Free Broadband for All

The Government of India announced plans to offer free broadband service to all residents of the Indian subcontinent. (via Slashdot)

The government proposes to offer all citizens of India free, high-speed broadband connectivity by 2009, through the state-owned telecom service providers BSNL and MTNL. While consumers would cheer, the move holds the potential to kill the telecom business as we know it.

This is a great forward-thinking decision by the Indian government. We need to start viewing internet access and communication technology as vital infrastructure the same way roads and railroads were in the past. Government intervention is necessary to ensure equitable access and to take advantage of large economies of scale.

It will be interesting to see how other governments will respond and what the telecoms here in the US will do. This announcement should be seen as a challenge and an opportunity to innovate!

Unfortunately, it seems that corporate America hasn't been up to the challenge lately. Just look at the music and film industries failure to innovate in response to often changing marketplaces. And based on what we've seen from the telecoms in the recent battles on net neutrality, it is likely that they will instead attempt to prop up their existing business models by limiting government intervention.

Let's see a Democratic presidential candidate include this in their platform. But don't hold your breath because the US telecoms would never let that happen.

~BT

A Penn Blogosphere?

After noticing an uptick in traffic and checking my handy StatCounter report, I realized that I had been linked by Kevin Burke, a fellow Penn blogger. He put together a list of Penn blogs and I have to say that I was pretty impressed that he was able to find them all. When I tried to find other Penn blogs I only came up with this:

• The Spin
• Sphinx Citings
• Sophomore News & Events
• Penn Amnesty Intl
• I'm not even hungry

It was also pretty cool to see that someone I know, Stu Stein, is also blogging at The Un-Wharton.

This could be the start of a real "Penn Blogosphere" where Penn bloggers actually interact online and become responsive to one another. The first step to solidifying the network would be for all of us to link to one another and aim to increase our collective readership. Maybe it's just among seniors, but it feels like most Penn students don't actually read blogs regularly, let alone anything beyond the major professional blogs. I would like to see more Penn students reading blogs and for those blogs to have conversations about what's going on at Penn. Ultimately, we could get to the point where those conversations actually have an impact on campus.

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

~BT

Olbermann lays the Smackdown on Giuliani

Keith Olbermann delivers an incredible special comment about Rudolph Giuliani’s recent remarks that had the Democrats firing back this week. He perfectly lays out how Giuliani is attempting to exploit the fear of terrorism for his own personal gain.

Over at The Huffington Post, Gary Hart, the co-chair of the U.S. Commission on National Security, responds to Giuliani's criticisms of Democrats in this open letter where he justly points out the fact that Giuliani, like Bush, failed to take key actions in the critical 8 months before 9/11 .

Looks like the beginning of the takedown of the Republican front-runner in the Presidential nomination. The progressive blogosphere was successful in changing the narrative on McCain, let's hope it works again.

~BT

The Rest of the World

It seems like Americans have been completely caught up with what's going in this country. It has even gotten to the point where they have no clue what's going on in the rest of the world. I'm not sure if that is anything new but it feels like it is getting worse.

And I'm not just talking about your regular American-centric media coverage. Recent events have consumed all the attention in the media, in our conversations and entered into every facet of our lives, here in the U.S.

After arriving at Penn and living here for 4 years now, I distinctly notice the all-consuming and inward-looking worldview that exists throughout the majority of this country.

It is hard to even keep up with what's going on domestically:

• Virginia Tech coverage dominated for awhile but things have surprisingly moved on fairly quickly and hopefully will allow VT students the space to get things back to normal.
  
• Military scandals and cover-ups
  
• Gonzales under fire
• Old-fashioned showdown between Bush and the Democratic Congress
• And much more: Investigations into Karl Rove, Angelina renames her kid, etc...
  

Recently, I've been consumed by US domestic news and politics. So I thought I would spice things up a bit and run through some major events happening around the world. Most of which you could have conveniently read in today's New York Times

• Boris Yeltsin died and thousands gather to mourn him
• The French Elections: A final showdown between Sarkozy and Royal
  
• Claims of fraud surround Nigerian election
  
• Bhutans Learn to Vote and here is the Bhutan Wikipedia link
  
• Mexico City Legalizes Abortions
  

To me, this only reinforces the need for the UA and Penn to continue to provide free copies of the New York Times around campus. This past month, it was really great to see everyone reading it around campus and I want to see that again on campus in the fall.

~BT

Wolfowitz Slammed in New Internet Video

Via Mydd.com:

Phil de Vellis, the creator of the famous (or infamous) "Vote Different" internet video that used Apple's 1984 ad to draw contrasts between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, has just produced a new video -- this time going after embattled World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz.

If you want more information about ways to pressure Wolfowitz to resign, visit Avaaz.org.

~BT

Tragedy at Virginia Tech will have major implications

At 7:15 yesterday morning, the first shots were fired in what has turned out to be the worst shooting rampage in US history. According to the NY Times:

Thirty-two people were killed, along with a gunman, and at least 15 injured in two shooting attacks at Virginia Polytechnic Institute on Monday during three hours of horror and chaos on this sprawling campus.

There has been some really incredible coverage so far. I just saw a CNN interview with a female student who was able to survive by playing dead in the classroom. She was one of four people to leave her class alive after preventing the shooter from re-entering their classroom by blocking the door.

Even Bush suprised me with this appropriate comment:

"Our nation is shocked and saddened by the news of the shootings at Virginia Tech today...Schools should be places of safety and sanctuary and learning...When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom and every American community."

As the story continues to develop, there are still so many unanswered questions:

• Who is the shooter?
• What was the motive?
  
• Were the two bomb threats from last week related to today's incident?
  
• Why wasn't the campus immediately locked down?
• Why weren't students warned sooner?
• Could the second round of shooting have been prevented?
• Was the University and police response bundled?

While the list of questions grows, this tragedy has already had major political implications. It has fully consumed the news cycle for a full day now and will at least continue through the next week as more information slowly comes out.

One major result is that the following stories have been wiped off our television screens and newspapers:

• The bombings in the Green Zone in Baghdad
• The Don Imus extravanga that was just heating up
• The innocence of the Duke lacrosse players
• The Prosecutor Purge and calls for Gonzales' resignation
• Escalating rhetoric between Bush and Congress on Iraq War funding

I had planned to blog about a number of these items and since they have quickly become "old news", I will try to approach them in a more in-depth manner and spend more time on each.

This tragedy also raises some important questions for Penn. What would Penn have done in this situation? Could we h even handle such a major catastrophe?

According to Penn's Division of Public Safety, Penn Police would be prepared for a similar incident. That is crucial because at the end of the day, Penn students are wondering: " what if something like that happened here?" I know I did.

I am definitely confident that DPS has and will continue to work exceptionally hard to ensure our safety. I really hope they actively communicate how prepared they really are and reassure the Penn community.

~BT

Grindhouse Disappoints

After sitting through over 3 hours worth of Grindhouse I left wishing that Tarantino had not bothered to include Rodriguez's Planet Terror for the first half of the movie. The highlight of Planet Terror was Fergie getting eaten, cue the "she tastes Fergilicious" jokes now, and it was a lame rehash of From Dusk till Dawn, which was also directed by Rodriguez but at least starred George Clooney and Salma Hayek.

As for Tarantino's Death Proof, I very much enjoyed it. It was just too bad that after sitting through 1.5 hours of crap I was in no mood to watch another movie. Thankfully, Tarantino delivered a great film with some witty dialogue and action reminiscent of Pulp Fiction. Tracie Thoms is fabulous as the female version of Samuel L. Jackson from Pulp Fiction.

From Salon.com:

It was a chivalrous gesture, but an unnecessary one. "Grindhouse" -- which consists of two full-length movies, one by Rodriguez and one by Tarantino, as well as several faux trailers by guest directors -- is a grand collage of drooling zombies, bounteous breasts, spurting blood and careering cars, a rambunctious and unapologetically disreputable entertainment as well as a comprehensive catalog of B-movie references. It's also recklessly joyous and deeply affectionate, a celebration not just of an all-but-lost approach to moviemaking but of the nearly lost experience of communal moviegoing.

Some other reviews:

Death Proof is, in many ways, an amazing approximation of the old exploitation films, but with an unmistakable QT vibe. Rodriguez, on the other hand, directs his half as the fever dream of someone who has only been told about exploitation movies.

Too bad Tarantino didn't do the zombie pic, too.

~BT

Americans United vs. Mitch McConnell

Mitch McConnell: Kentucky sees it, why won't he?



~BT

Sphinx Citings Strike Again!

With the title of Better Late Than Friars Sphinx Citings is back from a two week hiatus and goes on to detail recent Sphinx happenings in witty style. Citings definitely needs to move towards a more regular frequency - I just can't get enough. Some of my favorite lines:

• "Candlelight vigils were held and the DP started a ticker of the number of days that Citings had passed its deadline."
• "Healey was seen watching Jon Tucker Must Die and Mean Girls in a back-to-back "blow out with his manly fraternity brothers." Oh yeah, and Healey was also called out in QPenn for supposedly being gay, again. The crowds yawned, yearning for a new joke from everyone's favorite hotty from Nebraska"
• "words of encouragement from Friars head honcho Zach Coopersmith in email correspondence with an unnamed Sphinge: "I like the blog posting on the Sphinx website by the way, you guys are so amazing."

It's good to see that at least some in Friars enjoy our Citings.

~BT

Republican Infighting

It has been great to watch the aftermath of Matthew Dowd's NYTimes interview:

In a wide-ranging interview here, Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s leadership.

He criticized the president as failing to call the nation to a shared sense of sacrifice at a time of war, failing to reach across the political divide to build consensus and ignoring the will of the people on Iraq. He said he believed the president had not moved aggressively enough to hold anyone accountable for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and that Mr. Bush still approached governing with a “my way or the highway” mentality reinforced by a shrinking circle of trusted aides. …

In speaking out, Mr. Dowd became the first member of Mr. Bush’s inner circle to break so publicly with him.

Initially, the White House and Republican Noise Machine response was to accuse Dowd of having personal issues because his son is going to Iraq:

Two leading Bush spokespersons -- Dan Bartlett on Sunday and Dana Perino at her press briefing today -- have since suggested that Dowd's disenchantment with their man stems partly from "personal" reasons and "emotions." Bush joined that angle today, attributing Dowd's criticism on the war to to an "emotional" reaction.

Since the initial line of attack didn't seem to stick, we see the latest attempt, exposed by ThinkProgress, to smear Matthew Dowd, through who better than Robert Novak.

Salon.com has a piece detailing how Dowd joined the Bush team and his role as the brain behind the Architect himself, Karl Rove.

And just when things were bad, another conservative turned on Bush and the GOP.

~BT

Bush looking for cowboy showdown

The political saga over Iraq continued in full force today with Bush looking defiant in his news conference where he blamed Democrats and renewed his veto promise. Keith Olbermann has a great segment with some great footage of Bush and an interview with one of my favorite senators: Russ Feingold. From Countdown's blog TheNewshole:

The Will of the People: President Bush once again bound for vacation in Crawford tomorrow, today slamming Congress for being on vacation away from the capitol, insisting lawmakers should get back to work in order to do the people's business of rubber-stamping whatever it is he wants for his war in Iraq. Senator Russ Feingold joins us with a scathing response to a scathing presidential press conference

The NYTimes compares the current political showdown with the budget stand-off in 1995 between Bill Clinton and congressional republicans. I think there are some key differences and that in this case Congress will win out. The public is behind the Dems and gave them a mandate in November to get out of Iraq. This time there are lives on the line, not just federal government paychecks and Bush will be seen cutting off funding by issuing a veto, not the Dems.

Via Dailykos, Harry Reid comes out swinging:

If the President vetoes this bill he will have delayed funding for troops and kept in place his strategy for failure.

In further hypocrisy, Bush criticizes Congress for being on vacation even though he is about to go on one himself.

Also via Kos, Think Progress tears apart Bush's attempt to blame the Dems for delaying the funding, by pointing out:

During the reign of the Do-Nothing 109th Congress, Bush submitted two major supplemental spending requests. Each request experienced a delay far more than 57 days with hardly a peep of anger from the Commander-In-Chief. Details below:

February 14, 2005: Bush submits $82 billion supplemental bill
May 11, 2005: Bush signs the supplemental
Total time elapsed: 86 days

February 16, 2006: Bush submits $72 billion supplemental bill
June 15, 2006: Bush signs the supplemental
Total time elapsed: 119 days

After the 119 day delay, Bush did not say an “irresponsible” Congress had “undercut the troops” or that military families had “paid the price of failure.” Instead, Bush told the conservative-led Congress, “I applaud those Members of Congress who came together in a fiscally responsible way to provide much-needed funds for the War on Terror.”

It seems like Bush is so out on a limb that even Hillary "Hilldog" Clinton thinks it is safe enough to urge Dems to press Bush on Iraq.

Some other quick links from Democratic Undergrdound:

• Students pelted Karl Rove in protest
• Matthew Dowd's criticism signals a larger GOP rebellion?
• Mccain's ridiculous photo-op in Baghdad

Meanwhile, it turns out that the Dems have been united after all, even if the media try to paint a different picture.

~BT

Toronto May Adopt Garbage Fees

According to The Star, Toronto might start charging fees to households for garbage pickup. It is all part of a plan to reduce the amount of garbage generated in Toronto.

Toronto householders could soon be asked to choose the size of their garbage container – and be billed a monthly garbage pick-up fee according to the size of their bin.

City staff have worked up a proposal to be floated to politicians this week that would set pay-as-you-throw fees for garbage.

Householders would not be charged higher fees if they fill extra blue boxes or green bins. The idea of the fee is to encourage residents to reduce the amount of garbage going to the dump, not to penalize those who recycle or compost.

Philly should do something like this! Actually, maybe they should start some basic recycling in the city first. The UA has been trying to get Penn to do better off-campus recycling for years, so we'll see where that leads.

~BT

Fling 101

You need to see the great video produced by SPEC abour Spring Fling. Priet Sagdiyev, played by Jason Karsh, meets many Penn students in his quest to learn about Spring Fling. It also stars a number of my fellow Sphinges: Caroline, Mana and Catey.



~BT

Why I love the Internets

I spend way too much time surfing the Internets but I never seem to get bored.

The NYTimes has a great article on Global Warming and how inequality is being reinforced by climate change. The paper of record also recently reported on the increasing income gap, dah! I guess giving huge tax cuts to the rich tends to do that.

From the Village Voice, here is a hilarious article and graphical representation of the song "This is why I'm hot" by MIMS.


post your favorite links in the comments

~BT

Update: Looking through Facebook posts by my friends, I noticed that Penn Masala's recent YouTube skit made its way up to Canada. It has almost 1 million views so far. Check it out:

The Tudors = Must See TV

I just finished watching the first two episodes of Showtime's The Tudors and it is simply amazing. It premiered Sunday night on Showtime and the first two episodes are already available online. I was so happy to see that all of the 10 episodes already made will be online. Finally, great tv will be legally accessible online in decent quality!

And the reviews have been mixed, some good and some that were more critical.

Decide for yourself and go watch it now!

Thanks to Krysten for telling me about it
~BT

Kudos to SPEC, exciting politics, and the end of DRM?

From the front page of the DP:

This morning, SPEC Concerts announced that they will be distributing an additional 200 tickets to the Spring Fling concert through a lottery system.

Way to go SPEC! They deserve much credit for putting together what will be a great Fling concert. Check out their website for more details and info on Fling.

We are in some exciting exciting political times with Harry Reid calling Bush's bluff and threatening to cut off war funding. It finally looks like Reid will stand up to Bush and who knows what the White House will do.

Also today, we have all the details on presidential fundraising figures and Romney suprised today with $12.5 million. It was totally unexpected and Chris Matthews was all over it today on Hardball, delving into the fact that Romney is a Mass. flip-flopper, sound familiar? Chris Bowers discusses how Romney should be the Democrats' ideal opponent for '08.

After waking up today and reading my free copy of the NYTimes (yes, the one provided by the UA) I was expecting some 'big' announcement from EMI and Apple. Turns out, we won't get the Beatles on Itunes any time soon, but EMI will be selling all of their music sans-DRM. The beginning of a trend? I hope so! The recording industry needs to finally wake up and realize that they can no longer prop up their failing business model and that they actually need to innovate to continue to make money.

~BT

Coverage in the DP

Thursday's DP article covering the previous day's University Council meeting featured a picture of yours truly...

~BT

And we're back!

I recently decided it was time to start blogging again. The decision was not completely random but is rather a result of a combination of things going on.

The recent launch of Sphinx Citings led to my renewed excitement about blogging and I will soon be able to take public positions on various political issues (soon to be "Former Chair of the Undergraduate Assembly")

I am hoping to make Progresive Dispatches focused on Penn and the many goings on in and around Philadelphia. Specifically taking a critical look at campus politics at the student level and otherwise.

What I mean by "Progressive" is summed up well by John Halpern, a senior advisor at the Center for American Progress. He writes:

At its core, progressivism is a non-ideological, pragmatic system of thought grounded in solving problems and maintaining strong values within society.

The original progressive movement at the turn of the 20th century sought to improve American life by encouraging personal and moral responsibility among citizens; by providing the carrots and sticks to promote efficient and ethical business behavior; and by reforming government to provide a level playing field for all citizens and groups.

Another major influence on my posts, is mydd.com and the many great posts by Chris Bowers. Of the 8 principles layed out by Bowers in this post, I would highlight the following ones:

1. The Democratic Party is the primary vessel of the progressive coalition. It is impossible to enact real change without an electoral apparatus within your movement. In a two-party system, it is thus necessary to adopt one of the two parties as the electoral vessel of your coalition.

8. Don't expect the party to change on it's own. Be prepared and willing to change it yourself.

As I start to make substantive posts, I hope to expand on the above and better define this blog. I hope to also bring in a number of guest bloggers and perhaps even turn this into a group-blog. If you are interested let me know.

~BT

My Facebook

~BT