RSSOVERHEARD: Fumo Confident That A Law Re-Instating Slavery Would Pass In The PA State House; Claims He Was Kidding, But We Have No Reason To Believe Him
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
INQUIRER: In comments that stunned many who heard them, Sen. Vincent J. Fumo said yesterday that his colleagues in the General Assembly would support slavery if given the chance.
The remarks came during an Appropriations Committee hearing in Harrisburg on a bill that would define marriage as between a man and a woman – a measure Fumo opposes.
“What you are advocating here is that we take away the rights of a minority. And I don’t think that’s
right,” Fumo told Gilbert Coleman, Jr., senior pastor of Freedom Christian Bible Fellowship in Philadelphia, during the hearing. “. . . If we introduced a bill on slavery, it might pass. That doesn’t make it right.”
“I doubt that sir,” responded Coleman, who testified in support of the measure.
“Oh, don’t bet on it in this General Assembly,” the Philadelphia Democrat shot back. “I know some people up here, especially on a secret ballot, it would be almost unanimous.” MORE
EDITOR’S NOTE: Despite the way this is already playing in the media, Fumo is not the villain here, and regular readers of Phawker know that we have shown the man no mercy in the past. No, the fault, dear Brutus, lies not with our indicted star, but with ourselves. Instead of just tossing this ’slavery’ soundbyte in the spin cycle and setting it for ‘misplaced outrage’, the media would do well to examine the voting records of all the legislators in this august body with a fine tooth comb, especially when it comes to issues impacting minorities directly and indirectly. We have a hunch you just might find that all those crying foul and worse out in Harrisburg doth protest too much.
THE CONTEXT: The exchange came during a hearing on an anti-gay marriage bill. Bishop Gilbert Coleman Jr., the pastor that Fumo was addressing when the ’slavery’ exchange occurred, is part of a coterie of black ministers keepin’ the gay man down that vehemently oppose ’special rights’ for gays. Up until recently, they were part of Karl Rove’s infamous wedge of so-called ‘values voters’ that got Bush re-elected.
JEFF DEENEY: Look closely, in the middle of the third column from the left [SEE ABOVE], and you will find Philly’s good Reverend Herbert Lusk. Reverend Lusk is a former Eagles running back who is 
credited by NFL Films as the first to ever kneel and pray in the end zone after scoring a touchdown. Reverend Herbert is well known to anyone with any dealings in the Francisville neighborhood because under the Bush administration his church, Greater Exodus Baptist Church (near the corner of Broad and Fairmount) ballooned from your standard neighborhood congregation into basically a megachurch with a couple thousand parishioners, a state of the art charter school (People for People) and a network of social service agencies, all of which I understand were funded by Bush’s faith based initiatives. In previous visits to Philadelphia, Bush has
greeted the news media from Herbert’s church steps. This group that he and Reverend Coleman belong to, the High Impact Leadership Coalition, is characterized as such by the People for the American Way:
“Many critics claim that this group was formed and inspired by the GOP in an attempt to reach out to minorities on issues of homosexuality. Jasmyne Cannick, director of public relations at the Black AIDS Institute, says ‘When a group of black pastors decides that the number one priority for black Americans is the protection of heterosexual marriage, they’re doing the GOP’s dirty work.’” While I think Bush initially reached out to members of the black community in an effort to trade on their unfortunate homophobia to capture a new voting bloc, he has maintained strong ties to these groups through faith based initiatives that have sent the funding of what were relatively small community churches through the roof and transformed them into powerful urban hubs that teach a fervently anti-gay, anti-abortion message.
I will be interested to see what happens to both Reverend Lusk and Coleman’s funding streams next year when (please, dear God) presidential power transfers to the Democratic party. It’s pretty clear that they don’t have a 
friend in Fumo, or, one would suppose by extension, Farnese, either. Their power and money comes from the national level, and without that I’m not sure what they’re left with. Which is fine, well and good because there has been a disturbing trend in the churches of the black community nationwide towards the kind of fundamentalism, Biblical literalism, and fervent evangelism that we’ve seen generate homophobia and misogyny in the white extreme Christian right. The extreme Christian right is the extreme Christian right, whether the preacher in the pulpit be white or black, and I can’t think of any mainstream Philadelphian who thinks we need more of that in our city.
[Photo by JEFF FUSCO]
Will Barack Obama’s official renunciation of his former pastor neutralize GoddamnAmericaGate? In his appearance on Monday before the National Press Club, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, when asked about Obama’s distancing himself, said the candidate was just a politician doing what politicians do. Wright (
politics 
victory in the state’s primary, some New Jersey voters feel buyer’s remorse,” said poll director Patrick Murray…DEVELOPING…Speaking of Jersey, this McGreevey divorce would be really fun if it wasn’t just so sad and tacky: “‘It is not a normal heterosexual relationship when another male’s presence is required to maintain an erection and perform sexual intercourse with a female,’ Haller said in his court papers that were filed April 25. ‘While defendant (Matos McGreevey) may have expressed some initial antipathy to having Ted Pedersen in the room, she knew plaintiff (McGreevey) wanted Mr. Pedersen present. The fact that plaintiff sought this man’s presence during sexual relations with his fiancée is a clear indicator of homosexuality,’ Haller said.” Ya think? …DEVELOPING…Speaking of gay: 
Community of Greece to court
An autopsy will be performed tomorrow on Kenneth Keith Kallenbach, a 39-year-old comedian who died Thursday after contracting pneumonia at the Delaware County jail, where he was awaiting trial. Since 2005, at least eight people have died at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility, the state’s only privately run jail. Several of those deaths resulted in lawsuits by family members who say the facility did not provide adequate medical care or proper supervision for inmates. GEO Group operates prisons around the country, and its operations in Texas have been sharply criticized over poor conditions and the treatment of some of its prisoners. At the Delaware County facility last year, a woman who suffered from a thyroid condition died at the jail where she had been held for six weeks. Family members said she did not receive her medication during her incarceration.”There is an awful lot of deliberate indifference to the medical needs” in the prison, said Harold I. Goodman, a lawyer currently suing the company that operates the jail on behalf of the woman’s family. GEO, based in Florida, also has been under fire in Texas, where it operates more than a dozen correctional facilities. Last fall, the Texas Youth Commission abruptly canceled its $8 million contract with GEO after investigators found unsanitary living conditions at its juvenile facility. Several of the teens said they were sexually assaulted by a guard who was a convicted sex offender, according to lawsuits. GEO lost its contract at an adult facility in west Texas last year after an inspector reportedly characterized the prison as “the worst correctional facility I have ever visited.” [via 
Two men were critically wounded in separate Philadelphia shootings overnight, police said this morning. A 31-year-old man was shot once in the head shortly before 10 p.m. in the 4500 block of Uber Street in the city’s Logan section, police said. He was transported by police to Albert Einstein Medical Center and listed in critical condition. About 2 a.m. today, another 31-year-old man was shot four times in the back in the 3000 block of Memphis Street in Port Richmond, police said. The man was able to drive himself to Temple University Hospital, where he was reported in critical condition, police said. No arrests were reported. [via 
With nervous sighs, the witness described in court the frightening scene that had unfolded earlier inside her friend’s bedroom: As she and her friend were getting ready for the day, Rosario - who stayed overnight after allegedly entering the apartment between 2 and 3 a.m. with some of the friend’s acquaintances - came into the bedroom with a large knife, “the kind you use to chop cabbage with,” she testified. He “told us to get on the bed” and get undressed, she said. Rosario then ordered her friend to “get on her hands and knees,” she said. He took his pants off and pulled down his light-blue cotton boxers, she said. As he was about to “have sex” with her friend from behind, the woman asked him to use a condom, the younger woman testified. Rosario grabbed a Rite Aid bag and used it as a condom, she said. After he left the room, warning them “not to do any funny business,” the younger woman said that her friend “just looked at me and said, ‘I’ve just been raped.’ ” That’s when the two women planned to escape by jumping out the window - until Rosario “burst into the room,” sounding “like he kicked down” the door, which her friend had locked, the woman testified. The 30-year-old victim was not in court yesterday. Assistant District Attorney Mark Cipolletti said in court that she had been “in a coma for several weeks . . . and is just now coming out.” He said after the hearing that she is still recovering in “outpatient-type care.” When she hit the sidewalk, she “obviously hit her head, she was bleeding out of her ear canals, bleeding out of the back of her head,” he said. [via 
maritima) for several years, before moving on to the study of Claviceps purpurea (ergot) and ergot alkaloids.Over the next few years, he worked his way through the lysergic acid derivatives, eventually synthesizing LSD-25 for the first time in 1938. After minimal testing, LSD-25 was set aside as he continued with other derivatives. Four years later, on April 16, 1943, he re-synthesized LSD-25 because he felt he might have missed something the first time around. That day, he became the first human to experience the effects of LSD after accidentally ingesting a minute amount. Three days later, on April 19, 1943, he decided to verify his results by intentionally ingesting 250 ug of LSD. This day has become known as “Bicycle Day” as Hofmann experienced an incredible bicycle ride on his way home from the lab.
WIKIPEDIA: Hofmann called LSD “medicine for the soul” and was frustrated by the worldwide prohibition that has pushed it underground. “It was used very successfully for 10 years in psychoanalysis,” he said, adding that the drug was hijacked by the 
primaries in those five weeks, and had we done that the nominee would confronting 
SOMEWHAT RELATED: Organizers for the Coachella music festival announced that the gigantic blowup swine, released into the night sky during Roger Waters’ headlining set Sunday, was still out there _ and they want it back. The festival is offering a $10,000 reward plus four Coachella tickets for life for the safe return of the pig, according to spokeswoman Marcee Rondan. As tall as a two-story house and as wide as two school buses, the pig was led from lines held on the ground Sunday as Waters played a version of Pink Floyd’s “Pigs” from the 1977 album “Animals.” Then it just floated away. “It wasn’t really supposed to happen that way. I don’t have the details,” Rondan told The Associated Press. The pig displays the words “Don’t be led to the slaughter” and a cartoon of Uncle Sam holding two bloody cleavers. The other side reads “Fear builds walls” and the underside reads “Obama” with a checked ballot box for U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Waters, who told the crowd “that’s my pig” as it drifted off into the night, closed out the three-day festival. “People are putting search teams together to find this pig,” Rondan said. “But it may float in the night sky, never to be seen again.” 
says that this crisis could push 100 million people into poverty. Cornell University economist CHRIS BARRETT and OxFam America policy director GAWAIN KRIPKE discuss what is causing this food crisis and what can be done to stop it. 
on Philadelphia’s WHYY-FM. Since a near-fatal auto accident in 1979, he’s been paralyzed from the chest down. Gottlieb has had nearly three decades to come to terms with the changed circumstances of his body — a body he fears may now be growing tired. And yet, he tells Terry Gross, he’s learned not to think antagonistically about that body. “I treat my body like a fragile lover,” Gottlieb says. And he’s deeply appreciative of the heroism with which it’s responded to his changed circumstances. He’s sad sometimes, he says, but by and large not afraid. “When I feel death nearby, I feel life nearby,” says Gottlieb. The awareness of the one fuels a heightened awareness of the other — and, Gottlieb says, that awareness is available to everyone, not just those dealing with illness.
THIS AMERICAN LIFE
not a place to come joy riding: Last year there were three homicides, eight shootings and countless more assaults perpetrated in this small square of land. Accordingly, we were apprehensive to find a thick crowd of young hustlers gathered around the memorial for Raphael “Ray Ray” Richburg on the corner of 51st and Hoopes streets when we arrived to photograph it on a warm Saturday afternoon.
There was real resentment in his voice; he sounded pained and aggrieved by my presence. The boy’s confidence grew the further we got from him and he shouted profanity and mockery at my back as I got into my car.
It’s safe to say that the motivations behind gun violence perpetrated by the Hoopes Street set go beyond interpersonal disputes.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jeff Deeney is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in PW, City Paper and the Inquirer. He focuses on issues of urban poverty and drug culture. He is currently working on a book about life in the crossfire of poverty, drugs, guns, and the bureaucracies designed to remedy them, all of which informed his experiences as social workers in some of the city’s most dire and depleted neighborhoods.
BY ED KING ROCK EXPERT 
nightmarish), and a rockin’ Jackson Browne. The album settles into this “put your hands together!” vibe with track 4’s “I’m Amazed”, which has all the elements needed for a guy to hoist his tank top-wearing girlfriend onto his shoulders for all the crowd to admire. As the guitars cut loose and the drummer bashes away at his crash cymbals for all they’re worth, you can imagine James ad-libbing in concert a Are you amazed, [insert that night’s town on the tour schedule]?!?! The next song, “Thank You Too”, is a song I’d like to play for a special lady. I’m reminded that Timothy B. Schmit’s occasional lead vocal turns on Eagles songs had a soft, soulful appeal to them, no matter how much you didn’t want the other guys in the locker room to know how you felt. The lush harmonies used here are in no way ironic or tongue-in-cheek. James is so sincere in his delivery it makes you weep. The Gentle Ben/Grizzly Adams vibe continues with the “Sec Walkin’”, a soulful country shuffle that uses orchestrated six-string and pedal steel flourishes, slickster female backing vocals, and just a hint of ’70s Stevie Wonder harmonics in ways that don’t seem possible in these dying days of the Dubya administration. But change is gonna come - sometime after the album’s kinder, gentler “Two Halves” wisely looks back in a rare Badfinger-meets-Freddie Fender style. You’ve got to believe me when I say the strength of this song is its high school yearbook-quotable lyrics. I’m going to have to go back an listen to an old MMJ album to see if I can make out what James was going on about in that reverb tank. As the album winds down the guitars wind up. The underlying optimism and doo-wop chorus of “Aluminum Park” sounds like Jackson Browne in his rare rockin’ mode. The guitarists dig in like Waddy Wachtel and Danny Kortchmar at their most commanding performances. Next the band toys with Pearl Jam’s Crazy Horse-inspired guitar muscle, wisely leaving out the Eddie Vedder yarl. The naive rallying cry of the lead vocals lends the song an air of ’70s hard-rock make-out music. Big Tent Rock! Evil Urges goes out “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream, Part 2″, which sounds like something Steve Miller or ELO would concoct over the course of months in the studio–and I mean that in a good way! That’s the amazing thing about this accomplished record. For all the dicking around young musicians have been doing with suspect influences of the dollar bin Greatest Hits albums of my teen years, My Morning Jacket somehow gets it right.
term was not slated to end until early next year. “I am resigning at this point in time because I believe I have accomplished all the goals I set for myself and have served the authority with distinction for eight productive years,” Dougherty, business manager of electricians union Local 98, wrote to Mayor Nutter in a letter he hand-delivered to City Hall early yesterday.
to lawyer Larry Farnese, Dougherty was forced out two years ago as treasurer of the city Democratic Party. And in last year’s mayoral primary, he gambled the considerable muscle - and money - of his union to back the unsuccessful candidacy of Tom Knox. “Anyone who believes that somehow the sun has set on Doc’s ability as a major player in Philadelphia” is plain wrong, said longtime political observer Kevin Feeley. “He is just as active and influential as ever.”