The Pork Report

Why no posts lately on The Pork Report? Last week we hit the 1,000 view threshold in a pretty short time span since our launch, and so we all convened in a dark room at 1421 Walnut Street, and, even though none of us smoke, we pumped in some cheap cigar smoke to make sure we had the right effect. We’ve been hunkered down in there ever since, taking polls, raising cash, and making deals for the last week, and now this is what we have:

What is The Pork Report? – The Pork Report is an anonymous online forum for issues relating to Philadelphia-area politics. If you have something to say about Philadelphia politics that is not a hate crime, this is the place to do it. You can be anonymous when you post or you can make your identity known. It’s up to you. There is no agenda here beyond fostering discussion and as long as posts or comments are not racist, sexist, or otherwise hateful they will not be censored.

Is there a role for an anonymous discussion forum like this? – Yes, for several reasons. First, the Philadelphia political community is small, and some people want to put an idea into the public realm of discourse without their name, party affliation, or political history attached to it. People have a right to do this. Second, other websites concerned with Philadelphia politics have agendas or well-known biases, whereas this website is open to all viewpoints. This is somewhat refreshing in a particularly personal and tense political atmosphere. No one has to take sides in this forum. Finally, United States politics has a robust legacy showing the benefits of anonymous free speech and hopefully this website is a continuation of that legacy.

What will The Pork Report look like from now on? – Posts will no longer be daily as they once were. New discussion forums will be posted about 3 to 4 times per week. Additionally, if you have an idea for a discussion that you would like to post on The Pork Report please email this to us at theporkreport “at” gmail “dot” com. We will not reveal the name or email address of the sender. The decision to publish your post is ours alone.

Thank you for reading and commenting. So far we’ve had some good discussions here and we look forward to what’s in store.

On the heals of Larry Farnese’s impressive victory over Johnny Doc, a lot of Philly folks are wondering if they may finally get a voice back in the State Senate.  Anyone who saw Tina Tartaglione stumble through her floor speech on gun legislation today could tell you that Philly is in desperate need of a fighter on the Senate floor for the next term.  While the murder of 3 Philadelphia Police officers in the past two years should sound a rallying cry throughout the State Assembly in Southeastern PA, little has been done to push the ball forward.

With the FBI shadow looming over Vince the Prince for the past few, Philly has been left with little power in State Senate. Conversely, the patron saint of Delaware County, Senator Dominic Pileggi, has wielded enough power and influence in his short time in the Senate to be considered one of the most powerful legislators in the Commonwealth. And with the ’08 senate races looking rather bland, the Republicans should easily maintain control of the Upper-chamber.

Good help is hard to find at Broad and Market an Inky article by Patrick Kerkstra reports.  Mayor Michael Nutter has had a difficult time filling some key department head positions as he quickly approaches 125 days in office.  Anyone who has had minimal dealing with City Hall will tell you, there is a major reorganization underway, and Nutter seems intent on filling the new administration with highest caliber workers available.

The ’07 mayor’s race blog The Next Mayor has probably done the best job of chronicling the appointments of Nutter administration, though it still remains unclear if there will be another major top-down overhaul of the organizational chart.  Just last Friday, Police Commissioner Ramsey announced a major reorganization of the City’s Police Department, which in recent years has unfortunately remained as the City’s most visible department.

Regardless of how much City Hall needs to be torn down and built back up, The Pork Report has begun to hear the grumblings around the lack of continuity amid the transition.  The biggest complaint from city bureaucrats, however, has been the sloppy recordkeeping of the Street Administration, particularly in the second term. As the City FY09 budget quickly approaches, many are questioning if there as much money being thrown away as we saw in Post-Goode era. The real test of the current administration will be the reevaluation of every city contract and state or federal grant administered by the city, and closing the loop on the no-bid contract system. And while Mayor Nutter may be approaching his 125^th day in office, he still has roughly 1,335 days left, to get Philadelphia back on track.