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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-28
is upgrading windows 7 beta 2 to rc 1 so that I'll have a working computer when I get back from vacation. Ugh! # is getting ready to go on vacation, which means working like crazy Continue reading
Passion and Commitment at the HCAN PA Town Hall in Washington.
I’ve been to a lot of political rallies and events. And, if truth be told, a lot of them are pretty dreary. Speeches go on for too long. And pretty much every rally is subject to the funny observation I first hear from Mo Udall about political conventions, after the first 15 minutes “everything has been said but not everyone has said it.” I think the Pennsylvania town hall yesterday was a little different, especially at the beginning and the end. Continue reading
What Mark Sanford can teach us about sex and love
The initial reaction to Governor Mark Sanford’s admission of infidelity has been to see it as one more example of the sexual depravity of politicians or perhaps of ambitious, successful men in general. Sanford was initially portrayed as another man who gave into sexual desire because he could, that is because some combination of the opportunities presented to him by women infatuated with power on the one hand, and his self-absorption, on the other, lead him risk his career and his family in pursuit of sexual pleasure. But, it did not take long for at least some people to see that Sanford is different. He’s no Eliot Spitzer pursuing sex with an expensive call girl. He’s no Jack Kennedy, keeping a few women on his staff for the purpose of satisfying him whenever he got the urge. No one in pursuit of just sex takes up with a woman thousands… Continue reading
Our buses are full but you can still virtually join us at the PA Town Hall in Washington
Pennsylvania Health Care activists have been on the move for months, holding four to five events every week all over the state. And tomorrow, about 2,000 of us are heading to Washington DC for a national rally followed by a Pennsylvania Town Hall. I know that many of you wish you could join us. We do have a few seats left in Pittsburgh but otherwise the 20 HCAN buses and the 16 buses being run by our labor partners are pretty much full. If we had enough buses, we could have taken 5,000 people from PA to Washington. But you can watch our Pennsylvania Town Hall tomorrow, Thursday June 25th at 1:30 pm, on a webcast at http://tinyurl.com/mab6sp Senator Specter and PA Representatives Dahlkemper, Doyle, Sestak and Schwartz will be speaking at the Town Hall along with many of the leaders of HCAN and our coalition partners in the state.… Continue reading
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-21
I love to hear Orrin Evans. His second set at Chris' was splendid. Nice to see Craig Handy and Robin Eubanks, too # Continue reading
Table games part of PA budget Deal: Could this provide a path to fixing casinos in Philly?
A Terry Maddona tweet says: Reliable sources in Harrisburg suggest that table games will be approved for Pa casinos as part of eventual budget deal. I’ve argued for a long time that, if we are going to have gambling, we made a mistake by starting with slots. Table games have an appeal to members of the the professional–mangerial calss who can better afford to blow their money. I’d prefer not to finance our government with gambling. But the residents of the city live with a high end casino–preferably one where you had to wear a Tux and drink your martinis shaken not stirred—much more easily than a slots parlor. I would think that a high end casino in the Strawbridge building would have relatively more appeal to tourists and well-off suburbanite than a slots parlor, which would appeal as well to the poor and working class in the city. Continue reading
At the very least, move the casino parking off the river
There are a lot of people in this city who are not giving up the fight against casinos. I’m one of them. But our political officials have given up. After kneeling by our side during the 2007 election (you can’t call what they did standing), City Council members and our Mayor have thrown in the towel. Badgered by a Governor intent on securing the most dubious part of his legacy, and a state legislature that wants to suck every possible dollar out of our fellow citizens—and hampered by the need for legislative approval for the tax increases we need to survive the recession—Mayor Nutter and City Council have given up the fight. We’ll fight on without them. But here is one thing I just don’t understand. If they won’t fight to keep the casinos out of Center City and the Delaware Waterfront, why won’t they at the very least fight… Continue reading
New Facebook address and tools.
My new Facebook address is /marcstier. And if the tools I just set up work, what I’m currently writing in Microsoft Word will post to my blog Marc Stier at Large (http://blog.stier.net), the blog will then automatically create a tweet which will then automatically update my Facebook status. Or I’ll create a cosmic conflagration. It’s one or the other. Here goes. Continue reading
Got my Kindle DX and love it.
After almost cancelling my order I got my Kindle DX. And I love it. I almost cancelled because it’s expensive and I figure a better model with a touch screen would come out soon. Continue reading
The single payer negotiating strategy delusion
Revised on September 9, 2009 Even as Obama was hitting a home run tonight, I saw posts on Twitter and Facebook by usually savvy people who repeated what has become the latest delusion on the single payer left: that if Obama had started with single payer as his negotiating point, we would have no trouble winning a public option now. That this is an error is easy to see if you recognize that Congressional negotiations are not at all like contract negotiations. It’s not a matter of each side making and offer and then moving slowly to something in the middle. There are two keys to success when Presidents try to build support in Congress. The first is to create as big a block of supporters as you can to start with. Without a lot of supporters at the beginning of the effort, other members of Congress won’t think there is… Continue reading