With leaders of the twenty largest economies, their assistants and entourages, worldwide news media, and demonstrators and protesters of all stripes converging this week on Pittsburgh, life in this region has begun to feel a wee bit tense. OK, more than a wee bit. So far there have been people hanging banners from bridges, march …
Tag Archives: politics
Turning Technology and Innovation from Words into Jobs (bloggers and podcasters welcome)
An announcement from Carnegie Mellon Students for Barack Obama: Turning Technology & Innovation from Words into Jobs The student organization Carnegie Mellon Students for Barack Obama is hosting a dynamic event showcasing Senator Obama’s progressive policies on innovation, technology, the Internet, and how these policies mean more jobs for Pennsylvanians. Barack Obama has made innovation …
Arnie Barnett explains how to improve the U.S. electoral process
One of my favorite professors at MIT was Arnie Barnett. He’s the George Eastman Professor of Management Science, but more to the point he’s a wizard of statistics, able to make statistics understandable (and dryly funny to boot — as tired as I might be, I always made a point of attending his lectures). He …
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Not a knee-jerk, just a jerk
At the end of this Post-Gazette quickie story summing up voting results so far, there’s a quote from a guy I’d like to to have a little heart-to-heart with: Dave Price, 65, a Republican in Bellevue, cast a vote early today for Mr. McCain. But he said that’s not necessarily the way he will go …
Important for one day
Pennsylvania Welcome Sign, originally uploaded by WestendRaider. Today I had this email exchange with a friend who lives in San Francisco: San Fran Friend: So how does it feel to be the center of the country’s attention? MBM: I love it. I’m going to be so bummed Thursday when everyone starts ignoring us again. I …
Making sense of the superdelegates
"Anti-democratic elements are everywhere in our political system. The presidential veto is undemocratic. The rules governing filibusters and the closing off of debate are undemocratic. The procedural devices by means of which floor leaders or committee chairmen can prevent issues from coming to a vote are undemocratic. The fact that Rhode Island and California have …
Sightings
A few minutes ago I saw Hillary Clinton in the lobby of the Omni William Penn. She looked tired but good.
This machine kills Fascists
this_machine_kills_fascists, originally uploaded by ivalladt. Strange coincidence: On Wednesday, on his terrific blog about arts and culture in Venango County, Dittman posted a link to a t-shirt with a graphic of a guitar and the words "This machine kills fascists." I thought, "Neat graphic. Don’t know what it means, but interesting." Meanwhile: I subscribe to …
Not worth the paper it’s printed on
remnants, originally uploaded by shortfatkid. In today’s Salon, Jay Rosen provides a thorough and excellent analysis of "Why campaign coverage sucks." Factors include the herd mentality of otherwise-intelligent journalists and the need to fill pages and airtime while waiting for the voters to make the actual decisions. He also makes a point about what journalists …