You tease

msnbc.com

So, I’ve been laid up - well, laid down is more like it - for the past couple days with some sort of nasty antibiotic-requiring bug that has me wishing for sweet sweet Jebus to take me away to a place where there’s no more pain. Hell, Bride Hickey even got screwed out of good company for Valentine’s Dinner at Bindi, a restaurant about which, had I been able to taste, I’d be raving today. But I wasn’t able to taste, so I’m not raving today. (Will offer a doggy-bag update at a later date.)

Not that you probably care. Nor should you.

My point? Well, I’ve just opened up thee old email from home while taking a break from my stories, and here’s what the City of Philadelphia had to tell me:

INFLUENZA UPDATE
Flu Reaches High Levels
It is Not Too Late to Get a Flu Shot!

Oh really? Never too late? Think you might’ve told me this, like, on Sunday? Damn you government. Damn you all. In any event, here’s what they have to say so you don’t end up looking, and feeling, and all-around-being as pathetic as one Brian Hickey does right about now.

Philadelphia- Health Commissioner Donald F. Schwarz, MD, MPH, said today
that influenza activity in the city has increased over the last two weeks
rising from moderate to an unusually high level. Hospital emergency
departments continue to report a sharp increase in cases that is also
reflected in laboratory surveillance data.

(more…)

Man, oh man, did I pick the wrong day to be borderline-pneumonia couch-bound:

Taking the witness stand in his trial on mail and wire and tax-evasion, Street told a federal jury about his intense study of the history of the federal income tax, the tax statutes and relevant Supreme Court decisions and has come to the conclusion that the tax is unconstitutional.

Like I said in this morning’s cover story: Free Milton!

Hillary Clinton

inman.com

Presented super late as I was on cover-story detail. Presented super-short as it’s Tuesday.

Even the Toll Family can’t afford the fancy Toll Bros. houses these days. (Inky)

Chelsea Clinton is getting pimped out, but just don’t say so if you’re on a network that needs her pimp-mama to appear at a debate.

We gave Appleseed Records a CP Choice award in November. The Inquirer is quick to pick up on it.

We wanted to give Pennsylvania’s super-delegates a close look in this week’s issue. Sarcasm aside, the Inky was quick to pick up on it.

Screw the gambling charges. Tocchey Hockey is back, bitches! (Inquirer)

Nutter and Ramsey make me feel unwanted. What, don’t underage-drinking charges from the late 80s rate when it comes to being among the city’s Most Wanted? (Inky)

Speaking of the queen pimp Hillary, is it just me, or shouldn’t she just step aside so the Dems can avoid civil war? (NYT)

Brian Tierney makes the NYT Business section’s “The Chatter” column with this morale-boosting dandy: “I think some papers aren’t going to make it.” (No idea whether he meant any of his).

Any new story about Ernest Hemingway is a great story in my book. For Hemingway is the greatest author ever. (NYT)

Speaking of the creative suicidal types, Rolling Stone brings what has to be the best encapsulation of how we’ve created, and destroyed Brit Brit. Honestly, it’s all our fault. Be sure to search in page for Justin Timberlake’s classy “smell my fingers” quote if you can access the full story. If not, go pony up the $4.50 at the newsstand. It’s worth it.

Bet you didn’t know I’m a shapeshifter sent from hell to beckon the apocalypse, didja?

gogov.com

Got a message on Myspace today from our good ole mayor who, should he keep pushing this evil devil woman Hillary for President nonsense in our faces, will find the support well has run dry in my here office. He was elected on a vision of changing politics as normal, not to trawl Bucks County supermarket parking lots to get enough signatures to cement the status quo. Wish I wasn’t busy this afternoon, lest I stop by 13th and Locust and load Mr. Bauer’s petitions up with fake signatures. Alas, I can’t. (But maybe you can!)

Dear Friend,

As you know, I’m supporting Hillary Clinton for President. I believe she has the best qualities and experience to move America forward and will be ready to lead on day one. What you may not know is that I’m also running to be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention to support Senator Clinton.

I need your help to make sure that Hillary Clinton and her delegates are on the ballot, and the deadline is fast approaching. This weekend, volunteers throughout the Philadelphia area will circulate petitions to accomplish this. Please join our efforts at the location (listed below) that is most convenient for you. Also, please forward this bulletin to your friends and invite them to join us in collecting signatures this weekend.

We will be meeting at the following locations:

…

Sunday, February 10th, Noon-3pm 13th and Locust Streets Philadelphia, PA Contact: Patrick Bauer Cell: 516-448-xxxx

NOTE: A Notary Public will be on site at the end of this effort so bring your petitions!

…

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

Mayor Michael Nutter

Seriously, Michael, it’s time for this pandering to end.

Sure, nobody’s calling anybody to concede yet, but word I’m getting out of the Garden State is leading me to believe one Barack Obama is a step closer to the White House. My boy Spree, who you may remember from appearing in this class-act of a column, just texted. He’d been torn support-wise up until recent days. Here’s what he had to type this morning:

BARACK NOW HAS 1 VOTE IN NJ

So, there you have it: Obama is leading the Super Tuesday elections as of 12:26 p.m.

35 years of experience making Monica look better by the day

Rolling Stone

Hey all, it’s been a while. Remember me, the loud-mouth kid from Haddon Twp., and the loud-mouth kid from UD? So anyway, just wanted to drop a line to ask that you consider casting your vote for Barack Obama today. It’s the right thing to do. But don’t just take my word for it; here’s some food-for-thought from Rolling Stone to consider as well. Thanks for your time.

… as a presidential candidate herself, Hillary has basically run exactly Nixon’s 1968 campaign. Her stump speech from the get-go was all about the “invisible Americans,” a nearly word-for-word echo of Nixon’s revolutionary “forgotten Americans” strategy of that year. Like Nixon, she was targeting a slice of the electorate that had chosen to stay on the sidelines during a cultural war and secretly yearned for someone in the political center to restore order; it’s no accident that Hillary was on the opposite side of every issue that sent lefties to the streets in the Bush years, from the war to free trade to the Patriot Act.

Her much-reported line about Martin Luther King needing LBJ to complete his “dream” was just another salvo in that effort, a subtle message to the public that the “change” she talks about so incessantly is only legitimate when it comes from the inside. Lest anyone think this is a fanciful analysis, listen to what Hillary wrote back in the day, in her senior thesis at Wellesley, which looked at the work of a Chicago community organizer named Saul Alinsky, who had offered her a job. “I agreed with some of Alinsky’s ideas,” she wrote, “but we had a fundamental disagreement. He believed you could change the system only from the outside. I didn’t.”

Ironically, after Alinsky’s death, the man who carried on his legacy as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago was none other than Barack Obama, who took a $13,000-a-year gig similar to the one that Hillary turned down.

 

Fine, I was wrong. Eli Manning isn’t the quintessential choker who has nothing beyond a surname to fall back on. The Giants don’t suck. Blah. Etc. Hope you’re all happy. So anyway, there was still some weekend time to work the reading muscles despite that stunning Super Bowl; here’s what I stumbled across, starting on the local front.

The Sunday Inky, the last edition before the papers’ price hike, took a deeper look at what it might mean for Philadelphians now that New Commish has laid his crime-fightin’ plan. On one hand, it’s about …

The new commissioner aims to drive violent crime down 20 percent this year by focusing on fundamentals - shifting more officers from special units to basic patrol. A key tactic of the plan is to focus on quality-of-life issues - such as public intoxication, loitering and gambling - that sometimes escalate into violent crimes or drive law-abiding residents to move elsewhere.

But then, the piece ends up being a quasi-profile of letter-of-the-law Officer Henry Schoch in the 35th. Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with enforcing the law. Quite the opposite. But then again, I can’t help but feel a bad pang in my gut when I read…

After Schoch put the suspect into the back of the squad car, he explained what he had witnessed.

"Everything happens with your hands - a narcotics deal, a weapon. I couldn’t even tell you what his face looks like. You watch the hands."

It’s a small deal, a 1-gram bag of marijuana worth $10. A "dime bag" in the vernacular. …

"He’s right," Schoch said out of Anthony Jackson’s earshot. "There are more violent crimes going on out there."

An arrest in a minor drug deal underscores a continuing debate within law enforcement.

Some officers say the effort invested in making a case like this - Schoch and Leva spent two hours processing paperwork and evidence - removes officers from the street to hunt for worse offenders.

But Schoch said such arrests sent a strong message of intolerance for all crime. And it’s impossible to say, until the arrest is made, when a minor stop might yield a bigger fish - somebody with a warrant for a violent crime, or somebody carrying an illegal weapon.

Sometimes these small arrests lead to information about bigger crimes, Schoch added.

"Some cops tell me I’m wasting my time with these arrests," he said. "I say I wouldn’t want that stuff going on in my neighborhood."

A brave new world, indeed.

Staying with the Inky, a fun piece on exiled-despite-doing his job-well LCB Chairman Jonathan Newman, who’s sticking it to the man by loading up liquor stores across the state borders with better wines and better prices than in the state stores.

The "xChairman Selections," as one shop calls them, are the discounted wines that Newman’s new company will introduce in Pennsylvania border states this month.

They also broke a Pulitzer-worthy piece that can be best summed up as: Yo, check it, young people like Obama. (Who knew, right?)

(more…)

… but he never meant shit to Chuck D, Flav, Griff and the rest of PE. Me either, actualy. And those points were made amply clear at the Troc last night during the Artists for Heat show. Since Flava didn’t cede the stage until 1:05 a.m., I’m still playing mental catch-up, but we’ll have a full report, complete with Rego photos, as soon as I muster the brain strength.

Fight the power.

UPDATE: check out the Critical Mass post

 

Currently underway is a conference call organized by the Obama camp, reacting to Pres. Clinton’s appearance in South Jersey, featuring Newark Mayor Corey Booker and state Sen. John Adler. I’m typing as it goes, but here are a couple highlights thus far.

Booker, a Nutter-esque figure, said, “we’re not going to find a Democratic way out of this country’s problems. We’re not going to find a Republican way out of this country’s problems. We need to find an American way.” He then went on, while lauding all three Democratic candidates, to say that Obama is the lone candidate to do so.

They’re cutting it off after three questions. But so far, the Star Ledger has asked two of them: one about advertising and the other about negative politics; the Inky’s Cynthia Burton got one in as well, about whether they thought Billy Boy took any shots at Obama in Camden County today. (I’ll leave that answer alone so she can use it in her piece tomorrow.)

But, the interesting angle is that it’s time to expect some TV advertising. A campaign spokeswoman confirmed that the Obama campaign will be launching commericals in both the New York and Philly media markets to get at New Jersey voters in front of Tuesday’s big primary. They’ll start airing tomorrow.

Reason enough to give the TiVo a rest, methinks.

 

 

(Not the commercial they’ll air.)

Meet the new boss? (Nothing like the old boss)

Associated Press

“When John Kennedy thought of going to the moon, he didn’t say no, it was too far, maybe we couldn’t get there and shouldn’t even try. I am convinced we can reach our goals only if we are not petty when our cause is so great — only if we find a way past the stale ideas and stalemate of our times — only if we replace the politics of fear with the politics of hope — and only if we have the courage to choose change.”

“Barack Obama is the one person running for president who can bring us that change. Barack Obama is the one person running for president who can be that change.” – Ted Kennedy, today.

Back in October, former CP edit intern Jason Tomassini brought readers the story of how the battle over handicapped-accessible public housing had taken a turn for the worse.

A pending U.S. District Court case between PHA and Liberty Resources, a local disabled civil rights advocacy group, says PHA is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Stephen Gold, attorney for Liberty Resources and ADAPT, says PHA is not actively seeking privately owned, accessible housing because the rent is more than the voucher covers.

“The housing authority either has to negotiate with property owners to get the cost down or increase the value of the voucher for that disabled person so they can use it as effectively as nondisabled people,” Gold says. “This is a civil-rights issue.”

Well, it seems as if there’d been some resolution on Friday, as Liberty Resources issued a press release stating:

PHILADELPHIA – Liberty Resources Inc., the city’s leading advocacy organization for independent living for people with disabilities, and the Philadelphia Housing Authority will sign an historic agreement on Friday, January 25th at 11 a.m. that will provide housing vouchers to clients who use wheelchairs to enable them to rent wheelchair-accessible apartments or houses.

The agreement marks the first such contract between PHA and Liberty Resources, which will refer clients to the housing agency who currently are living in long-term care facilities but have been seeking opportunities for more independent living arrangements. PHA and Liberty will unveil the number of housing vouchers that will be available annually as part of their announcement.

Seems as if some things do work out in the end.

Cash or carried away

Bill Westervelt

Back when former CP intern/contributor Ted Hesson was charged with examining the subprime crisis in the Delaware Valley (got to love a managing editor who gives very specific, honed-in assignments, huh?), the good news was that things weren’t as bad here as they were elsewhere. But that sure doesn’t mean there isn’t any local expertise. To wit:

John Dodds, Director of Philadelphia Unemployment Project, will testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 on the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Dodds will testify on steps that need to be taken in order to prevent large scale foreclosures in Philadelphia and the nation. He will speak in favor of HR 3609, which will temporarily alter bankruptcy law to allow judges to modify sub-prime mortgages that are unaffordable and headed for foreclosure. Dodds will testify before the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. Other panelists will include former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp, Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com, Wade Henderson, Chair of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. and Faith Short Director of the Hope Now Alliance.

Another Victory

boston.com

A few months back, when I made my intentions to be an Obama booster known far and wide, I received an email from Phyllis Ryan Jackson, executive director of SafeHome Philadelphia, which according to her email signature, “is the mission-achieving creation of the Philadelphia Committee to END Homelessness.” The short and long: She couldn’t agree more.

Well, late last week, I received a follow-up email to her promise to share her experiences campaigning in Iowa for The Candidate Who Should Be Our Next President. Well, Iowa may already be a distant political memory to some, but should Obama continue building up such a wide swath of support in the face of the status quo, it’ll be remembered as the event that changed American politics forever. That’s why I think it’s still important to share Phyllis’ account of the trip. (I’m waiting on photos from the heartland).

And, should there be people out there working for other candidates who want to do the same, by all means, drop a line. I may be behind Obama, but you still deserve a chance to be heard.)

The Grass Roots of It All White Haired Obama Girl in Iowa Snow By Phyllis Ryan Jackson

My husband Bob and I both felt so strongly about supporting Barack Obama that I cashed in my frequent flyer miles; I had hoped to spend two weeks working, but the caucus date were moved into the holiday weeks and so it was only the last week before January 3rd. This is an election unlike any since 1928 – no incumbent candidates. And for the first time since 1968, there is a candidate who has built a grassroots organization which is how change will really happen, I believe.

I never pretended that I knew what to expect, but before I left, I had a few cordial calls from the Obama Campaign including an orientation conference call and one from my direct “boss” which greatly impressed me. I arrived in Iowa around 10 a.m. on Christmas Eve – it was brutally cold with lots of snow everywhere – and did a bit of shopping at the nearby HyVee, including a fabric bag with HyVee markings. It was my first attempt to reduce my “out-of-state-edness” appearance which plagued the Dean campaign four years ago. Frankly, I never saw an Iowan carrying a similar bag so I might have looked suspicious for having it. I drove by the Obama headquarters which were desperately trying to shut down for one day.

(more…)

Smalls, the Owl

thebigpicturedvd.com

No football means yes reading time and, as such, there’s a big stack of material through which to sift. So, following a recent week’s lead, consider this a lightning round.

Leonard Smalls could have chosen anywhere to get his long-awaited degree, but he chose Temple. And the Arizona quints never felt so proud.(A worthy front-page-above-the-fold column about Tex Cobb, a local legend, by Phil Sheridan, might I add.)

Frank Fitzpatrick could have chosen anywhere to make a bad attempt at humorous insight, but he chose the Inquirer. And the fans of Philadelphia never felt so confused by an insufficient argument. (Worthy page-E6-placement, might I add.) Might I also add that anybody rooting for the Giants this weekend should be forced to turn in their 215 card.

Having a bad day, kiddo? Aw, fear not. It could be a lot worse. You could be mere days away by getting crushed to death by a wayward, course-unknown spy satellite that will be crashing back into earth in 3, 2, … um, you better look up right quick. (Also from the Inky).

Forget astronaut diapers, y’all. “That’s a wonderful side effect of leather pants”: when you urinate in them, “they’re more forgiving than jeans.” Thank you, Slash. And thank you, NYT Book Review.

Leon!

imdb.com

 

Leon, getting some NYT love.

“There are people, black and white, who would take the shirt off somebody and not think twice about it,” said Jeff Garlin, a co-star and executive producer of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” “Our guy happened to be black. Does that mean all black people steal shirts? No. It’s not making a blanket statement about all people.” (NTY)

Turtles. Yes, we have turtles. But we may not have them for long should the eco-tourists keep flocking to the Galapagos to speed up the end of times.

“Unless we start to make fundamental changes right now, in the next 10 to 15 years we will see the Galápagos suffer from both economic and environmental degradation,” said Dr. Graham Watkins, executive director of the Charles Darwin Foundation. (NYT)

Buzz Bissinger’s back in the news. This time, for saying that dirty little secret that most of us men have been thinking lately. There’s a reason I’ve been calling him White Jesus, y’all. (Brady, not Bissinger. C’mon. And, again, as a Philadelphian, you may not root for the New York football Giants.)

“I was talking to a friend of mine,” said Buzz Bissinger, the author of “Friday Night Lights,” the classic about small-town adoration of high school football players, “and we both said if we could come back as anyone, it would be Tom Brady. He seems like a nice guy and he’s talented and he can get any girl in the world.” (NYT)

Thought Jay Z flashing Euros around in a video was the biggest slam to the dollar since ‘29? Think again. Turns out even our hockey teams ain’t worth what they used to be, and they didn’t used to be worth all that much. Yeah, and, um, they’re thriving in the land of Elsinore. Ouch (pronounced ew ch).

The Canadian clubs are worth more on average than the league’s American clubs, according to estimates by Forbes magazine. And two Canadian teams are being sought for purchase by billionaires — not to move them to the American Sun Belt, but because they are so lucrative where they are in Canada.

The turnaround is largely because of the weakened United States dollar, which was worth about $1.50 Canadian throughout the 1990s and well into the 2000s, but is now at par. The increased relative value of the loonie, and the salary cap instituted in 2005 after the N.H.L. lockout, effectively increased the values of Canadian teams by nearly half. (NYT)

Coupla interesting nuggets from Sports Illustrated. In their “First-Half Surprises” of the NHL round-up, they question the merits of giving futuro-Poulin Mike Richards a 12-year, $69 million contract.

Coach John Stevens gives the ultimate hockey compliment: “He manages his game for the good of the team.” The Flyers, likewise, hope they’ve managed his contract for the good of the team. (SI)

And, a pigeon race in Vegas. Who needs the Glitter Gulch or Cheetah’s with that kind of action out there? Ok, forget tht I asked. (Speaking of which, I’m mulling a column on the Miss America spectacle in LV this past weekend. It was really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really bad.)

Also in the best city in America, the New York Times mag profiles spawn-of-pawnshop owner’s Charles Bock and the long path to this week’s release of his highly anticipated novel, “Beautiful Children.” Alas, they used the Happens In, Stays In pun in the headline. Woe is the next person who does that.

I’ll save the Obamariffic weekend clips for later.

Hometown hero

ESPN, via cellphone camera

But, there was one Weekend Watching Round-Up item to report. Somehow, I ended up catching a few minutes of the Winter X-Games Sunday afternoon, and what good timing. A good dude from the shore, Kevin Bramble, was back on the slopes competing in the Mono Skier-X event. And dude was crushing the four-person finals field until, with a big lead, his ski snapped, relegating him to a fourth-place finish. On my scoring card, though, he won big, because I remember him as one of the real good ones from the days at the P, before it became some fancy Princeton in Avalon.