PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

With US presidential elections only a month away, our contributors have diverse opinions on whether to vote, and whom to vote for. Progressives may not like John Kerry, whose campaign appeals squarely to the centrist wing of the Democratic Party, but some will be voting for him anyway. Some prefer to cast their ballot for a third party candidate, while others are fed up with the process of voting altogether.

One, anarchist perspective, urges citizens to not "just vote," but instead to participate actively in a democratic process in which voting is the least meaningful and least effective way to engage.

Recent discussions: "Anybody But Bush?" "They Tell Us Who To Vote For" "Naive Nader supporters threaten nation"
More: 1 2 3 4
Alternatives: POG Post/Pre Election | Boston Social Forum | Million Worker March

You can add your own thoughts and essays on voting to this document collection:
Elections Dossier
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A callout from Cleveland:

While Cleveland was recently named the "poorest major city in the US", two of the richest people in the country will be debating the finer points of imperialism at the Vice-Presidential Debates. Cleveland's activist community is currently undergoing a massive mobilization to protest our lack of options in the upcoming election. In the past we've joined our comrades in D.C., Pittsburgh, Phila, N.Y., Chi-town, and elsewhere, and now we're calling out to our regional allies to join us in Clevo so we can send a clear message to our political "leaders" and the nation.

Case Western Reserve University, the university hosting the event, has already littered the campus with undercovers and countless uniformed cops, and will be building a "free speech zone". Meanwhile, several organizers have been harrassed and stalked by our friends at the FBI. We strongly encourage our friends in Pittsburgh to help show Cleveland that it's activists are not alone, and have support from people across the country. Although we're expecting about a thousand, our numbers will significantly effect our choice of strategy.

For protest info., see:
http://www.kleveland.org
http://www.cleveland.indymedia.org
[ Newswire Story ] [ Cleveland Indymedia Feature ]
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The City of Pittsburgh has received a nearly $500,000 grant from the Justice Department to begin installation of a network of computer-controlled security cameras in neighborhoods across the city, part of federal anti-terrorism initiatives that have seen even larger camera networks installed in New York City, Washington DC and Chicago.

Some Pittsburgh City Council members were worried about privacy implications of the extensive camera network, but City Operations director Bob Kennedy shrugged those concerns off, saying that the network would be used mainly for massive emergencies, like the evacuation of Downtown on September 11th 2001, and would not be a "Big Brother" monitoring network.

In DC, installation of a similar network of cameras 2 years ago met extensive scrutiny by local elected officials, who demanded specific criteria for the camera network's use and argued that internal Police Department policy was insufficient. For example, guidelines suggested that police might record over any material after 72 hours, although they did not require that step.

Pittsburgh's City Council has yet to set any specific guidelines or legislation for the use of the camera network.

[ Read More ] [ Post-Gazette Story ]

Early this summer, just before their recess a bipartisan group of Pennsylvania law makers introduced legislation that moves the state a long way toward establishing a more reliable and stable source of dedicated revenue for public transit operations all across the commonwealth.

Senate Bill 1162 and its companion House Bill 2697 will increase state funding for public transit by $282 million. The Port Authority’s share of this will be around $64 million. Absent these bills bus and light rail riders in Allegheny County will likely face major service cuts in 2005 so that the Port Authority can balance its $30 deficit budget as state statute requires. As almost happened in FY03-04 the service cuts implemented by the Port Authority would about destroy all weekend and night time bus and light rail service.

On Monday, September 13th, members of the transit advocacy group Save Our Transit rallied at the City-County Building downtown to support the two bills.

[ Photos 1 2 ] [ Initial Announcement | 2 ] [ Rally Audio ]
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At the present time, the nurses at UPMC are paid "significantly less than our colleagues at area hospitals," according to Susan Forejt, RN, a nurse who has been with Western Psych for the past few years. She commented that psychiatric nursing is a difficult field to recruit new nurses for in the first place, and the salary deficiency is just making it more difficult. At the present time, there is a 21% vacancy rate in the nursing staff at Western Psych, this is three times the vacancy rate at other area hospitals. Nurses at Western Psych work an average of 3 weeks of overtime a year in order to compensate for the vacancy.

UPDATE: Presidential candidate Ralph Nader visited the striking nurses around midnight Saturday night. more...

[ Read More ... ]