Veteran New York Times foreign correspondent and bestselling author Stephen Kinzer makes two appearances in town today as part of his “The Folly of Attacking Iran” tour. He hopes to clear the air about Iran and explain that — like in any rocky relationship — we don’t have to be friends, we just have to tolerate each other.

Why did you get involved with this tour?
As a staff reporter, I was not able to beat my spoon on the highchair. That’s one of the reasons I left the New York Times. … I wanted to be sure if the United States got involved in a military confrontation with a country I knew something about, I would be free to speak about it. I do not want to wake up and hear that missiles are falling on Iran and think that “You didn’t do anything to prevent this.”

Read the rest on Impresario, our new arts and events blog.

Loudmouthed mayor of N’awlins Ray Nagin has found himself the subject of public scrutiny (again), this time over this Times-Picayune photo depicting him pointing a gun at the city’s chief of police. Although both men are laughing, Nagin’s getting the appropriate static from locals, anti-gun activists, and anti-Nagin activists.

Too bad. We’d feel sorry for the mayor in this type of situation, but let’s not forget what this Chocolate City-loving lunatic once went on record to say about our fair city:

“Let me tell you something: Ya’ll oughta go to Philly, and you will appreciate how clean New Orleans is. Just go and walk around Philly a little bit, and you will appreciate — am I lying? You will appreciate New Orleans. We still have some work to do, but we definitely beat them by a long shot.”

Yeah …

Anyway, good luck with the PR spin on this one!

Photo of Nagin With Assault Rifle Raises Firestorm [Nola.com]

Yesterday, Gov. Ed Rendell made a dreadfully insensitive remark of Joe Biden-esque proportions about Barack Obama’s chances of winning Pennsylvania’s April 22nd primary. Rendell, of course, has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president (as did Mayor Michael Nutter), but even if he weren’t backing her, it’d be tough to explain exactly what he meant by the comments he made to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial board last week:

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Hazleton’s Amber Lee Ettinger, also known as the hip-shaking vixen “Obama Girl,” won’t impress her presidential idol or his constituents after admitting that she didn’t vote in the primaries on Tuesday.

Ettinger was in New York, but told the New York Times’s Jennifer 8. Lee she didn’t vote because she’s “registered in New Jersey.” Ettinger, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Super Tuesday also stretched over to the Garden State until reminded by Lee, added that she was sick and didn’t have the energy to make it across the bridge and back in time. Poor seductively gyrating baby.

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One story overlooked in yesterday’s press conference with new managing director Camille Barnett was her promise of delivering a 311 phone system by year’s end. “We don’t have to invent it,” Barnett said. “We just have to install it.” (more…)

According to a political insider, business manager of IBEW Union Local 98 John Dougherty is in the process of petition-filing for a possible state Senate bid against serial ally/rival Vince Fumo.

The source says that Dougherty, a lifelong District 1 resident, has warmed to the idea after some careful thought and the urging of Democratic insiders. The way the race is shaping up, Dougherty will consider a calculated roundhouse swipe at a wobbly Fumo and his 30-year senatorial stronghold — possibly keeping Fumo from running just to win the primary, then backing out and handpicking his successor. (more…)

The Daily News updates us on jailbird city councilman Rick Mariano’s prison-penned Philly political insider tell-all, Philadelphia Politics: Show Business for Ugly People — particularly one section in which Mariano eviscerates the local media: “They were slovenly — little packrats without a drop of sympathy.” Except one man: sonorous Action News-catcher Vernon Odom, who gets the love letter treatment:

“Rarely do you find a heart in that pile of greed; when you do, it’s comforting, and it opens you just a little to shine a smirk his way. Vernon Odom is that heart.”

He continues his fawning adulation, calling Odom “a towering cushion of a man.”

It appears somebody’s been in prison too long already.

Mariano can write, says ’slovenly packrat’ [Daily News]

Originally, Governor Rendell threw money at Delaware senator Joe Biden’s campaign. Then it was New Mexico governor Bill Richardson. But now? It’s Hillary Clinton, in town today for a 1:15 p.m. press conference at City Hall to pick up the sloppy thirds support from our beloved roly-poly Eagles fan.

The Hillary stop is an impromptu pause on the way to Jersey to start restocking her stump arsenal for a showdown in the Garden State with Barack Obama during the February 5th primaries. Meanwhile, husband and former intern-diddling president Bill Clinton was supposed to head to South Jersey, but has reportedly backed out — perhaps because he forgot his bulletproof vest?

Rendell to endorse Clinton at City Hall [Inquirer]

Last night, former Inquirer columnist and current ESPN megaphone Stephen A. Smith made another appearance on Chris Matthews’s political yell-fest Hardball, this time to talk about Sen. Barack Obama’s roundtable debate with John Edwards and Hillary Clinton. Smith was not impressed. In fact, he was “disgusted.” Smith also said he was “totally bored” with Obama’s performance. “I thought Barack Obama took a significant step back,” he scoffed into the camera.

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Governor Ed Rendell’s visit to California this weekend with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg to speak at an event with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has writers and politicos speculating that Fast Eddie is pole-positioning as a potential running mate for Bloomberg if — big IF — Mayor Mike decides to do a last-second hat-tossing into the 2008 election as an independent. Where is this coming from? Nobody knows.

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