philly

Molly Ivins died today.

She raised hell here on Earth. Now she can rest. But she leaves some titanic shoes to fill. Her voice was strong unwavering. Who will step up in her place?

I knew she was sick again, but I didn't know it was this bad. She was only 62.

Texas, and the rest of us will miss her dearly.

A colleague, John Nichols, remembers:

Speaking truth to power is the best job in any democracy, she explained. It took her to towns across this great yet battered land to say: "So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."

So simple a four-year-old can understand it.

Thank you Ryan for forwarding this to me.

I was quite pleased to see this story on the front page of Philly.com for two days. It is a web-only exclusive story on the work of some homeless outreach workers here in Philadelphia. Staff writer Robert Moran went out, armed with a video camera, to record the work of the outreach workers and to document some stories of some of the homeless people they met along the way. The story will be archived and inaccessible behind Knight Ridder's access walls, but I've been assured by Moran and editor Chris Mills that the video [.wmv 20MB] will remain accessible indefinitely. It's a quick five minute video.

I have no idea how often the Inky/DN send their reporters out with video cameras. This is the first article I've noticed with such media. I have no idea if it's just a matter of me not noticing other videos or simply not reading articles with corresponding videos for one reason or another. I hope they keep this up. Sooner or later, Tierney's gonna demand that the 4 remaining writers learn to write, photograph, video, perform the non-linear editing, provide finalized proofs of the stories, select color-adjusted photos, lay the type [they will have sold the presses in Conshohocken] and then hand deliver the copies of the still warm Inky and DN to the forty remaining subscribers.

Thank you Robert Moran for covering this.

If anyone has men's clothing to donate, a great place to take your donations is St. John's Hospice up at 1221 Race St. I dropped off a big bag of clothes over the weekend. It's getting cold out there, old coats you haven't worn in years or flannels or thermals would be greatly appreciated. I don't know of any programs specifically for women's clothing, but I do know that Project H.O.M.E. takes clothing for everyone.

Courtesy of the gang at Philly IMC is the video above of their coverage of the protest march in DC over the weekend. You can download a higher-res version here [.mov 13MB] and more Philly IMC coverage here.

I'm sad I missed this year's march, but I'm angrier in feeling that I'll be able to go down next year for another one. Why did all these people all over the country go out and work for these candidates, countless hours, countless late night sessions, blogging about them, telling friends about them, donating money to them. We went and voted in a new bunch of cowards into the same old seats. COWARDS. What the fuck are they waiting for? The Democrats have done nothing and — prediction: they will do nothing.

Has that non-binding resolution been passed yet? If so, please mail it to me here in Philly so that I can wipe my ass with it, at least I'll be recycling it, eh? It's not worth the virgin paper it was printed on. That non-binding resolution doesn't seem like a start to me - it symbolizes an end.

The Democrats will continue to sit on their fat asses collecting their annual cost of living adjusted salaries [oh yes, you didn't know that? cost-fucking-adjusted every year]. And who will be leading the pack of hand-sitting-upon? Bob fucking Casey. Thank you Pennsylvania's Democratic Party.

So, getting back to this protest march…

Marty wrote one beauty of a post over at Booman Tribune taking to task the whining that protests don't accomplish anything.

… And this gets me back to where I always seem to wind up. This administration cannot be allowed to take us into a war under false pretenses, lose that war, and then preside over the aftermath. No country has ever allowed something like that to happen. If you went to the protest in Washington DC this past Saturday, and you got down into the crowd and asked them what they thought of impeachment…you would have found near unanimous support. In fact, a plurality would probably have said impeachment is an insufficient corrective. But you would never know how powerful the consensus on impeachment has become in the anti-war movement if all you did was read the liberal blogosphere.

Sadly, it may take a reinstatement of the draft for this country to really get serious about protesting this administration's decision to jump into this mess.

Bob Herbert wrote a lovely op-ed piece yesterday about the march. In full…

Good god is the new Symphony House condo building an ugly piece of shit. First off, I'm pissed off at it for blocking my view, from South St, of the most gorgeous building in all of Philadelphia, the Drake. Secondly, this thing is just plain fugly.

The cheapo siding they've decided to put on is the large-scale building equivalent of some shit aluminum siding that you bought half price because it wasn't moving off the showroom floor and you wanted to cut costs somewhere. Yuck. That faux-brick shit ain't fooling nobody. And speaking of fake brick, the new dorms over by UPenn at Chestnut/35 have some nasty ass crap too. Dis-gus-ting.

These condos are going for a bajillion dollars, eh? Why skimp on the siding? Why have cheap siding to begin with? This is Philly - go buy some god damn bricks! It's obvious they're trying to keep the brick look which dominates the entire city, why not get the real thing. I'm sure the people paying a bajillion dollars could cough up 1% more to cover the costs of the brick and labor - why didn't those job-haulting, pissy-fit, temper tantrum throwing unions put a stop to this place? They halted the Comcast Center's construction until the plumbers were allowed to install a secondary set of pipes - which if I recall correctly are NOT actually connected to anything - because they felt the money-saving "waterless" urinals were going to put people out of work.

I hate this thing.

Solar 911 - what the fuck? Oh yes. I learned some interesting things on Thursday morning at the news conference announcing the publishing of The Next Great City project's report. I was lucky to be able attend representing my company, one of the 60+ endorsers of the report. For me, the most interesting thing was in regards to our city's emergency preparedness. We're not fucking prepared.

We live in the fifth largest city in the United States (and beating down Phoenix with a stick when they're not looking). Our 911 system sucks. I think that either Montgomery or Bucks County has the hardware installed to know where you're calling 911 from if you're on a GPS enabled cell phone. The City of Philadelphia - nope.

If I heard The entire city is wired into a single power grid. If one thing blows, the whole city blows and is out of power. No widespread backup for anything. So when all hell breaks loose and something is going wrong in your neck of the woods, you can't call 911 for help. But in Chicago, they've installed a solar powered backup system for 911. NYC has installed solar panels in their Central Park station to keep it going should anything knock out all other power generators. [source].

So, Solar 911. Think about it.

There are some incredibly good things in this report. They've outlined 10 Actions which are all doable and when/if we do get them done, Philly will be a redonkulous place to live.

The room in the Atwater Kent Museum was packed. Michael Nutter was seated right in front of me, we exchanged nods; PA Congressman James Roebuck (D-188) was present, but left before the presentation; candidate for City Council at-large seat Marc Stier was in the house for the duration and through the Q & A session; and US Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA-02) dropped by in the end and said his campaign would fully endorse the entire plan.

It's a really cool coalition of groups coming together and pooling resources to lobby for change for the good of the city. Take a look through their website, they have tons of really great information.

Come on out to the next Town Square event on Urban Sustainability where The Next Great City coalition will be asking the Mayoral candidates for their views on the 10 Actions - February 15th at the Academy of Natural Sciences.

I was flat out shocked at how well W spoke during his 2007 State of the Union Address. I was discussing with BooMan, Brendan and a bunch of other people at Drinking Liberally [first time in forever!] about how poorly W has been looking physically and just how shitty he speaks lately. Maybe he's been up late working on this one speech forever? For him, he was stellar. He gave Speaker of the House Pelosi her much deserved time in the spotlight at the beginning of his address and she was soaking it up. I oh so wanted to see a bunch of Arsenio Hall fist pumps from her or from the panning shot of the "Dog Pound" that is the floor of Congress, but alas, no fist pumps.

I wrote down a few notes during the address; I couldn't help myself…

Where the hell was LIEberman sitting? I thought it was on the Repug side, behind the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but then on another shot, I saw Carl "The Shoemaker" Levin (D-MI) sitting behind him.

Laura was clapping like a seal, all arms, not really moving her wrists. Same crazy Joker face. I can't get enough of it - it never ceases to amaze me. That thing's pulled tighter than Joan Rivers.

Bob "The Brow" Casey was sitting right next to Hillary Clinton; who was right behind Barack Obama and Big Head Ed Kennedy. I have no idea of how chummy they are or if it was just Casey's people making sure he got right next to her for some serious national face time or what. But if President Clinton were to actually be chummy with this dolt and tap him for a cabinet position, I think I'd puke and then cry tears or pain.

What the hell was with Cheney's creepy ass grinning and winking? He kept on looking to his left and winking like a freako. And the dude didn't blink. He's It's a robot.

"Whatever you voted for, you didn't vote for failure" - thanks you fucking moron.

W wanted to have 93,000 more enlisted in the armed forces in the next five years. I recall reading in articles and hearing on the news that in the last four years after 9/11, only 30,000 new recruits have joined. Where are these people going to come from?

He said "nyoo-kyu-ler" twice by my count.

He actually mentioned Osama bin Laden by name! But I still must tell this knock-knock joke:
Knock-knock
Who's there?
Osama
Osama who?
Exactly

Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean Jacque Wamutombo. Dude was taller than the people 2 rows behind him. And that Asian woman to his right - oh man, how tall was she? Like 2'3"?

He wanted to dedicate $1.5B towards malaria in the next 5 years. I wonder how that number compares to what the Gates Foundation has contributed towards malaria.

W lauded the success of AIDS work in Africa. How about also advocating the use of condoms here in the States?

After the speech, while he was leaving the floor, dude pulled out a Sharpie faster than T.O. I'm sure it's done all the time, but I don't recall seeing that before. Maybe I usually turn off the television by that point. I thought it was funny.

Kucinich was notably on camera during the entrance and exit of W, right by the back of the room.

W mentioned "Global Warming" for the first time in his SOTU address said Tom Brokaw.

In Governor Bill Richardson's (I'm sure it will become weekly) email Tuesday afternoon, he asked:

How would you finish this sentence? The next President must be able to…

What would be on your list and why? There are plenty of issues and things we'd all like to see a President bring to the table and accomplish, but what must s/he be able to do?

You can let Bill know here and please do share your two cents below.

To get things rolling…

For me, it starts with getting us the fuck out of Iraq. The rest, I'm willing to discuss, but chroist. The American people don't want to be there, everyone in the world doesn't want us there and the people living in that specific region want us the fuck out of Dodge. It's only getting bloodier and bloodier and our boys and girls in the armed forces cannot keep this up forever. I firmly believe that we, as a nation, cannot move forward until we get out.

Then we can talk about universal healthcare, greening our energy, improving our schools…

At 9pm tonight, our idiot in chief will be making a State of the Union Address. It will be, whether he thinks it or not, about our lost liberties.

I've been seeing these pasteups all over Center City lately on traffic signal switchboxes. They're simple. They're nice. I'm a big fan.

One of these days, we're gonna find Lady Liberty somewhere, hidden away, behind a stack of wannabe holders of the torch. Wannabes like Obama, Edwards, Clinton (both of 'em), Kerry…

I was watching clips of one of the talking head shows where someone was commenting on how much leftist support Clinton will get with this nomination and just about gagged. Who are these people? What ground do they have their ears to?

Above is a shot of a playground close by the house. There are usually a good amount of kids running around there with their parents helping them along the bigger things to jump on with the sound of dogs barking and playing in the background from the dog park right behind the playground. There are a few tennis courts further past the playground, on the other side of the shed which doubles as this Division's polling place come election time. Anchoring the block long park is a set of basketball courts which gets plenty of action during the warmer months.

I've had this thought to go over there later on at night and take some nice long exposures of an empty park and I finally got around to it last week. I took some [unretouched] shots, viewable in this flickr set of the playground part of the park. Maybe I'll go back and take some shots of the rest of the park sometime. Or perhaps get some people to fill up the park for some eerie nightshots.

The park lies between 10th and 11th Sts between Lombard and Rodman Sts.