Yep

Glad I did not tune in. From the Washington Post.

By Tom Shales
Thursday, April 17, 2008; Page C01

When Barack Obama met Hillary Clinton for another televised Democratic candidates' debate last night, it was more than a step forward in the 2008 presidential election. It was another step downward for network news -- in particular ABC News, which hosted the debate from Philadelphia and whose usually dependable anchors, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, turned in shoddy, despicable performances.
For the first 52 minutes of the two-hour, commercial-crammed show, Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news. Some were barely news to begin with.

The fact is, cable networks CNN and MSNBC both did better jobs with earlier candidate debates. Also, neither of those cable networks, if memory serves, rushed to a commercial break just five minutes into the proceedings, after giving each candidate a tiny, token moment to make an opening statement. Cable news is indeed taking over from network news, and merely by being competent.

Gibson sat there peering down at the candidates over glasses perched on the end of his nose, looking prosecutorial and at times portraying himself as a spokesman for the working class. Blunderingly he addressed an early question, about whether each would be willing to serve as the other's running mate, "to both of you," which is simple ineptitude or bad manners. It was his job to indicate which candidate should answer first. When, understandably, both waited politely for the other to talk, Gibson said snidely, "Don't all speak at once."

For that matter, the running-mate question that Gibson made such a big deal over was decidedly not a big deal -- especially since Wolf Blitzer asked it during a previous debate televised and produced by CNN.

The boyish Stephanopoulos, who has done wonders with the network's Sunday morning hour, "This Week" (as, indeed, has Gibson with the nightly "World News"), looked like an overly ambitious intern helping out at a subcommittee hearing, digging through notes for something smart-alecky and slimy. He came up with such tired tripe as a charge that Obama once associated with a nutty bomb-throwing anarchist. That was "40 years ago, when I was 8 years old," Obama said with exasperation.

Obama was right on the money when he complained about the campaign being bogged down in media-driven inanities and obsessiveness over any misstatement a candidate might make along the way, whether in a speech or while being eavesdropped upon by the opposition. The tactic has been to "take one statement and beat it to death," he said. ...At the end, Gibson pompously thanked the candidates -- or was he really patting himself on the back? -- for "what I think has been a fascinating debate." He's entitled to his opinion, but the most fascinating aspect was waiting to see how low he and Stephanopoulos would go, and then being appalled at the answer.

Hard to Say Obama Doesn't Walk It Like He Talks It.

Might end up costing him votes, of course. From The LA Times.

By Peter Nicholas, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 11, 2008
Fourteen months into a campaign that has the feel of a movement, Sen. Barack Obama has collided with the gritty political traditions of Philadelphia, where ward bosses love their candidates, but also expect them to pay up.

The dispute centers on the dispensing of "street money," a long-standing Philadelphia ritual in which candidates deliver cash to the city's Democratic operatives in return for getting out the vote.Flush with payments from well-funded campaigns, the ward leaders and Democratic Party bosses typically spread out the cash in the days before the election, handing $10, $20 and $50 bills to the foot soldiers and loyalists who make up the party's workforce.

It is all legal -- but Obama's people are telling the local bosses he won't pay.

That sets up a culture clash, pitting a candidate who promises to transform American politics against the realities of a local political system important to his presidential hopes. Pennsylvania holds its primary April 22.

Obama's posture confounds neighborhood political leaders sympathetic to his cause. They caution that if the senator from Illinois withholds money that gubernatorial, mayoral and presidential candidates have willingly paid out for decades, there could be defections to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. And the Clinton campaign, in contrast, will oblige in forking over the money, these ward leaders predict.

"We've heard directly from the Obama organizer who organizes our ward, and he told us it's an entirely volunteer organization and that I should not expect to see anything from the Obama campaign other than ads on TV and the support that volunteers are giving us," said Greg Paulmier, a ward leader in the northwest part of the city.

Neither the Clinton nor the Obama campaign would say publicly whether it would comply with Philadelphia's street money customs. But an Obama aide said Thursday that it had never been the campaign's practice to make such payments. Rather, the campaign's focus is to recruit new people drawn to Obama's message, the aide said.

The field operation "hasn't been about tapping long-standing political machinery," the aide said...

The Divine Lorraine

Wikipedia entry here.

Ain't It The truth

From Mickipedia.

Local Corruption, National Corruption - Same S%#t, Different Day

From The Philadelphia Inquirer. Read the whole article.

The fight over land behind PHA suit
S. Phila. properties are at the nexus of a tangle that has drawn in a Bush cabinet member.

By Jennifer Lin and Mark Fazlollah

Inquirer Staff Writers
On June 19, 2006, Mayor John F. Street called a summit for two powerful players in Philadelphia real estate.

On one side was Kenny Gamble, the millionaire R&B maestro whose local nonprofit - Universal Community Homes - was a developer in the Martin Luther King Plaza public housing project in South Philadelphia.

On the other was Carl R. Greene, the head of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, who was in charge of the redevelopment.

The men were at war over four parcels of land.

Greene refused to give the land to Universal. He said Universal hadn't done any work to earn it. And if Gamble didn't like it, he could get a lawyer to negotiate buying the land.

After Street had left and the meeting had ended, Greene said, Gamble leaned toward him and said, "I don't need lawyers."

"I have friends."

Gamble's contact with one of those friends - Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson - is now the focus of a federal lawsuit, as well as an investigation by the inspector general for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

PHA alleges that Jackson tried to pressure the authority to turn over to Universal - at no cost - land worth $7 million. And that when the housing authority refused, HUD retaliated.

Last year, HUD declared PHA in default of its agreement to redevelop the Martin Luther King project. Separately, it stripped the authority of any autonomy in spending $300 million in federal funds.

Greene said that would result in fewer new affordable housing units, as many as 240 layoffs, and fewer services for residents....

Will everyone stop shitting on Philadelphia please - "Phila: Ugly, constipated, miserable?"

From the Philadelphia Inquirer

Philadelphia has been called many things.

In history books, the city is warmly mythologized as "The Cradle of Liberty." We take comfort in the knowledge that our name means "The City of Brotherly Love."

But in recent years, Philadelphia has become the target of some pretty vicious name-calling.

In 1999, Men's Health magazine saddled us with the honor of "Fattest City in America," and the insults have come fast and furious ever since.

The latest affront comes from Forbes magazine. It's just labeled us one of the Most Miserable Cities in America.

Maybe we got a right to sing the blues.

We were named America's Most Depressed in 2005 and America's Ugliest City last summer. In December, a yogurt maker had the nerve to label us the Most Constipated in the Northeast.

Philadelphia and its suburbs ranked No. 5 out of the nation's 150 largest metro areas, scoring near the bottom in all categories used to calculate Forbes' "Misery Meter."

The magazine based its rankings on six factors: unemployment, personal income tax rates, commuting times, number of Superfund sites, violent crime and weather.

Detroit took the dubious top honors, followed by Stockton, Calif,; Flint, Mich.; New York City, which was formerly known as "The Most Depressed." The list is rounded out by Chicago; Los Angeles; Modesto, Calif.; Charlotte, N.C., and Providence, R.I.

Danny DeVito Demonstrates a Strong Pimp Hand

From the funniest show on TV, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.