January 11, 2007 Dear Friend: I am delighted to write and share with you some very exciting news about the future leadership of the National Constitution Center. It is with great pride that I announce that former President George H.W. Bush has been elected Chairman of the Center?s Board of Trustees for the year 2007. This is the only Chairmanship he holds currently, so we are especially touched that he has agreed to serve in this capacity. President Bush occupies a special and beloved place in American life that reflects many of this institution?s core values, especially the ethic of […]
THIS JUST IN: Fumo Sent THE LETTER Last Summer From Federal Prosecutors, And No It was Not A ‘Come Spend A Week At Our Beach House’ Invite
Typically, prosecutors send target letters to people who are likely to be charged, as a warning and as an invitation to testify before the grand jury. It’s an offer that the targets usually refuse. “It is the rare case, in my experience, that you can talk a prosecutor out of charges once a target letter is issued,” said Lawrence S. Lustberg, a Newark lawyer who defended one of the Commerce Bank executives convicted in the 2005 City Hall corruption trial. However, the delivery of a target letter, part of a secret grand jury process, is no guarantee that charges will […]
RIGHT WING WELFARE: Santorum Accepts Pity Hire From So-Called ‘Think Tank,’ Thinks He’d Be Perfect Posterboy For Their New AMERICAN ENEMAS Service, Daughter Still Inconsolable About Election Returns
FROM RIGHT WEB: The Ethics and Public Policy Center, founded in 1976, was the first institute to break ground in the new frontal attack on the secular humanists. It has been on the cutting edge of the neoconservative-driven culture war against liberalism and the associated effort to ensure right-wing control of the Republican Party. When he founded EPPC, Ernest Lefever said that part of the role of a ?small ethically oriented center? like EPPC was to ?respond directly to ideological critics who insist the corporation is fundamentally unjust.? Lefever said he was motivated to start the organization because “U.S. domestic […]
GUNCRAZY: Vowing To End Blizzard Of Hot Lead, Dueling Mayoral Candidates Show Off Battle Scars From Back When They Were KEEPIN’ IT REAL, Yo
Mayoral candidates U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah and state Rep. Dwight Evans [NOT pictured, right] yesterday both claimed to have been struck by gunfire during their teen years. Fattah said he was struck in the legs by a shotgun blast in the mid-1970s while breaking up a gunfight and was treated at Mercy Hospital in West Philadelphia. Evans said he was working in food services at Rolling Hill Hospital in Elkins Park in 1969 when a co-worker accidentally dropped a gun. It hit the floor, went off and sent a bullet ricocheting off his ear, Evans said. Both mentioned their battle […]
GAMBLOR: Rule Of Thumb, Never Takes Iggles Superbowl Odds From A Girl Who Can’t Find Her Top
“Prior to the Titans loss, the Birds dropped three of their previous four despite being the favorites in each game. Obviously a huge reason for their late season rally has been the reemergence of Jeff Garcia as a top flight QB. Since taking over the QB duties, Garcia has completed 62% of his passes while throwing 10 touchdowns to 2 interceptions. Garcia?s familiarity with the West Coast offense obviously made his transition to starter that much easier. […] The best part of all is if you were to bet the Philadelphia Eagles to win the 2007 Super Bowl heading into […]
YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY: First Woman In U.S. History Is Sworn In As Speaker Of The House
SAN FRANCISCO — It shouldn’t be surprising that it took more than 200 years for Congress to select a female speaker of the House. The United States isn’t exactly at the forefront when it comes to women in politics. Women make up a larger share of the national legislature in 79 other countries, including China, Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an association of national legislatures. The U.S. even trails a couple of fledgling democracies: Afghanistan and Iraq. “When my colleagues elect me as speaker on Jan. 4, we will not just break through a glass […]
ALL POLITICS IS LOCO: Perzel Gets Punk’d In Soft Palace Coup
Suddenly, swiftly, without warning, the veteran Northeast Philly lawmaker is positioned to impact reforms in Harrisburg, kids with disabilities and the relationship between his city and his state. Thanks to a strange cascade of events, O’Brien, a 30-year Republican incumbent first elected to the House at age 23, now runs it. Even though the House is Democratic. And his election came outta nowhere. In an unprecedented political turn of the screw, he became House speaker yesterday by a 105-97 vote, ousting the wily John Perzel, a fellow Northeast Republican with whom he’s had an arm’s-length relationship for years. He ascends […]
Edwards Declares Candidacy Smiling Knee-Deep In Katrina Muck, AKA The Dark Goo Of Compassionate Conservatism’s Lies, Says ‘Heckuva Job’ Still Half-Assed
Seeking to take advantage of the slow news days after Christmas Mr Edwards launched his campaign in the backyard of a house damaged by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans last year. Wearing jeans and an open-necked shirt, Mr Edwards, 53, worked with local youngsters to repair the house, his labour interspersed with interviews on America’s breakfast news programmes. “I’m here in New Orleans… to announce that I’m a candidate for the presidency of the United States in the election in 2008,” he said. “To show what?s possible when we as Americans, instead of staying home and complaining about somebody else […]
Turns Out William Penn Was A Godamn Hippie! Please God, Don’t Tell Rizzo, It’ll Kill Him AGAIN!
[Photo Courtesy of PhillyHistory.org] The City of Philadelphia’s photo archive contains over 2 million images that date back as far as the late 1800s, i.e. the last time a Republican won in this town. In all seriousness, this is an INCREDIBLE visual record of the city’s evolution and a relatively new web site, PhillyHistory.org, is making it available for online consumption and purchase. To date, some 18,000 images have been digitally scanned, at a rate of roughly 8,000 images a month. So, if you’ve been wondering why the line at Kinko’s is so godamnned SLOW, well, now you know. Phawker […]
AND THEN THERE WAS ONE: Death Of PREZ FORD Leaves ARLEN SPECTER The Last Man Standing
AP: “He took office minutes after Nixon flew off into exile and declared “our long national nightmare is over.” But he revived the debate a month later by granting Nixon a pardon for all crimes he committed as president. That single act, it was widely believed, cost Ford election to a term of his own in 1976, but it won praise in later years as a courageous act that allowed the nation to move on. The Vietnam War ended in defeat for the U.S. during his presidency with the fall of Saigon in April 1975. In a speech as the […]
GAMBLOR: Neighborhood Associations Say Casino Choices Smell Like Graft, Plan Panopoly Of Legal Challenges To This ‘Monkey Business’
To the south, Paul Boni, a board member of the Society Hill Civic Association, said his group will “do all we can to prevent this from happening.”In the case of Foxwoods, they may have leverage. Foxwoods has proposed to mitigate the traffic problems in South Philadelphia with a southbound off-ramp from Interstate 95, an idea that city analysts say has not been approved or funded, and that could cost the public $100 million. But in a Dec. 14 letter to the gaming board, Boni and Donald Ackerman of the Queen Village Neighbors Association noted that their groups are parties to […]
Gaming Board Picks Foxwoods And SugarHouse Gang; DiCicco Smells A Rat, Plans To File Suit To Reveal Which Varmints Have Cheese On Their Breath
by KYW’s Mike Dunn The Philadelphia city councilman whose district includes both of the sites chosen says politics, not merit, prompted the Gaming Board?s approvals. And he?s taking it to court. First District councilman Frank DiCicco is disappointed by the two choices -? particularly the selection of the Foxwoods bid for a casino at Delaware Avenue and Reed Street: ?I have always felt that Foxwoods was the worst site.? He says the traffic problems there are already enormous and will only get worse: ?There?s total gridlock today. And (with a casino) you raise the level of vehicles by somewhere between […]