In an open letter to the leaders of the Philadelphia labor movement, the young and energetic organizer for UFCW Local 152 Hugh Giordano has challenged the city's unions to have the courage to support the Green Party. Giordano ran an exceptionally strong campaign as a Green for state legislature this year, raising almost $30,000 from unions and individuals and capturing over 18 percent of the vote in a three way race. Now he would like to spread the same movement for honest politics, workers' rights, and a clean environment (among other things) to the rest of Philadelphia, beyond his single district.
As the members of the party, which I am aiding in every way I can, build the organization for the 2011 local elections, Giordano has seized the opportunity make the area's union leadership reconsider the popular path of supporting corporate Democrats. In his words, "Why are we, the strong men and women of the labor movement, bowing down to the corporate bosses and politicians...Union brothers and sisters, when any one of us becomes 'fearful' or 'controlled' by a political party - it's time to step down and pass the torch on."
The full letter is printed, with Hugh Giordano's permission, below the fold.
I went to a protest in Philadelphia this past Saturday, and it was more disheartening than anything else. It was against the wars and various other injustices, with a special focus on he recent FBI raids of peace activists and Pennsylvania Homeland Security spying on innocent civilians and activists.
By the end of it, I kind of just felt like going up to the megaphone and asking, "How much moral outrage can one person muster? There are more people handing out fliers here than not, and with this country committing so many disgusting, outrageous acts, I don't blame you." I won't lie, I handed a few out myself. Yet the contrast between the righteous causes featured in the speeches and on the signs and on the fliers and the, as a fellow protester said to me, "complete lack of solidarity" was striking.
I've been gone all summer - traveling, gardening, volunteering a bit, and doing some other things - and as much as I had a lot of fun, it is nice to be back. In all that time, some interesting things have happened with what I consider to be one of the better Green campaigns in the nation this year, and one that I'm very involved with, Hugh Giordano's campaign for state legislature as a Green.
In case you don't know who Hugh is, he's a 25 year old union organizer running as a Green in PA's 194th district, which is mostly in Philadelphia and also a bit in Montgomery County (for locals, it encompasses Roxborough, Manayunk, parts of Lower Merion, and some surrounding areas). He's been running a great campaign, knocking on doors, holding fun fundraisers, getting in the newspaper, and raising as much money as a typical Green congressional candidate.
Anyway, below the fold is some news from the campaign, including an endorsement from a fairly prominent local Democrat.
This is going to be an action packed weekend in DC and around the nation. On Friday, there will be protests of Yoo. On Saturday, there will be a massive antiwar demonstration (there will also be demonstrations in Philly, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and South Dakota, among other places). On Sunday, there will be a large march for immigration reform. And there will be other related events around the country, along with the small protests and events that happen all the time.
So join me below the fold to see how you can effect change this weekend.
This is part of an analysis of the swing state Pennsylvania. Part three can be found here.
(A note: There will be a lot of maps in this post.)
Philadelphia: Precinct Results
My first post on the swing state Pennsylvania focused on the city Philadelphia, an incredibly Democratic city. At the time, I looked for detailed ward and precinct results but was unable to find any. Recently, however, I have come across a website which maps Philadelphia precinct results across a whole range of elections; it is a literal gold mine. This offers the opportunity to substantially deepen the previous analysis.
Below is a map of the 2008 presidential election in Philadelphia (by precinct!)
An analysis of this result below.
This is the third part of a series of posts analyzing the swing state Pennsylvania. Part four can be found here.
Philadelphia's Suburbs
There used to be a time when Republicans could count on Philadelphia's suburbs to counter Democratic margins from the city. This is Philadelphia, circa 1988:
Not anymore. Philadelphia, 2008:
Philadelphia's suburbs stretch across four counties: Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery. Their Democratic shift threatens to turn Pennsylvania blue for the foreseeable future.
This is the second part of a series analyzing the swing state Pennsylvania. The next part can be found here.
Like Florida, and unlike Ohio, Pennsylvania's political geography can be divided into three. The industrial southwest is reddening, the populous southeast is bluing, and Pennsyltucky remains, as James Carville memorably described it, "Alabama without the blacks." (Actually, Pennsyltucky is a fair bit less conservative.)
The following section will concentrate on Philadelphia, the region upon which Democrats draw the most votes.
You didn't misread that title - SB400, the bill in the PA State Senate for statewide single payer health care, is getting some hearings because of Republican State Senator Don White. Here in Pennsylvania, single payer isn't a partisan issue. We've got bipartisan bills in the Senate and House with Governor Rendell's pledge to sign them if they pass.
The hearing will take place on December 16, from 9:00-10:30 AM in room 8E-A East Wing, located on the lower level of the Capitol building. Those in support of SB400 will have 45 minutes to present their information and arguments, and those opposed will also have 45 minutes.
This is a vitally important step forward, and one of the only times in history that a state-based single payer bill has been granted a senate committee hearing.
Whether you live in Pennsylvania or not, this is great news for progressives. Follow me below the fold to find out more and see how you can help.
People burning to death in fires that normally would be prevented.
Crime increasing because cops are laid off.
People literally stacked on top of each other in prisons, despite court orders that it is unconstitutional.
More and more homeless people on the street.
Libraries, many times the only way for low-income people to connect to the internet and access a world of knowledge, closed.
Trash collecting for weeks in the summer, leading to more rat infestations.
We can talk all we want about abstract ideas. But as Washington fiddles, and worries more about bankers than about us, that is the reality that was just announced in Philadelphia. The stories are similar all over the US. Will we do something about it, or not?
As a back story, in November, due to falling tax receipts and a pension fund that hit rock bottom, Philadelphia Mayor Mike Nutter announced he was going to cut 1 billion dollars from our five-year budget plan. It meant some layoffs, services being stopped, efficiencies searched, parks funding cut, and an attempt to shutter about 10 libraries.
People went berserk, especially at the library closures. A bunch of people fought the library closures specifically, and in what seemed like a miracle, a judge sided with us, and enjoined the Mayor from closing them, saving our neighborhood treasures. It was a small victory.
If you are in the Philadelphia area, you should attend two great netroots focused events, which take place tonight and tomorrow.
Mike Lux in Philly!: First, tonight at the Center City chapter of Drinking Liberally, Mike Lux will be around to discuss his new book, The Progressive Revolution. The event is at 6 p.m., Triumph Brewing Company, 117 Chestnut Street, upstairs bar.
Blogger ethics panel! Second, tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m., the American Constitution Society's Philadelphia Lawyers and UPenn Law School chapters will be cosponsoring a panel discussion at The University of Pennsylvania Law School on the role of bloggers as watchdogs / advocates under the Obama administration. Panelists will be John Aravosis, Christy Hardin Smith, Baratunde Thurston and Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, with Adam Bonin moderating. The law school is at 3400 Chestnut Street.
I will be attending both events. Hope to see you there, too!
I love Philadelphia. Sometimes, people will ask me what Philadelphia has, compared to other major American cities, that makes it so great. I can name a bunch of things, from being a relatively inexpensive, four-sport city in the North East corridor, to being the most walkable major city in the U.S., to being the best city for beer lovers east of the Mississippi, to having the best historical sites in the country, . However, above and beyond everything else, what Philadelphia and its suburbs have that other major American cities lack is consistently competitive federal electoral politics. From being one of the "big three" swing states, to having the most competitive House races in the country, to the 2008 Pennsylvania presidential primary, to the Casey vs. Santorum battle in 2006, only Cleveland, which is much smaller than Philadelphia, even comes close. Over the past decade, Philadelphia has been the federal elections capital of the United States, making it a pretty cool place for someone like me to live.
2010 will be no exception to this rule. Already, two years out, Arlen Specter's Senate seat is drawing a lot of attention. Club for Growth chairman Pat Toomey is looking into a rematch of his epic wingnut primary challenge against Specter in 2004. On the Democratic side, a number of high profile candidates are emerging. In the extended entry, I give a rundown of all of them.
I just got back from Broad Street, and I have never, ever seen anything like this. After an utterly insane bar where the only way to keep standing was because there was no way to fall over (too many people), my friends and I started walking up Broad Street starting at Pine. We only got two blocks, to Locust, before you couldn't walk any further. For those of you not from Philly, that is four blocks from City Hall:
Humanity was in all directions. Hundreds of people were above us, standing on newsstands, lampposts, subway entrances and window ledges. People were setting off fireworks, hugging and high-fiving anyone in sight, and futilely trying to send text messages (it took me five tries just to send one). We walked around City Hall, and it went on in every direction. Twenty-six blocks later, horns were still honking. Hundreds of thousands of people. Larger than any gathering I have ever attended, including any and all protests.
And people were happy. Different races, different genders, different ages--everyone has smiling and hugging and cheering and slapping hands. And more than a few people started chanting "O-bam-a" right along with "Let's Go Phill-ies." Time and time again I heard "let's do this again on Tuesday."
And so, the largest city in a swing state in the entire nation went nuts. Our first win since 1983! Some called it the Curse Of Willy Penn, but maybe it was the Curse Of Reagan. We--the largest city in a swing state--hadn't won a title since his approval ratings recovered in late 1983. But we won tonight.
My head is spinning. Let's do it again on Tuesday.
I am happy to see the consensus of no blank check emerging, because as someone who has watched the destruction that Wall Street has wrought for 12-15 years, the idea that we are writing a check to the financial services industry is stunning. Why? Let's take a trip down memory lane, and look at the story of Philadelphia, and its battle with subprime lenders over the past 15 years.
In the early 1990s Wall Street starts really getting into the securitization of subprime debt, creating a huge pool of money for subprime lenders, that was, at best, little supervised. At worst, it was money given to loan sharks on the street, who aggressively marketed shockingly bad loans to people who had no need for them, and made them go promptly in foreclosure. In 1993, Wall Street had about 20 billion dollars in securitized subprime loans. They were only getting started.
Last night, forty minutes into the debate, I felt like George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson had taken truncheons to the skulls of the candidates, myself, and the TV watching public in general. A sentiment shared by many, as it happened. I had to get up and move around, ask a few members of the assembled press some questions about why they were there and what they thought.
It was either that, or have a fit of Cthulhic gibbering, and a person has got to safeguard their sanity in this world.
Why Are You Here?
Several people cited the spin room as a draw, getting to ask questions directly of the campaign surrogates. Others said it was a chance for the journalists themselves to connect with each other, swap stories of past events (which is exactly, to be fair, what Chris Bowers, Todd Beeton and I did afterwards over a late meal,) and/or interview each other (which is what I was mostly doing in the press room.) Photojournalist Alex Gross with the Journal Register said he was there for the ambience, to provide a look at more than what they showed on TV. Janet Tegley, a senior producer with CN8, described the event as "historic," said she "wouldn't miss it for the world," and that the event was "filled with other interesting people."
Anthony Walker, the DC-based, US correspondent of The Australian Financial, (sort of an Aussie WSJ,) also cited the atmosphere, and said he was frustrated that there wasn't room for the press in the debate hall itself. He'd said he partly came to get the reaction of people on the ground there in Philadelphia, just as he'd come for the Drexel debate in October of 2007, when "Clinton first showed vulnerability" over an immigration question.
I got a somewhat different take from Jonathan Valania, editor-in-chief of Phawker. (Don't know why, but this morning the link to their live debate coverage turns up a blank entry, though you can see it all on the front page right now. I figure they'll fix this, so I linked to both.) "I thought that debate was pointless, ... a waste of time for the candidates," he said after it was all over. He didn't think the Pennsylvania voters that had been the subject of so much recent discussion had gotten their issues dealt with at all.
The Stare, The Snub And Some Substance
Then Valania suggested that I ask Maureen Dowd what she thought, since she was coming our way. I scanned the direction I was more or less facing, as he indicated, spotted her, then looked back at him. She wasn't that far away, our eyes briefly met, she must have gotten a load of my bleached buzzcut or something, and then she pretty much kept staring most the rest of the way over to where she'd have to file past me in our narrow confines. It made me kind of twitchy.
I once heard Sean Penn described as a person who seemed like he was always looking at a menu in a restaurant where he didn't like the food. That does well to describe the expression on Dowd's face as she looked at me. It wasn't hard to catch her eye when she got close and I turned from my conversation with Valania to ask if she had time for a couple questions, because she was still staring at me sideways like she couldn't believe her eyes.
Natasha Chart and I have scored credentials for tonight's debate, which is the second debate to take place in my home town. I bet we are the only members of the press taking the subway to get there.
We will be doing some updates from the press room, although it won't be straight live-blogging, which can be done without even attending the debate. Instead, I hope to try and present the flavor of the debate behind the scenes.
This is an open thread for the debate, which starts at 8 p.m. eastern.
Update: Halfway through the debate, not a single question on any policy issue had been asked, it was obvious that this debate was prime-time hit job on Obama. The questions so far have been why he doesn't wear a flag pin, whether or not his pastor loves America, why he can't win, and how many people were offended by his bittergate comments. Except for Clinton being asked about why she wasn't trustworthy, and both of them being asked about their vice-presidential choices, that has been the entire debate.
As Master Jack said in the comments, nothing on Iraq, nothing on the economy, nothing on health care, nothing on housing, nothing on global warming, nothing on torture. This is nothing but a prime-time hit job on Democrats, although mainly a hit job on Obama.
Update 2: As the debate is about to end, and no one asked me any questions, I just want to state for the record that I am so patriotic I wear a flag pin in the shower, I was so offended by Rev. Wright that I joined his church just so I could quit, and tbat I found religion, bought a gun, and moved out to Wilkes-Barre just so I could be offended by Obama's comments. Maybe that will score me an interview in the spin room, at least.
Update 3: It appears that live focus group polling of undecideds favored Obama during the first round of questions that basically was a series of hit-jobs against him, while Clinton polled better in the focus group when it shifted to issues in the second half. Hmmm... perhaps her campaign should learn something from that.
Update 4: The debate is over, and I feel like I need a shower. I think I might head over to the press party, hosted by Rep. Bob Brady. That should be, um, interesting. This is an open thread.
Update 5: The crowd here is starting to boo Gibson. Like, a lot. Hilarious and well-deserved.
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