Unsurprisingly, and with little sense of shame, the State Senate and the Governor joined the State House, and passed a bill that puts even more of their constituents at risk from predators, as they legalized Wall Street's latest scam, for-profit credit counseling. (The last time I talked about this bill, I was greeted with a finger-jabbing tirade from a State Rep who called me a demagogue, and then started threatening me.)

The refrain from Dwight Evans is familiar:

Evans said for-profit companies have found ways to reach clients for years despite a ban on their operation. He said his bill will for the first time impose licensing requirements and give the state Department of Banking the authority to regulate the industry.

"In a Wild West, unregulated environment, anything can happen," Evans said in an interview. "Now both nonprofits and for-profits will have to meet standards, and consumers will know they're dealing with a regulated industry."

Yes, if there is anything that tells you that an industry will closely follow your law, it is the fact that an industry ignores your law.

I think I am going to start a business called Dan's Pickpocket. I will do it for a couple years, spread some lobbying dough and muscle around in Harrisburg, and then demand my industry be legitimized. Hell, maybe my pickpocketing futures could get rated, securitized and sold? Then we would be talking!

(And thank you for the parting gift to your legacy, Senator Fumo!)

We decided not to do the debate party thing. I got a bunch of people who said they would come, but at the end of the day, I sort of think the last debate will be anti-climactic, and... the Phils are the Phils. If they had swept, I was going to do it. But now that Cole Hamels will be busy no-hitting the Dodgers on Wednesday, we decided to forget it.

That said, there are three awesome events this week that I am going to:

First, in what will clearly be the coolest Presidential fundraiser in recent memory, I give you Barack Steady, the event I talked about in my little NYTimes thing:

A historic candidate. A pivotal election. A party of outrageous merriment. Yes, on October 18th these three rare occurrences will converge perfectly and turn the sleepy town of Philadelphia into a frenzied hotbed of political participation. Get ready to inspire. Get ready to sweat. Get ready to Barack Steady.

WHAT: Barack Steady, a party and fundraiser to support Barack Obama with special guest Ashley Biden, and DJ Frosty
WHEN: Saturday, October 18, 2008
DOORS OPEN@ 8pm, ASHLEY BIDEN@9pm, DOORS CLOSE@ 1am
WHERE: The Ukie Club, 847 North Franklin Street, Philadelphia, PA
TICKETS: $15 minimum donation online/$25 at the door(RSVP and donate here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gs5bzk)

And what do we mean by party? We mean a great space. We mean *Free Beer* and $3 drinks. We mean co-mingling with Ashley Biden, daughter of Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden. We mean the amazing DJ Frosty and Special Guest providing the soundtrack to the night. And we mean insane raffle prizes, delicious snacks, and an Obama campaign table with information and volunteer sign-up. But most of all what we mean is offering up an opportunity to dance, drink, discuss, debate, and DONATE with a roomful of beautiful and intelligent people inspired for change.

Please RSVP and donate through this link: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gs5bzk. Feel free to donate as much as you want, but for our party purposes we're asking for a minimum online donation of $15. If you don't pay in advance online, the cost at the door will be $25. Again, donate AS MUCH as you want, but please help us out by respecting the $15 online/$25 door minimum request. ALL PROCEEDS will go to Barack Obama and his campaign. Please PLEASE PLEASE!!! RSVP to give us a fair estimate of the size.

All questions and comments can be sent to baracksteady@gmail.com where you can expect a prompt response.

There is also a facebook invite, too. Seriously, this will be great. You should RSVP and go, and I can pretty much promise you that you will never have more fun at a Presidential Fundraiser.

The second awesome thing happening is that this Thursday, from 5:30 to 8:30PM (at the U Of Arts, Hamilton Hall, 320 South Broad Street) is Bread and Roses' 20th Annual Tribute for Change:

This October marks the Tribute’s 20th anniversary, and we are proud to honor five awardees for creating and leading social change movements in the Philadelphia region.

This year’s Tribute to Change honorees are Father John McNamee of St. Malachy’s Church and School; Linda Lee Alter, founder of the Leeway Foundation; Wayne MacManiman of Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ; Thomas Robinson of Philadelphia Officers and Workers Rising; and Casino-Free Philadelphia.

This year’s honorees aren’t simply doing great work in Philadelphia; they are changing the landscape of activism within our neighborhoods. The real change they have inspired through their work is absolutely unparalleled. We are humbled by all they have achieved.

We invite you to join us in celebrating these social justice heroes!

Tickets are available online at www.breadrosesfund.org/go/tribute.

For more information, please contact Sara Zia Ebrahimi at Bread & Roses Community Fund, 215.731.1107 x206 or sarazia@breadrosesfund.org.

Bread and Roses is an absolutely awesome organization, and they are celebrating the work of some really great Philly activists. Supporting Bread and Roses is a great way to stretch your progressive dollars. The list of who they are honoring is an example of that. I will be there, and so will a number of YPP 'regulars.' (OK, that might be a negative or positive that I will be there, but you can ignore me and talk with some our more charming writers.)

And finally, also this Thursday at 5PM, Healthcare for American Now is holding a huge rally:

This Thursday at 5 p.m., three members of Congress are going to a public sign-on in downtown Philly to agree to pass real healthcare reform in 2009. These are three of the Democrats who are going to be battling for serious reform that puts people above profits when this stuff comes down next year:

Rep. Chaka Fattah, Rep. Bob Brady, and Rep. Allyson Schwartz.

They are heroes for standing up for this cause.

And they need you to show up so they know you care too.

At 5 p.m. we are having a rally on the lawn of Independence Mall to show them - and the whole country - that we are going to continue to put the pressure on no matter what.

They promise a special guest, too... I think that that special guest could be prettttty cool, and a big kickoff to a really ambitious group that will have a lot if impact over the next couple of years. That is at 5PM, which means you can head to the rally for a few minutes, then go right on over to the Tribute for Change.

To review:

Thursday, 5PM, Healthcare for America Now Rally with our Congresspeople and a 'special guest'
Thursday, 5:30PM, The Bread and Roses Tribute to Change. And then....
Saturday, Barack Steady

Awesome.

So, my life as the unqualified talking head lives on, this time in the NYTimes, talking about bloggers and the state of the Presidential race in Pennsylvania. (OK, they asked about Pennsylvania, but I mainly talked about Philly.)

For the interview part of it, I think the reporter kind of missed my point. It wasn't that we don't care, or that we don't follow it religiously, it was that we are sold on Obama, so we don't need to spend time debating that.

Anyway, it is one thing to interview me. We all make mistakes. But then, they made the biggest error of all...

There has been an incredible amount of news over the past few days that I want to discuss, from Obama in Philly to shameful actions by our State Legislature. As we try to catch up, I think it is worthwhile to think about the fiasco in Chinatown.

First, on Thursday night, there was Chinatown's incredible, emotionally charged meeting with Frank DiCicco and a lot of understandably pissed off residents:

In one of the most emotional moments, Lai-Har Cheung, who grew up in Chinatown, shouted at lawmakers and Foxwoods executives that gambling would destroy families. Through tears and pleas, she said her relatives were gambling addicts.

"I'm scared," Cheung implored. "This is going to take more people down."

City Councilman Frank DiCicco told her, "My father took his life because he was a gambler. I understand."

Cheung said the revelation had stunned her. In light of it, she said, "I don't understand why he would allow this to happen."

Chinatown residents are up against a wall. Supposed good government groups like the Design Advocacy Group have, for some reason, already come out big for Foxwoods, sending a letter saying that they were oh-so-very happy see the Chinatown move.

DAG is an organization of architects, planners, preservationists, builders, and others whose mission is to promote design excellence in the region. "A big design group has weighed in that this is a good move. We're happy about that," Gillen said.

DAG's letter, which was approved by the roughly 20-member steering committee and dated five days after Foxwoods announced it was considering The Gallery - states that the location is advantageous because it is very well served by public transportation and is close to existing hotels, shops and restaurants. DAG also wrote that both the site and the casino design must be thoroughly reviewed in an open process.

"We really do welcome this. This is a remarkable option for the city," said DAG vice chairman David Brownlee in a phone interview this afternoon.

But he and fellow vice chairmen George L. Claflen Jr., who was also part of the phone call, said while their organization has endorsed the site, much hinges on the design. DAG has invited Foxwoods' developers to a design review. They haven't heard back.

So, five days after the plan is announced, without seeing any... designs, but knowing full well that there will be an enraged community, the DAG enthusiastically promotes a Casino to Chinatown? Am I the only one who thinks that is ridiculous? You are enthused about a plan you don't know about, in a neighborhood that doesn't want it? I am sure the DAG means well, and is not exactly filled with awful people, but this seems like a strangely tone-deaf and -at best- premature decision.

Next, Frank DiCicco starts the process of introducing legislation to get the Casino process going, at least a little. (I encourage you to read his entire letter):

The beginning of this process will be the introduction of zoning legislation next Thursday, October 16. This legislation will amend the Commercial Entertainment District zoning classification to create design guidelines that are appropriate for a Center City casino. In addition, a second bill will alter the zoning classification of the Gallery to CED.

It is important to know that should this legislation pass, Foxwoods still will not have the ability to pull zoning or construction permits. The CED zoning classification requires that Foxwoods submit and that the Planning Commission and City Council approve a Plan of Development. Currently, it is unclear if and when that Plan will be submitted.

In other words, if Foxwoods fails to provide adequate plans or the City determines that this is an inappropriate location, then we still have the opportunity to abandon the project.

I am sure he is right, that introducing the first piece of legislation doesn't make this a done deal. But whether he is right or not, this all points me to a 10,000 pound weight sitting on the back of Chinatown residents, telling them to negotiate. Expect to hear that advice a lot.

Chris Satullo, who has some sympathy for the residents, echoes that call:

Chinatown, like Fishtown and Pennsport before it, has to decide. Either go for the long shot - utter resistance to casinos - or engage cautiously with the devil to limit damage and extract benefits while praying for a late-arriving angel.

And that, 'my friends,' is where this is all headed. Maybe negotiating is the right thing to do, maybe not. I know in East Falls, the Multi-Community Alliance tried to walk a fine line, when they said would negotiate a community benefit agreement (CBA), but that they refused to drop opposition to a casino they didn't want. Trump's answer was to play divide and conquer, and go find a member of the community who would support it. It is not an easy line to walk.

But, before everyone tells Chinatown to just negotiate, I think we all need to ask ourselves what we would do if, after seeing all these backroom deals with the Casino lobby criticized for so long, that we were told to suck it up for the good of the city or the good of another neighborhood? We are not talking about asking a neighborhood to accept its share of just another LULU. We are asking them to accept something they think will destroy what they have worked so hard to create.

So, I won't offer advice to Chinatown. Instead, I will just support the efforts of their residents, whatever they decide, and ask Foxwoods, as they conduct layoffs for the second time in a year....

How do you feel about a nice expedited strip of land at the airport?

While this may come as a surprise to some, I think those of us in the know understood that a serious candidate for the White House could not long avoid zip code 19144.

And so, on Saturday, Barack Obama will arrive to campaign in Germantown (h/t to Heard in the Hall). He better not stick around too long, or my mom will try and make him plant some flowers in Fernhill Park.

That said, I hope we don't have to rename Chelten as "Chelton," cause that would be a lot of trouble.

Details:

SATURDAY: Obama Holding Four Neighborhood Rallies in Philadelphia

Multiple-stop visit within the city will energize supporters and generate volunteers

PHILADELPHIA — Sen. Barack Obama will barnstorm the city of Philadelphia on Saturday, making four stops within the city. At each stop, Sen. Obama will discuss his plans to strengthen our economy, lower taxes on Pennsylvania’s middle class families and give tax breaks to companies that create jobs in the United States. The trip comes just days after Pennsylvania’s voter registration deadline, completing a three-month effort by Obama-Biden organizers that saw the gap between registered Democrats and Republicans grow to nearly 1.2 million. The campaign now turns its attention to generating volunteers for what will be an unprecedented Get-Out-The-Vote effort.

......

Vernon Park
5789 Germantown Ave between E. Chelton Ave and W. Rittenhouse St.
Philadelphia, PA 19144

Doors Open: 9:00 AM

Program Begins: 11:15 AM

This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required, however RSVP is strongly encouraged. To RSVP, please go to: http://pa.barackobama.com/PhiladelphiaChange

Media Coverage: The event is open to the press. For credentials, please visit www.barackobama.com/mediarsvp.

Oh, yeah, so he will also be in a few other spots too. Their info is below the fold...

The title of my post is what I hope the response is to this:

After appearing at a Republican fund-raiser at the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue on Saturday afternoon, (Sarah Palin) is to drop the ceremonial first puck at the Flyers' regular-season opener at the Wachovia Center.

"We are very excited she has accepted our offer and we are very proud of the publicity she is generating for hockey moms and the sport of hockey," said Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider, who runs the Flyers.

Last month, after Palin spoke in her acceptance speech about being a hockey mom, the Flyers launched a search for the area's "ultimate hockey mom." The winner will be on the ice with Palin for the faceoff.

Snider attended a reception for the Alaska governor at the Irish Pub in Center City on Sept. 26, the night of the first debate between Obama and Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

In late June, Snider contributed a total of $25,000 to the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee, according to the records of the Federal Election Commission.

If there is one thing I know, it is Philadelphia sports fans. The reception will be loud, and, I don't think particularly positive.

Paging Angelo Cataldi: If you can stir up fans to boo a then-rookie Donovan McNabb, you can organize this, too.

Way back in 2005, a funny looking little man named Ray wrote a post titled "Unraveling Library Debate Reveals BPT Elimination as Real Culprit":

The real cause of library service reductions is the elimination of the business privilege tax. City Council, the PA Economy League, Philadelphia Forward, Young Involved Philadelphia and other proponents of conservative trickle-down economic theory have beaten the drum for tax reform for so long that the Mayor included a 3.8% reduction in business privilege taxes in this year's budget. That reduction is worth $70 million in FY 06. The Mayor’s budget is revenue neutral so that reduction will be balanced by an increase in parking taxes from 15 to 20 %.

If even a small portion of the revenue generated by a parking tax increase were given to the Free Library rather than business privilege tax reduction, full-time week-day service could be maintained and all branches could be opened on Saturdays too (the Library says this would cost about $5 million, or about 7% of the amount of BPT tax reductions proposed). Instead, cuts are being made to basic services with the vague promise that business tax breaks will eventually generate economic growth.

The reality is that the jobs and economic growth that tax reform proponents have promised haven’t emerged so far and are unlikely to start any time soon. As Professor Robert Lynch pointed out in his paper, "Rethinking Growth Strategies," local taxes are normally at the bottom of a list of criteria that businesses use when making decisions about where to locate their company. At the top of that list is location, quality of city infrastructure and service, access to roads and transportation and the quality and skills of the local workforce.

Cuts to corporate taxes causing the library to shut its doors? That could never happen! I did see something in the paper today, however, that vaguely reminded me of the post above:

The looming round of budget cuts appears to have made managers across city government jittery, particularly at the Free Library of Philadelphia, which in a cost-cutting move eliminated Saturday hours at 27 of its 53 branches over the weekend.

The libraries were reopened, for now. But who needs libraries anyway? Kids on the street can do other things to distract themselves, like go to the gym:

Recreation Department officials recently met for a presentation assessing which recreation centers could be closed or get by with reduced operating hours. For now, cost-cutting measures seemed likely to be leaving vacant positions unfilled, cutting back on part-time jobs and reducing staff at five city ice rinks.

"My theory is, if we reduce anything, we are going to be cutting services to kids at this point. We can't cut anything else," said Michael McCrea, president of the Philadelphia Recreation Advisory Council, which represents nearly 190 volunteer groups.

To McCrea and others, the discussions are uncomfortably similar to those of 2004, when proposed belt-tightening moves included closing or leasing more than 30 recreation centers, and shuttering 20 city pools and several fire stations.

What is blowing a hole in our budget? Oh, right, the business tax cuts. So, let's get this straight: in a city wracked by violence and under-education, cutting business taxes results in laying off rec center employees and shuttering libraries on the weekends?

Bottom line: Philadelphians would rather stop business tax cuts rather than cut services like these. I know that the editorial boards of the papers, especially the Inquirer, have long pushed for these cuts. But, the jig is up, the game is over, the credits have rolled. Philadelphians who can least afford it are about to be dealt a severe blow, directly related to slashing business taxes. So, I hope reporters from the Daily News and Inquirer start to ask Council and the Mayor some tough questions. For example, why, in the face of a huge majority of their citizens against them, are they taking us down this path?

City Council needs to immediately halt business tax cuts and fix this.

So, our plan was that we were going to have a debate watching party to kick off the final couple weeks until E Day. I thought it would be pretty easy to get 100-200 people, and that it would be a cool way to get together. Then, something "interfered":

Assuming the Phillies don't sweep, game 5 starts at 8:20PM on the same night. That may or may not kill our turnout, but it would certainly make a bar owner less likely to turn over their business to us for the night. My ideal situation would be to have a bunch of TVs, half with the Phils on mute, half with the debate. But, the kind of bars that have that type of ability are the same ones that probably will be uninterested in limiting potential business for the Fightin's.

So, what do we do? Push ahead anyway? If so, we need to find the right spot.

Alternatively, we could have a big party on election night to celebrate Obamarama, or depending on results, the end of the world.

What do you think?

One step down, one to go. As Lou Agre said last night, voter registration just keeps on climbing:

Thousands of new voter applications flooded election offices around the state yesterday, with the number of Democratic voters already at an all-time record as Pennsylvania's registration deadline expired at midnight.

Final numbers won't be known until the end of the month, after county election officials have processed all the applications.

But registered Democrats in Pennsylvania already outnumber Republicans by an unprecedented 1.17 million voters - considered bad news for presidential candidate John McCain and everyone below him on the Republican ticket.

.......

In Philadelphia, what used to be a 5-to-1 Democratic registration edge as recently as last November, is now nearly a 6-to-1 Democratic margin. City election officials reported yesterday a total of 852,718 Democrats, 144,963 Republicans, 87,619 in other parties and 4,938 independents.

The numbers may still rise significantly before the Nov. 4 election as registrations are processed. Philadelphia's voter registration administrator, Bob Lee, said the city would process any new registrations delivered by midnight last night, or arriving by mail with postmarks of Oct. 6 or earlier. He predicted another 40,000 Philadelphia registrations by the end of the week.

The amount of people out there registering people to vote was crazy. Now, the second step begins.

Meanwhile, with McCain pulling out of Michigan, we can expect to see a lot of McCain and Sarah Palin over the next couple weeks, as they stir up racism and bigotry in their desperate attempt to win.

1) For all that is good and holy, can Wilson Goode just hold a damn press conference, tell everything and answer any question, so that this can end? Seriously, it is just not a good idea to deny something when one of you emailed around the office pictures that directly contradict you.

2) Low life scumbags have started the process of trying to suppress the vote.

3) Christine Flowers is the worst columnist in the history of the world. I am not sure what is more shocking: that she still has a newspaper column, or that 6-ABC pays to hear her speak on "Inside Story" every Saturday morning.

4) Also, Sarah Palin is also, clearly unqualified, also, to be a City Councilman, also, from Philadelphia, let alone the VP of a sickly, 72-year old triple cancer survivor. Also. When I gave my little reading on banned books at the library I said something like "It is flattering to speak in front an entire auditorium of people more qualified to be Vice President than Sarah Palin." Also.

5) We are going to have a big party for the last debate. Stay tuned for details. Also.

6) Some random SEPTA thoughts. Two things that I know are small in the grand scheme of things, but... 1) People have reacted positively to SEPTA's new regional rail trains. Cool. But, how hard would it have been to put in a bathroom and a router for wifi? And 2), is it so hard for the auto-announcers that give the upcoming stops on the Broad Street Line to be able to actually prounounce the name of Philadelphia streets? On the way to the game yesterday, I passed a street apparently named "Lom-BOOOOREd", as well as some strange British version of Oregon.

The Daily News reports today that Obama is up 45-38 in Registered voters in PA. (The one concern I have about this poll is that it seems to have been out in the field for 6 days, which is pretty abnormal.) And Quinnipac conducted a poll before and after the first debate. Before the first debate, Obama was up 6. After the debate, Obama was up.... 15!

After seeing the race tighten in PA, it appears that Obama is reestablishing his lead. Pollster.com has not added the poll yet to its average, but Real Clear Politics has, and in their poll of polls from September 21st through today, Obama is up by an average of 7.7 points. The best political forecasting site ever- Five Thirty Eight- has Obama winning PA 86% of the time.

Additionally, in a development that could have long term implications, Obama continues to turn the PA suburbs blue. Remember after the PA Primary, when the PA GOP said that the Dem gains in registration were all because of the primary, and that people would switch back?

Ruh-Roh:

Both Montgomery and Bucks counties have flipped from a Republican majority to a Democratic majority. And in Chester and Delaware counties, the Republican-registration edges have shrunk substantially.

The changes are largely attributed to the Obama campaign, which has had thousands of volunteers knocking on doors and registering voters throughout the state leading up to both the primary- and general-election-registration deadlines.

.....

As of Sept. 22, there were 17,811 more Democrats than Republicans in Montgomery County. In 2004, there were 54,522 more registered Republicans.

In Bucks County the Democrats now have an advantage of 8,235 voters. Four years ago, there was a Republican edge of 34,836.

In Delaware County, the Republicans now have a 24,660 registration advantage, compared with a 99,713 majority in 2004. And in Chester, the Republicans hold a 29,930 advantage, down from 71,654 in 2004.

If those trends continue, that will mean big things for progressive politics in PA. For example, I think those GOP Senators from the Philly suburbs may want to consider what this means for their political future, as they decide on whether or not to kill universal health care in Pennsylvania...

Well, another week, another appearance that I am unqualified for. Tomorrow (Weds) night at 7pm, the library and the ACLU will be hosting a celebration in honor of banned book week:

Celebrate Your Freedom to Read!

Banned Books Week, September 27-October 4, 2008

Each year libraries, schools, and book lovers come together for Banned Books Week, a celebration of our freedom to read without censorship. The American Library Association receives hundreds of reports every year about books and other materials that have been threatened with removal from public libraries and schools. For each known incident, four or five others go unreported. The children’s book “And Tango Makes Three” topped the 2007 list of most challenged books. Get involved in the fight against censorship. Attend one of these two Banned Books events featuring local celebrities reading from their favorite banned or challenged book:

October 1, 7:30 p.m.
Philadelphia Free Library
1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia

Readers include:
Gene Shay, host of XPN’s The Folk Show
Larry Robin, owner of Robin’s Bookstore
Annette John-Hall, columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer
Tom Cronin, AFSME
Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, Young Philly Politics blog
Ursula Rucker, poet-hip-hop artist

Censorship and threat to speech comes in all forms. Just this week in fact, a Philadelphia politician to be named later screamed at me for about 15 minutes because I wrote something he didn't like. When I didn't back down, he started threatening me, and said that if I wrote something he didn't like "ONE MORE TIME..." But before he could finish I cut him off, so I never found out what the threat was exactly. From our conversation, he implied it was either going after me personally, or going after programs for poor people.

I tell that story because in thinking about what I am going to read, I decided to be funny, and go with things like Shel Silverstein. Our librarians are a pretty progressive bunch, so we don't exactly ban a lot of books in Philly. But, just as we have explicit threats to speech in Wasilla, Alaska, and we have absurd attempts to ban children's poems in far away places, we have other threats to speech right here in our hometown.

1) With life's craziness over the last week, I have not mentioned the Wilson Goode/Latrice Bryant/Fox News/KKK fiasco. (If you dont know what I am talking about, see here.) Today, finally, Bryant issued an apology. Sort of. She apologized to Goode and others for putting up the Fox= racist signs (but did not apologize, for example, to the reporter she called racist), and did not apologize for the actual issue at hand (time sheets saying she was working when she was not).

I like Wilson Goode, and the fact that he has a pretty ambitious economic development agenda. But this whole thing could have been handled pretty easily. They could have just said something like "I apologize and she apologizes for the time sheet issue. I assure you that my staffer generally works longer on average than 37.5 hours. However, we are taking steps to insure this type of thing never happens again." Instead, in a City where race is always waiting to stomp out everything else, she held up those dumb signs. I understand that if you find out a reporter has been stalking you that you feel like your privacy has been intruded on. But, the answer is just to deal with it, apologize, and not force City Council descend in to more and more craziness.

Of course, maybe Fox News should have sent Bryant a thank you card, given how many viewers she gave them.

2) The Knight Commission panel that I was on was cool. It is always flattering to be on a panel with people who have actually done stuff- like City Paper founder Bruce Schimmel, Philly Tribune reporter Irv Randolph and others. I pretty much did exactly what YPP user Steakums suggested, and told the story of our election returns. And, I prefaced it by saying that above all else, I think we are effective because in a City where some really stupid things go on, we can call them stupid.

The nicest thing about conferences like that is meeting people face to face, connecting names to faces, etc. And, in a development that I think will be pretty cool, both Paul Socolar of the Philly Public School Notebook and Todd Wolfson, of the Media Mobilizing Project, told me that they were launching blogs. Todd, for example, will be working with the Philly Student Union, labor and others to get a lot more community driven content out on the web.

3) The number of cops killed on Philly streets over the last two years is incredibly sad and disturbing. However, the answer cannot be for the Fraternal Order of Police to bully the judges of our city.

4) More on this issue later, but check out the Inquirer article on Chinatown's fear of Foxwoods. Personally, I am still waiting for the follow up to their "Casino may save Market East" article with a single piece of evidence that a casino has ever 'saved' or revitalized any urban area.

Despite the fact that my expertise and leadership skills are needed badly in Washington, and the need for America to rise above partisan politics, I will still be speaking here on Saturday, along with some other familiar faces. After that, I will be rushing back to Fairmount to cast the deciding vote in a game of quizzo:

Are Philadelphia citizens getting the information they need in order to solve community problems, coordinate civic activity, maintain public accountability, and foster the human connectedness that is the backbone of both community and democracy?

The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy (www.knightcomm.org) is conducting a year long study to identify the information needs of communities in a democracy, assess how and whether those needs are being met, and recommend steps to improve the fulfillment of those needs.

In addition to reviewing research on information access and trends, including media developments, new technology, and innovations in civic and government communication, the Commission is soliciting testimony from national experts and holding community forums to hear from local citizens and practitioners about the "information ecosystems" in their communities.

The Commission will issue a report in 2009 offering recommendations for achieving the news and information environment that democratic communities need in order to thrive.

Other participants speaking on the 2PM panel with me include Todd Wolfson and Beth McConnell.

The basic point of our particular panel is to examine how alternative media, including blogs, plays a role in Philadelphia democracy.

So, uh, what should I say?

I am happy to see the consensus of no blank check emerging, because as someone who has watched the destruction that Wall Street has wrought for 12-15 years, the idea that we are writing a check to the financial services industry is stunning. Why? Let’s take a trip down memory lane, and look at the story of our city, and its battle with subprime lenders over the past 15 years.

In the early 1990s Wall Street starts really getting into the securitization of subprime debt, creating a huge pool of money for subprime lenders, that was, at best, little supervised. At worst, it was money given to loan sharks on the street, who aggressively marketed shockingly bad loans to people who had no need for them, and made them go promptly in foreclosure. In 1993, Wall Street had about 20 billion dollars in securitized subprime loans. They were only getting started.

By 1995, Philly had about 2,500 foreclosures per year. One of the worst lenders of the time went by the name of United Companies Lending, securitized and packaged by… Lehman Brothers. UC Lending was one of the worst of the worst predatory lenders. We are talking about mortgage brokers looking to see who had equity in their home, and then going to those homes, ripping that equity out with predatory loans that resulted in scores of foreclosures. Amid all their foreclosures and lawsuits, UC Lending closed its doors in 1999. (Lehman brothers felt so chagrined, that instead of only securitizing those subprime loans, they went out and bought their own subprime lender.)

By 1998, Wall Street was securitizing 150 billion dollars in subprime loans. The loans were so bad that by 2000, Philadelphia had over 5,000 foreclosures per year, and 6,300 by 2002. Think about that for a second: In a single American city, there were over 500 mortgage foreclosures every single month.

In 2001, in response to this disaster, Philadelphia banded together and passed a progressive law that was aimed directly at predatory lending. It was a law that went after certain products, mandated counseling, and in effect said it was illegal to make someone a loan that made zero financial sense to them. (For example, if you were an elderly woman in a neighborhood with low home values, and you have a fixed income of 600 dollars a month, taking out a balloon loan, or one that had a payment of 400 or 500 a month would not have cut it.)

In response to the law, the financial services industry (the group now lobbying to get 700 billion golden parachutes) thanked the City of Philadelphia for saving the industry from itself. The industry said that they always knew they were making bad loans and that the whole practice was unsustainable, but they couldn’t stop themselves.

Jusssst kidding. Instead, the financial services industry went to Harrisburg and spread enough money around (including to Philly’s own reps) to kill Philadelphia’s predatory lending bill before it ever took effect. Just like that, the law was gone, and Philadelphia’s government was powerless to protect its own citizens. They still tried to help, including educating consumers, convening predatory lending task force meetings and the like. But in the main, there was not a ton they could do.

After the law was killed in 2001, foreclosures went up again, to about 6,300 in both 2002 and 2003. From there, they tailed slightly for the next couple of years, but never again went below 5,000. That, “my friends,” was the new stasis for Philly and lots of other cities: massive amounts of foreclosures, every single year. The pain was felt everywhere. Applications to HEMAP, Pennsylvania’s emergency mortgage assistance program climbed and climbed.

The destruction the subprime predators wrought on Philly is clear. This is a map (click here for a larger version) of Philadelphia foreclosures, laid on top of the race of each neighborhood, from 2000-2003. Each dot is a foreclosure.

The black blobs are because there are so many foreclosures that it is hard to tell them apart. (The darker the underlying color, the greater proportion of minorities.) What is especially tough for long time Philadelphians to see is that Philly, despite its deep problems, always boasted an above average rate of minority homeownership. Those loans struck especially hard right at one of the things we were most proud of.

In 2004, Philadelphia advocates got a local judge and the Sheriff to temporarily halt foreclosures. But that only lasted for a short time, and in 2006 and 2007, foreclosures started climbing again, with foreclosures in 2007 virtually the same in 2002 and 2003. And, yes, foreclosures for the first half of 2008 were even higher.

Meanwhile, by 2006, Wall Street was securitizing over 600 billion dollars in subprime loans. And besides subprime lending, Wall Street was spreading other pieces of financial wonder: payday loans, rapid refunds, and for profit debt management.

This year, with its ability to pass any lending legislation killed by financial services lobbying in Harrisburg, Philadelphia advocates, lawmakers and judges once again tried to do something. They said that if a bank wanted to foreclose on a homeowner, they had to go through a significant mediation process. Thus far, the process has been as successful as it could have been, and it is clear that people’s homes have been saved. However, the program is about as far from the root of the problem- giving bad loans to those who cannot afford them- as you can get.

Philadelphia is a largely poor city. It is not a place that can afford to spare funds quickly. Yet, because of the destruction being wrought, the City simply had to act, and spend more public funds and energy on its foreclosure problems. Think of it as a sadistic, unfunded mandate from Washington, Harrisburg, and Wall Street.

However, I would like to call your attention to the newest maps in Philly, of foreclosures from 2004-2007. (Click here for a bigger version.)

Do you see any real difference from those 2000-2003 foreclosures? You shouldn’t, because there really isn’t much of a change at all. There were 23,700 foreclosures in the first period, and 22,100 in the second. In other words, while the crisis that Philadelphia and other cities has felt is very real, it is also far from new. The story is the same in Baltimore, where foreclosures were actually noticeably worse in the beginning of the decade than now.

So, why now? Because after institution after institution has become involved, the Wall Street house of cards has finally fallen.

But, as we are told that we need a solution right now, let's keep in mind the 50,000 foreclosure victims in Philadelphia, and their counterparts around the country.

Let’s keep in mind the advocates that have been screaming and pleading about this for years.

Let’s keep in mind city governments who have done everything in their power to try and stop this plague.

Let's keep in mind an industry that not only resisted regulation, but actively killed it.

And then, only after we keep that all in mind, let’s think about how to proceed.