HOUSING

As a matter of public policy, I favor the city deferring taxes for low-income senior citizens caught in this dilemma until their death or until the house is put up for sale, whichever occurs first. I believe the City of Philadelphia should be compassionate to people who feel unable to leave a neighborhood which has gradually or suddenly become above their means as poperty owners.

June 3, 2007

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=501358#post501358

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The number of homes and condos being listed for sale continue to rise dramatically, while the actual number of sales for both homes and condos are rising only slowly. A continuation of these trends would seem to lead to reductions in home prices and a glut in the market, at least in the short run. At the very least, they should discourage short-term real estate speculation.On the other hand, the figures of Kevin C. Gillen, PhD, at http://www.goppelt.net/phpi/phpi/q06.pdf, offer reason for optimism for the strength of home ownership as an investment, coupled with caution as to affordablity for moderate income folks. More homes were sold in the first quarter of 2006 than at all but one first quarter (2005) in the last decade, including an all-time first quarter high of homes sold at $1million or more.The only neighborhood in Philadelphia to suffer price declines in the first quarter of 2006 was the overheated University City neighborhood, where prices have already risen 587% since the first quarter of 1980 and 322.5% since the first quarter of 1996.Philadelphia's House Price to Rent Ratio, equal to the U.S. average in 1980, has outpaced the U.S. average since 2005 after falling behind it in 1992. Philadelphia's change in housing inventories from April 2005 to April 2006 (39%) has risen more slowly than that of Phoenix (282%), Miami (236%), Washington, D.C. (230%), Los Angeles(149%), San Diego (91%), Boston (91%), New York (70%), San Francisco (65%), Detroit (46%), and Minneapolis (43%). We are higher though than Chicago (28%), Las Vegas (24%), Denver (19%), Atlanta (15%), Seattle (5%), Dallas (0%), and Houston (-3%).Further 10% of the homes purchased in Philadelphia in 2005 were not owner-occupied, lower than at least 10 other cities. Only 7% of the mortgage originations permitted negative amortization, also lower than at least ten other cities. Only 19% of 2005 Mortgage Originations in Philadelphia required interest-only payments, lower than at least 14 other cities. PMI Mortage Insurance Company was quoted in the April 10, 2006 Business Week, as saying that there was only a 12% chance of house price declines in Philadelphia over the next two years, a lower figure than in at least 10 other cities. The only bad news that Dr. Gillen offers is the decline in affordability of Philadelphia housing. As late as 2003, Philadelphia houses cost less than 1.5 times the average annual Philadelphia income, as was true in 1980. Since then however, Philadelphia houses have risen to costing 2.3 times the average annual Philadelphia income. Dr. Gillen does not report this, but in the last year that income figures were available (I think it was 2005, but it could have been 2004), average income fell while prices skyrocketed. Both trends cannot continue indefinitely; I suspect income stagnation is a cause of increasing inventory of houses and condos that TimK is reporting.I am greatful to Dr. Gillen, Ed Goppelt, and TimK for making all this information so readily available.

May 25, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=256031#post256031

CRIME

A President committed to reducing crime could:(1) Order the same kind of scrutiny towards American imports for illegal drugs that American air passengers now get every day;(2) Give high-crime areas of the United States financial resources to hire thousands of new police, parole workers, recreation workers, tutors, and others who would aggressively work to get our criminally inclined young people out of criminal subcultures and into the American mainstream;(3) Keep a close rein on the CIA, the State Department, and the Defense Department to stop or at least severely limit deals with drug suppliers achieving foreign policy objectives by easing access to American consumers or otherwise strengthening their ability to get illegal drugs into the United States;(4) Find a way consistent with the second amendment to reduce the flow of guns into the hands of criminals and potential criminals in urban areas;(5) Work to expand access to the middle class through better schools, greater college aid, and clear pathways to job opportunities in order to reduce the appeal of criminal lifestyles;(6) Effectively pressure large American corporations to dramatically reduce films, gangsta rap music, video game murders and other media that collectively glorify criminal subcultures and evangelize for violence, drug use, theft, rape, and other crimes;(7) Work with responsible media elements to develop and distribute and fund alternate media creating compelling images and catchy music and responsible role models of people playing by the rules and having a good, long life as a result.I am sure that many other things could be done as well. A Presidency aggressively committed to reducing crime would undoubtedly lead to a lot of innovative thought and active public discussion and research as to what works and what does not work in the fight against crime.

August 12, 2007

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=551724#post551724

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During my years in the state legislature, I have voted successfully to re-establish the death penalty and to make death penalty appeals end quicker, to establish and increase mandatory minimum sentences for numerous crimes, to ban guns in schools and on route to schools, to set up special schools for students with severe discipline problems and/or significant criminal records, to allow the admission of DNA evidence, to clear up loopholes allowing guilty people to escape punishment, to meet the conditions of France for extraditing convicted murderer Ira Einhorn, to construct various additional prisons, to more intensely surveill those whose records show them more likely to commit serious crimes, to allow prosecutors expanded wiretapping power, to expand witness protection programs, and to establish and expand programs protecting battered men and women from brutal spouses or lovers.I have worked successfully to increase funding for public education to the extent that Philadelphia schools now get about 63% of their budget from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to give social workers power to remove children from the homes of parents or guardians who brutalize them, to establish and increase the penalties for hate crimes, to establish boot camps for young and salvageable offenders, to make it clear despite prior precedent that the crime of rape applies to single women who are not virgins, to maintain and increase funding for drug and alchol abuse treatment programs, to create added penalties for crimes against law enforcement officers, to make driving under the influence of drugs a crime, to toughen penalties against drunk drivers and people who fail to pay required child support, to allow confiscation of proceeds from crimes, and to ban legal profiteering from the commission of crimes.I do not think we have done enough. My search for increased workable ideas in the fight against crime is one of the reason for my purchase of various public policy books on crime and my eagerness to serve on Speaker Dennis O'Brien's proposed Commission on Crime Prevention.We have gone from about 10,000 Pennsylvanians in state and local prisons when I was first elected to about 60,000 today, from total annual spending of about $100 million a year for state prisons to over $1.6 billion a year today for state prisons. We need more resources to fight crime--such as financial support for police and intensive resources to monitor and train at risk youths for worthwhile societal roles. We need the same kind of intensive federal supervision of goods shipped into the U.S.--which too often harbor illegal drugs--that we have of airline passengers today. We need the same kind of outrage and resources directed against those who kill law enforcement officers as against those who kill Americans abroad.

August 12, 2007

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=551724#post551724

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We need more efforts to prevent crimes from occurring. We need to educate all students in peaceful conflict resolution strategies. We need to target those who are most at risk. We need to stigmatize going to prison so that it does not give street cred, so that it is not an acceptable rite of passage. We need to make it clear that life has value, that illegal drugs kill some people and shorten the lives of many. We need a much broader understanding of what legitimate career options are, the futility of either buying or selling illegal drugs, and that those who sell drugs are not community friends or service providers but community enemies.All this takes a lot of money. Some of this is being done by city agencies to some extent already; the mayor has his cabinet will be briefing legislators in detail on what is being done after Labor Day. Reducing the flow of guns in Philadelphia would be helpful for the simple reason that it is much easier to kill or maim someone with a gun than with any other weapon. But I certainly agree that the problem goes far beyond guns.Pennsylvania is something like 8th per capita in prison spending, but only 30th per capita in overall anti-crime spending. I have tried repeatedly without success to get the state to spend more money on fighting crime; Philadelphia certainly could use it.Despite the major problems we now face, there are signs that some good things are occurring. Only about 3% of all Philadelphia murders are of strangers; random murder is now close to being extinct. Spousal violence is way down from its peak across the country. And the current increase in murders follows some of the lowest yearly murder totals since the 1960's.

August 8, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=299799#post299799

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While no one can dispute that crime in cities is greater than in suburbs, crime in the suburbs is clearly growing faster. There is nothing in a suburban location that stops the existence of street crime, and much that both attracts criminals and leads citizens to leave their guard down.It is easier to cover up the commission of non-obvious murders there, because the police are less suspicious of so-called accidents. And crime sometimes goes to the suburbs for the same reason that Jesse James robbed banks: James said he robbed banks because "That's where the money is."If one excludes the large number of crimes that are committed both against criminals by other criminals and against people in poverty by other people in poverty, the crime rate against middle class Philadelphians is far lower than the crime rate against the city as a whole. It is still higher than the crime rate in many suburbs, but not so high that people should be paralyzed by fear.

May 26, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=256194#post256194

CITY CONTROLLER

Alan Butkovitz, a 15 year veteran of the legislature, was elected last November in the last election to succeed Saidel. Butkovitz is in the process of thoroughly examining the powers of the office and studying intently how his predessessors handled the job. He is a diligent, thorough, and innovative man who has great potential in this position.

June 4, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=260054#post260054

LIBRARIES

The Northeast Library is jammed with people almost all the time.Shutting down the Holmesburg Library and telling all its many patrons to come to the Northeast Library will only increase waits and reduce service. The last thing the Northeast Library and its existing clientele need is more people there at most times.Similarly, the Coleman Library in Northwest Philadelphia would get some of the overflow if the Ogontz Library is shut down and the Logan Library is shut down. That library too is jammed almost all the time.It doesn't take any detailed study to see that libraries being shut down serve a vital purpose. Government budgeting has this in common with family budgeting: if you cannot afford existing expenditures, you cannot afford new expenditures.New York City, BTW, with five years of the 311 system under its belt, now has a deficit of $4 billion, about the size of Philly's total budget, which it will take a combination of taxes and program cuts to pay off.

November 30, 2008

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/politics/71017-interview-managing-director-camille-barnett-4.html

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I am afraid that two libraries in my district--both of which have charter schools nearby--are going to be shut down, leaving many people without access to books, the internet, and job data bases.These libraries are full of people from modest means taking responsibility for their own futures and those of their children, precisely the kind of behavior that is most needed in our city today.I am afraid that library near my district will be shut down in Northeast Philadelphia, having the same kind of impact on my constitutents and others.I am afraid that the 311 system will be an expensive acquisition for the City of Philadelphia. Nobody here has talked about its costs, but the New York Times for December 1, 2003 found that in its first year, the 311 system had start up costs of $21 million and operating costs of $27 million per year. It had a total staff of 375 people, and generated millions of calls, while the total number of calls to the 911 system remained the same.Let's start asking tough questions about how much the 311 system is going to cost, and what programs are going to have to be cut, or what taxes are going to have to be raised, in order to pay for it.

November 30, 2008

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/politics/71017-interview-managing-director-camille-barnett-5.html

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I would recommend that people looking to donate books give them to a high school library. Pennsylvania schools generally, and Philadelphia schools in particular, rank school libraries as low priorities. The State library system says a school library should spend $38 per student per year, but the state average is only about $18 and the city average is less than $7.

June 4, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=260057#post260057

PRIVACY

It certainly is fascinating information for all concerned citizens to ponder. The linked articles don't deal with it, but I believe I have read that some of the sellers of widely used social software are also in the data mining business. I believe I am accurate in recalling that Greg Palast has written of Choice Data Point's connections with one or more of the social software providers.Obviously, people should be careful of what they write online. Email and internet postings might as well be written in stone and protected by a phalanx of armed guards; they are extremely hard to get rid of. Even psuedononymous postings might well be cracked and somehow indexed under a person's name.For the vast majority of people the vast majority of the time, being the subject of a large database file will have no effect. But if some one somehow gets in the way of somebody who has access to this database, one can expect a lot of derogatory information to come piling out.It is not generally known that Martin Luther King was one of the major figures in the history of American copyright law. This happened when private concerns started making a lot of money selling King's speeches. King's lawyers, seeking a source of income to support King while he advanced his civil rights activities, argued that King's speeches were only in the public domain for the specific audience that was present to hear them. For everyone else, they were King's private property, and they had to pay royalties to use them. The U.S. Supreme Court bought this argument, and it revolutionized American copyright law.Similarly, it can be argued that information is only in the public domain for the purpose in which it was generated, and not for permanent database collection. I would hope the Supreme Court would buy this argument, and I would love to work on a case like this as an attorney, either representing clients, or more likely due to an extremely demanding schedule, as the writer of an amicus brief.A country in which intimate personal knowledge about hundreds of millions of people is in data bases to be employed at will against the interests of any of those hundreds of millions of people at the whim of the data base ower or whoever contracts with the data base owner is not a free country. I am introducing shortly a bill seeking to guarantee privacy of cell phone records, and it is obvious from this thread that much more has to be done at both state and federal levels to protect our citizens.

June 14, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=265949#post265949

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Seand and ChiefSalsa may well be right that laughter and ridicule is the best defense against intrusive data mining. Just as in the FBI's massive investigations as to who once was a communist, and who associated with one or more people who once were a communinist, and who associated with one or more people who associated with one or more who once were a communist, most of the information that comes out is of mind-numbing triviality and complete insignificance.On the other hand, information about people's relationships can be used to manipulate people. The FBI in the late 1940's found that a communist named Morris Childs was so disillusioned with communism that he had almost completely dropped out of the Communist Party. They recruited him as an agent. With their extensive knowledge of the Communist Party--probably far greater than possessed by any single communist--they plotted a brilliant comeback campaign for Childs which led him to rise to the number two position in the Communist Party based on his uncanny knowldedge of the relationships and opinions of each person who counted in the Communist Party.The FBI then successfully worked to make Childs indispensable to the Communist Party so that he would hold onto his top leadership position. With the FBI's helpful knowledge of the key people in the Soviet hierarchy, he successfully solicited the money to finance the party organization, financing they kept getting until the Soviet Union dissolved. The FBI then widely leaked the information that the Soviet Union was financing the American Communist Party, trying to discredit the Communist Party simultaneously with trying to keep it alive, and keeping Childs as a high-ranking leader of it. Child's autobiography discusses these somewhat contradictory efforts--brilliant and repulsive simultaneously-- in extraordinary detail.Similarly, in their notorious COINTELPRO operation, the FBI sent tapes of alleged Martin Luther King sexual encounters to his wife and friends, and undermined various organizations by feeding false information to close friends of radical leaders they disapproved of. Relationships, organizations, and marriages were destroyed by these kind of tactics.These kind of tactics were employed against Democrats like George McGovern and Ed Muskie in 1971 and 1972, and helped contribute to the Nixon landslide just as Watergate was unfolding. Part of the fascination with the Watergate tapes is hearing Nixon's inquiries, suggestions, and enjoyment with these tactics.These kind of tactics undermine trust between persons and make talking, planning, or outreach far more difficult. They are not what one would expect from high-ranking people in an extraordinarily idealistic nation.

June 15, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=266007#post266007

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The news that records of all phone calls from various telephone companies (including Verizon) have gone into a database is outrageous. It is well worthy of the effort that the ACLU and other organizations are making to dismantle this system of surveillance.When one person calls another, he or she is not doing something for which answers and explanations should normally be provided. Of course, one can come with scenarios of illegal activity which justify surveillance: that is why we have legally authorized wiretapping under certain very limited circumstances. A database of all phone calls made, coupled with databases of health care records, databases of financial records, databases of political activities, databases of books and magazines purchased, databases of internet searches made, etc. are creating a future in which many, many details about people's lives will be available to those who have access to the data bases.If the right to privacy that a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court believes is covered by the U.S. Constitution is to be meaningful, it should cover this kind of absurdly overbroad intrusiveness.A future in which the minutiae of each person's life is publicly available to those with access to the data base is a future in which people will be operating in a state of fear. Thought, social interaction, and access to needed advice and professional help all will be curtailed. This is not the type of country many tens of millions of Americans would want to live in.


May 24, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=255206#post255206

RACE RELATIONS

You don't fight racial stereotypes with more racial stereotypes. You fight racial stereotypes by making clear you recognize people of all races as individual human beings, and by setting an example for others to encourage them to do likewise. Indivividual human beings are responsible for their own actions, but the race they are a member of is not responsible.

June 21, 2007

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=514431#post514431

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We all are fundamentallly members of the human race more than of any individual race. Growing anthropological and DNA research suggests common ancestors with the unlikeliest people: Al Sharpton, for instance, appears to be a cousin of Strom Thurmond. That the 1948 States Rights Party candidate, Thurmond, is likely related to the 2004 black insurgent Democrat makes for one of the oddest political family dynasties on record or imaginable.K. Leroy Irvis--the wisest and most articulate and most eloquent of the one thousand or so legislators with whom I have served in the Pennsylvania legislature and a leader of civil rights demonstrations in Pittsburgh while Martin Luther King was a student--was a big proponent of the theory of The Human Race. He had researched his ancestry long before it was fashionable to do, and had learned he had Dutch, English, and Indian ancestors as well as African ones. Irvis gave numerous speeches while in the legislature and in his retirement about The Human Race and the problems it faced, but I cannot remember a single instance where his theme was picked up by others. The vast majority of people seem comfortable with their racial identities, and are reluctant to even subtly challenge them.But race is to a major degree a social construct. Around the turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries--and long before that--people in the United States often considered Jews, Irish, Italians, Poles, and others to be members of separate races. What we now consider to be religious intermarriage--a generally boring topic today--was considered by many to be very similar or equivalent to the then hot topic of racial intermarriage.A whole field of sociology asks and seeks to answer the question of how diverse ethnic groups then considered to be separate races gradually over time came to be considered to be white. The intriguing subtext of these inquiries is whether or not it is possible for black people to someday be considered white.

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?t=35622

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A racist is not an amateur sociologist who studies the prevalence of different traits among members of different races.A racist is a person who believes that one race is composed of superior people who are entitled to special rights and privileges by virture of their race and other races are composed of inferior people who are entitled to neither legal rights nor respect from people of the best race.Racists see people as stereotypes and not as individuals.Racists look to make a case for the inferiority of the race or races they dislike, without much if any attention to reality.

September 17, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=327776#post327776

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I have no doubt that there is more friendly interaction and mutual respect between people of different races than there used to be. Racial polarization in elections is at an all-time low. More white people are accepting the idea that there might be desirable housing in predominantly black neighborhoods than ever before, and far fewer white people desire to sell their houses because a black neighbor moved in than ever before.That being said, there still are obvious signs of cultural differences and mutual discomfort. I continue to be struck by the large numbers of events that I attend that are either virtually all white or virtually all black--from professional events to lobbying events to community events to funerals. There clearly are a good number of people who feel uncomfortable attending events where the vast majority of the crowd will be from a different race, or that are held in a neighborhood generally populated by people of a different race.Both white people and black people have complained to me about the general officiousness of various sales clerks. Sales clerks are often temporary employees who are under great pressure to see that there is no shoplifting.Many black people believe that they are under suspicion the minute they enter various stores, and that they are made uncomfortable by pressure from sales clerks. I would hope that stores would recognize this and in their own interest find other ways to discourage shoplifting without discouraging shopping.

June 14, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=265386#post265386

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Judging all of Northeast Philadelphia by the attitudes expressed by some is as wrong as judging all people of a race, religion, national origin, etc. by the worst behavior of some group members.People of different races share many common problems and have many common aspirations. Focusing on the common good for all people can unite people of different races, incomes, occupations, neighborhoods, etc. Generally speaking, Northeast Philadelphia--like other Philadelphia neighborhoods--could use more leadership focused on problem solving and a lesser focus on scapegoating for existing problems.

May 11, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=248213#post248213

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Focus on Racial Differences Rarely Leads Anywhere
Throughout my life, I have known various people of different races who were at least extremely focused--and sometimes obsessed--with questions and grievances about the behavior of people of one or more other races. When they were in this mode, they had very limited effectiveness in doing much about their grievances.To the degree they were able to surmount a fixation on racial differences, they were able to have a much greater positive effect. Treating people of other races as people--as opposed to treating them as targets--can allow one to influence their behavior to some degree. It can also allow one to find allies of all races to deal with problems such as rundown housing, excessive noise, kids running around without adult supervision, etc.Forty and fifty years ago, when a black family moved into a white neighborhood, dozens of houses would quickly go up for sale; when a second black family moved, scores more would up for scale; when a third black family moved in, there would hundreds more up for sale. This kind of panic selling undermined real estate values and led to massive and virtually immediate changes in the composition of neighborhoods.This is not happening in Northeast Philadelphia today. Neighborhood change is happening at a much slower rate, and is influenced far more by deaths and job-related residential changes than by the fears that motivated so many in the past. We should use the time that we now have to work to build bridges among the ever-changing composition of groups in Northeast Philadelphia. The fact of change is nothing new: there were few Jews or people of Italian descent in Northeast Philadelphia before World War II, and many veterans of Northeast Philadelphia can recall with great specificity when the first person of many ethnic groups moved into their block.

Post Date 5.11.06
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=248254#post248254

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Dissident74--in post 15--had the best one-liner I have ever seen on the subject of racism, when he said that "Racism is misdirected anger." I think he is absolutely right on this.We can all go to dictionaries to get definitions of what racism is, but many interactions of daily life do not fit clearly either inside or outside the various definitions. Being justifiably angry at any person is not racism, but extrapolating that anger towards an entire race of people is. There is not a tremendous need in our society for people to become what could be called "racism police." What there is a tremendous need for is people willing to make a determined effort to get along with, come to understand, and be friends with people of other backrounds, including, but not limited to, people of other racial backrounds.There is a lot to be angry about in Philadelphia. The genuine problems of Philadelphia are a key reason why there has been significant middle class flight out of the city, and out of other cities. Introspection about one's personal attitudes can be personally useful, but an accusatory tone towards others is generally less useful than finding ways to work together, play together, and live together, and encouraging others to do likewise.There have been vast improvements in my lifetime. When I was a young man, many people used to express great fear of miscegnation (racial intermarriage) and use that fear to justify racial hostility. Today, I would guess that many people on this blog never even heard of that term.People are conflicted about issues of race. Period. People know people of other races who fit racial stereotypes, and people of other races who do not fit racial stereotypes. Knowing people over time usually leads to the discovery that sometimes they view things in a stereotypical way, but most times they do not.The late Philadelphia Mayor and School Board President Richardson Dilworth occasionally used inflammatory language himself out of his frustration with racial problems. In the mid-1960's, when people were talking about quick solutions to racial problems, he warned that racial problems were so serious that "it could take 30 years to solve them." Of course, his dire prediction then seems wildly optimistic today.Around the beginning of the 20th century, when my grandparents were getting their naturalization certificates, race was a far more inclusive concept than it is today. People from Ireland and Italy and Jews, for instance, were all considered to be people of different races. Gradually, over time, it came to be accepted that people from Ireland and Italy and Jews were, in fact, white.My hope is that, sometime in the future, people of all races will somehow be considered just to be people. My legislative hero, the late House Speaker K. Leroy Irvis, used to talk repeatedly of "the human race." It is time for moreand more of us to start thinking in these terms rather than becoming what centenarian African-American leader Samuel Evans refers to as "warring tribes."

May 12, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=248883#post248883

PROPERTY TAX

Shortly before 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 14, 2006, the House joined the Senate in passing the largest and widest coverage senior citizen property tax rebate plan in the history of Pennsylvania.I was an active supporter of this plan, speaking in its favor twice on the House floor and actively encouraging my fellow Democrats in caucus to vote for it. It is a major step forward for stabilizing neighborhoods in Northeast Philadelphia, as it will greatly reduce the chances of a senior citizen having to sell his or her home in order to pay property taxes.

June 14, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=265906#post265906

OIL

It's interesting to see how oil company spokespersons and experts who have to deal with oil companies on a regular basis use feel-good euphemisms to gloss over the unpleasant fact that gas prices prices rise immediately in case of a supply crisis, but fall very slowly when that supply crisis has eased.That is the case right now, when gas prices should have fallen precipitously.Instead, an industry spokesman says pricing contains as "asymmetric bias to the upside" and the head of a research institute describes the "rockets and feathers effect" under which prices surge up rapidly, and then fall slowly.What we need are effective alternative energy policies to cut through this rhetorical fog. See the following link from CNN for more information about the obfuscation:http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/18/news...rtune/?cnn=yes

May 20, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=253268#post253268

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Governor Ed Rendell continued his exemplary and ever-improving record of environmental leadership today when he set the goal of preparing legislation for introduction by the end of July that would require all transportation fuels sold in Pennsylvania to be blended with cleaner-burning alternative fuels produced domestically.Rendell's announcement was made on the same day as the opening of a WoGo ethanol fueling station in Lititz, Lancaster County. It is the first station in Pennsylvania--and in the Northeast--which is offering an 85% ethanol blend to the public.Rendell hopes to ultimately be able to replace 900 million gallons of gas and diesel with alternatives. He expects that ten years from now, Pennsylvania will be importing 900 million gallons from the Persian Gulf.Four states--Hawaii, Minnesota, Montana, and Washington--have implemented a fuel standard for ethanol or biodiesel, and other states are considering it. Ethanol comes from corn and timber, while biodiesel is soy-based.Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association, says that about four gallons out of 10 sold in the U.S. are now mixed with ethanol, which usually comprises 10%. All cars can accept a 10% blend.Only a fraction of the cars on the road, about 5 million out of 220 million-- can accept the 85% ethanol mixture now being sold in Lititz--typically large trucks and luxury sedans. Most states--including Pennsylvania neighbors Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia--have at least one gas station that sells 85% ethanol gas. But it is sold at only 600 out of the country's 180,000 gas stations.Renewable Fuels Association spokesman Hartwig says the price of ethanol-blended fuels is generally competitive with fuels that are not blended, although ethanol can bring down the price of gasoline in places where it is readily available.Clearly, to use E-85, the 85% ethanol gas, will take a long-term change in both the design of cars and the equipment and supplying of gas stations.This posting is a summary of an Associated Press article by Marc Levy posted today in the website of the Allentown Morning Call and today's broadcast on KYW Radio by Tony Romeo. I thank Grassrootspa.com for calling these reports to my attention.

http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/state/all-a1_rendellmay11,0,312088.story?coll=...http://kyw1060.com/pages/34419.php?

May 11, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=248560#post248560

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13% of the people polled in an April IssuesPa/Pew Poll--which also asked people where they stand on other issues--said they believe gas prices are now the state's most important problem. This compares to just 6% of the people who said that in a March poll.The federal government can do much more about this problem than state governments can. Whether the numbers of people who answer in this way continues to increase around the country--and whether these people mobilize in some way to let their opinion be widely known--will have some impact on what governmental actions are taken to reduce gas prices, develop alternative energy sources, and aid mass transportation.

May 11, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=248224#post248224

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MTBE can be sent by pipeline because it does not mix with water, while the water-mixing ethanol can only be sent by tanker truck, a more time-consuming and labor intensive process. Supposedly, this conversion process should have been completed by May 5--three days ago--and therefore price and supply problems should now be easing.I would welcome reading replies from anyone with insights into this issue. It would be good to know how deep a price reduction we can expect once the conversion process is completed, and what could be done to speed the conversion process if, in fact, the May 5 deadline has not been met. It would also be good to get ideas on what further governmental role, if any, is appropriate here.

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=246097#post246097

May 8, 2006

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The facts behind Lord Acton's well-known aphorism that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" are probably a factor here. The great wealth that can accrue to producers of oil undoubtedly leads to bribes, coups, intense palace politics, and desperate attempts to hang onto political power by cruel and unusual means.I agree that higher oil prices will inevitably be a fact of life. That is why I am leading the push in the Pennsylvania legislature for plug-in hybrid cars,and why I am strong supporter of numerous forms of alternative energy. I think the replacement of MTBE by ethanol is a step in the right direction which is very much in the public interest that it succeed.Experts generally agree that we already have reached, or will soon reach, world peak production of oil. The U.S. peak production level was reached in 1970. As the economies of India--with about four times U.S. population--and China--with about five times U.S. population--continue to thrive, they will inevitably continue to bid up the price of oil. To the degree that this reduces unnecessary travel and unnecessary consumption, there will be some public benefits to this.But we have to be aware that higher price oil inevitably creates economic hardships, and we have to seek out measures to reduce these hardships on people--the vast majority of citizens--who are either in debt or who have little or any cash reserves.

May 8, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=246365#post246365

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I have decided to introduce a resolution in the Pennsylvania House calling for the federal government to lift the 54 cent tariff (tax) on ethanol imports, which should save 8 cents a gallon. I thank Eldondre for first calling the issue to my attention.This is only a small step in the direction of affordable gasoline, but it is a small step which should be taken. It is action by governments at the state and federal level that led to the adoption of 10% ethanol in each gallon of gas requirement, and the federal government should be trying to help keep the cost of ethanol down to spare the motorists.Both New York Senator Charles Schumer, a leader for consumer rights, and President Bush have announced their support for dropping the tariff at least temporarily. This will not likely play well in Iowa--the ethanol capitol of the U.S.--but should be generally popular in the Congress and in the country. And Iowa can't complain too much, because only governmental decisions gave ethanol the favorable position it now enjoys.http://nysun.com/article/32312/

May 9, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=246783#post246783

ECONOMICS

Most politicians deal with reality, while most economists deal with theory.Theories with powerful backers are extremely hard to dislodge because so many businesses have a vested interest in propping them up.Where are all the unemployed Pennsylvanians who have been laid off since the minimum wage hit $6.25 an hour in Pennsylvania on January 1, 2007 or $7.15 on July 1, 2007? Where are all the businesses who relocated to Pennsylvania from New York and New Jersey during the interregnum where the minimum wage was higher there than here? Examples of the results predicted by the theory are few and far between.The theory is unemployment rises when minimum wages go up. The real live practical experience is that more often than not, unemployment actually goes down when minimum wages go up because more people go into the work force and fill up vacancies.The movement to raise minimum wages is national and worldwide. Minimum wages would not keep rising in countries throughout the world if unemployment kept rising with them or if inflation jumped out of control. Business communities are not exactly powerless anywhere.The economic theory on the minimum wage is, in fact, largely wrong. Indeed it contradicts conservative economic theory on welfare reform, which holds that the way to get people off welfare is to make the economic difference between working and not working as large as possible. The conservative welfare reform theorists are right, and the conservative minimum wage theorists are wrong.

I am committed to using governmental power to raise standards of living to the greatest possible degree. I am hardly unique in that commitment.I am loyal to the interests of my constituents, and not theories of economists that have little relationship to reality.Alan Greenspan of the Federal Reserve Board started out as an Ayn Rand ideological theorist. But, as his career evolved, he became interested in how things actually worked. He learned that theories are places to begin a search for truth, but they are not truth itself. He became legendary for developing a network of obscure governmental statisticians working for various governmental departments, who would promptly report changes in what they measured to him before it was generally known.Greenspan was a great Federal Reserve Board Chairman because cared about what actually happened. He was repeatedly re-appointed by Presidents of both parties because he lived in the world of reality. More minimum wage economists should shun corporate patronage and join Greenspan in that world.

August 2, 2007

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=544773#post544773


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While I would like to get the Brookings report and evaluate its findings in greater detail, I believe it shows the decline of union jobs in the manufacturing sector more than anything else.

Manufacturing businesses all over the city of Philadelphia and all over America have been shutting down in recent decades. My legislative district is typical. The old Kelsey-Hays plant in Olney is now a major shopping center at Front and Olney Square. The old Exide plant accross from Hill Creek Apartments at Adams and Rising Sun Avenue is now a smaller shopping center. The old Sears distribution center is now a shopping center across from Friends Hospital at Adams and Roosevelt Boulevard. The old Whitaker Mills factory complex is now part of Tacony Creek Park at Rising Sun Avenue and Tabor Road.

In some respects, my legislative district is a better place, with far more convenient shopping opportunities and additional parkland. And all the new shopping centers drove the owners of a small shopping center to put it up for sale, leading to the construction of my legislative district's most beautiful school, the Grover Washington Middle School, at Olney Avenue near Rising Sun Avenue.

But despite whatever good comes of deindustrialization, the loss of good paying jobs carries a terrible burden for blue collar families. They often can simply not get comparable jobs. So they suffer considerable downward mobility, as individuals, families, and neighborhoods.

We certainly need the continuous retraining to upgrade skills that Bill Clinton talked about and delivered to a considerable degree during his Administration. And we need to continuously upgrade our educational system to help produce more white collar jobs that serve useful purposes than ever before in an age in which bureaucracy in both government and business is under steady attack from diverse sources.

We need to find ways currently unimaginable to redevelop our manufacturing capabilities in an era in which we are competing with extremely low wage countries. And we need to continously encourage the development of productive new industries to employ the many new people who enter the workforce each year.

A country without a strong middle class is neither stable nor internally strong. We are drifting towards being a country of the most financially secure upper middle class in history with an ever growing population in poverty, near poverty, and general financial need.

This is not really a good picture, and we need public support to take corrective public actions. The Brookings study is a good contribution to this increasingly widespread effort to inform the American people of the growth of economic distress in the midst of great prosperity at the top of the economic ladder.

June 25, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=271431#post271431

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Privatization is almost always a means to reduce governmental accountability as well as saving money.Privatization leads to deniability for governmental leaders. If only they had known, then it would be different. Generally, the less the privatization the better for accountability at all levels, from the U.S. armed forces, to the prisons, to the schools.

May 28, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=256917#post256917

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The number of shopping malls now probably exceeds the demand for them. The older and weaker shopping malls are now in some difficulty.The Cheltenham shopping mall came back after major improvements, as did the much smaller mall at Levick Street and Oxford Avenue in the Lawndale/Oxford Circle section of my legislative district.If developers see an opportunity in remaking the older malls, the host communities are quite lucky. It will be the times in which the market fails to attract developers that will pose the greatest problem for Glenolden and other similar suburban and urban communities.

May 26, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=256193#post256193

GUN LAWS

NRA Belief in 1st Amendment Aids Gun Trafficking
by State Rep Mark Cohen Dem PA
Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 11:06:37 PM PDT
The National Rifle Association is well-known for its belief in the 2nd Amendment, which it has sold rather successfully--if not really accurately--as guaranteeing a right of gun ownership.
But the NRA's real powerbase lies in its exploitation of the 1st Amendment. There is probably no cause in America with adherents who are as willing to speak out over and over again.
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Tom Ferrick emailed me and other legislators today to ask how we had voted in the straw vote the Pennsylvania House had in the Committee of the Whole on the one gun a month proposal to curb gun trafficking. I emailed Ferrick back that I had voted for it, although it had lost 2 to 1, largely on the votes of Pennsylvania's many rural legislators. I have an A+ rating from the Brady Center and a failing or near-failing rating from the National Rifle Association. Their world of happy go lucky hunters is radically different from the urban world of daily murders with handguns that I live in.
If I had a lot of money, I would be tempted to run ads with the following theme: Remember the constitutional amendment providing criminal penalties for Bush opponents who contacted their legislators? IT NEVER PASSED. Let your elected officials know what you think!
Of course, there is no such thing as a proposed amendment banning Bush opponents from contacting their legislators. But, judging from the mail and phone calls going to legislative offices, there might as well have been. Decade after decade, in constituency after constituency, the right wing feels empowered to express its views while the vast majority of people do not.
The blogosphere is helping change all this, but not fast enough for my tastes. The social movement that the Daily Kos represents has to increase the sense of personal efficacy among its members if progressives are going to win on a lot of issues.
The Pennsylvania legislature is typical of many legislative bodies around the country. Any cause that organizes its members to contact us has at the very least a genuine fighting chance of winning.
Because of a few thousand liquor store clerks and managers with unparalleled networking skills, Pennsylvania has successfully resisted corporate and media pressure to scrap its state liquor stores.
Because gay community leaders have discovered that Pennsylvania legislators pay attention to people who pay attention to them, Pennsylvania has not constitutionally banned gay marriage.
Because union and minimum wage activists started organizing in districts where powerful legislators initially opposed minimum wage increases, the Pennsylvania legislature accepted my goal of a $7.15 minimum wage in 2007--a figure 39% higher than the previously effectove federal figure.
It is possible to resist right-wing pressure and achieve progressive goals. Those of us in the Daily Kos community know that. Hopefully, more and more of our allies will come to see that as well in the future.
The National Rifle Association does not really speak for Pennsylvania. But it speaks loudly in a vacuum. When that vacuum is ultimately filled, Pennsylvania will be able to join other states in passing sensible gun safety legislation. Until then, the Tony Auth cartoon in the October 5, 2006 Inquirer--featuring a legislator hiding under desk yelling "duck and cover" when shots ring out--has some relationship to reality. The cartoon is titled "Shots Ring Out...Harrisburg takes action."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/6/2637/53248

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The National Rifle Association is now, and has been for decades, the dominant legislative force on gun regulation. The NRA has both a vociferous grass-roots membership, and a well-oiled political and communications machine well-funded by gun manufacturers.About a dozen years ago, over the strong objection of the Philadelphia delegation in the House and Senate, the National Rifle Association got a bill enacted banning local governments from adopting gun-control regulations. This had the effect of legally opening up gun ownership to many more people, and making much more difficult efforts of the Philadelphia police department to keep track of illegal guns.While anything is theoretically possible, there is no reasonable likelihood of the legislature doing anything to restrict the proliferation of guns in Pennsylvania at any time in the forseeable future.In Pennsylvania the courts are an elected branch of government, giving voters here a small level of added protection from arbitrary decision-making than exists at the federal level. Seeking to convince the courts to declare Pennsylvania's law banning local actions in the gun area unconstitutional is a reasonable attempt to meet the needs of the citizens of Philadelphia.The NRA is, of course, active in judicial elections as well, but it does not appear to have the same degree of influence with the judiciary as it does with the legislative branch. Getting the State Supreme Court to declare the anti-Philadelphia law unconstitutional is a longshot, but it is a lesser longshot than getting the legislature to act.

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?t=36090

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The effort to achieve a limitation of one gun purchase a month is an attempt to make it difficult for gun dealers to legally aid in the arming of drug dealers, gang leaders, and other criminals. The concept was first enacted in South Carolina, where it worked to greatly slow down the flow of guns to New York City and other places.The political problem is that one gun a month takes on the National Rifle Association. In most of Pennsylvania, the National Rifle Association is a powerful grassroots organization. In many legislative districts, it is the leading grassroots organization. Having the National Rifle Association on one's side comes close to guaranteeing victory in many legislative districts, and not having the backing of the NRA is a major political vulnerabilty which it can take tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to have any realistic chance of overcoming.Realistically, to achieve one gun a month in the next ten or twenty years requires a massive statewide organizing campaign that could easily cost $5 million to $10 million a year. This would pay for a large number of paid organizers, and television, radio, and Internet ads. In no district is there an NRA majority, but the task is to mobilize the non-NRA majority behind a specific legislative program. The task is made more difficult by a lack of public understanding as to the purpose of one gun a month. I have not had any constituents tell me they support one gun a month, and I have had two who told me that they oppose one a month because they think it is far too lenient: "Why does anybody need one gun a month?" was the question both asked. "How about one gun a year or one gun a lifetime?" one of them suggested.Nothing shows the difference from the gun culture in rural, suburban, and Western Pennsylvania like these responses. Especially in rural Pennsylvania, hunting is a significant source of food in many communities. It is also a significant source of father/son bonding, and a staple of the self-identity of many men and a small but growing number of women. The NRA--overwhelmingly funded by the gun industry--has done a masterful long-term job of identifying itself with the hunters and with those who are afraid of crime and view carrying a gun as a solution to crime. A successful campaign for one gun a month would have to neutralize the gun culture.Every once in a while, individuals decide that it is a worthwhile expenditure of personal funds to finance a long-shot candidacy for public office with a personal donation of $1 million or more. To get one a month legislation enacted requires a bunch of people to make a similar commitment to achieving one gun a month.I suspect that a precondition to get such people to step forward requires others not in the same financial league to make other commitments. I could contribute or raise in excess of $1000 a year to help finance such an effort. If many others will step forward pledging whatever personal or fundraising resources that they have, some progress for one gun a month may be possible.If not, gun availability will continue to make it easy for the growth of a widespread criminal subculture to infinitely renew itself as key members die off, go to prison, or come to recognize the futility of being a part of it.

June 29, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=274061#post274061

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CHELTENHAM

While I don't want to encourage anyone to leave the city, I think that Cheltenham Township is a fine collection of diverse people and communities.Cheltenham has quality restaurants, bars, country clubs, parks, golf courses, schools, libraries, fire companies, civic organizations, concerts, houses of worship, adult educational opportunities, etc. There are plenty of opportunities to meet other people for social, civic, religious, recreational, political, business and personal purposes.Cheltenham is also closer to center city Philadelphia than the vast majority of suburbs, and is also convenient to Philadelphia neighborhoods in Northeast and Northwest Philadelphia.

June 30, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=274160#post274160

MAYOR OF PHILADELPHIA

The Mayor of Philadelphia has no magic wand. No matter who he or she is, the Mayor of Philadelphia has to form alliances with others in city government, state government, and the federal government to get things done.The city budget is all of $4 billion. Over 25% of the city's opulation lives in poverty. Crime is much too high; obviously zero crime should be the goal. The spirit of hopelessness that so many here share is due to problems that seem intractable, and not just the personality of the top leadership of city government.Land is limited. People live and work close together and cannot easily escape each other. Because of the limited nature of the land--Philadelphia is geographically the smallest of the counties in Pennsylvania although it has the most miles of streets--the land is intensely regulated and bitterly fought over. The multiyear battle over casino siting is an example of how difficult any change is in the city because the number of people potentially suffering adverse impact from any change is greater here than anywhere else in Pennsylvania.Michael Nutter comes into the Mayor's office with abilities to think clearly, communicate effectively, work hard, and inspire confidence in many people who have confidence in little else. He does not have the ability, however, to either passively accept the current levels of federal and state funding for the city, or to spend his time merely practicing a politics of denunciation and distancing from other sources of power and popular support.

November 3, 2007

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/politics/46337-dissapointing-nutter-ads.html#post617983

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Mistakes In Rizzo Administration
(1) Raising wage taxes from 3.31% to 4.31% despite repeatedly taking a public anti-tax increase stand;(2) Dramatically increasing number of city patronage jobs, with little or no screening of qualifications and motivations of employees;(3) Leaving to the subsequent Green Administration the challenge of improving police-community relations and reducing the incidence of police brutality and crime aimed at individual police;(4) Taking far too seriously threats of demonstrations by left-wing radicals on July 4, 1976, and making a nationally ridiculed major effort to deter anyone from visiting Philadelphia on the 200th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence;(5) Campaigning for Richard Nixon for President almost from the day he was sworn in as Mayor, while creating an adversarial relationship with the Democratic Party and thousands of independent Democrats; (6) Engaging in wiretapping and attempting sting operations against various Democratic leaders who were innocent of any crime that he had them investigated for;(7) Engaging in divisive public attacks on media, students, minorities, liberals, charities, universities, national Democrats and local political opponents; (8) Spending two years not talking to any media after getting negative coverage from media quotes of some of his colorful statements;(9) Fighting a recall petition in the courts instead of before the voters;(10) Seeking to amend the charter to allow a third consecutive term despite knowing that a majority of the city had wanted to recall him after his record-high wage tax increase;(11) Urging voters to "Vote White" in favor of the charter change allowing him a third consecutive term; (12) Maintaining an adversarial relationship with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and supporters of public education in general.That's a good dozen mistakes, and if you talk to a broader group of people than you have talked to so far and read about his actual performance in office, you will find many more mistakes.

June 7, 2007

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=504471#post504471

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"The brothers and sisters" statement made by John Street and quoted above was a one-time event that is not really representative as to how he has functioned during his 6 1/2 years as mayor or his 19 years in City Council. At the time he made the speech, he was under attack from various black groups and the Philadelphia Daily News for not giving black contractors enough city business, and this offensive and wrong-headed speech was his way of responding to the criticism he had been receiving.

None of the prospective candidates for mayor have made similar statements.I believe that all mayoral candidates should campaign city wide and address the issues that affect us all. I would hope that the general response to black candidates campaigning in whites communities, and white candidates in black communities, would be interest and respect and not just waving the bloody flag of racially polarized politics.Whoever wins has to govern. Whoever loses will likely not go away, but will likely be involved in political, governmental or civic life in one form or another. The goal of citizens should be to make this a stronger, more cohesive city by getting away from the divisive politics of the past and towards a brighter, more forward-looking future.There are plenty of legitimate issue differences to debate. The stage should not be stolen by exploitation of the gaffes of the past.

June 28, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=272945#post272945

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Michael Nutter's impending resignation from the Philadelphia City Council shows his strong determination to enter the Philadelphia mayoral race in the 2007 primary. Although Jon Saidel earlier gained the flexibility of not being bound to a public work schedule by not seeking re-election in 2005 as City Controller, Nutter becomes the earliest person in Philadelphia history to resign from an elected position to run for Mayor.The provision requiring a resignation from municipal office to run for another office has more often than not been followed by a losing political campaign. But Frank Rizzo in 1971 (police commissioner), Wilson Goode in 1982 (managing director), and John Street in 1998 (city council president) have successfully made the transition to the mayor's office.No councilman has been elected Mayor of Philadelphia without having served as city council president since the 1830's. But Nutter certainly has a lot going for him. His strong advocacy of business tax cuts makes him a favorite of the business community and assures a strong fundraising base. His record on ethics legislation gives him solid credentials for those most concerned about honest government. His leadership on the smoking ban positions him as an outstanding champion of public health.He is extremely well focused, issue-oriented, and driven man. His preparation for City Council hearings was extremely thorough. My late father, City Councilman David Cohen, liked to say that Nutter's effective cross-examination of City Council witnesses at public hearings made him "more like a lawyer than any of the lawyers on City Council."His early resignation shows the ever greater dependence on fundraising as the key to victory. Fundraising requires an enormous amount of time with potential donors on a one to one or small group basis. It is no longer an afterthought that was begun after a campaign team was assembled and organized support was obtained. Today fundraising is increasingly seen as the key to election victory far more than any other factor and even more than all other factors combined.How well Nutter does depends on his competition. Chaka Fattah is the best-known candidate in the field as the election campaign starts, and Dwight Evans and Jon Saidel are also quite well-known. Tom Knox certainly has the financial resources to become a household name, and John Dougherty has shown an impressive mixture of fundraising ability and organizational skill.Past mayoral primaries have been polarized largely along racial lines to a far greater degree than other city elections. There is no inherent reason why that has to forever be the case. As candidates become more and more to be seen as people rather than as racial stereotypes, mayoral candidates should be able to more and more people of different races than their own.Whatever happens in the mayoral race, Nutter can take pride in his contributions to a better city government through his record in city council. His leaving assures that there will be at least three new council people elected in 2007 but filling his shoes will not be an easy task for anyone.

June 27, 2006

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=272100#post272100

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Philadelphia is not very analagous to either Massachusetts (with its string of Republican governors going back to 1986) or New York (with its two Republican Mayors going back to 1993), other than being, with them, reliably Democratic in federal elections.The main difference is one of demography. Philadelphia has more black voters than white voters, and neither New York nor Massachusetts has anywhere near this ratio. Indeed, Massachusetts has never elected a black mayor of Boston or a black Congressman. New York's sole black mayor served but a single term.It is a rare election in which black voters do not give over 90% of their votes to the Democratic Party nominees. Republicans usually have no campaign workers at all in black precincts, pay little or no attention to black media, and give blacks only a token number of patronage jobs. The Republicans have never slated a black candidate for Mayor in the history of Philadelphia, and no black has yet been mentioned for the Republican nomination in 2007.I understand the political leverage that might be gained by threatening to support a Republican. Those who make that threat certainly gain the attention of the Democratic Party. But it should be understood that the actual chances of electing a Republican are slim indeed, even when Republicans help nominate a polarizing Democrat like Frank Rizzo (in 1971 and 1975), by switching tens of thousand of Republicans into the Democratic Party, or John Street (in 1999) by running millions of dollars of negative ads against primary opponents Marty Weinberg and John White.
Philadelphia tomorrow can be much more than it is today. We can get our variegated neighborhoods together with governmental and economic interests to create a future that will grow our city and enrich our lives.

August 18, 2004

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=43473#post43473

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The next mayor of Philadelphia should be someone who can lead, who can unite, and who can build upon the successes of the past.The next mayor of Philadelphia will inevitably be a Democrat, as only 17.1% of the city is now registered Republican and the Republicans have last elected a Mayor in 1947.The next mayor of Philadelphia should be someone who is pro-labor but against labor abuses, pro-business but also able to support neighborhood and environmental interests, and above all, a wise mixture of stability and innovation.Being mayor of a large city is an extremely tough job. We need a mayor who vision, character, and achievements on behalf of the city will win the confidence of city and suburban residents alike.

August 18, 2004

http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?p=43424#post43424

HUMAN RIGHTS

The genius of Jackson-Vanik was that it found a constructive long-term way to help solve the problems of late 20th century victims of communism without use of military force.

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:IPo_uw-pbkkJ:therubberstamp.blogspot.com/2005_06_01_therubberstamp_archive.html+%22mark+b+cohen%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=444

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BANKRUPTCY LAW

I share your outrage at this bill, but I can answer your question as to arguments for it.One argument for it is that it may lead to a lowering of interest rates and fees, as fewer credit card bills will remain unpaid. (No, there was no mandate of such a result).A second argument for this bill is that the Democrats have to show they are not merely "excusers of bad behavior" such as not paying bills. (No, this bill contained no exemptions for people bankrupt as a result of illness, disability, job loss or other factors beyond one's control.)This IS a terrible bill, with insult added to injury by Democrats trying to prove themselves "relevant" to big money contributors by supporting it too.If the Democrats are to become the majority party in the lifetime of any living person, we will have to prove ourselves "relevant" to our core constituency: ordinary people who need help from government. This is difficult to do when the most outrageous anti-consumer legislation is cloaked with a bi-partisan.

April 20, 2005

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:XZ7koDE6weoJ:third-estate.blogspot.com/2005/04/more-on-bankruptcy-bill.html+%22mark+b+cohen%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=437

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VOTER REGISTRATION

During my 31 years in the Pennsylvania legislature, I have helped bring mail registration, statewide mail registration forms, and driver's license application mail registration to Pennsylvania. There is much that still needs to be done.

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:7e-mLqFfMZwJ:electionreform.meetup.com/lists/us/pa/havertown/+%22mark+b+cohen%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=434