Ear Infection
ArchPundit
Yeah. Anyway, feeling better, should be posting over the weekend including the rest of the FEC reports (the interesting ones) and the most recent polls.
Blog
Drezner’s Tenure Denial
The problem with some suggestions that it is due to blogging is that Dan’s at the University of Chicago and any tenure decision is a far higher standard than at other Universities. Dan would have received tenure at most other schools other than Ivy’s or Ivy like institutions where he’d still have a great shot most of the time.
The truth is that overall tenure decisions result in good results…high quality and productive academics being given large degrees of freedom of inquiry. The problem is that like all outcomes in general, there are exceptions and some well qualified people fall through. Whether Dan should have gotten tenure is a question for his colleagues in one sense. His publication record is quite impressive, but again, the standard at U Chicago isn’t just to be a productive working scientist who will make contributions to the field, but a social scientist who will dramatically contribute to the field. Where that line is, is hard to define. In addition, Dan’s work is evaluated by outside people who, depending on their work and how compatible it is with Dan’s, may simply have said he is a good scholar when U Chicago is looking for a great scholar.
I think the tenure granting rate is around 50% at most institutions and I don’t know if U Chicago is above or below that or if PoliSci there is higher or lower than the rest of the institution, but assuming from two recent cases it was the blogs fault is making a mistake.
And while I feel bad for Dan, he’ll land on his feet with his CV and a high quality institution will grant him tenure if he stays in academia (something I hope he does). He’s got books with great academic press’ and some high quality publications in high powered journals.
As someone who hopes to be in a tenure track job eventually, I can say, he’ll have a far better job than I hope to get.
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Deleted an ad post.
Catching Up-Open Thread
Okay, there will still be plenty on Katrina, but I need to do some Illinois politics.
On what do you want me to write?
3 Years of Blogging
ArchPundit and Blog Saint Louis were 3 years old on the 26th….
Thanks to all of my readers.
Slow for the early part of the day, but I have several posts on the way
1) Daley and Patronage
2) Why Edgar May Take a Pass
3) The flipside of The Governor’s issues
4) Summary of Missouri-Iowa-Illinois Big Congressional Races
And more…
Why So Busy?
Lot’s of campaigns have been contacting me and vice versa. I’m trying to put together some general advice for them. Any campaigns interested, drop me a note at archpundit@yahoo.com. I’m going to send out a general memo on how to work the blogosphere and not just treat it as an ATM (which to my surprise, most campaigns are figuring out on their own). I’ll probably post some of it on here eventually as well.
As a starter though, check out this report that gives some good advice:
The one difference I have on basic strategy is that often a campaign can recruit a volunteer to communicate with blogs and coordinate that with the press operation.
Sorry for the Delay
My e-mail is stuffed and generally with stuff I can’t or don’t want to ignore.
Don’t I get some Love Fritchey
So John Fritchey appears to be starting a blog
I’m not on the blogroll? C’mon Amy Allen and Bill are on there–why not me?
(long time readers understand this is fully tongue in cheek as blog roll discussions really annoy me.
More importantly, he needs to change the under construction pic here
On more serious topics, check the blog roll on the left that includes some new blogs including Soap Box Chicago (Ralph is back and we discuss the particular genius of Gordie Ropp there), Happy Hour which is just funny as hell, GOP Illinois and their daily news round-up which is really indispensable, and a ton of Illinois blogs on the expanded list of blogs.
As a note, there are just too damn many Illinois blogs for me to list on the front page anymore so I’d highly recommend checking out those on the explanded blog roll. Amy Allen is included there at Obiter Dictum, Bill Baar a great commenter and blogger on the right, The Elginite–a Dem from a place I lived for a short time, the 10th Congressional District Democratic Blog, a remarkable number of Decatur based blogs, Jill Stanek (only there because so much isn’t Illinois based), Vonster, and a hysterical blog The Truth about RYP.
Pajama Posting
While many made fun of Tatel for the line, it’s very serious in what he was talking about in terms of privilege. Many want to draw a distinction between what blogs and what the larger press does, but the problem is most eloquently pointed out in Tatel’s decision–namely that the right of a free press is a ‘broadly granted personal right’.
Are we then to create a privilege
that protects only those reporters employed by Time Magazine,
the New York Times, and other media giants, or do we extend
that protection as well to the owner of a desktop printer
producing a weekly newsletter to inform his neighbors, lodge
brothers, co-religionists, or co-conspirators? Perhaps more to
the point today, does the privilege also protect the proprietor of
a web log: the stereotypical ?blogger? sitting in his pajamas at
his personal computer posting on the World Wide Web his best
product to inform whoever happens to browse his way? If not,
why not? How could one draw a distinction consistent with the
court?s vision of a broadly granted personal right? If so, then
would it not be possible for a government official wishing to
engage in the sort of unlawful leaking under investigation in the
present controversy to call a trusted friend or a political ally,
advise him to set up a web log (which I understand takes about
three minutes) and then leak to him under a promise of
confidentiality the information which the law forbids the official
to disclose?
The problem with differentiating between forms of media is that the privileges many reporters are advocating aren’t privileges, but rights–and the confusing of privileges and rights only weakens those that everyone has as a personal guarantee in our social contract.
Come to the State Fair
The Illinois Democratic Network will be having a meet-up and rally on Governor’s Day at the Illinois State Fair. I’ll be there. Hopefully that’s not a disincentive. They are advertising on the right and I highly recommend checking out their site–an excellent resource for Democratic grass roots events.
I’ll also be there on the 18th for Republican Day.
Don’t forget the other advertisers either–the more you visit the sites, the easier it is for me to post.