially-trained 'crisis intervention team' (a model that had worked in Memphis, Tennessee) with a pilot program.

"We spent years meeting with police, being stymied and stonewalled by [former Police Commissioner John Timoney] and everyone else," said Sister Mary Scullion of Project Home. "They did not want to deal with it." ....

The CIT program will be piloted in some of the city's most dangerous streets: the East Police Division, which includes North Philadelphia and Kensington.

About 100 officers will be trained so one of them will be available "no matter what shift, day or night," said Carolyn Ulmer, manager of acute services for the city's Department of Behavioral Health, which has worked with police and other agencies to develop the program.

Last month, 911 operators completed training to help them identify when an emergency call might involve someone who's mentally ill.

If so, a CIT officer would be among those sent to the scene and "take the lead role" in handling the incident, Ulmer said.

If the pilot succeeds, it will be expanded to the rest of the department.

Hopefully this is continuing and will be expanded. Today's AP article about the PPD's adoption of tasers only mentioned a still-limited training effort:

Officials sifted through prison data on inmates who had mental health issues and decided to focus training on de-escalation techniques and tactics in three police districts in North Philadelphia.

Lt. Fran Healy says the specially trained officers will use Tasers as a less than lethal use of force during potentially violent encounters, especially with people in "mental crisis."

Yet the 2004 shooting of Julio Morais shows how persistant is the need for a thorough and widespread training program for the city police:

Julio Morais, 57, was killed by a single shot to the head after he allegedly struggled with officers who had come to his apartment to help social workers commit him to a mental hospital.

Police officials said a member of the department's SWAT team opened fire only after an initial attempt to subdue Morais with an electric stun gun failed, and then only when Morais lunged at the officers with a knife. One officer was slashed in the hand.

Clearly tasers alone can't solve the problem. The Christian Science Monitor reported that basic normal policing strategies may need to be set aside in interacting with mentally ill people:

People on both sides agree these individuals can be as dangerous to the public and police officers as rational criminals. But advocates say different police tactics could greatly reduce the likelihood of violence.

Much of what police officers are trained to do in dealing with rational criminals is dangerously wrong when it comes to the mentally ill, said Ron Honberg, legal director of the National Association for the mentally ill.

"Closing in on someone, sending out a SWAT team - these are prescriptions for disaster," he says. When officers "learn to keep their distance and talk soothingly, it significantly cuts down the chance of escalation."

And de-institutionalization combined with persistant shortage of adequate mental health care raises the likelihood these situations will arise:

[M]ore mentally ill people are on the streets than ever before - 500,000 more today than there were in the 1960s, when it was easier to commit them to institutions, says James Fyfe, deputy commissioner for training with the New York Police Department. Mr. Fyfe says NYPD dispatchers take a call from an emotionally disturbed person, or an EDP in police lingo, every 7.3 minutes.

Check out this collection of recent articles about the MOVE 9. Through journalists for Mumia, I helped in the campaign to grant parole (starting a petition and sample letter for the parole board) via move9parole.blogspot.com and was very disaapointed with the denial. Also, check out this video I made.

Pam and Ramona Africa in Detroit II MOVE Still Looking For Philadelphia Justice II Tragedy at Powelton

On Friday afternoon, the City committed to produce electronic election results for all to see. In her interview with Mike Dunn of KYW, City Solicitor Shelley Smith already said they were going to do this, but, it sure is nice to see it in writing:

The City is currently developing a system to allow the public access to a hosted website where election results will be provided. The plan for the next election in November is to provide near real time summary results and the ability to drill down into election details (ward-by-ward, division-by-division, etc) on this hosted website. Polling data and returns should be updated approximately every 10 to 15 minutes as the returns are verified by the City Commissioners. Furthermore, there will be a link on both the City of Philadelphia's main homepage and the City Commissioner's homepage directing interested users to this hosted website.

And, those treasured passwords will become largely useless for the average person, and will now be strictly restricted:

The system for which you request access to is only equipped to handle 150-200 users at one time. Going forward, access will be strictly limited to employees of the City Commissioners and the personnel from the Department of State. These employees will use the internal system to provide needed returns and data to both the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the new hosted site (explained in detail below). No passwords for this internal system will be provided to anyone outside of this group.

That makes sense, especially from a security perspective.

So, given what they have committed to doing, and the new role passwords will have, the City has en masse denied all the requests for passwords. If you want to appeal, instructions are in the letter. My unsolicited advice though, is to let it be, because this is clearly happening. Yes, there is always a chance something could get screwed up. But, I feel pretty confident that this will all happen. (Next push from an interested party who wants to make a difference: Historical results.)

There are some people in this whole thing who have been really helpful. First, thanks to Jim Kenney, the only Councilperson to quickly respond when this whole saga began, for his help behind the scenes. Having the Mayor jump in was A-OK, too. And, Shelley Smith, the City Solicitor, came out on the side of open government, and forced the hand of the Commissioners, by granting my original appeal. They could have made this harder on us than they did. So, to our friends in the City Solicitor’s Office, sorry for being collective pains in the ass. I wish I could say this is the last you will have to deal with us. But, somehow, I doubt it.

And, of course, a lot of credit for this has to go to Ed Goppelt of Hallwatch. Ed was opening up Philly government before it was cool.

But, most of all, to the 400 or so people who requested passwords, pat yourselves on the back. Publishing election returns will not end poverty in Philadelphia. It will not fix the schools. Hey, for that matter, it won’t bring our troops home from Iraq, either. But it is a basic function of government that should be provided, yet hasn’t been. By November, it appears that will change.

Fellow Liberal Drinkers-

As most of you surely know, this coming Thursday is both the next scheduled meeting of DL: Mount Airy + the night when Barack Obama officially accepts the Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. As such, DL is joining up with Sen. Obama's Philadelphia campaign offices to watch the convention at North by Northwest, 7165 Germantown Ave.

The event officially begins at 5:00 PM, is expected to start picking up at around 7:00 PM (which is, conveniently enough, the usual time when we start imbibing), and Sen. Obama is set to accept the nomination at ~ 10:00 PM. We're hoping for a good turnout, from Liberal Drinkers, Obama volunteers (I suspect that this list will overlap considerably, as it does in my case), and for newcomers as well.

This year's graduating class of the Individualized Master of Arts program at Goddard College, VT, proudly invited Mumia Abu-Jamal to be the keynote speaker of their commencement this past Sunday, August 10th 2008. It was a unanimous decision made by all of the graduates to invite Abu-Jamal, alumni of the college, to shed his wisdom and insight as a renowned journalist, freedom-fighter, and scholar. Watch video of introduction / Listen to full speech

Republicans are brilliant at running dirty and negative campaigns. Now they are running ads quoting negative things Hillary and Biden have said about Obama. There are a plethora of like comments Republicans have made about McCain. We need to reply. Videography is a hobby and this is my response, which is now posted on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvr7xjYa5_g

I woke up today to find, like many of you, that Barack Obama had picked Joe Biden as his running mate. My general reaction is 'eh.' Biden consistently does the biddin' of MBNA and First USA, and was one of the main stooges pushing through the idiocy of the bankruptcy bill. But, he can be funny, and his 'noun, verb, 9/11' take down of Giuliani was classic, and will be needed again in a race against a campaign that says their guy can't remember the number of houses he owns because... he was a POW.

And, Biden is better than Evan Bayh or Tim Kaine. And, he sort of reminds me of a grandfather, a la what Tim said. So, OK, I will take him.

Anyway, I log on to Philly.com this morning, and one of the headlines right underneath the Biden story is a turd piece of 'analysis' by the ultimate hack of the Associated Press, Ron Fournier. Seriously, the article is high comedy.

Look at these 'balanced' stuff, which looks like it is straight from the McCain campaign:

Analysis: Biden pick shows lack of confidence

...In picking Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate, Barack Obama sought to shore up his weakness , inexperience in office and on foreign policy , rather than underscore his strength as a new-generation candidate defying political conventions.

.....

The picks say something profound about Obama: For all his self-confidence, the 47-year-old Illinois senator worried that he couldn't beat Republican John McCain without help from a seasoned politician willing to attack. The Biden selection is the next logistical step in an Obama campaign that has become more negative , a strategic decision that may be necessary but threatens to run counter to his image.

Profound about Obama, or profound about the author? Wait, there is more:

A senior Obama adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said his boss has expressed impatience with what he calls a "reverence" inside his campaign for his message of change and new politics. In other words, Obama is willing , even eager , to risk what got him this far if it gets him to the White House.

Good one, Ron! But, he does say something nice things about Biden!

Biden brings a lot to the table....

....So the question is whether Biden's depth counters Obama's inexperience , or highlights it?

It goes on from there, too.

Oh, on a totally unrelated note, John McCain offered Fournier a job, a fact that Fournier never disclosed. And, oh by the way, Fournier was found to have sent Karl Rove an email telling him to 'keep up the fight.' Oh, and by the way, Fournier blatantly repeats lies about Democrats, like that Al Gore invented the internet. Oh, and by the way, when he is not slobbering over McCain, he is calling Obama arrogant, and the Clintons utterly self-absorbed.

Dear Philly.Com, I see the hack piece is off of the front page. Please do us a favor, and never run this jackass' 'analysis' again.