1) Dan McQuade has a new weekly column in the Philly Weekly, focused on the idiocy of the drug war. There are few policies stupider than the drug war, so I think this could be a really valuable addition to the media discussion.

In his first week, he talks about how goofy it is that we have those shots of cops 'celebrating' their big drug busts, when we know that within a week or two, there will be just as many drugs out on the street:

In essence, if the Philadelphia police seize 748 pounds of cocaine, 748 more pounds will soon be on its way into Philadelphia. ”By the end of two weeks, there will be little evidence left at all that a record–sized drug bust ever occurred, other than the police records and the past media reports,” David Borden, founder and director of the Drug War Resource Network, writes.

One thing I hope he covers is the total cost of the drug war to the City- from police to incarceration, etc. There are very few things that could magically put the city in a better fiscal position than ending this bizarrely stupid policy.

2) In an article after my own heart, the School District has closed down two failing Germantown Charter schools. This is the first time the district has shut charter schools down due to underperformance, and likely is long overdue. One of the schools was run by Germantown Settlement, the amorphous Germantown CDC writ large, that sucks up Germantown development money, and is part and parcel of the Donna Miller machine. Given how poorly Germantown Settlement does so much, the school underperforming is not surprising. Now, what about the other charters in Philly that are basically little fiefdoms of politicians and political groups?

There are some charters that seem to be doing very well. But too many were given to people who don't really appear to have any experience actually, you know, running schools. If the School District is serious about closing down underperforming charters, I suspect many of the little fiefdom schools will be closed.

3) Inveterate racist, and Geno's Steaks owner, Joey Vento wants an apology from the City, and a meeting with Mike Nutter. Additionally, he is threatening to sue the City- using a right-wing think tank from Atlanta- to change our anti-discrimination laws.

Just a reminder to anyone in the City thinking about meeting with Vento, are his statements like these:

[Illegal Hispanics] are killing, like, 25 of us a day … molesting about eight children a day … All we’re getting is drug dealers and murderers.”

......

What else is going on?

...The Republicans.

I think the Philly Democratic Party does so much wrong. An insular culture, a stodgy political system and City government that all too many perceive that is tailored to provide for the connected (with some obvious pieces of truth to that perception.) Then, there is the council member and others in jail, the special coronations elections, ridiculous retribution for someone daring to run for office... I could go on, but, if you have read the blog before, then you have heard this all before.

But, I just thought that for a one day, it is worthwhile to point out what total losers the Philadelphia GOP are.

(And, sorry if you think that is harsh, but yes, they are big time losers. (I am not anti-GOP! Some of my best friends are members of the Philly GOP! Or, I dated a member of the Philly GOP!)

For a second, let’s just examine two of the more visible leaders of the Philly GOP, John Perzel, and Mayoral Candidate Al Taubenberger.

First, John Perzel... As I have tried to detail with a bunch of "Premption and its Discontents" posts, Perzel loves to take away the power of the City government. Over the course of his career, he also has displayed what amounts to be an ideological opposition to the Philadelphia Public School System. Those things came together, when he yanked the Parking Authority away from the City (because clearly parking and traffic and those things are not something City government should do) with the promise to send millions upon millions of dollars to Philly schools. Instead, he greatly expanded the bloated patronage at the PPA, gave a GOP ward leader a salary bigger than the Mayor, and gave the schools one payment, which was the product of an accounting trick. Helen's post below, where talks about the effort of a coalition of public school parents, taxi drivers and others, to get the Parking Authority to open up its books.)

Second, who else is deeply involved in the PPA patronage machine? Old Al Taubenberger, the 'lovable' candidate for for Mayor from the GOP. Al and Mike Nutter have been waging a friendly campaign thus far, because Taubenberger has little money to attack Nutter anyway. From reading newspaper accounts or watching debates, you would think Al would be something akin to a lovable Uncle. But...

Al showed his true stripes last week, when he went for a photo-op at Geno’s with Rudy Giuliani and inveterate racist Joey Vento.

And, lets get this out of the way: If there is any question that Vento is just an out and out racist, then one might ask him why a guy from Philly has confederate tattoos? Is that about the heritage? Or, someone should ask Al whether he supports statements like this from Vento:

[Illegal Hispanics] are killing, like, 25 of us a day … molesting about eight children a day … All we’re getting is drug dealers and murderers.

What Al seemed oblivious to was that Rudy Giuliani was not trying to appeal to Philly voters when he went to Geno's. He was appealing to the xenophobic wing of the GOP, who doesn't think he has been harsh enough on immigrants. In fact, when he was Mayor, Giuliani was actually somewhat understanding about the plight of immigrants. See, when you run a largely Democratic City, you sort of have to be. I guess Al doesn't get that, and apparently thinks that the way he is going to become Mayor is by supporting xenophobic idiots. If I was someone concerned with growing the Philly GOP, I might suggest to kindly old Al that hanging out with idiots like that is not exactly a party building exercise.

Philly has changed a lot in the last 30 years. Support for thinly coded racism just ain’t going to cut it.

Now, don’t even get me started on Jack Kelly, Frank Rizzo and David-I-am-endorsed-by-progressive-and-LGBT-groups-but-I-can't-remember-them-right-now-Oh.