Iraq Action Camp in D.C. March 15-17

The Iraq Action Camp that had been scheduled in Philadelphia on March 15-17 has now been relocated to Washington D.C. to better tie-in with all of the anti-war organizing that is happening in advance of the 5-year anniversary of the Iraq War on March 19th.

So, instead of hosting the action camp in Philadelphia, Campus Progress at Penn will be heading down to Washington D.C. It is not too late to register and there are travel subsidies available so cost should not be a deterrent. Click here to apply

~BT

The Penn Blogosphere Expands

Albert Sun, a Penn sophomore who blogs at Albertgate provided an updated listing of the known Penn-related blogs, building on Kevin Burke's original list from last year.

I was very happy to see the updated list that included some blogs that I hadn't seen before. Most of the blogs I already read regularly and are on my blogroll.

I decided I would group the blogs in categories and clusters that seem to be connected online through mutual links or blog mentions. (If you have suggestions on categories or if I missed any blogs, please let me know)

Penn Political Blogs:

• Akkam's Razor - Staff/Master's student. one of the most active blogs on the list, he posts nearly every day.
• Progressive Dispatches - a blog by former student government member Brett Thalmann about politics mostly.
• The Appletonian - Justin Sykes, Wharton senior. He's from Appleton, Wisconsin, which I guess explains the title.
• the iv-tini chronicles - Penn senior named Dan, originally from Wisconsin, who will be off to med school next year.
• Penn Democrats - Official blog of the Penn Democrats
  

Penn Alums:

• Martin Gordon's Blog - Penn alum, Class of 2007
  
• Dueling Tampons - blog by Penn alum Matt Rosler, about other Penn alums and students in the arts
  
• Valley Virgin - Blog by Penn grad Danny Maloney, M&T '05 now working at Google in strategy.
  
• Essential Luxuries - Jean Hsu's blog about post-Penn life in New York City
• ryanpedia - Ryan Hayward's blog, class of 2007
  

Tech/Entrepreneurial:

• 3000 Miles of Virtual Insanity - Ravi Mishra's blog about being between Silicon Valley and Penn.
• The Un-Wharton - Stuart Stein, a Wharton senior studying marketing and management blogs here
• Nat Turner - Wharton student/entrepreneur's blog. Has a company in philly called Invite Media. intriguing.
• Jason Toff - Penn senior and entrepreneur who founded Penndrinks.com
• Jack Abraham - Insights of a young tech entrepreneur who recently graduated early to work on his start-up.
  

Penn Professors:

• Jeff Weintraub - a political science professor's blog on politics and current events
• Earning My Turns - Computer Science Professor and skiing fan Fernando Pereira's blog. He was my professor for CIS120 last semester and showed a picture from one of his skiing trips every day.
• Werblog - Legal studies professor and 'internet expert' Kevin Werbach
• Language Log - very popular language blog, hosted out of a computer in the linguistics department by Mark Liberman. (he taught LING001 last semester I think) Professors from a whole bunch of different schools contribute
• Dept of Anesthesiology - a blog from Penn Med's Department of Anesthesiology & Critical Care
• Nathan Ensmenger - blog from the undergraduate chair of the Science, Technology & Society major.
• Critical Mass - a blog by English professor Erin O'Connor about academia

Penn Administrative blogs:

• Outlines - Penn LGBT Center's blog
• Faithful Philly Forum - Penn's Christian Association's blog
  
• Vitale Digital Media Lab - A blog with information about this digital media lab in Van Pelt. It's actually a pretty cool place and they have video cameras and AV equipment they lend for free.
• Penn Press Log - blog about books published by the Penn Press
• MBA Admissions Blog - about the Wharton MBA admissions process
• Knowledge@Wharton - Wharton's attempt to "share its intellectual capital". A truly great resource
  

Cluster 1:

• Affabillyty - a blog with a lot of good music, by Billy ___, a sociology major.
• I Am Malek - Malek H. Lewis's blog. Topics for the future include San Francisco, High School Musical, and Gay Videogaming. Purple text on a gray background.
• A Beautiful Mess - Engineering student John Tran's personal blog.
• meta.jane - a rather literary blog by a Penn senior named Jane
  
• the iv-tini chronicles - Penn senior named Dan, originally from Wisconsin, who will be off to med school next year.
• Progressive Dispatches - a blog by student government member Brett Thalmann about politics mostly.

Cluster 2:

• ohbadiah - Nick McAvoy's blog, he used to write on The Spin
• Leighcia - . former Penn student who has apparently decided financial consultant was not the right way to go
• starlighterx - blog by a Penn student who stresses over midterms and likes to comment on New York Times columnists
• The Spin - the DP's blog about student life and etc. it's a group blog with different writers each semester

Other:

• Vocab 101 - Hayling Price's blog about music, his time abroad and more
  
• Oikono - a blog by Wharton student Geoffrey (Kok Heng) about economics, poverty, international issues
• colour my world! - a blog by a Penn student who will be doing banking in Hong Kong this summer
• Mr. Swyx - a blog by Huntsman student Shawn Wang
• {metadatta} - a blog by Physics student Sujit Datta about 'academia, science, or just life in Philadelphia'
• The Buzz - a blog by the sports editors of the DP, about Penn sports teams
• DP Photo Department - a blog by the DP photo department about all things photography related
• Scents - Daniel Drucker, a graduate psych student's blog
• all that glitters - a tumblr blog by Jessica Gold Haralson, who started Quake, a SAC funded erotica magazine.
• I Had a Surprise Birthday Party - Kevin Burke's blog

Not sure if Penn-related:

• Blog blah blahg - just a 'gay boy wading in the murky dating pool of Philadelphia.'

Please let me know of any corrections or additions.

~BT

McCain's Lobbyist "Friends"

Brave New Films, as part of their Real McCain campaign, has a new video about how McCain has lobbyists running his campaign.

John McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, and yet he said "I'm the only one the special interests don't give any money to."

Sign the petition demanding McCain return the millions of dollars raised by lobbyists.

~BT

Dear Readers

Won't you become commenters?

With the help of a nifty tool from Statcounter.com, I am able to track the number of hits and unique visitors that frequent this blog. It turns out that there are many of you. As of late, I have been getting upwards of 20 unique visits per day. Check out this graph of the traffic from the last week.


So, I know you are out there reading this. But, are you willing to take it to the next level and comment on any blog posts? You should! I want to hear what you have to say and would love to turn this blog into more of a conversation.

I am still working on my Karl Rove speech post, a reaction to the Angela Davis keynote speech from Women's Week and further info about Lawrence Lessig and democratizing knowledge. So much to write, so little free time. And besides those things, the McCain scandal continues to grow.

~BT

Obama: "End the War in 2009"

Tom Hayden reports for The Nation,

In his victory speech in Texas Tuesday, Barack Obama promised to end the Iraq war in 2009, a new commitment that parallels recent opinion pieces in The Nation.

Prior to his Houston remarks, Obama's previous position favored an American combat troop withdrawal over a sixteen-to-eighteen-month timeframe. He has been less specific on the number and mission of any advisers he would leave behind.

Ending the war in the first year of his potential presidency, therefore, is the strongest stand Obama has taken thus far, and one he will be questioned on sharply by the Republicans and the media. As Juan Cole noted last year, the Bush-Cheney team is preparing a "poison pill" of disorder and blame for any future President contemplating an Iraq troop withdrawal.

Great news. I hope that this is a topic in tonight's debate. 8pm on CNN.

~BT

Today's DP - Online Publishing

I woke up this morning to a pleasant surprise in my inbox. The subject line of today 'DP email edition' was "Faculty examine online publishing". I was intrigued, since I had recently been talking to Billy about this subject and was planning on commenting further on a column last week by David Kanter that called on the university to share its educational riches.

I don't usually read the articles online because I much prefer the feeling of reading the physical paper during the day. Today I will make an exception, although I did pull up the pdf version to get his nice image of the front page.

It was the sub-headline that caught my attention the most: "Harvard academic papers will be online for free; similar opt-out program unlikely at Penn"

unlikely at Penn? But, why? I was determined to find out. I read on (article here)

At Harvard, the school will publish all finished papers in a repository run by its library unless professors specifically request to opt-out by signing a waiver.

Authors are not restricted to publishing their work through the University, and faculty members can still submit their work for publication in prestigious journals.

wow, sounds like a great idea. why didn't we think of that?

The Penn Senate Committee on Students and Educational Policy is scheduled to discuss the possibility of adopting a similar plan, said Faculty Senate Chairman Larry Gladney.

Thus far, professors have said they are somewhat leery about widespread online publishing.

Gladney said it is unlikely that Penn would ever mandate a specific policy because "it might be interpreted as an infringement on academic freedom to proscribe where scholars can publish."

Really? you are using the "infringement on academic freedom" argument?? Can someone please explain to me how this would infringe? Professors who don't want their papers available free to the world can opt-out. Think of the benefit a proposal like this will create by truly democratizing knowledge. I can't say that I'm surprised that this was the initial reaction by Faculty Senate leadership. This is what the UA heard last year every time we talked about ItunesU and tried to get more content available online, let alone the lack of progress and non-compliance by faculty on SCUE's proposal to put all syllabi online.

I think it is time for students to take a position on this issue. SCUE and the UA have the access and ability to seriously influence faculty and the administration on this issue. Penn should be a leader in the arena of democratizing knowledge. Remember the Penn Compact? what better way to fulfill the pledge of increasing access!

More to come from me and Billy.

~BT

Morning Quick Hits

The feeding frenzy surrounding McCain grows with the Washington Post printing a corroborating article this morning.

Aides to Sen. John McCain confronted a telecommunications lobbyist in late 1999 and asked her to distance herself from the senator during the presidential campaign he was about to launch, according to one of McCain's longest-serving political strategists.

John Weaver, who was McCain's closest confidant until leaving his current campaign last year, said he met with Vicki Iseman at the Center Cafe at Union Station and urged her to stay away from McCain. Association with a lobbyist would undermine his image as an opponent of special interests, aides had concluded.

For those thinking the media is giving Obama a pass, check out Chris Matthews grilling State Sen. Kirk Watson (D-TX) on Barack Obama's legislative accomplishments. Watch the video. Claire McCaskill was on Hardball the following day to do damage control.

Think Progress covers how Rove used his talk at Penn last night to defend Bush's use of signing statements. The DP coverage of the event is here.

Here are some morning tunes (Evermore vs Dirty South - Its too late)

~BT

Open Thread: Karl Rove

I just got back to my room after hearing from Karl Rove. If you were there what did you think? If you didn't attend, why not?

Leaving the event, I felt violated and disgusted. I will be collecting my thoughts and posting my reaction a bit later.

I turn on CNN, and there seems to have been a major scandal for McCain. I was texted the link during the talk tonight, and I briefly read the New York Times piece. Seems like an old story to me, but I need to read it again more carefully. Somewhere, Mike Huckabee is smiling.

What do you think of this song?


~BT

Stanford Ups the Financial Aid Ante

Stanford University announced today that it is eliminating tuition fees for students whose families earn less than $100,000 a year.

In addition, the university will waive room and board fees for students whose families earn less than $60,000 a year.

Talk about one-uping Penn and the rest of the Ivy League. Let the financial aid wars continue!

~BT

All's quiet at Penn

It is a Wednesday afternoon, the day after a major victory by Obama in Wisconsin and Hawaii, and all seems quiet on the University of Pennsylvania campus as we await the arrival of Turd Blossom.

I wasn't planning on going to see Karl Rove speak tonight at Irvine Auditorium partly out of protest and disgust that he was probably being paid upwards of $40,000 by the Social Planning and Events Committee (SPEC) to spew his crap directly to 1,500 Penn students.

Of course, I'm only guessing about the $40,000. Here's what I do know:

• SPEC Connaissance's budget for the spring speaker is $50,000.
  
• Rove recently received $40,000 from the University of Iowa
  

Other than those two facts, SPEC will refuse to release any information about how much they paid Karl Rove. Or at least they wouldn't tell the DP. I guess I'm just hoping that we aren't paying him any more than 40k.

Well, plans change. A friend called with an extra ticket, so I'm going to hear what 'the architect' will have to say and will be curious to see if there are any protesters and what questions are asked.

Stephen Krewson wrote a great column in yesterday's DP expressing his disappointment with the choice of Rove as the spring speaker.

Look forward to a post about tonight's talk as well as my thoughts on Obama's blowout win yesterday.

I'm listening to DIRTY SOUTH/MYNC PROJECT - Everybody Freakin' (you can listen to the long sample. I couldn't find this song anywhere else on the internets)

~BT

Draft Lessig for Congress!!

Lawrence Lessig, a Penn alumnus, C ’83, W ’83, who is professor of law at Stanford Law School, is the focus of growing movement that is seeking to draft Lessig to run for Congress, in a special election, scheduled for April 8, to replace the late Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), who succumbed to cancer last week.

Current Penn students, especially the Class of 2010, should be familiar with Lessig as his most recent book, Free Culture, was the 2006 choice for the Penn Reading Project.

Last Friday, some of Lessig's former colleagues at Harvard launched a "Draft Lessig for Congress" group on Facebook. The Facebook group now has over 2,000 members and has a received much attention from all over the blogosphere, including at Openleft.com, TechCrunch and TechPresident.

Lessig's academic focus has recently changed focus towards the problem of corruption in the United States political process. What Lessig means by corruption is corruption of the political process:

That our government can’t understand basic facts when strong interests have an interest in its misunderstanding.

I don’t mean corruption in the simple sense of bribery. I mean “corruption” in the sense that the system is so queered by the influence of money . . .. Politicians are starved for the resources concentrated interests can provide. In the US, listening to money is the only way to secure reelection. And so an economy of influence bends public policy away from sense, always to dollars.

The possibility of Lessig being elected to Congress is truly exciting in terms of what it will mean for the advancement of very important issues such as net neutrality, free culture, copyright and the undue influence of concentrated interests in Washington. I encourage you to join the Facebook group and maybe we could even form a group of Penn students for Lessig for Congress. It would also be great to see Penn alums in the San Francisco area get involved with the Draft Lessig effort.

~BT

Yelle - "A Cause des Garçons"

This video has been floating around the internets for some time and was part of the Tecktonik dance craze that took Paris by storm last September.

My friend Billy recently described it as the West's answer to the 90s Japanese fad Para Para.


~BT

Where is Penn Leads the Vote?

The fact that I have to ask the question demonstrates that Penn Leads the Vote has seriously dropped the ball this year. Penn Leads the Vote is the student-run voter registration and mobilization group on Penn's Campus that is supported by Fox Leadership.

Philadelphia had a mayoral election in the fall of this year and from what I could see, there was little to no effort made to register students and encourage them to vote in the election. Granted, the mayoral election was a foregone conclusion, in which Michael Nutter expectedly trounced his Republican opponent. However, that doesn't excuse the fact that very little was done to get students registered. This fall would have been a great opportunity to get students registered so they could not only vote in the mayoral election but also in the Presidential primaries this spring and the all important Presidential election next fall.

It seems that once again, the ball is being dropped as there have yet to be any efforts to begin registering students for the upcoming April 22nd Pennsylvania primary. Even though we aren't sure if the PA primary will be contested, given that the Republican primary is pretty much wrapped up and the uncertainty over whether the Democratic primary will still be going on, we have a clear opportunity NOW to capitalize on the excitement surrounding the ongoing primaries to register students. At the very least, students will already be registered for the general election next fall, which will make next year's attempts to register students that much easier.

Fortunately, it isn't too late. The deadline to register is March 24th. We have just over a month left to register students for the PA primary and the university community needs to gets its act together fast. I was invited to what seemed to be the first meeting of REV-UP “Register, Educate, Vote – University of Pennsylvania" earlier this week although I wasn't able to attend due to a class. REV-UP was convened by the Vice Provost of University Life (VPUL) and brings together a wide range of students, faculty and staff to coordinate the campus efforts. I hope folks in attendance made some progress and came up with some plans to start registering students immediately.

When I find out what's going on, I'll be sure to update you all.

~BT

My Obama Prediction Explained

Given the push back I have received from my last post on the state of the primary race, I thought I would further elaborate my thinking behind predicting an Obama victory this early.

After further thought, I realize that it was way premature to be making any predictions but I guess I'm getting antsy with this primary that just keeps dragging on. Don't get me wrong, I am loving all the excitement, the incredible turnout on the Democratic side, and the two wonderful and extremely capable candidates. I just want this thing to be decided and hope that whoever wins makes the other his/her running mate. It seems I'm a "bi-candidate" like Margaret Cho. In a recent article at The Huffington Post, Cho said:

I am bi-candidate. I like Hillary and Obama. I like Obama and Hillary. I think it is wonderful that we have not just one, but two great candidates to choose from. It is an embarrassment of riches really. Not just one amazing politician. But two! We have the incredibly exciting Barack Obama, who represents hope and change and who can get a whole generation of disillusioned voters excited about politics again, which I think I is a miracle in itself. Then we have the amazing Hillary Clinton, who has already proved herself to be a great leader, who can and will clean up after the Bush administration just like she did the last time she was president.

So, we have two great candidates, I like them both, but why do I think that Obama is going to win?

1. Obama will win Wisconsin decisively.

• As Dan, who is from Wisconsin has noted, his state has historically been quite progressive and according to a number of reports, Obama has an advantage in terms of organization and key endorsements.
  
• Last night, Obama delivered a speech to a soldout 18,000+ crowd in Madison, WI. These crowds continue to be amazing and they are not only coming to hear Obama speak but also turning out to vote.
• The latest poll, from Feb 8-10, already has Obama ahead and doesn't include any momentum from the decisive wins in D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
  
• Update: New Rasmussen poll shows Obama up 47 to 43.
  
• Clinton also has been campaigning in Texas and seems to be not contesting Wisconsin with the full force of her campaign.
• Wisconsin is an open primary so independent voters should also help Obama.
  

2. The Clinton campaign is in the midst of internal turmoil at its highest ranks with the top two campaign staff leaving as well as two key staffers from the internet division. Also, Clinton is raising half as much money as Obama and he will be able to outspend her in the weeks leading up to March 4th.

3. After three full weeks of positive media coverage for Obama and clear momentum against Clinton, I think it is likely that she lose one of Ohio or Texas.

• Looking at the exit polling from Virginia and Maryland we see that for the first time Obama beat or broke even with Clinton in certain key demographics. Obama tied Clinton among Latino voters and white women. Further, Obama beat Clinton among voters over the age of 60 and among voters who earned less than $50,000. Both groups had previously been solidly behind Clinton.
• The process for apportioning delegates in Texas benefits Obama, especially since he will gain more delegates from his margins of victory in urban areas. Even if Hillary wins the statewide vote, the delegate count will likely be a draw.
  

If the above takes place, I believe Clinton's support among super delegates collapses and that she won't stay in until Pennsylvania votes on April 22.

~BT

State of the Primary Race

After 8 straight wins for Obama, the media is talking about Obama's momentum and his newly acquired lead in all the various delegate counts. The Clinton campaign now finds itself in a precarious position as it tries to regain its footing to be competitive in Wisconsin, Ohio and Texas.

Given all the talk about super delegates, Michigan and Florida being stripped of delegates and all the spin coming from both sides, people are rightfully asking where do things stand now?

First, the super delegates: Super delegates are elected Democrats from across the country who are able to vote for who they want at the convention. I think all the talk of super delegates deciding the race is overblown, given that super delegates will end up voting for the presumptive nominee as they have done in the past. According to Democratic Convention Watch, Clinton currently has an 86 delegate lead over Obama. As I am writing this post, I noticed that Chris Bowers just announced the creation of the Super Delegate Transparency Project, which should help to clarify things.

Second, Michigan and Florida: For those of you not keeping track, both Michigan and Florida held primaries before they were allowed to under the DNC rules. As a result, both states were stripped of their delegates and both candidates didn't campaign.

So, what's next for the campaigns?

Wisconsin votes on February 19th and the latest poll has Obama leading Clinton 45 to 41. This will be followed by two debates that have been announced so far, one on CNN and one with NBC.

Then on March 4th, we have Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont going to the polls. Ohio and Texas have large numbers of delegates at stake and Clinton must win by large margins in both. Even James Carville, a big Hillary supporter, has admitted as much saying, "She's behind. Make no mistake. If she loses either Texas or Ohio, this thing is done."

It seems to be that it is highly unlikely for Clinton to come back and win the primary at this point. For Clinton to make up the difference in the delegate count, she would have to win Ohio and Texas by 20 points and that's considering she can squeak out a tie in Wisconsin.

Unfortunately, it looks like the race will be over by the time Pennsylvania votes on April 22nd. I think that Clinton will drop out after March 4th after she realizes that she no longer has a viable path to the nomination. I had been really excited that we would have almost a month of campaigning and attention given to Pennsylvania voters, but by the look of it, the race will be over after March 4th and Obama will win. That is my prediction.

Any thoughts? Disagreements?

~BT

Update: I have further explained my Obama prediction.

Obama and Clinton Should Focus on McCain

In last night's victory speech, Obama added some extra lines to provide a better contrast with McCain. TPM's Greg Sargent highlights this part of Obama's speech (emphasis mine):

When I am the nominee, I will offer a clear choice. John McCain won't be able to say that I ever supported this war in Iraq, because I opposed it from the beginning. Senator McCain said the other day that we might be mired for a hundred years in Iraq, which is reason enough to not give him four years in the White House.

If we had chosen a different path, the right path, we could have finished the job in Afghanistan, and put more resources into the fight against bin Laden; and instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars in Baghdad, we could have put that money into our schools and hospitals, our road and bridges - and that's what the American people need us to do right now.

And I admired Senator McCain when he stood up and said that it offended his "conscience" to support the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy in a time of war; that he couldn't support a tax cut where "so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate." But somewhere along the road to the Republican nomination, the Straight Talk Express lost its wheels, because now he's all for them.

Well I'm not. We can't keep spending money that we don't have in a war that we shouldn't have fought. We can't keep mortgaging our children's future on a mountain of debt. We can't keep driving a wider and wider gap between the few who are rich and the rest who struggle to keep pace. It's time to turn the page.

Clinton needs to do the same thing and keep her focus on McCain and the Republicans. Some of the so-called pundits, like Pat Buchanan who I had to endure watching on MSNBC's coverage last night, are claiming that Hillary has to go negative on Obama. I disagree. The last time the Clinton campaign went negative on Obama, leading up to South Carolina, there was a huge blowback from Democrats. Rather, Clinton should focus on how she is better equipped and capable of beating John McCain in the general election.

~BT

McCain: Less Jobs, More Wars

From the mouth of Joe Scarborough to voters' ears, John McCain is running on a platform promising "Less Jobs and More Wars". The only way he can get around his awful policy positions is too blur the issues, maintain his patently untrue status as a moderate and rely on low information voters and the distortion of the media.

Knowing this, progressive groups have started to brand McCain as Stu Stein pointed out after seeing the John.he.is video, which has now been seen by over 700k people. Brave New Films has also launched a campaign called Less Jobs, More Wars. Check out the first, second and third videos released so far.






~BT

McCain: The Audacity of Gloom

Also check out McCain: Less Jobs, More Wards

In the spirit of Will.i.am's Yes We Can mashup of Obama's speech, we have this inspiring video for the likely Republican nominee, John McCain.
(h/t to Kagro X over at Dailykos)


Here is the video.

~BT

Around the Penn Blogosphere - 2/10/08

First, I want to welcome my friend Dan to the blogging world with his new blog The IV-Tini Chronicles which will focus on politics, sports and other fun things from the perspective of a Democrat from Wisconsin. He should give The Appletonian a run for his money.

• Stu asks whether the Black Eyed Peas endorsement helps Obama - I say Yes! If only to continue to introduce Obama to music fans who are potential new voters.
  
• Dan looks at how the Wisconsin primary will be a crucial state during this primary cycle. I think it will come down to Ohio and Texas, which are Hillary's firewall.
• Billy wants you to help remind governor Rendell what democracy is. Go sign the petition over at Casino-Free Philly.

~BT

We Need Endowment Transparency!

What she said.

~BT

Fuzzy Delegate Counts

If you wanted to know which candidate was leading in delegates, where would you look to find out? CNN? New York Times? Well, it turns out that depending on where you look, you will in fact get a completely different answer.

Delegate Counts as of 6am:

- NBC News:
Obama 861
Clinton 855
Obama +6

- CBS News:
Clinton 1118
Obama 1112
Clinton +6

- ABC News:
Clinton 1118
Obama 1095
Clinton +23

- AP:
Clinton 1095
Obama 1070
Clinton +25

- Fox News:
Clinton 1084
Obama 1054
Clinton +30

- CNN:
Clinton 1100
Obama 1039
Clinton +61

- Mydd.com:
Clinton 1046
Obama 940
Clinton +106

- NYTimes:
Clinton 912
Obama 714
Clinton +198

Ya, only slightly ridiculous!

On a side note, the world will wake up this morning to the following headlines:

USA Today: Obama sweeps Dem races
Toronto Star: Obama sweeps three states
International Herald Tribune: Obama gets convincing wins in 3 states
Times of London: Barack Obama trounces Hillary Clinton
Sydney Morning Herald: Clean sweep for Obama
Le Monde: "Super samedi" pour Obama
Al Jazeera: Obama sweeps primary contests

So in case you weren't aware, the whole world is rightfully watching the US primaries very closely. This fact seems to come as a surprise to most Americans though.

~BT

Activists and Donors for Obama and Clinton

This is great for American Democracy! Matt Stoller puts the Obama activist and donor numbers in perspective.

What is remarkable about the last 48 hours is the haul by the Hillary Clinton campaign of around $7 million from 45,000 online donors or so. These are suburban women who probably haven't been part of the culture of online giving, and who for some reason have started to contribute.

This primary battle between Obama and Clinton is simply incredible to watch.

~BT

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) to speak at Penn

This Sunday, February 10th at 5pm the Penn Dems, Lambda Alliance and Penn for Choice are co-sponsoring a townhall event with Senator Ron Wyden. From the Penn Dems email

Senior Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has graciously offered to have a Town Hall meeting this Sunday afternoon. He'll be discussing his policy and experience in government. Also, he will be fielding questions directly from YOU!

Sunday 2/10 @ 5 - 6pm in JMHH G65

From Ron Wyden's wikipedia page,

Wyden has opposed most limits on abortion and has publicly announced support for same-sex marriage and was one of only 14 Senators to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act

It should be fun!

~BT

Tent State 2008 - April 19-26

Check this out.



Tent State University started in 2003 on the campus of Rutgers with only 38 tents and by 2006 had grown to over 150. This year it is scheduled for April 19-26th.

I also found myself wondering if Penn would allow or even encourage something like this. What do you think?

~BT

Iraq Action Camp at Penn March 15-17

Updated Feb 27: The Iraq Action Camp will take place in Washington D.C.

With the Bush administration praising the “progress” in Iraq, and politicians touting the plausibility of a 100 year occupation, it appears that national outrage and activism about the war has run its course. One year after the troop escalation and almost five years since the start of the war, has America become complacent with the ongoing occupation? Not young people. As thousands of soldiers age 18-25 die each year, and more with every passing day, students across the country have had enough.

Campus Progress at Penn is hosting one of the 2008 Iraq Action Camps on March 15-17 (the second weekend of Penn’s spring Break). It will be a great weekend with students flying in from around the country to participate.

Please spread the word both on and off campus!

REGISTER NOW to gain necessary organizing skills, hear from powerful speakers and experts on Iraq, network with students from around the country, and take action to end the war and bring our troops home!

~BT

My Political Youtube Player

Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

~BT