Music of 2004

In 2004 I was captivated by a CD almost 20 years old now, The Wishing Chair by the 10,000 Maniacs. Somehow I always found it on in my car cd player and haven't gotten tired of it yet. I find the blending of words and music to be some of the best in pop. Plus, Natalie Merchant links to the Nation off her web site, which is pretty cool. What did y'all listen to the most in 2004?

What it means to be a philadelphian

It's a hard fact of life, but we must learn it and deal with it.

Poll - Iraq War Not Worth Fighting

Poll: Most Americans Think Iraq War Not Worth Fighting

Progressive Librarians on Google's Deal with Libraries

Some progressive librarians have gotten their buns in a swirl about the deal that Google has made with some of the world's major research libraries. He's got a point about privacy and advertising, but I'm not sure about his other points. Anyway he cites me so he must be right.

Nice rant

It's getting more confusing by the minute, isn't it? I mean, Canada now has legal medical pot and legal gay marriage and universal health care and no known terrorist enemies and a relatively successful multiparty political system. They also have, according to U.N.'s Human Development Index, one of the highest qualities of life in the world. All coupled with a dramatically reduced rate of gun violence and far better gun-control legislation than the U.S., despite having the exact same per capita rate of gun ownership and gun-sport enthusiasm.

All of which makes you wonder: how many more countries will it take? How many more nations will have to, for example, prove that gun licensing works, or that gay-marriage legislation is a moral imperative, or that health care for all is mandatory for a nation's well being, before America finally looks at itself and says, whoa, damn, we are so silly and small and wrong? Is there any number large enough? After the announcement that gay Chinese and gay Russians may legally marry and grow lovely gardens of marijuana as they all get free dental care, will America remain terrified of nipples and queers?

Canadians. So mellow. So laid back. So gay. So not producing any truly superlative modern-rock music or ultraviolent buddy-cop movies and not actively siccing Wal-Mart or Starbucks or Paris Hilton on the rest of the world like a goddamn cancer. They're just so ... nice. And boring. And calm. And solid. And friendly.

And they simply beat us senseless on the whole open-minded, progressive thing. Kicked our flag-wavin' butts. Trounced our egomaniacal self-righteous selves and made the red states look even more foolish and backward than the whole world already knows them to be.

For more of this good stuff go here.

SEPTA Board Meeting Today

Well I called Rendell and sent him an e-mail urging dedicated funding for SEPTA. Also called stat rep Josephs and state senator Fumo. We should have two liberal malcontents at the SEPTA board meeting today. Maybe they'll post some updates as to the situation on the ground.

Philly vs CSX

This is a local group in our neighborhood that is fighting CSX for grade crossings onto the bike path that goes from Locust St passed the Art Museum and to Falls Bridge. The path is also being extended south to Bartran's (Bertrams?) Gardens. CSX is suing the city and wants to close off the entrances. They don't want to assume liability if and when someone ignores the gate and gets hit by a train. Frankly I'm willing to give in, but these bulldogs (theFree Schuykill River Park Coalition) just will not give up! The way they have organized people around this issue is impressive. They have shown me that activism is about passion, energy, determination, as well as being well-connected and having a good knowledge of the process. Phew, that sounds tiring. Do I have it in me?


Reaching the Hidden River—Update December 15, 2004
Tomorrow City Council will consider a Resolution in Support of Free Schuylkill River Park and condemning the CSX Lawsuit!!
Come Show Your Support

Your faxes were heard!! The more than 3000 faxes you sent to City Council and the Mayor about the need for the City to vigorously defend against the CSX lawsuit has galvanized City Council to consider a strong Resolution . City Council President Anna Verna and Councilman Darrell Clarke will help our cause by introducing a resolution deploring CSX and its efforts to deprive Philadelphians of public access to the Park. This resolution will be introduced tomorrow (December 16th) at 10 am at City Hall. If you can spare the time, please attend this hearing to show your support for the Resolution. City Council asked us not to post the resolution on our website yet, but if you want to see a copy, send us an email here and we'll send it to you as an attachment.

Lawsuit Update

Also on Thursday, December 16, 2004, Free Schuylkill River Park, along with three other groups and five elected officials, will file a motion to intervene in the CSX lawsuit. We were joined by Logan Square Neighborhood Association, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Parks Alliance, State Senator Vincent Fumo, State Representative Babette Josephs, City Council President Anna Verna, Councilman Darrell Clarke and Councilman Jack Kelley. We will post the motions and briefs on the website as soon as possible, so please check back to our website if you want to read the them.

Many thanks to the hard work of Janine Bauer, who is representing the parties, the staff of the parties involved and the attorneys who provided pro bono advice and research time (Hal Schirmer, Ted Millstein of Berger & Montague and Steven Springer).

We expect a hearing on January 5th before Judge Bruce Kaufman in the Eastern District of Federal Court. Check your email for more updates on how this case progresses.

Free Schuylkill River Park

Sarah Clark Stuart and Russell Meddin

SEPTA Board Meeting Action

From a friend who hasn't signed onto the blog yet:

Local 36 is planning an action during Thursday's (12/16) SEPTA Boardmeeting. We'll be congregating at the Clothespin at 2:30 PM and marching to1234 Market Street to show SEPTA that low-wage workers who depend onreliable mass transit are not going to take this fare hike sitting down.

Join us, and spread the word!

Jeff HornsteinOrganizing Director
Service Employees Intl Union Local
3642 South 15th Street, Suite 200
Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-226-3600 (office)
215-563-9062 (fax)
267-250-6480 (mobile)

Move on meeting

In case anyone is interested, last night shockandawe and I went to a meeting held by a group of MoveOn "precinct leaders." These guys are pretty serious activists, (interestingly, just about all of them are at least 40 or 50), involved in a wide variety of political groups (the guy who put together Phillytransit.com was there).. They are very pissed off at MoveOn, because they feel it has been totally unresponsive since the election. Anyway, they are very serious about doing come hardcore organizing of malcontented liberals (not sure if they'll continue an association with MoveOn in doing so) around local issues and candidates. They have an interesting "geograhically-based" grass-roots model in mind for organizing, mirroring a party- type structure with precinct and ward leaders -- kind of a Bizarro-World Democratic Party.. I'll provide more information as the ideas develop further, but if it does get off the ground, I think it might be a good destination to channel some of those pent-up feelings of disempowerment. Let me know if you're interested in getting involved.

Moving On?

Thought some of you might be interested in this message I got about some MoveOn folks meeting tomorrow night to work on keeping momentum going with a local focus. The meeting is in my neighborhood, but I'm not sure I'll be able to make it.

Also, check out this artile about MoveOners going upside the head of the lame-ass Democrats
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/121204Y.shtml


Hi Folks,
The following e mail was sent to me and I thought you would want to read it.
There is a meeting in the northwest, following up on our work around the election, our disappointment at theoutcomes of the election, and our profound desire to make sure this doesn't happen again...that in state and national elections that come up in the next few years, we are an organized force that can bring about liberal progressive elected candidates. Please come to this meeting, in Mt Airy, Sunday night at 7 (address below)-and rejoin with neighbors who want to be part of the solution.
Also, forward the message to other folks who should know about this meeting and want to participate.
Paula

Dear MoveOn veterans and friends,

It's now a month since the election, and a few weeks since many of us
gathered at Francie Shaw's house to re-commit ourselves to the
continuing struggle to turn this country around. On Sunday at 7 PM
Francie has graciously agreed to host us again as we turn to the
complex task of developing a detailed work plan to enable us to fulfill
our goals. (Francie's address is 7145 Crittenden St.)

At our first meeting, three volunteer working groups came together to
look at different aspects of the challenge ahead. These were the Grass
Roots Organizing group, the Purpose/Mission group, and the Governance
group. I was able to attend the meetings of all three, and they were
well worth my while. Serious people did serious work and developed
provocative ideas for moving ahead.

Below you will find the work product of the Mission/Purpose Working
Group. I hope you will find it a compelling vision of what we can
continue to do together. Tomorrow I will send you a summary of the
Governance Group's thinking. I believe the ideas of the Grass Roots
Organizing group will be presented orally at our meeting.

I look forward to seeing many of you on Sunday at 7 to keep on movin'
on.

Stan Shapiro

The following ideas were agreed to by consensus by the Mission Working
Group as recommendations for further work by MoveOn Precinct captains
and volunteers in the Northwest and, ultimately, throughout the region:

1. We should urge MoveOn to establish a permanent local headquarters in
the Philly area, focused on helping its division level volunteers to
accomplish the goals described in item 2 below.

2. We are aware of the immense potential for the core group organized
in Philly by MoveOn to transform local politics, and to build the power
of local progressives to advance their values and issues at all levels
of government. To accomplish this potential, the core group should
create a broadly participatory, democratically run, permanent political
entity which -- hopefully with MoveOn’s help:

- remains organized by encouraging neighbors to work with neighbors on
a ward and division basis;

- looks for ways to grow the core by developing linkages, both to
other MoveOn precinct captains and volunteers, and to like-minded
individuals and groups, throughout the Philly area, and ultimately the
entire state;

- pursues its growth in a way that proactively promotes cultural,
racial and other forms of demographic diversity in both its membership
and leadership ranks;

- develops a message which both honors our values, and is accessible
to the broadest range of citizens;

- develops action ideas which mobilize a broad cross section of the
population to act -- through lobbying, community organizing,
educational programs and voting;

- encourages the existing media to appropriately cover our actions and
ideas, and fosters the development of alternative media that is
naturally attuned to our message.

We urge that a step by step plan be developed to accomplish these
objectives over a time-span that is reasonable and flexible in light of
both our current and foreseeable organizational strength.

SEPTA demonstration today

I went, but I left after just a few minutes. There was a very small group (including many, shall we say "interesting" folks), about 10 people -- and SEPTA was only a secondary focus. The main focus of the people there was the war and more general economic issues. So, I was a bit disappointed. I am going to try to attend the SEPTA board meeting next Thursday (look at the Phillytransit.com website for details). Work? What's work?

Santorum Watch - tactics

There were at least 2 disturbing sentences in the Santorum article in the Inquirer the other day. One was the mention of Santorum's name in connection with a run for the White House in 2008. :0

The other was this little tidbit:

A leader of the religious right, the Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, told a Catholic magazine that his group would work to see that Santorum "is not reelected in 2006."
"He has alienated some true believers with his support of Specter in the primary," said Michael Young, a former Pennsylvania State University professor who is now a Hershey-based polling consultant. "... He is stable, solid, but he will have a tough election."

Wow! Talk about super hard core. They want to defeat Santorum because he's not pro-abortion enough (because he supported Specter!) That is really mind blowing to me.

So why can't we take a page from this book and work to defeat the Republicans in the PA legislature who are blocking funding of SEPTA?

Big Ass Bibliography

I'm happy to read the Kansas book, but here's a bibliography of university press books on "the mechanics (and manipulation) of democracy." What can I say I'm a freakin librarian.

Two Questions

Maybe the all knowing Bob has answers....

1) Does anyone have any more ideas about how to become more active on the SEPTA issue? Is anyone going ot the march today -- (kind of late notice and the weather sucks: The march will begin at PGW at 1137 Chestnut Street at 4:00 pm, will go to SEPTA Headquarters at 1234 Market Street at 4:45 pm and continue to City Hall at 5:30 pm). Have you heard of anyone organizing around this issue in any city neighborhoods? Have you heard of any unions (including the Transit Workers Union) taking any supportive action? Do you know of any good resources for becoming more knowledgeable on the issue (in addition to Phillytransit.com -- thanks Jeanette)? How much should we blame Rendell (I can get his address -- he lives in East Falls -- anybody want to picket?).

Here's an e-mail, plagiarized from Phillytransit.com, that I send to Rendell (governor@state.pa.us), and cc'd to Allyson Schwartz

Dear Governor,

Please make federal highway flex funds available for public transit. SEPTA needs $62 million to avoid any service reductions or fare increases.

I am please that you have taken a lead on public transit financing by endorsing dedicated funding and Dwight Evan's bi-partisan package of tax and fee increases to pay for it. And I am disappointed that the Republican leaders of the legislature left Harrisburg without taking any action. But that is no reason to allow devastating service reductions and fare increases.

You have the authority to begin the process of transferring (or, in the government terminology, flexing) millions of dollars of federal highway funds to public transportation. You need to begin this process now!

You believe that this is not the best way to fund public transit. I agree. Flex funds should be used for capital improvements in SEPTA not for operating funds. But, unless the you have a hat that contains a rabbit that will provide us with transit funds, we do not see any other choice. We will work with you and Democratic and Republican legislators to enact dedicated funding in 2005. But we cannot allow SEPTA and the entire region to be devastated while we wait.



2) Are folks interested in identifying a book -- What's Wrong with Kansas -- for example, and then having a Meet Up of Liberal Malcontents (a MULM) to discuss it -- perhaps with someone assuming responsibility for leading the discussion, presenting related resources, finding out if Li might bring dumplings, etc.?

Phila Young Dems Meet Tonight

For any Democrats under 35, get in the begining stages of the new Philadelphia chapter of Young Democrats. This is the December Meeting of the Philadelphia Young Democrats. On the agenda will be the ratification of our constitution, elections of our executive leadership, and the drafting of our 2005 plan of attack.
When: Thursday, December 9, 2004 at 8:00 PM
Where:The Dark Horse Pub421 South 2nd Street Philadelphia, PA 19147 215-928-9307

Philly Democratic Party December Meet Up

See who's coming and help your Organizer better plan the event by RSVPing:http://democrat.meetup.com/8/events/3665548/
What: Philadelphia Democratic Party December Meetup
When: Tuesday, December 14 at 7:00PM
Where: Joe's Coffee Shop 1100 Walnut Street Philadelphia PA 19107215-592-7384

So, you were starting to feel a bit better, huh?

Starting to make a check of Liberal Malcontents a part of your daily routine? Feeling like reading and sharing with your friends was beginning to rebuild your sense of hope? Thinking that forming community was the first step towards creating a mass revolt of Liberal Malcontentism? Happy happy, joy, joy? Think again, buddy. Check out this cheap shot at MoveOn.org on Slate.com

http://slate.com/id/2110819/

DNC "Investigative Study" of Ohio voting

I don't know, has an "investigative study" ever accomplished anything?

Delaware River article and Carmen's blog.

I was talking to a friend recently about sprawl, the Schuylkill, and flooding. Is this another example of how the suburbs make war on cities? Here's an interesting article on the Delaware River.

For those who don't know about it, here's Carmen's blog.

Contribute to Wash guv recount

Ya, like I'm going to spend my money on this instead of bike gear? Well maybe I should. There was a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday about motorcycle guys who go around lobbying against helmet laws. I think they are complete idiots, but it really shows what a certain kind of activism is all about. These guys get everyone all fired up to repeal the helmet laws. They give money, make phone calls, send e-mails, vote people out of office, just on the helmet issue. And it works. It doesn't really matter if it's bad policy, there's just a bunch of people screaming about it and no one to oppose them. One of the bikers gave $200,000 of his own money. Just wear the stupid helmet and shut-up you idiot! The article unfortunately is not online.

The Librarian Quest for the Spear on TNT

This looks exactly like my job! (Sorry this isn't really political but I had to!)

Ohio election official is co-chair of Bush campaign

Can you believe that the guy who oversees the election in Ohio was co-chair of Bush's campaign?

Write state reps about stupid PA constitution

Here's a post from a budding activist friend. A great of example of getting fired up and doing something about it! --Marc

You have probably heard about the crisis facing SEPTA as a result of the state legislature's failure to appropriate funds to the transit agency beforethe end of its session. While following the news coverage of Governor Rendell's attempt to use federal highway funding to reallocate state funds for transit byexecutive action, I learned that the Pennsylvania Constitution has a provisionwhich restricts the use of revenue from gasoline taxes to the construction andrepair of roads. That money can't be used for transit.

This seems absurd to me (constitutional provision!?!), and I wrote to my state legislators about it. If you agree, maybe you'll do the same.>> Here's a link to the PA Constitution:http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Constitution.html>> (it's article VIII, Section 11)>> Here's a link to find out who your state reps are:http://www.legis.state.pa.us/index.cfm>> (you can search by zip code in the upper-right-hand corner of the window)>> Here's a copy of the letter I wrote (too long, I know, but I always getverbose when I'm mad):> ---------------------

--------> Dear Representative Josephs:>> I am writing to ask you to consider sponsoring a bill to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution, specifically, Article VIII, Section 11, whichrestricts the use of gasoline tax revenues to the construction and repair ofroads.>> I live in Center City Philadelphia. I am the kind of person the Commonwealthpurports to want to retain: a well-educated, entrepreneurially-minded taxpayer.I live in the city in part because I dislike the car-oriented development thatdominates this country, and I prefer to walk and take public transportation. Infact, I believe that public transit is essential to the environmental andsocial well-being of the country. So, as you can imagine, I was bitterly disappointed that the state legislature failed to act to save SEPTA from imminent crisis. It was in reading about the Governor's attempt toreappropriate funds to resolve the issue that I learned about theconstitutional restriction on the use of gas taxes.>> It is universally understood that public transit can never be self-supportingand that public subsidies are required. The source of the funding should befrom those who rely on cars. Why? Because the domination of the automobile hasbeen and continues to be massively subsidized by the government, but thesprawling development which depends on cheap automobile operation threatens ournatural resources, our physical and mental health, and, according to theBrookings Institution's Report, "The Costs of Sprawl in Pennsylvania", ourstate's very economic survival.>> By raising gasoline taxes and using the revenue to subsidize public transit, automobile travel, and encourage transit-oriented development. I understandfrom your web site that you are also a committed user of public transit. I urgeyou to act to amend this constitutional provision.>>

Thank you,>>

Sincerely,

Wind chill schmind chill

Only 35% of Americans say evolution is well supported by evidence. Anyone interested in moving to Canada?