Politics

For the first time, the city's vast inventory of 9,000 vacant properties for sale will be just a mouse click away. The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA) is rolling out a new online site for viewing all of its vacant land and buildings, as well as the holdings of the Public Property Department and the city-run Philadelphia Housing Development Corp. The official launch will be in June. Technicians are working out the bugs, but the site will be accessible through the main PRA page (www.phila.gov/pra)

Why is it that when I pass by 15th and Market streets on Fridays there are men speaking and teaching hate, especially toward white people? I tried listening to them so I can get a clear understanding as to what they are trying to preach (and I say that mildly), but all I hear is hate toward white people. I even tried to ask them a question as to their objective but I got ignored, I guess I am the wrong color because they would not even look my direction. And why is Civil Affairs not present during their speeches?

You do have to hand it to them. The chutzpah is breathtaking. Republican deliverers of The Message this week in Philadelphia have taken to weaving the phrase "the politics of personal destruction" into their patter. This, in their pitch, refers to the pugnacity of Al Gore, as typified by the Democrats' avid, immediate attacks on Dick Cheney's voting record. Rarely does hypocrisy reach such a distilled essence. Let's be clear about several things. Ad hominem venom is indeed a stubborn virus in our politics.

BLACKS ARE voting for Obama. Women for Clinton. Republicans would vote for a moose if it were a Republican. Does anyone vote with their heads? How stupid the public is. Take McCain. He plays on being a POW. That doesn't make him a hero. I was in Vietnam. I don't sit and preach about it. He wants us to stay in Iraq. Anyone who is still with Bush has to be an idiot. The talk-show guys are the best - what robots! Rich Colaianni, Blackwood, N.J.

Bowing to public outcry and the dictates of the state Constitution, Frank Serafini, convicted perjurer, will at long last resign from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. You'd like to think that makes the score: The People 1, Politics, 0. But he did hang around long enough to meet the Republican Party's tactical goal of delaying a special election until after the April 4 primary. So maybe the real score, sadly, remains: Politics 1, the Constitution 0.

Edgar C. Campbell, ward leader, clerk of Quarter Sessions Court and former city councilman who died Wednesday at 84, was known as the dean of black politics in Philadelphia. He was a soft-spoken man who lived and survived in the fickle world of politics in a career that spanned six decades by following a political philosophy that your word was your bond. He wore the mantle of dean easily and well. He was often sought out by party leaders and younger politicians of all races and ethnic origin who wanted his advice and support.

BARBRA STREISAND sang at the Wachovia Center the other night to a sellout crowd. Barbra also politicked, using an actor portraying the president, about her dislike for our president. She has the right to do that, but what strikes me is the fact that many, if not most, of our Hollywood types seem to think that, because they have our attention while on stage, that makes them smarter than the rest of us and gives them the mission of preaching their holier-than-thou politics to us. People spent a lot of money to attend Barbra's concert because Barbra is one of the finest singers on this earth.

In recent years many men have begun to realize that for them and their father's generation, the necessities of work and career and the rising divorce rate have eroded their relationship to family, community and the natural world. This frustration and alienation has led an increasing number of men to gather in a loosely organized men's movement. Most commentators don't seem to know how to react to this movement. The poet Robert Bly's best-selling book "Iron John" has encouraged thousands of men to venture into wilderness retreats to rediscover the mythic dimensions of masculinity.

WE NEED election reform, and we need it fast! Not tomorrow, not the next day, but right now. We need laws that have teeth. We want to know what you are going to do for us, not what the other guy did or didn't do. Talk about yourself, and your plans, not what your opponent does (or what you'd have us believe he or she did). Let him or her tell us what their plans are, not what you think they are. Tell us what your agenda is, and don't tell us what your opponent is going to do or not do. Anyone who talks trash about his or her opponent should be immediately banned from further campaigning.

So you're wondering, how can anybody argue for appointing judges when the mayor's wife - among a dozen politically connected lawyers and judges - is nominated for a seat on the federal court in Philadelphia? Fact is, the appointment of federal judges - while it often yields high- quality candidates (like corporate lawyer and, now, U.S. District Judge- nominee Marjorie O. Rendell) - is really a political selection process. A U.S. senator - in this case, Sen. Harris Wofford - names a committee to come up with names.

Johnny Depp, who plays American Indian sidekick Tonto in a Lone Ranger pic, has been made an honorary member of a Comanche tribe in New Mexico. Tribal member LaDonna Harris told the Associated Press Tuesday that Depp was gifted with the proclamation May 16 at her Albuquerque home. He's now considered one of her sons. Six Spidey minutes to amaze Willing to give up six minutes of your life for the most salvific, life-changing experience imaginable? Go see Men in Black 3 at your local Imax theater Friday!

CAIRO - On the first day of the first free presidential election in Egyptian history, 10 young men sat in a circle in a rundown cafe in the working-class quarter of Saida Zainab. They were supposed to be holding a sales meeting for a food products company, but instead they were arguing over which presidential candidate to vote for. Three had picked the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, three were opting for a moderate Islamist independent, and three backed a socialist who patterns himself on Gamal Abdel Nasser.

CAIRO - Egypt's presidential campaign has been full of startling moments. At one point, ousted President Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister rode into a rally on a white horse like a knight, promising to restore Mubarak-era stability and ensure secular rule. A veteran of the old regime, Ahmed Shafiq was himself booted from office by protests weeks after his former boss fell last year. Now he's a presidential candidate, his dramatic entrance before a cheering crowd typifying the choices facing Egyptians in this week's landmark vote, between voices from the authoritarian past and Islamists promising an uncertain future.

One of the obvious differences between The Dictator, the new Sacha Baron Cohen comedy, and Borat and Bruno, his 2006 and 2009 endeavors, is that the latter two, of course, were real. That is, they presented themselves as documentary-like affairs, with Baron Cohen's Kazakh TV personality and Austrian fashion journalist, respectively, inserting themselves into real-life situations with real-life people. Unscripted. Let the fur fly. In The Dictator, Baron Cohen plays General Admiral Haffaz Aladeen, the ruler of a fictional North African republic.

Re: "She's Pro-Prez" letter: I am so sick and tired of reading liberal garbage letters like Barbara Ziccardi's, which puppet the same lie that Republicans, and Mitt Romney in particular, are only for the rich, and Obama is for the middle class. Mitt Romney has done more to help the poor and middle class than Obama has or ever will. Mitt Romney has taken many businesses with one foot in bankruptcy court — including many middle-class workers who would have had one foot in the unemployment line — and turned those businesses into surviving and thriving companies which not only saved jobs for many middle-class workers, but provided new jobs for other workers.

Burnishing his political credentials among the Republican right wing may be the only logical explanation for Gov. Christie's blocking the creation of state health-insurance exchanges, which would aid not only the 1.3 million New Jerseyans without coverage, but also small businesses and people who don't have enough medical insurance. Choosing politics over policy, Christie has caved to party extremists who were calling the exchanges "Christiecare. " The term served as a loosely veiled threat to a potential running mate for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who has his own problems trying to escape references to "Romneycare," the affordable-health-care plan he created as governor of Massachusetts.

Why is it that when I pass by 15th and Market streets on Fridays there are men speaking and teaching hate, especially toward white people? I tried listening to them so I can get a clear understanding as to what they are trying to preach (and I say that mildly), but all I hear is hate toward white people. I even tried to ask them a question as to their objective but I got ignored, I guess I am the wrong color because they would not even look my direction. And why is Civil Affairs not present during their speeches?

Concerns grew that Greece's departure from the euro was near. Yet there were also hints that a new phase of talks with European lenders could begin. A3.

The presidential candidates confronted each other in front of the TV cameras for four hours on Thursday, with only two breaks of about 30 minutes. They argued about security, the economy, education — and the role of sharia law. The location was Cairo. The more secular candidate, former diplomat Amr Moussa, accused his opponent of being an Islamist hard-liner in moderate's clothing. The Islamist, former Muslim Brotherhood leader Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, accused Moussa of complicity in the former Hosni Mubarak regime.

ATHENS, Greece - President Karolos Papoulias called for the leaders of Greece's political parties to meet Sunday in a last-ditch effort to broker a deal for a coalition government and avoid another general election. Papoulias took the step Saturday when Greece's socialist leader, Evangelos Venizelos, officially gave up the mandate to form a coalition government after three rounds of negotiations proved fruitless. Papoulias' office announced that the president would meet initially with the heads of the three parties that won the most votes in last Sunday's inconclusive elections - the conservative New Democracy, the Radical Left Coalition (Syriza)