Are Casi-NO people going to starve themselves, chain themselves to the chain-link fences and douse themselves with diesel fuel and set themselves alight over this?

If so, I need to know when they plan to do it. I'll make it a picnic and bring my camera.

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WHYY pays their CEO $750,000 a year. So WHYY should I renew my membership? Seems they have no problems finding money and spending it unwisely.


And this is why you should donate to PACCA, not PETA:

In September, PETA made headlines in Vermont and across the nation for asking Ben & Jerry's ice cream to use human breast milk in their ice cream, instead of cow milk

I hear you but thats why there is a local zoning process, why City Council normally has say over major zoning changes - so that people with competing views and interests have a forum to hash out their differences in and more often then not (flawed though the process might be) the right decision (or at least a better decision than who pays the councilman the most in political contributions) comes out of the process.

This is not about every thing that every small group of some neighbors chooses to complain about. Usually those people get their day in court or day in front of the ZBA or day in front of City Council and if they have the numbers they win if they don't they lose. Thats called democracy. Its about how with the casinos the state systematically took away people's access to all the normal channels they use to hash it out through.

If the casinos at these two locations are the best thing for the city why would it have been such a hard thing for you guys to win over the electorate at the ballot box? Zur thinks the case makes itself. Why derail the process?

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A song that says it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqITJFGyq4s

From what i have read I think only the chain themselves to the chain-link fence part. But sure go down and watch one of the traditions of participatory democracy in action. Its still a free country.

To be honest i would not be terribly surprised if Councilman DiCicco and even Vince Fumo decided to go get arrested with the rest of them to try build up some anti-casino political brownie points. What better way to try and absolve yourself of guilt for authoring Act 70?

Actually in the same NPR story already mentioned discussing potential civil disobedience by CFP Fumo was already quoted citing almost the exact same argument I just made about the state bypassing the usually forums people have to voice their opposition through and sounding very sympathetic to those potential protestors so it seems to me like someone is a little worried about re-election. Maybe we will see Fumo in handcuffs as a re-election stunt before the Feds get that chance at him.

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A song that says it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqITJFGyq4s

Well becuase if it was up to citizens in the local area to decide everything.


WE WOULDN'T HAVE ANYTHING.

No highways, no running water, no prisons....


Nobody wants the farm next to their house becuase of the smell but they want food.

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BS. That's a stinker and you know it.

98% of what people want to get built gets built after going through a normal zoning process, with normal oversight by City Council for major rezoning. Why are the casinos different?

I'm not talking about just the local neighbors, I'm talking about the entire voting electorate of Philadelphia. The casinos had their chance to make their case to the voters - all of them - and they decided to hide behind the best lawyers money could buy instead.

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A song that says it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqITJFGyq4s

THe Walt Whitman had huge opposition. So did Fairmount Park and the Ben Frankin Parkway.

It's not BS.

Even the Ben Frankin Bridge has massive protests.

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And they all got built. You are kind of proving my point here.

Why should casinos get a pass from the same rules that apply to every other kind of proposed development?

If those two sites are so obviously in Philadelphia as a whole's best interest why did the casinos have to go to court to ask the ballot intiative off the ballot? It was symbollic and would not have changed the letter of the law of Act 70 anyway.

This process has been an exception from the rules that govern every other thing that gets built in this town. Why?

If the benefits are so fabulous why were the casinos afraid of letting the people vote?

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A song that says it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqITJFGyq4s

Are you testifying for the defense or the prosecution? Considering that all these projects went forward to completion, it shows that democracy works for the people. Thank you Zur for these excellent examples. Now it's time for casino zoning to go through the same process.

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Uh..

Actually they were ONLY built because they ignored all the whiney protesters.


And I'm not against Ballot Initiatives.

I am against poorly wording scare tactics.

"Do you support casinos next to your kid's school?"

Was the wording? Am I wrong?

Why didn't they have one for Smoking in Bars?

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