NB To ‘Inquirer’: At Least Try And Make It A Little Easier, Please?

Brian Tierney Makes A Pledge [PW]

Blogicized: H-E-A-D-L-I-N-E-S L-I-K-E T-H-I-S A-R-E N-O-T C-L-E-V-E-R A-N-Y-M-O-R-E

• Over at A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago, they’re liveblogging the preliminary rounds of the spelling bee. One kid actually got to spell Grimace as a word. The definition was, assumedly, “A big giant purple… corporate… spokes… thing… oh, whatever, you know how to effing spell Grimace.” [A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago]

• In America, your vote counts. Except when it doesn’t. With Bonus “Press 1 for Spanish” things to anger Joseph Vento! [The West End]

• The Fightin’ Phils sure could use a pitcher. Everyone knows that. So why was their big offseason move — besides the Thome trade — to send Vicente Padilla (a starting pitcher!) to Texas?! Argh! [Phillies Nation]

Also, The Mayor Has Not Been Charged With Any Wrongdoing

Now that he’s done courting bloggers, our man Vince Fumo can get down to the real business at hand: Hiring some new aides.

According to KYW 1060, two of Vince Fumo’s aides are charged with widespread destruction of computer records and emails — whoops! — dating all the way back to 1999. (”But, officer, everything was wiped out by Y2K!”)

Fumo isn’t charged with anything, so he isn’t named in the indictment, but everyone’s kinda-sorta-maybe-okay-yes figured it out.

Aides charged with destroying evidence? Chillin’ with bloggers? What’s next in Mr. Fumo’s Wild Ride?! Only time will tell!

Two Aides of Pa. State Senator Fumo Indicted in Federal Corruption Probe [KYW 1060]

Abridged ‘Daily News’ Columnists

Urban Warrior Chris Brennan: Oh, yes, the DA just randomly tried two artists because, hey, it was a “challenging” case. Yes indeedy.

Jill Porter: I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

Talking Barbaro Was Better Than This, NBC 10

NBC 10

With Chuck Pennacchio’s Campaign Over, Bloggers Courted By New Politician

Okay, more on this Fumo staffer indictment shortly, but let’s take a look at the other Vince Fumo story today first.

Recently, everyone’s favorite South Philly state senator decided that, hey, maybe these bloggers have a point after all! Not that he had been rabidly anti-blogger before, but — of course — the city’s Democratic establishment, which includes Fumo, hadn’t been all that supportive of this so-called “grassroots” movement of “regular” people.

Et cetera. You know how this goes.

But Fumo, to his credit, had a private meeting with some local bloggers a few weeks ago. Fumo’s son, Vince Jr., was the one who suggested it. And just what happened at this off-the-record meeting? Eh, just some talk, some wine and cheese (maybe) and some Johnny Doc bashing (unconfirmed, but, oh, come awn).

Attendees included Fumo; his son Vince Jr.; City Councilmen Jim Kenney and Frank DiCicco, and bloggers Albert Yee, Howard Hall and Tulin Ozturk.

But wither the bloggers at Young Philly Politics, A Smoke-Filled Room and other local blogs?

“I don’t mind getting them all along and getting a bigger room, as long as they’re legitimate bloggers and not Johnny Doc’s guys,” he said.

It’s good to see that some things are still politics as usual. Phew.

With Fumo, it’s blogitics [Daily News]

Quickies: Fat Camp Instead Of Summer School?

• City Councilman Michael Nutter knows how to run for mayor: He says he’s going to get our kids to stop being fat! This may work with parents, but crotchety old people could be all “How about you show them some manners first!” [KYW 1060]

• Your Anthony DiMeo update, courtesy of Metro DiMeo beat reporter Josh Cornfield: “He said in previously filed court documents that the comments made about him on Max’s site caused him to live ‘in constant fear for his safety and the safety of his loved ones.’ DiMeo said in the documents that he was forced to seek out psychological counseling, that he suffered a loss of privacy and his business was affected.”

• Hey, when he’s not bashing those free AOL CDs about five years after people forgot what AOL is, and when he’s not playing with his doggy, we can always count on John Grogan for some good old fashioned Philadelphia optimism. Wait. Philadelphia optimism? [Inky]

• We Americans say goodbye to Katie Couric. Only, uh, she’s just going to be doing the news on a different station. Is she really leaving? [Gawker]

Uhh, Jim…?

In last week’s Sports Illustrated, the magazine asked some questions of former Phillies slugger Jim Thome, including this one:

Yep! Jim’s gonna drive his pick-up all the way from French Lick to Hawaii!

When TV Learns From Blogs

Uhh… NBC 10? I’m a Philebrity fan, too, but I don’t know if you should be using essentially the same headline they are on the story about the Doylestown man who jumped over the side of a cruise ship and died.

Local Man Goes Way Overboard! [Philebrity]

We’ll Be Starting A Little Late Today