Luke Russert hired by NBC News

Russert will be covering the youth vote for the network’s political team for this November and beyond.  Luke will be attending both parties’ conventions in a few weeks.

Very well-deserved.

What if? Rethinking America’s coffeehouses

I would think that the introvert in me would love America’s coffeehouses (when I use this term, I am referring to the shops that most Americans experience — places like Starbucks, Caribou Coffee, Dunkin’ Donuts).  They’re small, usually fairly quiet, lounging customers usually have headphones on typing on a laptop, and no one talks to you until you go get a cup of coffee or a refill.  But I don’t love them.  Let me count the ways.

1.) When I describe them as “usually fairly quiet,” that’s ignoring the sound of making the lattes and smoothies which, at worst, can be severely irritating.

2.) I like being left alone to some degree, but in today’s coffeehouses, I can’t avoid noticing the missed storytelling opportunities.  Each person has an intricately woven set of experiences that every other person in the world can learn from.  Where else in society do we have the opportunity to organize these experience-based exchanges?

3.) These chain coffeehouses are usually surrounded by strip malls, big box stores and found on four lane highways.  This restricts the building of any kind of community, and it deteriorates the economic health of our small town walking districts.

When I was first thinking about this topic, I consulted a book titled The Great Good Place by Ray Oldenburg.  The book reviews the importance of the “third place” in our civic health, a place apart from home and work that allows us to relax and enjoy the company of others.  In addition to coffeehouses, we do have other places like hair salons and taverns that serve as third places, but, as Oldenburg writes in the book, coffeehouses have always had the intellectually social side to them.  Most of the chain coffeehouses that we have today do fit some of Oldenburg’s “third place” characteristics.

But what if we tinkered with some things?

For example, what if the focus of the coffeehouse was not the beverage, but the conversation?  What if the “coffeehouse” became a “commons”?  Starbucks initially was started with its focus on the environment within the store (after realizing selling just coffee beans was a bit bland).  Howard Schultz, the founder of the company, got the urge to start Starbucks when he visited the streetside Italian cafes, was impressed with their environments, and wanted to bring it back to the United States.  But the difference between this idea and between Schultz’s wish is the injection of interpersonal communication into this mission.  This commons should be a place that welcomes everyone into the collective conversation.  Oldenburg writes a bit about these qualities found in the London coffeehouses of yesteryear in his book.

In the era of its reign . . . the coffeehouse was often referred to as the Penny University.  A penny was the price of admission to its store of literary and intellectual flavors.  Twopence was the price of a cup of coffee; a pipe cost a penny; a newspaper was free.  The coffeehouse of the seventeenth century was the precursor of the daily newspaper and home delivery of mail . . . Whether on a regular schedule or not, many Londoners dropped into the coffeehouse several times a day in order to keep abreast of the news.  Customarily, the literate would read aloud from the house’s newspapers, tracts, and broadsides so that the illiterate could digest the contents and discuss the issues of the day (185).

The focus definitely was centered on the dialogue.  The conversation, as you read, was set up like a course (the Penny University).  You got the news, but you also had the opportunity to digest it, to play with it, with other people just as interested as you.  I emphasized “discuss” above because it was not enough even for the illiterate to know the news — they were expected to discuss it too.  The newspaper was free, so there was an obvious focus on substantive conversation.  How much better could our society be if we had discussions about public events that happened more frequently?  We’d be more educated, more prepared to perform our civic duties.  And because the focus is centered on the dialogue and not the beverage, the fancy drinks of Starbucks and Caribou Coffee turn to a more quietly made coffee.

What if this outlet was more centrally located?  What if it sucked more people into the plighted downtown areas many rust belt communities are stuck with?  What if this “commons” served as an incentive to live in these areas?  These commons could be the heart of “walking districts,” the downtowns of tomorrow.  With a burgeoning emphasis on green behavior, these districts could take off and restore the promise of smalltown America.  Improved public dialogue and civic health could result in better school systems, as citizens become more involved in the town’s institutions.  Better education brings more corporations to these towns to set up shop.  It also infuses energy into the town leading to entrepreneurs who are dedicated to the town’s future.

I realize this is a very rough, brainstormy entry.  But when we look at the “common good,” I think we should start in our local communities.  The “common good” can only be appreciated, targeted, and pursued when people are talking, and while we have these fancy technological tools (like this blog), the best communication continues to be face-to-face. Coincidentally, Mike Connery at Future Majority offers this tidbit about Clay Shirkey’s “cognitive surplus” thesis in a comment on the recent volunteerism entry. It fits in quite nicely with this discussion. This “commons” could find incentives that would enable us to get youth to take one more step and invest some of the time spent on the internet in these grounded, substantive conversations.

What do you think of this commons idea?  Is there anything else we can do to reinvigorate the hearts and restore the civic health of our small communities?

Timing of Obama’s VP announcement

I was watching Keith Olbermann’s Countdown last night, when he and Howard Fineman of Newsweek fame began discussing Obama’s selection of his running mate.

Fineman reported to Olbermann that he talked to one of three people — he wouldn’t reveal which one — Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), and Governor Tim Kaine, who Fineman says make up Obama’s shortlist.  This person stated that Obama’s lawyers were all done with the vetting process, and that Obama is currently in a position to make a decision at his convenience.

When Olbermann then followed up and asked Fineman about the timing, Fineman said that the traditional route would be to wait until just before the convention (late August) to announce.  But then Fineman noted that the convention is hyped up now more than usual, and that adding more hype might not make it worthwhile for the Obama camp.  An alternative, Fineman suggested, was to wait until just before the Olympics.  Olbermann pointed out that this would allow for Obama’s national ad buy during the Olympics to feature the runningmate’s name.

What do you think?

The modern student organization

A blog called the Student Leader Think Tank has a post up that questions the need of traditional bureaucratic hierarchies in student organizations.  I had been thinking about this clear back into my time at Allegheny, but unfortunately I never did anything about it.

I write about Millennials a lot on here, and by now you might know that one of our generation’s characteristics is that we work well with others.  Thus, it’s not a surprise that a traditional leadership model — complete with a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer — hardly fits well with our methods of being productive.

The Student Leader Think Tank suggests that the most successful student groups forego this organizational style and, instead, implement a flatter style that is more inclusive of whomever is interested in doing the work that needs to be done.  This is especially due to better technology that allows for increased access to information.  The SLTT also brings up the potential of wikis and blogs when trying to get away from other potential tedious headaches like filing a constitution with the student government or trying to distribute minutes to membership.

I guess I have very little to say other than to echo what’s already been written.  In my experience a traditional, top-down model is very clunky when operated by our generation.  Perhaps more groups on college campuses (and other young adult-led groups) should adopt this leadership approach so that more of the membership has a larger stake in the common purpose of the group.

VP rumors: Sebelius and Kaine

Conventional wisdom has narrowed the field of candidates for the second spot on the Democratic ticket to three contenders:  Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius, and Virginia governor Timothy Kaine.  I don’t think Obama would go with Bayh, merely because Bayh does little for the ticket other than assure that Obama would not be overshadowed, and he undercuts the message of change Obama espouses.

And between the remaining two, I keep thinking about what the Obama camp — one that values discipline and secrecy as much as they do — would be thinking with all of these rumors out about Kaine.  I suppose there’s the possibility it could be a leak by the Obama campaign, just to see what the response might be, but if it’s not an intentional leak, one might wonder whether the Obama campaign would be turned off by the loose lips among Kaine’s staffers.

Any thoughts?

Taliban comeback due to lack of troops

This is according to the United States Institute of Peace, via Think Progress.

According to statistics provided in a new report from the United States Institute of Peace, the use of air power in Afghanistan by U.S. and NATO allies has increased from 5,000 pounds of munitions per month in 2005 to 168,000 pounds in December, 2007. The result is that “civilian casualties increased by 62 [percent] in 2008, compared to figures from the first six months of 2007.” The report says the increase in air power is a result of a shortage of troops and suggests that the resulting increase in casualties is “a key reason for the Taliban comeback”:

This is what happens when you take the eye off the ball, apparently.

Study abroad held hostage: A lesson on the political disenchantment of Millennials

We know by now that Millennials are pragmatic by nature.  They are not concerned as much about ideology as they are progress.  They would much rather cooperate with all the stakeholders in a given problem, compromise, and patch together a solution that accommodates everyone involved as much as possible.  We also know that many Millennials are frustrated by politics because they feel their issues are not seriously addressed by older politicians.

Yesterday, the Senate voted on the Advancing America’s Priorities Act, an omnibus bill consisting of some 35 different pieces of legislation packaged together by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).  Many of these bills were crafted in a bipartisan fashion, with fifteen of the 35 bills being sponsored by Republicans.  These bills promoted targeted medical research, protected children from being exploited online, and, the subject of this post, increased assistance for college students wishing to study abroad.  With each of these bills receiving broad, bipartisan support in the Senate, you may ask why they were all packaged together in a hurried vote prior to the summer recess.  Enter Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK).

Senator Coburn is upset that the Senate is taking its focus off energy issues to vote on these bills.

When the Congressional Budget Office reported to Reid that his recent legislation would cost $10 billion to implement over the next five years, Coburn wrote Reid a letter suggesting that $45 billion in federal spending that he considered wasteful could be used to offset the costs of carrying out his omnibus package. Coburn, known for copiously holding numerous pieces of legislation from reaching the debate floor out of symbolic objections, has not openly expressed his displeasure with any of the specific bills in Reid’s omnibus, he said in a recent statement that he views it as a distraction from the Senate’s current energy debate.

A friendly civics reminder on Senate rules to those reading:

Senate procedure depends not only on the rules, but also on a variety of customs and traditions. In many cases, the Senate waives some of its stricter rules by unanimous consent. . .

A “hold” is placed when the Leader’s office is notified that a senator intends to object to a request for unanimous consent from the Senate to consider or pass a measure. A hold may be placed for any reason and can be lifted by a senator at any time. A senator may place a hold simply to review a bill, to negotiate changes to the bill, or to kill the bill. A bill can be held for as long as the senator who objects to the bill wishes to block its consideration.

Coburn is the senator who placed the hold on this particular package of legislation.  Any legislation that is held can only be debated by the Senate should the motion to proceed with debating the legislation be passed.  If there is no unanimous consent (which there isn’t in this case since Coburn objects), an end to the debate on whether to proceed or not (cloture) must be approved with 60 votes.  The motion for cloture on the motion to proceed failed yesterday as only 52 senators voted to end the debate.

Still with me?

One of the 35 pieces of legislation that was held hostage in the Republican-led procedural circus was  The Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act, named for the late Sen. Paul Simon (D-IL).  This legislation heavily consulted a report from the Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program.  This commission evaluated the state of study abroad programs in the United States.  The report found that certain demographics, such as low-income students, students with a minority background, and math and science students, had difficulty studying abroad.  It also noticed that students mostly studied in Western European countries.  The Simon Act sought to increase the number of American students studying abroad from 225,000 to 1 million, especially among the aforementioned groups, and promote other, less popular locations to students.

Study abroad programs are wildly popular among this generation of young people.  A 2007 Open Doors report announced that there was an 8.5% increase of students studying abroad in the last three years.

A record 223,534 students from U.S. colleges spent anywhere from a January or summer term to more than a year earning academic credit in a foreign country. That was up 8.5 percentage points from the 2004-05 school year when 205,993 students went abroad and up 150 percent from the 1995-96 year when fewer than 90,000 students took classes over seas, the study said.

Its popularity isn’t exactly a mystery.

The Institute for the International Education of Students (IES), www.iesabroad.com, surveyed alumni from all IES study abroad programs from 1950 to 1999. Regardless of where students studied and for how long, the data from the more than 3,400 respondents (a 23 percent response rate) shows that studying abroad is usually a defining moment in a young person’s life and continues to impact the participant’s life for years after the experience.

Survey Item	% Full Year	% Fall Semester	% Spring Semester	% Summer	% Total
Personal Development
Increased self-confidence	98%	95%	96%	97%	96%
Served as a catalyst for increased maturity	98%	97%	97%	95%	97%
Has had a lasting impact on world view	97%	95%	94%	92%	95%
Academic Commitment
Enhanced interest in academic study	81%	80%	79%	84%	80%
Influenced subsequent educational experiences	91%	85%	86%	84%	87%
Reinforced commitment to foreign language study	88%	83%	85%	90%	86%
Intercultural Development
Helped me better understand my own cultural values and biases	99%	97%	97%	95%	98%
Influenced me to seek out a greater diversity of friends	94%	88%	89%	86%	90%
Continues to influence interactions with people from different cultures	97%	93%	92%	92%	94%
Career development
Acquired skill sets that influenced career path	82%	73%	74%	71%	76%
Ignited an interest in a career direction pursued after the experience	70%	57%	59%	59%

So is it really any wonder that Millennials are disenchanted with the political process?  This is a perfect example of why.  A package of legislation with broad, bipartisan support is bogged down because one senator out of 100 is holding it up.  One of those pieces of legislation, a chance to dramatically grow and improve a life-changing program that is beloved by the most multicultural generation ever, is being squashed because some lawmakers are not willing to cooperate, compromise, and get something done.  Not only is this a significantly visible missed opportunity among Millennial college students,  but it is also a rejection of this generation’s pragmatic values.

Change may be coming, but there is still much work to be done.

Kudos Andrea Mitchell: McCain ad ‘literally not true’

I blogged about the faulty McCain ad on Saturday.

Surprisingly, Andrea Mitchell speaks the truth about the ad today.  Check it out for yourself:

It really is amazing the bald untruths the McCain campaign is willing to peddle to the voters.  And Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) seems to be ignoring that Obama used government funds on his earlier visits — to Kuwait for example — because he traveled with a congressional delegation.  It was only after he traveled to Germany that the campaign began covering the costs of the trip.  Obama, then, could not appropriately visit with troops without apparently running afoul of Pentagon regulations.

Kaine is ‘very, very high’ on VP shortlist

It appears very likely that the governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine, is one of the finalists for Obama’s VP choice.

Citing a source who had spoken to senior Obama aides with knowledge of the selection process, Politico reports that Kaine is “very, very high” on Obama’s shortlist and is being thoroughly reviewed as a candidate for the second half of the ticket.

As Politico notes, Kaine’s selection would emphasize Obama’s message of change to distinct demographic groups and the state of Virginia.

Kaine’s position as governor of a state the Obama campaign hopes to make a key battleground and his background as a Spanish-speaking former Catholic missionary and civil rights lawyer make him a strong potential pick.

Kaine could serve as ambassador, his proponents say, to four key groups: Virginians, Catholics, working-class white voters, and Hispanics. (Kaine can be seen in one YouTube video endorsing Obama in proficient Spanish.)

All of this comes after Obama was spotted entering the office of Eric Holder, one of the leaders of Obama’s vetting team.

UPDATE: More background from the Washington Post:

…But several people who have spoken to Kaine directly said he has talked about the seriousness of the possibility. All requested anonymity, citing the campaign’s desire to keep the process secret. One said Kaine has stressed that there are other top candidates but described his discussions with Obama’s campaign as “very serious.”

Two other associates said Kaine’s staff is heavily engaged in providing the background research necessary to allow Obama’s campaign to search for potential political land mines. One source said Kaine chief counsel Larry Roberts is coordinating with Obama’s team. Roberts cold not be reached for comment. Kaine will be in Washington today for his monthly interview on WTOP.

NBC names Russert’s replacement

The Page has it.

Mark Whitaker, already a senior vice president with NBC News, will be taking on the responsibilities of Washington Bureau Chief, which includes the network’s political programming and coverage, including Meet the Press.

Whitaker was the editor of Newsweek from 1998 to 2006.

Whitaker will retain his senior vice president title.