philly

New Kids on Dem Block

Headline writers... Can't live with them, can't live without them.

That's the headline of an article in today's Daily News. I'm in it. It's about the young progressive movement going on here in Philly. And if you actually buy the paper for 60¢, you'll be treated to a pic of me, Hannah and Chris. Puzzling why Philly.com doesn't post all the photos that make it into the paper, maybe that's just the premium for the paper version. Aside from my own ego pumping, there is some juicy stuff in there.

Chris noted how we've come across quite a bit of pushback

We have received significant and very disturbing pushbacks from city committee... It's extremely counterproductive when you consider that a vast majority of what we're doing is challenging for seats where no one is doing anything.

Lucey [the writer] asked Congressman Bob Brady, the Philadelphia Democratic party chairman, about the pushback and he had this to say:

I'm not aware of it, nor am I concerned about it... Everybody has the right to run.

That's really funny. REALLY FUCKING FUNNY. Why? Because I remember being passed a few letters via a friend. One of them from the desk of Bob Brady, on Philadelphia Democratic Executive Committee letterhead and all that stated:

It has come to my attention that there is an organized effort to file petitions to become a Democratic committee person in many wards in the city. It is clear that this effort has been started by forces that seek to polarize and destroy this party. I strongly urge you to oppose their efforts. I suggest that you immediately notify me at City Committee of the divisions where this has occurred. I will have the petition reviewed to determine if it is defective. If it is, I will assist you in filing a petition with the Common Pleas Court to have the person stricken from the ballot on behalf of your designated candidate in that division.

We are a family united. As your leader and friend, I will fight to make sure we remain united.

I will also prepare withdrawal slips for these individuals that filed and I will try to have them withdrawn.

Does he not recall the letter he wrote and signed on March 8, 2005? It's shit like this that makes Hannah's words ring so true:

The Democratic Party will wither and die unless active people get involved.

I know of much nastier stuff going on than a simple letter.

And the ending of the story is just priceless with a quote from Terry Gillen, 30th ward leader. She sent out a letter of her own in defense of the sitting committeepeople which said, in part:

I wanted to pass along a letter from the Chairman of our Democratic Party, Bob Brady. He is concerned that many committeeperson throughout the City are being challenged by outsiders who are trying to created division within the Democratic Party and within some of our wards and divisions. I personally believe that some of the people who are doing this are working hand in hand with the republican [sic] Party.

This week, some committeepeople may receive a notice that their petition is being challenged in court. If you receive this notice, let me assure you that Bob and I and the Democratic Party will go to court and fight to make sure that you can run for reelection. Democratic Party lawyers will argue your case for free in order to keep your name on the ballot. We will do this because we all need to stick together and fight these people who want to divide us.

Let me know as soon as soon as possible if you receive a legal challenge of if you believe that someone is trying to remove your name from the ballot.

If we stick together we can stay strong. We won't play into the Republicans' hands and allow anyone to divide us!

The story ended with this:

What I hope doesn't happen is you have people knocking off longtime committeepeople and then dropping out in two years because it's boring.

It seems that she has failed to notice how her us are the ones who are now bored with the job and not doing a thing now. That's why we're running. The Party is broken here in Philadelphia. It is rotting from the inside out. I'm proud to say that I'm part of the fresh blood that wants to gut this rotting tree and plant a new forest of progressive change.

To think that people running for committeeperson are doing it for shits and giggles and aren't really committed to the job is such fucking bullshit. Who wants to take on another job wich pays nothing; takes up a good chunk of time in election cycles; is the first contact from the private citizens; and did I mention this is basically a volunteer gig which pays nothing? Committeepeople are almost a free customer service department for the city. Don't like the pothole on your block? Walk up to your committeeperson in the grocery store and tell them. A stop sign fall down? Knock on your committeeperson's door and tell them. Need help trying to get a cutout in a sidewalk? Let your committeeperson know and s/he'll send it up the ladder. What crazy fucks want that job? Crazy fucks like me. And crazy fucks like me have more crazy friends who are also running. Thank you everyone who is are committed to and running for change: Chris, Danie, Sabra, Marc, Stephanie, Andrea, Robin, Hannah, Sam...

65% Geek

While reading the Merecat nanoblog [the miniblog in the sidebar], I saw his post on his nerd/geek/dork-iness. I had to take the test. I've always thought of myself as a geek [in my head, the geek is way cooler than the nerd or dork - a pseudo king of the AV kids if you will].

52% Nerd, 65% Geek, 26% Dork
From the test:

For The Record:
A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd.

Nerds didn't use to be cool, but in the 90's that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn't quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and "geek is chic." The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)!

And no, I didn't type in those percentages wrong, apparently I just add up to 143% human.

So Much Walking

I walked around so much on Saturday. Five hours up in Mt. Airy and then another two hours around Center City and West Philly.

I spent the late morning and afternoon up in Mt. Airy doing some canvassing for Chuck Pennacchio with four other volunteers. Danie posted her take on the outing on the Pennacchio blog here. I'll get my thoughts up in the afternoon. For the most part, people had not made up their minds as to who they'd vote for and were glad to see some people going door to door informing their neighborhood.

I got back to Center City a little before 5p. I headed home to shower and then try to get over to the Philly blogger meetup, but I missed the last of the gang as I got there around 6p. Oh well. So, I went on a walk around G-Ho, over South St bridge and over to 38th St. I hopped on the trolley back to City Hall and walked home from there.

So much walking resulted in me relaxing all day Sunday.

The shot above is me by a wall around 23rd St or so.

Photoblog Post #400

My 400th post on my photoblog. It's of Central Café at Pershing Square on the south side of Grand Central Terminal.

I had about an hour to kill before my NJT to SEPTA train over at Penn Station so I walked over from Grand Central [with all my crap]. A flickr set here of thirty shots which includes a nice shot of one of my absolutely favorite bulidings, the Grace Building which has a sloping facade. That's not a wide angle effect there, that's how the building really looks.

Whose Got Job Leads

Yeah, it's time to move on.

Schmaps

I was contacted by Schmap!! a couple days ago about usage of some of my photos of Philadelphia. Schmap!! is a company that makes these downloadable travel/city guides that are searchable and printable complete with photos of locations. I downloaded the NYC guide and fooled around for a bit. Pretty cool.

The photos are displayed in the top right. If there is more than one shot, it continues through a looping slideshow. And if you click on the photo[s] you are taken to the flickr page where that photo resides - pretty cool. The flickr api has been getting some pretty cool uses, just like Google's. But actually, this could just simply be some hard coding of links.

No money for this, but I just think it's pretty cool. They asked for nineteen of my shots of Rittenhouse Square, 76ers games, Love Park, restaurants and other locations around town. And according to this thread on the Philadelphia flickr discussion forum, many others have been contacted as well. Cool.

The Philly guide is due out sometime in April.

I'm On the Ballot

I keep forgetting to post this because people have been asking me this in person for the last week, but it looks like I'm on the ballot.

I called up the Board of Elections and they said that if I wasn't served with papers to appear in court to defend my petition that it was not challenged and that I was indeed on the ballot.

I don't know which method City Hall employs to serve people with papers, I'm assuming certified, registered mail with return receipt or something, but I didn't get anything. Nobody in a trench coat served me with a warrant or anything either.

So, as of now, I'm on the ballot.

Forgot Bookmarks Again

While rushing to wipe my HDD two nights ago, I forgot to save my damn bookmarks in Firefox. Grrr.

Stayed out way too late last night at Drinking Liberally and then off to Little Pete's for a milkshake and then to McGlinchy's for a Newcastle. I didn't get a chance to fiddle much with the computer other than get SP2 on the box. And tonight we're headed to the 76ers game v the Pistons. That could get ugly.

While I was running late on getting out the door last night, I didn't have the energy to trek back and forth across town to the various events I mentioned yesterday, but ACM went to one event I was aware of and another one I hadn't heard of and has recaps.

Not enough hours in the day.

Lancaster Town Hall Meeting

At the Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice town hall meeting following the anti-war march, Chuck Pennacchio took to the mic, but before him, there were several wonderful speakers. Pictured above is Conrad Moore local activist [and I think he was a war veteran as well]. He spoke of how while skinheads and the KKK are a problem, they are nothing but mere annoyances compared to the institutionalized racism and the militaristic stance the U.S. has had and continues to have.

Up next to the mic was Sue Savage, a Lancaster ad exec, who spoke of her experience watching her classmates to off to Vietnam never to be seen again. She lost friends. She shared the crowd's displeasure of the massive spending on the war in Iraq while the situation domestically is only getting worse for the generations to come. Less money for education, healthcare, basic things. All eaten up by the war.

Melissa Nalevanko came to the mic already welled up with tears. She had lead the hour long march through Lancaster to the town hall meeting. She was leading it in rememberance of her brother, Pennsylvania Army National Guard Sgt. Brent A. Adams, who was killed when his Bradley tank was hit by a rocket. She was told he died instantly. She recalled seeing her husband standing in their house as she came through the door. The look on her face told her everything she didn't want to know. She wanted the people at the march and the town hall meeting to see first hand the cost of war and what it has done to her and her family. She sat down with her friends and family sobbing to thunderous applause for her courage.

And then Chuck took the mic. He spoke of his stance on the war, a stance that has not changed in three years. He was against it then, he is against it now. He told of his withdrawal plan which he drew up in June of 2005. He spoke of the importance of citizen involvement to a successful democracy. He too got some thunderous applause from the still full hall.

More Ballot Weirdness

I called in on Monday the 13th to see if I was on the ballot. They told me I was. The ballot lottery was later that day and I was told, by the other newbie first time runner for committeeperson that I was third out of four on the ballot.

I called this morning to double check. I called to see if I was still on the ballot. Before I could tell the lady who answered the phone my name, ward and division, she informed me that she couldn't tell me whether I was on the ballot or not. I asked why and she replied that the ballots were in court and she couldn't tell me the results until they got back to the Board of Elections office later on in the week.

On the petition I handed in, included were my full name, home address, my home phone number and my cell phone. I have not been notified that my petition has been / is being challenged. But I wouldn't put it passed them to claim it got lost in the mail or something.

Something really fishy is going on. It fucking stinks. It reeks.

Theories continue to swirl in my crazy head.