[cross-posted from Philly ADA]

By now, hopefully you've seen the video. You've seen Gov. Palin talking about how bold he is. About how he exhorted the lord to "make a way." You've seen him lay his hands on her and ask the lord to protect her from witchcraft.

Pastor Muthee rose to prominence after he declared a woman in the town of Kiambu to be a witch. As reported by the London Times,

after Pastor Muthee declared Mama Jane a witch, the townspeople became suspicious and began to turn on her, demanding that she be stoned. Public outrage eventually led the police to raid her home, where they fired gunshots, killing a pet python which they believed to be a demon.

All of which brought him fame and fortune and ten speaking engagements at the Wasilla Assembly of God. It was during one of those sermons that he presided over Sarah Palin who was about to embark on her gubernatorial run.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO MAKE OUR CITY SAFE?

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of Americans for Democratic Action will host a forum to address the question of what can be done to curb violence and make Philadelphia safe for everyone.

The forum will be held on Saturday, April 26th, 10 am to 12 noon, at the First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.

Featured speaker will be new Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, who will be joined by a panel that will include Bilal Qayyum from Men United for a Better Philadelphia, Dorothy Johnson Speight, or another representative from Mothers in Charge, and Bryan Miller from CeaseFire PA.

Daily News Columnist Elmer Smith will moderate.

Not to divert too much attention for Barack and Hillary but we've still got some local races going on in Philly including that whole race in the first senatorial district.

Speaking of which, the Philadelphia ADA has received in the last week completed questionnaires from the Farnese and Dicker campaigns. The PhillyADA has posted their responses on our blog - http://phillyada.org.

So click on over and check em out. For the PFCers in the house, their responses may be of interest as I think tonight's meeting at Tritone has something to do with candidate endorsements.

Maybe one of these days the Philly ADA will get a response back from the Obama and Clinton camps...

(paging Seth Williams - copies of the Philly ADA 2008 Candidate Questionnaire can be downloaded from http://www.phillyada.org/blog/ADA_2008_Candidate_Questionnaire.doc)

I just wanted to suggest to people to check out the Philadelphia ADA's blog. The PhillyADA will be posting on our blog the responses we receive from announced to our candidate questionnaire.

Our first response to the questionnaire was posted today. It is from Christian DiCicco who is running as a Democrat for State Representative in the 184th District.

Here's a link to his responses: http://www.phillyada.org/blog/?q=node/6

And in case you are wondering, here's a link to the Philly ADA 2008 Candidate Questionnaire: http://www.phillyada.org/blog/?q=node/5.

Building on a theme that Jennifer has been exploring of late - the treatment of prisoners in City jails and the U.S. prison system generally, I thought I'd share with the YPP community a link to an NPR segment that aired this morning. In the segment titled "U.S. Grapples with Holding Iraqi Detainees," Corey Flintoff explores the issue of the U.S. military's management of Iraqi detention centers.

I was struck by what I felt to be the particularly progressive viewpoint expressed by representatives the U.S. military responsible for management of the detention centers. Introducing Brigadier General Michael Nevin, Corey Flintoff explains that the General "believes that basic education is one of the key to returning former Iraqi militants to Iraqi society."