CMU and Government Contract work

Head scratching from Information Week with a Pittsburgh connection. http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2006/08/a_sweltering_su.html

Qualifications? The Homeland Security Department may routinely flunk government security audits, but it didn't feel the need to insist on any stinking technical qualifications for the man who has been serving as the acting director of its National Cyber Security Division for the past 21 months. A widely picked up AP story headlined "Deal For Cybersecurity Chief Questioned" leaves you wondering how the government can be paying $577,000 over a two-year period to an attorney who has no formal technical background in computer security. By comparison, according to AP, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff earns just $175,000 a year.

As it turns out, this is attorney Donald Purdy Jr.'s second national security posting. He was previously a White House cybersecurity adviser, which is interesting considering he's not a security expert. He's actually an employee of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, which worked out a two-year loan deal to the government, technically in exchange for agreeing to pick up his annual salary. But the school has gotten an even bigger payoff--literally. So far this year, the National Cyber Security Division has paid out $19 million--or according to AP, a fifth of its budget--in contract work to the school.

Purdy the lawyer says he doesn't involve himself in discussions about business dealings between the department he's running and the school that technically employs him. Some members of Congress are objecting on multiple levels. Meanwhile, Chertoff last year created a position of DHS assistant secretary over cybersecurity, but has yet to fill the post. Perhaps he's holding out for another attorney.

Water Polo Clinic - August 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, 2006

Monday to Friday, from 9:30 am to 11:30 am

at Crafton Swim Pool in Crafton Park on Steuben Street

Cost: $5.
On site registration. Pay $5 at first practice and remainder of week is without charge.

Boys, Girls and Adults welcome.

Clinic is geared to novice players. Learn about the great Olympic sport of Water Polo. Plenty of instruction, drills, skill development, conditioning, game situations and tactics. Get new respect for the sport, team-play and friends.

Swimming ability expected: i.e., swim 100 yards (4 lengths of the pool) in less than 3 minutes.

Rain or shine.

Program's organizer and coach is Mark Rauterkus, 412 298 3432, Mark@Rauterkus.com, publisher of Tactical US Water Polo by a 4-time Olympic Coach.

Pass the word to lifeguards and other athletes.

US Olympic hero Hall survives shark attack

US Olympic hero Hall survives shark attack: "US Olympic hero Hall survives shark attack

Five-time Olympic swimming gold medal winner Gary Hall survived a shark attack while spear fishing with his sister off the Florida coast.

Diven's chief of staff charged in name game - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The other shoe falls. More below.

Diven's chief of staff charged in name game - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review The chief of staff for state Rep. Michael Diven was charged Friday with providing false signatures of eight people -- at least five of whom are dead -- on nominating petitions for the Brookline Republican.

Debora Lynn Romaniello, 51, of Beechview (thanks JP), is accused by Allegheny County Police of verifying an election nominating petition containing the forged names of eight people, mostly from the Baldwin area, and submitting the papers to the county Elections Division in March.

Romaniello and her husband, Pittsburgh Public Schools board member Dan Romaniello, did not return calls yesterday.

Diven said the charges are politically motivated and that Romaniello made an honest mistake. Diven said he will keep Romaniello as his chief of staff.

Perhaps Mrs. Romaniello will be vindicated and perhaps this is the worst of the worst of a political hit job. I can see those statements of defense being true.

However, here is the rub in a global sorta way. Diven is in the state house. Those in the state house can make laws that can change election laws. We've got some serious troubles with our election laws as they now stand. Diven has done little if nothing to change the election laws in his tenure.

Diven could be putting together a sheet of dead people's names onto a petition to get himself onto the ballot to prove a point that dead people can show up to the polls to vote! But, he didn't do that.

Diven could be putting dead people's names onto petitions himself -- to prove that it numbs ones mind to need to get hundres and hundres if not thousands and thousands of names on nomination papers to just get onto the ballot -- say to run against Rick Santorum or Bob Casey or Fast Ed Rendell or Lynn Swann.

Diven could be putting the names of the dead people onto a petition to make a stance about things that are NOT election specific -- as another sign of protest. How many died in Diven's district because they could not afford health care? How many died because they were elderly and could not face the stresses of moving out of an older home into a nursing home situation? How many died in PA because they got struck by a car because our streets are not safe and speeding limits are a joke and without enforcement?

Or to use a Brookline specific example, how many have died because they didn't have a warm community center / senior center to keep themselves social and healthy? There is a big senior center spat in Brookline as to where they should build and who's going to benefit.

Frankly, I think senior centers are going to be gone in a few years. They are throwback facilities that the next generation isn't going to use like the centers still around today. But, that's another story with another set of principles and visions that just doesn't flow from the likes of Diven.

I'm not saying that Diven should spin this news. He can't. He has nothing to spin as he has made little stances on strong issues that resonate with people, protests and principles. He has to quickly say that the opposition is throwing mud as that is all he has to fight back with himself.

Just as Diven is confident in Deb -- and the other guy did it who isn't yet named -- I'm confident that the system is broken and won't get fixed under Diven's watch.

Diven could have even gone around and picked up 100 signatures for the guys and gals in the next blog mention who are holding a press conference in Harrisburg on August 1. That could have been his contibution to make matters right again. And, he could stand up and say -- these petition requirements are a joke. And, this is the law that I've introduced to change it so the ones that come next year don't have these hurdles to navigate.

Libertarians support political choice in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Libertarian Party is major participant in Harrisburg Ballot Access Rally

Harrisburg, PA – The Pennsylvania Libertarian Party in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition (www.paballotaccess.org) will present a "New Choices for Pennsylvania" Rally on Tuesday, August 1st at noon inside the Harrisburg Rotunda of the Main Capitol Building at Commonwealth and Forster.

This Rally will mark the end of the petitioning season in Pennsylvania as all petitions are due August 1st.

Speakers for this event will include

· Tom Martin, Libertarian Party candidate for US Senator

· Russ Diamond, Independent candidate for Governor

· Hagan Smith, Constitution Party candidate for Governor

· Marakay Rogers, Green Party candidate for Governor.

Also in attendance will be Jim Babb, Libertarian candidate for the 157th State Representative district and Jeff Brindle, Socialist Party candidate for the 26th State Representative district.

The rally celebrates party voices and opinions outside the two old parties because they may be silenced after August 1st. Due to the ballot access crisis in Pennsylvania, this may be the last time they can identify themselves as candidates.

All independents and parties other than the Democrats and Republicans must obtain an astronomical amount of petition signatures to be included on the Pennsylvania General Election Ballot. This number varies every year in Pennsylvania based on an arcane formula of two percent of the highest state-wide total from the last election. The required number this year is 67,070 which makes Pennsylvania the second worst state in the nation for ballot access.

By contrast, statewide Democrat and Republican candidates always need only 2,000 signatures to qualify for the Primary Election ballot, and the winners need no additional signatures to be listed on the General Election ballot.

The Ballot Access Coalition has been pursuing a legislative remedy to this problem. Our bill, the Voters' Choice Act, is based on Delaware's reasonable ballot access law. Unfortunately, the VCA is locked in our legislature's State Government committee

Another consortium of Pennsylvania political parties is pursuing a legal remedy. Their appeal was heard on July 10th in Federal Court and they are awaiting the decision.

Thus, this is your last chance to hear the above individuals speak as candidates since Pennsylvania's incumbent protection policy is at work to officially exclude them from your November ballot.

For further information on the New Choices for Pennsylvania rally, contact 610-543-8427

Wal-Mart submits superstore plans to Nashville

Wal-Mart submits superstore plans to Nashville Wal-Mart has submitted plans to build a Supercenter in Nashville, town Planning Director Gene Foxworth said Friday.

'Wal-Mart plans to build a 155,017-square-foot store on more than 16 acres next to the new State Employees' Credit Union,' he said.

The State Employees' Credit Union is under construction. Three more parcels are also shown on the plan, but Foxworth said nothing has been submitted for more businesses at the site.

Blog, blog, blog -- a thon -- or -- how to recycle electrons and spin one's wheels without a life

I love blogging. But, I love life. When blogging goes over the line, then we have to call the move as 'out of bounds.'

I won't be doing a 24-hour blog-a-thon. Count me "OUT" of that madness. Sure, I've been glued to my keyboard in the past -- for a spell, and I can't spell. Sure, I've pulled many all-nighters too, working on the computer. There was a time in my life when I published books that I would often work all night long for 2 or more days to put a book to bed. Those were the days of PageMaker 1.5 and Quark and LaserWriters that went one page every six minutes it seemed. I'd have four or five days of regular eat-sleep cycles and then crunch for 2-3 days and make serious gains on projects.

Often these projects were 'arts' efforts. Staying up and not getting sidelined was even a treasured passion. I'd feel good in getting the work accomplished and holding the book's pages that were just days ago scratches of a manuscript.

My best crash and burn story was with Kevin DeForrest and his book, The Treasure Within. That was one of my last books. He was an old friend from Illinois and was then coaching swimming at Penn State. He came to our house after the kids were sent home for Christmas and we worked up until Christmas Eve, about 4 days. He left and I knew what was to go on each page and all the chapters were edited. He departed to see his mom in St. Louis. By New Years Day I had 250 copies of his 150 page book on a plane headed with him to the Pacific Swim Coaches Clinic in Napa, California.

The outcomes of the work all-night efforts were NOT blog posts however.

If your going to do the 24-hour thing -- go for it. To each his own. That isn't what I'm about these days. I'm going the other way even.

This blog is going to take a bit of a vacation. We train the house-sitter today on how to care for our cats and old house. Then we hit the road on Monday, after a softball game, to Maine. We'll be gone for a week. I'll try to get to the Wikifest at Harvard's Law School on Friday too.

Later in August I'll be off line for two weeks as we go to Canada for a swim camp, http://www.campchicopi.com. They have dial up. I'll be further offline in the heart of Cottage Country (3-and-a-half hours north of Toronto) than when we went to China. I don't expect blogger to be blacklisted in China, but I'll be with 120 guys on the edge of a lake.

Perhaps I could do a fundraiser -- a blog off! I get paid to NOT talk about a certain topic or else to not blog at all for a spelll.

September 16, 2006.

Super Genius -- Brilliant -- really -- ya ha

These radical guys use a book tour for outreach and on-going organizing and recap efforts with this golden insight:

An organizer we met in Pittsburgh offered the useful definition that the task for radical organizers and organizations is twofold: Build Dual Power, Confront State Power.

That is, we must develop our own power—by building coalitions, political infrastructure, and visionary, alternative institutions that prefigure the types of social relationships we desire — while simultaneously confronting the state, right-wing social movements, and other forms of institutional oppression.

One without the other is insufficient.

This twofold approach can also address what an organizer in North Carolina identified as the gap between opposition to something and action around it—a chasm that is solved by a feeling of empowerment, the belief that people can actively contribute to making change.

I would love to continue to build alternative institutitions with visionary directions and inspired political thought. And, I continue to battle the big-boys by getting on the ballot and face off against institutional oppression.

I'm running against Wayne Fontana, a Democrat, because he ran a campaign that was so negative a year ago that I had to hold my nose after seeing its first postcard. I'm running because he isn't 'progressive' in the slightest. I'm running because he is part of the problem and feels good to introduce Ed Rendell in the House for a state of the union address while sitting on the stadium authority and voting, without question for new seat construction with taxpayer money.

Political hacks need to be challenged. That's the exercise and drill for the other side of the sword. We need dual missions. We need to build the new insitutions and support them as they sprout -- and we need to take wind-up swings at old-school cronies too in straight up battles on legit grounds when the limelight can't melt the devotions.

Consultant plans 3 meetings to get public's wishes for pool

Perhaps one of the meetings should be held at in the grass near the snack bar of Dormont's pool.

Consultant plans 3 meetings to get public's wishes for pool: "Consultant plans 3 meetings to get public's wishes for pool

Thursday, July 27, 2006
By Laura Pace, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Before officials in Mt. Lebanon jump into plans for a multimillion dollar outdoor pool, they want to know what people want.

As part of a $32,000 feasibility study, consultants from Counsilman-Hunksaker, of St. Louis, will conduct three public meetings beginning in September, recreation director William Moore said.

Other methods of public input could include a blog, which is shorthand for a Web log, a method of posting comments online in journal form.

The goal is to find out how to replace Mt. Lebanon's 650,000 gallon outdoor pool, an aluminum structure built in 1976 to replace its original pool.

Presentation to Atlanta's school CIO about open source software

Daniel Howard made presentations to the CIO of Atlanta Public Schools on his case study at Morris Brandon Elementary School. He posted some of the many slides generated over the year in efforts to convince the school administrators to switch to K12LTSP, which finally happened by just doing it and showing the results.

Two Open Office presentation files can be used to convince your school IT folks of the benefits of Free and Open Source Software.

Presentation to Atlanta's CIO:
http://home.comcast.net/~dhhoward/BrandonFinalBriefingjul06.odp

Lots of slides used to convince school officials to make the switch:
http://home.comcast.net/~dhhoward/ElemSchoolTechRecomendationsfinal.odp

---

Third slide says enough:

By converting Brandon technology to Linux thin clients and Open Source Software:

The number of working PCs at Brandon was tripled

Maintenance problems all but disappeared

Teacher satisfaction with and use of technology went from nearly zero to 100%

Cost of technology was reduced by 90%

Academic performance and productivity saw significant improvements

Carl Romanelli for US Senate - website

Carl Romanelli for US Senate | Carl Romanelli for US Senate 'The only wasted vote is one that is not cast with your values and beliefs behind it. Let's stop wasting our votes on candidates that serve interests other than ours.'

City superintendent appoints 23 to task force on improving high schools

City superintendent appoints 23 to task force on improving high schools Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt has appointed 23 people to a task force on high school improvement.

Travel to high performing schools around the country... Oh, I've got so much to say.

Keystone State Wrestling Alliance Krazy Bog: Welcome K.S.W.A. Krazies

Keystone State Wrestling Alliance Krazy Bog: Welcome K.S.W.A. Krazies

Thanks to all the fans for all of their well wishes and emails pertaining to the concussion I received at Wrestle Rock at the hands of Biker Al as well as his cohort, "The King of Millvale" Del Douglas. I have been told by the best doctors in Pittsburgh that I will be out of action for a little while. I will have more to say as soon as the doctors tell me I'm okay.

Statement released on behalf of Ring Announcer Trapper Tom

Last Summer Meet -- All Stars: We won by 26 points

The All-Star Swim Meet was last night. I left before all the counting of points was finished. Today I saw Coach Mike with another tall trophy, a 2-foot hunk of hardware. We won. The Crafton Swim Team won all its dual meets, and both the Championships and All-Star Meets. Plus, we even won the Relay Carnival Meet.

We are the Champions! :)

The meet was good. We had a few older kids while the other team's didn't. That would have given us some decent points.

Very few of our kids had DQs. In the Champioship meet, our team had only 2. That was the least among the entire league. We were legal as well in the All-Stars, mostly.

Today was our first day of a three day water polo clinic at the end of the regular swim season. We had 11 kids play. It was fun. Grant learned how to do the egg beater kick. He said on the way home that 'You were right. It is a lot easier with the egg beater.'

Did some passing drills: Pick up the ball from the bottom. Pass to the other player's head with a high loop. Receive the ball by reaching high and absorbing the pass. Then we played 5 on 5 half court with 8 outs to an inning. When another person cam, with a red cap, she became all time offense. We matched up man-to-man by size and had 7 year olds to adults and a few of the big guys too in there. It all worked.

Today we played without a goalie. Our goals are the guard base of the guard chairs. The third rung of the ladder is the cross-bar. So you have to hit below there. I marked it with a bit of orange duck tape. I might make cardboard goals yet. Then it would be more clear if the ball hit the right spots for a goal.

2006 Tour de France - Tour de France winner Landis gives positive drugs test - Thursday July 27, 2006 10:27AM

Nuts.

SI.com - More Sports - 2006 Tour de France - Tour de France winner Landis gives positive drugs test - Thursday July 27, 2006 10:27AM LONDON (AP) -- Tour de France champion Floyd Landis tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the race, his Phonak team said Thursday on its Web site.

The statement came a day after cycling's world governing body said an unidentified rider had failed a drug test during the Tour.

kdka.com - Power Struggle On Grant Street With O'Connor Gone

kdka.com - Power Struggle On Grant Street With O'Connor Gone Delano reports power struggles like this are relatively normal but when the whole community is uniting in their prayers and good wishes for the mayor, it's still surprising to see the mayor's team squabbling -- even if, so far at least, the squabbling has not affected city operations.

Helmets

Bev, a nurse at Children's Hospital on the "Hard Head Patrol" that checks kids for bike/skating helmets reports that children from ages 1 - 20 with ill-fitting or broken helmets or lack of helmets, can get free ones, fitted, from Children's Hospital.

Tonight (July 27) is a fitting & giveaway from 6 - 8 pm in Mt. Oliver at the Family Care Connection, 1630 Arlington Avenue.

For those kids who have fitting helmets and wear them, Wendy's coupons are available. Also, as adults set the best example. They can get a fitted for a helmet, too. The last event this summer is Thursday, August 3rd from 6:30 - 8:30 pm at Children's South 1300 Oxford Drive, Bethel Park. The kids have to be there for the fitting.

Slippery Rock Univ. not alone on Title IX issues

This is shameful.

Slippery Rock Univ. not alone on Title IX issues July 26, 2006 - By Eleanor Chute, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

While a federal judge has ruled that Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania doesn't provide equal opportunities in sports for men and women, the state school isn't alone in violating the federal law -- known as Title IX -- guaranteeing such equity.

Across Pennsylvania, many schools don't meet federal standards, according to a report issued last year the Women's Law Project, a Pennsylvania organization that provided free attorneys for the Slippery Rock students. The report on 112 colleges and universities in Pennsylvania concluded they 'are failing miserably in providing proportionate athletic opportunity for women.'

Why does PA need to be so backwards?

Here is where "RUN, Baby, RUN" needs to kick up some dirt.

Are you ready for some polo? A meeting is slated for 4:30 pm today to give the green light to a week long water polo clinic I'll lead from August 7 to 11, 2006 at the Crafton Swim Pool. I'm not going to be at the meeting, as tonight is the "All-Star Swim Meet" at South Fayette.