Politics

Politics

There are 1,056 posts filed in Politics (this is page 51 of 106).

Chief Dolan retiring

The first time I met retiring Chief Harry Dolan was the night of December 4th, 2007. The 32nd Raleigh City Council had just been sworn in at Memorial Auditorium and a young Travis and I were there. After the short ceremony, we both wandered through the hall only to come across a police officer as friendly as he was tall. Dolan warmly introduced himself to me and to Travis, kneeling down to talk to my son at his level.

Those two minutes told me all I needed to know about Raleigh’s new police chief: Dolan was going to engage the public, and kids mean a lot to him.
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Does Romney have a better Facebook strategy than Obama?

Inside Facebook points to Romney’s Facebook ad campaign as the reason Romney’s page has gained so many likes. Left unexplored by Inside Facebook are the widespread reports that many of Romney’s Facebook page fans were put there without their permission. It’s one thing if Romney wants to build a social following by earning fans, it’s another when he cheats by hacking others’ Facebook accounts.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney is leading President Barack Obama in Facebook engagement and new Likes, in part because of a strong social ad campaign that takes advantage of the latest opportunities on Facebook.

via Does Romney have a better Facebook strategy than Obama?.

Why Rahm Emanuel and The New York Times are wrong about teacher evaluation – The Washington Post

The Washington Post deconstructs why standardized testingis bad for education.

I’ve often wondered why politicians have felt the need to meddle with education when few or none of them are education experts.

The Times can say that using standardized test scores to evaluate teachers is a sensible policy and Obama can say it and Education Secretary Arne Duncan can say it and Emanuel can say it and so can Bill Gates (who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to develop it) and governors and mayor from both parties, and heck, anybody can go ahead and shout it out as loud as they can.

It doesn’t make it true.

via Why Rahm Emanuel and The New York Times are wrong about teacher evaluation – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post.

Reelected by acclamation

I found out at this morning’s Parks board planning meeting that I was the only candidate for Parks board chair and the current vice-chair Kimberley Siran was the only candidate for vice-chair. We’re thus going to be reelected by acclamation at the upcoming Parks board election.

In addition, on September 4th the Raleigh City Council reappointed me for another two-year term on the board.

I’m grateful for the trust of my fellow Parks board members and that of the City Council. It’s an honor and a privilege to serve!

The Kerry-ization of Mitt Romney – POLITICO.com

Wow. This Politico article is pretty damning of Romney’s stance on military issues.

“A presidential election is ultimately a character test,” a top GOP strategist said. “This speaks to the credibility and plausibility of being commander in chief, and any candidate for president has to get over that hump. [Romney] looks tone deaf. Everyone is in the faux outrage business. But this time, people are actually offended. He offended military families in some crucial states.”

via The Kerry-ization of Mitt Romney – Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei – POLITICO.com.

Romney rips off Obama website


Whoops! I guess Romney’s team has no original ideas.

After months of telling Democrats that they didn’t build that, the charge may be ironically accurate when it comes to Mitt Romney’s website. The Romney campaign’s “victory wallet” donation page bears a striking resemblance to the Obama campaign’s “quick donate” page. The Obama campaign published its in March and Romney’s site went up in late August.

via Romney rips off Obama website – Salon.com.

Sept. 9: Call It as You See It

The wizards at Five Thirty Eight give Obama an 80% chance of being reelected.

Personally, I predict Obama will be reelected but will lose North Carolina in a close race. I hope I’m wrong about him losing NC but that’s how I see things today. It’s still a long way until Election Day, however.

Nevertheless, the polling movement that we have seen over the past three days represents the most substantial shift that we’ve seen in the race all year, with the polls moving toward Mr. Obama since his convention.

How far will Mr. Obama’s numbers rise, and how long will his bounce last? We don’t know that, of course. But the range of possible outcomes reads pretty favorably for him.

via Sept. 9: Call It as You See It – NYTimes.com.

Facebook cracks down on fake Likes | Reuters


Reuters takes a good look at Facebook’s efforts to deal with the issue of fake “Likes.”

Facebook Inc is weeding out fake “Likes” on its social network that are being caused by spammers, malware and black marketeers as it strives to maintain credibility as an advertising platform.

Facebook said the number of Likes, or endorsements by users, on corporate pages is likely to drop by less than 1 percent, on average, after the crackdown.

“Newly improved automated efforts will remove those Likes gained by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users, or purchased bulk Likes,” Facebook said in a post on its official blog on Friday.

“While we have always had dedicated protections against each of these threats on Facebook, these improved systems have been specifically configured to identify and take action against suspicious Likes,” the post continued.

via Facebook cracks down on fake Likes | Reuters.

St. Louis columnist still mystified by Romney Facebook hack


I sent an email to St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Pat Gauen after his recent column detailing how his Facebook page was hacked by Mitt Romney. I told him that if his theory is true that simply hovering over Romney’s ad is all that’s needed to register a like, then it becomes quite difficult for Romney’s campaign to deny its involvement in these shenanigans.

Gauen responded:

Thanks for your note. While I have absolutely no doubt that it registered as I hovered, I could not make it happen again. I only presume that anyone savvy enough to program it to register “like” on a hover would be wily enough to shut out somebody who (as I did) realizes what happened and follows with an “unlike.” After a while, the ad just wasn’t there anymore.

Pat

Meanwhile, users continue to complain about this practice in the Facebook user forums.

What Bill Clinton Wrote vs. What Bill Clinton Said

I heard that Bill Clinton ad-libbed a lot of his speech last night. What I didn’t realize is just how much he ad-libbed.

The Atlantic Wire compares what he said with what he wrote. Check it out here.

If you were following any journalists on Twitter last night, one of the most remarked upon aspects of Bill Clinton’s nomination speech was how liberally he deviated from the prepared text. What was handed out to the media was four pages of single-spaced, small font text, but — as an exasperated TelePrompTer operator found out —that was really just a guideline to what Clinton actually wanted to say during his 49-minute address. We decided to compare the two versions to see how one of the great speechmakers of his era goes about his business.

via What Bill Clinton Wrote vs. What Bill Clinton Said – Politics – The Atlantic Wire.