Earlier this week, a friend at the Philadelphia Department of Health sent me a disturbing set of stats: the number of documented venereal diseases in Philadelphia broken down by zip code: https://hip.phila.gov/xv/Portals/0/HIP/Surveillance/STD/2009/2009_ZIPcod... (warning, pdf).

Sadly, some of the highest rates are in southwest Philadelphia (19143) a neighborhood that's been heavily impacted by poverty and crime.

my friend is on a project dealing specifically with syphilis, a venereal disease that can hide out in your body before hitting you with devastating health problems, ranging from hair loss and unsightly rashes to organ failure, brain damage and ultimately death. More here: http://www.stdphilly.org/stdbasics/syphilis.php

Because syphilis can hide out in your body, it's really important to get tested if you've had unprotected sex recently, including oral sex. It's a communicable disease, and easily spread to your partner.

As everyone knows, Dominic Pileggi has decided to hold up a one-cent sales tax hike in Philadelphia because he's in a pissing match with Governor Ed Rendell. Pileggi says Philly wants a bailout, which is pretty funny coming from a guy who's getting $45 million from the state for a soccer stadium in Chester, one of the most depressed cities in the entire country.

Please visit the Philly Weekly, where Sean Dorn and I catalog the carnage: http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/brendan-calling/Domin...

So much for the "law and order" party:

Drug Education & Law Enforcement -100%

Violence Prevention - 100%

Police on Patrol - 100%

Safe Neighborhoods - 100%

Got cancer? Epilepsy? A sick child? Dominic says "Go to hell!" Oh, and "GOOOOOOOALLLLLLLL!"

Regional Cancer Centers - 100%

Tourette Syndrome - 100%

Hemophilia - 100%

Epilepsy - 100%

Bravo to Sean Dorn for his open letter to Dominic Pileggi:
http://www.youngphillypolitics.com/open_letter_state_sen_dominic_pileggi

and his related petition, calling for the Guv and the DRPA to cut off funding for his stadium until the he disconnects Philly's budget the state budget process:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stall_the_stadium/index.html

I encourage you to sign.

if you are a facebook user, I encourage you to btemporarily ecome a fan of mr. pileggi, who has a presence there:
http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=dominic+pileggi&init=quick#/pages/Domini...
(if the link doesn't work, just search for his name, it'll come up quickly enough).

fans of mr. pileggi can post comments on his facebook wall, which anyone visiting his page will see.

I think you can see where i'm going with this.

hey senator pileggi: why not stop holding up Philadelphia's sales-tax.

As you may know, the Senate is debating credit card reform in response to thoroughly disgusting and predictable abuses engendered by the Senate's LAST foray into credit card reform, the the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, which was anything but.

what the bill did was make it harder for individuals like you and me (but not corporations) to declare bankruptcy protection from credit card debt. What the bill also did was allow credit cards to change your rates whenever they want, and worse, charge rates typically described as "usury" or "loan sharking".

This Saturday is Valentines Day, and what Philadelphia institution is more deserving of a little love than our beleagured branch libraries?

Celebrate Philadelphia's great public libraries at the following branches this Saturday, february 14, 2009. See below for an earlier event at the Ogontz Branch

Haddington - 446 N. 65th Street
1-3pm : Arts & Crafts for the Whole Family

Fishtown - 1217 E. Montgomery Avenue
3-4:30pm : Library Celebration & Arts Workshop

Kingsessing - 1201 S. 51st Street
1-3pm : Friends of the Library Celebration

Wadsworth - 1500 Wadsworth Avenue
2-4pm : Arts & Crafts for the Whole Family

Durham - 3320 Haverford Avenue
12-3pm : We Love Our Library Fun Day!

Queen Memorial - 1201 S. 23rd Street
1pm : Valentine's Day Poetry Party

PLEASE NOTE THIS EARLY EVENT!
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 13th* - 6017 Ogontz Avenue
Ogontz - 3-4:30pm - Valentine's Party

I usually enjoy Mary Patel's "Political Notebook" in the City Paper, but today's issue just gets some basic facts dead wrong about the race for Fumo's seat.

Patel writes:

Another female grassroots activist could soon enter the picture, as Sheila Ballen is said to be planning a run. Ballen, the state Department of Education's spokeswoman, ran unsuccessfully in 2004 against then-state Rep. Marie Lederer. Ballen and Dicker may wash each other out, and possibly draw from the same money pool of supporters.

The problem with this claim is that it's totally false, and has been so since ray Murphy posted about it LAST WEEK.

Dear friends,