Mark Alan Hughes is theOur Sustainability Man

To repeat what has become a truism 'round these parts, Mark Alan Hughes is the man.

As I've said before, loyal readers know I get a kick out of reading the thoughts of Mark Alan Hughes. From zoning to the Barnes Tower to the City Trust to the Erie Canal, Mr. Hughes has been on the right side of just about every issue we here at Phillyville have bothered to give a damn about. Mr. Hughes even gets a "kick" out of calling out Arthur Davenport. And while he never did throw his hat into the Mayoral ring, he did raise the level of discourse, something to which I occassionally aspire. And, finally, I'd be remiss if I did not note that the dude is Phillyville's reigning Man of Awesomeness.

Well, today I learn that Mayor Nutter has tapped Phillyville's reigning Man of Awesomeness to be his "Director of Sustainability." While some may regard his new position as a step down in the cosmic scheme of things, I leave it to the real journalists to decide what exactly that means. But from my seat up he in the peanut gallery, all of this leaves Ruby Legs feeling awfully meglomaniacal today.

First, Philadelphia decides to tap the sitting Mayor of Phillyville to be Philadelphia's actual Mayor. That definitely left me, how should I put it, flabbergasted? And now, the still reigning Mayor of Phillyville, in his capacity as Mayor of Philadelphia, taps Phillyville's reigning Man of Awesomeness to be Philadelphia's Director of Sustainability.

How cool is that?

I mean, next thing you know peeps are going to start taking up my pet issues... like bringing back the A's or maybe that whole non-profit problem.

All of which leaves me with one last thing to say - it's pretty darn tough to be a jaded blogger when stuff like this keeps on happening.

P.S. Just in case the reigning Man of Awesomeness happens to read this post, can I suggest that he read this? Perhaps my Delphic mojo could get something like that to be built in Philly. Now that would be really cool.

Dude, when did Hillary Clinton start channelling Strom Thurmond?

Today, two days after Andrea Mitchell stood in front of MSNBC's audience and reported that the Clinton camp was discounting the results of the North Carolina primary because of the large population of African Americans that make up that state's population, Hillary Clinton had this to say during a USA Today interview:

"Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how the whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me... I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on."

I'd like to say something profound about the fact that this country was founded on the premise of the existence of certain specific truths and that the Clintons, through this specific episode of their habitual conduct, have demonstrated that they have forsaken such truths in favor of Machiavellian relativism. But instead, in retort to their most recent unpleasantness, I'll rely on the words of JFK, "Race has no place in American life or law."

While JFK was in the midst of renouncing an entire wing of the Democratic party, George H. W. Bush making a deal with the Texas chapter of the John Birch Society. He recognized that if the Republicans were going to wrest control of the federal government from the Democratic majority, the Republicans needed in their party what has become euphemistically known as the "Reagan Democrats."

So, the senior Bush made a deal with segregationists and by the end of the century, the Republicans controlled the Presidency and both houses of Congress.

Now, almost 50 years later, Hillary Clinton - in pursuit of her electoral map - wants to undo the reforms championed by Eleanor Roosevelt and JFK - the heroes of the modern Democratic party. Untethered to any truth whatsoever, she has not only demonstrated her habitual willingness to abandon the principles underlying the very foundation of this country, she now has "thrown under the bus" the core principles of our party.

Excuse me while I go puke.

I can't help but take this moment to observe that the Clintons made the current Bush administration possible. We Liberals lament the Bush-Cheney administration's ability to warp words past any semblance of meaning. Yet, it was our blindness to the Clintons that made the current administration's transgressions politically possible. The Clintons were the first to throw truth under the bus of political expediency. Karl Rove just chased us down the slipper slope they started us down.

After this episode, here's to hoping that once Clinton finally sinks into the abyss she has crawled into, New Yorkers do the right thing and vote Ms. Rodham out of office.

Like George W. Bush, she has no place in American politics.

Philadelphia Safe and and Not So Sound (I hate to say it, but I told you so)

Last year, in the midst of the Mayor's race, there was a lot of talk about ethics and whatnot. To demonstrate his dedication to the ethics issue, one candidate affected the habit of pronouncing the word "croney" in a particularly nasal Philadelphia accent. The Committee of Seventy even went as far as to ask each candidate to sign on to an "Ethics Agenda."

At the time, I criticized the Committee of Seventy for failing to address what I had begun to call "The Nonprofit Problem." In the context of the whole Seaport Museum/Citizens' Alliance thing, I was of the opinion that any so-called Ethics Agenda was worthless unless it addressed the City's use of nonprofits to provide government services. I wrote: "there is no oversight of the multitude of nonprofits that are supported by the City by either direct or indirect payments. If the 'ethics' issue is to be addressed, light must be shone upon this rather sizeable black hole in the City’s budget."

We learn this week that despite Philadelphia Safe and Sound's 16-member board of directors, the nonprofit "made spending decisions under pressue from [former-Mayor] Street". We cannot avoid the implication that Mayor Street used his control over Philadelphia Safe and Sound to avoid the oversight of the City's ethics regulations. Good government policies are worthless if they have no jurisdiction over nonprofits.

Not only are nonprofits an excellent warehouse for the cadre of "volunteers" that make up the core of every incumbents' GOTV street teams, but they also provide a convenient work around to get around those pesky election contribution limits and ethics laws.

Frustrated by the fact that you can only give $2,000 to your favorite City Council candidate? Well, why not give $50,000 to her pet CDC? The CDC will use that money to hire the Council person's former campaign manager and then next time the election comes around, that person will take a "leave of absence" from the CDC to work on the Council person's re-election campaign.

Alternatively, say you want to get zoning approval for that variance to build that 55-story hotel/condo project just off Rittenhouse Square. You'd really like to wine and dine the folks over at the Planning Commission but those darn gift rules make it impossible to butter them up with a trip to your vacation home in Hilton Head or even a few trips to Barclay Prime. So, why not give $100,000 donation to the official's favorite nonprofit with the understanding that that nonprofit will hire the city official as a paid "consultant" once she resigns from her position next year? Better yet, why wait a year? Why not just have that nonprofit use your "donation" to hire the official's spouse as its new executive director?

Needless to say, I could fill a book thinking up ways to use nonprofits to "launder" payments made by private entities to influence elected officials. And as I wrote before, it seems to me a little oversight would benefit the City.

At present, the City hands out grants with no systmatic system of oversight in place. How much taxpayer money is wasted on severance payments or bloated administratative staffs?

Without any method of peering into the finances of the myriad of nonprofit organizations operating in Philadelphia, the question is unanswerable. As I suggested before, why not condition the receipt of public funds upon each group providing an annual financial statments to the City that could be made public in a central clearinghouse maintained on the City’s website?

Detractors of such oversight may argue that the creation of such plans would impose too heavy of a burden on groups already stretched thin by meager budgets. I would counter that if a group is unable to create such a plan, it probably is not qualified to address whatever issue the City has tasked it with.

So, now that the City's largest publicly-funded nonprofit, aptly named Philadelphia Safe and Sound, has come tumbling down, why not take this opportunity to make structural changes to the manner in which the City interacts with the myriad of nonprofits that either directly or indirectly receive money from City taxpayers?

Come on Jim Kenney, show us you are the good government guy everyone says you are. Introduce a bill requiring that all recipients of City funds must provide a detailed accounting of how every dollar of the grant was spent. Make this reporting requirement a mandatory term in every City contract.

Versus is Coming! Versus is Coming! And they're gonna save us all!!! Woo Hoo!!!

Versus will not use the same stock footage every time they broadcast a game from Philly.

Folks who know know I don't like Comcast. And I'm not alone on this one. Fox spent all afternoon Saturday doing skyline shots of the scenic Blue Cross building. Somehow the Comcast Center remained off screen, stage right, for the entirety of the broadcast.

That's petty.

But perfectly understandable when you consider Comcast's business practices.

Then tonight, ESPN did a freaking fly-by of the Philly skyline. Despite doing a 180 degree plus circle around Liberty One, not a single glimpse of the aforementioned Comcast Center made it on to the national broadcast.

Come to think of it, the fly-by looked suspiciously like this one from back on August 13, 2007. Back then, I suspected ESPN was using stock footage to avoid showcasing Comcast's new headquarters.

After Fox's shenanigan yesterday, I think I'm on to something here and it's spelled C-O-N-spiracy! The national media is conspiring to keep images of the Comcast Center off all national broadcasts!!!

Sooner or later I expect that they'll be applying black electrical tape to those stock photos that talking heads like to sit in front of to look like they're so important they hover above whatever city from where they claim to be pontificating. It will be like on the those TV shows where folks are drinking what looks like a Budweiser except for the fact it's go a piece of black tape obscuring the "Budweiser." Except instead of being a can of beer, it will be a stock photo of the Philly skyline and there will be a giant piece of black tape covering the Comcast Center.

Speaking of ESPN, those same folks who know also know I don't like ESPN. ESPN and Comcast are likely Public Enemy Nos 2 and 3 'round these parts. Right after Todd Jones.

But all things beings equal, at the end of the day, if I had to choose, I'd choose to rid the world of ESPN.

Comcast is more my Neuman. It's fat disgusting lethargy serves as a convenient foil. I suspect my life would be less rich without its "we-don't-give-an-effing-damn-about-your-business" approach to customer service.

ESPN, on the other hand, has given us Joe Morgan. It practically killed the NHL. And then there's that whole Philly bashing meme that seems to undergrid all ESPN Philadelphia-related coverage (cue the J.D. Drew/Scott Rolen/Irvin/McNabb refereces). All that and I still have not even brought up the fact that they've replaced sports coverage with what I can best describe as mindless noise.

So, yes, if I had to choose, if the boat was sinking and I just had one more life vest to hand out, I'd save Comcast. And I'd let ESPN drown.

Not to mention, just the other day, I got word that "despite the looming recession, there is still economic growth happening in Philly." And apparently, people reading this blog will be happy about that!

As they say, "Woo hoo, everybody hits!"

You ask what is the driver of this so-called economic growth?

Well, it's Versus TV - that's what! And it's the home of the NHL. The only sport I think I've never ever written about on this blog.

Versus is a subsidiary of Comcast and along with all those other folks that are moving into the Comcast Center, I suppose the Versus Network folks are moving in too. And apparently, they're hiring!

As they say, "Woo hoo, everybody get's a job!"

Now, I guess that was just the peeps that worked on the Nutter campaign a year ago this time.

I kid, I kid.







But those Versus folks are hiring and apparently the 28 Philadelphia-based positions they've advertised on their website are going to save the Philadelphia economy.

Nutter got like ten billion, gazillion resumes when he issued his call to service. If I had to guess, I expect Comcast is going to get like forty-ten billion, gazillion resumes for these 28 jobs. Especially 'cause these 28 jobs are gonna cause so much economic growth!!!

BTW - forty-ten is a number.

It's kinda like four score, except not.

The Conclusion of the Continuing Saga of the $85 Phillies Hat

The $85$14.97 Phillies Hat

So several months back, I wrote a fairly bitter screed about how I had been deprived of my chance to purchase a Phillies NL East Championship cap. A couple months after that I posted about how a knock-off version of the hats were then selling on eBay for upwards of $85.

Well, about a week ago, I was perusing the Phillies website 'cause, as I'm kinda between jobs right now, I had nothing better to do with my time. Being a man with way too many Phillies caps, I of course checked to see if there were any new 2008 styles that I may want to add to my collection.

And that's when I saw it - the $85 dollar hat was now on sale for $14.97! That's $10 off the original price of $24.99 and a whopping $70 off what they were going for on eBay!!!

Hastily, I logged in and ordered the hat. Like Ahab, I had finally nabbed my white whale. And today, it arrived in my office just in time for me to wear it to tonight's game.

And with it firmly in my possession, the time is right to go public with this information. Click on over and order your own before you end up like the dudes who paid $85 for a hat they now can get for $14.97.

I suppose the moral of this story is just when you thought the Phils management had successfully screwed something up, they're still able to go ahead and screw things up worse.

Screw Up No. 1: Rather than stock enough championship hats when everyone in Philly wanted one last fall, the Phils quickly sold out and created a secondary market where the hats were selling for $85+ on eBay.

Screw Up No. 2: To fix Screw Up No. 1, the Phils go out and restock their warehouse with championship hats. Problem is all the fans who wanted to buy a championship hat forgot they wanted a championship hat and the Phils have to hold a fire sale to get rid of all the extras now lying around.

Ain't being a Phillies fan great?