Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor, attacked Rudy Giuliani's past personal life in a television interview with a New York Television station. From a fellow Penn blog, The Appletonian:
I think it is great that Democrats are going after Rudy Guiliani's personal life. The conservative attack machine will trash whichever Democratic presidential nominee that is chosen and delve into their past personal life. So, they might as well make the same point about Rudy and other Republicans for that matter.
Because we are still in the primary season, this partisan attack appeals to the Democratic activist base and at the same time makes it harder for Rudy to gain the support of social conservatives that he will need to get the nomination.
I say, good for Vilsack and hope there's more where that comes from. It's time Democrats respond to the constant attacks from the right.
The University of Pennsylvania's endowment returned 20.2 percent for the fiscal year that ended June 30, bringing its total market value to $6.6 billion. The endowment has grown more than 65% during the past three years thanks to strong investment returns, new gifts and the reinvestment of reserves.
It's about time Penn had a good investment return, unlike previous years when Penn had dismal performance relative to our Ivy peers. Last week, the Daily Pennsylvanian had a softball Q&A with Penn's Chief Investments Officer Kristin Gilbertson which didn't mention any of the recurring divestment issues and how Penn can use its huge endowment to affect change through socially-responsible investment principles.
Moveon.org, a great organization of which I am a proud member, has put together a new ad that calls Bush out for betraying the trust of the people and tells Congress that his plan isn't going to cut it. Read the facts at https://pol.moveon.org/betrayaloftrust/
The Canadian dollar, known to us Canadians as the Loonie, has reached parity with the American dollar for the first time in 30 years. This has been a story Canadians have been following for years now as the Loonie has risen over 60% over the last 5 years. In real terms, that means that my Penn education now costs less than half as much as it did my freshmen year and that since my assets are denominated in Canadian dollars, my net worth has risen 60% relative to my American peers. Not bad.
This story here has to do with the US dollar weakness against all major currencies and will likely continue its decline as global current account imbalances work themselves out.
With oil closing at record highs above $80 and the mortgage crisis continuing to take its toll, things are not looking good for the US economy.
On September 20, there will be a Day of Action in support of the Jena 6. From Color of Change:
Last fall in Jena, Louisiana, the day after two black high school students sat beneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," more black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen."
A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
It's a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges, lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in "their place"--but it's happening today.
...Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17), Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and an unidentified minor, were expelled from school, arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder. Bail was set so high -- between $70,000 and $138,000 -- that the boys were left in prison for months as families went deep into debt to release them.
On Penn's campus, Efe Stella Johnson the chairwoman of the United Minorities Council (UMC), recently sent out an action alert to UMC members. I hope this is just the beginning of further campus activism. The UMC also launched a blog this semester which you should check out.
It is also great to see that there is a broad coalition of national civil rights organizations including the NAACP and ACLU, supporting this effort. Last week, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced that it will be a part of the civil rights community seeking justice in the case of six black teenagers who have fallen victim to severe racial bias at the hands of judicial authorities in Jena, Louisiana.
Over at Openleft.com, Matt Stoller shows the stunning contrast between independent coverage and how the traditional media is distorting the story. And, that's not even mentioning the complete lack of national news coverage since the incident happened last year! Watch both of these reports, one from Brian Williams and one from an independent outfit, and note the difference in narration and the use of facts. It's really, well, stunning.
You can join the Facebook event here. Be sure to wear black on Thursday September 20th and take a stand against racism!
Dissent is something guaranteed us, though a right that is universally despised by those in power. We possess the right to dissent, to freedom of speech and expression, so that we have the power to voice discontentment, even if just a single person standing on a street corner.
Yet our perception of democracy is a convoluted one in that it does not particularly exist in this country, nor in most that claim it as their foundation. In reality, plutocratic governance is a far greater reality, and has been for centuries. Those that have the power to economically influence are of greater importance to government than the average citizen, that is the unfortunate state in which we are all born into.
After watching this video, I am really frustrated and disgusted with what happened.
This afternoon, John Kerry released a statement saying "In 37 years of public appearances, through wars, protests and highly emotional events, I have never had a dialogue end this way."
Meanwhile, Tom Nolan, a criminal-justice professor and former cop who teaches at Boston University, has his own views of the incident which were e-mailed to reporters by the university's media-relations office. Nolan doesn't side with the campus police.
“The deployment of an immobilizing, less-lethal weapon in an auditorium crowded with students to bring an unruly student (who was being arrested for a misdemeanor charge) under control, by no fewer than six police officers, is a shocking and dangerous breach of police protocol."
You can check out all the details at Andrew Meyer's website. I hope the march they have planned is well attended and that the outrage on campus can be wielded in a constructive way to not only change police policies but also shed light on how dissent is consistently stifled on and off campuses across the country.
~BT
Update: About 200 people marched to the University of Florida Police Department Tuesday afternoon to protest the arrest and use of a Taser.
An online post announcing the march, which started at the Plaza of the Americans, had called for officers involved to be suspended and investigated, policies involving disrupting speech and using weapons such as Tasers to be re-evaluated and all charges against the student to be dropped.
Also,
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida has released a statement condemning the use of a Taser gun in the arrest of University of Florida student Andrew Meyer on campus Monday.
Executive Director Howard Simon said aside from the possible use of excessive force, the response of the University Police Department "squandered the free speech rights of both Kerry and Meyer."
Update 2: The two officers involved in the tasering have been suspended and police report that the arrested student told them: 'You didn't do anything wrong'. Update 3: I was also reminded of another Taser incident in a library at UCLA.
Update 4: An eye-witness account via Dailykos diary that paints a very different picture. (h/t to Billy)
The Penn community got a visual reminder of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks, courtesy of none other than Penn's College Republicans. The College Republicans chairman, Jack Abraham, who I have much respect for, said "it's not just for conservative people or Republicans". Of course it isn't, this political event was designed for maximum impact and was financed by the Young America Foundation, the premier conservative youth organization. They want us to think that this is simply a memorial and the DP is kind enough to oblige with their prominent coverage. Will they be remembering all the of the deaths resulting from Bush's failed Iraq adventure which he has pursued in the name of all of those 9/11 victims? I think not.
The reason for this political event is no different than why Giuliani mentions 9/11 at every opportunity and why for him "every day is an anniversary of Sept. 11". Republicans and the conservative movement want the American public to keep their focus on the attack on 9/11 and the 'terrorists' purely as a political strategy. They don't want people talking about the failed war in Iraq or asking questions about why we are even there, since Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Is it simply a coincidence that General Petreaus testified the day before the anniversary of 9/11? In fact, he was originally scheduled to deliver testimony on September 11th.
This is just another example of the power and resources that conservative groups have on campuses across this country. Even though they are significantly smaller in numbers, at least at Penn, they are much better funded and have substantial connections to the broader conservative movement.
Luckily, the progressive movement has begun to realize the importance of supporting progressive students and is beginning to organize on campuses. Through Campus Progress, progressives on college campuses are now able to access the same types of resources as our conservative peers. With the Penn Dems and a slew of advocacy groups, I hope to soon be writing much more about progressive organizing on Penn's campus.
In another sign that the school year is about to begin, the DP published its first issue (PDF) this past week. It was comprehensive and had a number of articles of interest:
Penn has also launched a new emergency notification system dubbed "PennAlert". It allows the University to send alerts to students, staff and faculty via text message. I'm all for it! Considering it is strikingly similar to the project that the Undergraduate Assembly has been working on for over a year to bring Mobile Campus to Penn.
The DP's internet portal Dailypennsylvanian.com also got a makeover. It is still ad-heavy but is an improvement. I'm looking forward to seeing what the DP's opinion blog The Spin will publish starting on Sept. 5th.
You can now subscribe to Progressive Dispatches by email. This should be a great way for people to read this blog without having to worry about visiting the site periodically. Oh, how I love the benefits of Google owning both Blogger.com and Feedburner.com.
Cornel West has released his second CD. IvyGate has the details,
The Ivy League's resident black radical and pop-scholar phenom Cornel West returns to hipster-hop with the release of his second rap album, Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations, featuring the likes of Prince, Talib Kweli, Andre 3000, KRS-One, Jill Scott, Rhymefest, and the late Gerald Levert. Which is impressive and all, but seriously, where's Kanye? This is totally up his alley. They even have the same last name!
Bushonomics, by Cornel West &Talib Kweli, is really great.
It feels like we are living in some crazy times. The current market crisis, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the surrendering of civil liberties just for starters. Things are Orwellian. I leave you with this (Billy Joel - We didn't start the fire), so feel free to leave me your thoughts.
Two years ago, I remember watching the insane images on television of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and being in disbelief about the completely ineffective government response from this Republican administration.
Two years later, why isn't America remembering this devastating catastrophe? Why aren't the racial and socio-economic issues raised by Katrina and the inept response being discussed? There hasn't been much media coverage. Is the aid getting to the victims? If it is, how is it being used?
The first major book to be released about Hurricane Katrina, Dyson's volume not only chronicles what happened when, it also argues that the nation's failure to offer timely aid to Katrina's victims indicates deeper problems in race and class relations. Dyson's time lines will surely be disputed, his indictments of specific New Orleans failures defended or whitewashed. But these points are secondary. More important are the larger questions Dyson (Between God and Gangsta Rap, etc.) poses, such as "What do politicians sold on the idea of limited governance offer to folk who need, and deserve, the government to come to their aid?" "Does George Bush care about black people?" and "Do well-off black people care about poor black people?" With its abundance of buzz-worthy coinages, like "Aframnesia" and "Afristocracy," Dyson's populist style sometimes gets too cute. But his contention that Katrina exposed a dominant culture pervaded not only by "active malice" toward poor blacks but also by a long history of "passive indifference" to their problems is both powerful and unsettling. Through this history of neglect, Dyson suggests, America has broken its social contract with poor blacks who, since Emancipation, have assumed that government will protect all its citizens. Yet when disaster struck the poor, the cavalry arrived four days late.
Here are two music videos that we watched in class that I found quite poignant.
Senator Edwards, in his second run for the Presidency, is a different man, and a different candidate, than the Senator Edwards of 2004. Back then Senator Edwards of 2004 was a conservative Democrat, hoping to make the Clinton case. A great deal has happened since then, and without speculating too much on the means of his conversion, he has walked across the road from a man who, in his gut, believes the system works and ordinary people just need their share - that is a conservative populist - to be a progressive populist. A man who believes, fundamentally, that the game itself is holding us back.
In his "End the Game" speech, Edwards cements this position as the essentially progressive major candidate. He is now against the war he once accepted on faith from experts from the old order. He is now adamant about universal health care, and he is watching his country struggle with a cancer the way his wife is struggling with a cancer. And he has closed the loop. Our small problems and our large problems are the same. The reason ordinary people don't have enough, is because there isn't enough to go around.
Thomas F. Schaller, the author of Whistling Past Dixie, plays devil's advocate in his recent Salon.com article which looks at the weaknesses of the democratic presidential candidates. According to Schaller, even though the Republican field is in disarray, democrats are vulnerable to the powerful Republican attack machine.
Right now, the Republican primary field is a mess. Insufficient cash flows, fleeing staffers and consultants, outdated themes and proposals, legitimacy issues with the party's conservative base, expressed unease from the GOP's dying moderate wing and, of course, a variety of problems arising from proximity to a certain incumbent president -- each of the Republican candidates is suffering from at least one of those ailments. Sen. John McCain suffers from all of them simultaneously.
So it's high times across the aisle, right? The Democrats are apparently poised to retake the White House after eight long and painful years from a man many consider a usurper. Rank-and-file Democrats seem almost giddy about their field of substantive candidates. Three out of five Republicans said in a March poll that they were unhappy with their candidates, and in July "none of the above" was the Republican front-runner. Almost three out of five Democrats, on the other hand, say they are satisfied with their party's presidential contenders.
Not so fast. Though all the standard caveats apply about how much can change between now and next November, the Democrats are undoubtedly the favorites heading into 2008. But the truth is that the Democratic field has its own share of problems.
Even though the Democrats are in a great position for 2008, it's a good reality check and has the benefit of lowering expectations.
Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. banks and thrifts suffered the biggest increase in late loan payments in 17 years as more homeowners fell behind on mortgages, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.
Loans more than 90 days past due rose 10.6 percent to $66.9 billion in the period ending June 30, the largest quarterly increase since 1990, the FDIC said in its Quarterly Banking Profile released today.
``The bottom line for banks is that the credit environment continues to be more challenging now than it has been in recent years,'' FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said during a news briefing at the agency's Washington headquarters.
Just what we need right now. Despite what seems to be a constant stream of bad news, some are still optimistic because they think the Fed will bail out the market. I guess I'm seeing moral hazard playing itself out right now. I am still leaning towards those who believe the credit crunch we are seeing is an insolvency problem rather than just a liquidity crisis. The fed's attempts at a bail out won't work and will just delay the pain from the bubble burst ing.
And, mass layoffs in the financial industry doesn't help.
There is so much going on in the blogosphere that I hope to comment on soon.
Over at Openleft.com, Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers, two of my favorite bloggers have launched their latest campaign to reform the Democratic Party. The Bush Dogs campaign goes after democrats in Congress who continue to support Bush and his failed policies
Slate.com's recent article on Nancy Pelosi and her opposition to starting impeachment proceedings for Bush, Cheney and/or Gonzales.
There is some great commentary about the recent global credit crunch and what is behind the recent market turmoil. Markets have rebounded a bit in the last few days, we'll see if that will continue when markets open in 30min.
, which I recommend you read. From Publishers Weekly:
