I have very, very much to be thankful for this year.
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving today.
Seeyas later.
Author Archives: Karl
Wow, whadda day yesterday!
It was a terrific day for democracy wasn’t it? When I look out and about on the web and in the media however, I find some real nasty spinning, everyone pointing fingers and claiming it was some slice of the populace that made a difference. Counting upon who you read it’s the progressives, the liberals, the middle class, the independents, the disgruntled Republicans who didn’t vote, the evangelicals who went back to the Democratic party, even Lou Dobbs Democrats.
I think a few things are clear:
1. The Neo-Cons are ummm… toast. Rummy resigning yesterday and Dubya’s ever growing ties with earlier Republican administration officials (in particular his father’s – an old fashioned conservative if there ever was one) are sure signs that Neo-Con ideology is being ejected from this Administration, just as its proponents distance themselves from it. Can the damage they’ve wrought be repaired anytime soon?
2. Karl Rove isn’t the genius everyone makes him out to be. Wedge issues suddenly were being thrown as election day approached, and it wasn’t enough to turn the tide of public sentiment. This time.
3. If the margin is wide enough – the vote can’t be stolen.
4. With enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow. The web empowered thousands of people to become watchdogs, that had to have some kind of effect. That isn’t to say that folks shouldn’t take the eye off the ball when it comes to voting machines and the voting infrastructure. There were troubling signs across election day.
5. The web is now established as an environment you MUST campaign in. It has empowered both politicians to get their message to audiences before not reached, routing around news media filters (via YouTube and other participatory media), and it has empowered citizens to organize, fundraise, and be heard as never before (via the same).
6. TV commercials got nuts this year, didn’t they? I was waiting for a candidate to accuse their opponent of eating children. When the analysis comes in, I bet there will be a realization it was money spent that had little to no effect.
7. A diverse coalition of people came together for a moment to say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH – and the American people spoke.
All and all, it was a sunny day in Philadelphia.
Vote!
At Philly Future there are PA voter resources, links, and what our regional blogosphere is saying.
Get out and vote today.
One Party Rule and Where It Gets You
When you hear pundits and politicians berating the ‘other side’ as the cause of all this country’s problems, consider that we’ve had one party rule of the three branches of our government for some time now.
Ask yourself, where has it gotten us? One party in power. The other with no capacity to contribute but scream from the peanut gallery. There’s no accountability, no oversight.
Our governmental system works best with checks and balances.
One party rule, for as long as we’ve had it, has left us in a state that serves only to re-elect those already in office, and for them to gather more power as a matter of course.
There’s no question that this is the most corrupt Congress ever. It serves only to rubber stamp anything the Administration puts its way.
That’s not the way the founders of this country intended it. And it needs to stop now.
I’m voting straight Democrat on Tuesday. That’s not something I typically would endorse. But we live in a time where our government no longer answers to its people. That has to change.
While I’m not one to throw around conspiracy theories, there’s a good deal of early evidence that would lead one to expect plenty of voting problems on Tuesday. It’s going to be up to all of us to keep an eye out and and spread word when or if that happens.
Relaxing before a night of meeting the neighbors
Emma had a great first Halloween. The weather was perfect and we had around twenty or so trick-or-treaters come by. A few families had even minivanned in to our area. Towards the end, Emma, Richelle and me took a stroll to chat with our neighbors. Emma loves people so she had a lot of fun. It was literally a story book experience. We didn’t grow up with a Halloween tradition, nor lived in neighborhoods where it was safe to have one, and I think I experienced Halloween for the first time last night. Now I can relate better to why my brother Dante got so excited with his children. Can’t wait till next year 🙂
Beware, I see politicians and pundits!
And my server keeps going down. Not good. Not good!
Philly Future’s up
Causes are still being investigated by our hosting provider, but one thing they promise me is to move us to more robust machines this weekend.
Philly Future’s down
We’re aware of the issue and are working on a solution. Will post updates as they occur. Things should be fine once we’re back up and running. Apologies to all effected.
Happy Halloween Tomorrow
The Sad Irony of Layoffs at the Inquirer and Daily News
Last week a prime example of the utility and the need, for news organizations like those in our newspapers, played out in the pages of the Philadelphia Inquirer as it reported on mismanagement in Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services.
Mismanagement that has led to up to five children deaths in 2006.
In the report’s wake, two officials have been ousted and workers are left up in arms and in disarray, organizing a huge protest last Friday.
Contract negotiations are taking place at the Inquirer and Daily News, in the midst of huge shifts in the newspaper marketplace. Shifts that have been taking place for sometime now, shifts that force the issue – newspaper companies must change their business models or die.
Knight Ridder papers responded to changing marketplace, the past six years, with ever shrinking budgets, ever tightening belts, and consolidation of resources and empowerment in the hands of the few. The culmination of which was the fire sale that took place over the past year.
In Philadelphia a sense of optimism sprung as it was a group of local business leaders that purchased the papers. They talked of investment, and a recognition that further cuts were almost impossible to make.
So you gotta give the Daily News’s Will Bunch a pass for the bleak tone in his latest piece on the situation at the papers and the industry at large. I’m reflecting his irony here. This post being an echo of his in a sense.
How could he not feel that way with the memo him and other Philadelphia Media Holdings employees received Friday? A memo that sounded, I bet to his ears, all too familiar.
While saving the paper isn’t about saving jobs – it is about investment. Bold bets. A look towards the future. That’s hard to do with less and less resources, with folks busy just trying to keep up.
There is massive opportunity for the papers to reinvent their business models. And there are folks at the papers with the knowledge and wherewithal to do it (read all of Will’s post). But time is running out.
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More at PJNet by Leonard Witt.