A picture is worth a thousand words:

Marc Ambinder reports from Philadelphia:

    PHILADELPHIA -- It wasn't so much that Barack Obama had real fight in him tonight, or that more people attended his rally in front of Indendence Hall than any other event since he announced his candidacy. It was the spontaneous demonstration of support that happened when it ended.

   5,000 people (at least) had nowhere to go but up Market Street. Obama's charge of the night: "Declare independence!" was with them. They started with the familiar "O-Bam-A." By 7th and Market, they had graduated to "Yes we can!" By 10th and Market, with hundreds streaming in between cars on the road, they were just cheering. At first, a few Philly cops, killjoys, tried to rough the crowd to the sidewalks. It didn't work. The cops retreated to the sidewalks. By the time I ducked into my hotel, a full mile away from Independence Park, the Obama crowd was still marching.

Crossposted on Congresspedia

The campaigns of House Reps. Robert Brady (D-Pa.) and Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) to become Philadelphia's next mayor ended yesterday when each was defeated in the city's Democratic primary election. Former City Councilman Michael Nutter won a decisive victory in the five-way race, collecting approximately 37% of the vote (watch acceptance speech).

Right wing fanatics never cease to amaze me. And now the latest from the minds of those that live in the bizzarro world known as the right wing blogosphere: Here is the latest proclamation from one of their more popular bloggers, a gentleman blogging over at Wizbang known as Alexander K. McClure. It seems that Mr. McClure has come to the conclusion that Baghdad is not much more dangerous than my adopted city of Philadelphia. According to Mr. McClure, Baghdad only has three (3) times more murders than Philadelphia, and for a war torn country that ain't so bad. The not too funny Mr. McClure tried to make a joke out of Philadelphia's murder rate by writing: "Isn't this a quagmire? Isn't it time to consider pulling out?" This of course, is just another example of those on the right trying to make a sick twisted attempt to justify this war. Just recently, Iowa Republican, Steve King, claimed that living in Washington D.C. was just as dangerous as living in Baghdad. Yeah, I guess when you are from Iowa it can feel that way. But seriously folks, to read this type of twisted logic, and then to read the posts that followed, -making fun of the murders in Philly as if over 350 of their fellow Americans losing their lives is something to laugh at- made me realize that we are not at war with terrorist, we are at war with some of our own sick psychopathic fellow Americans. F*&K it, we have our own civil war going on right here in this country.

Anyway, I am looking at the statistics, and it reads like this: Baghdad 53,200 killing per year, Philly, about 350 killings per year,and at the rate we are going now, maybe closer to 400 this year. So let's break that down a little; Baghdad, mmmmm about one hundred and seventy seven (177 ) murders or killings a day. Philly, approximately one (1) killing per day. So yeah, I think Baghdad is worse. I mean clearly worse, which begs the question: why do right wingers want to put down cities in their own country to make them seem as dangerous as a city half way around the world in the middle of a war? Well one reason is, that most of these people don't even consider cities like Philadelphia part of THEIR America. Philly, and cities like it, is an urban jungle, with animals running around killing each other; a fungus in the in the middle of this beautiful land called America. Infested with crack addicts, drug dealers,stick up kids, and welfare mothers. I would imagine, a place to be bombed, just like Baghdad, if they had their way. Gotta over throw that Mayor Street, and create a green zone right in the middle of City Hall. Street, and the Mayors of Detroit, and St.Louis represent an axis of evil. Their cities must be stopped.

But seriously, are there problems in Philly, and is Philadelphia a dangerous city? You bet it is. Anytime you have six murders in one weekend, a woman shot to death in her wheelchair, a four year old caught in a cross fire after a nineteen year old and a thirteen year old were shooting it out like the OK corral; we have a problem. My stance on the crime wave in this city has been pretty consistent from day one. We need to get rid of our current police chief, and put someone in there that knows what the hell he or she is doing. And, we need to confront this problem head on. Larry Platt, the Editor of "Philadelphia Magazine", made a good point recently. He said: "This is not a North Philadelphia problem, it's a Philadelphia problem, and we need to tackle it head on." Of course he was forced to make this statement after Ed Grose, the President of the Philadelphia Hotel Association called on all the Center City hotels to pull "Philadelphia Magazine" -which was doing a feature on our murder rate here in Philly as their cover story- from their night stands. Mr. Grose did not want our visitors to our city of brotherly love scared and fearing for their lives every time they walked out of their hotel room. Never mind that just two of the three hundred and forty or so murders this year were committed in Center City. Apparently he was expecting a lot of republicans.

So back to Baghdad. Honestly, if it's between Baghdad and Philly, I think I am going to stay right where I am. I know I can get jacked walking through Southwest or North Philly in the middle of the night. But damn, I don't think I could be sitting at my desk in the middle of the day, and a convoy of cars loaded with thugs from the hood would come in and kidnap me and one hundred and fifty of my co-workers. Or, I don't think I have to tattoo my name and address on my body so that when I am blown to bits by a suicide bomber-you know, one of those disgruntled Eagles fans-I won't have to worry about my loved ones identifying my body in the morgue. Or, the trash on the side of the street blowing me to smithereens when I go to pick it up because it's an IED. Yep, looks like Philly for me folks.

The sad thing is, not one of these cowards talking about Baghdad not being much worse than Philly would spend a minute let alone a full tour over in that God forsaken place. Yeah, ask some of those brave soldiers over there who are putting their lives on the line every day where they would rather be. I am guessing, that even with our proximity to Jersey, they are going to say Philly. And to compare 53,000 killings to 400 in a given year is insanity. I don't care if Baghdad has five and a half million people to our one and a half million. It's still a ridiculous comparison.

But this is what happens when extremes take over, we get these types of ridiculous pronouncements and statements. Hey, desperate people do and say desperate things. And to say that Baghdad is not much more dangerous than the "city of brotherly love" sounds pretty desperate to me. Like I can get a good cheese steak in Anwar Province.

"Isn't it time we consider pulling out?"

That's the problem Mr. McClure, your President and his ilk pulled out of our cities a long time ago.

Sometime a year or two ago, Ray Murphy and I had lunch at the Reading Terminal, one of Philly's big meeting places.  He said he wanted to get my opinion on something and voila!, he brought out a proposal that he made to start a group called Philadelphians Against Santorum.  Basically he was going to create a turnout machine, based on voter-to-voter contact, all designed to crush Santorum.

I was impressed by the idea.  But I am also impressed by someone wanting to invent a cookie tree.  Some things you just don't think are realistic.  Anyway, I gave it very little chance to actually happen.  Not because I doubted Ray, but it just seemed like a bizarrely big task, that I couldn't see someone simply deciding to do.

Well, I was wrong.

(Crossposted on the Forward Together PAC blog. I work for Gov. Mark Warner's Forward Together PAC.)

Yesterday was a busy day in and around Philadelphia where the Governor was supporting three congressional candidates.  Patrick Murphy, Joe Sestak, and Lois Murphy, all separated by only a few miles in the Philly suburbs, represent 1/5 of the seats that Democrats need to win in order to take back the House come November.  

The netroots was well represented at the first event with bloggers Atrios, Susie Madrak, Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg, and BooMan from BooMan Tribune all attending.

Patrick Murphy, who was Capt. Murphy during his tour in Baghdad with the 82nd Airborne, spoke passionately and enthusiastically about the different ways he felt this administration and this Congress had failed the American people.  As Martin Longman from BooMan Tribune described today:

BooMan also wrote of Governor Warner:

In between events I had the chance to meet up with an old friend, Ryan Matthews, a classmate of mine at GW who now works as a field coordinator for Joe Sestak as he works to unseat Curt Weldon.  I joined him as he headed out to meet with volunteers to do visibility stop where I joined Sestak volunteers Cheryl Morrell from Springfield and Maggie Wright from Marple Township on a street corner as they worked to raise Joe Sestak's name ID the old fashioned (but still one of the most effective) ways.  Every car that honked was one vote closer to a new congressman for Pennsylvania's 5th district.  

That evening I got a chance to hear Retired Admiral Sestak speak when he joined Governor Warner in front of a crowd that included MyDD blogger Chris Bowers.  The admiral was a forceful and impressive speaker as he described the experiences that had compelled him to run for congress; including the challenge of leading a Carrier Battle Group comprised of over 30 ships and 15,000 people into battle, his daughter's struggle with a malignant brain tumor, and the horror he felt as he watched another family, who was not lucky enough to have health insurance, stood helpless as social workers debated if their leukemia stricken child should be treated.  My favorite line was "Every Navy officer is a Democrat, they just don't know it yet because the Navy believes in investing in people."  As the son of a Navy Officer I found myself nodding and hoping that the people of the 5th District would send this great leader to Congress.

Our final stop of the night was to meet future Congresswoman Lois Murphy where over 100 people had gathered.  The latest poll shows Murphy with a small lead over her opponent Jim Gerlach.  Two years ago, when she challenged Gerlach for the first time, she was down 19 points at this point, causing many around the country to declare this seat a great pickup opportunity for Democrats.  Governor Warner continues his travels to support the next Governor of Ohio, Ted Strickland and his running mate Lee Fisher, and then finishes his trip with a stop in Michigan supporting fellow-Governor Jennifer Granholm.