Geekadelphia has a pretty sweet book on the 15 ways to sleep on a SEPTA train. As a staffer of The Temple News, I am, of course, a No. 4, what are you?

Last week Philadelphia got a scrubbing as part of Philly Spring Clean-up Day, an initiaitve of the Nutter administration. We at The Temple News definitely liked the vibe, but what do you think? Check the below news coverage of the event, is this just hype or is Mayor Michael Nutter changing a culture?

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-8oNUOzmOQ 350 292]

Chelsea Clinton was on Main Campus last week, stumping for her moms presidential bid. She spoke at a well-attended event in McGonigle Hall and got all sorts of questions, but I’m most interested in a rehashing of one of the most important issues on the campaign trail. Chelsea being hot, and not enough people giving her the credit she deserves for it.

Ryan McCool, the president and long-time face of Temple Republicans, went to the event with the sole intention of getting Chelsea’s phone number. Perhaps just a prank from a McCain supporter, but check the video coverage from The Temple News to see how Chelsea handled it.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sujSbNAjqDU 350 292]

If you had five light bulbs, one of them would be powered by nuclear power in Pennsylvania. Or something like that. Columnist Morgan Ashenfelter thinks we need to use a lot more nuclear power, an issue that is super cool to talk about lately.

Check out what presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has to say on the issue of nuclear power.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cZqtrvDIVs 350 292]

Oh, and peep a total ‘Stuff White People Like‘ reference when Clinton hollers at FRANCE in the same way she would for health care. To be fair, Barack would totally do the same, which is pretty good ammunition for when you want to argue if he is white, which plenty of people who don’t know him do.

Karl Rove and Representative Jack Kingston (R-GA) both recently asserted that Obama’s refusal to show patriotism through flag pin adornment is unpatriotic, while not wearing the pin themselves. What they reveal about their ilk is a misunderstanding of patriotism. Flag pins share the same category as magnetic yellow ribbon troop support. This show of support is something nonpermanent, requiring no sacrifice. The flag pins many of our public officials wear allow them to ensconce themselves in the aura of patriotism, the only cost being the pin might disrupt a thread or two in the fabric of one’s suit coat.

I am not religious, but I do believe the Bible sometimes contains good common sense. The 2nd commandment forbids worship of graven images. I view this as a condemnation of worshiping some shiny surrogate for show rather than truly following The Lord. Obama’s pastor’s words generated much discussion about race, and I hope that one enduring legacy of this campaign is an honest dialog being initiated. All the aspersions against Obama/Wright’s patriotism should spur a dialog about the nature of true patriotism. What Jeremiah Wright said was wrong; and, as Obama explained, it comes from the bitterness and anger from his experiences as a black man of a certain age. However, Wright waived student deferment to enlist in the military, just after integration. He served six years, some as a cardiopulmonary technician, caring for President Johnson at one point. The same-aged Dick Cheney, who stated “I had priorities in the 60’s other than military service,” took five deferments. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both avoided active military service during the Vietnam war using deferments and family connections. Is Wright less patriotic because of his exercise of free speech?

Patriotism is a word that should be indelibly linked with sacrifice. When we read about World War 2, there is always a description of how much civilians were willing to sacrifice. That was patriotism. Where is that today? We are locked in what is described as a supreme struggle for our way of life against the terrorists. Yet, we are rarely asked to sacrifice anything. This is a direct product of the understanding of the nature of patriotism. It has become the public worship of false idols. Such a profound misunderstanding is quite damaging and is easily manipulated, allowing baseless accusations to gain traction.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svRm1NgVMHg 350 292]The Democracy of Youtube at work. 

Yo, seriously, how is there any debate? Chelsea Clinton is hot.

Check out this video by The Temple News on a recent appearance Hillary’s daughter made in Philadelphia, and try to tell me differently.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=KJQKXIQvn2Q 350 292]

That’s a far cry from her early days as the first child in White House.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8T9lU4aTbg&feature=related 350 292]

Chelsea has been used a great deal by the Clinton campaign.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V92CbMElY6c 350 292]

Yet, there has been lots of talk about Chelsea being used for the Hillary campaign. The junior Senator from New York addressed attacks of her “pimping out” Chelsea.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-CaXDO52eA 350 292]

Check out others taking up the debate.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuFH3gzkUgI&NR=1 350 292]

I would like to wade into the morass of the election for one moment. There are three viable candidates, and I find them to all be appealing, capable Americans. For my first time as a functioning adult, it seems that we have an embarrassment of riches with regard to presidential candidates. Certainly, none are without their flaws and drawbacks; after all, they are politicians. However, I could comfortably cast a vote for Obama, Clinton, or McCain.

The Democrats, in particular, seem blessed. I happen to be a lazy supporter of Obama (meaning I do not do anything to advance his candidacy), but I think Hillary Clinton would do a good job, as well. I do not care for her personally, but I think the last eight years have established that voting based upon hypothetically enjoying a candidate’s company over a beer is simply foolish. Furthermore, we have two candidates on the Democratic side from demographic groups generally underrepresented in the halls of power in the United States, i.e. a woman and a man of mixed race.

This should be a time of hope for Americans yet the amount of vitriol being injected into the Democratic primary by supporters of Clinton and Obama is staggering. There have been innuendos about race and gender, purported Islamic adherence, the blue dress, Mccarthyism, etc; the list is endless. A new poll conducted by the New York Times asserts that the acrimony is causing supporters from both sides to state they would choose McCain over the rival Democratic candidate. Who are these rabid supporters? Well, many of them are people with nothing better to do that sit around working themselves into a froth over minutiae. They have let their emotion cloud their sense. We have two candidates who differ little on policy. I have my reasons for supporting Obama, which I will not get into now, but I recognize the similarities. I just find it silly that two groups of hardcore Democrats are willing to vote against their beliefs due to an irrational distaste of the rival candidate; silly, but not surprising. I seem to remember a fear over homosexuals, abortions, and homosexuals performing abortions somehow being injected into legitimate political debate a few years back. As a result, we have a president with whom we could enjoy collectively sharing an ice cold Odouls.

The world’s most famous convicted cop-killer will be spared the death sentence, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer.A federal appeals court refused to reinstate his death sentence, but didn’t reverse his murder conviction in the 1981 shooting of Philadelphia cop Daniel Faulkner.The convicted killer, who has earned world-renown for his activist past, having been a member of the controversial MOVE organization, and tested intellect, having written books and taped speeches from prison.He was convicted of the murder in 1982 by a Philadelphia jury for the killing of Faulkner, who was shot to death near 13th and Locust Streets early the morning of Dec. 9, 1981.He has found friends and supporters around the world, among them black nationalists and intellectuals, as well as social activists and death penalty abolitionists of all races. (For his part, Officer Daniel Faulkner has a Web site in his own name. His wife wrote a book with Michael Smerconish called “Murdered by Mumia“)That number may include Marc Lamont Hill, a self-described “public intellectual” and professor of hip hop and education at Temple. His well-trafficked blog published yesterday a surprisingly timed column by Abu-Jamal on the controversy Barack Obama has faced regarding Obama’s former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The column was dated March 15.According to the Inquirer article, the decision, which gained widespread attention as all Mumia news does, may be just another in a long line of court appearances.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that Abu-Jamal must be sentenced to life in prison or get a chance with a new Philadelphia jury, which would decide only whether he should get life in prison or be sentenced – again – to death.

*Photo courtesy of Lou Jones for the Internationalist Amended (3/28/08 @ 11:18 a.m. EST) 

Last weekend, comedian Paul Mooney came to town to perform at Helium comedy club. Mooney portrayed Negrodamus on Chappelle’s Show. He also wrote many of Richard Pryor’s well known bits and also wrote for and performed in television shows and movies over the years. He performs racially charged material, offending many. It is a great show, and I would recommend for anyone to see it.

During one routine, Mooney talks about growing up in Louisiana and race relations in the South. In particular, he talks about how Southern white folks look upon their family trees with pride, the joke being that they only look. If they shake the tree, a person of mixed race will fall out, referring to the high incidence of the enslavers raping the enslaved; and, as Mooney puts it, post Civil War segregation being restricted to the daytime. Mooney’s words recalled a visit I took to a plantation outside New Orleans.

I visited four or five plantations during my time in Louisiana. For my Southern Literature class, we had to visit the Laura Plantation as a group. The eponymous Laura Locoul Gore was the last female owner from the original plantation family. The tour revolves around life as described in Laura’s memoirs. At one point, our tour stopped in a rooms so that the guide could answer questions. There was a large portrait of Laura hanging over the mantle. This was the first picture we had seen, and it seemed to clearly portray Laura as a person of mixed race. A fellow student decided to raise this point, asking if Laura had been a person of mixed race, shocking the tour guide. She began to answer the question, confabulating as she responded with a broken voice and averted eyes. She explained that the painting was older and not well maintained. Apparently as paintings age, white subjects have their features change to those of a mixed race person. We were all incredulous that she was trying to honestly tell us that the race of portrait subject changes over time. It was the highlight of our plantation tour and was more telling about racial issues in the area than any book I could have read.