Pennsylvania

Install playground equipment in Bucks County - Penndel, PA

When: Saturday, June 14th 2008, at 8:00 AM
Where: Penndel Memorial Field
PFC John Delola Ave. and Hulmeville Ave.
Penndel, PA 19047

Host: Democratic Association of Penndel
Info: The Penndel Borough Recreation Board - in Bucks County, Pennsylvania - purchased new playground equipment to replace old and worn out equipment, but there is not not enough funding to have the equipment installed.

The Democratic Association of Penndel is stepping up to help by getting volunteers to help with the installation of this equipment on Saturday, June 14. Can you help?

Please RSVP if you can make it so the organizers have enough drinks and snacks for volunteers. Your help is greatly appreciated!

This is cross-posted at TechPresident

Yesterday I wrote about getting Lost In Hillaryland while driving down to Philadelphia to volunteer for the Obama campaign. In that post at Kenneth Cole’s Awearness Blog, I write about how after the mini-adventure of the day, my oldest came to the same conclusion as Joe Trippi : that Obama was going to lose.

My son’s observation was the most interesting part of the whole trip because it lent credit to my recent thinking of “politics as interface”.

Let’s look quickly at the definition of interface :

in·ter·face
(ĭn'tər-fās') Pronunciation Key
n.
1. A surface forming a common boundary between adjacent regions, bodies, substances, or phases.

2. A point at which independent systems or diverse groups interact: "the interface between crime and politics where much of our reality is to be found" (Jack Kroll).

3. Computer Science

1. The point of interaction or communication between a computer and any other entity, such as a printer or human operator.
2. The layout of an application's graphic or textual controls in conjunction with the way the application responds to user activity: an interface whose icons were hard to remember.

An interface is a “surface forming a common boundary”, a space that is not only a common space but a mesh of space and communication. As the Java handbook to object-oriented programming explains rather well, an interface is not just the end result of a design process. Interfaces don’t come from the outside of the software process. It is part of the process itself.

So the surface that creates a common boundary is not outside two distinctive people or two distinctive groups. An interface is not something that is given to a “user”. An interface is a meshing of actions or simply put, it’s a two way street.

“Politics as interface” would be the meshing of actions, states of beings and phases between individuals, groups or even systems negotiating power. As a space of communication and as a meshing of actions, states of beings, wills and desires for power, politics as interface is developed all the time.

Politics as interface in Hillaryland is in the box of buckshot lighters gracing the gas station attendant’s counter. Politics as interface in Hillaryland is certainly the senior women holding posters saying “Honk for Hillary”.

Yet Politics as interface in Hillaryland was the absence of sidewalks down Cedar Road, the expansive manicured front lawns with their mansions in the background and the “Hillary” signs cleaving the dirt in the foreground. It was the absence of white people in the small crowds waiting with exhausted looks on their faces for the bus to come. And it was certainly the meshing sights on the road to Philly of million dollar mansions, to quaint family homes to the “We buy ugly houses” signs next to boarded up brownstones and row after row after row of broken down and abandoned buildings on North Broad Street.

When we got lost in Hillaryland, my son was very keen and very much aware of who had the upper hand in expressing power. And it became even more obvious to him when we went canvassing on the 14th Ward.

Everybody's eyes are on Pennysylvania these days. Thanks to the whipsaw nature of the Democratic presidential primary race this year, Pennsylvania's in the spotlight when it comes to electoral politics on the national stage. People everywhere are talking about Pennsylvania -- what it is, what's like, what it all means. Pundits are pontificating right and left about Pennsylvania voters -- who they are, who're they're for, what they're going to do on April 22. And, inevitably, most of them are wrong a lot of the time.

Pennsylvania is just like Ohio, the talking heads are telling us. Well, yes and no. Some parts of Pennsylvania are just like parts of Ohio, demographically speaking. Other parts, not so much. Pennsylvania is a very big place. And, like Ohio, it's a very diverse place, with different parts of the state displaying significantly different historical and sociocultural influences.

The Appalachian Mountains run diagonally through Pennsylvania from lower left to upper right, physically as well as demographically dividing it into several dissimilar environments. Fully a third of the state's 12 million residents live in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, which bustles along the Delaware River valley in the southeastern corner of PA and sprawls across the Delaware and New Jersey lines to include another 2 million of their neighbors.

Another 2-1/2 million Pennsylvanians live in the southwestern part of the state, in the greater Pittsburgh area, near the upper edge of some of the most rugged parts of the Appalachians. While the sociocultural roots of PA's two biggest population centers could hardly be more different, they are both large, sophisticated urban centers and day-to-day life for their residents is more similar than not.

Good Jobs, Green Jobs: A National Green Jobs Conference
When: Mar 13 – 14 2008
Where: Pittsburg, PA

March 13-14, 2008, a conference unlike any other will take place at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Register today: www.greenjobsconference.org Good Jobs, Green Jobs: A National Green Jobs Conference will launch a nationwide dialogue about moving our country rapidly toward leadership in promoting the benefits of a new green economy. The conference has been designed for advocates representing the labor, environment and public health movements; local, state and federal policy makers; business leaders; economic and workforce development specialists; investors; and scientists and technology experts. More than 50 experts and leaders will speaking including: * Phil Angelides, Board Chair, Apollo Alliance * Joy Clarke-Holmes, Director of Public Sector Markets, Johnson Controls * Leo Gerard, International President, United Steelworkers * Gerry Hudson, Executive Vice-President, Service Employees International Union * Van Jones, Green for All & the Ella Baker Center * Katrina Landis, Vice President, British Petroleum * Ed Mazria, Architecture 2030 * John Podesta, President and Chief Executive Officer, Center for American Progress * Carl Pope, Executive Director, Sierra Club * Edward G.

This came out of the mouth of one of Hillary Clinton's surrogates, the governor of Pennsylvania :

Gov. Ed "Don't Call Me 'Fast Eddie' " Rendell met with the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week to talk about his latest budget. But before turning the meeting over to his number-crunchers, our voluble governor weighed in on the primary fight between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and what the Illinois senator could expect from the good people of Pennsylvania at the polls:

"You've got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate," he said bluntly. Our eyes only met briefly, perhaps because the governor wanted to spare the only black guy in the room from feeling self-conscious for backing an obvious loser. "I believe, looking at the returns in my election, that had Lynn Swann [2006 Republican gubernatorial candidate] been the identical candidate that he was --well-spoken [note: Mr. Rendell did not call the brother "articulate"], charismatic, good-looking -- but white instead of black, instead of winning by 22 points, I would have won by 17 or so."

I know I have a habit of sometimes zoning out in these meetings, but it sounded to me like Mr. Rendell had unilaterally declared Pennsylvania to be Alabama circa 1963.

On a mailing list I am part of, people made this point about the Clinton campaign : if it is not mysogyny, then it must be the latinos who'd never vote for a black man or, as in Rendell's Hillaryland, white people who would never vote for a black man.

Now, here's some questions I have :

Howard Dean put it this way: "You have the power!"

His brother, Jim Dean, now head of Democracy for America, put it this way: "We have to take ownership of the process."

Since the highly flawed 2000 election, progressives have slowly, ever so slowly been waking up to the need for taking ownership of the political process. At first, in all honesty, we were pretty lame at it at first. As recently as 2005 I saw the progressive grassroots, at least in NYC, largely unable to get its act together in any effective way. But by 2006 we started to see real results from what began in 2000.

The extreme right wing of the Republican Party took some 30 years to take nearly complete control of our political system. They did it by patiently and doggedly focusing on every elected position, no matter how low, in every state. They did it by repeating their agenda, their talking points over and over until people started absorbing it without even realizing it. They did it by taking over the media, station by station, newspaper by newspaper. They did it by focusing on LOCAL politics.

Progressives had lost that connection with local politics. But they have been rediscovering it. And that has led to a wave of new organizations that are revitalizing grassroots politics and reconnecting Democrats with their local community, a connection that should never have been lost.

Democracy for America, Wellstone Action, Blue Tiger Democrats, and Progressive Majority are, each in their own way, probably the most effective of these new organizations. Each has its own focus, its own strategy, and collectively they are making a real impact.

Darwin Day and Evolution Teach In
Event Website: http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/events/calitem.php?which=1457

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA MUSEUM OFFERS
SECOND ANNUAL FREE DARWIN DAY AND EVOLUTION TEACH IN
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1:00 TO 4:00 P.M.
• • • •

PHILADELPHIA, PA—Sunday, February 10, 2008, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology offers it’s second annual Darwin Day and Evolution Teach In, a free event held in honor of the 199th birthday of Charles Robert Darwin, the world-renowned author of On the Origin of Species—and the originator of the modern theory of evolution.

The free day features short “teach in” talks in galleries by renowned experts, a “sneak” video preview of Penn Museum’s upcoming exhibition, “Surviving, The Body of Evidence,” and a physical anthropologist’s corner with plaster casts of hominid skulls and other bones. WHYY TV co-sponsors two showings of a recent NOVA documentary, and the Academy of Natural Sciences joins in with show and tell of memorabilia related to Darwin’s membership at that esteemed institution. An ongoing children’s workshop, a scavenger hunt, free birthday cake and the opportunity to play some badminton, reputedly a favorite game of Darwin’s, are also part of the afternoon. Darwin himself (or a reasonable likeness) promises to make an appearance to enjoy the festivities, delivering short, impromptu readings of excerpts from his many writings.

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 6th is election day for 2007. PLEASE VOTE! These low turnout elections are the ones that progressives can really influence by getting out the vote. Progressive Majority is one of the most effective grassroots organizations in America today. These are their endorsements in Pennsylvania for Tuesday November 6th:

Bill Scott, Candidate for Chester County Board of Commissioners - At Large (Open Seat)

Bill Scott is running for one of three open seats for Chester County Board of Commissioners. Except for one four-year term, the Chester County Board of Commissioners has been controlled by conservatives. Bill served as the chair of the West Chester Democrats from 1998 through 2006 and is an elected member of the Democratic County and State Committee. He also served on the West Chester Borough Council for two terms, two of which he served as the chair. Bill is running as a team with Kathi Cozzone - together they have recently won endorsements from both the Sierra Club and Planned Parenthood. The team will face Carol Aichele and Terence Farrell in the general election.

Click here to support and learn more about Bill.

Kathi Cozzone, Candidate for Chester County Board of Commissioners - At Large (Open Seat)

Kathi Cozzone is running for Chester County Board of Commissioners. Kathi brings extensive background in financial management and planning to the Board of Commissioners, helping to ensure fiscal responsibility for county operations. Kathi ran for County Controller in 2005, and narrowly lost in an open seat race. Kathi is running as a team with Bill Scott, and together they recently won endorsements from both the Sierra Club and Planned Parenthood. The team will face Carol Aichele and Terence Farrell in the general election.

This is the kind of thing I have been advocating: start rebuilding American manufacturing base by making alternative energy technology and combining it with more incentives for people to use alternative energy. Part of the equation is as a JOBS ISSUE. From Daily Kos:

[Daily Kos quoting Philadelphia Inquirer] In his first term, Rendell opened a new chapter in the state's long history of energy innovation. Pennsylvania coal powered the country in the 18th and 19th centuries. America struck oil in 1859 in Titusville.

Now, Pennsylvania is breaking ground on alternative energy: wind, solar, biomass, waste coal. Rendell's first term focused on electrical-power generation; the second term promises to revolutionize transportation fuels...

Rendell's passion blossomed under the tutelage of environmental secretary Kathleen McGinty, who worked for Gore in the Senate and the White House and on private-sector energy projects.

She knows that investments in renewable energy can reap good-paying jobs, as well as benefit the environment and reduce dependence on imported fuels.

Rendell set out to prove that by wooing companies such as Spanish wind giant Gamesa Corp., which was seeking a U.S. headquarters. Gamesa decided in 2004 to locate in Bucks County and build two Pennsylvania manufacturing plants, as well. The $84 million investment is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs.

In Pennsylvania, Republican Congressman Don Sherwood was caught in a very public scandal where it was discovered he had a mistress for 5 years. This was discovered because he tried to strangle her, she locked her self in his bathroom and called 911. After being rescued from the abusive Republican Congressman, she sued him, furthering the scandal.

In Virginia Republican George Allen has been publically using racial slurs and apparantly has been using them since at least college. He is also thought to have past connections with white supremicists.

These are the two people George Bush is going out of his way to campaign for. From Salon.com:

Bush will make separate appearances Thursday for Rep. Don Sherwood, R-Pa., and Sen. George Allen, R-Va.

Sherwood had been considered to have a safe seat for re-election until a woman filed suit against him and alleged that he had choked her during an altercation at his Capitol Hill apartment. He admitted to having an affair with the woman, 35 years his junior, but denied hurting her. They settled the case out of court.

"Mr. Sherwood has certainly admitted to what is going on," [White House press secretary Tony] Snow said. "And the president also believes that we're all sinners, we all seek forgiveness and, in this particular case, he's supporting Don Sherwood's candidacy."