Our Disappointing Representative

I’ve previously said that I’m bad with local politics.  Here’s how bad: I just found out that my representative in Pennsylvania’s 14th congressional district, Mike Doyle, was one of the 64 Democrats who voted for the Stupak amendment, which would prohibit insurance plans participating in the exchange from covering abortion (a.k.a. any bought with government subsidies, or those bought by small businesses).  The only exceptions are in cases or rape, incest, or when a doctor would certify that the mother was at risk of death.  Although I think the policy is misguided through and through, that last sentence is crucial: in cases where the mother’s health is in jeopardy, but there is no danger of death, an abortion would still be prohibited.  Unless the plain language of the bill is misleading, neither is there any provision for severe fetal abnormalities, even if they meant that the fetus could never become viable.

I can’t say that Doyle is a uniformly terrible representative.  A brief look at his record indicated some high points, including extremely good support for LGBT issues, and support for net neutrality.  Still, I think the headline “Stupak Amendment Passes; 64 Dems Ask for Primary Opponents is roughly on target.

Nor is there any reason the 14th district should have a conservative Democrat as it’s representative.  Obama won in the 14th congressional district by 70% to 29%.  Doyle won in 1994 by ten points, has run unopposed in several subsequent races, including the 2008 election, where he only faced a challenge from the Green party.  In 2010, there’s a Republican challenger, which potentially puts pressure on Doyle to continue behaving like a conservative Democrat.  That’s all the more reason that he needs pressure from his left.

I doubt Doyle will receive a primary challenge, and I don’t know if that would be strategically sound.  But I sure hope he sees a lot of pressure for this decision.  Although it’s over a week late, I plan on giving his office a call to say that I’m disappointed, and that when the compromise bill comes up for a vote, Doyle needs to support it, whether or not the Stupak language has been preserved.  Since Congress doesn’t have takebacks, that’s the closest we can get.

The King Is Coming

I didn’t initially care that much about the G20, or think that it would be a big deal. Clearly, I was wrong.

What first made me angry was learning that several downtown universities would be closing for the three days surrounding the summit. At least one university is closing its residence halls, though it will deign to provide the students with alternate housing.  To drive into downtown, you’ll need a driver’s license with a downtown address. No word what you do if you just moved.

Pitt is three or four miles from downtown and the convention center, but because of a dinner being held at the Phipps conservatory, Thursday evening, all classes after 4PM are being cancelled, and all classes in the Cathedral of Learning are being cancelled starting at Noon.  I won’t pretend that having the afternoon off is a terrible burden.

What rankles is that this is all for a dinner.  After all the disruption that’s being inflicted on people who live and work downtown, they’re taking the delegation to Oakland just because they fancied the dinner location.

I don’t mind the tremendous expense of security, and I don’t think that the meeting is a waste of time.  I do wonder if there might have been a better city than Pittsburgh (isn’t this why we built DC?), but I have to admit that the visitors will probably bring enough money for it to be a net benefit.  I don’t even mind that the White House is a very nice place, and we the people spend money on ensuring that the president’s bed is comfy.

But when we’re shutting down a university for the sake of a dinner, we’ve crossed a line into treating the heads of state as if they’re kings and we’re their subjects.

Beginners Go Tournament

Just a quick note: there will be a go tournament for beginners held in Oakland this coming Tuesday–I’ve included the announcement below.  I doubt I’ll be there to offer moral support, but it’s a good opportunity to play go if you’re just starting or haven’t played in awhile.  I suspect that the fifteen game limit may be more of a rough guideline, but if you’re worried, you can contact someone at the club and ask.

Let me also note that September is just about the best time of year for new players in our club.  Every year there’s an increase in the number of attendees right after CMU’s activity fair, and it brings in folks of all levels.

——————–

The tournament will be this Tuesday night (Aug.  25) at Phantom of the Attic in Oakland (406 S.
Craig St.).  It will start at 7:30 and go no later than 11:30.

The tournament will be played on 13×13 boards and is aimed at players who are new to the game of go.  Anyone who has played around fifteen games or less is welcome to play.  So, if you’re new to the game yourself, be sure to stop by, and if you have friends that you’ve been trying to get excited about go, encourage them to attend.  First prize is a used go board.  Second prize is $5.

Josiah will be at Phantom of the Attic at 6:30 to give a review of the rules and other tips to anyone who shows up early.  Other
non-beginners are invited to stop by to observe and/or teach before the tournament and between rounds.

Super Bowl

I feel pretty smart for not sharing my prediction that the Steelers wouldn’t do well in the playoffs this year.  In my defense, I didn’t expect the Giants, Titans and Eagles to all lose.  No, the Eagles were not an amazing team, but their previous game vs. the Steelers was quite lopsided.

STILLERS!

Oh, Yeah…

STILLERS!

STILLERS! STILLERS!

STILLERS!

Pittsburgh Fall Tournament

Perhaps everyone who might be interested in this has already heard through other channels, but the Pittsburgh Go Club is holding its fall tournament on September 27th.   You can find more information on the club website.  There’s usually a pretty wide range of players: the fall 2007 tournament featured both one of the top players in the country and someone at around 20kyu.  The only requirement is that you have some idea of your strength, either from the AGA, or a go server such as KGS.

STILLERS!

Stillers! STillers! Stillllers! STILLLLLLERS!

This has been a public service announcement.  In other news, I live close enough to the stadium that I can hear the announcers and that it’s impossible to park on my street during game days.

The 16th Season

It looks like the Pittsburgh Pirates will tie MLB’s record for the longest streak of consecutive losing seasons at 16.  Earlier in the season they were doing well, but now they’re 9 games off of .500, which is a big deficit to overcome.  As a dispassionate observer, it’s easier to root for them to get the record than to root for them to be good.  Besides, Pittsburgh needs a team this bad.

Improving Infrastructure with Graffiti

Belle Waring complains about America’s decaying infrastructure, its “blackness with soot and graffiti.”  Matthew Yglesias has the political commentary.

I’ll just say that I’d feel weird being in a place that didn’t have graffiti all over its old bridges and tunnels.  Obviously some of it is an eyesore, but the best stuff makes a substantial improvement.  I’ve previously mentioned the pittsburgh graffiti flickr group, all of which qualifies.  This reminds me that Monday I noticed some stuff in the wild style on the train tracks near my house that I can’t read.

Local Architecture

Turns out that the Barco Law Building is a notable example of Brutalist architecture, at least if Wikipedia is to be believed (hah!).  In an important recommendation for the movement, there’s no way that the Barco building is worse than the third ugliest building on campus.  Of course, the ugliest building on campus, Posvar hall, is Brutalist.

In Local News

According to the (perfectly reliable!) weather.com, it’s 91 in Pittsburgh with the projected high for Monday being 94.  And 96 is a Pittsburgh record for June.

No More Robo Calls?

I doubt you want to try, but I dare you–try and convince me that this isn’t an unalloyed good: [Pennsylvania] state senate approves ban on political robo-calls.  I got roughly five calls from each candidate in the three days before the primary this season.  This is doubly silly since Barack Obama (personally–I mean, the guy himself) knew that I’d be voting for him, since I up and donated to his campaign right after he won SC.  So why call me? I mean, his best buddy here on the northside already wasted two calls asking me if I wanted to do get out the vote stuff (I hemmed and hawed and eventually said I was too busy).

Skybridges

I just found the GreaterGreater Washington blog Wednesday via a post on why skybridges are a really daft idea. There’s a streetbridge over Forbes near campus, and predictably it’s awful trying to cross in that area. The Washington blog piqued my interest, since I believe that:

• Urban planning is really important
• It’s also fascinating
• I know diddlyshit about it (like, I ain’t even read Jane Jacobs–though I have Le Corbusier sitting around for some dystopian fun).

Does anyone know about anything similar for the Pittsburgh area? Sadly, I suspect that there isn’t anything that focuses on urban development. Perhaps that’s just because there isn’t enough development to write about.

Pittsburgh Graffiti

Apropos of nothing, here is the pittsburgh graffiti flickr page. I’ve been increasingly drawn to graffiti for awhile now, though I’m still unable to read any but the simplest ones done in ‘wild style.’ Despite constantly pointing out graffiti to Amanda around town, I only recognize a fraction of these.

8th September 2009: It looks like the Pittsburgh graffiti page on flickr has moved.  I’m not sure if all the pictures are the same.

Pennsylbama

Not sure how I missed this:

“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,”

That would be Ed Rendell, governor of Pennsylvania. Tony Norman, the post-gazette columnist reporting the quote asked:

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. Was he suggesting that Pennsylvanians are uniquely racist in ways that folks in the states Mr. Obama has won so far aren’t? By the way, Mr. Obama won Alabama on Super Tuesday, thank you very much!

Well, Pennsylvania has been rather famously described as Pittsburgh and Philly, with Alabama in the middle. If you come up from Maryland and drive along the turnpike to Pittsburgh, you’ll see several anti-abortion billboards–the kind with a bit of blood visible behind a “CENSORED” stamp. I like to call our state “Pennsylbama.”

That said, I doubt the issue in Pennsylvania has much to do with race.  Rather, I’d suspect that the high proportion of blue-collar workers, along with Western Pennsylvania’s roots in the industrial sector would explain any advantage she has here (I’m a little unsure of that last factor–how much does it matter that we used to have steel here, if we don’t now?).  Rhetorically, Obama is the candidate of hope, but no one feels hope in Pittsburgh (especially not during the winter).

Oh How Snobbery Beckons…

Pittsburgh is not quite the coolest city in the world, but I do quite like it despite its various drawbacks. After reading a NYTimes article on the $20,000 cup of coffee, I was surprised to find out that there’s a working Clover coffeemaker in Pittsburgh, housed at the 21st street coffee and tea shop. The Clover isn’t actually the $20,000 machine, but brews a single cup of coffee to order with exactly specifiable temperature between 180 and 210°. A pilgrimage is certainly in order.

Surprisingly Appealing Advertisements

Surprisingly nice 1 & 2 bedroom apartments–a building on Atwood Street in Oakland.

Depressing News About Ethanol

The other day at the GetGo, I was struck by the sight of E-85 ethanol fuel being $2.70 for a gallon as opposed to $3.10 for regular unleaded. That’s really bad–I’ve heard that the most consistently pursued activity at the EPA these days is lying about the environmental benefits of ethanol, but honest folk seem to think that there’s at most a 10% reduction in CO2 emissions. So if, and this is a big if, ethanol prices stay substantially lower than gas prices, then ethanol will just be a nice way of sustaining CO2 output, since people will no longer have to alter their driving habits in the face of $4.00 gas. Incidentally, here’s an article blaming high food prices and potential food supply instability on the use of biofuels. Whee!

On another GetGo related note, heh:

Famous People Who Live(d) Near Me

More evidence that I’m living in the wrong neighborhood.  Richard Mellon Scaife lives within a half mile of my apartment.  It also appears that he’s having a nasty divorce (boo-hoo).  (Via three-toed sloth).

Thank goodness I’m moving.  My new place will be within a half mile of Gertrude Stein’s birthplace, though Miss Lady complains that this doesn’t compensate for losing our proximity to George Romero’s (former? current?) residence.

“No Tooth Fairies on My Watch!”

While watching the Steelers, I saw an advertisement for the Ed Kress, the Republican candidate for Sheriff and saw that he was promising tough enforcement of laws concerning illegal immigration.

The only problem is that Pittsburgh appears to be almost completely free of illegal immigrants (75% of illegal immigrants are Hispanic, with Asians being the next largest contingent). Being from North Carolina, I could tell you that there’s really no reason to worry about immigrants, illegal or otherwise. Instead, I’ll just point out that Kress might as well be proposing to crack down on the Tooth Fairy, for all the issue has any relevance to Pittsburgh. The only difference is that Pennsylvanians aren’t racist towards the Tooth Fairy.