Bits of Tid: May 15, 2009

• I don't think the Obama Administration should oppose the release of torture photos. I'd understand if releasing said photos would cause a backlash, but I just don't see how releasing more such photos would cause a backlash when some have already been released.
• Speaking of torture, did WE commit torture, as many suggest, or did certain members of the Bush Administration commit torture? Here's something I found regarding controversies surrounding the concept of collective responsibility that may explain why I don't think we should be blamed:

  The first controversy focuses on the relationship between collective responsibility, on the one hand, and the values of individual liberty, justice, and non-suffering, on the other. How, participants in this controversy ask, can we ascribe moral responsibility to groups in society for harms that only a few of its members directly caused without eroding individual responsibility or violating principles of individual freedom? How can we ascribe collective responsibility in such cases without treating those individuals who did not directly cause harm unjustly?

  Of course, that's different from the notion of civic responsibility, which says that as Americans we each must do our part to fight for what's right, including voting, speaking out, and the like.
• Here's a twist on eco-activism.
  
• Suddenly the diploma I got four years ago seems less prestigious.
• The line from Obama near the top of this blog is from his commencement address at Arizona State.
  
• Michigan First Gentleman and leadership enthusiast Dan Mulhern has a new page on Facebook.
• I am working on getting another blog going. Of course, GLGTGS will still be here to infotain you. Stay tuned!
  

Facebook Status Update Liveblog

Welcome to the liveblog of the update of my Facebook status.

12:38 AM: My Facebook status now says "Scott Urbanowski is updating his Facebook status."

12:39 AM: I have also tweeted about updating my Facebook status.

12:43 AM: If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out tonight's (Monday night's) edition of The Colbert Report.

12:45 AM: Sam Adams Cherry Wheat sounds good right about now.

Bits of Tid: February 13, 2008

Valentine's Eve Edition

• Well, how do you like the new design? I tried to fiddle with the HTML a little bit to get the CBS delegate widget to fit entirely within the sidebar, but that wouldn't work. But while it won't all fit, you can still see the meat and potatoes of it.
• Seven years ago tonight my maternal grandmother passed away at age 84. One week ago today my paternal grandmother turned 84 years young. I wrote about both of them one year ago. Grandma's health hasn't changed that much; I must admit I'm pleasantly surprised she made it this long after Grandpa's death in 2004.
• Got anything planned for this Saturday? How about attending Activate08 in Lansing? Free food and admission, and Jennifer Granholm will be there. Registration deadline is tomorrow! And when you're done registering for that, sign up for the 2008 Michigan Policy Summit, which will be held May 10!
• Welcome back writers!
• Curious as to how many votes each candidate has received in each of the primaries and caucuses to date? Find out here.
• Tomorrow I will post my MFCD agenda/platform/plan/vision/whatever-you-wanna-call-it.
• I have submitted my first pick for Lake Superior State University's 2009 Banished Word List:

  Super Tuesday - Is that the best term they could come up with to describe the day with many Presidential primaries and caucuses?

One year ago today

Let's look down Memory Lane:

Welcome to my newly created blog! Here you'll find my thoughts on politics, life at Central Michigan University (where I am a sophomore), the Tigers, and more.

A little about me:

I live in Kentwood, MI, with my parents, two dogs, and bird.

The Communications Director for the College Democrats at CMU, I recently became a card-carrying student member of both the Michigan Democratic Party and the Kent County Democratic Party. I have written letters that have appeared in Central Michigan Life and The Grand Rapids Press. I just became a precinct delegate in Kentwood. During this election season I hope to help with not only College Democrats, but also the Kent County Coordinated Campaign, David LaGrand for State Senate, and the Isabella County Democratic Party. I hope to someday serve as an elected official other than precincct delegate.

While not studying for my major in Political Science and minor in Accounting, I work at the Carey Residential Restaurant. I am also a senator in SGA, secretary of Kulhavi Hall Council, student member of an Academic Senate General Education Subcommittee, and member of ReachOut at St. Mary's University Parish.

I am a Catholic, and am not afraid to profess my love for God and the teachings of Christ. I hhave been involved with St. Mary's Church in Grand Rapids, and with St. Mary's University Parish in Mount Pleasant. I've also been active with the Knights of Columbus Council 4362, where my dad is a past grand knight.

Feel free to say hi anytime!

So began an adventure of sorts for me. Little would I realize that a year later, I would own another blog and post on many others, or that this blog would garner so much attention (i.e. MichLib's Coffee Talk). What started out as an impromptu little corner of the Web where I could share random thoughts about politics, school, and life has grown into, well, much more than that. A year ago I wouldn't have imagined that I would be posting here several times a week, or that as a blogger, I would be part of a trend that is re-shaping American politics, helping to bring the system back to We the People.

It has also been quite an active year in the world of politics as well! Among other things I have used this blog to:

• Celebrate victories by our Governor and many other Democrats;
• Pay tribute to a President;
• Welcome a new Congress;
• Pull the occasional fast one;
• Speculate;
• Dispense facts on Michigan's budget crunch;
• Discuss what would happen if the Electoral College tied;
• Debunk a few claims;
• Raise awareness about the Supreme Court and 2008;
• Reflect on our great nation; and
• Opine about our presidential candidates.

Where do I see myself and this blog one year from now? It's hard to tell. We will be in the final hundred days of the 2008 election season (unless 2000 repeats itself). I will have just been re-elected Precinct Delegate, and I just might be getting ready for a trip to Denver. Much of the rest is still a mystery, but this next year promises to be very interesting.

An update: I'm now a junior at CMU. I am no longer in Student Government (but I may return) and have stepped down from the A-Senate Subcommittee and from Hall Council. I an no longer Communications Director, but am now Blogmaster of the College Dems. Other than that, I am still involved with the Party, of course - perhaps even more so now than a year ago!

Bits of Tid from My Life: May 15, 2007

• My brother returned to work full-time today!
• We went to see my paternal grandmother for Mother’s Day. Unfortunately, she isn’t doing all that great. My dad has had to spend each night with her for the past couple weeks. I haven’t seen much of him lately.
• Yesterday (May 14) also would have been my maternal grandmother’s 91st birthday. She died in 2001 at 84.
• My Mother’s day card for my mom:
  

  -Front: "I know I wasn’t an easy child to live with." (Picture of a baby in a high chair with a cigar in his mouth and a glass of beer on the table!)
  -Inside: "The great ones never are."

• My bit on Kassel got a mention on MichLib!
• From the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" Department: The Nancy Grace show on CNN Headline News showed a clock that indicated how long - to the second - until Paris Hilton goes to jail.
• I submitted a nomination to Lake Superior State University's Banished Word List (and you can too). I will submit a few more between now and the end of the year, but for now, here's my first nomination for the 2008 list:
  

  GINORMOUS - "One of the most pathetic compound words to pollute the English language. Why can't you just say 'enormous' or 'gigantic?' "

Hello Kassel, Germany!

Thanks to Google Analytics, I can tell not only how many people are visiting this blog and Eye on Ehlers, but where they are viewing these sites, how they got to the site (i.e. by clicking the link on MichLib, using Google, etc.)

People have visited my blog from such places as Mount Pleasant, Bay City, Tallahassee... and Beijing, Tokyo, and Prague.

Some have even visited this wonderful blog from unheard-of places in different countries. So I thought I'd pay homage to those obscure towns and cities in the far reaches of the globe by featuring them on this blog. Perhaps, in so doing, I might even help fill the void that GW has left in America's foreign relations. (Okay, maybe not, but still.)

So let's start with Kassel, Germany, a city of roughly 194,176 people (roughly the size of Grand Rapids).

Wikipedia notes that Kassel has quite a long history:

The city's name is derived from the ancient Castellum Cattorum, a castle of the Chatti, a German tribe that has lived in the area since Roman times.

Kassel as such is first mentioned in 913 as the place where two deeds were signed by king Conrad I. The place was called Cqasella and was a fortification at a bridge crossing the Fulda river. A deed from 1189 certifies that Kassel had city rights, but the date of their conveyance is not known.

Still not intrigued? Germany's first public museum, theater, and observatory were all built in Kassel. The Brothers Grimm, Napoleon's brother, and the founder of Reuters all hailed from Kassell.

So here's a shout out to you, Kassel! Tell Mayor Bertram Hilgen that the people of the USA say "Guten Tag!"

100 Posts!

This is my 100th post to Great Lakes, Great Times, Great Scott (formerly known as Scott Does Politics)! Let's celebrate with a few videos...



This is my very first YouTube video posting! It features Tim (whom I've known since middle school) and a couple others getting pied in the face for a good cause here at CMU. That's me saying "Having trouble there Tim?" at 1:13.

Here are a couple videos from British TV shows just after last November's elections.




And finally some late-night humor:

“A total now of eight people have announced that they want to be president. It's George Bush's fault. He has lowered the standard." --David Letterman

"As it does every year, this State of the Union matches up two bitter rivals: the president of the United States and words." --Jon Stewart

"31 million people watched the president -- many, I suspect, in hopes that he would get voted off. ... One of the big topics, of course, was the war. The president said he understands that Americans are losing patience, but he would like us to give his new plan a chance to work. In other words, all he is saying is give war a chance" --Jimmy Kimmel

"I'll give President Bush credit though. He addressed the problems troubling Americans -- the war in Iraq, the economy, the need to develop alternative fuels. He seemed to know what we were thinking. It's almost as if he was reading our mail or listening to our phone calls." --Jay Leno

"Seriously, the stakes are very high. And in this high stakes game, the president of the United States made one simple request [on screen: Bush asking Americans to give the new Iraq strategy a chance]. He's right. Everyone deserves a seventh chance." --Jon Stewart, on Bush’s State of the Union address

"During an interview with '60 Minutes' on Sunday, President Bush defended the invasion of Iraq, saying, 'We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude.' Said the Iraqi people, 'We've been meaning to send a card, but our Hallmark store keeps blowing up.'" --Amy Poehler

"Some good news. Finally, President Bush is going to do something about global warming. He became alarmed when another chunk of ice fell off his mother." --David Letterman

"President Bush is still on the road trying to drum up support for his new Iraq program. ... This time, Bush has an exit strategy for the Iraqi war. In January of 2009, he will escape to Crawford, Texas." --David Letterman

Bits of Tid: January 20, 2007

Every so often I come across news items that I want to include in this blog, but I don't feel deserve their own separate entry. Plus, I occasionally see a few cool links on the web that I also believe don't deserve their own blog entry. Bits of Tid is the name I have chosen for my new periodical series that focuses on these news items and other sorts of fun info. ('Bits of Tid' comes from separating the word 'tidbits' into two seperate syllables - 'tid bits' - and adding the word 'of.')

And with 731 days (exactly two years - including the leap day on 2/29/08) left until America gets a new president, I am pleased to launch the first ever edition of Bits of Tid!

• First of all, as you can tell I have finally fulfilled the promise I made last month and revamped this blog. No longer is it named Scott Does Politics; earlier this week I renamed it Great Lakes, Great Times, Great Scott. That is taken from a couple of LiberalLucy's suggestions. I have also changed the template and added a few links on the sidebar. Hope you enjoy it!
  
  
• One of the new links is the new 'watch blog' I started a few weeks ago focusing on US Rep. Vern Ehlers. I am collaborating with a few other writers from the Grand Rapids area in Eye on Ehlers.
  
  
• Matt (from CMU's College Dems) and I worked hard yesterday to start the new blog of CMU's College Democrats, Blue Chips ('Blue' for Democratic Blue and 'Chips' for Chippewas).
  
  
• Speaker Pelosi's website discusses the accomplishments Democrats have made since taking charge. They got through their 100 hour plan in less than fifty hours!
  
  
• Either Wesley Clark, Aaron Gandhi, or Sanjay Gupta will likely come to CMU soon. (BTW: Here's CM Life's writeup of Jesse Jackson's visit on Tuesday.)
  
  
• I would like to buy a digital camera in the not-too-distant future. If you hve any suggestions as to what kind to get or where to get one, please share.

The Upgrade: Version 2.0

I've upgraded my account to the new version of Blogger, which requires a Google account. It allows me to add labls for my posts, such as the one below.

I have also decided to consider changing the name of this blog. "Scott Does Politics" was hastily chosen a few months ago, and I want a new name.

A few ideas:

Scott Semper Tyrannis - a takeoff on sic semper tyrannis, Latin for "Thus always to tyrants"

Post Scott Ergo Propter Scott - Post hoc ergo propter hoc is Latin for "After this, because of this"

Great Scott Talks Great Lakes

Urban Areas - part of my last name ;-)

The Political Polak - A 'polak' is a man of Polish descent. I'm also part German.

The Fired-up Chip - "Fire up Chips!" is a common cheer at CMU sporting events.

Other suggestions???

Welcome!!

Welcome to my newly created blog! Here you'll find my thoughts on politics, life at Central Michigan University (where I am a sophomore), the Tigers, and more.

A little about me:

I live in Kentwood, MI, with my parents, two dogs, and bird.

The Communications Director for the College Democrats at CMU, I recently became a card-carrying student member of both the Michigan Democratic Party and the Kent County Democratic Party. I have written letters that have appeared in Central Michigan Life and The Grand Rapids Press. I just became a precinct delegate in Kentwood. During this election season I hope to help with not only College Democrats, but also the Kent County Coordinated Campaign, David LaGrand for State Senate, and the Isabella County Democratic Party. I hope to someday serve as an elected official other than precinct delegate.

While not studying for my major in Political Science and minor in Accounting, I work at the Carey Residential Restaurant. I am also a senator in SGA, secretary of Kulhavi Hall Council, student member of an Academic Senate General Education Subcommittee, and member of ReachOut at St. Mary's University Parish.

I am a Catholic, and am not afraid to profess my love for God and the teachings of Christ. I have been involved with St. Mary's Church in Grand Rapids, and with St. Mary's University Parish in Mount Pleasant. I've also been active with the Knights of Columbus Council 4362, where my dad is a past Grand Knight.

Feel free to say hi anytime!