Video and Photo-essay: At The Liberty Bell for Mumia on July 4

--"Fourth of You Lie" protest exposes hypocrisy of Independence Day

by Hans Bennett

VIEW PHOTOS HERE

I thought I would update everyone on where things stand with the crazy notion of letting everyone see election results online.

First, a month or so ago, I appealed the City's decision to deny me a password- the decision that gave us the magical 150 person limit for viewing electronic returns. (The appeal was with the Solicitor; next step was to Court.) In that appeal I also requested additional information, including how much the City charges for access to election results, how they decide who gets passwords for free, public notice they have put out to let people know that they can ask for a password to view results, and a list of who has these magical 150 passwords.

The City broke down my request into two streams: My new request for information from the Commissioners' Office, and my appeal of the initial decision.

The first response I got back was about the new pieces of information, and largely refused to answer my questions, including how much they actually charge. However, the one piece of information they did provide was the one piece I thought they would not: a list of who has these passwords. That is mostly what the Daily News focused on: the people who have access to voting returns, while the average citizen does not. And yes, it is pretty bizarre that they deny an average citizen access to results, while giving Fumo's Office ten of 150 passwords.

Then, late last week, on the same day the Daily News story came out, the Solicitor responded to and granted my appeal, and ruled that the Commissioners Office had to give me a password.

So, the bottom line is, I have a password and you don't. Suckers! Now, I am done with this whole annoying ordeal. But, in positive news for you all, I will rent access to the password for ten dollars a day, plus four chocolate chip cookies.

Anyway, I used the magical password to log in, to see what all the fuss was about. It took about two seconds to see what the problem was/is. Basically, those 150 passwords are for users to log into the actual voting system software. No one in the public needs that- we just need them to export the data so that the public can see it. I also asked YPP user ELP to take a look at it, knowing he is a computer guy. And, as I assumed he would, ELP quickly came up with a number of fixes. Additionally, in terms of whether this is all feasible for the City to do, he pointed me to this, from the website of the company the City uses, describing the benefits of their product:

- Easy to export results to other media or systems including the World Wide Web.

Um, right.

So, where do we go from here? Well, that is coming. The granting of the appeal was an important step, but in reality, just a small one. At the end of the day, we still don't yet have public access to the results. I will have more on how you can help very soon.

Today, July 8, in Washington and about 50 cities around the country, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Erie, a new movement for health care reform will be born, Health Care for America Now! (HCAN).

The Philadelphia HCAN kickoff will be held at 1 pm in the Caucus Room (Room 401), at City Hall. Confirmed speakers include

• Liz McElroy, political director, AFL-CIO Central Labor Council.
• Randy Barge a Presbyterian minister and board member of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project.
• Carolyn Banks, a member of Acorn who has had issues related to access to health care.
• David Grande, MD, of National Physician’s Alliance

We have invited the members of City Council, and Philadelphia State house and Senate members.

Check out this new article on Mumia's appeal filed today with the US Third Circuit Court. Lindorff concludes his article with strong suppport for the merits of the newly discovered crime scene photos that Journalists for Mumia has been working hard to publicize. You can view 4 of the photos at Abu-Jamal-News.com and also see our You Tube video about the photos, with coverage of our press conference that Lindorff spoke at

http://thiscantbehappening.net/?q=node/171

AP news reports in advance of a press conference today. Seemed coincidentally timed given the trajectory of this thread last week.

Thanks to all out organizing and pressure from the Philadelphia Neigborhood Alliance and Casino Free Philadelphia, it looks like two Sugarhouse and Foxwoods will be forced to move. Gov. Rendell has now joined Vince Fumo and Dwight Evans in telling Sugarhouse and Foxwoods that they have to move. When the Governor (the long time backer of bringing Casinos to Philly and PA) and Fumo (whose office wrote the bill) are telling these guys to move, you know they are in trouble.

And so, Fishtown and South Philly are saved from the potential devastation that a Casino can bring.

But...

Where now?

It still doesn't make sense to put a Casino in East Falls (or anywhere in Philadelphia, for that matter). It still doesn't make sense to kill potential developments at the Navy Yard with a windowless slot barn. Where the hell are these things going to go, and what is going to be done to make sure that the next neighborhood that is 'selected' truly wants a Casino there?

From a technical perspective, where do we go from here? Another set of hearings with the gaming review board?

And, after spending 2 years assuming that Casinos were going to go elsewhere, how do we protect neighborhoods that didn't think they would have to organize anymore (or ever) against these behemoths? The worst possible outcome is that as a result of this pressure, there is simply a backroom deal that puts the Casinos in two new neighborhoods, where the tried and true divide-and-conquer approach will be taken with community groups to grease the skids of casinos.

So, Casino Free Philadelphia, Philadelphia Neighborhood Alliance, Bill Green and others: What is going to happen to make sure that mistakes are not repeated, and new Philly neighborhoods are not damaged? Where do we go from here?

Finally, someone is helping orgs in Philly become more tech savvy.

Promoting an organization's agenda in the 21st century takes an internet presence. But, how does an organization on a shoestring budget get its information on the internet? With the ongoing Internet evolution, organizations have more tools at their fingertips than ever before to accomplish this required self-promotion.

For more information, visit the Technically Speaking B-spot

In an unprecedented development that has shocked the entire Philadelphia political establishment, freshman City Council at Large member Bill Green has been sent down to the minors.

Green will serve on the Allentown City Council at least for the month of September. If all goes well for him there, Green is expected to return to the “show,” the Philadelphia City Council, no earlier than the beginning of October but probably towards the end of that month.

While this is an unusual move, Philadelphia politicos quickly understood the logic of it. “Like a lot of rookies, Green suffers from a problem with both his confidence and his mechanics,” one long time observer of Philadelphia politics pointed out.

Harrisburg – Late on July 3, 2008, Senator Vincent Fumo and House Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans held a press conference announcing a meeting with Governor Ed Rendell aimed at relocating the proposed casinos in Philadelphia. The Senate and House leaders vowed that if the casinos are not moved, they will introduce legislation that will make the gaming institutions ineligible to receive Philadelphia's ten-year tax abatement, valued in the tens of millions of dollars.

Wow folks -- what a victory for people fighting to make sure that we get casinos moved out of any Philadelphia neighborhood that doesn't want them --

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20080704_Evans__Fumo_give_casinos_a...

House Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans and State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo said at a news conference that they would draft legislation to remove the casinos' tax breaks if they did not abandon their proposed sites on the Delaware River waterfront.

The locations, which were decided upon 21/2 years ago, are "untenable and contrary to the public interest," the Democrats said in a statement.

"We are sending a message to citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that we are trying to fix the problem," said Evans, joined by nine Philadelphia-area lawmakers in addition to Fumo. "We didn't think it would be the problem it is today, but it has created tension for people in the community as well as politically."

Donna Brazile, nationally known political analyst and campaign manager of Al Gore’s 2000 presidential bid, will be the guest speaker at the Pennsylvania Association for Justice (PaAJ) Retreat’s concluding luncheon on Saturday July 12th. As a weekly contributor and political commentator on CNN, a columnist for Roll Call Newspaper and a contributing writer for Ms. Magazine, Brazile will be discussing and sharing her insight into the 2008 Presidential election. The luncheon will be from 12:30 to 2 p.m. at the Sofitel Hotel in Center City, Philadelphia. The event is being sponsored by Consulting Engineers & Scientists, Inc., Citizens Bank, Reliable Copy Services, the PaAJ Women’s Committee and the Women’s Rights Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Cost is $85 for PaAJ and AAJ members (which is included in the retreat package) and $100 for non-members.

Phone: 215.546.6451 x101

Our effort to bring the City Commissioners into the 21st Century has hit the Daily News:

Philadelphia taxpayers have spent $20 million over the last five years to upgrade the city's voting machinery, permitting a rapid, computerized vote count on election night.

But the general public has little to show for it.

On election night, there's no public access to the vote count. News organizations pay hundreds of dollars to the city to see voting returns on a password-protected Internet site. But dozens of political VIPs get election-night access for free.

The three city commissioners, in charge of the city election machinery, have been providing free Internet passwords to a group of public officials, political-party bigwigs and others with the right connections.

On the night of the April 22 primary election, they got to see unofficial, ward-by-ward returns - information that the city commissioners still have not posted on their public Web site, more than two months after the election.

State Sen. Vincent Fumo got 10 free passwords - at least twice as many as he needed, according to his office. Councilman Jim Kenney got five and attorney Kevin Greenberg, who represents the commissioners in a federal voting-rights case, got six.

John Dougherty, the electricians union leader who ran to replace Fumo in the Senate, got one free password, and the union's political director, Bobby Henon, got two.

And the Commissioners tell us, that jeez, its hard to put these things online:

"It's not as easy as it sounds," said Deputy City Commissioner Renee Tartaglione, daughter of commissioners' chairwoman, Margaret Tartaglione.

She said that the city's vote-counting equipment, manufactured by Danaher Controls, allows Internet access to no more than 150 people at once, requiring the city to limit the number of passwords it provides.

"That's a really, really goofy excuse," replied Urevick-Ackelsberg. "You could pay a [tech-savvy] kid $12 an hour to come up with a fix to that limit, just taking those results and spitting them out onto a public Web site."

150 passwords. Ten Passwords for Fumo, none for you... That is the thing: Not only is it a goofy excuse, it sort of misses the point. Because if you are looking for a section of law that says 'ol Vince and Co. should have super duper special access to our elections, keep looking, because it doesn't exist.

As the article notes, Jim Kenney has a bunch of those passwords, too. To his credit, Jim has been the only person in office to try and help us. I sent my first request to a million different politicians, and most people didn't bother to respond. He did, within a day. His office talked to Marge and Co., and found out about the magical 150 number. And he offered to get us whatever numbers we needed. While his offer of help was most appreciated, seeing election returns really should not have to fall under a constituent service.

We will have more later today, including the letter the Commissioner's Office sent me (where they would not even tell me how much they charge), and the magical list of passwords they gave out. We will also have a way that anyone who is interested in this can help force their hand. In fact, members of Philly for Change started that process just last night.

Fellow Liberal Drinkers-

Come one, come all, and come thirsty to the Mermaid Inn (7673 Germantown Ave.) Thurs. at 7:00 and kick off the 4th of July a few hours early with your favorite liberal friends. Provide yourself with reinforcement of your liberal understanding that the Declaration of Independence is one of the best liberal statements of principle in human history. And get ammo to shove in the faces of conservatives who try to tell you that the US is a fundamentally conservative nation, rather than the inherently revolutionary one it was and needs to be again.

Drink to Democracy!
-Z