Year: 2006

This piece does a good job providing a little background.

Because of course, they like to paint him as a Chaves (Venezuela) or Morales (Bolivia) figure, when he’s probably more like a Lula (Brazil), at least when it comes to the economy. In recent campaign appearances, he’s tried to reassure voters (and investors) that he won’t destabilize the economy:

“Las reservas de divisas del Banco de México las tienen que manejar el gobernador y los técnicos financieros de la institución. Para que quede claro: la política económica que vamos a manejar va a guiarse con criterios técnicos, no ideológicos”, dijo el candidato presidencial de la coalición Por el Bien de Todos, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, antes de iniciar el primero de sus cuatro mítines este día por Jalisco, en su séptima y penúltima gira de campaña por la entidad.

I think this statement is consistent with his past behavior, especially during the desafuero (also). And, with no re-election, an AMLO in office would have little incentive to use outrageous populist spending–the best legacy would be stable economic growth, and I suspect that AMLO knows that.

2. But that’s ok.

Includes results from various polling agencies, not just Reforma.

Super interesting.

Also visit this great site where you can view public candidate statements by topic. Like this search on pensions.

Both via MexiCronicas, with this clever animated .gif. [Calderon in blue, AMLO in yellow, and that other guy in red]

Today, La Jornada is running a story that tries to besmirch Calderon’s reputation. During his tenure as President of the PAN, the party ran television ads to convince people that FOBAPROA would effectively rescue the banking system. FOBAPROA was a banking bailout that has been highly criticized for compensating the rich for risky investment and banking behavior. It is highly unpopular. During Calderon’s tenure as party President, the party asked for 5 million pesos reimbursement from the government for the FOBAPROA ads. And the leftist La Jornada is now reminding voters of that.

12. I’m hoping for at least another 10 tomorrow.

At least I haven’t heard of any of them threatening violence.

The following are excerpts from the editor’s report for Sociological Methodology (scroll down to SM):

Your editor reports a year of drama and success in preparation of his final volume of Sociological Methodology….

This has been a year punctuated by drama. Your editor seems to have encountered once again a small, previously unrecognized, nascent social movement that he calls the Thin-Skinned Scholar Movement (TSSM). TSSM serves the needs of scholars who object to publication of opinions that contradict their own. Your editor believes that the goals of TSSM are misguided, as his own professional fortunes have been advanced by the publication of debates about his own research. More important, disagreement is fundamental to scholarship, making the suppression of disagreements a fundamental violation of the purpose for which Sociological Methodology is published….

Your editor is deeply distressed by the style of the TSSM. In particular, consider the following incident: Several weeks ago, I encountered a thin-skinned scholar, who was driving in his car as I walked to my own car in a parking lot. Apparently unimpressed by the writings of Miss Manners, this scholar opened his car window, loudly and repeatedly declared strong views about the composition of my head and the phylum in which I should be classified, and rapidly drove his car so close to me that it did, on the third such maneuver, brush against my pants. I wonder still, is this thin-skinned scholar just a talented and kind-hearted stunt-driver with unusual ideas about parking? Or does he reveal true malice, a will to evoke fear and a willingness to use his car to damage a pedestrian? These are questions that I cannot answer. But answers are suggested by his emailed statement (with copies to others) that he would be pleased to see my body lifeless and in pieces. More to the point, these are questions that no editor should have to consider. This thinskinned scholar has wasted great volumes of an editor’s time and effort, reviled the editor in numerous hostile email letters (with copies sent to a variety of others), delayed publication of Sociological Methodology, wasted hours of time by talented and highly-paid lawyers, and badly strained relations between an editor who sought to uphold the principles under which scholarly journals are published, and the ASA executive officer, who sought to save the ASA the expense and trouble of a lawsuit by an enraged scholar.

This makes those Lodge and Russo books seem less like fiction.
Via Freakonomics, where Levitt asks readers to publicly out who the culprit may be. [The editor is on the faculty at Chicago.]

Miss Manners has suggested that students address their emails to Professor X or Dr. X, even when the professor signs “Firstname.”

I usually use the strategy used by Chris. I sign “md” with my signature below, with the following exceptions–if an undergraduate student sends me an email with a salutation “Hey” or “Miss Dion” or the dreaded “Mrs. Dion” OR if a graduate student sends me an overly formal email with “Dear Dr. Michelle Dion” (yes, this happens). In the former case, I sign my reply “Dr. Michelle Dion,” with the signature and in the latter, I sign “Michelle” with the signature. I’m hoping to correct overly informal and overly formal tendencies in favor of some middle ground. [In my department, several faculty members expect even graduate students to address them as Dr., so I also have to be careful not to deviate too much from that norm.]

Unlike Margaret, I am annoyed when I get a “hey” email. I also work in an engineering institution with too many young male students who seem to refer to my male colleagues as “Dr. Whoknowseverything” and my female colleagues as “Miss Whatwasyournameagain.”

While I’m personally not real picky with how students address me as long as they are respectful (which in my case has seldom been a problem–I’m a commanding 5’1″), I am sensitive to the pervasive gender biases among our students. To make a point to them, I address the problem directly, often with humor. By the end of the semester, students always get the gender pronoun right when we discuss different authors of the articles we read, so I feel justified in my little bit of consciousness raising. And no one has ever complained about it on my evaluations either.

Brian and I have been married 8 years today. We have been a couple a total of 13 years. We have known each other almost 23 years. And we’re still best friends–quite an accomplishment, I’d say.

After a White Sox game in April.

The PRI plans to expel party leaders who have suggested voters should vote for either AMLO or Calderon. Among those to be expelled are Senator Bartlett (for supporting AMLO), Senator Borrego (former head of IMSS, President of the party, and wanna-be presidential candidate in 94–for supporting Calderon), and Gordillo (former #2 at the party and head of the teacher’s union–for….being Gordillo?). (Bloomberg version.)

More on the polls and why some on the street think that Madrazo is behind.

Someone in Oregon believes we should occupy integrate Mexico into the U.S.

Brian just gave my homepage and new “do.” Go take a looksey.

Thanks, Brian!!

Of course, La Jornada doesn’t cover Calderon’s stump speeches (which I’m assuming he does make–it can’t all be slick tv ads, which BTW, continue to be pulled for being too negative), but it does cover those by the PRI’s Madrazo and the PRD’s Lopez Obrador. Recently, Madrazo has said that he has no role in the decision of some party leaders to suggest that supporters of the PRI vote for AMLO rather than Madrazo (this was something a recent commenter asked about). Almost as if in response, AMLO has said the door to his campaign is open to all but former president Salinas and a few other folks.

Here, on the other side, WaPo (thanks, Boz) Rueters is doing its share to damage AMLO’s North American image.

This short article has results from the last three Reforma polls.

It’s still a two-way race between AMLO and Calderon. ALMO is gaining some–probably due to a variety of factors:

1. The electoral commission told Calderon’s campaign to stop running certain negative ads against AMLO.

2. AMLO’s campaign has started running tougher ads in addition to AMLO’s traditional radio spots and interviews.

3. Some time has passed since the first debates, in which AMLO did not participate and Calderon was able to use that to his advantage. It was just after the debate that Calderon pulled into the lead for the first time.

Another debate is scheduled for June 6, and all candidates will be participating.

Apparently, several high-end department stores are eliminating their petite sections on the grounds that they don’t make money. At the sametime, overall sales of petites have increased by 11%, according to the Times article. I can tell the department stores the problem: their petite sections are outdated and unfashionable. The reporter for the Times is correct when he says:

What did change is that petite departments gained a reputation for traditional — some would say frumpy — career-oriented clothing. Chic looks, clothing executives said, never made the leap from regular sizes to petite. So the very word petite became synonymous with many women who shopped there — working women over the age 50.

As a vertically challenged individual (I almost measure 5’1″ if I stretch my neck), I buy all my suits in the petite section but never my casual clothes. The casual clothes are all ugly sweaters with sewn-on appliques and rhinestones–the over 60 stuff. The only jeans are mom jeans, and the khakis are what Brian likes to call “peg-legged.”

The Gap, Banana Republic, Talbots, and Ann Taylor have all expanded their petite sections recently, which probably has hurt department store petite sales. Why would anyone buy high-waisted, peg-leg khakis when you can get hip-hugging, flare khakis in your size? Of course, the drawback is that most stores don’t care all the petite options in the store, which means short vertically challenged women have to do their shopping online.

Oh, and I’d just like to point out that adding additional size 0 and 1 items in stores, as suggested by one of the people interviewed, will not meet the needs of most petite women….we may be short, but we’re not all skinny!

Even though Calderon leads the statistically tied race.

Or, is Georgia Tech special in this regard?

Dad had his first race this weekend in lucky #07 and finished 12 out of 19. I’m just glad he finished.

And second his request to his party to finish the candidate lists for the July election already.

I’ve got a research assistant waiting in the wings to compile the data.

But the race is still too close to call.