Multi Medium

More Credit Where Credit Is Due

Hooray for my representative!

Internet access may not be as important as water. But it’s now right up there with hot water.

Yet given how important broadband is to the future of our economy, our educational system, even our democracy, there is amazingly little public discussion about it.

For too long, that conversation has been happening behind closed doors among self-appointed experts, deep-pocketed lobbyists and politicians who either believe the Internet is “a series of tubes” or don’t use it at all.

A notable exception is U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who’s helping to bring the entire Federal Communications Commission to a public hearing tomorrow at Carnegie Mellon University.

He voted the right way on FISA, too.

For those of you who want to attend:

The FCC hearing on the future of the Internet will start Monday, July 21 at 4 p.m. in McConomy Auditorium at Carnegie Mellon University. For more information: www.savetheinternet.com

Add comment July 20th, 2008 at 04:56pm Posted by Eli

The PAmary

I have a very simple, two-part take on tonight’s primary results:

1) Hillary did not win by nearly enough.  The clock is running out, and she needs to make up a lot of ground on Obama to remain plausibly viable.  She didn’t.

2) All the bullshit scandals that the media hyperventilated about do not appear to have damaged Obama at all.  Not unless he was actually poised to win in a landslide and “Bittergate” destroyed his momentum.

That second point is potentially huge.  If voters are finally starting to tune out the media when they obsess over inane non-stories and manufactured Democratic scandals, then the Republicans are in a world of hurt come November.

Add comment April 22nd, 2008 at 10:54pm Posted by Eli

Feel The Hillmentum!

Don’t count Hillary out yet!

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl will reportedly endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton.

The blog of the Boston Globe first reported the pending endorsements, which two Clinton campaign officials have confirmed.

The Clinton campaign earlier today said she is expected to be joined Friday evening by “two special guests” during a rally at Soliders & Sailors Military Museum and Memorial in Oakland. One campaign official today told the Trib that Onorato and Ravenstal are the guests.

Ravenstahl and Onorato could not be reached directly for comment.

Pennsylvania will surely be hers now.

Add comment March 13th, 2008 at 10:24pm Posted by Eli

RIP, Myron Cope

Alas, I cannot find any YouTube videos of Myron in action.

WTAE does have un-embeddable videos of him singing “Can’t Touch This” (in full MC Hammer regalia), “Achy Breaky Heart,” and… “Macarena.” And if that’s not enough for you, there’s a bunch of audio clips here and here.

My first memory of Myron Cope is from over 16 years ago, my first winter in Pittsburgh. He appeared on the local news around Christmastime to perform his surreal rendition of “Deck The Halls,” with a chorus something like “Fa gha gha gha gha, gha gha gha gha.” I heard lots of him after that - he was kind of everywhere. He punctuated his speech with a language all his own, words and phrases like “Yoi!”, “Double yoi!”, “Hm-HA!”, and “okel dokel.”

One of my fondest Myron Cope moments that may have amused only me was several years ago, when I was listening to the NFL draft on the radio, God only knows why. The Steelers had just drafted an offensive tackle named Leon Searcy in the first round, and the very first Pittsburgh media person to get Searcy on the phone was… Myron Cope. Imagine this poor kid, wondering what his new home will be like, and the first person he talks to (after the coach and/or GM) is Myron. I can’t imagine what kind of city of madmen he thought he was headed to.

Goodbye, Myron. I’ll miss you, you one-of-a-kind crazy bastard.

Oh, and William F. Buckley died too, but I don’t really have anything to say about him. But Rick Perlstein does.

Add comment February 27th, 2008 at 08:14pm Posted by Eli

We’re Number 9!

Yet another feather in Pittsburgh’s cap:

Residents of Minneapolis and Seattle are the most bookish and well-read, according to results from a new survey released today of the most literate American cities.

The survey focused on 69 U.S. cities with populations of 250,000 or above. Jack Miller of Central Connecticut State University chose six key indicators to rank literacy. These included newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources.

Overall, the top 10 most literate (and wired) cities included:

1—Minneapolis, Minn.
2—Seattle, Wash.
3—St. Paul, Minn.
4—Denver, Colo.
5—Washington, D.C.
6—St. Louis, Mo.
7—San Francisco, Calif.
8—Atlanta, Ga.
9—Pittsburgh, Pa.
10—Boston, Mass.

Minneapolis, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Denver and Washington, D.C., have made the top 10 every year since 2003, when the survey first launched.

Woohoo!!! We are totally a city of nerds.

Pittsburgh is also the 9th-most walkable city in America.

And, of course, Pittsburgh is the most livable city in America. You heard me.

(h/t Caro Kay)

1 comment December 29th, 2007 at 04:14pm Posted by Eli

Run, Al, Run!

By way of Atrios, another tidbit of happy Gore nostalgia, showcasing his deep and abiding connection with the great state commonwealth of Pennsylvania and its people.

I fear we shall not see his like again.

Add comment May 1st, 2007 at 11:26pm Posted by Eli

In Your Face, Shelbyville!

Didn’t really see this coming:

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl doesn’t remember the last time Pittsburgh was rated No. 1 in the country by “Places Rated Almanac.” That was in 1985, and he was only 5.

But he grew up in “America’s Most Livable City,” and last night said he was glad to hear that the latest edition of the almanac has again put Pittsburgh No. 1.

(…)

David Savageau, who has been compiling the “Places Rated Almanac” since 1981, said he was hoping that this year’s edition would have a surprise No. 1 that might create the kind of buzz the 1985 rankings did.

(…)

Mr. Savageau continues to use the same formula to rate the 379 metropolitan areas he surveys. There are nine categories: housing affordability (cost of living); transportation; jobs; education; climate; crime; health care; recreation; and ambience (museums, performing arts, restaurants and historical districts).

The seven-county area that makes up Pittsburgh failed to finish in the top 20 in any of the categories, ranging from a competitive 21st in recreation and 29th in education to a less-than-stellar 111th in housing and 135th in climate. But when the numbers are added up, the one that counts is the final total.

“To tell the truth,” Mr. Savageau said, “I was rooting for New York. It’s a city, like Pittsburgh, that has a lot of predispositions against it. But I found New Yorkers to be among the nicest people in the whole country, and there’s such an incredible number of things to do there. But it has liabilities, such as the cost of living.”

(…)

This is the seventh edition of the “Places Rated Almanac,” and Pittsburgh hasn’t always finished first, dropping as low as 14th in 1997 and 12th in 1999, the last year that the listings were done. But the city is the only one to finish in the top 20 every time.

That’s… kinda cool. Although as a transplanted New Yorker, I would have been perfectly happy if New York had placed first…

(h/t Ol’ Froth)

3 comments April 27th, 2007 at 12:00am Posted by Eli

Oh. Joy.

And I was just wondering how I would ever live without him…

Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, a moderate [HA!!!] who has often clashed with the Bush administration and his fellow GOP lawmakers, said Monday he plans to seek a sixth term in 2010.

“There are a lot of important things to be done and finally after being here to acquire some seniority, I’m in a position to do that,” said Specter, 77. “I’m full of energy and my wife doesn’t want me home for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

Good thinking, Arlen. As long as there’s still some Constitution left standing, your work is not complete. Look at that stupid Constitution! It’s mocking you! Mocking you, I say! You show that Constitution who’s boss!

Specter said he has fundraisers planned, including a large one April 4 in Philadelphia.

“It’s an enormous task, and that’s why I’m starting early,” said Specter, noting that he spent $23 million in his 2004 race.

Can we please get a tough, mean progressive to run against this wanker? We’ve got two years to come up with somebody, right? How about some of the new blood, like Joe Sestak or Pat Murphy?

Whoever it is, they must call Specter on his consistent pattern of speaking out against the Bush administration’s rampant criminality, and then actively facilitating it.

Add comment March 19th, 2007 at 06:17pm Posted by Eli

Save Our Santorums

It’s a sad commentary on my connectedness to PA politics that I learned about this through an NYT editorial:

Under current Pennsylvania law, people can vote once they leave prison. But a bill pending in the Legislature would disenfranchise those on parole or probation. The bill would go further and bar convicts from voting until the dates when their maximum sentences would expire ? even if they had been fully released from the system much earlier.

Pennsylvania, a swing state that will hold some critical elections this fall, is being barraged by legislation, championed by Republican lawmakers, that would raise voting barriers, especially for groups that tend to be Democratic. One measure would institute one of the most restrictive voter-identification laws in the nation, in a state that currently requires only first-time voters to prove their identities. Pennsylvanians ? who have been at the forefront of fairness in voting rights issues ? should not allow partisanship to erase that legacy.

Wow, they’re pulling out all the stops - they must be really worried for Santorum, eh?

(Do governors have veto power? You know, like little mini-preznits?)

1 comment February 10th, 2006 at 09:54am Posted by Eli

Life In Pittsburgh

Courtesy of Ol’ Froth, who heard this on his police scanner:

(car#) County, (address). Complainant says a man, possibly a teenager, came to his house dressed as a chicken.

Well, alrighty then. (I have an alibi, I swear)

Perhaps this will help you to visualize. And possibly give you nightmares for the rest of your life.

4 comments January 15th, 2006 at 01:24pm Posted by Eli

Deanyaanisqatsi…

Well. Just got back (well, when I started writing this, anyway…) from Howard Dean’s appearance at the Church Brew Works here in Pittsburgh, and it was a most excellent time, I must say. The food was good, the company was excellent - I sat at a table with both a fellow Liberal Drinker and a fellow Atriot (spork_incident, who I found to be a charming and erudite companion - I think Hoyt stopped by our table briefly as well, but he didn’t recognize us, and I wasn’t sure enough to say anything) - and El Medico Dean was fired up and brought lots of red meat, and he hit almost every possible target.

Money line of the night was early: “The Republicans have brought a culture of corruption to Washington,” and he hammered at an overarching theme that the Democrats are the party with real morals and convictions. Some other noteworthy highlights, not necessarily in any kind of order, including chronological:

• He challenged Bush to fire Rove, and show that he values the cover and safety of an undercover agent working for our security more than he values protecting a loyal crony and political operative.

• He took a swipe at Santorum, referring to him as one of Virginia’s senators, and also pointed out DeLay’s ethics deficiencies as further examples of Republican “moral values”.

• He made the point (in defense of Bob Casey, Jr.) that he would much rather have a pro-life Democrat in his corner than a pro-life Republican - because pro-life Democrats at least care about children after they’re born. And, of course, he mentioned that there were fewer abortions under Clinton than Bush.

• He emphasized that Democrats must campaign and try to compete everywhere, not just in blue states and swing states. We can’t just write off Mississippi, or we’ll guarantee that we’ll never win there.

• He spoke of the need to count every vote - he expressed admiration for the Oregon law that prohibits use of any voting system that cannot be recounted by hand, and asked How Dare Republicans make a show of trying to attract blacks and Latinos while at the same time trying to repress their votes.

• He pointed out Bush’s cocoon and imperial arrogance in a very interesting way, saying that when he was governor of Vermont, he considered the people his boss, that even the ones who didn’t vote for him still paid his salary. But President Bush, by contrast, will not even allow any of the 48% of the country who voted against him to participate in any of the town hall meetings he’s been holding all across the country, and Dean drew a line from that to the incredible political incivility that has taken over this country.

• He also shared an anecdote about when he asked a young evangelical Christian woman why she supported him - she said she disagreed with most of what he stood for, but the Texas Republicans had screwed over her family’s healthcare, and she (and other evangelicals) placed a great value on convictions, especially in positions of high office, and she felt Dean had them, and Republicans didn’t (he also disparaged the notion that Democrats should be centrist “Republican Lite”).

I thought the convictions anecdote was telling, and seemed like it might be the start of a strategy to pre-emptively inoculate for whoever runs in 2008, so they don’t get the same politically-expedient-waffler tag that Gore and Kerry got stuck with. Someone else (spork_incident, I believe) also observed that this appeared to be a concerted effort to encroach on the Republicans’ own turf, by appealing to morality and convictions, and trying to make common cause with pro-lifers. Hopefully it will be enough to peel off some non-insane evangelicals, although I won’t bet money on it.

Basically, if this is the message and strategy Dean wants the Democratic party to adopt, then I feel pretty good about it. The only major theme I’m sorry he didn’t cover was The War On Terror - the Republicans have done a shite job at it before and after 9/11, and they need to be called on it, repeatedly. I would have liked to hear more about the Downing Street Memos and how Bush lied us into war, but Plamegate at least touches on that indirectly. I also would have liked to see him follow Hillary’s lead and address the lapdogginess of the media, but that’s maybe just my obsession, and might not have been appropriate or necessary for a fire-up-the-faithful address like this one.

And I realize this is a bit strange, but spork_incident backs me up (or at least humors me) on this: When Howard smiles, he looks a bit like the middle-aged, Monsieur Verdoux/Limelight-vintage Charlie Chaplin.

5 comments July 19th, 2005 at 09:25pm Posted by Eli

Serendipity

I was taking one of my usual sky pictures (kinda mediocre, IMO) when this pigeon flew into the frame just as I clicked the shutter. Kinda cool, although it would’ve been even cooler if I had my aperture cranked down a bit for more depth of field.

And immediately after taking this picture, I was accosted by a strange but friendly man who spat a lot, and had lots of things to say about local history and wind resistance and stonecutting and money and ninja fighting techniques. A photographer had an impact on his life and helped him make some money, and my camera and I triggered an association with that. He also marveled at how photographers see angles and shapes that others don’t, which is precisely what fascinates me about photography - that challenge to capture the unseen beauty that hides within the seen.

It was one of those conversations where one part of you keeps telling you to escape, while the other part just has to stay through to the end, to find out where it’s all heading…

4 comments May 26th, 2005 at 06:48pm Posted by Eli