Jive 8

Philadelphia Mayor JohnStreet is in a very enviable position; his city is the host for the US performances of Live 8. You would figure a man who has had his share of scandal in his two terms and had a close aide convicted would chill out when the eyes of the world were on him.

You would figure wrong. Instead he looks at it as an opportunity to enrich his family:

T. Milton Street, the mayor's brother, will operate more than 17 percent of the vending spots that the city has set aside for minority and female vendors at today's Live 8 concert. In straight numbers, that's 12 of 70 spaces.

I'm shocked--shocked I tell you. The Mayor's brother getting preferential treatment is not really preferential treatment, it's an anti-discrimination measure:

"There was no special arrangement for him," Polgar said yesterday. "As long as he shows up with the money and meets all the requirements... we certainly couldn't discriminate against him. Because that's what he does - he is a vendor."

You see, the Mayor didn't even want to allocate spots to minority-owned businesses but conceded when he figured he could help his brother scam some money:

A dozen spots reserved by one vendor who happens to be the mayor's brother was not what A. Bruce Crawley had in mind these past weeks, as he has pressed the mayor through street protests to create more opportunities for black business owners.

"That is not what we intended," said Crawley, president of the African American Chamber of Commerce. He said he knew of vendors who called Festival Food to ask about participating and "were referred to Milton Street and his people."

"We were in a running debate with the mayor about whether African Americans should be involved at all, and all of a sudden Milton is in charge," Crawley said.

Joe Grace, the mayor's spokesman, noted the city's commitment to helping minority business owners. He also said, "If Milton Street is one of the vendors and happens to have a lot of experience vending in this city... I don't know if there is too much I can say about that."

You got that? They were referred to Milton Street and "his people".

The whole focus of Live 8 is to forgive debt to third world African nations, sadly the Mayor of the city hosting the American portion is acting like a corrupt dictator of one of those poor nations.