Some stuff is funny, some not so in Republican candidate’s video

Give Philadelphia Republicans some credit for a sense of humor, at least. Last spring mayoral candidate John Featherman did this hilarious video featuring Moammar Gadhafi praising the one-party rule of Democrats in the city.

Now GOP City Council candidate Michael Untermeyer has joined the fun with the video above mocking a do-nothing City Council. But it ends on a weird and tasteless note, showing a well-dressed black man, presumably a Council member, ogling a mini-skirted blonde in a bar.

I’m not somebody who looks for racial subtext in everything, but this scene seems artifically grafted onto the rest of the video, which shows council members sleeping while the city struggles.

When I spoke to Untermeyer about it, he got uncomfortable pretty quickly.

“The point is that City Council isn’t focusing on its business,” Untermeyer said. He said the man isn’t intended to look like anyone in particular, and if anyone sees a racial message, that certainly wasn’t his intent.

“They (Council members) could be going to a restaurant and eating themselves to oblivion,” Untermeyer said. “The fact is they’re not just focusing on their jobs.”

Watch and judge for yourself.

One more thing. Among the ills of Philadelphia listed in the video is “largest American city that fails to regulate lobbyists.” I wonder if Untermeyer is aware that City Council passed a lobbyist regulation law last year.

                               Wanted – Dead or Alive?

Check the wording on the official court order requiring prison officials to bring former State Senator to Philadelphia for his Nov. 9 re-sentencing:

ORDER THAT THE WARDEN OF FCI ASHLAND AND THE U.S. MARSHALS FOR THE E.D. OF PA. PRODUCE BEFORE THIS COURT THE BODY OF VINCENT J. FUMO ON 11/9/2011 AT 10:00 AM BEFORE THE HONORABLE RONALD L. BUCKWALTER TO APPEAR FOR RESENTENCING, ETC. Signed by HONORABLE RONALD L. BUCKWALTER on 9/26/11.9/26/11

                       State Store privatization a money loser?

If you’ve been following the debate in Harrisburg over whether lawmakers should eliminate the state store system and privatize liquor sales in Pennsylvania, you know that everyone is awaiting a study of the issue being conducted by the Philadelphia-based firm Public Financial Management.

Alleged details of the PFM study have been leaking, and the online news service Capitolwire reports that one the most powerful lawmakers in the capitol believes it shows that liquor privatization could require a tax increase.

Capitolwire bureau chief Pete DeCoursey reports that State Senate President Joe Scarnati, R- Jefferson Co., said after a speech to the Pennsylvania Press Club, “Based upon some things that I am reading, because of the sale of the system, we take a loss to our general fund in the term of a couple hundred million dollars a year.”

Scarnati said that might require an increase in liquor taxes. Backers of the proposal see it differently. Stay tuned.