Philly for Change Meetup

Last night I went to the Philly for Change Meetup, a group that grew out of the Dean campaign.

Chuck Pennacchio was there, he's running as a progressive candidate against Casey. He articulated his differences with Casey - he supports right to choose, expanded stem-cell research, stronger gun safety laws and is opposed to the war in Iraq. He's a professor of poli-sci at University of the Arts, and I wanted to ask how he would deal with being labelled a flaming liberal if he beats Casey and goes up against Santorum. Being a newbie I held my tongue. One thing he pointed out was that in the primary, 80% of the vote comes from Pittsburgh and Phila.

Then someone from Neighborhood Networks plugged the conference this Saturday.

After that David Nasser of Stop Bolton spoke. He said Specter was "unable to attend" the latest vote on Bolton and claims this as a small victory. He urged folks to keep calling Specter's office (202-224-4254 ask for Chris Fitzgerald) and to write anti-Bolton letters to the editor. Although stopping Bolton is considered a long shot, it would be cool if Specter has another "previous engagment" for the next Bolton vote. So call call call!

Then we broke out into groups and watched a trailer of Robert Greenwald's new documentary on Wal-Mart. See the article about it in the New York Times.

After that there was some time for mingling. I met someone running for township council of Upper Darby. Overall I thought it was a good group. Meets 1st Wednesday of the month.

I won't be at Thomas Frank tonight, but I hope to see some malcontents at Neighborhood Networks this Saturday.