Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Young Liberals Fight Back!

The Young Liberals of Canada (YLC) released three great ads today, based on Apple's Mac vs. PC ads, in response to another round of Conservative attack ads. This is a much needed counter attack to the Conservatives ability to buy television and radio ads. (they have them running on Business News Network).

According to the YLC's press release,

“Look, it’s no secret the Conservatives are a wealthy party who can afford all kinds of fancy marketing executives and focus groups,” admits Pickup, “but within the Liberal family we’ve got talent, we’ve got dedication, and we’ve got a clear vision for Canada of which we’re proud.”

The three parody ads will be promoted through a multi-pronged approach that utilizes youngliberals.ca, Facebook, youtube.com, instant-messenger programs, and bloggers. This cohesive online campaign provides an opportunity for members and supporters to disseminate and share their messages quickly and affordably.
The ads have already garnered positive coverage in the Toronto Star, on CityTV's 6pm news, and much coverage throughout the blogosphere:
The Facebook group has reached over 575 members and is growing fast.

(cross-posted at Canadian Liberal @ Penn)

~BT

Friday, May 11, 2007

Why students should care about the UA

From a free music service to advocacy for sustainable practices on campus, the Undergraduate Assembly is working for students

By: Brett Thalmann & Jason Karsh

Throughout the year, we constantly get asked the questions: "What does the UA do?" or "Why should I care about student government?"

These questions, while seemingly simple, cannot be answered in this limited guest column. We hope, however, to explain some of our accomplishments from this past year and give you a preview of what to expect in the coming year.

In previous years, the UA has become more accountable and has increasingly focused on projects that are tangible to students.

We have tackled sustainability - an environmentally conscious campaign - and have successfully brought the issue to the forefront of the administrative agenda. President Amy Gutmann has even signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, committing Penn "to achieve climate neutrality by reducing campus greenhouse gas emissions."

Our calls for improved Student Health facilities that began with the formation of the Student Health Advisory Board, have resulted in the recent announcement of a new facility for Student Health Services.

While advocating for improvements to College Houses, we collaborated with the University to ensure that the high-rises will be fully renovated and further identified the dire need for renovations in the low-rises. In the midst of the huge undertaking of high-rise renovations, we've successfully convinced the university to make specific and immediate improvements to the low rises.

We have not yet even mentioned our most widely known projects throughout the year!

After two years of planning, the UA brought Ruckus Music Service free to students.

For the second year in a row we've run the convenient and cheap UA bus service to the airport before every major holiday break.

Most recently, we spearheaded the program that brought students free copies of The New York Times, USA Today and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Additionally, this year saw an amazing collaboration among student leaders through UA Steering, the committee of the UA that brings the leaders of every umbrella and representative organization together to discuss major student issues.

Notably, the amazing Penn traditions of Spring Fling and Hey Day were preserved by the collaboration and support of the members of UA Steering. For example, Fling Safe, run by SPEC, found immense support and feedback that proved crucial to its success. When Hey Day was called into jeopardy, it was UA Steering that worked with the Class Boards to promote and publicize efforts to curb dangerous, emerging trends.

For the coming year, the UA plans to build off the great momentum achieved this year. We plan to increase the accessibility of the UA by reaching out directly to students and student groups. We plan to be more visible through YouTube addresses that will accompany all-school e-mails. We also want to ensure that students have the ability to be heard by their student representatives, so there will be a 10 minute open forum at every UA meeting next year.

We plan on empowering students through providing a strong student voice to administrators and empowering UA members to pursue projects that are important to themselves and the student body at large.

Finally, we plan to increase efficiency of the UA through a more transparent process and productive meetings.

So, when posing the question: "Why should I care about student government?" the answer is really that student government cares about you. Whether you pay us heed or not, we work on tangible projects that improve student life.

The real question is, what do you want your student government to do for you?

Originally published in the Daily Pennsylvanian on 5/11/07.

~BT

Monday, May 07, 2007

VideoVets: Bring Troops Home

Moveon.org released a television ad directed by Oliver Stone featuring John Bruhns, a former sergeant in the Army who served in Iraq.

Check it out and donate to help get this ad on the air. If you aren't already a member of Moveon.org you should join.


~BT

Penn's W. Lacrosse Beats Syracuse

Penn's No. 2 ranked Women's Lacrosse team continued an incredible season (14-1, 7-0 Ivy) by fighting back from a 5-goal deficit to beat Syracuse this past Sunday.

The battle of conference champions did not disappoint as Penn scored six unanswered goals to end the game. Syracuse (12-5, 4-1 BIG EAST) had led by a 7-2 margin early in the second half.

The Quakers will now carry their program-record 11-game win streak into the NCAA tournament, potentially as one of the competition’s top seeds. Their opponent will be unveiled during the selection show Monday evening at 8 p.m., webcast live at www.ncaasports.com.

And fellow Sphinge, Sarah Waxman played a key role in the comeback:
Penn’s comeback was keyed by a pair of risky long clearances by goalkeeper Sarah Waxman, both of which resulted in goals by Edwards. Penn’s defense also did its part, holding Syracuse to 19 shots overall and just seven in the second half – far below the Orange’s 36.4 shots per game average.
The Women's Lacrosse team is a prime example of some of the great Penn teams that are completely under the radar. Penn Athletics should do a much better job advertising Penn sports and encouraging students to attend games, especially when we have great teams that we can be proud of!

~BT

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Penn talent on display online

Although there is a decent amount of Penn-made video content online at the moment, I wish there were more and better stuff. Student groups should make it a habit of posting video content on YouTube to publicize their amazing talents. Also, there are so many great speakers and other events on campus that could be filmed and put online. For starters, why doesn't UTV-13, Penn's student-run television channel, not put their content online?

Getting the content is only the first step. There should also be some centralized site devoted to gathering and organizing content from Penn. This is something the UA has been working on and we focused on Penn adopting and implementing ITunesU. Weirdly, the DP editorial board thinks that Penn can't handle ITunesU and that it is a distraction for the UA. I completely disagree and think this will turn out to be a great resource for students. And I'm not the only one! Many people responded vocally to the editorial as did James Russell on the DP's blog, The Spin saying that ITunesU is common sense.

Hopefully, Penn's ItunesU will go live sometime this summer and then we can start gathering content. Until then, I put together a list of Penn videos I found and liked enough to bookmark. Here are highlights of Penn online content:

Strictly Funk: "Let's Get Retarded"


Hype's Intro Video


Dhamaka's full length iPod intro video


~BT

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Chris Mizell Headed to CFL

Huge congratulations to my fellow sphinge Chris Mizell who just recently signed with the Montreal Alouettes.

Chris Mizell was a unanimous first team All-Ivy selection as a senior and he is set to head to Canada as he will sign with the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL
The Alouettes are a great team too! The Alouettes won their division last season and consistently make it to the Grey Cup, which is the Canadian Superbowl, for you American readers. They have made it to the Grey Cup four out of the last five years and they even won the Grey Cup in 2002.

And Chris has never even been to Canada! How crazy is that?

We are definitely going to see and hear more from him in the future. Way to go Chris!!


(Thanks to Lex for the heads up)

~BT

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Bush Slammed for veto

Let the strong reaction to Bush's veto continue! Democrats need to stand up to Bush and keep sending back the bill. The American people are behind them! Russ Feingold discusses what should happen next on The Huffington Post. And Edwards has a great response and went even further saying:

This is a political frame and political rhetoric. They use it to justify everything they do. They use that language to justify the war in Iraq. They use it to justify Guantanamo. They use it to justify torture. They use it to justify illegal spying on the American people.
Keith Olbermann has a must watch clip on the Veto:
The Anniversary Veto : Four years after Mission Accomplished, it's blame-transmission, accomplished. The President vetoes spend-and-end, the troops don't get funding... and it's not his fault, of course. As the war slogs onward, Countdown takes a look at the evolution of the selling of the war, from "Mission Accomplished", to "Stay the Course", to... wherever the Hell we are now. Our special guest is Frank Rich of the New York Times.
Chris Bowers blogs on the failure to override Bush's veto and initial steps forward.



~BT

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Bush Can't Veto the Truth!

Via kos,

"It's the will of one nation versus the stubbornness of one man"


~BT

1 Month Old!

I was really surprised to notice that I have been blogging at Progressive Dispatches for 1 month now, mainly because it feels like I just posted And we're back! So, why post about a such a minor milestone?

Well, I had previously blogged for 3 months at Canadian Liberal @ Penn in the summer of 2005. True, I am only 1/3 of the way to my previous record in terms of longevity, in terms of number of posts, this is my 21st post so far, which is getting close to my previous record of 27. Unfortunately, I am not anywhere close to the amount of traffic I used to get, which is disappointing because the traffic provided me with active comments and conversation with others that made blogging more fun and meaningful. But last week's discovery of a burgeoning blogosphere at Penn has been pretty cool.

This time around, I found blogging to be both easier and harder. It has been easy because of the large range of topics that I want to blog about but tough because of the high speed and breadth of the constant flow of new information. The sheer size of the American political system allows for a sizable political chattering class of pundits, strategists, lobbyists, and has seen the emergence (pdf) of a vibrant progressive blogosphere that is fascinating to watch flex its muscle within the Democratic party. The progressive resurgence nationwide and the real notion that I could be part of this avant-garde progressive movement has been exciting. Most of all, it it the desire to bring this progressive infrastructure and success back to Canada that is most interesting me about US domestic politics right now.

In comparison, I was able to blog about Canadian politics at a much slower pace and there were less blogs and not much of an online opinion infrastructure. Granted, I was blogging within a nascent Canadian blogosphere dominated by well organized conservatives. Progressive Bloggers had just been founded and was quickly followed by Liblogs, both of which I joined and saw a steady traffic of around 50 unique visitors per day.

We find the the same thing at the early stages of the development of the US blogosphere. It started with conservatives having a powerful top-down infrastructure which has since stagnated. Meanwhile there has been an incredible growth of the progressive blogosphere with some asking whether it has reached its apex. This example shows how the Canadian right is able to effectively emulate their American counterparts and implement similar policies, strategies and ideas on a slight time delay.

In Canada, Conservatives have long mastered the art of borrowing from the US conservative movement and I don't see why Liberals shouldn't do the same thing on the Progressive side. Across the pond, British bloggers are similarly learning from recent progressive successes in America. From an initial glance, the Canadian landscape seems to have grown in size but I don't see Canadian blogs having the same sort of impact on politics yet.

(cross-posted at Canadian Liberal @ Penn)

~BT