A VOTE FOR CHANGE: Smells Like Victory!

ALL EYES ON THE PRIZE: Michael Nutter taking the podium for his victory speech moments ago. Also pictured is wife Lisa, lower left with back to the camera, and daughter Olivia, beneath her father’s arm. GREAT MOMENTS IN DEMOCRACY: “No, no, that was yesterday. This is today. This is a NEW day.” — Michael Nutter, waving off a chorus of boos from the crowd at the mention of Tom Knox, during his victory speech. [Photo by JONATHAN VALANIA]

PTV: Phawking With The Candidates

[googlevideo]-396422075784634969[/googlevideo] We are standing by live at Nutter headquarters and will be bringing you updates as they happen. In the meantime enjoy this last bit of election tomfoolery with anchorman Shawn Kilroy, a true son of liberty. Also, check out these excellent pix from the Inquirer photographer Tom Gralish, who tailed the candidate from morning to night on Election Day.

TODAY I SAW…

BY JEFF DEENEY “Today I saw…” is a series of nonfiction shorts based on my experiences as a caseworker serving formerly homeless families now living in North and West Philadelphia. I decided not long after starting the job that I was seeing so many fascinating and disturbing things in the city’s poorest neighborhoods that I needed to start cataloging them. I hope this bi-weekly column serves as a record of a side of the city that many Philadelphians don’t come in contact with on a daily basis. I want to capture moments not frequently covered by the local media, which […]

BREAKING: Knox Campaign Office Robbed By Gunmen Wearing Matching KNOX FOR PHILADELPHIA T-Shirts

FISH STORY: The candidate explaining that all of the robbers were “at least this tall, possibly taller.”* They wore “Tom Knox for Philadelphia” T-shirts.But instead of lending support, they were looking obtain some. Two men strolled into the Knox campaign office at Frankford and Cottman in the Northeast just before 1 this afternoon, produced a gun and demanded cash. After getting an undetermined amount, they fled. No one was tied up or hurt, and the robbers wore no masks, police said. INQUIRER: You Just Can’t Make This Shit Up — Or Can You? THE NATION: “In 1986 Karl Rove was […]

JERRY FALWELL, Agent Of Intolerance*, Is Dead

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority and built the religious right into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University, a school executive said. He was 73.Ron Godwin, the university’s executive vice president, said Falwell, 73, was found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. “CPR efforts were unsuccessful,” he said. Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but he said Falwell “has a history of heart challenges.” NPR: Jerry Falwell To Finally Meet Maker, Let The Great Reckoning Begin WIKIPEDIA: Falwell was […]

MAILBAG: I Heart TODAY I SAW

Dear Phawker, I’m from a small town (45,000) in Central Florida, across the river from where they launch the space shuttle and about a half hour from Orlando. I currently am fixated with Jeff Deeney’s “Today I Saw…” and I love the style in which the news is reported on your website, modern enough for college students and teenagers to be interested in it. I found out about the website after I read a post on the news group “alt.drugs.hard” (sorry if thats not exactly the publicity you were looking for) that mentioned a report in the Philadelphia Weekly about […]

ENDORSEMENT: Michael Nutter For Mayor

Because he is The One to lead us out of the matrix of our own bullshit. Michael Nutter has got game: he speaks in complete paragraphs, with subsections A., B., and C. and attendant footnotes, which also have their own subsections A., B., and C. He has run a campaign of ideas — smart, principled, and aspirational — for solving just about every problem this city faces, while his opponents have offered the usual empty sloganeering, racial semaphore and coded entreaties to their respective bases. If that makes you a wonk or a nerd — well, you can call us […]

MEDIA: Pentagon Puts Worldwide Ban On YouTube, MySpace, MTV, Photobucket And BlackPlanet

The Defense Department will begin blocking access “worldwide” to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks, according to a memo sent Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell, the U.S. Forces Korea commander. “This recreational traffic impacts our official DoD network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge,” the memo said. Iraqi insurgents or their supporters have been posting videos on YouTube at least since last fall, and the Army recently began posting videos on YouTube showing soldiers defeating insurgents and befriending Iraqis. The sites covered by the ban are the video-sharing sites […]

CJR: THE FORT DIX SIX FOR SKEPTICS

From Columbia Journalism Review’s daily online page: The Bush administration’s Justice Department has a vested interest in portraying every “plot” it busts as the next 9/11, regardless of how embryonic or feeble. It serves as a distraction from the administration’s failures in Iraq and elsewhere, it perpetuates the state of fear that has served this White House well in recent years, and it justifies the massive Homeland Security bureaucracy. Journalists, meanwhile, are at a decided disadvantage when trying to determine the seriousness — or lack thereof — of the threat, because the government holds all the cards. That’s why a […]