No Liberty Belle in Philly

Last month, I told you about Pia Varma, a Republican challenger to Congressman Bob Brady in Philly. Despite an electrifying video, she's been booted off the ballot, the victim of a petition challenge waged by Brady. His attorney mockingly referred to her as the "Sarah Palin of Philadelphia."

Damn!

Go Eagles!

For the seventh time in the last ten years, much maligned Andy Reid has led the Philadelphia Eagles to the playoffs. In a stunning 44-6 thumping of the Dallas Cowboys - most of whose players are felons in the off season - Reid, QB Donovan McNabb and defensive leader Brian Dawkins did more than gain an unlikely playoff berth. They answered their many critics, most of whom never played the game, in the most effective way possible - on the field.

Eagles football.

Philly's Foreclosure Diversion Program Explained to State Reps Dally & Brennan

Last Monday, Northampton County Council member Lamont McClure conducted an informative meeting concerning the local impact of the nation's home foreclosure crisis. Interestingly, state house members Craig Dally and Joe Brennan met the very next day with Judge Annette Rizzo, who supervises Philly's Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Pilot Program.

Dally has been kind enough to send me some information that he and Joe obtained from Judge Rizzo, and I'll share it with you.

Here's how it works. When a foreclosure action is filed, the bank must indicate whether an owner-occupied property is involved, and if so, obtain a case management order scheduling a conciliation conference. Both the complaint and the conciliation order, scheduling a conference within sixty to ninety days, are then served on the homeowner. Before the conference, the homeowner meets with a housing counselor, who prepares a proposal for the lender.

Using this procedure, 1,540 cases have been scheduled for a conciliation conference. More than half of the eligible homeowners, 63%, participated. Of the 973 owners who have completed conciliation conferences, nearly half (490) have been able to save their homes.

Philly is using a large reservoir of pro bono attorneys to keep costs down.

Philly Blogger Beats Dead Horse on Christmas

Dan McQuade's Philadelphia Will Do is described as "a blog about the funniest city on earth published by Philadelphia Weekly." Lately, he's been having a field day with Philly news anchor Alycia Lane. You see, she was arrested last weekend after she allegedly slugged one of NYC's finest. Blogger Dan McQuade is still scouring the Internet for free bikini pix to go with that story.

That's fine by me. The MSM needs very careful scrutiny, eh?

But then on Christmas Day, of all days, McQuade just had to beat on a dead horse - literally. He posted a video of race horse Barbaro with this nice sentiment: "May your Christmas Day be as joyous as the day you heard the news this stupid horse was finally dead and you'd never have to hear about him again."

If you ever wonder why Philly fans have such bad reps, just look at their writers.

Road Trip to Philly, Anyone?

I love taking day trips to Philly. I usually spend most of my time in Chinatown or in the Vietnamese area along Washington Street, where I soak in the atmosphere of different cultures and try to speak Mandarin and Vietnamese while gawking at beautiful women and eating a great soup called pho. Sometimes I'll go into the Old City, see a foreign flick, and pretend I'm an artsy fartsy type. But I'm happiest just walking up and down the streets. It's always loud and dirty, but something about Philly really gets to me.

Tonight I heard from Glenn McCracken, who introduced me tonight to "The Pride of Philadelphia." It's a great little community web site that works hard at stressing the positive things about Philly. Damien Brown does much the same for Allentown at Our West End Neighborhood.

Next time I hang in Philly, I'll check out Glenn's site. I recommend it to you, too.